Get ready for the Europization of America

Hat tip to ABP

I am all for paid sick leave, I have it at my workplace. That is one of the reasons I work there, the benefits are great. Hover like most things in life, there is a trade off. I could make twice the wages I receive now working for a start up tech company or VAR but I've been down that road before. Great money, 60+ hours a week, out of town four nights a week, 5:50 am flights, sleeping through most of weekend, enough stress to make bomb squad technician break down and cry and very little time with my family. No thank you, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

If you don't receive paid sick leave at your job, find one that does if it's that important to you. You may have a longer commute, you may have to take a cut in pay, you might have to work in another field. My point is, if an employer is mandated by the government to give you paid sick leave he is going to cut his cost somewhere else. It's called capitalism.

Now that Democrats have won control of Congress, Mr. Kennedy, the incoming chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is more optimistic.

"It has a wildfire of support across the country," he said. "When you talk to workers, this is, besides an increase in the minimum wage, the most important issue for these families. This is a families issue. This is a values issue."

Hey Ted, ask these same people if they would like the keys to your multi-million dollar estate in Massachusetts for a month, I bet they say, heck yea, how bout the keys to your Mercedes while your at it?

Why don't you give these hard working folks your keys Ted? It's a values issue after all, right? Ted?
Ted?

The reason Ted doesn't offer a free time share and hold an open bar with these hard working people is it would cost Ted money, his money.

I don't want to sound like a blow hard, round em' up and ship em' back in box cars to Mexico alarmist, but I swear you could go along way to solving many of our labor problems by securing the border. The huge, and I mean huge amount of skilled and semi-skilled worked that are here illegally are driving down wages benefits by good old supply and demand. Lots of workers willing to do your job at lower wages equates to you loose bargaining power with your employer.

Raising the minimum wage is going to happen, with the illegal immigration problem we have today, the free market doesn't work correctly. I can live with that, but when you start mandating guaranteed sick leave you are mandating a cut in worker productivity. That is not good for American companies in general. Once the democrats get paid sick leave through, how long until HillaryCare is back on the table. Oh, joy, socialized medicine. Maybe we can wait for two years for an MRI or eight months to see a doctor. That will be fun.

Do you ever wonder why the large hospitals right over the boarder from Canada are so busy? It's the Canadians paying cash for medical care they cannot get from their Utopian goverment run heath care system.

A very interesting debate

For conservatives left with a bitter taste in their mouths from November's elections, they don't seem to be buying CRP Chairman Duf Sundheim's silver lining.

I just walked in from a local republican meeting and we are looking at the same issues in our county. The California Republican Convention in February is going to be fun this year, there may be quite a few folks boiling tar and plucking chickens behind the Hyatt Regency. The hooray for Arnold, screw the platform people may have to run for cover.

City Slickers and working cattle

Having your cattle an hour away posses some interesting problems. First off, you friends may be busy and the idea of driving an hour to work cattle is not very appealing. I did not make any calls to ask for help so I guess I have no one to blame except yours truly. After church I stopped by the local Tractor Supply store in woodland to get a few items I needed to vaccinate and de-worm my cows. With these items in hand I drove to the ranch to see if I could round up a few warm bodies to help.

I found my wife and her friend and we roped in Dave whose daughter rides at the ranch to get the cattle down the field and into the corrals. So my crew is my darling wife, her friend and a guy with a prosthetic leg. Oh, and two dogs, my wife's Jack Russell, the little ball of hate, and a urbanism border collie. Well, sometimes you trust in the All Mighty and hope, although as I like to say, hope is not a plan.

We drive the cows down the fence line and into the corrals without much trouble except for the dogs running in front of cows and turning them away from the direction we are driving them. After some 'sailor talk' and a few rocks thrown for good measure, the cattle are the corrals. I set up the vaccine and dewormer and get the eartags ready as my wife brings a four or five cows at a time into the sorting pen and down the crowding alley. Dave says he up to anything so gets to work the back gate of the chute and I show him how to work the 'hot shot' if the cows refuse to get into the chute. I am running the headgate and squeeze and so we begin the process.

Usually my wife does the vaccinations while I run the chute, but being that we are short handed, I am running around like a three legged cat trying bury his poop on a frozen pond. I have not seen many three legged cats, but the image I have is probably close to the scramble I am doing each time a cow goes into the chute.

Catch her head, pull the squeeze rope tight, run over and get the vaccine gun, give her a shot, run back, get the worm medicine, squeeze out the right amount, pour it on her back, run back to pick up the ear tagger, remove the old faded ear tag with a dull pocket knife and put in a new one, run back, get back to the chute in time to let the cow out before she gets really mad and wants to kill me once she is free.

Multiply that times twenty five and you will get an idea of how the three stooges would have looked if they made a movie about working cows. After two hours we were done. I thanked everyone, especially Dave for hanging in there through the flying cow manure and frantic pace on one good leg. I drove home smelling like, well lets just say, like the back end of a cow.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

What can you do? Yea I am talking to you.

What can one person do? Nothing, not much, a little or a lot. It all depends on the person. What can you do to make just one person's life just a little bit better? Open your eyes, the opportunity to help those in need are all around us if we take the time to look. At my church we are participating in the angel tree program. It is a great program to make sure at least two gifts are given to a child whose parent is in prison.

If you could touch one child's life by giving them a Christmas gift, wouldn't you do that? I don't any extra money for that kind of stuff, I just maxed out my Visa card on a new plasma TV.

What about visiting a senior home and just spending a half hour talking or just listening to a lonely person? I don't want to visit some crusty old person in a nursing home, they smell funny.

How about dropping your spare change into the Salvation Army kettle? I told you, I don't have any spare money.

Could you look through your closets for any old coats or blankets that you don't use and donate them? Hey what's mine is mine Jack, besides that cool leather coat will fit me again after I loose that 40 pounds I have been working on for 10 years.

Ok, can you at least write a letter or call someone you lost touch with, just to say Merry Christmas? I doubt it, I'm awful busy this time of year.

Never mind.

For everyone else out there, the first step is just looking, it doesn't cost a dime. Find a local group you think does good work, what ever your idea of good work is there is someone out there doing it and they could use your help. Call them or just stop in and say 'you guys do good work', you will probably be greeted with a smile and an invitation to join in doing the good work.

I posted this story last year, but I just love the last line so much I must post it again.

Now, let me conclude by telling you a true story I heard this summer that continues to haunt me for a variety of reasons- many of them related to these remarks. My wife and I heard a speaker at Chautauqua tell the story of a friend of his who happened to be a priest. They had been friends for many years but in recent years they have been living a couple of hours apart and therefore didn't get to see each other very often. But, still they stayed in touch.
In his parish the priest had organized a hunger center and apparently they specialized in providing sandwiches for the homeless and for those who needed a meal. I believe it was referred to as the "sandwich ministry".

Fairly recently the speaker had learned that the priest was suffering from a serious and fatal disease. Indeed, he knew and everyone else knew that his death was very near. The speaker wanted to see his friend one last time so he arranged to visit him. They spent a good day together and the speaker had an opportunity to see the "sandwich ministry" and was very impressed by it. When he returned home he wrote a note to the priest and included with it a check to support the sandwich ministry.

Within a few days two things happened. First, the speaker learned that his friend, the priest, had in fact died. But, second, at that same time he received an envelope in the mail with the name and address of the priest as the return address. Clearly the priest had written whatever was inside just before he died.

The speaker opened the envelope and unfolded the letter. As he did so, the check he had written and sent to the priest fell out and onto the floor. When he looked at what the priest had written just before he died, he read these words: "Make your own damn sandwiches."

The Iraqi Civil War

If Brian Williams says it's a civil war, then it must be, right?

Mr. Williams is entitled to his opinion as I am to mine. What do I call the war in Iraq?
(drumroll please)
The War in Iraq!

The Kurds would be in favor of a civil war I would think. Let the Sunnis and Shiites kill each other and we will sell our oil and open a Taco bell on every corner. The Kurds are flourishing in northern Iraq, a story that seems to be a national secret that MSM does want to keep from the public. The war in Iraq has too many players to qualify as a civil war in my book, but if you want to call it by that name, by all means do so.

Here is a fact that America will soon have to face. Iran and Syria are real threat to America in the Middle East now that Saddam is soon to have his neck stretched. Iran and Syria are going to attack the US through surrogates sooner than latter. We had better get used to the idea of a regional conflict not just a few car bombs and IEDs in Baghdad. The democratic view that we need to a phased retreat from Iraq is foolish, the Bush administration's assertion that if we give the Iraqi government enough time, they will get their act together is also foolish without addressing the two nation that are shipping terrorists, IEDs and money into the war.

This war is going to get much worse before it gets better. I believe that we will ramp up the fight in Iraq in the short term. Not only to drive out the foreign fighters, but to get ready for an attack on Iran or Syria, or both. Even if the Iraqis produce an army that can keep the peace in Baghdad, without stopping the free flow of weapons, jihadists and money from both nations, the Iraqi government will fall in short order. The Iraqis are in no shape to accomplish this, therefore this will be left to the US and coalition forces to do.

