Taking Religion out of the Military?

I have mixed feelings about this one:

“Soldiers with minority religious beliefs and atheists often feel like second-class citizens when Christianity is seemingly officially endorsed by their own base,” American Atheists president David Silverman told Fox News. “We are very happy the Pentagon and the Army decided to do the right thing.” A military spokesman told Fox News the cross was literally dismantled and will be removed from the base to be in “compliance with Army regulations and to avoid any misconception of religious favoritism or disrespect.” “After a Christian prayer, the cross was removed from the roof of the chapel,” the spokesman said. “During the removal, the cross was dismantled; however the cross was reassembled and currently awaits transportation to a larger operational base.” The military told Fox News the cross will only be brought out during Christian services and will be designated as a “non-permanent religious symbol.” Silverman said a Christian chapel on an Army base in Afghanistan could have put American troops in danger. “It inflames this Muslim versus Christian mentality,” he said. “This is not a Muslim versus Christian war — but if the Army base has a large chapel on it that has been converted to Christian-only, it sends a message that could be interpreted as hostile to Islam.” An Army spokesman said all chapels must be religiously neutral. “The primary purpose of making a chapel a neutral, multi-use facility is to accommodate the free exercise of religion for all faith groups using it,” he said. “We take the spiritual fitness of our Soldiers seriously and encourage them to practice their faith and exercise their beliefs however they choose.” Retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, of the Family Research Council, told Fox News a Christian cleansing of the military is under way. “I don’t think you can categorize it any other way,” he said. “There is a strong effort, led partially by the Administration as well as by atheist groups to destroy the identity of who we are as a nation and that means robbing us of our history.” —- Military: Crosses Removed ‘Out of Respect for Other Faiths’ | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes

On one hand, I would hate to think that having Christian symbols on a battle front could be putting our Military at risk. On the other hand, I would hate to see Christianity being removed from the Military entirely. However, we are in a Muslim Nation is Afghan region; one would think that the Military would want to be respectful of those people and their culture.

It is a mixed bag, and all the more reason why we really need to get out of that Country. Our mission is done there; we killed Osama and we need to leave. We do not want to make the same mistake the Russians made there. Besides all that, Al-Qaeda has moved into other regions and is much more a threat to other interests in other parts for the world now.

So, to this Independent, the quicker we leave, the better.

GOP, Social Media and Democrats

Just a little comment about InstaPundit and Bryan Preston’s posting about Obama’s ground game.

Instapundit Says:

The GOP has some learning to do.

Bryan Preston says:

Obama’s personal political army posted it on the web and require a valid email to obtain it. So I downloaded it and have posted it right here. Download it for yourself and take a look.
The GOP had better not only pore over every detail of this at the national and state levels, they must build something better for 2014 and beyond. The Romney campaign’s ORCA project was supposed to be the GOP’s technological answer, but it was a total failure.
Last night, Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed the GOP to stop being the “stupid party.” They not only have to stop being stupid, they have to become very, very smart.

So, I did, I took a look at it; and I have to tell you all something. If the GOP thinks that they are going to be able to get anyone, who is that well versed in social media; who is a Conservative — they are crazy. Silly

The majority of the people that are well versed in social media are, unlike me, committed leftists. They will not just switch for the right some of money, they are liberal purists through and though and they will not do anything to help out a Republican cause at all. This is and has been the huge handicap and disparity between the left and the right. Most, if not all, of silicon valley and the social media world is of the liberal mindset.

It is a sad thing, but it is very true. Obama might be many things; but he is no idiot. Obama knew exactly what he was tapping into, when he decided to do the ground game for 2012. He learned from his mistakes and this time, he did very well. Romney did well himself, he just did not have the ground game to fight Obama well enough to get his message out. Plus too, there were demographic issues as well.

What needs to happen with the Republican Party is that they need to broaden the tent a bit. They need to moderate out their message a bit. They need to stop pretending to be something that they are not; and that is some sort of Democratic Party light. They need to quit doing the “Go along to get along” nonsense as well. They also need to stop pandering to protected minorities and get in touch with what true Conservatism really is. They need to also move away from this Feminist nonsense and move towards a Christian message, without being overly offensive about it. In other words: Celebrate being pro-life, but lose the silly rape comments.

They need to embrace the Huckabee crowd, and the Pat Roberson crowd, and maybe even the Pat Buchanan crowd a bit more. They part also needs to get in touch with the Conservative grassroots a bit more, and move away from the Elitist beltway crowd, as the cocktail crowd might get the big donations; but the heartland people are the ones that vote. An outreach to the farmers, and I do not mean the large corporate farmers either, I mean small-town farmers; this would help things out a good deal.

