Absolutely Clueless (Part Deux)

OK, so I take back what I said previously. Apparently the Obama Administration isn’t Absolutely Clueless and knew “within twenty-four hours” that the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya was a terrorist attack and suspected Al Qaeda-tied elements were involved.

In fact, a senior intelligence official stated that “No one ... believed that the mortars, indirect and direct fire, and the RPGs were just the work of a mob….. no one." Additionally, officials said the intelligence community knew by Sept. 12 that the militant Ansar al-Shariah and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb were likely behind the strike. 

So when Ambassador Susan Rice and Press Secretary Jay Carney were out pitching their story, they knew that they were lying. As recently as this week the President was still alluding to the nonsense about the insulting video that no has seen.

In fact, members of the House Intelligence Committee were briefed by administration officials and told the same thing. If that is the case, then those personnel intentionally misled Congress.

Which begs the question, why has the administration been lying to Congress as well as the American people?

I mean wasn't it President Obama who said in 2011 that “even before his death, al Qaeda was losing its struggle for relevance, as the overwhelming majority of people saw that the slaughter of innocents did not answer their cries for a better life. By the time we found bin Laden, al Qaeda’s agenda had come to be seen by the vast majority of the region as a dead end, and the people of the Middle East and North Africa had taken their future into their own hands.”

The answer is that we, including the President, don’t see things the way they see them. This “war” ends only two ways. We wipe them out to the last man, or they wipe us out. There is no neutral corner in this war. We are, and always will be to radical Islam, infidels.

Yes, Obama green-lighted the SEAL Team Six op that resulted in Bin Laden’s death. But it took out one person, not an ideology. We’ve grown war weary after a decade. As of 25 September 2012, there have been 3,015 coalition deaths in Afghanistan since the war started. One thousand, nine hundred and forty two US deaths.   Ask the Russians how it worked out for them in the nine years from late1979 to early 1989. They lost over fourteen thousand and over fifty-three thousand wounded. The Mujahideen lost between seventy-five and ninety thousand, with an equal amount wounded. They simply will not back down. And what was the Soviet Unions withdrawal strategy? The first step was to transfer the burden of fighting the mujahideen to the Afghan armed forces, with the aim of preparing them to operate without Soviet help. Al Qaeda was formed from those Mujahideen fighters. Think they don’t remember?

Consider the following assessment from Brian Jenkins, Rand Corporation.

“In the minds of most Americans, al Qaeda descended from the heavens in Wagnerian-opera fashion, on September 11, 2011, putting the organization today at the beginning of its second decade. But al Qaeda was formally established in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1988. It claims connection with assaults on American forces in Somalia and Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s, declared war on the United States in 1996, and launched its terrorist campaign in earnest in 1998. By 2001, the struggle was already in its second decade. Whether al Qaeda is in its third decade or third century matters little to its leaders, who see the current conflict as the continuation of centuries of armed struggle between believers and infidels, and who expect it to transcend their lifetimes. While al Qaeda, especially its central leadership, has been pummeled, and its capabilities to mount large-scale attacks have been reduced, claims of its imminent defeat are hyperbole.   Al Qaeda is more decentralized, more dependent on its affiliates, its allies, and its ability to radicalize and recruit distant recruits to carry out attacks on its behalf. Its peripheral commands remain strong. Its allies have bought into its ideology of global terrorism. Its communications network continues to function. It is resilient and opportunistic.”

In the end maybe it is easier to blame something tangible, like some two bit movie trailer, then to accept that despite all the rhetoric, despite all the chest thumping, this war will not end. Reality sucks, when your forty some odd days away from an election.

Four More Years?

So last night I am sitting there watching T.V., as I have found it makes for a much better sleeping experience if I get my blood boiling before bedtime, and was once again astounded by the depth of stupidity facing this country.

Recent polling indicates that President Obama has a commanding lead in several of the “battleground” states. Seriously? I won’t get into the methodology of these polls as I don’t believe blogger has the bandwidth to handle such a rant, but the fact that anything is coming out showing the President ahead is mind boggling.

And just when I assumed that my senses had been assaulted enough, here comes a comment from Stephanie Cutter, the Presidents Deputy Campaign Manager.

“That’s the other thing that you find most often with women. They’re not really concerned about what’s happened over the last four years. They really want to know what’s going to happen in the next four years.”

