A FEW WORDS IN SUPPORT OF DIRECTOR COMEY

This has been a hard few days for FBI Director Comey.  An honorable man, a dedicated FBI agent, and a loyal citizen, he has been placed in an excruciatingly difficult position by people who could have done their jobs instead of hiding behind him.

Background (for those who were vacationing on Jupiter this week):

For nearly a quarter of a century, no American politician or bureaucrat has held closer to the opinion that the laws that apply to most Americans do not apply to her.  As First Lady, she attempted to fire employees in the White House Travel Office in order to give that function to a company owned by personal friends.  When her actions became known, the fired employees were reinstated and her cronies lost the contract she had arranged for them.  As part of the many investigations of the ethics (or lack thereof) of the Clintons, in 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray issued his final report on Travelgate. He sought no charges against her, saying that while some of Clinton's statements were factually false, there was insufficient evidence that these statements were either knowingly false or that she understood that her statements led to the firings.

Her tumultuous life in the White House, I would suggest, served to make her the most paranoid national politician since Richard Nixon.  It will be interesting to see how that plays out. Certainly, it should be remembered that the legal transgressions that drove President Nixon from the White House were relatively minor—except for the cover up. One wonders whether Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin are going to be as willing to fall on their swords for Senator Clinton as were Bob Haldeman and John Erlichman.

Horace Rumpole, Esquire, a wonderful fictional English barrister, was a master of the epigram.  One of my two favorites is: “Murder is nothing more than simple assault carried to its logical, but most unfortunate, extremes.”

The the latest contretemps, over the mishandling of classified material by then-Secretary of State Clinton, is a logical extension of “Travelgate.”  Mrs Clinton wanted something done her way.  The law stood in her path so she simply ignored the law.  And to do so, she cherry-picked legal advice.  (My other favorite Rumpolism applies here:  “Lawyers and tarts; the world’s two oldest professions.  We both aim to please.”)

And it came to pass that during sworn testimony before the House of Representatives that, contrary to all sorts of record keeping laws-implementing the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act which Democrats had pushed through to ensure that “bad people” like President Nixon would have to preserve pesky records that might help, someday, tarnish or even end their presidencies.  But Mrs C is an attorney, and by some accounts, a good one. 

What if, she thought, I could keep all the records of my time as Secretary of state somewhere those pesky archivists didn’t know about.  Then, I could make sure only the history that I want people to know ever comes out.  And it worked.  Oh, some ethical employees of the State Department questioned the scheme, but the praetorians simply called them in and set things straight:  Forget that you asked and do not ever ask that question again!

Except, just as Butterfield revealed the tapes, someone revealed the “home brew” server.

Enter the FBI.

By this time, Mrs C was, at least in her own eyes, the anointed successor to President Obama.  Not going to let a little matter of law and ethics screw that up!  So, in relatively short order:

1.  The FBI began to look at those records that Mrs C had decided it ought to see. 

Not much there……… except the guy who set up the system did something unexpected.  Bryan Pagliano, an information technology specialist who helped set up Clinton's private email server, demanded immunity before he would submit to a deposition in a civil Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Mrs C.  Now, I truly believe in innocent until proven guilty and no coerced self-incrimination, and all of that.  But nothing—NOTHING—sets a cops and a prosecutor’s heart thumping like an evidently non-descript mooch who wants immunity. 

2.  The FBI dug in.  They began to find things.  When she said that no classified material ever found its way onto her servers, she was right , except 113 classified items WERE there and another 2000 that should have been classified, weren’t.

3.  Now the President has a problem.  He is nearing the end of a failed presidency.  He wants Mrs C to have his “third term.”  But here we have the FBI finding information about Mrs C that if it was about anyone else who handles classified material would be a career-ender.  And might get that person a stylish new orange jumpsuit. 

You see, the FBI tends to take their “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity” motto almost as seriously as West Point’s “Duty. Honor. Country.”  Or “Semper Fidelis” for Marines (a lot of whom find their way around Lunga Reservoir from The Basic School to the FBI Academy).  Or “Beat Army” for the Middies.  What’s a President to do?

Simple.  I’ve got a respected Attorney General (in comparison to her predecessor).  I’ll leave it to her and her “professional, career prosecutors.  Problem solved.

4.  But Bill and Hill, they are belts and suspenders folks.  So, as it becomes clear that the prosecutors have a whole lot of damning stuff, it becomes necessary for the Attorney General and former President Clinton to ‘just sorta happen to be in Phoenix for a couple of minutes at the same time, on the same secluded patch of isolated tarmac.  Might as well amble on over to the AG’s plane to uh,…er…swap pix of the grands, yeah, that’s it… and pass the time of day.  Just a couple of minutes. 

Well, actually nearly 40. 

“Hey Mr President.  How are the grandkids?” 

“Great.  Gorgeous.  Wanna keep on being AG in a HC presidency?  Gotta run, now.”

And here we are, the 4^th of July weekend coming up, perfect time for the AG to announce that the investigation is over, the FBI report has been submitted to her, and she and her pros  have decided that there is no “there” there.  But somebody finds out. 

Somebody ALWAYS finds out.  Well not about the offer—that is something that only tens of millions of jaded Americans like me, familiar with the Clintons—could imagine.  But, you see, whether it actually happened or not, ….well, “.What difference does it make?" 

Here’s the difference.  When I was a “standards of conduct officer” as a Marine Judge Advocate, and when I was teaching it, the APPEARANCE of a conflict that did not exist was worse than a real conflict.  Sooooo, now General Lynch has to go on TV and say, there was no quid pro quo, but I’m going to follow the recommendation of the FBI.

