President Obama attacking Minnesota lifestyle

Like so many Minnesotans over Memorial Day weekend, my family and I headed to the lake. The weather was beautiful, the fish were biting, (although they were a little small) and the lake we were on, Clear Lake in Waseca, was packed with fishing boats, water skiers and even a few jet skis. The squeal of delight as my 5 year old daughter caught her first fish of the year still rings in my ears.
After we were done, I was struck by an image that was too big for one picture, so I took two. I left the resolution high so that you can see things in detail by clicking on the pics. Tell me, does anything jump out at you?






Did you see it?







Every vehicle with a trailer in this public access is a truck or SUV. With the announcement of accelerated fuel efficiency standards by President Obama last week, it occured to me that in his (theoretically) good intentions of reducing carbon emissions, he is also levying a tax on the Minnesota lifestyle of taking your boat out to the lake in the summer. The vehicles needed to pull a boat and trailer will be the very same vehicles most affected by increased fuel efficiency standards.

As of 2006, Minnesota was second in the nation in boat registrations at 862,937, every one of which has to be pulled in and out of the water at least yearly because of out winters.

Although (theoretically) the increased cost of the vehicle would be negated by needing less gas, the savings would be realized over the life of the vehicle, while the cost would have to be paid upfront. So the average Minnesotan will be paying more for the 'privilege' of taking the boat to the lake in order to avoid the alleged global warming that might actually make life more pleasant in Minnesota.

Memorial Day 2007

Originally posted in 2007-

I'm early for Monday, but I'll be out on the road then.

I used to be like most Americans who looked forward to Memorial Day as a 3 day weekend that kicked off summer. Even after I joined the National Guard in 1992, it was a day to show up at the armory for a quick Memorial Day service, and then back home for a few beers.

But on October 21st, 2000 I found out what it is about.

My unit was on weekend drill at Fort McCoy, doing our twice yearly rifle qualification. Most army soldiers are familiar with this, a long boring day of waiting in line for your 2 minutes to shoot at computer controlled pop-up targets. My company was running the range that day for the other companies in the battalion. Then an E-4 specialist, I was given the cushy job of sitting in an air conditioned control tower and giving directions over the PA system. All day long, group after group of soldiers came up to the firing line to shoot.
After a short dinner break, it was time to repeat the process, this time at night. Night qualification in the Guard is a familiarization exercise at best. The shooters move off the large berm firing line halfway to the closest target, which is now 25 meters away. You fire all tracer rounds, which would be unlikely in actual combat, and the pop up target is conveniently lit up with a green chem light. The target comes up, you shoot it, it goes down. It comes back up in the exact same spot, you shoot it, and it goes down. Repeat this routine 18 more times and you are done. A simple thing, and mostly we Guardsmen hate it because it cuts into our beer drinking time back at the barracks.
But on this night, it wasn't simple or routine.
We had been at it for about an hour and a half, and were hoping to be done in another hour, then clean up the range and go get some sleep. But the monotonous sound of M-16 fire was interrupted by the desperate scream that no one in the army ever wants to hear.

"Medic!"

We were confused at first in the tower, thinking maybe someone had tripped and twisted an ankle, or been bitten by a snake. I went to the window to see what was going on. Someone on the ground yelled up to me that they needed a medivac right away. I grabbed the radio handset and called Range Control, which functions as the operations center on a small army base. I said I needed immediate medevac. They asked back if I meant air or ground medevac.

Dumb question in retrospect, no one screams for a ground medevac, they just do it.

