June 08, 2009
Know thy enemy: This is not your mother's Democratic Party
Know thy enemy: This is not your mother's Democratic Party
by Andrew Breitbart
(Andrew Breitbart is the founder of the news Web site www.breitbart.com and is co-author of "Hollywood Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon - The Case Against Celebrity." and Big Hollywood blog)
The Democratic Party's attitude to elections is admirable: Win. And recent history has shown it will do anything to do so.
When, if not now, will Republicans develop such a fighting spirit?
Democrats invest - with taxpayer money, mind you - in groups like ACORN that, among other sordid tactics, seek out Skid Row bodies and wheel them to polling places. All the Democratic National Committee needs are vans and smelling salts. Pop culture and the "education system" have done the rest, making "D" the default choice on Election Day.
Democrats brazenly take policy positions - think government services and even amnesty for illegal immigrants - not because they are the right thing to do, but because they are time-tested demographic bribes. Forget cigarettes and beer, Democrats would distribute needles, methadone, medical marijuana and biscotti in voter goodie bags if they could get away with it.
Democrats long ago jettisoned America's melting-pot ideal - E Pluribus Unum ("Out of Many, One") - because it imperils their campaign for permanent rule. Splitting the country into separate identity groups and playing them against each other works a lot better. And anyone who disagrees is a racist.
Win. Win. Win.
One of the first things President Obama attempted to do after taking office was to take control of the Census Bureau, an act that could redraw congressional districts and ensure Democratic majorities for years to come. The new president also etched out an enemies list, focusing on conservative talk-radio hosts, including Rush Limbaugh. He also appears to have singled out Fox News. Comedians and mainstream journalists who are usually contemptuous of government bullying and First Amendment threats also continue to do the president's bidding.
These overt political gestures were done amid economic chaos and mainstream media delirium to ensure permanent victory for a newly radicalized Democratic Party. Moveon.org, George Soros and the ghost of Saul Alinsky are in charge now. It's not just "tea party" protesters who think we've tilted far left. Self-avowed anarchists and open socialists proudly brandished Obama placards at well-attended May Day parades.
When elected, the Democrats dole out billion-dollar bonuses to their core supporters at taxpayers' expense. Witness the $787 billion stimulus package, an orgy of special-interest payback for labor unions, liberal activist groups and multinational corporations. One would be hard pressed to name a Democratic policy that is motivated more by principle than by winning.
Where is the media to expose this blatant corruption when the media are in the middle of the pile? NBC News, whose parent company General Electric is getting billions in stimulus cash to perpetuate Democrat-friendly "green" technologies and health care information systems, is at the forefront of a bizarre campaign to act as a check on the party that is out of power, not the party in power. NBC anchor Brian Williams bowed to the new president; MSNBC is a Fellini-esque exercise in liberal triumphalism.
With Democrats holding comfortable majorities in the House and Senate, as well as controlling the executive branch, it's only logical that the mainstream media to focus their scrutiny on Mr. Limbaugh, ex-Rep. Tom DeLay, former President George W. Bush and Sarah Palin, the governor of one of the least populous states. Right?
NBC News and MSNBC are certainly not along among the government watchdogs that have been tamed. The New York Times expends its considerable yet waning clout to ensure that our future is in a one-party state. Vocal, liberal Hollywood celebrities - on the same page as the Huffington Post and Keith Olbermann - spread the venom by making membership in the Grand Old Party seem like an anti-social act for young voters.
Such brazenly reprehensible Democratic lawmakers as Nancy Pelosi, John P. Murtha, Barney Frank, Harry Reid and Christopher J. Dodd are not trotted before the media because of their telegenic appeal and oratorical skills, but to act as symbols of what politicians can get away with it. It's a big-league taunt - like gang members in prison sporting "tear" tattoos under their eyes to brag about their kill count. Yeah ... What are you going to do about it, Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell?
Yet Democrats at least wield a logical and workable strategy to defeat their enemy. And "enemy" is precisely how they view the Republican Party.
Republicans, on the other hand, act like a snobby condo board and appear to seek out potential voters for their savoriness. The party expects pre-existing respectable organizations, Protestant churches in particular, to do the heavy lifting. In this day of dwindling Republican appeal, the party's ace in the hole is heard at the end of the polling day: "Have they counted the overseas military vote yet?" It's amazing Republicans ever win.
Most disturbing, Republicans seem to think Democrats can be their friends. Not only does the Republican Party not have a Ronald Reagan, the Democratic Party has no Tip O'Neill. Washington doesn't have end-of-the-day, cross-party social sessions over single-malt scotches. There is no bipartisanship that doesn't end in Republicans acquiescing in defeat of their core principles. A coordinated Democratic campaign against mainstream middle-of-the-road Republicanism is here to stay. And our strategy, as best as I can decipher it, is to be more liked than the last go around.
In the next election cycle, things need to be drastically different. Democracy is not Augusta National Golf Club. It's a messy free-for-all, and in a two-party system, the GOP will not survive if it doesn't accept the fact that the Democrats are its enemy and that it must begin to play for keeps. That means finding another Lee Atwater - only meaner - and not apologizing when we get him.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Wow! Excellent piece!
What Breitbart is saying was demonstrated in action yesterday in the European Elections in Europe, particularly in France.
GOP and all Conservatives should take note and study these elections closely.
France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy began a detailed, meticulously planned and executed, politics as blood sport campaign to demolish the leftist opposition, and did it.The PS (Socialist Party) was in total disarray after two years of Sarko, and in his strong campaign in the EU elections, the Socialist were literally wiped out. This giant tsunama reverberated in a wave of Rightist victories throughout Europe. I always remember when the President of France came here to visit President Bush, how much he loved America and was such a refreshing change from the past president of France. A night and day difference and what Obama is with his hate for our country. I am no hufge fan of Nichoas Sarkozy, but when he does something right I sure willl give him credit and this he has done right.
BREITBART SAYS:
“In the next election cycle, things need to be drastically different. Democracy is not Augusta National Golf Club. It’s a messy free-for-all, and in a two-party system, the GOP will not survive if it doesn’t accept the fact that the Democrats are its enemy and that it must begin to play for keeps. That means finding another Lee Atwater - only meaner - and not apologizing when we get him. “
Posted by Wild Thing at 07:50 AM | Comments (8)
June 04, 2009
Obama Knew What He Was Getting With Sotomayor
Obama Knew What He Was Getting With Sotomayor
by David Limbaugh ( this is Rush's brother)
It amazes me that for all the attention Judge Sonia Sotomayor has attracted for a racially charged statement in a 2001 speech, few are tying her attitude to President Barack Obama's. Just as he knew precisely what his 20-year pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was about and approved, he knew, prior to nominating her, what Sonia Sotomayor is about and approved. In both cases, he just didn't want us to know.
In her 2001 speech at Berkeley, Sotomayor said, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
Obama's apologists claim Sotomayor's statement was taken out of context. But the context of her prepared remarks makes the statement more -- not less -- incriminating.
The sentences preceding the statement were: "Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge (Miriam) Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice (Sandra Day) O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am ... not so sure that I agree with the statement."
First, it's important to note that she's not talking about trial judges, for example, who might be more or less lenient in their sentencing within the prescribed sentencing guidelines, but about appellate judges applying the law.
Next, Sotomayor is not just saying that as imperfect human beings, judges sometimes rule differently because, try as they might to be impartial, no human being can be totally impartial.
Nor is she merely saying that women, based on their gender, rule differently from men or that those of different nationalities rule differently based on those differences, but that they should do so and that their rulings usually are superior because of it.
Are you getting this? She is saying women and minority judges should not even strive toward objectivity, impartiality or blind justice, but should indulge their subjective experiences to apply the law with partiality aforethought, presumably to remedy past perceived or actual wrongs, even if unwarranted by objective application of the law. They should ignore or twist the law to achieve their desired policy result.
To the objection that Sotomayor was just theorizing in a harmless speech, I would respond by reminding you -- again -- of her pivotal role in that now-notorious concrete case of Ricci v. DeStefano, in which she summarily and cavalierly affirmed a district court's decision to cheat firefighters of their duly earned promotions because no black candidates passed the tests.
Talk about empathy all you want, but she and her fellow judges displayed no empathy for those who played by the rules. With strokes of their pens, they discriminated against successful candidates and caused them real damage by changing the rules after the fact -- not to mention the damage their ruling might have caused to the quality of fire departments, whose job is to save lives and property.
Those ordinarily quickest to cry "racism" are expressing outrage that certain commentators have used that term to describe Sotomayor's statements and rulings that would be universally condemned if made by, say, Trent Lott. But the fact remains that Sotomayor apparently approves of reverse discrimination, and President Obama must have known that in advance. Obama is a militant proponent of get evenism, that is, using the power of the state -- actually, misusing the power of the state -- to even the score for minorities and/or the economically less fortunate.
It was Obama, after all, who said: "Solving our racial problems in this country will require concrete steps, significant investment. We have a lot of work to do to overcome the long legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. It can't be purchased on the cheap." Are we to assume that the Civil War and the civil rights movement were "on the cheap"?
And it was Obama's Justice Department that just inexplicably dismissed a slam-dunk case against the New Black Panther members who intimidated voters and polling judges at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008. This, despite the fact that one civil rights lawyer said it was the most blatant form of voter intimidation he had ever seen and the fact that the defendants didn't even bother to file pleadings with the court or raise any defenses to the charges.
Whether or not race played a factor in this dismissal, President Obama has a long way to go before claiming he's a post-racial president. Reverse discrimination is still discrimination, and reverse racism is racism. None of us is exempted of our duty to rise above them.
Wild Thing's comment........
If ANY of the quotes attributed to the newest nominee to the Supreme Court had been uttered by an individual whose last name ended in (R), there would at this moment be an uproar throughout the land that would shake the heavens.
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....Thank you Jim for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:45 AM | Comments (4)
May 24, 2009
"Cheney Takes On The Man"...... by Kevin Jackson
I love it when the bad guy wins and gives it to "the man." Finally in the Bizarro World that is now Amerika (it's spelled 'left'), the bad guy finally won. Of whom do I speak? I speak of Cheney, a true patriot—publicly exposing Obama, a complete fraud.
Lamestream media to the rescue, because their messiah is getting publicly flogged. To think that we were told how "smart" Obama is. Well if brains were dynamite, Obama couldn't blow his nose! So taking on Cheney, a true intellectual with a real track record of achievement is just asking for trouble.
So we get reports that America is experiencing "Cheney overload." This is liberal code for "Cheney is too effective, let's create public opinion that he is the Anti-Christ." Maybe the Left is tired of Cheney, but conservatives are energized. I predict many fence-sitters are as well. "Feels good don't it!"
In confronting the worst president in history (and Obama ain't even finished polishing his turd) Cheney was absolutely brilliant—the epitome of leadership. Cheney has no dog in this fight, no agenda. As he said, he has "no favors to garner." Cheney desires but one thing…to protect America.
He speaks with eloquence and passion—backed with substance! For you liberal idiots who think the teleprompter president is riveting, take a gander at "the bad guy," the old white Republican boogeyman. Cheney speaks with the passion of reality, and not the fad of idealism.
Meanwhile, "Junior" is still trying to sell America on the idea that he is willing to do anything to protect America—anything except [fill in the blank]. In typical Obama style, he accomplishes two things in his speech: (1) demonize the previous administration for protecting us, and (2) blame America for terrorists wanting to kill us.
According to Obama, Americans are barbarians, and Bush is the former Chief of the Barbarians. Sort of like another "great" racist Democrat president Andrew Jackson calling the Native Americans "savages" for protecting their lands and families. That makes me a proud "savage."
No surprise here, but Obama wants to reserve the right to do exactly what the Bush administration did! [pp] "Just in case I need to, I reserve the right to unsay what I just said, and do what Bush did." What else is new?
Yet again Obama confirmed what conservatives know about liberals—they don't love America; they tolerate America. Liberals want to declare veterans and hard-working taxpaying conservatives as extremists; and declare terrorists as "man-made disasters."
It is long overdue that somebody stepped up and confronted the lunacy of the Left. Who better than a 40-year veteran of Washington, and no-nonsense guy like Cheney—a man of real accomplishment and credentials. Cheney has forgotten more about running a country, than the no talent hack currently occupying the void will ever know.
Barack "Empty-suit Apologist" Obama believes that the way America treats people trying to kill us has made the people trying to kill us more determined. Really? How much more determined can you get than vowing and attempting to kill us? Is there a level of heinous above that?
Here's the wrap:
Obama has produced no evidence that harsh interrogation didn't work. However, he has implied that he may have been able to coax critical information out of our enemies—maybe?
Coincidentally, the documents are unavailable—ObamaSpeak for "the documents are being altered so that I won't look like a liar. If not doctored, they will be destroyed." Or they are being put in the same vault that holds his university records and his Kenyan birth certificate.
America is fortunate to have true a patriot, a real "bad guy" like Cheney to confront the evil that now occupies the White House. I love the irony this time of the bad guy winning and sticking it to "the man." I also like that America is finally exposing who "the man" really is.
That's my rant!
Kevin Jackson
The Black Sphere blog
A lilttle about Kevin.........
"Due to the death of my mother when I was 5, I was raised by my grandparents who were staunch Democrats. I recall as a child watching Reagan give a speech in his unsuccessful run for the presidency. After Reagan finished, I said to my grandparents, “Why are we Democrats, when what we believe is what that guy [Reagan] just said?” Thus was the birth of The Black Sphere.
I am just a poor kid, who was fortunate enough to have been exposed to what the world has to offer, and I was raised to be an optimist. My grandparents instilled in me a “no excuses mentality” and work ethic. That is my definition of America,"
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Wild Thing's comment..........
Love it from the Guardian....
"Dick Cheney: Washington trembles at the return of 'Darth Vader'"
Dick Cheney was a formidable backroom operator during his eight years as vice-president in the Bush administration. Having abandoned his short-lived retirement in Wyoming, he is now leading the Republican charge against Obama from the front.
Part of the explanation for the bout of jitters is that Obama is struggling to contain an ever-growing row over the future of Guantánamo Bay and the security apparatus created by the Bush administration as part of its "war on terror". But there is another factor: the return of an opponent the Democrats had thought of as politically dead: Dick Cheney. The sinister, reclusive figure at the heart of the Bush administration, who attracted labels such as Darth Vader and Dr Strangelove, has returned to the heart of Washington and is causing havoc.
He has forced Obama on the defensive for the first time since becoming president, giving demoralised Republicans something finally to cheer about.
"Cheney is seriously the only person who's got the White House to change its policy," Dan Senor, a foreign policy adviser in the Bush administration, told the Washington Post
Cheney has rattled Obama over the proposed closure of Guantánamo and the CIA's use of waterboarding. And not only Obama, but the next most prominent Democrat after him, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who on Friday refused to answer any more questions about whether she had been briefed by the CIA about torture six years ago. She denies she was: the CIA says it did.
The conservative Weekly Standard is also cheering. Another influential conservative, William Kristol, writing in the current issue, said: "While most senior Bush alumni were in hiding, Dick Cheney - Darth Vader himself, Mr Unpopularity, the last guy you'd supposedly want out there making the case - stepped on to the field. He's made himself the Most Valuable Republican of the first four months of the Obama administration."
LOL I love this so much! The democrats are hating it, Obama is not liking it and uncomfortable.
Have any of you noticed yestersday when they played snipets of Obama talking his voice is weak. At first I thought he might be sick or have a cold. But honeslty the more I thiink about it and the reaction Cheney has gotten, I have to wonder if it is just that Obama has gotten the wind knocked out of him by VP Dick Cheney.
Thank you God!!!
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:44 AM | Comments (8)
May 20, 2009
American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper
American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper
Stanislav Mishin
The article has been reprinted with the kind permission from the author and originally appears on his blog, Mat Rodina
It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.
True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.
Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.
First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.
Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.
The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.
These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?
These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.
Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.
So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.
Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper.
So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.
The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.
The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.
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Wild Thing's comment..........
We have a president too far left for Pravda; but the MSM assures us that anyone who opposes him is an ‘extremist’.
This is an interesting article and he says a lot of things that are very acurate as to what has been happening.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:55 AM | Comments (14)
May 08, 2009
"Being Ann" ~ by Lisa De Pasquale
Being Ann
by Lisa De Pasquale
When Ann Coulter was a little girl she wanted to be “head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with a Republican president.” Or a “fairy princess.”
Instead, Coulter became the Rush Limbaugh of the printed word. She is author of six (soon to be seven) New York Times best sellers, a nationally syndicated columnist and one of the most popular speakers among young and old alike. Coulter has become the most successful conservative writer working today, with more than 3 million books sold. No 21st century conservative writer—male or female—comes even close. Like Limbaugh, her audience keeps growing. When a new book is released, liberals and delicate self-proclaimed conservatives say that “this time she’s gone too far” and predict the end of her career. The book then sells better than her last. She drives the Left into a sputtering rage, and she loves it.
I first met Coulter at the 2000 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. Following the success of her first book, “High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton,” Coulter was given CPAC’s Conservative Journalist of the Year Award. That year she also spoke at Young America’s Foundation’s journalism lunch. She has remained a favorite of young conservatives for her tenacity, wit and accessibility. Like many of them, she became active in the conservative movement during her college years.
During a time when famous people brag about their difficult childhood and airing family secrets become a badge of honor, Coulter doesn’t apologize for having a normal childhood in New Canaan, Conn. She says her parents, John and Nell, were “immeasurably important” in shaping her beliefs and career choices.
After years of boisterous political discussions with her parents and brothers around the dinner table, Coulter would blossom in the liberal stronghold of higher education. As one of Coulter’s close friends told Time magazine, “For a younger girl with two older brothers, you’ve got to learn to mix it up, stand up for yourself. Older brothers are not going to cut you any slack. If you say something stupid, you figure, next time, I’m going to be better at it.”
Coulter left Connecticut to attend Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. She said, “During my first few years of college, I was a community organizer of sorts—I went to sorority and fraternity parties, met lots of new friends, played lacrosse, went to church, chatted in the library and danced at Ujama House parties.”
It wasn’t long before she started making waves on campus. Cornell, which continues to be a breeding ground (or cemetery) for liberal thought, was the perfect environment for Coulter: “My junior year I became more of a think-tank- type political activist upon noticing I was at a world class university and hadn’t really been taking advantage of it.”
Coulter co-founded the conservative Cornell Review, which still exists today. She then went on to the University of Michigan School of Law. “I founded the University of Michigan chapter of this kooky, radical fringe group that believed in individual rights, the rule of law, and the Constitution of the United States of America, known as ‘the Federalist Society.’”
One of the highlights of her time in law school was bringing in Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia through the Federalist Society. Much like she does when faced with a hostile crowd or commentator, Coulter thrived in the liberal campus atmosphere. “To quote Bill Ayers,” she told me, “I don’t regret one minute of my student activism. In fact, I wish we had done more.”
A few years ago, I met the niece of Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce, who also attended Cornell around the same time as Coulter. Though they didn’t know one another, Luce’s niece was the photographer for the Cornell Review and other campus publications. Like Coulter, Ambassador Luce reached the height of success within the conservative movement. She was a playwright, managing editor of Vanity Fair, staunch anti-Communist, ambassador to Italy and congresswoman from Coulter’s hometown district. While at the University of Michigan School of Law, Coulter became a fan of Ambassador Luce and her smart-aleck writing.
One summer afternoon in 2000, Coulter and I spent hours in the Manuscript Room of the Library of Congress, combing through some of the more than 800 boxes of personal and professional papers that had belonged to Ambassador Luce. Coulter was keen on finding a biting line she remembered then-Congresswoman Luce saying on the House floor to a liberal congressman. She found the line and quoted it in her weekly column a few months later.
Coulter loves finding a tidbit of information or unknown fact. Though it goes unnoticed by right- and left-wing commentators alike, many of Coulter’s “outrageous” statements tend to become conventional thinking. “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” impeached a President. “Slander” busted the elite media. “Treason” vindicated Sen. Joe McCarthy and put Democrats’ patriotism into the public square. “Godless” shed light on the religious cult of liberalism. Her newest book, “Guilty,” goes a step further to expose the phony “victims” propped up by the Left.
On March 23, 1999, Coulter gave her first college speech for Young America’s Foundation (YAF) at Brandeis University. She has since spoken on more than 60 college campuses and is YAF’s most popular speaker. The foundation also says that their Ann Coulter poster is the most popular in their poster series. It graces the walls of campus dorms, military barracks across the world, and my office.
This is a wonderfully written 2 page article on Ann Coulter, to continue reading PLEASE CLICK HERE.
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Wild Thing's comment.......
I am glad we have people like Ann on our side. What a huge difference in the two parties, we just need to make the gap wider like it used to be.
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....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:40 AM | Comments (4)
May 05, 2009
"CHECK, PLEASE! " by Mark Steyn
CHECK, PLEASE!
Steyn on the World
Tuesday, 05 May 2009
HAPPY WARRIOR
At the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, they’re premiering a new ballet about a young French boy who’s befriended by a giant helium-filled balloon. Any balletomanes at the US embassy might be forgiven for assuming it to be some hastily concocted metaphor to Euro-American harmony in the Age of Obama: a lithe young Continental prancing around the stage enraptured by his dazzling bag of gas. But, as it happens, The Red Balloon is an adaptation of some fey French movie from the Fifties, when a twirling Euro-ninny and his novelty gasbag were the stuff of cinematic whimsy and not the twin pillars on which western civilization has come to rest.
As is now well known, President Obama’s outreach to the Europeans – talking up the Continent’s “leadership” in the world and managing to keep a straight face while doing it – went unreciprocated.
When it came to the good war – Afghanistan, the one the anti-Iraq types claim to be in favor of – Nato, a “military” “alliance” of 28 countries, rewarded the impeccable multilateralist with an extra 5,000 troops - or approx 180 soldiers per nation. And by “soldiers” they don’t mean men with guns who fire them at the enemy but “non-combat” forces who man the photocopier back at the barracks while the Third Infantry Division and a few brave lads from Britain, Canada and a couple of other places are up in the hills sticking it to the Taliban all day long. Our allies are happy to stand shoulder to shoulder with us, as long as there are a couple of provinces between their shoulders and ours.
On the other hand, the Obama happy talk seemed to go down well with the North Koreans, who promptly held one of their missile tests, and with members of the piratical community, who seized an American vessel for the first time in a couple of centuries. As the New York Times headline writer put it: “Standoff With Pirates Shows U.S. Power Has Limits.”
Well, all power has limits. Today, the salient feature of the modern world is the urge to self-limit. The wealthiest jurisdictions on the planet have no “power” as it’s conventionally understood – and, indeed, that’s the point: They’re projecting post-power power, which, being that it’s non-existent, has no limits whatsoever.
In 2002 the Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen gave a speech in London saying that “the EU must not develop into a military superpower but must become a great power that will not take up arms at any occasion in order to defend its own interests.”
Good luck with that. Mr Lipponen objected to my derision by suggesting I’d missed some subtle nuances of his along the way, but for the life of me I can’t see what they are. Aside from anything else, anyone urging a Continent capable of “taking up arms” would be up against basic Euro-math: You can have massive welfare or a credible military, but not both. Indeed, with Europe’s deathbed demography, the former is barely affordable even without the latter.
Shortly after 9/11, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, John Manley, conceded that his country was dining in the best restaurants without paying its way – or, as he put it, "You can't just sit at the G8 table and then, when the bill comes, go to the washroom." That’s the sort of straight talk politicians do when they want to sound as if they’re getting real but have no intention of doing so. And so the horrors of 9/11 faded, and Canada and Europe resumed their habit of dining at the Nato table and stampeding for the washroom when the check came. The idea that Continental nations are going to find money to upgrade their militaries any time soon is delusion: A few years ago, the US spent 3.4 per cent of GDP on defense, the other Nato members spent on average 1.9 per cent. The most recent figures show the US spends 4 per cent, while the rest of Nato now averages 1.7 per cent – and it’s mostly high wages for unionized armies keeping it even at that level: The Continental country with the highest defense spending is Greece, and that’s almost all on personnel. The average age of a Belgian soldier is 40 – which at least ensures that the eternal Democrat plaint that we’re sending “our children” into harm’s way is replaced with the faintly surreal alternative of sending our late middle-aged into harm’s way.
Meanwhile, Susan Rice, America’s UN ambassador, urges Iran to “halt its illicit nuclear program” and “take the steps that would enable it to be a responsible member of the international community”.
You mean like Belgium or Finland? Lacking the exquisitely refined sensibilities of Mr Lipponen, the mullahs can’t see what’s in it for them.
My old colleague at The Daily Telegraph in London, the historian Sir John Keegan, likes to say that “without armed forces a state does not exist”.
The European Union exists only because for half-a-century they’ve been under American military protection: Promoted as a counterweight to the US hegemon, the EU in fact exists only because of it.
So what happens when America embraces Euro-sized government? The US can’t buck the basic arithmetic any more than Sweden can: A social-democratic America at home presupposes cuts in Pax Americana abroad. Those allies in tough neighborhoods – Israel next to Iran; India next to Pakistan; Japan next to North Korea; Eastern Europe in the shadow of a resurgent Russia – have already noted America’s passivity in the face of explicit threats. But eventually Western Europe will, too: at the top table, the big guy is heading for the washroom.
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Wild Thing's comment........
"The Red Balloon is an adaptation of some fey French movie from the Fifties, when a twirling Euro-ninny and his novelty gasbag were the stuff of cinematic whimsy and not the twin pillars on which western civilization has come to rest."
Obama...the Red Buffoon.
"Any balletomanes at the US embassy might be forgiven for assuming it to be some hastily concocted metaphor to Euro-American harmony in the Age of Obama: a lithe young Continental prancing around the stage enraptured by his dazzling bag of gas."
LOL Steyn can really turn a phrase .
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:40 AM | Comments (4)
April 30, 2009
Muslims: 'We Do That On First Dates'
by Ann Coulter
Without any pretense of an argument, which liberals are neurologically incapable of, the mainstream media are now asserting that our wussy interrogation techniques at Guantanamo constituted "torture" and have irreparably harmed America's image abroad.
Only the second of those alleged facts is true: The president's release of the Department of Justice interrogation memos undoubtedly hurt America's image abroad, as we are snickered at in capitals around the world, where they know what real torture is. The Arabs surely view these memos as a pack of lies. What about the pills Americans have to turn us gay?
The techniques used against the most stalwart al-Qaida members, such as Abu Zubaydah, included one terrifying procedure referred to as "the attention grasp." As described in horrifying detail in the Justice Department memo, the "attention grasp" consisted of:
"(G)rasping the individual with both hands, one hand on each side of the collar opening, in a controlled and quick motion. In the same motion as the grasp, the individual is drawn toward the interrogator."
The end.
There are rumors that Dick "Darth Vader" Cheney wanted to take away the interrogators' Altoids before they administered "the grasp," but Department of Justice lawyers deemed this too cruel.
And that's not all! As the torments were gradually increased, next up the interrogation ladder came "walling." This involves pushing the terrorist against a flexible wall, during which his "head and neck are supported with a rolled hood or towel that provides a C-collar effect to prevent whiplash."
People pay to have a lot rougher stuff done to them at Six Flags Great Adventure. Indeed, with plastic walls and soft neck collars, "walling" may be the world's first method of "torture" in which all the implements were made by Fisher-Price.
As the memo darkly notes, walling doesn't cause any pain, but is supposed to induce terror by making a "loud noise": "(T)he false wall is in part constructed to create a loud sound when the individual hits it, which will further shock and surprise." (!!!)
If you need a few minutes to compose yourself after being subjected to that horror, feel free to take a break from reading now. Sometimes a cold compress on the forehead is helpful, but don't let it drip or you might end up waterboarding yourself.
The CIA's interrogation techniques couldn't be more ridiculous if they were out of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch:
Cardinal! Poke her with the soft cushions! ...
Hmm! She is made of harder stuff! Cardinal Fang! Fetch ... THE COMFY CHAIR!
So you think you are strong because you can survive the soft cushions. Well, we shall see. Biggles! Put her in the Comfy Chair! ...
Now -- you will stay in the Comfy Chair until lunchtime, with only a cup of coffee at 11.
Further up the torture ladder -- from Guantanamo, not Monty Python -- comes the "insult slap," which is designed to be virtually painless, but involves the interrogator invading "the individual's personal space."
If that doesn't work, the interrogator shows up the next day wearing the same outfit as the terrorist. (Awkward.)
I will spare you the gruesome details of the CIA's other comical interrogation techniques and leap directly to the penultimate "torture" in their arsenal: the caterpillar.
In this unspeakable brutality, a harmless caterpillar is placed in the terrorist's cell. Justice Department lawyers expressly denied the interrogators' request to trick the terrorist into believing the caterpillar was a "stinging insect."
Human rights groups have variously described being trapped in a cell with a live caterpillar as "brutal," "soul-wrenching" and, of course, "adorable."
If the terrorist manages to survive the non-stinging caterpillar maneuver -- the most fiendish method of torture ever devised by the human mind that didn't involve being forced to watch "The View" -- CIA interrogators had another sadistic trick up their sleeves.
I am not at liberty to divulge the details, except to mention the procedure's terror-inducing name: "the ladybug."
Finally, the most savage interrogation technique at Guantanamo was "waterboarding," which is only slightly rougher than the Comfy Chair.
Tens of thousands of our troops were waterboarded over the past three decades as part of their training, but not until it was done to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- mastermind of the 9/11 attack on America -- were liberal consciences shocked.
I think they were mostly shocked because they couldn't figure out how Joey Buttafuoco ended up in Guantanamo.
As non-uniformed combatants, all of the detainees at Guantanamo could have been summarily shot on the battlefield under the Laws of War.
Instead, we gave them comfy chairs, free lawyers, better food than is served in Afghani caves, prayer rugs, recreational activities and top-flight medical care -- including one terrorist who was released, whereupon he rejoined the jihad against America, after being fitted for an expensive artificial leg at Guantanamo, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.
Only three terrorists -- who could have been shot -- were waterboarded. This is not nearly as bad as "snowboarding," which is known to cause massive buttocks pain and results in approximately 10 deaths per year.
Normal human beings -- especially those who grew up with my older brother, Jimmy -- can't read the interrogation memos without laughing.
At Al-Jazeera, they don't believe these interrogation memos are for real. Muslims look at them and say: THIS IS ALL THEY'RE DOING? We do that for practice. We do that to our friends.
But The New York Times is populated with people who can't believe they live in a country where people would put a caterpillar in a terrorist's cell.
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Wild Thing's comment.........
Another winner by Ann. I love her humor that she adds and the title is perfect.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:40 AM | Comments (16)
April 26, 2009
"Pantywaist" Obama Doing the Job For Our Enemies
Barack Obama and the CIA: why does President Pantywaist hate America so badly?
Is it just me?
by Gerald Warner
If al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the rest of the Looney Tunes brigade want to kick America to death, they had better move in quickly and grab a piece of the action before Barack Obama finishes the job himself. Never in the history of the United States has a president worked so actively against the interests of his own people - not even Jimmy Carter.
Obama's problem is that he does not know who the enemy is. To him, the enemy does not squat in caves in Waziristan, clutching automatic weapons and reciting the more militant verses from the Koran: instead, it sits around at tea parties in Kentucky quoting from the US Constitution. Obama is not at war with terrorists, but with his Republican fellow citizens. He has never abandoned the campaign trail.
That is why he opened Pandora's Box by publishing the Justice Department's legal opinions on waterboarding and other hardline interrogation techniques. He cynically subordinated the national interest to his partisan desire to embarrass the Republicans. Then he had to rush to Langley, Virginia to try to reassure a demoralised CIA that had just discovered the President of the United States was an even more formidable foe than al-Qaeda.
"Don't be discouraged by what's happened the last few weeks," he told intelligence officers. Is he kidding? Thanks to him, al-Qaeda knows the private interrogation techniques available to the US intelligence agencies and can train its operatives to withstand them - or would do so, if they had not already been outlawed.
So, next time a senior al-Qaeda hood is captured, all the CIA can do is ask him nicely if he would care to reveal when a major population centre is due to be hit by a terror spectacular, or which American city is about to be irradiated by a dirty bomb. Your view of this situation will be dictated by one simple criterion: whether or not you watched the people jumping from the twin towers.
Obama promised his CIA audience that nobody would be prosecuted for past actions. That has already been contradicted by leftist groups with a revanchist ambition to put Republicans, headed if possible by Condoleezza Rice, in the dock. Talk about playing party politics with national security. Martin Scheinin, the United Nations special investigator for human rights, claims that senior figures, including former vice president Dick Cheney, could face prosecution overseas. Ponder that - once you have got over the difficulty of locating the United Nations and human rights within the same dimension.
President Pantywaist Obama should have thought twice before sitting down to play poker with Dick Cheney. The former vice president believes documents have been selectively published and that releasing more will prove how effective the interrogation techniques were. Under Dubya's administration, there was no further atrocity on American soil after 9/11.
President Pantywaist's recent world tour, cosying up to all the bad guys, excited the ambitions of America's enemies. Here, they realised, is a sucker they can really take to the cleaners. His only enemies are fellow Americans. Which prompts the question: why does President Pantywaist hate America so badly?
Wild Thing's comment.........
Good read...Loved this line: “President Pantywaist Obama should have thought twice before sitting down to play poker with Dick Cheney. “
"Obama's problem is that he does not know who the enemy is. To him, the enemy does not squat in caves in Waziristan, clutching automatic weapons and reciting the more militant verses from the Koran: instead, it sits around at tea parties in Kentucky quoting from the US Constitution. Obama is not at war with terrorists, but with his Republican fellow citizens. He has never abandoned the campaign trail."
The 60s radicals are now running the country Obama is much better fit to be a member of the Black Panther Party or the Weather Underground with his buddy Ayers then he is to be president. He is the biggest danger to our country. That would make him in violation of the oath of office to protect the nation. There is no bigger threat to America than it’s poser fake president. He is malignant destroyer, filled with hatred for what he wants to destroy.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:46 AM | Comments (6)
April 25, 2009
Ann Coulter's Mother Passes Away
Nell Husbands Martin Coulter
A lot of people claim to be my No. 1 fan -- God bless them -- but my true No. 1 fan left this world last week. My mother quietly stopped breathing last Tuesday, as she slept peacefully, holding my hand.
She was the biggest fan of all of us -- Father, me and my brothers John and Jim.
After reading the eulogy column I wrote for Father last year -- not to excess, probably only about 4,637 times -- Mother realized to her chagrin that she wouldn't be able to read the eulogy column I'd be writing for her, and started hinting that maybe I could rustle up a draft so she could take a peek.
But I couldn't do it, until I had to.
The only thing Mother wanted to be sure my brothers and I included in her remembrances were her contributions to the Republican Party, the New Canaan Republican Town Committee and the Daughters of the American Revolution.
She was a direct descendant of at least a dozen patriots who served the cause of the American Revolution and traced her lineage on both sides of her family to Puritan nonconformists who came to America in 1633 seeking religious freedom on a ship led by Pastor Thomas Hooker. Or, as Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano would call them, "A dangerous right-wing extremist hate group."
Even back in the Puritan days, Mother's female ancestors were brought up on charges for their heretical dressing styles (and then sassed the judge). During the Revolution, one female ancestor, Effie Ten Eyck Van Varick, contributed to the rebel cause by donating lead for bullets from the curtain weights in her home in what was, even then, traitorous, loyalist Manhattan.
Mother's deep-seated political activism saved me on more than one occasion.
At the 2004 Republican National Convention, I was taking my parents to a lot of the parties in New York and, at one of them, Herman Cain walked up to me and told me he was a big fan even though I probably didn't know who he was.
Cain was the former president and CEO of Godfather's Pizza who was then running for the U.S. Senate from Georgia. I had seen him on Fox News' "Cavuto" -- but I couldn't remember his name for the life of me.
Luckily for me, Mother was standing next to me and she piped in, "I know who you are -- I donated to your campaign." Thank you, Mommy!
Mother probably contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to various conservative outfits over the years -- all in her little $20 checks -- especially to any organization that claimed it was going to stop Hillary. In fact, if they mentioned Hillary in their letter, Mother sometimes made it $25.
My brothers and I always figured we'd have no inheritance, but there would be a lovely memorial to Oliver North somewhere.
Mother may have thought her most notable characteristic was her Republican activism, but, for the rest of us, it was her constant, unconditional love. She was a little love machine, spreading warmth and joy wherever she went.
Every time she'd see me, even after just a few days' absence, she'd hug me as if I had been lost in the Himalayan Mountains for the past 20 years.
On Mother's birthday last year, I had a dinner party for her with Rush Limbaugh, Conrad Black and my friends Peter and Angie.
Mother was always delighted to be with people talking about politics -- actually she told me that, lately, she was delighted to be around any conversations that didn't involve who had a doctor's appointment or who had died that day.
So I let her stay up until 3 a.m. that night, well past her bedtime. Mother was so happy that after I had her all tucked in and the lights out, I heard her singing herself to sleep.
Even on the rare occasions when I'd be cross with her, she'd completely forget about it, and within 10 seconds would be telling me what a wonderful, precious daughter I was. My brother Jimmy found out recently that she'd even forgotten that he had caused her to miss Reagan's first inauguration by getting in a car accident the night before we were leaving -- and she never should have forgotten that.
Everyone wanted my mother to be his mother. (The "his" in that sentence is grammatically correct and Mother would never let us forget it.) I'm sure everyone thinks he has the perfect mother, but we really did.
Since I was a little girl, friends, relatives and neighbors would bring their problems to Mother. She had a rare combination of being completely moral and completely nonjudgmental at the same time -- the exact opposite of liberals who have absolutely no morals and yet are ferociously judgmental.
You could tell Mother anything, get good counsel and not end up feeling worse about yourself.
Several of Mother's New Canaan friends sent us notes last week, calling her a "gentle lady" and remarking that she never had an unkind word for anyone.
As a family member, I can assure you that -- much to our annoyance -- she really did never have an unkind word for anyone. I mean, except Democrats, but not anyone she knew.
Whenever the rest of us would be making fun of someone -- trust me, always for good and sound reasons -- Mother would somehow manage to muster up a defense of the miscreant. Father would always smile and say, "Your mother defends everyone."
She was, in fact, such a "gentle lady" that I had to go to her doctors' appointments and hospital visits with her and be her Mother Lion. If officious hospital administrators had told Mother to get off a gurney, go outside in the pouring rain and stand on one foot for three hours before the doctor would see her, she'd thank them profusely and apologize for being such a bother.
She viewed her doctors' appointments as social visits, which is the other reason I'd have to go with her, to make sure we eventually got around to the business end of the appointment.
When she began her final decline last fall, she had to go to her Connecticut doctor without me to find out what was wrong. This was the first time she didn't seem to be getting better after a chemo treatment.
So I had been worrying about her appointment all day, but when I called her that night, she immediately turned the subject to me and asked me how my book was going.
I insisted on knowing if she had seen the doctor and she perked up and brightly told me that, oh yes, she had seen him, he had all my books in his office, he was worried about Obama, too, and he has such beautiful children!
Before she launched into a spirited discussion of his children's extracurricular activities and triumphs on the athletic field, I had to ask her, "Mommy, did the doctor happen to say anything about why you're feeling lousy?"
It turned out, of course, that it was the ovarian cancer -- as well as the massive amounts of poison she had been receiving to kill the cancer over the past five years. That was the beginning of the end.
Now I'll never be able to introduce my Mother to friends and surprise them with her charming Southern accent.
And I'll never see my mother's beautiful face again, at least not for the next several decades here on Earth. I've been looking at her across the room in doctors' offices over the past few years, thinking to myself: There will come a point when you won't see that face again.
Her angelic face always looked like home to me. My whole life, as soon as I'd see my mother's face I'd know I was safe, whether I was a little girl lost in a department store or a big girl with a problem, who needed her mother.
Thanks to the doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and mother's fighting Kentucky spirit, we got to see that face much longer than anyone ever expected.
So now she's with Daddy and Jesus. Every single day since Daddy died last year, Mother would say how much she missed him and gaze at his photo, telling us what an amazing man he was and repeating his little expressions and jokes. Even though I miss her, I'm glad they're together again.
I don't know about Jesus, but I think Daddy was getting impatient. But Mommy was always running a little bit late.
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Wild Thing's comment.........
