CNN Republican Debase a caraciture of Conservatives

The Clinton News Network lived up to its call letters during the Republican Debase. CNN supposedly received over 5,000 questions. They used 37. Of those 37 questions from what were touted as mainstream undecided voters, 6 or 7 ~ 20% were from hardcore Dem operatives.

When this was first revealed to the new face of CNN, Anderson Cooper, Cooper claimed that that was a problem but that he had no idea the people were plants. Well, one of two things, Cooper is a liar or he’s a dope. He can pick which it is. Bloggers knew who these people were before the graphic showing their names had faded. Yet CNN can't figure it out?

CNN later hung Cooper out to dry claiming that it was unimportant who they were but what they asked. Well which is it Coop? Look I could care less who asks the questions. In fact I’ll go one step further and say it’s probably better to have Dems asking the Reps questions and vise versa at these debates. But to claim that these people are "mainstream undecided voters" is a LIE.

CNN has a bunch of pathetic losers asking the Dems softball sympathetic questions like, “Shrillda Beast, the great and compassionate, I had to go out and actually use my own money for Band Aides last week when little Johnny fell down and scraped his knee. What, in all of your great wisdom and unending caring for us little people, are you going to do to provide Band Aides for the children?” The entire gabfest boils down to one huge assault on the national pocketbook.

At the Rep debate you get openly hostile questions like, “Rudy, is it true that after you stopped beating your third wife and all of your children, even the illegitimate ones, you gave marriage counseling to Drew and Stacy Peterson?”

Those questioners that weren’t Dem operatives were for the most part caricatures of conservatives. The questioners CNN chose by and large depicted Conservatives about as accurately as using the picture above to depict blacks. Way to go CNN.

A Serious Republican debate would have top tier candidates renting a hall on their own; inviting a pool of reporters and cameras in to record the event and Tim Russert in to moderate. If any network wanted to go live they could. We need to get away from the corrupt agenda driven media running these things.

Bill Clinton opposed supporting the troops from the begining

People in the MSM are in a tizzy trying to cover for Bill Clinton because he got caught telling another whopper. Given the Clinton’s proclivity to lie, covering for the Clintons has become pretty much fulltime job for the MSM. You can imagine a staff of 8-10 writers at the NY Times sitting around trying to figure out how to spin Clintonspeak (AKA lying) into something believable. Since it’s the campaign season and the lies are coming faster than Dale Jr. on the backstretch at Talledega they’ve probably had to hire extra help to keep up.

The latest really big one, even 10-12 writers can’t keep up with the mundane lies the Clintons engage in during a campaign, has to do with President Clinton’s supposed opposition to the Iraq war…”from the beginning.” Here’s what President Clinton said, “Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning, I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers.”

The big problem for Mr. Bill and his MSM spinners is that there are several minutes of tape of him declaring the exact opposite. There are also several news stories and even a column penned by Bill Clinton himself for a British broadsheet that proves he’s lying. So we’re back to the old, “it depends on what the meaning of beginning is.”

But you know the “I opposed it from the beginning” stuff isn’t what irks me. We all know full well that the Clintons will say and do anything for a vote. They will announce an immediate pull out from Iraq to appease the Dem kook fringe when running in the Dem primary before tacking to the center position of “George Bush has made such a mess of Iraq there is no way we can pull out immediately” for the general election. That is what most politicians do. And that is why we can’t stand them.

What really bugs me about President Clinton’s statement is the last part, “I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers.” That goes past lying. What the ex-president is talking about is that no one raised his taxes to pay for the war. Fine say that. But nobody is denying Clinton or anyone else the opportunity to support the soldiers. I’d tell Clinton the same thing I tell everyone who thinks taxes are too low. Send a check to the US Treasury. Better yet write the check to the Wounded Warrior Project or the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation. Rush Limbaugh recently raised over FOUR MILLION DOLLARS - half of it his own money – for the latter worthy cause.

I guess this points up the major difference between Libs and Cons. Bill Clinton, the quintessential Lib, whines because big government “won’t allow him to support the troops.” Rush Limbaugh, the quintessential Con, says screw the government and raises four million to support the troops on his own. So some enterprising MSMer ought to ask President Clinton, if his desire to support the troops is so strong and the government won’t allow it, to match Limbaugh’s private effort to “support the troops.”

