Jimmy Carter’s second term
To say that I’m disappointed in the results of the election is probably a bit of an understatement. What is most disappointing is to see my “friends” on Facebook who are veterans celebrating a second term of the President. I can’t figure out what they’re celebrating about. Retirees in five western states are being forced out of Tricare Prime and into Tricare Standard which means that, unless they live near a military treatment facility, their healthcare are going to skyrocket. What’s to celebrate?
And I put the blame for this loss of veterans squarely on the shoulders of the Romney team. When I brought the above subject up to John Noonan, Romney’s defense advisor, he responded that he hadn’t heard the Obama camp mention it in the campaign – so I guess he thought it wasn’t going to happen. It’s going to happen in April, whether Noonan has heard about it or not. A moment’s Google would tell him that.
The Obama Administration has raided our healthcare premiums to pay for other defense projects. If a corporation had done that to it’s retirees, the Obama Administration would be crawling up their ass with a microscope.
And what about the most egregious decision of the Afghan war? The one that forbade US troops from having loaded weapons when they were in the company of our “allies” just to make them think that we trusted them. That bit of brilliance cost us more than 50 young lives this year before they finally reversed the decision this summer. And let’s not forget that this Defense Department ignored a report last year that predicted an increase in “insider” attacks this year.
While we’re talking about the war, how about the overall strategy – what is the overall strategy if it’s not solely to withdraw? It’s a rush for the exits and a dependency on drones. The lowest infantryman understands that an Army doesn’t control anything that doesn’t have a soldier standing on it. Air attacks from several thousand feet above the battlefield doesn’t win anything, and this administration was unwilling, for purely political reasons, to put the number of boots in Afghanistan that a winning strategy required.
But the troops are coming home. If Desert Storm taught us anything, it was that if you don’t complete the mission, you’re going to end up fighting the war all over again.
While we’re at it, let’s talk about the Veterans’ Affairs Department which has squandered it’s increased funding. the rolls of veterans awaiting a decision on their claims for service-connected relief has grown despite the promises of the Department. They promised to end homelessness among veterans and they’re not really any closer than they were when they assumed office. Veterans are loosing money everyday when ever a college term begins because the VA can’t pay them in a timely manner.
All of that without even mentioning sequestration, which the Obama Administration claims won’t happen. I’m not sure how they think it won’t happen because it’s a law.
And then to top it all off, folks in Afghanistan wrote yesterday to tell us that TAH has been blocked in Regional Command (South) because we’re “extremist”. I guess it’s extremist to point out the things that no one else will, the failings of the Big Army leadership. The fact that the Defense Department is screwing over veterans and the troops and blaming them for the failures of their own leadership.
So yeah, your guy won, but who is going to pay for your jubilant celebration? It’s not American Idol or a sports contest. There is a real cost to real people out here in the real world.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Big Army, Military issues, Veteran Health Care, Veterans Issues
@48, I think they’re talking about the free Tracphone or something like that.
Smokey oven-roasted tomatoes, with grated cheese and corn grits
Steak tacos with chimichurri sauce and pickled red onions on the side
Woman Gone Crazy Bloody Mary (named after Jimmy Buffett’s song)
Potato pesto pizza
Fresh pineapple and sliced kiwi and mandarin oranges with just a little sangria
What makes it worst over the Obamaphone is that they were using as a way to get people to vote for him. That isn’t what the program was for. It was intended for people who could not afford a land line one to use for emergencies, over time it was changed to mobile phones with restrictions. Recently though they are able to upgrade for free to get rid of the restrictions and yet still not pay on the upgrade. Guess who gets the bill for that upgraded free phone? Yep more of our tax dollars hard at work.
Joe: Congratulations. You just indicated above that you thik the ideals of our Founding Fathers – specifically, as voiced by Samuel Adams – “suck”.
Thanks for confirming that fact about yourself.
To say that the posters on this blog lack intelligence would be quite the understatement..
Yesterday was a great day for our country and the president that saved this nation from economic collapse and killed our enemies..
I hope you sore losers choke on your rage..
@54, I’m sorry all I heard was
blah, blah, blah, I’m a Liberal that thinks I’m smarter than everyone else, blah, blah, blah.
By the way there “smart” girl, “President” is capitalized.
@55 I don’t take any writing critiques from morons.. When you have peer reviewed published articles come talk to me..
Until then keep enjoying guns $ ammo and mad magazine.. And whatever newsletter Limbaugh or Hannity publish
@56, suuuuuuuurrrrrre you do.
By the way “Dear Abby” doesn’t count as published.
You also might want to take one of your extra periods and put it at the end of your last sentence.
You might want to learn to do something constructive with your time instead of posting moronic thoughts and eating fatty foods.
You mean like you are doing?
“Yesterday was a great day for our country and the president that saved this nation from economic collapse and killed our enemies..”
