IT HAPPENS EVERY FRIDAY! WERE YOU AWARE?

IT HAPPENS EVERY FRIDAY! WERE YOU AWARE?

Mornings at the Pentagon

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
McClatchy Newspapers

Over the last 12 months, 1,042 soldiers, Marines, sailors and Air Force personnel have given their lives in the terrible duty that is war. Thousands more have come home on stretchers, horribly wounded and facing months or years in military hospitals.

This week, I'm turning my space over to a good friend and former roommate, Army Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, who recently completed a year long tour of duty in Iraq and is now back at the Pentagon.

Here's Lt. Col. Bateman's account of a little-known ceremony that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with cheers, applause and many tears every Friday morning. It first appeared on May 17 on the Weblog of media critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media Matters for America Website.

"It is 110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There are thousands here.

This hallway, more than any other, is the `Army' hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and renew.

Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies in this area.

The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares. "10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.

"A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class.

"Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden ... yet.

"Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier's chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.

"Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.

"11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. My hands hurt. Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30.. Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid hearts.

They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along. Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly.

"There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the past.

These are our men, broken in body they may be, but they are our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on, every single Friday, all year long, for more than four years.

"Did you know that?

The Steady Drip is back in business and we are back home!

This Blog and the Blogger Are on Vacation!

My son, who is looking for an excuse to take advantage of Florida's "shoot to kill" law, will be keeping an eye on things.

Does This Document Make Me ELIGIBLE to be POTUS? (or get a passport to go on a Dream Cruise?)
http://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2010/08/does-this-document-make-me-eligible-to.html
Bunny and I are about to leave on an all expense paid CARNIVAL DREAM CRUISE , compliments of Shaklee Corporation.
The link below shows features the ship, the largest and newest in the Carnival fleet. Length: 1,004 feet
http://www.carnival.com/cms/fun/ships/carnival_dream/default.aspx?shipCode=DR
Click this link above to see a virtual tour of our destination!

When Republicans Win, What Then?

If Republicans Win, What Then?
November 1, 2010 by Bob Livingston


If actual election-day results confirm conventional wisdom and House — and maybe Senate — Democrat majorities are swept away like yesterday’s trash, Republicans will have every reason to be giddy. Constitutionalists, conservatives and Libertarians, however, should temper their enthusiasm.

That’s because Republicans have not yet shown they understand what the original Tea Parties — that is those not co-opted by selfish, big money or globalist interests — stood for, nor have they shown they appreciate the mood of the country. This misunderstanding was made manifest in the Contract with American 2010 that House Republicans released in September and are now touting as their action plan if they gain the majority.

This attractive position paper with a fancy cover, lots of photographs of the Statue of Liberty, politicians, Mt. Rushmore, horses, town hall crowds and elegant buildings and monuments, and filled with highfalutin language is simply a propaganda piece designed to appease the simpletons. Republicans understand that Senate Democrats will filibuster sound legislation and Obama will veto whatever they manage to get passed. In other words, the Contract is classic political doublespeak.

While some of the ideas it contains are good first steps — repeal Obamacare, get the government out of the mortgage business by cutting off Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, extending the current tax rate and requiring the Constitutional authority for each new bill to be cited — others demonstrate the progressive mentality that has infected the GOP — and all of Washington D.C. One of these is the pledge to cut spending back to 2008 levels.

Two thousand eight, you’ll recall, was the last year of “compassionate conservative” President George W. Bush’s term. With the help of six years of a Republican-controlled Congress and two years of a Democrat-controlled Congress, Bush increased government spending more than any of the six presidents that preceded him, including Lyndon Johnson, according to Veronique de Rugy of the George Mason University Mercatus Center.

“During his eight years in office, President Bush spent almost twice as much as his predecessor, President Clinton. Adjusted for inflation, in eight years, President Clinton increased the federal budget by 11 percent. In eight years, President Bush increased it by a whopping 104 percent,” de Rugy writes.

So what the Republicans pledge to do involves rolling a massively over bloated, overregulated, profligate government back to a hugely over bloated, overregulated profligate government. And while the Contract talks in nebulous terms about cutting back on regulations and eliminating fraud and waste, it says nothing about eliminating unConstitutional government agencies, repealing unConstitutional laws, eliminating (or at least auditing) the Federal Reserve, requiring the President to prove his Constitutionally-required eligibility to hold office or defunding the offices of Obama’s dozens of unconstitutional czars.