It’ll never happen. And if it did one could imagine the answer:

Two million of my own dollars for the Wounded Warrior Project? You gotta be kidding. Look, taking care of those suckers is a government responsibility. Now looky here, like Teddy Kennedy, I’m quite happy to send several millions more of my dollars to my off shore tax shelter while calling for tax increases on you. But I draw the line at actually paying higher anything. We all know rich guys don’t pay taxes. Only you little people. So just forget about me actually writing a check when I can complain about the government not allowing me to write a check and keep all my money. Actually giving money to do something about a problem is for conservative suckers. We Libs get more credit from the MSM just for bitching about problems as Conservatives do for actually doing something about them. Why would we change?

They're baaaaaaack

Like another bad Brittney Spears episode, Lyin’ Joe Wilson and his famous wife Valerie Plame are back in the news. First because Plame has written a book, "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House." She could have quit at “Fair Game” because she was fair game. She was not a “spy” when State Department goofball and Uncle Fester look-a-like Richard the Dick Armitage outted her to Bob Novak. She displayed extreme poor judgment when she sent her creepy husband on a mission to Niger. He went and sipped green tea then came back and lied about his experience.

Now, former press secretary Scott McClellan is penning a book. Several paragraphs of that piece have been leaked stating that everyone in the White House including the president misled him on the Plame affair. I’m wondering if there is any context to those paragraphs that the MSM has chosen to leave out. Naww, they wouldn’t do that.

I was flipping through the stations the other night and Chrissie Mathews was on with some like minded neo-lib all a gag about McClellan’s book. Chrissie was actually thinking that FitzFong ought to reopen his investigation based on the pre-release of a few paragraphs of McClellan’s book. That’s pretty clear thinking.

Never during the segment did the name Sir Richard the Dick Armitage come up. Which, when you consider that it was the Dick who actually did the deed that FitzFong was hired to investigate and FitzFong knew it was Armitage from the start, seems a bit odd. But not really when you are dealing with the alternative universe thinking of the Chrissie Mathews’s of the world.

Oh yeah, it’s big sister’s birthday. No doubt she’s sleeping in with the day off from work. She’ll head out this afternoon for a full body massage and make over returning home just in time for the family to shower her with high end gifts before heading out for a show and an expensive night on the town and half a day off tomorrow.

It’s always fun to call her at work pretending to be an unbonded part time plumber looking for work.

Happy Birthday sis.

How great the world would be if America were imperialistic

In an interview with a British Muslim magazine, the Archbishop of Canterbury, some (g)assbag named Rowan Williams, fired a broadside at the United States alluding that our actions against Islamo-Terror-Fascists are imperialistic and saying they had led to “the worst of all worlds”.

Hmm, worse than the Dark Ages; worse than when Hitler, Mussolini and Togo (real imperialist all) were murdering, burning and raping; worse than Stalin murdering millions and gobbling up one Eastern European nation after another; worse than the current bunch of religious weasels murdering innocent people in every corner of the world in the hope of forming – dare I say it – an imperial worldwide caliphate; the US is worse than all that Rowan? I think Rowan has all of the credibility of Keith Olbermann’s worse this or that here.

It’s rather telling that brave, brave Rowan chose to give his interview to the Muslim magazine from the safe confines of England. I’d love to see brave Rowan dawn his Archbishop of Canterbury garb and head into the back allies of any major Muslim city in search of a similar interview. No doubt the next time Rowan would be seen was kneeling before hooded Muslim imperialist right before they severed his empty head from the rest of his worthless body.

Then, let’s play this game. Suppose by some miracle of fate Rowan is right and America is an imperialistic power – even the worst of all time. How could that be a bad thing? Instead of everyone flowing unencumbered across our southern border, we could go to their country and take it over. Bring in the Big Macs, iPods, cheep beer and big cars and wala a little America. How can Rowan think that that’s bad? Would it be better if the communist Chinese did it, or some Muslim theocracy?

