Fifty years ago today I was near the south end of the playground at Asbury Elementary School in Denver, Colorado. I was in the fourth grade, and we were on our lunch break when one of my classmates, Scott Haskins, who had gone home for lunch, came walking up with a big smile on his face and saying, "The president's been shot!"
We didn't believe him. Scott was kind of a rough kid and often in trouble, and everybody thought he was pulling our legs. But he insisted. We looked at each other and wondered, then went on playing. Only a few minutes later the bell rang and we ran back up to the building and to our classroom on the second floor. As we entered the room and saw our English exchange teacher, Miss Mundy, with her head bowed at her desk, the room suddenly became solemnly still. I knew then.
When everyone was seated, Miss Mundy got up wiping a tear from her eye and stood before us with her hands clasp before her. "There has been a tragedy," she said. "Your president has been killed." We sat in silence, but my skin tingled. She managed a half smile as she looked around at each of us. "It is a sad day for America," she said. "It's a time for you to be with your family. School has been canceled and you are to go straight home." There was no rejoicing. We filed out quietly and went home.
I remember coming in the door and telling my mom, "The president's been shot." "I know," she said to me. She was talking to someone on the phone. That's the end of my memory of that day. I never did think to ask my mother why she was home so early. She usually didn't get home from work until five. Maybe she'd been sent home early too.
It didn't occur to me until much later and I was much older that I think Miss Mundy grasped the magnitude of what had happened perhaps better than a lot of Americans did. Maybe because she was British and had the opportunity to work as a teacher in America she had an appreciation for our society and form of government that many Americans just took for granted. I have no idea what her political persuasions were or if she favored John F. Kennedy or not, but there was an understanding in her tone and demeanor that made me feel proud to be an American, and sad for our loss.
Two days later we were watching the news coverage when Jack Ruby stepped through a crowd in a police station and shot Lee Harvey Oswald. I don't remember now if we saw it live or a replay on the five o'clock news, but Mom turned and looked at me in total shock, "Did you see that?" she asked. "He shot him!" I saw it.
Assassination was not new to American politics. Ever since the dueling days when Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton, congressmen and presidents have been assaulted. In 1856 South Carolina Representative, Preston Brooks, walked into the Senate chamber and attacked Senator Charles Sumner, beating him so severely into unconsciousness with a cane that it took Sumner a year to recover. The first attempt on a president took place on January 30, 1835. A deranged man named Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot President Andrew Jackson, but his pistol misfired. Jackson hit the man with his cane and he pulled out another pistol which also misfired. Then Lawrence was wrestled to the ground by Davy Crockett.
The first president to be assassinated was Abraham Lincoln. The Civil War had ended five days before, and a war-weary president, relaxing for the first time in four years, was shot in the back of his head as he sat in a theater watching the play, Our American Cousin. His was particularly bitter as the war had just ended and his vision for restoring the South "with malice toward none and charity for all," died with him.
On July 2, 1881, James Garfield, in the first year of his administration was shot in the back. He hung on for two and a half months until complications led to a heart attack and he died. Twenty years later almost to the day William McKinley was shot by an anarchist. He lived for eight more days. His successor, Teddy Roosevelt, was the victim of an attempted assassination in 1912, but he survived to live on until 1919. His nephew, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was also the target for an attempted assassination. In 1933 another crazy man took five shots at FDR, killing the mayor of Chicago, but missing the president-elect. Shots were fired at Gerald Ford twice during his short presidency but he was unhurt. Then in 1981, Ronald Reagan came within a quarter inch of being the next assassination victim. Miraculously he survived.
But fifty years ago today it was JFK. This was before Camelot. The First Lady, Jackie Kennedy, had taken the world by storm and at the time was probably a lot more popular than he was. She would create the Camelot image after his death.
All I knew at the time was I didn't like him. It wasn't due to any nine-year-old political savvy. What I knew was what I saw on television. We had an old reddish-brown box, console type TV, about three and a half feet high, with a big speaker on the bottom and the picture tube on top. I remember watching Kennedy give a speech one night, his features somewhat blurred by the old grainy black and white picture, and hearing his New England accent. It made my mom cry and I hated him. "Now I know what a Russian sounds like," I said. Mom quickly corrected me. Near as I can figure that speech was probably about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
A half century later there is more confusion about Kennedy and his legacy than ever. At the time of his death he was vilified by Republicans and even some in his own party. He was a welfare liberal who embraced civil rights and was weak on foreign policy, yet today conservatives praise him for cutting taxes and standing up to Kruschev, and are quick to point out that his civil rights bill, which was pushed forward by Lyndon Johnson, only passed because Republicans voted for it. And then there are the lingering conspiracy theories about how many shooters and who was behind it, all made possible because it was caught on film.
Fifty years ago while I played on a playground in Denver, shots rang out from the Texas Book Depository, the grassy knoll, and wherever else in Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Had JFK lived he would be 96. I wonder what he would have thought about his party and the state of the country today?
Friday, November 22, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Four Score and Seven Years Ago
Seven score and ten years ago, Abraham Lincoln boarded a train bound for the little hamlet of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Four months earlier Gettysburg had been the unlikely scene of the greatest battle ever fought in the western hemisphere. For three days the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia led by the venerable Robert E. Lee slugged it out with the beleaguered Army of the Potomac under its new and nervous commander, George Gordon Meade.
Fought around landmarks that would be etched into military history, Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, the Wheat Field, the Peach Orchard, the Devil's Den, the battle reached its climax on farmland in a shallow valley between two ridges running north and south called appropriately, it seems, Seminary Ridge, and Cemetery Ridge. Fifteen thousand Confederate troops, battle flags waving in the breeze, bayonets gleaming in the sun, marched in perfect order across the mile wide field until they came into range of the Union canons filled with grapeshot, and hell belched forth slaughtering hundreds and leaving gaping holes in the formation. Still they came until they pierced the Union line. Forever remembered as "Pickett's Charge," it was the "ebb tide" of the Confederacy, and came within a hair's breadth of changing history, before it was driven back. Half of the men that made the charge never made it home. Casualty estimates for the entire battle range from 43-51,000, with over 7,000 dead, 27,000 wounded, and another 10,000 missing, either dead, prisoners or deserters.
It took months to clean up the carnage. Most of the bodies were buried in shallow graves until a new National Cemetery was made ready. Thirty-five hundred Union troops were finally buried in the cemetery as well as 3,200 Confederates. Most of the Confederates, however, were later transferred and reinterred in southern cemeteries.
On November 19, 1863, the National Cemetery was dedicated. One of the great orators of the day, Edward Everett, had been asked to give the keynote speech. He spoke for two hours. Almost as an afterthought, the president was invited to come and say a few words. Legend has it that Lincoln hastily wrote his speech on an envelope while riding on the train, but he had actually written it out beforehand, carefully crafting in a few words the true meaning of the American experience.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Eighty-seven years earlier our fathers had signed the Declaration of Independence. I suspect that with the rewriting of American history in our public school textbooks and the dumbing down of our children with such programs as Common Core, which is not based on moral, Christian, or patriotic values, most Americans probably don't realize that not only was America conceived in Liberty, we were the first nation in the history of the world to ever be founded on the belief that people have a right to be free, and that government exists only by the will of the people, and not the other way around.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
Honoring our war dead, those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice that we might live on in peace, should be one of the top priorities of not only our government, but of all Americans. How ungrateful and pathetically small it was that during the recent partial government shutdown the current president thumbed his nose at our heroes coming home in caskets. How pitifully selfish it is now that on this momentous occasion, the 150th anniversary of the most well known speech given in American history, he doesn't have time, even though he was invited months ago, to take a twenty minute helicopter flight to Gettysburg to be a part of the ceremony. Here is an event that is "altogether fitting and proper" to do, but he can't be bothered. This is the man who shamelessly compares himself to Lincoln even though he couldn't stand in Lincoln's footsteps, much less in his shoes. The comparisons stop here.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
What else can be said? This paragraph has been dissected, taken apart, scrutinized, and explained by hundreds of writers and commentators, but nobody can say it any better than Lincoln wrote it. What humility in light of those who died, what pathos in honoring their sacrifice, what passion for the cause of freedom, what brilliance in the writing. Who has ever better described a patriot, or more eloquently captured the emotion families and friends suffer when their loved ones give "the last full measure of devotion?" Who has ever better challenged his countrymen "that these dead shall not have died in vain?" Who has ever better understood the Founders's intent in creating a free nation under God "of the people, by the people, for the people?"
This is our America. We are the greatest nation on earth. The question before us is, can we take from our honored dead the increased devotion to have a new birth of constitutional freedom or is this nation going to "perish from the earth?"
We dare not let it.
