Soldiers and Sailors

Those who gave

Today, I pay tribute to the members of my immediate and extended family who have fought in the Armed Forces of the United States going back to the Revolutionary War up to today.

Love, William Henry II, Lt., Aide de Camp to General George Washington, lost leg at Battle of Yorktown. (grandfather)

Spray, William Nelson, Lt., fought in the War of 1812. (uncle)

Spray, Frederick Adam, Pfc., lied about his age to join the service to fight in the Spanish-American War. (grandfather)

Spray, John, USN, landed on Normandy, December 6, 1944. (uncle)

Layman, James, Lt., youngest officer in the Union Army, fought in Civil War. (grandfather)

Layman, John Robert, Pfc., fought in Korean War. (brother)

Layman, Curtis Frederick, SP5, fought three tours in Vietnam. Bronze Star, Silver Star, Medal of Commendation. (brother)

Osterhout, George Thomas, Sgt., Union Army, fought in Civil War. (grandfather)

Hall, L.T., Pfc., World War II. (father-in-law)

Hall, Hugo, Pfc. World War II. (uncle)

Lambert, Homer, Pfc.,U.S. Army, French Medal Legion Winner, WW I. (uncle)

Smith, Charles R., Pfc. U.S. Army, WWII. (uncle)

Avery, Pete, NCO.,U.S. Army, WWII. (uncle)

Smart, Randolph, Col., U.S. Air Force, career, served in Viet Nam. (cousin)

Smith, Earl, U.S. Army, WWII, died in battle. (uncle)

Smith, Dale, Col., U.S. Army, served in Korea. (uncle)

Roberts, Ward., U.S. Army Air Corps. Flew reconnaissance and bombing missions over Germany in 1944 and 1945. (uncle)

Ward, Neal, Officer, U.S. Air Force, reconnaissance missions during cold war. (cousin)

Ward, Darrell, Lt. Col. U.S. Army, active. (cousin)

Leigh, U.S. Army, Lost his life on Anzio, buried there (my son-in-law's grandfather)

Cook, Charles, Officer, Tail Gunner, U.S. Army Air Corps, WWII. (brother-in-law)

Cook, Warren B., U.S. Navy, Seabee, WWII. (brother-in-law)

Beam, Ross, U.S. Navy, of Front Royal, Virginia. (nephew)

Kirby, Matt, U.S. Army, career, currently at Ft. Riley, Kansas. (nephew)

Thanks for the read.

Rich IRS employees don't know nuthin'

This IRS thing bugs the youknowwhat out of me. I just can't let it go. So does the AP scandal and Benghazi mess, as well as the takeover of different agencies in the government by Homeland Security and their personal private army with their 2200 tanks and 1.5 billion rounds of ammunition. There are so many areas of too much government and enough glaring problems to keep me busy reporting on them till the next election.

In that vein, after I wrote about the IRS Director of Exempt Groups (what a stupid title), Lois Lerner, I snooped around the internet a bit more and discovered that this bureaucrat extraordinaire cashed in something north of $750,000 over the past 4 years in salary and bonuses--mostly bonuses. Her salary is about $175,000 a year.

That infuriates me. How can any civil servant become rich?

Think of it.

Richard Nixon was right when he said, "Always follow the money."

Thanks for the read.

Lois Lerner's arrogance

I'm trying to remember when I've seen a radical display of haughtiness and hubris as I witnessed this morning when Lois Lerner of the IRS sat before Darrell Issa's committee and basically told them to stuff it because she's taking the Fifth.

She was seething underneath as she conferred with her three or four lawyers, giving the congresspeople the evil eye every chance she got. I've done nothing wrong, she proclaimed, tensing up through her anger. I've been with the IRS more than umpty-umpt years. How dare you question me, an entrenched and loyal Bureaucrat. I know where the bodies are buried because I put them there. I take all the orders from the best of 'em without question, and I'll be hung before I share a thing with you miserable politicians. I'll be here many years after you go back home to your pitiful little lives and boring backwater states.

