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CONTROVERY – POLITICS – READ ON!
By fred | August 29, 2008
CONTROVERY
I have often talked about my buddies, football buddies, high school buddies, dating from back in the mid 1940’s. There are guy buddies and girl buddies, quite a few of them. We chased footballs and our lovely Poly girls both with equal glee.
Why did we stick together after sixty years? Beats the heck out of me – but we did. We drive or fly long distances each year, each May, to be together just for a few hours at a ‘old football guy luncheon’ on a Friday and the next day a luncheon of all of those still alive from our old John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in downtown Los Angeles. The reason there are not that many of us – is that ‘Poly’ High closed down in central Los Angeles in 1955, so the last graduation was over fifty years ago. Still almost two hundred of us show up for that, or did this last May.
O. K. many of you have heard about this before. We are buddies, we stick together. Do we fight? We sure do! Politics is the biggest divider of them all. Fortunately we have far more Democrats than Republicans, but my Republican buddies are not wimps, give the devil (or in this case devils) their due. In fact several of them are among my closest and dearest friends. I keep telling them that I will until I draw my dying breath, keep trying to convert them – still the job is almost insurmountable.
Two of these buddies, one a Democrat and the other a Republican, get into some wild discussions. Both in my opinion are highly intelligent individuals. One you know about, we call him ‘FULL GALE DALE’ – Dale ended his career as a chief engineering officer of those huge oil tankers that roam our seas. The responsibility of that position is unbelievable. Other than the captain of the ship the engines, every piece of gear on those ships was his responsibility. A match or spark in the wrong spot and the ship would be gone besides a disaster of major proportions would contaminate our oceans, beaches, sea life. Dale is highly intelligent, and a deep thinker, a guy that thinks carefully before opening his mouth.
The second, was a teammate of mine, a high school club brother, I will call him ‘H’ here as he is a bit more of a private guy than Dale. ‘H’ advanced to almost the highest rank that a military officer can get – lots of stars on each shoulder. Also a thinker, however a very conservative thinker, a friend of Ronald Regan, strong ties to the Republican Party. These two, often square off, firing stuff back and forth, it gets interesting.
Recently ‘H’ fired off an article written by a conservative German newspaper, it is a fiery article blasting all of the European nations as wimps and siding with the Bush invasion of Iraq. I think, if you agree or not, it is worth reading. So I am sending it here.
I will make my comments first, right now, after you read the article you will read my buddy ‘Full Gale Dales’ comments. VERY WORTH READING.
The writer of the German newspaper article makes some excellent points. Hussein was a monster, no doubt about it, I have no problem with Bush taking him out, however there are many such leaders in the world, monsters you can’t believe, leaders in many African countries, the leader of North Korea, just to name a few. Is it our job to risk the lives of our children, ruin our nation financially to do so? Should American blood be spilt all over the world to be the policeman of the world? Can we afford to be that policeman – not only in terms of the lives of our young soldiers, military, but in the terms of what it does to the lives of our citizens, the destruction of our way of life to do so? Something we must all think about!
My personal problem with Bush is that he is a liar, I hate liars! That he has made sure the wealth of our nation has gone into the hands of the very rich. His total lack of care for our people, our troop’s welfare. Saying he does and then being against paying for their care. Unbid contacts, the graft, the spending of untold billions that are totally unaccounted for, that would enrich the lives of Americans. That is my main bitch. Not being truthful to his people, his administration will affect the lifestyle of all of our people for tens of years to come – AND NOT FOR THE BETTER, that I can assure you. THAT IS MY BITCH ABOUT BUSH AND THE REPUBLICANS.
At any rate, there is a lot to think about when you read the following article and Full Gale Dale’s comments after reading it.
I hope you will spend the time – I think we need change as Obama says, God willing you will agree at elections time.
READ ON—
GERMAN EDITORIAL TELLS IT LIKE IT IS
If any of you still feel that this war on terror is a mistake, here is
an opinion from an unexpected source. It’s fascinating that this should
come out of Europe. Mathias Dapfner, Chief Executive of the huge German
publisher Axel Springer AG, has written a blistering attack in DIE WELT,
Germany’s largest daily paper, against the timid reaction of Europe in
the face of the Islamic threat.
This is a must-read by all Americans. History may well certify its
correctness….Or maybe Not!!
EUROPE – THY NAME IS COWARDICE
(Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG)
A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, ‘Europe – your
family name is appeasement.’ It’s a phrase you can’t get out of your head
because it’s so terribly true.
Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives, as England
and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before
they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless
agreements.
Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union,
then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe, where for
decades, inhuman suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the
ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.
(Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and
even though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans
debated and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the
Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet
again, and do our work for us.) >>>>> (CLINTON Administration did
this!!!)<<<<<<<<<
Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European
Appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word ‘equidistance,’ now
countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.
