Too many pigs for the teats.

In a letter I recently sent to my Congressman, I explained that the people in his district sent a Republican to Washington to keep a lid on wasteful spending. I didn't find any pork projects in my district, yet. If there are, I will publicize them, count on it.

Dear Representative Herger,

Let me first say that I live in your district and have supported you on many issues. I read the statement you and 25 other Representatives sent to President Bush on the 21st of this month. While I applaud your sentiment to curtail spending due to the rebuilding cost of the gulf coast areas, I believe it is your duty as an elected representative to find the 'pork' in the bills the Congress passes. You should have a "Top 10 pork projects" area on your website to shame these members of Congress, Democrat and Republican alike into cutting these pet projects. The people of your district sent a Republican to the Congress to keep a lid on wasteful spending. I am having a hard time telling my 12 year old son that Republicans are the party of fiscal constraint. Lead the way Representative Herger.

Grenades don't kill people, stupid bureaucrats do.

From the what the *&$# were you thinking department;

A hand grenade kept as a souvenir from Lebanon's civil war exploded in a Kuwaiti government office as a worker played with it, killing the man and injuring two other people.

The dead and injured were all Lebanese employees of the Kuwaiti Information Office. Ayas al-Alayli, 36, took the grenade from a shelf and threw it to the floor to show Mirna Mugharbel, a secretary, that it would not explode, an employee in the office said.

It was unclear why the grenade was kept in the office, but the Kuwaiti ambassador told reporters it had been there for more than two years.

Next time you want a souvenir, take a picture.

Robert Mugabe hates white people.

Why would you remove at gunpoint the only citizens in your country that are capable of feeding it? Ask the far left dictator Robert Mugabe. He has amended the constitution of Zimbabwe for the 17th time to take all remaining property rights away from white farmers. He is giving the land to black farmers, especially his friends and those who grease his palms. How are the new 'indigenous farmers' doing with their new found land? Sending one third of the population into starvation. Socialism, mixed with reparations and racism is a terrible recipe for a nation.

About 3,500, or 90 per cent, of white commercial farmers have been forced out by Mr Mugabe and his cronies since 2000. Irrigation systems are broken, rich land is fallow, most dairy cattle have been eaten and hundreds of thousands of Africa's most skilled farm workers have fled abroad or are unemployed.

Zimbabwe was a net exporter of food but now depends on imports and the United Nations says up to four million people, or a third of the population, need emergency feeding.

At what point do you tell your people you don't have anything to eat because we hate white people?

Stuck on stupid.

I first heard this phrase through a friend, let's call him 'Will'. Will had been an Army Ranger once, he was a young guy and mildly crazy. Not barking at the moon crazy, more of the 'go pull the tail of that bull over there" kind of crazy. He was a great source for military jargon and had an advanced degree in profanity. Not the kind of guy to invite to the church elders picnic, but a great guy to have behind you in a scrap.

When General Honore told a reporter today "You are stuck on stupid" I almost drove off the road. I will bet that every military commander that ever sat in front of a microphone has wanted to say that very same thing at least once.

Male reporter: General, a little bit more about why that's happening this time, though, and did not have that last time...

Honore: You are stuck on stupid. I'm not going to answer that question. We are going to deal with Rita. This is public information that people are depending on the government to put out. This is the way we've got to do it. So please. I apologize to you, but let's talk about the future. Rita is happening. And right now, we need to get good, clean information out to the people that they can use. And we can have a conversation on the side about the past, in a couple of months.

The press is going to defend their own, you can be sure. Maureen Dowd will have a column with the same title saying that the President is the one who is stuck, but as far as today goes, I have a warm feeling that things are right with the world.

The power of words.

Michael Ackley's column is a great piece on how the media subtly changes a few words to send the reader the message they want.

Anyway, let us look at some examples of word choice in post-hurricane reporting
last week: A CBS radio report said President Bush 'conceded'
that relief efforts had not gone well and 'admitted' more help was needed.
Now, the reporter should have used the less colorful 'said' for the quoted words. For the former implies Bush had taken the opposite view and the latter implies a
confession of error. Neither was accurate

Topic A with Tina Brown or monkeys throwing spaghetti at each other-

Which would you rather watch?

If you look at Brown's ratings, a strong case could be made for the pasta throwing chimps. But she's not bitter. When the left fails, they slam FOX, or at least Rupert Murdoch.

Friends and colleagues were all floored in 1998 when he suddenly dispatched Anna, his second wife of 31 years, with breathtaking speed, fired her from the News Corp. board and married a 32-year-old go-getter, Wendi Deng. Anna, it's said, had wanted Rupert to ease down the work drive. Rather than change his life, he changed his wife, a familiar pattern in other moguls but surprising for the famously uxorious Rupert.

Today, a fox executive had this great line back to Brown.

"Tina Brown discussing ratings is like Courtney Love dispensing advice on how to stay sober -- neither one knows how to achieve it." Brown's show scratched 52 times out of 66 episodes during her 15 month run on CNBC --

The French worker, an endangered species.

A 35 hour work week, 13 weeks of paid vacation, what are we, slaves? How dare you want us to work in these sweatshop conditions...
We'll go on strike.

Hundreds of Hewlett-Packard employees walked off the job Friday to protest planned job cuts by the U.S. maker of computers and printers.

The largest of three walkouts was at the company's Grenoble site in southeastern France, which drew several hundred employees led by local officials and Mayor Michel Destot.

"Grenoble needs Hewlett-Packard, but Hewlett-Packard doesn't need Grenoble," Destot said

.
The Mayor makes a great point, for the other side. HP doesn't need you, so you strike?
Great thinking. Why not ask for a raise and another week of paid holidays?
Maybe I don't understand Euro-think.

Dude, check out my bulge.

For sale, a piece of property in Oregon? Quiet, secluded, beautiful view of the valley, and if doesn't have a panoramic view now, wait a hundred thousand years.

Scientists say it probably started growing in 1997 and has been rising 1.4 inches a year since. The likely cause of the bulge is a pool of magma. Larry Chitwood, a geologist at Deschutes National Forest, told The Oregonian the pooling magma is under tremendous pressure causing the Earth's surface to expand and bulge. The uplift could be anything from the early stages of a volcano, to a pooling of liquid rock. USGS geologists admit, they just don't know.

It must be Bush's fault. Why doesn't the FEMA do something now to save people, why not evacuate Oregon now, why tempt fate. Why the slow federal response?

President Bush hates white farmers and cattle ranchers. Oh, and folks over in Ashland smoking the hippie lettuce, he hates them too.

Can I see some ID?

Here are the rules.

Register to vote if you are eligible, do it before the deadline.

Show up at your voting place with a valid State issued photo ID.

Vote, once.

Done.

Now, why is that so hard for the left to figure out? I read an opinion piece by Cynthia Tucker from the Atlanta Journal Constitution. What a load of liberal horse manure.

Perhaps that reader has changed his mind after reading or watching wrenching accounts of the devastation by Hurricane Katrina, which so grievously punished the poor - families so destitute they couldn't buy a bus ticket to get out of town. They certainly didn't have cars, so they had no need for driver's licenses. But they are Americans, too, and they have every right to cast ballots for the candidates of their choice.

When Louisiana adopted a new voter ID requirement in 1997, it acknowledged the possibility of disenfranchising a large number of voters with a law drawn too rigidly, so it installed a fail-safe. Voters without photo IDs were allowed to sign an affidavit swearing that they weren't lying when they declared themselves to be Mattie Simmons or John Tate. That way, their votes can still be counted. Those ballots may be contested, however, by any candidate demanding a recount in a close race.

Georgia, by contrast, dumped its fail-safe mechanism. The old law allowed voters without IDs to sign affidavits attesting to their identities but that didn't satisfy callous lawmakers determined to restrict the franchise. Its new voter ID law, the most restrictive in the nation, will undoubtedly block from the ballot box thousands of poor and elderly Georgians - solid citizens and regular voters who simply have no driver's license or other state-sponsored ID.

