General Washington walked the walk, and talked the talk. He was a stern leader, but showed compassion and wisdom in his dealings with subordinates.  He would execute a soldier for desertion, or extend mercy in the case of contrition on the part of the guilty.

Abraham Lincoln, like Washington, was a man of principle.  He was derided by the popular press, and was excoriated by the Democrat party.  If Lincoln would have lost the 1864 election to Democrat McClellan the slaves would arguably not have been freed for generations.  Lincoln stayed with his principles, and the results were historic.

Fast forward to the present, and you get George W Bush, one of the most under-rated leaders in history.  His legacy will read a lot different than the New York Times would have you believe.

Like Washington and Lincoln, G W Bush is a man of principle and didn’t let the popular press dictate the direction of his administration.  If the popular press and the Democrats would have had their way, Saddam Hussein would still be murdering people, a very real threat to the USA, and would be hosting terrorist groups as was the case before his demise.

With the knowledge and benefit of hindsight, we can ask what each of these Presidents would have done in the case of General McChrystal’s inadvertant political and personal swipes at the Administration.

I believe Washington would have talked to McChrystal and made the determination that just because there were differences of opinion, this would have been manageable.  The two things Washington would not tolerate were cowardice and treason.  McChrystal’s statements fit neither of these categories.

Abraham Lincoln had big problems with people who didn’t want to win the Civil War, and he could not stand reticent field commanders.  He would have had no problem with General McChrystal.  McChrystal is a winner, and just because he is a bit on the mouthy side, he is all about winning.  Nothing wrong with that.

George W Bush is a different kind of leader.  Make no mistake about it, G W Bush is a leader of men and does not get intimidated by his subordinates. In my opinion his greatest weakness as President was that he was too loyal to his staff and appointees, some of whom should have been fired.

Bush took a long time to make up his mind about the surge in Iraq, but did so when convinced that it was a winning strategy.  George Bush is a winner, and he would have been able to work with McChrystal, also a winner.  These guys know how to get things done.

Barack Obama has no experience in leading people or successfully managing organizations.

Obama’s leadership skills are based on receiving adulation and wet lips on his posterior area from those around him. When he does not get worshipful attention he has a fit. According to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, the Whiner in Chief got “really mad” when he heard about the Rolling Stone article.

With Obama, everything is personal.

In my opinion President Obama fired General McChrystal because he could not stand the personal implications of some of the comments published by Rolling Stone Magazine.  Obama is not much of a man as measured against other Presidents.

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In my driving around today I have not seen any flags hanging on houses, nor have I noticed anything on TV about the significance of the day.   My wife has had some chick-flick going for the last couple of hours, and I haven’t watched my TV today, at all. So, did  I miss the coverage of the anniversary of the Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1944?

All the same, I placed my American flag outside to commemorate the occasion, explaining to my dog-walking neighbor what was going on.

I explained that even though my family didn’t have a member on the beach at Normandy that fateful day, my parents did lose a son in that World War.  My brother, whom I never had the privilege of knowing, was on an airplane after Pearl Harbor in the South Pacific in 1942 that was lost somewhere between Honolulu and Christmas Island.

Missing In Action doesn’t sound as bad as Killed In Action, but the results are the same.  You lose a child.

My Dad went to the railway station in Memphis watching returning WWII soldiers for years, convinced that he would see his son disembark from a train after being discovered alive on some lonely Pacific atoll or in a Japanese prison  It took years for my father accept the idea that his first born son was dead.

There was a repeat of this loss during the Korean War when another brother, who had joined the National Guard to avoid the draft, was Killed In Action when his 155mm Howitzer exploded as a shell was loaded in the super hot breech.  The gun crew had been firing the Howitzer for over 24 hours.

We got a body we could not look at, and a Purple Heart.  For a long time, I thought Purple Hearts were only given when a soldier died in the line of duty.

No, we had no family members on a beach at Normandy in 1944, but we understand the sacrifices made by thousands of good, honest, young men who deserved to live productive and happy lives.  It is not fair.

It is worth noting that the sacrifices of these young men saved millions of lives, and released additional millions of people to live free and productive lives. 

Those sacrifices are growing dim with time.  New generations have no clue on what has been paid for their right to vote, worship God as they want, and work at a career of their own choosing.

I hope my flag and family remembrances today give someone a connection to understand the tremendous price paid by our forbearers.

May God Bless America!

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Barry Looking For Souvenir of His Biggest Nightmare

The President’s reaction to the BP Horizon oil platform disaster and his words about the situation are becoming an historical illustration on how chief executives should NOT behave.  He is in a reactive and panic driven mode.