Which brings us to the second problem, the military is in no shape to do any boots on the ground fighting outside of Iraq. That may not be needed if we can pressure the Syrians and Iranians into staying out of Iraq by the use of air strikes. The dictators of both nations have American blood on their hands, its time for them to answer for exporting terrorism around the globe. Kofi and the world press, along with the New York Times will cry to the heavens, but let them.

This is the world we live in. It was not created by George W Bush and Haliburton, it was created by you and I and the rest of the western world standing by and pretending that Islamic fascism was not a real threat until it came knocking on our door five years ago. Ask most Americans what a Sunni is and they will probably tell you that it is a new flavor at Jamba Juice, Americans it seems are too busy to figure out that we are in a war. We want the new PS3 and that promotion at work and a vacation in Fiji, and we want to see the pictures of Britney Spears without underpants.

What do the Syrians and Iranians want? They want us dead, they want to turn you and I and our children into bloating corpses lying about in the street. They won't stop being terrorists if we pull out of Iraq, they won't stop trying to kill us just because we have retreated behind our porous borders. When America is wiped off the map, down to the last man, woman and child, they will stop to take a breath and then start killing each other because, well because they are killers. They love death more than we love life, just ask them.

What will it take for us to wake up?

Get along little doggies

Once a year we take our calves to the auction, since my cows calve in the spring, we wean them in the fall and take them to the sale. My wife and I just beat the rain that started just as we closed the trailer door. We had some great looking heifers this year, and when we ran two ranches it was easy to wean the heifers, let them mature a while and breed them to another bull at the other ranch.

We don't have our fences up at the Esparto place so we took our heifers to the sale. They will make someone a great group of mother cows in a few years.

I enjoy the fall but I am looking foreword to spring calving and branding time. Now I just need to start riding my new horse. He has never seen cattle before and it may get a little western the first time I throw a rope off him. Hmm, I may ask the new owner of my old horse if I can borrow him for a day, that sounds a bit safer.

Little old lady from Antioch

My Grandmother's new car.
A 2007 Toyota Corolla LE

Gram is a very spry 88 years old. She is sharp as a tack and a wonderful woman. She also has a 1983 Ford Taurus that is leaking enough oil to cover three sea otters a day in 10W-40. Luckily the Taurus is not a boat or the EPA and Greenpeace would slap an injunction against Gram. I received a call from my mother who said I should call Gram and help her buy a new car. I did, and I did.

With a handful of sale adds from Toyota dealers in hand I drove down to Gram's house and went shopping. The local Toyota dealer, a small lot who cannot compete with the huge automall dealers would not match the price offered in the adds. With no trade in, no financing, and no upsale on an extended warranty or security system, the dealer had no motive to sell the car.

Most of cars on add are loss leaders, not that the dealership 'looses' money on them, they just don't have any 'gross profit' at that price, so the salesman only make a 'mini' or minimum commission of $100 or $150 dollars. The dealership will make a little money or break even on the car with the dealer holdback and unit sales incentives, but the salesman and the ASM or closer, don't see any of that money.

I must now make a most shameful admission, I once sold cars. I know, I know, and you call yourself a Christian, how could you possibly sell cars and sleep at night? That is precisely why I quit. I worked for two weeks, sold 6 cars and made a nice paycheck, and I did it without screwing anyone. But the whole point of car business is built on taking advantage of people with little or no information. If you don't know how much the dealer paid for car, what the options cost, what APR you qualify for at your bank and what the wholesale value of your used car is, you are going to get hammered by a salesman with a friendly smile and a line of BS.

Here are the Cowboys car buying tips.(this is not legal advise, just some pointers)
Use a free service like Edmunds to find out what the dealers cost is. This is not exact, but it's pretty close.

Call your bank or your Credit Union and have them pre-qualify you at a few thousand dollars over what you think the car will cost, just to have a little breathing room. Get the APR and the length of the term you want so you can tell the finance person that you will arrange financing yourself. If they don't finance directly with your bank or credit union they will make you sign an 'either or contract'. If you don't get your financing in place in 5 days, they will finance it through their lender, usually at 15% interest, so don't tell any fibs to your bank about wages or leave out your child support payments or you may get stuck with the dealers 15% plan.

If you don't know what rate you qualify for, the dealer will tell you that with your credit, you qualify for X% APR, you probably qualify for an APR 2 points below that, and if you take the dealers rate, they will sell your loan at the lower rate and pocket the difference. If you want to know who make the big bucks at a dealership, look at the person who sits at the finance desk, they set the interest rate, they sell the extended warranty and the other huge profit items.

If there is any way to do it, sell your used car yourself. The dealer will give you a few thousand less than they will get at the dealer auction, that is way below wholesale blue in most cases. If your upside down in your car, owe more than it's worth, suck it up and drive it, the dealer will roll your negative number into the price of the new car and you will be in the same boat again. It can be a viscous circle, after a two or three of those, you will be paying 21% interest on the car because you will be trying to finance 120% of its value. Stop digging.

Anyway, back to Gram and her new car, we drove down the road to another dealer who had the car she wanted on add, I avoided most of the BS and we were out the door in a little under two hours. That may seem like a long time for a cash deal, but that is about as quick of a car deal as you can get.

Gram is happy, the dealership sold a car and I am glad she has a nice car that she can drive without worrying it's going to leave her stranded.

Small towns, sportsmanship and 4 seconds.

This is a great story about how making a difference in one young man's life can lift up everyone in two small towns.

From the Daily Democrat.

On the evening of Friday, Nov. 3, on a cool night in Chester, this group of young men and coaches did something so profound, it still brings tears to the eyes of many of us here in Chester.

The Esparto JV team, out in front by three touchdowns and only 4 seconds left on the clock, demonstrated incredible sportsmanship through the unselfish act of letting a very special kid on the opposing team score a touchdown.....This past Friday in Chester, with virtually no time on the clock and Esparto leading 26-6, Coach Mike called a play they use in practice called "Alex Right," a way for Alex to participate and score TD's in practice.

The quarterback threw the ball to Alex just off right end and with his teammates and crowd yelling at him to run, the referees allowing minor infractions to go uncalled, the Esparto players trying hard, but not too hard to catch Alex, all turned out to be a story-book finish to a game that hadn't gone our way. The fact that they had just lost didn't seem to matter to the Chester kids as they put him on their shoulders in the end zone or as they ran as a group back to the 50 yard line to shake hands with the Esparto team.

As you can imagine, there wasn't a dry eye in stands as parents and classmates watched a very special display of sportsmanship and compassion....

Heather and I just want to say thanks to the parents for raising such great kids, thanks to the coaches for grasping an opportunity to teach a valuable lesson, thanks to the school for putting such a great team of young men on the field and thanks to the town of Esparto, you should be very proud.

We have been so moved by what has happened, Heather and I are going to create a $1,000 scholarship to be split each year between the two schools. This scholarship is to go to the senior football player that demonstrates the highest levels of sportsmanship, provides leadership to his teammates, mentors the younger players and has committed to going onto college. The scholarship will be called "It only takes 4 seconds."

GLEN and HEATHER LONG

I always liked the town of Chester, I am going to have to visit next summer to go fishing and to say thanks for raising great kids yourselves.

Gay penguins and other such nonsense.

Maybe you have seen the story about a children's book with the title "And Tango Makes Three".

I must first admit that I have not read the book and cannot substantiate the content myself, but from the news reports, the book seems to tell the story of two male penguins who adopt a young penguin to raise. It is said that the tale is loosely based on a real life incident at New York's central park zoo.

Some folks want the book removed from public school libraries, some embrace its gay adoption overtones, I am not ready to go march on the library to demand it be thrown out, I just think it should have a sub title like' how two daddy penguins raised a chick together', I may want to steer my kindergartener away from that one..

My main concern would be that my four or five year old would check the book out, read it, and come to me asking why the two daddy penguins are in love with each other?

That is not a discussion I want to have with my four or five year old just yet.

The GLBT activists want homosexuality taught as early as possible in our schools, it seems they feel if they can get their message out to children that a homosexual lifestyle is normal and acceptable, those children will grow up to have move favorable view of that lifestyle.

I have this conversation with friends and co-workers all the time. I don't care what you do behind closed doors, if you are an adult you want to have sex with an adult of the same gender, have at it, I could care less.

The problem I have is when you tell me I have to celebrate your sexual habits or be labeled a homophobe. Not that I care what you label me mind you, a homophobe is someone who feels scared or threatened by homosexuals, I don't feel threatened at all, well maybe by these guys. If you want to define yourself by the way you have sexual intercourse, you are selling yourself short. But that is your business. Don't make it mine, and please keep your propaganda out of my children's books.

Sony PS3's on sale now at.....

