RightOnPeachtree

Telephone Polls

2006-10-23T11:46:00.000-05:00

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

2006-10-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-09-20T22:14:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-18T00:02:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-09-17T23:50:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-13T16:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-13T15:24:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-11T02:14:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-30T18:49:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-29T12:23:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-19T23:49:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-16T15:11:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-08-11T14:15:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-07T16:54:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-01T02:31:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-29T00:23:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-07-20T15:07:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-17T13:41:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-15T15:00:00.000-05:00

"Dogbert the lobbyist":

July 13th

July 14th

Judd Gregg -- Pharma's loyal soldier

2006-07-11T20:37:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-10T12:06:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-07T23:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-03T23:28:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-03T21:52:00.000-05:00

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.

Fighting against government spending

2006-07-03T15:15:00.000-05:00

Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) and Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) are proposing a plan whereby government contracts and grants will be compiled and housed in a searchable database.

For example:

Type in "Halliburton," the military contractor, or "Sierra Club," the environmental group, for example, and a search engine would show all the federal money they receive. A search for the terms "Alaska" and "bridges" would expose a certain $223 million span to Gravina Island (population 50) that critics call the "Bridge to Nowhere."

Mr. Coburn's hope is that making this information easily and publicly accessible to the general public will provide some true checks on politicians and their freespending ways.

The article goes on to say:

While advocating for openness, Mr. Coburn is also placing a philosophical bet that the more the public learns about federal spending, the less it will want.

"Sunshine's the best thing we've got to control waste, fraud and abuse," he said. "It's also the best thing we've got to control stupidity. It'll be a force for the government we need."

While this is popular with TRUE conservatives and advocates of openness on the left, Mr. Coburn will face resistance:

But liberal critics see a revival of what they call old partisan efforts to "de-fund the left," by reducing grants to liberal groups or adding conditions that limit their activities.

and...

While the bill has few overt critics, it may encounter resistance from Congressional insiders who have used their influence to secure projects back home. When Mr. Coburn tried to attach the measure to a lobbying reform bill this spring, Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican known for his zeal in aiding his state, killed it on procedural grounds.

I can only hope that Mr. Coburn can succeed in this endeavor. It's ridiculous that something like this doesn't already exist and it's contemptible for any of the taxdollar-wasting politicians to oppose it.

Mr. Coburn, thank you and PLEASE keep up the good fight. You give me a little hope that Congress still has some folks who are interested in doing the right thing for the people.

Cellulosic ethanol? Sounds promising

2006-06-30T12:56:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but the plethora of "solutions" being bandied about to cure us of our oil addiction is dizzying. For years (or even decades), we have been hearing about various up-and-coming technologies to fuel our cars. This includes, amongst others, hydrogen power, battery power, solar power, gasohol, and corn-based ethanol. Yet here we are -- still using oil in our cars in 2006. It's frustrating. People have been screaming for a solution for years. Still, none of these technologies have panned out.

There have been a number of possible reasons why no single viable solution has stood out from the rest. Here are some of those reasons:

Lack of investment: Money has been invested in all the technologies I mentioned. However, it is often a pittance compared to what is needed.
Lack of scientific breakthroughs: It could be lack of investment, incapable science/scientists, or just bad luck, but we just have not seen the breakthroughs that would be needed.
Lack of infrastructure: Even if a solution was found, it would often require a herculean effort of unprecedented proportions to get the solution to market. There are gas stations located all around country. Any solution to replace gas would likely need some kind of similar infrastructure to make itself viable.
The oil lobby: Let's face it -- with the money the oil companies make, they could find a solution if they wanted to. Obviously, they aren't overly interested in supplanting oil (for obvious reasons). And they have such a tight hold on the loyalties of our elected officials that the government, despite what Dubya or others say, is not going to try too hard to find something to replace oil.

With that being said, I read something last week about cellulosic ethanol and it sounded promising. It's similar to corn-based ethanol, but it can be made from pretty much any organic matter -- not just corn. Listen to this:

But unlike corn-based ethanol, cellulosic ethanol can be made from a variety of things that might otherwise be considered waste – sewage sludge, switchgrass, plant stalks, trees – virtually anything that contains carbon.

According to the article, not everyone is sold on it. And you can be rest assured that oil companies and the politicians on their payrolls won't be helping it along. However, it has drawn the attention of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and is attracting significant investment capital. Will it get enough money and attention to reach the critical mass necessary for us to FINALLY, at long last, get a solution that works? I don't know. I wouldn't start turning joyous somersaults just yet. Still, the recent confluence of events (high oil prices, terrorism, increased pining for alternative fuels) could provide the impetus needed to get us over the hump once and for all.

As for me? I'm still hoping we'll eventually have Mr. Fusion, the trash-powered energy source for the DeLorean time machine in "Back to the Future". But hey, trash-powered -- sludge-powered -- it sounds like we're headed in the right direction!

John Konop on net neutrality

2006-06-26T16:42:00.000-05:00

I caught part of C-SPAN's Washington Journal segment on net neutrality this morning. One of the callers said that he was a Republican who was running for Congress and that he lived in Canton, Georgia. He didn't, however, try to get a plug in for his campaign as he didn't even identify himself by name. Still, I liked what he had to say and wondered if the caller was John Konop, a Republican candidate for Congress in Georgia's 6th Congressional District. I was able to confirm that it was him.

In his brief comments, Mr. Konop concisely articulated the argument in favor of net neutrality and against the tiered system. Essentially, it comes down to big corporations and their ability to monopolize the broadband internet networks. If the large telco companies can begin selling these tiers of high-level service, the "haves" (big biz) will be able to pay for and receive the fastest next-generational services at the expense of the "have not's" (small biz and average folks like you and me).

As an analogy, think about the lanes on one side of an interstate. What will happen if the five left-most lanes are reserved for big businesses and all small businesses and consumer traffic were relegated to one right-hand lane? Your speed and my speed (e.g., on blogs or on personal email or on internet searches) could easily trickle to a crawl. Networks are a zero-sum game. If one segment of users gets more bandwidth, the other segments get less bandwidth.

Also, small businesses who aren't willing or able to pay the bounty for the high-speed tiers would be essentially squeezed out of the marketplace. This is bad for all of us because it only creates high barriers to entry for companies who are trying to establish themselves. As a result, there will be less competition in the marketplace and the large businesses will be free to charge higher prices.

Unfortunately, a bill favoring big business has already passed the House. It's now being debated in the Senate. If you haven't already, please contact your Senators and urge them to vote against the tiered system and in favor of net neutrality.

On a side note, this wasn't the first time I had been in agreement with John Konop. I wrote about him last month. His position on net neutrality (which Tom Price did not vote for, BTW) is just one more reason I've decided to vote for him in this year's Republican primary.

If you want to hear the comments or see the segment on network neutrality, just go to the Washington Journal page on C-SPAN's website and watch the show from 6/26/06. Mr. Konop called in about 56 minutes into the show.

Will immigration enforcement doom GOP?

2006-06-24T22:31:00.000-05:00

I keep hearing that Bush and Bush's Brain (Karl Rove) favor amnesty for illegal immigrants because they don't want to alienate Hispanic voters. Well, perhaps they should take a look at what's happening in Georgia before continuing on with their relentless pandering initiative.

In Georgia, SB529 was passed this year in an effort to prevent illegal aliens from getting certain state services and to crack down on employers who hired illegal aliens. While the final bill was watered down some from its original version, it is still considered to be one of the toughest illegal immigration bills in the country. And according to the AJC, the bill has already started having an impact (see previous posts here and here).

Based on Bushrovian logic, Sonny Perdue (Georgia's Republican governor), who supported this legislation and signed it into law, should be enemy numero uno amongst Hispanic voters, right? Well, as pointed out by PeachPundit, a recent Survey USA poll showed that Sonny has an approval rating of 88% with Hispanic Voters. That was a higher rating than he had with other sub-groups such as Republicans, conservatives, and white voters.

Of course, these results can't be extrapolated with 100% certainty to the country as a whole. However, it's interesting that Georgia's Republican-backed effort to crack down on those who do not respect our borders or immigration laws does not appear to have had any kind of adverse impact at this point on the Governor's popularity with Hispanics. If anything, the converse may be true and it may be helping our Republican governor with law-abiding Hispanic citizens.

And maybe, just maybe, Bush's "Brain" has miscalculated again.

Make sure to check out Jack Kingston's blog

2006-06-22T19:30:00.000-05:00

Jack Kingston has the best blog (and it's an award-winning blog) that I've seen from a politician. He and his staff post frequent updates about various topics being argued before the House. He offers his opinions and provides explanations for his positions. He provides podcasts and links to videos. And the site allows comments. That's brave in this era of flame wars, but the dialogue seems to be very civil. I usually have agreed with him in the comments I've made, but I was still treated courteously when I didn't agree. Feel free to go there and let your voice be heard.

Responsive and accountable politicians who take steps such as this should be applauded and encouraged for reaching out to their constituents. That's a good thing to see no matter what your ideology is. The more of this, the better.

Jack Kingston: Keep tearing down those walls.

The love of lobbyist money is the root of all evil

2006-06-22T13:59:00.000-05:00

I am sick to death of the influence of corporate lobbyists over the politicians in Washington. Money buys facetime and influence and it even buys elections that allow the corruption trains to continue and flourish.

It'll be the death of this country.

Think about the most serious problems we, as a country, are facing. Pretty much all of them can be linked back to politicians who govern based on what is best for their corporate contributors. And this governance is usually at the expense of what is best for the average person.

For example:

Illegal immigration -- This issue has corporate America written all over it. They want cheap labor. They don't want to pay for health benefits. They don't want to pay market wages. And you can be rest-assured that they are doing everything they can do to make sure that we have an oversupply of cheap, pliable labor in this country.
Our addiction to oil -- Oil companies are filthy rich and getting richer by the second. They have one of their own in the White House. They have NO interest in alternative energy sources (contrary to their dovish and benign commercials). Are oil companies going to find ways to fund elections of "friendly" candidates and influence votes once those candidates are in office? You'd better believe it.
Terrorism -- Our biggest threat. It is an extension of our dependence on foreign oil. We have to "play nice" with rogue nations because they have the black stuff under their feet. Terrorists from these countries hate us for "stealing their natural resources" and we can't get the leaders of these rogue nations to crack down like they should. "Our friends, the Saudis"?? Please.
Outsourcing of good middle-class jobs -- Of course, when corporations can't bring in the cheap labor to keep wages artificially low, they are more than eager to send the jobs themselves to the cheap countries. And politicians will endorse and applaud their actions. Why pay an American $60K to do a job that an Indian will do for $5K? Never mind that fact that these companies continue to charge first-world prices for products that are now made with third-world wages -- and all this while Washington remains completely inept at getting the countries taking our jobs to open up their markets to US goods.
Security of our ports and borders -- The aforementioned need for artificially cheap labor addresses why corporations aren't interested in secure borders. Regarding the ports, just look back at the Dubai ports deal. Anything for a buck -- even if it opens us up to countries that knowingly harbor terrorists.

Those are just a few of the issues we're facing. But the next time we are facing a dilemma, think about the position that corporate America would take on it and you'll notice how hard Congress is fighting for that position -- even if it means that you get the shaft. And note that it's not just Republicans but Democrats as well. They also receive corporate $$. Additionally, they take money from special interest groups who care about their own (usually fringe or radical minority) interests. Lobbyist money is flowing freely throughout Washington and has completely corrupted our system of government.

Somehow, I don't think that our founding fathers ever intended for our country to become what it is today.

With that being said, should corporations and special interests have a seat at the table? Yes, absolutely. We have a perfect example of what happens when corporate interests are ignored: France. In France, the unions are so strong and the government so weak that their corporate environment is horrible and their economy is hopelessly stagnant. However, in the US, the balance swings the other way. Our corporate influence is so overwhelming that the impact of government's actions on the average person are often ignored. People vote candidates into office and those candidates then legislate as if we were USA, Inc. There needs to be a balance between the influence of citizens and corporations on governmental policy. A bias in either direction can have dire consequences.

