Iceman's Rant

More Meaningless Votes from the GNoP...

2011-02-03T14:38:00.003-04:00

As the GNop and Tea-tards are holding symbolic votes to repeal the healthcare reform legislation, this video sums them up just right...

Rigged Card Game...

2010-11-13T08:38:00.003-04:00

I dont understand why anyone would be against letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the top 2%. They have been playing in a rigged card game for the past 9 years and now dont want to tip the dealer.

The laws have been written to allow an incredible transfer of wealth... only not the kind "Joe the Plumber" was concerned about. It has been an upward transfer of wealth to the top 2% who now control about 43% of the wealth in this country. And over 90% of "new wealth" in the past 10 years.

“Class warfare,” the GNoP leaders shout, claiming that any tax increase in this economy would stop the earth from rotating.

Class warfare? Yes, there’s class warfare occurring in this country, but it’s not what the GNoP claim. It’s the other way around: a war being waged by the country’s privileged financial elite against the American middle and lower classes with the help of politicians whose pockets are kept stuffed by the top 2%.

End The Tax Cuts For The Rich...

2010-08-26T11:58:00.005-04:00

Here is an accurate view of why we need to let the Bush tax cuts expire. Back in 2003 the Federal government knew we could not afford them. Now, it is estimated that over $2.3 trillion was left in the pockets of the wealthiest 2%.

Poking Fun at the Right...

2010-05-25T10:38:00.002-04:00

This pretty much sums up the Right's view of health insurance reform.

Still Confident...

2010-02-14T10:06:00.004-04:00

It has been a long time since I posted anything here. Here are a few of the things that have been on my mind the past year.

Why cant Congress do anything ?

Why is the U.S. still in Iraq ?

Why is Guantanmo Bay still open ?

Why haven't any of the causes that created the economic meltdown been corrected ?

Why do the Republicans like it better when the rest of the world hates us ?

Why haven't Bush and Cheney been arrested, or at the very least be called in front of Congress like the British did with Tony Blair?

How can the SCOTUS give corporations the right to spend unlimited money with no restrictions in political contributions and advertising ?

Why does anyone think Sara Palin is qualified to be POTUS ?

Sadly, we are just kicking this can down the road which is all our government is ever able to do. We desperately need term limits in Congress. The average age of a senator is 60 (the oldest ever) and the average age of a member of the House is 55 (the oldest in more than a century). Most of these guys, and certainly the leadership, are so out of touch with the common person. They have been writing laws that only benefit the top 1%. Do you need more than a recent article in Forbes Magazine about the 400 wealthiest Americans to make my point?

...This year, for the first time, everyone in The Forbes 400 has at least $1 billion. The collective net worth of the nation’s wealthiest climbed $120 billion, to $1.25 trillion...

Are you kidding me? 400 people are worth $1.25 trillion !!!
While manufacturing gets shipped overseas, unemployment is over 10%, health insurance costs keep going up, and the rich keep getting richer our Congress decides to hold hearings about a college football playoff system.

The United States is quickly evolving into a 3rd world banana republic with a few ulta-rich and everyone else scambling for the crumbs.

I hope that President Obama can get us headed in the right direction, but he needs to get Reid, Durbin, McConnell, and Kyle under control in the Senate and Pelosi, Hoyer, Boehner, and Cantor under control in the House in order to change direction.

Yes, I am still confident this can happen... but President Obama needs to get a spine and start making things happen.

Time To Select A "Campsite"...

2009-03-12T09:00:00.004-04:00

It's been a while since the POTUS election. I am still willing to give President Obama policies and changes time to start before I pass any judgement. We are an "immediate gratification" society and expect someone to get things fixed in a day, when it took years to get into the mess.

Now, I sit back and watch the two camps in the GOP fight over what the face of the GOP will be. The Limbaugh-Hannity-Coulter camp that says the GOP need to "get back to our roots" and move further to the right. And the Wills-Noonan-Steele, and now adding McCain to that camp. No... Not John McCain. His daughter Meghan. She is 24 and seems to realize what the GOP needs to do better than most. This is the camp that says the GOP needs to open the doors and make the GOP cool again. That includes remaining fiscally conservative but becoming more socially liberal.

Put me in the Wills-Noonan-Steele-McCain camp.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

History Was Made...

2008-11-05T13:13:00.000-04:00

Trickledown... Not any more...

2008-10-23T15:02:00.001-04:00

Why is it when we give huge tax breaks to the top 1% and Fortune 500 companies its ... "good for the country"... but when you want to end those tax breaks.... "its socialism" ??

As I have stated here many times... The "old GOP" is so out of touch with the 21st century. We need a GOP that looks at the country and world with 21st century eyes and not the old eyes of 30-40 years ago like we do now.

Trickledown worked 28 years ago when Reagan was elected because businesses could not pack up, move over seas, still get huge tax breaks and bring their products back into the US without tariffs.

Over the past 8 years the Republicans have allowed huge tax breaks and written laws that benefit only the top 1% in this country. Again with the notion that the wealthy will spend money and it will filter down to the middle class.

Now when the Democrats want to let those tax breaks expire, they are called socialist or communists and that they want to “spread the wealth around”.

Just one of many examples of why the GOP needs to change.

She is Sounding Pretty Good Now...

2008-10-16T15:36:00.002-04:00

Well…. The fat lady is starting to sound pretty good now…

IT'S OVER. John McCain still hasn't told the country why he should be president. He performed pretty well last night, but all he said were talking points. He is against taxes, earmarks, and pork.

IMO, he didn’t knit what he opposes into a coherent economic philosophy that would inspire voters to get behind him in the final days of this presidential campaign.

McCain has long years of political experience, exactly what Barack Obama lacks. But McCain was unable to explain why his experience makes him better able to lead the country.

His Ayres and ACORN attacks seemed weak. He got a “deer in the headlights” look when the Roe v. Wade question was asked. He joked about how Obama had never been south of the United States even though his VPOTUS choice got her first passport last year. His “attacks” were all over the place. Like buckshot hoping something hit Obama. IMO, he should have picked 1 or 2 things and pounded that attack nonstop instead of trying 100 different ones. He needed to go after independent and undecided voters and instead seemed to be trying to shore up his base. Kinda late for that now.

He did get in a good line saying that if Obama wanted to run against Bush, he should have run 4 years ago.

Obama almost appeared confident, maybe over confident. He didn’t get rattled and played prevent defense. Obama simply did not appear to be the scary “other” that McCain needs him to be. He also had a chance to ask McCain why he did have a flag pin on his lapel but probably felt that would be stooping to McCain’s level.

With the split screen I thought I was watching “Grumpy Old Men” on one screen and “Cool Hand Luke” on the other.

So what does McCain do now? Hope for an October surprise? I think 401K’s are this years October surprise and he was the one hurt by it.

The Fat Lady Is Tuning Up...

2008-10-15T08:52:00.002-04:00

Well… It seems like the fat lady is tuning up…

Tonight is the last POTUS debate and in 20 days we will elect a new administration. The good news about that is it should put an end to all of the ridiculous BS that has been said and written in the last 10 months.

I have no doubt that volumes will be written in the media about why someone lost and why someone won.

I am not a supporter of McCain for reasons going back 20 years and when I lived in Arizona. My feeling is that he will tear the GOP to pieces for 20 years. I am also not a big supporter of Obama, contrary to what some of you think. I feel the citizens of the United States are going to be losers regardless of who wins.

I was sure enough to make a bet with cigar smoking buddy that Obama would win easily. Now it looks like that is going to happen. Latest polling has him up by a lot nationally, as well as all the key battleground states. If you look at the Electoral College numbers, it will be a landslide.

All that being said, what does McCain gain with all his negative ads and campaigning at this point? His ads have been 100% negative of Obama since July. IMO, this is why he has not gotten any traction. Continuing this way will look desperate and not the honorable, brave, country first man he claims to be. It didn’t work for Hillary, so why did his campaign feel that it would work for McCain?

He needed to sell John McCain and why he would be a good POTUS, not trying to scare voters about Obama. Telling people not to vote for someone is not the same as getting them to vote for you. IMO, he should have fired his whole campaign staff and recreated the “McCain Image

Here are some of the reasons many GOP strategists have given for his poor performance.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s nomination as a turning point in McCain’s slide by undercutting his experience argument and tethered McCain to the GOP base.

Sen. Barack Obama’s choice of Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, showed voters which candidate was “serious” about governing and which one was just trying to win. He should have chosen Mitt Romney. Given the economic situation now and Romney’s economic experience would have him up by 10 points now.

McCain failed to get on message, stick to it and drive it home.

McCain is only at his best in crisis mode and that made him look very erratic and confused. At times like this people want someone on an even keel.

McCain’s long history of support for deregulation of the financial industry and his unwillingness to alter his opinion in the middle of an economic collapse. This handed Obama a ready-made economic narrative—or, rather, it added a powerful extension to the catchall argument he was already making against McCain as a clone of Bush.

I would like to see candidates take the “high road” for the next 20 days, but I really doubt they will.

A Bridge To Nowhere Part 5

2008-09-26T08:03:00.002-04:00

McCain seems to be risking it all by suspending his campaign and calling for a delay of the debates. His poll numbers have taken a huge hit in the last two weeks and now his campaign is floundering. I think that McCain, or his campaign, think that if he can "race back to Washington and save the day" it will make him seem presidential and win him the election.

There are a lot of problems with that thinking...

1. There is no way the Democratic leadership in Congress is going to allow him to drop in like the 82nd airborne and take over.

2. He is going to take a hit in his base if he votes YES on any bailout bill.

3. He is going to have to vote YES on any bailout bill now since it has become apparent that he has intended to provide leadership on the issue and if the bill fails he will suffer the ramifications.

4. 74 percent of Americans think there should be some sort of debate and he will take a big hit for not showing up.

He has painted himself into a corner and the paint won’t be dry until after November 4th. All of his erratic behavior in the past few months has really hurt him.

As my 80 year old father said the other day... "McCain is starting to act like a lot of 72 year old men that I have known, and that ain't good for anyone that wants to be president".

A Bridge To Nowhere Part 4

2008-09-23T13:41:00.002-04:00

George Will wrote this article:

"The queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said without even looking around."
-- "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that "McCain untethered" -- disconnected from knowledge and principle -- had made a "false and deeply unfair" attack on Cox that was "unpresidential" and demonstrated that McCain "doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does."

This is just another example of why McCain is not right for POTUS, and if he is elected he will tear the GOP apart in a way that will take 20 years, if ever, for it to recover. McCain is NOT a maverick as he likes to claim. He is a loose cannon. When he gets caught off guard he blurts out anything that he thinks makes him sound like a leader. Stating that he was POTUS, he would fire the head of the SEC, even though the POTUS can not do that.

Then he says on “60 Minutes” that he would replace Cox with Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic attorney general of New York. Getting scared now Republicans ?

Picking a completely unqualified person to be his VP is more loose cannon behavior. This after fighting with party leader to the bitter end for Joe Lieberman. All this “unhinged” behavior should be all the warnings voters should need to get off the “straight talk express”.

This is what people can expect to see from him at any time if he is elected. How do the people that support McCain because he will select better judicial selections than Obama justify that argument after all this ??

A Bridge To Nowhere Part 3

2008-09-22T13:47:00.003-04:00

Am I the only one that finds it amazingly hypocritical that John McCain is claiming that he is the one that will fix the problems on Wall St. ?

He is demanding more regulation and oversight of the financial markets. This coming from the man that along with the other Keating Five members blocked regulators from investigating Lincoln savings for 3 years in return for nice big campaign contributions. He has campaigned for POTUS as a “Deregulator” and “friend” of big business up until 2 weeks ago. Last Monday, in the middle of the Wall Street meltdown, he was declaring the "the fundamentals of our economy are strong".

Now he is screaming about corporate greed and corruption being the main problem. Not the deregulation that he and members of his campaign all made happen years ago.

The Washington Post wrote this recently.

A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth.
...
In 2002, McCain introduced a bill to deregulate the broadband Internet market, warning that "the potential for government interference with market forces is not limited to federal regulation." Three years earlier, McCain had joined with other Republicans to push through landmark legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (Tex.), who is now an economic adviser to his campaign. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country's financial institutions competitive by removing the Depression-era walls between banking, investment and insurance companies.

That bill allowed AIG to participate in the gold rush of a rapidly expanding global banking and investment market. But the legislation also helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments.

McCain's logic- It's not the fault of deregulation. The problem is greed and corruption

A Bridge To Nowhere Part 2

2008-09-12T14:18:00.003-04:00

I am not sure what McCain actually knows about his VP pick, Sarah Palin. He seems to be trying to tell the voters that she is the most qualified person in America to be VPOTUS.

During an interview he was asked about Palin's national security qualifications. His response was is just embarrassingly incoherent.

"Energy. She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America. She's a governor of a state where 20% of America's energy supply comes from there. And we all know that energy is a critical and vital national security issue. We've got to stop sending $700 billion of American money to countries that don't like us very much. She's very well versed on that issue."And, uh, she also happens to represent, be governor of a state that's right next to Russia. She understands Russia."

First, the notion that Palin's proximity to Russia counts as national security experience continues to be unusually stupid, even for McCain.

Second, "Energy" is not a response to the question, "What experience does she have in the field of national security?"

Maybe the next time the Republican handlers prep Palin on how to answer questions, McCain should sit in and take a few notes.

McCain/Palin: A Bridge to Nowhere

2008-09-04T11:40:00.003-04:00

The title of this post is vague and sweeping.

Just as the GOP convention has been. I listened to Sarah Palin's whole speech this morning. Last night was only 8 minutes.

The mockery went too far. There was no "there" in her speech. Or the McCain campaign. They played the “Obama doesn’t love America, just himself” card, over and over and over. When you need to let the country know your VP pick, you dont start by critiquing Barack Obama's biography.

Sarah Palin is not a trusted voice of authority -- she's much too new. Sarah Palin lacks the standing to make this critique of Barack Obama.

All that being said, instead of enforcing the reason McCain chose you, she decided it was better make a speech better suited for a Rotary Club meeting. She gave me no reason to think she is ready to be POTUS. She gave me no reason to think she is qualified to be VPOTUS. This is what she HAD to accomplish in her first national exposure. Save the mocking for the stump. She had to sell herself as the best choice for VPOTUS out there, and she didnt.

Was it wise for her to attack the media in an era of 24/7 cable news? Most of the media is pulling for Obama and she gave them more reason to do so.

Just my $.02, but I have a feeling that she has inspired the Democratic base to work even harder for Obama. There are many many more registered Dems than Pubs, and she may have awoken a sleeping giant with her condescension.

Conservative Politics Explained...

2008-08-06T13:23:00.002-04:00

A different view of conservative politics.

The Republican Party Left Me...

2008-08-06T11:32:00.003-04:00

I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Party left me.
Ronald Reagan, 1962

This is what the greatest POTUS in the last 60 years said when he was asked why he switched political parties. IMO, Ronald Reagan's face should be on Mt. Rushmore. This was a man that brought the country together and won landslide elections. In 1980, he beat Carter 45 states to 5 states, and in 1984 he beat Mondale 49 states to 1 state.

I voted for this man twice.

I believed in his message and his policies, but I feel that we need to move beyond his policies to keep pace with the changing times and world we live in. The current Republican party is not the same party as Reagan, regardless of how often a candidate claims to be a Reagan Republican.

So, to paraphrase the Gipper... "I didnt leave the Republican Party, the party left me". I just cant buy into the current GOP platform and policies. In short, I have a hard time with the Republican brand. The GOP had control of Congress for 12 years and the White House for 8 years and they have not done a good job of running things.

There was a good op-ed in this past Sunday's Washington Post that really seemed to drive home my own thoughts about the GOP and the direction of the country.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103061.html

At long last, the conservative juggernaut is cracking up. From the Reagan era until late 2005 or so, conservatives crushed progressives like me in debates as reliably as the Harlem Globetrotters owned the Washington Generals. The right would eloquently praise the virtues of free markets and the magic of the invisible hand. We would respond by stammering about the importance of regulation and a mixed economy, knowing even as the words came out that our audience was becoming bored.

