Wally Herger to speak in Woodland, August 13th

I don't about you but I don't get to meet my congressman very often. I know in this age of exploding super nova shaped congressional districts, Congressman Herger's district is almost a rectangle. The 2nd district is mostly rural with a few medium sized towns placed right down the center along the I-5 Hwy 99 corridor. The bottom of the 2nd's rectangle splits Yolo County in half, the mostly rural half that is, and that's just fine with me. I would much rather be represented by Wally Herger than "Baghdad" Mike Thompson.If I were to be represented by my two sterling Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer as well as Mike Thompson, I would cry. Truly.

I need at least one representative in Washington who knows what end of a cow the hay goes into. I will leave the obvious pun about what comes out the ether end alone.

With that said, the Woodland Republican Club will be having its monthly meeting and Congressman Herger has agreed to drop by and say a few words. The exact time and place is still being worked out and I will keep you updated as we get closer, but I am looking forward to meeting my Congressman, even if I live at the very bottom of his district. My vote still counts.

Personal chef, physical therapist, and all around cabana boy, Day one.

Saturday afternoon found me ready to tackle cleaning up the garage when the phone rang. It was my mother in law who told me that my wife may have broken her ankle when she was kicked by a horse on a trail ride. So off to the emergency room I went to check up on my bride and give her a ride home. It didn't look very bad, but the x-rays came back showing a broken fibula. The fracture is not displaced and looks stable so the ortho will call us on Monday and schedule putting on a cast.

Meanwhile I am pulling double duty. While I do the majority of the cooking at our house, my wife does the other housekeeping functions. These are the times when you realize just how much work it must be when you are a single parent. My wife is sitting on the couch with her foot elevated and iced while I am running for this and that as well as making lunch and straightening up the house.

I have chicken soaking in buttermilk right now getting it ready for frying tonight.

I just hope she will be ok when I go to work tomorrow.

Holy Cow, we're going to be eatin dog food and livin in van down by the river!

Either that or this week's stock market sell off is a long over due correction before we start back towards 15,000.

Dow Industrials and S&P 500 Index Conclude Worst Week in 5 Years; Dow Sheds 208 Friday NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street extended its steep decline Friday, propelling the Dow Jones industrials down more than 500 points over two days after investors gave in to mounting concerns that borrowing costs would climb for both companies and homeowners. It was the worst week for the Dow and the Standard & Poor's 500 index in five years.

GDP grew by a robust 3.4 annual rate, beating expectations, but $77 oil and the housing slump gave the profit takers a reason to pull some money off the table.

Is it time for a bit of bargain shopping?

Over those long time horizons, stocks will move up and down. It will be nearly impossible for you to call the highs and lows. If you sell now, you run the risk of missing gains and paying fees to re-invest in the market.

Here's an example of how damaging moving your money around can be:

If you sold your stocks at the market bottom in September of 1998 when the Dow was at 7539.07, you would have missed out on portfolio gains of 21.8 percent by the end of that year.

If you sold your stocks at the bottom of the 1987 crash in October, when the Dow was at 1738.74, you would have missed out on 24.7 percent of your portfolio gain by the end of December 1988. That's almost $25,000 missed opportunity on a portfolio with $100,000, says Johnson.

Economists we talked to said we're in for at least one sharp sell-off a year. Put your money into the market a little at a time, consistently. That's the way to earn gains - not gambling on where prices will go next. Sit tight and let the bulls and bears ride it out.

I just wish I had a little money sitting on the sidelines, I would be buying right now.

Ward Churchill Fired, Youtube debates, Lindsay is back on coke, Vick won't be playing football anytime soon and Michael Moore will do your laundry.

If there ever was a sign that the United States of America is teetering on the edge of an attention chasm, todays headlines are exhibit A.

Ward Churchill gets his non-Native American, plagiarizing, fever swamp left carcass fired from the University of Colorado. Gee, it only took two years to fire this creep. Way to go UoC, you get the bare minimum score for doing the right thing.

