The Game, the BCS, why a rematch is a bad idea & other stuff

I’ve never been a fan of the BCS. The mythical National Champion of college football suited me fine. I liked the “what if” banter of “if we played you guys, there’s no way that silly putty defense of yours would be able to stop our running game.” The BCS just further confuses these discussions by “crowning” a non-champion champion.

The BCS still crowns a mythical champion. But it does so with all of the pomp and certainty of a Britney Spears wedding, and the BCS is as big a sham. How many learned college football fans are still claiming that USC was just a breath away from winning three consecutive national championships after last year’s loss to Texas? USC hadn’t even won two BCS national titles. That’s right, USC had an impressive one in row BCS titles when they kicked off against Texas. Still the myth of USC’s elusive third National Championship continues.

And how does the BCS decide America’s beloved National College Football Champion? With a computer, that’s how. That’s right, the same technology that might declare you dead years before your time but is incapable of bringing you back life, even if you present yourself, jumping rope while singing God Bless America before the very clerk who declared you dead, is choosing our national college football champion. The same technology that prevents an “Honor Roll” public school student working the McDonald’s cash register from making change from a dollar for a $.50 Coke because “the computer is down” is picking our college football national champion.

“The Computer”??? What the… This is America by God. We, or our representatives (coaches and sportswriters), should get to vote!!!!

If Democrats in congress want to investigate something, the hell with the Iraq war, look into the travisty of justice that is...theBCS.

The bottom line upfront:
OSU and Michigan each played a nearly flawless first half. OSU led at the half by two touchdowns. Michigan played a nearly flawless second half. OSU didn’t. OSU turned the ball over three times and dropped a handful passes. OSU led at the end of the game by three. Michigan played a nearly flawless game and still lost to an OSU team plagued by second half mistakes. A rematch is a bad idea.

Overall:
It was a GREAT GAME that lived up to the hype.
OSU was in control throughout the game.
OSU dominated statistically – first downs, rushing, passing, time of possession were all in OSU’s favor by significant margins.
OSU committed 3 turnovers in the second half resulting in - at a minimum – a 6 point swing.
Officials were good. (Would they be that good in a rematch?)
I get the not hitting the center if his head is down rule, but shouldn’t the center have to raise his head up after a two count once the ball is snapped?

Why a rematch is a bad idea.
1. If Michigan wins, will there be rubber match? No. After a 1-1 split, OSU will be Big 10 Champs, Michigan will be National Champs. If Michigan gets a rematch after losing, shouldn’t OSU? A rematch is a bad idea.
2. If OSU wins, Southern Cal, Notre Dame, Florida, Arkansas will all be saying that the Big 10 is full of weak sisters. All will claim, “we could have beaten OSU.” A rematch is a bad idea.
3. A rematch will be anti-climatic. In a rematch, OSU won’t turn the ball over 3 times in the second half. OSU coach Jim Tressel will keep the play book open for the entire game. Michigan will lack the Bo factor. OSU will win by 3 TD’s sparking point #2. A rematch is a bad idea.
4. Given OSU’s current and year long lead in the BCS, even if they lose, OSU may wind up ahead in the BCS computer poll. A rematch is a bad idea.

Brent Musburger again proved why he ought to quit the booth. His comment about Mike Hart getting the Heisman, if Michigan won, was beyond dumb. That was only one of a dozen idiotic comments. By the way Brent, OSU’s Antonio Pitman had 139 yards rushing – only 3 less than Hart on 5 less rushes. Too bad Keith Jackson can’t announce every college football game played.

What’s up with Bob Hunter? In his Sunday column in the Columbus Dispatch, he blasts former OSU Coach John Cooper saying Cooper couldn’t beat Mich with the ’72 Dolphins disguised as the Buckeyes. Then he slights current OSU Coach Jim Tressel’s 5 wins against Michigan by saying, well after all, 3 of them were with Troy Smith at QB. I thought you needed at least eleven for a football team. Then Hunter argues against himself intimating that Troy Smith alone is better than the entire ’72 Dolphins when he writes “wouldn’t Cooper have liked to have had Smith” during the ‘90s. Coop brought great talent to OSU – 3-4 legit National Champ contenders. His teams won a lot of games, but sadly only ONE of them was against Michigan – thus he had to go.

Michigan agrees to give Ohio State its gameplan for Saturday's game!

Ohio State’s head football coach Jim Tressel has asked Michigan head football coach Lloyd Carr for help cracking a stubborn Michigan defense in time for Saturday’s 3:30 kick-off between Tressel’s #1 Buckeyes and Carr’s #2 Wolverines. Carr has agreed to help - if Tressel will spot the Wolverines 14 points and agree that Ohio State’s Heisman Trophy candidate Troy Smith cannot rush the football past the line of scrimmage and must throw left handed. Tressel is seriously considering the offer. Tressel said, “look, nobody knows the Michigan defense better than Lloyd. Whatever advice he might give us I’m sure will be helpful. Why wouldn’t Lloyd want to help us beat Michigan?”

The only thing slightly dopier than the above scenario is the one where the US would sit down with Iran and Syria to discuss stabilizing Iraq. Here’s a newsflash: The Iranians and Syrians are the ones destabilizing Iraq. They do it because it is in their interest to keep Democracy and the US out of the Middle East. There is nothing short of giving Iran nukes and Syria a further guarantee of that their support of Hezbollah and other Islamo-terror-fascists groups will continue go unpunished that would cause them to even appear to be helpful. Any help they offer will be temporary, halfhearted and self-serving. Within months of any agreement, the “help” would cease altogether with the two blaming us for the failure. It’s idiocy of the highest order.

You want Iran’s and Syria’s help in Iraq? Simple, you depose the Islamo-terror-fascists’ supporting governments in those two countries. Lex called for expansion of the war into Syria months ago. Nothing short of regime change or a serious threat of it will cause these two to be helpful or even neutral. It’s just not in their interest.

GBBM

Reality for Dems: Decisions have consequences

It was General George Marshall who worried that a democracy could not sustain a war footing for more than six years. So, faced with a persistently belligerent Japan in 1945, General Marshall advocated a “quick” end to WWII by invading the Japanese mainland – a strategy that was sure to cause severe allied casualties. The alternate strategy called for conducting a lengthy blockade and bombing campaign to starve the Japanese out. The latter strategy might have taken years longer, and itself resulted in significant additional casualties in addition to more favorable surrender conditions for the Japanese. But as we all know, the Little Boy and Fat Man nuclear bombs pretty much settled the question.

19 March, 2007 will mark the 4th anniversary of the Iraq war. Prior to the elections, our MSM were telling us that we’re tired of fighting. What the MSM never tells us is that we’re fighting for our very survival. When faced with that reality, we might get a sudden burst of energy and the will to continue.

So we’re all tired of the fight. Let’s just surrender, uh I mean “redeploy” wink, wink. Well that’s essentially what the Democrats ran on in last week’s election. Now faced with reality and the burden of the consequences for their decisions, thoughtful Democrats, a rare bird indeed, are not so sure that a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq is in America’s best interest.

Even while the far left loons call for immediate surrender, their MSM allies are trying to save them from themselves. Not a week after the election, the heretofore antiwar NY Times now says maybe we shouldn’t be rushed out of Iraq. The generals - Zini, Baptiste etc. - once in “revolt” and who lampooned the administration’s “stay the course” policy, are now calling for a course which requires us to stay. House Blue Dogs, faced with a choice for Leader between a corrupt antiwar demagogue or a middle of the road (for Dems anyway) “we just may need the course we’re on to be stayed awhile” type, may just buck their “leadership” and opt for the middle of the road guy.

Lex has noted that the Dems would find that it is a lot easier to shout from the sidelines than actually make a play in the big game.

Glenn Beck exposes Rage Boy tonight on CNN Headline Prime @ 7

 

If immigration is THE domestic issue for the 110th congress, the global war on terror is THE key foreign, international and national survival issue. I’m sure we all agree that while Islamo-terror-fascists are blowing up national symbols of wealth and power, busses, cafes, cars, shopping malls, power plants, oil refineries, religious sites, museums, antiquities, tourist attractions or chopping off heads of infidels and while other Muslim believers pursue nuclear weapons, most peace loving Muslims are content to simply sit quietly while the nut jobs pursue a Middle East then world-wide Caliphate on their behalf. Those who remain silent are as dangerous as those who commit atrocities on their behalf.

Democrats are fond of calling Iraq “George Bush’s war.” Democrats call it George Bush’s war in spite of the fact that a good many Democrats voted for the war – including His A*@holiness John Kerry and the nation’s Nurse Ratchet, Hillary. Then when things got tough they lied and said they were lied to. But they were persistent in their criticism of the war they once voted for and its management. Aided by a MSM’s drip, drip, drip of casualties and pictures of burning vehicles and buildings without one word of context, the Democrats swept to power last Tuesday. Now that they are in power, it will be the Dems who will be responsible for our defeat in Iraq and ceding of the Middle East to the ITFs. But as the Democrats are sure to learn, it’s easier to carp from the sideline than actually play the game, particularly when national survival hangs in the balance.

First, if it is any one person’s war, Iraq is really Osama bin Laden’s war. Bin Laden is the one who has claimed that Iraq is the central front in the ITF’s pursuit of the world-wide Caliphate. This is what’s so frustrating. The ITFs are telling us everything we need to know about them. We will not listen. They have declared war on us over and over and over. We worry more about gas going over $2.50 than national survival. They tell us over and over that they want us all dead, but we worry more about MSM fake stories about Koran flushing, torture and whether the movies at G’itmo are appropriate for the tender sensibilities of the murdering bastards and if there is enough popcorn our “guests.” They shout over and over and over again, death to the West, while we worry whether the term Islamo-terror-fascist offends the very Islamo-terror-fascists trying to kill us. It’s insane.

They are telling us everything we need to know about them. We will not listen. Tonight at 7 on CNN Headline Prime, Glenn Beck will present the facts about the people we are at war with. Watch it. Get everyone you know to watch it, especially your Democrat friends.