You guys remember her right; she was the one who said she didn’t know the facts about the Joe Soptic ad that accused Gov. Romney of having a hand in his (Soptic's) wife’s death. That was until it was pointed out that they were on a campaign conference call together when he told the story. Even then it was one of those “who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes” moment.

Here we have the last manifestation of the Obama Campaign’s “New Reality” tour. In this world, the truth only matters when it is being provided by the campaign. In the latest installment women are being told that they shouldn’t fixate on the “hope and change” they were promised, but rather look “forward” to the amazing things that will happen when the President has four more years to work his magic.

Really Steph? Because you guys were pretty fixated on the past before the President got elected. I believe “inherited” was the word you like to bandy about.

So I thought I might do a little re-cap of the highlights of the last four years for those who might be on the fence a bit.

National Debt:

On Jan. 20, 2009, the day Obama was inaugurated, the federal government’s debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. As of today it is over sixteen trillion dollars.  Everyone like to bash the numbers, what is his, what isn’t his, does it really truly matter? The nation is drowning and both sides are standing on the boat arguing which life ring is better.

Federal Budget:

President Obama promised to go line by line in the federal budget and removed waste. Despite that promise, in his first year he continued to sign off on discretionary spending. Unfortunately, in a round about way I guess he did make good after, because the Senate, under the “leadership” of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D – NV) has not passed a budget in over three years.  Sadly, this is not the hope and change we were expecting. In fact the Presidents budgets have been viewed as so completely unserious that the Senate rejected his 2012 budget by a vote of 97-0. Additionally, a budget proposal based on his 2013 budget plan lost in the House by a vote of 414-0. How bad is it, when you cannot even get one single vote from a member of your own party?

Cut the Deficit:

Four years ago, President Obama campaigned on a promise to cut annual federal budget deficits in half by the end of his term. Now, in pure DC politi-speak, he explains that the deficit he “inherited” is actually on a path to be cut in half just a year later than he promised, measured as a percentage of the economy’s total output. It’s like when you remove money from one account into another account, and then you spend both.

End Partisan Politics:

President Obama promised to transcend Washington partisanship.  Quite the opposite, he has divided DC worse then before. Washington remains stagnant. The Washington of today is as indistinguishable from the one Obama warned against four years ago. In fact, he recently said that the most important lesson he learned during his first term in the White House is that "you can't change Washington from the inside."

Foreign Relations:

Candidate Obama promised to restore America’s standing across the globe and to be a strong and responsible leader on foreign policy. In fact, in 2009 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."  But what has he actually done?  Read Here: Foreign Affairs

Just ask yourself, if Bush were still president would they be saying the same thing.

End the Iraq War (& Afghanistan):

President Obama said he would end the war safely and responsibly “within 16 months.” So what happened? The troops were withdrawn under the terms of a bilateral agreement which was signed in 2008 by President Bush in which all US Forces were mandated to withdraw from Iraqi territory by 31 December 2011.  So Obama failed in his promise, but kept Bush’s agreement.

OK, see here is a big problem for me. I’m against both wars…………..you, in the corner, get up off the floor and shut your mouth, you look stupid. Let me explain.

They are pointless. Don’t talk to me about 9/11 and the war on Terror. I was there at its birth. But the notion that, in some manner, shape or form, we can win over the hearts and minds of these people is ignorant. The only time they don’t hate each other is when they have an infidel to hate. The only thing they respect is someone with a bigger stick. Putting boots on the ground is pointless in the sense that we do with large brigades and regiments. Like bringing a mallet and chisel in to do brain surgery.

So where are we at? Sectarian violence is spreading throughout Iraq. Think Republicans and Democrats with RPG’s, AK-47’s and car bombs. Al Qaeda is making significant inroads. Anyone who tells you the threat is minimal is an idiot. A small, highly motivated, ideologically group can ruin your day very quickly and do so indefinitely. 

Over in Afghanistan, while the last of the “surge” troops are gone, more than seventy-five thousand ground forces remain for the foreseeable future. Despite our best efforts, increase in Taliban activity goes on and there is now a growing trend of Afghanistan soldiers and police turning on their US and NATO partners. Now our soldiers have to worry about enemies both in front and behind them. You see, all these groups have to do is wait you out. They know we don’t have the patience to remain forever. So they will wait till we begin to pull out, and then hit harder and harder, until you throw up your hands and just pull everyone out. Don’t believe me; ask the Russians how it worked out for them.