The vaunted Youtube debates, wassup? Ho hum.
CNN couldn't come up with questions of their own? CNN picked through the questions, why not just ask your own and follow up? Youtube is for learning guitar riffs and watching people act stupid, wait a minute, I take that back, Youtube is the perfect place for Dennis Kucinich and Joe Biden.

Lindsay cuffed and stuffed again. Wow, I could not care any less. I only hope she has one good friend left in the world who will tell her what she needs to hear. It won't be pretty and it shouldn't be.

Michael Vick indicted by a Grand Jury over dog fighting. Now I know you can have a grand jury indict a ham sandwich in certain areas, so I won't be too surprised if the case falls apart, but after the Duke rape hoax, every prosecutor in America should be on his best behavior when it comes to high profile cases. If the allegations are true, say goodbye to the NFL Michael. Americans love dogs and think people who train them to fight are scumbags, and they are right to think so.

And in the most pathetic move to get people to watch his latest 'documentary' film SICKO, if you take a Republican to got see it, the randomly selected GOP'er will have his laundry done by Michael Moore himself. And I thought I couldn't care less about Lindsay's arrest, this doesn't even get a blip on my give a crap meter.

Meanwhile there are great stories about our soldiers doing great things under most difficult of situations and you can't find these stories in the press. Hey I like to do fun stories to make myself laugh if for no other reason, but lets not forget that half a world away, a soldier is on patrol keeping the terrorist very busy trying to stay alive.

If the troop surge was working and no one reported it, would it make a sound?

Survivor golf and Mr. hurry up

I started my conditioning training today.

Gee I didn't know you were a runner Cowboy.


I'm not.

Then what are you training for?

Deer hunting season is a few weeks away.


Oh, so your getting in shape so you can kill Bambi? That's not very nice.

Did I ever claim I was 'nice'?


You probably did.

Well, I am nice, but I also hunt deer and upland birds.


Ok so what are doing for your training? Running, treadmill, spinning classes, Yoga?

Nope, golfing.

Golfing! that isn't even a real sport, just a bunch rich guys in ugly pants chasing a white ball around. How is riding around in a cart, drinking beer from the cart girl and putting going to get you in shape?

Here in Yolo County we play a different form of golf, it's called "survivor golf". If you ever watch that show where they drop this ex-special forces guy into the jungle and he tries to make it out, its like that, only much tougher.


Oh Cmon' its golf, how bad could it be?

You start out by dropping by the closest golf course near you on a weekend in July, our closest course is the new Wild Wings course. This was our first time there, it will be our last. But I digress, first you have to get a tee time about 2:30 pm when it's close to 100 degrees.


Ok, so its hot, so what?

I'm just getting started, after paying $15 each to walk 9 holes, I went out with my son who is just learning the game. With no driving range there is no way to work on your swing so you just head off to the first tee after doing a little practice putting on the putting green at the 'clubhouse'. The two golfers behind us were in a cart and had the look of folks who played well. I asked them to go out in front of us, I figured they would play much faster and I didn't want to hold them up. They said thanks and teed off. Then....


$15 isn't that bad to play a round of golf?

I have played all over California and I don't mind spending money on a nice course, I have shelled out $250 for a weekend in the Bay Area, but an afternoon rate of $15 to walk nine holes on a two year old course with no trees, no shade anywhere, brown fairways and no driving range is way too much. They know they have local golfers by the short hairs because there are not many places to play around Woodland, so they charge what they charge and people are willing to pay it. As much as I am a free-market guy, I still want to feel like I am getting what I pay for.


Oh quit crying, most of the grass was green right?

