The Dead People I See: Kate's Diary

K.A.T.E.'s Diary has 13 tales, each of which has changed me forever more. This is number 5.

I called him Ahab the Arab. One mean Iraqi son of a bitch. I would watch him from afar. The pistol wielding, short tempered squat man would not hesitate to beat, abuse and even shoot women. One child he set on fire, the screams I could hear on that breezy afternoon over a half mile away. The screams I still hear to this day; on occasion awakened by them - sometimes prevented even from drifting off to sleep because them.

On one fateful day Ahab the Arab was identified. A target of opportunity and only the four of us knew where he was. He was not why we were there and taking him off the list would compromise far too much. I watched the slaughters, the abuses and even watched him order his mangy ass mutt to attack a toddler.

The days were hot and long. Watching these things happen was a mental torture to wish on no man.

It was an unusually cool morning. Ahab's pistol was replaced with a machete. He was going to be extraordinarily cruel. The relief of the cool did nothing to ease the discomfort in my gut wondering what he was going to do that day.

A truck was greeted in the courtyard by Ahab. It is who we are waiting for. Instead of engaging we are told to withdraw. Shortly there after, the truck and its occupants left. The long days of observing chalked up to character development training. Instead of pulling back, we waited for the sun to begin to crest behind us. We needed them blinded.

Ahab was not to be outdone by his prior acts of cruelty. The machete was blazing, the women too scared to run. They stood still, heads down hoping to not be the one.

910 yards, dry, still; a cool day turned hot. The machete would fall, but not on any the women awaiting it.

Clear. Oddly so actually. The single best vantage point I have nested in. The even slow pull unleashed two weeks anguished. The recoil straight. No vapor trail would follow, but I knew it was true. Ahab went to draw up his arm in vile hate when the full metal jacket enacted the inertia of kinetic energy in such a way that the signals sending his arm in motion were seized as the spray of blood red gray matter announced he was now a mere dead man waiting to fall. The "martyr" erased by the rogue. By the time the shot was heard a second round was already inbound. That damn dog.

One of Ahab's cronies moved for cover. Too little too late. The second observation post sounded off with a single shot. He dropped slowly and silently. Another stood still, hands out from his sides facing into the sun; praying. He waited, I left. No shots followed that day.

Remorse; none. Ahab the Arab was maniacal and merciless. He was the banality of evil incarnate.

Going in to this, the last thing in the world I expected to encounter was a person such as Ahab. You hear about them, you read about them, but you never expect to experience them. They are supposed to be there and we are supposed to be here. Two opposite entities in a world that are never to cross, or so we think. They both exist; they are just not supposed to intertwine. It is horrid when they do.

Regret; I really did not have to kill his dog.

That scream has come back in recent hours. The boy burning alive before my very eyes. The sickening feeling came back with that scream, that shrieking. I woke to it at two this morning and saw not the child but the dark lifeless eyes of Ahab. When I hear the screams, I always see the eyes; always. So many times he looked directly at me. He'd stop and stare as if he felt me watching. My pillow covered in sweat as I arose in the wee hours to not return to sleep. They give me headaches you know, the night sweats. The memories of Ahab and what seems like so many others. A crucifix that connects the days of the past to today and the days of tomorrow. My burden for my deeds, actions for which only I can atone.

It's a burden that haunts. It chews away at you slowly and methodically. You think it goes away while in reality it roots itself deeper while you are not paying attention to it. It's an ugly world when the bringer of death is the protector of life. Polarities united in one. An awful, awful, wakeful world.

They're repressed. Ahab and the others. Compartmentalized and relegated to the darkest corners of my soul. A place to which I unconsciously have sworn to never return. Years later they are escaping. Compartmentalizing them means compartmentalizing my entire life, something I am extremely skilled at anymore. Because they don't mix well, nothing can mix. Opening up means letting them out. Ahab deserves to not have his story told, he deserves to rot in the bowels of hell. Even his despicable side need not be known to you. His memory should have perished and burned with him. His existence completely erased.

Ahab was number five. What scares me most about Ahab; I felt nothing. Never even watched him fall; dismissed him when I pulled the bolt action to the rear. Trained on the dog is what I did. That was sheer and honest hate. A feeling that none of us should have towards the other. Ahab is why my temper is controlled to the degree that is today. To get that angry, that hateful towards another can never again happen. Some have seen it my eyes. "You have rage PJ." Dawna Wilson once said to me. She had no idea.

I have to admit, it gets easy to make excuses; even when they pertain to yourself. Excuses absolve and allow you the luxury of believing more in the excuse than in the reality it seeks to suppress. Even for someone like me who believes in accountability to such extreme degrees, excuses have infiltrated my psyche. They come in the form of rationalizing what is happening rather than looking at what is happening for what it actually is. Oddly, I only do this when it comes to my sleeping patterns. I am a minimal sleeper by nature. A couple of hours and I’m good. Or so it used to be.

Those damn headaches started and everything changed. From virtually no sleep to not being able to get enough sleep. This was an obvious reaction to the cluster headaches. The only time I was not in pain or nauseated was when I was sleeping; which inevitably would be interrupted by the headache’s return. Those months of my life were the worst months to have been alive… the headaches were just that bad. Almost three months they lasted.

Since then, my sleeping patterns have never been the same. I never had a circadian rhythm, so I blew the change off. Years later I have identified a pattern. As of late, I have been able to ward off the headaches… but not the nightmares; yet. You see, it works this way.

I will begin to sleep deep and hard for a week or two. As the deep sleeps progress, I get these images in dreams. They mean nothing individually, just small pieces of a very large and very complicated puzzle locked deep in the recesses of my mind. Buried away, out of the light of day – until I sleep deeply in the early stages of a pattern that is again unfolding. Slowly they merge to connect horror to reality. One of the pieces of the puzzled dream that begins to take its own form. Always a smell, a sound or a feeling and never a vision of an object or face; they always come later. That is what brings on the night sweats and nightmares.

The deep sleeping has again returned. It has been about a week now. Dismissed to the cool fall nights in the Arizona Mountains. The images of seeming nothingness led to the hoot of an owl. I love owls. Their calls calm me. This owl’s call took me back time to a place locked deeply away from all other aspects of my life. A compartment within a compartment. That of a child slaughtered by my hand. The nightmares are close at hand now is what this means; not that the cool, fall nights in the Arizona mountains are helping me sleep better; where owls just happen to be plentiful.

Kate's Diary has 13 Tales; this is number three. The Owl and the Hog’s Tooth.

I was a good shot. From what I was told, only the third Corpsman to go through Scout Sniper school. “Damn, you’re a good shot.” I wasn’t really; I just understood the math and science. Being a geek has it benefits. Cold air does what cold air does, as does warm air, as does humid and dry air. The earth’s spin, the wind and gravity all have their impact; some are variable and some are constant. The art behind the science is a simple matter of pitting these factors against the constant of ballistics in order to predict a precise outcome. It is all quite simple for a Philly kid who spent his school years nose deep in books. Some shooters are better at this than others. Being wrong means missing which could prove fateful. If not for you, even worse; for someone you have sought to protect.

I hated the Barret. It was 30 pounds of serious ass kicking; for the shooter that is. A day on the range with that beast will leave you feeling as if you had been in a train wreck wishing you had not survived. Never would I volunteer for such torture. But, I was “a good shot” and sometimes you just have no choice in such matters. Thirty pounds of weapon accompanied me into the depths of the sweltering jungle. Full of joy I was not. The good news was the other snipers had to go deeper into the jungle than Mitch and I. We parked in a crevasse atop a cliff overlooking a valley patrolled by American Forces. The problem was from across the valley. The Sailors on patrol where not known for their skills on land. More concerned about haste than their own safety, they were a sniper’s wet dream come true. Our job was simple. Interrupt the dream at half mast.

An owl perched above. His call deep… immediately followed by the feeling of dread. I readied and sighted in on the spot I would most likely take if I were “him” hunting troops in the valley below. There was no movement, but if he was going to show, this would be the point of both his arrival and subsequent departure. The breeze gently blowing the leaves to the east met with branches and grass from the valley floor below. How had I not noticed?! It was him. Sitting against a tree he watched and waited. One thousand twelve hundred and four yards across the valley, some fifty feet higher than our position. Advantage, “him.” Potentially in deep shit, us.

The week prior there had been four sniper attacks leaving one dead, two injured and one just plain old lucky for sneezing when he did. He preferred the longer shot and left no trails of his direction of travel. He preferred the head shot. Actually, he fancied the face shot. He liked the idea that his prey was looking at him. He was arrogant. He knew the range of our weapon systems and felt safe to unleash his fury from beyond reach of his foe. This guy I kinda liked. The owl brought him to my attention. I watched him of grass and dead branches feeling who he was. What he was not good at. The variables. The wind, maybe a slightly flawed weapon. No, the wind at distance was the problem. It was what he could not see that he could not anticipate. He should have been a book worm in his younger years. It would have made him an even better shot.

