Quickie: No Kidding!

It’s nice to see that the AP isn’t going out on a limb here…

Quickie: Another Enemy for the Obama Administration to Target

That’s right, all of the economic problems comes from high executive pay, not the frivolous hundreds of billions wasted by the administration on stimulus bills and bailout packages or the trade war started against the Chinese or the administration’s willingness to raise taxes.

I can’t wait until the executive pay drops and all of our problems are over!

Let’s Remember Who the Enemy Really Is.

We are rapidly approaching the first anniversary of the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States, an event that was supposed to usher in a new era of politics in American. Gone are the days of partisan bickering, unilateral decisions and bitter disagreements, here to stay are understandings, compromises and agreements we were told back on that November day.

If you ask me, the rhetoric hasn’t matched the reality of the situation. Instead of fences being mended, more walls of division have been thrown up and fingers pointed at fellow Americans than ever before.

President Obama, with the aide of his Democratic cohorts in Congress, has spent the majority of his first year in office demonizing groups of Americans through words, actions and legislation. Say what you want about President Bush, but he never singled out fellow, law-abiding Americans like this.

In the past year, the following groups have been blamed for the country’s shortcomings or become enemies of the Obama administration and the Left:

· Crude oil speculators for merely doing their jobs of forecasting the future price of oil.

· AIG employees for having the gall to actually accept and adhere to a contract that the government agreed to and receive compensation for services rendered.

· CIA officials that followed their orders handed down by the chain of command and worked tirelessly to keep us safe from another terrorist attack or attacks.

· Las Vegas for being an enjoyable and accommodating host for professional conventions.

· The “stupid” police officers from Cambridge that performed their due diligence by arresting a suspicious man that appeared to be breaking into someone else’s home.

· Tobacco companies for producing a product that millions of consumers want.

· Smokers for having the nerve to smoke that product.

· Wal-Mart for not welcoming unions, despite offering benefits and above average pay to their employees.

· Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, conservative talk radio hosts and Fox News for having opinions contrary to those of the Left.

· Soda and juice companies for making beverages that some in Congress deem “unhealthy”.

· Healthcare providers and insurance companies for acting “immoral” by simply turning a profit.

· Individuals that are skeptical of Obama’s healthcare goals or those that attended the tea parties. After all, we’re all just a bunch of racists.

This is troubling to me on multiple levels. After all, shouldn’t the President of the United States be the biggest cheerleader for Americans, rather than a judgmental nag?

First, what right do the President or Democratic leaders have to make these Americans’ lives miserable? Using their bully pulpit to label these people pariahs for having the nerve to actually disagree with their policies or make lifestyle choices that conflict with their’s is small, bitter, pathetic and extremely unbecoming of elected officials.

Second, and more importantly, this is not the time to be pitting Americans against each other. While it is never acceptable to do that, the fact that we are at war makes it especially inappropriate. And this is not just any kind of war; this is a unique war that is not defined by political stances or the desire to obtain land. This is an existential war about our culture, our lifestyle and who we are as a people. It is the Western Civilization versus a group of Islamo-fascist cowards that want to rule the world with their barbaric and berserk culture and end our way of life, as we know it.

When we are faced with this type of enemy, this type of threat, it is vital that we not look at our neighbors as enemies just because they have different political ideologies. If we continue to do that, our real enemies will spot those cracks and exploit them.

So to you Mr. President and Democratic leaders, I implore you to please keep your eyes on the real enemies, as they’re not the Americans that disagree with you.

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

-John

Quickie: I sure hope this isn’t the case in 2012!

The latest Rasmussen poll showed these shocking results for early polling for Republican Presidential candidates in 2012:

Huckabee: 29%

Romney: 24%

Palin: 18%

Gingrich: 14%

Pawlenty: 4%

Now I know that early leads mean little to nothing (just ask Rudy Giuliani), but Rasmussen, despite being often criticized for pandering to the Right, is the most accurate pollster there is. As a result, I’m nervous as hell as I think Huckabee would be a disaster for the country and the Conservative Movement.

