I have just finished reading your column from last Thursday’s Wall Street journal – “Diversity and the myth of White Privilege.” You are to be commended for having the courage to reach out and touch the proverbial “third rail” of politics. I found your piece to be insightful and it had exactly the right tone. It made me think of the James Webb that I encountered when I was a young Marine captain at AWS when you came to speak to our class in 1984. Believe it or not, at least one story you told then stuck with me all these years. All of my correspondence with you since you have become one of my Senators has been to try to prevent you from helping the Reid-Pelosi axis of evil succeed. I have been roundly disappointed in your responses and your voting record. However today I am proud of what you have done to try and calm the racial hysteria of today’s left. I hope that this theme will guide your approach to legislation for the remainder of your time in office.
It took me a long time to get through the August 2010 issue of Civil War Times. I had a tough time slogging through parts of the issue. In particular “The Proclamation and the Peculiar Institution” gave me a hard time. I picked the magazine up and the ridiculous remarks would make me angry and I had to put it down. What is it about the rarified air academics breathe that makes them so damned ignorant? When I finally worked my way through that article I turned the page and was confronted with the story that compared Libby prison with the prisons at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. That might finally be enough to allow my subscription to lapse.
You see three of my grandparents were first generation Americans. However my father’s mother traced her roots back to Arkansas. My Great Grandfather and all five of his brothers fought for the Confederacy. Two of them died in the war. Since we believe that they were all enlisted men, they probably didn’t belong to the planter class. Therefore like the overwhelming majority of their Southern comrades they were not fighting to protect that “peculiar institution” just as the over whelming majority of the Northerners they faced had not left their homes to free slaves. So honoring the patriotism and sacrifice of my ancestors does not require me to confront the issue of slavery. Similarly the Virginia proclamation shouldn’t be required to mix honoring our Southern Heritage with bowing at the altar of regret over an institution that didn’t touch most of our families. I would suggest that anyone who doubts the courage or commitment of these men visit Gettysburg. When I’m there I like to walk from the Virginia monument to the “copse of trees” and imagine what was going on during “Pickett’s charge.” Should we honor those men? Certainly we must. Were they thinking about slavery that day? Certainly not. Governments and political entities fight wars for reasons that are not always the same as those that motivate the individuals who do the fighting. That fact should give all of Virginia’s critics a moment of clarity but I doubt it.
As for comparing prisons; Guantanamo Bay Cuba is perhaps the finest facility in which an enemy of any nation has ever been confined. The guards are well trained, disciplined, and held to the highest standard. Guantanamo isn’t “notorious” rather it exhibits to the world the tolerance and compassion with which we treat even the worst portions of humanity - terrorists. As for the aberration that was Abu Ghraib, it should be pointed out that when the temporary incident that made Abu Ghraib briefly “notorious” was discovered, those who made it so were punished quite severely. The embarrassment suffered by those prisoners in no way compares to the suffering of those in Libby prison. Neither of those modern prisons can be mentioned in the same sentence as Libby prison by any fair minded person. To make such a comparison is a vulgar and base insult to the American service men and women who labor there.
I think that academics who do not live in the real world should be required to affix disclaimers to their work. Perhaps something like “Academics only, no rational information provided” or “Dreamed this up by the fountain on campus.” Many of us can identify with those Southern soldiers, sailors, and Marines who fought for a variety of reasons that have always mystified academics. But they make perfect sense to those of us who still don a uniform. I think your editors should broaden their horizons in the search for “experts.”
You know that it is going to be a bad day when the picture above the fold on the front page is of a smiling Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Barney Frank. As in so many other instances over the past two years, when President Obama and his Congressional allies win, America loses. Generations yet unborn lost yesterday.
The reason for FrankenDodd’s mirth was the signing of their version of financial reform. Like so many other bait and switch measures by this Congress it neither reforms our financial system nor does it even begin to address the root causes of the financial problem. However it isn’t that different from all the other measures enacted by this disastrous team. The Stimulus bill didn’t stimulate the economy, the Health Care Reform bill won’t fix health care, and the administration that promised to be open is as opaque as ever. I can’t think of a single thing that is better today than it was on November 3rd 2008 - nothing.
It is particularly galling to see FrankenDodd grinning as they are the two people most responsible for the crisis that we find ourselves in. The false narrative is that a lack of regulation caused the near collapse of the financial system. However you can still search on “Armando Falcon” in YouTube and watch the government regulator get eviscerated by angry democrats who blocked meaningful limits on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. In all likelihood we would have had some kind of mortgage lending crisis after decades of Federal meddling in the financial markets. However the collapse of the two Government Sponsored Enterprises super-charged the destruction just as Mr. Falcon warned us it would in 2003.
