Discretion The Better Part of Valor

I originally wrote this back in April, but I held off publishing it hoping maybe the Tea Parties would ignite a spark or maybe just maybe something would come about to wake the American people out of their slumber, but alas it never happened. While I only had this blog a little while, I started out back in 2005 on Hannity's message board, migrated to Little Green Footballs, then started contributing to Jammie Wearing Fool (something I will continue to do), and eventually started this blog with a short detour doing an internet radio show on BTR. The demands of my real job have become increasingly more, well demanding, for while we are shedding employees like crazy the work is not going away, and as long as I have a job that pays the bills I need to do it. I have no doubt that soon I will probably be among the unemployed, especially if the government health takeover becomes a reality.

I think it is time for me to unplug and disconnect for awhile. I don't come to this lightly since I have been working hard to be a voice of what I consider sanity or at least one which is capable of pointing out the foibles of our elected officials and try to bring you news of military also.

I think it is just the cumulative effect of fighting all of the anti war, anti military moonbats for all these years combined with the Constitution shredding politicians we now have in Washington topped off with the election of Barack Obama, a guy who brings nothing to the table other then being photogenic and able to deliver a good speech, but someone who is filled with all sorts of socialistic ideas.

A lot of people are still laboring under the belief that America is headed towards Socialism. Well I have a news flash for them. WE ARE A SOCIALIST COUNTRY NOW. We are not heading towards it any longer.
When the government can take over any business it wishes, when the leaders buy into something as foolish and unproven as the myth of climate change and use it to fuel their policies on energy and the economy, when you shove through trillion dollar spending bills without one shred of evidence, except to the contrary, that this sort of thing will not help, when you develop a nationalized health care system, then you are a Socialist country.

It is not Obama's doing by his self. It started with the progressives gaining control of the education in the country and then being able to seize control of congress by any means necessary and supported by a judiciary that also ignores the Constitution.

My biggest disappointment however is with the American people. A people who once believed that they could accomplish anything in life if they applied themselves, worked hard and yes maybe got a break or two along the way, who now only act like little baby birds waiting for the momma bird to return to the nest to feed them. Americans no longer want to leave the nest and spread their wings and fly, instead they will stay in the nest and accept whatever regurgitated food momma furnishes.

Maybe I am just tired because I got too deep into the information feed that is available today. Maybe it is because after finding out how bad the news and media people conducted themselves, not only in their coverage of our military but of all things, that caused me to doubt everything I have ever trusted them to provide me information on was shattered. Maybe I am just tired of being in the apparently small minority who try to stay informed rather then being a star on Jay Leno's Jaywalking All Stars.

You can only beat your head against a brick wall for so long before you realize that the forces massed against you are too great to overcome. It then becomes a matter of either surrendering or retreating. Feeling that discretion is the better part of valor and never willing to surrender as long as I have the means to resist, I guess retreat at this time is the most viable option.

Can America reclaim her past glory and pride? Who knows, but as long as we continue to look for acceptance outside of our borders from the global "community" it will never happen. Pride comes from within, it can not be given. Respect is earned, not demanded.

For me the final straw really came watching Obama at a press briefing this morning (3 Apr 2009) where he expounded on all of the themes I mentioned above, climate change, restrictions on current energy sources, denouncing our military operations, embracing the global community, and overtures to our enemies who are not bridled by such things as worrying about their image or concerned with being accepted and the continued bashing of capitalist practices that did it.

Whatever it is I feel it is time to just step back. It goes against everything in my psyche. I have always been someone who ran to the sound of the battle, but I would hope I am also smart enough to realize there is no sense in joining a battle whose outcome is already determined. Better to preserve your forces and pick another day and time, one of your choosing to once again engage the enemy.

Army Strong

At the end of the John Wayne movie "The Green Berets", there is a very touching scene where John Wayne stands with a young Vietnamese boy on the flight line as the helicopters come in bringing the Special Forces soldiers in at the completion of their mission. The young boy is waiting for his Peterson, but Peterson won't be coming home. Joh Wayne turns to the young boy and tells him the sacrifice was worth it, because after all that is what we are fighting this war for.

On this the 30th anniversary of the passing of John Wayne, noted heavily over at Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood site, I feel you ought to meet a real John Wayne.