We will see whether there will be positive results from the election if Congress and the Administration can reach the elusive grand bargain with respect to the “fiscal cliff” we have coming in January. I hope this president can finally be able to work together with Congress and establish an environment of compromise. So far, we’ve been anchored to gridlock and bitter partisanship. As of now, I would not call it a “great day.” The “great day” will occur when the legislative and executive branch gets something done rather than merely kicking the can down the road.
Also, it’s probably a bit in poor taste to give complete credit to the president for killing our enemies. There’s still a lot more out there.
“I hope you sore losers choke on your rage..”
Belittling a group of service members and veterans for conveying their political opinions is rather pompous.
“I don’t take any writing critiques from morons.. When you have peer reviewed published articles come talk to me..”
I have numerous articles that have been peer reviewed and published by reputable, if not prestigious, publications. AND, I’ve raised my right hand to serve. I suppose this means I can come talk to you, however, that is unlikely as I find you to be a complete elitist bore.
Joe, it would be unwise for democrats to think there was a “mandate” by the electorate in this contest. When half the people agree with you, it still means half thought you suck enough to vote a different way.
Both parties would do well to actually work together and get something done in the next four years. I am hoping that takes place, but I am not holding my breath. A shift of 1.5% of the electorate does not require a paradigm shift in message, just a minor alteration.
@47 Gloat while you can.
“your ideas, such as they are, suck, and the majority of Americans know it” – You do realize pure democracy by design is amoral. If the majority of the people decided that murder was no longer taboo and supported a referendum to legalize it, it doesn’t make it right. Keep holding on to your groupthink and self adulation as your chosen one bleeds you dry while you look the other way cheer and coo some meaningless social issue distracting the rest of the puppets somewhere of camera.
@62 I’m in complete agreement with you – but I temper Joe’s opinions with the knowledge that had Romney won with roughly the same EV spread, many conservatives would be calling it a ‘mandate’, too. That just seems to be how our different sides skew things.
One example would be Dick Morris’s predictions – he predicted Romney with 325 EV, and called it a ‘landslide’. However, Obama winning with 332 (including FL) makes it suddenly a ‘squeaker’. This sort of sensationalizing of 1-3% wins is not helpful.
http://www.dickmorris.com/why-i-was-wrong/
We also need to start looking at things more deeply than ‘racist!’, ‘socialism!’, etc.
@54 Get back on us about being saved from economic collapse when those tax cuts expire in January, and your taxes go up 30%. Or more.
You better hope he did kill our enemies, because you’re just their type.
Choke on my rage? No darlin’. I’m going to be choking on your delusions…for the next four years.
“…back to us…”
Sorry.
I have a brilliant Idea. Lets stop correcting the Libratards and just give them everything they want for the next 4 years. Instead of fighting the collapse lets help them bring it about faster. Let them really get a good full dose of the “utopia” they claim they can bring about.
Sorry I’m just about at the “some men just want to watch the world burn” stage of my outrage at the sheeple.
ObamaGirl, peer-reviewed articles that have anything to do with gender studies do not count. Has to be something relevant to someone outside of a leftist school.
Libtards acting like their team just won the superbowl proves just how much trouble we’re in. They have no fucking clue what’s really going on. I always said don’t fear the empty chair in the oval office, fear the gaggle of retards that put him there.
Obama Girl: I don’t think an article looked over by other students on a High School newspaper’s editorial staff exactly counts as being “peer reviewed.”
Egads! If peer reviewed published stuff is all it takes, then we have a plethora of geniuses around here! Some of the published authors who post here even got/get paid via means other than a gubmint grant. Others have academic credentials that would shame any lib.
Oh, pulling the “I’m smarter” card on this bunch is too, too funny! And an exceedingly strange and desperate way to gloat.
But thanks for the laugh. I needed that.
@ObamaGirl
Want to play curriculum vitae poker? Betcha I’ll win
Stock Market falls like a rock … MSM reports … European Jitters … bullsh*t!
This is one analysis of why Obama won this election:
“The president won because he ran a permanent campaign, keeping his offices open in the battleground states from his 2008 campaign, tending his coalition assiduously, and because he relentlessly defined his opponent. His was the better campaign. The Democratic candidate of “hope and change” beat the big business Republican in the trenches, in one state after another.”
“President Obama’s tactical victory is clear when you look at the election returns. He has no grand mandate that comes out of Tuesday’s numbers. He has been re-elected, but his policies did not win the day. Voters didn’t turn their faces up to the vision he painted the way they did in 2008. When voters were asked which candidate had a vision for the future, Romney won that question in exit polls, 55 percent to 43 percent. Asked about Obama’s signature achievement, health care, voters did not approve. Forty-nine percent said they wanted it repealed in part or whole. Voters also said the federal government was too large.”
