American Warmonger

Dear Senator Allen

Dear Senator Allen,

Hello. My name is Jeremy Bol from the state of Virginia. I am aware that you may be one of the candidates for the Presidency in 2008 and was hoping I could bend your ear for a few moments about the issues you believe in. Better yet, I’ll explain the issues as I see them and you can see how well they jibe with what I have listed. This should give us both an opportunity to see how things are viewed. First, I will get an idea of what sort of candidate you will be come election time and second, you will get valuable data on what at least one person is highly concerned with.

Here is a list of issues in no particular order:

Immigration Reform – This topic is on the mind of many Americans and is a real concern of ours. We believe that little to nothing is being done to shore up the gaping hole that our border provides. Not only does it cause a security risk due to the potential for terrorists or terrorist sympathizers to slip in, but it also hemorrhages money out of the U.S. and into Mexico. I’m sure you’re aware that the second biggest industry besides oil in Mexico is the cash flow from illegal commuters across our border. This needs to be fixed. Please be the man who can do it.

Oil and Gas – Since early 2001 we have seen the price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline go from around a dollar a gallon to close to three dollars a gallon. Now I’ve been behind Bush for pretty much everything to date but this just looks bad. I know that the bill Jimmy Carter signed effectively banned the creation of new refineries but the truth of the matter is that the oil companies are reaping the benefits. Their returns are higher than they’ve ever been and there is no real excuse in their reasons for the gas hikes. Might I suggest restrictions on what oil companies can charge over the cost of production and the allowance of more refineries throughout the U.S.?

Alternative Fuels – Fuel efficient or alternative fuel vehicles will not be enough to quell our dependency on oil. We need to work on alternative energies. Building more wind and solar power is a good source and currently only produces about 1% of America’s energy. If you add hydroelectric you’ve then covered a total of 5%. There is plenty of room for improvement in this area. I would say there’s about 95% room for improvement in this area.

In addition to the use of alternative energies we need to devote some research into making the alternative technologies better. Most of the technologies we are using for our modern alternative energy sources are more than twenty years old. It needs to be updated just as badly as the space shuttle does.

Religion In School – This is a confusing issue for many people. Should we teach creation right next to evolution? Where do we draw the line? Well, I think I have the answer. We need to do what most colleges do. Have a religion class. Most colleges teach religion by giving you pieces of all religion. I believe this is the way to go. You satisfy the need to keep religious views out of school but satisfy the need to teach young minds what all the religious fuss is about. It presents all the options, including atheism.

Disaster Assistance – This may only be the topic of the hour but it continues to bring the stinging reality that FEMA has problems. Rarely if ever have I seen FEMA conduct business in a painless manner. Every time a disaster has occurred in the past FEMA has been there with long lines as requests for paperwork that just might have been taken out in the flood, hurricane, tornado, fire, etc. This I just off the top of my head, but it might work to have the FEMA database tied into all of the insurance databases so this paper shuffle is no necessary. It would save everyone the time and hassle of long lines and confusing paperwork. It would get people away from the beggar’s lines and back on the rebuilding lines. Of course, that’s just an idea. I haven’t seen it work in practicality anywhere as of yet.

Abortion – This is not a major issue of the day. I don’t know why people think this is a deciding factor for how the President will be but it seems rather foolish to believe that how someone believes on this one issue will control his entire outlook on how best to steer America. Besides, as far as I can remember it’s the judiciary that has a say on this topic, not the executive.

I hope this hasn’t been too much ranting for a busy person like you to read. I do hope you will be able to respond and explain your ideas and areas of concentration. It would greatly benefit my decision-making come election time. Thank you for your time.

One last thing, I am posting this letter on my weblog and will be posting your response as well. I will not be editing either one as I intend for my readers to see your unedited and unbiased statements.

Jeremy H. Bol
Virginia Resident
http://warmonger.mu.nu
Jeremy.bol@gmail.com

If you would like to send a message or ask a question of Senator Allen of Virginia you can do it HERE.

