"America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people."

--George W. Bush

Obama Announces the Iraq War Is Over

September 1, 2010 | Comments (0)

Last night Barack Obama announced in a speech delivered from the Oval Office that the war in Iraq has ended. Looking unbearably uncomfortable in his desperate attempt to appear presidential, Obama did this just in time for flailing democrat candidates to take credit for the war’s end come election day, November 2nd.

Though he has for years hesitated to say anything remotely positive about the War on Terror, with his tepid compliments last night to our troops (avoiding such dirty little words as “victory,” and skewing badly such words as “patriot”), he left most of his audience – even the side of that audience seated in the left wing – unimpressed by his performance.

Obama navigates uncharted waters whenever he takes a stab at playing Commander-in-Chief, evident in the responses he yields from his listeners, particularly his listeners who happen to be members of the United States Armed Forces. No wonder. Last night Obama once again offered troop-extraction timelines to America’s enemies, and he spoke of “turning the page” on Iraq. Indeed with these three simple words – “turning the page” — he dismissed the American lives lost, both at war and in the attacks on our homeland on that terrible, tragic morning in September of 2001. He dismissed, as well, the sacrifices made by our troops and their families over the last nine years since that day to keep subsequent attacks off American soil.

 Which brings me to what I consider the most jolting segment of his speech. I’ll let him speak for himself:

It is well known that [George Bush] and I disagreed about the war from its outset. Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security.

Huh?

While many may have disagreed with President Bush on a number of issues, including the war, his devotion to our American troops and the nation they are sworn to protect is beyond reproach. Last night, however, Obama, giving his predecessor a condescending pass rather than offering him any credit for the war’s success, suggested as a given the notion that crowds of people are questioning President’s Bush’s commitment to troops and country. Obama seemed to be projecting his own insecurity in a lame attempt to deflect the growing doubt among the American people about his own alleged lack of support for the troops, a less-than-ardent love of country and her heritage, and a questionable commitment to our nation’s security.

Obama may try, as he did last night, to overcome this doubt by evoking the spirit of our American fighting men and women, but those very men and women can see right through such ploys. Simply witness the genuine love and respect they would shower upon the former Commander-in-Chief (and vice versa) compared to the mandatorily polite greeting they typically offer the current holder of that position.

Our troops are no fools. They know who has their back.  And they know who doesn’t. We the people know it, too.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Presidential Quote of the Week

August 30, 2010 | Comments (1)

My favorite presidential quote of the weekend:

“I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.”  –Barack Obama

Not very presidential, Mr. President.  Other than that, no comment.

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

Critics Continue to Misunderstand Sarah, Alaska and the People of the Last Frontier

August 29, 2010 | Comments (1)

Whenever someone describes Sarah Palin to me as “stupid” or “such an idiot,” I suppress the impulse to argue or to ask how their own accomplishments compare to those of this fearless self-made woman. I simply ask, “Have you ever been to Alaska?”

The answer is invariably “no.” (Cruises don’t count. I’m talking the Alaskan interior where everyday Alaskans live everyday Alaskan lives.)

I have been to Alaska, I say, and in my experience, both as visitor and as writer covering sled dogs, the Iditarod, bears and wolves, what I learned early on is that “Alaskans don’t suffer fools.” In other words, Alaskans, many having followed the siren’s song to the last frontier from their native, more “civilized,” states and nations, don’t fall for the rhetoric or superficial flash epidemic along the right and left coasts of the lower 48. They recognize pretty clearly who people are, and who they aren’t. And I trust their judgment.

So when threatened trolls call former-Governor Sarah Palin an idiot, when they call her stupid, they are, by extension, hurling those same insults at the citizens of Alaska who put the woman in office. And they are making a tragic mistake.

The left’s lapdog press is salivating right now over Alaska’s republican primary for the U.S. Senate, Sarah Palin’s endorsed candidate Joe Miller and incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) contentiously awaiting the results of their close race. With the lapdogs celebrating the “civil war” brewing among Alaska’s republicans and predicting a “stolen” election on the horizon, the commotion came to a head late last week with some nonsense about a “tweet” from Joe Miller’s camp evoking “the oldest profession” in response to rumors that Murkowski might switch parties if she loses.

