Wildfire

(Part one)

With the current extended drought, unseasonable high temperatures, a steady stream of thunderstorms, and our current fire situation, thoughts all over the west are turning to major forest fires, and the devastation of a century ago.  In the summer of 1910, a series of forest fires swept over Idaho and Montana, culminating on August 20–21 in what is known as the "Big Blowup."  Today many of us think of that fire, look at our current situation, and we wonder. 

On Saturday afternoon, August 20, 1910, all hell broke lose in the northwest.  Hurricane-force winds, unlike anything seen since, roared across the rolling Palouse of eastern Washington and into Idaho and Montana forests so dry they crackled underfoot.  In a matter of hours, fires became firestorms, and trees by the millions became exploding torches. Millions more, sucked from the ground, roots and all, became flying fireballs. It was dark by four in the afternoon, save for wind-powered fireballs that rolled from ridge top to ridge top at seventy miles an hour. They leaped canyons a half-mile wide in one fluid motion. Entire mountainsides ignited in an instant.  It was like nothing anyone had ever seen.  Reportedly, by noon on the twenty-first, the day had turned dark as far north as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as far south as Denver, and as far east as Watertown, New York. To the west, the sky was so filled with smoke, ships 500 miles at sea could not navigate by the stars.  There was no stopping or containing the fire; one could only hope to avoid it. Trains raced to evacuate towns just ahead of the flames. Forester Edward G. Stahl recalled that flames hundreds of feet high were "fanned by a tornadic wind so violent that the flames flattened out ahead, swooping to earth in great darting curves, truly a veritable red demon from hell." In the same instant that towns and timber alike perished, heroes were made, legends were born, and history changed forever.

Before it was over, 10,000 men were on fire lines that stretched from eastern Washington across the Idaho panhandle well into western Montana. The names of the fires they fought sounded more like the names of Civil War battlefields than anything else: Big Creek, Setzer Creek, Stevens Peak, Storm Creek, Bullion Mine, Cedar Ridge and Little North Fork. In some canyons, you could not tell where one battlefield ended and the next one began.  The fire burned three million acres and killed enough timber to fill a freight train 2,400 miles long. Eighty-six people perished, most burned beyond recognition.

Every able-bodied man available fought the rampaging flames. Most were Idaho loggers, miners from Butte, Montana, and skid row bums brought in on trains from Spokane. The pay was 25 cents an hour, plus a bedroll, sourdough pancakes, coffee and canned tomatoes. 

On October 8, 1871 the worst recorded forest fire in North American history swept through Northeastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, destroying millions of dollars worth of property and timberland, several communities, and taking between 1,200 and 2,400 lives.  The Peshtigo Fire was a forest fire that burned in and around Peshtigo, Wisconsin. It was a firestorm that caused the most deaths by fire in United States history.  Occurring on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo Fire has been largely forgotten.  Yet on that same day the cities of Holland and Manistee, Michigan burned, and the same fate befell Port Huron at the southern end of Lake Huron as well.

On the day of the Peshtigo Fire, a cold front brought strong winds that fanned the fires, escalating them to a massive firestorm ensued.  A firestorm is sometimes called nature's nuclear explosion.  We have a wall of flame, a mile high, five miles wide, and traveling 90 to 100 miles per hour.  Hotter than a crematorium, the bodies of the dead simply melt and disappear, while even sand is turned into glass.   By the time Peshtigo was over, 1,875 square miles, or 1.2 million acres of forest had been consumed, an area approximately twice the size of Rhode Island. Some sources list 1.5 million acres having burned.  Twelve communities were destroyed.  An accurate death toll has never been determined because local records were destroyed in the fire. Between 1,200 and 2,500 people are thought to have lost their lives.

The worst natural disaster in Minnesota history, the Cloquet Fire of 1918, claimed nearly 500 lives in a single day. The fire began after sparks from local railroad tracks ignited dry brush. When the flamed abated, as many as 38 communities had been razed to the ground, 250,000 acres had been scorched, 52,000 persons had been injured or displaced and the costs mounted to nearly $75 million.

The summer of 1988 saw the largest wildfire breakout in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park. By the time the fire subsided, despite modern firefighting technology, nearly 800,000 acres had been burned over, roughly a third of the entire park. Surprisingly no lives were lost as a direct result of the flames, even though as many as 25,000 firefighters reportedly battled the conflagration.

Could it happen again?  Most certainly…  Wildfire season is definitely here, and so far 2015 is shaping up to be another spectacular fire year, particularly in our drought suffering western states.  Unfortunately, major blazes are becoming the rule rather than the exception, and not necessarily “Only” because of the enviro’s much touted global warming.  It's a trend that comes quite naturally with our changing climate of course, a massive drought, and nearly a century of misguided environmentalism and forest planning that only grows worse every day. 

So it could be that the worst wildfires in U.S. history will be the ones that have yet to happen.  That’s scary, considering the damage that wildfires have done in the past.  Perhaps, with a little luck, proper planning, common sense, and continued effort on the fire suppression folks, this year will not be a sign of things to come.

To our firefighters holding those oh-so precarious fire-lines today, I can only say “Thank You… and be safe”.

Ebola?

Media reports on the death of a Liberian traveler in Lagos, Nigeria, and the transfer of two American medical caregivers to the US for treatment due to the Ebola virus have definitely caught the world’s attention–and for very good reason.  We live in an interconnected world, and now have to accept the fact that rapid long distance air travel has the potential to spread nearly any infectious disease, viral or bacterial, to any other country, and ultimately the entire world.  Under this scenario, one person, unknowingly infected with some really nasty disease, could embark on an international flight and expose everyone aboard with the disease.  As those people disperse, traveling to whatever destination, they would of course be exposing all their fellow passengers to that same disease.  And consider what happens at major air terminals worldwide, as those exposed travelers wander about, waiting for their interconnecting flight!  In very short order, we have a quite serious worldwide pandemic exploding on the scene!

In the case of the current Ebola threat with it’s very high (50 to 90%) fatality rate, it’s no wonder that so many people are quite concerned about these possibilities, and a potential threat to the United States.  However, according to officials at the CDC, the actual chance of it developing into a serious public health risk in the U.S. is quite small, in part due to the mechanism of it’s spread.  Ebola is not an aerosol, it’s only spread directly, human-to-human, by direct contact with body secretions such as saliva, sweat, blood, and feces.  It can be spread through a break in the skin or mucous membranes, or after touching your nose, mouth or eyes after having contact with the virus.   It is not transmitted by coughing or sneezing (droplet spread), as would be the case for someone with influenza or measles.  (If it were, half the population of West Africa would be dead by now.)  Poor and crowded living conditions in the afflicted area, along with improper sanitation, and rudimentary medical facilities seem to be a very important element in the spread of the Ebola virus. These of course, are not the conditions we generally find throughout most of the Western world, unlike parts of Africa.

