Prayer for our country
God of our fathers, who gives salvation to nations and strength to governments, bless and safeguard our country, the USA and the people who dwell therein.
May brotherly love ever be found among all the citizens of our land.  Implant in the hearts of all the people a steadfast purpose to work as one for the safeguarding of freedom, justice, and peace.
Supreme king of kings, protect and help our President.  Shield him against all sickness and Injury.  Grant to him and to all the constituted officers of our Government such wisdom and understanding that they may lead our nation in Justice and righteousness.  In their days and ours may Judah be saved and Israel dwell in safety.
We beseech You, O God, to Shield and protect our Armed forces, in the Air, on Sea and on LAND.  Bless the with Victory.  May it be your will that the dominion of Tyranny and Cruelty speedily be brought o an end and the kingdom of the righteousness be established on earth with liberty and freedom for All Mankind.  Amen

On Friday (19 March 2010) I flew home to visit my sick dad. On the plane there was an elderly couple in the seat in front of me. They had a banner rolled up they stored in the overhead bin. She was reading the bible on the flight. As we departed and got our stuff out of the bins I asked her if she was going to the protest on Saturday. They were and I thanked them for doing that for us. A patriotic elderly couple that never protested anything before they started attending Tea party protests giving up a weekend to exercise Patriotic Values and they are disparaged by those on the left.  I REALLY wanted to go myself but the family obligation prevented me.


Everywhere I went all weekend I saw people upset about the health care bill. Even the liberal members of my family were against it. There are Health Care items that need to be addressed but this bill does little to rectify them and does much that will wreck the economy, our country and our medical care for a long time.


On Sunday, I was delayed flying out of Phila Pa back to Atlanta. I listened to the debates and votes while I was stuck on the plane. They actually voted on it while I was in the air. I was sick to my stomach. How could they totally ignore the will of the people? The plane landed two and a half hours late, my sister who was flying with me was very upset because we both missed our connecting flights. I told her to calm down, we would recover from being stuck over night but THE NATION WILL NEVER RECOVER from the health care vote. So many others on the flight agreed with me.


Representative Boehner gave a great speech against the bill moments before it was signed. I post the transcript below.
Shame on those who pledged to vote against it and then were bought off by cheap politics such as new airports.  ( Rep Stupack)
The President said this is the will of the people.  But to which people is he referring?  It is not the will of the people of the US!!  The signing ceremony is going on right now as I Write and post this.  I hope I don't puke, I feel so ill. 


Rep Boehners remarks


HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER JOHN BOEHNER: Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, I rise tonight with a sad and heavy heart.

Today, we should be standing together, reflecting on a year of bipartisanship, and working to answer our country's call and their challenge to address the rising costs of health insurance in our country.

Today, this body, this institution, enshrined in the first article of the Constitution by our Founding Fathers as a sign of the importance they placed on this House, should be looking with pride on this legislation and our work.

But it is not so.

No, today we're standing here looking at a health care bill that no one in this body believes is satisfactory.

Today we stand here amidst the wreckage of what was once the respect and honor that this House was held in by our fellow citizens.

And we all know why it is so.

We have failed to listen to America.

And we have failed to reflect the will of our constituents.
And when we fail to reflect that will -- we fail ourselves and we fail our country.

Look at this bill.

Ask yourself: do you really believe that if you like the health plan that you have, that you can keep it?

No, you can't.

In this economy, with this unemployment, with our desperate need for jobs and economic growth, is this really the time to raise taxes, to create bureaucracies, and burden every job creator in our land?

The answer is no.

Can you go home and tell your senior citizens that these cuts in Medicare will not limit their access to doctors or further weaken the program instead of strengthening it?

No, you cannot.

Can you go home and tell your constituents with confidence that this bill respects the sanctity of all human life, and that it won't allow for taxpayer funding of abortion for the first time in 30 years?

No, you cannot.

And look at how this bill was written.

Can you say it was done openly, with transparency and accountability? Without backroom deals, and struck behind closed doors, hidden from the people?

Hell no, you can't!

Have you read the bill? Have you read the reconciliation bill? Have you read the manager's amendment?

Hell no, you haven't!

Mr. Speaker, in a few minutes, we will cast some of the most consequential votes that any of us will ever cast in this chamber.

The decision we make will affect every man, woman and child in this nation for generations to come.

If we're going to vote to defy the will of the American people, then we ought to have the courage to stand before them and announce our votes, one at a time.

I sent a letter to the Speaker this week asking that the 'call of the roll' be ordered for this vote.

Madame Speaker, I ask you. Will you, in the interest of this institution, grant my request?

Will you, Mr. Speaker, grant my request that we have a call of the roll?

Mr. Speaker, will you grant my request that we have a call of the roll?

My colleagues, this is the People's House.

When we came here, we each swore an oath to uphold and abide by the Constitution as representatives of the people.

But the process here is broken.

The institution is broken.

And as a result, this bill is not what the American people need, nor what our constituents want.

Americans are out there are making sacrifices and struggling to build a better future for their kids.

And over the last year as the damn-the-torpedoes outline of this legislation became more clear, millions lifted their voices, and many for the first time, asking us to slow down, not try to cram through more than the system could handle.

Not to spend money that we didn't have.

In this time of recession, they wanted us to focus on jobs, not more spending, not more government, certainly not more taxes.

But what they see today frightens them.

They're frightened because they don't know what comes next.

They're disgusted, because they see one political party closing out the other from what should be a national solution.

And they are angry. They are angry that no matter how they engage in this debate, this body moves forward against their will.

Shame on us.

Shame on this body.

Shame on each and every one of you who substitutes your will and your desires above those of your fellow countrymen.

Around this chamber, looking upon us are the lawgivers -- from Moses, to Gaius, to Blackstone, to Thomas Jefferson.

By our actions today, we disgrace their values.

We break the ties of history in this chamber.

We break our trust with Americans.

When I handed the Speaker the gavel in 2007, I said: "this is the people's House -- and the moment a majority forgets this, it starts writing itself a ticket to minority status."

If we pass this bill, there will be no turning back. It will be the last straw for the American people.

And In a democracy, you can only ignore the will of the people for so long and get away with it.

And if we defy the will of our fellow citizens and pass this bill, we are going to be held to account by those who have placed us in their trust.

We will have shattered those bonds of trust.

I beg you. I beg each and every one of you on both sides of the aisle:

Do not further strike at the heart of this country and this institution with arrogance, for surely you will not strike with impunity.

I ask each of you to vow never to let this happen again – this process, this defiance of our citizens.

It is not too late to begin to restore the bonds of trust with our Nation and return comity to this institution.

And so, Join me.

Join me in voting against this bill, so that we may come together anew, and address this challenge of health care in a manner that brings credit to this body, and brings credit to the ideals of this nation, and most importantly, it reflects the will our people.

OK here is the low down on why President Obama is the LEGAL president. He may be the worst President in US HISTORY but he is legal.

He was born in HI. He has a Certificate of Live Birth (CoLB) that HI issues if you send them a request for a copy of your birth certificate. It is valid for getting passports, proving ID and Proving US birth etc. The CoLB was checked by independent groups like factcheck and is posted on line. http://hawaii.gov/health/vital-records/vital-records/vital_records.html has the HI request form and instructions for obtaining a certified copy of the HI birth records. 

Some people called it a fake so the person in charge of the records of HI, made the statement that she issued it and had the original in the HI vault. Some people said "well she issued it but there was a loophole in her statement that she might have issued it but the original might have said he was born elsewhere". So she made a second statement that the original on file was valid and the original said he was BORN there, she cannot legally show the original, it is against HI state laws. Both her statements were made in the HI newspaper which verified who she was and where she worked. The HI Governor, who is a Republican, then said they saw the original it, was valid, and said OBAMA was born in HI. THE GOVERNOR then sealed the record so others could not tamper with it. Further there was a birth announcement in the 1961 HI Newspaper saying he was born there.  On the official HI government website it declares that Obama was born there and has the statements of the HI officials.  http://hawaii.gov/health/vital-records/obama.html

Now put all that together, and think how vast the conspiracy must be to cover that up and plant all that info. It just makes no sense that he was born in Kenya. It required a very pregnant lady in the US to fly to Africa to have a baby? Considering Kenyan Hospitals in the 50s and 60s vs US hospitals who would do that? Then Fly back immediately afterward and obtain him a US birth Certificate and have an announcement put in the paper, why? Why would anyone do all that back then, and how many people does it take to cover that up now? There are better odds of finding bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster and talking Yeti monsters then of him being born in Kenya.
Ok but his father was a foreigner and not a US citizen.

So is he a NATURAL BORN citizen of the US? Because just any citizen can’t be president but you must be NATURAL BORN according to the Constitution. But the US LAW only defines two classes of citizens, those who obtain their citizenship naturally, which means by birth, or those who obtain it by becoming citizens later such as NATURALIZED citizens. The second group is immigrants and stuff. According to US law because of his mother and being born in HI, he was a citizen by BIRTH, hence a natural born citizen.