Good News!!

...and it doesn't even involve Geico.

Roberts has been approved by the Committee to go to the full senate floor.

Three Democrats joined the committee's 10 majority Republicans in a 13-5 vote to advance the conservative judge's nomination to the full Senate.

It shouldn't be too hard to figure out who the idiots were that felt the overwhelming intelligence of John Roberts was substandard but here are the names just in case:

Dianne Frankenstein of California
Joseph Biden of Delaware
Edward "Chappaquidick" Kennedy of Massachusetts
Charles Schumer of New York
Dick "The Turban" Durbin of Illinois

Yawn...no surprises there. God forbid one of these line toting schmucks vote for the intelligent choice. The whole two party system may collapse upon itself! Even if you've watched only one sound bite of the man you know he's the right man for the job. The best I can guess is the above noted senators voted against him on the principle that John so totally decimated their arguments that they had to do something to get him back. Otherwise you can just call them stupid.

Next we get to see the long-winded annoying rhetoric of the president that never was and never will be, Senator. John "effing moron" Kerry from Taxachusetts. I was sick and tired of hearing his condescending attitude before and I'm almost thankful there's a hurricane running around to divert the media attention from this pompous ass. It's not that I'm wishing anyone harm, I'm just thankful there's another news story to divert attention from having to listen to him.

Above this waste of space there's really not much of a story here other than the same old partisan crap. Dems are gonna’ complain about how he won't give them a straight answer and Pubs will have to explain how he can't answer these questions because he'd then have to recuse himself from the cases pertaining to those issues. Just once I'd like to see Roberts come back with something like, "Well Senator, did you get your Bar card out of a Cracker Jack box or are you just too stupid to understand how the judicial system works? You know I can't answer those questions so why the hell are you trying to grandstand?" Just once is all I ask.

For those of you out there thinking that this is going to be a close vote or get filibustered you are sorely mistaken. The Democrats don't have nearly enough votes on their side to make it happen. The only thing they'll have when everything is said and done is the ability to bitch about how Roberts wasn't voted in unanimously. Basically the only response I have for that line is, "Cry more you loser."

That is all. Nothing to see here. Move along...

Letters For Change

Dropped below the fold to give room to new work.

As I said a few days ago this blog was changing its focus to attempt to make a real change instead of the worthless blog bickering that completely dominates most of the blogosphere. I intend to make this post permanently at the top and contain the links to letters and emails sent to important persons that can effect positive change in the world. These do not need to be only my letters but if anyone would like to send a letter to someone that can effect change I will gladly link to their letter and response as well. I will do my best to categorize this appropriately but can't guarantee a complete structure.

As it begins I will be starting with a basic structure with no links that will hopefully build into a plethora of letters to politicians, public figures, big business professionals and the occasional entertainer. So here begins the basic structure:

Politicians
Present and past presidents:

Congressmen and senators:

Email to - Senator George Allen of Virginia

Other American Politicians:

Foreign Politicians:

Public Figures
Philanthropsists:

Evangelists and religious leaders:

Protestors and Protest Groups:

Collegiate Allumni and Documentarians:

Big Business(Sorted by industry as they are written.)

Entertainers
Musicians:

Thespians:

Sports Professionals:

News Media:

Print Media:

Radio Personalities:

Hopefully it will not take too long begin populating this with both your letters and my own. This was the main reason I got into blogging in the first place so I really hope having the added support of bloggers will help in the responses garnered.

Wish me luck.

Reflections of my Military Past

Here are my recollections on this fateful day. You may have seen it before but here it is again. The truth hasn't changed. God bless.

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When the first plane hit I was on board the USS Ramage assisting some people with opening a safe that no longer had a combination but still contained classified material. That was my need for being there as I was a Cryptologist and had the clearance to decipher the material. Someone from combat (an area next to ours and the control center of the ship) asked me if we had the scoop on what was going on with the world trade center. I gave him one of those deer in the headlights stares. What the hell was this guy talking about?

