Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day (celebrated); tomorrow is the actual date designated by Congress in 1938 as our national holiday. Known as Veterans Day here, this day is celebrated as Remembrance Day in the (other) English-speaking parts of the free world. An interesting lil factoid: I got every single Veterans Day off while I was in the military, and technically not a veteran (yet). And I worked every single Veterans Day after I retired and became a “real” veteran. I always thought that was pretty strange.

Salute our veterans today (and tomorrow, for you traditionalists), especially those of the Greatest Generation. We owe those particular veterans an immense debt of gratitude, and they aren’t going to be with us much longer.

And while we’re on about Veterans Day, what better day to donate to Valour-IT? We’re in the closing hours of the fund drive, and, unless you live under that proverbial rock, you know that Team Air Force is in an unusual and uncharacteristic place: DEAD FREAKING LAST. I hate it when that happens. Won’t you please donate five or ten dollars to this worthy cause? And we’ll certainly accept MORE, if you’re in a space to give more. There no causes more worthy. Please give!

Happy Birthday, United States Marine Corps! 231 years and counting. This is about as good a tribute as you’ll find today.

Scott Ott, aka Scrappleface, has been very good since the election. Case in point:

Pelosi Calls Talk of Bush, Cheney Pardons Premature
by Scott Ott

(2006-11-09) — At a post-luncheon news conference outside the White House today, Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, said talk of pardoning President George Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney was “premature.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Rep. Pelosi, who as House Speaker would stand third in the presidential succession line. “There are no specific charges or articles of impeachment at this point, and so it’s silly to speak of pardoning them.”

“Let’s not be too hasty for emotional closure,” the California Democrat added. “Our long national nightmare has only just begun.”

Don’t miss his posts on Rummy’s resignation!

Speaking of Pelosi, there’s this in today’s Investor Business Daily:

WWIII: Clinton thought terrorism was a law enforcement matter. Kerry thought it could be reduced to a "nuisance." Now Pelosi says Iraq is not a war but a "situation." Should we issue car bombers parking tickets?

Gen. Douglas MacArthur once said that in war there is no substitute for victory, but future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told Fox News' Brit Hume on Wednesday that in Iraq there is no substitute for withdrawal — that Iraq is "not a war to be won but a situation to be solved."

As Ott, putting words in Pelosi’s mouth, said: “Our long national nightmare has only just begun.”

From a featured article (Bridge to Somewhere; The House GOP needs a new generation of leaders.) in today’s WSJ:

If we had to pick the precise moment when House Republicans lost their way, it would be three years ago during the floor vote over the Medicare prescription drug bill. So unpopular was the bill among conservatives, and rightly so, that House leaders kept the vote open for an unheard of three hours as they dragooned reluctant Members to vote aye.

The other great symbol of GOP failure is the proliferation of earmarked spending. In 1994 there were 1,500 such projects stuffed into Democratic spending bills, and Republicans called this a fiscal disgrace. This year Republicans approved closer to 15,000 earmarks at a cost of more than $10 billion. The current leadership defended this earmarking even after such embarrassments as the Alaska Bridge to Nowhere were exposed. When they finally agreed to minimal transparency, it was too late.

Here's one telling exit poll result: In battleground districts, only one in five voters said Republicans would do a better job to "keep government spending under control"; almost twice as many voters said Democrats would do a better job. Yet this week a separate poll found that 59% of Americans still favor fewer government services and lower taxes compared with 28% who favor more government services and higher taxes. "Big government conservatism" was a nice think-tank proposition; it merely lacks support from actual voters.

It is indeed a sea-change when the electorate views the formerly labeled “tax and spend” Democrat party as the more fiscally responsible party. I also find it absolutely incredible that the congressional Republicans, particularly in the House, were so damned deaf and incompetent, nay: arrogant. There were those who warned, early and often, of the dire consequences of unchecked spending and pork-barrel politics. Over the past four to five years one read editorials in the WSJ at least once a week warning congressional Republicans to change their ways, and then there was the “Pork-Busters” movement in the blogosphere. The Republican Congress had been sowing the wind for a long time. Unfortunately, we all have to pay now that they’ve reaped the whirlwind.