Reflections From a Murky Pond

You’d think, given that Obama and his handlers and overseers were told about the malfeasance of VA hospitals over five years ago, something would have been done about it before it turned into such a scandal. Yet, the boy did nothing. Beyond a bit of worthless and empty rhetoric the boy never even spoke of it.

The only people who seem to have tried to initiate some form of Veterans Affairs Reform were the members of the US House of Representatives and every one of their efforts was DOA upon reaching the US Senate. Over the past 18 months the House has passed at least 12 bills that would initiate various forms of reform within the VA but Harry Reid has refused to bring any of them to the Senate floor for consideration, debate, and vote.

In the past 18 months, since I’ve been a member of Congress, we’ve passed, on the House floor, at least 12 reform VA bills. Mandating the VA to fix different things, mandating the VA to report different things, mandating them to fix their website, bipartisan bills that went to the Senate, and they are DOA on the Senate side.

— Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN)

The House’s most recent attempt at reforming the VA system was a simple bill to allow the Secretary of Veterans Affairs – currently Eric Shinseki – to actually fire employees for poor performance or willful malfeasance such manipulating and falsifying data.  It had fairly broad bipartisan support – even Nancy Pelosi endorsed it.  Yet, this bill too was DOA in the Senate.

Think about this the next time – and there will be many next times – some domestic enemy claims that the GOP is obstructionist or a “Do Nothing” party. Think about the fact that Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats have been proven to be unwilling to even consider any and bills, no matter how needful, limited, and simple, that originate in the GOP-led House of Representatives.

Tags: America | Obama | Pelosi | Politics | Reid | Scandal | US Military | VA | Veterans | Veterans Affairs

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2014 at 6:34 am and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

It’s Memorial Day. For most people in the US this is a day of BBQs, picnics, and other fun, outdoor activities and parties. What might have been a solemn day of remembrance has evolved into a Spring celebration of fun and family.

I say that this is a great and good thing! Far better we celebrate the lives, lifestyles, a liberties our fallen warriors gave us than to wallow in misery and painful memory. I think their shades are far happier for this than they would be otherwise for it is proof that their sacrifices weren’t in vain.

So enjoy your BBQ…but, please spare a bit of thought for the ghosts that will attend it alongside you and who made it possible. Consecrate your fun, as it were, as a memorial to their deaths and celebration of victories they earned and which you enjoy.

There Are Ghosts At Your Table

And, if you can, think a bit about their Dependents who our fallen warriors were forced to leave behind. If you know any, invite them along on your outing…and thank them for they’ve sacrificed greatly as well and their pain isn’t over yet.

Tags: America | Death | Dependents | Family | Holidays | Life | Memorial Day | Society | US Military

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2014 at 7:23 am and is filed under Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

As legislated by Congress in the 1997 NDAA, the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is a study by the United States Department of Defense (DoD that analyzes strategic objectives of- and potential military threats to the US. The Quadrennial Defense Review Report is the main public document describing the United States’ military doctrine, strategies, and capabilities.

For the first time since its inception the QDR report has been rejected. Rep. Howard McKeon (R-CA) Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee found that Secretary of Defense, Charles Hagel’s 2014 report to not meet the legal requirements for such documents.

I appreciate the work that has gone into this QDR. A rigorous analysis and debate that takes place every four years as the review is put together should be immensely valuable to planners and senior commanders. Unfortunately, the product the process produced this time has more to do with politics than policy and is of little value to decision makers. For that reason, I will require the Department to re-write and re-submit a compliant report. In defiance of the law, this QDR provides no insight into what a moderate-to-low risk strategy would be, is clearly budget driven, and is shortsighted. It allows the President to duck the consequences of the deep defense cuts he has advocated and leaves us all wondering what the true future costs of those cuts will be.