Now those who think he is not will show quotes of people, that BOTH parents must be US citizens, they will show British laws and other FOREIGN laws, quotes of peoples and letters, but they won’t show you a US law. Why? Because there is no US law that says to be ‘natural born’ BOTH parents must be US citizens. I follow US law not British law.

So the next step is his mom remarries and he goes to Indonesia. A Muslim country. His father in-law gets him Indonesian citizenship. BUT THE US LAW is what matters not Indonesian law. And again the US law, and I can provide it readily, if you want to see it yourself, says that a US child DOES NOT lose citizenship because of any action of his parents or any action he takes as a minor. So attending Indonesian school does NOT take away his natural Born US Citizenship. To lose US citizenship he must renounce it as an adult or serve in a foreign military. That is the US LAW. The law of other countries does not matter. We are under US law.  See http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_776.html

Next they will say he traveled to Pakistan as an adult and could not have done so on a US passport. First of all that is not true. They claim US law did not allow that travel but it did. No one will ever show you the law that says he couldn’t go to Pakistan on a US passport but will just repeat those claims. Secondly he was about 19 when he went to Pakistan. So it goes back to the argument above. If he had an Indonesian passport, which he could have got WITHOUT giving up US citizenship as an adult he could have legally traveled on that.

There are questions about his university and law school attendance, records and financial aid. That stuff could prove he is a liar (which we already know) or poor student but in no way could prove he is not a Natural Born citizen of the US. It is known conclusively that he attended Harvard Law school and was the head of the law review there which is an honor for good law students. There are writings and newspaper clippings FROM THE TIME he was there that show that.

He IS THE PRESIDENT. He won a clear majority of the electoral college votes and met the eligibility requirements. Of course I didn’t vote for him but that doesn’t matter. And he will NOT be removed from the President except by vote in 2012. The Supreme Court will never hear this nonsense and a few cases went to the Supreme court on this and LOST ALREADY. The Congress will not impeach him over it.

LEADING REPUBLICANS like Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter along with all important Republican Politicians say he is the legal President.

And Further it is DANGEROUS to Republicans to keep saying he is not LEGAL. The Democrats WANT US TO SAY THAT. They will use it to paint Republicans that say things like Obama is a Kenyan in the same group as people that say there are Martians on earth taking over Human Bodies and Big Foot lives in their garage. Go to http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32003.html and you can see the Democrat plans to do just that.

Sure there are movies and stupid people, that say that he is not President but there are movies that show how President Bush was responsible for 9-11. However the people that believe those movies are considered lunatics by people that studied the issue.
Now if YOU still believe that President Obama is an Alien or just want a good laugh at those who do, go to http://www.sharkfighter.com/tinsldr2

But best line I heard tonight was from a lady in Philly on Hannity show.

Obama is a great conservationist. Nobody can RECYCLE old speeches like he can!! :)
Obama vs Reagan quoting the speech
Reagan: Today marks my first State of the Union address to you, a constitutional duty as old as our republic itself.

Obama: Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to Congress information about the state of our union. For 220 years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty.

Interesting.....

Obama:These were the times that tested the courage of our convictions, and the strength of our union.

Ok at least he didn't say: "These are the times that try men's souls"

But this was most telling

Obama: "(the people don't understand).. why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems."

Reagan: In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.

Did anyone else catch that difference??

The basic fundamental difference in Liberal thought and Conservative thought in those few lines.

Wow!!
Obama "So tonight, we will set a new goal: We will double our exports over the next five years"

Once we pass cap and tax and health care the only thing we will export is going to be double the speed of JOBS leaving the country!!.
on banks
Obama:"... we've recovered most of the money we spent on the banks. Most but not all.
To recover the rest, I've proposed a fee on the biggest banks. ....."

Why is he placing a FEE on banks that have PAID back the loans??

If I borrow money from a bank to start a business and the business takes off and I pay back the loans can the bank charge me a fee for having borrowed the money in the first place? How is that the American way?


Obama: Now, one place to start is serious financial reform. Look, I am not interested in punishing banks. I'm interested in protecting our economy. A strong, healthy financial market makes it possible for businesses to access credit and create new jobs. It channels the savings of families into investments that raise incomes. But that can only happen if we guard against the same recklessness that nearly brought down our entire economy.

We need to make sure consumers and middle-class families have the information they need to make financial decisions. (Applause.) We can't allow financial institutions, including those that take your deposits, to take risks that threaten the whole economy.

Now, the House has already passed financial reform with many of these changes. And the lobbyists are trying to kill it. But we cannot let them win this fight. And if the bill that ends up on my desk does not meet the test of real reform, I will send it back until we get it right. We've got to get it right. " ...

Anyone know what program or bill he is referencing ? I want the MEAT he gave us the Special Sauce!!
Obama on Schools
Obama:" And the idea here is simple: Instead of rewarding failure, we only reward success. Instead of funding the status quo, we only invest in reform --(cut fluff) ... And in this country, the success of our children cannot depend more on where they live than on their potential. "

But yet they Stopped School vouchers in DC and fight against charter schools. Very strange.

Then huge new spending programs announced,

more punish the banks ..Obama "To make college more affordable, this bill will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that go to banks for student loans. (Say what?) ....

... And let's tell another one million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only 10 percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after 20 years –- and forgiven after 10 years if they choose a career in public service, ..."

So Borrow as much as you can, pay minimum balances and at end don't worry about paying back debts Joe Plumber will eat the cost???

Obama "And by the way, it's time for colleges and universities to get serious about cutting their own costs because they, too, have a responsibility to help solve this problem. "

So now he tells STATE schools how to run their business? Better to tell them to accept ROTC credits and Military recruiters on campus!!

There are only 4 Federal run colleges I am aware of (well 5 but one only does graduate level work)
on health care??
Obama : "according to the Congressional Budget Office -– the independent organization that both parties have cited as the official scorekeeper for Congress –- our approach would bring down the deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two decades. "

That only possible way to do that is because it would force MORE costs on states. And we already JUST had to bail out states with porkulus /Stimulus money!!

You cant possibly expect people to believe that you will add millions to the insurance rolls, increase things covered and provide the SAME level of care and it won't cost more but will save you money??

Notice how he slipped that in right after praising his wife for working with fat kids? Obama: "And by the way, I want to acknowledge our First Lady, Michelle Obama, who this year is creating a national movement to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity and make kids healthier. (Applause.) Thank you. She gets embarrassed. (Laughter.)

See he gets the sheeple focused on her and everyone looks at her as she gets 'embarrassed" then he slips in the line about saving money by spending more??

That is what i meant on another thread about him being a gifted speech giver.

Obama "Still, this is a complex issue, and the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became. I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people."

Translation You people are to dumb to understand this and needed him to 'splain' it to you!! How is that for arrogance!!

Obama "And I know that with all the lobbying and horse-trading, the process left most Americans wondering, "What's in it for me?" No! that is what the politicians thought we KNOW what it means to us and WE DONT LIKE IT!

This was TRUE: Obama "By the time I'm finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance." because DUH HE TALKED FOR A YEAR OR SOMETHING CLOSE!! lol
Military and Obama Speech
I know all the talk is on the Supremes and Alitos words. I still think he haid something other then "not true" maybe two words same syllables and second word was"---- YOU"

But Did anyone else see the look on the Joint Chiefs of Staff when they talked about doing away with Don't Ask Don't Tell. Even George Casey was PO'd.

Ok unrelated trivia....

During Gov McDonnell there was a Soldier in dress greens behind him.

Who knows his rank and what patch he had on his combat shoulder? :) Was a unit I was in as an LT ;) Answer below!!
Health care
Obama "Now, even as health care reform would reduce our deficit, it's not enough to dig us out of a massive fiscal hole in which we find ourselves. "

Ok there is no way health care reform will reduce deficit but if he is attempting to get out of the hole we are in why all the otehr spending?? When you are in a hole, you get out by not digging it DEEPER!!

Obama : "Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. (Applause.) Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. "

Why wait?? First it is a drop in the bucket what he is proposing compared to his spending but this takes effect right after a new more Conservative Congress gets seated? And it is frozen so they cant reduce it or adjust it? Dang!! Are Sheeple Blind?? (answer yes)

Obama: We've already identified $20 billion in savings for next year.

A drop in the bucket. literally Like if you are hundred dollars in debt and raising spending costs everywhere it is cutting 2 cents out of the budget.

Obama: we will not continue tax cuts for oil companies, for investment fund managers, and for those making over $250,000 a year.

So raise gas prices and others taxes? The opposite of Reagan and even JF Kennedy!!

Now watch this, a hand wave an up and down head nod then Obama "Now, even after paying for what we spent on my watch"

Just where does this come from??? paying for his expenditures when 2051?

Obama cont "we'll still face the massive deficit we had when I took office. More importantly, the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will continue to skyrocket. That's why I've called for a bipartisan fiscal commission,

Oh goody a BLUE RIBBON COMMISION that wont take long and we know that will be effective.
Since senate didn’t, OBAMA WILL!!
Obama "Now, yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. "

But his party has super majority still why did they block the bill?

