Jihad, In the Era of Political Correctness

Tonight on Hannity, while discussing the mistake made by the FBI regarding "Suspect #1" (the older brother of the currently detained "Suspect #2") and the warnings offered by the Russian government, as well as Suspect #1's travel to Russia and our government's failure to diligently investigate him even though we had actionable intelligence from a nation that may not always seem to act in the best interests of America, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the following:

"The bottom line is that we have an emerging problem here that we knew was going to be a problem. And that is people living in The United States... maybe citizens... maybe lived here their whole lives, who are being radicalized by things they're reading and hearing, on the internet and otherwise... who are learning how to make bombs on the internet, et cetera.

This is the growing face of the terrorist threat facing our country. It's a very serious threat, and we need to stop playing political correctness with it and identify it for what it is.

This is terrorism. Just because it wasn't organized in a cave somewhere in the Middle East doesn't not make it terrorism. This is terrorism, and we need to deal with it that way."

I couldn't have said it better myself.


America's highest priorities last week were prayers for those most closely affected by the terrorism, the identification of suspects, and the diligent pursuit of those suspects until the point of capture or killing in the attempt to capture.

To be certain, my prayers remain with the fallen and their families. But now that we've met the threshold of capture or killing in the attempt to capture, it's time to discuss with boldness and honesty the truth of the situation; Americans were dealt a violent awakening last week as we learned that Jihad is indeed alive and well. Sadly, that came in the form of the loss of no less than four innocent lives as well as physical harm to hundreds.

What happened in Boston last week was terrorism, not a tragedy... a tragedy is an earthquake, or a hurricane, or even an oil rig exploding in The Gulf... and to have politicized it in the immediate aftermath would have been disgraceful. I had my opinions early on in the investigation, as I know many people did... but even though I have this forum through which I have been known to clearly express my opinion with disdain for political correctness and perhaps sometimes regardless of the feelings of others, I kept my personal opinion about the possibilities to myself until more facts came to the surface and we had a better grasp of what really happened.

Having said that, I'm thoroughly disappointed in many politicians and political allies of the current administration as well as the "Mainstream" (liberal) media, including most prominently NBC News (which by default includes MSNBC) and CNN, but also including Salon Magazine (sorry you didn't get your "white guy"), Good Morning America, and many others. As our President stood before us last Friday and instructed us not to jump to conclusions, he clearly disregarded the fact that a member of his own campaign staff, David Axelrod, had insinuated that perhaps the attack in Boston was because it was "Tax Day." Certainly this idea was not lost on much of the media, including Chris Matthews and a number of others on MSNBC and CNN. Former Congressman Barney Frank attempted to make the terrorist attacks fodder for a debate about fiscal responsibility versus higher taxation and more spending. MSNBC's Melissa Harris completely disregarded the religion of the two suspects and attempted to create a false premise that because their skin was white and they were from Chechnya, they actually were more aligned with Tim McVeigh than bin Laden. And Tom Brokaw audaciously attempted to create moral equivalency between acts of Jihad such as the bombing in Boston where innocent children and civilians are the specific target, and the actions taken by our military in the throes of a logistical war campaign where collateral damage does sometimes unfortunately include civilians, but extreme efforts are made to minimize such losses.

The very fact that President Obama will not bring himself to use the phrase "radical Islamic terrorist" or anything of the kind is indicative of the greater problem America shall continue to face moving forward as political correctness continues to permeate our society, because as far as American Presidents go, Barack Obama exemplifies all that is political correctness. The consumate politician, he is so afraid to say the wrong thing to anyone who is not a political foe (conservative/Republican) that he will bend over backwards... or bow before... those who wish to do America harm before he will speak the truth about what we have known for decades. There are those in the world who wish us great harm, and they will stop at nothing in their efforts to achieve what they believe will bring them honor and 72 virgins in the name of Allah.

The idea that there are individuals using the name of a religion as their theoretical protection as they perpetrate acts of horrific evil should not be lost on the population of a free and prosperous nation for which those aforementioned individuals have hatred and disdain. And as was proven last week, they will not always appear in the stereotypical form of a bearded Arab in a turban, or in the seats of airplanes as part of a grandiose and well coordinated plot, or in other ways we might suspect. They will be citizens; soldiers with a gun at an Army base in Texas yelling, "Allahu Akbar" as they kill 13 soldiers and bystanders, or they will be twenty-somethings with a car in Times Square who slip under the radar... or they'll be a couple of otherwise relatively normal looking young immigrants from a part of the world you'd normally think had allegiance to the freedoms of America.

