That sound you hear

Is my head exploding.

BREAKING 7:41PM ET: Fox News Television reports that Barack Obama has issued a demand that the Pentagon reduce its budget by more than 10%. The dollar figure is $55 billion.

President Obama wants to spend a trillion dollars on welfare, condoms, international STD prevention, 600,000 new government jobs and handouts for illegal immigrants... but negative funding for the very mission his Presidential Oath required.

I know I shouldn't be surprised. This is what the Democrat American Communist Party does, every chance it gets. The Left hates the military. They loathe the military. They can't stand it. And so they tear it down at every opportunity. They'll never miss a chance to harm the American military in any way they can.

So now we have a far Left Marxist radical in office, so what the heck do you think will happen? He's going to cut the military. He'll spend billions upon billions of dollars on social welfare and government programs, but he's going to cut the military.

I hope to God that there's a military left after his turn in office.

HEY, HERE'S AN IDEA! Let's start by removing all military support from the Office of the President. AIR FORCE ONE? How much does that cost? Get rid of it. MARINE ONE? How much does that cost? Get rid of it. The salaries and pay for all those military folks that guard the White House? How much do they cost? Get rid of them.

This oxygen thief hates the military. Maybe it's time to show him that the feeling is mutual.

HERE'S ANOTHER THOUGHT: Let's start by shutting down every single base in states controlled by liberal morons. Ft. Dix, NEW JERSEY? Gone. Ft. Drum, NEW YORK? Gone. Ft. Irwin, CALIFORNIA? Gone. Let the military put it's bases where they're appreciated, instead of shitty liberal hellholes. Maybe THAT will save some money.

UPDATE: Cold Fury reminded me of something Kommisar Obama said a while ago:

“You know, I’ve heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq.

And as a consequence, they didn’t have enough ammunition, they didn’t have enough Humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief.”

So I guess that statement was just pure political posturing bullshit. Hey, who woulda thunk it, coming from a Democrat American Communist Party member? Yep, the US Military is underfunded according to the Liberal Lord and Messiah (at least it was LAST year!) but now it's cut that funding, baby! I look forward to the days when I'll go out to train and have to yell "BANG BANG" because there's no money for ammunition.

You know, just like the Carter years. And the Clinton years. Hey, am I detecting a pattern here?

Expounding on the post below

Both a commenter and the Ragin' Mrs. mentioned things to me about the post below, and I guess I should at least explain why I'm so ticked off about that CNN article.

I guess the bottom line is that in life, shit happens. Yes, sometimes you can't get a job. The Ragin' Mrs. herself has been on unemployment before we were married. But she was not the main breadwinner. I am. Are there times when you can't get a job at all? Yes, there is. And to be honest, yes, that is what unemployment is for.

But that's not the case in the CNN article. Mr. LeBlanc could have gotten a well paying job on an oil rig. He chose not to do so. And even THAT is fine, because that's his choice. Being around his family is more important to him than making money away from home.

But that was his CHOICE. Meaning, he chose to stay home. Do not whine about it.

He's working as a pizza delivery driver right now. He should have gotten that job BEFORE things were so dire that he had to sell off his "beloved 2003 Kawasaki motorcycle". But from what I read in the article, this guy chose NOT to get a job that was somehow below him. He just kept waiting for the perfect job to come along.

Wrong answer.

One of our buddies in Seattle was working in the computer field, and got laid off in 2001. This guy worked any and every job he could until he could find another job in computers. Two years of selling cell phones, delivering pizzas, jobs that Mr. LeBlanc obviously feels are below him. But my buddy made sure his bills were paid.

Granted, this was in Seattle, where there are a ton of jobs like that to be had - food service, other service industries. But again, from the article, Mr. LeBlanc had job opportunities, he just didn't like them, so he didn't take them.

Wrong answer, folks. Because at that point the economy is not to blame for your financial straits, your CHOICES are.

What pissed me off the most is that this whole sob story resulted from the choices that this guy has made. There are plenty of people out there who are dealing with real hardship. REAL hardship, folks, as in do you pay your mortgage or your food bill, and they're in that position due to no fault of their own.

