Month: December 2007

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Stop. Look. Listen. To Fred

h.t. Leaning Straight Up

One thing that struck me was what Fred said about the possible efficacy of his candidacy in… salvaging the Democratic party:

You know, when I’m asked which of the current group of Democratic candidates I prefer to run against, I always say it really doesn’t matter…These days all those candidates, all the Democratic leaders, are one and the same. They’re all NEA-MoveOn.org-ACLU-Michael Moore Democrats. They’ve allowed these radicals to take control of their party and dictate their course.

So this election is important not just to enact our conservative principles. This election is important to salvage a once-great political party from the grip of extremism and shake it back to its senses. It’s time to give not just Republicans but independents, and, yes, good Democrats a chance to call a halt to the leftward lurch of the once-proud party of working people.

So in seeking the nomination of my own party, I want to say something a little unusual. I am asking my fellow Republicans to vote for me not only for what I have to say to them, but for what I have to say to the members of the other party—the millions of Democrats who haven’t left the Democratic party so much as their party’s national leadership has left them.

As I’ve said before, only one man is running as a truly presidential candidate. The others all seem to be running for sophomore class clown.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, Cao’s Blog, Right Voices, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day: Pig in a Blanket

That’s me: staying warm n toasty and “pigging out” on Bryn Terfel while enjoying some home brewed wheat beer (yeh, yeh: from a kit ;-)).

*heh*

This kinda stuff can easily carry me through New Year’s Day.

🙂

Bryn Terfel - We'll Keep a Welcome

Bryn Terfel – We’ll Keep a Welcome

and

Mr. Beer Whispering Wheat Weizenbier Refill Brew PackMr. Beer Whispering Wheat Weizenbier Refill Brew Pack

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There Seems to Be Only One Presidential Candidate

Only one guy running for president right now can even possibly say things that remind one of truly great presidents of the past.

For example:

“Anything worth doing is worth doing well. I’ve always been a little more laid back than most. I like to say I’m only consumed by very few things, and politics is not one of them. The welfare of my country, and my kids and grandkids, growing up, is one of them.

“If what people really want in their president is a super type A personality, someone who has gotten up every morning and gone to bed every night and been thinking about, for years how they can be president of the United States… someone who can look you straight in the eye and say they’ve enjoyed every minute of campaigning… I ain’t that guy. So I hope I’ve discussed that, or I haven’t talked you out of anything. I honestly want… I can’t imagine a worse set of circumstances than achieving the presidency under false pretenses, especially if you feel the way I do. I’ve gone out of my way to be myself, because I don’t want anybody to think they’re getting something they’re not getting. I’m not consumed by this process, I’m not consumed with the notion of being president. I’m simply saying I’m willing to do what’s necessary to achieve it if I’m in sync with the people. And if the people want me, or somebody like me, I will do what I’ve always done with everything else in my life. I will take it on and do a good job. You’ll have the disadvantage of having someone who probably can’t jump up and click their heels three times, but will tell you the truth. And you’ll know where the president stands at all times.”

Go back and look at what it took to persuade George Washington to become president. If this guy’s for real (and nothing yet indicates he is not–quite unlike all the other candidates out there), this is the quality of person I want in politics.

Need you ask who could say such things?

Hint: It ain’t Billary Obama Winfrey.

It ain’t the Breck Girl.

It ain’t Mr. Plagiarism

And it ain’t The Android from Planet “Say-anything-to-get-elected,” the two crooks pretending to be conservatives, Mr. “I Ain’t the Hero I Claim to Be, but At Least I Hate Free Speech” McCain, or Nutso Paul.

If Fred isn’t tapped to be the conservative presidential candidate, I’ll not move to Canada or any such stupid thing, but I may counsel my children to start learning Polish, to prepare for an exit strategy to what might well turn out to be the last bastion of Western Civilization.

*sigh*

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IF Presidential Promises Meant Anything…

Then THIS would represent the Saudi regime today:

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

IF President Bush meant what he said when he proclaimed, “Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them,” and “Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.,” and “…the only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it, and destroy it where it grows,” and especially “And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” then Saudi Arabia would no longer be “Saudi” Arabia, for the Saudi regime is indeed the world leader in supporting Islamic terrorism.

But of course, we now know that President Bush did not mean what he said. He uttered what we can see with perfect hindsight were simply political lies.

*sigh*

I have no further use for this man. Bring me another, better one to serve in his place, please.

(Well, the request for a “better man” excludes the entire field of Democrappic candidates and darned near all the Republican’ts… *sigh*)

Oh, and for those Saudis who like to press “libel” suits in countries with friendly libel laws in order to suppress truth, bring it on. You’d have to come to my neck of the woods to collect, and I don’t think your collection agents would appreciate the reception committee…

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Who’s in the JW’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007?

