Our Speaker of the House is a TRAITOR.

Good News: Nancy Pelosi begrudgingly acknowledges success in Iraq.

Bad News: Rather than crediting our generals, our soldiers on the ground, and Iraqis, what does the good little dhimmi (who just happens to hold the third highest office in the land), Nancy Pelosi, do???

She CREDITS IRAN. The same islam-o-tards who are helping to kill our soldiers in Iraq!

In an interview yesterday with the San Francisco Chronicle, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed the U.S. troop surge failed to accomplish its goal. She then partially credited the success of the troop surge to “the goodwill of the Iranians,” claiming that they were responsible for ending violence in the southern city of Basra.

Asked if she saw any evidence of the surge’s positive impact on her May 17 trip to Iraq she responded:

Well, the purpose of the surge was to provide a secure space, a time for the political change to occur to accomplish the reconciliation. That didn’t happen. Whatever the military success, and progress that may have been made, the surge didn’t accomplish its goal. And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians-they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.

Read the whole, disgusting story here, and listen to Nancy Pelosi betray her nation here.

Apparently, it must be genetically impossible for a modern-day democrat to give any credit to our military nor to national foreign policy.

Yet giving a verbal high-five to a SWORN enemy of our nation comes as easily to their traitorous, scummy lips as does the phrase, "pass the salt."

As a parent of a soldier who, along with his Minnesota National Guard compatriots (and Iraqis) did a helluva job getting the Anbar province under control, excuse me if I take extreme offense to Nancy Al-Pelosi's bald-faced treasonous vomit.

She needs to be bitch-slapped.

I was getting to the point where I thought I could no longer be surprised nor outraged at anything democrats did or said.

I continue to be proven wrong in that regard.

FINALLY.

Colorado, a weary nation will turn its eyes toward you.

Unborn Personhood Amendment Makes Colorado Ballot
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
May 30, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - An amendment to the Colorado Constitution that defines a "person" as "any human being from the moment of fertilization" will go before state voters in the Nov. 4 general election.

Amendment 48, entitled "Definition of a Person," was approved for a statewide vote on Thursday by Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman, whose office validated 103,000 signatures on petitions for the ballot initiative -- 27,000 more than required.

The petition drive -- which actually collected 130,050 signatures -- originated with 20-year-old Kristi Burton, who said in a news release that she developed a deep passion for the pro-life movement at 13 years of age.

"All humans should be protected by love and by law, and this amendment is a historic effort to ensure equal rights for every person," Burton noted in her statement.

"We at Colorado for Equal Rights are incredibly thankful for our many volunteers who worked so hard for each signature we delivered to the secretary of state's office and the churches who stood behind us and supported us," she added. "This victory is the voice of the people, and all credit goes to our Creator."

If approved by voters next fall, the amendment would guarantee every person, at every stage of life, the right to life, liberty, equality of justice and due process of law, Burton said. And while the initiative would not make abortion illegal, supporters and opponents alike believe it could lay the legal framework to legislate against abortion.

"For the first time in 40 years of 'legalized' child killing, pro-lifers have moved an entire state to consider the God-given right to life of the unborn," said Brian Rohrbough, president of American Right to Life, in a statement of his own on Thursday.

"Abortion is wrong because it's a baby; it's always wrong to intentionally kill a baby," said Rohrbough, "even when its father is a criminal, as with incest."

"The abortion clinic covers up the crime of incest and typically sends the victim back home to her rapist," the group's Web site states. "Even worse, they often send her home with her rapist, the criminal who brought her to the clinic."

"There are no 'hard cases,'" said Steve Curtis, American Right to Life's vice president and former chair of the Colorado Republican Party. "Abortion for incest emboldens a criminal to rape his young relative, helps him escape being caught, tempts him to repeat his crime and is not compassionate because it kills a baby and increases the woman's suffering."

"Abortion clinics nationwide refuse to comply with mandatory reporting laws for suspected child rape," noted Jo Scott, director of the group Pro-Life Colorado.

"We brought audio-taped evidence of that failure to the Colorado attorney general's office, and they chose to look the other way," Scott said. "Personhood for the unborn will reduce crimes against women and children."

"American Right to Life applauds the dozens of Colorado politicians and candidates who have publicly endorsed the personhood amendment," Rohrbough added, "and urges all Christians, pro-life leaders and organizations to support personhood as the only foundation on which to reverse the de-criminalization of killing unborn children."

Of course, the abortion industry, who makes their living from slaughtering the innocent, is having coniptions, and is throwing every cliche they have at the amendment:

However, opponents -- including a "broad-based coalition including nurses, doctors, religious leaders, community groups and health-care advocacy organizations" called Protect Families, Protect Choices -- have claimed that the amendment is "dangerous and deceptive."

"Access to affordable health care is already tough enough for Colorado families," the organization's Web site states. "But now a deceptively written ballot measure would put women's lives at risk and threaten access to health care.

"This amendment could make abortion illegal at all times, even in the earliest weeks of pregnancy," the site adds. "It could outlaw abortion even in the cases of rape, incest and when a woman's life is at risk."

The ballot initiative is "a dangerous attempt to put politicians and lawyers in the middle of our most personal and private health-care decisions," the coalition adds. "It would even open the door to letting prosecutors investigate miscarriages and go through our most private medical records.

"The amendment is so extreme that it could even ban several common forms of birth control and prohibit in-vitro fertilization and life-saving stem cell research," says the coalition, which includes the League of Women Voters and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.

First of all, abortion is not "health care." [Yet another example of this] No one "gets healthy" from abortion; least of all the aborted. Second of all, tell me one instance in which embryonic stem cells saved one life. The dirty little secret is that there isn't any, since embryonic stem cells are too unstable to be useful. Yet the Mengelians in the abortion industry continue on with the lie.

The pro-death movement is based on one concept and one concept alone: Convenience of the living trumps the sanctity of life.

While the absence of abortion as a possibility may indeed make the lives of those who are in the midst of an unwanted pregnancy more "complicated" for a period of time, the "final solution" of the theft of a chance at life itself from a developing human being is by no means a just alternative.

And Coloradans will have a glowing opportunity to shout that from the Rocky Mountain-tops come this November.

I'm giving myself a raise.

I'm opening up a futures market based on my salary.

I'm speculating that I will be making a million dollars a month by October.

Ante up.

I'm so glad we had this time together...

Carol Burnett certainly must have been thinking of her cohort Harvey Korman, every time she sang that song at the end of her show.

One of the great comedians, Harvey Korman, is now dead at 81.

Interesting development in medicine...