He is First Sergeant Corey Myers. 1SG Myers has done 3 tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan, but his biggest contribution may have come here at home. 1SG Myers son's best friend needed a kidney and he was a match.

You have to watch the video, which I can not embed here so follow the link, to get the whole story, but I think his wife Julie said it best.

“I'm so proud of him. He's done many things in his career, but this is definitely the most selfless thing he's ever done,” Julie said.

Georgia's Fallen Heroes Return Home

Recently 3 Georgia National Guardsmen were killed in Afghanistan in a single incident when their HMMV fell victim to an IED. Today they started arriving home for the last time.

There are times when my faith in the American people is restored, and it is at times such as this. Too often we get so involved in the political story of the day or latest celebrity news that it seems some of the important things in life are overlooked. The good people of the communities around here are making sure that doesn't happen.

As these pictures and videos show, they are turning out to honor those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to make sure we can sit back here and continue to bitch about how everything is going to hell in a handbasket.

I would like to take exception with WSB TV which I am linking to for the pictures of the turn out to pay respects to SPC Jordan of Rome, GA. Come on, make the pictures available without having to link to your site. We will give you credit, but we deserve to share the pictures of the good citizens honoring one of our own.

Next is a video courtesy of WXIA, channel 11 news, 11 Alive of the crowd gathering to honor SFC Beale in Henry county.

See channel 2 that is how it is done. 11 Alive makes the video available and they still get a link. Think about it.

Government Giveth and The Government Taketh Away Health Care

The rule of unintended consequences is in full swing in England when it comes to health care. It is important to remain aware that this recent economic crisis is not limited to just the United States, but is a world wide problem. England, just like your local government does when the budget gets tight, has to make cuts. It seems that just like in Atlanta, where the first cuts came in law enforcement and fire protection England is going to be cutting one of the very things that took control of to 'improve' it namely health care.

Are you listening America? Here is the danger of having a big central government that can control every aspect of your life.

Funding of £500 million for hospital building and refurbishment is being withheld by the Government in the first sign of the severe cuts likely to be forced on the NHS in the recession.

NHS is the National Health Service in England.

Government never seems to find the fraud, waste and abuse within it's own ranks by frivilous spending on pet projects or their salaries, but instead target the very services that are meant to perform a useful function to the everyday citizen.

We all, by now, should be fully aware of the horror stories that come out of countries that have nationlized health care, and if you aren't then denial is not simply a river in Egypt.

The NHS system in England has been a disaster from the beginning, but in true liberal fashion they have continued to raise taxes on it's citizens to shovel more money at the program. Throwing money at a problem is not the answer, and in all cases merely results in a band aid being applied. It is the same theory that explains how our ruling elite address the problems in this country in regards to education.

So now the citizens of England will not only have to contend with the continuing rationing of health care, but they will have to deal with the fact that there will be fewer places to get that care at.

Oh check this out as an idea somebody has come up with to help them address the problem.

It states that Andy Stubbing, a senior official at the Department of Health, has said that “the Treasury is unlikely to agree further releases of funding for this programme”. It concludes that trusts will have to find funding through other means, such as Private Finance Initiatives or “some form of joint venture with another funding body”.

Who woulda thunk it? Private funding, huh?

You Have The Right To Remain Silent

So how do you say that in Pashtu, Irdu, or Farsi? According to a report over on the Weekly Standard, FBI agents in Afghanistan are now having to read the Miranda warning to terrorists/combatants/man made disasters makers.

For, the Obama Justice Department has quietly ordered FBI agents to read Miranda rights to high value detainees captured and held at U.S. detention facilities in Afghanistan, according a senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. “The administration has decided to change the focus to law enforcement.

Remember how Cheney was derided for chastising the Democrats for wanting to treat the battle against terrorists as a law enforcement issue? The whole problem with using a law enforcement model is that first a crime has to be committed. If you happen to be the victim of that crime, sorry about that.

Looks like we can bring the troops home and send in the cops. War is over.

Everyday a new revelation comes forward that shows how we are less today then we were yesterday. It looks like the only safe day was yesterday, and today ain't over yet.

Did Fox Show Host Cost Her Parents Their GM Dealership?

