A Thought for Parents

Your gimlet-eyed Peasant saw this message on
Facebook recently, and I want to share it with you,
my fabulous readers, especially those of you with
youngsters not yet through their teens. This wee
bit of wisdom will do much to bring about respect
for girls and women, as well as to revive true romance;
we as a society could only benefit from this knowledge.

WE NEED TO TEACH OUR DAUGHTERS TO KNOW
                   THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN:

A man who flatters her and a man who complements her,

A man who spends money on her and a man who invests
in her,

A man who views her as property and a man who views
her properly,

A man who lusts after her and a man who loves her,

A man who believes he's a gift to women, and a man
who believes she's a gift to him,

And then we need to teach our sons to be that kind of man.

I posted this piece on my Facebook page as soon as I saw
it. If all parents did this for their children, our families,
our communities, our society, and our country would be
so much less contentious and so much more civil, loving,
respectful, caring, kind, warm, and joyful.

Don't you think?


MEM

Roadblocks on the Information Superhighway?

My friends, your troubled Peasant has recently learned
about a plan by President Obama to give away control
of the Internet to a United Nations committee. As he
believes that the United States should not be in any
position of authority, responsibility, or leadership of
any sort in the world, this is not at all surprising.
But the ramifications of this terrible idea are truly
frightening.

Throughout the entire time that Obama has occupied
the White House, he and his regime have been vexed
by the level of opposition to his ideas on governance
voiced online,  especially by conservative bloggers
such as your humble Peasant. Obama and his
cabinet, his "czars", and his advisers have hatched
several ideas for reining in the online opposition,
and this idea does two things that Team Obama favors:
It gives up American oversight and protection of
the Internet to the UN, a body that isn't known for its
admiration of and support for the U.S. in the realm
of world affairs. And two of its more influential
members, Russia and China, have long gritted their
teeth at the long-standing arrangement in which our
country has watched over and guarded online traffic
through a company known as ICANN; you see, the
Russians and the Chinese want more power to
regulate and censor the Internet, especially concerning
their own dissidents. And if they can crack down on
what Americans may say on the high-tech highway
concerning their governments' treatment of their people,
their threatening behavior toward their neighboring
countries, or their intentions toward the United States,
then that would be a feather in each of their caps.
Couple this with Obama, Democrat legislators in
Congress, and their left-wing allies here at home
doing same to opposing voices and you will have
a totalitarian nightmare worthy of a George Orwell
novel.

On April 23, the "Global Multistakeholder Meeting on
the Future of Internet Governance" took place in Brazil
for the purpose of initiating the transfer of control over
the Internet. Your gravely concerned Peasant does not
yet know exactly how far this process has gotten toward
fruition, but I do know that there is growing opposition
to this horror among the American citizenry, especially
by the Tea Party. I pray that our combined efforts are
not too little too late. Here are the consequences of UN
control of the information superhighway:

*Every oppressive government in the world will have
the power to censor and restrict what their countries'
people can see and transmit on the World Wide Web.
Tinpot dictators, runamok royalty, military martinets
and the like will be able to tighten their control over
their subjects all the more, preventing them from
sending and receiving ideas that would counter the
prevailing party lines and whatall being rammed down
their throats.

*The UN would be free to tax each and every transaction
that you would make on the Internet. You can expect to
be taxed for every purchase of any kind, every time you
send an e-mail to anyone, every time you would visit a
web site!

* You would be taxed by the UN just for regitering a
domain.

*UN officials and despots would also be able to spy on
you. Oh, yes, and they would do it in a nanosecond!

And none of this troubles our wayward president. ICANN
would be swallowed up by the UN and become an arm of
the organization. And the European Union will want a piece
of the action; they too will want to grab some of this
revenue booty from the U.S. and other countries. The UN
and other globalist organizations will waste no time in
scrubbing the Internet of all content critical of their agenda
and anything else that they and thier elitist pals, such as
currency trader and international meddler George Soros
would find troubling.

Your faithful Peasant shall comment further on this and
related news concerning the future of the Inernet and
the battle for control of it in the weeks and months to come.
These events will not only have an impact on bloggers
like myself, but on everyone who goes online for any
purpose at any time --- and these days that's just about
everyone.

Let us be vigilant.


