Can Obama Avoid the "Obama's Katrina" Title?

Since the explosion in the Gulf of Mexico on the oil rig which killed 11 of the workers, much has been said about the lack of activity by the White House in the region.

It took ten days for the administration to get down there for even a visit. Since then, Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano and Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar claim they have been there four times. Everyone speaking on this topic in the White House and the liberal media have claimed that the White House has been engaged since "day one". They haven't said it in a roundabout way, they have said exactly "day one".

It is looking as though the leak may be stopped today. However, yesterday, alot happened. James Carville, a Democrat activist and his wife, Mary Matalin rode with Governor Bobby Jindahl and returned extremely upset. They were saying that the government has not been doing it's job. Carville has actually been saying it for a couple of days. The part that caught my eye was that they all said, to a man, that while they were out in their boat looking at the damage from the oil in the marshlands was that they all said that they didn't see any boats. None. Where is the clean up? Where is the work being done to protect the shoreline?

Now granted, there is nothing that Obama, Napolitano nor Salazar can do to stop the leak. Their presence actually just interferes with the work that needs to be done. They also are not going to get their hands dirty by doing actual cleanup work. But there are things that could have been done.

First, there is the leak. It is right that BP continue to work to close the leak. They are the experts and have the know-how or at least the best ideas on how to close the leak. It's also right that BP work to clean up the oil that has already spewed out and spread across the gulf. If they don't get directly involved, they should be having someone on sight to see what's being done because they are going to have to pay for it.

Obama cannot be blamed for the leak. He didn't cause the explosion. However, he does have a role to play. In fact, he's required by law to play a role. It's his responsibility to act on this disaster that affects the citizens of this country. Yes, it does have an effect on the American people. There are the businesses that are affected by this. American businesses. Then there is oil itself. The oil from the gulf helps keep us from depending on foriegn oil in even larger quantities.

So what should have Obama done? First of all, from the minute that he first learned of the explosion, the first question is "was anyone hurt?" The second question is, "what is the damage?".

There are only two reasons to delay a response. First, if he found out late at night, he should wait until morning and see what's progressing with the coast guard. His first responsibility was to get information from the coast guard on the status of the situation. Upon learning that oil is spewing he should have appointed someone to go to the area for onsight management. That person should be giving updates periodically, at least once per day, although likely more the first couple of days. He should also have been in touch with the Governors of Texas, Lousiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida and asking them for their ideas on how to protect their shorelines. In other words, how can the Federal government assist the states?

Once it was known that the problem was going to be an ongoing problem for awhile, he needed to get the government assets at the ready. They did start getting the booms out there to protect the area, but as early as one week following the blast, Governor Jindahl asked for approval for different things needed. They have gone unanswered even to this day. Some are being studied. In other words, tied up in bureacracy.

Obama should then have gone to the gulf, seen for himself the devastation approaching and remember, they could see the oil coming. He could then have been the hero by looking at it, listening to the governors and then prioritizing the response. He could have stood up and said "I'm waiving the approval process. We need to get this done to protect our shores." Remember, he's the President. They are his shores as much as they are Jindahls and the people of Louisiana.

He could easily have stood up with his appointee and said "so and so is my eyes and ears and he's been directed to oversee the events taking place here and to keep me informed on a daily basis."

He could have gathered the top people in their field of oil drilling in deep water and had them all put their minds together to find a way to stop the leak or capture the oil or both. Even if he'd said he was appointing someone to sit in on all strategy session for stopping the leak, it would have at least kept him abreast of what was going on.

Would this process have plugged the leak faster? We'll never know. Could there have been other mistakes made and dragged it out longer than today? Maybe, but we'll never know. One thing we do know for certain is that he'd have displayed leadership and actually been involved even if not with his own two hands.

He should have also had someone appointed to oversee the cleanup of the oil that had already leaked out and was headed for the shorelines.

There is one more thing he could have done that would have shown real leadership. He should not have pointed the finger at BP. Stating the obvious is ridiculous and did nothing to solve the problem at hand. It's also premature. What don't they know? They don't know, even today, if this is all BP's fault. In fact, I'm willing to bet that it's not just based on the information that has been gathered thus far.

