The results of the latest vote is out, and here they are!
Congratulations to the winners, and to all nominees. I urge you all to take the time to read those you have not already seen.
Folks who have followed this blog for a while know that I have not been an ardent supporter of Rep. John Davis. Indeed, I urged Davis to withdraw from the race for the 2008 nomination because of various issues that were raised by various folks whose opinions I respected, and I actively campaigned for his primary opponent. The primary voters of District 129 saw matters differently from me and gave him the nomination.
We are now in 2010, with a different set of circumstances before us. John Davis is again seeking the nomination, and is again facing a challenger, political newcomer Mary Huls. I therefore find myself faced with three options in this race -- endorsing one of the two candidates, or of offering no endorsement. Given the past history I noted above, I gave serious consideration to not making an endorsement in this race. However, I cannot in good conscience pick that route because of the clear differences between the two candidates and the reality that the winner of this primary will not have a Democrat challenger in November, making this the de facto general election.
John Davis, for all his faults, is a known quantity with a history of being able to carry this district in the general election. He has an 82% career rating from the Young Conservatives of Texas, which puts him well-within the bounds of the conservative fold (though he did slip below my gold standard of 80% in 2009, garnering only a 77% rating). My personal experience with John Davis since I wrote that 2007 letter linked above is also important -- his response was to reach out to me and express his respect for my views, and I have been shown nothing but respect in the time since. I also know that his office was helpful to many area residents following Hurricane Ike -- I've heard it from their own mouths. And in one-on-one conversations between the two of us, Davis has taken responsibility for the issues that caused me concern, and has offered a detailed explanation to me of steps he has taken to ensure that the the common errors he made are not repeated. In short, I believe he has taken the criticisms and concerns to heart and taken solid steps to rectify them. These factors have raised Davis in my esteem.
Which leads me to his opponent, Mary Huls. I first became aware of Mrs. Huls this past summer when I received a vague, typo-filled email from her husband announcing her candidacy. Subsequent investigation made it clear that Mary Huls has no record of involvement with the Republican Party -- and that she was an Øbama voter in the 2008 Democrat primary! I might take the claim that she was participating in Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" a bit more seriously if she she actually had a record of voting in the Republican primary, but she does not. Now I'm all for welcoming former Democrats who have seen the error of their ways into the GOP (Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat), but I look askance at Mary Huls' insistence that her professed conversion to conservative principles is the basis for immediately electing her to a major public office. I believe that Mary Huls has expressed a number of sound principles, but cannot at this point be sure of their sincerity without some sort of track record to back up the words on her campaign site. The development of such a record would, I believe, make Mary Huls a formidable candidate, and one I to whom I might be able to offer strong support.
And that is ultimately what it comes down to for me. The 2011 legislative session will be responsible for so many important tasks, not the least being the redrawing of Texas' legislative and congressional district lines. This redistricting will be critical to the future of the state and the nation, especially given that Texas may acquire as many as 4 additional seats in Congress. Given the history of Democrat gerrymanders over the course of over 13 decades of post-Civil War Democrat control of the state legislature, it is crucial that the 129th District be represented by a conservative Republican who will work to draw lines that ensure fair and accurate representation of the voters of Texas so that we can stop the Øbama agenda on the national level. I know we can count on John Davis in that regard -- I do not have that sort of confidence with regard to Mary Huls.
Ultimately, the factors that I have considered lead me inexorably to one conclusion -- this race is too important, and the difference between the two candidates is too stark, for me not to make an endorsement. I therefore suggest to my fellow Republicans that in the 2010 Republican primary, the only acceptable choice for those who wish to be certain that conservative principles and Republican values are enacted is to vote for John Davis as our Republican nominee for state representative in the 129th District.
In recent years, I've struggled with the issue of endorsements during the GOP primary. I've generally waited until primary day, and just put up a list. What I have not done is offer a rationale for those endorsements. I plan on changing that this year, at least for some races that I think merit special attention. It is therefore my plan to offer some more detailed explanations as to why I have chosen to endorse in a given race, or perhaps to withhold my endorsement.
For the record, my default position in most contested races (except judicial races) will be to make an endorsement of a candidate. I will only choose to not make a recommendation in the event that I believe that there is not a dime's worth of difference between the candidates.
I have no sympathy for this climate-change grafter who has been exposed as a fraud.
THE scientist at the centre of the “climategate” email scandal has revealed that he was so traumatised by the global backlash against him that he contemplated suicide.
Professor Phil Jones is a liar and a fraud. It would be nice if he would act to undo the damage his actions have caused. Instead, he wails "poor me!" and blames those who have exposed his fraud.
After all, the GOP presented substantive proposals on health care reform months ago, and the Democrats belittled them, ignored them, and claimed they did not exist. Why help Øbama pull his chestnuts out of the fire now that he is on the ropes?
President Barack Obama invited Republican and Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate to a Feb. 25 meeting to discuss ways to get an overhaul of the U.S. health-care system through Congress.Obama said he wants lawmakers “to put their ideas on the table.” The president spoke during a live televised interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric during the network’s Super Bowl pregame show yesterday.
We put up with months of Øbama and his minions negotiating in secret, offering recalcitrant Democrats deals that were akin to bribes, and telling the GOP to take it or leave it – all while claiming that the only reason the GOP opposed the resulting abortion of a bill was that they were playing partisan games. In the mean time, the American people rejected what Barack what wrought. Do we really need to give him an opportunity to win a battle that he has already lost – especially since the American people were behind that defeat?
Last spring, I got a traffic ticket. Like most Texans, I took the driver’s education route to get the thing dismissed – but still got stuck with a $200 “administrative fee” (the same as the fine for the ticket) as a result. And I was not alone – at least six other cars were stopped at that speed trap while I was there, and it operated from about 9:00 in the morning until about 4:00 in the afternoon weekdays for about 3 months – until the return diminished and they switched their location to another intersection a couple of miles away. I later saw that the city in question had managed to avoid budget cuts because of the increase in “enforcement activity” by the local cops that made up for the revenue shortfall from other sources of income.
I therefore read this story with interest.
Reluctant to raise taxes publicly, the Bloomberg administration is pursuing a "stealth tax" - launching an unprecedented squeeze on Big Apple residents and businesses, cracking down on parking, health, safety and quality-of-life infractions with a vengeance, the data shows.The ongoing blitz has worked so well that City Hall bean counters expect to rake in a record $884 million in fines by the end of this fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010.
That's a 10% jump over last year's $802 million.
And there's no letting up. Fines are projected to increase to $896 million in 2011.
"We need to get the revenue from somewhere," said a City Hall source. "We could just tax people and take it out of your wallet or we can be aggressive in enforcement."
Belt-tightening by government seems not to be a consideration.
H/T American Thinker
Next time a politician starts to talk about securing our nation's borders, ask them this question put forward by the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Vin Suprynowicz.
I haven't talked with Mr. Obama about this personally -- he hasn't dropped by. But I have talked with my own liberal Democratic Nevada congresswoman, Shelley Berkley, on the topic.Last year, at a meeting here in the offices of the Review-Journal, I heard her use virtually the same formulation, saying, "Everyone agrees we need to secure our borders."
I asked: "Are we going to use land mines and machine guns?"
The first, spontaneous expression on Rep. Berkley's face -- a mixture of horror and disbelief -- was priceless. Then, laughing a bit nervously and glancing from side to side, as though checking to see whether men in white coats were about to remove me, she replied, "Oh, no one is considering that."
The obvious follow-up question, then, is "What, exactly, do you propose we do to secure our borders?" Not vague platitudes about enforcing our nation's immigration laws, but serious proposals that the candidate or officeholder is prepared to work to get enacted and implemented.