Poor people and the elderly cannot be expected to have a valid State issued photo ID. It it too much of a burden for them. They don't have cars, they don't need drivers licenses so why force them to get an ID? They should be able to sign an affidavit that says that's who they are.

Sounds great, if you are a Democratic politician. How can the Democrats expect to win back the south without from the dead, from convicted felons and multiple votes from really enthusiastic constituents?

Why does the left expect so little from the poor and elderly?

All these people without cars, how do they get around? Have they ever ventured outside their homes? Do they have any family? How did they sign up for government assistance? Could they ask a friend to take them to the DMV? The AARP will be holding bus tours of DMV offices to get seniors registered you can bet. How hard is it to get a photo ID? Churches will be doing much of the same thing. People who want to vote legally will have that chance. People who are ineligible to vote, well they will be "disenfranchised".

The more I think about this, the more it makes me think the left has the problem with prejudice.

A great job for Cindy Sheehan.

Vice President of Venezuela. Cindy can stand beside Hugo Chavez and demand that the US military get out of their hemisphere.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he has documentary evidence the United States plans to invade his country.

Chavez, interviewed on Saturday on US television's Nightline, said the plan is called "Balboa" and involves aircraft carriers and planes. A transcript of the interview was made available by Nightline.

He said US soldiers recently went to Curacao, an island off Venezuela's north-west coast. He described as a "lie" the official US explanation that they visited Curacao for rest and recreation.

"They were doing movements. They were doing manoeuvres," Chavez said, speaking through a translator.

He added: "We are coming up with the counter-Balboa plan. That is to say if the government of the United States attempts to commit the foolhardy enterprise of attacking us, it would be embarked on a 100-year war. We are prepared."

A 100 minute war would be more like it Hugo.

Two precision guided bombs through your bathroom window should bring the war with Venezuela to a quick end.

The ultimate in media bias.

The ultimate has to be when you are an 'independent journalist' but your second job is an Al Qaeda terrorist.

Spain's High Court ordered the re-arrest on Friday of Al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni and another defendant who had been freed for health reasons during a trial of 24 alleged al Qaeda members.

A court official said Alouni and Jamal Hussein were arrested in the southern city of Granada because they were considered a flight risk. They are due to appear before the High Court in Madrid on Monday where their bail will be formally revoked.

The High Court is expected to announce its verdict in Europe's biggest trial of suspected Islamist militants by September 26 at the earliest, the court official said.

Alouni and Hussein are accused of belonging to a terrorist group and could face nine years in prison if convicted. Both say they are innocent.

The pay and dental plan are better working for Al Jazeera, but the getting to attack the Great Satan is just something that started more as a hobby.

The International Criminal Court - no thanks, I'll pass.

For those who have never heard of John Keegan, or read any of his wonderful books on military history, here is a short piece on the ICC and why it does not work in a battle zone.

The legal code, in short, is highly destructive of the emotions, comradeship, mutual concern and responsibility of seniors for juniors on which the military system operates. Traditionally, the British Army always recognised that the intrusion of civilian law into its way of life was undesirable. In consequence it maintained its own legal system in which, under court martial, soldiers were judged by other soldiers.

There was a lot that was wrong with the court martial system, which produced much rough justice. There was, however, also a lot that was right. Under court martial, it is unlikely that officers or soldiers, pleading that their actions should be understood within the military realities of fear, confusion and concern for each other's safety, would be condemned for lack of understanding of such circumstances. Good civil law is likely to make for bad military law. Only a lawyer would argue otherwise.

Keegan and Ambrose are my favorite mil-history authors, Keegan for his in-depth analysis of the why behind the what, and Ambrose for the who that was doing it.

H5N1 - The Monty Python kind of flu.

I have been keeping up on the 'bird flu' for a month or so, but it was not until last night's ABC piece with Brian Ross that I began to see what a life altering, and possibly life ending threat this is. The H5N1 flu in it's current form is not passed human to human.

If it mutates, we are in heep big trouble Kimosabe.

"Bring out your dead!"

"Each year different flus come, but your immune system says, 'Ah, I've seen that guy before. No problem. Crank out some antibodies, and I might not feel great for a couple of days, but I'll recover,'" Garrett says. "Now what's scaring us is that this constellation of H number 5 and N number 1, to our knowledge, has never in history been in our species. So absolutely nobody watching this has any natural immunity to this form of flu."

While there is no vaccine to stop the flu, there is one medicine to treat it. Called Tamiflu, it is made by the Roche pharmaceutical company in Switzerland. Roche has been selling Tamiflu for years.

Only recently, however, did scientists learn of its potential to work against the killer flu, H5N1. That has since created a huge demand and a critical shortage.

"All of the wealthiest countries in the world are trying to purchase stockpiles of Tamiflu," says Garrett. "Our current stockpile is around 2.5 million courses of treatment."

According to Leavitt, that is a long way from the country's ideal stockpile. "Our objective is to have 20 million doses of Tamiflu or enough for 20 million people," he says.

If this flu turns into the pandemic that most researchers fear this winter, George Bush will be nailed to the barn door. I may drive a few nails myself. I would love to know how much money is being spent in the HHS and the CDC for AIDS while we leave our entire population vulnerable to an influenza strain with a 50% fatality rate.

Hopefully this winter will pass without an H5N1 outbreak, if it does and we buy ourselves another year to purchase enough doses of Tamiflu to protect our citizens, I will sleep a little sounder.

America, the land of self starters.

I was listening to my buddy Craig on KFIA tonight, but did not get a chance to phone in. He was a wonderful fill in for Joe Pursch. Craig is a utility player of the first degree.

He was talking about the principals our nation was founded upon, and that started me thinking. You know that can only mean trouble.

Two issues more than any others, were the reasons people came from far and wide to live the new world. The first being Private Property rights. In Europe, if you were poor, you stayed poor. Your children stayed poor and they would never own a piece of ground, no matter how small, that they could call their own. In America, indentured servitude was a way where a poor man could come to the new world, work four, five or seven years and be free to homestead a farm in the wilderness.

It was not much of a start, many could not carve a living out of the wilderness, but those who did had the satisfaction of eating a dinner they raised, at a table they built, in a house they built, with a family they loved.

If you were a man of wealth, but little property in England, you could purchase a vast amount of good farmland, or a stand of fine timber here in America. You had to be a hard working person, devoted to your own future, but you had the chance to achieve wealth and status.

America was the land of "Self Starters'.

Europeans also came to this new world to escape the Anglican Church. It's a long story, but a King had a little disagreement with the Pope and told him to pound sand. The King started his own church, and chose those who presided over it. When England founded it's state run church, you had very little choice but to play along if you wanted to keep your land, your titles or your head. If the Bishops said you were a heretic, you had better be on the next boat to anywhere.

The freedom to worship God, in your way, without outside influence or taxation from the government, was hard to comprehend for a new settler. The protestant reformation truly received it's second wind here in the land of free. It was not freedom from religion, it was freedom to practice religion.

Sadly, these foundations of our nation are slowly being eroded by the secular left. The recent Kelo ruling is an outright trampling on the principal of private property. The good of the people, seems to have been trumped by the good of the government, for the good of the people.

The recent attempt to ban under God from the pledge only shows most Americans think the wall between church and State is in the Constitution, it is not. Instead of the keeping the government from establishing the Church of American, taxes and membership dues on the first of every month, the secular left wants to make you think that the government cannot mention God in any way.

George Washington would be loading up his musket and marching on the ACLU if he were here.

The flu, for lack of a better word, sucks.

