The continuing GOP identity crisis

Crisis? No crisis with me.

A strong “conservative thinker”, James Carville, recently quipped;

“I have an announcement to make. Ronald Reagan’s big tent just collapsed in Upstate New York. It no longer exists,” Democratic strategist James Carville said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

This he said following Dede Scozzafava pulling the ripcord on her campaign parachute, but I suppose prior to her proving him once again an idiot by endorsing the Democrat in the race.

I beg to differ with the likes of Carville, and more recently Allahpundit in today’s piece at Hot Air he titled “Poll: 51% of Republicans would rather risk losing elections than win with RINOs”

In it he quotes a CNN Political Ticker poll which says in part;

The poll indicates that a slight majority, 51 percent, of Republicans would prefer to see the GOP in their area nominate candidates who agree with them on all the major the issues even if they have a poor chance of beating the Democratic candidate. Forty-three percent of Republicans say they would rather have candidates with whom they don’t agree on all the important issues but who can beat the Democrats.

He says it’s not a problem at the moment, “…but if/when unemployment starts to recover and the trend stabilizes, it’s a major problem.”

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Much has been said over the last several years about a formerly unknown US Naval base stubbornly clinging to the southeastern end of Cuba. Despite years of Fidel Castro’s chagrin, US forces have been there by treaty since 1903 and remain there to this day.

The official US Navy history begins this way, with my link added;

In February 1903, the United States leased 45 square miles of land and water at Guantanamo Bay for use as a coaling (fueling) station. The treaty was finalized and the document ratified by both governments and signed in Havana in December 1903.

A 1934 treaty reaffirming the lease granted Cuba and her trading partners free access through the bay, modified the lease payment from $2,000 in gold coins per year, to the 1934 equivalent value of $4,085 U.S. Treasury dollars, and added a requirement that termination of the lease requires the consent of both the U.S. and Cuba governments, or the U.S. abandonment of the base property.

Base relations with Cuba remained stable through two world wars and the periods between, and did not significantly change until the Cuban revolution in the late 1950’s. That revolution led by Fidel Castro, began in the hills of Oriente Province, not far from the base.

On June 27, 1958, 29 Sailors and Marines returning from liberty outside the base gates were kidnapped by Cuban rebel forces headed by Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, and detained in the hills as hostages until they were finally released 22 days later.

United States and Cuban relations steadily declined as Fidel Castro openly declared himself in favor of the Marxist line, and began mass jailing and executions of the Cuban people. Cuban territory outside the confines of the base limits was declared off-limits to U.S. servicemen and civilians on Jan. 1, 1959.

My personal experience with GITMO was in 1980 aboard a US Navy destroyer undergoing yearly refresher training. Back then the majority of US Navy ships were steam-powered, and juggling 1200 psi superheated steam boilers and related steam-powered equipment meant a lot could go wrong. Because of this, it was required to show proficiency in handling various system casualties and emergencies on an annual basis or after overhaul, and GITMO was where we were sent.

The facilities we experienced there on the few liberty hours we were allowed were amazing, and for most of us it required drinking large quantities of beer to enjoy them properly.

Included was a boat rental, where sailors loaded up two-person outboard motorboats with a couple cases of beer and headed off into the bay chasing dolphins and getting stung by the multitudes of tiny jellyfish that seemed to breed there. We’d attempt to get ahead of the dolphins, and then Seal-style with masks and fins would roll overboard to try to get a look at the critters underwater. The water was murky, viability was only about ten feet, but we had great fun trying. Great memories for me of that base, and I’m sure I’m not alone. Checking out the base website, I don’t believe I’d recognize the place today. It’s even better than it was.

Of course, today the base is known for the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and nothing else. A quick check of the Wikipedia links for the base reveals a host of leftist causes involved in discrediting the base, the personnel stationed there, and the former Bush administration for ever opening it in the first place. More here.

Many have toured the detention facilities since the Camp X-Ray days, and most open-minded people come away with a vastly different perspective than they had going in. Even NPR recently found “some surprising attempts at cultural sensitivity.”

Recently Steven Crowder made the pilgrimage, and of course, a video;

After a review of the video, it seems to me that the only ones at that base actually suffering are the ones whose job it is to guard the detainees.

I’ll make one prediction; Obama will eventually hand the whole base over to Castro, or try to.