Fought around landmarks that would be etched into military history, Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, the Wheat Field, the Peach Orchard, the Devil's Den, the battle reached its climax on farmland in a shallow valley between two ridges running north and south called appropriately, it seems, Seminary Ridge, and Cemetery Ridge. Fifteen thousand Confederate troops, battle flags waving in the breeze, bayonets gleaming in the sun, marched in perfect order across the mile wide field until they came into range of the Union canons filled with grapeshot, and hell belched forth slaughtering hundreds and leaving gaping holes in the formation. Still they came until they pierced the Union line. Forever remembered as "Pickett's Charge," it was the "ebb tide" of the Confederacy, and came within a hair's breadth of changing history, before it was driven back. Half of the men that made the charge never made it home. Casualty estimates for the entire battle range from 43-51,000, with over 7,000 dead, 27,000 wounded, and another 10,000 missing, either dead, prisoners or deserters.
It took months to clean up the carnage. Most of the bodies were buried in shallow graves until a new National Cemetery was made ready. Thirty-five hundred Union troops were finally buried in the cemetery as well as 3,200 Confederates. Most of the Confederates, however, were later transferred and reinterred in southern cemeteries.
On November 19, 1863, the National Cemetery was dedicated. One of the great orators of the day, Edward Everett, had been asked to give the keynote speech. He spoke for two hours. Almost as an afterthought, the president was invited to come and say a few words. Legend has it that Lincoln hastily wrote his speech on an envelope while riding on the train, but he had actually written it out beforehand, carefully crafting in a few words the true meaning of the American experience.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Eighty-seven years earlier our fathers had signed the Declaration of Independence. I suspect that with the rewriting of American history in our public school textbooks and the dumbing down of our children with such programs as Common Core, which is not based on moral, Christian, or patriotic values, most Americans probably don't realize that not only was America conceived in Liberty, we were the first nation in the history of the world to ever be founded on the belief that people have a right to be free, and that government exists only by the will of the people, and not the other way around.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
Honoring our war dead, those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice that we might live on in peace, should be one of the top priorities of not only our government, but of all Americans. How ungrateful and pathetically small it was that during the recent partial government shutdown the current president thumbed his nose at our heroes coming home in caskets. How pitifully selfish it is now that on this momentous occasion, the 150th anniversary of the most well known speech given in American history, he doesn't have time, even though he was invited months ago, to take a twenty minute helicopter flight to Gettysburg to be a part of the ceremony. Here is an event that is "altogether fitting and proper" to do, but he can't be bothered. This is the man who shamelessly compares himself to Lincoln even though he couldn't stand in Lincoln's footsteps, much less in his shoes. The comparisons stop here.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
What else can be said? This paragraph has been dissected, taken apart, scrutinized, and explained by hundreds of writers and commentators, but nobody can say it any better than Lincoln wrote it. What humility in light of those who died, what pathos in honoring their sacrifice, what passion for the cause of freedom, what brilliance in the writing. Who has ever better described a patriot, or more eloquently captured the emotion families and friends suffer when their loved ones give "the last full measure of devotion?" Who has ever better challenged his countrymen "that these dead shall not have died in vain?" Who has ever better understood the Founders's intent in creating a free nation under God "of the people, by the people, for the people?"
This is our America. We are the greatest nation on earth. The question before us is, can we take from our honored dead the increased devotion to have a new birth of constitutional freedom or is this nation going to "perish from the earth?"
We dare not let it.
Friday, November 15, 2013
I Told You So
Who said the following? (Hint - it was not Ronald Reagan.)
"The theme of this movie is whether men are to be ruled by God's law or whether they are to be ruled by a dictator.... Are men the property of the state or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today."
These comments were made by Cecil B. DeMille when he introduced his 1956 epic film, The Ten Commandments. He further explained that the story was about "the birth of freedom." The movie premiered during the dark days of the growing Cold War. The Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956 and communism was on the march. DeMille gave perspective to the ideological battle going on around the world. How poignant and even prophetic his comments were. How ironic that twenty-two years after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union we are still fighting this battle. Only this time it's not with tyrants around the globe, it's with the one in the White House.
The battleground for the struggle we are in now is the misnamed Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Even though an attempt by the Republican Party to defund or delay the act led to a partial government shutdown, the law went into affect on October 1. It was an immediate disaster. Within minutes of opening the incompetently created website crashed, and it has continued to crash. After six weeks less than 50,000 people have signed up for a policy on the government exchange, and only another 50,000 or so have signed up on state run exchanges. In order to reach its March 31 goal of seven million enrollees, 39,000 need to sign up every day. What's worse, over five million people have had their insurance plans canceled.
Obama's promise about people being able to keep the insurance plan they had was finally exposed for the lie it has always been. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, who is responsible for the website failure, repeatedly lied to the House Oversight Committee about the program's readiness and the progress being made getting it fixed. The president's poll numbers plummeted to under forty percent, and finally some Democrats began to jump ship telling Obama he needs to fix the problem, and preparing bills to authorize a delay in the requirement to get health insurance by March.
Yesterday Obama finally came down out of the clouds to offer a solution. But what he offered wasn't a solution. Without apologizing for anything he told the insurance companies to reinstate the five million policies that they have canceled and to keep them in place for another year. Sounds good except for one thing. The insurance companies have been preparing for this for the last three years. They just spent thousands on man hours, paper, ink and postage sending out cancelation letters, and they've deleted those policies from their computers. Chances are they aren't going to spend the money to rewrite and send out five million reinstatement letters, nor waste the thousands of hours it would take to rebuild the policies they no longer have, only to send out the cancelation letters again next year. Obama's ruling will delay the penalties for not signing up for another year, but chances are most of those five million that lost their policies are not going to get their insurance back within the next year.
There is method to his madness. Democrats are trying to distance themselves from the Obamacare catastrophe so the fix is not so much about the AFA as it is about getting the Democrats off the hook. Obama has now put the burden back on the insurance companies to reinsure people and if they don't you can be sure he will blame the evil insurance charlatans for leaving people without any health care.
The one thing that everybody seems to be overlooking, however, according to Charles Krauthammer, is the continual tromping on the Constitution. He is right. The AFA is law passed by Congress and signed by Obama. Obama's only authority is to implement the law, yet he has personally altered it, given exemptions, and now delayed it, (after shutting down the government because he refused to negotiate on delaying it). He has no constitutional authority to do any of this. It is the responsibility of Congress to make the changes, but even Congress has taken a pass and allowed Obama to get away with it.
This is tyranny. This is a dictator imposing his will on free souls under God. This is the ideological warfare we are waging that will determine whether or not we will continue to be free.
There may be a silver lining in all of Obama's duplicity. The AFA needs seven million people enrolled by the end of next March for the system to work, but Obama just delayed the individual mandate for a year. With the slow number of people signing up now, and with no penalties coming for another year, and with the website debacle as it is, they aren't likely to be anywhere near the seven million needed by next March and the whole program may collapse on itself. Obama may have just signed the death warrant to Obamacare.
And to all those whom I've been debating this with over the internet, probably none of whom are reading this now anyway, those who have called me racist, hateful, ignorant, biased, arrogant, proud, stupid, and told me I belonged on another planet, I have one thing to say, ... I told you so.
"The theme of this movie is whether men are to be ruled by God's law or whether they are to be ruled by a dictator.... Are men the property of the state or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today."
These comments were made by Cecil B. DeMille when he introduced his 1956 epic film, The Ten Commandments. He further explained that the story was about "the birth of freedom." The movie premiered during the dark days of the growing Cold War. The Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956 and communism was on the march. DeMille gave perspective to the ideological battle going on around the world. How poignant and even prophetic his comments were. How ironic that twenty-two years after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union we are still fighting this battle. Only this time it's not with tyrants around the globe, it's with the one in the White House.
The battleground for the struggle we are in now is the misnamed Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Even though an attempt by the Republican Party to defund or delay the act led to a partial government shutdown, the law went into affect on October 1. It was an immediate disaster. Within minutes of opening the incompetently created website crashed, and it has continued to crash. After six weeks less than 50,000 people have signed up for a policy on the government exchange, and only another 50,000 or so have signed up on state run exchanges. In order to reach its March 31 goal of seven million enrollees, 39,000 need to sign up every day. What's worse, over five million people have had their insurance plans canceled.
Obama's promise about people being able to keep the insurance plan they had was finally exposed for the lie it has always been. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, who is responsible for the website failure, repeatedly lied to the House Oversight Committee about the program's readiness and the progress being made getting it fixed. The president's poll numbers plummeted to under forty percent, and finally some Democrats began to jump ship telling Obama he needs to fix the problem, and preparing bills to authorize a delay in the requirement to get health insurance by March.
