Steny Hoyer Says He Regrets Un-American Slur

Yesterday The House Majority Leader finally acknowledged his slur against those who protest the health care bill. He says he, "regrets" the slur of accusing those opposed to the bill as "un-American" but he did not apologize for it.

Merriam-Webster defines regret as, "to be sorry for". If a man breaks into my house and tries to cause harm to my family I may have to shoot him. I might regret the fact. I might feel sorry that I had to take that course of action. I would certainly not apologize or in any way make amends for protecting my family. Steny says he regrets the un-American comment, but in no way does he feel he ought to apologize for smearing people opposed to his socialist-statist agenda.

When I served my country in the military I was called a patriot. When I made the choice to go to Iraq to protect our soldiers from roadside bombs I was called a patriot. But according to Steny Hoyer, when I oppose his agenda for America I'm un-American.

I swore to uphold and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. My service in the military and since was against foreign enemies. Steny Hoyer is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, and my oath to uphold it means that I must oppose him and his kind!

Our current state of affairs was predicted in 1840, by Alexis de Toqueville.

This predicted and described the United States decent into socialism. We have failed to learn from our mistakes and others, teach our children, or know ourselves the value of liberty.

"Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications, and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks on the contrary to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness: it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances - what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living? Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range, and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things: it has predisposed men to endure them, and oftentimes to look on them as benefits.

After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp, and fashioned them at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a net-work of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided: men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

Democracy In America, Volume 2

by Alexis de Toqueville

Prescription for Disaster

On September 11, 2001 our government failed us. Despite massive budgets, impressive human and technological resources available to the government, 19 men armed with box cutters were able to turn aircraft into missiles. The only qualified success that day was aboard flight 93. The passengers ignored the rules, formed an ad hoc militia, and kept the terrorists from crashing their plane into a fourth building in Washington, D.C. With Todd Beamer's rallying cry, “Let's Roll,” they saved hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent lives on the ground while sacrificing their own on a field in Pennsylvania. These citizens responded with amazing speed to a threat America wasn't even aware of the previous day. We justifiably take pride in their actions.

Now this same government that has failed to secure our borders despite the explicit constitutional sanction to do so, has taken over our health care system in spite of the will of the people and constitutional restraints expressly put forth in the 10th Amendment.

The government’s past meddling in our health care system is what got us into our present problems. Rather than admitting their socialist mistakes of the past, liberals insist that they need to massively overhaul the existing system. Instead of instituting tort reform and other logical approaches President Obama and Democrats in Congress supply us with a 2,300 plus page law that we and they are supposed to read after they pass it. We don't need 159 new agencies and 16,000 new IRS agents. We need a functioning health care system!

The health care systems in Canada and the UK are pathetic. There are more MRI machines in Philadelphia than in all of Canada. Yet our leaders insist that somehow we are wrong because we are the only country that doesn't have socialized universal coverage. Instead of celebrating our exceptionalism, they demand we follow the rest of the lemmings over the cliff. Instead of cutting red tape and outrageous law suits Congress insists on more bureaucracy.

Doctors, patients, and the entrepreneurs in a free market can better solve our health care issues than can the government bureaucrats. Government, “solutions” invariably lead to waste, fraud, and abuse since there is no profit/loss motivation to keep things as efficient as possible. Instead government bureaucrats are rewarded for failure by ever increasing budgets.

We need a Congress that will listen to us, obey the Constitution, and unleash the entrepreneurs that have helped make this the greatest nation on earth! We need more people like Todd Beamer, and fewer like Steny Hoyer. So, “Let's Roll” to the voting booth in November and take our country back!

Hobby: PIX in Iraq

Well, a lot has changed, but mostly a lot has stayed the same. You know the movie with Bill Murray, "Groundhog Day." This place is the ultimate Ground Hog Day. Same thing day in and day out. So I have taken up photography as a hobby.

I've been posting quite a few PIX, and I'll copy the link here for you.

Here are some bonus shots for $hits.



MRAP



Sunrise Over CHU City


Sunrise CHU City



Broken Bridge Canal Morning Upstream

Let me know what you think of the PIX.

You Think You Have Had A Bad Day?

Day 15 in Iraq. I'm adjusted to the time change, the schedule, job, living conditions and all the rest. Things are already set into a routine, and I'm staying as busy as I can. The days are passing fast.

Today started off like every other day. I haven't heard a shot fired in anger. My roommate moved out and I had the room to myself, and arranged this morning for my coworker to move in with me, and out of the bad situation he was in with his roommate. After we get our work done, we get his stuff put in here.

