Our national debt is again approaching the debt ceiling of $14 trillion and the economists are telling us that if we don't raise that debt limit and just keep on borrowing money, that it will cause " global instability". wooo... I'm soooo frightened!
"In the most extreme scenario, the government would default on certain debts if the cap doesn't move." - Wall Street Journal
hmm... default on debts.... Oh, you mean like go bankrupt? Aren't we already technically bankrupt? If you can't pay your debts without borrowing more money, I think that pretty much means you are bankrupt. Soooo, if we don't go further into debt, which means go further into bankruptcy, then we might go bankrupt? Is that what you geniuses are trying to feed us?
I got a stupid question to ask of these educated idiots. How the hell is our going more bankrupt going to help global stability? Isn't that what is behind the problem in Greece? Do ya think that if our economy doesn't improve to the point that our GDP starts actually bringing in some revenue, maybe that might cause a little bit of instability around the globe?
Well, of course their response would be, a government can't go bankrupt because they just keep printing phony money, like our irresponsible crooks in DC have been doing since we decided to trash the monetary system that was actually backed up with something of real, tangible value, like gold and silver. Yeah, I know, there isn't enough gold or silver in the world to back up the world's economies so we just have this "fiat" crap ponzi scheme of a money system that says, hey, if you need some more money, JUST PRETEND you have it.
Yeah, that's pretty much it in a nutshell. And, to make matters worse, everyone goes along with it, including the good ol' USofA tax payer. Our futures have been mortgaged by this system for eternity. The US government has written IOUs in our name to the tune of $13 plus trillion and it's increasing to the tune of about $1 trillion per year and the economists tell us we can't stop this suicidal practice because it might give the rest of the World a boo-boo. "Oh No! The sky is falling !!!!! AAARGH!!!!"
Hey, earth to economists, take a look around ya guys. The US is broke. The damn sky has already fallen and humpty dumpty ain't gonna put himself back together again until you fools realize you can't orchestrate the world's economies with a failed 1930s progressive theory. JUST LEAVE IT THE HELL ALONE!!!
We just had a historic election in which the party in power received its walking papers in a major way. It was largely due to the shape of our economy and the very real fact that the government has driven this ship of state onto the rocks and there is just about nothing they can do except print more phony money and make matters worse. And, there is no sign that they have gotten the message yet. They're showing all the signs of raising the debt limit once again because the economists are screaming that the sky will fall if they don't. Oh booo!! And just when I thought Halloween was over.
Our politicians have been listening to the socialist trained economists for way too long now. How's that workin' out? hmm? Isn't it about time they used their own common sense and just cut spending instead? No compromise, negotiating, leveraging, bribery, or back room dealing. JUST CUT THE DAMN SPENDING THIS TIME!!!!!!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Illegal Immigraton, and the Plethora of Pandering Politicians
The long standing belief is that in order to secure the votes of any special interest group, particularly minorities, a politician or party must pander to that group and give them, or at least promise to give them what they want. It's a tricky proposition at best because many politicians have a substantial non-minority block that they must also contend with. What's a politician to do? How can they pander to all sides at once? Oh my....trouble, trouble.
In the case of the fastest growing "minority" special interest group, the Hispanics, it appears from the media hoopla that they all want amnesty for illegal aliens, er, eh,,, excuse my insensitivity...."undocumented visitors", or something benign and harmless sounding like that. And, the polls seem to back that up. Hispanics do all seem to be pretty much lining up on the side of Jose and Lupe from whatever Latin American country they came from, or any other country that the Empire of Spain once conquered, oppressed, plundered and gave them their language and surnames.
Yep, if you have a Spanish sounding surname, the Hispanic or Latino voting block apparently wants to give to you carte blanch, a big heaping serving of the benefits and rights once reserved for US citizens. Not all of them feel that way, we're told, but enough of them to make any fork tongued politician pander like a Chevy dealer at a lowrider convention. They're goin' around speakin' the ol' espanol, stuffing their faces with enchiladas and chili peppers and bad mouthing that "racist Arizona law", which of course, few if any of them have actually bothered to read. They don’t need to, Eric Holder told them what it says.
