About a Navy promotion

Tomorrow I'll be presiding over the promotion of a good navy friend. Below are my prepared remaks about the significance of the event.

Good morning and welcome to Shloss Lichtenstein. I’d like to offer a special welcome to Mary’s mom who has traveled all the way from the States to be with us today. Welcome to Germany and United States European Command, Ma’ma. Welcome as well to all the Navy Captains, Colonels and their families and other distinguished guests, potentates, grandees, dignitaries, celebrities and other VIPs real and imagined here today – that should just about cover the waterfront.

I cannot tell you what a great honor and privilege it is to be standing here. Mary thank you for letting me play a small part in this important day for you and your family. And people say that the Navy and Marine Corps don’t get along. That’s not true, actually, it should be Marines and fill in the blank don’t get along. It really has very little to do with the Navy.

Today, as a former Marine, with an Air Force spouse, presiding over the promotion of a Navy Commander, I am perhaps the most “joint” man in the EUCOM AOR.

I got to tell you though, this presentation has been a lot of hard work. This is my third draft. I know, I know that would be some sort of record at EUCOM where the minimum number of staffing iterations for a document can only be calculated with a super computer, an abacus and a Ouija board.

But let me tell you how this whole thing played out. My first idea for this presentation was a three hour overview of the Peloponnesian War with a 175 power point slides. I figured two-and-a-half hours for the overview, 10 minutes for questions, 5 minutes for Col Mulcahy, 10 minutes for the actual promotion ceremony, and five minutes for Commander Blankenship to thank me for my presentation.

I had planned to use the appointment Lysander as the commander of the Spartan Fleet at Aegospotami (ē"guspo'tumus) in 405 as an allegory for today’s promotion. However, when I approached Commander Blankenship with the completed package, she told me that it was “a bit too much”.

So I went back to the drawing board. I cut the whole thing to the bone. I cut, the Q&A, Col Mulcahy’s remarks, and Commander Blankenship’s thank yous and managed to get it down to 83 power point slides over about an hour and forty five minutes, with two five minutes breaks. If I’d cut the breaks and CDR Blankenship’s promotion we could have been in out in less than an hour and a half.

So, I took the revamped package back to Commander Blankenship. She looked at it and said, “Look, Schumick, no power point. No Peloponnesian War. No Lysander. Make it brief, inspiring, succinct, humorous, to the point, interesting, pithy, informative and most of all short.” She wrapped up her commander’s guidance with this warning, “If you go 1 second over 15 minutes, expect an iron chandelier to fall on your head.” (Look up) Hmm Not likely, but she can be very direct.

Hey it’s her promotion. So, I’ve revamped the whole thing for today. But don’t worry. As many of you might know, my wife, Diana is retiring in the spring and I plan to use the whole Peloponnesian War thing and Lysander’s death at Boeotia (bee-OH-shu) in 395 as an allegory for retirement. So, you’ve got that to look forward to. It’ll be a beautiful thing.

OK start the clock. We’ve gathered here today for the promotion of Commander Blankenship. Benefits of promotion are many and varied and I’ve boiled them down 346. I’d planned to address each separately but hey you don’t have to hit me over the head more than three or four times to make a point. So, I’ve fit them all into four broad categories: money, power, entitlements and responsibility.

First, and least important, money
Whenever I think of military pay, I’m reminded of a conversation between a young Marine and a GySgt. When the young Marine complained to the legendary GySgt Hermann, the Marine said, “Gy I don’t make enough money to do all that stuff you’re making me do.” The Hermannator, as he was known in the battalion, was unimpressed with the complaint, he told the youngster, “Hey, if you joined the Marine Corps for the money, you really fouled up. Now get busy before the Colonel comes down here and sees you sitting around and thinks that we don’t have enough to do around here.”

In 1985, when Mary Blankenship walked into the Brooklyn Center, Minnesota Naval recruiting office at the tender age of – uh what was it? Oh never mind - base pay for an E-1 was a whopping $573.60 a month - after four months, that figure skyrocketed to the princely sum of $640.20 a month.

When Mary Blankenship broke the news to her family and friends that she had enlisted in the US Navy as a Personnelman, “What are you going to do with all that money?” was not among the common questions that they asked her.

Don’t get me wrong, we all want, and need to be paid. That’s how we provide for ourselves and our families. But that is not the principal reason why you all do what you do. When some one joins the armed forces there is a reason that we commonly say that they have joined the “service”. We say that they have joined the service, because that’s what it is – service – service to one’s country.

Anyone who thinks people join the military for the money, consider this. 2.2 million Active duty and reserve Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines are presently serving their country in the armed forces. Most of these patriots have volunteered to leave all that is dear to them, their home, their family, and their friends at a moment’s notice. They have volunteered to travel around the world into any clime or place, foregoing most of life’s creature comforts. They may be required sail, march or fly toward the sound of the cannon where incredible dangers await them. The overwhelming majority of those 2.2 million do all of that for less than $20,000 a year in base pay.

But with promotion comes a modest pay increase. Congratulations Commander Blankenship, your monthly pay raise, as a result of this promotion, will be greater than your total monthly base pay when you first enlisted in the Navy in 1985.

Let’s put this pay thing into perspective though. On January 24th, 2005 Army Sergeant Michael Carlson a fellow Minnesotan from St. Paul, was killed in Iraq. He was 22 years old. As part of a high school writing assignment his senior year at Cretin High School, Michael wrote a beautiful and moving piece about his life, his family and his country. That piece was published in the Wall Street Journal on the Memorial Day after his death. In it Michael wrote this:

"When I am on my deathbed, what am I going to look back on? Will it be thirty years of fighting crime and protecting the country from all enemies, foreign and domestic? I want my life to account for something...I only have so much time. I want to be good at life; I want to be known as the best of the best at my job. I want people to need me, to count on me...I want to fight for something, be part of something that is greater than myself. I want to be a soldier..."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what service is all about. Now, let someone try to tell me that this about money.

Next is power.
For some, the main benefit of promotion is that there is now another whole phylum of fools out there that they don’t have to take any nonsense from. Everybody knows the kind. Like, “Oh yes sir, Commander. We can spray paint the grass green for the Admiral’s visit - even though it’s January and 16 degrees outside. Why, no sir. I don’t think that is a silly waste of our last discretionary dollars. No problem. I’ll get right on that.” Sadly that is an event that actually occurred only the service ranks have been changed to protect the idiot, I mean the innocent.

As a prior enlisted sailor Commander Blankenship has seen both sides of power. While attending Boot Camp in Orlando FL and at “A” School in Meridian, MS, every minute of her life was controlled by Chiefs and the Petty Officers. But soon after those life altering experiences, it was the rank grabbing Petty Officer Blankenship reporting sober alert and fit for duty (and who knows, maybe she was) and doing her part for the Personnel Support Detachment at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, California.

To me power boils down to leadership. One of the most important things a leader does is to set the priorities. Good leaders know that you can have only one number one priority. For those incapable of prioritizing activities, everything becomes a number one priority, and as a consequence, nothing is a number one priority.

I worked for Colonel once who kept a plaque on his desk that said, “The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing” all in one word. The Colonel told me that good leadership boils down to three things –
1. Train your subordinates. Give them your guidance and let them execute your current operations and plans.
2. A good leader avoids crises by always looking and planning ahead not micromanaging his current operations.
3. A good leader responds well when the inevitable crisis does arrive by
a. Determining what is happening
b. Determining what is not happening
c. Determining how best to use your power of leadership to influence what’s happening or not happening

We all know there is good power – like Superman – and bad power – like Lex Luther. To a few, promotion means that you have a bit more power to lord over a few more subordinates. Fortunately, most use their power to help subordinates and the unit. No doubt that the leadership over Petty Officer Blankenship fell into the latter category when in 1987 they indorsed her and she was selected for the Naval ROTC program. She was discharged from the Navy in order complete her degree in education at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia where she was enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania NROTC program.

No doubt that after her commission, Commander Blankenship was able to able to correctly identify the “main thing”, set the priorities and manage crises by determining what was happening. What wasn’t and using her power of leadership to affect a positive outcome. In a wide range of billets from:
Automated Data Processing Division Officer at Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron in Rota, Spain
J6 Action Officer at USEUCOM – that was in another life
OIC of a Personnel Det in Stuttgart, Germany
The military’s most demanding duty short of combat as Department head at the Navy Recruiting District, Indianapolis, Indiana,
Haze grey and underway as the Training Officer aboard the USS Kitty Hawk
to her current assignment as an Action Officer with EUCOM J1 Ensign, then Lieutenant, then LCDR Blankenship was able to use the power associated with her offices and provide the leadership for the good of the mission and her people.

So with this promotion comes a bit more power by which Commander Blankenship can exert her leadership for mission accomplishment and the well being of her shipmates.

Then there are the entitlements.
With promotion come a few little perks. An entitlement to a few extra square feet in family housing to pack new things into because you are entitled to a few extra pounds of shipping weight that the movers think that they are entitled to smash beyond recognition, which entitles you to seek compensation from the government. That process entitles you to frustration which entitles you to your first ulcer and old age before the transportation office informs you that they’ve lost your DD form whatever and which entitles you begin the entire process over again.

You might be entitled to an additional Sideboy or two when piped aboard ship or into the mess. What AN HONOR!

Promotion may entitle you to attend a new service school which entitles you to uproot your family twice in less than a year. No doubt one of the greatest year’s of her life was when Commander Blankenship attended the Manpower Systems Analysis Program at the Naval Postgraduate School at Ahh, Monterey, California. What a beautiful place. Now that’s an entitlement.

As an 0-5 you’ll be entitled to an additional 3 square feet on your next at sea assignment. You’ll move up from 12 to 15 square feet to stow your entitled 350 pounds of personal gear for a six month deployment. What a deal.

