Is the Presidential Spine Ever Arriving?

Maybe it was because I was raised at a time when an ultimatum by the President of the United States meant something and carried considerable weight. Or perhaps it is because as the United States of America we should strive to be as strong as possible and be leaders in the world. Apparently President Obama is not in that same path of belief.

Regardless of which President you talk about, none of the preceding Presidents in history have provided the shallow, confused, and just overall weak leadership President Obama has consistently and steadfastly exhibited. Today, when faced with two tremendous situations in Israel and Ukraine the President makes a five minute statement that was embarrassing to say the least. Of course it would be surprising if any world leader even paid much attention to his comments on much of anything at this point in his presidency.

Pertaining to Israel the President stated the same talking points as Secretary of State John Kerry did yesterday on the Sunday Morning Talk Shows. Of course that was after Kerry’s open-mike gaff where he stated the case that many already fear the administration has. President Obama said that the Israelis have every right to protect themselves and to destroy the tunnels Hamas has used to attack them. THEN he went on to say that now is a time for cessation of hostilities and for Israel to retract to the 2012 borders and allow for diplomacy.

Of course just a few days ago when both sides agreed to a cease-fire Israel did so while Hamas Terrorists continue to fire rockets into Israel. Now Obama wants Israel to stop their operations which will only result in allowing Hamas to regroup as it always has in the past. Let me spell it out this failure of an administration. Hamas is a terrorist organization. They are sworn to Israel’s destruction making them the equivalent of what Al Qaeda is to the United States.

Many people do not understand, but for us in the United States, and more to the point those of us in Texas, this would be the equivalent of Al Qaeda Having possession of Galveston Island, firing rockets into Texas, hiding in schools and hospitals, and using women and children as human shields all while being forced by the world community to suck it up and deal with it.

Of course with the current White House Administration, that sort of appeasement would not be too hard to believe; however, for those of us in Texas I think we would prefer to handle this a little differently; just as we are already having to on the Texas Mexico border.

So the President makes one of his grandiose statements basically saying the Israelis have the right to protect themselves; HOWEVER, now it’s time for them to stop. As ridiculous as that was, then he turns to the utter tragedy that is the downed Malaysian Airliner.

First he rightfully identifies the Russians as being directly and indirectly responsible for this incident. That was honestly well done and should be acknowledged as such. Then he states that Putin must do the following: stop the tampering of the wreckage site, grant access to international investigators, and provide for the dignified return of the bodies of these victims. All in all that was excellent…..then he blew it.

Unfortunately the President reduces the toughness of his initial indictment of Russian responsibility by then issuing yet another of his fruitless “Red Line” statements just as he has in the past and declaring that that if the Russians persist in this current direction they will continue to isolate themselves and risk a penalty that will cost them greatly……….HUH?

What does that mean? Probably nothing which is about the same thing as when he stated that there would be a dire consequences for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should he use Chemical and Biological weapons. By the way, NOTHING happened when the Syrian President allowed the use of Chemical weapons….TWICE!

Clearly Vladimir Putin is not afraid of the stupendously ignorant drivel that disguises itself for foreign policy emanating from this President and his administration. Of course what did we expect from a community organizer and self-promoter who is more concerned with campaigning, fundraising, and which club to use from 100 yards out than he is that actual running of the country?

It is pathetic that at a time when the world needs strong leadership the United States is led by such incompetence.

God Bless those in harm’s way and the families of Flight 17,

Bill

Congress vs. The People

With the loss of some incumbents in this year’s primary and the squeakers by some of the other incumbents, it is important to understand how the influence over these races is handled by the incumbents in office. It is said in politics that the hardest thing to do is beat an incumbent so I thought I might shine some light on this. There are three basic advantages the incumbents have; the ability to keep their campaign accounts open, send out free mailers while in office, and the biggest advantage is to have congressional campaign committees to work for them.

Firstly, each congressman can go ahead and keep campaign fundraising and create the traditional “War Chest.” That means that during their term of service a congressman can continue to fundraise for the upcoming election while their opponents will be limited to only fundraising after the date they can file their appropriate state paperwork for office. Not really fair, but hey, it’s the incumbents making those rules.

