This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Poetrooper

  • Adding More Inches to the Welfare Beltline

    Born in the early forties, my early life was formed around images of WWII. Then, as an adolescent, it was the images from the Korean War that shaped my views of world conflict and its consequences. In the mid-’60s it was my turn to be a participant in Vietnam, where I was able to view those events firsthand. In all those conflicts, some of the most searing images were those showing the effects of war on the civilian populace. There are millions of images from those years and those wars recording for posterity the sad plight of all those millions of refugees.

    But you know what? I can’t ever recall seeing, either in person or in an image, a fat refugee. In my remembrance, they have all been gaunt, looking as though their very next step may be into a grave. These were people dispossessed of their homelands, fleeing political oppression and conflict, seeking the slightest glimmer of hope to regain their freedom and some semblance of normality in their lives.

    And to my best recollection, the one trait they all shared was that they were all skinny as rails.

    Don’t believe me? Go back and look at those historical images. One look at those people, and you can see quite readily that they were in severe physical distress regardless of their political pains.

    Now take a look at any of the video coverage or other imagery of the poor Central American refugees seeking asylum at our border. One striking truth is immediately apparent: many of them are genuinely obese by the actuarial standards imposed on the rest of us Americans by the insurance industry and our federal government. Most of these refugees look like they’ve never missed a meal in their lives. Many of them look like they have lived with both front feet in the trough. It’s glaringly obvious that whatever they are fleeing, it’s not the malnutrition that is usually such an essential component of refugee status. In fact, I would suggest that, considering the norm, a skinny refugee should be flagged for extra health screening.

    So while the Obama administration is bending-unto-breaking every law on the books to carry off this phony children’s crusade, I suppose it’s just a given that federal height/weight and body fat content guidelines will be bent as well to accommodate all these new lifelong Democrat voters and food stamp recipients. And since all these chubby border-crashers will most likely end up on Medicaid, it naturally follows that Medicaid will have to revise upward their obesity guidelines, which frees up all those already on Medicaid and food stamps to increase their caloric intake, leading to millions of fatter feet in the trough.

    Good grief! What has Obama wrought?

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • The Myth of the Posse Comitatus Act

    I recently put forth a rudimentary plan for utilization of existing military resources in stanching the flow of illegal trespassers across our southern border with Mexico. Many were the commenters who were quick to tell me that such a thing is impossible because it is proscribed by the Posse Comitatus Act. This is one of those issues that naysayers like to throw up as roadblocks to any attempts to settle the problem of rampant illegal immigration. “We can’t use the military to patrol our borders because of the Posse Comitatus Act,” they protest breathlessly with a reverence for that act that hints of constitutional origins, and therefore, sacrosanct. Well hold on, all you legal buckaroos, while we take a closer look at this statutory critter that so many profess to know and understand and are even quicker to invoke. Here it is in all its sanctity:

    Sec. 1385. Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus

    Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

    Now that’s not really all that complicated, is it? What’s not to understand? The simple legislative act says that the federal government cannot use our military forces to execute or enforce laws. The law was originally enacted by a Republican Congress as a quid pro quo to Southern Democratic congressmen whose backing was needed to decide the presidential election of Rutherford B. Hayes. Southerners were sick of the Union Army’s occupying forces’ interference in matters of local law and their representatives in Congress saw an opportunity for some horse trading. Republican supporters of Hayes agreed to the removal of federal troops from the occupied Southern states and sealed the deal with this brief bit of legislation that prohibited the use of federal troops for the purpose of enforcing civil and criminal statutes.

    So the hallowed Posse Comitatus Act was really nothing more than a clever legislative gambit by southern congressmen to get the heavy boot of northern forces off the necks of their southern constituents, a rather ignominious birth for a minor piece of legislation that is now foolishly considered Holy Writ by too many of the uninformed.

