Ose vs. Oller vs. Egland for Doolittle's seat

This should be a race to watch.

Former Rep. Doug Ose, R-Sacramento, will announce Friday his candidacy for the House seat being vacated by Rep. John Doolittle, Sacramento-area Republicans were told Wednesday in an e-mail.

Doug Elmets, a political consultant who has worked for Ose before, declined to confirm the report from Carl Burton, president of Republicans of River City.

Ose held the Sacramento area's 3rd Congressional District seat from 1999 until 2005, when he retired to keep a promise to serve no more than three terms. He would face a primary in which former state Sen. Rico Oller, R-San Andreas, and national security consultant Eric Egland have already announced.

I Like Doug Ose, I've met him a time or two, I really like what I have heard about Egland, I'm not too sure about Oller.

It should be fun.

Its McCain in Florida

Let me contain my enthusiasm, ok, its contained.
The more I think of John McCain as our nominee I shudder.
I know all the reasons I should get behind him, and I will if he is the nominee, but here are some of the reasons I can't get exited about the Maverick from Arizona.

McCain/Fiengold, a terrible idea, a terrible law.

McCain/Kennedy, call it by any name you like, but its amnesty.

The gang of 14, we had the majority and could have ended the filibusters to get qualifies judges and up or down vote in the Senate. Thanks John.

Voted twice against the Bush tax cuts. Twice.

Global Warming "I will clean up the planet," McCain said. "I will make global warming a priority." How Senator? China and India will soon overtake the US in oil consumption and are already the worlds leading polluters, how is strangling American bussines in regulation going to stop China and India's pollution?

Those are just a few of the reasons I can't get exited about Senator John "but I'll build the G@! D^*&$# fence if they want it" McCain.

Our only hope is Hillary, if its Obama, the Republicans are toast.

I like Barack Obama and Chives Regal

I know you have been waiting for this. Just who will Ted Kennedy support in the upcoming election? We already know his fondness for Scotch, and now he seems to be working up an addiction to one term Senators from Illinois.

Summoning memories of his brother the slain president, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy led two generations of the First Family of Democratic politics Monday in endorsing Barack Obama for the White House, declaring, "I feel change is in the air."

Good for you Barack, I just hope Ted doesn't ask you to get in the middle of a Senator sandwich with Chris Dodd.

Hitler - Dallas Cowboys fan

Ok, I know I shouldn't post this, especially on a Sunday. Warning, there is a lot of 'sailor language' in the sub titles so be aware, its definitely rated 'R', but it sure is funny.

Hat tip to Instapundit

Bill Clinton, former President, - a small, mean man

One thing about the Clintons, if you want to see their true colors, watch them when things don't go their way. With the prospect of his wife's candidacy going into the toilet to a young upstart who in his opinion has not put in the time and work necessary to become chief executive, the former President is having a tantrum. President Clinton wants back at the table of power in the worst possible way. He is not comfortable without the spotlight and without feeling completely essential to the well being of this great land. That folks is not good news for the junior Senator from New York.

If Hillary doesn't put a muzzle on her husband, she risks loosing all the good will from her tear jerking, emotional couch session that jumped started her candidacy back in New Hampshire. Its hard to be seen as a caring, warm woman when you send your husband out to do your campaign's dirty work all the while hiding behind his former status as President.

If you ever wondered what the real Bill Clinton was like behind the scenes, take a look at the former President's behavior the past two weeks. Without his handlers to save him from himself, he looks the part of a petty, small and mean spirited man. In this case, looks are not deceiving.

I'll bet Hillary's campaign managers are secretly hoping for some sort of natural disaster to strike Tierra del Fuego or some other remote place so the former President can go back to hanging out with George HW Bush and raising money to help the victims.

Bill Clinton seems quite good at that. Political heavy? Not so much.

Ok, I'm ready to see the sun.

As someone with a vested interest in agriculture, I am always watching the weather forecast. With two dry winters in a row, I was a bit worried about the possibility of a third and the dramatic cuts in the amount of water made available to farmers within our water district. I am feeling much better with the soaking rains of December and January.

I would like to see a break in the next few day for the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale, but it looks more likely we'll see snow before we will see the sun.

Oh well, a soggy trip to the bull sale beats a sunny trip to Fresno.