However, before we congratulate ourselves on our good fortune, remember that Ebola remains a worldwide hazard because it is one of the most deadly viruses known to man, due in part to its ability to constantly undergo mutations.  Remember the seemingly endless stream of influenza strains we’re threatened with each year?  Influenza constantly mutates (because of it’s quite simple make-up), into some new threat, much as Ebola seems to be doing.  And much like so many other diseases, Ebola could readily be weaponized by large terrorist organizations or an unfriendly power.  Currently consisting of only 5 known strains, Ebola was first identified in 1976 in the Western Democratic Congo.  (Along the Ebola river for which it’s named.)  Four of these strains can be spread to humans, while the fifth resides only in primates. The fruit bat, considered a culinary delicacy in West Africa, is presently believed to be a natural reservoir and primary vector of the virus, pending further study.

Symptoms begin suddenly–often with an intense headache and fatigue, sore throat and chills–followed by vomiting, and diarrhea with onset of a hemorrhagic rash in the upper roof of the mouth and skin that appears to be blister-like.  While the virus incubates in from 2-21 days, its important to know that only those who are symptomatic–generally after 8-9 days–having fever along with diarrhea, vomiting and potentially a hemorrhagic rash can transmit the virus to others.  As a result, if someone on a plane with active symptoms–including vomiting and diarrhea –soils a restroom, another person, unaware of the threat, could theoretically touch a contaminated area, and thus acquire the virus.  That said, it’s important to know that the majority of those who have become infected with the Ebola virus have been healthcare workers in constant close contact with patients, as well as family members caring for sick family members. 

It’s also important to know that persons with Ebola may have symptoms that are nonspecific (headache, chills, and fever) making quick identification of the virus nearly impossible. It could be easily be mistaken for other illnesses including malaria, cholera or even typhoid fever. Only many days into the illness–after the onset of profuse vomiting and diarrhea–will a patient exhibit the telltale signs of Ebola with bleeding from the mouth and nose along with rectal bleeding concurrent with shock, liver and renal failure, followed by continued bleeding and cardiovascular collapse.

At this time, there is no vaccine or antiviral medication available to treat the disease. Only supportive care, with intravenous fluids, platelet and blood transfusions are available to patients.  While there have been some promising experimental treatments in animals, (monoclonal antibodies), there are no specific treatments that are currently available for humans.  With technical issues regarding the high mutability of the virus preventing researchers from being able to produce a vaccine or viable antiviral medication, other issues such as the danger of handling the live virus have prevented more intense and speedy efforts to actively pursue such research.

The FDA is also warning consumers to be aware of supplements and other products sold online that are fraudulently marketed to treat or prevent Ebola infection. We currently have no agent, drug, dietary supplement, or herbal supplement that are shown to prevent Ebola infection or shorten the course of the infection.  Nor has there been sufficient time to study the disease with an eye toward producing any effective cure or preventive.  Of course this hasn’t stopped some Internet retailers from claiming that their products can be used against Ebola.

So, unless you’ve recently been to West Africa, the only current Ebola threat to American citizens is the very small number of snake oil peddlers capitalizing on public fears. Consumers beware: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

"Lumpy"

Our third Warbird Weekend was yet another rousing success, thanks to the hard work of the event staff, the sponsors, and a lot of unsung volunteers.  As usual, I joined a number of aviation enthusiasts in wandering around the parking ramp taking pictures, talking to the pilots, and in general drooling over the aircraft on display.  Unfortunately I seem to have a problem with my camera, as nearly three quarters of my pictures are either badly light streaked or out of focus.  (I will have a new camera next year!)  On the other hand, I ran into an old friend out there, and had the time of my life!

“Lumpy” is an AT-28D “Nomad”, a pilot training plane from the 1950’s, and after retiring from US service were modified in the 1960’s to be an armed light attack aircraft for use in the counter insurgency role.  For those of you who might be a bit confused by the name “Nomad” rather than “Trojan”, the T-28 series aircraft (A, B, and C models) were named the “Trojan”, while the armed “D” model variant was named the “Nomad”.  But the –28D certainly fits the name, as it’s most definitely a wanderer!  These planes served with the French Air Force in Algeria, where, adding to the confusion, they were called the Fennec.  Many were sent to the Congo during that unpleasantness.  Some were sent to the Philippines, while many others served with the air forces of South Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia during the Vietnam War.  The US Air Force retained quite a few AT-28D’s as well, where they operated as the famed “Zorro” Air Commando truck busters along the Ho Chi Minh trail.  (“Steel Tiger” to you vets.)

“Lumpy” was assigned to the Royal Lao Air Force, which is where I got into the act.  As an Air Commando, my assignment was to “Project 404”, in support the RLAF T-28 operation as an instructor, advisor, and doing whatever else needed doing.  (You haven’t lived until you try to teach a highly technical subject when you don’t speak the student’s language!)  Anyway, “Lumpy” was among sixty some AT-28’s, while I was one of many Air Commandos in the midst of the so-called “secret war” in Laos.  To make a long story short, “Lumpy” and I both survived  the war.  I came home, and “Lumpy” soldiered on, finally being evacuated to Thailand by a Lao pilot during those horrifying final days.  From there she somehow made her way to Australia for a few years, and was finally brought home to a well-earned retirement.  Nowadays several of those Lao AT-28D’s still survive and are flying in various countries, taking their rightful place in the Warbird lineup.

 

She showed up in Grangeville for our Warbird Weekend, complete with simulated guns and bombs, and flown by her current owner, Roger Collins of Woodinville, WA, and yes, it did take a few minutes to get my feet back on the ground.  Ron Morrell of Renton WA. showed up with his T-28A, (the shiniest T-28 I’ve ever seen), which made our part of the flight line quite interesting to a lot of people.  I managed to spend most of the weekend pestering Roger, discussing the Nomad operations in Laos with him, answering questions for a good many by-standers, and in general making a nuisance of myself.  Roger is an old USAF F-4 Phantom II driver who now flies because he enjoys flying.  Thus he could readily understand my excitement,  and tolerating my somewhat excessive exuberance, let me play Crew Chief once again, and even took me for a half hour ride in the old girl.  That certainly made my day!