Executives in most organizations earned their positions by being savvy operators,  especially when others were hitting the panic button and losing their heads over things out of any one’s control.  The important words here, “earned” and “executive”, unfortunately do not apply to the 44th President of the United States.

President Barack Obama, undoubtedly a very intelligent person, had zero experience in managing organizations prior to his election.  Sometimes we  have to trust Lady Luck because we have elected a bunch of people like this, including Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman, and Franklin Roosevelt.

Barack Obama is the worst of the bunch.

The best of the bunch was Harry Truman.

LBJ got us into the Vietnam war; John Kennedy almost got the world incinerated during the Cuban missile crisis; Jimmy Carter is famous for his fecklessness during the Iran Hostage situation; and Franklin Roosevelt made the economy worse with his profligate initiation of socialist programs, and  had to rely on World War II to bail us out of the Great Depression.

Now, we have President Obama with no measurable work experience entrusted with the nation’s security, economy, and general well being.  His problem is that he doesn’t understand that security starts with securing our borders; the economy suffers under heavy taxes during a recession; and his spending has driven the nation’s debt up to the point that the economy will never see a robust recovery from the current recession.

The President just doesn’t get it.   He has no one but ideologues as advisers with crazy ideas.  They are real goof-balls.

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Israel established a blockade to limit access from the sea to the Gaza strip.  The reason was simple.  Palestinian and other Islamic terrorist groups (Hamas, Hezbollah) were smuggling weapons, rockets, and other devices of destruction into the Gaza for use against the civilian population of Israel.  There is NO doubt about these facts.

Many people across the world sympathize with the Palestinians, even to the extent that many Muslim countries condone terrorist acts carried out against the nation of Israel and its civilian population.  There seems to be an undercurrent of anti-Semitic sympathy in European and Muslim nations.

This week a boat filled with  “peace” demonstrators decided to run the blockade as a protest.  As happens many times, these so-called “peace” demonstrators were equipped with some nasty weapons for the purpose of doing evil to Israelis.

The Israeli’s knew about the “peace” demonstrators, and Israeli commandos approached the vessel in helicopters with orders to do no harm to any demonstrators.  Indeed, they boarded the ship with PAINT BALL GUNS that would supposedly discourage any physical violence the demonstrators would attempt.

The helicopters lowered soldiers one by one where they were met with extreme violence by the demonstrators who had obviously made plans to attack the Israeli soldiers.  About 30 of the demonstrators ganged up on the first few Israeli soldiers,  attacking them with steel pipes, sling-shots, knives, fists, and feet.  Several soldiers were injured by being thrown to a lower steel deck, and some were thrown overboard. Two Israeli soldiers were wounded by gun shot, possibly with handguns wrestled from them by the mob.

The Paint Ball Guns did not deter the “peace” demonstrators who were obviously there to create an international incident.  Eleven of the thugs were killed by soldiers who defended themselves with their handguns, their only personal weapon.

Most of the demonstrators were from Turkey, a Muslim nation that promptly registered complaints to the UN about the treatment of their home grown thugs.   The Turks are not known for patience, courtesy, or even good sense.  The Turks have been known for their uncivilized behavior in massacres, and adventures in genocide.  More recently, their conduct includes attacking neighbors, and turning their backs on friends and allies.

It is horrible that these deaths occured.  Whose fault is it?  Could it be that the real fault lies with the demonstrators who were there to provoke the Israeli soldiers?  Could it be that it was the Israeli’s fault for not reading this situation properly, and not applying the proper force to quell the violent demonstrators in the very beginning.

The invocation of fault is one of those concepts that can serve many masters.  The political left in the US and the rest of the world will be demagoging this incident for a long time.  Don’t confuse them with facts, their minds are made up!

I personally feel for those demonstrators who were killed in their moment of misdirected idealistic action.  I really feel for those Israeli soldiers and their families who were doing their duty, and trying to NOT injure the “peaceful” demonstrators.

The whole mess is lamentable.

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Arizona’s passage of an immigration enforcement law has focused the debate of what to do about people entering this country illegally.

Here in Georgia this last week we have learned that a senior at Kennesaw State University has been discovered as not being a citizen of the United States.  Her parents brought her into this country when she was eleven years old, and she has been forced to live a lie ever since.

Jessica Collotl - Illegal Immigrant

Twenty one year old Jessica Colotl is close to graduating from college, belongs to a sorority, and is apparently the kind of person we want to immigrate to this country.  In her life she has demonstrated ambition, drive, and initiative, some of the things we have learned to respect as marks of a worthy individual.  She has also demonstrated an aptitude to lie, forge documents, and otherwise flaunt our laws.