Well, at least Mike and Rudy are safe from stones cast by each other…

h.t. STACLU

Although the Judicial Watch’s Top Ten list of corrupt politicians is weighted heavily on the Democrappic side of the aisle (and how could it not be with such excellent examples of slime as Billary Clintoon, John Con(you)yers, Barrack Hussein Obama (Winfrey), and Feinstein-Pelosi-Reid?), a couple of standouts from the Republican’t crowd are no surprise to those of us who view the pronouncements of the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind with scepticism:

#6. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR): Governor Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in December 2007, which prompted a more thorough review of his ethics record. According to The Associated Press: “[Huckabee’s] career has also been colored by 14 ethics complaints and a volley of questions about his integrity, ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor’s office.” And what was Governor Huckabee’s response to these ethics allegations? Rather than cooperating with investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics commission twice and attempted to shut the ethics process down.

*heh*

And that’s not even exploring the Governor from Tyson Foods’ record on illegal aliens. (See HERE as well.)

Of course, we mustn’t neglect “Mr. Tough On Crime” Giuliani:

5. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY): Giuliani came under fire in late 2007 after it was discovered the former New York mayor’s office “billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons…” ABC News also reported that Giuliani provided Nathan with a police vehicle and a city driver at taxpayer expense. All of this news came on the heels of the federal indictment on corruption charges of Giuliani’s former Police Chief and business partner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting a $165,000 bribe in the form of renovations to his Bronx apartment from a construction company attempting to land city contracts.

These are two guys who are not only monumental liars (each claims conservative values drive their bid for the presidency: that alone should be enough to shoot them down in flames for such bald-faced, arrogant lying to the electorate), they are also monumental hypocrites, each running as “clean” guys when they are no such thing.

Bah. I have NO use for such as these. As landfill or garden mulch, even, they’d just be toxic waste. Better for them to just shuffle off to an afterlife in a garage in Buffalo (with apologies to Timothy Leary, “Really Leary” and George Carlin).

Sad, though, that some folks consider John “I-Never-Met-a-Free-Speech-I-Didn’t-Hate” McCain and Mitt “Android from the planet I’ll-say-anything-to-get-elected” Romney to be viable alternatives to such as these.

*sigh*

I suspect the main reason Thompson’s had a hard time getting traction is that he’s the only one with a consistent record (well, far more consistent than anyone else running, if one throws out consistently crooked as a criterion) who talks sense. I mean, have you actually read the other guys’ “positions”? Piffle. Fluff. Bullshit talking points. Nothing of any real substance.

If anything kills political aspirations in this day of a dumbass sheeple electorate, it’s saying something–anything–of substance.

*profound sigh*

Well, at least Fred’s also got a sense of humor (something McCainac, The Android, The Crook and the Crooked Preacherboy have yet to show any genuine evidence of)…

Trackposted to Nuke’s, Woman Honor Thyself, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, Conservative Cat, Right Voices, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Only 3,346 to go…

…to reach 200,000 comments on this blog (not counting, of course, the Haloscan comments “lost” in a failed import in January, 2006).

Why! That’s nearly 1/3 the number of SPAM “comments” Askimet has blocked in the last year!

*heh*

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Fred on immigration

Yesterday, I listed thirteen reasons to get on board the Fredwagon. I left it to the reader to do some reading offsite, at Fred08 , but I thought to myself, “Self, why not go ahead and just give a more detailed example of Thompson’s stance?” And what better item to select (apart from his White Paper on Federalism–which I linked to in yesterday’s post) than his…
Border Security and Immigration Reform Plan?

I’ll get you started, then you can CLICK the LINK and read the rest at Fred’s site.

Border Security and Immigration Reform Plan

In the post-9/11 world, immigration is much more of a national security issue. A government that cannot secure its borders and determine who may enter and who may not, fails in a fundamental responsibility. As we take steps to secure our borders and enforce our laws, we must also ensure that our immigration laws and policies advance our national interests in a variety of areas, and that the immigration process itself is as fair, efficient, and effective as possible.

Securing the Border and Enforcing the Law

A fundamental responsibility of the federal government is to secure the nation’s borders and enforce the law. The
following policies and initiatives will put the nation on a path to success:

  1. No Amnesty. Do not provide legal status to illegal aliens. Amnesty undermines U.S. law and policy, rewards bad behavior, and is unfair to the millions of immigrants who follow the law and are awaiting legal entry into the United States. In some cases, those law-abiding and aspiring immigrants have been waiting for several years.

