Anwar al-Awlaki Killed

This is the American born senior Al Qaeda leader killed in Yemen today. It isn’t clear if it was via drone strike or other methods at this time. It also isn’t being revealed who exactly did it but all seem to agree that the US was heavily involved at the least.

I am certain this was a tough call because al-Awlak was an American citizen and to just kill him brings up all sorts of legal questions. I have mixed feelings about it but in the end, if it were my call I’d have given the order too.

I  feel certain that the path to get him took years to complete and I will also venture a guess that some, like Eric Holder would have argued against the strike. In the end, no matter where the trail started or what objects were posed President Obama’s finger was on the trigger and he pulled that trigger.

WAY to GO Obama!!

Choosing a Side

In the interest of keeping my vast viewing audience fully informed of my political leanings I am disclosing to you that I have joined the Herman Cain team and have even donated a few dollars to his campaign.

My main reasons for supporting him may seem obscure to some but they are my reasons. First of all I sense honest and forthrightness in the man. This was evidenced to me when he was asked a question on withdrawing from Iraq or Afghanistan in one of the early debates and his answer was that he didn’t have all the information necessary to make that decision at the time. His response was simple, honest and direct, insightful and void of double-talk.

He has proven that he can lead a large organization Burger King among them and that he understands a balance sheet. But the main reason I am supporting him is that he is not a politician. We keep being told by the Washington Insiders that one can’t win or succeed without a history of holding elected office. That’s because the Insiders want to narrow the playing field to “Club Members”, you know the Good Ole Boy thing (which happily includes women now). I also very much appreciate that he likes to define the problem or the issue in the simplest of terms, he seeks the root of the problem. I could go on but these are my thoughts at the present time. Go Cain!!!!!!!

http://www.hermancain.com/

For people with opposing views please understand I endorse Mr. Cain he doesn't endorse me.

Muffin Eaters

Back to taxes, if the tax-loving uber-rich love taxes and the government so much why do they give millions and billions to private charities instead of sending it to the Government? Like I said before if Buffett (Warren, don’t know about Jimmy) wants to pay more taxes, send it in  the IRS will accept it. But don’t make that decision for me. Make it for your own wealth, or in my case lack thereof.

While on the Right on things politically I might be persuaded to pay more taxes if the extra was going to reduce the deficient and not going to be used to increase spending.  But then I can defeat my own argument because the people who run things are going to borrow the money if they don’t have it coming in as taxes. The Debt-Ceiling  is a joke, there is no ceiling to it. Spending cuts (see my blog (http://aseasonedview.blogspot.com/2011/08/bobs-budget.html) are another government 3 Card Monte Act.

I would like to give you my assessment of the major difference between the Right and Left in this country as far as taxes are concerned. The  Left “thinks” with the heart, the Right tries to use the brain, sometimes in vain. When we talk about Welfare the Left sees a poor homeless mother and child the Right sees a balance sheet. Neither side is totally correct or totally wrong.  Also please keep in mind  it is so very easy to spend someone else’s money. Ask the $16 apiece muffin eaters.

The Underwear Bomber

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab the wannabe underwear bomber, you know the guy who peed his pants so much prior to the attempted bombing his bomb wouldn’t go off, requested that he be tried using Islamic Law which I assume would be Sharia Law. The Judge denied his request. I think the Judge should have split the difference and allowed his sentencing, if convicted to be under Sharia law

A Few Recent Observations and Opinions

The Republican debate on CNN was excellent, particularly in light of that dismal MSNBC failure. The candidates kept to policy/position/qualification issues with no real mudslinging. The debate was spirited and informative. I didn’t miss the Brian Williams “gotch’ type question at all. What a panderer he is. I have to agree with Bernie Goldberg if that same type of question would have been asked of a Progressive in terms of abortion there would have been mob violence ( mob violence is my assessment). I really liked Newts reference to   Jeffrey R. Immelt, CEO, Chairman of GE when he was asked about Big Oil and taxes. President Obama has got to get rid of Immelt, he (Immelt) is a world class hypocrite and it is insulting for Obama to keep him on his staff in any position.