Conservatives would get knowing laughs by mocking bureaucrats. We would drone on about how everyone can benefit from the experience and expertise of able civil servants. They promised to transform stodgy old Social Security into an exciting investment opportunity that would make everyone wealthy in retirement. We warned about the scheme's "transition costs" while swearing that the existing program would still be around for today's younger workers. They offered tax cuts. We talked amorphously about taxes as the price of a civilized society. After Sept. 11, 2001, they vowed to strike hard at terrorists anywhere and everywhere without worrying about the thumb-twiddlers at the United Nations. We stood up for the thumb-twiddlers.

But now, seemingly all of a sudden, conservatives are the ones who are tongue-tied, as demonstrated by Sen. John McCain's limping, message-free presidential campaign. McCain's ongoing difficulties in exciting voters aren't just a tactical problem; his woes stem largely from his long-standing adherence to a set of ideas that simply haven't worked in practice. The belief system and finely crafted policy pitches that enabled the right to dominate the war of ideas for the past 30 years have produced a relentless succession of governing failures, from Iraq to Katrina to the economy to the environment.

Paris, Britney, and Barack...

2008-07-31T13:58:00.000-04:00

McCainiacs have got to be wondering when your their guy is going to get real about his campaign for POTUS.

He gets a bump when he calls for lifting the ban on offshore oil drilling and then never follows up. This should be his issue but he is letting it fall to the side while he tries to paint Obama as an elitest.

McCain complains that Obama will raise social security taxes and then tells people Tuesday at a campaign stop that "I don't want tax increases. But that doesn't mean that anything is off the table when it comes to Social Security".

After getting a lot of heat from tax reform groups, on Wednesday he paints himself into a corner when he tells another group he will never raise taxes and has to back off his statement from a day earlier.

He cant seem to stay on a message and drive home the point.

Now he runs an ad that compares Obama to Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Tom Cruise....

Fox News had this to say...
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/30/celebrity-ad/

It was the latest effort by the GOP hopeful to cast Obama as a lightweight with little experience in leadership or governing. It also was risky for McCain’s campaign to both acknowledge Obama’s worldwide fame and depict it as a weakness rather than a strength.

“Barack Obama is the biggest celebrity in the world, comparable to Tom Cruise, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton,” Rick Davis, Sen. John McCain’s campaign manager, wrote in an e-mail addressed to interested parties after throwing out a similar line on a conference call with reporters...

...Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said McCain’s comparison of Obama to Spears and Hilton likely would not persuade many voters.

“The typical viewer will fail to see the analogy,” she said. “Voters believe Sen. Obama is a celebrity, but not in the same sense as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. So when you are asking, ‘What are they doing in the ad?,’ it distracts attention from the message of the ad.”

Since when are those 3 considered to be the biggest celebrities in the world? Just another example of how far out of touch the McCain campaign really is. Also, it is the last resort of a candidate that is losing to not push their ideas and just try to put doubt about the opponent.

Anyone else find it ironic that McCain is calling someone else a celebrity? He is a guy that was a media darling for years and got himself on TV any chance he could. Now he complains about the media's love affair with Obama.

Generational Change...

2008-07-30T13:11:00.000-04:00

Yes... I want to vote the hippies out. Here is why all these politicians that got their "political feet" wet in the 60's have to go. They grew up in a time when we had unequal civil rights. In many cases they were involved in ending them. This is not the case anymore, however they still argue today that minorities are "held back" because of some grand "white guy" conspiracy. Women only earn 78 cents for every dollar a man earns because white guys are sexists and hate women. Poor people are poor because of some grand plan to keep them poor. In other words... Everybody is a victim. Its not their fault. And for over 40 years they have continued to tell people this. They prefer to define people with a hyphonated description. And on and on and on.

Hillary Clinton and all her old hippy women supporters are saying she didnt get the Democratic nomination for no other reason than she is a woman. They are horrified that young women didnt support her. The Congressional Black Caucus say that Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton did not get nominated for no other reason than that they are black. And if Obama does not win it is due to the racist county we live in. Harold Ford Jr didnt win the senate seat in Tennesse because of racist ads, but Lynn Swann didnt become the Governor of Pennsylvania because he was a Republican. The hippies feel that they ended the Viet Nam war by protesting and singing song in the park. The hippies are stuck in the past and think the 60's was the greatest decade in our history. They also feel they are the "Greatest Generation". They are not up to date in any way and live in a time warp. They have a hard time grasping that a "black" guy can make it to the Democratic nomination with out their help. This baffles their tiny minds. Other things that baffle their mind is when young people that dont see things their way. This is why I want them out.

Young voters may be liberal politically, but they dont buy into the racism and sexism conspiracies of the hippies. They want us to move past the "old politics". The younger politicians dont buy into it either. There are bright young politicians that are there because they looked beyond the old hippy mindset. They are fed up with the old hippies fighting with the old Chickenhawks on the Republican side of the aisle.

So I think you are wrong when you say they are identical to the old hippies. This is why Congress has an 11% approval rating. This is why people want to end the status quo. McCain and Clinton are the status quo.

I want to end the status quo. I want Congress revamped. I want a generational change in the White House. I feel that a generational change is the only way to get things moving in DC again.

The Biggest RINO in Congress...

2008-07-05T13:33:00.002-04:00

McCain is probably the biggest RINO in Congress. In 2001 he wanted to leave the GOP. Now he is the candidate and the right wing radio guys argue that he is better than either Democratic candidate because he will appoint better judges.... WTF!!! This is McCain's only redeeming quality to the GOP base???

The Hill Newspaper wrote:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.

In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist.

Democrats had contacted Jeffords and then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) in the early months of 2001 about switching parties, but in McCain’s case, they said, it was McCain’s top strategist who came to them.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/democrats-say-mccain-nearly-abandoned-gop-2007-03-28.html

McCain buys into just about every liberal issue out there. At least you know what you get with Obama. McCain will bleed you dry with a death of a thousand cuts, all the while calling you "My Friend".

When the 527 ads start coming out, McCain will be shreaded. He has 27 years in Washington and is the problem, not the maverick he claims to be. The 527's will be real nasty against McCain.

Obama wont fare much better but those 527 ads will be racist and use racist code words. He doesnt have the baggage that McCain or Clinton have but that wont stop the 527's from trying to rip him apart on character rather than time in DC.

Get Rid of the Hippies...

2008-07-03T13:21:00.000-04:00

This post is in keeping with my opinions in the Obama and McCain race for POTUS, I have continually said the hippies have to go. They are a lost group that are dead from the neck up... and thankfully now that they are getting old and are dead from the waist down too. The 60's were a 10 year period that trashed our country. So I was very happy to read this story in the NY Times.

Say good bye to the hippies....

The ’60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire

“There’s definitely something happening,” said Peter W. Wood, executive director of the National Association of Scholars, which was created in 1987 to counter attacks on Western culture and values. “I hear from quite a few faculty members and graduate students from around the country. They are not really interested in fighting the battles that have been fought over the last 20 years.”

Individual colleges and organizations like the American Association of University Professors are already bracing for what has been labeled the graying of the faculty. More than 54 percent of full-time faculty members in the United States were older than 50 in 2005, compared with 22.5 percent in 1969. How many will actually retire in the next decade or so depends on personal preferences and health, as well as how their pensions fare in the financial markets.

Yet already there are signs that the intense passions and polemics that roiled campuses during the past couple of decades have begun to fade. At Stanford a divided anthropology department reunited last year after a bitter split in 1998 broke it into two entities, one focusing on culture, the other on biology. At Amherst, where military recruiters were kicked out in 1987, students crammed into a lecture hall this year to listen as alumni who served in Iraq urged them to join the military.

In general, information on professors’ political and ideological leanings tends to be scarce. But a new study of the social and political views of American professors by Neil Gross at the University of British Columbia and Solon Simmons at George Mason University found that the notion of a generational divide is more than a glancing impression. “Self-described liberals are most common within the ranks of those professors aged 50-64, who were teenagers or young adults in the 1960s,” they wrote, making up just under 50 percent. At the same time, the youngest group, ages 26 to 35, contains the highest percentage of moderates, some 60 percent, and the lowest percentage of liberals, just under a third.

When it comes to those who consider themselves “liberal activists,” 17.2 percent of the 50-64 age group take up the banner compared with only 1.3 percent of professors 35 and younger.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/arts/03camp.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp&oref=slogin

Now The Fun Begins...

2008-06-04T13:31:00.000-04:00

Now the fun begins...

Last night some of the "talking heads" said that Obama will offer Clinton the VP spot.... only if she refuses to take it. Just a gesture for "unifying the party".

We now have 2 Senators running. The last time a sitting member of Congress was elected POTUS was 1960. This is because we dont like to elect a back room wheeler and dealer. Now we dont have a choice. 1 guy is a Senator with 2 years in Congress and 1 guy that has been a Senator for 21 years and was a Congressman for 6 years before that.

And the US citizen is the loser in all this...

So now it has become official and what does McCain do last night??
He goes on TV and gives an absolutely horrible speech claiming he was the real "agent of change" and he offers "change that makes sense". He was trying to go after Clinton supporters by reaching out to them by fanning the fires about sexism and how badly she was treated in the primaries.

This is what all you McCain supporters can expect... a candidate that is catering to everyone and every group.... except the Republican base.

I’m With McStupid

2008-03-06T06:30:00.003-04:00

Delegates at the Republican convention this summer should all be handed T-shirts that have “I’m With McStupid” on them. After this past Tuesday’s primaries McCain has got enough delegates to be the Republican nominee. He has to be one of the worst choices for POTUS in history. He does not have a solid base and has many Republicans vowing not to vote for him. Once again Republicans have decided that it’s “someone’s turn”. Just as they did with Bob Dole in 1996.

On the campaign trail, John McCain has retreated on immigration, changed his mind on tax cuts and admitted economics is not his strong suit. But all that's unimportant, we are told, because he was Right On Iraq -- back at the beginning, when he endorsed the invasion, and again over the past year, when he has stoutly supported the surge. So, whichever Democrat he faces, the November election could be a referendum on the Iraq war and his support for it. Add to this his Keating Five and Lincoln Savings and Loan involvement and the Democrats will tear him to shreds.

Hillary “threw everything including the kitchen sink” at Obama and it paid off for her with wins in Texas and Ohio. A few weeks ago this would have seemed no great feat since Clinton’s leads in the polls in both states were around 20 points, plus in the face of Barack Obama’s month long, twelve-contest winning streak, she had a nothing else to do to campaign in these states. The bad news for her is that even with winning 3 out of 4 states, she only nets about 8 delegates and still trails Obama by about 130 delegates. The math is just not in her favor, so expect her to get even nastier. It is all about her as far as she is concerned.

Obama is going to have to start hitting her back hard. If she brings up Tony Rezko, he needs to remind voters of James and Susan McDougal, Webb Hubble, and Vince Foster. When she talks about “NAFTA-gate”, he needs to fire back with “Travelgate”, FBI files, and the missing Rose Law firm records. He needs to follow the advice that Sean Connery gave to Kevin Costner in the movie “The Untouchables”. “When they bring a knife, you bring a gun. When they put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue”.

I am actually sick to my stomach that in a country of close to 300 million people, these 3 main candidates are the best we can come up with. It is very sad that the best and brightest chose not to enter the contest… but who can blame them??

10 - 0

2008-02-21T08:08:00.000-04:00

With a population that is more than 91 percent white, Wisconsin isn't African American enough for Bill Clinton to hint that it didn't count. As one of the 20 most populous states in the union, it's not small enough for Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, to suggest it didn't rate. Because Wisconsin uses a primary, the Clinton campaign can't pretend it was noncompetitive because of a mysterious allergy to caucuses.

The bottom line is this… Hillary Clinton is just not the person the Democrats want as POTUS. She is experiencing the worst thing that can be said to a woman… “Sorry, we just aren’t that into you…”. She had no plan for after Super Tuesday and it has cost her big time. If the Democrats had used a winner take all policy like the Republicans, she would have been counted out a long time ago. Instead of telling people in her speeches that she is ready to be Commander in Chief or that she has already shown she can take the Republican’s best shot… she needs to be asking them for help just to keep her in the race. Maybe she has taken the Republican’s best shot, but that doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as hard as Obama’s best shot.

Obama has a 10-0 record since Super Tuesday. His win in Wisconsin was only by 17%, which was his smallest margin of victory during the streak. His average margin of victory during the streak was a whopping 33%. He appears to be unstopable now. He should end up winning Texas and Ohio by a large margin too.

McCain won an easy victory over Huckabee, moving him ever closer to clinching the party's nomination. In his speech afterward, McCain all but dismissed Clinton as a potential adversary, focusing his rhetorical fire on Obama as offering an "eloquent but empty call for change." What is wrong with McCain?? Can’t he see that Hillary has been saying that for the last month and she is 0-10? Why would he think this will work for him is beyond me. He needs to take Obama on in the issues if he expects to have any chance of winning. He will also need to win back the Independents that have been flocking to Obama. This is not going to be easy because Independents see him as part of the problem, not part of the solution. People like a “maverick” in the Senate, but they don’t like the idea of a “maverick” in the White House.

Obama vs McCain - The Battle Begins Now

2008-02-16T07:08:00.002-04:00

The Potomac Primaries are over now and there were no real surprises. Both McCain and Obama had convincing wins and increased their lead in both delegates and the national polls. It looks more and more like these two will be the main candidates in November. Current polls show at this time that Obama would beat McCain by about 6-8%. IMO, it would be much higher.

In the Democratic race, Hillary seems to have decided to use the “Rudy Giuliani” plan and wait until Texas and Ohio to make her stand. She will have let “2 strikes” go by and is hoping to not swing and miss on March 4th. She will need to hit it out of the park is she has any hope of staying in the race, and Obama is not going to give her an easy one to hit. Obama has been gaining ground in many of Clinton’s core voters. White women, Hispanics, those over 65, union members, non-college graduates, and incomes less than $50,000. Polling shows Obama ahead in Wisconsin and if he clobbers her there like he did in the Potomac Primaries, she will also lose in Ohio. These two states have a lot in common concerning Democratic voters.

The Clinton campaign is a mess now too. She had to get a new campaign manager and needs to find a way to raise more money. More than all that she needs to get a plan in place and quickly or she is finished. You can tell a campaign has difficulty establishing a message when its slogans keep changing. In recent weeks, the Clinton campaign has featured one banner after another: "Big Challenges, Real Solutions," "Working for Change, Working for You," "Ready for Change, Ready to Lead" and "Solutions for America." Obama has stuck confidently with the slogan "Change You Can Believe In." Clinton must either get voters to stop believing in the change Obama promises, or make them an alternative Big Offer that they can believe in more.

McCain will need to get more Republicans interested in his campaign if he has any chance of competing in November. Many Republicans are only luke warm to the idea of a McCain presidency. His speeches are boring and uninspiring. As was described by a TV talking head, they sounded like he was talking to his flight crew. He also needs to get some younger people involved in his campaign. Every time you see him on TV he is surrounded by a people who all have AARP cards in their wallets. IMO, he has absolutely no chance of winning in November unless another 9/11 tragedy hits us between now and then.

Right now I feel that its Obama election to lose. The way he is broadening his appeal and reach with Independents and moderate Republicans he will be very tough to beat from now until November.

Time to Turn the Page...

2008-02-08T07:09:00.000-04:00

I am not in agreement with a lot of Obama's, or Clinton's for that matter, policies. I am in agreement that Washington is out of control and needs an enema in the worst way. Lobbyists have far too much influence over our elected officials. Things have got to change. Politicians and voters have been talking about the need for change in our government since 1787 when we became a Republic. No one ever does anything about it, so four years later they talk about it again. I feel that if not now... when? I want a clean sweep in Washington.

