Four more US Soldiers died in Afghanistan yesterday as we continued to wait anxiously for Obama to make up his mind about how to respond to General McChrystal’s report. During the pre-surge days in Iraq, 4 dead soldiers was enough for every major news outlet to scream from the rooftops about the costs of war. Now? Hardly a whisper.

Why is it so hard, Mr. President, to DO something about Afghanistan-even if you have to adjust your strategy again later-given that doing NOTHING has only gained you more fallen heroes? Since taking office, YOUR casualty count is nearly DOUBLE that of George Bush’s worst year as Commander in Chief. Why? Since receiving McChrystal’s assessment back in late August, your casualty count is rapidly approaching half of the entire year’s total. Again, Mr. President, WHY?

I brought this up a month ago, asking the same question…and that was a month AFTER Obama had received MCrystal’s assessment. It’s been another month hence, and still no strategy. We’re hearing now that Obama may “lock in” his decision by next Monday, but we’ve been hearing that for weeks. What’s so special about next Monday, other than it’s the Senate’s first day back to begin debate on the healthcare debacle? And, what exactly does “lock” mean? We’ve already been given one strategy and now we’re about to get another. Does this President actually believe there is one and only one strategy and that no further adjustments will be necessary as conditions on the ground change? He’s just not that good at the war “thing” and neither are very many of his “war councilors” for that matter.

If the measure of “getting it right” is determined by how long it takes you to do it, could we PLEASE apply this principle to the REST of the Obama agenda? Maybe an extended “cooling off period” for healthcare, cap and trade, and the buyouts and sellouts of America’s private sector would be better served as well.

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It’s not even what’s IN this 2,000 page monstrosity of a healthcare bill that is at issue anymore, it’s what enacting it represents. Remember, it was only a couple hundred years ago that a King’s tyranny and despotism gave birth to a Nation of men and women more willing to die for liberty than live for the whims and fancies of an elite class hell bent on expanding their wealth and power on the backs of those having to live hand to mouth just to survive.

Rasmussen reports today that a meager 38% of us “favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats.” In fact, the article goes on to suggest that 56% actually oppose it. The aristocrats on the Hill, meanwhile, continue to push forward with the most un-American, un-Patriotic legislation presented to the American people…their BOSSES…since the New deal. ANY socialized Government-run system runs counter to everything our Founding Fathers fought and died for, and voting for it runs counter to everything being an “American” is supposed to represent.

We’ve given the ruling class Tea Parties, and they call us Nazis. We’ve had protests and rallies and we’ve crashed their phone systems trying to tell them no, and they’ve thrown the race card in our face. They’ve tried to define “we, the People” along party lines by suggesting the GOP is just the party of “no”, while the Democrats are the party “fulfilling an agenda of progress and change”. [For the record, I'll take "party of no" over "party of death" any day.]

The health care debate is not about health care, it’s not about what race you are, and it’s certainly not about which party you’re affiliated with. The health care debate is about who really runs this country. Is it the American taxpayer, or is it the power-monger on Capitol Hill?

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So sayeth President Obama as he promises “to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again.” But, like so many other promises he makes, this one can not be kept.

Whether or not this was an act of terrorism, and whether or not Hasan’s words and deeds foretold the senseless loss of life at Fort Hood, we have sadly become all too familiar with large-scale massacres of innocent life at the hands of people we never expected would commit them. Columbine, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma City…the list grows longer by the day. There were vague warning signs before each of these horrible acts, yet they were ignored until hindsight allowed us to get a peek inside the minds of those who committed them.

Trying to make sense of the senseless is folly, and promising to prevent it a fool’s errand.

Like every other incident, there will be tears and mourning and remembrance for the victims today at Fort Hood. There will be hindsight and reflection, but ultimately the memory will fade for all except those that actually LOST a loved one at Hasan’s deranged bidding. There aren’t even any lessons to take away from it, save for the reminder that there are crazy people out there who wish to do others harm, and are more than happy to die for their efforts. Hasan’s own words bear this out:

We love death more then [sic] you love life!”

The future will show whether Hasan did it for Allah and his fellow Muslims, or whether he just snapped one day, but what the rest of us STILL face is the notion that no one can be fully trusted, no one can be relied on to protect us from this, and no one..CERTAINLY not the Federal Bureaucracy…can be looked to for providing any of us with personal safety and security. So long as there are people in the world that consider people like this coward, Hasan, a hero there will be more acts of violence against innocent people. It is still, ultimately, up to each of us to protect ourselves and be ever-vigilant and ever-watchful of those around us that might do us or our loved ones harm.

Had Hasan’s classmates and peers and superiors bothered to do so, a great loss of life might have been avoided on November 5, 2009. They didn’t, and it wasn’t.

And today America mourns once again.

Via Drudge, the Telegraph is reporting that Obama’s Poll numbers have dropped farther and faster than any President on record over the last 50 years. Apparently, people think he’s doing a lousy job.

