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Since obama did not visit border when he was in Austin I wonder why the illegals can't be bussed or flown (since taxpayers are paying) to 1600 Pennsylvania. Dump them all in D.C. He and his people will have them in their home and can exhaust their resources taking care of the mess they CREATED
READ ARTILCE HERE .... http://blackroberegimentpastor.blogspot.com/2014/07/will-terrorists-bring-ebola-disease.html
By Craig Andresen on July 10, 2014 at 3:52 pm
From Craig Andresen and Diane Sori
As many of the readers of this blog know, Diane Sori of The Patriot Factor and I are partners on RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS, our radio show on CPR Worldwide Media and a few months ago, between our two blogs and our show, we exposed the truth regarding Benghazi.
Since then, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS and CPR have been targeted by the Obama regime. Repeated attempts have been made to knock of off the air with cyber attacks coming from the east coast to the west coast…the middle of a farm field in Kansas and even from a point 420 miles due west of the coast of Spain in the Atlantic Ocean.
The CEO of CPR has had his tires slashed and his vehicle further vandalized and a note left on it warning our CEO, Michael Collins-Windsor to “stop the investigative reports or next time it won’t just be your tires getting slashed.”
The surveillance tapes from that event were taken from local law enforcement by two FBI agents days later.
The owner of the company that licenses CPR for the ability to legally play music had two FBI agents show up at his HOME at 8:30pm on a Saturday ordering HIM to PULL THE STREAMING LICENSE in an attempt to close CPR down. He was reportedly threatened, told to shut the ‘F’ up and do what he was told or he would lose his business.
That, by the way, was NOT the only time he was told by the FBI to shut CPR down.
It was at that point that both Diane and I were labeled by that particular duo of being “potential threats to national security.”
Two FBI agents then showed up at Collins-Windsor’s bank demanding his records but were turned away as they did NOT have any court order to take those records.
Two men showed up one day at Collins-Windsor’s office where they took photos of the building.
Are you starting to get the picture here?
I have said it before and I will say it again, I love Sarah Palin. Governor Palin has come out strongly calling for the impeachment of President Obama. I say, “Way to go sister!”
During an interview, Sarah expressed the frustrations of millions of patriotic Americans, myself included. Enough with being intimidated and impotent to act because Obama is black. Enough with the smartest pundits' in the room explanations why it would be politically unwise to challenge Obama's unprecedented lawlessness. Enough with being politically castrated by fear of the mainstream media.
Palin is calling for Obama's impeachment simply because it is the right thing to do. Palin cites 25 impeachable offenses by Obama thus far.
While politicians express their shock and awe regarding Obama's daily acts of lawlessness, a tsunami of illegals are flooding our country with Obama gleefully having ordered the opening of the flood gates. Some say allowing the invasion of illegals to continue will change America forever.
Remarkably, the Administration will not allow the GOP to visit the federal facilities where illegals are being held to assess the situation. This is astoundingly arrogant and totalitarian; the action of a supreme dictator rather than a U.S. President.
We can not allow a lawless imperial president to run rampant wrecking havoc on our great nation for two more years, hoping that his behavior will harm Democrats in elections. Reversing Obama's vote winning entitlements and laws may be extremely challenging, if not impossible.
And another thing, this Administration's secrecy, stonewall coverups and iron fist tactics against any individual or institution that challenges or disagrees is outrageous and totally unacceptable. It should no longer be tolerated. It is vitally important that Americans immediately wake up and smell the tyranny and act accordingly.
Here is a recent prime example of this Administration brazenly attempting to bully even the U.S. Supreme Court. Henchman Harry Reid has announced that he intends to punish the “five white guys” on the Supreme Court for ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby.
By the way, one of those so-called five white guys is black, Justice Clarence Thomas. Note the Democrats' trademark tactic of insidiously playing the race card in Reid's “five white guys” statement. This man is an awful evil human being; characteristic of the many hit men and women of the Obama Administration; Lois Lerner and Eric Holder to name a few. Remember, leadership emanates from the top down.