Nonetheless I went back to the window and repeated the question to the guy that yelled up to me. He yelled back with a burst of profanity, mixed in with the words 'chopper right now'.
I relayed that to range control. One of the other guys in the tower was struck with common sense, and turned on the range flood lights. We looked down the line to see a lot of people standing around in confusion, and ominously, about 20 people in a tight circle all the way down on the left side of the range.
A few minutes later, a soldier rushed to the tower with info. A soldier had been shot in the neck. The medics were yelling for more IV fluids.
The next 20 or 30 minutes passed in a blur. Men on the ground kept demanding information that we didn't have. The guy on the radio kept asking for information that we didn't have. Finally, we saw the blinking lights of the airlift helicopter. I was relieved that it was finally here, and that the injured soldier would now be flown away to a hospital where they can save anyone. Just like on TV. But the chopper landed, and we heard the whine of the engine die away. We waited for it to load up and fly off, but it was almost a half hour on the ground. It finally started up again and flew to the hospital, leaving us to try to make sense of what had happened.
Witnesses were interviewed, statements were taken, and a group at a time buses took everyone back to the barracks. I was one of the last, and almost got left behind. The next morning, which was actually only a few hours later, we got up and got dressed in silence. Every soldier had to call home that morning, to give the bad news, followed by the good news. The bad news is that a soldier was shot last night, honey. The good news is that it wasn't me.

Later that morning we were given more bad news. The soldier was being kept alive on life support in the hospital. Kept alive so that the organ donor teams could get there.

PFC Michael David was on the firing line acting as a safety for the soldiers firing. He was shot in the neck from behind, by a new recruit who had mistakenly thought it was his turn to fire. I never did hear the final outcome of whether or not anyone was to blame, or whether it was ruled an accident. But the army lost 2 soldiers that night. David, and the new recruit who had to live with having accidentally killed him.

Time has passed, and my memory has no doubt blurred. But I can still hear word for word everything that was said on the radio that night. I can still hear the soldier swearing at me from the ground to get a chopper right away.

Every Memorial Day since then, except when I have been deployed, I have taken my children to visit David's grave. They are too young to understand yet, but when I am home from Iraq I will keep taking them to visit his grave on Memorial Day, so that they understand what I never did growing up.

What Memorial day is about.

Memorial Day

Despite what many elected officials like to tell us on Memorial Day, today is not a day to honor all veterans, or all who have served in the military, or those currently serving. Memorial Day is the day we set aside, as a whole country at once, to honor those who gave their last full measure of devotion.

This may seem like a small point, but to a soldier it is a huge difference. November 11th is Veteran's Day. The third Saturday in May is Armed Forces Day. On neither one of those days do we fly the flag at half staff. Memorial Day, Patriot's Day (Sept 11th) and Pearl Harbor Day are the only days set aside each year for the flag to be flown at half staff nationwide.

Soldiers in combat fear death, and they fear being wounded. They fear letting down their fellow soldiers, and they fear seeing their buddies killed or wounded. But all of these things are temporary and fleeting concerns. What a soldier or Marine or sailor truly fears is dying for their country and then being forgotten.

If you see a veteran today, whether it is in a parade, at a cemetery, or at the local VFW, by all means tell them thank you for their service. That is something that we should all be doing everyday, Memorial Day included. But today, please take a minute to think of the men and women who aren't here to march in a parade or share a drink at the VFW.

For veterans, today is the day we set aside to remember the fallen comrades we served with.

Greyhawk says about today-

This is Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy it. Celebrate it - the people who died to give you that right would appreciate it. But they didn't die peaceably in their beds, these dogs who fell protecting sheep from wolves.

John at Castle Argghhh! is more eloquent-

But most of what is in that message is... Veteran's Day. The day for the living. Memorial Day is... set aside to remember the lives that were spent so that we could live ours, those who served and survived, but have since passed, and, of course, for our family and friends, whether they served or not.

McQ at Blackfive is more eloquent yet-

Memorial Day is about those who gave up their tomorrows for our today. They’re the men and women who forever gave up the chance to see and hold the child born while they were at war. The chance to again caress their husband or wife and tell them they love them. The chance to hold their mother's hand and bask in her sweet smile one last time. Or to stare in pure awe at their first grandchild. They gave it all in the service of their country, and it is our job as citizens of this great land to remember them and their sacrifice.

For myself, I will be taking my children to a small cemetery outside of Morristown to say hello to an old Army buddy, PFC Michael David, who gave his life for his country one warm October night. As long as I live, he will never be forgotten.