I'm sure they are for sale somewhere, on sale, now that could be bit harder to find. You may have better odds finding an unopened bottle of Chivas Regal at Ted Kennedy's house.

One of my younger co-workers said he stopped by to see his friends on his way home last night. The friends had been camped outside an electronics store since Wednesday. The plan, as I understand it, is to purchase a PS3 and then sell it on EBay for eleventeen gajillion dollars. As of Friday night, most of the PS3s are going for under $2,000. Lets see, waiting in line in a sleeping bag for two days plus the cost of slurpies, nachos and assorted fast food for the opportunity to pay $600 buck plus tax and then pay EBay a commission to sell the thing, what is the hourly pay for the whole ordeal?

What do you think? Hmmm, 15 -18 dollars an hour?

Now that is good money for a high school kid or a twenty something slacker if they have the venture capital to make the deal happen.

Maybe I am all wet on this one. Its not stupid, its capitalism at its finest, with just a bit of foolishness thrown in for good measure.

Monty Python, the Holy Grail and just being silly.

Some folks, including my wife and son, do not find Monty Python entertaining in the least bit. I however, laugh until my stomach aches.

Directed by;
40 SPECIALLY TRAINED ECUADORIAN MOUNTAIN LLAMAS
6 VENEZUELAN RED LLAMAS
142 MEXICAN WHOOPING LLAMAS
14 NORTH CHILEAN GUANACOS(CLOSELY RELATED TO THE LLAMA)
REG LLAMA OF BRIXTON
76000 BATTERY LLAMAS FROM "LLAMA-FRESH" FARMS LTD. NEAR PARAGUAY

and

TERRY GILLIAM AND TERRY JONES

I started a new job soon after I returned from my hunting trip. As it turns out I am working with a friend whom I had worked with at another company years ago. He is rather silly, we have been working together for the last week or so and it is just like old times. We spend the day working and reciting lines from movies and changing the lyrics to songs. We are both way too old for this type of behavior, but we are having a great time. MP's Holy Grail is one of our favorites.

ARTHUR
I am your king!

OLD WOMAN
Well, I didn't vote for you.

ARTHUR
You don't vote for kings.

OLD WOMAN
Well, how did you become king, then?

ARTHUR
The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite,
held Excalibur aloft from the bosom of the water to signify by
Divine Providence ... that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur ...
That is why I am your king!

OLD WOMAN
Is Frank in? He'd be able to deal with this one.

DENNIS
Look, strange women lying on their backs in ponds handing out
swords ... that's no basis for a system of government. Supreme
executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from
some farcical aquatic ceremony.


ARTHUR
Be quiet!

DENNIS
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power
just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

ARTHUR
Shut up!

DENNIS
I mean, if I went around saying I was an Emperor because some
moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, people would
put me away!

I am chuckling as I write this post.
If you don't like MP's humor, I suggest this, go out into forest, then you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest ... with a herring!

Al-Jazeera English, if only they could they lure away Keith Olberman.

I thought that market was already taken by CNN International and PBS?

Al-Jazeera, the Arab news network the Bush administration says is a tool of al-Qaeda, will launch Wednesday its English version, which will be available in 70 million households worldwide.....Dave Marash, a former ABC Nightline correspondent who'll co-anchor a daily newscast, says Al-Jazeera got a black eye from the Bush administration for airing Osama bin Laden videotapes and live reports from Fallujah, Iraq.

Al-Jazeera reported news in both cases, he says, and its journalistic "aspirations, tactics and techniques" are like those of any mainstream news outlet. "No holds barred, political ideology, party affiliation. When people actually see the product, I think a lot of that (criticism) is going to go away."

Oh yea, no ideology or party affiliation? That's right, we don't belong to party, we just hate America first, last, always and with a zeal you won't find on CNN. Maybe that should be their new tag line.

"Al-Jazeera English, we hate America, first, last and always" or
"Al-Jazeera English, free press paid for by the Emir of Qatar" or
"Al-Jazrrea English, Jews and Christians need not apply"

How do you work this evil little contraption?

I just received a 4GB iPod nano for my birthday. It looks cool, but when I plugged it into my laptop it wanted to download iTunes and thought, sure, I have heard good things about iTunes. I just didn't know it was 35 freakin' megabits! I am one of those tortured few who do not have access to broadband, and when the rain comes, dial-up performance drops down to about 34k. How does a two and half hour download grab you?
I'm all set to go right? Wrong.
I need to download a software upgrade. No biggie right? Wrong.
25 freakin' megabits and almost two hour later, I have what I think is all the 1's and 0's I need to make this thing work. Almost.

The one inch screen is now telling me not to disconnect thr nano from the computer, but it seems locked up and just sits there, laughing it's little Steve Jobbs giggle at my stupidity. I look at the apple logo as the nano mocks me and begin to wonder if the bite in the apple is meant to signify the amount of your total sanity these evil little devises must take from you before they succumb to your will and play music.

Just before we load up the car to go to dinner, I just unplug the darn thing, restart my computer and plug it back in. Hey it works!

I am now going to buy the car adapter to play the evil device over my truck's radio. If I have to take out the engine and re-install it to get the nano to work correctly I am going down to Cupertino to strangle the fist pony-tailed Apple employee I find.

Deap breaths, go to your happy place, go to your happy place....

34 and 37% turnout?

I am not one to point fingers, but what in the wide wide world of sports is going on in Riverside and Orange County?

County Precincts--- Reg'd Voters--- Ballots Cast ---% Turnout
Riverside -1,282 ------------754,986 --------260,591 -----------34.5%
Orange ---2,054 -----------1,497,365 -------559,511 ------------37.4%

I know Arnold is not your favorite kind of Republican, but what about Tom McClintock? He lost the election by just over 300,000 votes. If you had gotten off your rear ends and voted at least as well as we did Yolo County (52%) you would cast another 352,000 votes. I know I am being simplistic, not all those votes would go to Republicans but you get the idea. I know its easy to get discouraged but your GOTV effort sucked.

Hopefully in 2008 we will have Republicans you can get behind, but don't make me come down there.

Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

Daniel 5:27

First and few questions need to be answered and then we can look to the future.

So why, why Cowboy, did the Republicans loose control of the House and most likely the Senate in last nights election? Simple, they deserve to loose. If I had to use one word to describe congressional republicans it would be arrogant. The Republican leadership in the House and Senate became fat, dumb and happy, not to be confused with 'fat, drunk and stupid' that would be Ted Kennedy, and he won last night.

After September 11th 2001, the congressional republicans rode the wave of patriotism and resolve of the American people to gain seats in the first mid-term election and again in 2004. This support for the party was interpreted as support for each individual member of congress. In their arrogance they overspent, underworked and above all would not listen to the people who elected them. After a few years in office and a few re-elections under their belt, the republicans lost touch with America and filled their own heads with happy talk.

They love me, my constituents won't care if I take money from lobbyists and funnel it to my family members. They won't care if I vote to increase spending across the board. They won't care if I create a huge Medicare entitlement that will strap future generations with ever increasing debt. They won't care if I look the other way at members of my party who are crooked or perverted. And they certainly won't mind if I turn my back on the President and the people to side with democrats on critical issues like warrentless wiretaps, terrorist detainees and judicial nominees. My people love me.
Wrong'o.

While the media and the left will point to losses like Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania and say that Americans soundly rejected conservative ideals, don't let that fool you. Santorum ran into a buzz saw of anti-republican sentiment, an opponent with great name recognition and an electorate that wanted change. In fact, if you look at a good portion of the democrats who took seats held by republicans they are socially conservative, pro-life and pro-gun rights. Not exactly Pelosi liberals. Not a single seat that changed hands was taken by a democrat who ran on a platform of higher taxes, immediate withdrawal from Iraq and gay marriage. To be honest, it was hard to tell where some of these democrats stood on any issue, other than my opponent supports Bush and he knows Jack Abramoff. That was enough to win against republicans who spend like drunken sailors and who have the backbone of a jelly donut.

So what now? I have been thinking about the realities of the next two years. I cannot of course see into the future, however there are a few certainties that will come to pass. The first reality is amnesty for illegal aliens. The second will come sometime around the first of April, that will be buyers remorse. I give the honeymoon with Nancy and Jack Murtha until the end of March before we get the first of many, and I mean many, investigations. The first couple will be low hanging fruit. These will take the form of easily proven wrong doing by republicans in congress, the administration and Pentagon. Then the witch hunts begin. With a few scalps hanging from their lodge poles, the democrats will over reach and they will over reach big time.

The second part of this buyers remorse will be the chairmanships that will go to people so far out of the main stream that you can't cover up their true colors with all the makeup at MaxFactor. Just wait until the old guard liberals get on the Sunday shows and tell America what they actually believe. After two years of listening to the liberal leadership of the Democratic party like Nancy Pelosi, Jack Murtha, John Conyers and Charles Rangel, the folks who voted for change will long for the days of Bill Frist.

By the end of 2007 the democrats in red states will start running for cover. I predict the Nancy and Jack show will not be popular in red districts and they will not be stumping for these new democrats.