Two notable examples of which I refer are Meg Whitman who is running for Governor on the GOP ticket in California and Governor Perry of Texas. Yeah, the polls are sayin' "better get out there and put some distance between you and that Arizona law or you'll lose the Hispanic vote." And boy howdy, ain't they doin' just that. Governor Perry, worried that his Demorcrat opponent has caught him in the polls, went and spoke at a conference of La Raza, (The Race), in San Antonio recently and pandered like a street corner beggar, telling them just what they all wanted to hear. "Arizona's approach wouldn't fit in Texas", he pandered. So, in essence, he's against the Arizona immigration law. But, Democrat candidate Bill White also spoke and pandered even better, drawing cheers by emphasizing that, "if he becomes governor, he will absolutely veto any copycat of Arizona's law".
It doesn't matter to the panderers that the Arizona law mirrors Federal law and prohibits racial profiling. It doesn't mattter to the panderers that violence on the border is so bad the buildings in El Paso are being hit by stray bullets coming from gun battles across the border. It doesn't matter to Pandering Perry that if you go fishing on a certain lake on the Tex/Mex border, better watch out for banditos with AK47s looking to rob you of your catch, your pesos and your Lone Star beer. And if you resist, you’ll be left bobbing in the water like so much gator bait. And it doesn't matter to either panderers that both states are looking at huge budget deficits and really don't need any more illegals to feed, educate, medicate and police.
There's an article out now about the record number of these "undocumented tourists" dying of heat stroke out in the desert of Arizona trying to come here illegally, despite the efforts of the humanitarians helping them with water stations, emergency phones and directions to the nearest ACLU office.
"From Jan. 1 to July 15, the office has handled the bodies of 134 illegal immigrants, up from 93 at the same time last year and 102 in 2008. In 2007, when the office recorded the highest annual deaths of illegal immigrants, 140 bodies had been taken there through July 15."
That sure does put the lie to the statement by our esteemed Secretary Of Homeland Insecurity, Janet "the system worked" Napolitano,
"The border has never been more secure" and "Illegal immigration is down".
The problem is, she's obviously basing her statement on the apprehension stats that are lower because ICE is concentrating their efforts on the more politically palatable “criminals” at or near the Ports of Entry or picked up for the umpteenth time by some police department. But they don’t have time to worry about the desert and the unsecured areas of the borders. It’s a policy more palatable to La Raza, so the weak kneed politicians go after the “real” criminals, rather than waste time on all those poor “undocumented immigrant” criminals just looking for a better life and dropping dead from the heat and the weight of the drugs they're carrying through in the Arizona desert.
It doesn’t seem to matter to the panderers that a whole lot of those “immigrants” are being used by the drug traffickers to carry their dope for them and then are just murdered or raped, turned into prostitutes, held for ransom, or whatever.
Yeah, maybe the illegal immigration is down because they're all dying in the desert or downtown Phoenix in some back alley whorehouse. I rather tend to believe they're just not being caught and deported like they used to, and are making it up north to all those jobs Americans won't do. Who knows?
Ond thing we know for sure is that neither Napolitano, the CIA, FBI, IRS or Obama, or anyone else has a clue how many are here or came across last week or last year. There is just no way to know and if they do know, how do they know and why didn’t they stop them?
Monday, July 5, 2010
Afghanistan - Obama's Tar Baby
Imagine if you will, General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in WWII, on the eve of the invasion of Hitler's Fortress Europe, making the following statement:
"We have arrived at a critical moment. We must never forget that the decisive terrain in Europe is the human terrain. As you and our allied partners on the ground get into tough situations, we must employ all assets to ensure your safety, keeping in mind, again, the importance of avoiding civilian casualties."
General Eisenhower, of course did not make that statement. It was taken from recent statements of General Petraeus during a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Afghanistan. I merely replaced the word' Afghanistan' with 'Europe' and 'NATO' with 'allied', but I think you get the point.
Eisenhower may have indeed considered privately the very real inevitability of civilian casualties and regretted the ability to avoid them, but I doubt seriously he ever once considered it the “decisive terrain” of the war or made it part of his public statements to those who where being asked to lay down their own lives to free those very civilians from the tyranny of Nazi occupation. Eisenhower knew the success of the war did not hinge upon avoiding civilian casualties. He knew the success of the war hinged on killing the enemy and destroying his will and ability to fight. Apparently they don’t teach that at West Point anymore. Apparently General Petraeus has a different strategy. He is going to win the war by not killing civilians and then maybe the enemy will have a change of heart and just surrender en mass, or change their evil ways.