I was going to call my local ( well, somewhat local ) Wendy's to see if anyone had complained of food poisoning on Tuesday. It sounded like the right diagnosis, my son started vomiting two hours after we had ate dinner there. It came on very sudden and very hard. The next morning I started with the same symptoms. We both ate a jr. bacon cheeseburger and shared a fry and a drink.

Food poisoning, gotta be.

That was until my daughter came down with it yesterday, followed by my wife. When she is the last one to come down with a sickness that the family has had, she seems to think that we infected her on purpose. She gets downright cranky.

The sickness buckets are all put away now and all the bedding has been washed. The house smell like a Lysol distillery. As I went back to work today, I was thinking of raising the plague flag over the house to warn any salesmen or bingo players wanting directions to the casino, but I didn't.

I am a devious person at heart.

A rebate by any other name...

Nothing says we need to remodel the kitchen, like a free hour at a brothel.

A Polish hardware store has offered an hour in a brothel to customers who spend more than 10,000 zlotys (about $4000) on materials. "It's a case, if you like, of different strokes for different folks, in terms of doing business," Roman Myszko, the owner of the Bepol shop in Elblag, in northern Poland, told Agence France-Presse. The owner of the brothel "came to our shop to buy some paintbrushes and paint. I knew immediately what her line of business was, and I talked with her [about proposing the special offer] and she agreed."

Roberts can't get to the Supreme Court fast enough.

A screaming liberal judge sides with a screaming liberal athiest.

SAN FRANCISCO - Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was declared unconstitutional Wednesday by a federal judge ruling in the second attempt by an atheist to have the pledge removed from classrooms. The man lost his previous battle before the
U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."

Karlton said he was bound by precedent of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in 2002 ruled in favor of Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow that the pledge is unconstitutional when recited in public schools.

I needed a good laugh today and I stumbled across Wazzadem.

The O'Reiley interview with Yoda is classic. Plan to spend twenty minutes there.

Watch out Senator Boxer, Mary Landrieu is gunning for your title.

The title of 'Dumbest Senator' in Washington DC.
It's a parody, but it hits close to home for poor Mary.
If you close your eyes, you can actually hear Landrieu saying these things. The real transcript is almost as funny.


Let's move on. Senator, what are your feelings about New Orleans' mayor Ray Nagin ordering a mandatory evacuation, and then leaving hundreds of buses to flood instead of using them to get people out of the city? Here's a picture of the buses.







Chris, I don't know if you noticed, but those buses were flooded.







They weren't flooded on Saturday or Sunday, when they could have been used to aid in the evacuation effort.







Not if they were flooded.







But they weren't flooded







Let's see that picture again.














Hel-LO?

Note to Zarqawi, if we go non-conventional, you will know it.

You will know it because the sun will rise in your apartment, ok not the 'real sun' but a micro version of it. A tactical nuke on Tal Afar would not be off the table if we knew Zarqawi was there. But gas? If we were going to take the heat for using a WMD, let's use the right one.

The US military denies an accusation that American and Iraqi forces have used toxic gas during an attack on the Iraqi town of Tal Afar in which up to 200 insurgents have been killed.

The accusation was made in an audiotape by a man believed to be Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The message was posted on a website on Sunday, the fourth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

"Anything the man (Zarqawi) says is probably not true. But for certain, the claim of poison gas is not true," a Pentagon official said.

The Duce Four is coming home.

If you haven't read Michael Yon's blog from Iraq, please do. While the mainstream reporters have been home safe or on assignment in Aruba or the Gulf Coast, Michael is the middle of hottest hot spots in Iraq.

Courage? Commitment to reporting the truth? You darn right.

As for The Duce Four, thank you for your service, we will never know how much you gave for our nation.

A day in the life of a nation.

We can remember where we were when we first saw the terrible images of the North Tower trailing a line of black smoke across the Manhattan skyline. Was this an accident? Was it a small plane or a airliner? Then the images of flight 175 smashing into the South Tower.

We were under attack. Then the smoke cloud coming from the Pentagon and word that a fourth plane was squawking the highjack code. That plane was later driven into the ground in Pennsylvania.

We were under attack. Not from the rock throwing, flag burning, 'death to America' cowards you see on TV, but a real enemy who has the time, planning and resolve to take American lives on American soil.

Like all Americans, I look on 9/11 as a terrible tragedy. I didn't know anyone who died in the attacks and while I grieved for those lost and prayed for those they left behind, I hoped that the nation would finally wake up to the fact that there are people who want us dead, not just Republicans or Christians, but all Americans right down to your little dog.

As time has passed the grief faded and the resolve was dissipated into a something less. It reminded me of a person who had a mild heart attack. He suddenly found God, the love of his family and the will to change his bad habits. He watched his diet, quit smoking and bought some comfortable walking shoes for those daily trips around his block.

Then something amazing happens, after a few years with no other heart trouble, he doesn't see the harm in a few beers and pizza with the guys a few times a week. Those walking shoes, well they were really ugly and it's been too hot to walk lately. He only smokes a half a pack a day. The closeness to his family has been replaced by the old feelings of jealousy and blame from the past. He hasn't gone to church for a few years now and doesn't know where his Bible is, let alone bringing his troubles to the Lord in prayer.

In a word, he is in denial. He won't visit the doctor because he doesn't want to hear what the doctor has to say. He wants to live his life just like he did before the heart attack. Oblivious to the threat to his life. Maybe he will have a mild chest pain and go see the doctor before it's too late or the last thing he sees maybe the horrified look of his family as he lies on the floor clutching his chest.

My wife thinks I am addicted to blogging.

My wonderful wife, or 'She who must be obeyed' as she is know in our household, thinks that I am addicted to my computer and blogging. That just silly.

I could quit, if I wanted to, I could.

I think.

Do they have a twelve step program?

I am The Yolo Cowboy and am a bloggaholic.

Democrats, take back your party, please.

I was watching the news last night with my 7th grade son. Nancy Pelosi was in full Moonbat mode blaming the President for anything and everything that has happened or has not happened in the Gulf Coast region. He asked the question, "are all Democrats bad?"
Good question.

I explained that at one time, the Democratic Party stood for things that made America great, but that was long ago. I told him that historically Democrats want to spend more on welfare than defense and want the government to be as large and in control of as much as possible in your daily life. That being said, the old Democratic party wanted the best for America, they may have disagreed with Republicans on how to get there, but they strived toward a common goal. American leadership and dominance in the world.

What a difference 30 years make.

I give you the New Democratic Party, it's leader, Howard Dean - 'Grand Wizard Moonbat'

My point is that John Roberts has a record. John Roberts appears to be a wonderful, decent family person. But again, we get back to the question about whether you really care, and whether you really have compassion. It's not enough to say you care. It's what you've done. John Roberts' legal career has been about taking away every protection for young girls and women who want to participate in sports, for African-Americans and Hispanics who want the equal, same right to vote as everybody else, for taking away from women who believe they should determine what health care they have, instead of having politicians do it. His entire legal career appears to be about making sure those folks don't have the same rights everybody else does. That's probably not the right thing to do, two weeks after a disaster, where certain members of society clearly did not have the same protections that everybody else did, because of their circumstances. Americans are fair people, and they want a sense of justice. I know Judge Roberts loves the law. I'm not sure he loves the American people.

"I do not think that this president cares about everybody in America".

I know there are millions of center left Democrats who think that President Bush is doing a terrible job. That's fine, but they don't think he is Hitler, or that he wants only poor black people to die in a natural disaster. They think that although John Roberts wouldn't be their first choice, he is a good man and is an extremely qualified justice. They don't like the war in Iraq but they understand that we are there now, and we can't cut and run. We must win this war on the enemies turf. These people used to be the backbone and voice of the Democratic Party, no longer.

The Moveon, Code Pink, Sean Penn, Michael Moore liberal extremists have hi-jacked your party. Please take it back so we can have a thoughtful debate about the issues that face our great nation. Who knows, you may even win an election now and again.