What needs to happen is the Republican Party needs to get back to the people that the Democrats left behind. Like the small-town farmer who’s making about $250.000 a year, but is barely able to keep his farm. Like the screw machine shop owner and employees, who put in a honest days work; just to put food on the table. Tell them, that they want to help them keep more of their own money. Reagan did this, and won big.

Populism is where the real people live, and if the Republican Party does not meet with these people and let them know, that they want to represent them; they will go the way of the Whig party. The American people will vote for someone that they can relate to; Mitt Romney was not that kind of a person and Ronald Reagan happened to be that kind of a person.

I just hope the GOP figures this out, before it is too late.

Rand Paul sells out his Father’s Birthright

I saw this morning and I could not believe what I was hearing. Rand Paul has basically sold out his Father’s Libertarian Birthright. Just so he can have a shot at running in 2016.

The video comes via the neoconservative blog HotAir.com:

Rand Paul sells America out.

The Quote:

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul took what very well could be considered his most pro-Israel stance yet, saying in an interview that an attack on Israel should be treated as an attack on the United States.
Asked whether the United States would stand with Israel and provide it foreign aid if the Jewish state were attacked by its enemies, Paul went a step further.
“Well absolutely we stand with Israel,” he said in an interview with Breitbart News, “but what I think we should do is announce to the world – and I think it is pretty well known — that any attack on Israel will be treated as an attack on the United States.”

There is no two ways about it, Rand Paul is not his Father at all. His Father has principles; Rand sold his out for a little power and to placate a protected minority. It is sad that Rand Paul is more interested in pleasing a small part of the so-called “right” in order to get the blessing of the banksters and mobsters of the elitists in DC.

But, that is politics and it is proof that we need real Americans in DC. Not these rich elitists, who never had to use their backs to make a living.

Here is a good way to get sued

He is making a good point, but this guy is literally begging to get sued by someone.

VERNAL — When George Burnett first set up shop in Vernal, he knew he had to find away to connect with his adopted community if his custom seat cover business was going to survive.
So, armed with a sandwich board emblazoned with the phrase “Honk If You (Heart) Drilling!,” Burnett took to the corner of 500 East and Main Street and began his one-man crusade to boost the spirit of a community that was getting its first glimpse of another oil and gas bust.
Fast-forward nearly five years and Burnett — now a local celebrity for his tireless support of the Uintah Basin’s energy industry — has launched a new business that’s earning rave reviews just weeks after opening its doors.
“I love this place. I will support this place with every fiber of my being,” said Corey Peterson, a personal trainer who stopped by the I Love Drilling Juice & Smoothie Bar on Monday morning for a thick, green drink filled with avocado, spinach and fresh apple juice.
“It’s a good place to come for lunch,” added customer Shauna Snow, “or for a good snack that’s healthy, not processed and also can give you good nutrients.”
But there is one thing about Burnett’s latest venture that’s left some folks with a bitter taste in their mouths.
“I’m very open about it, very public about it, that I’m going to charge them a little bit more, and I have liberals come in and pay the extra dollar surcharge,” Burnett said, referring to his unique pricing structure.
via Liberal tax leaves bitter taste in some smoothie drinkers’ mouths | ksl.com.

Charging one price to a conservative and another one to a liberal? That is grounds for a discrimination lawsuit. I wonder, would he charge a black man one price and a white man another? The point is, you charge everyone the same or you don’t stay in business, at least not for very long. I am just waiting for some black liberal to come into that shop and get charge a higher price. The lawsuit would be good!

Stupid Conservatives. This is why I quite supporting them. 🙄 Especially when they started lying to the people that voted for them.

BREAKING NEWS: White House to BAN assault weapons, require background checks, limit magazines

Looks like James Yeager’s worst nightmare was right:

President Obama will unveil a sweeping set of gun-control proposals at midday Wednesday, including an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and limits on the number of bullets magazines can hold, according to sources familiar with the plans.
The announcement, to be delivered at the White House, is also expected to include a slate of up to 19 executive actions that the Obama administration can take on its own to attempt to limit gun violence. The White House has invited key lawmakers as well as gun-control advocates to appear at Wednesday’s policy rollout, according to two officials who have been invited to the event.
via Washington Post: White House to announce gun plans Wednesday.