There have been many in my family who have been ravaged by diabetes, up to and including lost limbs and death itself. That's why I'm heartened by this news:

Microspheres carrying targeted nucleic acid molecules fabricated in the laboratory have been shown to prevent and even reverse new-onset cases of type 1 diabetes in animal models. The results of these studies were reported by diabetes researchers at the John G. Rangos Sr. Research Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and Baxter Healthcare Corporation.

In a research study at Children's Hospital, the scientists injected the microspheres under the skin near the pancreas of mice with autoimmune diabetes. The microspheres were then captured by white blood cells known as dendritic cells which released the nucleic acid molecules within the dendritic cells. The released molecules reprogrammed these cells, and then migrated to the pancreas. There, they turned off the immune system attack on insulin-producing beta cells. Within weeks, the diabetic mice were producing insulin again with reduced blood glucose levels.

Results of the microsphere study are published in the June issue of Diabetes, the journal of the American Diabetes Association.

My maternal grandmother had Type I diabetes, and swore up and down that she was cured by a medicine developed by her family doctor, who, as the story goes, took the secret of the concoction with him when he died. That was probably 70 years ago. It's good to see that such hope again arises in the horizon.

Shoving their morality down our throats....

What the left often accuses Christians of doing: New York's Governor Paterson has unilaterally ordered all state agencies to recognize gay marriages from California and Canada, even though there is a proscription against gay New Yorkers themselves from tying the knot.

As Gavin Newsom proclaimed, his "moral view" of gay marriage will be slammed-dunked down our throats, no matter what the majority of Americans think.

As New York's Catholic bishops finally (rightly) stated,

"just as the state cannot declare a man to be a 'mother' or a woman to be a 'father,' it can not declare a same-sex union to be a 'marriage."

Just as a pig cannot be labelled a horse. But as liberals are wont to do, they think they have free rein to re-define language as they see fit. By re-defining language, (as they are prone to do with the Constitution) they get to set the terms of the argument.

Sticks and stones may indeed break bones, but liberals have a way of wielding and twisting language that can in the end be every bit as formidable a weapon. Our charge as conservatives continues to be constantly on guard and counter their deceptive tactics with the most formidable weapon in the history of Man: The truth.

This is a message worth screaming...

Click on the pic to sign the petition.

Barack Obama: "Being There?"

Robert Ferrigno, author of "Prayers for the Assassin" and his latest, "Sins of the Assassin" has an article of what an Obama presidency may look like, in the eyes of Mahamoud Ahmawhackjob. Read the whole thing.

I had a correspondence today with Mr. Ferrigno, in which I compared Obama with the movie, "Being There," with Peter Sellers playing "Chance," the cognitively-challenged gardener (Chauncy Gardner), who at the end of the movie is being considered for a run for POTUS.

Mr. Ferrigno responded,

"Leo
you nailed it with the Being There analogy. amazing. the guy truly is a blank screen on which people project their deepest desires. we're in for some rough water, i'm afraid.
Robert

Is Barack Obama a life imitating art in this case? One would think so.

Enviro-Whackos to Taxpayers: Hand us your money!

Before everyone finds out that MMGW's a scam:

The Great Lakes are likely to face serious threats from global warming and Congress needs to pay for restoring the lakes now so they’ll have a better chance of being resilient once temperatures rise and lake levels drop as predicted. Warming over the next century could lower lakes and expose toxic sediment that has been buried, reduce wetlands that help filter pollution and cause heavy rains that lead to more sewer overflows, threatening water quality, a new report by the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition says.

Wait a minute. Which is it? Will the lake levels lower, or will there be torrential rains? Or will it only rain over land? Global warming? WHAT GLOBAL FRIGGEN WARMING? Are you talking about one of the coldest Aprils on record? Are you talking about the fact that the earth's mean temperature really hasn't risen to any significant degree since 1998? Are you talking about my motorcycle ride on Monday from Detroit Lakes, on May friggen 26th, when it didn't get above 50 degrees???

The lakes are desperately in need of $20 billion Midwestern legislators have already asked Congress for, and the longer the funding is delayed, the more costly the projects will become, said Jeff Skelding, director of the coalition. One possible source of funds is the Senate bill to curb greenhouse gases that will be debated next week, authored by Senators Joe Lieberman and John Warner. All three presidential candidates support some curbs on greenhouse gases to slow global warming. The bill would provide $1 to $3 billion per year from carbon trading permits that could be used to restore large-scale ecosystems, Skelding said.

Just follow the money.

When will our candidates (especially Republicans) finally call these moron horse-thief charlatans for what they are-- scam artists, and put the interests of the people ahead of the extreme environmental movement, whose real aim is to bring about a socialist society, and cash in during the process.

Smokey...

One of the "Three Amigos" (the one on the left) is gone...


They were a matched set. There's definitely a void.

Smokey was always the rabble-rouser--the instigator who would get the other two in trouble. When it was time for them to go outside, it was Smokey who required the personal invitation.

When my wife and son got home on Memorial Day, Smokey ran out of the car and onto the road, where a speeding motorist ran over him, and kept on going.

He will be missed..

In a "Sir Edmund" Hillary Moment...

Obama tells another tall tale...

Barack Obama’s campaign scrambled Tuesday to set the record straight after the Democratic presidential candidate said on Memorial Day that his uncle helped liberate the Auschwitz death camp at the end of World War II.

There were two obvious problems with the tale: Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army, and Obama’s American mother was an only child.

Perhaps after a call to one of his pointy-headed friends in academia (perhaps Bill Ayers?), the Obama camp changed the story:

“Senator Obama’s family is proud of the service of his grandfather and uncles in World War II — especially the fact that his great uncle was a part of liberating one of the concentration camps at Buchenwald,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. “Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically.”

The campaign said his great uncle, Charlie Payne, served in the 89th Infantry Division, and that the unit was among those to liberate Ohrdruf on April 4, 1945.

Yeahhh...that's the ticket.

Wednesday Hero Blogburst 5-28-08

Gen. Benjamin S. Griffin


General Benjamin S. Griffin, commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command, talks with Brig. Gen. Shallal Abdul Rasool Habeeb

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

A Memorial Day Tribute...

Courtesy of Johnny Cash...

Happy breakfast

My wife made me some French toast this morning at the camper. If you look closely, you'll see a smiley face. I told my wife we should save it and auction it off on e-bay.

Nawww... Guess I'll just eat it.

Watch your six, Barack..

I just heard Hillary's reference to Bobby Kennedy's assasination in 1968... Just remember...hell hath no fury like a Clinton scorned... Just watch your six, and keep away from Fort Marcy Park, K?