Obama "So I'll issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward"

OMG is anyone else reading that?? I am running on no sleep and lot of coffee but WT heck? If congress didn’t authorize expenditure and committee formulation he will do it unilaterally??

I kept waiting to hear YOU LIE after this Gem.
"From some on the right, I expect we'll hear a different argument -– that if we just make fewer investments in our people, extend tax cuts including those for the wealthier Americans, eliminate more regulations, maintain the status quo on health care, our deficits will go away. The problem is that's what we did for eight years. "

heck no we spent like drunken Sailors for last 8 years. IT wasn’t that Revenues were to low it was that SPENDING was to HIGH!!

Cut that SPENDING and Lower taxes and stop punishing productivity and it WILL go away!!
Deficit of Trust and note to ST DEN
Obama "We face a deficit of trust -– deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years."

Was he channeling a Comedian? hello? how many whoppers has he told and flagrantly broken.. Any one remember Speaker PELOSI LAUGHING about broken promises of open CSPAN health care debates and his parties Louisiana Purchase?

Obama: "That's what I came to Washington to do. "

yes we know! he came to lie cheat and steal and tolerate those who do also. all turning us into socialists.

Obama "That's why -– for the first time in history –- my administration posts on our White House visitors online. "

Except for those not on the guest list, but no one not on the guest list could get in the Whitehouse ummm is it 4 times now????

Obama "That's why we've excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs,"

except for the bunch he hired. was about ten at last count.

obama "But we can't stop there."   Translation, He has more destruction to wreck....
Supreme Court and Earmarks
Obama "With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court" .....

tranlation "I am a lawyer who worked as a lawyer for MAYBE a total of two years but i didnt really practice law but i know the LAW better the the Supreme Court Justices that practiced and studied it and were noted for life time service in the law and your ruling will hurt me the supreme leader.

As justice Alito said "Not True" Or was it F$%& YOU

Obama "And I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems." because the constitution doesnt matter and we can just write other bills that will tie up the courts until after he is out of office.

Obama "I'm also calling on Congress to continue down the path of earmark reform. "

Does reform meaning add thousands of new earmarks and blatant bribes?? how many Earmarks are on Sen McCains tab?

Hmmmm "Today (March 03, 2009) Sen. John McCain failed in his effort to strip thousands on earmarks from a government funding bill moving through Congress. His amendment would also have reduced the funding for several government departments to last year's lower spending levels."


Obama "Tonight, I'm calling on Congress to publish all earmark requests on a single Web site before there's a vote,"

Yes because posting them there a minute before the vote will do a lot of good.

HEY MR PRESIDENT HOW ABOUT CALLING FOR AN END TO EARMARKS@!!! WASNT THAT A CAMPAIGN PROMISE?
on Sen Brown and relitigation
Obama "So, no, I will not give up on trying to change the tone of our politics. I know it's an election year. And after last week, it's clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual. "

He couldn't even mention the historic event directly? yet he wants Bipartisanship?

Obama "Sadly, some of the unity we felt after 9/11 has dissipated. We can argue all we want about who's to blame for this, but I'm not interested in re-litigating the past."

but he is interested in litigating the CIA agents and possibly Cheyne!

Now this one sounds great!! If reagan or bush had said it we would have cheered!!

Obama "I know that all of us love this country. All of us are committed to its defense. So let's put aside the schoolyard taunts about who's tough. Let's reject the false choice between protecting our people and upholding our values. Let's leave behind the fear and division, and do what it takes to defend our nation and forge a more hopeful future -- for America and for the world. "

lets do what it takes as long as we Miranda terrorists? Really??
on Terrorists /mil
Obama "Since the day I took office, we've renewed our focus on the terrorists who threaten our nation."

Yes like attacking the CIA, Disgruntled Vets, Tea party goers does he mean focusing on those kind of terrorists?

Ok OBAMA has attacked and killed a lot of AL-Qaeda operatives and upper level guys. i will give him that in fairness. But thats what is so sick because at the otehr hand he makes it harder for the Military and CIA to do their jobs.

Obama "And in the last year, hundreds of al Qaeda's fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed -- far more than in 2008."

We have CORRECTLY avoided posting enemy body counts. That was the Viet nam game. Number of us vs them. That is not what this war is about.

Obama "We will have all of our combat troops out of Iraq by the end of this August."

Exactly on the schedule that Bush signed with al-malaki to include the hand over of baghdad last year,
 
Obama "That's why we made the largest increase in investments for veterans in decades -- last year. (Applause.)"

Applause included The Joint Chiefs of Staff to Include Adm Mike Mullins and Townhall favorite :) Gen George Casey (my wife loves his wife but that is another story)

But when Obama said : This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. (Applause.)

That applause DID NOT include Anyone in the uniform in evidence.

Of course there was this OBAMA (this one courtesy of Randy In GA)  "We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we're all created equal, that no matter who you are or what you look like, if you abide by the law you should be protected by it, if you adhere to our common values you should be treated no different than anyone else."

Where in the Constitution does it mention that all men are created equal? Could the All-Knowing One be referring to the Declaration of Independence? Some genius.

Oh and it was a Staff Sargent with an 11th Signal Brigade patch on at the republican Gov McDonnell rebuttal right behind the GOV.
RepublicanResponse was Ok
Not super great but OK.

Was done quickly after the speech and limited to ten minutes so not abundant prep time to refer directly to the speech.

Speech included "We must enact policies that promote entrepreneurship and innovation so America can better compete with the world. What government should not do is pile on more taxation, regulation and litigation that kill jobs and hurt the middle class.

It was Thomas Jefferson who called for "a wise and frugal government which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." He was right."

And

"The president's partial freeze announced tonight on discretionary spending is a laudable step, but a small one. The circumstances of our time demand that we reconsider and restore the proper limited role of government at every level."
and
. "But most Americans do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government.

Republicans in Congress have offered legislation to reform health care, without shifting Medicaid costs to the states, without cutting Medicare, and without raising your taxes.

And we will do that by implementing commonsense reforms, like letting families and businesses buy health insurance policies across state lines and ending frivolous lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drive up the cost of your health care."

and
"This foreign terror suspect was given the same legal rights as a U.S. citizen and immediately stopped providing critical intelligence.

As Senator-elect Scott Brown has said, we should be spending taxpayer dollars to defeat terrorists, not to protect them."

I haven't blogged here since I returned from Iraq following a 14 month tour as part of the surge from early March 07 to  May 08.  Since that time I retired from the Army in June 09 after 21 active years and hired on as a manager with a defense Contracting company in July 09.  I was updating the Resume and since people ask what I did in the Army all the time I thought I would post this. As a note it is geared towards jobs in defense contracting and Department of military civilian work so it may not be as readable to some civilians.   Also I have never claimed to be hero and certainly wrote that in my blog on the real heroes below. 


After I originally posted this my contract was extended for another year but I will leave it up in case anyone asks what I did for a living or in the Army.


Objective  Experienced Executive Manager and IT Professional

Experience
2009-Present    Current company not posted here
Collective Training Branch Chief in a Battle Command Training Center
* Manage 10 contractors who provide collective digital integration and staff battle drill training for Brigade and Battalion Staffs’
* Operate several Reconfigurable Tactical Operation Centers that are reconfigured and networked with a variety of ABCS platforms to meet units training requirements
* Supervise the instruction of the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) to Brigade and Battalion Staff Officers and NCO’s
* Provide training scenarios designed to sharpen staff skills in the collective use of ABCS systems and enhance the staff’s ability to plan, execute and track battlefield operations

2008-2009    US Army    FT Stewart GA / Iraq
Senior Division Knowledge Management Officer
* Coordinated, planned and supervised the Knowledge Management of the Division Staff and automated Battlefield Operating Systems to include the integration of various platforms, advising the Chief of Staff, G3 and G6 on best practice of the use of the ABCS systems, system upgrades and new system fielding for a Division deployed in Iraq
* Served as an integral member of Division Staff advising the G6 and Chief of Staff on all matters relating to the integration of all ABCS systems in the Division TOC resulting in  more efficient staff interactions
* Performed as a system administrator on multiple Army Battlefield Operating Systems ensuring system reliability, systems included; CPOF, MCS, Sharepoint, BCS3, FBCB2, ASAS, AFATDS, AMDWS, TAIS, and Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office Software.
* Ensured the constant ability of battlefield Commanders at dispersed locations in Iraq had the ability to efficiently share information
* Generated, analyzed and made changes based on detailed reports of 47 IT systems with over 2000 end users
* Ensured the communication needs of the Iraqi Army Divisions operating in the 3 ID Area of Operations were effectively met
* Coordinated and tracked  the training on battlefield systems and ensured quality training was conducted for all new staff members and for all new system fieldings
Served as a temporary liaison officer to MNC-I providing relevant forces and joint experience in a deployed environment