I’ve often seen the “Old Guys” at airshows, seemingly lost in time as they stand almost reverently touching a particular warbird.  Now, as I’m reaching my twilight years, I guess I’ve become one of them, and can now understand them a lot better.  Those old guys aren’t lost, they’re remembering the days so long ago and often far away, when they and their aircraft took part in some earth shaking events.  To those of us who flew and fought in them, those old planes aren’t just a collection of nuts, bolts, rivets and sheet metal… they are living creations, each with it’s own character and personality… and our companions through some often terrifying experiences.

I’ll see you next year old friend.

VA Scandal

The ongoing, and apparently escalating, scandal within the Department of Veterans Affairs has definitely stirred up a lot of interest within the veteran’s community, and in the national political arena as well.  Since the reports of ongoing improprieties hit the headlines (remember that I’m a Vietnam veteran, partially disabled, who is pretty well dependent on the VA for my ongoing medical care), I have been following the issue with considerable interest.  Let me state for the record that I, like the majority of veterans (reportedly 82%), am pretty well satisfied with the quality of VA medical care, although I can’t say the same about the assorted bureaucratic hoops I have to jump through on a regular basis. 

The problem arose when it was reported that the Phoenix VA hospital was cooking the books when reporting the delay time between patients requesting an appointment and actually seeing a Doctor.  Where the VA reported a 21-day average (only slightly more than the national average of 18.5 days), Phoenix often had numerous unreported delays well in excess of 100 days, and in some cases deaths as a result of those delays.  There is some reason to believe the present scheduling problem may not be as severe nationwide as is generally believed, with the worst delays, according to the VA, occurring in the Northwest, the South, and the Southwest, to some extent driven by a shortage in medical staffing.  The VA presently reports that they have 1,900 medical staff positions unfilled, including several in Phoenix.  A VA internal report also found "numerous allegations" of "daily of mismanagement, inappropriate hiring decisions, sexual harassment, and bullying behavior by mid- and senior-level managers."  The Phoenix bureaucracy however, in an effort to make themselves look good, and improve their chances for employee bonuses and raises (VA bonuses can exceed $30,000), misreported the problem and left themselves wide open for the ongoing scandal.  The VA Inspector General called for a nationwide review to determine whether similar problems were occurring at other locations, with 42 VA medical centers across the country now under investigation for possible abuse of scheduling practices. 

In 1921 the US Congress created the Veterans Bureau to administer assistance to World War I veterans. It quickly turned into a hotbed of corruption, and was abolished nine years later, to be replaced in 1930 by the Veterans Administration.  Scandals have seemed to follow the VA around ever since.  In this case, when the news hit the streets, Mr. Obama promptly informed us that he was “mad as hell”, which, with his similar comments about all the other government scandals of late, I can only conclude that he’s simply “Mad”!

The VA problems are however many faceted.  Like most government jobs, it’s a Civil Service position, which is an open invitation to kick-back and relax, take extended coffee breaks, and collect a nice fat paycheck and assorted bonuses at taxpayer expense.  There used to be a saying that Civil Service and NASA’s rockets had a couple of things in common, in that neither could be made to work, and neither could be fired!  NASA seems to have improved their position however.

The raging congressional demands for the head of VA Sec. Eric Shinseki should be no surprise to anyone.  It’s an election year after all, and both political parties, smelling blood, need someone to point their fingers at and mask their own failures.  Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken, have all called for Shinseki’s resignation, with our usual media sensationalism providing with a cheering section.  

Congress claims to be “cutting the wastage and deadwood” while playing to the crowd by slashing the budgets of the military, the VA, NASA, and assorted other departments.  They happily ignore the rather dismal shape our national infrastructure is in, our illegal immigrant problem, leaky borders, and bankrupt cities.  They ignore mental health care, failing education, and our own poor and homeless, all the while sending billions of dollars to third world petty dictators in the name of “humanitarian aid” that winds up in Swiss banks.  It’s Congress that has under-funded the VA for decades, while not least it was Congress that dramatically increased the services the VA must provide and the patients it must treat, without an increase in either funding or caregivers.  And it is Congress that ignores the fact that thanks to the miracles of modern medicine we are today able to save the lives of wounded troops who would have died on the battlefield in past wars, wounded warriors that now require extensive medical care. 

Instead of providing oversight as they’re supposed to do, members of Congress often skipped the hearings that they scheduled or requested on veterans’ affairs.  In one particularly shameful episode, a ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee who never served in uniform, who missed his own committee hearings and never heard the testimony in question, attacked the Veterans of Foreign Wars because the organization supported Shinseki.  If Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina expected the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, and the Paralyzed Veterans of America to apologize for not carrying out his political wishes, he made a serious tactical error, as I hope the upcoming election will demonstrate. The political trap door was sprung, and down went a man who was two-thousand miles away from the crime scene.  Mr. Obama smiled as he made a good man disappear, all the while blaming someone else. 

The only participant who emerged with dignity from it all was the victim, Eric Shinseki.   A retired general and wounded vet himself (he lost half of his foot to a land mine in Vietnam), General Shinseki served in the Army for thirty-eight years, rising to Army Chief-of-Staff.  Apparently it spoiled him for work in civilian Washington D.C.  In the Army, an officer might try to put a good face on unpleasant facts, but at least he’ll tell you the truth.  Shinseki made the mistake of trusting civilian careerists chasing bonuses the way he’d trusted subordinates in the Army.  Still, Gen. Shinseki made real progress during his tenure. The backlog of claims was reduced by nearly half and patient care was greatly expanded.  But Shinseki could not fix an entrenched spoils system and a half-century’s damage in a mere five years.  Now, a man who has dedicated his entire adult life to serving our country, leaves office under a dark cloud whipped up by politicians, from Mr. Obama, to worried Democrats running for Congress who’ve suddenly discovered disabled veterans, to equally cynical Republicans exploiting veterans for a campaign advantage.  To me, our Congress critters make the Kardashians look like paragons of virtue! 

The mob won.  Our country, and our veterans, lost once again.  And Eric Shinseki, an American hero, was sacrificed on the alter of political expediency.