A Pennsylvania Democrat Congressman tells the Truth About Democrats and Iraq:

WIth Jack Murtha's call for surrender, Harry Reid's pronouncement that "The Iraq War is Lost!" ahead of the surge, along with every other democrat call for our defeat and surrender in Iraq, we conservatives in the Republican Party knew all along that the democrats were more than willing to sell out our nation's security and our soldiers's safety for cheap, political gain. Now, one democrat has finally admitted what we knew to be the case.

From an e-mailing from the Pennsylvania Republican Party:

At a recent event, Congressman Kanjorski told a crowd the following about the Democrats 2006 election strategy:

"I'll tell you my impression. We really in this last election, when I say we...the Democrats, I think pushed it as far as we can to the end of the fleet, didn't say it, but we implied it. That if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war. Now anybody was a good student of Government would know that wasn't true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts...and people ate it up."

Click here to watch the Congressman admitting that the Democrats political strategy in 2006 was to knowingly mislead the public on the War in Iraq.

These bastards cannot be allowed to get away with this. Elected democrat officials, sworn to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" have themselves become the enemy. This needs to be shouted far and wide, from sea to shining sea, that the DNC is, in fact, a subversive organization dedicated to sabotaging the efforts of our generals and troops during wartime from accomplishing their mission of providing for a stable and secure Iraq; instead providing aid and comfort to the enemies who would see them killed.

The Party of Kennedy and of Roosevelt have devolved into a party of subversives, who will do anything and everything, up to and including treason, to meet their ends.

A car that runs on air?

I thought it too good to be true, but Popular Mechanics has an article that says an inexpensive car that runs on compressed air will be available in the U.S. market sometime in 2009 or 2010; and unlike many electric-powered tinkertoys that will run over $100,000, this car, with a purported 1,000 mile range at 96mph, will cost only $18,000!

The CityCAT, already being developed in India (bottom left), will be available for U.S. production in three different four-door styles. But it's the radical dual-energy engine, with a possible 1000-mile range at 96 mph, that could move the Air Car beyond Auto X Prize dreams and into American garages.

Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed to PopularMechanics.com on Thursday that it expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year.

And while ZPM is also licensed to build MDI’s two-seater OneCAT economy model (the one headed for India) and three-seat MiniCAT (like a SmartForTwo without the gas), the New Paltz, N.Y., startup is aiming bigger: Company officials want to make the first air-powered car to hit U.S. roads a $17,800, 75-hp equivalent, six-seat modified version of MDI’s CityCAT (pictured above) that, thanks to an even more radical engine, is said to travel as far as 1000 miles at up to 96 mph with each tiny fill-up.

We’ll believe that when we drive it, but MDI’s new dual-energy engine—currently being installed in models at MDI facilities overseas—is still pretty damn cool in concept. After using compressed air fed from the same Airbus-built tanks in earlier models to run its pistons, the next-gen Air Car has a supplemental energy source to kick in north of 35 mph, ZPM says. A custom heating chamber heats the air in a process officials refused to elaborate upon, though they insisted it would increase volume and thus the car’s range and speed.

“I want to stress that these are estimates, and that we’ll know soon more precisely from our engineers,” ZPM spokesman Kevin Haydon told PM, “but a vehicle with one tank of air and, say, 8 gal. of either conventional petrol, ethanol or biofuel could hit between 800 and 1000 miles.”

I wasn't too hep on electric cars, since the batteries have a limited lifetime and cost a fortune to replace. But this, this, if it holds up to its promises, is something that I can get behind!

AP and "Big Oil": The whole truth?

The AP has a story out that basically portrays oil execs as cowering under the thundering bloviations coming from the Senate today:

"Where is the corporate conscience?" Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies.

It's all about economics, came the reply. Supply and demand. The company leaders tried to shift attention from motorists' anger over $4-a-gallon gasoline to a debate over new areas for drilling.

But senators at the Judiciary Committee hearing weren't having any of that. They wanted to press the executives about public anguish over paying $60 or more to fill up a car's gas tank.

"People we represent are hurting, the companies you represent are profiting," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the executives. He said there's a "disconnect" between legitimate supply issues and the oil and gasoline prices motorists are seeing.

The executives, sitting shoulder to shoulder in the hearing room, said they understood people were hurting, but they tried to blunt the emotion with economic analysis.

Profits have been huge "in absolute terms," conceded J. Stephen Simon, executive vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp., but they "must be viewed in the context of the massive scale of our industry." And high earnings "in the current up cycle" are needed for investments in the long term, including when profits will be down.

"'Current up cycle,' that's a nice term when people can't afford to go to work" because gasoline is costing so much, replied Leahy with sarcasm.

"The fundamental laws of supply and demand are at work," said John Hofmeister, chairman of Shell Oil Co., acknowledging it is something the oil industry has been saying for some time and that the explanation may sound "repetitive and uninteresting."

Hofmeister was joined by executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., BP America Inc. and ConocoPhilips Co. Together the five companies earned $36 billion during the first three months of this year.

As the executives sought to explain their profits and why prices are so high, the global oil markets were moving into new, uncharted highs, touching $133 a barrel for the first time. The national average price of a gallon of gasoline hit $3.80, with $4 showing up in more places. Crude prices increased even more in late electronic trading Wednesday hitting $134 for the first time.

What writer Josef Hebert conveniently failed to add to the reporting was this reply by John Hofmeister, CEO of Shell Oil:

HOFMEISTER: In the United States, access to our own oil and gas resources has been limited for the last 30 years, prohibiting companies such as Shell from exploring and developing resources for the benefit of the American people. It is not a free market. According to the Department of the Interior, 62% of all on-shore federal lands are off limits to oil and gas developments, with restrictions applying to 92% of all federal lands. The Argonne National Laboratory did a report in 2004 that identified 40 specific federal policy areas that halt, limit, delay, or restrict natural gas projects. The problem of access can be solved in this country by the same government that has prohibited it. Congress could have chose to lift some or all of the current restrictions on exploration and production of oil and gas. Congress could provide national policy to reverse the persistent decline of domestically secure natural resource development.

That, my dear readers, is the problem in a nutshell. Big Government is in the midst of bloviating, beating their chests and pointing their bony fingers of indignation at "Big Oil," when all the while the cause of and answer to the problem is waiting to be answered the next time they look in the mirror. And "Big Media" who is in cahoots with "Big Government" lacks the cajones to report that fact.

Surprise? I think not.

Keith Olberman calls U.S. Soldiers "cold blooded killers"

...in a spittle-flecked diatribe..



Talk about "brand names," dickhead, how about "blood for oil." How about "Cold blooded killers" (taking a page from Jihad Jack Murtha, I see, "sir.")

You, Mr. Olberman, "sir" are the worst form of maggot-infested, fifth-column journalist who would see the United States sold off to jihadists just as soon as look at it.