Your promotion may entitle you to a parking space – hey at your next assignment not here - but you’ll soon discover that the parking lot is empty when you arrive in the morning and leave at night because your new assignment entitles you to come in early and stay late and because you’re the first in and last to leave you don’t really need an assigned parking space because there is nobody using the parking lot when you come and go anyway.

But hey, the little extra weight entitlement will entitle you to make one more pottery shopping trip to Poland or antiquing excursion into Belgium.

The last benefit of promotion is Responsibility.
That is what this promotion is all about - responsibility. Even as a Marine I did not have an appreciation for the difference in responsibility between naval line officers and other military officers until sometime in the early 1990s when I picked up The Price of Admiralty by the noted British military historian and author John Keegan.

In that book Keegan notes that naval line officers have always been given tremendous responsibility in the form broad mission statements with a minimum of guidance or restraints. And that’s how our Navy still raises and prepares its officers today. It’s sort of like Marines say, “every Marine a rifleman”, the Navy says “every officer an officer of the line.” It prepares them to take the initiative. It prepares them to take action. The Navy requires that its leadership identify problems and fix them and get it done before the Captain or Admiral have to get involved.

In today’s terms, an Air Force officer might be given a specific mission to bomb a specific target. Then that officer will be given specific guidance how to bomb the specific target. An Air Force mission might read:
Mission Alpha will depart airfield B wheels up at 180357.
Aircraft C will be armed with ordinance D, E & F etc, etc.
The mission will follow a detailed flight plan outlining routs refueling schedule, bombs on target everything will be carefully planned up to and including the debriefing which occurs the next morning at the starters shack at the base’s third and best golf course. They will execute the mission flawlessly.

In the Army, units will be given a specific mission to take a specific hill and while a bit less detailed than in the Air Force the Army will instruct the unit when to get up, when to eat, and when move out. They will be directed how much ammo and how much chow to carry, what route to move on, what phase line to cross when, what units are on the right and left and most important what those unit’s commander’s lineal numbers are for the purpose of seniority etc. etc. The mission will be carefully choreographed up to and including the debriefing on the objective. They too will execute the mission flawlessly.

In the Marine Corps a Lieutenant Colonel is likely to get a very specific mission with very general guidance in the form of a radio call from the Regimental CO that will go something like, “you better get your battalion up that hill by noon and look good doing it of I’ll find someone who can. Debriefing will be at the nearest local tavern.” The battalion will maneuver to secure the tavern first and then execute the mission flawlessly.

While its sister services deal in specific missions with specific guidance, our Navy deals in very broad missions in very general terms. In contrast with the missions of its sister services, a Navy mission might read, Secure the Pacific sea channels. Protect and support US interests as appropriate. Report success as necessary. All other details are left to the Captain.

Ok, ok, I’ve over simplified the whole process to make Keegan’s point. We all know that you’d never get the Marines out of the tavern for the follow-on attack. I’m not here to offend the other services, but I think you get Keegan’s central theme about the Navy and what the Navy expects from its officers.

And that’s why this promotion today is important. The US Navy is saying to Commander Blankenship, “by your past performance you have demonstrated an ability to shoulder a greater load. Your Navy trusts you. Your Navy trusts your leadership. Your Navy trusts your professional acumen and we are looking forward to greater things from you.” This promotion is all about Commander Blankenship’s ability to do bigger and better things for the Navy and this country.

But it’s even larger than that, if that’s possible. I’d remiss if I didn’t mention that it’s not just the Navy that benefits from this fine Navy family. It’s the entire community. We all know about Commander Blankenship’s excellence at work. Be it delicately insulting each and everyone of us at the annual Christmas party or wrestling a difficult staffing package to the ground she has excelled.

What may not be so well known are the contributions Mary and Joe make to our community. These are the kind of people that make a community go. While others are hanging back, Mary and Joe are stepping up - taking responsibility. Whether leading the local Scout pack of 80+ screaming boys as the Committee Chairperson, or leading 16 screaming fourth and fifth graders as a Scout Den Leader, coaching a youth basketball team, tutoring elementary kids, mentoring the school yearbook staff or teaching Catechism class on Sunday, Mary and Joe find the time to get involved and make things happen for the benefit for everyone. Our community is a much better place because of Mary and Joe and we thank you for that service as well.

So congratulations to Commander Blankenship, and Mary’s mother – how proud you must be of your daughter and this moment. Did you ever envision a moment like this in 1985? Congratulations to Joe, Andrew and Michael who by their love and sacrifice in sharing their wife and mom with the US Navy are key players in this promotion as well. This is not only a great day for the US Navy that will be getting more service from a fine officer, it’s a special day for the whole family and it’s a grand day for our entire community.

Where's the outrage?

While our alert American media and loyal opposition for the sake of opposition party hounds Dick Cheney about an accidnet that will not affect any American’s life - other than the two principals and their families, the world remains awash with real dangers that go unreported. Our heroes in the MSM by-and-large won’t print the cartoons that have caused such a stir among Islamo-terror-fascists looking for an excuse to practice their trade. But as of a couple of days ago the MSM has breathed new life into the Abu Ghraib story. They are now publishing un-before publicized pictures which are sure to put Americans at risk in war zones but unlike printing the cartoons are unlikely to expose the cowards in the MSM to any problems with the ITF.

AF Bro asks the question, why aren’t “mainstream” Muslims screaming? AF Bro sends:

“We wake up this morning to see video on CNN showing rampaging Muslims around the world. In Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Rim ... Muslim Mobs spreading mayhem. It seems that these mighty mad Muslims are rioting and firing their ever-present AK-47s into the air because of cartoons.

“Yup ...this latest epidemic of Muslim outrage comes to us because some newspapers in Norway and Denmark published some cartoons depicting Mohammed....in one of them as having a turban that looks like a bomb.

“Muslim outrage huh. OK ... let's do a little historical review. Just some lowlights:

“a.. Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.

“b.. Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.

“c.. Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to a Christian school in Indonesia. No Muslim outrage.

“d.. Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.

“e.. Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.

“f.. A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.

“g.. Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.

“h.. Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.

“i.. Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.

“j.. Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.

“k.. Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.

“l.. Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.

“m.. Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage.

“n.. Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.

“o.. Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.

“p.. Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslims are outraged.

“Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. no Muslim outrage ... but publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb for a turban and all hell breaks loose.

“Get real. This isn't about cartoons. Muslims are rampaging and burning flags....looking for Europeans to kidnap....threatening innkeepers and generally raising holy Muslim hell NOT because of a cartoon. They're outraged because it is part of the Islamic jihadist culture to be outraged.

“They don't need a reason. THEY JUST NEED AN EXCUSE. Wandering around, destroying property, murdering children, firing guns into the air and feigning outrage over the slightest perceived insult is to a jihadist what tailgating is to a Steeler's fan.
“We know and understand that these bloodthirsty murderers do not represent the majority of the world's Muslims. BUT WHEN WILL THE MAJORITY OF THE WORLD'S MUSLIMS BECOME OUTRAGED? When will THEY take to the streets to express their outrage at the radicals who are making their religion the object of worldwide hatred and ridicule?

“Islamic writer Salman Rushdie wrote of these silent Muslims in a New York Times article three years ago. "As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming?"

“And I pass the question on. Why indeed are they not screaming?”

If it's so secret, why do we all know about it?

Kept hidden from knowledge or view; concealed. That’s the definition of a secret. What in that definition applies to Vice President Cheney’s hunting accident? The accident happened in an open field in front of probably more than ten people. The shooting was reported to the local police and a local newspaper. The injured man was admitted to a public hospital.

Yet Scrawny, heap big Indian wompum, Reid used the occasion of the accident to proclaim that President Bush’s is "the most secretive administration in modern history." Hey Harry, here’s hint, it isn’t a secret if it’s on the front page of every newspaper for two days.

So let’s put this into perspective. Here’s an administration that can’t keep a key NSA program on the war on terror a secret. They can’t keep certain techniques used to interrogate al Qaeda prisoners a secret. They can’t keep the locations of certain prisons where we keep the worst of the worst of al Qaeda a secret. But because the VP has a very public hunting accident but doesn’t talk to the press about it for 20 hours, the King of Indian Bingo, Harry Reid claims that this is the most secretive administration ever. Very odd Harry.

The DemoRATS are feeding off of an incredulous MSM that is outraged that the White House and/or the VP’s office didn’t spoon feed them the story. After all, the accident happened on a weekend, in Texas and outdoors in a rancher’s field. OOoooo, you can’t expect one of us to give up our weekend and actually go on a trip like that to report what happens. We might soil our Italian shoes. We’ll go to our parties, exclusive to anybody that isn’t just like us, and if anything happens you call – and right away – and we’ll rip you when we report the news you give us.

Dems confident of beating Bush in '08

I’ve been watching with amusement as the MSM harps continually on the president’s anemic job approval. One would think, given the numbers, somewhere between 39-42%, President Bush would just give up now and, like so European governments, call for new elections.

It’s over – right? OK, OK except for Alito, and the next SC appointment it’s over - right? OK, OK except for making the Dems look like the political backtracking opportunist that they are on the NSA thing it’s over – right? OK, OK except resuscitating the Patriot Act which we all know was “killed” by Harry Reid, it’s over – right? OK, OK except for reigning in Iran it’s over - right? OK, OK except for getting a permanent tax cut it’s over - right? OK, OK except for reforming the UN it’s over – right? OK, OK it ain’t over.

What the Dems and their propaganda arm in the MSM have yet to figure out is that George Bush is beating them on every issue in spite of his “anemic” job approval numbers. What does it say about how powerless the Dems are when they can’t beat a weakened president? Even funnier is that the Dems and MSM haven’t realized that George Bush isn’t running for anything any more. The Dems and the MSM seem to be licking their chops at the opportunity to finally beat GWB in ’08. Hey guys – HE’S NOT RUNNING!