Her parents have apparently been able to raise her with some degree of principle, and they have undoubtedly done their best for their children. The problem is that they haven’t paid their share of her education.

Officials at KSU need to answer some critical questions.  Did they check Ms Colotl’s citizenship claims when accepted to the university? Are there scholarships or government grants involved in paying for her education?

Even though KSU is state supported, that doesn’t mean that education is for free.  Without a doubt, Jessica has gotten her tuition paid by the HOPE Scholarship, funded from the state lottery.  There are citizenship requirements attached to those funds, too.

US Government grants or loans for education are predicated on the recipient being a US citizen.  To get financial aid, Ms. Colotl had to fill out a FAFSA, an invasive form demanding IRS tax return information for several years for all college students and their parents.

The FAFSA has to be completed BEFORE any scholarship, grant, or loan can be awarded.  It is a humiliating process intended to make sure students don’t get any more funding than alloted by some  mysterious formula applied by the US Government.  I had to go through the process for each school year and for each college student in my family.

Obviously, fraud was committed by Ms. Colotl.

What should we do about this?  Here is a young person, brought to this country by her parents, not at her initiative.  She has been living a lie for 10 years, and has broken local, state, and federal laws.

Here is where common sense should prevail.  The girl had no control over her life at age 11, but she has been an adult for three years and understands the consequences of being caught.  She is not stupid.

Compassion is in order, here.  Let Ms Colotl pay for her education in the same magnitude as other international students who are in this country for the LEGAL purpose of getting an education.  The State of Georgia charges double tuition for out of state students, and FOUR TIMES resident rates for international students.

Ms Colotl owes us a lot of money.  Let her pay.

Her parents should be deported.  They are the reason this young person finds herself in a position of living a lie just to get by in life.

Compassion is due to the child, and I don’t agree with visiting punishment on children for the sins of the parents.

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Well, maybe not so much fire and rain.  But, I did see Tiny Tim on the Johnny Carson show in the last century, and that has to date me pretty accurately.

Tiny Tim was probably the most repulsive, ridiculous looking performer I have ever seen.  There is no reason you should know anything about Tiny Tim,  but I ran across a blog, Moonbattery, that posted an embedded video of Tiny Tim singing about the melting ice caps.

This is a ground breaking video, highlighting the insidious beginning of the catastrophic global warming craze.

It is amazing  how the global warming guys went after the kids in the very beginning.

As an unremarkable tribute to American culture, I present Tiny Tim.

President Barack Obama - 2nd Most Unlucky President

It seems that Barack Obama is one of the most unlucky Presidents to come along in a long time.  Only Herbert Hoover could have been as unlucky, being elected just in time for the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and The Great Depression.

Poor President Hoover.  He was a man of achievement, having amassed great wealth on his own talents, unlike President Barack Obama who has no record of intellectual, academic, or professional achievement.

Like Hoover, Obama  has done exactly the wrong things in the face of financial peril.

President Herbert Hoover - The Most Unlucky President

Barack Baby was elected as the financial markets in the US had crashed as the result of Democrat Congressional actions that  made housing available to poor people.  The Democrats in previous years had ram-rodded the idea that lower credit standards to allow poor families into houses they could not afford was the best way to provide housing for that group of people.

Wonder of wonders, the old lower the credit standards ploy did exactly as many had been warning. It crashed not only the US financial industry, but polluted the economies of other countries who bought the tainted securities containing these mortagages.

After the Bush Administration saved the nation and world from another Great Depression, Barack Obama had no choice but to continue the Bush Administration’s policy on the bank bailouts.

Barack Baby’s luck got worse with the ensuing recession, the deepest in decades.

So, what did the Big O’ do?  He pushed the so-called “stimulus” bill that bailed out his union buddies, state and local governments, and put the nation even deeper in debt to the tune of almost a $Trillion.  The gargantuan stimulus bill did not produce jobs by any measurable means.  Barack and his bogus buddies know this, and are making ridiculous claims that they “saved” many jobs.

What should he have done?

Obama should have reduced taxes like any responsible Chief Executive.  This would have stimulated the one sector of the economy that creates jobs and wealth, small business.  This is Economics 101, and our President still doesn’t get it.

Our under-educated President follows up the stimulus disaster with an unwise health care system that will put the country another $3 or $4 Trillion deeper in debt.  This is the result of his worship of bankrupt ideologies, supposedly learned during his Ivy League education. His resolution for any problem seems to be to create a government entity to handle it.