MEM

We Move Closer to the Truth About Benghazi

My friends, thanks to the House of Representatives
having created a panel to investigate the tragedy in
Benghazi, Libya where our Ambassador, Christopher
Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and CIA
operatives Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were
killed, we may at last be able to unravel the entire
story about what happened that fateful night.
We can get long elusive answers to important
questions such as:

*Why was there no military response to the events
on that night?

*Why was Ambassador Stevens' repeated requests
for military backup ignored?

*How many American personnel were injured in the
attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi?

*Was there an order, or multiple orders, for our
military personnel in the area to stand down, and
if so, who gave the order(s) and why?

*Were any military assets available to support the
ambassador and other personnel there when they
were under attack?

*Who authroized a $500 million arms transfer to
Al Qaeda?

These and other related questions require truthful
answers from all persons at all levels whose respon-
sibility it was to advise the President and the Secre-
tary of Defense during this avodable tragedy. But
to date, there have been stonewalling, ducking, and
very likely suppression of evidence by the Obama
regime, along with the exhibit of cavalier indiffer-
ence to the violent fates of the aforementioned four
Americans and the attempts to ascertain what exactly
happened that lead to their deaths. The process will
be not unlike pulling teeth, but The Peasant commends
the House for taking on the task. It's just a crying shame
that we have a president and administration that has
such a scandallously callous attitude toward our
personnel at our dipolmatic posts, even toward one
of our ambassadors!

Meanwhile, my grand readers, let your members of
the House know that you support the House panel
and their efforts to get to the bottom of the Benghazi
scandal. Call, write, e-mail, and if possible, stop by
their offices to show your support! And keep all of
this in mind if former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
decides to run for the presidency; she was the person
whom Ambassador Stevens called to request assistance
when danger was imminent. Hold her, President Obama,
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and the rest of this
motley crew responsible for this horror. Make them
own it!

If we keep up the pressure, we will get the truth.
We require it, and our four deceased fellow Americans
deserve it, for we all need justice to be served.


MEM

From Surviving a War to Surviving the VA

The latest scandal du jour to befall the Obama regime
is an especially sad and infuriating one. It involves our
military veterans and the Veterans Administration
system, from their hospitals to their offices.

Last month, information was leaked stating that as many
as forty veterans had died while waiting for healthcare at
VA facilities in Phoenix. Several whistleblowers averred
that thousands of patients were put on a list by hospital
administrators, a list that they wanted to keep quiet, and
for good reason: hospital staff were falsifying data to
give the impression that vets' waiting times for medical
care had lessened. If patients died before they could get
to see a doctor, their names were quietly deleted from the
list. Worse, similar things have been taking place in other
VA facilities elsewhere as well.

What has our Commander-In-Chief had to say about this
shocking occurrence? He announced his anger over the
matter, while also claiming that he had only recently
learned of this fiasco through media reports. But once
again, President Obama plays with the truth; he knew of
the long delays vets face at VA hospitals and clinics all
the while he has been in the White House, and had been
briefed on the possibility that wait times were not
accurate in his first year as President. While it is true that
inexcusably lengthy wait-times at VA establishments did
not originate with Obama, his reaction to the news having
been broken about the Phoenix debacle demonstrates
once again that he is a butt-covering liar.

While President Obama was doing what he does best,
Democrats in the House and the Senate went about doing
damage control. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
went for the favorite tactic of her party and the President:
blame the previous president. She blamed President George
W. Bush and the two wars that we entered into on his watch,
and the prez added that "these are the fruits of a decade at
war." The fact of the matter is, and it's a most inconvenient
truth for Obama and his chums, is that the backlog that the
VA system has been experiencing is due to the increasing
reliance on that system by Korean and Vietnam War
veterans, not the veterans of the more recent wars. These
systemic problems were neglected for many years.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinsecki, who had only
a few days ago resigned his position in disgrace over the
scandal, was catching barbs from both sides of the aisle
in bot chambers of Congress for not showing strong
leadership or accountability. Shinsecki said he was proud
of the reduced backlog in benefit claims(!), and said this to
reporters: "As I testified before Congress on May 15, I take
any allegations about patient safety or employee misconduct
seriously. The reports of veterans' negative experiences
while seeking VA care are of great personal concern to me."
Oh, really?