— Rep. Howard McKeon (R-CA)
Chairman, House Armed Services Committee

Chairman McKeon’s issues with the 2014 QDR were three-fold: the law requires the QDR to identify resources not included in the Pentagon’s 5 year spending plan yet the report didn’t do so; the 2014 QDR was too shortsighted, looking out only 5 years, instead of the 20 years required by law; and this QDR accepts additional and elevated risks when the law requires the QDR to offer a low-to-moderate risk plan.

Essentially, while the QDR should have been an opportunity for Defense Secretary Charles Hagel to lay out his vision to refine defense strategy and to tell how the Defense Department will adapt the joint force to support that vision, it was instead a political document and, therefor, the House Armed Services Committee rejected it as fundamentally not meeting the legal requirements placed upon this accounting.

Personally, I think this was the right course of action and one that was overdue but not at all surprising in the need for it. As Chairman McKeon has noted, the QDR has become less and less compliant as time goes has gone by. It was past time to fix this issue.

Tags: America | Budget | Congress | DoD | Hagel | Law | McKeon | National Security | Politics | QDR | US House of Representives | US Military

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2014 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

There is, quite rightfully, a lot of kerfuffle over the Obama Regime’s new military budget which cuts the military to pre-WW2 strength levels. This is a logical and pragmatic fear-based outraged. The world is largely not our friend and a weakened military is not Americans’ ally at all.

On the other hand, this is not the gutting of our defensive strength that it is proclaimed to be. We’re talking about just under a 20& reduction in force over the next 5 years if nothing changes. Hence, the complaint are largely, though by no means entirely, unfounded and spurious.

No, what we have here is the ever-repeating Catch-22 SNAFU. The situation is normal, all fucked up, because it’s normal for circular logic and self-conflicting rules within the civilian political bureaucracy to interfere with the efficient operation of the military. Irrespective of political party affiliation it’s a rarity for any politician to have our nation’s defense as a priority when it comes time for the US Military appropriations budget.

Additionally, reductions in force and realignment of assets is also normal as the priorities and threats shift. As the Obama Regime has: no interest in returning to Iraq; has abandoned Afghanistan; and has no intention of projecting military force to protect or expand American interests abroad, this had to be expected.

It’s really pointless, given the nature of the problem, to argue against these defense cuts on the basis of national security. It, however, is wise to argue against them on the grounds of economics and the horrendous impact they will have upon employment. Financially the proposed cuts by the Obama Regime are historic.  The 2011 defense budget represented 4.7% of America’s GDP; this year’s total will be 2.7%.  In other words US defense spending is set to plummet from $705.6 billion in 2011 to $496 billion, a 30% drop.

So there will be approximately $209 billion less spent upon the military which will in turn mean that defense contractors will be able to earn that much less. This will necessarily cost thousands upon thousands of jobs across the country.

Tags: America | Budget | Congress | Economics | Employment | Hagel | Military | Obama | Politics | Sequester | Unemployment | US Military | War | War On Terror

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2014 at 10:02 am and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

I have written before about my disgust for many prayers people make to their God(s) begging or demanding that They provide some intercession in their worshipers’ lives. To me it seems wrong to treat one’s God(s) as They serve us when it is we who must serve Them.

This to me seems the only right request to make of the God(s)…

Lord, Grant Me The Strength

We are our God(s)’ hands and it’s our duty to serve Their will, not Their duty to ours. When one prays for more than help in finding the strength to carry on, you’re overstepping the bounds in Pride.

Side Notes

I get some significant enjoyment from thinking about how much and how viscerally the Liberals and Progressives would hate the image above, showing as it does and American soldier praying. The intersection of faith and our nation’s military has always been something that the Left feared and loathed.

Conversely, I can’t help shaking my head over the simple fact that very few normal, American Christians will be offended by the image. I would think they would be as it shows a soldier kneeling in prayer before an American flag in a setting that makes it look like the flag and, by proxy, the nation is being deified and place before- or in replacement of God.

Tags: Gods | Prayer | Religion | Society | US Military

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 10th, 2013 at 8:06 am and is filed under Religion, Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.