2 Legitimate, Bi-partisan Thoughts

I say bi-partisan for these thoughts because my liberal friends actually agree with me on them. PLUS the reasoning behind them is bi-partisan, even if the reaction arises to blow them off rises from partisan emotions. They are:

1. Obama's initial Fort Hood remarks after the tragedy.
2. Obama's reluctance to trust General McChrystal in Afghanistan.

About point one. On a day of great national tragedy, when Americans are able to look to their President without the partisan spectacles they often have, they seek to hear words of reassurance and comfort. Sure, you can usually predict what those words will be, but you want to hear them nonetheless. So, when Obama's moment comes and network television is interrupted to bring us the breaking address of comfort and mourning, Obama begins to address the nation about....huh? Wait, wasn't there a tragedy? He starts speaking in a broken and uneloquent manner about the treatment of Native Americans? Not to mention an impromptu, casual, and even light-hearted shout out to an audience member. And then after OVER two minutes, he segues into his address on the tragedy mid-sentence while talking about something else! The massacre at Fort Hood didn't even warrant it's own introductory sentence. Can you imagine if FDR had given a shout out to a Senator before uttering that December 7 was a date that would live in infamy? What if Reagan had thrown in a few remarks about our freeway infrastructure before proceeding to address the nation about the Challenger tragedy? Or President Bush grabbing the blowhorn at Ground Zero and hitting up Social Security for a few good comments before declaring that the whole world would hear our resolve. Not only that, but despite the fact that we already knew that the shooter, a Muslim, was shouting "Allah Akbar" while shooting, Obama had the tenacity to tell us to "refrain from judgment," somehow implying that this wasn't an act of terrorism. Okay, well, anybody remember his remarks of July 22 in regard to the arrest of the black professor? Obama had no problem rushing to a judgment later proved completely inaccurate and wrong when he said that the police officers acted "stupidly" when they "had evidence indicating the individual was the home owner." Obama didn't have that evidence, he rushed to judgment, and when his blatant brashness was discovered he was given a "get out of jail free" card by the media who refused to call him on it.

Point two. Bailouts and health care are apparently crisis legislation that have to be rushed to votes so fast that nobody even has time to read them, literally. Votes are demanded not days, but mere hours after the bills are written. I guess Obama forgot his campaign promise of "transparency" in allowing the people 5 days to examine any bill our supposed representatives will be passing. So we know he's prone to quick action and decision in critical situations. Or is he? I guess our troops in Afghanistan aren't critical enough. He's acting as if he's making the decision to start the war--a decision that would rightly demand much thoughtful deliberation over some time. He is not, however, starting this war. It began 8 years ago and our troops have been fighting it actively ever since. This should be a simple decision--your combat commander is telling you what he needs to protect the troops already in harms way as well as what he needs to complete the objectives of the war. Yet what does Obama do? Sit on it. Not only that, but his indecision came during, literally, the bloodiest month of the entire 8 year conflict. More American troops died than any other month while Obama couldn't decide whether to do what their commander knew needed to be done for their protection. Out of 96 combat months in Afghanistan, October was the bloodiest for American troops. And yet he still hasn't reached a decision! Is he vacillating on whether the cause is still worth sending more troops? Have the ones who have already given the ultimate sacrifice done so in vain? If the cause isn't worth more sacrifice, it shouldn't have been worth any to begin with. Obama sends a clear message that health care demands more urgent action than our troops. How do the troops in the field feel--knowing their combat commander, General McChrystal, went to the commander-in-chief to ask for reinforcements that still haven't come? How do they feel on the front lines waiting for relief, looking over their shoulders hoping for support that isn't coming, week after week? Does Obama really think General McChrystal is so incompetent that Obama can't trust him when he asks for more troops? No, Obama needs to consult with his own war council, completely void of any actual representative from the entire operation going on in Afghanistan. Obama needs his Washington bureaucracy to determine the legitimacy of what the man actually in the field of combat is telling everyone.