Crossposted

As yet, even on Fox, it goes uncorrected

I remember the first time I saw my youngest daughter. It was via ultrasound on a TV monitor as my wife’s doctor moved the unit over her belly.

The doctor paused over her head, and with the mouse added a smiley face and a “Hello Mommy” text balloon. We had a video tape in the machine, so our first home movies of our youngest were when she was right around 9 weeks from conception. She was alive, a tiny person moving around in the womb of her mother.

9 weeks.

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I never thought I’d see the day in my lifetime

To me, East Germany was just a nation behind the Iron Curtain that would always be walled off.
Ronald Reagan saw differently;

Arriving in Berlin on June 12, 1987, President and Mrs. Reagan were taken to the Reichstag, where they viewed the wall from a balcony. Reagan then made his speech at the Brandenburg Gate at 2 PM, in front of two panes of bulletproof glass protecting him from potential snipers in East Berlin. About 45,000 people were in attendance; among the spectators were West German president Richard von Weizsäcker, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and West Berlin mayor Eberhard Diepgen. That afternoon, Reagan said,

“We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Even with Obama building walls in Europe, we celebrate the fall of one;

via @gabrielmalor;

1. Pelosi’s ToDo List: (7) Convince BlueDogs that #HCR will not raise taxes; (8) Stab their eyes out to keep them from reading the bill. #tcot17 minutes ago from web
   • Reply
2. Pelosi’s ToDo List: (5) Convince Dems #HCR will not raise the deficit; (6) Convince Dems that the sky is not blue. #tcot18 minutes ago from web

   • Reply
3. Pelosi’s ToDo List: (3) Convince BlueDogDems that #HCR will not fund abortions; (4) Convince Progressive Caucus that it will. #FAIL20 minutes ago from web

   • Reply
4. Pelosi’s ToDo List: (1) Convince Hispanic Caucus that HCR will not exclude illegals; (2) Convince BlueDogDems it will. #FAIL21 minutes ago from web

Silly woman has her hands full.

So do we.

Crossposted

It’s getting to be like Iraq 2003, seeing their “One” everywhere

via Tony Katz on Twitter;

Hope N Pepsi?

Okay, pink box, obviously has to do with breast cancer awareness. But seriously, how long do you think PepsiCo has been waiting for a chance to do this?

Just sayin‘ is all.

Crossposted

For a last-minute call to action, this is snowballing

I first posted about this Saturday, and since then it has grown in size to the point it needs an update.

Michelle Malkin picked up on the event and boosted it hard via Twitter and her site.

Mark Levin is now on board, and will be there as he announced today on his radio show. His site gives a bad link, as the info has since changed and is moved to Michele Bachman’s House.gov site, although that may change yet again. [It did, Levin now links here]

Smart Girl Politics is now involved, as are the Tea Party Patriots.

The list is growing, to track events as they occur, follow the Twitter search tag #Housecall. There are people throwing together buses and carpools, splitting the cost of traveling, popping up and coming from all over the country; PA, Ohio, Texas, New Jersey. Every time I look, there are more.

People are cashing in their frequent flier miles, hitching rides, driving their own cars fifteen hours with no idea where they’ll stay when they get to DC, because they know; this is the line in the sand, it can go no further.

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From the diaries by Erick

via The Right Scoop

Michelle Bachmann was interviewed by Hannity (not sure what date because the FNC Hannity site is a mess, but I assume Friday Oct. 30), during the interview Hannity describes the “Government Option” as a “funnel that’ll eventually suck everybody into it”.

Bachmann says the bill will “…collapse private insurance so that everyone will fold into a single-payer government system…”

I think of it more as a black hole who’s immense gravity will warp the very space around it, pulling people out of their orbits and sucking them into the doom that is Barney Frank, Pelosi, and the left’s concept of health care with only one choice in America; one run by a corrupt, inept group of leftist Democrats.

From Michelle Bachmann’s home page;

Come to Washington on November 5th and tell your Representative to keep their hands off your health care!

If you can’t make it to Washington, go to your Member’s district office. And, if you can’t do that, you need to call and email. We can defeat this!

