Earth shaking advice!!!

I'm friends with Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air. I met Ed nearly three years ago. He's a great guy and has a great gig at Hot Air. A much respected blogger who has access to sources I can only dream about. But, we have had a few differences over the years.
And now, I really need to take him to task.
In his blog entry "Notes From the Collapse" he makes this comment near the end regarding why the voter turnout was low for McCain and how McCain lost votes:
"John McCain and the GOP didn’t get their turnout in this race. They lost almost seven million voters from 2004, a rather stunning number. We’ll be chewing on this for a while, but that’s more than 10% of the Bush vote that got lost in this election..."
Ed then goes on to say:
"The GOP demoralized their base by acting like Democrats for too many years, and the winds of “change” proved too dispiriting this time around...The Republican Party lost its soul when it launched its K Street Project, and the spendfest of 2001-6 only made that more clear." And I'd like to add "DO YA THINK???"
He ends this way:
"If the GOP wants to win 60 million votes in future national elections, it has to stand for something other than being Democrat Lite. The Republican Party needs clarity, purpose, and most importantly, an end to the hypocrisy of talking smaller government while porking up their districts. When given only a choice between real Democrats and fake Democrats, Americans will choose the former, which we found out in 2006."
Here what I put into comments:
"Great advice...that I was giving over 6 years ago starting with Norm Coleman (no drilling in ANWR) and No Child Left Behind. I warned people that GWB was making a huge mistake by cuddling up to people that would never vote for him (lefties).
But, I was beat down time and time again by the BS mantra "We HAVE to elect Republicans!!!"
Well, how did THAT work for ya.
And I hear some of those same buttheads/bullheads now trying to convince me that they're "on board" to clean the party up.
Don't pee on my back and then tell me it's raining.
You are the people I've been screaming at for over 6 years.
From the apropos quote from Samuel Adams:"...go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!” "

I've worked with these people down here in the south metro area of Minneapolis/St. Paul. I've heard the "Elect Republicans" when I/we were trying to get conservatives elected. These people have sometimes actively and aggressively fought us who were trying to bring the party back to it's roots. They have tried and sometimes succeeded in silencing conservative voices and then "high fived" themselves over their success.
As Rush said today the rage we feel is at "those" Republicans.
If you are one of "those" Republicans, we're coming for you.

My pledge for bi-partisanship

I was reading some of the comments posted at Prairie Pravda's story on the Coleman/Franken race:
Republicans
go cry in your beer LOSERS!
posted by Monkeypaws on Nov 7, 08 at 8:55 am

waive his right to a recount??
So sleazy Norman is trying to convince people that he would waive his right to a recount if he were in Franken's shoes. Anyone that, doesn't know that history of Chameleon Norm Coleman.
posted by dylandon on Nov. 6, 08 at 11:39 AM

Red Star bias
Why is it "Franken's Deficit"? Why not "Coleman's lead"?
posted by jagebe on Nov 7, 08 at 8:55 am

And so, to "heal our souls" and to "unite us" in the spirit of bi-partisanship as demonstrated by the tolerant, inclusive left, as Harry Reid has shown to Joe Lieberman and Rahm Emmanuel has shown to all, I make this solemn pledge: I will show the same amount of respect, deference and temperament to President Obama as the left has shown to President Bush over his eight years in office.
I truly promise.

Bashing Sarah

Came across this article about "unnamed" or "anonymous" sources making snarky comments about Sarah Palin. Great van Susteren and Karl Rove are spot on. Palin was the breath of fresh air that the McCain camp needed and needed badly. Palin was mishandled and mishandled badly (see my previous entries). As Susteren and Rove point out that these comments are worthy of a NYT hit piece on Palin or Cindy McCain. Why do the work of the left on your own? Reagans 11th Commandment:"Thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican." Now, I can stand accused of breaking that commandment in my previous posts.
With the results of Tuesday, and 2006 still fresh in memory, Repubs such as this need to be spoken of and to.

Go away or go away bitter, but just go away

Allahpundit at Hot Air has an article about the McCain staff and Sarah Palin. He's included a You Tube video from Shep Smith and Carl Cameron. About mid-point they start to talk about when McCain's numbers, after passing BHO with the Palin pick, start going down. Cameron says that downturn happened when McCain said, after the demise of Lehman Bros. that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Mac, with his comments on the fundamentals was right. All he had to do was explain that the connection to the economic disaster from the Dems having gotten in the way and screwed with the market. It would have been a step, not a leap. Instead, Mac fell flat!
Notice toward the end the discussion about the Katie Couric interview. It was at that point that McCain's numbers went down according to Smith. The comments from McCain staffers indicate that Palin refused coaching about the interview, that many of the questions were anticipated, etc. Smith, Cameron and especially the McCain staffers miss the glaringly obvious cogent point: What idiot decided that a Couric interview was going to be a good thing? What was she doing going to talk to Charlie Gibson? What on earth was McCain doing on "The View"? His staffers then put Palin in front of subtly hostile interviewers whose audience was going to vote for BHO anyway. Mac and Palin should have been on Glenn Beck, Fox News, Fox and Friends, every single conservative talk show in the country. He needed to convince and rev up people like me. And Palin was the way."The View"? Where the audience thinks that Whoopi Goldberg should win an Academy award for every voice over she does? And Joyce Behar is the font of wisdom? Are you nuts? As much as I respect Bill Bennett, I couldn't disagree with him more when he said McCain ran a good campaign.
Let the McCain staffers and RINOs and neocons go away. Go away bitter and with their trite comments if they wish, but go away. (BTW, a great letter by Congressman Jeff Flake [R-AZ] about how the Repubs can come back. I especially like his comment that we as conservative Repubs , with a fully left wing controlled Congress and White House are not beholden in any way to the promises of John McCain or George Bush. We are now able to throw off all vestiges of neocons, "bi-partisianship" that only allows us to compromise and any other tripe. Now is clean break time.)