While Obama and every Democrat that's spoken on the subject has pointed fingers at BP, they have not come up with any ideas or done any work. It's as if they want this oil to reach the shores, damage the eco system to great extent and then use that to vilify BP Oil.

The only thing he's accomplished is to have it brought out earlier that he was the biggest recipient of donations from the oil companies including BP. This is just like Goldman Sachs. Once it was decided to blame them and prosecute them, it was revealed that he was the biggest recipient of donations from Goldman Sachs.

Now we know that there was shoddy work done on the oil rig by BP, but we also know that some of it was gotten away with because the government oversight didn't do the proper inspections. Apparently, they have been spending too much time surfing porn on the internet and not doing their job with their government inspections that may have prevented this disaster.

Obama should call for an immediate investigation into BP Oil, the government oversight agencies that gave the permits without the inspections, and the companies that are involved with BP Oil on this. Yes, that include Haliburton and transocean.

The only government person that has stood up and offered solutions or possible solutions is Bobby Jindahl. He did the job correctly and was only stopped by the Federal Government in his ideas.

Obama had at his disposal the wherewithall to work on this. He's a "community organizer". Why didn't he apply his "organizational" skills to set up a way to manage this?

Even if it didn't work, he'd have at least been hands on with an idea and an attempt. People can respect someone who does something, even if there are mistakes made. But they don't tolerate sitting on your hands and doing nothing other than pointing your finger at others.

Obama has failed. Anything he does now, is too little too late. This is not Obama's Katrina. This is much worse than Katrina was. Sure, the loss of life is way less than the hurricane, but the damage done to the shores that could have been lessened, if not stopped, is worse than anything that Katrina was. Obama was elected to be a leader. Not to be the little boy who said "it wasn't me, it was them."

BP Oil needs to be held accountable for their part in this disaster. But then so do the inspectors that didn't do their job. So does anyone else that didn't do their job in this matter. We're looking at years of lawsuits and legal actions between BP, Haliburton, Transocean, the states affected and the federal government. Not to mention the environmentalists that will get involved and of course, the families of the 11 dead workers on the rig.

Obama is starting to remind me of Midas. Everything he touches turns to disaster. The environment, the borders, the terrorist attacks, the treatment of the Prime Minister of Israel, the economy, health care. How can this man talk about Cap and Trade with a straight face?

Just a little bit of leadership would have been good. At every turn, Obama proves that he is incapable of leading. But he's great at pointing fingers. He's even pointing his finger at Bush, blaming him for this. Senator Christopher Dodd blamed Bush on Don Imus' program.

Remember the old poster of Uncle Sam pointing his finger saying "I want you"? Now it's Obama pointing the finger saying "I blame you".

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

Census Creates New Inflation

More whistleblowers are popping up about the hiring practices of the Census Bureau. It's been reported that the Census Bureau is hiring workers. They are paying them $18.75 per hour to count people. Before doing any counting, they spend a week in training.

Now, some workers hired and trained are saying that they have been fired, then rehired. This counts as another hire, but they don't count the firing as a job lost.

One of the whistleblowers said she's been fired four times and rehired. Another says he checks on the information that census workers turn in and his checking of the worker is checked again by another.

In another turn of events, whistleblowers are saying that number of people living in a house are being inflated. With the advertising going on telling people to fill in their census forms and to speak to census workers so that their community can get more money, it's not a surprise that some would inflate the number of people they have living in their house.

The census is a constitutional requirement with the purpose of apportioning representation in government. It is now being used as a way to make job creation look better under this administration.

Remember that Senator Judd Gregg was originally chosen to be the Commerce Secretary, after others who were chosen that owed back taxes or had other scandals brewing. But Senator Gregg decided not to accept the position after all, because the Census was being put under the control of the White House and taken away from the Commerce Department.

If this is being done by the Census Bureau, why shouldn't we think it's being done by other departments of this administration? If the Census Bureau says that they were hiring 1.2 million workers as they said in January, one has to wonder; does that figure include the firing and rehiring of the same people or will they say 'we hired 1.5 million workers, more than we anticipated.' ?

One thing is becoming more and more apparent. Obama claimed to want to change the way Washington works when he was elected. I'm not sure that he's changed the way it works, but he's certainly being more inventive in how he's corrupting the government.

