Monday Afternoon Cigar

For the record, a Camacho SLR Maduro doesn't taste as good as usual after you're retirement savings drops over 10% in one day. It appears the Speaker of the House, that San Francisco Democrat progressive Commie, chose to play politics with the bailout socialist, industry-nationalization plan.

The Bracelet - A Story of Inspiration

Obama forgot the name on his KIA bracelet during the debate. For the record, the 20 year old soldier that died and whose name is on Obama's prop bracelet is Sgt. Ryan David Jopek.

We have a story about bracelets - an experience that stays with us as we wear a KIA bracelet. Our bracelet, with Cpl William M. Amundson Jr's name, will stay on our wrist until the war is over. It has come off once in two years, for an MRI.

Our story:

Like Amundson, Karl was a corporal in the Army once. (The comparison ends there. Amundson was a Ranger, and deployed to war for his country.)

We were assigned to an MP unit tasked with prisoner of war processing. In one training exercise, we were tasked to process some soldiers from another unit. We had to split the 'prisoners' in different holding areas, surrounded with concertina wire, depending on their status - POW, civilian detainee, etc.

When we bring the 'prisoners' into the processing center, we take and inventory their possessions. Wallets, watches, and other personal items. In other words, we had such a tight operation, troops trusted us with their money! This was my job that day, along with fingerprinting.

There I am at my station and this guy shows up wearing a POW bracelet. I turn to my sergeant, and he says to add it to the inventory, to have the guy take it off. The soldier says "No, this bracelet stays on". A little chat with the sergeant and lieutenant, and we decide not to push it.

This guy gets a designation that puts him alone in a holding area.

My 12+ hour shift ends and I join my team in the bivouac area, within site of the holding areas. And there is that guy walking, very slowly, in a circle in his holding area. Weird. Maybe he's getting into the spirit. All other prisoners are sleeping or joking around. Volunteering as a prisoner of war in a training exercise sure beats other options!

The next day, we're getting ready for our next shift, and there is the guy, still walking a circle! He wore a path about 2-3 inches deep in the ground. Same slow pace - in the zone!

That was in the late 80's, when many soldiers wore the POW bracelet. We considered wearing one ourselves, but decided, from this experience above, that we had not yet earned the right to such an honor.

The bracelet is not a prop. It is not a political statement. It is not a means to an end. It is a private tribute to America's best.

Stay tuned. We have another bracelet story.

Go to Ranger Joes, our favorite store outside Fort Benning, to order a bracelet.

Bill Dyer, at Hugh Hewitt, has more on the Obama bracelet if you aren't disgusted enough.

UPDATE 9.28: Newsbusters reports the family asked Obama not to wear the bracelet.

Post-Debate Thoughts

A collection of thoughts from the world's best bloggers:

Robert, at BabaluBlog:

Charles Krauthammer said last night on FOX that the outcome of the debate reminded him of a newspaper article following a Harvard/Yale football game which proclaimed that "Harvard Beat Yale 29-29".

Unfortunately, I agree with Krauthammer. McCain needed to clearly indicate to the American public that Obama's economic plan is as dangerous as his foreign policy views. He didn't...

HotAir's Allahpundit comments on the Obama contradiction: in the debate he says troops can't die in vain if following their Commander in Chief's orders, and his 2002 statement, "[we should not] allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain."

The One occasionally confuses the two, telling a crowd in Iowa early last year that we “have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted” before backing off afterwards and scolding himself for using constituent-inappropriate rhetoric. The joke here, of course, as it was when Diane Sawyer made Pelosi squirm on this same subject, is that the whole point of the left’s moral (as opposed to political) opposition to the war is that they think soldiers are dying needlessly.

Hugh Hewitt sums it up nicely:

As expected, McCain shines and Obama is on the defensive throughout. The good news for Obama is that more than 30 minutes were not on the specifics of foreign policy. But Obama stumbled badly on Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. McCain simply knows this stuff, and Obama again and again betrays that he does not.

"I honestly don't believe that Senator Obama has the understanding or the experience," and hitting Obama on his stubbornness was a very strong close for McCain. "I don't need any on the job training."

The McCain campaign came out quick with another great ad:

If McCain is right on the issues, why not cancel the remaining debates?

Saturday Night Cigar

A relaxing night with a Camacho SLR Maduro, browsing through our Blogroll blogs for post-debate nuggets and relaxing after posting our latest video - link.

