Trump Skipping The FOX Debate - Bad Mistake Or Good Move?

By now,the results of the Trumpless debate are pretty much in, and of course, the pundits are having a wonderful time with it.

To summarize briefly, Donald Trump had a major problem in FOX including Megyn Kelly as a moderator in the upcoming debate because he felt, with some justification she didn't treat him fairly the last time. So he simply said he was bailing unless FOX replaced her as moderator, and when they refused, he followed through and simply didn't appear.

This sort of thing is unheard of, although it shouldn't be. If after the first debate, Mitt Romney had simply said that he felt the country had gotten a good look at the differences between he and President Obama and he felt no need to further embarrass the president, he might be in the White House right now. Ditto if he had insisted on a more neutral moderator instead of the obviously partisan Candy Crowley for the second one.

What we saw here, as Rush Limbaugh cleverly noted is a glimpse of how Donald Trump negotiates, something that is normally not on public view. Right up to the end, he had Roger Aisles and FOX doing their best to get him to reconsider, because they knew what a Trump absence would do to ratings. But ultimately, they refused his final offer of $5 million donated to charity, which he probably knew they would anyway.

So was it a shrewd move on Donald Trump's part or a big mistake?

We'll see for sure Monday night, but personally I think it was a win-win for Trump.

I saw both the FOX debates and Donald Trump's charity event. The difference was extraordinary.

Fox chose to make their debate a slug fest between the candidates rather than an informative debate. Megyn Kelly in particular, along with Democrat Chris Wallace went out of their way to make the thing a circus, posing questions to the candidates designed to make them fight with each other. With Trump gone, the focus was on the other candidates. That emphasized the difference between Donald Trump and the other front runners, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. They didn't come out well as all.

When the Fox News moderators showed Marco Rubio on video repeatedly saying he wouldn’t support amnesty, and then Megyn Kelly pointed out that he went on to be a major part of the Gang of Eight GOP amnesty group, Rubio, smarmy as he is had a real deer in the headlights moment. It got especially bad when Jeb Bush pointed out that not only did Rubio support the amnesty bill, but went on to say on national TV that Rubio asked him to support it, and that Bush did so because he agreed with the Gang of Eight bill. Governor Bush also called Senator Rubio a coward at least twice for attempting to retreat from his support of amnesty for illegal migrants.

Video of Senator Ted Cruz supposedly supporting the Gang of Eight bill also was played. Cruz did his best to squirm out of that, but it involved a complex explanation of amendments that I'm not sure many viewers were fully able to follow. The attacks from Rubio and the others seeking to get into the top tier definite didn't help Cruz. As a whole, the debates were boring and barely watchable.

Donald Trump's event for disabled veterans and those suffering from PTSD and other problems was a whole different item.

For one thing, the contrast in the energy level was amazing. While the FOX debate was sour and fairly negative, the Trump event was a live wire, even before the candidate came onstage. In contrast to the collection of elites on FOX, Trump's event, put together on 24 hour notice featured real people, the sort of folks the average Iowan could identify with.

Held at the auditorium of Drake University, the event attracted hundreds of people whom waited on line in the bitter cold. Even Donald Trump seemed surprised the turnout on such short notice. "Look at all the cameras," he said. "This is like the Academy Awards."

And of course, there were the veterans. Trump did something I thought was an extremely astute move, making the event all about them. When he first hit the stage, he dropped his usual speech and talked all about the disabled veterans this event was designed to help, something that resonates in a lot of hearts given the recent VA scandals. when he read off the names of his wealthy friends who had pledged contributions, topped by a $1 million check of his own, the place simply erupted.

After that he yielded the stage to Staff Sgt. John Wayne Walding, who lost a leg to sniper fire in Afghanistan and had the crowd's total attention as he spoke movingly about his own struggles to cope and the fact that an estimated 22 veterans per day commit suicide. Walding tells his story in a book I recommend,  No Way Out: A Story of Valor in the Mountains of Afghanistan. Walding also shared several stories of Trump’s kindness toward himself and other veterans.Two other Marine vets came on stage after Walding finished and spoke on the same theme..after which they presented Donald Trump with an honor ring from their veterans group representing the number of veterans who commit suicide after returning home.

Also speaking at the event were two other candidates running for the nomination, Mike Huckabee.  and Rick Santorum.They weren't there to endorse Trump so much as they were there to endorse what he was doing that night.



Trump ended the event not so much with his usual campaign speech but with a speech mostly focused on the problems veterans have faced when returning from Iraq and Afghanistan -- inadequate healthcare, problems finding housing, drug abuse, and mental health issues.

"Our vets are being mistreated. Illegal immigrants are treated better in many cases than our vets and it's not going to happen any more. It's not going to happen any more," he said.

Of course, there was another message being sent as well.