Fred 08', a campaign that never really started

Ever watch one of those Biker Build offs on tv?

The ones where custom motorcycle builders start from scratch and in five days they have to ride their new creation a hundred or so miles, to make sure it actually works, to a biker rally where thousands of motorcycle fans vote on who built the best custom bike?

I have watched a few of the programs and the motorcycles they build are awe inspiring. Some guys make their own frames from raw tube steel and hand build almost every piece of hardware that goes on the finished product. It's really cool, but 5 days to build a complete working motorcycle is a challenge even if you have been doing it for 20 years.

On a few shows, one of the builder has a great design, truly innovative and beautiful, but when midnight comes on Friday, the deadline for the build, they can't get the motor to fire up. As the clock strikes twelve, the builder looses the build off to his competitor.

If Fred Thompson was on this type of show, here is how that would play out.

Fred has a wonderful design, he may be the best bike builder of the bunch, he has great ideas and the finished product would surely win, except Fred took Monday of the build week off. He wanted to stay home with his wife and kid to pick out wall paper for the new bathroom remodel.

On Tuesday he came into the shop around noon and doodled some ideas for the bike on a napkin and went to have lunch at Hooters never to return that day.

Wednesday morning he showed up around 10:00 am and starts to order parts for his project, but the really cool parts will take time to get and the ones in stock had already been purchased by his competitors. Hmm, Fred calls around and finds some parts that he can tweak to fit his project and gets them ordered then he takes the rest of the day off.

Thursday rolls around and Fred shows up at the shop and waits for the parts to arrive. Fed Ex rolls in at 10:30 and it seems the parts he ordered were all wrong for this particular project so he pulls one of his old bikes out of the back and decides to borrow a few pieces off that one to get the ball rolling. He works on the bike until 5:00 pm and goes home because everyone else did and he's hungry.

Friday he starts at 7:45 am and is working hard for an hour or so until a buddy shows up at the shop and they go to lunch at Hooters, Fred loves their wings you know, he comes back at 2:15 to resume work. He works feverishly, with a few breaks for snacks and a phone call from the wife to remind him to pick up the dry cleaning. He works on for hours until something resembling a motorcycle is sitting on the build bench at 11:45 pm.

He steps back and says, you know, I thought this would be easier, I have been doing this for a long time and I always thought I was pretty darn good at it. With time winding down Fred kicks over the engine and remembers that he didn't hook up the fuel line. He connects the fuel line with two minutes to spare and again tries to start the engine. And Again. And again. No dice.

The clock strikes 12:00 midnight and with a small group of folks standing around his bike, he quietly concedes the bike isn't going to start. He heads off to Hooters before they close.

That is the Fred 08' campaign in a nutshell, or a biker build off analogy.

Anyone want a Fred 08' yard sign? I'm taking cheap, make me an offer.

Ron Paul / RuPaul 2008

Its an electoral juggernaut!

You want change? Baby you got it!

I want Ron as VP by the way.

Martin Luther King - a complex man

I was driving my son to a friend's house last night and with MLK day coming up on Monday we were talking about Dr. King and his role in changing America. I explained to my son that what Dr. King accomplished was to take the plight of blacks in the South and bring it to main street America. No longer could the vast majority of middle America ignore the injustice and the cruelty being carried out upon a segment of their own citizenry based on the color of their skin.

I liken it to a home with dry rot in the walls and foundation. You may not see the damage from a quick glance, but if you start removing the drywall and pulling up the carpet, you see the decaying wood and flooring. Dr King's role in the civil rights movements was to peel away the covering, and letting everyone see just what was going on underneath. If you had to look at the problem every day, day in and day out, it would become very hard to ignore. After a while you would make the decision to start the costly repairs. The images of fire hoses and police dogs were a vivid reminder that below the surface in this country, most specifically in the South, there was a problem that needed a remedy.

If you have read many of King's speeches, he held some views that I still believe are wrong when it comes to the best way to lift the poor out of poverty. While most of us are familiar with parts of Dr. King's 'I have a dream speech' he gave many, many speeches where he called for various forms of socialism. In his shoes, I am not sure I wouldn't have done the same. If it took the full force of the federal government to allow blacks the right to vote and to enjoy the full blessings of citizenship, then it would seems an easy reach to reason the only way to move forward would be having the federal government legislate prosperity and opportunity to the black community.