Secondly, each congressman can continue to send out mailers to their constituency via their congressional “updates” which are essentially propaganda packets similar to the mailers you will be getting from them during the election with one exception…..they don’t make harsh mention of their opponents. By the way, these aren’t free; they’re usually paid for with tax money (Your Money) and/or possibly with that aforementioned War Chest we talked about.

Lastly, the one that really cries of the cronyism we all confess to despise, congressional campaign committees. Both the senate and the House have them as do both parties as well. These committees are supposed to help each party build majorities in their respective chamber; however, in recent times they have become an incumbent protection syndicate. Money is raised by these entities and rather than sit out of the primaries, as they should, these committees use their money and influence to protect their incumbent brethren.

A few weeks ago in the race for the 7^th Congressional District of Virginia, incumbent Eric Cantor, who also serves as the House Majority Leader, was beaten by a political novice in the form of College Professor named Dave Brat. Following his defeat by a Republican in the Republican Primary, the House GOP Congressional Committee’s leaders said that had they known Cantor was in jeopardy they would have offered more support in the primary – WHAT!!!!!

Sounds crazy……But that’s the norm.

Let’s look at two other recent cases for examples of this self-protectionism.

In 2011, with redistricting up for debate and legal action in Texas, there was much confusion over who would run in which district. In the newly drawn Texas 35^th District, Democrat Joaquin Castro was preparing to run for office; however, Rep. Steve Israel, leader of the DCCC, or the House Democratic Campaign Committee, said they would support sitting Representative Lloyd Doggett who had also been drawn into that new District. Israel said, “We have a theocracy at the DCCC that we support sitting incumbents, across the board, in every case, we support sitting incumbents.” It’s okay, Joaquin just ran for office in another District where the Democrat incumbent was retiring – Problem Solved.

Before you think I am going off against the Democrats, let me provide another example in order to show you that this is not a “Democrat vs. Republican” issue, but it’s an “us against the entrenched incumbents” sort of issue. Just this last week we saw the same sort of protectionist agenda in the case of Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran. Following a pretty healthy, or unhealthy, loss to State Senator Chris McDaniel in the Mississippi GOP Primary and the aforementioned loss of Eric Cantor in Virginia, the National Republican Senatorial Committee injected the Cochran Campaign with fundraisers and influence in order to secure a victory for a career politician who first went to Washington in 1973 – think about that! That’s a lot of protection!!

In the last few years most people, Democrat and Republican, have been clamoring for the replacement of congressmen all over the United States, BUT HOW? There has been a small amount of incumbents beat in the last few years, but not enough to force the change America needs. Now I’m not saying they all need to be removed (maybe 90%), but there does need to be some serious change in order for America to progress forward. Unfortunately, with incumbents holding the aces with War Chests, Free Mailers, and Campaign Committees in their pockets, there doesn’t seem like much for the rest of us to do.

BUT THERE IS!

We must let these cats out of the bag. Question our Congressman, both at the state and national level. Be active in the political scene. Years ago it was said politics was one of those subjects a person didn’t bring up in civilized conversation – NOT ANYMORE! If you’re comfortable with the direction of where your state and country are headed then do nothing. But if you believe things must change then all of us, each and every one of us, Republican or Democrat, must step forward and make our voices heard. Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it requires you to step out of your comfort box. But unless you are comfortable with mediocrity, and possibly losing the very country we hold dear, then we must all stand and make a difference.

Remember, Congress is counting on you not getting involved!!

Batter Up!

Bill

Iraq….An Attempt at a Scorecard!

Okay, I am going to try to explain some of the complexities of the war(s) in Iraq. There are so many an intricacy in this situation that it barely makes sense much less even seems possible - So I’ll try anyway!! I am going to try to make a little sense of it, or at least expose the unsettling complexity and nearly impossible positive outcome of any involvement there.

Before I start I think it is important for me to confess that I was one of those who thought our involvement in Iraq was a bad idea when we invaded in 2003. Not because I thought the situation with Saddam Hussein didn’t warrant some sort of action, but because I knew that there would be no easy answer to the question of what’s next once Hussein was removed as leader of Iraq, and I was concerned for the number of veterans who would be returning from that conflict with lifelong disabilities – Mental and Physical.