Are landmines and machine guns the solution? Probably not. But if the current benign neglect on immigration issues that has been de facto policy during my entire adult life is going to continue, it is time for our politicians to admit that they need to budget for signs that read "Bienvenidos, Amigos!" at our southern border, as well as shuttle bus service to the nearest immigration office for instant green card service.
Having done that, the American people can either ratify said policy at the next election, or vote in others who with a serious plan to deal with our nation's immigration and border problems and the will to enact the policies to implement it.
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Today would be Ronald Reagan's 99th birthday.
My first foray into blogging was my tribute to Ronald Reagan during the events surrounding the great man's funeral. I can think of no better words to say of him now than I did that evening in 2004.
I first heard the name Ronald Reagan as a child living in California. I was only three years old when he was elected governor, but my parents taught me early that he was a good man, and one to be admired. I followed his career from then on.As an adolescent I listened to Ronald Reagan on the radio. What he said made sense, and he was a major influence in the formation of my world-view. As he challenged for the presidential nomination in 1976, I hoped that he would be the one to make us proud of America again. My heart broke when he conceded.
Four years later I sat late into the night, waiting for him to appear and announce his vice- presidential candidate. I was 17, and excited by his words and vision. I had never worked on a campaign before, but I did then. I am one of that generation he inspired with his conservative vision and principles.
In 1984 I cast my first presidential vote for Ronald Reagan. He remains the standard by which I judge any candidate for office.
I cannot help but be struck by the difference between this great American and the unworthy successor that sits in the Oval Office today. Unlike the self-referential tone of the incumbent, Ronald Reagan's words to this nation and this world can be said to have revolved around two themes that were inextricably bound in his heart, mind, and soul -- "America" and "freedom".
Today we mark the 99th anniversary of Reagan's birth in a nation with a Democrat in the Oval Office, a Democrat majority in the House of Representatives and a Democrat majority (a supermajority until just days ago) in the Senate. We can do nothing about the first, but let us vow to work together to guarantee that a year from today -- the Reagan Centennial -- we have undone the other two.
Others Remembering Reagan include GayPatriot. STACLU, JammieWearingFool, Virginia Right, American Conservative Values, Tab Right, WeaselZippers, Patriots & Liberty, Jefferson's Rebels, Grover Norquist, Texarkana GOP, PC Free Zone, American Thinker, NewsBusters, Moonbattery. RWN, PowerLine, Big Government, Shot in the Dark, Greenroom
Growing up as a Navy brat, this story was one I heard often. In honor of Four Chaplains Day, I present this telling of the story on the floor of the House of Representatives.
There is no greater love. . .
H/T WeaselZippers
When I was a kid, the only Democrats I knew were my mother’s family back in Rhode Island. Among the best and most beloved of the bunch were my mom’s cousin and her husband, who one night took my brother and I out putting up yard signs for a Democrat politician in Providence (I was 10, my brother was 8, and the laws against contributing to the delinquency of a minor were so much less stringent back then. . . ). They were good people, honest Democrats who believed in the New Deal/Fair Deal/Camelot/Great Society Democrat ideals that held sway during the middle third of the 20th Century and which still had great influence into the 1970s.
A couple of weeks ago, I got this email (which I have edited to remove family stories and details) from my mom’s cousin, and was floored by its contents.
Subject: Dancing in the streets!* * * We are dancing in the streets in Massachusetts AND RI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. We are so thrilled about Scott Brown gunning down Martha in the streets of Boston. Good for him. We are thrilled. God is good. How far away can the dumping of the "Kennedy kid" be? Patrick, take the hint. . . . So many, many of Rhode Islanders feel this way. . . . Just wait till the next election. We want to see the Kennedy dynasty die. Massachusetts got rid of Teddy’s ass tonight; we in RI will get rid of Patrick’s fat, drug-riddled, alcohol-infested ass SOON! Love it!
I was floored. I wasn’t at all sure how deep that sort of sentiment runs in a state like Rhode Island. But now I see that the polling data indicates that it does.
The Kennedy political dynasty is shaking in the aftershock of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s earth-shattering election, with a new poll showing U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy losing ground as he faces a well-financed GOP foe backed by Brown’s top strategists.The WPRI-12 poll showed the Rhode Island Democrat with a 56 percent unfavorability rating in his district - a negative that grows to 62 percent statewide.
Only 35 percent of voters in Kennedy’s district said they would vote to re-elect him. Another 31 percent said they’d consider a different candidate and 28 percent said they would vote to replace him, according to the poll.
Will we soon see a Kennedy-free Congress for the first time in my lifetime? Could be if Rhode Islanders are as serious about real change as my formerly Democrat family members! And that may drive home the point to the degenerate son of a degenerate father that the voice of the people as expressed by their votes is no joke.
Oh dear.
This looks bad at first glance.
Records show that Sarah Palin hasn't paid any property taxes on cabins that have been built on two backcountry plots partially owned by the former Alaska governor.There are no tax assessments for the two-story, house-sized cabins, a workshop and a sauna spotted Thursday in an aerial survey. Property taxes totaling $156.13 were paid on the land in 2009 — but that bill did not include anything for the structures because the local assessor didn't know about the new construction nearly 100 miles north of Anchorage.
The issue has attracted the attention of local tax officials who conducted the scheduled aerial survey of properties in the area on Thursday. The area is accessible only by floatplane, snowmobile or four-wheeler.
Owners are expected to report errors and omissions on property assessments and taxes, so it does look bad.
But wait – there is some information that is not reported until later in the article.
The properties are located along Safari Lake — an undeveloped area located near Denali State Park — and owned by Palin, her husband Todd and a family friend, Scott Richter. According to borough records, the tax assessments are sent to Richter's post office box in Big Lake.
In other words, the Palins likely never see these assessments. They go to their family friend/partner who, unless I miss my guess, just tells them to cut him a check for their $78.07 of the taxes, which he no doubt pays from his personal account like so many other property owners. So while that does not make the situation “all better”, it does make the issue significantly less than an criminal or unethical.
In fact, this story reminds me of something that came up with John McCain during the 2008 campaign, when the “gotcha” tax story turned out to be based upon the failure of the county tax office to mail the tax bills to the correct address of the bank that managed the trust set up by her father. I suspect that there will be a similar resolution – and that liberals will make more of this non-scandal about Sarah Palin than they did over the willful tax offenses of numerous top Democrats.
This story is just too good to pass up!
A high-ranking Pakistani diplomat reportedly cannot be appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia because in Arabic his name translates into a phrase more appropriate for a porn star, referring to the size of male genitals, Foreign Policy reported.The Arabic translation of Akbar Zeb to "biggest d**k" has overwhelmed Saudi officials who have refused to allow his post there.
Zeb has run into this problem before when Pakistan tried to appoint him as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, where he was rejected for the same reason, according to Foreign Policy.
Sucks to be him -- though it could be advantageous in picking up the ladies.
Which leads, of course, to the obligatory clip from Monty Python's "The Life Of Brian".
Well, the liberals would be declaring it was if this happened at Fox, so I assume they will be all over this incident and condemning NBC and its various on-air personalities.
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So who at NBC thought it would be a good idea for the special today to be, among other things, fried chicken, “in honor of Black History Month”?Because, spoiler alert – it wasn’t a good idea at all. And now NBCU employee Questlove is bringing it to the attention of his 1 million plus Twitter followers.
Questlove, the band leader and drummer for The Roots (the house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) tweeted this picture from the NBC Commissary at 30 Rock, with the comment: “Hmm HR?”
But the argument from NBC seems to be that since the black cook set the menu, this is just hunky-dory.
I like the take from JammieWearingFool:
You have to figure this will earn NBC a special "Worst People in the World" from Keith Uberdork.
