A Mild Rant

What kind of world did I wake up in? I'm just dumbfounded on a daily basis about what is going on in this country.

I think this Fort Hood massacre has pushed my last button. As more and more information comes out about it I have to wonder what idiot was asleep at the wheel and decided this guy was not only okay to be in the military but also decided he was a competent mental health professional?

He killed thirteen people, fourteen if you aren't so politically correct that you can count the unborn child, yet we can't call this terrorism. He's got "Soldier of Allah" on his damn business card, for crying out loud! He may have been wiring part of his $90,000 salary to Pakistan. He tried to contact al Qaeda and the FBI knew about it. There's more, but the more I read about this, the more I want to explode! How could people have ignored this? How could they have been so wrapped up in not wanting to offend the Muslim community that this guy got a pass?

And Obama's response? He tells us not to "jump to conclusions." How many more facts does he need before he draws the most obvious conclusion? Let's see: if I, a normal citizen, had tried to contact al Qaeda, wired money to Pakistan, and had Soldier of Allah on my business card, do you think my principal might have looked at me with a critical eye? Or the FBI would have? Would that have raised any red flags? I'm a teacher. How long before folks would have been writing letters to the editor about me trying to corrupt the young minds of my students?

I don't understand our world anymore. Obama's mechanical response following the Fort Hood shootings was just embarrassing. He appeared at a previously scheduled function, gave a shout out at a tribal leaders conference, then mechanically announces the news of the shooting. He did not go to Fort Hood that day. Or the next. Or the next. In fact, it was five days before he and Michelle went, which is when he gave a speech that sent Obamabots into a new leg-tingling frenzy.

In contrast you have George W. Bush, who I admit, I had disagreements with, but compared to Obama, he's a class act. George and Laura quietly went to Fort Hood to grieve with and console those who were affected. No press. No media event. Caroline Glick said it best here. GWB, you must admit, love him or hate him, he has a love and compassion for our brethren in uniform.

But it's not just Fort Hood that has sent me over the brink. The entire health care debate has sent me into apoplexy and it was cap and trade before that, and the election in general before that. It was the apology tours, and the indifference by our administration to the Iranians protesting for freedom. It's Guantanamo and Afghanistan and a million other things. Snubbing Britain. Embracing our enemies. Arrogance. Smugness. Indifference.

What baffles me most is that there are still so many people that idolize this Obama person and either have no clue what he's doing to this country, or they do and they are of the same school that he is and they, too, believe that America is guilty of a multitude of international and historical sins and have taken it upon themselves to rewrite the mission of this country from a federalist, strong emphasis on the individual, capitalistic society to an entitlement and government-dependent zone.

The day after the House passes the job-killing, crushing-mandate-entitlement package that is Pelosicare, the one that is going to increase everybody's taxes to oblivion, the bill that will single handedly do more to destroy this country than almost any other in recent history, if EVER, there are still people saying, "I love my President!" as if he's just done something great. It's not great, people. Nothing about this health care bill is great. NOTHING! That's not my partisan mouth speaking - it's the TRUTH. Read the bill!

And you know what Queen Nancy said today about her bill? That she thinks it's entirely fair if you go to jail because you don't want to buy into her plan. You no longer have the right to decide that you don't want to buy a product.

Okay so say you don't mind paying 60% of your income in taxes to support this man's socialist agenda. Oh wait. Can't say "socialism" anymore because that word turns the liberals off. They don't like it. It has become ineffective. But say you don't mind carrying a tax burden so that the downtrodden can have inferior health care just like all the rest of us will have. I say inferior because there's no way this plan can't lead to rationing. Doesn't the fact that Congress won't make it mandatory for themselves tell you anything?

Do you actually believe Obama when he tells you that you'll get to keep your coverage? Are you that naive?

Do you actually believe that the world will like us better and the Islamofascists will quit trying to kill us if we close Guantanamo? What will be gain by doing that? What will we gain by bringing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to a United States Federal Prison? Have you thought about what we will lose?

I realize I am rambling incoherently here. That's the way my brain feels right now - like a bunch of live-wires short-circuiting, waving about and spitting sparks all over the place. I wasn't really a babbling idiot until I read Andrew Sullivan this afternoon. Big mistake. Sullivan praises Obama for dithering on Afghanistan. Against my better judgment, I quote:

What strikes me about this is the enormous self-confidence this reveals. Here is a young president, prepared to allow himself to be portrayed as "weak" or "dithering" in the slow and meticulous arrival at public policy. He is trusting the reality to help expose what we need to do. He is allowing the debate - however messy and confusing and emotional - to take its time and reveal the real choices in front of us.

Har! "Reveal the real choices in front of us" like the Magic-freakin' 8-Ball. Get a Ouija board, Barack. This corner "yes," that corner "no." Oh yes, Mr. Sullivan, Obama is making such a sacrifice, right? Allowing "himself to be portrayed as 'weak' or 'dithering'" Never mind that he IS weak and dithering and all our enemies know it.

