I was about to have a conniption watching Obama’s speech.  It took me several days, but now that I’m no longer angry about it; I think I can write a valid blog without sounding like a complete ranting lunatic.

The first thing I’d like to point out is something he does in almost every speech.  He doesn’t realize he’s the president of the United States and not a candidate for election of the president of the United States.  His Surprise Afghanistan speech is one of many speeches that just sound like campaign propaganda.  Seriously!  Mr. President when are you going to get off the campaign trail?

The second thing is (which kind of relates to the first) stop talking about yourself to much.  It’s always me… me… me… (adversely I’d like to include I… I… I…) Can the people of the United States get a break from your Cult of Personality?  I assume that all politicians are pretty self-centered, but Obama takes first prize in the I Love Myself, and Talk About Myself All Day competition.  I’m pretty sure he would beat out Paris Hilton.  I mean who goes to support the troops and then talks about numbro-Uno?  If your going to entertain the troops you need to stay focused on them, not yourself.

And, Stop with the, “Oh, I’m such a great guy because I’d never make you do anything unless it was REALLY REALLY important.” Please, I’m tired of his propaganda that he’s so intelligent and that the War in Iraq was a huge worthless piece of crap. He’s basically walking up there and saying, “Hey, don’t blame me for any past wars, wasn’t this guy. If you were part of those wars they were really stupid weren’t they!”

A little taste I skimmed real quick:

“And to the Afghan people, I want to say that I’m honored to be a guest in your country.” (2 times in one sentence.)

“Now, I know for most of you, you didn’t get a lot of notice that I was coming. But I want you to understand, there’s no visit that I considered more important than this visit I’m making right now, because I have no greater honor than serving as your Commander-in-Chief. And it is a privilege to look out and see the extraordinary efforts of America’s sons and daughters here in Afghanistan. So my main job here today is to say thank you on behalf of the entire American people.”  (Seriously! He mentioned himself 7 times in the first 2 sentences.)

My third problem with this speech is that he’s either lying or forgetful or just plain stupid.  Let me just show you and then I’ll say my peace.

You are part of the finest military in the history of the world, and we are proud of you. And so I want you to know that everybody back home is proud of you. Everybody back home is grateful. And everybody understands the sacrifices that you have made and your families have made to keep America safe and to keep America secure in this vital mission.

So I want you to know, I want every American serving in Afghanistan, military and civilian, to know, whether you’re working the flight line here at Bagram or patrolling a village down in Helmand, whether you’re standing watch at a forward operating base or training our Afghan partners or working with the Afghan government, your services are absolutely necessary, absolutely essential to America’s safety and security. Those folks back home are relying on you.

So thanks to you, there’s been progress these last several months. But we know there are going to be some difficult days ahead. There’s going to be setbacks. We face a determined enemy. But we also know this: The United States of America does not quit once it starts on something. (Applause.) You don’t quit, the American armed services does not quit, we keep at it, we persevere, and together with our partners we will prevail. I am absolutely confident of that. (Applause.)

Right there I want to use that sound effect that Steven Crowder does, “Bahhh WHAA!! BAHHH WHAA!”  Clearly from a logical standpoint this paragraph is blatantly wrong.  It’s impossible that Everybody back home is grateful.  Obama clearly didn’t go to every single house in America and ask if they were grateful for the troops or not and there are no polls showing a 100% gratefulness in America.  While I clearly know this is a figure of speech I’m bringing this up because only a couple years ago Harry Reid made this sentiment about Iraq, “This war is lost, and that the surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday.”  We don’t quit?  During the whole war the democrat party has been waiving the french flag… the one that’s all white.  The democrats have also be actively betraying our own troops and CIA operatives.  Doesn’t sound like you got our backs!

The last thing I want to add I can’t verify so take it with a grain of salt.  Every time I see president Obama speak to troops that are in a combat zone they appear to be missing their rifles.  At least for the Army once you go into the war zone you don’t get rid of it until you leave the war zone.  So that either means they aren’t letting in combat troops or they are taking away weapons when you enter the building that the president is in.  Now I would be fine with this if Bush did it; however, several Soldiers I’ve spoken too who were in Iraq while Bush and Cheney visited said that they walked amongst the troops and never took weapons away.  So what does this mean?  Is Obama scared of his own troops?  Does he fear the military?  Or, is it just his liberal democrat Chicago ideology that just makes him feel weak in the knees around guns?

If the war didn’t get you, then can Washington hope to kill you?  In my opinion, not this guy.  Everything I read about him makes me think, Petraeus is one tough old man.  I’ve never met him personally, but from what I understand I wouldn’t want to mess with the man.  Rick Atkinson’s book In The Company of Soldiers basically chronicles Petraeus’ command through the Iraq Invasion with the 101st Airborne Division (Rick Atkinson was embed with Petraeus).  To drive the nail in that he’s tough as them; he’s been known to run his lieutenants into the ground (He was in his 50s, LTs are usually 22 to 28).  Maybe this is a case of ‘They just don’t make them like the used to.’

