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On Friday the House of Representatives voted to end the controversial Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy that allows homosexuals to serve openly, but the legislation gives the Pentagon the chance to finish its study which will be completed in December.
The question that I have is not on the merits of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, or repealing this ban is why now? If the President truly wanted to end this controversial policy he could have done long ago with an executive order, much like President Truman did when he issued Executive Order 9981 that desegregated the armed forces.
The question remains why President Obama didn’t issue his own executive order ending this policy if he truly believed it was wrong and discriminatory. If he feared a backlash from the military then he failed to understand the basic tenets of the military. We may disagree with political policy but in the end we swear allegiance to the constitution and would carry out any order or direction by the President of the United States.
The real reason is plain and simple and has everything to do with Novembers mid-term elections. The president realizes like most political observers that the mid-term elections if continued trends persist will be disastrous for the Democratic Party. The president needs to galvanize his base supporters and the one group who vote heavily for Democrats; is the gay community. They already are angry with Democrats for not ending this ban and see the president as caving into what he had promised while he campaigned for the presidency.
This is a president who says one thing while campaigning but act in a different manner as president. We see the same thing with regard to immigration reform and a host of other issues. You can’t just talk leadership you have to act as a leader and this president has failed on so many levels.
Today, many of us will celebrate Memorial Day with barbeques and picnic in the park with our families, others will remember Memorial Day reflecting on a loved one who sacrificed to give us the freedom that we enjoy.
As we take the time this Memorial Day let’s not forget those brave men and women who are serving the cause of freedom in far flung outpost’s across the globe enabling us to live in freedom. The armed forces of this nation are currently sweltering in the heat in Iraq and Afghanistan not for glory but to bring democracy to people who have never known it.
The question then becomes what have we done for this country? Too often we hear in recent years of the “Greatest Generation” who served freedoms cause during World War II and now are fading into the annals’ of history.
Another generation of Americans is again rolling back the scourge of tyranny preventing that evil from reaching our shores. The methods may be different, the threat is different than what we have ever faced but the sacrifice is the same.
Let’s remember them, let’s remember the sacrifice of their families, let’s not forget what they are doing! If we do then as a nation we will regret that we didn’t do more or didn’t care. If the cause of freedom is not worth defending then the American ideal of freedom for all will perish.
With this current generation of Americans on freedoms wall we will never be defeated. This is the next Greatest Generation!
Both political parties have jumped and been exacerbated by the futile attempt by the Obama Administration to get a handle on the largest oil spill in U.S. history. The conflicting information by Administration officials have left the public confused and bewildered on who is in charge and what the federal government is doing to mitigate the environmental damage to include how it plans to plug the ruptured oil leak.
No one expects the President to plug the leak himself or that the federal government has the equipment or expertise to stop this massive disaster. The president could have taken the crisis more seriously; it wasn’t until nine days after the explosion on the oil platform that killed eleven workers did the president even begin to take notice.
More effort by the administration to contain the leak from causing enormous environmental damage could have taken place. Currently who is in charge of this effort? Right now you have the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Secretary of the Interior and various other individuals speaking on this disaster, but there is not one person that you can say is leading the efforts in a coordinated manner.
The criticism of British Petroleum is justified and they should pay for all the cleanup efforts but some of the other comments made by various officials are unwarranted. Some have stated that BP is dragging its feet or not doing enough is way off base. It’s in BP interest to get this fixed now and clean up the oil spill to avoid expensive litigation later. The longer this persists the effects on BP continue to exacerbate its future as a company.
Rhetoric on both sides needs to be toned tone and the administration needs to start taking a more proactive role in the largest oil spill in U.S. history or face the wrath as an inept administration that makes the Bush Administration look like competent in its response to Hurricane Katrina.
The president’s decision to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops to the border is more of reactive political move then one based in sound policy. This action is more in response to the passage of Arizona’s immigration reform legislation that was recently past.
