William Arkin, I would stay inside your house for a while, say ten years or so.

If you missed the crap storm brewing over William Arkin's piece in the WA Post, here are some highlights.

Blackfive is, um, er, very very upset at Mr. Arkin.
Hugh has some background on him.
The milbloggers would like to have a word with Mr. Arkin, I believe those words would be ' someone should call an ambulance for this guy'

How dare you cut your taxes!

Ah, the Louvre, the Champs Elysee, the smell of roasting upholstery wafting up from the rioting Muslin suburbs. Oh and don't forget the high taxes. The rich folks in France have finally had enough of paying for everyone else, they are moving. Where? To another EU nation? To Germany? No.

They are taking their Euros and depositing them in Switzerland.

The row was triggered by the decision, late last year, of the French rock star Johnny Hallyday to leave France and take up residence in the Swiss Alpine resort of Gstaad.

Hallyday, who has complained publicly about the high taxes in France, will now pay tax not on his multi-million-dollar income, but on the value of the fairly modest chalet he has built himself in Gstaad.

All he has to do in return is promise to live in the chalet for at least six months of each year.

In France, where Hallyday is a national icon, there is anger. Advisers to the French presidential candidate Segolene Royal have accused Switzerland of "looting" its neighbours.

"We are profiting from the mistakes of our neighbours," he explained. "They are making economic promotion for us for free, everyone now knows that Switzerland has an excellent tax system, so I'm very grateful."

Have some pastry and while your here, how does an overall tax rate of 21% sound? Sure, I know a good Realtor.

Sounds like California, just keep taxing the rich, see how many more top income earners take off to Florida.

Who needs em? Who ever stays here needs them. With the market booming and the economy growing, the top earners in the Golden State are filling up the coffers in Sacramento. If the market hiccups or the economy slows, Fabien and the Democrats will be coming after those top earners because they aren't paying like the used to.

They don't have many hurricanes in Switzerland do they?
Humidity?
Gators?
White Trash?
Sounds better all the time.

The driest January on record, good for golfers, bad for ranchers

I am not sure how the weather is in Lusaka, Zambia, where one my regular readers lives, but here in Northern California, we need rain. The clear cold weather was fine for a while, but the deep freeze a few weeks ago hit the citrus farmers hard, and now I guess its the livestock industry's turn. This is shaping up to be the driest January on record, which would be ok, if we had a wet fall, but we didn't. The grass in the hills is short and the water holes and stock reservoirs are drying up. Some ranchers are hauling water and hay into the hills to keep their cattle from loosing any more weight. These are added expenses that will take most, if not all the profit from the calves at sale time this spring.

El Nino is a tricky thing, sometimes we get a dry winter and a warm and wet spring. I am hoping for the second part of the equation to get here. The problem with the El Nino rains in the spring is they can come in waves, one after the other, and that can mean flooding. So I guess I will look back at this post when I am bailing out my kitchen in March and remember fondly the dryness of January.

Bull sale report

I am home, alive, sleep deprived, a few dollars lighter and still married!

After three days in Red bluff, I am glad to be home. I was happy to hit the on ramp to I-5 South, taking my wife and I back towards Esparto. We arrived at the fairgrounds in Red Bluff on Thursday to take in the sights and sounds of the Bull Sale. Some highlights;

The top working cow dog was purchased on Friday afternoon for a whopping $23,000! It was a great cow dog to be sure, but for that kind of money I want it to work cows, fix the fuel pump on my truck and do my taxes. The top gelding brought just shy of $30,000, while the average was around $6,000. The bulls sold today and I didn't arrive early enough to get a seat but I just heard that the prices were not down significantly even though all the cattlemen in California need rain in a bad way right now.

In case you are wondering what the two lovely bar maids in the picture have to do with a livestock sale,,,,um,,, that's a good question. A trip to the Palomino Room is essential to getting the full bull sale experience. Friday night was a blast. All three bars inside including the one upstairs were six deep and the dance floor was so crowded that it resembled a Carhartt clad mosh pit at times. The band Shilo was playing upstairs, but our gang stayed down on the main floor with the DJ. I am not sure how Toby Keith, AC/DC and Tone Loc go together, but everyone danced and had a great time.

