FEMA Reneges on the President’s Promise to West

Before I get into the meat and bones of this I first want to point out that in general, I believe that we are all responsible for ourselves and when tragedy strikes that we must rely on ourselves first, our family second, and our friends and communities third. I believe that it is up to us to help out our fellow citizens and not wait for a government entity to come and bail us out of tragic situations regardless of whether they are the work of nature or manmade.


With that said, I like so many in Central Texas are extremely perplexed by FEMA’s refusal to render anymore aid to the people of West Texas following the destruction this past April as a result of the explosion of a fertilizer plant in that small town. Normally I would not immediately look to the government for help; however, like so many other issues politicians use to enhance their persona, the President promised something that FEMA is now saying they will not deliver on.

Following the tragedy, President Obama came to Central Texas, met with the citizens of West and then gave a speech at Baylor University in which he spoke about how it didn’t matter what else transpired after this tragedy, America would not forget about the victims of this tragedy. He singled out several of the people of West and explained about how important it is to keep these communities intact and to make sure they are protected.

Here is an excerpt of his speech, “We’re Americans, too, and we stand with you, and we do not forget. And we’ll be there even after the cameras leave and after the attention turns elsewhere. Your country will remain ever ready to help you recover and rebuild and reclaim your community.” This line received much applause and many tears from victims who felt reassured and secure in the President’s comments.

Less than two months later; FEMA has agreed to help the U.S. Small Business Administration in providing $7 million in aid and low-interest loans; however, in a letter from FEMA director Chris Fugate to the governor, FEMA has denied the major disaster declaration that would have given West money to rebuild. Of course after the fires that destroyed hundreds of homes in the Bastrop, Texas area went unaided by FEMA just 18 months ago, why should we expect an explosion in West to be treated any different.

After all, it was just an explosions that left a 93 foot crater, leveled the intermediate school, caused severe damage to the junior high and senior high school, leveled almost a hundred homes and in some way affected the homes and businesses of every citizen of this town of 2,800 Americans – NOT TO MENTION took the lives of 10 first responders.

Officials in West say they are getting estimates that say it will cost around $57 million to make the necessary repairs to bring West back to normal. It seems like the federal government could take a little chunk of the tax-payer (and/or borrowed) money they are sending to Egypt, or Brazil, or China, or Libya, or anywhere else for that matter and send West what it needs to make repairs.

Like I said above, normally I wouldn’t think the government should be too involved in solving the problems of people in the face of disaster unless it’s unavoidable (meteor crashing to Earth, terrorist bombing a site that is supposed to be protected by the government, or some other out of the ordinary sort of tragedy).

But this time the President made a trip to Central Texas, used Americans as props, and used an the event to make a speech about how the people of West would be taken care of. If you’re going to make a promise, then live up to it Mr. President.

Now is the time!

God Bless west,
Bill

It’s Time for a Reset!

In the past I have used this page to be pretty fair but generally on a right side of the matter. To be fair, I am a right-of-center kind of guy, but I am also a concerned citizen and an American first and foremost. I will not go back and purge this blog nor will I surgically remove blogs that are overly partisan, they are the record of the past and will remain for posterity; however, in the future I will be presenting an approach that will be a lot less partisan and a lot more American.

Be warned, this may offend some and confuse others.  But if you move your tuner around the radio or TV dial you will get all the overly partisan rhetoric you need. It is time to make statements that speak to our future and not recall the tit-for-tat missteps of the past. It’s time to work together on the issues of the day while still holding our values and beliefs dear. We must be truthful to our beliefs but lay down the raw nerves and use our common sense to govern.  

With that said let’s look at the past few weeks. We have been inundated with a series of hearings on the IRS’s targeting of Conservative groups during the application process for tax exempt status. These are important hearings and there is an important investigations going on and we cannot allow these hearings and the investigation become a partisan assault by members of each party.