What are some possible solutions?

First, push for term limits. The longer a member of Congress stays in Washington, the more out of touch he gets with his constituents. And the power of the incumbency (name recognition, preferential treatment from the party) is so strong that it is nearly impossible to get some of these antiques out of office.

Second, we should push for public funding of elections. Because the cost of elections have skyrocketed, the average person can't have a realistic change of running for office. As a result, we have rich candidates who just can't relate to the struggles of the average person. Also, public funding of elections would prevent candidates from feeling obligated to vote like corporate flunkies for those corporate interests who supported their campaigns.

Third, continue to demand that corrupt politicians -- from both sides of the aisle -- get exposed, shamed, removed from office, and convicted. Make examples of them. The "perp walk" does wonders - and it's immensely gratifying to watch.

Finally, elect candidates that will promise to break the cycle of money-grubbing in Washington. Yes, candidates lie. But maybe, just maybe, enough of them will finally live up to election-year promises and give the government back to the people.

Wouldn't that be nice?

The Braves: Worst to first...and back to worst?

2006-06-19T14:54:00.000-05:00

The Braves lost to the Red Sox yesterday in agonizing fashion by giving up six runs (and the lead) in the eighth inning. They have now lost seven straight games and 17 of their last 20. They are 30-40 and 14 games out of first place in the National League East. As far as baseball goes in Atlanta, this is about as bad as it gets.

Of course, the Braves weren't always expected to win. They were atrocious for much of their history in Atlanta prior to the 1991 season. In 1990, they finished last in their division -- and a showing like that was neither unexpected nor uncommon at that time. Then, in 1991, something miraculous happened. The team started winning...and winning...and winning. When the dust settled on the 1991 regular season, the Braves were in first place in their division. They went on to win the National League pennant and face the Minnesota Twins (another last place to first place team) in the World Series. The Braves lost in seven games that year, but things had changed. Atlanta had a winner in the Braves.

What has followed since then have been 14 consecutive division titles and one World Series championship. Every year, critics have predicted the demise of the Braves. Still, the Braves continued winning. They would trade for and trade away all-stars, but they kept winning. They would call up rookies to fill empty spots, but still they won. They would bring in journeymen who became stars in Atlanta (and who, very often, reverted to obscurity after they left the Braves). They would have devastating injuries to key players and, yet, they continued to win. They saw other teams in their divisions spend more money on big-name superstars. Still, those other teams could not win the division.

Fast forward to June of 2006 and the Braves are in unfamiliar territory. Last place. In June. Is this it? Is this the year that the Mets' or the Phillies' investments finally pay off? Is this the year that the rookies and younger players don't exceed expectations? Is this the year that the injury bug finally brings down the Braves?

I wouldn't write them off yet. Are they bad right now? Yes, they are AWFUL right now. However, we all know they aren't as bad as they're showing at this point in time. Heck, NO ONE is this bad. There are options. They can make trades. They can bring up folks. The Mets won't stay as hot as they are now. The other teams will revert to mediocrity. If the Braves can turn the ship right now, they can cut into this deficit before the all-star break and have some momentum heading into the second half of the season. It can be done. It HAS been done...by the Braves...many times before.

Here's a interesting thought. When the Mets and the Phillies and the other players in the division watch the scoreboard each night, they almost certainly look at one score first - the one involving the Braves. They know. They've been here before. They know that no lead is safe. They've seen the Braves lose and get written off prematurely -- only to step up and seize control of the division. I don't care if the Braves are in last place right now. Everyone knows what the Braves can do -- and have done -- year after year after year after year after... (well, you get my point).

Now...with that being said, if the Braves' miraculous streak of consecutive division titles does come to an end this year, I'll be okay with it. It has been a remarkable ride. They deserve credit having a level of success that no one else has ever attained. And I'm optimistic about most of the elements on this year's team. A couple of quality pickups and they will be just fine for the next decade or so.

However, there is still a lot of baseball to be played this year -- so keep your eye on the Braves. We're in the 4th inning of a long season. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the Braves batting with the tying and lead runners on base by the time this season reaches its ninth inning.

Newdow and the Democrats' dilemma

2006-06-15T22:35:00.000-05:00

On Monday of this week, a US district court judge threw out California atheist Michael Newdow's lawsuit against the government for its use of "In God We Trust" on coins and currency. Not dissuaded, Newdow says he will appeal to the ultra-liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

If you'll recall, Newdow was also the person who went all the way to the Supreme Court in a prior lawsuit that protested the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. That suit was dismissed because of a technicality. Nevertheless, Newdow seems hell-bent (pun intended) on poking his finger in the eye of the country's religious establishment.

I have no idea of Michael Newdow's political leanings, but his crusade against faith and religion could pose problems for Democrats in the fall. In recent elections, "values voters" have been turning out in strong numbers at the polls and they tend to vote Republican. Of course, after the Massachusetts Supreme Court gave the thumbs-up to gay marriage in 2004, the rallying cry against so-called "activist judges" became louder than ever. Newdow's one-man mission against any and all symbols of faith and God in the public square will only serve to propagate the political interest of voters of faith to whom these issues matter. And if these church-going values voters show up in large enough numbers in November, that will almost certainly benefit the Republicans again. Even a slight edge can make all the difference in the world (cough-cough-Florida).

Now I don't think the Democratic establishment has anything to do with Newdow and his faith-targeted litigiousness. Quite the opposite, I'm a bit surprised that I haven't yet heard from some of the left's conspiracy theorists that Newdow's quest for a God-free society is a dastardly plan hatched by Karl Rove in an attempt to "turn out the base". It's pretty clear, though, that Newdow is not doing the Democrats any favors and they really need him to dial it down a notch or two. Maybe they have an atheist witness relocation program that they could enroll him in. Or perhaps they could get him to cease and desist with a bribe of some sort. I don't know. I truly believe, though, that there is an inverse correlation between the amount of press Newdow gets and the Democrats' chances in November.

In other words, if Newdow continues on with his mission, the Democrats may not have a prayer of returning to power in Washington.

House members reward themselves again

2006-06-13T22:44:00.000-05:00

I see that the House voted to give themselves a raise for the seventh straight year. It must be nice to have the freedom to vote on whether you get a raise and what that raise will be.

In the real world, an employee generally doesn't get a raise/bonus if his employer is not making money. Hmmm...does the US have a budget surplus that none of us have heard about? Sadly, no -- we have record deficits. And when a company's finances are as poorly mismanaged as those of our government, they not only do not give raises or bonuses, but they also have mass layoffs and often have to shutter their doors. Still, though, the House made sure to take an additional scoop of greenbacks out of the nation's treasury yet again.

Perhaps I'm being too quick to judge. They did only give themselves a 2% raise. But 2% of a way-too-high-already-for-the-job-they-are-doing salary is still a lot of money. In this case, the raise amounts to a tidy sum of $3300. $3300 in additional salary is a lot of money to most of us peons.

Of course, the members of Congress have financial needs or desires. What could $3300 a year buy for them? Well, let's think about it:

$3300 could pay for a vacation to Europe or Africa or Australia. Oh, wait a minute, they already get those free from favor-hungry lobbyists. Scratch that.
Well, they could use the $3300 to pay for their kids' braces. Wait, they probably already get those for free because they have better health benefits than the rest of the country while doing basically nothing to help reduce the health costs for the rest of us "consumers" out here in the wildnerness.
Oh, I've got it. They could use that extra $3300 to add to their pensions. Of course, they do already have ridiculously generous pensions while, of course, they pass lobbyist-influenced bills that restrict pensions for the rest of us. So...the additional $$ won't matter much at all.

Okay, so maybe they don't really NEED the money. It looks like they already have a pretty good gig. But even if they don't NEED it, don't they DESERVE the money? Let me see...

Perhaps they deserve it because they work so hard. Oops, I forgot that they have more recesses than the entire country's elementary schools combined. Scratch this one, too.
Okay, I've got it. They deserve it because they fight so hard for "we, the people". Well, that doesn't exactly add up. From what I can tell, they care much more about what corporations (Repubs) and special interests (Dems) want than what us "common folk" want. (NOTE: On a positive note, the Repub stance of illegal immigration is a single, but notable exception).
Maybe they deserve it because they could make so much more out in the real world. Most of them are lawyers and business owners, anyway, so they are making a big sacrifice to take a paltry salary of $165K. Accordingly, we should be glad to hand over the additional $$, right? Well, I don't think so. If someone feels slighted by a salary of $165K, they should NOT be representing the public because they simply cannot relate sufficiently to John and Jane Doe.

In the real world (you know, "Outside the Beltway"), a person's raise or bonus is normally decided by his boss -- the one who hired him or continues to keep him on the payroll. We (the People) vote the House members into office. In that respect, aren't we their bosses? Aren't we the ones who decide if they keep their jobs? If so, shouldn't we be the ones who decide whether the House members get a raise and what that raise, if any, should be? I say that we should have a national referendum at every election to determine what the representatives' salaries should be. That only seems fair, right? I know -- wishful thinking.

Sadly, we not only get a healthy dose of taxation with minimal representation, but we also get the "privilege" of paying them more and more each year for their non-services. Alas, this is the world we live in. What are you going to do?

Well, I have a solution. It's a simple one. Vote out the incumbents. Vote against them in primaries. Vote against them in general elections. Send them a message. Let them know that we are still the ones who ultimately put them into or kick them out of office. Then maybe we can start over with some Representatives who...well...represent us.

I know it sounds half-baked, but it's just crazy enough to work.

Potential crackdown has employers scrambling

2006-06-09T22:42:00.000-05:00

I recently wrote about the impact that SB529, Georgia's new illegal immigration legislation, is having on the state. In that post, I referred to the article in the AJC that discussed how the crackdown was adversely impacting the illegal immigrants and their confidence in finding safe haven here in Georgia. Now, in a new AJC article, we find out that employers around the state are getting nervous about the legislation and the prospect of actual immigration enforcement.

According to the article:

Recent immigration raids, a new state law in Georgia and the move toward federal reform have collided to create a nerve-racking spring for employers.

Companies have boosted requests for audits of their worker-verification paper trail by as much as 40 percent since last year, some local law firms say.

And this is what they're checking for:

One of their main worries boils down to the seemingly simple I-9 form, a requirement for any employee hired after the current immigration law took effect in 1986. Companies are looking to their attorneys to offer assurance that their paperwork is in order, and that has spurred a spike in demand for audits.

Lawyers say they've been poring over client I-9s — which could number in the tens of thousands for large employers — looking for missing information and suspicious information such as Social Security numbers listed as 000-00-0000. (There are more of those than you might think, lawyers say.)

Wait, weren't employers supposed to check for this type of OBVIOUS fraud BEFORE hiring Juan Doe (or John McDoe or John Doevovichski)? You mean they weren't actually even trying to follow the law? I'm SHOCKED. I'm just completely SHOCKED that unscrupulous employers would skirt our nation's laws in this manner. SHOCKED I tell you.

I'm still not entirely confident that our new state immigration laws are strict enough. And I'm even less confident that our federal government will do anything substantive about immigration enforcement -- especially on the employer side. Still, it gives me a warm fuzzy to know that the law-breaking employers are nervous about the prospects of being held accountable for their misdeeds.

According to Eileen Scofield, head of the immigration practice at Atlanta-based Alston & Bird:

"Our work tends to ebb and flow because it depends on what the government is making a hot button," Scofield said. "But I've got a feeling it will stay like this for a while."

Mrs. Scofield, I hope you're right. I really do hope you're right.

Congressional commodities

2006-06-05T16:02:00.000-05:00

Just in case you had any doubts about why Congress always votes for the interests of big business over the interests of you and me...