My opinion is you are not going to change these people. All they have ever known and understood is brutal regimes. Hold the regimes accountable, and the people will learn from that. From the beginning we should have sent in Special Forces ground troops to identify and target the leaders and then dropped massive ordinance from on high. Tell them you try anything stupid again and we will drop twice as much. Bombs are a helluva lot cheaper than the lives of US soldiers.

Saved the Auto Industry:

I know the President loves to take credit for this one but I just wanted to remind readers that is was in fact then President Bush who provided the initial funding for the auto industry bailout. Personally, I disagreed with the bailout. I think GM and Chrysler got into the mess they did by making shitty cars and unions milked every dime they could. Maybe if one company had failed it would have sent a strong message through both management and union. A recent Gallup Poll indicates that 51% of those polled also disapproved so I guess I am not alone.

Transparency in Government:

President Obama once said that his administration would have an “unprecedented” level of transparency. Let’s tick this one off:

• News agencies and others have complained about the difficulty in getting information through Freedom of Information Act filings.
• The President used executive privilege to keep congressional investigators from getting Justice Department documents on the agency’s failed Operation Fast and Furious gun-tracking effort.  
• Candidate Obama said the Health Care Debate would be televised. However, final health care talks, including the meetings between the House and Senate, were held behind closed doors.  
• White House visitor logs are missing the names and details of visitors to the White House.
• In fact, Lobbyists met with administration officials outside the White House in an effort to keep them off visitor’s logs.

In the end, you have to ask yourself whether Candidate Obama was just ignorant about the promises he was making, or did he just lie to garner votes.

Honestly, I disagreed with President Bush about a lot of things. I don’t think you can be President and please everyone. But I fundamentally disagree with just about everything President Obama is doing and for the love of God that does not mean I am a racist.

The economy is not where it needs to be and will not get there on the course we are on. You cannot, on one hand, blame capitalism and Wall Street and then, on the other hand, expect them to produce for you. The tax code is a horror and worse it is very unsettled. There is no sound long term outlook.  Heck, we don’t know what’s going to happen if or when the Bush tax credits end.

This notion that we should just go ahead and raise the taxes on the rich is absurd.  So, that would do what? Generate enough income for the government to run eight extra days? Really, that’s the plan? Redistribution of wealth is not an answer. There comes a point when the people you take from, to give to those less fortunate, simply stop doing for themselves and come to you for the same handout. When that happens, where do you think the money will come from?

I remember watching a show one day about some doomsday people. They were living high on the hog. They had maxed out credit cards buying and doing what they wanted. Their philosophy? According to the Mayan Calendar the world was ending on December 21^st 2012, so they didn’t have to pay it back. My first thought was that December 22^nd was going to be a bitch for them.

Why do I have a feeling this nation is acting the same way?

President Obama said in February 2009 “Look, I’m at the start of my administration. One nice thing about the situation I find myself in is that I will be held accountable. You know, I’ve got four years. A year from now I think people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress, but there’s still going to be some pain out there. If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”

The question has been asked, are you better off now then you were four years ago. The easy answer is No. The deeper answer is that President Obama has just been the latest captain of a ship that has been going in the wrong direction for decades. The hard part is making the difficult choices to alter the direction.  Look at Spain, Greece and France and see how well that goes over.

More importantly, what happens the day he gets reelected and he wakes up and looks in the mirror and realizes that he has become his “predecessor” and no longer has anyone else to blame.

Absolutely Clueless

OK, I’m not a big Monday morning quarterbacking, but will someone please buy the White House a friggen clue already.

It’s been nearly a week and half since we tragically lost our Ambassador to Libya along with three other brave Americans, not to mention those who were injured in the……. OK, repeat after me “TERRORIST ATTACK”

Now, that wasn’t hard…………..right?

Apparently it is for the White House. It took them eight days to state for the record what the rest of the world seemed to know the day after. Hell it took the Libyan President less than half the time to publicly state that it was “planned far in advance.”

For the last week and half, the incompetency level over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been ratcheted up to the nth degree. For the life of me, I cannot fathom why.