Of course, the Fifth Amendment is to protect the innocent; why is it only the seemingly guilty use it? Ms. Lerner's inclination to declare the Fifth could indicate she's in deep and followed orders from above like a good  IRS bureaucrat. You don't stay in the Federal Government hierarchy by being a firebrand. You follow directives and orders and get good performance reviews, year after year, "project" after project. And after watching Lerner, it's clear she has earned her big directors salary and bonuses which criteria likely includes being a full on bitch who hates people.

Her IRS colleagues also testifying before the committee, seem to have a propensity for coming off as strange and freaky. They are literal, eely oddballs dispensing inane and silly, sometimes distracted answers to specific questions about the people who were responsible for their IRS mess. If we've heard "I don't know" once we've heard it twenty or thirty times.

Who is in charge? Who does know? Their respective titles are commissioners, directors, deputy this and deputy that; so who the hell gives the orders?  I now understand the term "stonewalling" as they all sit there like stones!

There's more
I heard about a citizen protest that took place in front of the IRS building in St. Louis yesterday. Before you look at the controversial source and dismiss it out of hand--Infowars and Alex Jones--please consider who the protesters are. They are women and men like the rest of us and most of whom probably have never marched in a rally in their lives. For them to come out is major. There's an old marketing axiom: if one person complains, there are thirty who feel that way who do not complain. By that measure, this was a significant turnout.

After realizing the tone of the march and type of protesters, it's important to look at just who was on the sideline in cars marked Homeland Security, Federal Police. What are they doing there? What possible mischief could these folks get into? Throw a hot cup of coffee at an officer? Beat them with a placard? Couldn't the local police handle this? Sounds kinda brown shirty or SS-ey to me.

The scandals plaguing President Obama are getting away from him pretty fast. However, his cover up machine is unpredictable. How far will these scandals go? Will his Dem friends hang on? After all, how would you like to be the first democrat to contemplate impeaching the first black president?

I read that even the First Mrs. wants to get away from the president on an "extended vacation" on Martha's Vineyard this summer. Maybe she can ask Ms. Lerner to go along too. No protesters on the Vineyard!

Thanks for the read.

Tornadoes hate conservatives too!

Lizz Winstead--not exactly a household name--who is a "co-creator" of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, twitter-joked yesterday afternoon that " the Oklahoma tornado clearly targets conservatives."

Chirp.

Chirp.

I guess she tried damage control by apologizing and then giving an assignment to those who were angered and shocked by what she said: just give to the different charities involved in the Oklahoma cleanup and recovery efforts.

Yeah, Lizz; that'll fix it. Typical. A Leftie spending other people's money..

What arrogance

Winstead, who looks a lot like Herman Munster in drag, isn't off the hook. She's having to take the flak she so deserves, yet it looks to me that she still doesn't get it. Nor do her peers who are in constant delight in deriding people who are not in their mix, not of the 1%, beyond their focus, on the margins, the outliers--those people. Those hicks. Those...in other words, people like you and me.

I like to see snide people like Lizz publicly embarrassed. She deserves it.

Caca storms are such fantastic equalizers.

Thanks for the read.

Where is Hillary?

I've been wondering where Mrs. Clinton has been since she left the State Department a few months ago. She's popped in and out of the public eye long enough to accept a couple of awards; you know the kinds I'm talking about--prestige ones that only really famous people receive for being...well, way above the strait of famous. Usually, "famous" attested by doing lots of different things, e.g., being first lady, being a senator, and finally, being a secretary of state.

Considering those accomplishments started off as a result of her first having married a popular and powerful Democrat politician, it is the ideological default that if she wanted to became famous for being a feminist, she could. After all, we all remember that Tammy Wynette cookie baking moment in her husband's presidential campaign to show people that she's no Stepford Wife.

I have to laugh when people talk about Mrs. Clinton's assent to power and her relationship to feminist and women's issues vis a vis the Democrat Party. The funniest example of the big myth was when the whole Obama campaign machine treated Mrs. Clinton like she was in a steno pool. Obama's people put out the most sexist, racist and ageist presidential primary run in modern history, and Mrs. Clinton took it in the solar plexus. It was the Progressive Dems who turned on her to get the first black man elected president at any cost. When she finally dropped out of the race and supported Obama, I realized just how corrupt these folks are.

