The Fine Print
ABC News reports that the White House has asked Lockheed to postpone announcing layoffs until after the elections. The news was reported in font family Helvetica, size x-small, broken inconveniently over two pages. What follows is a reproduction of the news story in the original style.
White House Request, Lockheed Martin Drops Plan to Issue Layoff Notices
Mary Bruce
2 hours, 4 minutes ago
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin heeded a request from the White House today – one with political overtones – and announced it will not issue layoff notices to thousands of employees just days before the November presidential election.Lockheed, one of the biggest employers in the key battleground state of Virginia, previously warned it would have to issue notices to employees, required by law, due to looming defense cuts set to begin to take effect after Jan. 2 because of the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction – the so-called Super-committee, which was created.
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin heeded a request from the White House today – one with political overtones – and announced it will not issue layoff notices to thousands of employees just days before the November presidential election.Lockheed, one of the biggest employers in the key battleground state of Virginia, previously warned it would have to issue notices to employees, required by law, due to looming defense cuts set to begin to take effect after Jan. 2 because of the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction – the so-called Super-committee, which was created to find a way to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal deficit over the next decade.
Such massive layoffs could have threatened Obama’s standing in the state he won in 2008 and is hoping to carry again this November.
On Friday, the Obama administration reiterated that federal contractors should not issue notices to workers based on “uncertainty” over the pending $500 billion reduction in Pentagon spending that will occur unless lawmakers can agree on a solution to the budget impasse, negotiations over which will almost definitely not begin until after the election.
Contractors had been planning to send out notices because of the WARN Act – Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act – which according to the Department of Labor requires “most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs.”
In a statement Friday, GOP Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte accused Obama of putting “his own reelection ahead of the interests of working Americans and our national security by promising government contractors that their salary and liability costs will be covered at taxpayer expense if they do not follow the law that requires advance warning to employees of jobs that may be lost due to sequestration. … Apparently, President Obama puts politics ahead of American workers by denying them adequate time to plan their finances and take care of their families. The people who work in the defense industry and other government contracting companies deserve as much notice as possible that they are on track to lose their jobs.”
In July the Labor Department issued legal guidance making clear that federal contractors are not required to provide layoff notices 60 days in advance of the potential Jan. 2 sequestration order, and that doing so would be inconsistent with the purpose of the WARN Act.
In Friday’s memo, the Office of Management and Budget reiterated that notice, urging agencies’ contracting officials and CFOs to “minimize the potential for waste and disruption associated with the issuance of unwarranted layoff notices.”
The guidance issued Friday told contractors that if the automatic cuts happen and contractors lay off employees the government will cover certain liability and litigation costs in the event the contractor is later sued because it hadn’t provided adequate legal warning to its employees, but only if the contractor abides by the administration’s notice and refrains from warning employees now.
After “careful review” Lockheed announced today that it will abide by the administration’s guidance.
“We will not issue sequestration-related WARN notices this year,” Lockheed announced in a written statement. “The additional guidance offered important new information about the potential timing of DOD actions under sequestration, indicating that DOD anticipates no contract actions on or about 2 January, 2013, and that any action to adjust funding levels on contracts as a result of sequestration would likely not occur for several months after 2 Jan. The additional guidance further ensures that, if contract actions due to sequestration were to occur, our employees would be provided the protection of the WARN Act and that the costs of this protection would be allowable and recoverable.
“We remain firm in our conviction that the automatic and across-the-board budget reductions under sequestration are ineffective and inefficient public policy that will weaken our civil government operations, damage our national security, and adversely impact our industry. We will continue to work with leaders in our government to stop sequestration and find more thoughtful, balanced, and effective solutions to our nation’s challenges,” Lockheed said.
- Jake Tapper and Mary Bruce
What does this news story say?
- I can’t read it.
- It says the check’s in the mail.
- It says we’re going to kick the can down the road.