Yesterday Obama finally came down out of the clouds to offer a solution. But what he offered wasn't a solution. Without apologizing for anything he told the insurance companies to reinstate the five million policies that they have canceled and to keep them in place for another year. Sounds good except for one thing. The insurance companies have been preparing for this for the last three years. They just spent thousands on man hours, paper, ink and postage sending out cancelation letters, and they've deleted those policies from their computers. Chances are they aren't going to spend the money to rewrite and send out five million reinstatement letters, nor waste the thousands of hours it would take to rebuild the policies they no longer have, only to send out the cancelation letters again next year. Obama's ruling will delay the penalties for not signing up for another year, but chances are most of those five million that lost their policies are not going to get their insurance back within the next year.
There is method to his madness. Democrats are trying to distance themselves from the Obamacare catastrophe so the fix is not so much about the AFA as it is about getting the Democrats off the hook. Obama has now put the burden back on the insurance companies to reinsure people and if they don't you can be sure he will blame the evil insurance charlatans for leaving people without any health care.
The one thing that everybody seems to be overlooking, however, according to Charles Krauthammer, is the continual tromping on the Constitution. He is right. The AFA is law passed by Congress and signed by Obama. Obama's only authority is to implement the law, yet he has personally altered it, given exemptions, and now delayed it, (after shutting down the government because he refused to negotiate on delaying it). He has no constitutional authority to do any of this. It is the responsibility of Congress to make the changes, but even Congress has taken a pass and allowed Obama to get away with it.
This is tyranny. This is a dictator imposing his will on free souls under God. This is the ideological warfare we are waging that will determine whether or not we will continue to be free.
There may be a silver lining in all of Obama's duplicity. The AFA needs seven million people enrolled by the end of next March for the system to work, but Obama just delayed the individual mandate for a year. With the slow number of people signing up now, and with no penalties coming for another year, and with the website debacle as it is, they aren't likely to be anywhere near the seven million needed by next March and the whole program may collapse on itself. Obama may have just signed the death warrant to Obamacare.
And to all those whom I've been debating this with over the internet, probably none of whom are reading this now anyway, those who have called me racist, hateful, ignorant, biased, arrogant, proud, stupid, and told me I belonged on another planet, I have one thing to say, ... I told you so.
Friday, November 1, 2013
Rollout Hearing
Did anybody watch the House hearings on the obamacare rollout disaster yesterday? Democrats on the committee led by Henry Waxman kept repeating the worn out blather that the system is working, people are getting insurance premiums lowered, and the Republicans are to blame for shutting down the government. Charles Rangel gave a history lesson that is only true in little pea-brained Democrat minds saying Republicans were against Social Security ad nauseum.
Several Democrats made comparisons to the Bush Medicare Part D rollout because it was slow at first also. The difference, of course, is that there was no mandate forcing people to buy Medicare Part D, and they had no expectations or need for millions to sign up in the first few months.
Sebelius, after apologizing for the rollout failure, then went on to blame Verizon for the shutdowns, and said the website had never crashed, even though it had crashed three times over last weekend and was offline at that very moment. When asked about the Obama promise that you can keep your health care plan, period, she said that was three years ago, even though Obama said it again last month. She defended it by saying that the plans people are losing are inferior plans, and when reminded that people are finding the new costs up to 400% higher, she said the website allows them to shop around. She completely ignored the problem that every plan you can shop around for costs more. Obama's lie about keeping your policy got lost in the shuffle and it came down essentially that people have to pay more because it's their own fault. When asked about delaying the individual mandate she said "No," because it's the law. When confronted about single men needing maternity care in their insurance she said, some men need maternity care.
I would say fools are generally irrational, and you can't argue with irrationality. Men, as well as 70 year old women, needing maternity care is pretty irrational. In fact, there was a whole lot of irrationality coming from the Democrat side yesterday. One old codger even got up wanting to fight a Republican. He claimed 17 million children would be uninsured without obamacare and accused the Republicans of not having a plan. The congressman he was arguing with said it was a false choice because there are other ways to cover the children and he held up a bill he planned to introduce today for an alternate plan. Unfortunately the Republicans were all over the place with their questions and they failed to hold Sebelius' nose to the question of what Obama knew and when.
The most focused Republicans were a couple of congresswomen who didn't waste any time with niceties and thanking Sebelius for being there and were pretty much on fire asking their questions. It's too bad the rest of the committee wasn't as forceful as they were. One congressman from Texas tried to get cute referring to the Wizard of Oz and telling Sebelius she wasn't in Kansas anymore. It basically backfired on him from Democrat ridicule.
The hearing finally ended after three and a half hours. I watched about two hours of it, but I had to keep leaving and coming back because some of the things people were saying were so asinine I couldn't stand to listen, and I didn't get all their names either. I'd say I really don't know what they accomplished except to prove that Sebelius can lie as well as the rest of them, and even though at one point she took the blame for the failure, it was only to protect someone she had just fingered as responsible. Just like in all the Obama scandals, no one has yet been held accountable for anything, and Sebelius has no plans to hang anyone.
The Democrats left the hearing with the same fog in their eyes that they came in with, and went back to the Lala Land in which they live. The Republicans walked out having failed to nail Sebelius when she could so easily have been nailed. And Washington goes on in its mad rush to destruction.
Several Democrats made comparisons to the Bush Medicare Part D rollout because it was slow at first also. The difference, of course, is that there was no mandate forcing people to buy Medicare Part D, and they had no expectations or need for millions to sign up in the first few months.
Sebelius, after apologizing for the rollout failure, then went on to blame Verizon for the shutdowns, and said the website had never crashed, even though it had crashed three times over last weekend and was offline at that very moment. When asked about the Obama promise that you can keep your health care plan, period, she said that was three years ago, even though Obama said it again last month. She defended it by saying that the plans people are losing are inferior plans, and when reminded that people are finding the new costs up to 400% higher, she said the website allows them to shop around. She completely ignored the problem that every plan you can shop around for costs more. Obama's lie about keeping your policy got lost in the shuffle and it came down essentially that people have to pay more because it's their own fault. When asked about delaying the individual mandate she said "No," because it's the law. When confronted about single men needing maternity care in their insurance she said, some men need maternity care.
I would say fools are generally irrational, and you can't argue with irrationality. Men, as well as 70 year old women, needing maternity care is pretty irrational. In fact, there was a whole lot of irrationality coming from the Democrat side yesterday. One old codger even got up wanting to fight a Republican. He claimed 17 million children would be uninsured without obamacare and accused the Republicans of not having a plan. The congressman he was arguing with said it was a false choice because there are other ways to cover the children and he held up a bill he planned to introduce today for an alternate plan. Unfortunately the Republicans were all over the place with their questions and they failed to hold Sebelius' nose to the question of what Obama knew and when.
The most focused Republicans were a couple of congresswomen who didn't waste any time with niceties and thanking Sebelius for being there and were pretty much on fire asking their questions. It's too bad the rest of the committee wasn't as forceful as they were. One congressman from Texas tried to get cute referring to the Wizard of Oz and telling Sebelius she wasn't in Kansas anymore. It basically backfired on him from Democrat ridicule.
The hearing finally ended after three and a half hours. I watched about two hours of it, but I had to keep leaving and coming back because some of the things people were saying were so asinine I couldn't stand to listen, and I didn't get all their names either. I'd say I really don't know what they accomplished except to prove that Sebelius can lie as well as the rest of them, and even though at one point she took the blame for the failure, it was only to protect someone she had just fingered as responsible. Just like in all the Obama scandals, no one has yet been held accountable for anything, and Sebelius has no plans to hang anyone.
The Democrats left the hearing with the same fog in their eyes that they came in with, and went back to the Lala Land in which they live. The Republicans walked out having failed to nail Sebelius when she could so easily have been nailed. And Washington goes on in its mad rush to destruction.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Republican Party Relevance
One of the things conservatives worried about when the government partially shut down was that the Republican Party, which had suddenly found some backbone and was standing up to Obama's threats and doomsday predictions, would lose their nerve and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, which they are so successful at doing. They were well founded fears. Just when they had Obama by the short hairs they gave up.
Obama has been in free fall for several months. The IRS scandal had broken and on top of Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the AP phone record scandal, domestic spying, and all the other corruption surrounding the White House he was finding it hard to hide. Syria destroyed him as an international leader, and his refusal to negotiate with Republicans, all the while spewing the lie that he was willing to discuss anything with his political opposition, had even Chris "my legs tingle when he speaks" Matthews moaning that Ronald Reagan, whom he has no love for, was a better president than Obama. Obama's popularity in the polls dropped to 37%.
The shutdown began when the Republicans finally decided it was time to reel in deficit spending, and the place they sought to do it was Obamacare, which 80% of their constituents, and 51% of the country wanted defunded or delayed. Harry "the rat" Reid in the Senate wouldn't even let the Senate vote on the House bill. Over the last weekend in September the Republicans offered at least five compromises, which step-by-step moved away from Obamacare to just cutting spending, but Reid wouldn't even call the Senators in to work. A partial shutdown followed which only closed 17% of the government, but it was basically Obama's choice as to who went home and what stayed open.