Sullivan misses the whole point. This decision isn't really about "politics." It's not about Obama or his poll numbers. It's about war. About lives. About our soldiers, sons, brothers, fathers, mothers, sisters, in Afghanistan waiting for reinforcements, which they requested months ago, from a man who is currently on a 9 day trip to Asia, thank you. Will get back to you later.

Back to my long ago original point...it just strikes me every now and then that I'm in a whole new world. Before November 4, I didn't worry about losing my health coverage. I didn't worry a great deal about our national security, at least, not the way I do now. I didn't wonder why our Attorney General is going to speak to CAIR. Or why we're going to close a model prison just because it upsets some people that want to kill us. I didn't worry about a Cap and Trade system that's going to make my energy bills skyrocket while doing no real good for the environment.

It's like every single day I have to wake up and check the news for the next new ambush. How is he going to embarrass us, endanger us, or break us today? And you write about it, you blog, you talk to people, and then I get some pissant who tells me I don't ever say anything nice about "Our President" or how I should "give him a chance." A chance to do WHAT exactly? Dither longer? Endanger us more? Humiliate us more?

I can't keep silent about what I'm seeing because if we just sit back silently and watch, we'll be smothered. We'll lose our country. YES, it's that dire!

If you're still here, thanks for sticking around. Every once in a while, I gotta let it out (I know that wasn't proper English - so sue me.)

I'll try to remember what Scarlett said. "Tomorrow is another day."

2010 is coming, and 2012 soon after that.

A Rant is Simmering

I'm fighting the urge for a huge rant. It's simmering beneath the surface and I've been squashing it for a few days. It started a few days ago when a commenter accused me of never saying anything nice about the president. That's a rant in itself, but it's all mushing into one, now.

Then Fort Hood happened.

And now Obama is saying that he doesn't like any of the suggestions offered to him so far on Afghanistan. Like the king sending food back to the kitchen: "Bring me another!"

Since there is no war on terrorism anymore, and since nobody is calling the actions at Fort Hood an act of terrorism (which it was), here is Victor Davis Hanson who has the guts to say what it is:

Every few months either an Islamic-inspired terrorist plot will be foiled, or a young Muslim male will shoot, run down, or stab someone while invoking anger at non-Muslims. In other words, the attack on Fort Hood happened on schedule. It was the rule, not the exception. And something like it will occur again — soon.

His point is, of course, that we've gone back to a pre-9/11 mindset. I'm having deja vu from the Clinton years.

"He Just Wasn’t A A-list Supercalifragilisticexpialidociously Cool Terrorist."

I think Bride of Rove needs to let her feelings out more....

Seriously, she's spot on. Especially in paragraph two.

And she's got a valid point. When you're so pathetic that even al Qaeda rejects you..., well, how DID this guy slip through the cracks?

I Didn't Think I Could Think Any Less of Him, But...

I have no words for how despicable it is when our president exploits a massacre on an Army base for the purpose of passing nationalized health care. NO words.

President Obama invoked the Fort Hood shootings in an emotional appeal to Democrats to pass health care reform today, contrasting the sacrifices of soldiers with political positioning.

The impassioned pitch to the entire Democratic caucus came hours before the House vote tonight on the signature issue of Obama’s presidency, with Democratic leaders struggling to keep members from conservative districts on board.

“He was absolutely inspiring. In a very moving way, he reminded us what sacrifice really is,” said New Jersey Rep. Rob Andrews, estimating the persuader-in-chief turned several votes.

“Sacrifice is not casting a vote that might lose an election for you; it is the sacrifice that someone makes when they wear the uniform of this country and that unfortunately a number of people made this week,” said Andrews.

Bloodless Barack?

Clearly the British press is not an Obama fan. And why would they be? He's snubbed the British on more than one occasion and has demonstrated that their alliance isn't high on his list of importance.

Today the Telegraph (via Memeorandum) makes note of Obama's "cool detachment," explaining that during the campaign that was seen as a good thing, but now, not so much. Through a series of examples, Toby Harmden makes the case that Obama is "bloodless."

The most notable example is Obama's reaction to the Fort Hood massacre, calling his reaction a "strange disconnectedness":

Maybe Mr Obama had been reading the American press, much of which somehow contrived to present the atrocity as a result of combat stress due to soldiers going on repeated war deployments (though Major Nadal Hasan had not been on any) and therefore, no doubt, Mr Bush's fault.

Of course it's all Bush's fault; isn't everything? Those Democrats voting FOR the Stupak amendment? Probably Bush's fault. Those voting AGAINST HR3962? Bush's fault. It's only a matter of time.

More from the Telegraph:

When the television networks cut to the President, viewers listened to him spend more than two surreal minutes talking to a gathering of Native Americans about their "extraordinary" and "extremely productive" conference, pausing to give a cheery "shout out" to a man named Dr Joe Medicine Crow. Only then did he briefly and mechanically address what had happened in Texas.

