An Evening with the Governor

I had the opportunity to attend the Town Hall style meeting in Fredericksburg with Governor McDonnell on Tuesday evening. Full disclosure – I voted for the Governor and I am delighted that Virginians in record numbers did as well. My purpose for attending was to express to the Governor that Americans have never been burdened with government as large, as intrusive, and as costly as the government we have now – at every level (Federal, State, and County). It turns out that our good Governor shares that concern. You can see the PowerPoint presentation that he used at: http://www.reform.virginia.gov/

One principle topic Tuesday was the privatization of the ABC stores which appears to be a classic no-brainer. Having the Commonwealth sell liquor is a stealth tax on everyone who likes an occasional glass of Scotch, Bourbon, or Rum. Since no other issue has enjoyed such widespread bi-Partisan support – for it to be opposed now could only be for the most blatant political stunt.

However the thing that impressed me the most about the exchange with the Governor was his willingness to spread the credit and his dogged determination not to snipe at Democrats. It exhibited an exceptionally mature and accommodating stance given the hyper-partisan climate at the National level. The governor even credited Tim Kaine with a portion of the cuts that helped balance Virginia’s budget. Even though a couple of questioners provided the opportunity to blame Democrats or our spend-thrift Senators for the National problems they have caused, Governor McDonnell refused to engage in partisan attacks. McDonnell said that he had just spoken with Senator Warner and that the out of control spending was Warner’s “principle concern.” “He doesn’t vote that way!” came a shout from the audience. But the Governor restated the point.

If only the President was as mature and gracious as our Governor. But then again, that just doesn’t appear possible.

A Job Not Worth Saving

If Joe Biden is still saving jobs, he should stop saving one for Patrick J. Fitzgerald.  While I am sure he is a nice and earnest man, he is a horrible prosecutor.  He first came to my attention with the Valerie Plame Affair – we say “affair” because there was no crime committed before Fitzgerald came on the scene.  There were a number of people to include Fitzgerald who knew this early on, but he persisted until he tripped up the hapless Scooter Libby.  Though Libby had nothing to do with the “affair” he nevertheless was convicted of lying to Fitzgerald about a crime that didn’t happen.  That took two years and several million dollars to reach a conclusion. 

Next Fitzgerald addressed the case of the one man in the United States that virtually everyone but Geraldo Rivera thought was guilty.  That is until Fitzgerald turned the case over to the jury.  Had Fitzgerald given Rod Blagojevich just a little more time Blago might have implicated all of Chicago, half of Illinois, and the lion’s share of the Obama administration in his money making schemes.  However it appears now that Blago will only have to pay for lying to Fitzgerald.  Hmm – that appears to be dangerous.  We aren’t getting much “bang” for our several millions of dollars. 

I think it is time for Patrick J. Fitzgerald to find another line of work.  If Joe Biden does ever create a job, let him give it to Fitzgerald – that is unless I am ever indicted for something.  In that event I want my prosecutor to be Patrick J. Fitzgerald.  

If you think I'm being harsh - read what Fitzgerald did to Karl Rove. 

 

Is Sarah Palin an Idiot?

My neighbor is a “sunshine Republican.”  Happy to associate himself with Reagan but caught up in the hatred stirred up against Bush he tilted to the left.  Though his politics probably mirror John McCain’s he was unsettled by Sarah Palin and I think he voted for Barack Obama.  Like so many he now has serious buyer’s remorse.  Yesterday he commented that Republicans lacked leadership and needed to get a face out front to rally the party.  As he prepared to drive away he added for emphasis “That Sarah Palin is an idiot!” 

That’s an interesting opinion given what we have been through in the last two years.  Let’s pretend for a few delicious moments that one third of American voters hadn’t stayed home in 2008 and John McCain had been elected President.  What would the result have been had McCain been incapacitated and a Palin administration squared off against the Pelosi-Reid Congress?

Can you imagine Palin signing the abusive and wasteful Stimulus package that created a National left-wing slush fund?  Absurd.  She would have vetoed the Omnibus atrocity that followed as well.  The result would have been that States and localities would have had to realistically deal with their spending problems rather than punt them into the next fiscal year.  How about Health Care?  With the Nation reeling with 7.2% unemployment on Inauguration Day – can you imagine President Palin focusing on Health Care?  Please. 

Palin would have nixed appointing 37 Czars and actually created a jobs task force.  Unlike gaff-a-minute Joe Biden, Sarah Palin at least knows that “J-O-B-S” is a four letter word.  Further unlike the entire Obama administration, Sarah Palin has the executive and business experience to have come up with credible solutions to create jobs instead of making unemployment worse.  Part of Palin’s charm is that she hasn’t set foot in either Harvard or Yale.  Though she doesn’t have an Ivy League vocabulary; she actually has the gift of common sense unsullied by liberal academics.       

In your wildest dreams can you imagine that little North Korean toad torpedoing a South Korean naval vessel with a Palin administration in the White House?  Iran’s Achmadinejad - any thoughts as to what President Palin would have said that smarmy fascist? 

Who would be greeted more warmly in Iraq and Afghanistan by our troops?  President Obama only began loving our troops when he became their Commander-in-Chief.  Sarah Palin might use a poorly chosen word from time-to-time but she is honest and genuine unlike the current office holder.  Our troops would adore a President Palin. 