The Time: 12:00 PM
The Place: The steps of the US Capitol
The Reason: Stop the insanity from spreading any further

Crossposted

You saw some coffins and a quiet ceremony;

The “lede” of this Reuters article on President Obama’s trip to Dover Air Force Base last night made my skin crawl:

“DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Delaware — President Barack Obama saw first hand the human cost of the Afghanistan war as he welcomed home on Thursday 18 soldiers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents killed in Afghanistan this week.

“Obama, flying in his Marine One presidential helicopter, landed shortly after midnight in Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, home of the United States’ largest military mortuary and main point of entry for U.S. service members killed abroad.”

No, the president didn’t see the human cost of war. He saw some coffins and a quiet ceremony — that is, a small and sanitary portion of the toll. The human cost of war is far messier. It is blasted lives and unanswered questions. It is broken hearts and minds. It is widows raising children alone, and children who won’t know their fathers. It is mothers outliving their sons. It is as painful as life can be.

One commenter here I think accurately captured my view, as well as setting the author of the piece he was commenting on straight;

Yes, Barack Obama was right to see coffins coming back from Dover. However, he was wrong to take cameras along. He was leeching off of their sacrifice at a time when he is taking hits from left & right about his inability to make up his mind about what to do in Afghanistan.

If, like Bush’s trips to Iraq & Afghanistan, he had gone without bringing or notifying the press and there had been cameras there that later released footage of President Obama, that would be fine.

However, since the NYT article (before it was scrubbed) said that the pictures were taken specifically to show his concern over the decision in Afghanistan, that degrades this into propaganda, not true mourning. So, not only is he playing games with our soldiers lives, he’s playing games with our dead as well.

As CinC Obama should pay his respects to our war dead. What he shouldn’t do, however, is bring cameras along to prove something, whatever it is. It’s not what you’re seen doing, Sir, it’s what you do.

As to the NYT piece, Morrissey wrote;

Originally, the New York Times reported on President Barack Obama’s visit to Dover AFB and the arrival of fallen serviceman by explaining that the White House wanted Obama to be seen as concerned and aware of the sacrifices made in America’s war policies:

A small contingent of reporters and photographers accompanied Mr. Obama to Dover, where he arrived at 12:34 a.m. aboard Marine One. He returned to the South Lawn of the White House at 4:45 a.m.
<…>
The images and the sentiment of the president’s five-hour trip to Delaware were intended by the White House to convey to the nation that Mr. Obama was not making his Afghanistan decision lightly or in haste.

Following that link now, the second paragraph quoted is nowhere to be seen. The Jeff Zeleny report contains no editorial announcement of changes after its publication, and no indication of any retraction. Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette and Nice Deb both noticed the change, however, and Greyhawk also noticed that the NYT didn’t quite redact that paragraph from everywhere on its servers. The story now reads like this:

The trip was a symbolic one for Mr. Obama, given the gravity of his coming announcement of a new strategy for Afghanistan.

The image of the commander in chief standing on a darkened tarmac, offering a salute to one of the soldiers, highlighted the poignancy of a decision he is facing.

This is the human cost, Sir, and gratitude is appropriate.

Next time leave the cameras home, it’s not about you.

Crossposted

I keep saying it, as goes California…

h/t Levin

Strange things sometimes happen in California, that pretty much goes without saying. As someone currently residing in the state, I see my share, believe that.

One thing I’m not often treated to out here is a Democrat in state government actually telling the truth (without spin) about the fiscal swirl the state is currently taking around the toilet bowl.

An alert reader at the Sacramento Bee took a video clip of an otherwise boring informational hearing and thoughtfully slapped it up on YouTube which was shared with the SacBee.

HotAir got hold of it as did Joel Fox of Fox&Hounds Daily who said;

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer generated a storm last week with his testimony before the Senate and Assembly Select Committees on Improving State Government.

He warned that public pensions and health care costs could bankrupt the state, that taxes will not go up, and that the legislature should clean up its act by getting rid of “junk” bills. An edited clip of his testimony can be viewed here.

Some might argue this was Lockyer’s Nixon-to-China moment, telling his Democratic colleagues to deal forthrightly with the state’s fiscal realities. In FlashReport, Former Republican State Senator Ray Haynes that Lockyer as the state senate leader had a different view of pensions, but now welcomed him to the fight.

I heard Levin today amazed by what he heard Lockyer saying, as was I when he shared it with his audience. I combine Levin’s audio with the YouTube video below.