Okay, before anyone, and I mean anyone freaks out about this; let me say this: I believe that there will be a legal challenge to this, I believe that someone, like the NRA or some group like it will challenge this order and take it all the way to the supreme court and they, being a Conservative slanted court, will overrule this order and quickly. This is if the house does not impeach the President first.

Either way, this is big and I expect that this little move here, will play out for the next year. You watch, Obama just hit the nuke button on this issue and He and the Democratic Party will pay for this one in the coming elections. I did not honestly believe that he would go there; and for the record, neither did Harry Reid. Either way, the fit is about to hit the shan here folks. The Democrats wanted a fight and now, they have it. If this ban goes according to this report, you are going to see another Republican revolution like you have never seen before.

I believe that the Democrats and Obama just made the stupidest political move ever. This is another classic example of the Democrats not being able to see past the end of their noses. They just handed the 2014 and 2016 elections to the Republicans. They could have done it better, but they did not. I hope the Democrats up on the hill like their job, because come 2014 and 2016, they will be out of office for a good long while. I thought they were smarter; but I guess not.

This is the problem with Democratic and the Republican Parties; they ALWAYS overreach and they always pay for it politically and they never learn. Sad fact, but it is true.

It must be nice….

Looks like David Gregory of MSNBC will not be charged with a crime for displaying a high-capacity magazine on TV. William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has the scoop:

Just released by D.C. Attorney General there will be no prosecution of David Gregory despite a finding that there was a clear violation of the law (emphasis mine):
Having carefully reviewed all of the facts and circumstances of this matter, as it does in every case involving firearms-related offenses or any other potential violation of D.C. law within our criminal jurisdiction, OAG has determined to exercise its prosecutorial discretion to decline to bring criminal charges against Mr. Gregory, who has no criminal record, or any other NBC employee based on the events associated with the December 23,2012 broadcast. OAG has made this determination, despite the clarity of the violation of this important law, because under all of the circumstances here a prosecution would not promote public safety in the District of Columbia nor serve the best interests of the people of the District to whom this office owes its trust. Influencing our judgment in this case, among other things, is our recognition that the intent of the temporary possession and short display of the magazine was to promote the First Amendment purpose of informing an ongoing public debate about firearms policy in the United States, especially while this subject was foremost in the minds of the public following the previously mentioned events in Connecticut and the President’s speech to the nation about them. There were, however, other legal means available to demonstrate the point and to pursue this line of questioning with the guest that were suggested to NBC and that could have and should have been pursued.
OAG also appreciates that the magazine was immediately returned to the source that NBC understood to be its lawful owner outside of the District and that the magazine in question, with NBC’s assistance, has been surrendered to MPD. OAG also recognizes the cooperation NBC has provided in the investigation of this matter.

Proving that if you rich, white, liberal and you happen to be friends with the DC attorney general; you can pretty much do what you darned well please.

Unbelievable. 🙄 Whatever happened to rule of law? Whatever happened to the justice system in this Country? …and they wonder why people go on these shooting sprees because they are simply pissed off at the Government?

Others: Outside the Beltway, Erik Wemple, American Power, NewsBusters.org, The Gateway Pundit,Mediaite, Power Line, Washington Times and The Daily Caller (Via Memeorandum)

The Detroit News pulls the plug on The Michigan View

It seems that the Michigan View, which was ran by the Detroit News as a Conservative group blog has had its plug pulled:

Today is the last day of The Michigan View.com, the state’s biggest, baddest, boldest voice of conservative opinion.
It’s been a blast bringing it to you.
Since its launch on Independence Day, 2010, The Detroit News’ online product featured timely commentary on the news of the day, broke some news itself, and generally drove the Left to drink.
(….)
Alas, MIView has been shelved. Budget realities dictate that I will be doing my writing for The Detroit News as a columnist and editorial writer – in addition to my daily editorial cartoons. And while the MIView All-Stars will no longer be at this address, you can find (many of) them at the URLs listed below. As MIView’s editor, I had the best job in the world the last two years – the opportunity to edit their work every day.
via That’s all, folks | www.michiganview.com | The Michigan View.

The economic situation here in America is really putting the hurt on big media, unlike anything I have ever seen before. Sooner or later it is going to be just us independent, non-corporate bloggers left. I also tend to believe that the publication came off as a bit partisan as well. Michigan, and especially the Detroit area is really not a Conservative or Republican region. It is tough to sell small Government to people who are trained on liberalism.