Don't bet on it -- intellectual honesty is not among Olberdouche's many personality traits.
H/T WeaselZippers
Now this is clever -- I can imagine a few of the middle school teachers i know using this with their kids as they teach the 8th grade US History course.
Great info on the video and those behind it at SISU. And the video has gone viral.
And let me be among the voices encouraging my fellow educators to check out Soomo Publishing for more resources -- some ready to use, some still in development.
H/T Dan Riehl
Justice Clarence Thomas is regularly attacked and denigrated by left-wingers who struggle with the notion that there can be an intelligent, educated black man who is capable of thinking for himself. Actually, I take that isn't quite right. I really ought to have put the period after "man". But so expansive is his knowledge of the law, the Constitution, and the history of both that he can pull this obscure point out of his judicial robes to point out just how pernicious the impulse to allow government to censor speech really is.
He added that the history of Congressional regulation of corporate involvement in politics had a dark side, pointing to the Tillman Act, which banned corporate contributions to federal candidates in 1907.“Go back and read why Tillman introduced that legislation,” Justice Thomas said, referring to Senator Benjamin Tillman. “Tillman was from South Carolina, and as I hear the story he was concerned that the corporations, Republican corporations, were favorable toward blacks and he felt that there was a need to regulate them.”
It is thus a mistake, the justice said, to applaud the regulation of corporate speech as “some sort of beatific action.”
Yeah, that is right. Barack Obama stood before the people of the United States and praised legislation introduced by a fellow Democrat who preceded him in the US Senate, one of the most vile enemies of African-Americans to ever serve in the United States Senate, a despicable man who owed his election to public office to his participation in an armed assault upon a body of black soldiers during Reconstruction and the lynching of several of these soldiers, and a dangerous demagogue who was censured for his physical assault of another Senator on the floor of the US Senate and barred from the White House over the incident. Indeed, an honest observer could rightly refer to the Tillman Act, lauded today by Obama and his fellow enemies of free speech, as the "Shut Up The N*gger-Lovers Act of 1907". If I were to construct a case to demonstrate the fundamental evil of allowing government to censor and silence disfavored speech, this piece of legislation that successfully silenced the voices of those who supported constitutional rights for all Americans would stand as Exhibit A in that effort.
So today we stand at a crossroads, faced with the choice between listening to a respected jurist as he defends the First Amendment and an adjunct law school faculty member (speaking far beyond his pay grade) to defend a Jim Crow law he finds politically advantageous to support.
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What a pity that the first black man to sit in the Oval Office would use the occasion of his first State of the Union address to validate the life and work of a vile racist like "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman in an effort to undermine the Supreme Court and constrict the guarantee of free speech inserted into the Constitution at the very beginning of the Republic.
UPDATE: Here is the audio of Justice Thomas speaking on the Citizens United decision. His comments on the Tillman Act are at the very beginning. (H/T Lonely Conservative)
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is leading him. Governor Gardasil Goodhair is ahead by almost as much. Good grief, even Deb Medina is leading the former mayor of Houston in the polls!
The two top hopefuls for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Texas remain out in front of their likeliest Democratic opponent, but now the Tea Party activist who is the third GOP contender is edging ahead as well.A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Texas voters finds incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry leading former Houston Mayor Bill White 48% to 39%. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, and eight percent are undecided.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison still runs best against the Democrat, leading White by 13 points, 49% to 36%. Seven percent (7%) prefer another candidate, while another seven percent (7%) are not sure.
The findings for both these match-ups are little changed from mid-January.The surprise, as in the new Rasmussen Reports survey of the GOP gubernatorial primary, is the growing strength of Debra Medina, a businesswoman active in the state's Tea Party movement. Medina now edges White 41% to 38%. Last month, White had a 44% to 38% lead on her. In this contest, six percent (6%) favor some other candidate, but a more sizable 16% are undecided.
Voters not affiliated with either major party prefer the Republicans in all three match-ups by double-digits.
Now I will grant you that Bill White looked like a highly competent mayor of Sanctuary City after six years of Lee (Period) P (Period) Brown, but the people of Texas know a loser when they see one -- and White certainly qualifies.
Bill White polling behind Medina? Incredible!
Cancer-stricken Elizabeth Edwards is telling pals that John beat her during a horrific marriage-ending fight, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively."John lost his temper big-time," revealed a close friend of Elizabeth.
"She has the divorce papers drawn up, but she can amend them to charge John with domestic violence.
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Ain't it sad that we have to turn to such a source because our nation's news media appears unable or unwilling to report on the whole sordid story first?
When will there be charges filed, and why was Edwards not arrested when the cops were called?
Enquiring minds want to know!
For Todd Palin to hunt down Andrew Sullivan and beat him to within an inch of his worthless life. Jury nullification will be a certainty if he does -- Sullivan has crossed every last line of decency with his latest attack on the Palin family.
NOTE TO THE ATLANTIC SUBSCRIPTION DEPARTMENT: You've sent me three letters in the past two weeks pleading with me to subscribe to your rag. Please be informed that I won't even consider doing so as long as the publication continues to employ that demented drug-addled foreign troll. On the other hand, i have joined this Facebook Group.
I'll be the first to say that whoever placed the cross where they did was disrespectful -- but at the same time, all too much is being made of this incident by those with a particular bias against Christianity.
The Air Force Academy, stung several years ago by accusations of Christian bias, has built a new outdoor worship area for pagans and other practitioners of Earth-based religions.But its opening, heralded as a sign of a more tolerant religious climate at the academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., was marred by the discovery two weeks ago of a large wooden cross placed there.
"We've been making great progress at the Air Force Academy. This is clearly a setback," said Mikey Weinstein, a 1977 graduate of the academy. He is founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and has often tangled with the academy over such issues.
On the other hand, a Quran left in a Christian chapel would have been swept under the rug, and any objecting Christian would have been cited for hate speech had he/she objected. That despite the fact that the Quran is nothing less than a book of blasphemy against the teachings of Christianity, and Christians are daily persecuted and murdered by Muslims in Muslim countries for the crime of not accepting the false teachings of Islam. Tolerance, it seems, runs only one direction.
Also, am I the only one offended that the self-promoting scumbag from the Military Religious Freedom (For Everyone But Christians) Foundation cited in the article compared a Christian cross to a Nazi swastika? Doesn't that qualify as intolerance of the highest order?
Hopefully those involved will be caught and appropriately punished. But hopefully the anti-Christian bigots like Weinstein and military officials who kow-tow to him will one day soon be slapped down for their bigotry -- a move that is being sought by the Catholic League.
No word on a favorite, but there are four finalists.
The RNC has narrowed its search for a '12 convention location to 4 cities, several party sources tell Hotline OnCall.In a vote at the Winter meetings in Honolulu late last week, the party narrowed its search to Salt Lake City, Tampa, Phoenix and Houston.
The RNC's site selection committee, headed by MI committeewoman Holly Hughes, will visit each of the 4 cities later this year to go over logistics, examine hotel and conference capacity and the facility for the convention itself.
I know which city I want to see host the convention -- it would be neat to be a delegate to a convention where I could go home and sleep in my own bed each night. And I do plan on seeking a delegate slot in 2012, wherever the convention is held.
And while the article mentions Houston's growing Hispanic population as an attraction for the GOP, I cannot help but think that the presence of our nation's oldest living former President and First Lady -- the parents of the GOP's most recent President -- might also be an attraction as well.
Any federal official who can’t respond with a loud and unhesitating “Hell No!” has no business being involved in setting policy for dealing with the Crusade Against Jihadism.