Levin goes on to say that you’ll never see a national Democrat figure with the guts to say these things, because he or she would be excoriated by their peers. Full audio here and clip begins at 55:30.

How long has the left been in charge in California? Even Democrats are throwing their hands up at the mess their own side has created. Look how much faster Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have been able to push the US economy toward where California is today?

California is the perfect example of how bad things will get nationally, and everybody needs to know that.

Before it’s too late.

Crossposted

At all costs

Every once in a while you hear something on the radio that absolutely slaps you in the face with an “Oh my God” moment.

For months we’ve been getting into what the leftists and statists have been trying to do to our country, and what will become of us as a nation if they succeed.

Listening to the F. Lee Levin show today he read something on air that blew me away with it’s simplicity in tying everything together, and it set my alarm bells ringing. Okay, I’ve been into this for months, but at a micro level; only seeing the task at hand; defeating this destructive agenda on a vote-by-vote basis. Making the phone calls (in my case, to Boxer and Feinstein, which are pretty much throwaway calls), sending faxes, emails, and helping others to organize.

In other words, deep into the weeds. Much like a logger who sees the next tree, and the next, and the next, I was missing the enormity of the forest. I knew the future would be bleak if this agenda passed, but I never allowed myself to imagine it because defeat was and remains unthinkable.

But, driving on my three weekend an month part-time job with the AM radio on, Levin began reading and I had to roll up the windows and lean in to catch it all;

In explanation for her “yes” vote on the Max Baucus created health care bill, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe said:

“Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls.”

Senator Snowe is probably right. History is calling. What she has wrong is history’s message. History is calling with the warning that tyranny is at our doorstep.

The tyranny that threatens us is not the same brand as the violent police states of the 20th century. Tyranny in America will look more like the misguided utopianism that has taken England from being the greatest, freest nation on earth to the frail remains of a world power it is today.

History called on England in the aftermath of World War II. During the war, the Axis Powers threatened England’s very existence. In such dire circumstances it became necessary for the entire country to work under central direction to achieve its military objectives. However, after the Allied Forces retook Europe, England believed that wartime-style government planning should continue. The government proceeded to dismantle what, in many ways, was once the freest economy in world history.

Now, over 60 years later, we see the results. England — the leader of the industrial revolution, the empire over which the sun never set, the parent of so many of the great modern republics — has descended into doldrums of mediocrity.

There’s more that ties everything into the battle for health care reform in the United States, go here and check it out, then pass it on. It’s important, really.

Maybe I’m just alarmist and there’s some hidden court trick that will work with the Appeals Courts who are increasingly more and more leaning to the left. I somehow doubt that though.

Forget who may or may not run next year for now. Real leaders have their chance today to rise to the top and help get the brakes put on this leftist agenda, lets see them do it. The heroes of this year can claim the leadership mantle in 2010 and beyond. Too often a person will see the people moving in a certain direction and rush out in front pretending to have been there all along, and they’ll shout “Follow me!” We see who they are, they aren’t fooling anybody anymore.

This is for all the marbles, and 2010 or 2012 won’t mean a thing if this isn’t stopped right here.

Right now.

Crossposted

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) put on the Senate record what most of us already know; the White House is creating an “enemies list” to make anything Nixon ever did look like a list of your favorite baseball cards.

First some background via American Thinker;

Obama’s oratory of Hope and Change has proved to be nothing more than camouflage for a realpolitik of Fear and Loathing, his broad smile at the teleprompter just a distraction while Obama’s heavies deliver a kidney punch to perceived enemies. Welcome to politics — the Chicago way.

Rolling out their attack from a War Room that seemingly ignores the nation’s real enemies abroad and instead turns its guns inward to its own people; they take on Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and anyone else that uses the administration’s own words to paint the real picture of what’s going on in DC.

Obama’s attack on Limbaugh was conceived last spring. Politico reported then that a cabal of top Obama advisors initiated what Politico called ‘Operation Rushbo’ to “roll out a new GOP bogeyman for the post-Bush era.” With conspirators including consigliere David Axelrod, Obama’s press puppet Robert Gibbs, and Chief of Staff — and chief enforcer — Rahm Emanuel, there can be little doubt that Obama, himself, greenlighted the strategy.

