For you Redskins fans...

It gets confusing with all the judges you need to keep track of, but just so you don't get it wrong...


This is Judge Ito.
This is Judge Alito.






















How bout them Cowboys!

For non-lawyer types, like myself - Alito for dummies

Leave it to John Hinderaker to give a description of Alito's decisions that even I can understand.

If you are an abortion opponent and read Alito's dissent, you will likely be disappointed. It is technical and dispassionate; the issue on which Alito differed with his colleagues was whether the notification requirement constituted an "undue burden" on the right to abortion, under the Supreme Court's jurisprudence as it then existed. The opinion conveys no hint of Alito's own views on the topic of abortion, or even of his opinion as to how (if at all) the Constitution should bear on the subject of abortion. Rather, and somewhat ironically, his dissent is an effort to follow the twists and turns of Justice O'Connor's various opinions on the topic of "undue burden," and apply them to the record before him. The most one can fairly say, I think, is that Judge Alito's dissent in Casey does not evince any reflexive hostility to restrictions on abortion, and does reflect what most conservatives would regard as an appropriate deference to the legislature's role as arbiter of public policy. Anyone looking for the sort of fiery language that sometimes enlivens, say, Janice Rogers Brown's opinions, will be disappointed.

The Conaway Ranch eminent domain hearing Tuesday

First it was the 'Wild and Scenic' designation for Cache Creek, now it's the taking of the Conaway Ranch in the name of preservation. I have a question, why do the Yolo County Board of Supervisors feel the need to take private property to 'protect it' when they control the land use policies and the zoning? If they don't want the Conaway Ranch developed, it cannot be done, period.

Why do Supervisors Mike McGowan, Mariko Yamada, Frank Sieferman Jr and Hellen Thomson want the Rumsey band of Wintun Indian (Cache Creek Casino), one of the largest land developers in Yolo County, join the Joint Powers Authority to control the Conaway Ranch?

“The Board of Supervisors has said what they want to do and why,‚” McGowan added. ‚“There has been no change. We have said that this is a land grab by big-money Sacramento developers. We want to protect the land from the bad guys who will sell off bits and pieces of it.

A land grab by the Government, backed with casino cash from a huge land developer is the answer Mike?

Private property rights are what in need of protection.

District 5 Supervisor Duane Chamberlain, my supervisor, is the lone voice of oposition in this mess.

Gas, charcoal, or dog poop?

I am not about to go into the 'what gives a better flavor' argument.
Stories like this give me hope that one day I will find a good use for stupid people, and become rich. I already missed out on the chain letter and multi-level marketing.

Berlin: Authorities have issued what is believed to be the world's first industrial patent for a scientific procedure to convert dog poo into fuel briquettes and construction materials.

The Berlin man who filed the patent is confident he could be the first person in history to become rich from collecting dog droppings. "I could be sitting on a pile," says Karl-Friedrich Lentze, 57, an avant-garde artist who has filed for a patent with the European Patent Office. He markets the small chocolate brown briquettes under the brand name HuKo, derived from "hundekott", a polite German term, as opposed to "scheisse", used as a colourful expletive by pedestrians who step in hundekott. - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Rule number one, don't lie to the FBI.

Rules are broken everyday. Laws are broken almost as often, by you and me and everyone else with a pulse. It seems that Scooter Libby was loyal to the Vice president and the administration to a fault. After Joe Wilson lied about being sent to Niger, Libby wanted to defend his boss and defuse the story Wilson was telling about the yellow cake controversy. Wilson was pretending the Vice President sent him and didn't like the report he came back with, back in the real world, it was his wife who sent Wilson to Niger seemingly to discredit pre-war intelligence presented by the White House. He never issued a report, he went straight for the press to get his fable into the news cycle.

Wilson should be the villain here, and would have been, if the Scooter would have called any of the 200 Washington reporters he speaks with on a weekly basis and told them "The Vice President categorically denies that he sent Joe Wilson to Niger to investigate the possible purchase of yellow cake by the Iraqis. He hasn't spoken to Joe Wilson and would like to know where he got his orders to go to Niger" Let the press do their job, if it is not happening fast enough, just wait a little longer. If the press doesn't run with it, you have made your statement, and that is the best you can do.

If the indictments are true than you can follow the story to see that Libby wanted to get the real story out more than he wanted to obey the law. Back to rule one. Don't lie to the FBI, ever, its a felony.

I know that most on the GOP side are twisting in their seats right now wanting to scream, where was the press when Clinton was lying? Life is not fair, Washington certainly is not fair, and politics is anything but fair.

If you want fair, go to the Olympics.

Just watch out for the German female swimmers...

