New Site...

I apologize to those who have been looking to this site on occasion, looking for my blog postings.  They have been moved to csuprun.blogspot.com and this site will close at the end of January.  Thank you for your continued readership.

BO is sleeping on the couch tonight...

I don't know if the President is aware or not, but these fun little ice cream treats are a no no according to Mamma Obama.  The First Lady's diet program, Let's Move, is not a plan for after the election though I can remain hopeful, but is her plan to combat childhood obesity with exercise and nutrition.  While I support the idea of better nutrition and more exercise for children, I guess my attitude is less monolithic than using the federal government to push my plan to help in these areas.

While the First Lady believes, food deserts are the cause of the problem, i.e. communities that don't have access to vitamin reinforced fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, I will note that even my friends at the New York Times don't find a link between obesity and food deserts.  What?  How can this be?

Perhaps it's because some folks prefer something sweet, full of high fructose corn syrup to apples, bananas, and pears.  It's called choice and before you talk about having to pay for their healthcare when they get sick, you guessed it, I'm in favor of paying for what you use.  If I want to pay for someone else's health care I have lots of charitable options open to me like contributing time or money to the ALS Assocation, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, or Catholic Charities.

That's right.  I am more than willing to be generous, but I dont need you spending my money for me.  Just like I wont tell you not to eat ice cream or what flavor to get.  Fair?

Even The Brits Get It...Why Doesn't O?

In another great article, this one by Dr. Tim Stanley, in London's Telegraph newspaper he discusses the clear similarities between President's Nixon and Obama.  As is usual, whatever went wrong is likely less bad for the Administration than the coverup that ensues.

As is now being recognized, the Justice Department and Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms allowed the same automatic weapons they despise lawful citizens to possess to find their way into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels.  These weapons have now been used to continue the violence in Mexico that you can only call near civil war proportions as the drug cartels wage unparalleled levels of violence against the police and military in that country.

These same weapons have also been linked to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry who was killed by weapons his government essentially gave to the other side.

With the President asserting Executive Privilege to hide documents associated with Fast and Furious, it would seem that the Oval Office has been involved in keeping important information from the public.  For months now, Obama has claimed to know nothing about Fast and Furious, but the use of Executive Privilege indicates that The White House was involved in decision making of either the operation itself or the stonewalling since then.  Fast and Furious might better be referred to as slow and monotonous as the Obama Administration brings stonewalling to a new art form, but I suspect hindsight being 20/20 will regret this decision later.

Executive Privilege

Wow!  It must be tough for staffers in the Obama Administration trying to constantly determine where their boss will at next on issues.

Just a few years ago, when Obama was a Senator, he was against Executive Privilege...now he is for it.  But for what exactly?

How is it a guy, even a President, who wasn't involved or knowledgeable about Fast and Furious, need to invoke Executive Privilege?  The answer is simple...you either lied to us about knowing and/or approving a disastrous program or you didn't know and are now covering up mistakes of your underlings.  I am just old enough to remember the Iran-Contra hearings and the refrain from Watergate What did the President know and when did he know it?

Barak Obama had issues when he stepped into office, but this one is all his.  His leadership style has been as much like Jimmy Carter as the results, but now Obama finds himself aligning with Nixon too.

Free Speech and Change Are Okay...For Some

In an article in Huffington Post, it is revealed that "progressives" have been "publicly and privately pressing Change.org to draw a line that refuses business from anti-union groups."  I wonder how they would feel if a restaurant refused a same sex couple, blacks, or Jews.


In the wake of the Scott Walker election, it is interesting to see the complaints people have about the other side voicing their opinion.


In this case, the Illinois chapter of Stand for Children authored the following resolution on change.org:

400,000 Chicago students could be locked out of Chicago classrooms because contract negotiations are starting to break down, causing a premature strike-authorization vote to occur before anyone knows what is in the contract proposal. We strongly call for all parties to bargain in good faith to reach a new agreement. Don’t hold our students hostage in a negotiation where they have no voice!

This resolution which came about because of a potential strike vote by the Chicago Teachers' Union is straight forward and it helps parents and the community understand strike votes are occurring before the contract is even being seen.  What is surprising is that progressives think they are entitled to control the debate.  They are the only folks at the table entitled to an opinion.  This of course, being the only way to win the debate, by gagging your opposition.


While change.org states "we believe in open dialogue" it is clearly not the case if a group can cause you to tape shut the mouths of the opposition.  So, the next time you see a petition from change.org ask yourself if you want to help a for profit entity that doesn't need your opinion, they will give it to you whether you like it or not.

Budget Persective

I have to give props to my friend Sara Johns over at

KOLO for posting this video from Tony Robbins.  This is a great perspective on the national debt and how do we pay our national bills.