Appeasement generates a mentality that allow s Europe to ignore nearly
500,000 victims of Saddam’s torture and murder machinery and, motivated
by the self-righteousness of the peace movement, has the gall to issue
bad grades to George Bush… Even as it is uncovered that the loudest
critics of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of
billions, in the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.
And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement.
How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic
Fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really
should have a ‘Muslim Holiday’ in Germany?
I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our
(German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German
people, actually believe that creating an Official State ’Muslim Holiday’
will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists. One
cannot help but recall Britain’s Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable
treaty signed by Adolph Hitler and declaring European ‘Peace in our
time’.
What else has to happen before the European public and its political
leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially
perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims,
focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies,
and intent upon Western Civilization’s utter destruction.
It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the
great military conflicts of the last century – a conflict conducted by an
enemy that cannot be tamed by ‘tolerance’ and ‘accommodation’ but is
actually spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will
always be taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness. Only two recent
American Presidents had the courage needed for Anti-appeasement: Reagan
and Bush.
His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans
know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War,
freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and
virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair,
acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War
against Democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a
number of years have passed.
In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in
the multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society’s values
and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the
true great powers, America and China.
On the contrary – we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those
’arrogant Americans’, as the World Champions of ‘tolerance’, which even
(Germany’s Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why?
Because we’re so moral? I fear it’s more because we’re so materialistic,
so devoid of a moral compass.
For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of
additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on the
American economy – because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes
what is at stake – literally everything.
While we criticize the ‘capitalistic robber barons’ of America because
they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social
Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We’d rather
discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage, or our 4
weeks of paid vacation… Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need
to ‘reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive’.
These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands,
frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber
breaking into a neighbor’s house.
Appeasement? Europe, thy name is Cowardice.
******FOLLOWING ARE COMMENTS FROM “FULL GALE DALE” - PLEASE READ ON—–
I agree! Bush has (stayed the course). However, no one knows where the course will lead us, or what we will find when, and if, we get there. A Navigator, he is not!
In the mean time, Congress men and women, such as House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Leader Reid, along with Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, (Democrats all, have fought for, and pushed through legislation, that will re-install the G.I. Bill of Rights, so our returning Service people will at least get a chance to build a better life for themselves and their families. Also more retirement and health care funds for their return to civilian life.
This German who is “Telling it like it is”, has apparently forgotten the Berlin Air Lift that saved that city from starvation, and was instrumental in the Russians backing down, (once again), to American resolve and ability. I believe Truman was President then, another fine Democrat.
Germans have their problems, we have ours, but they are not necessarily the same, nor will they need the same solutions.
Germany has, I believe, followed the “Right wing” philosophy, all too many times, with the same failures to show for it. Why they, or anyone, should keep beating this dead horse, never ceases to amaze me.
This German author approves of Clintons stepping in and resolving the problems that beset Kosovo, and other parts of the Balkans, but fails to give him credit for it. (I wrote it in for him). Funny how they forget Democratic successes!
Guess that’s about enough pontificating for today, so will sign off,
Take care… Dale
MORE FROM “FULL GALE DALE”
As most of you know! I’m a Liberal Democrat that would have
Preferred Hillary Clinton as the Democratic Flag Bearer at this
Particular Election time. That was not to be.
Little by little, I’ve been learning about Barack Obama, and have
come to realize he is much brighter than I originally thought. I
Still think Hillary would have been the stronger candidate, but
Senator Obama presents (I think), a much more interesting candidacy,
and will be giving this Country an excellent opportunity to
(hopefully), rid ourselves of some long time “Bugaboos”.
Most pundits say that Racism should not be an issue here, but most
folks know that it does exist, and will have an impact on this Election
What better arena could there be, to prove long standing attitudes,
And, sometimes suppressed, and sometimes exaggerated feelings,
running from mild disapproval, to outright hatred, than having a
Black President, and seeing if he can cope with the problems we have,
that few, (if any, others) know how to solve?
Of course there will be some folks so steeped in bigotry that
nothing will ever convince them that they, and their long time
prejudices were wrong, but if he, Obama, can function well at this
exalted position, their children and children’s children, will be
harder to convince of blind racial hatred that has lasted all too
long already.
If he is Elected, and with the help of a more powerful and
numerically dominant Congressional Body does turn our (economy, fuel
problems, illegals problems, Iraq military problems, and rebuilds
respect, and faith in the U.S. A.), to name just a few of the things
that would be facing him; I think he could do more for a better
understanding of American “equality” of race, and other segmented
groups than has ever been done before.
That’s a big order, I know, but it can be done and it most certainly
should be done.
To be “ONE” people, we first must convince ourselves, that
we are truly united in our resolve to move forward, and correct our
past mistakes, and initiate new ideas and plans to get this beloved
Country back on the right track.
In the words of “Larry” the Cable Guy”. “Let’s Git-er-done”.
I believe a vote for Barack “O”, and a guy named Joe! would be a
good start!
Dale
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