A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.


The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.


The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear..
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.


Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.


"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..


To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.


No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.


I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.


I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.."


" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."


Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

Presidential Visits... the Differences in Each!

On local Houston radio 2 days ago on November 13th a private from Ft. Hood called into the AM talk show on 950AM.

 

Since then, the host has verified just to be sure that the man was indeed an injured soldier so as not to be fooled.

 

Anyway, the private was with some others that were not critically hurt in a ward. He called in to offer the "difference" between the visit from President Bush vs the visit from President Obama.

 

As you stated, no one knew President Bush was coming, he just showed up. WITH NO PRESS OR CAMERAS AT ALL!

The private says that he spent a lot of time visiting with EACH soldier. He said he sat on the stool at his bedside for about 5 minutes and HELD HIS HAND and spoke with him. Then he did the same with the others. He said his words were heartfelt and they had a conversation.

 

Compared with the visit of President Obama.

 

First off the private said was the advance team that he said made sure there was nothing on the bedside tables Obama did not want in the pictures. (like what a bible maybe?)

Then he said a man whose name he forgot came and gave them all a lecture about what they were ALLOWED TO SAY AND DO while the President was there.

He said they could not speak unless HE spoke to them, and could not TOUCH him unless he touched them.

This guy you could tell was not left bashing. He said that Obama gave a prepared speech to the whole group, NO PERSONAL BEDSIDE VISITS.

Then he went around and shook their hands, but still no words to them other than his prepared remarks.

Then he left. And that my friends is the difference.

 

 Just like the Dover visit. President Bush used to go a lot, but he never took the press with him. We did not know that, did we, until a couple of weeks ago.

The Problem Is Identified...

Johnny Carson nailed lawyers with one of his "how cold was it?"  jokes! "It was so cold that lawyers were running around with their hands in their own pockets!!" 
 
This is very interesting! I never thought about it this way. Perhaps this is why so many physicians are conservatives or republicans. 
 
The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers' Party.  

Barack Obama is a lawyer.
Michelle Obama is a lawyer.
Hillary Clinton is a lawyer. 
Bill Clinton is a lawyer.
John Edwards is a lawyer. 
Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer.
Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate). 
 
Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school. 
 
Look at leaders of the Democrat Party in Congress: 
Harry Reid is a lawyer. 
Nancy Pelosi is a lawyer. 

The Republican Party is different. 
  
President Bush is a businessman. 
Vice President Cheney is a businessman. 
The leaders of the Republican Revolution: 
Newt Gingrich was a history professor. 
Tom Delay was an exterminator.

Dick Armey was an economist. 

House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer. 
The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.

Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer? Gerald Ford, who left office 31 years ago and who barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running against Ronald Reagan in 1976.

 

The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work, who are often the targets of lawyers. 

The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers. Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney, or who heal the sick, like Frist, or who immerse themselves in history, like Gingrich. 

 

The Lawyers' Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America. And, so we have seen the procession of official enemies, in the eyes of the Lawyers' Party, grow. 
 
Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers, and anyone producing anything of value in our nation. 
 
This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers.  Lawyers solve problems by successfully representing their
clients, in this case the American people. Lawyers seek to have new laws passed, they seek to win lawsuits, they press appellate courts to overturn precedent, and lawyers always parse language to favor their side.
 
Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine. But it is an awful way to govern a great nation. When politicians as lawyers begin to view some Americans as clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the role of the legal system in our life becomes all-consuming. Some Americans become "adverse parties" of our very government. We are not all litigants in some vast social class-action suit. We are citizens of a republic that promises us a great deal of freedom from laws, from courts, and from lawyers. 
 
Today, we are drowning in laws; we are contorted by judicial decisions; we are driven to distraction by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives. America has a place for laws and lawyers, but that place is modest and reasonable, not vast and unchecked. When the most important decision for our next president is whom he will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and the law in America is too big.  

 

When lawyers use criminal prosecution as a continuation of politics by other means, as happened in the lynching of Scooter Libby and Tom Delay, then the power of lawyers in America is too great. When House Democrats sue America in order to hamstring our efforts to learn what our enemies are planning to do to us, then the role of litigation in America has become crushing. 
 
