Wolf here.

First, I will say that the results of the presidential election have really surprised me, in the sense that I now realize that this country consists of a majority of people who are either unmitigated mullet heads or who haven’t, despite living for the number of years it takes to become old enough to vote, yet grasped the concept behind the success of America during its short 200 year history.

Either way, while I’ll never be ashamed to be an American, I am ashamed of the so-called Americans who contributed to the election of Barack Obama, that they have the moxi to call themselves Americans, putting themselves in the same context as those of us who cherish our liberty and our Constitution.

Second, and very important, at least for me.

I put my butt on the line for the better part of 36 years so that Americans, even those among us who voted for Obama, could continue to enjoy the right to vote according to their choice, even if that choice is just plain stupid; It’s still an American right to vote for whomever one chooses.

Having said that, unlike the lefties (the media, Democrat politicians, your average liberal, etc), I will not lower myself, as an American, to bashing our next president, no matter who he may be, when he is serving (or whatever it is he’ll be doing) in the White House.

By majority vote, he’s what we have to live with as POTUS for at least four years, and whether I respect the man or not, I will respect the office.

We saw the results of liberals going against the government, rather than supporting them, during the Vietnam war. Because of that, America projected itself to the enemy as a country whose people were not behind our government, and General Giap hung in there when he would otherwise have surrendered, waiting for our dissenters to win out over our leaders. As a result, we lost a war we were winning right up until we withdrew our troops.

During the Bush Administration, we have seen the same thing: Our lefties attacking POTUS at every opportunity, once again sending a message to the rest of the world that the American people didn’t support our government.

I served under presidents like Carter and Clinton, whom I viewed as the two worst presidents in my lifetime, but both were elected by the people, and I gave them the respect they deserved as such, no matter how much it pained me to do so. They were still my commanders-in-chief.

I hope that as conservatives, we conduct ourselves more responsibly over the next four years.

Attacking a serving president does not serve any useful purpose other than to show America as a divided nation, so while Obama is in the Oval Office, I will shut my trap and hope that the man comes to realize what it actually means to be the President of the United States, and serves accordingly.

Who knows? Maybe being there on the front lines, barrage after barrage of economic, security, global and the full gamut of other problems that are daily directed a president’s way will make him grow up and address the office in a responsible, America-first mode of service.

Wolf out.

Wolf here.

I apologize for not having been able to be more attentive to Hard Astarboard these last couple weeks or so, but in addition to bequeathing me the task at hand, Seth also gave me the email address and password to one of his business inboxes before he left, asking that I monitor it from time to time in case a client needed his help, so as to let them know that he is unavailable and will get back to them as soon as he is able.

I sent such a response to one client, and the client inquired as to whether I might be a professional associate of Seth’s. When I replied that I am not, we ended up in an exchange wherein I mentioned my military background and the client’s reaction was that I might well be of help, on the assumption that between my not so humble career past and Seth trusting me, as he does, with access to one of his business email accounts, I might be just the ticket in a clinch.

Sooooooo, for the last few weeks I’ve been engaged in doing a Seth type job, although I hardly think I could fill his shoes on a regular basis as I lack the professional terminology and regard for the subtleties required therein. It wasn’t as easy as I always kid my good friend it must be, so I’ve now made myself a nice chunk of change as a reward for my selfless stewardship of the aforementioned email inbox. Heh heh.

But to the meat of this post:

Seth is still out of the country, and I can’t begin to guess (he can’t, so how the hell can anyone expect me to?) when he’ll finally conclude the piece of personal business he’s involved with and get his butt back here.

He called me last night (I can’t say from where) to assure me that he’s still alive and kicking, and said he’s had some exciting and scary times, and to check up on the state of his business email and this blog.

Not that I was worried about his lack of contact, as he’s always been the kind of guy who knows how to take care of himself.

He’s been to some interesting places he calls “nice and not so nice places to visit, but…”

He also assures one and all that he misses all his readers and fellow bloggers, and looks forward to getting back and carrying on.

– Wolf

Wolf here.

Election day is less than three weeks from now, is time flying, or what?