The morning after view...from last night

I'm a WWII history buff. Last night at a fairly happy election night party where all our local people (save my candidate for Scott County Commissioner) won, I made a couple of WWII comparisons. I asked a number of people what important battle occurred six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Thousand mile stare... The Battle of Midway. A resounding and pivotal battle. At that point, at that battle, the war in the Pacific was turned and won. We didn't know it at the time however. But the Japanese lost four aircraft carriers and a large number aircraft and well experienced air crew. The Japanese never recovered. Six months after Pearl Harbor.
I also mentioned the Battle of the Bulge. Patton recognized the huge opportunity this presented. The Germans had come out. They were exposed. And Patton saw the opportunity to crush the German divisions. But initially there was panic in the troops. I mean real panic. But, the Germans had expended vital resources. They had cannibalized their troops on the Eastern Front.
The radical left has expended so much to get BHO in office. BHO expended $600,000,000 to campaign. The MSM contributed at least another $500,000,000 in support and cover. With all that, BHO was only able to eke out a 5% winning margin. 5%. Not a landslide. Not a mandate. A lot of resources for a minimal win. Against a badly run campaign that never had a message other than the repeated Republican campaign slogan from 2004 and 2006-"It will be worse with the other guy!" Not exactly a rallying cry.
I agree with Glenn Beck: The pressure is off. I don't have to worry about screaming at President McCain "That's NOT a conservative position/program/statement." I don't have to defend "The Maverick". I don't have to explain his reaching across the aisle. The radical left is out there with their inexperienced leader. They have the majority in Congress-with a 9% approval rating.
But, there is a caveat here: the Battle of Midway was the brainchild of Chester Nimitz. I had the opportunity to meet and talk, at length and a number of times, to a gentleman whose desk was right outside the door to CinCPac Nimitz. His read:Chester Nimitz was absolutely brilliant. He was a warrior. He knew what he had to work with and what he had to do. He was behind the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo (which had the added advantage of limiting the number of aircraft carriers deployed to Midway from 6 to 4). We need a Chester Nimitz. A warrior. Someone who knows how to fight. Not someone who reaches across the aisle but someone who is willing to allow the other side to reach out to us.
The time to start is today, now.

What not to do

OK, like I said before, John McCain is the Bob Dole of 2008. Time to move on and do a thorough Passover type housecleaning to get all the leavening out of the house. Let the RINOs join the Independence Party and support Dean Barkley in his run for President in 2012.
I see that "Bridge to Nowhere" Rino Ted Stevens won in Alaska. Any lefty, ANY lefty that makes any comment about Stevens, push their nose into the name "Murtha" or "William Jefferson".
Now, Stevens is going to be tossed. If not by the Senate, then by the Repubs. That means there will be a vacancy that usually the governor selects. I would recommend and urge that Governor Palin NOT appoint herself. I know of precious few governors who have done that where it succeeded. We have an example of that in Minnesota. When Walter Mondale became Vice President in 1976, Wendell Anderson had himself appointed to replace Mondale. End of Wendy's career right there. Now this was a guy who had his picture on the cover of Time magazine (the Minnesota Miracle, which he got credit for but was set up by Republicans over the preceding twenty + years).
So, there are other ways for Governor Palin to stay in the public eye.
Self appointment to the Senate is not the way however.

The post I hoped never to write

I'm writing this on Monday morning, 3 November. It is posted after the Election of 2008. I spent Sunday listening to some dire predictions from the Fox All Stars on Fox News Sunday. The best prediction for the election is that McCain had an uphill battle. I agreed. I've said that this was a marathon, that McCain put his best weapon, Sarah Palin, under wraps for three weeks, and then had to sprint to catch-up to Obama. This election reminds me a rugby game about 25 years ago. It was the All Minnesota Rugby Tournament (the state championship). We on the Minneapolis Rugby Club were the pre-tournamnt favorites. We had a winning streak of three state championships in a row. On late Saturday,in the quarter finals we played and lost to a team we should have rolled over. They didn't win. We lost. They knew it and we knew it. We played an absolutely miserable game. Obama didn't win. McCain lost. He ran a miserable campaign. In the debates, there was so much low hanging fruit that he could have harvested and didn't. Granted that the Tanning Bed Media (TBM) gave BHO at least $500,000,000,000 in in-kind campaign contributions. The TBM has finally fully abandoned its responsibility in a free society to keep the citizens informed. But, the fault lies fully, completely with the neocons and "evangelicals" in the Republican Party. We had McCain who was "the maverick". How quaint. How did we get him? Because the "evangelicals" who were voting against the "Mormon" by voting for Huckabee who was nothing more than a populist. OK Huckabee supporters- How'd that work for ya? Don't get me wrong. I'm a born again Christian. Romney was not, repeat NOT my first choice. Thompson was. Thompson waited too long. But McCain was absolutely my last choice. But the vote against Romney eventually gave us the old warhorse who can't debate, was the "maverick" who supports cap and trade, gave us McCain/Feingold, who proudly "reached across the aisle" but seemingly never had the flexibility (physically, politically or intellectually) to reach behind him to the conservatives.
Anyhow, we now have Barack Obama. And a Congress that will give him what he wants and that he'll sign. Judicial appointments? See my previous post. The Republicans lost.

