Friday, January 29, 2010

Obama cannot take any criticism at all

One thing I think that conservatives and political moderates may remember from the Presidential campaigns is Obama's unusual attention to Foxnews and to Sean Hannity in particular. At the time Obama received light treatment from the mainstream media and never really faced tough questions his affiliations with radical leftists. One of the few consistent voices against the then Senator was Sean Hannity, who was one of the first to report on Obama's relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and later will leftist radical and Chicagoan Bill Ayers. Hannity constantly hammered these relations while the media ignored it.

To most politicians this would be enough for them to look past it and keep on with their campaign, you never really saw President Bush rail against the leftist media for attacks against him, he certainly never called anyone out by name, and he carried on with the business of governing and campaigning when the time was right. With Obama though, during his campaign he mentioned Sean Hannity by name numerous times, about five, in which he would denigrate the man or call on others to stop listening to the man. One man criticising him and it bugged him so much that he had to fit it into his campaigns at the time.

After the election he found himself in an environment where he was elected President comfortably and his party has also won dominating control of both houses of Congress. No other politician could realistically want to be in a better position to enact policy and yet when he found himself in interviews where a reporter would remind him of the favorable coverage he typically received he was only too clear to mention "well there is one station in particular that seems to always have a problem with my administration" "you mean Foxnews" "yes." The more and more I saw this man the more and more that it came to me that he for whatever reason must be a very insecure man to have so much, to have been riding so much of a high politically and yet still not find solace because it was not absolute adoration. Such a thing is a figurative unicorn in politics.

I would have hoped that a year into office and more experience on the national stage would have gotten Obama past this stage in his life, but recent events have highlighted this trait even more. Following the election of Scott Brown and poll numbers that show that the President and his party have currently alienated a large sector of the American public Obama has lashed out again at those that disagree with him. Rather than attempt to deescalate the situation through an invitation of dialogue on such things as healthcare, he has escalated it through language that frankly will only inflame the partisan divide in this country. Case in point would be the recent state of the union address. I did not catch this address myself, and perhaps thankfully so, but from the highlights to things stuck out to me, the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" which i support, but think that this change should come from the military brass, not politician suits who want to score political points playing social experiments with an instrument designed to protect this nation.

The other thing is his calling out of the Supreme Court on their recent decision to allow cooperation's to fund political campaigns. A decision that I currently feel is a bad one, but Obama mischaracterized this decision in stating that it would allow foreign entities or companies to donate to American politicians. It does not and there is still a law in place against this. A day after having this pointed out the Obama White House still could not admit the error, but that is beside the point. The point would be the unprecedented nature of a President openly chiding the Supreme Court during a event that is supposed to be about proposals for the agenda in the next year. It was partisan politics as has never been seen before and one that should concern Americans IMHO.

Now if that wasn't enough the President today accepted an invitation to speak with House Republicans at a retreat in Baltimore, why the hell would anyone go to B-more to relax? Anyway while there the President once again went on the attack accusing Republicans of painting falsehoods against his administration and in portraying healthcare as "'Bolshevik plot' and telling their constituents that he’s 'doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's going to destroy America.'" Both very false, Republicans opposed healthcare because of the massive cost and the way that it would make for an easy government takeover of healthcare down the road. They opposed it because it would make the quality of healthcare in America go down while not reducing the costs and fining individuals who did not buy health insurance. They opposed it because there are better ways to reform healthcare, ones that Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has gone to great deals to highlight, only to be ignored by Dems and the white house. They opposed it because it was bad legislation Mr. President, not because they don't like you.

Folks, As I stated earlier Obama is ratcheting up this rhetoric at a time when he has already been in office for one year, one year in which he could have gone to great lengths to bring the real change he promised. His lashing out at others for his failures is concerning to me as I consider that the man has three more years, years in which he will more than likely have less control that he previously had. If he continues to lash out like this than the divide in this country will only become worse as he alienates those that only have marginal dislikes of the man, and encourages those on the far left who seek to impose their agenda no matter what the support for such measures maybe. This is the wrong path and the wrong tact to take and I can only hope that he see's his errors and corrects himself in the future.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

2010, the year President Bush is vindicated?

