Good thing no one has noticed that this poor “broke” nation just fired 160 million-dollar-a-piece cruise missiles into Libya. Fine, maybe 2 million a shot. Has the grand old party has turned a blind eye to the expense of an entire fleet steaming around the Mediterranean, and the cost of flying hundreds of planes on nightly sorties through the Saharan dark? Maybe, but think about how much we’re saving flying 20 B2 bombers out of Missouri to Africa and back.
In fact, the once reasonable Lindsey Graham, who used to be the one senator willing to negotiate with the Democratic majority, has now come out to demand leadership in the Libyan “no fly zone” operation. Well, it’s really more of a “no breathe” zone for Gadaffi isn’t it? But let’s not call it a war, that would be very unpopular and everyone knows we’ve given that up completely.
We would think that after the debacle of Wisconsin, where we proved tricker than the Democrats at getting laws passed and boosting union membership, we might want to take a short breather and let someone else drive for a while. Nah. Not only does the Republican leadership want to be in charge of operation “Pound Sand”, they’re complaining that we didn’t get started fast enough.
So, where’s the “we’re broke” party now? If you listen carefully you can almost hear the crickets chirping in the Tea Party seats, or is that the ocean? Still it’s obvious that everybody has to cut back and share the load, except the military of course, and anyone making over $250,000 a year. It’s a simple case of Teachers and Firemen for smart bombs and enhanced firepower. That’s what makes America great.
Although I do believe I heard Republican leaders mutter the words “defined goals” about the ongoing conflict. We better get that in writing. By “ongoing conflict” I mean Libya, not the other two. Although, Iraq has calmed down to a trifle so I suppose we have room to start another military action. It’s all good press for a stupendous military budget, and now that the danger of state employes looting the treasury is vanquished, there should be plenty for all.
Thinking about the future, should we be worried about 2012? Please, from a population of voters who buy that the problem with public schools is that the teachers make too much money? Nah, and Nah again. We’ve got the next election sown up! All we need now is a creditable candidate, and to pay off our campaign debts from last time, and a really good explanation for why we can’t seem to pass a budget, and ….. Well you know, stuff.
Copyright Prentiss Gray 2011
Prentiss Gray is a writer and columnist and currently writes the Domesti-Tech Blog for Gannett. He can be reached through his website at www.prentissgray.com
Prentiss Gray
Prentiss Gray is a writer/columnist/blogger from New Jersey. After 27 years as a Information Systems consultant and the death of his wife of 21 years, he returned to his roots as a writer, creating the national column Adventures of the Lone Dad/ Daddy chronicles. He now Blogs for Gannet on domestic technology, and writes feature pieces and stories for general publication. He is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and contributes to Bloomberg News, Daily Record, Gannett and the Tribune Syndicate.
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Prentiss, you masquerading as a Republican or conservative in any fashion is beyond
laughable. Nothing wrong with being liberal, but pretending to be something else is mystifying. You are very close to the “flaming liberal” who assaults everything conservative.
Besides that, I like you, and your opinions serve as a good check system on my own.
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Ah, but David I am a registered Republican. I may well be the only progressive Republican, But I’m still one. One of my favorite pictures of my father is the one of him with Ronald Reagan. He presented Reagan with an award from the Boone and Crockett club. I used to think I had to get out of the party because of the huge influx of Christian “conservatives”, now I’m just going to wait them out.
By the way I like you as well, even with that temper of yours. What do you think for Libya 2 weeks, 2 years…..
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I think we ignore human suffering in Africa because it has little we need. Libya has oil and this is a lot more about oil than it is democracy. If only you could understand that the Dems have some of the richest men in the world promoting their version of socialism & communism to enrich themselves. Slamming Republicans and Christians for conservative views has limited value when you ignore the greed of rich Democrats who are every bit as bad. Libya is a case in point.
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Well not to take sides… I can agree with David. I have often questioned how republican you are Prentiss. That said, we are letting Britain, France and Italy take the lead because they are fighting for their own oil. KHA-DAFFY is worth getting rid of as a side benefit, but in favor of whom? What amuses me are the voices against Obama’s “unilateralism.” It seems the roles have reversed. At least Kucinich is consistent in his opinions against military action. I credit Obama for making the decision. It was fine for Bush, and also now for Obama to be commander in chief and make decisions.
Something, perhaps we can all agree on; there are elites of many political stripes who want us under their thumbs. The difference is to methodology… and I like both of you!
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I understand who supports the “dems” but I think you’re drinking too much Conservative “kool aid” if you think it’s about socialism or communism enriching people. The nefarious schemes of “super people” don’t interest me. To me it’s about the haves and have nots, I don’t really care what party I need to support so long as the lives of the Have Nots gets incrementally better. I don’t care if they “deserve it”, have earned it, or even that they may not want it. It only matters that they need it.
On another note, I’m all for squishing the Gadaffi regime. I just hate that it costs so much and I worry that we’ll just throw the bombs but not stick around for the school and hospital building phase. The rebuild what you just blasted to smithereens part. The responsibility part. The you save someone’s life so now it’s time to teach them to fish part. We’re good at the fighting but not at the long hard part of reconstruction. I’m glad that this one seems to be the UN’s problem.