5.  Ghost of Richard Nixon enters, stage left.  When he had a pesky problem keeping secrets from an independent prosecutor, he fired the man.  Well, actually, he ordered HIS Attorney General,Richard Kliendeinst to do it.  General Kliendienst refused.  Nixon fired him, but Deputy AG William Ruckleshaus also refused and was fired.  At that point, Kliendienst and Ruckleshaus prevailed on Solicitor-General Robert Bork, who was poised to resign, to stay on and provide moral leadership to the DOJ, at the cost of firing Cox—who was toast, anyway.

But that was 10 months or so before the missing minutes became public knowledge.  In 2016, this has to be put to rest now, before the anointing.  No time.  No time. 

So here’s the quandary facing Director Comey. 

A.  If he forces General Lynch to make the announcement, it will probably be an unleavened, salt-free, glutten-free announcement.  Got the report. Read it.  Thought about it, laughed about it, forgot about it.  “No you cannot see it!  It is an advisory opinion protected from disclosure by FOIA.  Besides, if you reeeeeeeeeally want to know what happened, you should ask the FBI, but they can’t answer, cause I’m the boss and advisory opinions and FOIA………..” (Don’t want all that "careless" and "unsophisticated" stuff out for the voters to see!!!)

B.  Make the announcement that will be the result General Lynch wants.  But show the world that you and the FBI did the job—with Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity.

Even if the FBI had recommended charges, it was always going to be a prosecutor—either General Lynch or one of her lads and lassies who would do what the Pres and Bill and Hill wanted.  “I have reviewed the recommendations of the FBI, but it is always the prosecutors who have to make the final call…..no don’t write that down, say ‘Directory Come decided that there was no prosecutable crime."

So, Comey put all the cards on the table, showed who Senator Clinton really is, and was able to stay at the helm of the FBI to get them through this mess.

We owe him a debt of gratitude. 

Post Script:  Go back and re-read paragraph 3 of this blog entry.  Now, Consider Director Comey, this morning, before the House:  ““One of the things I have learned in this case is that the secretary may not have been as sophisticated as people would assume,. She did not even have a computer in her office, for example.  I see evidence of great carelessness, but I do not see evidence that secretary Clinton … knew she was doing something against the law.”

Sooooo, not smart enough to figure out an i-Phone, but let’s give her the nuclear launch codes anyway!

WILL THE REAL CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES PLEASE STAND UP?

One thing I like about the internet is that it exposes me to some people who are really, really smart.  Misguided, but really smart.  I try to bring them back to the true path, but alas…..

And occasionally—occasionally—they even make me consider that, as hard as it is to imagine, maybe I’m, well, not wrong, nevah hachee, GI, but maybe an order of magnitude or two from being as right as I ought to be.

One of those really smart people is Professor William (Beau) Weston, the Van Winkle Professor of Sociology at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. (If Centre sounds familiar, it is because it was the host to the 2000 and 2012 Vice Presidential debates.)

Now, before I go any further, I ask you to go on over to Professor Weston’s blog, Gruntled Center,  and read his 4 July 2016 piece entitled “Brexit Leaders Quit When They Realize What A Mess They Have Made” .  And remember how you got there.  You will probably want to go back from time to time.  As I said, he does his damnedest to keep me humble--which is not as hard as it sounds, because he is a really good writer, and wicked smart, to boot.  

Then c’mon back over here, because what follows is my reply and a whole lot more.

Welcome back, and awaaaaaay, we go!

I agree with Professor Weston in principle, which puts me in an awful quandary. 

First, I must say that I am not so certain that, concerning the British exit from the European Union, the alarmists are not just yelling fire in a crowded theater in which there is no fire.  Look how happy all the talking heads have been in the past two weeks.  To think that one can project the long-term results of the British exit in only ten days seems to me to be yet another example of punditry run amok. 

However, his cautionary note about the upcoming American elections is valid. Our political system is badly damaged. As an infantryman, I was tempted to say FUBAR, but that is probably excessive.  But it IS about about to leave us with no good choices to fill the office of President. 

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I cannot imagine myself voting for Mr. Trump, but I will not vote for Senator Clinton, "wouldn't do it if you (well, not you, Prof--you probably do not have one), if someone had the apocryphal cocked and loaded pistol to my head."  And a vote for anyone else is almost assuredly a vote for the Senator.

 

I had the same emotional struggle in 1976, and made the worst mistake of my life when I voted for a man who delayed and delayed the plans to rescue our hostages because the Joint Chiefs would not give him a written promise that no Iranians would be killed or injured in the process!  

The late Professor Roger J. Champagne, my honors American History professor at Illinois State in 1964,  suggested that a major, perhaps the major, cause of the Civil War was the failure of the American political system to put real leaders into office in the 12 years prior to the election of 1860.  It is now 28 years since we have had such a President, and looking at what we have to select from this year, President Lincoln's reputation as the greatest President since George Washington is pretty safe.  Shoot, these two duds make Jimmy Carter and Warren G. Harding look attractive.   

So, where is the American political leader with the courage to stand up and say to the American people: 

We are in a mess.  I want to fix the mess. I need you to work with me.   Here's how we--you and I--are going to do it.  The first thing we say to our representatives and senators in Congress, is "Lead, follow, or get the Hell out of the way.  If you refuse to be part of the solution, then you ARE the problem."