At the same time, I believe that this is a tragic thing; I believe diversity of opinion is important. I do not believe that the Democratic Party and the socialist Liberals have all the answers and I believe there are times, when they are simply wrong. I believe the marketplace of ideas should be a diverse one. Unlike some on the left and some on the right; that diversity of opinion is a good thing.

On a personal note: Serves them right for not hiring me! I could have made waves, set them up with real blogging software and would have made a group blog that would have gotten them noticed. Instead, the kept the same idiots, who do the Detroit News and then that site and see what happened? It went under. Good. Serves them right for ignoring the best writer in the Detroit area. Conceited, who me?

(H/T Deadline Detroit)

Interesting note about Jack Lew

Honestly, what does Barack Obama have against the working class in this Country? Quite a bit, it seems:

With President Obama poised to tap current chief of staff Jack Lew as his next treasury secretary, Republicans are already attacking Lew for supposed slights during budget talks. Some progressives may bring renewed scrutiny to his time at CitiGroup. But if history is any guide, there will be little talk about another line on Lew’s résumé: The key role he played in New York University’s campaign to rid itself of a graduate student workers’ union.
Lew, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton, joined NYU as chief operating officer and executive vice president in 2004. At the time, NYU was the only private university in the United States whose graduate students had a union contract. By the time Lew left two years later, NYU graduate students had lost their collective bargaining rights. In between, picketers hoisted “Wanted” posters with his face on them.
Reached over email, Andrew Ross, NYU professor of social and cultural analysis, charged that “the administration followed every page of the union-busting playbook, as instructed by the anti-union lawyers retained for that purpose.” Ross, a co-editor of the anthology “The University Against Itself: The NYU Strike and the Future of the Academic Workplace,” wrote that despite broad faculty and community support for the union, “students on the picket line were threatened with expulsion. There was no indication that Lew, as a senior member of the team who executed this policy, disagreed with any of these practices. To all appearances, he was a willing, and loyal, executor of decisions that trampled all over the students’ democratic right to organize.”
When contacted for a response, White House spokesperson Eric Schultz emailed: “Jack Lew has been a strong supporter of the right of workers to organize – as has the President. And that support will not change in his new role as Treasury Secretary.” – via Jack Lew’s union-busting past – Salon.com.

I always said, since day one of the first election cycle of Barack Obama; that he was nothing more than a two-bit phony. I believe that in his second term, we are going to find out just how big of a two-bit phony that he can really be towards the unions and the working class. Would Hillary have been any better? I really do not know. But, when I hear a Democrat basically say, “I care about the high-tech jobs.” and not say anything about the unskilled laborers, like myself. I have to really wonder, just what kind of person is he really? We are about to find out, I think and I believe it is not going to be good for the unions and the working class in general —- not to mention most gun owners.

Accident my hairy white butt!

Dick Armey formerly of freedom works is really dishing the crap about his former group. So much in fact that he supposedly “accidentally” dished dirt to the wrong group.

Steve Benen over at the Maddow Blog, whom I know from his days at the Carpetbagger report has the story:

There’s been a remarkable amount of drama surrounding Dick Armey’s departure from FreedomWorks, culminating Friday with a stunning report from Media Matters, who interviewed the former House Majority Leader directly. Armey had all kinds of interesting insights to share with the progressive group, including tidbits on pay-for-play agreements with Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and the FreedomWorks’ practice of charging activists to attend free events.
Though many of Armey’s revelations should probably be taken with a grain of salt — the former GOP leader seemed confused about some of the details he shared — there was a larger question that puzzled nearly everyone: why in the world was Dick Armey dishing dirt to Media Matters?
The Daily Caller, a conservative outlet, tracked down the answer.
Dick Armey had no idea he was speaking to the left-wing Media Matters organization during an interview last week, he told The Daily Caller Tuesday. Instead, Armey thought he was chatting with the conservative Media Research Center. […][I]n a Tuesday phone interview with TheDC, Armey insisted that even though [Media Matters blogger Joe Strupp] properly identified himself, it wasn’t until “somebody busted my chops on Facebook” that he realized spoke to a left-wing group…. “That was a major, big screw up on my part. I thought they were somebody else.”
As for who he thought he was speaking to, Armey asked the Daily Caller, “Who’s the guy with the red beard that always does the show where he points out how biased the press is?” Told he seemed to be referring to the Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell, who does a weekly “Media Mash” segment on Fox News, Armey said, “Yeah, I thought it was Brent Bozell.”