He fixed Northern Iraq as the commander of the 101st.  He then fixed Iraq as the commander of CENTCOM.  Could he fix America as president?

From my personal experience, every general is paving the way for some kind of electoral position.  I’ve noticed the second they take off the big-bird rank and put on a star; they stop yelling and start shaking the hands of the men they meet under their command.

He said in 2007 he wasn’t interested in running.  However, it’s probably prudent for a general to keep his mouth shut until he gets out of the service.  I mean if Obama knew that he would run against him in 2012.  He would undoubtedly make sure until that time he was reassigned to the worst assignments. After that Obama would hope he doesn’t get anymore political coverage.  Plus, it’s bad for a general to undermine a political leader (I’m pretty sure it’s against the UCMJ).  If he said he wanted to run it would basically be saying, “Hey you guys aren’t cutting it.” Which is the truth, but once again, UCMJ.

In 2012 I would like to see Bobby Jindal and Petraeus compete for the Republican Ticket.  Frankly, if Bobby is going to have any kind of chance he has to do better speeches than he did after Obama won the presidency.  To be fair, all of his other speeches sounded great!  Maybe, he should fire whoever wrote that speech about him being a child and his father telling him, ‘Americans can do anything.’  Before, I felt like Bobby was a very intelligent person who treated me, the viewer, as an intelligent being.  After that speech, I felt like he was talking down to me, or speaking directly to children because all of their hippy parents were celebrating ‘The Ones’ nomination.

Leave comments if you got them!?  Who’s your presidential hopeful and how badly do you think they are going to compete against Obama? (That’s if they let him take the democratic ticket)

Old War Goats are people who are above 40 years old, they served a long time on active duty and now switched to the reserves.  The thing about Old War Goats, and I think it’s kind of systemic of anyone who has a blue collar job and is above 40.  They have absolutely no clue how computers work.  I don’t mean like the actual electronic functions of a computer I mean; how to use windows, word, powerpoint, excel.  Frankly, if you were born after 1980 you probably would be considered an expert on the functions of these software’s in their minds.

College Students refer to actual college students, and people who wanted to join the military but thought it might be a good idea to try out the reserves before joining the regular army. Or, basically anyone that is young and has only served in the reserves.

My first duty station was an Area Support Group which is mostly office jobs.  To be fair a lot of the Non-Commissioned Officers usually coming into the reserves were infantrymen or mechanics of some sort.  So they would rather eat a MRE than figure out how to Copy and Paste.  However, the Commissioned officers were exactly the same.  At the heart of the job of a commissioned officer is button pushing and memorandum writing.  So I don’t know what their excuse is…

Now this is where I start getting to my point. What was my point again… oh Right!  Being previously in the IT field and having classes in high school that covered Microsoft Office I quickly became the unit Computer Expert and was told time and time again I was a valuable resource.  The problem with being a “Resource” in the military is commanders have the power to decide whether or not to let you leave the unit and join another unit.  Which is why people are ultimately are terrible at everything can leave whenever they want.  Commanders are more than willing to give someone else a problem child.  If you love your unit this is not a problem, but if you hate your unit and you hate the policies of your command… it can be hell.  Also, for people who joined the military to get specialized training, sometimes it can be hard for career development if your commander won’t let you leave.  The National Guard is the worst in my opinion on this particular issue.

This might seem trivial, but it makes for a good example (I lied it’s the first thing that popped into my head).  Say the commander of the 33rd Baton Cleaners Detachment makes a policy of no one can wear headphones while working out in Army PT uniform.  Also, even while in civilian clothes during your off duty workout you may not wear your Ipod or IShuffle (or IBucket… IGlasses) while doing an off duty run on the road.  Solely basing the policy to prevent Soldiers from getting hit by cars while running on the road.  Before you ask, yes, this is a real policy on pretty much every single base I’ve been on.  Now while it’s admirable to prevent Soldiers running along a road to run in front of a car because they didn’t hear it coming.  It’s also a clear infringement on personal choice.  (To further point out how stupid this particular policy is every military base has a Maximum speed limit of 25MPH. Also I remind you we are talking about trained killers, not children… so to think they are responsible enough to take a life but not run on a road while listening to music is fundamentally flawed)

If a Soldier is unhappy with the policies of their command, right now their is nothing they can do or say.  However, if a free market existed pertaining to Soldiers switching units of their own free will.  It would be a positive by forcing commanders to change unreasonable policies to hold onto exceptional Soldier that might be convinced to work for a different command.  This is what I’m advocating, give Soldiers the same right as normal Americans.  You have a choice whether or not to stay with a company that treats you well or poorly.  If the pay or the benefits are good.  Now, I’m not saying let people out of their military contracts.  I’m saying take away the power of commanders to control if a Soldier can move to a different unit or not.