The failed and failing Presidency of Barack Obama appears to know no bounds when it comes to showing a lack of leadership, a fundamental inability to understand the plight of the people it routinely insists it speaks for, and the problems it naively believes it has the skills, knowledge, and expertise to solve:

Jeffrey Jones of Gallup explained: “The dominant political focus for Obama in the third quarter was the push for health care reform, including his nationally televised address to Congress in early September.
“Obama hoped that Congress would vote on health care legislation before its August recess, but that goal was missed, and some members of Congress faced angry constituents at town hall meetings to discuss health care reform. Meanwhile, unemployment continued to climb near 10 per cent.”

Despite the Telegraph’s poor usage of ’spellcheck’, a passage in this piece is instructive (emphasis mine):

Campaigning for Mr Corzine in Hackensack on Wednesday night, Mr Obama delivered a plea that almost seemed as much for himself as the local candidate: “I’m here today to urge you to cast aside the cynics and the sceptics, and prove to all Americans that leaders who do what’s right and who do what’s hard will be rewarded and not rejected.”

Mr Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs executive and multi-millionaire, is currently running even in New Jersey, which is normally comfortably Democratic, while Mr Deeds is trailing badly in Virginia, a swing state that was key to Mr Obama’s 2008 victory.

Of course we’re skeptical. Corzine, a multi-millionaire (which most of us are NOT) who comes from the evil empire of Wall Street (which we are all supposed to hate), is in trouble and Obama appears willing to waste what little political capital he has left trying to save a man who represents all that he (Obama) has been telling us for two years is at the base of all that troubles America: greed and a shameless lust for power. Why shouldn’t we be skeptical of a mouthpiece hell bent on propping up the very same person we’re being told is at the root of all our collective evil?

To watch this President fail, one big event after another-from losing the Olympics, to dithering on war, to fighting for pitifully poor legislation, to pimping for Politicians only concerned with their poll numbers and getting re-elected at any cost, is to watch a desperate man who finds himself in over his head - at the expense of 300 plus million Americans.

Of COURSE his poll numbers are falling…he sucks at this game, and people are finally coming to terms with it - even his little stick buddies on the left.

A man ventures off to work, on an otherwise non-distinct morning, to pursue his version of the “American Dream.” Regardless its many varied interpretations, the American Dream is simple enough-”life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”…and going to work, earning a paycheck sufficient to meet your fiscal responsibilities, feeding your family, and putting enough aside for that inevitable “rainy day” are the cornerstones of such an endeavor.

A couple hours into the work day, he is taken into a conference room and told he’s been laid off: “we’re sorry to have to inform you that due to lagging revenues and shrinking profit margins and market share, we’re going to have to let you go.”

He signs the paperwork promising a nifty little severance package built from apology and patronization, is given basic information about how to file for food stamps and unemployment, and then is provided with a cardboard box for the few scant trappings he’s had on display to bring a little bit of his personal life inside the surgical environs of his cubicle. He is then, summarily, kicked to the curb… out the door and on his own left to fend for himself.

He tries in vain to find work in a pay range consistent with the one that just left him behind. After 2 months he lowers his standards…2 months more finds him lowering his standards further. Two months, and two months, and two months until he’s applying (unsuccessfully) for any job at any pay level in any field that is advertising for help. Along the way, his unemployment eligibility runs out, his food stamps run out, his credit rating plummets, and his debt skyrockets. He loses possession after possession after possession until he’s left with only the roof over his head and a meager day-labor income from an indentured servitude designed to keep him in his home.

Loans from family and friends for food and utilities, a cell phone gifted to him to offset the disconnected service in his home, a broken marriage and a deep depression and loss of all hope ensues, and he says goodbye to everything he thought was good and right in his life. He takes no solace nor comfort in the knowledge that he is not alone; knowing millions of his fellow Americans share his fate does nothing to help him suffer any less from it.

And then, by some implied ‘divine intervention’, a President is elected and a new Congress emplaced and he is assured his hopes will be renewed…”change he can believe in” is on the way.

By pure luck, or perhaps just because he happened to be in the right place at the right time, he is offered an opportunity to apply for a job Americans won’t do. It’s nights, it’s cleaning toilets and mopping floors. It’s emptying trash and sweeping porches and stocking shelves; it’s a job, and he’s on his knees thanking God for the chance to scratch his way back to a life of dignity, self-respect, and independence from living hat-in-hand begging for scraps from the Master’s table.

He works hard. He doesn’t call in sick. He works extra hours. He re-learns how to save money. He comes to realize, in starting over, that people put themselves in their own bad places by their bad choices and indecision and he vows to himself that he will never again be so callous and cavalier about life and money and responsibility and family and obligation. He comes to realize, with a ten dollar bill still in his wallet when he gets his next paycheck, that we are better when we strive to do more with less…that we are stronger, somehow, when we go without than when everything is handed to us. He reacquaints himself with pride and a sense of accomplishment…and that feeling of individual worth amongst his peers in society. He learns the valuable lessons of humility and sacrifice and personal responsibility.