God Bless you Ann. My Condolences to you and your beautiful family for the loss of your mother. God Bless
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....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 07:40 AM | Comments (6)
April 23, 2009
"Arrogant Americans, Mr. President?" by Peter Heck
As I was sitting in church waiting for the start of the service, my grandpa came walking towards me pointing his finger. No matter how old I get, and no matter how long he's been out of the U.S. Navy, that's still an intimidating sight. As he approached me, his voice quivered as he said, "We saved that continent twice...how dare my president apologize for this country's arrogance." My grandpa is right. Americans need not apologize to the world for their arrogance; rather, Americans should apologize to their forefathers for the arrogance of their president.
Barack Obama's first foreign trip as President of the United States has confirmed the naiveté so many of us feared during the election cycle. But worse than that, it has also demonstrated that our president suffers from either a complete misunderstanding of our heritage and history, or an utter contempt for it. Neither is excusable.
Garnering cheers from the French of all people, President Obama declared, "In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive." Consider that Obama spoke these words just 500 miles from the beaches of Normandy, where the sand is still stained with 65 year old blood of "arrogant Americans."
Indeed, columnist Mark Whittington observes, "One should remind Mr. Obama and the Europeans how America has 'shown arrogance' by saving Europe from itself innumerable times in the 20th Century. World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the wars in the Balkans were largely resolved by American blood, treasure, and leadership." But all that appears lost on the president's seemingly insatiable quest to mend fences he imagines have been tarnished by the bullish George W. Bush.
If Obama wishes to continue trampling the presidential tradition of showing class to former office holders and publicly trash Bush for his own personal gain, so be it. But all Americans should make clear that no man - even if he is the president - will tarnish the legacy of those Americans who have gone before us. Ours is not a history of arrogance. It is a history of courage, self-sacrifice, and honor.
When abusive monarchs repressed the masses, Americans resisted and overthrew them. When misguided policies led to the unjust oppression of fellow citizens, Americans rebelled and overturned them. When millions of impoverished and destitute wretches sought a new beginning, Americans threw open the door and welcomed them. When imperial dictators were on the march, Americans surrendered their lives to stop them. When communist thugs threatened world peace, Americans bled to defeat them. When an entire continent was overwhelmed with famine and hunger, Americans gave of themselves to sustain it. When terrorist madmen killed the innocent and subjugated millions, Americans led the fight to topple them.
This is the legacy that generations of Americans have left. If President Obama seeks stronger relations with the world community, perhaps he should begin by reminding them of these very truths, rather than condemning his own countrymen on foreign shores.
This "obsessive need to put down his own country," has caused blogger James Lewis to call President Obama a "stunningly ignorant man" who has evidently never spoken to a concentration camp survivor, a Cuban refugee, a boat person from Vietnam, a Soviet dissident, or a survivor of Mao's purges.
Unfortunately, I can no longer bring myself to give Mr. Obama that benefit of the doubt. Not after looking at the pain in my grandpa's eyes...a man who still carries shrapnel in his body from his service to this country.
As a student and teacher of history, I recognize that America has made mistakes...plenty of them, in fact. But one of the great things about our people has been their courage and humility in admitting and correcting those mistakes. God willing they will prove that willingness again in four years and correct the mistake that is the presidency of Barack Obama.
Wild Thing's comment........
I have never heard of this writer before, he is excellent. I really like what he wrote.
Obama is a traitor to our country!!! We used to punish traitors, how pathetic we are as a nation that so many no longer care if we have traitors in our government. I wish only those that voted for this Muslim would be the ones to pay the price for putting this guy in office.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 07:40 AM | Comments (9)
April 22, 2009
"The Audacity of Vanity" by Charles Krauthammer
Special Report with Brett Baier, the panel including Charles Krauthammer, was especially prescient in describing the pitfalls of Obama's South American visit, his time with Chavez, his complacent acceptance of Daniel Noriega's 50-minute anti-US screen, as well as America's endurance of Mahmoud's tirade about Israel being a "racist regime."
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The Audacity of Vanity
By Charles Krauthammer
Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast -- a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins -- would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.
What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Ronald Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final "tear down this wall" liquidation. When President John F. Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the day of his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, he was representing a country that was prepared to go to the brink of nuclear war to defend West Berlin.
Who is Obama representing? And what exactly has he done in his lifetime to merit appropriating the Brandenburg Gate as a campaign prop? What was his role in the fight against communism, the liberation of Eastern Europe, the creation of what George Bush the elder -- who presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall but modestly declined to go there for a victory lap -- called "a Europe whole and free"?
Does Obama not see the incongruity? It's as if a German pol took a campaign trip to America and demanded the Statue of Liberty as a venue for a campaign speech. (The Germans have now gently nudged Obama into looking at other venues.)
Americans are beginning to notice Obama's elevated opinion of himself. There's nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?
Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted "present" nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.
It is a subject upon which he can dilate effortlessly. In his victory speech upon winning the nomination, Obama declared it a great turning point in history -- "generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment" -- when, among other wonders, "the rise of the oceans began to slow." As Hudson Institute economist Irwin Stelzer noted in his London Daily Telegraph column, "Moses made the waters recede, but he had help." Obama apparently works alone.
Obama may think he's King Canute, but the good king ordered the tides to halt precisely to refute sycophantic aides who suggested that he had such power. Obama has no such modesty.
After all, in the words of his own slogan, "we are the ones we've been waiting for," which, translating the royal "we," means: " I am the one we've been waiting for." Amazingly, he had a quasi-presidential seal with its own Latin inscription affixed to his lectern, until general ridicule -- it was pointed out that he was not yet president -- induced him to take it down.
He lectures us that instead of worrying about immigrants learning English, "you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish" -- a language Obama does not speak. He further admonishes us on how "embarrassing" it is that Europeans are multilingual but "we go over to Europe, and all we can say is 'merci beaucoup.' " Obama speaks no French.
His fluent English does, however, feature many such admonitions, instructions and improvements. His wife assures us that President Obama will be a stern taskmaster: "Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism . . . that you come out of your isolation. . . . Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."
For the first few months of the campaign, the question about Obama was: Who is he? The question now is: Who does he think he is?
We are getting to know. Redeemer of our uninvolved, uninformed lives. Lord of the seas. And more. As he said on victory night, his rise marks the moment when "our planet began to heal." As I recall -- I'm no expert on this -- Jesus practiced his healing just on the sick. Obama operates on a larger canvas.
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Robert Godwin, PhD (Clinical psychologist) also weighs in on pathological and malignant narcissism:
“Obama seems to suffer from malignant narcissism whereby he feels he is exceptional, acts like he is exceptional and his followers believe he is exceptional. On the basis of his followers opinion, Obama feels even more justified in his exceptionalism...”
To nail that reality down further:
“..The pathological narcissist imagines he’s giving you milk when he’s actually feeding you poop; in short, he’s not a bountiful breast but a toxic a$$hole. Once you get a feel for this, you can really appreciate the ubiquity of the dynamic. Ever wonder how Noam Chomsky can be so prolific? Because the large intestine never sleeps. Likewise, mass culture is a sewer. Literally. ...
Look at Obama. What is he? That’s part of the problem, because he clearly doesn’t know. He’s certainly not “priestly” or spiritual, based upon his long-time membership in a racist cult. He’s not intellectual, based upon his skin-deep grasp of the issues, and a mind that seems to consist of little more than recycled leftist cliches with no discernible center. He’s not a warrior; quite the opposite, as he has no feel whatsoever for military culture. He’s not a leader, as his basic masculinity is too much in doubt. He’s pretending to be something, but even he doesn’t seem to know what it is. Apparently, he wasn’t even a good community agitator, like Al Sharpton. ..” ~ Gagdad Bob (Robert Godwin, PhD)
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Wild Thing's comment........
This is such a great column. I have always like Charles Krauthammer. He really nails it.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:40 AM | Comments (8)
April 20, 2009
"President of the World" by Victor Hanson
The globe is hearing a deeply pessimistic view of what America was and is.
by Victor Davis Hanson
Given Obama’s performance on his recent trip, three developments were quite astounding.
First, despite this fresh climate of atonement, there was a complete absence of a single apology from any other foreign leader — odd for the new shared spirit of multi-polarity and reciprocity.
Not a word came from Britain about colonialism. Nothing from Germany on the Holocaust, or its trade with Iran. Not a peep from France about Algeria or Vietnam.
Turkey was mum on the Armenian killings and its own tough anti-Kurdish policies. Russia said nothing about the 30 million murdered by Stalin — or its present assassinations abroad, much less its leveling of Grozny or its destruction of Afghanistan. Nothing came from China about the 70 million who perished under Mao or its present role in subsidizing North Korean nukes — or its violation of global copyright laws. We won’t hear anything in the “New Asian Hemisphere” about Muslim Uighurs or Tibet.
Second, there was no other example of “He did it!” about supposedly inept predecessors. Mr. Medvedev said nothing about Putin’s brutish rule. Sarkozy and Merkel did not trash the shady Chirac or Gazprom’s bought lobbyist Schroeder, and their role in harming the Atlantic alliance. Gordon Brown was quiet about Tony Blair and Iraq. China did not mention a reset button. The new Berlusconi did not trash the old Berlusconi.
Third, we saw no concrete evidence of any help — or hope and change — from any foreign leader. Zilch. There were expectations of American concessions, but nothing new or helpful from anyone else.
Instead I think a number of astute foreign leaders — rivals, enemies, and friends alike — have already drawn the following conclusions.
I. An Obama visit
A vast entourage will descend on your capital in campaign mode. Most of your functionaries will wish to get a photo-op with the rock-star president. The American president at some point will request a “town-hall meeting,” press conference, or open-air handshake session with the crowd. All this is largely for domestic consumption back home, and is designed to offer an antidote for the concessions or apologies that follow. It is quite successful in generating temporary goodwill toward the new Obama administration.
II. “I’m sorry.”
Obama will apologize for almost anything one can imagine. First comes the generic lamentation about Bush, the need for a reset button, and America’s characteristic “arrogance.” Then there are the “we are at fault” lines on spec, tailor-made mea culpas for the country in question.
If you are Turkish and Islamic, you get a threefer: the morally equivalent reference to the American treatment of the Indians, the pledge that we are not at war with Islam (forget that no president ever said we were), and the reminder that we are not a Christian nation.
In Europe, you receive apologies for Bush, Iraq, and the financial meltdown. Each leader gets a unique version of Obama’s somewhat narcissistic “Them, not me” — either a strain of something like “Bush did it” or “Every American except me is arrogant.” We can console ourselves only that Obama has not contextualized or apologized to the Somali pirates — yet.
III. “You’re Right!”
Differences that your country has with the United States will be resolved in your favor. Foreign leaders already sense that Obama’s success hinges on his “hope and change” ecstasy back home — which cannot for long sustain stories of difficult diplomacy and public manifestations of international trouble and acrimony, of anything really that suggests he is not mesmerizing the world in the manner he did the American electorate.
Europe? Take your pick. No more combat troops to Afghanistan; an international financial “czar”; no additional financial deficit stimuli; no Guantanamo prisoners on European shores; American acknowledgment of culpability for the financial crisis; no mention of Europe’s own reckless lending, protectionism, or pre-September 2008 declining GDP. But goodwill aplenty.
China? It gets praise when it ridicules the dollar, but offers no help on North Korea. Nothing new about trade violations. Hope is expressed that they will still buy our growing debt.
Russia? Let us count the ways. No more missile defense for Eastern Europe; no mention of Russia’s human-rights violations or its policy of serial assassination abroad; de facto abandonment of advocacy for former Soviet republics’ autonomy; Russia’s energy blackmail is Russia’s business; no help with de-nuclearizing Iran.
Turkey? Yes, Europe must let you in the EU. The new Danish NATO supreme commander must apologize for defending free speech — and, as relish, hire some of your generals; continued American assurance that we are not a Christian nation.
The Islamic World is not to be inconvenienced by any mention of radical Islam, or 9/11, or of the endemic pathologies that nourished al-Qaedism in the first place — such as gender apartheid, religious intolerance, autocracy, statism, and tribalism. Instead there is plenty of Bush-bashing, courting of Iran and Syria, caricatures of the “war on terror,” and talk of Iraq as a “mistake.”
IV. “Them”
Then comes the “separation.” Obama makes it clear to any host or foreign leader that both he and his vision of America are strangely exempt from America’s past, from Bush, and from our innately arrogant nature. That is accomplished in a number of adroit ways. There is evocation of his once-taboo middle name “Hussein” to win affection in the Middle East, but also to suggest a more Third Worldish resonance such as “I am one of you too who has grievances against ‘them.’ ”
He is beginning to mention the novelty of his racial heritage a lot, usually in the context that we are now in a new world of Obama, and that his very presence is a rejection of the old and illiberal America.
That the veteran Colin Powell and Russian-speaking Condoleezza Rice ran American foreign policy the last eight years, in a way unthinkable in Europe, is never voiced. Suggesting that China would have an Uighur foreign minister, that Saudi Arabia would have a Christian foreign minister, that France would have an Algerian foreign minister, that Germany would have a Turkish foreign minister, or that Russia would have a Chechen foreign minister is as absurd as suggesting that a Powell or Rice was never a big deal.
So what Obama leaves out about America is telling. He touches on slavery, lack of voting rights for blacks in the South (although he conflates this issue and implies to foreigners that African Americans could not vote in the North as well), our past treatment of Native Americans, and the dropping of the bomb against Japan.
These transgressions are rarely put in any historical context, much less referenced as sins of mankind shared by all of his hosts (the pedigree of murder, exploitation, and rapine of his foreign interlocutors is quite stunning). We don’t hear many references to the American Revolution, or the great tradition of American ingenuity embodied by Bell, Edison, or the Wright brothers.
We hear nothing about our Gettysburg, or our entry into World War I. Iwo Jima and the Bulge are never alluded to. Drawing the line in Korea and forcing the end of the Soviet monstrosity are taboo subjects. That we pledged the life of New York for Berlin in the Cold War is unknown. Liberating Afghanistan and Iraq from the diabolical Taliban and Saddam Hussein is left unsaid. The Civil Rights movement, the Great Society, affirmative action, and present billion-dollar foreign-aid programs apparently never existed. Millions of Africans have been saved by George Bush’s efforts at extending life-saving medicines to AIDS patients — but again, this is never referenced.
V. What’s Next?
At present the world is watching, probing, and digesting the Obama presidency. But it has already concluded that Obama is nourished by applause and will work to maintain it — not merely for personal gratification, but because he realizes that loud public endorsement is essential to his perpetual candidacy, given its absence of experience and sagacity.
Those abroad are also reassured that the American media, so heavily invested in hope and change, will do almost anything to transmogrify American embarrassments into Obama successes. Meanwhile, the contours of the new world order are clear. Iraq’s democrats are snubbed; Iran’s cutthroats are courted. A Saudi royal receives a bow; the British queen, a presumptuous squeeze — while her prime minister receives unplayable DVDs.
Pakistan released Dr. Khan and wants us to idle our Predators. Iran is adding to its centrifuges. North Korea will ready ever-more missiles. Syria lectures on the putative peace it is begged to participate in. The former Soviet republics will fall back into line, closing American supply bases or bracing for the next Putin push. Israel gets a Charles Freeman nomination; Gaza a billion U.S. dollars in aid.
The odious governments of Cuba, Libya, and Syria quite logically have now expressed warmth of some sort for Obama and expect similar treatment in return. Russia fears little challenge to the reestablishment of its 19th-century influence. Pirates in Somalia, though slightly fewer in number today, likely have little to fear going forward.
Europe had better prepare for its own defense. So should Japan. They may get more expressions of outrage when crises loom, more calls for U.N. action, but not much more than that. Expect a world of more nukes, not fewer — in direct proportion to Obama’s calls for their entire elimination.
In short, we have a return of Jimmy Carter’s postnational idealism, but this time with the charismatic face of a Ronald Reagan. For 40 years we have had well-meaning moral equivalence, utopian pacifism, and multiculturalism taught in our schools, and we are now learning that all that was not just therapy, but has insidiously become our national gospel. The world is hearing a deeply pessimistic view of what America was and is — now offered in mellifluous cadences by a messianic president who not so long ago in more unguarded moments called for more oppression studies and reparations.
President Obama will get his much-needed praise and adulation abroad, and Americans will finally be somewhat admired for a while. And thereafter, there will be real hell to pay — either abject U.S. appeasement as the world heats up, or some sort of frantic eleventh-hour hyper-response to restore stability and lost deterrence.
Just watch.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Just brilliant, Hansen nails it again. He must be seething with frustration. I know I am.
"Obama will apologize for almost anything one can imagine. First comes the generic lamentation about Bush, the need for a reset button, and America’s characteristic “arrogance.” Then there are the “we are at fault” lines on spec, tailor-made for the country in question...In Europe, you receive apologies for Bush, Iraq, and the financial meltdown. Each leader gets a unique version of Obama’s somewhat narcissistic “Them, not me” — either a strain of something like “Bush did it” or “Every American except me is arrogant.” We can console ourselves only that Obama has not contextualized or apologized to the Somali pirates — yet."
Europeans love American Presidents who slam Americans.
Apologies for the pirates are emerging. As one liberal opined, "What you have to understand about the economic problems in this part of the world is..." They're just "troubled youths" suffering from colonialist oppression, you see. They hijack ships for reparations, Obama hijacks a country.
Obama is NOT an American and has no clue what it means to be an American. The ONLY thing that animates Obama is his vision of remaking 'America' in his own image. He will make America suffer; and he will proudly put his 'big O' name on it.
......Thank you RAC for sending this to me.
RAC has a website that is awesome. 336th Assault Helicopter Company
13th Combat Aviation Battalion - 1st Aviation Brigade - Soc Trang, Republic of Vietnam
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:50 AM | Comments (16)
April 04, 2009
Hunting for the Government Goodwrench Office
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Hunting for the Government Goodwrench Office
by Lee Cary
I’d like a new pickup truck and the GM models look nice. So I went hunting for the government office that will stand behind warranties, just in case.
So I searched for the government office I’d contact if GM didn’t do all I thought it should to honor the warranty on any new truck I might buy. I believe in contingency planning.
I looked for a phone number for the Federal Warranty Guarantee Service. None. How about a Department of Government Motors Vehicle Warranties (DGMVW) on the internet? Nope.
When you don’t know what animal you’re hunting, you go to the zoo and scan the options. I printed out a healthy list of agencies from the Federal Citizen Information Center on-line. A few looked promising.
I called the National Technical Information Service. I know the workers who repair vehicles in dealerships are often called “technicians.” The nice person at the NTIS told me they only sell scientific documents to the public. Strike one.
Next, I called the Consumer Product Safety Commission hot-line. If I have trouble getting my prospective vehicle repaired by the manufacturer, GM in this case, and I drive it – that’s can be safe, right? The nice person there said they couldn’t help. He suggested I call the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). At last I had a hard lead and felt like the third try would be the charm.
The nice man at the FTC said that, yeah, he’d heard the news that the federal government was going to stand behind GM and Chrysler warranties (I don’t like Chrysler trucks, sorry), but he’d heard no further information about it. And, he didn’t know anyone who had. He suggested I call my congressman. Strike three.
I gave it one more swing, and called the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration. I explained the trouble I was having trying to find out how the U.S. government was going to stand behind vehicle warranties, and said I hoped that - since a vehicle on the highway that wasn’t operating properly because the warranty hadn’t been honored must surely represent a safety issue - maybe they could help me. No can do.
When President Obama declared that, from that day forward, the U.S. government would stand behind GM and Chrysler vehicle warranties, I suspect there was, and still is, no mechanism to do that.
I think I’ll just keep driving my old Toyota Tundra. It’s paid for.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Love how Lee Cary wrote this article.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:55 AM | Comments (8)
March 25, 2009
Mark Levin’s Book "Liberty and Tyranny"
Mark Levin’s "Liberty and Tyranny"
From Rush about this book:
"Liberty and Tyranny is a conservative manifesto and it is brilliantly written, because while it is constitutional, it is easily understandable, it is a page-turner as a novel is, and you don't find books like this that can make that claim. It is now number one at Amazon.
There are a few people who are out there fighting for our liberty. I'm one of them; Sean Hannity is another, Levin, a bunch of them out there, and we are being characterized as mean and angry, and we are being characterized as people who just say "no" to Obama. The nice, smooth, suave, debonair, yuk-it-up guys are the ones taking away our liberty. They are the ones who are usurping the Constitution and assaulting capitalism and individual liberty and freedom on a daily basis. You see, blunt, tough talk often is what you get from honest people. Smooth, evasive straw man arguments emanate from dishonest people. Now, unfortunately that's confusing to the governed because of their ignorance and the fact that their emotions are easily manipulated.
Now, Mark Levin, who is he? He's a legal scholar. He's a constitutional scholar. He runs the Landmark Legal Foundation. He was chief of staff for Ed Meese when he was attorney general in the Reagan administration. Mark Levin is a bare knuckles fighter for freedom. The left labels him mean and angry, while Obama is labeled as compassionate and reasonable and engaging, while fighting to snatch liberty from people at every turn with a heart that is as cold as ice. So we've got Levin's book, Liberty and Tyranny, it embraces liberty. It's out. It is number one wherever books are sold. Obama's plans, they're also out. They're taking it away. You can read them every day in the Washington Post, open the New York Times on Sunday, the Washington Post today, executive pay limitations, not just on TARP bailout companies, but all companies. Geithner wants to be able to take over any company that he wants to be able to take over.
The Barack Obama take-freedom-and-liberty-away from people plan is out there, and it's published in the newspapers every day, it's on ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN every day and every night. Mark Levin's book is also out, embracing liberty. There is an epic struggle that is underway, public sector versus private sector, collectivism versus the individual, liberty versus tyranny, good versus evil. You can sum all this up by saying there's an epic struggle underway, good versus evil. Our country has mislabeled scholars, journalists, late-night funny guys and Washingtonian wizards of smart, spew a relentless stream of propaganda smearing the people who fight for liberty.
They label freedom fighters as the bad guys. We're told that people like Mark Levin are the ones wearing black hats. You have to make it easy to see who to root against. We're told that people standing up for individual liberty, which, by definition, are people opposed to the Obama administration, we are the black-hatted people, we are the people you need to be afraid of, we are the ones fighting for your liberty and freedom, and we're supposed to be the ones you need to fear.
While those taking your liberty away are on Leno, they're on 60 Minutes, they're on the covers of pop culture magazines, they're trying to appear nice and funny, and one of us. It's the so-called good guys, folks, who are the ones laughing about the economy, insulting special-needs children, instigating mob rule in Connecticut, and taking time out to slander Justice Scalia as a homophobe. That's the latest from Barney Frank. That's all about the Defense of Marriage Act, and all Scalia's ever said, "I don't see marriage in the Constitution, so I don't think we should be ruling on this." Scalia is thus labeled a homophobe by Barney Frank, when all Scalia is is a brilliant constitutional scholar, as is Mark Levin. Liberty and Tyranny.
Unfortunately, it's difficult for too many Americans to know who is fighting for our liberty and who isn't. But Levin is. I can't emphasize this enough. I don't want to overdo it. It's a great book and it does meet the requirement that so many of you have asked me about. "Rush, what can I read to explain conservatism?" This starts at the founding, comes to the present, shows you the bastardization that's happened in this country. You won't recognize your country after you read this book, and that's good.
You need to understand what the left has done and how far we have come from the principles and concepts of our founding to where we are now. This is the kind of book that people will read in the bathroom with a flashlight on college campi. This is the kind of book that people will send with no return address to their parents, boyfriends and girlfriends.
This is the kind of book that's going to spread like wildfire through the underground. People who read it won't admit to having read it, they'll just claim what they've learned from it as their own knowledge. It will be passed around in various places in a plain brown wrapper, with whispers, "Read this. Don't tell anybody where you got it." And at some point, after all this happens, Levin will come under assault from the wizards of smart, and sadly, Levin will come under assault from the pseudo-conservatives on our side, the moderates, self-proclaimed, who will be threatened, 'cause this is not just an explanation of Reaganism.
This is not just an explanation of conservatism as it applies today. This is the history of the United States and how our country is being lost. It also has at the end of the book some things you can do, 'cause people also ask, 'What can I do? Okay, I've read it, what can I do?" The important thing here is to read this and to pass it along.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Fantastic, Mark Levin is so good and he deserves this book to be at the top and stay there for a long time. This book really is excellent.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:40 AM | Comments (2)
March 16, 2009
Dick Morris Asks: "Is Obama Competent?"
Does Obama Know What He Is Doing?
by Dick Morris
Conservatives are so aghast at the huge spending going on in Washington and the $1.75 trillion deficit (13 percent of our gross domestic product) it is causing them to overlook an even more basic question about the president:
Is he competent?
Does he know what he is doing?
To be specific: Does he know how to do anything other than spend money? His stimulus package, of course, took no special ability. He left the details of the projects up to the House Democrats, who are more than willing to fill in the blanks. But his two other major initiatives -- his banking and mortgage relief plans -- are both flawed and highly unlikely to solve their respective problems.
Indeed, they are so wide of the mark that one has to ask if Obama is not only a radical but also an incompetent.
The bank bailout plan seems to be largely stillborn. Having wished that the private sector would flock to invest in toxic assets if they are offered the right incentives, the treasury secretary is still hoping. Crossing his fingers seems to have replaced effective policy in his planning. To date, no massive infusion of private sector capital seems in view, and Washington is doing little more than writing checks on its overdrawn account to prop up the failing banks. That doesn't take a genius. But the difficult task of relieving the banks of toxic assets so they can rekindle the flow of loans seems to be beyond the ability of the president and his administration.
But conservatives can dismiss the utter failure of Obama's bank rescue plan, saying that he doesn't really want it to succeed. He probably wants to nationalize the banks -- and never let them go. But he can't say that, yet, and has to make a good show of doing all he can to rescue them before swallowing them whole.
But then came Obama's mortgage rescue plan, an equally flawed proposal. Clearly, Obama, liberal that he is, wants his rescue plan to work. He is anxious to bail out homeowners facing foreclosure. Those are his constituents, after all. But the mortgage rescue plan he has proposed will fall far short of the mark.
Incredibly, it excludes anyone who has lost their job and can't afford to make their payments, even if they were to spend 31 percent of their income trying to do so. If you can't come close to affording your mortgage, even if only because of a hopefully temporary loss of employment, forget about it. Obama is not going to help you.
Nor will he help you if your mortgage exceeds your home's value. One out of five mortgages now fall into this category. Obviously, the fall in property values occasioned by the depression will put more and more homeowners in this category. Certainly, a great many of those who need relief to keep their homes find that the amount of their loan exceeds the value of the underlying house and land. But they can expect no help from Obama's rescue plan.
Why would a liberal be so callous? Why would he leave so many out in the cold? Could it be that Obama simply lacks the competence to figure out how to help these folks? Could it be that he cannot devise a counter to his financial advisors who presumably wanted to exclude these folks?
And ... who induced these poor folks to buy homes they couldn't afford, anyway? It was the Clinton administration's Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros who urged Fannie Mae to spend 42 percent of its money buying mortgages for lower-income people and who suggested that they no longer require down payments. And it was his successor, Andrew Cuomo, who upped the ante to 50 percent of the Fannie portfolio. After Democrats inveigled people to buy homes they cannot afford, how can they justify passing a plan that excludes them from assistance?
It appears that Obama is at sea when it comes to financial policy, economic recovery planning and credit rescue efforts. We are not only stuck with a radical and a socialist, but possibly an incompetent one at that!
Wild Thing's comment........
Good article by Dick Morris and some things to think about.
By our standards, no he does not know what he’s doing. Hahaha
But his agenda is to destroy our country as we have known it so I say YES he does know what he is doing.
All in one month the Obama and his cabinet picks along with the rest of the Democrats in power, have put through his abortion culture of death bill to be able to kill live babies that survive abortion, he has insulted our allies, apologized to the Taliban, doubled the national debt, quadrupled the deficit, and killed the national economy. He's destroying Capitalism one step at a time so he can turn the USA into a 'socialist utopia'. (yeah, I know. That's an oxymoron lol )
Obama's call for "change" and "unity" is not so much an invitation but a command.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 07:50 AM | Comments (16)
"Sticking it to the young" by Mark Steyn
Sticking it to the young
by Mark Steyn
'Yes, we can' may become 'On second thought, no, we can't'
Just between you, me, and the old, the late middle-aged and the early middle-aged - isn't it terrific to be able to stick it to the young? I mean, imagine how bad all this economic-type stuff would be if our kids and grandkids hadn't offered to pick up the tab.
Well, OK, they didn't exactly “offer” but they did stand around behind Barack Obama at all those campaign rallies helping him look dynamic and telegenic and earnestly chanting hopey-hopey-changey-changey. And “Yes, we can!” Which is a pretty open-ended commitment.
Are you sure you young folks will be able to pay off this massive Mount Spendmore of multi-trillion-dollar debts we've piled up on you?”Yes, we can!”
We thought you would say that! God bless the youth of America! We of the Greatest Generation, the boomers and Generation X salute you, the plucky members of the Brokest Generation, the Gloomers and Generation Y, as in “Why the hell did you old coots do this to us?”
Because, as politicians like to say, it's about “the future of all our children.” And the future of all our children is that they'll be paying off the past of all their grandparents. At 12 percent of gross domestic product, this year's deficit is the highest since World War II, and prioritizes not economic vitality but massive expansion of government. But hey, it's not our problem. As John Maynard Keynes observed, “In the long run we're all dead.”
Well, most of us will be. But not you youngsters, not for a while. So we've figured it out: You're the ultimate credit market, and the rest of us are all pre-approved!
The Bailout and the Tarp and the Stimulus and the Multi-Trillion Budget and Tarp 2 and Stimulus 2 and Tarp and Stimulus Meet Frankenstein and The Wolf Man are like the old Saturday-morning cliffhanger serials your grandpa used to enjoy. But now he doesn't have to grab his walker and totter down to the Rialto, because he can just switch on the news and every week there's his plucky little hero Big Government facing the same old crisis: Why, there's yet another exciting spending bill with 12 zeroes on the end, but unfortunately there seems to be some question about whether they have the votes to pass it. Oh, no!
And then, just as the fate of another gazillion dollars of pork and waste hangs in the balance, Arlen Specter or one of those lady senators from Maine dashes to the cliff edge and gives a helping hand, and phew, this week's spendapalooza sails through. But don't worry, there'll be another exciting episode of Trillion-Buck Rogers of the 21st Century next week!
This is the biggest generational transfer of wealth in the history of the world. If you're an 18-year-old middle-class hopeychanger, look at the way your parents and grandparents live: It's not going to be like that for you. You're going to have a smaller house and a smaller car - if not a basement flat and a bus ticket. You didn't get us into this catastrophe. But you're going to be stuck with the tab, just like the Germans got stuck with paying reparations for the catastrophe of World War I.
True, the Germans were actually in the war, whereas in the current crisis you guys were just goofing around at school, dozing through Diversity Studies and hoping to ace Anger Management class. But tough. That's the way it goes.
I had the pleasure of talking to the students of Hillsdale College last week, and endeavored to explain what it is they're being lined up for in a 21st century America of more government, more regulation, less opportunity and less prosperity: When you come to take your seat at the American table (to use another phrase politicians are fond of), you'll find the geezers, boomers and X-ers have all gone to the men's room, and you're the only one sitting there when the waiter presents the check. That's you: Generation Checks.
The Teleprompter Kid says not to worry: His budget numbers are based on projections that the economy will decline 1.2 percent this year and then grow 4 percent every year thereafter. Do you believe that? In fact, does he believe that? This is the guy who keeps telling us this is the worst economic crisis in 70 years, and it turns out it's just a 1 percent decline for a couple more months and then party time resumes?
And, come to that, wasn't there a (notably unprojected) 6.2 percent drop in GDP just in the last quarter of 2008?
Whatever. Growth may be lower than projected, but who's to say all those new programs, agencies, entitlements and other boondoggles won't also turn out to cost less than anticipated? Might as well be optimistic, right?
Youth is wasted on the young, said Bernard Shaw. So the geezers appropriated it. We love the youthful sense of living in the moment, without a care, without the burdens of responsibility - free to go wild and crazy and splash out for Tony Danza in dinner theater in Florida where we bought the condo we couldn't afford.
But we also love the idealism of youth: We want to help the sick and heal the planet by voting for massive unsustainable government programs.
Like the young, we're still finding ourselves, but when we find ourselves stuck with a medical bill or a foreclosure notice it's great to be able to call home and say, “Whoops, I got into a bit of a hole this month. Do you think you could advance me a couple of trillion just to tide me over?” And if there's no one at home but a couple of second-graders, who cares? In supporting the political class in its present behavior, America has gone to the bank and given its kids a massive breach-of-trust fund.
I mentioned a few weeks ago the calamitous reality of the U.S. auto industry. General Motors has 96,000 employees but provides health benefits to more than a million people. They can never sell enough cars to make that math add up. In fact, selling cars doesn't help, as they lose money on each model.
GM is a welfare project masquerading as economic activity. And, after the Obama transformation, America will be, too.
The young need to recognize that this is their fight. They need to stop chanting along with the hopeychangey dirges and do something more effective, like form the anti-AARP: The association of Americans who'll never be able to retire.
Wild Thing's comment.......
What a great commentary! He does it with such great humor, but he’s dead serious.
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:45 AM | Comments (4)
March 11, 2009
ROCK Barack and his Baracksheviks ~ by Darth
On July 4, 1976 our nation celebrated it's Bicentennial - 200 years of freedom and liberty. How ironic that a United Kingdom musical group, Hot Chocolate, had their hit - 'You Sexy Thing' - rise to #3 on the U.S. Billboard Chart. You guessed it, it's time again to ROCK Barack and his Baracksheviks with......
YOU $EXY THANG!
by Darth
We peeps believe in miracles BRO BHO
Where are you really from
You sexy thang
Obamanation have seen the miracles
Since you came along
You sexy thang
Stimulus right into our wallet and purse - surprise
You sexy thang Mista Barack Star - we mesmorized
Neva stop what yo doing bro
Love what yo doing to me
My man "YES WE CAN" Candy Man to me
No more house payments... Free college .... It's on
Reparations signed, sealed, delivered ...
The BRO BHO Manifesto - begun
MO money... MO coin ... MO ripple, t'bird, and da wine shabang
Keep on taxen the crackers Prez Robbing Hood
You sexy thang.... Sooooooo glad
Bankruptsy is in, bad credit is cool, accountability for fools
Dig Marx, Lenin and Obama - Bye bye capitalism - WE RULE
Yesterday I was broke and poor and desperate people
Hello middle class and $350,000 crib, with a groovy steeple
MO OMNIBU$ bread.... MO Porkulicious spending gravy baby
Barackshevik Revolution in the USSR
A new United Socialist States Republic
A $EXY THANG
Wild Thing's comment.......
LOL this is great Darth, thank you.
giggle I am NO fan of Oprah so she gets to be in the graphic. She thinks Obama is sexy......YUK!
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:50 AM
| Comments (7)
Rush to Judgment by Mark Steyn Kathryn, in all the Rush-bashing, I was more disturbed by Michael Steele's wretched performance. His initial reaction — that Rush's show is "incendiary" and "ugly" — revealed: a) that he never listens to it; b) that he takes his cues from the mainstream media, for whom Rush is invariably "angry". They don't listen either. Rush is a lot of things, but "angry" isn't one of them. If you catch him for 20 minutes, you know he's full of fun, laughing it up, having a grand old time. There are a lot of angry talkshow hosts out there bellowing at the world for three hours a day, but Rush isn't one of them. (Full disclosure: I guesthost for Rush once in a while, and regard it as a signal honor for a sinister foreigner such as myself.) This first reaction is disturbing for two reasons: first, given the size of Rush's audience, it's something an RNC chairman should not be so obviously foreign to; second, it's not encouraging when the de facto face of the party accepts so unthinkingly the liberal/media framing of the issue. Then we come to Mr. Steele's second response - his reaction to the reaction to his original reaction: By apologizing for his first remarks, he opened the door for his DNC opposite number to make sport of the way he was kowtowing to the "ugly" Limbaugh. So a man who apparently shares the elite's disdain for Rush and his audience nevertheless feeds the impression that the Republican leadership is prostrate at his feet: the worst of both worlds. In two brief soundbites, Mr. Steele has managed to suggest to his own party base that he has a lazy disposition that reflexively shares the liberal biases, and to allow the wider world to portray him as a craven squish. This is not encouraging. At the very minimum, he does not appear ready for primetime.
. Mark Steyn is always so good! When an imbecile like D.L. Hughley is able to outfox you in a debate, it's time to hang it up. Michael Steele was on Sean Hannity yesterday, and Sean was practically telling him what to say, and he was still blowing it. Earmarks, for example. He agreed with Sean several times that it’s a shame Republicans have 40% of the earmarks in the budget, and they really need to explain to their voters that “not this year, not in this economic climate, wait for a year or two” and when things get back to normal they can resume bringing home the bacon “for that hospital or clinic.” No, Mr. Steele, not next year, not ever. Earmarks and pork are part of the problem, on principle. We shouldn’t be sending people to Washington to get other people’s money and bring it back for politically selected spending. Period. The other day Laura really did an awesome rant about what Michael had said and done. Before he came on she said she wanted to ask him some questions about what had happened and let him explain. Anyway, Michael came on her show and she said perhaps he got caught up in the moment, but it was still wrong no matter what. He had a chance to say something that could make up for it but instead he said everyone says things that can be taken wrong. sheesh Then Laura said, well Michael I have to ask you about something that bothers me even more then what you said about Rush although as you know I let you have it pretty strong the other day about it. What I have to ask you is about when D.L. Hughley and his guest were saying that the Republican Convention was like Nazi Germany, you nodded and said yes and nothing else. Let me play it for you Michael and I want you to tell me why you did this. She played back the tape and he got audibly upset I could tell just from listening to Laura play the tape. She then asked him well Michael what do you have to say to that. Michael said, Laura there are only 30 or so blacks visibly in the Republican party in leadership so I feel...... Laura cut in and let him have it. She minced no words in her being upset about his initial reaction on the tape and also his explanation for his agreement. Then he was thanked for being on her show and it was done. She went on to the next thing. This is so telling, there is an inner deep seeded anger that I thought Michael did not have. I was upset about both the things Michael did, the Rush thing and also the Nazi Germany thing, BOTH imo will not go away and his explanation only cemented it how he truly feels. Also please be sure to catch the very beginning of the video. It starts off when they are coming back from the break and you can hear very clearly Larry King says... "Jesus Christ" .
....Thank you Darth for writing this.
Darth
U.S. Airforce
C-5 loadmaster
84-97
March 05, 2009
Rush to Judgment by Mark Steyn
Wild Thing's comment.......
On Laura Ingraham's radio show yesterday she had Michael Steele on for a few minutes.
Here is a good example for Michael Steele to look at . Bobby Jindal on Larry King ( this is the part where he comments about Limbaugh, Michael Steele and wanting Obama to fail.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:45 AM | Comments (6)
March 04, 2009
Sweet Home Obamy! by Darth
In 1974, southern rockers - LYNYRD SKYNYRD - rocked the southern rock world with 'Sweet Home Alabama'.....
Now, it's time to ROCK Barack and his Baracksheviks with:
$WEET HOMEY OBAMY!
...... GIVE IT UP!
BIG government keeps on spending
DC's new homey one from Kenya's kin...
Polluted mainstream media elite infatuation love in
Barack Hussein Obama promises everythin...
Hell yea... I know it's a sin... Yes
Blowhard Matthews, Oberman and Blitzer sing praises about him
The 'Have Notsi' comrades voted the good ole GOP down
I hope the flag wavers will remember
The Baracksheviks don't need them around anyhow
Chorus:
$WEET HOMEY OBAMY
Former red states are turning blue
$WEET HOMEY OBAMY
Karl Marx and Castro's dreams are coming true
At 1600 Pennsy they love Obamy... True...True...True
The 'Have Notsi' socialists did what they had to do
Too bad GOPhers, the Obama Manifesto doesn't bother me
Does free housing, college and health care bother you
NO NEED TO TELL THE TRUTH
$WEET HOMEY OBAMY
Former red states are turning blue
$WEET HOMEY OBAMY
Karl Marx and Castro's dreams are coming true...
YES WE CAN, OBAMY!