Nor does it mention ending the permanent, ineffective and fabricated war on terror, except to say that it promises to pass “clean” bills to fund the troops. In essence, Republicans are promising more of the same never-ending, undeclared wars foisted on us by the last four Presidents and funded by fiat, and apparently a Republican Congress intends to continue abdicating its responsibility by allowing the military invasion of the Middle East to continue — and even plans to expand it by strengthening sanctions against Iran.

Those who predict such things anticipate a Republican gain of at least the 39 House seats they need to take the majority… and perhaps a gain of as many as 60. Some are even throwing out numbers like 70 to 100. In the Senate, the Real Clear Politics average gives Republicans 45 seats and Democrats 49, with six races too close to call. In other words, a Republican-controlled House is as safe a bet as there is in politics. But a Republican-controlled Senate is a long shot that would either require all six of toss up races to break for Republicans, or a major surprise to occur in one or more of the leans- or likely-Democrat seats.

With all the Tea Party-backed candidates invading the “hallowed” halls of Congress come January, Representative Ron Paul (D-Texas) — the man establishment Republicans love to hate — is going to have a lot of company and prospective new House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is going to have a lot of headaches. But at least Boehner has been on board endorsing Tea Party candidates.

Not so Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He’s as firmly entrenched an establishment Republican as there is, having been in the Senate since 1984. He endorsed Rand Paul’s Kentucky primary opponent Trey Grayson. He’s not been very receptive to the Tea Party message and, like most of the rest of the Republican establishment, sees Tea Party candidates as a threat to the status quo. It’s going to be interesting to see how he’s able to lead should the Democrat collapse become complete and Republicans win control of the Senate.

For McConnell, keeping the likes of new Republican Senators such as Nevada’s Sharron Angle, Colorado’s Ken Buck, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, Utah’s Mike Lee, Alaska’s Joe Miller, Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell, Kentucky’s Rand Paul, West Virginia’s John Raese, Washington’s Dino Rossi, Florida’s Marco Rubio and Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomy in Republican lockstep will be akin to herding cats — and probably as successful.

In other words, Tea Partiers and Constitutionalists, tomorrow is just a first step. While the election will probably derail — or at least slow — Obama’s Marxist agenda, there will still be a lot of work to be done. First, establishment Republicans must be held to their promises in the Contract. Second, establishment Republicans have to be willing to work with their newly-elected brethren by putting them into leadership positions and listening to their ideas — particularly those ideas that got them elected. Establishment Republicans must realize that if they don’t embrace the new batch of Representatives and Senators then there will be more establishment seats on the chopping block in two years.

And finally, the new batch has to stay true to the principles they espoused on the campaign trail. If they betray their voters their terms will be short indeed.

It will behoove the establishment to understand once and for all that the Tea Party is not interested in Republican Party insider politics as usual and has no interest in playing their silly political parlor games. Karl Rove and his establishment ilk can denigrate king-and queen-maker Sarah Palin and Tea Party favorites like O’Donnell and prove their own irrelevance and allow the Republican Party to die, or they can embrace Tea Party candidates and change the GOP’s paradigm.

Tea Partiers are fed up with politics as usual and are clamoring for a return to the Founding principles of small government, free markets, sound money and secure borders. The elected class ignores these issues at its peril.

The Day Narcissist Barack Obama Snaps and Loses It

Sam Vaknin is a friend of mine and we have compare observation about AKA Obama's precarious mental state since before the election.  Here Sam lays out the dangerous implications in detail.  Please click the link to Global Politician and read the entire article.  Sam's explanations will be a blueprint for what to expect as AKA Obama comes unraveled!

The Day Narcissist Barack Obama Snaps and Loses It

By Sam Vaknin
Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"

His domestic policy agenda hotly disputed and resented by large swathes of the electorate, Obama has become an albatross on the neck of a hitherto adulating Democratic Party. Come November 2010, he is bound to suffer a resounding rebuke at the polls – this on top of an unprecedented drop in his approval ratings. In July 2008, I was the first to suggest that Barack Obama may be a narcissist and may well be afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder: a pernicious and all-pervasive mental health problem. By now this has become accepted wisdom: Obama is being labelled “narcissist” by pundits and mental health practitioners alike.