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

An unbelievable night in Iowa with our great Veterans! We raised $6,000,000.00 while the politicians talked! #GOPDebate

7:54 PM - 28 Jan 2016

• 10,170 10,170 Retweets
• 23,999

Exactly. And I think a lot of people got the same message.

According to the latest polls, Trump has increased his lead over the second place Ted Cruz to six points. It wasn't so long ago that Cruz had the lead by a decent amount. 

The Iowa caucus is a unique event, where turnout is everything. The weather forecast for tomorrow shows there's a chance of a blizzard, which could definitely effect turnout.

The usual turnout for these things is between 133,000 and 137,000. A smaller turnout favors Ted Cruz, whose campaign claims they have a guaranteed 7,000 votes. A larger one, say over 150,000 or so favors Donald Trump, many of whose supporters are said to be first time caucus goers.

No matter how Iowa turns out, Trump did himself no harm by skipping the FOX debate, and may very well have done himself some good. Simply based on what I saw, I think quite a few Trump supporters are going to caucus and vote whatever the weather does.

Leaving The Building: Shinseki 'Resigns', Carney Runs For Cover

The Obama Administration typically saves document dumps, information that reflects badly on the regime and other controversial news for Friday afternoons DC time, in order to allow the traditional weekend lull in the news cycle to diffuse things a little.

Today, the president finally dropped the ax on VA head General Norman Shinseki, announcing that he had 'agreed to accept Shinseki's resignation' after agreeing with his VA secretary that Shinseki had become a “distraction.”



Actually, this was planned as a distraction to allow President Obama some cover ('Look, he's doing something about it') and provide even members of his own party with a convenient scapegoat for a scandal the White House was deeply,deeply involved in.

Sloan D. Gibson, the deputy secretary of veterans affairs, is taking over as acting secretary until a permanent replacement for Shinseki is found and confirmed by the Senate. In view of President Obama's constant efforts to cut back and derail VA benefits from the beginning of his presidency, the new nominee ought to be interesting.

President Obama said in his press conference that the VA’s initial review showed that “the misconduct has not been limited to a few VA facilities, but many across the country.” He said that was “totally unacceptable,” adding: “Last week I said that if we found misconduct, it would be punished, and I meant it.”

'Punished'???  This is going to be contained and stonewalled. In the Obama regime, no one is ever accountable for anything unless Our Dear Leader decides otherwise. You see, in response to a question, the president answered that he was going to leave it to the Justice Department and AG Eric Holder to determine “whether there’s been criminal wrongdoing” within the VA system. No one is going to be 'punished',except perhaps some low level apparatchnicks as needed, who like Shinseki can be sacrificed to take the fall.

Another White House figure who's leaving is the regime's own Baghdad Bob, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. President Obama referred to Carney as one of his closest advisers and friends at the White House, and gave him a nice huggie.



"In April, Jay came to me in the Oval Office and said that he was thinking of moving on, and I was not thrilled, to say the least," he said. "But Jay has had to wrestle with this decision for quite some time."

Actually, I think, unlike Shinseki, Lyin' Jay actually did resign. At this point, I think he was having trouble looking himself in the mirror every morning, and even his allies on the press corps shunned him like the hideous jackal he had become. That image will fade with him out of the spotlight and give him a chance after a few months to rehabilitate his image and get a gig as a talking head on MSNBC or one of the alphabet networks.

Carney's deputy Josh Earnest will take over the job as the president's press secretary. Some people will literally do anything for money.

Kid's Cards For Wounded Vets Refused By VA Because they Mention 'G-d' and 'Christmas'

 

Here's a story for you to ponder.

A group of elementary school kids in North Texas thought it would be a wonderful idea to make some handmade Christmas cards for wounded warriors in a local VA hospital at Christmastime. What happened next is a pretty good sign of what Obama's America has become:

"I'm hoping that it might make their day because their family might live far away, and they might not have somebody to celebrate Christmas with and I'd like them to know they've not been forgotten and somebody wanted to say thank you," said fourth grader Gracie Brown.

Gracie and her brother, Luke, put a lot of thought and effort into their Christmas cards.

"It includes ‘Merry Christmas,' and when you open it up, it says 'Thank you for your service' and the American flag," said Luke.

Fifty-two students at Grace Academy in Prosper spent Friday making the cards they planned to hand deliver to bedridden veterans at the VA hospital in Dallas Monday morning.

When Gracie and Luke's mom, Andrea, found out they wouldn't be able to, she was outraged.

"This wasn't the country I grew up in, when you couldn't say ‘Merry Christmas,' you couldn't say ‘God bless you' or reference any scripture," she said.

The cards were the idea of Susan Chapman, a math teacher at Grace Academy. She's married to a veteran and volunteers with the American Legion and other veterans' organizations.

"It really didn't occur to me there would be a problem with distributing Christmas cards," said Chapman.

She didn't find out about the VA's holiday card policy until she called Monday morning to arrange details for the cards' delivery.