It is you, "sir" and your ilk who are giving jihadists a reason to climb out of their caves to kill and maim another day. The blood of innocents, "sir" is not on our soldiers, but on yours and every other terrorist-apologist leftist piece of filth who dons a microphone or who takes a phony oath of allegiance to the Constitution in one breath and then gives aid and comfort to our enemies the next.

You, Mr. Olbermann, "sir" are a piece of scum (with apologies to scum that I may have offended with that reference).

I really had my doubts...

While reading about a new invention from Japan, the Solar Bra, I came upon this factoid.

(click on photo to enlarge)

Who'd a thunk it?

Wednesday Hero Blogburst 5-21-08

Sgt. John F. Thomas(Right) & Sgt. Ronnie L. Shelley, Sr.(Left)
33 & 34 years old from Valdosta, Georgia
2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, 48th Infantry Brigade, Georgia Army National Guard
July 24, 2005 & July 30, 2005


Sgt. Ronnie "Rod" Shelley and Sgt. John F. Thomas became best friends in the Georgia Army National Guard.

They both were veteran Marines, both about the same age, and both enjoyed searching for arrowheads and fishing together. As their friendship grew, Thomas often came over to Shelley’s house for steaks and ribs barbecued by his friend. And when their infantry unit was sent to Iraq in May of 2005, they went to war together.

When their unit was mobilized for combat duty in Iraq, Shelley promised to watch out for Thomas. "Ronnie said, 'Don't you worry, I'll bring him back safely,"' said Thomas' grandfather. But neither Sgt. Thomas or Sgt. Shelley made it back safely. Sgt. Thomas was killed July 24, 2005 by a roadside bomb near Baghdad. And Sgt. Shelley was killed six days later on July 30 by another roadside bomb, also near Baghdad.

Shelley was a family man, married with three children, who was obsessed with having a neat yard, his wife said. "The grass had to be two inches," she said. "If the neighbor mowed the grass, Rod had to mow. He also wanted the biggest, baddest lawn mower."

She said she fell in love with his "gorgeous blue ... eyes," and "he had a laid back attitude. I could not make him mad."

Thomas was married but had no children. His grandparents said he dreamed of becoming a forest ranger. "John wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. Now the only trail he can walk is the trail in heaven," the grandfather said.

Mrs. Thomas, wiping back tears, said the soldier felt responsible for the others in his unit. "He cared for people," she said. "That's why he had so many friends. People cared for him."

Killed alongside Sgt. Shelley were Staff Sgt. David R. Jones Sr., Sgt. 1st Class Victor A. Anderson and Sgt. Jonathon C. Haggin and killed alongside Sgt. Thomas were Army Spc. Jacques E. Brunson, Army Staff Sgt. Carl R. Fuller and Army Sgt. James O. Kinlow.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Think he'll show them where the silverware is, too?

This. Guy. Is. Dangerous.

What was that sucking sound?

Oh, that. That was the sound of the wind being taken out of the enviro-whacko's sails as the "consensus" that was "man-made" global warming crumbles into little bitty pieces..

Nuff said.

Though the question remains: What will be the next enviro-whacko pseudo cause celebre?

h/t Roosh Five.

Curious.

From the Associated Press:

Former KKK member endorses Obama

WASHINGTON - Senator Robert Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and a one-time opponent of civil rights legislation, is endorsing Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Not that I find it particularly noteworthy that Senator Robert "Sheets" Byrd endorsed Obama. What I find completely jaw-dropping is that a member of the drive-by media actually acknowledged democrat Robert Byrd's past stint as a KKK Kleagle.

What this unprecedented Hillary-Obama hatchet fight has allowed us to witness is the drive-by media's uncomfortable situation of having to pick sides between two liberal democrats; forcing them to inevitably eat their own in the process.

If nothing else, this current election cycle is making for some grand and glorious theatre.

Obama: The truth hurts.

The list of what we can no longer criticize about Barack Hussein-- (oops) -- Obama continues. Even if it's the truth. Now it just so happens that whatever his wife says is beyond reproach:

Earlier, Obama told critics in an interview aired on ABC's "Good Morning America" to "lay off my wife."

The Illinois senator was responding to an online ad run by the Tennessee GOP that, during a four-minute video, replays six times Michelle Obama's comment that "for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country." Michelle Obama has clarified her remark, saying she meant she is proud of the public's engagement in this year's political process. Obama called the ad "just low class."

Obama said that if he wins the nomination, Republicans "can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record. But, he added, "if they think that they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful, because I find unacceptable the notion that you start attacking my wife or my family."

This would be fair enough if Michelle Obama didn't insert herself and her words as part and parcel of her husband's campaign. But in that very same interview, Michele Obama did just that:

In the joint interview, Michelle Obama said, "We're trusting that the American voters are ready to talk about the issues." She also denied speculation that she has ruled out a place by Clinton on her husband's ticket.

"There's no way that I would say 'absolutely not' to one of the most successful and powerful and groundbreaking women on this planet," Michelle Obama said. Empathizing with her as someone who raised "a phenomenal daughter" while in politics, she said, "I think the world of Hillary Clinton," and added, "I know how hard, just in the little bit of exposure I've had to this, what she's had to deal with and what she's accomplished."

Word to Michelle Obama: If you can't take the political heat, then get the hell in the kitchen and bake some cookies.

Obama: "The buck never got here."

Read this story on Obama's tendencies to blame the help for all his woes. Here's but a snippet:

In a March 2008 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times to answer questions about Tony Rezko, Obama was asked about the fact that Obama had told the newspaper in November 2006 that he had never been asked to do anything to advance Rezko's business interests. But the Sun-Times had subsequently learned about a October 28, 1998 letter Obama wrote to city and state housing officials on behalf of a housing project for seniors that Rezko was working on.

The letter, Obama said, "was essentially a form letter of the sort that I did all time. And that I wasn’t, by the way, aware of.”

A reporter asked: You weren't aware that he was associated with the project?

Responded Obama: "I wasn't even aware that we wrote the letter. The answer that I gave at the time was accurate as far as I knew...This was one of many form letters, or letters of recommendation we would send out constantly for all sorts of projects. And my understanding is that our letter was just one of many. And I wasn’t a decision maker in any of this process.”

The Sun-Times also pointed out that in November 2006 Obama estimated that Rezko had raised somewhere between $50,000 and $60,000 for him during his political career.

But since that answer, Obama has given back almost $160,000 in Rezko-related contributions.

"The original estimate was based on, I asked my staff to find what monies they attributed to Rezko, and this was the figure given to me," Obama said.