Wild Thing's comment.......
Good one Darth, haha I love it.
....Thank you Darth for writing this.
Darth
U.S. Airforce
C-5 loadmaster
84-97
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:45 AM | Comments (3)
February 28, 2009
SURVIVOR...... by Darth
" We have been beaten up, degraded, and mauled daily by Barack Hussein Obama and his Baracksheviks, along with his neosocialist waffen media machine since last November. This morning I heard the following song from 1982 while driving home from work. For Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty of old and of yesteryear, and for our heroric soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coastguardsmen fighting in our war against tyranny and Islamofascism like our forefathers had done in the past, defending our freedoms and liberties that many take for granted " ~ Darth
here's............
SURVIVOR - The Eye Of The Tiger !
Risin' up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive
So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive
Chorus:
It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all in the eye of the tiger
Face to face, out in the heat
Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry
They stack the odds 'til we take to the street
For we kill with the skill to survive
(Repeat Chorus)
Risin' up, straight to the top
Have the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive
(Repeat Chorus)
THE EYE OF THE TIGER...
THE EYE OF THE TIGER...
THE EYE OF THE TIGER...
THE EYE OF THE TIGER!
Survivor (1982 - CBS Scotti Brothers) is Stephen Ellis, Frankie Sullivan, Dave Bickler,
Jim Peterik and Mark Drouboy.... FREEDOM IS NOT FREE!
Wild Thing's comment......
Thank you Darth this is great. It’s very important to have the eye of the tiger.
....Thank you Darth for writing this.
Darth
U.S. Airforce
C-5 loadmaster
84-97
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:45 AM | Comments (2)
February 25, 2009
" Socialistic."...... by Darth
Stevland Hardaway Judkins Morris was born in Saganaw Michigan on May 13, 1950.
He later CHANGED his name to Stevland Morris, and then to Stevie Wonder. This talented blind Motown singer, song writer and multi-instrumentalist rose to stardom by the age 12. His 1972 album - Talking Book - included one of his greatest hits ever -
SUPERSTITION. We'd like to honor the former 'El Toro Negro' R&B, soul, funk and psychedelic superstar with our rendition of SOCIALISTIC!
Very socialistic, the writings on the wall
Very socialistic, Wallstreet's in a downfall
Barack Hussein Obama baby, voted in by ACORN and the lower class
Four or eight years of bad times, your good times are in the past
When you believe in things you don't understand
Now millions suddenly prosper
Socialistic is the way
Very socialistic, doubt if your race takes a stand
Redistribute yo money to others... YES WE CAN
Weaken US in class warfare, making others strong
Uncle Sam is no longer healthy, RIP, dead and gone
When your income goes to comrades by popular demand
And YOU suffer
Socialistic leads the way, yeh, yeh
Very socialistic, nothing more to say
Very socialistic, Marx... now Obama's here to stay
BRO BHO's arrived baby, voted in by ACORN and the lower class
Four or eight years of bad times, your good times are in the past
When you believe in things you don't understand
Now millions suddenly prosper
Sociaistic is on the scene today, yeh, yeh, yeh!
Wild Thing's comment.......
This is great Darth, and I always hear the music playing in my mind as I read the lyrics you did. haha
....Thank you Darth for sending the article to me.
Darth
U.S. Airforce
C-5 loadmaster
84-97
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:47 AM | Comments (2)
February 23, 2009
"Dirty Money" by Darth
Texan Don Henley is a superstar in the music world. He performed countless hits as a member of The Eagles, and as a solo musician. He romanced Stevie Nicks, 007 Bond Girl Lois Chiles (Moonraker) and Battlestar Galactica's Maren Jensen. In 1995, Don married Texas model Sharon Summerall, who suffers from MS, and they have three children... From his hit DIRTY LAUNDRY ........
Darth has done a great job of updating it to............
DIRTY MONEY
We make our money off hard working taxpaying dudes
Obamessiah gives us $TIMULU$ MONEY we can use
Obamanation digs it when GOPhers and blue dogs lose
We love our dirty money
We could have lived in the ghettos, but we wound up here
We simply wait for Mr. Mailman to come monthly and appear
Thanks for paying our rent and college tuition suckers
Socialists love our dirty money
Take your money... Never enough
Take your money ... Don't frown
Take your money ... Hard working chumps
Take your money ... From the wallets of GOP and NEOCON clowns
Take your money ... You lost. BRO BHO won
Take your money ... Too bad losers in red state towns
Got orgasmic libtard media Obama babes
That come on CNN and MSNBC at five
They gleefully tell ya about the $TIMULU$ Bill freebies
From the Washington DC CCCP jive...
Dig this Obamanation infatuation love fest
Marxists love their dirty money... simply the best
Can we get mo money
Is Wallstreet dead yet
Mao said America would fall from within
Capitalism is in its final days flower power children
Wanna make a bet
THE PEOPLE demand more dirty money
1600 Pennsylvania Barack House won't tell ya what's going on
You don't really want to know just how far its gone
Just leave well enough alone
Spending our dirty $TIMULU$ money
Dirty CNN mainstream spin
Dirty progressive lies
Obama Manifesto has proportionately sliced up the economic pie
Baracksheviks want your dirty money
Obamanation: The Land of $pendo
Bye bye lower class. Now rejoice, dance and sing
America is finished. All is sad and done
You lost. BRO BHO won
Collect your $TIMULU$ MONEY!
.
Wild Thing's comment.......
That come on CNN and MSNBC at five
They gleefully tell ya about the $TIMULU$ Bill freebies
From the Washington DC CCCP jive...
Watching some of the TV political talking heads some of them act like it is Christmas and they can hardly wait for the money to arrive. Sickening.
....Thank you Darth for writing this.
Darth
U.S. Airforce
C-5 loadmaster
84-97
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:47 AM | Comments (5)
January 22, 2009
"The Obama presidency: Here comes socialism" ~ Dick Morris
The Obama presidency: Here comes socialism
by Dick Morris
2009-2010 will rank with 1913-14, 1933-36, 1964-65 and 1981-82 as years that will permanently change our government, politics and lives. Just as the stars were aligned for Wilson, Roosevelt, Johnson and Reagan, they are aligned for Obama. Simply put, we enter his administration as free-enterprise, market-dominated, laissez-faire America. We will shortly become like Germany, France, the United Kingdom, or Sweden -- a socialist democracy in which the government dominates the economy, determines private-sector priorities and offers a vastly expanded range of services to many more people at much higher taxes.
Obama will accomplish his agenda of "reform" under the rubric of "recovery." Using the electoral mandate bestowed on a Democratic Congress by restless voters and the economic power given his administration by terrified Americans, he will change our country fundamentally in the name of lifting the depression. His stimulus packages won't do much to shorten the downturn -- although they will make it less painful -- but they will do a great deal to change our nation.
In implementing his agenda, Barack Obama will emulate the example of Franklin D. Roosevelt. (Not the liberal mythology of the New Deal, but the actuality of what it accomplished.) When FDR took office, he was enormously successful in averting a total collapse of the banking system and the economy.
But his New Deal measures only succeeded in lowering the unemployment rate from 23 percent in 1933, when he took office, to 13 percent in the summer of 1937. It never went lower. And his policies of over-regulation generated such business uncertainty that they triggered a second-term recession. Unemployment in 1938 rose to 17 percent and, in 1940, on the verge of the war-driven recovery, stood at 15 percent.
But in the name of a largely unsuccessful effort to end the Depression, Roosevelt passed crucial and permanent reforms that have dominated our lives ever since, including Social Security, the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, unionization under the Wagner Act, the federal minimum wage and a host of other fundamental changes.
Obama’s record will be similar, although less wise and more destructive. He will begin by passing every program for which liberals have lusted for decades, from alternative-energy sources to school renovations, infrastructure repairs and technology enhancements.
These are all good programs, but they normally would be stretched out for years. But freed of any constraint on the deficit — indeed, empowered by a mandate to raise it as high as possible — Obama will do them all rather quickly.
But it is not his spending that will transform our political system, it is his tax and welfare policies. In the name of short-term stimulus, he will give every American family (who makes less than $200,000) a welfare check of $1,000 euphemistically called a refundable tax credit. And he will so sharply cut taxes on the middle class and the poor that the number of Americans who pay no federal income tax will rise from the current one-third of all households to more than half. In the process, he will create a permanent electoral majority that does not pay taxes, but counts on ever-expanding welfare checks from the government. The dependency on the dole, formerly limited in pre-Clinton days to 14 million women and children on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, will now grow to a clear majority of the American population.
Will he raise taxes? Why should he? With a congressional mandate to run the deficit up as high as need be, there is no reason to raise taxes now and risk aggravating the depression.
Instead, Obama will follow the opposite of the Reagan strategy. Reagan cut taxes and increased the deficit so that liberals could not increase spending. Obama will raise spending and increase the deficit so that conservatives cannot cut taxes. And, when the economy is restored, he will raise taxes with impunity, since the only people who will have to pay them would be rich Republicans.
Complete article found HERE
Wild Thing's comment........
Like a lot of Dick Morris predictions, I hope he is wrong about these also. But it is a very interesting article and one that I think is important. I never ever want to have my head in the sand or close my eyes to what is happening or mighit one day come to pass. Not when it comes to our country. If we know ahead of time the possibilities both good or bad then maybe we can be prepared in some way, if nothing else how to handle it.
Our best hope I think is his being fooled by the press fawning into overplaying his hand. The sooner the better. And one other thing, there actually are some dems in power that will vote against Obama's programs and his wanting to spend, spend, spend.
The GOP has ceased to be an effective opposition party and if they don't get their act together and vote agaisnt all these things that will hurt our country Obama would want to do then when will they, if not now when. They cannot wait till the next election because by then it will be too late.
If a majority of the electorate remains passive and easily dazzled by the celebrity cult they’re promoting, they can keep this going indefinitely no matter what kind of damage they do. It’ll be like Mussolini’s Italy with a smiley face.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:48 AM | Comments (6)
January 17, 2009
Murder Spree By People Who Refuse To Ask For Directions
Murder Spree By People Who Refuse To Ask For Directions
by Ann Coulter
In a front-page article on Jan. 2 of this year, The New York Times took a brief respite from its ongoing canonization of Barack Obama and returned to its series on violent crimes committed by returning GIs, or as I call it: "U.S. Military, Psycho Killers."
The Treason Times' banner series about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans accused of murder began in January last year but was quickly discontinued as readers noticed that the Times doggedly refused to provide any statistics comparing veteran murders with murders in any other group.
So they waited a year, hoping readers wouldn't notice they were still including no relevant comparisons.
What, for example, is the percentage of murderers among veterans compared to the percentage of murderers in the population at large -- or, more germane, in the general population of young males, inasmuch as violent crime is committed almost exclusively by young men?
Any group composed primarily of young men will contain a seemingly mammoth number of murderers.
Consider the harmless fantasy game, Dungeons and Dragons -- which happens to be played almost exclusively by young males. When murders were committed in the '80s by (1) young men, who were (2) Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts, some people concluded that factor (2), rather than factor (1), led to murderous tendencies.
Similarly, for its series about how America's bravest and finest young men are really a gang of psychopathic cutthroats, the Times triumphantly produced 121 homicides committed by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in order to pin the blame for the murders on the U.S. military.
Perhaps the Times' next major expose could be on how a huge percentage of murderers are people who won't ask for directions or share the TV remote.
Let's compare murders by veterans to murders by other 18- to 35-year-olds in the U.S. population at large.
From 1976 to 2005, 18- to 24-year-olds -- both male and more gentle females -- committed homicide at a rate of 29.9 per 100,000. Twenty-five- to 35-year-olds committed homicides at a rate of 15.8 per 100,000.
Since 9/11, about 1.6 million troops have served in either Iraq or Afghanistan. That makes the homicide rate among veterans of these wars 7.6 per 100,000 -- or about one-third the homicide rate for their age group (18 to 35) in the general population of both sexes.
But fewer than 200,000 of the 1.6 million troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been women, and the murder rate for the general population includes both males and females. Inasmuch as males commit nearly 90 percent of all murders, the rate for males in those age groups is probably nearly double the male/female combined rates, which translates to about 30 to 55 murderers per 100,000 males aged 18 to 35.
So comparing the veterans' rate of murder to only their male counterparts in the general population, we see that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are about 10 times less likely to commit a murder than non-veterans of those wars.
But as long as the Times has such a burning interest in the root causes of murder, how about considering the one factor more likely to create a murderer than any other? That is the topic we're not allowed to discuss: single motherhood.
As I describe in my new book, "Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America," controlling for socioeconomic status, race and place of residence, the strongest predictor of whether a person will end up in prison is that he was raised by a single parent. (The second strongest factor is owning a Dennis Kucinich bumper sticker.)
By 1996, 70 percent of inmates in state juvenile detention centers serving long-term sentences were raised by single mothers. Seventy percent of teenage births, dropouts, suicides, runaways, juvenile delinquents and child murderers involve children raised by single mothers. Girls raised without fathers are more sexually promiscuous and more likely to end up divorced.
A 1990 study by the left-wing Progressive Policy Institute showed that, after controlling for single motherhood, the difference in black and white crime disappeared.
Various studies come up with slightly different numbers, but all the figures are grim. A study cited in the far left-wing Village Voice found that children brought up in single-mother homes "are five times more likely to commit suicide, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape (for the boys), 20 times more likely to end up in prison, and 32 times more likely to run away from home."
With new children being born, running away, dropping out of high school and committing murder every year, it's not a static problem to analyze. But however the numbers are run, single motherhood is a societal nuclear bomb.
Many of these studies, for example, are from the '90s, when the percentage of teenagers raised by single parents was lower than it is today. In 1990, 28 percent of children under 18 were being raised in one-parent homes -- mother or father, divorced or never-married. By 2005, more than one-third of all babies born in the U.S. were illegitimate.
That's a lot of social problems in the pipeline.
Think I'm being cruel? Imagine an America with 60 to 70 percent fewer juvenile delinquents, teenage births, teenage suicides and runaways, and you will appreciate what the sainted "single mothers" have accomplished.
Even in liberals' fevered nightmares, predatory mortgage dealers, oil speculators and Ken Lay could never do as much harm to their fellow human beings as single mothers do to their own children, to say nothing of society at large.
But the Times won't run that series because liberals adore single motherhood and the dissolution of traditional marriage in America. They detest the military, so they cite a few anecdotal examples of veterans who have committed murder and hope that no one asks for details.
Wild Thing's comment.........
The NYT is trying to post an association of serving in Iraq and murder, when in fact such veterans are less likely to commit this crime than others in the same demographic.
Coulter noted that there is a factual correlation between between single motherhood and numerous social ills. I believe our government with all the programs from the LEFT has done more to encourage this then anything else. Because they want to replace fathers with a government.
Awhile back I did a post about how TV commercials are really ripping apart families. They do all they can to try and make the Dad look stupid, or silly not funny but silly, clumsy, can't do anything. It is a bad thing what they are doiing and it is propaganda. I really believe the far left want to destroy the family. They have tried their best to take over the raising of a child on some subjects that should be left to a parent to discuss with the child for one example.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:47 AM | Comments (16)
January 14, 2009
Attitude is Everything
Attitude is Everything
by Joseph Kinney
........About Joseph Kinney
A native of Kansas, Joseph Kinney joined the Marines after completing high school where he became a infantryman serving in Vietnam. Badly wounded, he was discharged, graduated from college, and became a senior aide in the United States Senate. He is writing a book on the role of church and family in the making of America's warriors. He lives in Pinehurst, NC.
.
Thirty-nine years ago I was shot in an ambush while a Marine on a night patrol in Vietnam. I had potentially fatal wounds to my chest and a serious wound to my right leg. To put matters bluntly, I had never been more terrified in my life. Would I die? And if I died, would I go to heaven? I also thought about the buddies I was leaving behind. Somehow, I wanted to believe that they would be better off without me to slow them down.
The next morning I woke up at a hospital in Da Nang. The doctors told me that my days as a fighting Marine were over. Somehow, I felt that I had more to give but wouldn't get the chance.
My history is relevant only because there are huge differences between then and now when it comes to our Wounded Warriors. For the past couple of years I have had the privilege of knowing Col. Jack Cox (USA, ret.) who is a stalwart in the Wounded Warrior Program at Fort Bragg. He has been a great friend and mentor, and has taken the time to introduce me to some of this generation's wounded.
There are at least two important differences between my generation and the young men I have seen at Fort Bragg's Womack Hospital which is near where I live. For openers, the Army acts as if the wounded person is going to remain forever a soldier. That is their basic operating assumption moving forward. Second, the attitude of these kids is amazing. These brave warriors, no matter how badly wounded they are, believe that they will soon be back with their units fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Today, there are 17 Marines who are amputees fighting in Iraq. I am certain that there are as many soldiers doing the same for the Army.
Recently, I received a widely distributed email from Col (Dr.) Brett Wyrick. He was a trauma surgeon at Balad Air Base in Iraq. He wrote: "If I ever hear (anyone) griping and complaining, I jump into them pretty quickly, now. Most people over here have nothing to gripe about compared to Marines. Marines are different. They have a different outlook on life . . .
"One Marine Private was here for several days because he was a lower priority evacuation patient. He insisted on coming to attention and displaying proper military courtesy every morning when I came through on rounds. He was in a great deal of pain, and it was a stressful to watch him work his way off the bed and onto his crutches. I told him he was excused and did not have to come to attention while he was a patient, and he informed me he was a good Marine and would address '. . . Air Force colonels standing on my feet, sir.' I had to turn away so he would not see the tear in my eye. He did not have 'feet' because we amputated his right leg below the knee on the first night he came in.
"I asked a Marine Lance Corporal if there was anything I could get him as I was making rounds one morning. He was an above the knee amputation after an IED blast, and he surprised me when he asked for a trigonometry book. 'You enjoy math do you?' He replied, 'Not particularly, sir. I was never good at it, but I need to get good at it, now.' 'Are you planning on going back to school?' I asked. 'No sir, I am planning on shooting artillery. I will slow an infantry platoon down with just one good leg, but I am going to get good at math and learn how to shoot artillery.' I hope he does.
"I had the sad duty of standing over a young Marine sergeant when he recovered from anesthesia—despite our best efforts there was just no way to save his left arm, and it had to come off just below the elbow. 'Can I have my arm back, sir?' he asked. 'No, we had to cut it off, we cannot re-attach it,' I said. 'But can I have my arm?' he asked again. 'You see, we had to cut it off.' He interrupted, 'I know you had to cut it off, but I want it back. It must in a bag or something, sir.' 'Why do you want it?' I asked. 'I am going to have it stuffed and use it as a club when I get back to my unit.' I must have looked shocked because he tried to comfort me, 'Don't you worry now, colonel. You did a fine job, and I hardly hurt at all; besides I write with my other hand anyway.'
Now, please tell me that these young guys aren't the Greatest Generation that has ever lived.
Wild Thing's comment........
I have such tremendous respect for those that have served our country, in the past and those in the war we are in now. Everyone of them is a true warrior. I agree with this writer and Marine Joseph Kinney. His writing is powerful and I wish everyone could read this.
Thank you with all my heart to those who have served and are serving now.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:50 AM | Comments (7)
January 12, 2009
"One Pissed-Off Dude" by Gary Graham
One Pissed-Off Dude
by Gary Graham
I’m an American. This has always been my favorite label, but of late even that has seemed to mean less and less. Being called an American used to carry with it a certain pride and esprit de corps that now apparently is dated and passe. How else can one explain the rash of America-haters in our midst who only claim pride in America if a Leftist resides in the White House, and can only back a war effort if the decision to go to war was that of a Democrat.
I’m a Conservative. And I am also an actor who lives and works in Hollywood. Many of my friends advise me to keep that on the down-low, advise me to not speak up lest I scuttle any future employment prospects, so predominantly liberal is the entertainment biz. And yet I persist.
You see, I’m one pissed-off dude.
I’m told I’ll hurt my career if I continually spout off about Liberalism — which I see as a growing cancer in our society. Worldwide, I’ve seen Liberalism metastasize into virulent incarnations of Socialism, and, left unchecked, even into its malignant cousin, Communism. Only the arrogant or the somnambulist would think such a thing could never happen here. It’s a matter of increment. Once a group organizes into a coalition, it’s a short step to claiming the right to the property of another group. All that is necessary is for an individual’s right to personal property to become a secondary concern. The ‘needs’ of the group must supercede, dontcha know. It’s a vicious cycle – wants become needs become rights. The fact that the thievery is done at the behest of a ‘civilized’ government does not sanitize the crime.
“At least the highwayman has the decency to wear a mask.” – Author unknown.
So I’m told I should shut up. I make my living in the Hollywood community, and Hollywood is by and large run by Liberals. I’m told I need to stay quiet when the Left has their way over issues that affect my daily life. I’m told I need to learn how to get along with the Left, learn how to compromise. I need to be more open-minded. I need to be more tolerant.
I say F T S. Ask your 9-yr-old if you have trouble deciphering that. (No, wait, don’t.)
I don’t want to get along with the Left. I want to take them down. I want to expose their idiocy for what it is and reveal it as a harmful, dangerous succession of lies and deceptions. My friends say that that effort, aside from being fruitless, will cost me work. It will cost me my career. And I say Wait-a-minute, Bucko. Those folks who founded this country were willing to risk not only their careers, but their property, their families, their very lives…the least I can do in standing up for our precious freedoms is risk a silly television career. Not to compare myself with the brilliant thinkers who declared themselves independent of England and framed our Constitution…but those were some pretty pissed off dudes too. Compared to that, loss of a little TV or movie work seems pretty inconsequential. So in honor of Pissed Off Americans past and present, I rant.
I’m pissed off that everyone seems okay on having to press one for English. We’re supposed to be tolerant and understanding that maybe some folks who now live here (legally or not) might have trouble understanding what I’m saying to them if I speak in my native tongue, regardless of the extra cost to the rest of us. FTS.
I’m pissed that my sweet well-wishing friends and acquaintances now say “Happy Holidays” instead of Merry Christmas. Oh, we don’t want to offend the non-Christians, they’ll say. Again – FTS. ‘Happy Holidays’…nice and non-specific, soothingly generic. In keeping with the spirit of the season, I try not to show it – but I roll my eyes. Jeez, could you be any more spineless? Everybody walk on eggshells for the rest of your lives, living in perptual fear someone who holds a different religion, or sexual preference, or nationality is going to suffer some little offense if you actually wish them a lovely Christmas. “Oh we don’t celebrate Christmas.” “Oh, I’m so terribly sorry, I don’t mean to offend you. Please enjoy the Holiday of Winter Solstice and Earth Renewal Day or whatever your heart leads to celebrate, if indeed you are even feeling like celebrating anything.” Shut up! Smile and say thanks. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Ramadan, Soulful Kwanzaa…whatever. Smile and say Thanks.
Can we all stop taking ourselves so damn seriously for half a minute? Hey – life ain’t a popularity contest. So grow a pair. Speak your mind and if someone can’t handle it, request that they take a hike. How the hell did we ever survive life before the all-knowing, all-caring ACLU began to run interference for all our tender sensibilities? It’s a wonder any of us grew up without some crippling psychosis that drove us to chop up our grandmother. I’m old enough to remember when Common Sense ruled the day. (*cue the Cranky Old Man music)
It irks me that Democrats are always looking to raise my taxes. I’m patriotic if I take it up the bum and don’t squeal. What’s worse, they don’t even have the integrity to call them taxes. They call them ‘fees’, or even, ‘contributions’. As I learned the word, a contribution is a volitional act. Left to free choice, I say I choose to not contribute more than I already do. Let all those who say we are overtaxed stand up with me. Those who think different can form a line to the left…and we on the right will leave you completely free to contribute more. Raising taxes takes food off my family’s table. I regard people who advocate doing so in the same vein as I would the burglar I confront in the dead of night – an enemy.
I’m pissed that I study the political issues of the day, educate myself, stay informed daily by a multitude of news sources from all slants…and yet, come election day, my informed vote is cancelled by some numbskull who votes for the nicest smile, who doesn’t know who the current vice-president is, or which party controls Congress, and what’s more, doesn’t care. Am I the only one who thinks a basic intelligence and general knowledge test should be a prerequisite for voting for our leaders? No? Too radical a notion? Well, then, why not just make the winner of American Idol president and save all the drama? Everyone can text in their vote. And Paula, Randy, and Simon… the new cabinet. “Tonight the State of the Union speech will be sung by the President, backed up by Rascal Flatts…and special guest duet with Secretary of State David Archuleta…”
I’m pissed off by how soft many in our nation have become. How whimpy the tone, how spineless the resolve. What happened to that brutally real notion that people should be held responsible for his or her actions? Nowadays, it always seems to be someone else’s fault, whatever it is. Got a life of poverty, it’s rich folks doing it to you.
Alcohol addiction, substance abuse, your mother never said she loves you. Having trouble finding work, it’s the white, black, purple guys keeping you down. Your car company is going under, it’s the unfair business practices abroad and an economic downturn. Hey, nimrods – newsflash. LIFE IS HARD. The End. Get used to it, suck it up, get some spine, invent some if you have none, and GET ON WITH IT!!!! I’d like to offer, in utter compassion, and speaking on behalf of at least several like-minded bretheren out there, a class-action BITCH-SLAP to every mamby-pamby, limp-wristed douche-bag of a complainer who has the audacity to hope that we hard-working, God-fearing, America-loving taxpayers should be forced to give you one penny of our income to enable you further in your responsibility-shirking, self-destructive habits. Get your collective shiite together, friends. I am not, nor are my friends, my brother’s keeper. Though my heart is open enough to come to someone’s need should an honest and sincere calamity befall a brother or sister… when did destitution become a virtue? Did my snooze button malfunction causing me to oversleep a couple decades? When did begging become a noble venture? You see them standing there bravely, “God bless”and something about ‘can’t find work’ scrawled on their cardboard. Victims of society, of Bush/Cheney, of Ronald Reagan, of any heartless Republican administration. And worse – hey, I’ve seen the sign people on the offramps, I’ve seen the green flow as we assuage our prosperity guilt – these guys are cleaning up! Am I in the wrong business? When, dear friends, did panhandling become a lucrative industry? FTS!
(Side note: I’ve personally offered several of these beggars who had written “Will work for food” to buy them lunch if they’ll do some yard work and fence painting for me, and the reaction was always the same. Hell no! They just want cash, right now! Hmmm…and yet the sign said… Forget about the begging, whatever happened to truth in advertising?)
Who can identify virtue, when there is no shame?
And speaking of shame…have you on the Left no shame when it comes to calling evil EVIL? What’s in a name — a terrorist by any other name is a ‘Jihadist’. A freedom fighter. A rebel. But when are we going to admit that there is an evil movement out there dedicated to our destruction. And it ain’t Sarah Palin and George Bush. It’s radical Islam and they want to cut your personal head off simply because you’re not throwing in with them.
You’re not on your knees worshiping their boy Allah, so for this you and everyone like you all over the world must die and die now. But wait, it’s a ‘religion of peace’, we’re told. Wow, not the last time I looked. If Islam is a religion of peace, where are all the peace-loving Muslim leaders decrying the radicals’ murderous actions? The beheadings, the suicide bombings, the IED’s, the blowing up innocents on buses? Where are the peaceful Islamists’ protests against Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Queda, et al? You are a frog in a pot, Lefty – being boiled slowly, apparently too slowly for you to notice. Too much Climate Change on your mind to notice that the barbarians are at the gate. When the Nazis stormed into Jewish homes in 1939 I’m sure there were more than a few head-in-the sand myopic residents screaming about the troopers tracking mud on the carpet. If only they had had the ACLU to save the day… Human rights and clean carpets surely would have abound.
Speaking of climate change, while we’re at it…if the argument is over…and the facts are clear…how is it we can predict the climate twenty years hence, when we can’t even predict with much accuracy if my ass is going to get wet attending my friend’s kid’s Bar Mitzvah next weekend. When did we give the title to anyone with a PhD in front of their name the added moniker of ‘Soothsayer’? I read Paul Erhlich’s book, THE POPULATION BOMB in the early ‘70’s and it scared the begeebers out of me. By his prediction, each human being in 2008 would have less than a square meter of space to live in. (William F. Buckley voice: “Ahh…Mr. Erhlich was unavailable for comment, ahhh… but stressed the importance of keeping his line clear, lest the Nobel Prize committee call.”) And Mr. Gore – I do believe in Climate Change. It’s called summer, spring, winter and fall. Happens each year whether I drive my SUV or not. FTS!
Before I came up with the inspired notion of tossing my life away and becoming an actor…I was fully ensconsed in the science department at the University of California, Irvine. I know the way it works. The professors confided in me. You need a problem to study, better yet a crisis, or you don’t get funding for your research. It’s that simple. One professor of botany told me that these very high-tech ultra-violet cameras we were frolicking through the fields looking at flowers through cost the University $200 thousand dollars. Off my open-mouthed gape, he shrugged, “Gotta spend the money, or next year they cut us back.” So yeah, you’re going to find a ton of scientists who swear we’re killing the planet…and we desperately need another three million dollars to study the problem.
I’m confident I could find two hundred accredited scientists to join me in an exhaustive study to find out why belly button lint is demagnetizing the moon leading to global flooding…if only Bill Gates will step up with some coin. FTS!
Lastly…can we finally be done with all the hatred? George Bush is very soon to be out of a job. Time to let up on him a bit, don’t you think? Erase the hate, Lefties. You can stop proclaiming him to be the anti-christ, evil incarnate, the boogeyman, Darth Vader, or the Heartbreak of Psoriasis. The guy did his best. Like him, don’t like him, he kept us from attack for seven-and-a-half years so let it go. Your guy is in now, so relax. Have fun again. Laugh without derision. Smile without the snide. You remember how? Take off your flak jackets, it’s going to be okay. Our brave warriors did some serious ass-kicking in the Middle East, and though there’s no shortage of crazy Islamo-fascist bad guys yet to come, at least they know who they’re f*cking with.
Somehow along the way, so many of you forgot one simple, undeniable tenet: We’re the good guys. We’re not imperialists, or else we would’ve nuked the oil countries into radioactive dust, then moved in and taken the oil. We don’t ‘torture’ prisoners, or lawyers for the Gitmo ‘detainees’ would have CNN photographing the horrid scars and missing limbs. We don’t bully smaller, less developed nations. On the contrary, we expend our more precious asset: the blood of our brave, bright and courageous young men and women – all in committed effort to free them from despotic, brutal dictators. We are not brash. In 1991 we amassed a coalition of 34 nations before we acted to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and this after months and months of negotiations and U.N. resolutions. Twelve years later after waiting six months and seeing fourteen U.N. resolutions ignored by Hussein, George W. Bush had accrued a multi-national coalition and a majority vote in Congress before sending troops into Iraq. We are the big dog on the block. And yet we ask no penance from lesser countries. Instead we offer aid in the form of cash, medicine, and humanitarian help. When we go after bad guys in war, we don’t carpet bomb, or blow up civilian-filled buses. We have smart bombs that pinpoint targets to limit collateral civilian casualites. We’re the good guys. Only an entrenched self-loathing hatred of America will prevent you from seeing that. If that’s the case, you have my sympathy. But don’t let the door hit you on the way out. And yes, this is our country, whether a Democrat of a Republican occupies the White House.
Yeah, a lot of things piss me off. But I’m a ridiculously happy guy. I’m blessed with a wonderful family, terrific friends (many, many of them Liberals, oh yes), a strong Faith in God and a sweet certainty that this nation is on the side of good in the world…and that that good will overcome the bad.
I was asked by the founder of this site to write an article… an ‘opening salvo’. Considering who might read it, and who in Hollywood might be incensed, the temptation to parse words and couch my opinions was strong. But the guy in the mirror counsels me the loudest. I was always impressed with John Hancock, when, reminded that signing one’s name to that Declaration in Pennsylvania could very well lead to their deaths…solemnly stepped forward and with grand flourish signed his name in huge, legible script. In that grand spirit…
I hereby declare my independence…from the small-minded, America-hating, race-bating, Christian-bashing, class-warfare-waging, politically-correct, collectivist, Liberal Hollywood establishment.
Anybody got a problem with that, I’ll mapquest you directions to my front door, we’ll settle it like men.
Wild Thing's comment..........
This is an awesome article! A big thank you to Gary Graham for writing what needed to be said.
Somethiing about Gary you might like to know.
"Gary Graham was born in Long Beach, California and grew up in and around Orange County. The son of a medical doctor, he too aspired to a career in medicine. However, despite showing prowess in the medical sciences, Gary left pre-med to study theater arts at the University of California, Irvine, in the early seventies, before he won his first feature film role opposite George C. Scott in “HARDCORE.” Since that time Gary has appeared in numerous feature films such as “ROBOT JOX”, “THE LAST WARRIOR”, “MAN TROUBLE”, and “HOLLYWOOD KNIGHTS”, many TV movies and series, and from 1990 to 1996 starred as Matt Sikes in FOX TV's “ALIEN NATION”. More recently he was seen in recurring roles as Capt. Ingles on “J.A.G.” and as Ambassador Soval in “STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE”. Still active in the film business, Gary now is a producer for the new reality TV show, “THE ULTIMATE SHOOTER” and is working with Jace Hall and HD FILMS at Warner Brothers writing and producing the new internet webseries, “WHAT IF..?” He lives in a small town outside of Los Angeles, where he enjoys spending time with his family, working weekends as a volunteer Ski Patroller, golfing and flying."
......Thank you RAC for sending this to me.
RAC has a website that is awesome. 336th Assault Helicopter Company
13th Combat Aviation Battalion - 1st Aviation Brigade - Soc Trang, Republic of Vietnam
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:50 AM | Comments (22)
December 21, 2008
Yes, Delaware There Is A Santa Claus!
Yes, Delaware There Is A Santa Claus!
The DOVER POST
By Darth
Delaware, your disbelieving politically correct friends are incorrect this time. Perhaps they have been bitten by the humbugs from Christmastime past, or have been negatively influenced by modern day Scrooges and Grinches. Yes sir! Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas and Kris Kringle are alive and well!
Oh, what a yuletide joy, to see the faces of children after seeing what Santa Claus has delivered under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning! Only a few hours before, while tucked into their beds, they dreamed about eight rugged reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh from the North Pole skies down to Austrailia, and across the seas to the Hawaiian Islands...
Yes, Delaware, Jolly Old St. Nick exists on radio broadcasts, television shows, movie screens, and can be read about in dictionaries, books, novels and even on the Internet.
More importantly, Santa Claus lives in the hearts and minds of Christmastime believers worldwide. He lives in the writings of Washington Irving, Clement Clarke Moore, Charles Dickens and Thomas Nast.
Not BELIEVE in Santa Claus? You might not as well believe in kindness, goodness, charity and goodwill on earth! True, there are times when Santa Claus can't be seen, but does this mean that he doesn't really exist? I ask you, Delaware, can we really see kindness, charity and goodwill all the time? Can hope and faith be gift-wrapped and sealed with a pretty ribbon or a bow?
NO Santa Claus?
Thank God that Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas and Kris Kringle exist today, and live forever and ever through the ages.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, Delaware!
Wild Thing's comment.......
Thank you Darth for being a part of Team Theodore and for this article.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:47 AM | Comments (4)
December 15, 2008
Dear Car Czar.... by Oliver North
Dear Car Czar
by Oliver North
To Whom It May Concern:
Forgive the ambiguity of the salutation; I didn't know whether to address this missive to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and "Dear Car Czar" just sounded so, well, tacky.
Let's cut to the chase. I need a new car. I'm not asking for a bailout or anything like that. I just need some good advice, and I am hoping one or all of you can help. Here are the facts:
First, we only buy American cars in my family. My dad fought in World War II, and I always have been afraid he would rise up out of the grave and haunt me if I bought one of those Japanese or German machines. Perhaps you can recommend a pill or some kind of counseling for this problem.
I currently am driving an 8-year-old Oldsmobile, and the odometer is pushing a quarter-million miles. Yes, I know that makes me part of the problem. My wife and I just don't buy cars often enough because we don't buy things we can't afford. Silly, I know, but after 40 years of marriage, we're kind of stuck in our ways.
If it makes any difference, in my family we also have a Chrysler PT Cruiser and a Ford truck. They all are paid for, so I guess we don't qualify for federal help in paying them off. And that gets me back to the big question: What kind of car should I get?
During my career, I've driven jeeps, Humvees and even a few tanks. I once owned a Shelby Cobra, but we traded it in for a station wagon when we started having kids. My wife suggested that given my advanced age and the sad state of our economy, I should get a Winnebago. She says that way, if the bank foreclosed on our home, at least we would have a place to live.
I can't get a new Oldsmobile (is that an oxymoron?) because GM doesn't make them anymore. Speaker Pelosi said, "Come March 31, it is our hope that there will be a viable automotive industry in our country." "Hope"? I'm shopping in Virginia. Where is Hope?
In the past when I shopped for a new car, I asked friends about their recent purchases, read newspaper advertisements, paid attention to television or radio commercials, and picked up Car and Driver magazine. After compiling what Washingtonians call a "shortlist," I consulted Consumer Reports to determine how my choices ranked against similar autos. Then I bought what I could afford from a dealer I trusted.
Given what happened on Capitol Hill this week, it's clear that my way of car shopping is hopelessly outdated. Today's experts on the automobile that's best for my family and me are the members of Congress. (Please note that this acknowledgment is not meant as a slight to President-elect Barack Obama, known in our house as "PEBO." During the recent presidential campaign, PEBO admonished us all to keep our tires properly inflated. Thank you for the tip.)
PEBO's help notwithstanding, the recent congressional hearings raised questions I never had thought to ask when car shopping. For example, Sen. Chuck Schumer told auto executives that it is "unacceptable" to continue building cars with internal-combustion engines and that I should be able to buy a "plug-in hybrid electric car." Does Mr. Schumer know of such a car I can afford that would allow me to make my daily 150-mile round trip commute? If I don't make it home, will he give me a ride?
Can you give me a hint as to which of the Big Three automakers Congress will allow to survive? Will you permit the dealer where I purchase a car to stay in business? Should I get the extended warranty?
While driving, I listen to talk radio and would like to have satellite radio installed, but not if Congress is going to insist on the Fairness Doctrine. Will you?
If I get the tow package, will Sen. Chris Dodd accuse me of owning an "inefficient, gas-guzzling" vehicle and of dismissing "the threat of global warming"?
If I put down a minimal deposit at the time of purchase and then wait a few months and default on my loan, will the federal government bail me out? Because the feds will own the automakers, should I call the Department of Transportation or the "car czar" when I need a tuneup?
The best solution for my problem is to have a member of Congress join me while I hunt for a new car. I hope the member you assign can "kick the tires" and answer some of these questions — and one other:
Congress has insisted that auto company executives achieve performance standards or be financially penalized. The CEOs of Chrysler, Ford and GM all are working for $1 per year. Shouldn't congressional pay be adjusted the same way?
Oliver North
Vietnam Veteran
Unit 3rd Battalion 8th Marines
2nd Marine Division
Wild Thing's comment.........
LOL I love this article North wrote.
PEBO = President-elect Barack Obama
Or it could be hahaa
PEBO = Pretend Emperor Behaving Obnoxiously
Hahahaha Love that Oliver North.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:50 AM | Comments (14)
November 17, 2008
Orwell's Children
Orwell's Children
By Bruce Walker
It has been sixty years since George Orwell wrote his chilling dystopian classic, 1984, and it has been thirty years since we saw the creepiest example of educated and free people willingly walking into a living dystopia.
November 18, 1978, three decades ago, 918 people drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. Jim Jones, the communist leader of Jonestown, Guyana, had become "Big Brother." Soviet and Communist Chinese propaganda films and condemnations of capitalist and imperialist America blared continually to the subjects of this island of Leftist Hell.
Jonestown ended in mass suicide, but the real horror was that ordinary people, Americans like you and I, had become so decoupled from reality and morality that they could be led to surrender everything, even their lives, intoxicated only with the venom of modern Leftism. These were Orwell's Children.
We are drifting into the sort of horrific future he described. Too many of us for comfort or solace have become just like the denizens of Jonestown: Orwell's children -- a new generation of creature enraged into constant militancy against eternal enemies, oblivious to the notion of a Blessed Creator, melded into the consciousness of the party hive, divorced from history, hypnotized by images, inoculated against reason, stripped of family, and existing only to serve the cause.