I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about "Where do we go from here?" that we must honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. (Yes) There are forty million poor people here, and one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising a question about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. (Yes) And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's marketplace. (Yes) But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. (All right) It means that questions must be raised. And you see, my friends, when you deal with this you begin to ask the question, "Who owns the oil?" (Yes) You begin to ask the question, "Who owns the iron ore?" (Yes) You begin to ask the question, "Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that's two-thirds water?" (All right) These are words that must be said. (All right)

Now, don't think you have me in a bind today. I'm not talking about communism. What I'm talking about is far beyond communism. (Yeah) My inspiration didn't come from Karl Marx (Speak); my inspiration didn't come from Engels; my inspiration didn't come from Trotsky; my inspiration didn't come from Lenin. Yes, I read Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital a long time ago (Well), and I saw that maybe Marx didn't follow Hegel enough. (All right) He took his dialectics, but he left out his idealism and his spiritualism. And he went over to a German philosopher by the name of Feuerbach, and took his materialism and made it into a system that he called "dialectical materialism." (Speak) I have to reject that.

What I'm saying to you this morning is communism forgets that life is individual. (Yes) Capitalism forgets that life is social. (Yes, Go ahead) And the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism, but in a higher synthesis. (Speak) [applause] It is found in a higher synthesis (Come on) that combines the truths of both. (Yes) Now, when I say questioning the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. (All right) These are the triple evils that are interrelated.

In the same speech King also spoke with the Christian heart of a Pastor.

And so I say to you today that I still stand by nonviolence. (Yes) And I am still convinced [applause], and I'm still convinced that it is the most potent weapon available to the Negro in his struggle for justice in this country.

And the other thing is, I'm concerned about a better world. I'm concerned about justice; I'm concerned about brotherhood; I'm concerned about truth. (That’s right) And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. (Yes) Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. (That's right) Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate through violence. (All right, That’s right) Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that. [applause]

And I say to you, I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. (Yes) And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. (No) And I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love; I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. (Yes) For I have seen too much hate. (Yes) I've seen too much hate on the faces of sheriffs in the South. (Yeah) I've seen hate on the faces of too many Klansmen and too many White Citizens Councilors in the South to want to hate, myself, because every time I see it, I know that it does something to their faces and their personalities, and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. (Yes, That’s right) I have decided to love. [applause] If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we aren't moving wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. (Yes) He who hates does not know God, but he who loves has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.

And so I say to you today, my friends, that you may be able to speak with the tongues of men and angels (All right); you may have the eloquence of articulate speech; but if you have not love, it means nothing. (That's right) Yes, you may have the gift of prophecy; you may have the gift of scientific prediction (Yes sir) and understand the behavior of molecules (All right); you may break into the storehouse of nature (Yes sir) and bring forth many new insights; yes, you may ascend to the heights of academic achievement (Yes sir) so that you have all knowledge (Yes sir, Yes); and you may boast of your great institutions of learning and the boundless extent of your degrees; but if you have not love, all of these mean absolutely nothing. (Yes) You may even give your goods to feed the poor (Yes sir); you may bestow great gifts to charity (Speak); and you may tower high in philanthropy; but if you have not love, your charity means nothing. (Yes sir) You may even give your body to be burned and die the death of a martyr, and your spilt blood may be a symbol of honor for generations yet unborn, and thousands may praise you as one of history's greatest heroes; but if you have not love (Yes, All right), your blood was spilt in vain. What I'm trying to get you to see this morning is that a man may be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice. His generosity may feed his ego, and his piety may feed his pride. (Speak) So without love, benevolence becomes egotism, and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride.

Every person I have read about in history was neither all good nor were they all bad. The strange thing about historical people is they still are human beings, fraught with flaws and endowed with great gifts. In Martin Luther King Jr.'s case I am left with deep admiration of a complex man, a man with a soft caring heart and an iron conviction that the injustice to his race must end. While I cannot ascribe to all that Dr. King believed, he was a great man, he was a great American and we should honor him for all he accomplished and all he gave to that end.

Vote for Huckabee in South Carolina?

The old saying about politics and strange bedfellows takes a new turn in South Carolina as the Thomson and Romney supporters may just vote for Huckabee to deny a victory to John McCain.

