Click for a bigger version Photo credit: Unknown. Entertainment credit: Someone going too fast and not keeping their eyes on the road.Check out CDR Salmander for his version of Sunday Funnies”Check out the boat’s name, it explains a lot!

The news of the defeat of the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” bill is a victory for America, certainly those who comprehend that what this Nation has accomplished in 231 years, compared to any other nation on earth in history, is something worth hanging on to.

For those who either have purely financial gain to gather from opening the floodgates of foreigners, or those who have effectively, by the penumbra right to privacy, aborted themselves to the brink of irrelevance in American politics, they actually see the defeat as a defeat. They do not understand the concept of America.

The Democrats wanted this to pass so they could present themselves, for the next several generations as “the party who granted you access to the ‘American Dream.'” This, of course, to a largely under-educated labor class, would sound great, and draw their loyalty to that party’s candidates.

Ironic sidebar: For a party that regularly campaigns for “equality” for all, this bill would have legitimized a sub-class of manual laboring peoples, that we need to do what the American’s won’t do. Consider how much of the need for this bill was portrayed in that light, then understand that there has become a subconscious caste system development in our collective psyche by this line of “reasoning.” Would “they” ever be allowed access to the American Dream, or would they be kept in enclaves to perform agricultural and hospitality industry jobs? What if they got “uppity” like the slaves in the 1800s and thought they were actually granted upwards mobility by the passage of such a bill as proposed and defeated? Would we then have to remind them we only brought them here to cut grass, pick oranges and change the sheets at our hotels?

Pardon me, but for all who supported this bill, would actually have been a great leap backwards, where a more “compassionate” form of slavery would have developed, but in this case, the modern days slaves are risking their lives to get here, as opposed to being run down by the Arabs or competing tribesmen to be sold to the WASPs.

The lies rolling out of the mouths of our politicians, who have become allergic to public discourse, are too many for mee to count. One that caught my attention several times over the last few weeks: “We can’t just go up to groups of ‘them’ and ask for their Green Cards.” Excuse me? Federal law says you have to have authorization to be here. When you are gathered, in the open (NOT IN THE SHADOWS!), awaiting work, why can’t you show your card? If you have it, then you get a job and not further hassles. If you don’t, then you are in violation of the law (a concept in our culture, in most areas, has become allergic to) and you have to deal with the consequences.

Ironic sidebar: It seems the illegal aliens received even more comprehensive civil rights, even before this entire debate, than did American citizens. I’m sure drug dealers would have liked not to have been stopped for “probable cause” circumstances, in parallel to the case of “probable cause” of groups of illegal aliens standing in the open in full violation of many local, state and Federal laws. I’m not advocating drug dealing, I’m using the issue of law enforcement being allowed to exercise their responsibility to exercise their duty to investigate suspicious activity.

Another striking lie: “It’s not amnesty.” Yes, there was a provision of a path to citizenship included, analogous to a constriction in a hose designed to throttle a flow. Good start. Problem: If, using a gross example of fluid dynamics, I set a sewer pipe sized component next to the small garden hose in the same flow of rushing water, both leading to the same place in the final reckoning, just where do you think the water will flow? Yep, straight into pipe “Z Visa.” No fines, no penalties, and, in many cases, you’ll not only be refunded all the taxes you paid, you most likely will qualify for a tax credit, as well, so you will forgo holding the money each week, but come the following summer, you’ll have a larger pile of cash as a reward. Think of it like an interest bearing account, courtesy of the American taxpayer.

Ironic sidebar: The press and others seem to get semi-apoplectic when they discuss the cash flow out of the US and into China. “THE TRADE DEFICIT!” they shriek. So what did the “Z Visa” do? Simple: You get to stay here, don’t have to become a citizen, and keep doing what you are doing now: Work, spend as little as you have to in the American “system,” and send the bulk of the money out of the US. Rape, economic style. Thank you “Big Business” and Democrats. Once more, a dichotomy exists as we tell our fellow citizens to buy American. look for the union label, and decry the shifting of work to foreign shores, then we say “Hey, come on down, we’ll pay you and you can take it home to your county!”