A couple of comparisons on Cheney’s accident:

With Ted, I didn’t know Mary Jo was back there, Kennedy
Cheney was sober.
More people have still died in the back seat of Ted Kennedy’s car than have been killed while hunting with the VP – even if the VP shoots them once.
The VP notified police that an accident occurred.
The VP rendered aid to his victim.

With John, I put myself in for a Bronze Star for shooting an unarmed wounded man in the back, Kerry:
Cheney shot his victim in the face.
Cheney’s victim was armed.
Cheney’s victim was in otherwise good health before the shooting.

What's wrong with Wal-Mart?

I was at the Military exchange the other day buying a t-shirt. As I strolled up to the check out, two of the Army and Air Force Exchange System’s (AAFES) finest were deep in conversation about how bad AAFES was as an employer. On and on they went as I stood there with my one purchase. Finally one of the complainers broke away from the discussion long enough to notice me and stumble through the check out process while still complaining with her co-worker.

Sick of the whole discussion, I interjected, “When did you two get drafted?” All I got were two “deer in the head lights” looks. I followed up, “You volunteered right? Nobody is forcing you to work here right?” “Well this is Germany and my German ain’t so good” complained the overweight man leaning against the counter with a cup of coffee. “How long have you been here?” I asked him. The man sensing a set up moved on to compare AAFES to Wal-Mart. “They’re just like Wal-Mart, all they care about is profit” he whined. “That’s ridiculous" I pointed out that AAFES’ profit is limited by law and even that bit of profit has to be turned back to the services in the form of Moral Welfare Recreation.”

Hammered again by his own ignorance the doof continued, “I’m talking about the way they treat people. It’s just like Wal-Mart.” “Oh that Wal-Mart." I laughed, "You mean the largest employer and retailer in America. All they do is offer people everything they want at the lowest possible price. That Wal-Mart?” “Well they don’t treat their people very good” the man continued to complain. The woman, seeing where the conversation was going, had stopped talking by now. I asked “Well how can Wal-Mart be the largest employer in America if they don’t treat their people very well?” “There ain’t no other jobs” the man stated with certainty. "Nonsense" I told him “unemployment is less than 5%, which is near capacity. It would follow that there are plenty of jobs for people who want to work.”

My t-shirt paid for and bagged, my points made, I left the two employees of the month with following thought, “Take control of your lives. If you’re not happy working here, get another job. But you shouldn’t be trashing your employer in front of the customers.”

I thought this experience was just another of those little oddities in life until I ran across this, “’Wal-Mart is the poster child for the worst in corporate behavior,’ U.S. director Robert Greenwald said in an interview after his film, ‘Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price’, screened to a large and appreciative audience.”

Because Wal-Mart is a large successful, non-union American company it is being targeted for destruction by anti-American, anti-capitalist dopes like Robert Greenwald. If successful the only thing that will be accomplished by Greenwald and company will be that the very people they purport to champion – the little guy - will have to pay more for the things that they need. If you don't like Wal-Mart, the answer is simple, don't work or shop there.

The president never calls anymore

Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he was “blindsided” by President Bush's announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed at a downtown skyscraper. White House Mayors’ Liaison Villaraigosa went on to declare “communication with my White House bosses is nonexistent. Nobody cleared that or anything else on the president’s schedule with me.”

Apparently President Bush recently appointed Villaraigosa to his new post as White House Mayor’s Liaison. Bush, in an unexpected move, then elevated that position to cabinet level, leaving out the required Senate hearings for a cabinet level officer. Bush never even bothered to tell the American people that Villaraigosa’s new position as Mayor’s White House Liaison even existed.

Canal Winchester, Ohio Mayor and Deputy White House Mayor’s Liaison, Harry Krause said, “I never even knowed the president was supposed to call. But he ain’t never called here neither.”

Secretary Villaraigosa went on to say that “the whole problem could be solved by shifting more of Mr. & Mrs. America’s federal tax dollars to the cities in general and Los Angeles in particular.” Mayor’s Liaison Villaraigosa went on to note how well spent federal money averted what could have been a disaster in New Orleans. “Imagine if the federal government hadn’t had provided billions of dollars to build those levies, people would have never moved into that part of the city that is 7’ below sea level” Villaraigosa said.

The Secretary ended with plea to president, “Hey just give me a call every now then.”
Lex called the White House for comment. A presidential spokesman told me that President Bush has promised to spend his last three years in office calling every mayor in the nation. The president couldn’t come to the phone right then because he was talking to Mayor Quimby of Springfield, uh hmmm, hey wait a minute, what state do the Simpsons live in anyway?

President Malaise take shot at GWB

Failed former President Jimmy Carter used the occasion of Correta Scott King’s funeral to take a swing at President Bush. As President “Desert One” talked about the Kings, the Georgian peaNUT said: "It was difficult for them then personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretaps" but Mr. Iranian hostage crisis never mentioned that it was DemoRAT icons Jack and Bobby Kennedy who were responsible for the wiretaps. Reminiscent of the Wellstone memorial, the crowd cheered Jimmy the Dope’s poke at Bush, who is under fire for the not so secret anymore wiretapping program he ordered after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Not satisfied to have made a fool of himself just once, Fidel Castro’s buddy just kept talking and said Hurricane Katrina showed that all are not yet equal in America. "We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi…Those who were most devastated by [Hurricane] Katrina know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans. It is our responsibility to continue their crusade."

So, Jimmy, if you’re a third-world dictator and need the cover of an election I’d be happy to certify it as free and fair, Carter would have us believe that President Bush in his daily meeting with God, asked the Almighty to have a hurricane hit the gulf coast but only flood minority areas. Say it’s all true, isn’t Carter calling God a bigot? Wouldn’t a just God tell President Bush, “Look I can do the hurricane thing, but it’ll treat all of nature equally. And I might point out that there are more white people down there than minorities.”

Sadly, Jimmy, cardigan wearing malaise filled, Carter is just another classless pandering DemoRAT.

Oh Boy! A drawing contest!

In an odd move, Iran’s largest selling newspaper announced it was holding a contest on cartoons of the Holocaust. The silly move was apparently in response to the publishing of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (Hmmm, I wonder. Does the Koran allow the use of the Great Prophet’s name in bloggs?) in European papers.

Well, why is this an odd move? First, Arab newspapers already lampoon Jews, Christians, Europeans and the Holocaust on a daily basis. Having a contest on the subject would be sort of like the MoveOn.org having a contest to lampoon the President of the United States. But wait, MoveOn did have a contest like that. Darn! That would have been the perfect opportunity for NeoCons to take to the streets and burn the DNC to the ground.

I can just hear the editorial board discussions at Iran’s Daily Bomber now.
Abdullah: Vut are vee goooing to do aboot deez cartoons?
Abdul: Let us to publish our oooon cartoons deesrespecting Jews.
Abdullah: Boot, Abdul, vee alreeedy doo dees.
Abdul: Den let’s have a contest.
Abdullah: You one brilliant newsman Abdul. What the prize be? One meeeelon dinars?
Abdul: Naa, da usual 72 virgins. Seems to work for udder tings and don’t cost us nuttin.

The other odd thing about the contest is that it is designed to lampoon Jews for European papers publishing the Mohammed cartoons. Perfect! The newspapers that published the Mohammed cartoons will probably win the contest. Flash to Iran’s largest selling newspaper, if there is anything Europeans have less use for than a bunch crazed, lunatic, harebrained, hypocrite Muslims with a grudges and a bombs, it’s Israel and the Israeli people trying to live in peace in the same neighborhood with a bunch of crazed, lunatic, harebrained, hypocrite Muslims with grudges and bombs. How dare those Israelis.

Europeans, as they are wont to do since America has acted as their protector since the end of WWII, have dawned a cloak of superiority and just wish Israel would stop defending itself against madcap Muslim extremists. After all Europe is incapable of defending itself. Who do these Israelis think they are anyway - America’s friend and here-to-fore the only democracy in the region? Give it up and just go away so the Muslims will quiet themselves, take out our trash and kill us last. It’s hard to enjoy the wine and cheese here in Europe with all of this Middle East turmoil. Can’t the Israelis just go away?

The contest seems a bit misdirected. If I dump my trash in my neighbors front yard, how upset am I going to be if that neighbor collects up my trash, combines it with his trash and dumps it all in the neighbor’s yard across the street – who I really can’t stand? Shouldn’t Iran’s largest selling newspaper be having a contest lampooning European newspapers who published the cartoon in the first place – or would just burning them all to the ground be enough?

Turban Bombers take to the streets

So let me get this straight, according to Islamo-terror-fascists, suicide bombers blowing themselves up on school buses is OK, but a cartoon of Mohammad with a bomb in his turban requires the murder of a priest and destruction of Western embassies.

The killing of the innocent by soulless weasels is fine and dandy, but a cartoon of Allah telling a long line the murderers that he was out virgins is reason enough to murder more innocents.

It’s OK for creepy Muslims daily to print absurdities about Jews and Christians, but if the shoe is on the other foot, it's reason enough to take to the streets and burn and kill everything Western.

For the US government’s part, it’s OK to pay no talent “artists” for works that blaspheme Christendom, but it’s not OK for a foreign news paper to print cartoons that challenge Europe’s hands off approach to anything Muslim, no matter how vile.

If pictures of these whacked out hate-filled psychos taking to the streets in government sponsored violence isn’t enough to shock the West into defending itself, the West deserves pretty much what it gets.

I don’t particularly care for any cartoon that attacks any religion, but the reaction to the Turban Bomb cartoons by Islamo-terror-fascists exposes them as the murdering uncontrollable mob of hypocrites that they are. For Allah’s sake, write a letter to the editor and cancel your subscription like civilized people do.

Totally different subject: What the hell was that song Aaron Neville sang before the Super Bowl? Does anyone else wish that “artists” would just sing the Star Spangled Banner the way it is written?