Relentless in their efforts to force everyone to yield to king Obama, Reid has basically said screw the Supreme Court ruling. He will continue going after Hobby Lobby.
What more evidence of an out-of-control tyrannical Administration, believing themselves invincible does one need? Obama is king and whatever he says or desires is law. Period.
A movement to impeach Obama has been underway for awhile. Governor Palin as the face of it is the perfect leader to give it legs.
As an individual proud American who happens to be black, I wholeheartedly support Governor Palin's movement to impeach our imperial president, Barack Hussein Obama.
Lloyd Marcus, Unhyphenated American
Chairman, Conservative Campaign Committee
The shoe is on the other foot and the Mexicans from the State of Sonora , Mexico do not like it. Can you believe the nerve of these people? It's almost funny. The State of Sonora is angry at the influx of Mexicans into Mexico ! !
The state legislators from the Mexican State of Sonora traveled to Tucson to complain about Arizona 'S new employer crackdown on illegal S from Mexico. It seems that many Mexican illegals are returning to their hometowns and the officials in the Sonora state government are ticked off. A delegation of nine state legislators from Sonora was in Tucson on Tuesday to state that Arizona's new 'Employer Sanctions Law' will have a devastating effect on the Mexican state. At a news conference, the legislators said that Sonora, - Arizona's southern neighbor - made up of mostly small towns - cannot handle the demand for housing, jobs and schools that it will face as Mexican workers return to their hometowns from the USA without jobs or money.
The Arizona law, which took effect Jan. 1, punishes Arizona employers who knowingly hire individuals without valid legal documents to work in the United States. Penalties include suspension of, or loss of, their business license. The Mexican legislators are angry because their own citizens are returning to their hometowns, placing a burden on THEIR state government instead of ours.
'How can Arizona pass a law like this?' asked Mexican Rep Leticia Amparano-Gamez, who represents Nogales. 'There is not one person living in Sonora who does not have a friend or relative working in Arizona,' she said, speaking in Spanish. 'Mexico is not prepared for this, for the tremendous problems it will face as more and more Mexicans working in Arizona and who were sending money to their families return to their hometowns in Sonora without jobs,' she said 'We are one family, socially and economically,' she said of the people of Sonora and Arizona .
Wrong! The United States is a sovereign nation, not a subsidiary of Mexico, and its taxpayers are not responsible for the welfare of Mexico's citizens. It's time for the Mexican government, and its citizens, to stop feeding parasitically off the United States and to start taking care of its/their own needs.
Too bad that other states within the USA don't pass a law just like that passed by Arizona. Maybe that's the answer, since our own Congress will do nothing.!
*New Immigration Laws*
Be sure to read to the bottom or you will miss the message...
1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools.
2. All ballots will be in this nation's language.
3. All government business will be conducted in our language.
4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here.
5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold political office.
6. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or any other government assistance programs. Any who are a burden will be deported.
7. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount at least equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.
8. If foreigners come here and buy land, their options will be restricted. Certain parcels including waterfront property are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.
9. Foreigners may have NO protests; NO demonstrations, NO waving of a foreign flag, no political organizing, NO bad-mouthing our president or his policies. These will lead to deportation.
10. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be actively hunted and, when caught, sent to jail until your deportation can be arranged. All assets will be taken from you.
Too strict.? The above laws are the current immigration laws of MEXICO.! If it's good for Americans to obey Mexican laws, then it's good vice versa.!!!
I have been conducting research on our U.S. Constitution, along with the supporting Constitutions of the 50 States of the Union.
What I have discovered so far, is that a Constitutional Convention might be called for, along with a Special Prosecutor and a Full Congressional Investigation into the Elections of 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016, and of course, the 9/11 Coup Conspiracy, including the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, which could have been orchestrated by the CIA.
The Special Prosecutor and subsequent Congressional Reports and Investigation could clear-up a lot of the mysterious allegations of wrong-doing by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and others, including Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama.