Now, my fellow Americans, this is where your hard work comes in.  If you join with me in this Great Crusade, you are going to have to play fair with your representatives and senators.  You see, we are going to have to demand of them that they do some really scary stuff—for politicians.  What I am going to ask of you and of them is that we toss overboard a lot of the political wreckage that has littered the deck of our ship of state in the past 28 years.  And you have to let them know that if they take up the challenge, if they agree to work together to move us forward, you will resist the temptation to listen to the interest groups that have done so much damage to our nation.  That when some of the things they have to do will cause some temporary pain to you, individually and personally, you will not retaliate. 

It is time for the bankers and the union bosses and the talking heads of the media, and all the special interest groups who want to use us to test their latest wacky ideas—from unisex bathrooms to new forms of corporate welfare—to get out of our way as we start looking out for the citizens of this great nation. 

You know, it has always offended me that all the people who want you and me to sacrifice to test those ideas, especially those who claim to be interested in the poor, the uneducated or under-educated, the people with real illnesses and real disabilities, what those of us who practice the Christian faith will recognize as “the least of these, our brothers and sisters,” are commanding six and seven figure incomes.  You have to wonder--whose interests are they really furthering? 

And because I want to be your President, and the Constitutional Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, I’ll open the bidding.  If you elect me, I will accept no salary greater than the base pay of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  And because the highest possible pay of our most senior military officers is actually limited to about 75 percent of the pay table maximum, that is all I will take.  And you’ll be throwing in a pretty nice house, so I won’t need the housing allowance we give our troops. 

All in all, I figure that I’ll “struggle and have to live on” less than one-third of the well over half a million dollars of your taxes that President Obama is squeaking by on.  And I’ll make sure I pay taxes on every dime of it. 

And so will anyone who serves on my cabinet.  The idea that service to our Nation doesn’t require sacrifice is going to be obsolete.   Oh, I can hear my opponent calling me unrealistic, saying that I won’t be able to get “the best and the brightest” because they can make more in the private sector.  

OK.  The best and the brightest we have had for the last 25 years don’t have a very good track record, anyway.    I guess we will just have to muddle along without them, that I’ll just have to get by on the advice of people who are in it to serve you.  Your public servants should want to serve, not profit, from serving you. 

Now, what comes next.  If you elect me, my primary domestic programs will be fixing the economy so that people can get back to work.  

To do that, in my first 100 days, I will propose a re-institution of Glass-Steagall, the act that split investment banks from what you and I think of as banks.  It is time for the gamblers to gamble with their own money, not with yours.  

In the longer term, I will propose a complete revision of our tax laws; I will propose that any federal income tax will start at dollar one, so that every citizen has a stake in ensuring that federal spending is absolutely necessary.   If we can convince you that we need twenty-five percent of every dollar you earn to run this government, that is what everyone will pay.  But if you decide that we need a nice Chevy of a government rather than a big flashy Caddy, you will have to accept the fact that a lot of the bread and circus programs that have been placed on your shoulders since 1932 may have to go.

Entitlement programs may have to be cut--real entitlement programs, the gift of a generous people to its own citizens.  NOT SOCIAL SECURITY AND NOT MEDICARE.  These are not entitlement programs!  To every citizen who was forced to pay social security and medicare taxes every working day of their lives, I promise you that not only will those programs remain in effect--at current levels--but we will act as if every Congress since the 73d Congress in 1932 had done the right thing by treating the Social Security taxes as an investment rather than a slush fund. 

And the same goes for our military retirees.  Your nation promised you certain benefits you earned by serving.  We will treat our promises as promises and our well-intentioned gifts as gifts.  And, for those who say this is unfair, that we are discriminating in favor of workers and soldiers, I will say to them what I said to a law-school classmate of mine who admired the benefits that would be mine IF I survived 20 years (or more in my case) of military service.  "You are absolutely right.  Let's go see a recruiter so you can get the same deal."  It turned out that those benefits were not really all that great and his plans for his future did not include the possibility of being killed or wounded or sent to some really unpleasant places, populated with unpleasant people who were trying to kill him. 

 Let's keep going

So, let's now take a look at foreign relations, I am all for free trade.  In the first 100 days, I will propose a Trade Reciprocity Act in which we will effectively adopt as our own the trade regulations of each of our trading partners.  If they impose discriminatory conditions to the importation of our American goods, services, products, businesses and, ultimately, workers, we will apply their very own rules and schedules to anything they want to export to us.  Or if they sell to a third party for sale to us, we will consider the third party to be the same as the originator.  What could be fairer?

Each nation's products will be welcome here, so long as they understand that if they subsidize their farmers and manufacturers so that our goods are more expensive to their own people, we will ensure that there is a tariff on their goods will make their goods as expensive as our own.  But not a penny more.  No protectionism, just fairness.

If they decide to pay their workers substandard wages, we will add back in the added cost of the fair wages we pay our own people. 

Next, when I was a young officer of Marines, there was a stretch of time when the national pastime of many Middle Easterners was kidnapping American citizens and holding them for months or even years.  A classmate of mine was serving in the Middle East on a joint US-Soviet peacekeeping force.  He told us how, one night, a couple of thugs who we had been assured by the host government  they could not identify made a mistake.  They kidnapped a Soviet citizen.  Soviet assets promptly tracked the kidnappers down, killed them, and got their citizen back.  They had to “use  up” a couple of the host government’s people to get the information they needed, but, by golly, it turned out that the host government knew exactly who the bad guys were and where they were hiding. 

Therefore, I will also announce as a new American Doctrine the following:  an attack on this Nation or any of its citizens, whether at home or abroad, by any person, entity or group that has any connection whatsoever, no matter how minor, with any foreign nation will be considered an attack on the United States by that nation and we will respond with the full power of the United States.   Get your houses in order, control the terrorists in your midst, or we will not only do it for you--we may have to level your house in the process!  Your choice.

