Kowabunga

King vs. Newsbusters Blogger

The Bangor News, in Maine, is carrying a piece on Stephen King firing back at blogger Noel Sheppard at newsbusters.org, who published an article on a statement King made when addressing a group high school students at a symposium held at the Library of Congress.

What was it that Stephen King say at this symposium to set things off” This:

I don’t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got, the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s, it’s not as bright. So, that’s my little commercial for that.

This is, as Sheppard pointed out, reminiscent of John Kerry’s 2006 statement about studying hard, doing your home work, or you get stuck in Iraq.

It also ranks up there with the Letter to the Editor from an SF high school math teacher carried by Inside Bay Area that assumes if you don’t know math, you don’t have any options other than the military.

These kinds of statements are insulting and harmful to the morale and integrity of those who choose to put on the uniform of our Armed Services. To insinuate that those who, unlike Stephen King (okay, he was rated 4-F) , choose to serve their country, even in a time of war, as doing so due to a lack of opportunity, is ignorant.

King’s response to the criticism (from Bangor News):

“That a right-wing-blog would impugn my patriotism because I said children should learn to read, and could get better jobs by doing so, is beneath contempt,” he said in a statement posted on his Web site.

But the Bangor News cut short the full statement. On King’s website, King continues with:

I guess he feels ignorance and illiteracy are OK when the country needs cannon-fodder. I guess he also feels that the war in Iraq has nationwide approval. Well, it doesn’t have mine.

There is, of course, much, much more than this, some of it covered in the Bangor News.

First off, no one, including the Sheppard, has impugned King’s “patriotism.” For King to claim such is patently false. No one, including Sheppard, claims that ignorance, illiteracy, or, in the case of the SF math teach, lack of math skills are OK, regardless of what else is going on in the world. No one wants our troops to be used as cannon-fodder, especially those who have chosen to serve in the Armed Forces. It si people like King and kerry who falsely imply that there are people who believe it is okay to not develop the basic skills people need to thrive in life. No one has ever claimed that this war has 100% nationwide approval. Quite frankly, however, it did not need Stephen King’s approval. If he wants things done only on his approval, he should run for president.

King ended his rant with a request encouraging people to email Sheppard and tell him that King says to “shut up and I agree.” Maybe someone should start an email campaign to tell Stephen King to shut up as well.

Sheppard of Newsbusters has this response for King: “It’s some of his best writing in a long time, wouldn’t you agree?”

Yep, I agree.

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Stephen King Newsbusters Military

Posted in American Politics, Armed Forces, Chicken Doves, Civil Liberties | No Comments »

Michelle Obama on Sacrifice, Choices, and Struggle

Yesterday, on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Hugh played a number of audio clips of Michelle Obama talking about how much Obama has struggled, the choices he made, and how his mother, as an “18-year old single mother in the ’60s” had to struggle to complete her PhD. Say what?

I looked up Obama, born August 4th, 1961, and his mother, Ann Dunham, born, Nov. 29 1942. She was 18 , almost 19, when Obama was born, she did not become a “single mom” until after her divorce from Obama’s father, 4 years later, at the age of 22, pushing 23. Micelle Obama claims that raising a child as single mom while trying to complete a PhD. a tremendous challenge. Try raising two children as a single mom in the ’60s, and struggling to complete an Associates Degree attending night school one night at a community college because that is all you can afford, and barely that. That would be my mother.

She goes on to say how people from Small Town America can still achieve big dreams, and used Obama’s mother as an example. Hewitt used Eisenhower as an example, as Ike came from Kansas as well, and probably, as a kid, never dreamed of becoming a 5-Star General and leader of our Armed Forces in Europe during the biggest war in history, let alone becoming President of the United States. I thought of Audie Murphy, who came from a depression ravaged, broken home, his father having abandoned him, his siblings, and his mother. Audie Murphy went on to become the most decorated soldier in WW2, received a battlefield commission, and would have made the Army a career, including attending West Point despite his lack of education, save for his wounds during the last battle he fought. After the war, instead of making the Army his career, he went to Hollywood and starred in a number of movies.

Michelle Obama used Obama himself in an example of making choices and personal sacrifice, about how he could have, after completing is Bachelor’s Degree, “could have gone to Wall Street and make a lot of money,” rather than go into community service. Hewitt shot back with McCain, who served his country in the most unpopular war in history (I’ve never heard of a popular war…have you?), and spent five and a half years in the “Hanoi Hilton“, also known as the Hoa Lo Prison, courtesy of the North Vietnamese. Which of these two men does Michlle Obama believes made the greatest sacrifice and the more honorable choices? Inquiring minds want to know.

Thank you Hugh, for playing those audio clips. They were most enlightening and gave me something to write about. Okay, a lot to write about.