My wife loves to dance and I tried not to get to out of hand. I kept remembering the scene in "Hitch" when he is explaining the rules of dancing; hands at your sides, feet shuffle back and forth, this home, this where you live, you don't leave home. Well, I left home when the played AC/DC, there is no stopping me when I hear that music, just stand back and watch your toes.

In the end I bought a new snaffle bit, a couple of bull sale hats and had enough fun for six people.

I can't wait for next year, or at least untill April when the Red Bluff Roundup starts. It is one one the best rodeos on the west coast.

Take the pledge

Not another dime to the NSRC if they support these skunks.
Sign up now.

It's a busy week for me

This week many men and some women will suffer from type of football withdrawal. I will not. In the two weeks between Championship Sunday and the Superbowl lies a few days I look forward to all year.

That's right, it's time for the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale!


I posted on this last year at this time, but to recap; The top working stock dogs sell Friday afternoon, followed by 120 great Quarter Horses, Paint Horses and mules sell on Friday night, then you shake off your lack of sleep and watch the the bulls sell Saturday.

The Bull Sale has become more of event that a place to buy top quality livestock. Granted if you won the lottery and wanted to get into the cattle business, hey it could happen, Red Bluff would be a great place to start. The working ranch geldings they sell have been worked, evaluated and judged before they hit the sale ring, kind of like NFL combine workouts.

If you are trying to sell a horse with a few 'holes' in it, you will find it very hard. The sale committee can sift, that means reject, your horse from the first day it gets on site until they enter the sale ring. If the horse has a hidden injury, they vets will do their best to find it, if your horse kicks, bites, won't load, or just generally blows up, he is out of the sale.



The working stock dogs are fully trained cattle handling employees, but without the workman's comp and salary. They are not cheap, most sell for 3-4,000 dollars although the top dog last year brought an astounding $15,500.



You need bulls? They have them, some of the best breeders of Angus, Hereford , Charolais, Beefmaster, Gelbveih, bulls will have what you need.

The best place to eat is the Green Barn on the main highway, and the best place to take in all things Bull Sale is the Palomino Room on Main Street. I have pictures of Friday night at the PR from 2004, and I can get just about any favor I ask from my friends because I have them.

I am nothing if not devious.

Championship Weekend.

Although I no longer have a dog in the fight, my Cowboys are home playing golf, cutting new rap CDs or what ever it is NFL players do in the off season, there are two very interesting games coming up Sunday.

First lets look at the Patriots, Colts game. There so many backstories to this game that it looks like a television show season ending cliffhanger. Will good guy, boy scout, milk drinking, 6 foot five, 230 pound quarterback with a laser-rocket arm, Payton Manning, finally get over the hump and reach the Superbowl? Will Tom Brady, the best crunch time, gotta have it, last second, 4th down 90 yards to go quarterback of our time break the Colts heart one more time, or is this the year that the gritty Patriots loose to the better team? Will the game come down to a last second field goal with the Superbowl bid on the line? Will Adam Vinateri, the Colts new free agent kicker, who just happens to wear three Patriot Superbowl rings, put the Colts over the top against his old team? My prediction; Colts 33 Pats 20.

Over in the NFC, Cinderella wears black and has a bit of Bourbon on her breath. The New Orleans Saints have come from a 3 and 13 season last year to being a win away from the Super bowl. Drew Brees, Duece McAllister and rookie sensation Reggie Bush have brought a swagger to a team and some home grown pride back to New Orleans. Chicago on the other hand seems like a bad soap opera. The teams wins, the quarterback plays great, then lousy, then great, then just well enough to win. The Bears defense is outstanding as usual, but will Rex Grossman be taking Chicago to the Superbowl, or will he fitted for a pair of cement shoes and a one way trip to Lake Michigan? My prediction; Saints 24 Bears 17.

Please feel free to comment on Sunday night and flame me for these pick, because if my teams win, you know I will be gloating, big time.

What to do in Iraq. Surge? Retreat? Send in the UN?

As someone who supported the war in Iraq, I want America to win, not because I want to be on the winning side if an academic argument or simply to root for the home team, it comes down to simple fact that if we loose in Iraq, the consequences will be swift, horrible and deadly on a scale that will make the losses we have suffered so far seem like a bad month in the war to come.

