Democrat budget puts economy and future generations at risk

The proposed Democrat budget fails the basic test of fiscal responsibility to the American people. Facing a slowing economy and soaring cost of living, American families have to tighten their belts and carefully budget their hard-earned money. But not House Democrats. Instead of reining in spending and preventing tax hikes on the American people, it is clear that Democrats are proposing a budget that includes the largest tax hike in American history, tens of billions in new Washington spending and no meaningful reform to the generational crisis of entitlement spending. Hiking taxes on the middle class in order to finance new wasteful spending is the height of fiscal irresponsibility.

The Democrat tax hike is the largest tax increase in American history. The Democrat budget includes a massive, broad-based, job-killing $683 billion tax increase on working families and small business entrepreneurs – all to finance wasteful new Washington spending. Nearly 116 million taxpayers will see tax hikes under this proposal.  The average Massachusetts taxpayer will incur an increase of $3,652 in Federal taxes under this proposed budget. In order to get our economy moving again, we must stop the Democrat tax hike in its tracks and instead cut taxes for middle-class families and small business owners.

Republicans proposed a budget that would provide new tax relief for the middle class.  Stopping the Democrats’ scheduled tax hikes on middle-class married couples, retirees and workers is critical to ensuring the long-term economic prosperity of working families. These pro-growth policies will strengthen our workforce, grow our economy, and keep America competitive.

Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. While families across America are forced to tighten their budgets to cope with skyrocketing energy costs, increasing health care costs, and coming Democrat tax increases, House Democrats are once again proposing tens of billions more in new federal spending. Washington politicians and unelected bureaucrats do not know how to spend American tax dollars better than taxpayers.

Republicans proposed a budget that would enforce real spending restraint. The federal government should not spend one penny more than it needs to. Taxpayers deserve real fiscal accountability in Washington, and we should balance the federal budget without raising taxes on the American people.

Republicans proposed a budget that would provide for an immediate moratorium on earmarks. The immediate earmark moratorium House Republicans have called for is a significant step towards putting to rest the fears of hardworking taxpayers concerned with how their money is being spent in Washington. Not only have Democrats so far refused to join Republicans in this effort, they have offered no solution to the broken earmark status quo.

Democrats have turned a blind eye to reforming runaway entitlement spending, again. As the recent Medicare ‘trigger’ legislation highlights solvency challenges, the Democrat budget fails to adequately address runaway entitlement spending, and presents a critical obstacle to a balanced budget. This budget proposal was another opportunity for Democrats to make good on their promises of fiscal responsibility. Failing to address entitlement reform only saddles the next generation with crushing debt while risking future benefit cuts and massive tax hikes. Every child born in America each day is handed a mortgage of nearly $500,000 thanks to the unfunded obligations made to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  This is a critical generational issue, and to that end, Republicans presented a budget that would implement real entitlement reform.

History has time and again demonstrated that lower taxes create strong economic growth.  The case for across the board tax cuts was made in the following statement to the American people:

“A bill will be presented to the Congress for action next year. It will include an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in both corporate and personal income taxes. It will include long-needed tax reform that logic and equity demand … The billions of dollars this bill will place in the hands of the consumer and our businessmen will have both immediate and permanent benefits to our economy. Every dollar released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create a new job and a new salary. And these new jobs and new salaries can create other jobs and other salaries and more customers and more growth for an expanding American economy.”

This was not a speech by Ronald Reagan, George Bush or any other Republican.  This message was delivered to the American people on August 13, 1962 by President John F. Kennedy.  It’s too bad that today’s Democrats have refused to listen.

Tierney fails constituents with FISA stance

 

 

To the editor:

It’s high time to end the political posturing over the revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The Protect America Act, which addressed modernizing FISA, expired February 17, 2008, leaving our intelligence agencies with their hands tied while trying to keep America safe. The Washington Times on Jan. 18 took Senate Democrats to task over delaying this legislation for trial lawyer paydays and impeding the ability of our agents to gather intelligence in time critical situations.