Would you not agree this is a free market solution?

The fact is that keeping “Good Resources” “Smart/Educated/Self Motivated Soldiers in the military is hard because many people get frustrated with the way they are treated.  Keep a good Soldier in the Army, Re-enlist! (Sorry don’t like your policies I’m outta here! (by outta here I mean the left the military completely (Man, we need a free market system)))

It’s sad that I have to explain this because it’s my experience that people have absolutely no clue at all how perfect the free market really is.  It’s like a unicorn.  Wait, scratch that.  The free market is democracy in the economy.  If I could put it in a math equation it would look something like this.

Free Market = consumer democracy.

What is more American then having the freedom to choose which company your money will support.  It’s almost like this thing called democracy.  You go and vote for the person you want to represent you or to run the country.  It works the same way with companies.

Now assume the government does their part in enforcing anti-trust laws, a free market is as pure as it can get.  The consumer actually plays a part in deciding whether something lives or dies.  If a company makes a terrible product and treats their employees bad.  In a free market your not going to last forever.  What it does is promote ingenuity and innovation.  A controlled market breeds laziness and repetition.

I’ll start off by giving an example of a government controlled market.  Mind you this is very hypothetical.  Our good old pals the Soviet Union had one of these.  You have one car factory.  Imagine it’s the dawn of a beautiful bright new era for the Soviet Automobile Service (SAS) and your a new car designer.  Sure, when you start off your invigorated by the prospects of designing your love.  The automobile!  Your first design is brilliant, it’s safe, powerful and gets great gas mileage.  So you send up the design to the lawyers, because it’s got to meet government standards (of course).  Then, it disappears for months as government experts use a mile or two of red tape.  Eventually it comes back with the government’s changes.  People who didn’t study automobile engineering at the Soviet People’s University for Higher Learning decided that they didn’t like the design and made some uneducated decisions for you.  Well, through the tedious cycle of hogwash a brand new SAS automobile is available for whatever it is they do in a country without money or something.

So you go back to the drawing board but you come to the realization that, “I live in a the controlled market.  Hmmmm…. I don’t have any competitors.  So.  If I don’t get out a new improved model soon, bullocks!”  You can chill out, watch some Soviet channel TV.  Read a dirty novel about Stalin and the American Farm girl.  All while you were supposed to be improving the standard of automobile service for the Soviet people.

Eventually you make some new designs.  However, without having a competitor you don’t really have any new ideas improve of off.  It’s really just you and your coworker Putin coming up with all the ideas.  Decades go by and pretty much the design of your first car looks like your last.  The people don’t really have a say in it.  Well.  Because your the only Automobile Company in town and their is nothing they can do about it.

Now let’s look at a Free Market system.  Let’s stick with the automobile industry, let’s come up with a fictional name like Georges Motors, GM for short. Yokota a Japanese made car and Rev a new upstart American car company.  GM used to make some really nice cars, but it was so long ago that most of the people that remember the nice cars are dead.  GM is a big company and has a huge amount of money.  They get cocky and arrogant.  The CEO spends more time golfing and flying around in his jet than improving the company.  Year’s ago the workers got tired of how they were badly treated by the management that they formed a union to protect themselves.  It took a couple years but the union finally got what they wanted.  But, the union didn’t dissolve it became to powerful for that.  So with accomplishing it’s goals of a better work environment it decided to ask for more and more money. Driving the cost up of the product.  The product however didn’t improve in years, just the same car with a higher price tag.  Nobody at the company cares.  Eventually the consumer wants something different.

The companies Rev and Yokota are making some very efficient cars.  People start buying them.  Yet GM doesn’t change.  Years go by.  Eventually, it’s too late for GM and it goes bankrupt.  The company died because the employees didn’t care, the CEO didn’t care, and the product didn’t change.

It’s a free market so the death of GM meant that Rev and Yokota through their hard work and new vision have new consumers.  They keep making better cars, and because they want to compete make it at a reasonable price.  They offer many different products for all different kinds of people.

When Yokota comes out with a new engine that saves 30% more gas, to compete Rev designs a transmission that also saves 30% more gas.  Then Rev designs a slick new body that everyone wants.  So Yokota has to come out with something new and amazing.

Why has computer advances been made so quickly?  Competition!

The person who decide is the consumer, through free choice of products they get to choose the product and company that their money will support.

To expand on this.  In part 2 of Free Market Education I will talk about the truth of greed.  Oh those GREEDY CORPORATIONS!!!