Studying his position it was evident he had four firing positions. One into the valley and three slightly downward to probable counter sniper positions. He was smart and seemingly experienced. Just not well read. It’s called air drop. In the warmth of a tropical day the air drops in the center of a valley despite its warmth causing a falling turbulence. You read such things out of boredom, but if you do not read them you don’t know about them. Think about it; when is the last time you and your buds sat around a table full of beers talking about air drop?

The owls call again in the middle of the hot tropical day. It was time. Across the valley there was finally movement. Drawn up was a rifle. A modified late model SVDK. Its devastating effects are not to be taken lightly. Tell tale was the ¾ side mount south paw scope. Poor, poor habits. “Just now picking up your weapon Slappy? Big, big mistake pal.” And the thunder of the barret echoed throughout the valley. He never stood a chance. The round sliced the thick air, matched the air drop and slid into the cross wind at the valley’s end; the red spray told a tale that has no end.

They say the best way to counter a sniper is with a sniper. The better man always wins. The smarter, craftier, more disciplined man has the advantage despite any seeming disadvantages. I wanted a trophy; the silver colored 9.3 mm overly weighted tool of his craft. We arrived to him the following day.

He was but a child. Thirteen or fourteen at best. Innocence was not lost; it was robbed from life by the hand of a man who understood the science from a lad who had yet to begin to discover the art. The drop was ever so slightly overestimated and the round impacted not in the chest, but very ironically in the top of the jaw just below his nose. Being hit by his SVDK at a thousand yard would be like being shot point plank by a .357. At 1400 plus given the drop it would have been like a 9 mm from 30 yards as his round of choice very quickly loses energy beyond 800 yards. Hell, he would have been lucky to even get within ten feet of me despite his elevated position. This child, though deadly, had not a clue as to what he was doing. On a 600 yard range he could blow an engine block, beyond that he failed to appreciate the science of ballistics. He was but a child, what do you really expect?

The reality of what I had done did not kick in right away. It was the first hand account of practically blowing a person’s head off that struck me. What remained of his head dangled by soft tissues of the neck on the left and what remained of the jaw bone on the right. The impact immediately severed his brainstem. Death was instant; as instant as the flash I am sure he saw. He never even heard the blast that followed a hand full of seconds later at that distance. The round exploded into the tree leaving him in shambles. The power of the barret was never in question. Seeing it firsthand a day later after wondering for a day leaves you removed from what you have done. Having a medical background, your curiosity is answered with; “damn.”

I picked the SVDK up, ejected the round destined for the fate of another and pocketed it. I had my hogs tooth. A sniper felled by a sniper. And that was cool. Mitch slung the rifle over his shoulder and we headed back down into the valley.

It was not until I was back in the States before I began to understand what I had done. Her name was Jeane, an old friend who had a son of thirteen. His curious innocence is what got me. He was so different from the child left sitting against the tree practically decapitated in the tropical region so very far away.

“PJ, what did you do on deployment? Did you have fun?” No one knew what I did other than being in the military. There is no discomfort in asking such a question. The only discomfort is found in not being able to answer it honestly. When he asked, I began to understand. I walked out. I could not even face this child. I got in my car, not saying a word and left. I drove for hours that night and then tucked it neatly away so I could move forward with my life. I was just beginning to put into perspective the impact I had on life itself.

It was when my son was born. That is when the circle of horror became complete. He was premature and tiny. I took him home wrapped ever so neatly in a receiving blanket the drowned his little body. I sat crossed legged on living room and lovingly laid him down and unwrapped him to see my little me and take him in for him. Pure and true innocence completely dependent upon me for survival. It was the single most incredible feeling in the world. Out of nowhere came the vision of this child left on a cliff of a tropical mountain on the other side of the world. Not so neatly tucked away after all. It marred the single best memory of life. To this day, I don’t know if my tears were of joy or that of pain. My wife said she had never seen that look on face before. That it scared her. Probably the latter. In looking back I freely admit I wish to not share the joy of my son’s arrival home with horror of the beastly things I have done to others. There are times when I look at my own son and do not see him; I see what was left on the cliff that day.

I spoke with my son on his birthday this weekend. He is eleven now and underwhelmed with the purpose of birthday celebrations. He liked his gifts, he appreciated them, but he did not see the need in recognizing a change in age that cannot be felt. He talked more about what he taught himself on his day from school. A chip off the old block that kid is. Not real sure if that is a good thing. In knowledge there is power and he knows that he can’t know enough.

His mother complains about the same things mom complained about when I was a child. I hated birthdays at young age too and my mom would explain that it was tradition.

“Just because it is tradition does not mean I have to do it.” I told her. She just shook her head. She’d complain that I would stop doing chores to sit down and read. My quest for knowledge through the priorities of others to the wayside. Interesting seeing genes at work. My son has the potential become the beast the military turned me into; and people wonder why I go through such extremes to fund his college now. In certain aspects I want him to be completely unlike me.

It’s funny. Before our last series of missions we had to undergo a battery of tests with one them being psychological evaluations. “ABNORMALLY WELL ADJUSTED FOR SPECIALIZED MILITARY OPERATIONS” it closed with.

Really?

The Choices of Pro

I was 12. Out in a vacant lot playing baseball with friends. Looking for a surprise homerun knocked out the "park" by the smallest kid playing, I got way in front of the pitch while swinging with all of the mini might I could possibly muster. I don't even think my eyes were open when I made contact. Toing! The aluminum bat sounded. And the foul ball screeched right over the fence which was the out of play boundary for obvious reasons. It made a bee line straight to and straight through Ms. Foster's second floor bathroom window. I never moved; I knew I was in trouble. I looked up and everyone took flight so fast they dropped the gloves and bats where they stood. Damn, I should have run too! But I hadn't and rather than let Ms. Foster find me, I went to find her. Knock, knock.

"Hi, Ms. Foster. I broke your window." My thought was that confessing would be enough. It's not like I had a job!

"I know. Your father is on his way." She very calmly stated. This scared me because Ms. Foster was NEVER calm! I did not know what my dad told her to bring her to a calm state, but I knew it was not good for me!

"Go home." Is all he said upon his arrival. At home it was not the firestorm I anticipated it would be. Just a lecture about being careful when playing baseball in the lot over there. He paid to have the window replaced. The good news was that breaking a window playing ball was a good problem to have considering all of the things I could have gotten into back on the inner city Philly streets. What I learned that day was even though I did something wrong, my father was ultimately responsible. Paying for a window, though the same in principle is a far cry from raising a child of but a child. Today, would be grandparents seek the means of escape using their own children as an excuse.

It's funny how the abortion issue seems to keep slipping its way back to the forefront. Brian posted a video this weekend that I could not help but share on my Facebook page. A 12 year old girl playing Monday morning quarterback on Obama's pro abortion position. (Make that "pro choice" before I offend the faint of heart).

It is one of those topics that just seems to generate a bunch of controversy as soon as the word the word is uttered. What's fortunate for me is that I am a guy and my input is actually limited. Let's face it, where the rubber meets the road, it is not my "choice" that really counts now is it? But then again, had the rubber met the road in the beginning, the topic would be all the more moot now wouldn't it?

Okay, the president is very pro choice, aggressively so and that is fine. Last I checked, he is allowed to be. He feels that his children should not be burdened with a child prematurely. Or is that a child or a pregnancy? There is a big difference and it is that difference that has caused the uproar.

Here's my contention on the issue. Let's use a word that we hear all too much now a days; "unsustainable." Everything we do anymore is unsustainable; our government spending, our deficit, social security system, health care reform... you name it. If America has gotten its hands on it, we have made it unsustainable. Believe it or not, this includes perpetuating life as Americans. Our birth rate has dropped to unsustainable levels. Yet, abortion and birth control are growing ever closer to synonymy.

Don't get me wrong, many mothers should not be! We see them every day, but they had the decency to become mothers, to be accountable for their actions and respect life. It is odd that we criticize them to the degrees that we do given the alternative.

What I can't figure out is why abortion supersedes adoption options. The parents perhaps. Maybe Obama is saying he does not want people to see him as the father of a pregnant teen daughter. No one wants to be the one with a 16 year old pregnant daughter. I know I don't. Out of our parental comfort (or lack thereof) we "force" them into having abortions and will the associative emotional scaring onto their unready shoulders and off of our own. Or so we think.

The fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of teens who have abortions before the age of 17 have a child before 19 anyway. Simply put, two lives for one. A significant amount of young mothers have more than one child before 20 after having an abortion prior to 17. I find this interesting because the abortion comes by "force" (parental influence) and is followed by choices of their own, choices that go directly against the previous wishes of their parents. Many move away from home, many marry, but as a standard, their choices seem to stand in direct resistance to their parents.

When I stop and think and think about it, I can't fathom the guilt associated with having an abortion. But I can imagine the level of rebellion that would result from being manipulated into having one by parents who did not want to deal with the situation. The way I see it, having one child far too soon with the support of the now new grandparents is better than having a child a little too soon with less support.

I do know that as children get older, the thought of a new baby is all but nightmarish. Here our child is all but ready to fly from the nest and we see our lives being relegated back in time to when it was most stressful. So rather than go back in support of our children (who after all, are our responsibility) we take the easy way out at their expense.