But as we’ve seen lately, it isn’t limited to El Rushbo, Fox and talk radio;

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We’ll call the affliction “MAD” for short

Okay, we got our jollies when the Nobel Prize Committee deigned to give this year’s Nobel Peace (Appease) Prize to “Hope and Change™”, because let’s face it, it was absurd.

Michael Steele, the RNC Chairman, put it this way;

“”The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights.”

Indeed, there were quite a few who more probably made actual sacrifices that could’ve gotten the award and were ignored; on this I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Steele.

Barbara Boxer, however, decided that to suggest anyone other than “The One” should receive recognition must be the Taliban personified in America;

A tune from the DNC songbook sung by the left’s nastiest senator, capped by a trill of irony when she wonders why people have to spoil the day by being mean. I’m reasonably sure that Steele’s knock on The One’s record wasn’t a veiled call for him to hand over Afghanistan and Israel to jihadist nutbags, so there’s a pretty sharp distinction with the Taliban and Hamas right there. But never mind that. Can we use this as a “teachable moment,” maybe, to settle two political matters that are hazy right now? One: Is the Taliban an enemy or not? Boxer seems to think yes, which is fine by me, but that’s very much not a melody from her party’s songbook. And two: Is it okay or isn’t it to compare the other party to terrorists? I’m fine with it — after hearing Olbermann liken the GOP to jihadis umpteen thousand times, it’s water off the back by now — but there are few things the left seems to enjoy than a good fake-outrage conniption whenever some Republican pol (or center-leftist!) breathes the words “Al Qaeda” and “Democrats” in the same sentence. Street fight, or being overcome by the vapors? Just pick one already.

Again, she who thinks the rhetoric in American politics is becoming “unnecessarily mean”, unless it’s a Democrat spewing the rhetoric blows the needle off the Irony Meter.

But Babs has a history, doesn’t she? She demands respect not earned in showing disrespect to a Brigadier General who has earned it.

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Just a fun-loving bunch, aren’t they?

From a Gold Star mom;

It was a nasty evil thing to do back during the Vietnam war. People would call families claiming to be the military and tell their son had been killed and the family would later find it was a lie. Mental and emotional abuse and torture of the worse kind. Well what once was old is new again… but still just as evil and heartless. Only this time the media is being compliant.

Calls are being made to families and the words no family with a soldier wants to hear are uttered ” We regret to inform you”… Only to find out their soldier is alive and well. It’s done to break morale and inflict injury on the families. Not only that but on our troops also. Now instead of our soldiers being able to completely focus on their mission they have the burden of worrying about something like this happening to their loved ones who are suppose to be safe at home.

She’s referring to this story via CBS News. Notice the headline.

Military Wrongly Told Dad Soldier-Son Died
(AP)  Military officials say they’re investigating why an upstate New York man was told his son had been killed in Afghanistan when the soldier was alive and well.

Ray Jasper of Niagara Falls says he was camping Sunday when he received a call on his cell phone from a woman who said she was a military liaison. He says the woman told him his son, Staff Sgt. Jesse Jasper, was killed in action Saturday.

The father says he later called military officials to get details of his son’s death and was told that his son is alive. Ray Jasper says the officials couldn’t explain the earlier call.

The father says his son called from Afghanistan and said he would talk to his commanding officers about the call reporting his death.

First, as anybody with a Google search capability could tell you, the military does not notify next of kin by phone.

From the US Army’s own guide (my bolding);

b.  The Army’s policy is to make personal notification to the primary next of kin (PNOK) and secondary next of kin (SNOK) of the deceased soldier within 4 hours after notification of the death.  Notification should take place during the hours from 0600 to 2200 local time unless otherwise directed.  The time limits established for notification may have to be adjusted due to distances involved or other conditions, such as adverse weather.  All attempts will be made to notify the PNOK first, if your efforts to contact the PNOK are unsuccessful, then contact the Casualty Area Command (CAC), immediately for guidance.

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Some significant sacrifices were ignored it seems

From Moonbattery

Chinese Human Rights Activist Hu Jia - imprisoned for campaigning for human rights in the PRC, not as worthy as Barack Hussein Obama.

Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China’s communist system. — not as worthy as Barack Hussein Obama. (Not to mention the symbolic value of awarding a Chinese dissident on the 20th Anniversary of the Tianenmen Square Massacre.)