We cannot expect the Lawyers' Party to provide real change, real reform or real hope in America Most Americans know that a republic in
which every major government action must be blessed by nine unelected judges is not what Washington intended in 1789. Most Americans grasp that we cannot fight a war when ACLU lawsuits snap at the heels of our defenders. Most Americans intuit that more lawyers and judges will not restore declining moral values or spark the spirit of enterprise in our economy..

Perhaps Americans will understand that change cannot be brought to our nation by those lawyers who already largely dictate American society and business. Perhaps Americans will see that hope does not come from the mouths of lawyers but from personal dreams nourished by hard work. Perhaps Americans will embrace the truth that more lawyers with more power will only make our problems worse. 
 
The United States has 5% of the world's population and 66% of the world's lawyers! Tort (Legal) reform legislation has been introduced in congress several times in the last several years to limit punitive damages in ridiculous lawsuits such as "spilling hot coffee on yourself and suing the establishment that sold it to you" and also to limit punitive damages in huge medical malpractice lawsuits. This legislation has continually been blocked from even being voted on by the Democrat Party. When you see that 97% of the political contributions from the American Trial Lawyers Association goes to the Democrat Party, then you realize who is responsible for our medical and product costs being so high!

One Big Moose!

By the length of his beard and the grey legs, I figure he must be over 10 years old. He looks to be well over 8 feet at the top of the shoulder hump,and with his head up the height to the top of his antler must be about 12 feet ..

This guy is king of the forest, no bear or pack of wolves would dare come after him when he has this rack......
Considering that a dirt road can fit 1 1/2 cars across... THIS IS ONE BIG MOOSE!
THE PICTURE WAS TAKEN IN ELLIOT LAKE
Yes it is a regular size dirt road.

Letter to Obama from a 95 year old Veteran!

This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaii for his seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all over the country. A humble man without a political bone in his body, he has never spoken out before about a government official, until now. He dictated this letter to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president.    

 

Dear President Obama,     

          My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.

So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can't figure out what country you are the president of.  You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

·   "We're no longer a Christian nation"

·  "America is arrogant" - (Your wife even announced to the world,"America is mean-spirited. " Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny andhopelessness.)  

I'd say shame on the both of you but I don't think you like America nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said," America hasn't lived up to her ideals."  Which ones did you mean?

1. Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British ?

2. Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War ?

3. I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers,husbands,and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII,because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around because we stand for freedom.

4. I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.  Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves. 

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don't want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts who was putting up a fight ? You don't mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don't want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists. 

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job.  When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.

You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now. And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.

Sincerely,

Harold B. Estes

 

When a 95 year old hero of the "the Greatest Generation" stands up and speaks out like this, I think we owe itto him to send his words to as many Americans as we can. Please pass it on.

Bend Over....Here Comes More Change That Was Voted For!

Obama recently approved a 2% salary increase for all Federal employees effective January 1, 2010.  Members of the  executive, legislative and judicial branch are due for an automatic pay increase in January as well.  All this on the backs of seniors who will not incur any COLA  increases for several years.

For  the first time in history, the Congress will not allow an increase in the social security COLA (cost of  living adjustment). In fact, The Henry Kaiser Foundation predicts there may not be any COLA for the next three years.

*However, the per person monthly  Medicare insurance premium will be increased from the  2009 premium of $96.40 to $104.20 in 2010 and to $  
120.20 for the year 2011.

Remind all seniors that you know. Remind them to not vote for the incumbent senators or Congressmen in the 2010 and the 2012 elections.

Reasons For Carrying a Handgun!

 I like this guy.. he thinks like I do.. if your going to shoot them don't leave them standing. 

