Joel's Rant

How many people know the name Tiger Woods and can describe in pretty good detail the stories that have been in the news about him over the past couple of weeks?  Or how many people know the exploits of that idiot couple that crashed the White House state dinner a short while ago?  Or how many people refer to sports players as “heroes” because they bring entertainment to those that might be interested in their game?

Obviously the details of the “everyday” are with us and often stare us in the face even when we’re not concerned or don’t want to be bothered, or even are aghast that we even know their names.  Why do I know the name Jermaine Jackson, for instance?  Or even Jesse Jackson?  Why aren’t these people forgotten even before they make their way into our brains.

On the other end of the spectrum are people we don’t know, whose names mean nothing to us, yet they represent all that is great with America, that their souls are entwined with ours, that their very existence make us better, yet they live and die in complete anonymity.

Why aren’t the exploits of these people made known to us, and cheered by our leaders and taught in our schools?   Here are 6 of those people, whose gallantry and selfless courage make us better and represent what our country is all about.  These are the 6 Congressional Medal of Honor awardees from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.  These are people whose names everyone should know.

The links provide the exact citations but a summary of their unmitigated valor are as follows.  In this, our national holiday season, we should take a moment and remember these men and the others who have sacrificed so much for us:

Jared C. Monti, United States Army (Afghanistan)

Sgt. Monti commanded a platoon of 16 soldiers that was ambushed by about 50 enemy fighters.  While his men took cover to continue the fight, Sgt. Monti left his men to move forward to within about 175 feet of the enemy to direct artillery fire, when he spotted one of his men wounded and in the open.  Without regard to himself, Sgt. Monti tried to get the man to safety and was killed while running in the open.

Michael P. Murphy, United States Navy (Afghanistan)

While leading a 4-man team in search of a specific terrorist his men were ambushed by about 50 enemy fighters.  While he and all of his men were wounded, they fought the enemy and killed or wounded many, at which point the team’s communicator became unable to continue his effort to gain command HQ support.  Lt. Murphy at that point tried to raise HQ himself but realized he could not communicate unless he had a better position which could only be gained by moving into an open and unprotected area.  While mortally wounded, Lt. Murphy continued to fight and eventually was able to get support from HQ.  He continued the fight until he died.

Jason L. Dunham, United States Marine Corp. (Iraq)

While searching a vehicle Cpl. Dunham was attacked by an insurgent.  While wrestling with the enemy combatant, the insurgent opened a grenade.  Cpl. Dunham, without hesitation, leaped onto the grenade, and with his body shielded the blast from his comrades, saving at least 2 other Marines from certain death.  Cpl. Dunham was killed.

Ross A. McGinnis, United States Army (Iraq)

Pvt. McGinnis was manning a 50-calibre machine gun when a grenade was tossed into his 5-man armored vehicle.  Without hesitation Pvt. McGinnis leaped onto the grenade, thereby saving the lives of his 4 other comrades.  Pvt. McGinnis was killed.

Michael A. Monsoor, United States Navy SEAL (Iraq)

While engaging the enemy a grenade bounced off the chest of PO. Monsoor, who without hesitation, leaped onto the grenade and thereby saving the lives of the 2 comrades with him.  Although PO. Monsoor was the only one of the 3 SEALs that could have escaped the grenade; he instead gave his life so the others could be spared.

Paul R. Smith, United States Army (Iraq)

While under attack, Sgt. Smith jumped into a fighting vehicle to man a 50-calibre machine gun so that his comrades could withdraw and take many other wounded soldiers with them.  While completely exposed Sgt. Smith continued his fire until he was hit and killed.

http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/afghanistan.html

http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/iraq.html

There are no longer any politicians in the Democrat Party that can be considered responsible.  None.  There are no conservative democrats, or moderate democrats or any other democrat other than liberal and fanatically liberal or Marxist or worse.  That’s it.
 
Dreading our future
by Michael Goodwin, New York Post, December 22, 2009
 

Watching the freak show in Copenhagen last week, I was alternately furious and filled with dread. The world has gone absolutely bonkers and lunatics are in charge. Mugabe and Chavez are treated with respect and the United Nations is serious about wanting to regulate our industry and transfer our wealth to kleptocrats and genocidal maniacs.
 
