RightOnPeachtree

Telephone Polls

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:46:00 +0000

I got a call yesterday from a polling company. They asked me if I would be interested in going through some questions with them pertaining to the upcoming election. I had a few minutes available, so I agreed to answer the questions. At first the questions were straightforward. Had I heard of Person A? Had I heard of Person B? Would I vote for Person A in November? Would I vote for Person B in November? Then the true nature of the poll was revealed when they started to ask some ridiculously biased questions. I forget the exact wording of these questions, but they asked something along the lines of whether or not I knew that Person A voted for a bill that would hurt Georgians and line the pockets of some group? And did I know that Person A took X dollars from that group? How did that make me feel about Person A? Would I still vote for Person A?

I immediately asked who was doing this polling. The questions were ridiculously one-sided and almost certainly dishonestly framed. The pollster said that they didn't know who funded the poll. Yeah, right. Pull this leg and it plays jingle bells. I asked if they were going to ask equally biased questions about the other candidate. The pollstar didn't respond affirmatively.

It was such a ridiculous survey. I haven't been involved in any polling this close to an election. If this is the way that telephone surveys are conducted, I wouldn't trust any of the results that come from them.

Not that it matters that much since both sides probably do this, but the target of this poll's negativity appeared to be Casey Cagle, candidate for Lieutenant Governor. He was the one that this "neutral" poll tried to portray as a step or two short of being Pol Pot. I'm guessing that it was commissioned by the Georgia Democratic Party or Jim Martin's (his opponent's) camp. Either way, I imagine that they didn't like my answers or my editorializing about the nature of the questions.

Don't you just love election season?

On boa constrictors and illegal immigration

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 19:30:00 +0000

Here are some updates on happenings related to illegal immigration.

Good news: McCain's support for illegals stings him in Alabama (from Ace of Spades via Freedom Folks)

McCain had a fundraiser and the showing was paltry. Per Ace of Spades:

I actually did some "investigative reporting" (I called some of my old friends on Capitol Hill who are close to the McCain people) and asked why they thought the Senator wasn't getting much traction in a place like Alabama, which traditionally loves their war heroes. The answer: Illegal Alien Amnesty and the "torture" debate have taken a much heavier toll on McCain then previously thought. Even McCain's recent vote in favor of construction of the 700 mile border wall hasn't earned him any credit among these voters.

More good news: Illegals dropping off the dole in Georgia (from the AJC)

Georgia's Medicaid program lost almost 70,000 in membership in the first four months of 2006, after Georgia launched new rules to control fraud.

Beginning Jan. 1, the state began demanding proof of income and citizenship for people to join or stay on Medicaid. Through April, the government insurance program for about 1.3 million of Georgia's poor and disabled had an enrollment decline of 69,635."

and...

"Illegal immigrants are getting onto our social system, and it is busting the bank now," Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.) said at the hearing. Norwood earlier took his anti-fraud fight national, helping push Congress to pass a law requiring proof of citizenship in all states' Medicaid programs.

And the bad news: Congress playing smoke and mirrors with border fence legislation (via MSNBC)

"No sooner did Congress authorize construction of a 700-mile fence on the U.S.-Mexico border last week than lawmakers rushed to approve separate legislation that ensures it will never be built, at least not as advertised, according to Republican lawmakers and immigration experts."

We need results on this issue, not rhetoric. We need to keep fighting, because many of the politicians are thinking that this crisis will pass and we'll move on to the next thing. Then they can move forward with their plans of open borders, a NAFTA superhighway, and a North American Union. They're like a boa constrictor in that they wrap their corrupted system around us and then they wait for us to relax or exhale. When we do, they tighten their grip. They're just waiting until we stop kicking. Then they can dispose of us and go ahead with their nefarious activities. Well, I'm hoping that the boa constrictor bit off more than it can chew this time. We can't stop fighting until the snake frees us from its grip. Otherwise, we may as well just give up now.

Is Dubya the devil?

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 03:14:00 +0000

Uber-socialist and professional America-hater Hugo Chavez, the President of oil-rich Venezuela, had a chance to speak yesterday at the UN. In his speech, he practiced his brand of Yosemite Sam cartoon diplomacy by repeatedly referring to George W. Bush as "the devil". This got me to thinking: If George Bush = "the devil", what else do we know about George Bush as a result of this revelation?

