‘Twas the Night Before Christmas; a soldier’s poem
Thank you all who have and are serving and have a Merry Christmas!
The lame duck Congress is finally over: Who won and who lost?
Well, the lame duck Congress is finally over and I have to admit that at times it felt like the session would go on forever. Mercifully on Wednesday the Congress adjourned and the debate began over which side actually prevailed in the lame duck session. Barack Obama claimed that this was the most productive lame duck Congress in decades, and while that may be non-quantitative hyperbole used to inflate his own self-worth, the fact is that he did manage a few victories in the last days of the lame duck Congress, but both sides have issues they can claim victories on.
First there was an extension of the Bush tax cuts: a deal which neither side is entirely happy with. But on an interesting side note, isn’t this an admission by Democrats that lower taxes are good for the economy while raising taxes stagnates the growth of the economy? If this were not the truth, and the truth was as the Democrats stated–that we could not afford these tax cuts any longer because of the worsening economy–there would have been no reason for the Democrats to compromise anything on this issue.
Jim DeMint promises to fight the FCC on net neutrality
Showing a complete disregard for a federal court ruling (a ruling which stated that the FCC did not have the authority to regulate the internet) the FCC passed new “net neutrality” regulations yesterday.
In doing so the FCC ignored the court ruling as well as members of the Congress on both sides of the aisle who warned the FCC not to implement these new regulations. The FCC decided that passing Barack Obama’s agenda through dictate was more important than following the constitution or listening to the court ruling and the will of the Congress.
The chairman of the FCC, Michael Copps, even questioned this move but still decided to vote in favor of the new regulations. Evidently he thought that Barack Obama’s agenda was more important than a silly little ruling by a federal court; and evidently he thought that passing Barack Obama’s agenda was more important than listening to the Congress which has at its disposal the tools necessary to allow the FCC to operate in the first place–the power of the purse–or he never would have voted for these regulations. The arrogance that people like Michael Copp are displaying in pursuing regulations which they know of are questionable legality beforehand is astounding.
Eric Holder is worried about Americans becoming a terrorist threat
Attorney General Eric Holder once called America a nation of cowards, but there is something that Eric Holder fears so much that he loses sleep over it–the American people and the possibility that they will become radicalized and begin terrorist activity against the government.
It is one of the things that keeps me up at night,” Holder said. “You didn’t worry about this even two years ago — about individuals, about Americans, to the extent that we now do. And — that is of — of great concern.””The threat has changed from simply worrying about foreigners coming here, to worrying about people in the United States, American citizens — raised here, born here, and who for whatever reason, have decided that they are going to become radicalized and take up arms against the nation in which they were born
This date in history, 1945: General George Patton dies
On December 9th, 1945 the war had been over for about four months and General Patton and his Chief of Staff decided to take in a little pheasant hunting. As they were being driven down a quiet road they noticed a truck approaching in the opposite direction. This truck took a sudden left hand turn in front of General Patton’s vehicle without signaling and Patton’s 1938 Cadillac slammed into the turning truck.
Neither vehicle was traveling very fast and neither was seriously damaged; both General Patton’s driver and Chief of Staff were not hurt, but General Patton suffered a spinal injury and was paralyzed from the neck down. Twelve days later, on December 21st, 1945 General Patton died of an embolism. He was buried with the men of the 3rd army who died fighting under him at the Battle of the Bulge.
General Patton was America’s most famous and controversial general at the time of his death and because of some of his words there has always been speculation that this accident was no accident. Conspiracy theories abound that either the United States or Russia assassinated the great general, I don’t believe them but we will never know.
General Patton first came to national prominence when he led the first armored attack in history by heading into Mexico to hunt down Pancho Villa, and gained more fame for his courage during WWI. But is was during WWII that “Old Blood and Guts” etched his name into the history books forever.
Here is a short biography on America’s most famous general for anyone who may be interested.
Here is a video that was narrated by Ronald Reagan:
And what tribute would be complete without George C Scott’s rendition of one of General Patton’s most famous speeches? (Even though some of the text of the speech was removed and edited to make it “less offensive” to the movie going public.) Note. apparently the reason the flag is backwards in this video is to avoid copyright infringement. (Don’t tell the Department of Homeland Security or ICE or they may shut youtube down!)
