All dictators are Left Wing

I find it somewhat interesting that while Libs condemn a military operation that has freed 25 million souls from the grip of a maniacal tyrant in Iraq, they also condemn laws which prohibit racial discrimination here at home. In November, the voters of Michigan amended the state constitution to prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment on the basis of race or gender. Libs went nuts claiming racism, homophobia, sexism etc. etc. etc. Ahhhhg, the inhumanity - treating people equally! This is outrageous!!!!

Then there’s the Lib love affair with “hate crimes”. If a white guy kills a black guy it’s a hate crime, according to Libs. If a black guy kills a white guy, which is the overwhelming statistical probability, the white guy probably deserved it and besides how can we expect blacks to act civilized given what whites have done to them, according to Libs.

Then there’s the whole homophobe thing. If someone I care about is killed by some ne’er do-well, I could care less about the state of mind of the killer. I just what that person’s liberties restricted in the most severe manner available. Since Libs won’t allow us to treat criminals like criminals, I am a reluctant death penalty supporter until we do. What really bothers me is that the same guy that might get probation in the liberal justice system today for killing a straight white friend of mine might get the chair for killing a black or gay friend.

So what’s the point? Well the point is that Saddam sent his supports to schools and appointed them to government work and showered all manner of special treatment upon them - sort of Ba'athist affirmative action, after all they were the minority in Iraq. Saddam also treated killers differently. Saddam’s sons killed people who spoke out against the regime and were rewarded. Other murderers were themselves put to death. So it seems to me that Liberals are like dictators. They do not seek equal opportunity. They seek an advantage for their supporters. Hence affirmative action and hate crimes legislation.

Which, mercifully, brings me to the point, if liberals are all for the government running everything from health care to TV, why do they insist on calling dictators, who run everything from health care to TV, “right wing”? It seems to me that dictators’ abuse of government power is more in line with Liberals’ way of thinking than the right way of thinking.

Woodward interviews the dead...again

As a reporter, how many times can you go to the, “Just before he died he told me that…” bit? Dead men are fast becoming Bob Woodward’s best sources for information. So much so that Wes Pruden, the no-nonsense newspaper man that runs the Washington Times’ editorial page, has taken to calling Woodward “Mortuary Bob” for his uncanny ability to get the scoop on the days headlines from dead men.

Bob’s first big break interviewing the dead was with President Reagan’s former CIA director, William Casey. Casey was in intensive care, in a comma, with the family outside on a death watch. Somehow Bob snuck into the room, coaxed Casey from his comma and got Casey to give him the scoop on Iran Contra. While everyone who knew Casey claimed Woodward’s story was crap, the MSM ran with the story. Now the MSM is at it again with Woodward’s story on President Ford and how, in death, he opposed the Iraq war. Woodward has again stuffed words into a dead man’s mouth and we’re all supposed to take it as gospel. All this proves to me is that while Libs laugh at the idea that Jesus could raise the dead, they worship the fact that Bob Woodward can talk to them.

A Tale of Two Establishments: A Christmas Story The End

Mercifully this is the last instalment of our Christmas story. Merry Christmas to all. Family is arriving soon and I still have to get the Mrs. that chainsaw I know she wants, so, unless there's big news, I'll see you all on 2 January, 2007.

The staffs

MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s hired people at random – the only fair way to do anything according to Chase. They were swamped with applications when the MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s owners promised a “living wage” for its employees. After long meetings with union reps, illegal aliens, Ted Kennedy representing the Progressive – ahh Democrat party, they agreed that $35 an hour to start was in fact a “living wage”. Someone suggested $35.50 and everyone thought the guy was nuts.

As a result of their random hiring practices, MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s has three waitresses. Two are blind and the third is an octogenarian who uses a walker and is in the third stage of Alzheimer’s. A dwarf has been hired as the chef. A recovering alcoholic tends bar. A stuttering harelip is the greeter and a kleptomaniac works the cash register. Everyone works “flex hours”. Nobody knows when anyone else is working. Some days nobody works and MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s is just closed.

Dan does all of the hiring and firing and sets the work schedule. He hires attractive young women to wait tables and occasionally work the bar. He hires young men to cook, tend bar and do everything else. The only thing that gets someone fired faster than trying to steal from Dan is trying to steal from a customer.

Dan closes only four times a year, Christmas, New Year’s, Easter and Aug 5th. On Aug 5th Dan’s is open only to Dan’s staff, former staff, close friends and Dan’s best customers for an all-day catered party and games. For years people have speculated about the significance of August 5th for Dan. One by one the theories had been disproved. Every imaginable anniversary, kids’, grand kids’, wife’s and Dan’s birthday had been checked – none matched.

The latest theory they have settled on is that August 5th has something to do with the neatly framed picture behind Dan’s office desk. It’s a photo of a one armed man, an older couple and two Marines. Next to the photo, in the same frame, is Dan’s Silver Star. Centered inside the frame, neatly written, are the words “Each life touches so many others. Josh”. The staff has agreed that August 5th is in someway linked to that picture. That theory is wrong. Dan and his wife are about the only people still alive who know that Aug 5th was Dan’s mom’s birthday and that the party has always been in her honor.

The buy out

MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s went broke after two weeks. George Soros stepped in and coughed up a billion dollars to take MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s concept nation-wide as a testament to Liberal business practices. Chase, Arcy, Montague and Giles tripled their investment and were hired on for six figures each as consultants. At the MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s across from Dan’s, Soros hired Al Franken as the Maitre de for $1.3 million dollars. Franken regularly calls the cops on Dan’s for being too loud, having too many lights on, the parking lot not being up to code, long lines blocking the sidewalk, smoke, noise in the parking lot after closing etc. etc.

Dan just pays the fine and fixes the problem.

The Christmas lights

MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s has a single sign in grey paint on plain white paper in the window, “Have a happy non-specific winter holiday celebration”.

Dan’s has 20,000 lights out in front, a Godzilla sized blow up Santa, a plastic life-size Nativity scene with 50 characters and an 8 foot Menorah set up in the parking lot - classic Christmas music plays all day from speakers on the roof. It’s all topped by a billboard size neon sign on the roof that flashes a red “Merry” then a green “Christmas.” Franken complained about the display and the city ordered Dan to remove it or be fined a $100 a day. Dan went to the city clerk’s office, asked what the lump sum fine would be to leave the display up until New Year’s and wrote the city a check for the full amount. Since the controversy hit the newspapers, 100s have come by to see the display and support Dan. While they are there they go into Dan’s and have a drink and a bite to eat. Dan’s is now looking at a record breaking December.


Christmas Eve

Today, Christmas Eve, the cops show up at Dan’s sirens blaring and lights flashing. This brings a smile to Franken’s face. The cops rush inside and head straight for Dan’s office. “What is it this time officers”, Dan asks. “Mr. Franken alleges that your front sign protrudes 3/8ths of an inch too far from the building.” Dan promises to fix the sign and then as always, invites the officers to have seat, order a coke and anything they’d like off the menu on him. He directs the staff to get the officers served first. Dan joins them and they become friends.

The veteran officer asks Dan if it was true that, back in the day, Dan once shot an armed robber in the chest. Dan answers in the affirmative. He tells the officers that it wasn’t long after they had opened and he and his wife Annie were closing up. He shakes his head and says, “You know, it bothers me that a man had to die for the 58 dollars and 60 cents that we had in the register that day. If it had been just me, I’d have given him the cash and hoped for the best. But he had that damn gun and I just couldn’t take the chance that he might just shoot my Annie anyway.” “What did you shoot him with”, asks the rookie officer. Dan reaches under the table, from somewhere he produces a Smith& Wesson .357 revolver. Dan nods, returns the gun to its hiding place, gets up and heads back to his office still a bit troubled by events that happened decades ago.

Meanwhile, out front the flashing lights have drawn quite a crowd. Many wander into Dan’s to see what the commotion is all about. While they are there, they order a drink and something to eat. What an hour earlier looked like a slow afternoon turns into a record breaker.

Dan’s will be closing early on Christmas Eve. Dan Jr. is coming home from the Marines with his wife and kids today. Ever since learning of their arrival, Dan has made it clear that the place would be cleaned up and the door locked not one second past six p.m. The young bar manager tells Dan that he’d be happy to lock up. Dan thanks the man but declines the offer saying, “There’s a reason they still call it Dan’s”.

At closing, Dan sees everyone out wishing them a Merry Christmas and stuffing generous bonuses into their pockets before going through his closing ritual. Now, he’s headed home to be with his wife and kids and most important at Christmas time, the grand kids. As he walks out, he straightens Miss Millie’s picture on the tree, turns out the lights and locks the front door at 6 pm sharp. He walks to the parking lot with a few packages in hand, last minute things for the grand kids and the coat Annie had mentioned one time two months ago that she liked and then quickly added, “But it’s way too expensive.”

Before getting into his Hummer to go home, Dan remembers the lump of envelopes in the glove box. He reaches in and grabs the stack. He walks across the street to a closed and dark MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s. One by one, he slides 22 envelopes through the mail slot in MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s door. Each envelope has the name of one of MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s 22 employees hand printed on it. Inside the envelope is a $50 gift book for Dan’s Goodtime Smokehouse with a simple handwritten note “Merry Christmas, your friend Dan”.

A Tale of Two Establishments, a Christmas Story Part II

Continued from below...

The Menus

MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s menu is printed on a single sheet of onionskin thin recycled paper. The menu claims to offer only organic food but the chef regularly buys from the cheapest supplier without regard to how the product was produced. The four trust babies make sure everything is marked up as if it were organic though. The few customers that visit MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s always rave how much better the organic stuff tastes. The chef, sneaking a smoke in the back, laughs his butt off.

