Something incredible is going to happen tonight.  This is unprecedented in our nation’s history.  A President of the United States is going to speak to the nation and ask for authorization to go to war, sort of.  Actually he is going to explain why ISIS is a threat to national security, somewhat oblivious to the fact that the American people figured this out before he did.  He is then going to explain what he is going to do about it by concentrating on what he won’t do.  He will then ask congress for support he says he does not need and odds are he will be unable to resist taking some shots at Republicans.

Recent polls are amazing and unprecedented.  Normally a President who asks for approval to go to war soars in approval as the nation unites behind him.  That has always happened in the past.  But this time while the nation supports the war, they don’t support the President.  This is the price of leading from behind.  No one trusts President Obama to lead anything.  I can’t recall any American President who blundered his way into this worst case scenario.  This does ring eerily similar to when Neville Chamberlain tried to rally support after he had blundered his way into World War II.  He was literally booed out of office.  Great Britain had a solution for that problem, Parliament voted to appoint Winston Churchill as Prime Minister and the rest is history.  However in this country, there is no option for congress to vote for a new President to replace one who is clearly incompetent.  Instead we either have to impeach this one and hope that Biden will miraculously be better, or wait until 2016.

Sadly, I have been waiting for a moment like this, but I always hoped it would never happen.

TDM

In full disclosure I have a lot of Scottish blood but I have never lived in Scotland and have no honest opinion regarding the Scottish independence vote.  That being said, I find this more than a little interesting.  Scotland won its independence from Britain starting when Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scots on March 25, 1306.  The final battle for independence was at Bannockburn in June 1314.  The Declaration of Arbroath was sent to Pope JohnXXII in 1320. Following is a quote most of you probably know from the Declaration of Arbroath:

…for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself

The Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton was ratified by the English Parliament on May 1, 1328 and Scotland became an independent country.   Scottish independence lasted until around 1603 when James the VI of Scotland became James the I of England uniting the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland. You might be interested in knowing that this was the King James of the King James Bible.  Scotland and England had the same King, but still had separate parliaments.  That lasted until 1707 when the Acts of Union resulted in the union of the English and Scottish parliaments.  One motivation for Scotland giving up its parliament was that it ran out of money.  It sure looks like the leaders in Scotland did choose riches over independence.

There was a serious financial problem.  Scotland had tried to establish the colony of Caledonia on the Isthmus of Panama.  They picked a spot on the Gulf of Darien, which was a lousy choice.  It is still mostly uninhabited today, for the same reasons it was uninhabitable in 1698. It was a major failure and Scotland ended up broke and in debt.  So in exchange for a lot of English money and the right to participate in English trade, Scotland gave up its parliament.  Both Scotland and England benefited from this decision.  Scotland thrived financially and an amazing number of British prime ministers have been Scots.

If you have ever been to Scotland, one quickly learns that the Scots do not like to be confused with the English.  They have always considered themselves to be a separate country.  For example at the Edinburgh Tattoo the announcers asked the audience where they were from.  He mentioned places all over the world.  Then he sighed and said, “Ok, do we have anyone from south of Hadrian’s Wall.”  It was obviously said in good humor.

Now, 300 years later, Scotland is considering setting up its own parliament again.  They may or may not agree to keep Queen Elizabeth.  England is trying desperately to keep Scotland by basically offering more money.  This is like Déjà vu all over again.

TDM

I am a Vietnam Veteran. I have long ago accepted the brutal reality that my country sent me off to fight a war and then later decided it wasn’t worth it after all.  But the ultimate insult is when the cowards who protested against the war try to cloak themselves with the mantle of self-righteousness.  They arrogantly express pride for being against the war as if this was some great act of courage. It was not.  Which takes more courage, burning your draft card or serving in the military and putting your life on the line?

Those people who celebrated stopping this war seldom, if ever, consider what they accomplished. They paid little or no attention to whom we were fighting in Vietnam and gave zero consideration to what was at risk for the people of South Vietnam.

It was not exactly peace and love in Vietnam after we left. After the fall of Saigon on April 40, 1975, the North Vietnamese communist government took over.  They renamed the country The Socialist Republic of Vietnam.  The communist government implemented a “Re-education” program.  Former military officers and government workers, along with civil servants, capitalists and priests, were imprisoned in brutal work camps.  Actual statistics are illusive, but it is estimated that over 1 million, and possibly as high as 2.5 million, people were imprisoned in these facilities.  An estimated 165,000 or more prisoners died in re-education camps.

One of the consequences was the Vietnamese boat people.  They risked their lives using almost anything that would float to escape the “peace and love” in Vietnam. Somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 of the more than 2 million who tried to escape died in the attempt.