 

 

Clint Smith, Director of Thunder Ranch, is part drill instructor, and part stand-up comic. Here are a few of his observations on tactics, firearms, self defense and life as we know it in the civilized world.   "The handgun would not be my choice of weapon if I knew I was going to a fight. ...I'd choose a rifle, a shotgun, an RPG or an atomic bomb instead."   "The two most important rules in a gunfight are: always cheat and always win."   "Every time I teach a class, I discover I don't know something."   "Don't forget, incoming fire has the right of way."   "Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets. I may get killed with my own gun, but he's gonna have to beat me to death with it, cause it's gonna be empty."   "If you're not shootin', you should be loadin'. If you're not loadin, you should be movin', if you're not movin', someone's gonna cut your head off and put it on a stick."   "When you reload in low light encounters, don't put your flashlight in your back pocket. If you light yourself up, you'll look like an angel or the tooth fairy....and you're gonna be one of 'em pretty soon."   "Do something. It may be wrong, but do something."   "Nothing adds a little class to a sniper course like a babe in a Ghilliesuit."   "Shoot what's available, as long as it's available, until something else becomes available."   "If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That's ridiculous. If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have to be paranoid for."   "Don't shoot fast, shoot good."   "You can say 'stop' or 'alto' or use any other word you think will work but I've found that a large bore muzzle pointed at someone's head is pretty much the universal language."   "You have the rest of your life to solve your problems. How long you live depends on how well you do it."   " You cannot save the planet. You may be able to save yourself and your family."   "Thunder Ranch will be here as long as you'll have us or until someone makes us go away and either way it will be exciting."   More Excellent Gun Wisdom.......   The purpose of fighting is to win.  There is no possible victory in defense.  The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.  The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental. Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck. I carry a gun cause a cop is too heavy. When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away. A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers.  The reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him 'Why do you carry a 45?' The Ranger responded, 'Because they don't make a 46.' An armed man will kill an unarmed man with monotonous regularity. The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented on his wearing his sidearm. 'Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are you expecting trouble?' 'No ma'am. If I were expecting trouble, I would have brought my rifle.' Beware the man who only has one gun. He probably knows how to use it! 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' -G. K. Chesterton A people that values its privileges above its principles will soon lose both. 'Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.' ~ Thomas Jefferson

The Gathering Storm!

Friends,
Please note the excellent piece of art (The Gathering Storm) that is shown above. When the storm finally hits (and it will), those of you who supported the Obama administration will be affected as well. It won’t just be us gun owners or Flat Taxers, or Pro-Lifers that get hit. You’ll be right there next to us.

You see, you all thought the Conservatives were nut cases. You know, all of us who believe in God, small government, the Second Amendment, etc. And you thought you could just go back to sleep after the election was over. In your world, America will continue as before. You’ll still have the same rights, the same nice house, the same big screen television – it’s all good. After all, your high school football team won and the other team lost – go team! Even if you have bothered to look up from the daily grind since Nov 4th, you dismissed everything that has occurred as “politics as usual” – “the same old stuff”. In the end, it’ll all be OK won’t it?


Not this time. There are a growing number of citizens in the US that are ready to fight to shut down the government’s grab of personal freedom, it’s blatant abuse of the constitution, and it’s attempt to replace the American way of life with socialism. You have to listen carefully to hear them, but they are there. I won’t start that fight, but when it goes down I will join it.

As for you, why… you’ll be shocked because you didn’t see it coming. And eventually you’ll be saddened when you see that we have truly lost the way of life with which you grew up. You’ll be saddened that your children and grandchildren live in a socialist, government-controlled gulag where their every movement from cradle to grave is tracked by the government. But most of all, you’ll be saddened by the death of friends and relatives who are brave enough to fight and die for something they believe in.

You know, McCain wasn’t much of a candidate. I’ll give you that. He was the lesser of two evils for most of us. I don’t blame you for not voting for him since, at the time, you didn’t know what we all know now. But at least John McCain was an American. He was a supporter of the American way of life and he understood that you can’t negotiate with terrorists. He understood and appreciated the sacrifice made by my father and other members of the Greatest Generation.