Tags:

Obama McCain Vietnam

Posted in American Politics, Campaign 08 | No Comments »

Sto-vo-kor on My Mini City

I ran across something new called My Mini city. It is a game in which you create a virtual city and then get people to come visit it by clicking a link in order to build up the population. As the population builds, various other aspects are introduced to develop your city: Industry, transportation, security, etc. The one limitation with city creation is that you are limited to creating it on Earth. Not very limiting for most people, but for SF fans, well, why can’t we build on Qo’noS ,or Alderran (before it is demolished to make room for a hyperspace bypass).

Each city also has a little message board by which the inhabitants can communicate with each other by.

I figured what the heck and created the city Sto-vo-kor (please stop in for a visit), locating it in Australia, which seemed to be as likely a spot for a mythical Klingon land. The stats as I am writing this is currently at 4 inhabitants, which mean three people have visited it. The system limits activity to one pre person/per day, but it is unclear if it is tied to the

IP address of a computer or to the MAC address. I suspect the former, rather than the latter, as it is easier to code against an IP address.

The site overall boasts some 200 million people a world comprised of about 2 million cities. That’s about 100 people per city. The site is fairly new, so I suspect these numbers will change over time. It is also unclear if that is one action per city/per person/per day.

The one thing that bothers me is that on the map board is a little cursor-like thing with a header printed in Spanish and there isn’t a translation. It looks to be fairly straight forward feature for moving around the landscape, and is probably used for developing the other city features as they become available. That’s just a guess at this point.

On the serious downside, I have been unable to locate a FAQ on how My Mini City works; things like at what population levels different features become available.

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Sto-vo-kor my mini city Klingon

Posted in SF Fandom | No Comments »

Berkeley Still Wrong On Marines, War

Ah yes, the Moonbats of Berkeley are still at it. The Berkeley Daily Planet is running an opinion piece by Mark McDonald, a member of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission, the same group that pushed a resolution calling the marine Recruitment Center “unwelcome and uninvited.” Where does the City of Berkeley find these people?

From the Berkeley Daily Planet:

Many people familiar with the Berkeley City Council’s resolution calling the Marines Corps Recruiters unwelcome intruders and the resulting protests might be surprised to learn that they had been deliberately bamboozled into believing that the Berkeley leaders were insulting the men and women who serve in the Marines. The mass hysteria was fanned by the nation’s mostly pro-war media who were willingly led by the nose by Republican war hawks. Their goal was to paint war critics like Berkeley as unpatriotic haters of the troops and to deflect attention from the disgraceful behavior of the Marine Recruiters which was the topic of the Berkeley resolution.

“Bamboozled”? Hardly! And there were more resolutions against the marines passed than just the one McDonald cites in his piece. For instance the granting of free permits (the kind of permits other groups have to pay fees for) to Code Pink for their weekly protests in front of the recruitment center and calling on Berkeley residents to do anything they can, including the use of intimidation, to impede the activities of marine recruiters.

“Pro-war media”? What has this guy been smoking?

“Disgraceful behavior of the Marine Recruiters”? Back that up with hard evidence!

McDonald continues:

The recruiters have long been guilty of not honoring the agreements and contracts they make with recruits. Though not a new problem, this dishonest activity continues and has even been ratified by some conservative high court decisions.

Provide hard-copy, verifiable evidence. If there are court cases, cite those cases.

This next part is really nutty:

Recently the Pentagon has been failing to meet minimum recruitment goals most likely because of the unpopularity of the Iraq War and the fear of permanent deployment of troops due to stop-loss regulations. The Republican administration does not want to activate a draft because sending the sons (and daughters) of the middle and wealthy class families to war is what hastened the end of the Vietnam War. In order to dupe more young people into enlisting, the Pentagon has initiated a new program titled “Try One,” where a wavering recruit is told they can enlist for one year and then leave if they choose to do so. After the year they are then informed that due to Stop Loss regulations they cannot leave and end up permanently deployed.

First off, there is no such thing as a “popular war.” Wars are never popular, especially with those asked to fight it. Sometimes wars are necessary, or unavoidable. World War 2 was both. Whether or not Vietnam was necessary can be debated, although it was probably avoidable.

The real gem in this piece is this: “The Republican administration does not want to activate a draft because sending the sons (and daughters) of the middle and wealthy class families to war is what hastened the end of the Vietnam War.” McDonald has bought into the lie that the volunteer military is an “economic draft” and only people with no other choices enlist into the Armed Forces. This is a blatant insult to every man and woman who has chosen to serve in the military.

Not only that, McDonald has not done his homework on who is serving in the Armed Forces: Predominately they are middle-class Americans. People from backgrounds similar to my own when I enlisted back in 1983. Don’t believe me? Check out the Heritage Foundation 2006 report on who is serving.

From the HF report:

The percentage of recruits from the poorest American neighborhoods (with one-fifth of the U.S. population) declined from 18 percent in 1999 to 14.6 percent in 2003, 14.1 percent in 2004, and 13.7 percent in 2005.