2006-2008    US Army    FT Stewart GA / Iraq
Division Network Operations Officer
* Advised ACofS G6 on all matters relating to wide area networks and Joint Network Node communications assets throughout the Division and the Iraq Area of Operations
* Responsible for providing maintenance, training, logistic support and network planning for the Divisions Satellite HUB, 13 JNN assemblages, and 33 CPN teams providing vital communications for Command and Control Systems during Combat Operations and garrison training events
* Deployed to Iraq in advance of the 3 ID Headquarters as the lead signal officer and signal planner for Multi-National Division Center
* Formulated, installed, and maintained a communication network at 40 locations throughout Iraq supporting the Division and 5 dispersed Brigades to include SIPR, NIPR and CENTRIX networks
* Recognized on my evaluation by the Chief of Staff and G6 Officer in Charge for maintaining the highest quality of network communications either of them had  seen in over 20 years of service
* Served as the Signal planning officer on Division staff, participating in the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) and the writing of Orders to include primary responsibility for Signal annexes
* Managed 18 technical Soldiers to ensure constant communications at dispersed locations

2003-2006    US Army    FT Stewart GA / Iraq
Brigade Signal Operations Officer (S6)
* Advised Brigade Commander on all communication matters for the Aviation Brigade both in garrison and a  one year deployment to Iraq
* Deployed the first ever Brigade Joint Network Node to Iraq and replaced legacy MSE systems with superior digital communications performance
* Introduced the Command Post of the Future (CPOF) to the Aviation Brigade TOC, ensured the system connectivity and supervised the training of the Brigade staff on the system while deployed to Iraq
* Supervised 14 officers, senior enlisted and enlisted Soldiers in managing and securing over 2200 email accounts and multiple server suites
* Established the installation and supervised the maintenance of 250 VOIP telephone lines, and the Brigade call managers that supported the telephones along with over 600 networked computers during the Brigades deployment
* Planned, developed, coordinated and executed multiple communication systems in a combat area with a 99% reliability rate
* Provided advice, planning and technical guidance directly to senior Army Officers who were in non-technical combat jobs
* Mentored and advised junior Signal Officers of five battalions

Additional Previous Positions held
* Recruiting Company Commander from 2001-2003 supervising 36  Soldiers and responsible for enlisting over 700 Soldiers a year
* Company Commander in a 1st Armored Division for a Signal company consisting of 120 Soldiers from 1999 to 2001 during which time my company deployed to Kosovo for 6 months providing superior communication support
* Division G6 Operations Officer and Signal Planner for 1st Armored Division G6 from 1996 to 1999  to include a deployment with the initial forces into Bosnia and service as acting Deputy G6 supporting the Divisions second Bosnia deployment
Education

* B.A  in Biology Temple University Philadelphia, PA 1992
* 18 Graduate credits in Organizational Management with University of Phoenix
* Completed coursework towards Command and General Staff College
* US Army Combined Arms and Services Staff School 1997
* US Army Signal Officer Advanced Course 1995
* US Army Signal Officer Basic Course 1992    

Awards

* Bronze Star Medal 2nd awards
* Meritorious Service Medal 4th award
* Army Achievement Medal 3rd award
* Army Commendation Medal 4th award
* National Defense Service Medal 2nd Award
* Parachutist badge

Additional info:
* Have Security  Clearance (But level withheld here)
* Served 6 months as a detailed Inspector General with emphasis on Detainee Facility inspections
* Experience working with multinational coalition partners from several other nations on deployments to:
     
1. Kuwait 1994
2. Bosnia and Croatia IFOR Mission (as part of 1AD Div Staff) 1996
3. Kosovo 2000
4. Iraq 2005 and 2007/2008

 

Heroes in Iraq

Five years ago today, on 4 April 2003, Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith earned the Medal of Honor, our nations highest award for valor in fighting in Iraq. Paul was not a dupe or pawn but a career soldier. Like the 51 Third  Infantry Division soldiers (to include Audie Murphy) who won the medal of honor before him, SFC Smith knew what he was doing when he went into battle and he knew the risks he took. After a long and difficult fight to reach Baghdad from Kuwait, he was directing combat operations against a much larger enemy force at a range so close that at times he personally engaged the enemy with hand grenades. When his unit was running low on ammo he ensured the wounded were evacuated to a safer area and he exposed himself to enemy fire on the top of an Armored Personnel Carrier so that he could use the heavy 50 caliber machinegun to keep the enemy off his men while they regrouped. SFC Smith took over one of the APCs that had been damaged by mortar and RPG fire and ordered the driver to position it so that he could fire at both the trenches and the tower  where the enemy was with the machine gun. Alone he stood at his post while his soldiers handed up ammunition to him. He went through three boxes of ammunition. As the battle ended his machine gun went silent. His battle armor had stopped thirteen bullets, but one of the last shots from the tower had entered his neck and killed him.  He shot and killed over 30 enemy soldiers before he was shot himself. Hollywood couldn’t write a better movie script then what this man actually accomplished. And the sacrifice he made was simply what he felt he had to do as the senior man in charge to protect his Soldiers. By his actions SFC Paul Smith ensured that 100 American soldiers did come home and showed that he truly belonged to the highest traditions of the Third Infantry Division.

Today I stood at a commemoration service on the hollowed ground where that battle took place. It is about 400 yards from where I sit in an air-conditioned office typing this. My biggest fear today is that the AC could go out, or the internet won’t work. My hardest decision was what to eat for lunch. Tonight is steak and shrimp night at the dinning facility for dinner so that decision will be easy. My life is so different as a staff officer then that of the heroes that surround me. 

At the commemoration service today, the Commanding General of the Marne Division, Major General Rick Lynch, gave a great definition of a hero.  Every time there is a Soldier killed in Iraq there is a memorial service. The General attends them personally, but at every memorial service the most touching part is when some young kid who was friends with the Soldier eulogizes him. Usually the young soldier starts to tear up over his comrade and then the rest of the people there do also. It is tough on all of us when one of our brothers die. But the hero is the young Soldier who gives the Eulogy and then the next day gets up in the morning and puts on body armor, and goes out on patrol again. 

Days over here can be very routine for staff officers. People often ask if I am scared or they tell me they would be scared if they were here.  However, there is now very little danger where I am in Iraq. I can’t remember being afraid the whole time I have been here. That is not bravery just I don’t feel like I have ever been in grave danger. That is very different from the young heroes out there.

 We sleep in trailers now. The trailers have AC and heat (it gets cold in winter). There is no running water in the trailers but we have bathroom trailers with showers near by. I do have wireless internet (I have to pay for) in my room. The accommodations are pretty good. The Dinning Facility, what the Army used to call a “Chow hall or mess hall”, is very good. It is Brown and Root (KBR /Haliburton) contracted cooks, KP cleaning details and servers operating under American supervision. After 14 months here the food is repetitive but still good. There is always a great variety also. Also on base there are Taco Bell, burger King, Pizza Inn, Greenbeans coffee (like a starbucks), Popeyes Chicken, Cinnabun and some other places. We are not exactly destitute and forsaken here anymore.

A typical day starts with a classified briefing. The briefing is typical of one that goes on at all levels from Battalions up to the Forces Commander. It is called by several names such as Commanders Update Brief (CUB), Battle Update Brief ( BUB) and Battle Update Analysis (BUA). There are slight technical distinctions between them but the purpose is to ensure that the latest information is dispersed to everyone that needs it, especially for the Commanders, and for the Commander to give guidance. The briefings cover much more then just combat actions. We spend a considerable amount of time discussing governance operations, meetings that were conducted with local leaders etc, Economic stimulus missions such as the progress on opening markets and trade schools and humanitarian missions such as medical aid for communities. During set days of the week we also cover the routine administrative needs of the unit such as re-enlistment statistics, and Equal Opportunity training statistics, Legal actions etc. The Briefings are mostly conducted using a Command and Control System called Command Post of The Future or “CPOF”. This allows people all over the Area of Operations to participate in the briefing over the classified network without being physically at it. 

For a month I was lucky enough to sit in on the Multi-National Forces Iraq briefing that General Petraeus receives every day. That man has an unbelievably impressive scope of knowledge. I clearly remember him questioning a briefer on a change from the last weeks brief in kilowatt hours on a power grid in Baghdad and then questioning the next briefer on a governance issue in Mosul without notes and with complete self assured control. Like all the General Officers I know, his intelligence and level of responsibility is Amazing.  The multitude of areas for which he is responsible must be a heavy burden and I am gld we have leaders like him over here. 

After the briefing we go back to our offices. Young guys are driving up and down the roads, opening water purification plants in local Iraqi towns, setting up check points and I am making a pot of coffee, checking email and reading news sites. Staff Officers like me will then get busy with the plans and coordination’s that keep the Army functioning. My current job here is not over taxing on my time or ability but of course many staff officers bustle about. It really just depends on the section you work in.

The general has an official work schedule for us of 15 hours work (this includes meals) 7 hours of rest, and two hours of exercise/personal time. Most of us work closer to a 12 hour shift and at age 44 and close to retirement I don’t exercise much. I know all the senior officers and him adhere to his schedule. It is always better to stay busy though or thoughts of home can become overwhelming.