- It says ‘get with the program’
- It says ‘Romney did it’
The Hill says it is about Obama using taxpayer money to his political advantage. “The layoff notices have become a politically charged issue because they could have come just four days ahead of the election because of a 60-day notice required by federal law for mass layoffs.”
Graham and other Republicans were livid after the Obama administration issued the guidance on Friday telling contractors that their legal costs would be covered due to canceled contracts under sequestration, but only if they did not issue layoff notices before sequestration occurs — and before the November election.
Yeah, but who’s gonna know if they can’t read the fine print? Perhaps there was one other time in the history of the Republic when typefont had a political import at a time of financial crisis. It was when George Washington was asked by a disgruntled group of officers to lead them in obtaining their unpaid salaries by threat.
Washington then gave a short but impassioned speech, the Newburgh Address, counseling patience. His message was that they should oppose anyone “who wickedly attempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood.”
He then took a letter from his pocket from a member of Congress to read to the officers. He gazed upon it and fumbled with it without speaking. He then took a pair of reading glasses from his pocket, which were new and few of the men had seen him wear them. He then said: “Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.” This caused the men to realize that Washington had sacrificed a great deal for the Revolution, just as much as any of them. These, of course, were his fellow officers, most having worked closely with him for several years. Many of those present were moved to tears, and with this act, the conspiracy collapsed as he read the letter. He then left the room and General Henry Knox and others offered resolutions reaffirming their loyalty, which were accepted by the group.
Washington is no longer with America. But it does have Obama.
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Another shocker affecting Virginia’s voting came out today: military absentee balloting in this state is down a whopping 92% from 2008 levels. The Pentagon spin on this is unbelievable. I heard an official today say, “Our system for getting those ballots out has never been better or more efficient.” Yeah. Again, 92% drop-off. Or maybe that guy was just a Democrat, therefore he has a different definition of “better”.
So, they’re trying to stave off DoD contractor displeasure in NoVA while supressing the active military vote. On the first point, at Ft. Belvoir word already went out months ago from many corporate HQs to each of their contractors on post: “If you want your job in January, contact your Congressman today.” For what that’s worth. Those Congressmen are likely Moran and Connelly, two lost causes. You’ll still see countless Obama bumper stickers on post, and nary a Romney one (Belvoir is mostly an engineering, research, medical and bureaucratic post, very few greensuiters in relation to many other bases). It is different in Norfolk, Quantico, and AP HIll.
Would you really trust the Obama misadministration to cover your corporation’s fines after the election? A big evil war-mongering CORPORATION?
How will they cover the fines if there is no money due to sequestration?
What happens if R/R are elected? Will they honor a promise to violate federal law? Are you sure you want to be involved in a possible criminal conspiracy to violate federal law? If you are a bureaucrat, do you want to be involved in a possible conspiracy?
Are there any criminal sanctions associated with violating the law? Will those be waived too?
What about the state laws? Some states have similar laws, and I do not think the Feds can tell states not to enforce the own state laws YET?
Everyone is hoping Sequestration will get ignored, and Boner will roll over. What happens if more than half the republicans and democrats decide to say GO F YOURSELF? What happens if Harry Reid is his usual petty and clueless ineptness?
I am sure that this ABC story was just accidentally formatted this way. Purely a coincidence, just like the polls they push. Because the press is unbiased. The press is professional and never performs petty little acts of childishness behavior.
“and I do not think the Feds can tell states not to enforce the own state laws YET? ”
Well, just look at Arizona, and that will tell you that we don’t live under the rule of law any more. Obama & Co. rogered the State of Arizona but good.
Obama has issued 923 executive orders in 3.5 years: Bush had the previous record, which was 62 such orders in EIGHT years. FDR? 11 in his four terms in office. And, shoot, FDR tried to stack the Supreme Court with extra justices!
Nine-hundred and twenty-three. AND counting. “We don’t need no steekin’ checks and balances!”
Melancholy aside: those who yearn for a Reagan are still missing the point. If we have already devolved to the point where only a charismatic leader can haul us out of the ditch, we’re admitting that the majestic American Law, the Constitution, is no longer in force and effect.