When you look at the Middle East you must understand that while these countries have ancient names, they are not of ancient geographical origin. The countries that are found in the Middle East were drawn up following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War. Unfortunately, these borders were based on geographical boundaries and not along the true ethnic homelands of the peoples involved. They were based on borders that would benefit the victorious nations of Europe as they began to rule these nations as colonies or as puppet regimes.

Since we are discussing Iraq we can start there. Iraq includes three specific cultural groups; the Kurds to the north, the Sunnis in the middle, and the Shiites in the south. What is the difference between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam? Well about 1300 years ago or so these two factions disagreed over who should be Muhammad’s successor and they still haven’t worked it out. That may be a little simplistic, but it’s all we have time to talk about here as this blog is already going to be way too long.

Now comes the tricky part.

The Kurds actually inhabit a loosely defined area known as Kurdistan that falls into portions of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, and Syria. They have their own language and culture but unlike many elsewhere in the Middle East, there is not one specific religion considered Kurdish. While most are a Muslim base, many are Christian as well as other religions including Judaism. These folks live in the northern portion of Iraq and make up about 20-25% of the Iraqi Population.

The Shia Muslims are the minority portion of the Islamic world, but they make up approximately 60% of the Iraqi populace and reside mostly in the southern portions of the country. The Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the world’s Muslim population, second only to Christianity in numbers; however, in Iraq they only constitute 15-20% of the population and live in the mid-regions of the country. Even though the Sunnis are the minority in Iraq, until the 2003 invasion they had been the ruling sect of since Iraq has been independent. To do this they used brutal coercion and intimidation to reign over the Kurds and Shiites.

Many folks have questioned the reasons that we did not go after Saddam Hussein following the Gulf War in 1991. Simply put, the allies needed the use of staging points and bases in Saudi Arabia and the Saudis would not go along with Desert Storm had Hussein been removed. The Saudis were concerned that the removal of Hussein might come with the installation of a Shiite regime which in turn might invite the Shiite-led Iranians into Iraq and the Saudis wanted a Sunni buffer between them and Iran.

A decade later, following the 2003 invasion and the subsequent overthrow of the Hussein regime, the power vacuum in Iraq became apparent and the cultural rifts and ancient divisions between the long ruling Sunnis and the Shiites came painfully to the surface.

With the 2011 pullout of US and allied troops in Iraq, a huge leadership void emerged and was all too quickly filled with the influence of the Iranian government. Then, following the subsequent Arab Spring and the Civil War in Syria, the real complexities of the Middle East have now come in to play and the current administration has absolutely no clue how to deal with it. Then again, neither have any of the previous administrations since the colonial influences began to fail in the Middle East.

In the last few weeks, news of a Sunni faction called ISIS or ISIL has come to light in the press with news of their control over cities like Mosul and Tikrit; cities where many US troops gave their lives to secure. These ISIS extremists also have ties to Al Qaeda which is bad; however, they are also part of the rebels that are fighting the Shia government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – our enemy. But how can the enemies of our allies, the Iraqi government be the same people fighting a Syrian government seen as our “Enemy,” AND be a part of the Al Qaeda the President swore was decimated while he ran for office in 2012 – DOWN RIGHT PUZZLING?

But now it gets even more complex. The ISIS uprising in Iraq has been around since last year and briefed as far back as August of 2013 by US Intelligence Sources. So now the President has ordered 300 Special Forces troops into Iraq to train up the Iraqi army; however, he has refused them air support. But that’s fine as that bit of assistance is being picked up by Syrian Air Force and Iranian drones - BRILLIANT. 

Then this week the President announces that he wants to give $500 million to the Syrian rebels (mostly Sunni) to help fight Assad’s forces. Rebels that include the same ISIS troops who are working to fight the Iraqi army he is sending 300 troops to train. Seems rather counterproductive doesn’t it?

Don’t worry, the President says they will vet these rebels - but how? Are they going to be carrying an ID card to show what part of the rebel army they are in? Nah….we’ll just take their word for it. After all, that’s how their buddies in Iraq got the US equipment that we left for the Iraqi Army!

