Bungling Banks get Billion$, Vets get the shaft

(Stupid WordPress didn’t put a link in for the Day by Day site.  So here it is: Day by Day)

So, the policy of the Obama administration seems to be, the bigger you fail, the more tax payer dollars you get.  AIG gets a hundreds of millions of bail out dollars, GM is about to get the same, and to help pay for all this, Obama wants to bill US veterans, particularly those wounded in combat for their medical bills.

Does this make any sense except to the nut cases in Berkley?  If there is one group of people that this country as a whole owes a nearly unpayable debt to, it is our veterans.  We, as a nation, should be paying for, with out question, whatever medical treatment these men and women need.  How can anyone think that having these people, who we have asked to risk the ultimate sacrifice for us, pay up front for their service related medical costs is “fair” or “just” or even sensible?

How’s this for a thought.  Instead of spending billions on chowder heads like AIG and GM, we instead use that money to fund the VA?  Let the big corporations fall apart into hundreds of little companies.  That’s how it supposed to happen.  And then let us pay off the real debts we owe to people who deserve to be repaid.

Several veterans organizations have sent a letter of protest to Obama over this.  They even had a meeting with Obama, Rahm Emmauel, Gen. Shinseki, and a couple of nigh useless bean counters.  From the news reports, the meeting was not very constructive, as American Legion National Commander David Rehbein came out of it “disappointed.”  You can read the actual letter HERE, and it is signed by the presidents of: The American Legion, AMVETS (American Veterans), Blinded Veterans Association, Disabled American Veterans, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Jewish War Veterans of the USA, Military Officers Association of America, Military Order of the Purple Heart of the U.S.A. inc, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Vietnam Veterans of America inc.

I still can’t wrap my head around this one.  It makes no sense what so ever.  More so in the whole “we support the troops” mantra that gets espoused.  This is not how you support the troops folks.  This is how you disuade them from stepping up when the time comes.  This is how you weaken the very people who defend this nation.  This is a morale killer people.  The worst thing is, it comes from our own government, not from enemy action.

Some links for those interested:

American Legion

VFW

AMVETS

Blinded Veterans Asscoiation

Disabled American Veterans

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

Jewish War Veterans of the USA

Military Officers Asscoiation of America

Military Order of the Purple Heart of the U.S.A. INC

Paralyzed Veterans of America

Vietnam Veterans of America INC

Obama to choose VP soon

If you haven’t heard this by now, you need to come out from that cave up in the mountains.  The current news cycle is so slow, that everyone is talking about this every 15 minutes on TV and Radio.  Then there are all the articles in print and on the web, and all the blather on talk radio.  When the biggest aspect is not who he’ll chose (that only gets mentioned twoce an hour), but that he’ll be making the first announcement via text message, it shows exactly how slow the news cycle is, and how desperate some outlets are to pump out any “positive” Obama story.

But enough of that.  Here are my top suspects for the #2 slot:

1. Joe Biden (D-DEL).  A veteran Senator, well rounded in the foreign policy arena.  He’ll bring much needed foreign policy experience to the ticket, and give voters a bit of reassurance about Obama’s general lack of experience.  He’s a good debator, and always comes prepared.  Downside is he’s from Delaware, and is not a dynamic campaigner.

2. Evan Bayh (D-IND).  Bayh could help deliver an usually “safe” Republican state.  He’s also young and energetic, which would emphasize the “change” meme.  Main problem here is the lack of a consistent policy between Obama and Bayh.  Bayh supports restrictions on abortion, and supported the War in Iraq. 

3. Wesley Clark (former General). Wes would bring a wealth of foreign policy experience, and an undeniably olid background in military affairs.  He has the name recognition, and “face time” from his stint as an analysist on CNN.  Darwbacks are that Clark has been terribly inconsistent in his views, doesn’t campaign all that well, and doesn’t draw much from centrist Democrats or Indpendents.

4. Tim Kaine (D-VA).  Kaine is similar to Bayh in that he’s “young,” is a Democrat in a typically Republican State, and has executive experience as governor.  problem here is he has no foreign policy experience, and has only been governor for 3 years.

5. Bill Richardson (D-NM).  Bill has a lot going for him.  A former governor, and cabinet secretary, plus has the military background.  Richardson would appeal to centrist Democrats, Independents, and even some Republicans.  Problem here is two fold.  First, he was running against Obama for the Presidential bid, and was a close Clintonista at one time.  Second is policy differences, notably on gun control (Richardson has supported 2nd amendment rights).  The “issue” of having a Black-Latino ticket is not the issue it’s being made out to be.

5A. Sam Nunn (D-GA).  Somehow I forgot that Sam Nunn was in consideration.  Correcting that error now.  Sam is a intersting choice.  He has the chops on foreign policy and defense, and has been out of Washington for a while now.  He’s also a Southerner, which will help Obama in Dixieland.  drawback is that he’s a boring speaker, and doesn’t translate well into the energetic cmpaigner and debator the VP usually needs.