Now that Obama is experiencing defeats and setbacks and is subjected to acrimonious criticism and disagreement even among his rank and file, his malignant narcissism has frightening implications.

The front put up by the narcissist is penetrated only in times of great crises that threaten the narcissist's ability to obtain Narcissistic Supply. The narcissist then "falls apart" in a process of disintegration known as decompensation. The dynamic forces which render him paralysed and fake – his vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and fears – are starkly exposed as his defences crumble and become dysfunctional. The narcissist's extreme dependence on his social milieu for the regulation of his sense of self-worth is rendered painfully and pitifully evident as he is reduced to begging and cajoling.

At such times, the narcissist acts out (erupts) self-destructively and anti-socially. His mask of superior equanimity is pierced by displays of impotent rage, self-loathing, self-pity, and crass attempts at manipulation of his friends, family, and colleagues. His ostensible benevolence and caring evaporate. He feels caged and threatened and he reacts as any animal would do: by striking back at his perceived tormentors, at his hitherto "nearest" and "dearest".

The narcissist’s mental structure is a house of cards: precariously balanced brittle, susceptible to criticism and disagreement, vulnerable to the incessant encounter with a harsh and intolerant world. Deep inside, narcissists feel inadequate, phony, fake, inferior, and deserving of punishment. He is besieged by deeply ingrained (though at times not conscious) feelings of inadequacy, fears of failure, masochistic desires to be penalized, a fluctuating sense of self-worth (regulated by Narcissistic Supply), and an overwhelming sensation of fakery.



The Grandiosity Gap (between a fantastically grandiose - and unlimited - self-image and actual - limited - accomplishments and achievements) is grating. Its recurrence threatens the narcissistic personality. The narcissist finds to his chagrin that people out there are much less admiring, accommodating and accepting as his shortcomings, vacuity, and failures become more glaring by the day. The narcissist often becomes the target of constant derision and mockery, a sorry sight indeed. His claims for superiority appear less plausible and substantial the more and the longer he makes them.



Pathological narcissism - originally a defense mechanism intended to shield the narcissist from an injurious world - becomes the main source of hurt, a generator of injuries, counterproductive and dangerous. Overwhelmed by negative or absent Narcissistic Supply, the narcissist is forced to let go of it.



The narcissist then resorts to self-delusion. Unable to completely ignore contrarian opinion and data - he transmutes them. Unable to face the dismal failure that he is, the narcissist partially withdraws from reality. To soothe and salve the pain of disillusionment, he administers to his aching soul a mixture of lies, distortions, half-truths and outlandish interpretations of events around him. These solutions can be classified thus:
http://www.globalpolitician.com/26628-obama-elctions-narcissism-usa


AUTHOR BIO (must be included with the article)


Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self
Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East.
He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review,
PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI)
Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central
East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com/

White House Insider: "President Obama is lost. Absolutely lost."

Right now the White House is scrambling, and they don’t know enemies from friends anymore. The party is attempting to localize the damage so it doesn’t spread. Make it just about Chicago, and worst case, Obama – but not the party. And so you look back to Chicago, you look at the Justice Department, connect the dots. One investigation will potentially reveal the other. And it’s all setting up to happen now if the November elections go down with a Republican landslide. Obama will be left without protection. His inner circle is scared to death. I mean truly frightened by the prospects of what could be coming at them in the coming months. They have enemies both in the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. President Obama is lost. Absolutely lost.”


Read more: http://newsflavor.com/politics/us-politics/white-house-insider-president-obama-is-lost-absolutely-lost/#ixzz13xxLFewV

Part Two:
http://newsflavor.com/politics/us-politics/white-house-insider-part-2-the-president-needs-to-grow-up/

Why Doesn't Everyone Know Jan Schakowsky's Husband Wrote ObamaCare in Jail?

Why Doesn't Everyone Know Jan Schakowsky's Husband Wrote ObamaCare in Jail?
By Stella Paul

I know who's got my vote for the cutest couple since Bonnie and Clyde. It's the larcenous lovebirds from Chicago: Jan Schakowsky, the most far-left member of Congress, and her bank robber husband, Robert Creamer, who wrote Obamacare in jail.


