THE BLOGWAY BOYS

An Opportunity Wasted

2011-04-09T07:07:00.001-07:00

I'm angry ... the GOP blinked. Instead of sticking to their guns, and looking out for our country ... they surrendered to Obama and Reid.

If the GOP were serious about paying the troops during the shut-down ... they should have sent a clean bill that would pay the troops and Homeland Security during a Government shut-down. Then if the Senate and President killed it ... everyone would have been able to see who was at fault. But no ... they had to put in anti-abortion riders that ensured that the bill would go no further.

I am not optimistic about the coming battles over the debt ceiling and the 2012 budget right now.

It seems that politics and polls will always trump doing what's right in Washington. Why did I ever get my hopes up that this would change.

I only hope that the GOP doesn't leave Paul Ryan hanging. His budget is courageous ... that does not bode well for him with his pusillanimous colleagues.

No Compromise

2011-04-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

. It's pretty much a given that there will be no more CR's (continuing resolutions) passed to fund the government beyond next Friday. In order to prevent a Government Shutdown, a budget for the remaining 6 months of the fiscal year must be in place. If you figure in the 72 hour rule that the House passed earlier this year (pending legislation must be posted 72 hours prior to a vote ... in order to give the public a chance to read it), that means that the budget must be done by Tuesday to have a vote on Friday.

Now we are hearing about a compromise bill that is pending that would cut $30 Billion from the Budget.

The GOP controlled house better say NO to this "compromise". First off, it was supposed to be a cut of $100 Billion that was promised to the American public during the 2010 campaign season. I can live with the $61 Billion since it is a pro-rated amount (more than 3 months of the year had already gone by with CRs funding the government at 2009 levels when the GOP took over the House). I can live with it ... though I would have liked the whole $100 Billion. So ... that was our COMPROMISE ... NO MAS.

No one has seen this compromise bill. Coming from this administration and Harry Reid's sleazy Senate, I'm sure that it is chock full of accounting tricks and unrealistic revenue projections (just like Obama-Care). Personally, I don't care if the Federal Government shuts down. All the essential services will still run (military, law enforcement, homeland security), and if the rest of the government is "non-essential", then why the heck are we funding them at a time when we are running trillion plus dollar deficits? I know that some of these non-essential services are needed (passport offices, GAO, etc.), but if the National Parks, and bureaucracies close for a while ... so be it. Something has to be done to pass the 2011 budget so we can start the real work of writing a meaningful, cost-cutting 2012 budget.

Sooooo .... NO MORE COMPROMISES

2011-03-26T06:24:00.000-07:00

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You just gotta love a liberal. It seems that with many Americans now buying smaller, more energy efficient cars, hybrids and electric vehicles … the Gas-Tax money is starting to dry up. Let’s get this straight. The Obama Administration has been advocating fuel efficiency for going on 3 years … and now that the American public is starting to begrudgingly comply … the folks in DC are upset because gas-tax revenues are down.

Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), the head of the Senate Budget Committee is calling for a tax on the number of miles driven, instead of on gasoline. Conrad noted that soon the tax receipts on gasoline will not cover federal highway spending. The gap is supposed to reach $18 billion a year by 2021. Senator Conrad lamented that the change in American driving habits has created a disparity between the funds needed and the way that we pay for them.

Maybe the Senator doesn’t realize that all people who drive cars DO NOT make over $250,000.00 a year. Can he remember back to 2007? All the promises about no new federal taxes “of any kind” … but then again, nobody ever expected the Democrats to keep those promises.

Just wait till people stop smoking ... What are they going to do when all that tobacco tax money runs out?

Budget Cutting

2011-03-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

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Okay ... funny cartoon, but then again the subject is far from funny.

Here is the problem.

The GOP ... especially the representative that were elected with the help of the Tea Party want to slash spending to the bone. The Democrats really don't want to cut spending at all. The Democrats will make a big show out of cutting a little spending here and there ... but then want to add "investments" in their little pet projects that cater to their base.

When I watch the news, I get frustrated and angry. I'm sure that I'm not alone in this. On the one hand we have Rand Paul that wants to take a meat cleaver to foreign aid, military spending, domestic spending ... actually all spending. While I agree with him that cuts can be made in all of these areas, if he had his way, we would close ourselves to the world and become "Fortress America", existing by ourselves all happy and content ... till the other 6 billion world inhabitants invaded because we were the haves and they were the have-nots. America can not live in a vacuum. We are the only super-power in the world, and by default ... like it or not, we are the leader of the free world.

On the other hand we have Weiner, Pelosi and Reed etal that are fighting to save every ounce of spending they can. These are people that never met a tax or spending program that they didn't think was essential to the American people. If they want to be Europeans ... they should just move there. I can assure you that Europeans don't think they have it as great as they do. I watch these liberals on TV and all they talk about is how everything would be just fine as long as we tax the rich (the rich being everyone that has a decent job) and end the war. How simplistic is that? These are supposed to be the "great minds" that we elected to run our government?

The White House just keeps punting ... after all, President Obama wants to be re-elected next year and he doesn't want to anger his base (even if it is for the good of the country). Compare that to a man that the President keeps quoting (President Reagan), who I never saw as pandering to the electorate. He simply did what he saw was right for the country and was re-elected in the largest electoral landslide in history. President Reagan had the gift of being able to address the public and explain why he was doing something ... and even if you didn't agree with him, you felt that he had weighed his options and made the best choice for the country ... and you really couldn't fault him for it. That was why he was nick-named the "Great Communicator", and that was why he was a great leader. Leadership is sorely lacking from the current administration. We really need our President to lead the country, but what do we get from him? Vacations, golfing and bracket picking. Everyone remembers FDR's "A day that will live in infamy" speech on the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour on 12/7/41. Those that have heard the archives of the speech that he gave after that one realize that he was the leader that we needed at that time. In his next speech (after Congress declared a state of war), he outlined the sacrifices that were going to have to be made by the American people while the war was going on. He told them about rationing of gas and steel for the war effort. He told them that new cars would not be available because production and resources were going to build ships, tanks and planes. Stockings would not be in short supply because we needed the silk for parachutes. Women would have to go to the factories to work, because we needed the men to fight the war. This was not a Rah Rah type of speech, but it was a speech that got the American people ready for the tough times to come.

We need the President to speak to the American people like FDR did back then. We need a leader. We already know that Obama is no Ronald Reagan ... can he at least be an FDR?

Libyan Democracy

2011-03-12T07:21:00.000-08:00

For those of you that thought the entire Middle-East and North African regions would convert to democracy just by a bunch of protesters going into the streets and demanding it ... our favorite despot in the region has brought us back to reality.

There was absolutely no way that Muammar al-Gaddafi was going to let a bunch of peasants dictate anything to him. Unlike Egypt, where the Army was respected ... In Libya, the Army is feared. While there were some Army defections to the rebels, the Libyan Army is solidly backing Gaddafi. While the rebels have been able to seize some tanks and weapons ... Gaddafi rules the air. He is using his air power to crush the insurgency. The Rebels have been calling for a no-fly-zone to be established over the country to give them a fighting chance, as well as to keep foreign mercenaries out. They do not want any help in the actual fight ... just some weapons and a chance to take this dictator out.

There have actually been calls in the US Congress to establish a no-fly-zone from both sides of the aisle.

But once again our Procrastinator-N-Chief is waiting. I can almost see the wait and see approach he took with Egypt's Mubarrak (even though I didn't agree with it). But Mubarrak was an ally of the US ... Gaddafi is an enemy. The President doesn't want to do anything without either the United Nations or NATO sanctioning it.

Well ... unfortunately the UN has China and Russia with VETO power. Neither of these countries want the UN to go into Libya ... they use the excuse that they shouldn't interfere with a revolution. The real reason is that Gaddafi has long been an ally to both countries. The problem with NATO seems to be mostly from Turkey and Germany. Turkey is a Muslim country and I guess they want to keep out of another Muslim country's business. Though it seems strange that they would want to allow the wholesale slaughter of fellow Muslims at the hands of Gaddafi's Air Force. Germany is an even stranger story. Angela Merkle says that she is against interfering in Libya ... But I was stationed in Berlin back in 1986 when there were actually 2 bombings perpetrated by Gaddafi-backed terrorists. The first was at a German-Arab friendship center a couple of weeks before the more famous bombing at the La Belle Disco where two American soldiers lost their lives. Why would Merkle not want to help take out this terrorist?

I have actually heard some pundits say that the Middle-East is not ready for Democracy ... who are they to dictate that some people must live under an oppressive ruler ... while they enjoy freedom?

Gas Prices And The Fragile Recovery

2011-03-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

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Just in case you hadn't noticed, gas prices have gone crazy the last couple of weeks. I filled up my tank 10 days ago at $2.99 a gallon and just yesterday I paid $3.25 a gallon. Where is all the media outrage about our President being in cahoots with the oil companies.

After Hurricane Katrina halted off-shore drilling and damaged our Gulf coast refineries, the nightly news beat up on the Administration for the cost of gas going up. Now that Hurricane Obama has halted off-shore drilling and most energy exploration to make the environmentalists happy ... no blame at all seems to be coming his way.

In about a month's time, we will start to see sky-rocketing food prices and the price of synthetic clothing will also go up. Usually when synthetics go up, we can fall back on cotton ... but many of the cotton plants were damaged in the colder than usual winter we had in the south. Cotton prices have already tripled. We could have really used some of that global warming this winter.

The rest of this is simple. When people have to spend more on the necessities (food, clothing, utilities and gas) they have less money to spend on cars, furniture, appliances, etc. The companies that manufacture these goods and the retailers that sell them can't afford to hire new workers, or they go out of business and workers lose their jobs. The recovery stalls or reverses. If I can see this, and you can see this, why can't our politicians see it?

We need to drill for American oil, and avoid paying the fear premium that is currently on foreign oil (the fear that production will be halted in the Middle-East because of the chaos that is going on there). We need to fast-track nuclear power plants. We can continue to explore solar, wind and geothermal energy sources ... but until these options become cost-effective we cannot mandate a certain percentage of our electricity come from them (sorry Mr. President but that is irresponsible given our current fiscal situation).

The left is always looking for ways to spend OUR tax dollars. Sometimes they come up with good ideas and we should not reject them just because they come from liberals. We should not however, mandate how we spend tax dollars or how businesses spend their capital.

As for drilling in Alaska ... I lived there for 3 years and I can tell you that in ANWAR, drilling will cause absolutely no harm ... because for the most part ... it is a wasteland.

So, Mr. President, get your head out of your tuchus and lead. Stop worrying about the 2012 election and do what is best for the country. Take a page out of President Reagan's' book and just work on making America strong. The Country saw that he was looking out for our interests and he had no problem being re-elected.

Similarities???

2011-02-26T07:06:00.000-08:00

I have been noticing alot of similarities of late. These similarities are not often noticed at first glance ... but when you think about it, they are amazingly alike.

Democratic State Legislatures and Despotic Middle-Eastern Dictators

Both of these are Rulers that are having a hard time realizing that the citizenry has kicked them to the curb. They are trying to hang on to power for dear life. They are attacking their own citizens (the despots use the military and mercenaries ... the democrats use union thugs). They don't realize that rulers lead by the consent of the governed.

Unions and the Communist Party

This similarity was brought to life during an interview with a pro-union supporter in Wisconsin. As the supporter was stating that the Communists were not taking part in the demonstrations, a group of them marched behind, waving their red flags and shouting pro-worker slogans. It looked like a skit from Saturday Night Live.

Democrats and Petulant Children

Actually, this one is pretty self-evident. We have Democrats running away and hiding from their constituents, spending money without a care as to how or who will pay the bill, throwing tantrums ... etc.

Whatever happened to all the hype after the Arizona shooting of Congresswoman Giffords? Weren't Republicans and Democrats supposed to enter into a milder public discourse of their differences? I guess that only applies to Republicans ... after all, see the above similarity.

New Democrat Tactic? ... Not Really

2011-02-19T07:16:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, Wisconsin Democrats fled to Illinois to avoid voting on a bill that would in effect make Wisconsin a Right-To-Work State. They are using a political tactic (trick) called breaking a quorum. A quorum is the minimum number of representatives that must be present in order to hold a vote. This number differs from legislature to legislature. The rule was established to prevent a party from holding a meeting in the middle of the night (not inviting the opposition) and passing legislation. It was not meant to avoid votes that the minority party would lose. These rules also apply to businesses and are called "Roberts Rules Of Order".

This is not the first place that Democrats have used this tactic to avoid a vote. I remember back in 2003, 11 Texas Democrats left the statehouse in Austin and went to Albuquerque, NM (twice). This was to avoid a redistricting plan that would have decreased their power. The plan was to stay out of state till the legislative session was over, and return after the new elections when they would hopefully have enough votes to win. This didn't work, as the Governor kept calling special sessions until enough of them returned to have a quorum.

What's next for the Democrats? Is it possible in 2012 we will see them leaving the Senate to go to Canada to avoid a vote on repealing Obama-Care? When will the public finally have enough of their shenanigans and march in the streets to demand that their representatives get back to work? There is a tea-party rally in Wisconsin today to counter the public employees that have been on a wild-cat strike (I think they should all be fired - by the way) ... This could get interesting.

We live in interesting times ... Scary, but interesting

A Tipping Point

2011-01-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

What started out as food riots in Egypt have grown into an uprising against the 30 year reign of President Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian government has been an ally to the United States and a stabilizing force in this very volitile area. With the recent revolution in Tunisia, is Egypt the next domino to fall?

The Obama administration failed to capitalize on the popular uprising in Tunisia against strongman Zine al-Abadine Ben Ali. We sat on the sidelines while our President mulled over the situation. This sort of thing cannot happen in Egypt.

We have a choice here. We can live true to our ideals and support the pro-freedom citizens of Egypt, or we can support the Dictator Mubarak (sorry VP Biden, but he IS a dictator). Seems like a simple choice ... but not so fast.

This is a way too simplistic way of looking at things. Even as every fiber of my pro-democracy, freedom loving being screams to support the citizens ... I have to ask, "What's best for the USA?" The obvious answer is a free, democratic Egypt ... but is that what we will get? The best possible scenario is that we use our $1.3 billion in annual military aid as a bargaining chip to get the Egyptian military to support the citizens and establish a Democracy. The problems with this scenario are that we don't know for sure that such a government will last, and if it falls, what will take its' place. The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest opposition in Egypt ... and absolutely cannot be allowed to come to power. Also, what does turning on our ally (Mubarak) say to the other dictators in the region that we support (King Abdullah al-Saud in Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah II in Jordan). In a perfect world, all of our allies in the Mid-East would be peaceful democracies ... in reality there are only two democracies in the region, Israel and Iraq.

Our other option is to support Mubarak, and 82 year old despot that tortures his citizens, arrests and jails dissidents and acts very much like the Shah of Iran. The problem is, as vile as this evil man is ... he is not hostile to Israel, he helps to control the Gaza Strip, and he keeps the Suez Canal open. At 82, he won't last forever and while he has been grooming his son to take over as President, there is no way that the populace will allow his son to take over after Mubarak's death. Supporting Mubarak will also fuel anti-American hostility through-out the region. Our enemies will gladly use this to say, "see ... the Americans don't care about freedom". In 1979, the Carter Administration pulled the rug out from under the Shah of Iran ... and we all know how well that went. There is some evidence that the Carter Administration actually helped orchestrate the Shahs' downfall. I truly pray that the Obama Administration had nothing to do with this uprising in Egypt. I don't think the Nation could recover from the black eye that this would give us in the region.

Thankfully this decision is WAY above my pay grade. I just know that a decision MUST be made. It seems the Obama Administration is trying to take a middle of the road type policy on this one ... It's time for our President to show some leadership in international affairs. Keeping to the sidelines is a recipe for disaster.

Wandering Thoughts

2011-01-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

This week, as an homage to the tragedy in Scottsdale Arizona, Representative Mark Udall (D-CO) has proposed that Republicans and Democrats sit together during the State of the Union Address this year. My first reaction was to recall the famous Bill Murray quote from the movie Ghost Busters about the beginning of Armageddon with cats and dogs sitting together. What a dog and pony show! Then I began to ponder about it, in that annoying way that my mind works ... and ... low and behold ... I like the idea.

I started to wonder, why do our Representatives sit apart? Who came up with the idea of "opposite sides of the aisle? So, many google searches later, the nearest I could glean was the "tradition" of sitting on opposite sides of the aisle started around the time of Thomas Jefferson. He and John Adams may have been the first partisan warriors.

It would seem that a more natural divide would have our Representatives sitting with their state delegations ... much like in the presidential nominating conventions. Don't we send these people to Washington to represent us, the constituents? I don't think we send them there to represent the party.

Most Americans want our government to work to make OUR lives better ... and that is backed by the Constitution ... Pursuit of happiness and all that. How can we pursue our happiness when Washington keeps putting up road-blocks by catering to the special interests. A lot of rhetoric is put out there every election cycle about "the evil" special interests ... but as soon as the election is over, it's back to business as usual. The Democrats pander to the unions, environmentalists and the poor, while the Republicans pander to big business and the rich.

It's time our Representatives pander to US. Maybe that starts with bi-partisan seating ... maybe it IS just a dog and pony show ... but at least it won't add to the deficit.

The Debt Ceiling and other Washington Chicanery

2011-01-08T06:42:00.001-08:00

During the Holidays, the National Debt quietly creeped over 14 trillion dollars. Our current debt ceiling (the amount of money that the government is allowed to owe) is now $14.3 trillion. Very soon now, Congress will have to raise this limit or we as a nation will start to default on our debt ... or we will have to arbitrarily start to defund programs.

Some folks are against raising this ceiling, and if we have to default or cut programs ... so be it! I say ... raise the ceiling gradually. Each time the ceiling is raised, get some concessions from the White House. You want to raise it to $14.7 trillion ... let's cut 10% across the board on all discretionary spending. Later on, if you want to raise it to $15 trillion, another 10% and a balanced budget agreement. Conservatives only control the House, this is a way to leverage that control to get things that they normally can't get through.

Now how about this 2% payroll tax reduction that the President put into the tax bill for this year? I've wondered why he didn't just cut income tax by 2%, then I realized why. 48% of Americans don't pay any income tax at all ... cutting the income tax does nothing for them. Let's not forget ... when an illegal gains employment, he immediately fills out his W-2 form with Married 12 dependants ... the only taxes he pays are the social security taxes. The President was just looking out for his constituency. Now we all can see how serious this Administration is about the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund.

The Constitution was read aloud on the floor of the House of Representatives last week. This might have been the first time that some of our law-makers have every read the Constitution in its entirety. I hope they were taking notes.

This coming week the House will vote on repealing Obama-Care. Some say that it is an exercise in futility ... some say it is a colossal waste of time. I don't know about you, but I will be very interested in which members vote against this bill. This will translate into my vote come next election day.

So much for my first rant of the New Year ... may God bless you and our country.

AN OBAMA CAROL

2010-12-23T06:46:00.000-08:00

Twas the night before the December federal holiday, and in every town,
All the children were crying, the North Pole had shut down.
Santa’s workshop was closed, the elves labored no more,
They refused a union card check, in violation of the new labor law.

The reindeer in their stables no longer were kept,
PETA released them into the wild, while poor St Nick slept.
Christmas trees had been outlawed, no Yule for the masses,
For cutting all those trees, raised greenhouse gasses.

Moms and Dads were confounded, no toys in the stores,
They were all stuck in Asia, far from our shores.
All drilling had been halted, fossil fuels no longer used,
Cargo ships were all empty, we weren’t amused.