And another factor in the burgeoning backlog is benefit claim
denials, which can take literally years to appeal. Many cases
involve simple errors such as erroneous diagnoses and impro-
perly filled out forms, while some involve missing medical
records and other more serious causes making claim denials
occur. There are tens of thousands of cases appealed to be
resolved, most having been filed by veterans of previous wars.
A simple appeals case can take an average of 1 1/2 years to
get straightened out, and that's an eternity to a vet who needs
life-saving medical treatment and therefore cannot wait for
even 1 1/2 months. President Obama promised, while on the
campaign trail in 2008, fulfilling a "moral obligation" to care
for our veterans, and apparently this is just another pie-crust
promise made for the sake of conning the electorate with
emotion-triggering political rhetoric.  He boasted not long ago
that he has a pen and a phone to make legislation happen, going 
around both Congress and the Constitution if need be, to have
what he wants done. Why won't he use these items to make
legislation benefitting our veterans that would clean up
this bureaucratic quagmire, and hold those responsible for
it accountable? Ah, but Barry O has no love for our military
personnel past or present. Remember what he did with the
veterans' memorials during the budget sequester?

And a lack of funding was not a factor in this sorry tale;
VA spending had doubled in the prior decade to $140 billion
in 2013, and has increased by a third during the Obama
presidency. And it was not a lack of personnel that caused
this horror either, as the VA is the largest government
employer after the Department of Defense, with the VA
employing over 300,000 staff. That's an army in and of itself!
So that leaves the bureaucracy. Warnings of the systemic
problems within have gone ignored and blasted as partisan
carping (the Republicans had given the warnings, you see).
Now, we as a nation are facing the very real and very scary
likelihood that this will be our future where medical care is
concerned; stringently rationed care, delay or denial of service,
and a lack of accountability are the rule rather than the exception
for our vets today, will this be everyone's reality tomorrow?
Talk about a brave new world! And your faithful Peasant must
say, that I am too big of a coward to live in such a world.


MEM

Did You Notice ...

Your quizzical Peasant just wants to ask you,
my razor-sharp readers, if you noticed this
happenstance regarding the passing of actress-
turned-diplomat Shirley Temple Black, of whom
I wrote a tribute to here on this blog: President
Obama issued no order to fly our flags at half-mast
when Black, a Republican, who had served our
country in important and sensitive diplomatic posts
in a distinguished second career, died recently.

Now, did her passing just happen to escape the
president's attention, as he has been busy dealing
with many other issues and such, so that he didn't
think to act and give Black the due traditionally
given to Americans who have thus served our nation?
Or did he simply blow her off because she was
a Republican rather than a Democrat? And that
she had close personal and professional ties to
four Republican presidents, including (GASP!)
President Ronald Reagan, the political polar
opposite to President Obama?

Once again, we see whom and what our current
president values, and whom and what he does
not. Just sayin'.


MEM

On This Memorial Day

My friends, let us remember our brave countrymen
and countrywomen who gave their all to defend our
country in war, and to show our thanks to those who
are still with us who defended us as well. And let us
remember those four Americans who died needless,
senseless deaths in Benghazi when our embassy
compound there was attacked by Islamic radicals
on September 11, 2012. The Obama regime is still
trying to cover up the details of why this tragedy
took place, and have been lying to the families of the
slain Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith,
who was a U.S. Foreign Service Information Officer,
Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty, two former
U.S. Navy SEALS as to how and why their loved ones
perished that terrible night. Smith himself was a
U.S. Air Force vet.

Contact your representatives in the House and your
Senators to state your support for the newly cereated
House investigative committee on Benghazi and urge the
Senate to take similar measures. Demand that the truth
be brought into the light of day for all the people to see,
especially the families of the fallen four who have been
lied to and fobbed off by then-Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton! Remember that Ambassador Stevens made
repeated requests for enhanced security when it became
apparent that he and his staff were in danger but
President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton blew
them off leaving them, all better folk than Obama and
Clinton, to be slaughtered. And demand that the guilty
are held accountable and that justice is meted out!

Although we presently have a Commander-in-Chief who
has a callously cavalier attitude toward our veterans and
others who serve in far away, hostile lands, we ourselves
can and must counter this miscreant and his minions with
our gratitude, our admiration, and our love for our veterans
past and present by demanding that they do right by them,
including the four dead Americans. The regime can start
by telling the truth about that fateful night in Benghazi.