After work I go back to my room. I don’t have a TV in my room (I did during football season) but we can get news and shows from the states. I mostly watch movies on my computer, read books, or surf the internet. People always find stuff to do here, everything from barbeques to setting up projectors and watching movies and ball games outside. We have recreation centers with TVs, free internet,  pool tables and games. There is a swimming pool that is open during the day and ball fields and sport leagues. You can take classes with online Universities and I know many that are pursuing evrey thing from associate to PHD degrees here.  Of course there are Worship services for every denomination and most religions, to include Christian, Jewish and Moslem services. There is no alcohol allowed but I do sometimes enjoy a good cigar.

We have been mortared a few times since I have been here. Last deployment it was much more frequently. After a while though even that doesn’t phase you. Usually it is just a few rounds that the scumbags lob in our direction. No real aim or danger and the disruption in our lives is so minimal because of it. I often here on the news or from folks back home how we are under bombardment but it never once has stopped me from getting a “Double Mocha Frappe” at the coffee shop, or made anyone I know not go to the PX. 

There is one thing we have here though that keeps us centered. As soon as we walk in the headquarters building there are two large flat screens. On one screen every Soldier from our division that was killed here has a tribute slide and the slides rotate. The other slide depicts the most recent fallen heroes. Beneath the screens is a tribute to them including a “dog tag” for each of them. When you walk past that the walls are lined with tributes to the Third Infantry Division “Dog Faced Soldiers” of the past. 90 years of service to our Nation. Seeing that history and those fallen comrades is a constant reminder to those of us who live and work in comfort that we owe the very best we can do for the young warriors out there and my job is to see that none of them die because of a failing on my staff section.

Rock Of the Marne!!

a great resource with full account of SFC Smith is: http://www.taskforcemarne.com/this-week/1330-March-30-April-5

And as always www.taskforcemarne.com and http://www.taskforcemarne.com/dog-face-daily/

Tinsldr2@yahoo.com

 

Supporting Our Troops,

I am constantly amazed about how great the level of support the American people provide to our troops. I am not talking about what the Government does but about what the individual American and the volunteer organizations do for us.

I have received numerous posts and emails from people I have never met who have offered to send me packages. In the case of one townhall poster, a Korean War vet with problems of his own, he sent over gifts and phone cards that I was able to share with Soldiers that needed and enjoy myself. No one did that for the troops of his generation and I am honored to be in the company of great men such as him. 

The Jewish Holiday of Purim was celebrated on 21 March, 2008. The holiday commemorates how enemies threatened to destroy the Jewish people and through an act of courage the people were spared. It is a time of giving food and rejoicing. I have received over 15 packages, many with letters from children, (and yes I am behind in my Thank You letters), from religious groups, individuals and VFWs. Items in care packages, range from snacks, treats (and this slightly pudgy Major eats them but doesn’t need them) toilet items such as soap and dental products (although we can now get them readily in the PX during the initial deployment we couldn’t), magazines, cards, playing card decks, socks, writing paper and envelopes, but the biggest gift of all is the knowledge that we are not FORGOTTEN by the folks back home and the knowledge that people of all faiths are praying for us. 

I have received numerous offers from individuals when I get back. I have been offered fishing boats at dealer cost after posting a question on boat buying on a fishing forum. I have scheduled a free off-shore overnight fishing trip with a charter service and have received other similar offers. After my last deployment I had meals and drinks paid for and my wife and son were at a Disney restaurant once and someone overheard that I was deployed and anonymously bought and paid for their meal. My roommate went on a website and received a good quality new guitar free simply for being a Soldier in Iraq. The generosity of the American people is incredible. 

Many Americans in the entertainment industry visit us frequently from the USO. Cheerleaders and actresses are always popular J with the troops. Comedians come and put on shows, musical groups tour and perform, we even had a fishing tournament from some guys , who do professional Salt Water Fishing shows. These people hold a wide variety of views on the righteousness of our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan but they share a common goal of making life a little brighter for those of us who serve the Nation.   

The thing that means the most for me is when we walk through airports or other places and the Viet Nam vets come up and thank us. It is not possible for me to describe the Emotion of shaking a veterans hand, knowing they never got the welcome back or thanks, and all the history of that time, and hearing them say good things about those of us serving. 

When I returned from my last deployment, in Jan 06, we got off the plane in Savannah and could smell the salt air and humidity mixed with that sweet southern pine scent and you could feel the dust free nature of being home. Then there was a double line of VFW veterans with flags that we walked between welcoming us back. That feeling made it hard to keep my eyes dry and is something I will carry with me and treasure always. I deployed again in March 07 and have been here just over 12 months at the time that I write this. I have about ten weeks until I get home. I am proud to have been afforded the opportunity to serve the great Americans back home by my service and to carry on the Legacy of the many veterans who came before me. 

Today, many Americans don’t personally know soldiers Serving Overseas. Some organizations that directly support soldiers are the

USO at http://www.uso.org/ (that’s United Service Organization)

And a great new charity that is legitimate and very much about supporting soldiers at http://www.heartsamerica.com/

For sending soldiers music instruments check out http://www.operationhappynote.com/

And of course books are an important gift try http://booksforsoldiers.com/

I am fortunate to be married to the greatest wife in the world who has sent me everything from my favorite hard to get candy, to quilts, to saltwater fishing magazines, and of course the greatest gift of all her love and support while I am gone.

Feel free to contact me at tinsldr2@yahoo.com but know that I go home in about ten weeks and really don’t need any more snacks or anything. But I do really appreciate the offers. Now if someone wants to give me a free $40,000 23ft cabin boat with saltwater engines let me know J ( just joking )

Rob

The other day our Division Chaplin gave a very moving benediction at our Sunday Battle Update Briefing.  Here is a Copy of it.

 

Lord you tell us “blessed are the peacemakers”, we have come to Iraq to make peace.  We are peacemakers and we must sometimes kill to make peace and to conduct the mission we have been sent to complete.  Lord when we have to kill help us never take joy or become callous in the taking of human life.  Help us never to kill for revenge, vengeance, or to settle a personal score or vendetta.  Our enemy kills and maims innocent men, women and little children indiscriminately, and has no respect whatsoever for human life.  As peacemakers help our Task Force Marne Soldiers always respect the sanctity of human life and always adhere as closely as possible to our rules of engagement.  When our brave young Soldiers have to take human life we pray that it will never be with a twinkle in their eye but always with a tear in their eye.  We pray for our enemies – that you will change their hearts before we as ‘peacemakers’ have to stop their hearts with our weapon systems.  Please keep us and our loved ones safe this coming week.

 

It is often easy to HATE the enemy for the utter evilness of what they do.  And while we must never shirk our duty or fail to act decisively it is good to be reminded that we do what we do out of necessity and not to take joy out of the death of others.

 

On another note I got to watch several Soldiers get Silver Stars and Bronze Stars with V device for valor yesterday.  These were all young Americans acting bravely and all the awards were well deserved.  After the award ceremony there were about 80 Soldiers (and an airman) that re-enlisted in a combat zone.  This is all further examples to the young men and women of the "Strongest Generation". 

I did not write this..  But I agree 100%

Author Biography:  Elan S. Carr, an attorney, is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve. He led the Chanukah observance in Baghdad using a lamp donated by a Jewish Iraqi artist.

CHANUKAH IN BAGHDAD:  An American Jewish soldier of Iraqi descent lights the Menorah in Saddam Hussein's palace.     

 

 

Banu hoshekh legharesh -- "We have come to banish darkness." Thus begins a famous Chanukah song, and no phrase better encapsulates the holiday's deeper meanings. This year, as a United States soldier serving in Iraq, I and several of my colleagues lit a Chanukah lamp and uttered those words in a place that had never before heard them: the former presidential palace of Saddam Hussein, in the capital city of a new and free Iraq.

 

One is hard-pressed to imagine a holiday whose themes are more resonant with the events unfolding here: A spectacular military victory, the defeat of a despot, the re-sanctification of what had been desecrated.

Truly, the banishment of darkness.

 

Chanukah commemorates the rededication of Jerusalem's Temple in 165 BCE.

Israel was then ruled by Syria's Hellenist king, Antiochus IV, a brutal megalomaniac who gave himself the title Epiphanes -- "god manifested."

In a campaign of merciless persecution, he murdered members of the priesthood, outlawed Jewish rituals, and desecrated the Holy Temple.

 

The priestly Maccabee family led a daring revolt and defeated the Hellenist armies. After recapturing the Temple, Jewish partisans rededicated the place by kindling its sacred Menorah. To this day, Jews celebrate the relighting of that ancient Menorah, to remember the victorious freedom fighters whose courage stemmed from an abiding faith that God will cause good to triumph over evil, and light to banish even the darkest of hours.