At the end of a Senate hearing yesterday, Dennis Blair -- Obama’s Director of National Intelligence -- refused to answer a very simple question.Now, the DNI -- like most people who live behind the walls that protect our nation’s secrets -- is not going to answer a lot of questions. But this question was simple, and didn’t require complex decisions on divulging secrets.
Blair was asked whether, if we now caught Usama bin Laden, should the terrorist boss be read his “Miranda” rights. And Blair declined to answer.
Will someone explain to me what that was not the lead story on every newscast yesterday, and the top story in every newspaper today. Instead it has been ignored and buried. Why? Is bin Laden an enemy leading a war against us, or is he a criminal? The answer to that question is the clearest indication of this administration’s seriousness about the biggest threat to American security today.
And you know that the original sentence was outrageously light when even the Ninth Circuit argues that the terrorist was not dealt with in a sufficiently harsh manner.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out the 22-year prison sentence imposed in 2005 on Ahmed Ressam, known as the Millennium Bomber, who plotted to set off explosives at Los Angeles International Airport on New Year’s Eve in 1999. The court said the sentence was too light.A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, said Mr. Ressam did not deserve the “substantial reduction” in his sentence from the minimum of 65 years in federal sentencing guidelines because he backed out of his agreement to cooperate with investigators.
The court also took the unusual step of calling for a new trial judge to consider the next sentence, because the federal judge who issued the original decision had already once declined to increase Mr. Ressam’s prison term.
Incredible – and a sign of why civilian courts are inappropriate for terrorism cases. After all, there are too many liberal judges out there who would prefer to slap the terrorist on the wrist and indict the US as the real bad actor in the Crusade Against Jihadism.
Pleads guilty to tax evasion to avoid other felony charges related to taxes and bribery.
State Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, pleaded guilty early this morning to lying on her tax returns in connection with the FBI's Dallas City Hall public corruption investigation, an act that ends her 14-year political career.Hodge, 69, now a convicted felon, is dropping her re-election plans, and will resign her position as District 100 representative in the Texas House when she is sentenced. At Wednesday's hearing, U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn said she wanted sentencing to occur as soon as possible.
"Ms. Hodge will have pleaded guilty today to a felony and will still be representing her district," Lynn said. "I'm not real keen on that notion.
Two thoughts stand out in my mind.
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The left loves dictator hugo Chavez -- and Barack obama.
The Left hasn't a word to say about the efforts of the Chavez regime to shut down opposition speech -- and encourages the silencing of conservative voices in America.
Let's shut down Barack before he shuts us down -- and then support the people of Venezuela as they struggle to liberate themselves.
Leaving the taxpayers of one Illinois city with the tab for a 2008 election appearance.
The city of Springfield still hasn’t been fully repaid for costs associated with hosting then- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign stop in the fall of 2008.Obama’s presidential campaign was sent a bill for $68,139, and still owes the city $55,457, according to Ernie Slottag, the city’s spokesman.
The city has been trying — unsuccessfully — to collect payment, Ken Crutcher, the city’s director of office of budget and management told aldermen recently.
“We’ve spoken to a lot of people and have found a lot of circles,” Crutcher said. … “We’ve been kind of bounced from place to place with respect to that particular event.”
Seems to me that the time has come for the city to file suit and force payment for the services rendered – and any city approached by the Obama campaign regarding such events in 2012 should demand the cash up front.
Or better yet, tell him he isn't welcome in their town.
He’s cutting the Border Patrol.
President Barack Obama's proposed 2011 budget would cut the border patrol by 180 agents and trim spending on a "virtual fence" along the nation's Southwest border.Homeland security officials confirmed the proposed cuts Monday during a budget briefing for reporters. They said no border patrol agents would lose their jobs. Instead, the positions would be cut through attrition as agents retire or leave.
No word yet on whether or not there is money in the bill to allow ACORN to register the increased number of illegal aliens to vote and provide them with ballots pre-marked to vote straight Democrat prior to the 2012 election.
And Lord knows we need all the extra cheap labor we can get given the wonderful things that Obama has accomplished with unemployment.
Wouldn’t you hate to be the guy who had to explain this hunting accident at the hospital?
A hunter trying to retrieve duck decoys got a surprise when he was accidentally shot by his own dog.The accident occurred Saturday when the female Labrador retriever stepped on her owner's loaded shotgun, causing the safety to disengage and the weapon to fire, according to the Merced County Sheriff's Department.
The 53-year-old victim was hit in the upper left back with No. 2 shot.
Sounds like something out of a comedy, doesn’t it.
Especially when you come to this line near the end of the story.
The name and age of the dog were not available.
Could the dog be named Dick Cheney?.
No Second Amendment.
I am and have been a supporter of the gun registry but now I'm not so sure, not when ownership of a two-bit little bird gun – legally acquired, lawfully used and stored in pieces in a trunk for the past 30 years – is sufficient reason for three cops to come to my door and snatch it, after threatening me with a search warrant.Look, I registered the damn thing. I simply neglected to renew. A sin of omission?
Send in the troops.
Just like those of us "clingers" who insist that registration of guns provides the means for ultimate confiscation of guns, that is exactly what happened to this columnist.
As for me, I'll stay with "shall not be infringed."
I guess it isn't so superior that Canadian political leaders want to subject themselves to it.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is set to undergo heart surgery this week in the United States.CBC News confirmed Monday that Williams, 59, left the province earlier in the day and will have surgery later in the week.
The premier's office provided few details, beyond confirming that he would have heart surgery and saying that it was not necessarily a routine procedure.
Deputy Premier Kathy Dunderdale is scheduled to hold a news conference Tuesday morning.
To put this in perspective, Danny Williams is the equivalent of a governor here in the US. What does it say about the Canadian system that one of the nation's top leaders finds it necessary to leave the country for non-routine surgery for what is presumably a serious heart condition? It ought to tell you that the Canadian health care system is inferior to the health care system in the US, and that the wait time in Canada for care that can be had immediately in the US is long enough to be potentially fatal.
In other words, this is the equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rick Perry, Deval Patrick, or David Paterson traveling to Mexico for surgery that they could not get quickly enough here. But, of course, stuff like that does not happen here -- because America is a world leader in medicine, the claims of the Democrats notwithstanding.
H/T RedState
More good stuff for your intellectual consumption!
Which is rather funny, given the fact that the folks on the Left were such big fans of the Khmer Rouge and supported them over the US military during the conflict in Southeast Asia. So why does a pseudo-journalist from a pseudo-news organization like MSNBC label Republicans the equivalent of genocidal Stalinists?
What's going on out there in the Republican Party is kind of a frightening, almost Cambodia re-education camp going on in that party, where they're going around to people, sort of switching their minds around saying, if you're not far right, you're not right enough.
Got that, friends? Republicans who want Republicans to support the principles of the Republican Party are just like the murderous leftists who killed 20% of their own nation’s population. And we know this because a “respected journalist” from an “unbiased cable network” tells us so!
But I do have to ask – didn’t left-wing hack pseudo-journalists like Chris Matthews spend years telling us that comparing our political opponents to Communists was “McCarthysim” and “Red-baiting”?
As a teacher, I try so very hard to be non-partisan in my classroom. I talked about that in this post just yesterday. And while I would never argue that teachers should not be active in campaigns and support the candidates of their choice, I’m adamant that professionalism requires that we not support or oppose parties, candidate, or propositions while on our teaching time. And as public employees, we should not be promoting such things on the taxpayer’s dime.
So as far as the NYC public schools’ regulation banning teachers from wearing campaign buttons during the school day, I say “Right on!” And a court has now agreed as well.