If the lapdogs — whose visits to Alaska have been limited almost solely to forays to dig up dirt on Sarah — understood the people of Alaska, they might understand, as well, that efforts to blow this story out of proportion are wasted on the people of the 49th state.

That said, I trust the Alaskans, with the clear-eyed common sense inherent to their kind, will as they always have ignore the lapdogs and tend to their own business without media or any other interference. In the meantime, I will thank them for giving us Sarah Palin, the sharpest thorn ever to impale a liberal’s paw.

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

McCain Wins His Primary

August 25, 2010 | Comments (1)

Oh, well. We can’t win them all.

Though my hope sprang (is that a word?) eternally yesterday, John McCain, armed with an endorsement from former running mate Sarah Palin (never could stomach that one), won yesterday’s republican primary in Arizona.

John can greet today refreshed, knowing that after forcing himself to run a campaign – and spending records of millions on that campaign – where he had to position himself as a right-leaning republican, he can go back to being the moderate democrat that is his true self. The causes of amnesty, politically correct rhetoric, campaign spending reform (hah!), anti-terror waterboarding, gun control….they have their Johnny back, prepared to cross the aisle whenever their leftwing proponents call his name.

In the meantime, perhaps John’s primary opponent J.D. Hayworth can take a page from Florida Obama-hugger Charlie Crist’s playbook and file as an independent. And maybe this time, her debt repaid, Sarah will endorse him. Again, I can always hope.

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

Primary Day in Arizona and Beyond: Send the RINOs Packing!

August 24, 2010 | Comments (0)

Hugs from Florida's Charlie Crist.

McCain, as always, crossing the aisle.

Today is primary day in several states, another step toward what I personally hope proves to be a tsunami for the democrats come November.

One impediment toward this tsunami could occur today, however, with the results of the republican primary in Arizona, where we find incumbent (and former presidential candidate) John McCain (“R”-AZ) pitted against former republican Congressman J.D. Hayworth.

At dawn the lapdog media, backing once more their favorite “republican,” began their primary coverage by reporting oh-so-gleefully that McCain is leading in the polls. The lapdogs employed this same strategy during the run-up to the 2008 presidential race, doing all they could to ensure that McCain would be the republican contender. The thought of a true conservative running against their beloved Barry or Hillary was too much for them to bear. They succeeded in their mission, hiding and ignoring the abundant meat their eventual democratic candidate brought to the table, their ultimate success, as even so many Obama voters now see, spelling disaster for our great nation.

Lapdog efforts aside, the fact is, when the primaries were all said and done, we voters were offered during the 2008 presidential election a choice between two democrats. One was the most leftwing, even fascist, candidate ever to grace a mainstream line of an American presidential ballot. The other was a moderate dem (despite the “R” he invariably places beside his name), whose military service to his country is beyond reproach, yet whose congressional voting record and positions on some of the most sensitive issues facing this nation are anything but conservative or even “moderate” in nature.

Senator McCain has had his run, and, given the great dangers facing our nation today (thanks in part to the Senator’s lackluster, politically correct presidential campaign), it’s time for him, and anyone we might consider “republicans in name only” to step aside and make way for some true conservatism to pull our country back from the brink.

So, please Arizona, stay the course you began earlier this year with your courageous Governor Jan Brewer. We have, you, Arizona, to thank for Governor Brewer, and I’d like to think that we can be thanking you again tomorrow should we awaken to discover that another RINO, the honorable Senator McCain, has been handed his walking papers. (Hey, Florida voters, this goes for you, too: You can help ensure we don’t ever have to see Charlie Crist hug his beloved President again, either!)

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Disneyland’s Lincoln Warns Us of Dangers Within

August 22, 2010 | Comments (1)

I don’t think I have mentioned in these posts that I am a fanatic for Disneyland (the original in California). Having grown up practically next door to the park, and working there summers during college, I have never gotten the place out of my system.

