BLOGS -- copyright 2006 by Jane Reinheimer

May the warm winds of heaven blow softly on your home, and the Great Spirit bless all who enter. May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows, and may the rainbow always touch your shoulder. -- Cherokee Blessing

These Bible Studies (New Testament) are filed in the archives (in alphabetical order): Acts (10/2207); Colossians (3/17/08); 1st and 2nd Corinthians (1/3/08); Deuteronomy (8/2/07); Ephesians (3/24/08); Galatians (12/24/07); Hebrews (10/1/07); James (4/23/08); John (Gospel of)(5/27/08); Jude (5/21/08); Philemon (3/14/08); Philippians (3/10/08); Romans (2/13/08); 1st and 2nd Thessalonians (12/10/07); 1 Timothy (4/7/08); 2 Timothy (4/17/08); Titus (4/13/08);

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Friday, March 30, 2007

NANCY PELOSI HEADING FOR SYRIA!!!

I have to tell you this because the weekend is coming and I don't usually post a blog on Saturday or Sunday. And since I know a lot of you don't catch the news on broadcast TV, or cable, or read the newspapers, you need to know this.

The most outrageous bit of news to cross the wires in a while has just come off Associated Press and that is that Nancy Pelosi is going to Syria.

The State Department has advised her not to do it. This is not a good time. It is not a safe time, with her being 3rd in line in the succession to the presidency.

What in the world is going through her head!?!! Congressmen and women are not empowered to meet make foreign policy or make treaties of any kind with leaders with foreign countries, especially those that are specifically designated as terrorist regimes.

An outcry of treason ought to be the very least that happens, immediately followed by a groundswell from one end of this country to the other demanding her arrest for the felonious act.

Here's the definition of treason:

Article III, Section 3, Paragraph 1, of the Constitution of the United States:
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them,
or, in adhering to their Enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

The "aid and comfort" prong of treason has been interpreted
by SCOTUS as requiring proof of four elements:
1. an intent to betray the United States (which can be inferred from);
2. an overt act;
3. witnessed by two people; and
4. that provides aid and comfort to an enemy of the United States.

In addition to treason, how about the betrayal of the servicemen and women who are in the Middle East right now? It certainly does not serve their interests or their safety to have a congresswoman running around over there talking with leaders who are known harborers of terrorism.

In my view, it just shows how little they know about the gravity of their behavior. These are not nice guys, as Sean Penn said after he visited Saddam Hussein.

They don't even have enough sense to realize that the manipulative scumbags of the earth are pulling the wool over their eyes.

My prayer is that when the servicemen and women get back to the United States, they will consider running for congress and boot the freeloaders out. There's much work to be done in these United States and there's plenty to go around, but first some really good people need to step up to the task of governing.

That's something that apparently congress has forgotten that they are supposed to be doing.

About all you can say about this little junket of Nancy Pelosi is that it's her idea of spring break.

##

6:04 pm

THE CONGRESSIONAL MEGA-SQUATS HAD BETTER GET BEHIND THE MILITARY WITH A TON OF SUPPORT AND BANKNOTES TO PROVE UP

It amounts to nothing more than double-speak.

The politicos say they support the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then they turn around and say -- or rather congressionally demand -- that our military personnel turn their heads in shame and retreat no later than March 8 of next year.

Shame and retreat are two words that definitely do not describe the finest military on the face of the planet.

Shame and retreat are the watchwords, however, of the big fat liberals who have infested the hallowed halls of congress. They have turned the chambers of congress into a big garbage dump. They think they can pass a bill that, in essence, says "Wrap it up boys, because after next March, there's not going to be any more money."

But they can take advantage of the full-fledged support of Americans all across this land who want more money budgeted for our men and women in harm's way. So what they did was add a bunch of ridiculous pork projects of their favored campaign donors into the military package. And don't forget their national conventions -- $50 million each to the Democrats and Republicans. Does that say military emergency funding package to you?

They have turned on our Commander in Chief and left him to practically single-handedly fight the battle of terror in Washington by himself. Because of the March 8, 2008 deadline, they know that he will veto the bill. How do they know that? Because he has told them so. More than once he has told them that. "No way, not while I'm Commander in Chief," he says.

What do you think they'll do next? Here's a thought. Bush will veto the package just like he said he would. Then they'll run around on their campaign trails saying things like, "Your president doesn't even think the military needs more money. After all he vetoed the one bill that would have given the military the money it needs."

But with the vetoed bill send back to congress, and congress not having the votes to override the presidential veto, they're just going to have to get busy and come up with a spending package that will not be vetoed. That's how they're supposed to work with the Commander in Chief.

That's exactly why the framers of the Constitution specifically did not give these goony birds under the Dome the power that they delusionally think they have.

The domed ones think they can sit around and tsk tsk the American people. "They just don't get it," they probably say to themselves.

Oh, but we do get it. We get it and we remember it very well.

Remember the Clinton years and how he scraped the military assets back to bare boned skeletons?

Take for instance body armor. When Clinton was Commander in Chief, none of his soldiers had body armor. Nada. "Be safe," he waved them off. And what? Don't step in front of a bullet? What kind of a commander is that?

Take for instance, armored Humvees. When Clinton was Commander in Chief, there were 1,300 armored Humvees. Bush has brought that number up to 26,000. A much healthier start.

There are other atrocities done to the military's equipment budget.

Now, I'm no military expert. Don't claim to be.

But I do know a few things about human behavior. That's my field and that's what I've studied. And I therefore have some serious questions about the candidates in the 2008 election.

Namely, there's Hillary Clinton. It's going to be impossible for her to ever convince the American people that they will be safe if she becomes Commander in Chiefet of the American military. We weren't safe when her husband was Commander in Chief and we would never be with her in the Oval Office.

It's not even cute to suppose that something as deadly would ever come to pass.

It's not even about gender. It's about her not having the guts to protect America in the War on Terror.

So listen up, America. If you want to be safe in your beds at night, support a candidate who will be committed to your safety. And if that means fighting the War on Terror over there instead of over here, then so be it.

In that event, you're darned tootin' we ought to supply our fighting men with sleeping pads. We ought to give them food that actually tastes good. They like spaghetti and meatballs, so give it to them. And tons of Oreos and chocolate chip cookies and bullets and body armor and tanks and Humvees that will sustain blasts from IEDs.

There's a lot of ways we can support our military. Maybe voting the cowards out of congress is the biggest and best way to start. The American people absolutely believe that our military are the finest. No hands down. The most awesome best.

The Hollywood types don't. Not if you believe the likes of Sean Penn and Barbra Streisand.

The Washington liberals don't either.

That takes care of the fringes out on the coasts. Then there's this giant sea of red in the middle of the country. We love America and we love our military.

So let's get ready to elect a president next year who isn't afraid to tell the politicians to back off and get back to work and do the job you were elected to do.

Start asking hard questions. Make the politicians get off their talking points and do some spontaneous talking about the hard topics.

End of sermon. For today, that is.

##

10:11 am

Thursday, March 29, 2007

DEMOCRATS THINK THEY CAN OVERRIDE VETO

Hope springs eternal, an old saying goes.

So Nancy Pelosi tells the president in a letter that "Congress is taking the responsible course and responding to needs that have been ignored by your administration and the prior Congress."

Somewhere along the line, I do believe that Aunt Nancy thinks she has become the moral compass of what is right and what is wrong about America. Perhaps she believes that this is evidenced by the fact that the Democrats got to name her as speakeress of the house because of a very slim margin.

That is not a mandate, Aunt Nancy.

There are two reasons why President Bush will veto your Iraq bill.

First of all, it contains a pull-out deadline. He's not going to allow that. Non-military people have no business telling the military how to do its job of protecting these United States. Problem is, Aunt Nancy appears to see President Bush as a politician -- like she is -- and not as the President of the United States, of which she is definitely not his equal. Nor does she even get a glimmer of him as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.

Aren't you glad that our founding fathers had the wisdom to separate Aunt Nancy from President Bush when they wrote the constitution?

And secondly, all the excess bacon in your emergency spending package for Iraq makes the thing look like a Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato Sandwich. You guys just got busy and tagged on "little" multi-million dollar projects for your little piggy friends back home.

You put in a whole bunch of projects that have nothing to do with Iraq expenses. I listed some of them in a prior blog.

But the one thing that really aggrevates me the most is the $100 million line item for the national conventions next year.

Tell me what in the world that has to do with our men and women's needs in Iraq and Afghanistan!

So you see, Nancy Pelosi, you are not doing the right thing. All of you sitting up there in D.C. under the Dome have 72% of the voters out here who can't believe that you don't get it. Don't tell us that you do. And that you're doing the right thing. Not! You are stabbing every military person in the back with this bill.

You can't explain it. But I can tell you something about all this -- it's why the approval rating for congress is around 28%. That's right up there with used car salesmen.

To put it another way, there are 72% of the voters in this country who disagree with what congress is doing and are chomping at the bit for the new election.

It's a real world over there in Iraq and Afghanistan. You don't live in a real world, apparently. And you are so disconnected with the voters in this country.

My only consolation is the visual in my head of you turning over the gavel to your successor after the next election.

Read more in the Associated Press article: http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME

##

9:04 am

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

GOOD RELATIONSHIPS DEPEND ON THESE THREE THINGS --

I'm going to put on my mental health counselor hat for a few minutes. Mainly to talk about three key ingredients that you need to really keep in good supply in your relationships.

They are: empathy, sensitivity and reciprocity.

Aren't those nice big words that sound important? That's because they are. And if you don't have them in your relationship, you will have this horrible, gnawing feeling that something is dreadfully wrong.

Doesn't matter if it's a marriage relationship, or a boyfriend/girlfriend, or a parent/child relationship. These three elements are the building blocks of a really strong basis to grow something great between you.

So what exactly is empathy?

Empathy simply means that you can identify with your partner somehow. If your partner is trying to explain how he or she is feeling, you need to listen really carefully and absolutely avoid saying something stupid like, "You shouldn't feel like that."

Frankly speaking, you don't have the right to tell your partner how to feel. If your partner has been insulted -- by anybody, even you -- don't make matters worse by saying, "You shouldn't feel that way."

If you have even the slightest little clue about what your partner is saying, you might offer something like, "That sounds like you're really frustrated." Or, "Your feelings are really hurt, aren't they?"

At this point, hopefully, your partner will say, "Well, yeah -- " Then you could try to fish for more information.