Just a little over one year ago President Obama was sworn into office. I remember having to get up extra early that morning and catch the metro across the river into DC to get to work. I got to the station near my apartment around 5 in the morning and traffic was already backed up noticably in both directions as folks hoped to get a good spot on the mall for the show. There was a definite buzz for those that expected big things from the President and with this kind of atmosphere it was even predicted that Republicans would be in a political wilderness for a generation. One year and some piss poor governing later the polticial pendulum has swung so far so quickly that we recently saw the election of Scott Brown from Mass. to the Senate.

To put that into contex, Mass. has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972, and not since 1966 has a Republcan won in an open election. In this past year we saw an second stimulus forced on this nation with the promise from the white house being that unemployment wouldn't go above 8%. It reached 10%. We saw our President go on a apology tour as he went to multiple european nations and seemingly humbled himself and our nation apologizing for many things that frankly, Americans were not sorry for, or felt that with that apology Obama should have also reminded those leaders of the immense positive impact that America has had on the world. We have seen our President dither, yes dither, for three months about what to do with Afghanistan after his hand picked General sent his advice to him. His answer was to take the most politically expediant solution by sending 30,000 troops to Aghanistan, 10,000 short of what McCrystal asked for and already setting an 18 month deadline for our beginning withdrawl from Afghanistan. In chosing this solutioin he has put our military behind the 8 ball in a war that is critical for us to win in the global war on terrorism.

And of course we come to healthcare. Here again the President sought to have Congress give him something, anything they could use by the end of the year. Sadly for him and for America what we got was a bill that mandated health coverage for all and penalized those that did not get insurance. It gave breaks to Obama supporters while leving heavier taxes against those that don't. It skipped tort reform and didn't allow for health insurance companies to work across state lines. More and more Americans turned against this bill again and again all the while a seemingly tone deaf Congress worked on passage of this bill. Only this Tuesday with a GOP win in the bluest state in the country has seemed to finally jar them awake to the massive opposition to this bill. Even than though, some dems have pledged "full steam ahead." Luckily some Senators like Jim Webb and Even Bayh have more common sense and this bill will be revised or ultimatley shelved.

All this in one year has left us with little doubt that Obama's first year in office has been a failure. 2010 is a chance to regroup and redeem himself, but starting out it kindly looks like it will actually be a year that vindicates many things that libs criticised President Bush for. Take GITMO for example, Obama and leftist know nothings thought they could close it in a year. For whatever reason they figured this would be easy because afterall, Bush only kept them there because he doesn't beleive in fairness to terrorists. One year later only about 40 prisoners have either been released or transfered leaving 200 detainees in the prison. The Obama administration has learned, gasp, that their are dangerous people there and that GITMO, while not ideal is exactly what the Bush admin described as the "best of a lot of bad options." As it stands it appears that it will take another year to close GITMO. Perhaps they should just consider keeping it open.

Lastly we come to the economy. The Obama admin is always quick to note how bad it was when they got there and that all the ills should be placed on Bush's doorstep and that all the gains are the workings of Obama, praise be to his name. It is a refocus on this that the Dems first hope to regain some momentum this year, but they sure are doing it in an odd way by very openly talking about EXTENDING BUSH'S TAX CUTS. While just talks right now if that move was taken it would certainly seem to be an admision that tax cuts help spur an economy's recovery, and of course, vindicate Bush's economic policies. That, along with GITMO, also seems to vindicate two policies that the left commonly derided Bush and Republicans in general. Let us hope that they take this tact and that our economy recovers and that those unemployed will find work. Given the current circumstances though, the Dems could go in any such direction.

Whew, shitty write up i know, but hopefully y'all cut me a break on this one.

-Zach

Friday, January 15, 2010

Haiti, a mess and possibly an opportunity?

It is with a heavy heart that Americans have learned from the Red Cross that 50,000 and likely more Haitians have been killed in a massive earthquake which struck the nation this past Tuesday. Haiti has been a troubled nation for this entire past decade with political turmoil bringing a 2004 coup that ousted the corrupt, but first legitimate president Aristide from office. In 2008 the nations inability to feed it's population lead to food crises and now this.