There is no meat or any animal products on the MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s menu. Most of the menu consists of artificially flavored tofu. Their biggest seller is the vegemite meatless meatloaf. Drinks are mostly fruit flavored “spring water” that actually comes from the tap in kitchen and is flavored with a dab of Kool-aid. The few customers, rave how you can "really taste the differrence in spring water". You can get a white wine spritzer made with a vintage wine. There are several vintage bottles of wine on display behind the bar, but the sritzers are made with the box wine under the bar.

Dan’s menu hits the table like a big city phone book. There is every manner of fried, baked, blackened, BBQ or the house specialty smoked - beef, chicken, pork, lamb, frog, fish, oyster, shrimp and vegetable imaginable. The house specialty is the full rack of smoked dry ribs. On Fridays, it’s the smoked “catch of the day”. No matter how much is prepared they always run out. Dan still personally oversees the smoking process at the three industrial sized smokers off the back of the restaurant. One of the 20 something year old cooks once told Dan that they could do it and there was no need for Dan to be in at the crack of dawn every other day to supervise the process. Dan's only response was, "There is a reason my name is on the sign young man."

There are a 100 different kinds of liquor behind the bar and 27 different beers. Kids who hang around the bar long enough know that if the bar tender is not too busy he will slide them a 7up with a little Grenadine and a maraschino cherry. Most of the parents grew up calling the concoction a Roy Rogers or a Shirley Temple. Dan insists that the staff call it a "Stryker" after the John Wayne character in the Sands of Iwo Jima.

When MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s had their grand opening Dan sent over 8 platters of his best stuff for the MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s staff and a note “Welcome to the neighborhood”. MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s sent the platters back with a rude note about dead animal flesh or something.

The Parking Lots

MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s has no parking lot. There is a bike rack in front. The absentee owners do not want to encourage the use of fossil fuels and the internal combustion engines - although they each drive the latest gas guzzlers themselves.

Dan has purchased and knocked down the three blighted buildings adjoining his property. He has made a huge parking lot to accommodate the oversized SUVs most of his customers drive.

MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s offers free valet parking for customers driving hybrid autos. They park them across the street in Dan’s lot.

Dan says park your own damn car. He knows what MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s is up to. So Dan puts up a sign in his parking lot, “Warning, park your hybrid here at your own risk. If it gets crushed under Dan’s Hummer – so sad too bad – get a real car.”

The Decors

MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s has a sign as you enter that says “No fur. No leather. No cigarettes. No kids. No pets. No loud talk. No free water. No free restrooms. No designer shirt, no designer slacks, no designer shoes and belt – no service. Napkins extra.”

Dan’s has a sign outside the door “Some people here smoke. If you don’t like it, don’t come in.” Inside the door there is another sign right under the “Wear whatever you want, but you must wear something” sign - that reads, “Most of Dan’s staff and many patrons have a right to carry a concealed weapon’s permit. Behave accordingly.”

The inside of MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s is completely a monochrome light grey. It used to be a light grey with a slightly lighter shade of grey adding contrast. Someone complained that there was a slightly greater percentage of the lighter shade of grey leaving the impression that MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s was prejudice against the slightly darker shade of light grey. So they painted it all the slightly darker shade of light grey. The grey is accented by the chrome tables, and chairs, Formica bar and the glass and mirrors that round out the décor. Inside there is no discernable indication that the Christmas holiday is up on us.

Nobody really remembers what color Dan’s was originally. Where you can see the walls at all, it’s mostly dark greens and yellows, from age or smoke or both. Most of the walls are now covered with things Dan has collected over the years or people have given to him or left behind. There is of course the obligatory first dollar ever earned framed behind the bar (MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s has yet conduct its first cash transaction) and the yellowed framed favorable restaurant review that appeared in the local paper what seems like a 100 years ago with a picture of Dan behind the bar when he was thin, didn’t wear glasses and had hair. Some places where pictures or other wall hangings have been moved or knocked out of square, show a lighter greenish and yellow color under.

Tables and chairs at Dan’s are old oak, made to last and they have. The bar is to die for. 30 feet long, brass foot rail, solid oak top and elbow rail over an elaborately carved oak bottom. An etched and beveled mirror runs behind and is the length of the bar and to the ceiling. The words Dan’s Goodtime Smokehouse are elaborately etched in an ark in the middle.

Dan puts up four huge live Christmas trees every year and has them decorated stem to stern. Customers add things of their own. Business cards are a favorite. Others have their kids color the Santa, star and Christmas tree on the seasonal place mat. The waitresses cut them out, sign the kid’s name to them and hang them on one of the trees. Some families string popcorn or cranberries provided at the bar while waiting for their dinner.

One of the long time regulars brought in an old picture of his wife Millie. The photo was framed in pink paper lace. Millie and the old man had spent 100s of hours over the years talking with Dan and watching people come and go from the corner booth. It's the old man's dollar that is framed behind the bar. Millie passed some time in the spring and the old man had not gotten over the loss. Dan cleared a prominent spot in the middle of the first tree and a beautiful young Millie is there for all to see and remember.

Each night before closing now, Dan goes by the tree and makes sure Miss Millie’s space has not been encroached upon. He takes the most unusual thing added to the trees that day home to show his wife. Tonight Dan notices a digital picture of MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s Grand Opening that appeared in the city paper. Some wise guy had photo shopped the picture. The "Grand Opening" sign was changed to Merry Christmas, an aluminum Christmas tree was added, the tables were colored red and the carpet green. The wait staff all had Santa hats on and the four absentee owners were photo shopped in as elves. In an ironic touch, the jokster signed the picture with a green Sharpie, Merry Christmas & best wishes to Dan from all of your friends at MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s.

A Tale of Two Establishments, A Christmas Story Part I

THE OWNERS

A new establishment opens. It is an establishment opened to give proof to liberals' ideas. The establishment is called “The Multicultural Gathering Place of World Peace, Environmental Conciseness, Collectivism, Tolerance, Open-mindedness, Compassion and love” – no damn conservatives, cops or military please or MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s for short.

MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s is the brain child of four trust baby college buddies Chase, Arcy, Montague and Giles. The four know nothing, do nothing, be nothings decided to start the business after being booted out of the most popular restaurant in town – “some dump called Dan’s” - after demanding that one of the 21 TVs in Dan’s be tuned to the PBS News Hour during the playoffs one Sunday afternoon. To get even they decided that they’d each kick in a bit of their trust fund to open a restaurant across the street and run “that fat ignorant Neanderthal” out of business. “How hard can the restaurant business be if that vile creature can make a living at it?” opined Arcy.

The four graduated high school from some expensive eastern boarding school in 1980 something. Chase played football and was better than average, but he was kicked off the team because he didn’t think he should have to practice. Chase told his friends he quit because football was “lame”. Arcy was a great singer and actor but was kicked out of the drama club because he refused to cooperate with anyone. He told his friends he quit because drama was “lame”. Montague was the best intermediate distance swimmer in the state but was kicked off the swim team when he refused to help the team by swimming a leg of the 4 X 100 medley relay. He claimed it would hurt his individual events. Montague told his friends he quit because swimming was “lame”. Giles was the captain of the golf team but was kicked off the team when the coach caught him shaving strokes at several practice events. Giles told his friends that he quit because golf was “lame”.

Failing at every social endeavor and activity at school, the four boys decided to form their own club. They called it a fashion club but the idea wasn’t to talk about the kind of suites they wore but rather the kind of legal suites they could bring against the school. The boys spent the remainder of their days disrupting school with all manner of silly legal proceedings against the school, the staff, teachers and fellow students. While everyone agreed that the boys were among the brightest in the school none finished in the upper half of their graduating class. The boys sued the school for this injustice.

The boys went on to a fine Ivy League school and continued their unproductive lives. They dressed the same; went to the same clubs; drove the same kind of cars - wrecking them, trashing them and just trading them away for the latest models. The boys have never really had a real job in their collective lives. But now, in response to a perceived slight, they are opening a restaurant to seek revenge against that Neanderthal Dan.

Before Christmas, shortly after opening, a Marine sergeant in dress blues and with a severe limp comes into MGPWPECCTOMC&L’s. The Marine, with several rows of ribbons including a purple and white one with two stars, asks the owners if he can place a Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Barrel in front of the store. Arcy tells the Marine, “See here my dear man, we don’t believe in Christmas. There will be no Toys for Tots. No atrocious bell ringer or any other kitschy detritus littering our store front. Besides the government should be taking care of these poor people. But you, in that fancy get up, you are welcome to open the door for our customers, because after all, we support the troops.” While the four owners have a good laugh, the Marine resists the urge to throttle the four weaklings. He thanks them, the word “gentlemen” sticking slightly before coming out. The Marine shrugs it off, hopes for better luck at the next stop and limps out.

Across the street is an old-fashioned establishment that gives proof to common sense and capitalism. This establishment is called “Dan’s Goodtime Smokehouse” where the elite meet to eat. Everyone in town just calls it Dan’s for short.

Dan graduated from a public high school in 1960 something. He played football, basketball and ran track. He wasn’t a star in any, but showed up to practice everyday and played as hard as anyone on the team. He could read, write, multiply, divide, find the continents and the seven seas on a map and knew who his congressman and senators were. Dan, who the boys across the street might regard as some sort of savant, was an average student and graduated in the middle of his class.

After high school, Dan joined the Marine Corps because Dan’s dad was a Marine and it seemed like the thing to do. Dan soon he found himself in Vietnam. Dan fought for his and his buddies’ lives for weeks along the DMZ against North Vietnamese regulars. He found out later when he was awarded the Silver Star for carrying a wounded fellow Marine through a hail of enemy gunfire to an aid station that the fight was called Operation Buffalo.

Dan still gets a card every year from that Marine. It comes at Christmas time. The first one he got had a picture of a one armed man standing in front of a Christmas tree with his mom and dad and two brothers. Both of the brothers were wearing Marine uniforms. Then it was the man and a pretty girl standing in front of the Christmas tree. Then it was the man and the girl and a baby, then three and so on. The card Dan got in the mail today shows an older man and woman surrounded by middle aged men & women, young men & women, teenagers, adolescents and babies, maybe 25 in all gathered around the Christmas tree. Below was a short note, See what you have done! Many thanks, Merry Christmas and Semper Fi buddy, Josh and Marie.