Mark my words friends.. All across America groups are forming. They are forming out of anger and out of desperation at the thought of losing America . They’re not militia groups, terrorists as the Department of Homeland security would have you believe…. they are Americans, loyal to the constitution. They are mothers and fathers and grandparents. They belong to groups like the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, the Peaceful Resistance, the Constitution Party, the Young Conservatives, the 9/12 Project, and Grassfire. Right now they are fragmented, each focused on their own cause. But sometime in the next two years, our government is going to do something really stupid and these groups will come together. Watch for it, wait for it…get ready. It will happen.


When that event happens, whatever “it” is, our great country is going to plunge into chaos for a while. I pray to God that we make it through that time and emerge a stronger, smarter country.


Jerry Wilson
Live Free or Die Fighting

Letter From Grandpa!

John G. is 63  years old and owns a small business. He's a life-long Republican  and sees his dream of retiring next year has all but evaporated.  With the stock market crashing and new taxes coming his way,  John assumes now that he will work to his dying day.

John  has a granddaughter. Ashley is a recent college grad. She drives  a flashy hybrid car, wears all the latest fashions, and loves to  go out to nightclubs and restaurants. Ashley campaigned hard for  Barack Obama. After the election she made sure her grandfather  (and all other Republican family members) received a big I  told-you-so earful on how the world is going to be a much better  place now that her party is taking over.

Having lost both  roommates, Ashley recently ran short of cash and cannot pay the  rent (again) on her 3 bedroom townhouse.. Like she has done many  times in the past, she e-mailed her grandfather asking for some  financial help. Here is his reply:

Sweetheart,

I  received your request for assistance.
Ashley, you know I love  you dearly and I'm sympathetic to your financial plight.  Unfortunately, times have changed. With the election of  President Obama, your grandmother and I have had to set forth a  bold new economic plan of our own..."The Ashley Economic  Empowerment Plan." Let me explain.

Your grandmother and I  are life-long, wage-earning tax payers. We have lived a  comfortable life, as you know, but we have never had the fancier  things like European vacations, luxury cars, etc. We have worked hard and were looking forward to retiring soon. But the plan has  changed. Your president is raising our personal and business  taxes significantly. He says it is so he can give our hard  earned money to other people. Do you know what this means,  Ashley? It means less for us, and we must cut back on many  business and personal expenses.

You know the wonderful  receptionist who worked in my office for more than 23 years? The  one who always gave you candy when you came over to visit? I had  to let her go last week. I can't afford to pay her salary and  all of the government mandated taxes that go with having  employees. Your grandmother will now work 4 days a week to  answer phones, take orders and handle the books. We will be  closed on Fridays and will lose even more income to the  Wal-Mart.

I'm also very sorry to report that your cousin  Frank will no longer be working summers in the warehouse. I  called him at school this morning. He already knows about it and  he's upset because he will have to give up skydiving and his  yearly trip to Greenland to survey the polar  bears.

That's just the business side of things. Some  personal economic effects of Obama's new taxation policies  include none other than you. You know very well that over the  years your grandmother and I have given you thousands of dollars  in cash, tuition assistance, food, housing, clothing, gifts,  etc., etc. But by your vote, you have chosen to help others --  not at your expense -- but at our expense.

If you need  money now sweetheart, I recommend you call 202-456-1111. That is  the direct phone number for the White House. You yourself told me how foolish it is to vote Republican. You said Mr. Obama is  going to be the People's President, and is going to help every  American live a better life. Based on everything you've told me,  along with all the promises we heard during the campaign, I'm  sure Mr. Obama will be happy to transfer some stimulus money  into your bank account. Have him call me for the account number  which I memorized years ago.

Perhaps you can now  understand what I've been saying all my life: those who vote for  a president should consider the impact on the nation as a whole,  and not be just concerned with what they can get for themselves.  What Obama supporters don't seem to realize is all of the money  he is redistributing to illegal aliens and non-taxpaying  Americans (the so-called "less fortunate") comes from tax-paying  families.

Remember how you told me, "Only the richest of  the rich will be affected"? Well guess what, honey? Because we  own a business, your grandmother and I are now considered to be  the richest of the rich. On paper, it might look that way, but  in the real world, we are far from it.