Obama chose to punish the American people by closing national parks, including the mall in Washington, D.C., which cost more money to close than to leave open, by refusing to help cancer patients by closing the National Institutes of Health, and by withholding death benefits from the families of soldiers slain in Afghanistan. (Anybody who doesn't believe Obama was behind that is daft.) It was nothing more than the tyrant having a tantrum.
The House began passing bills to refund national parks, the NIH, and other departments they felt should be open, but Obama refused them all. At the same time the million man Muslim march in Washington drew exactly 25, while a million motorcyclists from all across the country paraded around the city waving the American flag. Then World War 2 veterans were blocked from the World War 2 memorial while Obama opened a part of the mall for illegal aliens to demand amnesty. He couldn't have looked more petty and childish, or more condescending to non-Americans over U.S. citizens. The Republicans had Obama on the ropes.
And then they surrendered. To be sure the Obama media blamed it all on the Republicans, and the non discerning public believed them. One thing Democrats are is masters of spin, and one thing Republicans have never learned is how to counter it. Like standing on principle, and continuing to stand regardless of the opposition until you prevail. In the end, Obama got everything he wanted, and more than he was asking for before the shutdown. The Republican stand accomplished absolutely nothing, except to make them look as weak as Obama looked a month before. And now emboldened, Obama is demanding a new look at immigration reform which he has failed to push through in five years. The question is whether Speaker of the House John Boehner will, in full retreat, lead the Republican Party to another defeat.
Rush Limbaugh stated that the Republican Party has become irrelevant. He is right. Until the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) can be replaced and a strong leadership be found to stand up for the Constitution and against the growing tyranny on the other side of the isle, the Republicans are as big a joke on domestic affairs as Obama is on foreign ones.
There is hope, however, small as it may be. The Democrats, their media allies, and the RINOs continually complain that a small minority of rightwing extremists, the Tea Party representatives, are holding the entire Republican Party hostage. In fact, 144 Republicans in the House, 62% of their delegation, voted against the Senate bill to reopen the government. That is much more than a small minority and if they can replace Boehner with a conservative as the next Speaker of the House, there is still a chance they can be relevant and keep Obama in check.
The only good thing to come out of this, and it's not a good thing really, is that Obamacare is up and stumbling. People are already coming face-to-face with the reality of the "Affordable Care Act," which may go down in history as the greatest misnomer ever. But now it's no longer Bush's fault, neither is it the Tea Party's fault. The Republicans have been defeated on the issue. This is Obama's baby. Let him wallow in it. Midterm elections are only thirteen months away.
Obama has been in free fall for several months. The IRS scandal had broken and on top of Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the AP phone record scandal, domestic spying, and all the other corruption surrounding the White House he was finding it hard to hide. Syria destroyed him as an international leader, and his refusal to negotiate with Republicans, all the while spewing the lie that he was willing to discuss anything with his political opposition, had even Chris "my legs tingle when he speaks" Matthews moaning that Ronald Reagan, whom he has no love for, was a better president than Obama. Obama's popularity in the polls dropped to 37%.
The shutdown began when the Republicans finally decided it was time to reel in deficit spending, and the place they sought to do it was Obamacare, which 80% of their constituents, and 51% of the country wanted defunded or delayed. Harry "the rat" Reid in the Senate wouldn't even let the Senate vote on the House bill. Over the last weekend in September the Republicans offered at least five compromises, which step-by-step moved away from Obamacare to just cutting spending, but Reid wouldn't even call the Senators in to work. A partial shutdown followed which only closed 17% of the government, but it was basically Obama's choice as to who went home and what stayed open.
Obama chose to punish the American people by closing national parks, including the mall in Washington, D.C., which cost more money to close than to leave open, by refusing to help cancer patients by closing the National Institutes of Health, and by withholding death benefits from the families of soldiers slain in Afghanistan. (Anybody who doesn't believe Obama was behind that is daft.) It was nothing more than the tyrant having a tantrum.
The House began passing bills to refund national parks, the NIH, and other departments they felt should be open, but Obama refused them all. At the same time the million man Muslim march in Washington drew exactly 25, while a million motorcyclists from all across the country paraded around the city waving the American flag. Then World War 2 veterans were blocked from the World War 2 memorial while Obama opened a part of the mall for illegal aliens to demand amnesty. He couldn't have looked more petty and childish, or more condescending to non-Americans over U.S. citizens. The Republicans had Obama on the ropes.
And then they surrendered. To be sure the Obama media blamed it all on the Republicans, and the non discerning public believed them. One thing Democrats are is masters of spin, and one thing Republicans have never learned is how to counter it. Like standing on principle, and continuing to stand regardless of the opposition until you prevail. In the end, Obama got everything he wanted, and more than he was asking for before the shutdown. The Republican stand accomplished absolutely nothing, except to make them look as weak as Obama looked a month before. And now emboldened, Obama is demanding a new look at immigration reform which he has failed to push through in five years. The question is whether Speaker of the House John Boehner will, in full retreat, lead the Republican Party to another defeat.
Rush Limbaugh stated that the Republican Party has become irrelevant. He is right. Until the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) can be replaced and a strong leadership be found to stand up for the Constitution and against the growing tyranny on the other side of the isle, the Republicans are as big a joke on domestic affairs as Obama is on foreign ones.
There is hope, however, small as it may be. The Democrats, their media allies, and the RINOs continually complain that a small minority of rightwing extremists, the Tea Party representatives, are holding the entire Republican Party hostage. In fact, 144 Republicans in the House, 62% of their delegation, voted against the Senate bill to reopen the government. That is much more than a small minority and if they can replace Boehner with a conservative as the next Speaker of the House, there is still a chance they can be relevant and keep Obama in check.
The only good thing to come out of this, and it's not a good thing really, is that Obamacare is up and stumbling. People are already coming face-to-face with the reality of the "Affordable Care Act," which may go down in history as the greatest misnomer ever. But now it's no longer Bush's fault, neither is it the Tea Party's fault. The Republicans have been defeated on the issue. This is Obama's baby. Let him wallow in it. Midterm elections are only thirteen months away.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Defunding Obamacare
Yesterday twenty-seven Republican cowards in the Senate, including Missouri's supposed conservative Roy Blunt, effectively voted to fund Obamacare in the Continuing Resolution to raise the deficit. Obama, due to his own ineptness, has been in free fall for several months and the Republicans had a chance to absolutely crush his agenda. Instead they surrendered and gave him the victory. The Republican Party is led by a herd of spineless wimps afraid to stand up to the greatest threat to American sovereignty since King George III.
This is just incredible. Obama is the perfect Manchurian Candidate. He is so inept he couldn't run a hotdog stand on the corner, he can't give a speech without TelePrompTers, he doesn't have an original thought in his head, socialist puppeteers are playing him while he plays golf, everybody, including his in the pocket unions, knows his signature achievement, Obamacare, is about to completely destroy the economy as well as the health care system, even his supporters are complaining, but we can't find enough conservatives with the brains and the guts to put an end to his socialist overthrow of the Constitution.
We expect the godless, characterless, lapdog left to bow the knee to their messiah, but when in our history has an opposition party been so weak that they automatically throw in the towel without a whimper? Ted Cruz and the few that stood with him and for We the People, were shot in the back by their own party leadership.
What do Mitchell, Cornyn and all the rest of them think? Do they believe that if they compromise and just go along that Obama will work with them later? He's an attack dog that can smell fear and he smells it. He won't be satisfied until there isn't one Republican left standing.
It has well been said that people get the leaders they deserve. We're seeing that now. The stupidity of at least half or more of the American electorate that doesn't understand the government or the economy because they attended a public school system that is more concerned with gay propaganda than education, and greedily votes for shared poverty as long as they get their welfare and food stamps because socialist ideologue hacks in the media who have sold their souls to Obama have convinced their undiscerning minds that it is good for them, has given us this disaster.
John Dewey would be proud. His socialist anti-constitutional government philosophy has prevailed in American society. The dumbing down of America that Bill Clinton warned us about has taken place precisely because we have followed his educational agenda.
The question now is what will the House GOP do when they go into conference with the Senate to negotiate this Continuing Resolution? Boehner was only a last minute convert to allowing a vote on defunding Obamacare in the House. The flood of phone calls, faxes and e-mails against funding Obamacare over the last two weeks gave him no choice. But will the House negotiators stand up to the Senate's determination to fund it? Or will they turn out, after one moment of courage, to be the same spineless wimps that the majority of Republicans are in the Senate?
"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). We have stumbled along with God's blessing for a long time but I'm afraid we are about to reach the end of the rope and find out what this verse really means.
We need to pray for our country as never before.