Lately, much has been made about the President skipping out on his regular daily intelligence briefings. Now, some will say that he gets written briefings and doesn’t need to sit down for them………..really? Honestly, you’re going to hold on to that position?

Newsflash, I did my fair share of Intel time and I can tell you that if you believe that in your heart, I’m glad you’re not in politics. There are two types of Intel. What you willing to put on paper, and what you feel in your heart. It’s like being a cop, you just know when something isn’t right, even when nothing is going wrong………. YET.

But the President doesn’t believe that, he seems to feel that he can look at a briefing paper and know what is really going on in the world without talking to his Intel people.

It’s like a young naïve politician blasting the President on his bad foreign policy, making grand promises, and then getting elected into office and finding out just how bad a place the world really was.

But that would never happen, right?

The President, and all of his supporters, ran on how he was going to be the one to reconcile the United States with the rest of the world, there would be peace on earth, good will towards man, and cats and dogs would lie down with one another…… plus, we were part of a coalition that saved Libya right !!!..........right??!??.......uh huh.

No way there could be a coordinated terrorist attack against us……….that would mean that they really don’t like us, and then maybe it wasn’t really all George Bush’s fault after all…… perish the thought.

So, the President, through his proxies, starts playing the old “spontaneous demonstration”……… uh huh.

Just a bunch of good old boys wound up over some “film” that apparently NO ONE had seen prior to all these spontaneous demonstrations.” Oh and the film was produced by an Egyptian who apparently has more aliases than Sybil.

I worked a lot of demonstrations, and I don’t recall too many of them being spontaneous. What, you think Tariq and Salaam just happened to be walking down the street, minding their own business, armed with RPG’s, grenades and mortars and just happened to run into a dozen or so of their friends, in front of the American Consulate, on the anniversary of September 11th…… Yep, sounds innocent enough to me.

So after basically telling all of the U.S. and the rest of the world that this was so not a terrorist attack what does the spin machine over at the White House conclude today?

Well according to Press Secretary Jay Carney, after eight days of saying that it was most certainly NOT a terrorist attack, he had this little gem “It is, I think, self evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack. Our embassy was attacked violently and the result was four deaths of American officials. That is self evident.” 

Really Jay………. Seriously. So when did it all become so self evident?

Maybe it’s time for the President to begin to sit in on a few more of those daily intelligence briefings. I think instead of reading the reports, maybe he should be asking a few questions.

Then again, rescheduling fund raisers would be so time consuming.

Foreign Affairs

I’m sitting here this morning, watching as the situation in the Middle East begins to spill over. What started out in Cairo, Egypt and has spread to Tunisia and Yemen. In addition, we have had our Embassy in Libya attacked and tragically lost the Ambassador and three others in what is being described as a planned, coordinated attack for the 11th anniversary of 9/11.

What strikes me as odd however is that as I combed through the various media outlets, there seems to be more attention directed at the republican presidential nominee on his commentary the other day.

So what exactly did he say? “It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

OK, so what exactly was the administrations response that led to that stinging rebuke from Mr. Romney?

Early Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo issued a statement that appeared to criticize the video that had sparked the initial incident in an attempt to defuse the protests.

“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims, as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”

Apparently the White House has come out and walked back that statement, explaining that it was a low level embassy staffer who didn’t have the authority. Uh huh, yeah.  Washington, and by extension all of its many governmental branches, operates on the “mother, may I?” principal.

If you think some low level staffer would risk their career to blurt that out, I’ve got this really nice ocean front property in Kansas for sale.

Truth is, whether you want to admit it or now, even the media has their favorites and none more so than President Barack Obama. Like rabid sports fanatics they will vilify and ostracize anyone that is on the opposing team, until such time as that person joins their side and then they swoon over them.

Think Johnny Damon when he went from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees.

But the bottom line is, it’s not the truth.

One paper commented “Mitt Romney’s stinging blasts at President Barack Obama in the wake of attacks on U.S. diplomatic posts in Libya and Egypt was a vivid illustration of how much American politics has changed.”

Really?

Where were these same enlightened folks when Senator John Kerry was openly criticizing then President George Bush about the Iraq war? This didn’t go on for days, this went on for months. President Bush was mocked openly by any number of political, media and entertainment outlets. Who can forget the term “cowboy diplomacy?”