I don't like this strategy at all. If you can't win with your ideas, you can't win. Name recognition and having the MSM in your corner never hurts in McCains case but the Republican party wins by having better ideas than their opponents.

I am not a McCain supporter, he is wrong on too many issues, and by wrong I mean way wrong. He gets the war against radical Islam right and that would make me vote for him against either Obama or Clinton, but he is tied for my third choice in the GOP. I like Romney then Rudy followed by McCain/Huckabee. I really like Fred but unless he pulls off the stunner of the campaign season this weekend, he's dead as disco.

If McCain gets the GOP nomination the base will not walk precincts or write checks, they may vote for him if they think it will be close on election day just to keep a Democrat out of the White House, but I can see Bob Dole vs Bill Clinton II if McCain goes up against Barack Obama in November.

An honorable older man, way past his prime against a young man full of energy and preaching populism.

Final score;
Populism 2 - Honor 0

Fender's New American Standard

Ok, so what is going on with Fender? Is this some new slick marketing campaign or has Fender turner the corner on the American Standard when it comes to consistency, fit and finish?

Don't get me wrong, I am not a guitar guru. I play my all black Lite Ash Telecaster a few times a week and I am not good, but I love guitars.
Not quite in the same as my affection for hand crafted bolt action riffles, but close.

I did see a new Tele that I really liked the other day. It was matte black with EMG dual humbuckers, no tone knob just a volume knob, its the Jim Root Telecaster. The sound is incredible. Raw, thick with just a bit of the Tele spank. My son likes it a lot. He wants me to trade in my Lite Ash for it.


I don't think so. I am a traditionalist. I like the looks and the classic 50s stying of my Tele.

Romney wins Michigan Primary

But you knew that already. So, whats it all mean?
Beats the stuffing out of me.

The MSM who were pulling for McCain are down in the mouth about Romney's victory. The old media has been trying to shovel dirt on Mitt Romney for six months now. They see something they don't like in Mitt, an achiever and a good communicator who has been successful in all aspects of his public life. First the Media jumped on the Huckabee bandwagon after Iowa, then jumped onto the McCain wagon after New Hampshire, do you think they will get behind Mitt Romney who has almost twice as many delegates than his nearest competitor?

Not a chance.

Capay Valley Almond Blossom Festival 2008

I know that the last Sunday in February is still a ways off, but I was just sent this info and thought it never too early to get the word out. The Almond Festival as the locals call it, is a special time of year. Lots to see and do in every small town up and down the valley. If your coming from Sacramento or Woodland, here's where to get breakfast on Sunday, February 24th.

It seems that the F.O.E. Eagles - Boy Scout Troop 464 is having a Pancake Feed Fundraiser Sunday, Feb. 24th 7A.M. - Noon at the Eagles Hall 37650 SR. 16, Woodland CA.

$4 Standard Breakfast -Kids 5 and under eat free!
$6 all you can eat pancakes (after standard breakfast)
(Pancakes, Sausage, Scrambled Eggs, Coffee & O.J.)

If you're coming from Woodland out to Esparto to take a tour of the Capay Valley for the Almond Festival, stop by the Eagles Hall, its just past Raley's on the way out of Woodland on Highway 16.

Cal and the boys would be glad to feed you breakfast.

How bout them Cowboys?

Or not.
What a game. I was is in a full non-gloating mode all week with the Giants game coming up this Sunday. I had zero faith in the Boys this week, or the past few weeks for that matter. I'm sure you will hear about Tony Romo and his off-week trip with Jessica Simpson down to Mexico and how he should have kept his focus on football, I don't think his trip south of the border hurt his game today by any means. The series where he was sacked by not throwing it away and then throwing it out of bounds while in the pocket and taking a intentional grounding penalty was a bad series and his only dumb plays of the game, but you cannot lay the blame for this loss on the quarterback alone.

If anything, the whole darn team should have a session on focus, missed tackles, penalties on the offensive line, late hits, not getting the plays into the huddle on time, just a plain lack of focus. That my friends is laid squarely at the feet of Wade Phillips and his coaching staff. Phillips seems like a nice guy and the word around the league is that he's a player's coach. How many nice guy, player's coaches win championships? Not many.