And as he begins to unfold himself from the fetal position of shame and indigence and helplessness and poverty he looks at his country and his government and his elected officials and the general state of affairs in America.

He wonders how it is that American politicians can so shamelessly ask “we, the People” to suffer them and their selfishness, while not asking the same of themselves. Through their scratching and clawing and clamoring for laws and legislation and re-election campaigns driven solely by their own selfish self-interests, they have driven the country into the ground…the very same country they tell us they love and would do whatever we ask of them to make better. During the past 10 months of ‘hope and change’, American politicians have pushed America into the very same black hole he has JUST, by the Grace of God, begun to dig himself OUT of, and he wonders why they seem shocked at the claim that there are two Americas.

There is HIS America, fraught with loss and sacrifice and hopelessness and renewal…and there is THEIR America, drowning in a sea of theft and lies and fiscal irresponsibility and pompous self-aggrandizement, and he weeps. He weeps for his country and he weeps for those less fortunate than himself who are still trying to dig themselves out of their OWN black hole only made worse by those they trusted with their lives and their futures

He reflects on something Abraham Lincoln once said:

A house divided against itself cannot stand

and he determines that this is no less true today than it was in 1858, and he wonders what it is going to take to put this house back in order. He finds himself hoping things will change, knowing full well that neither of these things can ever come from Government.

Hope comes from God and Change comes from Man.

Accepting that these truths are self-evident, he gets dressed and goes to work and prays for himself and his country and those who have yet to receive God’s Grace…and he accepts that, in the end, we are each on our own to make things right with our bad choices and indecision, or continue suffering from them.

And he weeps.

There’s no point in railing any more about the Nobel freak show…the entire world has already chimed in. No, I think I’m really past all that. But what DOES concern me about Obama “winning” the Peace prize is what giving him this award really means: those of us that actually TRY, through hard work, dedication, and sacrifice…commitment and perseverance…trial and error…and blood, sweat, and tears…WE are wasting our time.

Consider the way kids are handled in youth league competition nowadays; no one loses, no one keeps score, EVERY one gets a participation trophy - none larger or smaller than anyone else’s. EVERYONE comes in first; “thanks for playing kids…we’re ALL winners here.” Frankly, I’m surprised there hasn’t already been a ban on ALL short buses. God forbid we give the mean bullies out there any ammunition to make fun of any of the other kids in school.

It’s not about winning or losing in this life any more; showing up is good enough to get you in the door and “you being you” qualifies you for the Hall of Fame. The effort put forth to win…to beat the competition handily until they beg for mercy and submit, acknowledging defeat…all these traits that make great people great are irrelevant now. Obama’s winning of the Peace Prize before he had done anything more than TALK about making peace around the world only goes to show that it’s not what you accomplish in life that means anything anymore…only saying what you HOPE to accomplish is all that’s needed. “If you make them believe you, they will come” and other some such nonsense and foolishness.

It’s sad, really. Sad for those truly worthy of this year’s nomination and sad for Obama himself. The legitimate nominees get slapped down; losers but for lack of the name recognition their unqualified competition enjoys. They have every reason to be bitter, though each of them has way too much class to actually say as much. He has to look himself in the mirror knowing full well he doesn’t deserve this, knowing full well he can never admit that to the crooning and adoring fans of his, and knowing full well he has only bad choices here about what to do.

He’ll likely take the prize, and the money, and use this every time we disagree with him going forward: “but I WON THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE..you HAVE to agree with me!”

The nominees will keep on doing great things, and Obama will keep on accomplishing nothing…but talking a great deal about how hard he tries.

As a dear friend said today, “life is officially mockable.”

On February 17, 2009 (just about a month after swearing an oath to defend his Country against all enemies foreign and domestic) it was reported that Barack Obama was committing an additional 17,000 troops to the Afghanistan “conflict” in order “[t]o meet urgent security needs.”

On March 27, 2009 Barack Obama “announced a comprehensive, new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan that is the culmination of a careful 60-day, interagency strategic review,” suggesting that:

We are in Afghanistan to confront a common enemy that threatens the United States, our friends and allies, and the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan who have suffered the most at the hands of violent extremists. So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future…To achieve our goals, we need a stronger, smarter and comprehensive strategy.”

Two days later, on March 29, 2009 it was reported that Barack Obama was committing “4,000 troops to Afghanistan along with hundreds of civilian specialists in an effort to confront what he considers “the central challenge facing [that] country.” Now the master of indecisiveness is promising “to announce new strategies for both countries Friday” (September 25, 2009).

To the detriment of us all, while Obama waffles and flips and flops (like the fish out of water we all knew he WOULD be in trying to fake it as a legitimate Commander in Chief) between all these strategies he can’t seem to make up his mind about, 317 MORE Soldiers have died fighting in defense of Operation Enduring Freedom which is more than 30% of the total lives lost during the entire 8 years of the conflict.