To think that we would live to see this day, so soon after the victory in World War II and the great prosperity of the 1950s.
This is another vote buying scam that is probably illegal. It’s an excellent chance for the Pubs to investigate this type of con-game (even if it only highlight the sleazy tactics of the 0bama Administration).
I see there are indications that a hearing will come out the Benghazi murders. It’s a travesty that stateside Valerie Jarrett had a full Secret Service detail while Ambassador Chris Stevens had a couple of hired body guards in a known danger zone. Something is horrible wrong with the 0bama Administration.
Hannity reports Benghazi hearings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lr6q8DUsado
Wrote this a couple threads back when this first came to light:
The folks over at Lockheed-Martin have been getting layoff warnings concerning sequestration. Supposedly these warnings are required by law. Why is Obama telling the defense contractors to disobey the law? Is this some sort of half-assed attempt to claim that sequestration isn’t going to happen?
He doesn’t want 20,000 folks unemployed (or notified of same) in the Northern Virginia area the last weekend before the election. Might cause the general election outcome to be shaded by truth. It could also affect all sorts of other elections (senate, governorships, congress) to be drawn in the same direction.
Of course, he is telling contractors who comply with the law that if they comply with the law and notify their employees of future lay-offs, they may get no future contracts from an Obama government. But since Obama lies out of both sides of his mouth, he could just as easily punish those contractors who don’t report out their layoffs as violating the law for not reporting (as he requested them to do).
Guess which ones would be selectively prosecuted? Those who gave to Republican candidates. DUH!?!?
————
The contractors will cave to the whims of the President because they clearly believe they will be forced to “suffer” something if they do not go along with the Dictator.
The RINOs are huffing and puffing about it but they will do nothing. The media will do nothing, the contractors will do nothing and we will do nothing.
Why have an election next month? He will continue to push us COWARDS all over the board until we come to the conclusion that he really truly is “our Daddy.”
Chicago baby, Chicago!
Beverly: Yeah – about Arizona. And the Supreme Court backed him up, thanks again to Justice Roberts. (Man, I wonder what they got on him for him to throw his honor away?)
T2…
The SEALs that perished with the ambassador were NOT part of his security detail — at all.
They simply stepped up — volunteered — as the fiasco unfolded.
Simply put: Stevens had no security detail… save those local Libyans under contract — who fled upon the arrival of serious trouble.
It is the Wan’s maladministration that is claiming them as such: a pure lie.
It’s all about standing up then, isn’t it? And if not now then why bother? Most people hate facing off because it such an unreasonable thing to do. It requires hardening your heart and becoming ugly. Taking up the gauntlet risks your very soul because of the ever present chance that you may like the fray altogether too much and come to resemble the foe.
But life in its cruel way sweeps us up and bears us where it will. Most people never planned on being where they wind up. For the most part they just find themselves there: right in the middle of main street, with the noonday train a chugging in and no one else in sight. The more foresighted among them have the wit to realize what’s going down and put a few things in their pocket. But for most of us life is a surprise.
The newspapers talk about Red Lines as if we could see them. Yet as in the case of a Black Hole’s Event Horizon, on all the landmark dates of history none of the participants passing the point of no return had any sense that the extraordinary had just happened. That follows later, if they’re still around to reflect on it; and then it all becomes clear.
Most of us are still too afraid to let go. We love — and with great justification — our orderly and heretofore peaceful existences. We hope, even though there is scant reason for hope, that life will flow back into its former channels. That the chalice will pass away. And this is as it should be. For it is the love of the ordinary, the attachment to place and set of people, that bind us to this earth.
But the rootless foe lives in not this place and time but in some incandescent future. He is abroad like a lion, living for hunger, living for hate and daring anyone to gainsay him. And the tragedy is that we know, though we fain would not, that the challenge will be answered.
As the man in the poster once put it, ‘not this s**t again’. But that’s how it is. And on a day we least expect, without quite knowing that we have done, we will look down at our hands and see that we’ve let go.
blert, if that is true than the security situation was worse than I had expected.