After having a tyrant like Parcells as coach, it sure seems like the Cowboys are lax and a little too laid back to win when the going gets rough. You can't let dropped passes, false starts and terrible tackling form go unpunished. One is a mistake, two is a trend and three is a habit. If you need to sit some players to get that message across, sit them, if you need to get into a players face at practice so you don't have to do it during the game, then you need to do it.

Xs and Os are one part of the game, accepting poor performance on a regular basis is telling people that we really don't care about the details, and that folks is what separates playoff teams from Superbowl champions, and good coaches from great coaches.

Ah, to be a Freshman again

Freshman year of high school has to be one of the strangest times growing up. Not quite a kid any longer and definitely not an adult. Stuck in the middle of thinking about having fun with your friends and thinking about the opposite sex. Somehow or another, girls started looking different and I noticed that they smelled nice the summer before my freshman year.

I started to really listen to the music I was listening to and I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, not that I had a clue about what I wanted to do, but I started thing about it.

Fun times? Absolutely.
Scary times? Yes. I have to admit that the thought of leaving my tiny country school to attend the 'huge' high school with 1,200 kids scared me quite a bit. Looking back, I'm not sure why, high school was blast.

Which brings me to this morning.

I was serenaded last night by three freshman, my son and his two friends, playing every Metallica song they know on guitars and bass. They rented 'Balls of Fury" and are now settling down to watch it after breakfast and a short session of ATV riding around the barn. My wife and I are trying to keep our daughter out of their way, she loves the commotion and rough and tumble world of three teenagers playing, my son thinks she is ruining all their fun.

Never having a younger sister I imagine that having her hang around your friends when they visit makes it hard to be 'cool'. If I remember right, being 'cool' was very high up on the list of things to be when I was a freshman too.

I also rented a movie or two to combat this assault on my sanity. Last night I watched '3:10 to Yuma', I am glad I didn't pay $10 to see it in the theater. I give it a C-. Tonight my wife and I will watch 'The Kingdom'. I hope its better.

John Doolittle retires

Its about time, or I should say its well past time for the Congressman to head back to the private sector.

Doolittle, 57, came close to losing re-election in 2006 in one of the most conservative districts in California, and some in his own party believed he couldn't survive this time around.

Doolittle made no reference to his legal troubles in a prepared statement, instead issuing something of a call to arms to fellow conservatives.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending a public announcement in Doolittle's Northern California district.

The development comes as Doolittle, in his ninth term, faced growing political pressure from fellow Republicans who considered him a liability because of his involvement, along with his wife, Julie, in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling investigation. House Republicans, still smarting from losing control of Congress in 2006, are eager to put that ethics taint behind them.

One more millstone removed from the the neck of the GOP.

I hope this leads to a general house cleaning, from the top down in Washington.

Scandals, earmarks, sexual impropriety, I don't need to go on do I?

Larry Craig, are you listening. Take your wide stance back to Idaho and make room for someone who won't be the butt of late night jokes from now until November.

Folks, if we don't start looking for and voting for fresh new faces in the GOP, we are going to be on the outside looking for a long time.

Knowing what you know now, would you want to roll the dice?

I just had a fascinating discussion in my small group Bible study about the way we view our lives. Well, at least I find it fascinating, it might bore you to tears.

I hear people all the time talk about how they would do things differently if they had the chance, or if they had just done this instead of that, their lives would be much better. We were sitting around after our study and chatting when we got on the subject of where you are in your life. I said that I wouldn't change anything in my life because I'm pretty happy with where I am right now.

I have a great family, nice home, I have my health, and I am pretty content at where I am in this journey through life. Don't get me wrong, I have had many low points. I had many disappointments, suffered great loss, found myself miserable not knowing what would happen next, and at times and been so broke I couldn't pay attention. But looking back, everything I went through, brought me to this point in time. Would I like to have arrived here without so many of the heart aches? I'm not sure, we learn a lot through our trials and through our suffering, it isn't pleasant, sometimes you don't think you will make it through, but you do.

I am also just as confident that I will soon face more adversity and heart ache. I am not looking forward to it, not at all, but it's coming and there is no stopping it. I hope I learn from each of them and become a better person because of it.

