20 November 2012

HAVE THEY NO SHAME?

Throughout the run-up to the general election, all we heard from the useful idiots of the Democratic Party was condemnation of the “obstructionist” Republicans. The Republicans in the House drew lines in the sand and just wouldn’t give in to the clearly morally superior Democrats. How dare they stand on principle? People who don’t group think with the liberal elites are not allowed principles. Their principles get in the way of what the liberal establishment knows is best for the poor stupid American people. No, the only correct and moral behavior is to compromise.

Until now, that is. Within a matter of days, the three top useful idiots in the capitol sang a different tune. First, Whinin’ Nancy, shocked that the American people would have the temerity to keep the House in Republican hands, moaned to the press. According to Whinin’ Nancy, she simply will not tolerate any compromise on increasing taxes.

She will “reject” any agreement the President negotiates to prevent the catastrophic “fiscal cliff” if it does not soak the “rich,” which she defines as couples making in excess of $250,000. No, by God. Better that the entire economy really kamikaze than to allow those pikers, who already pay nearly 40% of all revenue from the personal income tax, to keep more of their money. They need to pay their “fair share” so that Congress has more money to spend.

If she is really serious about a fair share, then let's just have a flat tax that starts at dollar one for every person in the Nation. That will be about as popular as a goat at a wedding amongst most of WN's national constituency.

Now, in my household, if I have X dollars and want to spend X+ 20%, I have a problem. See, if I go out and take that extra 20% from my neighbor, that selfish cad, I’ll end up in jail. Apparently I am supposed to live within my means.

But what if I want to spend my money (and my neighbor’s) on really neat stuff? According to WN, I ought to have the right to penalize my short-sighted neighbor. I mean, c’mon. What’s the fun in being a Congressperson if I can’t spend more and more of the people’s money for the noblest of all purposes, i.e., getting re-elected.

 About the only good news here is that WN is irrelevant—she has no say because as the Pres is so fond of saying, “Elections have consequences.”

 Ah, but let us bid a fond farewell to the happy minority denizens of the people’s house and sail a few yards north to the Senate. Who do we meet? Look, it is Dirty Dick Durbin. He has something to say.  He is aghast that perhaps—just perhaps—there might be a deal in the works to raise the threshold from $250K to a cool million.

"Absolutely not," cries DDD. "It's a reasonable number. I'm not sure what we're proving with (the millionaire tax)."

Well, for one thing, Triple D, along with WN and Lyin’ Harry Reid, are proving that they are ready to destroy the economy in exchange for a tax rate that would produce enough extra revenue to fund the federal government for, wait for it, here it comes, eight days!

And remember, py yumpin yiminy, Triple D and his cohorts simply will not cut spending by eight days’ worth of income. Nope. If they do that, Rich Trumpka will send in his bully boys to start knee capping people.

Never mind that by getting rid of the Department of Education (a misnomer if ever there was one) we could save a hundred billion bucks right now. Get rid of a department that does not educate a single child. Let the States perform their traditional role as the providers of education fitted to the needs of localities rather than a one size fits all scheme thought up and imposed by all of those bureaucrats who shuffle paper while consuming tens of billions of dollars that could really be used to educate our children.

Nope. Better to draw a line in the sand. If we don’t penalize those pikers for being hard-working successes, more Americans might begin to think it is a good idea for them to keep some of their money, too. Oh, the agony!

But wait, folks, there’s more. Now entering the spotlight is that champion of the people, that foe of the obstructionist filibuster, put your hands together and give a big welcome to Lyin’ Harry Reid.

Now LH isn’t going to stoop to such mundane things as trying to save the economy. That’s what he has Triple D for. Nope, LH is going to stonewall any attempt to find out the truth behind the, purely coincidental, I am sure, cover up of the facts about the attack on American soil in Benghazi. (For those of you who didn’t have Civics in high school because we needed a quota course on great left-handed female field hockey players, embassies are considered to be the sovereign soil of the country whose embassy occupies that soil.)

From David Petraeus, we learned that someone altered the CIA’s talking points issued right after the attack to make sure the attack was not characterized as, well, an attack, much less a terrorist attack.

But according to LH , that’s not gonna happen, no matter how many Senators, including not a few in his own caucus, want it to be investigated. Nope, a select committee would need a floor vote to be created, and Reid said he wouldn’t permit it. He won’t let such a request come to the floor. No need to organize a filibuster of a number of Senators. One guy can make sure the White House never has to explain how politics took precedence over a mere four American citizens’ lives. Now, if they had been driving a terrorist to a planning meeting, that would have been a different story, but luckily, they were just loyal, patriotic citizens. Whew!

“The elections are over,” Reid wrote. “It is time to put an end to the partisan politicization of national security and begin working together to strengthen our efforts to dismantle and destroy the terrorist networks that threaten us.” Too bad he didn’t feel that way before November 6.

Have they no shame?

10 November 2012

MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY 2012

At posts and stations around the world, today marks the 237th birthday of the finest fighting force the world has ever known, the United States Marine Corps.  A central part of the ceremony is the publication of General Lejeune's 1921 Order marking the birthday, followed by a message from the Commandant:

On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines was created by a resolution of the Continental Congress. Since that date many thousand men have borne the name Marine. In memory of them it is fitting that we who are Marines should commemorate the birthday of our Corps by calling to mind the glories of its long and illustrious history. 