Orwell did not write his book in a vacuum. 1984 describes the Soviet Union (the book describes Stalinist Russia so well so that subjects of that evil empire wondered when Orwell had lived there, though he had just described what he saw from the outside.) 1984 also describes Nazism and every other odious totalitarianism, which its secret police and propaganda machine and atomized subjects. But Orwell was very much also writing about the democratic western nations. His book was a warning of what could happen here. Oceania, the only totalitarian superstate actually descried in 1984, was largely America and the British Empire.
There were specific elements necessary for nations with a heritage of freedom to slide into the most absolute and abject slavery. These elements existed in Nazi Germany, they existed in Soviet Russia, and they exist in our free democracies today.
What are the characteristics of the Orwellian state?
Start with God. He must go. The great Russian novelists knew this: "Without God, everything is permitted." In Oceania, God simply does not exist. The Nazis bragged that they would raise a generation "...without ever having heard of the Sermon on the Mount or the Golden Rule, to say nothing of the Ten Commandments." The Soviet persecuted anyone who followed the God of Jews and Christians.
God is hounded in our world today. A generation of Orwell's Children are growing up without thinking about God at all or thinking that God is a silly idea cherished by sillier old fogies.
Truth must go too. Nazis embraced the "Big Lie." Soviets denied that honesty, per se, mattered. In Orwell's Oceania, the Inner Party members learn to even lie to themselves and to hold utterly contradictory beliefs at the same time. Truth and honesty have little meaning to Orwell's Children in our world. All truth is relative, all honesty a sham.
Language must be brought to heel. The Nazis did this by inventing meaningless words like "Aryan science." Marxism foisted upon us words like "capitalism," which means nothing at all but which has so infected our minds that we reflexively use this silly nonsense word instead of freedom. Politically correct language is rampant. We come to view words like "discriminate" as inherently evil, and other words like "viable fetal mass" have replaced the reality of murdered babies.
Image and symbols replace words. Hitler, whose disciples seldom recalled what Hitler said, always recalled the raw imagery of their leader. Stalin's portrait was as inescapable in the Soviet Union as the portrait of Big Brother in Oceania. We live in a word of symbols and images. Conservatives succeed in books and talk radio, media that deal in words. Orwell's Children live in the realm of symbols and images.
Immutable oppressors are the final nasty element in dystopia. Hitler blamed Jews for everything. Stalin blamed kulaks and his enemies in the party for everything. Subjects of Orwell's Oceania saw Emmanuel Goldstein as the eternal, immutable enemy of the party. Today there is a drearily predictable list of oppressors. Christians, men, white people, the "rich" (whatever that is supposed to mean), America, and Israel are oppressors and nothing can ever change that.
Orwell even told us, by name, the professionals who would lead us into the nightmare of 1984: "sociologists," "teachers," "bureaucrats," "journalists," "professional politicians," "scientists," "trade union organizers," "publicity experts," and "technicians." (The term "community organizer" was unknown to him.) Those who enslave were those who taught students, who created the news, who sat in the halls of government power, and who defined official "truth" (at least truth de jour.)
Orwell's Children live among us now, not in tiny numbers in weird Marxist cults like Jim Jones' People Temple, but as leaders of Congress, as the establishment of academia, as the producers of news and entertainment, as the administrators of public schools...
Education, science, technological gadgetry, good medical care - all of this can not stop us from sliding into a massive Jonestown, a realized Oceania, a place marked by Dante's grim caution "Abandon hope, all you who enter here."
We are all anchored in belief, but it is what we believe that matters. We can believe in the lies of Big Brother, which change each day with the needs of the party or we can believe in the truth of a living God. We can become the children of Orwell or the special creatures of God. Everything -- our nation, our world, our families, our communities -- flows from that choice.
Wild Thing's comment........
This is a great and really interesting article, and break down on "Orwell children" so to speak.
How often do we hear in the media where they will not say the word God. They say higher being or some other stupid use of words that imo take away the respect for God. I don't want allah, some stupid cult rock the followers of Islam worship. I don't want a higher being, if I wanted that I would look to Nicholas. heh heh He is awesome. (hmmmmm ...thinking here, I should show him I said that he will smile).
I want my God to be God. And for those Jewish friends of mine G-d to be G-d.
I am so grateful, every day I pray and say thanks for those of all of you in my life, my online family that I know you all and who do I thank????? I thank God not some higher being.
Jim Jones called himself “socialist” in the last will and testament tape made as the Kool Aid was passed. He followed Marx and Lenin and had nothing to with religion in general or Christianity in particular. Her makes it clear on that tape. He hijacked a Christian church to build a Communist commune.
And about education, the Founders believed in promoting education, BUT there's a huge difference between promoting public education and socialized education.
.....Thank you James R McKenna for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:45 AM | Comments (10)
November 16, 2008
American Troops in Afghanistan Through the Eyes of a French OMLT Infantryman
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American troops in Afghanistan through the eyes of a French OMLT infantryman
The US often hears echoes of worldwide hostility against the application of its foreign policy, but seldom are they reached by the voices of those who experience first hand how close we are to the USA. In spite of contextual political differences and conflicting interests that generate friction, we do share the same fundamental values - and when push comes to shove that is what really counts.
Through the eyes of that French OMLT (Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams) infantryman you can see how strong the bond is on the ground. In contrast with the Americans, the French soldiers don’t seem to write much online - or maybe the proportion is the same but we just have less people deployed. Whatever the reason, this is a rare and moving testimony which is why I decided to translate it into English, so that American people can catch a glimpse of the way European soldiers see them. Not much high philosophy here, just the first hand impressions of a soldier in contact - but that only makes it more authentic.
Here is the original French article, and here is the translation : Translation done by to Jean-Marc Liotier.
“We have shared our daily life with two US units for quite a while - they are the first and fourth companies of a prestigious infantry battalion whose name I will withhold for the sake of military secrecy. To the common man it is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them, and we henceforth know that we have the honor to live with one of the most renowned units of the US Army - one that the movies brought to the public as series showing “ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events”. Who are they, those soldiers from abroad, how is their daily life, and what support do they bring to the men of our OMLT every day ? Few of them belong to the Easy Company, the one the TV series focuses on. This one nowadays is named Echo Company, and it has become the support company.
They have a terribly strong American accent - from our point of view the language they speak is not even English. How many times did I have to write down what I wanted to say rather than waste precious minutes trying various pronunciations of a seemingly common word? Whatever state they are from, no two accents are alike and they even admit that in some crisis situations they have difficulties understanding each other.
Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine - they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them - we are wimps, even the strongest of us - and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.
Here we discover America as it is often depicted : their values are taken to their paroxysm, often amplified by promiscuity and the loneliness of this outpost in the middle of that Afghan valley. Honor, motherland - everything here reminds of that : the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the post parcels. Even if recruits often originate from the hearth of American cities and gang territory, no one here has any goal other than to hold high and proud the star spangled banner. Each man knows he can count on the support of a whole people who provides them through the mail all that an American could miss in such a remote front-line location : books, chewing gums, razorblades, Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much the American people backs him in his difficult mission. And that is a first shock to our preconceptions : the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.
And they are impressive warriors ! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be. Even if some of them are a bit on the heavy side, all of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days. At night, all movements are performed in the dark - only a handful of subdued red lights indicate the occasional presence of a soldier on the move. Same with the vehicles whose lights are covered - everything happens in pitch dark even filling the fuel tanks with the Japy pump.
And combat ? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all - always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay. That is one of their tricks : they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the ennemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting : they just charge ! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later - which cuts any pussyfooting short.
We seldom hear any harsh word, and from 5 AM onwards the camp chores are performed in beautiful order and always with excellent spirit. A passing American helicopter stops near a stranded vehicle just to check that everything is alright; an American combat team will rush to support ours before even knowing how dangerous the mission is - from what we have been given to witness, the American soldier is a beautiful and worthy heir to those who liberated France and Europe.
To those who bestow us with the honor of sharing their combat outposts and who everyday give proof of their military excellence, to those who pay the daily tribute of America’s army’s deployment on Afghan soil, to those we owned this article, ourselves hoping that we will always remain worthy of them and to always continue hearing them say that we are all the same band of brothers”.
Wild Thing's comment........
Oh my gosh I love this write up, what a GREAT write up, awesome. I am so proud of our troops.
A big thank you to the French troops too!!
The photo at the top of the post can be found HERE if you would like to see more photos. They have put a lot of photos there.
....Thank you Tom for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:48 AM | Comments (4)
November 07, 2008
“We are going to lick them out of their boots!” ~ Sheridan
A FLAG, ON A HILL
by Bill Whittle
As Civil War battles went, it was a small and insignificant affair. But in terms of story – and especially, in terms of lessons – it’s one of my favorites.
The war had not yet fully turned in October of 1864. And even though Stonewall Jackson had been dead for well over a year – killed by mistake by his own men at the Battle of Chancellorsville -- the Shenandoah Valley still belonged if not to Jackson then to Jackson’s ghost, for it was there that he and his “foot cavalry” had won their eternal place in Valhalla. Jackson’s tactical brilliance and the endless series of Union routs still hung like clouds of gunpowder in the valleys and hollows of the Shenandoah.
And so it came a no surprise to either the Union or the Confederate soldiers on the banks of Cedar Creek to see, once again, a blue rout – men throwing down rifles and knapsacks and running for their lives, dodging perhaps the few hissing musket balls fired at their backs but completely unable to escape the jeering and the insults and that high, horrible Rebel yell, as that pack of feral wolves descended on their camps, drank their coffee, ate their rations and sat going through their personal effects, admiring photos and reading letters from their sweethearts. Not a loss, but a rout. Another rout. The latest in an ongoing series of routs without end, or so it must have seemed.
The Union general was a young man, new to his command, and who in point of fact had been back in Washington during the defeat. But as he rode toward the sound of the guns that morning, curiosity turned to apprehension, and apprehension to something worse, as he crossed Mill Creek and came upon a low hill, to see before him “the appalling spectacle of a panic-stricken Army.”
Phillip Sheridan was his name, described by Shelby Foote as a man with the face of a Mongol Warlord and a hair so short and dense it made his head look like a bullet with a coat of black paint.
Sheridan’s first instinct was to form a straggler line and prepare for the final Rebel assault. But the Rebels were too busy celebrating. And after he caught his breath, Little Phil noticed something surprising: not a broken and routed army, fleeing for their lives, but small groups of men boiling fresh coffee, speaking to one another calmly and cheering him as he rode by.
One of his aides described him at that moment: “As he galloped on, his features grew gradually set, as those carved in stone, and the same dull red glint I had seen in his piercing eyes when, on other occasions, the battle was going against us, was there now.”
You bet it was.
The closer Sheridan came to the battle, the more cheerful and animated his defeated men became. Encountering a small group of them, Little Phil would stand in the saddle, and give a jaunty salute – as if to congratulate them on a great victory, rather than another humiliating defeat.
The result was electric, if not universal. Amid the cheering, one infantry colonel – whose descendents perhaps would go on to become campaign advisors – stood in Sheridan’s path and begged him not to go on.
“The army’s whipped!” he cried.
“You are, but the army isn’t,” growled Sheridan, who then put the spurs to a horse who’s back was taller than he was and rode to the scene of the disaster, shouting, “About face, boys! We are going back to our camps! We are going to lick them out of their boots!”
His men were not beaten. They just needed leadership.
“We are going to get a twist on those fellows, men!” he shouted, pounding down the pike. “We are going to lick them out of their boots!”
And that’s what he did, too. He and his routed army went back to that field and licked those Rebels right out of their boots.
“Run!” he shouted, standing in the stirrups. “Go after them! We’ve got the God-damnedest twist on them you ever saw!”
Battles don’t always go that way. But sometimes they do. It depends on whether the individual soldier still has any fight in him.
It has been a source of delight for me these past few days to see nothing but evidence of this, all across our defeated lines. Nowhere have I heard a shred of defeatism or despair. On the contrary. In point of fact, the magnanimity and graciousness I have seen in defeat in so many places on the right tells me that this is a eager and seasoned army, one able to look defeat in the face and own up to the errors in tactics and strategy that got us there. And nowhere do I see a call to abandon our core principles and sue for terms, but rather that our loss was caused precisely by our abandonment of the issues we which hold dear and which have served us so well on battlefields past.
So consider this, my fellows in arms:
On Tuesday, the Left – armed with the most attractive, eloquent, young, hip and charismatic candidate I have seen with my adult eyes, a candidate shielded by a media so overtly that it can never be such a shield again, who appeared after eight years of a historically unpopular President, in the midst of two undefended wars and at the time of the worst financial crisis since the Depression and whose praises were sung by every movie, television and musical icon without pause or challenge for 20 months… who ran against the oldest nominee in the country’s history, against a campaign rent with internal disarray and determined not to attack in the one area where attack could have succeeded and who was out-spent no less than seven-to-one in a cycle where not a single debate question was unfavorable to his opponent – that historic victory, that perfect storm of opportunity…
Yielded a result of 53%
Folks, we are going to lick these people out of their boots.
There is much to do. That a man with such overt Marxist ideas and such a history of association with virulent anti-Americans can be elected President should make it crystal clear to each of us just how far we have let fall the moral tone of this Republic. The great lesson from Ronald Reagan was simply that we can and must gently educate as well as campaign, and explain our ideas with smiles on our faces and real joy in our hearts, for unlike the far-left radical who gained the Presidency on Tuesday, we start with 150 million of the most free and intelligent and hard-working people in the history of the Earth at our backs, with a philosophy that -- unlike theirs, which has resulted in 100 million dead in unmarked graves -- has liberated and enriched more people and created more joy than any nation or combination of nations in our history.
How can we lose this greater fight, my friends? How can we lose, unless we give up?
Wild Thing's comment........
A Cedar Creek Conservative? You bet I am. This is excellent, I hope you have time to read it. It will make you feel better and see how different we are too compared to the left when they do not win. We don't give up, we get mad, shocked too, but there is still that what can we do now to win again, to protect our country, to fight back for the Red, White and Blue.
And you know what my wonderful friends? We have the heroes on our side, all those who know the taste of Freedom like none other, our Veterans and troops today.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:45 AM | Comments (16)
October 18, 2008
Gettysburg, PA. A Gift of Hallowed Ground
Battle of Gettysburg, 1883; at Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania
A gift on hallowed ground
GETTYSBURG, Pa.
In 1863, 11 major roads converged on this town. Which is why history did, too.
The founding of the American nation was the hinge of world history: Popular sovereignty would have its day. The collision of armies here was the hinge of American history: The nation would long endure. Which is why 200 or so generous private citizens recently gathered here for a quiet celebration of their gift to the nation — a sparkling new Museum and Visitor Center that instructs and inspires.
In 1997, Bob Kinsley, a contractor in York, Pa., decided that something should be done about the decrepit facilities for explaining the battle and displaying its artifacts. His determination survived more than 50 public meetings and three congressional hearings, and two years of resistance from rival bidders, some Gettysburg merchants and people who think the private sector takes up space that the public sector should fill.
He started the Gettysburg Foundation and hired Bob Wilburn, who had administered Colonial Williamsburg. Wilburn raised the $103 million that built the new center, which includes a theater for the scene-setting film narrated by Morgan Freeman, and the Cyclorama, the circular painting that depicts Pickett's Charge on the battle's third and final day. Americans today are so constantly pummeled by a sensory blitzkrieg — the sights and sounds of graphic journalism and entertainment — they can hardly fathom how the Cyclorama dazzled viewers when displayed in 1884. Magnificently restored and presented, it is still stunning.
The Gettysburg Foundation's work includes recovering battle sites from urban encroachments.
It recently bought the 80-acre Spangler farm. The house, which was behind Union lines, was used as a hospital for both sides. Gen. Lewis Armistead of Virginia died there. He received his mortal wounds during Pickett's Charge, leading the deepest penetration of Union lines on Cemetery Ridge at the spot now known as "the high-water mark of the Confederacy."
Recently, a Gold Star mother visited Gettysburg, after driving by it often en route to visit the Arlington grave of her son, who was killed in Iraq. She was especially moved by these words from a Gettysburg newspaper published four days after the battle:
"Every name . . . is a lightning stroke to some heart, and breaks like thunder over some home, and falls a long black shadow upon some hearthstone."
Gettysburg still stirs, but not as it used to, or should.
In "Intruder in the Dust," William Faulkner wrote:
"For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets. . . ."
Faulkner's sentence continued; you have just read less than half of it. To continue in his style:
Ours would be a better nation if boys and girls of all regions, and particularly the many high school and even college graduates who cannot place the Civil War in the correct half-century, could be moved, as large numbers of Americans used to be, by the names of Gettysburg battlefield sites, such as Devil's Den, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Culp's Hill and Little Round Top, instead of being like the visitor here who said it is amazing that so many great battles, such as Antietam and Chickamauga and Shiloh, occurred on Park Service land; and another visitor who doubted that the fighting here really was fierce because there are no bullet marks on the monuments.
Ten years ago, this column asserted that disrespect for the national patrimony of Civil War battlefields should be a hanging offense, and said:
"Given that the vast majority of Americans have never heard a shot fired in anger, the imaginative presentation of military history in a new facility here is vital, lest rising generations have no sense of the sacrifices of which they are beneficiaries."
Today, at an embarrassing moment of multiplying public futilities, private efforts, in collaboration with the National Park Service, have done something resoundingly right that will help a normally amnesiac nation to long remember.
Wild Thing's comment........
As I was growing up, my Father took us on a vacation every summer. He wanted us to see America and it is something that will be with me always.
He would tell about the history of places as we went to them. When there were tours we would take those as well. Williamsburg,Arlington, the Unknown Soldier, Mount Vernon, battlefields, The Capitol, the many monuments in D.C. , the House of Representatives and the Congress, The White House, and every place across our land that had historical values to the history of our country, and even the UN had a tour we that we took. His pride in our country was contagious and his gratitude for our troops, and our Veterans of all our wars was a passion. The UN tour showed me about translators and how the massive rooms were set up to accommodate each country involved. I remember my Father telling me how wrong it was to have the UN and how it started and was something against our country and one day we would regret it even more then we did back then.
He took us to Boston, one of my favorites perhaps because it was his as well, to Boston College one of the schools he had graduated from and showed me a room with a map in it. A map so massive that one had to walk around it, like the size of a small football field. How it had cities marked with tiny lights that would first be hit in an attack on our country. Places with no names to them that were military places permitted to be known only in a general way of their location. I remember that map as though I am there right now.
The education I will always be so grateful for and when I read articles like this one memories flood my brain and heart as well.
My Father impressed on me how important our countries history was and not just to know our past but to with our future too that might help in knowing the why of things and how dangerous some things can be if allowed to happen.
I am always glad when our historical places are cared for and appreciated. It is sad to me how few care to teach their children, they rely on a teacher at school and simply that is a waste of a dream because our schools do not teach much anymore. Instead they teach sex to kindergarten age kids and condom use to gradeschool children. How to have same sex dress day and teachers taking a class to see them marry a same sex lover as a school field trip., appreciate Muslim day and their Islam and Quran. All these things ripping about our country, weakening it, raping the very history that made us great. Destroying the memories of our founding fathers and so many things. Then we ask why do people fall for an Obama so easily, how can they not, they are brain dead. They know more about rappers then Paul Revere. The go by democrats telling them how weak they are, what losers they are and how the government will ride in and save the day. They grow up believing that Republicans invented and kept alive slavery when it is the Republicans that fought for their freedom.
Instead of bus loads of people being hauled off to voting places, buses should be taken loaded with these people to places of history and teach them the truth. Few know even how our government works , few know how much and how little the Presidents power encompasses. How Congress works and what it is meant to be about, how many Senators there are they don't even know. How there is meaning in every action done at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, what is the Pentagon and why is it built the way it is and what does it do.
Sorry for going on like this, but like I said my brain is flooding with memories and how far we have moved away from so many things as a country and pride in all these things.
....Thank you GM Cassel AMH1(AW) USN RETIRED for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:44 AM | Comments (16)
October 08, 2008
Kenya Holds Corsi 'incommunicado'
Kenya holds Corsi 'incommunicado'
NAIROBI, Kenya – The government of Kenya is holding WND senior staff reporter Jerome Corsi incommunicado at the airport until he departs the country after police shut down a scheduled news conference in which he planned to announce the findings of his investigation into Barack Obama's connections in the country.
Corsi, the author of the No. 1 best-selling book "The Obama Nation," was picked up by authorities at his hotel at 9:45 a.m. and detained at Nyayo House, the provincial headquarters for Nairobi.
"Just as we were about to start the 10 a.m. press conference at the Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi, Kenyan immigration approached us and detained us," Corsi told WND by telephone this morning. "Tim Bueler, my publicist, and I are now in the immigration offices, with our passports taken. The immigration officer told the press, 'There is no problem, and Dr. Corsi is a friend of Kenya.'"
Corsi and Bueler are booked on a British Airways flight to London tonight, an airline agent confirmed to WND. But Joseph Farah, WND editor and CEO, said he was in touch with Corsi until about 9:30 a.m. Eastern today and has not been able to reach him for several hours.
"We also hear unconfirmed reports from the government claiming it has 'deported' Corsi," Farah said. "Since Corsi was scheduled to leave the country today, this would seem to be a strange action from a government that was well aware of Corsi's presence, his travels and his activities in the country for the last week."
Peter Mbae, a Kenyan publicist who arranged the news conference, told WND he spoke with an immigration officer who confirmed that Ministry of Immigration authorities are holding Corsi and Bueler at the airport until their flight tonight.
Their movements are restricted, and they have no access to telephones, Mbae said, citing the officer.
Corsi had extensive meetings with top Kenyan officials upon his arrival. His visit and his activities during his stay have been well-known to authorities at the highest levels.
A senior immigration official in charge of investigations, Carlos Maluta was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: "We still haven't decided what to do with him."
Despite reports elsewhere to the contrary, Corsi has not been arrested or charged with any offense.
An official with the Embassy of Kenya in Washington said he was unaware of Corsi's detention. The Ministry of Immigration in Nairobi could not be reached for comment. WND tried again, later, to contact a spokesman for the embassy and was told by a receptionist the official word is that Corsi was not detained. "He's enjoying his holiday in Kenya," she said.
Obama has a long history of connections in Kenya, where his father worked as a government economist. Corsi documented this history in his book and went to Kenya to find answers to lingering questions – particularly about the links between the presidential candidate and Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Corsi had promised a news conference today that would "expose details of deep secret ties between U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and a section of Kenya government leaders, their connection to certain sectoral groups in Kenya and subsequent plot to be executed in Kenya should Senator Obama win the American presidency."
Meanwhile, the management of the hotel where Corsi was scheduled to hold the press conference has repudiated its plans to provide the facility.
In a press release, the hotel said: "We would like to assure our business partners and the public at large that Laico Regency Hotel is a law-abiding institution and does not condone any smear campaigns. The management cannot allow such activities to take place."
Corsi told WND he has been assured he will be released soon. He had planned to leave the country tomorrow, arriving in London first and the U.S. Friday
A hotel worker in Nairobi told Reuters Corsi was picked up as soon as he walked into the hotel for the scheduled press conference: "He was walking in and then some immigration officers who were following him snatched him. It happened so fast, they just vanished with him."
"Obama is revered in Kenya for his paternal roots here and as a flagbearer for Africa on the international stage," explained the Reuters dispatch.
Kenyan TV station KTN said Corsi may be sent home due to lack of a work permit. However, Corsi met with top officials in Nairobi earlier this week explaining in detail the purpose of his visit and sharing copies of his news releases and books.
UPDATE:
DISPATCH FROM NAIROBI
Sendoff to Corsi: 'See you in hell'
Soldiers with automatic weapons detain author of 'Obama Nation'
Posted: October 07, 2008
8:00 pm Eastern
NAIROBI, Kenya – WND senior staff reporter Jerome Corsi today was refused permission to hold a scheduled news conference about his investigation into Barack Obama's Kenyan links by Kenyan immigration officials and soldiers armed with automatic weapons who then took him to his departure flight and made it clear he was not welcome to return.
"Don't ever come back. See you in hell," Corsi reported an unidentified official told him as the author of the No. 1 best-selling book "The Obama Nation" was delivered to a flight departing from Nairobi for London.
Corsi documented the ordeal and dispatched a report to WND from his telephone later in the brief period between the time authorities returned his belongings in preparation for his departure and when the British Airways jet took off.
"We were detained and lied to all day," Corsi wrote. "The immigration officer at the hotel 15 minutes before the press conference this morning said we only needed to come to the immigration headquarters downtown for a few minutes and that we would be back to the hotel for the press conference with only a few minutes delay."
That, however, was not to be the case, as Corsi and Bueler would find out soon after they left their hotel.
"We got brought to immigration headquarters by what turned out to be about a dozen immigration officers plus military armed with automatic rifles," he reported. "Tim got placed in the back of the vehicle and was surrounded by the armed military. I was in the front between the driver and the top immigration officer who first identified himself at the hotel."
Kenyan authorities took their cell phones and passports, even while explaining the Americans were "not under arrest."
Hours later, two lawyers appeared before the author and his publicist, although they had not been requested.
"About 1:30, the chief immigration officer demanded we accompany him immediately to the airport – we were told immigration needed to verify our air tickets, which always were for this flight tonight," Corsi wrote. "The tickets were always e-tickets and could easily be validated by computer from anywhere."
But Kenyan immigration officials then explained the men's entry cards had been "lost" and that Corsi and Bueler had to be at the airport to help investigate what happened.
In addition to being held incommunicado, the two also were held without food.
"We were offered no food until Tim began feeling a problem with his blood sugar, then around 2:30 p.m. the head immigration people allowed one of the immigration officials to accompany us so we could have 'no more than 15 minutes' to buy something to eat,'" Corsi wrote.
Eventually, they were taken from the holding facility to the airport.
"We were led out of headquarters by [the] back stairs and elevators, to avoid the press that had followed us to headquarters and was still waiting for interviews," Corsi reported.
"We went to the airport via armed caravan," Corsi added, and on arrival the two Americans were told to go into a "holding cell" already containing other possible deportees.
"We refused, demanding to know if we were being charged with any offenses, where our lawyers had gone, and why we had to be locked up, when all day we had been lied to and told we would be released 'soon,'" Corsi reported.
The instructions to go into the holding cell were repeated several times, always without success, he said.
Late in the afternoon the two were told they would be allowed to board the British Airways flights to London and "that we had committed no offenses and were not being deported," said Corsi.
But authorities still kept the cell phones and passports.
"About 6 p.m. our lawyer arrived with our luggage, which we had not been allowed to go get or pack," Corsi wrote. "We had no place or opportunity to consult with the lawyer, who was asked to leave once we got our bags."
A brief meeting with Richard Nicholson, the vice consul in the U.S. embassy followed.
"He, too, confirmed we had done nothing wrong and were not being deported," Corsi wrote.
It was shortly after that, when authorities returned Corsi's cell phone, that he was able to provide this report as the British Airways flight prepared for departure for London.
Wild Thing's comment............
Obama using his pull in Kenya. Looks like Obama and his thugs are out to muzzle anyone and everyone who comes up with info about B.Hussein Obama's past.
....Thank you Mark for the article.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:47 AM | Comments (4)
September 25, 2008
GREAT Ann Coulter Article
They gave your mortgage to a less qualified minority
by Ann Colulter
On MSNBC this week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter tried to connect John McCain to the current financial disaster, saying: "If you remember the Keating Five scandal that (McCain) was a part of ... He's really getting a free ride on the fact that he was in the middle of the last great financial scandal in our country."
McCain was "in the middle of" the Keating Five case in the sense that he was "exonerated." The lawyer for the Senate Ethics Committee wanted McCain removed from the investigation altogether, but, as the New York Times reported: "Sen. McCain was the only Republican embroiled in the affair, and Democrats on the panel would not release him."
So John McCain has been held hostage by both the Viet Cong and the Democrats.
Alter couldn't be expected to know that: As usual, he was lifting material directly from Kausfiles. What is unusual was that he was stealing a random thought sent in by Kausfiles' mother, who, the day before, had e-mailed: "It's time to bring up the Keating Five. Let McCain explain that scandal away."
The Senate Ethics Committee lawyer who investigated McCain already had explained that scandal away – repeatedly. It was celebrated lawyer Robert Bennett, most famous for defending a certain horny hick president a few years ago.
In February this year, on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes," Bennett said, for the eight billionth time:
"First, I should tell your listeners I'm a registered Democrat, so I'm not on (McCain's) side of a lot of issues. But I investigated John McCain for a year and a half, at least, when I was special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee in the Keating Five. ... And if there is one thing I am absolutely confident of, it is John McCain is an honest man. I recommended to the Senate Ethics Committee that he be cut out of the case, that there was no evidence against him."
It's bad enough for Alter to be constantly ripping off Kausfiles. Now he's so devoid of his own ideas, he's ripping off the idle musings of Kausfiles' mother.
Even if McCain had been implicated in the Keating Five scandal – and he wasn't – that would still have absolutely nothing to do with the sub-prime mortgage crisis currently roiling the financial markets. This crisis was caused by political correctness being forced on the mortgage lending industry in the Clinton era.
Before the Democrats' affirmative-action lending policies became an embarrassment, the Los Angeles Times reported that, starting in 1992, a majority-Democratic Congress "mandated that Fannie and Freddie increase their purchases of mortgages for low-income and medium-income borrowers. Operating under that requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been aggressive and creative in stimulating minority gains."
Under Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton's secretary of housing and urban development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001.
Instead of looking at "outdated criteria," such as the mortgage applicant's credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit-worthiness, such as having a good jump shot or having a missing child named "Caylee."
Threatening lawsuits, Clinton's Federal Reserve demanded that banks treat welfare payments and unemployment benefits as valid income sources to qualify for a mortgage. That isn't a joke – it's a fact.
When Democrats controlled both the executive and legislative branches, political correctness was given a veto over sound business practices.
In 1999, liberals were bragging about extending affirmative action to the financial sector. Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein hailed the Clinton administration's affirmative-action lending policies as one of the "hidden success stories" of the Clinton administration, saying that "black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded."
Meanwhile, economists were screaming from the rooftops that the Democrats were forcing mortgage lenders to issue loans that would fail the moment the housing market slowed and deadbeat borrowers couldn't get out of their loans by selling their houses.
A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an affirmative-action time bomb, and now it's gone off.
In Bush's first year in office, the White House chief economist, N. Gregory Mankiw, warned that the government's "implicit subsidy" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with loans to unqualified borrowers, was creating a huge risk for the entire financial system.
Rep. Barney Frank denounced Mankiw, saying he had no "concern about housing." How dare you oppose suicidal loans to people who can't repay them! The New York Times reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "under heavy assault by the Republicans," but these entities still had "important political allies" in the Democrats.
Now, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, middle-class taxpayers are going to be forced to bail out the Democrats' two most important constituent groups: rich Wall Street bankers and welfare recipients.
Political correctness had already ruined education, sports, science and entertainment. But it took a Democratic president with a Democratic Congress for political correctness to wreck the financial industry.
OH and one more thing I just saw this photo of Ann, I thought you might like to see it.
Wild Thing's comment..........
"A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. "
I love how she puts things .
Ann coulter BRILLIANTLY (again) lays out the facts that it was DEMOCRAP policies that caused this mess.
Obamarama should be SCARED S***LESS that this will be made public.
I wish they would READ this on FOX and put it on the front of every newspaper!!!!
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:55 PM | Comments (4)
September 09, 2008
The Loony Left Hemisphere by Russ Vaughn
The Loony Left Hemisphere
James Lewis in his September 6th posting, ‘The End of Boomer Weirdness,” sent me scrambling to Wikipedia to find the meaning of the term hebephrenic. What I found there led me to this:
A form of schizophrenia in which affective changes are prominent, delusions and hallucinations fleeting and fragmentary, behavior irresponsible and unpredictable, and mannerisms common. The mood is shallow and inappropriate and often accompanied by giggling or self-satisfied, self-absorbed smiling, or by a lofty manner, grimaces, mannerisms, pranks, hypochondriacal complaints, and reiterated phrases.
Upon reading that, the first light bulb that popped on was, Alan Colmes! followed closely by, Ellis Henican and Bob Beckel!” But then with further reflection, I realized that many, if not all, of these diagnostic terms could be applied fairly to far too many of the liberal spokespersons we see on television, in particular the references to self-satisfied, self-absorbed smiling, or by a lofty manner, grimaces. Just think of all the smug, smarter-than-thou, liberal talking heads those words describe: Olbermann, Matthews, those View broads, all through the major networks, ad infinitum. And consider how the self-satisfied smile usually comes at the end of a successful rattling off of a string of memorized DNC talking points. The lofty manner and grimaces accompany the rebuttals from their conservative counterparts.
Think about what you’ve been watching for the last few years and tell me I’m wrong.
Now he’s not one of my favorite talk show hosts because of his bombastic style but, to his credit, Michael Savage has been saying for several years that Liberalism is a mental disorder. I believe I’m beginning to agree with him. Suddenly, expressions like Loons on the Left and Kool Aid Drinkers are beginning to take on new meaning. Lewis, in his AT article cites Polish scientist and author, Count Alfred Korzybski who coined the term unsanity to describe this sort of collective, unhinged behavior by entire segments of society. By the Count’s accounting, they may not be certifiably, committably insane but they are definitely operating with far too many screws loose. That’s not the Count’s medical terminology, by the way, but mine.
When I talk to family members and friends who are readily sucking up Obama’s version of Jim Jones’ purple, Flavor-Aid cocktails, I am aware that no amount of reasoning is going to sway them from their feelings that Obama is The One. What does provide a ray of hope and sanity is that those truly unsane are still in the minority and suddenly an antidote has arrived for those only minimally afflicted: Sarah Palin.
The Glamorous Gov, possesses an oft-noted, naughty librarian look that conceals an iron-willed political competence that when they get glimpses of it in her public pronouncements is turning the unsane on the left totally insane. Just when Us magazine, with their frothing denunciation of McCain’s butt-kickin’ BatGirl thinks they have her teetering on the edge of the topmost floor of the New York Times Building, they look down and its their own toes they see tottering feebly on the edge of the abyss. Holy Palony, Pinch!!! What mystical powers are we up against???
And Pinchy Boy’s New York Times, which is the institutional exemplification of full-blown, beyond treatable hebephrenia, has deployed a battalion (or is it a brigade? Libs have problems with math and military terms, you know) of investigative reporters to the Far North to dig up dirt on the Gov which could explain their lack of manpower to send any investigative reporters to Chicago to conduct any sort of professional journalistic probe of the nefarious Daly Machine which has seemingly produced a presidential candidate out of thin air with an even thinner résumé. All of which leaves me to ponder:
Has the whole damned world gone crazy? Nope, just the freakin’ Left Hemisphere.
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
....Thank you so much Russ.
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:40 AM | Comments (6)
September 01, 2008
The Hostess With The Moosest by Mark Steyn
The hostess with the moosest
Over in the Frumistan province of the NR caliphate, our pal David is not happy about the Palin pick. I am - for several reasons.
First, Governor Palin is not merely, as Jay describes her, "all-American", but hyper-American. What other country in the developed world produces beauty queens who hunt caribou and serve up a terrific moose stew? As an immigrant, I'm not saying I came to the United States purely to meet chicks like that, but it was certainly high on my list of priorities. And for the gun-totin' Miss Wasilla then to go on to become Governor while having five kids makes it an even more uniquely American story. Next to her resume, a guy who's done nothing but serve in the phony-baloney job of "community organizer" and write multiple autobiographies looks like just another creepily self-absorbed lifelong member of the full-time political class that infests every advanced democracy.
Second, it can't be in Senator Obama's interest for the punditocracy to spends its time arguing about whether the Republicans' vice-presidential pick is "even more" inexperienced than the Democrats' presidential one.
Third, real people don't define "experience" as appearing on unwatched Sunday-morning talk shows every week for 35 years and having been around long enough to have got both the War on Terror and the Cold War wrong. (On the first point, at the Gun Owners of New Hampshire dinner in the 2000 campaign, I remember Orrin Hatch telling me sadly that he was stunned to discover how few Granite State voters knew who he was.) Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are more or less the same age, but Governor Palin has run a state and a town and a commercial fishing operation, whereas (to reprise a famous line on the Rev Jackson) Senator Obama ain't run nothin' but his mouth. She's done the stuff he's merely a poseur about. Post-partisan? She took on her own party's corrupt political culture directly while Obama was sucking up to Wright and Ayers and being just another get-along Chicago machine pol (see his campaign's thuggish attempt to throttle Stanley Kurtz and Milt Rosenberg on WGN the other night).
Fourth, Governor Palin has what the British Labour Party politician Denis Healy likes to call a "hinterland" - a life beyond politics. Whenever Senator Obama attempts anything non-political (such as bowling), he comes over like a visiting dignitary to a foreign country getting shanghaied into some impenetrable local folk ritual. Sarah Palin isn't just on the right side of the issues intellectually. She won't need the usual stage-managed "hunting" trip to reassure gun owners: she's lived the Second Amendment all her life. Likewise, on abortion, we're often told it's easy to be against it in principle but what if you were a woman facing a difficult birth or a handicapped child? Been there, done that.
Fifth, she complicates all the laziest Democrat pieties. Energy? Unlike Biden and Obama, she's been to ANWR and, like most Alaskans, supports drilling there.
Sixth (see Kathleen's link to Craig Ferguson below), I kinda like the whole naughty librarian vibe.
.
Wild Thing's comment............
Great Mark Steyn piece... as usual he nails it to the wall.
An American War Hero and an American Female Pioneer Hero vs A Communist Wannabe and a career Socialist.
....Thank you Rhod for telling me about this newest writing by Mark Steyn.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:47 AM | Comments (8)
August 24, 2008
Obama's Swift Boat? by Russ Vaughn
Obama's Swift Boat?
A week ago an old Marine buddy sent me a link to a You tube video that after viewing it, caused me to sit momentarily stunned by the horror of what I had just seen and heard. The video was that of nurse, Jill Stanek, who had in a completely straightforward and highly effective manner related how she had cradled a dying infant that had been dumped in the dirty laundry room of the Chicago hospital where she worked, following an abortion procedure the unfortunate baby had just survived.
Stanek's wrenching account of how that baby had fought for forty-five minutes to live but finally died in her arms, is one of those rare experiences that reaches into you and grabs you like a heart attack. If you have not seen it by now, here it is:
If you come away from that video with less than a heavy heart, I don't think you'd be someone I'd care to number among my friends. Do not, however, think that I am some kind of hard core, under any and all circumstances pro-life conservative because I'm not. However, I am adamantly opposed to the cold, heartless infanticide depicted in this video and I am totally opposed to any politician who would permit it to be public policy as Barack Obama apparently did while serving in the Illinois Senate.
While watching Sean Hannity interview Ms. Stanek, it suddenly occurred to me, Jill Stanek could very well be Obama's Swift Boat Veteran. Her recounting of how Obama coldly disregarded her heartfelt testimony regarding the issue of these induced labor abortions and the horrifying consequences which she had personally experienced as a result, gives us a glimpse into the heart of this so-called Messiah that is nothing less than chilling. I believe every American who views that video can't help but come away from it with questions about whether or not this is the kind of man we want as the leader of our nation.
But then, we must realize, he was merely a state senator and not a presidential candidate so decisions about leaving live infants alone in a hospital's cold, dirty laundry room to helplessly die without any human warmth, love or contact were obviously above Mr. Obama's pay grade.
Last week at Saddleback, he reminded us they still are.
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
.....Thank you Russ. This is so important!!!
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:47 AM | Comments (21)
August 18, 2008
"The Clueless White Guy Vote" by Russ Vaughn
The Clueless White Guy Vote
Contrary to their politically correct aims, the advertising industry in this country has created a voting bloc that I am positively sure they never intended. I refer to all us Clueless White Guys, that resentful constituency that for years has endured a constant onslaught of television commercials in which the white male is always the bumbling buffoon, while minority males, black, Asian and Hispanic are always the cool, in-tune, in-the-know dudes who always, effortlessly get it, whatever it may be.
Variations include the Clueless White Guy being totally oblivious to the obvious worth or value of whatever is being sold in the commercial while his wife or some other female, usually a racial minority, demonstrates with over-done grimaces or knowing smiles just what a total and complete dumbass the white guy is.