And unless or until our elected officials stop with the political correctness crap and call a spade a spade, or in this case call a radical Islamic terrorist exactly what he is... it's only going to get worse.

What's Goin' On...

I’ve been away a while, I know… lots to say and no words to say it with, I suppose…

The weather has been just unbelievable lately… it’s exactly what I moved here for, and I’m so glad I’m finally really learning to make the best of it. The fact that I can leave the windows open all day and let the kitties enjoy the sounds of the birds, then come home and open the patio so they have that extra space and the additional entertainment of dogs being walked and whatever else goes on through the evening… it’s funny, I get home from work and they greet me as I walk in, but within about 60 seconds they’re lined up at the screen door waiting for me to open it. I had a couple of adventures to the mountains, although since my last post I’ve not been… I got a little gun-shy (no pun intended) after throwing more and more money into the Jeep… I’ve decided I need a bit of a break from that, so I went full-recluse for about the past month. I’ll be heading out again soon… blooming season for the saguaro is right around the corner, and I’ve got to go see the sights. I picked up a tent and a sleeping bag, and I plan on doing a 1-nighter from time to time just to get away from the air conditioner through the summer. The kitties will enjoy the time away from me…

Of course I didn’t move here planning to be single and living in a 1-bedroom apartment with four cats… but I have really learned to appreciate the life I live and the joy they bring me. I love the heat of the summer here, but I don’t want to have to close them in. It’s actually kind of depressing, knowing the season is coming where I’ll have to run the air once I get home, and then of course come about mid-June it’s like what winter is in Ohio, in reverse… my ears and nose don’t freeze, and I don’t have to scrape my windshield… but there’s no doubt it is hot, and air conditioning and swimming polls are where it’s at. Kitties don’t like swimming pools, so they get air conditioning. I might be found by the pool from time to time…

I’ve been busy, kinda, in my personal life, yet not busy at all. I know, it makes no sense… except inside my own head. I live a very busy, yet not really busy life… I do a lot for such a relative homebody, yet I do very little for someone whose mind is so active and who actually struggles sometimes to find the time just to relax. Being so devoutly single these past couple of years, I’ve learned it is kind of nice that I can do whatever I want whenever I want, or I can do nothing at all and nobody can tell me otherwise. It can be, therefore, extremely difficult to get motivated and maintain focus… yet there are times when I am so focused and on my game it makes me wonder how I got there. I’m entering one of those phases now… I’ve been known to suffer from that winter-depression syndrome thing, and even here where we see the sunshine almost every day in the wintertime it still drags me down when the temperatures dip down low and the sun sets early. Summertime is my focus time, for sure.

Anyway, the good news is that I’m back to exercising again, which is awesomely painful and devastatingly rewarding. As I write tonight my leg muscles are doing that burning, throbbing thing that happens after 15 miles on a mountain-bike… I’ve discovered that if I travel any direction from my humble little fur-infested abode I can find a trail or more that’ll get me some good dirt riding, and the tires on my bike are pretty decent for road riding, so I get a good combination of workouts. I am learning confidence on my bike again… when I moved here in 2001 I flipped my bike coming down a huge hill and spent a couple days in the ICU, had road rash all over my left shoulder, my hands and some of my face, and I ripped my left ear in half and almost lost the better part of it. I’m ever-thankful to the plastic surgeon that made me look halfway decent again, and I’ve learned that a helmet to save the noggin is much more important than the machismo of riding without. But the moral to this story is that I’m back in the saddle again, so to speak, and I’m loving it. I forgot how much I love riding.

