Memorial Day 2010

I remember, Major David G. Taylor

“Only the brave, who have stood the line, can comment on what has been done out here. And the glimmer of democracy and liberty in this once biblical land is a wonderful thing to behold. There are many who would say we are failing – but they are the doubters and the weak. Your son had courage and was one who believed in the true value of freedom.” – LTC John Holden, a British officer in the Queen’s Royal Artillery in a letter upon the death of my friend, Major David G. Taylor who was killed in action in Baghdad Iraq on October 22, 2006

“David once mentioned to me that there are those people who merely talk about America and our wonderful freedom, rights and privileges and then there are those who step up and put their money where their mouth is. David came from a long line of military men. Our proud and decorated father, David Sr., was an armored cav. officer who did two tours in Viet Nam, his father-in-law, Joe Thresher, served in Vietnam, our grandfather, Kenneth Taylor, was a WWII naval officer, and our other grandfather, JC Overman, was a staff sergeant who was critically wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. Our great-grandfather, John Overman Sr. served in WWI and our great-uncles served in WWII.” – A eulogy by John Taylor, brother of Major David G. Taylor

It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag. – Charles M. Province

(photo borrowed from Arlington Cemetery’s website)

You have no enemies, you say?
Alas, my friend, the boast is poor;
He who has mingled in the fray
Of duty, that the brave endure,
Must have made foes!
If you have none,
Small is the work that you have done.
You’ve hit no traitor on the hip,
You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip,
You’ve never turned the wrong to right,
You’ve been a coward in the fight. — Charles MacKay (1814-1889)

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. – Winston Churchill

Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, ‘What should be the reward of such sacrifices?’…If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. – Samuel Adams

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty. – John F. Kennedy, Democrat

The world has no room for cowards. We must all be ready somehow to toil, to suffer, to die. And yours is not the less noble because no drum beats before you when you go out into your daily battlefields, and no crowds shout about your coming when you return from your daily victory or defeat. – Robert Louis Stevenson

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. – Dwight David Eisenhower

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. – Albert Einstein

There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it. – Anonymous

For more see the quotes page.

Good luck with the new better paying job, Rita Wilson

theblogprof: NJ Teacher who complained of low pay to Gov. Chris Christie makes >$100,000 with benefits.

Quote of the Day

Here is the Golden Rule of sound citizenship, the first and greatest lesson in the study of politics: You get the same order of criminality from any State to which you give power to exercise it; and whatever power you give the State to do things FOR you carries with it the equivalent power to do things TO you. – Albert Jay Nock

via DPGI

Yes, honey…

DRUDGE REPORT 2010®

Yes, honey, I miracle-d that sucka shut and saved the world again. I had to make sure they suffered long enough to remember how much they need me and my leadership.

Taking things to a whole new level of creepy

Palin’s new neighbor turns out to be a legendary journalist:

Sarah Palin has a new neighbor in Wasilla, Alaska, and he’s not just any old regular joe.

The former Alaska governor posted on her Facebook page Tuesday a shot of the back of a blue-shirted, chino-clad man who she says is famed author Joe McGinniss.

“Yes, that Joe McGinniss,” Palin writes. “Here he is — about 15 feet away on the neighbor’s rented deck overlooking my children’s play area and my kitchen window. Maybe we’ll welcome him with a homemade blueberry pie tomorrow so he’ll know how friendly Alaskans are.”

McGinnis is perhaps best known for his youthful book on the Nixon campaign, “The Selling of the President 1968,” which has become a classic of political journalism. But he has also written a book on the oil pipeline in Alaska, and his “Fatal Vision” from 1984, on the Jeffrey MacDonald murder trial, became a popular cause celebre.

McGinniss is a master of immersive journalism, and he is currently writing a book about Palin. (She was also the subject of a none-too-flattering profile by McGinniss in Portfolio last year)….

An e-mail to McGinniss’s publisher, Broadway Books, and to McGinnis, as well as a voice mail left with his agent, were not immediately returned. Broadway Books told the Associated Press, “McGinniss will be highly respectful of his subject’s privacy as he investigates her public activities.”

That is a topic McGinniss has joked about before, writing last July on his public Facebook page beneath a photo of Palin as a young woman, “Why won’t media leave her kids alone when she’s trying so hard to protect their privacy?”

The President Says You’ve Got Enough Money

Dan Kennedy:

In a recent speech, President Obama declared, “at some point, I think you’ve got enough money.” And it’s what he thinks, not what you think, that matters. That goes double for what he thanks about your money.

There lies – bare as can be – the irrefutable evidence of the president’s true ideology (socialism or worse) and of just how serious a threat he is to this nation.

The only things yet to be determined are:

1. What is that point at which you’ve got enough money and should have the overage confiscated?
2. Are there different points for different people? (I’m betting there are.)

To my knowledge, no one in the media has demanded he state the number….

During a conference at which I just spoke, the owner of several companies showed me a pair of cufflinks he’d just had custom-made, engraved with the words “Who Is John Galt?” If the president isn’t familiar with Ayn Rand’s Galt, he might want to read up.