Time for a third party?

I had an interesting conversation over the weekend. A young family guy with a small business told me had sat out the last election. This might explain how the Republicans took such a drubbing last Tuesday. Here’s a guy that fit precisely into the Republican voting mold – white male, outdoorsman with a family and a small business. But for the first time since he was eligible, he didn’t vote. When I asked him why he didn’t vote, he asked me what the turn out was for the election. I said in my district it was high, about 40%. Then he asked, “isn’t not voting a way of voting?” What does it say about our political parties when 60% of voters don't vote for anyone?

I suppose when faced with two bad choices, the principled thing to do would be to reject both. Sort of like if I were faced with choosing between ABC’s and CBS’s evening news coverage, I’d turn the TV off and go for a walk. Maybe that’s what 60% of the voters do every election cycle. Maybe they are not all as misinformed and/or apathetic as civics teachers and political pundits make them out to be. Maybe some percentage of the 60% is in fact the most principled among us.

We are told that America is an equally divided country. So if the 40% that vote is divided roughly 20-20 and just over a third of the 60% that don’t vote are of the principled variety, that would create a voting block capable of sweeping a third candidate to victory.

Two posts under, the Griffin notes that if the Democrats continue with politics as usual the time may be right for the rise of a third party. Third parties always seem to be the answer but they never seem to materialize. One reason is the winner take all Electoral College system. The founders wanted a way to insure a two party system. They did not want a system where the vote for president could be so fractured and diluted by multiple candidates that someone with a plurality of 30% could be elected president.

2008 is an odd year. Neither the president nor the vice president will be a candidate. There are no atractive leading candidates in either party right now. How about a third party McCain Liebermann ticket? It might be difficult for the hard right candidate sure to come out of the Republican primary and the hard left candidate sure to come out of the Democrat primary to compete with a third choice such as McCain Liebermann. Just 22% of the 60% of non-voters might set such a third party try on the road to victory.

The Weekly Punctilio: Immigration

This week’s Weekly Punctilio Award as the dopiest thing to apear in the Ft. Wayne, Journal Gazette, goes to Andrea Bates for this piece on immigration. Ms. Bates it seems would have one’s economic status as the only criteria for people who want to enter the US. As long as you happen to be poor and from a “third world” country, Ms. Bates would throw down the welcome mat.

I don’t know Ms. Bates but I’ll bet she’s an older woman who lives in a gated community. She probably has a nice yard maintained by a Hispanic crew for $25-$30 a week. She probably has a nice house that is cleaned once a week by a nice Hispanic lady for $20-$25 a week. She probably jetted down south of the border one winter, flying first or business class with her husband. She might have stayed in a nice hotel. Then one day, she strolled into town and noticed the poor children selling Chicklettes and beaded bracelets in the streets and was touched. So now she just wants to open the border, but not HER house of course. The only contact Ms. Bates would ever expect to have with these people is to tell them what needs to be cleaned.

But she’s got it bassackwards. We shouldn’t be promoting an unrestricted flow of poor, uneducated day laborers into the country to become a permanent underclass sympathetic to Democrat and socialist causes and who do “the work Americans won’t do.” We should be looking for educated, highly skilled workers to do the work Americans can’t do because our public schools and universities are more interested diversity and socialist propaganda than making sure Johnny can read, write, add, subtract, multiply and divide.

THE defining domestic issue for the Democrat controlled congress in the next session will be immigration. Will the Democrats and President Bush succeed in their effort to establish an open border with Mexico and amnesty for the 15 million illegal aliens who are already here? Or can common sense Republicans and blue dogs stop the insanity that the president wants to foist on us? I don’t know.

But as surely as I’m sitting here touch typing, the 15 million illegal aliens will grow to 100 million then 150 million. See, what the politicians won’t tell us is that every one of the 15 million amnesty recipients will then be allowed to invite their extend families to America. These people will then be eligible for all the perks afforded any US citizen even though they will have paid little or nothing to support those programs. Already strained, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and other welfare programs will break under the weight of recipients who never paid into them.

Then what? At that point you have two options. You can either reduce benefits or raise taxes. Guess which direction Democrats will choose. All of Europe is currently riding this out of control socialist model off of a cliff. We’d better learn or we’re sure to follow. Republicans would be smart to get well right of the president on this issue for ’08.

Happy Birthday Marines!

We’ll get back to politics on Monday. Today is too important a day to waste on such trivial matters as politics, world hunger, nuclear Armageddon, or the Spears/K-Fed break up. Today marks the 231st birthday of the United States Marine Corps. As such, anywhere two or more Marines or former Marines are gathered there will be a celebration.

My best Marine Corps birthday ever was spent with the best Marine ever (from my personal experience anyway) - one R. Geoffrey Houck. We were in the field in Korea camped in a valley along what was then and probably still is projected to be the North’s main axis of advance toward Seoul known as Nightmare Range. It was colder than a fat man’s wife after he arrives home from a three day drunk with a row of hickies on his neck and the clap. We were hunkered down in a small tent with more holes in it than an eight year old’s alibi for “who ate the cookies?”

There was no big celebration that year. No fancy uniforms. No band or big dinner. We were just a couple of lieutenants struggling against the wind and cold to concoct a witches brew c-rat stew in a steel pot helmet over one of those temperamental squad stoves that had three categories of operation – works perfectly – doesn’t work at all – burns your tent down when it explodes.

While cooking, concocting and trying to stay warm, we swapped sea stories (all of which began with the same preamble, “This is a no-sh%$!er. We were drinking one night when…). Well the stove worked perfectly that night and the stew was not too bad. That is until Houck decided to spice it up by adding some c-rat peanut butter, at which point it became pretty much inedible.

Happy Birthday Marines! Surprise a Marine by wishing him a happy birthday today.

Below are Generals Haggee’s and LeJeune’s messages along with the resolution which formed the Marine Corps and today’s Marine Corps mission.

Commandant Hagee’s Message

On November 10th, 1775, our Corps was born as the Continental Congress raised the "first and second battalions of American Marines." Each Year as we celebrate our birthday, we pause to reflect on the Marines of yesteryear who fought in our touchstone battles and forged the modern Marine Corps with their courage, integrity, and undying commitment to their fellow Marines. Each of our storied battles is a link in the long chain that binds all Marines together- from the Continental Marines at Bunker Hill to the Teufelhunden crossing the wheat fields of Belleau Wood. This chain binds us to the Marines on the crest of Mount Suribachi; it passes through the ice and snow of Chosin Reservoir and the steaming jungles of Vietnam, and it anchors firmly today in the sands of Iraq.

This year's celebration again finds many from our ranks, serving with distinction in harm's way. As we have for the past 231 years, our Corps is answering the Nation's call. I can report first hand that our Marines fighting on the front lines of the Long War on Terror are performing brilliantly, acquitting themselves with honor, dedication, and dignity in difficult and dangerous environments.

All Marines are making a difference. Regardless of where you are serving, you are adding new chapters to the legacy that was earned with sweat and blood on old battlefields. Just as previous generations of Marines shaped today's Marine Corps, your deeds are molding the Corps of tomorrow. Our Corps has never been stronger, and all Americans are extremely proud of your magnificent performance and unwavering commitment to server our Corps and country. With high caliber Marines like you, our future has never been brighter.

Another irreplaceable element of our success as Marines is the terrific support we receive from our families. Through the long hours, the exercises, and the combat deployments, their support is unconditional and firm. They give us love and devotion, providing us with the strength to drive on when duty calls. Today we should all acknowledge our loved ones for their patient, steadfast service.

To all who have earned the title Marine, to the superb Sailors who serve with us in every clime and place, and to our precious families- I wish each one of you a heartfelt Happy 231st Birthday. Semper Fidelis and Keep Attacking!

M. W. Hagee
General, U.S. Marine Corps

Commandant LEJEUNE'S MESSAGE10 November 1921:

This date marked the first formal commemoration of the birthday of the Marine Corps as 10 November. On 21 October 1921, Maj Edwin McClellan, OIC of the Historical Section, HQMC, sent a memo to MajGen Commandant John A. Lejeune, suggesting that the original birthday of 10 November 1775 be declared a Marine Corps holiday to be celebrated throughout the Corps. Accordingly, on 1 Nov 1921, Gen Lejeune issued Marine Corps Order No. 47 summarizing the history, mission, and tradition of the Corps, and directed that it be read to every command each 10 November. In keeping with the wishes of the 13th Commandant Marine Corps Order #47 is republished today, as follows:

On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines was created by a resolution of the Continental Congress. Since that date, many thousand men have borne the name Marine. In memory of them, it is fitting that we who are Marines should commemorate the Birthday of our Corps by calling to mind the glories of its long and illustrious history. The record of our Corps is one which will bear comparison with that of the most famous military organizations in the world's history.

During 90 of the 146 years of its existence the Marine Corps has been in action against the nations foes. From the battle of Trenton to the Argonne, Marines have won foremost honors in war, and in the long eras of tranquility at home. Generation after generation of Marines have grown gray in war in both hemispheres and in every corner of the seven seas that our country and its citizens might enjoy peace and security.

In every battle and skirmish since the birth of our Corps Marines have acquitted themselves with the greatest distinction, winning new honors on each occasion until the term Marine has come to signify all that is highest in military efficiency and soldierly virtue.

This high name of distinction and soldierly repute we who are Marines today have received from those who preceded us in the Corps. With it we also received from them the eternal spirit which has animated our Corps from generation to generation and has been the distinguishing mark of the Marines in every age. So long as that spirit continues to flourish Marines will e found equal to every emergency in the future as they have been in the past, and the men of our nation will regard us as worthy successors to the long line of illustrious men who have served as "Soldiers of the Sea" since the founding of the Corps.