MEM

Robert Strauss, R.I.P.

A very accomplished American, an outstanding public
servant who was at various times in his long career an
FBI agent, an attorney, diplomat, trade representative,
and Democratic National Committee Chairman has
concluded his earthly duties. Robert Schwarz Strauss
passed away several weeks ago at the grand age of 95.

A native Texan, Strauss was born to Charles Strauss
and Edith Violet (Nee' Schwarz), Jewish immigrants
from Germany. Charles owned a general store in
Stamford, Texas for many years. Strauss attended
the University of Texas in Austin where he studied law,
was a candidate for a seat in the Texas State Assembly,
and was offered a position as Committeee Clerk in the
Texas Legislature. While in law school he met and
became friends with John B. Connally, who would
go on to become Governor of Texas and would have
a large impact on Strauss' career. Upon completion of
his law degree, Strauss joined the Federal Bureau of
Investigation where he met a fellow agent with whom
he would establish a law firm, Gump & Strauss, which
would grow into an international law firm with several
new senior partners.

Strauss would, in subsequent years, become involved in
charitable causes as well as political campaigns along
with his wife, Helen. He would also become a fundraiser
of great repute for the Democrat Party, later opening a
branch office of his law firm in Washington D.C.
From there, he was named Democrats' Party Treasurer
in 1971. Although his friend and political ally John Connally
leave the Democrats for the Republican Party and be
named Secretary of the Treasury by President Richard Nixon
in that same year, they still kept up their friendship and
many of their shared political activities.

In the meantime, Strauss found himself at odds with the
increasingly dominant liberal wing of the Democrat Party,
especially over the Vietman War and other foreign policy
matters. Strauss' ties via his friend Connally to President
Lyndon B. Johnson and his coolness toward Senator
George McGovern, who would become the party's
presidential candidate in 1972 were major factors in this
development. Although McGovern was unsuccessful in
winning the high office, his influence on the Democrat Party
was broad and deep, making him the face of the party.
Strauss' membership in both the Council for Foreign Relations
and the Trilateral Commission would not be enough to
establish, let alone maintain trust with the newer, more
left-leaning party leadership and activists.

After the 1972 elections, in which the Democrats suffered
a mortifying defeat in their presidential quest, and their
finances flagging with their morale, Strauss was promoted
to Chairman of the DNC. One of his duties was setting up the
party's 1976 national convention. While remaining neutral
as far as the presidential candidates were concerned, Strauss
planned a disciplined, tightly run convention while rebuilding
the party's finances. Jimmy Carter was nominated and elected
President that year, erasing the bitter memories of the 1968
and 1972 conventions and the accompanying electoral defeats.

Strauss was rewarded by President Carter with an appointment
to the post of U.S. Trade Representative, a position with
cabinet-level status. In this position, Strauss successfully
completed the round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations in
Tokyo, following that up with securing the agreement's
ratification by Congress as part of the Trade Act of 1979.
His reward for this accomlishment was to be named Carters'
Personal Representative to the Middle East. Staruss would
once again chair Carter's campaign when Carter ran for
re-election in 1980 but that year Ronald Reagan routed Carter
at the polls to become the next President of the United States.
Strauss would not only be professionally unaffected by this
political setback, his political stock rose dramatically as
his services were sought by Presidnet Reagan and by his
successor, George H.W. Bush; Strauss would be named
Co-Chairman of the National Economic Commission by
the former and named Ambassador to the Soviet Union by
the latter. In the ambassadorial post, Strauss assured close
relations with the transitioning country as it abandoned
communism and adopted democracy, working with outgoing
leader Mikhail Gorbachev and incoming President Boris
Yeltsin.

A liberal on some matters, a conservative on some others,
a partisan without being overly partisan (a rarity nowadays),
not afraid to reach across the political divide in order to get
important tasks completed and completed well, Ambassador
Robert Strauss was always a patriot. He was one of the few
figuires in the Democrat Party that your faithful Peasant has
had any respect and regard for, and I shall miss him greatly.
And so, I feel, will the country and the world.

Rest in Peace, Ambassador Strauss. Thank you for your
faithful service.


MEM