Mr. Hagel Meet Mr. Karzai

Our new Secretary of Defense certainly got a warm reception on his surprise visit to Kabul. Two suicide bombers blew up 19 people.  What's a celebration without some fireworks?

Mr. Karzai has long been a blustering irritant but now he's turning into a full fledged clown.  Soon no one will pay any attention to his outbursts. One can hope. Except for his people and ours just before those bombs go off.

The Taliban has taken credit for the pyrotechnics.  Those jokers.  After all they have been in negotiation for months with Karzai as to how he's going to end his presidency.  At least that's what we've been told.

But wait!  Seems not to be so!  It seems they are now in collusion with us! Because they want us to stay where we will continue to kill them and protect the women and children as best we can and pour money into that bottomless pit of a country.

I get dizzy trying to keep things straight.  My mind cries for an explanation as to why we'd want to stay in that God forsaken place.  Our generals have already stated we've gotten darn little for the money we've poured in - other than the gracious and continuing commentary of how grateful they are from Karzai.

Let's see, one more time, we put him in office.  We helped him throw a second election.  We've enriched he and his family.  We've kept the Taliban at bay.  Really, we have.

What have we gotten?  Thousands of dead men and women, hundreds of thousands injured and billions of tax payer dollars lost.

So why would be want to collude with the Taliban or anyone else for the privilege of staying?  Granted some of our government officials are on a permanent ego trip, but even they can't find a positive here.  They have no educational system for our students to take advantage of.  They have no national security.  They have no industry.  The majority of their population lives so far below our poverty level no one in their right mind would want to join them. Heck, they don't even have indoor plumbing!

'Tis a puzzlement.  We've gotten the message Karzai wants us out.  We're doing the best we can to accommodate him without everything we have accomplished, no matter how minuscule, being ripe for reversal.

He wants charge of the prisoners we still hold.  To let them go free.  As George Bush might have said, "Come an' git 'em!" Never fear, they'll get them soon enough unless we export them to the U.S. for trials in our courts.  We wouldn't do that would we?

I know.  I'm droning on and on.  Hey.  Speaking of drones...

Grumpy Old Men

Wow!  McCain and Graham cannot win for losing this week.  This must be foreign territory for the political Bobbsey Twins!  I couldn't be happier.  I hate sanctimonious politicians and these two personify it and they're not handling it well.

After the Rand Paul filibuster, the Twitter world would have you believe that just maybe the Republicans are finding a voice.  Of course one incident does not a revitalized party make, but it's a start.  Especially when colleagues have the courage to come forward in support.

But these two!  Mocking the effort and calling the participants "wacky birds" doesn't make Paul and his associates look wacky, but rather McCain and his!  It is no secret that the Republicans are split.  It's also correct that neither side of the split has a monopoly on being correct as to the direction the party should go.

One reason I was against McCain when he ran for President was his age and his grasp of things he should have had and did not.  Even something as simple as knowing how to send an e-mail.  His war record is long past and while it should be appreciated for what it was, it doesn't come with a lifetime pass to act stupidly.

As for Mr. Graham, he's good with platitudes.  Occasionally I will catch him on Greta and find he does a very consistent sidestep when pressed on why things are not getting done.  A silver tongue and a reasonably pleasant persona is not a substitute for straight answers.  Of all people he should know that since he's still waiting for straight talk on Benghazi.

Times change.  There comes a point when people don't.  I'm going through that phase myself.  I'm having a difficult time reconciling what I've known and believed for most of my adult life with new attitudes and ways of accomplishing things.  Politically, though, there should be one constant and that should be the Constitution, no matter your age or party.  When you begin to think that those 'youngsters' don't know anything and you know everything, it's time to go.

If you believe in the principles of the Republican Party, then discuss your issues in private.  You're supposed to be on the same page here.  What you're doing is magnifying the split and looking petty along with it. You aren't all knowing and don't hold all the cards any more.

If you can no longer serve with dignity and grace perhaps it's time to retire with dignity and grace. Showing yourselves as petty and pathetic would be a sad way to see once distinguished careers come to an end. And end they will.  Sooner rather than later if it isn't understood that rigidity and change aren't compatible.

Drone Wars

A simple answer to a simple question was the outcome of 12 hours of filibuster by Senator Rand Paul over whether the President has the constitutional right to use drones to kill Americans on American soil.

Put simply, he does.  There are of course mitigating circumstances.  And no, he is not going to bomb an American citizen in Starbucks - unless that citizen is in combat mode against the United States. That's one of those mitigating circumstances.

As for Mr. Paul's filibuster, he should have done some home work on the examples he used, like Jane Fonda could have been taken out for doing footsies with the North Vietnamese.  Wrong. She was not part of, planning to nor actually committing  aggression against the United States.  Just using bad judgement but then so have Sean Penn, Jimmy Carter, Oliver North, Michael Moore, et al in their profuse praise of the recently departed Hugo Chavez.

Today Senators McCain and Graham, two of the most prominent Republican mavericks in the Senate chose to belittle Mr. Paul's efforts.  They too are wrong. He got his answer, in writing, from the Attorney General.  Mr. Graham still does not have the answers he was demanding on Benghazi so I'd be a bit more prudent than condescending in my judgement of a junior colleague.

There is still the question of government over reach.  We know they are capable of it by looking at their reaction to the sequester.  Considering that, written and detailed assurances of what can and cannot be done are essential. They shouldn't have to be asked for in the first place.