Carbon tax

I sat in on a blogger conference call with Congressman John Kline, MN-2, on the cap and trade bill being debated in the House. Some of the highlights-

-Cap and trade would also do nothing to expand domestic production, and offers incentives for every alternative energy source except nuclear

-The Republican versions of direct carbon tax measures would be significantly better than cap and trade, but still wouldn't encourage an increase in drilling or nuclear construction.

-Cap and trade would create a huge new federal agency to oversee and manage the cap and trade program, but the bill makes no provision for such an agency nor does it say how the agency will be funded

-Capping carbon emissions in the US will have a minuscule worldwide effect since China does not regulate carbon emissions and has no plans to do so

You can read the unaltered version of Rep Kline's op-ed that ran in the StarTribune two weeks ago here.

Trying to make the crap sandwhich taste better

Update-Michelle Malkin links to another road sign, this one in Illinois, meaning this isn't just a Minnesota thing.

On the way to the VA yesterday, I saw this and nearly ran off the road. The camera in my phone didn't do it justice, so I had to go back today with a decent camera. This is from Interstate 35 near Faribault, just before a long line of orange road construction barrels.


Yes, that's right, stimuless has come to Minnesota.
Considering the loathing most Minnesotans feel for road construction season, I think this PR attempt may backfire.

But wait! This isn't just bad advertising, it's also partly false. There are two projects taking place on this 4 mile stretch of I-35. The first project is renovations on 10 bridges that is being funded by the normal transportation bill. The second project is resurfacing and a median guardrail that is using stimuless funds.

The cost of the bridge repair is about 3 million dollars, while the cost of the two projects together will be just over 8 million dollars. So VP Biden, the overseer of the allocation of the stimuless money, is spending 5 million dollars on a road construction project but taking credit for the whole 8 million dollar project.

But wait! The president and vice president promised me accountability and transparency for this money. So I'm sure that if I surf over to recovery.gov (it's listed on the sign above, although there's no way to read it while driving at 70mph) I can get more information about this road construction project and where the money came from, right? Wrong.

Recovery.gov's balance sheet for Minnesota not only doesn't show this construction project, it doesn't show any federal stimuless money for road construction in Minnesota. Although it does tell me that there has been $5,561,420 dollars earmarked for 'non-entitlement grants in Hawaii.' Let me say that again. Recovery.gov says it has allocated five and a half million dollars to the state of Minnesota for low income housing in Hawaii. Unless this means that there are rent control condos on the beach in Honolulu specifically set aside for Minnesota residents, we are getting screwed on this money.

Besides wondering how much the MN Department of Transportation spent on these signs (there was one for the northbound lanes and one for the southbound), I have to wonder about the concept of spending my tax dollars on a propaganda message designed to make me feel better about the spending of my tax dollars.

Insanity-trying to reason with the IRS

I spent an hour and a half on the phone with the IRS today, all the while wanting to beat my head against a wall.

At issue was an $800 penalty I paid in 2005 for cashing out my 401k. I'd been called up for Iraq, and money was tight. I took the money from my 401k and paid income tax as well as the 10% early withdrawal penalty when I filed my taxes the next year.

In 2007, Congress changed the law retroactively back to 9-11 to exempt National Guard and Reserve soldiers called to active duty from paying the 10% penalty.

I noticed the change while filing my taxes this year, so I dutifully followed the instructions on the IRS website and sent in an amended tax return for 2005 with the documents listed on the IRS site. I received a from letter in reply, directing me to contact the issuer of the 1099 for an amended 1099 that showed the disbursement to be exempt from taxes. This was never mentioned on the IRS website.

So I called the 800 number on the letter and tried to explain the problem. But the person on the other end said that she wasn't versed in tax law and couldn't answer any specific questions. She transferred me to an amended tax return specialist.

The specialist listened to my story, and then advised me to print a copy of the web page I was looking at and send it in to the IRS. I asked him to repeat that statement, and he replied that yes, sometimes the IRS processors don't fully understand the tax code involved.

