Are The Rats Deserting A Sinking Ship?

Let this be a lesson to jihadist wannabes! Choose who to follow wisely. Especially if you're a foreigner looking for adventure or just a way to sate your lust for blood.

The Financial Times reported today that IS has executed 100 of it's own fighters who tried to flee their headquarters. Interestingly, those killed were foreigners who had become disillusioned.  I can say hooray for that but for them it has been too little too late!  I wonder too if maybe the Europeans have a smidgen of conscience that the hard liners don't.

The nationalities of those executed included British, French, Germans and Belgians.  It would seem they wanted to fight groups other than those to which they were assigned. The downside is their desire to fight in the first place.

However, when rebellion begins within ranks, chaos could follow and with a little bit of luck it could be the beginning of the end of ISIS.  Once word gets out that you either do as you're told or die, it puts you on an even footing with those you're there to fight.  Capitulate or die.  While hard core IS members look at death in their own way, most Europeans entered the fight for the fight perhaps more than the cause.  That would be their downfall. But it could also lead to the downfall of IS because they can't afford to lose too many within their own ranks if they can't replenish them.

If the likelihood of death by the hands of those with whom you've joined becomes widely known I would hope their ability to recruit would be greatly diminished. That IS would begin to disintegrate from within.

Now if only we would help the movement along by doing what we promised as far as properly arming the Kurds so they can mount more robust counter attacks real progress may follow. With Iraqis once again deserting due to lack of equipment poses a dilemma.  Of course they would still have their arms if they hadn't deserted in the first place.

Maybe it's time we quit playing war and actually fight it and end it.  Once and for all. Properly.

Couldn't We Do It Right Just Once?

Will the political parties that represent us ever grow up?  Better yet, will we demand that they do?

I was reading headlines on Drudge a few minutes ago.  Jeb is seriously considering running.  We know that.  The next one read Democrats already digging up dirt.  Please.

Let's look at this.  If it's Hillary versus Bush we know the Republicans will dig up tons of dirt on Hillary.  There is plenty going back to their days in Arkansas, Bill's moral shortcomings, Hillary's tenure as Secretary of State and so on. I wonder too, in this moral client where women are coming out of the woodwork to accuse Bill Cosby of indecencies, how Hillary tolerating Bill's peccadilloes will wash.

On the Bush side, it is known Jeb's wife had some issues with custom's over some shopping items while he was governor.  I have no idea what else there may be to be found or manufactured but you can be sure there will be something.

So what do we have without the dirt?  Two people vying for the presidency. One has a great deal of experience having been a two term governor of Florida.  The other has a great deal of experience being the wife of a former President.  Which looks better?  Forget who you'd like to have a beer with.

Bush has some perceived drawbacks.  One being his support for common core, the other being his support for a legal path to citizenship for certain illegals.  He has said he will run on what he believes which I would like to take to mean he will not pander.

Hillary?  I don't know.  I have heard her parrot other's opinions but has claimed none for her own. Wanting to be President shouldn't be enough. She is pretty good at pandering.

No matter.  Other's will in time enter the race because these two in their individual ways are vulnerable.  It would be nice, though, to have them all be judged on the merit of their ideas for regaining the stature of the country and moving the economy so we can all get back to living what used to be normal.  A decent job, good wages, a future and respect around the world shown toward our President and our country.

I know negative advertising works.  Only because we allow it.  We should dig, not for dirt, but truth.  If we don't we'll end up once again mired in nothing but mud. 

Let's Try For A Governor

The more I look at the potential candidates for the presidency for 2016 the more I find myself waiting for a governor or former governor.  And not Jeb Bush.

Not that I don't like Bush, it's just that I think we need to introduce some new blood and there are plenty to choose from that don't share his name.  He would, however, be better than Hillary who seems to have little more than celebrity to offer.