The second leg of this three-legged stool is sensitivity. People who spend a lot of time caring about each other have a very sensitive relationship. I guess you could say their barometers are up. They're looking for ways to show they care. They also affirm their partner's presence. By affirming, I mean showing that they value their partner's presence in their lives.

Married couples should tell each other every single day that they are glad they are married to each other. Don't just say it like you mean it. Mean it. This is no time to be faking each other out. Before you go to sleep each night, say to your spouse, "Thank you for marrying me." Or "I'm so glad we're married to each other."

And finally, there's this business about reciprocity. I don't know where people get the idea that when they get home from the honeymoon, it's okay to just sit down and quit doing anything for their partner anymore.

Look, if you want your wife to come and watch you play "Home Run King" at the softball field, you'd better be in their helping with some household chores, because she's taking hours out of her schedule to come watch you and help pump up your ego.

Don't tell me that's not what's happening. It is. She's watching and she's probably glad to be there, but she's also making lists of things she ought to be doing somewhere else.

So you'd better get used to making it worth her while to come watch you. At the very least, take her out to her favorite restaurant for a get-dressed-up-for-a-date dinner, or go someplace fancy.

But then, maybe she's the softball star, so the same goes for her in reverse.

So when couples come in for help with their marriage, I ask them if the marriage is on life support or is it DOA. Sometimes couples have allowed their marriage to get so far off the track that all three of the above elements are missing. It's not the kiss of death to the marriage. But it does require a lot more work.

So get in there and work hard on your marriage. It is absolutely worth it. But you may have to let some notions about your gloriosities go by the wayside.

The news is there is no fairy who can sprinkle sparkly dust on your marriage. The sooner that notion goes away, the quicker you can get a strong reality base going for you.

Twenty-fiveyears from now, when you're tickling your toes on some sandy beach in the South Pacific, you can wink at each other and say, "I really am glad we're married. Let's go for the gold!"

And one of these days I'll tell you about the four kinds of intimacy. You have to have an intimate relationship in four different areas if you're ever going to enjoy the three elements above.

##

9:21 am

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

HERE COME THE PIGGIES

The emergency war fund bill just keeps growing and growing and growing.

It started as a presidential request for extra money for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The House version is $21 billion more than the president asked for.

The Senate version is $18 billion more.

So the piggies have stuck on their add-ons. You can call them pork. You can call them earmarks. You can call them whatever you want, but they have nothing to do with the emergency funding measure for our troops in harm's way.

Take for instance there's a little $100 million add-on to pay for each party's national convention in 2008. The Democrats will be in Denver, while St. Paul is hosting the Republicans. $50 million each. What does that have to do with Iraq and Afghanistan?

And how about a $13 million add-on for ewe replacement and retention. Huh?

Then there's a $24 million add-on for sugar beet growers, and $95 million for dairy farmers.

Washington, D.C. gets $3.5 million for the guided-tour program.

And Senator Harry Reid's state of Nevada gets a $20 million add-on for insect infestation control.

And there's more. Much much more. We can't forget $14 billion for Hurricane Katrina aid. Now, I'm not saying that Katrina aid shouldn't be funded. But in an emergency bill for our soldiers? Why can't congress fund Katrina aid in its own separate bill?

Well, I'm not naive that I don't know how they get each other to cooperate. It's called the Congressional Law of Reciprocals. You know -- you vote for my little piggy and I'll vote for yours.

And by the time the emergency funding package for our military makes it through congress and lands on the president's desk, it will be a big fat bloated pig.

This is a clear call for line item vetoes. Then the president could get out his red-ink pen and start lining out the little piggies that are running around all over his desk and making a big mess.

I mention this because I know some of you are sitting in Baghdad reading this blog, and on bases in other parts of the world. I appreciate your interest in what's going on back here at home.

God bless and stay safe.

##

9:51 am

ABOUT THE WEBB GUN CHARGE

You've probably all heard by now that an aide to Senator Jim Webb (D-Va) was arrested in Washington, D.C. about 10:30 Monday morning for packing.

Nobody gets to carry a gun inside Washington, D.C. except our illustrious senators and representatives (who still need a permit to carry though), and, of course, the law enforcement good guys, members of the military and licensed dealers.

So who is this aide who "forgot" that he had a gun on him until the buzzer went off as he was trying to go through security at the Senate Office Building?

Apparently he has been identified as Philip Thompson. He had been a campaign worker in Webb's run for the senate. Besides, it wasn't his gun, he says. Nope. Belonged to the boss.

And where is the boss?

Oh, he's out parking the car.

So let me get this straight. You're job is to get your boss, the illustrious Senator Webb, from Point A to Point B, change his wing nuts when they get loose, remember lots of details for the senator so that his mind won't have to get cluttered up, and drive him around sometimes.

And you want me to believe that you were hired to be a sometimes-driver, but your boss is parking the car? And you forgot that you have a 9mm in your pocket? Don't they weigh about ten pounds? About? Oh, and it's fully loaded? And you have two extra clips?

Just what does your boss do all day that he needs that kind of firepower?

Are all those guys (and gals) packing when they're sitting in their little senatorial gatherings they call hearings? Don't ever make them mad. Be sure they're all sitting in a circle before you come into their august chamber. Just don't sit in any hot seat in the middle of their circle. Not that they could ever hit anything they're aiming at. On second thought, that may be the safest place to sit.

I'd like to know how many of the hundred senators we have up there on the hill who show up for work everyday with fully loaded pieces. That's quite a little army, don't you think?

UPDATE: In an article by Jeremy Jacobs in The Hill moments ago, Senator Webb denies that he gave his gun to Philip Thompson to carry for him. Webb says he never carries his gun in the Capitol Complex.

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/webb-says-he-did-not-give-aide-his-gun-2007-03-27.html

Not only that, but Webb says he had gone out of town on Friday and didn't return until Monday evening.

If that's the case, then he's saying he wasn't out there parking the car. There goes Thompson's alibi.

##

9:12 am

Monday, March 26, 2007

NICE TO BE BACK -- TROUBLE WITH COMPUTERS EARLIER TODAY

6:40 pm

DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE'S 500 TONS OF URANIUM IN IRAQ?

So the United States says it's going to move the uranium. Somewhere safe. Outside Iraq.

The uranium is at Tuwaitha. None of it is enriched enough to be used for nuclear weapons, says James Glanz in an article published by the New York Times News Service.

The villagers went looting. Hmmm. Nice barrels. We could use those for washing our clothes in. They's make nice big stew pots too. And we could also use them for storing water.

So they dumped the uranium sludge and started using their new glow-in-the-dark water barrels.

Fortunately, all but a tiny little bit of the uranium was recovered and most of the barrels.

Truthfully, only 1.8 tons of the uranium is classified as low-enriched uranium. We certainly wouldn't want that to get into the wrong hands.

As for the rest of the uranium, it's mostly yellowcake. That's the way uranium grows in the wild and it would take nearly forever to convert that much yellowcake into weapons grade.

Unless, of course, the Iraqis started sharing with their neighbors, the Persians, and they all got into a big fat hurry and started making mistakes.

Remember Chernobyl?

##

3:35 pm

AT LEAST JON STEWART ADMITS HIS SHOW IS FAKE NEWS

In her broadcast today, Rosio O'Donnell likened the Iranian's detention of fifteen British military personnel to the Gulf of Tonkin.

Even with freedom of speech and her right to express herself, I have a couple of problems with her pontifications.

First of all, the doesn't know anything about the incident save what she's read in the press or heard on the news. She's certainly not privy to any classified information that the British military might have on the matter. Hopefully, the ship or boat that the men were on have some kind of satellite detection system that can verify exactly where the boat was. And that will be the end of that.

Secondly, I doubt very much if she knows what Captain Marmalade, the leader of Iran, is up to or why he does anything. He's just a nincompoop from a deadbeat country that can't even pay its bills on time. (I'm talking about the money Iran owes Russia for help building a nuclear reactor supposedly for electricity.) I think I did see somewhere that Iran started making the payments to Russia again though. So all is well. Until the next time.

So is Rosio saying that it never happened? Or is she saying that Bush is going to go to congress and ask for a broad resolution that would allow Bush to go to the aid of any country in the middle east.

Rosio needs to pay more attention to the real news. Last I heard, congress isn't exactly approving of Bush's handling of Iraq. So enlighten us, Rosio, about how you think this is all a hoax so that Bush can invade Iran.

Didn't you know that it's congress -- not Bush -- that declares war?

Oh, but wait, you're involved with another conspiracy theory too, aren't you? Something about how the United States government, and specifically Bush, are the real instigators of 9/11.

Sorry, Rosio. You and your buddy, Sean Penn, and Charlie Sheen, and Alex Young can all jump in some little boat and sail away if you think America is such a horrible place to live.

But I'd make a bet that none of you could make a living anywhere else in the world. Go on over to the middle east and see how long you last. Wait 'til your show's ratings start to plummet, or movie receipts dry up. You're boring. All of you.

If you lack relevance, your audience dries up and goes away. And when that happens, there goes advertising revenue. And there goes the show. Ask the publishers of Life magazine how that happened. The last issue for this giant magazine will be April 20.

Without relevance you get no traction. And that's the truth.

##

3:01 pm

Friday, March 23, 2007

APPROVAL RATINGS FOR CONGRESS DIPPING (AGAIN)

Many of the newbies rode into town and thought they were going to shine like radiant little stars. After all, they had been promised --and had promised the taxpayers back home -- that they were about to solve all the problems of the western world. And maybe even Antarctica, since that was a subject that also warmed their hearts.

Little did they realize that there would actually be people in Washington who did not agree with them. Nobody ever told them that. Here they thought they'd be insulated from those mean old Republicans and others, even some in their own party, who disagreed with them.

Somewhere along the way, they actually had to confront regular, ordinary taxpayers who also did not agree with them.

What had happened to their world? The grandeur of their innocence suddenly started to smell just as bad as the very people they replaced. They were actually taking all that PAC money that seemed to be just falling out of the sky.

"Here, have some more," the PACmasters gleefully told them. "You've got all those campaign debts to pay off. Why not start off with a clean slate when you get sworn in."

"Are you sure?" the newbies asked.

"Sure, I'm sure," the PACmasters whispered in their cute little ears.

"Is it legal?" the newbies asked.

"Of course, it's legal," the PACmasters assured the newbie baffoons. "Would I lie to you?"

"I guess not," the innocent little newbies said, tentatively.