If we are at unsustainable rates of reproduction as a people, why would we foster an environment that only ensures our eventual demise? Each passing year we become more selfish and less altruistic. Since not every would be mother is not yet ready to be a mother other options abound. Options that are place out of sight because we insist upon ourselves over all else to the point we will eventually be no more; one child at a time - literally.

Abortion is not a very complicated issue when you stop and think about it. No, not everyone is ready or fit to become parents. Biology foils both socio-economics and personal responsibility, but biology is not something that can just be turned off and on. Instead we intermittently force it off to allow for personal comfort over personal responsibility. It is to suggest that the condition of pregnancy is not worth the life it brings forth; even if that life is better off in the hands of another for the long term. If nine months is too much to ask in the name of life itself; we are a lost people that deserves not the sustainability we fail to understand. What's worse is a great part of this is being perpetuated by the parents, not those in the demographics having the abortions performed. Those defining the standard are demanding the wrong standards. Something is wrong when it is okay to have an abortion when virtually no consideration is being given to adoption. Adoption is more difficult to deal with. Everything is real and tangible so we steer clear of it not wanting to fully acknowledge the gravity of the circumstances. We have become weak and cowardly.

We say life begins within the womb, but our woeful decisions declare we have little emotional connection to any such reality. Sadly, we place the burden on the same youth we declare are not ready to become parents and force them into life and death decisions while expecting no repercussions. The repercussions are there, we just refuse to look at them for what they are and accept who is actually to blame.

Demons of Deviance

It's the deviant you know. Not only does he have the advantage, he has taken the advantage; fully. We are collectively concerned about what has happened with America and fearful of the direction in which America is heading. Recently polled Americans told a telling tale; only 26% felt America was heading in the right direction. The America train has not derailed; the deviant has hijacked it and taken the American conductor hostage.

First off, we must contend that deviance is attractive and we must openly admit this in order to understand the temperaments associated with the deviant. We are viscerally attracted to the deviant. We naturally like his smooth, suave swagger and attentively listen to his often overly ostentation orations. We like him until we discover who he is underneath. We find ourselves torn in defending him against others who see him for who he is before we do. Liken it to the bad guy always getting the good girl. She is enamored with the naughty nature of the deviant. The rebel without a cause swoons the good and is favored for his rebellion against the norm; and that is what a deviant is. A person who sways against the norms of social conditions. A deviant is not "bad" per se, but he can be all but pure evil when the good of social and societal norms are not forced upon him by the actual conductors of the American Train of Freedom and Liberty. The conductors have simply been asleep at the switch of the American course have allowed the deviant to assume full control.

Case in point; Charlie Rangel. Here we have a long standing, multiple time re-elected politician who sat on the Ways and Means Committee writing the very tax laws that he himself was cheating the American people out of in order to better meet his personal agenda. His words to the American people and his fellow elected officials when the charges began to rise were that Americans were not smart enough to catch him. Caught, he was censured by the federal government weeks after winning re-election in a landslide of wasted constituent votes that have now fallen moot. Deviance, when it goes unabated by the good in social norms always ends in epic disaster. The good conductors failed not only themselves, but Americanism in their support of the bad that can accompany deviance over the norms of good.

With the overwhelming majority of Americans clearly declaring that America is heading in the wrong direction, the same can be said for Americans in general where a deviant president was elected to bring changes to a nation that defied the elements that were actually good for the nation; even though many of them were considered "norms." In the wake of this reality, Americans are increasingly rebuking their support of such deviance and have in stunning numbers ousted Democrats representing the Obama deviant himself. In their place they have elected the norm of deviance when it comes to elected officials.

How do I know the newly elected will not yield the Americanism that Americans seek? Because Americans have long since stopped paying attention to whom they supported. It is a popularity contest of rhetoric over the conservative values Americans abide by in their personal lives. Born through political deviance is a culture of entitlement, absolution of personal responsibility, and deceit; all values that Americans individually do not cherish, but vote for in spite of themselves.

The Tea Party was born to return conservative values to politics which has begotten a Coffee Party designed to thwart in home values from entering politics which in turn led to a Tequila Part that aims to remove Latino voters from their default Democrat roots because a current Democrat regime is not "liberal" enough to trump the Rule of Law by unconditionally honoring blatant illegal activities within the nation's borders. That's quite the mouthful, but it is a mouthful of a rapidly deteriorating sense of Americanism. Given such political events and the efforts to instill a sense of entitlement over governing laws of the land, this new group of politicians will lack the in home values to return America to the stature of greatness it has lost in the previous two years. Deviance has consumed the nation and Americans are now forced to deal with its demons. Demons we have collected created by not insisting that those we elect are most like us and less like what they wanted to be.

Deviance in and of itself is not a bad thing and can yield great results when kept in check. We have failed to keep deviance in check by allowing ourselves to believe that controlling government was beyond our individual ability. How many times have you heard, "What can my one vote do about anything?" It is the deviant that has instilled this sense of American ineptness upon the people. It is time we reclaim what is ours by returning to the values we as individuals hold true and force them upon our elected officials. Allowing it to exist in reverse is what has placed America on a collision course with disaster.

Why the DREAM Act Failed

From my article.

Link: http://www.examiner.com/libertarian-in-phoenix/why-the-dream-act-failed

It has been an historic week in Washington D.C. The problem is that only half of the story is really being told by the mainstream media. Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) has been repealed and the DREAM Act has been shot down. It's only the former that is being hyped. It is as if the failure the DREAM Act will be overshadowed by the passing of the DADT repeal. Of course this is not true and whether or not the mainstream media wishes to give the DREAM Act's failure its deserved attention, America knows what happened, and you and I know what happened. Illegal is illegal, is what happened.

WIFM

Obama was "disappointed that common sense did not prevail" in the DREAM Act. "The DREAM Act is important to our economic competitiveness, military readiness, and law enforcement efforts," Obama said in a statement. And a telling statement at that.

"Our nation is enriched by their talents and would benefit from the success of their efforts. The DREAM Act is important to our economic competitiveness, military readiness, and law enforcement efforts. And as the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reported, the DREAM Act would cut the deficit by $2.2 billion over the next 10 years." The statement from the White House blog continued.

As we look at the blog posted on whitehouse.gov, certain things almost jump off the screen. Economic competitiveness and bold CBO predictions are of the first. Of all the lessons we have learned from this administration, they do little without their interests being placed before that of the people; the DREAM Act was no different. A picture of altruistic grandeur is painted while distorted facts hold the truth. According to the CBO report, the 2.[3] billion dollar deficit reduction boasted by the president is actually the governmental tax revenue to be generated by the new taxes placed on the immigrant worker. Additionally, the CBO report states the following; "CBO estimates that enacting S. 3992 would increase net direct spending by $912 million over the 2011-2020 period." What the report actually contains is a far cry from that of President Obama's claims.

Defiance of the law

Military readiness? How is military readiness connected to the DREAM Act? It's simple; under S 3992, a selected pathway to citizenship for those in the nation unlawfully was to be through military service. Sacrificed is not only "good order and discipline," but armed services regulations were to be cast aside to accommodate the non law abiding. Here is an example; Army Regulation 601-210, Chapter 2 clearly and unequivocally demonstrates applicant ineligibility for any individual in the United States unlawfully as it is explicitly required that applicants for service must be in the country lawfully; with supporting documentation. More telling is the fact that all branches of the service have similar eligibility requirements; none of the armed services provide unlawful residents a pathway to enlistment.

* United States Marine Corps; MCO P1100.72B, Chapter 3
* United States Air Force; AETCI 36-2002, Chapter 1
* United States Navy; COMNAVCRUITCOMINST 1130.8F, Volume II

These regulations, orders and instructions are written as such because they are all guided by federal law. Federal law prohibits military service of those in the nation unlawfully under Title 8 of the United States Code. All of which is overturned by a single sentence in S 3992, Sec. 13.

SEC. 13. MILITARY ENLISTMENT.

(10 U.S.C. § 504 : US Code - Section 504: Persons not qualified), is amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:'(D) An alien who is a conditional nonimmigrant (as that term is defined in section 3 of the DREAM Act of 2010).'.

Dream on

The DREAM Act was about taxation of a currently untaxed population within the nation's borders, not the reformation of a failing immigration system as the nation was led to believe. Constantly the nation was reminded about the "broken immigration system" in the U.S., but at no point in S 3992 is repairing the failing national immigration system addressed. The DREAM Act was a mere ploy to generate taxable incomes and generating liberal votes. It failed because the bill was far more transparent than the government that proposed it.

