A new guy to kick around

Programming note: My good friend Scott will soon begin offering his two cents from time to time as a contributor to TheRightRant. If you're irritated by my and Reid's right-of-center views, you'll be apoplectic when you read Scott's take on the issues. He's a self-described libertarian anarchist, so he should provide lots of opportunity for you pointy-headed liberals to work up a smug, self-righteous lather. So in addition to still having Reid and me to kick around, you can lecture him too, with all the irrational, liberal emotionalism that we've come to love you for.

It's Ann Coulter Thursday!

This week Ann reiterates her objection to a McCain presidency. If you're a McCain republican, or in other words a high taxes, amnesty democrat, you probably won't enjoy this article. Go here and read it.

The Breck Girl bids adieu

Well, we no longer have the Breck Girl to kick around...at least for a while. He bailed out this morning after the last in a long series of humiliating primary defeats dating back to '04 and his disasterous campaign as second fiddle to the loathsome, reprehensible traitor John Kerry. He hasn't pledged the loyalty of his 9 supporters and 3 cosmetologists to any other candidates yet. He's probably hoping for a VP deal....or heaven forbid the AG slot.

Uuuuugh!!!

Well Tom Brady managed to drain every ounce of enjoyment away from the SuperBowl for me today. I found this disappointing tidbit over at The Weekly Standard...

Before the assembled press horde, Patriot superstar Tom Brady, a.k.a. the best quarterback ever, urged people to be more responsible. But he wasn't just talking about sports stars. He urged everyone to go see Al Gore's tedious opus, "An Inconvenient Truth," because "it really is the truth." He then bragged about/confessed to driving a hybrid.

If there's anything I hate more than vapid, Hollywood glitterpigs preaching to me about personal responsibility and their stupid, personal soapbox issues, it's vapid sports celebrities using their public stage to preach to me about a figment of Al Gore's deranged imagination. I was pulling for the Pats, now Brady has robbed me of enjoying their perfect season.

Shut up and pass the ball pretty boy!

US Foreign Aid to hostile countries

Would somebody please explain what American taxpayers get for handing over their hard-earned treasure to countries who're provably hostile to our interests. This an exerpt from an article I found over at FortLiberty.org...

The United States gives out $13.3 billion tax dollars in direct Foreign Aid annually.
The United States is above and beyond the single most generous benefactor of the United Nations, donating $2.4 billion dollars of your hard earned money, to primarily third-world dictators.

This amount is 25% of the United Nations budget.

In addition, the United States gives another $1.4 billion tax dollars to United Nations' programs and agencies.
The American taxpayers fund more for the United Nations than ALL of the other 177 member nations combined.

What most Americans do not realize is that the vast majority of the recipients of the of US Foreign Aid routinely vote against the wishes of the United States in the United Nations at an average rate of 74%.
In other words, of the $13.3 billion tax dollars invested in direct Foreign Aid only about 26% or $3.5 billion went to support people who endorsed American initiatives or causes. A staggering $9.8 billion tax dollars went to causes and people who were and are in open and direct opposition to the United States' interests and objectives.

Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States and yet still receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States and yet receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States and yet still receives $143,699,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN or make some significant changes, and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes.

I'm not stupid. I realize that the idea is that if we shower these otherwise hostile countries with fabulous cash and prizes, maybe they'll be on our side if we need them in a crisis. I for one think this is money poorly spent. I think they gladly take our money and laugh at how stupidly gullible we are to think they are our friends now that we've "bought" their friendship.

Here's an idea to pay for the tax rebate we'll be getting in a few months. We should suspend for one year all foreign aid packages, then see who our friends are. I suspect the attitude of our enemies will change dramatically and they'll really be genuinely helpful when we need them to be.

Why are we paying countries to hate us? The UN needs to be moved to Europe and let them pay for it.

Jesus is Irish?

I'm not sure what to make of this...

Renee Brewster says she had been looking for an excuse to get out of making potato salad. “I was hesitant about making the potato salad because Sister Frankie makes the potato salad at church and I said lord if it’s not for me to make potato salad then send me a sign.”

OK, even I will admit that the random blight pattern in this potato looks eerily like Christ on the cross. But the God reveals himself in mysterious ways thing aside, what explains his revelation in a potato to somebody who can't decide if she wants to make potato salad or not? I mean should this be taken seriously? I mean besides the fact that some person somewhere will pay like $5000 on e-bay for it, shelaq it and put it on display in a living-room shrine with candles and rosaries everywhere...right next to the grilled cheese sandwich with Mary and the potato chip with the shroud of Turin on it?

Isn't it more likely that it's juts a random, coincidental pattern in nature which explains the rabbit in the clouds, the man in the moon, and John Edwards' poll numbers?

Finally, to take this discussion to it's inevitable conclusion: doesn't taking seriously this kind of thing make the actual seriousness of religion and faith seem kind of silly by association? How is Christ in an Idaho potato going to deepen or awaken the faith of a lost person? I would think it would be more likely to cause them to dismiss faith as foolishness.

Heh, heh....envirokooks!

Leave it to dumb, idle hippies to create a Rube Goldberg apparatus that duplicates gravity. This particular contraption will earn these hippies $5000 in a contest. Like Van Helsing said over at Moonbattery, " I defy anybody to take environmentalism seriously after watching this video."


But dumb, idle hippies aren't content with simply amusing each other with thier idiocy. No, they feel obligated to foist their nuttery onto unsuspecting peasants in other countries in the name of environmentalism. If these kooks wanted to supply clean water to poor villiagers, why not drill wells, build water towers, or erect a water transport system of pipes in which to carry clean water? I'll tell you why. Because dumb hippies like to think of peasant villiagers as quaint animals being kept in a third-world eco-zoo to be gawked at. Poor miserable peasants being forced by eco-hippies to remain in the 11th century so the hippies can peer at them and feel good about themselves that they're saving the Earth by keeping one more villiage from enjoying the bounty of the 21st Century.