Call me a skeptic, but I am not buying that one at all; not one lousy iota. Dick Armey might be old, but he is not that far gone yet. I know what is happening here. Dick Armey is pissed off that he was basically paid to bug off from his organization that he helped create and now he is going around dishing dirt. It is the classic political payback.

What disappoints me is that this is so low-class of Armey to do something like this. I always thought that Armey was a classy fellow, I guess I was wrong about all of that. Seems that the entire right-wing anymore is infected with the classless a-hole disease anymore. I know, that it has always been there, I.E. Malkin, Geller and the like; but now it seems to be everywhere. It is sad too, because I thought that the Tea Party movement would change a good deal of that sort of thing and that the Bush Era of classless Neoconservative politics would finally end. I guess not, some things never change I suppose.

Others: The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Balloon Juice and The Atlantic Online

I hate to say it, but he does have a good point

A very good point:

Obama won two elections giving voice to these policies, but within the neocon-dominated punditocracy and a Congress subject to pressure by the increasingly extremist American Israel Public Affairs Committee, they are akin to kryptonite. Hagel’s critics have been quick to unsheathe the McCarthyite tactics employed whenever opposition to any position of Israel’s right-wing government is at issue. The accusation is almost always “anti-Semitism,” but rarely has that charge proven as empty as in Hagel’s case. Leading the assault have been Pavlovian attack dogs like William Kristol and The Weekly Standard, Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post, ex–AIPAC flack Josh Block, the ADL’s Abe Foxman, Bret Stephens at The Wall Street Journal, and convicted criminal and former Reagan and Bush II official Elliott Abrams, now respectably ensconced at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The allegation rests in significant measure on a 2008 quote in which Hagel—whom the interviewer, author and former US diplomat Aaron David Miller termed “a strong supporter of Israel and a believer in shared values”—criticized the use of political intimidation by the “Jewish lobby,” an infelicitous phrase he accidentally used to describe AIPAC. Hagel later said he misspoke and had meant to refer to the “Israel lobby,” just as he did elsewhere in Miller’s interview. It’s an easy mistake to make, since the “Israel lobby” is pretty darn Jewish. (Dick Cheney, for instance, has made the same error.) As it happens, Hagel is a better friend to Israel than the Likud quislings and apologists who make up what journalists mistakenly term the “pro-Israel lobby”; for starters, he is willing to tell its leaders the truth. Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general and adviser on US affairs to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, wrote recently that “Barak was thoroughly impressed not only by Hagel’s military background, but by his analysis, knowledge of the Middle East, and his understanding of Israel’s security issues and predicaments,” adding that Hagel “is not anti-Israeli and he is not an anti-Semite. In fact, if I were him I would lodge a complaint with the Anti-Defamation League, asking their assistance and support for being unfairly called an anti-Semite.”
What these hysterics may actually indicate is a genuine fear on the part of the neocons and conservative professional Jews that they are about to be exposed as generals without armies, demanding fealty to policies opposed by the vast majority of American Jews for whom they profess to speak. How marvelous, then, that Barack Obama finally decided there was one time he’d rather fight than switch. via Hooray for Hagel | The Nation

One thing that I really wish to dwell on here, and it bears repeating:

Hagel’s critics have been quick to unsheathe the McCarthyite tactics employed whenever opposition to any position of Israel’s right-wing government is at issue. The accusation is almost always “anti-Semitism,” but rarely has that charge proven as empty as in Hagel’s case.

I must admit, I can truly relate to this; I have accused of the very same stuff myself. I support Israel’s right to exist and all. But I do not support the stupidity of the Neoconservative right at all. This whole idea that America has to defend Israel unto the death is idiotic at best. Furthermore, the idea that America has to be the world’s policeman is out of touch with our economic realities here at home. The fact is that Wilsonian foreign policy is a disaster and America has had to learn the hard way many times already. We learned it in Korea, we learned in World War I, we learned it in Vietnam and now, we have learned it in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Furthermore, Israel has my support on existence; but this idea that Israel has the right to build on disputed territories and then sit, and moan and complain when Palestinian and Gaza terrorists fire rockets into Israel is mindbogglingly stupid. It is something that I cannot support at all. The said part is, that these Wilsonian Neoconservatives will tell you that I am a Jew-hater and Antisemite for simply saying what I just said to you here. I call it playing the Jew Card or playing the Semite Card. It cheapens the discussion and frosts any kind of criticism at all. Which is precisely what Joseph McCarthy did in the 1950’s.

So, as much as it pains me to say this; even though he is of the far left —- Alterman has a good point.