We Now Have Change - All We Have is Change,

I saw this "teaser" in the news list today - unbelievable.

"WASHINGTON – Knocked off balance by the bonuses brouhaha, President Barack Obama is relying on direct appeals to the public to refocus attention on his ambitious agenda and drive the debate."

OK, Maybe he did not personally know about the bonuses - but he should have.  His administration definitely knew about them before the money was dolled out.  So did Congress.  It is public record - the Treasury Secretary before the house Finance Committee talked about these bonuses.

Maybe the guys getting the bonuses do not deserve it.  However, contracts are contracts.  But to put on a show like that of Obama and Barney Frank have, and they pretend to now be "outraged" or "angry" - That is just pathetic.  Yes, we got change - just a change in administration, but Obama's and the Democrats version of deirty politics.  Yes we have change - that is all we have left is change, as Uncle Sam with the help of "daddy" Obama has sold us all down the river.

Stay Safe!

Who Needs Gun Control? - Just Take all the Ammo

It appears that the current administration is more clever than expected on gun control.  They already figured out how to control the ammunition distribution for civilians.

How did they do that?  They made new rules concerning spent ammunition casings - basically requiring all of it be destroyed instead of being bought by ammunition companies that reloaded the casings.  Why is this a big deal?  The ammunition manufacturers cannot hardly keep up with the military's demand for new ammo, so that left reloaded stuff for civilians.  Now that the reloadable supply of casings is cut off - all ammo prices will go through the roof for civilians in the near future.

For more info - see the site the Shootist's article of March 15th.

Try to Stay Safe - since it is getting harder and harder to do so.

International Women's Day

I read about a bloggers Unite thing for International Women's Day. Hence the wandering thought of why isn't there an International Men's Day? I will digress on that later.

From Bloggers Unite: “Started as a political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries (primarily Russia and the countries of former Soviet bloc). In some celebrations, the day lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love to the women around them in a way somewhat similar to Mother's Day and St Valentine's Day mixed together. In others, however, the political and human rights theme as designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner. The IWD is also celebrated as the first spring holiday, as in the listed countries the first day of March is considered the first day of the spring season.”

Here in Liberia - they are having the Women's Colloquium. Why they had to use such an odd word as Colloquium I don't know - but probably an internet registration thing - hence the site womenscolloquium.org. Yes a reaqal site you can go to to see what the women's colloquium is all about. All I know is that it means more work for us here and some of the higher-ups have been all over-stressed about it.

Why not have the colloquium here? The President is a woman. Not a lot of countries have that.

The good news - it will be over soon and things will go back to "normal" for here.

So why not an International Men’s Day? I doubt we will see that one come around. After all, women are special and men, well we are just men. :)

Going Backwards in Somalia

I just received a notification in my email concerning Somalia:

"Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed met with religious leaders and elders and accepted their demand for ceasefire and reconciliation with the opposition members. He gave in on Saturday to demands from Islamist insurgents agreeing to a truce and the introduction of sharia law.

When in power in 2006, the Islamists introduced a strict form of sharia and carried out executions, shut cinemas and photo shops, banned live music, flogged drug offenders and harassed civilians, mainly women, for failing to wear appropriate dress in public. They also banned foreign music, romances between unmarried teens, all commerce and public transport during prayer times and decreed that Muslims who do not pray daily can be punished by death.

The proposal to introduce sharia law must still be ratified by Somalia's parliament."

Nothing like a government that wants to go backwards concerning human rights. I am glad I am not there.

Obama and the Superbowl - Both amazing "Spin" or Lack of Reporting

Is the press asleep in America or what? Maybe things just look different because I am in Africa.

OK, first I want to kow where is CNN and everyone else who claims to report the new acurately - IGNORING the fact that FEMA has screwed up more - in the ice storm - especially for Kentucky, than they ever came close to in Katrina. Ok it is no Katrina with 1700 deaths - but FEMA moved slow.

They (FEMA) are there now, but 42 people did die. There is no "conspiracy theory" about allowing poor mountain folk to perish. Of course this goes on while Obama and his cronies enjoy $100 steak dinners.