JFK

JFK

Of late, television, the news media, and all else seem to be saturated with stories about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, fifty years ago.  Unlike many younger people today, I can well remember our youthful President Kennedy, and the dreams of “Camelot”.  John Kennedy was far from being the most popular President during his time in office, but his popularity seems to have grown through the years.  A “progressive” Democrat rather than what we today would consider the liberal version, he wanted to move us ahead, not the least including the areas of Civil Rights and space exploration, without stirring up a lot of hate and dissent.  Unfortunately we don’t seem to have anyone of his caliber in national politics today.

I was raised in a family that considered military service a duty that came with citizenship, and, believing our young presidents comment of “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”, joined the US Air Force not long after his election, with the idea that I might defend my homeland from the evils of communism.  Little did I know that so much of my early Air Force career would be entangled with the presidency of John F. Kennedy. 

Following basic training, I was sent to Keesler AFB Mississippi for technical training.  About the only “big deal” that happened in the year I was there was… the Cuban missile crisis.  Considering that Keesler (Biloxi MS) isn’t all that far from Havana, we young airmen promptly figured that if anybody started shooting, we’d probably be one of the first places to get blown away, which made that “defend our country” part downright serious!  When the President came on TV and announced the American response to those Soviet missiles, I think life came to a halt for all of us while we watched and tried to digest what was happening.  Seeing assorted military trains passing the base on the way to Florida got our attention well enough, along with watching a number of Navy and Air Force combat aircraft landing on our short runway for fuel on their way east, convinced us even more strongly that we were in the military service and not just part of Uncle Sam’s airline!  Also that we were a definitely a target!  Fortunately for us, the Russians didn’t like the odds, or the presidents’ determination, and backed down.

Finishing Tech School, I was reassigned to the 496^th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Hahn Air Base in West Germany, where I was when he made the well-known trip to Europe in which he delivered his famous “Ish bin ein Berliner” speech.  The 496^th had the honor of providing the fighter escort for Air Force One during his travels about Europe, and, due to a scheduling glitch, I got to repair a radio malfunction aboard his aircraft.  Somewhere in the squadron archives is a large, framed color picture, autographed by John F. Kennedy, of Air Force One and four F-102’s with a yellow and black fan painted on the tails, all flying in formation.  (Yellow/Black were our squadron colors.)  In my archives is a pack of cigarettes and a book of matches embossed with the presidential seal, that I received aboard Air Force One.

It’s said that everyone who was around at the time remembers where they were and what they were doing when President Kennedy was assassinated.  This is certainly true in my case.  Still at Hahn AB, I was in the barracks at about 8 PM, studying, when one of the guys stuck his head in the door and told us that the president had been shot.  Immediately, we turned the radio to AFN (Armed Forces Radio Network) to find out what was happening.  When it was announced that the president was dead, and somewhat in shock, we all got into uniform and reported to our duty stations.  No alert was called until nearly midnight, but we were all convinced that this was the beginning of WW III, the Russians were coming, and we were making sure we’d be ready to properly welcome them.  Fortunately for the world they decided to stay home that night.

We observed the president’s memorial service as well, holding a military parade in the squadron area, and all standing at “present arms” while an Army artillery battery fired a 21gun salute.  That salute took 21 minutes, and was fired in the midst of a blizzard, which pretty well matched our mood.  It was a cold and miserable day for all concerned…

Leaving?

When then President George Washington left office on March 4^th, 1797, he peacefully handed the reins of power to the President elect, John Adams, thereby establishing a proud American tradition of non-violent political succession that has faltered only once during over the last 215 years.  Certainly we have had threats of violence through the years, and even the occasional political riot or two, but to our credit, Americans have basically remained a peaceful people, happily voting with a ballot, not a bullet, unlike some of our rather excitable southern neighbors.  Now however, as most folks have heard, with Governor Romney surging in the polls many supporters of Mr. Obama have begun an internet firestorm of threats to riot nationwide and even to leave the U.S. should Obama be defeated.  I really don’t think this is what Mr. Obama meant when he called for more civility in politics, but with the loony left, who knows.  We have of course heard all this before, particularly from the Hollywood celebrity crowd back when President Bush the younger defeated Al Gore and later when he defeated John Kerry.  Unfortunately, none of those folks actually did leave, at least none that I’ve heard of.

It looks however, like all these calls for street violence, arson, and whatever are coming from the inner cities, which I guess is understandable.  That is where we find the vast majority of the “47%” that Mitt Romney spoke of, people who are totally dependant on government handouts, the very same people who are terrified that Romney will cut of their monthly “manna-from-heaven” welfare check, and actually make them go to work!  Interestingly enough, the vast majority of previous riots in the US have taken place in those same ghettoes of the larger cities, where the “revelers” have concentrated their efforts on killing each other, looting their neighbors property, and burning down their own neighborhood.  Then of course they… and the liberal media… lambaste the government for being to slow at delivering relief supplies, lots of sympathy, and truckloads of money.  Someone will I’m sure, object to my saying “all these calls” emanate from the big city ghettoes, but honestly folks, I haven’t seen any riots, or threats of riots, come from small town America or rural areas.  I guess suburban and rural folks are to busy working for a living to be very interested in destroying much of anything.  As to “leaving the country”, New Zealand seemed to be a popular destination, while other countries on the list include Canada, England, Scotland, Australia, Mexico, Ireland and Italy.  Even the island paradise of Cuba got a few mentions.  I’m not to sure just what the folks already living in those countries would have to say about an influx of expat American liberals suddenly descending on their shores, but I’d happily donate to a charity fund buying them all one-way tickets!

With my well known “sick sense of humor”, I do get a chuckle out of some of the responses to the question "Will the most divisive campaign in modern American history culminate in massive riots in our major cities?" (from the Drudge report I understand).  Some claim that the fireworks will be visible from space, others claim that the country is going to break out into “Riot City” no matter who wins, and others are using the term “Gun City”.  And once again comments about “Civil War” are becoming more common.  Conditions are certainly "ripe for it" others claim, with Americans being "very angry and frustrated right now."  Many say “allegations that someone stole the election could be enough to set the streets of America on fire.”  “Voter fraud” and “Election fraud” are supposed to be the trigger, and quite unfortunately we’ve already had a few instances of that occur, with scattered election machines that automatically defaulted Romney votes to Obama (the problem has since been corrected election officials are quick to claim).

Hurricane Sandy got into the act as well, by tearing up a lot of the east coast.  Considering the damages to the electrical grid, New Jersey plans to deploy military trucks (and military personnel) to storm battered communities to serve as polling places, a move quite likely to be copied by other states as well.  I guess it’s a logical move, but I bet the very idea scares the bejabbers out of a good many far right potential Romney voters.