Dan left the Marine Corps and used his GI bill to attend a state university in the Midwest. After graduation Dan married a girl he met at college and they started family. Dan worked in food service for several big time restaurants before scraping together enough money to put a down-payment on a rundown store front and open Dan’s Goodtime Smokehouse. After five years of no vacation and only three days off a year, Christmas, New Year’s and Easter, Dan and his wife took a long weekend to visit Josh and Marie. Josh had gotten some kind of cancer and Marie asked if Dan could come say hello and buck his old buddy up through the Chemotherapy. Josh’s cancer went into remission soon after Dan’s visit and to this day Marie says Dan saved Josh’s life twice.

Dan drives a new fully loaded Hummer but he still has the first car he ever owned, a 1968 Ford Fairlane 500. He bought it when got out of the Marine Corps for $400 to get to and from school. He has restored the car more times than he can remember. At least three times for his kids to use. And again after his youngest son graduated college and bought his own brand new foreign something or other. Now, the fully restored 1968 Ford sits in Dan’s garage. He only uses it on special occasions. He drives it to advertise Dan’s Goodtime Smokehouse in small town parades. He drove it to his daughter’s wedding. He takes his wife to dinner on their anniversary every year in it. And he drives it to work once a year on August 5th.

Ever since he opened his restaurant, Dan has placed a huge Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots barrel in the front of his restaurant at Christmas time. On many occasions the barrel had only a few toys in the bottom at closing on Sunday night, but somehow by Monday at opening when the Marines came to pick it up, the barrel was overflowing. Dan says it was Santa Clause and if he ever catches the old man breaking into his restaurant there’s going to be trouble – nobody, I don’t give a damn who, breaks into Dan’s! The young lady who cleans Dan’s office laughs as she empties Dan trash can stuffed full of empty Toys-R-Us shopping bags.

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette

Lex responds to this bit of idiocy in this morning’s Journal Gazette aka The Daily Punctilio:

The only thing better than the New Haven City Council’s recent decision to uphold property and personal rights was the J-G’s hyperbolic reaction to that decision. Imagine, elected official taking a decision that protects the rights of their constituents. This is outrageous!

If the J-G actually believes the phony baloney sats on secondhand smoke, you know - anyone who passes within 200 feet of a smoker at any point in their life is 8,000 times more likely to die before age 103 than those who do not, why not make the product itself illegal? How idiotic is it to use junk science to establish the deadliness of secondhand smoke, when everyone already knows that sucking the residue of a smoldering weed into your lungs is bad for you? It’s the firsthand smoke that is killing people. How immoral is it for local, state and federal governments to profit – in the form of cigarette tax revenues - from the deaths of thousands of citizens each year? If the J-G wants to take a moral and consistent stand, it would be railing against cigarettes not secondhand smoke. But they don’t because they are liberals and we know liberals by their hypocrisy.

If I see Johnny Rebel riding his Harley down the street, cigarette in one hand, cell phone in the other, a can of coke between his legs and wearing nothing but shorts, t-shirt, flip-flops and a light coat of skin oil, I’m more likely to think, “what an idiot” than, “there ought to be a law against that”. Libs will say, “ahh, but we all pay when Johnny falls over.” Well let’s stop taking my son’s college tuition to pay for Johnny’s bad decisions. Americans should be free to pursue their dreams and desires to the maximum extent without interference from their government. By the same token, when they make poor decisions, like entering a smoking establishment, Americans should not expect the government to bail them out. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em or make ‘em illegal.

The road to victory in Iraq runs through Dafur

The Sudan has been in a perpetual state of Civil War since about 1955. Hmm, that’s almost 50 years – and they say public school students can’t do geometry. The first two Civil Wars pitted the Muslim north against the Christian south. Somewhere between 2.5 and 1.9 million people were killed, mainly in the south, before a peace agreement was signed in January 2005. Wow, that really held up.

George Clooney was reading someone else’s words in some daytime drama before reading someone else’s words in ER, but never uttered any words on the genocide in the Sudan while Muslims were slaughtering Christians. But hey, those were Christians. Probably got what they deserved – right?

Well now, and this is really good news, the Muslims have taken to killing each other. Good only in the sense that when the Libs finally get the world that they want – a world wide Muslim Caliphate – we can count on the radicals Muslims to start killing each other. So there is a glimmer of hope. In Sudan’s latest Civil War, government backed Arab Muslims have taken to killing black African Muslims. And this is what has George Clooney in high dudgeon. Damn them! Just kill the Christians!

Deaths in this conflict are a fraction of the previous two Civil Wars, anywhere between 50, 000 and 400,000. But hey, give them some time, they’ll catch up. Now, having played a soldier once in the movies, George can’t understand why the US doesn’t just drop a couple of platoons in there and wrap this up in 150 minutes or so and end the genocide that he’s ignored for the last 48 years.

Yesterday Lex noted that Darfur would be a good fight for the US. No, not because there are any enduring US interests in Darfur. There aren’t any not like there are in Iraq. There are a couple of good reasons though.

Fighting in Darfur provides an opportunity to kill more gun toting radical Muslims.

Fighting in Darfur allows the left and the right in this country to unite in a common goal - to kill people who will eventually try to kill us.

After we get bogged down in a Vietnam-like quagmire in the Sudan, oops that line of thought is reserved for Libs and only for wars fought for some legitimate US interest. Well anyway, after some period of time, a smart general could advocate a widening of the war to Syria and Iran to get at the root causes of violence in Darfur. Having “lied us into the wrong war, at the wrong time, with the wrong enemy” – a little leftie talk there – the Libs would have to go along and we could finally get at the people we really need to be getting at.

In 1937 a Civil War raged in Spain between anti-fascists, socialists, communists, Spanish Republican forces and General Franco’s Nationalists forces that favored the Catholic Church, monarchist, land owners and centralized government control. In an effort to keep Franco from power, many Americans joined Washington, Lincoln and John Brown brigades and fought with Republican forces.

Also in 1937, an Army Air Corps Captain named Clair Chennault resigned his commission and traveled to China to survey that nation’s air force. Chennault stayed in China and in 1941 the American Volunteer Group was formed. The AVG or Flying Tigers were responsible for destroying over 300 Japanese aircraft at a loss of 12 of their own.

Gee, nice history lesson Lex. What’s the point? Well the point is that our history is full of men of action. When they saw an injustice they did something about it. They didn’t wring their hands and hope someone else would step up. Today George Clooney is in high dudgeon about Darfur. He’s so upset he’s willing to do what actors do - read someone else’s words, show up at a charity event for 20-30,000 dollars, go on Letterman and tell us how much better he is than the rest of us because he cares.

Were Clair Chennault around today, he would slap the crap out of this phony-baloney Taylor Hicks look-alike with none of the talent. Hey George, if you want to do something about Dafur, organize, train and equip your own brigade and go fight the Arab Muslim terrorists scum-bags reeking havoc on the people there. Come on you played an Army Sergeant in the movies and that turned out OK. How tough can it be? Or should we wait for Lib icon Kofi Annan to step in?

Actually, Darfur would be a good fight. More on that tomorrow.

Kofi's next job should be to dog Putin

Kofi Annan is probably a nice guy. Not like sit down and have beer nice, he probably fancies himself way too good for that. But nice like finding ways to make terrorists dictator thugs feel good about themselves while admonishing America for trying to restrain the thugs. He’s probably a smart guy. Not smart like - it’s raining let’s duck into that coffee shop. Smart like getting soaked in a downpour while compiling a list of 25 reasons why US contributions to global warming cause more rain. He’s probably a good leader. Not a leader as in – the UN is a dysfunctional, corrupt, criminal organization populated mainly by dysfunctional, corrupt and criminal states. It must be reformed. But a leader as in - most of the UN states are dysfunctional, corrupt and criminal. Majority rules. I will lead the UN wherever it’s dysfunctional, corrupt and criminal majority wants to go.

Slamming Annan’s lack of leadership in the UN over the last ten years is sort of like slamming Mike Tyson for not being as level-headed as might have been. It’s so easy it appears to be gratuitous. But let’s recap Kofi’s failures

While assistant secretary general Annan:
- failed to protect Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica after disarming them and promising to do so.
- watched the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda in just 100 days

As Secretary general Annan preside over:
- No meaningful reform in the UN in ten years
- Presided over 20 billion dollars in Oil for Food money being siphoned off, some by his son KoJo
- Presides over the genocide in Darfur
- No action on the rapes by U.N. peacekeepers in the Congo
- No progress checking North Korean Nukes
- No progress checking Iranian nukes
- Lebanon
- Palestine
- Etc. etc. etc.

Yet Kofi takes the opportunity on the occasion of his speech in MO yesterday to blast the US. Well what do you suppose the chances of Kofi returning to Ghana are when he’s done at the UN? Zero, nada, none, zilch. Kofi’s is used to the US paying for his house, his suites, his cars, his food – everything, or as Kofi would say “ebryting”. Kofi is no more likely to return to Ghana and start living like the third world dope that he is than Mike Tyson is to win a Nobel Prize in physics. But he’ll blast the US because he knows we won’t kill him or even cut him off from his gravy-train. I’d really like to see Kofi go dog Putin when leaves the UN.

Isn't everyone a "pundit"?

Some guy named Frank Rich, a style writer or was it comics, no perhaps theater critic, for the NY Times has declared the Iraq war lost. Well, then that’s that. If the well known food critic of the Times declares the war lost, like Johnny Apple declared the Afghanistan war a “quagmire” two weeks in, what’s the point of continuing?

I have always wondered what qualifies one to be a pundit about something he knows nothing about. How did Frank Rich go from Theater Critic to foreign policy guru? Why is what Frank says taken anymore seriously than what Lex says? Lex graduated in the middle of the pack in high school and at THE Ohio State University, so it can’t be education.