As the presidential blog is entitled, "My Administration Will Not Give," it is important to remember that though the DREAM Act has failed, America has not seen the last of amnesty proposals for those in the U.S. unlawfully. What the administration wants is the tax dollars while making representations that reform of immigration is more than amnesty, though changes in the immigration process are not connected DREAM Act. The future holds more dreams for a deceptive administration than it does offer hope to those living on the fringes of American society.
Works Cited

10 U.S.C. § 504 : US Code - Section 504: Persons not qualified. (n.d.). Retrieved 12 19, 2010, from Find Law, Legal Professionals: http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/10/A/II/31/504

Commander, N. R. (2008, 5 1). COMNAVCRUITCOMINST 1130.8H. Retrieved 12 19, 2010, from cnrc.nav.mil: http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/Publications/Directives/1130.8HVOL%20I_RecruitingOperations.pdf

DONALD L. PETERSON, L. G. (2009, 4 7). AIR FORCE INSTRUCTION 36-2002. Retrieved 12 19, 2010, from af.mil: http://www.af.mil/shared/media/epubs/AFI36-2002.pdf

George W. Casey Jr. General, U. S. (2007, 7 7). Army Regulation 601-210. Retrieved 12 19, 2010, from armypubs.army.mil: http://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/pdf/R601_210.PDF

J. W. Klimp, b. D. (1997, 12 10). MCO P1100.72B. Retrieved 12 19, 2010, from marines.usmc.mil: https://www.marines.usmc.mil/RS/CRC/MPPM.pdf

Peter H. Fontaine, A. D. (2010, 12 2). Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate. Retrieved 12 19, 2010, from CBO.gov: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/119xx/doc11991/s3992.pdf

Schulman, P. b. (2010, 12 18). The White House Blog. Retrieved 12 19, 2010, from whitehouse.gov: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/12/18/president-obama-DREAM-act-my-administration-will-not-give

Senator Richard Durbin, D.-I. (2010, 11 30). S.3992 - DREAM Act of 2010. Retrieved 12 19, 2010, from opencongress.org: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s3992/text

What the Democrats anticipate is major mid-term losses. Atonement for the lies and spending. Voter retribution for selling the American economy out to special interests, Modern Liberal agendas and the intent to Europeanize the world’s greatest nation.

The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund wrote in July, Democrat leaders are poised to lose the House and now realize their continued grip on the Senate is questionable at best.

When presidents come under too much fire, they appoint commissions. Like minded members from both parties to give the appearance that commission is “bi-partisan.” This bi-partisanship is as false as income levels of less than $250,000 not seeing new taxes under Obama. The commission is charged none the less with finding a way to cut a deficit now predicted to crest the $14 trillion mark. Their instructions from President Obama you ask? “Everything is on the table.” Such “enhancements of government revenue” could include acts of fiscal atrocities from entitlement cuts to the pillaging of retirement accounts. Last time everything was on the table in such a manner health care reform was forced upon the people by a government of which 60% objected to the program. Such concepts of governmental thievery should no longer be of surprise or dismissed as farfetched.

“Everything on the table” has an ominous deadline; 1 Dec 2010. That gives Democrats just enough time to pass lame duck legislation on how to support spending and reduce the deficit; tax increases.

Value Added Tax, (VAT), national sales tax, call it whatever you want; it is again on the table. The VAT is a system of taxes applied to all levels of production to a given product. The good news is you do not see it as a tax per se given the taxed increase is applied to the end product price. Invisible in broad day light the VAT is. The bad news is that VAT disproportionately impacts the lower income levels where end price increases hurt the most.

Another tabled item is corporate tax increases. A beautiful thing most think. Most who do not understand how corporations pay taxes tend to like the ideology of corporations paying more. The thought is they will in turn pay less. This is how corporations pay taxes; they don’t, the consumer pays them on their behalf. Tax increases to businesses and corporations are again reflected in the end cost of products and services. Taxing corporations, like the VAT is taxing the people; regardless of income level.

Economists universally support the concept that it is ill advised to introduce tax increases to a depressed economy. It is likely that the Democrats will allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. Bush tax cuts, Value Added Tax, corporate tax increases among many other reasons are why economists are becoming increasingly concerned of the Obama Administration inciting the rare double dip recession; which is all the more likely in the forth coming lame duck session of ill economic contempt.

Democrats have clearly stated that a lame duck session is their parting chance to move forward agendas of a party the American voting majority have vehemently resisted. Cap and Trade will again see the day light as seeks to tax light itself. Bush tax cuts will expire. The VAT will increase likely join hands with skyrocketing corporate to force prices for all goods and services to dramatically higher levels – all during the relentless grip of economic recession.

As the voter rallies towards voter retribution against Democrats who have promised the moon and only delivered foul cheese to the people, their parting swipe could be more damaging than their first economic atrocity of a failed stimulus.

The Problem and the Fallen

Actually, I did not know. I had no idea and I had not heard a word. I was knee deep in work and putting together a series of articles for an east coast paper and steered clear of current events to focus and concentrate my efforts. And then Memorial Day came. That is when I learned our fearless (and I use that term in jest) Commander-in-Chief bailed on our military’s Fallen to attend a BBQ in Chicago.

Just prior to Memorial Day we saw the military death toll crest 1,000 in Afghanistan; this just after an Obama administration pushed to develop a military service medal for exercising “restraint in combat.”

No, he is not the first the President to not be present at Arlington. Bush was in Normandy for Memorial Day in 2002. It is safe to say that the Obama defending Americans playing the Blame Bush game and cite (if they have not already) he failed to be at Arlington for a Memorial Day tribute. They are right; he wasn’t at Arlington on this day 8 years ago. He was in a foreign land where 29,000 US Service men lost their lives and where another 106,000 were injured and MIA – not at a BBQ in his old stomping grounds.

Having dedicated so much of my life to serving in the military I have an appreciation for the Fallen. This appreciation comes from the visceral understanding that some of those that have Fallen, did so, so that I may not – literally. It is daily that I mourn their passing and every second of my life that I cannot help but be thankful to them for allow the extension of the gift of life that they have so graciously granted upon me in their truly selfless commitment and dedication to service and country.

On Memorial Day, I appreciate a President that goes to Arlington and stands before the Fallen representative of all and says “thanks” from the highest free authority in the world. Not this year. This year a BBQ was more important than those who gave more to this great nation than this usurping president would ever think of giving. He celebrated, while the rest of the nation mourned. He respects the US Military men and women as much I respect a thief in the night. It becomes difficult to not view him in the same dim light of distrust.

The problem with this man is his blatant disrespect for the country that allowed him to ever happen. The problem with members of this country is that they fail to understand why he is the problem. Here we have military veterans that support him to such a degree they force themselves to overlook his egregious despise for who they are and what they represent to America herself.

Ironic is the fact that after his Chicago visit and Memorial Day washed out BBQ is the renewed vigor in Chicago gun ban efforts. One cannot help but connect the dots. Gun ban back room discussions are more important than honoring our Fallen Armed Forces men and women.

One Memorial Day some years ago while still in the military, I listened to a faceless President giving a very eloquent “thank you” to the Fallen while paying homage to the serving and granting best wishes to those aspiring to serve knowing they may Fall, and one day lay at rest behind another faceless President paying tribute from the highest seat in the land. My thoughts were on the bitter reality that it should have been I being thanked by that faceless President; not a friend. I had recently returned from a deployment that was destined to ensure the unit came back “light three.” Though the three had to be, one did not have to be who it was; it should have been me and he gave himself to me they day after giving me a family heirloom tied to his neck with a leather strap and making me promise to return it to his family for him.

Walking the long walk up the Reservation’s dirt road, they knew why I was there, why I was walking and what I was bringing. They put him to rest that day. From that, I appreciate Memorial Day for what it is.

We have a problem in America when the Commander-in-Chief cannot appreciate the Fallen. We have a problem in America when Americans see such disrespect as acceptable presidential behavior and move to dismiss it, deny it and attempt to justify it.

We have a problem in America when a Liberal Democrat cannot differentiate between himself and a US President who is anything but.

We have a problem in America and that problem is the President. A president that does not respect his own nation. A usurper that allows the denouncing of his own land before his own congress and fails to see that being respected is more important than being liked. We have a problem in congress that, for 30 seconds applauded after being directly ridiculed IN THEIR HOUSE, by a foreign president.

We have a problem in America.

We have a problem in America when Americans cannot see the problem in America.

An Open Letter To The President

Who would have thought, and yet many are thinking it.

By Lou Pritchett, Procter & Gamble

A LETTER FROM A PROCTER AND GAMBLE EXECUTIVE TO THE PRESIDENT*

THE LAST SENTENCE IS THE MOST CHILLING

Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America 's true living legends- an
Acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest
Rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize
Him as the foremost leader in change management.. Lou changed the way
America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to
Be known as "partnering." Pritchett rose from soap salesman to
Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and
Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.




AN OPEN LETTER TO
PRESIDENT OBAMA



Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike
Any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive
Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no
Visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth
Growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus
Don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned
Yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to
Publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail..

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America '
Crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style
Country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system
With a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly
Capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose
That lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of
Living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics
Against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from
Challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider
Opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both
Omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything
You do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the
Limbaugh's, Hannitys, O'Reillys and Becks who offer opposing,
Conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will
Probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett
*
*
This letter was sent to the NY Times but they never acknowledged it.
Big surprise. Since it hit the Internet, however, it has had over
500,000 hits. Keep it going. All that is necessary for evil to succeed
Is that good men do nothing.. It's happening right now.*

The Demise of American Small Business

“Is the recession over?” “Probably.”