Tammnay Hall on K Street

As the Governor of our State is doing battle against the 'Axis of Moonbats', Don Perata, Fabian Nunuez, Jackie Speier and the gang under the dome, he has been fighting a defensive strategy since early this spring.

The Governor is now shifting into campaign mode, as the special election is about 60 days away.
Good for him.

"Clearly, we're organizing our forces here," Mike Murphy, Schwarzenegger's chief political strategist, said in an interview last week. "We're going to make a major effort and we're going to win."

Today the Democrats throw one of their own under the bus to pressure Schwarzenegger to approve drivers licenses for Illegal Aliens.

The Democratic legislators are going to have to explain why they took out a competent, Democratic ... director purely because they are focused on getting this driver's license bill for undocumented workers," Thompson said. "It's a prime example of Democratic lawmakers playing politics as opposed to focusing on good public policy

The Governor will veto the gay marriage bill , saying that it went against the will of the people as they clearly showed in prop 22.

"We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote," the governor's press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement. "Out of respect for the will of the people, the governor will veto (the bill)."

Again, good for him.

His threatened veto of Lois Wolk's bill AB 1328 forced Wolk to pull it back for an additional 30 days consideration. Hooray for Ahnold.

The governor had apparently requested Wolk pull the bill under threat of veto. Schwarzenegger took the action after apparently meeting with Yolo County Republican insiders, who have been opposed to the legislation.

4 Things that will become apparent when a full review of Katrina is complete.

1 Mayor Ray Nagin did not follow his own evacuation plan. A complete failure.

2 Governor Blanco's turf fight with the White House and FEMA will be seen as one the main reasons why Federal relief was delayed. The Red Cross hasn't faired much better with Blanco.

3 The corruption in the City of New Orleans and Louisiana will be exposed.

4 FEMA should not be under the Department of Homeland Security.

Pat Robertson must be a founding member.

He that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone. John 8:7

A dumb statement-

Just days before "Southern Decadence", an annual homosexual celebration attracting tens of thousands of people to the French Quarters section of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina destroys the city.

"Southern Decadence" has a history of filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars. Last year, a local pastor sent video footage of sex acts being performed in front of police to the mayor, city council, and the media. City officials simply ignored the footage and continued to welcome and praise the weeklong celebration as being an "exciting event". However, Hurricane Katrina has put an end to the annual celebration of sin.

Way to go guys, it must feel good to know that when a tornado strikes a small town of hard working God-fearing people in Kansas, they better get the message. Cancel your subscription to Showtime, I am watching you!

If New Orleans was wiped out because of Girls Gone Wild and Southern Decadence, what do you think will happen to San Francisco?

If God were still in the 'smite your city' business, He had better start with the City by the Bay. If he lets San Francisco exist, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.

I'll see your Chief Justice Roberts and raise you a Justice Luttig

Now is not the time to be timid and I don't think President will. He may not appoint Mike Luttig to the SC, however he will pick a conservative and a young one. The President knows how much is at stake with the courts, the left knows too. Save Alberto Gonzales for when John Stevens retires. Right now you need a good pair of hole cards.

With that pair, I'm all in.

Tribes a great post

I have been around construction for a good part of my life and have heard more cursing than I ever wanted to hear. I used to be pretty good at it too. Now, there are a few times where I looses my temper and curse now and again. When I smash myself with something heavy, or when I spend two hours installing a water pump on my Jeep only to find I forgot to install the gasket.

My point is that there are times when a thoughtfully induced four letter word is not condoned, but rather understandable when making a point. While I don't usually link to R rated post, Bill Whittle from Eject, Eject, Eject has written a post that you should read.

That has nothing to do with me being white. If the blacks and Hispanics and Jews and gays that I work with and associate with were there with me, it would have been that much better. That's because the people I associate with 'my Tribe 'consists not of blacks and whites and gays and Hispanics and Asians, but of individuals who do not rape, murder, or steal. My Tribe consists of people who know that sometimes bad things happen, and that these are an opportunity to show ourselves what we are made of. My people go into burning buildings. My Tribe consists of organizers and self-starters, proud and self-reliant people who do not need to be told what to do in a crisis. My Tribe is not fearless; they are something better. They are courageous.

I only hope that I can find my name among those registered on the membership of the Gray Tribe.

New Orleans mayor fears the CIA will take him out.

I'm not kidding. This is what he said.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said he's feeling better about his city, he feels confident he has gotten the attention of Gov. Kathleen Blanco and President Bush, but he said he fears the Central Intelligence Agency may take him out because he's been yelling at these officials.

He didn't say it once. He said it twice.

Last night he told a reporter for the Associated Press: "If the CIA slips me something and next week you don't see me, you'll all know what happened."

Today he told interviewers for CNN on a live broadcast he feared the "CIA might take me out."

I am not sure that the CIA has the resources to take out Mayor Nagin right now, they might be busy covering up the evidence that they killed Justice Rehnquist to avert the media scrutiny over Bush's handling of hurricane Katrina.

Justice Rehnquist dies at home.

It looks like things are about to go into overdrive in the Senate.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist died on Saturday at his home in Arlington, Virginia, after battling thyroid cancer since October, a court spokeswoman said.

Rehnquist, 80, had experienced "a precipitous decline in his health in the last couple of days," and died in the evening surrounded by his three children, court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.

Smaller, more nimble.

As anyone who has worked for a large corporation or government agency can attest, change is slow, sometimes agonizingly so. I once heard a speaker tell a story about a small silicon valley company he worked for. One day the entire company held a meeting to address the changing business conditions in their industry. About sixty people were there, and in the course of the day they completely changed their business model from hardware production to software development. One day. They adapted to the market and within a year they flourished.

That is the speed and flexibility that has lead America to the front in almost every endeavor we have attempted. At times this rapid change has lead to mistakes and miscalculation, but taken as a whole, our ability to asses and improvise has made this nation great.

Why should it be any different in Government. How can a huge government agency with layer upon layer of bureaucracy hope to move quickly and adapt to a changing situation? When the President and Congress established the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA was put under it's control, I didn't think that was a good idea. How can another layer of management and a longer decision making tree make for a rapid response to a disaster?

Hurricane Katrina was the ultimate test of how nimble our federal government is. The Feds get a F for speed, but as you can see now by the reports from New Orleans, once they arrive, they arrive in force and bring the cavalry. For that, they get an A+. The problem is the first 48 hours of a regional crisis, what we need is a rapid response force. That force is you and me.

The people who were on the scene first, the real 'first responders' were smaller local charities, churches and local chapters of large charities. Private citizens who know the area and have the equipment to get in and help are crucial. Those folks saved thousands of lives. FEMA and HS should give a small portion of their budgets to fund these smaller more nimble charities and volunteers.

A local volunteer fire department training volunteers with boats on search and rescue. A church with an auditorium with a line of credit at the local Wal Mart or Costo to use for refugees. Every region of every state should have a local outreach and volunteer center. These centers would have back up generators and satellite phones and internet. The would keep a database of names of people who are willing to provide shelter for victims of a disaster. Who has flat bottom boats? A list of 4 wheel drive clubs who can get into places with no roads. Small nimble organizations who feed the homeless everyday. These types of volunteers can give realtime assessments, something that was woefully inadequate in the City of New Orleans following Katrina.

Organizing and deploying thousands of soldiers is not a one day process, but when they get to the scene of a disaster they are the most welcoming sight a wet,tired and hungry taxpayer could hope to see. We need to rethink how we stage assets and how we can work with grassroots responders to buy time until the full measure of federal aid can be brought in.

How prepared are you for a real emergency?

Imagine if you will, being stranded in New Orleans during the height of the looting and lawlessness. Could you survive? Could you protect your family? Could you keep the supplies you stored for this situation from being taken?