The IRS doesn't fully understand the tax code.

I was transferred to a pension tax law specialist with the IRS, so that I could confirm that the disbursement exemption listed on the IRS website was accurate. After explaining the situation for almost 10 minutes, the 'pension specialist' asked me to spell out the URL of the page I was looking at. After a few minutes on hold, she came back and informed me that there was no such exemption in the tax code. I quoted from the page I was looking at. She replied 'oh, that'. She then read to me from the very page I was looking at and pronounced that yes, there was an exemption for Guard and Reserve soldiers. She said that she had never heard of that clause before, but from reading it on the IRS website she could see that it applied to me.

The IRS doesn't fully understand the tax code.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering the Secretary of the Treasury doesn't fully understand the tax code. If there was ever a better argument for a simplification of the income tax, whether it is a flat tax or a sales tax, I haven't heard it.

Tomorrow, I venture into the belly of another government bureaucratic behemoth, the Veterans Administration medical hospital for my first physical therapy appointment. I have my fingers crossed that I will find a little more common sense.

My curious meeting with Congressman Walz

At the Owatonna Tea Party last month, we collected signatures for a petition asking our Congressman, Tim Walz, to work to repeal the stimuless bill and put an end to government bailouts of private businesses. I never used to be a fan of petitions because they always seemed like such a liberal hippie thing to do. You know, sign a petition to save the whales or stop an evil corporation like Walmart from building a new store in your neighborhood.

But when I got involved with the Appeal for Courage while I was in Iraq, I finally got it. Petitions are as much about the person signing as they are about the end result. Signing a petition gives an ordinary person a chance to feel that they are doing something. So when people were signing the petition at the Tea Party, I made a casual promise that turned out to be a small adventure-I promised to put the petition in the hands of Congressman Walz personally.

Having invited Congressman Walz to speak at the Tea Party by phone and snail mail and gotten no response, I looked to his website for contact info. I was pleasantly surprised to see a page titled-"Request a Meeting". It's a simple contact info page that routes directly to the Congressman's office. It was anything but simple, but that's another story.

So when I got a phone call from Congressman Walz's office on Friday to arrange a meeting time, I was pleased. Although the venue for the meet was a little odd, (the parking lot of the Kwik Trip on highway 14 coming into Owatonna) I was just happy to get a few minutes to speak to him and deliver the petition.

The entire thing lasted less than 2 minutes. I explained that I had gathered the signatures at the Owatonna Tea Party and we were asking the Congressman to oppose any more bailouts, as well as work to repeal the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I got no further when the Congressman took over, talking about how much money the stimulus was bringing home for veterans in the district and the 42% of the stimules money devoted to tax cuts, which 'we haven't had in a decade'.

He ended the conversation (monologue?) by assuring me that he is a strong supporter of veterans issues, and that when I need anything I should call his office. He handed the petition to his aide and ran inside the Kwik Trip to use the bathroom.

Now, as far as the petition is concerned, I got what I wanted. I put the signatures in Congressman Walz's hands personally and explained briefly where and how I collected them. Bu for me personally, I was extremely disappointed.

Rather than listen to what I had to say, Walz interrupted me to say what he thought I wanted to hear. Rather than understand the spirit of the Tea Party movement which is frustration with big governement spending, he pointed out the pork that he was bringing home for veterans. Rather than ask if I have issues related to being a veteran that he could help with, he assumed that I do and offered to use his office to help.

He's a politician, in the negative sense of the word.

Assumptions

When folks ask if I was scared when I was in Iraq, I assume they probably mean was I afraid of getting hurt or scared of dying. I usually tell them yes, but I let them make their own assumptions about what I mean.

I only had two brief 60 second instances over 16 months where I thought, holy shit I might die in the next five seconds. For me, danger in Iraq was usually over before I knew that I should be scared.

But I still felt fear in Iraq. Not fear for myself, but fear of this. Fair warning-either have a kleenex at the ready or some excuse about having something in your eyes.

Tip of the hat to Blackfive