The other day I was contemplating our national state of affairs while sipping a beer at my local VFW. Somewhere amidst the swirling smoke emanating from cigarettes and the hamburgers sizzling on the grill it occurred to me that our President and my ex-wife have a lot in common.

Promises made but not kept - Too many to mention here, but here’s a good one: “Forsaking all others”. Remember that line from traditional marriage vows? Yeah, three months after she uttered that line she was screwing a guy in her squadron behind my back. Sort of like Obama and the union bosses/far left activists/Democratic party leadership cavorting behind closed doors after promising “the most transparent administration” ever.

Complete lack of fiscal responsibility – I paid off approximately $5000 in credit card bills in a year. All hers (I didn’t have a credit card then, and still don’t). Debt that I did not accrue. And I did it with my own money, not hers. What was my thanks? She kept piling on debt, expecting me to pay for it. Sound familiar, America?

It’s someone else’s fault – My ex actually thought that I would buy into the idea that her wanting a divorce was my fault with no actual logic provided. She couldn’t tell me why it was my fault, she could only tell me that it was my fault (while denying that she was having an affair). Sounds like a certain President we all know who keeps telling us it’s all Bush’s fault (while satisfying the needs of the unions).

Excuses, excuses - “I can’t make height/weight because I’ve had two kids.” No, you couldn’t make height/weight because you don’t do an iota of PT and eat large quantities of fatty foods. Sort of like, “We can’t cut the deficit because the mean Republicans want to kill old people and starve children.” No, we can’t cut the deficit because you are beholden to the entitlement class and special interests that put you in office.

Which brings to the one that irks me to no end:

“It’s for the children” – At one point, I had purchased one of those large assortments of frozen meat from the guys that roll around with a chest freezer in the back of their truck. You know, a few hundred pounds of pork, chicken, seafood, and steak. Again, paid for out of my account, not hers, although she certainly didn’t mind noshing on it. When I moved out, I took the prime cuts of beef that were still left and a few other odds and ends. I left the things like the chicken strips, chicken breasts, hamburgers and shrimp. My ex had a fit, accusing me of taking food from the mouths of her children. Sorry, lady, but the last time I checked their 6- and 8-year old palates hadn’t developed a taste for filet mignon. Not to mention I was CONUS taking care of them while she was deployed and screwing around. Evidently I’m some kind of child abuser because I needed food for my new apartment and took what I bought and knew the kids wouldn’t eat. Likewise, every time I hear anyone in this administration try to justify some asinine expenditure because “it’s for the children” I want to scream. No, it’s not “for the children” and we all know it. It’s to satisfy the pockets of the teacher’s unions and special interest groups, just like my ex wanted those filet mignons for her own fat ass.

Hopefully 2012 will give us the divorce we so desperately need.

Becuase it sure does keep me awake. This is very scary ladies and gentlemen, and just becuase the MSM isn’t covering every night at 6 and 10PM or on every half-hour headlines please don’t take that as a sign of unimportance. 

The clock is counting and I can tell you that our military sees the edge of the cliff coming up. They are no different than if you were driving towards cliff’s edge, they are starting to pump the brakes. Our military’s training, readiness, effectiveness, and ability to defend this country are all starting to show signs of those brakes being pressed. If Congress does not do something quick, our military is heading over that cliff and will suffer. 

 
The failure of Congress so far to pass the fiscal 2011 defense appropriations bill — which creates the possibility of funding the department under a year-long continuing resolution instead — is “the crisis on my doorstep,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an interview yesterday.
Failure to pass the funding legislation will represent a $23 billion cut in the defense budget in the current fiscal year, the secretary noted.

“It’s the worst of all possible kinds of reductions, in significant measure because it comes halfway through the fiscal year,” Gates told reporters traveling with him to a meeting with Canadian officials here.
The budget request was for $549 billion, and the continuing resolution would come in at $526 billion.
War funding will not be affected, however. The Defense Department will receive $159 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this fiscal year, a figure that will drop to $120 billion in fiscal 2012, which begins Oct. 1.
The department likely would use operations and maintenance accounts to compensate for the difference between the budget legislation funding and that provided by a continuing resolution, through stretching out programs and making cuts in training and readiness, Gates said.