10 most hazardous jobs in America

Supreme Court nominee not included.
CNN compiled a list of the most hazardous jobs they are;
1 Timber Cutter
2 Fishers
3 pilot& navigator
4 Structural Metal Workers
5 Driver-Sales Workers
6 Roofers
7 Electrical Power Installers
8 Farm Occupations
9 Construction Laborers
10 Truck Drivers

I have worked in 6 of those jobs! I am lucky to be alive. But then again, I did walk into The Stag Bar in Woodland on Punk Rock night after branding cattle all day. After a few 'slam dances' to get to the bathroom, they left me alone.

I have my own list, you probably have some suggestions, let me know.

1 Ted Kennedy's passenger in a moving vehicle.
2 A friend or business associate of Bill Clinton.
3 Siegfried or Roy.
4 Anyone dating Tawny Kitaen.
5 Anyone dating OJ.
6 Anyone dating Robert Blake.
7 Hillary Clinton's personal trainer.
8 Louis Farrakahn's press secretary.
9 Girls on a cruise with the Minnesota Vikings.
10 Air America's financial backers.

OJ and Syria , looking for the real killers.

President Airistotle's post that compares OJ to the Syrians.

100% not guilty! said OJ Simpson after being arrested for the savage murder of his wife.

"We are 100% innocent!" said Syrian dictator Bashar Assad after being accused of assassination by the UN.

The Harriet Miers nomination - the good the bad and the ugly.

I have been a supporter of Harriet Miers because I support the President. She would have not been my first pick, she may have never been my pick because I don't know much about her, and still don't. Make no mistake, this will be a short term hit to the President, and a lifetime stigma to Miers, however her withdrawal will save the President and the Republican party from a disaster that would have occurred if Miers' Senate hearings would have gone foreword. I read a post last night that made me rethink my support of Miers. Captain Ed had a post that convinced me that Miers would be made to look very foolish in front of Joe Biden and the other members of the Judicial committee.

Chief Justice Roberts stood up to the scrutiny and then some. Answering questions for two days without looking at his notes is a clear indication of his knowledge of the law and the Supreme Court. I believe, all though we will never know, that Harriet Miers has been going through mock hearings and I don't think she did very well. That is my take.

Short term, a bad week for the President, if he comes back with Judge Luttig or Judge McConnell, we will be in for a fight to be sure, but the President will have the entire party behind him.

Not just a pimp for fascism but one of its prostitutes as well.

Christopher Hitchens shows George Galloway how the cow ate the cabbage.

He slams Galloway and the anti-war left who held him up as a shining example of someone who would tell the Americans how arrogant they are.

Too bad he was up to his tighty whities in Oil for Food money, giving Saddam a huge payback, and putting a few hundred thou in his and his wife's pocket.

It seems he should have funneled a few bucks into Teriq Aziz pockets, he may not have dropped dime on George.

1) Between 1999 and 2003, Galloway personally solicited and received eight oil "allocations" totaling 23 million barrels, which went either to him or to a politicized "charity" of his named the Mariam Appeal.

2) In connection with just one of these allocations, Galloway's wife, Amineh Abu-Zayyad, received about $150,000 directly.

3) A minimum of $446,000 was directed to the Mariam Appeal, which campaigned against the very sanctions from which it was secretly benefiting.

4) Through the connections established by the Galloway and "Mariam" allocations, the Saddam Hussein regime was enabled to reap $1,642,000 in kickbacks or "surcharge" payments.

Yet this is the man who received wall-to-wall good press for insulting the Senate subcommittee in May, and who was later the subject of a fawning puff piece in the New York Times, and who was lionized by the anti-war movement when he came on a mendacious and demagogic tour of the country last month. I wonder if any of those who furnished him a platform will now have the grace to admit that they were hosting a man who is not just a pimp for fascism but one of its prostitutes as well.

That is going to leave a mark.

As we wait for the indictments to come down, or not.

I was over at the Weekly Standard site and read an interesting piece on where this all began. It is a must read if you want be up to speed on the Plame Name Blame Game as it plays out this week.

A war in Iraq risked exposing this incompetence, and the CIA began to wage its own preemptive war: Leaks from the agency implied that analysts were being pressured into their aggressive assessments. Footnotes filled with caveats became more important than primary texts. This campaign intensified after the war, with the failure to find stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. It culminated in the leaking to the news media of the CIA's referral of the Plame matter to the Justice Department.

None of this should be mistaken for an attempt to minimize the seriousness of knowingly and deliberately leaking the name of a CIA operative. If that is what happened in this case, a full prosecution is not only justifiable but necessary.

Even so, this entire episode reeks of hypocrisy and blatant double standards. The result may well be a renewed interest in prosecuting leakers of classified information. That would be an unfortunate development for reasons long articulated by the political left--the silencing of dissent and the muzzling of whistleblowers.

Ladies and Gentlemen, President Howard Dean....of Vermont?