We have been hearing since late summer and early fall – that the recession is/was over. Is it true? Let’s hope so. But why do we not see things getting better?

The fact of the matter is simple. It is all in the definition of “recession;” - A significant decline in activity spread across the economy that lasts longer than a few months.

When it is being stated that the recession is over, what is being declared is that the decline has stopped; nothing more and nothing less. Liken it to face planting off a 3 foot porch. You don’t fully feel its effects until you hit the bottom. Will it leave you with a bruised ego, a bloody lip, broken nose, or kill you from an undetected subdural hematoma? You don’t truly know until you try to get up.

Thus far we have experienced all of the above with the worst effected being small business. The divergence was most apparent last June when large companies, though still constricting began hiring a net average of 32,000 employees per month while the small business was losing 158,000 jobs in the same period of time. The difference between a bloody nose and subdural hematoma was glaringly obvious. Worsening the situation for Americans is the fact that 41% of the American workforce is employed by small business. The banks have since been incentivized by government to “not loan” and the once curable condition has become a death sentence not only for small business, but for any hope of a rapid recovery. It was almost as if someone placed a DNR sign outside the door of the American small business.

The recession being “over” is lauded by big and getting bigger government. It is hailed in a grandiose fashion as if to say, “We have made it through!” The reality is that it is just starting point in terms of difficulty. Having a recession end is followed by slower constrictions within small business. Businesses today are still shutting their doors. After the unemployment rate dropped to 9.2% it again climbed to 9.9%. This is a residual effect of small business where many have made it through the “worst” they lacked the equity to sustain in a persistently tight market.

The administration sought a jobs bill that was designed to extend unemployment benefits; not create jobs. Economic studies show that the more unemployment benefits are extended, the longer unemployment persists. Even the Obama administration economists have extensively written about the reality of unemployment benefits in terms of how they hinder employment recovery efforts. Take a look in your local paper and you will find available jobs. Take a look in your communities and you will find record unemployment levels. Go back to your local help wanted ads and you will find something that may surprise you, it is not small business running the help wanted ads; it is big business. This is because the small business constriction is still taking place.

Small business in America made a fatal move; reliance on credit. Credit both for the business itself and credit on behalf of their customers. As the recession began to take a firm foothold, demand decreased causing a drop in revenue. As credit tightened, the small business found itself with even less customers and credit to sustain itself on. The American small business owner soon learned that he or she was a mere ward of the bank and not a true owner. Unlike the early years when small business relied on cash transactions, they followed the new national standard of having more debt than equity. For this error in practicality, recovery will be prolonged. Big business has far more equity and thus buying power. Small business cannot get the loans that big business can. As big business begins its recovery, it will have less competition from small business which in turn will drive pricing up. Big business, the once willing participant in the market taker position, becomes the market maker with less competition for its products in a given geographic region. They once had to buy in bulk to undercut the small businesses prices who lacked the equity and buying power to take advantage of best pricing practices from distributors. Without the completion of small business they will assume 39% of the long term value creator which will have a direct impact on regional price variations. This all before the VAT and Cap and Trade.

Big business no longer has the need to grow to control. Their desire is to get back up to capacity rating, not grow beyond that due to cost variance of productivity. As they return to the profitable cost curves they will begin to conserve, not expand. The long term impact on small business is obvious. A person opening a small business with a product similar or identical to that of a large business will be instantly undercut as to not allow them to enter into a positive position in a cost curve (that they probably have never planned out to begin with). A small business will have a short run life expectancy. The failures will only further tighten small business lending.

Citing that 41% of Americans are employed by small business, which is still in its constricting phase; unemployment could fluctuate around 8.3% for a prolonged period of time. Remembering that the job loss/gain ratio between small and big business is almost an 80% differential, we can safely assume cresting 10% unemployment again is likely and as unemployment begins to ease thereafter, the decline will be slow and steady until such a time that big business sees its cost curves actualized at which point a new established unemployment standard will be established. An unemployment rate that is likely to be considerably higher and far more persistent that those of the past.

Under employment will become the new acceptable standard. Lost in the melee’ of job and budget cuts are those that have sought “lesser jobs” and part time employment to stay afloat. Moreover, the representations become more obvious with the increase of the marginally attached workforce who are NOT counted as “unemployed” because they “have not looked for work in the preceding four weeks” of the national unemployment survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. This population grew from 2.1 million to 2.4 million; in essence increasing unemployment to more than 10% by administration standards. Between those discouraged workers, the marginally attached workforce and the under employed, the situation becomes one of dire straits that is not fully appreciated.

In response, the Obama administration searches for relief for the unemployed. The unemployed do not relief, they need jobs. They do not have jobs because the demand for products and services is low. As demand begins to increase, the needs of the consumer are being increasingly met by big business. What the current administration has failed to realize is that legislation cannot increase demand. Only freeing up US dollars to US households can do that. A jobs bill that is statistically proven to ONLY lengthen unemployment only serves to further ensure the decline of the American small business and in turn devastates unemployment realities. Further complicating employment through demand is the new taxes the American consumer now faces. The smart consumer has begun to save under the threat of knowing how much products and services in the future will cost. The smart consumer knows their electric bill will increase 90% and the gas bill increase 55% under Cap and Trade while gas pump prices are likely to increase 74%. Couple that with the Bush tax cuts expiring and you have a fiscal issue within the American household that scares consumers. The likely hood of the VAT, the increase in premiums to pay for the “UnAffordable Care Act” that has crested the trillion dollar cost mark and you not only have the destruction of small business, but no opportunity for true recovery – ever. This is what happens when government attempts to spend its way out of a recession.

Bush spending was terrible, but Obama has out spent the Bush years seven fold in less than a quarter of the time. This is how we as citizens and taxpayers pay for the lack of governmental fiscal responsibility. Just as small business has relied on credit over equity, government has done the same. To offset the damage of government, the burden is placed on not government, but the taxpayer. This forces the taxpayer to focus on paying government for their wasteful ways and not supporting the economy. The demand decrease this will cause will not be fully felt until next year at which point it could contribute to a double dip recession. If the economy were to again ebb, the likely hood of a full recovery could prove impossible – even a recovery to the point at which the economy began its second recession.

Small business as it was once known could well be done in America. As much a victim of its own misgivings in financial prudence as it is victim of rouge government spending over two consecutive administrations. In its place, big business with big prices and big controlling interests in their communities.

Failing Freedom

Recently I had to make one of the single toughest choices of my life; to sell my interest in a business to the other partners.

You have to understand, going down with the ship is only honorable when the ship itself is worth dying for. The glory is only found when the ship is sailing on a course of honor. It only matters when the fight of the journey itself is worth the arrival to a destination of greatness.

The fight for and of the journey was no longer worth the arrival of a destination that drifted further and further into horizon; despite pursuing it with all the effort and conviction I could muster.

The American Dream is disappearing.

I did not leave small business for me, I left it for the same reason I ventured forth into it; I did it for my kids – they are great.

The problem with small business today is the same problem with the American Dream. It is being destroyed by the Modern Liberal dream of anit-Americanism. Success is punished and underachievement of social dependency is becoming the new status quo.

“There comes a time when you have made enough money.” - Barak Obama

This is to say that working hard and striving for more is to cease in order to not make the underachiever and socially dysfunctional – not envious. If all can’t be better off; no one can.

It is all about “fairness” anymore. Let’s all underachieve together shall we?

This America, I can’t say that I much care for.

We have become too over sensitive. Too lazy. And too stupid. So stupid that the Modern Liberal can no longer decipher what is wrong from right. A Modern Liberal America that has the nerve to defend a teacher and school for FORCING students to remove t-shirts adorned with the AMERICAN FLAG because it COULD BE offensive to ILLEGAL students.

A Modern Liberal America that boasts a DHS that finds pride in failed border security. A DHS that boasts thwarting a failed terrorist attack on American soil while the Vietnam Veteran, hotdog vendor that actually drew attention to it, remains humble.

A Modern Liberal America that cannot see such flaws in governance for what they are.

We are losing America to Americans that do not understand what America is.

We have all grown up with the same dreams; it is just that some have pursued it more vigorously than others. It is okay to want it, just so long as you don’t acquire it. For when you do, the Modern Liberal wants the rewards of the success of others for no effort on their own while they make excuses for not being able to do better.

Under direct attack in America is small business, not because people get “rich” in it, but because it is part of the Dream itself. The Obama administration has launched a series of systematic attacks aimed directly at destroying American small business. This is not to say that they will succeed at doing so given the resilience of Americanism, but to say that unlike the Modern Liberal, I believe my children’s futures are my responsibility – and if I fail, they fail. Small business in pursuit of a fleeting Dream was no longer worth the risk.

So, I did the responsible thing and sold my vested interest and entered a line of work that even the government will have a hard time destroying. My children are owed my 100% and that is all they will ever get out of me – even in my final dying breath.