This is a record no man should ever be proud of. Barack Obama’s incompetence is directly and solely to blame for the flag-draped coffins of grief that have been delivered upon hundreds of American families and shame to the office he should never have been allowed to hold.

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Barack Obama inherited a ‘war on terror’ (along with an aspiring ‘nuclear’ Iran) that he told us during the campaign was high on his list of priorities and concerns. He assured us he would spend a lot of energy focusing on these things were he elected President. He hasn’t, other than to throw a few thousand more troops into harms way with no real strategy to back it up hoping that would shut up us security hawks and buy a little time to figure a way to get himself OUT of this mess.

Senator Obama’s voting record doesn’t square with President Obama’s rhetoric on terror, or Afghanistan…it doesn’t even square with his alleged new tough talk on Iran. Remember, the Senator offered face to face talks with Iran and the President wants to impose new sanctions…all the while STILL planning that face time with Iran’s Chief Executive Tyrant and resident lunatic he’s prattled on about for so long now.

Where I come from, the man is either a bald-faced liar or a two-faced hypocrite. Whichever it is, Barack Obama is not the least bit concerned with saving any of his faces:

“Until I’m satisfied that we’ve got the right strategy, I’m not going to be sending some young man or woman over there — beyond what we already have,” Obama said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” If an expanded counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan contributes to the goal of defeating al-Qaeda, “then we’ll move forward,” he said. “But, if it doesn’t, then I’m not interested in just being in Afghanistan for the sake of being in Afghanistan or saving face or . . . sending a message that America is here for the duration.”

Well, we DON’T have the right strategy, he HAS sent in more troops, he’s being told that wasn’t enough, and we stand ready to have defeat snatched from the jaws of victory…AGAIN…because of the whims and fancies of a man and his minions who were never qualified to make National Security and life and death decisions for us…

It’s deja vu all over again…

Seriously Michelle…SERIOUSLY?

Via Drudge we learn that the First Lady believes the current healthcare system is ‘crushing’ women and is, therefore, unacceptable. Apparently, according to the FIRST woman, just being a woman requires that you suffer an undue burden for your family in attending to their collective need for healthcare. Not to worry, ladies, her husband means to deliver you from this evil:

[W]omen play a unique and increasingly significant role in our families. We know the pain, because we are usually the ones dealing with it.

Eight in 10 women, mothers, report that they’re the ones responsible for choosing their children’s doctor, for getting them to their checkups, for managing that follow-up care. Women are the ones to do it. Mothers are the ones that do it. And many women find themselves doing the same thing for their spouses. (Laughter.) And more than 10 percent of women in this country are currently caring for a sick or elderly relative. It’s often a parent, but it could a grandparent, or a mother — or a relative of some sort — but it’s often a parent. So they’re making critical health care decisions for those family members as well.

[snip]

So I think it’s clear that health insurance reform and what it means for our families is very much a women’s issue. It is very much a women’s issue.

And if we want to achieve true equality for women, if that is our goal; if we want to ensure that women have opportunities that they deserve, if that is our goal; if we want women to be able to care for their families and pursue things that they could never imagine, then we have to reform the system. We have to reform the system. The status quo is unacceptable. It is holding women and families back, and we know it.

Women appear, in Shelly’s mind, to be in especial need of a Government takeover of all that tedious business of attending to our family healthcare needs so the girls can catch a little break from the heavy labor of…wait for it…life and reality and personal responsibility.

But what about the non-women out there? Many men have assumed this role…do they NOT know the work of tending to the healthcare needs of their families, or are these things just not a burden to them because they’re “men” and therefore don’t know any better? Worse, is she suggesting that Men don’t need to be saved…just the Women? Worse, still…is she pretending that Men don’t even DO these things…only Women?

I know inarticulate, desperate blathering when I hear it. This, my friends, is the finest example I’ve come across in quite a while.

That stretch of the Declaration of Independence is one of my favorites although it enjoys far less reference than it deserves. There’s the “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” thing that our Political Heroes lost track of a very long time ago…and, of course, the “all men are created equal” bit which might be more overused than most (in order to justify oodles of foolishness from Capitol Hill). Then there’s the “throw off such Government, and [to] provide new guards” piece which still gives me goosebumps even though such a thing would be suicidal folly in today’s world…we’re out-gunned… but such an approach to returning America to her people is long past its usefulness anyway.

What the Declaration DID give us though was an instructive description of how bad things had become, and a crystal clear explanation of how far the men who signed it were willing to go to remedy a terribly long list of grievances and complaints against their government. They, by signing it, were knowingly committing treason and were willing to die to have themselves heard…they were, and many of them did.

A “long train of abuses and usurpations” fairly well describes where America finds herself these days too…Congress in general, and Democrats in particular, have endeavored to subject “we, the People” to sufferings similar in many ways to the ones endured by our Founders. We, like our forefathers, have begun reaching that point of no return where even those most willing to continue in their “patient sufferance” of the Federal Government have had enough. Americans (even that “silent majority” we never hear from until election day) have lost their patience with this nonsense and are willing to endure no more.