But, six years on, Hillary's still going strong and the Obamas are making the predicted mess of things in Washington, which brings us to Mrs. Clinton's whereabouts as we slop through the Benghazi mess. I realize she had the one appearance before congress--the one where she asked, "What difference, at this point, does it make?"

But, now that the whistle blowers have given more testimony regarding Ambassador Stevens' lack of safety and her knowledge of this and other material facts, I'm concerned there is much, much more to be asked of Mrs. Clinton.

Oh, I know, she has errands to run:  face lifts to have, a preemptive (and redemptive?) strike in the form of a book to write; a new life script to reconstruct and memorize; and the most formidable, an old and possibly mentally distressed, oxygen-deprived husband to keep from re-ruining her life.

Let's face it; wherever she is, just being Hillary Clinton is not an easy task. Maybe there's an award for that.

Thanks for the read.

Ex-Strapping young Muslim gets laughs

Does anyone notice that many of today's images of Mr. Obama catch him with his tongue stuck in his cheek? I'm wondering if it's a birth defect which is becoming more pronounced the longer he remains president. Like a birth defect that connects with a character defect.

Beneath the the president's dry, tongue in cheek speech at Saturday's annual White House Correspondents Dinner, Mr. Obama must have been waterboarding in irony and what looked like sincere anger toward those he loves to hate.

Mr. President, the Tea Partiers,  Truthers and Birthers are so first term.

I also wonder when Mr. Obama is going to get rid of that 250 year-old racism chip on his shoulder. The manner in which the president seems to want to slay these ubiquitous dragons, you know, the already dead ones such as the old Bush policies,  is just tiresome and tedious, not to mention weird. But, evidently he still gets a good bit of mileage due to the depth at which Bush is disliked among his audiences.

Speaking about the dinner, there were the usual Hollywood/glitterati folks there. The vast wealth in that room must have been staggering. Clooney, Spielberg, Streisand, you name them; they were there. Dumbed down and full of themselves. (And they say Republicans have all the money.) Can Versailles be far away?

It's almost a cliche to even bring up our country's goings on--something so desperate and sad as a fertilizer store fire which killed lots of people or the terrorist Boston bombing. We are in the midst of an strange, economic situation which no one truly understands and is possibly cataclysmic. The same is true regarding our civil rights, which we are losing as fast as I can type this piece and which most people are unaware of or don't care. And if you do write about it, there's a possibility that you're going to be tagged by the Feds for being a troublemaker. I've never felt fearful of writing something--but, today I truly am.

There are huge problems surrounding the health care bill and the aging of America, as 10,000 baby boomers retire daily. We are participating in a $14 trillion dollar debt and we're hemorrhaging money while clowns like Obama pay our enemies to destroy peoples lives in foreign countries.

We've become a country full of law breakers who were inspired by corrupt officials who got away with "it" in the early nineties and now have become more of a rule than the "exception" thanks to people like Bill Clinton who had a way with words and was able to convince others what the meaning of "is" is, and what the true definition of sex is. To say that actions such as these do not affect our young people is ridiculous. Ask any mother of a teenager.

Our local officials are crooks and our teachers have failed miserably to do what they are paid to do. Our kids are locked on to some electronic device that gives them greater pleasure than being locked on to human beings. Something's wrong; everything's wrong and we must fix it, despite this tyrannical, collectivist regime.

But, let's move on.

So what if the leader of the free world has a love fest with all the swells of the world and the media/press that's so into this president they can't even begin to cover his indecent attempt of governing. They wouldn't know where to start. That would be cheating on the one you love. Besides that's a racist thing to think.

Because I and others are calling them all out as abusers of power, demagogic fools who do not perform their jobs, and because we are embarrassed and horrified at the extent of this corruption, we must be considered what "they," the elite in this country, calls "haters." They even have turned on Woodward and now, Brokaw.

In other words, as one of their own so famously retorts,  What difference does it make?

Thanks for the read.

Furloughed joke writers

The president spoke at the annual super elite Gridiron Dinner the other evening about the goings on in his administration and Washington. He stated he didn't have a big bunch of jokes because his joke writers were on furlough.

Chirp.

Chirp.