And in the White House, a meeting was called,
All the President’s men (and women) et all.
The polls show the voters against us, the President decried,
So many things have gone wrong, and they know that I lied.

Now Geitner, now Reid, now Pelosi and Michelle!
On Gibbs, on Sebilius, on Holder and Rahm … why do you smell?
Mr President, I’ve been working so hard to keep you in power,
Spinning all your mistakes … leaves me no time for a shower.

It was quickly decided, there was no other way,
The President would have to save Christmas Day.
And like the Grinch, who started as a zero,
Obama must change from villain to hero.

To deliver his presents he needed a super fast sleigh,
So he called on NASA to figure out a way.
The last NASA scientist, said you’re asking too much,
You’ve gutted our budget, cutting our programs and such.

We’ve got a hybrid sled … but it is far from fast,
No jet fuel remains, just ethanol at last.
You can still talk to the people, you can still teach,
Why don’t you deliver your present in a speech?

Gibbs call a press conference, the President exclaimed,
I will save Christmas, and our power he proclaimed.
I’ve given many gifts to the people of this great land,
Now the best one is finally at hand.

I’ve given health-care, repealed don’t ask don’t tell,
Don’t forget cap and trade, or stimulus as well.
I’ve extended unemployment benefits to 3 years,
And borrowed trillions from China, despite all the fears.

Our society is too violent, as crime statistics can attest,
A solution is needed, and government knows best.
Firearms are dangerous, no longer needed today,
So as my Christmas gift, I’m taking your guns away.

Then into his hybrid sleigh he climbed with a chuckle,
It rose with a hum, and an occasional buckle.
And slowly away, into the night,
We seethed as once again, we lost a right.

Merry Christmas to all, And to all a good night.

Mexican Drone Crashes In El Paso

2010-12-17T06:50:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night, El Paso experienced yet another illegal border crossing. This one was special. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed into the backyard of an El Paso resident. The house was almost half a mile north of the border.

I’m amazed that I didn’t hear about this till this morning … seeing as I live here. By the time the information was released, the UAV had already been returned to Mexican authorities. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had not been allowed to examine it.

Now there can be several reasons why the UAV was on the wrong side of the border. A controller may have inadvertently flown over, the GPS system on the plane could have been malfunctioning, the UAV may have been damaged by cartel gunfire, or there may have been structural problems with the UAV.

The last 3 of these possibilities could have been answered by an NTSB examination of the UAV/wreckage. I thought that ANY crash on US soil must be investigated. I guess not.

There is another possibility … The Mexican military may have been conducting a recon mission for the cartels, to determine the best route to smuggle drugs. We have not been told if the drone was armed, though with a payload of only 3.3 pounds, it couldn’t have been too heavily armed. The office of our Congressman was not even notified of the incident till Thursday. I’m not a conspiracy theorist … but this all seems a little fishy.

Orbiter Mini UAV specifications:
Max Ceiling – 2000 feet
Max Speed - 70 knots
Max Altitude – 18000 feet
Max Payload – 3.3 pounds
Endurance - 3 to 4 hours

DREAM ACT ... OR NIGHTMARE?

2010-12-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) has a very alluring sound to it ... and on the surface, sounds like a noble thing that the country should do. When supporters espouse the benefits of this bill ... I know I feel myself falling right into the mindset of allowing amnesty for these kids. In a nutshell, here is what they want you to believe this act will accomplish.

Imagine a young child, or even an infant ... crossing our border in the arms of their parents. This child grows up, attends and graduates high school, and then finds out that he is illegal when he attempts to apply for financial aid for college. The child considers him or herself an American, can't even speak his native tongue, doesn't even know anyone in his native country. Now, all of a sudden ... all his dreams are over. Is he supposed to turn himself in for deportation to a country he considers foreign? A country where he knows no one, or even the language? Are we supposed to punish him for the sins of his parents? Put yourself in this person's shoes ... is this in any way fair?

What this bill is supposed to do is give these kids a pathway to citizenship if several stipulations are followed.

The child must have been under 16 years of age when he came to this country.
The child must have been present in the United States for 5 years prior to the implementation of the Act.
The child must have graduated from high school or gotten a GED.
The child must be between the ages of 12 and 35 at the time of application.
The child must be of good moral character.

If the child qualifies, they will be given "conditional" permanent residency, and if they complete either 2 years of military service or 2 years of college ... then they can become permanent residents, and eventually, if they wish ... citizens.

Here are my problems with the bill.

I've spoken to Border Patrol Agents, and children under 16 often cross illegally ... without their parents. Children in other parts of the world tend to grow up a little quicker than they do here in the USA. Here in the USA, we like to give our kids a childhood, in other countries parents don't have that luxury, and the kids take on responsibilities for helping out the family ... like getting a job, that some of our kids (unfortunately) don't do till they are 30. Recently a 14 year old was arrested in Mexico for being a cartel hit-man.

The good moral character stipulation has been interpreted to mean that the child has not been convicted of a felony. What that tells me is that he can be convicted of things like assault, manslaughter and domestic violence. This is not the child that I was led to believe would be helped by this Act. I can see overlooking something like a juvenile shop-lifting conviction or possesion of a joint ... but this is way to broad.

I'm fine with giving illegals who complete 2-yrs of military service a pathway to citizenship ... but attending college??? Serving in the military is just that ... service to our country. Attending college is a privelege ... a privelege that many CITIZENS would love to have. I realize that not every one of these applicants are capable of military service, but there has to be some kind of SERVICE that these kids have to do to qualify. In Germany, as a requirement to KEEP your citizenship, at the age of 18 you must do 6 months of military service. If you are a conscientious objector (or are physically or mentally unable to serve) you can do Zilidienst (civilian service). This Zilidienst is paid community service, usually in hospitals, senior centers ... etc. For Germany this is the price of just keeping your citizenship ... and we want to just give away our citizenship for going to college?

As a supporter of doing something for these kids (the ones that truly deserve it), this Act would have to be fixed before I could support it.

Lame Duck Session

2010-12-04T07:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the "Lame Duck" session of congress ... Version 111.0.

Every couple of years we have one of these lame duck sessions. This is where those members of Congress can get back at Americans for kicking them out of office. This year is even more special. Since the Democrats will be losing control of the House of Representatives, this may be their last chance to advance their liberal agenda (hopefully for a long, long time).

So ... let's see what they have been up to this week:

First, huge kudos for Congress for passing the CALM act that regulates TV commercials. If you are constantly grabbing for the remote every time a commercial comes on that is soooo much LOUDER than the show you were watching ... this act is for you. Commercials can no longer be any louder than the show you were watching.

Congress also approved the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. We all want healthy hunger-free kids don't we? But, isn't 4.5 billion dollars a little steep? And don't these kids already get food stamps? I don't know about you, but I get kind of pissed when I'm doing my grocery shopping. I go every 2 weeks and for example, at the meat aisle ... I'll get a roast, a couple of t-bones, a couple of sirloins, a package of franks ... and the rest ... hamburger meat. I then go to the check-out counter and the person in front of me is unloading mega-steaks, lobster, shrimp, crab legs ... and paying with ... you guessed it ... food stamps. I scrimp on my shopping ... buying store brands, clipping coupons and shopping sales ... just so that I can subsidize the "poor people" so that they can eat better than me. Now, I'm not saying all people on food stamps take advantage of it ... but a significant number do. Congress should be cutting these food programs ... not pouring billions of more dollars into them.

Congress has voted to censure Charlie Rangel D-NY. Poor Charlie ... an 80 year old man how has to stand in front of his peers and be told by them that what he did was wrong. Of course the fact is that if any of us "average folks" had done what he did ... we would be going to jail.

The House has voted to extend the Bush tax cuts for the middle class and the Senate has called a special Saturday session to vote on them. The bill will not pass the Senate. I wonder how much money is wasted by opening up the Senate on a Saturday ... overtime for the employees, electricity ... etc. At least I don't think they have to pay anything for heating ... not with all the hot-air being emitted by our Senators. The bill will not pass because it increases taxes on the "rich". I don't know about you, but I work for a rich guy. I don't want his taxes raised ... or anything else that might hurt his bottom line. His good fortunes allow me to raise my family ... I don't begrudge his wealth. I think that might be one of the main failings of the left.

I noticed one thing about this week ... Nothing was done that will help the country as far as our problems with unemployment, the national debt, our security ... or anything. I guess that is what is meant by a "lame-duck session".

By the way, doesn't it seem curious that after having rejected a trade-pact with us, South Korea is now willing to sign one? All it took was a couple of hundred shells from the North. Bravo Mr President, I believe you used your Chicago politics to strong-arm South Korea. You see, if you use them in diplomacy ... you help the country. Just stop using them on US industries.

Demented North At It Again

2010-11-26T06:29:00.000-08:00

Once again, North Korea is provoking the South. This time they decided to lob a couple of hundred artillery shells onto Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea. This is an island occupied mostly by civilians ... yes there are military troops there ... but they are there to protect the civilians.

This ... let's call it like it is ... ACT OF WAR, resulted in the deaths of 2 Korean Marines, 2 Civilians and the injury of 18 other civilians. And what was the response? Nada ... zilch ... zip. Counter-battery fire should have been immediate and overwhelming. The US has 28,000 troops in South Korea (most of them on the DMZ) that are for lack of a better word, "hostages" to the vagaries of Korean diplomacy. We cannot allow these troops to continue to be caught in the middle of two 1,000,000 man armies.

We need to withdraw our troops from the DMZ and protect South Korea from the sea and the air. These troops are just a symbol of our support ... they should not be hung out to dry.

A scary development seems to be unfolding. It seems that South Korean military that have been examining some 20 unexploded rounds have determined that these are vacuum bombs. These bombs ... also known as fuel-air bombs, thermobaric bombs and aerosol bombs ... are particularly nasty. They consist of two explosives and fuel. The first explosive spreads the fuel through the air and the second, detonates the fuel. This results in an enormous blast wave that disintegrates whatever is below. The over-pressures resulting from this type of bomb are very similar to a nuclear weapon. These are of course very small bombs (they have to fit on the rockets launched from the Norths' MLRS's, but the technology is pretty much the same to construct a larger weapon.

Something must be done to reign in the madman Kim Jong Il. I'm just not sure what it is ... and I definitely don't trust the current administration to solve this problem. I wouldn't put it past the administration to get us into another messy war to distract us from the US economy and Obama care.

It's Time To Trim The Fat

2010-11-20T06:53:00.000-08:00

As we prepare to carve up the turkey on Thanksgiving ... I suggest that lawmakers start thinking about ways to carve up our bloated budget. Being the ever helpful soul that I am ... I will give them some suggestions.

Let's start with TARP. It seems that most of this money has been paid back ... but as is the M.O. of the Beltway ... this repaid money has been used again. All money paid back from TARP (usually with interest) needs to be used to pay down our national debt.

The General Motors IPO. This money that is being paid back by GM (and any that comes in from Chrysler) should also go directly to paying down the debt.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This is the parent company of NPR and PBS. This entity should be dissolved, saving us $422 million a year. With all the competition in media, there is no longer any need for this entity. This program was set up back when most of the country only got 3 TV channels and a couple of radio stations. Can we sell the rights to ELMO? That would take a big chunk out of our National Debt.

The National Endowment For The Arts. I can't see a better way to save $161 million a year than to bury this office ... and I can't say I'll miss the urine-soaked crucifixes and dung-encrusted sculptures of Christ that this office pays for.

Government Workers. Freeze the salaries of civilian government employees for this coming year (we can decide whether to continue the freeze next year). This will save us $5.2 billion dollars for every year that it is in effect.

Government Workers. Slash the federal civilian workforce by 10% ... saving us $26 Billion dollars a year, and by leaving out the military and arms of Homeland Security, will still keep us safe.

We need to systematically look at every single line item in the budget and cut it to the bone. Austerity measures are never popular ... Let's see if this new Congress can walk the walk ... we already know that they can bloviate ... can they execute?

Let's get some feed-back on other programs you think should be cut.

Do Not Hire Pelosi

2010-11-13T06:53:00.000-08:00

Republicans are celebrating the pending election of Nancy Pelosi to the House Minority Leader post. They reason that Ms Pelosi has overseen the destruction of the Democratic Party in the House ... and besides, who wouldn't want to see her face as the leader of the Democrats. They figure that with her in charge, it increases Republican chances to take the Senate and the Presidency in 2012 ... I do NOT agree.

Nancy Pelosi has been one of the most effective Speakers in recent memory. She took the President's agenda and through arm-twisting, back-room deals and various levels of bribery and cohersion, forced President Obama's agenda down the throats of every American. Nancy Pelosi was able to pass Obamacare, Cap and Tax, and Financial Reform through the House ... often getting her caucus to vote on these items, even when they knew it was political suicide. She is a formidable woman ... who knows how the game is played.

I, like many Americans, are sick of the gamesmanship in Washington. I would have liked to see a minority leader that could work with the majority to solve some of the problems we are having now ... I do not want to have to wait 2 years to start getting results. Can the country survive till 2012? Sure it can, but the trip back will be harder. Just like saving for retirement ... It's better to start now.

~ Speaking of starting now ... let's start trimming the budget. We can start by eliminating the 32 "czars" that the President has appointed (not counting the new "cyber-security czar"). I double-checked my copy of the Constitution and there was no mention of czars in it ... Maybe the President has a different edition (that would explain a lot). Each czar has a salary of around $150K+, but when you figure in staff, benefits, pension, travel ... you get a cost of $2.2mil a year per czar. I know $70 million is a drop in the bucket ... but it's a start. The last Czar died in 1918 ... let's keep it that way.

The Week In Review

2010-11-06T06:47:00.001-07:00

The Republicans won back the House of Representatives on Tuesday picking up over 60 seats. Some pundits likened it to a "Red Tide", sweeping across the country. Though I like the symbolism of it, a red tide is actually an algae that multiplies at such a rate that it eats up all the oxygen ... killing all life in the area. The only things that got chewed up in this tide were Democrats and RINOs.

Republicans fell short of winning back the Senate. They needed to pick-up 10 seats and only got 6. It's very sad that Harry Reid and Patty Murray held on to their seats. But then again, it seemed like the entire Democratic Party apparatus was mobilized to help them. And let's not forget the Unions. I've always felt that if you are unsure of who to vote for in a particular race, ask a union member who the union supports ... then vote against that person. It's a technique that has never failed me.

President Obama has left on a 10 day trip to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. There are reports out there that the trip is costing us $200 million dollars a day ... $2 billion dollars for the whole trip. I find this a little hard to believe and may be a bit of sensationalism (the source for this information was credited as ... some guy in India). This has been billed as a trip to open up trade with these countries, and I am all for more trade (especially exports), but why is the President just going on this trip now. Why has he waited 22 months to try to open up trade and get US manufacturing jobs going? Couldn't he have done this sooner? Like maybe instead of one of the countless vacations he took?

The United Nations Human Rights Council has sat in judgement of the United States. We have been found wanting in the Human Rights arena. Hundreds of suggestions have been offered to address these grievances. This help, in the form of the suggestions (and accusations) has come from our friends across the globe. Mexico says we need to fix our immigration laws ... I agree, we should make them more like Mexico, then we can imprison illegals just for being here. Iran says we violate the rights of women ... Hey Iran ... are you still planning on stoning that woman for adultery? Also chiming in with accusations were Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and of course, that bastion of human rights, Libya. This would actually be hysterically funny except for the fact that the Obama Administration signed us up for it, thinking it would be a good exercise in transparency.

All in all ... it's been a good week. I can't wait to see what happens next.

The Biggest Teaparty

2010-10-30T07:14:00.000-07:00

On November 2nd, Nearly 237 years after the original Tea Party, Americans will be celebrating our biggest Tea Party ever. Not in Boston harbour, but in countless polling stations across the nation. The Tea Party in 1773 had 60 colonial celebrants ... the 2010 version will have millions. It's funny how anger over taxes was the fuel for both events, and unimaginable how both the British government and current Liberals wouldn't be able to fathom the concept that Americans would sheepishly continue to allow the government to take their hard-earned money and re-distribute it to those that are too lazy to work.

Hopefully, our modern-day Tea Party culminates in the same results as the original one did ... Independence Day!

The Original Fall Guy

2010-10-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

Since moving to El Paso, TX 16 years ago, I have become interested in the rich history of this little corner of Texas. I recently visited the Fall House in the downtown historical area and wanted to do a little research on Albert Fall.

Albert Fall was born in Kentucky in 1861. He became a lawyer and made his way out west. He became one of the first Senators when New Mexico became a state in 1912. He was later picked by his poker buddy, President Warren Harding to be Secretary of the Interior in 1921. Here is where it starts to get interesting.

There were several tracks of government land that had been set aside as oil reserves, to ensure the Department of the Navy would have a source of oil if needed. One of these reserves was called "Teapot Dome". To make a long story short (many books have been written about this scandal ... so I will make it really short) ... Albert Fall secured a loan for $100,000.00 (which apparently didn't need to be paid back) in exchange for leasing this government land to Mammoth Oil and Pan American Petroleum Co.

This would seem an open and shut bribery case ... except for one thing. President Harding defended Fall, saying that this leasing policy had been presented to him by the Navy and Interior Secretaries prior to the leases being executed, and that he had, as President, approved them.

Congress opened an investigation into this and both Fall and Naval Secretary Edwin Denby were forced to resign. Fall was later convicted of Fraud and Corruption and served 1 year in prison and paid a $100,000.00 fine. He later moved to El Paso and died here in 1944.

Questions remain regarding President Harding's involvement with the scandal and whether Albert Fall took the blame to protect him. If so, Albert Fall was the first "Fall Guy".

In this vitriolic election season, who will be the "Fall Guy" if the Republicans don't do as well as expected? And what if the Democrats lose both houses? Whatever happens, one thing can be assured, there will always be a "Fall Guy".

Mexican Journalists Surrender

2010-09-25T07:09:00.000-07:00

Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco, a photographer for "El Diario", the Juarez, Mexico daily newspaper became the 11th journalist murdered this year in the Mexican drug war. He was gunned down in his car on September 17th by cartel members that didn't like the stories he was writing. He was just one of over 2200 people murdered so far this year in Juarez, the murder capital of the world.

But this is not a story about Mr. Orozco. Journalists have been putting themselves in harms way for decades. Some in search of the truth, some for self-aggrandizement, always to get the story to their readers. This is a story about the pusillanimous publication that employed him. El Diario is the major daily newspaper in Juarez, and is well circulated in El Paso, just across the border. This newspaper with a paid circulation of over 120,000 and a readership of over 600,000 is the major source of news for this war-torn city in Northern Mexico.

The day after the shooting of Mr. Orozco, El Diario ran a front page headline story ... Was it a tribute to a brave journalist? ... Was it a scathing rebuke of the cartel's tactics? ... NO. The story was an open letter to the cartels, asking what they could do to avoid further attacks (Mr Orozco was the second reporter from the newspaper in the past 2 years). Translated, the letter stated, "We do not want more deaths. We do not want more injuries or even more intimidation. It is impossible to exercise our role in these conditions. Therefore, tell us what you expect of us as a medium." The letter also referred to the cartels as "the de facto authorities in this city".

So I guess now the cartels are controlling the news in Juarez. The total capitulation by El Diario is indeed an ignominious eulogy for a brave man ... trying to bring the truth to the people of his beleaguered city. And the citizens of Juarez, are faced with yet another example of the establishment abandoning them. They no longer trust their government, police, army ... and now their news sources.

The GOP Still Doesn't Get It

2010-09-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

Whenever I start thinking that the Republican Party is going to take advantage of the discontent the American Public is feeling with the way things are going in this country ... they revert back to form.