That means as of 2005, 86.3% of recruits are coming from middle and upper class families. So much for the lie of the volunteer Army being an “economic” draft and being made up of our nation’s poorest and least educated.

Demographic evidence discredits the argument that a draft is necessary to enforce representation from racial and socioeconomic groups. Addition­ally, three of the four branches of the armed forces met their recruiting goals in fiscal year 2005, and Army reenlistments are the highest in the past five years.

The Heritage Foundation has an additional report here that is also worth reading.

McDonald continues to get his facts wrong when he asserts “In order to dupe more young people into enlisting, the Pentagon has initiated a new program titled “Try One,” where a wavering recruit is told they can enlist for one year and then leave if they choose to do so.”

The Try-One program is for prior service active duty troops who are considering signing on to the National Guard. It is not available to new recruits who have never served.

From Military.com:

Bonus Tip. The one year trial plan. Both the Army Guard and Air National Guard offer the “Try-One” enlistment option to active duty veterans and all prior service individuals who are joining the Guard for the first time. This program lets you try the Guard for one year without additional commitment.

McDonald continues:

The Berkeley people and their Council are not against the Marines or any other enlisted personnel. The Marines are our sons, daughters, husbands, wives. fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. The Marines are us and ours and it is our duty to protect them and all American enlisted from losing their health and lives in illegitimate adventures for profit by liars and criminals.

Question to McDonald: Have you served in the Marines? Or any other branch of the Armed Forces? If not, then don’t claim to be one of “us”. You may not agree with the war in Iraq, however that does not make it an “illegitimate adventure for profit.” And who are the liars and criminals? If you want to make such allegations, back it up with hard-copy evidence, not empty rhetoric.

Based on the evidence at hand, Mark McDonald of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission has earned himself a Moonbat Award for his efforts in distorting the facts and spewing stupidity in the finest Berkeley tradition.

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Berekely Marines Moonbat McDonald Economic Draft

Posted in American Politics, Armed Forces, Moonbat Award | No Comments »

NYT vs. WSJ on Voter ID

The Star Tribune is running a series of excerpts from the New York Times and the Wall Street journal on the recent Supreme Court decision concerning Indiana’s recent photo ID requirement for voting. The piece in the Strib does not come down on either side directly, but I think we can guess which side they are on.

From the Strib piece:

NYT: Democracy was the big loser in the Supreme Court on Monday. The court upheld Indiana’s voter identification law, which solves a nearly nonexistent problem by putting major barriers between voters — particularly minorities — and the ballot box. Worse, the court set out a standard that clears the way for other states to adopt rules that discourage disadvantaged groups from voting. It is a sad reversal for a court that once saw itself as a champion of voting rights.

Quite frankly, I don’t understand what the big deal is for requiring a photo ID in order to vote. I do see where it is a big deal in NOT requiring a photo ID when voting.

Just think about it: big city precinct, a guy walks in and claims to be John Doe, a registered voter. ID is not required, and he signs his name in the log, gets a ballot, votes, and departs. Some time later, another guy walks in also claiming to be John Doe, a registered voter. The election officials tell him that he can’t vote again as he already voted in the morning. “Wait a minute,” says John Doe, “that’s not possible. I haven’t voted.” The officials point to the signature on the sign in sheet for voting. The real John doe tells them that isn’t his signature, and here is my drivers license proving I am who I say I am. He is denied his franchise because of the lack of a requirement to positively identify a person voting as being who they claim to be. THAT is why a photo ID should be required in all elections.

Granted, this scenario is unlikely to happen in small precincts where there is a high likelihood of one of the polling officials of spotting a poser. But even in small precincts there is a possibility of such a scenario happening. I’ve served as an election judge in my township. I don’t know everyone in the township. And we only have about 300 residents (including minors). Think about what it is like in a big city like Minneapolis, San Francisco, or New York City. Has it happened? Maybe. More than likely there are posers voting in the place of someone who doesn’t regularly vote. Regardless, the risk of voter fraud increases as the size of the voting precinct increases.

It should be noted that the Indiana law allows people to file provisional ballots if they do not have proper ID, and that these ballots will be counted in the regular election if the person validates their ballot by providing an acceptable form of ID within 10 days. So what is the big deal here? Simple: Those who oppose ID requirements simply want to maintain the status quo of making voter fraud easy and accessible as fraud favors Democrats.

It is also those in opposition who make the false claim that such laws are being pushed by Republicans in order “to disenfranchise groups that lean Democratic.” You would think both sides would want fair and honest (fraud-free) elections. Apparently this is something that those who oppose ID requirements want in our electoral process.

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Star Tribune Supreme Court Voter ID Indiana

Posted in American Politics, Civil Liberties, MSM, Red Star Tribune | No Comments »

Steampunk Laptop

I spotted this over on Walter Hunt’s blog and thought it was just too cool for words. It’s a Steampunk Laptop. For those of you who do not know what Steampunk is, it is a subgenre of Science Fiction. The Difference Engine is one of the early examples of Steampunk. The driving concept is “what if” the computer was invented earlier, like in the 19th Century.