I have no children so I've never had to suffer the indignity of spending an evening watching television with my kids where at least every fifteen minutes or so that demographic which I represent is subjected to ridicule by the corporate sponsors of the programs I'm watching. Still, I have to wonder, don't those fools realize the influence fathers have on the buying decisions made by their families? Don't any of the corporate wunderkind ever question the wisdom, or lack thereof, of insulting that demographic which controls the buying decisions, especially of big-ticket items, in a majority of American households, especially the most affluent ones?
And yes, I know, it's just all in good fun and to take offense is being silly and hypersensitive, or at least that's what all these advertising whizzes would be quick to tell us were we ever to mount an organized protest. And I would agree if such commercials were merely sometime things and if black, Hispanic and Asian husbands and fathers were depicted occasionally as hapless losers, just like their white counterparts; but that's not the case.
In fact, this phenomenon has become so widespread that even my wife now sits and shakes her head ruefully when we see it played out again and again. And that brings up another issue, the ancillary effect of such advertising where it has become so prevalent that now the offense extends to those family members who happen to love their white fathers and husbands and are fed up with seeing them constantly portrayed as maladroit dopes.
So all you smug, elitist, politically correct liberals in the business of making these commercials should give some thought to the inestimable backlash voting bloc that you have cluelessly created out here with your steady drumbeat of ridicule of white males. Take just a moment to wonder as to just how many clueless white males, their wives and their adult children are going to go into the voting booth in November and express their frustration with your constant condescension by the only means available to them:
Their vote for the only white male in the race, the one the media loves to portray as clueless.
And it's not because they are racists that these folks will vote this way; to the contrary, many white Americans who might have voted for a first black president will not do so precisely due to their heretofore, unexpressed resentment of your unceasing, smug portrayals and precisely to prove you wrong. In fact, I'm wondering how many white males may go into the booth intending to vote for Obama and at the last minute remember a particularly insulting commercial and think, "Well, screw them!"
This reaction may be comparable to the reasoning we hear from the liberal media who claim that the 93% of blacks reporting their support for The One are not racists. We hear that this is a completely understandable skewing, given the history of oppression endured by that demographic and their need to find a champion to advance the healing process. Please don't think I'm trying to equate the malignance of slavery and Jim Crow with this current campaign of ridiculing of white males, which does indeed pale in comparison. But before you accuse us of whining, consider this: if we are whiners, why have you not heard more complaints, earlier and louder from this caricatured cohort? We have endured the indignities with graceful (dare I say manly) silence and only now have I raised the issue in the context of how it relates to the coming election.
If you creators of these commercials think you are cleverly and harmlessly assuaging the resentment of minorities by constantly and very publicly maligning white males, you are badly mistaken. You are only transferring resentment from one group to another and in doing so may be creating a backlash vote not against the first black presidential candidate for his race but rather a protest vote against yourselves, the too politically correct media industry that slavishly supports him. On a broader scale, the overt bias in the news media for any Democrat candidate may be creating a similar backlash vote and for similar reasons, but that's a topic for another article.
All of this, your mocking of white males and your idolizing of The One, will result in yet one more demonstration of that fatal flaw in too many liberal minds, the inability to foresee the unintended negative consequences of your supposedly good intentions: the clueless white guy vote.
We'll just have to wait until November to see if I'm right.
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
.
Wild Thing's comment...........
It has always bugged me how fathers and men are portrayed on television, in the ads and in sitcoms. They make men look like they could not do anything and that men are stupid, clumsy, helpless fools.
A couple of years ago I noticed it had begun and then last year it got even worse and showed up more often, to the point a person would have to be brain dead not to notice what is such obvious propaganda to dumb down America, the family and the leadership of the man in the home. I have ranted about it just to the TV haha but it has really been getting worse and worse.
I realize how things happen, slowing, inch by inch, step by step things like this worm their way into the mind of the public then one day what was thought to be just stupid ads we find more and more people believing this baloney.
Then we hear talk shows with liberals telling us how men are no longer leaders in the home, how the home itself has changed and how yes government is needed to take the leadership to run the lives of the citizens.
Children taught to disrespect the father in the home simply by propaganda they see on TV, that insults the man of the house.
Sooooo I am thrilled that Russ wrote this, I think it is excellent.
....Thank you Russ
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:45 AM | Comments (7)
August 03, 2008
A Personal Note from John O'Neill Regarding New Obama Book
The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate
A Personal Note from John O'Neill
Dear Friend,
As you may recall, I was privileged to play a role in helping prevent John Kerry from being elected president when my fellow Swift Boat Veterans and I released the book Unfit for Command. As liberal as Kerry was, America faces an even more liberal threat today: Barack Obama. Fortunately, investigative journalist and National Review Online political reporter David Freddoso has written the book every voter needs to read: The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate.
Uncovering stories the mainstream media has neglected, Freddoso reveals Obama for who he really is: the U.S. senator with the #1 most liberal voting record in the Senate. And a politician whose rhetoric of "change" does not match the reality of his corrupt, "Chicago-machine politics" background.
Moving past Obama's inspiring speeches and say-anything-to-win campaign tactics, Freddoso outlines Obama's extreme, far-left legislative record and his questionable associations with both criminals and radicals. From Obama's repeated support for the Chicago patronage system, to his hard-line position of no restrictions on abortion, The Case Against Barack Obama offers the cold, hard facts about this man who would be our next president.
As American citizens, it is our right and duty to question the background, character, and proposals of any candidate who could be our next commander in chief. Democrats and the media are not holding Obama accountable, so conservatives must. I'm grateful to David Freddoso and my publisher, Regnery, for finally revealing the man behind the myth.
I urge you to read The Case Against Barack Obama. I also recommend that you buy copies for your friends and relatives who may consider voting for Obama. They deserve to know the truth, too.
Please click on one of the links below to order your copy today.
Sincerely,
John O'Neill
Wild Thing's comment.........
I am glad all these books are coming out now. I guess they wait till it gets closer to the elction to get these out in the stores.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:45 AM | Comments (4)
August 01, 2008
Jerome R. Corsi’s New Book “The Obama Nation”
Jerome R. Corsi’s new book “The Obama Nation”
The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality by Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. In this thoroughly researched and documented book, the No. 1 New York Times bestselling co-author of “Unfit for Command” and senior staff reporter for WND explains why the extreme leftism of an Obama presidency would leave the United States weakened, diminished and divided, and why Obama must be defeated — and how he can be. By tracing Obama’s career and influences from his early years in Hawaii and Indonesia, the beginnings of his political career in Chicago, his voting record in the Illinois Legislature, his religious training, his religious conversion through his recent involvement in Kenyan politics, his political advisers and fund-raising associates and his meteoric campaign for president, Jerome Corsi shows that an Obama presidency would, in his words, be “a repeat of the failed extremist politics that have characterized and plagued Democratic Party politics since the late 1960s.” Corsi examines: Obama’s extensive connections with Islam and radical politics. Wild Thing's comment....... Corsi was on Hannity's show last night. He was excellent!!!
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:50 AM
| Comments (4)
My concerns for America Obama sowing socialist seeds in young people by Jon Voight We, as parents, are well aware of the importance of our teachers who teach and program our children. We also know how important it is for our children to play with good-thinking children growing up. Sen. Barack Obama has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry. We know too well that we become like them, and Mr. Obama will run this country in their mindset. The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America. The Democrats have targeted young people, knowing how easy it is to bring forth whatever is needed to program their minds. I know this process well. I was caught up in the hysteria during the Vietnam era, which was brought about through Marxist propaganda underlying the so-called peace movement. The radicals of that era were successful in giving the communists power to bring forth the killing fields and slaughter 2.5 million people in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Did they stop the war, or did they bring the war to those innocent people? In the end, they turned their backs on all the horror and suffering they helped create and walked away. Those same leaders who were in the streets in the '60s are very powerful today in their work to bring down the Iraq war and to attack our president, and they have found their way into our schools. William Ayers is a good example of that. Thank God, today, we have a strong generation of young soldiers who know exactly who they are and what they must do to protect our freedom and our democracy. And we have the leadership of Gen. David Petraeus, who has brought hope and stability to Iraq and prevented the terrorists from establishing a base in that country. Our soldiers are lifting us to an example of patriotism at a time when we've almost forgotten who we are and what is at stake. If Mr. Obama had his way, he would have pulled our troops from Iraq years ago and initiated an unprecedented bloodbath, turning over that country to the barbarianism of our enemies. With what he has openly stated about his plans for our military, and his lack of understanding about the true nature of our enemies, there's not a cell in my body that can accept the idea that Mr. Obama can keep us safe from the terrorists around the world, and from Iran, which is making great strides toward getting the atomic bomb. And while a misleading portrait of Mr. Obama is being perpetrated by a media controlled by the Democrats, the Obama camp has sent out people to attack the greatness of Sen. John McCain, whose suffering and courage in a Hanoi prison camp is an American legend. Gen. Wesley Clark, who himself has shame upon him, having been relieved of his command, has done their bidding and become a lying fool in his need to demean a fellow soldier and a true hero. This is a perilous time, and more than ever, the world needs a united and strong America. If, God forbid, we live to see Mr. Obama president, we will live through a socialist era that America has not seen before, and our country will be weakened in every way.
This is really a good column he wrote. Voight has been boldly speaking out against the Marxist positions of Barack Obama for awhile now. It takes big cojones for a Hollywood actor to speak out against socialists.It is too bad the way the showbiz industry is so socialist and communist. So this is extra nice to see this when an actor takes a stand.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:45 AM
| Comments (8)
His 20-year religious affiliation with the black-liberation theology of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Obama’s continuing connections with Kenya.
Obama’s involvement in the slum-landlord empire of Chicago political fixer Tony Rezko.
Obama’s far-left domestic policy.
Obama’s anti-war, anti-nuclear foreign policy.
Soon after Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Corsi began investigating Obama’s personal and political background. This book, with more than 700 footnotes, is the result.
July 31, 2008
"My concerns for America" by Jon Voight
Wild Thing's comment.......
....Thank you Jack. Jack's blog is
Conservative InsurgentJuly 28, 2008
"When Barry Comes Flyin' Home Again.." by Russ Vaughn
"Best appreciated when humming the tune of the popular Civil War song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again," or the Irish folk classic, "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye."
Also, with sincere apologies to my Hibernian forbears whose folk lyrics and music I keep misusing for political purposes. Somehow, however, I think their Irish eyes are smiling." --- Russ Vaughn
.
When Barry Comes Flyin' Home Again...
When Barry was comin' to see the troops, hooah, hooah;
The brass they made us jump through hoops, hooah, hooah.
With sand in our boots in sweat in the eye,
We stood in the sun ‘til we liked to die,
But it all was for naught, cause, "Barry we never saw ye."
He met all the generals sure as life, hooah, hooah;
He picked their brains about the strife, hooah, hooah.
But a private soldier he never met,
He's comin' home an' he still ain't yet,
But all we can say is, "Barry we never saw ye."
Our wounded off to Landstuhl go, hooah, hooah;
To stabilize there for America, Ho! hooah, hooah.
But Barry there ignored our troops,
To go to the gym and shoot some hoops,
So all our wounded can say is, "Barry we never saw ye."
So this whole damned trip was just a show, hooah, hooah,
Using us troops to make it so, hooah, hooah,
He wants to be our commander in chief
But has of our mission no true belief,
So all we can say is, "Barry the devil with ye."
When Barry comes flyin' home agin' hooah, hooah
We'll remember how Barry used us then, hooah, hooah
And vote for the warrior who bore the pain,
Who earned our respect that's John McCain,
And we'll all be verily sayin' "Barry we never saw ye."
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
....Thank you Russ.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:47 AM | Comments (9)
July 16, 2008
If The Left Wins
What Liberals Dream Of
by David Strom
Conservatives are in a funk—one that threatens to turn into a full-blown retreat from the battlefield of ideas.
Everywhere I turn I encounter conservatives ready to give up for the next few years. After all, many of us rightly feel a bit betrayed by our elected officials given how badly they performed over the past few years. And many conservatives are hoping that two or four years of liberals actually running things will wake America to the dangers they face.
It’s hard to blame people who feel that way, but they couldn’t be more wrong.
Even a mere two or four years of liberal ascendency in Washington policymaking could do immeasurable damage to our economy and our freedoms—damage that could take years or decades to repair, if ever. Once a liberal policy is in place it is almost impossible to reverse it.
Don’t think that a few years of liberals in charge is that dangerous? Just take a moment to consider what liberals dream of doing once they gain absolute power.
There is no aspect of our lives—none—that today’s liberals concede is off limits to the meddling use of government power. In their vision there is no dividing line between the public sphere and the private sphere. Limited government is a concept that makes no sense to them......
Energy policies are just the tip of the iceberg—although control over energy gives government control over pretty much the entire economy already.
In a world run by liberals literally no aspect of our lives will be outside the legitimate regulation of government. That is because anything—even what temperature you like to keep your house—can be turned into a matter of legitimate public concern.
Everything we do, including breathing, eating and of course procreating, can be argued to have an impact on those around us or the great mother earth. And if it affects others, it can and should be regulated by those who know best, at least according to the liberals.
Liberals want to regulate just about everything: where we live, what fuels we use, what car we drive, whether we can drive or be forced to use government mass transit, where we send our kids to school, what doctor we see, and even to what extent we express our approval or disapproval of others’ lifestyles. It’s hard to find something liberals don’t want to regulate.
Is that a world you want to live in?”
Whatever our personal feelings, conservatives simply can’t afford to indulge in the funk many of us have fallen into. The price we pay for handing absolute power over to liberals is just too high.
What’s at stake are the very concepts of personal liberty and limits to government power.
We can’t afford to just walk away from this fight.
Wild Thing's comment........
This is excellent we saw what happened with Carter he gave away fthe Panama Canal do we have it back? No.
We saw what happened when Bill Clinton personally approved the transfer to China of advanced space technology that can be used for nuclear combat. source HERE
The documents show that in 1996 Clinton approved the export of radiation hardened chip sets to China. The specialized chips are necessary for fighting a nuclear war. And all the other things he did against that were against America and help for China.
And of course none of that was able to be reversed either.
Add in to that facter what Clinton did to our military, downsizing it.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:45 AM | Comments (14)
July 14, 2008
Tony, We're Proud We Knew Ye by Russ Vaughn
Tony, We're Proud We Knew Ye
You're on the road to eternity, huroo, huroo,
Your spirit's flown your soul is free, huroo, huroo,
With wringin' hands and tearful eyes,
We pray you hear our mournful cries,
And we all feel so sad today,
But, Tony, we're proud we knew Ye.
Where is that voice so smilin' mild, huroo, huroo,
That drove the White House press so wild, huroo, huroo,
Where are those eyes that sparklin' smiled
With which our hearts Ye so beguiled,
Oh darlin' boy you made our day,
Ah, Tony, we're glad we knew Ye.
We'll miss that spirit that loved the run, huroo, huroo,
That flashin' smile for everyone, huroo, huroo,
That mike Ye wielded like a gun,
But never wounding anyone,
Oh your sparklin' spirits flown away,
Sweet Tony we're goin' to miss Ye.
We're sad young lad to see Ye gone, huroo, huroo,
But glad your sad ordeal is done, huroo, huroo,
With sorrowed hearts we accept you're gone,
But know your goodness still lives on,
Oh, Tony Snow, we must let go,
But, Lord, we were blessed we knew Ye.
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
Author's note: I am so saddened that we have lost this bright spirit, this so very talented young man. I do not know if Tony Snow is of Irish extraction, but his origins are in Kentucky which was mainly settled by the Scots-Irish, of which I am one with my American roots in that region as well. For that reason, I chose to make my tribute to Tony a derivation of the old Irish song, "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye."
The music for the American version of this ballad, When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again, can be found here.
Listening to it as you read my words may help you better appreciate this tribute. It is a simple tune and these are but simple words, so it is easy to sing them. I think Tony would like that, hearing all us singing him off on his eternal journey.
....Thank you Russ so much for this poem you wrote and your notes along with it as well.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:47 AM | Comments (6)
July 12, 2008
We're Oh So...... by Russ Vaughn
We're Oh So...
Russ Vaughn
We’re hip, we’re cool and oh so arty;
We’re Democrats, the smarter party.
We’re sophisticated unlike you;
We understand merci beaucoup.
We’re urbane while you’re provincial;
We’re worldly-wise, so existential.
We’re cultured, complex, so refined;
We’ve left you ignorant serfs behind.
We’re witty authors of clever puns,
While you clods cling to God and guns.
Were you not so closed and clannish,
We’d have you peons speaking Spanish.
We say all this with knowing smirks;
We’re Democrats, you red-state jerks.
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
...Thank you Russ for writing this and sending it to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:55 AM | Comments (8)
July 01, 2008
"The Axis of Idiots" by Sergeant Major J.D. Pendry
(Too bad we don't have folks on Capitol Hill willing to speak out like this. J.D. Pendry is a retired Marine Sergeant Major who writes for Random House. He is eloquent, and he seldom beats around the bush! )
"The Axis of Idiots"
Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief.
Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the U.S.S. Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.
John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam . Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq . You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam . You're a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq , like Vietnam , is another war that you were for, before you were against it.
John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq . You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa . Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You're not a Marine, sir. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's butt. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John.
Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot, who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run.
Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster-sized pictures from Abu Ghraib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraqi's torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news, Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrated another beheading for you. If you truly supported our troops, you'd show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there. You're a bloated, drunken fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all while sitting on your wide, gin-soaked rear-end in Washington .
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, the Holly wood Leftist morons, et al, ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq , you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels, will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists. Better to do it now on their turf, than later on ours after they have gained both strength and momentum.
American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country.
Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.You are America 's "AXIS OF IDIOTS." Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam .
If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.
Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.
No, Mr. President, you don't get off the hook, either. Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within. Your Soldiers are dealing with the outside force. It's your obligation to support them by confronting the AXIS OF IDIOTS. America must hear it from you that these self-centered people are harming our country, abetting the enemy and endangering our safety.
Well up a little anger, please, and channel it toward the appropriate target. You must prosecute those who leak national security secrets to the media. You must prosecute those in the media who knowingly publish those secrets.Our Soldiers need you to confront the enemy that they cannot. They need you to do it now.
Semper Fi
J. D. Pendry
Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired
....Thank you Mark for sending this, it is awesome.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:47 AM | Comments (11)
June 30, 2008
So Tell Us, Sen. Obama, 'Who Else Sent You?' by Russ Vaughn
So Tell Us, Sen. Obama, 'Who Else Sent You?'
Russ Vaughn
It was, of course, inevitable. How could any politician rise so quickly on the legendarily corrupt Chicago political scene and be as pure as Obama's devoted followers were purporting him to be? The question in the minds of skeptics was, "Who sent you?"
Well now we're beginning to find out and it ain't pretty. In a lengthy, and amazingly frank, Boston Globe article depicting the dismal results of Chicago's attempt to develop and manage low income housing through private developers, we see that the candidate of change is nothing more than another Chicago machine-generated pol with his feet firmly mired in the muck of corruption of the city he chose to make his political base.
From the Globe article we learn that Tony Rezko, FOB, (Friend of Barack's) whom we have known up to now only as a corrupt developer, was and is, in fact, a slum lord, although on a much grander scale than what we usually associate with that term. Using government subsidies which Obama helped them obtain, Rezko and other FOB's, some now actively associated with his campaign, developed low income housing with fancy sounding names and substandard construction within Obama's state senatorial district.
The article points out that it was Obama's law firm and Obama himself that represented these slum lords when angry tenants complained about overflowing sewage, inoperable heating units and rat infestations. And guess what? Just as we're expected to believe that Obama sat in his church for twenty years and never heard any of Reverend Jeremiah Wright's racist diatribes, now we're told Obama was unaware of the slum-like conditions his constituents were living in, conditions directly attributable to the thievery from public coffers of his political cronies like Rezko.
But getting to a partial answer of that old Chicago test of cronyism, "Who sent you?" will require you to read to page seven of the Boston Globe article where you find this:
"All the while, Tony Rezko was forging a close relationship with Barack Obama. When Obama opened his campaign for state Senate in 1995, Rezko's companies gave Obama $2,000 on the first day of fund raising. Save for a $500 contribution from another lawyer, Obama didn't raise another penny for six weeks. Rezko had essentially seeded the start of Obama's political career." [emphasis added]
Thirteen years later, the now out-of-business slum lord, Tony Rezko, is a convicted felon and on his way to federal prison, while his political protégé is trying to become the head of the federal government. Do you suppose foreign-born Tony understands irony? Do you think he's scrabbling to find Eric Holder's phone number? Although, considering Obama's demonstrated willingness to abandon anyone who comes between him and the White House, Ol' Tony probably shouldn't hold his breath waiting for a return call. After all, the tens of thousands he has given Obama in the past are now chump change for a candidate who can forego public campaign funding without a backward glance at either his promises or his former mentors.
The true irony in all this is not that this champion of change is tainted; it's by what he's tainted. You'd at least think if this Pied Piper of America's youth is going to be just another corrupt politician that it would be something hip like being in the pocket of some billionaire software developer or hip-hop promoter.
But slum lords? The Messiah of Change?
So what at first seemed nothing more than tainted whiffs of unwise political and religious associations by Obama are growing into a stench of ordinary political corruption that may very well be more than many moderate voters, even Democrats, can stomach. For sure there are increasing numbers of blowflies buzzing in and about the diminishing glow of that once-bright halo. Of course, for the Kool Aid drinkers, it will simply morph into a crown of thorns.
So tell us, Sen. Obama, "Who else sent you?"
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
....Thank you Russ for writing this article and sending it to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:50 AM | Comments (10)
June 27, 2008
The Real Command Influence By Russ Vaughn
The Real Command Influence
Russ Vaughn
In dismissing the very dubious war crimes charges against Marine LTC Jeffrey Chessani, his trial judge, COL Steven Folsom, said this:
"Unlawful command influence is the mortal enemy of military justice,"
COL Folsom was referring to influence within the Marine Corps command structure, specifically involving two officers of general rank. We should all applaud the colonel's decision as it would make no sense whatsoever for the Marines to try an officer for failing to investigate crimes that to this point several military courts have failed to establish ever occurred. With one exception, all of the Haditha Marines now have been exonerated. The exception is SSGT Frank Wuterich and if the Marines insist on pursuing his prosecution, they will find themselves in the position of trying to prove homicidal behavior on the part of a non-commissioned officer whose troops apparently killed no one in an unlawful manner according to Marine courts. The only conclusion is that he acted alone, in the midst of battle, while commanding his troops, he somehow single-handedly slaughtered more than twenty innocent Iraqi civilians.
Sounds preposterous, right? Well, that's apparently what the Navy would have us believe. And make no mistake about it, it is the Navy that controls military prosecutions in the Marine Corps, and the Navy appears willing to pursue this prosecution even though SSGT Wuterich's subordinates and his two superiors who were charged have all been cleared by military courts. That leads us to speculate that either SSGT Wuterich killed those Iraqi civilians all by himself or Navy JAG is desperately in need of at least one face-saving conviction in this Haditha mess.
Or is there another reason? Perhaps command influence from a higher level? Most civilians are unaware of the tremendous pressure members of Congress are able to bring to bear on military commanders. If a particular senator or congressman doesn't happen to be on a committee or subcommittee with direct oversight over military budgets or affairs, you can bet one of his cronies does. This is particularly true with flag rank Navy officers and generals in the other services because their promotions into these lofty ranks require congressional approval.
By now you must have guessed where this is going. Consider...who is the most powerful person in this situation who stands to not only look like the grandstanding, blowhard fool that he is but could perhaps be threatened with defamation lawsuits by the young Marines whose lives he turned into hell by publicly proclaiming them "cold blooded killers." Ah yes, that would be the reigning Prince of Pork, John Murtha. Think about it, with a single conviction of any one of the Marines charged, Murtha can claim vindication and use that conviction as an effective defense against any defamation suits from any of the other defendants.
So the question begging to be asked is whether or not this congressman, who was videotaped by the FBI as indicating he is bribable, is pulling strings behind the Navy/Marine Corps command structure to pursue this phony war crimes prosecution to the bitter end. Murtha claims to be an ex-Marine to which I say, you may have worn the uniform, John, but you are sure as hell no Marine. As I have said before, the Marine Corps motto is Semper Fi, always faithful; John Murtha's motto is Semper I, always him.
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
....Thank you Russ for writing this and sending it to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:50 AM | Comments (20)
June 12, 2008
Pat Buchanan Response To Obama Saying Need For Conversation About Race
A Brief for Whitey
by Pat Buchanan
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.
Fair enough but this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.
This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.
Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.
Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.
Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?
Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks.
Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown , and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids.
Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
Wild Thing's comment........
If someone had told me before this election that we would one day have an election for President of the United States of America where either of the candidates would turn the campaign into anything to do with race. I would probably have laughed. No way would have been my reply, why would anyone do such a thing.
I would have thought instantly of only the likes of Farrakhan and his followers and my mind would not have been able to imagine such a person even being in our government. Way too radical and way to filled with hate.
But alas I was dead wrong. And the thing is this Obama and his wife wear their racism like a garment as normal to them as breathing air.
I honestly believe if we think we have seen the most of this kind of attitude and behavior from them we are only on the edge of their madness. There is more to come and if he gets the power of being President, that madness, and hate will magnify.
....Thank you Mark for sending this.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:50 AM | Comments (9)
June 03, 2008
Get Me from the Church on Time by Russ Vaughn
Get Me from the Church on Time
Russ Vaughn
I'm gettin' elected in November;
Ding, dong the polls are gonna chime.
So plug in some stoppers,
I'll tell some more whoppers,
To get me from this church on time.
I'm gonna be there in November;
Just one more Hill left to climb.
She's kickin' up a rumpus,
Still trying to bump us,
So get me from this church on time.
I'll still be running in November,
If I can dodge the Clinton slime.
Billary's tryin' to tar me,
With their Blue Collar Army;
Please get me from this church on time.
I'm gettin' elected in November;
Ding, dong the polls are gonna chime.
Rush Limbaugh wants to diss me;
Chris Matthews wants to kiss me;
Just get me from this church on time.
I gotta make it to November,
Got to avoid the grit and grime.
If I dump the racist preachers
And fools cheering in the bleachers,
Will that get me from this church on time?
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
....Thank you Russ.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:45 AM | Comments (2)
"Two Wars" by Army Ranger Nate Self
Nate Self's account of Rescue on Roberts Ridge in Afghanistan. Even though Self has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, the book was a wonderful account of Self's days at West Point, his time in Kosovo, becoming a Ranger (1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Batallion, 75th Ranger Regiment), and then the battle in Afghanistan.
Decorated Iraq/Afghanistan war hero Nate Self talks about his new book, "Two Wars: One Hero's Fight on Two Fronts - Abroad and Within," detailing the now historic rescue on Roberts Ridge .
" We cherish, too, the poppy red That grows on fields where valor led; It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies. — Moina Michael, “We Shall Keep the Faith,” 1918 .
The Memorial Day tradition of wearing red poppies to honor our fallen American veterans was inspired by Miss Moina Michael, a Georgia teacher who was inspired by John McCrae, a Canadian military doctor who wrote the famous World War I poem, “In Flanders Fields.”
They, in turn, have inspired me to commemorate a story of war and sacrifice that happened.
The battle was Operation Anaconda in eastern Afghanistan.
The enemy targets: al Qaeda troops and Taliban. In the early hours of March 4, 2002, the bloodiest date so far in the War on Terror abroad, U.S. Navy SEAL Neil Roberts joined his unit aboard a Chinook helicopter.
They were assigned to conduct a clandestine insertion onto a 10,000-foot mountaintop to establish an overwatch position, protecting other American forces participating in the attack. As he prepared to jump from the helicopter ramp to the landing zone, the 32-year-old Roberts and the rest of the crew came under fire from a hail of rocket-propelled grenades. The aircraft lurched. Roberts was thrown from the helicopter. He fell several feet into al Qaeda-infested territory on the Kharwar Mountains. According to classified reports, Roberts survived the fall and valiantly held off enemy troops for more than half an hour. But when his machine gun jammed, Petty Officer 1st Class Roberts was overtaken and killed at close range by three suspected al Qaeda soldiers.
A six-man commando team set out to rescue Roberts. “We don’t leave Americans behind,” explained Brigadier General John Rosa, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after the deadly fight. The team was also met by heavy fire, and Air Force Tech. Sgt. John Chapman, 36, was killed at the scene.
During a follow-up gun battle on the mountain that lasted 12 hours, five other men from a quick-reaction rescue squad died: Senior Airman Jason Cunningham, 26; Army Pfc. Matthew A. Commons, 21; Army Sgt. Bradley S. Crose, 27; Army Sgt. Philip J. Svitak, 31; and Army Spc. Marc A. Anderson, 30.
All of the men received posthumous honors, including the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and meritorious service awards, for their heroism on the frozen peak in eastern Afghanistan now known as “Roberts Ridge.” But for Roberts, giving his life to his country was its own reward.
In a letter he wrote to his wife before the attack in case of death, he reflected:
“I consider myself blessed with the best things a man could ever hope for. I loved being a SEAL. If I died doing something for the Teams, then I died doing what made me happy. Very few people have the luxury of that.” In a memorial statement, Roberts’ family elaborated on what motivated their cherished son, brother, husband and father: “He made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that everyone who calls himself or herself an American truly has all the privileges of living in the greatest country in the world.” May we never forget what happened.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:40 AM
May 27, 2008
Charlie Daniels Latest ~ " Socialism"
Socialism
I have noticed some people who are developing a somewhat permissive attitude toward socialism and I personally think it's dangerous.
Socialism is like a snake; it can creep silently in and stay around until the opportunity to bite comes along. Socialism is one of those things that sounds good on paper but never has and never will work out in practicality.
Socialism sounds like a noble Robin Hood, share and share alike proposition where all the money goes into one pot and is distributed by a central government which makes the decisions about what you get and what you don't get.
Actually there is no such thing as mass socialism because you can't administer such an undertaking without a mega massive bureaucracy which is actually a totalitarian police state were everybody watches everybody else and if you don't toe the line you get the midnight knock on the door. If you don't believe that, research the communist histories of Russia, Cuba, the Eastern block countries and look what Hugo Chavez is doing to Venezuela.
Years ago when the Berlin wall came down and McDonalds first broke into the Eastern block countries, the people there wanted jobs because they wanted to earn the kind of wages they paid.
Yes they wanted the wages, but they didn't want the work. The decades of communism had so dulled their work ethic that they thought they should be able to work a few hours and spend the rest of the day reading the newspaper or something. McDonalds had something like a three hundred percent turnover.
All they had ever had were state sponsored jobs where it made no difference how hard you worked, you weren't going to be rewarded for it any more than the lazy slob next to you.
Michael Moore did a film some time back called Sicko. I didn't see it but I understand he was praising the quality of healthcare in Cuba. But I'll promise you that if Mr. Moore contracts a horrible disease you couldn't drag him to Cuba for treatment. If he gets really sick, you'll see his anti-Americanism fade with his health.
Sure there's great medical in Cuba… for Fidel and his cronies. There is always the best of everything for the people who have the guns. The leaders live like kings but the rest of the people suffer and suffer badly.
Speaking of sickos, how about Kim Jong-il in North Korea and his supposed socialistic government? He spends the meager GNP of North Korea on developing atomic weapons while millions of people suffering under his rule are forced to eat just about anything they can chew and have had to cut down most of the trees in the country just to keep from freezing to death. Where are you Sierra Club?
And all the while this little monster sits back and sips his expensive cognac and thumbs his nose at the rest of the world.
Have you noticed what has happened to China in the last few years since they've adopted a degree of capitalism? Unfortunately they still have the totalitarian government, but at least they enjoy a measure of freedom they haven't known in half a century.
If you want to know about socialized medicine talk to a Canadian or talk to someone who has been unfortunate enough to be sick while they are visiting England.
You see, Socialism is not about kindness, caring or seeing that everybody has a hospital bed when they need one. Socialism is about control.
It's about a handful of elitists telling you what kind of car you can drive, what doctor to go to and taking away your personal freedom increment by increment until this will no longer be the sweet land of liberty.
Stop and think about it, the government only does one thing and that is spend your money. They don't manufacture anything, they just spend money and they will never have enough of it.
They're like the pathetic people who are addicted to gambling. They will take every cent they can get their hands on, throw it away and turn around and ask for more.
I've said this before and I'll say it again, in my opinion, we have the worst Congress and Senate we have ever had. Democrat, Republican or Independent, they're a body of mealy-mouthed pabulum-eaters who are not going to do anything useful and make sure that nobody else is going to do anything useful.
They refuse to tackle the tough problems like high fuel costs and the catastrophic illegal immigration fiasco and they play around with legislation to fund the troops and try to take the teeth out of the Homeland Security Bill.
Now do you think these people should be put in charge of a healthcare program? And let me ask you another question, if Hillary, Obama or McCain get their way with their healthcare programs, do you honestly think they'll have the same healthcare as you?
Down with Socialism, the horse it rode in on and the political candidates who support it.
What do you think?
Pray for our troops
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
May 19 , 2008
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:44 AM | Comments (5)
May 14, 2008
Paratrooper On Cover of Best-Selling Book "American Heroes"
Paratrooper Makes the Cover of Best-selling Author’s New Book
By Staff Sgt. Mike Pryor
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Public Affairs
FORT BRAGG, N.C.
Even though he is a decorated veteran of the war in Iraq, Sgt. 1st Class John Duggins doesn’t think of himself as an “American Hero.”
So it came as quite a surprise when Duggins saw his face on the cover of a new book with that name written by best-selling author Oliver North.
“People started calling me up as soon as they saw it saying, ‘Hey, you’re on the cover of a book!’ I was like, ‘Yeah, right. Shut up,” recounted Duggins, 37, a platoon sergeant with Battery B of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment.
At first, Duggins thought his buddies were playing a prank on him, but they were telling the truth – it is indeed his face staring out from the front cover of North’s just-released book, “American Heroes.”
The book is a tribute to U.S. military personnel serving on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.
" We were looking for a Captain America photo, and that one just jumped out at us,” said Chuck Holton, the book’s co-author, who ended up selecting Duggins’ photo from a pool of hundreds of other possibilities.
The photo has already made Duggins famous in his hometown of Madison, N.C. His picture is hanging up on the wall at the local tavern.
On the other hand, Duggins’ newfound celebrity has also earned him some ribbing from his fellow paratroopers.
“We all say, ‘Hey, what’s up, American Hero?” said Capt. Josh Richardson, Duggins’ battery commander.
Duggins, a humble man of few words, said he prefers to avoid the spotlight. He said he didn’t do anything worthy of a spot on the front cover, even suggesting that a different photo on the back of the book of a Soldier carrying a wounded comrade would have been a better choice.
“That should be the one on the cover. That’s the real hero,” Duggins said modestly.
But if Duggins wasn’t exactly thrilled to be in the limelight, his two sons, Taylor, 15, and Cody, 13, were more enthusiastic about the book. Taylor even gave it the ultimate teenage endorsement.
“It’s cool. I put it up on my MySpace page,” he said.
Duggins’ appearance on the book’s cover even earned him a chance to meet with Oliver North personally. As fate would have it, North was passing through Fayetteville on a book signing tour and arranged to meet Duggins after a signing at a local Barnes & Noble book store May 6.
At the store, a line of customers clutching copies of “American Heroes” for North to sign snaked out the door. Some of them did double takes when they saw Duggins waiting outside with his family. One man recognized Duggins from the cover photo.
“Wow, he even looks mean in real life,” the man noted.
“No he doesn’t,” Ruth Duggins said protectively.
After the signing was over, Duggins and his family were taken into a back area of the store to meet with Oliver North privately. When North entered the room, he gave Duggins a giant bear hug.
North, a former lieutenant colonel in the Marines and a war hero in his own right, said he has nothing but admiration for Duggins and all the other Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines serving in today’s Armed Forces. He said Duggins was the perfect choice to appear on the cover of his book.
“He represents a generation of American heroes that the American people need to know,” North said.
North presented Duggins and his sons with free, signed copies of “American Heroes,” and then asked Duggins to autograph a few copies for him. Like a seasoned pro Duggins began scrawling his name across the front covers of a stack of books.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:55 AM | Comments (12)
April 22, 2008
Guns and God? Hell, yes
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay free
Praise the Lord and swing into position
Can’t afford to be a politician
Praise the Lord, we’re all between perdition
And the deep blue sea
Yes the sky pilot said it
Ya gotta give him credit
For a sonofagun of a gunner was he
Shouting Praise the Lord, we’re on a mighty mission
All aboard, we ain’t a-goin’ fishin’
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay free
Praise the Lord (Praise the Lord) and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord (Praise the Lord) and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord (Praise the Lord) and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay free
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay free
.
Mark Steyn: Guns and God? Hell, yes
Obama attacks two of the things that elevate the U.S. above places like Europe
Our lesson today comes from the songwriter Frank Loesser:
"Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition."
Or as Barack Obama and his San Francisco pals would put it: God and guns. Loesser got the phrase from Howell Forgy, a naval chaplain at Pearl Harbor, who walked the decks of the USS New Orleans under Japanese bombardment, exhorting his comrades. When the line came to Loesser's ears, he turned it into a big hit song of the Second World War:
"Praise the Lord and swing into position
Can't afford to sit around a-wishin'…" – which some folks sang as "Can't afford to be a politician." Indeed. Sen. Obama's remarks about poor dumb, bitter rural losers "clinging to" guns and God certainly testify to the instinctive snobbery of a big segment of the political class. But we shouldn't let it go by merely deploring coastal condescension toward the knuckledraggers. No, what Michelle Malkin calls Crackerquiddick (quite rightly – it's more than just another dreary "-gate") is not just snobbish nor even merely wrongheaded.
It's an attack on two of the critical advantages the United States holds over most of the rest of the Western world.
In the other G7 developed nations, nobody clings to God 'n' guns. The guns got taken away, and the Europeans gave up on churchgoing once they embraced Big Government as the new religion.
How's that working out? Compared with America, France and Germany have been more or less economically stagnant for the past quarter-century, living permanently with unemployment rates significantly higher than in the United States.
Has it made them any less "bitter," as Obama characterizes those Pennsylvanian crackers? No. In my book "America Alone," just out in paperback and available in all good bookstores – you'll find it in Borders propping up the wonky rear leg of the display table for the smash new CD "Michelle Obama And The San Francisco Macchiato Chorus Sing "I Pinned My Pink Slip To The Gun Rack Of My Pick-Up,' 'My Dog Done Died, My Wife Jus' Left Me, And Michael Dukakis Is Strangely Reluctant To Run Again,' Plus 'I Swung By The Economic Development Zone Business Park But The Only Two Occupied Rental Units Were Both Evangelical Churches' And Other Embittered Appalachian Favorites."
Where was I? Oh, yes. In my book "America Alone," I note a global survey on optimism: 61 percent of Americans were optimistic about the future, 29 percent of the French, 15 percent of Germans. Take it from a foreigner: In my experience, Americans are the least "bitter" people in the developed world. Secular, gun-free big-government Europe doesn't seem to have done anything for people's happiness. Consider by way of example the words of Keith Reade. He's not an Obama speechwriter, he's a writer for the London Daily Mirror. And the day after the 2004 presidential election he expressed his frustration in an alarmingly Obamaesque way:
"Were I a Kerry voter, though, I'd feel deep anger, not only at them returning Bush to power, but for allowing the outside world to lump us all into the same category of moronic muppets. The self-righteous, gun-totin', military-lovin', sister-marryin', abortion-hatin', gay-loathin', foreigner-despisin', nonpassport ownin' rednecks, who believe God gave America the biggest d*** in the world so it could urinate on the rest of us and make their land 'free and strong.'"
Well, that's certainly why I supported Bush, but I'm not sure it entirely accounts for the other 62,039,073 incontinent rednecks. Reade, though, does usefully enumerate some of the distinctive features that separate America from the rest of the West. "Self-righteous"? If you want a public culture that reeks of indestructible faith in its own righteousness, try Europe – especially when they're talking about America: If you disagree with Eutopian wisdom, you must be an idiot.
Obama and far too many Democrats have bought into this delusion, most thoroughly distilled in Thomas Frank's book "What's The Matter With Kansas?", whose argument is that heartland voters are too dumb (i.e., "moronic muppets") to vote for their own best interests.