 

For too many years, the people of Iraq have suffered horrors that defy imagination. Like Antiochus, Saddam thought himself to be like a god, or at least like those demigods of Mesopotamian history, Nebuchadnezzar and Hammurabi, with whom his boundless vanity inclined him regularly to equate himself. "Epiphanes" indeed -- Saddam dispensed licentious pleasure and horrible pain, life and death, with the nonchalance of one who thought himself above humanity itself.

 

I myself have seen some of the evidence of his horrors, and I am sickened by them. I have met Iraqis who lost their closest relatives to Saddam's killing machines. I have walked the halls of the decadent monuments he built for himself while his people wasted away for want of food and freedom. I have visited Saddam's execution chambers at the notorious Abu Ghreib prison. I saw the ceiling hooks that were used to torture prisoners. I saw the prison's infamous "medical wing," used for human experimentation. And most shattering of all, I saw the desperate messages scratched on the walls of hideous cells next to the death chambers. Some of those messages appear to have been scribbled in excrement.

 

I shuddered as I imagined the suffering endured by the forgotten victims of that terrible place -- the excruciating physical pain, the agony over loved ones left behind, the devastating sounds of executions conducted only a few feet from their cells. I could almost hear the screams of torture and soft whimpers of despair echo along the walls' unforgiving concrete.

 

GRANDFATHER IN PRISON

 

Perhaps I am especially prone to feel empathy for Iraq's prisoners of conscience, for my grandfather was one of them. He and other leaders of the once large Iraqi Jewish community were arrested, paraded through the streets in leg irons, and summarily jailed. But my grandfather was comparatively fortunate, for he was imprisoned many years before Saddam took the country to new depths of depravity. And after serving the prison sentence given him, my grandfather was released.

 

Many of Saddam's prisoners were not so lucky. Many Iraqis unfortunate enough to be deemed ethnically or religiously undesirable, or who displayed the intolerable audacity of free thought, entered Saddam's prisons with the knowledge that they would never again see their loved ones. And in the twisted reality of the former Iraq, they may well have hoped never again to see their loved ones, for Saddam's regime was known to torture children in front of their parents. Whereas my grandfather was able to assuage his suffering by rejoining the people he loved most in this world, the victims of Saddam's apparatus of death could only console themselves by scrawling desperate messages on the walls of their cells.

 

LIGHT IN THE PALACE

 

It is the defeat of this sort of profanity that Chanukah celebrates. It was Antiochus' consummate ungodliness -- all the more so when contrasted with the sacred Temple worship that he prevented and defiled -- that the Jews succeeded in vanquishing. But what can be more ungodly, what more profane, than torture, mass murder, and genocide? Such evil had been a staple of life in Iraq. But not any more. We have come to banish darkness.

 

This Chanukah in Baghdad, in a large and lavish building, the gentle glow of a Chanukah lamp shimmered throughout a cavernous room. One of the objects caught in its radiance is a gilded chair that used to serve as the tyrant's throne, and the palace in which it sits used to be the capital building of his reign of terror. Today, the chair is empty, and the palace houses the apparatus of Iraqi reconstruction.

 

As my colleagues and I remember the Maccabee bravery of yesteryear and the re-sanctification of the Temple, we pray also for the brave and indefatigable people of Iraq, who day by day are rekindling their flames of hope and re-sanctifying their great land. They are banishing the darkness, and we wish them Godspeed.

 I recieved an Email from a Liberal Clifornia Public School Teacher who is a nice lady.  Her school kids last year wrote a story on sacrifice as it pertains to us being in Iraq and she sent what they wrote.  Today she sent me one of those tyical political emails that has a million forwards and no comments.  I sent it back with Comments. 

I think it is important as Republicans to think about the way we appear to many Americans.  The far left loons will always throw bombs at us.  The middle America left and independents are not like that but they believe the lie.  Typical is #3 below on Cuba.  Many blame Republican for the Embargo that was started under JFK a Democrat and strengthened by Pres Clinton a democrat but people believe it is a "Republican" issue?

Unfortunately many Americans are fools and go for "sloganism" as opposed to substantive thought on issues of importance.  I call these people "SHEEPLE".  It is sad because perceptions matter and many believe things her forwarded email says are true.  See my comments below. The original mail points are numbered and my responses are marked.

  
  REPUBLICAN VALUES  AS THEY APPEAR TO MANY AMERICANS:

  1. Senators tapping feet in a men's room is an abomination while Senators buying prostitutes is perfectly acceptable. 
 
 Response: Well the truth is that Democrats have just as many sex scandals as republicans. The party does have an anti-homo bias there is no doubt about that though.  But analyze that statement above.  A man in a public men’s room at an airport attempting to solicit PUBLIC sex from a stranger that could be "underage", without "protection" or in no way interested in sex but in the wrong place at wrong time and another man giving a woman a "gift" of cash for having what is consensual sex in privacy.  Might not have been so bad if Sen Craig was at a gay bar or in PVT but in public and anonymous?

  2. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him to make war on Iran, a bad guy when Bush's Daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

 
 R: Japan was good before Pearl Harbor then bad then good, then bad competitor.  Of course we attempt to win friends and do business with countries.  And to say that cant find Bin Laden stuff is reason for Iraq campaign is to ignore reality. But again it makes a nice slogan.

  3. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Viet Nam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

 R:  PSSST trade embargo endorsed started by a DEMOCRAT (Kennedy) and maintained by DEMOCRAT presidents ever since.  In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton expanded the trade embargo even further by ending the practice of foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies trading with Cuba in dollar amounts totaling more than $700 million a year.

  but oh those duplicitous Republican Devils right? 

  4. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. Resolutions against Iran.

 
 R: Currently the UN is there.  To ignore its resolutions (like Bill Clinton did in invading Kosovo) is wrong.  Many Republicans want out of UN many don’t.  There are many issues that the democrats are divided on.  So many in the party want out of Iraq yet every major candidate in Democrat contention says they should stay in Iraq.  Which is it?

  
  5. Less expensive Canadian drugs are not safe and must be kept out of our country, but Chinese toys and foodstuff don't need regulating.

  
R: We have a food and drug administration to protect US consumers.  And as much as I don’t like taxes, taxes on prescription drugs are a major factor in cost difference.  To circumvent that tax violates necessary FDA restrictions.  Food stuffs are regulated so that is ignoring facts, and toys do not fall under FDA but when they are found harmful are banned.  It is a comparison of apple and egg roll.  It makes a nice sound bite but is not a logical argument.

  
  6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

  
R:  Under every republican president back to Ron Reagan both veterans benefits and Pay particularly COMBAT pay has gone up dramatically and so have enlistment and reenlistment bonuses.  It is just a typical lie that is repeated so much sheeple believe it.

  7. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

  
R: if they are kept out of schools kids wont see the schools ENCOURAGING bad behavior for adolescents.  Often behavior parents don’t condone. 

  8. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies; then demand their cooperation and money.

  
R:  Works so well that now France and Germany BOTH have pro-AMERICAN governments elected after the start of the War in Iraq. Maybe we should do it more?  :)

  9. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism. HMO's and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

  

R:  Iraqi constitution is formed by Iraqis to work in Iraq.  We don’t want to live under Iraqi constitution they do.  Again it is apples to hummus comparison.  Does the Gov do a better job at ANYTHING then private business?  Democrats complain about care at veterans’ hospital and then want the Gov to give them their care.  What sense does that make?  We need less gov not more.

  10. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

  

R: global climate change is not in doubt.  The effect of man on that climate change is.  No conclusive evidence.  There are tons of holes in the theory’s that expound it.  Historical evidence of climate change effecting growth and shrinkage of Greenland glaciers in the time of Vikings. Enough to drive Vikings into extinction on the Greenland island in a few generations.  According to their glaciers in Greenland the country warmer at the start of the Viking era then it is now.

  No competent Republican leader says tobacco doesn’t cause cancer.  Under a republican president the warning labels on Cigarettes were changed to "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined that Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to Your Health (1970) "  by a SURGEON GENERAL

  But don't let facts interfere with your “sloganism”.

  11. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

 

 R: No, but a president committing a perjury and another president NOT lying are comparing asses and elephants.  If a weather forecaster looks at every piece of evidence at his disposal and says it will be nice day tomorrow and it rains he didn’t lie.  At the time of his making the statement "it will rain" he believed it to be true.  Every available evidence justified going to war in Iraq.  Every prominent democrat said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and was a threat in 1998 before GWB was president. So compare that to committing perjury under oath. 

  12. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages, censoring the Internet and passing laws for a brain-dead person.

  

R: That is the big Gov wing of the Republican party.  I don’t like those who hold those views either, but states determine marriage, and laws are there to protect democrats, that’s who the brain dead comment is referring to right? 

  13. The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

  

R: one is done as a mature adult in office (or while hubby is in offense), and the other is a youth indiscretion.  Bush Driving record is no more important than Clinton/Obama dope smoking.  Its not important at all.  Using the Governor office to make $200000 in cattle futures compares with what someone did as a kid?  Should actions of every private person be subject to public scrutiny or just those actions you take WHILE in office. 