Let us not forget the Kurds in the north, they wished for autonomy in 1991 but were refused as the only way to get Turkish assistance in enforcing the no-fly zone over Iraq during the 1990s was to ensure that there would be no Kurdish independence. Now the Kurds have a chance to be free and possibly have a country of their own. They have been relatively silent and have gone into self-preservation mode as far as this current round of fighting has gone.

In summary, what is completely lost on the last few administrations is that fighting in the Middle East is not just about the geographical entities involved, but also about cultural, religious, and regional entities that might or might not be diametrically opposed in any given country, AND how these entities of all shapes and sizes might or might not be colluding with each other regardless of whether they are a nation, a culture, or a military sect.  Confusing isn’t it?

In short, we are trying to help the rebels that are opposed to the Syrian government; the same rebels who are part of Al Qaeda and fighting the Iraqi government we are also supporting; the same Iraqi government who is allied with the Syrian and Iranian governments we oppose and have sanctions against. AND we’ll train the Syrian rebels in Jordan so that Jordan can get involved and become unstable like the rest of the area.

I hope this has removed your confusion on being baffled by the mysterious entanglements of the complex intricacies of this region of the world. The one thing I take from it all is that since there is no way to know who is helping who and who is actually opposing who, then there is no reason to try and make any long term plans in this region. The Middle-East is a region of conflicting political, religious, and ideological beliefs inhabited by a majority of folks who are divided based on overlapping geographical methods who will take up arms to settle almost any disagreement. There are some sophisticated peoples in the region, but overall they do not have enough authority, nor do they have adequate support, to exert Westernlike-Civilized control.

There!! That was pretty simple…right?

Bill

A Rant for the Fourth Week of June!!

I felt like I needed to shoot out a new rant and get this blog up and running again……It’s been a while.

-          Hillary Clinton first claimed that her and Slick Willie were poor upon leaving the White House…of course they made $12 million the first year out of the white house and she was already a Senator getting paid as such……But honestly…...It was hell for them.

-          Now Hillary claims that her and SW are not as rich as other multi-millionaires (she made $5 million last year). If you just go by those two numbers then they have cleared over $1 million a year since leaving the White House and that does even include the other 11 years in between. Go ahead Hillary….keep using that line of logic….that should connect with common folk….or at least the DEM Lemmings!

-          The IRS requires seven years of records for their auditing purposes, yet they can’t even keep up with emails from two years ago that congress wants for their auditing purposes. I’m not sure why someone doesn’t subpoena the NSA for the IRS’s emails……they gotta be there somewhere.

-          This week the President spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and according to Josh Earnest, the new White House Propaganda Minister…errrrr….Spokesman, the President told Putin that if he didn’t back down from his current aggressive position that there would be “additional costs” to pay for their aggression. I’m sure old Vlad is shaking in his boots over that threat. Let’s see….the community organizer vs. the former KGB Colonel…….WHATEVER!!!!

-          Lastly, I am glad that the leaders of Texas have taken the next step to help secure the southern border of the state from the influx of illegal immigrants and criminals. Now if we could better control the influx of immigrants across the rest of our borders from the liberal havens like California before we are outnumbered.

Well there you go. I didn’t mention a few things, but I intend to write about them in the coming days.

Thank You For Your Support,

Bill

I have a New Cause!

In the past many of you have known me as someone who is very politically active and I have often used this blog for that reason. While I am still interested in politics from the standpoint of how it will affect the future of my children, I have needed a pause in my political activities so I can focus on what is really important to us in our lives – my family.

 

But sometimes there are issues that must be addressed that affect our families – immediate and extended!

 

With that said, I think it is important to note that recently our political leaders have done an incredible disservice to us all as Americans with their attacks against our active, retired and veteran members of our military. And let’s not beat around the bush, with all the recent congressional budget finagling and the lack of leadership from Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel we are reneging on the “guaranteed” commitments we have made to our current and past service members and we are leaving America’s future in a lurch.

 

Think that is overreaction? Then let me begin this series of blog posts with this.