Bad Luck Obama started with bad luck, and doubled down with bad policies, bad economics, a bad staff,  and bad ideas.

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I am not a bumper sticker person.  Putting sticky signs on my automobile’s paint is not something I do because , 1) I don’t like to advertise opinions, and 2) those things are really hard to get off the paint.

However, I have noticed something about those who do like bumper stickers on their transportation vehicle.  Many times, those who have a collection of bumper stickers on their cars are lame-brain Democrats who proudly display simple minded slogans.

For example, the other day I noticed the anti-war sticker that says, “WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER!”.  Wow, what a strong opinion.  It is just too bad that this particular slogan has no meaning, at all.

Think about it.  Who asked a question that resulted in this answer? What was this question? Have all the possible situations in the world been investigated before making a total, sweeping answer of , “WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER!”?

The first time I ever saw or heard this slogan was during the Vietnam War when I was an engineering student on a college campus.  The little war protesters would march up and down, back and forth, chanting non-sense like it was the ultimate in cool philosophy.

They would chant, “HO CHI MINH!, HO CHI MINH! HO CHI MINH!” while waiving pictures of MAO TSE TUNG.  I doubt if the little squeaks knew anything about the mass murders they supported.

I do know this.  Not once did one of those weed-puffing hippies ever, ever, apply critical thinking to that slogan, “WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER!”  These puppets were all about free love, free drugs, and free anything else.  That’s why they became Democrats.

So, when people display a sign with that idiotic slogan, “WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER!”, you not only know they are simpletons, but you have a very good idea of their political party.

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Screw you, America. I AM SUCCESSFUL!

The obvious answer to this questions is that Barack Obama has been a failure during his first year in office, regardless of his passage of the health care bill.  That monstrosity is revealing itself to be more and more of a travesty the more we learn about it.

The Ignorant One is learning, though.  The more he imitates G W Bush, the more successful he becomes.

For example, the controversial TARP program which Obama claims rescued the nation from a depression was originated by George Bush.   Phony Baloney Obama had no choice but to follow through and complete the program.

George Bush’s War On Terrorism and victory in Iraq, berated by light-weight intellects like Joe Biden, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi, is now being claimed by the Obama Administration as ONE OF THEIR GREAT SUCCESSES!  Maybe Bill Clinton can get away with something like this, but Barack Obama is not a Bill Clinton.

The successes in Afghanistan are being touted as a unique Obama victory, when all the dupe has done is delay sending troops, and follow G W Bush’s lead.

Bubba Barack recently flew to Afghanistan to pep up the troops, and bolster his sagging popularity because of his unwise health care bill.  He is just doing his job, here, and is copying G W Bush who went to Afghanistan and Iraq several times.

The bottom line on Obama’s successes are that there are none he can rightfully claim, and since this is a new age of journalism with the blogosphere keeping score, Barack Obama will not get away with it.

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Our current President is no George Washington!

Threats against Congressional Representatives are being reported all over the nation, especially in the wake of the Democrats passing their extravagantly expensive, and poorly structured health care bill.  At least that is what you might think given the play in the popular press in the last five days.

Why do people make threats, and what is the rationale for making threats or taking action against the representatives of one’s government?  These issues have been studied and acted on before.

From the Declaration of Independence:

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Despotism?  Maybe not in the strict sense, but the Democrats are forcing laws upon the people that are just plain wrong, and reduce individual freedom to support failed economic and political philosophies.  These are different times, but the reasons for opposing political servitude are the same.

In the last few months regular people like me have started protesting the abuses being perpetrated by the US Congress.  These protests are being slammed as the actions of a fringe of people with radical opinions.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Tea Party protesters are taking sensible actions against the negation of legislative rules, and the forcing of bad laws and confiscatory taxes on the populace.  Tea Party protests are in accord with the moral boundaries and recommended actions of the founding fathers of our nation.  The health care oppression is like the governmental abuses my ancestors fought against, suffering the winter rigors of Valley Forge, capture and imprisonment.

Why should we be any different?  We are not the drugged-out hippies of the 1960′s, getting stoned and sated on communal sex, and who were stupid enough to demonstrate for world wide communism by chanting praises for Mao Tse Tung and Ho Chi Min.

We are law abiding, tax paying citizens who are being ignored, robbed, and punished for being successful. Most of us are not Tea Partiers, but, we sympathize and stand ready to join them in the effort to bring down the current oppressive administration.

That should be threat enough.

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