The warning sign were there. That is well documented. 0bama, Hillary and Rice should pay the price!
I always wondered what would have happened if Huey Long had lived to become president.
Romney should address this breaking of the law for Political gain in the Debate tomorrow night and in that address he should make it clear that if he wins that those Corporation will face the full force of the law plus an investigation and then announce if the Corporations that for Political gain disregarded the law and are forced to lay off workers they the Corporation will be forced to pay workers full wages until the proper and lawful procedures are followed… This will make the workers mouths water with anticipation that they will get one or more paychecks for nothing if they vote Romney in, while also causing a mad rush to send out the legally required notices by those Corporations. Once again, the Progressives will use whatever means necessary and Conservatives will always try to fight the “Good Fight”, it’s time for a “You shall not pass!” moment, time to put on our war mask’s. to longer stay silent as Evil does its work!
@ 8. T2costkeeper
You know, the last thoughts of those two SEALs had to have some “political overtones”. They probably thought that they would somehow survive, because that’s the way they’re wired. But surveying the security situation, knowing how screwed up it was, understanding how SCREWED they were, and KNOWING without a shadow of a doubt that “help” would never be coming, they had to know that Obama screwed them – right into the ground.
Then Obama spiked the football over their graves, with no apology or bit of remorse.
Every last Democrat, every man, woman, and 18 year and older teen, OWNS the blood of these patriots (yeah.. even the militant atheist of the two; both were patriots). It’s on their hands. That’s what I can no longer stomach, i.e. the 40% or so of Americans who put their own “stash” over honor, higher than the country’s security, and higher than even their own children’s future. Every time I meet a “kindly” American who just happens to lean left to support-any-Democrat, I just want to vomit. That includes half of my own family.
There is enough information out there that they can only be willfully ignorant or fully complicit. There are no innocent Democrats and “moderate Independents”.
Sequestration was proposed like a joke. As if Sheriff Bart was waving the gun at his own head. The money has kept flowing to the crony civil programs and for four years the DoD budget has also been raided to fund crony projects. Green Energy and social engineering have infiltrated the system, diverting vast sums to favored contractors. The real military is ridiculously small and shrinking. It is operating on legacy skills and force structure. When not if TSHTF there will not be sufficient forces to respond in multiple locations. Now the Administration unzips and says “Kiss it” while the media reports nothing and Congress averts its eyes. Sheriff Bart gets to say “They are so dumb.”
T2@8
From what I can ascertain, the ex-SEALs were under cover in Bengahzi under contract to discover where the missing Libyan MANPAD missiles had gone. Approx. 1,000 are missing.
My conspiracy theory is that the Ambassador was the collateral damage and the hit was directed at the SEALs, cause they had found out or were very close.
Just sayin’
No longer a nation of laws, but the rule by men.
What the Left fails to realize is that the very laws that protect them are also no longer relevant when the time comes. The day they find that their Pompey is no longer in the Capitol, but Caesar is, will be a day too late.
Here’s how I read it. The government is promising not only to pick up the lawsuit costs, but, if I’m reading this correctly, also pick up the employee salaries as well!
The OMB makes reference to covering both liability and litigation costs. Liability refers to the lost wages. So, the administration is telling their contractors, warn your workers about layoffs, and your workers will have to go without pay. Fail to warn them, and even if they are layed off, the government will pay their missing paychecks by way of the courts.
Here’s the kicker:
“We will not issue sequestration-related WARN notices this year,”
In other words, Lockheed is not just going to postpone the layoff notices until after the election, they are going to leave their employees without notices right up until the day of the layoffs! Under the administration’s promise, this will allow Lockheed to lay off their workforce for January and February 2013, with the government picking up their payroll for the missed time. Hell of a deal!
It’s an unbelievable giveaway, and Romney really needs to bring this up in the debates. This is just outrageous.