Soon, they'll likely correct the problem, then get more inventive. They'll hire someone, fire them at the end of the day and rehire them the next day and waive the training requirement for past employees. They can really get the employment numbers way up that way. The Revolving Door policy?

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

Obama: Incompetence and Corruption

Not even two years into this Administration and already there is evidence of Incompetence and Corruption with the Obama camp and yet the liberal media ignores it.

Remember hurricane Katrina? Of course you do. Anytime liberals start talking about Bush, they bring up Katrina. Bush declared the gulf coast area, including Louisiana, a disaster area three days before the hurricane made landfall. Yet the Governor, Blanco at the time, didn't follow suit until 12 hours prior to the hurricane hitting and nobody could even find Mayor Nagin. Following the hurricane it took five days to get water to the Superdome.

The press was all over this, showing pictures and complaining about Bush flying 2500 feet above New Orleans, but not on the ground for a couple of days.

Now we have an oil leak. We are in the 35th day since the explosion. It took ten days for someone from the administration to get down to the area. Yet, they claim they've been there since "day one". You can always tell the talking points when everyone from the administration and everyone in the liberal media uses the same line. In this case, the same line is "Day One".

Yesterday, the administration had a photo op. Secretary Napolitano and Secretary Salazer were there. They made their speeches after listening to some of the residents in the area speak about how this has affected them. First Napolitano spoke. Her assurances were that BP is at fault and will be held accountable. She also called the gulf an ocean, but this is not big news since she's already proven herself incompetent in the Arizona matter. She also pointed out that this was her fourth trip.

Next up was Governor Bobby Jindahl. He made one reference to BP oil being responsible. But then he listed off his requests for various items to help with the possibility of a clean up. He provided dates of his memos. In one particular case, he's been asking for booms. Millions of feet of booms. He's not received what he asked for. He also asked for a permit to build a barrier island to stop the oil from hitting the marshlands. The administration is "studying" this. Yesterday, Jindahl said that he didn't care if they put him in jail, he's ready to go ahead and start this without the permit.

Secretary Salazar spoke next and he talked about how this was BP's fault, but offered no solutions other than to say how many times he and Napolitano have been to the gulf. Salazar said they were holding BP to the cleanup and even mentioned putting their boot on BP's necks and then saying that if BP didn't do the job, they'd push them out of the way. Then what? Is Salazar going to stop the leak?

Senator Dick Durbin spoke and he repeated the bashing of BP oil and how they'd be held accountable, but again, no solutions to the current problem.

The only one with a plan, with an idea to try to stop the oil from spreading or moving into the marshlands was Bobby Jindahl. The Democrat speakers all pounded their chests and said that they'd hold BP accountable.

Why should we believe that? There is about to be a new law in Arizona take effect. John Morton, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for U.S. Customs Immigration and Customs enforcement, says the Federal Government may not prosecute referrals from Arizona under their new law. However, if Bobby Jindahl takes it upon himself to start building the barrier island without the permit that the administration is dragging its feet on, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they arrest and prosecute Jindahl.

The Obama Administration is concerned about affixing blame in the oil leak catastrophe, but they offer no solutions. Their concern is with how Obama looks in this crisis. The only one that is offering solutions is Bobby Jindahl. We can now add Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar to the list of incompetents in this administration. Janet Napolitano, who didn't read the Arizona bill, but says it's not good, and who thinks that a question about the strength of the borders is an unfair question, and who thinks the gulf is an ocean is the first incompetent. Then there's Attorney General, Eric Holder who also didn't read the bill in Arizona, but is considering legal action to stop the bill. With three cabinet members being incompetent, and they were all appointed by Obama, that reflects on Obama's incompetence. Speaking of incompetence, do I really have to talk about Vice President Joe Biden?

I also mentioned corruption. I have two examples here. First, is Joe Sestak. Sestak just beat Senator Arlen Specter in Pennyslvania, the one that Obama backed. During the primary campaign, Sestak stated that he was offered a job in the White House if he would drop out of the Senate race, making Specter the lone candidate on the Democrat ticket. There's just one problem with this. It's illegal!