I predict that within the next several months, perhaps even before this year is out, some disaster will strike. There will be an earthquake, a fire, a flood, or an act terror perpetrated by Rowan’s dear friends. Rowan will wail, “will no help these people?” And someone will. Imperial America.

General Thanksgiving
By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America
A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. (signed) G. Washington

Get a gun; while you can

Yesterday the Supremes announced they would take up a challenge to the District of Columbia's gun laws. DC (aka the murder capital of the world) virtually bans handguns and requires that rifles and shotguns to be kept locked and unloaded. So while armed illegal aliens are threatening your family while empting out your china cabinet and ripping off your flatscreen, you’ll be hollering to your wife, “honey, where’s the damned key to the gun safe?”

I have to say that it’s a bad omen when the 9 dopes in robes decide to take up a case that I think was fairly settled in the lower court. That is, the declaration that DC’s draconian gun laws violated the plain language found in the Second Amendment. Why would the Supremes take on this case unless they wanted to tinker with the lower court’s decision?

If there is any good news in all of this the Supremes have framed the question in such a manner that the answer ought to be clear to anyone capable of reading and understanding the English language. Which given the state of our open border and the public school system may turn out to be a bad thing. Then throw in the foreign law crowd on the court, the sheer lunacy of four of the justices, the overall elite nature of the court and you have a recipe for disaster.

The question the court will take up is this:

"Whether [the laws] violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes?"

This question always comes up in gun arguments with dopes who can’t read and understand the constitution. The Second Amendment reads:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

So anti-gunners zero in on the opening clause of the amendment, “a well regulated militia.” They ignore the last clause “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." When you ask the anti-gunner who the founders might have meant by “the people,” the argument is generally won. Only the dimmest of wits will continue the argument by saying “the people, in this case, means those in the militia.”

Oh really? Well then who did they mean in the preamble then when they wrote “We the people…?” or in the first, fourth, fifth, ninth and tenth amendment as well as Articles I, II and V when they noted “the people?”

You truly have to be a moron to believe that when the founders wrote “the people” they meant - the people of the United States - in every case but the Second Amendment where “the people” meant only “the people” in militias.

Next, I’m not sure the Second Amendment language applies to militias at all. There is a strong case to be made that the founders wanted to protect Joe public’s (aka the people’s) right to keep and bear arms as a check on militias, least they become unregulated and harmful to the republic.

Last, when confirming Supreme Court Justices, remember how Chuckles Schumer and other weasels are always concerned with abortion and stare decisis, that odd legal term that requires a judge to give undo weight to prior decisions of a court no matter how wrongly decided? Why is it that stare decisis never comes up with regard to settled Second Amendment law?

I have no confidence whatever that this case will be decided based on the plain language found in the US Constitution. Four of these dopes are as likely as not to vote along ideological lines or in accordance with some foreign law as anything found written in our own constitution.

As such I make the same recommendation I always make when pols or lame brained judges start tinkering with the Second Amendment, get ye to the nearest gun store and buy a gun. If you already have a handsome gun collection, go buy more ammo.

Pelosi and the tower of Babel

Nancy Pelosi wants to require companies to hire people who do not speak English. This all stems from an amendment that would protect employers like the Salvation Army from federal lawsuits for requiring their workers to speak English. That amendment seems reasonable enough to me. I’m in business to sell things. It seems sensible for me to hire people who speak the predominate language of the land.

Think of the consequences of Pelosi’s idiocy. As if ordering a hamburger at the local drive thru wasn’t already tedious enough, throw in a Somali guy with no English skills and the lunch line will be three miles long by 12:30. But that’s the good news. Imagine showing up in the emergency room with appendicitis attack but the Russian speaking Dr. and Chinese nurse decide that it’s your left foot giving you problems and cut it off. Does anyone remember the Bible story about the Tower of Babel?

And if this lunacy is accepted, guess where it’ll be the most pronounced? Where all lunacy is the most pronounced, in government jobs that’s where. So the annual trip to the DMV, already as welcome an experience as a visit to the proctologist, becomes an even bigger nightmare when you end up at the window with the Portuguese speaking illegal alien from Brazil.