Maybe your life is a mess right now, maybe you're at the lowest point you have ever experienced. I feel for you. I may not know what you are going through, or the pain you are feeling, but I hope it stops and I hope you make it through today, then another day, then another.

My point is, if you asked me right at the lowest point of my life if I would like to roll the dice, to change my life and not have to go through this pain, I may have said yes.

That would have been a big mistake. I wouldn't be right here, right now, and right here, right now is just fine with me.

New Hampshire hates black people

Not only does New Hampshire hate Jesus, it seems the Granite State is not to fond of black people either. I swear, I'm not making this up. I hope I can find the link on Youtube soon.

I was flipping through tonights coverage of the NH primary and stopped by MSNBC. Why I don't know, but the panel was Keith Olbermann, Tim Russert and Chris Mathews. Mathews was opining on why the polls were wrong, he said there should be some kind of inquiry made on why the polls were wrong. Some other 'factor' was at play that made the voters break for Clinton and away from Obama. He said that the pollsters speak in proper english or politically correct english, and people tend to give politically correct answers. He wondered if someone with an 'Archie Bunker' voice came on the phone and asked who they were going to vote for, they would get a more honest answer.

What are you trying to say Chris? New Hampshire voters told pollsters that they would vote for Obama, but secretly they won't vote for a black man?

That's sure what it sounded like to me. Mathews can't get over the fact that Barack didn't win, there must be a reason why, that reason must be racism.

Way to go Chris, it couldn't be the emotion shown by Hillary in the past day or so, or Bill's angry smackdown of Barack's record of non accomplishments, it must be racism.

This is just the first of many times the false flag of racism will be hoisted by the MSM when their candidate doesn't win.

I would like to hear someone call Chris Mathews on the carpet for this.

He then asked Tim Russert if he agreed and Russert looked like someone shot his dog, then Russert smiled and said that the Des Moines Register was dead on and so it must be something else. It sure seemed like Tim was trying to yank Mathews foot out of his mouth.

McCain first, Romney second and Huckabee is an also ran.

Three different elections, three different winners.
Talk about an open field.

With votes counted from 51 percent of the state's precincts, McCain was winning 37 percent of the vote, Romney had 32 and Huckabee 11. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had 9 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul 8

Is Romney done? Will McCain be a one state wonder like Huckabee? Stay tuned folks.

With tonight's primary, the delegate count stands at:
Romney 29
Huckabee 20
McCain 9

We have a long way to go.

Blogging by battery back up, again

Well, not quite. Our home has been one of the lucky ones in Yolo County for the past few days. With power out all over the area, our power stayed on throughout the worst of the wind and rain. That was until about 4:15 this morning when the alarm on the UPS that I use for my computer and DSL started beeping. I know almost every beep in my house. It wasn't the chirp of a low battery on a smoke detector or my carbon monoxide detector going off, so I woke up and saw that the power was off and the beep was coming from my UPS.

Neat.

I looked through my window at a sea of darkness, no lights in Esparto or any lights in my area. My buddy called me the night before telling me how his power has been off for two days running. I thought it might take a while for the power to come back on with all the outages and every crew PG&E has working around the clock. I checked the local news websites with the 10 minutes of backup power I had and there didn't seem to be any news about our area so I figured it must have been a blown transformer or a line down. Strange, there was little or no wind and rain last night, so my money is on one of the casino patrons crashing into a power pole trying to navigate the narrow country roads.

I stoked the fire back to life and threw on a few more logs. I already have the bathtub full of water to flush the toilet with so I was as ready. I found my little portable radio and tried to get some news on. No luck. Sunday mornings at 4:45 are very sparse when it comes to live news or any news, just a lot of folks selling vitamins or get rich quick schemes. Arrrg.

Oh well, I didn't want to wake my wife up so I sat on the couch next to the fire with my earbuds in listening to NLF Gameday.

The power did come back on about 9:00 am and I quickly hit the shower and made breakfast. You can't be too sure. The lights have stayed on all day and I just stayed around the house cleaning the garage.

Hopefully the all rain that is coming this week will have a place to go. The ground is saturated and there is standing water everywhere. I have cleaned all the ditches around my house so, I guess I am as ready as I can be.

Romney crushing all comers in Wyoming Primary

How much money do you think Mitt Romney would pay if he could have Wyoming as the first primary?