Actually, what Mitt Romney needs to do is publicly say that he will do no such thing, that he will immediately rescind the order and authorization as his first act as President, and that if the defense contractors engage in this ruse, they do so at their own financial and legal liability. That would give them something to consider.
Was it just me, or was Wretchard’s #7 one of the most chilling things he has ever wrote?
W: you’re right; it takes a lot to get people up and agitated, if they do at all, because they just don’t want to believe things are that bad—I’m having trouble myself—and therefore look for almost any way to rationalize sitting tight.
OOTH (I think this was John Donne): ”Beware the wrath of a patient man.” We may sit and sit but eventually … who knows?
“It’s all about standing up then, isn’t it?”
Some may not know, but the old, familiar drama is now unfolding, couched as it must be in the religious province where it belongs.
The “Novena for the Nation” began last Saturday and continues through next Sunday. The homilies are being delivered by Bishops and Archbishops from around the country. The Masses containing those homilies are being broadcast and rebroadcast on EWTN and on Catholic radio stations.
The arrogant destructiveness of the administration and of its assault on freedom is being clarified and pilloried from the pulpit in ways you will see nowhere else in the public sphere.
Catholic or not, you really should try to catch some of what the episcopate is doing. The real battle is being waged, and we have the gift of being able to observe it in real time.
“What could be more full of meaning?- for the pulpit is ever this earth’s foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God’s quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favorable winds. Yes, the world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.” (Moby Dick)
Wretchard @7;
That, Sir, is poignantly beautiful. May God grant you long life and good health to produce much more prose like it.
Wretchard #7:
This election, for the first time, I have volunteered to drive people to the polls on 6 Nov, and to early voting before that, if need be,
And in response to Wretchard’s No.7, I can do no better than to quote The Bard:
WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!
KING. What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian.’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.’
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
I suspect every defense contractor employee knows what’s up by now, irrespective of the small print – but if I owned a business in that sector I’d be looking at liquidating anyway – knowing I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t – no matter how I behave I’m going to lose (either through direct application of the law by aggrieved employees or a vindictive administration willing and able to punish at whim – esp. given the executive currently honors no constraint on its power). And I’m certain I’d be punished if all I did was republish the NYT article in my weekly employee newsletter with the appropriate sections yellow highlighted for my people.
You know you’ve crossed the line into one of the -isms when transparency is an act that’s punished.
Other than that, considering the origins of the law it would be wonderful to see the left hoisted on their own petard – but here we see why it only applies to those who love liberty – who probably compromised on the original bill’s passage rather than stand on principle – the ratchet of the law only allowing leftward movement.
Once again the Republican congress makes no waves about the President willfully conspiring to break Federal Law, Like I said all of them (Congress) really don’t want to rock the boat because their happy to sit back and collect their outlandish pay checks and Benefits… This is just another indication as to why Romney is better than 0bama but only marginally. The federal Government is far to bloated to be changed, only a complete collapse can change what has been happening since 1970’s!
I understand why BAE wants to associate with EADS, the american arms market is slimming, and the Brit company is forecasting its losses
Can a POTUS legally order an entity to break the law?
If the repubs come to power, what would prevent them from prosecuting the defense contractors for breaking the law as requested by 0bama?
With apologies to Walt and to Robert Frost:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
One led to liberty, ‘twas very tough.
The other comfort, and it stood
For self-deception, misundertstood,
That all who saw thought was enough.
They took the easier, it seemed fair,
And having the lighter, better claim,
Because it was grassy with lesser care;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and they–
They took the one deceived by,
And that has made all the difference.
As Charles White noted @10, Romney can stop this.
If the Republicans were really for enforcing the law , they would be all over this. Instead we hear crickets.
This is a conspiracy to break the law. All those involved in both the sequestration notification and the with holding of absentee ballots should be facing certain hard time.
If the Pubs were hard ass about this, this problem would go away for all time muy pronto. If Romney were really astute he would use this issue as an example of all the crony look the other way favoritism crap our government does, and body slam the perpetrators. It’s time to clean house, and this is a good place to start.