"I told him my students made cards, we'd like to bring them down for the veterans," said Chapman. "And he said, 'That's great. We're thrilled to have them, except the only thing is, we can't accept anything that says ‘Merry Christmas' or ‘God bless you' or any scriptural references because of all the red tape.'" [...]

Parents say as disappointing as this experience was for their children, they're more heartbroken for the veterans.

"They couldn't believe the people that these people they wanted to honor weren't going to get the chance to see what they had done," said Andrea.


Personally, as a non-Christian I can't imagine lying in a hospital as a wounded warrior at any time of year and not being warmed inside by getting this sort of thing from children.

I suspect this policy is likely the work of atheist and virulent anti-Christian activist Mikey Weinstein. President Obama's czar in charge of secularizing the military and eliminating all mentions of G-d and religion, period.

Obviously the servant is doing his master's bidding..the Obama's own 'holiday cards' have no mention of Jesus, G-d or even Christianity.



But they do show the White House dogs, in front of an empty building, which actually says a great deal the president didn't intend. And remember, these cards are being sent out at Christmas time ostensibly from a Christian man and his family.

This kind of wholesale rejection of the principles our nation was founded on is going to come with a price, and I only pray that this is reversed before that price becomes heavier than we can bear.

This Is Who Obama Tried To Keep Out Of The WWII Memorial

It's worth looking at an example of the kind of person President Obama, in full tantrum mode, tried to shut out of the WWII memorial .

This is Nicholas Oresko of Cresskill, NJ, sitting with Medal of Honor recipient Sergeant Dakota Meyer, whom readers of these pages might be familiar with. Master Sergeant Oresko, the nation’s oldest Medal of Honor recipient,  passed away last Friday, October 4th at the age of 96, surrounded by family, veterans and military personnel.

 Here's what Master Sergeant Orezco did in World War II during the Battle of The Bulge  to earn that Medal of Honor, according to his citation:

M/Sergeant. Oresko was a platoon leader with Company C, in an attack against strong enemy positions. Deadly automatic fire from the flanks pinned down his unit. Realizing that a machinegun in a nearby bunker must be eliminated, he swiftly worked ahead alone, braving bullets which struck about him, until close enough to throw a grenade into the German position. He rushed the bunker and, with pointblank rifle fire, killed all the hostile occupants who survived the grenade blast.

Another machine gun opened up on him, knocking him down and seriously wounding him in the hip. Refusing to withdraw from the battle, he placed himself at the head of his platoon to continue the assault. As withering machine gun and rifle fire swept the area, he struck out alone in advance of his men to a second bunker. With a grenade, he crippled the dug-in machine gun defending this position and then wiped out the troops manning it with his rifle, completing his second self-imposed, 1-man attack.

Although weak from loss of blood, he refused to be evacuated until assured the mission was successfully accomplished. Through quick thinking, indomitable courage, and unswerving devotion to the attack in the face of bitter resistance and while wounded, M /Sergeant. Oresko killed 12 Germans, prevented a delay in the assault, and made it possible for Company C to obtain its objective with minimum casualties.

Yes. this is an example of the kind of patriots our president chose to vent on. Needless to say, with the help of a few friends and some Republican congressmen, the vets didn't put up with it, even when they were threatened with arrest, even when barriers were put in place and wired shut to try and keep them out.

The Marine vets, not to be outdone did the same thing when this president tried to shut them out of the Marine Corps Memorial:

 

Both of these sites are normally not barricaded, and even in previous shutdowns they were accessible.

But that was before Before Obama.

These episodes say a lot about the character of the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Must See: Intel, Special Ops Vets Hit Obama Hard Over 'Dishonorable Disclosures'

Even some Democrats have voiced concern over national security leaks out of the Obama Administration that severely damage our military and intelligence capabilities.

OpSec is a super PAC composed of former intelligence and military special-ops professionals. While the group claims to be non-partisan, it's pretty obvious they are not overly fond of President Barack Obama's performance on defense and national security issues, especially when it comes to deliberately leaking important information for political purposes - and as far as I'm concerned, with good reason. The above video, 'Dishonorable Disclosures', which has had over 400,000 views does an excellent job of clarifying why.

It's 22 minutes well spent.

Memorial Day: An Honest Man Versus A Liar

A big story over the Memorial Day weekend concerned one Chris Hayes, a commentator over at MSNBC who celebrated Memorial Day by announcing how uncomfortable he was with referring to our fallen warriors as heroes.



CHRIS HAYES: Thinking today and observing Memorial Day, that'll be happening tomorrow. Just talked with Lt. Col. Steve Burke, who was a casualty officer with the Marines and had to tell people [inaudible]. Um, I, I, ah, [Steve] Beck, sorry, um, I think it's interesting because I think it is very difficult to talk about the war dead and the fallen without invoking valor, without invoking the words "heroes." Um, and, ah, ah, why do I feel so comfortable [sic] about the word "hero"? I feel comfortable, ah, uncomfortable, about the word because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war. Um, and, I don't want to obviously desecrate or disrespect memory of anyone that's fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism: hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers and things like that. But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic. But maybe I'm wrong about that.