J. Rockhead's memo to himself on a program he was "in the dark" on

Here is a key quote from President Bush’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

“It is said that prior to the attacks of September the 11th, our government failed to connect the dots of the conspiracy. We now know that two of the hijackers in the United States placed telephone calls to al Qaeda operatives overseas. But we did not know about their plans until it was too late. So to prevent another attack –- based on authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute -- I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program to aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected al Qaeda operatives and affiliates to and from America. Previous Presidents have used the same constitutional authority I have, and federal courts have approved the use of that authority. Appropriate members of Congress have been kept informed. The terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America. If there are people inside our country who are talking with al Qaeda, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again.”

Unfortunately, the program that has helped to prevent further terrorist attacks has been severely damaged and thereby has damaged America’s security. Yesterday, CIA director Porter Goss said exactly that as he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. "The damage has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our mission… I use the words `very severe' intentionally. And I think the evidence will show that," Goss said. He asked that a federal grand jury be empanelled to determine "who is leaking this information."

Goss also noted that not only have the leaks made it difficult for the CIA to gather information on our Islamo-terror-fascists enemy, but they have also made foreign intelligence agencies mistrustful of our CIA. After all, if you cannot trust the spy guys to keep a national security secret, who can you trust?

Because the leaks caused "disruption to our plans, things that we have under way," Goss has “called in the FBI, the Department of Justice.” Goss said, “It is my aim and it is my hope that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present, being asked to reveal who is leaking this information." Hopefully, a few will opt for extended jail sentences.

DemoRATS were running for the tall grass, or is that switch grass? Senator J Rockhead (RAT WV) said, "The president has not only confirmed the existence of the program, he has spoken at length about it repeatedly," while keeping Congress in the dark, said the clueless WV dope.

Hey J, the president only talked about the program AFTER the propaganda arm of the DemoRAT Party and coincidently Islamo-terror-fascists (aka the MSM) exposed the program. How dumb are you anyway?

Next, the president only talked about the program to set the record straight from the distortions about it from nincompoops like, who, oh yeah, YOU. Idiotic “colossal jewels of glittering ignorance” (aka DemoRATS) continue to refer to the program as “domestic spying” - as if the feds are peering over old lady Johnson’s privacy fence to see what she’s growing in her garden. The program, Sen. Rockhead, is targeting international Islamo-terror-fascists.

Last, congress was briefed on the program. You, yourself, wrote a CYA memo on the subject. Given your suspect honesty, the memo was probably written only after the story broke. But given the collective mental acumen of politicians, I’ll give you a pass for claiming that you were never briefed on the program that you supposedly wrote a memo to yourself about. That sadly would be about par for dolts like you.

The good news is that there will be hearing that will expose caterwauling DemoRATS for what they are – a group of “patriotic” Americans more interested in the demise of GWB than the protection of their own country. Let’s vote.

A tax deductible contribution?

AF Bro sends:

A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on the highway. Nothing is moving. Suddenly a man knocks on the window.

The driver rolls down his window and asks, "What happened?"

"Terrorists have kidnapped Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry,Jesse Jackson, Al Gore and Al Sharpton. They are asking for a $10 million ransom. Otherwise they are going to douse them with gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, taking up a collection."

The driver asks, "How much is everyone giving, on average?"

"About a gallon."

A great contrast for the mid-terms

It was a pretty good speech. George W must have been looking at Lex’s page over the last couple of days. He spoke strongly and passionately about winning the war in Iraq. He correctly identified our enemy as “extreme Islamist”. He noted that we must be weaned from foreign oil.

However, the best part of the whole thing was watching the powerless DemoRATS sit on their hands during such great applause lines as:

“There is no peace in retreat.”
“Fellow citizens, we are in this fight to win, and we are winning!”
"Hindsight alone is not wisdom, and second-guessing is not a strategy."

The president noted that SSgt Dan Clay, a US Marine recently killed in Iraq, knew what honor was, something that has escaped John Murtha and host of other DemoRATS recently. What was Murtha doing during the extended applause for SSgt Clay’s wife and parents? Working the Times crossword? Booing? Practicing the specious argument that he supports the troops but not the mission?

The president offered his most clearly understood explanation of the NSA eavesdropping program to date. As he did so, the camera caught Shrillary sitting with a bucktoothed smile and, except for the jiggling jowls, looking reminiscent of fat Teddy as she shook her head “no” – the current response of DemoRATS for nearly every proposal. Apparently DemoRATS are all for not connecting the dots before the next attack on America.

As the president noted the four year economic expansion as a result tax cuts, the visual was unmistakable. The Republicans were cheering and hooting in the aisles. The DemoRATS sat looking like puny sourpusses wanting to throw an anchor overboard to slow a surging economy lest the president get some measure of credit and begging for a tax increase. After all who better to spend your hard earned money – you or DemoRATS?

Then there was the DemoRAT response. All negative. No solutions. Just a litany of how fouled up America and Americans are. Section 3, Article III of the US Constitution requires that the president, “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information on the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient”. I cannot put my finger on that part of the Constitution that states “equal time will be provided for an opposition response.” I’m glad they did it though. It was a great contrast between a party with forward looking ideas and one that has only one idea of its own, remain stagnant by opposing every other idea.

A strategic energy policy

If Bush wants a “we’ll put a man on the moon in the next ten years” moment in his State of the Union message tonight, I’ve got one. “We will reduce our dependence on foreign oil from 11 billion barrels a day to 2 billion barrels a day by 2016.” We need to get busy weaning ourselves off of oil. Since the oil embargo of the mid 70s, successive administrations, both Democrat and Republican, have failed to make serious efforts to get America away from its foreign oil dependence. While America has about 3% of know oil reserves, it continues as the world’s biggest energy hog using 25% of the entire world’s refined product.

Today as a result of America’s failure to enact a strategic energy policy we are paying nearly $70 a barrel for oil. When the inevitable confrontation with Iran (which sits on 10% of know reserves) comes, $70 will look like a bargain. But $70 a barrel isn’t the bad part. The bad part is that we are paying $70 a barrel to countries that are funding our enemies in our war on Islamo-terror-fascists. Essentially, we are funding both sides of the war. Saudi Arabia controls 25% of known oil reserves and gave birth to the radical Muslim Wahabbism that fills the ranks of the Islamo-terror-fascists that we are fighting today. Saudi Arabia continues to support radical Wahabbie mosques throughout the world with its petro-dollars. The enemy we will be fighting tomorrow is being educated in hate today every time we fill up at the pump.

Many will note that we don’t even buy much oil from the Middle East. That’s true, but the oil market is worldwide. As such, its cost is determined by worldwide demand. So it doesn’t matter if we buy from Russia, Saudi Arabia or use domestic crude, it’s the demand we create that drives the price higher and thereby enriches our enemies.

What the president should propose:

- Except for emergency power, an end to all oil fired electrical production, with clean coal and nuclear meeting all new demand and a 5 year sunset on current oil fired plants. This should be easy as we get only about 3% of our electrical power from oil fired plants.

- A robust domestic oil exploration and refining expansion. This is a stop gap national security measure NOT the long term goal. We should explore our own resources to reach a measure of energy independence while we purse the ultimate goal of new energy sources.

- Provide the big three auto makers with the R&D incentives required to skip a generation ahead in auto engine development. Alternative fuels already abound, ethanol, methanol, hybrid, electric, hydrogen etc. Provide American consumers and industry with the proper incentive and anything can be accomplished.

- Offer a huge incentive to American car companies that can sell 1,000,000 alternative fuel cars in the US in one year. This will require that car company’s efforts keep the consumer in mind. Just producing an under-powered shoebox won’t do, and is not the American way. We can make bigger and better and more fuel efficient cars when required or inspired to do so.

We have relied on the status quo because here to fore oil was $17-$25 a barrel. Now oil is $70 and the money we spend on it is being used to destroy us. It’s time America took a strategic energy policy seriously.

Hamas' failure to govern could lead to real peace

Hamas has won the recent Palestinian elections and the world is shocked. I can’t figure out why. Islamo-terror-fascists have been preaching hatred of Israel for decades and in no place more than in Palestine. So why are people shocked that the party that hates Israel the most won? Seems to me, if Fata wants to win the government back, all they have to do is be more stridently anti-Israel than Hamas.

But hating is easy, governing is difficult. I have often argued that until the west allows Israel to crush the Palestinians, there’s going to be trouble between them. With their support for a political party that advocates the destruction of their neighbor, the Palestinian people may have unwittingly set the west and the Israelis on that course.

Hamas is sure to find out that blowing up school children on a bus is easy compared to getting the trash picked up. A suicide bomber in a café is a piece of cake compared to getting the buses to run on time. Hamas is good at disrupting things, now they have to make things work. It’s easy to advocate the destruction of Israel to get a few votes. It’ll be difficult to renounce that thought to get the western support required to make Palestine a viable state.

When you’re out of power it’s easy to lob rockets into Israel to destabilize the peace process. When you’re the government, lobbing rockets into your neighbor’s country is considered an act of war. When the neighbor is Israel and you’re an Arab nation, it usually means a swift and decisive a$$whiping.

Nobody was hoping Hamas would win the Palestinian election. Now that they have, they will have to govern, something it seems they are ill equipped to do. When they fail, they will return to form and attack Israel. When they do that, Israel should be allowed and encouraged to administer a crushing and humiliating military action against Hamas that will clear the way for a real peace.

Force Alito vote by Tues

John, where the heck is Cambodia anyway, Kerry has made a strong Constitutional argument against the Senate confirming Sam Alito. The dower one intoned from Switzerland, "We can't afford to see the court's swing vote, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, replaced with a far-right ideologue like Samuel Alito." Hmm, I did a word search on Article III of the Constitution. The words swing and vote are no where to be found separately, let alone in conjunction with each other, neither are the terms black supreme court justice, conservative, liberal or mainstream.