If Hillary gets elected POTUS, I would rather go swimming in my septic tank then set foot inside the Beltway again. DC will stink far worse than it already does. It smells bad now after 20 years of Bush-Clinton-Bush. The smell will be terrible if we have 28 years of Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton. Then who?? Jeb Bush followed by Chelsea Clinton?? We are worse than a 3rd world country with this passing the crown to family members. In a country of close to 300 million people, these 2 families are the best we can do??

I am also tired of wedge issues being all the 2 parties are concerned with. They do nothing about the important things that this country needs to be concerned with and just keep jamming abortion, gay marriage, and class warfare down our throats. I posted about how Karl Rove has torn the Republican party apart and it can be seen right now in the primaries.

http://cigar-review.com/index2.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=0&page=viewtopic&t=3594

McCain is not the solution he is part of the problem. Anyone with his time in the Senate is not going to fix anything. At 72 he should be thinking about retiring, playing with his grandkids, having a cigar on the golf course and going to the Senior's Early Bird dinner at Denny's, not starting the most difficult job in the world. I don’t trust him to do what is right. He has shown contempt to the voters and tells them he knows best. Now I am supposed to take his word that he will run the country effectively. He is doing his best to tear the Republican party to pieces because his ego is as big as Hillary's. The ends justify the means for both of them.

I have always been a registered Independent and have voted for Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians for Congress however, I have not voted for a Democrat for POTUS since 1976, and was that ever a mistake. I don’t want to see a Democrat in the White House in November, but I feel that it is inevitable. The deck is stacked against the Republicans and they have no chance of winning this time around. Face reality. There will be a Democratic POTUS getting sworn in next year.

So, with all this being said, if we are going to have a Democratic POTUS it has to be the best option available and that IMO is Obama. We all know he will not be able to do all the things he says he will in his campaign. What politician can? I also think it the start that people are looking for with a new face and not someone deeply entrenched in the "system". Obama will give us a new start in Washington and who can argue that isn’t needed. He is a very smart man that has not led some privileged life and I think that keeps him better grounded then some career Politian that long ago decided his shit doesn’t stink anymore.

If Hillary is elected president, we'll have a four-year disaster with Republicans ferociously opposing her. So nothing gets done and we are torn even further apart then we are now. She will have a lot of "pay backs" to make so we will see all her husband's old political cronies back in DC again. Kinda reminds you of how Bush "hired" all his father's old buddies. In 2016, we will be in the same boat we are right now again. Maybe she will make things so bad that Republicans will come zooming back into power, as they did in 1980 and 1994, and 2000, but why go through 8 years of Hillary just to regain control of the Congress.

If McCain is elected president, we'll have a four-year disaster, with the Republicans in Congress co-opted by "our" president, followed by 30 years of Democratic rule. The Republican party will cease to exist.

The scenario with Clinton or McCain is very very bleak for moderates, conservatives and libertarians. In other words... the 80% of people who fall somewhere in the middle. Since the table is now pretty much set with who we will have to live with for at least the next 4 years, I have decided to go with Obama. I feel he is the right guy for our country of choices we have left. I don’t feel real good tossing McCain under the bus but just because the Republicans in Congress feel that it is his "turn" doesn’t make it best for the country. In 1996, it was Bob Dole's "turn" and that was a disaster too. A clean start is what is needed and Obama is the only choice now, IMO. I will be voting for him next Tuesday in the Virginia primary and again in November if he is going against McCain. Call it damage control or the lesser of 3 evils if you want. I call it getting the old smelly hippies out and turning the page on the 60s.

Maybe a solid 3rd party may develop between now and then so I can feel good about voting, but if not this is my plan.

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead...

2008-02-07T07:38:00.000-04:00

Ding Dong the witch is dead!!

Super Tuesday has happened and we have now seen the end of the Clinton era. Hillary won some big states like New York, California and New Jersey but she did not win the majority of the states or delegates up for grabs on Tuesday. The states she did win are blue states and will go to the Democratic candidate regardless of who is on the ballot. Obama won 14 of the 22 states up for grabs. Obama won every caucus on Tuesday. He clobbered her in red states that the Democrats will need if they want to win in November.

Hillary Clinton survived a Super Tuesday scare. But there are several big reasons for her to be scared. The calendar is her enemy. Now that more than half the states have weighed in, there is a fairly predictable formula for determining who is most likely to win the upcoming contests. In caucus states, Obama’s organizational strength shines: He has won seven of eight. Up next are three more caucus states, Washington, Nebraska and Maine.

Obama also runs tremendously well in states with large African-American populations, another promising sign since next Tuesday’s three primaries are in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia — all of which have significant percentages of black voters.

Then comes another caucus state, Hawaii, where Obama is viewed as a native son.

The bottom line is that it figures to be another month before Clinton hits a stretch of states — places like Ohio and Pennsylvania — where she may be favored to win.

Money chases momentum, so Obama crushing’s 2-to-1 fundraising victory last month is revealing. He raised more than $31 million; Clinton raised less than $14 million. The implication is hard to ignore: Democratic activists and donors are flocking to Obama at a pace that could have a profound effect on the race going forward. Now it is reported that Clinton had to loan her campaign $5 million and her staff is going unpaid for a month.

We have seen the beginning of the end of the Clinton era.

On the Republican side, McAmnesty seems to be the front runner but it wasn’t the slam dunk he expected. Huckabee seemed to come out of nowhere to win some southern states. But he has only one more card to play and that is Mississippi. After that he runs out of Evangelical strongholds. Until then he will continue to drain votes from Romney and most likely keep him from getting the nomination.

Happy Birthday Gipper...

2008-02-06T22:23:00.001-04:00

Today would have been Ronald W. Reagan's 97th birthday. One of the greatest Presidents of all time. His face belongs on Mt. Rushmore. Where are you when we really need you??

Happy Birthday Gipper...

The South has risen... at least for Obama

2008-01-29T06:09:00.000-04:00

The South Carolina results.

Obama – 55%
Clinton – 27%
Edwards – 18%

McCain – 33%
Huckabee – 30%
Thompson – 16%
Romney -15%

The big story out of South Carolina is once again just how wrong the polls were, especially with the Democrats. On Saturday morning the latest polls had Obama with no more than an 8 point lead. No one was even close to the 28 point victory he had over Clinton. There had been lots of talk about Bill Clinton “playing the race card” all week, and that probably seriously contributed to Hillary’s drubbing. Her campaign underestimated the bitterness that would be created by Bill Clinton's role as a "bad cop" against Obama in South Carolina. This not only solidified the African-American vote for Obama, but also appears to have pushed down Clinton's share of the white vote in the final days. It seems she will have to “reinvent” herself again.

I would love to have been able to be in the room at Clinton campaign headquarters. My feeling is that after Iowa Bill Clinton decided to jump in and “fix” things since her staff couldn’t get Hillary a win in Iowa. Now, after a big time defeat in South Carolina, the Clinton campaign has to be wondering what they can do next. Lots of Democrats in Congress told Bill to “chill out” because he was destroying the party. There is a big concern that if he keeps it up the actual nomination wont be worth much as was the case with Mondale, who only won 1 state, and Dukakis, who only won 1- states, after nasty campaign fights. However, IMO, as far as the Clintons are concerned the ends justify the means.

On the Republican side there is still no clear leader even with a McCain win. It was a cold and rainy day in South Carolina for the Republican primary and the worst of the weather was in the northern part of the state. This is the area where Huckabee had his strongest support. My guess is that the weather held voter turn out down it this area and that may have helped McCain get the win. Huckabee also stuck his foot in his mouth when he even mentioned the Confederate flag. His staffers should have told him to stay a million miles away from that issue. Not even is evangelical base could help him after that. Romney was treated like the slick talking northeastern politician he is and was never a factor, and won’t be in most of the southern states. A week earlier in Nevada Mormons made up a quarter of Republican caucus participants, and 95 percent of them voted for Romney. Funny how that never gets mentioned but when 78% of black voters supported Obama it got lots of press.

Rudy Giuliani gambled and seems to have lost. I bet all the people who contributed to his campaign are pissed off at the way he decided to wait until Florida. He is polling no higher than 16% since the Iowa caucuses. Giuliani was running a hard-right campaign, and that didn't play in New Hampshire, a state with a moderate GOP electorate. He wasted most of the fall dueling with Romney over who hates immigrants more. Both candidates are full of it on the issue - neither had shown any interest in the border until they were told the GOP base was in revolt over it - and it hasn't ended up determining the GOP primaries anyway. Who ultimately won New Hampshire and South Carolina? The "amnesty" candidate, McCain. It all makes me wonder if anyone will get the Republican nomination and whoever does has any hope in November.

Michigan is in the books...

2008-01-21T06:13:00.000-04:00

Well, Michigan is in the books now and nothing in either party is settled. The Republicans have 3 different winners now and no clear front runner. I was a bit surprised that McCain didnt do better given that Independent and Democrats could vote in the Republican primary, which I think is a total joke. McCain's only hope is to get Independent voters because in the states that dont allow them he will be clobbered by the Republican base. He has only been delaying the inevitable.

I think Romney won because he stressed his business experience in a state that has been hurt bad economically. Romney's message in the last few days was tailored to the economic concerns of Michigan. He also made some crazy promises to return auto jobs back to Michigan too. Those jobs are gone forever.

Yet again, Hillary is the big loser. However her camp is touting it as another big win. She got 55% of the vote... as the only major candidate on the ballot. Uncommitted got 40%. Her camp decided that since Uncommitted didnt get 60-70% of the vote it was a win for her. I am surprised that 40% of the Democratic voters came out in a snow storm to vote Uncommitted. There was no incentive for them to do that. The big story is Hillary Clinton losing the African American vote to Uncommitted. The exit poll pegged African Americans going against Clinton, 68% to 30%. African Americans are breaking Obama's way. The Clinton campaign should be worried about this.

The other candidates chose to obey what the DNC had said about not campaigning or running in Michigan since they jumped themselves ahead in the primaries. There delegates will not count at the convention as a result, so there was no reason to be on the ballot. The buzz on the MSM is that the Clintons are trying to get the DNC to reverse their decision about the Michigan delgates. Go figure huh?

Stunner in N.H... Huh?? I dont think so...

2008-01-10T05:21:00.000-04:00

Top 3 finishers:

Clinton - 39%
Obama - 37%
Edwards - 17%

McCain - 37 %
Romney - 32%
Huckabee - 11%

Well... The New Hampshire primaries are in the books now and all the talking heads are saying that Clinton made a huge comeback. I dont buy it for a second.

MSNBC wrote:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won New Hampshire's Democratic
primary Tuesday night, pulling out a stunning victory over Sen. Barack Obama in
a contest that she had been forecast to lose.

Did anyone actually believe the "latest polls" that showed Obama up by 20%? Huh?? 10 days before the N.H. primary all the polls had Clinton up by as much as 20% with most showing an 13-15% lead there.

Were we supposed to think that after Iowa there would be a 30-40% swing? Only an idiot would have believed that. Why didnt any of the talking heads question the reliability of the recent polls. They were spot on for the Republican race but had a huge swing for the Democrats and everyone took the bait - hook, line, and sinker.

I dont believe in conspiracies, but I smell the Clinton machine in action. They had to somehow spin N.H. as a "win" for Hillary at all costs or the money would dry up faster than a cigar out of the humidor. If Hillary had lost a 20 point lead and only won by the 2-3% that she did, it would have been touted as a big win for Obama by narrowing huge gap. On the flip side, if "miraculously" Obama had gotten a 20% lead and only beat Clinton by 3-5% it would still be seen as a victory for Hillary.

As it turns out she did win by 2-3% so all the talking heads could declare it an amazing comeback and stunning win. IMO, it showed a loss of 15% in one week.

On the Republican side, the talking heads are calling McCain the Comeback Kid, which again I dont understand. He has won his only primary and will be long gone after Super Tuesday. He is on the wrong side of too many issues for most Republicans. He is too old to be electable and will look about 100 by November if he were the nominee. He had to let staff go last fall because his campaign is broke. Unless he wins the PowerBall he wont have the funds to keep going.

Oh well... next week we have Michigan and I will have a few comments I bet...

CR Herf

2007-10-05T07:49:00.000-04:00

"Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!"

2007-06-14T01:24:00.000-04:00

20 years ago this week President Reagan gave his famous "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!" speech. This speech changed the face of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe forever.

Tribute to Ronald Reagan

2007-06-05T22:11:00.000-04:00

A tribute to Ronald Reagan on the 3rd anniversary of his death.

Stop chasing a lot of ants...

2006-04-30T06:51:00.000-04:00

It is ILLEGAL to hire undocumented immigrants. The government has failed to enforce existing laws for a long time now. By failing to enforce this law they have "allowed" the uncontrolled entry into this county. Where is the outcry from the labor unions that have seen jobs leave this country that will never come back? Where is their outrage at seeing people undercutting union wages and give these people jobs at slave wages without any protection from environmental and OSHA laws? Many employers now are forced to hire illegals just to compete with the other companies that do. These employers know that an illegal alien isn’t going to complain about a job condition or wage. Who will they complain to? This is a problem that was created by business and government and the middle class is getting screwed...

The idiots in Congress are "so concerned" about this situation that they plan on comprehensive immigration reform. All they will create is another layer of bureaucracy and mandates that will go unfunded and unenforced. Does anyone think these bottom feeders in Congress are going to bite the hand that feeds them?

Any sort of amnesty plan is a slap in the face to those who come here legally. I realize this issue seems to be mostly about Mexicans but I really don’t care if they came from Ireland, China, Philippines or any other country. Illegal is illegal and that cannot be rewarded.

I lived in San Francisco for 10 years and Phoenix for 5 years. The "immigrant" problem is huge in those areas. TB rates are through the roof in San Francisco as a result of the many illegals from China and Russia. Forget about Phoenix. Social services are broke keeping up all the illegals. Here in the DC area MS-13 has become a HUGE problem. This is all directly related to an uncontrolled border.

If we took away the jobs, and severely fined, the people hiring them these illegal aliens would have no choice but to go home. I hear all this talk about securing the borders and that needs to be done, but only after you have dried up the source of jobs for them. Stop chasing a lot of ants... take away the sugar cube…

My Ideal Presidential Candidate...

2006-03-20T02:30:00.000-04:00

My candidate can be from any party or an Independent, be of any faith, be of any color, and be of any gender. My candidate must actually believe in and work towards all the planks in their platform, not just pay lip service to them just to garner votes. My candidate will hold themselves accountable to the American public and not to big business, the U.N., or any other group.

My candidate would get the government back to running the country, stop meddling in people’s lives and leave social issues to the states.

My candidate would get rid of the IRS and create a fair and equitable tax system. This could be a flat tax or a National sales tax.

My candidate would end all foreign aid in the form of money. Any aid given to another country would be in the form of American made products. No more giving $10,000,000 to a country that is suffering from hunger, and then see that countries leaders skim 75% for themselves and then buy food from China. My candidate would buy food from American farmers or buy farming equipment from American manufacturing companies.

My candidate would end the NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA deals. My candidate would work to bring jobs and manufacturing back to this country and make it impossible for a company to move offshore and still get all the tax and tariff breaks they get now. My candidate would not allow foreign countries to undercut American business and pay no tariffs.

My candidate would secure the borders to stop the flood of illegal immigrants. They would also work to deport those illegal immigrants already in this county.

My candidate would put an end to gifts and contributions of any form from lobbyists.

My candidate would work to put term limits in Congress and a reasonable mandatory retirement age for the SCOTUS.

My candidate would work to end foreign dependence for energy sources. They would open oil drilling in this country and work to develop alternative fuel sources.

My candidate would reform the education system in this country. Students in this country have to be competitive with students in other countries in math, science, technology and languages.

My candidate would either end or drastically change the current Social Security system.
I don’t really care what my candidates social views are because those are better left to the states.