If you have any questions about the budget process monster or what these numbers mean in perspective - milions, billions, trillions - this is a great video.  Again, for a guy who claims to be independent he sounds awful conservative when you use facts.

I know dreamland is fun, but really, can we continue the path we have set up for ourselves?  While some olks say the debt is no big deal just pass it onto the kids, we are seeing what happens when local and state governments over leverage their budgets and the result is fewer services.  Just like your credit card and home, it is great to have a way to not have to pay for everything all at once, but at some point your credit payments become too high and you can no longer use your income to pay for regular things because all your money goes to credit payments.  Greece and Spain have been there, America isn't far behind.  Think about it.

Congrats To My Nursing Colleagues

I learned late last week that two great women who I know and have had a little bit of a chance to work with were elected President Elect and to the Board of Directors of the Emergency Nurses Association respectively.

Deena Brecher and Sally Snow are two outstanding ladies whose leadership in the area of emergency nursing earned them these positions of responsibility, but as importantly, they are nurses whose contributions to EMS is just as significant.

While I can not speak to Ms. Snow's career path, I know that Ms. Brecher has been previously involved with EMS on the street as a practicing provider before she became a nurse.  In Ms. Snow's case, she is just as likely to be recognized for her work as Trauma Director at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.

For me the really cool part if getting to work with these two women as part of the EMS for Children National Resource Center Advisory Council helping protect our most precious EMS packages through education of emergency caregivers both in and out of the hospital and working on injury prevention programs that keep these children out of the ER in the first place.  Few things in this world are as cool as watching your friends succeed, but when you see them succeed in areas that you are passionate about - all the better.

This is a great day for emergency medicine and for emergency pediatrics!

Is this really the mentality?

This is perhaps the most frightening example of President Obama's thinking about himself.

The issue with Obama's environmental policy isn't that he picked everything, it's that he has a long history of supporting ideas the market has disregarded while penalizing those ideas the market does like.

The point here is that it doesn't always make sense to be first to the market.  When Acme Car Company decides it wants to build a new car there is a great deal of expense in building the first car.  That car must be designed, engineered, and the parts designed and engineered before the car can be built.

The first car is exceptionally expensive to build and the cost does not go down until a second, and third, and so on is built at which point unit cost becomes more manageable.  Obama of course, does not favor the approach that does work and instead wants to award his friends in green energy with expensive handouts for technology the market does not want.

The amazing electric vehicles that "everyone would want" have a nasty habit of causing fires and once you account for the energy spent charging the vehicles are no more economical, but instead are another pipe dream of the Smoker-In-Chief.

Unfortunately, his supporters are so drunk of their own self importance they seem to think that they can compare themselves to Jesus.  My issue with Obama isn't that he can't turn water into wine, it's that he turns any issue into whine.

Learning is changing one's behavior through information or experience...

...for some reason I don't think former President Clinton gets it.  One day...maybe even before Mrs. Clinton runs for POTUS again.

#BillClinton

A Moo-ving Experience

So you're getting ready for the end of shift when you get dispatched for a tractor trailer on its side.  While you are responding you are told that cattle are involved.  Well, here it is...a mooving experience that I am quite sure will mess someone's day up.

My question for the morning is how do you respond to this one.  Let's face it, you're on the highway.  Dangerous enough until traffic is totally shut down and then there is always so wahoo who wants to drive around the accident like last Saturday when a bystander decided to drive right onto downed power lines that we were trying to block until he got the bright idea to drive onto the sidewalk.

Beyond that there are ninety head of cattle which probably outweigh your crew by a pound or two so if they get goofy, your trauma shears and pocket knife probably aren't helping much.

Just some things to think about this morning as I listen to the morning traffic report and am glad I'm not out there today, though I do get to experience bookends of Memorial Day Weekend.  Yay!  Be safe out there.

Happy EMS Week

Whether you realize it or not, you are likely protected by that other "safety net" known as EMS.  You know, the ambulance drivers?  The people who skip meals so they can take you to the ER because you are experiencing pain in your chest, or your child was injured at their baseball game yesterday, or you had a motor vehicle accident that you didnt think any of, but that caused you to have a cervical fracture you cant feel (yet), but that is going to be a problem sooner rather than later.

These are the same people who also skip sleep during a 24 hour period so they can take your neighbors to the hospital, miss the same baseball games that you attend with ease, and enjoy the experience of being vomited on, assaulted in regular numbers, and make on average less than your local Home Depot cashier.

Yes, I will show up to work when I have a 101F fever on Christmas Day.  (Let's face it, Santa wasn't coming to see me anyway.)  I really don't mind doing this.  Sick is okay.

But, all of this is to say, a thank you might be in order.  No, I don't want cookies or cakes brought to the station, but I would appreciate a gesture of respect.  Those gestures can be best defined as awareness that we have a job to do and you can make it easier on yourself and us.