This sounds like the sort of double talking faux intellectual rap nerdy poli sci majors use to try and get credulous freshman girls out of their panties at an Obama after party once a few joints have made the rounds.

Nevertheless, I have to give Mr. Hayes credit.

The fact is, most self-styled progressives hate and despise the military.Oh, they'll pay lip service to 'supporting the troops' because, you know, it sounds patriotic and provides them a figleaf, but the attitude is fairly obvious. To people like Chris Hayes, the people that go into the military are suckers and dupes, and more than one of his comrades on the left have shown that this is exactly how they see it...especially when they think no one's listening too closely.



Hayes, one of the editors of the left-wing fringe magazine The Nation was simply being honest, and I commend him for that.

Far less commendable were his efforts to walk things back once he came under fire from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and blogs on the right side of the fence. But then, the species is not noted for its courage.

Even more interesting were the attempts to defend Chris Hayes remarks from the left, most of them again using the usual sophistry to question whether the term 'heroes' is appropriate.

Let's examine something.

At the present time, we have a volunteer military. What that means is that some young men in our society made a choice to restrict their own freedom and risk their lives to defend the rest of us..including the Chris Hayes's of the country. Whether they actually see combat or not, there's a degree of selflessness and honor in doing so that can only be characterized as heroic. And there's always the chance, even in peace time or behind the lines that things can go horribly wrong.

The left, for instance, has always had a good chuckle over President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard service. What never seemed to get mentioned is that two airmen in his unit died in training accidents during his service. The risks are always inherent.

People like Chris Hayes don't understand this because increasingly, there's a social and even a regional divide on those whom serve and those whom don't. Because of that, many people who think like Chris Hayes not only have never served in the military themselves, they frequently don't know anyone who has. To them, it seems like anyone who would volunteer for the military is someone beneath them socially and intellectually, who had no other option. Especially for patriotic motives, which they also think of as borderline neanderthal. I mean, why would someone risk his life at minimal pay for such a deeply flawed country like America if they were, you know, smart?

That brings up an interesting point. I wonder if Mr. Hayes and his friends on the left have ever considered what it might be like if the military, law enforcement, the whole security apparatus started thinking like they do and looking out for number one?

We actually have an example of what that's like, and it's fairly close at hand.

Just south of our borders, there's a war going on between various drug cartels over control of the drug traffic and Mexico's organized crime industry. The two main players are the old line Sinaloa Cartel and a new, upstart cartel known as the Zetas. Guess where the Zetas came from?

They were originally part of an elite U.S.-trained military force designed to combat and defeat the drug cartels. And at some point, they took a good look at what and whom they were defending for $100 per month, got smart and went into the cartel business for themselves. A large chunk of Mexico's army and police have made the same sort of decision, either by actively getting involved with one of the cartels or passively by taking a payoff to look the other way.

Towards the end of the Western Empire, Rome's legions did exactly the same thing, selling themselves to the highest bidder and even sacking a city here and there. So did the notorious 'Free Companies' in the 14th century during the slack periods of ceasefire during the Hundred Year's War.

That's what happens when patriotism, loyalty and honor are no longer a motive and people with arms who know how to use them 'get smart', look out for number one and start pillaging the elites that used to despise them. And that's something Chris Hayes and his comrades on the left ought to spend some time thinking about the next time they're tempted to open their mouths in this fashion.

Speaking of which, having dealt with the honest man, let's deal with someone of an entire different sort.

President Barack Obama (aside from apparently confusing Memorial Day and Veteran's Day) had a number of flowery things to say to mark the occasion. Here's a sample:

We’re calling on all Americans to join us in honoring and supporting our extraordinary Vietnam veterans who are among the more than three million Americans who served in that war. There are so many ways to show our appreciation to these veterans and their families, and many of them are available at www.vietnamwar50th.com.

As this anniversary proceeds we will also continue working to ensure that our Vietnam Veterans– and all veterans – receive the services, respect, and support they have earned. Our efforts on behalf of Vietnam veterans are part of our larger effort to make sure our nation is serving all our veterans as well as they served us. And because no veteran who fights for our nation overseas should have to fight for a job when they come home, this country has made it a priority for businesses to hire veterans and provided resources that make it easier for veterans to find a job.

Supporting and honoring our veterans and their families can’t be the work of government and our businesses alone. That’s why the First Lady and the Vice President’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, are leading a national effort, Joining Forces, to mobilize Americans in supporting today’s military families and veterans. Only about one percent of Americans may wear the uniform, but 100 percent of Americans need to be supporting those who do.

Let's take a look at how President Obama has 'supported those who serve', to use his phrase.