Gretchen Carlson is a co host of Fox and Friends, the morning show on Fox News, and her parents have owned a GM dealership for 90 years. That changed recently. Her parents lost their dealership even though they were profitable, but in what seems to be a clear case of political interference another dealership that was slated to be closed was allowed to remain open after the owner went to his Democrat congress critter Amy Kloubacher.

Now Gretchen has no shortage of folks she could no doubt call on including US Representative Michelle Bachman, who was actually her babysitter as a child.

Anyway here is the video of her appearance on Glenn Beck's show and you decide.



H/T to Pat Dollard

It's Good To Be The Queen

The continuing arrogance of our First Family continues to gall me. We have been regaled with one story after another of how the Obamas' appear to be oblivious to the financial crisis we are facing not only here at home, but on a global scale.

Whether it is stories of spending tax payer money for an ill fated photo op flyover of New York City or jetting out to Hollywood on the taxpayers dime to host a fundraiser with his most rabid followers or now this case of the Obama's enjoying a tax payer funded sight seeing tour of England.

It is tax payer money due to the security that must be supplied as well as the transportation back and forth. In fact Michelle Obama is beginning to remind me of another first lady, Grace Mugabe, wife of the ruler of Zimbabwe, and at the rate this country is going the comparisons to Zimbabwe may be more relevant then ever.

“Right then I knew it was probably someone from our ‘royal family’.

This European vacation isn't limited to just the country formerly known as Great Britain either. Earlier they were the guests of the Srakozy's and spent some time traveling around France.

Parisians cheered the Obamas, travelling in a 30-vehicle motorcade, as police sealed off all the streets through which they moved. Mrs Obama and her daughters ended by shopping on the Left Bank and Champs Élysées and taking a trip to the Louvre. Mr Sarkozy’s staff were exasperated by the way that Mr Obama had imposed his own timetable for his two-night visit. “They have the uneasy feeling of having been taken for a ride,” said Le Journal du Dimanche, the Sunday newspaper.

So I wonder whose money they are spending? She is unemployed after all and last time I checked First Ladies don't draw a paycheck and supposedly before becoming president they were struggling to meet the mortgage payments on their house and had just finished paying off their student loans. Remember that great personal story aspect of Barry O that he exploited on the campaign trail to appear just like one of the common folk.

As for that feeling of having been taken for a ride, a lot of gullible people in this country are feeling the same way.

Thanks For The Memories, Ms Couey

I ran across this obituary in our local paper this morning and it brought back a host of childhood memories. For those who don't have quite as much age on them, let me start by saying at one time roller skating rinks were like the Facebook of the 70's and earlier.
I spent many a Wednesday night at my local roller rink. In fact I was a regular visitor to 2 of the skating rinks mentioned in the article, South Cobb and Crescent Park. It was a great pass time and provided a chance to hang out with your freinds in a controlled environment thereby keeping our fertile teenage minds from engaging in other activities. Sure we hatched dozens of schemes on those slate floors while zooming around showing off for the girls, but that was all we did. For all of those grand schemes we discussed, the real purpose of being at that rink was to meet the girls.
It is something that has all but disappeared from our society now. Everybody has thousands of followers on Twitter, and hundreds of friends on Facebook, but they have very little actual physical interaction with any of those people, and wouldn't know them from Adam if they bumped into them on the sidewalk.
The skating rink provided such a venue. The article says that skating rinks were big in the 50's and 60's, and that may be so but I didn't start frequenting them until in the 70's when I was a teenager. They were still a big hit. Another note for the young crowd, this was before the day of the inline skates. In those days we had 4 wheels fastened to a boot.
So to Mrs Couey family, I wish to express my gratitude for building the skating rinks and giving me and my friends some place to hang out. Thanks for giving me some of my favorite childhood memories. Thanks for giving me a place to meet the women who I would marry, even if I think the only reason I got her eye was because in the beginning I spent more time on my backside then I did on my skates.

NCR's Move To Georgia Cost Us $96 Million

I was settling down and reading my papers, online of course, and I find this story in our Atlanta Journal Constitution about how our state managed to lure NCR from Ohio. The deal includes $96 million in incentives but the biggest one comes in an incentive they gave the company that to me seems counter intuitive.

