Pat Sullivan Blog

Where we're really at in Iraq in 700 words

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Victor Davis Hanson just penned the 700 (give or take) best words on the situation in Iraq that I have read from anyone.  There's no way to excerpt it.  Just go read the essay. 

If the Left can pause the "Bush lied" chanting, I think they might actually agree with Davis' assessment.

Minimum Wage

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

George Will pulls out some interesting stats that I had never seen before with minimum wage in his article, Raising the minimum wage is still a bad idea:

Most of the working poor earn more than the minimum wage, and most of the 0.6 percent (479,000 in 2005) of America's wage workers earning the minimum wage are not poor. Only one in five workers earning the federal minimum live in families with household earnings below the poverty line. Sixty percent work part-time and their average household income is well over $40,000. (The average and median household incomes are $63,344 and $46,326 respectively.)

Forty percent of American workers are salaried. Of the 75.6 million paid by the hour, 1.9 million earn the federal minimum or less, and of these, more than half are under 25 and more than a quarter are between 16 and 19. Many are students or other part-time workers. Sixty percent of those earning the federal minimum or less work in restaurants and bars and are earning tips -- often untaxed, perhaps -- in addition to their wages. Two-thirds of those earning the federal minimum today will, a year from now, have been promoted and be earning 10 percent more.

I had heard this argument before -- minimum wage doesn't do anything to help the poor because no one can live on $5 or $7 an hour -- but I had never seen this data.

Solstice Barn

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Saw this while watching Brit Hume and the Grapevine tonight.  Pretty hilarious.  Check out the Nativity Scene Solstice Barn.

Iraq War - Bad Dude!!

You may have seen this. A friend emailed it. It checks out as true on Snopes.com. I am glad we are on these guys side!! Bad dudes!

SEMPER FI !

Leading the fight is Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt, known as "Iron Mike" or just "Gunny". He is on his third tour in Iraq. He had become a legend in the bomb disposal world after winning the Bronze S tar for disabling 64 IEDs and destroying 1,548 pieces of ordnance during his second tour. Then, on September 19, he got blown up. He had arrived at a chaotic scene after a bomb had killed four US soldiers. He chose not to wear the bulky bomb protection suit. "You can't react to any sniper fire and you get tunnel-vision," he explains. So, protected by just a helmet and = standard-issue flak jacket, he began what bomb disposal officers term "the longest walk", stepping gingerly into a 5ft deep and 8ft wide crater.
The earth shifted slightly and he saw a Senao base station with a wire leading from it. He cut the wire and used his 7in knife t o probe the ground. "I found a piece of red detonating cord between my legs," he says. "That's when I knew I was screwed."

Realizing he had been sucked into a trap, Sgt Burghardt, 35, yelled at everyone to stay back. At that moment, an insurgent, probably watching through binoculars, pressed a button on his mobile phone to detonate the secondary device below the sergeant's feet. "A chill went up the back of my neck and then the bomb exploded," he recalls. "As I was in the air I remember thinking, 'I don't believe they got me.' I was just ticked off they were able to do it. Then I was lying on the road, not able to feel anything from the waist down."

His colleagues cut off his trousers to see how badly he was hurt. None could believe his legs were still there. "My dad's a Vietnam vet who's paralyzed from the waist down," says Sgt Burghardt. "I was lying there thinking I didn't want to be in a wheelchair next to my dad and for him to see me like that. They started to cut away my pants and I felt a real sharp pain and blood trickling down. Then I wiggled my toes and I thought, 'Good, I'm in business.' "As a stretcher was brought over, adrenaline and anger kicked in. "I decided to walk to the helicopter. I wasn't going to let my team-mates see me being carried away on a stretcher." He stood and gave the insurgents who had blown him up a one-fingered salute. "I flipped them one. It was like, 'OK, I lost that round but I'll be back next week'."

Copies of a photograph depicting his defiance, taken by Jeff Bundy for the Omaha World-Herald, adorn the walls of homes across America and that of Col John Gronski, the brigade commander in Ramadi, who has hailed the image as an exemplar of the warrior spirit. Sgt Burghardt's injuries - burns and wounds to his legs and buttocks - kept him off duty for nearly a month and could have earned him a ticket home. But, like his father - who was awarded a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action in Vietnam - he stayed in Ramadi to engage in the battle against insurgents who are forever coming up with more ingenious ways of killing Americans.

Freedom of Speech - Not always

Chase Harper. a high school student is going to the Supreme Court.  Good for Chase!