Now we have a laptop worthy of Captain Nemo.

From Datamancer:

This may look like a Victorian music box, but inside this intricately hand-crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop that runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. It features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card. The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts.

Here’s a video of the laptop booting up.

All I can say is: Honey, I want one!

Tags:

Computers Steampunk Laptop

Posted in Clan MacDude, SF Fandom | No Comments »

Minnesota Soldier Receives Surprise Homecoming

KARE 11 news is running a piece on the homecoming of Ken Melrose, a sergeant in the National Guard who has just returned from duty in Iraq. The story mentions that his house in St. Cloud was rented out during his deployment and that the renters had trashed the place. His mother had the rats evicted, but was faced with a huge cleanup and repair.

Thank God she was not alone. Members of his community and the Patriot Guard pitched in to repair the damage, with materials supplied by local merchants.

From KARE 11:

Sgt. Melrose was aware some folks had volunteered to help clean up his house. But he didn’t expect new flooring, furniture, drapes and appliances. “Wow,” his voice cracked as he walked out on his new deck.

“He didn’t have a deck before,” explained his mom. Sgt. Melrose walked back in the house appearing to wipe away a tear. “I’ve got a lot of thank you cards to write,” he said.

Here is the accompnaying video

My hat is off to all those who helped give Sgt. Melrose a great homecoming, and my thanks to Sgt. Melrose for serving our country. And welcome home!

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National Guard Army Homecoming Patriot Guard

Posted in Armed Forces | No Comments »

Berkeley Letter to the Editor Insults Those Who Serve In the Military

I was perusing the letters to the editor page on Inside Bay Area and was stunned with one that I read concerning the Berkeley anti-Marine protests run by code Pink and other groups during the past few months.

From Inside Bay Area (you’ll have to scroll down a ways to find it):

I respect the Marines and anti-war protestors, and agree with both.

But in light of the recent protests, one can’t help but wonder whether the members of Code Pink and their sympathizers wouldn’t make better use of their energy if they were to spend time in the local junior high math classes helping underachieving students get on a track to leave high school with more options than joining the military.

This is right up there with John F. Kerry’s statement about how if you don’t study hard in school, you end up in Iraq. It is insulting to all those who choose to serve in the Armed Forces. We don’t have a draft. Those who enlist may do so for any number of reasons, but I seriously doubt it is due to a lack of options when completing high school.

I served in the Air Force. I had a number of different options before me. I chose to serve my country for four years of my life and have never had any regrets in doing so. I did so because I knew, deep down, it was the right thing for me to do, and that I had always wanted to serve in the Air Force since I was a kid. I chose the Air Force over the other services because of a love of airplanes. No, I wasn’t a pilot as I didn’t have a Bachelor’s Degree, and ended up working in computers when I was in the Air Force, which was just as much fun.

Like me, when I served, every single member of the Armed Forces is a volunteer. We haven’t had a draft since we withdrew from Vietnam 35 years ago. Most come from pretty average middle-class backgrounds, shooting down the lie that they had no other options than to serve in the military. Some come from poor backgrounds, but that does not mean they don’t have good math skills, or other options other than the military, unless they made bad choices and involved themselves in gang violence and drugs, in which case even military service isn’t an option for them. There are also those who come from affluent families (yes, that really is true as I know a few in this category). Anyone with the will to do so can earn a commission. Yes, one of the incentives to enlist is receiving college benefits. Many employers offer their employees educational benefits. What’s wrong with that? (I didn’t use my post-military education benefits…paid for it all myself.) It’s also a good place to develop good career building skills in technology, something that can be had outside the military as well.

People always have choices. Some choose to serve in the military; many, choose not to. To say that there are kids out there with zero options other than to serve in the military because of a lack of math, or any other, skills is insulting and just plain wrong.

But we are talking about a letter from a Berkeley resident, so this comes as no surprise.

When the writer starts off by claiming to “respect” the Marines, then asserts that those her serve in the military do so because they lack the skills necessary to do anything else shows that they in fact DO NOT respect the Marines or any others who choose to serve in the Armed Forces.

Further insulting is to assume that those Moonbats in Code Pink are better at math than your average serviceman. I’d like to provide Zanne Joi of the Bay Area Code Pink with a few calculus problems to solve.

I wonder if this is the same Sachu Constantine that teaches 10th grade math in San Francisco, the one who gives his students take-home exams?

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Berkeley Marines Code Pink Moonbats

Posted in American Politics, Armed Forces | 2 Comments »

40 Billion Dollar Class-Action Suit Against Anti-War T-shirt Maker

FoxNews is reporting that there is a suit seeking class-action status against carryabigsticker.com, the Arizona T-shirt company that has produced and sells a T-shirt listing all of the U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.