I was thus thrilled during my recent visit to the park to see that Abraham Lincoln has returned after a several-year absence in the legendary “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.” The President returns in the audioanimatronic form and setting in which he was originally seen in the 1960s, original introductory narrative, graphics, and speech intact, said speech featuring prominently our 16th President’s profound belief in liberty; the American people; and the notion that if America is ever to be destroyed, it will be from within.

You could not be more timely, Mr. President.

This experience took me back to my one and only visit to Walt Disney World in Florida six years ago. A highlight was the Hall of Presidents, a seemingly living gathering of all American Presidents, past and present. I was fortunate to see an audioanimatronic George W. give the keynote address, as the sitting President is granted that honor. Needless to say, I won’t be returning to the great hall as long as an audioanimatronic you-know-who is featured speaker.

But seeing Disneyland’s tribute to Abraham Lincoln got me thinking: Perhaps the Powers-that-Be at Walt Disney World should consider changing things up a bit at the Florida outpost. Perhaps they should grant the speaking position to the certainly deserving President Lincoln.

Think about it, Disney-World-Powers-that-Be, would you please? Imagine Mr. Lincoln, flanked by his presidential colleagues, delivering the same words he shares with us in California:

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty. And the American people, just now, are much in want of one.

What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and our independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts. These are not our reliance against tyranny. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military giant, to step the ocean, and crush us at a blow?

Never!

All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: that if it ever is to reach us, it must spring from amongst us….If destruction be our lot, we, ourselves, must be its authors and finishers. As a nation of free men, we must live through all times, or die by suicide.

“Or die by suicide.” Think about that. And look around.

He turns then to face the current President who stands arrogantly nearby nodding to the adoring masses in his spindly designer suit. The 16th President points a long index finger at the 44th.

“I’m talking to you, Obama,” he growls.

Then, turning back to his audience, he concludes: “Let us have faith that right makes might,” he says, “and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

Ah, well, I can wish upon a star, can’t I?

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

Journalist Hacks Sink to a New Low with the First Lady’s Vacation

August 20, 2010 | Comments (1)

Back in the day when the Clintons were in office, friends and I (those who had put the Clintons in office included), would joke about the deal this couple must have cut with the devil. As the scandals kept piling on at breakneck speed – and as Teflon Bill and his wife continually deflected whatever came their way – we could only imagine the monarch of the underworld scrambling around trying to figure out just how the he** he was going to make this one go away. He must have concluded pretty early on that he really wasn’t getting his money’s worth with this one.

For some reason, the lapdog media’s response to Her Royal Highness Michelle’s recent five-star sojourn to Europe has reminded me of those halcyon days that had Beezlebub scrambling to cover for the Clintons. With few, admittedly big-gun exceptions, they have desperately tried to paint this picture in a positive light. And they have ended up looking like even bigger fools for it.

Since the moment of the big announcement that HRH Michelle would be traveling to Spain with a massive, budget-busting entourage, destined to tolerate only the finest Spain could offer, the royal couple’s loyal media hacks have regaled those few who would listen with fanciful Camelotesque tales of how this woman has taken Europe by storm, while simultaneously inspiring the peasants back home. But despite the valiant spin, the lapdogs know full well that those peasants back home (the core of their ever-dwindling audiences) aren’t buying this pathetic story arc. Indeed Michelle’s opulence, coupled with the failing economy and job losses on the homefront, are the classic definition of “disconnect.”

The Clintonesque last straw occurred when one media outlet grasped in a last gasp for a message that would resonate. This particular media outlet (never mind the name, as they are all interchangeable) sputtered that Michelle Obama is only now beginning to approach the extravagance of….and it’s embarrassing for me even to write the name….Laura Bush.

Laura Bush?!

Did I hear that correctly? Yes, I did. Laura Bush. Nancy Reagan has been out of the spotlight for too long for such comparisons, they wouldn’t dare utter the name Barbara Bush, and Hillary…well, she’s one of them and has that pact in place, so the only option is Laura Bush, one of the gentlest, most gracious and elegant First Ladies ever to occupy the White House (gosh, I miss her). Say what you wish about George W., and indeed many have, using such terms as “assassinate,” “Nazi” and “idiot.” But Laura? Extravagance? Even the lapdogs couldn’t sink so low, could they?