Times have changed since 1942. We have now another kind of General and another kind of war, if we can even call the mess in Afghanistan a war. We now have a General as concerned with civilian casualties as he is the safety of our own troops, at least publicly. We have a general now who operates from a different kind of schooling, a different military strategy, spawned in the murky primordial waters of doctorate theory, designed to respond to the nation building war doctrine of our current political morass, and to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Vietnam quagmire. He apparently concluded from that experience that the way to win an un-winable war is primarily to just avoid killing civilians. When faced with guerilla war tactics by an entrenched hostile indigenous enemy, you must win their hearts and minds by showing them how nice you are. I thought the lesson learned from Vietnam was to never have another Vietnam. But then, I didn’t attend West Point.
The man tapped by a publicly spurned President to replace the less politically savvy preceeding general in the field, General Petraeus has been hailed as a military genius for having proved his theory of counter insurgency in Iraq. His brilliant plan to win the hearts and minds of the civilians while turning his own troops into sitting ducks, has allegedly worked so well in Iraq that the level of violence has been reduced to a trickle of car bombings and I.E.D. explosions. The constant fear of mortar attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad have almost disappeared.... well, except for the one that hit the embassy during President Biden’s recent 4th of July visit. We are told that it had nothing to do with his visit, however.
The level of violence has decreased so much in Iraq that we only have a few thousand troops still sitting around there waiting for that next mortar attack or I.E.D. But hey, the people just love us. They really do. We don’t have any kind of formal peace treaty with them yet, but they really do love us. I guess we’re keeping some troops there just in case they fall out of love with us, like the troops we still have deployed in South Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Belgium, and the rest of the 150 countries around the World. That's why when Pelosi says she wants to bring the troops home, I really don't believe her.
So, General Petraeus is the guy now that is going to win this Vietnam sequel, this ill conceived undeclared war in Afghanistan. Congress is going to continue to fund it and Obama is going to just have to figure out a way to convince his political base of rabid anti-war Leftists that it is a good war. Perhaps amnesty for 30 million illegal aliens will do the trick. He's working on that.
I hate to admit it, but I have to agree with his base. This is not a good war because it cannot be won in any conventional meaning of the term and will not end there. Islamic terrorism is spreading to every hell hole in the World. Where do we go for our next Vietnam sequel? Even if it could be won, it is not worth the price in lives or national treasure - not this way and not in this place.
RNC Chairman Steele is right. It’s Obama’s tar baby.
"We have arrived at a critical moment. We must never forget that the decisive terrain in Europe is the human terrain. As you and our allied partners on the ground get into tough situations, we must employ all assets to ensure your safety, keeping in mind, again, the importance of avoiding civilian casualties."
General Eisenhower, of course did not make that statement. It was taken from recent statements of General Petraeus during a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Afghanistan. I merely replaced the word' Afghanistan' with 'Europe' and 'NATO' with 'allied', but I think you get the point.
Eisenhower may have indeed considered privately the very real inevitability of civilian casualties and regretted the ability to avoid them, but I doubt seriously he ever once considered it the “decisive terrain” of the war or made it part of his public statements to those who where being asked to lay down their own lives to free those very civilians from the tyranny of Nazi occupation. Eisenhower knew the success of the war did not hinge upon avoiding civilian casualties. He knew the success of the war hinged on killing the enemy and destroying his will and ability to fight. Apparently they don’t teach that at West Point anymore. Apparently General Petraeus has a different strategy. He is going to win the war by not killing civilians and then maybe the enemy will have a change of heart and just surrender en mass, or change their evil ways.
Times have changed since 1942. We have now another kind of General and another kind of war, if we can even call the mess in Afghanistan a war. We now have a General as concerned with civilian casualties as he is the safety of our own troops, at least publicly. We have a general now who operates from a different kind of schooling, a different military strategy, spawned in the murky primordial waters of doctorate theory, designed to respond to the nation building war doctrine of our current political morass, and to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Vietnam quagmire. He apparently concluded from that experience that the way to win an un-winable war is primarily to just avoid killing civilians. When faced with guerilla war tactics by an entrenched hostile indigenous enemy, you must win their hearts and minds by showing them how nice you are. I thought the lesson learned from Vietnam was to never have another Vietnam. But then, I didn’t attend West Point.