This could be a way for democrats to get rid of Howard Dean as Chairman of the DNC. The libertarians in Vermont want to secede from the United States, proving once again that the libertarian party is on the fast track to nowhere.

The objectives of the convention are twofold. First, to raise the level of awareness of Vermonters of the feasibility of independence as a viable alternative to a nation which has lost its moral authority and is unsustainable. Second, to provide an example and a process for other states and nations which may be seriously considering separatism, secession, independence, and similar devolutionary strategies.

The Second Vermont Republic is a peaceful, democratic, grassroots, libertarian populist movement committed to the return of Vermont to its status as an independent republic as it once was between 1777 and 1791.

Labor Unions get a seat at the table. Literally.

Labor Unions have too much influence in the Capitol?
Say it aint so.

Sacramento -- At an April 13 meeting of a state Assembly budget subcommittee, two executives with California's prison guards union enjoyed an unusual vantage point as the committee discussed the state's corrections department.

Instead of sitting in the audience or at a table where bureaucrats or interest groups typically sit to testify, the members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association were positioned on the raised dais -- spots normally reserved for lawmakers.

Department of Corrections administrators found themselves looking up at the union representatives, who sat alongside the assemblyman running the meeting.

The article in the Cron is actually a fair piece, they do get their digs in at big business. When ever I see a story critical of labor unions, I think back to in interview of Daniel Weintraub by Eric Hogue. I couldn't find the text, so I will paraphrase. Weintraub said that the Sacramento Bee's editorial board likes big labor but they think the unions are taking too much money from the State, money that should go to more liberal, social causes.

The Cowboy Critic

My wife called me at work yesterday to ask if I wanted to go to the movies later that evening. I was in the middle of pouring concrete but told her that since I worked through lunch, I should get free an hour early. But when the mud is flowing, it is the master, so I was unable to get home early.

After a quick shower and a quick dinner out, we sat down to watch Dreamer. The story is about a horse, but more than that, it is about a family, failures and redemption. Dakota Fanning stars with Kurt Russell, Elisabeth Shue and Kris Kristofferson. Ben Crane (Russell) is a horse trainer who buys a racehorse to save it from being put down after it breaks it leg in a race he told the owner she should not run. The story is based on a real filly, Mariah's Storm, who came back from a broken leg to win and to raise another champion, Giant's Causeway.

The movie also speaks to failure, lost dreams and the courage it takes to believe when no one else does. Fanning is great, Elisabeth Shue is lost in the background of the movie, but gives a solid performance. Kristofferson steals a good portion of the movie with a quiet but powerful role as Pop Crane. Kurt Russell shows real depth in a role that others could have been played over the top.

Sure, its a simple family movie with no sex violence or cursing, but when was the last time you took the whole family out for a movie that was not animated? I would recomend Dreamer to everyone, even my 12 year old "cool" son said it was good. That is a pretty strong endorsement.

I give it three stars out of four.

Rove to the New York Times-

I couldn't resist.















Hat Tip -Lucianne

If the Supreme Court is going to look to foreign laws, start here.

Spam, the scourge of the internet, even in Nigeria. It seems that President Olusegun Obasanjo's inbox must be full, and he is none too happy about it.

Nigeria, home to some of the world's most notorious cyber crimes, has proposed a law making spamming a criminal offence for which senders of unsolicited emails could be jailed for at least three years.

Under the bill, which has to be approved by the National Assembly to become law, convicted spammers face jail terms of three to five years and could also be made to hand the proceeds of crime to the government.

"Any person spamming electronic messages to recipients with whom he has no previous relationship commits an offence," said a section of the draft law obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

Definitely R rated post

I usually don't get a chance to listen to Rush during my day, however today I was on the road and was able to listen to the entire show. One of the items rush was talking about was a man in Seattle who died after having sex with a horse.

Yes, a horse. I didn't get the details until now and I am not sure I want to know them....

A Seattle man died after engaging in anal sex with a horse at a farm suspected of being a gathering place for people seeking to have sex with livestock, police said Friday.

The horse involved in the incident was not harmed, and an autopsy of the unnamed man concluded that "the manner of death was accidental ... due to perforation of the colon,"” a police spokesman said.

The 2005 Darwin Award winner for sure.

I am not a Macro-Economist, but I play one in the Blogesphere.

On the ride home today I listened to the fallout over Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's statement. If you want to talk about stealth, how about this as a stealth policy.

"Our goal at DHS (Homeland Security) is to completely eliminate the 'catch and release' enforcement problem, and return every single illegal entrant, no exceptions. "It should be possible to achieve significant and measurable progress to this end in less than a year," Chertoff told a Senate hearing.