With the exception of Barack Obama and Janet Napolitano most people understand how serious the problem at the Mexican border is. Between the illegal invasion and the drug gang violence that is constantly spilling over the border into the United States the American people who live on the Mexican border live in a constant state of high alert, hoping that they do not become directly affected by the government’s ineptitude at keeping them safe.
So while illegal immigrants are allowed to enter the United States unmolested and while the federal government fails to take the necessary measures to protect the citizens of the United States, people are wondering when will the federal government do something on this issue.
Well, the wait is over because the ATF is finally ready to take action on the Mexican border. Unfortunately while illegal immigrants continue to stream over the border the ATF has put the American citizens who live on the border in their crosshairs. (Pardon the pun, which will be evident shortly.)
Janet Napolitano calls global warming an issue of national security
Today the White House held something that they called the “environmental justice” conference and we learned that Janet Napolitano now considers global warming to be a threat to national security; she is creating a new department under Homeland Security called the Climate Change and Adaptation Task Force, which will be tasked with “identifying and assessing the impact that climate change could have on the missions and operations of the Department of Homeland Security.”
Let us pretend for the sake of this post that man-made global warming was in fact real and let us pretend that ClimateGate did not prove that scientists fraudulently manipulated the data to “prove” global warming did exist to ensure that the grant money kept flowing into their coffers as well as the pockets of those who are profiting from the hoax. With that stipulated, how does this constitute a threat to national security?
Lame duck Senate kills the DREAM Act
This has been a pretty good week to be a conservative. First Harry Reid was forced to kill his $1 trillion, 2,000 page, earmark laden spending bill which nobody had a chance to read, and yesterday the lame duck Senate failed to get the 60 votes necessary for cloture on the DREAM Act, killing this bill for the foreseeable future.
The DREAM Act is probably the one piece of legislation that I feared the lame duck Senate might be able to ram through before the new Congress would convene in January, but thankfully this backdoor amnesty bill was shot down once again. This bill has been around for about ten years and it has been introduced several times since its inception; this was the most controversial aspect of the McCain/Kennedy/Bush attempt at amnesty a few years ago, and ultimately when the American people heard about the DREAM Act they rose up and stopped President Bush’s attempt at comprehensive immigration reform.
It looks as if the momentum may be on the side of Ward Bird–the New Hampshire man sentenced to three years in jail for defending his property–because more than 100 State Representatives, including the new Republican Speaker of the House, have signed a petition asking Governor John Lynch to release Ward Bird before Christmas.
There is virtually no chance that Ward Bird will be freed before Christmas as the pardon request is still making its way through the system and Governor Lynch has promised a thorough study before making his decision. However he has asked the New Hampshire Attorney General to make sure the process moves along quickly.
Ward Bird has heard about the great outpouring of support and is very grateful that the people have risen up to support him.
From what I’ve heard it is quite impressive, and I do appreciate all the help that has been given to myself and my family,” he said.
He again denied that he threatened anyone with a gun.
“I’m a firm believer in safe gun handling (and) it is extremely upsetting that someone would accuse me of that.”
So as it stands right now the New Hampshire state legislature has stepped up to the plate and voiced their support for pardoning Ward Bird, but the governor still remains noncommittal claiming he will make a decision once he reviews the case. Governor Lynch believes that a pardon should only be granted in cases with exceptional circumstances or if a gross miscarriage of justice has taken place. I would argue that is exactly what has happened in this case.
Governor Lynch, the legislature has come to the defense of Ward Bird and you must also: Free Ward Bird!
Harry Reid takes the $1 trillion spending bill off of the table
Chalk one up for the good guys!
Facing growing opposition to the $1 trillion, 2,000 page, pork filled spending bill, Harry Reid has tabled the bill and is now claiming that he will work with “Mike” McConnell on a short term funding bill that will keep the government operational until the new Congress can convene in January. The bill is dead! This bill was so obscenely obnoxious in light of the recent election that even Harry Reid could no longer ignore the outrage of the American people.
Mitch (known affectionately by Barack Obama as Mike) McConnell has already introduced a one page alternative to this monstrosity, and had this to say on the Senate floor today:
“I would hope that it would make sense on a bipartisan basis, this one-page continuing resolution on Feb 18th as an alternative to this 2,000-page monstrosity that spends a half a billion dollars a page
It will be interesting to see if Harry Reid is serious about working with Mitch McConnell on this issue, or whether or not he is simply playing a political game with an ulterior motive. But for right now it looks as though the Republicans–and the American people–have earned a victory on this issue.
America's Watchtower 