What next? I sat next to Savage Republican at the Republican Convention the night Sarah Palin accepted the nomination. I commented to him that if Guilliani or Huckabee or Romney had won the nomination we would not have Palin speaking to us. He agreed. She was and is a breath of fresh air that McCain let die on the shelf and the TBM attacked beyond civility.
So, here is what I intend: all you neocons- you're gone as in gone. I've seen you lack of courage destroyers of liberty who keep repeating "We HAVE to elect Republicans!" Yup. And we get the Arne Carlsons who support a Marxist for President and Tim Pawlentys who sign stadium funding and anti-smoking bills. I've worked with you down here in Scott County. I'll work with you no longer. You'll have a seat at the table, but it will be the kiddy table like when you went to Aunt Jane and Uncle Kent's house for Thanksgiving. As you are children, act like children and think like children you don't get to sit at the adult table anymore. It's cost us too much for you people who can not take an adult, principled and courageous stand. Away with you I say. AWAY! I and my fellow liberty lovers are taking the party back. Don't get in our way. You'll just get hurt. And I won't care.
You can join us, but don't even think about opposing us or getting in our way.
You've been warned.

Exit polls

From the Drudge Report yesterday on exit polling. A warning to post far and wide:

McCAIN CAMPAIGN MEMO: READING THE EXIT POLLS
BILL McINTURFF, INTERNAL POLLSTER
Mon Nov 03 2008 16:53:14 ET

As we have seen in previous election cycles, the exit poll results do leak early and that ends up influencing the coverage of the race before even the first state polls close at 6:00 PM Eastern.

However, we want to remind the campaign that the media’s own post-election study of the exit polls in 2004 showed that the exit polls overstate the Democratic candidate’s support. Therefore, we would discourage a rush to judgment based on the exit polls and wait until there has been a representative sampling of actual tabulated results from a variety of counties and precincts in a state.

Here are the key points to keep in mind when the exit poll data starts being leaked:

1. Historically, exit polls have tended to overstate the Democratic vote.

2. The exit polls are likely to overstate the Obama vote because Obama voters are more likely to participate in the exit poll.

3. The exit polls have tended to skew most Democratic in years where there is high turnout and high vote interest like in 1992 and 2004.

4. It is not just the national exit poll that skews Democratic, but each of the state exit polls also suffers from the same Democratic leanings.

5. The results of the exit polls are also influenced by the demographics of the voters who conduct the exit polls.

After the 2004 election, the National Election Pool completed a study investigating why the exit polls that year showed John Kerry over performing 5.5 net points better than the actual results showed him to have done. Their conclusion was that the primary reason the exit polls was that Kerry voters and Democrats were more likely to participate in the exit polls.

“Our investigation of the differences between the exit poll estimates and the actual vote count point to one primary reason: in a number of precincts a higher than average Within Precinct Error most likely due to Kerry voters participating in the exit polls at a higher rate than Bush voters. There has been partisan overstatements in previous elections, more often overstating the Democrat, but occasionally overstating the Republican.

We believe that this will hold true this year. The recent Fox News survey showed that 46% of Obama voters said they were very likely to participate in the exit polls, while just 35% of McCain supporters are.

In fact, even the 2004 exit poll report noted that higher turnout nationally and higher levels of voter interest in both 1992 and 2004 correlated with greater Within Precinct Error.

The overstating of the Democratic vote did not only occur in the national exit polls, but also occurred in the state exit polls. The 2004 exit poll report cited that the Kerry vote was overstated by more than one standard error in 26 states, while the Bush vote was overstated in just four states. So we should also expect the individual state exit polls on Tuesday to be more Democratic as well.

So given that turnout is expected to be even higher than 2004 and that Democrats are more likely to participate in the exit polls, this means we should expect greater fluctuation and variation in the exit polls from the actual election results.

The 2004 exit poll report also showed that the greatest error in the exit poll came in precincts where the interviewer was younger. The completion rates were lower and the refusal rates and Within Precinct Error was higher when the interviewers were under the age of 35.[6] Complicating this is that nearly half the interviewers were under the age of 35, including 35% who were 18-24 and another 15% were 25-34.

Conclusions

Based on the previous exit poll results, we should expect once again that Tuesday’s exit poll data could overstate the Obama vote and under represent the McCain vote.