On the Super Bowl: Why were we the fans robbed of the game? I am not saying the Cardinals were robbed - that is unknown. What I am saying is - as a fan - you end the game on a very questionable call and do ot review it? It is the SUPERBOWL!! How can you deny us the last 17 seconds or whatever it would be of the game?

The game was excellent yet messy mistakes by both teams and generally poorly officiated. Yet great performances on both sides of the ball. The Cardinals proved they belonged in the Superbowl and the Steelers proved themselves a Superbowl Team.

Like I said - I saw this from Africa - so maybe it looks different from here?

Y'all Stay Safe!

The UN - Israel - and the USA

Last night I had a conversation with a fellow from Israel.  I was off duty, so it was not obvious who I worked for at the time (no uniform).  This guy went on and on about how horrible the UN was.  I believe he had problems because of the "war crimes" accusaion by some in the UN against Israel for defending themselves.

I do not think the UN is so evil, and explained to him about his own history (this was a young guy).  I explained to him how the UN was responsible in a way for the formation of the modern Israel.  He thought Israel became a modern nation befor the United Nations was formed. Also the division into a Jewish area and Arab area of Palestine was one of the earliest acts of the UN. In 1947, the United Nations approved the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab.(UN resolution 181). Israel declared independence in 1948 and won additional territory in subsiquent wars (which some still want to refer to it as "occupied territory"

Now I told him the the UN was often ineffective in how it conducts business and peacekeeping, but rarrely is there an alternative to finding a peaceable solution in many parts of the world.

"The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council — France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States — and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in Westminster Central Hall in London in January 1946. "  - Wikipedia


He said something about "Ask your Marines what they think of the UN"  I told him I just had earlier when they were visiting UN Headquarters earlier that day.  He seemed a bit peeved that I had interaction in a good way with the Marines.

Sometimes in our own zealouness we lose sight of the facts.


Anyways - Stay safe!

Now He is Prez - Will He Do What He Said He Would?

OK, we now have a new President. Will he do what he said he would? We will see. This is an event that has absorbed all other news stories even here in Liberia. The world awaits as the new President hopes he had a "save the economy" task bar on his computer. Who knows, maybe he does. It is not like there are "cheat codes" for the economy.

I am sure all the Hollywood types like Paris Hilton, Jennifer Gardner, and Jennifer Aniston were tickled pink today as he was sworn in.

Well God Bless America - and God Bless our new president.

Y'all Stay Safe!

Obama Will Soon Be Inagurated

OK, we all know it is coming soon.  The big historic event which may not seem like much years from now, but at this time it is a big deal.

I hope this guy does OK 

He has made some poor leadership decisions - Like Leon Panetta for CIA Director?  I mean - who is less qualified (not including the mentally handicapped and children)?  This guy has NO background in intelligence.

Let's see he was white house CHief of Staff (nothing to do with intelligence) has the Panetta institute for Public Policy... um  maybe he spied on someone as a kid...

When there has been so much critisim of the intelligence community, we now will have a clueless leader of such stuff...

A Return of the Old Ways?

I found this story interesting. It is about how the German police broke into an apartment and took down an Israli Flag to "calm a Muslim Crowd." You can find the story and video. It appears that Germany has joined Liberia in deciding that Mob Justice rules.

It seems that some of the old ways are creeping back into the German Goverment. However, in all fairness, the German Police later apologized for the act.

To quote a bit of the story:"Muslims in Denmark chanted, "Down, down Israel, down, down USA, down, down democracy, down, down Denmark." One Muslim executed the Nazi salute and shouted, "We want to kill all the Jews, all the Jews should be slain, they have no right to exist!"

Interesting stuff huh? Especially the down, down democracy.

You can see Israel's perspective of the ongoing war here. It is quite interesting.

Stay Safe!

Liberia Travels

Sometimes Travel in Liberia is just a bit Different..

OOPS!!

Crossing high quality bridges are fun too

Just a couple of photos I thought I'd share with you.

Stay Safe!!