That was then, and this is now.

They rode into town and joined the Big Mess on the Potomac. There are Democrats who'd rather be caught dead than be caught actually speaking to a Republican.

And there are Republicans who run the other way when they see anything that looks like a Democrat coming their way.

Then there are all those protestors. How did they get into the back hallways anyway?

How are we supposed to sneak out of the chamber and slink back to our offices if there are all these newspaper types and protestors hanging around back there ready to pounce on us?

Get them out of here. They can't tell us what to do. We are the Congress!

Sure you are. And your approval rating is slipping again. Didn't you hear?

In fact your approval rating is actually less than that of the president. You know, the guy you've all been told to disagree with. How do you like that?

So just remember that Gallup says only 28% of the American taxpayers actually approve of what you're doing up here under the Dome. Yes, newbies, that means you.

President Bush's overall leadership approval rating has jumped up to 41.6%. So next time you think the people in the United States don't like him or approve of the job he's doing, just remember that he's nearly twenty points ahead of you Domed Ones.

Oh, and by the way, the Republicans? The taxpayers gave a 75.9% approval rating for the ones you apparently don't want to emulate since they're on the "wrong side" of the aisle. (Investors Business Daily, March 2007 poll).

From a historical perspective, Truman left office with a 22% rating.*

Johnson left office with ratings in the low 30s.*

Bush 41 left office with ratings at 28%.*

And Bush 43? He's doing okay. Just remember, his approval is better than yours.

Don't crow too much. Unless you want to be a one-term newbie. That could happen too. Especially if you let Aunt Nancy whip you into her image. She's gonna be a one-term speaker, probably.

She's only just kidding when she says she's the most powerful woman in America. She doesn't really believe it. And you shouldn't either. She can't even keep her troops in line.

Why just today, for instance, the big fat initiative to de-fund the troop needs in Iraq and Afghanistan failed in Aunt Nancy's House. Out of all that political rhethoric that's been flying around, when the final votes were counted, it was 218 to fund, and 212 to not fund.

That means our soldiers get more ammo, food, and armor from the taxpayers back home.

Not from the domed ones. The troops over there will remember that you guys under the dome were going to leave them high and dry because you thought you were supposed to play political war games with their Commander in Chief.

The groundswell you hear in the background is called Troop Surge.

Of course, you realize that this whole deal will be vetoed if your bill, which carries a March 2008 deadline, goes through the Senate. Since none of you guys are military experts, how in the world do you presume to tell our best and our brightest how to win a war? Or how long it ought to take?

So just get back to doing the job you were elected to do. If you had wanted to run a war, you should have joined the military. Politicians do not know how to do that, so leave it to the experts who are trained to be the best fighting team in the world.

##

2:43 pm

HOW ALL BUSINESS PHONES SHOULD BE ANSWERED!
from Alice Stubbe

Good morning, welcome to the United States of America.

Press "1" for English.

Press "2" to disconnect until you learn to speak English.

And remember -- only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you.

Jesus Christ -- and the American Soldier.

One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

##

2:14 pm

HERE'S WHAT AUNT NANCY THINKS ABOUT PROTESTORS

She might just as well have said, "Get out of my house!"

They were protestors from that little pink group. In fact, I think they call themselves "Code Pink."

Well, they actually thought they were going to march into the office of Nancy Pelosi, the self-proclaimed most powerful woman in America, and play a version of "pin the tail on the donkey." The pinkies called it "pin the war on the Donkey."

Problem is, those mean old Capitol Police wouldn't let them tape a drawing of a donkey to the wall outside Pelosi's office.

So what's a pinkie to do? They sat down on the floor and started crying. And crying. And wailing. And crying some more.

And getting arrested.

Madam Queen Pinkie Medea Benjamin said, "We're just heartbroken that Nancy Pelosi has decided to keep funding George Bush's war, and now the war belongs to the Democrats as well as the Republicans."

See how out of step they are!

In the first place, it isn't George Bush's war. It's called the War on Terror. It happened while George Bush was president. But it could have happened when Clinton was in the Oval Office if he had done anything -- anything at all -- to pick up Osama the bin in Laden and charge him with murder when his own little pinkie group decided to bomb our embassies overseas.

Last I heard, embassies are sovereign U.S. buildings, no matter which country they're located in.

If Lardhead Laden had been stopped at that point, think of all the thousands of murdered 9/11 people there would not be.

So keep on crying, pinkies. You don't get to put up your little paper doll donkey on the walls at the Capitol Building. Defacing public property is not freedom of speech.

##

2:11 pm

Thursday, March 22, 2007

THE SUN IS A DYING STAR -- D0 I REMEMBER THAT RIGHT FROM GRADE SCHOOL?

When I was in grade school -- maybe fourth or fifth grade -- I remember being struck with great fear when our teacher informed the class that the sun was a dying star.

How in the world were we going to fix that, I wondered.

The JAXA/NASA photo above gives plain old picturesque evidence that the sun is doing something out there. Maybe exploding out into space. Is that a prelude to imploding into itself. Will the sun do something nova-like and just fade out? (JAXA stands for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.)

Don't know. And neither do you. Not for sure, any of you. Not yet. And especially Owlgore doesn't know. At the very most, all any of us can do is make an educated guess. But some scientists think they're better guessers than other scientists.

I personally reserve judgment until some big-brained astrophysicists weigh in for a debate. And I mean a real debate where they do point-counterpoint discussions according to rules of order. Not like those talking heads on TV who won't even give each other the courtesy of not interrupting. They're too immature for me and too annoying to listen to. So I don't.

What I do find most interesting is the joint project that was launched last September by the U.S., European and Japanese space agencies and Britain's Particle Physics Astronomy Research Council.

Now, this group promises to bring new scientific data. The spacecraft they launched is called Hinode. It's from the Japanese word which means sunrise.

So if this new study is going to allow us the ability to look at how the sun is layered and what effect such information may have on our planet, we ought to be able to get some good answers to questions about how solar storms blisters the earth.

Hurry please! Because in the meantime, all we have down here on earth is the old tried and true -- Owlgore selling panic and snake oil. He can't seem to get much credibility going for him in the real scientific community so now he's up there on Capitol Hill talking to the domed ones sucking up the oohs and ahs of the Senate's Kabuki Court. Dr. Owlgore's diagnosis: the earth has a fever.

Like fever as in heat? Like heat from solar storms? Or would that be heat from Owlgore's megamansion, and Feinstein's baronial estate and the release of senatorial gasses going up to the sky?

Please hurry, Mr./Ms. Scientists. I'm not sure the planetary plebes down here can swallow much more snake oil.

I'd rather wait for a report from Hinode. It's an international mission that uses a suite of three scientific instruments -- the Solar Optical Telescope, X-ray Telescope and Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer.

And since my husband Quint's specialty was in spectrometry in his studies in physics/chemistry at Colorado State University, I'll wait and see what he has to say when the data comes in, rather than ordering an Owlgore snakeoilshake.

So let's not panic yet, folks. The sun probably has a few dozen millenia left. And maybe the earth will be around that long too. What I do know, for certain, is that there is only one person who knows for sure and that is God above. My Bible says that only God knows when the end of time will be.

Not Owlgore. In fact, he sounds sacreligious, doesn't he? Or is he getting close to blasphemy?

read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/03/21/sun.images.reut/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/solar-b/

8:44 am

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

AL GORE AT SENATE: DEMANDS SPECIAL TREATMENT (AGAIN)

Well, he isn't actually there yet. Word is that he will be about two hours late. He will not be present to hear the Republican opening remarks about his global warming theory.

So the deal is this: Owlgore's office sent word yesterday that the Senate should not expect to receive any statements of what material Gore plans to cover until Wednesday.

But wait. This is the day of the hearing.

Yeah? And so? This is none other than Owlgore. He can do whatever he wants to do. This is the same guy who gets to by-pass airport security detectors just because some little cutie says, "Aw, ya'll don't have to. Come over here. I'll swipe my security card through this little machine and ya'll can just go on through." So there went the entire Al Gore entourage. Good thing they weren't al-Quaeda types who had gone through a Hollywood type makeover to look like Gore & Company.

So it appears that the Majority -- that would be the Democrats -- got their copy of Gore's statement late last night. Like very late. Maybe about midnightish.

And the Minority -- the other guys -- got Gored at about sun-up this morning.

So Gore had demanded that the 48-hour rule be waived. He's not going to supply any stinkin' statement ahead of time. Are you nuts? And have those mean old Republicans picking the statement apart and coming up with stupid stuff like scientific evidence that would be inconvenient to my fast-eroding truth?

If your name is Owlgore, of course you expect the rules to be sliced and diced and waived if need be. What good are rules if you can't wave a little political muscle to show everybody that I've still got it.

And so it goes. Owlgore starring at the Senate Kabuki Theater.

read more: http://www.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=71E7E4C1-802A-23AD-4C16-02E25ED1BFD3 (Marc Morano's article entitled Al Gore Continues to Demand Special Treatment)

In a blog posted on the Senate Committee's Environment & Public Works web site, only last week, March 16, 2007, there was a big two hour debate over in New York City. Very high profile. Finally somebody came up with the idea to get a whole bunch of scientists in the same room to talk about global warming.

Marc Morano, the author of the article, says that a pre-debate poll showed that 57.2% to 29.9% of the audience believed that global warming was a sure enough, big deal crisis.

After the debate, those numbers changed to 46.2% to 42.2% in favor of a more skeptical view.

Wow! The fear mongers lost their majority.

Morano even quoted author Michael Crichton who suggested that the environmentalists and Hollywood liberals stop their hypocritical concerns about global warming and enact a ban on private jet travel.

Might that also be applied to politicians, Mr. Crichton?

In another debate presented by Scientific American (www.scientificamerican.com) David Biello wrote, "The proponents of a climate crisis seemed underarmed for the debate..."

In addition to a ban on private jet flights, Crighton also called for the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council), the Sierra Club and Greenpeace to make a rule that all of their members get their un-green houses in order and live the way they're telling the rest of us that we have to.

MIT's Professor of Atmospheric Science Richard Lindzen said, "Now, much of the current alarm, I would suggest, is based on ignorance of what is normal for weather and climate."

read more at: http://www.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=5AC1C0D6-802A-23AD-4A8C-EE5A888DFE7E (article entitled Scientific Smackdown: Skeptics Voted The Clear Winners Against Global Warming Believes in Heated NYC Debate)

Kenneth E. F. Watt had this to say on air pollution and global cooling, Earth Day 1970: If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by the year 2000 ... This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age.