From Reuters:

"Members of the U.S. Congress and their aides took free trips worth nearly $50 million paid for by corporations, trade associations and other private groups between January 2000 and June 2005. Some of the 23,000 trips featured $500-a-night hotel rooms, $25,000 corporate jet rides and visits to popular spots such as Paris, Hawaii and Colorado ski resorts"

"The study found that many of those who picked up the tabs were at the same time seeking to shape legislation on Capitol Hill or win federal contracts."

And Tom DeLay was the "king of the handouts":

"Former House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay and his staffers accepted about a half million dollars in trips during the period under review -- more than any other congressional office"

Treasonous. The whole den of thieves -- including Democrats and Republicans -- is completely shameless and treasonous.

Heroes on the immigration issue

2006-05-17T15:54:00.000-05:00

In the midst of this divisive debate over illegal immigration, some true heroes have emerged. This list is not comprehensive. However, it details a handful of folks who are not sold out to law-breaking corporations and who still care about the majority of hard-working, law-abiding Americans in this country. These folks are not perfect. Neither are you and neither am I. However, they stand up against a tidal wave of hypocrisy and hatred and represent the (I can't believe I'm saying this, but...) underrepresented majority of Americans who still think that the US should have the right to control its borders and enforce its laws like any other sovereign nation.

My list of heroes:

Congressman Tom Tancredo - He has always been out in front on this issue and has never wavered, despite the volumes of vitriol being hurled at him. He is a Godsend.
Congressman Jack Kingston - He is an active blogger who is tackling immigration and a wealth of other populist issues head-on. A politician who actually cares what his constituents think. So sad that he is a rare breed these days.
Senator Jeff Sessions - One of the most outspoken members on this issue in the Senate. He seems to "get it".
Lou Dobbs - The pro-amnesty, pro-illegals crowd hates this man. He relentlessly talks about what is wrong with America and he offers solutions to fix our problems. He is a voice of reason in a cesspool of liberal, hate-America MSM sellouts.
Michelle Malkin - Always on the case. This woman has been and continues to be vociferously attacked by the "tolerant" left for her views on immigration and other issues. Still, she fights on.

These people give me hope that we can win this battle. Nothing less than the future of our country is at stake and these folks are fighting against waves of special interests and corporate interests unlike anything we have ever witnessed. I'm thankful for their efforts and prayerful for their continued perseverance.

Highlights of Bush's speech on immigration

2006-05-15T22:19:00.000-05:00

[crickets chirping]

Author's Note: What is the going rate for selling a country down the river? Is that one of the key indicators on Wall Street? If not, it should be. If our country is going to be sold out by our president, we should at least know what "30 pieces of silver" translates to in 2006 lobbying dollars. Well, at least we know where we, the voters, reside on the totem pole. We're the part that is buried underground. And the number and weight of those above us on the pole just continues to grow.

Is John Smoltz a Hall of Fame pitcher?

2006-05-13T15:52:00.000-05:00

Should John Smoltz get elected to the MLB Hall of Fame after he's finished playing? I think he is close to getting what he needs to sway any doubters.

In last night's win against the Nationals, he moved into 21st place on the all-time strikeouts list after fanning seven batters. He now has 2611 strikeouts. If he could stay around and have another two or three good years, he could definitely wind up with 3000 strikeouts. And he now has 180 wins, so two or three years should definitely get him over the 200 mark. Then, you have to take a look at his remarkable stretch as a closer from 2001-2004. He compiled over 150 saves and still owns (shares, actually) the National League saves record for a season with 55 saves in 2002. He has all this and a career ERA of 3.26. Smoltz looks even more impressive when you factor in his success in the postseason (he's the winningest pitcher in postseason history).

To add to these remarkable stats is the fact that he is one of baseball's good guys. He regularly works to raise money for the Atlanta Community Food Bank and was also one of the driving forces behind a Christian high school in the Atlanta area. And after baseball's problem with steroid abuse, it wouldn't hurt for the Hall of Fame to give acts of charity and character issues a little more weight in future decisions.

So I think the case is pretty strong for Smoltz's election to the Hall of Fame. And if he can stay around a little longer and keep performing, it would be difficult for even the toughest cynic to deny him a spot in Cooperstown.

Georgia SB529 working?

2006-05-13T14:08:00.000-05:00

Wow! This is encouraging.

This:

Day laborer Orlando Rojas, standing in the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot near Norcross, stared down as the Gwinnett Police officer lectured him about loitering.

"You come back here again," said Cpl. Scott Pihera, tapping the hood of his squad car, "you go with me."

Rojas, 41, stuffed a written warning into his pocket as if it were the last straw. "I'm leaving," said Rojas, a native of Peru. "To the north, maybe to Montana."

And this:

It's the employers who have changed. Crew chiefs have grown increasingly skittish about hiring illegal immigrants, they said, prompting more workers to try places like Florida and New Orleans instead.

And this:

Fear of deportation is at an all-time high, she said, as rumors of raids by immigration agents sweep through the community almost daily. "I think it's created a mental sickness, where people are depressed," she said. "Who wants to be thinking any minute you're going to be arrested?"

And this:

Efren Olivares, of Duluth, said the remodeling company where he's worked the past three years let him and 15 others go last month because they couldn't prove they were here legally. The Mexico native said the company feared a review of its employment records in light of the renewed focus on illegal immigration at the state and federal level.

"The new law has affected me," Olivares said Friday as he waited for work at the labor hall in Duluth.

And this:

The employer angst was evident Wednesday as a yellow moving van pulled into a Chevron parking lot where about three dozen day laborers were waiting near Norcross. At first the driver said he needed several workers. But, upon spotting a police car in the distance, he waved the laborers off and peeled out of the lot. "He's scared," said Ramon Cordova, who watched in disappointment as another potential job rolled down South Norcross Tucker Road.

And finally this:

Cordova, who has entered the United States illegally several times before, said he's never had such a hard time finding work. If something doesn't change soon, Cordova said, he's going back to Guanajuato.

This gives me hope. Our sell-out president keeps offering the paper tiger argument that "we can't round up and deport 11 million immigrants". Well, Dubya, let me dumb it down for you: You don't have to deport them. Suppress the demand and they'll just go home on their own dime. It'll be like a "truco mágico". One day they're here and the next day they're magically gone.

Even though the bill was watered down somewhat, it is still considered to be one of the toughest in the US. Chip Rogers (the bill's author), however, made a great point:

Rogers said the perception that police are on the lookout for illegal immigrants and the people who hire them is a bonus. "If we're making people who are violating the law fear law enforcement," Rogers said, "then I think we're doing our job."

Is it any wonder that the GOP in Georgia is on such solid ground? They have listened to their constituents and are being supported and rewarded for it. Perhaps the national GOP could learn a lesson or two from what is happening in Georgia.

The newest NSA surveillance allegation

2006-05-11T20:22:00.000-05:00

We already know that the NSA has been listening in on US citizens' international calls that are made to/from possible terrorists. Today it was revealed that the NSA is also keeping a database on tens of millions of domestic calls made within the US (i.e., US to US). Allegedly, they are only recording the numbers being called and are NOT listening in on these domestic calls. Nevertheless, this has already caused an uproar on Capitol Hill and in the press.

Based on what we know about the program, it's not overly alarming to me on its face. I don't make or receive calls to/from any Al Qaeda affiliates. Nor do I have anything to hide in my domestic calls (although it's good that, according to Dubya, they will obtain warrants before mining into the domestic calls database). I know that the government needs some leeway in its efforts to protect us from terrorists whose entire lives are consumed with plotting and planning to kill Americans.

Still, I do have a problem with the program. And that problem is that George W. Bush is involved in and/or behind it. I no longer have faith in this man's ability to make good decisions. I'm not yet completely convinced that he also intends to do evil things, but I'm starting to wonder about that, too. He has disappointed me and other conservatives time and time again and I just do not think this man has the mental capacity or foresight to make decisions that are right for America.

With that being said, I don't think the program should be summarily eliminated. However, I do think that Congress should be fully involved in oversight from this point forward -- even though that would mean more face time from some very annoying Democrats. Wartime or not, though, the days of "Just trust us" are gone. Dubya's political capital has been long exhausted and I am no longer confident that Dubya has a clue what he's doing.

Possible emergence of populist politicians

2006-05-03T17:16:00.000-05:00

The GOP's failure to embrace conservative values and insistence on thumbing its nose at issues that matter to the average American could spell big trouble this November at the polls. And this could very well open the door for folks like John Konop. Mr. Konop is challenging Tom Price, a Republican congressman in Georgia's 6th district.

Mr. Konop is taking Representative Price to task on issues such as oil dependence, illegal immigration, and CAFTA (all of which are hot-button issues for me).

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to be an anti-incumbent voter this fall. Why vote these people back to Washington when they have proven time and time again that they don't really care what their constituents think? As a result, I'm hoping that more people like John Konop (conservatives who run on what is essentially a populist platform) will run for office this year. It's time to get some people in Washington who will actually represent the people -- not big business and special interests.

Two great websites for Georgians

2006-04-23T12:36:00.000-05:00

If you're interested in Georgia news or politics, here are two websites that you might enjoy:

Georgia Daily Digest -- Dedicated to Georgia news and information
Georgia Political Digest -- Dedicated to Georgia political news and information

I actually heard about the Georgia Daily Digest from one of our State Representatives. He told me that he reads it every day. I checked it out and was hooked right from the start. It provides links to newspaper articles pertaining to local issues that are current and relevant to Georgia citizens. The Georgia Political Digest, on the other hand, is more focused on politics and politicians around the state. It provides updates on Georgia's political organizations, representatives, campaigns, and events.

Both websites are very good. The Daily Digest basically replaces any need I had for the Communist Manifesto (i.e., the Atlanta Journal Constitution). And the Political Digest makes me feel like a political insider -- even though I haven't stepped foot inside the state Capitol building since my one-day career as a page ended unceremoniously in 1981.

If you have a hankering for Georgia news, these sites will likely scratch your itch.

Jumpers in Atlanta

2006-04-22T01:30:00.000-05:00

I don't know if this is just an Atlanta phenomenon or if this happens in most big cities, but periodically someone will stand on an overpass and threaten to jump into rush hour traffic. It has happened several times over the last few years and happened again this week on the downtown connector. It got so frequent at one point that the DOT started putting chain link fences on all the overpasses to prevent folks from climbing up there. I don't know if the state has finished this project, but I've seen lots of overpasses with the new fencing.

When it happens, of course, they have to take the threat seriously and stop traffic. The potential jumper is not only endangering himself, but also those who are passing underneath. Sometimes it goes on for hours as someone in an official capacity tries to reason with the person, so you can imagine how thrilled the commuters are when this happens. The affected highway becomes a virtual parking lot. And if you've ever had to endure Atlanta's rush-hour traffic, you can probably imagine how maddening a senseless, unscheduled delay like this can be. When this happens, it's not unusual for folks to yell, "Jump!!". Or they will start calling out for some rubber (or real) bullets or a fire hose to bring about some type of resolution. They're essentially held hostage by some person they don't know and they, understandably, are not happy about it.

I honestly don't know if jumpers are really attempting suicide, if they are crying for help, or if they are just starved for attention. I guess it could be all three, but I imagine that it's usually a cry for help or attention coupled with (or resulting from) some type of mental defect. I just don't think that it's a real suicide attempt in most cases. If someone wanted to commit suicide, they could do it without holding 300,000 people and their families hostage. These folks want to be seen and listened to, but we just don't have the time to cater to every fringe person who insists on crying for help by holding a city hostage.

What is the solution? The fences help, but they're obviously not foolproof. The state needs to come up with something more comprehensive. Maybe rubber bullets for all policemen (just in case). Or tranquilizer darts. Or a second, electric fence outside of the first one. Or tear gas or laughing gas. I don't know. I do know, however, that someone needs to put on their thinking caps and put a solution in place that will solve this once and for all.