Success, (as hated as this administration has made it and as vile as they have painted it, in order to force an emotive response of jealously while the Obama administration ushered in a new era of racism to bifurcate a great nation – by using black against blacks – by using black against whites) is still attainable.

The choice to change fields came over a period of six headache stricken, nauseating and stressful months. The choice to change came in the belief that if I were to uphold my responsibility to my children, it had to happen with 100% commitment. 100%.

And that is what is missing from Americans today. The willingness to give 100%. The fear of going all in and failing. The forgotten concept that being able to fail is one of the greatest luxuries of freedom ever adorned a nation. Contrary to popular belief, failure is an option that you can opt out of through determination, hard work, methodical calculation and good old fashion effort. You learn that by failing first; over and over again while believing on yourself enough to persist.

But, because failure exists, the American Dream is being destroyed and the nation turned into a controlled test tube where failure is not feared, it is forbidden through controls that systematically disable opportunity through risk. The beauty of failing is efforting a dream - no matter the result. It is experiencing the harsh reality of the price of freedom – first hand. Failing is living and humbling yourself to try again – harder and with more commitment. Failing is picking yourself up and dusting yourself off - then creating a better plan. The willingness to fail is the willingness to live free.

The will of America is being broken because this administration does not believe in America and the ideal that the costs of freedom are varied and run deep into the fabric of this great nation; a fabric being ripped to shreds by the anti-American Modern Liberal.

I have to tell you, it has been an interesting political week in AZ. This week AZ passed a sweeping immigration enforcement law. A law that proves the “silent majority” is reclaiming the nation. A law that is as controversial as it is needed. Well, the law is not controversial, but it is under great contention here in Arizona; so much contention that (out of the ACORN books of deceptive practices) schools in Los Angeles have bussed students into Phoenix to make the protests appear larger than they actually are.

But, we have to look at this for what it is. The protests are based on the state being forced to develop a state law to enforce laws that the federal government has deliberately ignored over the years. Now that a state has clearly parted ways with the federal government’s lack of desire to not only enforce laws, but secure the border; in even in spite of national security issues.

See video footage on how easy it is to enter Arizona from Mexico here.

When I was stationed in Yuma, as the medical department senior enlisted leader, I was called out to remote fence lines on several occasions where bodies had been discovered of illegals seeking entry to the nation. On several of these trips Muslim prayer rugs were discovered; the incidents, all reported to the DHS have resulted in the same lack of action – a porous border that threatens the lives of illegals not up to making the arduous journey and lives of Americans at the hands of Islamofascists that after years of training in Middle Eastern deserts, can easily make the unhindered trek into the country from Mexico. Arizona decided that enough is enough and national security and the economy are more important than perceived Liberal political correctness. For this Arizona is criticized for doing the right thing.

The ACLU and others have protested and swore to sue Arizona for the bill. Their emotive followers have not once made mention how this bill will save lives; not once! Not once have they even considered that aspect of it. What they have set their sights on in a single provision within the bill that states local police authorities will have the ability to inquire about citizenship. In Arizona, the overwhelming majority in the state illegally are Mexicans and the Liberal leap in logic that has been made is “if you look Mexican, you will stopped randomly by police asked for proof of citizenship” – racial profiling. Not mentioned in this argument is what the bill goes on further to say. The bill clearly states that law enforcement personnel cannot stop a person based on race alone, but need “reasonable suspicion.” Nor is it mentioned that in addition to the bill was an executive order mandating training of all law enforcement before enacting the bill with the specific intent of ensuring civil rights violations would not be made as Arizona moves to secure the state, stabilize the economy, while making both the state and nation safer!

What has happened here in Arizona is the same thing that plagues the nation; leaps in Liberal logic where assumptions are made long before any attempts to self educate are made. The Liberal media is listened to and supported for not telling the whole truth and thus emotively driven protesters stand in long hot demonstration lines, take multiple hour bus trips and lose money for leaving work – all due to ignorance.

Moreover, race is yet again used as the motivating factor! Conservative writers that have not read the bill, have given a new depth to the argument; constitutionalism - a word now echoed from the mouth of a president who deliberately ignored the constitution in passing health care reform and is on record for saying he does not even like the constitution because it is too limiting to him. The arguments are laden in hypocrisy and fueled by ignorance. This all because people insist that not enforcing federal law is the way to go. This all because not improving the safety of our nation by securing our border is the right thing to do.

Those in opposition to this have very interesting things to say. Excerpts from the comments left on my last article:

Entry: S.B. 1070 Is Now State Law
Posted/Updated: 04/23/2010 06:17 PM
mike newmann - This is just wrong. This is a racist law, the immigrant community does no harm to others

Entry: S.B. 1070 Is Now State Law
Posted/Updated: 04/23/2010 06:29 PM
Mexican-American Teacher - Arizona will be safer from what? Mexican terrorist attacks? Come on! This law is not only unconstitutional its plain out outrageous and ridiculous. If you want to secure the borders, increase the border patrol. This law will only waste our tax dollars. How ironic! They will use my own tax money to stop people like me, (BROWN)! As for Joe Arpaio’s comments on channel 3 regarding this bill: I highly doubt that any “Patriotic American” will be willing to take jobs held by current illegal immigrants. I just can’t picture white supremacists getting off their asses to work the fields of Arizona like my grandparents once worked the fields of California.

Entry: S.B. 1070 Is Now State Law
Posted/Updated: 04/23/2010 06:37 PM
brown power - she had to be white fkin racist people man

Entry: S.B. 1070 Is Now State Law
Posted/Updated: 04/23/2010 06:37 PM
Sergio - I feel that the state of Arizona is blaming the immigrants for the fact that the state is dead broke. Seriously think about it, unemployment rates may be high, but the Latino community in the state is a great contributor to the state's economy. I'm still in awe, wow. I could definitely agree with many of you: Today, I feel ashamed to be a resident in Arizona.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Defended in these positions “are not” enforcing federal immigration laws that date back to 1875. One commenter stated that Arizona was once Mexican territory and the people should have free passage. I once owned a house in San Diego, but it is unlawful to sneak in through the window, make myself dinner and crash on the couch – if you want it, don’t sell it! Another commenter said schools and businesses will close behind this measure. Schools and businesses ARE closing and in part because of monies lost to not enforcing such federal where billions of state dollars are lost in supporting, providing medical services and educating those here illegally. Excuse after excuse is made to NOT enforce laws with no consideration to how this problem has contributed to the dire straits we are currently in – none. The resistance to this is solely to support the continuation of doing what is wrong, lawfully immoral and a threat to the American way of life while compromising national security.

Annie and I had a discussion on my Facebook page about this. Her concern was that she, as a weekend gardener would be “targeted” by law enforcement because her work vehicle is an older model van and she is Mexican. Annie will be glad to know that under the provisions of this bill, she will not be stopped for the reasons that have so stereotypically embroiled debate when a state decides to do what is best for both its residence and the nation.

What we have to remember here is that America is quickly losing Americanism do to the Liberal insistence that America is bad because it is unique. America is the only nation in the world born of direct intent and not out of internal tyranny, fraud, or by mistake. Embraced today is “reform” of this that and the other thing; the whole time forgetting that if you consistently enforce first, you do not later have to reform with the intent of never returning to what should have been enforced to begin with! In 1986 an amnesty program was passed thinking the program would curtail illegal immigration. It in turn only enabled further illegal immigration which has devastated the American economy. When we deliberately do wrong, it becomes difficult to return to higher standards and higher values. The resistance to this is the objection to the return of a better America because it demands more of its citizens. It demands responsibility. It demands accountability. Those who wish to not meet the higher standard actually wish not be responsible for meeting the higher standard and not be held accountable for the outcome; they then object. It is easier for many to strive to meet a lower standard – even when that lower negatively impacts their future and pursuit of happiness. What Arizona has done was stood up to a failing federal government. Oddly, only 33% of Americans feel the nation is currently on the right track with this administration. A state is wise to move in the opposite direction of the Obama administration. Those who object today will be far more than grateful tomorrow! It is a medical myth that growing pains actually exist. It is a reality that growing pains hurt!

You're Liberal When You're Drunk

The two beer buzz sets the tone for the evening out. Well, four beer buzz since we drink tall boys. You know that point when you are out drinking with friends and the mood takes it true shape as that perfect little buzz sets in. Will it be a calm and mellow night? Perhaps a wild night? Maybe a night of harassing the lesser cerebrally enabled? You know everything you need to know three quarters of the way through that coveted second beer.

It is the released desire in the mitts of the adult ego state taking a much needed break. Your inner liberal rears it emotively driven head and begins to speak while allowing you the freedom to do the unthinkable.

Suddenly, you know what is better for others than they know what is best for them. Your sentences start with “you should” and “you need to” because in your liberal ego state in the absence of adult mindedness, all around you are no longer adults competent of making their own decisions.

You are the high and mighty and they are but the minions looking for some one to follow in the absence of their own self competence. Your advice is for them, not for you as you spew words of pseudo wisdom that you yourself cannot adhere to. Being heard is far more important then being honest.