Europeans did "vote for their own best interests" – i.e., cradle-to-grave welfare, 35-hour workweeks, six weeks of paid vacation, etc. – and as a result they now face a perfect storm of unsustainable entitlements, economic stagnation and declining human capital that's left them so demographically beholden to unassimilable levels of immigration that they're being remorselessly Islamized with every passing day. We should thank God (forgive the expression) that America's loser gun nuts don't share the same sophisticated rational calculation of "their best interests" as do Thomas Frank, Obama, too many Democrats and the European political establishment.
As for "gun-totin'," large numbers of Americans tote guns because they're assertive, self-reliant citizens, not docile subjects of a permanent governing class. The Second Amendment is philosophically consistent with the First Amendment, for which I've become more grateful since the Canadian Islamic Congress decided to sue me for "hate speech" up north. Both amendments embody the American view that liberty is not the gift of the state, and its defense cannot be outsourced exclusively to the government.
I think a healthy society needs both God and guns: It benefits from a belief in some kind of higher purpose to life on Earth, and it requires a self-reliant citizenry. If you lack either of those twin props, you wind up with today's Europe – a present-tense Eutopia mired in fatalism.
A while back, I was struck by the words of Oscar van den Boogaard, a Dutch gay humanist (which is pretty much the trifecta of Eurocool). Reflecting on the Continent's accelerating Islamification, he concluded that the jig was up for the Europe he loved, but what could he do? "I am not a warrior, but who is?" he shrugged. "I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it."
Sorry, it doesn't work like that. If you don't understand that there are times when you'll have to fight for it, you won't enjoy it for long. That's what a lot of Reade's laundry list – "gun-totin'," "military-lovin'" – boils down to. As for "gay-loathin'," it's Oscar van den Boogaard's famously tolerant Amsterdam where gay-bashing is resurgent: The editor of the American gay paper the Washington Blade got beaten up in the streets on his last visit to the Netherlands.
God and guns. Maybe one day a viable society will find a magic cure-all that can do without both, but Big Government isn't it. And even complacent liberal Democrats ought to be able to look across the ocean and see that. But, then, Obama did give the speech in San Francisco, a city demographically declining at a rate that qualifies it for EU membership. When it comes to parochial simpletons, you don't need to go to Kansas.
Wild Thing's comment.......
Bravo, Mr. Steyn! Mark is a gifted wordsmith and he nailed it!
I certainly hope America proves to be faithful to the Founders and not the wicked men in our government who aren’t.
It's so hard to pick a favorite quote out of this typical Steyn all-you-can-eat buffet, but I'll go with this one:
"Liberty is not the gift of the state, and its defense cannot be outsourced exclusively to the government."
...a perfect storm of unsustainable entitlements, economic stagnation and declining human capital that's left them so demographically beholden to unassimilable levels of immigration that they're being remorselessly Islamized with every passing day.
And, still, the left doesn't get it.
This song is a older that all of us on here, but it is a classic from WW11. Mary Steyn's article is excellent and since he mentioned the song I thought it would be fun to hear it.
I remember one of my Uncles singing this song sometimes.
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:45 AM | Comments (18)
April 21, 2008
Charlie Daniels Latest ~ Guns and Church
Guns and Church
Since I identify with the people who fall into Barrack Obama's elitist description about of people of faith who keep firearms I'm not very happy with Barrack Obama's recent remarks.
He said something to the effect that us rednecks cling to our guns and our religion when we get frustrated and I would like to take umbrage to these remarks. My faith goes much deeper than his superficial explanation and I love my guns even when I'm not frustrated.
And I am not by myself. I was going to church and shooting guns before Mr. Obama was even born and come from a long line of good people who have been doing it for generations.
To me this latest Obama blunder only helps reveal the depth of condescension the far left wing of the Democrat party has for the folks out here in flyover country.
Mr. Obama's remarks are insulting to a lot of folks. It's kind of like Abraham Lincoln said, "God must love the common people because he made so many of them".
His remarks make me think that Obama doesn't know the people of this country very well. I'm sure he knows the jet set and the Hollywood bunch, the limousine liberals and the save the whales, kill the babies crowd, but does he think that the ordinary people don't count? Does he think that they're so stupid that they don't know who he's talking about when he says these things? Does he think their opinions aren't important? Apparently.
How can a man stand in front of America and tell people what he wants to do for them and have so little respect for a whole segment of the population. In fact, a very large segment. Does that mean that he would only represent the high-minded liberal ideals of the far left and ignore the rest of us?
What kind of Commander and Chief would he make if he doesn't respect the very people who make up the lion's share of the armed forces.
You may say I'm over reacting, but I'm getting sick and tired of him making these elitist statements and saying that he had been taken out of context or some other flimsy excuse.
After his wife's remark about not being proud of this country and his pastor's statements calling America the U.S.K.K.K.A. and his own statement about not wanting his daughter punished with a baby, it makes me wonder what kind of a man Obama really is and what kind of a president he'd make.
Would he be an antigun advocate pushing the effort to take the firearms out of innocent citizen's hands? Would he not respect the religious beliefs of America, not taking them into account in his agenda?
I really don't know much about the man and neither does America. He basically came from out of nowhere and as the facts come out little by little, they don't make a particularly confident picture.
I have a great fear that if our military gets broken by another president, this time we're not going to have time to fix it again and what that spells for America, I don't even want to contemplate.
Oh well, I guess I'll grab my gun and go to church.
Pray for our troops
What do you think?
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
April 14, 2008
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:47 AM | Comments (17)
April 20, 2008
Boneheads vs. Jarheads By Russ Vaughn
Boneheads vs. Jarheads
Contributed by Russ Vaughn
TIME Magazine, that bastion of objective news reporting, where journalistic ethics are disappearing even faster than their readers (circulation rates down 17.5% in 2007 from the previous year according to Wikipedia) has trashed an American patriotic icon with its latest cover.
The cover is insulting to all American warriors but constitutes absolute sacrilege to one particular branch of American fighting men. TIME’s clueless, liberal editors may have endeared themselves to Al Gore and his Green Lemmings but they have surely incurred the wrath of a far more formidable green organization, the entire present and past United States Marine Corps, the lean, mean Green Machine.
In this confrontation between boneheads and Jarheads, all I can say is Semper Fi!
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
.....Thank you Russ!
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:47 AM | Comments (8)
April 03, 2008
Ann Coulter: OBAMA'S DIMESTORE 'MEIN KAMPF'
Ann Coulter: OBAMA'S DIMESTORE 'MEIN KAMPF'
If characters from "The Hills" were to emote about race, I imagine it would sound like B. Hussein Obama's autobiography, "Dreams From My Father."
Has anybody read this book? Inasmuch as the book reveals Obama to be a flabbergasting lunatic, I gather the answer is no. Obama is about to be our next president: You might want to take a peek. If only people had read "Mein Kampf" ...
Nearly every page -- save the ones dedicated to cataloguing the mundane details of his life -- is bristling with anger at some imputed racist incident. The last time I heard this much race-baiting invective I was ... in my usual front-row pew, as I am every Sunday morning, at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Obama tells a story about taking two white friends from the high school basketball team to a "black party." Despite their deep-seated, unconscious hatred of blacks, the friends readily accepted. At the party, they managed not to scream the N-word, but instead "made some small talk, took a couple of the girls out on the dance floor."
But with his racial hair-trigger, Obama sensed the whites were not comfortable because "they kept smiling a lot." And then, in an incident reminiscent of the darkest days of the Jim Crow South ... they asked to leave after spending only about an hour at the party! It was practically an etiquette lynching!
So either they hated black people with the hot, hot hate of a thousand suns, or they were athletes who had come to a party late, after a Saturday night basketball game.
In the car on the way home, one of the friends empathizes with Obama, saying: "You know, man, that really taught me something. I mean, I can see how it must be tough for you and Ray sometimes, at school parties ... being the only black guys and all."
And thus Obama felt the cruel lash of racism! He actually writes that his response to his friend's perfectly lovely remark was: "A part of me wanted to punch him right there."
Listen, I don't want anybody telling Obama about Bill Clinton's "I feel your pain" line.
Wanting to punch his white friend in the stomach was the introductory anecdote to a full-page psychotic rant about living by "the white man's rules." (One rule he missed was: "Never punch out your empathetic white friend after dragging him to a crappy all-black party.")
Obama's gaseous disquisition on the "white man's rules" leads to this charming crescendo: "Should you refuse this defeat and lash out at your captors, they would have a name for that, too, a name that could cage you just as good. Paranoid. Militant. Violent. Nigger."
For those of you in the "When is Obama gonna play the 'N-word' card?" pool, the winner is ... Page 85! Congratulations!
When his mother expresses concern about Obama's high school friend being busted for drugs, Obama says he patted his mother's hand and told her not to worry.
This, too, prompted Obama to share with his readers a life lesson on how to handle white people: "It was usually an effective tactic, another one of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves. They were more than satisfied, they were relieved -- such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn't seem angry all the time."
First of all, I note that this technique seems to be the basis of Obama's entire presidential campaign. But moreover -- he was talking about his own mother! As Obama says: "Any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning." Say, do you think a white person who said that about blacks would be a leading presidential candidate?
The man is stark bonkersville.
He says the reason black people keep to themselves is that it's "easier than spending all your time mad or trying to guess whatever it was that white folks were thinking about you."
Here's a little inside scoop about white people: We're not thinking about you. Especially WASPs. We think everybody is inferior, and we are perfectly charming about it.
In college, Obama explains to a girl why he was reading Joseph Conrad's 1902 classic, "Heart of Darkness": "I read the book to help me understand just what it is that makes white people so afraid. Their demons. The way ideas get twisted around. I helps me understand how people learn to hate."
By contrast, Malcolm X's autobiography "spoke" to Obama. One line in particular "stayed with me," he says. "He spoke of a wish he'd once had, the wish that the white blood that ran through him, there by an act of violence, might somehow be expunged."
Forget Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- Wright is Booker T. Washington compared to this guy.
Wild Thing's comment.......
I applaud Ann for this. Well done!
Obama is a paranoid man, totally enthralled with grouping all white people in a neat little racist bucket. The world needs to know: this man is DANGEROUS!!!!!
By contrast, Malcolm X's autobiography "spoke" to Obama. One line in particular "stayed with me," he says. "He spoke of a wish he'd once had, the wish that the white blood that ran through him, there by an act of violence, might somehow be expunged."
Now that is just plain creepy. If this man believes the words he writes, he's got serious psychological issues!!
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:35 PM | Comments (14)
March 18, 2008
The Obama Bargain By Shelby Steele ~ Excellent Article!
The Obama Bargain
By SHELBY STEELE
March 18, 2008
Geraldine Ferraro may have had sinister motives when she said that Barack Obama would not be "in his position" as a frontrunner but for his race. Possibly she was acting as Hillary Clinton's surrogate. Or maybe she was simply befuddled by this new reality -- in which blackness could constitute a political advantage.
But whatever her motives, she was right: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position." Barack Obama is, of course, a very talented politician with a first-rate political organization at his back. But it does not detract from his merit to say that his race is also a large part of his prominence. And it is undeniable that something extremely powerful in the body politic, a force quite apart from the man himself, has pulled Obama forward. This force is about race and nothing else.
The novelty of Barack Obama is more his cross-racial appeal than his talent. Jesse Jackson displayed considerable political talent in his presidential runs back in the 1980s. But there was a distinct limit to his white support. Mr. Obama's broad appeal to whites makes him the first plausible black presidential candidate in American history. And it was Mr. Obama's genius to understand this. Though he likes to claim that his race was a liability to be overcome, he also surely knew that his race could give him just the edge he needed -- an edge that would never be available to a white, not even a white woman.
How to turn one's blackness to advantage?
The answer is that one "bargains." Bargaining is a mask that blacks can wear in the American mainstream, one that enables them to put whites at their ease. This mask diffuses the anxiety that goes along with being white in a multiracial society. Bargainers make the subliminal promise to whites not to shame them with America's history of racism, on the condition that they will not hold the bargainer's race against him. And whites love this bargain -- and feel affection for the bargainer -- because it gives them racial innocence in a society where whites live under constant threat of being stigmatized as racist. So the bargainer presents himself as an opportunity for whites to experience racial innocence.
This is how Mr. Obama has turned his blackness into his great political advantage, and also into a kind of personal charisma. Bargainers are conduits of white innocence, and they are as popular as the need for white innocence is strong. Mr. Obama's extraordinary dash to the forefront of American politics is less a measure of the man than of the hunger in white America for racial innocence.
His actual policy positions are little more than Democratic Party boilerplate and hardly a tick different from Hillary's positions. He espouses no galvanizing political idea. He is unable to say what he means by "change" or "hope" or "the future." And he has failed to say how he would actually be a "unifier." By the evidence of his slight political record (130 "present" votes in the Illinois state legislature, little achievement in the U.S. Senate) Barack Obama stacks up as something of a mediocrity. None of this matters much.
Race helps Mr. Obama in another way -- it lifts his political campaign to the level of allegory, making it the stuff of a far higher drama than budget deficits and education reform. His dark skin, with its powerful evocations of America's tortured racial past, frames the political contest as a morality play. Will his victory mean America's redemption from its racist past? Will his defeat show an America morally unevolved? Is his campaign a story of black overcoming, an echo of the civil rights movement? Or is it a passing-of-the-torch story, of one generation displacing another?
Because he is black, there is a sense that profound questions stand to be resolved in the unfolding of his political destiny. And, as the Clintons have discovered, it is hard in the real world to run against a candidate of destiny. For many Americans -- black and white -- Barack Obama is simply too good (and too rare) an opportunity to pass up. For whites, here is the opportunity to document their deliverance from the shames of their forbearers. And for blacks, here is the chance to document the end of inferiority. So the Clintons have found themselves running more against America's very highest possibilities than against a man. And the press, normally happy to dispel every political pretension, has all but quivered before Mr. Obama. They, too, have feared being on the wrong side of destiny.
And yet, in the end, Barack Obama's candidacy is not qualitatively different from Al Sharpton's or Jesse Jackson's. Like these more irascible of his forbearers, Mr. Obama's run at the presidency is based more on the manipulation of white guilt than on substance. Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson were "challengers," not bargainers. They intimidated whites and demanded, in the name of historical justice, that they be brought forward. Mr. Obama flatters whites, grants them racial innocence, and hopes to ascend on the back of their gratitude. Two sides of the same coin.
But bargainers have an Achilles heel. They succeed as conduits of white innocence only as long as they are largely invisible as complex human beings. They hope to become icons that can be identified with rather than seen, and their individual complexity gets in the way of this. So bargainers are always laboring to stay invisible. (We don't know the real politics or convictions of Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan or Oprah Winfrey, bargainers all.) Mr. Obama has said of himself, "I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views . . ." And so, human visibility is Mr. Obama's Achilles heel. If we see the real man, his contradictions and bents of character, he will be ruined as an icon, as a "blank screen."
Thus, nothing could be more dangerous to Mr. Obama's political aspirations than the revelation that he, the son of a white woman, sat Sunday after Sunday -- for 20 years -- in an Afrocentric, black nationalist church in which his own mother, not to mention other whites, could never feel comfortable. His pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is a challenger who goes far past Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in his anti-American outrage ("God damn America").
How does one "transcend" race in this church? The fact is that Barack Obama has fellow-traveled with a hate-filled, anti-American black nationalism all his adult life, failing to stand and challenge an ideology that would have no place for his own mother. And what portent of presidential judgment is it to have exposed his two daughters for their entire lives to what is, at the very least, a subtext of anti-white vitriol?
What could he have been thinking? Of course he wasn't thinking. He was driven by insecurity, by a need to "be black" despite his biracial background. And so fellow-traveling with a little race hatred seemed a small price to pay for a more secure racial identity. And anyway, wasn't this hatred more rhetorical than real?
But now the floodlight of a presidential campaign has trained on this usually hidden corner of contemporary black life: a mindless indulgence in a rhetorical anti-Americanism as a way of bonding and of asserting one's blackness. Yet Jeremiah Wright, splashed across America's television screens, has shown us that there is no real difference between rhetorical hatred and real hatred.
No matter his ultimate political fate, there is already enough pathos in Barack Obama to make him a cautionary tale. His public persona thrives on a manipulation of whites (bargaining), and his private sense of racial identity demands both self-betrayal and duplicity. His is the story of a man who flew so high, yet neglected to become himself.
Mr. Steele, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and the author of "A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win"
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:44 PM | Comments (3)
February 20, 2008
Angry White Man
In election 2008, don’t forget Angry White Man
by Gary Hubbell
"There is a great amount of interest in this year’s presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an African-American — while the conservative Republicans are in a quandary about their party’s nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.
There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.
His common traits are that he isn’t looking for anything from anyone — just the promise to be able to make his own way on a level playing field. In many cases, he is an independent businessman and employs several people. He pays more than his share of taxes and works hard.
The victimhood syndrome buzzwords — “disenfranchised,” “marginalized” and “voiceless” — don’t resonate with him. “Press ‘one’ for English” is a curse-word to him. He’s used to picking up the tab, whether it’s the company Christmas party, three sets of braces, three college educations or a beautiful wedding.
He believes the Constitution is to be interpreted literally, not as a “living document” open to the whims and vagaries of a panel of judges who have never worked an honest day in their lives.
The Angry White Man owns firearms, and he’s willing to pick up a gun to defend his home and his country. He is willing to lay down his life to defend the freedom and safety of others, and the thought of killing someone who needs killing really doesn’t bother him.
The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.
His last name and religion don’t matter. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.
He’s a man’s man, the kind of guy who likes to play poker, watch football, hunt white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf, spend a few bucks at a strip club once in a blue moon, change his own oil and build things. He coaches baseball, soccer and football teams and doesn’t ask for a penny. He’s the kind of guy who can put an addition on his house with a couple of friends, drill an oil well, weld a new bumper for his truck, design a factory and publish books. He can fill a train with 100,000 tons of coal and get it to the power plant on time so that you keep the lights on and never know what it took to flip that light switch.
Women either love him or hate him, but they know he’s a man, not a dishrag. If they’re looking for someone to walk all over, they’ve got the wrong guy. He stands up straight, opens doors for women and says “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am.”
He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.
He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.
Most important, the Angry White Man is pissed off. When his job site becomes flooded with illegal workers who don’t pay taxes and his wages drop like a stone, he gets righteously angry. When his job gets shipped overseas, and he has to speak to some incomprehensible idiot in India for tech support, he simmers. When Al Sharpton comes on TV, leading some rally for reparations for slavery or some such nonsense, he bites his tongue and he remembers. When a child gets charged with carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly bringing a penknife to school, he takes note of who the local idiots are in education and law enforcement.
He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she is who she is. It’s the liberal victim groups she panders to, the “poor me” attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.
There are many millions of Angry White Men. Four million Angry White Men are members of the National Rifle Association, and all of them will vote against Hillary Clinton, just as the great majority of them voted for George Bush.
He hopes that she will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum."
Wild Thing's comment.......
This is so good, and yesterday Rush Limbaugh read this on his show. It is priceless!
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:55 AM | Comments (22)
February 19, 2008
Chronic Warrior Syndrome By Russ Vaughn
One of the things I've come to love about writing for the Internet is the new friends I make whose perception sometimes make me smack my forehead in wonder that in all my years some insight they easily offer up had so completely eluded me until now. One such is a jarhead, and believe me, as an old paratrooper, I use that term with respect and brotherly affection. Old Leatherneck, Troy Watson, introduced me to the concept of Chronic Marine Syndrome, which as best I can determine is the inspiration of retired Marine Corps Brigadier General, Mike Mulqueen.
Reading the list of symptoms associated with Chronic Marine Syndrome, I realized quickly that the New York Times and other mainstream media organizations have been right all along that those who serve their country, and especially those who have actually fought in their country's service have most likely developed a syndrome which, considering the moral fiber of the mainstream media and the nation of sheep they seek to form and lead, could accurately be categorized by them as pathological.
Pardon me Marines in general, and General Mulqueen, specifically, but I think CMS extends beyond the Corps and infects past, present, and surely the future ranks of all American military services. Consider, if you will, but a few of the symptoms General Mulqueen has defined as markers of this unique infliction, as well as some others I have added:
First and foremost, having confidence in who they arePossessing pride in oneself, one's organization and the country they serve
Being knowledgeable of and comfortable with the terms honor, courage and commitment
Determined to see the mission, regardless of temporary setbacks, accomplished
Often either respected or despised by others, due to their unique abilities and talents
Internally and essentially immune to organizational political correctness
Able to meet you with a firm handshake and look you in the eye
When not a warrior, a first responder, cop, fireman, nurse, doctor, EMT, etc.
If he/she says "Hang on, I'm coming for you," you can bet your life, they're coming for you
Shares the tremendous pride and the undying respect of his or her family
Shares the tremendous pride and the undying respect of his or her buddies, military and civilian
Shares rations, water and candy bars with the unfortunate children of war
Shares, unfortunately, the gratitude of only some of us in this nation he or she protects
Yes, I'm beginning to see where the media can make a sensational case that these people, these soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen that we send out in harm's way to defend us, somehow possess a demonstrable set of symptoms that clearly differentiate them from far too many in America today, especially these selfsame parasites in the mainstream media who greedily suck at the nation's wounds and feast on the world's offal. Since these symptoms seem to apply solely to a unique minority of volunteers who place selflessness above all other virtues, a condition of some rarity in this age of "me first," I can now understand how those staunch, courageous patriots at the New York Times and their fellow travelers at the broadcast networks see our returning warriors as unwell in some way.
Yep, I simply can question their judgment no longer; our troops returning from the Mideast wars are indeed afflicted and it's time to give that affliction a catchy name like the one the media loves for my generation of warriors: PTSD. However, considering the group of symptoms described above, I think we should call this current problem, CWS: Chronic Warrior Syndrome.
Long may our young warriors be afflicted. HOOOAHH!
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
Here’s the link to Troy Watson's .... the 7th Marines
Wild Thing's comment.......
This is so good and says soooo much that I wish the lefties would read and get it in their thick heads. Thank God for the Marines and all that have served in all the branches, and serve today and for the Chronic Warrior Syndrome.
....Thank you Russ for writing this and sending this to me!
...............And thank you Mark for this awesome graphic.
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:50 AM | Comments (18)
February 15, 2008
A Valentine For Code Pink
Contributed by Bill Faith of Old War Dogs Blog
There once was a mayor; Master Bates,
Who chided Marines; whom he hates,
He prefers cunning runts,
Who play Cupid stunts,
And wear nothing but pink on their dates.
Security needs went unplugged,
Film rolled while Medea still mugged,
The council would meet,
While thugs roamed their beat,
Flags burned in the streets as Bates shrugged,Like Nero who played with his fiddle,
Bates’ actions remain a big riddle,
His city would host,
A leftist’s pig roast,
But the meat still is pink in the middle.We all hope and pray for a quake
That will give Bates’ poor city a shake,
And then we’ll ignore,
As he stands to implore,
“Send help! For humanity’s sake!”We’ll watch as you shake and you cry,
When help is slow, you’ll ask “Why?”
Without reason or rhyme,
And despite your foul crime,
We’ll be there, save your ass, “Semper Fi!”The Gray Dog
Wild Thing's comment........
I LOVE this! Thank you The Gray Dog.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:40 AM | Comments (2)
February 06, 2008
Entertaining Considerations By Russ Vaughn
I am troubled by tonight’s primary results, especially troubled by the prospect that I may be forced to vote for an unprincipled political chameleon like McCain in order to save our country from two politicians, Bill and Hillary Clinton, who are even more unprincipled, even to the point of felonious criminality. I wrote this piece this morning and tonight stand by it even more. Hillary just slapped my face and that of many other honorable veterans with her sneering, gratuitous reference to swift boating in her gloating victory speech. It just demonstrates how twisted their leftist thinking is when they use this term of honor as a pejorative.
I will follow the dictates of my old regimental motto: Honor and Country,
Russ Vaughn
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
Entertaining Considerations
I was afraid this was going to happen when McCain started coming on stronger in the primaries. To an even greater extent than John Kerry, John McCain possesses the ability to politically divide American veterans more than any other presidential candidate. With Kerry, a key determinant of which way veterans’ loyalties fell was party affiliation. I’m sure there were many liberal Democrat veterans, particularly Vietnam veterans, who held their noses and supported a man they viscerally disliked because he was their party’s candidate and represented their overall liberal positions. It was easy for those of us who were politically conservative Vietnam vets to take a hard, unrelenting stand against the man we knew had smeared us because he was the candidate of the party whose positions we opposed.
Today, this division among veterans in general and Vietnam veterans in particular has been turned by McCain’s candidacy into a family fight among Republican veterans that threatens our already diminished prospects for victory in November. While virtually all of us admire and respect McCain’s military service and POW sacrifice, there are millions of us who feel that is simply not enough for him to be able to command our political loyalties four decades later. Setting aside the fact that McCain sided with John Kerry in 2004 and denounced those of us who dared to question Kerry’s very questionable war record, there are many reasons why we do not see John McCain as being someone we can trust to represent the mainstream views of the Republican party. I will spare you a Sean Hannity, rapid-fire recitation of the litany of McCain’s transgressions against his own party because I think there is a single issue far more compelling.
Go ahead and Google “McCain switching parties?” and look at the pages of hits which take you to articles from every sector of the media examining whether or not John McCain was preparing to switch parties as far back as 2001 and continuing into the 2004 campaign. The most chilling of all these reports is one from the Boston Herald in which McCain is quoted as responding to ABC’s Charles Gibson’s question as to whether he would even entertain the idea of running as John Kerry’s VP if Kerry extended such an offer,
“John Kerry is a very close friend of mine. We’ve been friends for years. Obviously I would entertain it.”
That is a very telling quote. In his own words, to further his political ambitions, John McCain would have considered abandoning his party and his supposedly conservative principles to serve on the ticket with one of the most liberal candidates ever to run as a Democrat presidential candidate. Even worse, reading down, one reads that Kerry now claims it was McCain’s people who initiated such a proposal, not that we’d be inclined to lend too much credibility to that particular source. Some very close friends, huh? No wonder then that McCain was able to denounce his fellow Navy Vietnam veterans as “dishonest and dishonorable” when they dared to attack Kerry’s self-promoting war record. McCain was selfishly attempting to curry favor with the man and the party which could do the most for his personal political future.
http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/conason/2004/08/06/mccain_on_swift_boat_veterans/
Now I ask you, just who was being dishonest and dishonorable here? Was it the sailors who served in combat with Kerry and raised issues with his war record that Kerry never successfully refuted and refused to release the Navy records which he claimed would do so? Or was it the self-serving maverick politician who was entertaining the possibility of forsaking his Republican party to fill the number two position on the Democrat ticket?
A good friend and fellow Old War Dog, Bill Faith, cites Mitt Romney’s contradictory and self-serving statements about not serving in Vietnam as proving Romney unworthy of his vote. To that I would respond that talking out of both sides of one’s mouth is congenital in politicians and that perhaps Romney might have gone AWOL on the issue. But Romney’s transgression completely pales against John McCain’s admitted willingness to “entertain” the possibility of full-fledged desertion to the enemy in the midst of political combat.
I don’t know about you but I don’t want a commander-in-chief who even entertains such considerations.
Russ Vaughn
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Wild Thing's comment........
Thank you Russ for sending this to me. I heard Hillary say that too about swiftboating and I almost chocked when she said it.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:50 AM | Comments (12)
January 26, 2008
Republican Party And The Election
02/12/1999 Impeachment of President Clinton - Article I No Vote
02/12/1999 Impeachment of President Clinton - Article II No Vote
04/11/2007 Stem Cell Research Act of 2007 Yes Vote
04/11/2007 HOPE Stem Cell Research Act of 2007 Yes Vote
07/18/2006 Stem Cell Research Bill Yes Vote
12/21/2005 Removal of ANWR Provision from HR 2863 No Vote
06/06/2007 English as the Common Language Voted No
McCaini co-authored global-warming legislation with Sen. Joe Lieberman.
In South Carolina, McCain made another huge turn left all again making sure to trash ANWR and drilling in ANWR. Everybody's talking about energy independence and coming up with ways to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
McCain championed an immigration bill that would have set up a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Wild Thing's comment........
And this from a transcript of Rush Limbaugh that I think is excellent
.
I've decided if we've got a bunch of Republicans who go out and act like liberals or moderates in order to get those people to vote for a Republican, I'm going to insult the moderates, and I'm going to see to it that they don't want to vote in the party I'm a member of. (laughs) Somebody's gotta do something here. Now, seriously, folks. It is one thing to go out and attract the so-called Reagan Democrats, these moderate conservatives that have been Democrat by tradition. It's one thing to go get them by talking to them from the standpoint of conservatism and freedom, American exceptionalism, and greatness; but it is not good to go get them if you're going to pander to them with populism and make them also dependent on the Republican Party as they already are on the Democrat Party. That's not what we're about. "But, Rush? But, Rush? What about winning the election?" I understand, folks, and I understand some of you that think any of our Republican candidates would be better than Hillary or Obama, and you're probably right about that.
I'm not going to dispute that, but I'm going to tell you: there's not going to be much difference in terms of policy or what's going to happen to the Republican Party. Look, the Republican Party matters to me in the sense that it is the vessel -- it is the host, if you will -- for conservatism. Now, too many Republicans look at themselves as the host, and conservatives as an infection -- as a virus that has been spreading throughout the Republican Party and slowly eating it away. Wrong. That's what will happen if we succeed in having a candidate -- I don't care who it is -- who is so enamored with getting independents and moderates and certain liberals, by going out and trying to be like them and telling them that our party is in fact their home. It's the Invasion of the Body Snatchers all over again in a political sense. Now, I keep talking about Ronaldus Magnus. Pete Wehner has a great piece today at Commentary, their website, and I'll share excerpts with you in a second. But remember, now: My devotion to Reagan is not a cult of personality. I think a lot of people's devotion to McCain is. I think a lot of people's devotion to Governor Huckabee is a cult of personality. Reagan didn't invent conservatism. He just showed how to apply it, and he showed how it attracts voters.
How can you do better than a 49-state landslide? A fifty-state landslide, but it's pretty damn close. Anybody want to tell me that Reagan was campaigning as a moderate, independent? Anybody want to tell me that Reagan was running around campaigning and telling people how to become dependent on the government? Come on, folks! It's time to wake up here. I understand going out and "expanding the base" and having a chance at electoral victory and so forth, but if it means destroying the Republican Party -- and certainly losing, by the way. Does anybody think that the way to be elected president is to out-liberal liberals, to out-moderate moderates? Some of this just escapes me, especially when the history is not that long ago. It's fairly recent; it's the eighties. Even the Contract with America and the Republicans winning the House of Representatives in 1994, you think we did that with liberalism? You think we did that by attracting moderates? We had a little help there because there's so much corruption on the House of Representatives on the Democrat side, but how did anybody know about that? Talk radio -- which, back then, was me. Well, still is me. Ha-ha-ha! Anyway, don't forget the main point here. There's no magic and there's nothing valorous about going out and attracting people to our party by being like them, and having them think that our party is a new home for them, because of whatever deficiencies there are with Hillary or Obama or what have you.
That expediency to win is going to set us back. For those of us that are conservatives first and Republicans second, this is something that matters deeply. As I said, global warming and campaign finance reform are not just little throwaway issues that McCain made mistakes on and maybe apologized for (which he hasn't). They're substantive. They're crucial. I think this notion that we've gotta go out and broaden the base of the party by forsaking our own roots, by forsaking our own base, I'm going to tell you: You talk about this notion, "When you get down to nominations, Rush, and you get down to the presidential race, if it's McCain or Huckabee or any of our guys against Hillary or Obama, you really think that our guys are going to stay home and not vote for our side?" It depends. If our nominee spends a whole campaign acting like he's embarrassed at his own base; like he's angry at them, wants to diminish them and deemphasize them; and wants to instead build his party and his victory on members of the Democrat Party and liberals and moderates; yeah, it's going to make 'em mad! There's already an undertow of real anger at Senator McCain over immigration alone and McCain-Feingold, among the Republican base. It's just these moderates and squishy Jell-Os out there, those that are also in the media. They're out of touch with the Republican base as well. The Republican base embarrasses them. So these are the people that consider themselves to be the party's "modernizers."
Well, hell, I'm all for "modernization," but not destruction.
(((Commercial break in transcript)))
RUSH: You know, about this modernizing business, my friends, and you know this, I do not blow my own horn. I do not tout my own whistle. I do not call attention to myself. That just happens. I do not say, "Notice me. Notice me." But I'm going to step in here on something. All this talk about modernizing the so-called conservative movement or modernizing the Republican Party, how many of you have heard the term "New Media"? You're responsible for it. Well, I'm responsible for it, but you have sustained it, all of you in the audience. We are the New Media. I think that's modernization. I think the true modernization of the movement and moving it forward and, quote, unquote, of the party is happening in the New Media. We are leading it, and there are people who don't like that, either, within our own structure, within our own movement.
McCain says, "I think I'll match my conservative record up against anybody that's running." Okay, now, see, that's pretty clever. It's pretty clever, because one of the laments among a lot of conservatives is that we don't have a thoroughbred out there, that every one of these guys has some sort of a question mark about them that you can go to in their past. As I said once, "The only guy that doesn't have to defend a prior liberal governing stance or moderate governing stance," well, and it's not even totally, "is Thompson." But even Thompson went along with McCain on the campaign finance reform thing. So, nobody is a thoroughbred out there.
We're not looking for purity. We're looking for people that want to beat liberals, not join them, and not have them join us. That's not the future. Do you ever hear liberals say -- do you hear Obama and these guys running around saying -- "We need to go out and attract conservatives to our party. We need to find out how to broaden or base?" Do you think if any one of those candidates -- be it Obama, be it Mrs. Clinton, be it the Breck Girl -- started talking in ways that would attract somebody like me, that their party would put up with it in order to win?
Well, they promised a middle class tax cut, but they don't deliver the thing. You know, it works when the conservative Democrats run in local, state, House of Representatives elections. That's how they won the House last time. That's another thing that bugs me. When the Democrats do want to win, especially in local House race, they run conservative Democrats, and they win. Our own side wants to shuck and jive conservatism; sweep it aside as something that's an antique, that needs to be modernized and so forth. It's patently absurd. Now, having said that, it is very interesting to listen to Obama cite Reagan.
This embarrasses me. He's citing Reagan in great ways. He's not citing Reagan on policy. He wouldn't dare do that, and he's taking a risk doing it anyway. That group over there despises Reagan even more than some of the country club, blue-blood Republicans on our side despised Reagan -- make no mistake, they did. Nevertheless he's out there citing Reagan, but he's doing it in the context of attitudes and uplifting sentiments, optimism and hope and inspiration. The kind of things our people ought to be doing, Obama is out there-doing.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:40 AM | Comments (12)
January 23, 2008
Not So Fast There, McCain!
Not So Fast There, McCain!
Contributed by Russ Vaughn
Up front, as a Vietnam veteran, I will readily concede that I respect John McCain for his service to his country, first as a naval aviator and POW in Vietnam, then for his long years in our national Congress. I even will admit to the fact that I somewhat admire McCain’s desire to effect some sort of political reconciliation with the Democrat party. That being said, I must also make it very clear that I do not support certain decisions McCain has chosen on his pathways to political advancement.
Now that the Senator has won primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina and the network pundits are proclaiming he may well be the Republican “Comeback Kid,” I am reminded of an old Army joke about a platoon sergeant faced with the prospect of breaking the terrible news to one of his young charges, Private Jones, that the soldier’s mother has just passed away. The sergeant calls his platoon into formation and barks out the order, “All of you with living mothers take one step forward.” Then after a momentary pause, he mutters, “Not so fast there, Jones.” That’s my take as a veteran and a conservative Republican on this new political development: “Not so fast there, McCain.”
My first and biggest beef with John McCain is that when a very brave group of Vietnam veterans who had served with John Kerry stood up to say that Kerry’s self-serving portrayal of his war record was patently false, that his blanket charges of war crimes against them were absurd, and that his testimony in Congress was used by the North Vietnamese to further torture McCain’s fellow POW’s, Senator McCain airily dismissed these courageous men and sided with his Senate pal. Playing conciliator in the national media, McCain despicably denounced the Swift boat veterans’ ad as dishonest and dishonorable, hinting that they were pawns of George Bush and the Republican right.
Like all the leftists in the MSM, John McCain never gave these true American heroes even the least opportunity to defend their claims. As a veteran who had suffered more than most to defend our constitutional right of free speech, McCain inexplicably used his powerful office and national presence to ally himself with the repressive forces of mainstream media to suppress that right to men who had risked their lives in combat to preserve it. It was one of the bitterest betrayals the Swift boat vets and the millions of us Vietnam veterans supporting them would have to endure. We expected treachery from the MSM and Kerry’s campaign, but not from John McCain.
What I can never reconcile in my mind, my heart or my soul, is how this naval aviator, POW and true war hero, could so easily turn his back on his fellow sailors, combat veterans all. In the name of political expediency, and a sorely misguided attempt to lay to rest all the troubled ghosts of Vietnam that his treasonous Senate colleague was primarily responsible for creating, John McCain turned his back on the true heroes and sided with a phony vet with phony medals and a suspect discharge.
Never mind that I disagree with McCain on immigration, taxes and his unconstitutional McCain-Feingold bill; that’s all merely politics and has nothing to do with honor and loyalty to those who served bravely alongside you in combat. Nope, that’s not the issue. But I’m putting the Senator on notice right now; if you should somehow get the Republican nomination, you are gambling with the votes of millions of veterans like me unless you repudiate your reprehensible siding with the traitorous, treasonous John Kerry. I have never stayed home on Election Day in protest of a distasteful candidate, but this could be the first time for me and many Vietnam vets, again turning our backs on a fellow vet who turned his first.
The Senator should read the excellent recounting of how a determined few veterans, whom he disgracefully defamed, defeated his old buddy, John Kerry, in the 2004 campaign. In ‘To Set the Record Straight,” authors Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler, lay it out, page by page, what the concerted efforts of a few honorable patriots with an unrelenting resolve can accomplish in the arena of national politics.
Like the old platoon sergeant, I would caution, “Not so fast there, McCain!
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
Presidential Campaign 2004
....Thank you Russ for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:47 AM | Comments (16)
January 20, 2008
Nam Vet Russ Vaughn On The Election
Electile Dysfunction
by Russ Vaughn
It's abundantly clear and I charge without fear
Nor the slightest degree of compunction,
Proven night after night both on left and on right,
Our media have electile dysfunction.
While hoping to score they've become such a bore
With their overdone, nonstop production.
So we're starting to balk at their unending talk;
We're weary of endless seduction.
The hooray and hearsay, the pestering foreplay
Their tempting has lost its direction;
It will be with some glee when we actually see
The media finally get an election.
Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66
.....Thank you Russ for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:44 AM | Comments (10)
January 17, 2008
Military Magazine Is Awesome!
I received a wonderful subscription from Tom. It is called Military Magazine. My first issue arrived and I love it. It is not only good every few pages, but the entire magazine is filled with touching and informative personal accounts from those who have served our country.
"Military is a monthly history publication written by the men and women who were there; in essence an oral account in print in the words of those who served. Unlike most military history chronicles, Military encourages the subscribers to become involved in what is published. Most of the articles are first-hand experiences of the subscribers during World War II, Korea, Viet-Nam, the Cold War and Gulf War; all U.S. military services."
Samples of some of the articles:
The Truth About John Kerry from Buzz Patterson and John O'Neill
A Marine’s life: CPL Aaron M. Lusk, USMC, Camp Lejeune, NC
The Battle of Bunker Hill as seen from Easy Medical Company (part one of three): Lt. Birney Dibble, M.D. (s.g., MC, USNR, 1st MarDiv, Korea), Eau Clarie, WI
There are several regular columnists:
Lt. Col. Oliver North USMC (Ret)
Thomas Sowell
Jack Kelly
Mark Steyn
Also which is very generous of them a person can Receive a Sample Copy of Military Magazine.