By an 80-20 margin Americans think that English ought to the official language of the United States. As such, the Reps should be able to pound the Dems on this issue like a methed up biker playing that whack a mole game for a new Harley.

Knowing how this issue splits among the American people, do think that the MSM will ask the Shrillda Beast or that nice black man what they think about this issue? I’ll bet not. In the course of Rudy answering MSM questions about his position on abortion for millionth time, he ought to ask the MSM to pose a question to Shrillda on grandma Pelosi’s lame brained idea.

Shrillda will answer with her typical yes, no, maybe so non-answer answer and the MSM will head for the fainting couch and a dose of salts, overcome by how savvy she is and declaring once again, Shrillda IS the smartest woman in the world. But does that depend on what the meaning of the word “is” is?

Why arn't the dogs barking?

Can you hear the sound of the dog NOT barking? The non-barking dog in this case isn’t Sherlock Holmes’ discovery of the non-barking dog in Silver Blaze. The non-barking dog in this case is Iraq.

Gone are the morbid daily death totals of Americans. Gone are the nightly videos, many supplied by terrorists, of bombings of US convoys. Gone are CNN’s and the left’s delight of Islamo-terror-fascist snipers shooting Americans in the streets.

It seems, for now anyway, that the Dems and MSM homeboys are getting a pretty good arse whippin’ from US troops led by that incompetent traitor Gen. Petraeus. So for now, the Iraq war, which received the daily lead with the whining Dem and irresponsible MSM when things were not so well, is nothing more than a sleeping dog when US forces are kicking the ITF’s arse.

Landman Harry Reid and his MSM lackeys remind me of a home team football crowd booing and calling for the coach’s head, angry and throwing things onto the field when their team is behind by field goal at halftime in the big game. They sit around during the halftime show complaining of everything, drinking a beer and throwing down a nacho letting everyone know about how much more clever they are than anyone on the team. Then the loud mouthed Bozos are forced to sit in a stunned silence, filled with seething anger and disbelief as they watch the home team, with a new quarterback, throw up five TDs in the first three minutes of the second half.
One might almost sympathize with Harry and his weasel MSM buds were we talking about the latest OSU Michigan game and fans that just want to win. But we’re not talking about football for crying out loud. We’re talking about American security. And for all of their obstruction and defeatism, it’s hard to fathom that Harry and the MSM actually want America to win rather than George Bush to lose.

No win debates

The Dems had another no win debate last night. How do I know it was a “no win” debate? I know because there were no headlines in the morning paper saying “Shrillda Beast launches f-bomb laden attack on ‘the boys’” or “Billary says she’ll declare economic martial law on companies earning a profit.”

Because no such headlines appeared, I assume Queen Shrill will maintain her 29% lead over the “boys.” I didn’t watch. I was engaged in a much less predictable activity than watching a Democrat presidential blab fest. I added 2+2 on my calculator over and over and watched in amazement as, just as in Dem debates, the same answer popped up every time I hit the = sign.

I’m sure the candidates thought they were blazing new ground when they repeated the same sound bite tested 30 and 60 second answers to any conceivable question. It goes like this:

Well thank you (Fill in the blank - but under no circumstance use the wrong name) for that very important question on (Fill in the blank). As you know I’ve spent 30 years working for the American people on issues such as this. Were it not for that cretin in the White House today, this nation would we would have long ago solved the problem of (Fill in the blank.) When I’m president, we’ll spend (Make sure you use a figure higher than any of your opponents – if you’re the first to answer, use the phrase, “whatever it takes”) and we’re gonna fix (Fill in the blank).

NOTE: If pressed for a clarification or a real answer by a subversive member of the press - which is unlikely, after all this is a Democrat debate – say, “First, I would form a bipartisan blue ribbon panel to study the problem of (fill in the blank).” Then repeat the above.

The obvious follow up would be, you say you’ve spent 30 years “fighting for (fill in the blank)”, why haven’t you fixed the problem after THIRTY YEARS OF FIGHTING, incompetence or stupidity?

And so it goes on every question for every candidate with a chance of winning. Guys like Biden and Kucinich will say dopey things like, “I saw UFO once” just to get attention.