Greg Mortenson, founder of the Central Asia Institute has built nearly 80 schools, especially for girls, in remote areas of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past 15 years - not as worthy as Barack Hussein Obama.

Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, a philosophy professor in Jordan who risks his life by advocating interfaith dialogue between Jews and Muslims, also not as worthy as Barack Hussein Obama.

Afghan human rights activist Sima Samar. She currently leads the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and serves as the U.N. special envoy to Darfur and is apparently also not as worthy as Barack Hussein Obama.

It seems to the Nobel Committee that no good deed should go unpunished, and empty Hope and Change promises are rewarded.
Moonbattery puts it best;

The Nobel Committee has truly beclowned itself this time. The Peace Prize has meant nothing since 1994 when it was awarded to Yasser Arafat to reward his lifelong pursuit of Jew-killing. In times since, it has been awarded to Jimmy Carter and Al Gore for their lifelong pursuit of not being George W. Bush. Now, it’s been awarded to Barack Hussein Obama for his lifelong pursuit of being Barack Hussein Obama.

And the left is, as usual, up in arms that anyone would dare question Obama’s award.

From: Sean Stutzman sean_stutzman@hotmail.com
Subject: Affirmative Action
Date: October 9, 2009 1:06:06 PM EDT
To: Erick-Woods Erickson

F**k you, you racist piece of s**t! Was it because of affirmative action when Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Prize? What about Nelson Mandela? While I don’t necessarily agree with Obama winning the Peace Prize this early in his Presidency either, to invoke affirmative action is just low. I’m telling you this as a white, United States Marine from Texas, so you can’t dismiss me as some left wing idiot. I read what you wrote and got pissed off enough to write you back. So when a white Marine from the south calls you out for being a f**king bigoted a**hole then perhaps you need to reevaluate yourself.

Sir, you are an idiot to even think of equating Barack Obama with anyone listed in your rant. Those people actually did something significant, which included sacrifice.

Oh, an update via @calebhowe

Crossposted

Not exactly “New” at being racist are they?

After what I can only describe as an amazing month of August with thousands of Americans going to Town Hall meetings with their elected representatives to express their views, the month of September actually managed to top it.

Specifically September 12, 2009 will for me be the date the New Radicals went from their birth in February, beyond baby steps, to outright learning to walk and talk.

People from all walks of life, all races, all levels of income, marched on Washington, DC to express their displeasure at the speed and expense of reforms initiated by Barack Obama and the Democrat led Congress.

The main message; slow down. Think about what you are doing and what will be the consequences of your actions. Don’t fix what isn’t broken, and take the time to do it right when you fix what is.

Contrary to what many are saying in the old guard main stream media, it’s not a movement born of hate; rather of love. Love of one’s own country, neighbors, and children. A love that says; “You don’t have to destroy to change”.

Now these people are being called “Racists™” and they don’t understand why.

Not so very long ago, they heard the words;

“I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, somehow you’re not patriotic, and we should stand up and say, “WE ARE AMERICANS AND WE HAVE A RIGHT TO DEBATE AND DISAGREE WITH ANY ADMINISTRATION!”

The United States of America is a country where the very founding was born of dissent, protest, and disagreement. In fact, reaching back to those historic protests in Boston Harbor is to invite the vilest of derogatory innuendo from those who seek to disparage and demoralize an entire section of America who happens to disagree with the methods and ideology of this administration.

Today it’s all changed. Today when they disagree with the President of the United States they are called racist and worse.

Even a certain bitter, inept ex-president is getting into the act.

To my way of thinking, someone who seems to always pull the race card out first is probably hiding some racist thoughts of their own.

Possibly Jimmy Carter’s head is stuck in the 1940s segregated south, or stuck someplace considerably darker (my preferred explanation), but after railing his Anti-Semitic rants against Israel in a book endorsed by none other than Osama Bin-Laden, he came out against the people of the United States calling them, in essence, racists;

“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American,” Mr. Carter told an NBC interviewer.

“I think it’s bubbled up to the surface, because of a belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African Americans are not qualified to lead this great country.”

Carter only vocalizes what seemingly a majority of the left is already thinking; that anyone who disagrees with Barack Hussein Obama only does so because of the color of his skin, not the content of his character or lack thereof.