Quickie: It’s nice to see Congress has its priorities straight

Don’t worry, in less than 13 months many of these clowns will be voted out of office.

The Nobel Peace Prize Goes to drum roll please… President Barack Obama! Really…President Obama?

Last week Friday, I was strolling around our nation’s capital, enjoying the second day of a brief, four-day visit and I was filled with a deep admiration for our country’s brave and brilliant founding fathers. This was my first visit to the City of Washington and I was so thoroughly impressed with what I saw, heard, felt and experienced that I miss the city already. What a wonderful combination of power, reverence, dignity, pride, gratitude and beauty.

The unseasonably warm weather (far nicer than the below-freezing temperatures of my hometown Milwaukee) provided a perfect setting to enjoy a leisurely walk with my girlfriend; a walk that allowed us ample time to reflect on the words, deeds and convictions of the great men that were depicted in the powerfully moving memorials that dotted the skyline of Washington.

Then, inexplicably, my train of thought was derailed with a conversation I overheard by a small group of passersbys. One of them was discussing something about President Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize. I couldn’t pick up much more than that and I didn’t care enough to track them down and ask them to elaborate on their statements. For all I knew, they were a pack of ardent, President Obama supporters that were pontificating on how President Obama should win the prize.

I chalked the comments up to the fanatical desires of irrational Obama supporters or my inability to correctly overhear the conversations of some fellow tourists and continued on my walk from the Lincoln Memorial to the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial...two men that sought peace, but thoroughly understood that, at times, peace comes with a significant price.

After visiting the FDR Memorial, my girlfriend and I came to the conclusion that we needed some additional fuel after an aggressive hike through the city, so we hoped in a cab to find a bite to eat. In the brief cab ride, we were discussing the next few stops on our itinerary and while my girlfriend was looking for something in her purse, I barely picked up the faint report that came out of the cab’s radio, but I could swear I heard something, again, about President Obama and Nobel Prize. Before I could compute what was said, my girlfriend found what she was looking for and the conversation about the trip’s itinerary commenced.

After our sightseeing for the day had ended, we headed back to our friend’s house (the main reason behind our trip) for dinner. When we got to the house, CNN was on TV and, lo and behold, there it was again, President Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize. This time, straining to hear what the discussion was all about was unnecessary; as the message was clear…President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

While I clearly heard the report correctly, I still had to utter, “What?!?!?!” as it was such a shocking piece of news. “Why?!?!?!” quickly followed, as I could not then, nor can now, understand the reasoning behind this designation, as he hasn’t done anything to increase peace in the world other than making a speech at the United Nations.

The Nobel Committee said President Obama’s “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” was their reasoning behind this designation.

While I will agree with the Nobel Committee’s assertion that President Obama has made considerable attempts at strengthening international diplomacy (attempts that reek of naiveté), I have to ask, what have those efforts netted either the US or the rest of that world? In fact, the question of whether the world is more or less peaceful since President Obama took office is a legitimate one.

Honestly, I would say that it is less. Since President Obama has taken office, the Iranian situation has gone for bad to worse as they may already have the technology, enriched uranium and resources to create a nuclear weapon, numerous Iranians died in a violent sham of an “election”, North Korea has restarted its nuclear weapons program and is testing long range missiles, the War in Afghanistan has rapidly deteriorated, Pakistan has seen increased violence after an embarrassing deal with the Taliban and some of our strongest alliances (England, France, India and all of Eastern Europe) are strained.

While this award means little in the grand scheme of things, I worry that it will only encourage President Obama to continue his appeasement and capitulation doctrine regarding foreign affairs that has been seen in the Iranian and North Korean nuclear weaponry issues.

If he does, I can assure you that peace will be the last thing that is achieved.

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

-John

Quickie: The Real Danger of the Nobel Peace Prize…

While I will touch on this in greater detail soon, I fear that our current, cowardly approach to Iran will only continue if the world keeps giving us awards like the Nobel Peace Prize.

Quickie: Aww…too bad!