The Senate on Feb. 12 passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2007 by a vote of 68-29. Both Senators Kennedy and Kerry voted against this bill, as did the usual group of “cut and run” white flag liberals. Now this piece of legislation that is vital to our national security awaits action in the House of Representatives. However, it appears that the House, in a pattern that was clearly established during the first session of this 110th Congress, will again drag its feet on taking the necessary action to move this legislation forward.

The key battle is the provision sought by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, who wants to grant retroactive immunity to U.S. telecommunications companies that cooperated with government efforts to conduct warrantless surveillance of terrorists after the September 11 attacks. However, there are approximately 40 lawsuits pending against these firms, and the lawsuits could prove to be a financial windfall for a favored Democratic Party constituency — the trial lawyers.

Although retroactive immunity is contained in the FISA overhaul legislation passed by the Senate, House Democrats, including John Tierney, are consistently reluctant to pass legislation which hinders the ability of trial lawyers to file lawsuits — even if doing so hinders the ability of U.S. intelligence agencies to prevent future attacks. One only needs to remember his stance on the “John Doe Amendment” that prevented frivolous lawsuits against citizens who reported suspicious activity to authorities.

FISA, which was first enacted in 1978, created a special court to oversee intelligence collection. The law was amended after September 11 to tear down the wall between criminal and intelligence investigations, which hindered the gathering of information on jihadist activities. The post-September 11 changes were working until early last year, when the special court overseeing the law ruled that if the government wanted to monitor a suspected terrorist phone call between Iraqi villages, it would have to get a warrant every time it wanted to obtain information from a transmission wire on U.S. soil. As a result, U.S. intelligence agencies lost roughly two-thirds of their ability to obtain communications intelligence about al-Qaeda before Congress passed a six-month extension of the law in August.

Along with Clinton, Obama, Kennedy and Reid (Kerry did not vote) the entire House Democratic leadership voted against the Protect America Act, as did John Tierney (House Vote No. 836; Aug 4, 2007). Then again, would you expect anything less from Tierney? His documented history of voting against Defense and Intelligence authorizations, along with his steadfast devotion to protecting trial lawyers, leave much to be desired by the common citizen. His constituents always take a back seat to his political agenda and his loyalty to the Democratic leadership.

RICK BARTON

 

Godspeed Nate Hardy and Mike Koch

The Navy SEAL family again mourns the loss of two of its finest.  These two young men are part of what history will look back upon as our next “Greatest Generation”.  Matt Burden at Blackfive posted the following:

Godspeed Nate Hardy and Mike Koch

Chief Petty Officers Nathan H. Hardy and Michael E. Koch. US Navy Photos.

In the early hours on Monday morning, an American Task Force took down a terrorist compound in Iraq. In the ensuing fight, two US Navy SEALs were killed by small arms fire while clearing one of the buildings - Chief Petty Officers Nathan H. Hardy and Michael E. Koch.

Hardy, 29, enlisted in the US Navy in 1997 and is survived by his wife - Mindy, 7 month old son - Parker, parents and brother.Mike Koch, also 29, enlisted in 1998 and had a fiancée, parents, brother and sister.Both Koch and Hardy families have a tradition of service. The Kochs are vets and contractors (in Iraq and Afghanistan) and Hardy’s grandfather served with John F. Kennedy on PT-109 during WWII. Mike’s brother escorted the bodies of the two SEALs back to the states.Our thoughts and prayers are with the Koch, Hardy and SEAL families.Below is message from a Soldier serving in Iraq:

Last Sunday while most of America was enjoying the Superbowl several members of our Task Force were commencing an assault on a terrorist stronghold in Iraq. During the assault two of our brothers from the Navy were shot and killed while clearing a building that was occupied by terrorist insurgents. Ultimately, the building was reduced and all of the terrorists in it were destroyed by the assault force. Remember these names, Mike and Nate. They were good men doing honorable work in the name of freedom. The terrorists they sought to destroy were responsible for unspeakable acts of evil including the construction of improvised explosive devices and explosives to equip homicide bombers. For those of you who may not understand the enemy we face out here let me remind you that the previous week this group of terrorists took two innocent and unwitting women who had Downs Syndrome, rigged them with explosive vests and detonated them 20 minutes apart in a crowded market causing several deaths and hundreds of injuries. These terrorists used innocent people as unwitting vehicles to destroy more innocent lives. There is good and there is evil in this world. The enemy we face is evil. Mike and Nate were fighting on the side of good to prevent further acts of evil that would result in the loss of more innocent lives. The next time you pray I ask you to thank God for giving Mike and Nate the talent and skill that made them great warriors and thank God that he gave them the heart to apply those God given talents to destroy evil and further the cause of freedom in a land far from their home. Thank God for men like Mike and Nate. Their work is done here now, but there are many of us who will honor their sacrifice by continuing the fight against evil terrorists. They will be remembered through our actions.

For any of you out there who are doubting the validity of this war and the evil that resides in our enemy I ask you to study your history again. Over the last 20+ years dating back to the bombing of the Marine Corps Barracks in Lebanon, various factions of radical Islamic Terrorists have been committing heinous acts of terrorism against the free world. We are fighting the same enemy here. The brethren of an evil ideology that spawned the terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001 claiming almost 3,000 innocent lives. Take time to reflect on the type of evil that would put explosive vests on innocent women with Downs Syndrome and use them to kill and maim other innocent people. While the American media strives everyday to rewrite the history of the most generous nation in the free world and cast disparity over all that we do as a Nation men like Mike and Nate are giving their lives to make sure the real history doesn’t repeat itself. While the American media strives daily to erase the memory of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and paint this war as an unjust occupation of a sovereign nation men like Mike and Nate are out here hunting down and destroying the enemies of the very freedom that allows our media to try and discredit us. Terrorism is real, evil is real, this war is real and real men and women are in this fight because righteousness and freedom are worth fighting for.

If you don’t support this war I’m calling you out. I’ve had enough of people sitting in their living rooms watching the lying media and jumping on the bandwagon against this war. Don’t ever say to me, “I support the troops, but not the war.” You might as well be telling me that I’m committing a crime. You are in effect saying that my cause is unjust and everything I believe in is a lie. I have held my tongue in the past, but I will never allow you to have it both ways again. You cannot support me if you do not support this war. I am this war. It embodies everything that I believe in. If you believe that what we are doing here is wrong then you are in effect supporting the evil we seek destroy. If you believe I’m wrong for trying to stop evil people from taking more innocent lives then I fear there is no hope for you. If you choose to dishonor my service and the sacrifice of my fallen brothers by taking a position against this war you are free to make that choice thanks to guys like Mike and Nate, but don’t expect me to sit idly by and bite my tongue while you do it. Do it in my presence and be prepared to try and support your feeble position while I enlighten everyone else on the reality of this war and the nature of the enemy we face. I will ensure that you look like the fool that you are.

The stuff I’m seeing out here you won’t see on Oprah Winfrey. I’m seeing really evil people doing really evil things and I’m doing everything in my power to stop them. There’s nothing wrong or unjust about that.

Sincerely,

_________ the Angry American

The Marines Fight for Us. Let’s Fight for Them

 

 

The City Council of Berkeley last week voted to ask the U.S. Marine Corps to vacate their recruiting office in town, and that if they chose to stay they did so as “uninvited and unwelcome intruders.” Berkeley also voted to give the radical liberal group Code Pink a parking space to protest the Marine Corps and urged them to “impede, passively or actively” the work of Marine Corps recruiters.During debate of the resolution, one council member called the Marines “the President’s own gangsters” and “trained killers.” Another said the Marines had given the country “horrible karma” and said they had a history of “death and destruction.” In a document drafted to support the resolution against the Marines, the council stated: “Military recruiters are sales people known to lie to and seduce minors and young adults into contracting themselves into military service with false promises regarding jobs, job training, education and other benefits.”I do not believe a city that has turned its back on our country’s finest deserves $2 million worth of pork-barrel projects. This week Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced the Semper Fi Act of 2008. The bill would rescind over $2 million in hidden earmarks for Berkeley, California in the 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill, and transfer the funds to the Marine Corps.I’m currently supporting a MoveAmericaFoward.org petition to members of Congress to support the Semper Fi Act of 2008. Here are five ways you can help:

• Sign the petition at MoveAmericaForward.org
• Watch this video
• E-mail this video to family and friends
• Tell five people to tell five people about the situation in Berkeley, CA

There is a well known slogan outside every Marine Air Base warning passersby of the jets’ loud noises. The slogan says, “The noise you hear is the sound of freedom.”  The noise you hear in Berkeley is the pathetic sound of liberal lunacy.The Marines risk so much fighting for us, now it’s time us to fight for them.

Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1911-2004

 Today, February 6th, 2008 marks the 97th Anniversary of the Gipper’s birth.

Here are a few thoughts from The Right Honorable The Baroness Margaret Thatcher as she presented the Clare Booth Luce Award to President Reagan:

President Reagan is one of the greatest men of our time, and one of the greatest American Presidents of all time. If that is not fully appreciated today, and sadly it is not, it isn’t really surprising. After all, so many people have been proved wrong by Ronald Reagan that they simply aren’t acknowledge his achievement. Forests have already been pulped to print the revisionist analyses of the eighties. Those who were once so confident of the superiority of the Soviet system that they advocated appeasement of it now pretend to believe that it was doomed to inevitable collapse. Tell that to the Russians! The former Soviet ministers didn’t and don’t doubt the seriousness of the struggle, even if Western liberal commentators do.

Right from the beginning, Ronald Reagan set out to challenge everything that the liberal political elite of America accepted and sought to propagate. They believed that America was doomed to decline: He believed it was destined for further greatness. They imagined that sooner or later there would be convergence between the free Western system and the socialist Eastern system, and that some kind of social democratic outcome was inevitable. He, by contrast, considered that socialism was a patent failure which should be cast onto the trash heap of history. They thought that the problem with America was the American people, though they didn’t quite put it like that. He thought that the problem with America was the American government, and he did put it just like that.

Ronald Reagan has changed America and the world, but the changes he made were to restore historic conservative values, not to impose artificially constructed ones. Take his economic policy, for example. It was certainly a very radical thing to do when he removed regulations and cut taxes and left the Fed to squeeze out inflation by monetary means. Supply side economics, Reaganomics, Voodoo economics–all these descriptions and mis-descriptions testified to the perception of what was proposed as something outlandish. But it really wasn’t, and Ronald Reagan knew it wasn’t.

Democracies, like human beings, have a tendency to relax when the worst is over. Our Western democracies accordingly relaxed–both at home and abroad–in the period after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

First, lower defense spending in America, Britain, and elsewhere was used not to cut taxes and so boost prosperity, but rather the so-called Peace Dividend went principally to pay for welfare. This in turn has harmed our countries both socially and economically, worsening trends which had already become manifest. Welfare dependency is bad for families and bad for the taxpayer. It makes it less necessary and less worthwhile to work. The promotion of idleness leads, as it always does, to the growth of vice, irresponsibility, and crime. The bonds which hold society together are weakened. The bill–for single mothers, for delinquency, for vandalism–mounts. In some areas a generation grows up without solid roots or sound role models, without self-esteem or hope. It is extraordinary what damage is sometimes done in the name of compassion. The task of reversing the growth of welfare dependency and repairing the structure of the traditional family is one of the most difficult we in the West face.

Secondly, the post-Cold War slackening of resolve has led to a lack of military preparedness. Understandably, with the end of the Cold War the sense of omni-present danger receded. Less excusably, the fact that the Soviet Union and its successor states no longer challenged the West’s very survival led Western countries to behave as if other, new threats could be ignored. Yet the truth is so obvious that surely only an expert could miss it: There is never a lack of potential aggressors.