This is not a question that most Americans would ever think of. I have thought about it, I believe that I could answer in the affirmative to those questions.

Growing up in the country, I have plenty of experience with small scale disasters. When you live 40 miles from town, the power going out is a regular occurrence. I remember the having to live without electricity for two weeks at a time. Without power, your well does not work, that means no water. You learn to adapt and more importantly, to prepare.

Water is life, most everything else you can do without for weeks. If you have never thought of what you would do if the water from your tap stopped for two weeks, and you could not get out of your house or city, what would you do?

What would happen if the power went out for two weeks and your community had been cut off from the outside world? What if you looked out your windows after the third day to see looters kicking in doors on your block? No 911, no police, nobody to come to your aid. Could you protect yourself and your property?

Scary? You bet.

Please don't think I am some 'survivalist nut' who has a 6 year supply of MREs in my basement, I don't even have a basement. I do not advocate people who have never handled a firearm to go out a buy one to throw in a drawer. That is a recipe for tragedy. I believe that everyone should take a training course before they think of buying a firearm. If you are willing to buy a $200-800 firearm, you should be prepared to purchase a safe to store it in. You will also find the safe very useful for storing all those important documents and heirlooms that are not protected right now.

A firearm in the hands of a trained owner is an essential part of protecting home and family.
A water filtration device that can handle liters of water, not ounces is expensive but not that expensive.
A 3500 watt generator and spare gas cans, safely stored, can be the difference between a week of agony or relative comfort.
A few hundred or thousand dollars in cash, in your safe, can go along way when the lights go out.
With the threat of terrorism as well as a natural disaster always a possibility, you may want to look at your emergency kit. A flashlight and a transistor radio are nice to have, but nothing says 'get out of my house' quite like the sound of a pump shotgun putting a round in the chamber.

One man, doing what he can

I just spoke with Pastor Darryl Johnson of the Walk of Faith Church in Mound Bayou, Mississippi.

He told me the church made it through the Hurricane, Mound Bayou is inland and his congregation is holding up well. In the few minutes we spoke he told me that Walk of Faith Church is taking in refugees from coastal cities and his own home is filled with as many displaced people as it can hold. God Bless those folks in need, and those who are opening their hearts and homes to them.

Pastor Johnson is truly a compassionate man dealing with a tragedy the best way he knows how, appealing to God and getting things done. He said that he is organizing a trip into the more rural areas of Mississippi to help however he can. He says that there are dozens of small, isolated rural towns that are well off the freeways. The large rescue efforts are going into the most populated cities, it is just a logistic fact, they can save more people in a shorter amount of time if they concentrate their rescue efforts there. You can bet that the same tragedies in the cities are being played out on a smaller scale in hundreds of small farm towns in Mississippi and Louisiana. Those people must feel abandoned and all alone.

I asked what I could do to help him and his church with their efforts. I didn't even finish the question when he said "keep us in your prayers", I asked what items he needed to help those with nothing but the clothes on their backs, he was almost embarrassed to ask for financial help. "We need water and food and blankets and everything else" I told him that is seems the best way to get the items he needs is to send money rather than ship the clothes and blankets. He said whatever I could send him would be greatly appreciated and would go along way right now. He said his congregation is giving as much as they can.

I am mailing him a check today, he is one person, among thousands who are making a critical difference right now. I am keeping him and his congregation in my prayers.

Walk of Faith Church
PO Box 3
Mound Bayou, MS 38762
662-741-2000

Pastor Darryl Johnson
faith@nexband.com

I am buying a Toyota Matrix this weekend.

I have been waiting to replace my 1998 Chevy 4x4 truck for some time. It has 137,000 miles on the odometer, but it runs good. I've been wanting a new Dodge four door 4x4 with a Cummins Diesel engine. I have driven all three 2006 full size trucks and decided on the Dodge.

Until now.
With diesel prices just shy of 3.50 a gallon and poised to go higher, I have decided to keep my truck and purchase a Toyota Matrix. The Matrix is based on the Corolla frame, my wife drives an 03' corolla and loves it. The Corolla gets 38 mph highway and the Matrix gets 36 mph. My Chevy truck achieves a whopping 12 mph. I drive approximately 300 miles per week. It looks like gasoline will be 3 to 4 dollars a gallon for a while. Buy ing the Matrix will save about 150-200 dollars a month in fuel costs.

I just hope they get the refining capacity back on line soon.

Living in Northern California, what real disasters do we face?

Other than an earthquake, a good shaker hit Vacaville and Winters around the turn of the century, what should we be preparing for here in the Sacramento Area?

A flood is the most likely disaster to occur in our area I would guess. With no Auburn Dam to protect Sacramento, we are tempting fate every winter and spring. Sacramento is surrounded by levees, if they fail, a few hundred thousand people will be sitting on their rooftops. Maybe the video of what a city surrounded by levees looks like when those levees fail will make people think.

The though of some rattlesnakes and birds having to move out of the Auburn Ravine isn't such a big sacrifice to make when looking at the cost in human lives and property that the Auburn Dam could save. Just remember, when helicopters are picking folks off rooftops in mid-town Sacramento, the rest of America will be watching on the news wondering why those people didn't build the Auburn dam, it would have saved them.

There is no 'other America' to come to America's aid.

As I was listening to Hugh on the drive home today one of his guests, I am sorry I didn't get the name, made a very profound statement. Remember, there is no other America to come to America's aid. That is so true. When the Indonesian tsunami struck, Americans opened their hearts and their wallets to help out. Private donations alone from Americans surpassed 1 billion dollars. That is almost 20% of all relief given by all governments and private citizens. That is what we do, that is who we are.

One of the largest support efforts made by America was the US military. The resources set in motion to help find stranded and isolated victims was a Herculean effort. All the helicopters, hovercraft, and amphibious craft sent into the region cost untold millions, if not a billion dollars.

As some unfortunate people in Mississippi and Louisiana sit on their rooftops for a second night waiting to be rescued, I wonder how many helicopters from Mexico or Canada are flying tonight to help the rescue effort? I couldn't find any stories on the web as of this post.

I would like to thank the Academy for this honor,, oops wrong speech.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to join the soon to be Juggernaut of the left coast, the Western Alliance of Bloggers.

If you choose to accept this mission you will receive nothing, no cool hats, no lapel pins or any other monetary compensation, however you will receive the opportunity to post next to some of the best bloggers in the West. This post will self-destruct in five seconds.

Well, as they say at the no-limit table, I'm all in.

Now, how do you defuse a post?

Dear Travis, thank you for your service.

Travis is a shining example of how duty and honor can overcome a liberal upbringing.

Laurie Loving gave birth to her son Travis under a maple tree 21 years ago. He grew up participating in peace and justice rallies but liked to play with toy guns and plastic soldiers.

He was known around Davis as a polite young man, but one who didn't like to be told what to do.

That's why Laurie felt shocked when her son talked about joining the military after he met a recruiter at King High School.

Years passed. But by the time Travis deployed to Iraq 12 days ago, her dismay had only deepened.

"As a peace and justice activist, I was stunned," she said. "As a mother, I'm terrified."

The reporter Claire St. John's anti war bias is more than evident in her distortion of the Sheehan situation.

Reports of soldiers dying and President Bush's refusal to meet with Cindy Sheehan - a Vacaville mother camped in front of Bush's Texas ranch, demanding to know what her son died for - have made many drop their support for the war.

President Bush has already met the Sheehans last year, in her own words- "I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis," Cindy said after their meeting. "I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."

What a hack job by a reporter with an agenda.

The liberals in England don't get it.

I am always amazed by the stupidity of people who are willing to embrace those who wish to destroy them.

Britain's culture of tolerating radicalism is in the national interest and should not be swept away by the urge to get tough.