During today’s congressional hearing Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash) claimed these hearings are a Republican witch-hunt for the purpose of embarrassing the White House and he went on to claim that the groups being targeted shouldn’t have applied for tax-exempt status and this wouldn’t have happened to them. The old me would have wondered if Rep McDermott made the same claim to Progressive organizations applying for tax-exempt status during this time; however, what I really find upsetting is that he would accuse people applying for a perfectly legal status to be the problem instead of trying to come to the crux of the actual problem. That’s sort of like those folks who blame a scantily-clad woman for being the cause of a sexual assault against her – RIDICULOUS.

Truth is the IRS has been used to varying degrees in targeting certain groups at the whim of politicos of both parties; regardless of whether these politicos were members of congress or sitting in the White House (including Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Clinton and Bush-43 to name a few). This must end and we must reform our tax system. At 70,000 plus pages, the tax code is quite possibly the easiest way for a politician to go after organizations and individuals via the government hammer – FEEL SAFE YET?

There isn’t a single member of congress who would state that the tax code and IRS is good-to-go and does not need any reformation. Yet while this is an issue that everyone says needs to be addressed and taken care of, all anyone in Washington will ever do is spout talking points and discuss what needs to happen in the “future.”

I have news for us all; regardless of whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Greenie, Libertarian, Whig, or whatever; if we don’t get the tax system reformed in this country, address the solvency of Social Security and Medicare, reduce the national debt, eliminate yearly budget deficits, and control immigration then there very well not be much of a future to concern ourselves with.

Partisan issues will always be with us. It would be impossible to be a people of varying beliefs and values and not have some partisan issues. But regardless of party affiliation, until those in Washington and Austin become more interested in governing  and less concerned with “scoreboard” or winning elections; NOTHING WILL CHANGE!

More to Come!

Bill

The Benghazi Truth Must Be Heard

On September 11, 2012, Ambassador Chris Stevens, state department official Sean Smith, and two members of Embassy Security and former Navy SEALs, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were MURDERED in Benghazi, Libya in a terrorist attack that was planned and coordinated with Libyan forces tied to Al Qaeda. Sadly, the Obama Administration and Hillary Clinton don’t care. In fact, they’d rather it go away just as that tool Jay Carney has insinuated in his daily press briefings.

Back to the story; at nightfall of this prolific date, 125 to 150 terrorists closed off access to the state department facility in Benghazi and attacked with weapons including AK-47s, NATO Firearms, hand-grenades, mortars, RPGs and other military style weapons many of which were indirectly provided to these terrorists to defeat Muammar Kaddafi by the same Obama Administration that brought us a “Fast and Furious” program that lead to Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death.

Back to Benghazi; today we had another round of testimony to the House Committee investigating this incident and once again the Democrats on the committee claimed that the Republicans were playing politics with this issue; however, just as they often play the race card, the Democrats always seem to be the ones who try and squeak out of their indiscretions by claiming that those who are investigating are only doing so for reasons of political expediency, racism, sexism, or any other ism that will project the possibility of “disenfranchising” someone based on race, religion, or political belief.

But this is not about any of that, this is about responsibility for foreign diplomats and the cover-up of events that lead to the death of four Americans who were neglected and left to die at the hands of an Al Qaeda affiliate by an Administration that has made a living recently selling the American people on the fact that they have Al Qaeda on the run. Unfortunately, on this night the only place Al Qaeda was running to was the Benghazi Consulate to kill Americans. And every since, the Obama Administration and Hillary Clinton have lied and coerce people to cover-up the facts that they were responsible for doing nothing to help those poor souls.

This is an issue that has been a huge concern and should be to us all as Americans. September 11, 2012, is an anniversary that should hold huge significance when dealing with security here at home much less a place like Libya where concern for security should have been doubly significant and IT WASN’T.

Four men who were in Libya serving their country were left to die by the very people who sent them there. These very men reported early on that this was a terrorist attack but President Obama and Secretary Clinton left them there to DIE. This facility had been attacked twice before in the last year and judged to be unable to stand up to an attack; yet there was the Ambassador holding meetings there on September 11^th – ON SEPTEMBER 11^th!