Yes, most of the grass was green, and the consistent high pitch yapping of the dog behind the fence at the 6th hole wasn't even that bad, I guess what really gets on my nerves is the other group of golfers who came up behind us on the first tee. After we let the first group of two go out in front of us, we waited for them to get out of range and we teed off. My son, who I said is just learning the game, topped his first two shots and was a total of 100 yards off the tee when the next group showed up. We were not piddling around, my son was walking up to the ball taking one practice swing and hitting the ball, badly it turns out, but were were not stopping to discuss swing tips, we were hitting the ball and walking. One of the group behinds us yelled out that we would have play 'a lot faster that that', I looked back and waved to him, choking back the urge to stomp back to the tee box and throw him into the water hazard, but I remained calm and told my son, just play your game, our $15 is the same color as his, if he wants to pretend he is Tiger Woods, he can join a country club and golf with people just as uptight as he is. My son laughed and his swing improved with each hole. We caught up to the golfers in front of us on a par three and we waited for the group behind us to finish and told them they could play through. Mr. Hurry up sheepishly thanked us and then hit his tee shot into the trap. I snuffed out a chuckle from my throat, and looked my son, he was smiling. My son bogeyed the last two holes and had shot at a couple of par puts, so all in all he did great.


Ok, so you were confronted by an inconsiderate jerk on the golf course, its no big deal.

Your right, its not a big deal, but I have been behind a lot of beginner golfers, young and old, and I remember how intimidating it was to be pressured by the group behind me. I always stop, take in the scenery and relax when there is a slower group in front of me. They have to learn too. I bet Mr. Hurry up was terrible his first ten times on a course, maybe he just forgot.


So you think walking 9 holes in 100 degree heat will get you in shape?

Well, round is a shape, right?

Tammy Faye dies at 65

I didn't want to post on Tammy Faye after my wife stumbled across her interview on Larry King last week. She looked like she had already passed away and no one told her. Yikes.



Cancer is a terrible way to go, and I do feel for her family, but wow, I mean, please stay off Larry King and let everyone remember you as a lady who wore way too much makeup, not like this.

Atkin Air, bad luck strikes again.

I saw the newsflash on the Daily Democrat website that a small plane crashed shortly after takeoff from the Woodland Airport.

(Photo from Deo Ferrer/Daily Democrat)

Both folks walked away from the wreck after a hawk smashed through the window of the Cessna. Upside down in a tomato field is no way to end a flight, but as far as airplane crashes go, if I have to be in one, I'll take this kind over the smoking hole in the ground flavor of crash.

It turns out the Cessna is owned by Atkin Air, a small charter and instruction school out of Lincoln, Ca. I have flown with Ken Atkin and his crews a dozen times in the past, mostly in their Piper Seneca II, like this one.
I have also flown in the Cessna 414, which is a cool plane.

A few years ago I saw a photo on the wall at Atkin showing a WWII Russian Yak 55M crashed on top of a Cessna 172. The Yak came in to land at the Lincoln airport and a Cessna 172 was landing on the same runway. The Yak didn't see the Cessna as it approached the runway and from what I hear you can't see much from the seat of the Yak, anyway it landed on top of the Cessna as it started it touchdown. As it turns out, the 172 was owned by a friend of ours and she had leased it to Atkin for a lesson plane. Its a good thing the Yak had a wooden propeller, otherwise the fuel tank on the Cessna may have been set ablaze.

You know, as much as I love flying, and I know you have to die of something, I think I will stick horses and Jeeps, they seem just a tab bit safer.

You know your gettin' old when....

When the music from your high school days is on the "classics" rack at Wal-Mart.
I stopped by Wallyworld on my home to see if they had the strange little device that lets you hook up a garden hose to the water intake port on the outdrive of a boat. I need a marine deep cycle battery as well and thought I would kill two birds with one stone, so down the florescently lit isles I went looking for boating supplies.

Not much luck, the six foot wide, three tier rack was filled with very little in the way of actual boat supplies, mostly rope, tie downs and assorted fishing pole holders and such. Well, at least I can get the battery here I thought to myself, so I picked up a 725 cold cranking amps battery and rolled the gray plastic cart to the checkout counter. While I was patiently waiting in line I saw what could only be described as a flash from my past.


I must admit to something right here and now, I was a huge AC/DC fan in high school. I actually sang in band with a few friends at one of our school assemblies. What did we play? Effin' AC/DC thats what! Sure we stunk, but bad AC/DC is better than a perfect rendition of any Lionel Ritchie song.

