Winter's Soldier Story

To Hell With Government Controlled Health Insurance - Pass Amendment 28

2009-11-30T11:26:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving is over, Congress is back in session, and the world is spiraling downward into a millennium of darkness and misery. But if you believe a bevy of leftist bimbettes who have been popping up on FOX News all morning, we should all just put our faith in the government of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.

They claim that government is our friend and government will take care of us, and government will do everything for us if we just put our faith in government. I even heard one of Harry Reid's stooges call a woman who was offering an opposing viewpoint a Liar on one of the Fox morning shows. Obviously the left is going hysterical and pulling out all the stops to force us to once again mindlessly accept government mandates as good and inevitable.

Sorry Charlette. The great sleeping giant of American public opinion has been awakened, is aware and is not happy. Trusting that bunch of lame-assed dipsticks in Congress is no longer an option. But there are a few things that could bring some level of respect back to the table.

How about this? The proposed amendment to the US Constitution below has been streaking around the Internet for the past several weeks, so much so that I have received it from no less than a dozen separate places. None of the sources forwarded it from someone else in my address book, so I have concluded that wherever it originated, the proposed 28th Amendment has really caught fire.

How about if we put everything else on the back burner and put this on an emergency basis? With the exception of getting more troops to Afghanistan there are no emergencies pending. Yes you blithering morons who blabbed about "defeat" on all of the Sunday talk shows, we can too win there!

Urgent, maybe, priority, maybe, but emergency no. Only our troops are facing life and death issues and they need everything we can give them. So, read the proposed amendment, and then we'll talk a bit more.

Amendment 28

Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators or Representatives, and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.

What I like about this amendment is that it puts into words what should be obvious to all American citizens even if they do serve in Congress. We are supposed to be a representative democracy where Congress does not RULE but rather SERVES.

It is obvious that many people in the ruling party in Congress have forgotten how our government is supposed to work, and instead are applying their own regulations. It is obvious that many in our government have forgotten or never learned that we are a society that does not have formal classes that rule the masses.

We are a society where people who are born to material riches can squander their inheritance and they will in fact fall to the bottom. They have no birthright that guarantees them a standard of living and a place in society no matter how worthless they are as individuals.

By the same token, a person who is born to penury can rise to the top levels of this country and no one can take that away from them, except of course the government which is constantly trying to dumb down our most productive people.

We repeatedly hear the Office of Propaganda - also known as the Mainstream Media - harping about how Congress is going to pay for its latest mind-numbingly stupid idea by "taxing only the rich."

THE RICH do not constitute a specific class in America. THE RICH, for the most part, get rich by very hard work, putting in long, long hours on the job that themselves come after extraordinary efforts at meaningful eduction. That is how individuals become rich and people who put in that much time and effort at education and work should not have the fruits of their labors ripped from them because a bunch of other people who don't want to work that hard, whine about not getting their "fair share."

We have no classes in America. We have levels of society that are fluid and borderless, with citizens moving through them in exactly the direction their efforts take them. Work hard, keep an eye on what the government is doing - because it rarely is doing anything productive - and rely on yourself rather than banks, the stock market and especially the government, and you will do well.

Get involved in drugs, alcohol, gambling and other nefarious activities and you'll eventually trip and fall. But the great thing is that even bad fortunes can be reversed if you go back to the basics and learn from your mistakes.

So, think about that for a moment and then take a long hard look at the US Congress. Here we have a group of less than 700 people out of 300 million, who think that simply by winning a popularity contest they suddenly become wise beyond all others, and privileged as well.

They take our tax dollars without asking a word about our opinions, they commit our unborn great-grandchildren to lifetimes of fiscal slavery by squandering trillions of dollars that they don't have. They limit our basic constitutional rights under virtually every Article and Amendment and they do it without so much as a thought to what we think, even though their job is to do OUR bidding, not their own.

So how about this Amendment 28? It would require Congress to do for and unto itself what it does unto us. I like it. I like it a lot. I like it every bit as much as I like terms limits.

Let's table the debate on the government taking over health care insurance - that's what they are really doing. Congress is not debating Health Care. We have excellent health care in America, the best in the world. It can always improve, but it still is pretty damn good.

Congress and the Obama Administration are nationalizing health INSURANCE because it is a great way to take taxpayer dollars without calling it a tax. Believe me, Congress is just finding a new way to tax us by claiming it is going to provide universal health care.

We already have universal health care as I have written before. No one in America is denied medical care when they need medical care. If they go to a clinic or emergency room the law requires that they be treated, and the taxpayers are already picking up the tab.

All that will change under Harry Reid's proposal, or Nancy Pelosi's proposal or Barack Obama's proposal is that the government will collect the premiums (taxes) and it will be mandatory to pay, rather than voluntary as it is now.

So let's give ourselves a break from the stress and frustration that the classless Congress is heaping upon us. Let's start calling our Senators and Representatives and impress upon them our determination that what is good for us, is good for them. Or else.

11 months to Judgment Day.

What Am I Thankful For Today: Let's Start With Good Kids and PilotsNPaws!

2009-11-26T09:53:00.006-05:00

Several years ago I realized that my lawn will never be used as a practice putting green, but instead will always be a haven for dogs and kids.

That doesn't mean it isn't mowed regularly, or that I don't rake the leaves in the fall. I do the required maintenance each year, and put down some lime and fertilizer from time to time as necessary.

I don't use herbicides or bug killers because I don't want poison seeping down into the ground water, or affecting living creatures above ground either. I also like the look of hundreds of dandelions each spring. My grandmother used to make dandelion wine and used the greens for salads, but I don't.

I just like to see all those yellow flowers spread out amongst the green grass, nearly as much as I like the daffodils that burst through the late snow each year to let me know that warmer weather is on the way.

Today, with a house full of family, many of whom are children, I am reminded that I will always occupy a place in society that never will be pristine or perfectly groomed. But my part of the world still has its purpose and fulfills certain missions, one of which was evident from the joyful way my grandchildren exited my daughter's car upon arrival yesterday.

I'm sure that part of their joy was happiness at being out of the car after navigating several hours of holiday traffic, but they also know that once here they can run and play with very few rules other than the usual - no sharp sticks, no hitting, play nice with each other and the dogs, etc.

If they get muddy, so they get muddy. We can always do another load of laundry. If they fall down, they'll pick themselves up and start over. Dogs will bark, children will yell and holler and the lawn will endure some more wear and tear.

The front and back lawns both have paths worn in them from the dogs doing their daily patrols, alerting me to other people, other dogs and other animals. If the not-so-gentle patter of little feet create another path or two, so what? In the spring I can always buy another bag of grass seed.

It is obvious that the grandkids are thankful for their freedoms this Thanksgiving Day, and I am thankful that I have a good family here, good family out in the wider world, and a home for them to return to on occasion.

There are four generations under this roof today, starting with my mother, then my wife and me, then my daughters, then the grandchildren.
The oldest and the youngest taking a break together.

But we are missing one part of the family, and while I would love it if he were here, there is a higher calling at work today.

My son Kevin, who lives in Florida and is a commercial airline pilot - or was until the industry tanked - has a different type of mission today. As I write this, he and his girlfriend are flying his four-seater Cherokee from Tampa Bay to Panama City, and then to Mobile, Alabama, to pick up a female German Shepherd named Gretta who is narrowly escaping euthanasia.

No one wanted Gretta, and she was due to be put down, but a rescue network that in this instance required the cooperation of nine different people matched up Gretta with a lady in the Tampa Bay area who had a place for her, but not the means to get her from Louisiana to Florida.

Enter PilotsNPaws www.PilotsNPaws.org and my son, who told me yesterday, "I can't go on that site too much because I'd be doing rescues every day."

Kevin and his girlfriend have been rescuing unwanted dogs for years now and he has flown German Shepherds to new homes in the past. They haven't done this on Thanksgiving though, but when I asked him about giving up his holiday his response was "I can't rescue them all but I can sure try." Then he added, "I can eat turkey tomorrow."

When he touches down in Mobile, he will meet a like-minded person who also is taking time this Thanksgiving Day to drive Gretta to the airport where she will board, get both back seats all to herself and begin the final leg of her journey home. I am immensely proud of his part in this endeavor.

It is a tradition on my part to take a moment on Thanksgiving Day and remember back to 1968 when I spent the day flying as a machine gunner with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 161 HMM-161, delivering turkey dinners to Marine infantrymen along the DMZ in Vietnam, and others along the Laotian border.

I always drink a toast to those Marines I flew with, the grunts on the ground who benefited from our efforts, and those of my friends who did not make it home. I also take a moment to thank all who are serving our country, and who have served, at home and abroad, making sure that the freedoms that far too many Americans take for granted are kept intact.

Those traditions will continue today, and every Thanksgiving Day as long as I am able. But today I also am thankful for other traditions enjoyed by my family, and while some are welcome for their familiarity others are equally welcome for their originality.

Next spring I will reseed parts of my lawn and remember that dogs and kids had a great time wearing out the grass. Meanwhile, in Tampa Bay a lady who needed a dog, and a dog who needed a lady will be enjoying their time together because for all that is wrong with this world, there also are many people like my son who put things into proper perspective, and share a portion of their lives so future Thanksgivings will have special meaning for others.

Happy Thanksgiving!

UPDATE: As of Sunday evening, November 29,2009, my son informed me that he had taken part in a weekend of rescues that resulted in saving 7 adult dogs and 11 puppies from euthanasia. He flew all over Florida, put in eight-hour flight days on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, met several other pilots and lots of rescue volunteers who were also part of the effort. They did well and I am proud of them all.

Simmons' Strength Evident with Shifts in Connecticut GOP Races; McMahon Vulnerable on Several Fronts

2009-11-25T10:25:00.002-05:00

Jodi Rell's announcement that she won't be running for another term as Connecticut's governor has resulted in such a massive upheaval on the Republican political landscape that it probably can be measured on the Richter Scale.

Two contenders for the Republican nomination to oppose incumbent Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd have changed direction, opting in one case to go for the governor's slot and in another to run for a House of Representatives seat instead.

In both cases we are seeing common sense blended with astute political maneuvering, because in both cases the senatorial candidates were trailing GOP frontrunner Rob Simmons, the former Congressman from Connecticut's 2nd District who is maintaining a consistent double-digit lead over Dodd. Their decisions to abandon the senatorial race and head for greener pastures speaks volumes about Simmons' strength in his home state, and the fact that their chances are better in other races.

Even though Dodd is increasingly coming under fire from his own party, at this moment it doesn't appear likely that he will crumble under the pressure and step aside. Dodd is far too entrenched and far too powerful to fold his tents and slink away into the night. He also is getting solid support from President Obama and it is unlikely that he will lose that support.

Even if Dodd eventually does shrink from the fight, any Democratic replacement currently on the horizon will still attract sufficient voters that the GOP in turn requires a serious campaign from a serious contender who can step into the Senate without missing a beat. The next Senator from Connecticut must be able to enter the fray on issues of health insurance, banking, housing, the economy, and national defense with knowledge and the strength it brings.

The only Republican candidate who can offer the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities is Simmons, who also has such a solid background in foreign affairs, between his lengthy military service as an intelligence officer, as well as his work in the Central Intelligence Agency, that he will require virtually no break-in period.

Aside from Simmons, there are two contenders left in the race for the GOP nomination, Linda McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, and Peter Schiff, a Fairfield County money manager. I mean no disrespect here, but while McMahon is spending heavily on advertising and still getting little to no traction, Shiff is barely on the radar.

Interestingly, in the most recent Quinnipiac University Poll, Simmons maintained his advantage despite the money spent by his opponents on campaign ads. Like McMahon, Tom Foley, a successful businessman and fund-raiser who was rewarded for his efforts to raise money for George Bush with the ambassadorship to Ireland, had instant access to millions of campaign dollars. But those millions could not launch him ahead of Simmons and Foley's camp announced yesterday that he now is turning his sights toward the Governor's seat.

Likewise, Connecticut state Sen. Sam Caligiuri has withdrawn from the senate race, and instead is entering the race for Connecticut's 5th Congressional District.

Leaving McMahon as the most serious challenger to Simmons. But McMahon, successful businesswoman and all around nice person that she is, is politically vulnerable on several fronts.

Let's forget for just a moment the seaminess of the world of professional wrestling, with its violence, repeated allegations of drug abuse, sexism and sexually oriented content that may attract some young voters, but likely won't help secure the GOP nomination.

McMahon has a lot of explaining to do particularly in convincing Republican voters, who will have the final say in the selection of a candidate to oppose Dodd, that she really is a Republican.

McMahon has a checkered history of political support, and until late this summer had given roughly as much money to the Democrats as she did to the GOP. But to actually show an even-handedness on her part, you have to track her political contributions all the way back to the late 1980s.

Then, when McMahon began to take fire for her financial switch-hitting she rushed to the bank account and wrote a $30,400 check to the National Republican Senatorial Committee! Wasn't that nice of her? I'm sure the national Republicans were happy to receive the donation, but does she really think Connecticut's GOP voters won't notice the hypocrisy? And lately, she has been dropping $500 to local town committees here, and $250 to local town committees there.

And this is supposed to buy her support?

Especially when she made pretty significant donations, well over $10,000, to various Democratic candidates and causes in the last three years, including - get this, to Rham Emanuel, the chief strategist and hatchet man for none other than Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!