Check this out from “The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration:”

[…]
An article in the San Francisco Chronicle stated that Mexicans living in the U.S. send between $6 and $8 billion back to their families every year, making them the third-biggest legitimate force in the Mexican economy, after oil and tourism. Additionally, US taxpayers pay for all the direct and indirect costs of “housing” the Mexican illegal aliens. In essence, it’s an unofficial form of foreign aide. Mexico isn’t about to control its borders, since Mexicans fleeing their country for work in the U.S. send plenty of money back to their own country.

While the $6-8 billion number is often quoted, a fairly recent story in The Brownsville Herald, Banks seek stake in billions sent home, notes that some estimates place the amount of dollars going south in 2006 will be $45 Billion, which was up from an estimated $30 Billion in 2004.

Regardless of the amount, all that money is leaving the US economy and not creating additional job opportunities here. Additionally, all that money represents jobs Americans used to have.
[…]

The net result of the above deficiencies are we would allow massive excusing of illegal acts, and absorb massive quantities of low paid, uneducated talent. At the same time, the bill would have reduced the number of well educated, high tech workers coming to the States. Many of those fully appreciate what the American Dream is and want to come, and on top of that, we need them here. Why? Because…

Ironic sidebar: Back in the early ’90s, the Airlie Council chartered a study, projecting the number of high tech job in the country and the number of high tech graduates projected. Guess what? One was climbing exponentially, and the other falling off a cliff. You guess which one is which. Add to that, India had established a national goal to become the best software engineers in the world and put the plan to work. Go figure why you see so many people of Indian heritage in top level positions in our IT and other technical related industries?

Enough of rehashing the past. My point today is the demonstrated voice of the American public, long thought to have developed laryngitis (something I’m sure the President, Senator Kennedy and McCain counted on), left the realm of the “Silent Majority” and spoke up. That is encouraging and actually, expected of this society. This voice can be put into play when issues of such significance arise, as it should be. Therein lies the opportunity: Using “The Voice” to let our elected representatives hear what we have to say, and ask their thoughtfully considered votes along those lines.

I’ve long been a person who looks at “situations,” and then devised a solution. Having reached that point, the long term strategy of reaching the “end game” begins. Tactically, much of the plan then is devised to come into play in phases, with the given that each step to the end is taken on the most direct path, while recognizing some temporary inefficiencies are required along the way. Those are to be kept to a minimum, but the key is to lay out the phased plan to get there, and ensure they are all interlocking pieces of the puzzle, and not a series of disjointed efforts that waste much. The elephant, as Dr. Deming taught, is to be eaten one bite at a time. The President and the Senate wanted to stuff the entire elephant in our mouths, while we slept.

Now that the text of the “Immigration Reform” bill is out to the general public, I submit the other half of “The Voice” is to not just say what we don’t like, but to now offer suggestions on how to take care of a significant National issue. That is our responsibility to stand up and be counted as not just complainers, but people concerned about moving forward intelligently.

I often considered, early in the run up to the current war, why President Clinton kept sending the FBI around to all the trouble the al-Qadea visited upon us, while President Bush was sending the military. The best answer to myself is one of their professional training: President Clinton was a lawyer by training and professional practice. President Bush was a business man. President Clinton see pretty much everything as crimes to be investigated, President Bush sees things outside or shores as military issues.

My point here is they are limited by their professional filters, as we all are, when working out plans of actions on any topic. I submit, however, when people of differing backgrounds get together, then far more coherent results are the outcome. The real bottom line: Congress is comprised of a vast majority of lawyers, with little other differentiation to bring other experience to the table. That’s where “we” come in.

Want to make a difference? Get a copy of the immigration bill, some strong coffee (or Red Bull) and go to it. When you see holes, omissions, etc, make a note and then consider how you would fix the noted issue. Draft up a letter to your Senators and representatives and let them know you have an idea and would like to help, attached for their consideration.

What an opportunity. We all have it. Why not exercise that part of “The Voice” now we have stabilized the situation?

Expanded opportunities lie in gathering groups of like minded problem solvers, in person or virtually, and blend an array of disciplines and backgrounds, then send a more detailed input into the system.

I used this in a post long ago about N.O.W., but it applies once more to us: (SU)³

And along the way, consider these words of Teddy Roosevelt, for they also, have a message for us today, in these times, in these circumstances.