There is an opportunity for the republicans to clean house, starting with new leadership. If they elect a painted up version of the same pig that just got it's a#$ kicked, they will be digging a hole they will not get out of. What they need is conservatives who are, well, conservative. Leaders with fire in their eyes and a spine to look Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in the face and tell them to go pound sand. Leaders who inspire the nation, not the people who have been in Washington the longest. Republican would do well to listen to the people who voted them into office. Ask them who they would like to see in a leadership position. That would be refreshing.

We will see.

10,105 phone calls made Sunday.

That amazing number is from the small town of Woodland in Yolo County. Today we are over 6,600 hoping to get to 7,500 calls made by local Republican volunteers. This is what grass roots, pointy end of the stick politics is about. We are sure the Governor will be re-elected, these calls are to get the base out to support the down ticket races. Yolo County is a small, agriculturally based county with three small towns and a university that make up most of it's population. At just over 185,000 people, the local Republicans have made an estimated 100,000 calls this election cycle.

Who are these Republicans you ask? Everyone. High schoolers, seniors, men, women, grandmothers and even a few skateboarders. Watching some of these people keep three phones going at one time is amazing. I can only handle one call at time, but I make up for it by being slow. These folks also walked precinct after precinct dropping off voter information. I would like to be walking tomorrow getting out the vote, but I have to work.

Win, loose or draw, come tomorrow, these people, your neighbors and friends, will have made a difference for California.

Gloom, despair and agony on me.......

Those of you old enough and with bad taste will catch the Hee-Haw reference.

I have been watching a bit of the news coverage this weekend, it seems that the predictions are anywhere from mildly bad to downright disastrous for the Republicans this Tuesday. I know the pollsters are hoping for a low conservative turnout, but I still think we have a great chance at keeping the Senate and fighting chance at the keeping the House. It still hinges on the GOTV effort in the last two days, I just hope the polls don't keep you from calling and door knocking the last 48 hours of this campaign. I am meeting tomorrow night for the last strategy session before the election with our local republican group. I hope we can turn out enough republicans to get some down-ticket GOP victories here in California and locally.

Ted who?

A brief note to the democrats, when you are trying to pull off a sex scandal on the eve of election to suppress the evangelical vote, you might try naming someone the average evangelical has heard of. Ted Haggard? Whatever.

I see that CNN is going into full scale republican bashing mode early. "Broken Government" is being aired back to back tonight. CNN, fair and balanced as usual.

Don't sit home this weekend!

Ladies and Gentleman, may I present Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

The pollsters have built in a 4 to 7 percent voter turnout advantage to the democrats in many of the polls you see. They are confident that conservatives and value voters will stay home on Tuesday in protest or with a sense of apathy. It is up to you and me. Literally you and me to get republican voters to the polls on Tuesday.

Imagine the fever swamp, Tim Russert, Wolf Blitzer, the rest of the MSM pundits asking how the polls could have been so wrong and when will the investigation start into electronic voter fraud perpetrated by Rove and Diebold. Isn't that, along with your very safety, enough to let the grass grow for an extra day to walk a precinct? It takes about two and half hours, it's great exercise, as well as a lot of fun. Walk two or three, man the phone banks down at you local republican headquarters, or if you hate walking or talking on the phone, drop off some pizza or coffee and bagels at headquarters to help out.

The 72 hour push is make it or break it time. As Hugh says, what ever the problem is, electing more democrats is never the answer.

John Kerry - I apologize to no one

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Here I was thinking John Kerry and I had nothing in common. It turns out that we have mutual friend. My buddy Jeff. When we were in college he taught me the proper etiquette for dealing with the fallout from saying some genuinely stupid. Admit nothing, deny everything, counter accuse. Senator Kerry must know Jeff or the person who taught this technique to Jeff. The problem is it only works on drunk people. Kind of a Jedi mind trick that you can try when all else fails.

All else has failed for John Kerry and he is left trying to move the media's attention from his remarkably offensive comments back to where all the worlds problems emanate from, the desk of George W Bush. If you stand a democrat in front of a microphone long enough, they will eventually let their true feeling be known. That is what happened with Senator Kerry. He is still stuck in the "one, two, three, what are we fight for" mindset of the 1960's. He truly believes the military is made up of high school drop outs and people who would otherwise be in jail. That is a myth put forth by liberals and it is flat out wrong.

I am John Kerry and I am reporting for duty you illiterate peasants.

Hat tip to Gateway pundit.

The leave turn, the cool brisk mornings,,,,it's RIOT TIME!

Yes its riot season in France. Kinda like the swallows coming back to Capistrano, the young, mostly Muslim youth come out in the fall to throw gasoline bombs at the police, burn parked cars and set fire to occupied transit busses.

Riot police reinforcements have been deployed in Marseilles after the latest outbreak of urban violence in France left a woman in a critical condition with life-threatening burns.

The President, Jacques Chirac, expressed his horror over the attack, hours after the woman, 26, and three other people were ambushed by rioting teenagers while travelling on a bus in the southern port city on Sunday night.

The assailants, who some witnesses said were as young as 15, forced the doors of the bus open, spilled flammable liquid inside, and set it alight. There were similar attacks in cities across the country at the weekend, the anniversary of the start of rioting and car-burning that brought terror to cities last year.

Ah, the paradise of socialism. Where do I sign up?


Spilled flammable liquid? What a load of crap. Why can't the reporter just give me the facts? These criminal scumbags didn't 'spill' flammable liquid, they doused the inside of the bus with gasoline and set it on fire and may have burned a woman to death.

I am sure the French will surrender soon.

Eco-idiocy.

Julia Roberts owns a Prius? Yea, and I own ski boots, so what, I ski about every five years. Does that make me a leader or a spokesman for alpine skiing?

Julia Roberts was reported by the TMZ film buffs' website last week to be the owner of a Toyota Prius, the first commercially produced car with a hybrid electric-petrol engine.

But TMZ also noted that Roberts travelled by private jet from Chicago to Los Angeles, consuming 9545 litres of aviation fuel.

Other Prius drivers with a fondness for private jets include Jennifer Lopez and Brad Pitt. The latter's recent private jet charter to Namibia with his lover, Angelina Jolie, burnt an estimated 50,000 litres of air fuel -- "enough to take a Prius to the moon", said TMZ.

I imagine it must be the second hardest job, behind being the presidential spokesman, to be a publicists for one of Hollywood's elite. You live among the eco nutjobs and liberal elite most of the time and they want to know what your celeb is doing to save the environment from this, that or the other. "My celeb drives a Prius." Congratulations, you have just told the world that you client's commitment to the environment is purchasing a $24,000 dollar car.

"But they do care about the environment, they attend all these fund raisers and do commercials for environmental causes." That's nice. If you want to impress me and assuage your guilt, give all your money to Greepeace or some climate think tank. I mean every penny you have and every dollar in your accounts receivable ledger. Sell your mansion in Malibu and the one in Aspen and the one on the French Riviera, and the townhouse in Manhattan, all your holdings, sell it all. Fire the heard of people and assistants that work for you, keeping you from having to deal with that pesky real world.

Do that and then you can lecture me on how we are destroying the environment.

Dad, there's a cowboy at the door.

Don't be alarmed if you get a knock on your door tomorrow in Woodland and you see my smiling mug. I am precinct walking tomorrow morning as part of the Yolo County GOTV machine.

I will be without my cowboy hat, although I might be wearing my GOP cap.

See ya.

Muslin Women - Equal halves or a weapon used by Satan?

Why is it that none of the Muslim clerics who hate the US and the west speak at Rotary Club breakfasts? Why it is always someone from CAIR?

Lets see, what am I supposed to believe?

"Another misconception, Dina said, is the idea that Muslims place women on a social status beneath men." and "Women are actually seen as equal halves of men, as complementary to men."

This came from Dina El-Nakhal, a nice young Muslim woman at a Rotary Club Meeting this week in Woodland.

Or do I believe this guy, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali?

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?

"The uncovered meat is the problem."

The sheik then said: "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

He said women were "weapons" used by "Satan" to control men.

"It is said in the state of zina (adultery), the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the weapon of enticement (igraa)."

So who is telling me, an infidel cowboy in Esparto, the truth?

It seems likely that inside the US, the young woman at the Rotary is truly speaking about the Islam she knows and loves. The problem is outside the US, where the sheik's view of Islam is just as known and loved. That is the Islam I am worried about.

The folks from CAIR remind me of 'Baghdad Bob'. Remember Saddam's minister of 'the things you are seeing on TV aren't really happening' or whatever the guys title was. CAIR wants you to believe that all Muslims are just like them, happy people who mean us no harm and want to be left alone to worship a religion we don't understand much about. The problem is there are a few million Muslims in the world who want us dead. That is a fact. They wanted is dead before 9/11, before the war in Iraq and before we changed the formula in Classic Coke. They hate us because they have been taught to hate us by their parents and grandparents.