And, the proposed Constitutional Convention could allow us to fix what's wrong with our government. Direct Democracy is an exciting new idea, that could modernize our government, and return the power to the people, by modernizing our democratic republic. And, 27 of the states already have it. If the federal government had it, we would have been able to Recall both Bush and Obama, when they became insensitive to the needs and will of the people of the United States.
One of the best parts of this idea is that there are several dynamic new subject areas for newly proposed Constitutional Amendments, including: Election Reform, Judicial and Prison Reform, Land Reform, BLM Reform, Marijuana Reform, Budget Reform, Tax Reform, Medical Reform, establishing Women's Rights to Safe Housing and increasing the powers of the Civil Rights Movement, which would include establishing protections from overly zealous police and government agents, and establishing additional protections against racism, while empowering the existing Civil Rights Act, to enable a new, higher level of government interaction with its citizens. Currently, the Civil Rights Act is almost useless, because the rich and unethical have created too many loopholes within the law created by Congress in the 1960s. And, this is also true of our entire legal system, where both the individual states and the federal government have thousands of obsolete and conflicting laws which need to be reviewed, updated, and innovated with creative new ideas, in order to modernize our existing legal system.
For this reason, I would like your feedback.
Who would be interested in petitioning the 50 States of the Union, for a Constitutional Convention, that could be combined to operate concurrently with a Special Prosecutor and a Full Congressional Investigation into the mysterious allegations surrounding the George W. Bush Administration, including the elections of 2000, and 2004, and a possible Coup by the CIA, along with Bush and Cheney, which could explain what happened following 9/11/2001?
Therefore, there are two types of responses to this Blog. One, the Constitutional Convention and its subject ares for future Constitutional Amendments, and Two, the request for a Special Prosecutor and a Full Congressional Investigation into the possible illegal involvement of the CIA into the elections of 2000 and 2004, along with the allegations of hoax, as far as the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks.
Could this help the citizens of the United States solve our problems with corruption and illegal activities by high-level government officials?
Grandpa's Cracked Mirror
A janitor was my Grandpa.
Found a cracked mirror one day.
I asked could have it in hand.
No was what he first said.
Cancer shot him from his stand.
Soon he would be dead.
It meant lots on this command.
He gave it to me as he fled.
Died October 1968.
That cracked mirror kept I did.
Where is it hid?
I know it is in my memory.
Where is it physically?
I will find it again one day.
Pass on to my son for keepsake,
As I explain,
What is meant behind
Grandpa's Cracked Mirror!
All rights reserved.
You want to put me in a home?
When rearending four cars; it wasn't my fault they stopped to fast!
The trashcan jumped out in front of me.
The curb was too close to the street.
Won't take a cab; even though they can darn well afford it?
Leaves water running over in a bathroom sink for an hour and does damage to areas of carpet in four rooms?
Leave milk out or other cold items for hours?
Other forgetful indicators of dementia of some sort?
Has a personality change; either becomes really negative or sweet sweet?
Here is a letter I wrote to my sister in a journal but never gave her.
Dear Sister:
I know you love mom. You are an angel. You have been in some ways more of a mother to me than mom sometimes. You want to mother everyone, including my son Tanner. You are warn out. I know you are working on getting mom help. Sister it is okay to give up.
Setting boudaries is okay. Or, but mom in assisted living for a while until the medication either works or doesn't work. You are showing signs of being worn out.
I know you don't ask more of me than I can give. At one point I would have drained myself like you are. I realize now that I can no longer drain myself and take care of an autistic son. Plus, ______(husband...fell at work needs knee surgery but ended up with Deep Vein Thombosis, and Pulmonary Emboli...but God saw these were caught and he is alive...with filter in place to catch clots) needs special attention. I also have been sick with high fevers over the last two years. The only thing showing up is high C-Reactive protein and cortisol levels; indicating stress. Well now that I have gone 2 months with only two fevers and one sinus infection; I am exercising and committed to preserving this break in my health.