Obviously they did, and in making this ridiculous, bogus connection, they reveal the shameful level of pathetic desperation to which they have sunk. Must be tougher than ever to look themselves in the mirror at night. How can they can face their non-journalist friends? How they can face their children? Struggle as they must to remain true to their loyalty to the First Family, they are learning, as certain presumed masters of the underworld must have in the nineties, how dangerous – and embarrassing – it is to pledge your allegiance to parties who make an artform of thumbing their collective noses in your face.

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

Obama Is Still Blaming Predecessor President Bush

August 6, 2010 | Comments (0)

In desperation, Obama blames this man for his own failings.

Earlier this week, Barack Obama told a fundraiser audience in Atlanta that the GOP is betting their political future on a mass American amnesia epidemic that will erase the American public’s memory of the GOP’s continued support of the policies of Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush – the predecessor Obama continuously blames for the nation’s catastrophic economy.

Excuse me, Mr. President, but despite your stab at clever repartee, we the people know that you, sir, are the one wishing for a nation of amnesiacs.

You’d best not hold your breath for that one, however. Our memories clear, we remember well the events of 2006, a mere four years ago. That was the mid-term election when your party, the democrats, took control of Capitol Hill, thus wrestling control of the American economy from the GOP. It was that glorious moment in time when dear Nancy became Speaker, George W. occupied the Oval Office, and you were Senator from Illinois, suddenly yourself a member of the majority party. Remember? Perhaps you were simply too busy running for President at the time to remember such minor details.  

As for your continually pitting GOP against DNC, speaking again as a so-called “regular” American, let me say that you are a bit confused there, too, my friend (conveniently so, I’m sure). This is no longer a nation of republican versus democrat. We on the right discarded those labels long ago. Today we are conservatives versus liberals, Alinsky strategy versus the U.S. Constitution, good versus evil, liberty versus tyranny. And it’s all your doing. In a way we should be thanking you for reminding us so effectively of who we are, who we are not, and who we are meant to be.

So by all means, keep claiming your failures (and desperation) are firmly rooted in the policies of George W. Bush and those who have supported him.

The rest of us will find our truth rooted in the quote of the day above – “That makes you responsible for my irresponsibility.” I quote here a buffoonish pass-the-buck monarch who scolds a perplexed underling in a scene from a favorite TV show of my daughter’s, The Penguins of Madagascar. Unfortunately, sir, that monarch could be you, blaming others for your own irresponsibility, your own incompetence.

In the meantime, we the people, our memories remain clear. We know who is running this show, and we know which side of the aisle has been driving it since 2006.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Missouri Says “No” to Obamacare with Proposition C

August 5, 2010 | Comments (2)

On Tuesday, August 3rd, the Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda received another smackdown, when the people of Missouri – more than 71 percent – voted yes on the Show-Me State’s Proposition C, the Missouri Health Care Freedom Act.

Proposition C was the state’s attempt to exert its Constitutionally endowed rights as a state, and say “no” to the mandates of Obamacare, in this case defying the mandate that Americans must purchase health-care insurance.

More than 70 percent of Missouri’s voters (from both parties), reflecting most national polls on the subject, have now set the stage for voters in 42 other states that will be voting on similar propositions in the months to come. In fact, the day before this vote, a judge in Virginia ruled that yes, the vote in that state could indeed go forward - with results, we might presume, similar to what we witnessed this week in Missouri.

Though the White House and democractic Congress would rather we not remember, the health-care atrocity was slammed through Congress last March through the use of bribery, threats, trickery and lies. Congressional leaders, the President and the administration used any means they could find to pass this legislation that is necessary, as Congressman John Dingell (D-MI) admitted so candidly, ”to control the people.”