I remember we had a jukebox in the cafeteria, every morning you could be assured that someone would drop a quarter in to play Back in Black or Highway to Hell. Ah, there is nothing like three-cord power rock in the morning to get your blood pumping, except maybe Metallica.

Not only was I fan of their music, I was a collector of import AC/DC albums. I had the British and Australian import High Voltage just to name a few. Those vinyl records are long gone now and surprisingly enough I only have two or three AC/DC CDs in my collection. When I saw Angus in short pants holding that Gibson SG, I just had to buy it.

As I write this post I am listening to the bagpipe solo on "its along way to the top". A bagpipe solo? You darn right, that's music baby.

Finally, a chance to use your seat cushion as a floatation device!

Nevermind.

Columbia? What do the grow there?
Oh yea coffee, that's it, the pilot must have a few too many cups.

Or it could have been their other cash crop.

What a load of manure, in Winters no less

Debra Lo Guercio is not only the editor, she writes an opinion column for a small town paper called The Winters Express. Her column runs under the title "Because I Say So". I enjoy a good local editorial, especially when its well written and the underlying logic can be followed, even when I don't agree with opinion.

I just don't know where to start on her column. She must be trying to use humor to make her point, but her humor falls very flat. Debra's rant starts with Scooter Libby, stating that while he didn't personally out Valerie Plame, he took a bullet for those who did. Ok, Debra, you must mean Richard Armitage right? Scooter lied to protect Dick Armitage? He is the one who leaked the name of Joe Wilson's wife to Novak. This is a fact, it is not open to interpretation. So if Armitage leaked Plames name, why are you not upset that Armitage is not stamping out license plates?

Oh, its not really about who leaked what, its about Bush and his unprovoked war right Debra? Bingo!, we have a winner.

For all the outrage the left has whipped up over Senior Scooter and the commutation of his sentence, they are really upset Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald could not find anything to indict Vice President, Darth Vader,,,,I mean Dick Cheney on. Until the liberals have Cheney's head on a pike outside their geodesic dome, they will not be happy.

Never mind that Fitzgerald knew it was Armitage who leaked Plame's name to the press for two years, all the while pursuing any angle to get at the Vice President's office. My take on this is Libby tried to wiggle out of a bad situation by trying to use the 'I can't remember who said what when' defense, but he did not 'out' Valerie Plame. He testified before a Federal grand jury for 8 hours, prosecutors asking the same questions in different ways trying to get Libby to contradict his own testimony, he did. Scooter is found guilty of lying under oath. So that is the scooter Libby story, and don't get me started on Joe Wilson.

However this is not the end of Debra's illogical hat dance. She goes on to rebuff Republicans who pointed to President Clinton's pardons saying that defense is 'so weak'. Well lets take a look a just a few of the pardons that Bubba passed out like party favors on his way out of the office. Debra does not go into any detail about those, I wonder why?

Marc Rich, a fugitive financier donates $450,000 through his wife to the Clinton Presidential Library and $70,000 to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign and presto! Marc Rich gets a pardon hours before Clinton leaves office. Nothing fishy there, right Debra?

Carlos Vignali a cocaine dealer who paid Hillary's Brother $400,000 to represent him and Presto! The Cocaine dealer gets a pardon, not just a commutation of his sentence, he gets a pardon. Hmm, I smell fish again. Debra?

Maybe President Bush has this all wrong, he should have taken a half a million from Libby and given him a full pardon, that seems to be perfectly acceptable behavior to Debra.

Oh well, on to the next example of ass-hatery from Ms. Lo Guercio

Here is where she lets her true colors fly. She contends the way to finally be rid of President Bush is to find a lusty intern to 'lube Dubya’s tube' and that would be grounds to impeach him.

I'm sure that gets a chuckle from her friends but is that the best you can do Debra?

She tries to wrap up her rambling opinion by again pointing to facts not in evidence. Bush commutes Libby's sentence because Libby could spill the beans about Bush and Cheney lying about the reasons we went to war in Iraq. Ok, I guess Debra must know something we don't. She must have the smoking gun tapes or memos where Bush and Cheney admit they don't really have any reason to go to war with Iraq, they just like killing people and blowing crap up. Maybe Debra has the original pre-war intelligence papers written by the British, the Australians and half of worlds intel community stating that Saddam had no WMDs. I wish she would do us the favor of releasing those, that would be a big help.

