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

Category: 2012 election

  • Politico: Veterans retreating from Obama

    Poetrooper sends us a link to Politico which seems surprised that veterans aren’t supporting Obama in the numbers that everyone expected. Apparently we’re supposed to be grateful that Obama “got” bin Laden and ended the Iraq War, but veterans are able to see through the smoke and mirrors, much to the chagrin of the Democrats;

    Back in May, Obama had the lead among Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. But a Reuters/Ipsos poll from September says that’s evaporated, with Romney now up 48 percent to 34 percent.

    Obama campaign aides said the slip in the polls needs to be considered alongside recent surveys showing the president ahead of Romney on questions regarding foreign policy, leadership and keeping the country safe from terrorist attacks.

    The Obama campaign makes some good points about the Romney campaign, in that Romney has all but ignored veterans and the troops serving in the war against terror;

    Obama campaign spokeswoman Clo Ewing predicted that the president’s standing among veterans would improve by November, flagging a Zogby poll released Monday that puts Obama up 14 points with a small sample of active-duty military and their family members.

    Ewing also knocked the Republican’s omission of the Afghanistan troops “during the most important speech of his career” at last month’s Republican National Convention in Tampa and swung at Romney for proposing a voucher program for veterans benefits. “Mitt Romney hasn’t shown he will stand up for the military family and veterans community,” she said.

    Yeah, well, the Obama Administration hasn’t “stood up” for veterans, either. Yeah, they’ve increased spending at the VA, but the other hand is increasing our Tricare costs, and we can’t forget that Obama wanted us all to buy health insurance to cover our service-connected disabilities early in his term. The only reason he didn’t follow through with it was because he needed to get re-elected. So what’s to stop him from doing in the next four years? Obama went through the motions of fighting the war against terror without really doing that which is necessary to win. Most veterans opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but somehow the Obama campaign thinks that helps them.

    Basically, the Obama Administration is vulnerable on the issue of veterans and national defense, unfortunately for the Republicans, so is Romney which is obvious because he won’t summon the testicular fortitude to confront Obama on those issues. So, it’s a coin toss.

  • White House pros

    Remember when the media breathlessly reported to us that the Secret Service had *gasp* involved themselves in procuring prostitutes before the President’s visit to Colombia? And how they just couldn’t shut up about it for weeks? Well, it’s a different story when the Inspector General’s report that there were White House staffers who also engaged themselves in the practice. The only reports are in Fox News, the UK’s Daily Mail and our buddy Susan Katz Keating;

    While much of the attention in the case has focused on the actions of Secret Service personnel, multiple law enforcement and congressional sources tell FoxNews.com that investigators also discovered two White House advance team members checked in prostitutes as overnight guests at a Cartagena hotel in the days before President Obama’s April 13 visit.

    “Three U.S. delegation members that stayed at the Hilton brought prostitutes back as overnight guests. One of them was ours (Secret Service) and the other two were White House staffers,” a high-ranking Secret Service official told FoxNews.com. “We knew very early that White House staffers were involved.”

    As I’ve stated, from first hand experience, anyone who feels the need to buy prostitutes in Colombia are just too lazy to go through the motions of dating for a few minutes. Or too ugly.

    But I’m wondering why the majority of the media feels the need to ignore this little bit of news given the overblown coverage of the Secret Service scandal. Well, unless they think that somehow they’re protecting this administration from scandal.

  • Leftists fall for satire

    We’ve all watched as people fall for satire as news in regards to The Onion and our brothers at The Duffel Blog. Well another satire blog, Free Wood Post wrote that Mitt Romney said this;

    I can relate to black people very well indeed. My ancestors once owned slaves, and it is in my lineage to work closely with the black community.

    Just the context of that little nugget would make me question it, but not so for the Leftists who just believe something because they want it to be true. You can watch them melt down at Twitchy.

    There’s a “Satire Disclaimer” in the header of Free Wood Post. The header also claims “News that’s almost reliable” isn’t red flag enough, I suppose.

  • Romney: GOP and White House wrong on sequestration

    The Washington Times reports that Mitt Romney said yesterday that he believes that Obama was wrong to propose sequestration on defense cuts, but the Republican leaders were just as wrong to accept the White House proposal;

    The automatic spending cuts take effect on Jan. 2 and are the result of last year’s debt deal, which laid out major broad cuts split between both defense and domestic spending, known as sequesters, unless the deficit super committee had been able to come up with a replacement agreement. That committee failed.

    I agree completely. It was the cowards’ way out of the budget problem in an election year. But then so was depending on a “super committee” to tag budget items to cut.

    For his part, Mr. Romney has said he opposed both the sequesters and Mr. Obama’s cuts.

    “I want to maintain defense spending at the current level of the GDP. I don’t want to keep bringing it down as the president’s doing,” he said.

    That’s why this administration needs to be stopped now before we’re saddled with defense spending increases in the future to make up for what this administration plans to cut.

    Yes, everyone knows where the Defense Department can cut waste, but you can bet that is not what is going to be cut.