When the ambassador called to say this was an attack no one reacted to help and he was left to die. Now state department officials and military leaders looking to cover their asses have said there was no way to get anyone or any forces there in time to help. But we know there were forces in Tripoli that wanted to go help and they were denied that opportunity by their superiors.

We know that Doherty and Powers held on for six or seven hours before they were finally overrun and murdered when a single flight overhead by an aircraft could have made all the difference. Believe it or not, air power has an amazing affect on the psyche of a less sophisticated enemy. But no aircraft were sent and flurries of excuses have been used to explain this.

We know that there are Military Fast Response teams stationed in Europe that could have been on scene in around four hours and that they were put on standby by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, but those forces were later told to stand down by administration officials. As a result, the Fast Response Team did not arrive and Glen Doherty and Ty Woods were killed in the second attack that COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED!

We know that the so-called anti-Muslim video had nothing to do with the attack and that there was never a demonstration because of that video. We know the Libyan President stated this was a result of an attack from terrorist but the Obama Administration and Hilary Clinton kept up the talk of this resulting from a demonstration about this video.

Now the administration and Clinton hold tight to the claims that this was all based on poor intelligence from the CIA. By the way, that’s a lie also as the actual talking points initially issued by the CIA were later published and spoke of the truth while they were later changed greatly before being presented as the fact by the White House and UN Ambassador Susan Rice.

But the real insult is the fact that even though this was done there has been not even the slightest hint of a modicum of responsibility by President Obama or by Hilary Clinton. And why would they? They lied, won an election (aided by Candy Crowley on this issue), and are set. Any responsibility now would only do irreparable harm to a consistently failing Obama Administration and destroy the future Presidential aspirations of Hillary Clinton.

In 2008 there was a Campaign ad by the Hillary Clinton Campaign that used the old Reagan era adage of a call at 3:00 in the morning. Sadly, neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama showed the ability to answer that call when it mattered. AND, unfortunately their incompetence and inaction prior to, during, and following this incident resulted in the needless deaths of four Americans.

Four men who were not just names on a page or faces in a picture but men with wives, children, parents, friends and colleagues. These were men who would sit down to breakfast with their loved ones, fished with their kids, played golf with their friends, watched football on Sunday and lived among us. These were Americans like you and me who were in Libya representing their country and deserved opportunity to live.

During my years in the Navy, working overseas in all corners of the world, I had the opportunity to serve with confidence under four Presidents.  And even though these Presidents all handled matters with different degrees of covert and overt operations, we always felt like we would never be left completely on our own.

Too bad we can’t say that for these four brave Americans.

How about some truth Mr. President?

Enjoy Retirement Hillary. And by the way; IT DOES MATTER!

God Bless the four we all lost,

Bill

My Newest Rant!!

 

 

 

 

Here are a few of the things that have got me going this week.

1.     The Italian Supreme Court has ruled that Amanda Knox will be tried again in the Italian courts for murder and that if she is found guilty then the Italian government will ask for her extradition. First off, I guess the Italians have never heard of Double Jeopardy. Don’t worry Amanda, they would never get the extradition and they really can’t threaten anyone. I mean their track record of using force over the last 200 years has shown them unable to beat anything but an egg.

2.     An Alameda County, California Administrator who earns around $422,000.00 a year and will continue to do so even after she retires. I was going to write a major comment on how the President only makes $400,000.00 a year and has a little more to worry about than the Alameda County Administrator. But then I realized; who cares, it’s Alameda County?

3.     Hilary Clinton resigned as Secretary of State claiming to have visited more countries than any other Secretary of State; however, like her boss, no one can remember her ever visiting a country of any consequence when it really mattered. Now I’m not a John Kerry fan by any means, but at great pain to myself I have to give him a little credit. In just a little over a month he has visited some pretty rough regions and handed out some pretty tough warnings. I just hope he doesn’t have to back them up, that’s when he’ll find out who he’s working for and then he’ll find out what those in Benghazi did.