  2. Attrition through Enforcement Reduce the number of illegal aliens through increased enforcement against unauthorized alien workers and their employers. Without illegal employment opportunities available, fewer illegal aliens will attempt to enter the country, and many of those illegally in the country now likely will return home. Self-deportation can also be maximized by stepping up the enforcement levels of other existing immigration laws. This course of action offers a reasonable alternative to the false choices currently proposed to deal with the 12 million or more aliens already in the U.S. illegally: either arrest and deport them all, or give them all amnesty. Attrition through enforcement is a more reasonable and achievable solution, but this approach requires additional resources for enforcement and border security:

    1. Doubling ICE agents handling interior enforcement, increasing the Border Patrol to at least 25,000 agents, and increasing detention space to incarcerate illegal aliens we arrest rather than letting them go with a promise to show up later for legal proceedings against them.
    2. Adding resources for the Department of Justice to prosecute alien smugglers, people involved in trafficking in false identification documents, and previously deported felons.
    3. Maximizing efforts to prosecute and convict members of criminal alien gangs, such as MS-13 and affiliated gangs. These gangs have brought unusual levels of violence to more than 30 U.S. states and have also become very active in drug-smuggling, gun-smuggling, and alien-smuggling.
    4. Implementing fully and making greater use of the expedited removal process already allowed under federal law.
    5. Enabling the Social Security Administration to share relevant information with immigration and law enforcement personnel in a manner that will support effective interior enforcement efforts.
  3. Enforce Existing Federal Laws. Enforce the laws Congress has already enacted to prevent illegal aliens from unlawfully benefiting from their presence in the country:

    1. End Sanctuary Cities by cutting off discretionary federal grant funds as appropriate to any community that, by law, ordinance, executive order, or other formal policy directs its public officials not to comply with the provisions of 8 USC 1373 and 8 USC 1644, which prohibit any state or local government from restricting in any way communications with the Department of Homeland Security “regarding the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of an alien in the United States.”
    2. Deny discretionary Federal education grants as appropriate to public universities that violate federal law by offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens without also offering identical benefits to United States citizens, regardless of whether or not they live in the state, as required by 8 USC 1623.
    3. Deny discretionary Federal grants as appropriate to states and local governments that violate federal law by offering public benefits to illegal aliens, as prohibited by 8 USC 1621(a).
  4. Reduce the Jobs Incentive. Ensure employee verification by requiring that all U.S. employers use the Department of Homeland Security’s electronic database (the E-Verify system) to confirm that a prospective employee is authorized to work in the U.S. Now that the technology is proven, provide sufficient resources to make the system as thorough, fast, accurate, and easy-to-use as possible.

  5. Add to the Cost of Hiring Illegal Aliens. Deny a tax deduction to employers for the wages they pay to illegal aliens, thereby dramatically increasing the real cost of employing illegal aliens. Businesses that do not play by the rules should not be rewarded under our tax system.

  6. Bolster Border Security. Finish building the 854-mile wall along the border by 2010 as required by 8 USC 1103. Extend the wall beyond that as appropriate and deploy new technologies and additional resources to enhance detection and rapid apprehension along our borders by 2012.

  7. Increased Prosecution. Deploy the additional assets outlined above to prosecute alien smugglers (“coyotes”), alien gang members, previously deported felons, and aliens who have repeatedly violated our immigration laws much more vigorously.

  8. Rigorous Entry/Exit Tracking. Complete the implementation of a system to track visa entrants and exits, as has been required by federal law for more than ten years, and connect it to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC), in order to curb visa overstays and permit more effective enforcement.

And that, folks, is just the first half of Fred’s immigration and border security plan. Read the rest!

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Trackposted to Is It Just Me?, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, The Uncooperative Blogger, The World According to Carl, DragonLady’s World, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Chuck Adkins, Adeline and Hazel, and Stageleft, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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T-13; 2.1: Thirteen Reasons to Jump on the Fredwagon

I generally hold my nose and keep my hand firmly on my wallet whenever I smell a politician. The field for the presidency is narrowing, but it’s still chock full of enough pork manure to gag a maggot. *sigh* Still, of all the candidates, one has at least made clear he understands the Constitution… and has committed himself to stemming the tide of political effluvia that has been steadily eroding the Constitution for lo these many years. Yep. Fred. So, 13 reasons to support Fred Thompson:

1. He’s not an android, dreaming of electric sheep. (My apologies to the shade of Phillip K. Dick for alluding to his work in the same sentence as Romney. Bah.)

2. Nor is he a wolf in sheeps’ clothing (although Rudy would look better in a rug than he does dressing up as a “conservative”).

3. He’s not certifiably loony (and besides, who can trust a guy who won’t even reveal his last name. Paul? Paul who? *heh*).

4. He’s not a greasy Southern Baptist preacherboy who–if his record and his mouth are any indications–believes his opinions have God’s stamp of approval… just because, well, he’s a greasy Southern Baptist preacherboy, so naturally God is on his side (Huck, go fish in a different hole, boy). Huck for dogcatcher? Free-ranging strays (given his record on illegal immigrants in Arkansas).