 

With the new budget passed by the congress and signed by President Obama, military members pay and pensions will be reduced and they will lose anywhere from $80,000 to $120,000 over the course of the rest of their lives. The reasoning Congressmen gave for these cuts are that the pensions many veterans receive can be reduced as most veterans will be double-dipping with their pensions and the pay from their new post-military jobs.

 

Well let me explain something to you.

 

Following your years of service you are generally in a position where your skills in the military aren’t too marketable in the outside world. When I left the Navy after nearly 14 years of service I realized that the only people interested in my job skills learned in the military were military contractors. Otherwise there wasn’t much of a civilian need for personnel with submarine tracking skills – SHOCKING!!

 

Likewise most veterans will hit the market after the service needing to be retrained or starting out in a new position at the ground floor level, even after they have already spent a significant amount of time in the military defending the freedoms the non-serving members of society have used this same time to get ahead without serving their country. That’s where the pension they were PROMISED for their service aids in making up that difference.

 

In comparison let’s look at our congressmen and their complete lack of responsibility for their own actual double-dipping. I’m sure everyone has seen the emails and spam about congressional retirements and while most of it is just that – SPAM – much of it is based in reality of a sort. If a congressman serves 25 years he is entitled to his full pension immediately. A pension that to date has NEVER even faced a serious challenge via legislation anywhere similar to the congressional and bureaucratic attacks military pensions have. Actually, congressional members can receive a pension for as little as five years of service.

 

So when a politician gets elected at the age of 35and retires at 60, they can receive the full pension of anywhere from $50,000 to $60,000 with some topping out at as much as $86,000 per year –THAT IS SHAMEFUL!!

 

BUT WAIT – that same politician can get a lucrative job as a lobbyist and spend the rest of his life lobbying his old cohorts to vote on legislation in a manner that helps out those special interests able to afford this sort of insider trading.

 

This is all shameful and should be addressed with each and every congressman. I will be posting more on this and the lists of congressmen who voted for this and refused to stand for our active duty and veterans. Regardless of party affiliation each and every one of them should be held responsible and replaced.

 

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS!

 

More to Come!

Bill

What is a Phony Scandal?

Since the President started his new “Phony Scandal” line of speechifying last week I have been thinking hard about the scandals that have been the hallmark of his Presidency and just what makes them Phony.  At first I wondered which scandals he was talking about. Today, White House Spokesman and resident tool, Jay Carney, identified the two that he thought the most important – Benghazi and the IRS.

So after having the two pointed out I finally figured it out – so let’s take a look!

Benghazi – What do we know as a fact? We know that four Americans died at the hands of a terrorist led attack on our consulate and base of operations in Benghazi. We know that at the outset of this attack that the diplomats, military leaders, and the administration knew it was an organized terrorist attack. So where’s the Phony part of this?

It’s that the administration and the officials appointed by the President (Sec. of State, Sec. of Defense, CIA, NSA, etc.) came up with a phony set of reasons for the attack based on the phony notion that the Phony Attack originated due to the reaction of the mob to an internet video.  

We also know that these phony talking points flew directly in the face of the Libyan President when he immediately said it was terrorism. That led to the Libyan President restricting the FBI’s access in country and allowed the press to go over the consulate weeks before the FBI and also led to leaders in places like Tunisia to restrict FBI access to the suspects they had in custody.

In the end I’m afraid the President might have something right. I mean even though we lost four dedicated Americans, not to mention the President’s direct representative to Libya, he was right in labeling this a “Phony Scandal!”

The IRS – What do we know about this scandal? We know that throughout history the IRS has, at times, been used for political purposes and the delays over the last few years in granting tax-exempt status to Conservative groups has been another in a long line of Political targeting by an administration. We know this happened and that it was more than just a few rouge field agents in the Cleveland office.

So where is the Phony Scandal here? I guess that goes to the President saying he would get to the bottom of this and then allowing the claims that it was only a few agents in Cleveland to be permeated throughout the press in an attempt to minimize the conspiracy throughout the IRS and his administration.

Then to have one of the prime players take the 5^th after she had already made a statement was ridiculous. But then you have liberal congressmen attack the IG who showed no partisanship as he also identified liberal groups with the same issue; albeit conservative petitions were blocked at a more than 20 to 1 ratio.