The bottom line is I can help but not on the level mom needs. Sister, I can't tell you what to do. I can tell you that none of us are equipped to help 24/7. Or, total to fill in the holes. You have a job. I don't want you to carry such a burden. Think about what I have said. You are a loving carring person but overloading yourself may make you not able to be there down the road when mom may need us further.
We have tried to get her to go and get medication that would help her to stay in her home. If being in assisted living would help until medication or a solution would help....that would be great. However, I am worried she may be unsafe by herself. Unless she agrees to having help come in a couple of days a week and going to adult daycare 2 days a week; I feel she must be placed in assisted living. However, my sister is in charge.
My therapist has taught me about boundaries. She uses the airplane analogy about parents putting on your oxygen mask first before placing it on small children. If a parent isn't breathing; they cannot help their child(ren) effectively. The same goes for helping their parents.
Here are some resources that should be helpful for caregivers and some specific to elderly.
Tips for Making Family Caregiving Easier
http://www.caregiving.org/data/E...
http://www.dshs.wa.gov/pdf/Publications/22-277.pdf
Remember by setting boundaries you take care of yourself which allows you to care for those you care give
If they make any of them legal then I will be the first in line to file a law suite against the Government because of all the hard work and paper work that my family and I had to do to make then citizen and what it toke to get them here legal. So are you listing ACLU or any other lawyer who got the stoma to file the suite
Old Timers
According to ‘Old Timer’s’ you are not an ‘Old Timer’ unless you are their age. That also means that you do not have bragging rights until you are that magical age. That age is when you have earned the badge of life the hard way.
Now this is all relative. Those that are close to a hundred will say those that are eighty are babies. Those that are eighty will say the babies are in their fifties. I am fast approaching fifty and think all those under me are kids and babies. One thing I hear all these groups add is to be careful not to hang with old folks; those that are old in spirit. The best advice that has been given by all those older than me is to remain young in spirit.
A lady I was checking out, at my job when I was sixteen, set me straight once. I told her, “Don’t you think you ought to slow down.” She had just gotten back from Europe and was going golfing.
“Honey dear, if I slow down. I just might find something wrong.” replied a spry white haired lady in her late seventies dressed ready to golf.
That has always made me stop and think. Now when I feel sad as I approach fifty, I think of her and Lyle.
Lyle came into the pharmacy and said, “Hurry Sandy! I have to go to work. I mow yards. I work for an old man.”
I had to ask how old the man was. Lyle was in his late eighties. As it turned out the old man was in his late nineties. So, according to the ‘Old timers’ we are not old unless we are their age, have lived through and shared the ‘Old timer’s’ hardships.
All rights reserved
By Ollamok
Proverbs 18:24 KJV
King James Version
"A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly : and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."
My sister is like a friend. But I have a friend Becky of forty plus years. She sticks closer than a sister almost. It is hard to distinguish between the two. Why? Because both are my friends, my best friends.
What is a friend?
1. (Miriam Webster) a person who you like and enjoy being.
2. (Miriam Webster) a favored companion.
3. (Miriam Webster) a person who has a strong liking for and trust in another.
Synonyms (Miriam Webster) cohort, confident, supporter, collaborator, and main woman.
Becky and Twila meet all of these critera.
Sandra's (my defenition) of friendship.
1. Shared experiences.
2. Support each other in all life needs.
3. Keep in touch often.
4. Help each other in all needs.
5. Will be there in all future life expereinces and future needs.
6. We do this because we care an love each other.
My sister Twila has been around since my birth. We had our differences growing up. I owe my sister plenty. If I need her she is always there to help and support me. I love her not because of this but because she loves me and does it out of love. She is an angel on earth.
Becky is my friend that got in trouble with and we grew up together. We learned about life together. We learned from our mistakes with one another. We decided what kind of parents we would be because of what we did wrong.
