Open Mike

[Ventura Patriot]

  

By popular demand, we created this forum to cover almost any topic your heart desires.  The Forum name, "Open Mike" refers to the tradition that some comedy and music clubs have of offering all comers the opportunity to perform live impromptu at their establishments, with any material they come up with that is consistent with the theme and policies of that organization (in our case, the Mission statement in "Read Me" section), We'll even consider stuff not consistent, if you can persuade us that changes are needed.

 

Note to readers/posters: Reader comments are in chronological, indented sequence, with the newest ones on the higher-numbered pages below.  You must be registered on this site to post. You may have to scroll/page down to get to where you want to be. 

 

[Ventura Patriot]

Hi Les:

I suppose that you would be running aganst Elton, then?  I wish you would at least run against someone who doesn't usually vote how we want.

How do you plan to organize, staff, finance and publicize your campaign? What would be your party affiliation, if any? What is your platform?

Most people are focused on the holidays right now, so, you may want to announce this again in January.

[David M Stewart]

It is wonderful when somebody takes the frame and language back and speaks the truth.  The progressive liberal fascists always change the frame of reference and re-define the language to hopefully confuse the voters.  Emotional language triggers are the stock and trade of politicians and partisan spokesholes.  Thank you Mike B for such refreshing honesty and truth.

[Les McEwan]

Hi George,

Thanks for your input. Yes, I will run against Elton mostly because he's a definitive career politican. Please forgive me for not accepting someone who votes the way we want "most of the time". Representation without accountability is exactly what I'm running against.

I have no idea how to peform this monumental task but if I don't try I'll just be another complainer that is willing to sit on the sidelines.I'm hoping for guidance from the Tea Party t learn how to organize staff finance and publicize my campaign. My party affiliation would be Republican but truly my only responsibilities would be to the constituents of the district. My platform if you will would be that everyone's vote counts. Perhaps I am naive but I believe the people know what they want and they should get it.

I will take your advise and re-post this after the holidays. Until then any and all feedback is welcome.

[Ventura Patriot]

Hey, living in a district where my "representative" votes against my interests nearly ALL of the time and a fine opponent (Tom Watson) did poorly against her, District 24 seems outstandingly represented in comparison. Too bad that you couldn't instead put your efforts into running a Progressive or two out of office.

 

It is good that you're looking so far ahead, since locking up support and money, as well as becoming better known in the district and by those who could help publicize and fund your campaign are key to success.

[Ventura Patriot]

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

The goal of socialism is communism.
Vladimir Lenin

The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.
Vladimir Lenin

Under socialism all will govern in turn and will soon become accustomed to no one governing.
Vladimir Lenin

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Vladimir Lenin

The government is tottering. We must deal it the death blow an any cost. To delay action is the same as death.
Vladimir Lenin

The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency.
Vladimir Lenin

Our program necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism.
Vladimir Lenin

A lie told often enough becomes the truth.
Vladimir Lenin

 

 

[Ventura Patriot]

“After hydrogen, the most common thing in the universe is stupidity.”

 

“Two things are infinite – the universe and human stupidity. And I’m not sure about the former.”

 

-Albert Einstein

[Ventura Patriot]

Thomas Jefferson

 

We were blessed with the wisest founders we could possibly hope for.  They set up the foundaton for the greatest nation ever. Yes, Barack, we actually ARE exceptional. A pity that our succeeeding generations were not as wise, or at least not in government.  My own favorite and I think, the wisest of the wise, was Thomas Jefferson.

 

Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started learning very early in life and never stopped.

At 5, began studying under his cousins tutor.

At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.

At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.

At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.

At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.

At 23, started his own law practice.

At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America" and retired from his law practice.

At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.

At 33, took three years to revise Virginias legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.

At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.

At 40, served in Congress for two years.

At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.

At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.

At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.

At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of Republican Party.

At 57, was elected the third president of the United States.

At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation's size.

At 61, was elected to a second term as President.

At 65, retired to Monticello.

At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.

At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.

At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams

Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself studied the previous failed attempts at government. He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man. That happens to be way more than what most understand today. Jefferson really knew his stuff. A voice from the past to lead us in the future:

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."






When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive
the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.
Thomas Jefferson 1802:

[David M Stewart]

George,

This piece required a lot of research, thank you for this effort George.  This brought tears to my old eyes which have seen more that I had hoped to see from our government.  We must stop this madness where we let our government decide what is moral and how we should take care of our most helpless.  We must not let the unthinking, unfeeling government with no personal skin in the game of life try to tell us how we must take care our our neighbor.  People want a chance to feel the success of taking care of themselves by their own success.  We must stop the impersonal madness of bureaucracy.  A career in government should be the last place a young person looks for a successful life.  Stop the madness of failure.

[Ventura Patriot]

I wonder if that's part of the problem? The best and most moral people do NOT go into government, so we are left mostly with the dregs? Since we believe in small government and despise the idea of working in govt., guess who floods into it instead?  That is how we end up with "Barack Obamas," Nancy Pelosis. Harry Reids, Chris Dodds, Charles Rangels, Maxine Waters, Elena Kagans, etc.

[David M Stewart]

you are absolutely correct.  We have to groom our own conservative public servants.  People who will serve ( because they can get almost something for nothing) are almost something for nothing.  May be less than nothing but once they get in it is like a virus,  suck the life out of the host.

[Bill Scarpino]

I still come back to the best way and possibly only way to cure the career mediocrity in Washington and Sacramento is to somehow get to single term limits. We need citizens to serve and then return to their homes and businesses. We do not need the parasites that have discovered the public trough no matter their political affiliation!