The company will still be required to take out state taxes on it's employees, but will not have to pay those taxes to the state. Georgia like all other states are facing budget shortfalls of enormous proportions and allowing a company to not pay those taxes seems to 1) give them an unfair business advantage, and 2) seems self defeating since the purpose of having business in your state is to increase your revenues.

The workers do not get any sort of break since the taxes are still going to come out of their paychecks.

If this sort of plan is a good deal then why doesn't the state extend it to all businesses and for that matter to all workers? I would love to quit having to pay state income taxes, even though that burden pales in comparison to what the federal government takes out of my check.

It is a tough balancing act granted. Our state had to look at getting a business which would bring 2,000 jobs to the local area versus allowing a big employer to slip through it's hands. Georgia may have a serious revenue shortage but we are also facing an unemployment rate that is higher the country at large, 9.3% versus 8.9% national rate last month. [GA unemployment rates for May are not available yet] It doesn't get attention because in that good ol southern tradition we don't go about whining, rather we tight tighten our belts and get to work trying to deal with the cards that are dealt us.

NCR is not the only company to get such a break, Kia Motors also benefited from a similar sort of deal. Putting people to work appears to be the priority and hopefully the revenue issues will take care of themselves, and like I said before, having to sacrifice ain't nothing new to a southerner. It seems we have spent the last 150 years with the odds stacked against us but we are still here.

I guess my point is if this sort of program, not paying state payroll taxes, is good for the business itself why don't we look at just abolishing it all together like other states have? The obvious answer is because some state government workers would then be out of a job and God knows government never looks at payroll reductions in their political positions only in areas of public service like police and fire. Funny how that happens ain't it. It is political blackmail. Anytime the public demands government curtail spending they never consider any of their cronies or pet projects for cuts rather they reduce the services that make the taxpayer vulnerable, so that the next time we talk about holding them responsible we think twice since we will be the ones to suffer.

Anyway if eliminating taxes is good for the goose why not the gander? Let's give the real taxpayer a break.

Remember Those Somalis Who Went Missing In Minnesota?

CNN is tying themselves into knots trying to put a pretty face on a story of a Somali immigrant from Minnesota, who bitten by the jihad bug, got himself blowed up in Somalia. CNN's headline is Somali teen from Minnesota reportedly killed in homeland

This guy was believed to be part of a group of Somalis who recently mysteriously disappeared from the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis/St. Paul recently.

The article goes on to give all the usual reasons Palestinians, er sorry followers of the pedophile prophet have for going about their murderous ways in a state of perpetual rage. You know poverty, disenfranchised, blah, blah, blah. The same reasons that are given to excuse the actions of these youth in France who go about torching cars. Funny they never talk about members of other religions who live in the same sort of conditions who go about doing the same sort of violent acts. Maybe that is because they don't exist.

They now want help to try and bring his body back to Minnesota for burial. To hell with that. He showed where his loyalties lay, and it wasn't with the United States of America. There is no way we should bring some jihadist back to America for burial on our soil when it is pretty obvious that had he been given the chance to engage in his acts of teenage rebellion here and caused harm to other Americans he probably would have done it.

UPDATE: Seems there may be more to this story according to a story on Fox News website.

A Minnesota man recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group overseas may have been assassinated in Somalia by the very terrorist group he went there to help.

"Someone who claimed (to be) a member of al-Shabaab called Burhan's mom Friday (afternoon) and said Burhan died Friday morning," Ahmed said. "Burhan's mom got shocked and (threw) the phone when she heard the story."

"Al-Shabaab assassinated Burhan and shot (him in) the head," the individual said, according to Ahmed.

In Barry O's speech in Cairo last week he mentioned how we had mosques in all 50 states. Is he willing to admit that not all of those mosques are places of worship yet?

Ahmed accuses a local mosque of helping al-Shabaab recruit his nephew and others in the Minneapolis area.

I can guarantee you if it was, say Mormons, who were doing such a thing we never hear the end of it. Especially from the gay community who seems to be fine with the Muslim persecution of gay people, but not so much for those of other religions who oppose gay marriage.

65th Anniversary Of The D-Day Invasion

Today we commemorate the 65th anniversary of the D Day invasion. The largest sea borne invasion ever which began the liberation of Europe.