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor

Between work, and too many grand ideas, and being engrossed in the story of Preble and Decatur working over Tripoli, I haven’t gotten much up her the last two days.

MEGEN is still lurking about. A new, diabolical plot is being hatched. Some digital editing has already happened, but I need some organizational graphics to add before the roll out of the project, suggested by an astute member of Team Navy.

Fun for all, mind you, and many will be able to participate.

Last night I took time off to view the idiot box and settled in on “Creature Tech.” Vanderwall’s force. Learn it and get with the program, it will help you with attaching in the future!

Open trackbacks.

I don’t feel much like pontificating today, this day being related to two major WWII battles of significance.

Consider for a moment the men who went towards the sounds of the guns over the Pacific in 1942, and across and over the beaches of Normandy in 1944.  Did they calculate the risk, take a poll, or “test the water?”  Nope, it was the throttle to the firewall into the wind and past the bow into history, as well as out the door, or down the ramp.  Orders.  Following orders of the President of the United States and the officers appointed above them.

Some still are here to maybe tell the tale.  Many are not.  Some left 65 years ago, a legacy of courage, others 63 years ago.  No offspring, no telling stories around the fireplace in response to “What did you do in the war, Grandpa?”  Just silence, echoing into the future of things not done, of families not raised, but the sound of freedom is the outcome of their deaths.

D-Day Order – June 6, 1944
by Dwight D. Eisenhower

You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41.

The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeat in open battle man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground.

Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men.

The tide has turned.

The free men of the world are marching together to victory. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle.

We will accept nothing less than full victory.

Good luck, and let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Jim, Sr. and I sat down at dinner last night and I asked him what he was doing on 6/5/1944. He pondered the question a moment, then said “We had been on alert for almost 30 hours.” I didn’t go into chasing that rabbit trail, but he then talked about how, on the eve of his (their) first combat, they were “relieved.” Why, you ask? Well, he explained, they had had all this training and now they were finally getting the order to “GO!” He said the apprehension of the timing of the invasion had been “horrible.”

They spent their time, packing up stuff, labeling their foot lockers and writing home, with “hints of goodbye” for they certainly couldn’t divulge any more than they were heading into combat. He talked about living in quonset huts, heated by a pot bellied stove at each end of the building. How breakfast was a big bowl of corn flakes, that you scooped into your bowl, then you scooped your powdered milk on it and you also got a boiled potato. The bacon was thick and not well cooked, when you did get it. He remarked the rations got much better when they based in France, usually having a local French woman cook up their K rations.

The gliders didn’t fly at night, but the C-47s had been flying to deliver the 82nd All American and 101st Screaming Eagles Airborne Divisions. The CG-4A gliders flew after the landings had begun.

He discussed the visions of the shores of Normandy he will never forget, and then they went further inland.

They had only practiced with maybe 24-36 gliders approaching one landing zone before, and they had practiced with a set, planned landing pattern. Not this day. More gliders, no set pattern, toss in ground fire, land mines and hedge rows.

“I watched men sacrifice themselves so others could have a clear place to land.”

They would land and jam the control column forward to bury the nose of the gliders as a landing skid, and a way to plow up dust and dirt clods as camouflage from enemy gunners in the area. They would try to bounce down hard on the tires and hopefully leap back into the air to an altitude about 10 ft or so, to maybe clear the hedge rows while getting stopped.

Jim was one who was designated a flight leader, and also had been trained to determine the airworthiness of the gliders in the landing zone. He was responsible to select one, then get it set up for a snatch recovery by a C-47 with a tailhook. The passengers on his first return leg were not wounded, but other glider pilots, so they may get airborne again for more flights into the combat area. He said he prayed as he held tight to the steering column, awaiting the catapulting force when the snatch line went taught, that the glider he had picked was sound and that they would not have the wings fall off as they began to get airborne.

After all these years, he still wonders why he survived without injury, in combat or otherwise, from 4.5 years of service, and admits he still feels some guilt for having come home, when so many other great men did not.

He will have his American flags flying this day.