Something has happened to news. Every outlet seems more interested in telling you what what happened means to you than what happened. Yeah, I know a lot whats. Read it again. It makes perfect sense. I’ve read it three times and it gets clearer every time. It’s also a perfect reason why Frank Rich is a pundit. Frank probably has never been so daring as to use the word “what” three times in a single sentence – two times back to back.

But news has become largely unwatchable because everyone has an opinion on the stories of the day and they use their air time to share that point of view rather than tell what happened. Even if a reporter just tells the story, the anchor will egg him on by asking probing questions like, Johnny Blowdried, how does your report reflect the incompetence of the Bush administration?

Then there is the “round table”. Like the Meet the Press round table. Instead of getting someone on the air that might actually know something about the subjects of the day, Russert brings in 3-4 like minded lefties to sit around a table (hence the name round table) reassuring each other that Bush is indeed Hitler and the only way out of the mess we’re in is to legalize gay marriage.

I care a lot less about what Russert and his like-minded lefties think about the ISG report than say Gen Abizaid or even Lance Corporal Smith who has actually been to Iraq. I have a higher regard for what Lex jr. says about Iraq than I do about what the former obituary writer for the NY Times has to say about it. And I am after all a pundit. So I know what I’m talking about.

President Lex announces Iraq Victory Group

Below is the transcript of President Lex’s remarks to the press yesterday on forming an Iraq Victory Group or IVG:

Good morning. I’ve looked at the Iraq Study Group’s report on our war effort in Iraq. I placed that document where I encourage every American to place it, in the sh$%can. I am asking the ten members of the Iraq Study Group to voluntarily reimburse the American Tax Payers for any money paid to them for this sham. I’m also asking that royalties from book deals, appearance fees or other money making arrangements made by the ten member group on the basis of their participation in this abomination be paid directly to the US Treasury. Anything short of the group’s complete cooperation on reimbursing the government fully for the fraud that they have perpetrated on the American people will result in me ordering the Attorney General to sue each member on behalf of the American people to recoup the cost of the ISG paid for by American’s hard earned tax dollars.

That said, this morning I am announcing a new group. This new group will be called the Iraq Victory Group. The IVG will be headed up by retired Marine Corps Commandant Charles Krulak. General Krulak rose to the rank of 4 star general in the US Marine Corps. He directed logistics during our lightening victory in the first Gulf War. He headed up the Marine Corps as its Commandant. Most importantly, he is a fresh thinker and leader.

I have directed that General Krulak find a strategy for victory in Iraq. We are not going to “study” Iraq. If I wanted to do that, I’d employ the simple minds at Ohio State’s school of Communications. Even they could come up with the banalities, foolishness and counter productive measures found in the ISG report which is currently weighing down my trashcan in the Oval Office.

Assisting General Krulak will be the following great Americans

Military Advisors:
Gen. Schwarzkopf (USA Ret.)
Gen. Zinni (USMC Ret)
Gen. Franks (USA Ret)
Gen. Jumper (USAF Ret)
Adm. Vern Clark (USN Ret)

Each of these distinguished military men will be assisted by four active duty military men - two officers O-6 and below and two enlisted men E-7 and below. The only other qualification is that these men must have led troops on the ground in combat operations in Iraq during the last 18 months.

Diplomatic advisor:
Democrat obstructionists in the senate refuse to give John Bolton an up or down vote. The UN’s loss is the IVG gain. I’ve asked John to assemble a team of the best and brightest foreign scholars, diplomats, business people and educators. Their sole mission is to support American interests in the region. The only direction I’ve given is that the regional realpolitic of the status quo not cause us to lose sight of America’s interests or principles.

Information advisor:
I’ve asked Rupert Murdock to assemble a team of news and ad personnel to effectively portray the truth of what is happening in Iraq. This is not the propaganda department. That will be headed up by the prestigious ad agency J. Walter Thompson. The Information Advisor will devise a strategy to get real story of Iraq told. That story includes things other than close ups of the latest car bomb.

Technology advisor:
I’ve asked Bill Gates to head up a committee to explore how we can leverage our technology advantage for success on the battlefield, apply financial pressure on our enemies and those who support them and information dissemination. The fact that we have not cracked the IED problem is a disgrace to this nation. Mr. Gates has been directed to gather whoever is required and spend whatever is necessary and develop a plan to end this scourge in 6 months.

I am directing that the group work mainly from Iraq. This will focus their attention and hasten the completion of their work. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a “bipartisan” effort at comity with our enemies in the region or political enemies at home. The members of the IVG will all swear an oath that their only interests are America’s interests and that our mission is victory in Iraq. We are a nation at war with a vicious and cunning enemy. It’s time we started to act like it.

Jimmy Baker: Statesman or Iraq Surrender Monkey?

Now that Jim, or as President Bush calls him Jimmy, Baker has finished his surrender treatise on Iraq, Jimmy has turned from his major passion - losing wars - to waxing eloquently on his other favorite subject, college basketball.

When asked about his philosophy on the season Baker offered this:

"Look, the season is over 50 games long. There is no way to win them all. So why try. Our main effort should be to keep the game close until half time. If we’re winning, fine. If we’re down a couple of points and our big man is in foul trouble, we should negotiate with the other team for extra fouls. I’m sure they will recognize that these negotiations are being conducted from a position of strength and will be reasonable about our request. This is not surrender or weakness, it is realistic. Failing to negotiate extra fouls, we should then begin to pull our team from the floor incrementally. We’ll keep them on the bench so that they can be put back into the game if necessary. But many of the players will be sent to the locker room to begin loading the bus. We might as well get a jump on that. When the game is over we will simply declare victory and go home. So while there is no way to actually win all of the games. There is no way anyone can stop us from saying we won all of the games. And that is what’s important. Not the fact that you quit and get beat like a drum, but rather holding your head high and declaring victory."

This commission is a sham. The fact that the only thing it has going for it is that it’s a bipartisan surrender speaks volumes. Bipartisanship is when Conservatives cave into Liberals. Bipartisanship got us McCain Feingold’s assault on free speech, surrender in Vietnam, the Missouri Compromise, the 3/5ths rule, etc. etc.

Look at the High Commission on Iraq. Anyone ineligible for Social Security? Oh, nearly one. Anyone a professional military man? No. Anyone with history of winning international conflicts? None. Anyone a true conservative? Only 3 of 5 “Republicans” could argue that. Sandra Day O’Connor a Republican? Puleeeeez. Jimmy, let’s just say we won, Baker conservative? No.

The best thing President Bush could do with the High Commission is to thank them & ignore them. What a colossal waste of time and tax money.

No war? Really?

A couple of weeks ago I was having a beer with a like minded right-minded friend and brought up my theory of halves on the Iraq war. The abridged version of that theory is contained in the post below. When I got the first point – only half of America believes we’re even at war – my friend asked, why is that? How can that be?

Well the stock market continues hum along, unemployment is at near all time lows, consumer spending continues to go up, there have been no attacks on the homeland since 9/11 – at least none that the MSM are willing to focus on, the war is contained to a little understood far away corner of the earth and except for the friends and family of those killed and the anti-war for political purposes crowd, that war has no affect on life in the USA. There are no sacrifices asked of the population - no rationing, or rubber and tin drives, not even a bond drive to help pay for the war.

Republicans ask only that we go about our lives as if there were no war, and we’re happy to that. Democrats demand higher taxes to exact some sacrifice from the American people - as if wrecking the economy with higher taxes to pay for every social program under the sun – not the war – will shock us into the reality that we’re at war with a clever, ruthless and patient enemy whose goal is to burn the White House. Also, the only talk about Iraq is couched in terms of how to get out not how win. So how important can it be if all our efforts are focused on getting out and not winning? If it were a real war, we’d be focused on winning – right?

Well sadly it seems, it’ll take another disaster for us to unite, focus on the war and commit to winning it. In the meantime, if you’re a Lib pining for higher taxes so you can feel the war, take the money you want to give the government and give it to the Wounded Warrior Project instead. I guarantee you it’ll be better spent. And if you support the war, or the troops as the Libs claim, support the people who have sacrificed more than most and need the help. Come on it’s Christmas – DONATE.

What's important, the result or how long it takes?

In an attempt to have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, or as the PC crowd is fond of saying a Happy Holiday, as if they can’t recall which holiday it is, I’ve sworn off most TV & radio talk until after the New Year. Rush is still a must. But, that’s only because ever since I heard his, “I’ll take the job” parody* in 1980 something, I’ve always found him to be genuinely funny. Cutting out the other wannabes works. It’s like cutting out the Sunday morning talkers. Life’s just better.

But like most addicts, I had a brief relapse last night. During a break in Monday night football, I flipped to O’Reilly. As justification for getting out of Iraq, Bill was whining about it taking less time to defeat Japan than the insurgents in Iraq. Well a couple of points occurred to me almost immediately. First, we’re still in, or as the left would say “occupying”, Japan and Germany 60+ years after the war.

Next, what if:
1. The Normandy invasion had failed, would mom & dad have quit? Hell no! They would have found another way to get Hitler.
2. The A Bomb wasn’t available, would mom & dad have sued for peace with Tojo? Hell no! They would have slugged it out with Japan and achieved the same unconditional surrender.

Last is Lex’s rule of halves (quickly becoming the rule of 1/3rd on its way to 1/4th). Half of America does not think we are at war. Half of those that believe we are at war, have no idea what is required to win the war. Half those that have an idea of how to win the war, have no idea what’s at stake. If we knew we were at war with Pan-Islamo-terror-fascists, and we knew that the war would last a generation or more, and we knew that our very survival as a nation hang in the balance, would anyone be talking about a Kissinger model of “Peace with honor for a respectable interval” before ceding Iraq to the ITF? Would Libs, weak Reps and the MSM be rooting for our defeat in Iraq as way of getting back at George Bush?