Blaming others for your own misfortunes, gaffes and mis-steps will only get you so far. For the better part of a year, Barack Obama was held above criticism by the larger media, and was thought to be the democratic "pure as the wind-driven snow" golden child. But the more the truth about the "real Obama" comes out, the more the electorate will realize that the "golden child" they thought they were getting was in reality nothing but costume jewelry.

***UPDATE***

Welcome Rezkowatch and Rezkorama readers. Give a click here for the main page and latest posts.

Obama's "end game."

My friend, Chicagoray, has found a most disturbing quote by Obama that should send shivers down the spine of every freedom-loving American. It appears that Obama wants to engage in a "global test" before we are allowed to meet our energy needs:

This, from a speech in Oregon; Oh--what the hell was I thinking--cue the music first!

Pitching his message to Oregon's environmentally-conscious voters, Obama called on the United States to "lead by example" on global warming, and develop new technologies at home which could be exported to developing countries.

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.

"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.

I'll let that statement stand on its own merits, Komrades, or lack thereof.

Regarding fish and visitors...

This story was on Neil Cavuto on Fox News, nearly a year ago:



Given a prime example of what the piece was talking about happening in my own city here in Minnesota, I can see Cavuto's point. It's long been a cultural thing in Minnesota to be "nice" to everyone; but as with respect to any instance of unlimited hospitality extended to strangers, that otherwise admirable trait is ripe for abuse by those who would benefit from it. Ben Franklin had it right when he said, "Fish and visitors smell after three days." Those in the Somali community who refuse to assimilate; instead demanding that we assimilate to their culture, are in that respect becoming an odiferous lot.

A final deal between the MN legislature and the Governor has been reached...

In what looks like an overall good deal in light of the DFL majorities in both Minnesota houses, the Governor today announced that an agreement had been reached between the DFL -controlled Minnesota legislature and the Governor. It included benefits for veterans, as well as the extra funding for new facilities at the Minneapolis veterans home, a cause that Governor Pawlenty had been championing for quite some time. In a big election year, it appears that neither side wanted a long, drawn-out battle to give voters the impression that they would be a "do-nothing" legislature.

RELEASE FROM GOVERNOR'S OFFICE:

GOVERNOR PAWLENTY AND LEGISLATIVE LEADERS ANNOUNCE BIPARTISAN BUDGET AGREEMENT, INCLUDES PROPERTY TAX CAP

~ Governor delivers on commitment to provide tax relief, balance budget, reduce spending ~



Saint Paul - Governor Tim Pawlenty and legislative leaders have agreed on a plan to balance the state budget without raising taxes while providing significant tax relief for Minnesotans. The agreement erases a projected $935 million deficit and includes the Governor's plan for a property tax cap and tax relief for veterans and military members.



During several days of negotiations leading up to the agreement, Governor Pawlenty fought for a property tax cap to protect homeowners from rapidly increasing property taxes. The agreement includes a cap that will limit cities and counties to an increase of 3.9 percent per year. Governor Pawlenty's property tax cap and related relief is projected to save taxpayers $78.5 million in 2009 and $460.5 million over the next three years. Also, cities and counties will receive additional aid.



"Minnesotans deserve tax relief and a state government that lives within its means," Governor Pawlenty said. "This agreement delivers both. I want to thank legislative leaders from both parties for their hard work and willingness to seek out solutions. The result is a balanced budget, a strong property tax cap, additional tax relief, reduced government
spending, no additional taxes, health care reform, a new state park and new facilities at the Minneapolis Veterans Home."

Highlights of the overall package include: Property tax cap of 3.9 percent, plus household growth, for three years

$25 million in property tax relief through the property tax refund program which provides direct relief to homeowners and $60 million in local government aids and credits

Tax relief for veterans and members of the military, including a new tax credit of up to $750 per person annually for those who served more than 20 years or were disabled in service, a doubling of the existing overseas deployment tax credit to $120 per month deployed and an exemption from state income taxes for drills and similar activity

An overall reduction in state government spending and a balanced budget for FY 2008-09

Progress toward resolving the projected budget deficit for FY 2010-11

Total bonding within the state's 3 percent debt service limit,including funding for Central Corridor, a nursing facility at the Minneapolis Veterans Home and Lake Vermilion State Park

Nation-leading health care reform that includes increased transparency, pay for performance, required e-prescribing by 2011 and tax credits

Increased funding for K-12 schools and nursing homes

I'm still waiting to see the details on this one:

Nation-leading health care reform that includes increased transparency, pay for performance, required e-prescribing by 2011 and tax credits

I'm pretty sure that anything that is government-run, especially with regard to health care, probably has a few significant devils hiding in the details.

***UPDATE **** 9/18/08, 9:44pm

Gary Gross has a post on a synopsis of more of the details of the agreement, as submitted in a letter from Steve Gottwalt. Read the whole thing.

Shakedown Cruise

Just got done with a trip from St. Cloud to my camper in Detroit Lakes. I just got the Virago last week, and this is the longest cycle ride I've taken in nearly a quarter century- and my backside knows it! But at 45-50 mpg, I won't complain.

I took the pic and am posting this with my Treo PDA.

Tomorrow the St. Cloud Singing Saints are in a Division competition here in D.L. Wish us luck!

****UPDATE 5-18-08, 9:19pm****
Well... just got back a short while ago...
Man--the crosswinds were wicked, especially on Saturday.

BTW-- we qualified in the contest to go to District in Appleton in late October...

Also, I found out that our son, Doug has been promoted to an E-5 Sergeant... not bad for a 21-year old!

A great weekend all in all...

The circus came early.

(h/t Boing Boing via Are We Lumberhacks)

Regarding shoving morality down our throats...

The "enlightened" few in the California supreme court thumbed their noses at the will of the people today.

"In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation," Chief Justice Ronald George wrote for the majority in ringing language that delighted gay rights activists.

Massachusetts is the only other state to legalize gay marriage, something it did in 2004. The California ruling is considered monumental by virtue of the state's size - 38 million out of a U.S. population of 302 million - and its historic role in the vanguard of the many social and cultural changes that have swept the country since World War II.

California has an estimated 92,000 same-sex couples.

"It's about human dignity. It's about human rights. It's about time in California," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, pumping his fist in the air, told a roaring crowd at City Hall. "As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. It's inevitable. This door's wide open now. It's going to happen, whether you like it or not."(emphases added)

And the tailspin of societal evolution continues.

Methinks thou dost protest too loudly...

Bush didn't name names, yet Obama, Hillary, and the rest of the fifth column got all hot and bothered.

The obviously guilty consciences that have arisen from the Obama camp wouldn't have anything to do with what Obama has said, would it?