The man tapped by a publicly spurned President to replace the less politically savvy preceeding general in the field, General Petraeus has been hailed as a military genius for having proved his theory of counter insurgency in Iraq. His brilliant plan to win the hearts and minds of the civilians while turning his own troops into sitting ducks, has allegedly worked so well in Iraq that the level of violence has been reduced to a trickle of car bombings and I.E.D. explosions. The constant fear of mortar attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad have almost disappeared.... well, except for the one that hit the embassy during President Biden’s recent 4th of July visit. We are told that it had nothing to do with his visit, however.
The level of violence has decreased so much in Iraq that we only have a few thousand troops still sitting around there waiting for that next mortar attack or I.E.D. But hey, the people just love us. They really do. We don’t have any kind of formal peace treaty with them yet, but they really do love us. I guess we’re keeping some troops there just in case they fall out of love with us, like the troops we still have deployed in South Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Belgium, and the rest of the 150 countries around the World. That's why when Pelosi says she wants to bring the troops home, I really don't believe her.
So, General Petraeus is the guy now that is going to win this Vietnam sequel, this ill conceived undeclared war in Afghanistan. Congress is going to continue to fund it and Obama is going to just have to figure out a way to convince his political base of rabid anti-war Leftists that it is a good war. Perhaps amnesty for 30 million illegal aliens will do the trick. He's working on that.
RNC Chairman Steele is right. It’s Obama’s tar baby.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Twas the 4th of July
Twas the 4th of July and all through the lands,
the fingers were flying from idiot's hands.
The rockets they shot into neighbor's back yards
with never a thought from the mental retards.
The stands they were packed with things that go boom,
and whistle and pop and light up the gloom.
The morons lined up to give them their dough,
for something to light and then watch it blow.
With everywhere flags and the red white and blue,
the ERs awaited the inevitable goo.
They knew it was coming, the fools never learn,
there's no way to know how fast fuses burn.
The smoke it was wafting from dogs on the grill,
and beer by the gallon celebrators did swill.
With firecrackers popping, bottle rockets they lit,
none of them thought of the roof that they hit.
Soon sirens came screaming to put out the blaze,
but nothing would sober the reveler’s craze.
With beer cans in hand the fuses they lit,
‘til sooner or later they heard an “AH SHIT`!”
With plenty of noise to frighten the pets,
the ER technicians were all taking bets.
Just how many fingers this time would be lost,
which hands would be saved and which would be tossed.
Twas the 4th of July and just like the last,
most thought of the present and not of the past.
The day was a big one for retailer’s all,
a gimmick to get us to come to the mall.
Did the fireworks remind of the patriot’s cause,
those who made possible this nation of laws?
Or did it get lost in the noise and the smoke,
when so many fools just think it a joke?
the fingers were flying from idiot's hands.
The rockets they shot into neighbor's back yards
The stands they were packed with things that go boom,
and whistle and pop and light up the gloom.
The morons lined up to give them their dough,
for something to light and then watch it blow.
With everywhere flags and the red white and blue,
the ERs awaited the inevitable goo.
They knew it was coming, the fools never learn,
there's no way to know how fast fuses burn.
The smoke it was wafting from dogs on the grill,
and beer by the gallon celebrators did swill.
With firecrackers popping, bottle rockets they lit,
none of them thought of the roof that they hit.
Soon sirens came screaming to put out the blaze,
but nothing would sober the reveler’s craze.
With beer cans in hand the fuses they lit,
‘til sooner or later they heard an “AH SHIT`!”
With plenty of noise to frighten the pets,
the ER technicians were all taking bets.
Just how many fingers this time would be lost,
which hands would be saved and which would be tossed.
Twas the 4th of July and just like the last,
most thought of the present and not of the past.
The day was a big one for retailer’s all,
a gimmick to get us to come to the mall.
Did the fireworks remind of the patriot’s cause,
those who made possible this nation of laws?
Or did it get lost in the noise and the smoke,
when so many fools just think it a joke?