That war will be right here, on our soil. In our schools, in our malls, in our stadiums, and in our public squares. If we loose this war by retreating, that is the only way the US military can be defeated, we will have proven Osama Bin Laden right when he asserts that America is a paper tiger that can be sent home with its tail between its' legs after a few thousand deaths.

I understand that every life we loose in the war against Islamic terrorists is tragic. Every name they announce on the nightly news means some family will not be having their loved one come home. I mourn for those who have lost someone and I actually pray for those who are fighting. Now that I have made myself clear on what I believe we will be faced with if we retreat, just how do we win in Iraq and in the broader war?

I don't know. I will throw out some ideas I agree with, but in the end, if this was an easy fix, some one much smarter that I am would have figured it out by now.

What about this surge? Are twenty thousand new troops going to make a difference? Maybe. The MSM and the retreat lobby say that it's too little too late, but lets look a little deeper.

How many combat troops are patrolling Baghdad? I couldn't find an exact figure, but it seems to be between 8 to 12 thousand infantry types, folks with M16s, not support troops, who are working side by side with the IA. If the majority of the surge goes to Baghdad as boots on the street patrolling house to house and shaking down the neighborhoods for bad guys, it may work. Maybe.

Success will only come if the Maliki government gets out of way with regard to the rules of engagement. If the Iraqis want our help to keep them safe inside the green zone then we must be able to go after who ever is causing the escalation of sectarian violence in Baghdad. If it's his Shiia buddies getting some payback for the bombing of the Golden Dome, one of the most holy sites for the Shiites, or they are Iranian Shiites who are supplying the Shiia militia with IEDs to kill Americans, the gloves have to come off. No one can be off the table. Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia are going to have to put down their AKs, pick up a shovel, and get to work rebuilding Iraq or we will crush them. The Sunnis who once backed the al Qaida insurgents are now rethinking their alliances.

Neither side will put down their AKs if they think America is going to pull out in 18 months. If that belief is allowed to be the majority opinion inside Iraq, progress will be impossible. If all sides believe we are leaving, they will go into overdrive carving up Iraq for themselves and their backers in Iran and Syria.

The non binding resolution proposed by democrats and a handful of republicans is exactly what we don't need. How is telling the world that the American congress does not want to send the troops the military says it needs to win in Iraq going to help us win? The plain fact is that to most of the left, the war is already lost in their minds. From the first day we went into Iraq, they were looking for a way to loose so they could point their finger at George Bush and tell him, he was wrong, the war was wrong, ect. Can we grow up now? If you don't want a troop surge, tell the American people what your plan is to win in Iraq. They don't have one. They never have, they never will.

I take that back, Joe Biden has a plan from a think tank in Washington that he likes to sell as his own, it calls for dividing up Iraq into three separate nations. Hey at least it's a plan. That is more than I hear from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid or Jack Murtha. If anyone can explain how redeploying our troops to Okinawa is going to win the war in Iraq, I am all ears.

What about the UN? Can they help? I don't know, I am not sure that we need any blue helmets selling UN aid to the highest bidder or trading it for sexual favors to children will be of much use in winning the war. The UN has a new General Secretary, maybe he wants the UN to become relevant again in the world. Maybe he wants to wipe away the shame of Rwanda. If the UN could start small in southern Iraq, maybe Basra, its pretty quiet down there, they could get their feet wet without having to do any hard fighting for a year, then they could start to move north into the hotter areas of Iraq. One truck bomb was all it took to send them packing from Iraq the first time, I am sure it was a tragic time for the UN, but what part of peacekeeping didn't they understand?

The name is a little misleading, if there is peace, you don' tneed much to keep it going. The cub scouts could keep a peace. Their mission is more of peace making. Get between the sides and try to negotiate a cease fire and when you find anyone targeting and slaughtering innocent civilians, you shoot them. If that is not the job description than what the hell are we paying the UN to do? Write reports? Badmouth the US? Run a corrupt oil for food scandal that was so large, we will never find out how many billions in aid went to Saddam and his prostitutes who received kickbacks all the while bemoaning the US.

I just don't see the UN helping out. They could if they were serious, but like the left, the UN is just as invested in seeing the US fail because of their hatred for Bush that they will never do anything substantiative to help win the war.