The president appoints the Supreme Court judges, because he won a nationwide election. The Senate confirms them because, I suppose, the founders thought it to be something that would do no harm and make the Senate feel important – sort of like letting your little one open the junk mail. Well little did the founders know that the current crop of Senate bloviators would be using extra Constitutional standards by which to judge the judge - mainstream, swing vote, ultra-conservative, far-right ideologue etc.

Hey, I’m a far right ideologue. If Alito were a far-right ideologue, he would not have sat quietly and listened to half the crap senators were saying about him. He’d have blasted the worthless little pinheads with both barrels and wound up in contempt of Congress – given the low character of those serving that body – a difficult but honorable distinction for Alito to have earned.

But alas, Alito, ever the mainstream upright descent man that he is, just sat there like Gulliver and took the verbal abuse from the Lilliputians trying to tie him down. Hopefully Senate Majority leader Bill Frist will force a vote on Alito by Tuesday next week.

What is the main thing today?

One of the most important leadership tasks is to prioritize the focus of effort. If leaders don't identify the critical tasks, businesses, governments etc. will fail. After Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nimitz immediately recognized that naval warfare had changed. No longer were the battleships the critical element of the fleet. The aircraft carrier was the new king of naval battle.

In preparation for the Battle of Midway, while much of battleship row still lay underwater, Nimitz directed all necessary and available resources be dedicated around the clock to the repair of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, which had been severely damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Admiral Nimitz showed total disregard for established procedure in getting his third and last available carrier ready for battle—repairs continued even as Yorktown steamed toward Midway. Just three days after pulling into drydock at Pearl Harbor, the ship was again under steam.

Yorktown’s aircraft played an important part in catching the Japanese fleet by surprise on Jun 4th, 1942. Had it not been for Admiral Nimitz’ clear vision of what needed to be done and allocation of resources to make it happen, the Battle of Midway may not have gone our way.

I recall an unusual plaque on the desk of a colonel I used to work for. It said “Themainthingiskeepingthemainthingthemainthing.” Just like that. It would seem some of our leaders have forgotten the main thing. We are at war with Islamo-terror-fascists. Winning that war should be the main thing. Winning that war should be the first priority of our government and its leaders. Sadly, that is not the case today. It seems to me that a large portion of one of our major political parties is more interested in “getting Bush” than getting al Qaeda.

Whoda thunk it: A party line vote

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather, no easy task considering my considerable girth theses days. Imagine my surprise when I clicked onto the digital version of the Washington Times this morning and learned that Sam Alito was passed out of committee yesterday on a party line vote.

No, wait, Lex predicted the whole thing in the 11 January post. How can that be? If the Democrat playbook is so old, tired, transparent and predictable that a dope like Lex can figure it out, what kind of insight do you think a pro like Karl Rove has?

So Sam Alito and family went through the motions. They managed, for the most part, to sit quietly while people far less qualified, honorable, smart, or decent tried to drag them through the mud. Now after hours of…what…crap I guess is as good a word as any, we get the expected party line vote. What a colossal waste of time and taxpayer money. The DNC ought to be forced to reimburse the treasury for the cost of the hearings and what sounded like a non-stop infomercial fund raiser for the moonbat wing of the Democrat Party – which sadly seems to include everyone who opens his/her mouth in front of a camera these days.

Lex, Lex, what will happen next, my legion of loyal readers ask. Well, Democrats will lose red state senators and muster 40 votes against Alito. Magically, one vote short of the 41 scrawny Harry Reid needs to sustain a filibuster. This will allow the scrawny one to lament that he didn’t have the votes for a filibuster to stop Alito, thereby soothing the moonbat base.

Bony Harry Reid’s threat of a filibuster is a BB gun. The Republicans have a howitzer and all they are waiting for is a reason to point it at scrawny Harry and blow him away. Harry can pull his BB gun one time, and knows what will happen if he does. Scared Harry will bluster, “You better not do that. I have a BB gun.” Republicans will say, “Go ahead, make my day.” Harry’s BB gun will remain holstered.

Democrats: The party for felons

Democrats from Shrillery Clinton to the Maryland legislation have been trying to restore the voting rights of a natural constituency of theirs – felons. Maryland’s Democratic lawmakers, who have long pushed to restore voting rights to Maryland felons, say racial politics and election-year considerations make this the year they open the polls to every ex-convict. "This law seriously disenfranchises a large number of African-Americans," said Delegate Salima Siler Marriott, a black Baltimore Democrat who is gathering sponsors for a voting-rights restoration bill she plans to submit. "Their disenfranchisement impacts the power of African-Americans in this state," said Mrs. Marriott, whose bill would give all felons the vote immediately upon release from prison.

Well the first question that crosses my mind is why are they being disenfranchised – because they are black or because they committed a felony? If it is the latter, the felons have essentially disenfranchised themselves. As far as I know, there are no Jim Crow type poll taxes or literacy tests being administered today, so it must be the latter. To say otherwise is to indict the American judicial system a racist, which is sure to follow. The only problem with that argument is that the overwhelming majority of black crime is committed against other blacks. White on black crime is hate crime and the perpetrator needs to be locked up and the key thrown away. But black on black crime would, given the “hate crime” logic, be love crime and the criminal should have his voting rights restored.

The next question would be, if the loss of one’s voting rights is part of the current punishment for those committing felonies, would the Democrats advocate longer prison sentences for felons as a quid pro quo for voting rights restoration? I doubt it. A longer prison sentence might keep the rapist, armed robber or drug dealer in prison through an additional election cycle.

The last question is, if Democrats are willing to restore voting rights to felons, shouldn’t they also have their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms be restored as well? Well, propose that and watch Teddy choke on his hambone. So by this Democrat logic, an American citizen not trustworthy enough to exercise his Second Amendment rights is totally trustworthy to pick our local, state and national leadership.

While Democrats argue for felon voter rights, they argue against any type of voter ID as racist. But they require IDs to drive, rent a movie or car, buy a weapon etc. So Democrats are becoming the party of voter rights for felons and illegal aliens. Sadly, it’s not surprising.

Stopping Iran

Well Les’s readers know who the enemy is, even if our politicians refuse to see or at least admit in a public utterance. They are soulless, pitiless, compassionateless, characterless cretins who would snatch an innocent baby from its crib, hack its head off in front of al Jazeera and the baby’s mother and father before killing the entire family, all because the mother ran out to the curb to get the newspaper without a scarf covering her head and face.

We know who we are as well - a good people who, with the exception of the Mexican-American War, go to war only for the best of reasons, expect and take nothing in return for our sacrifice, and rebuild in better fashion that which we destroy . We, since the advent of TV and accompanying naysayers, have lacked the national will to see important yet costly military operations through to completion – Korea, Vietnam, Beirut, Somalia. Were would we be today had we demonstrated the will to succeed in these conflicts? Now we are beginning to teeter on Iraq. All of our enemies seem to know us better than we know ourselves. America it seems, irrespective of what’s at stake, will lose its political will when things begin to get tough.

So now state sponsor of Islamo-terror-fascism, Iran, is about to acquire a nuclear device. America is tired of seeing the steady drip, drip, drip of bad news that our MSM seems to specialize in and is ready to withdrawal inside itself - seeking the false security of isolationism.

This is the exact wrong instinct. Fortunately George W. knows it. Democrats would rather seek a political advantage than support this president in what would be his third military victory. They are trying to scare America away from a hard fought victory in a neighboring country that will serve as a strategic jumping-off point for what sensible know is the inevitable dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program through military force.

To fail to take action against Iran would be one of the biggest blunders in the history of the world. To allow the enemy described in the fist paragraph to have nuclear weapons will cost us 100 fold tomorrow that which it will costs us to prevent it today.

Know yourself

Yesterday Lex addressed Sun Tzu’s advice to generals to “know your enemy”. Knowing your enemy is important, but is only half of the equation of laying a solid foundation for military success. Generals, leaders and nations must also “know themselves”. Sun Tzu’s entire quote on the subject reads, “If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”

Well I think it’s pretty clear that, if we do know our enemy, we refuse to call him by name. But how well do we know ourselves? Most people know that Americans, irrespective of the stakes, tire of war and the necessary casualties associated with it rather quickly. That’s why the Soviets were not confronted at the end of WWII. That’s why Korea ended in a stalemate, and Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia in losses. Given the political will, it would have been relatively easy to crush our enemy each time. We lacked the will.

If we knew ourselves, we’d know that America doesn’t lose wars. Politicians quit them. We should know going in that our MSM media will do everything in its power insure an American defeat, particularly if there happens to be a Republican president. We should know that the casualty clock, as well as the time clock are ticking from the time the first bomb falls. We weren’t two weeks into the Afghan war when the NY Times declared it a quagmire. We are now more than two years into the Iraq struggle and after ignoring every possible success story in favor of a steady beat of defeatism, our MSM have turned the tide of public opinion in favor of once again quitting.

Well, if we don’t know ourselves, the enemy surely does. He knows it’s a fool’s errand to confront the American military. Every American enemy knows that our strategic center of gravity is not to be found on the battlefield but rather in halls of congress. Our enemies target useful idiots like John, the good and honorable, Murtha knowing their propaganda arm, aka the American MSM, will make Murtha a hero once he turns against the best interests of his own country.

It seems the ITF have scored a double victory. Not only have many Americans turned away from the necessity of confronting ITF, but the opposition party and the MSM have actually declared President Bush “the enemy”. We need to know the enemy. Equally important is knowing ourselves so that we can avoid traveling the same road to defeat over and over. Sadly, our politicians are again leading us down that road.