It is far too generous to credit our modern-day Politicians with even a fraction of the skill required to impose tyranny and despotism on their subjects that King George and his parliament possessed at the time of our founding…it’s fair, however, to accuse them of the lesser crime of attempting to impose a Kleptocracy on America. The good news, thank God, is that we’re on to them. The Tea party Patriots, The Tea Party Express, and other groups forming now or soon to be formed, are taking to the streets. There may be those among us who would stand in their way but these Patriots will not be deterred.

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With everyone focused on the health care debate, Democrats are hoping we’ll all forget about another of their many boondoggles thus far in the Obama Presidency; Cap and Trade (lovingly known as H.R. 2454 - “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009″). This bill, like the Health Care bill(s) being bandied about just now on the Left, promises to deepen the deficit, increase taxes, eliminate jobs, and cost the taxpayers billions upon billions of dollars. Cap and Trade passed the House in late June by a slim margin (219-212), and (via Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air) is slated to be taken up in the Senate in September. The good news here is that passage is not YET a foregone conclusion.

As Erick pointed out a little while back, this bill is in trouble…in large part because the Democrats can’t seem to agree even amongst themselves. It’s also in trouble because, on the merits, it’s just a bad piece of legislation and people are starting to figure out why:

The hit to GDP is the real threat in this bill. The whole point of cap and trade is to hike the price of electricity and gas so that Americans will use less. These higher prices will show up not just in electricity bills or at the gas station but in every manufactured good, from food to cars. Consumers will cut back on spending, which in turn will cut back on production, which results in fewer jobs created or higher unemployment. Some companies will instead move their operations overseas, with the same result.

What is it about Democrats that make them choose to rule us by punishing us where it hurts us most in order to make us do what they think is “good for us”? We’re already 9 TRILLION dollars in the hole with 10 percent of us sitting this fiasco out, what MORE do they want from us?

Groups (similar to the Tea Parties and the “mobs”) are starting to form hoping they, too, can have their voices heard. Rallies are starting to be held across the country trying to get the message out about all the things wrong with this bill and its longer-term impact on America. As expected, however, counter-protesters (our fuzzy little friends, the global warming alarmists) are catching on that their brainchild might be in trouble, and are starting to fight back.

One can’t help but wonder how long it will take for someone ELSE to take abeating for exercising their free speech rights.

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Let’s review the scorecard. Obama has taken over the Auto Industry…check. Obama has taken over the Energy Industry…check. Obama has taken over the Banking and Finance Industry…check. And, despite our collective wails and gnashing of teeth, Obama has presumably taken over the Healthcare and Health Insurance Industries as well.

Obama has been a busy little bee.

At least he has reassured us now by having deigned himself a full partner with God, and thank goodness for that given his plan to open our borders to immigrants this Fall (like a flood) for all those people around the world hoping to come to America and do the jobs Americans won’t do-terrorists or otherwise.

Obama hasn’t worried himself over what any this will cost all of us, and why should he? His eligibility for office will have run its course by the time the bill(s) will come due-it won’t be HIS problem by then, will it? Besides, 9 trillion dollars is chump change to our great-grandchildren…they can just print more money and all will be right as rain.

Given all the hard work and long nights and fierce negotiations he has suffered to endure these past few months, Obama has reached that pinnacle of leadership few Presidents before him have ever been able to achieve, and now he will go off to reflect on his greatness. Well-deserved retreat, dontcha think? And such a bargain at 35 grand a week, on our dime, so he can ponder his next book of memories and accomplishments.

Perhaps he’ll take a little time out while he’s soaking up the sun and salty air on the Vineyard to put the finishing touches on his plans to get even with all that tried (unsuccessfully) to stand in his way. Maybe he’ll have a little sit-down with Gov. Paterson and suggest he stop dragging his name into Paterson’s troubles. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll even give a shout out to Jon Voight in hopes of reassuring Mr. Voight that he really ISN’T a bully and that the only freedoms he’s interested in taking away from us are the ones we never managed very well on our own to begin with.

Whatever he does with his time and my money, I’m sure he’ll come back renewed and refreshed and ready to get back to work. He’ll be well-rested, confident and collected, and he’ll be in full and complete control of the things that matter to all of us.

That housekeeping staff may have to go down to the local WalMart, though, and pick up a few things. Rumor has it he has a pesky little personal problem.

It wasn’t so very long ago that our number one Aristocrat babe, Nancy Pelosi, questioned a President’s competence when she offered these words of wisdom:

“The emperor has no clothes,” Pelosi, D-California, told reporters on Thursday. “When are people going to face the reality? Pull this curtain back.”