On the conspiracy theory front, word is filtering through the internet that the government, in the form of FEMA, is planning to postpone the entire election until the east coast is back on it’s feet.  I certainly hope not, as no faster than government accomplishes anything we may not get to vote again until long after Mr. Obama has died of natural causes!  Still, it’s a possibility though, considering the vast number of Obama fans living in those affected regions, whom the Democrats are probably concerned about their chances of finding a polling place amidst the wreckage, and thus cluttering up the scene with “hanging chads”.

Current conspiracies theories have U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette, commander of the USS John C. Stennis carrier battle group, having been recalled for “inappropriate leadership judgment”, as being part of a plot to overthrow the U.S. government if Obama should win the election.  On top of that, General Carter F. Ham, erstwhile commander of USAFRICOM, is rumored to have been “carted” away, and possibly even under arrest by the Obama Regime.  Reportedly Gen. Ham refused a “stand down” order from the White House, and attempted a rescue mission to Benghazi.  So, did Gen. Ham actually disobey orders… or was he implicated in plotting some sort of “Seven Days in May” style military coup with Adm. Gaouette?  Anything’s possible I suppose, in Mr. Obama’s somewhat paranoid White House.

The Democratic Party of Harry Truman and John Kennedy has lost its mind and its way.  It’s philosophy of social and political progress has been swallowed by the intense hatreds inherited from the radicals of the ‘60’s, and those same strains of anger, dishonesty and intolerance we saw in those days.  Its leaders don’t just want to win an election; they want to silence anyone who disagrees with them, and anyone who might disagree with them.  There have been a few things I have learned over the last few decades, with one being to look beyond the news headlines, economic figures, and reported statistics to understand what is actually going on in the world. Over the last several months we have seen no shortage of headlines attempting to paint a rosy picture of a steadily improving political and economic situation in our country since the liberal left took over.  But if we dig deeper into reality we see that this is very far from true… and after four years of Obama, that can’t be blamed on Bush! 

Is it time for a change yet? 

Politics

The 2012 campaign season is in its last gasps, thank goodness.  After all, who can stand much more of this rabid garbage?  The news reports are all about the rather vicious presidential race, even though there are a number of quite heated senatorial races going on all around the country, along with more than a few House races as well.  And, if you believe the media talking heads, this is the most important election in a generation, even though we seem to hear that description every four years or so.  Personally I think it’s probably the most crucial election in our history, deciding if we’re going to remain the US of A… or become Obama’s version of the Soviet Union.  Still, I’ll be glad to get back to Hollywierd’s insipid offerings, or better yet, a good book.  I’ve lately been reading a book entitled “The Manchurian President” written by Mr. Aaron Klein, who seems to have done considerable research into Mr. Obama’s past, and who brings up a number of interesting points.  My using that book for a reference will I’m sure, bring the loony left and the lamestream media out in droves, hissing, spitting, and baying for my blood, considering that Mr. Klein raises yet again the questions of Mr. Obama’s birth, citizenship, educational background, religion, and particularly his leftist leanings.  For my purposes I’m going to ignore all the above except for the part about Mr. Obama’s leftist leanings, and where they’re rapidly taking us. 

Mr. Klein pretty well documents that Mr. Obama has been immersed in radical left teachings since his youngest days, in most cases by far left radicals who had, even further back, absorbed the teachings of socialist writer Saul Alinsky who dates back to the 1930’s.  In some cases these people were the disciples of Alinsky.  Alinsky himself was not a communist, nor even an avowed socialist, but rather he was a dedicated leftist who focused on improving the living conditions of poor communities across North America… in itself not a bad idea.  However, many of his organizational concepts were adapted by the alienated and radicalized college students of the later 1960s, and formed a key part of their strategies for initiating the anti-government protests we saw flaring across the nation during the ‘60’s and 70’s.  In his 1946 book "Reveille for Radicals", Alinsky describes his motivation and rules of engagement, which were well understood by the social radicals of the 60’s, but were also rejected by most, who favored a communist style violent revolution within the United States during those days.  The very same radicals who were later to become Mr. Obama’s mentors.  Alinsky’s other idea, that of “working from within the system until you could gain enough power to destroy it” was also largely rejected at the time, until with the failure of the “revolution”, the “New Left” largely changed it’s methods, and is today carrying on a strategy of “boring from within” to undermine the media, academia, and of course the government.  Over the last few decades they have joined the very government they fought against as young radicals, and are deliberately bringing on a slow rot from within.  Their goal certainly has not changed, but with their hijacking of the Democratic Party in the 1970’s, their methods have evolved into mainstream politics.  These are the same America hating people, the violent bombing-rioting-arsonist radicals of the 1960’s, followers of Stalin, Mao, and Che, who nurtured Mr. Obama’s education and training as a community organizer, guided his developing political career, and whom today serve as his advisors.  Their goal, as Mr. Obama has told us innumerable times, is to “Change America”, to make the United States into whatever they want it to be, with themselves as our rulers.  An America that is not the Republic our founders envisioned, or the form of Democracy that most Americans today seem to desire.

The idea of “share the wealth” that Mr. Obama learned from his teachers is merely an updated version of the old communist ideal of “to each as to his needs”, which would I suppose be fine in theory, depending on just who is deciding what I need.  A nation of welfare “takers” certainly goes against the colonial days ideal of “No Work, No Eat”, which was explained in no uncertain terms to the “drones” among those early day colonists, an ideal that led us to becoming the most productive nation in history.  Today, with Mr. Obama’s enthusiastic guidance, we are developing an entire underclass of Americans who can share the misery of socialism, people who are undereducated, have no work ethic, no hope of improving their station in life, and who are entirely dependant on government handouts, generation after generation.  They in turn are to be ruled by a “middle-class” bureaucracy appointed by the elite, who determine what each citizen needs, and have the power to destroy any perceived upstart, merely by withholding those handouts.  And finally we have the elites at the top of the heap, the favored royalty who share the wealth, owning everything, make all the decisions, and who hand down to their under-class serfs only what they wish.  I for one have no idea how long it will take to impose this sort of rule on today’s America, but the last four years of Obama have set us well on the way.