NOLA: Sign of the times

2006-04-19T20:24:00.000-05:00

I saw this sign today in front of a convenience store in suburban Atlanta. There was another identical sign not even a mile north of this one. The fact that Ray Nagin is having to lobby for votes in Atlanta, some 500 miles away from New Orleans, shows how difficult and chaotic the voting situation is there. According to nola.com, there are only 764 displaced voters in Georgia and 146 in Atlanta. How do you find them? What methods should you use to reach them? How much should you spend to try to get their votes? Apparently, Nagin seems to think that there are enough potential voters in a small area of suburban Atlanta to justify (at least) these two signs in that area. I don't have a horse in this race, and I don't have an educated opinion on who should win, but I don't envy the horses themselves who have to run such a confusing and convoluted race.

Cynthia McKinney is here to stay

2006-04-15T17:29:00.000-05:00

There was in interesting article in today's AJC about Cynthia McKinney, the loony congresswoman who hit a police officer after he failed to recognize her at the security checkpoint for the US Capitol. The article discusses how McKinney became a congresswoman, the issues she has championed, her previous quarrels with all levels of authority, and the opinions of her constituents who, inexplicably, keep sending this embarrassing moron back to Washington.

The article states:

In Washington, where McKinney's penchant for controversy has severely strained her relations with black lawmakers and other Democrats (House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi no longer speaks to her), colleagues refused to back McKinney. Instead, they demanded that she apologize and she complied.

Back in the 4th Congressional District, though, there is no such consensus on McKinney. In dozens of interviews over the past week, many of McKinney's DeKalb and Rockdale county constituents jumped to her defense, praising her for speaking out on an issue America didn't want to face.

I'm sure that folks around the country look at her and wonder how in the world a "red" state like Georgia can keep sending someone like McKinney to Washington. However, what they don't understand is that she lives in a VERY liberal district. Think Berkeley or SoHo. Her district is about as liberal as a district in the South can be. And they just love her. The crazier she gets and the more traitorous she acts, the more they like it. She could run over a dozen policemen with her car while holding a vial of crack-rock in one hand and an aborted fetus in the other hand -- and her district would still keep voting her back into office. In fact, that would probably increase her margin of victory.

According to the article:

Oliver Brown, a veteran campaign operative who helped Majette beat McKinney in 2002, considered the impact McKinney's latest controversy might have on her re-election this fall — especially since her district has been redrawn to exclude many of her past critics.

"Trust me," he said, "she is going back to Washington."

So we're stuck with her. Georgia is stuck with her and the country is stuck her. I really wish I was wrong about this, but I'm not. Cynthia McKinney, shameless spectacle that she is, is here to stay. Our only hope is that she will eventually do something that gets her kicked out of office (perhaps based on ethical violations or legal problems). Short of that, though, we'll just have to get used to seeing this crazy woman pop up on the radar screen periodically.

Immigration issue vs. the steroids investigation

2006-04-12T21:03:00.000-05:00

It's hard not to see the parallels between Congress' recent attempt at dealing with the illegal immigration problem and Major League Baseball's current attempt to investigate its steroid problem (not to be confused with the grand jury action):

The problems originated because of money -- With immigration, the business community has a vice grip on our elected politicians. And businesses are hooked on cheap laborers (i.e., not paying taxes on them, paying them below-market wages). Also, many immigrants are here to make wages that are much better than what they can get in their home countries. In baseball, the league was hurting after the season-killing strike of 1994 -- so those in charge (commissioner and owners) were willing to embrace anything that would rejuvenate the game. Also, the players were willing to do whatever they could to be better than the next guy and sign that astronomical contract.
Out-of-touch "leaders" have little regard for those who matter the most -- On the immigration issue, our politicians are falling over themselves to pander to the illegal minority and ignoring the overwhelming will of the people. With baseball, those in charge have basically stuck their heads in the sand and ignored the credibility gap they've created in the eyes of the average fan.
When they actually do try to address it, they are only really paying lip service in an attempt to appease their critics -- On the immigration issue, who really expects Congress to put in place and fund anything that actually gives our sovereign country control of its borders? Not me. With baseball, this latest investigation is just "too little, too late". Already some of the game's most venerable records have fallen to folks like McGwire and Bonds and very soon, Barry Bonds will pass Ruth and Aaron and lay false claim to the most important record in sports. Baseball's ship has sailed. The asterisk era is already in the books.
The rulebreakers have little interest in or respect for the rules -- ILLEGAL immigrants obviously don't respect our laws. And they brazenly go out and protest en masse to "demand their rights". Additionally, our inept politicians have no interest in enforcing the immigration laws on the books -- even though our porous borders invite criminals and terrorists to easily come into our country. The steroid freaks in baseball only care about what's in it for them. They certainly have no respect for the rules or the integrity of the game that has been so good to them. And MLB leaders only care about money, not rules. (NOTE: Also, it's a paper tiger argument to claim that steroids were not against the rules when the perps were taking them. MLB must abide by our state and federal laws and those steroids were illegal when the miscreants took them. Did baseball have a rule against murder? No, it didn't need one. It was/is against the law. Similarly, MLB did not need a rule prohibiting steroids.)

So there it is. Two big messes that could have been curtailed or contained if only the rulemakers had done their jobs and/or the rulebreakers had followed the rules. And the masses (i.e., law-abiding US citizens and MLB fans) get the shaft -- as always.

Bush and the polls

2006-04-12T14:10:00.000-05:00

B. Preston over at JunkYardBlog and Bill Nienhuis at PunditGuy have provided some great insights into Bush's horrific poll numbers. I wholeheartedly echo their sentiments.

Similarly, here is my list of reasons why Bush (and, to some degree, all Republicans) has been such a miserable disappointment:

Unfettered government spending -- Bush is worse than Democrats when it comes to spending.
The planning and execution of the war in Iraq -- With the number of mistakes that have been made by Bush and Rumsfeld, I think we would've been better off with a coin flip on all the major decisions. At least then we would've gotten half of the decisions right.
Harriet Myers -- What was he thinking? The conservatives have a roster of highly-qualified judges who have been sitting on the bench (double entendre) and were ready and willing to answer this call...and Bush tries to give the job to the lady down the hall?
Cronyism -- Bush insists on giving all the country's most important jobs to his "buds". And he will stand by them no matter what. Loyalty, schmoyalty. These people have jobs to do and when they make a mess of their jobs, they need to be replaced.
Dubai Ports Deal/Border Security -- What on earth was he thinking? And why aren't the doggone ports secured five years after 9/11? And why are the borders non-existent?
His trade policies -- I believe in FAIR TRADE, not the free trade that Bush seems to espouse. NAFTA, which was signed by Clinton, is a disaster. It has only resulted in more jobs being sent south and more illegal immigration to our country. And then Bush goes out and insists on the passage of CAFTA and anything other AFTA he can? And then you have outsourcing of some of our best jobs to third world countries who have closed marketplaces? And his administration thinks it's a good thing for America? Is he TRYING to ruin our future?
Illegal Immigration policies -- Let me get this straight. Bush is pandering to lawbreakers who can't vote and ignoring the overwhelming majority of his base? This issue alone may be the undoing of the Republican party as a political force.

What absolutely sickens me most of all about this is that Bush and the Republicans have it all - control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. They could be doing great things for our country. And they’re frittering this opportunity away with ineptness, indecision, political tone deafness, and betrayal of conservative values. If something good doesn’t happen soon, I fear that the Dems will get control of the House and/or the Senate and keep it for 4 or 8 or 12 years.

Of course, I don't know how the Dems could be much worse at this point. There's probably not a dime's difference between them and the Republicans. The whole lot of politicians in Washington is pretty much useless.

Katie Couric: The perky Dan Rather

2006-04-05T20:48:00.000-05:00

So Katie Couric is going to CBS? Wow! CBS again shows its true colors. After finally having to separate from Dan Rather (the shameless liberal with the bad attitude), it made a wise move by putting in place Bob Schieffer. Schieffer seems to be affable and somewhat middle-of-the-road. And you know what? Evening news viewership increased at CBS, even while it continued to decline at NBC and ABC. Who would've figured that viewers would embrace political neutrality? Shocking, I know.

Well, now they've decided to replace Bob Schieffer with Katie Couric, little miss perky-pants. Katie has that perma-smile with the blindingly white teeth and she SEEMS like everyone's cute little buddy, but she has a frothingly palpable liberal bias that cannot be contained -- even in her role on the seemingly benign Today Show. She pretends to be cheery and friendly and fair, but underneath that phony veneer lies a liberal mouthpiece who is ready and willing to whine and editorialize at the drop of a hat.

I guess that ratings and ad revenue don't matter to CBS as much as the continuation of their biased efforts to manipulate public opinion.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Ding! Dong! DeLay is done!

2006-04-05T19:44:00.000-05:00

That's right. I said it. Tom DeLay, the Texas congressman and former House Majority Leader, is resigning from Congress -- and I am thrilled. He is the epitome of what I despise about Washington and politics. To elaborate...

He is often called the "Hammer" because of his reputation for using strong-arm tactics. I think it's shameful and dishonest when politicians -- on either side of the aisle -- always "toe the party line". Politicians are elected by their constituents and their loyalty should be to those constituents -- not to a straight-down-the-line party platform. Very few people in the country agree with everything in either party's platform -- and elected representatives shouldn't be bound to it. Tom DeLay, however, had a reputation for using his coercive powers as a party leader to get people to toe that line. Yes, that's politics, but it's something I find unseemly. And Tom DeLay was a master perpetrator of this despicable practice.

DeLay also had a bad habit of being involved in shady dealings. This included possible money-laundering, performing political favors for family members, and cozying up to and shamelessly bullying lobbyists. I know he hasn't been convicted of anything, but where there are waves (and waves and waves) of billowing smoke, there is almost always fire. And the lobbyist dealings alone, such as the Abramoff-funded golf trip to Scotland, is enough for me to revel in DeLay's fade into obscurity.

So he's gone. And I'm glad. Maybe this will send a message to the rest of the jackals that they need to put down the lobbyist crack-pipe and start, again, doing the jobs they're were hired to do.

Baseball and the Braves

2006-04-02T14:50:00.000-05:00

The 2006 Major League Baseball season starts today. My preferred team, the Atlanta Braves, will play its first game tomorrow. Now I don't usually make many predictions, but I will make one in this case:

The Braves will win the National League East, but will not win it all.

Okay, okay -- I'm not really going out on a limb there. The Braves have won 14 straight division titles and in 13 of those 14 seasons, they failed to win it all. Each year, however, sportswriters seem to predict that the Braves streak of division titles would not last another year. Each year, the Braves have proved them wrong. To their credit, however, I think more sportswriters are starting to catch on this year. I'm seeing less dire predictions for the 2006 Braves than in previous years. I think a lot of that has to do with the recent influx of young talent that seems poised to keep the Braves from falling off.

What the Braves and Bobby Cox and John Schuerholz have done is nothing short of incredible. As long as Cox and Scheurholz are in charge and as long as the Braves don't get choked off financially by their owners (whoever that may be), I will continue to pick them to win their division. And until they prove that they can win another championship, I will not pick them to win it all.

Play ball!

25 years ago today: Reagan was shot

2006-03-30T20:52:00.000-05:00

It was 25 years ago today the President Reagan was shot. Wow! A quarter of a century since that watershed event. He was the only president to be shot during my lifetime. He did live, but it was a something of a tumultuous time. Our economy was in the Carter-induced death swirl and the Iranian hostages had just been released after our painful introduction to Radical Islamism. We were a country that was hurting and we needed something good to happen. Then John Hinckley, a deranged Jodie Foster stalker, shot the newly-elected president that we were pinning our country's hopes on. It was a kick in our country's collective gut.

I'll never forget where I was when I found out about it. It was a school day and I was a sixth-grade student in Fitzgerald, Georgia. It was the end of the day and we were all waiting in our classroom to get picked up from school. A student left with his mother when she arrived. Then, after a minute or two, this student rushed back into the classroom and shouted, "The president's been shot!". We were all horrified. Yes, we were 11 or 12 at the time, but we knew how serious this was.

It was a scary and sad day.