In honor of the start of the NFL football season, I’m throwing the B.S. flag on the race play.

Best stated by @snarkandboobs in her post here;

I’m really tired of trying to explain to the Left that they are the ones who see color everywhere and in everything and that they are reprehensibly diminishing true acts of real racism; in fact, they are diminishing and demeaning the entire Civil Rights movement.

Searching pictures of the recent 9/12 gathering in DC I’m hard-pressed to find examples of the racists cited by the leftist Jimmy Carter.

I don't see racists here

Nor here...

Here possibly

There’s at least one ex-president who should’ve stuck to building homes for the homeless. After he lent his name to Habitat for Humanity, it was forgotten or at least forgiven what a horrible job he did as President.

For Middle America, it’s all flooding back to us now.

Thanks, Mr. Carter.

Ass.

Crossposted

Knew this would happen eventually, somehow I hoped not…

Back in February, a little over a month in office, Obama lifted the restrictions on the press using dead soldier’s pictures; I was pissed. Then, as now, I apologize for any bad language that may escape me.

Michelle Malkin today posted this (via Blackfive), and now I am beyond words.

And the predictable Huffington Post, ever as vile as its Troll-doll namesake, Arianna, decided to unleash Greg Mitchell;

Going back to 2002, I have been writing about the shameful reluctance, even refusal, of U.S. media outlets to carry graphic images of the true cost of our wars, to Americans, in Iraq and Afghanistan — dead or even, in many cases, gravely wounded U.S. soldiers and Marines.

Earlier today, the Associated Press — bucking the wishes of the Pentagon and the victim’s family — decided to go ahead and transmit such a photo.

The “man” then goes on to call the dying Marine’s picture splashed around for all the other trolls to use in their feeding frenzy “tasteful”. I’ve seen the picture, it is not.

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Let’s just make this “about me” instead

[UPDATE-Event deleted from site, guess it wasn't such a good idea after all?]

It was to be a day of remembrance for the victims of 9/11, and a reminder to always be vigilant; the eleventh of September was to be Patriot Day;

In the United States, Patriot Day occurs on September 11 of each year, designated in memory of the nearly three thousand who died in the September 11, 2001, attacks. Most Americans refer to the day as “Nine-Eleven (9/11),” “September 11th,” or some variation thereof.

On September 4, 2002, President Bush used his authority created by the resolution and proclaimed September 11, 2002, as Patriot Day.

U.S. House of Representatives Joint Resolution 71 was approved by a vote of 407-0 on October 25, 2001. It requested that the President designate September 11 of each year as “Patriot Day.” President George W. Bush signed the resolution into law on December 18, 2001 (as Public Law 107-89). It is a discretionary day of remembrance.

Initially, the day was called the Prayer and Remembrance for the Victims Of the Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001.

Weak on national security as Democrats invariably are, it simply wouldn’t do to have the rascally Republicans continue to own the issue. What to do?

Take the issue away by making 9/11 about Obama’s issues, Obama’s people; in short about Obama.

Moe touched on this re-branding earlier, now Obama’s minions put it on his website.

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Sorely missing our previous one about now

As a military person, there’s a hole in my heart where a President used to be.

I didn’t agree with George W. Bush politically all the time (enough to vote for him twice), but one thing I did agree with; he did his best for his troops.

Make the argument, if you will, that troops in Iraq were lacking proper armor prior to the ‘03 Iraq invasion. I was issued a post Vietnam era flak vest (bullets would soar through these unhindered), an M-16 (A1 lower receiver with an A2 upper, too long in the barrel for our convoy use), and while our MOPP gear was state of the art, it came in unfashionable woodland camouflage pattern rather than the more appropriate desert camo we needed for where we were.

Funny part to the MOPP gear camo pattern. Sitting at chow prior to the invasion kick-off, we were watching some US carrier crew on the flight deck conducting preparedness drills for chemical/biological warfare. To a man, they were wearing our desert camo pattern MOPP gear! Useful no doubt on a carrier at sea.

What the above boils down to, is that while it may be fashionable for the left to blame Bush for lack of proper gear, the real culprit was the Peace Dividend coined by the GHWB administration, and carried through and repeated endlessly by one Bill Clinton. After what seemed like endless budget cuts, the high-tech weapons systems were given priority and the “Humvees”, etc. were deemed to be “fine as is”.