I followed him to the mess hall where they had a big screen television (the largest of probably only 10 televisions on the ship and most are only about 20 inches) just in time to see the second plane hit. What the hell was going on? When the first plane hit I thought it was just some idiot that can't steer like that guy they found flying a crop duster around the White house a few years back. When the second plane hit I knew something was wrong. After a few minutes to figure out what I was actually seeing I went back to the place where we were working and told my supervisor at the time what I was seeing. He went to the mess hall, as I could not leave the people cutting into the safe because of the potential classified material.

Much of the next hour was a blur. I remember seeing the pentagon get hit (this is when I finally saw in my own mind what was happening). I remember seeing the towers actually fall. I remember seeing the huge dust cloud and the people running down the streets of New York. I remember the captain of the ship saying that something terrible had happened and we would be conducting an emergency deployment in about an hour (we were probably about an hour into this event). I remember trying to check CNN.com but couldn't get through (I blamed the crappy internet connection that the ship had at the time). I even called my house a couple times before we were deployed and received no answer. I clearly remember though that something horrible had happened in New York and we were going north to make sure it didn't get worse.

Within 2 hours of the first plane hit we were deployed and going north. What I found out a few days later was that we were actually the first ship to pull out of Norfolk (a point of pride). We had about one third of our crew because we were getting ready for a deployment and many people were on leave or otherwise unable to get to the ships because of a base lock-down. I only had about two pair of good underwear on the ship as I did not expect to be deployed and did not believe I needed that stuff on the ship at the time. Luckily, a buddy of mine had a few extra tee shirts and some unused underwear or I would have come back rather crusty. Another piece of good fortune is that they had just restocked the galley so we at least had a good deal of edible food (I say edible because ship food is rarely if ever considered good).

So with none of our gear, (it was stored at a different location from the ship, It's a classified information thing you wouldn't...er...I don't even understand.) and only a third of our crew, we went forth and played "plane guard" for New York. Our job was to listen in on the different radio signals to see if we could hear anything special going on or as a second ear for the bridge when planes wanted to land in New York. (Lets just say we weren't too friendly about people flying around at the time..."This is U.S. Navy WAR Ship. State your name, call sign, .........". We didn't even say what ship we were. The response I remember most was some brit pilot scared half out of his wits saying " this is such-and-such airlines flight xxx-xxxx...umm...please don't shoot."

At the time I thought it was sort of funny but after about an hour or two I started thinking about the guy and how we sounded and realized that yes, we probably would knock him out of the air if he even thought the words "Allah akbar" (god is great). This is not anything against Muslims, they have every right to be here and be free, just like non-Muslims, if not more. It was just as though a small dog came up to the rotweiler on the porch and took a chunk out of his soft underbelly. We were on the complete defensive and wanting something, anything to tear limb from limb.

After about a week (10 days) of this routine, we were relived and went home to our families. When we got home it was like we had missed the most important week in the world. Everyone else in the world had the opportunity to see what was going on, watch the footage, analyze it in your own mind, to mourn the loss. We were not afforded that opportunity. We were on a ship, away from the news, and had to rely on the information our captain told us, and a few snippets of e-mail that managed to slip through to find out what was going on . (I got none by the way.)

Pretty much everybody on the ship did not show any emotion for what had happened. It's not that we were a bunch of crass, unfeeling monsters. We feel all of it, everyday. It's just that we've been trained to do a job no matter what and we realize that if we don't do that job efficiently lives can be lost. We don't have the luxury of thinking about whose fault it is, or how we screwed up, or some hair-brained theory about how Bush planned the whole thing. It is not up to us to decide what it means. It is, however, our obligation to act out the wishes of those in leadership even if it costs us our lives, or time away from our families, nasty living conditions in a hostile environment, etc.