He is smoking all his rivals, but Wyoming is so darn small no one pays much attention.
I'm sure Camp Romney will spin it as a comeback and Huckabee and McCain will spin it as 'Wyoming had a Primary?', but as for the media, no one is there, no live trucks, no live newscasts from Casper, no interviews with the Carhartt clad cattle ranchers and school teachers.

Hey, I'm sorry Wyoming, your home to Darth Vader, I mean Dick Cheney and you know how much the media hates the Vice President. So go back home throw another few logs on the fire and get warm, you did your electoral duty and that's all we can ask.

New Hampshire hates Jesus

[Huckabee's] aides are wary of New Hampshire. “It’s all no tax, no government there,” said Bob Wickers, a top strategist. “It’s not ideal.”

Not the ideal place for a big spending moderate Republican, as well as the fact that 40% of the NH voters will not be evangelical Christians. As Dunlop says, "New Hampshire hates Jesus".

Now I'm sure there are fine Christian folks in the granite state, a small group of them anyway, they love Jesus.

(I apologize in advance for whatever Jackie and Dunlop say)

I just dumped the rain gauge

3 1/2 inches of rain from this second in a line of three storms heading in from the Pacific. It seems the storm door is open, or blown off it hinges is more like it.

70 MPH winds, rain coming in sideways plus the added fun of dodging fallen trees and telephone poles. Yes, its winter in Yolo County, but after two dry winters, you won't hear a peep of complaining from me.

I'm firing up the quad and I'm off to go dig out the culverts so the water will drain out of the fields.

Obama 55% to Huckabee's 45% come November

Don't just take my word for it.

Here is the data.

Not that I think the primary is over, its just started, but the one thing that makes me shiver is the two winners on the GOP side are Huckabee, who will be slaughtered in the general election and McCain who fairs much better in the general election but would be a disaster in the oval office from a conservative point of view. Gang of 14 ring any bells? Just think of more Supreme Court justices like Breyer and Kennedy, not Roberts and Alito. That being said, I will take any Republican over anyone the Democrats roll out in 08', except for Ron Paul, crazy people don't count.

This is going to get every interesting, very fast.
For Rudy, Florida can't get here soon enough and may be too late when it does.
Anyone need a Fred Thompson bumper sticker? There will be a big sale on those very soon.

For everyone who thought McCain was dead as disco, your truly included, the maverick is back in the game for now. It was interesting when I was looking at McCain's staff I found Mark McKinnon was running the campaign. It makes sense. McKinnon is about as good you get, tough, smart and able to dig in when things get rough.


New Hampshire has always loved John McCain and he may get the bump he needs from the granite state, but after that? Do you think the maverick is going to do well in South Carolina? Maybe.

If Romney shrivels up and fades away after a defeat in NH, where will that establishment money go? Huckabee? I don't think so, if McCain wins big in New Hampshire, Romney is toast and Rudy and McCain will divvy up the old line GOP money.

Time will tell.

The only good news I came away with tonight was this.

The Republican National Committee, which reported yesterday that it had raised $83 million for the year, easily topping the Democratic National Committee, which had raised $50.5 million in the first 11 months of 2007.

Oh, my let the spin begin!

I feel pretty

I am hoping for a Romney win and an Edwards win.
Huckabbe, as I have said, would be a disaster for the GOP come November.
As for the Democrats, I would love to run against the Silky Pony.

Aaaaaaaand there off!

As the starting gate opens on the Presidential race in 2008, the votes actually count toward something.

I would like to look back tomorrow and see which polls were right and which polls were dead wrong.

Democrats
Zogby Tracking Obama +4
Strategic Vis. Obama +3
Des Moines Reg Obama +7
CNN Clinton +2
ARG Clinton+9
Insider Ad Obama +1


Republicans
Zogby Tracking Huckabee +6
Strategic Vis. Romney +2
Des Moines Reg Huckabee +6
CNN Romney +3
ARG Huckabee +5
Insider Ad Huckabee +6

We are raising the plague flag.

Ugh. First it was my son, then it was my turn, now its my wife and daughter.

The flu, or something like it has stricken Casa de Cowboy.

The dogs, cats and Holly the Christmas Goat seem none the worse for wear.

Happy New Year to you too.