Can I Borrow Your Tinfoil Hat?

We, as a nation dodged a bullet over the weekend. As everyone knows, somebody almost blew up a car in Times Square.

Luckily the device malfunctioned and the thousands of theater goers and tourists were unharmed. Apparently the thing had at least 3 propane tanks fused together. That’s some Iraq shit right there (I know). Kind of worrisome to say the least.

I’m sure everyone wants to go off and blame the crazy Muslims extremists for this one. Hell, I can’t be totally convinced that they aren’t responsible. I say TOTALLY convinced.
That’s where my new tinfoil hat comes in. I figure the tinfoil hat is what gives the crazy teabaggers and other conspiracy theorists their power, so I figured I would try it out and see what theories this creates in my brain. Hold on, let me put it on.

There we go.

As much as I think the crazy Muslim extremists were responsible for this, I could very easily see the crazy wacko teabagger militia types being responsible for this. Ok, now I’m going to take off the tinfoil hat.

Now that I’ve taken it off, I still think the same damn thing. Seriously, I trust a “militiaman” about as much as I trust a Muslim who is completely shaven and all dressed in white (Not a whole lot).

Some good this tinfoil hat is...

Both groups of people are religious and political extremists who apparently will not shy away from violence to further their goals. Think I’m wrong? Think about those crazy Jesus freaks in Michigan who were going kill a police officer, then attack the funeral procession with IED’s. These nut jobs were all residents of crazy town! What makes the story even scarier is that their tactic comes right out of the Al-Qaeda in Iraq handbook. You attack an enemy force, then you attack their response force. In this case, you kill a police officer, you know their will be a funeral procession, so you attack that to create further casualties.

Don’t tell me these right wing wackos are any less crazy or any more righteous than the Muslim wackos who also want to do us harm. Both are capable of extreme violence to further their goals, and until I hear confirmation otherwise, I would not be surprised if it was in fact a right wing, white, religious militia responsible for this unsuccessful attack and NOT Muslim extremists.

A Fine Point My Ass!

This article pissed me off. I’d like to draw attention to a few of the author’s main points in the editorial and insert my thoughts.

1. “Mr. Obama and the Democrats contend that the high debt and the deficits are the fault of the Bush administration, which left a legacy of two unfinished wars, one 7 years old and the other nearly 9, tax cuts and an economy pushed near ruin by recession and a poorly regulated financial industry. Yet other heavy spending is directly attributable to the Obama administration.Mr. Obama’s two-step escalation of the war in Afghanistan by increasing U.S. troops by 46,000 to a level of 100,000 is his alone.”

My Take: First, soooo what I am getting out of this is; two wars, foolish tax cuts, and poor financial regulation were all unimportant to our current situation but holding the line on military spending is inexcusable???? Odd. Second, In my extremely humble opinion, if there is to be troop escalation in Afghanistan and it costs more money...FINE. You know why? Osama Bin Laden (Remember he is the guy/reason we HAD to go to war to begin with) and his organization Al Qaeda were and are still based in Afghanistan. If we are to prevent another repeat of 9/11, he and Al Qaeda must be dealt with (i.e. killed and destroyed).

Third, while he is expanding our military presence and increasing money spent in Afghanistan, he is also drawing down our forces and money spent in Iraq (Remember that theater of war? That was the one where we invaded under false pretenses and a lot of brave selfless Americans lost their lives over a lie, or at the very least “bad intelligence”). I would further contend that had we not spent the $700 BILLION with a B on the war in Iraq to begin with, we could perhaps be further along in our campaign in Afghanistan.

2. “The expansion of military activity, under Mr. Bush's old "war on terror," in Pakistan and Yemen is also Mr. Obama's work.”

My Take: He is expanding the War on Terror to those areas because they are known refuges for Al Qaeda. To me, it seems that instead of manufacturing intelligence to fit his agenda, he is adapting our national security strategy to meet the realities of the situation. That is not foolish or a wasteful use of our money, it’s good strategy.

3. “Mr. Obama has given no reason for why military expenditures should be immune from cuts.”

My Take: First, I don’t know our President personally and can’t say what is going on in his head but here is a wacky idea; maybe it’s because we are at war with a lunatic and an organization of religious zealots who are responsible for the largest foreign attack on American soil EVER which killed 2,973 innocent Americans. That’s why. Never Forget….I think somebody forgot.

Cutting our military spending in the face of war is not an answer to our fiscal OR national security problems. President Obama is an intelligent man (that is why I voted for him). He knows that our deficit is growing uncontrolled, but he also knows that we still face an unresolved national security* threat with Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. He must address our deficit AND respond to new threats to our security. He is doing that.


*For those of you that don’t know, National Security is what allows every Fat Lazy American to drive around their over sized SUV/pick up truck from parking lot to parking lot and then head straight to McDonald’s so they can stuff their fat faces without fear of attack from “those damn foreigners and towel heads”