Here are a few other phrases that would then be applicable:

Dubya is in the details.
Dubya went down to Georgia.
Give Dubya his due.
Dubya made me do it.
Dance with Dubya.
Running with Dubya.
Dubya wears Prada.
Speak of Dubya.
Dubya's advocate.
Have you ever danced with Dubya in the pale moonlight?
Making a deal with Dubya.
Dubya's backbone.
Sympathy for Dubya.
Shout at Dubya.
Dubya and Max Devlin.

and my favorite...

Idle hands are Dubya's workshop.

Of course, this is all based on Chavez' statement being true. Chavez strikes me as a charismatic leader, but he does seem quite unhinged. I think it's safe to say that he needs a Prozac the size of a barrel of oil.

Maybe the sulfur Chavez claimed to smell wasn't left over from Bush's visit. Sulfur is used in fertilizers, so maybe the smell of sulfur was emanating from the er...fertilizer that Chavez was piling high and deep. Or maybe Chavez himself is "El Diablo". Wouldn't that be just like the devil to accuse someone else of being the devil in an attempt to divert suspicion away from himself?

Just in case, maybe we should keep an eye on Bush in the near future. If he pushes Congress to pass legislation benefitting pitchfork manufacturers or if he solicits large donations from any "fire and brimstone" PAC's, we could have a problem on our hands. We should probably keep the Vatican on speed dial, just in case.

Come to think of it, Bush was a member of the secret society called Skull and Bones when he was at Yale. That sounds ominous. And Bush does try to dismiss any concerns about global warming. In fact, he seems to embrace it.

I'm just sayin'...

(Note: I'm kidding of course. Shrub is a little thick sometimes, but he's not the devil. I'm quite sure that Beelzebub is much more on top of things than Dubya.)

My Erk Russell memory

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 05:02:00 +0000

In case you haven't heard, former UGA and Georgia Southern football coach Erk Russell passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was a heck of a football coach. He coached the "Junkyard Dawg" defense at UGA from 1964-1981 and then resurrected the football program at Georgia Southern. While at Georgia Southern, he won three Division 1-AA championships.

Erk was a colorful character, to say the least. As you can see on that Wikipedia page, he had a penchant for headbutting his players and would frequently have to coach his games with a bloodied, bald noggin.

I had the privilege of hearing Erk speak once. I was at Boys State back in 1986. As usual, it was held on the campus of Georgia Southern, and Erk was the guest speaker on one of our last nights there. Usually, I don't remember what most guest speakers say, but he had a couple of funny lines that I remember to this day. Here's what he said (in quotes, but basically paraphrased):

"I don't normally go to Halloween costume parties, but my wife talked me into going to one last year. Do you have any idea what my costume was? I went as Ban Roll-On."
"One day my wife said to me, 'Erk, sometimes I think you love football more than you love me.' I responded, 'Yes, dear, but I still love you more than I love track.'"

He was a funny and entertaining man and, from what I hear, a master motivator on the football field. He certainly made a name for himself in the state of Georgia and he was loved by many. Most people would be thrilled to live half the life and have half the impact he did.

As I read somewhere last week -- if God needed a defensive coordinator, he's got a great one now.

New venture for the current administration?

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:50:00 +0000

Did Dick Cheney and George W. Bush get a head start on their post-2008 careers with a new business venture? If so, it looks like Dick let Shrub name the company, but didn't have the heart to tell him that he spelled Cheney incorrectly.

But seriously, I drove by this business last week while I was visiting with family in Fitzgerald, Georgia. I definitely did a double-take when I saw the name of the company. I don't know if it's just a coincidence or if the owners opened the business after 2000 and thought they would have a little fun with the name. I had to take a picture of it, though.

The Braves' streak is over

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:19:00 +0000

It finally happened. While they still have a chance of making the NL playoffs this year as the wild-card team, the Braves' streak of consecutive division titles has come to an end. The last time the Braves didn't celebrate a division championship was 1990. I was a junior at Mercer University back then. I could've never imagined that I'd be 37 years old before the Braves failed again to win their division title. It has been an amazing ride. I can only hope that the Braves get the well-earned respect that such a streak merits.

If you get a chance, check out Mark Bowman's article over at mlb.com. He provides a great synopsis/retrospective of the streak.

A competitive gene that went into overdrive

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 20:24:00 +0000

Check this out:

The backup punter at Northern Colorado has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing his teammate -- the starting punter -- in the kicking leg.

The motive may have been competition for the first-string job, police said Wednesday.

Wow. That's a guy who REALLY wants to get on the field. Something tells me that this guy was long overdue for a trip to the school's mental health counseling office. It looks like his mental evaluation will now be handled by the state's prison system.

This is reminiscent of the Nancy Kerrigan situation when Tonya Harding's boyfriend whacked Kerrigan in the knees.

