Would You Have Approved?

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and that he is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia , would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word "advice" would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as proof of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's a hypocrite?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9 /11?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America, would you have approved..

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W.. Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything? Don't worry. He's done all this in 9 months -- so you'll have three years and three months to come up with an answer.

Take This War Seriously, Mr. President!

During the campaign, then-senator Obama promised that if he were elected he would pull out troops from George Bush's war in Iraq and concentrate on the real war on terror in Afghanistan. Well since becoming president, Obama seems to have completely forgotten, or more likely chosen to renege on his promise. He even changed the "war on terror" to some asinine politically correct phrase of "man-caused disaster" so as not to offend our enemies, I suppose.

General McChrystal, the commanding general for the war in Afghanistan, played hell even trying to get a meeting with our commander in chief to discuss the war for the first eight months of Obama's presidency. When they finally did meet, General McChrystal laid out his reasons why he needed at least 40,000 more troops to be deployed in order to accomplish his mission in Afghanistan.

President Obama has since been weighing his options on what to do for the past month and half since then; meanwhile the situation continues to degrade and more unnecessary deaths mount for Afghani's and Americans while Obama dithers around in indecision.

Well it was reported today what Obama's decision will be regarding his choosing of one of the four separate plans presented to him to help win the war in Afghanistan. His choice? None of the above. Obama is not happy with any of these choices and wants everyone to go back to the drawing board on options for him.

His timidity and indecision only emboldens the Taliban and al Queda while weakening the morale of our military as they encounter higher casualties because of the fact that they are spread too thin. This is totally unacceptable for Obama. Either he needs to give the troops requested by General McChrystal to finish the job, or he needs to pull everyone out of the area RIGHT NOW.

Pulling everyone out would have disastrous long-term consequences and would likely kick the can down the road to 2012 when we have a new president in office that will hopefully not be cowardly and will actually look at this war as a necessity for our national security and not a political conundrum.

While I strongly disagreed with most of Obama's past domestic and foreign policy decisions, I tried to keep my personal feelings for him as objective as possible. However, when he shows such huge disregard for our servicemen, let alone our national security, I can no longer give him even the benefit of the doubt. He is a politician in the very worst sense of the word and his landslide defeat to come in 2012 cannot come here soon enough. I will pray for those that are put in harms way needlessly because of his fecklessness and timidity, which will only serve to bolster the courage of our enemies.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this after Obama spent the first two minutes of a national press conference to address the terrorist killings of our soldiers at Fort Hood by giving a shout out to people and discussing native American rights. George W. Bush did a lot, even most things, wrong, but he could be counted on to look out for our servicemen and our country's defense. Evidently this is another way in which Obama chooses not to be like his predecessor.

Rush Limbaugh Nov 10 2009 Morning Update

Happy Birthday to the Marine Corps

On November 10th, 1775, a meeting was held by a committee of the continental congress at Tun's Tavern. The purpose of that meeting was to form a needed fighting force that could operate on sea and on land. At the close of that meeting, the formation of two battalions of Marines were authorized and the United States Marine Corps was born.

Having served in the Navy myself, I find that I love the Marines in the same way that an older brother loves and puts up with a precocious, tough, and obnoxious younger brother. It strikes me as appropriate that the Marine Corp was born in a tavern, accordingly. The men, and women, of this arm of the United States armed forces is perhaps the proudest and definitely the toughest fighting force the world has ever seen. They are also by far the smallest branch of the armed forces.

I have had the privilege of serving with and being friends with several Marines over the years. Everyone one of them was and is a good man that embodies the spirit of the Marine Corp motto, Semper Fidelis. (Always Faithful) So on this day of the 234th birthday of the Corp, I want to say thank you to all of you fantastic Marines out there and Happy Birthday to the tip of the U.S. spear. Just remember though, that the Marines still fall under the Department of the Navy!

A Good Sign of Things to Come...Hopefully

I am heartened to see that one of the many states I used to live in, Virginia, regained its sanity and flushed most of the Democrats up for election last night, including for the office of governor. Evidently there was some strong buyer’s remorse over giving control of the state to the Democrats during the last election and voters decided to put their universe back in order once again.

Likewise, it makes me happy to see the Democratic governor of New Jersey, John Corzine, get shown the door in favor of a conservative Republican in what is arguably one of the bluest states in the country. Corzine lost despite (or perhaps because of?!?) FIVE campaign visits from President Obama to the state in order to help him and the spending of many millions of Corzine’s own fortune to try to hold onto the governorship.

