(Ed. Note: written by our long-time blog reader Retired Spook…being, ya know, old and stuff it took him a while to catch his breath and write this up…it is so good though, that it is being put out as a separate entry)

We didn’t get home from the Restoring Honor Rally until Sunday evening and we were so beat, we went straight to bed. I had intended to post some observations about the rally yesterday, but the site was down all day. When it finally came back on-line late last night, I caught up on the threads I missed while we were gone, happily noting that a couple other regulars also made it to the rally, but I was still too tired to put some coherent thoughts together, and the thread on the rally was 48 hours old by then anyway.

So here are my thoughts.

It was probably the most spiritually uplifting event that my wife and I ever participated in, and we came away feeling renewed and rededicated to playing our part in making this country a better place.

We were on one of 3 buses that left Fort Wayne, IN, at 9PM Thursday evening, arriving in D.C. about 10AM Friday morning with our first stop at Arlington Cemetery. After an hour and a half stay at Arlington (my first visit since the late 60’s and early 70’s when I was stationed there in the Navy), the bus dropped us off at our hotel (The Mayflower Renaissance on Connecticut Avenue about 4 blocks NW of the White House, and the rest of the day we were free to do whatever. We went out to lunch with two other couples, ending up a couple blocks from the hotel at a unique little local eatery with inside and outside tables, and then, I can’t vouch for what others did, but, after an 13-hour bus trip with stops about every 2-1/2 hours, we went back and took a nap.

We did do some sight-seeing later in the afternoon, and then took another nap. When you younger readers get to be 65, you’ll understand.

We were up around 6:30 on Saturday, and, after breakfast, walked the 8 or 9 blocks down 17th street to the monument area. A couple members of our group went down around 4:30 and saved some choice spots on the north side of the Reflecting Pool about 200 feet straight out from the stage, which was set up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Thousands of people camped out all night in order to get close to the stage.

Neither the speakers nor any aspect of the program were publicized in advance. The event was billed as “non-political”, and the only description ever given about it was that it would be an experience unlike any we’d ever had, and we would come away with a new perspective on life and the future in general. That turned out to be accurate. The overwhelming concern of virtually everyone I talked to is that, for the first time in American history, we are headed toward a time when future generations will experience less prosperity and less freedom than their parents.

If you read any news accounts, (I read at least a dozen yesterday, the NYT and Newsweek being the most despicable) I can almost guarantee that they are not accurate. In fact, that was the one really disconcerting aspect of the whole event — that the media tried to make it something ugly and meaningless, and it was anything but that. You’ll read, for example, that the crowd was largely white and over 45. One of our 3 buses was full of families with children, and I would guess that the overall composition of the crowd reflected that demographic. It was disappointing that there weren’t more African Americans there, but it wasn’t because they weren’t welcome, and I did meet a couple who were exceptionally nice. One in particular was a giant of a guy in a Boston Celtics jersey who walked up and introduced himself.

The one accurate account that I did read later said that, in a crowd that extended nearly a mile from end to end, there were no arrests, and the only incidents that require police intervention were from a couple small groups of Leftist plants who brought some ugly signs up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and were asked to leave.

RedState has the best photos I found showing the size of the crowd as well as the condition in which we left the Mall and monument area after the event. I’ve seen a number of photos of the original crowd at MLK’s I-Have-a-Dream speech in 1963 which was estimated at 200-250,000. There were 2-3 times as many people there last Saturday. Interesting that the 3 alphabet networks estimated the crowd at “tens of thousands”, “87,000 +/- 9,000″ and “around 100,000″.

One of the coolest parts of the entire program was completely unscripted. Because of the location, the organizers were unable to arrange a military flyover, but Mother Nature came to the rescue and, at 9:59 (one minute before the start, and with the music just beginning to play), a large flock of around 30 Canadian Geese banked around the WW2 memorial and flew in perfect V-formation straight down the length of the Reflecting Pool about 30 feet above the water, veering off to the north at the last moment. The crowd went nuts. the only part of the program that got a bigger ovation was Alveda King’s speech.

The program lasted nearly 3-1/2 hours. After the first 2 hours or so, we worked our way up through the trees almost to the north side of the stage by the time the program ended, just to get a feel for that portion of the crowd that was in the shade and couldn’t be seen in the aerial photos. The sound system was superb, and there were 6 jumbotrons spaced along both sides of the Reflecting Pool, so we never got to a point where we couldn’t see or hear.