Opppps…. There goes my alarm clock… I must have been dreaming…

Selling Off American Ports...

2006-02-28T23:55:00.000-04:00

Why is the United States even considering allowing the Dubai Ports World to take control of any major ports? Why are we outsourcing this at all? Sadly, I was not surprised to find out that control of U.S. ports are in the hands of foreign companies. There are so many jobs that those brain dead folks in Congress have allowed to leave the country and this includes jobs that involve confidential and security concerns. Who wants to hear that their income taxes are being reviewed in India? Who wants to learn that control of our ports is not in the hands of trained Americans?

This deal with Dubai Ports World should never have come to the table because they participate in the Arab boycott against Israel. As long as this is the way they want to do business then any negotiations have to end. The UAE supports the Arab world’s anti-Israeli view, which includes the boycott and the goal of eliminating Israel as a country. This is totally unacceptable. U.S. law bars firms from cooperating with attempts by Arab governments to boycott Israel. Maybe these brain dead lawmakers in Congress will realize that their own law is being violated.

It also bothers me quite a bit that President Bush, who has never vetoed any legislation during his time in office, has said he will veto any law barring Dubai Ports World from not getting this job. Why is this his line in the sand? What will a thorough investigation uncover about this “backdoor” attempt to sneak this by the people? It smells a little fishy to me…

Happy Birthday to the Gipper...

2006-02-06T07:41:00.000-04:00

Today would be Ronald W. Reagan's 95th birthday. One of the greatest Presidents of all time. His face belongs on Mt. Rushmore.
Happy Birthday Gipper...

Cartoon Outrage...

2006-02-06T02:34:00.000-04:00

Is this anti Danish outrage and rioting by Muslims all about some cartoons? No way, this is just another incident in the extreme prejudice of non-Muslims by extremist Muslims. The countries of the world need to stop rolling over and appeasing these extremists. It is not right to make fun of another religions icons and it should not be done, but what is worse is to see people calling for the beheading of non-Muslims.

Neil Boortz had it right.

Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.

Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.

A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.

Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.

Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage

Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.

Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslims are outraged.

Fat and Stupid...

2006-01-21T07:58:00.000-04:00

In the last few days CNN’s website has reported two stories that are centered on children in this country. The first reports that advocacy groups and parents are suing the Nickelodeon TV network and cereal maker Kellogg Co. in an effort to stop junk food marketing to kids.

Wakefield, Massachusetts, mother Sherri Carlson said she tries her best to get her three kids to eat healthy foods. "But then they turn on Nickelodeon and see all those enticing junk-food ads," Carlson said. "Adding insult to injury, we enter the grocery store and see our beloved Nick characters plastered on all those junky snacks and cereals."

Where is her parental responsibility? Doesn’t she want to risk hurting her little darling’s feelings by not getting them Kellogg cereal? It does not sound to me like the marketing impacts her children as much as it does her.

The other story is how more than half of students at four-year colleges -- and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges -- lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers, a study found. The results cut across three types of literacy: analyzing news stories and other prose, understanding documents and having math skills needed for checkbooks or restaurant tips. Without "proficient" skills, or those needed to perform more complex tasks, students fall behind. They cannot interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school. Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills.

This just shows how important teaching the basics are in school. Clearly they are not being done in most cases. It reminds me of a scene from the movie Animal House where the dean tells a student, “Fat, Drunk, and Stupid are no way to go through life…”. Most of these kids are 2/3 of the way there…

Congress On Television...

2005-12-20T08:15:00.000-04:00

Once again our beloved members of Congress take on one of the tough issues facing America. The mandatory conversion of all television broadcasts to digital television by February 17, 2009. The Feb. 17th deadline — the so-called "hard date" to end traditional analog transmissions — was a compromise between House and Senate legislation that called for different end dates. The House initially proposed ending analog transmissions on Dec. 31, 2008; the Senate had backed a hard date of April 7, 2009 — after the March Madness college basketball tournament. Someone in the Senate must have figured that all of these old television sets belong to basketball fans. Do they actually waste time on this stuff?

The measure also would allocate up to $1.5 billion to help consumers with older, analog TV sets purchase converter boxes so they would continue to get service in the digital era. WHAT??!! Converter boxes?? The Senate had also proposed a much bigger converter box subsidy of $3 billion. The compromise figure of $1.5 billion is meant to help the households who rely on free, over-the-air television. First Congress mandates a change and then they force us to pay for converter boxes for older televisions. How many converter boxes will $1.5 billion buy? How many are needed? How do they know how many of the people who are too cheap to get cable or satellite television don’t have digital televisions already? I would love to know who lobbied our esteemed members of Congress to get the contract for converter boxes. This is beyond belief. They have turned watching television into a right for people and we taxpayers have to pay to keep some old television with rabbit ear antennas around. What they need to do is tell these people who are too cheap to upgrade – It’s time to buy a new television…

Time to Bench Congress...

2005-12-06T08:30:00.000-04:00

Just when you think that our members of Congress can’t sink any lower, they come up with yet another ridiculous waste of time and taxpayer money. Calling the Bowl Championship Series “deeply flawed,” committee chairman Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, has called a hearing on the controversial system used to determine college football’s national champion. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, charged with regulating America’s sports industry, announced it will conduct a hearing on the BCS this Wednesday, after this season’s bowl matchups have been determined. NCAA Division I-A football does not have a playoff. The Bowl Championship Series was established in 1998 to determine a national champion using the traditional bowl system and a mix of computer and human polls to set up a championship game.

“Too often college football ends in sniping and controversy, rather than winners and losers,” Barton said. “The current system of determining who’s No. 1 appears deeply flawed.” Barton said he does not have legislation in mind to force a change, but said he hopes congressional hearings will spur discussion and improvements. It won’t be the first time Congress has looked at the BCS. In 2003, the Senate probed whether the system was unfairly tilted against smaller schools. Then why are you guys doing it again??!!

This is all about is the tens of millions of dollars that are payouts for the teams competing in the BCS bowl games. Our members of Congress can smell money and don’t want to let any of it get away from them. How about spending your time stopping illegals from coming across our borders? Why do you continue to waste time and taxpayer money on non-issues like this and fail to address the real issues affecting the country? It’s called – Doing what we elected you to do…

Yet Another Wasted Year in DC...

2005-11-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

The Congress has wrapped up their “business” before a 2-week break followed by a nice long holiday break, so essentially they are done for the year. What have they really done for the American people this year? Besides confirming John Roberts to the SCOTUS. NOTHING!! As usual.

They have not done anything on Social Security reform. Another year wasted when it comes to making Social Security solvent.

They have done nothing on Border Security and Immigration Reform. So a few million illegal people have come into this country.

They have ignored any Energy Reform, so we are still paying through the nose for oil from the Middle East while the oil companies in this country make record profits in the 3rd quarter of the year.

But wait, they did manage to sell out the American people with CAFTA. A one-way street for jobs leaving this country for cheaper labor cost but things don’t cost us any less after the jobs leave.

Who can forget the screwing they gave us with the Transportation Bill with over 6000 pork projects and a $295 billion price tag. Up an additional $39 billion to buy the votes needed to pass CAFTA.

And who can be upset with all the wasted time spent on steroids in Major League Baseball? And the filibustering on judges? What about all the blowhards going on and on about WMD and the war in Iraq?

These elected leaders are a shame to the American people who voted them into office and can see past all the nothingness that happens in Washington D.C. The should forfeit all pay for this past year. Every one needs to be voted out and we need to put term limits in place for the Congress…

The French Are Fried...

2005-11-14T08:58:00.000-04:00

France has lost complete control of her government. For 18 nights they have allowed young Muslim men to run wild and have done nothing more than fire some tear gas at them. The French now say they are optimistic that things are nearing the end. Why is that? The number of cars burned nightly has steadily decreased — from 502 overnight into Saturday, to 374 overnight into Saturday, to 208 as Monday began. A week earlier, 1,400 cars were incinerated in a single night. It seems to most of us these terrorists have run out of cars to burn, not that things are winding down.

The failure of the French leadership to understand what is happening, let alone develop a strategy to cope with it is the real problem. How can they allow unchecked mayhem for 18 nights? In this country the police and National Guard would have gotten this under control in a day or 2. The French have allowed it to continue to spread. Now these wimps have proposed that the European Union give $58 million to France for helping riot-hit towns recover. They say the EU could make up to $1.2 billion available in longer-term support.

A group calling itself the Union of Muslim Organizations in France has issued a "fatwa" (Islamic edict) calling on the Muslim youths to cease their rebellion. The message is clear: Rather than obeying the laws of the French Republic, Muslims in France should follow "fatwas" concocted by the Muslim Brotherhood. This is very scary to me. I feel this “disturbance” is nothing more than a dry run to gauge the French response before the Muslims make their real move at a Jihad in the future. The French have made their bed and now have to sleep in it…

Swinging at a Pitch in the Dirt…

2005-10-29T07:50:00.000-04:00

I believe the Bush administration's goal is to have another female Supreme Court judge to keep Supreme Court "balanced" on the makeup. I thought that Janice Rogers Brown would've been President Bush's 1st choice. Perhaps she was his first choice all along but nominated Harriet Miers banking that either way if she wins the vote it would be good. I think that Harriet Miers was used as the “canary in the coal mine” to get the Democrats to tip their hand.

If the Bush administration now decides to nominate Janice Rogers Brown the Democrats get themselves backed into a corner if they are going to be the rabid bunch by going after a 2nd nominated woman. But this time it'd be a first nominated black woman for the Supreme court. What a quandry for the Democrats to face!

Janice Rogers Brown is well qualified to be the next Supreme Court judge with her experience in the 2nd highest court in the land. She has a sharecropper story and did everything herself by pulling her own bootstrap. She is a woman, and if voted for the Supreme court, she'll be the first black woman judge in the Supreme court history.

We had the first woman judge, Sandra Day O'Connor, now since retired.

We had the first black judge, Thurgood Marshall. Died some years ago.

We have the second black judge Clarence Thomas.

We have the second woman judge, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I think the whole thing was a clever set up by the Bush administration and Miers agreed to go along with it and wouldn't matter if she won the seat or not since the first objective by the Bush administration was to get another woman on the Supreme Court. The Administration was banking on the Democrats' reaction toward Miers. And if Miers nomination fails, then Janice Rogers Brown would be next and use the Democrats' past response against them.

They got the Democrats to swing at a pitch in the dirt for a 3rd strike…

A Few Afterthoughts on New Orleans...

2005-10-20T23:02:00.000-04:00

For the people of New Orleans... First I would like to say, Sorry for your loss. With that said, Let’s go through a few hurricane rules: (Unlike an earthquake, we know it's coming)

1. A mandatory evacuation means just that...Get the hell out. Don't blame the Government after they tell you to go. If they hadn't said anything, I can see the argument. They said get out... if you didn't, it's your fault, not theirs. (We don't want to hear it, even if you don't have a car, you can get out.)

2. If there is an emergency, stock up on water and non-perishables. If you didn't do this, it's not the Government's fault you're starving.

2a. If you run out of food and water, find a store that has some.(Remember, shoes, TV's, DVD's and CD's are not edible. Leave them alone.)

2b. If the local store has been looted of food or water, leave your neighbor's TV and stereo alone. (See #2a) They worked hard to get their stuff. Just because they were smart enough to leave during a mandatory evacuation, doesn't give you the right to take their stuff...it's theirs, not yours.

3. If someone comes in to help you, don't shoot at them and then complain no one is helping you. I'm not getting shot to help save some dumbass that didn't leave when told to do so.

4. If you are in your house that is completely under water, your belongings are probably too far-gone for anyone to want them. If someone does want them, let them have them and hopefully they'll die in the filth. Just leave! (It's New Orleans, find a voodoo warrior and put a curse on them)

5. My tax money should not pay to rebuild a 2 million dollar house, a sports stadium or a floating casino. Also, my tax money shouldn't go to rebuild a city that is under sea level. You wouldn't build your house on quicksand would you? You want to live below sea level, do your country some good and join the Navy.

6. Regardless of what the Poverty Pimps Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton want you to believe, The US Government didn't create the Hurricane as a way to eradicate the black people of New Orleans and neither did Russia as a way to destroy America. The US Government didn't cause global warming that caused the hurricane (We've been coming out of an ice age for over a million years).

7. The government isn't responsible for giving you anything. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave, but you have to work for what you want. McDonalds and Wal-Mart are always hiring, get a damn job and stop spooning off the people who are actually working for a living. President Kennedy said it best..."Ask not what your country can do for you, ask whatyou can do for your country."

Go Ahead, Pass The Cost On...

2005-10-16T07:14:00.000-04:00

This past week Connecticut became the fifteenth state to mandate insurance coverage for fertility treatments. They, however, imposed an age limit of 39 — several years younger than those imposed by neighboring New York and New Jersey (44 and 46, respectively). Some insurers say the success rate of infertility treatments for women in there 40s is not high enough to warrant insuring such an expensive procedure. That cost is passed on to everyone insured by that company. Infertility treatment is very expensive and in some cases can cost more that $12,000.

This of course has Connecticut residents hoping to conceive through in vitro fertilization upset and claiming it’s unfair to them. And why not? Far too many people think it is their right to have the cost of their lifestyle and choices paid for them by others. No one has told these women that they cant have in vitro fertilization treatments. They are upset because they were told the rest of us aren’t going to pay for it. Something for nothing is the motto of far too many people in this country.

I, for one, am so sick and tired of the politicians mandating that things that benefit a very few and then rely on the rest of us to pay for it either through taxes or in this case insurance premiums. So often they just don’t realize the downstream impact of their idiotic decisions. I have to select insurance options at work by the end of the month and saw that yet again saw my premiums go up, my co-pay go up, and my coverage go down. Lifestyle choices for others should not become the rest of the population burden to pay for, but politicians just don’t see it that way. I suppose they see it as a way to get a few more votes…

Getting A Free Pass...

2005-10-01T07:36:00.000-04:00

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco was given no questions about her response to Hurricane Katrina when she appeared before a Senate committee to plead for more federal money. Why? She asked not to be questioned about it and the committee agreed. The governors of two other states hit by Katrina -- Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Gov. Bob Riley of Alabama -- testified before the committee via closed circuit television.

Blanco went to Washington with a tin-cup in her hand and asked not to be questioned about her blatant incompetence. She wants the money, but she does not want to answer questions after she has made all sorts of comments and statements criticizing everyone except herself, especially the federal government — its just that she’s only willing to comment when she is not under oath.

The Republicans are such wimps. The Democrats are making outrageous statements about how incompetent and racist FEMA and the current administration and the Republicans don’t say anything in response and are getting walked on by even themselves now.

The GOP is losing people in droves over stuff like this, the Brown appointment although he was unqualified, the uncontroled imigration and lack of border security, the refusal of the GOP dominated Congress to curtail its spending, and a few other stories which are going on now. It will be interesting to see what November '06 brings…

Huh!? No Place Left to Cut...

2005-09-18T06:33:00.000-04:00

The Washington Times reports, “House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget”. Who is he kidding? Congress has spent money like a drunken sailor and now DeLay says there is no place left to cut? How about starting with that outrageous pork filled transportation bill?

Mr. DeLay was defending Republicans' choice to borrow money and add to this year's expected $331 billion deficit to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. Some Republicans have said Congress should make cuts in other areas, but Mr. DeLay said that doesn't seem possible.

Asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, Mr. DeLay said, "Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good." I would hate to see what it would be like if the Democrats had been running the show during this time. 11 years ago the Republicans made a “Contract with America”, which was like every thing politicains promise. Empty. We elected Republicans to stop the hemorrhaging of money from Washington.

American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene said federal spending already was "spiraling out of control" before Katrina, and conservatives are "increasingly losing faith in the president and the Republican leadership in Congress." "Excluding military and homeland security, American taxpayers have witnessed the largest spending increase under any preceding president and Congress since the Great Depression," he said.

Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), said if Mr. DeLay wants to know where to cut, "there are plenty of places to reduce." His group soon will release a list of $2 trillion in suggested spending cuts over the next five years, and he said Congress also could cut the estimated $20 billion to $25 billion in pet projects that make their way into must-pass spending bills each year.

I doubt they will listen to either of these groups because Congress is drunk with power. The last 5 years have been very hard on the American budget in so many ways. 9/11, Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 4 terrible hurricanes in Florida in 1 month and now New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We need Congress to control the spending and act in a responsible manner and not make outrageous claims…

Katrina's Aftermath...

2005-09-05T07:17:00.000-04:00

What has happened as a result of hurricane Katrina is beyond what anyone had anticipated. The loss of life and property is tragic and it will take years to recover. What is also terrible are all the people screaming that the Federal government failed to do their job. The governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans have been pointing the finger at everyone but themselves. For the Congressional Black Caucus to even hint that the administration delayed in getting help to New Orleans because the victims stranded there are black is beyond ridiculous. Just shut up, please!

Why didn’t the city of New Orleans have and implement an emergency plan? Why did 205 school buses and 384 city buses sit idle? Why didn’t these buses get moved to higher ground before the storm in the event they would be needed? Now almost 600 buses now sit underwater and unavailable for evacuation of victims. Conservatively if they had been available and were loaded with 50 people each, that would be almost 3000 people that could be moved for each trip. They probably could have been loaded with 100 or more.

Why didn’t the New Orleans police and fire departments have backup locations to gather? We all heard there was no communication or command structure of these essential organizations, so nothing was being done. This is a city that has been sinking for years and the chance of a levee breaking, or being breeched by a shipping accident or terrorist attack, had always been there yet the state and city had no plan in the event it did.

Why has Governor Blanco still not declared the state to be a state of emergency? Why didn’t she have the Louisiana National Guard standing by before the storm hit? Or call them up afterwards? Why did she turn down the request for a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans? She refuses to turn it over to the federal government and then screams how they abandoned them.

We have known for years that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen. The Army Corps of engineers has been working on protecting New Orleans from flooding for 40 years and had managed to construct a system that experts felt would protect the city from a Category 3 storm. But as storm prediction became more sophisticated, the Corps came to the realization that the levees it constructed might not be high enough to counter "the big one." Funding for such a project had not yet been approved in 2003. If it had, they say it would take 30 years to complete the project. It’s time to think long and hard about rebuilding New Orleans in its current location.

Yes, there have been some things that didn’t go well with the rescue operations, but I would not have wanted to be in any other country than the United States to have to go through such an event. They always tell people to have enough supplies and medicine to last 3 to 5 days for hurricanes. The reason for that is because it may take that long for help to arrive. Why then did all the people complaining think in a few hours everything would be all right again? Because the race vultures have to find a scapegoat to blame for their own failings…

Thieves Drunk With Power...

2005-08-26T02:41:00.000-04:00

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan vetoed a transportation bill passed by Congress because it had 157 instances of pork — money set aside for Congress members' pet projects that would ostensibly be considered too wasteful to pass as laws on their own merit. President Reagan made a show of his veto making it a symbolic stroke against government waste.

Now in 2005, Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress. Early on a Saturday morning in August — the day of the week, and the month of the year, least likely to attract media attention — President Bush signed into law a highway bill passed by his own party with more than 6,000 pork barrel projects. President Bush had told Congress that he would veto any highway bill spending over $256 billion. The final cost of this highway bill he signed is $295 billion. This $39 billion increase is the direct result of the Republicans “buying” the votes needed to pass that shameful sell out of the American people – CAFTA. Everyone knew that in order to get CAFTA passed there was a lot of pork promised in the highway but $39 billion is nothing less than criminal.

The Republican Party has completely abandoned the limited government principles they have stood for in the past. Government spending under the GOP's reign has soared to historic highs, any way you want to measure it. In stark contrast to President Reagan, President Bush refuses to rein in spending. He hasn’t used his veto a single time since taking office — the longest such streak in U.S. history. What is truly amazing is the sheer arrogance with which the Republicans have chosen to govern. There are no more statesmen left in Washington, only a single group of power hungry thieves…

Declarations of Emergency...

2005-08-20T07:45:00.000-04:00

In the past week the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have declared states of emergency. California is considering such a move as well. This was done in order to get federal funds to handle the enormous influx of illegal aliens that have entered their states. This has become a huge national problem that the Bush administration and Congress have refused to address. What makes this weeks declarations a bit unusual is that the governors of Arizona and New Mexico are both Democrats. This had been a conservative and Republican issue in the campaigns and they have failed to act. Now they risk having the Democrats do an end run on them and take this as one of their issues. These 2 governors have not asked for additional border agents or help from the Minute Men groups. They have just asked for more money, which must be a natural reaction for Democratic politicians.

We as a country can not continue to allow all these illegal aliens coming in unchecked. It is estimated that 700,000 illegals a year come from Mexico alone. About 80% of all the crime along the Arizona border is being committed by illegal aliens. There are about 3 million illegal immigrants in California alone. There are 30,000 undocumented felons in California prisons. This is costing the states affected millions of dollars each year to deal with these problems. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks the United States requested 2,000 more border agents, yet the Bush administration authorized only 200 in its most recent budget request. All we hear out of Washington is how we need these people to take the jobs Americans wont and that we need a guest worker program. What we need is border security and enforcing the laws we already have on the books. The federal government has refused to enforce the laws and has refused to help financially with the states now being overwhelmed. Once again we have been sold a line by the federal government and they are preparing a new sales pitch for the campaigns in 2006 and 2008. I think yet again they will make promises and then never act…

The Gaza Sellout...

2005-08-17T04:15:00.000-04:00

It is a painful time in the history of Israel. Troops are being used to forcibly remove Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. It is a huge mistake to leave this land and allow the Palestinians to take it over. Does Ariel Sharon think for a second that giving up this land will bring peace to that section of the Middle East?

I have heard the argument that the Gaza Strip is too expensive and difficult to defend. That may be true but it is a horrible idea to give this land up. The Palestinians have no real ruling authority or government. So who is getting this land? The PA, Hammas, Al-Aqusa Martyrs Brigades? How can you give up land to people with no controlling group? This may result in a civil war with groups fighting for control of 100 square miles of land. The Gaza Strip may just become a base for future terrorist attacks.

Where was the negotiation in all of this? The Palestinians have not given up or conceded anything in all of this. This was not land taken from the Palestinians; it was barren land that Israeli settlers have made their home. Why didn’t Egypt give some land to this process? It tells the rest of the murdering thugs in the Middle East that terror will get them what they want. The Palestinians have no skin in the game and now will try the same terror tactics to try and take the West Bank. Fox News reports that U.N. funds earmarked to help alleviate poverty is being used to fund a Palestinian political campaign under the slogan, "Today Gaza, tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem. The Palestinians have not even waited for the Israeli settlers to leave before they have let the world know their next move.

I wonder what the next move for Israel will be. Now that they have given the Palestinians a state I hope they don’t have to go to war to take it back and drive the Palestinians out. I also wonder how the rich Arab nations will react. I would like to see them supply financial aid to help the poverty and improve the employment situation. Will Israel have to build a wall around the Gaza Strip? This week's confrontations should bolster the argument that Israel is making a huge concession that deserves international recognition.

Let Them Eat Cake...

2005-08-07T07:05:00.000-04:00

Some of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay have gone a hunger strike. Depending on whom you believe the number is either 50 or 180. Either way, who cares? Who has instructed these guys that going on a hunger strike will get them media coverage? They claim that they are doing it to protest the mistreatment at the military facility in Cuba. Some are also doing it to protest the amount and quality of their drinking water. Huh?? Is it not chilled enough? Not sparkling enough? Perhaps it doesn’t come with a wedge of lemon. Maybe they would be much happier in a Syrian or Iranian jail. Maybe the jail in Kabul would be a good place for them. What do you think would happen if they started a hunger strike there? Nothing. More food for the other inmates. They would be allowed to starve if that was really their intent. I think in those prisons they might have a real complaint about the water. A spokesman at Guantanamo Bay has said that some have begun eating again. I suppose the brook trout almandine with steamed vegetables, warm dinner rolls and desert was a little too much to pass up.

My feelings on hunger strikes is to let them do it if they want but to completely ignore them. This goes for any hunger strike. If someone refuses to eat that’s his or her business not mine. They will eat when they get too hungry or too weak. The only reason people do this is to try and draw attention to some cause and the media is only too happy to accommodate them. All too often during these “hunger strikes” the person is drinking juices, protein drinks and vitamin pills. Sounds like someone on a diet to me. Maybe Ted Kennedy and Michael Moore should go on a hunger strike to draw attention to the national problem of obesity…

NCAA - The New PC Police...

2005-08-07T06:33:00.000-04:00

The NCAA has decided to ban the use of American Indian nicknames or logos from postseason tournaments. Starting in February, any school with a nickname or logo considered racially or ethnically "hostile" or "abusive" by the NCAA would be prohibited from using them in postseason events. Mascots will not be allowed to perform at tournament games, and band members and cheerleaders will also be barred from using American Indians on their uniforms beginning in 2008.

Who is this elitist group to determine what is offensive? What is their definition of hostile or abusive? They have decided that the nickname “Warrior” is acceptable provided the school does not use Indian symbol. Do they think that only American Indians were warriors? The school, North Carolina-Pembroke uses the nickname Braves but they are exempt. The reason why? Because the school has historically had 20% of the students who are American Indian. Schools choose American Indian names and mascots out of respect and honor, not an insult. What is the next step for the NCAA, to ban all mascots because some moonbat may find it offensive? Do they really think that this will improve conditions on the Indian reservations? No, it is just their “cause de jour”. This is such a joke.

These guys sound like members of Congress. They are ignoring all the real issues in college athletics and are worrying about whether a team has an Indian name or mascot. What they should be focusing on and trying to fix is the terrible graduation rate for most Division 1 football and basketball programs. The use of performance enhancing drugs. Recruiting violations. Alumni violations. Criminal behavior by the scholarship athletes. They need to tie the graduation rates to the number of scholarships a school can offer. If the graduation of scholarship athletes in a schools program drops below a certain level they lose 1 scholarship. Below yet another level, another scholarship and so on. The NCAA has become a big business and the students are the ones that suffer. This board at the NCAA have bright futures in Congress by ignoring the real issues and only addressing the non-issues…

The DNC and Bush's Health...

2005-08-03T03:00:00.000-04:00

This past weekend the results of President Bush’s annual physical were released to the public. His doctors reported that he was in superior physical condition. They attribute this to his 6-day a week exercise routine. This is good news to everyone except the DNC who issued a press release. Why does this even require a response? The Democrats are so obsessed by the fact they have been beaten by Bush that nothing can pass with out a negative response.

They have decided to blame the national obesity problem on President Bush. They have to be kidding right? It must be Bush’s fault that Americans are so overweight.

DNC spokesman Josh Earnest said, “President Bush's has dropped the ball when it comes to fully funding physical education in public schools and women's athletic programs at the college level”

And, "His personal habits indicate that physical fitness is not just fun and games for him. Don't our kids deserve the same opportunities to be physically fit? President Bush should stop running from his responsibility and make sure that all American children have access to physical fitness programs."

And this, "While obesity has been declared an epidemic in this country, Bush's education policy is putting children at risk with cuts in physical education and school athletic programs".

Most PE classes have become optional and have been replaced by “touchy feely” courses in the public schools. I don’t recall the administration being responsible for this. If the schools have any athletic facilities they have to be Olympic sized pools and state of the art weightraining equipment all costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. What ever happened to kids just going outside for gym class and hitting or kicking a ball around? Running? Playing tag or touch football? Oh no, those are way too competitive for the kids. Someones self esteem will be permanently damaged. I guess this is Bush’s doing too.

Parents have decided that this is just fine with them. This is very wrong. It all fits in with the poor parenting that goes on in this country these days. I see minivans and SUVs lined up at the bus stops daily to pick up the kids and drive them a quarter mile to the house. This is NUTS! If parents started buying fruits and vegetables instead of cookies and soda their kids would not be getting so fat. If they sent them outside to play with other kids in the neighborhood after school instead of letting them play XBOX, watch TV, or use the computer to IM the kid across the street they wouldn’t be such meatballs. This clearly must be the President fault too…

CAFTA is Spanish for Another Sellout...

2005-07-29T06:47:00.000-04:00

The House and Senate have yet again chopped away another piece of the American middle class. They passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement and sold out the American people yet again. This bill passed in the 11th hour by only 2 votes and has been described as “Lets Make a Deal” legislation. The House vote, supposed to take 15 minutes, dragged on for an hour as negotiations swirled around the floor among GOP leaders and rank-and-file members reluctant to vote for the agreement. It make me very angry that so much pork was promised for the upcoming Highway and Mass Transit bill to get this bill passed. This will have a huge impact on the textiles and citrus fruit industries. Congress says that this will only account for 1% of all trade. I ask them how we can afford to trade away 1% of our jobs and economy for the benefit of a few?

I am so tired of hearing how these deals are good for business and will create jobs. How do you create good jobs in this country when we ship more industries out of the country? We keep losing industries and don’t manufacture much in this country anymore and we end up with a lot of cheap Chinese products in a Wal-Mart. This will only continue to deepen the trade deficit. They tell us its good for business but I have watched my IRA, 401K, Mutual Funds and stocks spin their wheels for the last 4-5 years. How is that helping us investors?

We need to put term limits on Congress and start electing people that will look after the American people and stop selling us out to lobbyists. This goes for the President as well. Do the job we elected you to do. Shut down the southern border and stop sending jobs oversees. This has gone on long enough. Its time for real statesmen and not backroom dealing politicians…

Political Hypocrisy...

2005-07-26T06:08:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one that finds it very amusing that Senator John Kerry has demanded that The White House release all of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ documents and memos in their entirety? This is the same guy that would not release his SF-180 military document until well after the election and only after he was pressured into it.

He said, “We cannot do our duty if either Judge Roberts or the Bush administration hides elements of his professional record.”

And “The American people should know whether John Roberts will protect their constitutional rights if confirmed as a justice to the court.”

I feel so much better knowing that Senator Kerry is looking out for my constitutional rights. What about my rights to know, based on that SF-180, the truth about your military service?

Kerry is not even a member of the Judicial Committee. Why is it that these hammerheads in Congress feel the need to weigh in on everything that is none of there business and avoid doing what is supposed to be their business…

Personal Savings at All Time Low...

2005-07-25T04:08:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday the Washington Post ran a series of stories about the drop off in personal savings and investment in IRA and 401K retirement plans. They report that personal savings is at an all time low. Also, fewer people are making contributions to retirement plans. This has Congress worried and they plan on passing some legislation to make it easier for people to save for retirement. How the heck can they make any easier?? How hard is if for someone to open an IRA and contribute money to it each year? Walk up to your payroll office and ask for a 401K-enrollment form at work. We need Congress to make this easier for us? Once again Congress refuses to do anything meaningful and now want to try and make a very easy task even easier. Yea right!

This is a serious situation and I fear that many people are not going to have any money for retirement. What do you do if don’t have a 401K or IRA and no pension at work? Social Security will not be enough to survive and that’s all they will have to live on. Far too many people have no knowledge of what it takes to live in a budget and save money. They don’t feel the need to start saving for retirement until its too late. They have run up huge debt on credit cards and use the equity in their home to pay them off. Not only will they not have any money for retirement, they wont have a home to live in. Many of these people make good salaries and are just very irresponsible with their money. I fell that we will start to see this decline of the standard of living for retired people in the very near future.

Another thing that upsets me is that Congress says in the future they may need a means test to determine if you qualify for Social Security. That will mean that my wife and I may never see a dime in Social Security because we have worked hard and saved in IRA and 401K accounts and paid in are whole lives. We will be left out to be sure the people who have lived irresponsible lives are taken care of. Each year people get a summary letter from the Social Security Administration that shows what he or she would get in benefits and also a report showing how much they made each year. I think that if means testing becomes a fact, it should factor in the salaries people made in their working years. A person should not be allowed a full benefit if they squandered all their money instead of being responsible…

America's Newspaper... Yea Right...