Which brings me to Obama. Obama once said that VP Cheney was like a crazy uncle in the attic. Here’s Obama sharing a stage with a guy who claims to have seen a UFO and who does Obama call crazy? Hint, it’s not the moonbeam claiming to have seen the UFOs and that IS crazy.
GBBM

Spitzer's an idiot and, of course, it's Bush's fault

Yesterday New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer scrapped his harebrained plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens. In his concession speech, Spitzer took a trick from the Hillda Beast and blamed the whole controversy on, who else, President Bush.

That was her third or fourth position on this issue, when she was neither for it nor against it and before she was both for and against it after being squarely for it before finally reading the latest 75-25% against poll and coming out firmly against it. The Hillda Beast makes John Cambodia Kerry look like a model of consistency.

We all know how this tack goes. Take an issue, the demise of the buggy whip industry for example. Then listen to the rant: “100 years ago George Bush stood by and did nothing while this vital American industry disappeared. Now we’re faced with the children and grandchildren of buggy whip manufactures teetering on the brink of disaster because George Bush is a heartless creep who’d rather see hard working Americans, and even harder working illegal aliens kicked to the curb so Halliburton executives can make a few 100s of millions more to fund his illegal war, which by the way is a quagmier.”

Well here’s a note to Hillda Beast and Spitzer. President Bush supported the lame brained “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” bill. It was about 80% of America who rose up said NO WAY JOSE or should that be NO WAY JOE that killed that dopey idea – at least temporarily - not President Bush. Your argument is with the American people not "this administration."

Gone green

I’ve gone green. No, I haven’t changed one thing about the way my family lives, but I thought of a bunch of ways we could feel good about ourselves while doing absolutely nothing for the environment.

So, in a NBC moment, I’ve turned the type color of this page green. Affect of this move on the environment? Zero. Affect on my self image for raising environmental awareness? Priceless.

I feel so good about myself I think I’ll jump in my gas guzzling SUV for another purposeless carbon emitting drive about town. But don’t worry about the environmental impact of such a drive. I’ve attached a very thoughtful and environmentally correct bumper sticker to the SUV stating that it is a green SUV and actually serves as a carbon off-set for AlGore’s private jet travel.

OK back to reality. That bit of green text accomplished every bit as much as NBC’s “green week” did for the environment. Here is the naked truth:

We cannot conserve our way to energy independence or eviro friendly carbon neutrality. If everyone of us somehow managed to put a row of solar panels* on our roof tomorrow and bought a Prius today, we’d not be able to off-set the carbon out put of the world’s a growing population and economies.

* Those solar panels in all probability would be made by GE the parent company of …drum roll….NBC. No conflict of interest in a “green week” anywhere in there.

To off-set the carbon footprint of the world's growing population and economy - where China is building a coal fired power plant every three days - we need to be whole lot more creative. Growing populations and economies in China and India are just beginning to compete for the same carbon energy that we’ve had the corner on for decades. As they grow the cost and consumption of those limited resources is going to go up.

The short term answer is more nuclear power and more exploration for oil and gas. This will keep the cost of the resources down as economic growth and our well-being continues. But even if we waved the plethora of enviro regulations today, it’d be 15 years before we could reap the benefits of our own resources. But we ought to get started.

The long term solution is more capitalism. Capitalism solves the problems of the unintended consequences brough on by the know-nothing who sponsor government programs. Newt Gingrich suggested a prize of one billion dollars for the development of the first mass produced hydrogen car. That’s a start.

It's the nukes stupid

The civilized world is in an uproar over Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharraf’s on again off again declaration of quasi martial law and house arrest of Benazir Bhutto, but not really.

Most world leaders, ours included hopefully, know that the only thing that really matters with regard to Pakistani politics is the security of their nukes. So while they come out and make grand Machiavellian proclamations about the need for democracy to be restored, the back channel message is, “yeah, we’re all for democracy as long as it doesn’t allow your nukes to fall into the wrong hands.”