Becky keeps in touch with me almost daily. Cares like a sister. She is part of my family. She grew up knowing my sister Twila and her best friend Kathy, now my sister-in-law and another friend.
Friendship means we can call on one another anytime and we all come running not out of duty but because we care. I am blessed to have Becky, Twila and Kathy and others in my life.
KJV Provers 27:5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.
Friends will openly rebuke you. Hoesty is something that comes with friendship. They call you on thing s when you need it. They slap you down when you need it. Not physically but with words to make you see what is good and right for you.
What more can I say about friendship? Friendship is a special kind of love. If you haven't known it then you have missed a great thing on Earth. It is not to late.
If you follow the Golden Rule, you will find a friend that will treat you right back with the special kind of love called friendship.
http://www.autismdailynewscast.com/transition-parents-can-make-it-happen/13169/guest/
I am considering joining a new gym closer to my home. The gym markets itself as a friendly place for people who simply wish to get into shape, unlike other gyms where overzealous muscle-heads harass, bully and judge them.
In my twenty years at various gyms, I have never witnessed the scenario this gym claims is such a problem. As a matter of fact, working out among serious bodybuilders has proven beneficial. At home, my max bench press was my 110 pound set of weights. Thus, I thought that was the most I could safely bench press. Upon joining a gym, I saw a guy half my size pressing far more which opened my eyes to my potential. Working out where professionals were shooting for the moon helped me to at least land among the stars.
The new gym near my home brilliantly created an enemy and a crisis which does not exist to attract clients.
My fellow Americans, this is the evil modus operandi of our President Obama. To gain public support for him breaking the law, ignoring the Constitution and sidestepping Congress at will, Obama insidiously manufactures a real or nonexistent crisis which he claims poses an immediate danger. He then blames a nonexistent enemy such as obstructive Republicans, Congress and conservatives as the reason he must act unilaterally for the good of the people.
This tactic routinely used by Obama is called creating a straw-man; a fallacy, a sham, a distortion, an exaggeration, a lie.
Obama's most recent use of the straw-man tactic to con the American people is his attempt to make Congress the bad guys in the fiasco at our border. Obama sent the message to parents in non-contiguous countries that if they get their kids to America they can stay. Consequently, illegal children are invading America by the thousands, 90,000 expected by September 30th.
Making Congress the villains in the border mess opens the door for Obama to ride in on his white horse to save the day enacting amnesty by executive order. He is confident that the MSM will play along with him once again shaming America.
Another Obama Administration straw-man is its absurd “Republican War on Women”. Talk about creating an enemy which does not exist, Democrats are calling the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby, “gender bigotry”. What the heck are they talking about. The court simply ruled that the government can not force Hobby Lobby to pay for abortion drugs against their religious faith.
Now get this folks. Even before the Supreme Court ruling, Hobby Lobby provides 16 of the 20 contraceptives mandated in Obamacare. Hobby Lobby only refused to pay for the 4 that kill babies. Do you see the Obama Administration spin, the distortion, the attempt to sham, the lie?
There is a real war on women and minorities spewing out of the Democratic Party which abuses and exploits women and minorities with impunity.
Here is one example of many. Republican president George W. Bush made Condoleezza Rice the most powerful black woman in America and possibly the world as Secretary of State. Guess who was out there calling Secretary Rice an Aunt Jemima, a house n*****, a traitor to her race and relentlessly tried to destroy her simply for being a black conservative? The answer is the Democratic Party.
An Obama and MSM supported straw-man that I find particularly deplorable and evil is his divisive slander of millions of Americans in the Tea Party. Think about that folks. The first black president exploits his race to demonize and shame Americans into submitting to his fundamental transformation of America. Decent folks who simply love their country have been successfully branded “racist domestic terrorists” in the minds of many.
Past Obama straw-men include banks, the auto industry, insurance companies, small business owners, corporations, the rich and doctors.
What American industry, institution or group will Obama declare is public enemy number one? What will be the next crisis Obama accuses them of creating, causing him to usurp unlawful authority to fix?