Finally, the American frontier closed nearly 130 years ago.  As the great American historian Frederick Jackson Turner predicted, we are at a point in which, as historians, we can see that our spirit as a nation has withered and begun to devolve into a balkanized society of hyphenated Americans. 

We, as a Nation, have always had the blood of misfits flowing in our veins.  We are descended from people who said, “We can do better, we'll start a Country of our own”--and we did it!  But we have been resting on our laurels and that can only lead to the end of the American Dream. 

Accordingly, in my inaugural address, I will announce that it is the policy of the United States to put American pioneers on the planet Mars and bring them safely home by the end of the year 2030.  To do so, we will ensure that our colleges and universities have the wherewithal to provide a federally funded education in any field of endeavor that will further meeting that target. 

Understand, fellow citizens, any young American who wants to study some arcane field of study that may further general knowledge—Medieval French Literature, any of the  “Studies” degree (pick your own adjective), Sports communications-- will be free to do so, at his or her own expense. But we need engineers, and scientists, technicians, and doctors and nurses and educators and social workers and historians to bring our Nation back to where it can be a leader in creating our own experts, rather than robbing other countries of their best and brightest. 

The benefits to our Nation will be tangible.  The miniaturization that led to computers such as the i-phone, cardiac pace-makers, artificial joints and limbs that are more than a peg leg or a hook, was developed to get us to the Moon.  We got Teflon and new fire and wear resistant fabrics, and MRIs and CAT scans from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.  And we will use federal aid to elementary, secondary, and college education. to create a society that will take us to the next frontier.

Finally, I will direct the Department of Education to do two things. 

First, it will present to me, within 60 days of my inauguration, proposed model legislation to transfer its functions to the individual States.   Second, it will present to me a plan to disestablish itself within one calendar year. 

We cannot afford to spend tens of millions of dollars each year on a Department of Education that does not educate a single child.  From our earliest days, from the days of the Articles of Confederation which preceded the Constitution, education has been a State responsibility.  The Northwest Ordinance actually provided an incentive to State and local control of education.  It is time to give that back to the people who know best what is needed to properly educate their children.  Oh, the Teachers Unions and the Government Employees Unions may complain, but folks, you and I are going to take the education of our children, the citizens who will govern our great Nation when we take our well-deserved rest, out of the hands of the Union bosses and put it back into the hands of the parents and neighbors of our children.

It will not be easy.  It will require sacrifice from each of us.  A dear friend of mine once observed that “The best time to plant a tree is twenty-five years ago.  The next best time is today.”  Likewise, because no one planted the necessary trees for us 25 years ago, we have to work in the open, with no shade. We may not see the final greatness that this Great Crusade can bring because it will take time, but if we do not take the first steps together, now, who will.”

Join me, as we take the first steps into the great future that can be  ours.

A THANK YOU TO THE VA FROM ONE GRATEFUL VETERAN

Hi.  My name is Mac and I have combat-related PTSD.

When I am in a store or a restaurant, I always make it a point to ask to see the manager when a clerk or server has done a good job.  You see, I know that it is human nature to complain when a service provider fails to measure up, but the over-performers never get a word of praise.  And I have noticed that when I return to a lot of these places, the standard of service across the board is often improved.

The Veterans Administration has taken some hard hits in the past year.  As a result, there has been a lot of piling on.  On Facebook, I have seen an increase in the number of Tee shirts criticizing the VA being offered for sale.  Most of them are cheap shots.  And it is a shame.

I know that there are bad actors in any outfit, and that includes the VA.  Why government employees get bonuses for just doing their jobs is a puzzle--and obviously, an over-powering temptation to the corrupt few?  But that is, I think, the exception, not the rule.

I treat at the VAMC, Coatesville, PA.  They have literally saved my life.  And I give the major part of the credit in my case to Laura Hertz, PhD.  Doctor Hertz is one of those people who give human beings a good name.  I am sure she could be making a lot more money treating the "beautiful people" suffering from the ravages of too much money, too much success, and too much public adulation!  Instead, she takes care of “those who have born the battle”, and now enjoy, in my case, “Vietnam, the gift that keeps on giving.”

Six years ago, I came within about a pound and a half of trigger pull from taking the easy way out.  I’m still not sure why that two-and-a-half hour struggle in a dark cold woods didn’t turn out the way I expected it to, but it did.  I ended up in VAMC, Coatesville, in a program with some of the best men I have known.  Together, we learned that when one man said “And I figured that I was the only one who felt that way,” 15 or 20 other guys were nodding and saying “Me, too.”  

Now, I had been treating with Dr Hertz for about a year when this happened.  The first night I was in the hospital, they came and got me because “You have a visitor.”  It was after 2100, and I could not imagine who it could be.  It was Dr Hertz, tears in her eyes, come to apologize for “failing me.”  Bless her heart—why should she have seen it in our last session 6 days earlier when I didn’t see it coming only 24 hours earlier?  The hardest part for me was to admit to her that for six months, I had been lying to her. Tough guy stuff, you know?  “Oh, I’m fine.”  “Nah, no suicide thoughts,” I would say with fingers crossed.  How did that work out, Marine?

And at the end of my in-patient treatment, I was fully prepared for her to say that she did not want to treat me anymore.  I guess that “Never leave anyone behind” thing  is taught in places other than Parris Island, San Diego, and Quantico.  

Why she can see so deeply into things that are still cloudy to me I don’t know, but she does. Understand me, she can be tough as nails when she needs to be, and because she has earned our respect, she can have the hard Dutch Uncle talks with us when necessary.  Petite little fireball she may be, but she could teach some Gunnery Sergeants a trick or two about presence and bearing.   For the guys and gals in our group, she is as accepted as any vet.  She knows things about me that no one on earth knows—and cares anyway.  I guess that’s it: she cares anyway.