The inspiring message of the 13th Commandant has left its mark in the hearts and minds of all Marines. By deed and act from Trenton to the shores of Tripoli to the Argonne Forest, to Iwo Jima, in interventions from Lebanon, Grenada, and Panama, and from the opening battles in Vietnam, the Gulf War and today in America’s new war on terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world, Marines have continued to epitomize those qualities which are their legacy. The success which they have achieved in combat and the faith they have borne in peace will continue - Happy birthday to Marines, former Marines and friends of Marines.

Birth of the Corp

On November 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, PA adopted a secret resolution that formally established a military organization whose fame and tradition was destined to achieve prominence in the annals of American warfare. The resolution reads:

Resolved--That two battalions of Marines be raised consisting of one colonel, two lieutenant colonels, two majors and officers as usual in other regiments; That they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that particular care be taken that no persons be appointed to office or enlisted into said battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with Maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea, when required. That they be enlisted and commissioned for and during the present war between Great Britain and the colonies, unless dismissed by order of Congress: That they be distinguished by the names of the 1st and 2d Battalions of American Marines, and that they be considered as part of the number, which the continental Army before Boston is ordered to consist of.

Mission

The Marine Corps, within the Department of the Navy, shall be so organized as to include not less than three combat divisions and three air wings, and such other land combat, aviation and other services as may be organic therein.

The Marines Corps shall be organized, trained, and equipped to provide fleet marine forces of combined arms, together with supporting air components, for service with the fleet in the seizure or defense of advanced naval bases and for the conduct of such land operations as may be essential to the prosecution of a naval campaign.

In addition, the Marine Corps shall provide detachments and organizations for service on armed vessels of the Navy, shall provide security detachments for the protection of naval property at naval stations and bases, and shall perform such other duties as the President may direct. However, these additional duties may not detract from or interfere with the operations for which the Marine Corps is primarily organized.

The Marine Corps shall develop, in coordination with the Army and the Air Force, those phases of amphibious operations that pertain to the tactics, techniques, and equipment used by landing forces.

The Marine Corps is responsible, in accordance with integrated joint mobilization plans, for the expansion of peacetime components of the Marine Corps to meet the needs of war.

Will Dems make impeachment secondary to security?

The Griffin weighs in:

My darkest fear is that just like the days, months, years, leading up to 9-11, that the other non-issues will take the spotlight as we lose focus on fighting terrorism. When Bill Clinton became president I recall telling my wife that we should give him a chance. Let’s see what he can do! I respect the office and the fortitude it takes to reach this pinnacle. As I awaited the leadership qualities to emerge on the great issues of 1993, we were inundated the first 8 months with the burning topic of gays in the military. It was endless. There was hand wringing, crying, and intense self medicating going on with every Hollywood film star, every liberal, and with every staffer in the Clinton administration. Hillary was pissed (as usual) and Slick Willy’s bottom lip was chewed raw. In the meantime wacko terrorists were drawing X’s and O’s as they planned the first attack on the WTC. As I awaited the great investigation that would undoubtedly exceed Sherlock Holmes’ wildest dreams, Bill Clinton was playing Johnny Holmes in the White House. Eventually we indicted and convicted those on our soil, but those in the shadows in foreign countries that planned and trained the attack were sipping tea and eating camel cheese in places like Sudan and Afghanistan. The seeds of 9-11 were being nurtured.

As the democrats retake the House and possibly the Senate, they cannot be allowed to fail the American people again as Bill Clinton did in the 1990’s. As they sober up this morning, they must remember that more than ever they are obligated to hold all other issues as secondary. With the rhetoric of the election over, one truth should shine through to all those entrusted to protect this nations citizens from all enemies be they foreign or domestic. That truth is that they have requested and received from their fellow citizens a greater responsibility, as was given President Bush in 2000 and 2004, to protect this nation. The blame for the next attack, which will occur, should as always rest squarely on the shoulders of the murderers that did conceive, plan, and carry out that attack. If anything less than the best efforts of those entrusted with the security of our nation to prevent another 9-11 is given, if in fighting and squabbling over minor issues is consuming their time and wasting ours, and if the political fractures of the past grow wider as they choose to ignore those groups that wish kill us because we are Americans, if our families, friends, and fellow citizens are sacrificed at a political altar built by small minded politicians, the American public will lose further confidence in both parties to resolve all issues large and small. This will be the birth of a third party which will take from the democrats and republicans to form a serious and competitive national movement. The 2006 midterm elections should be interred into our history books, not as a loss of confidence in George Bush or the Republican Party, but as a loss of confidence in America ’s political system to produce politicians that put America first. Graf, corruption, scandal, deceit, pettiness, and self-aggrandizement, cannot continue while our citizens are being threatened and murdered. The winds of political change are still blowing. They did not stop on November 7, 2006.

The Griffin sends.

How bad was it?

Wphew that was a good ol’ fashion arse whippin’.

But as in everything in life, some good news comes from adversity.

- It’s over- almost VA and MT to go! No more commercials or polls or endless prognosticating.


- The sun came up this morning. That’s right, even as the Democrats stand poised to gain control of both houses, the sun has come up. That means that the Democrats will now have to show their cards and stand for something. Carping at Bush and Rumsfeld will not be enough. They’ll actually have to provide some ideas. Scary. They will soon learn that it’s much easier to carp from the sidelines showing where the strong man stumbled than to get inside the arena of ideas and solve things.

- America survived Jimmy Carter, we’re likely to survive this as well.

- Bush won’t back down. There is nothing in his character or any evidence that President Bush will now roll over and play dead. This is important particularly in Iraq.

- Many elected Democrats are more moderate than the fringe lunatics that run the party. Hopefully, when the inevitable Iraq cut and run legislation comes up, the moderate Dems will recognize the tragedies of Viet Nam and Afghanistan and demand a strategy for victory in Iraq. Victory in Iraq is the one thing that never crosses a Democrat mind. But this is deadly serious business. If the Democrats quit Iraq ceding it to terrorists they will, in the process, so destabilize the world that they will pay politically for it for decades.

- Democrat majorities will be paper thin – less than the 15 seat working majority that Reps held before the election. That gives those moderate Dems the hammer. Ronald Reagan masterfully built a winning coalition with blue dog Democrats. But Reagan was also a wildly popular president. Can Bush get his approval numbers up? I think the next time Rumsfeld offers his resignation, Bush, sadly, will accept it. Some non-descript, non-political titan of industry will step in as Sec-Def and Bush will get a 5 point bump in popularity until Democrats revert to form and start trashing the new guy.

- Republicans may actually get back in touch with the base and start talking about low taxes, less spending and smaller government.

- John Kerry mercifully so badly mismanaged the aftermath of his Freudian slip that he’s likely done as a presidential hopeful. But, nobody holds a higher opinion of Kerry than Kerry, so he may have to be slapped down one more time.

The Bad News

- It starts all over again now for the 2008 Presidential Election. A preening MSM will be tell conservatives how they better get behind a moderate like McCain if they don’t want to lose the White House as well. There will be never ending polls showing how only the MSM’s anointed one John McCain can beat the Shrill one. The truth is that John McCain is as responsible as anyone for the Republican demise. His idiocy on taxes, immigration, and judges makes him a gonner in the Republican presidential primaries. But like Kerry, no one seems to appreciate John McCain as much as John McCain. Can you say 3rd party? That’d hand Shrill the White House. Look for McCain to begin his endless appearances on Hardball again starting tonight. Of course, the MSM will stump relentlessly for the Democrat nominee for president and all of that talk about one party rule being bad for America will be out the window when the one party is Democrat.

- Bush ironically is likely to get his no-amnesty amnesty bill for illegal aliens.

- Minimum wage will go up.

- The economy will go down.

- Investigations will start immediately.

- Conservative Judges, difficult to get by McCain and his gang of 14 - now a gang of 12 with Democrats holding a 7 to 5 majority, will be impossible to get by in the new Democrat Senate. Thanks John McCain.

Vote as if your life depends on it.

BECAUSE IT MAY!

Election fraud is a strategy for Democrats

The election is near and the moonbats are out in force. Take this letter from Thomas Meeks, which garners this week’s highly coveted Weekly Punctilio Award as the biggest waste of ink and newsprint for the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette. Meeks, who apparently is still in therapy since the 2000 presidential election, steals everything but Hugh Hewitt’s book title in his piece on “election fraud.” Hewitt, a great conservative, long ago published a book titled “If it isn’t close, they can’t cheat.”

Because Florida Democrats in one precinct were too stupid to darken the arrow pointing to their candidate’s name on a ballot designed by Democrats; because George Bush never once trailed in Florida; because Bush won the popular vote on election night; the statewide recount; and even the convoluted cherry picking recounts conceived by loser Al Gore in four predominately Democrat precincts; a media recount where every way imaginable of counting the votes was conducted; Meeks concludes election fraud put George Bush in the White House in 2000. That’s considered a sane position for the Moonbat Democrat – I’d say fringe but it’s actually become the mainstream.

Now because brain dead Democrats couldn’t figure out a paper ballot in Florida, our federal government has wasted hundreds of millions of our tax dollars on computer equipment to prevent what didn’t happen in Florida in 2000 from occurring again. Even so, Meeks, giving new meaning to the phrase “he’d kick if hung him with a new rope,” is complaining about the new machines.

I might remind Meeks:
It was Democrat JFK who won the White House on the votes of several thousand dead people in Chicago’s Cook County.
It was Democrats arrested for giving clean underwear and cigarettes to bums in exchange for votes.
It was Democrats who were found guilty of slashing the tires of Republican precinct workers.
It’s the Liberal ACORN organization facing criminal charges for swamping MO with 10s of thousands of fraudulent voter registration cards.
It’s in liberal Memphis, Harold Ford’s hometown, where four voter machine smart cards have gone missing.
It’s Liberals and Democrats who encourage voter fraud by opposing any kind of voter ID.
It’s Democrats who can’t vote with a pencil and paper.
It’s Republicans that have to figure in Democrat shenanigans on Election Day when going over poll numbers.

So congratulations to the Democrat voters in Florida and their like minded moonbats who are dumber than a hoe handle and have earned the this week's Weekly Punctilio Award for the Ft. Wayne J-G.

