Read more at CNN.

Our prayers and thoughts are with the Disney family and I hope that they can trust in Philippians 4:7.

Those who have given so much deserve our continuing thanks.

To alleviate any confusion, this is NOT the HMS Victory upon which Admiral Nelson was killed in the Battle of Trafalgar.

To get information on this ship, check: HMS Victory.

For Admiral Nelson’s ship: HMS Victory.

If I hear anything more about “pressure mounting on Israel to halt the offensive,” I’m really going to scream!  How long would you tolerate non-action from our President if Mexico started randomly bombing San Diego, El Paso or Tuscon?

Hamas is like that short annoying guy in High School who talked smack all day long and then acted surprised when someone twice his size kicked his loud-mouth ass.

I mostly feel sorry for the poor civilians in Gaza.   BUT, on the other hand, that’s kinda what you get when you vote for assholes who fire mortars from your child’s preschool.

Its true that many of them are squeezed on both sides and you can’t put it beyond Hamas to bully people into supporting them. I suppose its sort of akin to Democrats and Republicans each having their own set of armed thugs and there being very little to stop them from getting up close and personal with you on the way to the polling station.  Amazing.

Iranians Hate Obama ... Already.

What’s equally amazing is that the World loved us for approximately a month and a half before everything started being Obama’s fault.  The poor guy isn’t even in office yet, and already things are his fault.

There really is no pleasing these bastards. But, damn, that was fast…

And, expected.

His tactic turned this election into the single most expensive presidential race ever, with over a billion dollars being spent.  That’s a first for our country.

The AP reports that Mr. Obama spent nearly $720 million dollars of the $750 million he raised for his campaign.  While McCain was limited to spending only $84 million from September on (because he accepted public funds), Obama spent $315 million during the same period.  By the end of the race, he was outspending McCain at a rate of 4 to 1.

Lets put this into perspective a bit: the combined total of George W. Bush AND John Kerry’s bill for both the primary and general election back in 2004 was only $653 million, including federal public financing money.

Yes, that’s right, Obama spent more on this election than the combined total of the candidates for the last presidential election.  And, of equal significance, his total spend was well over twice that of McCain’s reported $293 million.

I wonder what would have happened if Obama had done as he had vowed and taken the public funds?  Never before in history has a presidential candidate outspent his opponent by such an overwhelming margin.

Amazing that most people continue to say that its “Fatcat Republicans” who have all the money.  Overspending doesn’t stop at just the presidential election either.  Over the last decade, the most expensive senate campaigns of each cycle, save one (Elizabeth Dole in 2002), have been waged by Democrats.

I think it is officially time the term Fatcat was changed to something more appropriate: FatCRAT.

Congratulations MTV Generation – you’ve got your man as President.  One question though – don’t you think he should have kept his word and spent half as much money campaigning and used the other $325 million supporting some of those causes ya’ll care so much about?  He STILL would have outspent McCain by nearly 10%.

Honestly though, I really would have thought that much cash would have bought more than an 8.5% margin in the results.

Oh well, at least France likes us again.

If The World Could Vote - Oct 21, 2008 1:08AM PST

It used to be that people from all over the world would flock to the United States to seek a better life.  Oh wait, its still that way!  Even as screwed up as we are, people are still beating down our doors in search of what they couldn’t find in their own countries.

They left their country to come here.  I don’t have time to research this, but I’d bet that the immigration phenomenon has been stronger to the US than in any other country in the world.  Call it jingoism if you’d like, but its all the folks from the rest of the world that are voting with their feet and trying to move here.

Speaking of voting, check out how the rest of the world would vote in our election.  I touched on this in a prior rant, and this new information seems to support my original point.

87.4% of the World would vote Obama.  Has there ever been a better reason to vote McCain?

People come here because it is (was) DIFFERENT than where they were.  Some would say, BETTER.  I’ll leave that question up to the large number of immigrants to our shores, as I’m unbelievably biased on the question.

If we continue to vote they way the rest of the world does, we will be just like them.  We are headed there already.  Obama will bring us that much closer.  If the world thinks this way, chances are we should be going in the exact opposite direction.  Being a citizen of the world sounds nice, but when you come down to it, I’d pick being an American any day.

Please: Remain American.  Vote McCain!