The following article from the Daily Beast tells the story of one person:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/30/remembering-the-fall-of-saigon-and-vietnam-s-mass-boat-people-exodus.html

“Living in Vietnam became unbearable,” remembers another refugee. “We’d forgotten what it was like to have freedom, hope and happiness. Our determination to leave the country strengthened. I was nine months pregnant with my second child when we escaped again…we were given only 24 hours to pack our belongings.”

Did you notice that she described the period of time when the U.S. military was fighting on behalf of the South Vietnamese as a time of “freedom, hope and happiness.” Congratulations, war protestors! You rescued people from suffering under freedom, hope and happiness and gave them a brutal communist regime.  You must be so proud.

The following article from rebirthofreason.com details what happened after we abandoned our friends and allies.

http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/dickeymf/_Years_after_Fall_of_Saigon,_75_Million_Murdered.shtml

We will never know how many people died in Vietnam after the war.  We were too focused on the 57,000-plus Americans who died in the war. It may or may not be the 7.5 million estimated in this article, but it was definitely millions of people.This is not new data and it is not disputed. It is just ignored.

Vietnam has adopted some capitalism lately and things are finally improving, but it remains a very poor country. I talked recently to a Vietnamese janitor from Sacramento who said he sent $50 per month to his family in Vietnam because it made a major difference in their lives.  He explained that $50 a month was a lot of money in Vietnam.  This shocked me, so I did some research and quickly verified that the average monthly income is about $150 per person per month:

http://www.aroundinvietnam.com/money-matters/average-salary.html

Even that $150 is only an average.  Some people make much more and a lot of people earn even less.  I checked on Wikipedia to see how Vietnam’s average monthly wage compares to other countries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage

This only lists the top 72 countries, so Vietnam isn’t even on the list. Then I compared South Vietnam to South Korea.  We did not abandon South Korea like we did Vietnam. South Korea is number 10 on the list, with an average monthly wage of $2,903.

Obviously, the people in Vietnam and Cambodia paid a terrible price when we decided the war wasn’t worth it after all. Please explain to me why it was so necessary to stop that war? The only people who benefited were the terrified college students who avoided serving in the military.  The 57,000-plus Americans who died in Vietnam did not benefit, because you tossed their sacrifices on the scrap heap of history.

It is a lot easier to protest fighting in a war than it is fighting in one. I still remember getting on the plane returning me to Vietnam for my last combat tour.  I looked around and I saw a lot of men, actually boys, just like me, who did not want to be there.  I saw a lot of men, just like me who were terrified and who wondered if we would ever make it back home.  And then I realized that the real demonstration was by the men who quietly got on that plane and flew back to war. Too bad no one in the main stream media noticed.

As for all the self-righteous, anti-war protestors who continue to pat themselves on the back for having the courage to protest the war:  Congratulations. I hope you are very proud.

TDM

In 1964 Barry Goldwater was gaining rapidly on Lyndon Johnson.  The attempts by Democrats to paint Goldwater as a war monger were not working.  Instead, Goldwater was pounding Johnson for being soft on communism.  It was having a serious impact on the election.  Then, on August 2 there was a report of an attack by North Vietnamese Torpedo Boats on an American Destroyer, the USS Maddox.  On August 4 there was another report that both the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy were engaged in a naval battle with North Vietnamese Torpedo boats.   In response, President Johnson ordered retaliatory air attacks.  He then spoke to the nation and requested a resolution by congress:  “expressing the unity and determination of the United States in supporting freedom and protecting peace in Southeast Asia.”  He asked for support for: “all necessary action to protect our Armed Forces” but also said he sought “no wider war.”

The country united behind Johnson and Barry Goldwater got slaughtered in the 1964 election.  To this day liberals believe that Goldwater was defeated because he was too hawkish for the American people.  In reality, the opposite was true.  It was Johnson who salvaged his failing re-election campaign by launching us into the Vietnam War.

The American people were never told that the USS Maddox wasn’t exactly cruising along minding its own business in international waters.  It was actually supporting an attack by South Vietnamese forces on North Vietnam.  As for the fierce battle on August 4, even Johnson questioned whether or not our Navy was shooting at whales.  To this day the North Vietnamese continue to deny that the attack on August 4, 1964 even occurred.

If you are worried about current events, be grateful for one thing.  Obama did not seize the day and pull a Tonkin.  He did not ask for authorization to destroy ISIS.  If he had done so, Republicans would have no choice but to give him support.  But instead of doing that, Obama is dithering  incoherently and appears incapable of making a decision.  Even if Obama ultimately man’s up, it will be too late.  We may have narrowly escaped another Tonkin Gulf moment in Time.