For Sestak to be offered a job in the White House, the offer would have had to come from Rahm Emmanuel, the Presidents Chief of Staff, and with the permission of the President. This is an impeachable offense!

This sounds an awful lot like the selling of the Senate seat in Illinois vacated by Obama following his election. It causes me to re-think about whether or not Obama was involved after all, in the sale of the seat he once held and not that it was just Rod Blagojevich the former Governor who was impeached for selling that seat.

In recent days, since Sestak's victory in the primary, he's been asked about the offer he received from the White House. He's playing word games. He's claiming that he's got integrity for bringing it up, but he has not said to whom he spoke. He's been pressed on Meet the Press (surprise!) and he was pressed by John King on CNN on his new program (again a shocker). But his answer is that he said everything with integrity. However, he will not name the person that offered him the job. So much for integrity. He's now trying to protect the White House.

Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs (another of the incompetents in this White House) was asked. After a few times of dancing around the question, he now says that the lawyers have looked at it and decided that they were satisfied that things were done properly.

If everything was done properly and nothing illegal happened, then why aren't they saying who said what and with who's knowledge? Where's the transparency? Where's the honesty?

Finally, there is the attorney general of Connecticut. Richard Blumenthal has claimed in many speeches over the years that he was in Vietnam. He experienced the people spitting on them as they returned. The problem is that he never served in Vietnam. He was in the marine reserves, but never left the United States. To his credit, he did serve and apparently where he was needed and I have to admit that where he served, not one Vietnameze penetrated the toys for tots program that Blumenthal worked. But he did not serve in Vietnam as he has claimed.

Since this revelation, he has gone from being a shoo-in to fall below 50% in the polls and the Connecticut Senate seat may now go to a Republican making 13 real possibilities for victory for the Republicans in the Senate.

Where are the Democrats? They have not backed away from Blumenthal. On the other hand, what could they do? If they bring back Christopher Dodd, who is retiring probably due to his own corruption problems with his sweetheart deal on some real estate as well as his activity with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they will likely lose. With this scandal involving Blumenthal, it appears that they will likely lose.

The hard part with both Sestak and Blumenthal is deciding whether or they fall into the category of corruption or incompetence. I tend to lean towards them being both corrupt and incompetent.

But, Republicans shouldn't get too excited. Representative Mark Souder from Indiana resigned last week because he had an affair with one of his female staffers. In South Carolina, a blogger is claiming that he had an affair with a candidate for Governor. There is no proof yet and she is denying it vehemently. But it underscores the need for transparency and honesty that needs to be displayed by the Republicans as well this campaign season.

I do give Souder credit for bringing it out first and resigning immediately. Maybe he just found out that he was about to be caught and beat the story coming out by resigning, but it appears at least, that he did this out of guilty conscious.

There are too many games being played by politicians. Word games as well as clandestine games and as we can see, this is not the time to be doing this. The Tea Party is the American people that are fired up against wasteful spending and corrupt politicians. There seems to be alot of politicians that are out there that are going to lose their jobs not just because of poor performance (incompetence), but because of wrong doing (corruption).

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

Obama Loses, Country Wins

Another election day, another repudiation of President Obama's excessive spending and attempts eliminate the American way of life.

In Arkansas, Senator Blanche Lincoln did not reach the 50% level so she must face a runoff later this year for the Democrat nomination for the seat she currently holds.

In Kentucky, Rand Paul handily defeated his opponent who was backed by the Republican establishment. Trey Greyson was backed by Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. But the people, the ones who do the deciding, chose Paul as their next Senator. Yes, it was just a primary, but Paul is the likely victor in November.

Pennsylvania is one of the more exciting primaries that took place. Senator Arlen Specter, who changed parties because he didn't think he could win against a Republican challenger, lost to Representative Joe Sestak in the Democrat party primary. You'll have to forgive me for my elation over this one.

Arlen Specter was never more than a moderate in the Republican Party and really I've always considered him a liberal in the Republican Party. He has always spent alot of time talking about himself. During the Waco hearings back in the 90's, how many times did we hear him talk about being a former prosecutor? How many times did he talk about being a former prosecutor during the various Supreme Court nominee hearings over the years and how many times did he repeat that on various news programs over the years?