School-board authorities asserted a rational reason for the regulation: to prevent students from thinking that the school endorsed the political views advocated by teachers. They also argued that allowing such political expression might interfere with the school’s educational mission.The district court accepted these reasons in its opinion, relying on Hazelwood: “Hazelwood and its progeny establish that a school board’s determination that opinions conveyed by teacher-worn political buttons might reasonably be perceived to bear the school’s imprimatur or otherwise interfere with the defendants’ public mission is entitled to a degree of deference because it is expert in these matters.”
The district court also recognized another “legitimate pedagogical concern” offered by the school board — the school board’s “wish to maintain neutrality on controversial issues.”
Now please notice – this is a decision about reasonable regulation of employee speech during the work day, not a ban on speech outside of work. Our job as teachers is to teach our subject material, not spend the day communicating our politics to our students.
Every year I get some kid in one of my classes who tells me that he doesn’t need to do well in my class or any other because he’s an athlete – “I’ve got skills!”
He tells me that he will be playing for a Division I school in a few years before going high in the draft and getting paid lots of money by some NFL/NBA/MLB franchise to do something with a ball.
So far, only a handful of my students – and none of those kids – have gotten that Division I scholarship, and only one has made it into the professional ranks.
That’s why today I greeted the young man I like to call “Soccer Stud” (a ninth grader on the varsity team) with this article.
A study of numbers provided by the National High School Federation and the NCAA shows that the participants in boys wrestling have the longest odds of earning an athletic scholarship. Boys soccer is a close second.In those two sports, the number of Division I scholarships offered in a given year accounts for less than half a percent of high school participants.
The sport with the highest percentage of high school participants earning at least a partial athletic scholarship is girls golf at 1.6 percent.
Football ranks second, with 1.4 percent of its high school participants in a given year earning a scholarship at a Division I university.
“We stress to parents and students everywhere that you should participate in athletics for the values and benefits that sports can give, not because you want a scholarship,” said Kevin Lennon, the NCAA’s vice president of membership services.
I love my students. I love to watch them play at their games when I can. But I also know that their athletic careers are likely to end as they walk across the stage at their high school graduation – and that if it doesn’t, it will almost certainly be done once they finish college.
Might it not be useful for those of us in education – and the parents of our students – to remember these numbers before we make sports the end-all and be-all of our schools?
To the mayor of Tampa, Florida!
![6a00e008c6b4e588340128773a7c9d970c-pi[1]](http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/images/6a00e008c6b4e588340128773a7c9d970c-pi[1])
Good grief! It is bad enough that he bows to foreign despots and potentates, but now he is offering such extreme deference to municipal officials? Or does he just have some sort of fetish that he feels compelled to check out everyone's feet?
H/T WeaselZippers
I'm a high school social studies teacher. As such, I have a lot of internship program/scholarship contest/ educational opportunity literature show up in my mailbox, hoping I'll distribute it to my students and encourage them to apply. As a rule I do -- especially the scholarship contests -- but I don't push any of them all that hard or target particular students. I don't screen for ideology, only for whether the opportunities appear to be from legitimate organizations and offer some bona fide academic benefit. I've even written recommendations to programs that have a slant I disagree with, simply because I believe that my students ought to take any opportunity for learning that comes to them. I do, however, refuse to pass a few on if something seems to be "not right" about the program or the sponsoring group.
Now I offer that preface because I'm about to join the chorus of folks on the right trashing the Organizing For America internship program. Pamela Geller over at Atlas Shrugs has raised some very important issues about the program, and i am more or less in agreement with her on what she has to say.
If I had this show up in my mailbox, I would have trashed it in a heartbeat. Not because it is a project of Obama and the Democrats, but because it is an explicit political recruiting tool. As a teacher, I have an obligation to keep classroom from being turned into a tool for political recruitment or exploitation. That's why I keep my name off my blog, don't blog from school, and have even turned down several offers of goodies for my students when they came with partisan or candidate messages attached. If this had come my way during the Bush years, I'd have trashed it just as quickly.
What is the offensive part of the program? That cover page spells it out. it is explicitly partisan, and designed around promoting the agenda of a particular politician. Frankly, this teacher finds it scary that this would be promoted in a classroom. Indeed, I'd really like to hear more from Geller about the manner in which this seems to have been done in one Ohio school -- was this one teacher giving the material to her class, one school distributing the material to all students, or what? Regardless, though, this should not be pushed by staff at school, or distributed by school personnel.
On the other hand, I don't have nearly the problem with the existence of the program that some folks do. As wrong-headed as Obama's policies are, I'm all for its supporters working to implement those policies. After all, that is a part of what makes America the great nation it is -- citizen involvement in politics. I cut my political teeth as a volunteer with the Reagan campaign as a high school student, so I applaud the involvement of these young people in the process. And if I find the Alinsky/ACORN model that this program is using to be rather frightening, I think that enough Americans have turned against the Obama platform that teaching the method to the kids is likely going to do little to advance Obama's goals.
Like this should be a surprise to anyone?
"Come on, don't ask me that," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said when presented with the inevitable question about his 2012 intentions and if his political aspirations included running for the White House next time around.
And that was just the first of several different ways Steele said that he would not be a candidate in 2012.
Like that should come as a surprise to anyone. I don't know anyone who has ever seriously suggested such a thing -- and i say that as a Michael Steele fan. And while I grant that a single term as RNC chairman and a single term as lieutenant Governor of Maryland makes him eminently more qualified than Barack Obama was in 2008 (and, for that matter, more competent than Obama will be in any future year), Steele simply is not on anyone's radar screen within the GOP for 2012.
When I got home from school on Thursday, my darling wife was not feeling well. Given that she had a recent bout with a serious respiratory infection that took weeks to shake, I was concerned.
Within couple of hours, she got worse, necessitating a trip to the ER. She was admitted later that night and spent all of yesterday in the hospital, suffering from the effects of a stomach bug that had left her dehydrated and exhausted. Late last night, I got to bring her home, rehydrated and feeling better, if not completely well. She has been, and remains, my primary focus right now.
Needless to say, I haven't been following much on the net -- indeed, I was on only briefly while on a quick trip home to allow the dog out to take care of her needs, and posted only to explain why comment closed. Frankly, it was more attention than I wanted to pay to my website, but was sadly necessary to protect myself from the unethical activities of another individual.
I'm not planning on backing down from expressing my views, and I'm not going to allow the my site to be the platform for a series of personal attacks on me. I'm therefore reluctantly keeping the comments closed for the foreseeable future.
Now how are these two things connected, that I would comment on them in one post? Simple -- any attack on me that attempts to damage me personally and/or professionally is nothing less than an attack on my ability to care for my wife, who is is disabled due to chronic medical issues. That seems to be a pattern here -- rather than refute my positions, this particular individual and those of his ilk seem intent upon making another assault upon my civil liberties by interfering with my employment. They have tried before and failed, and they should be aware that I do have legal counsel on standby to deal with such issues if they arise again in the future.
In other words, maybe I'll be back to posting later this afternoon or this evening. Left-wing fascists are not going to shut me down.
Looks to me like an old nemesis is setting up sock puppet accounts to create a "dialogue" of comments to denounce me on my own blog. Repeated comments from different email addresses are coming from the same IP address within minutes of each other in order to insult me and defame me and expose personal and professional information about me on my website. if you have a comment for me, please feel free to email it to me and I will consider posting it if it has merit.
Believe it or not, I dozed off before the speech started -- and after watching part of it before heading to work this morning, I realize I would have likely done so during the speech (like Justice Ginsburg did) if I had made it that long into the night.
I did have a chance to read the speech during lunch today. The main thing I agreed with was his point on gays in the military. In large part it seemed like he is either completely oblivious to what Americans are saying about his policy initiatives -- or he just doesn't care what the American people want. And much of it just seems to lack sincerity – but then again, many of us have wondered if Barack Obama is sincere about anything he says other than “I”, “me”, and “my”.