But the "covenant of security" and the British approach to tolerating radicalism is not just an expression of political correctness. It serves some hard-headed national purposes. It recognises that there is not one but several Muslim communities among the 1.5 million Muslims in Britain, all with their own national norms and attitudes to culture and assimilation. Self-policing and a better relationship with the police, working with the grain of different national and religious minorities, is fundamental to preventing our gentleman-amateur suicide bombers from becoming figureheads for a national revolt among Muslim youth.

Do the national norms and cultural assimilation include the bombing and murder of innocent British citizens? Good Grief!

Labradors, not just a fashion accessory.

You can have all those little 'feeder' dogs, I will take the lumbering Labrador for my companion dog.

When Archie, a black labrador, lost his owner on a lonely Scottish station, he jumped on the first train home.

Not only did the dog catch the right train, he got off at the right station, Agence France-Presse reports.

Closed-circuit television footage shows the dog waiting for his master at the station before watching the Aberdeen to Inverness train pull in.

Unable to find his owner, the labrador decided to avoid a long walk home by nipping aboard the 20.38 train.

He got out at the right stop, Insch, 12 minutes along the line.

I just wish I had a smarter specimen than 'Jake the wonder dog'.

The return of The Nut Tree

Vacaville is a small but growing town between Sacramento and San Francisco where I-80 and 505 converge. At that crossroads once stood a little slice of heaven.

It grew into one of California's favorite roadside stops with a renowned restaurant that hosted not only children and farmers, but world leaders and celebrities

The Nut Tree was a cross between a mico-Disneyland, a fruit stand and a restaurant. As a kid, I loved when my family would stop there. I would ride the small gauge train and the big wooden rocking horses in front of the gift shop. I must have been 10 years old when my father bought me a huge print of a Curtis P-40 Warhawk that adorned the wall of my room until high school, or until I could convince my mom to let me put up the Farah Fawcett poster. I was able to take my son for a visit before they demolished it, the train had stopped running for a few years, but he did love the rocking horses. Now it looks as though The Nut Tree is going to be rebuilt, almost.

If all goes according to plan, next summer will see completion of the first phase of a new Nut Tree, with a family amusement park, specialty retail, a court for bocce, and several eateries.

I am sure that my mother and father thought it was just a tourist trap, but seen through my 10 year old eyes, it was the coolest place.

We support the troops- that is a load of Bravo. Sierra.

I would love to arrange a meeting between 'Luke' and Matthew Heidt from Froggy Ruminations, as long as I get the pay-per-view rights to the meeting.

How utterly and shamefully disingenuous and repugnant can a 'man' be? The only closely analogous situation to this that I can come with would be to evict a woman from her home the week she had twins, tow her car, and call child protective services to report her for putting her babies out on the street ..while laughing at her. That is the kind of sinister motivation at work here. Luke hates the troops more than anything in this world besides George Bush. His cowardice is assaulted and magnified every day when he wakes up to realize that he doesn't have the courage to fight for a dryer at the Laundromat let alone to defend his family and friends from those that would harm them (that is if his patchouli stinkin' a$$ ever does laundry

Protestapalooza

Gathering forces will soon meet in Crawford Texas, combining to make the perfect political storm. For the media that is.

As much as I support the ideals behind Move America Forward, I must say that I don't see the benefit in the protest, counter protest strategy. The national media will portray Deborah Johns as a ultra conservative-hick-patriot, while Cindy will be made to look like a well spoken, thoughtful person of conscious, wanting to speak to a President with whom she has a grievance.

I would wager that we will see video of the pushing and shouting on the news every night this weekend. The only winners in this protest battle will be the media. They are bored to death waiting in this little hick town in Texas for the President to do something worth reporting, it is hot and they are not in a good mood. They will film for hours and interview dozens of people from both sides, only to find the best looking, semi-rational anti war protesters and the angriest war supporters. That is the story the want to tell and they will tell it.

These will be the faces of The Protestapalooza Tour, coming to Washington DC in September and to your city soon. Now if they can only find a sponsor for the tour, well, Camp Cindy already has her corporate supporters.

What a story.

Just in case you missed it. Americans doing a very tough job in a very tough place.

Kurilla was running when he was shot, but he didn't seem to miss a stride; he did a crazy judo roll and came up shooting.

BamBamBamBam! Bullets were hitting all around Kurilla. The young 2nd lieutenant and specialist were the only two soldiers near. Neither had real combat experience. AH had no weapon. I had a camera.

PS -Gates of Fire is a great book, Tides of War is on par with it.

I knew Craig Deluz back when...

Craig Deluz goes kinda, sorta, national. Well, at least regional!
Craig is sitting in for Eric Hogue this morning on KTKZ.
He s doing a fine job.

Here is a story you will not read in the NYT this week.

Where is the World Wildlife Fund on this ? Why isn't this a story?
Because its good news coming out of Iraq. Can't have that.

Iraq's ancient marshlands drained by Saddam Hussein are nearly half-restored, giving hope of saving traditional habitats for both people and animals.

Can you say Hissy Fit?

Can you imagine all the lawsuits, filed at the speed of light, this approach would have in America?

On top of trying to promote Australian values in Islamic schools, Prime Minister John Howard said the Government would monitor what was said in certain schools and mosques to ensure they did not foster terrorism.

Mr Howard was blunt when asked whether he was prepared to "get inside" mosques and schools to ensure there was no support for terrorism.

"Yes, to the extent necessary," he said on Southern Cross radio.

John Howard gets an A+ today.

Who Would Jesus Assassinate?

When ever I see the name Pat Roberts in the headlines, I know he has said or done something stupid. This is his most recent example.

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.

Leaving the question open as to the effectiveness of assassinating a foreign leader who has not called for attacks or Jihad on America, what purpose does Roberts serve in sending that message for the world to see? This story will be on the top of hour news on AlJazeera and every other outlet in the Arab world. Followed by the analysis that the Christian cabal that runs the United States has just told the rest of the world that unless you surrender your nation to the Christian warlords, you will be assassinated.

Nice work Pat.

I have never been a fan of televangalists. They rub me the wrong way. Most of them plead weekly that unless they hear from you this week, they will have cut programming in your area. Maybe the Lord doesn't want you on 80 channels. Maybe the lord wants you to go out and serve peanut butter sandwiches to the homeless in you town. Pat Robertson has every right to call himself a Christian, I just wish he were handing out BPJs down on main street instead of spouting off his personal views on television.

Michael Moore check himself into the fat farm.

Good for Mike, I say that in all honesty. Me being a pot, and Mike being a kettle. I hope he looses 100 pounds and retrains himself to eat healthier and exercise more.

Being overweight is terribly unhealthy, I should know. The last video footage of Moore I remember he was hardly able to walk around without looking as though he would pass out.

Good luck Michael, now pass the peas and cauliflower.

Communist robber barons?

It seems as though the Communist leadership is getting quite fat and happy while the peasants in rural China wonder why they don't see any of this 'new wealth'.

The leaders are clearly worried by a rash of large-scale protests and rioting over localised issues involving land seizures, evictions, poor working conditions, corruption and environmental damage, with the Ministry of Public Security (police) reporting some 74,000 separate protests last year.

The President and party general secretary, Hu Jintao, is expected to try to dump allies of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, from key positions, among them those dominating the key economic centre of Shanghai, symbolised by its space-age skyscrapers and showrooms for luxury items such as Rolls-Royce and Ferrari cars.

Comrade, where is my Ferrari?
And what is a Ferrari?

Oh, I would hunt you down and do mid-evil things to you.

HT to Captain's Quarters.

A family that breeds guinea pigs for medical research announced yesterday that it was to close its farm in a final attempt to get back the remains of a relative whose body was dug up by animal rights extremists.