Something that many civilians don't realize is that we've seen MANY more lives lost than you have. I'm not speaking of actually watching people die. I'm speaking of having people that are close to you or associates in your company dieing. These are people that could have been you in a slightly different circumstance. Here's a short list of losses I have been forced to recognize in the same way civilians recognize 9/11: The USS Cole bombing, Khobar towers Bombing, the USS Forestall fire, multiple plane crashes. These are the ones you have read about. Here are a couple you haven't heard about unless you really, really watch the news: USS Leyte Gulf lost part of a boat crew in the Persian Gulf while doing boarding operations, serviceman gets blown up by a lose mine planted by North Korea while on patrol on the DMZ.

I think the thing that stands out most of all are these Monday morning quarterbacks. Where was the outpour of emotion when the OTHER (Khobar) towers were hit? Did any civilians or news agencies demand results when the USS Cole was hit? No. Sure, there was outrage for a bit but everyone said "Well, it's the military and that's what they're paid to do. You know, risking their lives and all. It's okay for our president to sit on his fat ass and collect knobbers like collecting stamps and embarrass the United States and all it stands for. We are all well aware that other presidents have had the same affliction but this was the only time I personally have had to endure the international embarrassment when a president disrespects his position like that. When you're overseas and talking to someone from the host country what do you say? Anyway, this is supposed to be about 9/11 so let me wrap this up.

For me, 9/11 was just one of many losses. As a military member I had to accept what happened and move on to the continued defense of Democracy throughout the world. Apparently, I'm the only one who did. As people complain about how we need to concentrate more on Afghanistan I see they will be having their first free elections on October. The only reason I have a link to this is the median was trying to show how we're failing over there by highlighting how we lost 23 people in Afghanistan this year. Yeah, right, failing; of the over 9 million registered to vote, (about 90 percent of the estimated eligible electorate) 41.4 percent are women. Gee, that just says failure to me. It's a loss to me but I can accept it. We have other, more pressing matters to attend to in the world. We need to make the hard decisions in the world. No one else will make them. The UN has been proven corrupt; I'll prove it if you want. Many of our allies turned their backs to us because we took the path less traveled by. Unfortunately, what we need to do in the world isn't always "PC". Sometimes you need to do the internationally unpopular thing to ensure American safety. Peace isn’t always the right answer. If my opinions makes me just another American warmonger, (blatant plug) then so be it.

Observations On New Orleans

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The following is an observation from someone who has not done in-depth research into exactly what has and has not gone on minute to minute with Katrina. I have only listened to snippets of news and have only the wits about me to guide my judgment on this. I'm sure as soon as this article is posted some enlightened individual will explain how Bush has some super secret weather machine that made Katrina and planned the deaths of a bunch of black liberals because he's a racist and because he's trying to play politics even though he can't run for a third term as President. Barring this let me begin.

The city of New Orleans is below sea level. It has been under sea level for several years. It wasn't always under sea level. It used to be at or above sea level, just as the French Quarter is. Somewhere along the line the main portion of the city started sinking. Something else interesting happened at the same time. People started putting up skyscrapers and various other large buildings in downtown New Orleans. Now I'm not the best on math here but my reasoning explains that the silt bed was compacted under the increased weight of the buildings causing the city to sink. Are people actually that stupid they don't realize this?

The bigger question I'd like to ask is why was this allowed to take place? The city planners obviously understood that the city would sink under the increased mass but for some reason was either not heeded or chose not to speak up. Some would scream corruption. Some would blame greedy politicians. Some would put on their tin foil had and say my assessment is completely ludicrous because everybody knows it was the aliens doing it.

Church busses were used to evacuate people before the hurricane came. The church leaders were very good about collecting those parishioners and non-parishioners that they could carry out of the city. Can anyone explain why the transit authority wasn't bussing people out of the city? What happened to all the school busses that were getting ready for the new school year? Would you like a direct answer? My good buddy D.C. has an answer. Let's see what he has:

Hmm, a bunch of Twinkies lined up all nice and pretty? Oh, my mistake. Those are a bunch of school busses that the mayor never called into action and ended up causing the deaths of thousands of his residents. I don't think he'll be reelected. Do you? Sort of makes you wonder exactly why he's trying to point blame at everyone beside himself?