The good news: Reagan, although seriously wounded, faced this event with courage and humor. His health rebounded. And our economy rebounded. And our country rebounded.

He did our country a great service that day -- by surviving. And for that, I am grateful.

Is anyone even left in Mexico?

2006-03-27T20:33:00.000-05:00

Seriously. I think that the entire population of Mexico is already in the US -- especially after witnessing the mass protests this weekend. The sheer numbers of protesters who took to the streets to "assert their rights" were staggering. This included 500,000+ in LA, 50,000+ in Denver, 20,000 in Phoenix and 10,000+ in Milwaukee. And this doesn't mention the other towns and cities where marches were held, including Charlotte and Atlanta. Nor does it take into consideration the multitudes who are in the US but were not brazen enough to go out and protest.

As I mentioned, LA saw 500,000+ folks (many of them being illegals) take to the streets to talk about how they're being mistreated. Are you kidding me? This is like someone crawling into the window of your house, sleeping in your basement, and then complaining about the living conditions as if they were listed on the mortgage and had been paying rent.

Here are some of the comments from the MSNBC article:

“I think it’s just inhumane. ... Everybody deserves the right to a better life,” said Elger Aloy of Riverside, a 26-year-old premed student who was pushing his 8-month-old son in a stroller at the Los Angeles march.

Elger, mi amigo, if you are an illegal, you may very well HAVE the right to a better life. In your own country! This is not your country. You see, the rights afforded to Americans are spelled out in the constitution and are reserved for citizens and not for lawbreakers or squatters. We have rules. You have broken them. The rights we reserve for lawbreakers are called Miranda Rights.

“Enough is enough of the xenophobic movement,” said Norman Martinez, 63, who immigrated from Honduras as a child.

Norman, I don't know you, and I know that you don't know me. I have no problem with immigrants. AS LONG AS THEY ARE LEGAL. There is a process by which immigrants apply to become citizens. Millions of people have gone through this process. They ABIDE BY and RESPECT our rules. When they attain citizenship via this established process, I wish them well. They are to be applauded. However, I AM NOT a xenophobe if I object to people disrespecting our laws and trying to jump to the front of the line. Get a clue, Norman.

“My mom came from Mexico, she had to cross the river, and thank God she did,” said David Gonzalez, 22, who held a sign saying, “I’m in my homeland.”

David, your mom is a criminal. She became a criminal when she broke our laws and decided to ignore the LEGAL immigration process. If you were born here, you are a citizen. Congratulations. Your mother found a loophole and you were rewarded in spite of her blatant disregard for our nation and its laws. If that makes you proud, then shame on you.

Our spineless politicians now have a chance to do something responsible for a change and establish an immigration policy that works. Personally, I don't think we would've ever had these problems if they'd only had the guts to enforce the laws that have always been on the books. However, because most politicans are bought and paid for by the big business lobby, they have created the mess that we have now. I can only hope that they fix this once and for all. If that means that we have to make some slight adjustments to our existing legal process, then sobeit. But this needs to be fixed...and now...while law-abiding citizens are still the majority in the country.

How to make the sport of boxing better

2006-03-21T15:03:00.000-05:00

Hasim Rahman and James Toney fought on Saturday. There was some decent action and I thought that Toney was getting solidly whipped. I don't have any particular affinity for Rahman, but Toney is mouthy and a hot dog and it's always good to see people like that receive their just desserts. The announcers seemed to think (as did I) that Rahman was the clear winner. However, the decision was a majority draw. I shouldn't be surprised. There are more wrong decisions in boxing than right decisions. I don't know if it is incompetence on the part of the judges or if it's corruption (bribes, fixing, etc.). I'm pretty sure it's both, though. Personally, I don't like investing two hours of my time only to arrive at a wrong or manipulated decision. And a draw is the worst decision of all.

Therefore, I have a proposal for the boxing organizations. Get rid of the judges. No more decisions. All fights must end in a knockout. I don't care if it takes 2 rounds or 200 rounds. I want them to fight until one of the fighters can't stand up on his feet anymore. Only then will we know that we have a true winner. No more namby-pamby judges. No more Arum- or Duva- or King-influenced scorecards. Just winners and losers. One man standing -- One man on the canvas.

And no TKO's. If both guys are still standing, the fight goes on.

In fact, the only thing that should stop the fight is a dangerous cut - one that could cause permanent damage. And only the doctor should make this call. I trust the average doctor more than I trust the average referee. And if it stops because of a cut, there is no "going to the scorecard" because there is no scorecard. The guy with the dangerous cut loses.

Boxing needs a substantial credibility boost. My suggestion wouldn't solve all its problems, but it would be a good start.

Finally gave up on the AJC

2006-02-28T13:28:00.000-05:00

I have finally given up on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I've subscribed to it for more than ten years, but it became harder and harder to justify each year. I always viewed it as a being a liberal rag, but I do like the sports page and its coverage of the Braves, Falcons, Georgia Bulldogs, and Georgia prep sports. Because of that, I put up with its increasingly warped ideology. No longer, though.

As our state has grown more and more conservative, this clueless paper has become more and more liberal. Cynthia Tucker, the op-ed chief, is a predictable, reactionary, race-baiting loon whose schtick is staler than week-old bread. And Mike Luckovich (whom other liberal cartoonists seem to idolize) is an offensive, tiresome, talentless hack. Add in Jay Bookman, who must've been educated on the westernmost section of UC-Berkeley's campus, and it's just too much to take. They throw in the occasional conservative columnist in an attempt to appear fair-minded, but that's a farce. The state and the metro area long ago shifted away from the ideology this paper espouses. And I, for one, will no longer seek news from such a putrid source.

When they called me this morning to try to get me to re-up, I gave them my answer ("NO WAY") and my reasoning as outlined above. The guy who called me then tried to justify why the AJC was worthy of my subscription dollars and he proceeded to argue with me about political ideology. Some salient points from the "sales pitch":

He said that all big-city newspapers were liberal. THAT'S an argument in favor of me re-subscribing to the AJC? I should continue to pay for it because it's a big-city newspaper and all big-city newspapers are liberal? I pointed out to him that most big-city newspapers were also slashing costs and laying off employees because of declines in readership. Hmmm...could there be a connection there?
When I mentioned that the state voted about 60% Republican and the AJC is about 95% liberal, he claimed that only 60% of the 51% who voted were Republican -- and that all those who didn't vote were Democrats. Well, that's a ridiculous assumption to make. And even if it were true (which it's not), why should the paper overwhelmingly reflect the ideology of folks who were too irresponsible to even vote?
Then he stated, "Well, you guys have the state legislature". Ummm, yeah. The majority in the Georgia House and Senate are Republicans and the Governor is Republican. I suggested that those realities just reinforced the FACT that Georgia is a conservative state and the AJC should better reflect that reality.

Needless to say, his brilliant counterpoints weren't enough to sway this now ex-subscriber. I did tell him that I would re-subscribe if the AJC became ideologically conservative (or at least moderate). I could barely say it without laughing, though. I don't think I'll hold my breath for that one.

Celebrity deaths really do happen in threes

2006-02-27T16:31:00.000-05:00

I've heard it said before that celebrity deaths happen in threes. I always that it was coincidental, but I'm starting to wonder if there might be something to it. This past weekend, the following three actors died:

Don Knotts - Deputy Barney Fife
Darren McGavin - Immortalized as Raphie's father in "A Christmas Story"
Dennis Weaver - McCloud

Granted, all these fine actors were up in years. And with the sheer number of actors in the world, folks are always dying. And maybe we (I) just don't notice when actors die in twos or fours or distinctly separate from anyone else. However, after Darren McGavin died, I asked if it was going to happen in threes this time. Then, a few hours later, I heard about Dennis Weaver.

Strange, don't you think?

UAE ports deal: Are you kidding me?

2006-02-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

The deal permitting a United Arab Emirates company to take over six major US seaports is rightfully catching heat from all sides. Michelle Malkin, in particular, is on it with a vengeance. It is an egregiously bad move from the administration for several reasons:

The ports are allegedly insufficiently secured now and turning them over to Islamofascists surely won't help that
One or more of the 9/11 hijackers were from that whacked-out country and there could very well be millions more like them who are just praying that this deal goes through
It gives Democrats an opportunity to look like they are on the right side of national security when they aren't
It's a bad PR move that makes even conservatives question your motivations and intelligence

What's next? A night watchman apprentice program for thieves? How about a Jihadist pilot training program? Or maybe a "buy two nukes get one free" deal with all of the middle eastern countries?

George, you need to stamp out this fire quickly and get it behind you. It's making you look like a half-wit. And each day you don't jump on this and disavow it, you are moving closer and closer to being a quarter-wit.

Oh, and one more suggestion: The next time the great thinkers and Ivy League grads in your administration sit around and approve any kind of deal involving anyone in the Middle East, you should first give the deal the sniff test by asking any AVERAGE FRIGGIN' AMERICAN WHO KNOWS HOW TO TIE HIS SHOELACES if it makes sense. If he/she doesn't faint, scream, cry, or pimpslap you, the deal may be okay.

Gerardo Sandoval: Anti-American much?

2006-02-16T15:00:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday's Hannity & Colmes, Sean Hannity was interviewing Gerardo Sandoval. Sandoval is the supervisor to the 11th district of San Francisco. He was one of several on that board of supervisors who voted against a plan that would move the USS Iowa (WWII battleship) to San Francisco as a museum and tourist center.

When I saw that this interview was on, I figured I'd listen in to see what Sandoval had to say. I know that folks like Hannity and O'Reilly usually spin things people say in order to ratchet up the sensationalism factor. It can often make for good TV, but it can also be very deceptive. Because of that, I wanted to see Sandoval take this opportunity to explain the position of the board of supervisors who made this decision. Perhaps there were valid reasons for them not wanting the ship in their harbor. Of course, Hannity was going to try to paint it as anti-Bush and anti-military hubris. I thought that this may be a part of the decision, but I figured that the overriding reasons would lie elsewhere. Perhaps they didn't have the room in the harbor for this endeavor. Or maybe they would concerned about being a target for terrorists. Or perhaps it was a money issue. Maybe they were concerned that it would be a net loss to the taxpayers.

Well, sensationalism or not, Hannity quickly got to the heart of the matter. He asked Sandoval if we should have a military. That was a typical Hannity "trap" question, where he hopes to get the interviewee to trip up and say something monumentally asinine. Well, not only did Sandoval fall into the trap, he did so willingly and unapologetically by answering that we, as a country, should not have a military. Even when asked about how we could defend ourselves without a military, he continued to assert that the military is bad and we would be better off without it.

Wow.

Colmes, who usually jumps to the defense of the liberals on the show, was even dumbfounded. He quickly tried his best to disassociate Democrats from THIS Democrat by saying that this was not what most Democrats believed.

Sandoval's reply to Holmes' incredulity? "Welcome to San Francisco."

I'm still just astounded at this interview. I like to think that I'm not naive (although I'm starting to wonder). I know that people like this exist. However, I didn't think that people like this were ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE. Even in San Francisco, I didn't think that there were enough of these anti-military, leftist, fringe types to form a majority constituency. Apparently, I was wrong, though.

You know, I don't care what the map shows, folks like Sandoval and I don't live in the same country (or the same world, for that matter).

Saddam's hunger strike -- a win/win

2006-02-14T15:05:00.000-05:00

Apparently, Saddam Hussein is on a hunger strike. It's his form of protest against the horrible injustices of the US, the new Iraqi government, and his trial.

Is this supposed to be some type of punishment? IMO, this is a win/win. His many victims and their families can revel in him wasting away in a slow, debilitating manner and the US can watch him disappear forever (which is all we really want, anyway). And Saddam can rest easy knowing that we are having to abide the oh-so-harsh message that this calculated move is sending.

So here's what I say to Saddam: I'm with you on this one. This is truly a noble effort on your part. See it all the way through! A hunger strike will really show us. Keep up the good work! And those hunger pangs you will be feeling? View them as little daggers that you're hurling at the West. Be strong, take your stand, and see it all the way through!