We can address this mess soon. The voters banished Republicans to the Wilderness four years ago and they are now properly chastised – in short – they “get it.” Fortunately for Prince William County Congressmen Frank Wolf and Rob Wittman get it. The guy who has consistently been part of the problem is of course Jerry Connolly, but the good news is that Keith Fimian “gets it.” The reality is that it is time to put an adult back in Jerry’s seat on November 2nd. Once we do that we can address our wayward and spendthrift Senators.
I find the latest Obama follies both funny and disturbing. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is the newest bonehead to make the Obama Administration look like buffoons. Have any of these people ever had a real job? However it is not the charge and counter charge that I find most humorous and/or dangerous.
Think about a system where your employer can look at a webpage and without any recourse call you on the phone, insist that you pull your car over, and make you resign using your Blackberry. The guys in the SEC who spent all day watching pornography got treated better than that. If that isn’t naked, arrogant abuse of power – then I don’t know what is. I mean who did they think she was? A pro-Republican GM car dealership owner?
Tom Vilsack has a responsibility to all of us to run his department according to the rules that govern our Federal bureaucracy. However he is also Shirley Sherrod’s boss. As Sherrod’s boss he owed it to her to follow standard procedures rather than immediately throw her under the bus for a blatantly political reason. Now given her entire speech – there is little doubt that Ms. Sherrod is not the kind of person that we want meeting out government largess, but she deserved the opportunity to face her boss. Again – this naked abuse of power is very disturbing.
It is particularly ironic that this happened nearly simultaneously with the revelation that the George Bush era firing of crummy lawyers was not illegal. Duh. Most of the country knew that already but we had to have left-leaning bureaucrats drag a good man like Alberto Gonzales down in the purely political fur-ball that the left manufactured. That’s what people like Shirley Sherrod were doing during the Bush years not withstanding her protestations to the contrary in her recent tirade.
Bottom-line – Shirley Sherrod probably doesn’t belong in our government, but she deserved better from her boss who must get his dedication to the rule of law and fairness straight from the top of the current administration.
As the immigration battle continues to escalate it is time to revisit the effort to declare English the National language. This will have an entirely positive effect on the problem and it will save money at a critical time in our economic history.
Congress must pass a law that establishes English as our National language. It should require us to discontinue the printing or use of any language other than English in any government publication or office that does not deal directly with valid tourists or diplomats. The savings from printing and translation alone would be huge. Any cost for translators or translations should be borne by the people who need them. This will encourage people who do not speak English to go home. The English language knits us together as a people. There shouldn’t be any enclaves in the United States where non-English speakers are subsidized by tax payers. If you decide to come here and you don’t learn English first, you should shoulder that responsibility financially. Environmentalists should be happy as we kill fewer trees for publications. Libertarians will be pleased as the financial burden will be on the people who create the problem. All Americans will be happy to shrink the size, scope, and cost of government.
We need to send the message loudly and clearly that if you aren’t ready to assimilate into our country, which includes speaking English then save your money and stay where you are. If you can’t depend on your own resources to sustain yourself with translators – the American people decline to subsidize your English education. I suppose that gives people from Ghana and Belize the inside track on immigration – so be it.
I think it is splendid that Americans learn to speak other languages and I recommend that continue. What I object to is paying for English as a second language courses. The fact that you wound up in my country and can’t speak our language is your problem – not ours.
Bottom-line – on a taxpayer supported government telephone line, we need to make “Marke dos para Espanol” a thing of the past.
After church today, my wife and I were being funneled through to the door where we typically shake the hand of the Preacher on our way out. I found myself face-to-face with the unabashedly democrat county supervisor of a neighboring district. We are aware of each other’s politics though we are generally friendly and he extended his hand. As we shook hands he asked me what I had been up to. I responded that I had been manning Republican Headquarters adding that “We are going to kick your ass.” My wife was trailing me and the woman behind her asked if we were talking about a sports team. My wife responded that “No, they are talking about politics” adding “We play for the other team.” The woman responded, “I know that’s why we avoid you.” I wonder if she had noticed the “Don’t blame me, I voted Republican” stickers on our cars? My wife was a bit taken back and much too polite to say what was on here mind and she continued out the door.
My wife told me about the conversation when we got to our car and we both had a good laugh about it. Neither of us knew who the woman was, though her face was familiar and we had seen her often at church. The discussion that followed was not so much about her comment but how people can sit through church and walk out and pull the lever in a voting booth for a party whose principle objectives seem to be protecting abortion on demand, advancing the homosexual agenda, attacking the institution of marriage, and placing yet unborn generations in debt. The current administration and democrats in general have been openly hostile to Christians and Jews while courting the nations most hostile to our religious freedom. It is democrats who consistently throw up the “separation of church and State” a concept that does not appear in any of our founding documents tracing its roots to a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. It has led to a democrat party that is openly hostile to Christianity and Judaism.