Then it is time to run some errands. Drop off some laundry, get fuel for the vehicle, look for some woodworking tools at the Hadji-Mart. I'm driving toward the DFAC and laundry facility on the same dirt road I've been on three times a day. In the middle of the road there is a chunk of metal. The roads are real rough, and stuff gets bounced out of vehicles all the time. No big deal. I pull up and stop right next to it so I can chuck it off the road so nobody gets a flat. Hey, I'm a good guy, right?
It is the right thing to do. I'm on base, so no big deal.

I open the door right above the garbage. The roads are still really muddy from the rain two days ago, so I don't want to walk far in the muck. Right below me I now see clearly what the object is. A box duct taped to a hand held radio. Back home, just trash. In Iraq, it is an IED. Improvised Explosive Devise, a roadside bomb two feet from my face!

I've been through the training, I do anti-IED work. There is no mistaking this thing. It is a bomb and I'm way to damn close to it! Close the door, drive fast 100 meters. See soldiers, tell soldiers, that turned out to be Air Force Airmen, set up a cordon at each intersection, don't use your cell phones or radios! Call EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) now! Stand at entrance to the Engineers barracks and block traffic. Officer shows up, brief him on the situation. He verifies with binoculars that yes, it is an IED in the road, right here on post. EOD arrives with their up armored vehicle, clear the area and get out their robot.

Now I've got time to think. My job is done and the experts are in control. I'm now in a bunker and I've already chain smoked every cigarette in my pack and a soldier gives me his entire pack and I'm chain smoking those. I think about my kids, my wife, and how I almost made 5 orphans and a widow. My heart is trying to pound its way out of my chest. I'm not frantic, or hysterical, but I am unnerved. I know how close I came to meeting my maker. Doing 150 mph on my motorcycle doesn't even compare to the pucker factor I'm now experiencing.

The EOD robot destroys the IED. EOD and the military equivalent to CSI move in to what remains of the IED. It is a fake, a training aid used to familiarize soldiers with what to look for outside the wire. I instantly go from upset to anger. Somebody fucked up, big time. I want to kick some ass.

We go back to the hooch and I lay down in bed reciting, or trying to recite the Serenity Prayer over and over. But I can't remember the words. Now I know that I know the words to the Serenity Prayer by heart. I've said it a million times over. But I'm just a little freaked out right now. Eventually I calm down enough that the words come to me and I repeat them over and over and over. Somehow I manage to fall asleep for a little while. My new roommate/coworker/friend wakes me to ensure that I am OK. I go out, use the head, and have a smoke. My boss shows up I explain that I'm OK, just needed a little time to calm down and get right.

How was your day?

Getting Settled In Iraq

It has been a week and a half that I've been in Iraq now. I'm getting settled into my room, aka Hooch or CHU - Civilian Housing Unit. There are wet CHU's - with a bathroom, and dry CHU's - walk 100 feet or so to use the head, aka latrine, or shower.

I haven't been too many places around the base yet. The Dining Facility or DFAC is a daily stop. There are several around, but the closest is 1/2 mile away. I've been to the PX, Post Exchange for all the little things you need but can't bring with you.

So far I've had to buy, in no particular order:

• 2 sets of sheets and pillow cases
• Blanket
• Comforter
• 2 small carpets
• Dustbuster
• 4 pairs of pants online
• 2 laundry bags
• Assorted toiletries
• pocket sized notebook
• wet wipes
• Kleenex
• Snack food that I have yet to open
• Gold bond powder for my feet
• Cell Phone
• Calling Card
• Swiffer sweeper and hand duster
• A carton of Smokes

The job is going well, in fact it is really easy and quite boring. I am at work from 8 am until 5 pm, but most of that time is spent looking for something to do. We might average 2 hours a day of actual work! Boring!

So I have started little projects, like taking Duct Tape and packing foam and making a secure storage area for my laptop in my Bug Out Gear Bag. Or making step to have for the door of my Hooch. I have to share the room, and right now my roommate is cool, but he leaves Thursday for Mosul in Northern Iraq.

I've also started on making some shelves using some of the plywood used to ship equipment here. So I am doing more in my off time than at work.

Time to post up some pictures.

Made It to Iraq

After weeks of travel, training, and preparation I have finally made it to Iraq. More specifically, Camp Victory in Baghdad. I'm tired, sore from carrying 150lbs of luggage, but ok. I already miss everyone, but I can't stop thinking about how my family is doing. My wife is the best person I know, my best friend, and the best part of me. It is going to be a long year. I am totally exhausted, but all I can think about is talking to Yvette.

More soon on my adventures, but for now, it is time to crash.