I have been privileged during my time in the service to meet several of the veterans of that invasion, and there is no way I can comprehend or envision the hell that was wrought that day on the beaches of Normandy. In talking to the veterans of that day they never dwelled on the ugliness of that day, rather they realized that for the mission given them that day, failure was not an option. None ever considered themselves a hero, rather just a soldier, sailor, or airman that had a job to do.

In 1984, on the 40th anniversary of the invasion, President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech which has been dubbed the "Boys of Point-Du-Hoc" speech. I remember that particular D-Day commemoration because I was in Germany. As part of the activities that year my unit hosted several of the D Day veterans and we put on a live fire demonstration for them. That was back when a million dollars meant something and we burned through a couple of million dollars putting on that demonstration of firepower, showing those guys our current capabilities. What stuck with me however is that once our little show was over and we were mingling with and meeting these guys they commented on how a lot of the weapons and equipment that we were using they had used also and were very familiar with, such as the Jeep and M2 .50 caliber machine gun. Some of them were eager to get their hands on that stuff once again. Most expressed how they wished that some of those fancy airplanes flying overhead had been available to them.

We left our area and accompanied them to a battlefield that some of them had fought on just a few miles from where we did our demonstration. On this vast expanse of open area we could see the huge concrete machine gun bunkers that the Germans had built. Bunkers with 4 foot concrete walls and slits which the German machine gunners stuck out the barrels of their lethal guns. The bunkers were located several hundred meters apart, but built to afford interlocking fire and creating a valley of death to the front. You have to see the bunkers to appreciate them and to realize just what it took for these soldiers to come across this open area into the death of the death dealing positions, and when these guys then told you that rather then several hundred meters apart like they were here, on Omaha Beach and Normandy they were only a hundred meters apart. These bunkers could take a direct from a 500 lb bomb and keep on ticking. These guys knew the only way to take them out was to close on them and kill the people inside.

Here I was 40 years later looking out across this vast expanse and at these massive concrete monsters and wondering how in the hell could, would, somebody attempt to even assault such a position. That is exactly what these guys did though.

We must never forget the valor that was displayed that day on the beaches of Normandy, just as we must not forget or ignore the very same courage that is embodied in this current greatest generation. As we look to the past let's not forget the present or as Ronald Reagan said 25 years ago

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: ``I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.'' Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.

3 Georgians Killed In Afghanistan

Georgia's 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team deployed to Afghanistan last month and they have already suffered their first casualties. When you have National Guard and Army Reserve units deployed into a war zone, when the causalities come they come in bunches for the communities and states from which they come. The three soldiers were killed by what is becoming the weapon of choice by the jihadis, that being the IED.

My condolences go out to the families of those killed in action.

The Pentagon identified the men as 39-year-old Staff Sgt. John C. Beale of Riverdale; 37-year-old Maj. Kevin M. Jenrette of Lula; and 21-year-old Spc. Jeffrey W. Jordan of Rome.

In an ironic twist yesterday's Stars and Stripes paper carried a story about the 48th Infantry training new Afghani police forces while up at the top was the bullet comment about the 3 deaths.

Honoring Veterans Takes Many Forms

In light of the upcoming 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion it seems appropriate that a story like this appears. A couple of local policemen discovered an overgrown cemetery while performing his duties and upon closer inspection found out that several veterans were buried there. Their consciences just wouldn't allow them to ignore the condition of this final resting place of those who had served this country, so he did something about it. Well him and some of his friends.

"From looking at the headstones, we realized there were a lot of veterans buried there, from World War I and World War II. They need more respect than that, so we cleaned it up," he said. "We figured, who's going to complain about us going in and mowing the lawn?"

About 10 officers came prepared with trimmers, weed eaters and a lawn mower they brought from home. They spent a couple of hours cutting and trimming grass and clearing overgrown brush.

"We probably got half of it done," Yeager said. "We didn't get back into the back section. Some graves there were from the 1800s. But a veteran was buried there in 2006, so someone was there recently."

In a testament to the officer's humility their names are not given in the story and something tells me that is the way they wanted it. From this veteran let me say thanks to them and to their brothers in blue who are helping them clean it up.