I get it Debra, you hate George Bush. Really, I get it.
You can trot out your tired lines about trampling on the constitution and a cornucopia of high crimes but in the end, you just hate George W. Bush, and thats ok. You can write a forest's worth of opinions in your paper about the many ways W makes you crazy with anger, but your opinions are just that, your opinions.

I hope they don't charge folding money for the Winters Express, I know Debra doesn't have any of my money in her pockets.

Oh and just in case she wants to sue me, here is your byline Debra;

Note: This column may not be reproduced in any form without the copyright and byline
By Debra Lo Guercio
Copyright 2004
McNaughton Newspapers

Stop the presses, I agree with Hillary

I agree with Hillary and the Silky Pony, lets cut the field down in these debates, on both sides. Is there any reason at for Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul to be up on stage with poll numbers in the single digits? Its not like we don't know who these guys are, America has seen you and America doesn't want you to be President. Sorry to bust your bubble but its time you third tier candidates get the message, NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU THINK. I know, I know, but if the public only knew what I stand for, if they could hear my plan for America, they would flock to my campaign. Yea, sure they would.

If you want to know a grass roots effort looks like, look at Fred Thompson. Here is a guy who hasn't announced his candidacy for President and yet he polls in the top three Republicans. Fred isn't demanding he get equal time on the national stage with these debates that no one is paying attention to, he is just traveling around talking to people, and the people like what they hear.

So I hope Hillary, the Silky Pony and Barack tell the networks they think the office of President of the United States is too important to waste time debating people who have no chance of winning it.

Yolo GOP thows a great party.

I just walked back in the door from the Woodland Republican Club's picnic at Fern Park. I enjoyed the presentation given by Tom Del Baccaro the Vice Chair of the California Republican Party speaking about strategy and ideas for the 08' campaign. Tom was preceded by Greg Aghazarian who is running for the 5th Senate District.

While the local Democrats are meeting to discuss a liberal book exchange club and review Michael Moore's 'Sicko', the Yolo County Republicans are looking forward to the next election and finding ways to reach out to the community. Oh and having a few heavy hitters stop by to meet the folks who walk the precincts and stuff the mailers. Not bad for a small town Republican Club. Not bad at all.

My new Axe

I have been playing guitar for a year or two and let me just state this very clearly, I am terrible. My poor ability to play however, has not held me back from buying a new electric guitar. I have an acoustic guitar that I enjoy tormenting the cats and my wife with, but to really drive them over the edge you need an amplifier and some distortion.

I have been looking at guitars in the 300 to 500 dollar range for a few months now and did not want to buy anything made in China. Hey I know the political prisoners need something to do to pass the time, but making my guitar shouldn't be one of them. I have always liked the heavy crunch and thick sound of a Les Paul and found several knock offs that are made well and sound good, namely the Tradition and ESP but I have always had a soft spot for the Telecaster. After looking at a bunch of shiny new guitars, I could not decide on one particular axe so I kept looking.

There are two good music shops in our area, Woodland Music and Guitar and Watermelon Music in Davis. I have spent hours at each looking, playing and asking about six hundred stupid questions before I narrowed down my choices to one type of guitar and two manufactures.

After sitting in at a free guitar tone clinic at Watermelon Music one night, listening and learning about various guitar types and styles I decided I would purchase a Telecaster. The question was which one, Fender or G&L? Fender makes about 50 models from their Squire - Chinese Tele for under $200 to a Jeff Beck Tele for over $10, 000. My choices were between the Standard Telecaster, made in Mexico for about $400 and the Special Edition- Light Ash Telecaster for over $600. On the G&L side the choices were between the Tribute series ASAT, made overseas with all American parts for about $450 and the American made ASAT for just over $900

I liked the G&Ls and was very close to ordering a Tribute Classic when I stopped by Watermelon again and started looking the Fenders they had in stock. My taste in colors is not very exotic, I like black Guitars with very few frills and accouterments. While I was looking at G&Ls, I saw a Fender Light Ash Tele in black with a birdseye maple neck for $600. This was just over the amount of money I had decided to spend, but dang it was a nice guitar. I played it, I had my son play it, and asked more dumb questions before the person helping me said that that guitar had been in stock for about a year and they would really like to sell it, he said he would make me great deal on it.

