March 16, 2008
Lt. Col. Allen West and Michelle Obama
By James Lewis

I just sent my first political contribution to the Congressional campaign of former Army Lt. Colonel Allan West, who is running on the "R" ticket in Florida House District 22 --- that's in Broward County.   Colonel West is a man who has proved himself, not just in the rigors of combat, not just in leadership, not just in the technical craft of military tactics and strategy, but in the most difficult life-and-death dilemma a human being can face. He made an agonizing moral decision to save his men from a likely ambush. To do so, he shot off a pistol next to the head of a suspect, forcing him to confess vital lifesaving intelligence. Col. West didn't do that to punish the man, but to save lives. It worked.

When Col. West reported his own actions to superiors, he must have known that his decision would cost him his military career. He might have ended up in prison for years. He knew it would lead to months and months of personal agony. But he made the right decision in the face of a life-and-death moral dilemma.

I think I know what kind of a human being Colonel West must be, and I'm deeply pleased to support him. We need many more like him in the US Congress, because he is an adult who can make a moral decision under immense pressure.  Far too many of our politicians just slip around real moral decisions; those are the people we don't need as leaders.

Consider the contrast with other people in the news.

Michelle Obama, the wife of the Senator, is a bright and talented woman.  Perhaps she was unlucky to go to Princeton University and Harvard Law School, because she has now become deeply cynical about this country. That's not surprising, because our top universities teach their students to be cynical. They think it's terribly, terribly sophisticated. All their friends are cynical. Worse than that, they think their cynicism is true.

So Mrs. Obama can say things like ""for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country."    She means it. She believes it. But she utterly lacks a mature perspective on that question.

Here's what a Staff Sergeant who served with Colonel West has to say.  

SSG Josh Turner

Nov 29, 2007 SIR, YOU MAY NOT REMEMBER ME, MY NAME IS JOSHUA TURNER. I WAS IN 2/20 WHEN YOU WERE IN COMMAND AND DEPLOYED WITH YOU IN 2003. I WAS A SPC AT THE TIME, I JUST WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DID IN IRAQ TO SECURE THE SAFETY FOR US AND TO STAND UP FOR US SOLDIERS. SIR, I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE I CAN SAY TO RELAY THE DEEP FEELING OF GRATITUDE I HAVE FOR YOU AND YOUR ACTIONS. I HOLD YOU EXTREMELY HIGH IN REGARDS TO ALL THE COMMANDERS THAT I HAVE SERVED WITH. SIR, YOU ARE WITHOUT A DOUBT THE MOST REALISTIC, DOWN TO EARTH, CARING, PASSIONATE COMMANDER THAT I HAVE EVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE WITH. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THE SACRIFICE THAT YOU MADE FOR US. SSG TURNER, JOSH "YOU DO NOT NEED TO EXCERT FORCE TO SHOW POWER"

What's the difference between these individuals? Age, education, income, race? My guess is that it comes down to the culture of victimization versus the culture of earned pride. Mrs. Obama's high-priced education has persuaded her that she is a victim; or if she personally happened to luck out, she has been told that millions of others are helpless victims. They cannot be trusted to survive as self-sufficient adults.

Well, victimization is a self-fulfilling prophecy. So is honest pride and self-confidence. (This is not news to anybody but our professors on the Left.)

For some mad reason our best universities now teach self-victimization, especially to Blacks and minorities.  They thereby handicap and undermine the very people they claim to help. It's bizarre beyond belief, but not for our perverse Left. Fortunately some of our institutions, like our military, still inculcate pride based on real achievements.  The colonel didn't get his chestful of ribbons for being a victim.

It's the Hurricane Katrina story all over again, pitting New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin    against United States Army Lt. General Russell Honoré.   Mayor Nagin panicked when Katrina hit, and thousands of his constituents ended up miserably stuck in the flood, waiting for somebody to help them. In General Honoré 's  immortal phrase, City Hall was "stuck on stupid," along with the rest of the political class.