I’ve been enjoying hockey season, although I wish my ‘Yotes were playing better. They’re playing with guts and determination even after three of their big name players were traded at the deadline, though, and they’re still in range of the playoffs. And anything can happen in the playoffs, as The L.A. Kings proved last year by being a number eight seed and rolling through everyone on their way to a Stanley Cup. And I am so incredibly happy baseball season is back… my Diamondbacks traded Justin Upton even though he will be a perennial MVP candidate, because his presence in the clubhouse was a distraction and he didn’t buy into “Gibby-Ball.” The changes are evident already, even if we’re only three games into the season. If you’re a baseball fan then you know Kirk Gibson was known for his gritty play and intense determination, and his coaching style is similar. He coaches his players to have the mentality that the team is more important than individual statistics, which didn’t work well with Upton. So Upton went to Atlanta and we got Marin Prado in return, and so far so good. Of course it’s a long season.

And of course I was thrilled to see Jimmie Johnson win the Daytona 500… the NASCAR season is getting into the grind, and in large part the ‘usual suspects’ are at the top of the points standings. Dale Jr. fans are thrilled because he is doing well… I don’t care too much one way or another if he does well or not, although I do think living in his father’s shadow has to be overwhelming. It would be good for the sport if he were to win a championship, they say… There was a horrific accident at the Fontana (California) race and Denny Hamlin will be out of his ride for quite a few weeks, but the racing leading up to that moment between he and Joey Logano was incredible, and hopefully a sign of what’s to come through the rest of the year. NASCAR has modified its car and in the process predicted better racing, and so far I’d say they got it right.

I’ve got all kinds of things to say about politics, but I’m not sure why I should bother. I mean after all, President Obama is our President for four more years, and that’s that, so we need to just accept it and let him rule… er.. lead… as he wishes. These days, though, he seems more concerned with getting Nancy Pelosi elected to the Speakership than with actually getting people to the table and solving our nation’s problems… seems he’s on a never-ending campaign, even though he just today said something about how we don’t need never-ending campaigns. We’ve got a Congressional Democrat trying to push gun legislation through even though she doesn’t understand that a magazine can be reloaded… I mean, if you’re going to rail on and on against something shouldn’t you at least know what the heck it is you’re so against? But not to worry; “60 Minutes” is getting ready to put on a special with some of the Newtown parents to tug at our heartstrings again, even though the fact is not one law being proposed would have stopped that tragedy from taking place. In fact, the ideas being put forward that might have helped are being scorned by President Obama and the media… God forbid a teacher in a school voluntarily gets trained in the use of a handgun and be allowed to provide for the protection of our children when there’s a Constitution to destroy. And can ANYONE please tell me where the heck all the .22 long rifle ammunition is? I know DHS says they’re not buying all our ammo, or maybe they are… all I know is that last year every Wal-Mart, Cabella’s and Sportsmen’s Warehouse in America had full shelves and right now there’s none to be found anywhere, including the specialty stores. Even 9mm and .40 caliber seems to be nearly impossible to find, so much so that Phoenix police officers are not being supplied by the city with practice ammo for their required range sessions. Oh, but Phoenix did just elect a radical left-winger (who ran as a moderate, just like our President did) who wants to allow transgendered people to use whatever bathroom they want, regardless of what body parts they have or have not had added or removed, so there’s that…

I do have to point out… there’s been this issue about some conservatives pointing out all the jet-setting and hob-knobbing with celebrities being done by the Obama family in the midst of a national fiscal crisis. Separate vacations, multiple spring break destinations for his daughters… I don’t mind the girls enjoying spring break, but Atlantis and then Idaho, with Secret Service protection being paid by We, The People doesn’t really seem like “shared sacrifice” when tens of millions are on welfare and unemployed… Anyway, I did mention some time ago that President Obama should pass an executive order cutting congressional salaries in half, and I thought he could really set a good example by giving up his entire salary, since he is independently wealthy thanks to the revenue generated by his book sales. Well, I have good news… in an effort to show solidarity with those being affected by sequestration President Obama gave up five percent of his annual salary. That’s five percent, as in 5%, as in $20,000 a year. So I guess he can now say he’s got some “skin in the game” and he’s doing his “fair share.” Meh.