Quoting Nancy Reagan, Americans must “just say no!”
Lloyd Marcus, Unhyphenated American
Chairman, Conservative Campaign Committee
Murder rate drops as concealed carry permits rise, study claims
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/07/09/murder-drops-as-concealed-carry-permits-rise-claims-study/
The study by the Crime Prevention Research Center found that 11.1 million Americans now have permits to carry concealed weapons, up from 4.5 million in 2007. The 146 percent increase has come even as both murder and violent crime rates have dropped by 22 percent.
“When you allow people to carry concealed handguns, you see changes in the behavior of criminals," said the center’s president, John R. Lott, a Fox News contributor. “Some criminals stop committing crimes, others move on to crimes in which they don’t come into contact with victims and others
Anyone wondering why Texas has no border fence? We in Texas know why and I will share it with you.
I see Rick Perry running his lying mouth again and it makes me sick to my stomach I remember his last run for governor and Texas were having a fit for having to pay the bill for his extended stay at a hotel while they built him a new governors mansion. Now this was after Texas was allocated 800 million for a new border fence that he refused to build. Now I am wondering if that is how they managed to build a new governors mansion. We are looking at George the second here. Can that be looked into, seems that the slime ball is sitting himself for a run at the presidency. Maybe that is why Congress is refusing to impeach Obama. Can someone check this out?
While most of my attention has been to city politics, a ghastly trend has been continuing on the national level. Not only is the federal government ignoring congress and the will of the people, they are creating expensive problems for us to solve. The advertising of free medical care and free legal service to those in Central America who illegally cross the border is so far out there that it rivals the Twilight Zone for "off the wall" plots.
Can it be that the president loathes Americans so much that he is compelled to destroy everything American? I have seen scandals and wrongdoing in high places, but nothing to compare with the scale of this. It is apocalyptic in its scale. One dictator telling congress that they are insignificant, and he will govern without them. That is not democracy.
Other attacks are equally egregious. Our tax supported agencies are being used to attack us. The IRS is used to keep political opponents in check and to stop free speech. The ATF is used to suppress 2nd amendment rights through invasive attacks on individuals and businesses. The EPA is used to prevent use of coal which is our main source of electrical generation. This same EPA is proposing elimination of all wood burning heaters. There is also a push by this agency to control all water rights. The BLM is used to control land even if it means keeping cattle from getting water. The Bundy Ranch stand off comes to mind. The office of Eric Holder is protecting administration officials from prosecution while promoting outrageous lawsuits against ordinary law-abiding citizens. Thanks to him we must not refuse to take pictures or bake cakes for any reason. The DHS is protecting illegals from our laws and threatening our citizens who protest their lawless intrusions.
It is almost overwhelming to think that we have fallen to this point in so little time. Hopefully, there are people in all political parties who can agree on the preservation of our country and the freedoms for which we have paid such a high price.
Each day brings new attacks on basic freedoms. We must be diligent and demand responsibility from our representatives in government. Surely we deserve more help than we are getting from Congress. A large number of congressmen are lawyers. They can pretend to be helpless against the executive branch, but I'm not buying it.
You be the judge...
Nothing says life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness like violent, oppressive, enslaving Islam... NOT!
Yeah, some of you voted for this twit. Shame on you.
National Report White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest announced today that President Obama will be visiting a Washington D.C. area Mosque on the morning of July 4th as a goodwill gesture to Muslim Americans. The name and location of the Mosque are currently being withheld for security reasons.
The President has long been criticized for being sympathetic towards Muslims and has even been accused of secretly being Muslim himself. His announcement to visit a Mosque on the morning of America’s most patriotic holiday will likely add to this criticism.
According to Earnest, following his visit to the Mosque, the President will host the traditional White House July 4th cookout. Several influential Muslim leaders have been invited to attend the cookout, as a further gesture of goodwill.