* Rush Limbaugh had a four word cure for unemployment during Bush 41’s presidency in the late 80s, “I’ll take the job.” Rush would read a MSM report about the poor jobless souls in some community, the kind of report that only surfaces during Republican presidencies, then he would read page after page of “Help Wanted” ads from that community’s local paper. All the while, a catchy jingle played in the background with the hook line, “I’ll take the job”. It was quite funny.

Al Gore legacy one of Sore Looser

The Washington Times, Inside Politics section ran this bit today:

"Democrats whomped Republicans in last month's midterms, but oddly enough they're still calling in the legal cavalry to contest one of the few races they narrowly lost," the Wall Street Journal says in an editorial.

"That would be Florida's 13th Congressional District, which runs along the Gulf Coast from just south of Tampa to just north of Fort Myers. The certified winner is Republican Vern Buchanan, who beat Democrat Christine Jennings by fewer than 400 votes out of more than 237,000 cast. Two recounts, which were demanded by Democrats and required by law, have reconfirmed Mr. Buchanan's victory and slightly increased the margin," the newspaper said.

"Unbowed, the Dems are now suggesting that defective voting machines cost them the race. They point to Sarasota County's 18,000 'undervotes,' or incidences where voters cast ballots in other races but not the Buchanan-Jennings contest. Ms. Jennings -- along with such liberal partisans as People for the American Way and the American Civil Liberties Union -- has filed a lawsuit contesting the results based on 'statistical and eyewitness evidence of significant machine malfunctions' in Sarasota's iVotronic touch-screen system.

"They want a court to declare Ms. Jennings the winner by -- get this -- using statistical models to extrapolate that she would have received most of the undervotes. Short of that, they'll settle for nullifying the November results and holding a new election. But among the many things that are strange here is that if anyone ought to be complaining about undervotes, it's the GOP.

Sarasota is the largest and most Republican county in the district, yet the Democrat, Ms. Jennings, carried it handily. In fact, it's the only county in the district that she did carry, which makes it more likely that it was Republicans who declined to vote in the Congressional race, not Democrats."

This is Al Gore’s legacy and he need not check with his former boss for the meaning of “is” in this case. It means it is now and forever will be. Just as Bill Clinton’s legacy will be of a chubby 20 something year old girl in a black beret on her knees in the Oval Office, Al Gore will forever be known as Sore Looserman.

Al Gore’s failure to allow an orderly recount in Fl coupled with his attempt to count only votes in heavily Democrat areas, disenfranchise military votes and incessant whining since, is now the model for the entire Democrat party.

In close senate races in VA and MT Democrat leader Chuck Schumer promised recounts when Democrats trailed. When they gained the advantage, Schumer declared recounts unnecessary. Republican candidates agreed and saved the states tens of thousands of dollars. In the last governors race in WA, Democrats demanded recount after recount until their candidate achieved an advantage. At that point, Democrats declared that the people had spoken and all counting should cease.

We are in serious trouble when the courts start to determine elections. Thanks Al , uh, Sore Looserman.

Dopey news Friday

Iran stirring up trouble in Iraq
ABC News is reporting that Iran is shipping weapons to terrorists in Iraq. Whooda thunk it? In other breaking news, the alert staff at ABC has declared George Bush the winner of the 2000 election and informed its viewers that, with the addition of Alaska and Hawaii, there are now 50 states in the union. ABC researchers continue to work on a breaking story that JFK has been shot.

You know arguing over whether or not Syria and Iran are fomenting unrest in Iraq is about as dopey as two people arguing over who passed gas in the car when they are the only two occupants. Everyone knows the truth. The news flash is not that the Syrians and Iranians are stirring up trouble in Iraq, the news flash is that we’re not bombing the crap out of them for doing it.

Too much Christ at the Christmas fest
The mayor of Chicago has deemed nativity themes too Christmasy for the city’s Christmas fest. So he has asked organizers not to use them for fear of offending non-Christians. Wow, the mayor is concerned about the sensibilities of non-Christians who willing go to a Christmas fest and then become queasy with all of the Christmas stuff. Dopey. What’s next? Close all of the steakhouses in the city least some vegan wonder into one and become offended by the dead animal flesh in the place.

Civil war? What civil war?
Is it a civil war? Don’t know. The MSM has been begging for a civil war in Iraq for two years now. After begging for so long, NBC got tired and just declared it a civil war. Even other MSM outlets noted NBC's decision was more a political judgment than a news judgment. The whole discussion to me is like two firemen, uh er, firefighters arguing over whether the fire they just pulled up to was deliberately set or the result of some sort of accident. Just put the damn fire out then we can look for arson.

If you're dead, does it matter how many times you were shot?
Sean Bell was killed in hail of 50 bullets fired by five NY city police officers at four a.m. outside a strip club the day of his wedding. As the circumstances of his shooting might indicate, Bell was not a model citizen, which is no excuse for being gunned down by the police. Apparently he and the two others in thecar with him were in the process of their third attempt to run down an undercover officer when the shooting started. That may be sufficient excuse for the shooting. But the usual race baiting weasels have shown up to condemn the police before the investigation has even started. None of that is the dopey part.

The dopey part is the family, MSM and race baiters whining about the 50 rounds. Had Bell been killed by a single well aimed round everything would be fine I suppose. Say each of the five officers was armed with a Glock model 19, 9mm pistol, the weapon of choice of many officers. That weapon comes with a 15 round magazine but can be equipped with magazines holding 17,19 or up to 33 rounds. A well trained shooter could easily fire 10 aimed rounds in five seconds or less.

So, it seems to me that the NYPD should be investigating, among other things, how two people survived a hail of 50 bullets fired by five trained policemen. Why did firemen get changed to firefighter but it's still OK to say policeman? Shouldn't they be called crimefighters or some other PC term by now?

Lex Iraq study group releases 7 point plan

The Lex study group on Iraq comprised high-minded, right-thinking, military, social and religious leaders has released their findings:

1. Win the war. Too little of the talk about Iraq, be it on the right or the left, frames our national interests in Iraq and the need for victory. President Bush, Joe Lieberman, Rick Santorum and just a few others have taken a consistent stand that our exit strategy will be one a of front door exit after victory as opposed to a backdoor exit and the defeat of “peace with honor” BS. Everything else in recommendations will be framed as means toward victory.

2. KillSadr. The man is a menace. He is destabilizing the government and is the main cause for the sectarian violence in and around Baghdad. If his Madhi army should rise up as a result of his death, kill them as well.

3. Talk with Syria and Iran. Tell them any further medaling in Iraq will have dire consequences. When they ignore the warning, follow through a cause something in those countries to be blown up.

4. Define Middle East stability. Stability is not a bunch of despots oppressing the people of the region. Since that is what the region currently consists of, the Middle East will become more and more unstable before it becomes stable. And oh by the way, it's our petro dollars funding the despots and both sides of the regions instability.

5. Talk with our Middle East "allies". Tell them the current system of unelected kings, emirs, sultans and presidents is a human rights abomination. Tell them democracy is coming to the region. They can get in front of or on the train or they can get run over by it.

6. Reinforce success in the Kurdish portion of Iraq. It is already a largely autonomous region. If Iraq does split up our best hope maintaining a foothold in there is in the Kurdish area. Also it will send a clear message of were success lies for the rest of Iraq. If the Kurdish region continues to prosper, it will demonstrate to other Iraqis that we are more interested in reinforcing success rather than pour our resources into sink holes of sectarian violence. Sooner or later, people in Baghdad will notice and want what the Kurds have.

7. Get off Middle East oil. Stability in the region will get much worse before it gets better. As such, it is foolish to continue to rely on that region for our economic health. Initiate a ten year energy independence plan that maximizes our own abundant energy resources and our technological advantages to get off Middle East oil. Conservation alone will not do the trick. We are at the low point of our energy needs right now. Each year we will require more. Nuclear, coal, hydrogen sources of energy all need to be quickly exploited.

If you're not worried yet, check the demographics

If you think you’re saving the world by having fewer children, think again. Look at this piece by Mark Steyn. Lex has noted the dying demographics of Europe as we know it. The only group whose population is on the rise is the Muslim population. We also can see the trouble it’s causing. Paris is burning. Theater shows deemed offensive to Muslim’s are canceled in Berlin. Politicians who advocate for stricter immigration are murdered in Holland. Film makers, cartoonists and writers who don’t tow a strict Muslim line are also murdered or set off murderous riots or threatened with murder.

Will Europe recover before its lack of population bomb explodes in its face? I doubt it. Most of Europe is mired in slowed economic growth that cannot provide anywhere near full employment for its current dying population. That fact coupled with crippling socialist spending on everything under the sun EXCEPT defense has created a European population happy to sit back and collect government checks and services while Muslims do the work necessary to keep those countries running. Also, don’t under estimate the Green Party factor. Europeans are being raised that it is better to forego children and/or abort them than bring them into this world where they will only create a further burden on Mother Earth.

So is the US any better off? Marginally. We have our own illegal immigration problem that politicians refuse to address because we are told the illegals do the work we won’t. Given a Democrat congress that sees the illegals as potential votes, that problem will get worse before it gets better. Our own population growth is at a sustainable level but out of wedlock births as a percentage continue to rise and are now at 37%. Social spending will continue to rise burdening the economy. The new Democrat congress is sure to invent all sorts of new “rights” that require our neighbors to pay for our benefits. Democrats are sure to say every American has a “right” to higher education even though they won’t work for and can’t pay for it. The same goes for a “right” to free health care and insurance. Will we learn from Europe? The last election says no.

Hey, a Happy Birthday to my way, way, way OLDEST sister who happens to be one of the two cutting edge and tuned in people who check this page regularly. Marilyn, if you get a call from a plumber named Wayman, Clovis, Billy Bob or Maynard today, it just might be a prank.