This is the link: http://news.msn.com/politics/how-barack-obama-won-four-more-years
It’s fairly long, but a good analysis, and makes several good points, among them that, basically, Obama never stopped campaigning from the get-go.
It can be summarized by saying that if we followed the European and UK models, which allow six weeks and no more in a political campaign, he might never have won in the first place in 2008. He was just more persistent and never quit campaigning, even after he won the first go-round. This is something to take into consideration, if the GOP means to be successful next time around.
And this is part of an article today by John Schoen on “Economy Watch”:
The so-called “fiscal cliff” – set to take effect Jan.1 – is a doomsday budget package Congress enacted in 2011 to try to force compromise on a series of bitterly divisive policy choices. The budget package is a witch’s brew of harsh measures designed to inflict political pain as widely as possible, the better to prompt all sides to reach the compromise that would prevent it from taking effect.
The law slashes Obama’s popular payroll tax cut, cancels extended jobless benefits, imposes deep cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors, exposes millions of Americans to the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax, eliminates tax deductions for state and local sales taxes and child care tax credits (among others), takes a meat ax to defense spending and slashes “discretionary” spending – on everything from education to homeland security – by as much as 10 percent.
@ 56 Obama Girl
ANALYSIS:
You say:
I don’t take any writing critiques from morons.. When you have peer reviewed published articles come talk to me..
Until then keep enjoying guns $ ammo and mad magazine.. And whatever newsletter Limbaugh or Hannity publish
I say:
So you have had peer reviewed published articles. We would enjoy reading those materials. I for one, who has co-authored two books, routinely acts and performs technical editorial reviews, and have over 45 bpublished articles, would love to sample your work.
In the end my analysis of you and your abilities:
END OF ANALYSIS
bpublished = published
PS @ Obama Girl
Your use of the English language is artful. It seems as though you take liberty in proper use, punctuation, and seem to have an uncanny ability to make little sense and most certainly have difficulty crafting an argument.
I’m pretty sure folks like ObamaGirl think that someone “liking” your Facebook status means you were “peer reviewed”
Master Chief, you’re assuming that Bomamamgirl wants to have an argument, when in fact, she just wants to insult people on this blog.
Does the Navy still have destroyer escorts? Or have they been replaced with something else?
#80, I am not Navy, but I saw an Army-Navy game once. The answer is no. There’s frigates, then destroyers, then cruisers.
Or, with defense cuts, there’s frigate, destroyer, and cruiser.
This is how I feel….
http://youtu.be/puIstclBcO0
Huh…guess we know times are tough when OG the Garden State Parkway winner of the 2012 “Lot Lizard Queen Award” has to show up here in the slim chance of boosting her Google search rating so that she might get another 25 cents per “random encounter” she gets from Craigslist.
Or am I hitting too close to home, OG?
I think all the hate and rage heretofore mentioned is coming from one person. The spite that has been spat is rather venomous, but it has been spat into the wind…which you should not do.
No matter who won the election last night, presidents and other leaders may appear to have power, but no one has the power to control your mind and rule your heart.
The real freedom available to all of us, whether imprisoned by anger or confined by circumstance, is in our perceptions and what we do with them. No politician, police force, corporation, church or government can trespass on these most critical choices.
Current ship types (not including ships in mothball status): There are currently 11 aircraft carriers, 22 cruisers, 62 destroyers, 29 frigates, 3 littoral combat ships, 9 amphibious assault ships, 2 amphibious command ships, 9 amphibious transport docks, 12 dock landing ships, 53 attack submarines, 14 ballistic missile submarines, 4 guided missile submarines, 14 mine countermeasures ships, 11 patrol boats, and 1 technical research ship (military intelligence ship, the USS Pueblo, which is currently held by North Korea).[a] Support ships include 2 hospital ships, 4 salvage ships, 2 submarine tenders, 1 ammunition ship, 5 combat stores ships, 4 fast combat support ships, 9 dry cargo ships, 15 replenishment oilers, 4 Fleet Ocean Tugs, 11 large harbor tugs, 4 ocean surveillance ships, 4 container ships, 16 cargo ships (used for pre-positioning of Marine and Army materiel), and 7 vehicle cargo ships (also used for prepositioning).[a] Ships denoted with the prefix USS are commissioned ships or are nearing completion for commissioning. US Navy support ships are often non-commissioned ships operated by and organized within Military Sealift Command. Those denoted USNS are owned by the US Navy; those denoted by MV are chartered. There exist a number of former US Navy ships which are museum ships, some of which may be US government owned. One of these, the USS Constitution, a three-masted tall ship, is kept as a commissioned ship of the US Navy (and hence is listed here), as a special commemoration for that ship alone. Current ships include commissioned warships that are in active service and also warships that are in the later stages of construction or that are undergoing sea trials but which have not yet gone through the ceremony of ship commissioning. Ships in early stages of construction (keel not yet laid down) are not included. Also included as current ships are support ships (usually denoted USNS) and leased ships (usually denoted MV) that are never commissioned but which are part of the effective force of the U.S. Navy. There are about 436 ships listed here (238 USS ships, 198 USNS, MV, SS and other ships) that meet this definition… Read more »
Thanks, MCPO.