So why is it, that when you have a D next to your name, there is a different standard?

Why when they protest the United States in the Middle East is it “failed cowboy diplomacy” is a republican is in office, and yet when they do the very same thing under a democrat you can hear crickets chirp.

Unfortunately, it is because the media is like a rabid sports fanatic. Truth matters not, just the uniform you are wearing.

When it suited their agenda, they were happy to present comments like the following:

"We are dealing with an isolated country (Iraq) with a fourth-rate military power, led by a murderous tyrant that nobody likes. And yet the [U.N.] Security Council is split. Why? It is because of the inept and bungled and cowboy diplomacy of President Bush and his senior advisers. He has spent a great deal of time in insulting our allies, in denigrating the United Nations,” Rep. Joseph Hoeffel, D-Pa.

"This crowd (Bush administration) speaks harshly and as a result, you see that when it is time that we need our friends, it is hard to get them to come with us," Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Fla.

"I think it represents a failure on the part of the administration to construct the international coalition as in past efforts” Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

"We frankly have no policy now. I wouldn't call it benign neglect, it's malign neglect," Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

"Nobody wants to bring troops home more than those of us who have fought in foreign wars, but it needs to be done at the right time and in a sensible way. This is not that time or that way." Sen. John Kerry, D-Ma.

"The danger (North Korea) is great and yet the administration is saying it's not even a crisis. That's not credible," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

Wow, does anyone remember North Korea anymore? I’d almost forgotten about them. Know that Daffy Duck & Elvis aficionado Kim Jong Il is gone, Lil’ Kim is spending more time with his new wife than his nuclear weapons.

So is it okay as a politician to attack the sitting President when he is not from your party? Apparently it is. But it begs the question, why do the media only vilify it when it is done by the right?

Whatever your feelings on the topic, President Obama did withdraw our forces from Iraq. So what has been the outcome? Here are some of the most recent news reports:

• Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president was sentenced to death by hanging on charges he masterminded death squads against rivals in a terror trial that has fueled sectarian tensions in the country.

• Insurgents recently unleashed an onslaught of bombings and shootings across Iraq, killing at least 92 people in one of the deadliest days this year (2012).
• 
  A Shiite militant group is threatening U.S. interests in Iraq as part of the backlash over an anti-Islam film it has described as “heinous.”

On top of that we have endured the “Arab Spring” unrest in the Middle East since December 2010.

To date, rulers have been forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Civil war is being waged in Syria. Major protests have broken out in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Sudan.

Makes you kind of wonder what the press would be saying if a republican had been in the White House?

Oh, and just how did President Obama sum it all up? 

Well, he flew to Las Vegas for a fundraiser, where he told the cheering crowd “we had a tough day.”

Wow, four dead, an mission burned down, and violent unrest spreading across the region and it’s a “tough day.”

Somewhere, someone is playing a violin as the flames claim the republic.

Mainstream Media

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I am a tad bit over sensitive.  I mean, after all, it was eleven friggen years ago right?

What’s taking a moment to remember the 3,000 or so souls lost in the worst attack since Pearl Harbor.

Every year a moment of silence has been observed at 8:46 a.m., the moment when the first plane slammed into the Twin Towers. 

Everyone covered it right………? Guess again kiddies.

NBC's "Today Show" host Savannah Guthrie interviewed Kris Jenner about the new season of the E! reality show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" and her breast implants.

Coming out of a commercial break, Guthrie segued, "Back now at 8:45 with Kris Jenner, the matriarch of the Kardashian clan," before beginning a five-minute interview that covered the importance of changing out your breast implants later in life, working out with a personal trainer, and welcoming hip hop star Kanye West into the family.

I’m so glad we are finally able to stop this whole mourning nonsense and get back to the more important topics facing us as Americans.

And we wonder why we are heading off the cliff as a country.

9/11 – the 11th Anniversary

This morning I lowered the flag to half staff and thought of those lost on that day.

I watched it wave in the breeze and looked around. It’s a cool beautiful crystal clear blue morning and I despise it. Every aspect of today mirrors that day eleven years ago. I always wish it would rain, something to make it remarkably different. Today just feels too eerily similar.

But it also made me think, and I realized that it was extremely selfish. I’m here, my partner that day, Ramon, is still here as well. We both have much to be thankful for.