Mr. LeBlanc just didn't want to be away from home. But he could have gotten a job. And because he chose to sit around and wait for the perfect job to come along, his family is having financial difficulties. And they're crying about it. That doesn't fly with me.

Did I explain why I was pissed well enough, or are things still as clear as mud?

People don't know "hard times"

Tam goes on a slight rant here about an article done by CNN.

Donna LeBlanc gave her husband, a former restaurant manager, the stark ultimatum: become a pizza delivery man or their family "wouldn't make it."

The Lafayette, Louisiana, family of six was struggling with $45,000 of mounting medical debt from Donna LeBlanc's unexpected case of pneumonia and tonsillitis a year earlier. The family savings account had dwindled to $100.

(.....)

Rob LeBlanc filed for unemployment compensation immediately after he lost his job. More than 4.6 million Americans were collecting unemployment benefits as of early January, according to the Labor Department.

In Lafayette, a quiet city of about 114,000 tucked away in southern Louisiana, many of the jobs center around servicing the oil and gas industry, but Rob LeBlanc was unwilling to work offshore and away from his family.

I was having a conversation with my NCOIC the other day, and we've both come to the agreement that people in this country are so fucking spoiled that they don't even know what "HARD TIMES" truly are. This guy could have gotten a job, but HE DID NOT WANT TO. And I'm supposed to feel sympathy for him?

Fuck. That. Noise.

After several weeks of searching, he took the only job he could get -- a Domino's pizza delivery man, a job that would cover the family's expenses.

"I had to swallow my pride and take whatever I could get," Rob LeBlanc says. "I kept telling myself one of these days something better will come along."

Hey fuckernuts - why don't you try WORKING while you wait for that perfect, special job to come along? I swear, is this what America has come to? We've gone from a country where people pulled themselves out of poverty by sheer will alone, and now we're nothing but fat, worthless fucking pasty pansy-assed pieces of wimpy worm-riddled shit who whine and cry about how life is just SO FUCKING UNFAIR.

KISS MY ASS! JUST! KISS! MY! ASS!

When I moved up to Seattle after getting out of the Army, I found a job and honestly thought that I would be working there for at least a few years. Less than a year after I started I got laid off. You know what I did? I FOUND ANOTHER JOB! I was unemployed for less than a month, and thanks to the fact that I had some money in my savings account, I didn't touch a drop of unemployment. To this day, I can say that I've never taken unemployment benefits. Was my new job as fantastic and wonderful as the job I got laid off from? Hell no! But it paid the bills, and by the time I re-enlisted in 2004 I had gotten several raises and was making more money than I ever had in my life!

But that's because I wanted to work and support myself. I had enough pride that I wasn't going to sit around bitching and whining like some worthless fucking retard, waiting and hoping for someone else to hand me my dream job.

Go read the rest of the article. This whining maggot has to sell his motorcycle, BOO FREAKING HOO! The kids don't get allowances? BOO FREAKING HOO! They've had to give up cable and eating out! BOO! FUCKING! HOO!

My wife and I almost NEVER went out to eat in the past four years. When I joined the military, our budget got hit with a double whammy - I made about 10k less per year, and she couldn't get a job in Puerto Rico. You want living lean? WE lived lean. But not only did we not complain, we managed to put a decent amount away in our savings before we left.

I stopped getting an allowance when I was about 11 or 12. So what did I do for money? I mowed lawns. I pruned trees. I pulled weeds. I watched animals for people. I bucked bales of hay. You want a shitty job, Mr. I can't handle getting a real job so I'm going to bitch and whine? GO BUCK 110 POUND BALES OF HAY FOR A WEEK! Anyone who read this blog do that for a while? It's summer time, you're lifting and throwing these bales that weigh anywhere from 65 to 125 pounds, and you've got to wear long-sleeved, heavy duty shirts to keep your arms from getting torn to shreds. It sucks, but it pays. And I did get paid to do it. So I guess that when I was in my teens, I had more fucking balls, pride, and integrity than Mr. LeBlanc does.