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The meaning of “is” is.....
"He once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollows from West Virginia. He was trying to get elected," former President Bill Clinton said of Sen. Robert Byrd.
Robert Byrd, also known as: Exalted Cyclops of the KKK. certainly did have a “fleeting association” with the Klan. His “fleeting association” was fleeting enough for him to rise through the ranks of the Klan to the fleeting title of Exalted Cyclops. I don’t think this title is given to just anyone who has a “fleeting association” with the Klan. I think they probably reserve that title for guys who really embrace the principles and objectives and beliefs. And I also think that the ol’ Cyclops was looking for more than just to get elected back in those days when he joined the Klan.
Bubba Clinton, the originator of the ‘Definition of Is’ doctrine of American jurisprudence and other such infamous legalizing contortions as the ‘definition of alone’, may actually want to believe that the Exalted Cyclops Robert Byrd was just acting out of pure love for Blacks when he filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but then we’d have to pin him down on what exactly the definition of ‘love’ and perhaps ‘civil’ is.
The rest of us aren’t so conflicted, however, as to the definitions of these words and certainly “fleeting” can’t possibly be construed to mean anything close to Robert Byrd’s association with the Klan or it’s beliefs. As late as 1965, the ol’ Cyclops was still showing signs of his true colors and black wasn’t part of the pallet.
But suddenly, and we don’t need Bubba to define ‘suddenly’, The ol Cyclops became the champion of Blacks and other minorities and all things Civil Rights. The Democrat Party was a changin’ and he wanted to ride that gravy train a while longer.
And ride that train he did, for over half a century, toeing the party line and tempering his blatantly segregationist views. Amazing as it is, a man once called the Exalted Cyclops of the KKK, was buried with the highest national honors, his coffin draped with the US flag, not the Confederate flag, as would have been his un-tempered wish. And with the respect normally reserved for national heroes and Presidents, great fanfare, pomp and circumstance, speech making and Media fawning, the “reformed” former member of the Klan, Democrat Senator Robert Byrd was carried into the Capitol building to lie in state. How fitting it is to lie in state after having lied to the state for half a century.Well, it all depends on what your meaning of “lie” is and I’m pretty sure Clinton is working that one over in his head right now.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Stop The Insanity. I Want To Get Off!!
Where does it all end? Or, more to the point, will it ever end? Is there no end to the lunacy?
There seems to be an endless chain of events that make life ever more depressing, and often infuriating. Even a bit of good news, a brief light at the end of the dark tunnel of despair is tainted with uncertainty and is quickly extinguished with another wave of the daily salvos of insanity from the news Media.
As I sit and watch the cable news, I am forced to just shake my head and say over and over, "unbelievable", because it is. So much of what we are treated to every day, all day, is truly unbelievable from any rational, common sense analysis; everything from public schools handing out condoms and refusing to allow the pledge of allegiance to the flag, or even allowing the flag in the classroom, to the Gulf oil spill fiasco where the myriad of government agencies are actually a hindrance to the cleanup rather than an asset. The Coast Guard, the EPA, OSHA, not to mention the President and all his political hacks, are actually making the situation worse with red tape and bureaucratic inefficiency. On day 66 of the spill, a tanker capable of skimming 500,000 barrels of oil per day sat idle in a harbor due to government red tape and perhaps political shenanigans. I want to know who is the stupid, bureaucrat SOB responsible for this delay? I want his or her head to roll, but all I get for my rage is another wave of headlines that wash more insanity across the days of our lives. Stop showing us pictures of the oily turtles and a few more pictures of these damn bureaucrats that can't get their heads out of their own pompus asses. It’s unbelievable.
All we really know for certain is the reality that millions of gallons of oil are now washing up on the beaches and swamps of the Gulf states and the government is incapable of stopping it. The Leftists who champion big government are understandably quiet about this obvious exposure of the failings of their sacred ideology. The Media, most of whom are Leftists, aren’t concerned either about this glaring evidence of the abject failure of government to respond to this disaster and all the others. So, we are treated to endless pontifications about the dire seriousness of the spill to the precious environment with all the proper inflammatory adjectives and predictions of environmental and shrimp boat Armageddon, but very little about the fact that the President and all the king’s men could not put humpty-dumpty back together again. The myth of the omnipotence of big government to solve all problems, large and small has been busted for all the World to see.