[Ventura Patriot]

The Last Six Seconds
 

This is absolutely awesome. We can't pay some of our military people enough to do what they do for us. However, we do owe them to make sure our missions make sense and are competently run. I'm not sure that they are.
  ___________  
  ____________
   On Nov 13, 2010, Lt General John Kelly, USMC gave a speech to the Semper
  Fi  Society of St. Louis , MO. This was 4 days after his son, Lt Robert Kelly,
  USMC. was killed by an IED while on his 3rd Combat tour. During his
  speech, General Kelly spoke about the dedication and valor of our young men and
  women who step forward each and every day to protect us.
 
  During the speech, he never mentioned the loss of his own son. He closed
  the speech with the moving account of the last six seconds in the lives of two
  young Marines who died with rifles blazing to protect their brother
  Marines.

 

"I will leave you with a story about the kind of people they are, about the
  quality of the steel in their backs, about the kind of dedication they
  bring to our country while they serve in uniform and forever after as veterans.
  

  Two years ago when I was the Commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces - in
  fact, the 22nd of April 2008 - two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 'The
  Walking Dead,' and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi. One battalion in the
  closing days of their deployment and going home very soon, the other just
  starting its seven-month combat tour. Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale
  and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one
  from each battalion, assumed the watch together at the entrance gate
  of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines. The
  same broken down ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police,
  also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists in Ramadi, a
  city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by Al Qaeda.
  

  Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and
  a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did
  this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was
  a middle class white kid from Long Island . They were from two completely
  different worlds. Had they not joined the Marines they would never have
  met each other, or understood that multiple Americas exist simultaneously
  depending on one's race, education level, economic status, and where you
  might have been born. But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in
  the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were
  brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
 
  The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure
  went something like: "Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no
  unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass." "You clear?" I am also sure
  Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison something like: "Yes
  Sergeant," with just enough attitude that made the point without saying
  the words, "No kidding sweetheart, we know what we're doing." They then
  relieved two other Marines on watch and took up their post at the entry
  control point of Joint Security Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of
  Ramadi, Al Anbar, Iraq .
 
  A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way-perhaps
  60-70 yards in length-and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete
  jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted
  and detonated, killing them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry
  houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The
  truck's engine came to rest two hundred yards away knocking most of a
  house down before it stopped. Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was made
  of 2,000 pounds of explosives. Two died, and because these two young
  infantrymen didn't have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150
  of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms.
 
  When I read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it
  happened I called the regimental commander for details as something about
  this struck me as different. Marines dying or being seriously wounded is
  commonplace in combat. We expect Marines regardless of rank or MOS to
  stand their ground and do their duty, and even die in the process, if that is
  what the mission takes. But this just seemed different. The regimental
  commander had just returned from the site and he agreed, but reported that
  there were no American witnesses to the event, just Iraqi police. I
  figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually happened and then to
  decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I'd have to do it
  as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured the
  bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it
  had any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general
  officer.
 
  I traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen
  Iraqi police all of whom told the same story. The blue truck turned down
  into the alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the
  serpentine. They all said, 'We knew immediately what was going on as soon
  as the two Marines began firing.' The Iraqi police then related that some
  of them also fired, and then to a man, ran for safety just prior to the
  explosion. All survived. Many were injured, some seriously. One of the
  Iraqis elaborated and, with tears welling up, said, 'He'd run, like any
  normal man would, to save his life.  What he didn't know until then,' he
  said, 'and what he learned that very instant, was that Marines are not
  normal.'  Choking past the emotion he said, 'Sir, in the name of God no
  sane man would have stood there and done what they did. No sane man! They
  saved us all.'
 
  What we didn't know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later
  after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous
  Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in
  the blast, recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the
  Iraqis had described it. It took exactly six seconds from when the truck
  entered the alley until it detonated.
 
  You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives. Putting myself
  in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two Marines to
  separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once the
  truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time
  to talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only
  enough time to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them
  to do only a few minutes before: 'Let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles
  pass.' The two Marines had about five seconds left to live.
 
  It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take
  aim, and open up. By this time the truck was half-way through the
  barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the recording shows a number of
  Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now scattering like the
  normal and rational men they were - some running right past the Marines.
  Yale and Haerter had three seconds left to live.
 
  For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines' weapons
  firing non-stop, the truck's windshield exploding into shards of glass as their
  rounds take it apart and tore in to the body of the son-of-a-bitch who was
  trying to get past them to kill their brothers-American and Iraqi-bedded
  down in the barracks, totally unaware of the fact that their lives at that
  moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. If they
  had been aware, they would have known they were safe because two Marines stood
  between them and a crazed suicide bomber. The recording shows the truck
  careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. In all of
  the instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports
  and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to
  step aside. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread
  shoulder width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they
  could work their weapons. They had only one second left to live.
 
  The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their
  God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think about their families, their
  country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough
  time for two very brave young men to do their duty into eternity. That is the
  kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight-for you.
 
  We Marines believe that God gave America the greatest gift he could bestow
  to man while he lives on this earth: freedom.  We also believe he gave us
  another gift nearly as precious: our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast
  Guardsmen, and Marines - to safeguard that gift and guarantee no force on
  this earth can ever steal it away.

 

  It has been my distinct honor to have been with you here today. Rest assured our America,

  this experiment in democracy started over two centuries ago, will forever remain the "land of the free
  and home of the brave" so long as we never run out of tough young
  Americans who are willing to look beyond their own self-interest and comfortable

  lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to hunt
  down, and kill, those who would do us harm.
 
  God Bless America , and SEMPER FIDELIS!"