Know your enemy

I think that President Bush is hitting mark about 75% of the time. One of the things that I think he has swung at and missed several times is clearly defining the global war on Islamo-terror-fascism (ITF). The administration, MSM and many others refer to the war as the Global War on Terror. This is a key mistake in our struggle. Chinese Military Strategist and the Author of ''Art of War'' Sun Tzu advised generals to “know your enemy”.

Our enemy in today’s struggle is not terror any more than the enemy in WWI was trench warfare or the blitzkrieg in WWII. Some may say, “Lex you’re slicing it too thin. We all know what the president means.” Well I don’t think so. Terror, like trench warfare or the blitzkrieg is a tactic. The people employing the tactic and their ideology are the enemy.

When our leadership continually refers to our enemy by their tactics, in this case terror, terror takes the rap and ITF gets a pass. Like the Nazis, the ITF have a clear strategic goal; bring about a powerful Muslim caliphate in the Middle East from which to threaten and dominate the rest of the world.

If the average American understood what was at stake in the region and who the enemy was, the president’s support for the Iraq war would include everyone but the far left moonbats. Were our war on ITF understood by a majority of the American people, they’d be in the streets demanding something be done about the Iranian madman who also happens to be president of that country, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, before he gets nukes.

What to do? Well first off, if we are to take Sun Tzu’s advise, we should stop referring to it as the Global War on Terror. FDR didn’t refer to defeating the blitzkrieg in his fireside chats. FDR clearly defined the enemy as German Nazism, Italian and Japanese fascism. If we are to know our enemy, we should call him by his name. As hard as it may be for the president to associate one of the world’s great religions, practiced by a billion believers, with our struggle for survival, it must be done clearly and consistently - for our sake and the sake of that religion.

Teddy hoots with the owls

This is too good. It turns out that the Democrats’ great protector of women – at least women who aren’t drowning in the backseat of his car or being sexually assaulted by his nephew while he watches with his pants around his ankles– Teddy, anybody seen my neck brace, Kennedy belonged to an all white, all male Harvard social society. You know like the one Kennedy blabbered on and on about during the Alito hearings. It's called the Owl Club. You just can’t make this stuff up. When I was in Future Farmers of America, the advisor, irrespective of his actual mental acumen, sat behind an owl as a symbol of wisdom. In this case, given blubber jowls Teddy’s membership, I suspect the Owl Club was more dedicated to drinking all night than any mental activities.

Kennedy has belonged to the club for 50 years. When asked about it, Teddy, backstroke, Kennedy said he was resigning from the club as quickly as possible. 50 years? As quickly as possible? What an absolute creep. Teddy, his royal pant load, Kennedy grilling Alito on ethics is like Ted Bundy grilling the Pope on murder. For some, unknown, unexplainable, unfathomable, incomprehensible reason Democrats don’t get the irony of having Teddy, in the likely event that I drive off a bridge into a tidal pool in a drunken stupor, there’s a floatation device under your seat, Kennedy questioning anyone on any subject other than where to go for happy hour.

Saint Kennedy droned on and on and on and on about Alito’s tangential membership in a Princeton club dedicated to maintaining high admission standards and ROTC at the prestigious college as if Alito were a former KKK Kleagal. You know like Democrat hero Bobby Byrd. All the while it was himself, Teddy the corpulent, who had maintained a long standing and current membership in the exact kind of club for which he was condemning Alito. If it weren’t nearly as funny as Teddy, the clueless, Kennedy naming his dog “Splash”, it’d be an outrage. OK, Kennedy’s an idiot. He’s compartmentalized his worthless criminal life and doesn’t think much about the all the creepy stuff. But for crying out loud isn’t there someone on the Democrat side that will say, “Look Teddy, you ask Alito about the party life at Princeton. Let someone else ask him about ethics.”

Rev. Nagin: God mad

Gangsta’ Mayor Ray Nagin said Monday, "Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country". America destroyed? Surely I’d have read about it. No Ray, if God had intended to destroy America, it wouldn’t be there any more. If God had intended to destroy America, He’d not have sent a hurricane lumbering along at 12 miles an hour with two weeks notice for people with brains to get out of the way.

Hey Ray, maybe God is mad at you. Maybe He just wanted to destroy the New Orleans mayor for incompetence. Either that or it’s just nature taking the course it has taken from the beginning of time.

Al Gore, Al Qaeda what's the difference?

In a speech yesterday, Al Gore blasted President Bush for eavesdropping on foreign terrorist. Only he didn’t put it that way, of course. Big Al wanted the negative spin so he said, “Americans awoke to the shocking news that in spite of this long settled law, the Executive Branch has been secretly spying on large numbers of Americans for the last four years and eavesdropping on ‘large volumes of telephone calls, e-mail messages, and other Internet traffic inside the United States.’”

Hey Al, first off, it’d only been shocking if we weren’t listening in. And the only "long settled law" is the law of self defence. Next, “secretly spying”? What other kind is there? Last, if you and other DemoRATS are worried about being caught, get caller ID. If your buddies from Al Qaeda call, just let the machine get it.

The president is not eavesdropping on Americans. He’s eavesdropping on Al Qaeda. If Al Qaeda calls a contact in America, or vice versa, most of us would want our government to know about that. You know like, “Mustafa? Hamad here. How ya doing you ol’ bug-eyed, toothless, trailer dwelling, camel herder? Listen Moosty, that thing about a Beslan type attack on the Whinne the Phoo daycare center is a go dude. Yeah, the big guy approved it last week at the Golden Globes. Hey tomorrow. The sooner the better. No, don’t worry about that. Nobody listens in on the phone lines in America. Our friends the Democrats took care of that. Just get ready for tomorrow. I can’t wait for Al Gore to skewer Bush for not connecting the dots on this one.”

And yet they think they are fit to lead.

And it's called "teaching"

Here’s an odd one. A high school teacher at Cleveland’s Brooklyn High assigned his students a research project on Internet pornography. Darn! I must have been absent the day they handed out the porn assignment at my high school. This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “born too late.” When I was in high school, research consisted of three steps 1) copy a few pages out of the World Book Encyclopedia 2) change happy to glad and 3) hand it in. Now a days not only do high school kids have Internet access to copy from, they get to get to use all of that technology to look up porn. Cool!

But alas, the grown ups found out and ruined the party. So the nutty teacher got canned, right? Well no, according to Superintendent Jeff Lampert, the teacher's apparent noble goal was to discuss the harmful effects of pornography, so it was well-intentioned which in today’s world makes it fine and dandy.

What’s next? I got it! Next week’s assignment for students is two fold. The kids will be asked to venture into the deep recesses of inner city Cleveland to make a crack cocaine buy from a person of color (It’s African-American month). They are then expected to stiff the dealer and volunteer to pay off the drugs by selling them at Brooklyn High. I can hear the teacher now, “OK, the porn was just my personal thing. But this drug thing is different. We want students to experience and empathize with the inner city gang drug life.” Superintendent Lampert, who doubted that the teacher would face any punishment for the porn assignment, no doubt will opine, “as long as the kids don’t get high on school property, it’s out of my hands.” Of course all of this is being done while the majority of Brooklyn High students have trouble getting through a Dick and Jane book, and when handed a dollar bill, can’t make change for a 50 cent coke unless the computer figures it for them.

Hint to Jeff Lampert and the Brooklyn School board: The best case is that you have a teacher with colossally poor judgment. The worst case is that you some kind of dangerous pervert in the midst of your student population. In either case, you have a problem that you might want to do something about.

Alito, Murtha, Iran

Alito
OK, it appears barring a sex scandal or finding out that Sam Alito is scheduled for the next “Dancing with the stars”, he will be confirmed. Dems were so concerned with Alito’s nomination that, with the exception Diane Feinstein, they played hooky from the hearings when cable and network TV moved on to the next big story - which was non-stop coverage of Brad Pitt and that chick having a baby. Diane Feinstein asked the woman why she was pregnant. It was because Sam Alito had denied her an abortion, wasn’t it?

Murtha
When the Army missed its recruiting goal one month last year, it was non-stop front page news. Now that the Army has reached its goal for 7 months in row, even after the good and honorable Murtha went about sabotaging military recruitment, it’s a non-story. Discouraged by the recruiting news, John, the good and honorable, Murtha recorded a public service announcement discouraging young people from serving their country while George Bush was President. “If you can’t wait until Hillary is elected in ’08, at least wait until DemoRATS regain control of the house in November” Murtha urged America’s youth. Murtha went on to note, “Better America be destroyed on George Bush’s watch than have young Americans protecting the nation, serving honorably and with distinction under this man.” Murtha ended the ad by telling his critics he would not stand for them questioning his patriotism. Bush hailed Murtha as "a good and honorable man who happens to be wrong".

Iran
Aside from Brad and Angie’s baby, the next big thing is Iran. In words that had Iranian President Allahbeadumba$$ wetting himself, President Bush told an audience last week that Iran had made a serious miscalculation in restarting its nuclear program. Iran immediately after Bush’s remarks ran to Kofi Annan and begged, “Let’s talk, at least until we a get a bomb or two.” Listening to the talking heads is a bit confusing. Some things that don’t make sense to me:

Because we have ~130,000 troops in Iraq, we don’t have enough forces to take on Iran. Idiocy! Iran, at 1.65 million square miles of rugged and forbidding territory, is larger than the state of Alaska. I don’t think any reasonable military option would include occupying the country. If it did, the 130,000 troops in Iraq would be inconsequential to the task, a rounding error in the total number required. Any confrontation with Iran would rely heavily on asymmetric warfare much of which the talking heads know little of nothing about.

The UN will have to be in lead. I’m still laughing hysterically about that one. The fact that UN and lead are uttered in the same breath is funny enough, but to think it’s in regard to reigning in a Jew hating, American hating lunatic is too much. The UN will elect Iran to sit on the next Human Rights Commission. Last, we can count on Russian and China to torpedo any Security Council efforts.