So…..

First, to the youngest batch of vets I say, “If the dreams, or the anger, or the numbness, or the lack of trust shows up, get help.  Take care of it now, with folks who understand.  I assure you that it will be better to try now than to wait for 40 years as I did.  It is like a boil, left untreated.  The putrefaction is going to come out anyway, but if you wait, it is going to be some REALLY nasty stuff!”

Second, the vets I know at the VA are warriors who have, in many cases, been fighting the good fight for nearly half a century.  There is no shame in asking for help. 

Finally, to the rest of you—your Department of Veterans Affairs is doing a pretty damned good job. If you want to complain, please be specific.  The treatment professionals—the Nurses who help a sobbing vet way from the commode where he has just thrown up because the memories of shipmates lost got too bad, the psychologists who spend multiple sessions getting to the root of one terrible memory, the psychiatrists who make sure meds are the right ones in the right amounts—they are doing a great job. 

If there is any legitimate complaint, it is this.  After the Arizona fiasco, Coatesville suddenly had all sorts of construction of new offices where waiting rooms had been.  Sadly, the offices seem to be occupied by new bureaucrats monitoring other bureaucrats who monitor….well, you get my drift.

Tell your Congresscritters, your Senators, that they should ignore the unions and the make-works and just get more docs and nurses in place and then get out of their way. And shoot the accountants—the idea that you can tell someone that it should only take 2.36458791 visits to peel away a 40 year old onion of memories is, well, stupid.  But I digress….

Instead send us just one more Laura Hertz: she will amaze you, saving lives and earning the undying respect and gratitude of the vets she saves!

   

THE FIRST PRAYER FOR OUR NATIONAL LEADERS

I have heard it said by those who misread the First Amendment as a Constitutionally-mandated "freedom from religion"--something it never has been--that we as a people should be "protected"  from the "modern imposition" of religion through prayer at the opening of each day's sessions of the House and the Senate.  This is, of course, utter nonsense in so many different and distinct ways, but one of the most cynical is the assertion that the Founding Fathers had no interest in religion in general or the Christian faith in particular.

In fact, the practice of opening legislative deliberations with prayer predates our existence as free and independent States by nearly two years.  The record shows that when the first representatives to the First Continental Congress met for the first time, the question arose as to what should be their first action. 

John Adams, Esquire, of Massachusetts (later first Vice President of the United States and second President) proposed that before anything else, the Congress should be opened with prayer.  Accordingly, Rev Jacob Duche, Rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia was summoned to offer opening prayer.  After reading Psalm 35, he offered the following prayer--which still resonates and is equally applicable to our current National leaders.

"O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in Council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their Cause and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, of own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle!

Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Reverend Jacob Duché
Rector of Christ Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
September 7, 1774, 9 o’clock a.m.

A PRAYER ON THE SUNDAY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE DAY

Brothers and sisters: two hundred forty years ago, just down the road in Philadelphia, the foundational American document declared

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

The Declaration closed, as it had opened, by placing the fate of the nation into the hands of God, declaring

“We, therefore, the representatives of the united States of America, in general congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; … and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

As we meet to worship our Creator today, it is right and proper that we turn to Him with prayers of thanksgiving, of confession, and of invocation.

Let us pray.

Father, as we assemble in Your house, a house whose walls shade the final earthly resting places of a score of men who gained our independence with physical sacrifice, led by the very Shepherd you sent to them for that purpose, we give you thanks.

We thank you for

A fertile land—a land of still waters and green pastures.

A land of plenty—in which the table you have set for us groans with goodness and nourishment for our bodies from the fertile soil you entrusted to us.

For a land of opportunity for all and not just a few.

For a noble land that seeks, however imperfectly, to be worthy of You, sacrificing over and over again blood and treasure so that other lands, less fortunate, might have the unalienable rights, of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and especially, the right to worship you openly and without fear

For all these—and more—for the many blessings You have showered on us and the protections You have afforded us, we give You thanks and praise. 

But Father, we also know that we, individually and as a nation, have not lived up to the standard You expect of us.  We have not always been a nation in which all men are received as equal, having had to pay a blood sacrifice to free those of your children whom we had treated as property rather than as brothers and sisters. 

We are a land in which many children—through no fault of their-- own go to bed hungry at night.

We are a land that, mainly for the sake of convenience, allows three-quarters of a million babies to be aborted every year without even acknowledging them in our official records and reports as deaths.

We are a land which has allowed—even encouraged--the duties of parenthood to be casually tossed aside and placed into the cold hearts and hands of a social and educational bureaucracies designed to hide You or any mention of You from those very dear little ones.

We are a land in which we have removed You from the public arena, allowing worship of You and adherence to Your dictates to be treated as if they are something shameful, something to be scorned and hidden, rather than the expected norm. 

We have lacked the courage to stand up to those who hate You and to bring the good news of Your Son to people who hunger and thirst for him without knowing for whom or what it is they crave -- because we have failed Him and His Great Commission to us.

For all these failings, whether overt or latent, for all these sins of commission and omission—and so many more-- we ask Your forgiveness. 

Finally, Father, having acknowledged our sin, our weakness, our greed –we now pray that You will bring a new great awakening to this land.  Lead us back onto the paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake.  Open our hearts, open our minds, refresh our spirits, that we may eagerly take up the cross of your Son. 

Send us, Father, to Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth—across seas and mountains and deserts -- to share the good news of Jesus Christ and Him crucified with those who do not know Him.  