Afterwards we visited the Vietnam Memorial to pay respects to two of my best boyhood friends who lost their lives in that conflict. From a distance that black granite wall doesn’t look like much, but standing directly in front of it was a sobering experience. As we walked away, I had to clutch my wife’s hand because the tears streaming down my face made it difficult to see where I was going.

Walking from the Vietnam Memorial down through the park to the WW2 Memorial, I didn’t see so much as a gum wrapper in the grass. All of the trash containers were full, but what didn’t fit in the containers was gathered in plastic bags and stacked against the containers. The 4th photo in the RedState 8/28 wrap-up is an accurate depiction of what we witnessed and quite a contrast from the 100+ tons of trash left strewn across the Mall at the Obama inauguration.  It really is a contrast in how different classes of our society show or don’t show respect.

We joined a thousand or so people sitting around the edge of the pool in the middle of the WW2 Memorial, cooling our feet in the water. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a truly impressive structure and a fitting tribute to The Greatest Generation.

After cooling our feet, we walked up to the Washington Monument, and then headed back to the hotel, stopping for a rest and snack in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. I had forgotten what a neat city Washington, D.C. is. My last trip there was in 1989, the year I retired from the Navy, and I spent most of my time up at NSA in Maryland.

Our bus caravan took a different route coming home on Sunday, and the return trip only took a little over 11 hours, arriving in Fort Wayne at around 8:15, but we were so exhausted we went home and went straight to bed.

On my way to pick up our dog at the kennel yesterday morning, I heard a lady from our local bus caravan (3 in our group Thursday night and 5 more on Friday) interviewed on local AM radio. The guy who does the morning drive show asked her what was the main message she took away from the rally, and I think she hit it out of the park. She said that, above anything else, the main theme was that we need to quit dwelling on the scars of America’s past, along with all the victimhood associated with them and begin to concentrate on making the future better by, among other things, not repeating the mistakes of the past. To that I would add that it was also about restoring faith – the kind of faith that inspired a group of extraordinary men to found this country over two centuries ago. That was never more reflected than by the Black Robe Brigade, a group of 240 ministers, priests, rabbis, and imams who occupied a good portion of the stage. At the end, everyone joined in renewing the pledge made by the Founders in the Declaration of Independence:

with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Taking note of the 72 murdered migrants in Mexico, the Archdiocese of Mexico City:

The Archdiocese of Mexico City has issued a statement condemning the massacre of 72 migrants from Central and South America. The migrants were likely traveling to the United States.

“It is further evidence of the social disorder and loss of respect for fundamental values present in some parts of the country,” the archdiocese commented, “[and] shows the absence of a comprehensive immigration policy in Mexico that is coherent with the requirements of human mobility in view of a humane treatment of immigrants, as Mexico has required of the United States.”…

This is important given the Catholic Church’s overall views on migration – on the whole, it is not to be deterred. People have a general right to move around. I agree with the teachings of the Church – which is why I back a path to citizenship for the illegals we de-facto invited in, as well as a guest-worker program to allow in those workers we want and need. Justice and mercy requires a rational policy on migrants from all interested parties. But the statement of the Archdiocese points out that neither justice nor mercy being served along the American border – not in any respect at all.

It seems that the 72 victims all refused to become mules for the drug smugglers – and paid for their refusal with their lives. These 72 are also part of the tens of thousands of people murdered in Mexico by the criminal gangs who control the border – and who control it because both the Mexican and American governments refuse to do so.

In Mexico, it seems a bit hopeless – perhaps the leadership of courage and determination will arise to fight a war to the death against the cartels, but I see no signs of it. Mexico has a moral obligation to ensure the lives of the people in Mexican jurisdiction – legal and illegal, permanent resident or just passing through to the United States. Mexico has completely failed in its moral duty, and thus Mexican lectures to us on how to treat migrants have a hollow ring to them.

But Mexico’s failures don’t get us off the hook – we, too, bear responsibility for the murder and mayhem along the border. Our failure is in not securing our border – securing to such an extent that only people legally allowed may cross it. If we were doing that, 72 poor victims would not have sought out the cartels for permission to cross (the border, my friends, is under air-tight control…just not our control, nor Mexico’s control: the drug lords control it, with quite an iron fist); 72 people would not have been ordered to transport drugs; would not have refused, would not be dead.

