The American Dream
And What We Must Do to Secure Our Children’s Dreams

“Standby hack, let’s hack now.” Russ Quinn had just given me my 32-second warning, and I counted to myself, one, two, and then I pressed my stopwatch and watched the second hand begin to sweep. I pushed the throttle on my beautiful red, white, and blue F- 16 forward slightly and lowered the nose gently while pulling her into a slow left arc. I had done this hundreds of times in practice, and now it was showtime. “Ninety to the line,” came Russ’s next command. I breathed deeply on my oxygen mask and checked my stopwatch and my orientation to the show line. I was exactly 10 seconds into the maneuver and precisely 90 degrees to the line (meaning my jet was perpendicular to the show line just as we had practiced). That gave me 20 seconds to get to my next checkpoint. I pushed the throttle forward a bit further, felt the acceleration, and continued to pull my fighter through her left turn; now the adrenaline began to pulse. My breathing quickened ever so slightly as I searched for my references on the ground, watched my airspeed build, and waited for Russ’s next call. I was now at 125 feet above the ground, 425 knots, accelerating. “Knife-edge,” came the radio call from Russ.

“Knife-edge,” I yelled into my oxygen mask, indicating that I was on time and exactly two miles away from show center. I pushed the throttle to full military power, accelerated to 475 knots, and looked for Russ.

Stand Up America

Excellent piece by General Paul Valley from the Stand Up America blog:

Leadership in the White House, State Department and National Director of Intelligence and CIA is an Embarrassment to this Great Nation.

Chessboard Series V – Leadership Embarrassment

Published on 02/12/11

By Paul Vallely

Dear GOP Pledge Takers...

In Republicans Still Haven't Learned, NRO's Andrew McCarthy writes about the recent deal cut over the extension of the Bush era tax rates and how the GOP's recent "A Pledge to America" cannot be taken seriously. He also makes the case that in addition to agreeing to 100's of billions of new spending against their pledge, they misplayed their cards so badly that they have actually helped the chances for Obama to be holding the winning political hand in 2012.

We haven't even had a chance for the new Congress to be sworn in-- and already the GOP is showing signs they still lack the confidence they need to take any path but the one of least resistance.

America cannot afford to have wobbly kneed leadership in the opposition to blatant statism.  We didn't vote for more of the same big government irresponsibility. We don't consent. Dear GOP pledge maker...here is a quote from your pledge:

In a self-governing society, the only bulwark against the power of the state is the consent of the governed, and regarding the policies of the current government, the governed do not consent.

The Pledge to America echoed what America has been shouting for the past two years, but if their first actions are indicative of what we will get from them now-- than we are going to have even bigger problems than before.

So please explain it to us GOP pledge makers. What's the deal? Is this going to be more of say this, do that?