At each of the prior two incidents the US had some involvement in a way to say that we had a limited presence in Haiti during Aristide's ouster, and Aristide himself has accused the US of being behind the coup. Likely though, his ouster was simply a way for other politicians trying to reach an agreement with insurgents in the country who found reconciliation with Aristide to be impossible. During this time the US could have played a more active role in Haiti's future, but with the Iraq war drawing so much attention it was not politically or militarily wise to embark on what would have been painted as another nation buiding measure and it is likely the lack of will in America to pursue such an option would have made any attempt a failure. So the situation was allowed to continue and it did appear to get better, until the government's policies, as well as 4 hurricanes, led to a famine in 2008. During that time again America stood up and sought to help the poor Caribbean nation to feed it's people. Again this was an area were we could have at least built closer relations with the government in charge and began a sort of tutorial for the government on the ground so that they could finally catch up economically, and politically, with it's Caribbean neighbors. Again this was not to happen.

A great precedence for this was set in late 2004 when the tsunami hit Indonesia and killed nearly 130,000 people. The massive aid effort which was lead by the US opened up the nation to better relations with Washington and as we see today we have a much better and cooperative relationship with this nation and it's government as it has noticeably improved since the disaster. So we should seek to replicate this progress in Haiti.

After this recent devastation we as a nation will again seek to help out this perpetually downstruck nation and in truth, we should essentially seek to take over the current services of the government as they are clearly broken. From there we could again influence and seek to control and help this nation finally bring itself into the 21st century, but alas, Secretary Clinton has already stated the US will not seek to take over Haiti and it is likely we will give aid until this crisis has passed, than we will move on and forget about Haiti until the next disaster happens.

-Zach

Saturday, January 9, 2010

the 2000's and how the decade was for me

I think I'm going to be extra selfish with this post and just reminice about how the decade was for me.

It started out with me graduating high school with some very close friends. The graduation itself was bittersweet as I was leaving an environment of normalcy that i had only known in my life. To top it off i was to leave for Recruit training in Great Lakes Illinois in two weeks meaning this third generation Nevadan was about to travel the farthest he'd ever gone to that point in his life.

Bootcamp was a rude awakening for me. The process shocked me as i found myself alone and in a situation where i felt i had noone i could trust. The fear and panic felt overwelming at first and the only thought i had was of going home. I wrote friends and family and although i knew that i would likely regret doing this, i wrote them telling them how i was going to quit and how i would be on my way home. In the end though, i just couldn't bring myself to quit. I had disappointed my father back in the 7th grade when i quite football and i remember the feeling of knowing how disappointed he was as one of the most crushing feelings i ever knew. At that moment i promised myself that no matter what i would never quit again, nothing would ever get the best of me. At boot camp i felt that pledge still sticking strong and writing the letters was a way to try and force me to break the pledge. I couldn't do it though, anytime i thought that this was the time to march in and demand to be sent home i found myself saying, just give it more time i can make it to x point than we'll see. Soon enough, and with some very encouraging letters from those same family and friends i made it through boot camp and went to Meridian Mississippi for my first A school.

I was there when 9/11 happened. It was amazing to hear the recaps in the news and to try and comprehend the devastation that had just happened. At first my young mind could only comprehend Iraq being behind this. Ironically I remember a newsticker stating that Saddam was already making it known he had nothing to do with the attack. Soon we found out what happened and my service took on a whole different meaning. In a month we heard the invasion of Afghanistan was on and it felt good. We were going to get the bastards that did this and we would keep them from hurting more people in the future.... or so we should have, Rumsfeld's bungle.

I finished off 2001 being stationed in San Diego. A great place to live and a very nice vacation spot, but at age 18 and with that fantastic E-1 pay it didn't offer me much to do. I made good friends though, and made a great reputation at work. The invasion of Iraq started in March of 2003 and i left San Diego in November of that year. All in all not too much to report... or at least not enough that i want to make public. ;) I'll just say that Tijuana was always a good get away during those days and the SDSU girls especially made it a nice place to go.

From there I went to Sasebo Japan and did two years on a ship sailing in the west pacific. Great times were had in Thailand, Singapore, S. Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Bahrain, and of course Dubai. I was able to serve my country by standing watch on a 50 mount during our deployment to the gulf and, ironically enough, i, a paperpusher, was the one who had to fire some rounds at some overly curious Kuwaitis one day. Luckily noone was hurt and those Kuwaitis learned a valuable lesson, when the ship says keep you damn distance, you keep it.