And just to be fair and equal… if you didn’t hear about it, we’ve got some real idiots here in the Republican camp here in Arizona. Like many other states across America, Arizona's State Constitution does have an amendment protecting marriage as between one man and one woman, but we have no laws whatsoever regarding civil unions. So when a little town on the Mexican border called Bisbee decided to legalize civil unions for homosexuals within its city limits, our wonderful Republican legislators at the state level decided to rail on and on about how that city had broken laws and this and that, when actually all they did was create their own little law in their own little city for the sake of whatever reasons they had, and it doesn’t affect the rest of us Arizonans in the least and has no bearing on our state Constitution. But just like guns are the issue that the Democrats must rail against no matter what’s truly right or wrong, it seems anyone that calls themselves a Republican must instantly go into a tizzy if homosexuality is mentioned. And while I respect and tend to agree with those who have deeply held convictions against marriage being legalized for gays, I do believe that people are going to live together and have sex if that’s what they really want to do, and if we are truly a just and fair society they at least ought to be able to visit each other in the hospital and have other basic protections allowed to straight couples. Really, it would be nice if the government got out of the marriage business altogether and left that to churches… that way if a church supports gay couples they can get married in that church, if not then not, but meanwhile government can provide basic protections… kind of like how we really don’t need unions as much as we used to, because government sets standards of protection and all unions do is collect dues so they can funnel that money to the Democrat political machine. But I digress…

So I’ll try not to be away for such a long time, next time… or perhaps by then we will all be gone, because Kim Jong Un really did mean business when he said he was going to nuke Austin, Texas...

It was worth it

I am grateful for the advice my employer gave me. Soon after I bought my Jeep and told him I was starting to go off-road, he told me, “If you’ve never been there, and you’re not sure what is coming beyond what you can see, sometimes it is wise to stop and walk the hill, assessing the situation first before proceeding.” Be Prepared, as my Boy Scout days taught me… at an incredibly intense level where life and valuable property are at stake. So I did… walk the hill… and then I kind of slid back down, because it was so steep there was no walking back down. At the top of this hill was the end of the line… it is a hill that has been carved into a trail simply for the sake of climbing that hill. It is intense.

Just as the trail took a rather sharp bend to the right sat a huge boulder, with a smaller yet no less intimidating smaller boulder and a saguaro on the left. On the way up, rounding that bend took a cautious approach and careful maneuvering so as to not gouge the passenger side of my Grand Cherokee. I also needed to maintain sharp focus on the obstacles on the left; they could take out a lower front fender or worse… the saguaro and small boulder would no longer be there if I went too far, because they would be taken out by my Jeep as I slid or tumbled down the side of the hill. After the bend was the intense degree of incline, like nothing I’ve ever tried. So I carefully proceeded around the bend, engaged 4-Low, and let the power of the 5.2L V8 take control. I honestly was very impressed by the power of the engine… I’ve pushed it a few times on the freeway just to see what kind of power it had, but no road driving could have ever shown me what kind of torque I have at my disposal, should I ever need it.

Coming back down was just as intense… the larger boulder at the bend was now directly in front of me, and I had to maneuver to the right of it to make the bend. If I went too far right I had the smaller boulder and saguaro to contend with, plus the possibility of going over the edge I had to keep in mind. So I shifted into “Granny gear” low, plus kept the 4-Low engaged, and proceeded down… very carefully, with my foot just easing off the brake enough to allow my Jeep to move under its own weight and not much more.




That hill was so awesome… Planting my front wheel up on that rock as a sign of “I did it” felt amazing at the moment, and no picture I took could ever capture the feeling I had as I soaked in the sunshine and reveled in my accomplishment. Unfortunately I didn’t think to stop and set up the camera so I could record the event, but I definitely will go back… after I get my 4x4 linkage fixed.

I was calm enough to recognize my blessings in the heat of the moment. For the maturity and levelheadedness to gather myself in ways I might not have in the past, I am grateful. For the lessons in planning and preparedness to have a lot of water and a handful of Nutri-Grain bars with me, plus a firearm or three to make me feel safer than I might have otherwise, I thank my parents and The Boy Scouts.

I got extremely lucky; I had made it almost back out to the freeway, and within ten minutes I was lucky enough to have an Arizona State Highway Patrol officer notice me waving him down. I was still a bit panicked still when he arrived… yet I had enough composure to remember the first thing I needed to do was advise him I was armed. He thanked me for letting him know, and began to ask me a few questions about my situation. I told him what I really needed was help getting hold of AAA, because although I had cell service and had literally (while I was standing there broken down) just bought a membership (which I should have purchased a few weeks ago or more) I couldn’t find a number to contact them for a tow truck.