4.     America must be proud of the president sending Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi to Pope Francis’ inauguration. I mean here’s a Catholic  lady who is on the outs with her Bishop and a vice-president who, as a Catholic, wouldn’t kiss the papal ring because his Momma told him he deserves more respect than even the Pope. And she’s right, just look at his career filled with lying, racial, plagiaristic comments, what’s not to respect – NICE JOB JOE!

5.     We are halfway through the bi-annual legislative session here in Texas and to date there hasn’t been anything of consequence to happen out of the ordinary. The only thing I can think of that has been proposed is to move the primary date up so that Texas will have more of a say in future presidential elections. Here’s a thought, how about the RNC and the DNC get together and decide on a primary date for all the states and let all the primaries happen on the same date. Yes I know that is a states right issue; however, the two parties could make it happen by limiting delegates for states not cooperating. Of course it requires the legislating of the legislators which is always an almost impossible legislative task.

Well, hang in there. I’ll think of all of you while I’m in Vegas!! Maybe I’ll take a few minutes to write while I’m there…..then again, maybe not!!

Later,

Bill

Another Day, Another Rant!!

I know – I know!!

How lucky can you be to have two rants in as many days!! Just so much happening today I just felt like needed to vent a little. So let’s get to it!!

1.       Venezuela’s Dictator Hugo Chavez has died. His Vice-President blamed the US for contaminating Chavez with cancer, but President Obama is hopeful we can build a relationship with their new government. Did he not just listen? Anyway, you remember Chavez? He is infamous for wanting to befriend Comrade Obama and for calling George W. Bush “el Diablo” during an address to the UN. Funny thing is, I do believe Hugo is about to meet el Diablo for real!!

2.       The White House is discontinuing the White House Tour on the 9^th of March. According to a White House recording it is due to sequestration. I know this disappoints many folks; however, if the White House thinks that canceling the availability of an unguided tour will help with the sequester then I guess we must defer to their better judgment.

3.       As if the TSA hasn’t already made some of the most asinine decisions possible with security screenings in the last few years, now they are in the process of changing the allowed items on a flight and how the security process will work? Well no, you still can’t take a box cutter on board nor a razor, and yes you still have to take off those dangerous shoes and belts before you board your flight, BUT now you will be allowed to being your pocket knife on board…HUH? I guess it’s important to remember that this is the same organization that takes away plastic toy hammers from children and will frisk granny in a wheel chair so I suppose this makes sense…

4.       The state legislature is looking at what to do to make Texas schools more competitive in the area of college preparedness. How about we worry about the thousands of kids not going to college and how to put some vocational education and training back in schools. That way those of us who have kids who go through 13 years of school can graduate with a marketable skill like welding, cosmetology, and automotive repair. We used to do it and it worked, but somewhere we lost site of the importance of skilled labor and now it is expected that inside the next decade America will have a shortfall of 10% to 20% of the skilled workers we need!

5.       The State Legislature is also working to move the primary date from March to February so that the state’s primary will be more in play for the upcoming 2016 presidential election; however, the move forward will cost the state delegates to the national convention. So in the end we need to either leave it where it is or move it to January 1^st so we can have the first primary in the nation and people can vote on New Year’s Day, which is a holiday.

Okay, that’s the quick and ugly. Hope it helped you as much as it helped me!!

Till Later,

Bill

Rant of This Week!!

I know I have been writing a lot lately but I am trying to become more consistent with it so everyone will know that they can check for something new on a regular basis. So without further adieu, here is the latest series of rants.

1.       $1.5 trillion in aid to Egypt this year – REALLY. I guess that makes sense what with the passing what the Democrats swear will be the “Sequestration Apocalypse!” What’s another $1.5 trillion on the backside of $6 trillion in debt already tacked on by the Obama Regime and given to a government that has shown they are not our ally and are led by clearly anti-American extremists! See, I told you it makes sense.