As you said while  campaigning for Obama, some people will have to carry more of  the burden so all of America can prosper. You understand what  that means, right? It means that raising taxes on productive  people results in them having less money; less money for  everything, including granddaughters.

I'm sorry, Ashley,  but the well has run dry. The free lunches are over. I have no  money to give you now. So, congratulations on your choice for  "change." For future reference, I encourage you to try and add  up the total value of the gifts and cash you have received from  us, just since you went off to college, and compare it to what  you expect to get from Mr. Obama over the next 4 (or 8) years. I  have not kept track of it, Ashley. It has all truly been the  gift of our hearts.

Remember, we love you dearly....but  from now on you'll need to call the number mentioned above. Your  "Savior" has the money we would have given to you. Just try and  get it from him.

Good luck,  sweetheart.

Love,
Grandpa  

Christmas Cards for Recovering Soldiers

When doing your Christmas cards this year, take one card and send it to this address. 

A Recovering American Soldier

c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center 

6900 Georgia Avenue, NW 

Washington , D.C. 20307-5001

Think of how many cards these wonderful people who have sacrificed so much would get. 

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. 
~~ George Orwell ~~

We are headed for another failed Presidency!

I picked up this article and it is a good descriptive lesson on why this latest President is going to be failure. He is not in touch with main stream America!

An article from American Thinker by Geoffrey P. Hunt

Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson.  In the modern era, we've seen several failed presidencies--led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ.  Failed presidents have one strong common trait-- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party.  Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China 20.

But, Barack Obama is failing.  Failing big.  Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message, and is overexposed.  Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.

But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months?  His poll ratings are in free fall.  In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage.  This truly is unbelievable.  What's going on?

No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative.  No, not a narrative about himself.  He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else.  But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us.  He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us.  All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our    own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are.  Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, and Reagan.

But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, is historically illiterate, and woefully small-minded for the size of the task--all contributory of course.  It's that he's NOT one of us.  And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper.  Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience.

In the meantime, while we've been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he's dissed just about every one of us--financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job.  Expect Obama to lament at his last press conference in 2012: "For those of you I offended, I apologize.  For those of you who were not offended, you just didn't give me enough time; if only I'd had a second term, I could have offended you too."

Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state--staggered terms for both houses of the legislature and the executive.  An equally abominable Congress can get voted out next year.  With a new Congress, there's always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again two short years after that.

Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them.  The coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along.

"The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~~ Margaret Thatcher: 

"When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both." ~~ James Dale Davidson, National Taxpayers Union

"The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." ~~ Tacitus

"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own." ~~ Unknown

Who's Really Running the Show?

I have no idea who wrote this but it sure makes sense. I would have asked how can he be traveling and giving speeches all the time and taking vacations and at the same time be doing anything real!!!



                         Who's Really Running the Show?