Yikes! Another alarmist said (thirty years ago) that we were all about to freeze to death.

Lowell Ponte said in The Cooling (1976) that this cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. If it continues and no strong action is taken, it will cause world famine, world chaos and world war, and this could all come about before the year 2000.

Now that it's 2007, shouldn't we all just be thrilled that we have frozen to death?

Maybe, just maybe, all this global warming has something to do, at least in part, with all the hot air flowing through senate chamber meeting rooms about global warming.

Don't those senators have real job work to do? Do they think we really elected them so that they could put on their best attempted face of being serious scientists and try to convince us that they know what they are talking about?

Get back to work and make Owlgore go back to his zinc farm in Tennessee.

##

11:38 am

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

IF THE PRESIDENT CAN APPOINT, HE CAN ALSO FIRE

Doesn't that make sense?

This whole business about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales firing eight attorneys has sparked a big contest between the White House and congress. I do not understand what all the fuss is about.

After all, the federal government is the single, largest employer in the nation. The latest number of federal employees I could come up with is 14.6 million. That number is a 2006 number cited by Paul C. Light, a government professor at New York University.

read more at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501782.html

With those numbers on the payroll, doesn't eight lonely little attorneys seem like a very small group of employees?

Another part of this picture that's important to keep in mind is that each United States attorney is subject to removal by the President. (U.S. Code, Title 28, Part II, Chapter 35, §541)

http://www.law.cornel.edu/uscode

In the code, you can also see that Each United States attorney shall be appointed for a term of four years. On the expiration of his term, a United States attorney shall continue to perform the duties of his office until his successor is appointed and qualifies.

So, truthfully, had the eight attorneys' terms expired?

Or were they political fodder?

Hey, folks, these are supposed to be bright people. Don't you think the idea ever occurred to them that after their terms were up, then they could have been pastured out? That's what happens with political employees.

In any political organization, you have to watch your back. Constantly. Especially if you're a political appointee.

Ask all those 93 lawyers who were pastured out when the Clintons came to town. If you were a Republican who had been appointed by Herbert Walker Bush, then I can tell you how much time was left in those terms. Until about fifteen minutes after the swearing in ceremony on January 20 when the new guys ride into town.

It's going to be like this until the 2008 elections have come and gone. Bush will propose this; congress with threaten that.

Taxpayers/voters get so disgusted that they throw their hands up in the air and say, "Why bother voting?"

Hmmmm. Could this be part of a big plan to keep conservatives away from the polls?

But wait! Just only today, the Senate voted in a 94-2 count to cancel a provision in the Patriot Act that had allowed the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation.

All of a sudden, because Bush fired these 8 lawyers, he is accused of abusing this privilege of replacing attorneys with some White House loyalists.

But isn't that what Clinton did when he fired alllllll 93 of them when he rode into town?

And isn't it also curious that John McCain was a no-show for the roll call vote? Biden the Bloviator was also absent.

The two holdouts were Hagel (Nebraska) and Bond (Missouri).

By the time the Senate gets done with what they think is their Divine Right of Kings, we won't have anything left that looks like separation of powers.

Looks more and more like Rome, folks.

##

3:20 pm

Monday, March 19, 2007

THE EAGLES HAVE LANDED

There were 30,000 of them. Fox News says that figure will probably be adjusted considerably higher. This was proclaimed A Gathering of Eagles. And oh what a beautiful sight when the Eagles unfurled Old Glory on the National Mall. From San Francisco they came -- and were joined by many rallies in many towns along the way.

People came to rallies and donated flags. Many joined the caravan as it made its way from one coast to the other. They did it without big corporate bucks.

They did it with what looked like a virtual media black-out. NBC, ABC, CBS were all missing. Just exactly what they constitute as news is anybody's guess, actually. But then, with their readership falling off the cliff (and taking advertisers with them), it's no surprise that the mainstream media is so completely and totally out of touch with mainstream America.

They paid their own way.

They were not going to let this March 17 remain in history as the day of war protests. March 17 marked the anniversary of an anti-war protest rally for the Vietnam War many years ago.

The protestors were hoping for another huge gathering that would equal the numbers they had way back then.

Didn't happen. Jane Fonda was a no-show. In fact, the big-mouthed Hollywood types couldn't have been bothered. Maybe it was too cold. Maybe they don't spew out political pontifications in bad weather. Maybe they didn't want to be a part of something that had them so clearly outnumbered. Maybe they're getting sick and tired of Cindy Herselfness Sheehan. Anyway, they could only muster up 10,000 people from Rent-A-Crowd, Inc.

And did anyone else notice that the antis were carrying yellow posters? How appropros.

The irony of this puny little anti-war protest is that the Vietnam vets came out in abundance to protect the memorials on the National Mall when it was feared that the protestors would do to the memorials what they had done a month or so ago when they desecrated the Capitol Building.

Hey antis: graffiti is not freedom of speech. It's a federal crime to desecrate buildings that belong to every citizen in the United States. You don't have the right to go spray paint your venom on the sides of our buildings.

Freedom isn't free. It has been bought and paid for by American blood that was left in the soil of countries all around the world.

And on the same weekend that the Eagles gathered in Washington, D.C., another eagle -- the feathered kind -- returned to Philadelphia. It has been 200 years since an eagle's nest was located in Philadelphia.

I think there's poetry here -- the American Bald Eagle has come home to the town that gave us the birthplace of freedom in America.

Maybe the Bald Eagle was celebrating the Gathering of Eagles!

I like that thought.

##

Some videos that were posted on You Tube about the Gathering of Eagles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr9wMl223KM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUD9RTtmkyM&mode=related&search=
(Moonbat Safety Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tVGip5L5HE&mode=related&search= (National Anthem)
http://www.gatheringofeagles.org/ (Angela Lashley performs "I Remember When" at Gathering of Eagles

12:24 pm

Thursday, March 15, 2007

JESSICA LUNSFORD'S MURDERER GETS DEATH PENALTY RECOMMENDATION

There wasn't a little girl who was safe anywhere in the county when John Couey walked around on the outside of jail. Jessica Lunsford wasn't even safe in the cuddly warmth of her little bed. This horrible, despicable man walked into her house on the morning side of midnight and took her from the safety of her home where she nestled in a sound sleep.

John Couey confessed to the crime of her murder but his confession was inadmissible in court because he said he had requested an attorney the day before he confessed.

This was a man who should not have been out on the streets. Period. He had recently been arrested in Augusta, Georgia, for a probation violation. That should have put him back in jail for his unserved time.

But he got out of jail -- again -- and hightailed it down to Homosassa, Florida, where his half-sister or step-sister or sister -- who knows and I guess it doesn't really matter -- because he was staying with her. This was a man who had been arrested 24 times in 30 years!

Wouldn't you think someone in this little town of 2,200 people would have noticed a slimy, dirty old man who had just moved into their quiet little neighborhood in a quiet little town on the gulf side of the state.

Beaches nearby. Warm sunshine. A place where you think raising kids would be a safe thing to do around there.

Another woman also was staying in his Sis' house. And two men. Wouldn't you think someone would find it enormously curious and want to keep an eye on five adults all strangely living together. It was a little place. Not a big ten room house. What were they all doing in there?

What has happened to our society that we pass freaky people by without wondering what they're up to? They live in our neighborhoods. Don't we have the right to be snoopy? Well, we ought to. Our lives -- our children's lives -- our grandchildren's lives could be at stake.

All these adults in that house over there were all arrested but later released. The authorities couldn't find any evidence that they had been involved in Jessica's death or burial. Not one of them noticed a little girl who just appeared one day?

What were they doing in there, then?

What about the cover up? What about not reporting a felony? Like kidnapping. They could have saved Jessica's life if they had spoken up -- before the abduction turned to murder. They could have spared an innocent nine-year-old girl the horror of being raped by this sleazeball of a creep.

He just kind of sort of forgot to register as a sex offender when he showed up at Sis' doorstep. Sister dear lived about a hundred yards or so from where little Jessica lived with her father and grandparents. You can easily see that far away. It's within earshot too. The sound of children squealing with delight can easily travel over a distance of a hundred yards.

What is in this man's head that would give him the idea of raping a little girl in the dark of night after he had just woke her up at 3 am? Then he went to sleep and woke her up again to rape in the morning?

What manner of evil would have him hide her in a closet while he went off to work at his day job? For three whole days he kept her there. Then he tied her up and stuffed her into a garbage bag and buried her alive.

For three days? What were those other people doing that they wouldn't notice that this creep had a little girl in the house. A little girl who did not belong there!

Couey buried her alive and left her in a shallow grave to suffocate. The coroner said she most likely suffocated in a couple of minutes. Do you think? I doubt it. Her fingers were "skeletonized" because she tried to claw her way out of the plastic bags. Can you do that in a "couple of minutes?"

Quick to respond to the horror of this crime, Florida lawmakers passed a bill -- the Jessica Lunsford Act. That's all well and good but there were already laws on the books that, if enforced, would have kept this man out of her life and out of bedroom.

He had violated his probation. For that he should have been sent back to jail to serve the time. Period. And there already was a law on the books against murder.

What we really need to do to these guys is put them behind bars for life if they are convicted of sexual crimes against a child under the age of 12.

I don't care if the jails are overcrowded. Put some tents up out there in the swamps. If the snakes and 'gators don't get them, maybe the hurricanes will.

Jessica's father said, "We have gone through hell and come out the other side with a mission. That mission is holding lawmakers accountable for allowing this open season on our children. We're coming to Washington. We are bringing with us a dedicated plan for a federally funded, federally strategized and nationally waged war on child predators. We will force them to listen." (CNN-Mar 15, 2007)

The jury recommends the death penalty. Judges usually go along with the jury's recommendations. Somehow, I think this judge will.

Articles of interest for this column:

America's Most Wanted:
http://www.amw.com/missing_children/recovered.cfm?id=30448

CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/03/14/couey.sentence/index.html

CNN older story:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/19/missing.girl/

CBS article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/18/national/main681537.shtml

##

5:00 pm

NEWT GINGRICH SAYS 2008 CAMPAIGN IS ABSURDLY LONG

I could not agree more.

In fact, I've been harping about it for a little while. But aside from being bored to death already with the politicos running around take potshots at each other and showing their true lack-of-class colors, I have other concerns.