What took the reconstruction equipment so long in getting into the city? My guess is that it was they fact that if they left the equipment in the city during Katrina they would have had no equipment to do the rebuild with. They moved it out of the city prior to the hurricane to keep it safe. We don't have a magic teleporter machine so two days to move it all back into place will have to do instead of never getting any.

Something else that delayed things further was the breaking of the levy. Many of the helicopters that were set into motion to try and repair the levy had to be taken away from daring rooftop rescues. Sure, people walking out of their homes onto dry land is much less dramatic a scene but in the end saves a few more lives than those you could randomly pluck from the rooftops you can still see. Reducing the floodwaters has priority.

Speaking of the levies, who's responsibility is it to maintain them and keep them up to code. Who has the authority to reinforce the levies if they have been determined incapable of supporting a level three hurricane? I don't believe the federal government has jurisdiction in this arena but I could be mistaken.

Anyway, on to a different topic. I've heard rumors of this but I don't know 100% for sure this is true. The day Bush landed in the area on Air Force One, the second day after the disaster, he spoke with the L.A. Governor. He provided two options to the governor and reminded him he had not yet formally asked for aid nor declared it a disaster area. According to normal procedures the President does not have the authority nor jurisdiction to act until called upon officially by the state for help. What boggles my mind and the part I'm trying to understand is that the Governor left the meeting stating he needed 24 hours to weigh out his options. Did this really happen or is it just another case of horrible journalistic integrity by the media?

Today in the media we hear how this is entirely race based. Since all the people are black it's racist and if white people would have been in danger we would have acted faster. If white people had been needed to evacuate there would have been transportation available. This is all well and good until you realize the Mayor of what once was New Orleans is black. Unless this is racism against his own people then Jesse Jackson and others are barking up the wrong tree. If anything this is purely classism, not racism. It is the haves and the have nots if you will. Go look at the smoking gun busses again to know exactly what killed thousands of people.

Something else I have noticed is the inability of FEMA to act in an effective manner. The people try hard and work long hours only to complete little to nothing by days end. I've seen the same song and dance in other disaster sites managed by FEMA. I don't believe the problem lies with the people of FEMA. I believe the problem may lie with the management of FEMA. Is it true that the director of FEMA has never really had a disaster recovery job prior to being appointed to the position? Inquiring minds want to know! Who would appoint such a person?

I haven't given a dime to the disaster relief efforts. This is the first time I have written anything on the subject even though it makes my blood boil. I've just sat and done nothing. You can cry me a river about how I'm a bad human being for not contributing and whatever reasons I have are too miniscule to matter but in the end you can just kiss my white hairy ass. I have basically two reasons for not helping.

First, the Red Cross does not always do what it says it is going to with the money. I would be remiss if id didn't mention what they had intended to do with the money they had raised for the 9/11 victims that somehow got rerouted to other charitable causes. Who can guarantee that they won't try this again? I will never give them another red cent for the rest of my natural born life.

The other reason I'm giving is the residents of New Orleans themselves. Every depiction of these people are screaming about "What are you going to do for me?" Nobody can tell me to just give them stuff for no reason...except the government. There have been episodes of people shooting at the rescue helicopters or people working construction. Is this how you treat the people that are trying to help you? They are net representing themselves in a good light whatsoever. Why should I care about them again?

All the while they are stuck in this horrible place with no food or water and squalid living conditions. They keep waiting for the busses but they never come or no one is there to drive the busses. Maybe they should do what one 16 year old did. Maybe they can hotwire a bus, load it with people and drive them to Huston of his own accord. From what I hear he is pending trial for driving without a license. Way to treat a hero. He should be getting a medal.