It is important that the campaign make sure the media realizes this, so that when the exit polls do leak, people do not overreact to the early exit poll data. Rather than looking at the exit polls, we should wait until we start seeing actual election results from key precincts and counties to gauge who won the election.

Why the end of the republic is at hand

From The Weekly Standard via Mary Katherine Ham talking about Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) on the "simplistic notion" that people who earned money have the right to keep it:

Moran always manages to stick a foot in his mouth shortly before elections, but it makes little difference, as he's running in the heavily blue Northern Virginia 8th District. In 2006, he proclaimed that, “When I become chairman [of a House appropriations subcommittee], I'm going to earmark the sh** out of it.”

He won 66-31 percent.

This time around, he reveals to us his very frank feelings about redistribution of wealth, which he feels has been impeded by simplistic notions such as right to property. This is the kind of Democrat Obama the Redistributionist will have obliging him in Congress, if elected:

And who pray tell who votes for people like this? The very same people who vote for Barack Obama. And this voter tells us why:

Again, the final end of the experiment called America. Alexis de Tocqueville was right.

To wit:

"A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it." (which why we were constructed as a constitutional republic, not a democracy).

"Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. "

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."

But, that being said, he also told us why it took from the 1820 until now to accomplish this:"The dignity of man is not shattered in a single blow, but slowly softened, bent, and eventually neutered. Men are seldom forced to act, but are constantly restrained from acting. Such power does not destroy outright, but prevents genuine existence. It does not tyrannize immediately, but it dampens, weakens, and ultimately suffocates, until the entire population is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid, uninspired animals, of which the government is shepherd."

If McCain wins

My predictions if McCain wins:
If McCain wins, it will be a squeaker. Maybe 272 +/- 1. He will collapse like Phippides over the finish line.
If McCain wins there will be riots in some major cities.
If McCain wins the Dems and BHO will sue in a handful of states that went for McCain: New Mexico, Colorado maybe Nevada. They and he will sue with a eye to winning enough of the suits to give him just enough Electoral College votes to give him a squeaker win. Possibly suing in Pennsylvania if he gets greedy if the Keystone state understands that cap and trade will bankrupt PA and send coal miners onto the unemployment lines. Can't have that. Bankrupting the state is for the greater good afterall.
But, lands, over 45% of the American electorate will vote for Obama. So, why not in PA?
And if BHO wins? Possibly lawsuits. Much lower probability though.

What I did on Sunday before the election

Sunday afternoon, 2 November 2008, I spent doing three things, well, four:
1. Enjoying the fabulous season we call Indian Summer here in Minnesota with the windows open.
2. Watched the Vikings put an end to the Texans' winning streak.
3. Prepared for teaching a bunch of 8-10 year old kids in Bible Study Fellowship about grumbling Israeli's who forgot about God's goodness within a month of being set free from slavery.
4. Preparing to write a number of articles about Barack Obama and his stated views on some very serious issues.
So, with number 4 in mind, I did a bunch of research and opened up a number of tabs. Some of my, and what should be your concerns:
Courts and judges-
How Obama will select judges and how he sees the law:
"We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges. " Justice will no longer be blind but prejudiced. The blindfold is torn off Lady Justice.
A warning by Jonah Goldberg. A warning from his Obama Messiahness.
Personal choices- HAH! Kiss those GOOD BYE!!!!! They may not be quite appropriate . Under the BHO enlightened administration, "price signals" need to be sent to you and the economy to "encourage" you to make "appropriate" choices to have changed behavior.
The money quote? "

Q: How do you convince people to change their lifestyles, to live differently, or to turn the question on its ear, are voters ahead of the politicians on this stuff? Do they get it, and maybe the politicians don’t?

A: Well, I think, uh, I think voters do understand it. I think it is important for us to send some price signals to change behavior.

the se
Remember, this is the POTUS candidate that says that we can't drive what we want or heat our homes because the world doesn't like that.
Go here to read Ed Morrissey's comments at Hot Air.
Defense-
Asymmetrical warfare (like flying fully fueled planes into buildings) is a danger. It was in 1993, in 1998, in September 2001. BHO wants to cut defense spending and especially, and dangerously, missile interceptors when danger of ICBM's is just around the corner (go down to "Ballistic Missile Defense...") or read this. This is what BHO wants to cut or eliminate. Just when we need it most. However, a BHO teamed up with Pelosi and Reid and the rest of the crackpot left that couldn't see an energy crisis, and economic crisis coming won't see this coming either. But, when Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are turned into glass parking lots or there is an EMP attack here in America, they'll blame Bush and the Republicans. Or evil "Big Defense".
The following is the second video I decided to embed. The reason is that Frank Gaffney knows exactly what he's talking about. Hugh Hewitt defaults to Gaffney when there are matters of national defense. On the morning of 9-11, as I was on my way to the pharmacy for pain meds after extensive foot surgery, I had my Mom pull the car over so I could hear Hugh interview Frank Gaffney at about 10:30 that morning. Mr. Gaffney is a sober reasoning intellect when it comes to security and threat analysis. He needs to be listened to and heeded.