    But let’s get down to specifics; Congress, as always, covered its butt with the insertion of the weasel words:

    “…except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress,”

    Thus, in an act of Congress requiring no more than fifty-two words, that august body let itself off future hooks with that excepting phrase. And do not delude yourself into believing that was by accident. Quite obviously, the lawmaking body of this country wanted to reserve unto itself the power to use federal forces in domestic crises. It would appear then that the Posse Comitatus Act says whatever the Congress says it does. And if that Congress determines that the massive incursions on our border from Mexico constitute an exceptional threat, there is nothing in the law to prevent this nation from defending that border with the military forces necessary to do so.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Militarize Our Border? O’Reilly, Here’s Your Plan

    Bill O’Reilly almost nightly calls for the militarization of our southern border, but he never has any guests to explain how this could be done. So, Bill, since I agree with you, here is a rudimentary plan worked out by someone with a working knowledge of both our military capabilities and the geographical area in question. Mind you, I have no information regarding military training budgets, but as we withdraw from large-scale overseas operations, our leadership should consider applying funds no longer needed for those to the mission of defending our currently defenseless southern border.

    I have driven the border from San Diego to Brownsville, even much of the unpaved segments of it in my Jeep, and I can tell you two things: it’s huge in terms of ground coverage, and there are significant segments of it where you can drive for endless miles without any evidence of an American policing authority. My visits to those military facilities near our southern border, as well as to those positioned but a few hundred miles north of that boundary, always had me mentally gaming the situation as to where and how our military could best be employed to assist our Border Patrol in enforcing our laws, so I’m not new to this.

    Our recent combat experiences have been in desert environments and a cursory look at the hottest of hot spots around the globe reveals that the likelihood of that continuing is substantial. That being the reality, why do we not focus on training our troops in the vast desert environments that extend north from our border with Mexico – those that offer the major pathways illegals follow north to our metropolitan areas?

    We have but two significant Army posts on this border: Fort Bliss, in El Paso, which is huge and is home to a number of combat arms units, and Fort Huachuca, a much smaller Army intelligence base southeast of Tucson. Fort Bliss is home to the First Armored Division, which has multiple brigades, battalions, and squadrons which could be rotated in and out of close border operational areas from El Paso west to the Arizona-New Mexico line just east of Douglas, Arizona, and deployed to the east to Sanderson, Texas, just east of the Big Bend.

    From the Arizona-New Mexico line west to Nogales, the duty should fall upon the more distant 4th Infantry Division based at Fort Carson, CO which could forward-stage its units at Fort Huachuca. While Fort Carson is 850 miles north, that distance is almost completely interstate highways, and Huachuca’s adjacent Libby Army Airfield has 12,000-foot runways to accommodate our largest air transports.

    From Nogales westward, the border area could be the operational area of the First Marine Division, headquartered at Camp Pendleton just a few miles north of the border in coastal California. The temporary bases for Marine battalions rotating in and out of Pendleton could be Marine Corps Air Station Yuma or the much roomier Yuma Army Proving Ground just a few miles north, where Laguna Army Airfield can accommodate C-130s and, because Google Satellite shows a C-17 on the apron, apparently that larger aircraft as well. MCAS Yuma has 13,000-foot runways that can handle the largest air transports. There are also old abandoned WWII Army airfields at Dateland, Ajo, and Gila Bend that could be used for staging smaller unit operations. Farther east is Marana Field, a more active Air National Guard base.

    Getting back east, from Sanderson, Texas, just east of the Big Bend, to Rio Grande City could be the operational area of the First Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, some three hundred-plus miles to the north. The only border-situated active military facility between El Paso and Brownsville is Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, which is actually well-sited for a border protection base of operations. There’s enough open land east of the active runways to accommodate battalion-sized bivouacs of the 1st Cav for rotational tours of operations in that South Texas brush land, which, by the way, looks much like Mid-Eastern riverine environments where most of the populace of those regions congregates. Downriver from Del Rio is the old Laredo AFB site, which is now commercialized but still contains open land suitable for bivouacking troops and vehicles. And anchoring the eastern end of this region is old Moore AFB, just north of Edinburgh, TX, which is now under the control of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, also with sufficient land for troop bivouacs and what appear to be runways sufficient to handle C-130 transports.

    Now comes the rub: liberals will scream to high heaven that our federal military cannot be used to police law violators on American soil, a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. However, troops in federal service have sworn an oath to protect this nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Consider if you will that some of those poised on the south side of the U.S.-Mexican border intent on illegal entry into this country, in violation of clearly promulgated immigration laws, are foreign enemies determined to cross that border, subject to military capture and incarceration. Whether or not our military has legal standing to determine illegal border crossers to search for terrorists embedded within their masses is a legal issue that will no doubt rise to the level of our Supreme Court.