From FoxNews:

A Tennessee couple who lost their son in Iraq want an Arizona merchant to pay more than $40 billion in damages to survivors of soldiers whose names are on the anti-war shirts he is selling online.

A complaint seeking class-action status for the lawsuit by Robin and Michael Read says Dan Frazier of Flagstaff has no right to profit from commercial sale of products that use the dead soldiers’ names without permission.

The change, requested Tuesday in federal court in Tennessee, would cover the heirs of all U.S. service members killed in the Middle East since Sept. 11, 2001, and seek $4 billion in compensatory damages and $36.5 billion of punitive damages.

I am sure as this guy expands the list of casualties on the T-shirt design, the number of plaintiffs in the class-action suit will expand. $40 Billion is a lot of money to have to cough up, and I hope that the families of these fine, brave soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq win their suit.

Here are some images from carryabigsticker.com of the T-shirt in question:

Here is what Frazier’s attorney has to say about the suit.

“We think it will be clear that this is political expression and not done for profit,” said Lee Phillips, Frazier’s attorney.

Here’s the problem: the web site states that $1 from the sale of each T-shirt is donated to organizations that support the families of the fallen and has donated, they claim, nearly $4,000. The attorney claims, flasely, that these T-shirts are not being sold for profit, yet $1 off of a $22 price tag leaves a lot of room for profit. As an example, this same T-shirt, produced on demand via a site like cafepress is $18.99 (currently). Do the math. This guy is producing them in volume, which means his cost would be substantially lower than that, leaving even more room for profit. What this means is that he in fact is making a profit on the sales of these T-shirts, which is not what his attorney is claiming.

What the plaintiff’s attorney needs to do, and I am sure he will, is get a hold of the books and find out what the cost actually is for the T-shirts, find out how many have been sold, how much money has been donated to which orgnaizations. I’d really like to know what non-profit organizations have received money from this guy, and how they feel about the source of the money. Or if they even know.

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T-shirt lawsuit Frazier

Posted in Armed Forces, Current Events | No Comments »

Obama and Wright: The Never-Ending Story

How can we trust Barack Obama with this nation’s highest office, or any elected office for that matter, when he is unable to ascertain the true character of a man whom he has had a close relationship with for over 20 years? A man who married Obama to his wife and baptized their children; a man who, until recently, was an advisor on his presidential campaign; a man whose sermons routinely contain anti-American venom, spewing such lies as AIDS was created in a government lab to implement genocide against “people of color.”

After the Reverend Wright’s foray with the Press club, Obama has come out denouncing his “former” pastor for some of the hateful and sickening things Wright has said; many of these things Wright has said before in his sermons, and the sound clips of which have been circulating for weeks. Several weeks ago, when the sound bites first began circulating, Obama had said that if all he knew about Jeremiah Wright was what was contained in those audio clips, we would be choked; he refused, at that time, to denounce Wright. He claimed never to have heard any of those sermons, but we are still waiting for proof of that assertion

I find it hard to believe that Obama is being honest that he had no clue as to the kind of hatred that Jeremiah Wright regularly spouted from the pulpit. Did Obama just show up for church on those days when Wright was making a “tame” sermon, then not socialize with any of his fellow parishioners? Did he not read the church bulletins and other publications? Was he completely clueless to Wright’s high opinion of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, and another hate of America and white people? Was he unaware that Wright took part in Farrakhan’s Million Man March? Wasn’t Obama a participant in the Million Man March? Is Obama really that oblivious to what the people around him believe? Or is it all a lot of horse-hockey?

Michelle Malkin, in a piece on CNSNews, said it best:

Anyone with eyes can see that Wright’s performances are finely honed, time-tested acts. His anti-white, anti-American, “imperialist”-bashing shtick was not developed overnight or over the past few years. He’s been peddling AIDS conspiracies for decades. He’s been grievance-mongering about slavery for decades. He’s been flirting with the Nation of Islam, which provided security for his speeches, for decades. He’s been a shouting left-wing radical for decades.

There is no way Obama could be this dense. And if he is, we sure don’t want him as president, as global thugs like Kim Jong Il, Ahmadinejad, Muqtada al Sadr, and many others will have a field day with Obama. They are real experts at anti-American rhetoric and deceit.

During the Press Club meeting, Wright claimed that if a someone was questioning him on what he said in one of his sermons, but had not heard the entire sermon, his question did not matter.

From CNSNews:

Wright had asked the moderator if she had heard the whole sermon in question and then chastised her when she said, “I heard most of it.”

“No, no, the whole sermon, yes or no?” said Wright. “No, you haven’t heard the whole sermon? That nullifies that question.”

My question to Jeremiah Wright is: Will you make all of your sermons available for free to anyone interested? Or are you more interested in making money off of sales of the sermons? The price of getting the sermons would run a pretty penny. But then Wright’s church needs the money to finance the million dollar mansion they are building him (complete with elevator). It must be nice to get that kind of retirement perk. The rest of us should be so lucky.