International relations today are in a kind of limbo. Few politicians and diplomats really believe that any power other than the United States can guarantee the peace or punish aggression. But neither is there sufficient cohesion in the West to give America the moral and material support she must have to fulfill that role.

This has to change. America’s duty is to lead: The other Western countries’ duty is to support its leadership. Different countries will contribute in different ways. Britain is closer to the United States by culture, language, and history than is any other European country; British public opinion is therefore readier to back American initiatives; moreover, Britain’s highly professional armed forces allow us to make a unique practical contribution when the necessity arises. But the fundamental equation holds good for all of us: Provided Western countries unite under American leadership, the West will remain the dominant global influence; if we do not, the opportunity for rogue states and new tyrannical powers to exploit our divisions will increase, and so will the danger to all.

So the task for conservatives today is to revive a sense of Western identity, unity, and resolve. The West is after all not just some ephemeral Cold War construct: It is the core of a civilization which has carried all before it, transforming the outlook and pattern of life of every continent. It is time to proclaim our beliefs in the wonderful creativity of the human spirit, in the rights of property and the rule of law, in the extraordinary fecundity of enterprise and trade, and in the Western cultural heritage without which our liberty would long ago have degenerated into license or collapsed into tyranny. These are as much the tasks of today as they were of yesterday, as much the duty of conservative believers now as they were when Ronald Reagan and I refused to accept the decline of the West as our ineluctable destiny.

We now have to reassess our defense spending, which has been cut back too far: Still more significant has been the failure to grasp the vital importance of investment in the very latest defense technology.

After all, if you believe that it’s business success that creates prosperity and jobs, you leave business as free as you possibly can to succeed. If you think that it’s governments–taxing, spending, regulating, and printing money–that distort the business environment and penalize success, you stop government doing these things. If, at the deepest level, you have confidence in the talent and enterprise of your own people, you express that confidence; you give them faith and hope: Ronald Reagan did all these things–and it worked.

“And whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way. My fondest hope for each one of you - and especially for young people - is that you will love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism. May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will make the world a little better for your having been here. May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never lose your natural, God-given optimism. And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new beginning for America and every evening bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill.” -Ronald Reagan

We can’t afford Congress anymore

 Check out this frank and to the point piece by former Congressman and modern Republican Study Committee founder Ernest Istook (R-OK), shedding the light on why:

We can’t afford Congress any more

By Ernest Istook

We can’t afford Congress. It’s driving America’s cost-of-living through the roof.

Any tax cut or “economic stimulus” we might get this spring is peanuts compared to how Washington keeps jacking up the price of everything that’s important.

By itself, last month’s energy bill will make food, cars, gasoline and even light bulbs more expensive. Washington is also the culprit behind high medical bills and health insurance, washing machines that have doubled in price, and our wonderful, more-expensive “lo-flo” toilets that don’t flush right.

All this is on top of what red tape already costs us. A 2004 government report admitted that federal regulations cost our economy at least $1.1 trillion each year. That’s $3,666 per person, so multiply that by the number of people in your household. And remember that’s before the 2007 energy bill. And in addition to taxes.

The new energy laws are a leftist’s dream and a supply-sider’s nightmare. As 2008 starts, we’re paying $3 (often more) for a gallon of gasoline. That’s up about a fourth (64 cents) from a year ago. The Heritage Foundation calculates the new energy bill will boost gas prices over $5 a gallon by 2016. Yet rather than let us produce more oil domestically, Congress keeps areas off-limits from drilling that could raise supply and lower prices.

Someday you might save gas, since Congress has dictated that new cars must soon get 10 percent more miles per gallon. But that depends on your being able to afford a new car. Sticker shock on new cars will get worse because engineering them to meet the mandate will raise car prices by $5,000 to $7,000 per car, according to General Motors.