This is just incredible. Obama is the perfect Manchurian Candidate. He is so inept he couldn't run a hotdog stand on the corner, he can't give a speech without TelePrompTers, he doesn't have an original thought in his head, socialist puppeteers are playing him while he plays golf, everybody, including his in the pocket unions, knows his signature achievement, Obamacare, is about to completely destroy the economy as well as the health care system, even his supporters are complaining, but we can't find enough conservatives with the brains and the guts to put an end to his socialist overthrow of the Constitution.
We expect the godless, characterless, lapdog left to bow the knee to their messiah, but when in our history has an opposition party been so weak that they automatically throw in the towel without a whimper? Ted Cruz and the few that stood with him and for We the People, were shot in the back by their own party leadership.
What do Mitchell, Cornyn and all the rest of them think? Do they believe that if they compromise and just go along that Obama will work with them later? He's an attack dog that can smell fear and he smells it. He won't be satisfied until there isn't one Republican left standing.
It has well been said that people get the leaders they deserve. We're seeing that now. The stupidity of at least half or more of the American electorate that doesn't understand the government or the economy because they attended a public school system that is more concerned with gay propaganda than education, and greedily votes for shared poverty as long as they get their welfare and food stamps because socialist ideologue hacks in the media who have sold their souls to Obama have convinced their undiscerning minds that it is good for them, has given us this disaster.
John Dewey would be proud. His socialist anti-constitutional government philosophy has prevailed in American society. The dumbing down of America that Bill Clinton warned us about has taken place precisely because we have followed his educational agenda.
The question now is what will the House GOP do when they go into conference with the Senate to negotiate this Continuing Resolution? Boehner was only a last minute convert to allowing a vote on defunding Obamacare in the House. The flood of phone calls, faxes and e-mails against funding Obamacare over the last two weeks gave him no choice. But will the House negotiators stand up to the Senate's determination to fund it? Or will they turn out, after one moment of courage, to be the same spineless wimps that the majority of Republicans are in the Senate?
"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). We have stumbled along with God's blessing for a long time but I'm afraid we are about to reach the end of the rope and find out what this verse really means.
We need to pray for our country as never before.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
More Musings
Remember Joe Biden's rant against assault weapons? He suggested buying a shotgun instead. So guess what kind of weapon Aaron Alexis used to murder 12 people at the Navy Yard? A shotgun. And what is the anti Second Amendment crowd response? We need to ban assault weapons. Right, I see the logic.
In another response to the shooting University of Kansas professor David Guth said to NRA members on Twitter, “Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters”…"May God damn you.” Shouldn't this qualify as a hate crime?
Once again a non-NRA member shoots up a crowd and the anti-gun zealots blame the NRA. Of course it makes sense. It's not like the shooter is guilty or anything like that.
So, Pelosi and Reid's argument against defunding Obamacare in the Continuing Resolution was, "It's the law. You can't defund it." I seem to remember that in 2006 Congress passed into law the border fence. As soon as the Democrats got control of Congress they refused to fund it. What's the difference?
Obama's response to the House vote, "There's no serious evidence Obamacare will hurt the economy." Well, in Liberal double-speak that may be true. By the time it's up and running it will already have done so much harm that there's no evidence it will do anything worse in the future than it has already done.
And what was it he said about the Continuing Resolution? Raising the debt limit doesn't raise the debt? Is this guy living in the same world we are living in, or is he in the utopian fantasy land that never existed except in the minds of leftist Peter Pans?
How about Obama's mindless spokesperson, Jay Carney? A couple days ago he called the pending vote to defund Obamacare a "civil war." He might be right. Considering Obama is making war against the will of 70% of the people who are in favor of defunding Obamacare it might just qualify as that.
On the other hand, since he has yet to prove his US citizenship this is less a civil war than it is a foreign invasion.
I'm sure there are more things I could muse on, but I'll let it go for now.
In another response to the shooting University of Kansas professor David Guth said to NRA members on Twitter, “Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters”…"May God damn you.” Shouldn't this qualify as a hate crime?
Once again a non-NRA member shoots up a crowd and the anti-gun zealots blame the NRA. Of course it makes sense. It's not like the shooter is guilty or anything like that.
So, Pelosi and Reid's argument against defunding Obamacare in the Continuing Resolution was, "It's the law. You can't defund it." I seem to remember that in 2006 Congress passed into law the border fence. As soon as the Democrats got control of Congress they refused to fund it. What's the difference?
Obama's response to the House vote, "There's no serious evidence Obamacare will hurt the economy." Well, in Liberal double-speak that may be true. By the time it's up and running it will already have done so much harm that there's no evidence it will do anything worse in the future than it has already done.
And what was it he said about the Continuing Resolution? Raising the debt limit doesn't raise the debt? Is this guy living in the same world we are living in, or is he in the utopian fantasy land that never existed except in the minds of leftist Peter Pans?
How about Obama's mindless spokesperson, Jay Carney? A couple days ago he called the pending vote to defund Obamacare a "civil war." He might be right. Considering Obama is making war against the will of 70% of the people who are in favor of defunding Obamacare it might just qualify as that.
On the other hand, since he has yet to prove his US citizenship this is less a civil war than it is a foreign invasion.
I'm sure there are more things I could muse on, but I'll let it go for now.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Iran-Contra/Benghazi-Syria
A couple weeks ago I got into a discussion on a friend of my brother's Facebook page with an arrogant 18 year old snort who had been indoctrinated into liberalese by his public school education. Thinking he was brilliant he mocked and called us names, typical leftist tactics, until we step by step took his arguments apart with the truth and he had nothing to come back with.
What I find most interesting about these conversations is the inevitable attack against Ronald Reagan using Iran-Contra as evidence of his criminal activity. They also like to show his treasonous actions in supporting bin-Laden in Afghanistan's war against Soviet occupation.
Truth, of course, never matters to a liberal. Only the agenda. But the truth is Ronald Reagan was investigated and found innocent of any personal wrong doing in the Iran-Contra affair. As for bin-Laden, he was just another freedom fighter trying to drive out the Soviets. We supplied the freedom fighters with stinger anti-aircraft missiles in order to sting our long time Cold War enemy. There was no way of telling in the mid-1980s that bin-Laden was going to turn on us, or that a terrorist organization like Al Qaida was brewing in his mind.
Liberal double-speak, as we are increasingly seeing with Obama, Biden, and all the rest, is Machiavellian to the core. That is, whatever you do or say to maintain power is justified. So Obama can call Bush unpatriotic and criminal for 450 billion dollar deficits, but when he takes office 1.3 trillion dollar deficits are suddenly necessary and patriotic. Biden can state publicly that he would call for Bush's impeachment if he got involved in any wars without congressional approval (he did not), but it's okay when Obama unilaterally calls for air strikes in Libya without even discussing it with Congress, much less getting its approval. And on and on it goes.
Obama's attempt last weekend to do it again, however, backfired and the whole Syria affair has made him look like a fool world wide. Today, however, he has announced that he is suspending sections 40 and 40A of the 1976 Arms Exports Control Act, which prohibits weapons technology from being exported to terrorist groups, in order to send weapons to the Al Qaida/Muslim Brotherhood led Syrian rebels. If this isn't the height of arrogance. Since when does a president have the right to indiscriminately bypass the law? (As if it's only the first time he's done it!)
What is worse is that after a year of delays and threatening embassy personal to dissuade them from testifying, the truth, which was suggested a year ago already, is beginning to spread that Ambassador Chris Stevens was in Benghazi because the embassy was involved in gun running to the Syrian rebels. Do we hear anything from the media on this? Is any news organization trying to get to the bottom of it? Where are the comparisons to Iran-Contra? How about the accusations of treason for supplying a sworn enemy of the United States with weapons?
The Democrats were talking impeachment for Reagan for something he wasn't even involved in. They would have impeached Nixon for the cover up of a minor break in until he resigned. Obama is not only involved, he sacrificed the lives of four Americans and has spent a year covering it up and now he has openly declared he will bypass the law to do more. This is not minor, and it's not just a cover up. The Benghazi-Syria connection is bigger and reaches into higher places than Iran-Contra ever came close to.
Shouldn't we be hearing "Impeachment" shouted from the highest levels of Congress? It's about time somebody had the guts to stand up to Obama and his leftist thugs before they turn into the next Hitler and his leftist Brown Shirts.
What I find most interesting about these conversations is the inevitable attack against Ronald Reagan using Iran-Contra as evidence of his criminal activity. They also like to show his treasonous actions in supporting bin-Laden in Afghanistan's war against Soviet occupation.
Truth, of course, never matters to a liberal. Only the agenda. But the truth is Ronald Reagan was investigated and found innocent of any personal wrong doing in the Iran-Contra affair. As for bin-Laden, he was just another freedom fighter trying to drive out the Soviets. We supplied the freedom fighters with stinger anti-aircraft missiles in order to sting our long time Cold War enemy. There was no way of telling in the mid-1980s that bin-Laden was going to turn on us, or that a terrorist organization like Al Qaida was brewing in his mind.