Democrats, wiser than Obama, know this.  That is why Senator Bill Nelson proposed the resolution for Obama.  It is why Biden is screaming about following ISIS to the “Gates of Hell.”  But there’s a problem.  Our Commander in Chief either didn’t get the memo or he didn’t care.  The good news is that while Obama will launch some airstrikes etc., he is unlikely to go off half-cocked into another war.  The bad news is that this strategy is unlikely to work and at some point in the future, another President will have to do the heavy lifting.  In the meantime we will pay a terrible price, but not as high a price as we would pay if Democrats used another Tonkin Gulf resolution to retain control of the Senate.

TDM

Ironically, the day after Labor Day, the most visible change in American politics has been the dramatic reduction in union power.  While in some places, like Michigan and Wisconsin this is easy to see, it is also happening in other states.  Here in California even some Democrats are starting to resist the unions.  The days when unions could control every close election are long gone.

The DNC is desperately hoping for a massive black voter turnout in a last ditch effort to save this election.  That is why the Michael Brown story will not go away.  But there’s a problem.  The more we learn about the Michael Brown case the less it looks like a racist white cop shooting an unarmed black teenager for no good reason.  Support is growing, but primarily for the cop involved in the shooting.  The black outrage strategy is failing miserably.  There are more and more impressive black leaders who are pointing out, correctly, that liberal policies have been devastating to the black community.  In addition, Obama already got 90% of the black vote.  How much more can he possibly get?

The Benghazi case is about to explode.  The Select Committee has been getting its ducks in order and it has a lot of ducks.  The official Obama administration narrative has gone with the wind.  The American people are going to be confronted with the cold hard truth and it is really ugly.

The IRS scandal is about to go nuclear.  Editorials in main stream media outlets are admitting that it is no longer possible to write this off as a non-scandal.  Even the strongest supports of this administration were appalled by the recent disclosure that the IRS deliberately destroyed Lois Lerner’s e-mails.  Then the DOJ said the e-mails had been backed up, but getting them wasn’t worth the effort.

Islamic militias have occupied our embassy in Libya.  That is U.S. territory and just like in Benghazi, Obama did little to defend it.  Now we are seeing videos of militants belly flopping into what is left of the Embassy pool.

Sadly, there is the real possibility of a terrorist attack by ISIS.  We will be fortunate if this does not take place in the United States.

There is even the potential for a major Ebola scare.  ObamaCare is a disaster.  Premiums are unaffordable for a program with unaffordable deductibles and it is nearly impossible to find a doctor willing to provide treatment.  Nice!

I know that Republicans are famous for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.  But this time it looks like Democrats have won the race to self-destruction.  In case you haven’t noticed, Republicans aren’t proposing any new plans or ideas.  They are just repeating the same chant, over and over and over again.  NO BAMA, NO BAMA, NO BAMA, NO BAMA.  Listen carefully.  You can already hear.  It will get louder and louder and louder until on November 11, 2014 when it will turn into a loud roar.

TDM

The other day George Will said no matter how cynical we become, we can’t keep up.  I believe that describes this administration perfectly.  Now there appears to be an imminent threat and we don’t even have a plan to deal with it.  Great Britain issued the highest possible security level.  Experts are saying the threat here in the United States is even higher, yet we are doing close to nothing about it.

The following article from National Review Online is nothing short of chilling:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/386694/judicial-watch-feds-bulletin-describes-threat-imminent-terrorist-attack-southern

Here is part of what Obama said:

“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse,” “I think what I’ve seen in some of the news reports suggest that folks are getting a little further ahead of what we’re at than what we currently are.”

Obama not only doesn’t have a plan, he doesn’t appear to think a plan is required.  If you still have the faintest hope that Obama is up to the job of being President of the United States it is either time to stop drinking, stop smoking pot, and/or stop watching MSNBC.  Even CNN, CBS and NBC are reluctantly admitting we have a problem.

The threat may be even more severe than we thought.  According to Judicial Watch:

“Islamic terrorist groups are operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle born improvised explosive devices (VBIED). High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued.  Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat.

Specifically, Judicial Watch sources reveal that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is confirmed to now be operating in Juarez, a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas. Violent crimes are so rampant in Juarez that the U.S. State Department has issued a number of travel warnings for anyone planning to go there. The last one was issued just a few days ago.