The real issue here, one that is rarely mentioned is what is Mexico doing about the flight of its own citizens heading north for a better life. Mexican President Felipe Caldron on a state visit to the United States this month chastised the U.S. regarding passage of the Arizona law and his perceived treatment of Mexican citizens heading to the United States.
President Obama stood silent as the Mexican president lambasted the U.S. over its handling of immigration. The president just stood there and said nothing about the failure of the Mexican government to create opportunities for his own people in Mexico.
Missing was the treatment of anyone who tries to enter Mexico without identification is far more sever then would be received if one enters the United States.
Currently there is no impetus for Mexico to stop the flow of immigrants to the United States, for them it’s a steady source of revenue. After oil, money that flows back from immigrants in the United States is the second largest revenue source for the Mexican government. Why would they want to stop this revenue stream?
There is a need for immigration reform, but before any comprehensive immigration reform measure is debated, their needs to be a structured policy on what Mexico will do to stem the flow of immigrants north. Without this we will only revisit this again, just like the last Immigration Reform measure passed in 1986. The 1986 reform measure was supposed to fix the problem; well we see how that worked!
Saturday, President Obama gave a commencement speech at West Point Military Academy which outlined his new national security strategy that repudiates the unilateralist approach of the Bush Administration.
The president pledged to shape a new course one that is based on diplomacy and engagement. "The international order we seek is one that can resolve the challenges of our times," he said in prepared remarks. "Countering violent extremism and insurgency; stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and securing nuclear materials; combating a changing climate and sustaining global growth; helping countries feed themselves and care for their sick; preventing conflict and healing its wounds."
Many of the men and women he was speaking to are will be part of increased troop increase in Afghanistan. The troubling part of this new strategy is how it will play out with countries such as Russia and China who refuse to go along with the U.S. led sanctions against Iran.
The current situation in North Korea will be a challenge for this president as China will pose serious roadblocks for the administration in any efforts to punish North Korea over its sinking of a South Korean patrol boat.
The president may believe in this course, but he must realize the world is a dangerous place and the threats are vastly different then what we faced during the Cold War. Nations today are looking at what is in its best interests and may not want to go along with the United States, no matter how much we try diplomacy.
This president at some point will find out that his options will be limited and that he has to face reality not what he wants to believe the world to be. The best intentions have hampered leaders in the past and led them into disastrous situations.
At times the U.S. will have to go it alone or face a more dangerous world.
You can see why voters are disgusted with both political parties and the Washington establishment after last night’s election results. It doesn’t matter if the results went your way or not but the telling part of it was when both parties state that this was good for the Democratic Party or Republican Party. What about what’s good for the American people!
The problem with America is both political parties have bankrupted this country and both political parties are whats wrong with this country! America needs to stop listening to snake oil salesman and start asking tough questions on how they plan on fixing the country.
Both parties are controlled by special interests groups! Organized labor has a vice grip on the Democratic establishment and corporate America has their clutches on the Republican establishment.
It’s time for ordinary Americans to take back their country and start understanding what the issues are. Too often we let pundits tell us how we should think and vote without reading for ourselves what is really going on.
If we want to take back our country we need to be informed, if not then we have ourselves to blame!
The recent passage of Arizona’s immigration law has stirred passion on both sides, but the real failure in the debate on this recent immigration law is members of the Obama Administration having never read the bill.
In the past weeks Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and the State Department spokesman have been before Congress or interviewed by media affiliates, each time they were asked have you read Arizona immigration law? Each time they stated no! Even the president spoke at a campaign rally and gave a false statement of what is in the bill that proved to be untrue.
If our elected officials don’t take the time to read the bill but make statements against it you wonder why there is so much misleading information and downright hostility on immigration. It’s appalling that the top law enforcement officer in the nation hasn’t read it or the one who protects the border hasn’t read it, even after it passed weeks ago.
It doesn’t matter where you stand on immigration reform, but before you condemn something take the time to read what it states. The credibility of this administration has been diminished by the incompetent actions of his officials.
Washington better get its act together!