So, given that the Republicans have the final say in selecting a candidate, either through the party convention next spring, or through a primary next summer, how is she going to convince us that she won't be falling right in line with Obama's Long March to the far, far left of the political universe?

Even if, by some weird alignment of celestial bodies, McMahon does get the GOP nomination, she will have some explaining to do to offset the Dodd attacks. Dodd is hellbent on keeping his post and anyone who faces him must expect incessant attacks that will be vicious, and expensive to overcome - even for someone who is committed to spending tens of millions of their own dollars for a job that pays about $180,000.

We can certainly expect that Dodd will immediately take up the issue raised this month by the Journal Inquirer newspaper in Manchester - that McMahon accepted millions of Obama's stimulus money to keep her professional entertainment wrestling empire afloat. But WWE personnel still got the axe, so where did the money go? To the McMahon's personal savings accounts?

I don't know, but you can bet that Dodd will be asking that question - every single day.

America's voters are engaged, enraged, informed and not the least bit inclined to accept any candidate who is not solidly on the side of bringing some common sense back to Washington, D.C. Linda McMahon is to be commended for her interest in the American political system, but she has woefully little to offer in the way of solid GOP credentials.

The political planets are aligning, the landscape is settling, and if Linda McMahon wants to be part of this country's political future, it would be wise of her to find a somewhat less conspicuous position from which to launch her political career. There she can show by actions, rather than ads and campaign statements, that she really adheres to conservative values and is not just another Democratic plant hoping to keep the left in control of the country.

Mr. Obama, Do You Have A Plan? Vanilla Fudge's Mark Stein Wants to Know!

2009-11-22T09:09:00.003-05:00

It is said that once an administration becomes the object of ridicule, it is lost as far as public confidence is concerned.

The Obama Administration already has been ridiculed not only on the late night network talk shows during the week, but even on the left-leaning Saturday Night Live. The federal Office of Propaganda, also known as the Mainstream Media, has gone on the attack against its own base, assigning reporters to "fact check" comedy skits, when - if there was a shred of ethical behavior left in the Office of Propaganda - it should "fact check" itself. (Further evidence that the left is cannibalistic.)

Now, the concept of ridicule has moved out of the comedy circuit and into the wider world of entertainment. Mark Stein, a member of the late 60's band Vanilla Fudge has recorded and released on You Tube the video below, asking President Obama just what is going on. This is not a right-wing tirade, as the left wing labels virtually everything and everyone who has the audacity to question the president and members of his administration.

This comes right from the heart of Mr. Obama's base. He is disappointing a lot of people, but most importantly, he is disappointing those who put so much faith in his message of "hope and change." As everyone seems to be asking these days, "How's that working out for you?"

Somewhere along the line when Barack Obama got elected we apparently missed the new regulations that say he is untouchable and not to be treated like every other person who ever was president of the Untied States. Mr. Obama supposedly walks around in an aura - or maybe a bubble - and no one is supposed to reach inside.

When I received this video it had only been viewed 250 times. I don't necessarily agree with every line of lyrics, but I do agree with the overall theme. Now that I bring it to you lets get moving on passing it around. Sooner or later, we all deserve an answer to its central question.

Where is the "Health Care" Debate on Afghanistan? Lieberman Disappoints!

2009-11-21T09:51:00.004-05:00

As this article goes to press, the US Senate is poised to debate the secretive, over-bloated, extraordinarily expansive, useless, exorbitant Federal Takeover of Health Care bill.

The point of today's debate is to overcome a Republican effort to shoot the bill down by the venerable strategy of filibuster, rather than allowing lame duck Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to ram it through against the wishes of the majority of American voters, according to every poll that is worth a damn and a few that are not.

The point of this bill, which will cost at least three generations of living Americans, in addition to the unborn, multiple trillions in additional taxes, fund abortions through tax dollars, and take away the right of self-determination on which medical procedures will be covered, is supposedly to give medical insurance coverage to about twenty million Americans who can't get coverage now.

It will NOT cover about 20 million other Americans. When you take the alleged 50 million Americans who don't have insurance now, subtract the 12 million illegal aliens who already get free medical care at emergency rooms and clinics, courtesy of US taxpayers, and the 20 million Americans who fund their own medical coverage because they figured out that they can save in the long run, the net impact of this bill is ZERO!

Yet it will cost TRILLIONS! That is a number followed by 12 zeros.

How about this? A decent family health care policy costs about $7,000 per year. So if you multiply $7,000 times the 20 million people who aren't covered - but still get medical care on demand courtesy of US taxpayers - it comes to 140 billion dollars. One hell of a lot of money I agree, but one hell of a lot less money than multiple trillions. So why don't we just pick up the tab for insurance policies?

It will save TRILLIONS!!! TRILLIONS!!!

And don't forget, no one in America goes without medical CARE! If you are sick and go to a clinic or emergency room they have to treat you even if you can't pay. It is the law! Signs are posted in emergency rooms all across the country in multiple languages saying you can't be denied care!

So what the hell are we debating this garbage for when we have troops in Afghanistan waiting for someone to remember that they won't be having a Happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas or a Happy New Year this year because the president and the Congress are sitting on one thumb, sucking on the other and playing SWITCH every other week?

This is not health care reform. This is a hostile government takeover of the medical and insurance professions and a bite out of individual freedoms.

How are people who who can't afford a private medical insurance policy now, suddenly going to be able to afford a public insurance policy from the government that many analysts say will cost more than private coverage? Where are these people suddenly going to get the money to pay for these policies, which they will be REQUIRED to do under the new law, and if they don't they'll face fines and prison time?

This is beyond hypocritical and beyond contradictory. It is an insult to every thinking American and further proof that Congress has gone haywire. I keep hearing that there is more cocaine inside the DC beltway than in the entire country of Columbia and this insanity gives a lot of credence to those claims.

Because these nutcases have to be high to even be taking this nonsense seriously. This is far more than nationalization of two more industries, this is communism at its purest.

We have troops under fire in remote areas of a remote land where another batch of nutcases hatch plot after plot to destroy us by fire, and the Congress is saying and doing nothing because the president can't make up his mind, despite the will of the public. But we have Saturday sessions on Nationalization of the medical and insurance professions because the greedy bloodsuckers who call themselves members of Congress have figured out they can bleed this country dry by passing these bogus bills.

And the biggest disappointment of all is Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman who rode to victory in the 2006 election - against his own Democratic Party and the Republicans - on the backs of Connecticut's veterans who saw him as an isolated voice of support in a cacophony of anti-military sentiment in Congress and the media.

The Hartford Courant reported this week: that some lawmakers including Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) have indicated that while they may support a procedural vote to begin debate, they may not support the final bill. Underscoring the difficult road ahead, Reid spent more than an hour in his office Wednesday afternoon meeting with Nelson and two other Democrats wary of his health plan, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

I don't want indications from my senator. I don't want to hear what he may not do, because that implies he MAY do just the opposite. Senator Lieberman could vote for the filibuster, and put an end to this insanity today.

That would give voters some breathing room until next year's elections when we can throw these jackals out on their butts. Instead he is just toeing the Democratic Party line even though the Democrats have cast him aside like yesterday's fast food wrappers. He says he'll vote for debate but MAY vote against the final bill.

How about just shutting this farce down right now, going back to the hearings on the Islamic terrorist who killed 13 people in Ft. Hood, and making it very clear to President Obama that he needs to act on behalf of our troops in Afghanistan and I mean RIGHT NOW?

The media is concentrating on the three reluctant Democrats who say they oppose this bill, but are being bought off as we speak - with taxpayers dollars! A hundred million for Louisiana alone? Well, at least we know that Senator's price.

What did Lieberman get for letting his principles fall by the wayside? I know what he lost. He lost the support of the very people who put him in office last time, but won't be there for him next time.

Health care reform my rear end. There is no reform here at all and this is NOT about health care. This is an erosion of rights and liberties, and a massive effort to con a complacent, under-educated, dumbed-down populace that will quickly go from being a disorganized herd to an organized herd, and Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi are leading the way to the slaughter house.

Afghanistan Corrupt! US Congress Pure? Oh, God, It IS Vietnam Again!

2009-11-20T10:12:00.002-05:00

Most Americans serving in the US military are too young to have been alive when the administration of John F. Kennedy helped knock off Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South Vietnam in 1963.

OK, maybe Kennedy didn't actually pull the trigger, but he didn't shield his ally either. When word reached the White House that Diem was in trouble with his own government and military, Kennedy promised non-interference if a coup occurred. So forty-six years ago this month, On November 1, 1963, South Vietnamese generals overthrew the Diem government and killed Diem.

Ultimately, after a series of ineffective replacements, South Vietnam's government was lead by President Nguyen Van Thieu from 1967 until a few days before the communist takeover on April 30, 1975. Only three years earlier, in 1972, the South Vietnamese armed forces, backed by massive American air support, annihilated a communist invading force of 250,000 troops, killing as many as 150,000 communist troops, and destroying half of all the communists' armor and artillery.

As a result the communists fired their most famous general, Vo Nguyen Giap, who was credited with beating French forces in the 1950s. But in 1972 the communists had been beaten so badly they were contemplating surrender, as they were in 1969 after being crushed by American troops.

In coming months, after the American traitor Jane Fonda visited the defeated Vietnamese communists, carrying a message not to surrender because help was on its way from the corrupt American Congress, the North Vietnamese decided to drag their feet in ongoing peace negotiations. So American President Richard Nixon unleashed a massive bombing campaign of the north. But presidential adviser Henry Kissinger convinced Nixon to halt the bombing only two days before - as was later revealed - the communists would have surrendered unconditionally.

This was followed by the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in March 1973 over the vigorous objections of President Thieu who knew his country had been shafted. Then the traitorous US Congress enacted the Case-Church Resolution which effectively ended all aid to South Vietnam - economic, humanitarian and military.

Two years later, alone, running out of ammo, and abandoned by the US Government, the south fell to another massive communist invasion. In the next five years millions of South Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians were slaughtered by the rampaging communists.

What do you suppose was the reason the traitors in the US Congress gave for allowing an ally to be overthrown and its populace imprisoned, tortured and butchered? They said the Thieu government was "corrupt."

Can you believe that? The US Congress having the temerity to call another country's government "corrupt?"

Why have I taken the time to teach this history lesson? Because it is being repeated all over again in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was elected after the US overthrew the Taliban and Al Qaeda in 2002, sending them fleeing to Iraq and the mountains of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, has fallen out of favor with the Barack Obama Administration. Even though we have thousands of troops in Afghanistan again fighting the resurgent Taliban, and even though our troops have suffered thousands of casualties there while inflicting horrendous casualty rates on the Muslim extremists, President Obama is teetering on just throwing in the towel, bringing our troops home, and hunkering down in the White House bunker waiting for the next attack on our soil.

Do you know the primary reason the US Government, and its allies in the Office of Propaganda (mainstream media) are giving for once again screwing an ally? They say Karzai's government is corrupt!

Can you believe that? The US Congress having the temerity to call another country's government "corrupt?" So, let's just quit and expose our country to another terrorist attack launched from the exact same spot where the 9-11 attacks were hatched.

Did you know that in the 1971 South Vietnamese elections President Thieu was the only candidate because his opponents called him corrupt?

Did you notice that this year the primary opponent to Karzai's reign stepped aside because he says Karzai is corrupt?

Do you remember that adage about those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it?

Let me ask you one question. If the government is corrupt what is the better path - to clean up the corruption or expose millions upon millions of innocent people to murder, rape and destruction?

If you are having trouble coming up with an answer to that, consider this - the next populace that will be murdered, raped and destroyed if we again abandon a key ally won't just be the Afghanistan people. It will be us too. Think about that.

I've heard some people say that Obama won't abandon Karzai because he is sympathetic to the Muslim faith. I think that is a diversion.

Obama - through the Rev. Jeremiah Wright - has Christians thinking he is a Christian, and through numerous statements to the Muslim community has the Muslims thinking he is one of them.

I don't think he is either. He has surrounded himself with communists of the most bloodthirsty type, and I believe is a secular communist, hoping to pit the Christians and Jews against the Muslims so they will beat each other to death and the communists can take over. I have written about this previously, and the only thing that is new is that Obama is now leading the effort from within the US.

While you are contemplating that remember this: As we enter the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's holiday seasons - people who weren't raised Christian please feel free to substitute your favorite religious holiday for Christmas if you are so inclined - up in the mountains of Afghanistan, American troops are exposed to death every single day.

They are cold and will be a lot colder as winter sets in, they need reinforcements and other support, and they are willing to take the risks and shed their blood to keep the rest of us free. But they are there because they believe in America - not Barack Obama and certainly not his view of America. They believe in the America as it was intended by our founders and through our Constitution.

It is clear that Obama could give a crap less about our troops. I was reading a quote from the Washington Post on the Atlas Shrugs blog today that said Obama told US troops in South Korea that they make good "photo ops."

Really? Well not all the troops in South Korea were included in that backhanded praise. I have it straight from the front that many troops who had gathered along the route of the President's motorcade to take photos of the Commander in Chief were completely ignored.

The Prez wouldn't look at them, wave to them, nothing. If they weren't useful for his photos, he wasn't interested in posing for their photos. It isn't that they support him - most don't. But most Americans who are in the presence of the President will try to take a photo for posterity - the day they stood near the president or something like that.

But Mr. Obama wouldn't even give them a wave or a smile from his passing motorcade. Thanks Mr. Obama, we'll remember your kindness next Election Day.