So where does that leave us? I'm afraid the media will keep the democrat's talking points well oiled and fresh in every newscast. Bring the troops home, it's a lost cause, the Presidents has failed. I wonder if the Department of Defense started publishing how many insurgents we are killing over there, if the American public would support continuing our mission in Iraq?
Why are the only deaths being counted in Iraq coalition forces and Iraqi civilians? I still can't figure out why were not telling the world that were are stacking up dead insurgents like cord wood. If the public thinks our soldiers are dying and not killing the bad guys, we will have what are faced with now, a loss of support for the war. If they knew were killing the terrorists as fast as the Iranians and Syrians are shipping them in, I think the mind set of the people would change. Why doesn't the US military release these figures? Maybe it's a lesson from Viet Nam, or something else I don't understand, but I wish they would.

Lets wait and see how effective the troops in Baghdad are. It will take some time, maybe a year, maybe longer, there will be more casualties if they start cleaning out the worst part of the city, so it may look worse before it looks better. If we can get some help from the UN, great. Let them patrol northern Iraq with the Kurds, or somewhere safe for a while. You want to talk to Iran and Syria? Ok with me, as long as the short version is, stay out of Iraq or we will not stop at the border when we are chasing the insurgents. If we trace a convoy of fighters or supplies to your soil, your soil will get an airstrike.

We are left with two scenarios for Iraq. Retreat, bring the troops home and watch as Iran, and Syria carve up Iraq and the simmering sectarian war will boil over into a full scale civil war with millions of deaths. Remember Pol Pot? With the added bonus of al Qaida and its brand of Islamo fascism strengthened and emboldened to bring the Jihad to America.

Or we can stay. A lot of things must go exactly right, or close to it, for Iraq to become a nation that is somewhat stable. The cost will be great and process will be a long one. Iraq may need a new government with new leaders who are Iraqi first and Shiite, Sunni or Kurd second. Can Iraq find this kind of leadership? I don't know. If we leave without having a government in Baghdad that can represent all the factions, Iraq will fail. That may be the hardest part.

I am way to old for full court basketball

Saturday night my son wanted me to drive into town to go to the open gym night at the fairgrounds. He said it was open to anyone from his school including the parents. I said I would take him and dug out my old nikes from the closet and put on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and a my old sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off. I was ready to ball, baby.

"You look like a homeless guy" my smarty pants son said.
"Shut up, or you can walk to Woodland" was my loving response.

I watched the first game or two then decided that I could guard a few of the smaller 8th graders, so I joined in.

Big mistake.

If, like me, you have not played a game of full court basketball in a while, say two years, you may want to ease into the game. Not me. I'm tough, I can keep up with these kids.

In six or seven minutes I was gassed. I was feeling light headed and my lungs were screaming at me to stop. My knees were complaining loudly too.

I waited an hour and played another five minute stretch and that was it for me.

Way, way to old and out of shape for this stuff.

Please don't Euro-fy Yolo County

(photo courtesy of the Daily Democrat)
I am not sure what University the Cal Trans engineers graduated from, but that school must think the Euro style mass transit it the cat's meow. Why else would anyone propose a traffic roundabout for the intersection of County 98 and Kentucky Ave in Woodland? This type of traffic control devise may work in a city with cars, although I have been through a few and saw one person not yield to a car coming into the circle and smack right into the drivers door. Just try adding tomato filled big rigs into that mix, you know the ones driven by folks who's just received their commercial drivers license that week. Yea, that will be great.

Anyone who has seen a driver eating a McMuffin and fiddling with their iPod looking to get past the tractor trailer in front of them, knows how this will end. They dart to the right at an intersection to get around the truck only to get smashed by the rear wheels of the trailer when the truck makes the same turn.

Oh boy, and just wait until Friday nights watching the casino patrons flying down Rd 98 and trying to navigate a roundabout with three tractor trailers at the same time. If you want to catch a good video to put up at YouTube, sitting in a lawn chair at the roundabout would be a great place to shoot it.

What is wrong with a plain old vanilla four way stop? Not exotic enough? Not very impressive to put on your Cal Trans resume? Oh well. If Cal Trans want to sell this traffic donut, then show the people of Woodland 10 traffic studies where these have worked to reduce accidents and speed up traffic flow in an area with the same traffic patters, and with the same rural agricultural trucking patterns. I could be all wet, the roundabout may be coolest thing since velcro, but I want to see the studies that show it works in a place like Woodland.