Our commander-in-chief showed his support for our military and their families at the beginning of his term by attempting to charge our wounded warriors for the medical care they were receiving for free via the VA, making them take out their own private insurance...this while the president, congress, various apparatchniks and their families get the best medical care available at no charge. He only backed off after the national commanders of veteran's groups like the American Legion and the VFW threatened to make the mother of all stinks over the matter.

President Obama recently doubled down on this 'respect' by slashing VA benefits in his new military budget, specifically from a program many vets depend on called TriCare as part of his crusade to hollow out our military.

Not only that, but the president's remarks on veteran's fighting for jobs must ring maddeningly hollow to career military who have literally been thrown out of the service without the full pensions they were just short of earning, again because of the cuts President Obama mandated.

Then, of course, there were the ongoing efforts by the Obama Department of Justice to disenfranchise military votes overseas during the 2010 midterms.

Not to say that President Obama doesn't find our military useful at times. Aside from taking credit for Admiral McRaven's planning and decisions on the bin-Laden raid, you might remember this president's use of dead military bodies being flown back to American soil as a political photo-op in defiance of Department of Defense regulations,the wishes of the families and simple common decency.

Small wonder that after this kind of 'support' from President Obama, very few veterans are going to vote for him, and we can almost certainly expect another effort by the Department of Justice to disenfranchise as much of our active duty military vote as possible in the coming November election.

You see, when it comes down to it, President Obama has exactly the same attitude towards our military that Chris Hayes does. The difference is that Chris Hayes, just for a minute, decided to be honest about it.

Without question, I prefer the honest man, no matter how flawed and misguided his reasoning.Such men can be worked with, at least on some level. The liar is only fit to be cast bodily out of the Temple.


-selah-

Obama Pushing To Cut Healthcare Benefits For Active And Retired Military

In spite of the cute toys marketed in conjunction with President Obama's boasting about 'getting bin-Laden', it's been obvious for some time that this president and many others around him neither understand nor appreciate our military, except when it's useful politically.

You might remember the use of dead military bodies being flown as a political photo-op in defiance of Department of Defense regulations,(not to mention common decency) Senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett famously ordering a decorated military officer to bring her a fresh drink at a White House soiree and the ongoing efforts by Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama Department of Justice to deliberately disenfranchise military votes during the 2010 midterms in a clear violation of the MOVE Act passed by Congress....and there are many more examples I could site.

The latest attack on our military by President Obama is an attempt to slash their health benefits.

The president tried this once before, in a scheme that would have seen wounded combat veterans cut off from VA benefits and being forced to take out their own private insurance to get treatment, but the outcry from groups like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion and polling data that showed that Americans overwhelmingly disapproved made him back off.

Now, he's brought it back again in his new defense budget, which calls for slashing benefits from VA. specifically from a program many vets depend on called TriCare.

This is part of the massive cuts in defense the Obama Administration is demanding . Under the Obama plan, the main targets would be under-65 and Medicare-eligible military retirees through a tiered increase in annual Tricare premiums that will be based on yearly retirement pay:

Significantly, the plan calls for increases between 30 percent to 78 percent in Tricare annual premiums for the first year. After that, the plan will impose five-year increases ranging from 94 percent to 345 percent—more than 3 times current levels.

According to congressional assessments, a retired Army colonel with a family currently paying $460 a year for health care will pay $2,048.

The new plan hits active duty personnel by increasing co-payments for pharmaceuticals and eliminating incentives for using generic drugs.

The changes are worrying some in the Pentagon who fear it will severely impact efforts to recruit and maintain a high-quality all-volunteer military force. Such benefits have been a key tool for recruiting qualified people and keeping them in uniform.

“Would you stay with a car insurance company that raised your premiums by 345 percent in five years? Probably not,” said the congressional aide. “Would anybody accept their taxes being raised 345 percent in five years? Probably not.”

A second congressional aide said the administration’s approach to the cuts shows a double standard that hurts the military.

“We all recognize that we are in a time of austerity,” this aide said. “But defense has made up to this point 50 percent of deficit reduction cuts that we agreed to, but is only 20 percent of the budget.”

The administration is asking troops to get by without the equipment and force levels needed for global missions. “And now they are going to them again and asking them to pay more for their health care when you’ve held the civilian workforce at DoD and across the federal government virtually harmless in all of these cuts. And it just doesn’t seem fair,” the second aide said.{...}

Additionally, the critics said leaving civilian workers’ benefits unchanged while hitting the military reflect the administration’s effort to court labor unions, as government unions are the only segment of organized labor that has increased in recent years.

As part of the increased healthcare costs, the Pentagon also will impose an annual fee for a program called Tricare for Life, a new program that all military retirees automatically must join at age 65. Currently, to enroll in Tricare for Life, retirees pay the equivalent of a monthly Medicare premium.

Under the proposed Pentagon plan, retirees will be hit with an additional annual enrollment fee on top of the monthly premium.

Union votes that vote Democrat as opposed to military who predominantly vote Republican? When it comes to this president deciding whose benefits to slash, it's no contest.