How many Muslims were killed last year in the US by Jews and Christians who just wanted them dead because of their religion? Anybody? Anybody?

What about Seattle? Oh yea, that was a Muslin nutjob gunning down Jews because, well they are Jews. Or the Muslim grad student who rented an SUV and tried to kill as many students as he could at UNC to protest the treatment of Muslims around the world? Those are just the ones off the top of my head.

I have an idea, why not send the folks from CAIR back out into the Arab world to teach and inform the rest of their Muslim brethren that we here in the US are not the Devils that the local cleric down at the mosque says we are. And while you are at it, try telling that to the folks down at the mosque here inside the US. That would have more of an impact than getting on TV every time a Muslim goes nuts and shoots up a Jewish school, demanding that the local police do all they can to eliminate any anti-Muslim backlash.

A long time forgotten.

A long time forgotten, the dreams that fell by the way.

Do you have dreams that fell by the way? I do. I believe we all do. Some silly, some unbelievably unattainable, some that would have been fun to experience, some that would have ended tragically because deep down we are still the imperfect beings that we are.

I had the good fortune of having my friend Larry go with us on our last hunting trip. Larry is in his late 70's and is retired from a career in law enforcement and a stint in the army. Larry had lived his life, he will not be getting the cleaning deposit back when he is through with it. After a day of hunting in the mountains, we would sit back around the campfire, having an adult beverage and swapping stories. I asked Larry if he had any regrets, or an opportunity that he passed on that he now wishes he had taken. He told us that he had an opportunity to be a game warden in the area where we were now hunting, Modoc County, he said he thought that would have been great. He also said that you never can tell how things might have worked out. All in all, he had no regrets.

I remember one piece of wisdom Larry gave my friend Dan. They were deer hunting and they had both killed nice bucks the same day. That night as they watched the sun set, Dan was saying what a perfect day they had, Larry agreed and then said that too many people spend their lives trying to relive that day or time in their life and are miserable as a result. I thought about it and I agree.

I remember going to the Stonyford Rodeo as a young man. Not that I went to the rodeo mind you, I have only watched it once in the six or seven trips I have made. The Stonyford Rodeo was just an excuse to spend the weekend at East Park Reservoir, camping with my drunken friends. The first few times I had a fantastic time, at least the parts that I can remember. The last time I went, the crowd had changed, it was younger and probably just as loud and obnoxious as we were at that age. I havenÂ’t been there in years, if I do go back it will be for the rodeo. The point is, you can spend years chasing your youth. Drinking yourself into a stupor in your 20's is dumb, doing it in your 30's is ridiculous and sad. If you're over 40 and still drinking yourself into a stupor, brother, you have problems and need real help and fast.

I enjoy the good times as they come. I just don't need the sensory stimulation of being in the front row at a Van Halen concert. I get a great feeling watching my children grow and experience things for the first time. A party in the back yard with my friends or spending a day hunting with son is wonderful. I also enjoy a beautiful sunset, or just a quiet time alone in prayer. My idea of a good time has changed over the years.

Well, maybe one more Van Halen concert, if they ever bring back David Lee Roth.

Angry? Yes. Not voting? Are you kidding?

As I write this, I am angry. My anger comes from a few different sources and both targets are at the opposite ends of the political spectrum. The first source of my anger is indeed part of the dreaded 'Republican backlash'. I am still fuming about the moderate republicans giving cover to the democrats by opposing the administration's detainee treatment program. I am angry at the administration's late to the party attitude on border security. I am angry that Mark Foley is a drunken pervert and wasn't caught sooner. I am angry at that it took an election year for the Republicans to actually pass any type of spending discipline, and a weak one at that. Yes, I am angry at Republicans.

I am also angry at the way the media covers the Republicans missteps, mistakes and just plain stupidity. Do a search on the Washington Post for Mark Foley scandal, 337 hits. Any stories on Harry Reid and his land deal? 16 hits. The playbook is classic, just like the DUI story days before the 2000 vote. Suppress the conservative voter turnout and the Democrats win.

So here I am, sitting in my semi-comfy Office Depot chair 16 days away from the election, am I really contemplating sitting this election out? Am I going to show those damn Republicans how the cow ate the cabbage and let them loose this election so we can do a little purification of our ranks for 2008? Not on your life.

If Keith Olberman thinks I am sitting home on election day to protest my displeasure with Republicans he needs to put down the crack pipe and get back to someplace resembling the real world.

I will be walking precincts next weekend and sending what money I can to where it will do the most good.

Speaker of the House Nancy?
I shudder at the thought.

My mail box is getting full.

Is it just me or is everyone sending voter guides and mailers to every living human with a mail box?

I know a few folks running for office this year and the amount of money it takes to run a congressional campaign is staggering. I often wonder if the mailers and the yard signs are products of habit. That's what you do when you run for office, you mail unsolicited cards to registered voters and put up yard signs. Habit.

I know name recognition is a big part of the game with most of the electorate. If they know your name you have a huge leg up on your opponent, unless your name happens to be Mark Foley.

Why not spend an evening at every volunteer firehouse, school, senior center and taco truck in your district. Sure you are going to get the one or two moonbats at every event. But I would spend time in every place that holds more than 20 people at least three nights a week until the people are sick of seeing you in their town. The may get tired of you, but I bet they will know your name and know you position on the issues.

I know its easier to mail out glossy card stock pamphlets and pound in a few hundred yard signs, but how does that make you any different that the guy you are running against? Gas is getting cheaper, two dozen donuts and a pot of coffee don't cost much and talking is free. Meeting with the chamber of commerce in a town or city is great, but I would ask those folks to hold an 'ask your candidate' night at their home or local fire station. Answer the dumb questions, but get people thinking about one man or woman. The person they vote for. If they have met that one person, they may feel connected to their government just a little bit more. That is the first step.

When they start asking what you can do for them, answer like Ronald Reagan "I can't do a damn thing for you if I don't get elected".

What did I miss?

Like a bad rash, I have returned.

I came through the door last night about 8:00, said hello to the family and headed straight for the shower. After a debrief by the wife of the events I missed while I was away, I gave her the high and low points of my trip and went to sleep. For any of you who have spent a week or more sleeping on the ground in a freezing tent, you know the joy of slipping between the cotton sheets of your own bed. I am just now getting to my bags for unpacking and laundry. Yes, I am being lazy today, if that's ok with you. Or even if its not.

I did not get a buck.
Am I disappointed? I little.
Did I have a bad hunting trip? Not at all.

When my friend Mark picked me up at my house and we drove my Jeep onto the car trailer, we had hopes that we would be able to get into some tight places that we could not reach with a full size pickup. That was the plan. The plan started coming unraveled around the town of Maxwell when one of the wheel bearings on the trailer started spewing white smoke from the left side. Crud. On to plan B.

We decided the best course of action would be to limp the trailer back to Mark's house in Arbuckle and proceed to Alturas to meet up with the rest of the party at our friend's house. We gathered my gear from the Jeep and headed back up the road towards Modoc County. I kept telling myself that when it comes to deer hunting there are the essentials and everything else is just makes the trip more comfortable. The essentials are - rifle, ammunition, hunting license and deer tag. I made sure those went inside the pickup and threw the rest of my gear in the back.

We spent the night at my friend Stig's house in Alturas. He moved from Yolo County last year and knows the area we would be hunting. I could have used a good nights sleep but Stig wakes up at 4:00 every day, so I joined him for breakfast and we talked about his new place and life in Modoc County. Before he left he gave us some much needed fire wood and we drove up into the Warner Mountains in search of a good spot to camp.

We found a great spot back in the mountains to make camp. This little stream was a few hundred feet from camp and we would find deer grazing there in the mornings as we went for water.

We set up both wall tents and my dome tent, we had planned to use the big wall tent as kitchen and dining hall if the weather turned bad but after the first night's rain storm it was clear and cool all week. We spent the rest of the day looking for deer sign and a good spot to hunt for the morning.

Mark and I ran into a few does and fawns on opening day but no bucks. The next day we hooked up with Dan and Larry and decided to walk a ridge down into a valley. That was a good idea. Mark and Larry killed nice bucks about forty yards from each other. When we finished skinning and dressing the bucks and had them wrapped in deer sacks we stopped and had a toast to 'bucks in camp'.

The next few days I hunted with my friend Dan. We hiked, walked and stalked the Warner Mountains without seeing a legal buck for a day or two. At that point we decided to go check his cows down in Madeline. It was a two hour drive from camp down dirt roads with small sections of asphalt thrown in to break up the dusty, bouncy trip. We found most of his cattle at a small windmill in a high dessert meadow. I love the high dessert, some people see sage brush and rocks, I see the beauty of it. We counted the cows and calves and wrote down the ear tag numbers and went back to Stig's house for a real shower.