I am of course referring to the win by Christine O'Donnell in the GOP primary for the Delaware Senate Seat once held by Joe Biden. Tea Party backed O'Donnell defeated GOP favorite Mike Castle ... and the sour grapes started almost immediately. Establishment Republicans, led by Karl Rove, slammed the candidate for having no shot at winning in the General Election. There were rumors that the NRSC would not be helping to fund her campaign. Mike Castle has refused to back her (or even call to congratulate her).

This is all because the GOP elite felt that Castle, who is a liberal Republican had a better chance to defeat Democrat Chris Coons in the General Election of this very blue state.

What the GOP fails to realize is that the tea party movement does not care about whether a candidate has a R or a D after their name. This movement wants to elect people that will go to Washington and fight for them. The American Public is disgusted with business as usual in DC. Karl Rove is also wrong in assuming that O'Donnell can't beat Coons. Though Delaware leans left ... the people aren't stupid. None but the die-hard liberals would vote for Coons, a self-described Marxist.

For what it's worth, I would like to do something that the GOP should have done from the start and offer my congratulations to Christine O'Donnell on a well run campaign, and a well deserved victory.

Will The President Sue California Next?

2010-09-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

It seems that the Obama Justice Department had no problem suing Arizona when they passed SB 1070, getting tough on illegal immigration. Now they are faced with a bit of a quandary. The Justice Department sued to uphold the Supremacy Clause … which simply put, says that if State Law and Federal Law are in conflict, Federal Law wins. I am by no means agreeing with the Obama Administration that a law that mirrors the Federal Immigration Statute is actually in conflict with Federal Law. Rather, I am wondering if the Administration will continue to defend Federal Supremacy … even when it is not in their political interests.

I am talking about the upcoming ballot initiative in California, making it legal for adults to possess up to one ounce of marijuana. If passed, this new law will most definitely be in conflict with Federal Statutes. Yet I do not hear a peep coming out of Eric Holder or the Justice Department. So, if Californians pass Prop 19 this November, I fully expect the Obama Administration to sue California under the Supremacy Clause.

After all … What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Unless of course, Democrats feel that stoned citizens are a protected minority (and likely to be Obama voters)

9 Years Later

2010-09-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

On this the 9th anniversary of the horrific attacks on our nation by Islamic extremists, I am sad, concerned, resigned, appalled and a plethora of other verbs.

Right after the attacks, I felt that this country had finally come together with a singularity of purpose and a unity that I had never felt before. When President Bush gave his "bull-horn" speech from the ruins of the Trade Center ... I could feel the entire Nation join with him and his vow to bring the terrorists to justice.

9 years later, where are we? There is still a hole at ground zero ... Osama Bin Laden is still hiding in a cave somewhere ... Our politicians are more concerned with re-election than with the American public ... Our economy is teetering on ruin ... and our President is dividing the nation, pitting us in socio-economic class warfare.

As I watched the 9-11 remembrances on TV this morning ... and yes, the tears were flowing ... I felt despair at the loss of our resolve. There is no HOPE left in the American people's hearts ... there is no resolve. As I watched the horrendous video of people jumping off the twin towers to avoid being burned to death ... I realized that this was a perfect representation of the loss of hope. And I cried.

America, can we regain our hope?

OBAMA'S $33 BILLION TAX CREDIT

2010-01-29T18:06:00.000-08:00

During his State of the Union speech on Wednesday, President Obama brought up one point that really interested me. I guess the reason that it made me wake up from the mind-numbing stupor that the rest of the speech had put me in is because ... I had advocated it from the time of the first stimulus program.

The tax credit for businesses that hire new employees should have been part of the stimulus program from the beginning. Not that I don't think that building tunnels under roadways in New England so that frogs can safely cross the road was not a good use of my tax dollars (NOT!), but encouraging companies to hire workers ... Now there is an idea that will improve the employment situation in the United States.

Of course, besides being late, there are several other things the President has gotten wrong on this idea. Feel free to add others if I miss anything.

The money should be taken out of the unspent portion of the pork-laden stimulus package ... not the TARP money that has been paid back. Use the TARP money to pay down our national debt.
A company can hire a worker that makes $7000.00 a year and get the entire $5000.00 tax credit ... Why would we want to do that? We need full-time job creation, not part-time jobs.
Companies would be capped at $500 million dollars in tax credits so that big businesses would not be getting the lions' share of this money ... If I'm an unemployed worker ... I don't care if my paycheck comes from IBM or Moe's bar and grill, a job is a job. Don't cap a large company ... if it wants to hire, let it.
The current proposal has provisions for tax incentives to companies that increase pay ... this is estimated to account for more than half of the $33 billion. Drop this provision and use it all for the creation of full-time jobs. At $5000.00 per job, this translates into 6.5 million jobs ... Voila, back to 5% unemployment.

As usual, the Democrats can screw-up even a great idea. Don't let them. Call your representatives and offer your support for this idea ... but ask them to make some changes.

Is The Recession Over???

2010-01-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

Don't count on the recession being over just yet. We have been hearing about job losses slowing down, factory orders being up, housing sales starting to take off and the stock market chugging away ... but all this can end quickly.

Unemployment always goes down in December, as many retailers hire temporary workers for the Christmas Season. These workers are then let go in January after the sales are over.

Factory orders are up, being led by orders for cars. New car inventories were depleted by the "cash for clunkers" program, and once inventories are replenished, these orders will fall.

Housing sales were bolstered by the $8000.00 tax credit that new homeowners were given last year. Even though the credit has been extended, most of those that were in the market already purchased, and we should see a fall in housing sales.

The stock market is on a high after many companies reported huge earnings. These companies are front-loading their profit and earnings statements because the fear is that taxes will go up next year and they want to report earnings before any new tax rates set in. Wall Street will come to this conclusion fairly soon and the market will over-react, wiping out most of the recent gains.

President Obama will continue to make banks, financial institutions and big corporations his scape-goats, exasperating a hatred between the common investor and the companies that need their capital.

I'm not an economist, but this seems to be a recipe for a double-dip recession.

Congratulations Massachusetts

2010-01-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

Now that Scott Brown is the Senator-Elect for the great state of Massachusetts, let's see what tricks the Democrat Party plays to shove Obama-Care down our throats. Already, one Democrat Senator, Jim Webb of Virginia wants actions on health care legislation halted till Brown is sworn-in.

Now we will see if our representatives in DC are willing to actually represent us ... or if they will once again go against the will of the American people and push their own agendas.

Hopefully this election has been a wake-up call to ALL of our politicians. We hired you ... we can fire you too.

They Just Don't Care What The People Want

2010-01-13T16:08:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel in the Health Care Debacle being hammered out in the back-rooms of Washington ... we find out that the results of the hotly-contested Mass. special senatorial election on Jan 19th may not matter at all.

The Senate race between Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley is in a virtual dead-heat. Brown has vowed to kill the health-care bill if elected and Coakley is supporting its' passage. The fact that a Republican is even competitive in a race in very left-leaning Massachusetts is evidence that the American public DOES NOT WANT THIS BILL.

If elected, Brown would break the super-majority now enjoyed by the Democrats in the Senate. This would force our Senate to go back to the drawing board on health care and come up with a bi-partisan bill that could include some Republican ideas like "tort-reform" and the ability to purchase insurance across state lines.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE!!!

Going into their bag of dirty little tricks, the Democrats, in the person of the Mass Sec of State is telling us that it may take weeks to certify the election ... and then there is the problem of Vice President Joe Biden finding the "time" to swear in the new Senator.

If the State of Mass. elects Brown, it is because the people do not want this bill ... we want health care reform ... just not THIS bill. To delay the seating of a democratically elected Senator, just so an interim senator (appointed by a Democrat governor) can vote for this bill borders on unconstitutional ... and is against the spirit of this Democracy at the very least.

Do we need to waste any more money?

2009-12-09T11:22:00.000-08:00

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has just announced that he is extending the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) till October of 2010. This is the 700 billion dollar program that was set up to bail-out banks from their toxic assets. The program was set to expire on 12/31/09 unless the administration decided to extend it.

Some banks have been paying back the TARP funds (with interest) and other institutions are in the process of doing the same. Seems that we currently have about $200 billion dollars currently in the TARP fund. Instead of using it to pay down our massive debt, the President wants to use it to stimulate job creation.

I suspect a more sinister use of the TARP money. I don't think it's coincidental that the extension of the program ends right before the 2010 November elections.

$200 billion makes for quite a nice political slush fund. By targeting these "job stimulus dollars", to congressional districts that may be at risk, the Obama Administration can help Democrats get re-elected. This is an especially nice carrot to wave in front of "Blue Dogs" that may take a lot of heat for voting for the health-care and cap and trade bills.

The $200 billion will take "Chicago-Style" politics to the National level.

Then again, I may just be a cynic.

Don't Give A Terrorist A Fat Lip

2009-11-25T15:13:00.000-08:00

Back in 2004, 4 Blackwater Security guards were found murdered, mutilated and charred, hanging from a bridge over the Euprhrates river in Fallujah Iraq. The murderer behind this, Ahmed Hashem Abed, has been captured by the Navy Seals. However, 3 of our heroic Seals that helped in the capture are now awaiting a court-martial. It seems that Abed told investigators that he had been punched and had the bloody lip to prove it.

So I guess we will take the word of a terrorist against our brave troops now? No wonder morale in the military keeps going down.

I would hate to see a bunch of "killed while attempting to escape" incidents happening now ... Lest we give Bin Laden a fat lip when we capture him.

Will Someone Please Tell The Speaker To Shut Up

2009-11-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

Nancy Pelosi decided to once again open her big mouth in an interview aired today on NPR. Pelosi, once again over-stepping her position as Speaker of the House, took a turn at being Secretary of State. She denounced Afghan President Hamid Karzai as an "unworthy partner", undeserving of a big ramp-up of troops or civilian aid.

Madame Speaker, since when is foreign policy made in the House? I think you need a refresher course in the Constitution! Policy is made at the Executive Branch ... the Legislative Branch decides the funding.

Now I have no doubt that the Speaker is well aware of what she is doing, and have a strong suspicion that her stupid comments were cleared by the White House. As our Ditherer-N-Chief is still several weeks away from a decision on troop levels in Afghanistan, perhaps San Fran Nan is setting a base from which a "No New Troops" movement can grow.

As for the President, the excuse of it will take 3 or 4 months to get the troops to Afghanistan, so there is no need to hurry is getting a little thin. If you had made your decision when the troop request was made ... the troops would already be starting to arrive and our young men and women in the combat zone would already be a little safer ... or do you even care?

All Politics Are Local ... Except When They're Not

2009-11-04T12:12:00.000-08:00

The Governorships of Virginia and New Jersey have passed on to the Republican Party, and already the spin-meisters on the left are trying to downplay the election results.

Very interesting that even though all the President's men, as well as our CEO and Chief campaigned for the Democratic losers in these states, the WH and media are proclaiming that this was not a referendum on President Obama's policies. They claim that Tip O'Neill was correct when he stated that "all politics is local".

Actually, except for the grammar, the former speaker was correct in his assumption. The problem for the Democrats is that the policies of the sitting President effect the ENTIRE NATION. So we now have 50 local states that are hurting. This does not bode well for the Democrats in the 2010 mid-term elections. This also does not bode well for the President's Health Care over-haul. Democrats in conservative districts will be running as far away from any new administration policy in the hope of saving their jobs next November (remember ... every seat in the House is up for re-election next year).

Republicans, don't start feeling too happy with yourselves just yet. The policies of the previous administration, along with the spend-thrift ways of the GOP-led Congress helped get us into this predicament. Republicans can't be seen as just politicians that oppose everything that the Democrats try to do. They must have their own plans for bringing this Nation back to prosperity, based upon Conservative economic principles. Right now the GOP has a chance to win back the support of the Nation ... but I fear that they will just waste it as usual. We need a new "Contract with America". Where is the next Newt Gingrich?

Where's The Transparency?

2009-10-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

When our fearless leader was running for President last year, he made a promise that most of America hoped that he would keep. He swore to run, "the most open and transparent government in history". Now that the public-option is in trouble, the debate has become as transparent as .... hmmm .... a large cherry wood door.

Previously, we have had the back-room deals struck with the hospitals, big pharmaceuticals, the AMA and AARP. But now we can't seem to get any information about what is going on while the various bills are being hammered out in the House and Senate.

Anyone else think that the next time we see these bills will be one or two days before they vote on them?

I envision a 2500 page bill being introduced to the Senate as a fait-accomplis. No one will have time to read it before voting, and the public won't get a chance to even look at it.

Possibly enough Senators will block the vote till everyone has enough time to read and debate it (no chance to get enough Representatives in the House to act sane). Is it too much to ask our Congress to at least read an important Bill before voting on it?

Hopefully I'm wrong and our elected officials will do the right thing. But I'm afraid this will just be an example of "Business As Usual" on the Beltway.

Arianna Huffington Is Right! ... Sort Of

2009-10-16T12:24:00.001-07:00

Recently on her hate-filled web-site, Arianna Huffington wrote that Vice-President Biden should resign if we give General McChrystal any more troops for Afghanistan.

Ms. Huffington did not go far enough. I think that Secretary Clinton should resign if General McChrystal does not get the troops he needs.

And while we are at it, can we get resignations from Speaker Pelosi, Harry Reid and the President too? By now they should have realized that they have gotten in too far over their heads and resign before they do serious damage.

WHY DO WE EVEN BOTHER ASKING OUR GENERALS?

2009-10-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

On June 10th 2009, General Stanley A McChrystal was made Comander of our forces in Afghanistan. He had the full backing of the President and the approval of the Senate. His job was to evaluate the situation on the ground and report back on what would be needed to complete the job.

Now the interpretation of what completing the job meant may mean different things to different folks, but what it means to me is that we WIN. The meaning of win is of course open to debate (we are talking about Washington DC ... where countless hours were devoted to figuring out what the meaning of "is" was). So to define it further, winning means 1) eliminating the ability of the Taliban and al-Qaeda to effectively mount any further insurgencies (or in lay-man's terms ... kill them) and 2) Install a sustainable Afghan government that is supported by the citizenry and will not harbor terrorists that wish to harm us.

General McChrystal has given a 66-page report describing what needs to be done to "Win" this war. It calls for an additional 40,000 troops to deal with the insurgency and accelerate the training of the Afghan police and military. This plan of action has been endorsed by General David Petraeus (the guy who brought us the "Surge" in Iraq, grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat).

However, there are a bunch of "Generals" in Washington DC that don't like McChyrstal's plan. General Joe (let's divide Iraq into 3 different countries and leave) Biden, thinks that we should stop fighting the insurgents and just train the Afghans, while occasionally firing missiles into Pakistan to kill al-Qaeda targets.

Generals Pelosi and Kerry of course just want to cut and run ... what a surprise!

Hey General Joe ... we tried fighting a war from DC twice before. During the end of the Korean War and during the Viet Nam war, and guess what?

Politicians make lousy Generals!!!

HAS EVERYONE HAD ENOUGH YET?

2009-09-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

I almost feel badly for the sheeple that voted for our President ... but if they were gullible enough to believe in the "change that you can believe in", I guess they deserve what they got.

I do feel badly for the people who voted against him, that worked their butts off to warn as many people about what could happen if he were elected, only to be met with a barrage of hate directed against them. Because obviously, if you were against electing a Black man to the Presidency, you were a racist.

It doesn't matter if you can provide a logical cognitive thought process to your decision not to support President Obama, you are a racist because ... umm ... well ... just because.

When the race card gets played ... no one wins, not the player or the playee ... and especially not the country, but then again, it doesn't seem like anyone on either side really cares about the country. The Dems are just trying to figure out how to consolidate the most power possible for "Big Government" and themselves. The GOP is trying to sabotage anything they can in the hope that they can regain power in 2010.

It would be nice if the American people would stop rewarding our politicians for acting like petulant children and vote them out of office ... but we keep falling for nice slogans and pretty faces.

We asked for this ... Next November let's ask for something else.

Obama's Report Card

2009-04-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

So ... how has the administration handled the first 100 days? Seems like it is time for a progress report. Let's see how the President has done on 5 key areas ... The areas are: Foreign Policy, Economics, Defense, Social Issues and Intangibles.

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A+ Intangibles ... The President has managed to convince the country that he can lead us out of the recession and restore our prominence in the world. Of course there are people who don't believe he can, but we they are in the minority, just as we they were in the last election. Don't discount the intangibles, we have often heard of educators that gave their students work that was many grade levels above what they were supposed to be studying and because the students thought that they were expected to learn it ... they did. He has given the majority of Americans HOPE.

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C- Foreign Policy ... I would give the President an A for his handling of the Somali Pirates (would have been an A+ if he had acted 3 days earlier). The rest of his foreign policy is a disaster. Bowing to the Saudi King would not have been that bad if he had just explained that it was an error. It might have actually played well for him. But trying to deny what everyone could actually see for themselves was very Clintonesque. Acting friendly with the rulers of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and China is an actual slap in the face of those people that are currently fighting, dead or imprisoned in those countries for trying to bring to their despotic homelands just a sliver of the freedoms that we enjoy in the United States. The USA should be helping those fighting against oppressive rule, not glad-handing their oppressors.
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D Economy ... Much as I hate even thinking about TARP, this has to be addressed here. Now this is a combined grade with the Bush administration having authorized and spent half of it. But it seems that having given 600 Billion to the Banks in order to loosen-up lending, shouldn't they be lending more? Kudos to Wells Fargo, which has actually increased lending from last year, but to the rest of the banks ... well, lucky you can't see the gesture that I am sending your way. Bank of America used the TARP money to buy other banks ... I guess that way they could get the TARP money from the banks they bought too. And now, when some banks want to give the money back, the government doesn't want to take it. Moving on to the "stimulus package" ... have you ever seen such a pork-filled political pay-back packed piece of s&*7 legislation? Guess the President didn't keep his word about vetoing bills with earmarks. And I don't have enough memory in this computer to go on about his 10 trillion dollar budget. I better stop now before I lower his grade.
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A+++Social Issues ... WTF??? you may be asking yourself, have the Blogway Boys gone completely crazy? This guy is a total disaster on social issues. But guess what folks, we all knew where he stood when we elected him, and boy has he delivered.
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F Defense ... The most important job of government is to keep us safe. As far as I'm concerned there is no debate on this, and all the other things that government does for us (post office, schools, roads etc) is just an added blessing (or curse). This administration is going to leave us weakened militarily and open to an attack that may make September 11th look like the good old days. Seems that all the other divisions of the government (commerce, agriculture etc) got bigger in the Obama budget, while defence was told to cut back. One of the things that the Army has been told to cut back is FCS (future combat systems). This includes things like robots for clearing minefields and disarming mines as well as things like the Predator drones that have been so effective in Iraq and Afghanistan and allow our troops to kill the enemy from miles away and have been directly responsible for saving lives and limbs. Mr. President ... just because you abolished the term "war on terror", doesn't mean that there aren't people out there that want to kill Americans ... and it is your responsibility to ensure that they don't succeed. And by the way, releasing memos on enhanced interrogation techniques and photos of abuse is not the way to safeguard America's security ... It's just a way to pander to your base.

"PLEASE SAVE MY BABY-BOY"

2009-04-21T10:38:00.001-07:00

Well, it didn't take very long did it? Some intrepid reporter tracked down the family of the lone-surviving Somali pirate. His mom is now pleading with the President to pardon her son because he was enticed into piracy by "gangsters with money". Newsflash mom, that's how most criminals turn to crime. The mom also wants the President to allow her to come to the United States to be with her boy (probably at taxpayer expense). She says her boy is only 16 ... though he says he is 19. On the off-chance that he is 16, she should be allowed a visa to visit her son and attend the trial ... but she needs to come up with the money to do so.