Only a couple of hundred years ago life was rather short and brutal for the common people, a lifestyle that will plague us again under Obama’s socialism.  Whatever your status in today’s society, picture yourself living in Mr. Obama’s United Socialist States of Amerika.  You will live in a cramped and overcrowded “Welfare Island” as author Jerry Pournelle calls them, an “equal opportunity housing” ghetto where you live with a few million other “citizens”.  Your “home” is a one-room shack where you’re stuffed in with your entire family.  The government, who can evict you at any time, for any reason, owns that shack, which may or may not have an indoor toilet… or even running water.  You may or may not receive necessary medical care, depending on the whim of a government death panel.  You are of course allowed no personal property, as that would be rubbing unfair wealth in the face of other citizens not so fortunate.  Once a day everybody reports to the local soup line, where a government bureaucrat doles out your government rationed daily (basic) meal.  Your only entertainment is a steady stream of government propaganda playing on a government owned TV, or perhaps a bottle of cheap rotgut alcohol.  Your job, if you’re fortunate enough to have one, is in a government decreed position, while your minimal "paycheck fairness” wage is immediately extracted from your pocket as Income Tax.  Tax dollars saved by defunding the military would be channeled into "clean" energy stimulus programs.  Government security police, always alert for suspected disloyal thoughts or deeds will watch you day and night, while a government concentration and reeducation camp awaits any malefactors.  In fairness to all citizens, you have no chance of improving your social situation… for yourself… or for your children.  For public safety, your disarmed fellow slaves citizens have no way to fight back.  In return for this government largess… you are only expected to instantly obey your betters… and share in the misery. 

Mr. Obama must really love poor people… I think that’s why he’s been busily creating so many of them.  If he wins re-election in November, the America of a constitutionally limited government, individual rights, economic freedom, and personal liberty, will be but a vague memory.

100 YSS

Earth is the Cradle of Mankind,
But one cannot stay in the cradle forever.

- Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky

The light-years between the stars is a seemingly insurmountable quarantine that cuts our solar system off from the rest of the galaxy. But interstellar distances may not be as insurmountable as they seem.   A large group of international big thinkers descended on Houston, Texas, recently, to discuss one very big idea: making interstellar travel possible within the next 100 years.  And I of course, in my self appointed role as a dedicated space nut, have been following along as best I can, thus my report herein.

We start with the 100 Year Star Ship project (100YSS), seeded by a DARPA (Defense Advanced Projects Agency) grant, and a few bucks from NASA as well.  Essentially, the 100 YSS is a project aimed at laying out potential designs for a manned spacecraft and its operating systems, a spacecraft capable of flying between the stars… and hopefully returning to Earth with the crew still alive and kicking.  For now at least, a thought experiment in “designing” a starship is a good bit different from actually attempting to build, and fly, a multi-year long interstellar mission in a totally unproven craft.  Essentially the plan is to examine the spaceflight technology available today… determine what can be used and what can’t… determine what technology we need to develop… and with those determinations in hand, point science and engineering in a useful direction.  Ergo Sum, in a hundred years or so we should have the technical ability to build an honest-to-gawd starship that would make Captain Kirk proud.  Nor is this the first project of its sort.  Space advocates will remember that during the 1970s a team from the British Interplanetary Society carried out the first serious engineering study of an interstellar vehicle, which they named Project Daedalus.  An unmanned probe, Daedalus was designed to fly a 50 year mission to the Centarus system.  Project Icarus is a theoretical design study aimed at designing a credible, mainly nuclear fusion powered unmanned interstellar space probe.  Motivated by Project Daedalus, Icarus began in September 2009, and is a currently ongoing project by an international team of scientists and engineers.  Project Longshot was a conceptual design by NASA and the US Naval Academy for an interstellar unmanned probe powered by a nuclear pulse engine, and intended to enter orbit around Alpha Centauri B.  Running during 1987-88, Longshot also utilized existing or near-term technology. 

None of these programs were actually intended to evolve into flying hardware, being nothing more than “thought experiments”.  I do however have hope for the 100YSS actually being built, at least in part.  It’s considering a long term manned mission, which by it’s very nature will require a large spacecraft with a lot of complex systems.  (I certainly wouldn’t want to spend ten or twenty years cooped up in a sardiene can with a few dozen other people!)  Such a manned craft would require a lot of on-board maintence, and an extensive life support system that could keep the crew supplied with fresh air, pottable water, food, and of course a waste disposal system.  By every indication all of this can be accomplished in space, for a very long time, with todays commonly available technology.  It will however require a lot more volume, a lot of power, and in all likelyhood a lot of labor.  And like everything else we’ve ever built, we won’t be certain of it’s functionality until we’ve actually tried it in space… for a number of years.

Providing the needed electrical power for this craft would be somewhat of a problem, as the currently popular solar arrays aren’t of much use once we get out past Mars, and the nuclear thermal batteries used in today’s deep space probes don’t provide nearly the power we’d need.  However, the solution to that problem is well within our capabilities as well.  In 1960, the US Air Force activated Sundance Air Force Station, about 6 miles from the town of Sundance, Wyoming.  A radar site, Sundance was powered by a PM-1 (Portable Medium Power - 1) transportable nuclear power plant developed by the US Army.  Operated by Air Force, Army, and Navy personnel, the PM-1 produced 1.25 megawatts of electricity without incident until the site was deactivated in 1968.  A second remote, portable reactor, the PM-3A, operated at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica from 1960 until it was deactivated in 1972, producing 1.75 megawatts.  You might also remember that the US Navy has safely been sailing a lot of nuclear powered ships since the 1950’s, and have a number of power reactors running today that can operate as much as fifty years without refueling.

Another well known problem that’s nearly been studied to death is that of deep space cosmic radiation.  Yet that also is nearly a solved problem.  Common polyethylene plastic is light weight and easily worked into whatever size and shape we might want.  It’s also proven to be one of the best radiation shielding materials yet devised, much superior to even the ever so popular lead.  Adding to that, various electromagnetic shielding schemes are under test today, and several are showing considerable promise.  The actual physical construction of such a spacecraft shouldn’t produce any real daunting difficulties either, or at least any more so than building a naval vessel here on earth.  (Probably less, considering all the engineering and construction pre-planning involved.)

So, if we were to build this spacecraft, just what do we do with it, aside from studying and tinkering with it, until its designers wouldn’t recognize it?   Well, we’ve got an entire solar system in our cosmic backyard that we haven’t properly explored yet, and what better way than to send out our big, manned, long term experimental spaceship, on an extended exploratory mission to the outer planets, with a crew of engineers and research scientists aboard.  What a shakedown cruise that would be, and it would prove, one way or another, that the various systems worked properly!