Very little that happens in Washington stands alone.  There are other drone worries that could also escalate.  Perhaps they aren't getting the same scrutiny because they come under another department.  You guessed it.  Homeland Security.  They have a fleet of custom designed drones that can identify people carrying guns and also track cell phone signals.  The department seems to be building it's own army what with it's armoured vehicles and weaponry.  Now drones.

While currently unarmed, the same Predator B military version carries Hellfire missiles which means the ones in domestic use can be modified.

This isn't to say they would be used to detect armed citizens or randomly monitor your cell phone use or modified to take out an offender, but then again why not?  The question is do you have the right to privacy or do you not?  Just like military drone attacks can hit innocent victims so too can domestic drones pick up information to which they have no right.

I give Rand Paul an A for effort in bringing to attention loosely drawn language on the rights of Americans.  I give McCain and Graham an F for pomposity and condescension.  As for the rest of us I'll  give an incomplete for not being as aware as we should be as to how everything connects. At times it's referred to as connecting the dots.  A game well worth knowing how to play.

Napolitano - Forever Faithful

Long before the administration put out the memo telling department heads they need to make sequester cuts painful because they've already said they would be, Secretary Napolitano was already out there.

Lines at the airports would be painfully long, traffic controllers would be off the job, the borders were already less secure.  All by design of course, not by necessity nor even in truth.  Such is the way of those who choose to follow blindly.

I dare say the underlings in this administration have adopted as their anthem I Will Follow Him from Sister Act.

                          I will follow Him

                          Follow Him wherever He may go,

                          And near Him, I will always be

                          For nothing can keep me away,

                          He is my destiny.

 For the President indeed is their destiny.  Without him they are doomed to an existence of invisibility.

Arne Duncan was bad enough, but Napolitano wins the prize for best of breed for Presidential lapdog.  With her insistence that the draconian measures foisted upon us by her department are vital to our safety, why are they now suddenly being altered?  Knives, with less than three inch blades, are now going to be allowed on flights.  As of April 25th mind you. So are pool cues, hockey sticks and ski poles.  In the cabin as carry on items.

I breath a sigh of relief knowing box cutters and bottled water will still be verboten. I mean how much damage can a 3 inch knife blade or the point on a ski pole do?  Suddenly these items are safe?  Yes they are.  And because they are the agents can focus more closely on finding the really dangerous stuff like explosives.  Oh, yes, there was also some international pressure.  To be sure!

Back to the point of the sequester. The scare tactics are being employed to stall or negate minuscule budget cuts.  I might suggest doing away with the entire department.  Put the Coast Guard back with Defense, the Border Patrol to where ever it came from and everything else with the agencies that were raided to form this monstrosity in the first place.  There must be a few bucks that would be saved with such a move.

And one more thing that might help. Cancel the order for the $50 million worth of new uniforms! Along with their new bomb resistant vehicles and ammunition stockpiles. Some of those uniforms are to be manufactured in Mexico. If the President wanted revenue he could have them manufactured here but I guess since it wouldn't be considered a tax on the rich it doesn't count.  Don't worry, though.  It will be painful for the agents.  Replacements will be on them and they'll have to provide their own shoes.  Black leather. Non-slip soles. Ouch.

What Value A Human Life?

The problem with my style of blogging, which seems to lean toward finding fault and wondering why there seems to be so much, is there is never a dearth of subject matter. It isn't always political either.

Today I'm going to lament the decline of human decency, compassion and the lack of value of a human life.

Just a few weeks ago 28 people met their end due to the slaughter at Sandy Hook.  Most of them children.  The populace was so upset it got the politicians off their duffs and over reacting as usual.  I don't think it was the numbers as much as it was mostly children.

Let's reverse the situation.  What of one person lay dying and twenty eight people stood around and did nothing? I can't be sure of that figure of 28, but it was a good many.  Staff.  In the dining room of an independent living facility an 87 year old woman collapsed while staff, including a nurse, did nothing other than call 911. The nurse refused to administer CPR as did all others watching.

The dispatcher pleaded with them, begged them, asked if there wasn't someone they could flag down to help.  No.  Wasn't anybody willing to help the lady?  She even assured the nurse no one would be held liable if the CPR didn't work. No matter.  "Not at this time," the nurse replied.

By the time the EMTs arrived it was too late.  The woman died.

This bothers me on a number of levels.  One because it happened in an assisted living facility.  The reason people go to them is to live, not to die! Would no one have utilized the Heimlich Maneuver if she had been choking? As I get closer to the age when I may have to look at such an alternative, it scares me to death!  That's probably not the best phrase I could have chosen, but  I now have a deeper understanding as to why the elderly resist such moves.  Not only does it take them from their homes and comfort zones, they don't trust them.  Small wonder.

When questioned, the administrator defended the nurse saying she followed protocol.  They call 911 and wait for help to come.  And allow a person to die.  What have we become?  Sheep?  No.  Sheep are benign and not too bright.  We've become worse.  Monsters of a sort that would stick to a rule and allow someone to die.  Even when their own lives were in no way endangered. Where is the common sense?  Where is the line between right and wrong?

One has to sign a contract to reside in such a dwelling.  The executive director informed the media each resident is informed of the policy before they move in.  To make the story even worse, the policy does not apply to the assisted living and skilled nursing facility adjacent to it. Do you have to live in an assisted living facility to get assistance to live?  In my mind each and every person witness to this episode is guilty of murder and should be so treated.

There is a lesson to be learned, for sure.  Always read the fine print then run, limp, even crawl away from it as fast as possible if such a clause is to be found!  I ask you, is what happened here any less horrific than the loss of the 28 in Sandy Hook?  Too bad you can't ask the dead.