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Obama Wright

Posted in American Politics, Campaign 08 | No Comments »

They Call This Spring?

I shot this video Saturday morning when I got up and found it snowing. It’s just a short, and I was still a bit sleepy, thus getting the date wrong in the video.

Someone posted a comment on the video that they received 18 inches up in his territory. Based on news reports, I suspected that he was from Anchorage, Alaska, which received a record snowfall. Surprisingly, he is from the Detroit Lakes region of Minnesota.

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Snow Spring

Posted in Global Warming | 1 Comment »

Dean Pushing For June Nomination Decision

Howard Dean is pushing for an early end to the primary campaigns of Obama and Clinton.

From CNSNews:

How worried are Democrats about their party’s never-ending primary election battle? A liberal advocacy group admits it is “ready for it to be over already,” and it plans to “start focusing on the Republicans,” even before the Democrats have settled on a presidential candidate. And on Sunday, Howard Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, said he wants a decision — Clinton or Obama — by June.

The tight race between the two hard-left Democrats could easily go on until the Democratic Natioinal convention in August. Some of the power-mongers in the DNC believe that continuing the campaigns will give McCain a distinct advantage come November. Whether or not they are right on that score is no reason for either Hillary or Obama to throw in the towel three months early. The superdelegates will end up being the deciding factor in the close race for the nomination. Hillary and Obama should be given ample time to attempt to swing as many of them to their respective courts as possible. Currently, neither candidate has enough committed delegates to win the nomination. It will be the superdelegates making the decision as to who will be on the top of the ticket.

Quite frankly, I am really beginning to hope that Barack “Dances with Terrorists” Obama manages to pull it off. As more of his background comes out, such as his association with the radical Pastor Jeremiah Wright and his many anti-American sermons and friendship with the terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn of the Weather Underground, his chances in November will decrease. Add to that the fact that Obama has been endorsed by the terrorist organization Hamas (which he denounced), we end up with a fairly beatable candidate..

This is not to say that Hillary would be any better, or worse, than Obama. She has been caught in more lies than you can shake a stick at. Her greatest asset is also her greatest liability: Bill Clinton. Do we really want T.S. Willie in a position to seduce more White House interns?

Regardless of who is at the top of the ticket, there is so little difference in their positions on the issues that it is hard to tell them apart. Both want to abandon Iraq to Iranian mullahs; both want to tax Americans into oblivion; both want to take away our right to keep and bear arms; both want to silence talk radio; both want to put our health care decisions in the hands of government bureaucrats; both want to grant amnesty and citizenship to millions of criminal illegal aliens; both want to forcibly cut our energy consumption and implement a carbon tax shell game that will significantly raise the costs of energy for Americans and consequently raise the costs of finished goods and services, thus turning America into a third world country. None of their positions are good for America, or even in keeping with American Ideals of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Let’s face it, both Obama and Clinton are hard-core Leftists. Let them fight out the nomination process right up to the convention. The more exposure they get, the more we learn about their beliefs and backgrounds, the better.

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Obama Hillary Dean Democrat Leftist

Posted in American Politics, Campaign 08 | No Comments »

Panhandlers: Needy or Lazy?

Over on KUTV in Salt Lake City, they have a video of an investigation into a panhandler that is quite surprising and revealing. It is the story of a professional panhandler who spends her time on street corners with a beat up cardboard sign asking for money. It is unsruprising to learn that everything about her is a lie and that she lives in a nice home with her family.

KUTV also has a write up on their website

It reminds me of two stories, one of which I experienced first hand. I was gassing up the truck one night when I was living in Point Richmond when I was aproached by a kid who said he had run out of gas and was looking for a couple of bucks so he can get home. Believing him, I gave him a fiver and headed off to work. I was working nights at that time in Brisbane, near Candlestick Park. The next evening as I was driving past that same gas station, the same punk came up to me with the same story. I told him that he did this last night. What the heck is his problem. Never saw him in Point Richmond again. That was in 1989.

In 1996, a girlfriend of mine told me the story of a panhandler she used to see in San Jose, and then ran into the same guy vacationing in Florida. She figures, or found out from him, that he was pulling in something on the order of $60K a year panhandling.

Does this mean that all panhandlers are doing so to make a living? Probably not. But there is no way to tell the difference between those who are genuinely in need and those just too lazy to get a job and pay taxes like the rest of us.

The last time I gave money to a panhandler, I was in Rotterdam. She asked me for some money because she would rather get a handout than lift someone’s wallet. I gave her some cash and asked her to recommend a restaurant…I was fresh off the plane and train and had no idea where a good restaurant was. She showed me to a good restaurant and went on her merry way. At least she was honest, unlike the other panhandlers I have encountered and the one tracked by KUTV.

This brings to mind another thought. When I was living in Spain during the ’80s, I learned that a good way to tell a panhandler (they somethimes went door-to-door back then) was to offer them a can of corn, a very American food, but is not part of the Spanish diet as they considered it food fit only as fodder for livestock. Basically, if you give them a can of corn and they accepted it, they probably were in need. If they threw it at you, you knew you had a lazy, no good, fill-in-the-blank.