You call this cold? Well actually, yes I do.

I know that some you readers out there will look upon our cold snap here in the Sacramento Valley and chuckle at the poor little whoosie Californians freaking out over temperatures in the teens and twenties. To you folks who had to shovel your way to the mail box today I say, that is why I live here, so I don't have to know the warning signs of frostbite and hypothermia. I like winters in the 50s and 60s and I enjoy the occasional 70 degree winter day.

I spent a few December weeks in Lakeview Oregon. Waking up where it is 24 below zero is not a climate I wish to adjust to, thank you very much. Breaking the ice in water troughs with an axe so the horses can get a drink is not for me.

I have wrapped the pipes, covered the pressure tanks and left the hose bibs running at the far ends of my water lines hoping I can make it through this cold snap with my water system in tact.

The horses are in the barn, I have a wood for a fire, and my wife just bought a big supply of hot chocolate. I am ready, I think.

I may have to break out my insulated coveralls tomorrow. After all, I am a big time Californian whoosie.

This just in, killing terrorists makes more terrorists?

I could write this particular post several times a week. Why? Because the liberals just don't get, and presumably never will until they are on their knees with a hood over their head with a group of Islamic fanatics shouting Allahu akhbar! as they start cutting with a rusty knife. These Muslim fanatics don't want to talk, these folks want to kill you, me and every other man woman and child who do not hold to their version of Islam. Here is a recent example of the give-peace-a-chance-global-speak that passes for intelligent dialog.

Sir: With the shadow of Black Hawk Down yet to fade, America has fashioned another spectre in Somalia which will come back to haunt it in years to come. This week's bombing will not only fail to eradicate the al-Qa'ida suspects but will further jeopardise the international community's reputation in the Horn of Africa in the long run.

Granted, there is a terrorist threat in Somalia. And America also has selfish interests in increasing its influence in this newly oil-rich area. But far more concerning than the terrorist threat, or the inevitable absence of purely altruistic humanitarian sentiment, is the international community's conceptual failure to view Somalia other than through the lens of the "war on terror". Somalia has its own troubled history of colonial occupation, Cold War interference, regional instability, clan-based conflict and failed statehood- and a present in which these fuse uniquely.

To ignore the complexities of Somali identity, and to fail to address the situation on its own terms, will encourage exactly the angry, destructive terrorism that we allegedly desire to erase. Rather than conduct counter-productive bombing campaigns, we must focus our efforts on bringing all parties to the negotiating table. We must actively strive for stability and security - for that of Somalia and the international community is interconnected like never before.

LAURA KYRKE-SMITH

LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

This woman's view on terrorism is only marginally less dangerous than the Wahhabist view on Jihad. Let's take a look and see if we can understand what she is trying to say.

This week's bombing will not only fail to eradicate the al-Qa'ida suspects but will further jeopardise the international community's reputation in the Horn of Africa in the long run.

Did anyone say this weeks bombing will eradicate the al Qaeda suspects?
No, but did we kill a few of them? Yes we did. Killing al Qaeda by the dozen or the bushel is fine in my book. Jeopardize what reputation? The reputation of America as a paper tiger that runs away when you give it a black eye? That one? I risk ruining that reputation if its ok with you.

Granted, there is a terrorist threat in Somalia. And America also has selfish interests in increasing its influence in this newly oil-rich area. But far more concerning than the terrorist threat, or the inevitable absence of purely altruistic humanitarian sentiment, is the international community's conceptual failure to view Somalia other than through the lens of the "war on terror".

Granted there is a terrorist threat? I believe that the problem with her rational. If you have terrorists running through the streets killing people, there is little chance for economic or social development. You must first rid the place of the terrorists, then you can get the billions of dollars of aid the west sends to the horn of Africa to the right places and the right people. Sending cargo containers full of food, supplies and other aid related materials that never leave the port because they are stolen by the terrorist who run the country and sold to buy more kalashnikovs is little more than a feel good effort of our part. Far more concerning? To who? To the millions of African families being driven from their homes and slaughtered, the 'threat' of terrorism has long since turned from threat to horrible reality. Seeing Somalia through the lens of the war on terror is pretty easy Mam, because it is smack dab in the middle of it. Oh and a nice touch getting that war-for-oil jab in there.