The Bush administration has been in office for a while, and they have been very busy trying to keep suicide bombers out of our shopping malls, and for that I am very grateful, but this seems like a 180 degree shift in policy. One I am pleased to hear.

One of the hot topics on talk radio were the callers who employ illegal aliens in their businesses reacting to the reality of keeping the doors open without this cheap source of labor. That started my thinking, and as you know, that can be a dangerous thing.

My question, is the inflation rate being drastically influenced by our trade imbalance with China, and illegal aliens in our work force?

It seems to me that while gasoline and housing, especially here in California keeps soaring out of site, most day to day products have remained in check. We are buying more products from China than ever before. Why? Because they are cheap, and the quality is fast becoming acceptable to US markets.

It is hard to find US made products in most stores. I would like to see a study done where a family of four goes back to school shopping as they regularly do. I would then send them back to the stores and tell them that they have to re-purchase the same items, only this time they all must be made in the USA. I wonder what the difference in price would be? 10%, 20%, 50% ? I am not sure, but the difference would be eye opening.

I would also like to see how much a concrete patio or re-tiling your kitchen would cost in California if you sent all the illegal workers back south of the border? Not to mention your landscaping bill. Again, 20%, 30%, 50% or more?

My point is not to bash China or Illegal aliens, I am asking are these two dynamic forces keeping our inflation rate unnaturally low? If so, here is another question, if your are in favor of buying American, or sending the illegals back home, are you willing to pay more for just about everything?

It is a question that I wrestle with.

We live in a global economy, we cannot go back to the days when garment workers were paid like auto workers. China and the Asian rim countries can make products to our quality specifications for a fraction of the price. I just don't see some industries, like textiles, coming back to this country. That is reality. It may not be the reality that a union garment worker would like, but it is what it is. That leads me to the second shoe dropping. As we have transitioned to a service industry society, we are being priced out of those jobs by foreign competition. The blue collar jobs are facing increasing competition by Mexican and Latin American workers, while the white collar jobs are being syphoned off by India and the Asian rim.

Gone are the days when a young man out of high school can get a job at a construction company for twice the minimum wage and learn a trade. This employer can now hire an experienced man, with a family to feed, who is going to show up on time every day and work hard. Being an illegal alien, he can also pay him just above minimum wage and without workers comp, SSI, and FICA to match, he is money ahead. He is also committing a crime.

Another question that you do not have to have an Economics degree to answer. Would you be willing to have the core rate of inflation go back to 4-7% a year to have more American products on the shelves made by American workers?

Who is this guy and what does he want?

This a Matt Rexroad, the Mayor of Woodland California. He will be running for Yolo County Supervisor in June of 2006. Why do you need to know Matt? He is a leader, a successful entrepreneur and man that gets results. I feel this is a good chance to invest in results oriented Republican. I hope he sets his sights on Sacramento one day, he would be a force for chance under the dome. We could use a few good Marines in the Capitol.

Read his full bio-

Staff Sergeant Rexroad spent 13 years with Detachment 4th Force Reconnaissance in Reno, NV. Some of his many military schools include USMC Basic Reconnaissance, US Army Military Freefall, USMC Intelligence Analyst, Mountain Survival Instructor, Logistics Clerk, and US Navy SERE. During Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, Matt spent six months in Kuwait and Iraq. For his service in Iraq, the National Conference of State Legislators awarded him the Medal of Civic Honor. He has now completed his military service.

Matt earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California. He earned his law degree at night from McGeorge School of Law while working full-time in the Capitol as a Chief of Staff. He is a member of the California State Bar.

How bout them Cowboys!

I can hear the keyboards burning up around the Western Alliance, flaming me due to my undying allegiance to the Dallas Cowboys. I know, I know, this is 49er or Raider country, but I have been a Cowboys fan since I first saw Roger Staubach with that star on his helmet. My mother is a 49er fan. I remember she used to yell at the television that she would bake a cake for John Brodie if he would win the game, especially if they were playing Dallas.

I don't have Direct TV, so I can't watch all the games, but today after church I stopped off at the Graduate in Davis. They have 30 screens and I found the Dallas-NY game in the fourth quarter. I had a few tense moments when the Giants tied it up, but the pokes prevailed.

While I am at it, how bout them White Sox?
As an Oakland As' fan I was not upset by watching the Anaheim-LA-Disneyland-Orange County Angels loose to the pale hose. How bout that Sox bullpen? Well, I guess they will be rested for the World Series.

In closing, I must add that it was great to see Tony" I am a PETA supporter" La Russa get tossed from the NLCS game tonight and his club loose to the Stros'.

The Iraqi people vote,

Iraqis don't want Democracy? They bet their lives they do. I wonder what the turnout in America would be if there was a good chance that you could be killed for exercising the right to vote?