Churches are only churches for Republicans

When is the one time liberals will not complain about “separation of church and state”? When Liberals are trolling for votes in black churches, that’s when. Democrats turning a black church into a campaign rally site is nothing new, complete with the choir in robes singing in the background and the reverend delivering a sermon of salvation only if the congregation votes Democrat. They do it all the time. Bill Clinton, 25 pound bible in hand no doubt, recently showed up in Memphis TN to campaign for black TN senate candidate Harold Ford in a black church.

Let George Bush show up in one of those white evangelical mega churches with a live satellite hookup that reaches about 45,000 homes while campaigning for a pro-life candidate. Then watch every program director of every major TV news room and every editor of every major newspaper in the country head for the fainting couch. Once their staff had produced enough salts to bring them back to their non-sense senses, they’d mercilessly attack George Bush or any Republican for shredding the Constitution and trying to establish theocracy. But Democrats politicing in a black church well…that’s just different.

It’s not different. It’s exactly the same. But if you called it a racist double standard, the Libs in the media would just smile knowing there’s not one damn thing you can do about it. If the IRS gets involved, guess who the MSM will paint as the racists?

Harold Ford has run around TN masquerading as a conservative, pro-life, pro-gun, pro-business Democrat just like Al Gore when Al Gore was a conservative Democrat from TN. Now Gore is the unhinged buffoon burning tons upon tons of fuel every day in private jet and fleet of SUVs shouting “the sky is falling, the sky is falling” while to trying get us to give up our 4 cylinder Honda in favor of public transportation.

A good idea for the Corker campaign would have Ford’s picture morph into a pictue of a bloated bearded shouting Al Gore, as the voice under says, “Remember the last ‘conservative Democrat’ senator from TN?”

The New York Times’ November surprise – surprise

In what I’m sure was meant to be another hit piece on President Bush, the New York Times is saying that a government run web site (read George Bush) designed to expose Saddam’s quest for WMD may actually have been helping Iran in theirs. The Times rather ironically is wondering why the government was releasing these “secrets”. The Times does that. Unless some government traitor is offering secrets to the Times, the Times becomes genuinely concerned for national security.

But the Times fouled up. Its hit piece included this little gem, “Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990’s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.”

Let me see. In 2002 Iraq - or is it Irak – was as little as one year away from becoming a nuclear – or is nukler – power with Saddam Hussein in charge. That would have made Iraq a nuclear power in 2003 – right? So if President Bush had not acted when he did, today - this being 2006 and more than one year from 2002 - help me John Kerry - we’d be facing a nuclear Iraq. Is that right? So does this mean Bush didn’t lie? I’m sure John Kerry and other moonbat Democrats are lined up behind a microphone somewhere waiting to get their chance to offer a sincere apology to the president and thank him for his foresight.

I'm sure the editors at the Times are surprised at their surprise.

Kerry's unedited non-apology apology

Lex has gotten the original text of John Kerry’s non-apology apology. This is Kerry’s original draft before editing by a Kerry staffer who ironically happens to have been an Army sergeant. The clever army sgt merely removed the bold italicized words.

As a combat veteran, who served only three months of a one year tour in Viet Nam before chickening out and heading home with a fist full of medals that I put myself in for for wounding myself I want to make it clear to anyone stupid enough to be in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about you terrorizing Iraqi women and children in the dead of night, and never intended to indicate that I was in any way a thoughtful man or to refer to any troop no matter how stupid, illiterate and foolish who torures our Muslim brothers of peace and has signed up to fight George Bush's war because our troops are too stupid to get a real job.

I sincerely regret since I still can’t bring myself to say I’m “sincerely sorry” because I'm not, that my words as plain and clear as they were, were misinterpreted to wrongly imply that I might have a brain or anything negative about those stupid fools in uniform, and by the way, get over it. It’s not as if I called you wanton murderers and rapists, like I did the men with whom I served in Viet Nam and I personally apologize on this web site to any service member stupid enough to visit it, family member who is probably an equally uneducated rube, or American who was offended at what I still think is an incredibly funny joke. If this flap continues, I my even grow a male part or two and offer this non-apology apology in person.

It is clear the Republican Party, who somehow altered the text of my remarks and somehow altered my two remaining brain waves to make me say what I said, would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy which I voted for before being blow away with the prevailing political winds. I don’t want my verbal slip no matter how much I believe it to be the truth to be a diversion from the real issues which are of course my ’08 presidential run. I will continue to be the pompous Know-it-all ass you've come to know ans love and fight for a change of course to the war which I supported when it was politically popular to provide real security, like hiding under the bed sheets until we all get our throats slit, for our country, which under the current leadership I can’t stand and would rather see defeated and humiliated – France, now there’s a country we could all be proud of, and a winning strategy for my ’08 presidential bid and special education classes for our troops.

The two Johns

John Kerry’s an even bigger loser than anyone could have imagined. When confronted with his own words, he blamed Republicans. Instead of accepting responsibility for perhaps the dumbest thing ever said by a politician, he claimed his comments were a joke. Whoo, that gives new meaning to the phrase, “some people can’t tell a joke.” But a defiant Kerry tries to turn that phrase on its head by inferring that it’s the American people that can’t take a joke. Hey John Boy – it isn’t funny.

Then dopey claims the unfunny joke was about President Bush and that anyone who thinks he would demean our troops is crazy. Well John Boy there are several miles of tape of you doing just that – calling Viet Nam vets murderers and rapists and claiming that our troops in Iraq are terrorizing women and children in the dark of night. So John Boy the joke’s on you. But hey, thanks for reminding us what a treasonous, gold digging louse you really are. One cannot be reminded enough. Prediction: Before the sun goes down Friday, John Boy will have issued some pathetic non-apology apology. That will, of course, only serve to start the cycle on this story all over again. Thanks for being so much smarter than the rest of us John.

John McCain is campaigning as if he were running for president, and well I guess he is. It’s hard to turn on a TV and not see McCain stumping for some Republican candidate in trouble somewhere and if you believe the media they are all in trouble. McCain knows that if he wants to be president the Republicans need to maintain control of at least one of the legislative bodies. If Democrats run the table next week McCain is done as a presidential candidate.

Here’s why. Democrats are sure to try to do a few things like;
- Roll back the tax cuts – which McCain opposed in the first place.
- Allow amnesty for illegal aliens – which McCain supports.
- Prevent President Bush for reshaping the judiciary in a conservative mold – which McCain and his “gang of 14” support.

If the Democrats try this with McCain support, he’s done in 08. McCain’s only hope is that the Republican maintain control of one house and save McCain from McCain. If the conservative base is frustrated and sits out this mid-term election, ceding both houses to Democrats, conservatives will certainly be energized in the Republican primaries for ’08. That cannot be good for McCain.

If on the other hand we get some compromise no amnesty – amnesty legislation on immigration, tax cut made permanent or kicked out a few years and the president gets his judicial nominations through, McCain could conceivably sail through the primaries under the radar. As always, McCain’s first thought in politics is of McCain.

John Kerry: educated buffoon

OK, pointing out that John Kerry is pompous, arrogant, chickensh@#, windbag living high off of a dead man’s money ain’t exactly akin to decoding the Rosetta Stone. But given this comment to college students, I thought I’d remind you. Kerry said:

“You know education, if you make the most of it and you study hard and do your homework and make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

So what fearless John, the man who chickened out of Vietnam after getting enough 8mm home movies and putting himself in for enough medals for wounding himself to start a political career is telling us is that the troops, whom he claims to support, are too stupid or lazy to get through college. That’s right, according Kerry instead of the best and brightest, selfless patriots, doing tough duty in a faraway land; our troops are nothing more than hapless dopes doing the work illegal immigrants - who liberals ironically praise as the “backbone of the country” - won’t. Very odd.

Kerry’s contempt for the men and women of our armed forces is well documented. He called them murderers and rapists during Viet Nam. He claimed that our troops were terrorizing women and children in Iraq and now this. I know from experience that the enlisted men of 20 years ago were as smart as anyone. In an era before calculators, they flew and tracked weather balloons with a theodolite and then manually calculated the affects that the shifting winds aloft would have on artillery rounds over a seven mile trajectory. They calculated the fall of thousands upon thousands of artillery rounds by interpolating data from stacks of tables with a slide rule in one hand and a cigarette in the other – and they could consistently do it in less than a minute or two – quickly, safely and accurately. In an era before GPS, they could accurately determine location and direction by the stars. They could fix anything with anything. They shared everything. In the process, they kept thousands of men safe and made their “educated” college boy lieutenants – like me – look good

If someone wants to do something worthwhile, they ought to do a documentary contrasting the day in the life of a 20 something year old Marine in Iraq with some worthless 20 year old know nothing, do nothing, be nothing college punk on MTV’s Room Raiders or My World loser. The same goes for “reality tv” like The Apprentice. That show consists of a bunch of “educated” weasels spending week after week trying to figure out how to sabotage each other’s efforts. The prize for being the best cheat is becoming the head peon for Donald Trump. Why would Trump even want one of these backstabbing morons in his organization? I’d take one Marine sergeant over the whole lot.

But I digress – Kerry is treasonous buffoon, an educated treasonous buffoon, but a treasonous buffoon none the less. And yes Mr. & Mrs. America this is yet another reason why it not safe to vote Democrat.

The Weekly Punctilio: Scrap the Constitution

This week’s Punctilio Award goes to the Journal Gazette for wasting ink and newsprint to publish this tripe by Sanford Levinson. If you want to waste your time, read the whole thing. The point of Levinson piece is that our US Constitution is so flawed that it should be thrown out and rewritten to meet today’s world rather the world as it existed 200 years ago.