MEGEN is no longer in a dark USPS box. MEGEN is far north, and has a busy schedule planned for this week, and arrangements have been made to be seen around some very memorable Navy related locations….

Plans are in the works for printable pictures of MEGEN, to be used to pose and be posed with, at the suggestion of Flag Gazer (who has a wonderful blog to memorialize those who have fallen).

Details to follow….as well as some OUTSTANDING! pictures next week – or sooner if it works out.

Stay tuned.

More random thoughts:

Nancy Pelosi chides Hugo Chavez for shutting down RCTV, while speaks of implementing the “Fairness yeah, right! Doctrine” to force conservative (read opposition) voices off the airwaves.

John Edwards and Barak Obama want universal health care. Stick with me here: Won’t that make us live longer? Excuse me, but I think this flies in the face of the humanity caused “Global Warming” syndrome currently sweeping the nation. If we are making it worse, why do they want to make sure we stay around to pollute the atmosphere that the animals have to also breath from?

Speaking of that: How about those who decide not to have offspring, as they see just another “polluting unit” (“PU” for short) being created and….as we all know, it’s a bad thing….

So now the President hops on the “Global Warming” band wagon. Either he’s trying to upstage those who set up the Kyoto Treaty, or he’s maybe looking for cross-over Democratic votes? I’m confused.

John McCain says we need to let the illegal immigrants have their way, or they might riot in our streets, but we have to stand up tall against the Islamic terrorists. I’m even more confused now.

Not only do we have to do as John McCain implies, we need these workers here because we are lacking Americans to do the work. Yes, about 40M some, many of which would have been of age by now.

Europe had to let lots of low cost, immigrant labor in for the same reason (but they never knew years ago they were helping the environment by not having little Europeans) and look what’s happening now. It doesn’t take even a homegrown experiment to see what’s coming in a few decades.

We decide to help install an anti-missile DEFENSE in eastern Europe, Russia gets upset. I guess the possibility of no longer being able to nuke your neighbors to the west has got a burr under their saddle…

A sitting President can lie to a Grand Jury while under oath and just be dis-barred and a White House staffer can make statements while not under oath during an investigation that aren’t true and he goes to jail for 2.5 years.

Something I am not confused about is that I am “extra-curricular politics.”

embedded by Embedded Video


George Carlin telling about his “moderness”And…Chap and company tell us about more robust technology (blatantly lifted from a comment section on Cdr Salamander):Regarding “wheelbooks:”

I’ve been a staff weenie too long, but I remember the half hearted attempts (at spectacular cost!) the sub force made at updating tech. Problem was, paper’s a pretty good tech.

——
You don’t have to reboot a wheelbook.

If a wheelbook falls in the water, you can retrieve the data.

Wheelbooks are EMP hardened.

If a wheelbook gets a virus, you just wipe it off and smack the guy who coughed on it.

Wheelbooks are backwards compatible. Upgrades are simpler than drag and drop.

In the event of a loss of power, your wheelbook is still perfectly useable.

Wheelbooks don’t accidentally send pr0n to five hundred of your closest friends.

If it’s ten seconds to live fire and the wheelbook is jostled and lands on the deck…you just pick it up and keep going.

Wheelbooks do not require Wheelbook IT admins, nor endless rules about what background can be put on the wheelbook.

If you have a dirty picture in your wheelbook you’re not very likely to get thrown off the boat and sent to jail.

Personal choice in wheelbooks is not prohibited.

Someone else’s personal choice in wheelbook will not cause your wheelbook to lose all the writing on the pages.

I could go on, but you get the point…
Chap | Homepage | 06.04.07 – 1:55 am |

Further augmented by other reasoned individuals, these add ons:

Wheelbooks aren’t forbidden in SCFs

Wheelbooks won’t shut down on you in the middle of a meeting when the battery rolls over and dies
– SJS
Steeljaw Scribe | Homepage | 06.04.07 – 4:18 am | #

Gravatar you don’t have to worry about a cracked screen or broken/lost stylus.
YN1(SS) | 06.04.07 – 7:08 am | #

Screencast-O-Matic is a free online tool to make screencasts. Select your screen size, audio or not and let it rip.

Possibilities here to help walk others through using software, or just to have fun without the trouble of making a movie of your screen captures.