Rangel promises hearing to prove there are no patriots

I like Charlie Rangel. Not his politics but rather his personality. He is willing to take a liberal stance and defend it. He’s no John “foot in mouth” Kerry. Kerry says what he means then denies it or vice versa as in: “I never called the troops stupid but they aren’t smart enough to know that I didn’t call them stupid.”

Rangel once called Vice President Cheney a SOB. He didn’t apologize for it. Instead he referred to the VP as an old colleague and laughed it off noting that Cheney once called a senator much worse. When he offended the entire state of Mississippi, Rangel made a sincere apology and withdrew the offensive remark. He didn’t do the Dick H. Durbin non-apology, I’m sorry if what I said offended you, but I meant every word, apology.

So Rangel says what he means, stands up for it but will apologize if he thinks he’s off the mark.

On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace, after reading Lex’s post on the draft, confronted Rangel with the facts here. Rangel didn’t back off. Essentially Rangel thinks that nobody in America thinks America is worth fighting for. According to Rangel, the only reason anyone is in Iraq or Afghanistan now is because they are too dumb, too poor, too anything to find a job in an economy that has the lowest unemployment on record in a decade. There are no patriots in Iraq, according Rangel. Listen to him. In an all volunteer Army, “nobody wants to fight in Iraq…” In spite of the facts presented to by Wallace, Rangel claims “most all are from economically depressed areas…”

Rangel claims that hearings, the ones Democrats denied they would pursue before the election, on this subject would bear him out. Can’t wait for that. “Sgt. Jones isn’t it a fact that you are too dumb to get a good job in this economy that is humming along at near full employment?” “Well no congressman Rangel that is not true. I’m a high school graduate. I joined the Army because my dad joined the Army and his dad before him. Beyond that, I think the country needs me to defend it against Islamo-terror-fascists that want to destroy our way of life.” “Mr. Chairman, I move that this stupid, unemployable fool’s remarks be stricken from the record. He’s obviously a shill for the Bush administration.” “So ordered. Next witness please.”

Kissinger, Iraq and stability

Some of the people who consider themselves to be the best and brightest among us, guys like Henry Kissinger, are squawking that the war they and over 70% of Americans once supported, is now “unwinnable.” These new breed quitters opine, “We did our best. We defeated the Iraqi army in three weeks. We spent billions of dollars and thousands of lives over the last three years, but the Iraqi people have proven that they do not want and cannot sustain a democracy.”

First off, we should not be taking foreign policy advice from the guy who negotiated our last military defeat. What credibility does this guy have? Henry Kissinger lecturing us on this war is akin to Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel, who is 5-1 against Michigan, letting former head coach John Cooper, who was 2-10-1, lecture him on how to attack the Michigan defense.

Henry Kissinger split a Nobel Peace Prize with his North Vietnamese counterpart, Le Duc Tho, for negotiating an end to the Vietnam War in 1973. A beaming Kissinger went to Geneva and accepted his award. Tho, knowing the war was not over, stayed in Vietnam and declined his award. After an acceptable interval, in April 1975, Kissinger’s “peace with honor” BULLS*@T was exposed for the line of crap it was when Saigon fell.

The result of what has been dubbed “Kissinger’s respectable interval” of US “peace with honor” strategy?

- 2 million dead Cambodians.
- Hundreds of thousands of dead and imprisoned South Vietnamese.
- Ten’s of thousands of South Vietnamese boat people.
- Decades of worldwide disdain for the US:
-- Foe’s see us as a paper tiger.
-- Friends view the US as an unreliable ally.
- The near destruction of our own military by craven politicians.
- A forever comparison of any military venture, no matter how successful (Afghanistan) or how necessary (Iraq), as being, “just like Vietnam.”
- The only good thing: a healthy mistrust of politicians.

I don’t care as much about the Iraqis and their willingness to embrace democracy as I do about American national interests. Iraq’s democracy is not the main thing. Confronting and defeating Islamo-terror-fascists is the main thing. If in the process, Iraq gets a democracy, fine. If in the process, Iraq is partitioned into three separate states, fine. If in the process, all of the Middle Eastern governments are exposed as corrupt dictatorships sending the entire region into revolt, fine.

Pols like to talk of “stability.” Let’s face it, that region has never been stable. Kissinger and like minded pols who talk of stability in that region first have to be asked to define stability. If ruthless terror supporting dictatorships, madras supporting proponents of a worldwide caliphate, kings, emirs and unelected “presidents” are their idea of stability, then let’s face it, the region is going to become a whole lot more unstable before it ever reaches a layman’s definition of stability. Something like, people going to work, doing the best that they can in a country where the government sets the conditions for opportunity and success and peacefully relinquishes power when the people desire change.

Henry Kissinger negotiated our defeat in Vietnam. Because the stakes are so much higher, he’s the last guy we should be listening to now.

National interests and the draft

Speaking on the confirmation of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, Rhode Island Democrat Sen. Jack Reed said, "We really do have to get a strong signal that he has been given a free hand to make whatever changes he thinks appropriate…" What if, Gates says something like, “Well senator, we will set our military policy in Iraq based on the best military advice from our commanders to achieve goals in the region that support our national interests.”

Such an answer would have to give cut and run Democrats pause. Military advice? National interests? Is this guy a nut? Democrats won the election. The American people have spoken. We must cut and run from Iraq. Now!

Well sometimes adults need to step in tell the kids what’s best for them - even when the adults are outnumbered, like in schools or homes with three or more children. Sometimes the adults need to step in and say, “No, we’re not having another all-day recess.” Or “No more ice cream. Three bowls before bed is enough.”

Beside I just do not believe the polling. I can get the support for the war up to 99.9% by asking this question:

Would you rather:

A: Kill the Islamo-terror-fascists trying to destroy America in Iraq

or

B: Admit defeat, surrender Iraq and its oil riches to the ITF, cut and run and wait for the Islamo-terror-fascists to blow you and your family up in a restaurant one day?

It is in our national interest to kill the ITF in Iraq.

On the DRAFT
Charlie Rangel wants to bring back the draft. He says our armed forces are populated disproportionately by poor people of color. Well Charlie, we had the draft during Vietnam and guess what? Libs claimed that our armed forces were populated disproportionately by poor people of color. The Libs were wrong then and you’re wrong now. The only thing disproportionate about our armed forces is probably the number of rich, white, males being passed over for promoted.

More troops = more targets

Somewhere in my military studies I read that it takes anywhere from 7 to 15 years to defeat an insurgency. Given that democracies tend to tire of war rather quickly, the advantage is always to the insurgents when battling a democracy.

Strategies are now being discussed in Washington on how to quickly win the Iraq war or what would more accurately be described as the battle for Baghdad. The most loudly pursued option is to deploy more troops to the area and overwhelm the enemy. Unless the goal is to go after Syria, which I have advocated and would support 110%, or some other new mission, adding more troops would be foolish. If anything, we ought to consider reducing the number of troops by half while doubling our commitment to stay for as long as it takes.

Given the nature of insurgencies, which fight only when they have the advantage, more troops would solve little except to add more targets to an already target rich environment. According to Victor Davis Hanson the insurgent’s strength is at about 10,000. Hanson correctly asks, what is adding another 20,000 US troops to the 140,000 already there going to accomplish against an enemy of 10,000?

What Americans need to realize is that we need a long term strategy for our Global War on Islamo-terror-fascists. Cutting and running every time we get 10 or even 10,000 casualties is not a winning strategy. We need to pick our fights and win them. Whatever anyone thinks about why we went to Iraq in the first place, according to our enemy, Iraq is now the central front on the war on terror. As such, we should be looking at long term victory in Iraq rather than a short term face saving retreat.

A winning strategy to me is to reduce Sadr’s Madhi “Army” and any other militia to a fire team. Bring Syria and Iran into the process only to tell them that we’re tired of screwing around and any further interference in Iraq by either will result in someone or something being bombed in those countries. If you believe, as I do, that we’re fighting for survival, it’s time to start acting like it.

The Game, the BCS, why a rematch is a bad idea & other stuff

I’ve never been a fan of the BCS. The mythical National Champion of college football suited me fine. I liked the “what if” banter of “if we played you guys, there’s no way that silly putty defense of yours would be able to stop our running game.” The BCS just further confuses these discussions by “crowning” a non-champion champion.

The BCS still crowns a mythical champion. But it does so with all of the pomp and certainty of a Britney Spears wedding, and the BCS is as big a sham. How many learned college football fans are still claiming that USC was just a breath away from winning three consecutive national championships after last year’s loss to Texas? USC hadn’t even won two BCS national titles. That’s right, USC had an impressive one in row BCS titles when they kicked off against Texas. Still the myth of USC’s elusive third National Championship continues.

And how does the BCS decide America’s beloved National College Football Champion? With a computer, that’s how. That’s right, the same technology that might declare you dead years before your time but is incapable of bringing you back life, even if you present yourself, jumping rope while singing God Bless America before the very clerk who declared you dead, is choosing our national college football champion. The same technology that prevents an “Honor Roll” public school student working the McDonald’s cash register from making change from a dollar for a $.50 Coke because “the computer is down” is picking our college football national champion.

“The Computer”??? What the… This is America by God. We, or our representatives (coaches and sportswriters), should get to vote!!!!

If Democrats in congress want to investigate something, the hell with the Iraq war, look into the travisty of justice that is...theBCS.

The bottom line upfront:
OSU and Michigan each played a nearly flawless first half. OSU led at the half by two touchdowns. Michigan played a nearly flawless second half. OSU didn’t. OSU turned the ball over three times and dropped a handful passes. OSU led at the end of the game by three. Michigan played a nearly flawless game and still lost to an OSU team plagued by second half mistakes. A rematch is a bad idea.

Overall:
It was a GREAT GAME that lived up to the hype.
OSU was in control throughout the game.
OSU dominated statistically – first downs, rushing, passing, time of possession were all in OSU’s favor by significant margins.
OSU committed 3 turnovers in the second half resulting in - at a minimum – a 6 point swing.
Officials were good. (Would they be that good in a rematch?)
I get the not hitting the center if his head is down rule, but shouldn’t the center have to raise his head up after a two count once the ball is snapped?