The Post article read: Obama arrived on the base 3:19 p.m. local time (1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time), and received a rousing welcome from 1,500 troops in camouflage uniforms, many holding cameras or pointing cell phones to snap pictures.

"You guys make a pretty good photo op," the president said.

Standing on a riser wearing a blue suit and red tie, with a cluster of troops and a large American flag behind him, Obama expressed "the gratitude of the American public" and said his meetings in four countries over eight days in Asia will help deliver a "safer more prosperous world for all of us."

Uh - yeah. I guess. How about instead of listening to platitudes from a guy who thinks troops are just good background for his publicity photos, we listen to a few comments from the late South Vietnamese president on what happens when you trust the government.

"Don't listen to what the Communists say, but look at what they do."

"The United States did not keep its word. Is an American's word reliable these days?"

"The United States did not keep its promise to help us fight for freedom and it was in the same fight that the United States lost 50,000 of its young men."

"You ran away and left us to do the job that you could not do."

"To live without freedom is to have already died."

Where Has All The Stimulus Gone? Gone to Gulags Everyone! Diversion?

2009-11-18T10:20:00.003-05:00

Some pretty smart people are taking apart the Obama Administration's claims that the nearly 1 trillion dollars worth of stimulus money that he and the Democrat-controlled Congress authorized shortly after he took office is positively impacting our economy.

In fact just the opposite appears to be the case according to many reports and comments I have heard over the last several weeks. Stimulus money apparently hasn't made much of an impact at all, and now people are wondering just where it all went.

For instance it turns out that the Cash For Clunkers program was a clunker itself, costing the taxpayers about $24,000 for every car that was purchased as a result of the program. We also are hearing from every corner of the country that tens of thousands of jobs that were claimed to have been created or saved due to stimulus funds actually were fabricated.

There also are reports that whatever good the stimulus money might have done has already been done and we should not expect to see the unemployment figures decline any time soon. Those figures also are not really accurate because the 10.2 percent that has been bandied about for the past week only reflects those unemployed American workers who are still receiving unemployment benefits.

Workers who have been unemployed for too long and have given up on looking for non-existent jobs still are unemployed, but not counted. I have heard several times that the true figure for unemployed workers is somewhere in the range of 1 out of every 5 - or about 20 percent, not 10 percent. That is sobering, scary actually.

And to top it all off, people are now saying that so-called stimulus money is being counted as funding "shovel ready" projects, when many of those projects already were funded by other sources previous to the passage of the stimulus package.

So where has all the stimulus money gone? My vote is that somewhere in this country, maybe in many locations in this country, the foundation is being laid for the Obama Security Force - that huge federal police force he was advocating in July 2007 on the campaign trail in Utah and before. Remember that? The police force that was to be as large and as well funded and equipped as the American military?

Meaning it had to have about $500 billion per year to equip and sustain. Meaning that if only 10 percent of the stimulus has actually been used, there is plenty stashed away somewhere for a huge force of thugs, including brown shirts and jack boots.

Why do I feel this way, especially absent any direct evidence? Well, for starters, you can convict a person in America on circumstantial evidence, if the preponderance of the evidence points toward that conclusion. The rule in American courts is proof "beyond a reasonable doubt" not beyond "a shadow of a doubt" so I don't have to show specific acts if I can show a movement in that direction.

So let's start with the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans are wildly unhappy with President Obama's actions, as shown by recent polls where his approval rating has dropped to about 42 percent.

Then it gets worse as people are going apoplectic over the nationalization of the health care system, not to mention his bowing to the Japanese emperor and endless apologies to other countries, most of which have historical records that make America look holy in comparison.

Yet, Mr. President is absolutely unfazed by any of this. He continues to send out his stooges who continue to fabricate, manipulate and outright lie to the American public, which isn't fooled by any of them. Yet the administration continues on its merry way seemingly oblivious to the level of dissatisfaction that is on the verge of exploding in his face.

What would keep anyone from reacting, pulling back, and rethinking their plans when so many people are showing so strongly that those plans are on the wrong track? Two options are possible right off the top of my head. One would be absolute denial, which could play a part in this, and the second would be the knowledge that you have the armaments and muscle to impose your will on the populace regardless of what the populace wants.

Then we have this issue of terrorists being tried on American soil, in a New York City court and the claim that "when" they are convicted, not "if" but "when," they could be housed in the maximum-security Thomson Correctional Center, about 150 miles from Chicago that is underused and will be the perfect place to put people who are a danger to the American public. Depending on your definition of "a danger to the public."

OK, so there are five terrorists, and thousands of cells in that prison - 1600 to be specific. Even if you bring all the 215 terrorist detainees in Guantanamo to Thompson if this all goes through, the government will have about 1,300 available cells in Thomson. Who is going to fill up the rest of the cells?

We wouldn't keep that prison open, and running at a huge deficit, just for a relatively small number of terrorists would we? Especially when we already have a prison for those terrorists - offshore - in a place called Guantanamo!

In a statement last week the Thomson prison was referred to as a "virtually vacant, state of the art facility." So why does the Obama Administration want to duplicate what it already has in a much safer area, especially when Guantanamo was specifically built for terrorists and they would have one hell of a time creating problems for the American public if they ever escaped?

Officials toured the facility last week and it is worth noting that they didn't specifically say the prison would being utilized for Guantanamo detainees. But federal officials did say that overcrowding is a "serious issue and one of the reasons why the Bureau of Prisons is interested in viewing Thomson Correction Center."

I see. And aside from 250 or so terrorists, where exactly are federal officials expected a surge of prisoner to originate?

As part of the conversion at Thomson the Bureau of Prisons and Defense Department would enhance security measures to "exceed" those of the nation's only supermax prison - the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.

Here's another issue. Diversion. By that I mean the Obama Administration is working hard to not only explode our national debt to levels never even imagined in the history of this country, in fact doubling the national debt in a matter of months, but to keep our eye on that ball. The whole world knows this is economic suicide but the Obama Administration, supported by the Pelosi House of Representatives and Reid Senate, continues to pile on when we could turn this around by one vote of Congress.

Why? My vote goes to keeping us watching the right hand so we aren't aware of what the left hand is doing. There are many other facets to this theory, more than I want to explore at the moment, but the possibility that much of what concerns us - stimulus money, national health care, Afghanistan dithering - may be just what the President ordered to keep us from eyeballing what he is really doing.

Unfortunately, I no longer have faith in this administration, nor do I believe the president can be trusted. Whatever he is doing I doubt it is for the benefit of the American public. And from this vantage point, keeping an eye on his plans for a national security force should be a matter of overriding national interest.

Mao Tse Obama; The New "Kid" for Hu Jintao

2009-11-17T14:16:00.003-05:00

Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse on the international scene, the president of the Untied States, Barack Obama, the philosophical cellmate of world wide communism, is desperately trying to convince 300 million Americans that more than a billion Chinese wrongly believe he worships the late murderous communist leader Mao Tse Tung.

I guess all those Obamao posters and T-shirts popping up in every market in China, especially those showing Obama in a Mao cap and a Red Guard uniform, were just China's answer to Saturday Night Live. But FOX News and CNN didn't seem to share the humor. In fact, it was on FOX that I saw the report of the Chinese security apparatus - cops in America - detaining a CNN reporter who was doing a story on the T-shirts and the image they send to Americans who are wondering just who they elected last year anyway.

The official line was that all the street vendors who were selling T-shirts with the Obama Red Guard logo were ordered to remove them in advance of his visit. But not everyone got the word, or not everyone complied because western news outlets, which apparently didn't exist in China until just this week, suddenly discovered plenty of the incriminating items of apparel.

Here, I'll show it to you again in case you missed the one at the top of the column.

I have been saying for some time now, as have many other Americans, that if it walks like a communist, and talks like a communist, and surrounds itself with communists, and the Chinese general public makes and buys T-shirts showing it as a communist, then it probably is a communist. "It" would mean President Obama in this case.

When he was done bowing and scraping in Japan, and backing way, way, way, way off pending international climate change legislation, Obama went inside the walls of the Forbidden City for an out-of-sight meeting with China's President Hu Jintao.

Now, the US Office of Propaganda - aka the Mainstream Media - claims that they had a wonderful dinner, lavish might be the more appropriate word, and that Obama put the Chinese Premier in his place. Only lemmings and the Democratic Party faithful really believe that line. The real deal is that China is holding US markers worth three-quarters of a trillion dollars which puts the Chinese in the driver's seat of the American economy.

Obama might have talked smack to a bunch of Chinese students at a town hall meeting - "It's time China opened up access to the Internet!" Yeah, that'll show them - but he wasn't dictating anything to anyone once they got out of the public view. You see, Obama's policies are screwing up the US economy and things are getting worse every day. These are his programs - stimulus bills that only stimulate unknown businesses in make believe locations, for instance - and all we have to show for them are higher unemployment and a deepening national deficit.

The Chinese don't like the way things are going because they started making serious investments in the US economy way back in the Clinton administration. They have made great leaps toward casting off many of the trappings of communism, at least in the way the Chinese people can now pursue entrepreneurship, and their efforts to withdraw from the image as the world's most restrictive communist state while moving toward capitalism has been going on for a couple of decades. They own the Untied States, because they are the bank for the Untied States, thanks to successive administrations of shameless buck passers, but that also means they want, they need, a strong dollar. If the American economy goes bust, the dollar goes bust, and the Chinese are holding nothing more than worthless paper. Thus, Obama's decision to destroy the US free market economy and install a government run economy is pretty much out of sync with everyone except Kim Jong Ill, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and Mamoud Ahmadinejad.

You can bet your bippy that when Hu Jintao disappeared behind the walls of the Forbidden City with Obama at his heel, the conversation quickly turned from amiable platitudes to "Just what the hell do you think you're doing? We've got three-quarters of a trill invested with you guys and my people aren't going to like it if the dollar tanks and takes our investments with it."

Now, personally, I don't think the Chinese should own so much as a dime's worth of the US, but the fact is they do, and for now they could well be our best chance of Obama backing off his conversion to communism. If the world's biggest communist nation has seen that the best way toward freedom and prosperity for all is the market place, they aren't going to suddenly change direction just because someone else wants to go all retro.

There is no doubt in my mind that a lecture was delivered inside the Forbidden City and Obama was the recipient. There also is no doubt that Obama was being ordered around like a busboy at an all you can eat buffet, and he wasn't saying squat in response. Hu and Obama are cellmates, and Hu is the Alpha Male. Obama is his kid, and his job is to run errands, take orders and provide whatever the Chinese president needs to make him happy. Obama is a beta male, ( just barely ) and he knows he is further down the pecking order than his counterparts on the international scene. Obama, his advisers, and his political associates have been hard at work running the American economy into the ground ever since January to prepare the country for the imposition of total government control.

But now he has been told that a failed American economy, and particularly a move toward communism when most communists are moving toward a free economy, is not particularly desirable.

It is high time Obama gets himself back on Air Force One, starts studying free market economy textbooks and makes an effort to get people off of unemployment and doing something productive instead. Because the last thing he wants American voters to see is Hu Jintao ordering him back to China, telling him to jump when Hu says "Jump," and Obama asking "How high?" on the way up.

I mean a picture of that kind of exchange would be worse by a hundredfold than bowing to an emperor or a king, not that Obama would ever consider embarrassing the entire Untied States with such an obsequious display.

Terrorist Trials or Kangaroo Courts? Obama Kowtowing In Emerald City

2009-11-15T09:16:00.007-05:00

Americans are understandably upset about President Barack Obama's decision Friday to bring five terrorists who planned the 9-11 attacks to trial in New York.

The decision was announced by his attorney general while Obama was out of town - once again bowing to the leader of another country. But to make believe this was done without the approval of the president as some have claimed, thus leaving us with the option that it was an overreaching decision by an opportunistic appointee, is sheer fantasy. As my late father would have said, "Don't give me that guff!"

This was an Obama decision, yet as his repeated public displays of subservience to other leaders, first to the king of Saudi Arabia, now to the emperor of Japan, have shown, he is not the kind of president who will stand up for himself, his country or his decisions.

It was hilarious back when Obama bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, a harshly Moslem country, and his aides claimed he wasn't really bowing, just looking at his shoes, or for a quarter he dropped, or his contact lens, or maybe was just checking to make sure his zipper was zipped. But as the recent overseas photo from Reuters shows below, Obama has a habit of checking his zipper, or bowing, take your pick. Either way his actions are unseemly.

It is absolutely amazing that the announcement to hold terrorist trials in New York came while Obama was bowing to the Emperor of Japan so that he was once again shielded from the eruption of public dissatisfaction with his decision.

Obama is great on apologizing for America, but he won't face his own countrymen, if he actually believes we are his countrymen, if he can use a subordinate to take the heat.

Legions of citizens believe this decision - to bring terrorists to our soil - is a gross error on Obama's part for reasons ranging from simple acquiescence to the terrorists' demands - they want to be tried in New York the scene of their highest success - to matters of national security. If you believe the Obama Administration's assertions that this is a great idea, then you probably love the part of the movie Animal House where Kevin Bacon screams "All is Well, All is Well," while he unsuccessfully attempts to halt an onrushing mob.

The administration is definitely screaming "All is Well." For instance, Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed said on Fox News Sunday this morning that there is no way any of these terrorists will be released. Period. Well, then why are we going through this charade of a trial? Reed said they won't be acquitted and they won't be released. So, just how is this going to impress all those Moslem nations when they see the outcome is preordained? Is that how they do it in those countries? Justice is just a word, not a real part of their government? When Chris Wallace asked what happens if they are released and then picked up again for further attacks against us, Reed said in essence, "Not to worry."