Liberal double-speak, as we are increasingly seeing with Obama, Biden, and all the rest, is Machiavellian to the core. That is, whatever you do or say to maintain power is justified. So Obama can call Bush unpatriotic and criminal for 450 billion dollar deficits, but when he takes office 1.3 trillion dollar deficits are suddenly necessary and patriotic. Biden can state publicly that he would call for Bush's impeachment if he got involved in any wars without congressional approval (he did not), but it's okay when Obama unilaterally calls for air strikes in Libya without even discussing it with Congress, much less getting its approval. And on and on it goes.
Obama's attempt last weekend to do it again, however, backfired and the whole Syria affair has made him look like a fool world wide. Today, however, he has announced that he is suspending sections 40 and 40A of the 1976 Arms Exports Control Act, which prohibits weapons technology from being exported to terrorist groups, in order to send weapons to the Al Qaida/Muslim Brotherhood led Syrian rebels. If this isn't the height of arrogance. Since when does a president have the right to indiscriminately bypass the law? (As if it's only the first time he's done it!)
What is worse is that after a year of delays and threatening embassy personal to dissuade them from testifying, the truth, which was suggested a year ago already, is beginning to spread that Ambassador Chris Stevens was in Benghazi because the embassy was involved in gun running to the Syrian rebels. Do we hear anything from the media on this? Is any news organization trying to get to the bottom of it? Where are the comparisons to Iran-Contra? How about the accusations of treason for supplying a sworn enemy of the United States with weapons?
The Democrats were talking impeachment for Reagan for something he wasn't even involved in. They would have impeached Nixon for the cover up of a minor break in until he resigned. Obama is not only involved, he sacrificed the lives of four Americans and has spent a year covering it up and now he has openly declared he will bypass the law to do more. This is not minor, and it's not just a cover up. The Benghazi-Syria connection is bigger and reaches into higher places than Iran-Contra ever came close to.
Shouldn't we be hearing "Impeachment" shouted from the highest levels of Congress? It's about time somebody had the guts to stand up to Obama and his leftist thugs before they turn into the next Hitler and his leftist Brown Shirts.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Go Hogs
Well, so many things are going on in the world it's hard to keep up, but the biggest at the moment I think is that our current non-exceptional, non-American president has just given our victory in the Cold War away to Vladimir Putin. Every president since Truman at least has tried to keep Russian influence out of the Middle East. Now after drawing a red line, then not drawing it, then shamelessly blaming the world for drawing it (at least he didn't blame Bush), he let Putin outmaneuver him and negotiate an apparent deal with Assad in Syria to keep us from getting involved.
I'm not in favor of us jumping into another war, but Obama's ineptitude has just removed the United States from being the world's number one and most respected super power into a subservient client of a former USSR head of the KGB. But that's not all. Since the world no longer fears American might or resolve, Putin sent an anti-aircraft missile defense system to Iran, along with more parts for the development of its nuclear reactor. You know, the one Obama was going to talk them out of with his charm. Now there is a successful foreign policy for you, well deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize. (I wonder if the Nobel committee has realized yet how much egg it has on its face.)
Obama's address to the nation last week was disjointed, rambling, and pointless, and it made Obama look weak, spineless and very unpresidential. Everybody in the world knows now that he is not believable and his influence in foreign policy, whatever little it might have been, is completely gone. Even Chris Matthews, he of the "tingling leg when Obama speaks," is beginning to question Obama's credibility.
But if that's not enough, Putin had the gall to send an op-ed to the New York Times, the most liberal Obama supporting tabloid in the country, lecturing Americans on American Exceptionalism. We aren't exceptional he told us. Obviously not under our current leadership. His article got no response from Obama. Rather, he said that he believes in American Exceptionalism in the same way that the British believe in British Exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek Exceptionalism. The problem is there is no such thing with the Brits, the Greeks, or any other nation. American Exceptionalism is an American ideal that recognizes America's greatness because of our history, our Constitution, and the spiritual and moral roots of our culture. Obama doesn't understand any of this. (Putin's piece, by the way, was full of anti-American claptrap, and even misrepresented Russia's own history under Boris Yeltsin.)
On another front, while Christianity is increasingly under attack in the US by the ACLU, the GLBT, the DOJ, the IRS, and the DOD, as well as the WHO (White House Occupant), a couple of weeks ago Vladimir Putin stood up for Christians in Russia and said they were being unfairly treated and were deserving of the same rights as everyone else. Now there is a switch. When in the history of the world has a Russian leader ever come to the defense of Christianity? And when in the history of the United States has a president ever been so hostile to Christianity, all the while claiming to be one? This is unprecedented and makes one wonder with the world being turned upside down like it is if we aren't close to the end!
There was another eye-popper this weekend. Gene Simmons, remember him? He was the lead singer of the heavy metal rock band KISS. Back in the 70's the rumor floated around Fundamentalist circles that the name stood for "Kings in Satan's Service." I don't know where that came from, but considering the demonic make up they wore and the noise they made (I hesitate to call it music) it wasn't hard to believe. As it turns out, Gene Simmons, who no longer paints his face, has a fairly decent haircut, and says he has never used drugs, is now involved in the Arena Football League. Sunday he came to the defense of Tim Tebow blasting the NFL and the people that don't like him because of his outspoken testimony, and defending his right to be a Christian and speak out about it. Then he invited him to come play in the AFL because it is good family entertainment and they want guys like Tebow. These are strange days we're living in.
Then you may have heard about the lesbian Air Force commander who brought charges against one of her veteran troops because he is a Christian and refused to recognize the gay community as a legitimate lifestyle. Several months ago I had a discussion with one of my former high school students on Facebook who has become gay and argued that God had led her to that decision. She claimed that all the gay community wants in the repeal of DADT is a fair shake and equal recognition for their service to their country. What happened to the Air Force sergeant isn't recognition, it's retribution, which is what the gay community has really wanted all along.
Something else that should be big, but apparently is being ignored by the Lame Stream Media, is the trial of Muhammed Morsi in Egypt. In testimony last week the Muslim Brotherhood defending Morsi claimed that Obama is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Did you ever wonder why Obama was so dead set on overthrowing Mubarak in favor of Morsi, on covering up for the Muslim Brotherhood terrorists that attacked and killed American embassy personnel in Libya, or on supporting the Muslim Brotherhood led rebels in Syria? He has celebrated Ramadan with Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the White House. You would think this story would be huge, but the leftwing media, as well as the Left in general, isn't about truth or anything good for America. They are about covering for their messiah to whom they have sold their souls.
And what about the onslaught of black on white violence since the Trayvon Martin verdict? Where's the outrage? According to Al not-so Sharpton, none of that is fueled by racism. Really? When they shout "Cracker" before they smash the white guys' face what else is it? When a 17 year old black youth rapes a 71 year old white woman what is it? Not to mention the Australian ball player murdered by black youths who were bored, and all the rest. It's an almost weekly occurrence. And now we have another disgruntled black guy murdering twelve people at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. Where is Obama condemning all this? Where is his presidential leadership that was going to end the divide and bring racial peace? He's a bigger instigator of racism than Jesse Jackson.
What was Obama's reaction to this shooting? He tried to use it to reignite a discussion on gun control. What he overlooks again, as do all anti-Second Amendment gun control advocates, is that D.C. has the toughest gun control laws in the country. Didn't stop this murderous rampage. Neither has it prevented some 500 murders this year in Obama's hometown, Chicago, another city with ultra strict gun control laws.
Of course, the scandals don't quit: Benghazi, IRS targeting conservatives, DOJ spying on Americans including media e-mails. There are so many you can't even keep up. A year after Benghazi, no answers, and those who were there being threatened not to testify, and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, refusing to appoint a select committee with subpoena powers to investigate. You begin to wonder if he's not somehow involved in the scandal. Boehner is also encouraging Republicans not to defund Obamacare in a Continuing Resolution. It's no wonder the Republican Party is collapsing. The leadership is in Obama's pocket as well.
(By the way, for those in Southwest Missouri, Billy Long is NOT voting to defund Obamacare in a Continuing Resolution. His explanation in a nutshell is that it is somehow illegal to do that. From my understanding, Continuing Resolutions, which I believe began under Lyndon Johnson, are unconstitutional themselves, but furthermore, anybody who would vote for a CR to continue spending at the current levels is not concerned about reining in the deficit, and needs to go. There's still time to call his office and tell him what you think before the vote on the CR and the implementation of Obamacare on October 1. I sent him an e-mail today and told him what a pathetic argument he made for not voting to defund Obamacare, especially since he doesn't have to enroll in it. I told him to do something to show he cares about his constituents not just himself.)