People in Israel have to be very concerned with the events of late in the Middle East. If the free world (read that USA)  doesn’t get out in front of these attacks on Israel’s embassies among other transgressions the attacks will soon be on the Israeli homeland and  that my friends will lead us down a path to a real war in the Middle East. I don’t think Israel is going to sit back and just let itself be destroyed. Maybe American Jews will not support the Democratic Party in such great numbers (that still bewilders me) in the future. The Senate election in NY yesterday may be an indication of that change.

NLRB, hey people good job. Now Boeing might move the jobs to China (like GE has) and not South Carolina. But then you made a payment on your boss’s beholding to the unions so I am sure you are sleeping soundly at night.  

a blog worth looking into

Please take a moment and view this blog. While I don't agree with many of the author's positions we all need to get out of our box and have a dialog

http://thebutchtrucks.blogspot.com/

10 Years Ago Today

10 Years Ago

I was in Washington DC on 9/11/2001. I was stuck at a subway station for hours right after the  first attack . Later the smoke from the Pentagon drifted past my hotel window. I was stuck in DC for days. I was on one of the first planes allowed to fly after that tragic day.

When you were “there” it was so much more real. It wasn’t a TV show. The local news carried stores that wrenched the heart that didn’t make the national news. I will tell you one.

The local news was at the Pentagon shortly after it was struck by the airliner. People were still exiting the building. I remember seeing an army  colonel jogging from the building holding his hands up in front to him, his uniform smoldering in spots. As he got closer to the camera we could see that both his hands had been completely severed mid-palm. The paramedics ran up to him to help him. He said “No…No Help someone who needs it’ and continued running past them. That man exemplified all that is good and noble not only with our military but with our country.

President Obama, please keep our military not only strong but the strongest on Earth.  Please understand that there are far too many people in the world that interpret politeness and courtesy as weakness and traits of their prey.

We are so fortunate that we have not suffered many attacks since then, thank you Presidents Obama and Bush.

I try to stay away from inflammatory posts but on this day I can not. While our government has helped keep us safe from most additional attacks, the real reason we haven’t been attacked again is that nearly all the Terrorist are cowards. Let’s face it, two airliners were not blown up because the terrorist ran out of courage (thank God). One couldn’t light his shoe bomb and the other may have peed his pants so much the bomb would not detonate. I think it must be very difficult to recruit people who will actually carry out a suicide attack. At the last second most reasonable people would think twice about that 72 virgin BS. I also think that people loony enough (no insult to the loon bird intended) would have a difficult time acting “normal” enough to get past security.

I could go on and on, I’ll spare you and leave you with this final thought. I regret that I am and was too damned old to get in a situation that would allow me to draw a bead on a terrorist.

Operation Fast and Furious the Gun Running Sting

 A brief history: the ATF (Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) ran a “sting” operation near the Mexican border in an effort to catch or track firearms being smuggled into Mexico to the Drug Cartels. The ATF required legal US gun store operators to sell firearms to suspected gun runners.  A number of the guns involved in the sting ended up killing innocent people including a Border Patrol agent.  

I think the idea may have had some merit. Perhaps if they would have sold a few dozen weapons things would not have gone south (pun intended). But selling 1418 isn’t that a little excessive?

We currently have no way of knowing how far up the chain of command authorization for this went. The ATF and Justice Department seems to be less than cooperative. Here is my take on it.

It sounds like a law enforcement action that the Obama administration would love. It’s a “Border Enforcement Action” that doesn’t involve protecting our border, it protects Mexico’s border. How high up did authorization go? We don’t know yet but here is a difficult to dispute observation. If Eric Holder didn’t know this was going on he should have and that alone is reason for him to be sent back to his private firm defending terrorists.