Gah. You know what? I'm not in the mood for any kind of sob stories. I've been sick of the sob stories. America is full of sob stories, and people who want to be pitied. Fuck that. Just fuck that straight to hell. I'm sick of pathetic pieces of shit who want pity. I want to be around people who have pride in themselves, and rather than asking for pity they'll pull themselves up and proudly say "Dammit, I'm an American!"

Gah. There goes my blood pressure again.......

Michael Steele the new RNC head

It's not going to make me leap back to the Republican Party, but it's a start. Out with the old Democrat Lite!

Let's hope that Steele has been listening to the former Republican voters.

Side benefit - Watching the Leftoid's heads explode when they continue to claim that the Republican Party is RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACIST, and they have to debate a black Republican.

Got my eyes checked out today

And actually got some very, very good news. Seems that the readings showing high levels of pressure in my eyeballs were the result of allergies and the antihistamines I took to control them. This means two things to me:

1) I am not in danger of glaucoma as previously thought.

2) I am now able to consider Lasik surgery to correct my eyesight.

You have no idea how much I'm rejoicing at the very thought of that!

More expected bullshit from Kommisar Obama

You knew this was coming, right? Or at least something like this.

The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

Your Honor, I'd like to enter Exhibit A if I may.

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,” Obama said.

“That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen,” he added.

But what do you expect when you elect a Marxist elitist? The Soviet Commissars told the peasants to shut up and be happy with their stale bread, while they themselves dined on caviar. IT'S WHAT A COMMUNIST DOES.

If someone asks you

Why the spending spree being pushed by Kommisar Obama and Botox Pelosi will not and cannot work.

Ask that person where the money for all of that spending is going to come from. It can only come from one of two places - either government borrows it, or they take it from American tax-paying citizens.

Which means that in order to pay for that massive pile of crap being pushed forward, the FedGov is either going to put us over ONE TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT, or they are going to TAKE ONE TRILLION DOLLARS FROM U.S. CITIZENS. And neither of those options are going to help the economy. BOTH of those options can only HURT our economy. So no matter WHAT is in that bill, it will not, CANNOT pull us out of a recession, it can only send us deeper INTO that recession.

The Government cannot create money or jobs. Sorry, they just can't. Government can only TAKE money and jobs from somewhere else.

And so it grows

People are continuing to speak out against the bullshit hype of Man-made Global Warming.

Retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist, Dr. John S. Theon, the former supervisor of James Hansen, NASA’s vocal man-made global warming fear soothsayer, has now publicly declared himself a skeptic and declared that Hansen “embarrassed NASA” with his alarming climate claims and said Hansen was “was never muzzled.” Theon joins the rapidly growing ranks of international scientists abandoning the promotion of man-made global warming fears.

“I appreciate the opportunity to add my name to those who disagree that global warming is man made,” Theon wrote to the Minority Office at the Environment and Public Works Committee on January 15, 2009. “I was, in effect, Hansen’s supervisor because I had to justify his funding, allocate his resources, and evaluate his results,” Theon, the former Chief of the Climate Processes Research Program at NASA Headquarters and former Chief of the Atmospheric Dynamics & Radiation Branch explained.

“Hansen was never muzzled even though he violated NASA’s official agency position on climate forecasting (i.e., we did not know enough to forecast climate change or mankind’s effect on it). Hansen thus embarrassed NASA by coming out with his claims of global warming in 1988 in his testimony before Congress,” Theon wrote.

(.....)

Theon declared “climate models are useless.” “My own belief concerning anthropogenic climate change is that the models do not realistically simulate the climate system because there are many very important sub-grid scale processes that the models either replicate poorly or completely omit,” Theon explained. “Furthermore, some scientists have manipulated the observed data to justify their model results. In doing so, they neither explain what they have modified in the observations, nor explain how they did it. They have resisted making their work transparent so that it can be replicated independently by other scientists. This is clearly contrary to how science should be done. Thus there is no rational justification for using climate model forecasts to determine public policy,” he added.