In yet another example of lawyer self-aggrandisement, prominent New York Civil Rights attorney, Ron Kuby is in discussions about forming a legal team to represent the young pirate. I never met a lawyer that didn't love press coverage, and Kuby is no exception.

In a welcome turn of events, several attempts to hi-jack other ships have been thwarted by NATO forces this past week. It just goes to show that when America steps up and shows strength, other nations follow. It's time for America to take the lead wherever evil people attempt to oppress others ... are you listening Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinijad and Kim Il Sung?

Well Done Mr President ... BUT

2009-04-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

I don't get to say this often but, "Kudos Mr President", your decision to let the Seals take out those Somali pirates was the correct one. Those 3 shots heard round the horn of Africa sent a simple and clear message ... you mess with our citizens ... you pay a steep price. This is the kind of message that I the world expected of a Ronald Reagan ... and it is very refreshing indeed to get it from a Barrack Obama.

I've been listening to the pundits for the last day or so, and there seems to be a consensus that the President's actions were to appease the conservative and pro national defense moderates in the country, but I say ... "So What???" A right decision reached for the wrong reasons is still a right decision.

Now be careful Mr. President, there will be a gnawing feeling in your gut to apologize to the families of these maritime terrorists ... DON'T DO IT! Your actions showed strength, and we absolutely do not want to be viewed as weak by the world. If this was your international "test", you passed with flying colors. Any "extra-credit work" will only lower your grade.

What Did You Expect?

2009-03-31T07:56:00.001-07:00

Congratulations America ... What 40+ years of the Cold War couldn't accomplish, President Obama did within the first 100 days of his Reign. We have now socialized a good portion of our economy. First our financial institutions, and now a major portion of our manufacturing sector. Next on the list ... Health Care.

Now, the President was well within his rights to fire the CEO of General Motors. Think of this as a "de-facto" bankruptcy, and our new Car-Dealer-N-Chief as the Bankruptcy judge. He is simply ordering the restructuring of the company. He got that "right" when GM got tax-payer money.

The President has given Government Motors 60 days to wring concessions from the UAW (United Auto Workers Union) to ensure the company's viability. I guess a "worker's paradise" will have to be put on hold for a while. At the end of the 60 days, I guess GM will have to go into bankruptcy so that they can void their contracts with the unions, suppliers and dealers. Because, does anyone think the union will actually voluntarily give up anything?

It is my opinion, that this has put the President in a bad position. He has staked so much political capital on GM succeeding, he is going to have to continue to pour billions of dollars into the company. If GM goes down, it will be seen as a failure by the President.

The big question is ... How much pressure is the President going to put on the Unions, they are the ones that brought him to the dance after all.

Can Hillary Drink Her Way To The White House?

2008-05-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

Whoever said that President Bush was a party animal, never hung out with Senator Clinton. Pictures found on Hillary's my space page show that she is the original "Party Girl". Whether it is shots and beer in Indiana or a bottle of Presidente beer in Puerto Rico ... This chick knows how to party down.

Can you imagine the election party if she gets elected? I hear special beer funnels have been ordered in anticipation of her election. Both the funnels and beer kegs will have the Presidential seal emblazoned boldly upon them.

But seriously, what in the world is she thinking? Does she think that by swilling beer and shots she will be able to win the vote of the typical hard-working middle class American? I actually think this is insulting to your average American. We want someone who is better than us in the White House ... I wouldn't trust the average American with their finger on the button.

Lest I forget to pile on to Obama, the presumptive nominee flew into El Paso yesterday and hopped in his motorcade for Las Cruces, NM without stopping at all. Who cares if El Paso has a population of over 600,000 and Las Cruces has a population of only 86,000. Obama and his wife don't seem to want the votes of this heavily Democratic city. Neither Michelle or Barrack have deigned to visit our fair city, but both have been to Las Cruces. Former President Clinton has been here twice, Chelsea once and Hillary kicked off her Texas campaign here. Is it any wonder that Clinton got 70% of the vote here in the primary and 90% of the caucus delegates. To add insult to injury ... Barrack decided to send a surrogate to El Paso. Now, El Paso has a population that is 76.2% Hispanic ... so who did he choose to send??? George Lopez!!! Hispanics I have asked about this were very insulted, they love George Lopez as a comedian ... but felt that maybe Bill Richardson would have been a better choice.

To take a line from CFS ... Isn't Politics Fun?

Hilary Bosnia Lie TRUE! New Footage

2008-03-27T08:07:00.001-07:00

See ... and everyone thought she was mispeaking.

This video was proudly stolen from barelypolitical.com

Racism In America

2008-03-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Judging from this picture, racism starts early in America.

Wow, this is a pretty serious title for a blog post, as well as a very serious subject. I hope I can write something worthy. Senator Obama attempted to address this issue in a speech this week ... and while it did make people sit up and notice, I don't think it went far enough. At least one statement from the speech has started a discourse into the subject that may bear fruit ... though I doubt the Senator was attempting to broach the subject when he said it.

During his speech, Obama referenced his own grandmother (who is white), and some of the racist feelings and prejudices she had. A couple of days later, after probably getting an ear-full from granny, the Senator tried for some damage control on a Philly sports radio show. During that interview, Obama stated that his grandmother was a "typical white person", and if she sees someone on the street that she doesn't know (black) .... there is a reaction.

Now, the use of the word "typical" is of course prejudicial (regardless of how true it may be). The right-wing pundits are having a "field-day" with this ... and the Clinton camp is just sitting back and enjoying the show. This is the peril that we all face while walking through the mine-field that has become race relations in the United States. The problem seems to be that we are incapable of having an "adult" discussion of race without one group or another taking offense. Until we can "grow-up" as a nation, we will be mired exactly where we are now. As for that discussion, as a "typical white person", I think we need it.

The Chickens Have Come Home To Roost

2008-03-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Barrack Obama's racist pastor has said many hateful things during the 20 years that the senator has attended services, but the one that is pertinent is the chicken one.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, shortly after September 11th gave a sermon in which he stated, "America's chickens have come home to roost". Seems that the reverend thinks that since the United States has been a firm defender of Israel, the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were justified.

Seems that the chickens are currently roosting above Obama's head. In a speech this morning, Obama criticized his pastor's comments ... but praised the man. Barrack ... you can't have it both ways! Either you are going to play to the radicals or emphasize the unity that you have been espousing for the past 3 years. If you try to tip-toe your way between the two, you will fail.

I think we are about to see the floor come out from under the Obama campaign. Already, the polls in Pennsylvania are starting to show that white voters are leaving the Obama camp ... can reasonable black voters be far behind?

Obama, who was the wunderkind a month ago, and seemed destined for greatness ... now seems just another politician, caught up in the same usual political games as everyone else. His mealy-mouthed answers to tough questions by reporter Major Garrett last Friday brought back memories of Bill "Slick Willie" Clinton. Obama hemmed and hawed and tried not to offend anyone ... and ended up offending everyone.

When history is written, will it be said that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright postponed the election of America's first black President? And for how long?

Is Barack Hussein Obama the Antichrist?

2008-03-12T16:07:00.003-07:00

The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world

I had an interesting conversation at work yesterday and the consensus opinion was that I should post about Obama as the Antichrist. I intended a tongue-in-cheek piece, but upon further thought ... maybe he is. Consider this:

When I googled "Obama Antichrist" my search yielded over 200,000 results. A search of "Blogway Boys Antichrist" only came up with 22 matches.

The Antichrist is to be heralded by a false prophet ... Obama has been heralded by Minister Louis Farakhan.

The mark of the beast is 666 ... Obama's car has 3 sixes in the VIN number.

Behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him ... Obama has a white car.

The Antichrist is supposed to cause all kinds of trouble in the Middle-East ... If Obama is elected, Israel will be thrown to the wolves and Iraq will be abandoned and consumed by Iran.

So, as you can see, the evidence is incontroversial ... He is the Antichrist!

Is Barack Hussein Obama the Antichrist?

2008-03-12T16:07:00.001-07:00

An American Icon

2008-02-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

The newest addition to American Pop Culture just may be our next President. A lot has been said about Obama's lack of experience and lack of any campaign platform. In fact the best line I heard this past week was John McCain's, where he called Barack Obama's campaign, "an eloquent but empty call for change". We here at the Blogway Boys are not going to just jump on the bandwagon and pile onto Sen Obama ... we are going to do our research.

So where do I go to find out the Senator's positions? The obvious place is his website, after all if I wanted people to know where I stood ... I would definitely put all my positions on my website. Sure enough, on his very slick web page (one that I am actually jealous of, since mine looks like do-do compared to it), once you get past all the attention grabbing calls for "Change", there is an issues drop-down menu with 20 issues plus a category entitled additional issues with 6 more. I was delighted ... this would be the easiest research I had ever done.

So with great anticipation, I opened the first one entitled, "Fiscal" and downloaded the 3-page PDF file. Wow, I thought, this guy is good ... he can solve the nations' fiscal crises in 3 pages. Well actually 2 pages, since the first one was a cover sheet ... Well one page, the second one was merely a quote from one of his speeches (triple-spaced and taking up half the page, with the remainder of the page giving a summary and an explanation of the problem). Well actually not quite a page since the last fifth of the final page gave a synopsis of his voting record. Now the meat of the rest of the issue page was that we need to cut pork-barrel spending, reverse the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy (though he didn't define wealthy), reinstate pay as you go rules in Congress, make government spending more accountable and efficient, end wasteful government spending, end tax haven abuse, and close special interest corporate loopholes.

I looked at this in shock, o-kay, I could get behind some of the policies ... but nowhere did he say how he would do them. Is he under the assumption that when he becomes POTUS that he can fix all of these things by official fiat? My mind immediately wandered to Sen Clinton's speech where she spoke about the heavens opening up and the celestial choir starting.

Every one of the positions on his website were full of beautiful ideas and ideals ... but not much in the way of how he was going to accomplish them, much less how he was going to pay for it. He also says that he is going to cut taxes on the poor, middle class and elderly. Everything will be perfect in "Obama-Land".

Looking through his voting record, he does seem to practice what he preaches, he voted against giving telecommunications companies immunity for co-operating with the federal government, he voted for pay as you go amendments and against the war in Iraq. He voted against funding the war and he voted for time-tables for troop withdrawals. Now I disagree with all of these votes ... but have to give the man credit for his consistency. The problem I have is he has missed a lot of votes (he has actually missed more than he has cast). I don't know if this is because he had no opinion on them, or if it was because he thought that by voting his conscience that it would hurt him politically ... or if he was just too busy running for President.

Anyway that you look at it, Obama doesn't have a plan ... just empty rhetoric. If he was competing on Dancing With The Stars, he would get my vote ... but for President, I would prefer Hillary (I can't believe I just said that).

SUPER DELEGATES???

2008-02-12T07:50:00.000-08:00

All of a sudden I am hearing about the role of the "Super Delegates" in the Democratic Nominating Convention. Are these delegates faster than a speeding bullet? Can they bend steel in their bare hands? Do they have mental powers beyond our feeble brains? What makes them so super?

Well folks, they are super because they can vote for any candidate that they want. They are the wild-card in this whole process. Your State can vote 90% for Obama, and your "super" delegate can vote for Clinton. Yes, they can be a powerful force at the convention, disregarding the will of the American people and voting for anyone they want. But who are these powerful individuals ... what are their secret identities?

This army or "Super" delegates (numbering about 842) is comprised of 450 elected members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Democratic Governors, Democratic Senators and House members, distinguished party leaders like current and former Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and former leaders of the House and Senate), and those chosen by the DNC to get the number up to 842. With the exception of Super Bill Clinton, these delegates are un-pledged and free to vote for whomever they wish. With 2052 delegates needed to win the nomination, these Supermen (and women) represent over 41% of the delegates needed to ensure victory.

You may be saying to yourselves, "This doesn't seem too democratic", and you would be right. But, the party of change has a very good reason for this ... usurping of the democratic rights of their voters. They believe that the voters are stupid and that the political hacks of the DNC know what is best for the voters. After the 1972 primary put George McGovern at the top of the Democratic ticket, the party decided to institute "super delegates" to prevent it from every happening again. Those of you who are too young to remember, McGovern lost to Richard Nixon 520 - 17 in the biggest electoral college landslide till that time. These "super-delegates" were set up as a safety-valve in case the voters ever tried to elect another candidate that was undesireable to the Democratic Party!

I don't know about you, but I would be a little pissed off if a candidate were to be annointed the nominee by these "Super" people, because they felt I was too dumb to make the correct choice. This party of "change" ... needs to change their process.

It's Judgement Day For Rudy's Strategy

2008-01-29T10:25:00.000-08:00

Polls have opened in the Sunshine State and the fate of the Candidacy of Rudy Giuliani may hang on the outcome (Florida and hang mentioned in the same sentence ... where is the word chad?).

Rudy attempted a new strategy in this election cycle ... one never tried before ... and one probably never to be tried again. He started as the front-runner, and then didn't start running till the Florida primary. He lost all the momentum he had prior to the election season, but hoped that he could win all the "Big States" and therefore the nomination. What ended up happening was he was left out of all the election excitement and all of his supporters started checking out other candidates.

Now why would the initial "front-runner" choose an unproven strategy? I believe there are several reasons:

He felt he did not have enough money to run a National campaign and thought to put the money where he would get the most bang for his buck.
He knew that Mitt Romney had unlimited personal finances and hoped that other candidates could stop him in the early contests (or at least slow him down ... and that has played out for the most part)
Like most people from large states (myself included), he felt that too much power was placed in Iowa, New Hampshire and the rest of the "early voting States" and wanted to reduce the power of those States.

Yes folks, I believe it is unfair that a minority of voters in these little States set the agenda for the rest of the country. By the time I get to vote in March, the field has been dramatically cut, and I don't get to vote for my first choice ... yes, I actually resent that the Religious Right in Iowa and the liberals in New Hampshire get to winnow down the field before I get a chance to vote. Maybe I have just been sucking on sour grapes for too long, but we had 9 candidates when this race started and by the time March rolls along and I get to vote, I might have to choose between just two.

The primary system goes back to the same time as the electoral college and needs to be changed. We need a national primary day where everyone's voice can be heard. And the best part of having it all done on one day ... it will be cheaper for the candidates that won't have to sell their souls for votes in the early States. If Romney spent $20,000,000.00 in Iowa and received 29,949 votes, that means that each vote cost him about $667.80. Quarter 4 finance reports are not in yet, but I think the $20 million is probably a conservative estimate. We have over 100 million people of voting age in the US. That kind of spending extrapolates out into billions of dollars. How can we have an election free of the influence of special interests when so much money is needed to run under the current system. The people who set up the current system could not have foreseen such excesses in spending. When the primary system was set up, It was assumed that the time between primaries was needed in order to allow the candidates to travel by horse drawn carriage and meet with the voters in the various town halls. I say we get out of the 19th century and into the 21st and revamp the primary system.

So Rudy, though your strategy may have been flawed ... I understand where you are coming from.

Fear Of Recession Prompts Huge Rate Cut

2008-01-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

The Federal Reserve Board, prompted by a global stock sell off amidst fears of an impending recession, cut the federal funds rate by 75 basis points (3/4 of a percent) from 4.25% to 3.5%. The Fed is also cutting its' discount rate (the rate that it lends banks by 75 basis pts). Banks have responded by cutting the prime rate from 7.25% to 6.5%.

Now for those of us that do not have a degree in economics, what does this mean?

Well, on the positive side, for those of us that have credit cards with interest rates based on the prime rate, we will have lower monthly bills (for those of us smart enough, we can pay the same amount and actually reduce our debt faster). For those in the market for a new car, interest rates will be lower (meaning that if you finance $30000.00 for 72 months, your payment will be about $11.00 lower with the new rate). Though $11.00 doesn't sound like much, it comes to almost $800.00 over the course of the loan. A lower interest rate allows the federal government to refinance its' publicly held debt at a lower interest rate, saving taxpayer money, that would have been used to service the debt. Finally, for those that are in ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages), there should be quite a bit of relief there.

On the negative side, this looks like a desperation move, and is likely to affect consumer confidence. When consumer confidence goes down, people don't buy as much and retail outlets and manufacturers start laying people off. Lower interest rates have a direct corollary effect on the strength of the dollar. As interest rates fall, so does the value of the dollar. While this is great for American exports (a weak dollar means our exports cost less overseas while imports cost more over here), we are an import addicted nation. While we can switch to domestically produced textiles and automobiles, we still have to import the majority of our oil. If oil is pushing $100.00 a barrel now, I would hate to see it in 3 months.

So, is the Fed rate cut a good thing, or a bad thing? If it succeeds in keeping the US out of a recession, it is a good thing ... but only time will tell.

Heroes Come In All Sizes ...

2007-12-19T15:45:00.001-08:00

Pictured on the left is 7-yr old Alexis Goggins with her mother, Seliethia Parker.

Little Alexis, as a gunman was about to fire, leaped from the back seat of an SUV, throwing herself across her mom, crying out, "Don't hurt my mother!" Alexis was hit by six 9mm rounds, one in the right eye. Only two of the bullets got past her and into her mother.

The ~~piece of shit~~ gunman who shot Alexis and her mother, Calvin Tillie was the mom's ex-boyfriend and an ex-convict on parole. Tillie, who was hiding in the shadows by their apartment, jumped into the SUV after they had gotten in.

Seliethia has been released from the hospital, but little Alexis is still in critical condition and blind in one eye at Children's Hospital of Michigan, after three operations.

Ladies, consider this a public service announcement from The Blogway Boys: Be careful who you date ... especially if you have children. Remember, you may not only be endangering your own life, but the lives of your kids. At the very least, google your dates.

Please join me and my family in praying for our little hero, Alexis.

And for Calvin Tillie ... may he burn in hell.

Be Afraid ... Be Very Afraid

2007-12-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I listened to the Democrats debate in Iowa on the radio. I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing and thought ... no wait ... I must have heard that wrong, or maybe I got it out of context. So this morning I have been sifting through the transcripts ... and sure enough, I heard them right ... now I am more than worried for our country ... I am downright scared.

I did indeed hear Senator Biden say that he would pay for his social programs by increasing taxes by $200 billion dollars, bringing home the troops from Iraq and cutting military spending by eliminating wasteful programs like the F-22 Raptor (the US Air Force air superiority fighter that is replacing the F-15 Eagle which has been in service since 1972. This aircraft has stealth technology and can be used as a fighter, a bomber, electronic warfare or signals intelligence as well), the Nimitz class destroyer (the US Navy has a Nimitz class nuclear powered carrier, but I know of now destroyer with that nomenclature. Then again Biden is a senator and I am a lowly blogger. Still I think he may have been thinking of the Arleigh Burke class destroyer which is an Aegis guided missile destroyer and essential in the defense of our carriers.) and "Star Wars" (after all, why would we want an anti-missile defense shield).

Yes indeed, every one of the Democratic candidates promised to close the terrorist detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba ... but not one of them mentioned what they would do with the 400 plus terrorists that are there now. Will they just release them? Perhaps bring them to the United States and put them into the federal prison system where they will spread their militant brand of Islam among all the "born-again" Muslim convicts ... that would be pretty stupid.

Every single one of the candidates, would "rescind some of the Bush tax cuts" which is just liberal-speak for increase taxes. These folks often talk about how the "rich" don't pay their fair share, but they don't ever say what they consider rich. I fear that if you have a decent job, you are rich in the eyes of these candidates.