Her remarks drew sharp criticism from then-speaker DeLay, suggesting that “Nancy Pelosi should apologize for her irresponsible, dangerous rhetoric,” and that “[s]he apparently is so caught up in partisan hatred for President Bush that her words are putting American lives at risk.”

I wonder if we could go out on a limb here and offer that Emperor Barack Obama might also frequent the very same tailor…just a thought…but I digress.

Pelosi (not being able to quit while she was ahead) went on in this CNN piece to beclown herself further while educating us on how to calmly and professionally disagree with a President’s agenda:

“His activities, his decisions, the results of his actions are what undermines his leadership, not my statement,” Pelosi said. “My statements are just a statement of fact.”

Thank you Nancy. As the top Jester in this Emperor’s court, you have helped us describe the Obama Presidency better than we ever could have described it on our own. Now, I will grant you, the 8 month run of total control over America has been a good ride for the Democrats. They have gotten lots of donations, plenty of press time, and a plethora of new friends and cute little stick buddies from all the special interest groups long-starved of any feeling of relevance in that privileged little world of Congressional group-think. The flipside, of course, is that they have accomplished the exact opposite of what they’ve promised their minions all these years they were in the minority while offering “We, the People” an opportunity to see and hear and feel and…SMELL…just what a Liberal agenda can DO to our lives and our families and our neighbors and to our standing in the world. They have ALSO taught us how NOT to disagree with our colleagues within our own party.

In the latest episode of Democrats eating their own, we are presented with Harry Reid (fellow senior court jester in Emperor Obama’s court) when he accused “those protesting President Barack Obama’s health-care proposals of being “evil mongers.” Umm, Harry? There are Democrats that oppose this nonsense too…not just us dopey redneck nazi Republicans wearing brownshirts…just thought I’d remind you of that. And besides, aren’t you a little busy just now fighting amongst yourselves over the Emperor’s agenda? You really shouldn’t worry about the minority in Congress…we seem to be the LEAST of your worries. heh.

Striking in the political re-education of America, thanks to Democrats, is how quickly they have taught us that spending our way out of a problem is not the answer. We fell for it on the stimulus, were hoodwinked into it with that cap and tax insanity (though it started sinking in that something was amiss), and are being told it’s the only solution now with healthcare (like we want to go through a DMV-like line to get a heart transplant…phht). I’m fairly certain at this point, however, that the Democrats are starting to appreciate our lack of being entertained. A very good thing.

As with all honeymoons, Emperor Obama’s is finally over and what lies ahead is the crushing defeats his party will be made to suffer at the hands of an angry mob of American citizens that will leave their pitchforks at home and bring their number two pencils with them to the polls in 2010…

Thank you Democrats for teaching us how to squander a majority by spending our money almost as fast as you spent your political capital. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out-we grown-ups have a huge mess to clean up just now, and we wouldn’t want to waste time patching you up.

Oh, and Maxine? You were right…the chickens HAVE come to roost babe…I’m just sayin’.

I know, I know…I haven’t been around much since the Wrecking Ball of Freedom got elected by the Miracle of Democracy…but it is what it is.

So, while I was hibernating, I got a new job as an Assistant Manager in a little start-up General Store/Gas Station/Pizza and Sub shop.  I meet and greet every manner of humanity out here in the country, and this job has reminded me that the root greatness of America (her every-day, common, ordinary people) is alive and well and just getting on with the business of living and doing what they have to do to survive… despite what Uncle Sam keeps doing to them. 

What they are ALSO still doing is remembering the great men and women of the Armed forces…still thanking them for their service and sacrifice in the most gushingly grateful of ways, and they aren’t the least bit shy about coming right up to a Soldier and telling them what’s on their mind. 

Such a moment happened today, and in light of the holiday that approaches I’ll share an exchange that reminds me how great the every-day American still is…when given the opportunity.

The store policy reads:

We are proud to support all civil servants and active duty military personnel. All personnel in uniform receive a complimentary 20 oz fountain drink or 12 oz coffee. We thank you for your service.

In walks a National Guardsman today, stationed about an hour east of where I work. I tell him if he’s thirsty he can have a drink on me. He seems surprised at first so I point to the sign and thank him myself for his service and sacrifice…and point him toward the soda fountain. He thanks me and walks off to wander through the beef jerky aisle. A big ole boy about 6′4″ and about 60 years old (give or take) steps up to the counter, hands me a 20 oz. bottle of soda, turns around and points to the Guardsman and says “I’ll take this soda and whatever he’s having.”

The soldier looks at us two old guys, seems confused for a second, and then asks “are you sure?” I tell him the soda is on me, and everything else is on the big fella in front of him…and that we thank God every day for his sacrifice, and wish we could do MORE for him than his little pile of beef jerky and bag of crunchy Cheetos. He blushes in humbled appreciation, and says the folks where he’s stationed are fairly nice to him, but that he gets [expletive removed in deference to the posting guidelines] on in a LOT of places…and that he really appreciates it when folks treat him the way we were. The old guy jumps in and says “It’s alright man-I was in when it was unpopular too”…

We shake his hand, thank him for his service and sacrifice…and pray that God blesses him…and the two of them go out the door exchanging stories bout where they’re stationed, what their ranks are(were), etc.