  14. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

  

R: Are people that have moral failings and committing crimes not people we should pray for?  As for Rush Limbaugh he is a BLOW hard and was never elected to anything.  Of course he is more popular on radio then any Democrat and it drives them crazy.

  15. Pro-life is defined as that time between conception and birth. After that, you are on your own!
  
 r: This makes no sense? Are you saying that Republicans are for Murder?  Or that we should have socialism and a GOV knows better then you do what is right for you the rest of your life? Umm yes you should have a right to be born and raised in a loving home.  There is a 25K-30K dollar cost and many Americans go overseas to adopt while we murder babies in the US.  Once you are born you should be cared for and loved by family not big gov though. That is for sure.  

Remember on every issue there are two sides.  If you are not on the RIGHT then you are on the WRONG side. (oh and there is no such word as Sloganism or sheeple but i like those words anyway)

Rob
P.S i respond to all comments and am happy to dialoge by email at Tinsldr2@yahoo.com also.

Reasons not to vote for Ron Paul.  Besides the obvious that he can’t win here are a list of positions:

Against fighting in Iraq.  Well it is a no brainer for me.  Weakness in the culture of these fanatics is surrender.  Give them an inch they want a mile.  And they will kill to get that mile. 

Ron Paul is against the patriot and Defend America Act.  These acts allow us to listen in on calls from Islamic terrorists to America.  Wouldn’t that have been nice to be able to do to catch the 9/11 Hijackers?  We need this ability.  My family makes calls to and from Europe frequently, at least twice a week.  If they listen about my aunts visit or my mother in-laws health problems it does not bother me.  Where is the issue?  Even if they listen to a call from me to my wife its not like they become public knowledge.  If me and my wife plot to blow up a building then we should be stopped. If it saves the lives of Americans it is worth it.  Even if they hear a crime like Tax evasion they don’t act only to protect lives and get terrorists.

Rep Paul wants to Eliminate the FED and Gold Standard.  This is crazy given today’s 13 trillion dollar GDP.  If you go to a dollar as small as 1/20^th an ounce that’s over 600,000,000,000 ounces of gold.  That’s 600 billion ounces.  Ten ounces to the cubic inch.  That converts to more gold then we have.  What happens when Bill gates demands gold for his Dollar?  Or the Chinese?

Money is valuable because of what YOU will give me for it.  IF you trade a loaf of bread for a dollar that loaf is worth a dollar.  If you sell a house in GA  for $275,000 that house is worth $275000.  If the value of the house goes up or down that is a market cycle. 

Currently we are about to go in to a slow market Cycle.  So what?  We have had unemployment under 4% and growing median Incomes.  Economy is not in bad shape and will recover from any down market period.  We had plenty of down Market periods when we didn’t have a FED and the FED helps smooth the market out. We had Depressions in the 1890s and were on the gold standard then so its not a cure for financial cycles.

Ron Paul supports the we the People ACT that would eliminate the ability of Federal courts to hear cases reference some civil rights such as marriage etc.  This means that a persons civil freedom when denied by the state can’t be heard by the Fed Gov.  In 2005, Paul introduced the We the People Act, which would have removed from the jurisdiction of federal courts "any claim based upon the right of privacy,

He wants to eliminate the IRS. Ok I WANT to eliminate the IRS HOWEVER the fed GOV needs money.  In 1790s they could get all the money they needed off excise taxes and other small tax sources.  Today we get over 55% of our revenue from personal and corporate income taxes and over 35% from social security.  Where will the money come from for our Gov?  Gov Huckabee wants to eliminate the IRS but he is reasonable enough to propose a replacement.

I want Small Gov not No GOV.

He wants to cu or eliminate the FBI or CIA?  Some say they are unconstitutional but the courts and the CONSTITUTION say otherwise.  The bottom line in 2007 is they are NEEDED. 

Ron Paul is not the only constitutional based candidate.  He is the candidate most like the Amish.  His platform is “Amish-like” in that if it wasn’t here in 1790 he is against it.  This is similar to the Amish driving horse and Buggy because cars aren’t in the bible. 

The fact is life is unimaginably different then it was 1790s.  We need to maintain our liberty our freedom and our constitution.  We do not need to roll the clock back.  We do need to cut the budget and keep taxes low, maintain defense, keep our rights, and close our border.  I will vote for people that can best do that and it is NOT Ron Paul

When I was a teenager I thought I knew better then my parents.  They wanted me home at a certain time, wanted me to do what they said, respect them and their rules and I thought they were out of touch with reality and that I could decide better.

 

Now as an adult I can understand why we had rules and order and I had to do things I didn't want to and had to NOT do some things I wanted.  Now I am 44, support a family of my own, and am a whole lot wiser.  I enforce some rules of the house that my son doesn’t like.  Too bad!

 

It would be great to live without government.  I don't need GOV interference in my life BUT YOU ALL DO NEED IT.  Recognizing that you all need rules so that my family and I can be safe, I draw up a contract with my fellow citizens that determine how we live. 

 

Since there are to many of us and I don’t have the time to individually come to an agreement with all my fellow citizens on every minor issue, we all get together and choose some people to make some of the rules that effect our behavior with others.  We limit the power of those people so they cant do EVERYTHING they want  and since they are employed by US we determine how long they keep their jobs and tell them how we want them to represent our interests.

 

Since many of the things my fellow citizens do benefit you, we use our guns and hired enforcers to make you pay for the benefits.  If you don’t like paying Too bad! Since a majority vote of hired officials establish the contractual obligations we live by, you are bound by that covenant whether you like it or not.. 

 

You have two choices, become part of the solution and help choose good people to represent us and ensure those people that represent us vote the way you want them to (remember they work for you too) or leave and go elsewhere.  I recommend voting for good people and loudly proclaiming your desires on issues that effect you. 

 

Are my fellow citizens and I taking away some of your freedom and giving up some of ours?  Of course but we do so for the mutual benefit of all.  The key is we decide when we hire those who represent us  how much of our (including your) freedom we give up for security.  Example I give up my freedom to drive how I want because while I can drive my Mustang Safely on a city street at 90 MPH, YOU need rules so YOU don’t drive recklessly and kill my son. 

 

Which freedom am I willing to give up? I give up my freedoms to do things that will hurt you and expect you to give up your freedoms that will hurt me. If what I am doing is not hurting you or others then the people I hire can't tell me not to do it.

 

I allow my hired people to take some of my money to allow them to build public use infrastructure with my money since that is necessary and I don’t want to build roads myself.  Things that are neccessary for the good of everyone like an educated populace, certain medical research that is to expensive to completly fund privately and some amount of cultural and enviromental regulations I give up my freedom and my money to achieve a mutual benifit from.  Ex I can't just build a house in the Yosemite national park because we all get a benifit from a shared use of the place. 

 

I in no way give up my inalienable rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.  My elected representative has no right to tell you what to do if you are not hurting me or anyone else.  My contract with my fellow Americans is called the constitution and laws of our land.  You don’t like then lets peacefully discuss it and make THOSE WE HIRED change it. 

What Makes America Great

We do.  I read an article that got me thinking about the future of America.  The writer was talking of America on the decline.  He listed off a bunch of potential problems with America but I remain unconvinced.  In fact in most regards I think we are better off then in the past.  One commenter who was in his mid-twenties asked when this great age of America was supposed to be. 

America has made immeasurable contributions to the world.  The amount we have done right is more then I could catalogue but let’s start with history of what we did wrong.  Early America saw slavery, the whiskey rebellion, suffering among the poor, terrible education and serious disagreement among the various states and political parties.  Throw in the fact of what we were doing to the Native Americans and you can see it was not an idyllic society.  Of course that makes the accomplishments of those great forefathers all the more incredible and noteworthy.

As we progress in history we had the states rights war fought largely over the economics and slavery.   We had a president that threw drunken brawls in the white house and political leaders shot in duels.  We had massive corruption in government, drafts you could literally buy your way out of and suspension of constitutional rights such as habeas corpus.  America had huge amounts of unregistered immigration from Europe and the Orient.  We built the first transcontinental railroad using this cheap undocumented labor and slew a lot of Indians in the process not to mention what we did to the environment, think buffalo and dust bowl. 

As we progressed as a country we had War with Spain over Cuba and sinking of the U.S.S. Maine which may have been bogus.   America fought Wars with countries that supported Pirates (almost like terrorists) simply over economic interests.  Isolationist policies were in favor for awhile and then we had War in Europe that didn’t end in unconditional surrender and set the stage for future war.  America had Trade embargo policies that caused a country to attack us on our soil and we were the only country to use nukes against another country.  During this time we had depressions, rationing of goods, our country was broke and couldn’t afford the Second World War, women were forced into the workplace, and a then forced out of it.  We made deals with evil countries we were opposed to like the U.S.S.R and carved up the world as we saw fit at the end of the war giving approval for the USSR to rule by fiat and proxy over countries like Poland and Hungary.  Don’t even get me started on what we did to the Americans of Japanese descent in WWII.  