For those worried about a possible Obama win, let’s remember all those silent majority types out there from whom we don’t hear until they let their votes do the talking, and remember that the lefty media, which is most of the Fourth Estate when you come right down to it, has a tendency to ignore the conservative majority in this country in order to mislead the public into believing that the bulk of the voting population shares their twisted socialist, anti-moral, anti-God, anti-America political outlook.

Keep in mind that despite the “Gore is kicking ass” and “Kerry is kicking ass” forecasts the media hammered us with in 2000 and 2004, right up to the last seconds the poll results were coming in, George W. Bush won both elections.

Keep in mind that the opposition faced by gen-u-ine Americans, those of us who cherish such things as the U.S. Constitution, limited government, the knowledge that ours is a nation founded on the principals of Judeo-Christianity, the knowledge that as Americans we are a decent, moral people who do not deserve the guilt trips being perpetually laid on us by the liberal minority that festers in the dark corners and under stones along the backsides of this great country and the certainty that sensible, patriotic Americans will rally their votes to ensure that the false messiah is sent back to Illinois with his political antiChrist tail locked firmly between his legs.

The Democrats, who have become no more than a cheap possession of the far left, have shown us that they no longer rate their status as a major American political party. Their inept, politically self-serving stewardship of Congress since the midterm elections has been one indicator. Their total “who cares if our candidates are corrupt, immoral liars with dubious connections? They’re Democrats, so we’ll vote for them anyway!” commitment to politics over patriotism is another indicator.

That silent majority I mentioned above is alive and well and will be voting come Election Day, and voting conservative. America will not allow herself to crumble under the heavy hand of leftist politics, America will not allow herself to succumb to a snake oil salesman from Illinois, America will stay the course.

Sarah Palin makes a true and verifiable reference to Obama’s past association with a devoted commie, one who was the liberal presidential candidate’s mentor at the time, and the lefty media goes haywire, accusing the Republican VP candidate of underhanded, nasty mudslinging.

In other words, inconvenient truths are anathema when they concern a Democrat.

If a Democrat called a Republican a “shit eating baby rapist”, the media would see no problem, would probably applaud the Democrat’s boldness and plain spokenness. If the same Republican, however, said that the offending Democrat “is not a nice person”, the same media would scream that the Republican was resorting to sleazy innuendo to besmirch the good name of the Democrat.

Hypocrisy reigns to the left of the aisle.

Wolf

Wolf here.

The article at the link below is one I found to be of interest, as in years gone by I had occasion to use the venerable weapon discussed about half a dozen times and believe it an asset to any grunt force that is graced with its issuance.

Shooters, enjoy.

http://www.military.com/news/article/the-ultimate-battle-rifle.html

Moving on, a column by Chuck Norris that’s worth the read:

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28787

In a so-called age of tolerance, it amazes me just how intolerant some people are of those who stand for traditional values. For example, if I stand against California’s memorializing of Harvey Milk Day or stand for California’s Proposition 8, which would create an amendment to the California Constitution to safeguard heterosexual purity in marriage (which I do support and encourage Gov. Schwarzenegger and all Californians to do the same), I’m considered by many to be intolerant and a bigot. But if another actor takes just the opposite positions on those measures, he is considered to be compassionate and a liberator. Or when a liberal candidate, such as Hillary Clinton, runs for president, her candidacy is considered a fulfillment of civil rights and women’s suffrage. But when a conservative candidate, such as Sarah Palin, runs for vice president, she’s considered a radical right-wing extremist who could usurp the Capitol by toting rifles at her side.

This is America, and we should respect the fact that we will have strong, diverse opinions, and we must allow one another the freedom of speech to air such opines, not suppress them through peer pressure of any type like children. I have many acting friends and many friends in politics. I vehemently disagree with some of them, and that is my American right, as it is theirs. We must agree to disagree agreeably, without blogging about or denigrating someone’s life and character before the nation and rest of the world. We must do better at keeping the focus on the fact that we are Americans first; we are not just conservatives and liberals.

Much as I hate to sound intolerant myself, I have to say that like Chuck, I am intolerant of intolerance by those who endorse tolerance only when it is directed toward their own beliefs, no matter how farfetched or downright off the charts they may be, yet see nothing wrong with denying the rest of us the right to express our own, dissenting, points of view.