When asked for comment, the Democrat American Communist Party controlled Congress declared Dr. Theon a "fascist Mother Gaia-raping profit-monger", and returned to giving algore a handjob with eco-friendly lube. Because they're tolerant like that.

Found at the Conservative Grapevine, which is right over there on my blogroll.

Cracking the Obama Code: Don Quixote vs. the Windmill Owners

Oleg Atbashian puts up the best thing I've read in years...

“Change” signifies a backward movement to the idealized Utopian times that never really existed. More specifically, it can mean anything Obama’s team does - from staffing the government with old Clinton drones to exhuming and reviving the corpse of the “Fairness Doctrine” - a mothball-smelling liberal zombie programmed to kill radio stations that broadcast dissenting voices

“Hope” means a conscious effort to fire up a quixotic vision of a government-appointed knight in shining armor, galloping to your rescue - and to spread this illusion to the scale of a massive hallucination.

“Crisis” denotes a fortunate turn of events when the frightened masses are more likely to elect a quixotic leader. Nothing bolsters collectivism like a stampede.

“Unity” means that everybody must play this game without exception. Which reminds me of the old Soviet make-believe game of building the communist society long after people had stopped believing in it, but continued to pretend out of habit, convenience, fear, or career prospects.

The House just passed the "Generational Theft Act" that loots the American tax-payer for $1,100,000,000,000.

Zero (R)epublicans vote for it... the whores of the MainStreamMedia are already spewing that the (R)epublicans are failing to live up to their "promises" to be non-partisan... as if the (D)emocrats didn't betray this country at every turn for the last 8 years.

Eleven Democrats vote no. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.): "I am glad that this vote demonstrated bipartisan opposition to the bill, instead of bipartisan support."

For that... I am thankful.

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

Quote of the Day #2

From a Thomas Sowell piece I found through The Smallest Minority.

What are the Beltway politicians buying with all the hundreds of billions of dollars they are spending?

They are buying what politicians are most interested in — power.

In the name of protecting the taxpayers' investment, they are buying the power to tell General Motors how to make cars, banks how to bank and, before it is all over with, all sorts of other people how to do the work they specialize in, and for which members of Congress have no competence, much less expertise.

This administration and Congress are in a position to do what Franklin Roosevelt did during the Great Depression of the 1930s — use a crisis of the times to create new institutions that will last for generations.

You have GOT to read the whole thing.

Quote of the day

From this comment thread over at No Looking Backwards:

Sure you can carry a loaded 10+1 .45 on your hip with two spare mags, but if you find yourself in a situation where you *need* 31 rounds of .45 ACP, what you really *need* is air support.

I'm of the opinion that it doesn't matter what you carry, as much as it's important to be able to control the gun and hit what you aim at. The .600 Defecalator Magnum looks all shiny and impressive and stuff, sure. But give me a gun I can control and hit the target with every round. I'm happy even with a good .380 auto.

Still nothing beats my M1911, but that's just my opinion for me.

*vomits*

God help us.

1. The $825 billion package slated for a House vote later this week will exceed more than $1.1 trillion when adding in the interest ($300 plus billion) between 2009-2019 to pay for it.

2. The Capitol Hill Democrats’ plan includes funding for contraceptives; regardless of where anyone stands on taxpayer funded contraception, there is no question that it has NOTHING to do with the economy.

3. The legislation could open billions of taxpayer dollars to left-wing groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which has been accused of voter fraud, is reportedly under federal investigation; and played a key role in the housing meltdown.

4. Here are just a few of the programs and projects that have been included in the House Democrats’ proposal:

· $650 million for digital TV coupons.

· $600 million for new cars for the federal government.

· $6 billion for colleges/universities – many which have billion dollar endowments.

· $50 million in funding for the National Endowment of the Arts.

· $44 million for repairs to U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters.

· $200 million for the National Mall, including $21 million for sod.

5. The plan establishes at least 32 new government programs at a cost of over $136 billion. That means more than a third of this plan’s spending provisions are dedicated to creating new government programs.