The other big disaster, the Man caused economic disaster, is not recovering either, despite the $billions that Obama has wasted, just as we conservatives predicted, but still the Leftists persist with their insane plans for more deficit spending. Out of one side of their mouth they give lip service to deficit reduction while making plans to raise taxes and continue spending. The market continues to sputter and fall, and along with it the life savings and standard of living of millions of people. Jobs continue to evaporate with the hot air of political rhetoric about who’s to blame and who’s really trying to help the “little people”. With every down day on the Market, Obama gives another vapid speech at another phony pep rally, a few more million gallons of oil wash up on the Gulf coast, more jobs are lost and the Left marches on, attacking the flag, God, marriage, the borders, our national sovereignty and common sense. Unbelievable.....
And, in the midst of all this insanity and chaos, a few more of our nation’s finest give their all in the sands of a wasteland thousands of miles from home. More is said about a few oily pelicans than is said about the lost lives of our soldiers in the God forsaken deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq. More is made of the career of some politician general and a fat, ugly homosexual, socialist Supreme Court appointee than is said about a brave, dying soldier lying face down in the sand; his life’s blood draining rapidly out of his body for a cause that he no longer can explain. It’s complicated. It’s tough. It’s going to be a long slog, the generals and politicians say. And more and more it’s beginning to look like just another Vietnam with no end in sight and no honorable way out. What a useless way to die. When will it all end?
As I sit and watch the cable news, I am forced to just shake my head and say over and over, "unbelievable", because it is. So much of what we are treated to every day, all day, is truly unbelievable from any rational, common sense analysis; everything from public schools handing out condoms and refusing to allow the pledge of allegiance to the flag, or even allowing the flag in the classroom, to the Gulf oil spill fiasco where the myriad of government agencies are actually a hindrance to the cleanup rather than an asset. The Coast Guard, the EPA, OSHA, not to mention the President and all his political hacks, are actually making the situation worse with red tape and bureaucratic inefficiency. On day 66 of the spill, a tanker capable of skimming 500,000 barrels of oil per day sat idle in a harbor due to government red tape and perhaps political shenanigans. I want to know who is the stupid, bureaucrat SOB responsible for this delay? I want his or her head to roll, but all I get for my rage is another wave of headlines that wash more insanity across the days of our lives. Stop showing us pictures of the oily turtles and a few more pictures of these damn bureaucrats that can't get their heads out of their own pompus asses. It’s unbelievable.
All we really know for certain is the reality that millions of gallons of oil are now washing up on the beaches and swamps of the Gulf states and the government is incapable of stopping it. The Leftists who champion big government are understandably quiet about this obvious exposure of the failings of their sacred ideology. The Media, most of whom are Leftists, aren’t concerned either about this glaring evidence of the abject failure of government to respond to this disaster and all the others. So, we are treated to endless pontifications about the dire seriousness of the spill to the precious environment with all the proper inflammatory adjectives and predictions of environmental and shrimp boat Armageddon, but very little about the fact that the President and all the king’s men could not put humpty-dumpty back together again. The myth of the omnipotence of big government to solve all problems, large and small has been busted for all the World to see.
The other big disaster, the Man caused economic disaster, is not recovering either, despite the $billions that Obama has wasted, just as we conservatives predicted, but still the Leftists persist with their insane plans for more deficit spending. Out of one side of their mouth they give lip service to deficit reduction while making plans to raise taxes and continue spending. The market continues to sputter and fall, and along with it the life savings and standard of living of millions of people. Jobs continue to evaporate with the hot air of political rhetoric about who’s to blame and who’s really trying to help the “little people”. With every down day on the Market, Obama gives another vapid speech at another phony pep rally, a few more million gallons of oil wash up on the Gulf coast, more jobs are lost and the Left marches on, attacking the flag, God, marriage, the borders, our national sovereignty and common sense. Unbelievable.....