But even more Father, send us to the end of the block, send us 50 feet to our next door neighbors, on the same mission.  Use us, Father, as your instruments to restore this nation, use us to witness strongly and with courage to our neighborhoods and communities just what it means to follow your Son. 

Oh dear heavenly Father, we thank you for Your goodness, we crave Your forgiveness for our sin, and we earnestly desire that You use us to serve You and your blessed Son, Jesus Christ, in whose strong and glorious name we pray.  

And the people of God say Amen and Amen.

THE HYPOCRISY OF THE LEFT

After the terror attack by ISIS in Orlando, we have been deluged by demands from the loony left to “DO SOMETHING” about the terrible epidemic of gun deaths in America!  A civilized nation simply cannot condone the decimation caused by guns.  Which got me to thinking.  Putting aside the inconvenient second amendment to the constitution, in relative terms, how bad is the “gun tragedy?” 

In 2013, the estimated number of murders in the nation was 14,196. There were 4.5 murders per 100,000 people.  (https://www.fbi.gov/...us/.../crime.../2013/cr...)  Of those murders, “only” 8,454 were by firearm. (2.7/100K)

(https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2009-2013.xls)  

Please note:  I do not mean to suggest that even one gun death is not a tragedy for the victim or his or her family. When the press marveled at the extremely low number of deaths during the 1^st Gulf war, I told someone who mentioned this “wonderful” result that “For the nation, the losses were, indeed, light, but for the families of our honored dead, they were crushing.”  I write only to point out the hypocrisy of the left.

To put all of this into context, let’s look at some statistics from the United States government (FBI and CDC).  The leading reported causes of death in the United States in 2013, the last year for which they have “final, complete” statistics were:

1.  Heart disease: 614,348
2.  Cancer: 591,699
3.  Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 147,101
4.  Accidents (unintentional injuries): 136,053
5.  Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 133,103
6.  Alzheimer's disease: 93,541
7.  Diabetes: 76,488
8.  Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,227
9.  Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 48,146
10. Intentional self-harm (suicide): 42,773

(http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm)

The next 5 leading causes of death in 2013 were:

11. Septicemia
12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis
13. Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease (hypertension)
14. Parkinson’s disease
15. Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids

Gun deaths did not come anywhere close to the top 15.

Then came Monday’s news that the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional the Texas law requiring abortion clinics to meet the same standards as other ambulatory outpatient centers.  In so doing, they also probably got rid of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s identical statute.

And the left—especially the Democrat Party’s anointed nominee—were ecstatic!  That was when the hypocrisy of the left, of the pro-death bunch—really hit home for me.

You see, heart disease is not the leading cause of death in the United States—nowhere near.  In 2012, the last year for which the CDC has complete statistics (or as complete as possible-- California, Maryland, and New Hampshire refuse to report abortion statistics to the CDC),699,202 abortions were performed in the United States. (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6410a1.htm?s_cid=ss6410a1_e)

699,202.  

699,202 preventable deaths.  Nearly 100,000 more deaths than caused by heart disease.  Over 100,000 more deaths than caused by cancer. And 691,000 more than murder by firearm.

But “hypocrisy’, you say?  Well, let’s look at some background.

For over 40 years, the pro-abortion, pro-death faction has claimed that one of the benefits of Roe v. Wade is that women need to be protected from the pre-Roe back-alley butcher shops where hacks performed unsafe “coat-hanger” abortions.

 

They have been successful in their lie, so successful, in fact, that the United States government has carried their water for them by lying to the American people.  This is nothing new for the liberal, “we know better what is good for you poor stupid people who want to ‘cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like [you] or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment…”

But their true colors have come out this week. They do not care about women’s health—they just want to continue to run their highly profitable abortion mills with as few costs and safe-guards as possible. And the less “costly” protections for patients, the better.

In 2011, the nation was shocked and sickened by reports from Philadelphia about Kermit Gosnell, MD. Dr Gosnell operated an abortion shop that was reported to be more like  an1890s abattoir.  According to the Grand jury:

When the team members entered the clinic, they were appalled, describing it to the Grand Jury as 'filthy,' 'deplorable,' 'disgusting,' 'very unsanitary, very outdated, horrendous,' and 'by far, the worst' that these experienced investigators had ever encountered. There was blood on the floor. A stench of urine filled the air. A flea-infested cat was wandering through the facility, and there were cat feces on the stairs. Semi-conscious women scheduled for abortions were moaning in the waiting room or the recovery room, where they sat on dirty recliners covered with blood-stained blankets. All the women had been sedated by unlicensed staff – long before Gosnell arrived at the clinic – and staff members could not accurately state what medications or dosages they had administered to the waiting patients. Many of the medications in inventory were past their expiration dates… surgical procedure rooms were filthy and unsanitary… resembling 'a bad gas station restroom.' Instruments were not sterile. Equipment was rusty and outdated. Oxygen equipment was covered with dust, and had not been inspected. The same corroded suction tubing used for abortions was the only tubing available for oral airways if assistance for breathing was needed…"

According to the grand jury report, patients were given labor-inducing drugs by staff who had no medical training. Once labor began, the patient would be placed on a toilet. After the fetus fell into the toilet, it would be fished out, so as not to clog the plumbing. In the recovery room, patients were seated on dirty recliners covered in blood-stained blankets.  Prosecutors alleged that Gosnell had not been certified in either gynecology or obstetrics.  The Grand Jury estimated that Gosnell's practice "took in $10,000 to $15,000 a night" additional to income from his exceedingly high level of prescriptions, performing abortions, whether the patients ultimately wanted them or not. (One “patient” who was 15 at the time, told an ABC reporter Girl age 15, when she was accompanied by relative to Gosnell’s office, she told Gosnell she changed her mind about the abortion. Gosnell allegedly got upset, ripped off the patient's clothing, and forcibly restrained her. The patient later stated that Gosnell told her "This is the same care that I would give to my own daughter." She regained consciousness 12 hours later at her aunt's home, the abortion having been completed against her will.)

