The Command T.O.C.

My Extended Vacation is Over......

Well, I must admit I took somewhat of an extended vacation and therefore had not blogged for a while. Because I was getting comments posted by a neo-nazi from Seattle, I had to make all comments "await moderation". I then promptly forgot to publish the many great comments I was receiving.

However, all is well now. I posted all the comments and let's start holding the new President and the Democrats to their commitments. End the war in Iraq, bring the troops home now and let's concentrate on getting this economy going. Given the choice between building a school in Baghdad or building one in Detroit, I will take Detroit. Perhaps the soldiers in Iraq can become part of a type of W.P.A program and help with the infrastructure of this Country first.

Review on 2008

As we close out 2008, I wanted to review what I thought was a very successful year for the Command T.O.C. Our goals and objectives were clearly accomplished with the landslide victory of Barack Obama. The Command T.O.C. was not one of those who "jumped on the bandwagon" but you can see posts from back in February and March where we knew we had a winner.

But, that was in addition to the biggest accomplishment which I hope we had just a little to part to play in; this is the complete discrediting of President Bush, the Neo-Con agenda, and the Iraq war. The discussion has moved from "Is Iraq the right thing to do" to "Is the surge (a.k.a., phased withdrawal) working". That, to me, is success. When we first started the Command T.O.C., the military neo-cons and "Milbloggers" would all come on here to tell me how great Cheney is, how great Wolfy is, how great Rummy is. Where are they now? They are hiding behind "the surge". At the end of the day, everyone who even remotely knows what is going on in this war agrees and understands that Iraq was a mess, is a quagmire and the only way to end it is to do just that, end it abruptly and get out. To help them save face, they hide behind "the surge" and that is OK by me. Hide behind it. The sad part is it took the deaths of 4,500 soldiers before they understood that the war was a waste.

Another win is the new focus on Afghanistan. Unfortunately, it may be too little too late. The Government has lied for so long on Iraq, I fear that no one will support any military action anywhere, even when it makes sense. See, this is just one way how Bush and the Neo-cons have made the United States less secure. No one will support this because of the lies and deceit in Iraq. That is unfortunate.

Another thing the Command T.O.C. did this year is accurately predict the collapse of the U.S. economy. I wrote even back in 2005 and 2006 how our soldiers may find they come home to a Country that is ravaged by economic ruin. You cannot run deficits the size we were running and have two wars going on. It leads to collapse due to the debt load. You cannot run a Country where there is no manufacturing base. That ruins a Country. So, as I wrote, we have this interesting situation where soldiers are off dying in wars but they are coming to home to economic ruin. Can anyone really think we are more secure as a Country now than we were in 2002/2003?

Now, what did not go well. First, I never imagined the "conservative" government would do what they are doing now which is handing out money like it is potato chips. They are passing a problem onto the next administration and are, in fact, making the problem far far worse. No accountability, money being handed out to cronies, no tracing of the money, non-banks becoming "banks" just to get Government money (being approved by the Bush administration), non-banks getting bank bail out money, and a deficit that is doubling in less than one year. It is like the neo-cons are having a raid on the treasury before they get out for a very long time. This we will keep an eye on and will report.

Overall, it has been a good year. Our agenda has moved forward. You don't get everything immediately and I can assure you that not everything Obama does, The Command T.O.C will agree with. However, we have certainly moved the needle far in the proper direction. We will now work to fine tune it and ensure it stays there.

A word about comments:  I have decided to moderate them. Virtually all comments will be approved as long as the deal with the subjects. If you decide to go off and talk about names and personal things, your comment will not appear; it is as simple as that. Unlike a lot of bloggers, I do not do this to "get readers" so if people don't read the blog because of this, so be it. I write because it helps me formulate ideas. I love it when Gedicht or Tom The Redhunter challenge my ideas, even if they take a few shots at me (as I do them).

The mission of this blog is first, and foremost, to help IRR soldiers get exemptions from the back door draft which continues to this day. We have been very successful with this and will continue to do so.

Why do Retail Stores Suck SO BAD???

I always wonder why I keep going back to the retail stores that are known as "big box". Their service sucks, they almost never have what you want, the sales people are completely uneducated and they seem not to care.

I cannot call out the name of the store I went to today but, let's just say, it is a HUGE store that is no more than what we used to call a "lumber yard". I was looking for a specific tool. I found the shelf where it SHOULD HAVE BEEN but, alas, it was not meant to be.

But, there was a sticker there informing me that they will receive their next shipment on the 15th of December. Of course, when I went there it was the 17th of December. When asking the walking monkey who worked there what gives, he just told me this "always happens".

I have now committed to only buying over the internet from small stores. I will not go to those "big boxes" ever again if I can help it.

As far as I can tell, I received better service from my local hardware store. A guy who had no computers, no fancy "training" processes and no "supply chain" that he was aware of. Rather, he just knew that when the shelf was getting low, he better order more!