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Hillary Scores In Pennsylvania

Hillary trumped Obama in the Pennsylvania primary by about 9.5 points, thus keeping the Democratic Campaign going full steam for the near foreseeable future. Gotta love it. As long as these two hard-left Liberal/Progressives keep pounding each other, McCain has a free hand in getting his message out and building his case for winning in November. I hope this trend continues through the Summer.

Of course we don’t know if the big win in Pennsylvania will be an indicator as to how the state will go in November. There have been reports of large numbers of cross-over voters in the Pennsylvania Primary. Let’s face it, the GOP primary is boring since it has already been decided that John McCain will be the Republican nominee. With that in mind, the only thing left for Republicans to do who wanted to participate in the primary was to go in and vote as Democrats. Can’t blame them for wanting to do that, either.

Obama leads in North Carolina with a significant lead over Hillary, while Hillary maintains a thin margin in Indiana.

Meanwhile, I heard a sound clip of Obama asking the question, “of the three remaining candidates, who do you want answering that 3AM call. The one who got Iraq right, or someone who got it wrong?” This is the first time I have heard Obama come out and say he supports John McCain, who IS the only candidate left who has been right on Iraq. Unless, of course, Obama is suggesting we want someone who has been consistently wrong on Iraq, and is saying we should elect the guy who likes to hang out with terrorists and racists.

As Dances With Terrorists Obama continues to defend his relationships with questionable and shady characters, will his political career remain viable? Probably. We can use Robert KKK Byrd as an example. As long as he maintains the “correct” political affiliations, he can do no wrong.

Hillary did have one heckuva campaign ad in Pennsylvania, which quotes Truman’s “If it’s too hot for you, get out of the kitchen,” and Hillary adding that she is quite comfortable in a kitchen. Is she suggxting that a woman’s place is in the kitchen?

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All Eyes Are On Pennsylvania

Today, many Americans will be watching the Pennsylvania primary for the outcome in the Democratic contest. This is the final stand for both Hillary and Obama. Hillary has been campaigning especially hard in Pennsylvania as she knows she needs to win there in order to remain viable when the Democratic National Convention takes place later this year. Both candidates have been having a tough time selling voters on their credibility, Hillary with such lies as being under sniper fire in Kosovo, and Obama with his associations with racists and terrorists.

It’s up to the people of Pennsylvania to decide which is the lesser of two evils in the Democratic campaign, a decision I don’t envy them.

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China: Same Kind Of Goons for 60 Years

Can anyone tell me why CNN owes China an apology over a reference to the totalitarian government being referred to as “goons and thugs?” It sounds to me like Jack Cafferty hit it out of the park. Okay, he was wrong on one point, and for that maybe an apology is deserved. He said “for the last 50 years.” Try the last 60 years. But let us not quibble over a decade. Goons and thugs are just as bad then as they are today.

China’s batting average on human rights justifies the reference: over 65 MILLION dead Chinese since Mao took over the country. It is currently estimated that there are 500,000 political prisoners in slave labor camps, Soviet-style gulags. The Government of China calls these “re-education camps.”

The recent crackdown in Tibet is also a thorn in the side of the Chinese Government. Their jackbooted thugs have killed protestors and many monks have disappeared.

China is not a free nation. The people of China do not have free speech, free markets, or free will. Would a people who truly had a choice choose such a tyrannical regime as the one that has murdered over 65 MILLION of its own people? Forced abortions so as to control population growth?

It is a communist regime of terror run by the same kind of goons and thugs today as those who ran it 60 years ago.

We should stop purchasing their lead-filled products that are being used to kill our children and line the pockets of their military machine at the same time. Free Tibet first, then we can talk about having the Olympics in Beijing. Not before.

CNN has nothing to apologize for. They should stick to their guns (oh, wait, they’re Liberals; they don’t have any…well, maybe Cafferty does) on this as Cafferty’s statement was clearly and unambiguously directed at the government of China, and towards the people of China as a whole.

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Obama and Ayers

Barack Obama really wants the Democratic nomination for president, and I hope he gets it; McCain will beat him like a pair of bongo drums. The same is true if Hillary is the candidate, but this post is about Barack “Dances With terrorists” Obama.

Obama has openly admitted to being friends with the terrorist Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground, a violent radical group. Ayers served time for his involvement in attempted bombings of the Pentagon and other high-profile sites. As recently as 2001, Ayers is on record as stating that he/they should have carried out more bombings. He has never shown any remorse for his criminal actions. he is now an Education Professor at the University of Illinois. Such is the rewards of terrorists. Maybe Kathleen Soliah will be able to get a posting at the U of M teaching Bomb Making 101 after she completes her time in a California prison.