Even more frightening, our own leaders joined the circus. Marching to the beat of international drummers, they uncoupled themselves from the will of the people they were elected to serve. President Obama, for whom I voted because I believed he was the best choice available, is a profound disappointment. I now regard his campaign as a sly bait-and-switch operation, promising one thing and delivering another. Shame on me.
Equally surprising, he has become an insufferable bore. The grace notes and charm have vanished, with peevishness and petty spite his default emotions. His rhetorical gifts now serve his loathsome habit of fear-mongering.
 
“Time is running out,” he says, over and again. He said it on health care, on the stimulus, in Copenhagen, on Iran. Instead of provoking thought and inspiring ideas, the man hailed for his Ivy League nuance insists we stop thinking and do what he says. Now.
 
His assertion we will go bankrupt unless Congress immediately adopts the health monstrosity marks a new low. At least it did until he barged into a meeting in Copenhagen to insult the Chinese with the same do-it-now arrogance on carbon emissions. Don’t get me wrong — it’s OK to insult the Chinese, but save it for an urgent life-and-death issue. Iran qualifies, with its plans for a nuclear arsenal, yet Obama has not pushed China on that issue with the fervor of his attacks on their dirty smokestacks.
 
Washington has its own freak show and it also features Big Government theocrats. One of the mainstream media myths is that the Democrat-on-Democrat attacks of late pit moderates against liberals. Horse hockey. No person of conservative or moderate sensibility could possibly support a federal takeover of the massive health system.
 

Don’t think that just because Eric Holder and Barack Obama claim that even if the likes of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are found not guilty, in their various trials using civilian rules and constitutional protections meant for American citizens and not terrorists or unlawful enemy combatants, that they will be held in confinement indefinitely.  That’s completely wrong.
 
In fact, Obama and Holder have no right to make such claims or take such actions.  Because the Democrats in Congress are stupid idiots, and don’t give a damn about the security of the citizens of the United States, they have opened a Pandora’s Box in which they have allowed the Supreme Court to make decisions regarding the rules of war and the disposition of prisoners of war.  That is something that in the previous 230 years of American law they were never involved in.  According to the Constitution, which is apparently no linger followed, the role of the Supreme Court regarding war policy and adjudication is exactly zero.  But not now.
 
So, getting to the point at hand, Barack Obama and Eric Holder cannot say with authority that terrorist detainees found not guilty will not be freed.  That’s baloney.  It’s now the courts that make those decisions and there are already precedents that would require killer terrorists, found not guilty, to in fact be released into American cities unsupervised.  That can very well now happen.
 
You Democrats are such stupid fools.  What kind of pathology has invaded those bricks you use for brains.  Wake up already for crying out loud.
 
 http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTBkOTMwYzk5NjEzNDM0Y2VkZTlkNGEwODU0ODEyNmU=

Let’s see how dysfunctional we’ve been so far in 2009.

Congress is about to pass legislation that will spend over $2 Trillion over the next 10 years in an effort to ration health care and seize power from the people.  After that the costs rise exponentially until complete national bankruptcy (follow the costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security from their inception’s until today if you don’t believe me).

Democrats and liberals in Congress are trying to pass a cap & trade bill, and the Obama EPA has already announced taking actions to reduce “toxic” CO2, despite the junk-science upon which it’s based.  This will cost trillions in regulation and taxes and fees and succeed in doing literally absolutely nothing except seize liberty from the people and force manufacturing and other industries abroad.  By the way, the worldwide cost calculated by the UN to reduce “toxic” CO2 is $45,000,000,000,000.  Go figure!

There has been a $700 billion TARP bill, $200 billion jobs bill (aka “stimulus” bill), a $787 billion stimulus bill (which was originally advertised as a “jobs bill”), hundreds of billions more in bailouts and takeovers of private industries and other enterprises, and legislation that essentially will cost an additional $9 Trillion in debt over the next 10 years, and those are “low ball” figures.  And there’s more. 