The next day we set out to hunt a small piece of unburned timber close to where Larry and mark had shot their bucks. As we finished our hunt I decided to see if there was anything back on top of the ridge and Dan was waiting below as I saw the flash of horns that belonged to a big buck go crashing down the side of the ridge. I knew the shot had to be Dan's and I went down to see if he had gotten a clean shot. He did. This was the only buck I saw on the trip. I was only able to see the top of his head for an instant before he ran down the hill, but I a glad that Dan was down there, I doubt if I would have had another chance at him.
I was now the only guy in camp without a deer. Every buck our party had taken was within one hundred yards of me. I had just been on the wrong side of the ridge or pushed the buck to the shooter. Oh well, I still had a few days to hunt.

I must have walked 20 or 30 miles in the week at over 6,000 feet in elevation. I came down from a hike to find a truck parked at the bottom of the hill and talked with two hunters. They said they had watched me walk down the ridge and through a small valley, but I didn't push out any deer. The one guy said I was 'the walkinest fat guy' he had ever seen. I said thanks, I think.

The next day Dan and I drove into Likely for grub. Likely is small town, and this is coming from a guy who lives in a small town. Likely is a bar, a cafe and a general store. It's just like the town I grew up in, minus the bar and cafe. On the way we were held up by a local traffic jam. An outfit was pushing a few hundred cows and calves down the road. We stopped and offered the cowboys a cold one, but they said they would wait until they were finished. It reminded me of being a kid pushing cattle down the road, smiling at the city folks who were furious at us for using 'their' road to move our cows.

The last evening I had decided to take more pictures of the trip. I always wish I had taken more photos that I did on any trip and thought this might be my last chance. I took this shot of Eagle Peak and slid the camera back in front pocket, at least I thought it was pocket. It wasn't.
My Kodak Easyshare CX7530 went crashing down the thirty foot cliff I was sitting on and I was sick. I though I had lost all the pictures of our trip and I spent the next hour walking up and down a freakin' cliff trying to find my camera. Just about dark, Mark came to pick me up with his truck. I told him what happened and he started climbing the rock face to see what could find. He found my camera snagged on a log in the rocks, it still worked. We drove back to camp in a great mood. I didn't get a buck, but I did have the pictures of our trip. Those seem to last a lot longer than the venison.

I may post more photos of the trip if I get permission from my friends to put their mugs on the internet.

Light Blogging? No Blogging!

This may be my last post for a fortnight. I am heading out on a hunting trip for 10 days and being the procrastinator I am, I have so much to do.

Tune up and service the Jeep.
Finish packing my hunting gear.
Finish packing my camping supplies.
Watch the three movies I rented Monday. ( what was I thinking )
Find my darn polypropylene long underwear.
Snowseal my boots.
Ect. ect.

I am hunting the north east corner of California.
The weather is going to be nasty for a while but is due to be clear and cold next week.

I will be miles and miles away from a computer, and besides, taking my laptop to deer camp is a sin, I am not sure if it is mortal sin, but I am not willing to take that chance. That and the fact my friend Dan would surely use it to drive his tentpegs into the ground. He is a deer camp purists. I will have to hide my all-in-one shampoo conditioner from him. He never misses a chance to ridicule a fellow camper from a breach of etiquette.

I will return the 14th or so with a scuffy beard, a nice buck in the freezer (hopefully) and some great stories to tell you.

See ya!

Homecoming - a small town's big deal.

Last night, my wife and I took our daughter to the Esparto High School's homecoming football game. From our house you can see the glow of the lights and on a still night you can hear the soft muffled voice of the public address announcer. Fall is football season. It is my season.

As we walked to the gate past the cars and trucks, mostly trucks, that line the end of the field, the homecoming ceremony was in full swing. The site of the stretch Hummer limousine on the 50 yard line stood in stark contrast to the many farm trucks parked outside. Esparto is a farm town, but that is changing. With the explosive growth of the Cache Creek Casino and the large suburban style housing tracks being built, the town is quickly becoming a bedroom community for those who work in the bay area and a rural escape for those who come from the Sacramento region. This story is not exclusive to Esparto, every small farm town and city that lies a few miles from an Interstate highway in California is being developed. No one can hold back the hands of time and while we like to see our homes increase in value, our small towns seem to be loosing their identity. I hope we can hold on to ours, this valley is a special place.

We pay our five dollar fee at the gate and walk past the boosters club grilling burgers and hot dogs to find a seat in the stands. The short walk takes quite a while. Neither my wife or I attend Esparto high school. I moved hear just after High School from Redding and my wife was a city girl from Carmichael. I have lived here off and on for almost 15 years, but I consider it my hometown.

One my way I am stopped by a friend who lives up the valley, I officiated at his son's wedding this summer and he wanted to thank me again and tell me that he just learned that the couple will be expecting their first child next year. We talked about the better than average dove hunting this year and the rest of his family. His family has been in the Capay Valley for six generations or so. I say goodbye and head down through the small bustling crowd to find my wife talking to the moms from our daughter's soccer team. She made a deal that we would sit at one end of the stands and she would be at the other, we could then let the girls roam free between us. The girls giggle and run off to see the sights.

My wife could not get over how small the field is. She was sure the football field was not regulation size. I assured her it was, its just that you are only fifteen or twenty feet from the side lines and sitting at field level. My daughter and her friend stood on the other side of the rope that separates the players from the crowd. Both girls mimicked the moves of cheerleaders as best they could. My wife and I laughed and wondered how long it would be before she would be out there. A long time is my hope.

The game was played well by both sides. Both teams had a good running game but as always in high school football, two or three players can make the difference. The Esparto running backs could get to the corner and turned upfield for several long runs and a few touchdowns. The team from Los Molinos just didn't have the speed to get outside. They did well running between the tackles, but could not could not sustain a drive. The final was 29 to 6 if I remember right. A great game for Esparto, who have not had many winning seasons lately. The night was not without a dark spot. A player from Los Molinos was taken off the field on a back board after a pileup. The crowd drew quiet and the players from both sides took a knee as the EMTs and local fire department staff looked after the young man. I have not been able to find any more information about the condition of the player, but it seems to have been just a precaution that he was on a back board. A scary time for his parents I am sure.

Watching the game from the stands you can hear the helmets hit and the players yell "pass! pass! ball! ball!" on fake reverse. It's great. I watched the girls with half their hair painted blue and the other side silver, walk up and down the sidelines talking to their friends. I recognized one from the 4-H club where I used to teach leathercraft. Many of the kids I know from 4-h or little league will be starting high school next year, I will have to come to more games.

There were many, many more people I didn't know at the game. I hope that the new residents of Esparto enjoyed homecoming in this small town. If you came from the city, you might wonder where the marching band is, or wonder why the teams only field between twenty to thirty players? Why is there a baseball infield on the twenty yard line?

Relax, this is Esparto, gateway to the Capay Valley. We may not be big time, but we have a good time.

From the what won't people eat files.....

Beijing's penis emporium.

Now before you go off thinking this is a place frequented by John Mark Carr, read the story.

The dish in front of me is grey and shiny.

"Russian dog," says my waitress Nancy.

"Big dog," I reply.

"Yes," she says. "Big dog's penis..."

We are in a cosy restaurant in a dark street in Beijing but my appetite seems to have gone for a stroll outside.

Nancy has brought out a whole selection of delicacies.

They are draped awkwardly across a huge platter, with a crocodile carved out of a carrot as the centrepiece.

Nestling beside the dog's penis are its clammy testicles, and beside that a giant salami-shaped object.

"Donkey," says Nancy. "Good for the skin..."

She guides me round the penis platter.

"Snake. Very potent. They have two penises each."

I did not know that.

Dude, I didn't know that, and I didn't want to know that.
And people from New York freak out in California when we order pineapple on our pizza....

Packing - man style.

I can think back to the days of being single, when the only excuse you needed for a two day road trip was enough money to fill the tank. Packing for the trip? It went something like this.
Find sleeping bag and unroll.
Remove dirty and somewhat stiff socks and empty beer can from sleeping bag.
Grab the cleanest t-shirt from your dresser or cardboard bank box, and one long sleeve shirt that can pass for a dress shirt if need be.
Find a pair of clean 501s and a change of socks and underwear.
If you have time, grab your toothbrush and deodorant.
All this goes into one end of the sleeping bag and gets rolled up.

Packing done.
Time; 2:30 seconds. Snag a handful of CDs for the trip and head out the door to pick up your buddy who is packing less than you have.

Those days are long past. I am now old. Old and almost domesticated. I find in my rapidly advancing age that I am fond of comfort. I also enjoy convenience and hygiene more than I did in my teens and twenties. I used to scoff at the cupcakes who had to shower after three days of deer hunting. Today I bring my liquid soap/shampoo and a full toiletry kit to take my shower every evening when I camp.

Have I turned into a Sissy?
Darn straight.

My three friends and I have been drawn for a limited tag deer hunt this year in the North East corner of our State.
I will be gone ten days or so. I am a week away from our departure and I have started packing this evening. I am taking my Jeep, tent, camp kitchen, cot, bed-roll, two rifles, three knives, back pack, fanny pack, two pair of binoculars, and enough food and clothing to outfit the Corp of Discovery.