Compounding the engineering challenge is the congressional requirement that more ethanol be mixed into the gasoline. That lowers mpg because ethanol contains less energy. In return for this mileage reduction, your tax dollars are used to pay ethanol producers a 51-cent-per-gallon subsidy. Since the new law compels the sale of 35 billion gallons of ethanol - up from the currently mandated 8 billion gallons a year - the subsidy costs to taxpayers will rise from $4 billion to $17.5 billion annually.

This is why food prices keep going up. As more corn goes into ethanol, food processors must bid against the government subsidy to buy corn. So must livestock producers who need the corn to feed the cattle, chickens and other animals. Even before the four-fold increase in the ethanol mandate, one-fifth of corn production already goes to ethanol. This will worsen the $9 billion a year extra that consumers already pay in food prices because ethanol subsidies have taken so much corn out of the food and feed supply. Thanks to Congress, the era of cheap and plentiful food in America may be over. (Sadly, they’ll just propose more food stamps as a “solution.”)

Could we just plant more corn (and maybe end $23 billion in farm subsidies)? The ethanol mandate is so massive there’s not room to plant more corn to avoid higher food prices. The National Environmental Trust estimates the new mandate will require us to plant an additional 82.5 million acres of corn (129,000 square miles). That would take every square inch of Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio - presuming you could evacuate the people and plant every acre.

Then there’s Congress’ bright idea about light bulbs - banning Thomas Edison’s invention of the incandescent bulb. As a smart shopper, I can buy them on sale for only 25 cents each. But I can’t find the new curlicue fluorescent bulbs for less than $2 apiece. I’ve bought some anyway, since they’re said to last eight times longer and save 80 percent more energy. But I resent Congress’ telling me I’ve got no choice. I’m tempted to be ornery and stock up on the old-school bulbs before they’re banished to consumer prison. (I had the same dismay when the feds banned 99-cent cans of Freon, making us spend a hundred dollars to fix the coolant in our car air-conditioning.)  There’s a cultural factor, too. We lose a little refinement when the piggy-tail lights replace decorative bulbs in candelabras, mirror lights, etc., or we can’t find small incandescent lights for Christmas decorations.

These mandates come from the same folks who brought us the $900 washing machine (up from $400 or so before federal mandates kicked in) and the pricier 1.6-gallon-per-flush toilet, which wastes water because you have to flush multiple times.

Federal red tape is also the biggest reason why health care is so expensive. For each hour spent with patients, our doctors, nurses and their staff must spend almost another hour doing the paperwork dictated by federal regulations.
No wonder we’re losing jobs to the rest of the world. They don’t drown themselves in silly red tape that makes the price of their products uncompetitive. But we do.

Presidential candidates take note: If you want to woo middle-class voters, don’t offer them one-shot rebates or other “economic stimulus” gimmicks. Bring back common sense, and make life in America affordable again.

Democrat controlled Congress tackles the tough issues

 Bob Parks has an interesting commentary on how the Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat controlled House of Representatives are tackling the tough issues facing our nation.

 

 

Check out Bob’s blog at Outside the Wire .

Tierney shows his anti-military colors - again

 

 January 24, 2008

To the editor:

Once again, Congressman John F. Tierney has shown his true anti-military colors. On Tuesday January 16, the House of Representatives passed a revised version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008 by a vote of 369-46. John Tierney was among the 46 voting against this bill. This is not the first time that our Congressman has voted in opposition to overwhelming bipartisan support for our military.

A review of his voting record shows a clear pattern of hollow rhetoric followed by a habitual lack of support for our military. Time after time John Tierney is on the wrong side of heavily bipartisan supported legislation, which provides our brave men and women in uniform the necessary funding to carry out their mission. As a member of Congress, you have the right to express your disagreement with any policy set forth by the Administration. However, you do not have the right to withhold funding which places the lives and safety of our troops in jeopardy, and you do not have the right to play politics with the lives of these troops.