2.       Congrats to the Texas State House members who have and are carrying water and cowering to Speaker Straus and his henchmen. Looks like we will have very little to nothing conservative come out of this Legislative Session. News flash for those who voted for Straus as Speaker…We’re keeping score of your voting record!!

3.       I was watching the Alamo the other night and I realized had William Barrett Travis backtracked in drawing his line in the sand like Obama does on the truth, the Alamo defenders would have had to set up for the final siege in New Orleans.

4.       During the years under the Obama Regime the size of the federal spending has expanded by a little over 20%. Sequestration takes the proposed 3.5% plus increase in the budget (or spending since we still have no budget) for this year and lessens it to 1.1%. So by the end of this year the Obama Regime will have overseen an increase on Federal Government spending of over 21% since 2009 and a rise in the national Debt of close to $7.5 trillion! Yeah...they’re that GOOD!

5.       By the way, Dennis Rodman now has more intelligence on what goes on in North Korea than the CIA. After finding it so easy for Rodman to get in with Little Kim in North Korea it now looks like maybe we should send RuPaul to Iran!!

Okay folks; that’s the short and skinny for this week. Hope you enjoyed it.

More to come later!!

Bill

Answering the talking points from those who speak “STUPID”

Since the President and his Lemmings have been going around preaching propaganda for the last few weeks, I have been bombarded with insults and silly accusations from my “friends” on the left. As recently as this morning I was faced with yet another attack of the stupids from another of my unfortunate dimwitted friends.

As a result, I responded to his flagrantly ridiculously unintelligent arguments with the following rebuttal. But once I completed the response I felt compelled to forward it on in a blog post just in case any of you are confronted with anyone spouting any of these inaccurate rants from the ignorant masquerading as the Stupid following the Pied Piper in the White House.

“If the Bush tax cuts were so great then why did our economy tank after 8 years of it?”

The Bush tax cuts helped stabilize the economy after the post-internet bubble and should have been allowed to sunset as it was originally passed; however, both parties were instrumental in its extension and it was a housing marketing scheme initialized during the Carter Administration and strengthened during the Clinton years that actually had more to do with the 2008 meltdown. A scheme addressed for removal by Bush in 2005, but fought for by Barney Frank and his pal Chris Dodd – LOOK IT UP.

“Time to pay the piper for two wars and those brainiacs who got us into this mess.”

I agree that putting two wars on a credit card was a bad idea; however, this one goes on both parties as they both voted for it…before they voted against it.

“I don't understand why so many middle class people want to protect these rich bastards who don't give two shits about you! It's not their sons and daughters fighting for your freedom.”

Actually, participation in the military, and the war, is based on desire to serve and/or better yourself. Statistically, percentage wise the numbers are a wash over who serves and who doesn’t. But service to the country is voluntary and regardless of whether there is a draft or not Democrats will always seek to cry the social justice foul over perceived inadequacies in military service.

“They aren't the ones trying to figure out how they are going to feed their children tomorrow! They aren't the ones sacrificing to put their kids through college!”

How come folks who come to America from thousands of miles away can always work however many jobs they need to meet whatever demands they have to in order to feed their children and put them through school, yet someone on welfare can’t walk their ass across the street to even feed theirs? If feeding children is such a problem, then you think the President would worry more about feeding them and less about universal Pre-K and government sponsored Wi-Fi.

“They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who figure out ways around tax codes to save millions! You think that money goes back in the economy? BS”

Republicans have been calling for tax reform and the flat tax for years, which by the way, is the only way to keep the rich from hiring tax attorney’s to get out of paying taxes. And since only about 51% of Americans actually pay taxes then why wouldn’t people who have to pay taxes work to find ways to pay the lowest amount they can regardless of their pay-grade?

Hope that helps a little!

Bill