The record of our Corps is one which will bear comparison with that of the most famous military organizations in the world’s history. During 90 of the 167 years of its existence the Marine Corps has been in action against the Nation’s foes. From the battle of Trenton to the Argonne, Marines have won foremost honors in war, and in the long eras of tranquility at home generation after generation of Marines have grown gray in war in both hemispheres, and in every corner of the seven seas, that our country and its citizens might enjoy peace and security. In every battle and skirmish since the birth of our Corps Marines have acquitted themselves with the greatest distinction, winning new honors on each occasion until the term “Marine” has come to signify all that is highest in military efficiency and soldierly virtue.

This high name of distinction and soldierly repute we who are Marines today have received from those who preceded us in the corps. With it we also received from them the eternal spirit which has animated our Corps from generation to generation and has been the distinguishing mark of Marines in every age. So long as that spirit continues to flourish Marines will be found equal to every emergency in the future as they have been in the past, and the men of our Nation will regard us as worthy successors to the long line of illustrious men who have served as “Soldiers of the Sea” since the founding of the Corps.

 John Lejeune Lieutenant General U.S. Marine Corps

R 152053Z OCT 12 UNCLASSIFIED/ ALMAR 039/12 MSGID/GENADMIN/CMC WASHINGTON DC DMCS // SUBJ/UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY MESSAGE 2012// GENTEXT/REMARKS/

1. AS WE PAUSE TO CELEBRATE THE 237TH BIRTHDAY OF OUR CORPS, WE REFLECT ON THE RICH LEGACY OF SERVICE HANDED DOWN TO US, WE RECOMMIT OURSELVES TO THE TASKS AT HAND, AND WE LOOK FORWARD TOWARD A BRIGHT FUTURE IN SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY.

 2. MARINES EXIST TO FIGHT AND WIN OUR NATION'S BATTLES. WE ARE MOST PROUD OF OUR WELL-EARNED REPUTATION FOR ANSWERING THE CLARION CALL FIRST. THIS WAS NEVER MORE EVIDENT THAN AT THE EPIC BATTLE OF GUADALCANAL 70 YEARS AGO. PICKED TO LEAD THE FIRST ALLIED COUNTER-OFFENSIVE OF THE PACIFIC WAR BECAUSE THEY WERE THE "MOST READY," MARINES LANDED ON 7 AUGUST 1942 IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS. THEY PERSEVERED THROUGH MONTHS OF UNREMITTING DEPRIVATION AND BITTER COMBAT. BY THE TIME THE VETERANS OF THE BLUE DIAMOND, THE CACTUS AIR FORCE, OUR LEGENDARY MARINE RAIDERS, AND INITIAL ELEMENTS OF THE FOLLOW-ME DIVISION GATHERED TOGETHER TO RAISE A CANTEEN AND TOAST THE BIRTHDAY OF THEIR BELOVED CORPS SOME THREE MONTHS LATER, THE BATTLE WAS NO LONGER AN ISSUE. THE SITUATION WAS WELL IN HAND...VICTORY WAS ASSURED.

3. WE CARRY THAT SAME LEGACY OF RESOLUTE COMMITMENT AND VALOR TODAY. OVER THE PAST YEAR, MARINES HAVE STOOD FIRM IN THE TOUGHEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES AND ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS. WE'VE TAKEN THE FIGHT TO THE ENEMY IN HELMAND AND TO THE HORN OF AFRICA. WE'VE MANNED THE RAMPARTS OF BELEAGUERED EMBASSIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA, FOUGHT ALONGSIDE OUR ALLIES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, WHILE BEHIND THE SCENES, AFLOAT AND ASHORE, OTHER MARINES DID THE PAINSTAKING HARD WORK REQUIRED TO MAINTAIN OUR HIGH LEVELS OF READINESS AND EFFICIENCY.

 4. AS WE LOOK TOWARD THE FUTURE, WE KNOW THAT OUR SENTIMENTAL PLACE IN THE HEARTS OF OUR FELLOW AMERICANS AND CRITICAL ROLE IN THE DEFENSE OF OUR WAY OF LIFE ARE ASSURED. AMERICA HAS ALWAYS WANTED A MARINE CORPS...IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY. NOW, MORE THAN EVER, AMERICA NEEDS ITS MARINES AS WE CONFRONT A DANGEROUS AND UNPREDICTABLE WORLD. FACED WITH DIFFICULT DAYS AHEAD, WE WILL CONTINUE TO DRAW STRENGTH FROM OUR RICH HERITAGE AND THE SHARED VALUES OF THE MARINES TO OUR LEFT AND TO OUR RIGHT. WE KNOW WHO WE ARE...WE KNOW WHAT WE STAND FOR. AS EVER WE WILL STRIVE TO BE FOUND WORTHY OF THE LEGENDARY TRUST OF OUR FELLOW AMERICANS.

5. I SALUTE THE ENDURING FAITHFULNESS OF THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE, OF THOSE WHO WEAR OUR CLOTH TODAY, AND OF THE FAMILIES WHO STAND SO RESOLUTELY AT OUR SIDES. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARINES...AND SEMPER FIDELIS.

 JAMES F. AMOS, GENERAL, U.S. MARINE CORPS, COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS.//