69th Anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor

MoonHowler

If some of this looks familiar…it is.  That’s the neat thing about anniversaries.  You can recycle them.

The Greatest Generation  spent their childhood in the roaring 20′s.  As teenagers they weathered the Great Depression of the 30′s.  Reaching adulthood in the 40′s looked bright until that fateful Sunday afternoon in early December.  Every one from the Greatest Generation remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news, much like those who followed now can tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard of the Kennedy assassination or 9/11. 

Many people had no idea where Pearl Harbor was or that our Naval Fleet was berthed there.  Yet upon hearing of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, most Americans were filled with rage and a sense of betrayal because of the sneak attack.  The Greatest Generation would have their lives unalterably changed forever. 

On December 8, 1941 they listened to their president, Franklin Roosevelt, make the following address to Congress: 

To the Congress of the United States of America

Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with the government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Click for full text

 

 

Over  3,000 lives, both civilian and non-civilian  were lost in the attack on Pearl Harbor.   America had a decimated navy.  The politics of war had kept FDR’s hand off the trigger and had kept us out of the war raging in Europe.  All but one member of Congress voted to declare war on Japan and within a week war had been declared on Germany and Italy.  The United States was fully at war, from the youngest child to the oldest citizen.

On this day, please give a second of your time to remember those who perished and a second to pay homage to that generation who gave so much.  Where would we be today without the Greatest Generation?  Soon they will be lost to the ages and the annals of time.  Those boys who went off to war are now staring down 90 if they are even still with us.  That is a sobering thought. 

Dick Morris compares tax-cut compromise to Hirohito signing surrender in World War II

MoonHowler

Now what is that old whore-monger Dick Morris babbling about now? Surrender? He should talk.

And what does President Obama have to say on the matter? According to MSNBC:

President Barack Obama announced the parameters of a tentative deal with Republicans on extending the Bush tax cuts, acknowledging that he still strongly opposes the extension of cuts for the very wealthy but saying that continuing a fight at the expense of the middle class would be “the wrong thing to do.”

“We have arrived at a framework for a bipartisan agreement,” the president said, after noting that it is “abundantly clear” that Republicans will block a permanent extension of tax cuts for the middle class without an extension for top earners as well.

“As much as the political wisdom may dictate fighting over solving problems, it would be the wrong thing to do,” to delay resolution until the next year, Obama said.

Some of the broad parameters of the deal, reported by NBC’s Chuck Todd, are:

— 2-year extension of ALL Bush-era tax rates

— 13-month extension of unemployment insurance

— 2 percentage point decrease in the payroll tax for one year.

The overall cost in lost revenue to the government is at least $450 billion in 2011 (or a tad higher than the yearly cost of the 2009 stimulus) and could climb as high as $600 billion depending on how much the economy grows over the next two years.

In the deal will be some extension of small business tax breaks as well and a “fix” to address inflation indexing of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) rates.

So how do we pay for it all? Do we borrow money from China to pay for the Republican tax cuts? I guess it is all a matter of priorities. What happened to the cuts in Social Security tax? I thought FICA was going to be reduced. Maybe just social security pay outs will be cut.

There is also more to come on the the estate tax. No mention of capital gains taxes.

Whatever deals he cut, President wasn’t going to leave the American people hanging.