Well, I guess there is one piece of good news from this last week. The Million Muslim March on D.C. to protest America's unfair treatment of Muslims and insult Americans on 9/11, drew exactly 25 people. In contrast, over a million motorcyclists from all across the country showed up to declare their patriotism and support for America. Kind of makes me wish I had a hog, a black leather jacket, sunglasses and a bandana to wear on my head. That would have been a fun parade to be involved in.
I'm not in favor of us jumping into another war, but Obama's ineptitude has just removed the United States from being the world's number one and most respected super power into a subservient client of a former USSR head of the KGB. But that's not all. Since the world no longer fears American might or resolve, Putin sent an anti-aircraft missile defense system to Iran, along with more parts for the development of its nuclear reactor. You know, the one Obama was going to talk them out of with his charm. Now there is a successful foreign policy for you, well deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize. (I wonder if the Nobel committee has realized yet how much egg it has on its face.)
Obama's address to the nation last week was disjointed, rambling, and pointless, and it made Obama look weak, spineless and very unpresidential. Everybody in the world knows now that he is not believable and his influence in foreign policy, whatever little it might have been, is completely gone. Even Chris Matthews, he of the "tingling leg when Obama speaks," is beginning to question Obama's credibility.
But if that's not enough, Putin had the gall to send an op-ed to the New York Times, the most liberal Obama supporting tabloid in the country, lecturing Americans on American Exceptionalism. We aren't exceptional he told us. Obviously not under our current leadership. His article got no response from Obama. Rather, he said that he believes in American Exceptionalism in the same way that the British believe in British Exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek Exceptionalism. The problem is there is no such thing with the Brits, the Greeks, or any other nation. American Exceptionalism is an American ideal that recognizes America's greatness because of our history, our Constitution, and the spiritual and moral roots of our culture. Obama doesn't understand any of this. (Putin's piece, by the way, was full of anti-American claptrap, and even misrepresented Russia's own history under Boris Yeltsin.)
On another front, while Christianity is increasingly under attack in the US by the ACLU, the GLBT, the DOJ, the IRS, and the DOD, as well as the WHO (White House Occupant), a couple of weeks ago Vladimir Putin stood up for Christians in Russia and said they were being unfairly treated and were deserving of the same rights as everyone else. Now there is a switch. When in the history of the world has a Russian leader ever come to the defense of Christianity? And when in the history of the United States has a president ever been so hostile to Christianity, all the while claiming to be one? This is unprecedented and makes one wonder with the world being turned upside down like it is if we aren't close to the end!
There was another eye-popper this weekend. Gene Simmons, remember him? He was the lead singer of the heavy metal rock band KISS. Back in the 70's the rumor floated around Fundamentalist circles that the name stood for "Kings in Satan's Service." I don't know where that came from, but considering the demonic make up they wore and the noise they made (I hesitate to call it music) it wasn't hard to believe. As it turns out, Gene Simmons, who no longer paints his face, has a fairly decent haircut, and says he has never used drugs, is now involved in the Arena Football League. Sunday he came to the defense of Tim Tebow blasting the NFL and the people that don't like him because of his outspoken testimony, and defending his right to be a Christian and speak out about it. Then he invited him to come play in the AFL because it is good family entertainment and they want guys like Tebow. These are strange days we're living in.
Then you may have heard about the lesbian Air Force commander who brought charges against one of her veteran troops because he is a Christian and refused to recognize the gay community as a legitimate lifestyle. Several months ago I had a discussion with one of my former high school students on Facebook who has become gay and argued that God had led her to that decision. She claimed that all the gay community wants in the repeal of DADT is a fair shake and equal recognition for their service to their country. What happened to the Air Force sergeant isn't recognition, it's retribution, which is what the gay community has really wanted all along.
Something else that should be big, but apparently is being ignored by the Lame Stream Media, is the trial of Muhammed Morsi in Egypt. In testimony last week the Muslim Brotherhood defending Morsi claimed that Obama is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Did you ever wonder why Obama was so dead set on overthrowing Mubarak in favor of Morsi, on covering up for the Muslim Brotherhood terrorists that attacked and killed American embassy personnel in Libya, or on supporting the Muslim Brotherhood led rebels in Syria? He has celebrated Ramadan with Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the White House. You would think this story would be huge, but the leftwing media, as well as the Left in general, isn't about truth or anything good for America. They are about covering for their messiah to whom they have sold their souls.
And what about the onslaught of black on white violence since the Trayvon Martin verdict? Where's the outrage? According to Al not-so Sharpton, none of that is fueled by racism. Really? When they shout "Cracker" before they smash the white guys' face what else is it? When a 17 year old black youth rapes a 71 year old white woman what is it? Not to mention the Australian ball player murdered by black youths who were bored, and all the rest. It's an almost weekly occurrence. And now we have another disgruntled black guy murdering twelve people at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. Where is Obama condemning all this? Where is his presidential leadership that was going to end the divide and bring racial peace? He's a bigger instigator of racism than Jesse Jackson.
What was Obama's reaction to this shooting? He tried to use it to reignite a discussion on gun control. What he overlooks again, as do all anti-Second Amendment gun control advocates, is that D.C. has the toughest gun control laws in the country. Didn't stop this murderous rampage. Neither has it prevented some 500 murders this year in Obama's hometown, Chicago, another city with ultra strict gun control laws.
Of course, the scandals don't quit: Benghazi, IRS targeting conservatives, DOJ spying on Americans including media e-mails. There are so many you can't even keep up. A year after Benghazi, no answers, and those who were there being threatened not to testify, and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, refusing to appoint a select committee with subpoena powers to investigate. You begin to wonder if he's not somehow involved in the scandal. Boehner is also encouraging Republicans not to defund Obamacare in a Continuing Resolution. It's no wonder the Republican Party is collapsing. The leadership is in Obama's pocket as well.
(By the way, for those in Southwest Missouri, Billy Long is NOT voting to defund Obamacare in a Continuing Resolution. His explanation in a nutshell is that it is somehow illegal to do that. From my understanding, Continuing Resolutions, which I believe began under Lyndon Johnson, are unconstitutional themselves, but furthermore, anybody who would vote for a CR to continue spending at the current levels is not concerned about reining in the deficit, and needs to go. There's still time to call his office and tell him what you think before the vote on the CR and the implementation of Obamacare on October 1. I sent him an e-mail today and told him what a pathetic argument he made for not voting to defund Obamacare, especially since he doesn't have to enroll in it. I told him to do something to show he cares about his constituents not just himself.)
Well, I guess there is one piece of good news from this last week. The Million Muslim March on D.C. to protest America's unfair treatment of Muslims and insult Americans on 9/11, drew exactly 25 people. In contrast, over a million motorcyclists from all across the country showed up to declare their patriotism and support for America. Kind of makes me wish I had a hog, a black leather jacket, sunglasses and a bandana to wear on my head. That would have been a fun parade to be involved in.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Obama, the Peacemaker
On October 9, 2009, in an extraordinary decision, the Nobel Prize Committee announced that it was awarding its 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barak Obama. The committee cited Obama’s push for nuclear nonproliferation as a reason, as well a “new climate” that Obama brought to international relations, especially his attempts to improve relations with the Muslim world. The decision brought praise from Obama supporters and further strengthened his “messiah” status with many, but for others it was an incredibly shortsighted decision based on no accomplishment and only a simplistic hope for the future.
Obama was the man that was going to end America’s “cowboy” shoot from the hip image, and bring about world peace with his brilliant diplomatic skills. He was going to bring Iran to the table and talk them out of their nuclear weapon’s program. He was going to show the Islamic nations they had nothing to fear from the United States. He was going to bring about peace through his soft and compassionate tone.
What has happened since has shown how naïve those expectations were.
Obama campaigned for president condemning President Bush’s war in Iraq and declaring that his own plan of troop reduction would have American forces withdrawn by 2008. Once elected, however, he allowed the troops to be withdrawn on essentially the same time schedule that Bush had laid out, finishing operations in 2011. The War in Afghanistan, the “good war,” which then became Obama’s war, has continued on endlessly with a troop withdrawal not planned until 2014. Seventy-four percent of American casualties in the twelve-year-old war have come under Obama’s watch.
Iran has not come to the table, its nuclear ambitions continue, and the North Koreans have exploded an atomic weapon. Al Qaeda, in spite of Obama’s declaration that it is as good as defeated, is a greater threat today than it has ever been, the Middle East is in flames, and no one fears America anymore. They don’t respect America either.
Obama turned his back on Hosni Mubarak, America’s only solid Muslim ally in the Middle East, encouraged the revolt that overthrew him, and praised the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood for holding “democratic” elections. The winner, Mohammed Morsi, then set about implementing Sharia Law in Egypt, something the Egyptians were not willing to abide under, and in less than a year he was overthrown. So much for that experiment in democracy.
Obama, without the consent of Congress, illegally ordered US forces to participate in the overthrow of Moammar Khadafy in Libya, even though Khadafy had given up his nuclear ambitions and had behaved himself for some time. Ironically, Obama gave the order only after NATO nations had already attacked Libya and Khadafy was on the run leading to late night TV jokes of Obama’s leading from behind.