He has voted against the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. These budgets provided funding for operations, maintenance of equipment and facilities, military personnel, weapons procurement, military construction and family housing. He voted on Dec. 19, 2005, against the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006, which passed by a margin of 398-16. In addition to the previously stated uses of these funds, this legislation increased the death benefit for the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice from $12,000 to $100,000. H.R. 5122 the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 passed by a margin of 396-31 on May 11, 2006. Mr. Tierney voted no. He claims to be an advocate for bipartisanship in Congress, but his record on these and many other issues shows otherwise.

President Bush had used a “pocket veto” to kill the original bill. His actions were prompted when it became apparent that trial lawyers may exploit a provision in the bill in a manner that would threaten Iraqi stability and reconstruction efforts. This provision, which top Democrat leaders had stubbornly refused to fix, threatened a military pay raise and the bipartisan Wounded Warriors legislation. The obvious solution was for Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to fix this provision through a simple unanimous consent agreement when Congress returned in January. The House followed through with the revised legislation, which now awaits Senate approval.

A statement on this bill released by House Armed Services Committee Chairman, Ike Skelton (D-MO), shows just how out of touch John Tierney is, even within his own party. It reads:

“We disposed of the President’s veto of an earlier version of this bill. That veto was a surprise to all of us. Today we move on, and send a final version to the President that his aides have indicated he will sign. The change to the conference report, which passed this House on a vote of 370-49, and passed the Senate 90-3 are minimal. Only one section, Section 1083, dealing with claims against countries that are or have been state sponsors of terrorism, caused a problem for the Administration and led to the veto…

Today’s bill includes a compromise on that provision that allows the President to waive the application of that section to the government of Iraq to satisfy the many legitimate claims that American citizens have against that country and its former leader, Saddam Hussein. The only other changes made to the bill were those required to make retroactive the pay increases and many benefit improvements provided for military service members and their families…”

Our nation cannot afford to have Congressmen who place politics before principle in the conduct of their position. Far too much is at stake when it comes to the security of our nation and our troops.
Rick Barton
Manchester, MA

Happy 90th Birthday Major Dick Winters

Major Winters was 1st Lieutenant of Easy Company in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944. He and his men parachuted into enemy territory during the early hours of D-day. After landing and finding his men, Winters realized that his Company Commander’s plane went down. He was given command of Easy Company when dawn broke on D-day. Winters and a squad of twelve men were told to take out four German guns that were firing down upon the men on Utah Beach. Winters successfully completed his mission, destroying four guns at Brecourt Manor. Winters’ capturing of the guns on D-day is still taught at West Point today. While there, Major Winters found a map, pointing out every German defense firing upon Utah Beach. The map was passed up the ranks, and, though the Major will never admit it, saved many lives that day. Major Winters received the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions there.

Matt Burden at Blackfive posted this:

Happy 90th Birthday to Major Dick Winters of Easy Company (2nd Battalion, 506th PIR) and Band of Brothers fame.

I believe there is still an effort underway to have his Distinguished Service Cross (2nd highest award for valor next to the Medal of Honor) upgraded to the MOH. At the time of his actions at Brecort Manor (Normandy), there was a rule where only one soldier per offensive per Division could be awarded the MOH. Even though Winters was put in for the MOH, it was downgraded because the MOH was being considered for a Lieutenant Colonel.

I’m pretty sure Dick Winters doesn’t care about the medal. In a way, signing the petition isn’t really awarding “the medal” to Winters, but to all of Easy Company.

Major Winters is one of my personal and professional heroes. I knew about him as a paratrooper and later in ROTC studying the battle at Brecort in what would become episode 2 of Band of Brothers (”Day of Days”).

Go here to sign the petition and join me in wishing him a Happy 90th!

Robin Williams rendered speechless in Kuwait

From our friends at BlackFive :

While performing for the troops in Kuwait, Robin Williams is rendered speechless during a military tradition that caught him by surprise.

 

Here’s a salute for Robin Williams, one of the hardest working entertainers ever to get in front of the troops.  Check out the comments at BlackFive.  It’s too bad we don’t have more Hollywood types and politicians putting their politics aside and supporting the troops.