6. Bill Nelson (D-FLA). Another Bayh type, a Democrat in a Republican state.  But his low key style may not translate onto the national stage.  Though he has experience on various Senate committees, it probably won’t be the reassurance about experience voters are looking for.

7. Kathleen Sebilius (D-KA).  an interesting option.  She has good executive eperience, and she’s popular in Kansas.  She’s crossed party lines before, so could help the “not politics as usual” refrain.  Biggets problme would be it would be a direct slap at Hillary Clinton and her supporters. 

8. Chet Edwards (D-TX).  Nancy Pelosi’s “dark horse.”  A 20 year House veteran is not going to help push the “change” meme.  Conflicting policy differences, such as drilling in the ANWAR, and on foreign policy and defense matters don’t help.  He’d be a symbolic choice only, as his district includes Crawford, Texas, where the Bush ranch is.

9. Hillary Clinton (D-NY).  She still has a shot, but it’s a long one.  Hillary is a good/bad choice.  She’s good in that it brings her, her organization, and supporters over en mass, with very few defections.  The bad is that she’s such a divisive figure on the national stage, and would energize the opposition beyond what anyone else could. 

10. Jack Reed (D-RI).  Has the policy balancing aspects Obama needs in foreign policy and defense.  But he’s from Rhode Island, is little known outside of New England, and doesn’t gnerally campaign well.

It’s not worth mentioning Chuck Hagel (R-OK).  While the possibility makes the talkingheads wag and weave and bob nonstop, it’s just such an extreme long shot as to be all but impossible.  It’s like when McCain’s name was floated as John Kerry’s VP candidate in 2004.  Hagel will not jump ship from the GOP to run with Obama.

Can you tell it’s an election year?

Well, the politial hoopla never seems to end, does it?

On the national scene, we have the NYT showing again how biased it really is, rejecting a counter point Op-Ed by John McCain to one published by the Times from Barack Obama.  It’s not the rejection itself that’s a problem, we should expect this sort of nonsense, but the rationale as to why it was rejected.  “It (McCain’s piece) should ‘mirror’ Barack Obama’s.”  Eh?  “Mirror Barack Obama’s?”  Essentially, what the Times was asking of McCain, was to effectively parrot Obama’s Iraq position, and the position they endorse.  Ideological hegemony, NYT style.

Then there’s Obama’s “Triumph of the Will” speach in Germany.  Does no one else see the similarities between Obama’s speaches and Hitler’s Nuremburg rallies?  No, I’m not comparing Obama to Adolf, that’s just absurd.  But it that sort of personal charisma, and people swooning because he sounds good that should worry people.  There’s sound and fury, but no subatance people.  It scares me to see how eailly swayed and at time guillible the American people are.

In the State of NY, some things just aren’t going away.  Remember Trooper-Gate?  Well, four Spitzer appointees are under charge from the Public Integrity Commission.  Two have already cut deals, while former Pressman Darren Dopp, and former State Police Suprintendent Felton Spencer are fighting the charges (sort of).  It may be a matter of time before criminal charges are filed against Dopp, and possibly others in their role in the use of State Police for political puroses, then leaking confidential information to the press.  Of course, the shiftless Times-Union will not even face a whiff of charges over thier role in this.  Typical.

These charges come on the heels of Joe Bruno’s retirement from the NYS Senate to take a private sector job.  Joe walked away first from re-election, then from the Senate entirely.  The fact was he was burned out from the politics, and the personal vendettas and vitriol thrown at him, compounded by the death of his wife.  But even once he had sailed off inot the sunset, he still can’t escape the Spitzer dirty tricks scandal. 

On an even more local level, Mike Conners (Albany Co. Comptroller), released a scathing report on the financial practices of the Albany County DA’s office.  The focus revolved around the petty cash fund of the DA’s office, and the lax practices involving it.  Naturally David Soares (Albany County DA) was upset at some of the accustaions.  But Soares is already in trouble, from his lack of attention to local criminal investigations, preferring the national spotlight, and his bungling of the Spitzer Trooper-gate scandal.  If an even mediocre challenger to his post arose, he’d be bounced from office.

Taking on Rumsfeld

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1736831-1,00.html

Let me be clear upfront about this.  What Gen. Sanchez says in this article in no way changes my opinion on the war.  I still hold the position that our involvement in Iraq was inevitable.  It was just a matter of when, and under what circumstances.  We were, and still are, more than justified in our actions, under UN Resolutions going back to 1991, and it was still the right thing to do (though I can quibble over the timing).