When he left the Republican party, he said that he didn't want to put his 29 year record up for review to the Republican voters. Of course he didn't. He was always Democrat lite.

If he couldn't beat a Republican in the primary, how could he expect to beat a Republican in the general election? He'll be facing the same guy. Well, no he won't. He couldn't win the Democrat primary either. In addition to losing, he was backed by President Obama. Obama did a commercial spot for him saying that he "loves" Arlen Specter. That turned out to be the kiss of death politically for Specter. This makes Obama, o-4 since he was elected. He backed Corzine in New Jersey. He backed Deeds in Virginia and he backed Coakley in Massachussets. Christie is now Governor of New Jersey, McDonnell in Virginia and Brown in Massachussets.

The final election was not a primary in Pennsylvania. Instead it was a special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of John Murtha. Marc Critz, a former Aide to Murtha was running against the Republican, Tim Burns. The district is 2-1 Democrat voters over Republican voters. This should not even be a contest. But leading up to the election, many thought that Burns might beat out the Democrat.

Critz ran saying he wouldn't have voted for the health care bill and that he wouldn't have voted for Cap and Trade. In other words, he ran against Pelosi. I have to wonder, did he advise Murtha to vote against these bills? The only thing that Critz proved is that to win, you must run as a conservative. He ran away from Washington and he barely won. Yes, I said "barely". Remember, that district is 2-1 Democrat. He got just 53% of the vote.

There is one disappointing aspect to the primaries. The voter turnout was just 20%. Yes, it's a mid term election and they generally don't get a high turnout. But, with the Tea Parties that have been going on all over the country, I thought the turnout might be a better number. Also, the weather in Pennyslvania was really bad. It was rainy and cold all day.

Recently, it's been reported that there are over 100 seats in play for this years election in the House of Representatives. It's expected to go overwhelmingly Republican in the fall. To be assured of this, we're going to need a larger turnout than what's been displayed thus far. Remember, November is usually cold and gray.

Those that are showing up are showing their displeasure with Obama and Pelosi and Reed. They are showing that the ones that are "extreme" are actually on the left from Obama down to the lowliest Democrat.

The losses mounting up for Democrats is fun to watch even with the low turnout. People are rejecting Obama all over the country. There are still more primaries to go before the election in November. This could be a very fun summer. As primary after primary shows, the County is winning and Obama is failing.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

Recommended Reading for Liberal Democrats

During 2009 there were three pieces of legislation that passed the Democrat controlled House, Senate and White House. First there was the stimulus bill in February of last year. The bill was completed, printed out and distributed to members of Congress at 3:00 in the morning. At noon, they began the vote. Nobody read the bill. Well, one did claim to read it, but he's just laughed at. Unfortunately, he's my congressman.

Then later we had a Cap and Trade bill. Also known as Cap and Tax or Crap and Tax. Again, the bill wasn't read before the vote. Luckily, it only passed the House and hasn't yet passed the Senate.

Then there was the Health Care bill. Another 2,400 pages and again, nobody has read it. We're still learning what's in the bill even now, two months after the bill passed.

We also have the admission by Rep. John Conyers (D) that they don't read it when he said it was silly for people to expect Congress to read all of these bills before voting on them.

Then in April a ten page law was passed in Arizona. President Obama claimed that if you have brown skin and go with your child to get ice cream, you were in danger of being picked up for being illegal. Obviously, he didn't read those ten pages before commenting.

Attorney General Eric Holder said that he was looking into a lawsuit to stop the bill. Homeland Security Secretary said that asking her questions about the safety of the border in Arizona was an unfair question to Senator Lindsey Graham, in a hearing.

Yesterday, in a hearing, Holder was asked about the law. He admitted that he hadn't read the bill. Today, in another hearing Napolitano admitted she hadn't read the bill.

The highest law enforcement officer in the country threatens a lawsuit and hasn't even read the bill. The person charged with protecting the borders (Homeland Security) admits a day later that she hasn't read the law. The bill is TEN PAGES!!! I read it. It took me about fifteen minutes to read the bill and I read it while answering my phone for work.

