Sunday, May 29, 2011

Memorial Day

On Monday we honor those that have fallen in their quest and success at securing freedom for the American people. Those that paid the ultimate price. From the Revolutionary War right up through today.
Throughout this country's history, each war the enemy was easily recognizable. During the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the enemy wore red coats. The civil war was between Blue and Gray.
During the past ten years we've been involved in a different war. The war on terror. The terrorists don't have a uniform. They also don't limit their attacks to military personnel. On September 11, 2011, a new sort of war was started. Instead of attacking the military, the terrorists attacked citizens.
The draft ended in the 70's, but the terrorists reinstituted the draft on September 11, 2011. They didn't have a lottery. The draftees weren't warned in advance that they could be drafted. Christine Lee Hanson was two years old and on her way to Disney World with her parents. She was drafted into this war.
Beth Ann Quigly, a trader at the World Trade Center. She was 25 years old. She was drafted into this war.
There were 2,966 deaths from the attack on September 11. Women, children, elderly. Of the 2,966, only 55 had any affiliation with the military. Those 55 were at the Pentagon.
Of those killed on that day, only those on the flight that went down in Pennsylvania chose to join in the fight against terrorism. But they chose it out of necessity because they were forced into the choice. They had heard about the other hijackings and decided to fight to take the plane back. They failed in bringing the plane to safety, but they succeeded in saving other lives by stopping the plane from reaching its' destination of either the White House or the Capitol.
Our fallen soldiers from wars in our lifetimes and wars previous to our lives will be honored on Monday. Even if it's just a cookout in the backyard or a day off work or school. Those that died at the beginning of this war, that didn't know they were about to sacrifice their lives and those that knew they were about to sacrifice their lives on the Pennsylvania flight are also warriors in this nations history.
You're welcome to comment.
Brett

Thursday, May 26, 2011

NY 26: A Referendum? Tea Party Needs to Step Up

A special election was held in New York's 26th district on Tuesday. This seat was held by Congressman Chris Lee, who resigned following the discovery of pictures of him shirtless on Craigs List, apparently seeking out women.
Lee won his election with 68% of the vote in 2010 and the seat has been held by Republicans for fifty years. Obviously a Conservative district. But, as so often happens when a politician gets caught with his pants down, or in this case, his shirt off phishing for women, the party pays a price with an exodus of voters that just can't bring themselves to vote for anyone from that party based on one persons indiscretions.
This district was expected to be fairly close but still a victory for the Republican, Jane Corwin. The Democrat, Kathy Hochul was expected lose, and a Democrat who had run for the seat in the past, Jack Davis, ran as a Tea Party Candidate.
The results? Hochul won with 48% to Corwin's 42% with Davis getting 9% of the vote. The media and the Democrats are claiming it's a referendum on the Ryan budget which they say is going to destroy medicare. The Republicans are claiming that Davis took away votes from Corwin costing her the election.
First, Ryan's budget does not decimate Medicare. Even if it did, it would be a choic between ending it sometime in the next two years or waiting an additional six years and having it die on the vine. Medicare is already operating in the red, meaning it's spending more than it's taking in. It is projected to be completely out of money in 8 years. What have the Democrats proposed? Nothing. Even Obamacare has removed a substantial portion from Medicare and Hochul campaigned claiming that Obamacare was wrong to remove that money.
So if this was a referendum on Ryan's budget, then the people were misled in the campaign. Imagine that. Politicians lying to voters to get elected. I'm shocked!
Second, Jane Corwin, the Republican did not run hard. After all, it's a Republican district. She apparently thought it was going to be a fairly easy victory. So why get into the details of what she's going to do? Well, now she should know. Conservative viewpoints don't lose elections. Failing to express those conservative viewpoints will lose elections. She lost.
Third, the supposed Tea Party Candidate. Jack Davis is a former candidate on the Democrat side for that same seat. He's lost three elections as a Democrat. He only garnered 9% of the vote as a Tea Party candidate. But he really isn't a Tea Pary candidate. He was there to dilute votes from the Republican side. Was he successful? Probably. But not entirely.
It's likely that he received some votes by some that weren't paying attention and just voted for the Tea Party candidate because they believe in the Tea Party positions. But I'd be surprised if his entire 9% was due to that.
Democrats will run as anything they can to win. Hochul may really believe that Obamacare was wrong to remove money from Medicare. We'll see how she ends up being over the next year before the next election.
Republicans need to get their conservative views out there and not hide from them, or hold them back. If they are going to run for a seat, they should be putting their views out there and answering questions. Corwin would not get a huge majority like Lee did in his election, but she still should have received enough votes to win, even with the Tea Party candidate.
The Tea Party needs to step up. They wanted to back one candidate for the Republicans but when their candidate wasn't chosen to run, they wouldn't back the Republican that was. That's fine if she wasn't conservative, however, the Tea Party runs the risk of making themselves irrelevent if they only back people that embrace the Tea Party rather than the one that comes closest to their positions on the issues. They also run the risk of looking incompetent if they don't stand up when they have a phony person running using their name.
The Tea Party in New Yorks 26th district failed. The Republican failed. The Democrats won but not likely because of their message.
This is a perfect example of "lead, follow or get out of the way". The Tea Party failed in New York. They played politics. They didn't lead. They got in the way of the Republican and are partially responsible for electing a liberal Democrat. They didn't stand up for their name by coming out against Jack Davis.
If the Tea Party groups around the country start playing politics like this group did in New York, we're going to be right back where we started from. Politicians getting elected from both parties that don't answer to the people, but instead look out for their own seats (you can take that as the seat they won, or the seat they carry behind them, or both) once they are in office.
You're welcome to comment.
Brett

Friday, May 6, 2011

3:00 AM phone call: Where's Obama?



Since the recent killing of Osama bin Laden, there have been many variances on what actually happened.

First he was armed and shooting back, then he wasn't.

A woman was used as a shield, then she wasn't.

The human shield (woman) was killed, then she's injured.

First it was a "woman", then it was his wife.



There are many more questions about conflicting reports, as well as admissions that this came about due to "enhanced interrogations" (waterboarding), which Obama and the rest of the liberals have always railed against. I can only believe that they must think that if Bush is giving the orders, it's waterboarding, but if it's Obama giving the orders, it's nothing more than dunking someone while playing in a swimming pool.



I've been sent another story that I've posted a link to below. This one raises the question about the 3:00 a.m. phone call that Hillary Clinton mentioned during the campaign in 2008. 'Who would you want answering the phone at 3:00 in the morning?'



After months of planning, positioning, reasoning, Obama apparently couldn't or wouldn't make up his mind (3:00 am phone call). The decision seems to have been made by Leon Panetta, director the CIA with the blessing of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, Daley, Petreus, and Gates (In Gates case, he was said to be very close to resigning because of the lack of decisiveness by the President.



When the mission was to begin, Obama was called in from the Golf Course. We have the worlds number one terrorist in our sights, and have had for months, and Obama is on the golf course? This reminds me of another time that we had Obama in our crosshairs and the quick call was made to President Clinton while he was watching a golf tournament on television to give the go ahead. He didn't want to be interrupted, so bin Laden got away.



This is the only place I've seen this story so far, although there have been questions about this picture being staged. But it is an interesting read into who is running things at the White House, if this story turns out be even half accurate. Read it and draw your own conclusions. I welcome your comments on the story.



Thank you Al, for sending this to me.



Brett