The Waethermnen make the SLA look like rank amateurs who had to stoop to kidnapping heiress Patty Hearst in order to make the front page.

Ayers wife, Bernadine Dohrn, another terrorist and member of the Weathermen, teaches law.

Their connection to Barack Obama goes back at least to 1995. From The Washington Post:

For months, their connection to the Democratic presidential candidate — they hosted a gathering for him in 1995 when he first ran for the state Senate and later contributed $200 to his reelection campaign

How much money have they contributed to the Obama campaign since then? How much time has Obama spent with these terrorists over the last 13 years?

Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter, the original Dances With Terrorists, has been off making nice with Hamas terrorists. I have often said that if Obama is elected, he will be like Jimmy Carter, a one-term president who will be tossed out of office so fast it will make your head spin.

Like Carter, Obama will fail our allies in the Middle East, just as Carter abandoned Iran to the Ayatollahs; we can expect a repeat performance from Obama with Iraq. Like Carter, Obama does not understand economics and the problems caused by over taxation, or the benefits of reducing taxation. Like Carter, Obama believes that money belongs to the government, and not entrusted to it by the people from whom it is taken, quite often by force. Like Carter, Obama would rather hobnob with terrorists and our nation’s enemies, rather than associate those who respect the sanctity of life and promote Western values.

Carter helped bring about a nuclear armed North Korea. Will Obama help usher in a nuclear armed Iran (and, consequently, nukes for al Qaeda)?

Do we really need to have double-digit inflation as we had during the late ’70s under Carter? What will Obama do to bolster the American economy, and, more importantly, rebuild the strength of the American dollar? More taxes will not cut the mustard.

Carter was the worst president this nation has ever had. In November, let’s keep it that way and elect John McCain. And give us a First lady who has been proud to be an American all of her life, not someone who is proud to be an American for the first time in her life.

One surprising note about Ayers and Dohrn: although they surrenedered to authorities in 1981, they were never prosecuted for their involvement in terrorist acts with the Weather Underground. Why?

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Villaraigosa To ICE - Lay Off Illegals

Sometimes I think I should start a “Bozo of the Week” award. But that would compete with my semi-periodic Moonbat Award. And I would have to commit to doing weekly.

This time around the Moonbat Award goes to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for his stand on the recent crackdown on illegal immigrants by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the L.A. area.

Here is what Villaraigosa had to say (from Daily Breeze):

Villaraigosa accused federal officials of targeting “established, responsible employers” in industries that rely on “workforces that include undocumented immigrants.”

“In these industries, including most areas of manufacturing, even the most scrupulous and responsible employers have no choice but to rely on workers whose documentation, while facially valid, may raise questions about their lawful presence,” he wrote in the March 27 letter.

He said ICE should spend its limited resources targeting employers who exploit wage and hour laws.

First off, it is not within ICE’s jurisdiction to investigate labor issues; their role when it comes to labor is to deal with illegal aliens.

What is rally laughable is the bit about responsible employters have to rely on illegal aliens for their workforce. Horse doo-doo! Employers are hiring illegals as they will work for less money than locals, and can be paid under-the-table, thus saving additional money in the form of less payroll taxes. It’s the economics behind it all. Americans want cheaper products; employers are driven to provide lower prices for their products, thus the hiring of illegals.

When people like Villaraigosa claims that the crackdown on illegal aliens will hurt the local economy, he is twisting reality. What will happen is that employers will be forced to hire labor from the local pool of workers and perhaps have to pay a little more for the privilege, and more in payroll taxes. That expense will be passed on to consumers who will then have to choose whether or not it is worth the extra fifty cents for their burger at McDonalds, or an extra couple of bucks for a new pair of sneakers. My answer is to that question is: Yes, it is worth it.

Crikey, if we completely purge the illegal aliens from our work force, we may actually attain 100% employment in this country. Wouldn’t that be something!

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Recent Lull

I’ve been down with an eye infection that has made reading rather difficult, as well as working with a computer. Fortunately i am nearly recovered and should be getting back into some sort of rhythm again.

There’s been way too much interesting news to try and catch up with, so I guess I just have to start out fresh again.

*sigh*

UPDATE

Finally better now. It looks like a major part of the illness was caused by the medication I was put on.

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Film Legend Charlton Heston, Dead At 84

Charlton Heston, one of the greatest film stars and strongest advocate for Liberty, passed away over the weekend. He was 84.

Heston starred in many of the great epics of the ‘50s, most notably Ben-Hur and the Ten Commandments. Amongst his many notable films there is El Cid, 55 Days In Peking, The Buccaneer, The Three and Four Musketeers, and The Planet of the Apes, which launched him into a string of Science Fiction films. Some of his lesser-known films include Three Violent People and Arrowhead, both of which feature Heston in very strong roles.

A lot has been written in other places about Heston. Let it suffice to say that he has entertained us all for many years, and his memory will live on. God’s Speed, Charlton Heston, and thank you for bringing us so many great and memorable films.

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