"It's conceivable that there are those in the Arab world who say to themselves, 'This is a guy who spent some time in the Muslim world, has a middle name of Hussein and appears more worldly and has called for talks with people, and so he's not going to be engaging in the same sort of cowboy diplomacy as George Bush,'"

The shoe fits alright. A little too well for their liking, perhaps, but it fits.

As is evidenced by the hysterics on the DNC side, sometimes the truth does indeed hurt.

The Best Top 11 List--Ever.

Check it out at NIGP.

This is what's wrong with the Republican Party..

It's emblematic in their choice for official 2008 RNC Convention apparel:

to wit:Enough kissy-face with the socialists already, okay???

And Zubaz??

Personally, I'm putting my money with KAR.

Tagged by fate...

Or by Dan Stover...

The "Message to the World" meme states: You have 150 characters to send a message to the world. Punctuation doesn't count.

Okeedoke:

• MMGW, or climate change is a sham. Time to wake up from the fairy tale.
• The best way to defeat world poverty and hunger is a dose of freedom and capitalism.
• Cigars & Beer-man's best friend!
  

Time to tag Gary, King and KAR.

Wednesday Hero Blogburst, 5-14-08

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Cindy

Petty Officer 2nd Class Chris Davila
From Sierra Vista, Arizona


On the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States, Petty Officer 2nd Class Chris Davila raised an American flag over Camp Korean Village, Iraq, he brought with him from Arizona.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Sierra Vista firefighter and emergency medical technician Chris Davila presented that flag to Fire Chief Randy Redmond as fellow firefighters looked on. Monday, May 5, 2008, was Davila’s first day back on the job with the department after being gone for nearly nine months, with seven of those months deployed as a Navy Reserve corpsman serving with a Marine unit near the Jordanian and Syrian border area in Iraq.

And, as luck would have it, on his first shift saw him responding to a blaze in Sierra Vista. "Right back to work," he said with a laugh.

You can read the rest of PO 2nd Class Davila's story here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Obama: Hamas' choice.

From Al Jazeera:



Pay special attention to the graphic drawn at the end of the video.

With support from terrorists here, here, and here, don't you think that it's a bit more than coincidence that at the very least, Obama's policies are attractive to those who make it their raison d'etre to visit terror and mayhem on innocent people?

Steve Gottwalt Says "NO" to irresponsible spending

From his May 14 newsletter:

Dear Neighbor,

We are into the final days of the 2008 Legislative Session, and are spending many hours on the House Floor debating final passage of bills as they come back from conference committees. Meanwhile, budget balancing negotiations between the governor and the Democrats who control the Legislature have broken down. I hope we will see a compromise budget agreement before Monday's deadline to adjourn.

Tuesday, I voted against the Omnibus K-12 Finance Bill (HF6). The bill was pure "gottcha" politics. I voted against it because it offered false choices, gutting important QComp education reforms to give one-time money to our schools. The bill also eliminated "Get Ready Get Credit" and the College Level Exam Program (CLEP), designed to help our students prepare for post-secondary success. The Democrats have squandered numerous opportunities to provide real student funding increases without gutting education reform. Last year, with a $2.2 billion state budget surplus, and a 10 percent increase in state spending, they boosted welfare spending 17 percent, but managed only a paltry 3 percent for our K-12 students. They rejected the Republicans' proposal for an 8-percent increase in K-12 funding. Democrats have put politics ahead of real opportunities to boost student achievement for the 21st century, and they need to be held accountable for their failure.

Local taxpayers are not fooled by such political gimmicks.

Monday night, I voted against a health care bill that would spend lots of tax dollars, but do little to reduce the actual cost of health care for Minnesotans. HF3391 was intended to provide significant health care reforms, reducing health care costs and increasing access to quality, affordable care. But it failed of its promise, and the Governor vetoed the bill Tuesday. The bill would have dramatically expanded public health care programs and government spending. It would spend Minnesota's Health Care Access Fund at a rate that would bankrupt the fund in 2012, at which time state law would force us to kick people off of public health care coverage (MinnesotaCare). Such public programs also pay doctors and other health care providers less than their costs, so by pushing more people onto MinnesotaCare, physicians and clinics are forced to charge more to others - those on private or employer-based health care coverage. That raises the cost of health care coverage for most Minnesotans.

As I've said before, we need to improve health care by focusing more on health and wellness, and less on volume of procedures and treatment. We need to improve cost, quality and access of care. But this bill does not get us there. I serve on the Health and Human Services committees in the House, and have worked as a member of the Health Care Access Commission and Minnesota's Rural Health Advisory Committee.

Frankly, this is a disappointing result to all those efforts. Again, Minnesota is the healthiest state in the nation, with overall health care costs 15 percent below the national average, and outstanding health care outcomes. We have the highest percentage of people with health care coverage (93 percent), and the vast majority of those not covered (7 percent) are already eligible for public health care coverage programs, or have chosen not to get health care coverage. We need to build on Minnesota's successes with consumer-driven, market-based solutions, and I will continue working with others to enact real, sustainable health care reform.

I hope negotiators can reach a budget balancing agreement, but we are running out of time. Governor Pawlenty has the ultimate authority to trim the budget himself (unallotment), or call a special session, but let's hope those measures are not necessary. Just so you know, I will not accept any state pay or reimbursement during a special session if one is called.

I will continue providing you with updates as we wrap up the 2008 Legislative Session. Thanks, as always, for your input and feedback. It is an honor and privilege to serve as your State Representative!

Sincerely,
Steve Gottwalt
State Representative - District 15A

Thank you Captain Obvious...

McCain Says His Environmental Stance May Anger Republicans.

Gee.. ya think so?

After all, he's been poking conservatives in the eye for his entire career. Why should he stop now?

Just think of this: if John McCain is so willing to turn his back on conservatives and flip-flop during the PRIMARY SEASON, what's to keep him from turning his back on conservatives after he becomes President?

Do you really think he's going to appoint conservative judges?

Any which way you look at this election, we're screwed.

It's only by a matter of degrees, my friends. It's only by a matter of degrees.

The Great Wealth Redistribution Act of 2007...

Click here for the details:

A bill to require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.

Note especially the usual suspects of RINO co-sponsors.

So the bill imposes a tax that would allow a larger proportion of people worldwide to live on $1.50 a day, so all the good little limousine liberals can go home, knowing that at least they did something (of course, with other people's money).

First of all, if one wants to eliminate world poverty within a generation, one does not need to export more liberalism a-la handouts. What one needs to export is freedom and capitalism, and quit kowtowing to all the tin-horn dictators that stifle free enterprise and instead keep their citizens in physical and economic shakles.

Second of all, as my dear friend Bones corresponds,

This is another tax on Americans...to be paid to the UN...

It's on the Senate calendar for a vote.