The last few years have made it a lot easier to understand how societies just slide into authoritarianism if not something worse. All it takes is the threat of punishment for noncooperation from a few people in control of the government apparatus and even the mighty crumble. Better to take the small hit and lay low than risk losing it all under the full, unrelenting barrage that only state power can bring.
Democracy is a Good only when it’s compared to everything else. It’s a delusion to believe that the democratic form itself stills the concupiscence in mens’ hearts to control others and to use them for personal gain. Evil is but the absence of the Good. It triumphs when cultures disclaim the Good. Nothing else is required.
We have the luxury of 200 years of law and tradition to soften the blow, perhaps even make the strike unrecognizable to many. The all-consuming destructiveness of Leftism is not that it presents an alternate view of humanity, but that it brooks no opposition.
A California psychiatrist that counsels a teenager about overcoming his same sex attraction will forfeit his (licensed) livelihood and perhaps even face imprisonment. And why shouldn’t he? Are not the preservation of public order and the advancement of tolerance and cooperation for the good of humanity?
OK, guys! You don’t suppose that Benghazi might have pumped a load of cold air into the liberal Kumbayah (sp?) mindset of the current regime , do you?
In other words let’s not get rid of expensive to replace assets just when it suddenly appears that the situation is not what we thought it was, okay? Not all foreign policy moves are as stupid or venal as they may seem.
And realistically, from a purely political view this has already served to make the current regime look pretty incompetent, even if they are now acting rationally.
Ain’t life complicated?
The one thing I miss about Bush is that at least when things were bad you knew about it. Everything was out in the open. With this guys it is like driving in a snowstorm in the pitch dark without headlights. Can’t even see the road let alone get anywhere.
It is not just that they are “kicking the can down the road” until after elections, a process that began the day Obama took office. It is that the problems, scandals, failures, and dangers are all there. We can sense them but somehow, and this is the true genius, Obama and company make them seem to vanish before our eyes.
We are going to wake up one day and wonder what happened to our country.
Netanyahu told this story in his speech at the UN last year:
“In 1984 when I was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, I visited the great rabbi of Lubavich. He said to me — and ladies and gentlemen, I don’t want any of you to be offended because from personal experience of serving here, I know there are many honorable men and women, many capable and decent people serving their nations here. But here’s what the rebbe said to me. He said to me, you’ll be serving in a house of many lies. And then he said, remember that even in the darkest place, the light of a single candle can be seen far and wide.”
OK so where is our candle?
“OK so where is our candle?”
I already told you.
Headline NYT Thursday Nov. 8 2012: Riots Over Election Loss in All Major US Cities. Obama Waives Posse Comitatus, Declares National Emergency. Army Takes to Streets.
Who will stand up when they round up the patriots?
I have worked with military contractors for 26 years and I am certain the rank-and-file members know another Obama term is very, very bad for them. Just having this issue in the news has already cost Obama a few votes I would imagine.
We get the government we deserve. And when we don’t, we get to change it- for now anyway. The executive orders issued under this president has me concerned more than anything else (please read them all and ponder the implications if you have not already)and I fear it will lead to blood shed. Wretchard is correct, for me at least, in our wishing to just go about our peaceful lives. But as the saying goes, you may not be interested in war but war may be interested in you. A day of reckoning may soon be at hand. We are probably in that phase of our nation’s development when a major adjustment must be made- a decision on behalf of the people to remain free or fall under a dictatorship. (I guess an Oligarchy would be more appropriate since most of Congress seems to be complicit.) We will have to decide and be willing to stake our lives on our principles. And yet, I am optimistic having served beside our young warriors for half my life. Our military really is the best of this nation and will be up to the task. The real challenge is keeping the wolves away from the door as we fight in-house.
We are in for Interesting Times indeed.
Are we in the “perfect storm” for which America will have its Cesar or will she ply the edge a little longer? I believe and have said, the Patriot has waited to long, grasped to tightly to their earthly possessions, our leaders are not of the cloth the country was founded with and few cherish its warmth nor wish to sacrifice to keep the worn blanket it has become!