The EU should take the lead. And do what? If Jesus Christ Himself showed up at the next meeting of the EU and ordered them to take action, they’d have to pray for the EU unity, political and public will as well as the men and materiel to get the job done. With the exception of the Brits, the EU lacks the moral and political will required for confronting tyrants. It has none of the martial spirit and little of the basic military capabilities required to take on a Boy Band let alone Iran.

Sadly, this task, like all nasty world tasks, will fall to Mr. & Mrs. America. Of today’s posturing pols, it seems to me GWB is the only one that has what it will take to get it done.

Ted Kennedy: Dems' moral beacon

It couldda been funnier but only by a little bit. I was busy with scouts and a wood project yesterday, so I only caught a bit of the hearings. I did see Senator Teddy, I could have been president if Mary Jo had just figured out how to get out of that damned car, Kennedy badgering Alito on why he didn’t recuse himself in the Vanguard case after telling fat Teddy he would. Alito explained that he’d gone far beyond the ethical standards and besides Alito only promised dead head Ted to recuse himself during the “initial” period of service. The Vanguard case came up 12 years into Alito’s service.

So Ted dawned his swim mask and snorkel and went after Alito with the kind of tenacity that, had it been present at Chappaquiddick the night he drove off the bridge in a drunken stupor, might have saved young Mary Jo. “What is the initial period of service judge, X years (XX months)?” Fill in any possible combination of years and months, because shouting with all of the grace of Vince McMahon at a WWE Smackdown event, Teddy, I should have only had one bottle of scotch, Kennedy tried them all. Come on senator, I mean after all, nobody drowned in all of this. Alito’s never got flustered. He quietly maintained the reasonable position that whatever the “initial period” was, it expired long before the 12 year mark.

Ignoring my college speech teachers who warned against the cheesy practice of using, “the dictionary defines xxxx as follows”, American Heritage dictionary defines “initial” as follows: "Of, relating to, or occurring at the beginning; first: took the initial step toward peace." I suppose if you’re discussing, the history of the world, evolution, Islamic terrorism against the west, the 300 Year’s War or the Bengals’ drive for a Superbowl Championship, 12 years might constitute the initial period. For just about everything that touches our daily lives, the “initial period” has about the same half life as a gallon of milk. Ted, if I’d only taken the convertible I’d be president, Kennedy looked like a dope. In other words, he was totally in character.

Dems: Making the simple difficult

Some things are simple. A child’s birthday party is a success if there is plenty of cake and ice cream and a few games. Parents complicate it by turning what should be 45 minutes of non-stop fun into a 2 ½ hour theme party with clowns, magicians, bounce houses and goodie bags. I’ve never understood the goodie bag thing. Modern parents know that when you invite ten kids to a party you are responsible to provide each with $10 worth the crap that, except for the candy, will be thrown out the minute they get home. The few parties I went to as a kid, I brought the present and left with a belly full of cake and ice cream and a hardy “thank you”.

Now a days, a 9 year old’s birthday party requires weeks of planning, ordering supplies on-line, a special room, entertainment and a couple hundred bucks. The party is scheduled out like a NASA launch, 12:00: This will be our gathering activity. 12:30: Color some tropical scenes that we can paste on the wall for our “Day at the beach” theme. 1:00: Move on to the arts and crafts table to construct a sand castle. 1:30 Clown arrives… Even at that, there is no guarantee little Johnny will have a good time. One party I went to the guest of honor spent most of the time in the kitchen crying about this or that. The rather belabored point is that it ought to simple. But now Johnny’s party has to be bigger, with a better goodie bag than Billy’s.

Well the senate hearings on Supreme Court nominations ought to be simple (Beautiful transition to the actual point of this piece, don’t you think?). Judge XXX, are you going to overturn Roe? Sorry, I can’t answer that question. Party line vote. It should last about 15 minutes. But give a bunch of posturing, posing, pusillanimous, pinheads, like Slow Joe Biden, 30 minutes to talk and they will talk with little regard as to what they are saying.

My take:
- Watching Slow Joe yesterday, I wondered to myself, will the state of Delaware ever tire of having a Senator that knows he’s the dumbest guy in any room that he happens to stumble into?
- Ted, I’m qualified to challenge this man’s integrity because I’ve only let one woman drown in the backseat of my car, Kennedy sounded as if he was coming back from 8 martini lunch.
- Diane Feinstein made it sound as if the only thing that really matters in this world is woman’s unrestricted right to pull an 8 month old fetus from her womb and have its brains sucked out.
- Russ, what First Amendment, Feingold sounded like a petty, mean spirited little twit – but then that is totally in character.
- Chucky, is the camera on, Schumer foolishly tried to equate abortion with free speech. Then he couldn’t understand or accept Alito’s assertion that they are fundamentally different because the right to free speech is (was until McCain Feingold) clearly enumerated in the First Amendment. There is no specific right to an abortion mentioned in the Constitution. Chuck looked like the RCA dog trying to figure it all out.
- Alito was, as predicted, clearly the smartest guy in the room.

Next prediction: As Alito makes the Dems look dumber and dumber, –aka exposing them for what they are – expect networks to bump out of the hearings as a face saving measure for their party.

Dems insecurity and Alito

Dems on security (a non-secquitur if ever there was one)

If Dems ran Washington, the TV show “24” would have to re-titled “15 Minutes” because, that’s how long it would take terrorists to succeed in their plots. Dems are fond of saying that they are great patriots - that they can be trusted with nation’s security. The only problem is that when given a chance to demonstrate their commitment to that security they ALWAYS come down on the side of the terrorists.

Congress ought to pass a law that politicians have to give equal time to America’s enemies. Read that again. It’s not a mistake. So, when Teddy, have you seen my diving mask and swim flippers, Kennedy goes to the senate floor to blast the President of the United States, he’d have to spend at least as much time blasting Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden. When Howard, if it weren’t for my bad back…, Dean says we can’t win in Iraq, he’d at least have to say that the enemy deserves to be defeated. When John, the good and honorable, Murtha weeps like a baby to discourage young American’s from joining our armed forces, he’d at have to say at the least America needs to have an army.

Now, using anonymous sources, a low-life working for the NY Times has gone about publishing stories about secret CIA programs to catch terrorists. Predictably, Dems are up in arms that the president would go about using his constitutional powers to protect America. Author Risen for his part calls the treasonous dolts who released state secrets during a time of war heroes, because they are protecting our rights. That is an ends justify the means argument. Yes, the exact same kind of argument that Dems, in fits of moral superiority, here-to-fore condemned.

This is the bizzaro world of Dems. They say they are fit to protect the nation’s security, but their heroes are the people that are exposing state secrets, trashing America’s President, discouraging Americans from serving in the armed forces and giving aid and comfort to the enemy.


Alito Hearings

In the post below, Lex finds humor in the fact that, on the one hand, Dems will say the most outrageous things about Sam Alito, while on the other try to maintain the appearance of objectivity. “Yes, yes, we all know that Judge Alito is the worst judge, nay human being in the history of the world, but I’m maintaining an open mind about his confirmation.” BULLEXCERMENT! They have made their determination before the gavel fell to open yesterday’s hearings.

Now the Chucky Schumer wing of the Dem Party is threatening a filibuster. Great! This threat has all of the consequences of Lex jr. saying, “Tell me to quiet down! Fine, I’ll never talk again.” Now, no matter how much we'd all like for him to follow through with the threat, we all know it's impossible. Dems won’t be able to get 40 votes from their own party. Red state Dems, including Bobby, name the bridge after me, Byrd, have already indicated that Alito deserves an up or down vote. So even if the usual bunch of RepubiRATS jump ship, Chucky lacks the votes. Knowing they can only pull the trigger on this once will keep the filibuster in the bag.

Let the wheels of justice spin

Watching Chuck Schumer try to explain how Sam Alito can be considered “well qualified” by the ABA, a mark Schumer here-to-fore referred to as the “gold standard”, and in the same breath say Alito’s out of the mainstream, is pretty amusing. But that is not nearly as amusing as hearing him and other Dems, Feinstein, Kennedy, Leahy etc. lambaste Alito as out of the mainstream, no friend to women and minorities, hostile to labor and then say that they haven’t made up their mind yet about Alito serving on the Supreme Court.

Sort of like, “Well, we all know that Sam Alito would have women seeking back alley abortions. He’d be happy to see blacks returned to the back of the bus or worse the plantation. He supports big business more than Sam Walton, Henry Ford and Phil Connor (the foreman in Packingtown from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle) combined. But I don’t know how I’m going to vote.” Hmm, if you really believe all that, but you say you don’t know how you’re going to vote, you’re an idiot or a liar.

The hearings should be even more amusing as Joe, the plagiarizer, Biden and Teddy, but I’ve only drown one woman in the backseat of my car, Kennedy quiz Alito on ethics and integrity. The funniest part is that they don’t even see the irony. Also sure to be amusing is the fact that Alito, by a rather large margin, will be the smartest guy in the room. When it’s Biden and Kennedy’s turn ask questions, look for long pointless speeches and few questions. If they do have the guts to ask questions, it’s going to have all of the drama and comedy value of the dopey Vinnie Barbarino asking Mr. Kotter, “Why ain’t phone spelled with no f?”

It’d be all down hill from there.

Alito: Well Mr. Biden the word phone is spelled without an “f”.

Biden: Huh, I know’d dat. The questions I’m axing is why ain’t it spelled with no f-in “f”.

Alito: Well, yes of course. You’ve used a double negative, which might be interpreted as a positive. Such as, “Why isn’t the word phone spelled without an f?” The answer to which is, phone is spelled without an F.

Biden: You’re just showin off now. Look, the word phone don’t have no “f”. How come? Isn’t this just a sleazy Republican trick to confuse poor blacks, labor guys and women?

Alito: Ahh yes. Well I believe it goes back to second grade phonics...