But, according to CNN, turns out the connections ARE true.  Disturbingly true.  Watch for yourself.

This is just one more example of how Obama will say anything to get elected.  Want more examples?

• Running against Nancy Pelosi for minority leader in the Republican lead congress, Obama played himself off as a centrist and someone willing to reach across the aisle.  He did this to differentiate himself from Pelosi who, as we all know, is extremely liberal.
• Running against Hillary in the primary, Obama played himself as the liberal choice and being more with the spirit of the Democratic party than Clinton was.
• Now, during the election, he is playing himself as the centrist again, trying to appeal to voters on both sides of the fence.

So Barack, which is it?  Centrist or Liberal?  Oh, depends upon the situation, right…  In selling, we call that the “spin” – the truth is as you “spin” it.

The sad thing is that this could have been so much simpler for Obama.  All he needed to say was, “Yes, I was associated with Bill Ayers.  He and I did a lot of good work together in Chicago.  I disagree with a lot of his philosophies, and certainly deplore the violence that he espoused, but also know that the man has done a lot of good in his life.  In politics, you don’t always have the luxury of choosing who you have to work with.  A lot of times, you end up working with folks that you disagree with.  That shouldn’t come as any surprise.  Ultimately what matters though, is how you handle that situation, and how you work to get something done DESPITE your differences.  I think my record shows that we did some good things there.  I disagree with a lot of my fellow legislators as well, but I’m willing to work together to get something done.  Next question…”

Why didn’t you just say that Barack?  If it was true, I’d think that he’d just say that.

The only other options are that he was actually very aware of Ayer’s background and agreed with more of his philosophies than he disagreed with them.  Or, the last possibility is that he just didn’t CARE about them.

My opinion is that it is the latter.  Obama is human and, like most people, he will overlook a lot in the face of his own personal gain.  Obama just didn’t care about Ayer’s past.  If Ayers could help him climb the ladder of success, it really didn’t really matter who he was or what he did.  The ends simply justifies the means.  Yup, that would be in keeping with his “say whatever it takes” to win attitude.

I’d bet that the truth of the matter simply kept them from being able to see a better way to spin the issue.

Another thing that disturbs me about this new information is the realization that the majority of Obama’s limited leadership role experience primarily consists of handing out other people’s money.  Oh great.

So, there is ample proof that Obama will say anything to get elected.  His past is riddled with very unsavory characters – first Jeremiah Wright, now Bill Ayers.  And, he’s tremendously inexperienced – even more so than SarahPalin.  The experience he HAS had, he’s been responsible for spending other pepole money.

Really?  This is who half of America (maybe more???) wants as president?  What the hell is wrong with us?

I started a comment that ballooned into a novel – I know, big surprise with me, right?  :)

Anyway, I wanted to post my comment here as it gets to a lot of things that I’ve been thinking about lately, and what else is a blog for other than that?

One of things that has been bothering me lately is my deep political disagreement with people that I greatly respect on a day to day basis.  This post about 9/11 finally allowed me the mental and emotional process to begin to articulate my position and support it with something other than just political haranguing.

Anyway, here’s my thoughts.  They will probably make more sense if you’ve read my brother’s post first.

CLAP CLAP CLAP…

I remember that morning, and how three months earlier I had taken AA Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles as I had done MANY times before.

I remember having a meeting in the towers 8 months prior to that.

I remember thinking that what Israel has had to deal with on a daily basis has finally come here. The big question was – was it going to stay?

People can argue all they want about Iraq and what the Bush administration has done. His leadership, and the war that his Administration has waged seems to be a lot of what makes people NOT proud to be an American.

How unfair. The fact of the matter is that we haven’t been attacked here since. Why? Because they are focused on attacking us there, and have vowed to focus all resources on expelling us. Call me callous, but I’d rather have al qaeda focused on our military instead of our malls and restaurants. For that reason alone, I hope its a very long time before we are totally out of Iraq. People here are “sick of the war”. How the hell do they think the Iraqis feel? We are so damn pampered.