It will be interesting to see how Congress deals with this.

Obama's State Of The Union - The Hollow Man

Ah, the Hollow Man...

As I've told you before, I listen to these things so you don't have to, and I've got a pretty strong stomach - but tonight's festivities were truly something else.

A transcript is available here for those of you into self-mortification, but I'll go over the basics.

First off, the speech was obviously very well rehearsed down to the last vocal inflection and raised eyebrow..in fact. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there were theatrical directions emanating from TOTUS tonight. Simply amazing..yet as he spoke, the contradictions between what was coming out of his mouth and what we've seen coming out of this White House are so radically different they underlined one of the qualities I dislike most about this president -the way he arrogantly thinks everyone's stupid except him, and thinks that the usual rule that nothing ever goes away on the internet doesn't apply where he's concerned.

The president started off and ended by invoking what he referred to as 'this generation of heroes' returning from victory in Iraq, and indeed he used the military frequently as an example of how he wants the Republicans in Congress to behave . It was disgusting to hear, considering how Senator Obama and many of his fellow Democrats cheering him on tonight did everything they could to sabotage our troops in the field and their mission during wartime. Yet he had the unmitigated gall to use military teamwork as an example of what he wants to see in Washington!

Our military is legally bound to follow President Obama's orders no matter how nonsensical. Congress is not, especially when their common sense revolts and it was both deeply insulting as well as very revealing of the president to use the comparison, making the expected rhetoric that came later about working together a mockery. As if President Obama made any pretense of that when he and the Democrats controlled Congress!

The president of course mentioned bin-Laden, and regular members of Joshua's Army may recall what I had to say President Obama's chief boast perhaps being a huge error. And his statement about how the Taliban's momentum has been broken was simply a blatant falsehood - which is exactly why we're desperately negotiating with them and just released one of their leaders with American blood on his hands from Club Gitmo as a 'confidence gesture'.

The president's chief theme, under the slogan 'an economy built to last' is actually pretty simple - eat the rich and punish the corporations to pay for more government spending.

He called for a punishment levy on 'big banks' and 'big oil companies' and is apparently going to sic Eric Holder on the financial sector to ' find out who was responsible for the mortgage collapse'. I guarantee you that well connected Democrats like Franklin Raines and Jaimie Gorelick who ran Fannie Mae into the ground and walked away with multi-million dollar bonuses are not going to have to worry on that account.

You see, it wasn't the banks that made the rules that governed the secondary mortgage market..it was Washington, and government entities Fannie and Freddie set the pace by reducing underwriting standards and down payment requirements while demanding that lenders make more loans to the unqualified based on racial bean counting. And the Democrat majority in Congress defended them from any oversight or reigning in while they did it.

The president went on to mention his great achievement of 'saving' the auto industry. Will anyone remind him that he did it by gifting GM to his union political allies, crapping on private equity holders and giving the company special tax breaks at the taxpayer's expense to make them look artificially profitable? Or that he allowed GM to do stock dumping that was against SEC rules?

Or about the outright lies he told the American people about GM and Chrysler being profitable and returning the money used to bail them out, when in reality they were a huge loss?

We also had to listen to the president's blathering about trade. Rather than lower our corporate income tax sufficiently to encourage more companies to do business here, his solution is to put another punishment levy on companies that outsource, which will have the effect of even more companies relocating all but bare bones operations elsewhere. When Canada's corporate rate is less than half of ours, why not ?

It was also unintentionally comical to hear the president make a vague call for tearing down regulations that stifle entrepreneurship in one part of his speech while mentioning at least three or four brand new regulatory bureaucracies he wants to create and calling for cap n' trade and climate change legislation in another.

The president went on to discuss education, and of course his solution is to spend more taxpayer dollars to hire more teachers to pay more union dues to fund the Democrats. For such a pro-education guy, you'd never think he'd be the one to stop poor kids from getting into a decent school right there in DC.

Not to mention the trillion dollar time bomb for America's economy this president enacted by executive order concerning a new student loans entitlement that will eventually create a bubble similar to housing and is guaranteed to raise the cost of college education.

Yes, he really does intend to bankrupt the country. Or he's simply clueless, take your pick.

The president also got in a nice plug for the DREAM Act for illegal aliens that he enacted by executive order after Congress rejected it twice. What was that about working together again?

President Obama made quite a thing about his favoring the creation of domestic energy while believing that those of us listening would forget about his job killing de facto prohibition on offshore drilling, his opposition to drilling in ANWR , his recent fiasco with the Keystone Pipeline and his war on the coal industry. Or about Solyndra and the other green energy scams he doled out to his campaign donors and bundlers. All you have to do is look at what the price at the pump was when he came into office and what it is now, the largest increase in history...and that doesn't even calculate the corresponding rise in the price of food and other goods.