Military
2628 El Camino Ave., Ste. A6
Sacramento CA 95821-5925
Phone: (800) 366-9192
Weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time
Thank you so much Tom.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:47 AM | Comments (4)
December 18, 2007
Ground Zero to Baghdad
One Remarkable National Guard Unit's Journey from Ground Zero to Baghdad
by Sean Michael Flynn
Amazon.com books
Flynn does a great job of “painting the picture” of what the unit looks like –the personalities, the leaders, and the troops.
"With a charismatic mix of irreverent humor and eye-opening honesty, Sean Flynn, himself a member of the 69th, memorably chronicles the transformation of this motley band of amateur soldiers into a battle- hardened troop at work in one of the most lethal quarters of Baghdad: the notorious Airport Road, a blood- soaked strand that grabbed headlines and became a bellwether for progress in postinvasion Iraq. At home on the concrete and asphalt like no other unit in the U.S. Army, Gotham’s Fighting 69th finally brings its own rough justice to this lawless precinct by ignoring army discipline and turning to the street-fighting tactics they grew up with and know best.The Fighting 69th is more than a story about the impact of terrorism, the war on Iraq, or the current administration’s failures. It is the story of how regular citizens come to grips with challenges far starker than what they have been prepared for. Flynn’s dark humor, empathy, and candor make for a fresh look at who our soldiers are and what they do when faced with their toughest challenges. "
About the Author
Sean Michael Flynn served as a company commander during the Fighting 69th’s service from Ground Zero to Iraq. Before joining the Army National Guard as an infantryman, Flynn served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force. Flynn has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Wild Thing's comment........
I have heard about this book and how good it is so I wanted to share about it. It will be available for delivery after December 24th of this year.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:44 AM | Comments (4)
October 22, 2007
John Bolton Book Cites Effort to Halt Powell's Iran Initiative
Bolton Book Cites Effort to Halt Powell's Iran Initiative
Book at Amazon
Washington Times article about the book
On the eve of the 2004 presidential elections, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell secretly attempted to shift U.S. policy on Iran by telling key allies he wanted to offer "carrots" to the Islamic Republic to halt its nuclear ambitions, former U.N. ambassador John R. Bolton writes in his soon-to-be-published memoir.
Bolton, then undersecretary of state, says that he worked hard to thwart Powell's plans -- only to discover, to his dismay, that Powell's replacement, Condoleezza Rice, would pursue the same approach in President Bush's second term.
Bolton reveals many private conversations and internal debates as the administration struggled to deal with such issues as the North Korean and Iranian nuclear threats, the tragedy in Sudan's Darfur region, the Israeli-Hezbollah war and deteriorating relations with Russia.
Bolton's recounting of these episodes adds to the growing body of insider accounts about the inner workings of the Bush administration, though this is one of the first by a leading conservative figure.
It will likely cause angst at the State Department and in some foreign capitals, including London, because of Bolton's depiction of the diplomatic exchanges. In typically pugnacious style, Bolton lashes out at his opponents in the administration and overseas, repeatedly referring to European Union diplomats as "EUroids" and foes in State's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Bureau as "EAPeasers."
Bolton in particular criticizes Rice and one of her top aides, Undersecretary R. Nicholas Burns, for what he considers poor diplomacy. He recounts his anger -- and that of other administration conservatives -- at many of her decisions, especially her handling of North Korea, Iran and the Israeli war, arguing that Rice was too willing to make unnecessary concessions in pursuit of ineffectual achievements.
During a meeting on Hamas's participation in Palestinian elections at the United Nations, for instance, Bolton says he watched Rice make a series of "unforced errors" because she was too eager to be accommodating.
Bolton attributes Powell's 2004 gambit on Iran to what he caustically calls the "George C. Marshall Legacy Project," which he said involved "distancing Powell from Bush." Bolton, as the administration's chief arms control official, was critical of efforts by Britain, France and Germany (the "EU-3") to forge a deal with Iran.
He believed that Tehran used the talks only to build up its nuclear capability. The administration was also openly skeptical, so he says he was shocked to learn that Powell, at a Sept. 22, 2004, dinner with "Group of Eight" foreign ministers, agreed that Iran should be given a package of "carrots."
Bolton says he got a vague response from Powell when he asked about it, but he soon saw a European reporting cable on the meal and a Canadian letter that confirmed Powell's proposal. In what Bolton described as the most difficult three weeks of his tenure in the administration, he says he used every possible bureaucratic and diplomatic maneuver to kill Powell's plan.
"Powell had violated our long-standing Iran policy, colluded with the EU-3 against it and come out nearly endorsing [Sen. John F.] Kerry's position only weeks before our election," Bolton writes. "Along with others, I had foiled Powell's legacy gambit. I knew it, and he knew I knew it."
But then to Bolton's shock, Rice adopted the same approach when she became secretary. He says he began thinking of leaving the administration when Rice gave him the news over dinner in 2006. A depressed Bolton pointedly ordered carrot soup with the meal.
.
Wild Thing's comment........
I have tremendous respect for John Bolton. I look forward to reading this book and I think this article about the book is also excellent. Bolton has always been a man of his word, a conservative and someone I always felt truly loves America.
As far as Powell is concerned I am no fan of his, he has said and done too many things I don't agree with and the same with Condi.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (12)
September 10, 2007
A 200-year-old lesson on 9/11
A 200-year-old lesson on 9/11
wnd ...for complete article
by Chuck Norris
With the 6th anniversary of 9/11 among us, as well as the imminent report on the status of the war from Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, America continues to face the fallout and frontlines of the war on terror.
Despite debates over the success of surges and the truths behind 9/11, one of the most significant deliberations remains how many Americans are still in denial about the depth and breath of extremists' hatred for our nation, liberties and way of life. Do people really think ceasing a war in Iraq will quench their fire to destroy our country?
Radical Muslims' guile existed far before 9/11, and it will be there far after an Iraqi war. In fact, it was apparent from the beginning of our nation, as seen in the Barbary Powers Conflict, a confrontation between the five Barbary nations (Tripoli, Turkey, Tunis, Algiers and Morocco) and what they considered the "Christian nations" (England, Denmark, France, Spain and the new United States).
Though I am not a historian or a military strategist, I believe now is a good time to recall this 200 year-old lesson on extremist Muslim-American relations.
((( Skipping to next part of article.......)))
Diplomacy lessons from long ago
While I am neither an alarmist nor a pessimist, I do believe we need to hear the voice of our Forefathers before it is too late. They cry out from the Barbary Powers Conflict in hope of imparting some wisdom to us. As the adage goes, we will either learn from history's mistakes or be doomed to repeat them.
1. Muslim extremists have always had a disdain for America. Before America was a new nation, Muslim extremists hated the West. When America was born, she was aligned with the Western ("Christian") countries and therefore became an enemy of them as well.
2. Negotiations and treaties don't work with extremists and terrorists. Our primary problem today, again like back then, is not our lack of international relations or communications. Seeking to clear misperceptions about America might work with some, but not radicals and terrorists. Tribute and treaties are only a temporary temperance at best; they didn't stop them from declaring war against us, and they won't stop them now. In the Barbary Conflict we caved into their demands and empowered them in so doing. Paying them only encouraged further attacks. Negotiating with extremists and those who harbor and support them is still bad international business.
3. Once a religious war, always a religious war. Whether justified as vengeful sentiment for the Crusades or not, Islamo-fascism cannot see any argument or altercation with the West outside the lens of a religious one.
4. The best defense is a good offense. For 30 years, from roughly 1785 through 1815, America fought by sea and land Muslim extremists in the form of pirate slave traders. Today, that fight continues with Muslim pirates who capture our planes and use them as weapons.
In a post-9/11 age of globalization, multi-ethnic societies and possible suitcase nukes, containment is impossible. Pre-emption is still our best solution. Our offense must be as strong as our defense. It took military might, leadership ingenuity and fortitude, and national perseverance to win the day against those Muslim extremists 200 years ago. And it will take the same today. If it took our Forefathers 30 years to resolve the Muslim-American conflict then, do we think we can settle it in six?
Nothing new under the sun
Years before 9/11, we tragically forgot these and other similar history lessons, dropping our guard to a monumentally shocking end. When 3,000 innocent American citizens were brutally murdered by parasitic pirate counterparts, we were delivered a devastating wakeup call. We relearned the same lessons from the Barbary Powers Conflict: that despite negotiations and even bribes, Muslim extremists are still engaged with America in a jihad or holy war.
Islamo-facism continues to seek to rob us of our liberties, cripple us by fear and destroy our country. Proof is found by simply asking how many of us will still not fly on 9/11. They've stolen a day of liberty from our calendar. Let's not allow them to seize another.
And they won't – as long as we stay resilient, learn from the lessons of history and remember the God of 911, Psalm 91:1 that is, for "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty."
Above all, this truth still stands, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" (Psalm 33:12).
Wild Thing's comment.......
I thought this good, I didn't know that Chuck Norris wrote a column. Anyway I hope you find it interesting as I did.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (15)
July 29, 2007
Nam Vet Russ Vaughn On Liberals And The War
Thank you Russ!
Not Even a Contest
I’m a soldier; haven’t been in uniform in forty years but the six years of active duty I did serve and the ensuing thirty-plus years I’ve spent working with the U.S. military, instilled in me certain qualities and beliefs that have grown and persisted within me all these decades and provide me with the basis for my stance on the war on terror. I may now be only an armchair warrior, but I’m still a soldier. As such, I understand the value of a rapid counterattack when your enemy has struck and badly hurt you. I say this as a brief, prefatory explanation of why I believe the Bush Administration has done the right thing in carrying the war on terror into the heart of terrorism itself. Yes, I know there are legions of liberals, so blinded by their certainty that the Supreme Court cheated Al Gore out of the presidency that they actually profess to believe that there were no ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq. To them I would say consider this: Syria had ties to Al Qaeda; Jordan had ties to Al Qaeda; Egypt had ties to Al Qaeda; Yemen had ties to Al Qaeda; Somalia had ties to Al Qaeda; Saudi Arabia had ties to Al Qaeda; the various Gulf monarchies had ties to Al Qaeda; Iran had ties to Al Qaeda; Pakistan had ties to Al Qaeda; Indonesia, the Philippines, North Korea and several of the former Soviet satellites under Muslim rule had ties to Al Qaeda.
But not Iraq.
That’s right, according to Democrat politicians and the liberal Left in America and Europe, only one country in the Middle East, Iraq, a country under the iron-fisted control of an absolute dictator who had reason to hate the American government far more bitterly than any of the leaders of the above nations, and yep, sitting smack dab in the middle of all these other terrorist harboring countries, only America-hating Iraq, was lily white clean according to liberal Democrats when it came to affiliation with Al Qaeda.
Excuse me folks, but Old Sarge’s bullshit detector is going off like a Geiger counter at ground zero in Chernobyl.
Now, of all the countries listed above, one of you Democrats, real quick, tell me which of them is absolutely known to have used weapons of mass destruction against a foreign enemy and dissident elements within its own borders. Hmmm, only one? Really? Only Iraq? Imagine that…chemical weapons used in conjunction with modern weapons delivery systems against Iranian forces and rebellious Kurds? Trust me folks, Old Sarge’s specialty in the Army was chemical, biological and radiological warfare and he knows quite well that the use of lethal, disabling and disfiguring gases in bombs, rockets and artillery warheads constitutes the use of weapons of mass destruction under the rules of land warfare. Never mind that Saddam Hussein blew the world a huge raspberry as he was gassing his enemies without and within. Nah…this guy didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction. Ask any Bush-hating Democrat.
So, contrary to all these liberals, whose only chance of seeing the light is when some proctologist’s probing proctoscope finally manages to locate their deeply-embedded eyes, this old grunt sees the value in hitting our enemies smack-dab in the middle of the threat; and that central target, folks, in this war on terror, just happened to be Iraq. And yes, Iraq has become a killing field, but far more so for radical Jihadists than for America and her allies. Potential bombers of Western cities flock like flies to the flypaper of a martyr’s death, not in New York or London, but on the killing field we have created for them. Remember one thing very well, Senators Reid, Durbin and Schumer: every single jihadist who dies in Iraq will never have the opportunity to die in one of our cities taking hundreds if not thousands of your potential voters with him.
And for all you armchair, liberal strategists who continue to throw up that canard that our military efforts should be entirely focused on capturing or killing the Al Qaeda leadership, Osama bin Laden and Zayman Al Zawahiri, in Afghanistan and Pakistan; may I inquire as to where you obtained your advanced degrees in military science? Madam Chair, would perhaps that have been at Berkeley’s famed War College? We know Congressman Murtha obtained his multiple military degrees from a rural Pennsylvania diploma mill, established and funded entirely by earmarks in federal legislation, but that’s a topic for another essay.
So, a simple question: did George Washington seek to capture King George? Did Abraham Lincoln focus all his military strategies on the capture or elimination of Jefferson Davis? In WWI, if we were hell-bent on capturing the Kaiser, why did we spend so many months in the hellish, intransigence of those trenches? Why on earth did MacArthur spend all that time and those American boys’ lives to move systematically up the Pacific archipelago in WWII if all we had to do was focus on capturing Emperor Hirohito? Would modern-day Democrat strategists label Eisenhower a fool and a loser for moving indirectly through Africa, Italy and the soft underbelly of Europe, Southern France, when all he had to do was attack Berlin directly and put Hitler in chains?
The truth is, all you Democrat military geniuses, is that none of those enemy leaders was captured until the fighting was over and the respective war was won; truth is, most of them never suffered any ill effects other than the ignominy of losing. Hell, if we did capture Osama, you liberal turkeys would be clamoring for the Bush administration to give him a fair and speedy trial, afforded all the rights of a U.S. citizen, and the ACLU would be appealing his conviction long beyond his natural death.
So what does this show America about its Democrat leadership? Well, it shows this old combat infantryman that you liberal wienies don’t know jack about fighting wars. It’s a far cry from forging voters’ registration certificates, stuffing ballot boxes and buying minority votes to standing solid under fire and defeating a lethal enemy on the battlefield. But since so very few of you have ever even worn the uniform, much less served in combat, you wouldn’t have any way of knowing that would you, ladies? I’ll make a wager right now: the average, enlisted, American military volunteer has more courage, integrity and patriotism than the U.S. congressman who supposedly represents him.
Hell, forget the bet; that’s not even a contest.
Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:50 AM | Comments (5)
July 24, 2007
Dennis Miller Unloads On Harry Reid
LOL good one Dennis!
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:48 AM | Comments (6)
Charlie Daniels Latest His Open Letter To Harry Reid
An open letter to Harry Reid and all the rest of the short sighted, self serving, politically activated politicos who want to pull our troops out of Iraq before they have a chance to complete the job they're doing.
Mr. Reid et al,
I see where you tried again this week to force a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and your proposal failed again.
You people in Washington claim to know the mind of the American people. I beg to differ with you and would offer up in evidence just how out of touch you are with the American people by reminding you of what happened when you tried to shove that ridiculous Amnesty Bill down our throats.
You also claim to support the troops but if you really did you would separate and pass the part of the bill that raises pay for the military. If you really support the troops that's the least you could do.
You say that little or no progress has been made in Iraq. I guess the execution of Saddam and his maniacal sons was not a good thing. And the destruction or detainment of scores of Al Qaida operatives don't count.
Mr. Reid I have been told by a high ranking officer serving in Iraq that they fight Al Qaida every day and that if we don't defeat them over there, they will come to America.
Just whose word do I take for that, a General who actually faces the enemy every day or an expensively coiffed Presidential candidate who says the war is just a bumper sticker?
It is truly a shame for a 70-year-old man who has lived through many wars and threats to this nation to make this statement and I take absolutely no pleasure in making it. But the truth of the matter is that I am more afraid of you and your ilk than I am of the terrorists.
Why? Because you would try to micromanage our military and a war you obviously don't understand, you would do away with Guantanamo Bay and cut the heart out of the Homeland Security Act leaving America basically
impotent in the war on terror.
Another Al Qaida bigwig was captured recently and he is singing like a French canary and one of the things he has divulged is that there is a connection between Osama bin Ladin and al Qaida in Iraq.
America has military forces that are able and willing to pursue the war on terror on whatever part of the globe it raises its ugly head. We have intelligence agencies who do an incredible job of uncovering terrorist plots.
And no, Mr. Reid, the CIA, the FBI and the other Federal Intelligence Agencies are not the bungling bunch of keystone cops they are portrayed as by some of your media friends.
If you've noticed we've not been attacked in this country since 9-11 and that has not been because the enemy has not been trying. And I thank God for protecting this nation.
Could it be that you want to pull the troops out because they are making real headway and you're afraid it will hurt you politically?
If so I just don't have the vocabulary to express my contempt for you.
Mr. Reid et al, if you really want to do something worthwhile why don't you pass a bill putting all terrorists on the extinct species list?
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.
Pray for our troops.
What do you think?
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
July 20, 2007
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:40 AM | Comments (5)
July 15, 2007
A Very Special Book From Two Very Special People
Linda gave me a very special present, a signed first edition copy of Faith Under Fire. The author Chana Besser, is Linda's friend, and lives in Israel.
Chana's book is about living through the 33 day war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. As the brave IDF soldiers fought back and then suddenly had to stop because of the weak Olmert caving in and then the terrorists claiming victory.
Thank you Linda for such a special gift and thank you Chana.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 AM | Comments (10)
June 04, 2007
Charlie Daniels's Latest ~ America The Passive
America The Passive
The people who first came to America were not content to stay on the eastern half of America, bountiful as it was, they had to see what was on the other side of the big river and no one was going to tell them any different.
America was not willing to be taxed by England without any representation by Ping George and the Parliament, so they set about breaking the ties that bound.
American workers got tired of being treated like company property and they formed trade unions to set things right.
Martin Luther King could never have accepted the black race not receiving the rights guaranteed them under the Constitution and gave his life to make a better life for the millions who would reap the benefits of his sacrifice.
American history is full of examples of brave men and women who stood up and said, "This ain't right and I'm going to do something about it". America had guts and will and the energy and sense of fair play to change things.
What's happened? Is America becoming a herd of sheep, driven by self serving politicians with government hand outs and big businesses who move factories and outsource work to foreign countries and still expect us to buy their products? Businesses who want to dilute the labor market to keep wages down by importing and legalizing millions of unqualified workers, while the American tax payer bears the brunt of their greed?
We are bombarded by dire warnings of global warming by jaded politicos and spoiled Hollywood stars who insist that we give up our comforts while they make not the slightest change in their bloated lifestyles.
The biggest newspaper in the country prints downright lies and Senators and Congressmen endanger the lives of brave young men and women in harm's way for nothing more than political gain.
The price of health care has gone through the roof and we sit here wringing our hands and wondering when it¹s going to get beyond the financial reach of many Americans.
Our politicians tell us that Social Security is slowly going broke and they are trying to add twenty million people to its roles.
Where is the outrage, where is the common sense? It's certainly not in Washington D.C. and never will be.
The greatness of this nation is in its people, their will, their determination and their willingness to act.
Other than Almighty God, the strongest force in this nation is public opinion and if America doesn't begin to let that opinion be known in the voting booth and beyond, we are going to lose some of our most precious freedoms and much of the prosperity of this great nation.
What a pity.
Pray for our troops
What do you think?
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
June 1, 2007
......Thank you Charlie Daniels! Charlie is right, and I think the Conservatives have had enough and we are now doing what we can to show our disgust. I pray our efforts will be heard, I know the GOP and RNC are feeling the pain of low donations. And that may be the thing that speaks volumes to them of our disgust.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:44 AM | Comments (7)
May 05, 2007
Don't Abandon Us
Don't Abandon Us
By Hoshyar Zebari
Washington Post
Friday, May 4, 2007
The writer is foreign minister of Iraq
Last weekend a traffic jam several miles long snaked out of the Mansour district in western Baghdad. The delay stemmed not from a car bomb closing the road but from a queue to enter the city's central amusement park. The line became so long some families left their cars and walked to enjoy picnics, fairground rides and soccer, the Iraqi national obsession.Across the city, restaurants are slowly filling and shops are reopening. The streets are busy. Iraqis are not cowering indoors. The appalling death tolls from suicide attacks are often high because of crowding at markets. These days you are as likely to hear complaints about traffic congestion as about the security situation. Across Baghdad there is a cacophony of sirens from ambulances, firefighters and police providing public services. You cannot even escape the curse of traffic wardens ticketing illegally parked cars.
These small but significant snippets of normality are overshadowed by acts of gross violence, which fuel the opinion of some that Iraq is in a downward spiral. The Iraqi people are indeed suffering tremendous hardships and making grave sacrifices -- but daily life goes on for 7 million Baghdadis struggling to take back their capital and country.
Today, at an international summit on the future of Iraq in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, my government will ask the international community to maintain its engagement in our country to help us achieve our goals of security and stability. We recognize that our request conflicts with a plethora of voices decrying the situation in Iraq and those in the British and American publics who seek an expeditious withdrawal from a war they claim is all but lost.
So why should the world remain engaged in Iraq?
There is no denying the difficulties Iraq faces, and no amount of good news can obscure the demons of terrorism and sectarianism that have risen in my country. But there is too much at stake to risk failure, and everything to gain by helping us protect our hard-won democratic achievements and emerge as a stable, self-sustaining country.
We remain determined in spite of our losses. Spectacular attacks may dominate foreign headlines, but they cannot change the reality that Iraq has made steady political, economic and social progress over the past four years. We continue to strengthen our nascent democratic institutions, pursue national reconciliation and expand Iraqi security forces. The Baghdad security plan was conceived to give us breathing space to expedite political and economic development by "securing and holding" neighborhoods across the capital. There is no quick fix, but there have been real results: Winning public confidence has led to a spike in intelligence, a disruption of terrorist networks and the capture of key leaders, as well as the discovery of weapons caches. In Anbar province, Sunni sheikhs and insurgents have turned against al-Qaeda and to the side of Iraqi security forces. This would have been unthinkable even six months ago.
Contrary to popular belief, most government ministries are located outside the Green Zone, and employees drive to work every day despite death threats and attacks on colleagues and families. We government ministers are always at risk of assassination. When a suicide bomber attacked parliament last month, the legislators sat in defiance in an extraordinary session the following day. I am particularly inspired by the commitment of the young diplomats in the Foreign Ministry, a diverse mix of Sunni, Shiite, Christian, Arab and Kurdish men and women who serve their country without subscribing to religious or sectarian divisions.
Iraqis are standing up every day, and we persevere because there is no other option. We will not surrender our country to terrorists. They have failed to cripple the elected government, and they have failed to intimidate us into submission. Iraqis reject their vision of a future whose hallmarks are bloodshed and hatred.
Those calling for withdrawal may think it is the least painful option, but its benefits would be short-lived. The fate of the region and the world is linked with ours. Leaving a broken Iraq in the Middle East would offer international terrorism a haven and ensure a legacy of chaos for future generations. Furthermore, the sacrifices of all the young men and women who stood up here would have been in vain.
Iraqis, for all our determination and courage, cannot succeed alone. We need a healthy and supportive regional environment. We will not allow our country to be a battleground for settling scores in regional and international conflicts that adversely affect stability inside our borders. Only with continued international commitment and deeper engagement from our neighbors can we establish a stable democratic, federal and united Iraq. The world should not abandon us.
Wild Thing's comment........
An interesting article. I would add this is that the Iraq's need to do more and more on their own, they are I realize that and that is a BIG thanks to our awesome troops training them. But their hearts need to be in it and a courage to take a stand on their own too is needed.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 AM | Comments (6)
April 26, 2007
Take Down:The 3rd Infantry Division's Twenty-One Day Assault on Baghdad
This is a new book coming out, the book covers the 3rd ID's part in OIF:
Take Down: The 3rd Infantry Division's Twenty-One Day Assault on Baghdad by Jim Lacey (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2007)
War Chronicle
Here's a quote from the Introduction...
It was a few thousand soldiers like Sergeant Johnson at the tip of the spear that made the 3rd ID the most awesome weapon of war America has ever placed on the battlefield. They were men who proved absolutely ruthless in fight, but a moment later would start helping enemy wounded, even at great personal risk.
This story from Sergeant Johnson's experience around As Samawah gives insight into the character of the men who fight America's wars. In his own words:
We were in an overwatch position after the battle of As Samawah. I was watching through the thermals and I see this Iraqi attempting to sneak up on us in the dark. He gets about seventy-five meters away when all of a sudden this bull comes out of nowhere and demolishes the guy. Really lays him out and thrashes him. The whole platoon is watching and is in absolute hysterics.Then somehow the guy manages to stab the bull and it bellows and runs away. Using his rifle as a crutch he then starts back towards my vehicle! He then falls down and begins to crawl towards us.
When he is about thirty-five meters away he aims the rifle at us so we killed him with the coax. His rifle was a really nice .303 British so I kept it for a while. Later in the war I was shooting RPG guys from two hundred plus meters away. When that .303 hit them they stayed down for good.
Anyway later that night the bull came back and stomped on this guy for hours. He would gore him, throw him up in the air, and then stomp on him some more. The next day the guy was about three inches thick! We later protected the bull the whole time he was there. We conducted first aid for his wounds and gave him all the water and vegetables we could find. We also protected him from other Iraqis and other soldiers.
This was the 3rd ID's war, and this is their story....Tens of thousands of Iraqis fought with fanatical, even suicidal, intensity. They were met by dedicated, hard-fighting American soldiers. Sergeant Johnson's story is typical of the hundreds of engagements the 3rd ID fought before it finally stormed into Baghdad.
It is a story of twenty-one days of brutal fighting, a story that until now has remained largely untold. Mostly it is the story of American soldiers who killed in order to do what America asked them to do, but as one officer stated, "My men could not wait to stop killing and start helping people."
It is a special breed of man that can fight America's wars one day and turn to repairing schoolhouses the next.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:44 AM | Comments (4)
April 10, 2007
Charlie Daniels Soapbox
This writing is one of Charlie's, it is from Charlie Daniels Soapbox and Message board
Confrontation
As far as I'm concerned Nancy Pelosi's name can be put alongside Jane Fonda as someone
who has no trouble delivering a slap to the face of every man and woman serving in the military.
To think that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United
States would go to a terrorist state, play patty cake with a dictator who is
directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of scores of service men
and women serving in Iraq is past disgusting, it's downright sickening.
And all this in defiance of the Commander and Chief.
She is so blinded by her determination to bring down a president that she
seems to care little about how she does it.
What possible good can a meeting between Nancy Pelosi and Assad do?
She is not a head of state, she can't make any policy or do anything except
to impress on the Syrians that the Left Wing of the United States Congress
wants to destroy George Bush and if they destroy a little bit of America in
the process so be it.
Maybe she went to bask in the glow of the support of Middle Eastern
dictators who probably think that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are the
greatest thing since sliced bread.
Some in Congress and the Senate actually want to set a date for withdrawing the troops
from Iraq. That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. It's like telling a burglar what time
you¹ll be leaving your house so he can come in and take every thing you own.
Ms. Pelosi thinks you can bargain with thieves and deal with terrorists. She
thinks that they can be placated and dealt with diplomatically. Boy has she
got a lesson to learn.
These people will settle for nothing less than the total destruction of
Israel and the United States of America and it makes no difference how many peace
deals are struck or how many treaties are signed. None of them are worth the paper
they¹re written on.
The only kind of diplomacy people like Assad and the mullahs in Iraq understand is
strength and Pelosi has taken a giant step in demonstrating that there is a breach in
the American armor, There are people who had rather placate and run instead of
standing and fighting.
I guess she has grandiose imaginings of being some great statesman but all
she has done is pour gasoline on the burning determination of the radical
maniacs who have no problem with slaughtering women and children or hacking
an infidel's head off.
Nancy Pelosi, history will prove that you have done a vast disservice to
America. You've given aid and comfort to the enemy. You've undermined the war
on terror and you¹ve done it all for political reasons.
I pray your children and grandchildren won't reap the results of your
selfish folly.
Pray for our troops
What do you think?
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
April 9, 2007
Wild Thing's comment........
Charlie Daniels a good man, a patriot and an awesome performer. I am so glad he has a site for his soapbox writings. Excellent! Thank you Charlie! And God bless you.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:48 AM | Comments (10)
April 05, 2007
Character Shows Up In Many Places
A little something for you to see from Rush Limbaugh, I thought this was good. ~ Wild Thing
Rush on the hostages yesterday:
RUSH: Well, Winston Churchill is having a scotch in his grave right now asking the question: "How did 15 British sailors and Marines give up without firing a shot?" Churchill probably cannot believe this. You know, they pretty mothballed their navy. Great Britain, I'll tell you, it's gone PC in ways you wouldn't believe. If you people haven't heard, this I want you to sit down. This is from the UK Daily Mail: "Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils," according to a government study. The study "found that some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity of the Holocaust for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial. There is also resistance to tackling the Eleventh Century crusades where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques. The findings have prompted claims that some schools are using histories as a vehicle for promoting political correctness."
Political correctness? It's worse than that! The Brits are not teaching the Holocaust because there are Muslim students in there who are Holocaust deniers, and they don't want them to be offended! They're worried that they're going to start blowing up the schools or something, I guess. (interruption) Yes, there is a "consensus" on the Holocaust, but the Brits are willing to say, "To hell with consensus." The Holocaust is not "consensus." It's fact. Look, you wonder what's happened to the Brits? It's political correctness is running amok, and "conflict resolution."
Does anybody think that 15 United States Marines would just sit there and allow themselves to be taken when they had not invaded Iranian waters and then in two days, start apologizing on Iranian TV? Do you think 15 United States Marines would do this?
No.
Way.
TEHRAN, Iran - Fifteen British sailors and marines released by Iran arrived at Tehran’s airport early Thursday and were expected to board a commercial flight to London, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
The 15, whose release from nearly two weeks in Iranian captivity was announced Wednesday by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, arrived in a convoy of sedans that drove directly to the presidential VIP section of the airport, the reporter said.
The convoy was escorted by several cars belonging to the elite Revolutionary Guards.
The British crew was expected to board a British Airways flight scheduled to leave the Mehrabad International Airport at 8 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. EDT).
Wild Thing's comment......
Just sayin! Cause I love OUR USA troops!
Regarding the 15 Brits, I am glad they are going to be released. I am glad they are alive and well.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 AM | Comments (13)
February 03, 2007
Russ Vaughn on Arkin
WaPo Weasels II
Contributed by Russ VaughnWant to slam our soldiers, Arkin?
Well here is one to slam.
I got used to Lefty slamming
When I came back from Vietnam.
So you want to put a muzzle
On our brave fighting men?
Well try muzzling me you jerk,
Just tell me where and when.Your profession needs a lesson
In basic free speech rights,
For those you worms all hide behind,
For those who fight your fights.
Like all your soft and smarmy kind,
You really have no clue,
Who American warriors truly are,
What our warriors truly do.How many times in your four years
As a chair-borne analyst,
Were you within an ocean’s width
Of combat’s hard mailed fist?
How many medals did you earn
In those warrens at Fort Meade?
In four years of four-eyed service,
Just what was your bravest deed?FOX news has combat warriors
To help us understand the score,
While MSM uses clerks like you,
Who have never been to war.
Your resentment of your betters,
Seeps through your bitter writing,
And shows you have no clue or care
Of those who do the fighting.Like your ivy-cloistered Comrades, your war’s between the classes,
Dialectics, speeches, theory, your heads firmly up your asses.Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:07 PM | Comments (3)
January 06, 2007
Muslims Protest Fast Food Franchise
Muslims Protest Fast Food Franchise
Satire
Written by Ayers Lampblack, a retired columnist and news editor, grain elevator weigh scale operator and Ernest Borgnine stunt double. He makes his home in Cosmos, Minn.
CHICAGO—The debut of a new theme restaurant in suburban Chicago featuring a menu of foods forbidden by Islamic law and waitresses clad in revealing uniforms has sparked an uproar among local Muslims who claim the restaurant is an affront to Islam.
The December 27 opening of a Burqa King franchise in Winnetka and the subsequent furor over the establishment’s dining theme has drawn the attention of local Muslim clerics and activists, and aimed a spotlight on former Bush Administration Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Officials with Winnetka Holy Outreach to Counsel and Advise Islamic Religious Sects (WHOCAIRS) announced Wednesday that they would organize a demonstration and prayer vigil outside the newly opened restaurant near the intersection of Tower and Foxdale Road to protest what one organizer called the restaurant’s “insensitivity to culinary diversity.”
“Not only can Muslims not sit at the lunch counter here, Muslims cannot even enter this den of humiliation,” said WHOCAIRS Executive Director Ibrahim Bertrand-Reynolds. “This establishment represents a new low in offensiveness.”
Critics noted the Burqa King menu, which features a variety of haram, or unlawful food in Muslim culture, includes frog legs and pork rinds as appetizers; slabs of barbecued pork ribs, blood sausage and ham as entrees; and desserts made from gelatin produced from pork byproducts. All fried food served at Burqa King is cooked in lard, which contains pig fat and is subsequently forbidden by Islamic law.
The restaurant serves beer and has applied for a liquor license with plans to open a full-service bar on the premises. Traditional Muslims are not permitted to consume alcohol except for medicinal purposes.
“To offer only food that is not halal (lawful) is just another egregious example of the indignity we must endure,” said Omar al Akbar al Abdul, an imam from nearby Northbrook
The manager of the restaurant, 53-year-old Craig Baker of Champaign-Urbana, admitted al Akbar al Abdul and others were entitled to their opinion but said he was not considering any changes in response to the planned protests. “These people need to get a hobby or something. I mean, it’s a restaurant, OK?” said Baker. “Besides, what are they gonna do, like, saw my head off with a dull knife on the Internet?”
The nature of the food at Burqa King is not the only thing upsetting area Muslims. Waitresses are required to wear abbreviated burqas with sheer veils, stockings and garters, and high heeled shoes, revealing more of their bodies than the traditional garment worn by many Muslim women.
“This is a great disgrace upon the burqa and the modesty of our women,” said Abdul al Omar al Akbar, a Muslim activist from Chicago. “Humiliating Muslim women in such a way is not in keeping with our long tradition of forbidding women from learning to read, drive or balance a checkbook.”
There is also speculation that political overtones accompanied the opening of this particular Burqa King. Al Akbar al Abdul questioned whether the restaurant was located in Winnetka as a way of honoring Rumsfeld, who was born there in 1932.
“I cannot remain silent when this Satan [Rumsfeld] is honored by the opening of such an offensive establishment,” said al Akbar al Abdul, who threatened additional prayer protests on the H Concourse at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport if the restaurant is not forced by village officials to change its menu or close.
Others in the religious community were less concerned with the establishment. “I keep Kosher, they don’t keep Kosher. This bothers me why?” said Rabbi Shlomo Garfinkle with the Temple Bnai Shalom synagogue in Skokie. Jews also do not eat the types of food offered on the Burqa King menu, but Garfinkle failed to understand the intensity of the furor. “All this mishegas over a menu? I don’t eat pork either, but I have better things to do.”
Wild Thing's comment.....
It's getting harder and harder to recognize the parodies these days.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (14)
December 17, 2006
Good Enough to Die For by Russ Vaughn
Good Enough to Die For
By Russ Vaughn
American Thinker
I have just read a mea culpa by Vietnam War protestor, novelist and poet, Pat Conroy, who possesses the literary skills to express what I am willing to bet many other older American males, his former brothers at the barricades, also feel, but lack the skills and the honesty to articulate. It is left to men like the politically born again David Horowitz and novelist Conroy to speak for these old troupers of the Left's long-haired legions, to reveal their long hidden recognition that they were possibly misguided in their protesting but more often than most will ever admit, motivated more by fear of serving in combat than by any sense of moral/political rectitude.
For that reason this is an issue that reverberates only within the ranks of male protestors of that era. For the braless, hygiene and make-up challenged young women of the movement, there existed no threat of death or disfigurement in combat, so the purity of their motives is questionable only in the intellectual, not the moral sense. They may have been naïve fools but they weren't hiding a blushing personal cowardice behind the skirts of world socialism. This then, is an issue of character only for these now old, greying men who, like Conroy, must eventually face the moral consequences of their actions in those turbulent days.
As someone who, like most of us, has experienced events in my life where I now wish that I had shown more moral and physical courage, more honesty, and most importantly, more unquestioning love and understanding of family, I know how those failures live with you long after the memories of trying to do so many things right have dimmed. Many of my lapses involved nothing more than minor events where I failed to speak up, or stand up and be counted, or even stand up and be knocked down; but regardless of their minor nature, it is these life events that forever remain active in my psyche. In my mid-sixties now, I have learned all too well that it's not the fights you won or even the fights you lost that keep niggling away at the edges of your conscience: it's the fights you failed to fight when you knew damned well that you should.
Deceased author John D. MacDonald, who wrote the wonderful Travis McGee mystery series, once explained through his fictional hero, McGee, the way to make correct moral decisions and it is a simple wisdom that has stayed in my brain, but not always exemplified by my behavior, through the remainder of my life. It is nothing more than this: do the hard thing. When faced with tough choices, look to that course of action which is the one you want least to follow because it appears to be the most difficult for you; it may hurt personally, but almost always, it is the right course for you to follow for the good of others.
My belief is that a lot of Vietnam War protestors were rightfully fearful of the physical perils of combat, as were all those of us who chose to serve there; but where we tamped down those fears and continued the mission, they wrongfully used a contrived moral outrage against the war as convenient cover to conceal their cowardice. To buttress that theory one simply has to look at how the huge, angry protests diminished, and ultimately disappeared in a remarkably short time once Congress ended the military draft. As young, draft-age men, all those angry protestors were able at the time to righteously rationalize away their true motivation until Congress stole their alibi, and only now, with the awareness and self-accounting that comes with age, are they, like Pat Conroy, facing the truth of their personal cowardice. Sadly, too late, they have come to realize the truth of Conroy's most perceptive quote:
"America is good enough to die for even when she is wrong."
I believe those are words worthy of being carved into every war memorial in America. And I am thankful that I and all my brothers and sisters at arms who served then, and those who serve now, possessed then and now, but even in our callow youth, the intrinsic wisdom to recognize that truth. All Americans must die, but those who understand this fundamental reality about this very unique nation will die with their chins held just a few degrees higher than those who didn't realize it when they should have, but now do, like Conroy and his legions, and sadly, those young people of today who still do not.
SSGT Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66
Also posted at:
* Old War Dogs
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:55 AM | Comments (11)
November 28, 2006
What Happened To Let's WIN
No One Is Focusing on Winning in Iraq;
It's "Get Out, and Turn It Over to Our Enemies"
by Rush Limbaugh
RUSH: They continue to leak data from the upcoming Baker Report (it's being called): the Iraq Study Group. It's fascinating what's happening on this. Nobody any longer is talking about winning. Everybody is now talking about how to "get out." These leaks obviously are having their intended purpose. The intended purpose is to set the stage for when the real report comes out. The real report is probably going to exactly or equal what the leaks have been, and that is, we gotta get out of there, and we gotta let Syria and Iran go ahead and assume control over this and get their assistance with all this. Meanwhile, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is, once again now, saying that the United States, Israel, and the UK are doomed, that it's only a matter of time. Hugo Chavez in Venezuela says he's going to take us down. Nobody seems to notice or care.
It's amazing.
I left here on Tuesday, get back now, and not much has changed. The tenor of the news is still pretty much the same. I've got the requisite number of stories on what the Democrats are and aren't going to do, and how they're going to be liberal and not liberal, and how they're going to investigate and how they're not going to investigate. The pope is in Turkey. We have bombing threats, bomb attacks on Wal-Mart now, and there's probably an explanation for this, but everybody is all hepped up now about the situation in Iraq with the Baker report. Here's a little blurb on it from the Associated Press:
"The Bush administration is stepping up diplomatic efforts to stabilize Iraq, even as key congressional figures say their confidence in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government is waning." You know, I would love if the Baker report said: "Just put Saddam Hussein back in charge." I know there's a columnist in the LA Times, a guy who wrote the "Why I Hate Bush" column named Jonathan Chait. Do it, he says. Do it now. Yeah, he mass murders people, but the guy kept order. The guy knew how to keep order. Maybe that's the thing we should do. (Laughing.) It's getting so absurd that I wouldn't be surprised if somebody besides a columnist makes that suggestion. "The New York Times reported today that a draft report by the Iraq study group led by James Baker recommends aggressive regional diplomacy, including talks with Iran and Syria."