As to actually flying to the stars, we still seem to lack the necessary propulsion system, but even that’s in the works.  First, consider that the speed of light is approximately 186,000 miles, per second!  So if we think of that distance, times sixty seconds, times 60 minutes, times twenty-four hours, times three hundred and sixty five days… we arrive at having to travel quite at a few scadzillion miles to make up one light year.  (The “Light Year” being one yardstick of interstellar distances.)  Now, the Alpha Centauri star system, Earth’s nearest neighbor, lies at about 4.37 light years distant.  At the approximately 1% of the speed of light that we can theoretically reach with today’s propulsion technology, we’re looking at a very long trip!  But… oh that magic but… A “warp drive”, able to achieve faster-than-light travel, may not be as unrealistic as we once though.  Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre suggested a concept for a real-life warp drive in 1994, that takes advantage of a loophole in the laws of realitivity preventing anything from moving faster than light.  With this concept of “warping” space-time itself, a spacecraft should be able to achieve a speed of about 10 times that of light, with the “warping” effect being a sneaky way of sidesteping Albert Einstein’s cosmic speed limit.  This concept was pretty well ignored by scientists at first, due to the prohibitively huge amount of energy required.  (Somewhat along the lines of instantenously turning the equivlent mass of Jupiter into energy…  without blowing a large hole in this end of the Galaxy!)  Now however, physicists have determined that the proposed drive, suitably modified, could run on significantly less energy, taking the idea from the realm of science fiction to the realm of hard science.  The warp drive itself would involve a football-shape spacecraft attached to a large donut shaped ring of “exotic matter” encircling it. The ring, properly activated, would cause space-time to warp around the starship, creating a region of contracted space in front of it and expanded space behind, effectively allowing the ship to run “downhill”.  (Please don’t ask me about the math involved!)  I don’t know what exotic matter is either, but remember, DARPA has put their money on us taking one hundred years to plan and develop a means of pushing mankind into interstellar space, and to a neighboring star. 

Ex-NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, head of the 100YSS project, stated "For me, the main impetus is: there's more for us. We are at an inflection point in human evolution and human history.  Do we stay in one place? Or do we move like the amphibians that moved to the land way back in our evolutionary past? Do we move beyond this cradle?" 

Traveling to another star may sound like science fiction right now, and the technology needed may seem impossible at the moment, but consider how today’s spaceflight would have appeared to Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1903.  And yet a mere sixty-three years after men first spread their wings at Kitty Hawk, other men set foot on another cosmic body.  We've already taken the first steps into interplanetary space; so how long until we go interstellar? 

"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."

Niel Armstrong, Apollo 11

The Lamps

On the eve of World War I, British foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey stated, "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time."  The lamps Mr. Gray spoke of were freedom and peace.  Today, to paraphrase Sir Gray, “The lamps are going out all over the Mid-East”.

When the “Arab Spring” broke out on December 18^th, 2010, the western world rejoiced as despotic rulers were forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, along with the ongoing civil uprisings in Bahrain and Syria, considering these revolts to be the birth pangs of democracy in the region.  With considerable western aid which Messrs. Sarkozy, Cameron, and Obama told the world they were sending purely out of the goodness of their hearts, the Libyan revolutionaries were able to depose Moammar Gaddafi, probably the worst of the lot, and replace him with… who?

Once again the west had assumed that the peoples of these long suffering countries would welcome the demise of authoritarian rule, despite their ages long history of tribal and theocratic dictatorship, and don’t forget our ten years of experience with Islamic fundimentalism in Iraq.  Where western humanitarian intervention takes place and accomplishes something that the local Arabs cannot seem to do for themselves, do we have the right to tell ourselves that the “rescued wretched slaves” are automatically going to jump to our tune?  Do we really have the right to expect them to start singing the Marseillaise, and asking for copies of the Magna Carta?  (I won’t mention their asking for billions in American foreign aid, as that’s nearly an automatic reaction in today’s Arab world.)  Was Washington really foolish enough to believe that the Libyans were fighting for a chance to be just like us?  Probably, yet that’s no more foolish than our notion that the Afghan and Iraqi peoples would all stand up when American troops arrived and clamor for copies of our Constitution!  Elections were eventually organized in Libya to give legitimacy to a revolutionary assembly, and getting the electric power back on.  That assembly included Islamist agitators who had been quite overt during the civil war, and the impact of their continued agitation has not been diminished by letting a national assembly get in the way.  With trans-national networks and financial support, arms caches, and a simple message – “Islam is the answer” – these agitators could take their appeal to a weary people with little confidence in the new regime.  But who are these people so quickly assuming power and taking over the Arab Spring nations?

Recent US administrations have been seemingly unable to grasp the sources and motivation of the Islamic political movement… not as if the information to understand it is unavailable.  Since the 1920s Islamic scholars and intellectuals have laid out a record of what they think is wrong with Islamic society and what can be done about it.  The “Muslim Brotherhood” was formed in Egypt during the 1920’s, by one Hassan al-Banna, an Islamic scholar and schoolteacher.  The brotherhood’s credo was, and is, "Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations."  The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Qur’an, Hadiths, and Sunnah as the "sole reference point for ... ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community ... and state".  Its most famous slogan, used worldwide, is "Islam is the solution."  The movement officially opposes violent means to achieve its goals, although its paramilitary wing has been involved in numerous massacres, bombings and assassinations of political opponents, including it’s founder al-Banna.

  

The attacks against the U.S. embassies in Libya and Egypt seem to have brought about mass confusion in the halls of the US government, and generated near hysteria in the world’s media, with everyone seemingly contradicting each other.  However, the attacks were from all indications planned far in advance by the Muslim Brotherhood, and it would seem that the Egyptian president (an admitted Muslim Brotherhood member) had foreknowledge of these attack plans. The White House and State Department were warned of impending attacks a week prior!  So, why then was nothing done to prevent these attacks?  According to the government reports, and many somewhat hysterical news reports, the embassy attacks were a “spontaneous reaction” to an obscure anti-Muslim film called “Innocence of Muslims”.  Originally linked to an “American-Israeli-Jew” producer, this low budget video was hastily created with bad costumes and fake backdrops. According to cast members, they believed the film to be about something entirely different than their lines portray, lines they claim to have never said.  Tentatively, the creation and “distribution” of the video has been linked to one Nakoula Bassily Nakoula, reportedly a Coptic Christian Egyptian native with numerous aliases, and who is on a conditional release from prison.  Additionally, nobody seems to know if he’s even an American citizen. 