OK, I'm not worried. I'm not worried that they'll get released, or maybe I should say not too worried, but I am very worried about other issues.

Because what this decision really accomplishes is to give the terrorists rights under American law, through the pre-trial process of Discovery, that once again provide access to our intelligence and security secrets. Methodology, sources, undercover agents, both foreign and domestic, all will be at risk as the terrorists' lawyers use our own system to determine how evidence against their clients was gathered.

Conservative columnist Bill Kristol made this very point on FNS today noting that it happened in the 1995 trial of the Blind Sheik under Bill Clinton's administration. The B.S. was convicted of the first World Trade Center bombing that was marginally successful. He was sentenced to life and is now sitting in prison providing daily evidence to legions of terrorist wannabes around the world that he is a martyr to the cause. Meanwhile, reams of intelligence info were placed in the hands of these very same terrorists, and what happened as a result?

Oh yes, the bombing of the Khobar Towers American military housing in Saudi Arabia, the bombing of two American embassies in Africa, the bombing of the USS Cole, and let's see, what else? Oh yes, of course, the second bombing of the World Trade Center, successfully this time, the bombing of the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania when passengers thwarted another attempted hit on Washington, at the expense of everyone on board.

It is obvious from his trips overseas to avoid the media each time he acts - or doesn't - that these issues may be necessary stepping stones for the president's overall goal, but they aren't urgent. It is obvious that he is moving steadily in the direction of destroying the American government as it has existed for more than two centuries and replacing it with something much closer to communism.

His administration is marked by manipulation of a fawning media that now is little more than the Office of Propaganda; manipulation of the housing market and mortgage banking enabling a government takeover of many financial institutions; nationalizing the auto industry; and the ongoing attempts to nationalize health care.

He sees no urgency even in making a decision on the fate of thousands of US troops facing enemy forces overseas. And he sees no urgency in answering the desperate pleas of the millions of Americans who believed that he stood for meaningful change, not change that would destroy our country.

He is leaving the people who believed in him, supported him, and voted for him swinging in the shifting winds of change, and they are both unhappy and powerless. They have been deceived and they know it, but admitting it will take time. Which is why nothing about terrorism, our government, our troops or our country is in the URGENT box on Obama's desk.

Nor are these issues ever likely to be marked urgent. Because this administration is not about America, freedom and democracy, it is all about Obama, and his ego. These issues will become urgent for America only when they become urgent for Obama.

It would have been nice, especially for his supporters, if Obama really intended to bring positive change to our country. But as he is showing, his change is not for the better, and it should seem obvious that it is going to get much, much worse.

Happy Veterans Day! Remember Dewey Canyon, I Corps, HMM-161, the 9th Marines, and all 'Grunts!'

2009-11-11T08:15:00.005-05:00

It is Veterans Day, November 11, 2009 and I want to take this opportunity to thank all who are serving and all who served. I especially want to remember those members of Marine Medium Helicopter squadron 161 with whom I served in New River, North Carolina, and in Vietnam, and of course, the "grunts" we supported.

I found a segment of a MilitaryVideo.com video, that now is on You Tube, of the 9th Marine Regiment conducting Operation Dewey Canyon in norther I Corps in early 1969. The operation was led by Gen. Raymond Davis, a Medal of Honor recipient who served in WWII, the Korean War where he fought at the Chosin Reservoir in the action for which he was awarded the MOH, and as commander of the Third Marine Division in Vietnam.

If you read the Wikipedia entry on Gen. Davis in Vietnam you will be misled into believing that until January 1969 the Marines were huddled down in base camps, not doing their usual job of aggressive contact with the enemy. This is not true.

It was in 1967 under the Lyndon Johnson Administration and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara that the ill-conceived and ill-fated McNamara Line along the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam forced the Marines into a defensive strategy that was counter to our tactical training and overall strategic objectives. But when Gen. Davis arrived in Vietnam in April 1968 he immediately put an end to that concept and it was at that time that he freed the Marine combat battalions from their defensive postures.

I know, I was there from May 1968 through June 1969 most of which was spent with my brothers in HMM-161 under the command of Lt. Col Paul W. Niesen. We flew thousands upon thousands of missions with every single Marine regiment in northern I Corps in addition to missions in central and southern I Corps. The strategy employed by Gen. Davis worked exactly as it was intended and operations such as Meade River and Lancaster II put a major hurting on infiltrating North Vietnamese units, stopping them dead, literally.

Dewey Canyon, launched in January 1969, was the crown jewel of Gen. Davis' tour in Vietnam and was a textbook example of how to move infantry units through rough terrain in bad weather, while staying under the cover of nearby artillery units.

Dewey Canyon stifled the communists' attempts to resupply their troops in South Vietnam and significantly reduced their ability to mount a second Tet Offensive, which was its goal. Wikipedia says it didn't permanently halt the flow of supplies down the Ho Chi Minh trail into South Vietnam. Well, it wasn't supposed to permanently stop the flow. If that was the intent, we would have stayed there. That wasn't the nature of the operation nor the overall US strategy.

The You Tube video I found has a couple of great shots of my former unit HMM-161 engaged in troop lifts into the battle zone. You can tell it is 161 by the white winged horse on the upper aft section of the helicopter. The numbers 47 and 29 lower on the tail indicate helicopters that were assigned to our squadron.

I have been watching the lead up to the Marine Corps Birthday and Veterans Day with considerable interest in recent weeks and the one thing I keep noticing is that virtually every channel and every network jumps right over much of the Korean War and nearly all of Vietnam when they show photos of veterans. Still lots of coverage of WWII, and lots of coverage of the current engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, but even though Vietnam veterans are the dominant demographic in the veteran community, and we fought the longest American War, and we won every single major battle, we still can't get more than a flash of remembrance. So I am giving you something to look at here.

I wish I had the entire Military Channel segment on Operation Dewey Canyon, but all I could find was the four-minute segment below. Nonetheless, it gives a good representation of the fighting and the terrain and especially of my unit in action. Considering that we are now focusing the action in the War on Terror back on Afghanistan which has similar if even more rugged terrain, today's commanders might want to review the strategy that Gen. Davis used in Dewey Canyon, and the results it produced.

It has been more than 40 years since Operation Dewey Canyon, and a lot of water has gone over the dam, but I haven't forgotten the Marines I flew with, nor the grunts we supported, in this case the 9th Marines and 3rd Marines.

For all who serve or served and those who support those who served please also visit this website: www.jensensutta.com:80/slideshows/RTB for a beautiful tribute to veterans.

To all of them, and to all other veterans Happy Veterans Day. I hope this finds you well and happy. Semper Fi

Happy Birthday US Marine Corps! 234 And Counting!

2009-11-10T13:47:00.001-05:00

Was Madman Nidal Hasan Part of a Sleeper Cell? FOX News Ft. Hood Shooting Interview

2009-11-06T06:25:00.007-05:00

In the hours after the horrific news broke that a madman, Nidal Hasan, had gone on a killing spree at the US Army's huge base at Ft. Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 30 more, the first question on my mind was whether this was part of a terrorist conspiracy.

Back in the Good Old Days of the Bush Administration - in an investigation that began in 2006 and resulted in terrorism arrests in 2007, America broke up a plot to do similar damage at Ft. Dix, New Jersey. Five muslim terrorists have been convicted in that case and now are in federal prison.

Then, in Little Rock, Arkansas last summer police arrested Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad -- a 24-year-old Little Rock resident formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe -- on a first-degree murder charge and 15 counts of engaging in a terrorist act after killing one solider and wounding another at an Army recruiting station.

So it is reasonable to ask if yesterday's attack is another piece of a hidden puzzle.

That question has not been answered yet, even though the FBI rushed out with a "no-terrorism link" statement even before the extent of the carnage was fully documented. Then President Obama pulled a horribly ill-advised press conference, ostensibly to give us a measure of calm assurance.

But it started out with the commander-in-chief commenting at length on the successful conclusion of an Interior Department conference, to extended cheering and clapping from members of the audience. This while Ft. Hood personnel were still assessing the extent of the rampage.

So the "all is well" posing didn't convince me of anything except there was an immediate overreaction to assure us that this was not the work of another terrorist expressing hatred for the United States.

What we have found out since is that this was indeed another incident of hatred for the United States. In this case the shooter decided to act against military personnel in this country, at a military facility. In this case the alleged shooter was a disaffected Army officer who had immediate access to his victims.

A FOX News interview yesterday with a retired Army Colonel who had worked with the alleged terrorist gave us extensive insight into the mind of the shooter. I have posted a You Tube video of the interview here for your perusal.

Further interviews revealed that Hasan went into the military against his parents wishes, and had been bad mouthing his country over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for years. He apparently is of the mindset that if we just left the Taliban and Al Qaeda alone they wouldn't bother us.

Which means he is either delusional or he didn't read about more than 30 years of terrorist attacks on the US, including the 9-11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

We are supposed to believe this guy went on a rampage because he was harassed for arguing with fellow officers over the War on Terror, and that his mind snapped because as a military psychiatrist he heard horrific things from people who actually served in combat.

I guess his lawyers will claim Post Traumatic Stress By Proxy. What a crock. This guy was in the Army for 10 years, and got bad performance reviews. His entire history in the military is shaping up to be anti-American.

More information is coming out all the time and none of it is good. The shooter didn't die as originally reported and it is now likely that he will stand trial for his actions.

Sympathy for the devil will not be a factor in public opinion, nor in a jury's opinion either. And yes, he should go to trial, not be squirreled away in some insane asylum where we can never learn what really was behind this tragedy and travesty.

"Local" Republican Victories Give An Inside View of America's Mood!

2009-11-04T08:08:00.005-05:00

National commentators are doing their best to either build up, or shoot down, the significance of Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey in Tuesday's elections.

I am thrilled about those victories, and I believe they do in fact mark a huge shift in the minds of voters - away from the movement toward communism now evident in Congress and the White House, and back toward the basics of our form of government - free markets, and equal opportunities to excel for all citizens.

But there are other indicators concerning last night's elections that may give an even better overview of the mood of the country and the voting public.

Take Connecticut, a small New England state that is consistently colored blue on national maps, meaning it supposedly is a liberal, leftist state that falls solidly in the Democratic camp. Yet in community after community in Connecticut yesterday, Republicans who held the highest offices kept them, and in many places where the Democrats had ruled, often for very long periods, voters turned them out.

Stamford, a city in Fairfield County which borders New York, went Republican. So did Trumbull, another Fairfield County community up the Merritt Parkway from Stamford that had a Democratic First Selectman who seemed invincible. Perhaps those GOP victories could be viewed as inevitable since Fairfield County is seen by the rest of the state and probably the country as being all about money, and money is not doing well in Fairfield County, Connecticut, these days.

Out-of-work executives are as common in that section of Connecticut as out-of-work machinists are in the center of the state.

But Norwich, a small city near the Rhode Island border which is best known as the home to two gambling casinos, also turned out its long-time Democratic mayor and replaced him with a Republican. This is a stunning reversal as Norwich has long been seen by local political strategists as a Democratic stronghold. Republicans running for a regional office that encompasses Norwich, work to keep within 1,000 votes of their Democratic opponents, hoping to make up the difference in mostly rural communities outside the city.

A Republican mayoral victory in Norwich, Connecticut has as much significance in terms of reading the minds of the voters, as the ouster of New Jersey's Democratic governor. Part of the reason for the GOP victory was a split Democratic Party, which is usually the case, but it gives Republicans a great opportunity to show what can be done.

As I listened to the national pundits this morning, all I heard were predictable commentaries from Democrats who universally were grousing that there really isn't a shift of mood. Democrat strategist Bob Beckel for instance, said on FOX News that voters aren't really angry, and this was supposedly proven by the drop in turnout.

If voters are angry, he claimed, the turnout is high.

I disagree. Anger manifests itself in many ways, and while the turnout was down in some places it was up in others. I believe that is a factor of how successful the party leadership on the local level was in defining the urgency of the issues.

In New Jersey and Virginia the battle lines were clearly drawn and voters clearly understood what was at stake. If Democrats stayed home in sufficient numbers to allow Republicans with lower voter registration numbers to prevail, then a significant number of voters were angry, but chose different ways to display that anger. Whether it is defined as anger, disenchantment, cynicism, or apathy, call it what you want - they didn't vote Democratic and the result is the same.

Conversely, if Republican leaders in some communities and regions were able to capitalize on voter dissatisfaction with the economy and other issues, good for them. But victories achieved because the opposition was uninspired should not be considered lasting victories.

It is up to the Republican Party at all levels to capitalize on voter dissatisfaction first by clearly defining the issues that are facing us now, in the coming months, and the coming years, and then by showing Independent and Democratic voters that we have a better plan.

We may not be able to convince significant numbers of hard-core Democrats to cross over to the Republican side, but if we can show that the GOP has better ideas and better candidates then we can motivate our own base, attract Independents and hopefully show that yesterday's victories are just the tip of the iceberg.

Yesterday's showing in so many communities big and small is an indicator that should not be lost on Republican party leaders.

Republicans are not machine politicians as is the case in places like Chicago, because the machine exists primarily on patronage. Thus party leaders doling out taxpayer funded jobs usually aren't the driving factors in Republican victories. A core Republican principle is personal initiative, not living off the welfare state, either through direct welfare payments or indirect welfare such as patronage jobs that aren't needed, but are funded through ever increasing taxpayer payments.