The officer not only got his dispatcher to call a tow truck for me, he hooked up a tow strap to my Jeep and pulled me the few hundred feet needed to get me up on the freeway so the tow truck driver could find me. He made sure I had plenty of water, and he was on his way. He validated every bit of “To Protect and Serve,” because in that moment, he provided both protection and service. To him I am grateful, as I am also grateful to the ADOT officer who stopped shortly thereafter to make sure I was okay. I told her I had plenty of water, a few snack bars, and an un-chambered weapon on the dash… from which I had removed the magazine as I saw approach, out of respect for her safety, but I promised her that magazine was going back in place once she pulled away. She nodded in approval and told me she was glad to hear I was so well prepared, and went on her way.

The tow truck driver was a nice enough guy… I suspect he knew how to fix my problem but that’s not his job, and he made a lot more money putting my Jeep on the back of his truck than he would have had he repaired my Jeep and got me back on the road himself. He smoked five cigarettes during the roughly hour-long drive from around Sunflower to my workplace, where I dropped off my Jeep so I could borrow the work truck for the evening. One of the nice things about working for a small private company is the unwritten benefits; in the case of my workplace, the boss owns a Ford Ranger he originally bought for his granddaughter, but she wanted something “more fuel efficient” so the Ranger became the shop truck and she got a brand new Hyundai Elantra. Bonus for us.

So I paid the man the $250 for the tow… yeah, I know, I should have purchased the AAA membership before I broke down, but at least now I have it for next time. But at least they covered the cost of getting my Jeep loaded onto the truck, plus the first five miles... and I was on my way home. Before I hit the road I sent a text to my coworker who knows a lot more than I about fixing cars, and he agreed to meet me Saturday morning.

Within fifteen minutes Saturday morning, I had learned that had I only known what to look for, my issue was something I could have repaired myself. When I pull the handle that takes me from 4-Hi to 4-Low, it moves an upper arm that is connected to a lower arm by a linkage… sometime along the way Friday while I was out having a great time, the bolt that connects the top arm had popped out, because the connection for the bottom arm had become loose and the entire assembly had become weak. The bolt popped when the linkage was in ‘Neutral’ and I had no gear engaged at all. My immediate fix would have been to crawl under my Jeep, determine which way the lower arm needed to be set so I was in 4-Hi, and set it in gear. Once in gear the linkage won’t disengage; I actually can leave it exactly as it is and drive it forever, but if I ever want to use 4-Low I will have to stop, crawl under my Jeep and move the lover arm, and then once I’m done I’d have to re-set it. of course this is not optimal, because there may come a time when I’m halfway up a hill, or stuck in some situation like mud or something, where I won’t want (or be able) to go through that process… so I need to fix the linkage, but it’ll be a relatively inexpensive fix and I’ll be good for another 100K miles or more. It’s one of the risks a person takes when he purchases a used vehicle with 100K miles on it… I’ve had a few repairs to make since I bought my Jeep a year ago, but now that I’ve dealt with the major stuff I should be pretty much in the clear. Over the next year I need to do brakes, and about a year from now I’ll do new tires… hopefully at the same time I’m adding a couple inches of lift, so I can get even more adventurous…

Once I had learned what the problem was and I had learned my options for permanent repair, I spent the morning getting myself more “trail ready” than I already was. I assembled my new jack, which I had purchased Friday before hitting the trails… I had stopped at Pep Boys and Harbor Freight and picked up a few important things. Road flares, a first-aid kit, a magnesium & flint fire-starting kit, a flashlight with a glass-breaking tip, a variety pack of hose clamps and some duct tape, and a hanging flashlight for under the hood or more… plus the jack and a jump-start box… I also sorted out my tools into a “home” toolbox and “road” toolbox… I am now much more ready for whatever may come my way.