First and foremost, they are elected officials and are supposed to be someplace else -- not at the chicken salad event that provided the lunch they're chomping on, or the fried chicken dinners they're wolfing down as they rush from one gig to another. I call it a gig because their campaigns are sucking in the donations by the millions!

All those senators who are, as it turns out, really just presidential wannabees.

Remember back in the old days when the senators were running for their 2006 election, or re-election? Some newsies asked them, "Are you going to run for president?" Coyly they responded, "I'm just going to concentrate on being the best senator that I can be for the state of --- (fill in the blanks)."

How quickly they forgot.

Okay, so maybe it's none of my business what Hillary does. After all, she probably thinks that as long as she represents her beloved state of New York, it's only between her and them.

But not so fast, Ms. Hillary. Once you got yourself sworn in as a senator, didn't you say something about senating for the whole USA?

If you had any kind of a real job anywhere else, you'd have to take a leave of absence to go jet-setting about the country making speeches, eating chicken, shaking the money trees hither and thither.

Same goes to the Obama. Since I live in Illinois, I do have something to say about his hithering and thithering. But then, I didn't vote for him anyway, so it's not likely that he'll be particularly bothered by any opinion of mine.

But I do have a serious opinion and that is this: Theft of time and theft of services. Since I am a U.S. citizen, I do have something to say about all the federal employees under the Dome who are supposed to be doing the business of governing the country.

Ask any attorney who represents a corporation that is firing an employee who either doesn't show up for work, or when he/she does show up, spends most of the day doing something other than what the employee was hired to do. In other words, collecting a paycheck and not being at work when they're supposed to be and not doing the job they were hired to do.

Theft of time. Theft of services.

I don't think senators or any other elected officials should be out there campaigning when they're supposed to be at their offices doing the job of governing like they were hired (elected) to do. They ought to, at the very least, take an unpaid leave of absence. Goodness knows they'll get fed plenty. All they have to do is show up and "sing" for their supper -- or lunch -- or breakfast.

But to start out two years early. Let's see - out of a six year term of office for the senators, that means two years that they're pretty much out from under the Dome.

Oh sure, they fly back to Washington when they have to show up for a vote using up jet fuel as if there were no such thing as this global warming that they're supposedly so excited about. Maybe they're the biggest consumers of carbon gasses, or greenhouse fuels, or something like that. Global warming is a political debate anyway, so I guess it's okay if they don't take it any more seriously than they do.

They'll tell you that they have staff editing and revising their legislation and getting it ready to put out there on the senate floor.

Maybe we ought to elect their administrative aides and clerks. When was the last time that any of these senators actually researched and wrote a piece of legislation? All by themselves, without the aid of their $80,000 aides.

If you think that's what senators do, then I'm here to tell you that you're pretty naive. They have staff to do all that drudgery blue pencil work.

Now back to Gingrich. I don't think he's truly electable. I appreciate his political insightfulness though. He's proposing a 16 to 18 week campaign period during which time there would be nine political debates, ninety minutes each. And that's it.

He was speaking to a packed house at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland. Standing ovations too. He hasn't announced his candidacy. Says it's way too early. His speaking fee was paid for by one of the parents of a student at Goucher.

##

11:17 am

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

DOES AMERICA HAVE TO MAINTAIN ITS IMAGE OF DIRTY POLITICS?

Hillary is back at it -- whining about something that happened during the 2002 primary in New Hampshire when a bunch of Republicans jammed the telephone lines of the Democrat offices.

So let's see -- criminal charges were brought against two people -- not a "bunch." Two people! And son of a gun, they turned out to be mean old Republicans.

Out of a very big group of Republican workers, there were only two who had cirminal charges brought against them. And because of this, Hillary continues her diatribe about the vast, right-wing conspiracy against all things Democrat.

Yeah? And so?

Guess that would also mean there's a vast-left-winged conspiracy that's working to make sure their candidates and not the Republicans get elected.

Isn't that what we used to a call a political campaign?

Don't misunderstand me, folks. I'm not condoning what two political workers did. Jamming phone lines with hang-up calls is not in the interest of good sportsmanship, now is it? That's what they did. Hillary calls them thugs. (My dictionary says a thug is a vicious and brutal gangster.)

But this is election time. Candidates can and will say anything and everything. They will accuse opponents of horrific things. Some candidates, like Jon Edwards, will have truly unkind comments made about them. Edwards recently had aspersions cast on his sexuality. And he's been called the "Breck Girl." What does that mean?

Running a nice political campaign doesn't sell newspapers and tv/radio time. In order to be news, it's got to have a lot of mean-spiritedness skulking about. Apparently that includes name calling stuck in amongst the political rhetoric.

Even when the candidates or their representatives are interviewed, they don't answer questions put to them. Instead, they drag out their mental list of talking points and keep hammering away at that, regardless of what was asked.

Where does that get them?

Let me see. Viewership is way down. And as long as God has invented the clicker, I'm safe. If the politicos ever figure out how to come up with some kind of jamming device that would stop channel changing during interviews, I can always turn off the radio or TV. If that doesn't work, pulling the plug always will.

The big city newspapers across the country are starving to death too. Readership is down. So much so that the big papers are actually laying off reporters.

Didn't the publishers consider that Clinton's horrible right-wing conspiracy, as she calls it, is part of the paying public?

Hey, remember us. Yoo hoo. We're the ones who actually put coins in the curbside machines and pay for the papers we take out. This vast, right-wing conspiracy represents about half the voters in the United States.

The other half, then, must be the vast, left-wing conspiracy.

Doesn't freedom of expression mean that I get to disagree with the liberal's point of view? Or even the libertarian's if I want to?

When did the conservative point of view get stripped out of the national dialogue?

God forbid that only Democrats end up debating Democrats during the national elections. What fun would that be? They'd only complain about the silent majority again. Remember those days?

When the conservatives became more vocal, the liberals looked around and said, "Where did those guys come from? How dare they disagree with us. It must be a conspiracy of some sort. We can't have that. We need to fix that."

My opinion is that these yokels -- all of them -- have started their campaigns way too early. There's no way in the world that I'm going to listen to their political silliness for the next nineteen months. At the very most, I only need a couple of weeks before the election to figure out who I'm going to vote for. I can figure out a lot of things in that length of time.

The silent majority has found its voice. It's just too bad if the liberals think that we have the nerve to disagree with them.

Speech is one of my favorite freedoms. And no, I do not require everyone to hold the same point of view as mine. It would be nice but it's not a perfect world.

##

11:55 am

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

OH, CAMILLA -- YOU ARE REALLY MESSING UP HIS CHARLESNESS CARBON FOOTPRINT

It seems that Camilla and His Charlesness were supposed to be dining with senior members of the Kuwaiti royal family.

Then, an "off with her head" moment appeared when apparently the Lady-In-Waiting who's in charge of Cammy's shoes packed the wrong ones.

Why, I never!

There was nothing to do except go 'round to her shoe closet and get the right ones and jet them over. I mean, after all, she is married to the future King of England.

So that's what happened. 3,000 miles later, the correct shoes that were supposed to be packed arrived just in the nick of time. Her Cammyness' wardrobe dilemma was rescued.

Unfortunately, the word got out. And now Charlesyness has to explain why his carbon footprint just went through the roof.

Well, to her credit, Cammy didn't actually ask for the shoes to be flown over. Rather, the Lady-In-Waiting put the word out back at the palace that the shoes were on the wrong continent at the wrong time.

They just kind of took it upon themselves to fix the problem for Her Whimsiness.

Turns out that Cammy didn't wear the shoes anyway.

Off with their heads! And give us back your environmental award. I'll bet you spent more on fossil fuels for the private jet than it would have cost to buy gold plated, diamond studded slippers for Her Fanciness.

This was a Monty Python skit, right? Please say yes.

##

11:13 am

RUSSIA WARNS ITS DEADBEAT CUSTOMER: IRAN

So Captain Marmalade in Iran is a deadbeat. Russia is not happy.

In fact, Russia says that if they don't get some money soon from the Iranians, "there are going to be irreversible consequences." (Agence France Presse)

I wonder what that means?

I don't think I'd go messing around with the Russians. They have ways, you know.

Anyway, it's all about this so-called nuclear reactor that's supposed to be just for supplying electricity in Iran/Persia. (I can now say Persia since most of you probably went to see 300 and you know that Persia renamed itself to Iran. I guess to clean up its image. Then the Iranians took all those hostages from the American embassy in Tehran, so we're not on the best of terms with them right now.

I don't know what they're going to call themselves next. Maybe candlepower?

If the Persians don't pay up real soon, the Russians say they are not going to send nuclear fuel anytime soon for this big Bushehr project.

##

10:48 am

BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS -- THE NAME SOUNDS FAMILIAR BUT WHAT ARE THEY?

They've even got their own decorative patch.

Wikipedia describes them as "conservative to moderate Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives."

There's 44 Blue Dogs jumping off the porch. That's a pretty hefty voting block. In fact, it's enough to keep the far left liberals from running away with the piggy bank when it comes to spending packages. There's even one Blue Dog sitting on the House Ways and Means Committee.

You did know that all tax packages start out in the House of Representatives, didn't you? So when the Senate runs around on their gerbil-looking campaign trails when they're supposed to be back in the Senate doing to work they are being paid to do, and they promise that if they are elected they're going to make all sorts of tax packages spring to life, don't believe them.

All tax packages originate in the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives -- not the Senate -- and not the White House.

The primary mission of the Blue Dogs is the promote fiscally responsible budget reforms and bring back some accountability to the taxpayers who elected them. In many cases, they come from pretty liberal districts, so how they even got elected is amazing all by itself.

I could sleep a lot better if the Blue Dogs had about fifty more members. The way it is right now, I have to lock my purse and hide it under my pillow, lest there be liberals skulking about.

A Cajun -- George Rodrigue of Lafayette, Louisiana, -- was apparently a favored artist of Louisiana representatives Billy Tauzin and Jimmy Hayes. Rodrigue's pictures were hanging all over their office walls when the original group of Blue Dogs met in their offices. Rodrigue painted a series featuring an unusual blue dog.

Good enough for them. They were looking for a motto anyway.

Rep. John Tanner from Tennessee says that Blue Dogs are simply "yellow dogs that have been choked by extremes in both political parties to the point that they have turned blue." (source: C-Span)

There have only been two so-called Blue Dog presidents -- Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson.