But for me, the most chilling and most ominous position were the righteous Obamessiah comments on the Constitution that, if he wins the election, he will swear an oath to "Preserve, protect and defend". His views are that the Constitution is flawed because the Founding Fathers didn't see to the necessity of "spreading the wealth around" and that the Supreme Court didn't attend to that glaring flaw in the supreme law of the land.
Listen here.

There is so much more that I planned to and could go on to say.
This will and should suffice.

Laura Ingraham wants to know

Here are some questions for his Obamaness that will more than likely remain unanswered.
From Laura Ingraham's daily email.(I especially like the "right to privacy and Joe the Plumber" and the "how will BHO fix the Constitution" questions):

For many Americans this campaign season seems to have gone on forever. Yet with only five days until Election Day, there is still much that we don't know about Barack Obama. Among the unresolved questions:

Khalidi tape. Here's a compromise, LA Times. How about at least starting by providing a second-by-second transcript of this tape? This way you don't break your supposed agreement with your source and Americans receive the information they need.

The Times's initial story DID report Obama saying that his many dinners with Khalidi had been "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. For that reason, I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation." Does Obama still speak with Khalidi? What biases is Obama trying to overcome? How is Khalidi helping in that effort?

Campaign finance information. Obama has yet to release information on more than 80 percent of his contributors. Could this be because it's really more like 5 percent posing as 80 percent? (Obama's website allows contributors to use phony names, thereby allowing well-off financiers to circumvent contribution limits.)

Does Obama support or condemn Ohio state officials using government computers to rifle through Joe the Plumber's personal paperwork in a partisan hit job?

If Obama believes the Constitution provides a "right to privacy" that includes aborting babies, does this right not also protect against Joe the Plumber-styled intrusions by the state?

What exactly did Obama mean when he compared America to Nazi Germany in a 2001 radio interview?

Does Obama still believe America suffers a "fundamental flaw" that is embodied in the Constitution? What is it, exactly? How does he plan on "fixing" the Constitution?

Obama has expressed disappointment that the Constitution "imposes restraints" on income redistribution; as president, would he seek to undo these "constraints"?

When Obama says he's willing to sit down with leaders of terrorist states like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who aspires to destroy Israel, just what exactly is Obama willing to negotiate away? Only half of Israel?

Obama said that community-organizing groups like ACORN will have a voice in setting the agenda when he's in the White House. In light of revelations over ACORN's massive voter fraud and other criminal activity, does he still plan to give them a seat at his table?

Barney Frank is proposing cutting military spending 25 percent, arguing, "We don't need all of these fancy new weapons." Obama has also pledged big cuts to defense, promising that as president he would "slow our development of future combat systems." Just how much is he planning on cutting? What weapons systems? Missile defense?

We're waiting.

A timely quote

From The Patriot Post:

Founders' Quote Daily
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."
-- Thomas Paine (The Crisis, no. 4, 11 September 1777)
The Marine Corps motto is "Freedom isn't Free". Neither is it easy. As Jefferson said "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
Two words in the Founders Quote Daily for today stood out: "fatigues" and "men". Obviously Thomas Paine lived in the time before metrosexuals and whiny girly lefty men who stay married to Code Pink women. Paine is clear, speaking to us from 231 years ago: freedom is a burden. It does however bear fruit that must be labored for. As Walter E. Williams says "The government can not create anything without first destroying something else first. It can not give anything without taking it from someone else, the rightful owner."
Those who refuse to "undergo the fatigues" of freedom and the labors of freedom are neither men nor are they respectable. They are thieves. As Frederic Bastiat says in "The Law": the government plunders. Call it "legal" plunder, but it is plunder none-the-less.
As I think of the proverb of the grasshopper and the ant and its modern version (believe it or not, there is an Indian version ), it's no wonder grasshoppers were and are considered a plague. They eat all and produce nothing.
I'm seeing the left as a plague.

Forseen unintended consequences

Fifteen years ago, I met a gentleman quite by accident. I had just been hired by a company and went into the training pool for new sale hires. I got a call from this guy (I'll call him Kent, not his name). He had sat at the desk I now occupied with the phone extension that was assigned to that desk. He related how he had sent out a number of letters with that extension as a contact number and asked that if I got any calls would I forward them or give the caller his new number. I said I would do both so his bases were covered.
I went upstairs to meet with Kent and we became good friends over the months.
Kent was an Airborne Ranger. And an officer. He had a very impressive resume'. Very impressive! One thing that impressed me greatly was his affiliations and assignments during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Kent was a Lt. Colonel.

In 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected, he resigned from active duty Army. His service and acumen was so highly regarded that he was offered the rank of Brigadier General, jumping two grades, if he would re-up for five years. He passed. What he told me was that he wasn't the only officer that resigned. "The resignation letters fell like snowflakes in a winter storm." The Army lost a significant number of officers and sergeants with twenty plus years of experience. And this thought occurred to me last week: what will happen to the experienced officer and sergeant class if Barack Obama is elected President? If there were these resignations sixteen years ago with Bill Clinton coming on board as Commander in Chief, what will happen with a radical left winger as the near term future CinC? Just when we (and believe it or not, his Messiahness) need that experienced officer and non-com class, I believe we will see those resignations come flowing in.
Just one more item to put on your punchlist before you vote.

This just in: I agree with Obama...