So Republicans must attract voters based on better candidates who clearly define by their statements and past actions who they are and what they believe. The GOP also has to clearly define the issues and show why Republican values give us better options to solving them.

In communities where turnout was low, local leaders should determine right now how they intend to motivate the electorate next year. If this election is to be considered a bellwether for the near future, then motivation and turnout are key factors in keeping the momentum.

This also is a golden opportunity to recover GOP losses from the past decade, especially if you believe the statements from Democratic leaders like Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz, who also is Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

She appeared on FOX News this morning, poo-poohing yesterday's results and indicating that for Democrats it's nothing to worry about - just "electoral history." Other succinct comments from Shultz included such gems as "historical trends" and that giving any credence whatsoever to yesterday's victories amounted to comparing "apples and oranges." Really, she said that.

Is she kidding? And as far as any changes to Democratic strategy that might result from yesterday's vote - "Our incumbents are battle tested ... they are reaching out." But apparently, not too far.

And the one comment that I guess was to be expected - "The only one that matters is New York 23" meaning the 23rd House District in way, way upstate New York where the Dems actually won after successfully splitting the GOP by running a RINO Republican In Name Only.

I see. That's where we should focus our attention, not on Virginia, or New Jersey, or even on the myriad small towns like mine where the GOP swept the election.

OK. You just keeping talking Deb, that's what you're good at.

What If George W. Bush Had ... ?

2009-11-02T12:11:00.002-05:00

This is not my idea. I got it from my son who passed it along after he got it from someone out in the Internet, and I even saw a reference to it on the weekend news. It was FOX News if you must know and it was on a panel discussion. I can't remember who said it on Fox because the faces are beginning to run together but it doesn't matter.

We are within a day of the first anniversary of President Barack Hussein Obama mmmm, mmmm, mmmm's election as President of the Untied States of America - that is not a typo. I used to write Untied Nations because I think that body is totally screwed up, and now it also applies to the Untied States of America because this country is now officially more screwed up than I have ever seen it.

This country is now officially more screwed up than my mother has ever seen it and she is nearly 93, meaning she was born before the end of WWI; saw the Great Depression up close and personal; nearly lost her husband, my father, during the Battle for Leyte Gulf in WWII; saw Kennedy die; saw Johnson blow Vietnam right out of his you know what; saw me go off the fight in Vietnam; saw Nixon, Ford and Kissinger screw up our military victory there and turn it into a political defeat; survived the jimmy carter presidency; saw hope resurrected through Ronald Reagan; saw it get screwed up again in the Clinton years; wept over the attacks on 9-11; cheered for our victory in Iraq; and now believes Obama is bound and determined to destroy America in her lifetime.

Obama for his part is still, through his lemmings, gofers, and stooges, blaming everything that is wrong in America on George Bush. You only have to look at the polls in the high profile races around the country to see how well that is working for him.

So someone out in the uncontrolled territories of America came up with the following and it is spreading across the Internet faster than Swine Flu on the Rotisserie Networks.

Without further ado, please give some thought to completing the following, "If George Bush had":

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a TelePrompTer installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non- existent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had misspelled the word advice would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potato as proof of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's a hypocrite?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive?

There are numerous versions of this theme out on the Internet although I found the full script on Tom McMahon's website but he referred to the Grouchy Old Cripple website, which from my standpoint is one great blog. But Politico had a version, and the GOP itself is talking, half-seriously, about doing a website on that theme.

So, I don't know where it started, but I wanted to pass it along just in case you hadn't seen it. And to point out that all across America, and all across the political spectrum, ordinary people who aren't pushing a party line, as well as many who are, have noticed that our anointed president is getting a huge PASS from the American Terrorist Media, which is now revealing itself to be in cahoots with the American Communist Media - or possibly has been the American Communist Media all along.

Can you answer one question for me? Considering who Obama has appointed as Czars - a suspect title if ever there was one - not to mention nationalizing the banks, the financial industry, the housing industry, the auto industry, as well as attempting to nationalize medical care and the insurance industry, is he upholding his oath of office?

See for yourself: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Where in the Constitution does it allow the President to nationalize so many industries and bankrupt future generations by running the national debt to proportions that go beyond the power of mere mortals to comprehend? Is he living up to his oath, or does the phrase "to the best of my ability" serve as an escape clause?

Worth thinking about, isn't it?

Not Another "Another Vietnam!" Obama's Afghanistan Can Be Won! Double the Troop Request

2009-10-30T10:37:00.005-04:00

Let's get one thing straight right from the start. Sending more combat troops to Afghanistan does not mean that more Americans will die because more troops will be targets.

That tired old refrain is once again on the lips of every anti-military Democrat in Congress, and unfortunately the media laps it up like milk in a cat's saucer without ever questioning its veracity.

If it was true that having larger numbers of combat troops in any one location meant that more troops would die, then places like the Marine bases in Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, Camp Pendleton, California, and Army bases like Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Fort Benning, Georgia and Fort Hood, Texas, would be the scenes of unending blood baths since so many combat troops are stationed there. And don't give me that combat zone nonsense either.

Ever since 9-11-01 the entirety of the United States has been a potential combat zone. The only reasons we haven't had more attacks on military installations as well as the civilian populace is because the Bush Administration put the apparatus in place to keep tabs on potential terrorists and intercept them before they can execute their plots.

In Afghanistan we need more troops to put the hammer down on Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the people who brought us the 9-11 attacks in the first place. We will have more casualties if we have fewer troops in Afghanistan because we won't have the ability to eliminate both the fighters and their bases. Also, the terrorists will see through our weaknesses and launch more massed attacks against under-defended outposts and installations.

If we do not put our best equipped and best trained people into the heart of enemy territory where they can eliminate the terrorists and destroy their ability to plan more attacks and counterattacks, not only will our troops be vulnerable to emboldened terrorists, but our civilian populace at home also will suffer.

There also is another facet that should be remembered. The populace in any contested country will lean toward and support the side that shows the most strength and the most determination. If America and its allies want the support of the populace they damn well better show the populace that we intend to win, and help them build a stable and long-standing government that will provide long-term protection.

If we continue to waver and appear uncertain the populace will hedge its bets and begin helping the Taliban on an even wider scale.

To avoid this scenario U.S. Army General Stanley McCrystal, with support from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, has asked for an additional 40,000 troops. This force will give us the ability to expand operations right into the Taliban's front yard, and, if coordinated with the ongoing offensive by the Pakistani army on their side of the border, could deliver a crushing blow to terrorism.

But rather than acquiesce to the General's request, President Obama is consulting soothsayers, casting bones, reading tea leaves, and yes, "dithering" while our troops are caught in a no-man's land between military necessity and political maneuvering.

If General McCrystal says he can do the job with 40,000 troops then Obama should give him 60,000 or even 80,000.

Why? Insurance, that's why.

With 60,000 to 80,000 troops we would have a sufficient reserve force on scene, we would be better able to rotate troops into and out of the most dangerous areas, giving everyone a bit more rest than was the case in Iraq, while keeping a sharp edge of experience in our operational forces.

If we don't we can be assured that this birthplace of a generation of terrorist attacks will spawn yet more suicide bombers and extremist plotters and America will once again be the target.

Just today the news is reporting that passports and other materials related to the 9-11 hijackers who flew commercial aircraft into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania were discovered in the possession of dead terrorists on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. There is no question that there is a direct link between those terrorists and their long-dead brethren who attacked the US.

So it is essential that President Obama listen to his military, and tune out the politicians, or before he can finish his first term, we will have been hit again. If we are attacked, no matter how hard his spokespeople try to blame it on George Bush, it will be Obama's fault and everyone will know it.

If we get hit again because President Obama did not give the military the tools to defeat these terrorists once and for all in that area, his legacy will be permanently set in stone as a weak-kneed, inexperienced, figurehead whose inability to make hard decisions led to the death of American citizens, at home and overseas.

It was a very nice and touching moment when the President went to Dover Air Force Base to stand in tribute as the bodies of Americans killed in Afghanistan were brought home for burial this week.

But photo ops do not win wars, and if the President continues to be indecisive, thus causing more American casualties, that photo showing him saluting the dead will become an Albatross that forever will be hung around his neck.

Sending people like John Kerry to Afghanistan for a military report on the situation is not helpful. Besides the fact that Kerry has no credibility whatsoever with the military or the veteran population, he simply doesn't the have real-world military experience to be considered an expert.

Kerry's abbreviated Vietnam tour has been shown conclusively to have been an all-out effort to get himself out of the war zone before he suffered any real injuries - and I don't mean slivers in his finger or pieces of rice embedded in his butt. Kerry's later association with communists and anti-American fake veterans should make his willingness to be part of any fact-finding effort suspect.

His motivations, his pro-communist agenda that resurfaced during the successful military operations in Iraq - that he opposed and now calls unnecessary - are more than sufficient proof that any information he delivers is tainted.

President Obama does not need a tidal wave of advice from every political hack from Washington to Chicago. He needs only to remember that battles are won by appropriate use of overwhelming force.

His generals are telling them what they need, bare minimum, to get the job done. He should respond by giving them more than they have requested, ensuring that our troops will never again be outnumbered and under siege at a remote outpost, with the enemy willing to suffer horrendous losses to win a public relations war in the US when there is no possibility of winning the shooting war in Afghanistan.

The truth of Vietnam, once again, is that the American military and its allies won every major engagement, annihilated both the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army and twice pushed the communists to the brink of surrender. Both times, they were rescued by political interference in the US and the result was the fall of much of Southeast Asia and the slaughter of millions of civilians by the communist hordes.

If President Obama wants to avoid a similar scenario in Afghanistan, that will be coupled with the certainty of further attacks on our country, then he must trust in the generals he placed there, trust in the troops they command, and give them more than they request. Otherwise, he most certainly will be labelled for eternity as having caused "another Vietnam"

Mr. November? Thanksgiving Baseball? The Turkey Trot? It's FOOTBALL Season Damn It!

2009-10-28T14:49:00.004-04:00

As I type this article the entire baseball loving world is anxiously awaiting the word on whether the weather will cooperate and allow the first game of the World Series of Baseball between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies to go forward tonight.

Will the storm that has been dumping rain on the northeast United States since yesterday move out before nightfall or will Game 1 be rained out?

I have one question. Who the hell cares?

Do is not bother anyone else that the third game of the World Series is scheduled for Halloween? Are the players going to don costumes, and carry little bags for their tricks and treats? Will they shower the fans in the stands with miniature chocolate bars and popcorn balls?

If the series goes seven games and we get some early snow, which by the way, we already have had here in the northeast, nearly a month ago, will they play in snowshoes? Or perhaps skis? Or toboggans? Can you put pinstripes on parkas or would that be a fashion disaster?

If one player turns in an especially good performance over the length of the series will the media name him Mr. November? Or Mr. Thanksgiving? Will a home run be labelled The Turkey Trot? Does anyone really care? Other than the residents of New York and Philadelphia?

Let's get this right up front.

IT IS FOOTBALL SEASON. BASEBALL ENDED IN SEPTEMBER - OR SHOULD HAVE!

There is no viable reason to play baseball in late fall. No matter what happens, even if one team sweeps the series, at least one game will be played in November. Why?

The fourth games of the series will be played Sunday, in Philadelphia beginning at 8:20 p.m. when the temperature will be headed straight for the cellar. Do you know why it isn't advisable to play baseball in the cold? Let's start with snapped muscles, torn rotator cuffs, especially with pitchers, pulled hamstrings and torn ligaments for starters.

Baseball players do way too much standing around to play in cold weather. Football players on the other hand, get lined up, squat, stand up, bend over, roll, tumble and run all over the field throughout the game. If it seems like their muscles may be getting tight, they get on a stationary bike on the sidelines and pedal to keep things warmed up.

But even in the best weather baseball players can stand around like statues for inning after inning if the pitching is going well. But do all that standing around in the cold, and their hamstrings will freeze like Popsicles.

Suddenly, the cold gets into the pitchers' shoulders and arms, the hits start coming and guys who had looked like Greek art forms for six innings are supposed to come to life with the utmost in speed and flexibility, literally in an instant. Good luck on that one.

I have to admit I WILL be watching New York at Philly on Sunday. But it will be the Giants at the Eagles at 1 p.m., not the Yankees at the Phillies at night. Sorry FOX, if there is a good football game on Sunday night it will take precedence over the b'ball broadcast. At least on my TV.

This is, after all, the mid-point in the football season. Week 8. The Giants got off to a great start 5 - 0, but now have lost two in a row. They need their number one fan to be there for them and I can't be distracted.

How did this happen anyway? The World Series I mean, not the Giants stall-out. I'll admit I have not been all that interested in baseball ever since the strike. Yes, I do understand that many of the current fans weren't even born then, but I also am a former baseball fan who once watched Mickey Mantle hit a home run off the monuments in Center Field of Yankee Stadium in 1961. I have my memories and they aren't about spoiled coddled millionaires who get dressed in opulent clubhouses, not old-time locker rooms.

Did you know that there were games in Mickey Mantle's career where he hit home runs from both sides of the plate and the Yankees still lost the game? But did he pout, and run to the media, and go on strike for higher wages? NO, he went out and played the next game.