Just as a little point of history, there are also Yellow Dogs. These are Southern Democrats who are so loyal to the party that (it's said) they'd rather vote for a mangy yellow dog than anything Republican.

So the Blue Dogs entered the picture in 1994 for the 104th Congress.

Somebody had to bring some sense to the whole process, they thought. The Blue Dogs have been trying to strike a balance in the Congress ever since. They've picked up some power along the way and their numbers are such that they are in a position to swing votes toward a conservative approach to responsibility and accountability.

Looks like their region is growing. Jane Harman from California is among their numbers. So is Stephanie Herseth from South Dakota, who is the Blue Dog Whip. Democrats from Pennyslvania, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah also joined the Blue Dogs.

So you don't have to be southern -- just conservative.

When you get ready to go to the polls, you want to ask the right questions and vote for a conservative if you're bent that way politically. There are conservatives in both parties, so just voting for one party or the other doesn't necessarily mean you'll get a conservative.

How can you tell? Look for fiscal accountability first. That's the best place to start.

I don't think Aunt Nancy likes Blue Dogs.

I personally think that the presidential candidates started their run for the White House way too soon. By the time election day rolls around, we're going to be pretty sick of their mud-slinging and anybody who brings a little style and grace to the campaign, with some freshness, will run away with the election.

If you want a full list of the Blue Dogs in the 110th congress, go to this web site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dog_Democrats

##

10:15 am

Monday, March 12, 2007

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE SHOWS BIG SUCCESS FOR 300

300 was out this weekend for its debut. $70 million worth. It's a movie about the 300 Spartans and their battle with the Persians. (Did you know that in the olden days, Persia was what we now call Iran? The Iranians are not happy about how Persia was portrayed in the movie.)

Anyway, the History channel has been running some really good programs about the Spartan/Persian battle. Except that the History channel programs are not rated R, believe me. It's good history too.

So if you have On Demand, you ought to be able to watch the segments about the Spartan battles. Good graphics too.

In second place, Wild Hogs collected $27,601,291 for its second week.

And bringing up third place was Bridge to Terabithia with $6,779,315.

##

5:51 pm

OSAMA BIN LADEN -- IF YOU'RE STILL ALIVE, YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED!

And I, for one, want to dance on your head. I'll even buy a new pair of spiky stilettos just for our dance.

In an article published in The Australian, a new kind of searcher persons (not going to call them spies) is going over the Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to train the local border units.

This special team is called the Shadow Wolves. They are made up of people from the Navajo, Sioux, Lakota and Apache nations.

Just to put you on notice, OBL, you are in big trouble now!

Our ancestors are smarter than you and all your ancestors put together. You've already been convicted of murder in the United States for the gleeful, willing part you played in the massacre of our people here on September 11. We saw the corrupted glee of people dancing in the streets laughing at Americans.

Tracking is nothing new to the Shadow Wolves. They've been hunting down smugglers out there in the desert southwest.

Two of the Shadow Wolves -- Harold Thompson and Gary Ortega -- are experts at "cutting sign." This is the Indian method of finding and following minute clues from a barren landscape. They can detect twigs snapped by passing humans or hair snagged on a branch and tell how long a sliver of food has been laying out in the dirt.

Oh, there has been a whole bunch of criticism about this group. And no -- they will not be sprinkling "hoobie dust" on the trails (whatever that is). And they won't be scattering bones around. That only works in the movies.

But as the daughter of a full blood Cherokee who was also an expert hunter -- I can tell you that Osama is in big trouble. In fact, I'd be willing to say his days just got to be a lot shorter on this earth. I would also bet that my father is among many like him who have gone across the Great Divide who will be guiding the Shadow Wolves as they go about their task of training others on tracking.

It's true that we have multi-million equipment. But that equipment -- with the precious cargo of American soldiers -- is being blown apart by IEDs that probably didn't cost $15!

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21364526-2703,00.html

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3:00 pm

PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS: FORGIVENESS OR POLITICS?

This Libby thing has stirred up a hornet's nest. Looks like the country is lining up behind Libby and lobbying Bush to get out his pardon pen.

GW is not all that generous with his pardons. Even when he was governor. According to Jim Snyer, in an article today in The Hill, Bush granted only 18 pardons during his term.

In his six years as president, Bush has granted 113 pardons.

His dad pardoned only 77 during his entire term of office.

You want to know who was the pardoningest president? It was none other than FDR. He got 3,600 people out of the pokey just with one fell swoop of his pardon pen.

Clinton pardoned 396 people by the time his two terms were up. One of those turned out to be pretty controversial. Clinton pardoned Marc Rich who was a commodities trader. Rich snuck out of the country while he was being prosecuted for tax evasion and doing business with Iran during the hostage crisis. That was a big no-no!

Geffen, out in Hollywood, is still upset about that pardon and he brings it up everytime a Clinton asks him for money. Remember Geffen. He just recently arranged for a big fundraiser for Obama. If memory serves me, the fundraiser was worth more than $2 million.

Then The Hillary said to Geffen, "Where's mine?" I'm not privy to their private conversation. Maybe it was a conversation between Bill and Geffen. Maybe it was a conversation between Hillary's office help and Geffen. Whoever got ahold of Geffen, she, of course, would not know anything about it.

Do you believe that?

I don't.

But next thing you know, Geffen is blabbing about the Marc Richards thing again. And next thing you know, he's saying that maybe he'll host a fundraiser for The Hillary.

All is forgiven, says Hillary.

Here's your $2 million says Geffen.

That's how politics works.

The Clintons are so very poor, you know.

##

2:27 pm

ON-LINE VOTING ON DICK MORRIS' SITE SENDS SOME INTERESTING MESSAGES

To date, some 62,516,000 votes have been cast. Morris says he's going to send the vote results of how I voted to my senators and representative from my district.

The results were very interesting. The question Should the Senate pass the nonbinding resolution to block the Iraq troop surge? got an 89% vote for NO and only 11% favored the idea.

Another question Democratic bill would have troops out of Iraq by fall of 2008: Should Bush veto? got an 89% vote for YES, with 11% voting NO.

Here's one that I find really interesting: U.S. senators who are candidates for president: Should they miss roll call votes to campaign? got 97% for NO and only 3% said it would be okay for senators to miss votes while they are out there campaigning. So get back to work. In fact, I don't think they ought to be allowed to campaign while the senate is in session.

There are other questions that you may be interested in. These were the three that I voted for. (if you want to vote on any of a number of topic questions, to to www.dickmorris.com )

I don't have much interest in Guiliani's fractured relationship with his son. But as a mental health counselor, I can only hope that whatever their discord is, they will get it resolved and while they're working on it, we don't need to fan the flames of their discontent with each other by gossiping about them.

I don't believe the public owns the right to all the juicy details of the private lives of candidates.

Think tomorrow, not yesterday. But let the Guilianis have space to reach some kind of accord. That's my prayer.

##

1:55 pm

UPDATE ON MARCH 17 -- GATHERING OF EAGLES

The caravan is covering territory today! Midland, Dallas and Little Rock, as they wend their way to Washington, D.C.

Lots of update information is available at www.gatheringofeagles.org

The maps below will be very helpful if you plan to join the caravan at the D.C. location. If you are not able to attend, then you can send along a petition that you will be with this gathering of patriots in spirit and will be praying for them.

So far, there are some 755 who plan to be in attendance. We were #3079 who have signed in for those with them in spirit.

The web site has lots of information about hotels, etc., as well as messages from veterans groups.

Check it out.

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1:34 pm

Friday, March 9, 2007

SO HILLARY FORGOT A FEW MINOR DETAILS IN FILING HER ETHICS REPORT

Gee, if I were secretary/treasurer of a family foundation, I think I'd remember mentioning that when I filed my ethics report.

Okay, anybody can slip up and miss one year.

But five years in a row?

Tsk tsk tsk.

You'd think that the lawmaker would at least follow the very law that she creates!

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, says that Hillary has been cited before.

She kind of forgot to include some campaign contributions in her senatorial re-election campaign. That infraction cost her $35,000.

This new violation, uncovered by Judicial Watch, could mean as much as $10,000 for each occurrence. That's hardly a drop in the bucket for Team Hillary.

She's out there on the campaign trailing shaking the money tree and picking up bushel baskets of greenbacks. Not only that, but as a senator, she earns a whopping $162,500 a year. Plus expenses, which probably top that.

We're definitely not going to have to round up a bake sale for Hillary. The point is, she ought to have to follow the same rules and laws that everybody else does, don't ya think?

##

1:07 pm

OBAMA NOW CRYING POOR MOUTH

But wait. Didn't Geffen just arrange for Obama to vacuum up millions in California?

And now, in an article published in today's The Hill, Obama's campaign opted out of sending South Carolina any money for its Path to the Presidency kick-off. Obama's mouth says the campaign coffers are in frugality mode. They apparently don't have all that much money to spend on things they want -- just things they need.

Hillary donated $25,000 to South Carolina. So did her best buddy, Christopher Dodd. And not to miss any photo op anywhere in the western hemisphere, they both showed up to shower praises on leading Democratic officials.

How nice. They didn't by any chance planepool, did they? That would do a little bit to save the environment that they're insisting we little people are killing. Like we little people are going to knock off planet earth!

(I thought Aunt Nancy, the most powerful woman in America, was going to move the sun back a few feet to eliminate global warming!)

Anyway, even though bama bama Obama's campaign is very very frugal and he can't afford to send $25,000 like his dembuddies did, he was offered the chance to buy the very first, hot off the press, mailing labels for all the voters in the state for a measly $65,000. The money was hotwired within 24 hours.

Man, that's what I call poor. Or frugal. Or something like that.

But wait. If memory serves me right, if these candidates run around the country collecting huuuuuuuuuge campaign funds and somehow have some left over because they run a really frugal campaign, don't they get to transfer leftover money to political action committees? Like maybe the Obama's Giant Care of the Earth and Other Things Political Action Committee?

Remind myself to check up on that.

##

11:05 am

AUSTRALIANS APPARENTLY AREN'T BUYING IT ALL, MR. GORE

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests that Australians may not be buying Gore's premise. In fact, they seem just about as turned off as those of us who live in the United States.

Hawking a really big hoped-for 2-1/2 hour blockbuster, Cool Aid, on Sunday night proved to be a really big disaster. At its highest point of viewers during the program, only 618,000 viewers tuned in. Across the entire country, Cool Aid only averaged 464,000 viewers.

That compared to 1.6 million each for Grey's Anatomy and CSI.