2005-07-11T07:12:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post has once again frosted my butt with its editorial policy this past Sunday. I went to the Outlook section and became upset. There were 3 articles on the front page of this section. The top editorial was from Candida Crew, a “freelance journalist” who says, “… why should our country, with Blair so much in Bush’s pocket, and so much a part of the Iraq fray, have continued to get off scot-free?” This whole piece went on to say the reason for the London bombings was “Blair’s co-dependent love affair with George Bush and our repellant involvement in Iraq”. After reading this I began to get a bit steamed. More Bush bashing.

The 2nd editorial starts out by saying that Senator Richard Durbin was just “careless” in his statements comparing U.S. interrogation practices to those of a Soviet gulag. Then Juliette Kayyem went on to say, “… in the super-charged torture debates, its much easier for the Bush administration to focus on the critics’ choice of word than on the interrogation practices themselves”. Once again more Bush bashing. The rest of her piece goes on to give her “legal” opinion of the “torture” occurring at Guantanamo Bay and how Congress should regulate interrogations by Americans.

The 3rd piece by Elliot Cohen is how he as a father and former hawk on the Iraq war is now questioning his thoughts about the war now that his son, an Army Officer and Ranger will be going to Iraq. His first paragraph gets right to his point by criticizing Bush and his speech at Ft Bragg last week. He says, “Our oldest son now dresses like the impassive soldiers who served as stage props for that event…” Now he has second thoughts about his whole belief on American Middle East policy and Bush’s handling of things.

I voted for President Bush but I am not a huge fan of his. I feel he has let us down in many areas but I still support him. I get really upset when I see the Washington Post, and other MSM, continue to print so much anti-Bush rhetoric. One of these days I will actually do what I keep promising and cancel my subscription to the Post…

Good Money After Bad...

2005-07-11T06:17:00.000-04:00

The G8 Summit is over and already there are some who whining that not enough was being done in terms of monetary aid and debt relief for African and other 3rd world countries. In my opinion this is just a waste of good money after bad. I am very opposed to giving monetary aid to any foreign country. Handing a check to leaders in most 3rd world countries is just wrong. These countries have proven over and over again that the money ends up in private accounts and a miniscule amount makes it to the people who need it the most. It is no wonder that these countries are falling further behind.

My suggestion would be to offer these countries a “shopping list” instead of money. Things on the shopping list could be farm equipment, food processing equipment, electronic equipment, electrical producing and distribution equipment, health supplies and these sorts of things. Then when the list comes back whoever is overseeing the operation would place an order with John Deer or International Harvester for the farm equipment, General Electric or some other large manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment. This could be done for everything on the shopping list. If we don’t manufacture it in this country let the other G8 nation that does put it on their shopping list. By doing this money spent would produce jobs and keep the money in this country. It makes no sense to me to give a country cash and then they go to China and buy the product, if they even buy any at all. I hate the idea of my taxes being turned over in a check to a corrupt 3rd world leadership.

I am also very upset by the idea of increasing any aid to the Palestinians. This is not a country and has no real established controlling government or leadership. The per capita aid being given them is over 20 times higher than that being given to African nations. This is a group of people so poorly led over the last 30 years that they have been thrown out of every Arab county in which they have settled. Until the Palestinians can show themselves to be in control of their leadership and the leadership in control of the situation they should not receive any more monetary aid. The oil rich nations of the Middle East are the one that should be supplying aid to the Palestinians, and I don’t mean paying the families of homicide bombers. These countries are gouging us for oil now. Let them spend some of the more than $2 a gallon I pay now to truly help the Palestinians. I don’t think that will ever happen because they need the Palestinians to be downtrodden to justify the anti Israeli hatred…

Clinton To The UN...

2005-07-05T06:53:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I was at the local watering hole talking with a friend of mine who is a U.S. Senate staffer with the Armed Forces Committee. We were talking some baseball, weather and politics. This is when he floated an idea of the White House withdrawing John Bolton’s U. N. nomination and replacing it with Bill Clinton. I nearly choked on my beer when he said that. “Are you nuts? What are you drinking there?” I asked him. He then began to explain his thinking and to me it began to make more sense.

John Bolton will not be very effective in the U.N. after all he has gone through during the nomination process. The rest of the members of the U.N. are going to know he doesn’t have the full support of the Congress and are likely to act accordingly. Most of the U. N. member countries like and respect Bill Clinton. I am not quite sure if that is a good or bad thing. For all his problems as President I do think Bill Clinton is an American first. He would do what is best for this country. I didn’t care for him as President and didn’t vote for him but never doubted his love for this country. Okay, so far I am listening to my friend’s idea.

Now comes the real beauty he tells me. If Bill Clinton is nominated as the United States delegate to the U.N. the liberals and Democrats cant possibly oppose it. This should give the White House some more help with Supreme Court nominations. The Republicans can get some mileage from this appointment. With Bill Clinton as the U. N. Delegate it would seem that Hillary couldn’t throw her hat in the ring in 2008 as a Democratic presidential candidate. She would most likely have to recuse herself. I honestly feel she does not want to run for President. I don’t think she wants to have all those skeletons dragged back out of her closet. Whitewater, Travelgate, Vince Foster and Universal health care to name a few. This would give her the out she needs. This appointment would also not allow him to go out on the campaign trail in 2006 and 2008. “But wait” I tell my friend, “When he goes out to help a Democratic candidate they have been losing lately.” My friend tells me that he may not help the candidate by going to rallies but he does manage to raise a lot of money. We all know that whoever has the most money in a campaign stands a much better chance of winning. It’s a win-win for the Republicans. “I’ll have to think about this for a while but so far it sounds like a decent idea.” I tell him.

Just then the Washington Nationals scored some runs to take the lead and the conversation went back to baseball…

Iraqis Turn their Guns on Al Quada...

2005-07-05T05:43:00.000-04:00

The British paper The Telegraph has been reporting that there have been armed clashes between the tribal groups in western Iraq and the Al Quada near the Syrian border. Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point for Al Quada jihadists being smuggled into the country.

The reason, the US military believes, is frustration at the heavy-handed approach of the foreigners, who have kidnapped and assassinated local leaders and imposed a strict Islamic code. They believe the trigger for this fighting was the assassination of a tribal sheik which was ordered by Zarqawi because he met with U.S. Marines Since then anyone considered to be aiding coalition forces was being killed or kidnapped. That included those with links to the government - seen as a US puppet - such as water or electricity officials. As a result local services had collapsed. Part of the strict code included closing any shop selling music or satellite dishes. Women were ordered to wear all-enveloping clothing and men forbidden from wearing western clothes.

The U.S. Military reported that they had been attacked by a group of foreign terrorists and as the foreigners were beaten back local Iraqi tribesmen ambushed them. As I blogged earlier, I feel the insurgency in Iraq will come to an end when the Iraqis take some control over their own country. While I am all in favor of fighting these Al Quada terrorists and murderers in the deserts of western Iraq instead of the streets on New York, London, Madrid or even Paris, it is very heartening to see that Iraqis are stepping up to the plate as well…

July 4, 1776

2005-07-04T23:17:00.000-04:00

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offencesFor abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

If the Season Ended Today...

2005-07-01T06:58:00.000-04:00

Here it is July 1st already and the best thing happening in Washington D.C. these days are the Washington Nationals baseball team. The Nats are in first place in the National League East with a 4.5 game lead over the Atlanta Braves and the best home record in the major leagues. This was the team that no one wanted. They played last year in Montreal in front of crowds of 3000 people. This year they have reached over a million fans and this was done on June 12th, their 32nd home game of the year.

Last December I blogged that there was no way the Montreal Expos would play in Washington DC and become my “home” team. Politics in DC were at work and just when it got close it looked like the rug would get pulled out from under them. I was wrong and a day later the particulars were worked out and Washington had a Major League Baseball team. They still need real ownership and a long term stadium plan but this team has got the area talking baseball and not just about the Redskins.

I know its only July 1st and there are still 84 games to play but the Nats are in first place. I think the real reason for their success is that they didn’t choose the name Senators for the 3rd time. Man, talk about a offensive name for a team…

Foreigners Blowing up in Iraq...

2005-07-01T06:26:00.000-04:00

CNN and Fox News have reported that the vast majority of homicide attackers in Iraq are not Iraqis but foreigners. Since 2003, Iraqis have carried out less than 10 percent of the more than 500 homicide attacks, according to one defense official. I suppose that many of these foreigners that come to Iraq see the new Iraqi government and U.S. troops in much the same light as they saw the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s. There is a huge difference in that the Russians had planned to stay and eventually annex Afghanistan.

It seems that the vast majority of those being killed in Iraq are Iraqis. I feel the Iraqis really need to step up to the plate and take charge of these foreign terrorists. When Iraqis take control of Iraq the insurgency will end.

The liberals continue to say that the Bush administration is the whole cause for this “hatred” of Americans like this is a new development. Why don’t some of these Republican apologists stand up and tell it like it is. President Clinton did nothing to stop the Islamic terrorists in 8 years. The first World Trace Center bombing, the 2 embassies, the USS Cole. His administration failed to deal with Bin Laden when they had a chance. To them he was a minor annoyance. All of the intelligence failures and the weakened and neutered intelligence agencies happened in his Presidency. President Bush inherited a broken system and now liberals are saying the whole situation is his fault. Why wont one of the blowhards in Congress get up and tell the country that September 11th was going to happen even if there had been a President Gore…

The Flag Can Take The Heat...

2005-06-27T06:19:00.000-04:00

Last week members of the House of Representatives passed a Constitutional amendment on flag burning. Once again these “leaders” of our legislative branch have gone overboard on an emotional issue and have not tended to the work we elected them to do. This just continues to happen over and over again. This “amendment" to the Constitution will not pass in the Senate and will never get ratified by the ¾’s of the states. Whenever one of these Congressional blowhards demands we amend the Constitution the media jumps all over it but never tells us that it would take years for it to get ratified, if ever. That would take all the starch out of the blowhard in Congress and his face time on the news channels. Once again more wasted time by our members of Congress.

This amendment plays on the same emotions as the desecration of the Koran did to Muslims in the Middle East. Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun Times wrote a good piece on this topic. You can read it here. He writes, ''it's not possible to 'torture' an inanimate object. That alone is a perfectly good reason to object to a law forbidding the "desecration" of the flag. For my own part, I believe that, if someone wishes to burn a flag, he should be free to do so. In the same way, if Democrat senators want to make speeches comparing the U.S. military to Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, they should be free to do so. It's always useful to know what people really believe”.

Don’t get me wrong. I feel that burning an American flag, or any nation’s flag, is distasteful and wrong. The person burning deserves a punch in the mouth or a swift kick in the ass. I don’t feel they need to be arrested. Mark Steyn also writes, “Banning flag desecration flatters the desecrators and suggests that the flag of this great republic is a wee delicate bloom that has to be protected. It's not. It gets burned because it's strong. A flag has to be worth torching. When a flag gets burned, that's not a sign of its weakness but of its strength. If you can't stand the heat of your burning flag, get out of the superpower business. It's the left that believes the state can regulate everyone into thought-compliance. The right should understand that the battle of ideas is won out in the open”

The United States and her flag can take the heat….

"Legal" Robbery...

2005-06-25T20:53:00.000-04:00

This past week the United States Supreme Court made a terrible ruling. They ruled 5 to 4 in favor of eminent domain in a case that really expanded the definition of public use. Eminent domain is a legal principle that allows the government to take private property for a "public use," such as a school or roads and bridges, in exchange for just compensation. Local governments have increasingly expanded the scope of public use to include commercial entities such as shopping malls or independent retail stores. They do this because the tax revenue from a big box store will be much more than the property taxes of the existing homes. In theory these malls and big box stores increase available job in the area. This doesn’t stop at private homes, small businesses can be forced out under this ruling. 2 of the biggest offenders are Wal-Mart and Target stores. They present a plan to a city government and get the city councils to declare a section of the city to be a blight.

The case the court ruled on was based in New London Connecticut. The benefit of this ruling was the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. How does taking homes for use by a wealthy company like Pfizer fall into the category of public use?

Writing for the dissenters, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that the court overstepped its authority. "The court today significantly expands the meaning of public use," O'Connor wrote. "It holds that the sovereign may take private property currently put to ordinary private use, and give it over for new, ordinary private use."

Where does it stop? This goes against all the principles of being an ownership society. Think we will hear a word out of our Congress? I doubt it…

Time To Be A Leader...

2005-06-25T07:48:00.000-04:00

The other day I saw Vice President Dick Cheney being interviewed by Wolfe Blizter on CNN. He really made me feel good about the way things were going in this country and the war on terror. He spoke in a confident way that portrayed him as a leader. He didn’t beat around the bush and use a lot of metaphors. He was clear and to the point. I think most of us that watched the Vice Presidential debates last year so the way he was clear and concise. He clobbered John Edwards and showed him to be a real political lightweight. After that debate Edwards pretty much dropped out of the picture during the campaign.

We have not had a good speaker as President since Ronald Reagan, in my opinion. He was a man that spoke like a leader and people felt good about things. I feel that that is what people want and need in a leader.

I think its time the President Bush stop the nice homey approach with his public speaking. I for one get very tired of only seeing him in front of a group of supporters with some banner behind him. I am also growing wearing of the way he leans on the podium and speaks like he is family. I don’t want to hear that it’s a lot of hard work in Iraq. We all know that by now. He will be going on TV next week to address the country and what we need is a leader to speak to us, not our uncle. Be clear, decisive and honest about what you tell us. Don’t talk down to us, don’t try to be our best friend, don’t talk to us like we were at a picnic together. Speak to us as a leader Mr. President. Go back to being the leader that spoke to us from ground zero…

Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and now Guantanamo Bay Cuba...

2005-06-21T06:38:00.000-04:00

It seems the Democrats new “cause de jour” is to try and get the terrorist holding facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba shut down. They aren’t saying what should happen to the enemy combatants or where they should be transferred. They have a whole group of them calling it a Gulag or likening Gitmo to a Nazi concentration camp. I wonder if you asked these “detainees” if they would rather be held under American custody or Iraqi or Saudi or Pakistani custody I have no doubt they would prefer to be in Cuba. They still have their fingers and hands. That might not be the case under some other countries custody. The claims of torture are absurd. Loud music and sleep deprivation are now torture? The Left plays along with this “desecrating of the Koran” nonsense as well. How many Korans have been blown to pieces by these terrorists in Iraq bombing a Mosque and no one says a thing about it then?

These men are eating Baked Tandouri Chicken Breast, Mustard-Dill Baked Fish, Lyonnaise Rice, and Fish Amandine while the soldiers guarding them are eating MREs. Something is very wrong about this. The United States has bent over backward to insure humane treatment of these prisoners. The Red Cross along with many other groups has had access to the facility to check on the conditions.

This is typical of the Democrats and the Left these days. They seem to think that all they have to do is say they are opposed to something that is good enough. They don’t offer any alternatives. They thin kif they say it enough it will become the truth. It makes perfect sense to keep this facility at Guantanamo Bay open. We can concentrate out information gathering experts in one location. We keep these men in an isolated location where they are safe from other prisoners as well as keeping the soldiers guarding them safe from some nut case driving a bomb loaded car into the prison. Its time for the Republican apologists to take a stand and tell these Democrats where to go…

The Fuse Fizzled Out...