Chase Harper – who wore a T-shirt to school expressing his religious viewpoint on homosexual behavior. Chase was closely questioned by an armed deputy and prohibited by school officials from wearing his shirt, telling him to "keep his faith in the car" – all the while the school welcomed messages advocating homosexual behavior.

Chase and his parents took the school to court defending his First Amendment rights, first in federal district court, and then before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

In one of its most "creative" opinions ever – citing the movie Brokeback Mountain - Judge Stephen Reinhardt (the most overturned judge in the country), and another 9th Circuit judge ruled that Chase's biblical speech was not protected.

Despite the uproar the opinion created on the left and the right with regard to free speech rights, the 9th Circuit would not re-hear the case.

So,  Chase's case is now being appealed to the highest court in the land: the United States Supreme Court. The High Court was asked to hear this case to protect the rights of Christian students to express their views at school. You can read the petition for review at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/HarperPetition.pdf.

Attorney Kevin Theriot says: "School officials do not have the right to engage in viewpoint discrimination, and this case is very important for those who support true 'tolerance and diversity' in public schools. The core of the First Amendment is all about the right of Americans to express their sincerely held beliefs. In appealing this case to the U.S. Supreme Court, we hope the justices reverse the 9th Circuit's terrible ruling."

Tolerance cuts both ways.  Everybody wants to have the right to express their opinions but are not quite as anxious to let everyone else express an opposing viewpoint, especially on HOT TOPICS like homosexuality and Intelligent Design.  America has always thrived on debate.  Keep the debate in schools and the marketplace.  It is healthy.  Chase deserves the right to express his opinion.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Islamists

This interesting piece was sent to me by a friend.  It is an interview of Dr. Tawfik Hamid, a former Islamic terrorist.

Here is a quote that speaks volumes.

"Stop asking what you have done wrong. Stop it! They're slaughtering you like sheep and you still look within. You criticize your history, your institutions, your churches. Why can't you realize that it has nothing to do with what you have done but with what they want."

I find it maddening they many Americans, blame America for being hated and attacked by the Islamists.  Logically and historically, it is just not true.  They want to kill us for many reasons, most of which have nothing to do with us.  It is about them!!

Purple Cows and Politics (UPDATED)

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Purple cows stand out from the pack.  Seth Godin wrote an excellent book about it and how it applies to marketing principles.  Extremes to one end or the other are what make products worth telling your friends about.  "I just saw a purple cow!"  The products in the middle of the pack are either dead or dying.

So why did so many centerist-moderates win this election?

In my state of Arizona, I can't figure out the incongruence in the electorate when it comes to illegal immigration.

• Prop 102 prohibits illegal aliens from receiving punitive damages in AZ courts.  More than 70% agreed.
• Prop 103 makes English as the official language.  More than 70% agreed.
• Prop 300 stops illegal immigrants from receiving government funded services.  More than 70% agreed.  (Prop 102, 103, 300 results.)
• Len Munsil, the Republican gubernatorial candidate's entire campaign was based around securing the border.  He lost in a landslide. 63% vs 35%. Democrat incumbent Janet Napalitano has done nothing to secure the Arizona border.  She passes it off as a Federal problem.  This is legally correct, but with a billion dollar surplus (created by Republican dominated state legislature and the roaring economy), why not do more protect the citizens of Arizona since the bulk of violent crimes are committed by illegal immigrants?  Napalitano cringed every time Munsil mentioned the word "border."
• J.D. Hayworth, 4-time incumbent in district 5 (my district) went publicly on record against President Bush over and over again this summer during the attempt to pass "comprehensive immigration reform."  Hayworth pushed for "protect the border first!"  Surprising (and disappointing) upset for him losing by a few percentage points to Harry Mitchel who I know literally nothing about, other than that he was/is mayor of Tempe and looks very "grandfatherly."
• Most surprisingly enough, in AZ district 8, right along the Mexican border, Minute Man Republican Randy Graf lost to Democrat Gabrielle Giffords.  District 8 is a very Republican district that is one of the most, if not the most effected by illegal immigration in the entire country.

So...we don't want illegal immigrants to get any sort of governmental services or punitive damages, we do want English to be spoken, but we don't want any of the candidates that were fighting the hardest for those things?  I don't get it.

So much for being a purple cow in politics and going either far right (Len Munsil) or far left (Ned Lamont).  Moving to the middle during election season is the way to win. 

Why is that and what the heck is "the middle?"

UPDATE: Michael Savage on his radio show last night pointed out that the electorate nationwide has not abandoned conservative principles, as evidenced by all the state propositions (no on gay marriage, English as official language, no oil company tax in California, etc.). 