I am reminded that even on the tough days, those times when you have hit rock bottom and begun to dig, you are still here and can still make a choice.

Eleven years ago, some incredibly brave men and women made their choice and in doing so surrendered it forever. Those are the ones we mourn today. But in their ultimate choice, let us learn.

Let us remember them and their choices, and never let their names be lost to time.

NYPD 23

Police Officer Danz, Vincent G
Police Officer Fazio, Robert
Police Officer Driscoll, Stephen P
Police Officer Pettit, Glen K
Police Officer Dominguez, Jerome M
Police Officer Smith, Moira A
Police Officer D'allara, John
Detective Vigiano, Joseph V
Police Officer Kloepfer, Ronald P
Sergeant Gillis, Rodney C
Police Officer Perry, John W
Police Officer Leahy, James P
Police Officer Talty, Paul
Police Officer Langone, Thomas M
Police Officer Valentin, Jr., Santos
Police Officer Ellis, Mark J
Sergeant Curtin, Michael S
Sergeant Roy, Timothy A
Sergeant Coughlin, John G
Police Officer Weaver, Walter E
Police Officer McDonnell, Brian G
Detective Richards, Claude D
Police Officer Suarez, Ramon

I also remember Firefighter Thomas Butler, Squad One. We were cops together in the 102 Precinct before he left for FDNY.

We should also never forget those who have died since. It may be eleven years since the first attack, but the casualties from that day continue to climb. When it will end, is anyone’s guess.

Life is about living, whether you are at the top of the mountain, or down in the valley slogging your way up. They would each say to us, live your life today, because there is no guarantee for tomorrow.

In living our life today, we honor those that cannot. 

Fidelis Ad Mortem 

The Blame Game

In light of the fact that next week we will mark the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001; and the recent “platform” debacle that took place at the Democratic National Convention last week, I thought I would address a common type of question that has been raised by my children in the past.

“Where was God?”

“Why did God allow that to happen?”

“Why do people hate God?”

Not trying to slight Mitt Romney or Mormon’s in general, but with the way we, as human’s, blast God on a fairly frequent basis, why would any Mormon want to become a God?

I do not claim to be a theological scholar, so like everything else here, this is strictly my opinion. Take it, leave it, but I hope it makes you think about it.

One day one of my children asked me the question: “Dad, why did God let that happen?” and it really stopped me in my tracks. Did God, in fact, let “that” happen?”

My feeling on this is a simple one; we blame him because he is God.

God is an easy target for man’s wrath. More importantly, it is a safe one.

What are we taught about God? We are taught he is King of King’s, Lord of Lord’s, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.

He is described as faithful, loving, kind, merciful, forgiving, patient.

So why do we blame him for everything? For the simple reason that he is all of those things.

It says in Numbers 14:8 “The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.”

So why are we so mean to him? I mean honestly, how can you “Boo” God? Whether you happen to be in that small global minority that doesn’t believe in him, is booing really a good thing to do? I mean, have you ever considered the question: What if you’re wrong?

The natural answer to me is that we blame God because the alternative is truly frightening and shakes most people to their very core. If God is not at fault who else could it be?

Enter, Satan. 

Wonder why most people go back to blaming God?

The proposition of good and evil is as old as time itself. We are introduced to this in the Garden of Eden and it a common theme throughout our life. No matter how “nice” or “good” we try to be, our natural bent is to sin.

Disagree?

Ok, stop for a moment and ask, ever lie?

“Dog ate my homework.”

“No honey, that dress doesn’t make you look fat.”

“I maxed at on my taxable deductions last year.”

“My opponent wants to deregulate everything and poison your water.”

Ever steal?

“They buy so many office supplies at work they won’t miss what I bring home.”

“Dad won’t miss the change from the store.”

“It’s not my fault the store clerk gave me the wrong change.”

Ever cheat?

“The ref didn’t call that foul.”

“Oh, honey, you know me I’m just a flirt.”

“I just copied my report from the internet.”

We do, we can’t help it and if you don’t admit to it, then go back to the first question above because you’re lying.

Consider this for a moment. What is sin? The Bible describes sin as the breaking, or transgression, of God's law (1 John 3:4). So if it is the breaking of God’s law, what is an example of God’s law? How about one of the Ten Commandments: “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”

Simple enough right? It’s mine, not yours, don’t take it.