So I have parts on order at the Chrysler dealership, and I hope to fix the linkage over the next few days. If I can’t fix it I’ll take my parts and Jeep to a shop… but if that turns out to be the case I won’t let it slow me down. Unless it rains, I know a few places I can go and I won’t need 4-Low, so I’ll be out there again this weekend or next... I might even carry a cooler and a few blankets, and spend a night under the stars…

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

Remembering Andrew Breitbart, and Preparing for Armageddon

A Rasmussen Reports poll taken during the 2012 Presidential election found that 59% of likely voters believed incumbent President Obama received more favorable coverage, while only 18% believed the media reporting favored his challenger Mitt Romney. A more recent poll by that same organization found that only 56% of the news reported by today’s media is trustworthy. If that were a grade, it would be failing. That same poll found that 42% of likely voters do not trust the news media generally, and 12% believe the news reported by the mainstream news media is not trustworthy, at all.

There was a time in America’s recent past when Bob Woodward was considered a hero in the business of journalism and by those who believe in speaking “Truth to Power.” By resisting the temptation to believe that our elected officials were pure of intent, exploring and exposing that which others considered unimportant, and standing tall in the face of the powerful and the elite, the investigative reporting of Woodward and his coworker Carl Bernstein exposed illegal activity within the Republican Party and Nixon Administration, and ultimately his work led to the downfall of one of America’s most storied and prominent politicians of his time. Richard Nixon had been a political powerhouse for decades, but the arrogance of him and those around him became a weakness that led to one of the most embarrassing moments in American political history.

Again today, Woodward is not allowing the powerful and elite to dictate to him the story he brings to the public, and for that he is being labeled a pariah by many of the same people who learned much of their trade by studying his story. For exposing a bit of arrogance within the Obama administration, Woodward has been called a “liar” and “irrelevant,” and it has even been said about him that, “There are people waiting for Woodward to die so they can dish stuff on him that they’re too afraid to say now.”

One year ago today another media “pariah” left this earth prematurely. Andrew Breitbart was not willing to allow the powerful and elite keep him from exposing the hypocrisy in politics and bias in the media. The “Happy Warrior” of conservatism, Breitbart was one of the few voices willing to speak up and discuss with honesty and clarity all he saw wrong with the Obama campaign of 2008 and subsequent Presidency, and the landslide “Tea Party” victory of the 2010 midterm elections was most certainly influenced by his hard work and dedication to principle.

While sometimes biased toward the Republican side of things to a fault, Breitbart definitely always erred on the side of what I would call “Original Intent.” Breitbart was always one of the staunchest allies of life from inception, and I have no doubt he would have scoffed at this ginned up “reproductive rights” campaign being perpetrated by the leftists and perpetuated by the media. I believe were he here today, Andrew Breitbart would be on the front lines and working hard to expose the fact that “reproductive rights” as defined by the Democrat Party is ultimately nothing more than an advocacy for abortion, and ultimately increases immorality in society by endorsing permissive sexual behavior with little to no consequence.

And as a father of four who believed in The Bill of Rights with great passion, Breitbart would have been one of the clearest voices speaking up for Americans’ right to bear arms while protecting the safety and security of our families.

I told myself I was going to keep it short today… I took the day off so I could enjoy some of the amazing weather we’re experiencing here in The Valley of The Sun. Forecast calls for clear skies and a high of 79° today, and there’s a lot of desert out there for me to go four-wheeling in. I think I’m gonna do some shooting while I’m out… last month I went to the gun show and bought myself a Remington 702 ‘Plinkster’ and a Taurus Millennium PT745, which is a short-barreled .45 caliber handgun with 6-round magazine. I picked them up as Birthday gifts to myself… I passed a background check and everything! While I was there, I picked up a couple of 25-round magazines for my rifle, and I plan to get a couple more the next time the gun show comes to town. Gotta get ‘em while we still can…

I wanted to add to my collection, which until then consisted only of an Arminius revolver with a 6” barrel. now I can say I truly support diversity… heh, heh…

And while I’m quite sure I can handle both these new weapons properly, practice makes perfect… plus I need to teach my new firearms not to go off killing people while I’m not around, since we all know guns kill people. That and I need to prepare for Armageddon, since President Obama is running around telling everyone that the world is going to end and it’s all the Republican Party’s fault.