Yes, yes political freedom and free and fair elections immediately, as long is it doesn’t allow your nukes to fall into the wrong hands. Are we hypocritical to back a bit of a tyrannical despot rather than the people’s favorite? Yes, but we can’t let your nukes fall into the wrong hands.

I’m good with all of that. It’s sort of a world view of the political mantra, “It’s the economy stupid.” It’s the nukes stupid. As such, it’s preferable to have a pro western dictator capable of safe guarding the nukes in charge than some democratically elected corrupt liberal goofball who can’t.

So when I see all of the public lambasting of Musharraf, I picture the speaker’s fingers crossed behind his back and a though bubble coming out of his head, “Just take care of the nukes.”

Remembering the Veteran

It's Veteran's Day, at least as celebrated by the Federal Government. Lincoln did a fairly good job putting veterans into the proper perspective with a short piece that he believed would be little noted nor long remembered:


Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

232 years old and still as good as as it ever was

Tomorrow marks the 232nd birthday of the United States Marines. The following are messages from Commandants Lejeune and Conway as well as the text of the resolution forming the Corps and the Corps’ mission. Happy Birthday Marines, former Marines and friends of Marines:


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 be 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.

Commandant Conway's message 10 November, 2007

1. Since the birth of our nation, our liberty has beenpurchased by valiant men and women of deep conviction, great courage, and bold action; the cost has often been in blood and tremendous sacrifice. As America’s sentinels of freedom, United States Marines are counted among the finest legions in the chronicles of war. Since 1775, Marines have marched boldly to the sounds of the guns and have fought fiercely and honorably to defeat the scourge of tyranny and terror. We are Marines - that is what we do.

2. In the words of President John F. Kennedy: "In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger." Magnificent heroes fought in the wheat fields of Belleau Wood, in the snows of the Chosin, and on the streets of Hue City. Your generation bears this obligation now, and it is borne on mighty and capable shoulders. Just like the Marines at Belleau Wood – we are once again engaged in sustained operations ashore. Just like at Belleau Wood - the Marines have been given the toughest sector and have prevailed over a resilient and determined enemy - who has made us pay for our gains. Once again, as in any struggle, the road ahead is far from certain, but as Marines, we are not dissuaded by the challenges of war or the tough conditions of a warrior's life. Indeed, we don't just accept our destiny - we shape it.

3. On our 232nd birthday, to every Marine - those still in uniform and those who have served honorably in the past - be proud of who you are and what you do. Know that your citizenship dues have been paid in full; you are part of this nation's elite warrior class. Cherish our families who offer marvelous support, abiding resolve, and steadfast patience. Remember those who have served and those who have fallen - their names are chiseled on the roll call of America's heroes. Those who have carried the battle colors of our Corps have forged our heritage, and today's generation of Leathernecks chart our future. Carry the colors with pride; carry them with honor.

4. Happy birthday, Marines! Semper Fidelis, James T. Conway, General, U.S. Marine Corps, Commandant of the Marine Corps//

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.

Terror, borders & energy: A winning GOP platform

I got caught up watching a program on the History Channel last night, because they had a program on the Panama Canal. The canal remains a grand feat of engineering today. Imagine how it must have been regarded between 1904, when American construction began, and 1914, when the first tug transited the completed canal.

There was a portion of the program when they interviewed an Environmental Lawyer. He said quite frankly and openly, that a project like the Panama Canal could never be completed today due environmental red tape and regulation. Any attempt at such a project in 2007 would be mired in decades of legal battles, environmental impact statements and no doubt a statement from AlGore that the debate is over, the canal will lead to global warming.

Which brings us to today. Gas prices have bounced back over $3 a gallon. The hand wringing has begun anew. The Shrill monster is again talking about “taking” oil company profits. Dems talk openly of nationalizing the oil companies. If you think the price of gas is high now, wait until Dems start to run the oil business. Gas will be $8 a gallon and there won’t be any.

Our problem is not a lack of resources. We have plenty. China, in a deal with Castro, is exploiting Gulf of Mexico oil reserves that we should be exploiting. Alaska offers huge reserves. Nuclear power is available now and could account for a 25% drop in our dependence on foreign oil. US coal is abundant and can be cleaned to provide an environmentally friendly source of energy.