So I don't know, nor do I care, when we went from the team with the most wins in the National League playing the team with the most wins in the American League. Now we have divisional playoffs, and round robins and odd-man-outs, or so it seems, and somehow, halfway through the football season, the sports channels are dividing their time between football and a World Series that should have been over a month ago.

I'll admit, I'm not really a fan of the pre-season exhibition games in the NFL either. It's bad enough to have training camp in August, what with the heat and all the equipment that football players wear. I think there is too much of a risk of injury to the players before the season even begins.

It seems that one way or another money is the driving factor in all these decisions and if there is a way to get the fans in the stands or in front of their TVs, then possible injuries either pre- or post-season will just have to become part of the scene.

Maybe I'm just not willing to accept all these changes that are made not for the sport, but for the money they generate.

I grew up playing baseball in the spring and summer, and football in the fall and winter. When the weather gets really cold you play hockey outside and basketball inside. That should be a law.

I admit that some of the most fun I ever had in the winter was playing football on frozen lakes in upstate New York. It was a blast and was probably more fun than playing football in the rain and the mud which also has its moments.

But baseball on Halloween? Baseball in November?

Baseball when there is a better than even chance of snow? I'm sorry there are just some things in life that go together - like meat and potatoes, beef stew and cold beer, or popcorn and movies. But baseball and November?

Man that sends chills up my spine. And not in a good way.

Swine Flu Stats Falsified? Obama Declares False Emergency? Riot Control Over Vaccines? What The ...

2009-10-25T07:39:00.004-04:00

There has been something wrong with the media frenzy over the Swine Flu "pandemic" that is "sweeping the nation and the world" virtually since reports began labelling it as far more deadly than the "normal" seasonal flu.

I say there is something wrong because from the very first, the media reports neglected to compare the numbers of people with the Swine Flu, and those who had died from it, with the numbers who had the seasonal flu, and were dying from it.

I realize it makes a good story to create a worldwide health monster, give it a name and scare little children, the elderly and the gullible into lining up for vaccinations that supposedly will save them. But it is irresponsible to create hysteria over one disease, when it has far more deadly relatives that are causing far more damage.

As of October 23, approximately 5,000 deaths have been attributed to the Swine Flu WORLDWIDE going back to the beginning of 2009. I am not certain of that number because different sources give different reports. As you will see later in this column, the numbers themselves also may be inaccurate, especially those coming from government sources. But 5,000 total deaths since the Swine Flu hysteria began last spring is possible so I will err on the side of hysteria if at all.

However, the seasonal flu kills approximately 3,000 people in the US every month on average. That amounts to 36,000 deaths in the US every year from seasonal flu, and an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 every year world wide, depending on the severity of the outbreak and other factors.

In addition, the Swine Flu is generally a milder form of the flu, and there have been reports that up to a third of the people who have it never know they have it, according to the few news reports that address this issue objectively.

I realize that doesn't do anything to ease the pain of people who are more susceptible and come down with more severe cases, nor certainly for those who have friends and relatives who have died from the disease. I am not minimizing the danger of any kind of flu here but I am wondering why we have an international hysteria over a relatively mild form of an ongoing disease.

I also am wondering why the President of the United States is declaring a state of emergency for Swine Flu, when there is a much worse variety of the same disease creating havoc with the populace, and why there is an ongoing effort to convince everyone and their brother to get vaccinated with an unproven, minimally tested, and possibly dangerous vaccine. Particularly with the recent news that there is nowhere near the amount of vaccine available that the government promised earlier.

In his proclamation the president stated, "Given that the rapid increase in illness across the Nation may overburden health care resources and that the temporary waiver of certain standard federal requirements may be warranted in order to enable U.S. health care facilities to implement emergency operations plans, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in the United States constitutes a national emergency."

Overburden health care resources? How is that possible when medical facilities have been treating 100 times more cases of normal flu for years than the amount seen in the Swine Flu Pandemic? Seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people worldwide every year. So far the Swine Flu has killed 5,000 at most.

Again, I am not minimizing the impact of Swine Flu, but from the standpoint of national security and a state of emergency, what the hell is going on?

The federal government is way out on a limb with pushing this issue. Let's start with this comment. "Millions of Americans have reportedly been infected with what is commonly referred to as the swine flu." That came from The Hill.

From the same outlet we get "Thomas Frieden, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday that more than a thousand people have died as a result of the H1N1 flu virus." There is no indication that either of those statements are accurate.

On top of everything else, reports are surfacing that the statistics on the Swine Flu themselves are skewed. Take a look at this broadcast from CBS News on Oct. 21, just two days before President Obama's declaration of an 'emergency.' This comes to us via YouTube. (My apologies for the embedded commercial. If I knew how to get the coding out without losing the rest of video I would.)

One of the biggest curiosities about the President's emergency declaration, according to the news report announcing it, is that the government can waive privacy regulations for individual medical histories. Why?

If you go to the doctor's office, and are diagnosed with the flu, it already is too late for the vaccine, and even the anti-viral medications that can lessen its severity are only good for a limited time very early after the symptoms appear. So it is likely that unless you are in such a state that you require hospitalization, you will be sent home and told to go to bed, take aspirin for the fever, and drink plenty of fluids.

Why does the government need a waiver on your medical records for that? What exactly is going on with this? Is the real issue here not the flu, and not the vaccine, but a method to delve into individual privacy? Is this once again about the federal government taking even more control over our lives and putting average Americans again in risk of losing the individual liberties we take for granted?

Want to see the full list of items that the federal government takes away from the populace and gives itself in a state of emergency? Check this out. But sit down first.

http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title11/1135.htm

I have another video of the national guard being trained for riot control in the case of insufficient vaccines for Swine Flu. It makes the point that it is unlikely, considering the relative mildness of the Swine Flu, and the reluctance on the part of millions of Americans to be automatically injected with foreign and in many cases dangerous substances, that people will be rioting to GET the vaccine.

But they may be rioting to keep from being FORCED to get the vaccine.

This all may just be gross incompetence on the part of the federal government and an oversensitivity to government control on the part of millions of Americans. But it is worth watching, listening, and deciding for yourself.

I Was WRONG! Obama Rules! He Is THE MAN! And I Have the Proof!

2009-10-23T14:01:00.003-04:00

Have you heard a single word about the California wildfires recently?

No you haven't and neither have I.

It isn't that they are smouldering in some inaccessible canyon someplace far from civilization and thus not newsworthy. No sir, they are out. Cold. Like the fireplaces at a Boy Scout campsite after the scouts depart.

Not a spark.

If you go to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection website you will see fire after fire after fire with the status notation "100% Contained."

Now, I have to admit, I thought it was due to the heroic efforts of all those firefighters who put their lives on the line and work past exhaustion to do everything they can to save homes, property and lives.

In fact, those folks are right at the top of my list of heroic people, seeing as how so many people in California build in dry scrub country - Southern California is actually a desert and the only reason anything grows there is because of all the water that is diverted from the Colorado River, which is why you always see dry scrub brush instead of lush forests.

So, the folks who work so hard to save million-dollar mansions that never should have been built where they are in the first place are very important to me because they exemplify service to their fellow man.

But then I found out that I was wrong. It was not those brave firefighters after all. It was our President, Barack Hussein Obama, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.

I would never have found this out if it wasn't for the Internet, and even though many things I have found on the Internet that might not be considered flattering to President Barack Hussein Obama, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, have been scrubbed, deleted and disappeared like a South American pro-democracy freedom fighter, this one stuck around long enough for me to get it to you here.

It takes a lot of work to get the truth out to people so we can make informed objective decisions about our future. Especially in the polling places next month.

Once you take a good hard look at our president and see that we have been misled into thinking that he is driving our country headlong into a communist gulag faster than Casey Jones holding onto a runaway throttle, you will probably come to the same conclusion I have arrived at.

Obviously I was wrong about our president and thus about all Democrat candidates across the country. Obviously he is far more skilled, adept, and capable than the numerous missteps ranging from the economy to government takeovers of our building, banking, automotive and medical insurance industries would indicate. Oh, and the misuse of the media, and the war on FOX News, and all the propaganda releases and this phony Swine Flu hysteria.

Those apparently are just warm ups, and mistakes are to be expected.

But when it comes right to down safety of life and limb, well, that's another story.

Unless of course, the video above is satire from an organization like Onion News Network via YouTube. But that wouldn't happen, would it? I mean, I can't tell the difference between this video and anything else that has come from the White House since Inauguration Day, so it must be real, and true, and honest, and forthright, and heroic.

Just like our President Barack Hussein Obama, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm. Right?

Obama Administration Commissars Ambush FOX News! Turn Into the Guns and Attack!

2009-10-20T15:04:00.006-04:00

The most successful method of getting out of an ambush, aside from not getting into an ambush, is to turn to the sound of the guns and attack. As my Marine Drill Instructor told us in Parris Island, "aggression is the key to victory."

This is an especially helpful lesson for the Fox Network and its cable television news operations, what with the Barack Obama White House on the warpath. Apparently, FOX personnel, meaning reporters, anchors, weather people, producers, commentators, pundits, hair stylists, drivers, camera operators, sound engineers, support personnel, and receptionists have an issue with simply regurgitating White House propaganda, and instead ask relevant incisive questions.

You won't find that anywhere else in the American media spectrum, and the President is sick to death of actually having to explain himself to FOX, seeing as how he is the Supreme Ruler of the Earth with the exception of Europe (Old and New), Asia, South America, Central America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and North America north and south of the US border.

But other than that smidgen of the universe, Barack Obama is king, the United States (all 57 of them) are his castle and he is in charge. If he wants to spew propaganda and communist philosophy at will, he not only will do it, and his stooges not only will repeat it like mindless lemmings, the media better pass it along unchallenged too. Or else they'll get what FOX got.

What did FOX get for its blasphemes and malcontent? Well, everyone in the current administration, in unison, stomped their feet like Rumpelstiltskin, and then held their collective breath until they turned blue. I kid you not. They did it!

All across the media spectrum, but especially on the Sunday morning political talk shows, other alleged journalists, (no, wait a minute, strike the word alleged and replace it with wannabe,) tsk tsk-ed to their hearts content as the White House apparatchik sternly warned that they better not follow in FOX's footsteps if they know what's good for them.

And all across the media spectrum, the network, radio, cable and print jelly fish who have no spines or independently functioning central nervous systems, nodded in unison and mouthed "Oh, yes, Oh, yes," like the puppet chorus in the play Chicago!

The president and his puppets have been doing their best in recent days to let the entire network television-watching world know that they are upset with FOX. On the other hand, FOX has been playing the story for all it is worth and asking "What, Me Worry?" in a better than average imitation of Mad Magazine's cover boy, Alfred E. Neuman.

But more is needed. The administration commissars are showing the disdain for the American public that communists traditionally show for the peasants once the commies are in power. The peasants are promised the moon, but in a very short time return to being doormats, this time for their new bosses who won't simply repress them, but will shoot them if they vocalize their dissatisfaction.

But the Obama Commissars don't have the power they think they do. At least not yet. Even though they are attempting to systematically dismantle the free market system, they still have a long way to go.

In the cable television segment of the free market, advertisers hold sway. And advertisers are attracted, kept, and charged based on how many people are watching which outlets and which shows.

I would bet that one unintended consequence of the Obama Commissars taking to the networks to badmouth FOX is that more people are tuning in to FOX to see what the fuss is all about. Once they do, and once they find that FOX really does give both sides of the story as a matter of course, and its commentators are obviously not on the Obama payroll like their counterparts in the networks, print and other cable outlets, people are likely to stay tuned to FOX.

The best action FOX could take then, is to welcome these new viewers with open arms. First attract them with new advertising slogans such as:
FOX - Obama Loves to Hate Us!

Or:

FOX, The Un-Obama Network!

Or:

FOX, We Would Have Fired Walter Cronkite!

Obama's minions made it obvious this weekend that the flow of information for stories that don't require any serious legwork or journalistic abilities on the part of the White House Press Corps will dry up immediately if they don't heel and kowtow.

I ran into that situation once when the mayor of a city I was covering for the Hartford Courant didn't like some of my articles. He stopped giving me anything when I visited his office in city hall each day.

So I spent twice as much time down the hall in the office of his chief political rival - from his own party - and got twice as many juicy tidbits that turned into twice as many stories that the mayor liked even less than the ones he complained about originally.

See how that works?

I'm not saying Obama doesn't have any real power here. He is after all, the president of the United States at least until he renames us the Union of North American Soviet Alliances. He could make things easy on cooperating news outlets, like for instance, providing stimulus bailout funds for struggling papers like the Boston Globe which was miraculously taken off the For Sale list this week.

I'm not saying that the Globe actually got stimulus money, I just heard two guys speculating on that in the coffee shop this morning and I heard on the Rush Limbaugh show this afternoon that the Globe's parent company, the New York Times, is laying off 8 percent of its downtown newsroom workforce just before Christmas, so naturally I went HMMMMMM.

Not mmm, mmm, mmm as in the new Barack Hussein Obama National Anthem, sung by the Obama Youth all over America, but HMMMM. Just because the Globe is in Massachusetts doesn't automatically mean that it is engaged in some sleazy dealings, and I'm certain that if a government auditing team went over its books from top to bottom there would be a finding of no wrong doing.

But this speculation certainly shows what could happen if certain people were so inclined.

But back to FOX, I really mean it when I say they should charge. The entirety of the thinking American population is fed up with Obama, including huge chunks of the base that helped him get elected. If they are fed up with him, they are fed up with his propaganda too and looking for new outlets.