First, if I were allowed to pick “today’s framers”, I suppose that Levinson’s idea would be a good one. But the gathering of modern day framers would no doubt be a hodgepodge of the usual suspects that get throw into the mix whenever elected officials want to duck tough issues. Look at the 9-11 Commission. Half of that commission was more interested in keeping Bill Clinton’s legacy one of a president that diddled the help rather than THE president who helped the terrorists diddle America. So from the gitgo Levinson’s idea is dead in the water. There are no modern day politicians with the statesmanship, the intellect and foresight of the original framers capable of doing the necessary hard work.

Another indicator that Levinson is an idiot is his idea that because President Bush is at about 40% approval rating in the polls that equates to 60% wanting him removed from office as an incompetent. That is utter foolishness. First, if asked if the president should be removed in favor of Vice President Cheney, the president’s approval would probably exceed 80% (I'd be in the 20% favoring Cheney). So unless Levinson is in favor of removing the president for some unnamed, unelected Jed Bartlett type, his entire premise falls flat on its face. If his premise is that house Republicans would then pick one of their own, we’d be looking at Dennis Hastert and again the president’s approval goes up to about 80%. Last, is Levinson so obtuse as to have forgotten when our government was divided and Bill Clinton was president with a Republican House? What would Levinson have happen there? The house, given a half way step to avoid impeachment would certainly have chosen it. Would Levinson have accepted a President Gingrich?

Levinson, who happens to be bilking unsuspecting parents who send their youngsters off to college to be “educated” (in Levinson’s classroom re-educated is probably a better word) out of cash in his job as a “professor” of law at Texas University, makes equally insane arguments about the structure of the senate. Why does Wyoming have as much power as California in senate? Well Sanford (I hear the Sanford and son theme song in my head now) it’s because there is this other little know body in Washington called the House of Representatives. In the house states are given proportional representation in accordance to their population – 1 representative per about every 640,000 people. And that is why we do a census every ten years.

Another thing Fred, uh er, Sanford takes on is the Electoral College. Why not just go with the popular vote. Because Fred, the original framers wanted a two party system to prevent some nut job law professor from fooling enough of the voters on a ballot with 25 other candidates to win an election with a plurality of about 15% of the vote - which ironically would immediately make him eligible for removal from office under Fred’s first idiotic point. Besides, Democrats have proven that they are incapable of figuring out a ballot with only three names. Imagine the nightmare scenario for Democrats trying to find Pat Buchanan’s name on a ballot with 20-30 other names.

Democrats may end up looking like the Stanford marching band

Uh oh! Democrats who started their victory dance five yards from the end zone can now hear Karl Rove’s footsteps closing fast. Polls which had Democrats leaping for joy two weeks ago are now too close to call. Expectations of gaining up to 40 seats in the House have been revised downward to 17-20. Once safe senatorial Democrat candidates in Maryland and New Jersey are now ducking debates with their Republican challengers. Democrats Cardin and Menendez were last seen frantically banging on obnoxious Chucky Schumer’s door begging for more money to protect their heretofore “safe” Democrat seats. Even Conrad Burn, the Montana Republican left for dead on the side of the road months ago, had the nerve to keep campaigning is now within striking distance.

Democrats are now stumbling around field in disbelief like the Stanford marching band watching Karl Rove zigzag his way down the field for the last second score. Fat Ted Kennedy sobered up long enough to write the DNC a check for half a million dollars from his own campaign fund. Pompous John F. Kerry snitched a check out Terezzzzzzzze’s checkbook to do the same. “Yes, yes, we’re so confident of victory we’ll just pony up a million more dollars for the cause” goes the logic. Hmm, seems to me if you’re that confident of victory, you might just save that million for the next big fight.

The bad news is that it is still too close to call. Democrats could still win both houses by slim margins. The good news is that the Republicans are – as predicted - back in the hunt. Whoever wins is likely to do so by razor thin margins. So as trite as it may sound, EVERY VOTE COUNTS.

It's still not safe to vote Democrat

President Bush had a pretty good presser yesterday. I say pretty good, because while he laid out clearly what was at stake in Iraq, he then went on equivocate about our commitment there. He seemed to say a couple of times that Iraq was the central front in the war on terror and then say things like “we don’t have unlimited patience” or “we’re not there to be caught in the crossfire of sectarian violence.” Well it seems to me that the president just gave the Islamo-terror-fascists a roadmap. Keep up the sectarian violence and the patience will, at some point, run out.

I’d have delivered the patience message to the Iraqi government in secret. During the presser, I’d have given the terrorists no room for hope. I’d have said something along lines of, “As long as we can kill the enemy in the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, we will stay.” A statement like that would have would-be terrorists scratching their heads thinking, “Well, maybe there is a political way out of this after all.”

The other thing giving the jihadis hope and is probably as responsible as anything for the step up in violence in Iraq is the American election. These guys seem to think that all they have to do to get America to cut and run is get Democrats elected. That flawed thinking is similar to conservatives believing that if you want smaller government and less spending, all you have to do is elect Republicans.

There are probably enough Democrats that understand “redeploying to Okinawa” is idiocy of the highest order to block any such move. There are probably enough Democrats that understand ceding Iraq and its oil revenue to the jihadis would be a strategic mistake 10,000 times worse than letting the Taliban run amok in Afghanistan to block any such move. But then again, given what passes for leadership in the Democrat party at this point in history, maybe there aren’t enough Democrats that appreciate the long-term strategic importance of Iraq. Which is why Mr. & Mrs. America, it is still not safe to vote Democrat.

Mike’s biennial disease

Michael Fox has taken to the airwaves in support of, surprise, surprise, Democrats. How odd that another Hollywood know nothing would line up to shill for Democrats. But Mike is a one issue shill. Shaking like one of the chicks on a pole at the Boom Boom room, Mike shows up and shows off the ravages of Parkinson’s. Mike has stated publicly that he goes off his meds when testifying before congress and elsewhere to better demonstrate the effects of his disease.

OK fair enough. If I had a debilitating disease, I’d probably take every advantage to call attention to it as well. But I doubt that I’d place so high a value on my own comfort or life that I’d call for the wholesale destruction of others so that I might have their cells – stem or otherwise. And even if I did support the destruction of others for my personal benefit, I cannot imagine that I’d advocate that position as policy for the Federal government. I think I’d kind of want to hide that side of my personality. But then I think I’d kind of want to hide my infirmities as well rather than foregoing my meds to accentuate them.

But Mike, never one to learn from the past, has taken a page from the 2004 presidential race where faith-healer and snake oil salesman John Edwards claimed Christopher Reeves would walk again if only we’d elect John Kerry president. Fox shills for Democrats only, even one who once who voted against the very legislation he proposes. He says stem cell research is being thwarted by Republicans even though many Republicans like Orin Hatch support governemt sponsored stem cell research, and stem cell research is legal in the very states in which he is now campaigning - MO and MD.

We’ve been down this road before. Stem cell research is not illegal. Mike can give as many of his considerable millions as wants to that research. President Bush is the FIRST president to allocate government resources to that research. Stem cell research is NOT the most promising research being conducted today with regard to paralyses and disease.

The stem cell question when raised in this fashion becomes more political than medical which is the whole point of Mike's coming out every two years to stump for only Democrats - even ones who vote against his stem cell proposals.

bin Laden's vote

Well Lex has defied liberal logic. Yes, I regularly add two plus two and get four, not bad for a public school grad, but what will really stun liberals is that I cast my ballot today. Yep an absentee ballot supporting conservative candidates has been placed in the mail today. Barring some foul-up with the mail, conservative candidates and causes are already one vote to the good, and it’s still two weeks until Election Day.

Am I delighted with weak-keened republicans led by the likes of John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Chuck Hagle? No. But the alternative to a bunch sissified Republicans is a bunch of near treasonous Democrats. So I voted for the sissies in a party that includes a group of senators that can only find their manhood in a “gang of 14”.

The alternative was much worse. I imagined (and I think this would be a good ad for the RNC) a long election line. In the line is tall bearded man wearing a turbine. The camera zooms in and it’s bin Laden. The camera pans down and in bin Laden’s hand is Democrat voter guide. The voice over comes up, “Who will you be voting for?”

It seems pretty clear to me who Islamo-terror-fascists will be supporting in this election.

Prison locks and houshold locks are not the same

This week’s J-G Punctilio Award goes to this little gem from Scripts Howard:

Mikhail Gorbachev knows his walls. He presided over two of the most infamous, the 4,500-mile Iron Curtain that imprisoned half of Europe and the Berlin Wall that doubly imprisoned the people of East Berlin.

And he was president of the Soviet Union when both of them fell. So he knows whereof he speaks when he speaks of walls.

He was speaking in Midland, Texas, when he gently chided the United States for its plans to build a 700-mile barrier, in places remarkably similar to the Iron Curtain, along the border with Mexico, a nation, he noted, with whom the United States has shared long-standing "cooperation and interaction."

"I don't think the U.S. is so weak and so much lacks confidence as not to be able to find a different solution," said the 1990 Nobel Prize winner, according to an account in the Midland Reporter-Telegram.

The former Soviet leader recalled in 1987 when President Reagan visited Berlin and taunted the Kremlin with the demand, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

This is so mortifying.

No, what is so mortifying is that supposed educated people who work in America’s newsrooms and a communist statesman can confuse a wall designed to keep people in so that they cannot escape totalitarian, communist rule with a fence designed to keep terrorists and illegals out. It’s truly sad when 9 year old Lex jr. can distinguish between the locks on prison doors, designed to keep people in, and the locks on the doors of our house, designed to keep people out, but dopes in the MSM and communists can not or will not make that very basic distinction when writing or talking about our border fence.

Comparisons to Tet encouraging

It’s even better than we thought. ABC, asked President Bush if what was going on in Baghdad right now is comparable to the Viet Cong’s Tet Offensive in Viet Nam in 1968. The president said yeah, it might be.

The Tet Offensive, for dopes in the MSM, was the turning point for the North in the Viet Nam war. Never mind that US troops won every battle. Never mind that the Viet Cong lost between 43-58,000 fighters. Never mind that the Viet Cong were never able to reconstitute themselves as an effective fighting force. It was a loss for the US pure and simple. Why was it a loss? Because know nothings like Wally Cronkite said so. That’s why.