A competitive spirit is a healthy thing, but it just seems to push some people over the edge.

What I remember most from 9/11

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 07:14:00 +0000

It was a surreal day. I wasn't working that day and I slept in. When I awoke, I remember turning on the news and seeing the immediate aftermath of the attacks. I left the TV on and quickly went to CNN.com to see what it said. CNN.com had completely revamped their website to focus almost exclusively on the attacks. They used gigantic fonts for the headlines and their stories were changing and being updated on the fly.

Three other items of note that stood out for me personally. I live and work in or around Atlanta, so I wasn't anywhere near New York or DC. However, I had some colleagues who worked in both of those cities. A few days after 9/11, I was speaking on the phone with one of those colleagues who lived in New Jersey but worked in New York City. She told me that she had been driving back and forth to work in the days after 9/11 and kept noticing the large numbers of cars at the train/subway stations that never moved. The cars were there when she went to work and the same cars were still there...unmoved...when she returned home from work. It dawned on her that those were cars of people who died or were still missing in that time period right after 9/11.

Another colleague of mine in DC told me how some folks in the office had been in their cars that morning and had seen the low-flying plane (Flight 77) that would eventually crash into the Pentagon. So much for that missile theory that the moronic conspiracy theorists keep pushing.

Finally, one of my colleagues in the Atlanta office lost a sister on Flight 77. Her sister, who worked for a defense contractor in DC, was flying out on a business trip that day. She rarely flew, but she had the misfortune of being on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. They were eventually able to identify some of her remains, but it was a harrowing situation for my co-worker and her family and in-laws.

Many lives were and families were changed forever that day. I can only pray that we continue to fight back against those who seem hell-bent on destroying us with any weapons they can dream up.

A brain synapse to nowhere

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 23:49:00 +0000

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) recently proposed a bill that would create a publicly accessible database containing details about government-awarded funds -- who got them, what the amounts were, etc. This was a refreshing piece of legislation that would shed sunlight on a system with much potential for corruption. The legislation was sailing through Congress, as it should have, when an anonymous senator placed a hold on the bill. This hold angered politicians on both sides of the aisle and outraged much of the blogosphere. Porkbusters led the charge in trying to smoke out the anonymous senator who seemed keen on derailing this rare bipartisan effort. The effort to identify this human roadblock was successful as the culprit has now stepped forward. It was none other than Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), that crusty old piece of political compost.

If you'll recall, Stevens was the pork-loving brainiac who championed the infamous "bridge to nowhere". This was one of two bridges in Alaska that would benefit only a handful of people. This particular bridge had a price tag of $223M. When other senators dared to question this expense, Stevens became defensive and even threatened to resign if he didn't get his way (I'm not sure if he held his breath until they gave in, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did).

Also, Stevens is one of the biggest advocates of the elimination of net neutrality. If Stevens gets his way, his large campaign donors will be able to provide differentiated levels of services on the internet that would likely relegate us second-class users to the slow lanes of the information superhighway. And Stevens' asinine dissertational speech explaining the internet is nothing short of comic genius from a man who has clearly outlived his shelf-stable date.

So what can we do to clean up messes like this one created by temper-tantrum Teddy?

In terms of corrective measures, the first step would involve getting rid of dinosaurs like Stevens. He helps to destroy the credibility of Congress because of his wasteful spending, his shameless political favors benefitting his campaign contributors, and his all-too-frequent displays of stupidity. I hope Alaska realizes how much of an embarrassment this man is to their state and puts him out to pasture as soon as they possibly can.

A second step would be the elimination of this provision whereby a senator can anonymously put a hold on a bill. That's a ridiculous way to govern. Of course, it takes a special person to have the audacity to secretly put a hold on a bill that would provide sunshine and accountability on our legislative processes. Stevens is special in that way, though. His shamelessness apparently has no boundaries.

Finally, I think Congress should adopt one of the practices of NASCAR. You know how race cars are adorned with the logos of their sponsors? Well, we should require that legislators wear logos of their sponsors as well (see the picture of Stevens shown above). The bigger the sponsorship, the larger the logo. Then we can better understand why these scoundrels vote and behave the way they do. If someone votes to give big oil companies a tax break and he has Exxon and Texaco logos across the front of his suit, we'll know exactly what's going on.

I think that's only fair, don't you?

GHSA sets heat policy for athletic practices

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 17:23:00 +0000

According to the AJC, the Georgia High School Association will now be requiring all schools to have a written policy on athletic practices when the heat or humidity is high. Schools will also be required to have some type of validated instrument to measure heat and humidity on the practice fields.