I’ll tell you – I’m proud to be an American, but I’m frustrated with how shallow we can be as a nation. The country is poised to choose a man who, if elected, will be the least qualified person to ever hold the office of President. I’m not talking race, religion or even politics – just strict proven capability. Why? Because he sounds good. To me, that’s shallow. I don’t care if a person is black, white, brown, yellow, male, female – I want a President that will strengthen our country and make sure that my family is protected. Why? Because I REMEMBER 9/11 and it still scares the crap out of me. Mr. Obama may one day have done enough to prove that he is up to the job, but I don’t think that day is here today.

Many in this country want CHANGE because they are unhappy with how things are today. Maybe they should look back to the year after 9/11 and realize how bad it COULD be. These are the same people who said we went to war in Iraq because of oil. I guess they somehow missed me when the free tank of gas was given out? Did you get yours?

How bad would our economy be with suicide bombers hitting our malls during the Christmas shopping season? How bad would our jobless rate be if companies were too afraid to innovate and bring new products to market because the population at large is scared out of its mind? Nobody buys anything at times like that… How bad would it be for Los Angeles if the entertainment industry was again paralyzed by rampant uncertainty? How bad would the dollar be world-wide if our country was in the throws of real economic chaos, not just a downturn in growth?

We whine for change, why? Because the foam on the latte of our American lives has somehow been deflated? We should be thankful a hole hasn’t been punched in the cup.

Change is good if its toward something better. Better is always different, but different isn’t always better.

How many attacks will it take to bring out in our people the backbone of iron that you can see in places like Tel Aviv? Honestly, I hope we never have to find out… America largely doesn’t “remember” 9/11. We recall it. We recall it as what is hopefully the worst attack we will ever witness – and that from afar, for most of us.

I can tell you one thing – I’m sure John McCain doesn’t recall it that way. No, it’s not the worst thing that he’s ever seen. Not by a mile. I’d much rather go with a man who has clearly proven the quality of HIS backbone, thank you very much. I’m not even fond of his politics much, but I’m confidant of who he is and what he can do.

I’m proud to be an American because of the heritage of people like that.

No one likes war.

War is a horrific affair, bloody and expensive.  Sending our men and women into battle to perhaps die or be maimed is an unconscionable thought. 

Yet some wars need to be waged, and someone needs to lead. The citizenry and Congress are often ambivalent or largely opposed to any given war. It’s up to our leader to convince them. That’s why we call the leader "Commander-in-Chief."

George W.’s war was no different. There was lots of resistance to it. Many in Congress were vehemently against the idea. The Commander-in-Chief had to lobby for legislative approval.  Along with supporters, George W. used the force of his convictions, the power of his title and every ounce of moral suasion he could muster to rally support. He had to assure Congress and the public that the war was morally justified, winnable and affordable.

Congress eventually came around and voted overwhelmingly to wage war.  George W. then lobbied foreign governments for support. But in the end, only one European nation helped us. The rest of the world sat on its hands and watched. 

After a few quick victories, things started to go bad.  There were many dark days when all the news was discouraging. Casualties began to mount. It became obvious that our forces were too small. Congress began to drag its feet about funding the effort.  Many who had voted to support the war just a few years earlier were beginning to speak against it and accuse the Commander-in-Chief of misleading them. Many critics began to call him incompetent, an idiot and even a liar. Journalists joined the negative chorus with a vengeance.

As the war entered its fourth year, the public began to grow weary of the conflict and the casualties. George W.’s popularity plummeted. Yet through it all, he stood firm, supporting the troops and endorsing the struggle.  Without his unwavering support, the war would have surely ended, then and there, in overwhelming and total defeat. 

At this darkest of times, he began to make some changes. More troops were added and trained. Some advisers were shuffled, and new generals installed.  Then, unexpectedly and gradually, things began to improve. Now it was the enemy that appeared to be growing weary of the lengthy conflict and losing support. Victories began to come, and hope returned. 

Many critics in Congress and the press said the improvements were just George W.’s good luck. The progress, they said, would be temporary. He knew, however, that in warfare good fortune counts. 

Then, in the unlikeliest of circumstances and perhaps the most historic example of military luck, the enemy blundered and was resoundingly defeated. After six long years of war, the Commander-in-Chief basked in a most hard-fought victory.  So on that historic day, Oct. 19, 1781, in a place called Yorktown, a satisfied George Washington sat upon his beautiful white horse and accepted the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, effectively ending the Revolutionary War.