Our first blog stop is always American Thinker. Here is their latest cartoon:

Karl's Weekend Reading

Stanley Kurtz exposes the long questioned relationship between Obama and Pentagon-Bombing William Ayers in Tuesday's WSJ, Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism on Schools. In short, these guys are ideological twins. See Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC).

One unsettled question is how Mr. Obama, a former community organizer fresh out of law school, could vault to the top of a new foundation? In response to my questions, the Obama campaign issued a statement saying that Mr. Ayers had nothing to do with Obama's "recruitment" to the board. The statement says Deborah Leff and Patricia Albjerg Graham (presidents of other foundations) recruited him. Yet the archives show that, along with Ms. Leff and Ms. Graham, Mr. Ayers was one of a working group of five who assembled the initial board in 1994. Mr. Ayers founded CAC and was its guiding spirit. No one would have been appointed the CAC chairman without his approval.

The CAC's agenda flowed from Mr. Ayers's educational philosophy, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism.

The WSJ's Mary Anastasia O'Grady reports in Monday's paper - Castro looks for a US Lifeline.

Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl, who took over as head of state in February, for years have been calling for an end to the U.S. embargo, which they say is starving Cuba. But Cuba can already buy from U.S. producers all the food and medicine it can pay cash for. What the totalitarian tag-team really wants is an end to the ban on private-sector credit to the Cuban government.

Their demand has gone nowhere in Washington, both because of moral objections to doing business with tyrants, and because the Castro brothers are world-class deadbeats. They have defaulted on billions of dollars in debt to the rest of the world, and want credit from the "empire" (i.e., the U.S.) only because their options for borrowing elsewhere have narrowed significantly.

Pre-Debate Thoughts

Stalin never had to work under this much stress! Except maybe when the Germans were outside Stalingrad.

Obama planned on three days in sunny Florida to learn prep for a debate on foreign policy. Instead, McCain suggested they go together to Washington to join their fellow senators in addressing what some have called the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Why not? It's what they're both paid to do.

Obama declined, and offered to be on call if needed. From Florida.

Then the President goes and invites them both. Obama has to put his foreign policy work aside, and has to learn prep for the meeting in the White House.

We think he must have been overwhelmed in that meeting, much like we would be if we were standing over an open heart surgery and the doctor tells us to take over so he can go to Florida for three days...

There were people there who were ready to work. Serious people. And they shouted at each other too! Add to that, no campaign staff to kiss his a*s and hang on his every, uh, word. It would have been interesting to ask him at that moment if he would rather be visiting our wounded troops.

We will be watching the debate tonight to gauge Obama's confidence and energy levels. Since it is Friday night, we may invent a new drinking game: One shot for every "uh".

Obama & Communism?

Senator McCain, it is not fair to link Senator Obama with communist dictators!

You're lowering the level of political discourse!

To be fair, please wait until AFTER Obama takes our property away before linking him to communism.

UT: BabaluBlog

The Bailout

Found this today at Townhall

Oh, Now They Notice

Tony Blankley at the Washington Times writes in an op-ed today, Media Covering for Obama. He won't be invited to any parties anytime soon.

The mainstream media have gone over the line and are now straight out propagandists for the Obama campaign.
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They have consciously ignored whole years in his life, and showed a lack of curiosity about such gaps that bespeaks a lack of journalistic instinct.
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The public image of Mr. Obama as an idealistic, post-race, post-partisan, well-spoken and honest young man with the wisdom and courage befitting a great national leader is a confection spun by a willing conspiracy of Mr. Obama, his publicist David Axelrod and most of the senior editors, producers and reporters of the national media.

One down, thousands to go.

Bailout Thoughts (UPDATED x2)

While we have many anti-communist impulses on this week's $700 billion bailout chatter, we've purposely hesitated to comment with the hope facts would emerge with which we could trust and form and convey sensible opinions.

We agree - if the market is in a free-fall and this is the only option, then do it with a firm plan to re-sell the assets as soon as their value returns. But is it the only option?

We agree - with fellow conservatives that this is a form of communism - government owning industry. It isn't that far from Russia's takeover of Yukos. One is a "rescue", the other overt theft, but both are government takeovers.

But we're puzzed by the following:
1) The more it is discussed, the more Secretary Paulson is isolated as one of the few pushing for immediate bailout. Why? Because it mostly helps his former co-workers on Wall Street?