Why a rematch is a bad idea.
1. If Michigan wins, will there be rubber match? No. After a 1-1 split, OSU will be Big 10 Champs, Michigan will be National Champs. If Michigan gets a rematch after losing, shouldn’t OSU? A rematch is a bad idea.
2. If OSU wins, Southern Cal, Notre Dame, Florida, Arkansas will all be saying that the Big 10 is full of weak sisters. All will claim, “we could have beaten OSU.” A rematch is a bad idea.
3. A rematch will be anti-climatic. In a rematch, OSU won’t turn the ball over 3 times in the second half. OSU coach Jim Tressel will keep the play book open for the entire game. Michigan will lack the Bo factor. OSU will win by 3 TD’s sparking point #2. A rematch is a bad idea.
4. Given OSU’s current and year long lead in the BCS, even if they lose, OSU may wind up ahead in the BCS computer poll. A rematch is a bad idea.

Brent Musburger again proved why he ought to quit the booth. His comment about Mike Hart getting the Heisman, if Michigan won, was beyond dumb. That was only one of a dozen idiotic comments. By the way Brent, OSU’s Antonio Pitman had 139 yards rushing – only 3 less than Hart on 5 less rushes. Too bad Keith Jackson can’t announce every college football game played.

What’s up with Bob Hunter? In his Sunday column in the Columbus Dispatch, he blasts former OSU Coach John Cooper saying Cooper couldn’t beat Mich with the ’72 Dolphins disguised as the Buckeyes. Then he slights current OSU Coach Jim Tressel’s 5 wins against Michigan by saying, well after all, 3 of them were with Troy Smith at QB. I thought you needed at least eleven for a football team. Then Hunter argues against himself intimating that Troy Smith alone is better than the entire ’72 Dolphins when he writes “wouldn’t Cooper have liked to have had Smith” during the ‘90s. Coop brought great talent to OSU – 3-4 legit National Champ contenders. His teams won a lot of games, but sadly only ONE of them was against Michigan – thus he had to go.

Michigan agrees to give Ohio State its gameplan for Saturday's game!

Ohio State’s head football coach Jim Tressel has asked Michigan head football coach Lloyd Carr for help cracking a stubborn Michigan defense in time for Saturday’s 3:30 kick-off between Tressel’s #1 Buckeyes and Carr’s #2 Wolverines. Carr has agreed to help - if Tressel will spot the Wolverines 14 points and agree that Ohio State’s Heisman Trophy candidate Troy Smith cannot rush the football past the line of scrimmage and must throw left handed. Tressel is seriously considering the offer. Tressel said, “look, nobody knows the Michigan defense better than Lloyd. Whatever advice he might give us I’m sure will be helpful. Why wouldn’t Lloyd want to help us beat Michigan?”

The only thing slightly dopier than the above scenario is the one where the US would sit down with Iran and Syria to discuss stabilizing Iraq. Here’s a newsflash: The Iranians and Syrians are the ones destabilizing Iraq. They do it because it is in their interest to keep Democracy and the US out of the Middle East. There is nothing short of giving Iran nukes and Syria a further guarantee of that their support of Hezbollah and other Islamo-terror-fascists groups will continue go unpunished that would cause them to even appear to be helpful. Any help they offer will be temporary, halfhearted and self-serving. Within months of any agreement, the “help” would cease altogether with the two blaming us for the failure. It’s idiocy of the highest order.

You want Iran’s and Syria’s help in Iraq? Simple, you depose the Islamo-terror-fascists’ supporting governments in those two countries. Lex called for expansion of the war into Syria months ago. Nothing short of regime change or a serious threat of it will cause these two to be helpful or even neutral. It’s just not in their interest.

GBBM

Reality for Dems: Decisions have consequences

It was General George Marshall who worried that a democracy could not sustain a war footing for more than six years. So, faced with a persistently belligerent Japan in 1945, General Marshall advocated a “quick” end to WWII by invading the Japanese mainland – a strategy that was sure to cause severe allied casualties. The alternate strategy called for conducting a lengthy blockade and bombing campaign to starve the Japanese out. The latter strategy might have taken years longer, and itself resulted in significant additional casualties in addition to more favorable surrender conditions for the Japanese. But as we all know, the Little Boy and Fat Man nuclear bombs pretty much settled the question.

19 March, 2007 will mark the 4th anniversary of the Iraq war. Prior to the elections, our MSM were telling us that we’re tired of fighting. What the MSM never tells us is that we’re fighting for our very survival. When faced with that reality, we might get a sudden burst of energy and the will to continue.

So we’re all tired of the fight. Let’s just surrender, uh I mean “redeploy” wink, wink. Well that’s essentially what the Democrats ran on in last week’s election. Now faced with reality and the burden of the consequences for their decisions, thoughtful Democrats, a rare bird indeed, are not so sure that a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq is in America’s best interest.

Even while the far left loons call for immediate surrender, their MSM allies are trying to save them from themselves. Not a week after the election, the heretofore antiwar NY Times now says maybe we shouldn’t be rushed out of Iraq. The generals - Zini, Baptiste etc. - once in “revolt” and who lampooned the administration’s “stay the course” policy, are now calling for a course which requires us to stay. House Blue Dogs, faced with a choice for Leader between a corrupt antiwar demagogue or a middle of the road (for Dems anyway) “we just may need the course we’re on to be stayed awhile” type, may just buck their “leadership” and opt for the middle of the road guy.

Lex has noted that the Dems would find that it is a lot easier to shout from the sidelines than actually make a play in the big game.

Glenn Beck exposes Rage Boy tonight on CNN Headline Prime @ 7

 

If immigration is THE domestic issue for the 110th congress, the global war on terror is THE key foreign, international and national survival issue. I’m sure we all agree that while Islamo-terror-fascists are blowing up national symbols of wealth and power, busses, cafes, cars, shopping malls, power plants, oil refineries, religious sites, museums, antiquities, tourist attractions or chopping off heads of infidels and while other Muslim believers pursue nuclear weapons, most peace loving Muslims are content to simply sit quietly while the nut jobs pursue a Middle East then world-wide Caliphate on their behalf. Those who remain silent are as dangerous as those who commit atrocities on their behalf.

Democrats are fond of calling Iraq “George Bush’s war.” Democrats call it George Bush’s war in spite of the fact that a good many Democrats voted for the war – including His A*@holiness John Kerry and the nation’s Nurse Ratchet, Hillary. Then when things got tough they lied and said they were lied to. But they were persistent in their criticism of the war they once voted for and its management. Aided by a MSM’s drip, drip, drip of casualties and pictures of burning vehicles and buildings without one word of context, the Democrats swept to power last Tuesday. Now that they are in power, it will be the Dems who will be responsible for our defeat in Iraq and ceding of the Middle East to the ITFs. But as the Democrats are sure to learn, it’s easier to carp from the sideline than actually play the game, particularly when national survival hangs in the balance.

First, if it is any one person’s war, Iraq is really Osama bin Laden’s war. Bin Laden is the one who has claimed that Iraq is the central front in the ITF’s pursuit of the world-wide Caliphate. This is what’s so frustrating. The ITFs are telling us everything we need to know about them. We will not listen. They have declared war on us over and over and over. We worry more about gas going over $2.50 than national survival. They tell us over and over that they want us all dead, but we worry more about MSM fake stories about Koran flushing, torture and whether the movies at G’itmo are appropriate for the tender sensibilities of the murdering bastards and if there is enough popcorn our “guests.” They shout over and over and over again, death to the West, while we worry whether the term Islamo-terror-fascist offends the very Islamo-terror-fascists trying to kill us. It’s insane.

They are telling us everything we need to know about them. We will not listen. Tonight at 7 on CNN Headline Prime, Glenn Beck will present the facts about the people we are at war with. Watch it. Get everyone you know to watch it, especially your Democrat friends.

Time for a third party?

I had an interesting conversation over the weekend. A young family guy with a small business told me had sat out the last election. This might explain how the Republicans took such a drubbing last Tuesday. Here’s a guy that fit precisely into the Republican voting mold – white male, outdoorsman with a family and a small business. But for the first time since he was eligible, he didn’t vote. When I asked him why he didn’t vote, he asked me what the turn out was for the election. I said in my district it was high, about 40%. Then he asked, “isn’t not voting a way of voting?” What does it say about our political parties when 60% of voters don't vote for anyone?

I suppose when faced with two bad choices, the principled thing to do would be to reject both. Sort of like if I were faced with choosing between ABC’s and CBS’s evening news coverage, I’d turn the TV off and go for a walk. Maybe that’s what 60% of the voters do every election cycle. Maybe they are not all as misinformed and/or apathetic as civics teachers and political pundits make them out to be. Maybe some percentage of the 60% is in fact the most principled among us.

We are told that America is an equally divided country. So if the 40% that vote is divided roughly 20-20 and just over a third of the 60% that don’t vote are of the principled variety, that would create a voting block capable of sweeping a third candidate to victory.

Two posts under, the Griffin notes that if the Democrats continue with politics as usual the time may be right for the rise of a third party. Third parties always seem to be the answer but they never seem to materialize. One reason is the winner take all Electoral College system. The founders wanted a way to insure a two party system. They did not want a system where the vote for president could be so fractured and diluted by multiple candidates that someone with a plurality of 30% could be elected president.

2008 is an odd year. Neither the president nor the vice president will be a candidate. There are no atractive leading candidates in either party right now. How about a third party McCain Liebermann ticket? It might be difficult for the hard right candidate sure to come out of the Republican primary and the hard left candidate sure to come out of the Democrat primary to compete with a third choice such as McCain Liebermann. Just 22% of the 60% of non-voters might set such a third party try on the road to victory.