Each one of them wants to cut subsidies to big business ... o-kay, at least one thing that I can agree with them on. You and I should not be forced to subsidize multi-billion dollar companies with our taxes, and if these companies have off-shore accounts, I'm sorry but those accounts should be taxed ... and taxed at a higher rate than if they had kept their money here at home. I firmly believe that a healthy economy depends on independent business, but I also believe in an even playing field. Most of these tax breaks and subsidies are a result of successful lobbying in Washington, and I am sick of politicians selling out to lobbyists.

In summing things up, it is interesting to note that the candidates mentioned the word tax or taxes 31 times, and except for one mention by the moderator didn't mention terrorist or terrorism once. While education was mentioned 29 times by the candidates, national defense wasn't discussed at all. Health care was used 28 times but Iran was the furthest thing from their minds. This speaks volumes as to what will happen if one of these clowns are elected to our highest office. We will have lots of social programs till we are attacked again ... too bad our military will still be using antiquated weapons ... God Bless America ... we are going to need it.

For Shame Reverend Huckabee

2007-12-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

It seems that an article, due to be published in the New York Times Magazine this Sunday, Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, and ordained Southern Baptist Minister, asks, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

For years, this question has been raised by people who want to smear the Mormon faith. For Mike Huckabee to be asking it now is a testament to how the prospect of presidential power can corrupt even a good-hearted soul. It also raises another huge question in the minds of the electorate. Is Mike Huckabee another one of the far-right religious wackos. While Huckabee is perhaps cementing his standing with the religious right that makes up about 40% of the conservative base, he is ruining his chances in the general election.

But where does this misconception about Mormonism come from? During 2 hours of intense research ~~along with a couple of games of free cell~~ I have found nothing in the tenets of the LDS doctrine to support this misconception. The Encyclopedia of Mormonism makes no reference to Jesus and Satan being brothers ... It says that Jesus was the son of God and Satan is a fallen angel. This jibes with my Catholic upbringing ... and probably with all Christian faiths. The only place I could find was in the writings of Paul who said, "God is the father of all". This meant that all of God's creation were his spiritual children ... but then again, that was in the New Testament and not the Book of Mormon. No, statements like the one being published on Sunday are for the express purpose of relegating Mormonism to cult status and not a religion.

Have no doubts, the Democrats would love for Huckabee to be the Republican nominee ... they consider him to be the easiest candidate to destroy next November. Personally, I was always uneasy about having a fundamentalist christian as President ... my gut feeling has now been confirmed. I am truly disappointed in Huckabee.

Must See TV

2007-12-08T12:47:00.001-08:00

Been super busy at work ... hopefully I will be able to visit everyone next week. In the meantime, enjoy this video ... I know I did.

Will Justice Finally Be Served?

2007-12-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

The appeal of the conviction of former border patrol agents, Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos is now in its' second day. If today goes as well as yesterday, these men should soon be free.

This is a local (El Paso) story that has gotten some play nationwide, but for those of you who are unaware of the story ... a quick re-cap is in order.

On February 17th, 2005, border patrol agents Compean and Ramos intercepted a vehicle with 750 pounds of marijuana near Fabens, TX (just outside of El Paso). The driver, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, a citizen of Mexico, ran from the vehicle and started running across the Rio Grande (the border). According to the border patrol agents, Aldrete-Davila turned, holding something shiney in his hand, and they opened fire, striking the drug smuggler in the buttocks. Aldrete-Davila continued running across the border and escaped capture. The agents, violating policy, picked up the shell casings and did not report the shooting (probably to avoid paperwork and the temporary desk duty till the shooting investigation is closed). Somehow, Johnny Sutton, the US district attorney for the El Paso area found out about the incident and started an investigation. He offered the drug smuggler immunity for his testimony against the officers and convicted the two agents, sending them to jail for 11 and 12 years. Failure to report the discharge of a weapon is subject to administrative punishment under the Border Patrol's usual procedures and these sentences were extreme, especially since it came down to whether the jury believed the agents or a drug smuggler. Problem is that the jury was not allowed to know about the drug smuggling that went on that day or a couple of months later when Aldrete-Davila was again caught smuggling drugs.

The two border patrol agents have been serving their sentences in solitary confinement after Ignacio Ramos was severely beaten by five illegal aliens in prison. Twenty-three hours a day in a small cell, with one hour a day that they can walk in the yard or watch TV.

Congressman Sylvester Reyes (D-TX), the former head of the El Paso Sector of the Border Patrol, instead of standing up for the agents, decided to side with the drug smuggler and it required Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) to stand up for the agent, sending a letter to the President, signed by 50 lawmakers, asking for a pardon for the two agents. Rep Rohrabacher makes the case that since these two are in solitary, they are receiving worse treatment than we give to the terrorists at Gitmo (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba). President Bush, to his shame, has not acted upon this letter.

Back to the present. Federal prosecuters have admitted that Aldrete-Davila lied during the trial. "He told some lies on the stand," Mark Stelmach, the assistant U.S. attorney representing prosecutor U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said under questioning by a three-judge 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in New Orleans. In addition, the questioning by the judges seemed to point to a victory for the agents. Judge Patrick Errol Higgenbotham questioned Stelmach closely about why the prosecution had sought to seal from the jury information about a second smuggling attempt by Aldrete-Davila after Sutton's office gave him immunity and a border pass.

The judge also said it defied common sense to believe that Aldrete-Davila was a lowly mule, as he represented at trial and not an actual player in the world of the drug cartels. Which of course makes it more likely that he had a gun.

Hopefully today is as good as yesterday and these two men can be released quickly ... but who will give them their lives back again? One step at a time I guess.

Don't Celebrate Yet

2007-12-03T17:10:00.001-08:00

El Presidente Hugo Chavez lost in a referendum election to change the Venezuelan Constitution and allow him to run for a third term, eliminating term limits completely. The referendum would also have allowed him to suspend the constitution whenever he felt like it. In order to garner support, the referendum also would have shortened the work-day to 6 hours and would have given pensions to street vendors and housewives.

The referendum was defeated 51% to 49% and Chavez quickly called admitted defeat and called for calm ... earning him some statesmanship points. He had promised last week to cut off oil to the United States if the referendum passed and the US objected to the outcome of the election, so I was wondering what would happen if he lost.

But do not pop the champagne corks yet, Chavez will still be in power till 2010. In that time, I'm sure that this referendum will once again (maybe twice or thrice) rear its' ugly head. It only needs to be passed one time for the possibility of a President for life. Chavez has pledged to find another way to pass his reform plans.

But for now, we can take solace in the fact that 51% of Venezuelans don't want to give up democracy. I'm thinking that it is probably a bigger number ... but Chavez underestimated how much he had to stuff the ballot box in order to win.

CAFE Standards And Other Assorted Energy Stuff

2007-12-01T15:44:00.000-08:00

An agreement among Congressional Democrats has paved the way for an increase in the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Standards of 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. As a person working in the auto industry, I have always been a firm believer in letting the market dictate what kind of vehicles the consumer buys. But I am going to shock everyone by actually supporting this increase. Here are my reasons why:

The United States needs to decrease its' dependence on foreign oil, and this will save over a million barrels a day.
A million barrels a day at $96 a barrel equals $3.5 billion a year of our cash that we don't put into the pockets of Hugo Chavez, Armagedonijihad et al.
There is enough time for our auto companies to work out the technology to accomplish this feat. In fact, with the fuel cell and advanced dual-mode hybrid technologies that General Motors is already putting into production, 40 miles per gallon is not too far away.

My problem is in a couple of other parts of this energy bill.

This bill mandates a seven-fold increase in the production of ethanol for use as a motor fuel. Are they nuts? We currently subsidize ethanol to the tune of $1.45 per gallon. With the new requirement to produce 36 billion gallons of ethanol a year by 2022, subsidies would amount to almost $54 billion of our tax dollars. We are already seeing an increase in the price of corn and meat (corn is a staple in most animal feed). With the increased farm land that would have to be dedicated to corn production, we will also see an increase in just about every farm product.

Another part of this legislation that sticks in my craw is the requirement for non-public electric utilities to produce at least 15 percent of their power from renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. I can understand the desire to slow down our use of coal. Even if you don't believe in global warming, spewing all that crap into the air just can't be good. But unless they consider the atom a renewable energy source, they aren't attempting to use the cleanest energy available.

Why Won't He Listen?

2007-11-28T09:57:00.000-08:00

I was overcome with the desire to steal this cartoon from http://irritableelephant.wordpress.com

Now that confession time is over ... have you heard the latest stupidity to come out of Hugo Chavez's mouth? El Presidente is accusing CNN of instigating his murder. Chavez has called for a probe by the Venezuela State Prosecutor and is considering a civil case against the company.

This all began when, during a CNN news broadcast, a picture of Chavez was shown with the caption "Who killed him?" written below. The caption was supposed to go with a picture of a dead football star, but during a production error (or as a result of a production assistant with a great sense of humor), the captions apparently got switched. The picture was taken down after a few seconds when the news anchor realized the error.

Well, at least we now know where Hugo Chavez gets his news. Besides El Presidente's insanity, why would he make such an idiotic claim? Well, it seems that the US government has been ignoring his statements recently, and his attacks on the King of Spain have back-fired ... so he needs somebody new to attack. An election battle is fast approaching on a referendum to allow Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely, and polls have the race at a dead heat. History has shown that whenever an election is approaching ... Chavez attacks someone to ~~distract voters from what he is doing~~ burnish his Nationalistic credentials.

In a related subject, the most popular ring-tone in Spain is now a recording of Spanish King, Juan Carlos yelling at Chavez, "Porque no te callas?" or "Why don't you shut up?" So far the ring-tone has made 1.5 million euros ($2.2 million), and coffee cups and t-shirt sales with the saying are really taking off.

When Passion and Common Sense Clash...

2007-11-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

With all the things that are going on around the world today ... I am writing about a teddy bear. After all, the newest round in the Mid-east peace talks is starting up ... In Pakistan, President Musharref is stepping down as head of the Army ... Iran has just announced it has a new missile with a range of 1200 miles ... and in the world of higher education, Montclair State University has made it mandatory for students to carry "school issued" cell phones with GPS tracking devices (costing the students $500.00 a year). So, with all this news (most of which pisses me off), why would a teddy bear win the honor of being the most screwed-up news in the world today? Well folks, it's a tale of stupidity on the part of ALL of the parties involved, and just contributes to increased animosity and downright hatred between the Muslim and Western worlds. Here is the story:

A British primary school teacher has been arrested in Sudan for insulting the Prophet Mohammed. Gillian Gibbons a 54 year old teacher from Liverpool is facing a maximum punishment of 40 lashes, 6 months in jail and a fine for naming a teddy bear Mohammed. Gibbons was following a British national curriculum designed to teach children about animals and their natural habitats. This year the animal was the bear. A student brought in a teddy bear as part of the project and Ms Gibbons allowed the 7-yr olds in her class to vote for their favorite name for the bear. Twenty out of the twenty-three kids voted for the name Mohammed. Some parents took offense and the result was her arrest.

Here is the shared stupidity portion of this story. The British government, as well as the administration of the Unity school should have briefed Ms Gibbons on local customs before she was ever allowed to teach in a school in an Islamic country. The Koran has many references to what is considered idolatry and insult to Islam, and both entities were derelict in their duties to inform this teacher about what could get her into trouble. Ms Gibbons is an idiot for not making sure she knew about local customs before she even went to the Sudan. Most intelligent people research things before they travel to a foreign land ... especially one like Sudan. The parents of these kids need to get a life. If something offends you, what ever happened to complaining to the teacher or the school? I'm sure if they had come to Ms Gibbons she would have apologized and re-named the stupid bear. Finally, the Sudanese government needs to grow up. I realize that ignorance of the law (in this case article 125 of their criminal law) is no excuse, but their is a difference between law and justice. Sudan needs to drop this and either expel the teacher or let her apologize and keep teaching.

Meanwhile, Unity School is currently closed until at least January because they fear riots and retaliation from the community. Can anyone tell me how a little bit of stupidity can cause all this hullabaloo?

Or is the real reason because ... She taught them how to vote???

We Are Winning In Iraq

2007-11-24T15:47:00.001-08:00

Wow, it has been 10 days since I last posted. I can't remember not being pissed off for this long in quite a while. Guess I was thinking about all the things I was thankful for this past Thanksgiving week (that and figuring out how we were going to cram 58 friends and family members into my house for dinner ... we managed, good thing we are a close family). While I was mulling over my blessings, I started thinking about the news from Iraq, and in particular, the lack of bad news. Liberals, cover your ears, but I think we have turned the corner and are actually winning the war in Iraq. This may be hard to digest for the portion of our elected officials that have made losing the war a priority, but for most of this nation, as well as most of the free world, this is indeed another blessing. But how did this miracle come about? Was the simple act of dumping an additional 60,000 troops into Baghdad enough to bring about this complete turn-around?

Well folks, the surge alone did not change our fortunes in Iraq, though without the additional man-power, we could not have brought about this new posture. Back in the mid-90's, New York City went back to a police policy that was in force when I was growing up in the 60's. This policy was called neighborhood policing and basically it was having dedicated neighborhood "beat-cops" walking around the community. Everyone knew the neighborhood cop. The officer that walked the beat in my neighborhood was known by all the kids as "George the Cop", and parents would introduce George to their kids and let the kids know if they ever had a problem they should go to George and he would help them. George knew all the merchants and most of the people in the neighborhood and would know if something was out of place or if there were suspicious people or events happening. Prior to this change, NYPD officers would zip around town in squad cars and only get out to write tickets or if on a call. With this change, NYC went from one of the most dangerous cities to one of the safest big cities in the world.

When General David Petraeus took over in Iraq, US soldiers would patrol during the day, zipping around in their Hummers and returning to several large bases at night. With the help of the additional "surge" forces, the General started a policy in which the soldiers set up joint forward operating bases in the communities in Baghdad. Now, the soldiers were available ... day or night ... to the Iraqi populace. It has had a calming effect on sectarian strife and the citizens of the communities are interacting with the soldiers on a daily basis. No longer is gathering intelligence an almost impossible task, the intelligence is now being communicated by civilians during the course of their daily interactions with our troops. Where in the past a concerned Iraqi, with information about a terrorist or criminal did not know where to go to pass on the information (the Iraqi police were ... and to a lesser extent still are infiltrated by sectarian extremists), now they can go to "George the GI", and let him know the information in the same way that we used to go the "George the Cop" when we were kids.

Outside of Baghdad, much the same has also taken place ... so when al-Qaeda in Iraq was driven out of Baghdad and tried to ensconce itself in the outer provinces, the local sheiks rose up against them (and that would not have happened or even been possible if the US forces had been holed up in their base camps). President al-Maliki (a Shia), has taken to walking the streets of Sunni Ramadi recently, meeting and greeting the people and finally acting like the leader we had all hoped for when he was first elected. The meaning to these Sunnis is immense. By him doing this (and let's face it ... what he is doing is risking his life), it shows them that they are a valued part of the Iraqi people ... It shows them some respect from the Shite controlled government. Now all we need is for the rest of the government to start acting like leaders and start compromising and passing much needed legislation so that Iraq can take its' place as a productive member of the global society (Unfortunately this last sentence can also be applied to the American Congress).

Yes, it looks like we are actually winning!

New President ... Same France

2007-11-14T10:19:00.000-08:00

French President, Nicolas Sarkozy was elected with the mandate to bring change to the French labor laws. He told his countrymen what he was going to do to make France more competitive with other countries in the World. Among these things was a longer work week, the ability to fire newly hired employees if they were not "up to snuff" and the dissolution of "special pensions". The French signaled they were ready to change when they swept him into office by a wide margin. Now it seems that some French Unions are saying, "Ralentir (Not so fast)".

At issue are the "special pensions" enjoyed by some, but not all public sector workers. Currently, those working in jobs with these "special pensions" are able to retire at full benefits at the age of 50. President Sarkozy is pushing for a new retirement age for these workers of 52.5 years. This will bring their retirement age closer to that of the rest of the State workers. To put this in perspective, the retirement age for the US military can be as low as 37 with a 50% pension or 47 with a 75% pension. 20 and 30 year retirements are also offered in any federal law enforcement job. These are people with high-stress jobs where they put their lives on the line ... not rail workers and opera singers and actors like in France.

The good news is that most of the French populace is backing Sarkozy on this and 80% think that Sarkozy will stick to his guns and force the Union to capitulate. I hope he does, it will be good for the French people, and that is what they voted for during the last election.

More Carter Shenanigans ...

2007-11-10T11:07:00.001-08:00

As promised, the second installment of my, "I hate Jimmy" post has arrived. In my prior installment, I accused Mr. Peanut of being an evil, vindictive SOB that screwed up the world. In this piece, I hope to show you that he is also an anti-Semitic commie that would sell the United States down the river for a chance at power.

According to Peter Schweizer, author of the best-seller, "Reagan's War", Jimmy Carter sought the assistance of the Soviet Union in both his 1976 Presidential bid and 1980 re-election campaign. These allegations are a result of interviews with former Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and First Deputy Foreign Minister Georgii Kornienko. In September of 1976, Carter assured the Soviets that if elected, he would take steps to rapidly conclude and sign the SALT II treaty, and would continue to negotiate an agreement on substantial reductions in strategic weapons. During his 1980 re-election campaign, he sent pro-Soviet industrialist, Armand Hammer to the Soviet embassy for a secret meeting with Ambassador Dobrynin. He asked for Soviet help with issues that would help him get re-elected, such as an increase in Jewish emigration. For their help, Carter promised that the Soviet help would not be forgotten. The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office even thought that Carter might be a Russian mole. They dispatched about 200 observers to monitor Carter's 1980 campaign against Reagan to see if the Soviets would try to buy the election for Carter. In 1984, while campaigning for Walter Mondale, Carter again asked for Soviet assistance. Carter warned the Soviets that in Reagan were re-elected there would not be another agreement on arms control as long as Reagan was in power. At least he was right on that note ... The arms race forced the collapse of the Soviet Union. With all these election shenanigans, isn't it amazing that Carter trots down to South America to monitor elections in Venezuela, giving Hugo Chavez a clean bill of health?

The previous writings are all facts. There are also unproven suspicions surrounding the Carter Presidency. These revolve around the Panama Canal, shutting off a spy satellite over Cuba as well as actually planning the takeover of the US Embassy in Iran. The Jimmy Carter Center in Atlanta, Ga still receives a lot of money from the Arab World.

According to Jimmy Carter, Israel treats the Palestinians like South Africa treated blacks during Apartheid. You don't have to believe me on this, he wrote it in his own words in his book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid". Then again, the man from Plains never was a big supporter of the Jewish State ... or Jews for that matter. In 1987, the US deported a man named Martin Bartesch to Austria. Seems that this animal had volunteered to be guard at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. The US had proof that he had participated in the executions of Jewish prisoners. The adult children of this fiend went on a letter-writing campaign, trying to get special consideration for their father. One of these letters made it to Carter who scribbled a note on the upper corner of the letter, stating that he wanted "special consideration for the family for humanitarian reasons". This letter was forwarded to Neal Sher of the US Justice Department's Office of Special Investigation, the man who worked so hard to deport these pieces of crap in the first place. A copy of the letter was posted on the Internet by the New York Sun (well you just knew that it wouldn't be the New York Times), and you can see it here http://www.nysun.com/pics/blog_8373_1.jpg so where is the special consideration for the families of the millions of Jews that were gassed, burnt or worked to death by the Nazis?

Once again, how can people call George Bush the worst president ever when we have this character in our POTUS lineage?