But the people Dingell and his colleagues seek to control, the American people, they cannot be so easily coerced into supporting a bill that promises to gut the finest health care system in the world, as well as the bank accounts and liberties of Americans who recognize clearly the face of tyranny when they see it. And Missouri proved this on Tuesday. Whenever Obamacare and the agenda behind it have been put to the test of democracy, the results are drastically different from the propaganda oozing out of Capitol Hill and the White House.

Many thanks, then, to Missouri, a state typically considered a bellweather, offering a glimpse into the direction the nation is headed at a given time. Missouri has sent a message to the rest of us who are anxiously awaiting another election: the midterm elections of November, less than 100 days away. Missouri’s results on Tuesday have sent a clarion call that the anger among we the American people remains fresh, and we intend to take that raw anger with us to the polls on November 2nd.

Rest assured that Washington has heard the call, too. And don’t think they aren’t panicked. In the wake of Missouri’s vote, always-so-eloquent White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked what the results meant to the White House. His as-always-so-eloquent answer was: “Nothing.” No matter. We know the real answer, Bob. Everything.

Betsy Siino | Comments (2)

Portrait of an Everyday Patriot

August 3, 2010 | Comments (0)

Congressman George Miller (D-CA) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) -- peas in a pod.

A woman near and dear to me recently attended a town hall hosted by her Congressman, George Miller (D-CA). She had waited a year to attend such a meeting, writing and calling Congressman Miller almost daily. But her congressional representative, like so many of his colleagues, has been hiding under a rock for the last year, tiptoeing out only long enough to jump a jet back to DC, safe from his constituents 3,000 miles away.

For those unfamiliar, Congressman Miller (D-CA) is an entrenched San Francisco Bay Area representative who not only votes however his Bay Area mistress Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — and, by extension, fearless leader Obama — mandate, but is also the driving force behind the idea that the federal government should take possession of the nation’s 401K accounts. According to Congressman Miller, the feds are far more qualified to take care of your 401K money than you are. You understand.

But on this particular summer day, suddenly believing the media propaganda that the American people have forgotten their rage and are climbing onboard the Obama express, Congressman Miller ventured out into the sunlight and into a Bay Area auditorium.

It didn’t take long for the Congressman to learn he had severely misread the tea leaves. Before he knew it, he was being hailed by a woman – a mom, a grandma, a regular American – a woman whose emails, letters and phone calls he had successfully dodged for over a year. Before the night was over, this woman, a woman so near and dear to me, would emerge an everyday American patriot.

She took the microphone and told Congressman Miller that she had no question, but rather a statement to share with him. Her only intention was to verbalize what she had been writing to him for months, this time making sure he heard. She would report afterwards that she no idea her words would garner such cheers and applause from the other people surrounding her as, for the first time in her life, she spoke in a public forum. Health care, cap and trade, crippling taxes, the future of her grandchildren – she covered them all with that pure and organic eloquence that comes only when true passion is the source.

And as a mom and a grandma, practiced in the art of motherhood, not politics, she informed her representative that she did not appreciate the canned mass-mailed and spammed form letters that were his only contact with his constituents. “Congressman,” she said, “in one of your emails you said, and I quote, ‘I am working very hard to pass these bills in order to help you make smarter decisions.’ Congressman, I am 71 years old. I do not need you or the government to help me make smarter decisions!”

What she did need, she told him, was for the government to stop. “Please stop,” she pleaded. “Just stop the spending and the government takeover of every aspect of our lives….we have the right to make our own decisions, and we will make our own choices.”

Much to Congressman Miller’s relief, you won’t find this on YouTube. The woman at its heart wasn’t looking for viral notoriety so she made no such preparations. Her intent was simply to be heard by the man ostensibly elected to represent her and her family’s interests, a man who at one point during her statement tried to stop her, to quiet her, but, trained as she is as mom and grandma, she informed him she would finish, and he would listen.

And he did listen. He had no choice. What he heard will have no bearing on what he does, of course. Nancy and fearless leader Obama hold those reins. But others listened. And others are listening all across the country. And others are speaking up for the first time in their lives, too, just like this everyday patriot who is so near and dear to me. And to you. And to all Americans who applaud those who are finding a courage they never knew they had to stand up in defense of the country we love.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)