This is one of the biggest anti-American traits demonstrated by so called “progressives” in our society, a trait more in line with communist dictum than with the First Amendment rights granted all Americans, not just those embracing liberal beliefs.

Liberal/leftist seepage into the Democratic party in my lifetime has waterlogged the folks on the far side of the aisle with some kind of phobia of the contents to be found among the articles of the U.S. Constitution, and this has reached the point of becoming a free-for-all over there.

What else would explain the Democrats’ wanting to make federal issues of agendas like gay “rights” or of their offering up a creature like Barack Obama as a presidential candidate?

– Wolf

Wolf here.

This one’s short, just checking in.

First off, Seth left me this link to pass on in my first post at Hard Astarboard:

http://andrightlyso.com/2008/09/29/with-sarah-palin-its-all-about-joy-message-to-the-mccain-campaign/

I read it, and all I can say is that it’s right on the money.

I can’t say I completely grasp what all the concern’s about among conservatives. Obama can’t win this election anyway, most pro-Obama buzz is coming out of the lefty media and big liberal cities, where dwell some of the least earthbound minds in these United States. Because liberals make the most noise, they give the mistaken impression that that there are a lot more of ‘em than there actually are.

The same technique has been used in warfare before.

The reality of the situation is that there are far more voters in this country who don’t have their heads buried deep in their nether regions, and these voters will elect McCain no matter how much of a racket the lefties make in the meantime.

Still in all, whenever I see a New Yorker who appears to be of some means and education walking around wearing an Obama button, I think something like “there’s another uninformed or simply downright stupid person who’s living in another world, one I personally wouldn’t want to visit”.

I wonder how many of these fools, after Obama loses in November, will come down with McCain Derangement Syndrome.

I’ll be opening an email account shortly for the sole purpose of responding to comments to my posts. One was provided by another of Seth’s friends, but I didn’t think it would be appropriate given certain subtleties which I prefer to maintain where my own background is concerned.

I’ll try and have this done before or on the weekend.

Wolf

Friends…

I am in the thick of an situation that has me spending a great deal of time outside the country, and am in fact only on U.S. (Yay, America!) soil this time until this evening. Just now, I’m in the midst of running about trying to get some things tied up, as I probably won’t likely be back in N.Y. or back in the Blogosphere for awhile (hopefully, not for too long, it’s already been more than long enough!).

So, I’m taking this opportunity to introduce an old and close friend named Wolf, who is on the same page with yours truly where politics, morality, patriotism, American sensibilities and common sense are concerned.

Wolf served his country faithfully and well for over three decades before retiring, though he will undoubtedly make it quite plain that he is not at liberty to discuss much about it. He doesn’t tell me all that much, either, so don’t feel rejected.

At any rate, he will occasionally, time permitting (he’s not much of a computer type, but has promised to help out here), fill in for me here at Hard Astarboard, posting some of his own well conceived opinions and observations.

While he has the keys to the blog, we haven’t been able to figure out how to give him a by-line (you know, “posted by Wolf…”), so he’ll be doing whatever he does under the “posted by Seth” byline. He will, I’m sure, let you know that it’s him that’s posting.

That said, I want you to know that I miss all my readers, fellow bloggers and blogging itself, and look forward to returning here once again, and will do so ASAP, and not a moment beyond.

– Seth

…is that of helping our defeated enemies rebuild and letting them have face, rather than colonializing them or simply leaving them to fester in ruins.

When we won the Cold War, and the former Soviet Socialist Republics as well as the Iron Curtain countries gained their independence from underneath the heavy thumb of Russia, we could have left Moscow to fend for itself, but instead we poured the largesse of the American People into the task of helping them get back on their feet.

Perhaps in Russia’s case, we made a mistake.

Witness their invasion of Georgia, and as Caroline Glick sums up so well, the effects the entire affair, including the lackluster U.S. response to same, may well have on much of the rest of the world, including the Middle East.

Georgia can now claim membership in an exclusive club whose other members include a number of Cubans of Bay of Pigs fame, the South Vietnamese, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and who knows, maybe one day the Taiwanese!

But I digress.

Russia has been becoming increasingly uppity since Putin first arrived at the helm and is continuing to do so under his puppet, Dmitry Medvedev.