From nearly three years ago:
I opened up my email today, and had a link here and got the following list.
And it reminds me of the question I asked my screaming socialist buddy a while back (screaming socialist: his plan to save Social Security? A 100% estate tax.). I had asked him when is it that whomever was elected, when were they inculcated with the incredible wisdom and deep insight to run my life that they never seemed to have before they were elected? And here is the proof that Article 1, section 8 and the 10th Amendment need to aggressively and fully regained and the Federal Register reduced to 20% of its current size.
Read and shake your head in disgust. Then find another Ron Paul (R-Tex) to vote for in your state.
I offer for your entertainment and disgust: Why We Are In REAL Trouble-

A Washington, D.C., airport ticket agent offers some examples of why our country is in trouble!

1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window.
2. I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight, and the passport information, then she interrupted me with, "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts."

   Without trying to make her look stupid, I calmly explained, "Cape Cod is in Massachusetts; Capetown is in Africa," Her response – click.

3. A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room.

   I tried to explain that's not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me, I looked on the map, and Florida is a very thin state!"

4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked, "Is it possible to see England from Canada?"

   I said, "No."

   She said, "But they look so close on the map."

5. An aide for a cabinet member once called, and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a one hour layover in Dallas.

   When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, "I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time."

6. An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 am, and got to Chicago at 8:33 am.

   I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones.

   Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.

7. A New York lawmaker called, and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?"

   I said, "No, why do you ask?"

   She replied, "Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!"

   After putting her on hold for a minute while I looked into it (I was laughing), I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, California, is (FAT), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

8. A Senator's aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii.

   After going over all the cost info, she asked, "Would it be cheaper to fly to California, and then take the train to Hawaii?"

9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?"

   I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them."

10. A lady Senator called, and said, "I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola, Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?"

    I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola, Florida, on a commuter plane.

    She said, "Yeah, whatever, smarty!"

11. A senior Senator called, and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him that he needed a visa. "Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times, and never had to have one of those."

    I double-checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa.

    When I told him this, he said, "Look, I've been to China four times, and every time they have accepted my American Express!"

12. A New Mexico Congresswoman called to make reservations, "I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York."

    I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, "Are you sure that's the name of the town?"

    "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the lady.

    After some searching, I came back with, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country, and can't find a Rhino anywhere."

    The lady retorted, "Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!"

    So, I scoured a map of the state of New York, and finally offered, "You don't mean Buffalo, do you?"

    The reply? "Whatever! I knew it was a big animal."

I wouldn't trust these people to plan a good, well, anything. Let alone try to run any aspect of my life. Let alone with ten cents of my money.
I agree with Barack Obama: we absolutely need change. Radical change.

Send in the cats!

The NYT had a front page, above the fold story on the Repubs spending $150k on Sarah Palin's wardrobe. However:
Listening to Glenn Beck- when Hillary's 3 pantsuits , 3 pantsuits that is, that were being held up to see which of Hillary's 3 pantsuits looked best with the background in Denver, those 3 pantsuits were worth a total of $18,000-that's $6,000 per pantsuit.
Never heard that in the MSM.
The MSM is demanding Sarah Palin's medical records.I suggest she reveal them: just after we get the medical records from: John Kerry, Hillary Clinton,Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Chuck Schumer, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Katie Couric, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg.

In 2012

No matter who wins on 4 November, I've been thinking about the 2012 race. Here are my picks as who should run on the Republican side along with a few Cabinet picks:
President: Sarah Palin
Vice President: Michelle "Give 'Em Hell with the Truth" Bachmann
Secretary of State:Ted Nugent
Secretary of Defense: Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber)
Attorney General: Janice Rogers Brown (on her way to being appointed to SCOTUS)
Press Secretary: Megyn Kelly of Fox News
Secretary Treasury: Steve Forbes
Chair JCOS: General David Petraeus
SECDEF and SOS candidates are interchangeable.

Old archive picture newly discovered

From The Patriot Post.

The ads McCain should be running

I came across the site Never Find Out yesterday from Freedom Dogs.
These are the ads McCain/Palin should be running.
Three examples:





The only exception I'd take is in the second ad: it's not big corporations, it is those Americans who make more than $250,000 a year-the small business owner, who employees the majority of Americans. They will be hit, and hit hard. But the concept Never Find Out brings out is correct: to maintain profit margins,in the face of higher taxes, corporations either increase prices (not the best solution) or cut expenses or a combination of the two. Either way, the middle class takes it in the shorts: higher prices or lower salaries, lay-offs, no new jobs created.

Over under

I'm looking for the over under on Code Pink or some other lefty fringe group disrupting the debate this evening with McCain speaking. I'll put the wager point at 39 minutes.

9 minutes and 46 seconds well spent

An intelligent rapper is what it took for me to listen to this from beginning to end:

And it's approved under Obama's National Healthcare Plan

After this exchange:


We have this from The People's Cube (be sure to go to the first link and read the entire article):

Quick- somebody put this on the back of a T-shirt!