...as much as 0.7 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product -- or $845,000,000,000.00 for welfare - aka income 'redistribution' - to third-world countries.

May I remind you that every tax extant is an un-Constitutional theft from your pockets, from your savings, from your retirement, business, investment and educational resources.

Guess who's sponsoring the bill?

Bones

Oh, I don't know-- could it be the biggest socialist since Dhimmi Carter?

Pot Meet Kettle

The DNC's pit-bullswine and all-around blowhard John P. Murtha had this to say about John McCain joking about an "IED gift" for John Stewart:

“Imagine a presidential candidate making a joke about IEDs when these kids are getting blown apart, it's outrageous!” Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha fumes.

John McCain, of course, was a lot more civl in his response than he had to be:

“All I can say to Murtha and others is lighten up and get a life.”

Like I said, Senator McCain was a lot more civil in his response than he needed to be, or perhaps should have been. A fairer, more appropriate response to the gasbag, IMO could have gone something like this:

"Imagine a sitting member of congress pronouncing guilt of "murder in cold blood" on a platoon of Marines without any evidence or even a formal brifing, during a time of war, and giving aid and comfort to the enemy that wants them dead, all for the purposes of cheap, political gain."

So until "Jihad Jack" Murtha apologizes for becoming a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, not to mention denying the basic civil right of presumption of innocence for those who have sworn to defend the Constitution with their very lives, then he has about as much room to talk as the space that exists between the crack of his bloated phat backside.

Just a spoonful of sugar?

Taking a cue from the venerable Mary Poppins, Governor Pawlenty signed a bill into law today that would simultaneously help veterans, while continuing to promulgate the biofuel fiasco.

Governor Tim Pawlenty has signed a bill that requires diesel fuel to contain a greater share of plant-based fuel and allows soldiers' family members to take time off for military events.

When speaking with governor Pawlenty in February of this year, he gave me his assurances that he understood that biofuels were more of a liability than an asset, to wit,

Pawlenty acknowledged that the production of corn- and soy-based ethanol was having unintended consequences, and that there has been a huge move away from food-product ethanol and toward ethanol created via corn-based by-products, animal waste and other "refuse-to-energy" alternatives.

Why, then, would Governor Pawlenty sign into law a measure that would continue a failed energy policy, that of using much-needed food and precious growing acreage for biodiesel products, with the inevitable result being exponentially increasing food prices?

He can sugar coat it all he wants with veterans benefits up the wazoo, but the unshinable turd that is the biofuels sham remains.

Pawlenty should have known better.

Perhaps he got the U.S. confused with the number of Heinz varieties...

"57 states with one left to go"

Then again, perhaps Obama was speaking about 57 different mental states... judging by the video, he appears to have made his most recent appearance (and has since taken up residence) in the State of Psychosis.

And the man has the gall to suggest that McCain is the one who is "losing his bearings?"


(h/t Powerline)

P.S.--Obama suggests that his staff wouldn't allow him to visit Alaska or Hawaii.

Aside from the fact that the residents of Alaska and Hawaii no doubt owe Obama's staff a debt of gratitude, this nonetheless conjures up a frightening picture of the future President Obama: "Well, I wanted to visit the Middle East to broker that deal with the Iranians, but my staff wouldn't let me go."

Or, to add a reductionist twist: "I wanted to go to the playground, but my mommy said I couldn't go!"

And he expects us to believe that he has what it takes to be "commander in chief?"

Geesh--some people's kids.

Another reason to cancel your National Geographic Subscription:

Yet a telling piece of the real environmentalist agenda:

Americans Rated Least Green

by Queenie Wong

WASHINGTON — Americans rank last in a new National Geographic-sponsored survey released Wednesday that compares environmental consumption habits in 14 countries.

Americans were least likely to choose the greener option in three of four categories — housing, transportation and consumer goods — according to the assessment. In the fourth category, food, Americans ranked ahead of Japanese consumers, who eat more meat and seafood.

The new "Greendex" rankings are the first to compare the lifestyles and behaviors of consumers in multiple countries, according to the National Geographic Society.

It plans to conduct the 100-plus question survey annually and considers trends more important than yearly scores, said Terry Garcia, executive vice president of National Geographic's mission programs.

"This is not just a one-time snapshot," Garcia said. "Some of the most important information may yet be revealed."

India and Brazil tied for the top score: 60 points out of 100. U.S. consumers scored 44.9.

The survey, conducted online by the polling firm GlobeScan, asked a cross-section of consumers about their house, energy use, transportation, food, purchases of goods and other activities.

Brazil ranked high, for example, because the average household is physically small, most homes aren't heated, few are air-conditioned and Brazilians tend to use on-demand water heaters.

Did you see that? Brazillians are to be held in high esteem because they don't heat their homes. Try doing that in St. Cloud Minnesota in January. Their homes are small. They live a backward existence. Do you see where this is going? Do you see where the enviro-whackos want to take us?

For instance, India is ranked second as "more green" than the United States. India? Green? Have you ever tried taking a dip in the Ganges River?

Have you noticed that the dirtiest, most backward, disease-ridden and hygienically- challenged countries are rated the highest, and the cleanest, most advanced nations are rated the lowest?

This, my friends, is emblematic of the ultimate aim of the environmentalist whacko movement; that we should live a 15th century existence, with the entire world reduced to living in a collectivist pit of misery reminiscent of a middle-east fifedom, save for the enlightened, elite few.

So, go ahead and cancel your National Geographic subscription.

On second thought, better keep it. It may serve as a useful reminder of the continuing insanity the sane world is up against.

Democrats: Let them eat wind.

I can't find the quote anywhere on the net, but yesterday, when listening to the top of the hour news, I heard Dem. Senator Harry Reid (D-Morticians Union-Nevada) exclaim (and I'm paraphrasing here) "We will not compromise ANWR nor any other environmentally sensitive place, nor will we allow the building of refineries. Instead, we will go after "big oil."

How in the name of the living mother of Frank will that increase the supply of oil and/or gas by one drop?!?

How will the refusal to add more refined oil to our national supply bring down market prices???

Do the democrats have a political death wish this year???

If I were the top dog in the GOP (which I'm not), I'd take Dingy Harry's statement and hammer him with it until election day and beyond.

More of Dingy Harry's madness:

May 7, 2008

Nevada Senator Harry Reid joined other Democratic senators at a press conference this week to unveil the Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008, a bill that addresses the root causes of high gas prices. Seven years of the Bush Administration’s disastrous energy policies have enriched Big Oil and market speculators at the expense of American consumers. “Nevadans are paying more and more every day to fill up their gas tanks, yet Bush Republicans only offer more of the same failed energy policies that brought us to this point,” Reid said.