Japan was a deciding point for me, I had to decide whether i was going to stay Navy or take the plung into the civilian life. I knew I wanted to stay Navy. I was proud of the uniform and i wanted to continue to serve, but my job as a paperpusher in aviation had run it's course. I had no interest in continuing at that job and I let the Navy know that it would either give me a different job or i was walking. The Navy responded by giving me exactly what i wanted in a job by working in intell. I was now responsible for keeping track of threats to this nation, and those in harms way on the front line. This was a job that i was made for.

I trained for this job in 2006 and went to my first duty station in Wash. DC also in 2006. Although i would lament certain parts of my stay in DC, i can't deny all the things i accomplished there. I acheived my associates degree and am currently 3 credits shy of my bachelor's all thanks to an environment that allowed me to be very aggressive toward schoolwork during my time there. During my last year there i was allowed to work as an analyst and i found my work more rewarding than anything else i had done to that point. It was a good time and i wouldn't trade it for anything.

I left there in 2009 and i find myself at my current stop down here in Virginia Beach, where i picked up my job 4 years ago. I find the work is great and i look forward to doing my job here, but there is no doubt that the thrill is gone for me as far as serving my country. These days although i want to continue to work in my job i find that i want to settle down with a family more than go off to war. I think i shall remain content to serve my current command to the best of my ability and than i will consider my time all but done in the military.

Although I have written much about my job and my professional progress i assure you the personal life was not lacking. I still have those great Nevada friends along with friends in the military. I have dated many good and great girls, my current status is more a result of my lack of want to settle down than anything else. For whom it concerns, i suppose that is enough said on that.

A very active decade and one in which i grew up quite a bit. I can only hope that this next decade is just as interesting.

-Zach

Friday, January 1, 2010

Book Review: The War that Killed Achilles, by Caroline Alexander

Caroline Alexander takes an in depth look at the famous Trojan War as told in Homer's Illiad and places certain aspects of that war in contex to what people deal with in current wars. Overall she retells the trojan war with an excerpt to point out similarities with war rage, PTSD, as well as a look into Greek mythology and the different story telling method used where fate is more about choice rather than an inescapable end.

Alexander also uses her review of the war to point out that while typical Greek meathods usually extolled the virtues of a hero who went into battle, war, etc. unafraid of demise and whom actually looked forward to it as a way of sealing glory. In Achilles we see the most likely candidate for such a character but after a rift with Agamemnon he continually states his regretes for coming into a war he has little reason or cause to fight, and at one point refuses an "apology" of gold and other treasure from Agamemnon in favor of leaving to go home and live a life without glory. Contrast that to todays societies which often will glorify those that go off to fight wars in foreign lands and sometimes pay the ultimate price. While today's hero's are no less honored the emphasis is placed today on the hope of their swift and safe return rather than death for honor.
The book also takes an interesting look into what maybe described by some as war rage. This look is taken after Achilles close friend Patrocles is killed in battle by Hector. Achilles reacts by going on an epic rage in which he kills numerous trojans without mercy, at one point he comes across a prince of Troy whom he'd previously captured and ransomed back to the Trojans. In this exchange the prince pleads with Achilles to again contact his father in order to obtain another ransom for his release. Achilles states that his mind and attitude has changed and that their will be no escape for him this time and indeed, there is not. Alexander contrasts this with an excerpt from a Vietnam vet in which he talks about draging some VC into a paddy and killing him sometime after a friend had been killed. "I just lost it.... I felt better with everyone of them i killed because I made them feel what they had done to me." It's that same personal attachment that Achilles feels in the war that he is now fully committed to.

The book also goes over the new style of story telling taken by Homer where he tells of the trojan view of the war as seen by Pram, Hector, Paris, etc. In most other tales they would simply be some hethan enemy worthy of being stuck down in the harshest way, but in the illiad Homer portrays them as a people bravely defending their homes from an invading force. Numerous scens show us Hector with his wife and infant son as he laments what will likely be his death before his son reaches maturity. While rather common in todays books and holleywood movies, it was a little less common in 600BC Greece.

Overall not a fantastic read, but not exactly a boring one either. I'd recommend it for those interested in a book about the continuing similarities with mankinds need for war and the symptoms of those conflicts which continue to this day.

-Zach