I suppose this idea has good intentions. Every year, you hear about kids collapsing or dying at or after football practice -- whether it's in Georgia or elsewhere. Still, I remember back when I played high school football in the mid-1980's. It was even hotter then. You may think I'm kidding, but I'm not. It got to the 100-degree mark pretty much every year when I went to football camp at South Georgia College in Douglas, Georgia. It was usually held the first week of August and the heat and humidity would hit us in the face like a hot towel when we walked out the door of the dormitories. We would have a practice in full pads at 6am to try to take advantage of the cooler mornings. Then we would practice in shorts and shoulder pads at 11am. The killer practice, however, was in full pads at 4pm. Then we would have one last practice at 7:30pm in the evening in shorts and shoulder pads. Needless to say, the time between practices was spent resting in the dorms with the A/C turned on high and limitless jugs of cold water within arm's reach.

Inevitably, we would have 2 or 3 players get overheated and/or dehydrated during camp. On multiple occasions, players were transported to the local hospital to get checked out and rehydrated. To me, it was a badge of honor that I made it through three years of camp without passing out or throwing up.

I do suppose the new law provides a layer of protection for the schools (legally speaking) and it does provide some peace of mind for the coaches, the parents, and the players. Still, the heat used to be one of the better ways to separate the wheat from the chaff on a football team. If you didn't fall out, you deserved to be on the team. If you did fall out due to the heat, then maybe football wasn't for you. It is football, after all. It's not supposed to be easy.

I guess we'll see how the new law works out.

I see dead people

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 04:49:00 +0000

Two mountain climbers who disappeared seventeen years ago were recently found on Mont Blanc in the French Alps. Apparently, their bodies were preserved in ice and had recently resurfaced as the ice melted (which portends more presents to be unwrapped thanks to global warming). It doesn't go into much detail about the bodies, but you can let your imagination run with that one if you feel so inclined.

I'll be honest here. This sort of thing kind of freaks me out. Not in a scared-to-live kind of way, but in a quasi-creepy, vast-unknown kind of way. I've always felt like we are surrounded by dead bodies. I'm not talking about cemeteries or ghosts. I'm talking about remains of deceased folks, preserved or otherwise, that are yet to be discovered in locations all around us. Just think about all the missing people in the world. Unless they're all living and waiting to be found, then their remains are almost certainly out there somewhere -- waiting to be unearthed or tripped over or unfrozen.

In the article referenced above, it also mentions George Mallory, another mountain climber whose remains were found on Mount Everest in 1999, 75 years after he had disappeared. And then there was the WWII pilot who was identified earlier this year. He had crashed in 1942 and remained MIA until his body was discovered last October in the Sierra Nevadas. It took a few months, but they finally figured out his identity.

And it's not just mountain climbers and pilots who disappear in mountain ranges. A summer reveler found the submerged body of a dead guy at nearby Lake Allatoona last year. A person was just swimming in the lake and then, "Oops...dead guy." I don't remember the details, but I seem to recall that the deceased had disappeared a couple of weeks earlier and his exact whereabouts were not known until this unfortunate swimmer realized that he was splashing around in nature's own impromptu morgue. In another example that hits close to home, I had a first cousin who went fishing off the coast of Florida about twenty years ago. He disappeared and still hasn't been found to this day. Obviously, I'm not optimistic that his remains will be found, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.

So there you go. That should give you a little something to ponder for a while. Next time you're in a thicket of woods or a body of water or on a mountain trail, just remember that you may not be alone -- so watch where you step. It may be you in the news next time as the party who discovered Jimmy Hoffa or DB Cooper or it may be your family who finally finds out what happened to that long-lost relative. You, too, may see dead people -- whether you like it or not.

UPDATE (08/21/07): Apparently, they've found another dead person. This guy was a second airman who went down in the plane crash in 1942 (referenced above). You never know what secrets mountains or lakes or oceans may hold.

It's official: There are now twelve planets

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:11:00 +0000

An international panel has now decided to expand the number of planets from nine (as it is now) to twelve. The new planets aren't vagabond or migrant planets that just moved into the neighborhood. They've always (generally speaking) been there. The powers-that-be in the science world just decided to reclassify what constitutes a "planet" based on new discoveries and new thinking. Honestly, I think they probably needed to do something to look busy or justify their budgets. While I'm no enemy of science (I was a chemistry minor in undergrad and took more physics and biology courses than I care to recall), this is one example of why I don't appreciate "proselytizing" by condescending scientists who claim to have all the answers. They are frequently changing their minds or finding mistakes they've made in prior classifications and theories. But I digress -- that's a post for another day.