Unfortunately, Republican governor-elect Christie is going to have a very tough job in cleaning house of this still heavily-Democrat-controlled state where corruption in government is simply their standard operating procedure. Nonetheless, the folks from the state of New Jersey now have a chance to finally see the beginning of some real change they can believe in, perhaps.

The truly funny thing is that despite a very good night for Republicans across most of the United States, speaker Nancy Pelosi still stated that “We won last night”. My thought on that is just wait until this time next year. She is in for the win of a lifetime if she is pleased with last night’s results!

U.S. Catholic Bishops' Stance on Health Care

At the end of Mass on Sunday, our priest made an announcement to take note of the special insert in our church bulletin handed out after Mass from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This insert states the USCCB's opinion on abortion issues as currently stated in the various health care bills before congress, and is supposedly to be sent out in all Catholic Church bulletins across the United States today. I have typed out the text of the insert in its entirety below:

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

3211 Fourth Street NE, Washington DC 20017-1194, 202-541-3100, FAX 202-541-3166

USCCB Nationwide Bulletin Insert

Tell Congress: Remove Abortion Funding & Mandates from Needed Health Care Reform

Congress is preparing to debate health care reform legislation on the House and Senate floors.

Genuine health care reform should protect the life and dignity of all people from the moment of conception until natural death. The U.S. bishops' conference has concluded that all committee-approved bills are seriously deficient on the issues of abortion and conscience, and do not provide adequate access to health care for immigrants and the poor. The bills will have to change or the bishops have pledged to oppose them.

Our nation is at a crossroads. Policies adopted in health reform will have an impact for good or ill for years to come. None of the bills retains longstanding current policies against abortion funding or abortion coverage mandates, and none fully protects conscience rights in health care.

As the U.S. bishops' letter of October 8 states:

"No one should be required to pay for or participate in abortion. It is essential that the legislation clearly apply to this new program longstanding and widely supported federal restrictions on abortion funding and mandates, and protections for rights of conscience. No current bill meets this test.... If acceptable language in these areas cannot be found, we will have to oppose the health care bill vigorously."

For the full text of this letter and more information on proposed legislation and the bishops' advocacy for authentic health care reform, visit: www.usccb.org/healthcare .

Congressional leaders are attempting to put together final bills for floor consideration. Please contact your Representative and Senators today and urge them to fix these bills with the pro-life amendments noted below. Otherwise much needed health care reform will have to be opposed. Health care reform should be about saving lives, not destroying them.

ACTION: Contact Member through e-mail, phone calls or FAX letters.

To send a pre-written, instant e-mail to Congress go to www.usccb.org/action .

Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at: 202-224-3121, or call you Members' local offices.

Full contact info can be found on Members' web sites at www.house.gov & www.senate.gov .

MESSAGE TO SENATE:

"During floor debate on the health care reform bill, please support an amendment to incorporate longstanding policies against abortion funding and in favor of conscience rights. If these serious concerns are not addressed, the final bill should be opposed."

MESSAGE TO HOUSE:

"Please support the Stupak Amendment that addresses essential pro-life concerns on abortion funding and conscience rights in the health care reform bill. Help ensure that the Rule for the bill allows a vote on this amendment. If these serious concerns are not addressed, the final bill should be opposed."

WHEN: Both House and Senate are preparing for floor votes now. Act today! Thank you!

The bottom line for me is that all of the current iterations of health care bills out there are seriously flawed and will only serve to worsen our health care system while destroying our economy. The abortion funding and conscience issues contained within those bills are simply the most egregious and evil parts of the bills. I am proud that the Catholic Church is standing up to fight against this outrage being done under the auspices of "helping people".

Further, it saddens me that supposedly Catholic speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi intentionally had the House bill drafted in such a manner as it now stands. Hopefully enough people will speak out against this travesty and she will see the error of her thinking on this matter. We shall see...

Demons and Saints

Well, my Halloween was indeed horrifyingly scary when I realized that Reid, Pelosi, and an Obama administration official are getting close to having a vote on a nearly 2000 page health care bill they drafted, which very few (if any) members of congress will even have read at the time of the vote. That should scare every American to think that our flawed health care will become forever more like the DMV, if this Frankenstein bill passes.

Today I do have hope though, for it is "All Saints Day", which is a Holy day of obligation for Catholics. I will go to Mass accordingly in a little while and ask my patron saint to pray to our Lord that our health care is not destroyed by this socialist bill. Perhaps a bit ironically, my patron saint happens to be St. Jude. He was one of the twelve disciples of our Lord and the patron saint of lost or desperate causes.