I guess the people who thought you didn't need any experience as a leader to be President are quickly learning the futility of their naive thinking.

5 Votes....Only 5 Votes....

Out of 435 votes, only 5 made a difference. Five votes were the difference in the House passing the Health Care Reform bill. My heart sank when I saw the news. The past few weeks have been hard for me individually, but this really worsened things. This bill, if it makes it through the Senate, will not be merely forgotten in the coming years as so many bills are. It won't be passed and then lack repercussions down the road. This bill will forever change the very visible face of America. It will directly affect this country and influence the lives of EVERY citizen. Unfortunately, that is just what the Democrats in the government intend. They want to, as President Obama has repeatedly said, "fundamentally change America." Really? Does our country suck so much that we need to fundamentally change it? Fundamentally?! I'm sorry, but unless that change is taking us closer to the Founder's vision then it's taking us farther from it, and I didn't hear ANYONE in all the debates invoke ANY return to ANY principle espoused by the actual creators of this country. What is FUNDAMENTALLY wrong with this country? I genuinely fear for the future of this country. Not a timid fear, not a "gee, I HOPE this doesn't happen, but if it does, oh well" kind of fear. What makes it even worse, even more deceptive, is the fact that they couch all of these revolutionary ideas in warm and fuzzy statements. "Health care for everyone" and blah blah. I'm sorry Machiavelli, but the ends do NOT justify the means when it means mortgaging away your future not to mention the backbone of our great nation that supposedly allows us to live a life free from government interference. I wish for once that more people read this blog, because I honestly want to hear from people who support this bill. How can you support this bill? Why do the means justify the ends? How is it going to work here when it hasn't worked in any other country with socialized healthcare? Obviously it's worked to a degree in other countries, I'm not stupid, but statistically, our healthcare system is ALREADY working better than every other country! Why make it worse?! I know there are issues to be dealt with in the insurance field. There are problems, big ones that need to be addressed. But that does NOT give Congress a blanket pass to fundamentally change the entire system. Fundamental change in one aspect of an industry does not warrant its complete transformation and eventual destruction couched in the pleasant terms of governemnt "assistance" and other such euphemisms. Phrases such as "tax surchage" should not be something anyone wants to hear when talking about a bill that is labeled as over a trillion dollar bill! Let's just "tax surchage" our way to an extra trillion dollars. Does anyone know how much a trillion actually is?! A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years. A trillion seconds is 31,688 years. (BTW, what happened to those liberals who only recently were complaining about Bush's war spending and the spend happy Republican congress? Obama has already surpassed them in spending in less than a single year!)

I'm done. I'm furious, but more than that, I'm remorseful and discouraged. To think that the dirtiest city in our country is the heart of our country. There is more chicanery, deception, lies, and pure evil in Washington D.C. than any other city in the nation. The city of the people yet the power of the lobbyists. The city of democracy yet the principles of socialism. What goes on in that city is a farce, and one that WE pay for, not only literally with our pocketbooks, but emotionally as well as we suffer the consequences of a ballooning federal government that embroils our lives in yet more red tape, beuracracy, CW3940AB forms to fill out, and less money to earn in our livelihood. The destruction of agency veiled in the cloak of "the greater good" is not right. Government never has been, never will be, and right now is the farghest thing humanly possible from actually being the solution to our problems. Right now this government is the biggest problem this country has ever faced.

I have to end on a positive note. I'm not doing a good job of emulating the optimism that all of my political heroes embraced so well. Although the days of Reagan feel like they were much longer ago than they actually were due to the drastic 180 this country has made and the distance it has fallen from his "city on a hill" vision, that vision is still real. I still believe it. America's best days ARE still ahead of us, not behind us. The federal government may continue to invade the lives of its citizens and strip them of the sovereignty it once granted, but the ideals our Founders envisioned are eternal principles that no politican and no government can ever destroy, even if in the guise of honoring the very republican principles it espouses to ensure.