Then why do we need to legally define it in so many ways?

We have burglary, robbery, theft, petty theft, larceny, fraud, identity theft, welfare fraud, etc, etc, etc………. not to mention that each of these is further divided into classifications: felonies, misdemeanors, and these have degrees. 1st degree, 2nd degree, etc…..

We do this for one simple reason. My crime is not as bad as YOUR crime. We have to differentiate why we are not as bad as the next person. It makes us feel a little better.

God gave us free choice, but rather than follow his example we chose to follow Satan. And yet that very prospect terrifies us.

Why? Because if we as human beings admit that Satan is alive and well and flourishing in our lives, we have to admit one fundamental tenant: If there is a God, and there is a Satan; then there is a Heaven and there is a …………….

Oh, wait. That’s not good is it?

You see, by and large blaming God is motivated strictly out of fear of the alternative. If we blamed Satan then there is a Hell. And all of a sudden things become very real.

I believe it is that very reason that we are trying to scrub God out of our history. If we remove him, we don’t have to face his judgment and we don’t have to accept that there is a Satan. Then we can live in ignorant bliss, at least in this life.

Right now, we are in a very bad place. We are spiraling out of moral control and refuse to take the opportunity to do some much needed introspection.

In 1673 Freiherr Samuel von Pufendorf wrote “More inhumanity to man has been done by man himself than any other of nature's causes." 

300 + years and we are still doing it. The question is do we continue to hurt ourselves further, or do we return back to God and ask his forgiveness.

A righteous God is not going to bless a nation that blames him for the sins they are committing or simply refuses to acknowledge his existence.

The other day I got an email which contained the following passage:

“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about America’s debt problem. The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” Senator Barrack Obama, March 2006 (Portion of speech from Senate floor).

In addition, he went on to make a point of noting that in the last five years (2001 – 2006) the debt was raised from $5.1 Trillion to $8.6 trillion, highlighting the fact that it was trillion with a capital “T”. For those who just cannot grasp what a trillion dollar is, read “What is a TrillionDollars?”

I generally abhor political emails as much as I do the ones that start off with “if you forward this email in the next 13.5 seconds to everyone in your address book your life will be perfect…..”

But it made me think, which is what I think a lot of us really should be doing more of.

Now, before someone corrects me and says “that’s only a portion of the speech,” I know. I just don’t see a reason to go through the whole thing. This isn’t an attack on President Obama. This is about the politics of lying and it is something that is shared equally between democrats and republicans.

I recently read a commentary on a particular article that started off addressing the debt issue but devolved into name calling which I loathe. Why some people feel the need to resort to name calling I will never know, but if you are looking for a reason of why we are the place we are, that would be high on the list. If you can’t agree to be civil, you will never resolve any problem that faces you. However I digress.

The author pointed out something that I think was lost. The author correctly pointed out that the first year President Obama was in office, when the federal budget jumped from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion, actually was passed during President Bush’s term. You know the whole “I inherited a mess” saga.

Now, if you have read the other posts on this site, you will have learned one thing. I find fault with both parties. I believe in my heart that politicians are habitual liars who will say and do anything to get a vote. It’s the heart of the problem and the reason why I don’t see things improving.

What I take exception to in President Obama’s speech is the fact that he is pandering.

Consider for a moment that the last time the United States made any serious attempt to pay down its national debt was immediately after WWI. At that time we owed a whopping twenty-seven billion dollars. By the time the great depression hit, we had paid down the debt to sixteen billion.

In fact, the last year we would actually pay down the debt from the previous year was 1956.

In 1911 our national debt was just under three billion dollars. A century later it was fifteen trillion. During that period of time there have been nine republican presidents and eight democrats. Does anyone honestly believe that both parties are not at fault? It seems clear to me that everyone has added to the debt, the only question is by how much.

Here’s the problem as I see it.

Are we as a nation becoming so polarized by party, that we are re-writing history to glorify our party while excoriating the other for the same misdeeds?

In other words, when did we begin to re-define common sense?

Consider these Treasury Department statistics for a moment:

When Lyndon Johnson left office in 1969, the national debt was $368,225,581,254.41.

When Richard Nixon left office in 1974, the national debt was $469,898,039,554.70.