It is now at the level of criminal negligence to refuse to secure the border. It is a plain and simple crime – and a crime, more over, against the weakest and most helpless among us. Anyone who from this point forward tries to paint border security as racist is now just a tool of the murdering drug cartels – border security is the basic act of mercy and justice required along the border.

Once the border is secure – securely in our hands so that we decide who crosses – then we can address what to do with the illegals already in country and those who wish to come here to work. It is all of a piece – we can’t do anything without first gaining control. If we do anything but security first, then we just consign another 72 to death. And another 72. And another. And another.

Our duty is clear – now, will we do it?

Just how is that whole hopey-changey thing working out for ya?

…Industrywide deliveries, to be released tomorrow, may have reached an annualized rate of 11.6 million vehicles this month, the average of eight analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That would be the slowest August since 1982, according to researcher Ward’s AutoInfoBank. The rate would be 18 percent below last year’s 14.2 million pace, when the U.S. government’s “cash for clunkers” incentive program boosted sales…

We’ll have to see what the real numbers are – after continually over-estimating, a lot of “experts” are now heading the other direction. Still, even if the numbers beat these expectations, we can be sure they numbers won’t be beating last years rather dismal figures.

The “cash for clunkers” scam didn’t “boost” sales – all it did was rob from future sales. A political gimmick to make things look good for a news cycle or two, and now the piper is being paid. Better to have had slow and steady sales than what we’re getting now – a little boost, then a complete collapse. How many auto dealers are going to be laying off sales and maintenance staff now? Staff which might have been able to keep working in a more steady-pace, though slow, sales environment.

Every last thing Obama has done has been a complete failure because everything done revolved around the government deciding what the money should be spent on. Until Obama wakes up from his socialist stupor and realizes that he’s not the smartest man in the world, we’re going to keep heading down the economic drain.

A great blogger and a great person is in a financial bind and is looking for some help – which you can do by buying her book, or flat out donating, if that appeals to you.

A community takes care of its own – and she’s one of us, good people.

This looks to be a devastating bit of truth against the Culture of Death:

The more people learn about abortion and those who advocate it, the more pro-life we become.

Just never seen anything like this:

Republicans lead by 51% to 41% among registered voters in Gallup weekly tracking of 2010 congressional voting preferences. The 10-percentage-point lead is the GOP’s largest so far this year and is its largest in Gallup’s history of tracking the midterm generic ballot for Congress…

There is no way to know if this level of support – and the incredible enthusiasm of GOP voters – will hold true until November, but generally what is happening around Labor Day holds true for the remainder of the election season. All signs point to significant GOP gains on November 2nd.

The only question, as noted below, is what the GOP will do with it?

We had a little issue with our domain today, so you may have seen a GoDaddy placeholder page this afternoon and this evening. Sorry about that. Obviously if you are reading this now you know the problem has been fixed.

Senator DeMint (R-SC) lays out the warning in the Wall Street Journal:

…I ask what so many voters are pondering: If Republicans win this fall, will they have learned the lessons from the overspending and corruption that got them tossed out in 2006 and 2008?

“In the House, John Boehner and the Republicans get it,” Mr. DeMint says. He’s not so sure about the Senate. “I think we’re in danger of doing the same thing we did before, where a lot of young conservatives come in who have been out there campaigning on the right issues, but then all the senior guys take control of the committees and it’s business as usual.”

He warns: “This may be our last chance with voters, because if we’re given the majority . . . and don’t reform Washington, everybody is going to say, ‘What’s wrong with these guys? We need a third party.'”…

The Senator may well be right about that. I’m a Republican and I’ve stood by the party through thick and thin – complaining when RINOs and/or corruption stained our honor, but holding that the party, itself, was still a force for good. I am still convinced of this – but if the GOP blows it in 2011, then it will be time to re-think just how we get from current state of government collapse to reformed government working for the people.

Like DeMint, I see that the House GOP seems to have learned its lesson – but in Senators like Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe I still see GOPers who will cut the party off at the knees for personal advancement. If we win in November, then it will be a mandate from the people to force Obama off his agenda – to make him change course to a more moderate, centrist policy. This doesn’t mean we have to insist upon 100%, down-the-line Reaganism (not possible while Obama is in the White House), but it does mean that taxes must not be raised, even if we can’t cut them; that spending must be reduced; corruption must be rooted out; that the government be responsive to the needs of the people, banksters and bureaucrats can go jump in a lake.