And speaking of Keystone, I had to chuckle at President Obama's solemnly intoning the so-called Buffet Rule as an example of how 'the rich' should behave. Buffet, a nicely placed Obama donor stands to make a tidy sum because the pipeline got cancelled because the oil we buy from Canada will now have to be shipped via Buffet's railroads. At a surcharge, of course. It's good to be the King's friend!

There's plenty more, but a few final bits that stood out.

President Obama talked a bit about his foreign policy. He reverently evoked the Arab Spring he helped along as 'a wave of change', which it is. He failed to mention that the change involves the rebirth of al-Qaeda and some of it's affiliates in these countries and replacing dictators like Khaddaffi who was no threat to us and Mubarak, Ali Abdullah Saleh and Ben Ali who were at least nominal allies and replacing them with hard line Islamists and salafists who are not going to be friends to the West, not to mention the 'men and women; Christians, Muslims, and Jews' whose dignity and freedom he claims to be so concerned about. President Obama committed an an historic error here that will come back to haunt us long after he departs the scene.

The president also mentioned what he described as his 'iron clad commitment to Israel's security' which is news to those of us who have followed the interaction between this president and Israel closely.But hey, it's election time, and there a sucker born every minute.

I also found it particularly nauseating to hear this president talk about how smart he is in hollowing out our military budget and in the next moment talking about jobs and VA benefits for those he described as 'those men and women in uniform who defend our freedom.'

This is the same president who is laying off an estimated 500,000 military personnel, many of them who haven't been in long enough to become vested for a military pension or full medical benefits. They'll simply be tossed into an already toxic job market for their 'reward' so President Obama can have more money for his domestic agenda. And I got a horrible taste in my mouth hearing the same President who tried to take away their VA benefits early in his administration talk about health care for veterans.

You have to wonder at what goes through someone's mind when putting on this kind of a performance. Is it simply a case of 'the show must go on'? Or has he simply been mouthing these lies and untruths for so long that he actually believes them by now?

Barack Obama is the modern version of Rehoboam, telling the people of America that he's going to double down his failed policies and add to their yoke.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who gave the Republican rebuttal did a decent job of responding to the president's little show tonight. But he didn't mention much about a lot of the things I've talked about here, and most of the media certainly won't.

That's the real tragedy. It's one thing to snicker to yourself as you see through a cynical con man going through his act for you, but it' s quite another to keep quiet about it and let the rubes get screwed in the name of 'civility' by the Hollow Men of this world.

They deserve better at your hands. We all do.

Obama's War On The Military: 157 Air Force Majors Terminated Without Retirement Benefits

To free up more money for its domestic agenda, the Obama Administration has been mandating huge cuts and reduction of forces. The latest example is the arbitrary termination of 157 Air Force majors who are near retirement being terminated without pension or medical benefits. All are within six years of the 20 years of service required to qualify for these benefits:

The Chapman University of Military Law and its associated AMVETS Legal Clinic are blowing the whistle on what they say is an injustice set to be perpetrated on 157 Air Force majors on the last day of November.

“The Obama administration has ordered massive reductions in forces, resulting in many officers who are near retirement being involuntarily separated without retirement or medical benefits,” explained institute director Maj. Kyndra Rotunda.

The Department of Defense specifies that service members within six years of retirement normally would be retained and allowed to retire on time with benefits, unless extenuating circumstances exist such as disciplinary issues.

According to lawyers at Chapman and the AMVETS Legal Clinic, the Air Force has deviated from the six-year protection “without any legal authority.”

“At the heart of the matter, is whether the Secretary of the Air Force [Michael Donley] can ignore protections that exist in governing regulations,” Rotunda told The Daily Caller. “The Air Force position is that yes, he may. Our position is that nobody is above the law.”

According to an Air Force spokesman, officers who fail to get a promotion two times in a row are subject to involuntary discharge — unless they are within two years of qualifying for retirement. Officers subject to discharge under what the Air Force calls “selective continuation” are almost always retained until retirement if they appeal for continuation to a selection board, are within six years or less from retirement and have no disciplinary issues or negative information on their records.

However, according to the spokesman Air Force Secretary Donley can deviate from the Department of Defense policy provided he notifies the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.

Maj. Rotunda disagrees:

Despite the Air Forces’ assertion that the dismissals have been kosher, Rotunda noted that based on the Defense Department’s Instruction 1320.08, “derogatory information” is the only reason officers should be terminated, and that budget shortfalls are not one of the instances.

“The Air Force cites budgetary short falls as the reason to terminate them. But that rationale is nowhere mentioned in the regulation,” Rotunda told TheDC. “In this instant, the officers being separated are within six years of retirement and their records do not contain derogatory information. Thus, they should be allowed to remain in service and retire. The defense department’s own regulation does not authorize what the defense department is doing. The Airmen relied on the law when they entered service and now the Secretary wants to change that law, without authority.”