His only real accomplishment in foreign policy has been that he got bin Laden, a military operation rather than a diplomatic one, and something he has touted over and over again to make sure nobody forgets. As soon as the deed was done Obama and Biden publicly outed Seal Team 6, the Special Forces unit that actually got bin Laden, information that should have remained classified, and the exposure of which led to an ambush of a Chinook helicopter carrying several members of the team resulting in all of their deaths.
A civil war erupted in Syria against the tyrant Assad and has been going on for two years. When he had a chance to help the rebels early on Obama did nothing. Now elements of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda have gained control of the rebel efforts and the quandary is whether to help an oppressive dictator or the terrorists that oppose him who we are actually at war with ourselves.
A year ago Obama stated that if Assad used chemical weapons against the rebels that would be crossing a “red line” and could not be tolerated. In April when the first use of chemical weapons was revealed Obama downplayed it saying there wasn’t enough proof. But now there is undeniable proof according to the Secretary of State, John Kerry, that sarin gas has been used. Obama’s hand has been forced. In order to maintain any credibility he must act. But that brings to question the logic in Obama’s red line. Over 100,000 people have died in the Syrian civil war, but it was only the use of chemical weapons, which resulted in the deaths of a few hundred, that caused the red line to be crossed. Why? What about all the other tens of thousands killed? Don’t they matter too?
In Russia Vladimir Putin scoffed at the idea that chemical weapons have been used and warned Obama not to interfere. China issued the same warning, but last Saturday Obama decided it was necessary for the United States to take action. Then, while on the verge of starting World War III, he went out to play golf.
Obama’s diplomatic prowess, whatever it may have been, is no longer working as not one single nation signed on to help in an effort against Syria. Not even our closest ally, Great Britain, would step up. Neither would the US Congress, and when Democrats started insisting Obama had to have Congress’s approval, and some Republicans started talking about impeachment, Obama temporarily, at least, backed down, leading to scorn from Assad and the rebels, and leaving the world laughing at his inability to make not only command decisions, but intelligent ones.
Now it comes out that the most recent gas attack, the one Kerry is proclaiming to be the absolute proof, did not come from Assad’s forces. Rebels had been supplied with chemical weapons from a Saudi prince, but not knowing what they were, and not having any training in their use, they wound up gassing themselves. Does this mean that both sides have crossed the red line? And what about the Saudis? Have they crossed the red line as well? Now if Obama decides to reorder an attack the question is who should he strike?
And that brings up still another question. Remember when President Bush was trying to get support for the Iraq war and then Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the evidence showing Iraq developing or possessing weapons of mass destruction? Democrats as well as Republicans, even the United Nations, were convinced and supported the attack on Saddam Hussein. Just before the invasion began, however, long convoys of trucks were seen night after night in satellite imagery moving across the desert and into Syria. When no chemical weapons were found in Iraq, Bush’s opponents immediately began crying foul, but the question has always been whether or not those convoys took all those chemical weapons over the border into Syria.
The follow up question is obvious: Where did Assad get his chemical weapons? If he got them from Iraq then Bush was telling the truth and the Iraq war was justified.
In the meantime, the world is falling apart while Obama plays another round on the links. The messiah who was going to bring about world peace by his mere presence on the stage has utterly failed, but he apparently doesn’t think it’s important enough to interrupt his golf game. Maybe it’s time for the Nobel Prize Committee to make another extraordinary decision and demand Obama give their prize back. The new climate he has brought to international relations is a spreading firestorm with no peace in sight.
Obama was the man that was going to end America’s “cowboy” shoot from the hip image, and bring about world peace with his brilliant diplomatic skills. He was going to bring Iran to the table and talk them out of their nuclear weapon’s program. He was going to show the Islamic nations they had nothing to fear from the United States. He was going to bring about peace through his soft and compassionate tone.
What has happened since has shown how naïve those expectations were.
Obama campaigned for president condemning President Bush’s war in Iraq and declaring that his own plan of troop reduction would have American forces withdrawn by 2008. Once elected, however, he allowed the troops to be withdrawn on essentially the same time schedule that Bush had laid out, finishing operations in 2011. The War in Afghanistan, the “good war,” which then became Obama’s war, has continued on endlessly with a troop withdrawal not planned until 2014. Seventy-four percent of American casualties in the twelve-year-old war have come under Obama’s watch.
Iran has not come to the table, its nuclear ambitions continue, and the North Koreans have exploded an atomic weapon. Al Qaeda, in spite of Obama’s declaration that it is as good as defeated, is a greater threat today than it has ever been, the Middle East is in flames, and no one fears America anymore. They don’t respect America either.
Obama turned his back on Hosni Mubarak, America’s only solid Muslim ally in the Middle East, encouraged the revolt that overthrew him, and praised the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood for holding “democratic” elections. The winner, Mohammed Morsi, then set about implementing Sharia Law in Egypt, something the Egyptians were not willing to abide under, and in less than a year he was overthrown. So much for that experiment in democracy.
Obama, without the consent of Congress, illegally ordered US forces to participate in the overthrow of Moammar Khadafy in Libya, even though Khadafy had given up his nuclear ambitions and had behaved himself for some time. Ironically, Obama gave the order only after NATO nations had already attacked Libya and Khadafy was on the run leading to late night TV jokes of Obama’s leading from behind.
His only real accomplishment in foreign policy has been that he got bin Laden, a military operation rather than a diplomatic one, and something he has touted over and over again to make sure nobody forgets. As soon as the deed was done Obama and Biden publicly outed Seal Team 6, the Special Forces unit that actually got bin Laden, information that should have remained classified, and the exposure of which led to an ambush of a Chinook helicopter carrying several members of the team resulting in all of their deaths.
A civil war erupted in Syria against the tyrant Assad and has been going on for two years. When he had a chance to help the rebels early on Obama did nothing. Now elements of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda have gained control of the rebel efforts and the quandary is whether to help an oppressive dictator or the terrorists that oppose him who we are actually at war with ourselves.
A year ago Obama stated that if Assad used chemical weapons against the rebels that would be crossing a “red line” and could not be tolerated. In April when the first use of chemical weapons was revealed Obama downplayed it saying there wasn’t enough proof. But now there is undeniable proof according to the Secretary of State, John Kerry, that sarin gas has been used. Obama’s hand has been forced. In order to maintain any credibility he must act. But that brings to question the logic in Obama’s red line. Over 100,000 people have died in the Syrian civil war, but it was only the use of chemical weapons, which resulted in the deaths of a few hundred, that caused the red line to be crossed. Why? What about all the other tens of thousands killed? Don’t they matter too?
In Russia Vladimir Putin scoffed at the idea that chemical weapons have been used and warned Obama not to interfere. China issued the same warning, but last Saturday Obama decided it was necessary for the United States to take action. Then, while on the verge of starting World War III, he went out to play golf.
Obama’s diplomatic prowess, whatever it may have been, is no longer working as not one single nation signed on to help in an effort against Syria. Not even our closest ally, Great Britain, would step up. Neither would the US Congress, and when Democrats started insisting Obama had to have Congress’s approval, and some Republicans started talking about impeachment, Obama temporarily, at least, backed down, leading to scorn from Assad and the rebels, and leaving the world laughing at his inability to make not only command decisions, but intelligent ones.
Now it comes out that the most recent gas attack, the one Kerry is proclaiming to be the absolute proof, did not come from Assad’s forces. Rebels had been supplied with chemical weapons from a Saudi prince, but not knowing what they were, and not having any training in their use, they wound up gassing themselves. Does this mean that both sides have crossed the red line? And what about the Saudis? Have they crossed the red line as well? Now if Obama decides to reorder an attack the question is who should he strike?
And that brings up still another question. Remember when President Bush was trying to get support for the Iraq war and then Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the evidence showing Iraq developing or possessing weapons of mass destruction? Democrats as well as Republicans, even the United Nations, were convinced and supported the attack on Saddam Hussein. Just before the invasion began, however, long convoys of trucks were seen night after night in satellite imagery moving across the desert and into Syria. When no chemical weapons were found in Iraq, Bush’s opponents immediately began crying foul, but the question has always been whether or not those convoys took all those chemical weapons over the border into Syria.
The follow up question is obvious: Where did Assad get his chemical weapons? If he got them from Iraq then Bush was telling the truth and the Iraq war was justified.
In the meantime, the world is falling apart while Obama plays another round on the links. The messiah who was going to bring about world peace by his mere presence on the stage has utterly failed, but he apparently doesn’t think it’s important enough to interrupt his golf game. Maybe it’s time for the Nobel Prize Committee to make another extraordinary decision and demand Obama give their prize back. The new climate he has brought to international relations is a spreading firestorm with no peace in sight.
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