I look at Ted Cruz, among others, and his grand standing and see that he doesn't want to follow how the game is played in Washington. It is a game and there's little we can do about it except elect people who will ease it back to where it works well for us.  Slash and burn doesn't cut it.

That's why I lean toward a governor.  Someone who has experience in running a multifaceted entity.  That gives us a record to look at.  What does he or she know about trade, environment, education and so forth.  They can be grilled on foreign and defense policy for they will all have to have a policy to offer especially since our current President doesn't and the lack thereof is painfully obvious.

We will be able to see if they delegate or micro manage.  Whether their policies as governors were successful or not and why.  Maybe all states should pass laws that if you hold one office and want to run for another you have to give up the one you hold.  No more going back to the Senate or House if they fail.  That should force them into adopting strong enough positions to give them a chance to succeed rather than merely trying to promote a personal agenda.

It would be nice, too, if we'd adopt regional primaries so the same two or three states don't get to choose the candidates who pander to them then change their positions once nominated or even worse elected.  I won't hold my breath on this one.

It seems we're doomed to have professional politicians running our country.  At least let's choose ones who have some practical experience.  

Some People Never Learn

So the Omnibus Bill has finally passed.  I suppose I should take some pleasure in the fact that people from both sides of the aisle tried to stop it but I don't.

The way I see it, it's how government is supposed to work.  Neither side got everything they wanted but both got something.  It's called compromise.

It also means they might actually get some work done next year without the threat of  having to pass continuing resolutions or shutting down the government.

Ted Cruz and his ilk have yet to learn the art of compromise.  They are the obstructionists because, like the President, their modus operandi  is their way or no way.  They think that's what the American people want.  Or so they keep telling us.  This American person doesn't.  I want them to put their heads together and draft legislation that will move the country forward.  Not their personal agendas.

That's what the last election was about.  I am going to be a very unhappy camper with the Tea Party Republicans if they continue obstructing forward movement. I'm already fed up with the "conservatives" on the air who have done nothing but bash McConnell and Boehner since the election.  Give them a chance when they have the power.  Until January they don't and even after, the President still has the final word so expect compromise unless the demands are egregious.
 
We're going to have to know when  members of Congress are working toward their own ends for 2016 versus working for us. Especially those wanting to bid for the presidency.  Their ideological base may help them in the primaries but they best remember they're supposed to govern for all of us, not just those who share their point of view.

We've had six years of one who has not learned that lesson. I'll be holding those vying for his job to a much higher standard.

Risk Management

The air waves were full of praise yesterday for the men who attempted, for a second time, to rescue an American hostage.  This time in Yemen.  And well they should be praised.  It's risky work to say the least and success depends on training, intelligence and expedience.  The expedience is what was missing.

If you remember the first attempt failed because by the time the rescuers got there the hostage had been moved. Would that have happened if the rescue plan hadn't had to go through a bureaucracy of high placed White House officials who have no business being in charge of the areas in which they are in charge? Especially the President who insists he must sign off on everything no matter how much time is wasted.

This is another example of why micro-management doesn't work.  And what happens when a President has contempt for his military advisers.

He made flowery speeches that the second attempt, which was given away by a barking dog and wary hostage holders I might add, is an example of the lengths to which we'll go to rescue a fellow American.  The trouble is the length was too long.

In trying to look at the bright side, it was said at least the enemy knows we'll come after our people and theirs are likely to die.  What wasn't factored in to that cheery news is that they don't care.  Their cause and their religious zeal outweighs any desire they may have to live. We don't understand that.

Until we do, or if we can't understand then accept, that fact they will continue to kidnap Americans and kill them.  Period.

If there is an up side to this debacle it's that the hostages weren't beheaded.  Not that being shot is preferable but I think it may be.

Our special forces will continue to do the right thing.  It's what they do.  Too bad their commander-in-chief has such a hard time coming to the same conclusion.

No one with the disdain for the military shown by this President should ever be the commander-in-chief. Remember that in 2016.