And, in the midst of all this insanity and chaos, a few more of our nation’s finest give their all in the sands of a wasteland thousands of miles from home. More is said about a few oily pelicans than is said about the lost lives of our soldiers in the God forsaken deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq. More is made of the career of some politician general and a fat, ugly homosexual, socialist Supreme Court appointee than is said about a brave, dying soldier lying face down in the sand; his life’s blood draining rapidly out of his body for a cause that he no longer can explain. It’s complicated. It’s tough. It’s going to be a long slog, the generals and politicians say. And more and more it’s beginning to look like just another Vietnam with no end in sight and no honorable way out. What a useless way to die. When will it all end?
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Airliner hijacked by bureaucrats and other incompetent boobs
Headline: AIR NIGHTMARE: Chaos as Newark Flight Diverted
"Hundreds of Newark-bound passengers sat for four hours on a tarmac in a stifling cabin after bad weather diverted their flight from London in Connecticut and union regulations grounded it there.
To make matters worse, passengers said, the plane's generators shut down for the second time, leaving them with no air conditioning and sweltering temperatures that reached 100 degrees."
Well, here we go again. A flight gets grounded on the tarmac for hours and hundreds of passengers are held captive, LITERALLY CAPTIVE by the airlines and they try to blame it on union and federal regulations. This should make people so damn mad they would never set foot on another airliner again and the law suits should be flying before the last pissed off passenger is off the plane.
Not only that but the airlines should be held criminally liable as well. It's a crime to hold someone against his or her will. It's usually called false arrest and unlawful imprisonment. I could be wrong but last time I checked union regulations can't trump a criminal statute!
Will some poor schmuck have to die on one of these flights from hell before the airlines are forced to let people get off these damn planes in a reasonable length of time? Congress stepped up the last time this happened and graciously decreed that 3 hours was long enough to make people suffer needlessly before the airlines must allow them to de-plane. But, of course, as with all of Congress's bluster it failed to even come close to solving the problem. First of all, 3 hours stuck on a plane with no water or restroom and no air conditioning during the blazing heat of the Summer is absolute torture and no person with any sense would sit there and endure that torture willingly. I would be the guy that would just go up to the door and open it and fight anyone who tried to stop me. But that's just me. I would either get off that plane right there or make the captain return to the terminal and let me off. It would be like 'Mutiny on the Bounty'.
Besides being about 2 hours too long, the new rule only applies to domestic flights! So, apparently, international flights can be held out there on the tarmac, regardless of conditions, forever!
The airlines did apologize, so I guess everything is just hunky dory. Oh sure. It's not really their fault their damn plane was defective and the generator wouldn't work. Oh noooo. And it's not their fault then that the plane had to wait for Customs to arrive. Hey, it's a security matter ya know.
The reason this makes me so mad is that none of it needs to happen. It happens because the airlines and the airports and the FAA and the TSA are incapable of using their own discretion, common sense and good judgment and it is clear that nobody seems to really give a damn. They use the excuse of "security" or union rules. The airlines also do it to save a few bucks as well. It costs them money to de-plane 300 people and find them alternate transportation. That's the bottom line. Once you get on that plane, they own your ass and they treat you that way.
These kinds of incidents never used to happen. There was a time, back in the good ol' days, when people could use their God given good sense to make decisions based on the situation at hand. Airlines employees, pilots, whoever was in control, would just get those people off that plane if it meant bringing out the portable boarding stairs and bussing them back to the terminal. Unions be damned! Customs be damned! The only time passengers were ever held captive on the tarmac for hours was when a certain group of Islamic terrorists began hijacking them back in the 70s.
If the Customs agents can't get there within a few minutes, then just get those passengers off the plane, back to the terminal and let them enjoy a Happy Meal while they wait in relative comfort and safety. If the US Customs or TSA doesn't like it, tough shit. What are they going to do, fine the airlines? Wack their peepees? I'd love to see that Congressional hearing on national TV.
Congress will haul just about any citizen or CEO in front of a Star Chamber circus inquisition if it suits their political motivations. So, how about hauling the airlines before a congressional hearing to answer the question of why they chose to hold 300 people against their will on a plane in 100 degree heat with no air conditioning because of some union rule???!
It would also be interesting to see the pompous assed Congress grilling the US Customs officials as to why they can't come up with a more efficient way to handle situations where a plane gets diverted to another airport and is forced to hold passengers on the damn plane for hours until they arrive to check the luggage for whatever it is they check for these days. We know they aren't checking for terrorists because terrorists don't seem to have much trouble getting on board airplanes, even when they're being tailed by the FBI and they're on the no-fly list!