People talk about voter dis-enfranchisement among minority communities in America while the Iraqis walk miles to a polling place, stand for hours in line praying a suicide bomber doesn't blow them into small pieces.

Regular Iraqi people are going to decide what the future will hold.

Decompression Days

Spring and fall are busy times for cattle ranchers. Most ranchers in northern California calve in the spring, wean the calves in the fall and send the steers to market. A friend of mine called and asked if could lend a hand vaccinating and working his herd this weekend. I agreed because I enjoy working cattle and I enjoy the time spent after the work is done, sitting around the yard socializing with his family. My wife and daughter came along, so we loaded two horses and my daughters pony in the trailer.

Most of the family was there, Aunts and Uncles and Cousins. I enjoy talking with his Grandfather. He is in his 80s and can't ride his horse very much, and I think that is what gets to him most. A cattleman without a horse is a sad thing indeed. We talk about his service in WWII, he was in the Navy in 39' and served on destroyers mostly until the 50's. He is not the grumpy old braggart down at the local bar who will tell anyone just how much action he has seen, no, he is the quiet type. He enjoys people and children, but he can also look right through you if you step out of line. His wife is a wonderful lady, always pleasant and ready with a great meal when the work is done.

I call days like this 'decompression days'. They make me forget about work and the world and my troubles. Tomorrow as I go to church, hopefully I will have an uncluttered mind.

Where does terrorism start?

According to Soumaya Ghannoushi, a columnist for Al Jazeera, its our fault.

Ms. Ghannoushi tells the tale of the four bombers that attacked the citizens of London in July. They were just quiet boys who loved cricket and chasing after girls, until we invaded Iraq. They watched the deaths of their fellow Muslims and were outraged.

We must go beyond the evil ideology to the evil reality that spawns and fosters it. Ideology can not be the starting point, but the conclusion to the search for causes and origins.

Take the four bombers who a few months ago created carnage and mayhem in London's tubes and buses.

The striking picture that emerged from the media's scrutiny of every minutia of their menial lives was of four unexceptional men, with calm ordinary lives, no different from any Brit of their age.

Could it be that the four young men were influenced by the pro-terrorist media coverage of the war? Al Jazeera, Al Arabia and to a lesser extent the BBC are anti US 24 hous a day. Maybe these unexceptional men were influenced by the hate filled speeches herd in the mosques, public squares and rallies of London's Muslim neighborhoods?

Nope, Its Bush's fault. He has the audacity to support Israel.

The mere sight of Bush greeting Sharon as a "man of peace" days after the Jenin refugee camp massacre, as though those his bulldozers had buried alive were cockroaches not human beings, would have been enough to turn the moral universe of countless young Muslims upside down and send them on the road to nihilistic perdition.

The evils of reality always metamorphose into evil ideologies. The trail of the bombers' insanity leads back to these insane 'foreign' policies, which are destabilising the world, breaking it into opposite trenches and tearing the fabric of nations, communities and families apart.

Unless they are rectified, there can be little hope of our world emerging out of this monstrous pit of hatred and violence.

I'll tell you where the trail leads Ms.Ghannoushi, look in the mirror. People like you who are myopic when looking at the Arab - Israeli conflict are the ones keeping the fires burning in these monsterous pits.

If your network spent 10% of its air time showing US forces building schools or markets, working to rebuild medical clinics and sewer systems, all the while ducking snipers and IEDs, the Arab world would have a better picture of what is really going on in Iraq. The same goes for CNN and the rest of the American media.

I have another question for Soumaya. What motivated the 19 terrorist murderers on 9/11?
It wasn't the war in Iraq, that is a certainty. Could it be the influence of the Whabists Muslims who teach the Koran in such a way as to twist it into weapon of cold blooded murder?

That has my vote.

Queer eye for the NBA

You have got to be kidding me.

I know what Carson from Queer eye would say. "Paja, how about a eyebrow wax to go along with that fabulous new uniform."

Can you imagine if Scott Pollard were still with the Kings, I can see an Elvis cape and big sunglasses while waiting to get into the game.

Truly hideous.

A court case you should follow.

Here is a feisty 70 year old Greek that the feds should not mess with.

"We have an American citizen who buys land, pays for it with his own money, and he moves sand from one end to the other and the government wants me to give him 63 months in prison," the judge said. "Now, if that isn't our system gone crazy, I don't know what is."

But he is not a man to be pushed, as even his supporters concede. "A less principled man would have backed off long ago to close the deal, putting expediency ahead of property rights," Gregory T. Broderick, a lawyer with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which is backing Mr. Rapanos, wrote recently. "But Rapanos didn't build a successful life by giving in."

This case will be one to watch, especially if you own property. Maybe it will take the footing from under the Kelo decision.

A principal with the right idea.

"We're accountable to the state, and the kids are accountable to us. The teachers are accountable to me, and I'm accountable to the community," Lopez said.