How many soccer thugs could you hire for 20,000 pounds? A few pubs worth I bet.
I would think that holding a corpse for ransom would not gain you much sympathy among the football hooligans in England. I would offer a bounty, a rather large one, the family looks like it has the money, and wait for a call one night that would sound like this;

"Hello, you the man whats missin his dead mum?
"Yes I am"
"I got a coffin here wif some bones and a nice dress in it, is at yours?"
"Yes, it sounds like mother to me"
"What you want I should do wif da three dirty hippy types that was wif her?"
"Lets just say that I won't be speaking to the police about how I found Mother, feel free to inflict what ever punishment you deem nessesary"
"Whats' that you say?"
"Do whatever you would do to them if they took your mother"
"Right O, I'll be by in the morning to drop off you mum and pick up my money"

Help! I can't control my right foot!

From my wife's uncle, Robert.

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and
make clockwise circles with it.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction!!!

I told you so... And there is nothing you can do about it.

I hate things like this, like trying to keep your eyes open when you sneeze.

The Great Raid - a great lesson

I know that Hugh has been all over this, but I want to throw in my two pennies.
As a film, I give it an overall B-. The back story of the love interests slows down the pace at times and the film never fully develops the characters of the raiders.

As a story that needs to be told, I give it a A.

Here is the perfect example of the Japanese culture at the time. A culture that embraced violence to achieve it's goal of regional domination. The Japanese were extremely brutal to those they captured or defeated. The death rate of POWs held by the Japanese is close to 30%. That is staggering when you consider that the death rate for Americans under German capture is 4%. My point is that if you looked at the culture of the Japanese in 1942, you could easily surmise that they will never change and America could never turn this nation into a democracy. You would be wrong

The reason that Japan is a democracy today, and the reason they avoid military confrontation at all costs is the four generations that have instructed their children that war is a terrible thing.

I want every terrorist's mother in the middle east to teach their children that if you attack America, you will bring death and ruin to your homeland. You can't do that with half measures in a 'sensitive' war. You can't do that by cutting and running home. You must destroy them.

I would also like the next generation of Iraqis to teach their children about the how the US gave them back their country.

Is it time to hold Pakistan's feet closer to the fire?

I think its past time. I know that Pervez Musharraf has a slippery grasp on power in Pakistan, but if he cannot lead, maybe it's time put our money on another horse.

It should have been a slam dunk. In Afghanistan's eastern border region, US troops say they photographed Taliban fighters firing a rocket-launcher at them from the safety of the Pakistani side - within sight of a Pakistani military observation post.

But a frustrated US military official in Kabul explains: "We thought we had them.

"But when we showed the pictures in Islamabad they said, 'We saw nothing.' It's the same when we call on our direct communications lines to say we're chasing the Taliban over the border - they see us coming and they refuse to pick up the phone," he said, speaking anonymously.

This is a disturbing story.

And I though my interview panel was bad...

Here is a job interview that will weed out the slackers.

One of the country's top internet apparel retailers wants to make sure new employees have what it takes to scale the heights of business by interviewing them at the summit of the 3778 metre Mount Fuji.

I'm thinking they don't have the a 'Japanese with Disabilities Act'.

The roadmap to victory, Hillary in 2008

The Democrats have what I consider to be a George McClellan moment here.

While the Union army was marching over an abandoned Confederate campsite, a private found three cigars made by a Confederate staff officer. On the paper surrounding the cigars was written the special orders 191 written by Lee explaining to all of the Confederate generals what his moves were going to be before the battle. Apparently, accidentally two copies of the order were given to one of the Confederate generals. That general's staff officer, for unknown reasons got hold of the extra copy, thought it was just ordinary paper and used it as a cigar wrapper.

McClellan had in his hands the instrument with which to defeat Robert E Lee if he chose to act quickly and decisively. He did neither. While the battle of Antietam was considered a victory for the Union, the opportunity to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia was lost.

Most liberal pundits at this point think of the Rove situation or Cindy Sheehan, but they would be wrong. The plan to put Hillary in the White House in 2008 was drawn up by the Democratic Leadership Council.

We believe that the Sept. 11 attacks changed America forever, and defeating terrorism is the supreme military and moral mission of our time. To win the war on terror, America needs more troops and more friends. We believe that running the country deep into debt is economically dangerous and morally wrong. Economic and military might go hand in hand, and victory can only be assured when all Americans, including our political leaders, not just soldiers and taxpayers, sacrifice.

We believe that dependence on foreign oil is the greatest threat to America's national and economic security -- and the most avoidable.

We believe American ingenuity, entrepreneurialism, and hard work can beat any competitor, but only if we make sure that hard work is rewarded, and that Americans are given the tools to rise to the challenge.

We believe the promise of American life is opportunity -- the chance for all to achieve their potential. America should offer every citizen the basic bargain that built the nation: Do right by your country and your family, and you can rise as far as your dreams and hard work can take you.

We believe that governments and corporations don't raise children -- parents do. A nation that puts rights ahead of responsibilities, and profits ahead of values, will soon lose them all.

We believe the purpose of politics is to solve people's problems, not to serve special interests. America is a nation of progress, not stalemate; pragmatism, not party; answers, not ideology. We can't afford a political system that protects privilege and the status quo and ignores the needs of ordinary people.

We believe that ideas and results matter, and that no political party deserves to win unless it lays out a plan for how America can win.

Above all, We believe in summoning Americans to a cause that is greater than any party -- to unite our nation in an unstoppable quest to defeat terror, save the American dream, and put Washington to work solving people's problems.

By acting on these beliefs, America can meet the four central challenges of the next decade:

That is a message that could win back every Reagan Democrat and put States like Ohio and Florida back in the blue column. To implement this agenda, a radical change would have to take place in the Democratic party. The Michaell Moore, Cindy Sheehan, Maureen Dowd, Dick Durbin wing of the Democratic party will have to be denounced for the extremist they are. The DNC will have to boot Howard Dean and tell George Soros and the big money socialists to either get on board, or spend your money propping up Air America. Heck, even Zell Miller would come out of retirement to speak at the Democratic convention this time.

A Clinton /Liebermann or Biden ticket with this agenda as its platform is a huge winner for the Democrats. Democrats 53% Republicans 47% would be my point spread for this. I don't have a clue as to the opponent from the Red States, but even a strong ticket like George Allen and Rick Santorum would be in for the fight of their lives.

Will they do it? Not likely, especially if Republicans show any weakness in the 06' election from war fatigue or the Rove scandal. The hard left will see any gains in Congress as a justification oftheirr strategy. They will win the battle and loose the war.

Way back, way back, it's a home run!

VDH keeps his eye on the ball and strokes one out of the park.

In the age of utopianism we demand impossible standards of perfection. Then when they cannot be met, we conclude that we are not good at all, but the equivalent of a Pol Pot, Hitler, or Saddam himself — an elected American president who is a worse terrorist than Osama bin Laden.

And in a war with enemies like few other in our recent history, the contrast between rhetoric and reality is only accentuated: panties over the head of an Iraqi inmate, no head at all on an American prisoner; Korans given to the enemy terrorists in jail, Bibles outlawed for visitors to our friends the Saudis; our elected president becomes a member of the "Bush crime family" as we worry about proper barristers for Saddam Hussein's genuinely criminal family. As we fear that we have fallen short of the postmodern therapeutic age, Islamic fascists brag they are avatars of the Dark Ages.

A ham sandwich in every can.

Health beer, isn't that like a diet fried-twinkee?

An Indian firm has launched a vitamin-rich beer which it says protects the body from the harmful effects of alcohol, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

And more good news.

China and Russia in joint war games.

Submarines, bombers armed with cruise missiles and 10,000 members of Russia's and China's armed forces threw down a gauntlet to the United States yesterday when the two former enemies launched their first major joint war games.

I hope the games involved how to oust Kim Jun Il without starting world war 3.

Yea, but do they come in camo?

From the folks that brought you the Long Bow, the Brown Bess, and the Spitfire comes the latest in combat underware.