The Weekly Punctilio: Immigration

This week’s Weekly Punctilio Award as the dopiest thing to apear in the Ft. Wayne, Journal Gazette, goes to Andrea Bates for this piece on immigration. Ms. Bates it seems would have one’s economic status as the only criteria for people who want to enter the US. As long as you happen to be poor and from a “third world” country, Ms. Bates would throw down the welcome mat.

I don’t know Ms. Bates but I’ll bet she’s an older woman who lives in a gated community. She probably has a nice yard maintained by a Hispanic crew for $25-$30 a week. She probably has a nice house that is cleaned once a week by a nice Hispanic lady for $20-$25 a week. She probably jetted down south of the border one winter, flying first or business class with her husband. She might have stayed in a nice hotel. Then one day, she strolled into town and noticed the poor children selling Chicklettes and beaded bracelets in the streets and was touched. So now she just wants to open the border, but not HER house of course. The only contact Ms. Bates would ever expect to have with these people is to tell them what needs to be cleaned.

But she’s got it bassackwards. We shouldn’t be promoting an unrestricted flow of poor, uneducated day laborers into the country to become a permanent underclass sympathetic to Democrat and socialist causes and who do “the work Americans won’t do.” We should be looking for educated, highly skilled workers to do the work Americans can’t do because our public schools and universities are more interested diversity and socialist propaganda than making sure Johnny can read, write, add, subtract, multiply and divide.

THE defining domestic issue for the Democrat controlled congress in the next session will be immigration. Will the Democrats and President Bush succeed in their effort to establish an open border with Mexico and amnesty for the 15 million illegal aliens who are already here? Or can common sense Republicans and blue dogs stop the insanity that the president wants to foist on us? I don’t know.

But as surely as I’m sitting here touch typing, the 15 million illegal aliens will grow to 100 million then 150 million. See, what the politicians won’t tell us is that every one of the 15 million amnesty recipients will then be allowed to invite their extend families to America. These people will then be eligible for all the perks afforded any US citizen even though they will have paid little or nothing to support those programs. Already strained, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and other welfare programs will break under the weight of recipients who never paid into them.

Then what? At that point you have two options. You can either reduce benefits or raise taxes. Guess which direction Democrats will choose. All of Europe is currently riding this out of control socialist model off of a cliff. We’d better learn or we’re sure to follow. Republicans would be smart to get well right of the president on this issue for ’08.

Happy Birthday Marines!

We’ll get back to politics on Monday. Today is too important a day to waste on such trivial matters as politics, world hunger, nuclear Armageddon, or the Spears/K-Fed break up. Today marks the 231st birthday of the United States Marine Corps. As such, anywhere two or more Marines or former Marines are gathered there will be a celebration.

My best Marine Corps birthday ever was spent with the best Marine ever (from my personal experience anyway) - one R. Geoffrey Houck. We were in the field in Korea camped in a valley along what was then and probably still is projected to be the North’s main axis of advance toward Seoul known as Nightmare Range. It was colder than a fat man’s wife after he arrives home from a three day drunk with a row of hickies on his neck and the clap. We were hunkered down in a small tent with more holes in it than an eight year old’s alibi for “who ate the cookies?”

There was no big celebration that year. No fancy uniforms. No band or big dinner. We were just a couple of lieutenants struggling against the wind and cold to concoct a witches brew c-rat stew in a steel pot helmet over one of those temperamental squad stoves that had three categories of operation – works perfectly – doesn’t work at all – burns your tent down when it explodes.

While cooking, concocting and trying to stay warm, we swapped sea stories (all of which began with the same preamble, “This is a no-sh%$!er. We were drinking one night when…). Well the stove worked perfectly that night and the stew was not too bad. That is until Houck decided to spice it up by adding some c-rat peanut butter, at which point it became pretty much inedible.

Happy Birthday Marines! Surprise a Marine by wishing him a happy birthday today.

Below are Generals Haggee’s and LeJeune’s messages along with the resolution which formed the Marine Corps and today’s Marine Corps mission.

Commandant Hagee’s Message

On November 10th, 1775, our Corps was born as the Continental Congress raised the "first and second battalions of American Marines." Each Year as we celebrate our birthday, we pause to reflect on the Marines of yesteryear who fought in our touchstone battles and forged the modern Marine Corps with their courage, integrity, and undying commitment to their fellow Marines. Each of our storied battles is a link in the long chain that binds all Marines together- from the Continental Marines at Bunker Hill to the Teufelhunden crossing the wheat fields of Belleau Wood. This chain binds us to the Marines on the crest of Mount Suribachi; it passes through the ice and snow of Chosin Reservoir and the steaming jungles of Vietnam, and it anchors firmly today in the sands of Iraq.

This year's celebration again finds many from our ranks, serving with distinction in harm's way. As we have for the past 231 years, our Corps is answering the Nation's call. I can report first hand that our Marines fighting on the front lines of the Long War on Terror are performing brilliantly, acquitting themselves with honor, dedication, and dignity in difficult and dangerous environments.

All Marines are making a difference. Regardless of where you are serving, you are adding new chapters to the legacy that was earned with sweat and blood on old battlefields. Just as previous generations of Marines shaped today's Marine Corps, your deeds are molding the Corps of tomorrow. Our Corps has never been stronger, and all Americans are extremely proud of your magnificent performance and unwavering commitment to server our Corps and country. With high caliber Marines like you, our future has never been brighter.

Another irreplaceable element of our success as Marines is the terrific support we receive from our families. Through the long hours, the exercises, and the combat deployments, their support is unconditional and firm. They give us love and devotion, providing us with the strength to drive on when duty calls. Today we should all acknowledge our loved ones for their patient, steadfast service.

To all who have earned the title Marine, to the superb Sailors who serve with us in every clime and place, and to our precious families- I wish each one of you a heartfelt Happy 231st Birthday. Semper Fidelis and Keep Attacking!

M. W. Hagee
General, U.S. Marine Corps

Commandant LEJEUNE'S MESSAGE10 November 1921:

This date marked the first formal commemoration of the birthday of the Marine Corps as 10 November. On 21 October 1921, Maj Edwin McClellan, OIC of the Historical Section, HQMC, sent a memo to MajGen Commandant John A. Lejeune, suggesting that the original birthday of 10 November 1775 be declared a Marine Corps holiday to be celebrated throughout the Corps. Accordingly, on 1 Nov 1921, Gen Lejeune issued Marine Corps Order No. 47 summarizing the history, mission, and tradition of the Corps, and directed that it be read to every command each 10 November. In keeping with the wishes of the 13th Commandant Marine Corps Order #47 is republished today, as follows:

On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines was created by a resolution of the Continental Congress. Since that date, many thousand men have borne the name Marine. In memory of them, it is fitting that we who are Marines should commemorate the Birthday of our Corps by calling to mind the glories of its long and illustrious history. The record of our Corps is one which will bear comparison with that of the most famous military organizations in the world's history.

During 90 of the 146 years of its existence the Marine Corps has been in action against the nations foes. From the battle of Trenton to the Argonne, Marines have won foremost honors in war, and in the long eras of tranquility at home. Generation after generation of Marines have grown gray in war in both hemispheres and in every corner of the seven seas that our country and its citizens might enjoy peace and security.

In every battle and skirmish since the birth of our Corps Marines have acquitted themselves with the greatest distinction, winning new honors on each occasion until the term Marine has come to signify all that is highest in military efficiency and soldierly virtue.

This high name of distinction and soldierly repute we who are Marines today have received from those who preceded us in the Corps. With it we also received from them the eternal spirit which has animated our Corps from generation to generation and has been the distinguishing mark of the Marines in every age. So long as that spirit continues to flourish Marines will e found equal to every emergency in the future as they have been in the past, and the men of our nation will regard us as worthy successors to the long line of illustrious men who have served as "Soldiers of the Sea" since the founding of the Corps.

The inspiring message of the 13th Commandant has left its mark in the hearts and minds of all Marines. By deed and act from Trenton to the shores of Tripoli to the Argonne Forest, to Iwo Jima, in interventions from Lebanon, Grenada, and Panama, and from the opening battles in Vietnam, the Gulf War and today in America’s new war on terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world, Marines have continued to epitomize those qualities which are their legacy. The success which they have achieved in combat and the faith they have borne in peace will continue - Happy birthday to Marines, former Marines and friends of Marines.

Birth of the Corp

On November 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, PA adopted a secret resolution that formally established a military organization whose fame and tradition was destined to achieve prominence in the annals of American warfare. The resolution reads:

Resolved--That two battalions of Marines be raised consisting of one colonel, two lieutenant colonels, two majors and officers as usual in other regiments; That they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that particular care be taken that no persons be appointed to office or enlisted into said battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with Maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea, when required. That they be enlisted and commissioned for and during the present war between Great Britain and the colonies, unless dismissed by order of Congress: That they be distinguished by the names of the 1st and 2d Battalions of American Marines, and that they be considered as part of the number, which the continental Army before Boston is ordered to consist of.

Mission

The Marine Corps, within the Department of the Navy, shall be so organized as to include not less than three combat divisions and three air wings, and such other land combat, aviation and other services as may be organic therein.

The Marines Corps shall be organized, trained, and equipped to provide fleet marine forces of combined arms, together with supporting air components, for service with the fleet in the seizure or defense of advanced naval bases and for the conduct of such land operations as may be essential to the prosecution of a naval campaign.

In addition, the Marine Corps shall provide detachments and organizations for service on armed vessels of the Navy, shall provide security detachments for the protection of naval property at naval stations and bases, and shall perform such other duties as the President may direct. However, these additional duties may not detract from or interfere with the operations for which the Marine Corps is primarily organized.

The Marine Corps shall develop, in coordination with the Army and the Air Force, those phases of amphibious operations that pertain to the tactics, techniques, and equipment used by landing forces.

The Marine Corps is responsible, in accordance with integrated joint mobilization plans, for the expansion of peacetime components of the Marine Corps to meet the needs of war.