The Oakland Charter Academy was started in 1994 but didn't start outperforming its peers until last year, after principal Jorge Lopez took over.

He said the school's statewide Academic Performance Index rose 94 points last year, even though 90 percent of his students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches and many come from immigrant families. That jump far exceeded the state goal of 8 points.

Charter schools are taking hold in the inner city at a rapid rate. Jorge Lopez is the principal of the Oakland Charter Academy. He seems to understand what his job is all about. While some charter schools are filled with the same dead-end teachers and administrators, most are giving the parents in the poorest cities choices they never had. Discipline and accountability.

Bush and Blair are Nazis?

Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector turned High Priest in the Order of Moonbats, called the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain Nazis.

A former chief UN weapons inspector has compared Prime Minister Tony Blair and George W Bush, the American president, to the Nazi war criminals who started the Second World War.

Scott Ritter, a former US marine, said the US and Britain's "aggressive warfare" in Iraq was similar to German actions in Europe 66 years ago.

"Both these men could be pulled up as war criminals for engaging in actions that we condemned Germany in 1946 for doing the same thing," he said.

Nazis.
Nice Scott, real nice. I bet you are the bell of the ball in the Manhattan social circuit. Cindy Sheehan seems to think he is brilliant. That is the official Moonbat seal of approval these days.

Is he trying to become the front runner for the next Nobel Peace Prize?
It seems that all you have to win this prize is bad mouth the US, or try to swing the US presidential election to John Kerry.

Bush - Cheney - Halliburton join forces to cause Pakistan earthquake!

The earthquake in northern Pakistan seems to be quite terrible. I have serious doubts about the death toll numbers running so high so fast. Reliable news should start coming out by Monday and my hope is for far fewer confirmed deaths.

The people at Al Jazeera have already started with the "Government response delayed" reporting. Most of the Al Jazeera-English staff are from the BBC so its no wonder they are following the CNN playbook. If you don't like the administration, blame them for everything.

Shortly before government relief started to trickle into the town, anger peaked when a group of people attacked the Aljazeera television crew thinking they were from a government news agency.

Survivors keep asking: "Where are the government and relief agencies?"

There are more than 140,000 relief organisations in Pakistan, but no one seems to know the extent of the damage in this area, which seems to be the hardest hit.

I do hope the cave Bin Laden has been hiding in has collapsed. I don't usually wish death on people, especially on Sunday, but I can't help myself when it comes it Bin Laden.

How long until we hear reports from mosques around the Arab world that the Pakistanis got what they deserved because of their administrations support for Bush?
I give it one more day.

I'll subscribe to the Sacramento Bee again..

When you pry the mouse and keyboard from my cold dead hands.

After canceling my subscription from the Bee last year, I have been receiving calls urging me to renew.

Today's call caught me in a feisty mood. The woman on the phone was very professional and when I told her that her paper was far too biased toward liberal positions for me to ever consider renewing she went to her script.

"Sir, did you know that during the last election almost 40 % of the candidates the Bee endorsed were conservative or independent?"

"Thats nice", I said. "How about this, when you fire Anita Creamer and stop running Paul Krugman's column, I might reconsider my decision."

"OK, thank you Sir, have a nice day.

"You too mam."

Fake but true, till her dying day.

Mary Mapes is coming out with a book, including her part in Rathergate, or at least her version of what happened. No telling if there will be a chapter on her outright fabrication of the police shooting in Seattle that got her run out of town.

The doc were real, that's my story and I am sticking to it. No matter that they were proved to be false. Faxed, un-faxed, animate, inanimate, cone head, no cone, it didn't matter. (Parrot-heads will get it)

-- “And right now, on the Internet, it appeared everything was falling apart. I had a real physical reaction as I read the angry online accounts. It was something between a panic attack, a heart attack, and a nervous breakdown. My palms were sweaty; I gulped and tried to breathe. . . . The little girl in me wanted to crouch and hide behind the door and cry my eyes out."

--"Faxing changes a document in so many ways, large and small, that analyzing a memo that had been faxed -- -in some cases not once, but twice -- -was virtually impossible. The faxing destroyed the subtle arcs and lines in the letters. The characters bled into each other. The details of how the typed characters failed to line up perfectly inside each word were lost."

Those pajama clad fascists! They don't believe me!
I need a tissue.

Governor signs 'Wild and Scenic' bill

A bill that will only effect a few thousand farmers in Yolo and Lake Counties was signed today in Sacramento. The State designation of "Wild and Scenic" to the 31 mile stretch of Cache Creek is the first step towards an eventual, and inevitable Federal designation.

So what you may say, I don't want anyone to dam Cache Creek. That was the straw man that the environmentalists stood up before the public. No dams, leave the creek wild. Sounds good, right?