“Frankly that’s how you hollow out a military, even in wartime,” the secretary added. “It means fewer flying hours, fewer steaming days, cuts in training for home-stationed ground forces, cuts in maintenance, and so on.”
The current continuing resolution runs out March 4. Gates said that if lawmakers don’t pass the appropriations bill before that date, “this new Congress would be responsible for a cut that’s nearly twice the size of our fiscal ’12 proposal, and much, much more damaging.”
Forces deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan probably will be protected from the more draconian cuts, but forces reconstituting or on watch in other areas of the world will be affected, the secretary said.
“Depending on how it comes out, as I say, it could have an impact on training across the entire force, on maintenance, on facilities maintenance,” he added.
Gates pledged to do all he can to ensure military families and wounded service members don’t bear any of the brunt.
“I will do everything in my power to protect all the money associated with family programs, and I mean that,” the secretary said. “I will protect the money associated with family programs and with wounded warriors, and so on.”

Gates questioned the seriousness of members of Congress who are up in arms about cuts to defense in fiscal 2012, but are ignoring the effect the continuing resolution will have on the services.
“In short, talk about not cutting defense in [fiscal 2012], as far as I’m concerned, is simply rhetoric without action on the [fiscal 2011] defense budget that’s already in front of the Congress,” he said.
Gates also discussed some of the congressional concerns over his proposed $78 billion cut in the projected defense budget over the next five years.

The impact on the services is very modest, he said. Of the $78 billion, $54 billion in savings come from reductions in defense agencies and other cuts. About $14 billion of the cut comes from changes in assumptions, Gates explained. For example, he said, inflation is lower than anticipated and pay raises will be smaller than the ones that were figured into budget projections.
“So $68 billion of the $78 billion don’t touch the services, really, at all,” he said. “An additional $4 billion comes from restructuring the joint strike fighter program, and I would argue that’s actually to the advantage of the services. And $6 billion is from the force reductions in ’15 and ’16.”
The bottom line, Gates said, is that “only about $10 billion come out of anything having to do with the troops or investment funds or capabilities.”

The fiscal 2011 budget is getting mixed into issues that range far beyond the Defense Department, Gates said, adding that he is addressing his responsibilities to the department.
“My view is these issues are not optional,” he said. “This has to do with the security of the country.”
The training cuts a continuing resolution would necessitate would work against addressing readiness concerns the service chiefs and some lawmakers have expressed, the secretary noted.

“The irony in this would be one of the service chiefs’ concerns and one of the Congress’s concerns, the Armed Services Committees’ concerns, have been the lack of readiness for the full range of combat,” Gates said. “We are just now beginning to get the kind of dwell time [at home stations between deployments] that would allow us to carry out that kind of training. “And it would be incredibly ironic,” he continued, “if now that we are able to do that kind of training, we are unable to do so for the rest of [fiscal 2011] because we don’t have the money, because we end up on this continuing resolution.”

This video says a lot and puts out a great message as we get ready to head to the polls in about 11 days.

A lot to be learned from this one.

Nobody says it like Zo. He has a way with words that all can understand.

You gotta love Saturday Night Live. This is the opening skit for last night’s show and lampooned President Obama and his visit to China. I wonder if CNN and the rest of the MSM will be “fact checking” this skit too?

Are we forcing our kids to make this pledge, whether they recite it or not? Stop the spending.

I know I spend too much time on YouTube.

Everyone sing along with me….

Take this speech and listen to it objectively.  Reagan gave this speech in the 1960′s but it could easily be given today!  However, you will not hear a speech like this from any politicians in DC.  And the numbers would be drastically higher.

Get this. 1948. With some minor changes it could be 2009… well, 2008 really. All too many already drank the brew and now we are seeing what it brings. Remember, in 1948 the United States had a national debt that was over four times the GNP as a result of WW-II. (And you thought we have a huge debt!) Our nation had a lot of choices to make.

Of course, most of the people who owned US Bonds then were Americans… not Chinese. But now we are waaaaay too smart to buy our own junk. Goes for cars, too.

There is not much on this earth that cannot be undone… except death and the passing of time. Most everything else can be undone… or perhaps fixed would be a better word. Make no mistake, though, the bottle of “ISM” has already been purchased and consumed by more than half of the population. Call it what you want… “liberalISM,” “socialISM” or whatever.

It’s funny that this actually came from a college. Nowadays, you’d be more likely to have a college or university produce a cartoon extolling the virtues of “ISM.”

It’s still nothing new. You know what is new?

So many people bought it.

Cap and Trade, “Healthcare Reform,” a new Supreme Court Justice. The Democrats have control of Congress and the White House. Americans gave it to them. Very often it feels as if liberalism is all the rage in the United States.

Let them have it.