Those are merely the only two “phony scandals” they want to discuss. I wonder about the rest. There are others but I think it’s a good starting point to discuss these alone.

But move along folks, the scandal clearly falls on the shoulders of those doing the investigating and the accusing, not those doing the cover up. I mean we have more important things to look forward to. Like ObamaCare coming online in 2014….what’s that….oh he moved it…..coming online in 2015.

Things like a new jobs stimulus plan to tackle shovel ready jobs like bridge building and such….wait….didn’t we spend like a trillion dollars on shovel-ready stimulus stuff already…..MOVE ALONG!

Or things like job stimulus….lower education cost….Quantitative Easing (aka – money printing)….Keystone pipeline obstruction (what the hell, let the Chinese have it)….Solyndra (wait, that is sooooo 2012)!

Man….the list just keeps on coming!!!

I need a Tylenol!

Bill

Eric Holder is One Tough Dude!

Today, our abysmal failure of an Attorney General, known as Eric Holder, gave a very brave speech detailing how the Obama Justice Department would challenge the Texas Voter ID law in federal court in San Antonio. Of course he bravely gave the speech 1400 miles away in Philadelphia to a friendly audience at the Urban League Convention.

He cited last year’s law suit regarding redistricting and that same court’s ruling that the maps were drawn in a manner that was overly discriminatory against Latinos. Were they? I don’t believe they were, but I am not a Latino. But then again, in Texas how many of our families are interracial and just how do you accurately determine who is Latino and who isn’t. I mean I have relations in my family and my wife’s family that are of all different colors and cultures.

As a matter of fact, I have a lifelong friend who married a young lady of Hispanic culture and they have three sons who all have German sir names. Are they Hispanic? This same friend’s sister married a Hispanic man and they have two boys and a girl all with Hispanic sir names. Which kids are Hispanic and which aren’t? This is the future of Texas and the United States. All you have to do to see the integration of america clearer is travel to a college or high school campus.

When my parents were in high school they were all segregated. By the time I was in high school integration had been the law of the land for nearly twenty years and while we were fully integrated I am afraid there was still some self segregation in the schools. Today things have changed greatly since the time my parents were in high school. Take a look and see that the kids of today are pretty well integrated when allowed to be so. When I visit my children at college or in high school I am so happy to see this taking place. It reveals a little window into martin Luther King’s dream.

Unfortunately there are far too many older folks including many in my generation who knowingly and unknowingly work to maintain the rifts between cultures and the races they need to survive financially or politically. Regardless of their party affiliation, I look at representatives in government who are of mixed racial and cultural backgrounds and I see people who should be the perfect candidates to help unite Texans and Americans.

Yet far too many of them are worried about winning the next election rather than working for the betterment of society. They can’t see past their own future to take the time to help create a brighter future for all of our children and grandchildren. As a result, I have to say that should we as a country not learn to quit bickering, to address our own flaws as a people, become proactive in our handling of the issues rather than reactionary, to unite, and to work to come together; then our current outlook is bleak.

But then you have race hustlers (who I will leave nameless); people who through their own actions make a mockery of those who came before them. People who make a mockery of addressing civil rights and racial harmony while claiming to carry the legacy of Civil rights trailblazers like Martin Luther King, James Peck, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, James Zwerg, or Octavio Ambrosio Larrazolo.

So to go on the plaque of race hustlers who shall remain nameless, you can etch in the name of Eric Holder because regardless of what else he says, the only way for him to keep the fires from flaming out of the liberal agenda is to keep all the racial fires stoked to an overheated frenzy.

Sadly though, this will be a costly endeavor for both the federal government and the State of Texas; and in the end it will go to the Supreme Court of the United State where they will rule as they have in similar cases in other states and the law will stand. After all, Texas’ law is less severe than the decade-old voter ID laws in either Indiana or Georgia; and amazingly enough in both of those cases minority voting increased after those laws were passed.

But Oh Well, why not waste all those federal dollars….it’s not like they’re borrowed or anything!

Bring your ID with you to the polls in November!!

Bill