But, as Homeland Insecurity chief Napalitano would surely surmise, the system worked. Yep, the system worked so well in this instance that not one damn person with half the brains God gave a jackass could figure out that 300 passengers were being forced to sit on a plane in 100 degree heat for no good reason.... AGAIN!
"Hundreds of Newark-bound passengers sat for four hours on a tarmac in a stifling cabin after bad weather diverted their flight from London in Connecticut and union regulations grounded it there.
To make matters worse, passengers said, the plane's generators shut down for the second time, leaving them with no air conditioning and sweltering temperatures that reached 100 degrees."
Not only that but the airlines should be held criminally liable as well. It's a crime to hold someone against his or her will. It's usually called false arrest and unlawful imprisonment. I could be wrong but last time I checked union regulations can't trump a criminal statute!
Will some poor schmuck have to die on one of these flights from hell before the airlines are forced to let people get off these damn planes in a reasonable length of time? Congress stepped up the last time this happened and graciously decreed that 3 hours was long enough to make people suffer needlessly before the airlines must allow them to de-plane. But, of course, as with all of Congress's bluster it failed to even come close to solving the problem. First of all, 3 hours stuck on a plane with no water or restroom and no air conditioning during the blazing heat of the Summer is absolute torture and no person with any sense would sit there and endure that torture willingly. I would be the guy that would just go up to the door and open it and fight anyone who tried to stop me. But that's just me. I would either get off that plane right there or make the captain return to the terminal and let me off. It would be like 'Mutiny on the Bounty'.
Besides being about 2 hours too long, the new rule only applies to domestic flights! So, apparently, international flights can be held out there on the tarmac, regardless of conditions, forever!
The airlines did apologize, so I guess everything is just hunky dory. Oh sure. It's not really their fault their damn plane was defective and the generator wouldn't work. Oh noooo. And it's not their fault then that the plane had to wait for Customs to arrive. Hey, it's a security matter ya know.
The reason this makes me so mad is that none of it needs to happen. It happens because the airlines and the airports and the FAA and the TSA are incapable of using their own discretion, common sense and good judgment and it is clear that nobody seems to really give a damn. They use the excuse of "security" or union rules. The airlines also do it to save a few bucks as well. It costs them money to de-plane 300 people and find them alternate transportation. That's the bottom line. Once you get on that plane, they own your ass and they treat you that way.
These kinds of incidents never used to happen. There was a time, back in the good ol' days, when people could use their God given good sense to make decisions based on the situation at hand. Airlines employees, pilots, whoever was in control, would just get those people off that plane if it meant bringing out the portable boarding stairs and bussing them back to the terminal. Unions be damned! Customs be damned! The only time passengers were ever held captive on the tarmac for hours was when a certain group of Islamic terrorists began hijacking them back in the 70s.
If the Customs agents can't get there within a few minutes, then just get those passengers off the plane, back to the terminal and let them enjoy a Happy Meal while they wait in relative comfort and safety. If the US Customs or TSA doesn't like it, tough shit. What are they going to do, fine the airlines? Wack their peepees? I'd love to see that Congressional hearing on national TV.
Congress will haul just about any citizen or CEO in front of a Star Chamber circus inquisition if it suits their political motivations. So, how about hauling the airlines before a congressional hearing to answer the question of why they chose to hold 300 people against their will on a plane in 100 degree heat with no air conditioning because of some union rule???! It would also be interesting to see the pompous assed Congress grilling the US Customs officials as to why they can't come up with a more efficient way to handle situations where a plane gets diverted to another airport and is forced to hold passengers on the damn plane for hours until they arrive to check the luggage for whatever it is they check for these days. We know they aren't checking for terrorists because terrorists don't seem to have much trouble getting on board airplanes, even when they're being tailed by the FBI and they're on the no-fly list!
But, as Homeland Insecurity chief Napalitano would surely surmise, the system worked. Yep, the system worked so well in this instance that not one damn person with half the brains God gave a jackass could figure out that 300 passengers were being forced to sit on a plane in 100 degree heat for no good reason.... AGAIN!
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