Now we’re in another struggle were the MSM and ¾ of Americans have no idea what’s at stake. George Stephanopolis is trying to be the next Wally C. The MSM wants to create an atmosphere of fear and despair. Better to just to quit and go home than slug it out in Iraq with the Islamo-terror-fascists that are flocking to that country to be killed in droves. Give up the oil revenue to al Qaida, give up the Middle East to Islamic radicals, give up Israel to some Iranian nut job. Retreat back to the US where Liberals can sleep under the bed sheets until Mohamed shows up with his knife in their bedroom. Then soil themselves and die a coward’s death begging for mercy from pigs that have none.

When the MSM and Democrats forced the US to quit Viet Nam, two million Cambodians were slaughtered along with 100,000s of Vietnamese. The stakes are 10,000 times higher in Iraq.

Will conservatives teach America a lesson

“Conservatives, disappointed with an over spending congress, little progress on controlling illegal immigration and scandals, will stay home in droves on Nov 7th to teach the Republican Party a lesson.” If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it every MSM news broadcast for the last month.

Who knows, maybe the pundits are right in this case. Maybe a large portion of the conservative electorate will sit this election out to teach the Republican Party a lesson. That would be disappointing because the lesson being taught, while hurting the party for an election cycle or two, could do harm to the country for decades.

Take court appointments, for example. If the senate is flipped, what kind of judges will be confirmed over the next two years? Only judges like Clinton appointee John Koeltl will get confirmed in a Democrat controlled senate. Koeltl recently let jihadi co-conspirator Lynn Stewart off with a slap on the wrist in the form of a 28 month sentence, instead of the 30 years prosecutors had asked for. Stewart acted as a mule passing notes calling for chaos from her client Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman to his followers in Egypt. In addition to her work defending Islamo-terror-fascists who tried to blow up the World Trade Center 1993, Judge Koeltl sited Stewart’s work with the poor, the Black Panthers, and the Weathermen, to justify the light sentence. Sounds more like justification for a treason trial to me.

So conservatives can stay home to teach the Republican Party a lesson if they think that’s wise. Unfortunately, it’s the country that’s ultimately being given the lesson. And like a kid trapped in a failing inner city school, I just don’t know how much more schooling the nation can take. Politics is the art of the possible. Nobody gets everything they want. You have vote for the candidate that most closely approximates your views on the important issues of the day. Hold your nose if you must, but go vote.

UPDATE: Oh yeah, the time to throw an unresponsive member of your party overboard is during THE PRIMARY ELECTION not the general election where such an action is only sure to elect an even more unresponsive representative.

BCS poll is out, but games go on

Well the first BCS college football poll came out Sunday. My old school, Ohio State was overwhelmingly ranked #1. But a funny thing has happened since Sunday. Not a single game has been canceled. Michigan coach Lloyd Carr has not told that university’s faithful to expect to be blown out by 30 points in Ohio stadium on 18 Nov. The holiday bowl commissions across the country continue to plan to have games after the regular season. Even an unranked and undermanned Indiana football team is expected to show up in Ohio this Saturday for a noon kick-off against the #1 Buckeyes.

What the heck is the point of being ranked #1 in October if you have to finish your schedule? It’s a cruel trick. A conspiracy if you will against Ohio State. Everyone knows that OSU has the best team so they get ranked #1. But by making them play the rest of their games, the pollsters have placed a huge bull’s eye squarely between the Buckeye’s shoulder blades. Now everyone is just going to try that much harder to beat OSU.

Well on a different front the pollsters have predicted a victory so monumental for Democrats that Nancy Pelosi has already been seen measuring the curtains in Denny Hastert’s office. Can all of these polls be wrong? Well, historically, at this point in the election cycle, they have been. They always show the Republican down by double digits a few weeks out. Then as the election draws closer and with the pollsters’ reputations on the line, the races suddenly tighten. What was a safe Democrat lead is now suddenly within the margin of error. Oddly, Republican leads remain pretty consistent throughout the race.

So what to do? Well just like the Indiana football team is going to show up Saturday against all the odds, I’m going to show up on Nov 7th. And like the Hoosiers, I’ll have a bit more intensity. I’m going to make sure my wife shows up. I’m going to drive my wife’s father and his wife to the polls if they need ride. I’m going to baby-sit a friend’s kids so they can vote, if they need a hand. I’m going to do what I can and see where the chips fall. And like all Hoosier fans, I’ll be ecstatic if we win. But if we don’t, I’ll be happy if we can just cover the point spread. If the worst happens and we get blown out, I’m still not going to cancel next year’s season.

The First Weekly Punctilio Award - ever

Like most of us, I get the morning fish wrap and I’m disappointed in the news coverage, save the sports page. But if the news coverage is disappointing, the editorial section is infuriating. Well, the Ft. Wayne, Journal Gazette is the worst of the worse when it comes to its editorial section. It willfully ignores or misstates facts that do not support its editorial position rather than explain or argue against those facts.

The J-G is so wrong so often on its editorial page that I’ve come to refer to it as The Daily Punctilio (DP) the paper of record in Lemony Snicket’s clever, creative, funny, exciting etc. etc. Series of Unfortunate Events. The DP gets every fact, from the most mundane – names, dates and locations – to the most important – who killed who - wrong. The story reader, as an outside observer, can see how misleading and dopey the DP is, but the players in the story unwittingly believe what’s in the DP – even though every bit of it is wrong. The consequences in the story are the exact same as they are in real life, lives are ruined, heroes are vilified, villains are glorified and the public is ill served.

So I’ve decided that I’d do a Weekly Punctilio award for the J-G where I’d take one of the dopiest things appearing in the paper and comment on it.

This is the first Weekly Punctilio Award for the Ft. Wayne, Journal-Gazette. On Saturday in its “Weekly Scorecard” section under the sub-head of “Losers” the J-G aka the D-P printed this about our Republican Congressman Mark Souder:

“Even fellow Republicans are talking about how mean, spiteful and just plain weird his radio commercials have become.”

Lex fired off the following e-mail to the Punctilio:

Does anyone at the J-G find it ironic that this fish wrap would run a “Weekly Scorecard” where it places public figures in a category called “Losers” then in that very section refers to a person as “mean and spiteful”? I’m sure the alert staff of top-notch “journalists” employed by the J-G considered conventions such as rising and falling; peaks and valleys, after rejecting the more pedantic up and down but settled on winners and losers for this section while slugging down a cup of Joe and chewing the fat with the sports guy.

The reason Mark Souder’s ads sound “weird” to you is that he plainly states his position on the issues of the day and contrasts his position with that of his opponent. Phew that is weird! Plain talk from a politician? That’s weirder than a visit from the Easter Bunny.

By contrast a visit to the Hayhurst web site finds the following “issues” listed: Affordable health care (i.e. public health care), Veterans, Jobs and the economy, energy (see below), and immigration (i.e. amnesty). What about that little thing going on in Iraq, the war on terror and taxes? Aren’t those “issues”? What’s Hayhurst’s position? Hayhurst’s site doesn’t say. But, he’s a Democrat. So, we can assume the answers are as follows and in order: Cut and run. What war? And, they’re going up.

If you can scare up a real journalist somewhere around there, send him out to talk to Hayhurst about his energy plan which calls for a light rail system in northeast Indiana. Questions:

Q: What population and/or industrial centers will the rail system connect?
A: We plan to spend several million dollars and three years studying that.

Q: What supporting public transportation systems (buses, taxis, metro systems etc.) are in place or will be required at those centers to move light rail riders to their final destinations?
A: Supporting public transportation? Hmm, I never thought of that. We’ll add $20 million and throw that question into the study.

Q: How much will it cost to build a system to connect those centers?
A: We’ll add another $50 million to the study and I’ll get back to you on that in ten years.

Q: How will the fare rate be structured so the line can turn a profit?
A: Well, like all public transportation it’ll be free to those who are already on the public dole and unaffordable to everyone else. The free riders will tear the system up in three years so that no respectable person will ride it. Then we’ll fund a study to fix the project. But, like most public transportation, my vision of our light rail system is one where it will definitely be cheaper and more convenient to just drive yourself.

Q: How many profitable light rail systems are there in the US today serving areas with populations of less than, say, 3 million?
A: Oh, nearly one.

Q: Have you ever heard of AMTRAK?
A: Huh?

Figures lie; liars figure

Lex responds to misinformation in the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette aka The Daily Punctilio (From Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events) :

Not that the editor of this page would care but, there was a significant error in a letter submitted by Yecenia Tostado in Sunday’s letters section. Ms. Tostado wrote “The American Cancer Society states that ‘secondhand smoke is the third leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. killing 38,000 to 65,000 non-smokers every year.”

The following comes directly from the ACS web page: (http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_2X_Secondhand_Smoke-Clean_Indoor_Air.asp):

“Secondhand smoke can be harmful in many ways. In the United States alone, each year it is responsible for:

- an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 deaths from heart disease in people who are not current smokers (Emphasis added)

- about 3,000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmoking adults”

In the first bullet, one might conclude that the 35,000 to 40,000 deaths in people who “are not current smokers” at one time were smokers. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it make more sense to blame the death on firsthand rather than secondhand smoke? Also notice the deaths are attributed to heart disease.

So if I’m a 68 year old who weighs 600 pounds and smoked a couple of packs cigarettes a day up until 2 years ago, and am married to a smoker, when I die of a heart attack, because I'm a "current non-smoker" married to a smoker, the ACS will attribute my death to secondhand smoke, rather than the proximate cause of my death - my obesity, cigarette smoking and relative longevity.

The figure in the second bullet looks familiar. Oh Yeah, that’s the figure I used in my letter, which is the accepted high figure of deaths attributable to secondhand smoke from an EPA study on the subject.

The Surgeon General’s figure (50,000) quoted in Ms. Tostado's letter is equally misleading. But hey, it’s easy to throw big numbers out there – 650,000 deaths in Iraq. It’s much harder to do the work required to get it right in 300 words or less. END OF LETTER

The point of my letter was not that smoking is a wonderful thing. The point was that the county government has no business telling people how to run their business with regard to cigarette smoking, which the last time I looked is a legal product.

It's not over until the votes are counted

Well I guess conservatives won’t have anything pressing to do on November 7th. Might as well sleep late, put on a second pot of coffee, double up on Prozac and phone in sick, because conservatives are going to get creamed. That’s right. You heard it here for 50 millionth time. Disgusted conservatives, fed up with over spending, gangs of 14, Mark Foley and a deadbeat Republican congress are just going to stay home. It's over before the first vote is even counted. We know because the polls, MSM and pundits tell us.

According to the pundits, in addition to all of our disappointment with Republicans , we’d prefer higher taxes, endless investigation and impeachment hearings, retreat in the war on terror, guaranteed civil rights for Islamo-terror-fascists and an idiot like Nancy Pelosi standing third in line to succession to the presidency. So we’ll just stay home and not vote. Who needs the Supreme Court, congress or the presidency if this is all we’re going to get for our trouble.

Well politics is the art of the possible. And yes it is possible for things to get much worse if we just throw up our hands and quit. So vote. Write a letter to the editor. Send $100 to the RNC. I’d send $10,000 if it’d guarantee that I’d not be faced with a caterwauling nit-wit like Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.

Scrawny Harry's dirty deal

OK it’s pretty clear that some Americans and the MSM would rather talk about an Internet no-sex sex scandal than the war on Islamo–terror-fascists (unless it’s about the US torturing the ITF), a raging economy (unless it’s about the unwed mother of 8 – all with different fathers – and her heroic struggle to get by on the public dole), illegal immigration (unless it’s about it’s about a hapless, kind-hearted illegal who sends his whole paycheck home to his disabled mother in Mexico while being exploited by some Republican businessman). OK we get it, scandal sells.

Let’s see how our heroes in the MSM cover Scrawny Harry Reid’s sweet heart land deal in Nevada. It seems that Scrawny Harry and couple of guys with big money and big plans entered into a land deal. They bought up some of the otherwise worthless Nevada desert. The land was worthless because of zoning restriction, EPA problems with everything from urban sprawl, light, water, garbage and ground pollution to encroaching on the habitat of the endangered desert tortoise.

But as it turns out, the land was not worthless at all. Once Scrawny Harry got on board with the deal, zoning laws were changed and the raft of EPA objections were simply waived or explained away. Now what was worthless has become PRIME real estate.

But poor Scrawny sold his portion of the land back to his partner at the original buying price his partners before the land increased in value. Too bad right? Well no, as it turns out, Scrawny made a cool $1.1 million on land that he’d not “technically” owned for three years. Then Scrawny failed to report his wind fall on his senate financial disclosure form.

Now poor Scrawny has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. So what is Scrawny to do? Well, claim the failure to report $1.1 million was an oversight. You know like, “Look we do these transactions all the time. We simply forgot about this $1.1 million dollar transaction, because you know, we do them all time and we just forgot this one. Happens all the time. We’ll just amend our disclosure form.” Let you or I try that with the IRS.

Let me put this into terms we can all understand. What has happened here is that Scrawny and his partners bought a mule and entered it in the Kentucky derby. Scrawny made it legal to give the mule performance enhancing drugs and hobble the rest of the field. Before the race, Scrawny sold back his share of the mule so as not raise suspicion and/or cover his bet if the mule lost. On race day the mule goes of at 1,000 to 1 and wins the race. At that point, Scrawny’s partners pay him a fair share of the winnings on a mule he owned no part of.

I’m all for this type of arrangement. Where do you get in line to buy speculative real estate; get reimbursed in full for your investment and then get a $1.1 million dollar pay off three years later? It seems to me that if we could all make a deal like that, we could end poverty in US in about three years.

One kid's anxiety is another's walk in the park

There is an interesting debate occurring on the north side of Ft. Wayne. Our local High School is too small. Two plans have emerged to rectify the situation. One calls for building an additional high school at the cost of $94 million dollars and an additional $20 million to refurbish the old school – total $114 million – other estimates run in the $120 million plus range. The second plan calls for renovating and expanding the old school at a cost of $64 million. The less expensive second plan will result in an incredible 130% increase in property taxes for schools.

Well, a lady found me working in the garage one Saturday morning. She asked me to sign her petition supporting the building of a second school. I told her I was not inclined to do so. She told me heart breaking stories of over crowding and narrow hallways. I still declined to support her position. She told how supporters of the less expensive plan were lying about how much the two school option was going to cost. I asked if the two school option was less expensive than renovation. She said no. I declined to sign her petition for the third time.

Then she told me her daughter was a freshman at the high school. She said her daughter was having anxiety attacks in the hallways because of the conditions at the school. I’d had it. I told her that she should tell her daughter to grow up and get over it. I told her that there were young men and women not much older than her daughter engaged in combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. I told her to tell her daughter the next time she was experiencing anxiety, because of close quarters at her high school, to think about some 18 year old kid toting 100 pounds of equipment in 100 degree heat while patrolling the streets of Baghdad or mountains of Afghanistan, at night, with a bunch of people trying to kill him - THAT'S ANXIETY!

At that very point, the conversation came to an abrupt end. The lady gave a nervous laugh, turned and walked away.

Dems parrot enemy talking points

North Korea’s nuke test is evidence of an unstable North Korean leader, an ineffective UN, a weak-kneed regional ally - South Korea, a double-dealing antagonist trying to play both sides - China and an American administration that insists on playing its hand from a position of strength while refusing to be blackmailed by any of the penny ante bit players in the region. The Democrat response to the North Korean nuke test was swift, harsh – even shrill in some cases – and totally directed at President Bush.

Democrats stopped just short parroting North Korea’s UN diplomat who, like Democrats, blamed America for the test but went on to say that North Korea should be congratulated rather than condemned. But it’s a new day. Maybe the last line of the North Korean talking points fax was garbled and Dems will get it right today.

It won’t be the first time that Dems took their talking points from America’s sworn enemies. Hugo Chaves came to the UN and, except for the translator, sounded just like Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Shill Clinton et al. During the 2004 election, Osama bin Laden released a tape that made many of the same points as John Kerry.

Iran makes its case for nukes by saying the US is the world’s bad guy and oh by the way the nukes are only for peaceful purposes – like blowing Israel off the face of the Earth. Dems say Bush’s multilateral approach in Korea and Iran is the problem. They make this absurd claim with a straight face after they hammered Bush for a so-called unilateral approach with Iraq. Multilateral is Dem code talk for taking the French, Russian and Chinese positions on world issues. To hell with American security interests.

Democrats cannot bring themselves to blame the perpetrators. That would take some courage. To side with America against enemies that would have us destroyed when they can make political hay against Republicans? Yagotta be kidding. They’ll side with the nit wits railing against America for now. When they get their power back, they’ll find out what the nut jobs want and give it to them, nukes, money, food - whatever. Just don't rock the boat while Dems go about turning America into a weaker version of the socialist states in Europe.

Sunday Talk: Just skip it - You'll live longer

I broke my promise to myself yesterday and flippeded around the 6 pm repeats of the Sunday talk shows. Why watch something that just makes your blood boil. Skip it. Have a good a day and live longer. I won’t do it again any time soon.

Well predictably, Tim was firing off softballs to Democrat candidate for the senate in MO Clair McCaskill, “You were voted most likely to succeed in by you third grade class. How did that make you feel?” And below the belt shots at Republican Jim Talent, “Isn’t it true that you once had your 18 year old family dog put down after he was hit by a car. How can the American people ever trust a man that would kill his own dog?”

So I flipped over to Fox where host Chris Wallace asked, “is TN prepared to elect a black senator” referring to Democrat candidate Harold Ford who had a slight lead in the Fox poll over Republican Bob Corker. No one on the panel, including the usually quick witted Bill Kristol, asked Chris, “well is MD ready to elect a black senator (Republican Michael Steele)? Is OH ready to elect a black Governor (Republican Ken Blackwell)? Is VA ready to elect a Jew (Republican George Allen)?” The MSM wanks have to think that it’s only Republicans who will ignore qualifications and turn their backs on qualified minorities.

There are none so prejudiced as liberals. Liberals pelt Michael Steele with Oreo cookies, steal his financial records and call him Uncle Tom. Liberals question Ken Blackwell’s integrity and refer to Sen. Allen as maccawitz. Liberals attack any successful minority with whom they disagree (Rice, Powell, Thomas etc.) in the worst possible manner, all while calling for diversity.

While Liberals disparage successful conservative minorities of substance, they flock to know nothing, do nothing dopes like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, whose only accomplishments other than leading congregationless churches, is participating in organized race baiting, and shaking down of corporate America.

If only Kim Jong Mentally Ill would have fired off his nuke before the talk shows, we could have heard Tim ignore the world-wide ramifications of the event and ask, “Sen. Elect McCaskill, we all know that this is all President Bush’s fault, but how will this affect the Foley scandal?”

While the world burned...

Let me see:
- There is genocide in Darfur.
- AIDS continues to ravage Africa.
- Europe is turning into Eur-Arabia before our eyes.
- Hugo Chaves is intent on spreading anti-US Marxism throughout South America.
- North Korean nut job and Dear Leader Kim Jung Il, or is Il Jung - who really knows or cares - says he’s ready to test a nuke.
- Iranian nut job Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is seeking nukes to blast Israel off the face of the earth.
- If they get them, both are certain to provide nukes to terrorists to attack America.
- We are actively engaged in a war on terror on two fronts - Afghanistan and Iraq.

Which of those stories do you suppose is the lead in most newspapers today? Well it turns out that none of those stories with dire consequences for the world in general and the US in particular are interesting or compelling enough to knock the Mark Foley scandal off the front page just 33 days before an election. Now were it early spring, this thing would have died down after a day or two and our alert media would have turned its attention to the other big story that has captured the nation's attention - who is the real father of Anna Nichol Smith’s baby.