What is frightening is that this is just what has been reported.  The most serious threats are likely to be those we don’t anticipate.  For example, no one predicted al Qaeda using suicide pilots to deliberate crash airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  All we know for sure is that ISIS is extremely brutal and is more than willing to inflict mass casualties.  We know that ISIS now has access to enormous funds.  We know that ISIS has several “volunteers” from Great Britain, Canada and the U.S.  Now it appears as though we know ISIS has some presence at or near the Texas Border.

Incredibly, we may have responded to this by telling our only line of defense that the situation is so dangerous they should just avoid the area.  What if we accidentally shot a terrorist?

Judicial Watch has reported that the U.S. Border Patrol actually ordered officers to avoid the most crime-infested stretches because they’re “too dangerous” and patrolling them could result in an “international incident” of cross border shooting.

I pray that Obama has got this right and there is no significant risk.  I pray that Judicial Watch has grossly exaggerated this and that the problem is not nearly this extreme.  But I fear that the opposite is true.  They say history repeats itself and I believe that is true.  On May 7, 1939 Leo Amery said the following to Neville Chamberlain:

You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”

In reality, America was quoting Oliver Cromwell’s words spoken to Parliament on April 20, 1653.  They seem even more appropriate today.

By the way, on May 10, 1939 Hitler invaded the Low Countries and France.  By then things were so awful that even Neville Chamberlain figured it out and resigned.  He was replaced with Winston Churchill.

TDM

During the Munich Olympic Games, James McKay reported on the death of the Israeli athletes held hostage by Islamic terrorists.  He summed things up perfectly:

When I was a kid my father used to say “Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized.” Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They have now said there were 11 hostages; two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They’re all gone.

The following statement at a Pentagon briefing by Secretary of Defense Chuck Nagel and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff is stunningly blunt:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/21/us-usa-islamicstate-idUSKBN0GL24V20140821

Hagel:  “The sophistication, wealth and military might of Islamic State militants represent a major threat to the United States that may surpass that once posed by al Qaeda…

“They are an imminent threat to every interest we have, whether it’s in Iraq or anywhere else,”

Dempsey:  “This is an organization that has an apocalyptic, end-of- days strategic vision and which will eventually have to be defeated,”

So how is our President responding to this clear and present danger?

Obama:  “People like this ultimately fail. They fail because the future is won by those who build and not destroy. The world is shaped by people like Jim Foley and the overwhelming majority of humanity who are appalled by those who killed him. The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done and we act against ISIL, standing alongside others. 

Actually, as General Dempsey pointed out, people like this are only stopped when someone is willing to pay the price to defeat them.

Our President took time off from playing golf to announce that he will pursue the people who murdered Jim Foley just as aggressively as he pursued the people who murdered Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi.  The following quote from Ben Rhodes outlines this administration’s response to the threat from ISIS.

Ben Rhodes:  “We haven’t made a decision to take additional actions at this time, but we truly don’t rule out additional action against ISIL if it becomes warranted,”

One has to wonder what, more than “imminent threat to every interest we have, whether it is in Iraq or anywhere else” would be required to get Obama’s attention.

Sadly, I think that day will come only after we realize our worst fears.

TDM

Imagine you are a police officer.  You stop an enormous man for walking down the middle of the street.  The dispatcher reports that a man meeting this description is suspected in a strong arm robbery near your location.  You confront this man and he assaults you.  He tries to get your gun.  The gun goes off.   He punches you in the face breaking your eye socket.  Then he takes off.  You get out of your car and order him to freeze.   You have trouble focusing and are in pain.  He turns around, laughs and says “are you going to shoot me?”  Then he charges.  What would you do?  Would you consider this to be a threat?  Would you fire once and hope it works?  Or would you fire at him as many times as you can until he stops?

Imagine you are black and the man who attacked you is white.  Imagine the Governor of the State demands justice for the white man you shot.  Imagine him ordering a vigorous prosecution.  Imagine him demanding that police and prosecutors do their job.  Imagine him demanding the district attorney withdraw from the case because he is black and he has a good relationship with the police.

Imagine the media referring to this 6’4’’ 300 pound man as an unarmed teenager.  Imagine outrage because someone releases a video of this enormous man roughing up a store clerk saying that could not possibly be relevant to this incident.

Imagine hundreds of white people rioting and demanding you get prosecuted for murder.  Imagine protestors demanding your immediate arrest.  Imagine protestors carrying signs saying you must be killed.  Imagine CNN sending a crew to film your house.  Imagine another news organization provides a map to your home.

Imagine a white power activist, well known for inflammatory speech, saying that this case proves that white people can’t trust black cops.  Imagine large crowds of white people cheering him on.  Imagine him claiming that black cops routinely shoot unarmed white teenagers for no reason.