American Muslim Ahmed Mohamed Usman, who will be attending the cookout, had nothing but praise for President Obama’s decision. In an interview this afternoon on NPR, Usman had the following to say:
America is supposed to be the land of freedom and of tolerance. Finally we are starting to see this. If America has Christian prayer breakfasts, so must it have breakfasts praying to Mecca. If America is to put the 10 Commandments on display, so must she display the Quran. To be welcomed into the highest office of America to celebrate her birth and independence is an honor and is a step for Muslims in America to begin to establish our rights.President Obama is truly opening the door for, Musklims in America - See more at:
http://nationalreport.net/obama-visit-mosque-host-muslim-leaders-july-4th/#sthash.uU7DjWmo.dpuf
By Ralph Peters
If a soldier who volunteered to serve in the military rapes or murders someone while in uniform, has he served honorably? Has Bradley Manning, who voluntarily joined the military and then betrayed his country by turning over hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks, served honorably? Did Benedict Arnold, another volunteer, serve with “honor and distinction”?
According to the logic of our national-security adviser, Susan Rice, they all did. Merely because they volunteered in the first place. Lieutenant Calley of My Lai Massacre fame? “Honor and distinction.”
Ms. Rice is aggressively stupid, immaculately clueless, and a disgrace to our system of government, but one does have to admire her tenacity. Late last week, Rice tried to extract herself from her effort to sell Private Bowe Bergdahl as a hero who served, as she had put in on ABC’s This Week, “with honor and distinction.” (The rank of private is correct, in that his promotions were phony.) In her attempted walkback, Rice claimed that anyone who ever signed on the dotted line had served honorably: “What I was referring to was the fact that this was a young man who volunteered to serve his country in uniform at a time of war. That, in and of itself, is a very honorable thing.”
If this administration cannot embrace our military, might it not at least stop insulting those in uniform? No soldier is finally judged to have served “with honor and distinction” until his or her service is complete. There’s a glaringly obvious reason for that.
Of course, we’ve heard a series of increasingly ugly comments from White House staffers as their lionization of Bergdahl has collapsed. Administration hacks who have never served our country in any useful capacity stage-whispered that right-wing activists were “swiftboating” the reputed deserter. In fact, it was the other way around: The real character assassinations were launched from the White House, and they targeted soldiers from Bergdahl’s platoon who had, indeed, served with honor and distinction. Those courageous young men stood up for justice, refusing to allow the administration’s blithe betrayal of military values to prevail. In response, White House loyalists insinuated that Bergdahl’s comrades in arms might be psychopathic. This is Chicago politics leveled against truly honorable soldiers — yet more evidence of this president’s disdain for those in uniform.
Then, on Sunday, the New York Times front page — once again indistinguishable from its self-abusing editorial pages — snarked that Bergdahl’s unit was “known for its troubles” and that (Lord preserve us!) the soldiers in Bergdahl’s battalion, on dangerous duty at a harsh outpost, weren’t always properly attired. Well, ending the draft was great for our military, but dreadful for the country. Anyone who had served even a couple of months as a private at Fort Hood would grasp that soldiers sweating on sunbaked ground in eastern Afghanistan generally do not display the spit and polish of the Old Guard drill team performing in Washington, D.C.
And perhaps those bold reporters from the New York Times would like to criticize the imperfect field uniforms of SEAL Team Six or our Special Forces? To their faces?
Doubling down on its shamelessness, the same front page applauded Obama for personally ending a failed strategy in Afghanistan — without bothering to mention that the truly catastrophic, troop-killing “strategy” was Obama’s own. The revisionism is worthy of the heyday of Chairman Mao.
When it comes to Bergdahl, though, the administration does have a strategy. No one in the White House gives a damn about Bergdahl now. He’s a liability. But the rule is that Obama is never wrong. Apologies are out of the question; instead, the White House is determined to tough it out, as it has through myriad scandals. And the tactics to protect the president are clear.