  • The President on the military

    Like I’ve said repeatedly this election season, I can’t watch political speeches anymore, so Obama’s acceptance speech last night was no exception. Which left me to read the transcript this morning. This is what he said about the military, defense and veterans;

    And tonight, we pay tribute to the Americans who still serve in harm’s way. We are forever in debt to a generation whose sacrifice has made this country safer and more respected. We will never forget you. And so long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known.
    (APPLAUSE)
    When you take off the uniform, we will serve you as well as you’ve served us because no one who fights for this country should have to fight for a job, or a roof over their head, or the care that they need when they come home.
    (APPLAUSE)
    Around the world, we’ve strengthened old alliances and forged new coalitions to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. We’ve reasserted our power across the Pacific, and stood up to China on behalf of our workers. From Burma to Libya to South Sudan, we have advanced the rights and dignity of all human beings, men and women; Christians and Muslims and Jews.
    (APPLAUSE)
    But for all the progress we’ve made, challenges remain. Terrorist plots must be disrupted. Europe’s crisis must be contained.

    Our commitment to Israel’s security must not waver, and neither must our pursuit of peace.
    (APPLAUSE)
    The Iranian government must face a world that stays united against its nuclear ambitions. The historic change sweeping across the Arab World must be defined not by the iron fist of a dictator or the hate of extremists, but by the hopes and aspirations of ordinary people who are reaching for the same rights that we celebrate here today.
    (APPLAUSE)
    So now we face a choice. My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy, but from all that we’ve seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly.

    After all, you don’t call Russia our number one enemy, not Al Qaeda, Russia, unless you’re still stuck in a Cold War mind warp.

    My opponent — my opponent said it was “tragic” to end the war in Iraq, and he won’t tell us how he’ll end the war in Afghanistan. Well I have, and I will. And while my opponent would spend more money on military hardware that our Joint Chiefs don’t even want, I will use the money we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work rebuilding roads and bridges and schools and runways.

    Because after two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it’s time to do some nation- building right here at home.

    Basically, it’s all smoke and mirrors. He honors the troops and veterans with his words, but he’s pricing veterans out of the programs that they earned and broke decades of promises that the government made to veterans. And I’m not sure how he intends to “sustain the strongest military the world has ever known” when he’s planning to slash the living crap out of the defense budget. Not to mention slashing manpower, weapons and R&D.

    Russia is a greater threat now than al Qaeda – because this administration have allowed them to determine what our policy towards are allies will be. That’s not Cold War mentality, that’s the situation this administration created. The “tragedy” of ending the war in Iraq too soon has become apparent this week as Iraq allies itself in Syria with Iran against the Syrian people.

    Obama’s attitude towards veterans illustrates why the economy hasn’t healed in the last four years. Employers need someone that they can believe, and Obama can’t be believed. He told veterans last year that he wouldn’t balance the national budget on the backs of veterans, however, veterans are the only people in the country facing any changes in their benefits. The benefits that they earned.

    Obama has made promises over the last four years that he might have intended to keep, but he hasn’t so how can anyone believe anything he said last night? How do you make decisions that effect your own future, or the future of your business when you’re getting faulty information from the country’s leaders.

    He says he wants to raise taxes on “the rich”, but under Bill Clinton, who promised a tax cut, we learned that even social security recipients are among the people Democrats call “the rich”. We learned last night that Democrats plan to slash defense even more than the $1.2T cuts looming over the Defense Department. I’m sure Russia is just one of the countries rubbing their hands together over the cuts.

  • The party of inclusion

    From the Daily Show, the open party, delegates at the DNC talk about how inclusive they are;

  • Dem platform supports more defense cuts

    Because $1.2 trillion in defense cuts isn’t enough to dismantle entirely our military, the Democrats are willing to make the tough choices and slash even more out of defense in the coming years, so that if they lose another election they can blame the incoming Republican for excessive defense spending like they did to Reagan in the 80s and GWB in the aughts after they tore defense to pieces under Carter and Clinton. Says Defense News;

    “In our current fiscal environment, we must also make tough budgetary decisions across the board — and that includes within the defense budget,” the Democratic platform states. “The Budget Control Act enacted by Congress last year, with the support of Republicans and Democrats alike, mandates reductions in federal spending, including defense spending. The [Obama] administration has worked with Congress to make these decisions, which has been a strategy-driven process.”

    The final portion of that statement will rile congressional Republicans and industry officials, who echo Pentagon brass in warning the automatic $500 billion in cuts to planned military spending would be made devoid of any strategic considerations.

    Mainly, it’s because Democrat constituency isn’t concerned about defense as much as they are buying votes from the indigent. So that clarifies what the election is all about this year. Apparently, they’re hoping a Republican will come along eventually to save them from themselves while they slash defense spending down to the marrow in the interim.

  • That National Debt thingie

    The folks at Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) sent us their latest video about how the National Debt, which recently reached $16T, is the greatest threat to our national security

    The 90-second web video, titled “16 Trillion”, focuses on repeated warnings from national leaders (including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin) about how mounting government debt endangers our national security. The video also urges Congress to focus on entitlement spending reform and pro-growth tax policies to spur the economy and reduce the national debt.

    “Veterans and active duty troops are deeply concerned about our stagnant economy and towering national debt, and rightly see them as drivers of our economic weakness,” said Pete Hegseth, CEO of CVA. “We understand that a strong economy is key to ensuring a robust defense, and that our government’s addiction to spending and debt is a sure path to weakness and vulnerability.”

    “The $16 trillion national debt mark should set off alarm bells in Washington—it’s time to stop playing political games and get to work reforming government spending,” Hegseth concluded.

    Raising taxes on the “rich” won’t solve the problem, only cuts tp the size and scope of the government and hacking away at entitlement programs will get the job done. But the folks in Washington who have buying votes with entitlement programs and scare tactics would much rather hack into the institutions that work and the things that have kept us a free nation lo these hundreds of years.