With that said, this is a highly disturbing excerpt.  I, and just about everyone else, thought Rumsfled was a bit of a controversial choice for SecDef.  He was “old school,” coming out of the immedaite post-Vietnam era under Gerald Ford, and had been “out of it” for several years prior to his appointment.  He also had a “difficult” past relationship with the Penatgon.

But this, if true, and I have little reason to doubt Gen. Sanchez, Rumsfled caused a lot more damage than had been previous thought.  Set aside the memo, and the 2006 situation.  That’s just the last act of this tragedy.  The issue is the climate, and lack of adminstrative over sight and control, not only of the Pentagon, but of the whole Department of Defense.

We are left with two distinct possibilities.  One is that Rumsfled knew excatly what was happening, signed off on it (as he is required to), and tried to cover his ass.  To further that end, he essentially bribed senior Pentagon officials and officers to “play ball,” and back his “I didn’t know” story line.  Unfortunately, this is the most likely scenario.  It gets worse in that Gen. Tommy Franks most likely co-operated in this endeavor to cover his own ass.  They botched the job, mainly to appease political expediency, and we got stuck.

The other, less likely scenario is that Rumsfeld in fact did not know, or was mislead by the CENTCOM staff.  This I find to be unbelievable in an extreme.  The implication would be that the Pentagon, specifically CENTCOM and the JCOS, acted on their own, with no knowledge or input from either the DOD or POTUS.  This is the stuff that conspiracy theorists thrive on.  I cannot subscribe to the idea that Rumsfeld was that ignorant, or stupid, and that the Pentagon staffers were running rogue.  It’s just too far fetched.

In any case, this must be investigated again.  Why again?  Because the Pentagon already did, and refutiated Rumsfeld’s claims, though he embargoed it.  That report, in its entirety needs to be made available to the concerned parties in the administration, and Congress.  It should not be for public consumption.  Why?  Because the public, and thus any enemy, current or potential, cannot gleem any valuable information from said report.  We do need to know the end results, but not all the specifics and details.  That and 99% of the public at large would have no clue of what they’re looking at.

Ain’t this grand?

Ah, “civilized political discourse.”

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04232008/news/regionalnews/police__bush_basher_smashes_disabled_tee_107782.htm

As if all the corruption issues with the City Council’s “slush fund” wasn’t enough.

Beating up on a diabled girl, just beacuse she happens to like Laura Bush, and for her work with literacy, is just so mature.  I just bet there are at least several “big name” liberal bloggers who are now luading this individual.  Bah.  Hope he gets 3 years at Rikers.

History repeating itself?

H/T to American Ranger for this one.  Read the post and the full letter HERE

Seems that way back in the American Civil War (ACW), that a group of busy-body Senators and Congressmen thought they knew better than the President, or the Generals, in how to run the War.  They went so far as to write directly to the President to encourage him to change strategy, and dump a bunch of Generals, in essence calling them “war criminals” (in a modern sense of the term).  Funny how some people never learn isn’t it?

Now who says the political spin machine is a modern concept?  Take this bit from the letter in question:

“We are also concerned about reports that you have appointed General U.S. Grant as your new commander. General Grant has a controversial reputation–especially his personal habits. We are particularly outraged over reports that General Grant said he intended to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer! You do not have that much time, and Grant’s remarks are an admission of failure.”

Sound familiar?  Change Grant to Petraeus or anyone else that has either commanded in Iraq, Afghanistan, or held the over all CENTCOM command chair, and it could have come from the likes of Clinton, Obama, Boxer, or Kennedy.  and this was in the days when the only source of news for the general public was newspapers.  No instant gratification from the 24 hour mass media news cycle.

Or how about this bit?

“We have consulted closely with major military authorities, and they oppose your decision. Generals McDowell, Burnside, and Pope unanimously agree that a surge of troops under Grant will fail. While they say that a year or so ago they could have used more troops, they believe that it is now too little and too late. General Pope said that his campaign suffered from poor intelligence provided by your Pinkerton Service.”

How many people know who Pope, McDowell, or Burnside is today?  Other than ACW buffs that is.  While at the time they were “big names,” only Burnside had anything more to do following the ACW (he “observed” the Franco-Prussian War with Sherman), the others have been dustbinned by history.  But you can substitute any of the talking heads we see and hear today for those three Generals.  Oh, and change Pinkerton to CIA. 

Now here’s where it gets a bit more in tune with “modern” thought:

“We urge you to reconsider, and to adopt the plan we have carefully crafted as follows:

(1) Withdraw General Sherman’s army of arsonists from Georgia and the Carolinas.

(2) Withdraw General Sheridan’s marauding troops from the Shenandoah.

(3) Pull General Grant and his huge army back to the defense of Washington.

All of this could begin now and finish in four months.”

Carefully crafted?  A three line plan is “craefully crafted?”  This could have been uttered by Hillary Clinton yesterday. Oh wait…

But the real stickler here is the descriptions of Sherman, Sherridan, and the forces they commanded.  Sound familiar Mr. Murtha? 