You can do it, Saddam. I just know you can!

Bolton and the UN: He'll take names later

2006-02-03T19:40:00.000-05:00

John Bolton has called for daily briefings from the member-states of the UN Security Council. Not everyone was thrilled by this:

...some council members grumbled when Bolton made the request on Thursday that they were too busy for the daily briefings

They relented, though, and there will be daily briefings while the US holds the rotating presidency over the Security Council.

I thought this was funny:

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere and Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya practically jogged into the chamber as the council chimes marked the hour.

I think I would pay money to see that.

Bolton has the whole "church lady on steroids" persona going for him. I could see him sitting there tapping his foot and giving the laggards the evil eye as they dove for their seats, ready to rap them on the knuckles with a ruler at the first sign of sloth. I imagine he can be overbearing at times, but if there ever was a "child" that needed to be snapped into shape, it is the UN.

Keep up the good work, John. Maybe this lost cause can be "found" and made useful after all.

State Of The Union 2005

2006-01-31T22:17:00.000-05:00

President Bush gave the annual SOTU address tonight. It was pretty useless IMO. It felt like a rehash of so many prior speeches. Time for speeches is over. Now is the time for action -- REAL action.

Highlights:

Cindy Sheehan, socialist anti-American anti-war activist, was invited to the SOTU by an irresponsible congressman and managed to get her deranged self arrested before the event started. Momma Moonbat tried to unfurl an anti-war banner and was quickly evacuated by the Capitol police. She is a joke and a national embarrassment at this point. Sympathy time is over for this loon.
Bush was defiant about immigration - and that's a mistake. He claimed that the economy can't survive without all the immigrants (he conveniently left out the word "illegal" before "immigrants"). And he repeated his call for a guest worker program that "rejects amnesty". I can see clearly why Dubya was a C student at Yale. He can't read very well (Amnesty - "a period during which offenders are exempt from punishment").
Bush said that we're addicted to oil as a country. DUH! He mentioned a litany of alternative energy and energy-saving initiatives. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll believe it when I see it. I am absolutely sick to death of politicians talking about this and not delivering on it. Everyone in the country knew this was a URGENT ISSUE more than 30 YEARS AGO during the Arab oil embargo. Thousands of politicians and eight presidents later and we're still as hapless and clueless as always. So you'll forgive me if I'm a little skeptical that a president whose family currency is oil will be the person who can finally deliver us from evil (literally in this case).
Bush was able to introduce the two new Supreme Court justices (Roberts and Alito) who were sworn in this past year. That, to me, is about the only thing I felt good about. And I feel VERY good about that.
And finally, the Democratic response was given by newly-elected Virginia governor Tim Kaine. Right off the bat, he talked about his background as a missionary. Maybe he is sincere, but it just seems forced, manipulative, and disingenuous when a Democrat talks about religion or his/her faith. I'll bet the mere mention of his faith had a lot of the Democrats' base screaming at their TV sets. While I'm also suspicious of some Republicans who wear their faith on their sleeves, it almost never seems natural coming from any Democrats. Maybe 30 years ago, the Dems could pull it off without sounding phony, but the circa 2006 Democrats have made it abundantly clear how unwelcome blending of politics and religion truly is in their ever-shrinking neighborhoods.

Kerry calls for Alito filibuster; From Switzerland, no less

2006-01-27T00:02:00.000-05:00

John Kerry, failed 2005 presidential candidate, is now calling for a filibuster of SCOTUS nominee Samuel Alito. The fact that a Senate Dem has decided to eschew common sense and kiss up to the ultra-liberal minority in the US by pursuing this inane strategy is not surprising. The fact that Kerry (a liberal amongst liberals) is the one doing this is also not surprising.

The most interesting aspect of this call to arms, however, is the fact that Kerry was trying to drum up support for this bold move from Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum. Kerry is Mr. "Global Test", so I know his overseas itinerary is very important to him. Still, if this issue (which the left claims will irreparably harm our country for the next 25 or 30 years) is so important to Mr. Kerry, you would think he could have made more time for it on his busy globetrotting schedule. It appears, however, that our windsailing Johnny Boy got all the way to Switzerland before he stuck his finger in the air to see which position to take. Once he saw a chance to stand out from his peers, he leaned a different way and started hoping against hope for that gust of wind that never seems to come.

The one thing I am a little surprised by? Apparently, Kerry has not compared Judge Alito to "Jenjis Khan". Not yet, at least.

Insurgents turn against Al Qaeda

2006-01-23T15:54:00.000-05:00

According to Reuters, Iraqi insurgents in the Sunni city of Ramadi are turning against their former Al Qaeda allies. Apparently, they see more hope in the political process than in the path of destruction championed by Al Qaeda. Who would've figured that blowing up innocent Sunni and Shia women and children wasn't a winning strategy for Al Qaeda? You can't get anything by the Sunnis. That bunch is as sharp as a tack.

;o)

I think Al Qaeda needs a new PR firm. Who knows? If you give 'em a good shave, put a business suit on them, and get them to stop blowing innocent people up, their whole "jihad message" may win over more people.

Halliburton: The reality check keeps bouncing

2006-01-22T23:19:00.000-05:00

According to MSNBC, Halliburton allegedly gave troops contaminated water last year. I can't say that I'm shocked. Halliburton keeps screwing up and continues to stick out like a sore thumb in what has to be the most shameful aspect of our involvement in Iraq.

It's like having a company's owner hire his good-for-nothing frat buddy to run a part of his business. He hopes that the buddy does a good job so that the owner's obvious cronyism won't be exposed for the travesty that it is. However, fratboy keeps showing up drunk for work and fails miserably in every conceivable way.

Halliburton is that drunken, miserable failure.

I never really liked Dick Cheney. I don't think anyone does. Maybe W does, but I doubt it. And it was a shameless abuse of power for Cheney to throw no-bid contracts at his Halliburton buddies like he was tossing beads and candy off a float at Mardi Gras.

Even if Halliburton was the most qualified company for the jobs it does in Iraq, they shouldn't have been hired. The fact the Cheney used to be their CEO creates a perception of impropriety. And using them undermines the Republican cause in a perpetually corrosive way.

You know -- The most mouthy and radical Dems keep saying Bush should be impeached. Well, I think that Cheney should be impeached. And it should be the Republicans that do it. Only then could they undo some of the damage and unload some of the baggage than bears Cheney's signature.

Contentment - is it really that elusive?

2006-01-21T17:24:00.000-05:00

This post about contentment over at Creative Survival really made me think. In it, Cyndee talks about a letter she received from a friend. I especially appreciated this passage:

My whole life it's been, when I'm sixteen I'll be able to drive, when I graduate I'll be able to live on my own, when I'm married I'll be able to have sex... on and on looking forward to what was to come and never truly appreciating where I was at the time. The Lord has taught me to really appreciate where I am right now!

And then this:

I just wish I could have enjoyed where I was before instead of always looking to the next thing.

Wow. Truer words have not been spoken. Many of us do tend to wish our lives away. Being "in the moment" is toughest when the chips are down, but just imagine how good life can be if you can really savor life even in the worst of times.

Thanks, Cyndee, for sharing such a thoughtful and inspired message.

How about a little justice, Souter?

2006-01-21T16:41:00.000-05:00

I think an appropriate term would be "boomerang activism".

A group of activists are trying to get Justice David Souter's New Hampshire home seized so that a hotel can be built at that location. The activists are angry about the Kelo vs. City of New London Supreme Court decision that allows the government to take the land/homes of citizens and sell it to corporate interests. This decision was an extension (outrageous extension to many Americans) of the policy of eminent domain, which allows the seizure of private land for public/governmental uses.

Since Souter was in the majority opinion on this decision, I think it's poetic "justice" that he is going to experience first-hand how unfair and hurtful this legislation can be in real terms.

Is it a mean-spirited move by the activists? Probably, but it's well-intentioned and completely fair.

Will it make Souter realize his wrong-headed decision? I suspect so, although I doubt he'd admit it publicly.

Will it do anything to reverse the decision? I hope so. I'm not sure how the mechanics of the Supreme Court work, but if a reversal is possible, it could and should happen in this case. If not, perhaps a similar case would be sent to the court and a more rational ruling could be made that would supersede the Kelo ruling. This is a case that seems to unite liberal and conservatives in that it seems to put government AND corporate interests above the interests of the average citizen.

Your activist rulings have unpleasant consequences, Justice Souter. If you don't yet realize that, I can only hope that you will soon.

By the way, I wonder if anyone is researching where Stevens, Kennedy, Ginsburg, and Breyer live? Souter didn't birth this baby all by himself.

:o)

Feinstein warns against filibuster; Leftists squeal

2006-01-15T19:09:00.000-05:00

In today's Washington Post, Dianne Feinstein warned against a filibuster by Dems against Alito.

"This might be a man I disagree with, but it doesn't mean he shouldn't be on the court."

That's the smartest thing I've ever heard her say. She usually seems uncompromising in a "dim bulb" sort of way.

Of course, this made the KosKids scream with flurries of profanity and bile-spewing. If you look at the comments, you'll see just how unhappy these campers are with the entire Alito situation and, after her WashPo editorial, with Dianne Feinstein. Many of them are ready to burn her at the stake. And she's one of their own.

You would think by now that these folks, at least the smart ones, would start to "get it". They are a superminority (super in terms of how strongly the minority term applies) of the minority party. Their hatred for Bush and conservatives must be blinding them to the fact that they are outnumbered in a Little Bighorn sort of way. Their numbers are small already and ever-dwindling. Their significance has been buoyed primarily by a MSM that keeps desperately trying to make them relevant. It hasn't worked.

This reality-based community is getting a healthy dose of true reality these days. And they don't like it one bit.

Lobbying reform? Not likely with this bunch.

2006-01-15T16:48:00.000-05:00

With Tom Delay not in the running (thank goodness) for the House majority leader position, it appears to be a three-man race between Roy Blunt of Missouri, John Boehner of Ohio, and John Shadegg of Arizona.

All three candidates appeared (as summarized on RedState) on today's Fox News Sunday and made their cases. Chris Wallace pointed out that each one of them has had his own ethical (or at least borderline ethical) lapses.

Blunt had, in 2002, inserted language aiding Phillip Morris into a bill. And his wife is a Kraft Foods/Phillip Morris lobbyist. This was only one example of his dalliances. Boehner had taken 31 trips paid for by lobbyists, amongst other things. And even Shadegg, who had less egregious lapses than Blunt or Boehner, had returned donations indirectly associated with Jack Abramoff.

Is this really the best of the lot? Do we think for a second that any of these three will undertake serious reform? I don't. It's like putting a fall-down drunk on a weekend bender in charge of your local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous.

If the Republicans don't think that this is serious, they're wrong. If they don't think that people care, they're wrong. If they think that this storm will just blow over and that they can easily retain the majority in the House, they're wrong.

As it stands right now, I doubt I will vote for any incumbents this November. When possible, I will likely vote for a non-incumbent Republican. And I will also seriously consider any socially conservative Democrats or Independents.

I'm fed up with this entire bunch of ethically-challenged opportunists. I want this cleaned up. I want term limits. I want true leadership. And I want it now. It should've happened back in 1994 when the Republicans took over the House. Twelve years later, I can't distinguish the 2006 Republicans from the 1993 Democrats. And that's shameful and embarrassing.

Interesting development in Pakistan

2006-01-13T21:20:00.000-05:00

There's possibly a significant development out of Pakistan. A CIA airstrike from a drone may have killed Bin Laden's #2 guy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. If you'll recall, Al-Zawahiri is the chatty one. He puts out more videos than MTV does these days. He's always "infidel this" and "infidel that". And to top it all off, he is a physician. I guess that makes him something of a modern-day Josef Mengele.