So nice of the libs to stop by and gloat. I agree with flight medic @63. Give them everything, vote with the dems all the way for the next four years and give them whatever they want. Then when it comes time to pay the bill for everything they ordered who is going to step up and pay that tab? I don’t think it is going to be Bill Gates or Donald Trump to the rescue… China maybe?
@SFC, a potentially habitable planet HD 40307g, a mere 42 light years away, has been found, close enough to possibly photograph it. It’s in the Goldilocks zone, where liquid water can exist. There are 3 other planets occupying inner orbits around the same star, but too close to have liquid water.
Maybe we could all move there.
It’s only a matter of time, you know.
They say depression is the result of a big mismatch between a person’s model of the world and reality itself. When the enormity of the mismatch becomes apparent, the brain needs to rewire itself to reflect the new, more accurate model, and the process results in certain parts of the brain showing reduced activity while they are being rewired. Kinda the same principle of technology as you can’t rewrite an operating system while booted off that operating system, you have to boot of a CD to allow the OS to be changed. Likewise the brain. I know a lot of you guys are/will be suffering depression in the coming days. Just remind yourself that it’s all a normal part of the process of becoming reacquainted with reality.
@Joe — That’s rather presumptious on your part. Maybe SOME people will be depressed, but OTHERS of us will not.
We’ll just get on with our lives.
On planet HD 40307g, Ex-PH2?
I’m still convinced that Jimmy Carter was a bar bet among the elite. With Obummer, they’re taunting us.
Uhm, Joe? Is that wishful thinking on your part?? Many of us have always lived in the world of reality. Might explain why we are only superficially impacted by all this nonsense.
We with military backgrounds sometimes call it situational awarenss, but it boils down to the same thing. My personal mission in life has not and does not change based upon who or what is going on around me. The path taken to accomplish the mission can and does get altered depending, but that is just how life is.
All to say that we who can adapt and overcome have been doing it all our lives. This bump in the road has no serious impact upon our ability to keep on doing what we have always done.
It’s not depression, Joe. It’s a sense of impending doom. Kind of like watching the train approach when somebody has tied you to the tracks.
There ya go, PN. The lib/prog/whatever they call themselves this week solution to being tied to the tracks as the train approaches is simply to change the definition of a train and tax the owner of the train. If you call it a helocopter instead of a train, the problem disappears and the increased taxes will pay for your therapy.
There – don’t you feel better now?
Thanks for commiserating, OWB! 😉
Yeah, a lot of the Republican candidates and their supporters (Chuck Norris, Ted Nugent, Victoria Jackson, the guy on the corner carrying a “the end is near” sign) went with the impending doom thing, seemed like it would work – the end of America, the triumph of socialism, the takers take over, the end of the world as we know it, the end of life on planet earth. Luckily most people were able to see thru it. On the other hand more of us see it as the end of this mutated, malignant strain of radical conservatism….
Oh, I get it.
Joe thinks he’s dancing on the grave of the conservative party.
You know what they say about hanging out in graveyards.
@89
“Kinda the same principle of technology as you can’t rewrite an operating system while booted off that operating system, you have to boot of a CD to allow the OS to be changed.”
Sorry, Bub. Just like all much of what you wrote…this is patently incorrect.
“They say depression is the result of a big mismatch between a person’s model of the world and reality itself.”
And “they” are wrong, and hopefully not psychologists, nor pretending to be one on TV. Frankly, it’s rather insulting to those who do suffer from depression as it suggests the cause of their illness is a lack of realistic expectations. Broadly speaking, the causes of clinical depression are most often either bio-chemical (genetics, brain chemistry, long-term substance abuse) or historical (abuse, trauma, etc).
Why do I let myself get dragged in? Nik, for one thing, I personally do know about depression. One recent theory of depression is that major life changing events – death, divorce, job loss, health crisis, getting your ass kicked in an election you put a lot of weight on – require a reassessment of our situation, a major reshaping of our model of the world. In other words, a major rewiring of the brain. During this rewiring process, as shown by PET scans, certain parts of the brain show greatly reduced activity, presumable because that particular part of the brain has to be offline during the rebuilding process (again the analogy – you can’t overwrite an operating system while booted off that system). This reduced activity may manifest itself as some level of depression, from mild to severe. Taking antidepressants in this case may make us feel better, but may actually sabotage the rebuilding process and prevent “growth”. Profound, prolonged clinical depression may be this normal process run amok, but a certain level of periodic depression of some level may be the price we pay for being human and in touch with our environment.