So yeah, we were as a Seabee unit not expected to be the “tip of the spear” as our brother Marines and the Army were, so we accepted the gear as what we needed for where we were and who we were.

We did at least know one thing, we had a Commander in Chief who cared and loved his troops.

I saw a video posted to Facebook tonight which prompted me writing this tonight (that and I’ve had too much coffee). It’s titled “US Soldiers Hate Barack Obama”

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Where do you go with this?

h/t to Amy who is righteously outraged…

You’ve stormed the beaches of Normandy. You saw guys you went to Boot Camp with, been through Basic Infantry School with. Ate chow, pulled them out of the dumps when they got “the letter” from their girl, saw them mowed down when the ramp dropped on the Higgins boats before they even fired a shot.

You climbed Mount Suribachi and planted the flag, floated over Berlin like a balloon in a B-17 like a sitting duck waiting for the black cloud with your name on it.

You froze at the Chosin Reservoir, drowned in your own sweat while dodging bullets in Battle of Ia Drang.

Your grandkids write you today from Iraq and Afghanistan, they use different words but they describe the same things you lived through years ago. The baton has been passed, you did your duty.

Now, sadly, as you approach your twilight years there’s one last duty to consider. This comes down from the top.

You have a decision to make. Your government needs to distribute its dwindling resources carefully; therefore they’d like you to consider ending your life early;

The VA’s unofficial living will, an end-of-life planning document called “Your Life, Your Choices,” [.pdf download] is being circulated throughout their hospitals and nursing homes across the country. In the beginning, it was given to any debilitated or aging veterans, but since last month the VA has instructed that it is to be given to all patients along with counseling from the healthcare practitioner.

It gets worse. There are 3 conditions that are listed to make the patients feel guilty if they choose life, stating that the patient “caused severe emotional burden for my family,” “can no longer contribute to my family’s well being” and is “a severe financial burden on my family.” The intent of those statements is to make it clear to patients that choosing life is selfish and would hurt the ones they love.

While suggesting that someone write a living will may not be immoral, “Your Life, Your Choices” is written in such a way as to steer the patients toward death, full of leading questions and statements about the suffering patients would undergo as well as the burden they would place on their family if they remained alive.

There is a section titled “What Makes Your Life Worth Living,” in which various conditions are listed and the patient is to check a box with answers of “difficult, but acceptable,” “worth living, but just barely,” or “not worth living.” To their credit, there is also a box for “can’t answer now.” Some of the conditions listed are that the patient “can only get around in a wheelchair” and “spend all day at home.” The former is insulting to anyone confined to a wheelchair and the latter describes my state when I was unemployed.

Is this a croc of s**t or what?

It’s beyond the pale after all you gave for your country that the VA at the direction of the CinC would even consider pushing crap like this on vets;

“Your Life, Your Choices” presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political “push poll.” For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be “not worth living.”

The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to “shake the blues.” There is a section which provocatively asks, “Have you ever heard anyone say, ‘If I’m a vegetable, pull the plug’?” There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as “I can no longer contribute to my family’s well being,” “I am a severe financial burden on my family” and that the vet’s situation “causes severe emotional burden for my family.”

[snip]

This hurry-up-and-die message is clear and unconscionable. Worse, a July 2009 VA directive instructs its primary care physicians to raise advance care planning with all VA patients and to refer them to “Your Life, Your Choices.” Not just those of advanced age and debilitated condition—all patients. America’s 24 million veterans deserve better.

You duty, as I see it, is to keep track of your brothers in arms and make sure the VA isn’t pushing this crap on them. It’s bloody hard enough dealing with life these days as it is, with investments dwindling and the country looking more and more like it’s circling the toilet bowl, without this kind of garbage.

You remember the tenets of small unit leadership? If you were an LPO or an NCO and still keep touch with some of the guys, give ‘em a call and see how they’re doing. They’re still your people.

You may know someone from the Legion hall or VFW who stopped showing up recently, check up on them, just to say “Hi” if nothing else.

We stuck together through some harsh times overseas, and today unfortunately there are harsh times ahead as well.

There’s a country to take back, I know you’re still up to it.

“Illegitimi non carborundum” via @VladimirRS

Crossposted