    A thought to keep in mind is that much of the border land I’m referring to is ranchland, much of it in the same families for decades. My wife’s extended family once held almost two hundred thousand acres right smack in the middle of the area being discussed, so we are sensitive to the ownership rights of the families there now. And as a firm admirer of those brave men and women who pioneered those lands, I believe we should respect their proud heritage. The federal government should negotiate generous leasing agreements with these ranchers and other landowners to permit military operations on their properties, with reparations for any damages.

    Lastly, I apologize to the troops involved for suggesting that they be separated from their loved ones in peacetime for deployment to our lawless border. The truth is that this is not peacetime; America is under continual assault from the south by the Mid-East fanatics – those who would do us great harm, yet who easily slide through in the midst of that illegal migratory flood. Were I a serving soldier once again, I would see my duty of enforcing my nation’s borders as at least as relevant a goal as pursuing Afghan religious fanatics, the latter representing a lesser direct threat to my family’s life than do those terrorists embedded in the uncontrolled masses of illegal immigrants.

    An additional issue will be the increased troop presence in the civilian community and the daily inconveniences their movements may cause. All I can say to that is that the Germans and South Koreans have put up with it for decades. If Americans can’t tolerate the active presence of our own troops defending us, then shame be upon them; it’s better to have troops than terrorists and deadly smugglers of people and drugs.

    And that, folks, is my O’Reilly Plan to militarize the border.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • The SEAL Who Knocked Ol’ Jessie Down

    Coming of age in the late 40’s and early 50’s, like so many I was a boy reared on the declining realities of WWII and the much more immediate Hollywood depictions of that cataclysmic event in Technicolor epics that could fire the sense of joining battle even in a Quaker. The United States Army designated we youthful devotees of such movies as John Wayne’s, foolish young men who leaned more to the Hollywood version of combat than the brutal reality our fathers experienced, with a lot to learn.

    An integral part of that Hollywood and John Wayne induced reality was the barroom brawl, and as a former combat military policeman in the 101st Airborne Division during that era, I can assure you that such brawls were frequent, sometimes bloody, but above all, celebrated as demonstrations of unit pride. They would never admit it back then, but there were plenty of colonels and sergeant majors who swelled with satisfaction upon being handed a military police report that indicated their paratroopers had kicked the butts of the paratroopers from another battalion or regiment. That pride was pure spades if the defeated happened to be Marines. This was the Airborne Army back in the 50’s and early 60’s, the lifestyle among the elite units of the military in those long ago days. The training encouraged aggression and weekend alcohol fueled the fires of that aggression until it blazed throughout some on-post club or an off-post bar or night club in a club-wide brawl.

    I have both been a participant in such brawls and policed many such fights; and the unwritten, unspoken but blood-sworn rule, held to by even those most egregiously battered, was that you never pointed a finger at whatever soldier it might have been who kicked your butt. When the fighting stopped, there were no recriminations and no blame attached to any participant. The parties either returned to their seats and resumed drinking or left the premises, frequently with numerous middle fingers being thrown back.

    All of the above brings me to the point of this piece. A tough guy ex-Navy SEAL, Jesse Ventura, former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor, allegedly found himself in a bar in Coronado, California, frequented by SEALs where he reportedly imbibed adult beverages to the point where he became verbally boisterous about political and combat issues best not raised in such an environment. Another SEAL took offense and following the warrior tradition outlined in the paragraphs above, pulled a John Wayne and knocked ol’ governor Jessie smack on his butt. Or so the story goes, one that Jesse disputes.

    Sadly, the SEAL who knocked ol’ Jessie down was later murdered by one of those inexplicable crazies that surface all too frequently and far too tragically, a young man the SEAL was endeavoring to help. Now, the widow of that SEAL who knocked ol’ Jessie down is being sued by Jessie, the Soulless SEAL, for defamation because her deceased husband had alleged on television that he had, indeed once knocked ol’ Jessie down.

    Good grief, Jessie, lots of us military tough guys get knocked down in barroom fights from time to time; I most certainly have and know how well it hurts, both physically and emotionally. But the real men always get up and get over it, sometimes even buying the guy who belted us a beer. And you want to sue the guy’s widow? Because he says he kicked your butt? Hell Jessie, you’re no real SEAL, you’re just a crass, greedy opportunist seeking headlines no matter what the financial and emotional costs to the widow of a REAL SEAL.

