I was only able to watch five minutes of today's Ft Hood Services...I only saw the President and his wife stop at each station of a fallen soldier and he put the coin on the box in front of each of their pictures. Apparently, this is a service coin and there's some history to it they explained on TV but I've already forgotten (forgive me).... MY MAIN POINT (and FIRST QUESTION) IS THIS:Doesn't the Commander and Chief SALUTE the fallen? Obama very respectfully saluted the coffin only one family allowed filmed, remember? Why did he not salute for each of the fallen? I honestly don't know the protocol and hope you can help me out here.
THE SECOND QUESTION is this (brought up by my friend K): The politicians are all over ABORTION as the big sticking point on the Health Care Bill. Does anybody else here feel this is being used as a kind of smoke screen? There are so many things that are bad about that bill, why dwell on this? Is it to keep the rest of the questionable points off the radar screen so's the conservative constituents (and many Dems, by the way) are kept in the dark and don't complain too much to their liberal senators? Sure, Catholic Democrats are against it, or some are, but is that REALLY the only reason Democrats won't vote for this bill? Do none of them see the other dangers in this bill? Why not discuss ALL the reasons this bill stinks on television when the pundits are mouthing off lately? Seems like ABORTION is THE THING that is the one sticking point...when there are so many other things. IS it being used as a SMOKE SCREEN? What do you think?
I salute you :-) Thanks for any help..............Z and K
z
14 comments:
When you are discussing politics anything can be and is a smoke screen.
Good point, Z. A car salesman may ask for a much higher price than he expects to get for a car. That way he can drop the price and convince the buyer that he is making concessions. Politicians can do similar things to create the impression that they are making concessions. The only difference is that politicians usually held in as high a regard as car salesmen.
tiob
1) Obama should have saluted the dead. Instead he gave them Obama coins (and no purple hearts).
2) The abortion amendment is a ruse. If the Pubbies hadn't been so dumb and insisted it be attached, the overall HC bill WOULDN'T HAVE PASSED because Blue Dogs would've been concerned about the ambiguity of the bill regarding the funding of this issue.
Mark one in the loss column for the inept guys.
Just wondering what you guys think...
I've heard stories about doctors seeming to be very callous about patients, even joking about their situations. As was explained to me, this is how they cope with being around death so freuently. To take them all personally would be too emotionally draining.
To what extent to you think presidents do this, and to what extent do you think it is appropriate for them to do this? If five thousand Americans have died in the wars in the roughly 3000 days since 9/11, that's over one a day, so it's expected that the president couldn't take each one personally.
Anyway, I can see how the president would become desensitzed to tragedies like this. I thought the "shout out" press conference was an example of such desensitization rather than cold, uncaring evil. I thought Obama came across as not knowing when to be serious, not so much a heartless villan. Kind of like John Goodman's King Ralph character.
Wondering what you guys think...
tiob
Actually, I think he is the first president to ever render a salute to the dead. Protocol wise? He isn't really obliged to do so. The only other time you'll see a president render a hand salute is in return when he is around military personnel who have to salute him first because he is their commander in chief.
Come to think of it, he may be saluting the flag that was draped over the coffin.
All in all, this really is not a big deal.
Snarky said:
Instead he gave them Obama coins (and no purple hearts).
The president isn't the one who issues the purple hearts. Typically those are issued by the Commanding Officer of the unit the soldiers belonged to, and they are issued to the surviving family members in a shadow box.
thanks, Steve.
I was thinking that presidents only salute when saluted TO, like when they're walking off AirForce One and the staff salutes him?
Maybe he was saluting the flag at Dover but you can't really think that because if that were the case he'd be saluting all day long on Flag day, you know? I mean, he can't salute every flag, right?
But, I think you're right...someone mentioned he should have saluted so I decided to blog and ask.
xx
Well, I may not be right, but hey, I did save a lot of money through GEICO.
Meh
Z - everything I've heard is that the abortion issue is a sticking point on the left much more than on the right.
The loons want abortion paid for by you and me; more reasonable Dems realize that is wrong. They're trying to compare it to private insurance that pays for abortion, but they forget that such private insurance is a choice, whereas this gov't thing will be mandated.
I'm not certain regarding the salute question. Having said that, I've read the text and don't really have any issue with his speech. I didn't watch video of it, I don't want to. I've seen enough of him.
Terrorist killed Americans, we shouldn't jump to conclusions.
Okay Mr. Caimbridge Police acted stupidly, the very next day before any investigation took place.
Z, I think you're right. The far left is not going to deep six the takeover of 1/6th of the national gdp over abortion coverage. They could add that later, and they know it.
It's a distraction from the rationing, taxes, mandates, fees, micro-management of doctors, etc. It goes on and on. As it stands now 2000 pages of regulations, taxes, and utter control of a major part of our lives.
Just think of it. Our personal habits, our diets, our weight, our activities, some of which involve risk, on and on. And seniors are thrown under the bus.
Our young people will be required to buy insurance whether they can afford it or not.
Of course the taxes they are going to impose on the insurance industry will raise the cost of private insurance(purposefully, IMO) to force companies and/or individuals into government healthcare.
The IRS will decide if our private insurance satisfies government requirements, if it doesn't, welcome to government healthcare. Unfortunately, the bill doesn't state what those requirements will be. Surprise!!!
I could go on but, I think that's enough to make the point.
Now, the point is, all of the above has been up to us as individuals. If this passes, no more. We lose they win.
And again, the abortion issue is a smoke screen. They're so good at it.
Pris
Abortion is the Democratic equivalent "Saddam's WMD" half-true "causus belli" line every good war needs, even a political one. Personally, I prefer the conservative "death panels" call to arms.
Speaking of President Obama's speech at Fort Hood, I came across this humorous bit today about a collection of Obama's greatest future speeches. Hope it gives you something to smile about, Z ...
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/16752
Waylon
Maybe this could be Obama's legacy:
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_to_enter_diplomatic_talks
tiob
@Steve ... I served. I know who gives out the purple hearts. My comment was an expression of sarcasm; hence the name "snarky".
But thanks for being so literal.
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