If the GOP does this, then we will have earned the trust of the people and we’ll be well positioned for a complete and smashing victory in 2012. If the GOP tries to cut deals to get pork or to continue to bail out failed banks or does anything which smacks of helping the Ruling Class rather than the people, then the GOP may very well be on the path to self-destruction as the people start looking for a new party and a new set of leaders.

The warning has been given – and I hope the GOP leadership is listening.

Faced with a global economic collapse, China’s government has massively increased support for State-run enterprises – from the New York Times:

…whether in the coal-rich regions of Shanxi Province, the steel mills of the northern industrial heartland, or the airlines flying overhead, it is often China’s state-run companies that are on the march.

As the Chinese government has grown richer — and more worried about sustaining its high-octane growth — it has pumped public money into companies that it expects to upgrade the industrial base and employ more people. The beneficiaries are state-owned interests that many analysts had assumed would gradually wither away in the face of private-sector competition…

Later in the article the Chinese Prime Minister is quoted as saying China’s socialist economy allows it to better allocate resources – it is as if the 20th century never happened. What is really going on here is two-fold:

1. With the private economy around the world suffering, China’s government is worried that the private sector will not be able to keep China’s people sufficiently employed, thus risking a rising tide of unemployment destabilizing to China’s oligarchic dictatorship.

2. China’s corrupt oligarchy likes being in charge and thus when really faced with assigning control to outsiders or keeping themselves on the gravy train, they did what comes natural to a corrupt oligarchy.

This will be an utter disaster for China. China’s State-run enterprises routinely operate at a loss and are already burdened with debts they cannot repay…and which no one really asks them to repay because to do so means going up against powerful figures in the Chinese government. They are throwing good money after bad – and incidentally starving China’s private economy of the funding it will need now that China’s stimulus is unwinding and global demand for Chinese goods remains flat.

China, like Stalin’s Russia, Mussolini’s Italy or Hitler’s Germany can get away with this for a while – and even convince outside observers that things are going swell (this is especially true for those outside observers heavily invested in China and thus determined to paint the brightest picture possible of Chinese prospects), but the price has to be paid. You can’t keep shoveling money in to a government black hole for ever. Eventually, the books have to balance. Unless China’s government does something no government has ever been able to do – run a major industrial enterprise at a profit over a sustained period of time – it will all collapse back on itself as mounting losses and bad loans take the Chinese treasury down.

Anyone who remains invested in China is a complete fool – they are heading for a fall, and no one knows what they will do when the crash comes.

UPDATE: Rumor Mill – Governor of the People’s Bank of China flees to the United States?

From The Hill:

Democrats are undercutting their campaign message by condemning Republican economic policies while calling for the extension of Bush-era tax cuts.

“It’s hard to say the Republican economic policies were bad, [and] then continue them,” Paul Begala, Democratic strategist and former advisor to President Clinton, told The Hill. “That is a bit of a mixed message.”…

But they also don’t want to have a huge tax increase looming on November 2nd. Some of them are also smart enough to realize that if the tax cuts of 2001 expire, it will kill of what remains of the economy, thereby killing the Democrats’ 2012 chances. Problem is, they spent the last 8 years saying they were “tax cuts for the wealthy” and promising to do away with them – and the left wing base is still insistent that those evil, wicked rich people (but not people like Jay Rockefeller and George Soros) get what’s coming to them.

It is quite a problem, isn’t it? What to do?

I suspect they’ll try to punt – some sort of cosmetic move to extend some tax cuts and allow others to expire and hope to goodness its enough to defuse the issue for November. I doubt it will work – any failure to extend the entire tax cut package will be painted (correctly) as voting for a tax increase. In the end, inability to finesse the issue will likely result in inaction – and so the GOP will still be able to paint the Democrats as tax-increasers.

Now, if the Democrats had only been honest about the tax cuts from the get go, they wouldn’t have this problem. Far from being tax cuts for the rich, they were tax cuts on the productive economy. Absent Democrat hate-mongering, the Democrats would be well placed to just extend the cuts…or, better yet, they cuts would never have had a sunset provision to begin with.

Ah, what tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!