Can you imagine, they’re even threatening possible air strikes in Poland should that country manifest its agreement with the U.S. to install a missile interceptor base on its soil.

“Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent,” Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying.

He added, in clear reference to the agreement, that Russia’s military doctrine sanctions the use of nuclear weapons “against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them.” Nogovitsyn that would include elements of strategic deterrence systems, he said, according to Interfax.

At a news conference earlier Friday, Nogovitsyn had reiterated Russia’s frequently stated warning that placing missile-defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic would bring an unspecified military response. But his subsequent reported statement substantially stepped up a war of words.

Where is the late, great Ronald Reagan when we need him!?

…the very fact that the likes of a Barack Obama being even remotely considered for, let alone being an official candidate for, the office of the President of the United States of America is a sign that our country is in dire straits where any semblances of sanity, common sense or so much as the most fleeting perception of reality figure into the scheme of things.

It has nothing whatever to do with his skin color, his age or even his experience, or lack thereof, in politics and everything to do with the things he says, his complete lack of honesty, those things he purports to represent and the various details of his background and the mentors and influences within.

Liberals can say what they want in response to speculation that a major reason Obama came out over Hillary Clinton during the primary season was his skin color, but face it, that speculation is spot-on. The left will call you a racist for uttering such a sentiment, your actual beliefs notwithstanding, but even given a variety of other reasons, including the more-than-accurate observation that most Americans are quite weary of the Clintons, the fact remains that it’s the truth.

I’ve heard many blacks, for example, say that they are planning to vote for B. Hussein Obama for the sole reason that he is a black man, and to their way of thinking it’s about time we had a black President. White liberals say they’ll vote for him because a vote for John McCain would be a vote for another Bush Administration, but that’s not the only reason…

The liberal mainstream media, along with their portside following, take whatever opportunities they can get away with to infer that the only reason any caucasion would not vote for Obama is racism.

Of course.

In the 12 August 2008 Best Of The Web Today James Taranto links to a New York Magazine Article by Patricia J. Williams that implies just that in its own liberal-reasoned way.

Patricia Williams, a law professor at Columbia, has proved that skeptics of Barack Obama are racist. The evidence is close to home–right there in her imagination. In New York magazine, she explains:

On a short flight to New York recently, I was sitting behind two white, well-dressed twentysomethings chattering loudly and uninhibitedly about going to clubs and travel plans and the possibility of living in New Jersey. Then came the question: “So who are you voting for?”

“I was for Hillary, but now . . . I’m kind of undecided,” volunteered the first woman.

“Are you a Democrat?” asked the second.

“Yeah. But I think I might go with McCain. It’s just that, well, I don’t know. You know.” Her voice dropped. I leaned forward to hear better. “You kind of hate to say it aloud, but . . .” Here her voice dropped again, to a murmur lost in the roar of the jet engines, and I missed whatever came next.

Let’s start with this concession: I have no idea what that young woman actually said. In a perfect world, I suppose that would be the end of the story and I would go back to minding my own business. In the context of contemporary political discourse, however, it did cross my mind that if this conversation were presented on one of those “finish the sentence” cultural-literacy tests, then pretty much every American, of whatever creed, color, or class, would have exactly the same guess as to how the woman completed her thought.

I think there’s some consensus, in other words, about the one thing in America we really “hate to say” aloud. Yet by refraining from saying audibly that-which-must-not-be-spoken, was the young woman’s political choice rendered rational, neutral, pure?

Conversely, if I were to spell it out here, would I be the one accused of “playing the race card”?

That’s it! These ladies are racist because (1) eavesdropper Williams fills in the blank in their conversation with something invidious, and (2) she imagines that everyone else fills in the blank the same way. Just imagine if President Bush had used similar methodology to determine that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. People would be calling for his impeachment!

When a liberal or a black acquaintance hints that I may be a bigot because I don’t endorse Obama, I invariably point out that should J.C. Watts run for President, I would vote for him without reservation.

This never fails to be ignored, including by those who know fully well whom J.C. Watts is, because the liberal rule of thumb is that if a black man is not a Democrat, he is not only not a true black man, he is also a traitor to all black people everywhere.

Go figure.