My biggest peeve about the speech was the way he misrepresented the Citizens United decision handed down by the Supreme Court -- he said that it left no limits on political spending by corporations (it does -- no contributions to candidates are permitted) and that it allowed foreign corporations to attempt to influence American elections (Justice Kennedy explicitly said it does not in the opinion of the court). If Obama, a former constitutional law instructor at a major university law school, could actually make that assertion then I'm inclined to question either his professional competence or personal honesty. And those folks who were offended by Justice Alito saying "not true" to one of his colleagues (Justice Sotomayor, I believe) when that assertion was made should be thankful that Alito didn't do like Congressman Joe Wilson did during the health care speech last year by standing up and shouting "You lie!" After all, Obama did.
And from Obama’s home state of Hawaii, no less.
Dear President Obama,My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor, allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.
One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man. So here goes.
I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.
I can't figure out what country you are the president of.
You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like: "We're no longer a Christian nation" "America is arrogant" -- (Your wife even announced to the world, "America is mean- spirited." Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)
I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.
After 9/11 you said, "America hasn’t lived up to her ideals."
Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.
I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.
Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.
Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.
And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts, who was putting up a fight? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.
One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.
You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.
You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.
And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.
Sincerely,Harold B. Estes
Bravo, Master Chief! Having grown up the son of a Navy officer, I’d like to say that you again prove to me something that I heard from my father more than once – that senior enlisted men are not just the backbone of the different branches of the armed forces, but also the repository of a great deal of the common sense wisdom that exists within our nation’s military.
And thank you for your service to our nation – both then and now.
When an organization calls itself "Parent PAC" and claims it is the voice of "parents, grandparents, parents-to-be, and anyone who loves children and supports high quality public education", you would think that it is a grassroots organization made up primarily of parents, right? Not this one down here in Texas, unless by "parents" you mean school officials and Democrat insiders.
After all, here's how Texas Parent PAC bills itself.
Texas Parent PAC is a bipartisan political action committee for parents, grandparents, parents-to-be, and anyone who loves children and supports high quality public education. Parents are fed up with the inability of state lawmakers to support children in the manner they deserve and our constitution requires. It’s time for some changes at the state Capitol in Austin!
And here's where the money comes from according to its semi-annual report.
January Semi-Annual:Clifford Brown (goes by "Buster" - mayor of Corsicana, lots of cash to Democrats), $1000, 11/25/2009Elna Christopher (Texas Association of Counties, Director of Media Relations), $100, 11/27/2009Patricia Conradt (Chief of Staff for Rep. Joe Heflin, D-Crosbyton), $100, 12/1/2009Sandy Dochen (Public relations), $100, 11/16/2009Laura Fowler (Lawyer), $100, 10/10/2009Susan Griffith (Realtor), $100, 11/17/2009Eliu M. Hinojosa (Superintendent, Dallas ISD), $100, 12/15/2009Shanna Igo (Texas Municipal League, Director of Legislative Services), $500, 11/17/2009Dr. Melody Johnson (Superintendent, Fort Worth ISD), $250, 12/26/2009Sandra Kibby (Wholesale Beverage Distributor), $100, 11/24/2009Sara Leon (Lawyer), $100, 10/10/2009Sherrie Matula (Educational Science Consultant and former Democrat candidate for state rep), $250, 10/3/2009Ken McCraw (Executive Director, Texas Association of Community Schools), $250, 11/12/2009Pam(e) Noland (District Services Coordinator, New Deal ISD), $100, 10/10/2009Blake Powell (Lawyer), $100, 10/10/2009Pat Pringle (Executive Director, Region XIII Education Svc. Center), $100, 12/1/2009Gwendolyn Santiago (Executive Director, Texas Association of School Business Officials), $100, 12/23/2009Guy Sconzo (Superintendent, Humble ISD), $100, 12/1/2009Dr. Henry Scott (Superintendent, Denison ISD), $75, 12/1/2009Gene Sheets (Superintendent, Muleshoe ISD), $100, 10/6/2009So if by "parents, grandparents, parents-to-be, and anyone who loves children and supports high quality public education" you mean "education insiders and Democrat activists", then I guess they are not lying about who the PAC serves. But don't claim to be grassroots -- acknowledge the astroturf. Heck, I keep looking for Ellie Light to show up as a donor.
Not that I mind these folks spending money to engage in political speech. Its just the deceptiveness of the thing.
Interestingly enough, by the standards of this group, I don't love children or support high quality public education. But then what do I know? I'm only a public school teacher!
January 27, 2010
This Strikes Me As Utterly Unnecessary
After all, the First Amendment and a Supreme Court ruling that the underlying law is unconstitutional would seem to make a ruling by a regulatory agency superfluous.
A conservative legal foundation on Wednesday asked federal regulators to give a green light to corporations and unions to begin spending their treasuries to influence this year's congressional elections.The James Madison Center for Free Speech asked the Federal Election Commission to formally throw out its rules that restrict corporate and union spending on politics, saying the step is needed to implement last week's Supreme Court decision freeing such groups to get more directly involved in election campaigns.
"This is an election year," said James Bopp, the center's attorney. "Speakers will want to exercise the First Amendment rights to political speech" outlined in last week's decision, he said, "so the FEC should adopt these regulations quickly."
But the entire statutory authority for the initial set of regulations is gone, so the regulations are invalid. And since the Citizens United case held that the First Amendment prohibits the regulation of corporate speech about candidates, there is no basis for issuing new regulations.
In other words, they can spend what they want, and the FEC doesn’t have anything to say on the matter.
Will The Astros Offer Him A Contract?
Lord knows they need pitching – and this guy could certainly hit the strike zone.
n Israeli man hurled his sneakers at Israel’s Supreme Court chief justice on Wednesday during a hearing on medical marijuana, hitting her between the eyes, breaking her glasses and knocking her off her chair.Dorit Beinisch, who is in her late 60s, was not seriously hurt, and the incident appeared to be an isolated one, though there have been rising numbers of threats against the judiciary.
The judge was hit by the first shoe and knocked to the ground as the second one flew overhead, witness Michael Eden said.
Eden said the assailant, a man with thinning gray hair, tossed the shoes from the fourth row of the packed courtroom, about 65 feet (20 meters) from the bench, while yelling “you’re corrupt, a traitor, because of you I lost everything.”
Of course, what happened here is utterly unacceptable. Still, you have to respect his accuracy over that distance.
This Is All Many Of Us Really Want
I’m not a believer in man-caused global warming. Don’t get me wrong – I do believe that there is an overall warming trend, but my recognition of recorded fluctuations during recorded history leads me to conclude that what we are seeing is cyclical climate change of a natural sort. Unfortunately, that leads to denunciations of my position in terms usually reserved for Holocaust deniers and child molesters. Rather than convincing me to change my stance, this instead serves to convince me I’m right because my opponents appear unwilling to defend their assertions and answer my arguments.
But here is someone in a position of authority who is raising some of the same issues I have from a position of scientific authority.
The impact of global warming has been exaggerated by some scientists and there is an urgent need for more honest disclosure of the uncertainty of predictions about the rate of climate change, according to the Government’s chief scientific adviser.John Beddington was speaking to The Times in the wake of an admission by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that it grossly overstated the rate at which Himalayan glaciers were receding.
Professor Beddington said that climate scientists should be less hostile to sceptics who questioned man-made global warming. He condemned scientists who refused to publish the data underpinning their reports.
He said that public confidence in climate science would be improved if there were more openness about its uncertainties, even if that meant admitting that sceptics had been right on some hotly-disputed issues.
Beddington notes that data is being suppressed, limitations of the science are being ignored, and shrill name-calling is often substituted for rational argumentation by the supporters of global warming.
