Outstanding.
From InsideDefense, the new Republicans selected for the House Armed Services Committee include (in alphabetical order):
- Mo Brooks - Alabama
- Chris Gibson - New York
- Tim Griffin - Arkansas
- Vicky Hartzler - Missouri
- Steve Palazzo - Mississippi
- Scott Rigell - Virginia
- Martha Roby - Alabama
- Jon Runyan - New Jersey
- Bobby Schilling - Illinois
- Austin Scott - Georgia
- Allen West - Florida
- Todd Young - Indiana
Hat tip Matthew.
Well, speaking as an Alabama denizen-Mo Brooks is no prize. And Allen West, well I predict he will be the 21'st century version of B-1 Bob.
ReplyDeleteSkippy, what the hell do you know about Allan West? Knowing Bob Dornan, I can tell you for a certainty that West is nothing like him. And cut the "teabag" crap out, you're only pissing people off and making them start to ignore anything you say. I expect a LOT better out of a Naval Officer, retired or not. You got a viewpoint, make it. Just don't start slinging pejoratives around like that.
ReplyDeleteCol.West is the right man at a right place, I think.
ReplyDeleteGreat - another far right Floridian. No wonder Florida is on my top 10 places to fall into the ocean.
ReplyDeleteDid I use the "T" word? Nonetheless I do hold the Tea Party in contempt, which it richly deserves. The poison they are spreading will still be in the American bloodstream long after this or the next election . Allen West has allied himself with these people to a great extreme. Its a deal with devil. Furthermore-I ask myself this question and you should too: How many battalion commanders served in Iraq and didn't go to mast and get forced to retire? I remain convinced that the Army did not persecute him, but they recognized the slippery slope they would be heading down if his actions went unoticed. He is neither a hero nor is he a villain. But if you want some retired O-5's and O-6's to run for Congress I can name you at least a dozen who are more qualifed and have a better command of the issues than that particular retired O-5.
ReplyDeleteTake the clip that was over at Lex's place. West's logic is that because something is written in the Koran than all Muslims believe it and that all Muslims are the enemy. That's like saying because slavery is supported in Leviticus or Deuteronomy that all Christians believe that slavery is right. Its like saying because Fred Phelps calls himself a Christian we should oppose all Christians. You and I both know that's not right-nor is it fair to the literally millions of Christians who act with compassion and decency. Nor does West propose any useful way to deal with the fact that a billion Muslims are probably more than we really want to be fighting.
As for Mo Brooks-he's my soon to be Congressman. Like the rest of the Alabama delegation he will be in the hip pocket of the Boeing corporation before ou know it. Having him in Congress is just another perk of living in Hicksville.
Skippy, sounds like you aren't happy any where. Too bad, life is too short for that. I'll say a prayer for ya.
ReplyDeleteOh I was plenty happy in Japan........ :)
ReplyDeleteThis little detour is just part of a plan to get back. It was a necessary evil in the accomplishment of a larger purpose.
Skippy:
ReplyDeleteHurry on back to where you long to be.
Me, I'm humming "Oh Happy Day" as I type.
But I like it here on the big island. You know...Amarika Shima.
Oh it would be a sin to complain about this place for the most part-I like my company a lot, and I am learning a lot in my particular job. I got to go to Romania for three months because of them-and I am get to pay my bills and save money for the future. In the grand scheme of things, I'd call that a big PLUS. However, when it comes to politics, and fun nightlife-well suffice it to say there are a lot better places to be.
ReplyDeleteBobby Schilling is my new District rep -- I met him very early on in his campaign and was impressed. The Republican party had essentially given up here because of Phil Hare's seeming lock on this impossibly gerrymandered district (it looks like a deformed crab claw). Schilling is a small business owner who understands what it takes to meet payroll; he also worked in the insurance industry as a sales agent. He is beholden to no one, having raised his campaign cash largely through individual donations - and received precious little help from his party until late summer.
ReplyDeleteHe's a freshman, but I think he'll be a positive contributor.