But we wring our hands and complain about foreign oil and our own oil companies when we just won’t step up and provide for ourselves. I’m hoping for $4-5 dollar gas soon. Only when the price goes through the roof, it seems, will Americans step up and say ENOUGH! Screw the three toed spotted June Bug, go get the oil.

The Rep candidates should run a three legged platform, defeat Islamo terrorism, secure our borders and energy independence. Democrats are in a bidding war to buy votes with your tax dollars. Reps should get into a “man on the moon in ten years” type battle for both border security and energy independence. The energy independence part will have the added benefit of significantly drying up funding for Islamo-terror-fascists.

Let’s get started!

Dems dump JFK's "ask not" for just ask

I have spent the evenings for about the last week helping young Lex research and compare college costs as part of his “Math Showcase” project. As a result, I’m announcing my support for brave courageous tough guy John Edwards. Who cares that if you put him in a wig and heels he’d also be the best looking girl in the race - including all of the other candidates’ wives.

It’s easy. Go here and check out the average cost of a college education in your state. Then do as young Lex did, add $1,300 a year for books and $2,000 a year in miscellaneous expenses, figure 4% inflation and multiply that total times 4 (or if you’re kids are like Lex, 5 years). So I’m thinking why should I pay that if John is willing to rob my family, friends, neighbors and every else to pay for it?

And no, I don’t think it matters one hoot to John if young Lex turns out, as my Aunt Anna used to gently put it, not to be college material. I’m sending him anyway. Why wouldn’t I? Hell I’m not paying for it. It’ll be good opportunity for young Lex to sow his wild oats on campus, demonstrating, drinking, disrupting classes before getting booted out to learn a trade. Or heck, with those credentials, he may actually end up running the place.

Hmm, which reminds me, if John is willing to steal from everyone to pay for college, does anyone seriously believe that he won’t steal from everyone to pay for trade school? This is a win win for us. Lex jr can go college for a few years then go to trade school for a few years, then go to some government extended education program, then take early retirement and may never have to actually get a job. Sweet.

Every Dem candidate is turning Dem icon JFK’s words on their head. Instead of, “Ask not what your country can do for you…” Dems are engaged in a battle one-ups-man-ship of “Just ask and I’ll tax America to the poor house to pay for it.”

Proud as a peacock, dumb as a hoe handle

The NBC peacock has gone green, well for 150 hours anyway. What more can we expect from hypocrite Libs? I was watching Sunday Night Football and noticed the green peacock bug in my screen's lower left corner. Hmm, St. Patrick’s Day is in March, have they destroyed another American tradition, I wodered?

Then the halftime show came on and they were using candles to light the set. Were they continuing on with a Halloween theme? It was only after Bob Costas noted that by turning off the klieg lights, they were saving enough electricity to power one house for one month that the “NBC has gone green” theme hit home.

How truly Liberal. I saved enough electricity to power one house for one month. Now go get my fleet of Suburbans to get me and my entourage to the airport so we can hop on my G-5 private aircraft to get me back to my 28,000 square foot home in time for the after game party.

If NBC wanted to make a statement about saving electricity, why didn’t they forgo Sunday NIGHT Football in favor of Sunday Morning Football? Then they could have turned out the stadium lights and saved enough electricity to power ten houses for ten years. Why don’t they forgo studio lights altogether. Broadcast everything outdoors in natural light and end all NBC broadcasting at sundown? Not only would such a plan save electricity, it would save the viewing public from Keith Olbermann in prime and other NBC banalities like turning off studio lights. All of this is nothing more than a transparent effort by NBC to look concerned rather than actually be concerned.

Then NBC cut to Brian Williams broadcasting live from a snow cave in the arctic. Yeah right. No doubt there was enough NBC equipment up there scaring the pristine arctic tundra to sink a couple of oil wells which is exactly what we ought to be doing so that we can have enough oil for the dopes at NBC to turn their klieg lights back on.

Tax cuts for the rich and the failed war

After being scolded by the president for about the 10th time in as many days as a pretty much worthless congress, botox big eyes Nancy Pelosi struck back with the “I know you are but what am I” retort of Dem pols. Pelosi said all that this president has to show for his time in office are tax cuts for the rich and this failed war.