So as we prepare for sequester, do not fret; although Congresswoman Maxine Waters claims sequester will cause us to lose 170 million jobs (someone needs to tell Maxine there are only about 150 million jobs held in America today), Nancy Pelosi has a plan:





But remember, it’s all the Republican Party’s fault.

Another one of my "Open Letters" to President Obama... And a Little Rant

Dear President Obama,

I have an idea to help you with the “sequester cuts” you’re hanging over the Republicans’ heads like a political piñata just waiting to explode all over the place. Mr. President, why don’t you pass an Executive Order that reduces the salaries of all Congressional representatives by fifty percent? That one act alone would provide the government with approximately $47 million (assuming all 535 of them make $175K annually), which should cover a fair portion of the money needed to secure the jobs of the first responders and other political pawns you’ve been trotting out as sacrificial lambs in your efforts to deride the opposition for your own expediency.

In fact, Mr. President, I believe you should publically ask each Congress-critter if they would be willing to sacrifice their entire salary for the duration of the current congress as a show of good faith. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see Nancy Pelosi squirm when you put her under the spotlight and asked her to do the right thing for the good of the nation? Or would such a display take away her “dignity?”

I mean, I would understand it if a few of the Freshman members of The House didn’t want to give up their salary; you politicians live large there in Washington D.C., and it would be tough for a newbie to “keep up” with the rest of you and your gaudy lifestyle. And if there’s one thing we do know, it’s that it is very important to come to town and fit in… keep a low profile and act like everyone else. Just ask Texas Senator Ted Cruz what happens if you’re new in town and you don’t keep a low profile…

And while we’re at it, Mr. President, why don’t you, sir, give up your salary for the next four years? I mean I know you are the man of the people and you can relate to us all so well, with that multi-million dollar income you have from all those book sales and all, and how you lived in a $200K condo while you and Mrs. Obama went to Ivy League schools and all... but Mr. President, leadership means setting an example, true? And wasn’t it you who once (or more than once, I can’t remember) told us we are all going to have to sacrifice a little… have some “skin in the game…” or something….

By the way, sir… how was that weekend golfing? Did you hear, Mr. President, that your lovely wife’s separate but equally expensive vacation tied up airspace over the Aspen, Colorado area? and I hear your vacation only cost us just short of one million dollars this time, sir.

You know the last time I went on a million dollar vacation and golfed with a professional golfer on a private course, Mr. President? Yeah, try never.

I’m so sick of the crap coming out of Washington, D.C. these days. It’s not just President Obama, although we did elect him to lead, not to go around the country bashing the political opposition (in between golf outings and trips to Hawaii) in an effort to secure his party’s continued success for decades to come. House Majority Leader John Boehner made a statement today that hits the nail on the head, and it’s what most of us have known and have been saying for a long time; America doesn’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. If we’re going to cut out the loopholes in the tax code – as we should, that extra revenue should go to debt reduction, not to growing more government. We’ve already given liberals their “revenues” at the turn of the year, which didn’t affect most of us as much as it did the most wealthy, but I know my paycheck got about $50 lighter every two weeks, but the national debt continues to rise…

The era of big government never really ended… it just hid for a while, sort of. But let’s be honest – from the days of Woodrow Wilson creating the Federal Reserve and “progressive” tax code, to FDR expanding government exponentially because America was in the midst of the crisis of the Great Depression (and we know how progressives feel about a good crisis), to LBJ blowing up the budget by promising retirees health care funded by a Ponzi scheme called Medicare, and a more massive “safety net” called Medicaid that has now become a primary source of income for many, to George W. Bush expanding that Medicare promise to retirees with a drug program larger than even the original Medicare itself… and let’s not forget what we have to go through just to get on an airplane these days and all the scandalous stories surrounding DHS… oh, and now we have “free” healthcare on the way for everyone, or so it seems… free healthcare! Woohoo!

In large part today, we don’t have leadership in Washington; we have politicians. Specifically, we have one politician, and we have a lap-dog media that does his bidding at every turn. After griping this past weekend about the lack of access to the Commander-in-Chief as he golfed with Tiger Woods at a private club in Florida, when The President finally appeared, the first question asked was “Who won?”

It used to be that in America, holding political office at the national level was an act of service. Clearly, the fundamental transformation of America is working out exactly as planned.

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