Gosnell was ultimately convicted of the murder of three infants who were born alive during attempted abortion procedures, one count of involuntary manslaughter of one of his abortion patients, Although he was not charged with other deaths, the Grand jury opined that 

We believe, given the manner in which Gosnell operated, that he killed the vast majority of babies that he aborted after 24 weeks. We cannot, however, recommend murder charges for all of these cases. In order to constitute murder, the act must involve a baby who was born alive. Because files were falsified or removed from the facility and possibly destroyed, we cannot substantiate all of the individual cases in which charges might otherwise have resulted.

More shocking was the revelation that twenty years earlier, officials in the Pennsylvania Department of Health had been aware of the abysmal facts but had done nothing.   The Grand jury reported:

Janice Staloski of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, who personally participated in the 1992 site visit, but decided to let Gosnell slide on the violations that were already evident then. She eventually rose to become director of the division that was supposed to regulate abortion providers, but never looked at Gosnell despite specific complaints from lawyers, a doctor, and a medical examiner. After she was nonetheless promoted, her successor as division director, Cynthia Boyne, failed to order an investigation of the clinic even when Karnamaya Mongar died there. Senior legal counsel Kenneth Brody insisted that the department had no legal obligation to monitor abortion clinics, even though it exercised such a duty until the [pro-abortion Republican Governor Tom] Ridge administration, and exercised it again as soon as Gosnell became big news. The agency’s head lawyer, chief counsel Christine Dutton, defended the department’s indifference: 'People die,' she said.

Wow.  Shades of Hillary Clinton's remarks about Benghazi:  "What does it matter...?"

As a result of Gosnell, Pennsylvania adopted Senate Bill 732,  that places abortion clinics under the same health and safety regulations as other outpatient surgical centers.  It was essentially the same law which the Supreme Court found to be unconstitutional on Monday.  Among those who supported the bill was Democrat Margo L. Davidson, whose cousin Semika Shaw died as a result of procedures done by Gosnell. Davidson specifically linked her support for the additional regulations to her cousin's death, which she attributed to poor medical practices.

Predictably, the pro-death “Women’s Legal Project”, self-identified as “ a group of feminist attorneys devoted to equality and justice” opposed the bill and in Monday’s action, was one of the amici in the action.  Their complaint about SB 732, only a short-time after the Gosnell case hit the news, was “SB 732 requires safe, accessible abortion providers to comply with the burdensome and costly regulations now reserved for ambulatory surgical facilities, even though abortion is much safer and simpler than surgeries commonly conducted in ambulatory surgical centers.”  (That must have been comforting news to the victims of Kermit Gosnell.)

So, they’ve gotten their way.  Bring on as many Kermit Gosnell’s as possible, so long as we can keep on killing the unborn for profit.

Of course, you will only hear about the wonderful caring staff members who are helping women through this difficult time in their lives.

These are the same folks who tell you that the scourge of guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens is a “national tragedy.”  Soooo, complain to me about 8,500 gun murders.  I’ll see you that 8,500 and raise you 691,000 more intentional deaths.  

All in!

MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS, 2016

MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS, 2016
Parkesburg, Pennsylvania Memorial Day Parade and Observance 22 May 2016

Guest Speaker:  Michael R. McCarty, LtCol, USMC (ret)

I first want to thank you for allowing me the privilege of sharing this day with you.

I am a Marine. To my many friends in the Sister Services, I speak today mainly about Marines, your big brothers, because they are the men I have known and led, loved and cherished, for more than half a century. Take it as no mark of disrespect or lack of affection for any man or woman of any Service who has “seen the elephant.” I mean, I am forced to admit that the blood that flows in my veins is mostly Army, with a dash of Navy for seasoning.

I am a descendent of four veterans of the War for Independence, one from the War of 1812, three of the Civil War (in two generations—one a 12 year old drummer boy with Thomas at Chickamauga)-- and my Dad who was a Chief Pharmacists Mate, USN, who made five landings in the Pacific in WWII. I am the 11th combat veteran in that line, and my son, Lt Colonel Matt McCarty, USAF is the 12th. Two of the 12 were killed in action in the Civil War. (My prayer always is that the distinction of being combat veterans ends with us. But that is unlikely, for as the philosopher, Plato, wrote some 2500 years ago, “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”)

In his book, "Fix Bayonets!", Colonel John W. Thomason, USMC, wrote of his experiences as a Lieutenant of Marines at Belleau Wood during “The World War” (serving in what, some 50 years later, would be my battalion—1st Battalion, 5th Marines). He described an Embassy party he attended in Santiago de Chile seven years later where he met an Army Major of the General Staff who had also been in those woods in June1918.

The Major told him, “They looked fine, coming in there. Tall fellows, healthy and fit--they looked hard and competent. We watched you going in, through those little tired Frenchmen, and we all felt better. We knew something was going to happen…”.

It did! And sadly, in the next thirty days, the Brigade suffered 100 percent casualties, including over 1800 killed in action and another 9,000 wounded in action until it could be reported “Wood now US Marine Corps entirely.”

Recalling the conversation with the Army Major, Colonel Thomason continued:, “and we were silent, over Chilean wine, in a place on the South Pacific, thinking of those days and those men.”