Biden interrupts: Look judge you just said phonics. That starts with an “f”, right? Now all I’m axing is, why don’t phone start with no “f”?

Biden’s time will expire and he’ll claim Alito never answered his question.

Abramoff McCain's baby

Jack Abramoff, by all accounts, is a scoundrel, and he is proof positive John, the anointed one, McCain is not fit to be president. Why? Well, McCain created Abramoff. Were it not for John, damn I’m good, McCain’s attack on the First Amendment, aka campaign finance reform, Abramoff would have been just another K Street lawyer cheating his law firm. But because John, Hardball, McCain thinks he and other politicians are too corrupt to be trusted campaign money, people gave to Abramoff who gave to crooked politicians.

Campaign finance reform was a total disaster. Because John, yes I was one of Keating Five, McCain got caught cheating he figured, “Since I’m so good and still got caught up in the Cheating I mean Keating Five, every politician, nay every American, must be a dishonest dolt as well. After all if I got caught, how could any other American be honest?” So John, get me on Meet the Press, McCain came up with campaign finance reform. That’s sort of like Al Copone rewriting tax law.

Well what were the results of John, play that sound bite of me again, McCain’s work? Was money taken out of politics? No. There was more unregulated money used by more irresponsible groups than ever in the 2004 election. Nice work John. McCain’s lunacy had the unintended consequence of launching what are called the 527s. Brilliant John. Now instead of giving money to the regulated political parties, whakos like George Soros just become an exempt unregulated political organization themselves. You’da thought John, who’s crooked as an 8 year old boy’s path to bed on Saturday night, would have been humiliated enough by Keating to just shut the hell up. But that’s not how politicians work. Get caught robbing a bank, demand banking reform! Get caught speeding, investigate the police! Get caught taking money from scum like the ChiComs (Clinton), Keating (McCain), Abramoff (who knows), don’t apologize or better yet resign, demand campaign finance reform.

One of the fall outs from McCain, Keating, House Banking, AbScam scandals was a drive for term limits. I’ve never been a fan of that. Why should an honest guy doing a good job for the country and his voters be penalized because John, I can’t help myself, McCain is a crook? Besides we have term limits, they are called elections. And these scandals in and of themselves act a as a sort of term limit. Too bad it didn’t work in Arizona.

Real campaign finance reform:
1. Any American registered voter can give as much money to the candidate(s) of his choice as he chooses.
2. Candidates must make public all campaign contributions within 48 hours.
Too simple? Well get a team of lawyers and politicians to write the exact same policy and it'll be 150 unreadable pages by noon.

A note to MSNBC

What follows is a note to MSNBC, after watching their coverage of the mine miracle this morning. Just change the name and the MSM organization and it can be sent to whomever you are reading or watching.

Your slightly over-weight and continuously hoarse Live & Direct host hasn't appeared to be such a dope since she announced live and on air that Al Gore had gotten relief from the Supreme Court during the 2000 recount - that just happened to be 180 out from what the Supreme Court actually decided. Having learned nothing from that experience, Cosby blabbed on and on yesterday about a miracle. Who was her source? Who did she follow up with? Did she ever offer a cautionary note that she, as an on scene reporter, had not gone to the trouble to talk to ANYONE in an official capacity about the story?

If the families of the dead and injured miner(s) are going to sue the company for providing them with bad information, the nation ought to sue Rita Cosby and the rest of the MSM lemmings who botched this story worse than they did the one in New Orleans. It seem that on scene reporters are more into on-air emoting these days than getting to the bottom of any story they happen to be covering.

These on-scene reporters have no credibility and should be pulled immediately. This incident is one more nail in the coffin - and only a few remain - of a MSM more interested in being first than being correct. The MSM is quickly degenerating into a high-tech equivalent of the bathroom wall at a bus station.

Initial reports are almost always wrong

Stuttgart is six hours ahead of the east coast of the US. So, we were getting the false news about the coal miners just as Lex jr. was heading off to school. I was going to run with “Miracle” as the head for the daily blog. I thought better of it. Something wasn’t right. Marines have two types of casualty reports. The first is sent immediately and is nearly always inaccurate. It tells HQ that a unit has casualties. The initial report allows HQ to begin preparations. The second is not sent until its accuracy is confirmed by unit leadership. The second report confirms the number, names, and injuries of the casualties. This morning watching CNN, I had a feeling I was getting an initial report. There was no sight of the survivors. There was only one ambulance to leave the scene. Things were not what they seemed. So, I went with the NSA/ Murtha bit below until things could sort themselves out.

Well things have sorted themselves out and not for the good. Now CNN and other MSM outlets are in a tizzy because they ran with the initial rumor (can’t be called a report because no MSM outlet has yet told us who told them) for three hours before asking the questions that Lex was asking himself. CNN’s Anderson Cooper and other on-scene journalist who ran with the wild rumor should be fired. It’s their job to figure this stuff out.

To this moment I have not heard one person on CNN ask themselves, who was our source? Who was the second source? Who did we try to follow up with? Why did we run with this? Now Anderson and the rest of the MSM dopes sound sort of like Jim Carey in Mask “Why didn’t somebody stop me!” Well Anderson it’s your job to get to the bottom of the story before blasting it out over the air for three hours.

Oh, by the way, one man is alive and that’s a miracle.

NSA "scandal"/John the good and honorable

NSA “spy scandal”
The only scandal in this scandal is that someone within our own government would engage in the treason necessary to expose a secret program. Whoever that someone is, they should be prosecuted. As for the punishment of the treasonous bastard, if guilty, consider that on July 12, 1798 President John Adams appointed William Ward Burrows as the second Major Commandant of the Marine Corps. In a missive to Washington Commandant Burrows is purported to have written, “We have just caught a deserter and after shaving his head, have had 200 lashes well laid on, but until we can shoot one or two we will continue to be plagued by this behaviour.” I’d settle for a head shaving and 200 lashes “well laid on”. But I think the bastard should be hung a day or so after the humiliation and pain have sunk in.

The brain-dead media continue to refer to the “scandal” as “domestic spying”. It isn’t. The NSA has a list of telephone numbers of suspected terrorists located outside of the US. The conversations conducted on those lines are being monitored. The fact that those lines are used to conduct business with the fifth column located within the US is a happenstance of good fortune not a crime. The only way this pathetic story gets any traction what-so-ever is by calling it “domestic spying” which it isn’t.

John Murtha
He said in a Nightline interview he wouldn’t join the military today. Of course that makes him a great patriot, right? Or would a true patriot have said something along the line of, service to one's country is always a noble thing. The follow up should have been, "John whatever you once were, you talk like a coward now. You're 50 pounds overweight. Who the hell would want you?" Besides it seems he’s already got gig shilling for the terrorists.

When the dopey interviewer asked him if Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq might have been different had Bush seen combat, instead of taking the high road by rejecting the premise of the question, Murtha the good, in his self-serving fashion of late, lapped it up. “It (combat) sears your soul” Murtha wept. Well, Mr. Murtha your soul had been “seared”, but when it came time for the congress to decide on the Iraq war, YOU supported it!

Were he not such a self-serving cretin, he might have noted to the “reporter” that Article II of our Constitution has no requirement whatever for military service let alone combat service for the Commander in Chief. He might have reminded the reporter that Americans, by a 4 million vote margin, preferred George Bush’s modest military record over John Kerry’s manufactured one. He might have said non-combat vet Bill Clinton went about bombing innocents whenever his political situation required. Non-combat vet FDR was the NY blueblood who ran WWII from a wheelchair. Non-combat vet Woodrow Wilson was the high-browed intellectual afflicted with a stroke who led the US through WWI. He might have asked the clueless reporter if he was advocating a military dictatorship.

Like Benedict Arnold, Murtha once served this nation with honor. Like Benedict Arnold, Murtha got his feelings hurt because he didn’t get enough attention from the government he purportedly served. Like Benedict Arnold Murtha turned on that government. I ask Murtha the same question that I ask my friends who tell me calling him a treasonous coward is too harsh, “Well, what would he be doing differently to undermine America’s war effort if he were?”

Let the hearings begin

Well, it’s a new year and the clueless Dems are running full speed at a brick wall with several long sharp objects protruding from it at eye level. Howie Dean, the merry band of buffoons running the DNC, and what passes for Dem leadership are all in a snit because George W. had the audacity to listen in on known al Qaeda international terrorists, even when they were talking to people located in America. The nerve! I for one would be more interested in international al Qaeda calls to within America than say, Saudi Arabia where the terrorists are probably calling to wish the principal at their old Madras a blessed Eid al Fitter.

Dems, never missing an opportunity to stick their collective foots in their mouths, are calling for congressional hearings. Aside from further splitting their all ready fractured party, what do they possibly hope to gain? What is any Dem who wants to be president going to say? “While we know that these are powers are fully within the bounds of our constitution, they should be reserved for when I am president.” Or, “Tracking down and killing terrorists who would destroy America does not rise to level of importance of either torture or international eavesdropping of terrorists making calls to within the US.” The moonbat wing nut fringe of the Dem party, aka “the base”, will see this as the final nail in George W’s coffin, and call the idea of collecting intelligence on terrorists unconstitutional.

Ted Kennedy et al will try to convince Americans that NSA eavesdropping on terrorists is a bigger crime than 19 Islamo-terror-fascist wakos flying airplanes into our treasured national monuments. Democrat presidential candidates will be “concerned”. George W will stick to his guns and by mid February Dems will again be wondering how they got their tails kicked by someone as dumb as George Bush.

The Griffn, as always, puts this issue into terms that we can all understand, “Big brother has an obligation to properly use or disregard sensitive information. Funny thing is I will send my tax money to the government, drive the highways the gov't builds at 80 mph, allow the gov't to control thousands of WMD' s, and approve drugs that I give to my children, but get spastic because they may have heard me call home to see what kind of pizza my girls want?” The Griffin sends.