I have been having a nagging intuition lately that something is not quite right about Barack Obama.  I am not suggesting there is something wrong with the man, per se.  Nor am I talking about the crazy, even dangerous, policies coming out of the White House.  No, lately, I have been wondering if Barack Obama is, in fact, the person who is actually functioning as President of the United States.  I mean, there's no doubt that he fills the position of POTUS but is he really the one in command?  The man actually seems lost at times.  He seems to be reacting to ideas about which he does not really have a clue.  He has left the writing of this health care bill to Nancy Pelosi's House of Representatives and she, in turn, has farmed the writing out to several fairly radical community action groups. When questioned about health care, he seems not to know or understand the details and even with his silver-tongue seems unable to demonstrate any leadership on the issue. With respect to Afghanistan and the rest of our foreign policy, he seems equally lost.  Especially when it comes to dealing with other world leaders.  He makes beautiful speeches but seems to be unable to cut deals which benefit our nation.  He seems to be acting as a pawn of much more clever world leaders. The more I watch the man, the more I see a person who appears to be the "face" of some other entity or group.  He seems like a "front man".  And it is becoming clear that his strings are being pulled by someone else.  He does not appear to be the man in command of the ship of state.  At least, he is not in the driver's seat.  You might recall that people said about Bush that he was a front man for the neo-cons and that it was really Dick Cheney that was running the show.  It turns out that Dick Cheney was not as influential in Bush's second term as many thought but, perhaps it is true that the neo-cons, whoever they may be, were pulling some of Bush's strings.  On the other hand, with Obama, it does not appear that there is anyone who is visible to we the people or the media who is pulling the strings.  If they are there, they are not in elected positions as Cheney was.  They are better hidden than that.  We know that he has been and remains surrounded by life-long radicals,  professed communists and anti-capitalists, some of whom he has even appointed as czars in his administration.  Thirty six czars, to date.  But is it Obama who is picking the czars or is it the czars who are running the show and propping up Obama as their front man? I know all this may  sound crazy but, really, when you look at the man without the idolatry and media worship,  does he really look like he knows what he is doing?  Does he seem to have a direction?  Firm convictions?  Something he deeply believes in?  The more he talks  now, the more his words seems empty of content.  Platitudes about America and the American people which, when he says them, simply do not ring true.  They are words being mouthed but not believed by him.  Okay, so maybe he is really clever, is firmly moving the ship to the left while mouthing the words of a centrist but I don't think so. What I used to think was that he was a really slick conman who was making us watch his left hand while he was manipulating us with his right.  But, now I don't think that so much. I think the man is more plastic than real. Now I begin to see him as the "Great and Powerful Oz": a fearsome presence who is being manipulated by men behind the curtain. And while Obama does not have strong convictions, the men behind the curtain do. And they are moving this country down a dangerous path.  All the while, we are being distracted by Obama and what he says and does.  Okay, maybe I am simply a mildly paranoid conspiracy theorist.  Why, you might ask, have Obama up there?  Why not have one of the actual people behind the curtain run for President.  Well, being a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I can come up with an answer to that question. Those other people behind the curtain have backgrounds that are so radical that they would never have made it past the first few days of a campaign.  Additionally, they are life-long community organizers and they know what kind of face can be effective if you wish to radically change the nation.  First, you need a black man to gain the support of the vast black minority.  Second, you need a pale skinned black man so as not to be too much of a threat to white Americans.  For the same reasons, you need a mixed race man who allies himself with the poor and down-trodden.  And you need someone who speaks well enough to co-opt the language of the right and appear to be a uniter, not a divider.  Someone who sees, or at least can articulate,  both sides of an issue. This is the kind of man you would pick to be your front man so that while you move things drastically and dramatically left, the vast majority of Americans will not believe that was the intention of the moderate appearing front man. Yes, Obama was a community organizer.  Yes, he could be clever enough to have all this be his idea.  But he really wasn't a community organizer for that long.  And when he was, he didn't do anything truly radical.  It was more a time during which he was being trained than a time when he was driven by a personal sense of commitment to anything in particular. There are people who are now in his government who have been community organizers and radical left wing activists for 20-30 years. These people have deeply ingrained commitments to changing the system and have been actively trying to do so for all that time. Obama is not one of them.  In my view, Obama has been trained and used as a puppet by others for a long time.  His successes seem to have come too easily, as if they have been orchestrated.  His life appears to have been pre-planned.  I mean, Harvard Law Review without publishing a single paper of note.  That is unusual.  A community organizer for a short time, a State legislator for a few years, a  freshman US Senator, a convention key-note speaker, and then POTUS.  How does that happen?  A person with zero governmental administrative experience is running the entire government of the United States.  How do 1100 page documents get developed and put out in such short order?  Who is writing all these proposals?  Does it not seem that something is just not quite right here?  Forget about the specifics of the policies for the moment.  Have you seen this level of activity in the first few months of any other administration in your lifetime?   Does Obama seem like the kind of person that could manage this level of activity in so short a time?  Too much does not make sense here.  So, slowly but surely, I am becoming convinced that it is not Barack Obama who is running the show.  The White House has been captured by a group of people who are using Barack Obama as their front man. He is nothing but an articulate but empty suit.  We have to start looking behind the curtains to find out who is really controlling the "great and powerful Obama".

                              Something to think about..............