Part one, on a consistent basis drivers will not even yield to the ambulance as we race to go perform CPR on a two year old.  Please realize we are not using lights and sirens just for fun as they lost their excitement for me about nineteen years ago in what is now a twenty year career.  I actually enjoy fixing that puzzle that is broken for you.

Part two.  Help yourself or at least help us help you.  Two things that the American College of Emergency Physicians are pushing are for citizens to learn CPR and to have a disaster preparedness kit.  These are two easy steps every citizen should take on for themselves.

While for years people have pushed automated defibrillators in the public square and they have worked, we still experience more than eighty percent of sudden cardiac arrest events in private!  This means that if you, the layperson, need to perform CPR, it is likely to be on someone you know and love.  What better reason is there for learning how to push hard and push fast?

The other part of that is the mentality that someone is coming to get you.  Whether it be Katrina, Ike, Rita or hurricanes for many years past there has been an idea that I will just ride it out.  After September 11th, this mentality has to go and it is a moral imperative to be prepared to take care of yourself as disaster approaches.  This may mean to indeed "ride it out," but it may mean to be relocate until the event has past you.  Putting together a kit is not as hard as it seems and with a little regular practice you and your family can be ready to help yourself when the time comes.

Yes, I will come rescue you.  I will sacrifice time with my family so that I can put your puzzle back together, but help me help you.  Now go find a responder and say thanks and stay safe out there.

This has to be the best use of Photoshop EVER!

What else is there to say?  Well, it's coming later on the actual article, but to provide a quick amuse-bouche!

Carville does get it...still

James Carville, the bare headed political strategist that brought us Bill Clinton in 1992, is wrong.  He is wrong on abortion, gun rights, how to fix the economy, education, and the environment, BUT....he is right on how to campaign and for all my liberal leaning friends, forget Carville and assume the election is yours.

Carville is right when he says that his party has to fight for this election, but the advice could easily go both ways.  Anyone who takes the coming election for granted is a fool.

Carville is right that every recent election - here and elsewhere - incumbents are being tossed on their head.  Perhaps, they should have been, maybe not, but one thing I do know that I learned from watching Jim Carville is that elections aren't about candidates, but about people.

'No one cares about a politician's troubles, they have their own' hence the public in general gave Clinton a pass on his many personal foibles because the economy was ticking along.  Similarly, George Bush "won" the Iraq War (version 1.0), had amazing foreign policy success, and no outside distractions and lost to a Governor from Arkansas.

Just a suggestion, if you are in politics, you might want to listen to Jim Carville on the basics of his message.

Surprises In Life

"I've been around for a long time, and life still has a whole lot of surprises for me." - Loretta Lynn

Somedays you get off work having gone to bed at 4:30AM wondering did I make a difference, does it matter, am I just plan home yet?  You run to catch the little league game before you miss another of your child's game comfortable with the reality that at least you get to see them for a few minutes before  quiet afternoon, i.e. no more appointments so maybe a quick nap, and then it hits you...SURPRISE!

Something walks into your life that you don't get to walk away from, nor would you want to if you had the opportunity because this is how things happen.  On life's timeline, not yours, and all of a sudden the moron in the middle of the street last night just does not matter anymore because he is last night's news and problem and now you have the "here and now" to worry about so to speak.

From Dictionary.com...

sur·prise

 verb,sur·prised, sur·pris·ing, noun

verb (used with object)

1.

to strike or occur to with a sudden feeling of wonder or astonishment, as through unexpectedness: Her beautysurprised me.

2.

to come upon or discover suddenly and unexpectedly: We surprised the children raiding the cookie jar.

3.

to make an unexpected assault on (an unprepared army,fort, person, etc.).

4.

to elicit or bring out suddenly and without warning: to surprise the facts from the witness.

5.

to lead or bring unawares, as into doing something not intended: to surprise a witness into telling the truth.

I know some people love surprises, but for me, I am always wanting to know what is coming.  Yes, I was the kid who wanted to sneak downstairs and find out what was wrapped in all of those glorious presents before Christmas Day, I was the student who wanted to know what was on the test before we closed the books, and I guess I am the same in emergency services.  I mean, let's face it, emergencies move a whole lot slower for people who are prepared (hence the need to continually train).

In any case, surprises can be good or bad.  They can cause fear and loathing (testing) or they can be pleasant (that new Red Ryder air cooled BB gun) depending on perspective and timing and how the news came to you.  I'll let you know how this one turns out because let's face it, no surprise just happens.  There is always a ripple.

There is a demotivator poster out there that says no raindrop thinks it is responsible for the flood, but it works both ways negative and positive.  Some days good news comes and it feels like rain dropping on your head at first, but then you realize that the rain you are feeling is on a 90 degree day and the rain washes away the heat, the humidity, and your sweat.  Some days the news surprises you and you go wow and then it really hits you how good the news can be.

