“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. — George S. Patton
Soldiers are special people. They sacrifice much and receive little in the form of pay or thanks. While stateside they usually have to move their families all over the country at the whim of military decisions, many of which often seem illogical. Remember, we are still talking about our government. While overseas they perform their duties with skill and precision unmatched by any other nation’s military, and as a whole they provide one of the few shining examples of excellence that our government can actually claim credit for.
This is a day that we specifically honor our soldiers. The grilling, the car races, the beer and beach are all secondary to the reason Memorial Day was made a federal holiday in 1967. If you’ve never visited a war memorial, try to find time to do so. Try to plan a trip to Washington D.C. or any of our historic battlefields and monuments. America’s history will only remain intact if the masses proactively work to learn it, and learn from it.
Both of my grandfathers as well as my father-in-law served in WWII. My mother’s father was an infantryman in the Army and was in the Battle of the Bulge. He died while I was a young boy so I never got the chance to ask him about the war.
My father’s father served in the army in Europe and earned two purple hearts. He would talk about the war when I asked, I now wish that I had asked more often, since I learned that he wouldn’t talk about the war with any of his own children or his other grandchildren. He spoke fluent French, something that his officers were glad to take advantage of when they were in town trying to pick up the local ladies.
My father-in-law is 85, and I ask him about his service quite often. He was a Navy signalman on a troop transport ship (APA-99). He served in the Pacific and says that “dropping those two firecrackers on Japan” saved his life. Do some research on the invasion of Japan to see what he means.
My late father got lucky and had a high draft number that allowed him to stay home during Vietnam. However, that war still affected him greatly as he lost many dear friends. He was a gifted artist and used to send drawings of all sorts to his buddies, many of whom did not come home alive.
Most of us have friends that are currently serving our nation. If you can find time between hot dogs, why not take a few minutes and give a military friend a call if you can, or send them an email. Thank them for their service and ask them what you can do to help them. They work for us without our asking, I think it would be great if we could reach out and let them know that we support them.
Thank you to our armed forces at home and abroad!
The AP reports: “The war-zone photo opportunity produced a stunning show of appreciation for Obama from military men and women who have made great sacrifices, many serving repeated tours in a highly unpopular war.”
Stunning is an appropriate word since it appears that the scene was staged like a Broadway play. A sergeant at the event said “We were pre-screened, asked by officials ‘Who voted for Obama?’, and then those who raised their hands were shuffled to the front of the receiving line. They even handed out digital cameras and asked them to hold them up.”
Would Obama do such a thing? Since he is all about flash over substance I say hell yes he would.Were soldiers pre-screened? Were Obama voters placed at the front of the crowd? Is there fire for this smoke? Will the press cover it? I doubt it, but something similar occurred under the Evil Bushbot and it was covered even by the evil Faux News. And, as reported by Flopping Aces the Bush scandal was not a scandal at all, yet it was covered ad nauseum. To quote from this article, “Now there is evidence that Obama perpetrated an actual fraud right under the watching eyes of the press, handpicking Obama voters to represent on television the views of our soldiers, and the press reports nothing but the fraudulent story.”
Let’s hear it for transparency. Go ahead, keep the change.
After watching the debates and then the reactions of ‘independents’ on various networks I am convinced that the mindless masses will put Obama into the White House. After all, our society now more than ever has become about flash over substance, image over content. Obama is handsome, has a great smile and can read a teleprompter like no other. McCain is an old white man with damaged shoulders that makes him look even older. Obama is smooth like Billy D. Williams, McCain is fiesty like Ross Perot. Today’s youth of America care more about who gets punked, who sleeps with who and whether or not Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O will survive their next bout with stupidity. Where have our priorities gone?
So I did the most basic of research this weekend to see how this all unfolded. CNN has a nice graphic that shows how the Primaries unfolded by date and state. Scroll down a bit and click on the date January 15. You willsee that Romney was ahead and Huckabee was in second place. On January 19 McCain moved into second place. Maine did what it could to help out and pushed Romney into a tie, and then Florida reared it’s ugly, humid head and stunk the place up. All of those military retirees jumped on the “war hero” bandwagon and voted for McCain. So did all of the Mormon haters. This pushed McCain out front.
Super Tuesday sealed the deal. Why? Because Huckabee stuck around too long. Despite having less than 1/3 of the delegates of Romney or McCain, he stuck around like that last guest after a long party at your house, or the third wheel at a bar. He cannibalized the party like Perot and Nader. And he had the gall to stick around even longer to rub it in.
Below is a map of the states that voted for McCain (yellow) and Huckabee (light blue).
Looking at the map above we can thank the south, the tri-state northeast, California and Florida for the mess we are in.
The table below shows how the McCain/Huckabee Super Tuesday states voted. You can see many instances where if you split the votes from states that Huckabee votes evenly between McCain and Romney that Romney would have won, CA, GA, MO and TN become statistical ties and Romney would have won VA. We’ll never know the actual percentage of Huck votes that would have gone to McCain or Romney. But it would have been a true race instead of a diluted political mess.
Why did Huckabee stick around so long? He had the very vocal support of the far right of the Conservative spectrum. Like sharks, they could smell blood and thought that a victory was possible. Steadfast, inflexible single-issue voters slapped on their Pro-Life buttons and ingored the fact that we were at war and in the midst of serious economic issues. Of all the candidates, Romney was the only one that had a clue about money and the economy. He made himself into a billioaire, leads a company, ran a state and fixed corruption in the Olympics. Yet the right thought Huckabee was the answer, and old milatary folks felt it was McCain’s turn to lead. Thank you for your service, and thank you for not seeing the bigger picture. Now that much of your retirement is gone are you thinking you made a mistake during the primaries?
So to the voters in the swing states I’ve described here I respectfully offer a heart-felt “F” YOU. Enjoy the Obamanation we are about to suffer through for the next four years. Here’s what it will look like:
The Next Four Years