So we have three new planets. This affects one of my favorite mnemonics from school. While there are variations, it generally goes something like this:

My (Mercury)
Very (Venus)
Educated (Earth)
Mother (Mars)
Just (Jupiter)
Served (Saturn)
Us (Uranus)
Nine (Nepture)
Pizzas (Pluto)

This, of course, represents (or represented) the order of the planets as positioned from the sun.

I guess it will need to be updated now. Hmmm...how about this one:

My (Mercury)
Very (Venus)
Educated (Earth)
Mother (Mars)
Could (Ceres)
Just (Jupiter)
Serve (Saturn)
Us (Uranus)
Nine (Nepture)
Pizzas (Pluto)
Cooked (Charon)
eXcellently (Xena)

Okay. That's pretty weak. Still, I wonder if a consensus on a new mnemonic will be reached. Only time will tell, I suppose.

So, in the spirit of being neighborly, welcome to planethood, Ceres, Charon, and Xena. We've got you on our radar screen now and we'll be watching you from afar (WAY afar).

UPDATE: Apparently, Pluto is now out and the number of planets is down to eight. These "experts" can't seem to settle this issue. Maybe I'll check back in five years and see if they've made up their minds.

Wow. News of the weird, indeed.

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 19:15:00 +0000

This is freaky --

Man Missing After Pulled Into Ocean By Turtle:

A graduate student from the University of Central Florida is missing after he was pulled underwater by a large sea turtle, according to Local 6 News.

The student was apparently tagging turtles as part of a UCF research project.

"The person was onboard a Boston Whaler with other students when a large turtle pulled the victim underwater," Local 6's Bob Frier said.

I hope they find the guy. Man, that would be a tough way to go. It must've been some kind of turtle. If I was one of those other graduate students who witnessed this, I would be rethinking my career choice.

I am happy to say that I was wrong

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 19:24:00 +0000

Back in April, I wrote that Cynthia McKinney was here to stay. I wrote that we were stuck with her. I was wrong and I couldn't be happier. McKinney lost last night in her attempt to retain her congressional seat. In her quasi-concession speech, she (true to form) blamed white voters, Republicans, Bush, Washington, the media, and electronic voting machines (what, the Jews escape blame this time?). As always, her own idiocy and uselessness and penchant for controversy were not to blame. Oh, no. The finger never points at Cynthia, does it? It's always someone else's fault.

Cynthia, you were (it feels so good to make that past tense) an embarrassment to the state of Georgia and you got what was coming to you. I lived in your district at one time and, despite letters and calls from me about various issues, you ignored me. I will now return the favor.

Good bye and good riddance.

Ney is the latest Abramoff casualty

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 21:54:00 +0000

Representative Bob Ney (R-OH) has decided not to run for a seventh term in November. Ney, if you'll recall, has been under investigation because of his dealings with influence-peddling lobbyist Jack Abramoff. While still proclaiming his innocence, Ney certainly has been feeling considerable heat from all directions and he has been amassing huge legal bills in efforts to clear his "good" name.

If Ney does wind up getting charged/convicted for wrongdoing, I say good riddance and I hope he gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The sooner we can sweep these sleazy vote-selling politicians out of Washington, the better off we'll be. I only hope that this serves as a lesson to all the other politicians who are eager to sell themselves off to the highest bidder (a naive pipe-dream, I know, but I still cling to it).

So, Bob -- see that sunset over there? Walk in that direction. And if there is justice in the world, a vicious thunderstorm will roll across the horizon as you fade from our sight.

MTV turns 25 today

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 07:31:00 +0000

Yep, MTV debuted 25 years ago today. It was a pretty magical time. If I recall correctly, cassettes were the music format/medium we used back then, though some of us still had some eight-track tapes lying around. Until that time, I had only seen musical performances on TV shows like The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. With MTV, however, a new era started whereby we not only listened to music, but were also able to see it being performed or acted out in a video. Yes, it was whole new ballgame when MTV hit the market on August 1st, 1981.

While we've both grown older, MTV has reinvented itself much more than I have. The MTV of 2006 is a very different entity from the MTV of 1981. In the early days, we were treated to lots and lots of videos from artists like Journey, Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, Blondie, and Lionel Richie. Often the videos themselves were strange. They involved strange dances and even stranger-looking dancers. The artists often had long hair or colored hair or puffed-up mall hair. The videos were occasionally shot in real-life locations -- outside, in a boat, in a normal house. Often, though, they were filmed using strange sets or backgrounds. Many had dark backgrounds and mysterious themes. I recall fire being an important prop in many videos. Yes, it was a strange time back then as artists used the visual element of videos to add another dimension to their music.