Address the root causes of high gas prices???? Nevadans are paying more and more every day to fill up their gas tanks, Dingy Harry, for the simple fact that you and the environmentalist-whackos have blocked every friggen attempt to allow us to tap into our own resources!

Never mind the fact that it was Bill Clinton who originally vetoed ANWR back in 1996, saying then that it wouldn't make a difference, since it would take ten years before the oil could be extracted.

Well, it's been over 10 years now, and some oil from ANWR sure could have come in handy right now, couldn't it?

I lay the blame for our current energy debacle at your feet, Harry Reid, the democrat party, and RINOs along with the Sierra Club, Earth First and every other enviro-whacko who saw it fit to put their agenda ahead of what would be the ultimate economic suffering that our nation is currently enduring.

Those are the "same energy policies" that brought us to this point, Harry Reid. YOURS.

So Where's the Mouse?

A great eye opener as to where we're headed as a society:

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus:

I was recently reminded of some reading I did in college, way back in the last century, by a British historian arguing that the critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution, was gin.

The transformation from rural to urban life was so sudden, and so wrenching, that the only thing society could do to manage was to drink itself into a stupor for a generation. The stories from that era are amazing-- there were gin pushcarts working their way through the streets of London.

And it wasn't until society woke up from that collective bender that we actually started to get the institutional structures that we associate with the industrial revolution today. Things like public libraries and museums, increasingly broad education for children, elected leaders--a lot of things we like--didn't happen until having all of those people together stopped seeming like a crisis and started seeming like an asset.

It wasn't until people started thinking of this as a vast civic surplus, one they could design for rather than just dissipate, that we started to get what we think of now as an industrial society.

If I had to pick the critical technology for the 20th century, the bit of social lubricant without which the wheels would've come off the whole enterprise, I'd say it was the sitcom. Starting with the Second World War a whole series of things happened--rising GDP per capita, rising educational attainment, rising life expectancy and, critically, a rising number of people who were working five-day work weeks. For the first time, society forced onto an enormous number of its citizens the requirement to manage something they had never had to manage before--free time.

And what did we do with that free time? Well, mostly we spent it watching TV.

We did that for decades. We watched I Love Lucy. We watched Gilligan's Island. We watch Malcolm in the Middle. We watch Desperate Housewives. Desperate Housewives essentially functioned as a kind of cognitive heat sink, dissipating thinking that might otherwise have built up and caused society to overheat.

And it's only now, as we're waking up from that collective bender, that we're starting to see the cognitive surplus as an asset rather than as a crisis. We're seeing things being designed to take advantage of that surplus, to deploy it in ways more engaging than just having a TV in everybody's basement.

Read the entire, amazingly true article here.

A singing telegram from a jack-ass...

Blogging lite again...

It's been extremely busy at work, and when I finally get home, family time has been primary...

Things should lighten up in a couple of weeks...

Sorry for the light posting as of late!

Wednesday Hero Blogburst 5-7-2008

CSM Robert Prosser and LTC Erik Kurilla
1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment (Deuce Four)


LTC. Erik Kurilla and CSM. Robert Prosser's story is an amazing one. One that Michael Yon has told far better than I ever could. Warning. The site contains very graphic images. Some may want to turn off images before viewing.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

In a "DOH!" moment...

Ted "The Swimmer" Kennedy admitted that corn-to-ethanol mandates are linked to increasing world hunger:

On the Spot. (CNSNews.com) - Senators Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) told Cybercast News Service on Wednesday that they believe there is a connection between federally mandated consumption of ethanol, a gasoline additive made from corn, and world food shortages.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandates that increasing amounts of ethanol be used in the United States to dilute gasoline. The law called for 4 billion gallons of ethanol to be used in 2006, 6.1 billion gallons in 2009, and 7.5 billion gallons by 2012.

As the demand for corn has increased because of increased ethanol consumption, the Washington Post reported this week, the number of acres used to grow wheat in the U.S. has contracted, contributing to a shortage of wheat on the world market and an overall increase in world grain prices.

"I think very definitely there is a clear connection between our ethanol use and world hunger," Kennedy told Cybercast News Service . "The connection is becoming more evident and understood more every day by the American people. And they understand that there is very little that's being done to address the problem."

Well, it appears that our good murdering senator from the State of Massachusetts has finally bought a clue.

They better have a clue.

It was the liberal-nutjobs along with big agriculture who used these mandates as yet another good-intentioned paving stone on their highway to hell.

The jig is up; and as Rev. Wright is so fond of saying, "The chickens-ah; have come home to roost!"

Well, at least he doesn't have to worry about that anymore...

Story says that Saddam feared getting AIDS in prison...

Live-bloggin' Lakeside

I was able to get away a little earlier than I thought so the wife and I headed to Detroit Lakes to air out the camper after a long winter's hibernation.

God how I love summer!

Lite Blogging

I'm volunteering at Camp Courage this weekend for a retreat for children with brain injury and their families....

Back on Sunday!

The Guv on Illegal Immigration...

(Photo from Monster & Critics)

On a day when illegal immigrants whine and complain for the audacity of the citizens/taxpayers of the United States to actually ask them to conform to our laws, Governor Pawlenty weighed in with this press release:

A STATEMENT FROM THE GOVERNOR

Saint Paul - According to news reports, thousands of immigrants and activists are holding rallies and protests across the country today, including in Saint Paul, demanding immigration reform.

In January, Governor Pawlenty announced executive actions and legislative proposals to counter illegal immigration. Actions taken by the Governor included executive orders to enhance cooperation regarding immigration enforcement between state and federal officials and to require that state employees, contractors doing business with the state and recipients of state grants electronically verify employment
eligibility.

The Governor also proposed legislative measures to prohibit city "sanctuary" ordinances that prevent police from inquiring about immigration status, strengthened human trafficking laws, increased penalties for identify theft, enhanced penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and establishing the crime of
aggravated forgery regarding underlying documents used to obtain identity documents.

Nearly four months into the 2008 session, the DFL-controlled legislature has refused to even hold a hearing regarding the Governor's immigration reform proposals. The following is a statement from Governor Pawlenty regarding the failure of DFLers in the Minnesota legislature to consider proposals to combat illegal immigration.

"This week's revelation that police in Lakeville, Minnesota recently stopped a vehicle carrying 15 illegal immigrants who had been traveling for a week highlights the fact that illegal immigration is a real problem and it's here in our state. It's time for DFLers to admit that and address this real concern. At a minimum they should hold hearings to debate the common sense immigration reform measures I've proposed.

It is inconceivable that anyone would oppose measures to combat human trafficking and fight identity theft. I'm hopeful these important issues can be considered before the end of this session."