You can’t stop it, anyway. We are still a year and a half from the next Congressional elections. Forestalling the “program” will only keep the horrible effects of the Democratic domestic agenda from fully taking hold before the next elections. They’re going to take what they want, anyway. Let them have it. Let them have what they want. You don’t have to vote for it. The time to vote is past. Sit back and watch them tear this mother down.

It won’t take long for those in the middle… those caught up in the “spirit of the moment,” those who were so easily convinced that our lives suck so much that we needed such “change” to feel the discomfort of the weight of government on their backs. Don’t let it be eased upon them, let it slam into all of our shoulders with the full weight of the overlord that is to become. Let us all feel the crushing weight of having those who would legislate against us for our own good succeed. It will happen, anyway. They have the votes… because many Americans didn’t.

Sit back, relax as best you can, and watch the show as America kicks her own ass. The “majority” has asked for a good asskicking, and they shall have it. You cannot stop them. Your next best hope is a year and a half away, and Dick Cheney is still taking point against the liberals and progressives. Rush Limbaugh is still shrilly crying out in ridiculous ways. Cheney has no credibility with the common American and Limbaugh is doing more harm than good. He makes so little sense to the average American that he is actually driving people away and helping the other side. The Tea Parties make an awesome statement, but they are not able to influence the liberal lawmakers who have all the votes they need without having to court the right.

The right doesn’t have a point man, or woman, who can coherently stand against the left. McCain is doing an admirable job. He’s the only one on his side of the aisle who is making reasoned statements. He’s also the “failed presidential candidate.” The liberals revel in the fact that there is no acceptable leader, none who anyone outside of the far right, will follow. McCain has been rendered moot. Republicans wouldn’t even vote for him. McCain wasn’t good enough for them.

So six million of them… or more… failed to vote. While Democrats turned out in unprecedented numbers, there were still millions fewer votes cast in 2008 than in 2004. Fewer votes cast! A minimum of six million Republicans failed to live up their responsibilities to vote.

You know that they did. Who didn’t hear Republicans claiming that there wasn’t really a Republican in the race? We all did. Well, that’s fine then. They made their little personal protest by not voting for anyone. In so doing, they screwed themselves and the rest of the country. It wasn’t just the presidency, it was Congress as well. If you are one of them who failed to get off their ass and vote, shame, shame on you!

The nation has spoken while a goodly portion of the right side of its brain was asleep. A single party has full control and has been running rampant. We had the equivalent of a national stroke, and we did it willfully. The checks and balances built in by the framers of the Constitution have had their hard work rendered useless by millions of petulant “Republicans.” While the left cries out that it has a mandate, all you have to do is look at the numbers. They didn’t have a landslide, millions stayed home and failed to vote. It wasn’t a victory of the left so much as a failure of the right.

Let them have their agenda. Let them have it. Let them have it all quickly so that we can feel the sting more fully and perhaps be woken up by the slap of oppression on our backs. Let us begin to feel the crushing “kindness and fairness” of liberalism. Let socialism begin to make an impact on our daily lives and let it come come quickly so that there is no creeping anesthesia… because this is going to hurt, and we as a nation deserve it. Find new leadership, as the left did, and back him or her.

Here’s a hint: Sarah Palin is not that point woman. She may be a player, but she is not the point woman. That bolt has been shot.

Perhaps the slap of overwhelming governmental control will awaken the nation (or enough of it) from its opiated state, quit selling its liberty for the siren song of governmental coddling, and vote again. Perhaps liberalism will finally show itself for what it is, perhaps strong men and women will never again lay down and let socialism walk over them, and the tree of liberty will again be refreshed. Do it before the memory of handing over our liberty for the sake of “safety” and being “taken care of” fades. Do while patriots still walk the earth and have strength in their arms.

We will always have our weak-minded. We will always have those who yearn for the government to take care of them, those who will gladly hand over their liberty for the mock safety of the blanket of government. There will always be those whose higher power is the government… it is their solution to the ills of the world.

Let them have it, and let us all taste it so that we will know the bitterness of it and remember. I am convinced that most of us will rebel against it, and a revolution of sorts will occur… people will remember why it’s important to vote, even if it is not a perfect choice… and those couch potatoes who protested McCain by sitting on their butts will realize that such self-destructive “statements” are never the answer to a threat to liberty. Perhaps they will show up and vote. We will have a chance to restore personal liberty and responsibility and reestablish some balance in Congress so that no one agenda can rule this nation in this way again. For now, there is nothing that anyone can do except interfere momentarily with the progress of the liberal agenda. That only softens the blow. We need to have it all crash down on us like a ton of bricks, as painfully as possible, so that there will be the will to roll it back.