The Reason Why The Mid-East Is Screwed ...

2007-11-08T14:08:00.001-08:00

I am really tired of hearing how our 43rd President, George W Bush is the worst president in history. To find the worst one, we would only have to look back to number 39. That's right, our lovable peanut farmer from Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Folks on the left like to dwell on his intelligence and his current good works with Habitat for Humanity. Here at the Blogway Boys, we want to reveal a more sinister side of "Saint Jimmy". Yes folks, Jimmy Carter was a sneaky, conniving, vindictive S.O.B. But just don't take my word for it, let me lay out the facts.

Let's start back in 1977. The Mid-East, though never completely quiet, was a much more peaceful area than it is now. This was due to the policing efforts of the country of Iran, and seated upon the Peacock Throne was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. The Shah was not a perfect man, but he was westernizing his country, women did not have to wear a hideous burkha, and the education of his people was of extreme importance. Yes, he did have the SAVAK (Iranian Secret Police) that operated in much the same way as the East German STASI. But the people that the SAVAK mostly made disappear were communist agents and spies. Iran was second only to Israel in its' pro-American stance. The Shah was also busy building infrastructure.

One of the projects that the Shah was building was a huge multi-billion dollar Bandar Mahshahr port complex. The contract for this project had been awarded to Root & Brown (a subsidiary of the evil Haliburton). President Carter arranged for an audience for some of his Georgia cronies with the Shah. Carter asked the Shah as a personal favor to cancel the contract with Brown & Root and award it with a 10% mark-up to his cronies. These cronies would then charge that 10% as a management fee and have Brown & Root do the work. The Shah was informed that without their management, the project would face untold difficulties at the US end. He was told that in these perilous political times, he should appreciate the favor which Carter was doing for him. Now, this is something that I can see the leader of a Mafia family doing ... but the leader of the free world?

The Shah declined this arrangement, and Jimmy Carter began to plot. Carter subsequently refused to allow tear gas and rubber bullets to be shipped to Iran (anti-riot gear), as well as halted the shipment of water cannon vehicles. Without these "humane" methods of crowd control, the only way the government could stop riots was to fire real bullets into the crowd. The Shah made a moral decision not to order his troops to do this. His mistake was in telling the Iranian people of his decision. In a heartfelt speech to the people, he told them that he would not force his soldiers to fire into the crowds that could be their brothers, cousins and friends. The Islamists were given a get out of jail free card.

Jimmy Carter went on a one man (plus the CIA) mission to remove the Shah from power and replace him with the insane Grand Ayatollah Khomeini. Carter went so far as to say that because the Ayatollah was a religious man, and since he was also a religious man, that he knew how a man of God thinks (I personally don't think either of them worship the same God that I do). So, Carter (with the help of the Pentagon) convinced 150 of the Shah's top military men to surrender the country to the Ayatollah Khomeini. The Ayatollah then killed all 150 of them as one of his first acts in power.

The fall of the Shah completely destabilized the Middle-East and led to the Iraqi military build-up and later wars between those two countries ... and eventually to our current situation in the Mid-East.

Thank You Jimmy Carter!!!

I think I will continue this on Saturday, because there is lots more dirt on the peanut man.

Social Dangerousness???

2007-11-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

Everyone is familiar with those little yellow rubber bracelets that a lot of people wear to support cancer research. Many people wear them as a fashion statement, and a multitude of colors have arrived. Olive green ones show support for our men and women in uniform, pink ones are for breast cancer awareness, black ones are for our POWs and MIAs, and multicolored ones are for autism. Well there is a new craze sweeping the island Paradise of Cuba and it is a white bracelet with the word "cambio" written on it. Cambio is Spanish for change. These are being worn by dissidents and have recently become a fashion statement for teenagers.

The bracelets were sent to Cuba by a Miami-based initiative to foster dissent, but appear to have become the "must have" fashion accessory in high schools. But probably not for much longer ...

It seems the Cuban ~~dictatorship~~ government really hates these bracelets. Last week, about 60 young people that were sporting these bracelets were rounded up and thrown in jail. They were released a couple of days later (minus the bracelets), and warned that authorities were preparing files and would later charge them with "social dangerousness".

I guess Raul Castro, like his brother is afraid of words like change (or freedom, democracy, etc.). The bracelets had to be confiscated because they were "dangerous". I guess in the wrong hands they could be used as a slingshot and put someones eyes out.

Have you ever really thought about how lucky we are to live in a free society? One that tolerates Iranian despots coming to our University and delivering tirades against our government? One that permits miscreants to protest funerals and burn flags? How fortunate that we don't live in Cuba ... and how fitting that this country supports dissent in Cuba.

VIVA EL CAMBIO

It's About Time ...

2007-11-03T09:54:00.001-07:00

It seems that the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas finally got what's coming to them. A Maryland jury just awarded one of the victims of this gang of fundamentalist wackos $11,000,000.00.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa sued the church for unspecified damages after members protested at his son's funeral in March of 2006. His son, Marine Lance Cpl. Mathew Snyder was killed in Iraq.

The Church said it would appeal the decision and continue to protest at military funerals.

Unfortunately, this decision probably won't stand an appeal. Snyder's lawyer, Craig Trebilcock urged jurors to place an amount, "that says don't do this in Maryland again. Do not bring your circus of hate to Maryland again."

If the verdict is sustained on appeal, the monetary award is sure to be reduced (not that this sicko church could scrape up $11 million anyway), but protest, no matter how abhorrent is protected under the first amendment "free speech" rights.

The only chance the verdict has to be upheld is if we take into account the willful causing of emotional distress on the parents of the fallen Marine. $2 million of this judgement is for causing emotional distress. Hopefully this part will be upheld. It is undeniable that the founding fathers intended freedom of speech to be used to harm other people.

Monsters Are Among Us ...

2007-10-31T08:22:00.001-07:00

Which one is the scarriest to you?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

When In The Course Of Human Events ...

2007-10-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

In the interests of being bi-partisan and fair, instead of my usual modis operandi of slapping a picture that I enjoy on my posts, today I have added one for the portion of my readership that is not male. So ladies, this ones for you.

After such an inauspicious beginning, I would like to point out a bill that recently passed our illustrious House of Representatives. This bill, HR 505, the "Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2007" (See, there is always a reason for the pics I use (well almost always)) is an abomination, and if it isn't un-constitutional, it should be.

Once again, a portion of our government, this time the legislature is trying to cede some of our sovereign rights away. What this piece of legislation will do is allow Native Hawaiian Islanders to form their own government within, and at times superseding the State and Federal government. This law is a pusillanimous attempt to curry favor with the Native American tribes in the United States.

This Bill sets Native Hawaiians up as a legal tribe under Article I, section 8 of the US Constitution, even though in the Supreme Court Case, US v Sandoval, the court ruled that the Federal government could not create "new tribes". This bill cedes 203,500 acres of land to the new Hawaiian government, with the option of even more if a judge adjudicates that land owned by a non-Hawaiian was stolen in the past from a Hawaiian.

In a nutshell, what we have being created here is a situation where neighboring families would have different rights in land ownership, voting for certain offices and tax obligations ... This is certainly not the "American Way", though it may be the "Pelosi Way".

The Dutch Get Pissed Off

2007-10-24T17:17:00.000-07:00

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is having a meeting in the Netherlands this week. As host, Dutch Defense Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop welcomed the 26 countries to the meeting and immediately launched a jab at about 22 of the countries. It seems the Dutch are getting ~~pissed off~~ a bit perturbed about the fact that they, along with Canada, Great Britain and the United States that are fighting in the dangerous South and Eastern portions of Afghanistan, while the other countries hang out in the relatively safe North. Well Mr Defense Minister ... welcome to our world. For years the US and Great Britain have been doing the ~~dirty work~~ heavy lifting for the world. I guess it's not as fair when your countrymen now must help shoulder the burden.

But let's be fair to the Dutch ... they have earned the right to complain, because they are actually there, bleeding with the Canadians, Brits and Americans. Our attention should be turned to those that are shirking their responsibilities. First on the list is ~~of course~~ the French. They have volunteered now to send 50 troops to the south to help with training the Afghani forces there ... of course the other 1,000 troops will remain ~~hiding~~ in the north. The German contingent of 3,100 troops have never ventured out of the north.

On a positive note, Slovakia said it would double its' contingent to 111 troops (do they now have 55 1/2 troops in country?), some of which will be sent south to help the Dutch. The Czech republic will increase its' forces from 225 to 415, but have not said where they would be sent. The country of Georgia, which is not in NATO, is reportedly considering sending 200 troops to help the Dutch in an attempt to ~~suck up~~ prove themselves worthy of NATO membership.

A proposal has been put forth to rotate the troops of all participating NATO units, so that no one Nation unfairly shoulders the burden of all of the combat. In a perfect world, this would be both fair and just ... let's see if NATO can accomplish this.

My thanks to Lime for teaching me how to do the cross-outs on this post.

Is There A Nobel Prize For Idiosy?

2007-10-23T16:34:00.001-07:00

As loathe as I am to disrespect my elders, I must point out the complete stupidity of the comments made by 2007 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Great Britain's own Doris Lessing. In an interview published in Sunday's El Pais Daily (Spanish newspaper), Ms Lessing remarked that 9/11 was not as bad as the attacks by the IRA, and that Americans were naive about the world.

Ms Lessing should keep her mouth shut about things that she is ignorant about. Granted the bombings by the Irish Republican Army (IRA ... which disbanded in 2005) took more lives than the September 11th attacks, but the IRA attacks killed 3700 people over the course of 15 years. September 11th killed 3000 people over the course of one morning.

Ms Lessing also took the time to denigrate former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling him a "little showman", who proved disastrous for Britain. And of course President Bush also came into the cross hairs of this dithering idiot, who said he was a "world calamity".

Besides her writing, Ms Lessing is known for her political views that have embraced Marxism, anti-colonialism, anti-apartheid and feminism over the years.

With views like this, of course she won the Nobel Prize.

This Is So Tragic ... Some Prayers Please

2007-10-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

Army Specialist John Austin Johnson, assigned to the 4/1 Cav out of Ft Bliss was recuperating at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX from a traumatic brain injury sustained during combat operations in Iraq. The Specialist was on his second tour of duty in Iraq, and had survived 4 IED attacks, the 5th one caused these injuries. Do to the injuries, Johnson now speaks with a severe stutter.

On October 13th, Spec Johnson was waiting for his wife and three kids to visit him. That visit never came. Instead he was informed that his wife had rolled the family SUV about half-way between El Paso and San Antonio, and 2-yr old Logan and 5-yr old Ashley were dead. His son Tyler, 9 yrs old, suffered traumatic head injuries and currently remains on life support at Children's Medical Center in Dallas. His wife, Lisa escaped with only minor injuries.

In the midst of this tragedy, once again the American Public has stepped up. An anonymous don0r bought the family five burial plots in the veterans section of Pinecrest Memorial Park in Benton, Ark., where Specialist Johnson's grandfather is buried. Another donor provided grave markers for the two children. American Airlines is providing seven round-trip tickets to the family to go to the funeral, and other groups and his unit are helping with other family expenses.

Please join me and my family in praying for the Johnson family, in the recovery of their oldest boy and for their emotional and spiritual recovery in the face of this tragedy.

Pakistan Is At A Crossroad ...

2007-10-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

After yesterday's deadly bombing of the convoy carrying former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani government and citizens have a difficult choice to make. They have three options, they can try to maintain the status-quo, give in to Al-Qaeda, or eliminate the extremists in their midst. For too long, President Musharraf has tried to placate the tribes in the north. An uneasy truce with the extremists was shattered earlier this year after the take-over of the "Red Mosque" in the capital, Islamabad. Al-Qaeda in the north declared jihad on Musharraf and attempts have been made on his life.

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Bhutto has returned from a self-imposed 8 year exile in Dubai. It was widely expected that Bhutto would be elected Prime Minister for the third time and a power-sharing arrangement was rumored to be in the works. The attack on her convoy that killed over 100 people and injured hundreds more should be a unifying event in the history of this Secular Muslim nation.

What Pakistan needs is a George Bush "photo-op" moment. I think everyone remembers President Bush, standing in the ruins of the World Trade Center after 9/11, bull-horn in his hand, his arm around a firefighter/rescue worker saying, "I hear you ... and the people who brought these buildings down will hear all of us soon." Now that was a motivational moment. It made the entire country feel together, and feel safer in that togetherness. It might have started as just another photo-op (as some Democrats claim), but it became so much more ... and it was needed. What Musharraf and Bhutto need is to show solidarity with each other, and with their citizens. They need to unite the country and exterminate the vermin in the populace.

So far, they are having mixed results. Initial reactions on both sides were to condemn the terrorists, but later on came the finger-pointing. The Bhutto camp criticized President Musharraf for not providing enough security (and obviously they didn't), and the Musharraf camp has criticized Bhutto for failing to heed their warning that it was too dangerous to drive to Karachi, saying that Bhutto should have accepted the helicopter transportation that Musharraf had offered (and judging by the results, she probably should have). But the blame game has to end, otherwise they will have a divided country and the terrorists will have succeeded.

Yes, Pakistan is at a cross-road ... what they decide will influence the entire region as well as the Global War On Terror.

Is This The Future Of Public Education?

2007-10-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

This past Monday Morning, students filed into the newest public high school on Chicago's west side. The Marine Corps Academy of Math and Science opened it's doors to 130 students and expects its' enrollment to grow to 550 students. This school will combine college prep classes within the structure of a military academy.

The school was officially dedicated by Mayor Richard M Daley and other officials looking on. It will be run and taught by Marine Officers, and is partnering with Argonne National Labs. Argonne will be offering internships for the students.

The purpose of this school is to educate, not to recruit for the military, but one local anti-war activist isn't convinced. "What it does prepare them to do is be good little soldiers, which I'm afraid we've got too much of these days", said Andy Thayer. Well Andy, what I see the Chicago school system currently preparing kids to be is good little thugs and gangstas ... and I think we can all agree that we definitely have too much of that. So Mr. Thayer, please go march with Code Pink, where your views are appreciated.

Haven't we been asking businesses (like Argonne Labs) to partner with schools? Haven't we been moving more and more towards school uniforms? And we now have a school that is not draining our property tax base (the Feds pay the teachers). We shall see how this works.

And Mr. Thayer, don't put your protest signs away just yet. The Air Force plans to open one of these schools in Chicago in 2009. They won't have any trouble finding students, there are currently 15,000 applications for the limited service school slots.

Post Number 100

2007-10-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

I never thought that I would ever be posting my 100th post. As the numbers crept up from 95 ... 96 ... 97, well you get my drift ... I started panicking about what I would actually write. Though I don't take myself very seriously, I do take this blog seriously ... so what would be a worthy post for the big 100. It was a toss-up between abortion and education (both extremely worthy subjects that had only been lightly touched upon in this blog), till I had an epiphany and got pissed off. Well, this blog has always been about things that piss me off, so I shelved abortion and education (but I promise, they will both rear their ugly heads later on). But first, I would like to share with you how a came about this revelation.

On Sunday afternoon, I found myself sitting in the wonderful Cinqo Estrella (5 Star) Cantina. As I watched the Cowboy game ... secretly wishing for the Patriots to win, I found myself thinking about my previous post entitled, "What Were They Thinking?". I was still ... two days later wondering about the answer to that question. I had just imbibed my first two beers of the year and was feeling pretty good though a little light headed. I thought about how the region around the Ottoman Empire had been for the past 3,000 years, with warfare between the Turks, and the Kurds, and the Armenians, the Greeks, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire ... the rampant massacres, rapes and pillaging that took place ... sometimes the Turks were on the giving end ... at other times they were on the receiving end of the sword. So why did Congress single them out ... but not the Greeks? As my thoughts turned to Greece, a strange feeling overtook my Michelob fuzzy head, and Dionysus whacked me with this epiphany. This was a back-door play by the Democratic controlled Congress to sabotage our war effort. As I began to write, the muse Caliope guided my fingers on the keypad to make this 100th post one that is worthy of my unworthy blog.

This "non-binding resolution" that Congress is about to vote on is not subject to Presidential veto. Once it is passed (or even considered) it becomes part of history. It will always be accessible through the Library of Congress website for all to see. The Turks are pretty much in denial about everything bad that happened before the new government was formed after World War I. If you read "their" history books, wars were fought, by massacres were "great victories", and genocide is not a word that the Turks want associated with their ancestors. This resolution was designed to piss them off. The hope of Nancy Pelosi is that this will so enrage the Turkish government that they will refuse the US the use of their airspace and the use of Incerlik Air Base, through which 80% of the supplies for the war effort come. The Democrats are too chicken to cut off funding for our troops, but they don't really care about them. If they can get Turkey to cut off supplies for them, they think that this is the way to end the War without having to go through the Executive Branch, or to even put themselves out by cutting off funding. This is actually more ingenious and deceitful than I have given the Democrats credit for in the past ... but the other reason could only be complete stupidity, and though I don't think very highly of the Democrats in Congress, it would be a mistake to consider them stupid. They may do stupid things, but there is always a reason behind them.

The reason that I espoused that the Democrats don't really care about the troops is because if Turkey stopped being a staging point for military supplies, the troops would be hurt. The new MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles) are staged and shipped exclusively through Turkey. Re-directing them to Saudi Arabia, the delivery of these life-saving vehicles will be delayed by weeks ... way to look after our troops "grand-ma" Pelosi. This is just another attempt by the Democrats to ensure the failure of this war. From Harry Reid's statement that we have already lost the war, to John Murtha's off-handed remarks that US soldiers are committing war crimes in Iraq (and I'm not even going to mention John Kerry), the Democrats have labeled this as "George Bush's War", and they will do everything in their power to make sure that George Bush loses. If a few more of our troops are sacrificed in the process, I guess they feel it is a justifiable expense (after all, these troops were too stupid to go to college and got stuck in Iraq). Sorry, I guess I will mention John Kerry.

This is unconscionable, and can not be tolerated by the American people. Our troops are our best and bravest, when we denigrate their value, we denigrate all of us. This is not George Bush's war ... This is America's war and part of the larger Global War on Terror. We may have different ideas on how to handle the war, but we must come together when it comes down to winning the war. Politics is becoming a very dirty word in the minds of most Americans. Some are getting so disgusted with politicians that they don't even bother to vote anymore. This is as mistake as how can good willed Americans change anything if they don't become informed and vote.

As for the photo ... I didn't want to ruin my 100th post by having Nancy Pelosi's picture on it. I don't know who the girl in the photo is ... but I think she is much nicer to look at than "Grand-ma" Pelosi.

What In The World Were They Thinking???

2007-10-12T16:31:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, we have lots of problems in this country and lots of things for our Congress to do. Soooo, instead of working on immigration, social security, medicaid, or maybe trying to pass a budget for the fiscal year that started October 1st, here is what they have been spending their time on:

A Congressional Committee has just approved non-binding legislation that condemns Turkey for genocide against the Armenians while Turkey was still the Ottoman Empire around 100 years ago.

Well, at least the Armenians are happy with this utter waste of time ... however the Turks are simply livid. The current Turkish government has nothing to do with the old Empire and this legislation is simply a slap in the face to them. They have already withdrawn their ambassador from Washington DC, though they say it is just for consultations and that he will be back (eventually).