On Friday, when most of the basic facts were available, Mr Obama tried again. It was scarcely any better. He began by offering "an update on the tragedy that took place" - as if it was an earthquake and not a terrorist attack from an enemy within - and ended with a promise for more "updates in the coming days and weeks".

Completely missing was the eloquence that Mr Obama employs when talking about himself. Absent too was any sense that the President empathised [sic] with the families and comrades of those murdered.

Not to delve into psychobabble, but doesn't all this display serious signs of narcissism?

And what's wrong with being cool and detached, anyway, you might ask. It seems to me that in a president, we appreciate those that are human, and that empathize with us. If he can't seem to get on the same plane as the common people, how can he lead or represent us? He becomes imperial and monarchist, even. Removed.

Bush caught criticism when, immediately learning of the World Trade Center attacks, he continued reading to the small schoolchildren for a few minutes before he made his necessary exit. I never thought that criticism was fair. Who could fathom, much less immediately process, such an act? And would scaring the beejezus out of those kids have helped anything?

There was no doubt about the emotion Bush felt in the following days; the tear in his eye and the emotion in his voice. Similarly, with Ronald Reagan, you always knew how he felt. Happy, elated, sad, you always knew. Not that it's appropriate all the time; nobody wants a sobbing, emotional leader in charge of the free world. Control, we want. Coldness, not so much.

Back to Fort Hood, Obama has drawn criticism for his retreat to Camp David this weekend rather than a visit to Fort Hood. He hasn't ventured to the base at all as of yet. Yet on Friday, very quietly, George and Laura Bush went to visit the wounded and the traumatized. They spent two hours at the base offering whatever support they could. They asked for no press.

In 1987, after the attack on the USS Stark, there was no question how Ronald Reagan felt. You could tell by his face and by his remarks:

I have an announcement here that I would like to make that is aimed directly at you of the press. I know and I share the sense of concern and anger that Americans feel over the yesterday's tragedy in the Persian Gulf. We have protested this attack in the strongest terms and are investigating the circumstances of the incident. When our investigation of the facts is completed, I will report to the American people about this matter and any further steps that are warranted. For that reason I have convened a meeting of the National Security Planning Group to review the entire situation in the Persian Gulf.

In the meanwhile, I want to express my deepest sympathies to the families of the brave men killed and injured yesterday aboard the U.S.S. Stark. Their loss and suffering will not be in vain. The mission of the men of the U.S.S. Stark, safeguarding the interests of the United States and the free world in the Gulf, remains crucial to our national security and to the security of our friends throughout the world. The hazards to our men and women in uniform in the defense of freedom can never be understated. The officers and crew of the U.S.S. Stark deserve our highest admiration and appreciation. And I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for their prompt assistance in responding to the stricken U.S.S. Stark.

No "shout outs" in that speech. Additionally, he made it a point to meet with family members of the victims.

Obviously, wherever the president goes, there is fuss. Obama could claim that he didn't want to create more of a scene at the base than what is already ongoing at Fort Hood, but it seems to me if he can drop in and out of Afghanistan or Iraq in secret, he could go to Fort Hood.

Not that he gives a damn, but Obama would do well to show the American people that he cares about them, whether he does or not.

My Inner Eeyore

I've been channeling my inner-Eeyore the past couple of days so blogging has been light. Might be the wind-down after Tuesday's elections, might be the long, slow march to the Thanksgiving break, might be just about anything political...all I know is that I haven't been in my happy-place so I just haven't blogged.

The Fort Hood story is just horrible. That broke yesterday, as we all know, and was just awful to watch unfold. What a hero Kim Munley is! I saw one of her doctors on ABC News this evening and she said Kim's first question when she came out of surgery was "Did anybody die?" Imagine. So selfless.

Watching and listening to the relatives of those killed yesterday is just devastating. So tragic.

On the political front, I'm warily watching the Obamacare situation this weekend. I saw Krauthammer and Steven Hayes on Fox this afternoon surmising that Obamacare will pass the House - maybe by two or three votes but "it will pass." This depresses me beyond measure. How on earth, with the jobless rate over 10%, with an ongoing recession, with people struggling as it is, how can those Democrats vote to make the situation worse? Oh, I know the talking points about how we "need reform now" but that's just crap. This bill is crap. It will kill jobs. It will increase taxes. It will increase unemployment. It will lead to rationing. It will kill private insurance (which will kill more jobs). Every single thing about this bill is crap.

The blind sheep falling in behind it depress me.

How can this happen?

On the home front, puppy continues to chew everything in sight, but it's been somewhat better this week. In addition to the endless list of items chewed to oblivion, just add countess rawhide sticks to that. He's not chewing inappropriate stuff because he doesn't have his own stuff to chew. Bah.

So, me and my inner Eeyore are going to curl up tonight and get into my new Ayn Rand biography which arrived this week. I'll be bright and chipper in the morning, I suppose, and will have a lively FJMRA for you. If you linked me and you think I might miss it, just drop me an email. Because Technorati sucks.