Oh my, my, my. Beverley McGarvey, head of programming at Ten's network, expressed confusion as to why. She said, "They didn't come. It's not like they came to the show, sampled it and went away. They didn't come."

And why not? After all, the network sent out study guides to schools, had the full support of the print media and advertisers. Still, the viewers didn't come.

McGarvey said they spent a fortune to get the audience to tune in. It didn't work.

Australian frontman for Gore's documentary, John Dee, says about 5 million homes are going to get a mail-out. He goes on to point out that so much of the government rhetoric about climate change has been about costing jobs and damaging the economy.

That may all be well and good, Mr. Dee, but I suggest there are other reasons floating around.

That is, until the government officials get off this "Do as I say and not as I do," then maybe the average bungalow down the block will have more green products on the pantry shelves.

Mr. Inconvenient Truth Algore seems to find it most inconvenient to reduce his carbon footprint. He says he's got some green programs in mind that will lower his megamansion's carbon footprint.

I have a different suggestion. It's changing some immediate behaviors that would have an immediate impact: get rid of your big honkin' SUVs and give up your private charter jets. And maybe you could lump some of your trips together so you weren't flying coast to coast and back and forth so much. That seems awfully wasteful to me.

Saving ten gallons of heated water for showers is nothing compared to what your jets consumed in fossil fuels for just one of your trips. (Please keep taking your showers though, Algore.)

##

10:38 am

Thursday, March 8, 2007

OFFICE FOR POPE JOHN PAUL II's SAINTHOOD RUNNING OUT OF MONEY

I did not even know that there was such an office in Rome that's in charge of promoting the sainthood cause of Pope John Paul II.

The office has already run over budget for mailing expenses because more and more people are requesting prayer cards and relics of the late pope.

In an article dated March 2, 2007 by the Catholic News Service, there used to be about 50 requests for the cards and relics. Then, for some reason, practically overnight, the requests jumped to 500 -- then 1,000.

Would it surprise you that the largest majority of requests are coming from the United States (by e-mail).

The relic that's requested is a small piece of one of the white cassocks worn by the late pope. Some requests are for an entire parish!

But it takes about $5 to mail each request to the United States, says Brother Gaffrey.

That would be for one request -- that is, one prayer card and one snip of fabric.

The web site is www.JohnPaulIIBeatification.org

The web site has had some difficulties because of the increased traffic.

##

2:41 pm

IT LOOKS LIKE OBAMA IS REALLY REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT RUNNING

I can always tell when politicians start to get really really serious about their campaigns. They start paying off old fines.

That's just what Obama is doing.

According to Reuters, all of a sudden Obama has decided to pay nearly $400 in old parking tickets he got when he was a law student at Harvard. There was $375 he paid for 17 tickets in a two year period ending in 1990. Seventeen years ago?!! And he just now miraculously discovered them?

So, do you think his Arrogantness parked in a Handicapped spot or just stayed too long at the dance? He even paid a $45 late fee for parking tickets that were unpaid.

Then there was a $73 car excise tax he paid to the City of Somerset.

He must be going through some old shoeboxes while packing for his move into the White House. Do you think?

But then there's that other matter of thousands and thousands of dollars of shares of stock in companies that he helped push legislation through. Naturally, he had no idea that his blind trust had bought any of those shares. It's all perfectly legit, he says.

If the trust is all that blind, how come a measley little reporter was able to uncover the pretty big Ooops?

It doesn't matter if it's $400 or $50,000. Neither of the above pass the smell test!

##

1:28 pm

CARAVAN ROUTE: THESE COLORS DON'T RUN

March 8 -- San Francisco, Lafayette, Vacaville, Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Bakersfield

March 9 -- Bakersfield, Los Angeles (caravan from San Diego meets up in LA), Palm Desert, Palm Springs

March 10 -- Palm Springs, Phoenix, Tucson

March 11 -- Tucson, El Paso, Monahans, Midland/Odessa

March 12 -- Midland/Odessa, Dallas, Little Rock

March 13 -- Little Rock, Memphis, Atlanta

March 14 -- Atlanta, Columbia, Charlotte, Concord, Raleigh

March 15 -- Raleigh, Richmond, Washington, D.C.

6:00 pm -- caravan arrives at Hyatt Regency Wash DC Capitol Hill Hotel

March 16 -- all day -- set up "Flag City" on Capitol Mall

Evening -- Please join the pro-troop vigil at Walter Reed Medical Center

Organized by Free Republic

March 17 -- 11 am - 5 pm -- Patriotic/Pro-Troop Rally with Move America Forward, Gathering of Eagles, Free Republic, Rolling Thunder, Vets for Victory and others. Located on Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C.

For a very detailed map of dates, time and events, go to www.moveamericaforward.org

The caravan is on the move, as we speak! God bless them and we pray for safe travels -- keep the goons, troublemakers and ne'er do wells away from them as the caravan proceeds in its path to draw attention to the great honor that we hold for our troops who are in harm's way.

12:17 pm

CARAVAN LEAVES WEST COAST TODAY FOR WASHINGTON, D.C.:
"THESE COLORS DON'T RUN"

Somewhere along the way, Cindy Sheehan decided she was speaking for all Americans when she tried her best to develop a war protest.

Then Jane Fonda joined her. And they went to Washington, D.C. with as many of their buddies as they could muster.

Then a few of their kind broke loose and took off for the Capitol Building where they spray painted their graffiti messages on the building.

Now this self-proclaimed up-to-nogood duo has announced that on March 17 they will march on the Pentagon. They plan to step off from the Vietnam Memorial.

Well, hey, not so fast, say the Vietnam Vets. This is sacred territory. This memorial is where we come to honor our fallen brothers and sisters. Don't even think about spray painting your ugly little Un-American messages onto our wall.

Patriotic organizations like These Colors Don't Run, Move America Forward, Rolling Thunder, The Gathering of Eagles, Free Republic and Vets 4 Victory will be "planting" a sea of Old Glory around the memorial on the National Mall in D.C. These flags are being collected as the caravan moves about the country along this route:

There are rallies planned all along the 3,500 mile route. People will join the caravan. People will drop off American flags. These flags can be store-bought or homemade. Flags. Flags. The caravan is collecting flags. So far, 500 flags have been collected.

After the pro-troop, pro-patriot giant rally on March 17, 2007 in Washington, D.C., the flags are going to be sent to individual persons serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not so much an anti-protest protest as it is a protection of a place of honor in the hearts and minds of all who have served in the military of the United States or who have loved ones who have, or who believe that our military needs to be supported in the work they do to protect all Americans.

photos posted on Free Republic (www.freerepublic.com) by trooprally

Big flag arrives in Olney, Maryland, for rally to honor military troops-- Operation Infinite FReep.

A giant rally is planned for Friday, 3/9/07 in Los Angeles at Griffith Park at 4730 Crystal Springs Drive at Noon. Get on board!

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9:31 am

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

WILL CHENEY RESIGN? WHO COULD BUSH POSSIBLY GET TO REPLACE?

Let's just suppose.

Cheney's health is failing. Halliburton's not the company he left a number of years ago, especially since George Soros bought mega millions in Halliburton stock.

Not that Cheney would ever want to go looking for a job anyway. His ostrich egg sized net worth President Bush's look like an Easter egg.

But if Cheney found it necessary to resign, because of his failing health and owing to the call of the Wyoming green sticks, he'd have to be replaced. I mean, no one would expect George to go it alone with just about half a term left.

So my silly little mind is trying to wrap itself around all the possibilities and there is one that I just about salivate over. That is, Mr. Lieberman.

Just think of it. The Democrats in Connecticut wouldn't slate him. So he took a hugely brave stand and launched a senatorial bid as an independent. And he won! By a big big majority.

And from my readings of what he's been up to, he's more conservative than some of the Republicans who claim to be on the right side of the aisle.

Wouldn't that be fun to watch? A senate hearing on the appointment of Lieberman as vice president to George Bush?

He could certainly stand up to the senatorial fire and mockery of what they would consider fair play. Not that the senators would even have a clue as to what that means.

Then, after his confirmation, his senatorial seat would be vacated.

Then the governor of the State of Connecticut would have to appoint someone to fill Lieberman's vacated seat, since Lieberman would move up to the post of President of the Senate -- as vice president.

Don't you just love a good show? I'll bet the networks could sell out the commercial spots. It would have more viewership that the recent trainwrecks we've watched in the recent past.

I'd even pay to watch the senators sitting up there smoldering and wondering, "Why not me? What's Joe got that I don't have?"

It could happen.

##

9:30 am

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

OF COURSE LAWMAKERS OUGHT TO PAY INCOME TAX ON GIFTED TRIPS

Everybody knows that for years and years and years, lawmakers have taken their spouses along on their little junkets. The travel, meals and hotel rooms have fair market value that the rest of us little people would find ourselves taxed on. So why should the lawmakers think they're so much different from the rest of us.

Who really needs to go to Peru anyway? Just to look at an Incan mountaintop? How could that possibly have anything to do with the official business of running the U.S. Senate?

And why did you have to take a huge entourage that included your wife, Mr. Senator Reid? That was not a fact-finding trip -- it was a vacation. Your part of the cost ought to have been taxable too.

In an article by Mike Soraghan posted in The Hill this morning, there have been complaints filed with the IRS that lawmakers have been getting away with this kind of abuse far too long and it ought to stop.

Soraghan quoted Craig Holman, the Public Citizen lobbyist who lodged the complaint. Holman said, "The IRS isn't going to let me not pay taxes on income like that."

Soraghan says that spouses and family members went out on about 9% of sponsored trips. That's according to a study of congressional travel by the Center for Public Integrity. The Center found that in the year prior to July 2006 corporations and trade and nonprofit groups spent more than $5.4 million to send lawmakers and congressional staffers on about 2,700 trips.

But wait, that's down from 4,700 trips that cost $10.3 million the year before.

And I'll just bet you that if people who accompany the lawmakers have to start paying taxes on their little vacations, it will go way way down from that figure.

We can only hope. I say the way to start reducing the budget is one dollar at a time. Or maybe that's a million at a time. Heck, they've got so much money out there in Maybeville, what's a few more zeroes of voterbucks.

Maybe that's what we ought to tell them. It's our taxes they're spending. Voterbucks.

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10:34 am

Monday, March 5, 2007

WEREN'T THE EARMARKS SUPPOSED TO GO AWAY?