So it seems that poor old Roman Polanski is feeling a little blue in his Swiss prison cell.

Forgive me if I show zero remorse for him.

Hey Roman, next time you should take your punishment like a man…or better yet, not have sex with a seventh-grader!

Kudos to the Swiss government for ignoring the disturbing and confusing international outcry calling for Mr. Polanski’s release.

Those who fail to learn from history will be doomed to repeat it

When people look back at, both, the battlefield and humanitarian horrors of World War II, it is natural for them to wonder, “How did everyone let that happen”.

That is, in fact, a very legitimate question as it seems criminal that no one did anything to stop the berserk Hitler regime of Nazi Germany during the 30’s and 40’s.

But when you look back at history, all the signs were there. It’s not as if Hitler suddenly had an epiphany one day during the war and realized he was in an existential struggle with the Jewish faith and therefore needed to quash it. No, he planned the Holocaust for years, as he laid out the plan in Mein Kampf that was published in the 20’s. He passed the Nuremberg laws that harshly discriminated against the Jews in 1935 and Kristallnacht, the night of rampant violence against the Jews, happened in 1938. The stated goal of the Nazi party was anti-Semitism for crying out loud!

The point is is that Hitler tipped his hand. All anyone had to do was listen to his speeches, follow his policies and track his actions to know that something awful was in store for the Jews of Europe.

Despite all of these horrid activities, people merely spoke out against him. Onlookers just shrugged as Germany quickly militarized its economy. Some like Neville Chamberlain and Josef Stalin even made truces with the Nazis to limit their aggression. But ultimately, Hitler turned his back on Chamberlain, spit in the face of Stalin by reneging on the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact to invade the Soviet Union and proceeded to pursue his pornographic quest of dominating the world and exterminating the Jewish people.

What was the cost of this indifference towards Nazi Germany?

70 million dead in World War II.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid we are about to relive this horrible chapter of our history by taking a similarly indifferent approach to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Sure, President Obama and a host of other international politicians like England’s Gordon Brown and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy have spoken out about Iran’s nuclear aims, but as we’ve seen again and again with the Iranians, talk is cheap. After all, what has all this talking accomplished? Well, not one but two Iranian uranium enrichment plants, Iranian ballistic missile tests and an up tick in combative rhetoric coming out of Tehran.

What everyone has to understand about this situation is that the main goal of the Iranian government is to gain a nuclear weapon. That’s it. In fact, they want it badly enough that it is probably goals number 1-100 for them. Just as we saw with Europe’s sheepish handling of Nazi aggression in the 30’s, no amount of talking, no amount of negotiating, no amount of appeasement and no amount of sanctions will change a maniacal regime’s quest of achieving their ultimate goal…whether it be genocide or nuclear weaponry.

And just like Hitler, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doesn’t mince words. He has clearly stated that he wants to “wipe Israel off the map” and destroy any nation that gets in the way of Iran’s nuclear aspirations. So far, he has followed through with much of what he has said about pursuing nuclear power for Iran, so why should we not believe him when he talks about his desire to cause the destruction of Israel and the downfall of the West?

To me, ignoring Ahmadinejad’s ravings (no matter how insane they may be) is a gargantuan risk… one that is absolutely foolish to take, as it may result in the deaths of millions of people.

I know that I have written about this at great length, but that is because this is an enormous problem…one that is, literally, getting worse by the day. The only thing that will stop Iran from achieving its goal of obtaining a nuclear weapon is a military strike, simple as that, not the pathetic sanctions and cowardly lectures offered up by the international community.

With President Obama either unwilling or simply not having the stomach to initiate a strike against Iran, the only hope we have is that Israel does it themselves. If they don’t, a world with a nuclear-armed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a very frightening place.

I realize that those who oppose a military strike against Iran call people like me warmongers or accuse us of using scare tactics to make our points. Others say that we have enough problems of our own and that we should just focus on our affairs and not get entangled in the broils of foreign nations.

I know I’ve heard those comments before… oh yeah; they were made in the 1930’s when discussing how we should approach Hitler’s Germany.

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

-John