Enjoy the rain because sometimes the surprise from a cloudless day is as good as it goes.

A Good Guy Gets What He Deserves

No I'm not claiming to "know" Jered Weaver, but I am claiming to have gotten to spend a few minutes with him along with his manager Mike Sciosia and Dallas native, Torii Hunter, who caught the 27th fly out of Weaver's no no last night.

My moment came last September 11 when I was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch as one of the responders who did what we do ten years earlier.  The Angels were playing the Yankees and if you were looking for the definition of class act you would look up "Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles" in the dictionary as Tim Mead and his crew were amazing to both me and my family.

It only figures that good things would happen to people in his organization as they are good people.

P.S. If you are watching the standings, don't.  They don't matter today nearly as much as they will at the end of September and the Halos will be where they belong then.

Nice to see the football isn't being spiked...

I know I just wrote about this issue, but it is amazing to me that President Clinton agreed to be the spokesman for this message given he had three opportunities to remove Osama bin Laden from this world before September 11 was ever carried out and didn't execute on actionable intelligence at the time.

If he had carried out his duties as Commander-in-Chief, I think it is arguable that President Bush would never have been re-elected and arguably your Veep could have appeared stronger than he did in the 2000 general election where he lost the Electoral College by an exceptionally few votes.

White House Correspondent's Dinner

Portions of Jimmy Kimmel's speech were above the top, but as Robert Deniro said as Capone in the Untouchables "we laugh because its funny, but we laugh because its true."

Fortunately, it is a great statement that in America we can make fun of our leaders at ten feet.  It is unfortunate that they walk so easily into these jokes and do not better represent those that elected them.

It probably is a challenge defending human rights...

...while President Obama yucks it up at the White House Correspondent's Dinner while Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese dissident, is reportedly being hidden in the American Embassy in Beijing.


As media reports note,  Secretaries of State and Treasury, Hillary Clinton and Tim Geithner, were supposed to be en route next week for talks with the Chinese, but now their fragile relationship might be in trouble.  The question, should be why?


During the Cold War, Ronald Reagan had no trouble bringing human rights up again and again with the Soviet Union, lecturing the Mikhail Gorbachev when they met in Switzerland.  He had no issue bringing human rights up again and again, but what will our current White House occupant do?


Given the history of recent Democratic administrations I would be shocked if they didn't hand Guangcheng over to Chinese authorities like the Clinton administration did with Elian Gonzalez.  Guangcheng is a human rights advocate who has pushed for care of those who are disabled and against forced population control measures including forced abortion.  Given the Obama Administration's love for his healthcare death panels and previous history when a provincial police chief provided information about the murder of a British businessman, it will be no surprise if Obama continues yucking it up at the expense of those who are doing what he only talks about.

A New Babysitter

Let me get this right?

• You can carry a firearm?
• You can carry a firearm on any number of flights that the rest of us can not?
• You can carry credentials that make you an agent, a special agent, of the US federal government?
• You receive a security clearance after an extensive background check and go through more than 27 weeks of specialized training?

...and you need a chaperone?

Mr. Sullivan, is this a joke?  The men and women of the US Secret Service do not need chaperones - as you are apparently directing - for your agents.  They need to remember they are in a profession that is all about honor and maybe your boys and girls need a little lesson in honor and not another babysitter.  Aren't they busy enough babysitting prima donnas to need a babysitter themselves?

I am appalled by the behavior of the gentlemen, and I use the term loosely, in Cartagena and probably in El Salvador and we could go on and on I am sure now that the lid is off.  Using the Bushido Code that followed the samurai, Honor meant you were born and bred to value the duties and privileges of your profession.

A chaperone will not fix that any more than they keep boys and girls from getting together on school band trips.  The right answer is to make sure your employees know their responsibility to not only their mission, but to their profession.

A chaperone is just another embarrassment to an organization that needs to reassert its samurai sensibility.

Abdominal Problems

So according to Time magazine via another post on the breitbart site Obama was not the "guts" of the decision in relation to Osama bin Laden afterall.

As per usual for 44, Obama is not Mr. Guts and Glory, but instead defers timing, control, and operational decisions to Admiral McRaven.  The Ben Shapiro post is totally correct on this one.  Obama claimed all the credit because the op went well, if it had gone bad it would have all over McRaven's doorstep.

It reminds me of Kennedy's response after the Cuban missile crisis when he quoted the Count Galeazzo Ciano who said, "Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan."  Now and then it would be nice if Obama would invoke a little bit of Kennedy and learn some humility.  I am probably asking for too much, but Obama will be out of office in a very few months.  January 20 can not come quick enough!

For those of you interested enough to see it, here is the hand written memo from the DCI (Director of Central Intelligence) Leon Panetta.