Nancy Pelosi, the self-proclaimed Most Powerful Woman in the Country, promised to end earmarks -- or what we used to call pork.

Well, not so.

According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, there are no less than 2,646 earmarks in the Department of Defense budget for 2007. They come up to a grand total of $10.5 billion.

Among other items, there is a $1.5 million earmark for the Revolutionary 1.5 Volt Alkaline Battery.

$1 million for the Thin Lithium-Iron Disulfide Primary Batteries obtained by Rep. Graves.

$2 million for alcohol breath detectors made by WNCK, Inc. of The Woodlands, Texas. This earmark is in the district of Rep. Kevin Brady.

$1.6 million for enhanced situational awareness and analyses of Geospatial Enterprise Infrastructure.

$2.25 million for electroconversion of energetic materials which is run by the Nanomaterials Discovery Corporation of Laramie, Wyoming.

$2.6 million for a grant for the Center for Applied Science and Technologies at Jordan Valley Innovation Center in Missouri. This grant was obtained by Rep. Roy Blunt to renovate the MFA Mill and the center will bear Rep. Blunt's name. Blunt is currently House Minority Whip.

$1.6 million for the Weapons of Mass Destruction Marking Set -- Rex Systems in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. This is in David Obey's district. He's the House Appropriations Committee Chairman.

Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, says "The era of earmarking funds for everything from additional aircraft to studies of hibernation genomics must come to an end. We call on Congress to make the FY 08 spending process a model of transparency and restraint."

The Defense budget did include an earmark for $1.2 billion for 20 F-22a aircraft.

Taxpayers for Common Sense is a non-partisan budget watchdog group. This group says its "vision is for a federal government that costs less and lives within its means..."

Since 1995, the Taxpayers for Common Sense has saved federal taxpayers more than $5 billion by playing a key role in stopped these and other boondoggles:

Since 1995, TCS has saved federal taxpayers more than $5 billion by playing a key role in stopping these and other boondoggles:

Auburn Dam (SAVINGS: $711 million)
Northern California water projects (SAVINGS: $300 million)
Red Rock Crossing bridge, AZ (SAVINGS: $30 million)
Underpayment of royalties for oil drilled on federal lands (SAVINGS: $660 million)
NASA Russian space monkey program (SAVINGS: $4 million)
Forest Service Purchaser Road Credit Program (SAVINGS: $1 billion)
Forest Service highway bill road slush fund (SAVINGS: $1 billion)
Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor (SAVINGS: $200 million)
US 161 road expansion, MI (SAVINGS: $400 million)
US 23 road extension, MI (SAVINGS: $400 million)
Juneau Access Road, AK (SAVINGS: $232 million)

source: www.taxpayer.net

##

6:05 pm

MY FAVORITE DUTCHESS HAS SURGERY

Okay, I'll show a little mercy as Herself Camilla recuperates from recent surgery -- a hysterectomy. She will spend an entire week in the hospital, after which she will be recuperating for six weeks.

All her personal appointments have been cancelled for the duration.

She's resting right now at the exclusive King Edward VII hospital. That's where Herself the Queen had knee surgery not too long ago.

Must be very nice digs.

We will the Dutchess sincere good wishes for returning health and all that. I'm being nice.

##

4:55 pm

FROM BOX OFFICE MOJO:

The biggy this weekend was Wild Hogs raking in $38,000,000.

Following that, in second place was Zodiac, also in its debut weekend. It grossed $13,100,000 -- a long way from its $65 million budget.

Ghost Rider was in third place. It brought in $11,500,000. It came out last weekend. So far, it's grossed $94,757,000. It's in its 3rd week, and has almost made its $94,757,000 budget.

We went to the movies this weekend -- saw Reno 911!: Miami. It fell to 9th place from 4th last weekend. It grossed $3,750,000 for the weekend, bringing it to total sales of $16,413,000. Not bad for a budget of $10 million. Reno 911 has been a hit on Comedy Central for a couple of years now. It's hilarious. It's fun. But it's not for everybody. The movie is rated R. Take them at their word. It's R! But it's an almost nude funny R -- not a foul mouthed language R. If that makes a difference. For all my buddies across the pond, get ready. The next movie for these Keystone Kop types will be an invitation to come to Scotland Yard for a visit. Trust me -- England will never be the same.

For more movie news, go to www.boxofficemojo.com. You can get complete listings and reviews in case you want to know what a movie is all about.

##

4:48 pm

WHY ARE POLITICIANS MAKING POLITICAL SPEECHES IN CHURCHES?

Obama spoke from the Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama.

Hillary, not to be outdone, spoke from another church a few blocks away.

Hillary is being roundly ridiculed for trying her best to sound southerny. Kind of like condescending, patronizing, I-wanna-look-like-you every-word-is-two-syllables southerny.

As if the audience can't tell the difference. But since the only time southern folks ever see real live politicians is when they are either running for something or shaking the money tree, they sit around and listen and look glad for getting some attention.

I can abide all that phony stuff. What I can't wrap my teeny little brain around is this notion that the politicians are making their speeches from churches!

We can't say prayers in school. The politicians are trying to make the Ten Commandments look like they've gone out of style by banning them in public places. All the while they scream "separation of church and state."

I am Christian. I am Lutheran. I am really happy that I went to a Lutheran school 'til 8th grade. We had morning prayers and said the Pledge of Allegiance with all the great fervor that came from me and my fellow school buddies.

Before we go poking the pig of "church/state separation," we ought to look at just how entertwined the two become when it is convenient for the politicians to weave them together. Like when it's a money thing. For instance, how many polling places are located in churches? Wouldn't that be a church-and-state thing?

Shouldn't the IRS be looking into all those churches that have politicians making political speeches from their pulpits?

In the meantime, it looks like the biggest hypocrisy is the church politicos.

##

10:04 am

Saturday, March 3, 2007

THIS WALTER REED MESS IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE!

This hospital is supposed to be a medical haven for our soldiers who have fallen in harm's way. Instead, they got tripped up by the very people who are supposed to be committed to their healing return to health.

It appears to be a decrepit old building with chipping paint and moldy stowaways in every nook and cranny. We probably have better looking buildings in the ghettoes here in Chicago. In fact, I remember some old buildings that were so falling down awful that the only solution was just to tear them down. Boom. Problem solved.

Everybody's scurrying off this stinking ship now. Those who haven't quit will be fired. If they're fired for cause, don't they lose their pensions? I sure hope so.

Their future financial misery is nothing to compare with the awful stuff they've put our soldiers through.

What I don't understand is how anybody could have gotten away with the building falling into such disrepair. Weren't there maintenace people filling out forms for buckets of paint? Or building engineers putting in budget requests for maintenance needs?

I would just love to see what the building maintenance budget looked like.

Did they only take care of the hallways that visitors came through? Or did they have ship-shape routes for the President when he came to bestow Purple Hearts? Didn't anybody ever do a "white glove walk through?"

I'm sure there's a high falootin' congressional committee or sub-committee that has something to do with checking out hospitals that are dedicated to the healing and care of our servicemen. Don't the congress critters ever do anything useful like actually getting out there in the field to see what's going on?

They certainly have enough time to go flying off to scenic spots around the world looking for clues about how civilizations in South America fell. They go flying off to Iraq for photo ops with anybody who'll sit down with them.

Guess they'd rather look for gold, not mold.

##

10:39 am

Friday, March 2, 2007

GORE KNOWS BETTER -- WITH HIM NOTHING IS INADVERTENT

Anybody but anybody who has flown in an airplane since 9-11 knows one thing for sure: get to the airport plenty early because there are long lines at security checkpoints.

If you have to go through Chicago's O'Hare Airport like we do, you are more than slightly aware of that.

Wouldn't you think that someone as conversant in all things great and small would know that surely an airport like the one in Nashville would have a metal detector in its post 9-11 security system?

After all, didn't Al Gore invent all that stuff? Including the rules for everything necessary for anyone's daily life.

So here he comes with a teeny tiny entourage of two people.

His alibi -- by way of his official publicist mouthpiece -- is that a security guard recognized him and pulled him out of the security line. "Pssst, over here, Mr. Kilowatt House Sasquatch." Then she leads him around the metal detectors.

That's a huuuuuuuge gigantic no-no. Not to mention that it's against the law. Not that that ever stops the celebs. But no matter. There she goes, leading the Gorenesses over to a security door where she swipes her security card no less than three times.

Oops. Pobably just a mistake, right?

Not. Busted. Now get back in line.

##

8:32 am

Thursday, March 1, 2007

DOESN'T FREEDOM COUNT FOR ANYTHING ANYMORE -- EVEN IF IT'S FIGHTING FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S FREEDOM?

My grandfather, Arthur Stubbe, fought valiantly in World War I. He was in Europe. He was fighting for someone else's freedom. Like my grandfather, my father-in-law, Dean Reinheimer, was also in the U.S. Army and was in Europe.

My uncle, and godfather, Arthur Stubbe, Jr., fought in World War II. He was in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific. So was uncle, James Stubbe, a U.S. Marine.

My brothers, my cousin, a son. All joined the U.S. military -- either as marines, sailors, or soldiers.

I should not have been surprised, then, when McCain announced his run for the presidency. Oh sure, I've seen the movie bio that put him at the Hanoi Hilton and the suffering he went through as a POW.

But I was absolutely aghast when he said on David Letterman that "Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be....We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives."

What?!!

I do believe that one life lost is one too many.

What I absolutely do not believe is that lives spent in procuring freedom for any oppressed people are wasted.

To jump back to a previous war -- the United States was roundly critized because we didn't get into Europe fast enough in World War II. We could have saved millions of lives from the gas chambers, we were belatedly told.

Yet, when we went into Iraq after hundreds of thousands of Kurds had been slaughtered, we're now criticized because we've helped a people that lived under the tyrannical rule of a madman who apparently thought nothing of shooting people right between the eyes for disagreeing with him.

It hasn't been that long -- 1994 -- since nearly a million Tutsis were massacred in Rwanda. The Rwandans begged for help. We didn't go.

The United States people is the richest, most benevolent country on the planet. As long as we are strong, we will always be asked to intervene on behalf of the week.

Isn't that the first duty of the strong? To intervene on behalf of the weak? Who else would be able to intervene in their behalf if we just blindly look the other way and pretend we don't notice when whole cultures are being massacred?

I am so proud of all the men and women in our armed forces who help bring freedom to the world.

God bless each and every one of them.

##

12:08 pm

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