"Don't Be Stuck on Stupid" is a phrase that should be emblazoned in every single schoolroom in the country. Forget giving out gold stars for self-esteem. Just tell our kids not to get stuck on stupid. To drown in the culture of victimization in the land of opportunity is really being stuck on stupid. It is teaching people how to starve in the midst of plenty.

Electing Lt. Col. Alan West to Congress sounds like a good way to start getting our political class off being stuck on stupid. When he gets to Washington, D.C., he may have find new depths of toleration and patience with the idiocies of the political system. But the more people like him we can send to Congress, the healthier we will be as a country.

My big question is, how do we get General Honoré to run for office?

Oh yes, and all four of these folks are African Americans: Col. West, General Honoré, Mrs. Obama and Mayor Ray Nagin.

So what?  Victimhood and earned pride are human universals.

James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/  

Anybody but the nigger! Please, God, anybody but the nigger!

but do check out my great flic.  it's an eye-opener!

if FlimFlammaO'bamaWhammaJamma becomes POTUS.

BTW, yer a fucking coward, just like the guy under the sheet...

what a perfect metaphor!!!

You didn't bother to read Bill's post.  I bet you maybe Skimmed one third the way down before posting your silly post that has nothing to do with Bill's post.

Now we have to call you VoiceofaLazyNarrowMindedDem. Ha ha ha!!!

Republicans are not racists. But some democrats are  racists i.e. Hillary Clinton.

Who is more racist, Hillary or Obama? Its a tough choice.

When he says BK says "Anyone but the nigger"!!!!!

Check out LTC Allan West!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.allenwestforcongress.com/

While my detest for the Hildabeast is beyond words, Obama is by far the bigger racist.

is a racist.

and AVoiceOfDipshit is a loser.

-- Modified on 3/16/2008 7:40:27 PM

Allan West is not running to be CiC

You're not very smart, are you? You can't even be bothered to read the header on your own post.

Racists sure do get stirred up when you call 'em on it. I guess they just get choked out on their own hate.

suggest racism... in fact, I read just the opposite... funny... if a black man embraces honor and duty - he must somehow be stupid...  when a black man preaches hatred for any white man, he is considered enlightened... and any white who calls him on racial slurs... is considered the racist...

Consider the words that Obama chooses to listen to - week after week... from Rev Wright... now that is racism.

VoiceOfDipshit could be a race-exploiting, racist loser.

If you put all three of them into a blender, all you'd end up with is a glass of pureed shit.

to step out from behind the safety of the AliasHoody eh?

Cowardice fits your heritage, just like the KKK, you pissy little punk.

Everyone needs to know, THIS IS WHAT WE ARE IN FOR WITH BLAMMAFLAMMAJAMMA as POTUS...

He is a fake, and a fraud,

and not very smart, to think this would go undetected.

But that;s what the hood is for.....

In that mental state, they do not always think rationally and they exhibit unproductive behavior, thus fixing in place a spiral that guarantees failure. Then that failure reinforces the negative message, deepening the spiral.

BigotBehindTheHood are destroyers of human life just as sure as his Uncle Metzger.

The religious wacko right are just as bad as the not so honorable Reverend Wrong.

If Pat Robertson or any of the other members of the wacked out religious right or any of their followers were running for POTUS there rhetoric would be just as germain as Wright's inflammatory statements are. Fortunately none of them are still running.

"when...Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr."

Let me explain: it's not that the religious right have been nuts (bearing in mind a certain amoount of poetic license is allowed to parrot 1776 rhetoric) but that the Republicans think that's cool enough that the President should take them to lunch.

Robertson isn't running, but it may be worth noting that McCain thought enough of Falwell to deliver a commencement address at his university, and that's one example of his flipflops that have led me to write him off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbrejLsixwk

I think that American politics has to accept a certain amount of revolutionary rhetoric, because of the 1st amendment and because of the way we got our country started.

But there's an area in there that makes most people understandably uneasy.  My suggestion is that we try to apply the same standards to both sides.

I would say that McCain relatively minor flip flopping in regards to Falwell does not even begin to compare to Obama's complicity in sitting there week after week listening to his pastor's hate mongering.