Today's MTV is quite different. Does MTV even have videos anymore? I guess it does, but it's probably better known now for its specials and series such as The Real World and Room Raiders. Honestly, I don't know that much about the MTV of 2006. I'm probably more a VH-1 or CMT person these days. As I mentioned, MTV reinvented itself in an attempt to stay young and hip. I'm no longer their prime demographic target. That's okay, though. I can still look back at what MTV was 25 years ago today and appreciate the impact it made on me and millions like me around the world.

So happy birthday, MTV. You're not really my cup of tea anymore, but we were close once and I still have some great memories from those early days. For that I salute you and I wish you well.

Labor unrest in China

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 05:23:00 +0000

According to IHT, there has been rioting at a China factory that supplies toys to four large American companies. The rioting of the Chinese workers, as you might guess, is the result of poor wages and living conditions.

Details:

Labor rights activists claim that pent-up frustrations over working conditions at the factory, which supplies plastic toys to several iconic American brands, including Disney, McDonald's, Mattel and Hasbro, erupted last Saturday and Sunday.

At the height of the protest, more than 1,000 workers at the factory clashed with security guards and police officers, resulting in many injuries, according to China Labor Watch, a New York-based worker rights group.

Although the violence is unfortunate, I hope it lights a fire that grows all across China and forces China to start paying fairer wages. US companies have been eagerly shutting down US factories and sending that work overseas while executive compensation at these greed-motivated companies has been growing by leaps and bounds.

While increased wages could result in higher prices for us on some items being imported from China, it could also help put the brakes on the red-hot Chinese economy and, in turn, slow down their demand for products like steel and oil. If this happened, the prices for those commodities on the world market would drop for us as well. Also, higher wages in China may discourage some US companies from setting up factories there. Of course, other slave-wage countries are out there that could try to fill the gap, but forcing China to raise its wages would be a good start on slowing the rapid erosion of American manufacturing jobs.

Braves get a closer - will it get them closer?

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 20:07:00 +0000

The Braves have traded for Bob Wickman. Wickman, 37, had been having a sub-par year with the Cleveland Indians. However, he has been an effective closer in the past and has 229 career saves.

The best news? The Braves only had to give up a Class A catcher, Max Ramirez, to get him. While Ramirez may have been a solid prospect, the Braves are catcher-rich right now. Brian McCann is an all-star who is in his early 20's. They also have two other great catching prospects in the minors in Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Brayan Pena. Yes, this looks like its another wise move by GM John Schuerholz.

Will Wickman be the answer to the Braves' woes this year? I don't know if he will be "the answer", but I know he will be much better than what they have right now. And I know that he is one piece of a puzzle that was unsolvable using the pre-Wickman roster.

The second half of the season just became a lot more interesting.

Weapons of mass dispersion

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:41:00 +0000

I thought this was funny. According to the AP, a Sydney (Australia) suburb has started blasting Barry Manilow music to disperse late-night loiterers. Apparently, it's working, but it's also angering local residents who can't easily escape this cruel and inhumane treatment.

"I don't know how I will cope," said Moya Dunn, describing how the songs have invaded her house. "I just can't sleep when it's on, and to think there's going to be another six months of this."

Who knew that Barry Manilow had such power to move people? Who needs missiles and guns? Unleash a heaping helping of Manilow and watch the enemy crumble. Have the Middle East power brokers considered this as part of their defense strategies? Just attach some king-sized speakers to a couple of drones and fly them around for hours on end. Such a relentless attack would bring any enemy to his knees.

I do know one thing. The Manilow weapon has not been employed at Gitmo as a means of "breaking" detainees. If so, word would've gotten out and the ACLU would've seized on such barbaric treatment.

The horror...the horror!

:o)

Lobbyist cartoons

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 20:00:00 +0000

"Dogbert the lobbyist":

July 13th

July 14th

Judd Gregg -- Pharma's loyal soldier

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 01:37:00 +0000

Today, the Senate passed a proposal that would make it easier for folks to bring small amounts of prescription drugs into the US from Canada. US Customs officials had been seizing some of these drugs since 2004, but they recently became more aggressive in preventing any of the cheaper Canadian drugs from being brought into the US. While this proposal still has an uphill battle before it becomes law, this was an encouraging development.

One of the representatives arguing most vehemently against this proposal was Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). According to the article:

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said the proposal was an attempt to push the FDA into reversing itself while "creating a massive hole on our capacity to secure our borders and protect ourselves."