I suggest FOX. The FOX operation has a News Department, which went out of fashion in the networks decades ago, and it can do its own advertising along the lines of:

Less Obama - More News!

Propaganda - It's A Network Thing!

FOX - We've Got News!

The possibilities are endless and FOX should jump on them right away. Don't spend any time worrying whether a handful of correspondents will still get their handouts. If they have any real abilities, and the reporters I like the best at FOX have plenty of ability, they'll get the real news on their own without lining up to the White House tip trough.

Soon enough, Americans from coast to coast will realize the value of an independent news outlet and not only will watch it regularly to find out what is really going on, they'll probably come up with their own FOX NEWS ANTHEM.

The Fox News Network

Stands for us all

It broadcasts the stories

both big and small.

Fox won't be cowed,

Fox won't back down

It reports all the news and

still stands its ground.

The Fox News Network. MMMM. MMMM. MMMM.

"You Can Go Back To the Porch" Juan Williams! Is This A "Real" Discussion on Race?

2009-10-18T10:08:00.003-04:00

The issue of race in America erupted again this week when national liberal commentator Juan Williams, a black man, supported conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh's bid to be a co-owner of the St. Louis Rams national football team. (For those who could care less about these matters, Limbaugh is white.)

Limbaugh was invited earlier this year to join a group of other investors who were preparing a bid for the team. According to Limbaugh he immediately informed the group's lead contact that due to his status as the pre-eminent conservative commentator in the country, there would certainly be controversy over him joining the group.

Limbaugh has said and written that he was assured that the investors were aware of his status as America's dominant talk radio host and that he would be a lightning rod for his liberal enemies, many of whom would love to see him eviscerated, drawn and quartered, burned at the stake, crucified, and otherwise eliminated. Supposedly Limbaugh's status didn't matter. Supposedly.

Limbaugh was right, and as soon as his name was leaked to the overwhelmingly liberal media, the firestorm began. The liberal media dispensed fabricated racist statements that were falsely attributed to Limbaugh a few years ago, and typically the outlets that printed or broadcast the accusations made no effort to check their accuracy.

These racist statements that were entirely fabricated, that Limbaugh never made, that do not reflect his real views on race, were nonetheless repeated exponentially by the liberal - Mainstream, State Run, Co-opted, In The Tank, Pro-Terrorist, Anti-American - media.

Immediately, professional race-baiters Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, both of whom lay claim to the title "Reverend" but apparently are "ministers without portfolio" in that they are rarely seen in their tax-exempt "churches" wherever those "churches" may actually be, jumped on the divisiveness bandwagon demanding Limbaugh's ouster. (Oddly enough, had he succeeded, Limbaugh's contribution would have made him a "minority owner." God I love irony.)

Williams was drawn into it mid-week when he appeared on the FOX cable channel's O'Reilly Factor and supported Limbaugh. Opposing Williams was another black man, Internet host Warren Ballentine, who took the other side of the debate.

Williams got the best of Ballentine from the outset and Ballentine, his back against the wall and his store of relevant information exhausted, retreated to a pre-school intellectual level and retorted "Juan, you know what, you can go back to the porch."

In many quarters that is meant as the ultimate black-to-black insult. It means he was calling Juan a "Porch Negro" or an "Uncle Tom" - in other words a black man who forsakes his own race to bow and scrape to his white masters. It is obsolete, it is passe, it is irrelevant in modern America unless you are a professional race-baiter, and it had no place in an intelligent debate over a viable issue.

It was low, crass, gutter level and frankly, a stupid response. It was akin to saying, "Oh yeah, well your mother wears Army boots." But it was far below even that pre-kindergarten level doltishness. It was a vapid, knee jerk commentary that only showed the speaker can't hold his own in an intellectual debate on a national stage.

The liberal media, upon hearing this outrageous comment, immediately - went silent. I mean they shut up, not a peep.

But can you imagine what would have happened if a white man had made a comment like that to Williams? These same incompetent, unprofessional, libelous, lying, liberal media stooges who don't even have the integrity to make a REAL apology to Limbaugh would have been all over a white man in that situation like - well, bees on honey. (Thought I was going to say like white on rice didn't you?)

Williams was not cowed though. He staunchly repeated his defense of Limbaugh on Fox News Sunday this week, and good for him. FNS must be having a ratings bonanza with Williams this week - not to mention a spirited debate between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Karl Rove - following a dynamite appearance by Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn spouting non-stop common sense last week.

Two great shows in a row! I bet Barack Obama is rethinking his boycott of FOX.

But back to our original subject, could someone tell me how anyone is supposed to have an intellectual, goal-driven debate on the status of race in America when we are tainted with a media that lies, spreads the lies, and doesn't even admit it when caught red-handed? Then, these same propagandists won't report on it when the most outrageous, despicable racist comment that was actually made in all of this reporting on racist comments came from a man who apparently wants to be the next Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton?

(The term "red-handed" refers to being caught in the commission of a violent crime and having blood on your hands. It has no bearing on any racial or ethnic group that inhabited the land now known as America before Europeans got here. FYI.)

I have been alive long enough to know that race relations in America have come light years from the days of separate restaurants, drinking fountains and seating sections in bus stations. It also is evident to even the most casual observer that there still is much work to do.

But at least the laws have been changed, the playing field has been leveled, and if someone is held back from jobs, promotions, raises or business and educational opportunities due to race, there are avenues of appeal. These avenues did not exist when I was a child.

I have written here in the past that I usually do not agree with Juan Williams. In fact, I watch Fox News Sunday most weeks in part because I hope to see another chapter in the ongoing debate between Williams and Brit Hume. For political junkies that amounts to high theater, even though I hardly ever share Williams' point of view.

But that doesn't mean I don't like him. He is aggressive, he doesn't back off of his viewpoints - even if they do sound way too much like Democratic talking points - and he is obviously highly qualified to articulate the liberal position on most issues. (I had to laugh when one propaganda dispensing organization referred to him as a "moderate-liberal" commentator. Moderate? Are you kidding?)

But I was impressed a few years back when I saw a segment on Williams' daughters working in the Washington area collecting prom gowns so high school girls in New Orleans who had lost their belongings to Hurricane Katrina could get some normality back in their lives. His approach to parenting and the willingness of his family to actively help showed me that we have much in common even if we don't agree politically.

So I took it personally when I heard that racial slur aimed at Williams. I may get all worked up over his views versus Brit Hume's, but I still believe he is an honorable, decent man who should not have to put up with low-class gutter comments from offensive wannabes seeking a national audience.

During last year's presidential race, when Obama began to rise above the rest of the pack, America was tentatively treated to a superficial discussion of racial issues by a timid liberal media that supposedly wanted to have a meaningful conversation. But when you take a close look at the media, it is clear that the "liberals" really want to maintain the status quo, and this is proved simply by reviewing who gets the attention and which viewpoints get disseminated without even the most basic fact checking.

A REAL discussion on race? Here is exactly where it should start.

Black leaders, including those who have real churches and preach real Christianity, should stand up for and alongside Juan Williams and denounce the bigot who made such a vile statement to him. They should denounce Sharpton - who now claims he's going to sue Limbaugh for fighting back - as well as Jackson and any of their clones. They should point out that these hucksters are continuing to hold the REAL advance of racial relations in America at post-Civil War levels and that as long as they are allowed to hold center stage, not much is going to change.

When black Americans stand up to the hate mongers in their own ranks, when they acknowledge that their considerable advances in the past 50 years have come with assistance from white Americans, not to mention the 400,000 who died in the Civil War to end slavery, then maybe we can start on other issues.

But as long as reprehensible racist comments are allowed to go unchallenged because they were made by a black man rather than someone of another race, as long as sensible, intelligent individuals like Juan Williams are the focus of efforts to stifle their viewpoints from within the black community, there really isn't much hope for widescale changes. These are the dominant factors holding back progress in race relations in America, not fabricated racist statements that are used simply to punish political opponents.

As long as the current crop of bigots within the media, and those who use the media, are allowed to dominate our culture and our politics, as long as revisionist historians and commentators are allowed to spew their vitriol without challenge, then Americans of all races, across the political and social spectrum will suffer.

If we want meaningful advances and true unity the bigoted commentary must be replaced by intelligent, honest discussions. Otherwise we will be having this conversation 50 years in the future and little if anything will have changed.

And that is a REAL discussion on the issue of race in America.

Thomas Paine Speaks Again, and Speaks The Truth!

2009-10-17T20:37:00.002-04:00

This came over the Internet via You Tube and it is worth sharing, especially with all the lies and deceit coming out of Washington.

What with "Health Care Reform" which is really just an effort to nationalize insurance payments so the thieves in Congress will have billions if not trillions more tax dollars each year to plunder, and the military getting screwed so Congressmen and Senators will have more money to 'blow' on cocaine, liquor and women, it is high time for a commentary from someone with a little "Common Sense."

Has it occurred to you, as it has to my son and many others in his generation, that the same conditions that spawned the American Revolution exist in this country again today? Certainly something worth thinking about.

Is There A Nobel Prize For Honesty? Give It To Michael Steele!

2009-10-09T12:35:00.005-04:00

Back in February I wrote that Michael Steele is my kind of National Republican Party Chairman. He stands up for what he believes, he doesn't hide out in his office, he gets out front on national issues and he lets Republicans from the rank and file to the highest levels of government know the party's positions.

Today, Michael Steele again showed why he is a great party chairman and would have made a far better president than the guy who currently sits in that office. After the Obamination called the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Barack Obama, Michael Steele stood up and stood out.

He called the award for what it was, a pandering bribe to the president of our country. I agree with those commentators who say it was an obvious effort to keep Obama from ordering our military into annihilating the Taliban in Afghanistan, which still wants to annihilate our country and our way of life - in addition to the rest of the world which is beyond complacent in its view of these terrorist extremists.

Mr. Steele said Obama lacked meaningful accomplishments. I agree. News reports quoted Mr. Steele as adding, "The real question Americans are asking is, 'What has President Obama actually accomplished?'"

Michael Steele

Steele also is quoted as saying it is "unfortunate that the president's star power has outshone tireless advocates who have made real achievements," and that Obama won't be receiving any awards from Americans "for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action."

I agree with that assessment too, and here's a reason why. News reports said the White House found out about the award at about 5 a.m. after a wire report popped up with the story. Then press secretary Robert Gibbs called the president a little before 6 a.m. and woke Obama to tell him he had won!

It's freakin' six in the morning and the president of the United States is fast asleep when I am already up and working? Are you serious? This guy is supposedly the top dog in the entire free world, the equal of any leader anywhere (which in itself is a step down from the Bush Administration) and he sleeps in on work days?

What kind of example is that for all the people that Obama is telling to stay in school, or go back to school, or work hard and get ahead? He tells everyone else what they have to do and he rolls over and hits the snooze button? The only thing that can get him out of bed is a fake award for non-existent successes?

And yeah, thanks to Mr. O we now have serious competition on the international scene and it isn't friendly and doesn't work in our favor. Remember when George Bush was president and the media always said he was the most powerful man in the world?

Not even 9 months into the Obama presidency and now the non-free world is our equal! How long before Russia and China start calling the shots on domestic policy in the US? Are they already? Could be, look at the stinking mess we're in.

It is now obvious that Obama was campaigning for the Peach Prize when he was hobnobbing with dictators and thugs, murderers, embezzlers, tax cheats and similar upstanding citizens of the world while simultaneously bad-mouthing the United States. What is it with these guys? Meaning Obama, Gore, Clinton, carter, and the other so-called American 'leaders' who are so worried that the scum of the earth won't like them.

I honestly think they all were the picked-on Caspar Milquetoasts of their high school and college classes who willingly gave up their lunch money to the playground bullies every day of their school careers so they would be "liked." I bet between them they got more wedgies and swirlies per year than they rest of the student body in their schools combined.

Earth to Obama. Fawning acquiescence didn't work then and it doesn't work in the world sandbox either. The big kids don't "like" you, they ridicule you. They see you as a patsy, an easy target. And anyone who stands near you is going to get smacked too. Which is why Britain, France and other countries are cooling off toward the US and cozying up to other alignments.

Is this your plan? Weaken the US internally and externally until even third world pipsqueaks will kick sand in our collective faces? I have an idea. Considering how much damage you've already done, why don't you resign now and at least give the Blue Dog Democrats a fighting chance in the 2010 elections.

Because your lap dog media types may be doing their best to push out propaganda at a record pace, but America knows what is really going on. Ignoring 1 million marchers in DC on Sept. 12 may have been a big laugh line for your and your ilk, but wait until Election Day 2010 and see what kind of laugh you have. Seriously. The boom will be lowered and you'll be standing right under it.

Peace Prize. For what? What is Obama's Peace Plan for the Czech Republic. For Poland? For Georgia? For the Ukraine?

Oh, right, you haven't gotten to that yet. Not enough hours in the day are there Mr. President? Here's a thought. Work til 10 p.m., kiss the wife, tuck in the kids, go to sleep and get up again at 5 a.m.

Shower, shave, have a quick but nutritious breakfast and get to work. It's called discipline. I'm sure you never heard of it before but there is this other thing called a dictionary. Try using one once in a while. It's an amazing tool.

If you look up "discipline" or "work ethic" you'll find a photo of Michael Steele. Emulate him. It will work wonders for you.

Health Care Reform?? NO! A 600 Billion Dollar Annual Tax!