Ask the farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin what a nightmare the Federal government can be when it comes to deciding where the water flows when a drought occurs. When the Feds get control of the Cache Creek watershed, the farmers better start drilling water wells. It will only be a matter of time before someone finds a endangered one inch shrimp or sucker fish that is living in the downstream areas of the creek. The Farmers will stand on their property and watch the water that used to irrigate their pastures and crops go past to 'save' a tiger salamander something.

The story was about how farmers say they were betrayed by their government when irrigation water was abruptly cut off at the beginning of the irrigation season, ostensibly to save 'endangered' fish; where federal marshals had to guard head gates against the actions of irate farm families; where public protest became the unlikely but desperate tool for typically quiet farmers to create public awareness; where Indians were pitted against non-Indians. It was such an emotional and heated action that Gasser said in hindsight it was fortunate no one was seriously hurt or killed.

I doubt if there will be a march on the capitol, farmers and ranchers are not the protest type, there is too much work to do to take time off for protesting.

For the next vacancy on the Supreme Court, I nominate...

My barber.

That's right. My barber. If the vacancy is Justice Ginsberg, my barber will do nicely. He is a small business owner, he pays taxes and he is a superior barber.
I have no idea of his political views on abortion or if he would vote to reverse the Kelo decision, but he seems to have a good deal of common sense. That would be a vast improvement over the ultra-liberal views of Ruth Ginsberg.

If you think Harriet Miers is 'out of the box' I am so far away from the box, it looks like a dot on the horizon. Nevertheless, I would be happy with your barber, mechanic or your OBGYN taking the place of the former General counsel to the ACLU.

My horseshoer is a very hard working, no nonsense kind of guy, if my barber doesn't make it past the FBI background check.

You think I am kidding don't you?

Is this what Kevorkian puts in his suicide machine?

Beer, with nicotine. Hooray beer,,,and nicotine?

A German company has come up with a novel way of beating bans on smoking in pubs - put the nicotine in the beer.

A new beer, known as NicoShot, is undergoing testing in Germany with hopes it can be moved toward approval in the next few months.

Each beer contains three milligrams of nicotine and a 6.3 per cent alcohol reading.

Its German maker, Nautilus, claims the beer is designed to help smokers quit the habit rather than make the drink addictive.

For anyone who gets the jitters from not being able to smoke in a bar, you can continue getting hammered while enjoying a smoke, or at least the nicotine, without leaving the bar. Why not have a nurse insert a catheter while your at it, you won't need to go to the john the entire night.

Good heavens, maybe they could add caffeine too. That beer could be called "NightCap" so you can stay awake while driving home drunk.

I can see it now, a tavern operated like a Jamba Juice.
Yes, I would like a Lager beer with the nicotine shot, a power boost, and double caffeine, oh and an anti-oxidant boost too.

That will be $7.95 sir, would you like some soup with that?

I have no idea, really.

When I heard that the President nominated Harriet Miers, I said who?

I can hear the Moveon crowd now. She is the judicial equivalent of Mike Brown and we cannot afford to have a cronie on the bench for life. She has no record we can distort!

I say, if you want to know what kind of person you are dealing with, ask who their friends are and who their enemies are. Even using that process, I am still a bit confused, but her list of friends is impressive. I think that most of the concern on the right comes from the fact the President had a stable full of justices with bona fide conservative credentials and he picked a friend.

The conservative base still can't get over Justice David Souter. We trusted Bush 41 and he trusted Sununu and we got screwed. We don't like getting screwed and we have long memories.

Can we trust Bush 43? I think so.

What a wonderful morning of praise and worship.

I have been to Arco Arena many times for various events. Kings games, trade shows, I even had the privilege to see Billy Graham when he came a few years ago. That being said, I have never left the arena in a better mood with my spirit lifted so high.

Come Together, is a worship service where all five Bayside Churches meet in one place and fellowship with one another. From the home church in Granite Bay to the South Sacramento church, all were there and lifted their voices in praise. The music was truly fantastic, if you are looking for the best in Christian music today, you would have look hard to find someone better than Lincoln Brewster. Lincoln and all the bands and choirs from all five churches put on a first class show. The highlight of the event had to be the sermon given by Bishop Sherwood Carthen from Bayside of South Sacramento. I have only been to three predominantly black churches for Sunday service, and I must say, I love the enthusiasm and emotion from the congregation and the Pastors.

Bishop Carthen's sermon on " Following Jesus without embarrassing God" was terrific. The main point that I came away with is that people who are looking for a relationship with God are not interested in some Christian's list of dont's and thou shalt nots, they want to see the Lord working in your life.