This took all of a minute and a half, but I’ll think of it every day between now and Memorial day. If any you peeps out there come across a Soldier BEFORE Memorial day, thank them AHEAD of time…why wait until the calendar SAYS it’s Memorial day?

haystack out~

I know as much about economics as I do about rocket propulsion. All this mess we keep hearing about in the financial markets has me glazed over and looking like a deer in the headlights. From Lehman, to AIG, to God knows who, everyone is having money problems, through every fault of their own. So, I get this memo today that tells me I have to pay to make things right in everyone else’s world. Hmm. Something “not-quite-right” about that. But what do I know?

As I try to sort it all out, I’m taken back to the Social Security bailout President Bush attempted to enact, and the complete vilification he and his were made to endure for even suggesting people be allowed to invest their own money based on their own assumption of risk. Also, as I recall, the Democrats insisted that we should entrust our retirement futures to the Federal Bureaucracy because they promised our money would never be allowed to be put at risk. Why is an AIG bailout more important than my Social Security nest egg?

[Update: And by the way, I blame both parties equally. Y'all remember Bankruptcy reform laws that Congress passed back in '05? Yeah-THOSE reforms. The ones that made it much harder and much more expensive for the common folk to file Bankruptcy while providing for a more favorable environment for the lenders and creditors that feed on said common folk? Well, the GOP-led Congress delivered that master stroke back then, and now, the Democrats are ignoring it while kissing "big-Finance" butt and giving them our money so they don't HAVE to file bankruptcy. Am I missing something here?]

This trip down memory lane leads me back to two quick questions:

If the Federal Government can pick and choose which big companies to bail out with our money in order to keep the stock market calm, why couldn’t they have planned for a similar “market malady” were we to have been allowed a 2% private investment portfolio? After all, if nobody ELSE needs to assume risk in the markets, why would they have allowed the individual taxpayer to actually shoulder the burden of a bad investment choice? They DO work for us, after all…yes?

Second, and I might have this wrong, if we can pony up a trillion large to keep all of our big-dollar campaign donors afloat, why are we fighting over chump change in trying to fund the new GI Bill, tax cuts for the poor, new refineries, nuclear plants, and expanded drilling? Have I gotten this right?

Our Government leaps into action in full-throttle crisis mode when a multi-jillion dollar corporation is faced with going bankrupt for being stupid with their money, but we can’t scrape together a couple bills to prop up the people that actually make this place hum (when the Federales stay the hell out of our way, that is)?

I think I am missing something when my Congress can’t be bothered to even TRY to fix this mess because they don’t even know what to do about it and one of the candidates to be my next President doesn’t want to talk about it just yet because he hasn’t gotten his speechwriters to come up with anything messianic on the subject so far.

As the Founder and CEO of AMAWG, Inc. LLC (that would be “Angry Middle Aged White Guy” to you newcomers) I have the simplest of answers for Congress and Senator Obama:

Don’t do a damn thing. Let these clowns clean up their own mess. Every time you actually DO something, you drive “we, the People” further into the ground.

Stop helping. You’re killing me.

[image via Akeco Blog ]

[A brief half hour after the original post, the House passed the "Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act" and I apologize for not catching that the vote was to actually take place today after all. I share with you, for your reading pleasure, the GOP members that chose to stab us in the back over the Energy crisis. Thank any of them that represent YOU (but not your interests) if you are so inclined.

Buchanan, Castle, Gilchrest, Hayes, Inglis, Jones (NC), Kirk, Knollenberg, LaHood, LoBiondo, Porter, Ramstad, Reichert, Shays, and Smith (NJ)

Of course, with 13 Dems going with US by voting no, the margin was closer...and 8 Republicans chose not to drag their sorry butts to the floor to engage the fight...Ron Paul among them fwiw. Either way, the majority the Dems enjoy because of 2006 would have passed this thing no matter what. Elections DO matter folks.

Thanks for nothing you 15 GOP scumbags...no, really. We'll be thinking of you every day at the pumps...and on election day as well.]

I offered the House GOP a challenge a month ago today. Of course, being a nobody, no one in the House GOP actually got back to me…but hey-I’m not sensitive. Now that Congress is back in session, however, this deserves another shout out. Consider Congressman Pence today at Redstate and his urging that we all contact the Democrats and tell them to vote “NO” on Speaker Pelosi’s energy bill.

See, here’s the thing GOP Congress critters…

**I don’t want you THERE at all**.

More below the “**we’re begging you guys**” fold…

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I live to the west of hurricane Ike’s visit to Texas. Given the path and trajectory, it appears we will be spared much of the wrath of this hurricane. Local forecasts are calling for downgraded winds with a potential of 4 to 6 inches of rain. We’ll see.