Following all of the bills for spending money during the past 16 months since Obama was inaugurated I was beginning to think that we should require that our candidates for office learn how to balance a checkbook before being allowed to take office. Now, I'm convinced that we should require that our elected leaders at least pass the third grade so that we have a pretty good idea that they know how to read.

We have a President that knows how to read. He reads very well, with good timing, good inflection, and can probably make a simple reading of "Go Dog Go" sound exciting although, he does run into problems with big words like Corpsmen. He prounces it "corpse men".

On the other hand, his employees seem to be unable to read even the title of "Go Dog Go".

Napolitano has yet another problem. Hers seems to be that of common sense. It was all over the news, and probably talked about at the White House, that Holder said he hadn't read the Arizona, ten page bill. Napolitano had to know that she'd be asked about Arizona law. To make matters worse, prior to becoming Homeland Security Secretary, she was the Governor of Arizona. Anyone with any common sense would have to figure, even guess, that someone was going to ask her about the bill in her hearing coming up the next day. Any reasonable person would have obtained a copy of the bill and at the very least read it before falling asleep the night before the hearing.

I don't think that Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano should resign. They shouldn't be given that opportunity. They should be fired. Not just now, but IMMEDIATELY!.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft was laughed at in the press for holding Bible meetings prior to starting the day at the Justice Department during the first months of the Bush Administration in 2001. Whether you think that's funny or not it does prove one thing to me. At least he knew how to read!

It might behoove Obama to have everyone in his cabinet show up for work fifteen minutes early for a brief class on reading. Is "See Spot Run" still in publication? I'd recommend Aesops Fables, but I'm afraid that Obama would struggle with the pronunciation of Aespops (for any liberal Democrats reading this it's pronounced EESOP).

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

The Mouths of Babes

What is going on with education in this country? In California, on Cinco De Mayo day, five students wear shirts or headbands with the American Flag on it and are told to remove them or turn them inside out by the Vice Principal. When they refuse, they are sent to the Principals office. They are again told to remove or turn them inside out or face suspension. The claim was that it would be incendiary to wear these on Cinco De Mayo.

Also in California, a young girl was drawing an American Flag with the words "God Bless America" in the center of it. The Art teacher told her that it was an offensive drawing and was told to stop. Meanwhile, another student is drawing a picture of Barack Obama and this child is praised.

The young girls father showed up at the Principal's office for a meeting with the Art teacher. He asked what she found offensive about the American flag? He didn't get an answer. The teacher sat silent. The principal then ordered the teacher to apologize to the young girl.

In Ann Arbor Michigan, a group of students were taken to hear a Rocket Scientist speak. The problem isn't that the students were all black, the rocket scientist was black and the teacher was black. The problem is that the field trip was open only to black students. Whites were excluded.

Personal anecdotes are not my usual style of making a point, but this seems to fit. My high school years were from 1970-1974. This was at the end of the hippie era, in the midst of the short-lived(thank God) Disco, and prior to the yuppies. The war in Vietnam was coming to an end.

Dress codes were relaxed in those days. We had one student in particular that was pretty much a loner. I couldn't even tell you his name. But I can tell you what we called him. We called him "Reb". The way he got that name was because he had a blue jean jacket with the Confederate flag on the back of it. This was before everyone was calling it being racist.

Shortly after people getting used to him wearing that and him getting the nickname Reb (for Rebel or Johnny Reb), he began wearing the American flag. First on the front of his pant leg on his bellbottom jeans. Then on his back pocket. Wearing the flag on his clothes was bad enough to the teachers and administration, but when he sewed it on his back pocket, the teachers and administrators became upset. They claimed he was desecrating the American flag by sitting on it.

Notice, I said he was considered desecrating the flag. They didn't see it as patriotic, they saw it as desecration. The school system was actually trying to protect the flag.

In forty years time, we've moved from having the flag on clothing desecrating it, to having the wearing or drawing the American flag as being offensive or incendiary.

So what's happened? Well, in California, the school board held a meeting last night so that parents could voice their opinions on the issue. They had to move the meeting to a larger hall because so many people showed up. The school board shortened the time down from people being allowed to speak for three minutes, to two minutes per person. The Superintendent of the school system asked why people weren't at the meeting last month. The people voiced their opinions and a lawsuit is being considered.