Some might say, "So we insulted Turkey ... big deal". Those that say this are just as stupid as the 27 Congressmen on the House Foreign Relations Committee that voted for this legislation. Here is the breakdown on how much we need Turkey:

Incerlik Air Force Base is in Turkey and is the main hub for supplies going to our troops in Iraq. Roughly 70% of supplies either pass through Turkey or through Turkish air space.
The Turkish Legislature is just about to take up legislation authorizing a large military incursion into Northern Iraq to attack Kurdish Separatist Guerrillas (terrorists) that have been staging raids into Turkey and killing hundreds.
The only thing that has been holding Turkey back from attacking Iraq is the good-will that remains between the United States and Turkey.
Turkey is the only Secular Muslim democracy in the area and good relations between the US, Iraq and Turkey are a must to show moderate elements in the region that democracy not only sounds good on paper ... but that it actually works.

Only a change of heart by the Democrats that control the House can stop this legislation from going to a full vote (where chances are strong that it may pass). There are signs that the Dems are taking a second hard look at what they just did. Tom Lantos (D-CA) stated, "We have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the Armenian people... against the risk that it could cause young men and women in the uniform of the United States armed services to pay an even heavier price than they are currently paying," Where was that great introspective thinking before you put this legislation to a vote?

And the Democrats keep harping on how the current administration is loosing friends throughout the world ... is this an attempt to play catch-up and see who can piss off the most people?

An Interesting Social Experiment

2007-10-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

The British Rock Band, Radiohead has been the buzz of the music world lately. They are selling their new album, "In Rainbows" without a fixed sales price. Music lovers can simply go to their website and download the album. At check-out, instead of a price to download, it says, "it's up to you". The fans can choose how much they want to pay.

SIMPLY BRILLIANT!

Fans determine the price of music anyway ... if it is too expensive they won't buy it. Of course, about a third of the people that downloaded the album chose to pay nothing ... but it's not as if these deadbeats were going to buy the album anyway. What this experiment does is it gets people talking about the band and really pumps up concert numbers. It also brings in people who might not ever think about downloading a Radiohead album into the mix. These new listeners might just buy more albums and go to concerts. Okay ... confession time here, I am one of the new listeners. When I got to the check-out, I couldn't just put zero in the price ... so I paid $20.00 for the download. So, that is at least twenty bucks they wouldn't have gotten without this promotion. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

Fry Him!!!

2007-10-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Beware ... This Post Is Rated NC-17 for Language

This is something that really pisses me off. I think the reason it affects me so much is that I really don't know the right answer ... it just seems unfair.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case where the Bush administration will try to overturn the death penalty for a piece of shit Illegal Mexican Immigrant. He is doing this at the behest of the International Court Of Justice (now there's an oxymoron). The International Court found that Jose Medellin was not informed of his international right to contact the Mexican Consulate for legal assistance as proscribed by the Vienna Convention. This is just the first of many fights as Medellin was just one of 51 illegals on death row that the International court wants new trials for.

Jose Medellin and four others were convicted of capital murder and rape in the deaths of Jenifer Ertman (14 years old) and Elizabeth Pena (16 years old). Medellin's younger brother (14 at the time) is serving 40 years for participating in the rape and murder. After gang raping the two girls for an hour, the girls were strangled and killed with a belt. Medellin confessed to the rapes and murders. Two of the five that were tried as adults had their sentences commuted to life because they were only 17 at the time of the crime (though one of them was less than a month shy of his 18th birthday), two have already been executed, and Medellin is scheduled to be executed in the very near future (not soon enough I say).

Here is my conundrum: I believe in laws and international treaties. We signed the Vienna Convention ... and it does protect American citizens abroad who are accused of crimes. The thing is ... when an American is brought in by police overseas, he promptly informs them that he is an American Citizen and wants to speak to someone from the State Department. I seriously doubt that this illegal claimed his nationality until he thought it might save his ass from a lethal injection. But the fact is that this International Court Of Justice has jurisdiction in this matter, and the US signed this treaty. Now Texas (God Bless Its' Soul) is fighting this. They want this man executed for his crimes. While my mind understands why we may have to re-try him (and hopefully he gets the same sentence), my heart screams to kill this piece of garbage before SCOTUS (Supreme Court Of The United States) can stop the execution. The families of these little girls have waited long enough for justice.

In defence of the President, though he is doing an extremely unpopular thing here, he is doing what he feels is required under international law. After this International Court made this ruling last year, he withdrew this nation from the treaty, but we were still covered by it when the ruling came down.

What do you think, do we go with our heads and grant him a new trial ... or go with our guts and fry him?

Be Fair To Our Troops

2007-10-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

One of the longest deployed military units in Iraq is the Minnesota National Guard's 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. This unit returned the the United States earlier this year and found out that about half of them were not eligible for full GI Bill benefits. These Guardsmen had spent from 20 to 25 months on Active Duty.

Under the rules of the GI Bill, all 2,600 members of the unit qualified for $282.00 a month in benefits as full-time students, but half of them qualified for $800.00 a month. Why the disparity you may ask? Seems that the benefits are broken down into two category's; those that served less than two years and those that served longer than two years. Some of these returning veterans missed the cut-off for the higher benefit by only one day.

Going a bit off topic here but, Hilary Clinton wants to give every baby born in the US $5,000.00 for a college education http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/09/29/clinton-give-every-newborn-5k/ ... and we want to rip-off American Veterans because they missed an arbitrary cut-off date by a matter of days? I know the argument will be, Once we make an exception for one unit, then we will make one for a unit that only served 18 months, then 15 months, etc. I say let's give all returning vets full GI Bill Benefits, even if they only served a 6 month tour of duty. If my taxes have to go up to pay for that, that's fine with me ... I will finally have a tax that I am proud to pay.

A Good Use Of The Veto Pen

2007-10-03T15:51:00.001-07:00

Today, President George W. Bush did something he hardly ever does ... he vetoed a spending bill. Of course, like everything this President does, he will be criticized in the press and the Democrats will try to make political fodder out of it, but let's take a closer look at this bill and see why he vetoed it.

The bill is HR 976 and its' purpose is to amend Title XXI of the Social Security Act. It was designed to be the largest expansion of health insurance coverage for children since Medicaid was started in the 1960's. The bill increased the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by $35,000,000,000.00 (35 Billion ... I just think that all the zeros bring the cost of this program into better perspective), over the next 5 years. Currently, children in families with incomes up to 200 percent of the poverty level. HR 976 would expand coverage to families making 300 percent of the poverty level ($62,000.00 for a family of 4), and certain states would be able to enact legislation expanding the coverage to families making up to $83,000.00.

Obviously, a family with an income of $83K is not exactly wallowing in poverty, so why are our tax dollars going to be used to help provide insurance for their kids? Sure, medical insurance is expensive ... but for someone making that kind of money it becomes a choice. A lot of times that choice becomes a more expensive car instead of a health plan. Since this is a free country, I have nothing to say about a stupid choice like that (well maybe a little), but I Do Not want my taxes to pay for his choice. And $62K a year is pretty much the same thing. What this bill will do is get people to drop their current (more expensive) health insurance and switch to the Government sponsored insurance program. You can't blame the folks for taking a good deal when it's offered to them, but you can blame a Government that is more interested in finding a way to expand government dependence, then maybe finding a way to lower the cost of current health insurance.

I actually read all 109 pages of this extremely confusing bill (I may have understood 20 of the pages). I must say, I consider myself of at least average intelligence, so our Congressional Representatives must all be members of MENSA and pure geniuses to craft and understand this bill ... even when their appearances on News programs makes them seem dull-witted, they must just be trying to relate to us average people in their constituencies.

A lot of stuff has been said about this bill extending SCHIP to illegal alien children, but try as I might, I could not find anything in it that said it would. Actually, on page 93, Section 605, entitled, "No Federal Funding For Illegal Aliens", this statement is made in fairly precise and understandable English, "Nothing in this Act allows Federal payment for individuals who are not legal residents". This statement is actually amazingly clear ... especially since it was sandwiched between a couple of sections full of legal gobbledy gook. Luckily, I'm a rather trusting fella that takes everything at face value. If I wasn't, I would realize that there is also nothing in this bill that prohibits the individual states from extending SCHIP to illegal immigrants and using federal dollars to help offset this extra expense by using more federal money to cover legal residents.

My least favorite part of this bill is the way they want to pay for this expansion. They want to double the tobacco tax. This is just great for all you non-smokers, but I smoke two packs a day and this would be an increase in the taxes that I personally pay. This proposed tax of $0.61 per pack translates into $482.03 a year after I add in the extra state sales tax of 8.25%. Back in June, the state of Texas, in order to lower our school property tax, increased the tobacco tax by $1.00 a pack. This now costs me $790.22 a year. My property tax went down, but the appraised value of my property went up $18,500.00 and then the school district increased the rate $0.17 per $100.00 in valuation. After the dust cleared, I am now paying $386.52 more than before the "property tax cut". The key question that I am trying to get to (besides complaining about my trials and tribulations) is why are we constantly putting the burden of extra taxes on smokers? Could it be that tobacco users are an easy target since they only comprise roughly 18% of the population? This is actually a regressive tax since the smoking rate is higher for those with lower incomes and the higher the income, the lower the smoking rate ... how does this play with the "Tax The Rich" class?

GM Vs The UAW ... What Was It All About?

2007-09-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

At 3:05 this morning, a tentative agreement was reached between General Motors and the striking United Auto Workers. The tentative agreement ends the two day old strike and workers are expected to be back on the factory floor this afternoon for second shift. I have heard many of the business gurus on the radio breaking down the reasons for the strike, but they have it all wrong. The union had given GM everything they had asked for, so like all good negotiators, GM asked for more. The reason for the strike was simple. If the UAW had taken the agreement as proposed by General Motors, the union would have ceased to exist in 20 years. The strike was about job security and the guarantee that American cars would continue to be built in America. Without those guarantees, GM would have been free to close plants in the US and move them overseas where labor is cheaper.

Now, I am not the biggest fans of unions, but in this case they did a service to this country. If labor costs are higher here in the USA, then the corporations just need to find a way to overcome this obstacle with more productivity. They need to trim the fat at the corporate level and come up with better cars. I've been in the car business for over a decade now and one thing I can tell you is that if someone comes up with a "must have" vehicle ... the American consumer will buy it. When you have ho-hum products, then you have to have huge incentives (rebates and special financing rates) to "bribe" the consumers to buy your product. So General Motors, start making vehicles that Americans want to buy, and most of your problems are over. You have made a good start with the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia, Cadillac STS and new 2008 Malibu, so we know you are capable of it, let's continue this new trend.

As for the United Auto Workers, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, you are now the administrator of the Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association (VEBA) and GM has just given you $36 Billion to fund it. This VEBA is now your responsibility and the health care of all GM retirees now rests in your hands. Please don't screw it up. In fact Ron, you have now become a major player in the world financial market. Where you invest this money, as well as the money that will be coming from Ford and Chrysler later on will make or break companies. If I were the head of a Union, I think that I would invest this money in American companies that employed Union workers in the United States. I might even use the money as a carrot to open up some factories to union workers. I just might target the Subaru factory in Lafayette, IN or the 6 Honda plants or the 16 US Toyota plants ... you get the idea.

Here is what General Motors got out of the deal. It got to fund the VEBA out of the pension fund (the pension fund had more money than was needed), so no operating capital was touched. GM pretty much does away with the jobs bank (this is a program where laid off workers are paid 90% of their pay and benefits. There is also no pay raise during the 4 year contract, though bonuses will be paid yearly (I don't know what the bonus payments are contingent on). New hires will be paid a lower starting wage in some jobs. Most of all, General Motors was able to cut into the $25.00 per hour wage and benefit gap between them and their foreign competitors.

Here is what the Union got out of the deal. Retirees will get a pension increase, though it would be offset by an equal increase in health care contributions. GM has pledged to produce cars at certain factories. Workers will be given a $3000.00 bonus upon contract ratification, then bonuses of 3%, 4% and 3% of their annual salaries during the final 3 years of the contract.

This initial agreement is contingent upon approval of the union members and then the VEBA must be approved by the courts and reviewed by the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Is Iran Just Posturing ... Or Could They Attack Israel?

2007-09-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

Last week, Iran warned Israel that if their nuclear facilities were attacked, they would bomb Israel. I figured from the start that it was just a lot of hot air, and that the Iranian Air Force was in such bad shape that there was no way they could launch a successful attack on the most powerful nation in the Middle East. Before I went posting about this, I wanted to be sure. So, I did a little research, which led to a lot of research, which made me change my mind. This is a serious threat to Israel and should be taken as such.

We all know that until the late 70's, the Shah of Iran was a good friend of the United States and we considered Iran as a stabilizing force in the Mid-East. We considered them such a power for peace that we decided to sell them 79 F-14 Tomcats (this is the plane Tom Cruise made famous in the Movie "Top Gun"). Now, this was a long time ago, and we stopped selling replacement parts to the Ayatollah back in 1980. In fact, during the Iraq-Iran war, only 10 of these planes were still operational. In a perfect world, all of the planes would by now be in the trash heap. Seems however that a Dutch Business man (you may insert arms-dealer here), Robert Kraaipoel has been violating the embargo by selling spare aircraft parts to Iran. As many as 50 of these F-14's may now be operational. The F-14 can carry 4-500 lb bombs on it's underbelly, and if it's wing mounted missiles are removed, another 2 can be mounted on each wing. That's 200,000 pounds of bombs for those of you who are keeping count.

In addition, at the start of the first Gulf War, Iraq flew 115 combat aircraft to Iran to protect them from being destroyed by the US Air Force. Among these were 24 Mirage F-1B fighter jets, along with some MIG-23's and SU-25's. In 2003, Iran was able to purchase an unknown number of new Su-25 Frogfoots. Other aircraft include 10 F-8M's, 7 TU-22M's, 19 MIG-27's and several MIG-31's (Russia's most advanced fighter ... thank you Mr. Putin).

As for missile forces, The Iranians have SCUD C & D's (can't reach Israel with those) and the Shahab-3D (with a range of 2200 km that can hit Israel). The also have the Farq-3 which is a ballistic MIRV missile that can hit Israel (and probably parts of Europe.

After reading about all this air and missile power, I was going to post that Israel had nothing to worry about. The Israeli Air Force is easily the best Air Force in the region ... probably second only to the USAF in the world. They could surely shoot down any and all aircraft that Iran wanted to send their way. As for the missiles, well those Patriot missile batteries that we sold to Israel during the first Gulf War are still there ... In addition, Israel has developed its' own interceptor missile called the Arrow ("Til Hetz"). After Iran tested their Shahab-3 missile in the summer of 2006, Israel tested their Arrow Interceptor by successfully shooting down ... you guessed it, a Shahab-3 missile.

So here I am, ready to post about Iran not being able to hurt Israel when I come across an article in Jane's Defence Weekly that changes everything. Jane's reported that the July 26th explosion in Syria took place at a joint Iranian-Syrian site. The project was to fit a Scud C missile with a mustard gas warhead. The explosion happened when the missile fuel caught fire. The blast dispersed mustard gas across the storage site and outside the facility. The blast killed 15 Syrian military members and injured at least 50. Dozens of Iranian engineers were also killed in the blast. Mustard gas is some really bad stuff. There are still parts of Germany that are off-limits because of the mustard gas that the Kaiser ordered used during WWI. Mustard gas (Yperite) is a blister agent (the chemical causes blisters to form on exposed skin greatly hampering combat effectiveness. In addition, those that get it in the eyes will be permanently blinded, and those that inhale it will almost certainly die). The mustard gas attacks the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane ... causing internal bleeding and eventually (it usually takes four or five very painful weeks) the victims would drown on their own blood.

If Iraq were to attack from Syria with mustard gas, the casualties would be incomprehensible. Israel would almost definitely retaliate with their Jericho ballistic missiles (nuclear) and the whole region would begin to glow. Iraq needs to be stopped from producing nuclear weapons, and it needs to be stopped by the Western World in toto. We can not diddle around thinking that if worst comes to worst, Israel will handle it ... we may not like the outcome.

Blackwater USA ... Security Firm or Mercenaries?

2007-09-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

Blackwater USA is a private security firm, based in North Carolina. It was started by an ex Navy Seal, who envisioned a World-Class training facility for those in the security business ... but it has evolved into so much more. Since 9/11/01, the small firm has grown by leaps and bounds and now "hires-out" small armies. There are currently about 1,000 Blackwater USA contractors (operatives) in Iraq. They also have a data-base of 6,000 more professionals for when they are needed. The contract to provide security services in Iraq earns the company $800,000,000.00 a year. Contractors are normally paid from $100,000.00 to $250,000.00 a year depending on specialty. The prime contract is to provide security for the US State department. They provide this service extremely well (though no one can convince me they do a better job than the US Marines).

Late last week a convoy protected by Blackwater contractors was fired upon. Blackwater contractors returned fire, killing several of the attackers ... at least that is the company version of things. Iraqi police say that the people killed were innocent civilians, and the Iraqi government has ordered the company out of Iraq.

My take on this is that the folks killed were probably neither "innocent" nor "civilians". But in either case, Blackwater USA and the dozens of other private security firms need to go. These contractors (mercenaries) run around in various uniforms of their own liking, armed to the teeth (trying to be Johnny Rambo), and don't really answer to the military chain of command. What laws of war do they follow? Who do they answer to ... a CEO?

A Military Force is a Government responsibility ... not a corporate one.

Who Is Michael Mukasey?

2007-09-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

The President has nominated Michael Mukasey to replace Alberto Gonzales at Attorney General and the political in-fighting has begun ... but opposition to this appointment is coming from the right, not the left as is common.

A little background on Michael Mukasey first. He was nominated by President Reagan as a federal judge in 1987. Since that time he has served for 18 years (including 6 years as Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York). Among his cases that you may be familiar with are the trials of Omar Abdul Rahman (the blind shiek) and El Sayid Nosair. These terrorists were convicted for their parts in the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and plots to bomb the United Nations and other New York landmarks. Judge Mukasey sentanced them to life in prison. He also ruled in the case of Jose Padilla (the American gang-banger that turned al-Qaeda) and ruled that he could be held as an enemy combatant, but that he must be given access to his lawyer. Mukasey also spoke and wrote in defense of the Patriot Act.

Here is what might be turning Republicans against him. In 2003, Sen Chuck Schummer (D-NY) included him in a list of 5 other judges that would have no problems being confirmed by Democrats. Rep Schummer also suggested him as a replacement for Gonzales on "Meet The Press" back in March. I think that Republican opposition to Mukasey is probably just a knee-jerk reaction to Shummer's support. Shummer has been a thorn in the GOP's side for so long that the thinking is probably if Chuck likes him, it must be bad.

From what I can see from the research I have done is that Michael Mukasey was a law and order type judge that issued his verdicts fairly and with common sense. We could do a lot worse than having Judge Mukasey as our 81st Attorney General (we already have).

Mullah's Dilemma

2007-09-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

Okay ... has everyone stopped snickering at the cartoon yet? C'mon, get it out of your systems ... the rest of this post is serious.

A very important subject has been left out of the debate on Iraq, by the very people who purport to strongly defend human rights. That's right the Democrats have overlooked the situation in the Middle East in respect to women's rights. Even Hillary Clinton, the first viable female candidate for President of the United States has remained mum on this subject (sorry Shirley Chisholm ... you were the first, but you were a long way from being viable).

In most middle-eastern countries women are denied basic human rights. They are treated like cattle, bought and sold for the highest dowry. Men can have multiple wives, but the thought of a woman having multiple husbands ... or of even having sex outside of marriage can bring grave penalties. Honor killings are not only practiced but encouraged (the youngest son is usually the one to put the woman to death). Women must be covered head to toe in order to leave the house. Though I have never worn one, these "burkhas" look to be terribly uncomfortable and hot. When they leave the house, women must be accompanied by a male member of the family. In some societies, women are not allowed to work or attend school past a certain age. When they travel by car, they must ride in the back seat. It is possible to see a man driving a car, alone in the front seat, while his four wives are stuffed in the back. When out in public, women are segregated from men in restaurants, theaters and even while attending mosque. Women legally have no say in how to raise their own children, where to live, or the household finances. All this and we haven't even started on the right to vote or run for office.