I believe there is one other factor that has enabled my fall from the true manly man I once was to the soft creature of comfort I am today; Money.

When I was in school, I had just enough folding money to put gas in the tank and buy a lift ticket in the winter and a hunting license in the summer. The reason I didn't pack my LL Bean three season goretex jacket and self inflating air mattress is simply because I didn't own anything like that. I had an army surplus parka, and a GI issue mummy bag with all the goose down bunched up in the end. I was however, painfully unaware of how miserable I should have been. I had many great times out in the wilderness despite the inadequacies of my gear and bank ballance.

Today I scoff at the fifty and sixty year olds who pass me on the way to their hunting trips in 40 foot 5th wheel travel trailers and I say 'what a bunch of cupcakes, why not just stay at a hotel'. I am sure this too will come back to haunt me. In a few short years I will pass by a couple of college age kids in a Toyota pickup with only back packs and rifle cases in the bed. They will be giving me the 'cupcake' look as I pass them in my 40 foot motor home on my way to deer camp.

I just hope I still as much fun as they do.

Coming this fall to Fox - Extreme legacy makeover!

Not often do I feel sympathy for members of the media. I must make an exception for Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday. Wallace is one of the best in the business, for all you Bush haters who think the Fox News Channel is programmed and directed by Karl Rove, turn off your hatred and watch it for a week. One thing is for sure, you won't find the venom and absolute hatred of a Keith Olberman on Fox.

I would say that Shepard Smith leans a little too far right at times to do pure news. When he is reading the teleprompter and sticking to his script, he is down the middle of the political road, when he does stand ups and remotes, he comes off as someone who votes GOP. That said, look at the rest of the shows, Hannity and Colmes gives both sides, Greta is no Republican, O'Reilly leans right on some issues, but is liberal on others, Brit Hume is the best broadcaster in the business period. Hume is conservative, but here is the difference, when he is doing an interview, he is fair. Stop chuckling, it's true. He is the most professional TV newscaster on the tube.

Which takes me back to Chris Wallace and his interview with President Clinton Sunday. I was shocked as I sat on my couch watching the former President of the United States act like a school yard bully to someone who gave him a tough question. No wonder President Clinton does not give many interviews to anyone but those who adore him. I watched Clinton on Larry King a week or so and I was not surprised when Larry asked him one cupcake question after an other as Bill Clinton sat back and opined on how he almost gave us world peace. Almost Bill, almost.

After one tough question on Sunday, President Clinton went into full Legacy makeover mode, complete with red faced finger wagging.

So you did Fox's bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me.

Conservative hit job? How about liberal spin job?

I have watched Chris Wallace drive through the spin of every Bush administration official they have, from Rumsfeld to Rice. He asks tough, pointed questions and will not take a politospeak answer. Sometimes he gets the answer to his questions, sometimes they refuse, but he always asks.

Looking back, I think that Clinton has been itching for this interview and wanted to show his party how 'tough' he was. It seems to have impressed his wife.



My husband's nation security team... they would have done a better job...

Oh, do you mean this crew?

Sandy(how many incriminating documents can I sneak out in my sox)Berger.

Madeline(if we give North Korea nuclear technology what's the worst that can happen)Albright.

Is she serious?

Look, what is past is past. If President Clinton said that he should have realized that Islamic terrorism was a huge threat, one that might be snuffed out in it's infancy if we all would have understood what we were dealing with, that would raise his standing with me a great deal. The first attempt to take down the World Trade Center was in 1993. The Islamic terrorists miscalculated on how much explosives they needed to bring the towers down. We dodged a bullet that day and what did the President do? Let the FBI and the police handle it.

President Bush had less than 8 months to figure out what he would do about the threat, Bush and his staff read the papers and knew about terrorism and al-Qaida, he and his team failed to act fast enough. In his defense, remember the delayed transition of power as Gore tried to recount his way to the oval office for two months and the US military plane that was forced to land in communist China had the State Department's attention for the first few months of Bush's presidency.

Could the President have prevented 9/11 from happening? If everything fell into place just right, yes he could have. Is that a realistic expectation? Not really. For every one who points to this brief or that document that says, Bin Laden - planes inside US, I would like you to imagine how many briefs, reports, assessments and documents the President, any President is asked to review or is briefed on daily. How many a day do you think? Five, ten, thirty?

For all of you out there screaming that the President should have known and should have acted sooner to eliminate the threat, think about your reaction to a cruise missile strike on Hugo Chavez or the US special forces kidnapping of the Hezbollah leader or an invasion of Iran or North Korea. How would you react to that? Are any of those threat any less real or less dangerous than Bin Laden? Just how do you determine who is a real threat and how do you eliminate the threat? Or do you keep negotiating with them and hope they don't do something stupid like detonate a nuke in San Francisco?

If President Clinton wants to polish his image, fine. Those who like him, will still like him, those who hate him will still hate him, those in the middle, well if you don't have an opinion one way or the other, have another Jamba Juice and go look for that new pair of comfortable shoes, stay away from politics.

As for President Clinton's national security legacy, as my high school history teacher used to say, you can't polish a turd.

What a day.

Scary, frantic and tragic.
How was your day?

The day started about 6:00 with a call from the in-laws saying there were fires burning all around Esparto. I turned on the news and listened as they showed the flames racing through the hills of Zamora, Yolo and up the valley near Capay.

I started calling the people I knew in those areas and asked if they needed help getting animals out or moving equipment. Everyone said that the fire burned around most of their houses but I could not get in touch with our friends in Zamora. I knew the fire department would have the roads closed so I tried to get around through the back roads to no avail. I was held at Interstate 505 and Road 14. I asked the CHP if I could go through to check on my friends, they are in their 70s and their son is on the fire department so I knew he would out fighting the fire in the hills and wanted to check on the home ranch. He said I would have to wait until the fire fighters gave the go ahead and I sat there on the off-ramp for 30 minutes.

When he let me sneak through, what I saw was terrible. Blackened hills in 360 degrees. I drove past the smoldering remains of a barn and saw the cattle huddled in the tiny oasis of an unburned creek bed. When I saw the first of the dead sheep I knew there would be more, and there were. From the road I could see half a dozen dead ewes and many more that would not make through the day. Their wool was gray or black and the sheep stood frozen, in the sea of blackened grass, their rounded forms the only feature on the fire ravaged hillsides.

When I made the turn to Bill's house I was relieved to see it was standing and appeared to have made it through the fire. I knocked on the door and was greeted by Bill and Joan. They told me of the night they had just endured, watching the flames march over the hills down to their house. Bill had been on his caterpillar most of the morning, pulling his disc and trying to make the existing fire break bigger. He looked tired, dirty and a little shaken. Who could blame him.
With the help of the local volunteer fire departments, he had saved the house and the home barn, but knew he had lost dozens and possibly hundreds of sheep, and a most of the rangeland he would use to feed them over the winter was now acres of black.

After seeing that they were safe, I was going head into work. When I walked back out to my truck I saw a small fire along the road side ditch across from the barn. I went back to tell Bill and he said that they had no water hoses on that side of the barn and their phone was still out. Back in the truck I raced back to the freeway to get help. I pulled up as the Zamora tanker truck was pulling out, I told the guy with the radio that the barn was minutes from going up in flames. He asked, 'are you sure the barn is threatened?'
Yes! I said and sped back to the fire.

The water tanker arrived just as I did and while it is not a fire fighting vehicle, it does the two things you need to put out a fire, water and a hose. The hose isn't that long but with Bill's help we were able to knock down the flames before the fire made it to the barn. We were about 75 feet from the barn, so maybe it wasn't that close a call, but it was more excitement that I want to have from long time. The call must have gone out, because as we were mopping up, the cavalry arrived. Two brush rigs and five or six volunteers from Zamora and Yolo went into action and took over. I was glad to get out of the way.

Finally I was off to work, a few hours late and smelling like a campfire I pulled in to find one of the overhead shelters had lost it's roof. I spent the rest of the morning making sure that nothing else would fly off in the 40+ mile an hour wind. After lunch I received a call from my wife, she had taken our truck and horse trailer up to Bill's to move some his sheep that had been let out by someone from their burning pasture into a neighbor's alfalfa field. They were not burned but they had to be moved off the alfalfa before the rich feed made them bloat and possibly die. To make a long day a little longer, the truck had lost oil pressure and my wife had pulled over at same overpass I had waited on earlier that morning. I told my co-worker I would be back Monday and headed out to check on my wife and the truck.

Not good news, the motor is definitely not long for this world. I had to find a place to unhook the trailer, so I limped the truck to Bills ranch. I parked the trailer and waited for the towtruck.