Imagine the white Attorney General of the United States demanding police departments hire more white cops.  Imagine him saying that the police department must have a majority of white cops because a majority of the town is white.   Imagine him promising the all-white congregation of a local church that change is coming.  Imagine him sending in 40 FBI agents because he does not trust the local authorities to do their job.

Any questions?

TDM

In 2006, Democrats won control of the House and the Senate.  Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were determined to force Bush to withdraw from Iraq, regardless of the cost.  Bush knew this was a huge mistake, so he gave a speech in August of 2006 explaining what was at risk.  Following is an excerpt from that speech:

“If we leave Iraq before the job is done, it will create a terrorist state in the heart of the Middle East, a terrorist state much more dangerous than Afghanistan was before we removed the Taliban, a terrorist state with the capacity to fund its activities because of the oil reserves of Iraq.”

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were unsuccessful in ending the war while Bush was in office.  They certainly tried, with Harry Reid declaring the surge a failure before it even started.  But George W. Bush was determined to not let this happen on his watch.  He stood up to opposition within his own party, because George W. Bush knew exactly what was at stake.

When Barack Obama was elected President he promised to end the “unnecessary war” in Iraq.   Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid rejoiced.  Obama was successful in withdrawing from Iraq, without regard to the cost.  He not only ignored the warning from President Bush, he ignored warnings from his own Military Commanders and his own National Security Team.

ISIS is doing exactly what Bush warned us about in 2006.  The threat from ISIS is so severe that even President Obama has authorized air strikes.  Christians and other ethnic groups are being slaughtered.   ISIS responded to the air strikes by beheading James Foley, an American journalist who was kidnapped in Syria.

Congratulations to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama.   Your leadership has produced exactly the results we were warned to expect.  Perhaps the best thing to do at this point is to give thanks to those who made this all possible.

TDM

Based reports in the media, this is what police already know about the Michael Brown case.

1. Michael Brown was 18 years old.  He was 6’4”” and weighed 300 pounds.
2. He pushed a store clerk around in the process of stealing cigars about 10 minutes before the encounter with Officer Wilson.
3. There was a physical confrontation with Officer Wilson.
4. Officer Wilson suffered a fracture to his eye socket as the result of being struck by Michael Brown.
5. Michael Brown was shot 6 times.
6. Michael Brown is dead.
7. There is no video of the event.

There is are unconfirmed reports that police have12 eye witnesses who confirm Officer Wilson’s account of the incident.

Local officials and the police knew most of this from day one.  They were afraid to report this because they knew such a report would have been met with outrage.  So instead, they released only partial information in the worst way possible.  The result is even more anger at least partially fueled by a wildly inaccurate narrative.  There is wide spread speculation that Officer Wilson must be arrested and charged with something.

This is not only the opposite of right.  This is worse than wrong.  This is ridiculous.  There is a desperate need for someone in authority to step up to the plate and say something like this:

This is not the way we do things in America.  We will not turn this case over to a lynch mob.  Everyone, regardless of race or social position, deserves equal treatment under the law.  That applies to Michael Brown.  That also applies to Officer Wilson.  Everyone has a right to their opinion, but we will not allow the rule of law to be distorted by public outrage.

Sadly there does not appear to be a single public official with the courage to do what is obviously right.  The real choice here is whether cases like this will be handled by the rule of law or by an out of control mob.  Are we really going to define justice based on the irrational rants of an Al Sharpton?  If we do, we can expect more and more of this in the future.  We can expect a violent response to any police shooting, regardless of circumstances.

I do not know if Officer Wilson deserves to be indicted or not.  I do know that he deserves better than this.  My guess is that he will be indicted, regardless of the facts, because officials are too terrified to do anything else.  That does not mean that he will be convicted.

We will be lucky if no one takes a shot at Officer Wilson or his family.  If something like that happens the backlash will be unprecedented.  Incredibly the main stream media provided directions to his home.  That is beyond irresponsible.

This whole situation is absurd.  I am tired of irrational and irresponsible malcontents being allowed to shout down anyone who dare disagree with them.  I am angry to see people getting away with wild inflammatory accusations that are not supported by the facts.  I am dismayed by the assumption that any time a white police officer shoots a black male it is racism.  I am furious about patently false claims that police routinely shoot unarmed black teenagers for no good reason.  The reality is that these kind of incidents are extremely rare.   Police shootings of any kind are rare.

It is a sad day when we allow irrational rage to trump reason.  At some point, someone is going to have to stand up to those who would subvert the rule of law.  We will pay a terrible price in the future if we continue to reward irrational and irresponsible behavior.

TDM