In the situation with the art teacher, despite having been ordered to apologize to the young girl, she has refused.

In Ann Arbor, when the field trip students returned from their field trip, the students left behind at school booed the group returning. The group has since been disbanded and a lawsuit is being considered.

You can find on youtube another famous incident in the 1970's. On April 26, 1976 two muslims went on the field at Dodger Stadium and tried to light the American flag on fire. Rick Monday, the centerfielder for the Chicago Cubs ran up and snatched the flag from them saving it from from being burned.

It's a little ironic that it was two muslims trying to light the flag and that it happened in California.

By the way, Cinco de Mayo isn't a holiday. Not even in Mexico. It's a day that's remembered for the victory over the French in a battle over a small village. But it's not a Mexican holiday and it's not an American holiday.

Perhaps if schools concentrated on teaching rather than social issues and worrying about other people's "feelings" our school system in this country wouldn't be in such a shambles. Perhaps it should be required for teachers and school administrators to recite the pledge of allegiance before each school day. Our children seem to have it down pat. These children might also teach these school systems about racism. What it is and what it isn't. These teachers and school administrators could learn from our children. The children are making us proud while the education system is more and more of an embarrassment.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

The Passing of a Legend

On September 16, 2009 I wrote on this about Ernie Harwell. He was the voice of Tigers Baseball for as long as I can remember. Actually, I should say that he IS the voice of Tigers baseball, even though he's been retired since 2002.

Today, Ernie Harwell died. He was diagnosed with cancer September 3, 2009. He was 91 at the time. He, along with his family, decided against surgery. Ernie turned 92 in January. Today, surrounded by his family, he passed on.

I've put a link to what I wrote in September. If you want to get a taste of what Ernie was like, don't bother with what I wrote but rather, read the end of it where I copied what he wrote and used to say at the start of the baseball season.

Anti Government Rallies

Over the past year, we've heard the liberals say that the tea parties are anti government. They've compared the tea parties to Timothy McVeigh. They've claimed the tea partiers are racists and anti Obama.

The Tea Parties have been protesting the takeover of the health care system by the government, the excessive spending, the debt and deficit that's been doubled and quadrupled in the year and a half since Obama became President. They've protested the bailout, the not so stimulating stimulus and they've protested that our elected officials are not paying attention to their constituents.

Finally, they've claimed that the threats and vandalism that's taken place is being done by the members of the tea party protests. There have been some incidents of vandalism, but they ignore the fact that Republicans have been targeted as well as Democrats. They ignore that it's happening on both sides. The most glaring example is Representative Bart Stupak (D) of Michigan who says he was receiving threats both at home and at his office when he was holding up passage of the government takeover of health care and then gave one example of a distasteful phone call following his decision to support the government takeover of health care.

These Tea Parties and protestors have been labeled as anti government. Even President Obama, in his commencement speech at the University of Michigan on Saturday, talked about the anti government comments.

Last week, the Arizona legislature passed a law that is nearly identical to the Federal law regarding illegal immigrants (that I call Invaders). The difference is that Arizona laws requires law enforcement officers to ask about citizenship status when they come in contact with someone during the performance of their duties.

On May 1, rallies took place in several cities protesting the new Arizona law. Arizona is one state out of 50. In that one state, they have 460,000 illegal invaders living in Arizona, and more coming across the border each day. The federal government is not doing it's job enforcing their laws. The one responsibility that everyone can agree on is that the federal government is supposed to protect our borders. They are failing miserably at it. We have an estimated 12 million illegal invaders in this country that are driving on our roads, being educated by our schools, being cared for in our hospitals, all on our dime.

Crime has increased significantly in recent months as Mexico's drug war has spilled over into our country. Kidnappings, assaults, robberies all on the increase. Robert Krentz, an Arizona rancher was murdered a few weeks ago along with his dog. This was the final straw. If the federal government is not going to do it's job, then Arizona decided they'd pass their own law for their own state and handle the job themselves. They wrote a law nearly identical to the federal law and passed it. This law is supported by 70% of Arizonans.

What the rest of the country thinks about this is of no significance, but even 51% of the rest of the country supports Arizona's new law.