According to the Air Force Times, this kind of termination without disciplinary infractions or other derogatory information is almost unheard of even in peacetime, let alone when the country is involved in hostilities.

The DC Caller article cites the case of one of the officers in question,Major Kale Mosley, a combat pilot who is just six months shy of getting his 20 years in. He served in 13 combat zones and was recently deployed in Libya with only 30 hours notice, after which he was sent to Iraq.

Major Mosley received notice of his dismissal from the Air Force the same day he arrived in Iraq.

Had this happened to someone working for a private company, does anyone doubt that the Obama Administration's Department of Justice would be filing a lawsuit in record time?

( H/T American Thinker)

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Jane Fonda Shocked, Shocked That Many Of Her Fellow Americans Find Her Disgusting

Lefty actress and 'activist' Jane Fonda had a appearance scheduled on cable channel QVC to flog her latest book about aging and the life cycle and is absolutely distraught that the network cancelled her spot in response to a flood of calls, e-mails and posts on the channel's community bulletin board saying they would boycott QVC if Fonda appeared.

I can't imagine why. All she did was to aid and abet our enemy during wartime by making propaganda broadcasts and propaganda photos and to meet in Paris along with her pal John Kerry with North Vietnamese politicians to plot strategy with them to undermine the US war effort. That's all.

They used to refer to that as treason, but John Harington's famous quote comes to mind:

Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.

An interesting sidelight..many of QVC's customers are senior citizens who are Fonda's contemporaries and either served or have loved ones who served in Vietnam and remember Hanoi Jane only too well. And so do some of us on the younger side.

Kudos to QVC for reminding this confused, aging spoiled brat of a simple equation of life. Actions = consequences.

Instead of whining about not being able to shill for her latest product, she ought to thank her lucky stars that she got off free as a bird, relatively speaking.

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Veteran's Day...

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- Lt. Colonel John McCrae, Canadian Army Medical Corps(1872-1918)



The poem above is a product of World War One, the great scar of history that changed the world and differentiated between ages. As you can tell by the dates, the writer became one of the millions who died in the carnage.

As with most such times, many of the men and women involved were aware that they were involved in a defining moment in human history as much as those who came after them and looked backwards.

We are in the middle of such a defining moment, whether we realize it or not.


Remember today that freedom isn't free. And the price - sometimes the ultimate price-is paid by those willing to pick up the gun and defend it.



If you run into a vet today, take a moment to let them now how much you appreciate what they've given us.

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Obama Wants To Charge Wounded Warriors For Medical Treatment

This is absoutely beyond the pale.

Currently, our wounded warriors get care free of charge the Veteran's Administration. The Chosen One wants them to pay for it themselves and go through their own private health care:

"It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan," said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. "He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it."


The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, "This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ' to care for him who shall have borne the battle'given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm's way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America's veterans!"


Commander Rehbein was among a group of senior officials from veterans service organizations joining the President, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and Steven Kosiak, the overseer of defense spending at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The group's early afternoon conversation at The White House was precipitated by a letter of protest presented to the President earlier this month. The letter, co-signed by Commander Rehbein and the heads of ten colleague organizations, read, in part, "
There is simply no logical explanation for billing a veteran's personal insurance for care that the VA has a responsibility to provide. While we understand the fiscal difficulties this country faces right now, placing the burden of those fiscal problems on the men and women who have already sacrificed a great deal for this country is unconscionable." {....)

The proposed requirement for these companies to reimburse the VA would not only be unfair,says the Legion, but would have an adverse impact on service-connected disabled veterans and their families. The Legion argues that, depending on the severity of the medical conditions involved, maximum insurance coverage limits could be reached through treatment of the veteran's condition alone. That would leave the rest of the family without health care benefits. The Legion also points out that many health insurance companies require deductibles to be paid before any benefits are covered. Additionally, the Legion is concerned that private insurance premiums would be elevated to cover service-connected disabled veterans and their families, especially if the veterans are self-employed or employed in small businesses unable to negotiate more favorable across-the-board insurance policy pricing. The American Legion also believes that some employers, especially small businesses, would be reluctant to hire veterans with service-connected disabilities due to the negative impact their employment might have on obtaining and financing company health care benefits.

Unconscionable is a polite word for it. If the Administration realy had a desperate need to save half a billion dollars after all the money it's throwing around to its political allies, why do it on the backs of our wounded warriors? Why couldn't ACORN have been cut back a bit from the $4.5 billion they got from Obama's stimulus program?

The truth is, to somebody like President Obama, shoveling bucks at people like ACORN who are willing to commit voter fraud to help him get re-elected is probably a lot higher priority than keeping a promise to our military..most of whom didn't vote for him anyway.

Meanwhile President Barack Hussein Obama, his family, and his pals in Congress get the best medical care available, at no charge.

Perhaps the current occupant of the White is planning on putting that money towards that domestic security forcehe keeps talking about..as he downgrades our professional military.

The mask is coming off....and what's underneath is pretty disturbing.