"If I were a creative terrorist, I would say to myself, 'Hey, listen, all I've got to do is produce a can here that says 'Lipitor' on it, make it look like the original Lipitor bottle, which isn't too hard to do, fill it with anthrax," Gregg said.

Lipitor is a cholesterol-lowering drug.

I began to wonder why Sen. Gregg would be so anxious to keep these senior citizen outlaws from smuggling a 30 or 60 day supply of heart pills or cholesterol pills into the country. Was it really because of a fear of terrorists infiltrating pill bottles in Canada? On a lark, I checked out the list of contributors to Sen. Gregg's campaign funds. Sure enough, "Pharmaceutical/Health Products" firms contributed $154,000 to his campaign funds in 2003-2004 (expand the "Health" section). That included a very generous $9000 donation from Pfizer (manufacturer of Lipitor, the drug used in his example on the Senate floor). Perhaps Gregg isn't truly as concerned about terrorist pill bottles as he is in doing the bidding of his corporate buddies. There's no way that big pharma has any interest in creating new competition for their overpriced products in the US marketplace. And Gregg has no interest in making big pharma angry. Got to keep the gravy train running!

Another little factoid makes me think that Gregg may be a bit hypocritical when he offers us his "Al Qaeda in a bottle" argument. He voted in favor of the Senate illegal immigration shamnesty bill that would add 50 million new strangers to our fine country. If Gregg is so worried about Al Qaeda's devious attempts at infiltration, shouldn't he start by tightening the screws down on movement of people into the country? Why would Al Qaeda sneak bad stuff over in a bottle when they can just walk across the border with a nuke?

I'm sorry, Senator. Your protestations just don't pass the sniff test.

So the answer seems simple for Grandma and Grandpa Q. Citizen. They would have to donate more than $154K to Gregg's campaign coffers every two years. It seems like that is his prevailing market-based rate. Once the check clears, they would probably find that they have a friendly ear and pliable ally in Senator Gregg. Of course, $154K would just be the tip of the iceberg. The Citizen family would also need to donate a similar amount to a number of other politicians to get enough of them to turn on their corporate donors and ultimately get this enacted into law. Yep, it would take several hundred wheelbarrows full of money to play this game. That just seems to be the price of admission.

Of course, if Grandma and Grandpa had that much money lying around, they probably wouldn't need to sneak drugs in from Canada, now would they?

The Senate and illegal immigration

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 17:06:00 +0000

The New York Daily News has published a must-read article about the current illegal immigration crisis. The author was Robert Rector, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation. If you'll recall, it was Robert Rector's research that shed light on just how awfully egregious the Senate's immigration bill was. Even though his research helped provide ammunition to shoot down some of the most mind-numbingly horrific amendments offered in the Senate "debate", the final bill that did pass the Senate was still a disgraceful shamnesty bill that could easily destroy our economy and our society.

Do you think I'm being unnecessarily alarmist? Consider the following comments from Mr. Rector's article:

Twenty years ago, Congress passed immigration reform granting amnesty and citizenship to 3 million illegal immigrants. In exchange, future illegal immigration was to be stopped and employers were to be prohibited from hiring illegal workers. The deal was a debacle; amnesty was granted, but the hiring ban was ignored and the border was not secured.

And this:

Giving some 10 million illegal aliens currently in the U.S. a path to citizenship is manifestly unfair to those who have waited to enter the country legally.

And this:

By 4-to-1, voters prefer less immigration, not more. But the Senate bill would more than double future legal immigration, bringing an unprecedented 50 million new immigrants into the U.S. over the next two decades.

And this:

The plan would be ruinous for taxpayers. The U.S. has already imported nearly 10 million high school dropouts from abroad in recent years. The Senate plan would bring in vastly more. They would pay little in taxes but would consume much in government services, imposing an average net cost to the taxpayers of nearly $100,000 apiece, according to the National Academy of Sciences.

This is a problem that will only continue to get worse unless it is addressed quickly. Enforce the borders first. Forget the comprehensive solution. Once the taxpayers are convinced that the government is willing and able to stem the ever-increasing flow of illegal immigration, we can talk about the rest. But we just cannot continue to go on like we are now.

As Lou Dobbs says, "A country without borders is not a country at all."

New York City and immigration

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 04:19:00 +0000

A Republican-led House committee started its field hearings on immigration this week. The first hearing was held in San Diego on Wednesday and the second hearing was held in Laredo (TX) on Friday. The House is holding its hearings to gather information about immigration and border security and, in part, to expose the disgraceful Senate bill that was passed by the Senate in May.