Today, we mark the 150th Memorial Day remembrance. When I was a boy in northwest Missouri, my grandmother still referred to it as Decoration Day, appropriately enough because its foundation as a holiday came from the desire to place flowers on the graves of their honored dead by the Mothers, Wives, Sisters and Daughters, many of whom were also widows and orphans, of the of the fallen of the Civil War. Even now, nearly 70 years later, the fragrance of May lilacs and peonies take me back to our local cemetery, remembering the barked command “Firing Party, fire three volleys”, followed by my Dad playing taps on the battered old bugle of his Legion Post.

This is not a “happy” holiday. Commerce may have made it a day of sales and picnics and time off from work and school, playing on the shore or attending the release of the Summer’s new movies, but that is not its intent.

Rather, it is a sacred day, particularly so for a privileged few of us for whom some of the honored dead have names and faces and bring forth fond memories of “those men and those days.” It is a day when, in the words of a memorial stone on the campus of Illinois State University, we remember those who gave “all of their tomorrows for our today.”

In the intervening years since Thomason’s stories were written, we have had to begin numbering our wars: “The World War” became World War I after Pearl Harbor brought to us World War II. Next came Korea, followed by Vietnam, Gulf Wars I and II, and Afghanistan, as well as, in Thomason’s words, “scores of skirmishes in which a man can be killed as dead as ever was a chap in the Argonne”.

But the men (and now women) who have sacrificed their all remain the same: bone-tired but brave, resolute, funny, self-sacrificing, loyal, good-humored, … and above all, young. As the English poet Laurence Binyon wrote a century ago “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we remember them.”

Every veteran here has names that are special to him or her. Call them Buddies or Shipmates, Mac or Ski or Fitz ……….

or Lucas and Zimmerman, Chip and Tews, Unfried and Phipps and Wandro....

they are forever young in our hearts. PFC Jimmy Phipps, the third youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor in Vietnam, will always be to me the skinny, grinning Marine who laughed at life and then willingly gave it up for two others on that hot Memorial Day 1969 in what we called “the Arizona Territory.”

No one who has served in combat would ever call it glorious. It is the dirty, deadly, discouraging business of going about the profession of violence, with a perseverance and acceptance that it may be our lot, in Jefferson’s words, to “water, from time to time, the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots”.

My late wife always told me “You were never young after you came home from Vietnam.” That may be one of the reasons that we cherish this day, for when we remember them, a part of us is still young with them.

So, we pause today to thank God for, in James Michener’s words, “men such as these,” who fought on to the very end, so that, as Lincoln reminded us at Gettysburg, “government of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, and for the PEOPLE shall not perish from the earth.”

The ones we remember today—no matter in which Service they served or which uniform they proudly wore—Navy or Air Force Blue, Army Green or the Forest Green of the Marine Corps: each of them can claim the motto that we Marines first learned and absorbed into our DNA at Parris Island, San Diego, and Quantico. Each and every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Coast Guardsman, and Marine who, for us the living, laid down his or her life on the altar of duty was, still is, and always will be ALWAYS faithful. May they rest in peace, these good and faithful servants.

Semper Fidelis.

THE TRAGEDY OF AN IRRELEVANT PRESIDENT

One of my all-time favorite television series is The West Wing.  As anyone who watched it knows, the last season had an entirely different feel, as it covered the presidential race between the two contending successors of President Jed Bartlett.  Any time that the story returned to the White House, there was an undercurrent of frustration in the remaining, second-string staff and the President himself.  The source of that frustration was the increasing irrelevance of the incumbent president.

The inexplicably stupid decision of the Obama administration to take action on a non-problem that was sure to inflame the passions of the American people --the “school restroom letter” – reminded me of The West Wing.  This action seems to me to be an effort by one of the most arrogant administrations in history to force the spotlight back on President Obama.  He and his staff seem to be set on finding something –anything—to remake what will surely go down in history as a failed presidency.  A generation from now, when the first true historical analyses of the Obama presidency are written, I suspect that they will focus on the strange case of wasted opportunities to make real progress and a perverse concentration on non-problems that divided, rather than united the Nation.

President Obama’s first, and most important, two years in office were wasted on forcing down the throats of the American people a “health care” program that they neither needed nor wanted.  Millions were out of work and had been promised that the President would be laser focused on “Jobs, jobs, jobs!”  Instead, while unemployment continued to sky-rocket, he frittered away an opportunity to be a second FDR simply to satisfy the left-wing loonies of the Democrat Party.  That “Obamacare” is still disliked by more than half the electorate—a level that will undoubtedly increase when the major premium costs and the decrease in options hit in November of this year-- is the greatest evidence of Presidential hubris in action.

An abysmal second term in which unemployment was decreased by smoke and mirrors doctoring of the definitions of “unemployed” by the Labor Department and wages remained stagnant was focused instead on placating the most dangerous enemies facing this Nation since 1940.  The myth of the “Iran Deal” was written, probably with fingers crossed that the mushroom cloud would appear over an American city during some other President’s term, to paint the President as a great statesman.  Chamberlain probably had the same hope on his way back to London from his German effort.

And then, when all eyes were drawn to the 2016 race, the first in American history, in which both candidates each had a greater “unfavorable” than “favorable” rating, the President decided that the most important issue still facing the Nation was forcing the people to allow people of one gender to use restroom facilities of the other gender—and to use as the laboratory for this exercise in social engineering the Nation’s public schools.

“Why?” one asks.  Why do this and do this now?

I can only assume that it is one last effort to return the national focus to Barack Obama.  He cannot stand his impending irrelevance and will do anything, no matter how dangerous or outrageous, to stay in the spotlight until the bitter end.