2009-10-07T15:58:00.004-04:00

I was discussing the cost of a reasonable health care policy with some friends and family members recently and we concluded that an annual cost of $2,000 to $2,500 per person, meaning a range of $6,000 to $10,000 for a three- or four-member family, can pretty much cover whatever ails you.

If you are fortunate enough to have an employer who will share half or even more of that cost, you should take that into account before you complain about how tough things are at work.

In the ongoing debate over the federal government taking control of the nation's health care system - Oh yes! That is exactly what this is all about! - it has been noted repeatedly that the insurance industry is a big money maker. That is because on average most people who buy health care insurance take out less each year in medical payments than they put in through policy premium payments.

For instance, my family has payed out more than $75,000 in health care premiums in the last 15 years but we have used only a minuscule amount of that money in actual health care costs. Our last big hospital bill was 15 years ago when my youngest daughter was born. This even though we get regular physicals and on occasion have to make use of other medical facilities.

So the insurance industry has done well by us. In fact, the insurance industry does well by just about everyone who buys insurance. Actuaries run the numbers in their sleep and adjust the rates accordingly so they know exactly how much to charge each insured client to make sure they don't lose money on the transaction.

It also has been noted that 80 percent of the money spent on health care in the US goes to the elderly. That makes sense when you think about it because the elderly have more parts that wear out, it is more difficult for them to recover from injuries, and generally speaking they suffer from lower immunity so they are more susceptible to diseases.

Thus, if 90 percent of Americans - nearly 270 million and counting - are contributing an average of $2,000 annually to health insurance, but only 20 percent are incurring large expenditures, well, that's a lot of money in the bank.

But the Obama Administration wants to put an end to private insurance - Oh, yes it does! What do you think is going to happen when the government offers employers and individuals lower cost insurance policies?

The vast majority will switch over to the government program - which can be offered at much lower cost because every single American taxpayer is subsidizing it - just to save money. Meaning within a few years, the only program available will be the government program as private insurance companies fold.

Then, with the requirement that EVERYONE participate, under threat of fines or jail or both - if you don't know about this I suggest you do some serious research before you take a position - the US government will be the entity collecting the annual insurance premiums, from every single one of us.

If this b.s. law passes, which it probably will because the US Congress is peopled by unprincipled dolts and communist dupes, the current strategy is to have it go into effect in 2013. Supposedly this is so Obama can avoid the taxpayer backlash and it will be too late to unseat him as he enters his second term of dismantling the US Constitution.

By then, the US population will have grown enough so that even when you subtract the burgeoning illegal alien population, there will still be 300 million Americans who will be required to contribute at least $2,000 annually to support national health care. Please don't say "the children won't be required to pay." Their parents will. Corporations will. Somebody will. This plan is designed to make every single legal American cough up their share every year, one way or another.

If you do the math, you will find as I did, that this comes to $600 BILLION dollars each and every year that will be collected by the US Government just the way it now collects income tax, social security tax, and Medicare tax, along with a gazillion other taxes. $600 Billion in cold hard cash that will put dozens of insurance companies out of business, thousands of insurance industry workers out of work, and will succeed only in increasing the size of our bloated, inefficient, deaf, mindless federal bureaucracy.

And don't think for a minute that this bloated bureaucracy won't start looking for ways to "cut costs" even before the ink is dry on the documents creating it. If the elderly account for the biggest expenditures, then the elderly will be the first place the bureaucrats go to find savings.

First it will be easy and understandable procedures. A terminally ill 99-year-old who needs a heart replacement when cancer is the primary illness won't get that heart and few if any will complain because it makes sense. But when no one is looking the regulations will undergo review and revision and soon it will be hip and knee replacements beyond a certain age threshold, and then more of this and more of that. Pretty soon, we'll be killing our citizens faster than the communists, but no one will know because the dead will be old and what the hell, that's what old people do, isn't it?

And somewhere along the way Sarah Palin will be able to say, "I told you so," but she won't do it with any sense of satisfaction because this is one of those areas where she wants to be wrong and we'd all breathe easier if she was.

That's where we're heading. We can see it as clearly as a full moon on a cloudless night. Call it what you will, this will be a tax, it will end up in the general fund just like Social Security did, it will be bankrupt before it ever has a chance of being solvent, and it will be a tax!

If the government collects it, if it is mandatory, if you can be fined or jailed or both for not paying it, I don't care what they call it, a fee, a levy, even a premium. It is a TAX!

And we are going to be paying for it to the tune of $2,000 per year per person, at first, more later ... much more. But by then it will be too late. And among the first to be euthanized by this oh-so-efficient model of government in action will be the old fools in Congress who voted it in under the guise of social progress.

I don't know if it was Stalin or Lenin or even Tolstoy who coined the phrase, Useful Idiots. But it sure does fit.

600 Billion Dollars a year in new taxes, hidden under the heading of Health Care Reform, and "Useful Idiots" all over the country are buying into it like rubes at a sleazy carnival midway. Damn fools.

Linda McMahon: CEO or RINO? A Circus Campaign on Steroids!

2009-09-30T10:25:00.004-04:00

If you live in Connecticut, are registered as a Republican, or watch television, or listen to the radio, you probably have already heard from Linda McMahon, formerly of the often investigated, never indicted, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.

Ms. McMahon is the latest person to enter the Dump Dodd Sweepstakes running for the nomination to face him as a Republican. Interesting choice of parties. For those of you who don't know her here is a little bit from the WWE website: Linda E. McMahon is Chief Executive Officer of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. in Stamford, Conn. She also serves on the company's Board of Directors. Her husband, Vincent K. McMahon, is Chairman of the company's Board of Directors.

Starting as a regional company in 1982, the McMahons used their business savvy to turn WWE into a global leader in media and entertainment with annual revenues of nearly $500 million. Mrs. McMahon has been widely recognized as one of the entertainment industry's top female executives, both for her business acumen and her support of a variety of community-based initiatives.

Of course it wasn't always WWE. Until just a few years ago it was the WWF - World Wrestling Federation, but the World Wildlife Fund successfully sued over its claim that the McMahons' WWF had usurped the furry critters' WWF acronym. As a result of the other WWF's lawsuit, the McMahon's had to change their corporate name.

With that little bit of unpleasantness behind them, as well as a cooling down of the sports (entertainment) world's steroid inquisition, Ms. McMahon has decided, as have a growing number of wannabes and hangers on, that she wants to be the next US Senator from Connecticut, seeking to send career Senator Chris Dodd into retirement.

Working in her favor are two points: first, she has actually run a business and had to make enough money to supply a regular payroll - a factor that no longer seems to be an issue; and, second, she has a certain level of name recognition, although that is not always a good thing.

What do I mean by that? Well, take a look at what the Democrats already have had to say about Ms. McMahon's candidacy on You Tube. (Well the Democrats aren't actually jumping up and taking credit for this video, but frankly, who else?)

So far, there have only been a little more than 6,000 views of this video but I'm sure that number will go up quickly once the word gets around. Judging from the initial comments it is a good bet that not only did the Democrats put the video together, but that they are "priming the pump" with anti-Republican commentary too.

But it isn't Ms. McMahon's showmanship that bothers me as much as it is the taint of scandal that hovers over the McMahon's World Wrestling empire. The performers who put a human face on the soap opera-like "wrestling matches" have long been suspected of abusing steroids, human growth hormones and possibly other drugs that give them their muscular definition and size.

The McMahon's have never been charged with distributing or even supporting the use of steroids - in fact wrestler Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, testified during the steroid scandals of the early 1990s that Vince McMahon had advised against the use of steroids. But drug scandals have continued to plague World Wrestling, the worst of which was when star Chris Benoit killed his family and himself in what many experts said was a "roid rage" incident in 2007.

Vince McMahon himself made the announcement to wrestling fans that Benoit, along with his wife and his son, had been found dead at their suburban Atlanta home. Police determined that the deaths were murder-suicide; Police said Benoit strangled his wife and smothered his 7-year-old son, leaving a Bible by both their bodies. He then hanged himself on Monday, 25 June 2007, police said.

Although the WWE staunchly denounced any suggestion that steroids were involved in the tragedy, CNN reported that synthetic steroids of the kind used in muscle building were found in the Benoit home. Also, on June 29, 2007, CNN reported, "The WWE said Benoit tested negative for drugs during an independently administered evaluation on April 10.

CNN Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said Wednesday that it may never be known whether the deaths were linked to steroids or so-called "roid-rage."

"The drugs said to be found in the home are a synthetic form of testosterone," Gupta said. "A lot of people use it to build muscle mass, but there are longstanding known relationships between the steroids and roid rage. It could lead to psychosis and anti-social behavior and depression."

Then we have the more recent problems associated with former WWE star Kurt Angle, who really was an Olympic Wrestling champion before he went pro. Angle was arrested in August of this year after a dispute with a live-in girlfriend.

News reports said that police pulled him over and found a syringe and human growth hormone in his car. Angle said he has a prescription for the drugs and takes them for a recurring neck injury, and a judge cleared him of the drug possession charges earlier this month. But that still didn't do anything for the WWE's image or the suspicion that drugs are as regular a part of the WWE life as are the scantily clad women "wrestlers" and the violence prone themes.

But even all the issues with Ms. McMahon's entertainment empire don't give me as much distress as her previous involvement in the political arena. I'm not talking about running for public office, I'm talking about where she spends the vast amounts of money she has earmarked for gaining political leverage.

She has given limited amounts - I'm sure she'll say "thousands" if asked about it - to a smattering of Republican candidates and causes, but she has given huge amounts to Democrats. Want to see why I'm saying this?

Take a look at what I found at this website - www.opensecrets.org just by entering Linda McMahon's name and the year 2006.

MCMAHON, LINDA
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WWE INC./CEO 9/25/06 $1,500 Its My Party Too PAC (R)

MCMAHON, LINDA
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WWE INC/CEO 10/26/06 $1,000 Lieberman, Joe (I)

MCMAHON, LINDA
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WWE INC/CEO 11/7/06 $1,000 Lieberman, Joe (I)

MCMAHON, LINDA
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WWE INC./CEO 10/18/06 $1,000 Shays, Christopher (R)

MCMAHON, LINDA
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WWE INC./CEO 11/23/05 $1,000 Shays, Christopher (R)

MCMAHON, LINDA
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WWE INC./CEO 11/30/05 $1,000 Shays, Christopher (R)

MCMAHON, LINDA
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WWE INC./CEO 6/7/06 $500 Johnson, Nancy L (R)

MCMAHON, LINDA
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WWE INC./CEO 9/8/06 $250 Republican Majority for Choice

MCMAHON, LINDA E
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT INC./ 9/29/06 $10,000 Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte (D)

MCMAHON, LINDA E
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT INC./ 5/22/06 $5,000 Forward Together PAC (D)

MCMAHON, VINCENT K
GREENWICH,CT 06831 WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT INC./ 5/22/06 $5,000 Forward Together PAC (D)

That's $7,250 to non-Democrats, most of it to former Congressman Chris Shays, with $2,000 of it going to independent Democrat Joe Lieberman. Meanwhile, she found $15,000 for Democratic candidates with her husband throwing in another $5,000. Oh, and this year she gave two grand to the state Republicans.

Nice touch, but what does that say to Connecticut's Republicans?

There already is enough drama surrounding the race for the GOP nomination to select a candidate to challenge Dodd. There already is enough controversy with news reports showing that except for Rob Simmons most of the declared GOP candidates don't even vote!

Now we have political drama turning into a circus. Frankly, I don't like it. It doesn't bother me that there are lots of people who want to run against Dodd, and I have always favored letting the system work out who should get the nomination. If a candidate doesn't get the nomination at the convention, there still is the opportunity to primary.

Linda McMahon certainly has plenty of her own money to go as far within the system, or outside of it, as she wants. But we have a Congress that is so completely out of touch with reality that there are national level campaigns gaining steam to throw out the entire House of Representatives next year, as well as the 33 Senators who are up for reelection.

We have a country that is being pulled apart at the seams, and we need people in Congress who not only know and understand the job, but also know who they are and what they believe. A quick glance at Linda McMahon's donation history does not give me a sense of continuity or trust in her judgment. She even spoke to college Democrats at the Democratic convention in 2004. And now she wants to be a Republican?

What I see, is a candidate who apparently doesn't know the difference between story lines developed for her performers and the very real-life issues that face the wrestlers and all Americans outside of the ring. I do agree with one thing in Ms. McMahon's commercial though; It is time for something different in Washington.

But another circus is not different. It's still a circus, it just has different clowns.

Congressman Mike Rogers - Republican from Michigan - Don't Punish the Majority on Heath Care!

2009-08-20T10:28:00.002-04:00

Once again we have evidence, via You Tube, that there are efforts underfoot to provide the public with the truth about the Obama Administration's health care assault.

Once again, these efforts are not making it into the mainstream media. Is that a misnomer? Is the media that we have been referring to as Mainstream for quite some time now really the place that most people go for their news.

I certainly don't trust their polls, seeing as how they have a penchant for loading up the samplings with people who are likely to give them the result they want before the questions are even asked. So, why should we just automatically believe that more people are watching NBC for instance than Fox NEWS.

Fox News certainly has more competent people reporting, and we now have officially declared Rabbit Eared TV dead, so why wouldn't cable TV or Direct TV beaming in cable channels, have a bigger audience?

Anyway, check out this video. I didn't think we had any Republicans in Michigan. Obviously I was misinformed and we have some engaged Republicans out there. Looks like Michael Steele is getting it done!