This brought out the protestors yesterday. They were holding signs of Arizona's Governor, Jan Brewer, depicting her as a Nazi. They were carrying signs depicting Sheriff Joe Arpaio as a hooded Ku Klux Klan member. They were screaming that Arizonan's are racist. In Washington DC, Representative Luis Gutierrez (D) Illinois was arrested for his protesting. He was with a group that was legally protesting in Lafayette Park, but then he crossed over in front of the White House and sat down, joining the group daring to be arrested. The dare was taken up and Gutierrez was arrested with the others (pictured above).

So let's narrow it down. These protestors in DC, Los Angeles, Dallas, New York and Chicago are protesting the law in Arizona recently passed by elected representatives of the people of Arizona. This makes these protestors anti government protestors. It's interesting that one of these anti government protestors is a lawmaker. An elected official. It seems to me that not only does this make these protestors anti government, but apparently, we have an anti government infiltrator within the government in the form of Representative Gutierrez.

President Obama made comments against the new law in Arizona. That would make him anti-government. So how can he stand up and say that it bothers him with the anti government talk and that the government is us, but then whine about the Arizona law?

Where are the liberals that complained about racist signs and ethnic references and references to naziism now that they are using the racist signs and nazi signs and KKK signs? Why are they not complaining that these people protesting the law preventing people from coming to this country illegally, are carrying Mexican flags? If they want to come here, why are they carrying the Mexican flag? Shouldn't they be carrying the American flag? After all, it's America that they want to come and live.

Finally, the really odd part of this is that the Tea Parties were made up of American citizens. The majority of people were against the so-called stimulus. the majority are against the government takeover of health care. They were protesting the government going against the will of the people. These protestors are protesting something that was favored by the people of Arizona and favored by the majority of Americans around the country.

There is a solution that liberals will not accept. In the early 1950's President Eisenhower faced a similar problem to todays illegal alien problem. Mexicans were pouring across the border at the rate of a million per year. Just like today. They were showing up and being hired by farmers because they would work for lower wages. Just like today (although it's not just farmers today). Democrats didn't want the borders closed. Just like today.

Eisenhower appointed an old friend from West Point as INS Commissioner named General Joseph "Jumpin' Joe" Swing. The first thing that Swing did was transfer immigration officials that were with Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, who did not want the borders secured, to other parts of the country where they would have no effect.

On June 17, 1954, Operation Wetback (named for the Mexicans that came here across the Rio Grande) began. 750 border agents moved northward through California and Arizona through agricultural areas. Their goal was to round up 1,000 illegals per day. By the end of July (just a month and a half), 50,000 illegals had been rounded up. 488,000 left on their own fearing arrest. By mid July, they had expanded north into Utah, Nevada and Idaho and to Texas to the east. By September 80,000 had been taken into custody and an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 left Texas on their own.

Those captured weren't just taken to the border and dropped off. That would be too easy for them to just turn around and come back. Instead, Swing put them on buses and trains and sent them 500 miles into Mexico before releasing them making it much more difficult for them to return.

This had a couple of results. First, the illegals were sent a long way into their country. It would be extremely costly for them to get back.

The shortage of illegals created more jobs for Americans, which also meant that the farmers and business owners that were hiring illegals in the past, now had to pay a fair wage or not get their work done.

Since there is a need for foreign workers from Mexico, one other thing was implemented. A guest worker program. The Eisenhower administration created the guest worker program where 400,000 Mexicans could LEGALLY come to this country and work for the American companies that needed their work done. Those jobs lasted 12-52 weeks.

For those employers that still hire illegal workers, charge them and fine them with stiff fines and even jail time. That discouraged and will discourage employers today from hiring illegals.

Saying that we can't stop illegal immigration or invasion is flat out wrong. President Eisenhower proved it could be done and he did it with less border patrol agents than we have today. Just in Texas, they arrested 80,000 and another half million left on their own and that was just in three months time. We have approximately 12 million illegal aliens here today.

It would take less than a year to end this illegal invasion, make us more safe, and create legal workers that are legal immigrants. The added benefit is that anti government protestors, like Representative Gutierrez could do more productive things with their time. Like perhaps not breaking the laws that he promised when he took the oath of his office.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett