Political, Social, Military, and Random Musings from a middle aged Conservative White Guy
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Like Thieves in the Night ...
Details are starting to come out. Two gems that surfaced today:
Once the bill is passed into law, IMMEDIATELY California building standards will become nationwide standards. Every new home constructed will have to meet CA building codes, especially in regards to energy consumption/efficiency. This will add 20-25% to the cost of every new house built after passage of the bill. Even if individual states do not hold to those codes, the Federal government will have the right to come in and fine any builder and any new owner that does not comply. The same ridicuous environmental rules written by California's eco-Nazis, the rules that have bankrupted that state, will be placed on top of all of us.
Sales of existing homes will be affected by environmental rules as well. Before you can sell an existing home, you will have to have a federally licensed inspector come out and give it an energy 'rating'. This will encompass insulation, age of HVAC units, windows, doors, capacity of water tank - everything that could possibly be classified as effecting the environment will be assessed. Your house will be given a rating based upon what the inspector determines. The rating, along with all the inspection documentation MUST be provided to any potential buyer. So, if you have a house that is older than 2-3 years, you're going to take a major hit on your property's value.
There are 1200 pages of crap like this buried in this bill. The American public won't stand for it. The majority of Congress won't vote for it, Dems included. This is why these slimy bastards hid it from view until it had to be voted on.
Obama The Immaculate
Monday, June 29, 2009
Michael Jackson - My Only Comment
However, I am stunned by the amount of hypocrisy I am seeing by his fans, pundits, and media outlets. Black America, who professed their dislike and sometimes hatred of him for not being 'black enough', now praising him for being a leader of their movement. To the media outlets who delighted in showing off his antics and strange behavoir, who now run non-stop specials on how great he was. To the pundits and gossip whores who made their living attacking him, and now seek to profit from his demise. To the entertainers who shunned him, and now profess to be his best friend, stating how sad and hurt they are at his passing. To his family, who are now fighting over the scraps of his estate .....
Pathetic ....
Republican Traitors of the Day
Thank these folks who have screwed us all. Thank them by throwing them out of office...
Mary Bono Mack (CA)
Mike Castle (IL)
Mark Steven Kirk (IL)
Leonard Lance (NJ)
Frank LoBiondo (NJ)
John McHugh (NY)
Dave Reichert (WA)
Chris Smith (NJ)
It would be very interesting to review the contribution lists for these eight, to see who bought their votes.
Update - Courtesy of OpenSecrets.org, 7 of the 8 received large campaign contributions in 2008 from liberal eco- groups, such as the Sierra Club. Now we know who bought the votes ....
DO NOT BUY A DELL
Despite this, I urge you for your own good, to not buy anything from Dell.
I am at my wits end with these people on a home computer I recently purchased. Suffice it to say it doesn't work. Over the course of 25 days, I have placed 31 phone calls, and spent almost 24 hours running diagnostics and tests and trying to be understood by Indian technicians. I have been put off and put off, and now am told that since I have waited so long, I can't return it.
Dell uses Indian call centers for all of their customer support, customer service, returns, hardware and software technical support. You have no way to speak with anyone actually located in the US. I have caught their techs and managers lying in their customer records of the calls I am placing. I have had two managers hang up on me.
If you value your sanity and your money, don't buy anything from Dell ... ever.....
Republican Minority Leader in the House Grows a Pair
Earlier, he had a press conference where he blasted the bill:
I have not thought a lot of Boehner in the past, I've thought he was too quiet and not forceful enough to defend Republican interests in the House. However, my opinion of him is going up - he needs to get even stronger if we have any hopes of winning seats in the House in 2010.
House Dems Block Investigation of ACORN

Despite earlier promises made by Democrat leadership of the House (Pelosi, et al), Democrat leadership has now announced there will be no investigation of ACORN. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has long been tied to voter fraud during local and national elections. Members of ACORN have been caught signing up non-existant voters, signing up illegal voters, paying for votes, and interferring with Republican vote efforts. These are the same folks who tried to sign up the Dallas Cowboys roster for voter registration as residents of Las Vegas.
Dem Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), a radical left winger who is leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, once called for investigation, but has now backtracked and said there will be no investigation, saying that the decision had been made by 'the powers that be', but refusing to identify those powers.
ACORN is pushing hard to be an integral part of the 2010 census. Why does that matter? Information collected during the census determines a lot of very important things, including Congressional district mapping. Fooling around with the data collected would have a direct impact on the makeup of our government, where funds are distributed, etc. ACORN wants to be the data collection point - giving them a perfect opportunity to mess with the data in any way they see fit.
Unbelievable ...
Friday, June 26, 2009
Something New
I have a lot to say about the military, but don't want to clog up this page with what will be lengthy posts - no need to bore those of you who have no interest in it. If you are interested, hit the link, and get swept away to another world .....
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Do You Want Obama's Healthcare?
Obama and his cronies are flooding the media with the 'healthcare emergency', and all kinds of fact and fiction about what their plan will and will not do. It's all meant to confuse, to hide, to create an emergency that does not exist so they can force through their plan.
After some thought for a couple of days, and a 'teaching moment' this morning during Rush's broadcast, I think I can ask you three questions. Answer them honestly, and then decide if you want Obama's plan or not:
Question 1: Do you want your health care decisions made by you and your doctor? Or, do you want you healthcare defined by Obama, Congress, and a bunch of bureaucrats who will be writing the regulations?
Question 2: Do you trust the Federal Government to run healthcare, given their track record of success running social entitlement programs (such as Medicade, Social Security, and Medicare)?
Question 3: Would you take a healthcare plan that the government will not accept for itself? (Specific language has been put in the bill by Sen. Ted Kennedy that will exempt members of Congress and the Administration from provisions of the bill. These members of the Federal Government will retain their current healthcare options (which are the most generous of any in the US, and paid for completely by taxpayers), rather than be forced to use the government supplied plan.)
Provide your own answers to those three questions. No matter all the crap floating around about Obama's plan, those three answers are all you need to know to make a judgement.
Once again, Obama is going to try and ram this through Congress in a hurry, to take care of 'the emergency'. He doesn't want it seen, doesn't want it studied, doesn't want it known by the Public or members of Congress before the vote. If it is fully understood before the vote, it will not pass. If it passes and becomes law, it will be damn near impossible to get rid of it later on, no matter who is in charge.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Buzz Aldrin Loses His Mind
OMG....WTF.... This just befuddles me.....
The second man to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, has recorded a rap music tune/video. Enjoy ... "The Rocket Experience".
OMG .... WTF ....
I just really don't know what to say about this ....
Outlaw13, I am sorry you've had to see one of the space program heroes lose his mind like this.
Update - Ask, and yee shall receive ..
Largest Tax Increase in History to Become Law This Friday
Henry Waxman's climate change bill is scheduled to be voted on this Friday, the 26th. The contents of the bill, all 1200 pages of it, still have not been made available for members of the House or the general public to view. This bill has been crafted in secret by Waxman and a handful of other left wing eco-nazis. The cornerstone of the bill is Cap and Trade.
By ramming it through the House in this fashion, Pelosi, Waxman, and Obama prevent the Congress and the Public from knowing what is happening until after it's too late to do anything about it. These people are like a bunch of roaches - they do their work hidden, out of sight. Open the lid to the trashcan and shine a light on them, and they scatter. That's what they are afraid of - if Congress and the People get to see what is in this before the vote is taken, there is a very good chance enough Dems will be so sickened by it that it will not pass. They cannot allow disclosure, cannot allow us to know what they are doing.
This bill will fundamentaly change business in the United States. It will drive many companies out of business -many more will be forced to move their operations off shore. It will forever raise the amount of money each citizen has to pay in taxes and increases in energy costs. The latest estimates I have seen put the figure at $4500 per year, per citizen, in increased costs due solely to the provisions of this bill. That's PER PERSON.
Our only hope is in the US Senate. Once the House passes the bill, it goes there for modification and a vote for ratification. Modification is unlikely - Waxman worked with a few ultra-left wing Senators on the bill, dragging them into the process so that it looks like both sides of Congress produced it. Republican sponsored changes are likely not to be allowed to be heard, much less voted on. Republicans have some procedural methods they can use to stall the bill, to try and force changes or get it killed altogether. Chances of that are slim, but they've got to try.
Update - the House passed the bill late Friday afternoon, 219-212. It was a lot closer than the Dems had predicted, but you can still thank 7 a*holes for the largest tax increase in history. The close vote indicates a lot of Dems sided against the bill. We can only hope the Senate turns out differently.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Obama's Honeymoon is Over

So What?
Scientists have discovered the most uninhabited spot on Earth. It is a part of the ocean floor in the middle of the South Pacific. Ships drilling core samples have shown that the sediment from that area has fewer microbes than anywhere else known on our planet.
So what?
How much money was wasted finding this out? The scientists who ran this 'great adventure' are from the University of Rhode Island. Guess what - your tax dollars may very well have paid for this.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Why is Our Government Not Doing Something About This?

This nice looking young lady is Neda Soltan, a 26 year old Iranian woman. Neda was participating in one of the protests in Iran this past Saturday, when she was murdered by government forces. Her picture, and graphic pictures of her demise, are flooding the internet. I will not show them here - they are too graphic and disturbing. Suffice it to say she was shot in the left eye at close range, and died immediately.
What is happening in Iran right now is incredible. The vast majority of the people want to be out from under the rule of the religious fanatics and their puppets. They are fighting for their freedom. It is a wonderful chance to have this radical theocracy dethroned, and their threat to the world (in particular the US and Isreal) vanquished. Our country, the leader of the free world, ought to be doing something to help.
Instead, we have Obama and his left wing goofs. They can't figure out what to do. It took them days to release a simple statement calling for the violence to end. Wow, I bet that really rattled Ahmadinejad's cage. He and Hillary just won't come out and do anything to help these people.
Obama has put himself in a corner, with his stupid 'reach out to Muslims' speech in Egypt. He doesn't want to take any stance in the uprising, because he doesn't want to anger his new 'friends' in the Iranian government. He wants to be the neutral diplomat, and make nicey nice with whomever wins.
The Iraqis rose up against Hussein after the First Gulf War. Bush 41 and Clinton screwed up by not helping them - letting Hussein murder them and put down the uprising. Look at what happened, and where we are now because of it. We're about to make the same mistake with Iran. What will be the consequences, what will Iran look like 10 years from now if we don't help?
Rest in Peace, Neda. The thoughts and prayers of many Americans are with you and your cause, even if our government isn't.
Update - Yesterday, June 23, Obama held a news conference to make a statement to address the situation. He used some tough diplomatic words, and promised consequences. Fine. That should have been your first statement on the subject days ago. By waiting until now, it appears correctly so, that you're just saying it to blunt the torrents of criticism you've gotten from your lack of action.
When pressed by the press corps to define 'consequences', Obama got visibly upset with the reporter, cutting him off, stating he had answered the question. He then made his most telling statement to date ... "We don't know yet how this thing is going to play out" ... a window into his soul. He's going to wait until a victor emerges before he commits himself to anything. Sit on the sideline and then play nicey nice with whoever wins.
Obama's primary concern with what is going on in Iran is that it makes him look bad. In His mind, the overtures of 'friendship' he has made to the radical Islamists should be enough to make them throw down their arms and dance around the campfire with him. The fact that one of the primary targets of his overtures is doing this (Iran) after he tried to embrace them really pisses him off.
Mark Davis, conservative rado talk show host in the DFW area, has an excellent Op Ed in the Dallas Morning News this morning on the situation ... well worth the read if you have the time ...
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-markdavis_0624edi.State.Edition1.231695d.html
A Choice That Texans Shouldn't Have to Make

Next year's race for the Governor's office is going to force Texans to make a choice they don't want to make - select one of two competent, popular Republicans for the office.
Although portions of Texas have leaned more to the left in recent years, statewide elections are still overwhelmingly won by Republicans. Democrat gains are in larger cities, with large minority populations, so they gain in local elections and for local representation in state and US Congress houses, but the Governor's house belongs to the GOP. So, the person who wins the Republican primary will undoubtedly be the next Governor.
Rick Perry, current Governor, was George Bush's second in command in 2000, when W resigned to go to Washington. Taking W's place int he big house, Rick won election in 2002, and again in 2006. He has been a competent Governor, and although he hasn't done all that conservatives would like, what politician does? His work speaks for itself - Texas has a balanced budget, and has not had to raise taxes significantly in many years. Rick wants to return to the Governor's office for another term.
Kay Bailey Hutchison, the senior US Senator from Texas, has announced that she will oppose Rick in the Governor's race. Sen. Hutchison, first elected to the Senate in 1993, has done a wonderful job of representing our state in Washington, and is one of the most respected women in national politics. Kay wants to return to Texas to spend more time with her family, but still wants to be on the political stage.
So, two good, dependable, respected Republicans want the same office. Do I vote for the man who has run our state well for a decade? Or do I vote for the woman who has represented Texas in Washington very well for 16 years? For the office of Governor, it's a win/win. For the State of Texas, and the GOP, its a lose/lose. One of these two could very well be out of politics next year.
Chances are very good that the race to fill Kay Bailey's Senate seat next year will be won by a Republican, though Democrats have announced they will campaign for the office harder than ever before.
My ultimate solution would be for these two to swap jobs - Kay Bailey to Austin, Rick to Washington. I have no doubt that if they decided to do that, they would both win their elections. However, I haven't heard a peep about that from anyone down here ....

This is Economic Stimulus?

Sunday, June 21, 2009
Most Overrated Driver in IndyCar - Going to NASCAR?

Saturday, June 20, 2009
Cletus and Bubba's Excellent Adventure

Friday, June 19, 2009
To the Honorable Senator Boxer .....


NIH - One Big Waste of Taxpayer Money
While some of these studies are no doubt important, you've also got the incredible waste that comes with a government agency:
$423,500 for a current study of why heterosexual men don't like to use condoms.
$400,000 for a Buenos Aires study of bars to find out why gay men engage in risky behavoir while drunk.
$2,600,000 for a study of Chinese prostitutes to see how to get them to drink less while on the job.
$178,000 for a study of Thai prostitutes to see why those who are addicted to drugs have higher rates of HIV infection.
OK, that's about $4 million wasted on four absolutely useless studies that serve no point except to line the pockets of 'researchers'. $4 million isn't much in the grand Obama scheme of things, but damn ... that's a lot of our money thrown away!
I grant you that this waste did not start with Obama, but it is surely getting worse by the day due to his edicts.
Update - A couple more garbage cans our money is being thrown into (though not by the NIH, government nonetheless):
$100,000 grant available for the Recovery of the Wyoming Toad Program. A hundred grand to someone who can breed frogs, offered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
$10,000,000 offered by the US Agency for International Development, for the purpose of providing support to improve basic education in Cambodia.
Obama's Czars - UnConstitutional and Illegal
Steven Rattner, Obama's car czar, currently in charge of GM and Chrysler .....

Thursday, June 18, 2009
O-TV - All Obama, All The Time, Part Deaux
Obama will use this to lie to the American people about his health care initiative. He will spew propoganda, and answer a few seeded questions, selected and approved by his handlers. There will be one or two softball questions about 'socialized medicine', phrased in such a way so that he can make the subject look ridiculous.
The really dispicable thing about this is that ABC will not provide air time for any opposing views or proposals. No time for Republicans or any others with differing points of view will be provided. Private organizations opposed to his plans have tried to BUY commercial time during this 'event' to put forth their ideas, and ABC has refused them.
ABC has swooned at the feet of Obama, and given control over to him. All major news outlets except for Fox are in the tank for him, but this is the first network to actually turn over the keys to the building to him. Shame on these people. I have no idea how their news 'journalists' can look at themselves in the mirror.
State run media ... one more step towards socialism ....
Update - Obama's ABC infomercial drew very few viewers, placing dead last in ratings for its time slot of all network programming. Fox News Channel's programming for the same hour drew 10 times as many viewers.
Pudge Rodriguez - a Class Act

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Obama's Dirty Little Health Care Secret
If he gets his way, the government starts providing health care insurance to those who can't get it from their employers or can't afford it on their own. The twist he won't talk about is that if the government does indeed do this, employers will stop providing health insurance as a benefit for their employees. It would be financially stupid for employers not to take advantage of this and reduce their costs. Therefore, many, many people who enjoy good health coverage from their employers will lose it, and be lumped into the 'no choice, get in line, take what we give you' program the government will be running.
Obama will stand up there and tell us that those with current health coverage will continue to have it - they won't be forced to give it up. Bullshit. He's lying through his teeth, and betting that no one will counter him with enough force to stop him.
This country is headed toward socialized medicine. Ask the people in countries who have socialized, one source, government supplied health care how they like it. Countries like England, Canada, New Zealand, Cuba ..... Ask them how they like not having a choice of doctor - how they like not having a choice of treatment - how they like being told that they don't qualify for specific tests or treatment - how they like being told that sorry, you're over the age limit for receiving treatment, it's not cost effective - or how they like paying at least 50% of their income in taxes to pay for it.
The Clintons were shot down in the mid '90s when they tried to implement government run medicine. Obama's plan is much worse than what they tried to do. He's got to be stopped!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sen. Tom Coburn, Republican Hero of the Day

I Gotta Have One of These ...

The Cult of " I "

Sunday, June 14, 2009
I Hate the Red Wings

I hate the Red Wings. They are the Yankees of hockey - so good they feel they are entitled to the championship each and every year. Like the Yankees, they are bigger than Detroit itself - fans all over the country and world, simply because they've been good for so long. Hockey fans either love or hate the Red Wings - there is no middle ground, and it is pretty much an even split. Google 'I hate the Red Wings' and see how many hits you get.....
During this past season, I saw an infant sized shirt for sale in the Stars store. It didn't even have a Stars logo on it. All it said, in red on white, was 'I Can't Even Walk Yet, and I Hate the Red Wings'. Every two year old should have one.
As I strolled down Bourbon Street this past Friday night, I watched the big screens in the bars as Pittsburgh went up 1-0, then 2-0, then as Detroit stormed back and furiously tried to tie it in the last couple of minutes. You could hear an audible gasp up and down the crowded street when time ran out and the final whistle announced death of the Red Wings. Joy to the World!
I am happy for two Penguins, Phillipe Boucher and Bill Guerin, two former Dallas Stars. They were great players while here, and first class guys. (Guerin is #13 in the photo below, scoring over a mass of discombobulated Red Wing defenders.)

So, while my Stars are retooling for the upcoming season and already planning for training camp, I am happy to be able to call the Red Wings 'losers' for the whole upcoming year!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
This Guy is a Freaking Liar!

This is just sickening ....
The French government is awarding the Legion of Merit to Howard Manoian, a vet who parachuted with the 82nd airborne into Normandy on D-Day.
Problem is, it didn't happen...
Manoian has been telling his story to vet groups, news organizations, and anyone who would listen about his exploits on D-Day, beginning with his jump and culminating in his wounding in both legs by shrapnel. In recent years, members of vet groups have been questioning his account's variety - one vet rememered that he told three different stories about where he landed during one single vet's group meeting.
Manoian actually was a member of the 33rd Chemical Decontamination unit, came ashore on Utah beach late on D-Day, and spent the next few weeks working in a supply dump near the beach. His 'wounds' were actually a fractured finger. His assignment has been confirmed through payroll records and unit rosters.
Manoian stands by his story(stories) to this day. He lives in Saint Mere-Eglise in France, site of heroic actions by paratroopers during D-Day. His awarding of the Legion was to take place in the Airborne Museum located here.
The French government is aware of the issue, and has stated that even though there is uncertainty, they were still going to go ahead with the award, since Manoian is confirmed to have participated in D-Day is some way. I guess they just didn't want the embarrassment of pulling back the award after issuing the invitations.
This has been a big problem for years - phony war heros who lie about what they did in order to profit - whether for money, or the adulation of the public it doesn't matter. It is still lying about one of the most sacred honors there is - recognition for service and heroism in battle. There have been accounts published about some WWII vets, and a lot of Vietnam vets who have been caught misrepresenting themselves over the years. I don't want to politicize this, but Sen. John Kerry's lying about his service and the affect it had on his presidential campaign are a very public example.
These guys are actually breaking the law by doing this, but there isn't a lot of effort to bring them to justice.
Shame on these people for disrespecting the memory of those who actually were heroes ....
Oncor/Obama Energy - What a Bunch of Thieves

Friday, June 5, 2009
This Guy is a Freaking Liar!

Thursday, June 4, 2009
David Carradine - RIP
Like most folks of our generation, my introduction to David was his role as 'Caine' in the early '70s series 'Kung Fu'. He appeared in over 100 feature films, the most recent of note being 'Kill Bill Vol.2"
David was a wierd duck, but I enjoyed everything I saw him act in. His manner of slow speech and movement, along with his 'Kung Fu' background, gave him an aura of Far East wisdom (even in his performances of 'Wild West Tech' on the History Channel!).
The articles I've seen about his passing indicated he had suicidal tendencies for years - I don't know what troubled him, but I hope he's found peace.
Monday, June 1, 2009
The People Who Know Socialism Best Like Obama
American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper
"It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.
True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.
Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.
First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.
Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.
The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.
These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, losses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison.
Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in sheer volumes. Should we congratulate them?" - Pravda, June 1, 2009
How much does it say about our population's ignorance when our biggest (former) enemy recognizes what is going on in this country clearer than almost any airheaded liberal. Russians/Soviets KNOW what Socialism is - they know intimately what Communism is - and they have suffered under it and its failure for almost a century. 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and their country is still trying to recover from what Socialism did to it. Now, they look at what is happening here, and they are laughing their asses off - the country that beat them in the Cold War is falling to the same disease that toppled them - liberalism/socialism/communism - whatever you wish to call it.
Obama DoJ: Don't Mess With Our Voters!
The ACLU, Latino immigrant rights groups, the NAACP, and more filed suit to block the purge of voter roles. They and their precious Democrat party are scared to death of losing two of their most important voter groups - illegals and dead folks. Obama's DoJ agreed wholeheartedly, and blocked the purge.
You know, when you're completely in charge and your opposition is scared to death of offending minorities, you can get away with crap like this.