But beyond that, let’s not forget that science is never settled. It wasn’t when Galileo was condemned for his heretical ideas, and it isn’t today.
Moving Backwards Under Obama
We have this news about the future of America’s space program.
• More than a week ago ScienceInsider reported that the Ares I rocket would be scrapped and that NASA would get a $1 billion boost to expedite development of a heavy-lift launcher that could take humans to the moon, asteroids and the moons of Mars.
• Then, on Friday, Space News reported NASA would not even get the $1 billion budget increase. (And note that the $1 billion was just a fraction of the $3 billion annually the Augustine committee said NASA needed to have a meaningful human spaceflight program.)
• On Sunday the Wall Street Journal also reported that NASA would not get a significant budget increase this year, and that the space agency will be outsourcing its need to carry astronauts to the space station to private contractors.
For NASA proper this is about the worst of all worlds. If the latest reports are correct, and they dovetail with what I have heard from industry contacts, not only will NASA be getting no significant new money for human space exploration, it will also see the Ares I rocket program terminated.
In other words, manned spaceflight for the US seems to be at an impasse, with only astronauts transiting to the ISS for the foreseeable future. This despite Barack Obama’s promises of increased NASA funding during the campaign.
Of course, we do get this little bit of idiocy ignoring Obama’s broken promises (and instead blaming the local GOP representatives from districts with NASA facilities) from a local NASA employee better known for something other than his professional competence.
In the mean time, we also get this bit of information.
India will launch its first manned mission in 2016 with two astronauts for a week-long odyssey in space, a top Indian space agency official said on Wednesday."We are planning a human space flight in 2016, with two astronauts who will spend seven days in the earth's lower orbit," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters here.
Space scientists and senior officials of the state-run ISRO are preparing a pre-project report to build the infrastructure and facilities for the mission, estimated to cost a whopping Rs.124 billion ($2.76 billion).
Congratulations, America! You are now officially behind India in space exploration.
Barack Obama. Promises Made. Promises Broken.
Headlines I Hate
I always want to scream when I see this sort of thing from a news source.
U.S. in Secret Joint Operations With Yemeni Troops I’m not going to go so far as to call it “aid and comfort to the enemy”, but I do have to wonder if these folks would have printed stories in May, 1944 headlined “Allies Prepare For Secret Normandy Invasion”.
January 26, 2010
But If She Wanted An Abortion, It Would Have Been No Big Deal
I’ve never made any secret of the fact that I am pro-life when it comes to the issue of abortion. And while I might not be as absolutist as others on the issue, I do think that the state ought to be able to limit or prohibit late-term abortions.
That said, the generally libertarian side of my conservative political philosophy takes great offense at what amounted to the court-ordered imprisonment of a woman to prevent her from engaging in legal activities that the doctor believed would endanger her child.
Samantha Burton wanted to leave the hospital. Her doctor strongly disagreed, enough to go to court to keep her there.She smoked cigarettes during the first six months of her pregnancy and was admitted on a false alarm of premature labor. Her doctor argued she was risking a miscarriage if she didn't quit smoking immediately and stay on bed rest in the hospital, and a judge agreed.
Three days after the judge ordered her not to leave the hospital, Burton delivered a stillborn fetus by cesarian-section.
Whoa! Under the currently existing rulings of the US Supreme Court, Burton had the right to terminate her pregnancy. What’s more, Burton had an absolute right to travel where she chose to seek medical treatment in another state where a late term abortion might be performed. No state could order her held in custody to prevent her from engaging in that legal (if morally reprehensible) activity in another state.
So if Burton had a legal right to kill this child via abortion, on what possible grounds does a doctor and a judge order her imprisoned against her will until she delivers her child so as to prevent her from engaging in other legal behaviors that may or may not harm her unborn child?
Frankly, I’m with the ACLU on this one.
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Diana Kasdan said if the ruling stands it could lead to the state virtually taking over the lives of pregnant women, including telling them what they should or should not eat and drink and what medications they must take."It would be a horrible precedent," Kasdan said.
Indeed, this plays into every feminist fantasy of government control of pregnant women.
And one more thing – if government force someone to get medical treatment not of their choosing now, just imagine what things will look like if something resembling ObamaCare gets enacted. With the government paying the bills and determining what treatments you are allowed, it is only one more step to government telling you what treatments you are required to accept because it has determined that such treatment benefits society at large.
And let’s not forget – this is not a case of a plague carrier being subjected to quarantine. This is government dictating to someone with a non-contagious condition when there is a bona fide difference of opinion even among medical professionals as to the proper course of treatment. Whatever happened to patient’s rights when it comes to directing their own medical care? Or the unalienable right to liberty that is at the heart of our founding documents?
Interesting commentary from a different perspective over at Founding Bloggers.
Even Indonesians Hate Obama!
Indonesian authorities said Monday they are considering a petition to tear down a statue of US President Barack Obama as a boy, only a month after the bronze was unveiled in Jakarta.The statue of "Little Barry" -- as Obama was known when he lived in the capital in the late 1960s -- stands in central Jakarta's Menteng Park, a short walk from the US president's former elementary school.
Critics say the site should have been used to honour an Indonesian and 55,000 people have joined a page on social networking website Facebook calling for the statue to be removed.
"We've been discussing for the past two weeks what to do with the statue... whether to take it down, move it elsewhere or retain it. We're finding the best solution," Jakarta parks agency official Dwi Bintarto said.
I guess that the alumni association from the school where Barry Sotero was enrolled as a Muslim doesn’t have much pull with the Indonesian government.
Let’s make a deal – Indonesia takes down the statue now, and We the People will take down Obama in 2012 (after taking the Democrats down this fall).
Dems Think They Can Win On This Stuff?
If they do, then we can expect the GOP to control both the House and Senate a year from now.
Democrats are looking for someone to blame for their electoral woes — and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez is working hard to make sure it’s not him.Showing that they’ve learned the lesson of Massachusetts, Menendez and his staff will distribute a memo Tuesday advising Democratic campaign managers to frame their opponents early — and to drive a wedge between moderate voters and tea-party-style conservatives.
* * * The memo urges Democratic candidates to force their opponents to answer a series of questions on health care, taxes and some of the favorite causes of the far right:
“Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen? Do you think the 10th Amendment bars Congress from issuing regulations like minimum health care coverage standards? Do you think programs like Social Security and Medicare represent socialism and should never have been created in the first place? Do you think President Obama is a socialist? Do you think America should return to a gold standard?”
I’d be horrified if I were not so terribly amused. The content of the memo insults most conservatives and independents, and utterly misrepresents what went on in Massachusetts last week.
Let’s look at these questions, though:
Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen? Oh, puh-leeez! The folks who accept the various forms of Birtherism constitute a small minority – and the issue didn’t play a factor at all in Massachusetts. As I’ve pointed out many times, the arguments against Obama’s citizenship are few and weak, and accepted by only a fringe.
Do you think the 10th Amendment bars Congress from issuing regulations like minimum health care coverage standards? I think that most Republicans would argue that the 10th Amendment forbids the sort of expansive policy that Democrats have been pushing over the last year, the Constitution as a whole does allow the federal government some limited role in health care under the Interstate Commerce Clause. And let’s be honest – the election in Massachusetts turned in large part upon people being fed up with government expansion, so I don’t see how this issue helps them at all.
Do you think programs like Social Security and Medicare represent socialism and should never have been created in the first place? This is perhaps the one issue that could be a winner for Dems if Republicans are not careful. But a little common sense in responding makes it easy to avoid the trap – there might be room to argue about whether or not the programs were wise policy choices, but the real issue is that their constant expansion has become financially ruinous and necessitates serious reform for each. Democrats, however, have been unwilling to seriously talk about reforming either because they are beholden to special interest groups and want to expand these programs even further, despite their coming insolvency.