Now it would be good news indeed if we expedited the good doc's initial face-to-face with Allah, but that news would be tempered somewhat by the fact that there will be a hundred more cockroaches eager to take his place. However, what might be more significant is that we (the CIA) bombed this guy while he was in Pakistan. If I recall correctly, the prospect of the US carrying out any military initiatives in Pakistan was a very touchy subject two or three years ago. Now, though, we apparently have drones (unmanned surveillance aircraft) doing at least some recon there. And if we have drones in the 'hood, then we can drop a fiery "jihad" on a hot target at a moment's notice.

This could prove very useful when coupled with a Pakistani government that now seems to be interested in purging itself of radical islamists.

UPDATE: Now Pakistan is lodging a complaint about the airstrike. I'm hoping, though, that this is one of those "we'll deny it in public" claims and that Pakistan's government is still playing ball with us behind the scenes.

A conservative government in Canada, eh?

2006-01-13T15:42:00.000-05:00

Our friends north of the border may be poised to elect a conservative government in the upcoming election that is being held as a result of the fall of the liberal government last year. Conservatives are currently leading in the polls. Personally, I have taken a poll and it revealed 100% support for the conservatives. As a disclaimer, though, I should mention that my sample size consisted of one person (my friend, Deanna, who is the only Canadian with whom I regularly communicate). So my sample may not be entirely representative of the population as a whole. :o)

While it has no direct bearing on me, it would be nice to see a more socially conservative government in Canada. US liberals are always so eager to proclaim how "out of touch" America's conservatives are with the rest of the world. Our horrific attempts to "legislate morality" are labeled as archaic and backwards-thinking and will surely...SURELY...lead us straight into a theocracy the likes of which even the Muslim world has never known (which is an irresponsible and ridiculous statement).

Anyway, it's nice to know that maybe not all Canadians are ultra-liberal. I have pretty much given up on California, New York, and Massachusetts. They seem to be beyond hope. However, these recent developments in Canada are very encouraging.

Perhaps Jesusland is bigger than the US liberals thought.

:o)

Former Brave voted into Hall of Fame

2006-01-11T19:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Bruce Sutter was voted into the MLB HOF. Sutter played for the Braves during some of their misery years (1985-88 in Sutter's case). I'm glad that one of the premier relievers of the modern era has been recognized with this honor. Now the HOF voters need to, at a minimum, get Goose Gossage and Lee Smith in as well.

I wonder if Sutter will wear a Braves hat on induction day. Somehow, I doubt it. He did finish up in Atlanta and he apparently still lives in Atlanta, so he still has ties to the community. However, he didn't perform as well here as he did with the Cubs or the Cardinals. Also, he only spent three years here. He spent four years in St. Louis and five years in Chicago.

If I was a betting man, I'd think that he be wear a Cubs hat when he formally enters the Hall. He had his longest tenure there and, arguably, his strongest years there in terms of his stats and impact to his team and the league.

Either way, though, this was an honor that was well-deserved and long overdue.

Teddy Kennedy's "mainstream"

2006-01-09T17:24:00.000-05:00

The Senate Judiciary Committee started the hearings today on Samuel Alito's nomination to the US Supreme Court. As is customary, the senators on the committee all gave a preliminary statement. Teddy Kennedy, gasbag that he is, again went on and on about how it is the Senate's responsibility to make sure that Judge Alito is not "outside the mainstream".

Outside the mainstream? God help us if Chappaquiddick Teddy is the arbiter of what is considered "mainstream". My guess is that Teddy thinks that he exists somewhere within his self-styled "mainstream". Here's an illustration of where he sits, though:

The only people to the left of Teddy on the bell curve are your pure, unadulterated socialists and the sanfran-type anarchists.

Do you think presidential elections don't matter? I'm just grateful that "pickled-at-birth" Teddy is relegated to the small, weak role that he has. Our country is better place because people like him are properly placed into context and herded together at the margins of the political spectrum where they belong.

Marcus Vick hits bottom, keeps digging

2006-01-09T16:36:00.000-05:00

Let me get this straight. Marcus Vick:

* Was stopped for driving 38 in a 25 zone and driving with a revoked or suspended license on Dec. 17,
* Stomped on the leg of a Louisville player during the Gator Bowl on Jan. 2, then said it was an accident (a lie exposed by the video of it), then said that he apologized to the victim and was forgiven (another lie as revealed by the victim himself), and now...
* Has been arrested on three counts of brandishing a firearm and pointing it at someone in a McDonald's parking lot this past weekend.

Wow. I'll bet the NFL GM's are now lining up to get a guy who has such strong character and integrity!

My guess is that he'll wind up in the Arena League or in Canada playing football. Or in prison.

What an idiot.

Lynn Swann goes for a TD in Pennsylania

2006-01-06T17:30:00.000-05:00

Lynn Swann is running for governor of Pennsylvania as a Republican and he seems like a great candidate at first glance (pro-life and a sports guy is always a good start in my book). His candidacy and the publicity around his campaign could be a much-needed boost to a Republican party that is perceived -- rightly or wrongly -- as being indifferent or belligerent towards the African-American community.

Maybe they could talk John Stallworth into being the Lieutenant Governor. And how about Jack Lambert as the Homeland Security Chief? :o)

I can only assume the Dems will recruit Charlie Waters or Hollywood Henderson to run against him.

But we already know how that would turn out, don't we?

Bush makes a stupid decision

2006-01-05T15:36:00.000-05:00

Just when I think Bush has righted the ship, he goes and makes another ill-advised decision by making a recess appointment of Julie Myers as assistant secretary of Homeland Security for ICE. Myers just happens to be the niece of the recently retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers and the wife of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael certifies chief of staff.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't have a problem with recess appointments. And, from what I can tell superficially, Julie Myers has reasonably impressive credentials. What I have a problem with is that this further shows that Bush appoints cronies and friends within his network of acquaintances. This same manner of thinking sent Dick Cheney off to find a suitable VP candidate, only to recommend himself. It sent Harriet Myers off to find a good Supreme Court nomination, only to return with the suggestion that she get the job. It named Michael Brown, the Arabian Horseman, to head up FEMA and eventually fail catastrophically at his job in the midst of Hurricane Katrina. And now this?

Give me a break, George. At a time when your decision-making should be getting better, you continue to embarrass those of us who are trying, really trying, to support you. Do you just ENJOY ticking off the majority of the country? Is this some type of masochistic itch that you're scratching? I just don't get it. And I wasn't a hard sell to begin with.

CLUE
(go ahead. take it. you desperately need one.)

Most annoying liberals

2006-01-05T14:11:00.000-05:00

Rightwingnews' list of 2005's most annoying liberals is right on the mark. Not surprisingly, the two leftist blogs I sometimes read made the list -- Daily Kos and Huffington Post. Whenever I think that I've had it with our elected conservatives (not conservatism, mind you), I meander over to Kos and HP and realize what the alternative could be. Their hate-filled screeds remind me that no Democratic "big tent" is large enough to house me and them. Our worldviews are just absolute polar opposites.

Abramoff cuts a deal

2006-01-04T21:36:00.000-05:00

High-powered lobbyist Jack Abramoff has cut a deal with prosecutors in his corruption probe. It looks like some politicians from both parties could be affected, but most pundits think that this will impact/implicate Republicans more than Dems.

My reaction to Abramoff's deal? Good. And I don't care whether it hurts Republicans or Democrats more. It is way past time for shady lobbying practices to get exposed. Of course, I very much doubt that Abramoff is the only corrupt lobbyist. In fact, I assume that all lobbyists are rotten to the core -- although I freely admit that I don't even like the lobbying practices that are supposedly legal. I can only hope that they chase all these cockroaches (including the lobbyists, politicians, staffers, and anyone else sullied by these and all similar acts) out of the shadows and prosecute all violators to the fullest extent of the law. Money has dominated politics for way too long. And this influence-peddling and vote-buying only further deteriorates the credibility of Washington as a whole.

So, let loose the dogs of hell -- so to speak -- on these ethically-challenged "people" (and I use that term loosely). Maybe they'll finally get what's coming to them and we can truly make our country be "of the people, by the people, and for the people" once again.

Moron claiming Homeland Security misdeeds was lying

2005-12-24T10:31:00.000-05:00

A UMass Dartmouth student who had recently claimed that he was visited by Homeland Security officials because of his inter-library loan request for "The Little Red Book" by Mao Zedong has now admitted to lying. His story changed somewhat over time and it fell apart under scrutiny.

According to the article, his tall tale blew up into an international story and was of keen interest in light of this past week's Patriot Act discussions and the domestic wiretapping admission by the Bush administration. The civil liberties people wanted to seize on this as proof that the government is Big Brother and that no person is safe from the evil clutches of the Bush administration. Once again, as usual, they don't have a leg to stand on.

Now don't get me wrong. I fully understand that the government isn't infallible and that they can and sometimes do overstep their bounds. However, we are now in a time of war and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt with regard to the safeguards they need to employ in order to protect us from another terrorist attack. If another attack occurs, these same morons who are fighting against these safeguards will be screaming that the government didn't do enough to protect our country. You can't please them either way.

7-footer wins WBA belt

2005-12-19T15:21:00.000-05:00

Here's an item that was barely covered in the sports news. A 7-foot tall Russian beat John Ruiz this past weekend to win Ruiz' WBA heavyweight title. I saw a glimpse of the match in passing on ESPN. How do you even fight someone who is that tall? I guess your only real option is body shots, since you probably can't reach his head. And you would really have to struggle just to avoid low blows. Man, I wish I could've seen this fight.

Apparently, Ruiz is contesting the fight and thinks he should've won. In my opinion, Ruiz has always been a joke of a fighter. He doesn't box. All he does is lean on his opponents and hold onto them. I can only hope that he will finally retire and clear the way for some real boxers, not pseudo-wrestlers like him.

Possible good news from Iraq

2005-12-17T15:31:00.000-05:00

For a while, it appeared that the end result of the Iraq elections would almost certainly be a mini-Iran, dominated by Shiites in favor of an Islamic theocracy. That is still a very real possibility, as the numbers could fall in that direction. However, a new possibility is now arising after the elections that were carried out this week.

The Sunnis, who are now claiming that the election was a success, could become the key to ensuring Iraq becomes a secular democracy instead of a Shiite theocracy. The Sunnis, of course, do not want to live in and be subject to the laws of a Shiite theocracy. And the Kurds have long been in favor of a secular government. Furthermore, the US-favored Iyad Allawi and his party are Shiites, but they favor secular rule. If these three groups can form a coalition that outnumbers the Shiites favoring theocracy, Iraq could wind up with a secular government after all. And that would be good news for the US and most of the civilized world.

My Christmas list: Item #2 - Term limits for all!

2005-12-17T13:57:00.000-05:00

I know the chances of this happening are very slim, but I really wish we could get term limits once and for all. I think well-intentioned people often go to Washington and fall out of touch with the average person. Also, they often get corrupted by the political lobbying and free-flowing money that is part of the Washington machinery. If politicians knew that they were limited in how long they could stay and that they wouldn't have to depend on influence-buying dollars to keep them in Washington, they could finally begin representing the people again.

There are so many poster children for why we need term limits. These two dinosaurs would be at the top of the list, though.

Robert Byrd - over 50 years in Congress
Ted Stevens - over 30 years in Congress

Senility aside, these two "useless"-ocrats long ago outlived their usefulness.

And Georgia's senators and representatives have shameful records of hypocrisy on term limits. Several of them ran on a campaign platform of term limits, but conveniently forgot to adhere to their ideals/opinions once they got to Washington.

Please, for the sake of all that is right and good, can some brave elected soul do the right thing and start a movement to enact term limits?

My Christmas list: Item #1 - Four political parties

2005-12-17T13:14:00.000-05:00

If I could have anything for Christmas, I would wish for the breakdown of the two-party system here in the US. As a person who voted for Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, I often feel that neither political party represents me and my views. Yes, I am conservative in most respects, but the Republican party very often makes a mockery of the concept of responsible representative government. They are too insulated, too often corrupted, and too easily self-involved. And Democrats? Don't get me started. I can't even fathom how they take most of the positions they take (that is, when they do indeed come up with any intelligible positions). What I would like to see is a new four-party system.