I went home and looked it up on Musician's Friend and found it selling for $629. Needless to say when you can beat the online price by over $100, that is a good deal. I had the guys in the guitar shop put a set of DL Pure Blues strings on it and set the action before I picked it up. Here it is.I like shopping local when ever I can, sometimes the store has what you are looking for, sometimes they don't. I would recommend both Woodland Music and Watermelon Music. The owner of Woodland Music is an encyclopedia of Guitar knowledge and the young guys who work there are players and love to talk about gear. Watermelon Music has more than just guitars, from drums to violins to keyboards, the sell it, fix it and will teach you to play it. They also hold guitar clinics and other cool events.

I am now the proud owner of a great guitar that will last me a lifetime.

Gotta go, its time to make the cats run for cover.

Ever wanted to burn your calendar?

I have one more event marked on my calendar for the foreseeable future. That event is the Woodland Republican Club's picnic at Fern Park this Saturday evening from 5:00 to 7:00. Tom Del Baccaro will be the featured speaker and I am sure Daniel Caddy with California for Thompson will be there as well. It will be a good time and a great opportunity for Republicans to come together and remember what a great job we are doing locally and find out what is in store for the future.

The past few months have been incredibly busy for me, not that I am complaining mind you, its just that I would like to have a weekend where I can elect to do nothing at all. Poor me? Not hardly.

It is times like theses when I remember that somewhere a half a world a way, some 20 something soldier from a little town I never heard of is strapping on his gear, saying a prayer and checking his weapon before he goes out on patrol, the same way he has been everyday for months. That makes me feel guilty as can be that I am sitting here bitching about the fact that I haven't been able to take my boat out on the lake this year. I'm sure that soldier would give six months pay for a day on a lake with his family or friends, laughing and having few cold ones.

As the Fourth of July fades from our memories, remember this; if you think your burdens are too much to handle, there are folks out there who would gladly exchange problems with you.

777

I have been sucked into the lucky seven wedding black hole. I performed the wedding ceremony for my friend today at noon in Esparto. While the guests were in the shade, the wedding party stood in the noonday sun for the ceremony. All the guys were sweating, none worse than me, and the ladies were sweltering as well. As is my usual service, it ran about 8 minutes and presto, husband and wife.

The reception is still going on right now at the Boy Scout hall but I have had enough of the festivities, better to leave that to the young kids.

A great day, but I'm glad its over.

I agree with Instapundit; the best headline of the year

I KICKED BURNING TERRORIST SO HARD IN BALLS THAT I TORE A TENDON.

A HERO cabbie who took on the Glasgow Airport terror suspects told yesterday how he booted one of them in the privates.

Alex McIlveen, 45, kicked the man, whose body was in flames, so hard that he tore a tendon in his foot.

But he said last night: "He didn't even flinch. I couldn't believe he didn't go down.

"A doctor told me later I'd damaged a tendon in my foot."

I don't know, but if I were on fire I think someone kicking me in the package would be the least of my worries.

Scooter Libby, Hamas leaders in Iraq, London car bombing doctors!

What in the heck is going on here?

I have been so flippin busy with work, the ranch and writing a wedding ceremony, I have had little time to blog.

So let me list the headlines and give you my two word opinions on them.
Here goes'

Scooter Libby sentence;

• Much ado

Hamas leaders in Iraq working with Iran's Quds forces to kill American soldiers;

• Told ya

London Bombers are not disenfranchised youths, they're doctors;

• Blow-up-wardly mobile?

Tahoe Fires;

• Defensible space

Immigration Bill dies;

• Kill Bill2 or Muchas Gracias ( I couldn't decide)

McCain's Presidential Campaign;

• Code Blue