This business owner said the cuff-links were the last item other than absolute necessities that he would buy until Obama was an ex-president. He said he was sending out a letter to the restaurants and shops he patronized, his dry cleaners, the service companies that tended his lawns at his homes – over 200 different business owners – letting them know that President Obama had determined he was making too much money and was too rich for reason. Therefore, he was going to cut sales and production at his companies by half, himself work but one day a week, cut business spending to the bone and personally buy nothing – other than vacations out of the country – until the president exits.

North Korea cancels naval treaty

Does Kim Jung Il have the stones in his pantsuit to see this through?

North Korea has announced it is canceling a treaty with South Korea designed to prevent accidental naval clashes. The step has been taken in response to Seoul blaming Pyongyang for a torpedo attack that sank a South Korean warship.

Tension on the divided peninsula rose after a team of international investigators said a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sunk a South Korean warship on March 26, killing 46 sailors. North Korea has denied involvement and warned that retaliation would lead to war…

On Thursday, North Korea’s military said it will “completely nullify” an inter-Korean accord aimed at preventing accidental armed skirmishes along the disputed western sea border — a scene of three bloody maritime battles between the two Koreas.

“Immediate physical strikes will be launched” against any South Korean ships that intrude into North Korean waters, the country’s military said in a statement, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

So ronery…

His highness, the Purple Heart Prince, speaks

All pay heed and try not to laugh.

John Kerry Says Voter Anger at Washington Is Hypocritical

Times are tough, especially among those still looking for good jobs, but Sen. John Kerry doesn’t think Washington’s to blame. In fact the former Democratic presidential candidate, concerned with the anger voters are aiming at Washington, says that his party and President Obama are doing a ship-shape job. [See which industries contribute to Kerry's campaign.]

“We’ve come back,” he says of the nation, Wall Street, and the economy. “This is an amazing resurgence.”

Kennedys and Kerrys, let’s hope Massachusetts continues its recovery when Lurch comes up for his next bid by retiring his tired, pompous ass.

This just in from the party of the little person, the mistreated worker, the average joe, the downtrodden

What to Eat on a $17,600 Date With the President

So what does $92,000 an hour buy you in food? If you’re President Barack Obama it gets you a plate full of hors d’oeuvres, a salad and ribs.

Mr. Obama’s 19-hour whirlwind Bay Area fundraising trip filled Sen. Barbara Boxer’s wallet with $1.75 million and he used a $17,600 a person dinner at the Getty Mansion in San Francisco to bring in the big bucks.

[...]

Of course guests were given the opportunity to smile and take a picture with their favorite fundraising president. Worth the $17,600 price tag? You tell us.

More opposition to immigration laws

Activists blast Mexico’s immigration law

Arizona’s new law forcing local police to take a greater role in enforcing immigration law has caused a lot of criticism from Mexico, the largest single source of illegal immigrants in the United States.
But in Mexico, illegal immigrants receive terrible treatment from corrupt Mexican authorities, say people involved in the system.

And Mexico has a law that is no different from Arizona’s that empowers local police to check the immigration documents of people suspected of not being in the country legally.

“There (in the United States), they’ll deport you,” Hector Vázquez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, said as he rested in a makeshift camp with other migrants under a highway bridge in Tultitlán. “In Mexico they’ll probably let you go, but they’ll beat you up and steal everything you’ve got first.”

Mexican authorities have harshly criticized Arizona’s SB1070, a law that requires local police to check the status of persons suspected of being illegal immigrants. The law provides that a check be done in connection with another law enforcement event, such as a traffic stop, and also permits Arizona citizens to file lawsuits against local authorities for not fully enforcing immigration laws.

Yet Mexico’s Arizona-style law requires local police to check IDs. And Mexican police freely engage in racial profiling and routinely harass Central American migrants, say immigration activists.

“The Mexican government should probably clean up its own house before looking at someone else’s,” said Melissa Vertíz, spokeswoman for the Fray Matías de Córdova Human Rights Center in Tapachula, Mexico.

Smoke and mirrors?

Two more Census workers blow the whistle

You know the old saying: “Everyone loves a charade.” Well, it seems that the Census Bureau may be playing games.

Last week, one of the millions of workers hired by Census 2010 to parade around the country counting Americans blew the whistle on some statistical tricks.

The worker, Naomi Cohn, told The Post that she was hired and fired a number of times by Census. Each time she was hired back, it seems, Census was able to report the creation of a new job to the Labor Department.

Below, I have a couple more readers who worked for Census 2010 and have tales to tell.

But first, this much we know…

Different views on Obama heading off on yet another vacation this Memorial Day weekend

Everyone knows Obama’s distaste for our military and his attention to them since day one has been forced and not voluntary. His history on this subject is clear, so why does he choice of a date weekend in Chicago surprise anyone?

From the first day of Obama’s campaign for the White House, his treatment of the troops whether skipping out on visiting them when in Europe, snubbing our Medal of Honor winners on inauguration night, or his treatment of widows and mothers of our fallen has made clear that we, the veterans and current members of our armed forces, are no more than photo ops and poltical fodder for his own poltical aspirations.