Anniversaries

Today hundreds of people observed the murder of Matthew Shepard.
Will these same people observe the anniversary of the torture death of Jesse Dirkhising?
Never heard of him have you? He was thirteen and was raped and tortured by two homosexuals.
From the article:

News of the Dirkhising case was surprisingly muted throughout the country, perhaps because it involved a homosexual crime, said WND readers, who voted it one of the most spiked stories of 1999.

At one point, Farah took the Washington Post to task over it, and most major newspaper's, lack of coverage of the case. In response the Post's ombudsman, E.R. Shipp, blasted Farah and WND in a column she penned defending her paper's decision to focus more attention on the death of Matthew Shepard, a homosexual student who was murdered in Wyoming in Oct. 1998.

The men who murdered Shepard didn't know that he was a homosexual. But, you would never know that by the Prairie Pravda article. They robbed him because he was flashing money and his assailants needed drug money. It was a robeery that went bad. Real bad. But it was not motivated by homosexual intolerance. No matter, again, what the propagandists would say.
Another example of the SOS radical left taking a tragedy and exploiting it. No shame. None.

Rucks and mauls

Many of you know that I played rugby for two decades. In rugby there are some terms for what happens when a man is tackled and the forwards (the "linemen" of rugby) close around the tackled ball carrier: ruck or maul.
Some years back, we were in SW Minnesota playing rugby. It was a game with a number of fights. After about the fourth or fifth fight, the referee, after blowing the whistle and untangling the mess, had one guy by the arm. "Whenever I sort out a fight, you're always the one I find at the bottom of the pile. You're off the field!" And so, he was sent off.
In rugby, back then, when you were kicked off the field, you were not replaced. Your team played a man short for the rest of the game.

Today, every time there is a disaster, much more often than not, there is a government program, directive, agency somewhere in the mix either causing the problem or causing the problem to be worse or become worse. Witness the sub-prime mortgage and resultant financial collapse. All brought to you by: government. Aided and fully abetted by Democrats. And yet, John McCain can not make or will not make that connection.
Time is short.
And I'm losing hope that McCain has the will to fight.
He faces a man who has no respect for and seeks to destroy all that John McCain fought for, risked his life for and suffered for five horrible years in the Hanoi Hilton (and still suffers from those years). McCain's response: "Senator Obama is a fine family man."
President-elect Obama. And Nancy Pelosi will preempt the Constitution (nothing new there) and call Congress back if Obama does win the election to get a head start on the left wing mischief.
The Republicans have no one but themselves to blame.
http://tinyurl.com/3ruf7j

And this is what we have to look forward to (thanks to Powerline):


And believe that this one campaign promise Obama will keep.
Yup. The bottom of a lot more rucks and mauls.

Cartoon Saturday

Growing up in the '50's Saturday mornings were for cartoons.
So today, here a few cartoons I came across this past week:

I'm not surprised at not being surprised

"Troopergate Probe Shows Palin Had Power , but Abused It to Fire Trooper". Oh.
And the fact that the investigation was headed by Obama supporters is not news. That the report was rushed to be released now is not news.
If she did abuse her authority, bad on her. So what. I expected nothing less:


What is news that somehow I can't find in any MSM outlet is the rampant, and I mean rampant voter fraud from Obama's organization, ACORN. That concerns me that ACORN is stealing an election. This CNN report uncovers is being repeated around the country especially in battleground states. Look at the video again the previous post. This, again, is what's happening in many states. ACORN needs to be indicted in the next 10 days. ACORN organizers need to perp walked out of their offices. Those indictments need to be open. American citizens need to open lawsuits against ACORN for disenfranchisement.
To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger;"Dew whit. Dew whit nauuwgh!"

And to quote Indiana Jones-"This is serious!"

Do crushed acorns make acorn butter?

I had a question after I watched this video to the end (HT to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air):


Now that Barack Obama has thrown ACORN under the bus, after giving them $800,000, what next?

Mark Twain revisited

I heard a few days ago a quote attributed to Mark Twain-"History doesn't repeat itself, at best it rhymes."
My evidence is as follows:



































BTW, do you think these children sang as well to Benito Mussolini as those children sing about Obama?

(Here is the caption for the above picture from the Mrs. Music website:
The W.L.A. Children's Choir truly participated in the democratic process this spring by shooting a commercial for Barack Obama and then singing for Hillary Clinton! The commercial was shot on location at the picturesque Ahmanson Ranch in Calabassas and will be part of a competition on MoveOn.org. The winning director will have his commercial aired on National T.V. later in the campaign.)

The twist tie

In my post below I wrote that McCain/Palin need to tie Obama and all the Democrats together.
Here is a headline:
"HUD: Five Million Fraudulent Mortgages Held by Illegals".
Let that sink in: 5,000,000 fraudulent mortgages held by illegals.
The story goes on to state:"The problem began years ago when banks were forced to give mortgages without confirming social security numbers or borrower identification. As a result, illegal immigrants were able to obtain home mortgages which they could not afford."
Who did this? The Democrats. The Democrats forced banks to do this. The rest of us were required to play by the rules. The rules that a real world of risk assessment dictates. Not those who couldn't afford a house. They had the Democrats to make the world "fair" with rules to match.
And do you think that HUD has understated or overstated the number, if you had to bet?
I'm waiting to hear this story repeated as often as John McCain says "My friends".
BTW, how does it feel to have to pay $1,000,000,000,000's for the world to be "fair"?