It's probably okay that he didn't lay a bunch of humor on the audience considering the appalling manifestations that the president's decisions have caused, unbelievably among them, a closed White House. However, they did laugh as only elites can do because in Washington one notices the unemployment rate is not very high. Government has been very good to people in Washington and outlying areas close by.

And then there's this unfortunate part of his speech: the inevitable public humiliation that can only come from a Me president, not a We president as he observed there were a few people not in attendance. He's referring to Bob Woodward who recently pulled Obama's covers on his participatioin in Sequestration. He marginalizes Bob Woodward as a has been by questioning his current abilities, making outright fun of him.

Mr. Obama employs the most insidious little trick in the book by calling out Mr. Woodward's "advanced" age--he's nearing 70. He is intimating that Mr. Woodward is simply prickly and somewhat bitter. Only someone way off the mark, like Woodward, would misunderstand the White House personnel in such an off way.

Again, this display of ageism is something I've come to expect from a president and the people who work for him, along with lies, deception and cover ups. Ageism is the smug, condescending cousin of racism, tokenism and the rest of the isms that keep people apart by a winking/nudging, self-satisfied gang who can't be trusted with anything important or life threatening.

Life goes on
The president did not tell the divine dinner crowd that regardless of the cuts, he and the First Mrs. are continuing their extravagant ways by he going on a vaca and she jumping the D.C. ship of fools for less lugubrious climes, a ski trip in Snowsville. That's the in-your-face kind of arrogance we're sorrily getting used to.

While the White House is closed, unemployment remains high, there's been a huge increase in taxes all around and gas is over $4.50 a gallon, these clowns try to impress each other at their stupid, insipid insiders' dinner.

Thanks for the read.

Failure of duty

Bob Woodward's criticism of the White House's lack of ownership of the Sequestration policy on a public information level, as well as the administration's threats "that he would regret it" if he exposed said facts have turned out much differently than I first dared to think. 

Today, I'm extremely disappointed. Extremely.

And worried and alarmed.

Instead of journalists jumping on Woodward's bandwagon, they have taken personal aim at Mr. Woodward. Ageism was sickeningly obvious at the White House as we listened to David Plouffe's analogy of some baseball pitcher who is over the hill--like Woodward and millions of the rest of us. Another TV twit called him a baby boomer relic who is so over, or close to that--again, like millions of the rest of us. Still another said that when he dies--soon we hope--there will be lots and lots of bad info, FBI/J.Edgar type stuff that affects DC insiders, that will fall to the ground when he croaks.

I should have known they'd go personal. 

Other media critics actually minimized the issue saying Woodward overreacted, adding they were yelled at all the time by the White House. No big deal. Of course, the rest of us know the results of their "hostile" relationship with the White House. We see it on a daily basis--like the weekend that POTUS was AWOL with Tiger.

This attitude and arrogance is what the country is up against: a quickly developing state run media who will do anything its government bosses want, to anyone its government bosses want to do it to. It pains me to realize that--the thought of it shakes me to the bone.

Our next question has to be why? And of course, what is the motivation? Why would an entire group of mature, supposedly sophisticated, educated  people hang on every morsel and ort of this president? Why the adoration? Is it ideology? Cult of personality? Is the fear of losing access so overpowering that they fawn over the president to the extent they cannot tell the truth? Ego?

Bob Woodward's job has been to attempt to find the answers to such questions for 37 years; and most of time he got to some, if not all, of the truth. 

Mr. Woodward has been beaten on by better than these folks. Although I have trepidation, my cards are on him for the long pull of a nasty fight.

Thanks for the read.

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What would Murrow do (WWMD?)

One of my old manuscripts, The Oath of the Fourth Estate, sits unfinished, unedited and mostly unreadable. What I wrote about twenty or so years ago, however--the importance of a free and unfettered press--still stands as we approach one of America's  most disappointing results of today's media as it covers a president who demonstrates that he is convinced he has more latitude to rule (rather than to govern).

WWMD?
The recent war between Bob Woodward, the Reporter Emeritus of the Washington Post and Lanny Davis, former White  House Counsel to Bill Clinton, is precisely what is required to get this current bunch of laid back lip smackers off their backsides and begin asking tough questions.

If only they knew what questions to ask.

Time to dust off the old manuscript.

Thanks for the read.