"These will make 'going commando' a thing of the past," said Col Silas Suchanek, the head of defence clothing for the Ministry of Defence, holding up the black trunk-style pants, but sensibly refusing to model them.

He said: "In the past, underwear has been treated as a personal item, but our experience in Iraq has been that if men didn't bring enough pairs with them and they wore out, they went commando.

An interesting comment on the Charlie Rose show.

I couldn't sleep the other night and was flipping channels and found Noah Feldman talking Middle East politics on The Charlie Rose show. He gave his view on the problems with Iraq, some of them I agree with, even though he is a leftie.

The two things I took away from show was his view on the winner of the war in Iraq and the Gaza pull out. He says that Iran will win the Iraq war. He could be right in the short term. The other point he made was the pull out from Gaza may have more to do with demographics than peace. He says the birthrate of Jews in Israel and the birthrate among the Palestinian citizens in Israel is lopsided and if Israel doesn't consolidate it's population, it will soon be a voting minority in it's own country.

I'm doing a little googling on that today.

If I could borrow a brain for a day, it might be Lileks

What he said..

The hard left in America needs to realize a bald, cruel fact: Anyone who sees no moral distinction between Israel and the mullahs of Iran, or sees the U.S. attempt to set up a constitutional republic in Iraq as equivalent to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, suffers from incurable moral cretinism. The more the fervent anti-war base embraces these ideas, the more they ensure that no one will trust the left with national security. Ever.

Will they learn the lesson? Even money says Sheehan will be sitting in the Michael Moore seat next to Jimmy Carter at the '08 Democratic convention.

That last part sounds familiar.

Well, at least I know how I am going to go.

I am not sure why I need to know a computer model's prediction for my method of demise, but I took the test anyway.

Natural Causes 80% Disappear 73% Gunshot 67% Bomb 60% Drowning 60% Stabbed 53% Posion 47% Disease 40% Suffocated 40% Eaten 33% Suicide 33% Accident 27% Cut Throat 20% How Will You Die?? created with QuizFarm.com

If I had to guess, I would say
#1 A head-on collision with a Casino player.
#2 Some sort of gruesome livestock accident.
#3 A heart attack induced by the site of a pimple faced boy kissing my daughter. (in a few years)
#4 A double charge of gunpowder in one of my reloads.

Something is terribly wrong.

It is opening day at the Yolo County Fair and the temperature has not reached 100 degrees. Call it climate change, call it magic from those little elves that make cookies in that tree, whatever it is, I like it. One our friends in FFA is showing a hog at the County Fair and a ram at the State Fair. He is a busy camper.

One of things I like most about the fair is the interaction with people and livestock, besides the corn dogs. I enjoy the quizzical looks from the urban dwellers at they gaze upon the cloven hoofed critters that make up their dinner. This is closer than most will get to what made up the cellophane package of hamburger they ate last night.

Is that a sheep? What is those 'thingies' hanging down there, Ewww! it's peeing!

I guess that's what I act like on the number 4 train to the Bronx for a Yankees game.

Kevorkian diplomacy

I posted on the radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir receiving 30 months for his role in provoking the Bali bombings last week. Well I have good news, I didn't save a bunch of money on my car insurance, but Bashir is getting an early release from prison!

The father of a UK Bali bombing victim says the early release of jailed militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir will allow him to continue to spread poison.

Bashir, the alleged spiritual head of the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, is one of some 53,000 inmates receiving sentence reductions to mark Indonesia's independence day on August the 17th.

He was convicted in March of conspiracy in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and 28 Britons, and sentenced to serve 30 months.

The Supreme Court rejected his appeal earlier this year.

The father of 28-year-old Daniel Braden, from Brighton, East Sussex, was one of the victims of the attack.

He says relatives of victims will feel quite bad about the reduction, and that Bashir should remain incarcerated and not be given the oxygen of publicity to spread his poison.

Here is a thought, if you want to celebrate you nations independence day, don't release those who want to kill you.

Will Hillary Clinton meet with Cindy Sheehan?

I hope that Cindy Sheehan will become the face of the Democratic party.

I'm gonna tell them, "You get that evil maniac [the president] out here, cuz a Gold Star Mother, somebody who's blood is on his hands, has some questions for him."

And I'm gonna say, "OK, listen here, George. #1, you quit, and I demand, every time you get out there and say you're going to continue the killing in Iraq to honor the fallen heroes by continuing the mission; you say, except Casey Sheehan.' "

"And you say except for all the members of Goldstar Families for Peace' cuz we think not one drop of blood should be spilled in our families' names. You quit doing that. You don't have my permission."

And I'm gonna say, "And you tell me, what the noble cause is that my son died for." And if he even starts to say freedom and democracy' I'm gonna say, bullshit.

You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East. You tell me that, you don't tell me my son died for freedom and democracy.

Cuz, we're not freer. You're taking away our freedoms. The Iraqi people aren't freer, they're much worse off than before you meddled in their country.

You get America out of Iraq, you get Israel out of Palestine

(massive round of applause)

And if you think I won't say bullshit to the President, I say move on, cuz I'll say what's on my mind.

Cindy can sit right next to Michael Moore at the 2008 Democratic convention. That should bring some of those red states into the democratic column. The one person in America who wants Cindy Sheehan to go back to Vacaville more than the President, is Senator Clinton.

While Hillary wants to pull the party to the center, she knows she has the left vote sewn up, she is meeting with groups like The Democratic Leadership Council. She is trying to duplicate her husband's strategy of looking center while giving a wink to the kook left. Her message to the Moveon, Code Pink kooks, don't mention my name in your attacks, but you know I've got your back.

I want to see Cindy Sheehan on Meet the Press without her handlers from Code Pink, Fenton Communications or Joe Trippi. Any fair questioning of Mrs. Sheehan would prove her undoing, she has been filled with the talking points from the kook left. Tim Russert would hand her head to her, if he chose to. I am sure she will be on Larry King this week, with her handlers. Maybe perky Katie will do a softball interview with her.

Will Cindy Sheehan become the anchor around Hillary neck? I don't think the Senator would touch her with an eleven foot pole. Hillary is too smart to for that.

This just in, Bigfoot hair is a hoax, 'chemical weapons' found in Iraq.

How will the legacy media spin this story?

U.S. troops raided a suspected insurgent chemical weapons factory in northern Iraq, finding about 1,500 gallons of dangerous substances, the U.S. military said Saturday.

I wonder if the anti-war folks will send in Sandy Burger to stuff the chemicals down his underware to hide the truth.

Oh, and the "Bigfoot" hair is from a dead bison.

A tuft of hair found near a purported sasquatch sighting in the Yukon actually came from a bison, says the Alberta scientist who tested the sample.

Slow news periods make me nervous.

I remember back to early September, 2001 and recall the stories the legacy media was reporting during a very slow news cycle.
Chandra Leavy and Gary Condit.

On 9/11 America was shaken awake by the real world, where real people want to kill us really bad.

As I look at the attention the NARAL add has caused, the media frenzy over the Code Pink Mom down in Texas, I conclude that Americans as a people have the attention span of a three year old child. The war against the wahabist, who would like nothing better than to saw your mother's head off with a rusty knife, that's old news. We want more back to back, live coverage of Natalie Holloway and the run-away bride doing her community service.

Right now, as you browse the internet in you underwear, soldiers are patrolling the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan. They are living day to day, minute by minute, serving our nation in harm's way.

Let's keep our eye on the ball. If I wake up in the morning and watch as New York or L.A. is under a terrorist attack, Cindy Sheehan will not receive another column inch of newsprint. The reporters covering Natalie Holloway, sucking down rum and Cokes on expense accounts in Aruba will be on the next plane home.

We should think about that when we stop by Starbucks tomorrow morning to get a venti latte' and a maple oat scone.