But what can we expect? Public schools have turned out a couple of generations of students who couldn’t find the Korean peninsula, Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan, any of the continents – hell even the state that they live in - on map let alone much care about the geopolitics of those regions and how they might affect life in the US. We pretty much get we what deserve.

So, the house has convened its ethics panel to look into the Foley situation. Remember the house also had Foley sitting on the panel for missing and exploited children. Having a house panel on ethics is like a whore house having a panel on virtue.

Speaker Hastert saw the irony. He proposed appointing former Clinton FBI director Louis Fhree as an independent council to look into the matter. Nance Pelosi nixed the idea because Fhree exposed Democrat hero, terror fighter extraordinaire, and protector of women - when he isn't groping or raping them, Bill Clinton as the feckless craven politico that he is in Fhree’s book My FBI.

So for now we’re stuck with a house panel on ethics looking into the rules that led to the misconduct of one of their own. In what political experts have called a stroke of genius, Nance Pelosi has recommended that Jack Kavorkian head up the house panel on suicide prevention.

Foley scandal II

Were I Speaker Hastert, I’d call a news conference at noon today and say this:

“Good afternoon. I’m here to make my last statement on the scandal of disgraced Congressman Mark Foley. First, unlike Democrats Studds, Kennedy and Clinton to name but three of a very long list of Democrats caught in scandal, Mark Foley had the good sense to resign.

“He’s gone. So the Democrats and the MSM have turned their sights on me. Fine as you can see, I’m a big boy. I will not resign, because I’ve done nothing wrong. I thought that telling Foley to knock it off and having the FBI investigate the situation was sufficient action for a sitting member of congress. The FBI and several newspapers found that there was insufficient reason, based on the ‘overly friendly’ e-mails, to suspect that Foley was as demented as he turned out to be. Only Democrats in hindsight have pointed out that a gay man can't be trusted with e-mail to a page and that that alone should have set off warning bells. That said, if I’d know what a pervert Foley was, I’d certainly have done more. I didn’t and I regret that.

“But somebody did know more. Somebody saved the three year old instant messages and provided them to the media. I’d like to know who that was. I’d like to know how long that individual knew we had a pervert in our midst and did nothing. Now I’ll take some questions, but that is all I have to say about Foley until the investigation is completed.”

Reporter: When did you first find out about Foley?

Hastert: That’s a very good question. The biggest difference between us and Democrats is that we take the war on terror seriously. Seriously enough to give the president and our troops the tools they need to keep America safe. A majority of Democrat in the House opposed every piece of anti-terror legislation that came up this session, from opposing eavesdropping on terrorists calling into the country, to allowing the CIA to question al Qaeda operatives, the Democrats sided with the terrorists against America. Harry Reid bragged that he’d killed the Patriot Act – the most important legislative tool in our war on terror.

Reporter: Huh? I asked about Foley.

Hastert: That’s an excellent point. Democrats are sure to raise your taxes. We are sure to make current tax cuts permanent and seek additional ways to lower the onerous tax burden the federal government has placed on the American worker.

Reporter: Hello! We want to know about Foley.

Hastert: Well of course we supported closing America’s borders to illegal immigration – a move House Democrats opposed. If elected to the majority, Democrats will certainly introduce amnesty legislation for the 12 million people who have entered our country illegally. Thank you and have a nice day.

We are not like them

While Democrats locked in close election battles supported the Military Commissions Act of 2006, those in safe states and districts voted against it and claimed the act makes America like the enemy we are fighting.

Oh really? I’ve done a quick web search and can’t find where in the act it calls for American children to blow themselves up in a crowded restaurant or bus. I’ve also word searched the act and the word “beheading” got a big “not found.” Not even once. I looked through the bill and can’t find where it calls for President Bush to establish a world-wide caliphate and the killing of everyone who does not believe as he does. Stunningly, for an act that makes us like them, there is not single reference to jihad, 72 virgins or flying airplanes into tall buildings.

While the act makes us no more like them than installing fog lights on a Ford makes it a Chevy, the act does contrast us (conservatives) with them (liberals). Liberals believe that protecting the republic makes America like a terrorist. Liberals believe that a Republican president who was elected by a four million vote margin by their fellow citizens is un-American because he takes the threat posed by Islamo-terror-fascists seriously. Liberals believe that the military cannot be trusted and would gleefully violate the law. Liberals believe America is the biggest problem in the world. Liberals believe the MSM. Conservatives don’t believe any of that.

Foley, Hastert & Democrat hypocrisy

In another case of stunning hypocrisy, Democrats are wetting themselves in mock outrage at Congressman Mark Foley’s indiscretions and Speaker Hastert’s handling of the situation.

First Foley: Any political party that claims Studds (homosexual statutory rape with a 17 year old page inside the Capitol Building), Kennedy (philandering drunk who lets a woman die in the back seat of his car, waits hours before notifying the police), Frank (ticket fixing partner in a homosexual prostitution business run from his apartment), Clinton (philandering, lying, groping, accused rapist) as honored members of the party, ought to have the good sense to just shut the hell up.

Foley has resigned and is under investigation by the Justice department. It turns out that he’s been under investigation for some time by the FBI and several newspapers based on some “overly friendly” e-mails turned to over to the House leadership. Only after the salacious instant messaging bombshell hit did they and we discover what a pervert Foley really is.

Now Hastert: Does anyone else see any irony in the fact that the party that wants to confer all manner of civil rights and US Constitutional protections to terrorists trying to destroy us, is now demanding Hastert’s head before even a rudimentary investigation is completed? Does anyone else see any hypocrisy in the fact that the supposed party homosexual right and gay marriage is now saying that Hastert should have done something about Foley based on the odd e-mail messages, because after all everyone knew Foley was gay and that should have set off red lights? No pun Mr. Frank. Does anyone else see any double standard for Democrats arguing on the one hand that the Republicans “were trying to undo an election” when Democrat moral icon Bill Clinton got caught with trousers down in the oval office and on the other hand Democrats wanting Hastert to undo Florida’s 16th Congressional District election based on some odd e-mails, because after all, Foley’s gay?

Liberal: We shall know ye by your hypocrisy

First your cigarettes, then your guns, then your...

On September 26, 2006, the house passed H. R. 5092 to modernize the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). The bill passed 277-131. As a public school grad, I know that that is nearly a two to one margin. I also know, Republicans hold about a 30 seat majority of the 435 member of the house. So, I know that at least 1 Democrat must have voted for the bill. The actual break down is:
213 Reps, 63 Dems, 1 Ind voting yea
8 Reps, 123 Dems voting nay
24 pillars of integrity and courage of their convictions were caught in the bathroom and tight elections during the vote and so took the high road and abstained. 9 were Reps, 15 were Dems.

On the whole and given the division between the two parties these days, one might say that H.R. 5092 enjoyed fairly wide bipartisan support. That is unless you happen to be a left leaning buffoon who happens to draw his meager pay check from a liberal fish wrap like the Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette. Then you consult the “ban all firearms immediately” Brady web site to see what you ought to think about the bill. After seeing Brady opposed the bill, you reflexively lift a few of the most idiotic arguments from their web page, add in a few new invectives of your own, predict chaos in the streets and publish it as an editorial.

Since Ft. Wayne is already after your smokes, I figure our guns, beers and Big Macs can’t be far behind – so Lex weighed-in (If you’re starved for time cut to the last paragraph):

Dear Editor,

Whoever wrote the tripe on H.R. 5092 should be fired. They so misstated what the bill will accomplish, it’s obvious they pulled a release from the Brady web page rather than actually read the bill. Your OpEd is 180 degrees out of phase.

Rather than hamper the BATFE, the main point of H.R. 5092 was to give the BATFE additional tools to deal with Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) that violate the law. Before H.R. 5092 the BATFE could only issue a warning or revoke the license. This bill allows for fines and/or license suspensions for less serious violations, while allowing license revocation for more serious violations that would put illegal guns in the hands of criminals. H.R. 5092 also clarifies the standard for violations. It allows penalties for intentional, purposeful violations of the law, but not for simple paperwork mistakes which was the all or nothing approach of the previous law. The law also allows for FFLs to appeal BATFE judgments to a judge rather than the BATFE. That ought to seem reasonable enough to anyone interested in justice.

All of this demonstrates why the Brady study, the flimsy hook upon which your error heavy editorial hangs, has been determined to be a shame. Among other things, it never took into account the 90% of violators who never challenged – due lack of money – the BATFE findings. The study also compares an onerous federal government more interested in stopping legal gun purchases than terrorists under President Clinton to a more constitutionally restrained BATFE under President Bush. Surprise, surprise, the BATFE under Clinton found more paper work violations and put otherwise honest FFLs out business.

Of course the whole point of the Brady study could be made moot if the congress would pass the NRA supported instant firearms checks using technology similar to credit card transactions. Where do Brady and J-G stand on that? Brady has never been for simplifying the legal purchase of firearms or even preventing illegal firearms purchases. Brady is interested in just one thing - banning firearms.

Also, it would be nice to be able to believe what is printed in the J-G. But as part of the MSM that brought us rigged exploding pickups, fake (forged is too elegant a word) National Guard papers, photo shopped war pictures and terrorists propaganda pictures, unfortunately you have placed the burden of proof on your readers rather than your reporters. To turn a phrase of a great American, people can’t trust, they must verify what is in the MSM these days.

I’d like to believe that the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association came out against the bill, but a search of their web site using H.R. 5092 as search criteria produced a whopping 0 documents found. Even the Brady site has no letter of support from FLEOA. So while FLEOA may have opposed the bill, their opposition wasn’t vigorous enough to share on their own or even the Brady web site. Meanwhile, what is found on the Brady web site is eerily similar to your OpEd.

Oh yeah, in the off chance that you’re right about H.R. 5092, I guess there is only one thing left to do. Go buy a gun to protect yourself from all of those illegal guns that are going to be out there.

Regards,
Doug Schumick