When Gerald Ford leaves office in 1977, the national debt was $653,544,000,000.00 (the veracity of these numbers is actually questionable. Nothing in Government ever ends in .00).

When Jimmy Carter leaves office in 1980, the national debt was $930,210,000,000.00 (the veracity of these numbers is actually questionable, same reason as above).

When Ronald Reagan leaves office in 1988, the national debt was $2,602,337,712,041.16.

When George Bush (41) leaves office in 1992, the national debt was $4,064,620,655,521.66.

When Bill Clinton leaves office in 2000, the national debt was $5,674,209,886,860.00

When George Bush (43) leaves office in 2008, the national debt was $10,024,724,896,912.49.

As of this post, the national debt has officially exceeded $16,000,000,000,000.00.

Now before you go and blast me about well President so and so had this issue, or such and such faced this. Answer this question, every family has good times and bad ones financially. One year that bonus check sits there looking great in your savings, the next year little Tiffany needs braces and wham, that bonus is history. So why do we expect the average Joe Citizen to be fiscally responsible, yet give a pass to the idiots in D.C. who never met a dollar bill they didn’t want to spend.

As it stands today, the United States brings in approximately 2.4 trillion dollars a year in revenue and spends 3.5 trillion a year.

My point in all these mind numbing numbers is this. When do we stop the madness?

At what point do we stop vilifying politicians who have the audacity to say we need to, tighten our budget, stop this spending and return some semblance of fiscal order to our home.

You want Social Security that you paid into all these years ? You want Medicare ? Well then someone better come up with a better plan then “IOU.”

Someone once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Prologue

On April 15, 2011 George Stephanopoulos conducted an interview with President Obama who made the following comment in regards to his March 2006 speech:

“I think that it’s important to understand the vantage point of a Senator versus the vantage point of a…President.  When you’re a Senator, traditionally what’s happened is this is always a lousy vote.  Nobody likes to be tagged as having increased the debt limit for the United States by a trillion dollars… As President, you start realizing, "You know what?  We– we can’t play around with this stuff.  This is the full faith in credit of the United States."  And so that was just a example of a new Senator,  you know, making what is a political vote as opposed to doing what was important for the country.  And I’m the first one to acknowledge it.”

So I guess the truth is you can say anything to get elected, but do what you want after you win.

And is it any wonder why we are in the predicament we are.

He's Back

It's amazing to me how quickly time flies by as you get older. It never flew by this quick when I was a younger man. Now the seasons seem to change before the one you are actually in has ended. It's probably all some creative plot by the advertising industry. I speculate that is the reason we begin seeing Christmas themed ad's in October now.

But since the last post my life has taken a series of twists and turns. Regrettably it stole the time that I had once allocated for writing. I don't know if I, or my posts, have been missed; but I have missed doing it. Writing has always seemed cathartic to me. My grade school English teachers would probably use the word Ironic as I quite honestly sucked. What was once an agonizing chore, has turned into a labor of love.

But, just because I have been away, doesn't mean that I have not lost any of my anger. In truth, the pathway we have been on the last few years has only served to stoke that internal flame.

Whether you agree with me or loathe me, I hope that what you read will cause you ask questions. I honestly believe that to be the root cause of where we are at today.

Civil disagreement, polite discourse, friendly debate have given way to lies, blame and slander.

If this great country continues down the path we are on I earnestly believe we will self destruct.

I am reminded of an attributed quote that says:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the  public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."


I dismiss the notion that it was actually said by the quoted person, as do many others, so I will simply leave it as anonymous. However, what is sad to me is that, in debunking the author, they simply dismiss the quote. I find that to be the real tragedy. Reread it and linger on the words. I don't care who originally said it, I wish it were me. There is a fundamental truth to those words if you listen to them. Substitute voters for politicians, it makes no difference.

Why do great empires fall ? Are we so removed that we forget our history lessons ? Or do they no longer teach these lessons ?

Corruption, ineffective political leadership, moral decline, internal strife. Why is this so difficult for us to understand? Countries fail for the same reason business' fail, for the same reasons families fail.

In 1858 Abraham Lincoln accepted the Illinois Republican parties nomination to be their Senator. In his speech he paraphrased the Gospel of Mark 3:25 when he said  "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

Those words are as true then as they are now.

I just pray that the citizens of this country will wake up before it is too late

Andrew
The Angry American