    Jessie, I would wager you’re stock is well beneath contempt in the military community.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Why Not Costa Rica?

    We are told that the children from Central America invading our southern border are seeking a life free of political persecution with opportunities to advance their educations. OK, I can understand that. What I can’t understand is why these children have to undergo the travails of threading their way through the iniquity and corruption of Mexico to attain their goals in the United States when there exists a very attractive alternative right in their own backyard.

    Way back in the late 1940’s Costa Rica disbanded its army and promulgated laws to ensure that all of its young people were entitled to a free education. That national edict now extends to a college education at state expense. And these are national directives that the good people of Costa Rica take quite seriously. Drive down any highway in that beautiful country and you will quickly become frustrated with the too frequent Zonas Escuealas that crop up every few kilometers. But each and every one of those rural school zones are the seed beds for greater educational growth and national development.

    So let’s look at a few positives for those youngsters abandoning say, Honduras or El Salvador, for a future in the United States. Costa Rica is much, much closer and you do not have to cross the lengthy and predatory state of Mexico. And, hey, you speak the same language so that huge linguistic barrier no longer is a factor. Then there is the cultural adaptation that will be considerable in the U.S. but will be negligible in Costa Rica, a country seriously Americanized while still maintaining its Tico culture. The food is still rice and beans.

    So, if your goal is self-improvement through education free from governmental oppression, Costa Rica presents a very workable alternative. But wait: does that lovely little country down there in Central America offer you the opportunity to live on welfare, food stamps, subsidized housing and free medical care from the time you enter the country until the day you die?

    Um, well no; that would be the U.S.A. that freely extends that greased life-style from the time you cross the border until we plant your free-loading butt in a potter’s grave. “But wait,” as those TV sleaze-bags say, “There’s more,“ and that’s true because the taxpayers of America will end up paying Social Security survivor benefits to your family in Central America who never contributed one minute’s effort to improving this country but who will receive endless monetary beneficence from American taxpayers.

    What started out as a piece on why Costa Rica should be a much more attractive asylum than the U.S. simply ended up being yet another demonstration of liberal lunacy.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • White House Values Treason More Than Honor

    Those are not my words, but those of a veteran working as a contractor with the same Army division from which Bowe Bergdahl deserted. This young veteran could not possibly have stated the predominant view of our men and women in arms, still out there, spread round this globe, protecting us round the clock, more clearly. Regardless of all the whitewash the Obama spinmeisters try to put on this Bergdahl situation, the troops know the truth: the man is a deserter, a traitor, and a collaborator with enemy forces – enemy combatants who killed the very Americans seeking to free him. In our troops’ eyes, he is not deserving of the red carpet, brass band, and ticker tape reception our clueless administration had planned as a political triumph and photo-op for our Anointed Leader.

    Here is what that veteran has to say about all the Defense Department fanfare surrounding Bergdahl’s release, ginned up, no doubt, by the White House political machine:

    When a soldier deserts his post, when he writes that he is ashamed to be an American, when he gives the enemy secrets (and he did), he is no longer “one of us”. He is a traitor. He is not a brother-in-arms.

    Soldiers risk their lives for each other every day on the battlefield, there is a trust and respect they have for each other. For Bowe Bergdahl to break that trust and the Secretary of Defense to announce a hero’s welcome instead of a court-martial is a huge let-down.

    He isn’t one of their own. He is one of them. He is the enemy.

    That’s not something to celebrate.

    That, pure and simple, is a concept the never-serving wienies in the White House simply can’t grasp. Chuck Hagel, to his everlasting disgrace, should have been able to pick up on this brewing military sentiment and warn his clueless civilian boss away from such a public relations disaster. But no, old suck-up Chuck, despite his honorable service as a combat infantry NCO in Vietnam, chose the politically expedient, screw-the-troops course of action. Congratulations, Chuck: you could have served honorably, yet just like Bergdahl, you went over to the enemy.

    This old infantry sergeant from that long-ago Vietnam War cannot fathom for the life of him how a man who had served honorably and responsibly in that war as an infantry non-com could now serve so dishonorably in this one. But then I must consider that he is an embedded part of an anti-military administration that demonstrates to the world that it values treason more than honor.