To ignore the complexities of Somali identity, and to fail to address the situation on its own terms, will encourage exactly the angry, destructive terrorism that we allegedly desire to erase. Rather than conduct counter-productive bombing campaigns, we must focus our efforts on bringing all parties to the negotiating table.

Don't you just love the open minded, deep thinking in her letter? This is the tired rhetoric of the peace activists, long on the idea of negotiation, short on just how you negotiate with a 19 year old Islamic fanatic who thinks the only way to get into paradise is to die while killing as many of the enemies of his God as possible. Besides the fanatic beliefs, why would a guy who takes what he wants, when he wants, from who he wants with his machine gun give up anything? He is a king in his own land, and if he dies killing infidels, so much the better. This fellow needs to be killed before any negotiations can hope to take place.

What Somalia needs isn't a visit from Jimmy Carter, it needs a few more c-130 airstrikes.

Good news from Washington

Sen. Tim Johnson's condition has been upgraded from critical to fair. That is great news for his family and his friends back in South Dakota. I just hope he recovers quickly before the Senate does anything that requires a tie breaker. Elections mean something, the Democrats won control, they should have it. If Senator Johnson's condition prevent him from serving, I hope the Governor of South Dakota lets Johnson pick his successor.

I would like to see another moderate like Johnson, or even a Democrat that understands the threat we face in the war against the Islamist, I would take another Joe Lieberman.
Another Ted Kennedy?

Uh, no thanks, I'll take Johnson with a magic 8 ball.

Bonnie Garcia to speak in Woodland

California Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia will be speaking at the Woodland Republican Club meeting, Tuesday, January 23rd at 7pm.

The WRP meeting will be held in the Leake Room on the ground floor of the Woodland Library.

Besides being Arnold's favorite hot blooded Latina, she seems to be a rising star in the Republican party. I will be attending and I hope I have the opportunity to meet the Assemblywoman.

If you are interested in attending, shoot me an email.

Apple iPhone

Uh, can I just have a phone that works? Oh and no stinkin side buttons please!

The family and I were having dinner in Woodland tonight at the new El Charro, the old restaurant was closed for not paying overtime to it's workers, I like the old place better, but anyway as we were eating my son asked me to listen for a strange noise. I thought he was hearing things but he said I should check my phone, I did, and I had been calling my friend for three minutes and he was yelling through the phone to get my attention. Sorry Sam.

I hate all the side buttons on cell phones these days. If you sit in a chair with side rails, you can bump it and darn thing calls the last dialed number, or takes a picture, or some type of action that is unwanted. I have tried to lock the keys but if you hit the buttons just right, presto your calling wife, for the third time that day. My wife get very annoyed at me for this, especially when she outside working with a horse and has to stop to answer the phone only to hear me driving down the road, or talking to a client, but her favorite is when I call using power tools.

Its not that my wife is easily annoyed, its just I am quite annoying.

I am sure the cool factor is very high, but c'mon, do we really need a phone that plays movies, holds 10,000 photos, 10,000 song and can tell you the time in Prague?

I don't. But I am old, and as my son constantly reminds me, painfully uncool.

How bout' them Cowboys.

I am just sick. Tony Romo botches the hold on the game winning, one, ONE FREAKIN YARD, field goal. The loose by one point in a game they had in the bag. Not that I care or anything.

When does training camp open for next year?
(sniffle) I am going to bed now, or go walk onto the freeway.

You may have seen this,,,but in case you haven't

Spiders on drugs.

Hey nice web Mr. Crack Spider

Two speakers, two elections, one media.

I was reading and watching the coronation, I mean coverage, of Nancy Pelosi's swearing in ceremony and a few thoughts crossed my mind.

I wonder if Connie Chung or anyone from the MSM has interviewed Nancy Pelosi's family members to get that 'gotcha' quote to take some of the luster off her sudden stardom? Remember when Connie leaned over to Newt Gingrich's mother and asked hew what Newt thought of Hillary Clinton, "Why don't you just whisper it to me, just between you and me," Mrs. Gingrich whispered "She's a bitch."