We have all experienced those moments. Those times when we imagine, in our conscious mind, some moment of great consequence, some point of decision, where the impact of our decision will be both ponderous and perilous.
Will we show courage? Doubts arise. We must doubt, else we have not treated this danger honestly. We cannot know what will be our response until the crucial moment presents.
We can only fool ourselves in that regard. Others have no hand in this calculation. Our strength shrinks in perspective until only a man’s will matters.
In battle, when a decision to act may result in grievous injury or death, it’s called physical courage. To leave a covered position, for example, to seize a decisive moment, or to retrieve an injured comrade is more than most men’s will can muster. Better to pass the cup and let another drink therefrom.
More often, the choice confronts not physical courage, but one of moral dimension. Speaking out or standing up may result in loss of employment, promotion, or esteem. Friendships may be lost, consolation deprived.
A couple of weeks ago, in Situational Ethics, commenter “rd” cited the word “expediency”. It fits exactly. “noun, a regard for what is politic or advantageous rather than for what is right or just; a sense of self-interest.”
A lack of moral courage, the demonstrated unwillingness to stand up in opposition to injustice, in the workplace or in civil affairs, is moral cowardice, nothing less. It’s ubiquitous in our ranks today.
It was evident in that government organization formerly engaged in human space flight, back when we were engaged in the investigation of the failed Control Moment Gyroscopes. Grown men who decline to speak-out when mismanagement of the investigation was apparent, when significant contradictions were intentionally suppressed, when reports from consultants were concealed.
And all this in an organization that should epitomize integrity in scientific accomplishment, boldly going where no man…
It is evident in recent decisions of the Supreme Court, and those of Lockheed Martin, as well. They find a way to rationalize their choice, a way to go-along-to-get-along.
One man did not invade Poland in 1939. Nor was Kristallnacht the act of one man. Grown men took no action. They spoke not one word in protest. They passed the chalice. A sense of self-interest, indeed.
We must speak up, even if it is one lone voice. As Martin Luther observed “Here I stand. I can do no other”.
Speakeasy,
I’d love to agree. However as a VN-era vet, I’m disturbed by the Pentagon’s lack of leadership. Again. Far too many REMF’s looking for another star.
11. Old Salt
There is enough information out there that they can only be willfully ignorant or fully complicit. There are no innocent Democrats and “moderate Independents”.
Nor innocent media and reporters…
With the numerous gaff’s and their absolutely intentional misleading of facts and timelines made by President 0bama, SoS Hildabeast, DoJ Holder and along with nearly every “Authorized” talking head for the Administration on nearly every topic brought up, how can anyone believe what they say anymore? is there a “Thermonuclear meltdown” about to happen in Korea? We know North Korea lies every time they speak but now so does the complete 0bama Administration so who’s telling the truth? Are Syrian WMD lose as Rebels have claimed just days ago? 0bama himself spoke of the redline if Syria lost control of them but no such action so who’s lying… 0bama or Rebels… when a Western City is choked to death by WMD’s will that be the moment of truth!
15. jms
Actually, what Mitt Romney needs to do is publicly say that he will do no such thing, that he will immediately rescind the order and authorization as his first act as President, and that if the defense contractors engage in this ruse, they do so at their own financial and legal liability. That would give them something to consider.
I’m all for honor and integrity, jms, but stop and think about it from the perspective of the future laid off workers. Obama says he will gladly use the taxpayer money to fund his election and them, and Mitt under your suggestion in effect says, “BS, I’ll yank that money right out of your hands and make you pay it back on January 21!”
Who then do you think the average American, to whom the concepts of honor, integrity, and respect for the Rule of Law means nothing (but feeding their family just happens to be a huge issue), will vote for right after they hear Romney’s strong, principled statement transmitted over every single means of communication on the entire planet?
Every proposal the President makes has a wired claymore that goes off every time Romney opens his mouth. Think of the 500 or so little pieces of metal in that claymore that fly out on detonation…as reporters.