So how can that supervisor walk out of church and climb into a car with a “Christian and Democrat” sticker on the bumper? I don’t get it. How do figures like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Kerry, and the late Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd sit in a pew without squirming? This is the one area where President Obama isn’t two faced – he hasn’t picked a church and I understand why. If I had been doing what he has been doing and if I had been brought up in Jeremiah Wright’s black liberation meeting house – I wouldn’t feel comfortable in a church pew either.
As for the lady at our church - Life isn’t a popularity contest and we particularly aren’t interested in collecting friends that don’t share our values. At this point, if you voted for Barack Obama and you don’t regret it, you aren’t smart enough to be our friend. If after the display the democrats have put on for the past four years (two under Bush and two under Obama) and you are still in their party – then you either have a screw lose or you hate America.
Going through the agonizing process of selecting a new Supreme Court Justice recently brings the idea of “litmus tests” back into the public eye. The standard discussion deals with abortion on demand. No Democrat can ever envision a candidate opposing unrestricted abortion on demand even though most Americans now oppose it and large majorities oppose barbaric practices like late term abortions. I think that someone who says that abortion on demand is “settled law” fails the litmus test to be a judge or a politician.
Though most decry the thought of a litmus test, I think that we should have additional litmus tests for all politicians. For example:
If you are running for political office and you believe in Keynesian economics – you are completely unqualified for government service – at any level or office. Keynesian economics have never worked anywhere. President Obama is now torturing our free market economy with his version of Keynesian economics and we won’t recover until we stop him.
If you want an adult job and you still believe in Global Warming – no dice. Given everything that we know now, if you still believe in Global Warming you are too damned ignorant to decide what the government should do with my money. We actually have the next wave of hoax-as-science coming as some are now predicting an imminent ice age. No kidding. The National Geographic channel ran the programs one right after another. Serious looking scientists spewing the ridiculous notion first we are incubating the planet and then in the very next hour other serious looking scientists explaining how we are in imminent danger of a new ice age. Guess what? Both groups are full of crap.
If you don’t like the death penalty for murders then you flunk the litmus test. Having people sit on death row in various prisons throughout the land forever is ridiculous. Consecutive life sentences – what sense does that make? If a judge gives you two consecutive life sentences you belong in a cemetery not a prison. Warehousing criminals who are never going to be let free is stupid. Dispatch them to their maker by the cheapest and most expedient method.
If you want to grant amnesty to those living illegally in our country, then you don’t love my country enough to defend its best interests – you are outta here. One of the essential parts of being a country is having a border and controlling who and what crosses it. We don’t need more poor, under educated people in this country. I don’t care if they have to stand in line for a visa in theirs.
One of the oft quoted lines that we saw Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA) utter is that nothing is to be gained by “that politics stuff” with a look of utter disdain on his face. He is of course using that excuse to avoid answering questions that would help determine whether or not the Obama administration broke the law in offering him a position in order to back out of the race against Senator Arlen Spector (D/R/D – PA). It is too bad because as a retired Navy admiral, he might be the only one of the principles that might actually have told the truth. But what is that “politics stuff?”
I actually have heard that before as some of my neighbors, friends, or acquaintances have mentioned that they don’t want to talk about that “politics stuff.” To be honest I was one of those people who didn’t want to talk about that “politics stuff.” I was generally apolitical during all my years in the Marine Corps and it took me awhile after I retired to get engaged.
In my second career I worked in the telecommunication industry. I frequently ran into people who wanted to be able to say “that F***ing Bush” but when I objected – they didn’t want to talk about that “politics stuff.” Today it might be people who complain about taxes, unemployment, traffic, schools, health care, Israel, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, illegal immigration, or the mortgage crisis. There is an explanation for why so many things are going wrong of late, but to explain it you have to delve into that “politics stuff.” I can explain exactly how the mortgage industry slammed the world into recession. It has very little to do with Wall Street but rather it has a great deal to do with that “politics stuff.” Many things are like that. Illegal immigrants are streaming across our borders because our current government won’t finish the damned fence – why? That “politics stuff.”
I think that our general distaste for that “politics stuff” harkens back to an age when not much that happened in Washington had much to do with our daily life. That was of course the way it was intended according to the United States Constitution and our founding principles. Unfortunately that has changed a great deal with successive progressive (aka. Democrat, Left-Wing, Liberal, socialist, etc.) administrations that have invaded our States, our Counties, and our communities. Our Nation operated demonstrably better when communities took care of their own problems. How did the American model evolve to one that is prohibitively expensive and doesn’t work anymore? I can explain it, but we have to go into that “politics stuff.”
President Obama is having a helluva time energizing a tepid economy, generating job growth, paying for health care, fixing immigration, and plugging the “damned hole.” Why exactly is that? Well the first reason is that he’s the least qualified President to ever sit behind the big desk. The other reason all revolves around that “politics stuff.”
