While the rest of the country is focused on looking forward and extracting us from this collective funk, the only leadership the Democratic Party can currently muster is to lead a multitude of partisan investigations, and to promote foreign policy ignoramuses who haven't a clue about the threats we face to positions of enormous gravity. The result will be late-night talk show fodder, with jokes about "select intelligence", and increased American cynicism towards Congress.
Ignoramus L. - Ig ~ n& ~rA' ~m&s - Literally – we are ingorant of; An utterly ignorant person
Ignorant ig~n(&~)r&nt – Not in possession of knowledge or education.
When Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was nominated to be Speaker of the House by virtue of the midterm Democratic whoopin', she pledged a new bi-partisan spirit of cooperation, and vowed not to squander the trust placed in her by Americans.
She promptly ignored that vow, and endorsed John "Cold-blooded" Murtha (D-PA) as Majority leader, despite his alleged tangential involvement in the ABSCAM scandal of the 80's, and his disgraceful comments directed at US Marines just this year. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, and Murtha lost.
As incoming speaker of the House, Pelosi enjoys enormous influence. Third in line for Presidential ascendancy, she has primary decision-making power over what legislation gets to the House floor.
The US has enormous difficulties ahead. We face huge economic and social problems, the prospects of dealing with a nuclear-armed Iran and North Korea, a disintegrating border, and men and women in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While the rest of the country is focused on looking forward and extracting us from this collective funk, the only leadership the Democratic Party can currently muster is to lead a multitude of partisan investigations, and to promote foreign policy ignoramuses who haven't a clue about the threats we face to positions of enormous gravity.
The result will be late-night talk show fodder, with jokes about "select intelligence", and increased American cynicism towards Congress.
Charles Rangel (D-NY) wants to bring back the draft. It may one day soon be necessary, but not with the current all-volunteer forces meeting or exceeding recruiting goals.
Rangel simply wants the draft to score cheap political points. He feels that if the sons and daughters of Congress were drafted, we would exercise more caution when deploying them overseas. Perhaps, but that's not an argument for conscription that should even be entertained.
He also repeatedly states that the overwhelming majority of those serving, fighting, and dying, are poor minorities. My analysis of nearly three years of casualty reports reflects the exact opposite. According to Official Casualty reports, from March 19, 2003 to November 4, 2006, there were 2,825 military deaths in Iraq. They were broken down as follows:
American Indian/Alaskan Native 30
Asian: 51
Black/African American 276
Hispanic 316
Multiracial/Unknown:34
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander:28
White 2,090
** Source Department of Defense Statistical Analysis Division
Author's Note: These statistics are not only in line with the representation of whites and minorities in the military, but also as a function of the US population as a whole. These results are neither surprising or unexpected.
Why is Rangel misleading us about this? He is a fellow vet and served honorably, but you have to wonder what his agenda is...
John Dingell (D-MI) promised a flurry of investigations into Bush's Medicare drug benefit, Halliburton's Iraq contracts, the Administration's Energy Task force, and the FDA.
Barney Frank (D-MA) promised to raise the minimum wage and "address... discrimination based on sexual orientation..." by "modifying" the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy against broadcasting your sexual orientation. The way he explains it, is that gays are being punished for what they do off duty.
The truth is, they are being dismissed for violating a direct order not to discuss their sexual orientation, in order to preserve unit cohesion and morale during wartime.
And finally, Sylvestre Reyes doesn't know who Hezbollah is, or the difference between a Sunni or a Shiite. I guess we can't rely on him to protect us from the Salafist movement, or Sharia law then, either. Bravo Zulu to Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein, for making the larger point about Democratic Congressional ignorance of our enemies. Hezbollah has been on my radar since I was twelve.
If Democrats exerted one tenth of the effort cooperating with Republicans on defeating terrorism that they're exerting on trying to investigate and impeach the President, we might be able to win the fight against terror in 10 years instead of several generations. I guess what it really comes down to then, despite Democratic protestations, is a question of priorities.
Jayme Evans is a veteran of the United States Navy, a military analyst, conservative opinion columnist, and an advocate for disabled and other veterans. He has served for many years as a Subject Matter Expert specializing in the testing of systems software for numerous major US organizations. He has extensively studied amateur astronomy and metallurgy, as well as military and US history. His brutally honest, in-your-face political commentary has been published in many west coast newspapers, and he is a regular contributing columnist to a multitude of internet sites, including WebCommentary.com, The Conservative Voice, and Conservative Crusader. Mr. Evans has also written guest editorials for Military Magazine, and he has been a frequent guest columnist on WorldNetDaily, writing about legislative and veteran's issues.
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