So what’s next?  Immigration Policy, that’s what’s next.  And that means only one thing…….amnesty, followed by the so-called “path to citizenship”.

But why?  Why are amnesty and citizenship being pushed by Democrats and liberals, including sometimes even liberal Republicans like John McCain?  The only reason is that importing poor people from Mexico and Latin America is required if the plan is to cultivate an ongoing harvest of Democrat/Liberal voters.  That’s it.  There can be no other reason.  The more poor Latinos allowed and even encouraged to cross our open border, the more democrats and liberals there will be to vote in future elections.  It’s as easy as that.  Import poor people to the country, shower them with benefits and entitlements, and they’re beholden to their benefactors’ forever.  Isn’t this exactly what happened in the black community, which votes as a block for Democrats over 85% of the time?  That’s even a higher percentage than liberal Jews, which as a block votes for Democrats over 75% of the time, although no one really understands why except that it must be some kind of suicide-like mentality (luckily I’m a passionately proud conservative Jew).

Any other argument like “…immigrants are welcome in America” and “….we all came from somewhere else” is all a bunch of crap.  Back in the old days, like when our grandparents came to this country in the early 20^th century, there were no government sponsored safety nets.  Essentially you had 3 choices upon landing in Ellis Island.  You could live with friends or relatives who would support you, you worked and supported yourself, or you curled up in a fetal position and died.  That was it.  Today it’s all different, and not for the better, because what we have here are open borders and a welfare state at the same time.  That situation is completely inconsistent with national survival.

Actually, when you think about it, the plan to overrun the country with poor immigrants is a pretty brilliant strategy for maintaining power forever, assuming of course you don’t give a damn about your country and are willing to turn it into a welfare state forever.  But that’s what Democrats/liberals/Marxists do.  It’s really all about power and privilege.  It’s disgusting, despicable, diabolical and dastardly and anti-American.

Just look at the extent to which the Obama administration and his Justice Department are willing to deter someone from following the law and protecting the country from this onslaught.  Joe Arpaio is a well known county sheriff in Arizona and is known as being tough on illegal immigrants, as well as tough on criminals in general.  Instead of being applauded for his efforts he’s investigated as a civil rights abuser.  You can read all the details of the government’s attempts to destroy him below, but isn’t it interesting that this case shows so many similarities to Barack Obama’s other efforts to prosecute CIA intelligence officers charged with getting information from terrorists, or prosecuting Navy SEALS for punching a terrorist being captured, or conversely protecting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and providing the other Guantanamo terrorists and enemies with civilian constitutional rights, and on and on? 

Whose side is Barack Obama on?  Whose side are the Democrats on?  In Obamaworld, who exactly are the enemies and who are the friends, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, what is right and what is wrong?  It’s like bizarro-world.  This is the first time in American history that the President of the United States is actually an anti-American.

Here’s really the bottom line when it comes to promoting and supporting illegal immigration from Mexico and Latin America and what essentially forms one of the doctrines of the modern Democrat Party: if you import more poor people, what you get is more poverty.  That’s it.  And that serves their purposes completely.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/16/psssst-lets-nail-the-sheriff/ 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/us/politics/09immig.html

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/maryland-study-reveals-staggering-increase-of-illegal-immigration-costs-and-voter-dissatisfaction-78141522.html

Percentage of men and women who survived a cancer five years after diagnosis:  

U.S.              65%

England       46%

Canada        42%

Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received treatment within six months:

U.S.               93%

England        15%

Canada         43%

Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months:

U.S.              90%

England       15%

Canada        43%

Percentage referred to a medical specialist who see one within one month:

U.S.              77%

England       40%

Canada        43%

Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million people:

U.S.              71

England       14

Canada        18

Percentage of seniors (65+), with low income, who say they are in “excellent health”:

U.S.             12%

England        2%

Canada         6%

These results are completely consistent with virtually all other reports you can fund regarding the status of health care in the UK and Canada as compared to that which we take for granted in the United States.

If there is anyone who would prefer to be seriously ill in a country other than the United States I’d be interested in hearing from you.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=515486

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=506199