2) The two biggest groups screaming for more time are the conservative members of congress, and the Communist Party USA! How did that happen?!

So, we're staying on the fence with the plan to chime in later as we know more.

In the meantime, a great article in today's WSJ about William O. Perkins III, a trader that made $1.25 million last week on Goldman Sacks. He plans to spend this profit on a campaign exposing the bailout crowd as "communists". That got our attention! And he's an Obama supporter. Where's the Advil?

He has spent some of his profit on the cartoon above, and will spend the rest on nationwide ads.

"I see it as trickle-down communism," Mr. Perkins said. "We have a communist action where everybody is paying for the benefit of the few and hoping the benefits will trickle down to everyone else.
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What Mr. Perkins got back was a cartoon showing Messrs. Bush, Paulson and Bernanke planting a flag in the graveyard of capitalism, Iwo Jima-style, with a hammer and sickle where the field of stars would normally go. Mr. Perkins said he plans to run a series of antibailout ads nationwide until he has spent all of his Goldman gains. "I've gotta give that money back," he said."

Comments are on. Tell us what we're missing!

UPDATE 7PM: Newt Gingrich spoke on Hannity & Colmes on the bailout subject. We liked what we heard. Here are the highlights:

1) He calls it "an appalling bad plan", and says it will be "an engine of corruption". Says it will be a "nightmare to implement". Calls it "socialism at its worst".
2) He says the bailout will buy assets at above the market value, not less than the market value.
3) Suggestions: Use rolling 3-year average mark-to-market, zero capital gains, adopt a US-centric energy plan, and loan money at treasury+2% to let entities fix their bad-debt problems themselves - a "workout" rather than a "bailout".

UPDATE 9.25 11AM:

More links and quotes on the subject:

Rush hits the analogy perfect in his Wednesday show:

Barack Obama is nothing different than a high-risk loan. He has no history of accomplishment. He has nothing besides a nice smile and a firm handshake as evidence that he can deliver what he promises. The White House should not be available to high-risk people, such as a 144-day junior senator who has a myriad of highly-questionable, high-risk associates. And when he fails? We will be asked to bail out the United States for the damage that he caused. I'd like a little more collateral on a presidential candidate than just having Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and Tony Resko as co-signers on his application.

Larry Elder adds perspective on the significance of bank failures on our economy in his Townhall column today, Is Capitalism on the Ropes?

According to the FDIC, in the almost two-year period of 2007 and 2008, 15 banks failed. Similarly, during Clinton's last two years in office, 1999 and 2000, 15 banks also failed. In the recession-free years of 1988 and 1989, there were 1,004 bank failures. And since the Great Depression, the average number of yearly bank failures has been 94.

The WSJ editorial, The Candidates Vote 'Present', says "the behavior of both candidates has an air of running for political cover":

...count us as mystified by Senator John McCain's decision yesterday to suspend his campaign and call for a postponement in Friday's first Presidential debate so that he and Barack Obama can work out a consensus bill to stabilize the financial system. This is supposed to be evidence of leadership?

Mr. McCain's decision follows an equally odd suggestion from Mr. Obama yesterday morning that the two candidates issue a joint statement of principles and conditions for the financial rescue package. As a purely political matter, we understand why Mr. Obama would just as soon say "present" on a tricky Senate vote. He probably figures the current economic mess plays into his argument for "change," so why not minimize any differences with Mr. McCain on the Paulson plan as he heads to Election Day?

We also understand Mr. McCain's desire to further dress his campaign in "Country First" gilding, as if patriotism and consensus are one and the same, or that getting something done is more important than getting it right.
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As candidates, however, they are not serving the public by hiding behind a fog of faux bipartisanship that obscures their core economic principles and their approach to governance in times of crisis. Far from being an issue that is above electoral politics, the financial panic is too serious not to have a serious discussion about.

And another from Hugh Hewitt, Hugh himself this time:

Obama’s halting response to yesterday’s dramatic announcement`by John McCain followed by his about-face and agreement to attend the meeting convened by President Bush even as he insists that tomorrow’s debate go forward reveals much more than standard operating bumbling by Obama when the script he's been reading from unexpectedly changes.

Obama appears to genuinely not grasp the stakes here. He is not acting like a leader who understands the risks the country faces. And this is not surprising giving his experience gap when it comes to money, work, and savings much less finance.