What a romance! She waited as he served time for sixteen counts of bank fraud, selflessly devoting herself to trying to impeach Dick Cheney and to showering federal funds on her biggest, most ethically challenged contributors.


And he persevered inside the graybar hotel, aflame with the inspiration that became Stand Up Straight! How Progressives Can Win, a 628-page manual for how "to reshape the structure of one-sixth of the American economy" -- namely, health care.


Endorsed by David Axelrod and SEIU honcho Andrew Stern, Stand Up Straight! gave Democrats the perfect voodoo recipe of lies, lies, and boiled frog's eyes they used to cook up ObamaCare.


Here's how David Horowitz's Discover The Network describes it:


Creamer's book advocated a "public plan" that would guarantee every U.S. resident's "right" to health care; this plan eventually would serve as a model for the "public option" in subsequent legislative proposals by Congressional Democrats.

In addition, Creamer laid out a "Progressive Agenda for Structural Change," which included a ten-point plan to set the stage for implementing universal health care:


"We must create a national consensus that health care is a right, not a commodity; and that government must guarantee that right."
"We must create a national consensus that the health care system is in crisis."
"Our messaging program over the next two years should focus heavily on reducing the credibility of the health insurance industry and focusing on the failure of private health insurance."
"We need to systematically forge relationships with large sectors of the business/employer community."
"We need to convince political leaders that they owe their elections, at least in part, to the groundswell of support of [sic] universal health care, and that they face political peril if they fail to deliver on universal health care in 2009."
"We need not agree in advance on the components of a plan, but we must foster a process that can ultimately yield consensus."
"Over the next two years, we must design and organize a massive national field program."
"We must focus especially on the mobilization of the labor movement and the faith community."
"We must systematically leverage the connections and resources of a massive array of institutions and organizations of all types."
"To be successful, we must put in place commitments for hundreds of millions of dollars to be used to finance paid communications and mobilization once the battle is joined."


"To win," added Creamer, "we must not just generate understanding, but emotion-fear, revulsion, anger, disgust."


Now don't you find this tale of the Obamacare-writing bank robber and his congresswoman moll pretty darn interesting? Even, shall we say, newsworthy?


After all, nothing more intimately affects our lives than the Obamination currently shutting down Catholic hospitals, sending premiums skyrocketing, and limiting patients' access and options.


And if you really want nightmares, check out Congressman Kevin Brady's organization chart that displays ObamaCare's new government agencies, regulations, and mandates.


In addition to showing the massive expansion of government and the overwhelming complexity of new regulations and taxes, the chart portrays:


$569 billion in higher taxes;
$529 billion in cuts to Medicare;
Swelling of the ranks of Medicaid by 16 million;
Seventeen major insurance mandates; and
The creation of two new bureaucracies with powers to impose future rationing: the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Independent Payments Advisory Board.


Hey, thanks for nothing, Robert and Jan!


Yet somehow the great media machine has not seen fit to tell voters about the rancid Romeo and Juliet who gave us this unholy mess.


Instead, they've inundated us with:


- Christine O'Donnell dabbling with witchcraft in high school


- Meg Whitman's housekeeper's immigration status


- Linda McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment treatment of women


Somehow, I don't think when a family member's life hangs in the balance, my first thought will be with female wrestlers.


Well, even if the media did miraculously decide to ask Schakowsky some hard questions, she'd be tough to find. She's awfully busy, calling Tea Partiers "despicable," storming into polling places to illegally electioneer, and sending out her dearest friend to scream at Andrew Breitbart that he's gay.


Fortunately, Chicago voters in the 9th district have an outstanding candidate to vote for in Joel Pollak, magna cum laude Harvard graduate, who published two acclaimed books while attending Harvard Law School. Pollak has been endorsed by Alan Dershowitz, his former professor and a lifelong Democrat.


You can contribute to Joel Pollak here.


Wouldn't it be a thrill to annoy the Silent Media and retire the Bonnie and Clyde who held up the nation?


Stella Paul can be reached at StellaPundit@aol.com.

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