It's a damn shame that someone who served his nation honorably ends up disliking it so much. Why not emigrate to Japan and simply give up your citizenship, Skippy, since it seems you dislike this nation so much.
ReplyDeleteWho said I disliked it? I'll keep a blue passport as long as I live, regardless of where I end up living. It is just that I don't understand why this nation willingly turns it's back on the things that would make it's life better.
ReplyDeletePlus-and I know you don't like this-I've met a lot of Americans who feel exactly the way I do. Living abroad is addictive and a lot of the folks I met in Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong are in no hurry to return to the US. Especially now-while politics here are so screwed up. It does not make them any less of an American.
"Living abroad is addictive and a lot of the folks I met in Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong are in no hurry to return to the US. Especially now-while politics here are so screwed up"
ReplyDeleteSo you (and others) don't like the politics here so you want to live abroad, all while enjoying the rights provided by that blue passport? Is that what I heard?
Yep-I earned those rights. Over a 29 year investment of time. Just like the military retiree who moves to the PI or Panama or Costa Rica to stretch his retirement dollar. Surely you are not suggesting they renounce THEIR citizenship are you?
ReplyDeleteBut that said- I think you are misunderstanding what I said. For most folks who enjoy the lifestyle, it is more than politics, there are a lot of personal reasons that go with it too. For me, its the fact that I enjoy what Asia has to offer-I like the challenge of being unique and because overseas-even mundane things are an adventure. Here they are just, mundane. The highlight of my year this year was the the three months I spent in Romania-even though I would have been a lot more comfortable back here in Hicksville. It was an adventure, I got to learn a whole lot of new things and I got to see a part of the world I never would have gotten to see. I'm grateful I got the opportunity-and if another such opportunity came along like that I would jump on it in a heartbeat. God willing, I'll get that opportunity. At the time though-for a complicated set of reasons-moving back here was the right thing to do for the short term. But I know I would like it better if it was a big city.............
I really wish I could introduce you to some of the non-military folks I met who love living overseas. They are Americans through and through-although most of them are not of the conservative political persuasion. They just want something different than what a place like Hicksville has to offer. I understand their feelings very well-even if I can't explain it very well.
I'll help you out with the ranking Democrat:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=5259290&c=POL&s=TOP
I don't live in his district (WA-9) but he represents a good portion of JBLM.
Skippy, I can't tell you the number of times I've just looked around and realized that of all the places in the world I could have been born, I was born in the United States. I'm a lucky SOB and I know it in my bones. I'm sure there are places around the world that are interesting and fun to live in or even a lot cheaper. But this is the nation of my birth and warts and all, I love her. I will do my piddling little part every couple of years to minutely steer the course of the nation. That is all a citizen must do and I repay my gift by doing it every chance I get, even when it comes time to elect the local dog catcher...who knows, he might be the President one day.
ReplyDeleteByron,
ReplyDeleteSkippy's just a bit Asiatic. Understandable, too. Happened in the 20s and 30s to China Marines and those on Phillipine station. Hell, Kipling even wrote about it.
"An' I'm learnin' 'ere in London what the ten-year soldier tells,
'If you've 'eard the East a-callin', you won't ever 'eed naught else...'
<span>"</span>Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
An' there ain't no Ten Commandments, an' a man can raise a thirst,
For the temple bells are callin' an' it's there I long to be,
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy to the sea..."
It's how he turned into a Castro/Chavez Bolshevik that has me scratching my head.
Byron-no argument. However your contention seemed to be that because someone takes an opposite point of view they did not like America. That's not true-and that's one of the things I don't like about tea party politics, their contention that because someone is a Democrat they hate America. They don't-they just do not share your vision of the right way forward.
ReplyDeleteI joined the Navy a long time ago for two primary reasons-I wanted to fly and I wanted to see the world. I'm happy to report to you the Navy made good on both of those promises. More than I ever hoped for. But it left me with the travel bug-but good. I appreciate these other places because of my experience as an American and conversly I appreciate what's in America. The two are not mutually exclusive concepts.