As long as Islamic fundamentalists are in charge of nations, or even villages or towns in those nations ... the plight of women will never improve. As a secondary result of the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, women are experiencing more freedom than they ever had (it is a bigger difference in Afghanistan than in Iraq).

It is my sincere hope that during this period of greater freedom for women, Islamic men will come to recognize the value of women ... and not in just how many cows or chickens they may be worth. These women need to take advantage of this chance to get an education and a good job and especially to vote and run for office.

Hillary needs to be in front of this issue and start praising the changes in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of just jumping on the Democratic bandwagon of everything in Iraq is bad. The rest of her colleagues in the Democratic Party need to get behind this as well, and if they don't, the GOP needs to start hammering it till they do. Folks, this is a no-brainer ... can't we decide to get behind at least this one thing?

Was This The Iraqi Patrick Henry?

2007-09-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

Funeral services were held today for Abdul Sattar Abu Risha. The 37-yr old leader of the Al Bu Risha tribe was killed in a bomb attack near his home by al-Qaeda. What makes this man any different than the thousands that are murdered by al-Qaeda every year? Why the reference to Patrick Henry in the title? Well let's get a little background on this man.

In September of 2006, angered by the killings of his father and two of his brothers, Abu Risha approached US military forces in Anbar with a proposition. In exchange for weapons, his tribe would:

a) halt action against US and Iraqi forces

b) pledge to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq

c) attempt to draw tribal militias into the Iraqi security forces (ISF)

Abu Risha was able to gather 25 tribes into his group, which he named the Anbar Awakening Council. These forces have been credited for wiping al-Qaeda out of the Anbar capital of Ramadi as well as forcing many al-Qaeda out of Anbar province. This council has sworn to continue fighting al-Qaeda to avenge his death. Abu Risha was a fiery orator with a knack of swaying opinion and inspiring people to fight for peace in Anbar. Sort of reminds me of a similar man in 1776 who said, "Give me Liberty or give me Death".

Whether Abu Risha will be remembered in the Iraqi history books the way we remember Patrick Henry is up for grabs right now ... after all, the victors write the history books. But if more Iraqi patriots stand up like Abu Risha did, victory should be assured. So when you hear people talk about the Iraqi people not fighting for themselves, you can remember this example, as well as the thousands of government workers who were killed for cooperating with US forces and the fledgling Iraqi government.

The Next Russian President?

2007-09-12T09:09:00.001-07:00

Russian President Vladamir Putin dissolved the government and named a little known government official, Victor Alexeyevich Zubkov as the new Prime Minister. This is what Boris Yeltsin did back in 1999, when he named Putin as the new Prime Minister and then as his successor.

But just who is Victor Zubkov? Google failed me, Yahoo failed me, so I had to go to Russian on-line newspapers for the picture and I hope I got the right one.

Victor Zubkov is 66 years old and was a member of the Communist party. This should not be held against him as anyone who wanted to get ahead in government service had to become a member. He served an 18 month stint in the Red Army in 1966 and 1967. He was the head of the Russian IRS in St Petersburg from 1993 through 1998, and in 1999 he served as a Finance Minister investigating money laundering and other financial crimes. While doing so, he rose to the position of Cabinet Minister till he was appointed Prime Minister this morning.

An interesting note is that his son-in-law is Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov, so he would probably have the backing of the military. In the Russian Quid Pro Quo society, this would also mean that the military would have a greater say in the government.

These are indeed interesting times.

Too Depressed To Blog

2007-09-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam,

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!

God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self control,

Thy liberty in law.

We Don't Need This Bull

2007-09-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

This was the advertisement that MoveOn.Org ran in the New York Times today. MoveOn.Org is funded by multi-billionaire George Soros.

I have a hard time stomaching an ad like this. This ad states that the General (a man that by all accounts is an honorable man, trying his best to make the most of a bad situation ... because his country asked him to) is "cooking the books" for the administration. This ad basically accuses the General of being a liar.

Besides the anger I automatically feel whenever a member of the US Military is attacked, it is compounded by the fact that this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. In 2002 George Soros was convicted of insider trading in France. Unlike Martha Stewart he got no jail time. In 1992, George Soros is credited with breaking the Bank of England by selling short on about 10 billion English pound sterling. This caused Great Britain to have to de-value the pound (causing harm to both Great Britain and many ordinary British investors and retirees), this netted him about 1.1 billion dollars in profit.

I let a lot of stuff that MoveOn.Org spews go by. But when they start personally attacking the people that give us the freedom to say stupid things it is too much.

Glory Road Leads To Springfield, Mass

2007-09-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you went to see the movie, "Glory Road" last year, but for those of you who didn't, here is a brief run-down. It was the story of the 1966 Texas Western Miner Basketball Team that won the NCAA national basketball title. You might ask what was the big deal? Doesn't someone win this every year? What made this team so special? Well, this team started 5 black players in the NCAA finals game against an all white Duke team. Now teams had started one black man in the tournament before, occasionally a team would have 2 black starters, but this was the first team to start an entire black line-up. The movie goes into how coach Don Haskins recruited the team, the obstacles (racism) that had to be overcome and of course the games.

I was well aware of this team (Texas Western College is now the University of Texas at El Paso , or UTEP) but wasn't aware that after this color barrier breaking season, the team was not invited to the White House like all the other National Champions before and after them. The Movie brought this to light and it was rectified last year when President Bush invited them over for dinner.

If you have not seen the movie, I would suggest you rent it. It is full of laughs and tears and the movie actually makes you cheer during the basketball scenes. It won an ESPY last year for best sports movie.

Finally on Friday, the entire 1966 Texas Western Basketball Team was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Without this movie, I don't think that this would have happened to a very deserving squad of men. So thank you Disney for making this movie.

Somethings Rotten In Portugal

2007-09-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

Last May, this little angel went missing in Portugal. Madeline Mccann has not been seen since. Her parents rented a home near where she went missing and have been living there for the last 4 months.

Police have just named the parents as suspects in her disappearance and have even offered the mother a deal to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Though it seems incomprehensible to me that her parents would have had something to do with Madeline's disappearance, I am not so naive as to believe it to be impossible. There are however oddities on both sides of this that have me confused.

Why would it take over 4 months for authorities to decide that the parents were suspects? In the US, the parents are always looked at first. The parents seemed to be helpful and cooperative through most of this ordeal and seem to be saying and doing the right things. The police just found trace blood evidence in the family car ... well, if you look in my van, I can pretty much guarantee you that you would find trace blood of all my grand-kids (nose bleeds, scrapes, cuts etc), it's not as if the blood were even visible.

I found it hard to believe that the parents would leave their little girl sleeping in a hotel room while they went to dinner. Maybe it is a European custom, but it is not done here in the States (at least not by anyone with common sense). If they couldn't find a sitter, they should have either taken the child with them or not have gone at all. It also seems that the family has become enamored of the media attention that they had been getting.

Have Portuguese police gotten desperate for answers to this case? They have been under intense world-wide scrutiny for months. The lease on the home the Mccanns had been renting is up on Monday. Did they name them suspects to prevent them from leaving the country? Are the Mccanns becoming scape goats because Portuguese authorities botched the original investigation?

Were the parents responsible for the disappearance of their baby girl? Did they do this for the notoriety it is bringing them? They have met with the Pope, Sir Elton John and even American Idol's Simon Cowell. Over 2 million dollars has been raised to help in bringing Madeline home. Or was there a terrible accident and a simple cover-up has grown into a global media circus?

I don't know, and I won't pre-judge the parents. That is what courts and juries a for. If they did it, I hope the devil has a special place in hell picked out for them.

Let's Get Ready To Rumble

2007-09-05T13:39:00.000-07:00

As we all watch in disgust, the do-nothing Congress returns from their summer vacation and start maneuvering for position in the next political show-down.

After all, we don't need to wait for General Petreaus's report on the 15th ... What do we need the input from the generals on the ground for? We have General Pelosi, General Bush, General Reid and all the other generals in Washington. There are two camps being set up right now ... for the GOP we have the "Stay the Course" Camp. With their knowledge that since things are finally starting to work in Iraq, let's continue and win this thing. On the Democratic side we have the "Let's loose this war quickly so we can get our troops the hell out of there camp". Armed with the GAO report and leading the charge is General Pelosi, who will trade America's safety for political power.

It would be nice if these DC Generals would listen to General Petraeus, fairly debate the facts, and render a decision based on the best interests of the country and the world. If we need to withdraw some troops to give the Iraqi parliament a push ... so be it, but what we don't need is to push this fight onto the next generation. Iraq is a hell-hole with extreme heat, blowing sand that hurts like hell and makes it almost impossible to breathe. Not to mention bad guys popping up when least expected and trying to kill you. I have been there, my son in law is there now, and I do not want my grand-sons to have to clean up our mess 10 years from now.

So Congress, do the country a favor and think of US first ... and it is a shame that I have to ask you to do something that should be the most important part of your job.

San Francisco Judge Stops Homeland Security From Doing Its' Job

2007-09-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

The Social Security Administration was all set to mail out letters to employers today advising them of mis-matches between social security numbers and names of their employees. The SSA has been doing this for more than two decades, but this time there was something extra in the letters. The something extra was a warning from Homeland Security to correct the problem within 90 days or face fines or possible criminal prosecution. Previously, employers would just discard the letters and pay a small fine (if they were even fined), charging the fine off as a cost of doing business. This time, the employers wouldn't be as cavalier about it.

But wait just a second ... the AFL-CIO filed a lawsuit against the government claiming that the new letters violate the rights of workers (even if they are not working legally) and put an undo burden on employers (who are required to make sure their employees are eligible to work in the United States).

US District Judge Maxine Chesney granted a temporary restraining order on the "no-match" letters till Oct 1st to allow herself a bit of breathing room to make a decision. People have villainized this judge for the restraining order, she actually did what any "just" justice would have, facing the imminent release of the letters and not having had the time to fully look into the situation. Before you laud or demonize her, wait for her decision.

Now for the crux of the matter, the AFL-CIO could have chosen any district in which to file this suit, they chose San Francisco because it falls into the jurisdiction of the very liberal 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals (the most reversed court in the country). So whatever the judge rules, it will be appealed to the 9th circuit and the union wins (till the supreme court overturns them ... again). Meanwhile, the union gets to keep sucking dues out of the illegals for months, if not years. It's terrible to actually see the law being used to thwart the carrying out of our immigration policies ... just another reason the American People are so sick and tired of Washington.

President Bush's Symbolic Visit

2007-09-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

On the way to a meeting with Asia-Pacific leaders in Sidney, President Bush stopped over in Anbar province in Iraq. It was in Anbar Province that just last year, US forces had just about written the area off as unmanageable. But that was before Sunni tribesmen got fed up with all the suicide bombings and started fighting against al-Quaeda. Now it is one of the safer areas around Baghdad. The President met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and leaders of Iraq's Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish communities. Joining President Bush were Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Ambassador Ryan Crocker and US Commander General David Petraeus.

During the meeting, the President urged Iraqi leaders to use the calmer times to work to pass legislation to bring the Iraqi people together (like the oil wealth distribution law). Though the entire US "war council" was there, this meeting was more symbolic than substantive.

Having the Prime Minister (al-Maliki is a Shiite) meet President Bush in Anbar province (a Sunni territory) was set to show that the Iraqi government wants to work with the Sunnis. President Bush just being in Anbar makes a statement on how much has changed in the past year. A year ago, there was no way the president would have been allowed in Anbar ... It was just too dangerous. The arrival of so many high-ranking US government officials is symbolic to the Iraqi parliament that the US is serious about them getting down to business when they re-convene tomorrow. And finally, by the President actually stepping foot on Iraqi soil, he now takes away some of the thunder of Congressional leaders who have visited recently. What this means is that when a Congressman says, "I've been to Iraq and ... ", the President can now say, "well so have I, and ...".

Words are important, actions speak louder than words, and in this part of the world, symbolic gestures are also important.

Al-Sadr Calls For Truce

2007-08-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtadr al-Sadr has ordered a 6 month suspension of hostilities for his Mahdi Army Militia. He has ordered the militia to not attack US or Government forces and they will use this time to re-organize.

The Mahdi Army has broken into factions over the last couple of years, with certain factions bombing civilians and this has given al-Sadr a black eye. Most recently, a faction of the Mahdi Army was involved in an attack on a Shiite mosque in the holy city of Karbala.

The streets of Sadr City were extremely quiet today as the cessation of hostilities has taken effect. The question is, what role did the "surge" play in these developments. The US Military has been hitting the Mahdi Army pretty hard these past couple of months, and a suspicious person might say that this "rehabilitation" is just an excuse for al-Sadr's forces to get some breathing room and lick their wounds. We shall see, but in the meantime, this gives our forces in Sadr City a little break from the constant fighting.

Maybe There Is A Chance

2007-08-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

Unbelievably good news today from the town of Jenin, in the West Bank. An Israeli Army Officer mistakenly drove into this town, known as a stronghold for Palestinian militants and was almost immediately surrounded by a mob. Palestinian police rushed to the soldier and escorted him through the mob and to Police Headquarters. He was later turned over to Israeli authorities unharmed. The mob however burned his car.

Seven years ago in the town of Ramallah, two Israeli reservists that accidentally strayed into town were taken by Palestinian Police to their headquarters. A mob then stormed the building and threw the soldiers out of a second story window. The soldiers died.

What a difference a few years makes (along with having the moderate Fatah party in charge on the West Bank. If this had happened in Gaza, that officer would have been toast. Kudos to the Palestinian Police for acting like real peace officers and it is our hope that this governmental cooperation continues. If only the rescue would not have been needed in the first place, this would have been perfect ... oh well, for now we should be happy for this very, very positive sign.

Free At Last

2007-08-27T14:19:00.000-07:00

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation this morning, effective September 17th. The Attorney General has been under pressure for years, starting with interrogation techniques and finally culminating in the firing of US attorneys. Was Alberto Gonzales a villain? Was he a man in a job that he was unqualified for? Was Alberto Gonzales the victim of a rabid Democratic Congress that found him an easy target? Or was he the victim of an Administration that had gotten too smug and refused to explain things to the American public?

Gonzales was for the first part of his career, the epitome of the American Dream. Born of Immigrant parents in San Antonio, and a product of public schooling, Gonzales attended Rice University, Harvard School of Law and the United States Air Force Academy. He served on the Texas Supreme Court before being picked as White House Counsel and finally US Attorney General.

A villain, I think not. Alberto Gonzales has never done anything illegal to benefit himself. Unqualified, if graduating from some of the top schools in the country and being a state supreme court justice isn’t enough for your resume, I don’t know what else is. A victim, not really. He was attacked by the Democrats because he seems to have a problem communicating. Not good for an Attorney General, but not a crime. Yes, the House was very enthusiastic of its’ persecution of the Attorney General, and the White House sometimes feels it doesn’t have to answer to anyone, but the problem was with the Attorney General himself. Instead of giving evasive answers, he should have stated fact. The fact was that some of the questions asked could only have been answered by revealing information that had not yet been declassified. That he would happily answer questions behind closed doors to those that were cleared for the information.

I don’t know how Alberto Gonzales got up each morning, knowing how he was going to be persecuted when he got into the office, but I say to him, thank you for your service … I wouldn’t have wanted your job.
Symbolically, Gonzales should have left on the 16th of September instead of the 17th. That is after all Mexican Independence Day, and he is finally free of Washington DC.

Native American Immigration

2007-08-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought you had heard everything, we now have a “sham” American Indian Tribe selling membership to illegal aliens.

The Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs denied the Kaweah Indians recognition back in 1985, because it was “not a real tribe”. The Kaweah tribe did exist at one time, but it is unrelated to this one.

The Kaweah Indian Nation, Inc., of Wichita, Kansas took up to $400.00 each from an unknown number of illegal aliens for the guarantee of a Social Security number and a “Certificate of Citizenship” card that was supposed to bring protection against deportation. They further told the illegal immigrants that once the tribe was recognized by the federal government, they would be US Citizens. Immigration authorities have said becoming a member of a tribe (even a real one) gives no protection against deportation.

The tribe’s secretary, a woman from El Salvador, and her Guatemalan husband were charged last week in Wichita for federal immigration violations in what prosecutors called a multi-state immigration scam.

I hope these two are not US Citizens … So we can deport their asses.

As the War Turns ... Dems Spin Iraq News

2007-08-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

It looks like the Democrats are launching a pre-emptive strike in advance of the September 15th release of General Petraeus’ review of the situation in Iraq.

Yesterday, in front of a VFW audience in Kansas City, Mo, Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton admitted that the troop surge is working … then proceeded to try to spin this information into troop withdrawals. Mrs. Clinton stated, “It’s working. We’re just years too late in changing tactics.” She also stated, “New military tactics in Iraq are working, but the best way to honor US soldiers is by beginning to bring them home.”

Mrs. Clinton, if we are finally getting our act together in Iraq, how can our pulling out possibly honor those service members who have given their lives? The only way I see to honor our fallen heroes is to succeed in the mission for which they gave everything. If we truly want to honor them, Iraq must become a free nation, awash in the prosperity that comes from a fair and equitable government.

Is the specter of the US winning the war in Iraq so scary to the Democratic Party that you will do anything to make sure we lose? Regardless of polls, I can guarantee you that the American (Republican, Democrat and Independent) people do not want to lose this war, and will not look kindly on the people that bring this nation down.

So, Democrats, if you want to win the next election, do not screw this nation for political gain … we will remember.

The French Arrive In Iraq

2007-08-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

No my friends, France hasn't sent its' storried foreign legion into Iraq, but France's Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner is making a symbolic visit to Baghdad today. This visit is the first by a French official since the war started, and is seen by US officials as a gesture by the Sarkozy government to heal relations with the US that have been at an all time low. Kouchner timed his arrival in Baghdad to coincide with the 4th anniversary of the bombing of the UN Headquarters in Iraq that killed UN special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello (a close friend) and 21 others. When asked by reporters if France is now willing to help American forces, the top French diplomat stated that he was simply on a fact-finding mission.

Hey France, remember when you were mired down in a similar situation? I think the US came in to help. The place was called Viet Nam. So lets get the foreign legion in here and start kicking butt.

Fred Thompson The Conservative?

2007-08-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

The name Fred Thompson has been bandied about as the Conservative alternative to Rudy Giuliani. But just how conservative are his credentials?

Fred Thompson was a DC lobbyist for 20 years prior to entering the Senate in 1994. A couple of his clients just might give the Republican base pause. He lobbied for an abortion rights group, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and for deposed leftist Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide. During his lobbying career, Thompson made well over $1,000,000.00 representing his clients.

Fred Thompson claims to strongly oppose abortion, but he makes no apologies for fighting for abortion rights on behalf of his client. He says, "there is nothing wrong with a lawyer representing a client with views different from his own".

I would like to counter Mr. Thompson's assertion ... there is nothing illegal with representing a client with views opposite your own ... but in this case it is morally wrong. This is a man that wants to be President of the United States, we already know he will sell his soul for money, what else will he sell? Sorry Mr. Thompson, you will not be receiving my vote. You had more of a chance if you had told me that you were pro-choice. One of the qualities that America needs in her leaders is the courage of their convictions. Your convictions seem to be for sale.