Another interesting item here are the news reports that the attackers were armed with, among other things, 20mm anti-aircraft cannon!  Certainly not a weapon I would expect to be carried by the run-of-the-mill Arabic mob out for an evening’s entertainment!  AK-47’s and RPG’s I can understand, as they’re nearly household items in the mid-east, but anti-aircraft guns are an entirely different story, and indicate considerable advanced planning.

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, murdered alongside three aides, paid the price of our administration and foreign policy establishment’s unwillingness to understand political Islam.  Even our experienced foreign policy officers insist on following the notion that Islam is a religion of Peace, and that Islamic societies can be reformed along Western lines.  President G.W. Bush thought he was a crusader for democratic self-determination.  Obama, following Jimmy Carter’s lead, seems to think of himself as a champion of human rights.  Both found it impossible to understand that their ideas are of no interest to Islamist theoreticians and militants. They, despite all the hand wringing and pious bleating of our loony left, are at war with the west, in the best tradition of Islamic teachings.

An Islamic mob stormed our embassy in Libya, killing our ambassador and dragging his body through the streets. Hours earlier, more than 2,000 Egyptian protesters gathered at our embassy in Cairo where many tried to scale its walls.  Muslim fanatics in Sudan attacked the German embassy.  US embassies in Tunis and Yemen were assaulted.  Riots have exploded in the rest of the Islamic world as well.  Strangely enough, all this was exactly on the eleventh anniversary of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack on the US, with the timing and coordination of these attacks over such a widespread area telling me at least, that this wasn't about a video, it’s about a caliphate.  Along with all our other problems, the US Government, and the American people, better understand that fact.

Remember when?

I received an interesting e-mail from an old friend a few days back that brings up a number of interesting points about Mr. Obama’s “accomplishments” over the last four years.  It also managed to prove once again that Mr. O’s doings are definitely bad for my blood pressure!  I guess the anointed one and his supporters are rather proud of themselves however, with what they’ve managed to do to our nation despite the objections of the majority of the American people, and the (said somewhat tongue in cheek) “opposition” of mainstream Republicans. 

I can remember back to the days when a conservative war hero sat in the White House, and our nation was in the midst of those dark, threatening days of the cold war.  Yet the economy was thriving… people had jobs, Mom didn’t have to balance working and her family to make ends meet, we were building a national highway system second to none, the post office could send a letter clear across the country for three cents and still show a profit, gasoline was 25 or so cents a gallon, illegal immigration was effectively a non-existent problem, criminals were in jail instead of in government, and the only “terrorist” I knew of was that big mean kid living down the street.  With all this our national debt was diminishing!  The nation was in the midst of a “golden age” that we still fondly look back on, where schools taught patriotism, churches taught morality, John Wayne was our movie hero, and we were proud to be Americans.  But then, things do change…

Do ‘ya remember when… Mr. Obama refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, and then it became known that multi-billionaire Marxist George Soros had spent gobs of money to get him elected?  Or do you remember when he received glowing political endorsements from people like Farrakhan, Kaddafi, and Hugo Chavez, along with his radical friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn… and people said that it didn't matter.

Do you remember when…  He refused to wear a flag lapel pin in honor of the Americans killed on 9/11, and did so only after a public outcry, or when he stood with his hands over his groin for the playing of the National Anthem and the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance… or when he claimed he was a Christian during the election, and tapes later surfaced showing the man with three Muslim names speaking to a Muslim group stating that he was raised a Muslim, was educated as a Muslim, and is still a Muslim… and people said it didn't matter?  When, as President of the United States, he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia and to the Emperor of Japan while traveling around the world criticizing America and apologizing for our greatness…  Or do you perchance remember when his personal background was so well hidden that nothing could be found out about him… or when the place of his birth was questioned, and he refused to produce a birth certificate… and people thought nothing of it.

How about when… he surrounded himself with advisors who were pro-gun control, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage and who wanted to curtail freedom of speech to silence the opposition.  When he said he favors sex education in kindergarten, including homosexual indoctrination, or when his followers started treating him as a Messiah, or when children in schools were being taught to sing his praises… and Americans said it didn't matter

Do you remember when he started appointing White House “Czars” that are radicals, revolutionaries, and even avowed Marxist /Communists.  When he appointed a Science Czar who believes in forced abortions, mass sterilizations, and seizing newborn babies from un-wed teen mothers…  When he selected a Regulatory Czar who believes in harvesting human organs without family consent.  When he appointed the homosexual organizer of a group called Gay, Lesbian, Straight, and Education Network, as our Safe School Czar?  Or appointed as Diversity Czar a man who believes in curtailing free speech, and who supports Hugo Chavez.  When he selected an avowed Socialist as Senior White House Advisor, when his White House Communications Director said Mao Tse Tung was her favorite philosopher and the person she turned to most for inspiration, when his pick for Health and Human Services Secretary could not be confirmed because he was a tax cheat… and people still said it didn't matter.

Do you remember when… he started spending us into a national debt that’s so big we’ll probably never get it paid off, when he generated another huge spending bill under the guise of stimulus and used it to pay off the various organizations, unions, and individuals that got him elected…  When he took over our nations insurance companies, car companies, banks, etc., and set into motion a plan to take over the control of all energy production in the United States through his Cap and Trade scheme… and Americans said it didn't matter.

Do you remember… his radical plan (now the law of the land), to take over the nations entire health care system and put it under government control, giving us a Soviet Union style socialized medical care system complete with rationing and death panels… and people still think it doesn’t matter.  How about when he signed the executive orders setting into place his capability to bypass Congress at will, and totally take over every means of transportation, communications, production, banking, and even individual property rights… and people said it doesn’t matter.

So what does matter?!  Well, I remember when he stood before the Nation and told us that the United States was the greatest country in the world, and that his intentions were to "fundamentally transform this Nation" into something else.  Add these accomplishments up one by one and you get a huge score attesting to the fact that Barrack Hussein Obama is determined to turn America into “just another” third-world Marxist-Socialist society.  Even as we contemplate the upcoming election, he has nearly completed transforming us into the ‘United Socialist States of America’, with himself as our first Premier, a place where our hallowed Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and our precious liberty, are only a vague memory.   

If the American voter allows Mr. O to continue with his “master plan” this November, people will finally begin to remember that it does matter… but by then it will be far too late.