2005-05-24T00:54:00.000-04:00

The United State Senate has proven itself to be nothing more than a group of spoiled children. They seem to refuse to do what is needed for the country and continue to waste time on their own little ideas of what is right and wrong for the United States. Now they have shown themselves to be a bunch of self-serving wimps. They “reached an agreement” to allow an up or down confirmation vote for Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor. What really occurred was more business as usual from these guys. They have managed to once again spin their wheels and do nothing. The reality is that the Democrats did not have enough votes to stop the nuclear option to end the filibuster and the Republicans know that someday they will not be in control and did not want to remove their chance to be spoiled kids when it is their turn.

You have to love some of the quotes from these guys.

"We have lifted ourselves above politics," agreed Sen. Robert C. Byrd D-W.Va., "And we have signed this document ... in the interest of freedom of speech, freedom of debate and freedom to dissent in the United States Senate."

"This agreement is meant in the finest traditions of the Senate it was entered into: trust, respect and mutual desire to see the institution of the Senate function in ways that protect the rights of the minority." — Sen. John McCain R-Ariz.

"The Senate is back in business." — Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

"Tonight the Senate has worked its will on behalf of reason and behalf of responsibility. We have sent President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the radical arm of the Republican base an undeniable message: Abuse of power will not be tolerated, will not be tolerated by Democrats or Republicans. And your attempt, I say to the vice president and to the president, to trample the Constitution and grab absolute control is over." — Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

What a bunch of hot air! This will all come back again when the time comes to nominate a justice for the Supreme Court. Why do we tolerate this 100-member club doing nothing? Hey members of the Senate, why aren’t you working on stabilizing Social Security, securing out southern border, stopping U. S. jobs from being outsourced, equalizing the trade imbalance with China, and many of the far more pressing issues? Maybe they think these things will just go away…

The Fuse is Lit...

2005-05-19T07:11:00.000-04:00

It seems as if the “Nuclear Option” will finally come to a head. Depending on which side one feels is right, its tough not to look at them like 2 spoiled kids. Both the Republicans and Democrats want to “take their ball and go home”. I also feel that this is not the issue that either side should draw their line in the sand. The Democrats argued for the first Bush term that since he had not won the popular vote that they had to filibuster his judicial nominees. That was nonsense then and is nonsense now. The Republicans put up with it for 4 years and only now are willing to do something about it. This has put 2 judicial nominees on hold for about 4 years. What neither side seems to think about is that someday the control of the House and Senate will change hands and the shoe will be on the other foot.

If the Democrats force the “Nuclear Option” to happen they will have no say in any Supreme Court nominees for a long time to come. Is this their best move to dig in now? Do the Republicans want to “take the gloves off” and be willing to fight back against the Democrats?

I think that 2 groups who are in the business of negotiating deals should be able to reach an agreement. I feel that a yes or no vote should be the only option. If not its time for the voters to take the ball away from these career freeloaders and send them both home…

Creationists Seek Curriculum Change...

2005-05-06T06:57:00.000-04:00

Most people will agree that the quality of education in the public school systems leaves a lot to be desired. It seems that there is a lot of talk about changing the curriculum but it never seems to be to add more math, science and grammar. It always seems to be the need to add more art and music and touchy feely classes. We graduate children that cant read and write or balance a checkbook. The latest thing in Kansas is another big push to teach creationism in the public schools. This is a touchy issue but I feel that creationism is better left to church schools or parents. The people that want creationism taught keep saying that evolution is just a theory. Well so is gravity and electricity and no one gets upset that they are theories.

The creationists are literalists that seem set in the idea that the world was created in 6 days and those 6 days were 24 hours long. The writers of the Bible had to use a “reference of time” to define creation. What’s to say that the first “day” was not really 1,000,000 years? And the second “day” wasn’t 10,000 years and so on? This only would answer part of the creation/evolution question. The real issue is the question of whether humans evolved from apes or not. I feel that we did but there are many out there that get very offended by the very thought.
There is also a group creationists that feel the earth is only about 6000 years old and ignore any of the things like carbon dating and fossils that prove the earth is much older. What will happen if they start pushing the get their agenda into the public schools?

The only sure thing that will come out of this will be a whole lot of kids who still wont be able to read either a Bible or a science book…

Time for Term Limits in Congress...

2005-05-02T06:31:00.000-04:00

The time has come to put some term limits on Congress. I think 2 terms for Senators and 5 or 6 terms for Representatives would be about right. We already have a 2-term limit for President and I think that works well. After 8 years I feel most of the voters are ready for a change. 12 years is more than enough for any member of Congress.

Some of the biggest problems going on in Congress these days are because of these career politicians. The do nothing important because they can continue to campaign on the same things each time. It has to be very disheartening for a new member of Congress to find out they have to “toe the party line” or they wont get any support from their parties leaders or any campaign finance support from their party chairs. They become part of the problem right from their first day. Instead of working for the good of the country, they get bogged down in all the ridiculous things that pass for lawmaking. A few of them lately are bringing a bunch of former baseball players to Washington to show their “concern” about steroids, the Terry Shiavo incident, and this important piece of legislation, extending daylight savings time by 2 months.

Most of these career politicians feel that they are above it all. That rules don’t apply to them. They don’t think they have committed ethics offensives or crimes. Does anyone remember the Congressional Post Office scandal about 10 years ago? They take expensive “junkets” paid for by lobbyists. They fill their PACs with family members and pay them huge salaries from campaign funds. When they get caught, they blame the “vast right wing conspiracy” or “the left wing media”. They take no responsibility for anything, including never getting anything done.

A few of the “lifers” that need to go are Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, John McCain, Tom Delay, Harry Reid, Carl Levin, Arlen Specter, Orrin Hatch, Joe Biden, Maxine Waters, Henry Hide, Henry Waxman, and the list goes on and on…

John Paul the Great...

2005-04-08T15:20:00.000-04:00

This morning I got up early to watch the funeral for Pope John Paul II. This was a fantastic and fitting ending to such a great man. No other person in our time could have brought so many world leaders to one place for an event. There will most likely never be a person like Pope John Paul II again. He was a man that grew up in a religiously segregated country, lived through the Second World War, saw his friends taken to camps, himself put into forced labor, saw his country fall to Communism, survive an assassination attempt, and go on to visit 130 countries. He was not the disciplinarian that many previous Popes had been. He always saw the glass as half full, not half empty. He connected with the rich as well as the poor, the developed countries and the third world countries, the old and the young.
Who ever succeeds Pope John Paul II will have tremendous shoes to fill. He will have to deal with a shrinking world and an increasing population. He will have to lead the church in a modern era and unstable time. He will have to continue to build on what Pope John Paul II had created. He will have to be a man that the world’s Roman Catholics can turn to in a time of need and crisis. He will face many challenges from both inside and outside the Roman Catholic Church. Many Catholics in the United States want to see priests be able to marry and have families. They also want to see woman allowed to become priests. This is not too likely in the very near future in my opinion, but in our society of instant gratification and equal rights we will hear this issue brought up often. I don’t know if this is a big issue in other countries or not. Right now the American Roman Catholic Church still has a black eye from the priest molestation and sexual abuse scandal and probably have to clean up its image before they begin demanding changes. Already some on TV are saying the financial power of the American Catholics will force these changes. Sounds typically American to try to “buy” a solution to a problem. If and when the Vatican feels it’s time for such changes they will be made. The next Pope will certainly have to hit the ground running.
There is a saying that people pray on our time and God answers them on his…

Overhaul The Current Tax System...

2005-03-25T07:40:00.000-04:00

With April 15th looming on the horizon we all have to pay the price for living in this great county. Taxes are due along with all the headaches and aggravations that go along with filing the 1040 forms. How did the government and IRS allow this requirement to get so complicated and unfair? How did they let all of the loopholes? Why are there so many variables when it comes to deductions and tax rates? Why does it take an accountant or computer program to do you taxes? Who can argue that the status quo is a good system? It is a mess because Congress is gutless to say no to lobbyists and their own members special interests and pork. That’s another whole posting by itself.

I have felt for many years that a huge overhaul of the tax system is needed in this country. I think I got interested in 1992 when Ross Perot kept bringing up the need for a simplified tax system during the Presidential campaign. I like the idea of a National Retail Sales Tax. I think this would raise more money because it eliminates loopholes, shelters and people who cheat on their taxes. There is a good essay on this subject at http://www.wunderkraut.com/ and you can read it here. There are a lot of other good common sense reads there too.

As much as we need an overhaul of the tax system I doubt there is a Republican or Democrat that would ever give it the time of day. Their bread and butter is promising tax cuts or raise the taxes on the wealthy. Until the time comes when people create and support a viable 3rd party it will never get a thought…

Get A Living Will...

2005-03-25T07:30:00.000-04:00

I think the whole Terri Schiavo episode is very sad and tragic for everyone involved. That being said I also feel that the courts have done the right thing. If Terri Schiavo had requested of her husband not to be ever be in a condition like she is now it is his responsibility, as her guardian, to see her request honored. I can understand why people are upset but the decision is not up to them. We have laws in place to address situations like these and we are a nation of laws, not of men. Some people are complaining that the courts are rushing this, ignoring the fact that it has been ongoing for 15 years already. Many courts and judges have heard the case and the decision is always the same.

She is in a persistent vegetative state. This is defined as a permanent and irreversible condition of unconsciousness in which there is:

(a) The absence of voluntary action or cognitive behavior of any kind.
(b) An inability to communicate or interact purposefully with the environment.

Now it is really sad that this has become a political issue. Congress should not have tried to intervene. This was just grandstanding. Lots of last minute “evidence” keeps popping up to delay the inevitable. I feel that both fanatical conservatives and liberals are refusing to budge for fear of the “camels nose getting under the tent”. The one thing I think everyone can agree on is the need for a living will…

Solvency First…

2005-03-16T07:31:00.000-04:00

Today the U.S. Senate voted 100-0 to make Social Security a priority. I am not real confident that this is anything more than theatrics. The Republicans and Democrats are miles apart on what to do. The Republicans are against raising the ceiling for payroll deductions and personal accounts. The Democrats have suggested nothing other than it’s not a crisis and no personal accounts. From all I have read, none of these options is going to make Social Security solvent. Personal accounts are going to create a huge shortfall in the short run. If a person were to take advantage of the proposed 4% amount into a personal account that is money that will not go into the fund for current Social Security recipients. Where is this difference going to come from?
The Democrats want to do nothing and saying its not a crisis is like ignoring a toothache. We all know the day will come when Social Security will be in serious trouble. They also are arguing what the actual year it goes into the red. Does it matter if its 2017 or 2020 or 2022, as they argue in Congress? What if they are wrong and it turns out to be 2010? It needs to be put on the path to solvency.

Democrats, quit saying it’s not a problem and put a few ideas and options on the table.

Republicans, stop pushing the private accounts until the system becomes solvent. If private accounts don’t help the issue of solvency, take it off the table.
If raising the ceiling is what it will need, put it on the table.

Stop spinning your wheels on this issue and put solvency first…

The Congressional Steroid Joke...

2005-03-15T08:19:00.000-04:00

What a joke this Congressional steroid hearing is going to be. It is a few members of Congress grandstanding and going after an issue that should not be handled by them. John McCain made a fuss about steroids a few months ago and it went nowhere. What makes this a joke is whom they have subpoenaed or maybe whom they didn’t. Bringing retired players and guys at the end of their career is not going to discover anything. Where is Barry Bonds? Why does he get a pass on this?
Why don’t they subpoena NFL players and body builders? They don’t use steroids according to these grandstanders. How did players in the NFL get so much bigger than they were 10 years ago? Mr. (and Ms.) Universe contestants are huge and they get a free pass. Why do they even have an “All Natural” category in many contests? Why go after a few guys that have been hitting home runs their whole career? Why not look at the 2nd baseman that weighed 150 pounds and hit 4 home runs a few years ago and now weighs 190 pounds and hits 24 homeruns a year? This just tells me that once again Congress won’t deal with the important issues and try to tell us that this is good use of our tax dollars. This is an issue for baseball to deal with and not a few grandstanding politicians…

Stop at the Checkpoint the Next Time...

2005-03-06T08:06:00.000-04:00

What in the world was the car containing former hostage Giuliana Sgrena, the 56-year-old journalist for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, driving full speed at a military checkpoint in Iraq? It’s very unfortunate that the Italian agent lost his life in this incident. The agents in the car with her had been in Iraq for quite a while and had to know about the Rules of Engagement involving checkpoints. American authorities said the soldiers shot into the engine block only after trying to warn the driver to stop by "hand and arm signals, flashing white lights and firing warning shots."

Now the Italians and the press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders called for a U.N. investigation into the shooting. It seems to me the question is why is a communist newspaper sending a female into a war zone? I can’t imagine that the US military ever got any favorable press in her paper. She is selfish and put not only herself but also many others in danger by her even being there.

Another thing that really bothers me is that an Iraqi official has said that a $1,000,000 dollar ransom was paid for her release? Did the Italian government pay this? It is outrageous that ransoms are being paid to the terrorists. $1,000,000 can buy a lot of AK-47s and RPGs. There are some saying that she was not kidnapped at all but the whole thing had been staged to get money directly to the terrorists. She said she had not been mistreated while held captive, yet she pleaded for her life on a video. She also said she communicated with them in French. FRENCH!!! What does that mean?

Italian officials have already said that a $1,000,000 ransom had been paid for the release of 2 women aid workers last September. So now the terrorists have extorted $2,000,000. No wonder they have been able to keep getting arms.
I feel they should arrest this woman and file charges on her if any of this it true…

Lets Get Ready to Rumble...

2005-02-19T07:36:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the British have it right. The London Times reports that 35 Greenpeace “activists” stormed the International Petroleum Exchange on the day that the Kyoto Protocol came into force. This supposedly involved a lot of planning on their part because they had 3 vans of “activists” standing by. What they were not prepared for was the aggression of oil traders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement. A few quotes from some of the “activists” are hilarious.

“We bit off more than we could chew. They were just Cockney barrow boy spivs. Total thugs,” one protester said, rubbing his bruised skull. “I’ve never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view.”

Another said: “I took on a Texan Swat team at Esso last year and they were angels compared with this lot.”

“They grabbed us and started kicking and punching. Then when we were on the floor they tried to push huge filing cabinets on top of us to crush us.”

“They followed the guys into the lobby and kept kicking and punching them there. They literally kicked them on to the pavement.”

Why doesn’t this happen more often? I am not advocating beating the crap out of protesters but if people just stood up to these “activists” they would not be so aggressive. The security guards at the International Petroleum Exchange did little to stop them so the traders took matters into their own hands. Why is it that protesters and “activists” feel they have a right to break in and disrupt business and claim it is their “right” to do this? There are always idiots that feel they can disrupt a speech or business to make “their point”. I am sure if something like this happen in the United States the “activists” would be portrayed as victims and charges would be pressed against the people who stood up to them. And don’t even think about all the civil charges…

Read the whole article here.

What Would Hootie Do...

2005-02-19T05:03:00.000-04:00

I hope that Lawrence Summers sticks to his guns and refuses to step down. I find it amazing how narrow minded most college campuses are these days. He stated that his remarks were going to be controversial and thought provoking when he began. I guess its ok for some jerk like Ward Churchill to say controversial and outrageous things and try to pass them off as fact and have students and faculty defend him. Dr. Summers was speaking on the underrepresentation of women in the math and high tech fields. There is no denying that this is the case so why not discuss some of the reason why this may be so. Apparently to say that women may not have an aptitude in this area is a mortal sin. Of course all these women are saying that is has to be discrimination and wont even consider any other opinion. Who can honestly say there are no differences between men and women?

Summers also said “To take a set of diverse examples, the data will, I am confident, reveal that Catholics are substantially underrepresented in investment banking, which is an enormously high-paying profession in our society; that white men are very substantially underrepresented in the National Basketball Association; and that Jews are very substantially underrepresented in farming and in agriculture. These are all phenomena in which one observes underrepresentation, and I think it's important to try to think systematically and clinically about the reasons for underrepresentation.”