6. The plan provides spending in at least 150 different federal programs, ranging from Amtrak to the Transportation Security Administration. Is this the “targeted” plan Democratic leaders promised?

7. Even though the legislation contains at least 152 separate spending proposals, the authors of the plan can only say that 34 have any chance at keeping or growing jobs.

8. Just one in seven dollars of an $18.5 billion expenditure on “energy efficiency” and “renewable energy programs” would be spent within the next 18 months.

9. The total cost of this one piece of legislation is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.

10. The House Democrats’ bill will cost each and every household $6,700 in additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.

11. The bill provides enough spending – $825 billion – to give every man, woman, and child in America $2,700. $825 billion is enough to give every person in Ohio $72,000.

12. $825 billion is enough to give every person living in poverty in the United States $22,000.

13. Although the House Democrats’ proposal has been billed as a transportation and infrastructure investment package, in actuality only $30 billion of the bill – or three percent – is for road and highway spending. A recent study from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that only 25 percent of infrastructure dollars can be spent in the first year, making the one year total less than $7 billion.

14. Much of the funding within the House Democrats’ proposal will go to programs that already have large, unexpended balances. For example, the bill provides $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) – a program that already has $16 billion on hand. States also are sitting on some $9 billion in unused highway funds – funds that Congress is prepared to rescind later this year.

15. All board members of the “Accountability and Transparency Board” created by this legislation are appointees of the President; none will be appointed by Congress.

16. A scant 2.7 percent, or $22.3 billion of the overall package, is dedicated to small business tax relief.

17. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the legislation increases by seven million the number of people who get a check back from the IRS that exceeds what they paid in payroll and income taxes.

18. The “Making Work Pay” tax credit at the center of the plan amounts to $1.37 a day, or about the price of a cup of coffee.

19. Almost one-third of the so-called “tax relief” in the House Democrats’ bill is spending in disguise, meaning that true tax relief makes up only 24 percent of the total package – not the 40 percent that President Obama had requested.

20. $825 billion is just the beginning – many Capitol Hill Democrats want to spend even more taxpayer dollars on their “stimulus” plan. In fact, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. David Obey (D-WI), told Roll Call earlier this month, “I would not be surprised to see us go further on some of these programs down the line.”

We are so fucked.

Found at Cold Fury

Since I'm busy

Here's a little something sent to me by a Wisconsinite pal:

COLD IS A RELATIVE THING. . . . . . .
65 above zero:
Floridians turn on the heat.
People in Wisconsin plant gardens.

60 above zero:
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Wisconsin sunbathe.

50 above zero:
Italian & English cars won't start.
People in Wisconsin drive with the windows
down.

40 above zero:
Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves,
wool hats.
People in Wisconsin throw on a flannel shirt.

35 above zero:
New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
People in Wisconsin have the last cookout
before it gets cold.

20 above Zero
People in Miami all die.
Wisconsinites close the windows.

Zero:
Californians fly away to Mexico .
People in Wisconsin get out their winter coats.

10 below zero:
Hollywood disintegrates.
The Girl Scouts in Wisconsin are selling
cookies door to door.

20 below zero:
Washington DC runs out of hot air.
People in Wisconsin let the dogs sleep indoors.

30 below zero:
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Wisconsinites get upset because they can't
start the Snowblower.

40 below zero:
ALL atomic motion stops.
People in Wisconsin start saying...'Cold
enough fer ya?'

50 below zero:
You know what freezes over.
Wisconsin public schools will open 2 hours late

All I can say is..... yep, that sounds about right.

When I was younger

I loved to stay in hotels. Traveling around, staying in different locations.

Now? Yeah, not so much.

Photo Time

I don't feel like posting about politics today, so...

Here's a photo from this summer, when I was on leave and visiting the parents. I can't really call them the "Ragin" parents, because they both exude a calm that I've been unable to capture in my particular life. But we went out on the paternal sailboat, and I spent a good amount of time just lying in the sun and enjoying the ride.

I don't claim to know what heaven is like, but I'm pretty sure there's sailboats there. This is only 883KB if you want to download it.