    Do these inept fools not have a clue as to how demoralizing that is to our own forces and energizing to our enemies?

    Our ship of state is a ship of fools.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Go west, young Dan, go west

    Washington Redskin’s owner, Daniel Snyder, has been targeted by the speech police for his heresy in refusing to bow to their politically correct demands to rename his team. What a turn of events it has been to watch the Redskins circling their wagons into a defiant defense while chiefly white, whooping, wild-eyed elitists and liberal journalists spin madly around them firing salvo after salvo of barbed accusations of resolute racism into their beleaguered organization. When their socially-slanted spears failed to strike any vital organs, their frustrated leaders called in the cavalry. Federal forces quickly moved to strip those cheeky Redskins of their precious (and profitable) heritage. While we can only suspect that this disabling decree was the work of the Great Father in Washington, there are some who are convinced they can smell the sulphurous residue of his political effluents all around it.

    Okay, enough Indian stuff; excuse me, Native American allusions. As someone who was raised in Indian Territory after it was renamed Oklahoma – which by the way, in the Choctaw language, means red people – may I suggest to that young billionaire owner of the Washington Redskins, Daniel Snyder, that he load up his wagons and go west. After all, the state of Oklahoma’s name is about as close as you can get to that of your team and the proximity to Dallas would really ramp up that old Red River rivalry to fever status. Just imagine that headline: Oklahoma Redskins scalp Dallas Cowboys. And, hey, that’s coming from a lifelong Cowboys fan.

    Of one thing you can be certain, Dan, almost every living person in Oklahoma claims to be a descendant of one tribe or another. Probably every politician and bean counter you’d have to deal with in negotiating the team’s move to Oklahoma City would be susceptible to a subtle gratuity such as a Native American discount on season tickets, the greater the DNA proof, the deeper the discount. Think about it Dan, with Oklahoma City being so centrally located, every home game could be a statewide tribal gathering, possibly making your organization eligible for some form of federal largesse reserved for organizations engaged in outreach to Native America. Install a tribal politico in senior management and you might qualify as a minority-run business.

    Come to think of it, the name Dan is associated with the lost tribes of Israel and I see on your Wikipedia page that you are Jewish. Are you aware that there are some who believe the Five Civilized Tribes are descended from those lost tribes of Israel? Not only may you be able to qualify as the NFL’s first and only Native American owner, but even better, you may even be related to Fauxahontas.* Goodness, how much more incentive do you need than that to leave all those ingrate, coastal elites who have no appreciation of your heritage or your investment?

    Paint your wagons, Dan, with that proud, all-American logo and go west, young Dan, go west.

    *It would appear you lack the requisite high cheekbones, but, hey, if John Kerry can afford his complete overhaul, surely you can as well.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • The Three Stooges Administration

    That happy little convocation in the Rose Garden that transpired a couple of weeks ago, where our oh so solicitous POTUS, provided a presidential imprimatur and a platform backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government to the father of Bowe Bergdahl, may very well being heading south at warp speed.

    The online version of the Brit newspaper, Daily Mail has posted an article that rather detracts from the strong moral position that Bergdahl’s father supposedly occupied as the distressed but now relieved father of a young man held by a terrorist group for five years. So noble was his cause that our nation’s president invited him and his wife to participate in that Rose Garden photo opportunity that Obama’s staff had assured him would make him appear as a strong leader, a commander-in-chief who cares for the families of our warriors and leaves no man behind.

    Well, if what the Daily Mail has published proves to be true, Barry may find himself wishing he’d swapped Bergdahl senior for Bergdahl junior rather than five deadly terrorists. According to the Daily Mail, Bergdahl senior is…you ready for this?

    A Peeping Tom

    Yes, that noble, bearded father who faced this nation from a podium in the Rose Garden and praised Allah while our president smiled with benevolent warmth appears to have a police record in Idaho for sexual harassment of a pair of young women who were not so receptive to his stalking and his uninvited advances. Impossible you say? Our presidential handlers could not possibly have allowed our esteemed leader to be so embarrassed? Here you go.

    Folks, our White House is being run by the staff equivalent of the Three Stooges.