I'm not a political scientist, but it appears that folks are generally conservative or liberal along two different dimensions: Fiscal matters (e.g., big government vs. small government) and social issues (i.e., abortion, church/state separation, gay marriage). The Republican party is often perceived to be more conservative on both dimensions (smaller government, socially conservative), and the Democratic party is often perceived to be more liberal on both dimensions (bigger government, socially liberal). However, the world is not nearly so black and white. There are social conservatives in the Democratic party and social liberals in the Republican party. And some folks may advocate big government in some areas, but not in others.

My recommendation is this: Break up each party into two new parties separated ideologically along the two dimensions. The resulting platforms would shake out as follows:

Fiscally conservative, socially conservative
Fiscally conservative, socially liberal
Fiscally liberal, socially conservative
Fiscally liberal, socially liberal

It would be pretty easy to imagine where many politicians today would fall in such a system. I would think that George Allen or Sam Brownback would fit into the first category. The second category would be the RINO's (Republicans in name only) such as Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe. The third category? I would say Joe Lieberman and maybe Ben Nelson from Nebraska. And the lib/lib category would include folks like Teddy "the relic" Kennedy and "Chucky" Schumer. You know...the Socialists. :o)

A system like this would not solve all our country's problems -- far from it. It would, however, increase the likelihood of voters feeling connected to and possibly represented by a particular party. And I think that would be a positive development and a step in the right direction

An honest look at Evangelicals

2005-12-17T02:17:00.000-05:00

Secular liberals often criticize Christians by saying that they care only about abortion and gay marriage. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. Christians care about a wide range of issues including helping the poor, reaching out to the affirmed, and even global warming. While these positions/viewpoints of Christians usually receive little coverage from the MSM, they are central to the missions of most churches.

That's why I was pleasantly surprised to see MSNBC's article on the work Rick Warren and Saddleback Church are doing to help address global poverty and disease. Most efforts such as these by Christians go unrecognized (for good reason - they aren't acts designed for self-glorification). Nevertheless, it is still good for the secular world - a usually skeptical and often cynical secular world - to see that Christians do indeed focus on a broad array of issues. While many secularists will continue to find something - anything - to denigrate Christians for, an honest response by them should acknowledge what I've always known and said: Yes, abortion and gay marriage are very important issues and they will continue to matter a great deal to conservative Christians, but they are not the only two issues that matter.

Legalization of polygamy?

2005-12-15T00:57:00.000-05:00

I'm usually not a big proponent of the "slippery slope" argument, but it is entirely valid in this case. Once marriage gets redefined to include relationships other than "one man/one woman", legal challenges such as this will bombard the courts. This particular "movement" is advocating the legal recognition of polygamy. What's next? Marriage between multiple men/women/couples? Marriage between a man/woman and his/her pet?

Marriage is only between one man and one woman. That has always been the case and will always be the case. I'm just glad I live in a country that recognizes this simple and obvious fact.

Biggest box office decline in twenty years

2005-12-15T00:29:00.000-05:00

Apparently, the 2005 box office will see its biggest decline in twenty years. And is it any wonder that this is the case? Hollywood has been putting out crap lately. There are fewer and fewer movies that families can watch. Exacerbating the situation is the fact that Hollywood doesn't have a clue how the majority of the country lives nor do they have any idea about the values that the flyover states hold dear.

I thought that the recent box office slump and Hollyweird's love of the almighty dollar would make them wise up and start trying to figure out how to cater to the average American (and I'm talking about the REAL America here). Apparently I was wrong. Oh, well. There's always next year (although I'm not optimistic...).

Israel to build new homes in settlement

2005-12-14T15:06:00.000-05:00

Israel has announced that they are building 200 new homes in a major settlement in the West Bank.

By nearly all accounts, this is contradictory to the US-backed road map for peace and it will probably create even more hard feelings and anger among the Palestinians and the broader Middle East. While I do back the US protection of and partnership with Israel, the US needs to take a VERY hard line on this. We give Israel unthinkable amounts of foreign aid and they continue to act like our enemies rather than our friends (remember the arms sales to China and the AIPAC/spying scandal).

The US takes a lot of crap around the world for its relationship with Israel and we should expect more from them. If I were in charge (I know, a scary proposition), I would deduct from our foreign aid to Israel an amount equal to 10 times the market value of every new house erected in violation of the road map for peace. That would stop the new development in a hurry and would give the US more credibility as a peace broker between Israel and Palestine.

I really think peace is possible there. I just hope the US will do the right thing and use its influence to keep the peace process on track -- regardless of which side strays from the road map.

"Sheets" Byrd is at it again

2005-12-13T00:36:00.000-05:00

The anachronistic Robert Byrd says that he would bring the Senate to a virtual standstill if Republicans use the nuclear option to bust up a filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Really, Bob? Really? As opposed to the engine of change and progress that we have in the Senate right now? Do you really think that's a valid threat? Your obstructionist party fights on everything just for the sake of being the "No" party. Bringing the Senate to a virtual standstill would be very little change, if you ask me.

And for the life of me, I just can't understand how this former KLAN MEMBER keeps getting elected AS A DEMOCRAT in West friggin' Virginia. He's 88 years old and WAY past his prime (about 50 years past). He's either ignorant or senile. Or both.

Do us all a favor, Boob (oops, Bob) - just go away. You are the epitome of everything that is wrong with politicians.

West Virginia should be embarrassed by this man.

McCain in 2008?

2005-12-13T00:08:00.000-05:00

This article over at Ankle Biting Pundits claims that beltway conservatives may be taking a second look at McCain for president in 2008. McCain has been derided by conservatives in the past for some of the positions he has taken, but I am open to possibly having him as our president. I know that he's socially liberal (usually a death knell in my world), but I do like McCain nonetheless. My reasoning:

You have to respect his service (including many years as a POW).
He is strong on defense.
He did try to speak out against campaign finance abuses, although the McCain-Feingold bill proved to be weakly effective at best in 2004. At least he tried, though.
It's not like Bush has been much of a fiscal conservative (I'm talking about government spending mostly). McCain couldn't be a bigger spender than Bush. Face it, no one could.
He could help unite the country to some degree after what will likely be eight fully contentious years of Bush. And that followed eight contentious years under Clinton. I don't think McCain would inspire detractors like Bush has and Clinton did.
He has a VERY GOOD chance of beating Hillary - and I'll vote for ANYONE that can beat Hillary
He ISN'T NAMED BUSH OR CLINTON. My worst fear is that we get 4 years of Bush Sr., 8 years of Bill, 8 years of W, 8 years of Hillary, and 8 years of Jeb. FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, THERE ARE MORE THAN TWO FAMILIES IN THIS COUNTRY!!
And last but not least, if W can move the Supreme Court to the right sufficiently while he is in office, a socially liberal Republican doesn't concern me nearly as much.

So, all in all, a McCain presidency isn't repulsive to me at this point.

UPDATE (06.13.06): I'm revisiting this post after watching McCain's vile attempt to give away our country on the immigration issue. This is the biggest issue to me now and McCain is SO FAR WRONG on this issue that he is now done in my book. Immigration trumps everything else I had previously mentioned.

Since Sliced Bread

2005-12-08T23:58:00.000-05:00

From SinceSlicedBread:

Since Sliced Bread is a national call for fresh, common sense ideas. A call for ideas that will strengthen our economy and improve the day-to-day lives of working men and women and their families. It’s also a place where ordinary Americans and experts alike can discuss the important economic issues of our times.

This is an awesome concept. There are a lot of intelligent people throughout the country. SinceSlicedBread is trying to harness some of that intelligence and knowledge and creativity by soliciting ideas from contributors. As an incentive, they are offering cash prizes to those with the very best ideas. They have completed the submissions phase and will soon be going into the review phase.

I, for one, will be anxious to see what they come up with. Even more importantly, though, is whether or not Congress will take some of these good ideas and put them into action.

Check it out if you get a chance. I hope this is just the start of a revolutionary movement. Just imagine -- REAL participatory government.

Say it ain't so, Julio

2005-12-08T23:42:00.000-05:00

Looks like the Bravos may lose Julio Franco. They refused to offer him artibration so you can't blame him, I guess. Still, I would hate to see him leave Atlanta. He is the oldest player in the game today and is still very productive. And he has always been such a class act and a man of character. Those types of guys aren't a dime a dozen in the major leagues.

Whatever happens, though, I wish him well. He's one of the good guys.

A tough immigration proposal from Republicans?

2005-12-06T21:35:00.000-05:00

Finally. Still, I won't believe that the Republicans are serious about immigration reform until I see a plan AND its results. They're worried about alienating Hispanic voters, but I would hope that most law-abiding Hispanics would prefer a legal system for managing the situation. And the Republicans are ticking off the rest of their base by not getting this done.

Action on immigration is LONG overdue.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

2005-12-06T21:27:00.000-05:00

I see that Javon Walker is dumping Drew Rosenhaus as his agent. I guess he was paying attention when Drew Rosenhaus "strategized" Terrell Owens (and himself) out of millions with his bad advice.

Sports agents are down there with car salesmen and politicians in the honesty and integrity department. So I doubt many tears will be shed if Rosenhaus gets cut out of some of his millions.

So much for tax overhaul

2005-12-04T23:33:00.000-05:00

Alright, George. I know your attempt to fix social security became a big ol' mess, but now you're going to give up (I know, it says "delay", but we all know what that means) on the tax overhaul you've been promising? Aren't you even going to try? You've got the White House, the Senate, and the House and EVERYONE knows that the tax code is broken in a hundred different ways. At least give it a shot. This is a fix that is LONG overdue. Please don't go all "lame duck" on us. Not yet.

Boxing match on PPV

2005-12-03T22:16:00.000-05:00

The Bernard Hopkins-Jermain Taylor fight is on HBO pay-per-view (PPV) tonight. I would like to see it, but I abso-friggin-lutely refuse to pay $30 or $40 to watch a fight on television. I wonder how many people actually do pay for PPV boxing matches. Surely not that many. However, they do continue to put matches on PPV, so someone is buying it. I guess they get enough business from sports bars to make it a profitable business model. Or maybe there are some folks who get it and then invite a bunch of friends over. Sort of a "you bring the burgers and I'll get the PPV."

I don't know. I just don't get it.

The Georgia Aquarium - No sushi bar?

2005-12-03T00:51:00.000-05:00

I just saw that the Georgia Aquarium, which opened last month in Atlanta, has a restaurant called Cafe Aquaria. A restaurant sounds like a good idea. I'm sure it'll be a big moneymaker for them. Have you noticed what they serve, though? Wait, let me rephrase that. Have you noticed what they don't serve? That's right. They don't serve fish. It just struck me as funny, but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. It would probably freak out the kiddies. Along the same lines, you wouldn't expect a restaurant at the zoo to serve bear-ka-bobs or giraffe nuggets, right?

:o)

Intro to rightonpeachtree

2005-12-01T23:43:00.000-05:00

My first blog post. Finally.

I've been intending to start a blog for a while, but I'm just now getting around to it. I avidly read blogs and get most of my news from blogs, but I'm just now doing one of my own. I'm looking forward to it and I hope anyone who reads it will find it entertaining (me included). :o)

What will I blog about, you ask? Good question. I will write about whatever strikes me as interesting or worth discussing. This will include (but not be limited to) politics, religion, sports, entertainment, and local issues.

Regarding the blog's name, I live in a suburb of Atlanta. If you've ever been to Atlanta, you probably have noticed that every other road or street or boulevard has "Peachtree" in its name. Nearly any directions you receive to any location in Atlanta will instruct you to go "right on Peachtree" or "left on Peachtree" at some point. Since I lean to the right politically, I thought rightonpeachtree would be a catchy (and apt) name.

OK. That's it for now. More to come later.

Mike