The advice you give is ideal, not practical. Your prior failures in life become accomplishments to anyone that will listen and you insist upon yourself over the voice of reason. You turn liberal when you drink.

Hypocrisy becomes the standard, a lie is but a mere twisted truth as you determine life’s course for others; regardless of what they want.

When you’re drunk, your dirty laundry is suddenly neat and dry cleaned hanging well organized while you explore the depths of the closed closets of others.

You determine that all others are inept, incompetent and stupid as it is your duty to save them from themselves. You are liberal when you are drunk.

If you're drunk, then what the hell is Obama’s problem?!

Reframing the Framer's Framework

Where the parties go wrong is espousing rhetoric over values. To be honest, it drives me crazy! How Liberal is a Democrat and how Conservative is a Republican? And I mean that seriously. Liberalism that was once was adorned with such words as “ask not what your country can do for you…” Words that were further right arguably than the practices of ANY Republican in office today. This is why I believe many “Democrats” with strong Liberal values currently stand against an administration that has embodied any thing but true Liberal values. Ideologues themselves, are supported by ideologues only.

What is supported is nationalized health care; because of the ideals it is based upon. Overlooked is the truth. Truth in the mandate is unconstitutional. Truth in the numbers – it is now predicted by the CBO that in 2019 only 10% eligible will actually be covered, while all are taxed for it, that number down 50% from just December. What is attractive is the concept of the state (government) providing to its people - a direct conflict to the values the Framers used in developing the Constitution and exactly why they limited (forbid) government’s ability to mandate programs of this or any nature. Thus, the modern Liberal has forgotten what Americanism is because it is easier for government to take care of the people than it is for the people to take care of themselves as the Framers intended that they do. The modern Liberal has simply forgotten it was such mandates by a tyrannical government that lead to the development of America to begin with. The modern Liberal is simply not a Liberal at all.

It is believed that “people die on the streets because they do not have health insurance.” A farce based on government rhetoric. People without insurance die because they feel their health is not worth the expense of being healthy. What has happened is simple. People live outside of their individual means to provide for themselves and have grown to expect government meet their needs for them. The American of today spends 30% of their income on necessities, with $1200 in savings and an average of 56K in debt. Health insurance is cast aside to “keep up with the Jones’.” Implementing a mandate to insure does not change the financially inept’s ability to meet their own responsibilities as the Framers intended they do.

This is NOT unique to Liberals in government; if anything they are following Republicans on this issue citing the fact that the first big push on mandated health care was carried out by the Nixon administration following the death of not only Kennedy, but Liberalism itself. Given “values,” no Liberal or Conservative would ever stand for such a measure! Where they would agree is that means need to be sought to provide an alternative insuring option that forces the insurers to compete for greater catchments; a measure directly omitted from the new law mind you. The result is premiums will INCREASE for those who have already decided that they cannot afford insurance to begin with! More damage than good has bee done with this bill, but it is not seen for what it is because it is not contained within the confines of rhetoric spewing from government sources and thus the modern Liberal proponent of the measure has little to say beyond the scope of emotive response and what the elected Democrats tell them to say.

Moreover, today’s Liberal nor Conservative can accurately define political values outside of what they told by government, nor can they define liberalism or conservatism without the use of Wikki! It is this loss of political self identity that has lead to a political impasse between the parties. As individuals begin to define what they do and do not support, more common threads are found than are actual differences BECAUSE the political belief structures are inherently MORE similar than they are dissimilar! The majority of American’s believe in personal accountability and personal responsibility. They believe in the right for the individual American to pursue their right for prosperity. It was not until the Modern Liberal took office and emotively enabled a nation of Liberals to embrace that which is not Liberal as a common political footprint. The dangers of this will result in an America that is anything but American as far America was intended to be. This becomes interesting when today’s Conservative and today’s Liberal cannot begin to discuss the 28 Principles the Framers used to create this great nation. How then can either group state, with any credibility whatsoever, what is or what is not American? They can’t. And because they can’t, they base their arguments on GOP and Democratic rhetoric devoid of the truth, with no full understanding of how our current course as a nation will is leading us away from a nation that was destined for greatness by its very design. Our concepts of Liberalism, Conservatism and Americanism are thus based in gross ignorance. America is being lost to Americans that do not know what “America” actually is! This is how I know the fight for America has already been lost.

We can split hairs over whether global warming is man made and taxing the people into not using resources is the right corrective action and we can debate whether it is the government’s responsibility to provide and force the purchase of insurance all we want. These discussions however, are of no true value or meaning if we as a people fail to understand why we are here in this position, or how the events that lead to this position defy what Americanism was meant to be. We must reframe from both the cognitive and emotional perspective the framework of the Framers in developing the Constitution to even begin discussions on Americanism. We cannot speak to how great a job Obama is doing if we have not the base of knowledge to understand how he and his policies impact the intent this nation was founded under. We cannot support a Tea Party that was founded to give rebirth to Conservative values if we cannot define conservatism. We should not speak on items of discontentment if we do not know why the subject matter defies Americanism. The time to stop being GOP and Democratic puppets has long since past. The time to fully appreciate and understand how both parties have defiled the American Dream has arrived. The time to become self educated with freedom from the emotional shackles of government intent is upon us; if we are to save an America that the average American cannot even define. We, as Americans are now in dire straits as we face a nation being delivered to economic oppression as we allow it to be driven to a likeness of ever failing European Economies!

As Americans, we have failed America by taking America and Americanism for granted. We have failed America by not appreciating why America was founded. Moreover, we have failed Americanism by thinking the America we have loved would be there for us without us being there for her! The reframing of our political value system is the very essence of American survival. This time, we must embrace it, or leave America to a state of permanent Anti-Americanism.

Tax Day Blues

The dreaded trip to pay the taxes. When you think about it, it’s a good problem to have. Paying taxes means you could be much worse off. It means that in the year that has crippled so many, you still have managed to have something to show for it. It means that you, at least to some degree, have helped others less fortunate. It means you just got screwed by the government too!

I pay my taxes quarterly and use the final quarter to “adjust.” I do this because one fat check is four times as painful as four smaller ones. This year I made less, but maintained the same tax bracket. OUCH! That hurt! How guys make in prison I’ll never be able to figure out because after that… I won’t be walking right for a few days!

Not that there is a problem paying taxes, like I have said before, it is a necessary evil. Really, where would we be as a nation without taxes? Then again comes the sobering aspect of what we must pay which does not always include the emotive response to why we must pay these taxes. On the drive back to the office I got to thinking about taxes and Obama’s ever sliding approval ratings. He thinks we are stupid. So stupid in fact that we cannot figure on our own accord what does and does not make sense. He promised no increased taxes to those making less than 250K a year which he followed with insisting on more and more tax cuts; while the whole time out spending Bush more than 7 to 1. He thought the American person would not figure out this would result in more taxes – regardless of their income level. As Terry says, “It’s just bad math.” We now know that 47% of Americans do not pay taxes. (Hold that thought while we compare who does not pay to what all people think).

66% of Americans feel the nation is over taxed.

Obama’s approval ratings on taxes dropped from 62% to 42%.

Obama’s disapproval rating is now 43%.

46% of voters feel their taxes will increase under the Obama watch of explicit economic fascism.

One cannot help but notice that even those NOT paying taxes are more than concerned. As well they should be!

Last year Americans paid 900 billion dollars in income taxes, but this is just the beginning of what Americans are paying. To comply with federal regulations, businesses and individuals forked over another 1.187 trillion dollars. Add to that the cost of federal enforcement and administration of 54.3 billion and we find Americans paying 1.24 trillion dollars. (The Canadian GDP last year was 1.32 trillion. That should serve as an indicator of the scope of our taxation. The 66% of Americans who feel the nation is over taxed are absolutely correct)! But, it gets better when you delve further into it.

The Code of Federal Regulations is now more than 157,000 pages long. Last year the Obama administration added an additional 3,503 new regulations which have all gone into effect. That would be one new regulation every two and a half hours! We all know who pays for these regulations, but the simple question is, how much do these regulations cost. Far easier asked than answered mind you.

The Office of Management and Budget selected 99 major regulations to do a cost analysis on. They estimated between 126 and 663 billion dollars. They essentially had no idea; other than who foots the bill – you and I. What the OMB could conclude was simple; such a burdensome regulatory system can stifle small business. How does that factor in to economic recovery? It stifles that too!

And then you have to add in the forgotten factor of Obama allowing the Bush tax cuts expire. To Make it simple, let’s break it down.

Bush:

Single making 30K – tax $4,500

Single making 40K – tax $12,500

Single making 50K – tax $18,750

Single making 60K – tax $9,000

Single making 75K – tax $18,750

Single making 125 K – tax $31,250

Obama revising the Bush cuts:

Single making 30K – tax $8,400

Single making 40K – tax $14,000

Single making 60K – tax $16,800

Single making 75K – tax $21,000

Single making 125K – tax $38,750

I suppose there is really no need to venture forth any further into income levels given the fact that all of these increases affect those making less the 250K. Again, his promise was to NOT increase these taxes, but because he is letting the Bush cuts expire – he can blame the increase on Bush! The problem for Obama is that people are not as stupid as he makes them out to be. They know he could have kept the cuts in place and they know that essentially makes him nothing more than a person misrepresenting events that are transpiring – A LIAR! And for this, we all pay and support wanes. It is safe to say that next year there will be far less than 47% not paying taxes and America knows that. America also knows these increases will be felt during difficult economic times and very possibly followed by a Value Added Tax and only worsens as health care reform kicks in – the whole time hoping Cap and Trade never gets passed. Economic Oppression is afoot and his name is Barak.