Not to be outdone, Arlen Specter, one of the chief proponents of the Senate bill, is holding hearings of his own. His first hearing was in Philadelphia on Wednesday. He is trying to build support for the Senate bill by having pro-business puppets harp on how desperately dependent we are on illegal immigrants.

One of Specter's star witnesses was New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

The economy of the country's largest city and the entire nation would collapse if illegal immigrants were deported en masse, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a Senate committee hearing Wednesday.

New York City is home to more than 3 million immigrants, and a half-million of them came to this country illegally, Bloomberg testified.

"Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders ... our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported," he said. "The same holds true for the nation."

First off, if Bloomberg is telling the truth, how did our country ever survive twenty or thirty years ago before we were inundated with illegals? Did grass not get cut then? Did Big Mac's not get served? Did leaves not get raked? Did pizzas not get cooked (or delivered)? Based on Bloomey's logic, our economy was that of a third-world nation just a couple of decades ago.

Also, Bloomberg admits that his city is awash in illegals and he has no interest in enforcing our nation's immigration laws -- even in a post-9/11 world. Are you kidding me? And he has the unmitigated gall to whine about cuts in Homeland Security grants? How are we supposed to trust this man and this city with tens of millions of tax dollars if he openly encourages a melting pot free-for-all where illegals are welcomed?

Perhaps we should seriously consider relocating our nation's financial center to a city that is not so helplessly dependent on illegal residents and an illegal workforce.

Finally, the numbers he's talking about here are staggering. New York City has more than 3 million immigrants? And more than 500,000 of them are illegal? Are you kidding me? Does it even qualify as an American city anymore?

New York is referred to as "the city that never sleeps". Now I can see why. It can't sleep because of the constant patter of feet as immigrants sneak in the front door, crawl through the windows, and shimmy down the chimney. It's time to stop being an international hostel. Lock your doors, close your windows, and get some sleep already, NYC. The noise from your house is keeping the whole neighborhood awake.

Washington paging Mr. Smith

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 04:28:00 +0000

I finally saw "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington". I always heard that it was a good movie and I finally saw it. It was truly a classic.

The movie itself was full of some well-formed Washington caricatures:

Long-term politician: Stodgy, out-of-touch, and corrupt
Staffer: Cynical and jaded
Press: Pessimistic and slanderous
Lone Idealist: Still believes in and loves his country

Even though the movie came out in 1939, it could've easily been written in 2006. The story revolves around a corrupt alliance between a politician and a powerful businessman. The businessman has this old-school politician in his hip pocket and pretty much runs the government according to his own selfish desires. In the movie, a construction project called the "Willet Dam" is spearheaded by the businessman and pushed through Congress by the sold-out politician.

Does that sound familiar? There are hundreds or even thousands of Willet Dam's approved by Congress each year that are either wasteful pork barrel spending or some favor to a politician's friend, family member, or campaign contributor. Just as in the movie, they are often hidden in bills or added at the last minute (e.g., earmarks) and the American people continue to get the short end of the stick.

In the movie, though, Jimmy Stewart gums up the works when he realizes what is happening. He takes on the old-school politician, the powerfully corrupt businessman, and the entire Washington establishment, and he exposes the corruption for all to see.

Where is our Jefferson Smith (played by Jimmy Stewart in the movie) today? How many more Willet Dam's must we endure before our REPRESENTATIVES stand up and REPRESENT us again? It's time to stop the wasteful spending. Stop the earmarks. Stop the freebies from lobbyists. Stop the favor-peddling. Contact your elected representatives. Demand action. If they still refuse to manage your tax dollars wisely, vote the clowns out of office. Tell your friends, family, and neighbors to vote them out. Campaign against them.

And I have a suggestion for Congress: They should show "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" on the Senate and House floors once per year and it should be mandatory for all representatives to be present. And after viewing it, they should be tested on it - the storyline, the lessons offered, the parallels to today. It doesn't have to reach all of them. If it could only reach one or two who still have a shred of integrity, it could serve its purpose and, perhaps, save our country.

As Jimmy Stewart might say, "Gee whiz - That doesn't seem like too much to ask."

Added new sites to blogroll

noreply@blogger.com (RightOnPeachtree) — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 02:52:00 +0000

Just an administrative note, but I've added some websites to my blogroll. I already had a few conservative blogs listed. I've added a couple of new ones and added a section for Georgia news and politics. Feel free to check them out. I'm pretty picky and these are some of the blogs I regularly read.