While we wait, I am reminded of Katrina and Rita, and I am - again - reminded of how easy it is for people to perform stupid human tricks in the face of a natural disaster. It seems we have learned nothing from the two ladies that preceded Ike…and perhaps this is the saddest commentary of all about where we are as a country, and how we behave as a people in moments of crisis.

As I live on one of the most popular evacuation routes for east Texans, Highway 290, I have the opportunity to see just how badly people can behave when they are directly affected by an impending disaster. I have witnessed death-defying road rage, pure idiotic levels of unwarranted panic, and a complete lack of fellowship between evacuees and their generous hosts. With hands extended (palm side up) there is a level of rudeness, a lack of courtesy and respect, and an outright disdain for shopkeepers, gas station operators, local business owners, and restaurateurs that seems to run amok at times like these. Hurricane Ike is no different. The sense of entitlement on the part of some folks these past several days amazes even me…one of the most jaded and cynical people I know…but there it is.

More below the fold…

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[image via JohnDavidHead.com]

Many crises have befallen this great Nation throughout her history. We have faced each one in turn, and dealt with them accordingly. So, too, did we come together as ONE Nation, under God, in the face of the hell that was unleashed on September 11, 2001. We moved on, but lost sight along the way of where 9/11 took us as a Nation. Where we once stood together, we now treat each other as if there is no “Nation” but rather a very big island with 300 million people living on it with little or no compassion or acceptance of the others who live all around us. That was not supposed to be what 9/11 taught us, yet there it is.

I won’t bother trying to ask this Country to remember how close we felt to each other that day, nor will I expect anyone to remember how it made us feel about our Country. I WOULD expect everyone to take a moment to remember the lost and repeat THIS prayer even if only under your breath so as to not disturb any around you that prefer to forget the day ever happened or who was to blame for it.

Almighty God, the past year will be indelibly inscribed in our memories.

We looked with horror on the terrorist attacks of last September 11th.
But we looked with honor on acts of courage by ordinary people
who sacrificed themselves to prevent further death and destruction.

We shed our tears in a common bond of grief for those we loved and lost.
We journeyed through a dark valley, but your light has led us to a place of hope. You have turned our grief into determination.
We are resolved to do what is good, and right, and just.

Help us to remember what it means to be Americans—
a people endowed with abundant blessings.
Help us to cherish the freedoms we enjoy and inspire us to stand
with courage, united as one Nation in the midst of any adversity.

Lord, hear this prayer for our Nation. Amen.

God Bless America.

NEVER Forget.

Ruh Roh…Nancy REALLY stepped in it this time.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has accepted an invitation from San Francisco’s archbishop to discuss whether she should continue to receive communion at the Catholic Church in the wake of comments she made about abortion.

I think what entertains me most about this little bit o’ news factoid, is that somewhere, SOMEHOW, one of our Political Heroes has SOMEONE they actually have to answer to. In the case of Nancy trying to help set up the apologentia for Obama’s willingness to allow women to kill babies just whenever the heck they think they might want to, and still not hate himself in the morning over it, we find out that she may just actually have to answer for her transgressions…in the house of God.

More Below the fold…

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Joe Biden thinks (using the term loosely) that criminal charges should be pursued against the Bush Administration as soon as he and Obama complete their ascendancy to the throne of Liberalism. We could cast this aside as some feeble attempt at winning over a few tinfoil hat-wearing fringe kooks within the Democrat party but for the fact that Obama suggested as much back in April of this year. This idea of bogging the country down in partisan vendettas to gin up support among voters already in your pocket sounds eerily familiar, and promises to be as fatally flawed as it has been every other time it has been tried.

Having said that, Pelosi and Reid successfully rode that witch hunt pony to a “Majority status” in 2006. They have since squandered all that political capital, of course, but it doesn’t mean they understand why just yet. Apparently the Democrats continue to believe they don’t actually NEED to get any meaningful legislation passed to stay in power…they just need to keep talking about how awful George Bush is. And now that Biden and Obama are suggesting, again, that America needs investigations and hearings and subpoenas and Committees to chase the ghosts of the Bush Administration past, it says a great deal about how HARD they intend to work at making the same mistakes that have Congress enjoying its lowest approval ratings in modern American history.

As a partisan hack for the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, I personally rather enjoy the idea of Obama and Biden and their posse beclowning themselves so visibly…heck, look how they’ve mastered it with the Palin nomination and their new-found admissions of disgust at the idea of a woman wanting to have a family AND a career in politics. I’m delightfully entertained, but I’m sick of seeing NOTHING being accomplished for the people our Political heroes promised they’d take care of and represent when they got elected.

You Democrats out there would be well advised to tell your Messiah and his side-kick to let this one go…call it free and friendly advice. You guys are already in enough trouble with we, the Voters, as it is. Of course, you won’t actually TAKE my advice, but I can say for the record I offered it. In the meantime?

Pass the popcorn and the beer-this is starting to get good.