To the Left a person can not even discuss the obvious because they refuse to take off the blinders that a college campus puts on them. Dr. Summers gained notoriety a while back by offending a leading professor of black studies at Harvard, Cornel West, who promptly left and went to Princeton University. What was his offense? He told Dr. West to do what he was being paid to do – teach.
My suggestion to Dr. Summers is to do what Hootie Johnson did at Augusta Country Club last year. Tell all these whining feminists and neutered male students and faculty drop dead…

Fixing Social Security...

2005-02-15T06:43:00.000-04:00

The more I hear about Social Security needing to be reformed the more I agree something has to be done. I am leaning towards the idea of Personal Retirement Accounts but am leery of adding another layer to the already bloated federal bureaucracy. Which stock, bonds, and funds will be available to invest in? Unfortunately it will probably be to the companies with the best lobbyists.
I wouldn’t mind seeing the maximum limit increased some but I don’t know what sort of impact that will have on companies that pay half the social security tax for their employees. Right now it is set at $90,000. If it were raised to $125,000 it would mean $4900 more dollars to the system. The employer would pay half of this. I know some Democrats want to see the minimum go away entirely and they also want means testing. I wonder how well that would go over telling the people that are paying the most they will never see a dime in Social Security.
Social Security has worked well for generations of Americans, but 21st century demographics doom it to insolvency. What other organization would still be looking at a business plan that hasn’t changed in over 60 years and still be saying that no tweaking is needed other than the Federal government? As lawmakers work out the details of Social Security reform, they must bring future guaranteed benefits in line with what today’s and tomorrow’s workers can afford to pay. Lets hope we all can retire with some decent social security benefits…

Another Chance to Scream...

2005-02-15T05:59:00.000-04:00

What affect will Howard Dean have on the Democratic Party? I guess only time will tell. I have to wonder about the selection of a very liberal New Englander. They just had one get beaten in the Presidential election and yet they go right back to that model again. Are some of the Democrats so isolated from the rest of the country that they really feel this is the way to go? Howard Dean is a man that lets you know where he stands. He is not a flip flopper like John Kerry and for this I respect him. Will he try to pull the party to the left at the same time Hillary Clinton is working toward the center? What will happen if she enters the Democratic primary? Will the DNC try and pull her to the left? Will more or less money flow in if she stays in the center? Will the Democrats care where she stands on issues and vote blindly for a Democratic candidate regardless of who is on the ticket? I also wonder if this new leadership in the DNC will help or hurt the Congressional and Gubernatorial candidates. In my opinion this is where the Democrats have taken their worst beatings. Even if Kerry had won he would have been looking at a big Republican majority in the Congress. We will just have to wait until the midterm elections in 2006 to see what the impact will be…

Social Security Broken...

2005-01-14T07:14:00.000-04:00

What’s the harm in having hearings to see what the options are regarding Social Security reform? How can anyone in his or her right mind think it can remain the way it is now forever? Many who are opposed are afraid that their benefits will be cut. There are people like me who feel they will never see a dime when they retire. Means testing is a really bad idea. Expecting people to pay in and then be told they already have enough money to live on so they don’t get check. Who will decide what is enough? Why should someone who has made the decision to invest in IRA and 401K accounts pay for the person that spent all they made, ran up huge debts on their credit cards, and used their house like a piggy bank? Do they need to raise the age that a person can begin collecting? I think the investment account option may be a good solution. This way the money can grow unlike now where Congress spends all the money that is left over after benefits have been paid out. It will also keep money going into the stock market to help offset the money being taken out of retirement account by those already retired. Can we believe that it will be broke by 2045? What if in 5 years they tell us… “Opps… it will be broke in 2020, we made a mistake”? Congress would be doing us all a favor to create a committee to look into the options…

Ask your Doctor...

2005-01-14T07:12:00.000-04:00

Ask your doctor if this is right for you. This is what we have heard in TV commercials for a few years now. The doctor then gets lots of “trail samples” that they can try. If your doctor thinks that this is not a good drug for you to take, you go to another one that will. This is such an unethical practice that the pharmaceutical are doing. How many of these commercial even tell you what the drug is supposed to cure. In most cases when they list the side effects it is worse than what the drug is supposed to cure. So the plan is to get you hooked on whatever drug you can get from your doctor all the while lobbying Congress to get Medicaid and Medicare to include them in their coverage. I have no doubt that the pharmaceutical companies had a huge part in the Senior Prescription Drug Plan disaster. I am not upset when Vioxx was pulled from the market. These companies had to know that when you “hook” millions on a drug there would be negative consequences with some people. All these companies have done is to create a whole new group of ambulance chasing lawyers…

Stingy...

2005-01-05T06:31:00.000-04:00

Stingy?? So this is what the U.N. thinks about the tsunami relief that the U.S. Government has pledged. They felt this after the initial $16 million dollar pledge. I think we can all recall that the day after the tsunami struck the death toll was estimated to be between 3000 and 6000. As the reality of the devastation and loss of life the pledge grew to $350 million. That amount does not even take into account the 20 Navy ships and dozens of cargo planes and helicopters. Throw into that the $215 million that has been pledged by U.S. companies and individuals. I also found it odd that as “hated around the world” as the United States is, who was the first call for help went to? Stingy? I sure don’t think so…

Ohhh The Terrible Abuse...

2004-12-27T08:14:00.000-04:00

Once again that ultra liberal rag, the Washington Post, has another article above the fold claiming further detainee abuse at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It’s the ACLU making this claim yet again. It sure seems to me that they would like to see these prisoners be in the same facility as Martha Stewart. C’mon, these prisoners were captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan. I also don’t like the term “detainee” being used to describe them. They are POWs. Doesn’t the ACLU have better things to do than this? They are “outraged” by the “abuse” in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. What happened at Abu Ghraib was nothing more than a sophomoric fraternity stunt. The prisoners there still have both their eyes and all their fingers. Very uncommon for prisoners in that part of the world. The guys at Guantanamo Bay at lost a little sleep and this is torture? Why not ask them if they would rather be in American custody or Iraqi custody? Think they would be getting kid glove treatment in Baghdad under Iraqi control? The “detainees” should be living in the same conditions that are the toughest that American soldiers and marines have to deal with in Iraq. The terrorists have to laughing at how weak we are when we are more concerned about our prisoners than are warriors. Time for me to cancel my Washington Post delivery…

And the Winner Is...

2004-12-23T07:20:00.000-04:00

I hope that we will hear that being said at the end of January after the elections in Iraq. When the Iraqis have some real skin in the game things will calm down a lot. Look at Afghanistan these days. Not perfect but so much better than 3 years ago. I read a lot of blogs written by the Soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan and am amazed by their upbeat and positive attitude. Here in the states we hear nothing but doom and gloom about the situation over there. It seems that every politician in Washington feels the need to weigh in with his or her comments in front of the TV cameras. Since the elections are over its back to being very divided on this war on terror. I would love to hear just one politician that is calling for Rumsfeld to resign tell us who they feel should run the Defense department. Rumsfeld has made mistakes. So has the Bush administration. We kept hearing that the country needed a change but what kind of a change? Change just for the sake of change is nuts. Change should always be to better a situation. I guess that’s what we deserve when we elect career politicians to Washington...

Dropped Third Strike...

2004-12-21T07:45:00.000-04:00

I jumped the gun. I was sure that Major League Baseball and Washington D.C. were never going to get a deal made that would let the Nationals, or old Expos, play baseball here. The D.C. city council did the right thing in getting some concessions from MLB. It was a game of chicken and MLB lost. I am sure they wanted baseball to be here. It is a bigger market than any of the others that had been suggested. I am sure that some of the owners are upset that they wont get more money. This was not the New York Yankees and they have no big name stars on the team coming here. Chances are they will be cellar dwellers yet again. I am glad that MLB blinked first. Its time that the fans not be held hostage by professional sports teams. Chalk one up for the fans. Guess I will go out and get my new National’s hat for this season…

Strike Three...

2004-12-17T06:39:00.000-04:00

Let me first say I am a big fan of baseball. I think it is the best game in the world. It is the game I love, not Major League Baseball. I was looking forward to baseball coming here to Washington DC but I think the DC city council did the right thing by insisting some private funding be included for the new stadium. It’s a fact that stadiums rarely spur economic development. They don’t mean success for the team either. The Expos are only 1 of many teams that are on the verge of going under. Unfortunately there are quite a few cities that are in the same boat that have built new stadiums. This means there are a few cities that may be stuck with a ballpark they are still paying on and no team. The Expos are a gutted team and the league should be selling at a bargain basement price to new owner to keep them afloat. Let the new owners put some of their money in the game other than just overpaying for a terrible team. The can recoup their costs by selling the naming rights. Another ridiculous concept in my opinion. Professional teams have got to stop holding cities hostage. The fans and taxpayers should refuse to pay for baseball’s uncontrollable spending…

We The Jury...

2004-12-17T02:44:00.000-04:00

We the jury find the defendant guilty...
This is what Scott Peterson and his high priced lawyer never expected to hear. I am not a big follower of these high profile trials. It is kind of hard not to know something about them the way the media dedicates hour long shows of screaming lawyers "discussing" that days court room events. I don't have the first idea what it would be like to on trial for murder, but if I am innocent I would never stop screaming that I was not guilty. Scott Peterson never said a word. Just sat there and let his lawyer do all the talking. Now he is going to be put to death. How can a man just sit there if he knew he was not guilty and not scream from the roof tops that he was innocent? If he were innocent why not take the stand and tell everyone in the court room? I guess he will get what he deserves...

Just One Scream Away...

2004-12-17T02:25:00.000-04:00

My feeling these days is that Senator John McCain is just one scream away from becoming the next Howard Dean. He has declared himself the self-proclaimed savior of the world. Is there anything he doesn't have an opinion on? Cleaning up boxing and steroid use in baseball are his items this week. I wonder what will be his new cause next week? Why doesn't he put some of his energy into addressing things like social security and immigration reform? Does he really think that if he throws his hat in the ring in 2008 that he can win by telling people they will have nothing to live on when they retire but baseball is now free of steroids? I thought this guy had a screw loose when he kept pushing for campaign finance reform but now there are a quite a few screws loose. Unfortunately the media loves him so we are going to be forced to listen to more of his ideas for saving us from ourselves...

Steroids...

2004-12-13T06:13:00.000-04:00

Well, its finally out that some baseball players have been using steroids.
Wow! What a surprise. I am shocked. Say it aint so.
Give me a break. Fans, owners, the commissioner, and the players have known for years and years that players have been on the juice. These guys all look like body builders. Go to a spring training camp and look at the size difference between the younger minor leaguers and the major leaguers. And no one knew it was happening? We, the fans, have been taken to the cleaners by this. We have to pay so much more for a ticket now then we did 10 years ago. The owners know that home runs put butts in the seats. Butts in the seats means they can hold a city hostage to get a new ball park. Idiotic owners way over pay mediocre players. All because they can hit 35 home runs. How many of those home runs have any impact in the game. A homerun in the 8th inning when your team is either up or down by 7 runs means nothing. Driving in that run from 2nd base back in the third inning would have meant more.
Now the self proclaimed savior of the American people, John McCain, wants Congress to get involved. Does he think that this will be a good issue to have addressed when he runs for President? We will have no social security when we retire but baseball will be "drug free". Gee it seems to me the only ones not relying on social security when they get old will be the baseball players that got all that money for hitting home runs. Darn, I wish I were younger and could hit a curveball...

Bah Humbug...

2004-12-12T04:35:00.000-04:00

It seems like the holiday season has been going on as long as the Presidential campaign. All the TV ads for holiday gifts started long before Thanksgiving. Some radio stations have been playing non stop Christmas carols and it is still 2 weeks from Christmas. Enough is enough. We should shorten the campaign and holiday season. 2 weeks of Christmas bombardment should be plenty. Bah Humbug...

Army-Navy Football Game...

2004-12-07T03:06:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday my wife and I went to Philadelphia to see the Army-Navy football game. What a fantastic event! Everyone should see it in person some time. President Bush was there to do the coin toss and watch the game. It was great to hear the cheers for him when he walked on the field. Not a lot of Kerry/Edwards supporters in the crowd. It was a thrill to see the Army and Navy parachutists drop into the stadium. A few were able to land right on the logo at midfield. 4 F-14 Tomcat fighter jets roared right over the rim of the stadium and 8 Apache helicopters flew over right after. The crowd cheered at all of the displays.
Then there was a good hard played football game. These young men played their hearts out for pride. Pride in themselves and pride in their academy. Navy won 42-13. They shook hands after the game and then paid their respects to the Midshipman and Cadets at the game. I feel good about the officer corps of the future after seeing these young men and women. We had a great time.
I am ready to get my tickets for next year's game...

Banana Republic...

2004-11-27T03:41:00.000-04:00

Are we turning into a Banana Republic? We just had an election that was decisively won by President Bush but we have a handful of knuckleheads that are screaming it was not fair and was stolen. They want a judge to step in and overturn the results. They cant imagine that any sane person doesn't think like they do. They scream about going to Canada or seceding. Is this the Ukraine? Civil war may break out in that country over their recent election. We cant ever allow our country to get to that point. If the party that doesn't win is unwilling to accept defeat and work to win the next time we are no better some Banana Republic...

Giving Thanks...

2004-11-27T03:15:00.000-04:00

Just some of the things I am thankful for. There are many but I just list a few.

My terrific wife.
Having a great family and extended family.
Being gainfully employed.
Good health.
Being an American.
President Bush being re-elected.
The Swiftboat Vets.
The Voters of Ohio and Florida.
Having some dedicated patriotic men and women that stand between me and the bad guys.
No terrorist attacks in this country.
The Red Sox won the World Series.

Conspiracy...

2004-11-14T02:09:00.000-04:00

Some on the left are screaming that the election was stolen again. Once more the nasty Republicans have rigged the election and tampered with the voting machines. Cmon... aren't these "intellectuals" supposed to be way too smart to "get screwed" again. The "neanderthal knuckle draggers" in the red states must have "outsmarted" them. Now some are calling for the blue states to succede and have called the red states welfare recipiants of the blue states. They also can't imagine people not seeing things their way. When you never associate with anyone other than like-minded liberals this is how you think. Seems a lot of those complaining the loudest are the younger people who are spending Mom and Dad's money to socialize at college. A quick look at the final election talley shows that Kerry won only 2 states with 60% or more of the vote. Bush won 14 states with 60% or more of the vote. That seems to be a mandate to me...

What the Future Holds...

2004-11-09T06:18:00.000-04:00

Now that the elections are over the talking heads are already "nominating" their choices for 2008. John McCain, Hillary, John Edwards, and Evan Bayh seem to be on the short list. Who else is pondering a run? Will Cheney still be the VP when this 2nd term ends? If it is a different person will they be electable? Is there another "Ross Perot" out there?
When will they learn? In 2008 it will have been 48 years since an active seated member of Congress was elected President. The career path for President seems to be that of Governor. Makes sense to me. That is a management job and not the "negotiating" job of a member of Congress.
The Democrats need to stop referring to anyone who disagrees with one of their issues as idiots, racist, sexist, homophoic, unenlightned, uneducated etc. They are a very fractured party that seems to be getting pulled apart by all the different factions. They will continue to lose seats in Congress if they dont "reach out" to middle America with issues that are important to them. They need to stop going home to million dollar houses, drive expensive SUVs, being worth millions of dollars but only pay 12% in taxes and telling people they know best and are looking out for them.
The Republicans need to lighten up on some social issues. They have to support good qualified candidates that have differing views and dont walk lockstep with the far right wing. They should take a page out of the Arnold's book. Conservative on fiscal issues and middle of the road on social issues. That crosses over party lines and he proved it. Better the Republicans do it then a Democratic "Arnold" candidate. They need to nominate, run and elect more minority candidates. A strong conservative Hispanic or Asian candidate would win a congress or senate seat in California. A strong African-American conservative candidate could win big in NY, PA, MI, and Florida. The first female President will not be a liberal white woman from the North East who is still stuck in the 60s but a conservative forward looking minority woman.