What has God done for you? Were you perfect before you became a Christian? How can God use a person like me? These are the questions they want answers to. We Christians can put on a mask of perfection and condescension. These are not only sinful to God, but poisonous to non believers looking for a relationship with Jesus. We all fall short of the glory of God. From my sin to your sin, to the sinner living on the steppes of Mongolia, Jesus died for all our sins. I am no better than you or anyone else on this planet, we are all in need of God's grace.

The bottom line. God uses broken and imperfect people for his purpose and his glory. Praise God for that, because I am broken and imperfect. He can recycle you and I into something of great worth.

The Internet - we invented it, we built it, we control it.

Al Gore aside, the US built what became the internet. Now that it has become a dominant force in the distribution of information and commerce, we should turn over control to a world bureaucracy? No way Jose.

Do you know what is driving the internet's explosion? Profit. If you can make it go faster, you can make a ton of cash. If you can let people communicate better, more cash.
Only the Euros would think that government control of something that changes at the speed of technology could be regulated and controlled by a multi national bureaucracy.

Stupidity, plain and simple.

The United States and Europe clashed here Thursday in one of their sharpest public disagreements in months, after European Union negotiators proposed stripping the Americans of their effective control of the Internet. The European decision to back the rest of the world in demanding the creation of a new international body to govern the Internet clearly caught the Americans off balance and left them largely isolated at talks designed to come up with a new way of regulating the digital traffic of the 21st century.

Fall

This time of year is special to me. Autumn is my favorite season, the changing colors, the angle of the sun makes the shadows longer and darkens the blue of the sky. The contrast of that magical blue with the gray and stark white hues of the clouds makes me stop and take the time to look. The wonder of our world is always there, we just seem to be too busy to stop and look. I may only spend two or three days a year just looking at the world around me. I would guess that one of those days in the spring, but two are in the fall.

The fall brings thunder storms marching down the valley floor. The flash that illuminates the clouds and the distant rumble of thunder are better than any firework shows I have seen. The storms gather strength as they stack up against the foothills and Sierras, and the occasional flicker turns into an almost constant glow. The smell of the first rain before the chill of autumn sets in catches me on my front porch bench, in a short sleeves, enjoying the evening in a way that I wouldn't in February. The first frost of the year, which is still a month away, is when I start bringing wood to my deck. The first fire of the year is wonderful also. There is no better feeling than sitting around the living room with my family while the fire crackles and fills the room with it's soft orange light.

Fall is the time of year when I bring out my shotguns and get them ready for a day walking the creekbeds for quail or stalking the fields for pheasants. I may have mentioned before that one of favorite smells is Hoppes gun oil, the smell is pleasant enough, but it brings out memories of past hunting trips with friends long ago, and those with my father. This year my son is old enough to hunt with me. This will be a special fall for both of us. He is eager to get his first bird with his own shotgun and I just want to spend the time with him away from the distractions of everyday life. This will probably be my labrador's last year hunting with us . Jake the wonderdog is getting too old to keep up and he would rather stay home and dig for gophers in my wife's flower beds anyway.

I look forward to my wife putting the flannel sheets on our bed, actually she makes me help. I enjoy making turkey soup from what is left of Thanksgiving's dinner. Pulling the shoes off the horses for the winter and giving your saddle a good cleaning and a wipe down with oil is not a chore, it is just one more thing to do before winter sets in. Putting the hay in the barn and sorting off the calves to take to market are all part of the season.

If I had to pick a day to re-live like "Groundhog Day" it would be a November Sunday. Going to the early service at church then loading up the truck with lunch and spending the afternoon walking the rolling hills hunting for ringnecks. My son and I would come home around 4:00 to start a fire and spend the evening with the entire family, invite the in-laws over and have dinner and coffee. Do the dishes, kiss the kids goodnight and read for a while in bed before getting under those flannel sheets and the comforter and turning out the lights.

I have had some wonderful days, and some very exciting times in my life, but if I had to pick one day to keep in a place where I could hold on to it forever, I don't know if I could come up with one better.

What about you?

One arena, 10,000 people, one purpose.

As much as I like my church in Davis, I do get homesick at times for the church that started in the gym at Granite Bay High School.

Bayside Church is an exiting, dynamic, wonderful church where you can connect with people and the Lord. The ministries list is very large and diverse. When I attended, I played on their softball team, attended the Friday morning men's group, and Bible studies classes. From singles searching for other Christian singles, to seniors, a wonderful children's ministry, new parents and couples classes and a place where those who want to learn more about the Lord and need a no pressure experience to see what it is all about, Bayside is the place to be.

They are bringing all this to Arco Arena Sunday October 2nd at 10:00 am. Come Together will bring an incredible message, great contemporary music and people from all over Sacramento together for a Sunday morning of celebration.

Our family will be there, I may be difficult to spot without me hat.
I hope you can attend, Arco is charging for parking, but the event is free.