While waiting I ran into the UC Davis Veterinary Emergency Rescue Team. I spoke with the team leader, I can't remember the gentleman's name, but he had taken a group of vet students out to triage and tend to the sheep they could save. The stunned and burned sheep would not move to water and they called for a water truck from Zamora to take water out to where the sheep were. They had water but needed something to put the water in. I told them, if they couldn't find any near by, I had two 6 foot water troughs back at my barn. They said they could use them, so I gave them directions to my place and told them to take anything that they wanted. I pulled in to my house just as they were leaving, and I wished they good luck with the sheep.

In a day of tragedy and suffering, there are bright spots. Bright spots in many forms. Help from strangers and friends, help from a group of vet students and as I was pulling out of Bill's front yard, the Yolo County Red Cross stopped by to offer any assistance they could.

Many long and hard days face those farmers and ranchers in Yolo County who were impacted by this fire. As the news turns to a new story tomorrow, there will be people who will have to make the best of this tragedy. It will not be easy. They need your prayers, and some hay to feed their livestock this winter.

I just walked back into the house from feeding the horses. I think I will reheat last night's left-over mexican food and collapse into bed.

One flew over Hugo nest

What's that smell?
Sulfur?
No, it's horsesh#@.

After listening to Ahmadinejad stand history and logic on their heads to a crowd of soft minded diplomats from mostly corrupt and criminal regimes, I thought the asshatery of Hugo Chavez reminded me of Jerry Lewis playing to the Iranian President's Dean Martin.

Too bad they don't play Vegas.
Too bad it isn't a joke.

Maybe we can hear from Kim Jung Ill Thursday. He can give a presentation to the UN on the wonderful benefits of mass starvation and oppression.

In a dangerous world, you can face the threats head on, or you can vote for democrats.

Smoking kills? What about stupidity?

Yea, give me two packs of Camels, unfiltered to go.

"I was sitting back there, all this sound, and that's it," Singh said, pointing
at the car sitting in the middle of his store among shards of glass and
splinters of wood.

An entire wall of the store, along with a couple
display shelves were destroyed in the accident.

According to Woodland
police officer Matthew Gray, the driver was not intoxicated and the car had no
mechanical problems.

"I'm guessing it was a driver mistake," Gray said.

Driver error or a catastrophic failure of a nicotine patch?

Bikers, chili dogs and cold beer.

What in the world are you talking about now cowboy?

I know I am a little late in announcing this, but tonight being Thursday its 'Biker night' at the Capay Junction. Babs and the crew at the Junction will be serving chili dogs to any and all who ride up and wander in.

Having once been an avid motorcyclist, I appreciate the camaraderie of bikers. Although I preferred crotch-rockets to Harleys, I never had any trouble with anyone on two wheels. I have a few friends with Harleys and know most of the models and enough of the lingo not to get the crap kicked out of me if I happened to be the only guy on Japanese bike in a sea of Milwaukee iron. That and the fact that I am built like a offensive tackle.

The thing that makes me shake my head is the way some guys drink and ride. When I was young, I was a social drinker. I could pound em back with the best of them. Even then, I was smart enough never to drink and ride. I remember walking into a bar in old Sacramento one night and seeing two guys who rode in on brand new super bikes downing shots of Cuervo. I looked at my friend and told him if you ever see me sauced and wanting to get on my bike, you have my permission to knock me out.

The chili dogs are dangerous enough when you are wearing leather pants.

The hate speech of the Dixie Chicks.

I am ashamed. From the top of my FDNY cap down to the steel toes on my boots, I am filled with shame and a little embarrassment. I own two Dixie Chicks CDs. Well maybe not shame exactly but bit of sheepishness.

I listen to all kinds of music, Rock, Metal, Pop, Country, Classical, I have yet to find a way to appreciate rap or hip-hop, sorry, can't do it. My wife on the other hand is a big country music fan and her and my daughter know the words to almost every song on the Country top 40. When we go out on the boat, I let them choose most of the CDs, so I listen to the Dixie Chicks when I am out on the water. That's cool, I like their first two CDs, I have only heard bits and pieces of their new CD at stores like Starbucks and other 'progressive' places.

Natalie and the girls can make new CDs, play concerts, make videos, do whatever they want to do, no one is stopping them from pursuing their music or their money. Just don't give me a bad time or call me a fascist if I don't play along.

The last time I checked, I still live in America, land of the free and home of the brave. Being the good capitalist I am, I vote with my wallet. If I don't agree with Natalie Maines statements about President Bush or we disagree on the best way to eat corn on the cob, I don't have to buy her next album.

Her latest rant is proof positive that she is filled with hatred for the President.
After watching an interview where President Bush said "The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind, they shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out. You know, freedom is a two-way street." Maines came unhinged.

After watching this footage, Maines repeats the president's comment about how the group shouldn't have their "feelings hurt," incredulous, and then says, "What a dumb f---." She then looks into the camera, as if addressing Bush, and reiterates, "You're a dumb f---."

How nice. And may I add, very mature.

Maines is undoubtedly in the top three percent of the wealthiest Americans. She is set for life, unless she develops a 5,000 dollar a day cocaine habit or invests all her money in Al Gore's next movie. My point is, she is not being persecuted for her beliefs, she is taking a political stand that is unpopular with the huge fan base that used to purchase her product.

The Chicks are marketing their new album to young urban progressives, and they seem to be doing well. Why is she so upset at her former 'unsophisticated' country fans? We all just ignorant rednecks and hillbillies, loosing us should be no sweat off her liberal brow. She is an American citizen, she has the right to free speech just as I do. I however, realize that their are consequences to my speech, ranging from a high five to a punch in the nose. In her case, its not selling as many CDs as she once did.

Spewing hate speech about the President in a time of war is not un-American Natalie, its just a bad business decision. And it makes you look like spoiled child.

Conaway Ranch eminent domain takeover is dead

The Yolo County Board of Supervisors cut a deal to let the Conaway Ranch sell 1,500 acres in exchange for paying for the County's legal bills, about 2 million dollars.
What a fiasco.

What has been a drawn out battle regarding land and water ownership came to an abrupt end yesterday when The Yolo County Board of Supervisors announced that a settlement agreement was reached with the Conaway Preservation Group.

The main reason the County was trying to take the ranch was to keep the water here in Yolo County and to keep the owners from developing the ranch. The County seems to have structured the deal to allow the CPG to sell only surplus water. Ok, what about stopping development? (sounds of crickets chirping)

There is nothing in the deal to preclude the CPG from asking for a zoning change. Believe me, if the County had a provision to keep the CPG from developing the ranch, it would be on the front page.

At best the deal keeps the CPG from selling the water rights from the ranch to some municipality in southern California, at worst the 1,500 acres the County will allow the CPG to sell in order to pay the Board's legal bills is just the first step in developing the areas of the ranch not in the deep water flood plane.

I just hope Frank Sieferman doesn't strain his arm patting himself on the back.
He is up for re-election in November and taking the Conaway Ranch by the use of eminent domain was an anchor around his neck.

The path to 9/11 goes through Bill Clinton's lawyers.

From what I understand of the content, I am not a influential member of the media and have not yet been sent my advanced copy of the movie, but from all accounts the 'docu-drama' is hard hitting on both administrations.

Do you hear any whining or legal wrangling from the Bush administration?

Presenting such deeply flawed and factually inaccurate misinformation to the American public and to children would be a gross miscarriage of your corporate and civic responsibility to the law, to your shareholders, and to the nation.

The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest...

Nope, just from Bill-save-my-legacy-Clinton and his pals.

Maybe, just maybe.

Could it be that the Senate has finally corrected it's rectal-cranial inversion when it comes to spending?

The Senate unanimously passed S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.

The passage of this legislation is a triumph for transparency in government, for fiscal discipline, and for the bipartisan citizen journalism of the blogosphere.

Did we just pass the low water mark for the Republican Congress? Is it too late for them to put on their rally caps? Time will tell.

Coalition forces to hand over security to Iraqi army

While the 'secret prison' story and the death of Steve Irwin seems to taking up much of the newsprint, an under reported story gets shuffled to the back.

Iraq, US to sign military handover pact on September 7

Nice photo of General Casey by the way. I could think of better photos to lend a mental image to the story.

Like this one.

I cannot think of a more important story than the fact that the Iraqis will soon be in charge of their own security. Let me be the first to say that there will be setbacks and black days ahead for the Iraqis and for the coalition forces. However, this is good news to be sure.

Maybe the MSM needs a little time to write up their 'US hands over a broken Iraq' headline. I saved you the trouble. How about this one; 'Ready or not, US forces pull out.' When the White House holds the press conference tomorrow, I am sure the spin will be "American people are tired of the war and the Republicans want to dump Iraq back into the laps of the Iraqis no matter how bad the civil war is."

Maybe I will be surprised. Maybe Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will grudgingly applaud the administration for raising and training a standing army from nothing in a little over three years. Maybe Jack Murtha and Howard Dean will say they were wrong, the Pentagon had a plan. The plan has been 'as the Iraqis stand up, we stand down', and it seems to be working.

Maybe.

Not a chance.