I'm sure much of what I depicted is skewed of misguided or just plain wrong. I'm sure there are other important facts I have left out. There are simply too many things going on and too many politicians positioning their political game for us to ever know the full truth about what went on. In the end it will be the same crap about the dems pointing to the pubs and vice-versa. In the end nothing will happen and more people will be killed for politics. God bless America.

I Have Returned

After a much needed sabbatical from the blogging world I have returned. I have had a good deal of time to collect my thoughts and completely refocus my goals. Through introspection I have discovered several things about this site:

1. I will never replace Instapundit. I do not have the will or the wherewithal to blog with the frequency of a big name blogger. I will never have thousands of hits a day. I will not become everybody's favorite bookmark. I'm just a guy with ideas that some people like and others don't

2. This blog will not make me famous. You will not see the words written on this site being echoed by the likes of Sean Hannity or Larry King. If I do end up on television it will most likely be for an in depth description of what the UFO sounded like. Fame is most likely not in the cards for me.

3. I can not influence change in my city, state, country or world. This blog is effectively worthless for these functions so I am going to stop doing that. I officially quit trying to make a change in the world with my blog. It is pointless to try. The only thing that is ever realized is people patting you on the back or running snark raids on your site. It accomplishes nothing. This blog has accomplished nothing towards a political end.

4. Most of the blogging alliances out there are exacting no sort of effective change save for getting their name out occasionally. This is why I feel it appropriate for me to quit several of these groups. I will provide specific reasons:

Blogcritics - For the most part this site is nothing more than a group of elitist liberal slugs with little to no control over its members. It is effectively a mob rule that loves nothing more than to eat it's young. If you have ever been a member and listened to the bull that goes on in the Yahoo Group you would understand the useless drama, and hate and bickering and spitefulness that a good portion of the upper echelon partake in. Please take heed of my finger in the air to the entire site.

The Wide Awakes - Many of the people involved with this site are trying to make a difference in the world. There is good potential from the members involved. The cornerstone of this site is a failure however. Cao, you have completely destroyed the viability of the entity you worked to create. You and you alone are the reason I quit. You have a serious problem that needs to be looked into. You present a flawed piece of work, someone makes a critique, you verbally bash this person, they try and counter, you call for help from your TWA buddies. It's a cycle of damsel in distress that I will never call to again. I will miss the group but can no longer partake in it due to this failure of leadership.

Stop The ACLU - Frankly I just don't agree with a good portion of the material put out. You are all great people but I just can't bring myself to continue with a group I don't fully agree with. Goodbye and God bless

Mind and Media - Stacy, you are a really great person. You have a strong conviction for what you do and I am proud to call you a friend. When I joined your book group I did so under the pretense there would be something besides strictly religious material to choose from. As time as gone on the book selections have narrowed to a strictly Christian clientele. I am a Christian, but I do like to read other things as well. What ever happened to the political books you used to have?

So now that I have alienated most everybody I have blogged with why am I still here? I'm not here for you. I'm here for me. I'm here to try and make a real change and standard blogging isn't going to make a lick of difference in the world. I am going to do what I wanted to do in the first place. I'm going to write my congressmen. I'm going to complain to the president. I'm going to tell Kofi Annan just where he can stick his coffee can. I'm going to send thought provoking letters to politicians and chronicle them here.

If you wish to join in this escapade of mine feel free to send me the email you have written, the politician, date sent and any reply that was received. I will chronicle those as well with who sent the correspondence and the site they are from. If you have suggestions as to who you would like me to send letters to and why I just may do so. I know I have a talent for piecing the English language together and have no problems with helping people's ideas as long as they are similar to mine.

The linked chronicles will be intended to maintain the top spot of this blog first and foremost. I will continue blogging for myself as I do feel the need to express myself for my own mental therapy. I will not, however, become a slave blogger that writes about everything under the sun so his or her readers have something to read. Not to sound contrary, but if there is a particular topic you would like my opinion on I do take requests. I won't guarantee I'll blog about it but many of my better posts have come from people asking me what I think.

All this said I believe it's time to get back to trying to make a change. Wish me luck.