Is this 1992 redux

I remember a quote a few years back regarding the election of Bill Clinton in '92 and '96-"In 1992 we didn't know anything about but elected him. In 1996 we knew all we needed to know and elected him anyhow." I have that same feeling today.
In 1992 we had a current president who kept hitting the character issue. And it didn't work. Clinton was a polished campaigner and it showed. The character issue did not resonate with the public at all. George Bush was playing catchup and losing.
In 1996 we had a horrible candidate in Bob Dole. He was certainly a war hero. That does not make one qualified to be President. It always appeared to me that the Republicans somehow thought that it was Senator Doles turn to run. That he was rewarded for his long service to the party. A horrible reason to be nominated for President.
This brings me to the 2008 election. I do not see the Barack Obama/Bill Ayers connection as a winner. It goes to character but this is all too reminiscent of the '92 election. In 1992 people were hearing the left scream "The worst economy in 50 years", "It's the economy stupid!". Sound familiar?
I've written so many times and reminded Republicans in Minnesota that the greatest book I've ever read about campaigning is David Horowitz's book "The Art of Political War and Other Radical Pursuits". It was written for 2000 election cycle. And precious few Republicans have ever read it! The takeaway for me-"Republicans look at politics as the Oxford Debating Society. Democrats look at politics as a knife fight." There are no Marquess of Queensbury Rules in politics. The Republicans are still looking for the rule book however, confident that they'll find it real soon.
My read on the remaining on the remaining time until the election:
It's a one act play with three characters: McCain, Obama, Palin. There are four scenes and some supporting players: Biden, Ayers, Wright, Dodd, Frank. The whole play had better have a single plot theme :"These democrats did it you! Here's the proof." The main Republican actors had better tie all the Democrat players together through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Raines, Johnson and ACORN.
And the Republicans had better start now. It can be done. But the Repubs need to start now.

The Repubs have this much time to get this point across:

A Touch of Grey

I went over to Hot Air and saw a post from Allahpundit for an old 1980's video.
Well, I took his idea.
I searched for this video. It's the video that's credited with introducing The Grateful Dead to a new generation.
I put it into my You Tube favorites an irresistible catchy song with nonsense verses (there is one stanza that's dropped from the video)
Hope you enjoy it:

When SNL gets it right-mostly

Will George help?

This from Hot Air:


And this:



I've mentioned on these pages a number of times that Bernie Ebbers, Ken Lay, et al from WorldCom, Enron, Tyco have all been arrested in public:




























































These men were arrested for fraudulent accounting practices. The resulting financial collapse was in the tens of billions. People were screaming for their heads. "This is what corporate greed in America is all about!" clucked all the people on the left. "More regulations!" they shouted.
Well, here is a nicely timed "October Surprise" all ready to deliver:
Obama advisors Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson cooked the books at Fannie and Freddie. There is/was a $200,000,000,000 collapse of these two. If Enron and Worldcom executives were arrested for tens of billions...
Time to have Raines and Johnson arrested, ala Ebbers and Lay, perp walked out of their offices, in front of many cameras. This has to be done around 25 October.
And there is plenty of evidence over at the SEC, the FBI and Postal Service to have this done in the next two weeks.
Yup- equal treatment under the law is all we ask.
Come on George. The left hates you anyhow.
Try for a legacy with all us conservatives.

Overoptimism is a killer

From Drudge this morning:
Bush: 'It's going to take awhile'...
Pope says world financial system is 'built on sand'...
Dow Plunges 550 Points; off lows...
STAMPEDE AT NBC: Jim Cramer warns investments could lose 20% of value...
FLOOD AT FED: Doubles Cash Sales to $900 Billion...
London suffers sharpest fall since '87...

President Bush said that "It's going to take a while..."

Many who know me know that I'm active in a number of 2nd Amendment organizations.
As I heard people cautioning about setting our expectations TOO high regarding the bailout (now gently renamed "an economic rescue package") I'm reminded of a bill that passed in the 1990's called "The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act" aka "The Assault Weapons Ban" that did nothing to prevent handgun violence. I remember a newsclip that was recorded literally moments after the bill passed the Senate. There was Senator Bob Dole, on the floor of the Senate, again, just moments after the bill passed, telling us not to expect too much from the just passed bill. That it was not a panacea. The deed was done and the excuses were already flowing from the mouth of the man, one Senator Bob Dole, who could have stopped it square in its tracks (scroll down to "The Brady Bill Passes" and see how Senator Bob Dole, with two words or one hand signal, could have prevented this awful bill from becoming law).
So now, this weekend and this morning, we see how the politicians who have strapped us with trillions of dollars of debt and risk are now telling us not to expect TOO much from their misdeeds.
There were no hearings on this bill. There were no considerations for any alternatives (eliminate capital gains, taxes on dividends, zero out corporate taxes all of which would have involved private capital fro America and around the world. Sir John Templeton once said that if Congress eliminated the capital gains tax, there would be such a rush of money into the capital markets it would be breathtaking). But alas, no hearings. Nothing. Your money only was at risk.
My advice on politician who voted for this: Sweep them all out office. Every last one.