But the electorate has abandoned Republicans, who have for the most part abandoned conservatism!

The scariest of all being President Bush who sounded excited about the possibility for amnesty for illegals as a part of comprehensive immigration "reform" working in partnership with a Democratic controlled congress.  Bush has abandoned conservatism. 

This does not bode well for this country.

Dennis Miller and Iraq

Dennis says what I believe much better than I can say it.  Watch it.

The End of Mercury Fillings?

Here is a great post at the Huffington Post entitled "The Beginning of the End of Mercury in Dentistry."

I applaud Rep. Diane Watson (D) for her courageous and longtime stance against the ADA and FDA and their insistence that this incredibly stupid and untested use of mercury in humans was safe.  It is NOT safe.  At least it has never been proven safe by either the ADA or the FDA. 

Someday the use of mercury in dentistry will end just like the use of Asbestos ended.  Imagine though if the same approach used for Asbestos was applied to Mercury Fillings.  Laws were passed making it necessary to remove Asbestos from the buildings that contained it.  Yikes!! 

Removing amalgams from the mouths of over 70% of the entire population of America (200+ million people)  would be quite a task.  Especially if dentists have to do it right.  (You can't just drill the damn stuff out!!  You will make tens of millions even more poisoned and sick.)  And WHO is going to pay for it??  The ADA?  The US taxpayers?

Would it improve the health of America?  Absolutely!!  Even with the small sample group that Jigsaw Foundation has, we are seeing that getting mercury amalgams can dramatically effect the health of many.   If you can, please donate to the Foundation so that we can help more very sick people get started on the road to health by removing this terrible poison!

Thoughts on Iraq

Iraq is now like Vietnam or the Tet offensive according the press and it seems even the Bush admin is buying into that thinking.  Interesting.

Quickly, for what it is worth (probably not much), here is what I think.

1.)  Regardless of the messiness of the Iraq situation it is a VERY good thing that we have managed to attract most of the crazy Islamists to Iraq to fight us there instead of allowing them to spread out and fight us everywhere else, especially here on our soil.  There is no question in my mind that one of the reasons we have not been attacked again here, is that we are there.  They have come to fight us there.  That is a very positive thing.  They are going to fight us somewhere and it is far better for us that it is there, not NY or LA or wherever in the US.

2.)  Over the years I have talked to many soldiers who were on the ground in Vietnam and all were sooo frustrated that they were never allowed to really fight to win!  Political issues prevented them from kicking North Vietnam's ass.  They could have.  They should have.  If we are going to go to the trouble to fight a war, we ought to fight to win or stay the hell out of it.  War is never won with a half assed, politically correct approach.  Either commit all out, no holds barred or surrender.  The French at least learned to surrender early!

3.) Bush needs to fire some Generals and get someone new to run this thing.  At the end of the day, if there is blame for what happens on the ground it is the generals who call the shots.  Not Bush.  Unless of course he or Rumsfield (who I don't care much for for many reasons) is not listening to his Generals.  It appears to me that he is listening to them.  I think they have run a crummy clean up operation.  The initial war was run brilliantly.  The aftermath has proven to be a disaster.  He needs a new general in charge.  Fire somebody W!!  Fire em today!!  Get pissed and win the damn war!!  As my dad used to say, "stop pussyfooting around."

4.) Commit totally to overwhelm the terrorists even if you have to put a million troops on the ground.  Kill every terrorist you can find everywhere they are in Iraq.  Secure it and then turn it over to the Iraqi government and military.  Then get the hell out of there.  You have done the best you can do.  If they then lose what we have given them, it is not our fault.  If they are crazy enough (and they likely are) to continue to kill each other because of all the religious factions there then let em.  But get the job done.  Do it with all the force required to bring peace and then get out in a rational, planned manner.

5.)  Realize that it is soo easy to be a Monday morning quarterback.  When you are a leader you NEVER have enough information.  You do the best you can to make a decision and then you go all out to win, making adjustments as you go.  I have never been involved in a planned business startup where things went as planned.  You just cannot know beforehand what the situation is really going to be like or what your competitors will do to respond to your campaign.  All of this carping in the press and from politicians is just a bunch of Monday morning quarterbacks who don't have a clue what leadership is.  For all his faults Bush has led and done many things right.  Now he needs to lead all the way and win the damn war, not just contain the people who want to kill us.  He needs to win this no matter the cost.  We must win.  To lose would cost us way too much. 

And that is all I have to say about that.