Suddenly I am wishing all I was paying was income taxes. It is going to get far, far worse!

Talk About Missing the Mark! (A repost)

Talk about missing the mark!

Granted, some polls are far better than others and many of them you simply cannot trust because they are skewed to make a person appear to be ahead or behind. Such an example would be one of CBS fame that printed “0% of African Americans disapprove of Obama.” The flaws are obvious given the very person alone currently writing this. On the flip side of the coin are polls that just simply show what is on people’s minds and allow you to make what you want of them. One such poll revealed some startling concerns of the American people in terms of their priorities. As Obama Bashing becomes as much as a leisurely past time for many as does Bush Blaming for others, it becomes apparently clear that the Obama Bashing opportunities have been handed forth on a silver platter trimmed ornate gold.

The top three priorities for Americans this year are; strengthening the economy, improving the job situation and defending the US against terrorism. Clearly the administration has done too little and many will even argue that they have failed because so much attention has paid to three other areas; the stimulus, health care reform and cap and trade legislature. It is here is where they have missed the mark.

A year after the stimulus, the president is passing words on a spending freeze; something many of the best economists argue should have been done a year ago. Blow after blow suffered by health care reform was met by steadfast Democratic determination to get it passed. The ever echoing words of the president in regards to whether or not people want it have come to fruition. In fact, the people “who want it” has dropped steadily since 2005! (60, 59, 56, 54, 52 49% each year respectively ending in the 2010 survey of “providing health ins to the uninsured”). Not only does the word “mandatory” begin to make sense since fewer each year were actually listing this as a top priority, it makes sense why the arguments and rhetoric behind it have become so intense. The administration has insisted on an issue that was actually dead in the water before it started. Because of this, they used everything from race baiting to emotive desires like “broken” and the “American Holocaust” to incite and interest that clearly was not there to begin with!

Picking up the tail end of American issues of priority was “dealing with global warming” at 28%. As with its issue predecessor of wasted time and effort of providing insurance, it too dropped markedly over the course of the last several of years. In 2007 38% of Americans identified this as a top issue and it steadily declined to 35, 30 and to 28 percent this year. Perhaps this is because we suffered a severe winter making it difficult to support such allegations that man is warming the planet by driving too much, or even because Obama said his plan would “cause electricity prices to skyrocket.” Then again it may be that people have been brought to remember a not so recent attempt of such cap and trade style taxation with the ever thinning ozone layer at the hands of our gluttonous ways only to discover it was mere cow farts. Who knows and who cares? The bottom line is that the Obama administration has sorely missed the mark of the concerns of the people despite the fact that the people’s interests in their (the administration’s) agenda has been decreasing over the past years. Imagine if you would, where would we be today if the administration’s priorities were that of the people they are representatives of?

Of the bashings befallen Obama, the most consistent is that he is too self-centered to put the people’s agenda before that of his own. An ego maniacal narcissist or not, at least half the accusation is completely true. You simply cannot hit the mark if you are aiming at the wrong target!

If the stimulus were replaced with fiscal conservatism then instead of now, and the efforts on health care reform and cap and trade legislation would have been focused on the top the American issues of concern, Obama may not have hit the bull’s eye, but he would have at least been within the mark.

As we listen to rhetoric coming out of DC, it is not clear whether or not Obama actually gets it. The mixed signals are everywhere from Obama stating on his radio address that health care pushes in the future will be harder and more focused, to him saying he has lost touch with his base. Of concern is the fact that he feels he must get in front of the people more. 441 speeches in 2009 and he thinks getting in front of a teleprompter more frequently will aid this problem is only a testimony to narcissistic tendencies. T he American people want the rubber to actually meet the road, not be told the rubber is going to. We have heard that four hundred and forty one times with nothing to show for it. Speaking about it 500 times in 2010 will literally be more of the same.

The spark is gone, the honeymoon long since over, and the president’s influence has proven to do more damage than good. It’s not just the polls we are talking about, it is expectations. The American people expected much because he told them much was to be delivered. Then he kept telling and telling while the whole time the delivery van was going in a direction the American people felt was on an unneeded route to nowhere.

The Obama Promises Delivery Van is now stopped on the side of the road on a rural route with no American homes on it. He has the map with the target destination on it; the question is; can he read it not?

The Purpose of Today

Boy was my e-mail FULL this morning! Last night’s article on Arizona’s new immigration enforcement law stirred quite the buzz. Many are less than pleased, which is fine with me because on that website I report more than I provide commentary to. But with close to 70 e-mails, here’s your commentary!

Many are glad that the ACLU and other immigration reform supports are seeking to sue if Gov Brewer signs the bill into law because it grants police the authority to stop and question for citizenship or legal documentation under what is described as reasonable suspicion. These people obviously do not live in Arizona. I say that because each trip I take north of Sierra Vista I am stopped and by law I must announce my citizenship and when questioned, prove I am an American citizen. That’s right, every single trip out of Sierra Vista. Here I am born and raised in the worst of areas American has to offer and a military veteran of multiple armed conflicts (many of which the average American will never be told of) defending American freedoms and interests and I am stopped because we have FAILED to secure our borders. This is of no consequence of course. What is a problem for many is that under this new law illegals can be apprehended by multiple law enforcement agencies and like me, a citizen, they can be stopped on their way from point a to point b. It seems more than fair! The problem is… for me, that we have no problem infringing on the rights of those here legally while granting further leniency to those not here legally that are not eligible for the same rights that others have had removed from them BECAUSE WE ARE CITIZENS! Now, what sense does that make? Really!

What people do not know. (Or are simply not smart enough to understand).

Close to 100 billion American dollars enters Mexico tax free every year. Let’s look at this from the perspective of the new AZ bill and yet another contested point by those opposed to the bill. Day laborers under this bill become illegal. These are the men standing in front of Lowe’s and Home Depot that get picked up by people looking for cheap labor. The people are paid in cash and they send that money back to Mexico where it has far greater buying power. This is comparable to America receiving 12 trillion dollars cash at the expense of a neighboring economy. You see, most illegals are not here for themselves, they are here to send money back to Mexico for the buying power of 12.15 to one. A day laborer earning $5 an hour is actually bringing in well over $60 an hour. A $150 dollar cash paying painting project earns them the equivalent of $1800; this all at the expense of a devastated economy. Keeping 100 billion dollars in the economy does not bring in 12 trillion, but it does help considerably when you factor in the aspect that the dollars are predominately coming from only four states; Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California. It is currently estimated that in a very equal share, the Arizona economy is losing 21.6 billion dollars annually to this. This in a state with no open rest stops, record school closings, record fire and police force lay offs, record state forced furloughs, record public education jobs loss, record cuts to social programs (more on that in a second). One cannot help but to wonder the obvious at this point. The same groups that advocate for social programs, greater teaching, police and fire forces are the same groups that advocate so strongly to legalize those here illegally. They are essentially insisting upon themselves so forcefully that they are now working against themselves and they can’t even see it. If Arizona had seen the 21.6 billion dollars last year, the state would not be in such dire straits this year. Moreover, there would actually be more money infused into the economy given the disparity in labor rates.

There is however a bigger problem afoot. America is a dying country and we do not even realize it! The minimum birth rate for societal perpetuation is 2.11. America is at 1.6 and only attains the minimum 2.11 WITH the illegals whose birth rates are considerably higher. The small family is a by product of American greed. Families are small because they cannot afford to be larger. They can’t afford to be larger because they can’t afford their lifestyles! Only 33% of income goes to necessities where once just over 90% did. Greed, not capitalism is causing this. We barrow rather than buy which forced us to begin to fail as a people in terms of long term population sustainment. In the early 1900’s the Muslim population was in the low thousands… in 2006 it crested 9 million. Canada and European nations seeing very similar trends. We are looking at the evolution of a Muslim world which is exactly what the religion is designed to do; yet we persist in enabling rights to those that have no birth right to them while we embrace religious tolerance at the cost of our own culture.

This is why Liberalism has become toxic in its emotive response to the social atmosphere. Here we have created an environment where the American can no longer perpetuate as a people in the long term with the key Liberal groups insisting abortions are good combined with the infusion of support for legalized non Americans while the American culture further succumbs to the growth of a religion designed to conquer the world and we cannot even see it the obvious problems because we are so pre occupied with political correctness.

We object to securing the borders because it is “racist.” We defend abortion while we cannot sustain self perpetuation as a people and when embrace religious rights before we even understand the fate of our own people as we deny a problem out of cognitive ignorance and emotive guilt. If we cannot embrace our own future, what then, is the purpose of today?