You might see it otherwise, and that's why we have elctions.

...but God forbid you even consider paying attention to 3rd party candidates!!

-- Modified on 3/17/2008 12:41:14 PM

I just tossed that in there for the irony!

The questions here are, what is nuttiness, and who's participating?

The original point was that the Republicans have historically invited people to lunch who say the same sort of thing that Wright has been saying.  Nobody contests that much, and we all agree they are way out there, though perhaps I would cut mpre slack for a free press than you.   Your actual point is well taken, that none of them are running.

OTOH, McCain is, and he seems to disagree with both of us, that Falwell is a nut.   Certainly he is bad policy if not a nut, and McCain seems to deny that point.  That he's flipflopping is just all the more ironic for a fella who seems to have abandoned straight talk.  No, I don't regard it as minor.

My point here is that listening to nuttiness is  an entire order of difference from parroting it.  

several people have been saying that for a long time, but a 3rd party candidate is pissing into the wind.

BenD has the right concept here, (ie stay out of losing battles) even if his tactical judgment & execution nullifies the concept.

We are indeed in a heap of shit, but we've gotten out of heaps of shit before.   At this point, it seems to me that impressing consequences on politicians is about the best we can do.

I have no faith that Obama is any better than anybody else, but I do believe he's most likely to fire the most people in DC, and I wouldn't mind reminding everybody that we all knew GW was a fucking idiot, and those who cooperated most should accept the most responsibility for that dumbass choice.

which I don't, then you are left with the lesser of two evils.

I believe that McCain's toleration for, or even downright embracement of Falwell is still less offensive than Obama's decades long membership in a church of hate.

You don't like Obama any more than I like McCain, You just believe that Obama's outsider status makes him more tolerable than McCain. I believe that outsider or not, Obama will do much more harm to this country than McCain.

assume Obama is a natural born bungler, as some Democrats are.

Assume McCain has some level of competence, as aviators sometimes are (despite being shot down, caught along with Keating, etc).

That's pretty much what scares me, is that McCain would show some level of competence in digging us deeper into The Hole Bush Dug.

It's come down to asking, which would you rather have running the show - Democrats, who are clearly amateur crooks, or Republicans, who are clearly professional crooks?

Well, the amateurs scare me less than the pros.

I prefer evil over stupid. Evil is predictible, you just don't ever know what stupid will do.

Pat Buchanan said tonite to Dan Abrams if Obama said he was not aware of what the preacher said in 20 years then he is too obtuse to be a security guard at Wallmart

Obama that is supposed to bridge the racial divide
sits with his kids for 20 years listening to a racist pastor that says the white controlled US govt created aids to kill the white man .
The crux of the matter boils down to character and bad decision making and   is relative to Obama being President .
Get ready for the Best Racial Rants of Rev Wright ! The REps do not have to swiftboat it is all based on Obama's stupidity !
Hell Oprah left that church long ago she is smarter then Obama

-- Modified on 3/17/2008 7:59:55 PM

-- Modified on 3/17/2008 8:02:14 PM

Recently the lead Democrat investigator revealed that the Democrat controlled Congress drug McCain into the mess after their lead investigator told them that he was innocent. Why? He said that McCain was the only Republican involved and they could not only Democrats being prosecuted. Result, McCain was the token Republican.

(shrug) I think that's substantially less concern, either way, than most other issues.  

But your guilty conscience for him is appreciated.

and while that's a reasonable POV, where does it leave us?

Actually, evil *isn't* predictable, since any conscious entity understands the value of unpredictability.

Just as often, consciousness doesn't guarantee accurate information or perception.  

Finally, one doesn't preclude the other.

not me.

I was simply trying to set the record straight rather than cloud things with disinformation, but I do understand how that might rub you the wrong way.

and hallelujahed!!!! by his adoring fans. I'm surprised they have'nt already found video of FlaamaJammaDingDong rolling in the aisle crying "Praise the Lord and Fuck Whitey"!!!

It is totally disappointing this guy turned out to be a fraud. The black cummunity is in deperate need of new direction.

Flamma is "more of the same"