5. Fred has his priorities straight: “The first responsibility of government is to protect the American people, the homeland, and our way of life.”

6. Education:

At a time when America is behind other developed countries in education excellence, the federal role in education is too intrusive and too bureaucratic, and has become part of the problem. State and local governments are closest to the parents, the kids, and the schools, and best situated to implement changes and innovations that best educate children. I am committed to:

Giving parents more choices in education and schools less bureaucracy.
Reviewing federal programs for cost-effectiveness, reducing federal mandates, returning education money to the states, and empowering parents by promoting voucher programs, charter schools, and other innovations that enhance education excellence through competition and choice.
Encouraging students and teachers to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math—fields that are crucial to our security, competitiveness, and prosperity.
Promoting transparency to assess performance, promote accountability, and share innovations in education at all levels.

7. Understands the Constitutional role of the judiciary: “Appointing strict constructionist judges who will interpret the law, not impose their views on us by legislating from the bench.”

8. Second Amendment: “I strongly support the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms. Gun control is touted as a major crime-control measure. But some of the places with the strictest gun-control laws also have high violent-crime rates. Disarming law-abiding citizens does not prevent crime.” [Emphasis added]

9. On “Nannystate-ism”–“We must allow individuals to lead their lives with minimal government interference…”

10. And expanding on that, “Government must be strong enough to protect us, competent enough to provide basic government services, but limited by the delineated powers in the Constitution.”

12. Federalism

Our Constitution innovatively guarantees our liberties by spreading power among the three branches of the federal government, and between the federal government and the states. In considering any action by the government, we must always ask two questions: is the government better equipped than the private sector to perform the task and, if so, what level of government (federal or state) ought to do it. Washington is not the seat of all wisdom. (More on Federalism)

READ the “Federalism” link above. Fred seems to be the ONLY sane candidate who has the slightest idea that the Constitution actually means something…

13. He’s not Billary Hussein Obama. Heck his “White Papers” on ” Border Security and Immigration” and “Education” alone show Billary Hussein Obama (as well as, sadly, all the Republican’t runners) up as the intellectual, moral and ethical midgets they are.

CLICK the pic below, view Fred’s latest ad and give Fred a hand, OK?

f_t-clear-s.jpg

Noted at the Thursday Thirteen Hub.

Continue reading “T-13; 2.1: Thirteen Reasons to Jump on the Fredwagon”

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Christmas Break

Peaceful Christmas afternoon. A nice lunch of my Wonder Woman’s Swedish meatballs on egg noodles and some snowpeas, notalot else. Lovely Daughter brought some ‘special” hot cocoa mix–no tedious boiling and frothing of milk and chocolate today: today is an official “Third World County Central No-Stress Day”–as we’ve tried more and more to make our family gatherings.

Wonder Woman, Lovely Daughter and Son & Heir (yeh, just wait til he sees what he “inherits” *heh* “S&H, You need to change your dad’s diapers again… ” *LOL*), listening to Christmas music that S&H made available, Just started another batch of beer (the wort’s at a boil and will steep and cool for a bit after a while), sitting here at the kitchen computer (a PC-BSD box) just letting the ambiance bathe my spirit.

*sigh* More days like this would always be welcome, ya know?

Oh, didn’t manage to keep the ECTV (the entertainment center box with a decent amp and speakers attached) off today. But we’re not watching the dam*ed thing (yeh, that’s a theological hypothesis). S&H hooked up his XBox 360, cos he loaded several hundred megs of Xmas* mp3s on it and is using it as a temporary media server shooting them through the sound system, managing the “jukebox” with the TV.

Nice of him. I used to just burn a couple of new mix CDs. I guess I ought to see about building a media pc and running some Linux-compatible media software/hardware with it.

Of course, I could attach a real sound system to this lil kitchen PC-BSD box and program Kaffeine with a playlist…

Well, that sort of thing will just have to wait for a day that’s not today. Need to post this, get back to just basking in the family glow for a while longer.

Merry Christmas!

Continue reading “Christmas Break”

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“And a child shall lead them… “

[Another post from a former (well, I don’t post there much at all any more) blog, also from more than three years ago, struck me as appropriate for Christmas day. For after all, reconciliation, redemption and sanctification is the whole point of Christmas.]

2 Corinthians 5:17

I was in a curmudgeonly mood (as usual *heh*). Saw a (lame brained, pinheaded) celebrity quoted as saying that all he wanted was an “authentic life.” I commented to my daughter that all he needed for that was a total personality transplant, heck! a pre-frontal lobotomy!

Her comment?

“He just needs to know Christ.”

My lil ray of sunshine. (Grown woman: a “lil ray of sunshine”–she’ll speak to me about that. :-))

In need of a lobotomy to change your life? Choose Christ instead.