So I thought I would compile a few other reactions I found enlightening to share with you:

Obama to skip Arlington Memorial Day wreath laying (via Mayrant&rave)

Situated in the center of Washington DC’s Arlington National Cemetery is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, engraved with the poignant words:

“Beneath this stone rests a soldier of Washington’s army who died to give you liberty.” Each Memorial Day mental images are conjured up of statue like honor guards standing at attention 24 hours a day, 365 days a year alongside that very tomb.

Formerly known as Decoration Day, the first Monday in May also calls to mind the President of the United States being saluted by the U.S. Military Honor Guard. Then, to symbolize deference to those who lost in service to the nation he leads, the President slowly approaches the Washington Square gravesite and solemnly lays a flowered wreath on the sun-bleached crypt.

Although somber and respectful, this Memorial Day will be different because, one week following the death of five troops in Kabul, Barack Obama has decided to forgo the Arlington Cemetery tradition of commemorating dead soldiers and instead intends to fly to Chicago for an extended weekend.

According to a White House press release,

President Barack Obama and his family will travel to Chicago, where they will spend the weekend. On Monday, the President will participate in a Memorial Day ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois.

Also on Monday, the Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will host a breakfast for Gold Star Families at the White House. Afterwards, the Vice President and Dr. Biden will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

After witnessing two brutal terrorist attacks, one at Fort Hood and another at Little Rock and after six-hundred soldiers killed in Afghanistan grew to nearly 1,000; and as the U.S. military prepares for the biggest battle against the Taliban to date –Obama downsizes his personal Memorial Day observance, skips town and kicks back for a holiday in Chicago.

Unfortunately, the Afghanistan and Iraqi war heroes buried in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, whose ceremony Obama has chosen not to attend, will not be returning home for a barbeque this weekend, or ever, for that matter.

Although absent from DC, there is a good possibility epicurean adventurers Barry and Michelle will honor dead soldiers this Memorial Day by visiting a trendy Chicago eatery or two, trailed by a gaggle of paparazzi.

It’s great to know Barack Obama will be relaxing during a “casual” weekend with friends while Operation Hamkari Baraye Kandahar gets underway and as Joe Biden lays a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for a vacationing President who seems unwilling to suffer the smallest inconvenience to honor those who sacrificed everything.

Author’s content: http://www.jeannie-ology.com/

In Defending Barack Obama Skipping Memorial Day, the Left Calls Dead Soldiers ‘Political Props’

The problem for Barack Obama is simple.

The troops don’t like him no matter how much the White House propaganda machine tries to gin up staged pictures of Obama voting soldiers fawning all over him. But see the tepid response from cadets at West Point or talk privately with lots of soldiers and sailors and you get something else — they fundamentally do not respect their Commander in Chief.

There was no question they respected and loved Ronald Reagan. Same with George H. W. Bush, the last veteran of World War II to serve as President.

Obama? Not so much. And what does the left do when you point this out? They equate dead soldiers to political props/ Seriously.

By suggesting this President, in the midst of a war, should probably be going to Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day instead of taking his second vacation in a month, conservatives are somehow suggesting he use dead soldiers as political props.

After eight years of the left demanding publicity of flag draped coffins returning to Deleware from overseas to use as political props against George W. Bush, it is more than a little humorous to have the left now accuse the right of doing the same. It also ignores a fundamental point leftists too busy calling our soldiers “war criminals” and our dead soldiers “political props” miss — going to Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns has nothing to do with using dead soldiers as political props and everything to do with a Commander in Chief who seems to not like the military showing some basic respect to the men and women, alive and dead, who have actually kept us free.

Obama may talk about the government in the first person, but the men and women lying at Arlington know differently.

Of course, Obama really doesn’t like the military, does he.

President Obama’s Epic Victory over Hypocrisy

President Obama will not be attending the annual Memorial Day events at Arlington National Cemetery.

Not because of pressing matters of state but because he will be vacationing with his Klingon war bride in Chicago.

I am grateful for the President’s courageous stand for at least two reasons:

1. The man does not love this country or the ideals that those interred on that hallowed ground died for. He sees America as evil and a root cause of all of the world’s problems both real and imagined. Among the rows of graves at Arlington are some of the greatest Americans who ever lived but these are just regular Americans and not the academic, political elite that the President holds in much higher esteem. A man who holds American exceptionalism in such contempt should never let his shadow fall on ground carved out as a symbol of respect for the very best this country stands for.

2. Thanks to his principled stand against honoring those whom he loathes I will not be forced to hold back that scream of disgust when he would lean forward with all of the fake sincerity of a porn star screaming and desecrate something that I personally hold so closely.

Quote of the Day

via Obama gets an earful in clash with GOP senators

“He needs to take a Valium before he comes in and talks to Republicans. He’s pretty thin-skinned.” Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

Or, he could just regress from academic back to student.

Thanks for the ride, Jack

24 is dead. Long live 24. See you at the movies.

The headlines of HOPE® and CHANGE®

DRUDGE REPORT 2010®.

But don’t you worry America, everything is under control.

Remain calm. All is well.