Where is that interview from the MSM today? Do you think if you interviewed any of Nancy's relatives you could find one who would say that Bush is worse than Adolph Hitler? I wouldn't take that bet.

What about just the plain vanilla reporting of the swearing in ceremony? You certainly couldn't tell who Time magazine is pulling for, could you?

Lets take a look. - Time's coverage of Newt's swearing in.

An obscure figure to most Americans only a few months ago, Newt Gingrich of Georgia, sworn in as the 58th Speaker of the House on Wednesday, thus completed an extraordinarily rapid rise to power. His inaugural speech moved well beyond the harsh partisan message that brought him to power, and his first meeting with the newly circumscribed President was an elaborate exercise in conciliation and cooperation. But the House reforms that began, as he had promised, on Day One came swift and bold, and the orderly procession of the votes demonstrated the security of his hold on both the House and the nation's agenda.

With a history professor's sense of occasion, a futurist's grasp of possibilities and a politician's dexterity with symbols, Gingrich brought two gavels with him that day. The first -- a link to the past and a token of how long the G.O.P. had waited to regain power -- had belonged to Joseph Martin of Massachusetts, the last Republican Speaker, who relinquished it to the Democrats 40 years ago. The other, a jumbo mallet suggestive of Gingrich's power and willingness to use it, was donated by a fan. On opening day he favored the big one.

In a House that voters have refashioned with dynamite, Gingrich's gavel represents to his followers the instrument by which the rubble could be bounced into a new political arrangement, one that Republicans could dominate for years to come. It was that prospect, the blood-tingling thought that they might be witnessing the start of a G.O.P. millennium, that brought a real fervor to the Republican side of the House on their marathon opening day. "Newt, Newt, Newt!" they chanted. "It's a whole Newt world!"

Blood tingling indeed.

What about Nancy? Time magazine today-

The spotlight belonged to Nancy Pelosi on Thursday as she became the first woman in U.S. history to stand at the head of the House of Representatives, second in line to the presidency.

Pelosi, a 66-year-old Democrat, aimed to introduce herself to America not just as the San Francisco liberal decried by Republicans, but also as an Italian-American Catholic, mother of five and native of gritty Baltimore, where her father was mayor.

She arrived on the House floor for the historic event with her six grandchildren in tow, including baby Paul Michael Vos, born to her daughter Alexandra in early November. She thanked her family for supporting her journey "from the kitchen to the Congress." After her election by a vote of 233-202, the chamber's Democratic-Republican breakdown, Pelosi stood holding the sleeping infant 'who did not stir ' and shook hands as she accepted congratulations from her fellow House members.

Minutes later, cheers erupted in the chamber as House Republican leader John Boehner handed her the speaker's gavel. Pelosi always has said she wants to be judged by her abilities, not her gender, but she happily acknowledged the importance of her achievement.

"Today I thank my colleagues. By electing me as speaker you have brought us closer to the ideal of equality that is America's heritage and America's hope," Pelosi said. "This is an historic moment "for the Congress, and for the women of America. It is a moment for which we have waited more than 200 years. Never losing faith, we waited through the many years of struggle to achieve our rights."

"For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling," she said. "For our daughters and our granddaughters now, the sky is the limit."

The sky's the limit. Oooh, I get all tingly just thinking about it.

You won't find a 'gotcha' interview with Nancy or her relatives for a long time, if ever. You won't hear about the temper tantrum the voters had to elect Nancy and her crew and you won't hear symathetic interviews with conservatives asking them how they are going to get their message out to the voters to get back into power. Why?

You really don't need an answer do you?

Time to return the old header.

All rise for the Empress of America.

Nancy, I hope you enjoy your time as Speaker. The honeymoon is already over between you and the feverswamp left. The rest of the nation is not far behind.
The problem with having power Nancy is having power. Just wait until the low hanging fruit of the minimum wage increase and low interest loans for college students is passed. Then what?

Oh yea, there are still a few hundred thousand militant Islamic fanatics out there that want to kill us, what about them? Are you going to offer them low interest college loans to appease them?

Yea, just wait a few months your highness, just wait.

Oh, by the way, Hillary just called and wants you to know there is only room in Washington for one alpha,,,,,female.