I believe that is why Romney has been checkmated into not saying anything since his Bengazi announcement – that I totally agreed with. It’s like Pavlovs dog, who instead of salivating, ducks and winces because he expects his master to slap him.
Romney has been brutalized into silence and he and his staff have not been able to get inside of Obama bin Sodden’s OODA Loop. At some point he has to figure out how to defeat Obama bin Sodden’s defense. If he can’t in the news cycle, he really has to be on his game in the debates. That is his only vehicle to get away from the media, and speak directly to the American people; at least until the next day.
37. CharlesWhite:”Are Syrian WMD lose as Rebels have claimed just days ago? 0bama himself spoke of the redline if Syria lost control of them but no such action so who’s lying… 0bama or Rebels… when a Western City is choked to death by WMD’s will that be the moment of truth!”
Sadly, yes. Exhibit A: Ambassador Stevens. Leading from behind ensures you are the last one shot. How so very Obama.
You know, something just occurred to me.
Obama now says “You can;t change Washington form teh inside.”
Now if electing a man who was not raised in the U.S., came from outside the traditional Dem Party power structure, and had no real DC experience is not “change from the outside” then what the hell is?
Mitt Romney? Maybe.
Sara Palin? Probably.
OWS? Maybe, but they showed clear signs of being merely DC agiprop, and in any case if y’all ain’t noticed, they ain’t around no more.
The Tea Parties? Yes, definitely!
So I conclude that Obama just endorsed the Tea Parties.
sd @ 38: Romney has been brutalized into silence and he and his staff have not been able to get inside of Obama bin Sodden’s OODA Loop.
Country club, white shoe, one-percent RINOs live in that silence, it would be rude and crude to do otherwise. I gather Romney’s campaign staff are more RINO than even he is. Getting inside of someone’s OODA loop would be ungentlemanly, old fellow.
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e @ 34: One man did not invade Poland in 1939. Nor was Kristallnacht the act of one man. Grown men took no action. They spoke not one word in protest. They passed the chalice. A sense of self-interest, indeed.
Hope everyone reads VDH’s essay today on “quietists”:
http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/the-quiet-californians/?singlepage=true
But I entirely agree with you, one man did not invade Poland, and I don’t look to Obambus as a one-man disease. More a pustule. There is a long debate in history about whether it’s just the tides of change or is it the “great man” theory? Well, in no way can I view Obambus as the great man, so there you go. Even Der Fuehrer? I dunno, teach him English and drop him in USA 2012, and maybe he’d more likely be an MSNBC commentator than an office holder (of course he was an unlikely office holder in 1932 as well, so you never know). 2016, well, we’ll just have to see about that.
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ps – anyone seen stoicheion around?
Taking up the gauntlet risks your very soul because of the ever present chance that you may like the fray altogether too much and come to resemble the foe.
By way of analogy: America is the only country to use nukes in a conflict, and fully participated in carpet bombing of civilian population centers, left floating corpses for the Nazis to find with “secret” documentation on them, etc. After that war, Japanese and German internment, and other “abuses,” we then ended segregation, made women full-fledged citizens, cut the American poverty rate in half, built a magnificent highway system, rebuilt Western Europe, went to the Moon, garnered most of the Nobel Prizes, and a host of other great and beneficial things. Getting ugly while keeping perspective is possible, especially by an exceptional people such as ourselves.
Re 41 Josh: I suspect stoich has been punted out of this particular gene pool. Cheers -
42 @ Don Rodrigo: Well said.
Yes, the USA is not perfect, but we strive to be improve ourselves and live up to our country’s values. Almost all of what the world has today has come from the Angloshpere, and the majority of that has come from the USA.
washington has no money.
The idiots will stand on the track of the roaring train.
the sequester will happen.
no warning can save them.
what’s all the fuss about?
That’s where I get off the train. Wasn’t Saruman thinking something like that? Or for that matter, the near-homonymous Solomon, just before he embraced strange gods?