This is no different than what has been leaked on prior occasions. "Anonymous officials who have seen the draft report..." I wonder who they are. Could they be members of the commission, I wonder? By the way, Vernon Jordan is on the commission (I wonder what he thinks we ought to do about Iraq) and Sandra Day O'Connor, great Supreme Court justice, she's on the commission. I wonder what she thinks we ought to do about Iraq. Why are these people any better than anybody else on this commission? Ed Meese is on the commission. He makes a lot of sense, a lot of times, but Vernon Jordan is a rainmaker. Sandra Day O'Connor was a justice who doesn't think the judiciary should be criticized. The best and the brightest in these "blue ribbon" commissions, they get appointed -- and I'm looking at all this, and nowhere is anybody suggesting that we win it.
Nobody is! We could do the Limbaugh Plan. The Limbaugh Plan is win in Iraq and get out. The Limbaugh Plan would consist of many things which many say are impossible. Stop the politics. Have both parties line up for US victory. Of course, it's a pipe dream because the fact of the matter is, as I said. Have you heard all the calls over the weekend, "We've gotta send troops into Darfur!" That started before we left on Tuesday and that's there now. What the case is as I mentioned brilliantly to a caller last week, the left in this country will send our military anywhere where we do not have our own national interests at stake. They'll send 'em on Meals on Wheels programs. They'll send them to stop a bloody civil war in Africa.
They'll do it to feed people or what have you, but where our interests are at stake, no way! They're not going to send our troops and our military anywhere where our interests are at stake, because it's not fair, and they don't like the military being used. All of this is a setup. This whole policy on Iraq is a setup now to see to it that we don't have the guts or courage to deploy forces anywhere around the world the next time we need to defend ourselves. That's the danger that lurks behind all of this. With the kind of political leaders we're breeding, who's going to have the guts to do it if it's necessary to do anyway, given what no doubt will happen to him as has happened to George W. Bush?
Oh, by the way, "anonymous officials who have seen the report say it does not specify any timetables for the withdrawal of US troops in Iraq although the commissioners are expected to debate the feasibility of such timetables. Appearing Monday on Good Morning America, Jimmy..." I think we've got the audio of this at some point. I'm not sure I want to listen to it. Carter thinks that Bush "will take their advice as much as he possibly can. Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, potential presidential contender," Ha-ha! Don't make me laugh, "in 2008 said, 'It's not too late for the United States to extricate itself honorably from an impending disaster in Iraq, and as for Bush some of the harshest criticism is coming from his own party, we have misunderstood we have misread we have mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam,' said Hagel."
Honorable intentions are not policies and plans. "Senator Dick Durban of Illinois, now the number two Senate Democrat called Iraq 'the worst US foreign policy decision since Vietnam.' He said Democrats do not have a quick answer, and any solution might be bipartisan." They don't have an answer? They don't? All of a sudden now they don't have an answer! Well, they did have an answer prior to the election! That was cut-and-run, redeploy, whatever. You know, redeploy is another one of these twisting and turning of words that just means quit, but it softens the message of cut-and-run or quit and leave. We'll "redeploy." We'll put our troops somewhere where there's really no need for them to be under the pretense if something really bad happens we can mobilize them quickly and get 'em back in there.
Let me try to explain it. The Iraq war, to the vast majority of people in this country, is no more than a 20-second or 30-second television show every night on the Nightly News -- and they're uncomfortable. They're fed up. They don't want to watch it anymore. "Just end it. Figure it out! Just end it, because I don't want to see it anymore." To them it's not about the country being threatened. It is not about a worldwide conflict in which we find ourselves. It's just something inconvenient. The American people don't want to be inconvenienced; they don't want to see that stuff. We got a story out there now: We've been in Iraq longer than we were in World War II. So what? When did World War II become the official timeline of wars? It doesn't matter. The objective doesn't matter. "However long it takes to win this," that's no longer the objective. Get out, because the American people don't want to see it anymore. They're going to continue to watch the news, and they don't want to see this. It's no more complicated than that.
CALLER: I was calling because, to be honest, I'm actually starting to get afraid of what's going to happen with the new direction we're going in, pulling out and speaking to the terrorist countries? It honestly makes me afraid.
RUSH: Be very afraid, sir.
CALLER: You know, I know people that died in the World Trade, and I really don't -- you know, I love my country, and I love all my fellow Americans, and for another tragic thing like that to happen again, I feel it's coming in the direction that we're going.
RUSH: Yeah. I think you're right. I think it's going to take at least one or more of those kind of events to get people revved up. They've forgotten about it because they want to forget about it and because you live in America you can forget about it because there are enough diversions, there's tranquility and there's peace for the most part. Everybody has their problems, but there's economic opportunity, economic performance. Why do we want to jeopardize all that with a war on terror when there hasn't been another attack here? Plus with the political divisions on this, the whole subject has become a sort of a negative for people. They don't even want to hear about it, much less support it.
RUSH: We went in there on the basis of intelligence reports there were weapons of mass destruction plus Saddam. Let's not refight that. Yeah, that's why we went.
RUSH: Well, look, the president built this stuff up for a year and a half, two years talking about this in speech after speech after speech, and he did often reference the horrors committed against the population of Iraq by Saddam Hussein. He talked about the rape rooms and the torture rooms and so forth, and the mass murders. You can't rewind life like a TiVo, but I look back on it. If we'd have just gone in there after the Gulf War, we had 500,000 troops over there. Do you people remember this? We had 500,000 troops just to kick the Iraqis out of Kuwait, and it took, what, three days? Then the highway to hell, the road to Baghdad was paved with so much death and mayhem and the pictures on the nightly newscasts were upsetting and so we stopped. If we'd gotten rid of Saddam back then, but you can't play the IFgame. I know where you're going with this.
You heard me say earlier today nobody is talking about winning, and you want to know what winning it is. At this stage of the game, I'm going to be accused of playing 20/20 hindsight, but it's not too late to change this. Our objective right now is establishing and building a government and a democracy. That's all fine and dandy, and it's all well and good.
But to me, the focus needs to be on achieving a military victory whatever it takes. If that means wiping out these leaders of the resistance and the insurgents, the terrorists wherever they are... The other day there was a story about some guy in Iraq who was disguised as a woman nursing a baby who was launching attacks against our troops. Wipe 'em out. This is war. If you have to blow up some buildings, blow 'em up. If you have to level some infrastructure, do it. Of course, we've really built the country up in a marvelous way, and nobody is reporting that very much. Anyway, that's military victory as it's always been defined.
Wild Thing's comment.......
I know it is long, but it is well worth the read.Yes I like Rush and listen to him as often as I can. I also think for myself and don't just follow lock step with what he says on every single topic. But when he is right on target he can be awesome. This transcript from Nov. 27th, 2006 is excellent and I wanted to share it with you.
Our troops are wiinning and the left can't stand it. They never can when they see positive things happening. But our troops also need to know they can fight this war in a military way and not in a PC way. Not with having to get permission for every shot fired, every building taken out. This is wrong in more then words can say. I beleive in supporting our military NOT in weakening it, attacking it and making it folllow some kind of mish mosh PC agenda bent on disabeling it at every turn.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 PM | Comments (15)
October 17, 2006
Jihad Incorporated ~ Militant Islam In The U.S.
Jihad Incorporated-Steve Emerson's guide to militant Islam in the U.S.
Frontpage Mag
Frontpage interviewed Steve Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, one of the largest archival data centers of militant Islam. He started the organization in 1995 after a film he did, Jihad in America.
He works closely with law enforcement, Congress and the media. His organization’s mission is to investigate and expose the threat of radical Islam. He is the author of the new book, Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S., which covers every radical Islamic operation, prosecution and incident on American soil, or against American targets, in the last 10 years.
FP: So what inspired you to write this book?
Emerson: It was really the collaborative product of my research staff. We felt that a reference book was needed in which all Islamic terrorist groups, operations and prosecutions connected to the US could be found in one place. It’s really a history of radical Islam in the US.
FP: How do you go about your work in collecting data on the bad guys?
Emerson: We collect data in numerous ways. From websites, list serves, publications, informants, undercover recordings, government records, court documents, and sources. We have acquired close to 4 million documents and 18,000 hours of audio and video of radical Islamic gatherings, conferences or speeches.
FP: Who are your "consumers”?
Emerson: Well, we really have no traditional "consumers" since we don't sell our information and we don't take a penny of government financing. But we do work closely with law enforcement, Congress and the media. Each "consumer" has a different institutional interest. Law enforcement wants to make cases; Congress wants to exercise oversight and disseminate original information; and the media wants news.
FP: Tell us some of the key players in the terrorist network. And which groups are the most influential among the jihadi groups today?
Emerson: Well, today, the terrorist hierarchy has changed considerably from the pre-911 days. Al Qaeda is still the grand-daddy but it obviously lacks the punch and reach it once had. Instead, there are mini-Al-Qaedas that have formed, either in Asia, the Middle East or the West. Jamat Islamiya in southeast Asia has become more of an Al Qaeda surrogate. Hamas, while largely maintaining a hudna, is busily reinforcing and re-invigorating itself with new weapons and explosives for the day that it deems advantageous to attack Israel. Hezbollah, which survived intact in its war with Israel, was actually hurt militarily more than some had estimated. It does however have a worldwide presence.
The threat against individuals or governments deemed to be "enemies of Islam" is growing in its dimensions. The killing of Theo Van Gogh, the recent threats against the Pope, the Danish cartoon controversy all highlighted the growth of threats against high profile targets in the West's backyard.
FP: Can you talk a bit about the organizations in the Middle East, aside from al Qaeda, that pose a threat to us?
Emerson: Well, I would say that Hezbollah poses the greatest threat to American interests today. They have their own ideological hatred of the United States and they are also effectively controlled by Iran. Islamic Jihad, because of its closeness with Iran, could easily put Americans in its crosshairs.
FP: How entrenched are the jihadists in the US today? Are there different gradations of jihadists?
Emerson: There are essentially two types of jihadists. The hard-core military jihadists who are prepared to carry out terrorist attacks in the United States. They have already been indoctrinated. All they await is a charismatic leader or the external order that gives them a green light. Secondly, there is the far greater number of what I call “cultural jihadists.” The cultural jihadists are not willing to carry out attacks themselves, but rather, they provide the moral support for the military jihadists.
They are the ones that believe that Israel or the US carried out 9-11. In the trial of the would-be NYC Herald Square bomber, an undercover informant for the NYPD recounted an astonishing observation. He said that as he made his rounds among two different mosques, he encountered a virulent hatred for the United States. For example, I can show you a tape of a Hamas rally held in New Jersey where thousands of people in attendance—women, children and men—are all chanting slogans such as “We buy paradise with the blood of the Jews.” Do I think that all of them are terrorists? Of course not. But they are cultural jihadists.
The cultural jihadists provide the environment for the military jihadists.
Beyond the physical threat posed by jihadists, there is the issue of free speech being increasingly curtailed by virtue of radical Islamic groups--masquerading as "civil rights" groups--labeling anyone who criticizes militant Islam as racist or as defaming the Prophet Mohammed. The threat of violence during the Danish cartoon episode was the real reason why 99% of US newspapers refused to republish the cartoons. The flip side of this problem lies in the refusal of mainstream media--with some exceptions--to investigate the backgrounds or report the ulterior agenda of these Islamic "civil rights" groups. That's a dereliction of journalism 101. Why do they do it? Sometimes they are deceived, other times they are sympathetic to the cause of the group.
FP: Illuminate for us the support system for the jihadists that exists within our own borders.
Emerson: There are different tiers. The largest tier is what I called in the previous question the cultural jihadists. They are not willing to carry out attacks but they provide moral support for such attacks. There is the financial infrastructure. Radical Islamic charities had served as a main conduit for terrorist operations and organizations but Treasury has been quite successful at closing the charities whose financing could be linked to terrorist groups. As a result of this pressure, terrorist groups are resorting increasingly to getting their funding from organized retail theft, in which they traffic in stolen or pirated goods (like baby formula), car theft, counterfeit production or bust-out schemes.
FP: To what extent do mosques provide cover for terrorists?
Emerson: Mosques have tended to serve as save havens and meeting points for Islamic terrorist groups. Of course, we are not referring to all mosques but there are at least 40 episodes of extremists and terrorists being connected to mosques in the past decade.
FP: To what extent do terrorists use the Internet for communication?
Emerson: The virtual jihad has now become a dominant mechanism for terrorist communications among themselves, to the outside world and to gather new recruits.
FP: Numerous Muslim American organizations make lobbying efforts to influence the top echelons of the federal government. How successfully are these and what damage do they do?
Emerson: I don't blame the Islamic radical groups for lobbying. I blame the recipient institutions for legitimizing them. The FBI, for example, has mandated outreach to Islamic groups. That's a good thing to do in principle. But unfortunately, the groups designated as deserving of being recognized by the FBI have disproportionately revolved around groups that are tethered to radical agendas, such as CAIR and MPAC. In turn, this crowds out authentic moderates whose voices need to be reaffirmed in the community. And it strengthens the hands of the cultural jihadists who tell their followers not to cooperate with the FBI or law enforcement. That's precisely the wrong message the government wants to communicate.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:57 AM | Comments (2)
September 16, 2006
Oriana Fallaci Has Passed Away
Oriana Fallaci, a former Resistance fighter and war correspondent, writer, journalist, and warrior passed away. She is a Hero to those seeking the truth.
Oriana Fallaci was one of the few journalists in the world who dared to attack Islam and the fact that Europe had surrendered to terror, wrote a passage in her book Apocalypse that is appropriate for the struggle against the Arab enemy.
"Resignation leads to apathy. Apathy leads to inertia. Inertia leads to indifference. Indifference paralyzes the instinct for self-defense, that is, the instinct to fight back."
“But we cannot escape.
We can confront the monster with honor, with courage; and by remembering the
words that Churchill said to the English when he went to war against Hitler’s Nazism. He said “We will pour out tears and blood.” Oh, yes: we too will pour out tears and blood. We are at war: do we or do we not want to get this through our heads !
And in war, you cry ! Period."
"The Italians, in fact, could get free of Mussolini because in 1945 the Allies had conquered almost four-fifths of Italy. In other words, because the Second World War had taken place. A war without which we would have kept Mussolini (and Hitler) forever. A war during which the allies had pitilessly bombed us and we had died like mosquitoes."
"Can anybody guess how many cemeteries of Allied soldiers there are in Italy? More than sixty. And the largest, the most crowded, are the American ones. At Nettuno, 10,950 graves. At Falciani, near Florence, 5,811. Each time I pass in front of it and see that lake of crosses, I shiver with grief and gratitude."
You will be missed Oriana more then words can say.God gave us an angel warrior and we are grateful.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (2)
September 03, 2006
The Blog of War
This book is about ....Front-line Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After the death of a friend in Iraq, Burden started his own blog, Blackfive.net, in mid-2003 to support the troops fighting the War on Terror and tell their stories. Blackfive.net quickly became one of the most visited and linked blogs and has won consecutive “Best Military Blog” honors in the Weblog Awards. Now, Matt Burden has collected some of the most riveting and insightful work by other bloggers in THE BLOG OF WAR.
Military bloggers offer the public unfettered access to the War on Terror. The public does not have to wait weeks or months to hear what’s happened, nor settle for the government’s approved messages. In the past, there were only three sources from which the public could learn about a war: Combat correspondents, who sometimes wrote in the midst of action but just as often did not; government reports, which were often a mix of truth, propaganda and even disinformation; and soldiers who gave their own accounts of what they witnessed in letters to friends and family, accounts sometimes censored by the military, and always written and received well after the fighting had subsided.
THE BLOG OF WAR is a remarkable account of men and women as they actually experience the trials and tribulations of war on the battlefield, where our soldiers must daily test their humanity against harrowing episodes of the horror and fear. Readers are certain to have a better understanding and a greater respect for those who risk their lives for their country in these most turbulent times.
Wild Thing's comment......
As you all know, this blog I have is mainly to support our troops, to thank them and to thank our Veterans. I wanted it to feel comfortable like a place to put your feet up and rant and cheer the news and events. To share of your experiences and know this blog belongs to each of you that served. A little home online to gather and not have to put a tie on. haha And always with a Welcome Home sign over the door.
So when I started to blog and saw the many blogs of our troops today and our Veterans it really meant a lot to me.
To be able to go to their blogs and read first hand how they are doing. To be able to thank them as close to in person as possible. And what an honor as well to be able to go to our Veterans blogs and read their take on things, to thank them for their service to our country and welcome them home.
There is something in a persons soul that smiles when you can say, thank you for my freedom, thank you for all you have done. It truly is a debt that I can never repay.
You can order this book at Amazon and it will be one to give as Christmas gifts also. To keep forever as one very special book.
* Argghhh!
Posted by Wild Thing at 07:40 PM | Comments (4)
August 28, 2006
No Punches Pulled Here
Insight of a Sergeant Major
(The author, J.D. Pendry, is a retired Army Command Sergeant Major who writes for Random House.)
NO PUNCHES PULLED HERE
Jimmy Carter, you're the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the Runner-in-Chief.
Bill Clinton, you played "ring around the Lewinsky" while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia, and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses embolden the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately they grew bolder, until 9/11.
John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our Soldiers of terrorizing women and in Iraq. Yo u called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time... the same words you used to describe Vietnam. You're a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam is another war that you were for, before you were against it.
John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq. You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof. And said we should redeploy to Okinawa. Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert. Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You're not a Marine sir. You wouldn't amount to a pimple on a real Marine's a**. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away John.
Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned South East Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? See Dick run.
Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster sized pictures from Abu Grhaib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraqis torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news this week Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrate real torture for you again. If you truly supported our troops, you'd show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese which led to a communist victory there. You're a bloated fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all while sitting on you wide, gin- soaked rear-end in Washington.
Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Chuck Schumer et al ad nauseam. Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied. That the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers. That we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we will run away again and all they have to do is hang on a little longer.
American news media, the New York Times particularly. Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.
You are America's axis of idiots. Your collective stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam. If you want our Soldiers home, as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies. Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with -self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war and this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.
No Commander in Chief, you don't get off the hook either. Our country has two enemies. Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within. Your Soldiers are dealing with the outside force. It's your obligation to support them by confronting the axis of idiots. America must hear it from you that these people are harming our country, abetting the enemy and endangering our safety. Well up a little anger please, and channel it toward the appropriate target. You must prosecute those who leak national security secrets to the media. You must prosecute those in the media who knowingly publish those secrets. Our Soldiers need you to confront the enemy that they cannot. They need you to do it now.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:44 AM | Comments (6)
August 20, 2006
From The Heart of Major General
Americans murdered on a bridge in Falluja by followers of Islam
And this.....................
From the heart of Major General, USMC (Ret) Richard Cooke
I often mention in my posts a little
Mexican restaurant that I frequent here in San Diego that goes by the name of
Las Quatro Milpas, which serves the best authentic Mexican food in San Diego. I
mention it today, because of what has changed when I stand in that long line in
the heat down on Logan Avenue waiting for those 5 dear Mexican women to serve
the hundreds of us who show up before I melt in the hot sun.
The line outside of Quatro Milpas is a
place to meet new friends, reunite with people you have not seen in weeks or
months, but happen to get that same desire for that Chorizo at the same time you
did, so that every time you show up again, you can restart your friendship as if
it never stopped. Everyone has a story about how long they have been coming to
Quatro Milpas or how they discovered it, or how long was the longest line they
have stood in waiting to get to their food.
What has changed, is that this week, instead of the jovial mood in the line, I
was struck with the thought of what would happen to this place if someone were
to walk into the line, and get into the restaurant, around say 1300 hours, at
the height of the lunch rush and blow about 100 people to hell in the name of
Allah.
As I thought about this, I wondered what it must be like for the people if
Israel, who no matter where they go, have to consider the possibility of
terrorism, and that their next steps out into society might be their last. I
thought about what it must be like for a little Israeli schoolchild on a bus
heading from school when someone gets on the bus in the middle of summer wearing
a large overcoat.
I have an anger that will not go away this morning, as I watch the media try to
tell me that Israel is the aggressor, that they are wantonly killing civilians,
and that they must agree to a cease-fire with people who have sworn to kill
them. I wish I could say I cannot imagine how we got to this point in society,
where a portion of our society would side with the very monsters that have
killed both Israelis and Americans, because of a fear of violence, but the
reason is all too clear.
The free world has been too tolerant of the non-free world. We have allowed them
to be portrayed as victims, and to assume the moral high ground at the same time
that they cut the heads off innocent people and film it for worldwide
consumption. Okay, that is the nice way to put it. The honest way to put it is
that we have lost our nerve. When a society of radicals can drag a dead American
through the streets of their towns, and hang their bodies from a bridge as a
collective finger flashed at America, and our response is "patience"
we have lost not only our nerves, but our balls as well.
I get a sense from the older veteran friends of mine in this city that our
problem is that we have it too good, and do not remember what was done on our
behalf to make things this good. Have we forgotten that for every time we can
leave our homes, go stand in line at our favorite restaurant, and NOT think
about the possibility of someone bombing the place, which someone many years ago
gave their very life for that freedom we enjoy? I think the young people in line
at Quatro Milpas and wonder how many of them would have volunteered to fly with
along side Doolittle on his way to Tokyo, knowing they had not the gas to get
home?
Omaha Beach,anyone? I understand that these days, in Marine Corps boot camp, a
recruit can call a "time out" if he is feeling too much stress. Is our
State Dept. running the Marines now? This, I find disgusting.
But no more disgusting then those who seek a cease-fire in Lebanon this morning
after civilians were killed after their building collapsed from the concussion
of a bomb dropped near them that was targeting the site of where rockets were
launched into Israel resulting in the deaths of 18 Israeli civilians. It is as
though these Israeli deaths do not matter at all. Especially when you stop to
consider that this conflict began with Hezbollah coming across the Israeli
border, ambushing and killing 8 Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two more.
Cease-fire, my ass!
To every person who believes that you
can reason with these animals, I must ask you where your mind went.
It is the weakness of the free-world's
NON-response that has allowed the terrorist threat to grow into a movement that
threatens our very existence. When a U.S. soldier can be dragged through the
streets of Somalia and our response is to LEAVE, when 280 Marines can be bombed
in their sleep and our response is to LEAVE, when after terrorists kill Spanish
civilians on a train, and their nation's response is to elect capitulating
socialists who order the immediate retreat of their soldiers from Iraq, and so
on, and so on, what are the terrorists to think, but that the free world has
become a pussy?
The fact that a majority of Americans think this nation needs AN EXCUSE for
going after terrorism after 911 scares the hell out of me.
It suggests that we as
a nation will eventually fail to produce the men and women who every day, stand
between freedom and tyranny.
Yesterday, San Diego had its Gay Pride
Parade. Oh, the joy.. It was billed as the largest 'celebration' in the cities
history. THIS city. (The City I grew up in
during WWII! md) The very city where sailors
came home to after fighting in Midway. The city that trains half of this nations
Marines, hosts the USS Ronald Reagan, the USS Nimitz, the former Fightertown
USA...our largest celebration is for the GAY...PRIDE..PARADE. Ponder that with
me, will you?
We are at war.
I want Israel to continue, even escalate their attacks on Lebanon. I want them
to ignore the media, ignore the pundits, and ignore even the weak among them who
want to find a peaceful way out of this current conflict.
History teaches us that until a bully is beaten, the bully keeps coming.
The free world paid for our freedom in
blood, and if blood is what it will take to keep it, then lets just have at it
now, shall we?
Let Iran and Syria attempt to aid Hezbollah. Let Israel attack them. Let it
escalate until we are forced to fight at Israel's side. Then, can we for the
last time, just kick some ass until it is over? Every generation must pay this
price, as long as there are those who seek to force us to follow a dictatorial
ideology. Radical Islam says, "Agree or die." In response, we should
stop asking them, if there is a middle ground to be reached. We should be
saying, "Fine, but it is YOU that will die."
Israel, I see you fighting not just for your freedoms, but also
for the world's. I trust that if you continue, the free world will be forced to
side with you, even if it means that a few of us die in the process. The time is
now. It is time for THIS generation to prove itself worthy of those that came
before us. It is time for us to say NO MORE to the terrorist threat, to find
them and kill them.
Do not stop fighting, Israel.
Make the free world help you put an end to this
madness. In doing so, you might help us find the courage and moral convictions
that made us free to begin with, so that one day, little Jewish children, and
old lovers of Mexican food in America can
go about our daily lives with the freedom that others died to give us.
I am adding this comment from
John
5 (VN 69-70)
John
is also a Retired Police Officer of 30 years
15 of those years on a Swat Team
My
comment is: do we as a united Republic have what it takes? I am truly worried
that we don’t. Because as a people of ONE country/nation we are not united,
and as he says we have it to good. Many can not fathom what could happen.
I sometimes wonder if it is just me that
feels this way. I have shed blood for this Country on more that one occasion and
I hate to see this happening here, the divided country, the arrogance of those
that think “it will never happen here”. It means that my friends that I lost
and that what I have done is for nothing. Sometimes that’s just the way I
feel. The new breed does not care what the earlier generations have done, it’s
all for knout.
So many relatives on both side of my family have given their all for this country. Almost every war except Korea. One was one of the first Sheriff’s of the NW Territory. So I have deep loyalty to the Republic, and become upset with those that don’t.
Thank you John and thank you Major General Cooke and thank you to all Veterans and our troops today.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:56 PM | Comments (16)
August 12, 2006
"Americans will die for liberty"
Americans will die for liberty
By Andrew Gimson
As we took off from London for New York a few days ago, our three over-excited children asked if there was any chance of the plane being blown up. I explained that the likelihood of that happening was virtually zero, and wondered how we were going to maintain some semblance of order during the flight. One did not wish the sedate American passengers by whom we were surrounded to form the impression that British parents are unable or unwilling to impart the rudiments of good manners.
Luckily, American Airlines had provided a screen on the back of the seat in front of one's own, on which one could watch old movies. There was also a map showing how far we had gone, on which places of interest were marked. It began by showing only two places: London and Chartwell.
The Americans are more old-fashioned than us, and what is equally admirable, they are not ashamed of being old-fashioned. They know Churchill was a great man, so they put his house on the map. There is a kind of Englishman to whom this sort of behaviour seems painfully unsophisticated.
We are inclined, in our snobbish way, to dismiss the Americans as a new and vulgar people, whose civilisation has hardly risen above the level of cowboys and Indians. Yet the United States of America is actually the oldest republic in the world, with a constitution that is one of the noblest works of man. When one strips away the distracting symbols of modernity - motor cars, skyscrapers, space rockets, microchips, junk food - one finds an essentially 18th-century country. While Europe has engaged in the headlong and frankly rather immature pursuit of novelty - how many constitutions have the nations of Europe been through in this time? - the Americans have held to the ideals enunciated more than 200 years ago by their founding fathers.
The sense of entering an older country, and one with a sterner sense of purpose than is found among the flippant and inconstant Europeans, can be enjoyed even before one gets off the plane. On the immigration forms that one has to fill in, one is asked: "Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offence or crime involving moral turpitude?" Who now would dare to pose such a question in Europe? The very word "turpitude" brings a smile, almost a sneer, to our lips.
The quiet solicitude that Americans show for the comfort of their visitors, and the tact with which they make one feel at home, can only be described as gentlemanly. These graceful manners, so often overlooked by brash European tourists, whisper the last enchantments of an earlier and more dignified age, when liberty was not confused with licence.
But lest these impressions of the United States seem unduly favourable, it should be added that the Americans have not remained in happy possession of their free constitution without cost. Thomas Jefferson warned that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots. To the Americans, the idea that freedom and democracy exact a cost in blood is second nature.
We went to the fine new museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, devoted to the American Civil War. It was the bloodiest war in American history. Americans slaughtered Americans in terrible numbers before the North prevailed. You can look up the names of soldiers on a computer, and I found to my slight surprise that a man called Joseph Gimson served on the Union side as a private in the 37th Regiment of Coloured Infantry, and was "severely and dangerously wounded" in the battle of Northeast Station on February 22, 1865.
We stood at Gettysburg, scene of the bloodiest battle of all, on a field covered with memorials to the fallen. Here Abraham Lincoln gave his great and sublimely brief address, ending with the hope "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".
Again some Europeans will give an unkind smile. All this sounds so Puritan, so naïve and so self-righteous. We cannot help feeling that the Americans ought to have been able to settle their quarrel without killing each other, and, while we cannot defend the institution of slavery, we wonder whether the North had the right to impose its will by force.
These are vain quibbles. The North went to war and was victorious.
The Americans are prepared to use force in pursuit of what they regard as noble aims. It is yet another respect in which they are rather old-fashioned. They are patriots who venerate their nation and their flag.
The idea has somehow gained currency in Britain that America is an essentially peaceful nation. Quite how this notion took root, I do not know. Perhaps we were unduly impressed by the protesters against the Vietnam war.
It is an idea that cannot survive a visit to the National Museum of American History in Washington, where one is informed that the "price of freedom" is over and over again paid in blood.
The Americans' tactics in Iraq, and their sanction for Israel's tactics in Lebanon, have given rise to astonishment and anger in Europe. It may well be that those tactics are counter-productive, and that the Americans and Israelis need to take a different approach to these ventures if they are ever to have any hope of winning hearts and minds.
But when the Americans speak of freedom, we should not imagine, in our cynical and worldly-wise way, that they are merely using that word as a cloak for realpolitik. They are not above realpolitik, but they also mean what they say.
These formidable people think freedom is so valuable that it is worth dying for.
Wild Thing's comment......
The writer is correct we are willing to die for our freedom and our liberty. And we hold close to our hearts what America is about and what we stand for to ourselves and to the world. I am proud of America and blessed to be born here and not a day goes by that I do not think of why I am free and how grateful I am to our Veterans and our troops today for that freedom and liberty.
* A huge thank you to one my friends, Kat at Cat House Chat, as I went to her blog this morning and saw this article there.
Posted by Wild Thing at 10:08 AM | Comments (8)
August 06, 2006
The Brink of Madness
From the Pen of Victor Hanson
The Brink of Madness
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
When I used to read about the 1930s — the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese murdering in China — I never could quite figure out why, during those bleak years, Western Europeans and those in the United States did not speak out and condemn the growing madness, if only to defend the millennia-long promise of Western liberalism.Of course, the trauma of the Great War was all too fresh, and the utopian hopes for the League of Nations were not yet dashed. The Great Depression made the thought of rearmament seem absurd. The connivances of Stalin with Hitler — both satanic, yet sometimes in alliance, sometimes not — could confuse political judgments.
But nevertheless it is still surreal to reread the fantasies of Chamberlain, Daladier, and Pope Pius, or the stump speeches by Charles Lindbergh (“Their [the Jews’] greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government”) or Father Coughlin (“Many people are beginning to wonder whom they should fear most — the Roosevelt-Churchill combination or the Hitler-Mussolini combination.”) — and it is even more baffling to consider that such men ever had any influence.
Not any longer.
Our present generation too is on the brink of moral insanity. That has never been more evident than in the last three weeks, as the West has proven utterly unable to distinguish between an attacked democracy that seeks to strike back at terrorist combatants, and terrorist aggressors who seek to kill civilians.
It is now nearly five years since jihadists from the Arab world left a crater in Manhattan and ignited the Pentagon. Apart from the frontline in Iraq , the United States and NATO have troops battling the Islamic fascists in Afghanistan . European police scramble daily to avoid another London or Madrid train bombing. The French, Dutch, and Danish governments are worried that a sizable number of Muslim immigrants inside their countries are not assimilating, and, more worrisome, are starting to demand that their hosts alter their liberal values to accommodate radical Islam. It is apparently not safe for Australians in Bali, and a Jew alone in any Arab nation would have to be discreet — and perhaps now in France or Sweden as well. Canadians’ past opposition to the Iraq war, and their empathy for the Palestinians, earned no reprieve, if we can believe that Islamists were caught plotting to behead their prime minister. Russians have been blown up by Muslim Chechnyans from Moscow to Beslan. India is routinely attacked by Islamic terrorists. An elected Lebanese minister must keep in mind that a Hezbollah or Syrian terrorist — not an Israeli bomb — might kill him if he utters a wrong word. The only mystery here in the United States is which target the jihadists want to destroy first: the Holland Tunnel in New York or the Sears Tower in Chicago .
In nearly all these cases there is a certain sameness: The Koran is quoted as the moral authority of the perpetrators; terrorism is the preferred method of violence; Jews are usually blamed; dozens of rambling complaints are aired, and killers are often considered stateless, at least in the sense that the countries in which they seek shelter or conduct business or find support do not accept culpability for their actions.
Yet the present Western apology to all this is often to deal piecemeal with these perceived Muslim grievances: India , after all, is in Kashmir; Russia is in Chechnya ; America is in Iraq , Canada is in Afghanistan ; Spain was in Iraq (or rather, still is in Al Andalus); or Israel was in Gaza and Lebanon . Therefore we are to believe that “freedom fighters” commit terror for political purposes of “liberation.” At the most extreme, some think there is absolutely no pattern to global terrorism, and the mere suggestion that there is constitutes “Islamaphobia.”
Here at home, yet another Islamic fanatic conducts an act of al Qaedism in Seattle, and the police worry immediately about the safety of the mosques from which such hatred has in the past often emanated — as if the problem of a Jew being murdered at the Los Angeles airport or a Seattle civic center arises from not protecting mosques, rather than protecting us from what sometimes goes on in mosques.
But then the world is awash with a vicious hatred that we have not seen in our generation: the most lavish film in Turkish history, “Valley of the Wolves,” depicts a Jewish-American harvesting organs at Abu Ghraib in order to sell them; the Palestinian state press regularly denigrates the race and appearance of the American Secretary of State; the U.N. secretary general calls a mistaken Israeli strike on a U.N. post “deliberate,” without a word that his own Blue Helmets have for years watched Hezbollah arm rockets in violation of U.N. resolutions, and Hezbollah’s terrorists routinely hide behind U.N. peacekeepers to ensure impunity while launching missiles.
If you think I exaggerate the bankruptcy of the West or only refer to the serial ravings on the Middle East of Pat Buchanan or Jimmy Carter, consider some of the most recent comments from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah about Israel: “When the people of this temporary country lose their confidence in their legendary army, the end of this entity will begin [emphasis added].” Then compare Nasrallah’s remarks about the U.S: “To President Bush, Prime Minister Olmert and every other tyrannical aggressor. I want to invite you to do what you want, practice your hostilities. By God, you will not succeed in erasing our memory, our presence or eradicating our strong belief. Your masses will soon waste away, and your days are numbered [emphasis added].”
And finally examine here at home reaction to Hezbollah — which has butchered Americans in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia — from a prominent Democratic Congressman, John Dingell: “I don’t take sides for or against Hezbollah.” And isn’t that the point, after all: the amoral Westerner cannot exercise moral judgment because he no longer has any?
An Arab rights group, between denunciations of Israel and America , is suing its alma mater the United States for not evacuating Arab-Americans quickly enough from Lebanon , despite government warnings of the dangers of going there, and the explicit tactics of Hezbollah, in the manner of Saddam Hussein, of using civilians as human shields in the war it started against Israel .
Demonstrators on behalf of Hezbollah inside the United States — does anyone remember our 241 Marines slaughtered by these cowardly terrorists? — routinely carry placards with the Star of David juxtaposed with Swastikas, as voices praise terrorist killers. Few Arab-American groups these past few days have publicly explained that the sort of violence, tyranny, and lawlessness of the Middle East that drove them to the shores of a compassionate and successful America is best epitomized by the primordial creed of Hezbollah.
There is no need to mention Europe , an entire continent now returning to the cowardice of the 1930s. Its cartoonists are terrified of offending Muslim sensibilities, so they now portray the Jews as Nazis, secure that no offended Israeli terrorist might chop off their heads. The French foreign minister meets with the Iranians to show solidarity with the terrorists who promise to wipe Israel off the map (“In the region there is of course a country such as Iran — a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region”) — and manages to outdo Chamberlain at Munich. One wonders only whether the prime catalyst for such French debasement is worry over oil, terrorists, nukes, unassimilated Arab minorities at home, or the old Gallic Jew-hatred.
It is now a cliché to rant about the spread of postmodernism, cultural relativism, utopian pacifism, and moral equivalence among the affluent and leisured societies of the West. But we are seeing the insidious wages of such pernicious theories as they filter down from our media, universities, and government — and never more so than in the general public’s nonchalance since Hezbollah attacked Israel .
These past few days the inability of millions of Westerners, both here and in Europe, to condemn fascist terrorists who start wars, spread racial hatred, and despise Western democracies is the real story, not the “quarter-ton” Israeli bombs that inadvertently hit civilians in Lebanon who live among rocket launchers that send missiles into Israeli cities and suburbs.
Yes, perhaps Israel should have hit more quickly, harder, and on the ground; yes, it has run an inept public relations campaign; yes, to these criticisms and more. But what is lost sight of is the central moral issue of our times: a humane democracy mired in an asymmetrical war is trying to protect itself against terrorists from the 7th century, while under the scrutiny of a corrupt world that needs oil, is largely anti-Semitic and deathly afraid of Islamic terrorists, and finds psychic enjoyment in seeing successful Western societies under duress.
In short, if we wish to learn what was going on in Europe in 1938, just look around.
Thank you Jack Hamilton for sending this to me.
Victor Hanson is excellent, and once again he has nailed it.
Posted by Wild Thing at 10:55 AM | Comments (8)
June 28, 2006
Day by Day
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:29 PM
June 10, 2006
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Left, Loony Alliance
Wild Thing's comment.......This is a great write up and I would like to share it with you. I never heard of this writer before. His name is John Burtis. He is a former Broome County, NY firefighter, a retired Santa Monica, CA, police officer, and obtained his BA in European History at Boston University and is fluent in German. He resides in NH with his wife, Betsy.
Zarqawi, the left–Never give a sucker an even break
By John Burtis
Saturday, June 10, 2006
It’s so darned funny and I am such a naïf. I thought it would take a day or two for the left to begin to down play the death of Zarqawi, one of the premier death dealers on the planet today, and a guy responsible for a litany of murder and mayhem among our troops--OUR TROOPS. You know, the guys everybody pledges to support even though the liberal cognoscenti and the progressive Nomenklatura all hate the war.But my feeble calculations were off by a power of ten. It appears that the left, the Democrats and Air America were right in there slinging mud, down playing the impact of Mr. Zarqawi’s death, belittling the accomplishments of the "Prince of al-Qaeda" in Iraq--directed last fall to set-up a caliphate in Iraq by none other than Mr. Zawahiri--and calling for our withdrawal almost as soon as the news broke.
But from John Kerry, to Knight-Ridder, UPI, Pete Stark, Dennis Kucinich, and Randi Rhodes, among the other notables, the great round up of left wing apologists were right in there pitching their tales of woe before the dust had cleared around the bomb blasted house and before the plastic surgeons had rearranged Abu’s shattered face for the early morning roll-out.
Mr. Kerry (H-UA) stepped right in to call for the withdrawal of combat troops by the end of the year, not a new tune for the Winter Soldier, but the death of Mr. Zarqawi has served to add another verse and refrain to the same old song he sings so well.
Nancy Pelosi (S-OL) congratulated our troops, before calling for our retreat because of the loss of the VA records of the WWII veterans, which she valiantly confused with those currently serving.
The faux Night Riders scribbled that the death of the foremost murderer in Iraq will have no impact there, of course, not where he has been killing a ton of people for years, or in Jordanian hotels during weddings for that matter. While the left-handed UPI sky writers exclaimed that the capture of Mr. bin-Laden would be of absolutely no help for Mr. Bush, let alone anybody else who might be on the receiving end of one of his dastardly upcoming "plans."
Brother Pete Stark (D-OA) goes on to say that whole thing is a cover for Mr. Bush’s nether regions, in an echo of anther quaint liberal voice belonging to that sweet Ms. Whoopi Goldberg, and a last gasp to improve his poll numbers, while Br’er Dennis Kucinich (D-IP) touts his own addled version of reality where Mr. Zarqawi was just a walk-on bit player on an already booming anti-American stage, though the name of the director currently escapes him.
Randi Rhodes, fellow assassination jokester with Alan Hevesi, and impromptu impresario of the amazing disappearing Air America, which has finally lost their flagship station in NYC after a prolonged scuttling, extolled al-Qaeda for pleading with Mr. Zarqawi to slow down the slaughter of the innocents, and opined that we should do the same with our troops.
For days, if not weeks, there will be