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Prentiss, there is nothing wrong with being a Republican, my father was one all of his adult life and he was proud of being so (I wasn’t so proud that he was but then what I felt about his political affiliation was not all that important to him or to me; I still loved him, he was, after all, my dad). I find it commendable that regardless of what your chosen party does or says you call things as you see them and to my way of thinking that makes you admirable. Guess what, you are often, more times than not, correct. You just proved my point.
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Ah Prentiss, the cookie cutter group wants you to be just like them. LOL Hold on to your individuality.
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The entire Middle East is a cauldron on a “rolling boil” right now. Despite what we would like the world to think of us, we are a treacherous friend to have. The Shah, South Vietnamese, Mubarak and others have found this out. The Obamanation was quick to abandon the Egyptian when the slightest hint of trouble arose. We have armed, supported and connived with him for years in the interest of oil and Israel. Obama is a weak kneed follower without real values, not a leader. The world knows this. His finger is always in the wind to test the drift. Asking permission from the U.N. and following days behind the lead of France and England is a perfect example.
All this has not gone unnoticed and if radical elements opposed to U.S. interests come into power it would not be a surprise. As for nation building, that is a crock of dung. Qaddafi has more money than we do, and something to back up his currency, which we do not.
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We have far too many open ended questions in the far east right now. As an American I have to feel our long term national interests come first. We have no idea how many in Libya are supporting this overthrow and we are not even sure whose side the ones that are behind it are on. They may end up in a civil war that kilss hundreds of thousands once Qaddafi looses power, I doubt anyone knows what will happen. I believe america should stand behind democracy, if a dictator is in power the people simply have no voice and overthrowing the government is thier only option, in the case of a democracy they can wait till the next election. I have to believe that the elections in Iraq have had a major influence on what is going down in the mideast, if the Democrats would have stould behind the president from the start over this would likely have taken place even sooner. Regardless America needs to be respected if not for our ideals then for our strength but respected none the less.
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I agree with SteveG here. So many issues to solve in our own country right now. Good to see the European countries are taking the initiative to do something in Libya. God bless them.
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Yup it’s nice to see the UN acting “fast” for once. Although it’s taking congress a really long time to figure out they’re not in charge.
David, another interpretation:
Betrayed Mubarak or supported the freedom of Egyptians? Following behind the UN or supporting them in a true multi-national effort? Gaddaffi has more money than we do? We throw away more money every month than he’ll ever have.
Couldn’t agree more on Democrats getting behind the president, but I also think that doing this as part of the international community is something that is long overdue. Respect is one thing fear is another. I’m hoping that under this President we can start to ramp down the view of America as a country to be feared and loathed.
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Prentiss, with all due respect, you are very naive about politics in general and more so on international issues. We ignored Mubarak’s human rights policy, armed him, trained his army, and gave him generous foreign aid all in the name of stability and Israel. On the nefarious and precarious assumption human rights will improve under the next leader we dumped him.
Invading Libya to save the “citizen soldiers” may also be another boner by the moron in the White House. There are stories from other sources that the “poor citizen revolutionaries” may be tied to radicals and they were killing and plundering truly innocent citizens. Others say the CIA armed them. Time will tell, until then, pie in the sky media Kool Aid should be avoided.
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Libya – great that the Americans are getting into the spirit of the no-fly zone
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Under these wide terms Mr Citrus would qualify as an embarassed Democrat. It isn’t about cookie cutter, that is a leftie phenom! But I hope we get the badguy with a missile.
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David, I’ll bet you can’t wait until 2012 when you may have the opportunity to help vote a real moron into the White House to replace the current imagined one. Not saying to whom I refer, but her initials are S.P.
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I think the reason some dems refer to the republicans as cookie cutter is because we tend to have similar ideals where the dems really lack any kind of commonality and are more of a hodge podge of ideals drawn together to form a voting block. The republican party voters go all the way from center to far right, we are far from cookie cutter.
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mistermuse, I would not vote for Palin under any circumstances. Which makes me vastly different from “progressives” who have and would vote for a live skunk if nominated by the party. Conservatives think about the possibilities, you would love to think they are backwoods mad militiamen, in fact it is the progressive who walks, talks and waddles like the party ducks.
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I know a lot of republicans who like Sara Palin, but I don’t know a single one who would vote for her as president. All the ones I know don’t think she has the experience needed.
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David, I’m relieved to hear that you would not vote for Palin under any circumstances, just as I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear that I would not vote for a live skunk under any circumstances …. which, I guess, automatically disqualifies me from progressive bogeyman status (though I do love ducks). Anyway, I’ll take your slightly over-the-top reply in the same tongue-in-cheek spirit that spurred my previous (& current) comment. I may even vote for a Republican or two in the next election – I’ve done so in the past and, to my amazement, the world didn’t come to an end!
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Well it is also a good thing that Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, Jon Corzine, Tony Weiner, Maxine Waters, Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, Vivian Schiller, Patsy Schroeder, Tom Daschle or Alvin Greene are not running on the Democrat side. I would absolutely vote for Sarah Palin before I would vote for one of them!
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Personally Pawlenty might be good…
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