And lastly there’s this:

“Finally, you should open negotiations with Britain, France, and Canada. True, they are supporting the southern states, but they could use their influence to stop buying cotton, restrict the French troops in Mexico, and wipe out the hotbed of sedition in Canada.

If you do all of the foregoing, we believe you could negotiate an acceptable outcome with Mr. Jefferson Davis.”

It’s that last line that’s a killer.  I’ll let people got to the original post to see Lincoln’s response to that idea, it’s worth a read.  But doesn’t this sound terribly familiar yet again?  Replace France, Britain, and Canada with Syria, Iran, and North Korea.  Replace Jefferson Davis with your choice of Osama bin Laden, Ahmadeinejad, or Kim Il-Jong (or is it Il-Sung? I forget), and this could have been a campaign speach from Barack Obama.  Oh wait…

 

Ramos-Villalta Update

I originally commented on Cpl. Ramos-Villalta HERE.  Tody on CNN, there is an article updating his quest for citizenship.  You can read it HERE.

Cpl. Mario Ramos-Villalta has officially become a citizen.  Congratulations Corporal!  It is a well deserved “reward” for your service.  It is dubious that it took a CNN report to expedite your request, but it is now one less thing for your to worry about.

Yours is a story that should serve as an example to others.  You did things the right way, and with honor, as evidenced by your service record.  Your story is proof positive that those who wish to come to this country, and to do so legally, will reap the benefits (such that they are) of citizenship, and for having done things the right way.  People need not enlist in the military to follow your example (but it is one way), they just need to follow the rules.  There is no issue with people wanting to come here, just do so under the rules, and we will welcome you with open arms.

A couple of interesting articles

Not much out there I could get jazzed about writing about.  Iranian elections?  Semi-fraudulent as was expected.  The “reform” candidates were limited as to where they could run, and did well in those areas.  But in areas where the establishment needed to secure victories, they banned the reformists from competing.  Any wonder the hard liners won?

Prosecutors are pursuing a new indictment against Barry Bonds.  As he doesn’t have a job at the moment, he’ll have plenty of time to deal with this.  On a semi-related note, it seems Brian McNamee, of Roger Clemens fame, was involved in a head on crash with a NYC Transit bus.  No charges or serious injuries have been reported. 

So, I went searching for something to read, and possibly pass along.  On CNN, I found a couple of articles of interest.

First is this article: HERE

It’s about an immigrant from Germany, who enlisted in the US Army, while still only holding a green card.  Guy finds out he can enlist in the US Military with only a green card “by accident,” and still having feelings unresolved from 9-11, joins up.  He ships off for Iraq, where he takes one on the chin, literally.  This guy shows more honest feelings for this country than many who were born and bred here.  Amazing really.  And check out some of the comments, they go off the wall.

The other one is HERE.  This one is obviously far more political than the first.  This one tries to tie in a lot of other issues, and puts a definite political spin on the story.  The best part of this, beyond LCP. Ramos-Villalta’s personal story, are the links and numbers for non-citizen’s serving in the military to get assistance in processing their paper work for getting their citizenship.

Non-citizens serving in the US Military is nothing new.  As Chris Rhatigan of US Citizenship and Immigration Services said, “We have had immigrant members of the military going back to the Revolutionary War.”  The US Military has had citizens, here legally, with green cards (or the equivalent for the time), serve proudly and with distinction.  Even as late as the Vietnam conflict, we had Canadians, Irish, British, Mexicans, Phillipinos, and others enlist and serve.

The expedited path to citizenship is the least that can be offered to these immigrant-soldiers (and Sailors and Marines).  Legal immigration is a boon to the country, and this is just one of many ways to achieve citizenship properly.

Catching up on McCain

Gosh.  Been a while since I put up a fan boy post about John McCain. 

Well, lost in all the hooplah over Eliot Spitzer, Mac held a fund raiser in NYC last week, right as the Spitzer story broke and came to a head.  Rough timing for Mac really.  Lost out on some free press.  He still managed to raise about $2million in the one day stop over.  Might have been more if he held the raiser on that Friday.  Still not bad all things considered.

The campaign released this video (I know it’s late!):

Journey to Freedom

There’s also this one:

Man in the Arena

News items:

Mac on the DC Gun Ban

Mac on Tibet

That’s it for now!

Just Some Light Reading

With Mac looking to have a clean sweep of the Potomac (or “beltway”) Primaries (DC, VA, MD), might as well exercise your brain a bit with the gems…

James Kirchick on the Obama Doctrine (Hat tip to Beth at MVRWC)

IBD Editorial which also endorses John McCain

Mark Helprin in the Wall Street Journal

NY Post Editorial on Obama and Lincoln

Oliver North Endorses McCain on Real Politics