We had terrible civil rights injustices, civil and not so civil disagreement on another War in Viet Nam, war in Korea, which ended in a draw, invasion of Grenada and now our current woes.  We had McCarthyism and blacklisting for people that may have supported Communism.   Inflation and gas prices out of control, censor ship of the airwaves,  decline of manufacturing jobs, inner city riots are All problems of the 50’s,60’s and 70’s.   So when was this great America?

Our country is great.  I have travelled the world and never been to a better place.  What makes us great is the multiethnic melting pot of ideas and people.  We, all of us, from the liberal big government homosexuals to the conservative Christians.  From the people who follow politics to those that follow Brittany Spears.  We the people in order to form a MORE perfect union, not a PERFECT union but a more perfect union then what is elsewhere, WE are what make it great. 

 

 And the young generation of America will keep this country great.  The kids today will live in a better America then we do now. 

Representative Pete Stark said “ You don’t have enough money to fund the war or children but you are going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the presidents amusement” . Dang I can’t even get my mind around the vile evilness of the statement.
I know this will be in several Townhall.com columns soon and we will all comment there but I had to get it down now while I am in shock. Also a detailed response will be more then the 2K space limit on the website. It is on page 10 of the Mid east edition of the Stars and Stripes Saturday Oct 20, 2007 edition. The newspaper here, because of deliveries and time zones is always a day or two behind on news. I do check CNN, Fox, and other news sites on line as well as the Commentary sites such as Mr. Boortz Nuze site and Townhall.com.
DANG where to start. “You don’t have enough money to fund…” S-Chip is funded. President Bush wanted to expand it by 5 Billion Congress wanted more. So Pres. Bush wanted to fund healthcare for poor children. So now we have a sitting US representative lying, just telling an utter falsehood, provably wrong, and knowing himself that it is a lie, into the official congressional record. That’s the first part.
Then he goes on to say we are going to spend it to blow up innocent people. Where are we spending money to blow up innocents? The headline of today’s paper is an Army Officer acquitted of aiding enemy but guilty of lesser charges. Right under that is a story about two soldiers charged with shooting a wounded man. That’s right, if they are guilty of shooting a wounded man they will go to jail. The Army Officer did wrong he is tried and convicted. As always, and as it should be, if we commit war crimes we are tried and go to jail. Who is blowing up innocents? Almost EVERY DAY for the last month innocents are killed in roadside bombs and sectarian violence. For the last month part of my job has been to record these and other events into the computer database. Everyday we find and destroy caches of weapons and identify and disarm roadside bombs. Unfortunately we don’t get them all and innocent civilians AND ‘innocent’ Soldiers, and Marines get killed and wounded. Where are we killing innocents? That is his lie number 2.
Oh man is that a slap in the face to every decent military person over here. Now matter how angry and upset I get. No matter how much I might rage inside, I could never tolerate blowing up innocent civilians. It is something we don’t tolerate. Read my first Townhall.com blog. Killing civilians is the antithesis of everything for which we stand. However Rep. Stark feels about the war he must realize that we are protecting innocents from being blown up not the other way around. The Islamic Extremists I fight against think nothing of intentionally targeting women and children, marketplaces, Mosques, Synagogues, Churches, markets and schools. The list of such places from the Golden Dome Mosque in Samarra to the Russian School the kids were shot from while running toward their parents, the school buses in Israel, and the World Trade Center in America were all acts of Muslem extremists. We are the good guys that liberated the concentration camps. We are the ones that tried to distribute food in Somalia. We stopped the slaughter of both sides and protected Moslems in Bosnia and Kosovo. We are the honorable country Rep. Stark.
Rep. Stark wrote "If we can get enough kids to grow old enough"? This from the pro-abortion on demand side? Are kids with life threatening illnesses being turned away at emergency rooms? I think not! The House was debating whether to expand health insurance to people making $20,000-40,000 dollars MORE then the median income level. If you support that then great. If you oppose it then that’s someone’s right. However, implying that kids wont grow old enough because we will only expand S-Chip by 5 billion instead of the 35 billion well lets just say I would love to see any evidence that supports this claim.
The last line, soldiers getting their heads blown off for the President’s amusement, is what left my mouth agape, and is beyond belief. Can anyone really believe that the United States Commander in Chief or any of his subordinates gets amusement from this? This is mind boggling. This is beyond words to describe. My Commanding General (the one in charge of my Division) carries the names of every soldier who died under his command with him every day. He will never forget them and bears that burden at great cost. We have a wall with two electronic boards that has a rotating display of every soldier’s picture, name, age, birthplace and how they died, for every deceased hero in the unit. (Every soldier doing their job honorably in Iraq is a hero in my opinion). Every single person who walks past that display, and most of us pass it multiple times a day, pause and solemnly look at a person or two so that we can pay those who sacrificed all our respects. To somehow believe that any American, Democrat, Republican, Rich, Poor, Conservative, Civilian, Military, Religious, Secular or Liberal, Representative, Senator, or President could in anyway find amusement in a Soldier, Marine, Sailor or Airman getting their head blown off is shamefully disgraceful.
I have decided to email this column to Rep. Stark as well as some radio talk show hosts and my family from my military email account as well as my anonymous Townhall.com posting. It is not a condemnation of  Representative Stark, a reflection in anyway of official or unofficial Army policy, just my personal opinion of his statement as was reported in the Newspaper. I am not a resident of Mr. Starks district and am fully aware of all regulations regarding civilian control of the military and military officers roles and rights but am just so upset and disgusted about it that I can not sit by and not tell everyone how much this statement offended me.

 

Someone said the strangest thing to me the other day in a townhall forum.  We were on a forum discussing an article of Mr. Medved.  We disagreed with each other and cited reasons for that disagreement.  I understood their position which was reasonable, and I asserted my disagreement without any disparaging remarks.  When they replied they took me to task for referring to the author as “Mister” and asked me if I felt he was somehow superior to me.  

The more I thought about this the more confused I became.  Why would someone not call him Mr. Medved?  When is that appropriate?  When did it not become appropriate to use Mr., Miss, Mrs., Ms. Dr. Sir, and Ma’am etc when referring to an individual?  When is it a sign of weakness or inferiority to be polite?  Do people beside me still say please and thank you and you’re welcome?

When I refer to Arianna Huffington I might use her full name but I wouldn’t say “Huffington says blah blah” I would say “Ms.  Huffington says blah blah” I would use Miss or Mrs.  If I knew or carried about her marital status.   Using a full name to describe someone is ok I think but a first name or last name only?  How is that respectful or decent?

Ms. Huffington has a column that appears weekly in the Stars and Stripes Newspaper every week in Iraq.  It appears across from Ms. Coulters.  I don’t think I have ever agreed with one of Ms. Huffington’s columns and find them devoid of well formed opinions and good logic.  However, I would never insult her on a personal level.   Why would I not use Ms. when referring to her unless I am using her full name? 

How often do intelligent discussions of point and counterpoint on townhall forums degrade into name calling and attacks?   What does it say about an individual when they refer to a serving US senator by an intentional misspelling of her name?   Now I can name a dozen reasons to dislike Sen. Clinton without even batting an eye and more if I think about it BUT she is a US senator.  I have to respect her office and then respect her as a lady.  In my opinion anyone who intentionally misspells her name is in the same category as those who disgustingly altered Gen Petreaus in the infamous attack ads.  If you graduated the sixth grade don’t try to justify bad behavior by pointing out the other side does it.  That defense went out with grade school.  Incoming and IEDs may break our bones but names will never hurt us. 

I happen to like the comments of several very liberal posters on townhall.  As I write this Lilly comes to mind.  Even if she did correct me once on poor word usage.  She is an over 60 year old lady who is married to a WWII vet.  She is well educated, well spoken, and knowledgeable on a variety of topics and in my opinion she is frequently wrong.  However it would be a much duller place without her comments.    Yet people tell her things like “shut up and go away”.   People should attack her ideas if they are up to the challenge, and they use credible facts and sources.  But when is it ok to attack a little old lady personally?  My dad is in his 70’s and I am 44 and I think he would still spank me if he heard me talk the way some supposedly conservative people talk. 

Ann Coulter is a comedian.  She makes a living saying outrageous things and making fun of people.  She can be excused if she gets more leeway in her comments because it is an obvious attempt at humor.   The few times that I listened to Rush Limbaugh it was an eternity of him bloviating, commercials constantly and very few opinions from the other side.  He is notorious for calling people names.  He makes a lot of money by doing it by why the personal attacks?  He has enough to shred the opposition on ideas why call names like a 10 year old? I guess it is what sells but it pains me to see the loss of civility in what should be informative educated discourse.   Even if I agree with people that are rude I have little tolerance for them.  How many people have kids and would correct them if they called someone, maybe a teacher, Shrillary or worse, listen to people who claim to be intelligent stoop to name calling.   Can anyone  see Thomas Paine , Thomas Jefferson, or John Adams making fun of King George’s name instead of his politics? 

Some really great posters on both sides have great gifts of satire.  It’s always great to see them because we do need more humor in life.  But some common decency, respect, manners, and civility would be nice.