That said, though John McCain (you know, the guy to whom the MSM gives only a fraction of the campaign coverage they give Obama, even while B. Hussein is on vacation) is only my choice for POTUS because he is the lesser of two evils, the Arizona senator is, exponentially, a more realistic and certainly more desirable Presidential candidate than Obama, pale skin and all.

…Pelosi and Company, the Democrats who are presently in control of Congress, have chosen to leave the American people in the lurch by heading off on vacation without first taking the time to try and solve the current fuel kerfuffle (despite the frustrated objections of a whole passle of their Republican colleagues). Oh, yeah, they have dropped a few half derriered ideas along the lines of depleting the strategic oil reserve for a few seconds’ dubious relief, exhorting the oil companies to drill empty or nearly empty oil leases, and extracting more money from the coffers of the oil companies, completely ignoring the concept of said concerns passing these additional costs on to the consumer, thereby nullifying the added expense to themselves, but hey – who ever said today’s Democrat politicians believe they’re paid to think things through?

I’m reminded of the budget debacle during Bubba’s first term in the White House, when that President repeatedly vetoed the then Republican controlled Congress’ efforts to put forward their budget, and the Democrats all going home on Christmas vacation while the Republicans remained in Washington attempting to hammer out a budget that would meet with Clinton’s approval – kinda’ showed us which party is more dedicated to We, the People, didn’t it? The only thing that saved the day back then was Alan Greenspan’s threat to raise interest rates during an election year if he didn’t have a budget on his desk post-haste – on that note, Clinton, both abruptly and conveniently, misplaced his veto pen and the next budget went through.

So now they’ve demonstrated in no uncertain terms that, whether they hold the minority or the majority in Congress, they will walk out on us without so much as a how-do-you-do because their vacations are more important to them than the work for which we pay them (you know, the “work” for which they periodically vote themselves pay increases whether their performance warrants such raises or not).

We can hardly expect the leftpard to change its spots at this stage of the game, so…

What I find most irksome about this entire thing is that, despite the majority of even their own constituency demanding that we consider drilling our own oil in order to relieve the shortage that is generating the higher gas prices, Pelosi and her House retinue have refused to even debate the subject with the more sensible representatives on the right side of the aisle, let alone among themselves. It seems that the enviro-extremists have infinitely more say among the Democrats than the constituency at whose pleasure these critters serve. For the Democrats in Congress, politics trumps both the will and the well-being of the American people.

Of course, while preventing the oil companies from drilling where there is plenty of black gold, Alaska tea, they blame these same companies for high prices, completely ignoring the facts:

We live in a market based, supply and demand economy. When a commodity is in short supply, in oil’s case this being when the countries we buy from limit recovery quantities and our own domestic drilling is not what it could be (by government mandate, not by private sector choice – Hmmm, where is the Constitution in all this?), prices go up. This has nothing to do with the President, whom the Democrats naturally blame, him being Bush and all, and little to do with our own oil companies, whose prices adjust to the cost of a barrel of oil. If you’re running a candy store and the wholesale cost of a Nestle’s Crunch goes up .25, you’re going to raise your own price a quarter a bar, right?

Speaking of Nancy Pelosi and drilling, I would be amiss without linking to a great post on the subject over at Mike’s America.

Having said my piece on this as relates to today’s irresponsible, purely politically motivated Democrat majority in Congress, let’s go back several days to a Walter E. Williams (yep, the guy who’s become one of my favorite all time columnists over the last few months) column about the environmentalist moonbats’ influence on government that is totally on point and highly relevant to the topic at hand.

Let’s face it. The average individual American has little or no clout with Congress and can be safely ignored. But it’s a different story with groups such as Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy. When they speak, Congress listens. Unlike the average American, they are well organized, loaded with cash and well positioned to be a disobedient congressman’s worse nightmare. Their political and economic success has been a near disaster for our nation.

For several decades, environmentalists have managed to get Congress to keep most of our oil resources off-limits to exploration and drilling. They’ve managed to have the Congress enact onerous regulations that have made refinery construction impossible. Similarly, they’ve used the courts and Congress to completely stymie the construction of nuclear power plants. As a result, energy prices are at historical highs and threaten our economy and national security.

Read the entire column here.

The Cap & Trade bit’s a little scary, wouldn’t you say?