How about the Gulf oil spill?  As Barack Obama is learning, the office of President is no place for on-the-job training.  On her worst day Sarah Palin would deal more effectively with everyone from British Petroleum to the Coast Guard to State and local governments who were battling the environmental damage.  While it is popular to demonize Palin for trivial things, don’t forget that she was the Nation’s most popular governor in 2008.  She had dealt effectively with both government bureaucrats and oil companies in Alaska.  Unlike Barack Obama, Sarah Palin knew exactly what Bobby Jindal needed and she would have provided.  Palin really would have been able to help on “day one.” 

Would Sarah Palin have tried to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility?  She might have asked advisors “What are you going to do with those vicious barbarians?”  No one apparently had the presence of mind to ask Obama that question.  No doubt the terrorists of 9/11 would have had a first class military trial followed by a first class hanging with a new rope long ago under Palin.  The New Black Panthers who intimidated voters in Pennsylvania would be in jail under Palin’s Attorney General.  A Palin administration wouldn’t have stopped work on the border fence which might have prevented a crisis in Arizona.  But even if Palin had fumbled that ball, can you imagine her administration attacking the sovereign State of Arizona? A Palin Justice Department might actually be concerning itself with justice.

Would Todd Palin be jet-setting around the world hemorrhaging American tax dollars on vacations and entertainment?  Can you see Todd insisting that we fall in love with arugula and broccoli?

Given what we might have expected under a Palin administration I don’t see a down side.  Given how Barack Obama has savaged the country and our economy how could we have possibly been worse off with Sarah Palin in charge?    By now even Barack Obama must wonder on occasion if winning was such a good idea for America or for him.  Perhaps he will write a third book from somewhere in Jimmy Carter-land in 2013 and we’ll find out. 

If Sarah Palin is an idiot, what exactly does that make Barack Obama?

 

Expectations for Iraqi and Afghan Armed Forces

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down the angst over the quality and abilities of the Iraqi and Afghan armed services will increase.  Witness two recent articles in The Washington Times “Iraqi Forces Lacking” on Thursday and “An Afghan army struggling” on Friday.  Over the past eight years we have had high expectations for building foreign militaries without completely understanding what is involved. 

Our Armed Forces are the envy of the modern world and have been for nearly a century.  Our young men and women enter into that tradition when they don the uniform.  The majority of nations have no such tradition and as a result their Armed Forces are little more than uniformed mobs.  Even so called "modern" nations cannot compete with the military that America can field.  Man-for-man (or woman-for-woman) we can whip any outfit in the world. 

American fighting men and women are blessed with a tradition that stemmed from the superpower of the age, the English.  Our traditions are Americanized English traditions with a smattering of other largely European traditions thrown in.  Indeed some peg the red piping on Marine enlisted uniforms as a left over from when uniform poor Continental Marines stole the red uniforms of vanquished (often dead) British Marines.  When turned inside out, the blue lining became the outer part of the uniform while the red showed at all the seams. 

Our Nation is based on the rule of law and the subordination of the Armed Forces to the civilian government for good or ill.  As long as the current administration remains within the bounds of the Constitution, they have nothing to fear from the American Armed Forces who are sworn to uphold our Constitution against all enemies foreign or domestic.  In many nations, the ruler is always looking over his shoulder at his military – not so America.  Our Armed Forces are a cross section of the nation.  These magnificent men and women come from all races, religions, and regions of the country.  They are not bound to any person, region, tribe, or religion, but rather to the Nation as defined by the Constitution. 

It takes time to create a viable military unit.  The privates who populate an infantry battalion might only have been in the service for 6 months, but the rest of the unit has a lifetime of experience.  The backbone of any military organization is its non-commissioned officers.  You can’t make a sergeant in a year or two.  It takes years that include formal and informal schooling, practice, and supervised experience.  His or her actions are monitored and evaluated by their seniors so that their performance is constantly critiqued and improved. 

The First Sergeant who is the enlisted leader in every Marine infantry company is the product of nearly two decades of such training, feedback, improvement, and experience.  Those that can’t meet the lofty expectations of a Marine First Sergeant have gravitated to other lives or vocations.  When mobile training teams start training the fledgling armed forces of emerging nations like Iraq or Afghanistan, there may be old guys around, but they aren’t steeped in the traditions of their service.  You can’t just “make” or even “train” a First Sergeant, you need to start with a superior person and put them through the entire infrastructure of traditions, schools, experience, practice, and leadership to “make” a First Sergeant. 

The Lieutenant that stands in front of an infantry platoon may have only entered the service eight months before, but he is a product of either the military (rose through the ranks) or society where he or she came through a college or military institution.  Those people self selected themselves for a life of service, difficulty, and danger primarily for their love of country.  They don’t receive a position due to class, clan, or religion, they earn it.  That young lieutenant who stands in front of a forty man infantry platoon at the age of twenty-two may in 16-18 years stand in front of a one thousand man infantry battalion.  He will succeed not because of his daddy’s name, his church, or political affiliation, but because he has proven himself over and over again.  He will command an infantry battalion because he also commands the trust and confidence of his seniors and his peers.  You can’t make such a man overnight. 

To be sure Afghanis are war-like.  Alexander the Great was shocked by their ferocity as were troops of the defunct Soviet Union.  Iraq has been the center of many militaristic empires; Assyrians and Babylonians.  However, it is yet to be seen whether they can be molded into an effective armed force that can support and defend their nations against all enemies both foreign and domestic.  By my calendar, they are eight to ten years from having a First Sergeant or adequately prepared Lieutenant Colonel.  Being trained by the finest military on the face of the planet is a pretty fine start though.  

      

You finally hit one out of the park

The Honorable James Webb,

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.  

Save us from Academics

Dear Civil War Times,

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.”  

                        

FrankenDodd

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 3^rd 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.