First, the White House will pressure the military to deem Bergdahl unfit to stand trial. That stage is already being set. After doctors treating him declared Bergdahl physically fit to return home (guess he wasn’t dying, after all), they’ve kept him secluded in Germany, making it known that he is in their view mentally unprepared to return to the States. The administration is going to go with the defense that Bergdahl is unbalanced, was unbalanced, and will be unbalanced.
If military doctors refuse to play along, “impartial civilian experts” will be called in. If that doesn’t work and the “too crazy to court martial” defense flops, the next step will be to strong-arm the Pentagon to reduce any charge to the comparatively minor Absent Without Leave, or AWOL (although overwhelming evidence exists that Bergdahl deserted). Then Bergdahl’s lawyers could plead him out, retain some benefits (perhaps all of them) for him, and the administration can claim, “See! He wasn’t a deserter after all.”
If some unexpectedly ethical general refuses to play along and the case goes to a court-martial, the administration’s fallback will be to insist on a “thorough” reinvestigation that pushes any court-martial past Obama’s 2017 departure from office (one suspects that Team Obama would love to dump this in Mrs. Clinton’s lap).
But won’t the brass stand up for fairness, military discipline, and justice? The bitter truth is that they haven’t thus far. Our generals knew within days of Bergdahl’s abandonment of his post that the evidence was overwhelming that he had deserted (ask them, under oath). But they made the decision to keep it quiet. The initial reason General Petraeus gave to me just days after Bergdahl walked off was that the military wished to shield Bergdahl’s parents.
Here’s where it gets interesting and ugly. The “noble POW” story took off politically. Commander after commander played along (as did Congress). Worse, the Army itself tried to beatify Bergdahl as some sort of hero-martyr to the troops, printing up solidarity posters and even creating life-size pasteboard cutouts of Bergdahl. Naturally, the troops knew it was BS (you can’t fool Private Snuffy very long, and word soon gets around). The agitprop was amateurish but outrageous (majors put up the posters, and sergeants rolled their eyes). Every officer involved in that effort should be relieved of duty.
It’s time for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, to man up. He inherited this Big Lie, but he shouldn’t pass it on. It’s his duty to follow the legal orders of our commander-in-chief, but it’s not his duty to provide cover for the president’s political shenanigans. As for Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, he’s clearly a lost cause on this case, with his claim that you can’t prove that any soldiers died because of Bergdahl, even though they were killed while the massive search for Bergdahl was underway and they died where they otherwise would not have been. (Dear Secretary Hagel: From one former sergeant to another former sergeant, show a glimmer of decency. You’re acting like some damned officer.)
As for President Obama himself, there’s far more news to tell. For all his pretensions about his regard for the troops, this man has lavished vastly more attention on the family of a deserter than any other military family has ever received from him (just as Bergdahl is getting more intensive medical attention than a genuine hero would). And you’re thinking, “Rose Garden,” right? But this has gone on for years, with a full colonel or brigadier general ordered to report to the Bergdahl family every three to six months with an update about their son. Has the White House taken so great an interest in the families of those who’ve been gravely wounded in the line of duty? Or of those who died? No, it has not. The White House fell in love with a family clearly several raisins short of a full bowl of granola. Not despite their son’s desertion, but because of it.
Mr. and Mrs. Bergdahl, too, have been Obama’s pawns. Our outrage should aim at the president, not them.
Of course, Private Bergdahl himself is the perfect soldier for those whose concept of our military was formed by Oliver Stone movies. Reportedly disillusioned with the war, he just walks away, a model of nobility, to seek out the enemy and find common ground. Bergdahl is a hero — for everyone on the left who despises our military. It’s a shame Sean Penn’s too old to play the role.
Meanwhile, with a straight face, Obama and his fellow travelers in the White House and media caution us not to “pre-judge” Bergdahl. That would have been a more credible plea before the president and his advisers pre-judged Bergdahl as a hero.
In closing, let me paraphrase the words of a fine U.S. Army lawyer from the past: “Mr. President, have you no shame?”
— Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer, a former enlisted man, and Fox News Strategic Analyst.