Hmm, which war? The one in Afghanistan or Iraq or the wider war on terror in general? One was success, one’s headed in that direction and the last is a 40 year war, sort of this generation’s “Cold War” that Dems refuse to admit exists. Pelosi has forgotten our success in Afghanistan; ignores the on going success in Iraq and doesn’t believe we’re in a long-term low-intensity world war with Islamo-terror-fascists.

Bush’s tax cuts, as is always the case with tax cuts, have led to unprecedented economic growth, job growth, low inflation, while providing the ditzes, like Pelosi, that we send to Washington with record breaking tax receipts to the US Treasury. Congress has spent that money as if it were a ten year old at the arcade with a roll of quarters from dad, spend it all then ask for more and more and more.

Then there was the whole 9-11 thing but no follow-on attacks since. Oh yeah, we’re not supposed to mention that. And how about the EP-3 incident with China early in 2001 when a bigheaded Chinese fighter pilot played tag with one our surveillance planes and got a swim in the South China Sea for his trouble. That event seems like pretty small potatoes today, but at the time it was a “crisis.” But since Bush handled it well, let’s just forget about it.

So now, Pelosi, when confronted with her absence of leadership…I’d say poor leadership but that would indicate that there was leadership…, stands like a greasy, overweight, toothless, trailer dwelling piece of white trash, dressed in stained spandex in front of her dilapidated doublewide with the sagging porch and a couple of rusting 60s vintage cars on blocks in the weed infested, overgrown front yard - except for the spots where the five dogs are kept on short chains for so long that vegetation refuses to grow under their constant pacing - complaining that the neighbor’s house looks a mess.

Good grief, what’s next, Fat Teddy moralizing on the need to immediately report traffic accidents to the police?

Mukasey and waterboarding

Lex and the Daily Punctilio (aka the Journal Gazette) are at it again. Here’s the exchange:

From the Daily Punctilio, Furthermore section of the editorial page Wed Oct 31, 07:

SOME MAY ARGUE that torture, like art, can be difficult to define.

But waterboarding is the Monet of torture.

Every civilized person should agree it is torture. And using waterboarding and similar techniques on a prisoner, enemy combatant or any human being is clearly a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Democratic and Republican Senate leaders who are threatening to withhold their votes to confirm Judge Michael Mukasey’s nomination for attorney general are right to demand he share his opinions on employing torture. He should confirm that he understands torture is illegal before he is confirmed as attorney general.

Lex responds:

Are the JG staffers who wrote and edited the piece on Judge Mukasey (Furthermore Wed Oct 31, 07) pushing a political agenda or just uninformed – willfully so? Oh wait, it’s the JG. So it’s always an uninformed political agenda. First, enemy combatants are not waterboared. US Army Field Manual 34-52 expressly forbids US military personnel from using that technique.

Enemy combatants and the US military aren’t the problem. The murky area in this messy business is the stateless Islamo-terror-fascist (i.e. Sheik Kalid Mohammad) committed to destroying everything and anything that doesn’t conform to his 7th century way of thinking. These high-value prisoners do not move through the military system.

Next, the statement that Democrat and Republican Senate leaders are right to demand Mukasey share his opinion on torture (presumably waterboarding), is a bit peculiar in that the Senate itself has twice taken up the issue of waterboarding, and twice the Senate has failed to outlaw the procedure. So we have the same preening gasbag class that populates much of Washington DC demanding Mukasey condemn something that they twice failed to condemn themselves. Hypocrisy doesn’t come close to describing their behavior – cowardice is a much more accurate word.

Last, it must be so easy to take the moral high ground when you have nothing at risk. How wonderful it must be to sit in a comfortable room, contemplating the abstract, ignorant of the threat, penning self righteous editorials tisk-tisking the efforts of those with the responsibility for the safety of the free world. I’d be interested to see how long it would take the holier-than-thou people at the JG to start shoving bamboo splinters under a terrorist’s finger nails if the thing that they held most dear were put at risk. If you say you would do nothing, you're most likely a liar or a coward.