Rush: We have a lot of things to be embarrassed about in the US …

the current bill does not represent a government takeover. i suggest you familiarize yourself with the details before you make such a statement.

deem and pass is an uncontroversial procedure used several times in the pass by both republicans and democrats. relatedly, the constitution (Article 1, Section 5) says that each house of congress “may determine the rules of its proceedings.”

israel is our ally and depends on us for its existence, so it should acting like it. timing the announcement of the 1,600 new homes to biden’s visit was a deliberate insult, and the administration had no other choice but to respond as it did. otherwise it would have looked, with serious consequences to our standing around the globe.

finally, the decision not to fly the flag is not unprecedented. it was made in kuwait in 1991 and iraq in 2003. using it to buttress your argument that obama is ashamed of this country is idiotic.

sesquipedalian on March 16, 2010 at 4:21 PM

Since neurosculptor on March 16, 2010 at 4:35 PM has more than adequately answered your ridiculous and illogical statements, I’ll limit myself to discussing shows of the flag and passing legislation without actually voting on it.

If your position is that since Republicans and Dhimmicrats in the past have used “deem and pass” rules to pass inconsequential legislation and thus, it should be used to pass this massive new government bureaucracy, then I will merely point out that two wrongs do not make a right.

Since the press has finally decided to cover this story in detail, in order to press your’s and their own nefarious agenda, and has let the cat out of the bag that Congress doesn’t actually vote on all the legislation it purports to enact upon the populace without recourse or redress of our grievances against such a situation, I can only say that Republicans were wrong to use this rule in the past, Dhimmicrats were wrong to use it in the past, and NO ONE should use it henceforth. The American people want EVERY piece of legislation that Congress intends to foist on us, no matter how ridiculous, voted on and when a roll call vote is called for by anyone, we want it recorded for posterity. Congresscritters of both sides have far too often used schemes and political tricks to seem like they have voted against legislation unpopular in their districts, while supporting its passage overall in Congress, and using vote counting by the leadership to massage a Congressman’s true positions on legislation. This is dishonest and wrong, no matter how you big government types play it.

Just because you think the votes are there, and the people in your little circle jerk of friends want free healthcare, doesn’t mean those of us who would have to pay for it agree, and will sit by idly while your type steals from those who work for their well being and gives to those who never earned it. Especially if a Congressman is dishonest in his vote.

Fascism is the use of state power to demand or influence the use of non-state enterprise. This healthcare bill is most assuredly in that category. And while it alone may not be a totally fascist enterprise, even rubes who have little advanced education, like me, can tell when we are being lied to and who is doing the lying. You and your heroes in the Dhimmicrat party are lying, and it is transparent on its face to those of us who work for a living, and see the government place obstacles in our way day after day, while giving free goodies to people who aren’t looking for work, weren’t born here and are using our services and facilities for free, or people who are lying just as you are, to gain some advantage over us they cannot gain by hard work and doing their jobs.

As for the flying of the American flag and its precedent in Iraq and Kuwait, the reason the US flag was not flown on the lead vehicles of the column to enter Kuwait City is because that Task Force was under Arab control, and although it was tiny by comparison to the US contingent with it, the command of that small element which entered the city first was decided at their own request, as the citizens of France were inspired by DeGaulle’s command of the column which liberated Paris, even though the Americans involved still flew their flag, as did the Americans involved in liberating Kuwait. No such instructions to hide the colors were given in that case.

During the liberation of Iraq, the US colors were never hidden, even when the youngster put the flag over Saddam’s face in Firdos Square, he still showed the flag in his column. The fact that he was directed to remove the flag, replace it with the Iraqi flag, and then used the US flag as an adjunct “bib” to that situation does not mean the colors were not flown, or that we didn’t show them prominently wherever our columns were found. It merely means we remained sensitive to the Arab ego, and deferred to their own sovereignty, even as we were conquering them, to show that we are not occupiers and had their own sovereignty as our goal. The fact that the Iraqis rejected our assistance in rebuilding their country later, by instigating an insurgency, is their own fault and not ours. They chose to bite the hand that was rebuilding their country, because their ego couldn’t take it (and still can’t take it to this day).

We still fly our flag on the bases we live on, wherever we are in the world. Wherever we go, where that flag waves, an American can get assistance and the best security possible. And any others in the world can find a fast friend if they need one, and the fiercest and most bitter enemy if they provoke us. The refusal to fly it, simply to appease international whiners, is a decision only the local commander can adequately make, but his superiors must make their concerns known.

In VietNam this attention to superiors’ concerns was accomplished by directing the targets to be bombed at the highest levels, by persons in DC (bureaucrats and Lyndon Johnson) who were not adequately qualified to judge the military impact of the destruction or restriction from bombing those targets. Today, the decision to appease the international community by not prominently flying the US flag in Haiti has been made who knows where, but it has been acquiesced to by the local commander. And as such, it remains his decision to hide it. He may have received pressure from his superiors, or even the White House, but it is his decision not to fly the flag prominently.

But I’ll bet the Men under his command still wear their flags on their shoulders and their vehicles. So this is probably a press manufactured tempest in a teapot. The sentiment which caused this commander to have to enforce this decision is misguided and ill suited to our mission there. (After all, if you were going to shoot at an opposing force in Haiti, would you rationally choose to shoot at the American Army, since they are the most likely to shoot back and kick your ass for doing so? Shoot at the French, who were the actual and original colonial occupiers of Haiti for so long, or the doctors giving aid there, if you really want to make a political or self-serving statement and be assured you won’t get your ass kicked for doing so. Most political activists and international whiners just want attention (TV) to their opinions, and don’t truly wish to end up dead by attacking a competent and dangerous military component on the ground. So they attack those who won’t fight back unless shot at first. The American Army. (The Israeli Army also comes to mind in this regard.)

However, the decision to accept the whiners arguments at face value, and to direct action accordingly, IS a political action of this administration, and must be taken to heart as the actions of every commander are taken by the current administration, no matter who is in charge. Once you are the Pres, you own it. All the good and the bad.

So since the policy of not flying the flag looks weak on the face of it, Mr. Obama should have it addressed if he feels differently. And since you feel that a mere announcement of intent to rebuild 1600 houses in Jerusalem is such a horrendous jackslap in the face of the American sovereign, and an offense to our righteous place as a leading nation in the cause of Justice, perhaps you can explain, without too much illogical idiocy, how refusing to fly the American flag helps advance the view that America is a force to be reckoned with, and supports the position that we shouldn’t knuckle under to every horrible Palestinian baby-killing foreign leader who has the temerity to build new houses inside his own country, but we must knuckle under and apologize to every Frog Foreign Minister who claims an illegal occupation is underway (the pot calling the kettle black, if ever there was such a metaphor) by a superior military team delivering food, water and medical supplies and assisting a sovereign nation, at their own request, with rebuilding and managing their poor earthquake destroyed infrastructure. Perhaps you can explain why one is such an egregious affront to our position in the world, but the other is not.

Subsunk

Subsunk on March 17, 2010 at 10:10 AM