Living overseas broadend my horizons, and I hope it will again.
I love that Kipling poem-and there is a lot of truth to it in my case. However I prefer to believe, when it comes to politics, that living overseas allowed me to reassess my values and become a more open and tolerant person. Twas once I was like you-but no longer.
ReplyDeleteSkippy, I prefer to think of people as tolerant and government as intolerant. Which is why I would prefer government be carefully restrained within its constitutional limits.
ReplyDeleteSo don't presume you were once like me or somehow now better because you had some kind of communist fellow-traveler epiphany. It's bullshit.
Skippy, I got one word for that: Horseshit. Living overseas allows you to sit on your ass and snipe instead of being here and part of the process. I LIVE HERE. I always have an actual dog in the hunt
ReplyDeleteAnd quit calling Alabama "Hicksville". You only make yourself look foolish when you do so.
Byron,
ReplyDeleteGuess what-as long as I vote I have a dog in the hunt too. And I vote in every election, regardless of where I am. As for Alabama-well it deserves every bit of scorn it can get. Paradise it ain't. Alabama is wasteland.
Byron, That is your opinion. But its not mine-and I live here-for now. Trust me, it sucks. The people "From" here look down their noses at the "Transplant trash" (I have heard this term regularly). The downtown Southern elite vs. us people who are here to work.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a real city-and this place can't hold a candle to it.
What am I supposed to call i? Paradise? It ain't that.
ReplyDeleteCompared to this place, or here, here, or here-it leaves a lot to be desired. I've been calling it Hicksville on my blog for two years-I'm not going to stop just because you don't like it.
URR, you are trying to bait me. I'll let Mr Disraeli respond-"<span>A conservative government is an organized hypocrisy"</span>
ReplyDeleteI actually prefer Jefferson. "A government big enough to give you all that you need is strong enough to take all that you have."
ReplyDeleteByron: for me...
ReplyDeleteMy country right or wrong, my mother drunk or sober.
Skippy is a LITTLE asiatic? Completely is more like it. He's grumpy and misses the misses and wishes to have no Mrs. A familiar naval type, not often seen here in the land of the big PX.
Expats tend to get grumpy about the imagined flaws of the republic delivered to them with their Asia Times (or for the Aegean/Italian variety, International Harold Trib). Blame it on bad intel. Plus, when you are away for a coupla decades and return, it's CHANGED. All the change in a minute that happened in decade is painful. Huck Finn cain't go home iver agin. So he's in the second stage of grief for the loss of way it was.
Besides, he's only a little to right of Trotsky and to the left of Harry Hopkins. An Idealist. Charmingly dotty.
See, I pinned him left of Trotsky. And somewhat right of your run-of-the-mill Dartmouth humanities professor.
ReplyDeleteDarmouth beats Alabama!
ReplyDeleteHaving spent years as an expat - there is one thing I know. It is easy to fall in love with a place and a lifestyle as a guest .... it is another thing altogether to give up your blue passport and become a citizen.
ReplyDeleteOf that, I was reminded over and over by my hosts. That is the reason that so many more of them were trying to come to the USA than the other way around.
"In case of emergency - grab passport" is a gift that many forget. Give them the prospect of changing that in for their host nation's ..... and the expression on faces change a lot; and the USA all of a sudden has all sorts of nice benefits.
More often than not, people don't hate the USA - they just hate the part they live in. New York City to Douglas, GA. Fargo, ND, to San Diego, CA. Kaui to Bozman - no, we have everything here you need. Just move.
True-but in today's economy you go where the jobs are. For a lot of people that takes them places they don't always like. Choose your rate, choose you fate still applies.
ReplyDelete<span>True-but in today's economy you go where the jobs are. For a lot of people that takes them places they don't always like. Choose your rate, choose your fate still applies. I discovered late in life that there was a reason they wanted me to take those "career broadening" tours. :( . In my younger days, I was having too much fun to realize that-proving yet again that you should listen to your "sea daddies".</span>
ReplyDelete