Do you think President Obama is a socialist? No, though I do think some of his policies lurch towards socialism. But I really don’t believe that Barack Obama has the intellectual heft or philosophical consistency to be a true socialist. Rather, I believe him to be an empty suit who will do or say anything it takes to gain more power.
Do you think America should return to a gold standard? Given the rapid inflation that has taken hold since the US quit tying the value of the dollar to certain precious metals, an argument could be made for doing so, and it might be something worth discussing. If not gold, then pegging the dollar to some durable commodity might be useful – but any such change would have to be done carefully and only with serious consideration for negative consequences.
The thing is, though, these questions don’t resonate with the average GOP primary voter – or with the public at large. And most (though not all) tea party supporters operate with a high level of sophistication and common sense, and won’t be taken in by this sort of thing.
Obama Misses The Obvious
By limiting himself to only two possibilities, he ignores the reality of his presidency.
"I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president," he told ABC's "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview today.Fortunately, America has Charles Krauthamer to point out that other option.
It is hard to argue anything other than that Barack Obama has been a mediocre one-term president during his first year, with few accomplishments and many glaring weaknesses.
He’s What The People Want
When the race for Senate in Florida began, GOP insiders decided to back Governor Charlie Crist and urged Marco Rubio to get out of the race.
Rubio stayed in – and now the race is tied.
Former Florida legislator Marco Rubio has closed the gap in the race for the state's Republican U.S. Senate nomination and is in a virtual dead heat with Gov. Charlie Crist, according to a poll released Tuesday.Rubio, a lawyer who served as Speaker of the House, was once considered a long shot against Crist, who has widespread name recognition and a significant fundraising lead. But with Florida's primary seven months away, Rubio was favored by 47 percent compared with 44 percent who preferred Crist - statistically a tie in the Quinnipiac University poll that has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
The random telephone survey, which included 673 GOP voters, was conducted Jan. 20-24.
"The horse race numbers are not a fluke," said Peter Brown, assistant polling director for Quinnipiac in Connecticut. "Rubio's grassroots campaigning among Republican activists around the state clearly has paid off."
How effective has Rubio been with the grassroots? Effective enough that he has been endorsed by virtually every county GOP in the state – including in Crist’s home county, where he traditionally has a strong base of support.
But maybe the GOP insiders had the right idea last year when they urged an uncontested primary to prevent intra-party bloodshed. If so, then we should soon hear the same voices that urged Rubio to withdraw to issue a similar call for Crist to quit the race in the name of party unity.
The Onion Crosses A Line
I like The Onion. I’ve linked to it from time to time because I find it to be a good, humorous site. I don’t even mind when it pokes fun at my beliefs and my heroes. But you know, there are lines of taste that should not be crossed.
And one piece posted yesterday that really does cross that line. It is a column allegedly by Rush Limbaugh.
Now I don’t think that Rush is a sacred icon, and I have no problem with a little bit of humor at his expense. But putting these words into the mouth of any living human being goes beyond any reasonable boundary of humor and common decency.
You know what? I wish someone would just kill me. I'm serious. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking: "Oh my God, how can you say such a thing? You can't print that in a newspaper!" But see, I don't care anymore. I've cried my tears. I've battled my demons, and I've lost. It's over. It's all over. The only thing left for me to do now is just go away. Have I even once contributed a single ounce of good to humanity? Put me out of my misery. I wouldn't make a fuss. I wouldn't even humiliate myself by saying goodbye. For the first time in my odious, pitiful life, I'd accept my fate with quiet dignity.Now a certain class of low-life liberal has wished death in all manner of ways upon Limbaugh for years. But to put into the man’s mouth an invitation to the world to murder him is appalling. What’s more, I can’t imagine any responsible periodical or website, even a humorous one like The Onion, putting those words in the mouth of Keith Olbermann or any other living public figure.
Indeed, let’s use the following as the gold standard of what is appropriate – if anyone claimed that these were the words of Barack Obama, would the Secret Service be paying them a call because their words could be interpreted as a solicitation for his assassination? If one can reasonably say that it would, then it ought not be put out there about any individual.
I Hate Stories Like This
A Catholic priest was arrested on alleged shoplifting charges at Wal-Mart Friday, a West City Police Department spokeswoman said.The Rev. Steven F. Poole, 41, is charged with two counts of felony theft, after he was allegedly caught on camera failing to scan a $3.22 container of butter and a $60 sofa cover, the spokeswoman said.
After leaving the self-checkout lane, Poole allegedly headed to the store's bedding department and picked up a memory foam mattress. He returned to the self-checkout lane where he was allegedly observed on tape switching the pricing bar code, causing the $144.88 item to be scanned for $30.88.
Once at the police station, Poole was found to be in possession of a laptop computer power pack, also allegedly taken from store, the spokeswoman said.
Stories like this just make my heart sink – after all, one does expect clergy to live to a higher standard than this.
And given that I actually know Steve, it breaks my heart even more. Had I not left the seminary to teach (and then gotten married), we would likely have been ordained together. The Steve Poole I knew 15 years ago was a bright guy with a bright future ahead of him.
I’m not going to defend Steve – but I will offer my prayers for him. Something is clearly troubling him, and I’d prefer to offer my spiritual assistance rather than make sport of a sad situation. I hope you can find it in your hearts to do the same.
Watcher's Council Results
It was a good week at the Watcher's Council, with some fine entries on both sides of the competition. Here are the final results.
Winning Council Submissions
- First place with 2 1/3 points! – Joshuapundit - Pat Robertson, The Devil And Me
- Second place with 2 points – Mere Rhetoric - Government Labor Protections And Welfare Policies Keeping French Youths Jobless, Alienated
- Third place with 1 2/3 points – Soccer Dad - Rachel’s tomb and the protection of jewish holy sites
- Fourth place with 1 1/3 points – The Glittering Eye - The Triumph
- Fifth place with 1 points – Wolf Howling - Wailing & Lamentations
- Sixth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – Right Truth - Here Come the Orphans
- Sixth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – Bookworm Room - A perfect statement about the balance of power between government, citizens and business
- Sixth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – Rhymes With Right - Getting It Right On Palin
- Seventh place with 1/3 points – (T*) – American Digest - Bring. It. On.
- Seventh place with 1/3 points – (T*) – The Provocateur - Some Thoughts on Dr. Chacko’s Dismissal
Winning Non-Council Submissions
- First place with 2 points! – American Spectator - The Scott Heard Round the World
- Second place with 1 2/3 points – (T*) – Sippican Cottage - Quincy Market (Election Day)
- Second place with 1 2/3 points – (T*) – Seraphic Secrets - Haiti: No One But the Israelis Has Come to Help
- Second place with 1 2/3 points – (T*) – Common Sense Political Thought - My health care anecdata
- Second place with 1 points – A New Conservative Lesbian - Obama’s ‘Enabling Act’ trial balloon
- Second place with 2/3 points – (T*) – Volokh Conspiracy - The Supreme Court’s Cult of Celebrity
- Second place with 2/3 points – (T*) – The Coast Guard Compass - Guardians Report In: HS1 Larry Berman
- Second place with 2/3 points – (T*) – The Muqata - Israel’s emergency response
- Second place with 2/3 points – (T*) – YouTube - Martin Luther King “I have a dream”
- Second place with 1/3 points – Danger Room - Visualizing the Underwear Bomber’s Online Life
(T*) – Indicates a Tie.
(D*) – The Razor received a 2/3 point penalty in his council submission for failing to vote in this week’s contest.Take the time to read these posts -- they contain some fascinating food for thought.
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