Dumb, smelly hippies.....I swear! Maybe they should try bathing in some of that bicycle water.

Hat tip to Moonbattery.

Don't buy the media hype

Just in case you were thinking of jumping on the McCain bandwagon, remember with whom he's in bed...Russ Feingold and Ted Kennedy two of the most loathsome liberals in Washington. The McCain/Feingold bill seriously, and unconstitutionally, curtails political speech...the cornerstone of the republic. The disastrous McCain/Kennedy immigration farce pretends to create a pathway to citizenship for illegals, but it doesn't include closing the border. All it does is suggest they go home, stand in line, pay a fine, blah, blah, blah. Do you really thing "President McCain" will enforce all that after he signs the bill? For heaven's sake, he's in league with Ted "what belongs to America, belongs to you" Kennedy!

"But Ed", you whine, "that means McCain's a uniter, not a divider."

Oh puke!!! When you restrict free political speech and advocate handing the country over to whatever dependent, needy, tax-consumers manage to illegally sneak across the border, how is that uniting? We would be uniting our wealth with Mexico's poverty....I'll give you that.

This week's people-tragically-killing-themselves-in-humorous-ways story

I know you people think I'm a thoughtless, cynical jerk for making light of tragedy, but somebody's gonna do it. Why not me?

OCALA, Fla. — A car traveling at high speed down a private airport runway ran off an embankment and was airborne for 200 feet before smashing into a tree early Saturday, killing all five young men in the vehicle, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Investigators did not know whether the BMW was alone or was racing another car on the air strip at the exclusive "fly-in" community of Jumbolair Aviation Estates, where pilot-actor John Travolta has a home, officials said.

According to the preliminary investigation, the car ran off the 85-foot-high embankment at the end of the runway. When it struck the large tree, the car split in half, scattering wreckage over an area of 200 square feet.

Three of the five occupants were ejected, said Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Mike Burroughs.

"It's too early in the investigation to determine a speed and also to determine whether seat belts were in use at the time of the crash," Burroughs said.

I'm sorry, if you are racing so fast that when your car becomes airborne, it flies 200 feet before disintigrating into a tree, somehow I don't think your failure to wear seat-belts constitutes your worst decision that day.

It's almost as if what ever they were smoking made them think they were in one of these.

Touchdown Jesus ?

Dana Jacobson - Who is she? If you didn't know prior to this week, don't feel bad - you are in the majority. Ms. Jacobson is the host ofan ESPN show entitled "Cold Pizza". It airs daily, but mostly when folks are at work. Today, she is in the forefront of a controversy that has her being depicted as a truly bad and disgusting person. She was asked to help "roast" Mike and Mike (they are 2 ESPN radio announcers). According to reports, she strode to the podium carrying her personal bottle of Vodka and drinking straight out of same. Nice! Don't you know her paernts were proud. Accordingly, she then managed to spew a profanity laced speech, denouncing Notre Dame (Mike Golic's Alama Mater) , the "touchdown Jesus mural ,and Jesus himself. She apparently chose to utilize "the F Bomb" as her descriptive adjective for said tirade.

Last week it was Kelly Tilghman in the crosshairs of contoversy, now it is Dana's turn. I am offended by Dana's comments. I am unhappy with ESPN for not dealing with this publicly. However, I will now come to the defense of Ms. Jacobson. She had too much to drink - probably. She said things that she regrets, admittedly and they will haunt her everyday for the rest of her "public" life, but she doesn't deserve to be fired. All of us need to be able to forgive. There is outrage over her comments and even bigger outrage over her minimal apology ("I didn't want to offend any religion"). This outrage is completely understandable, it however should not be parlayed into a crucifixtion of sorts.

Everyone I know has said or done something regretful/hurtful/stupid in their life time. We all wanted and need forgiveness. We all hopefully got it, but all also know that things were different from then on. Dana will always live with this stigma. She will never get rid of it, but she must endure this plight as her pennance for her actions. Christian folks should reflect on their own lives and ask themselves a question: Do I want to be judged by my peers, or by God? If one chooses the former then I bid you a fond adieu and wish you a good time in Hell. If the latter is chosen, then your day of reckoning will come, but only from the one who sent his son to die for you. To pay your price, to commute your sentence. Still your choice, however.

Dana, I hope that you learn from this outrageous mistake and that you can come back and do yoiur duties as before. I also hope that you willfully reach out to others and help them to not repeat your mistake. Then we will all be better.

My thoughts are there - what are yours?

It's Ann Coulter Thursday!

This week Ann points out John McCain's miserable history as a conservative...just in case you were thinking of voting for him. Go here and be reminded of all the ways McCain has departed from conservative ideals and abandoned his party.

If you have a job, you deserve a rebate

Even craven democrats recognize that giving people back some of their money will stimulate a sluggish economy on the brink of a recession. Normally, democrats like Nancy Pelosi would whine that it's tax cuts for the rich. But to her credit, she's giving in on her damand for an expansion of the food-stamp and welfare handout programs, as long as anybody who has a job and receives a regular paycheck gets the proposed $300 tax rebate.

Any other time, I would point out that tax cuts are for people who pay taxes, and that to give to someone who doesn't pay taxes a tax rebate amounts to a handout, not a rebate. But I don't think the federal government should be in the business of punishing people who're working and making a paycheck. It should be in the business of punishing people for not working. So, as weird as it feels, I have to agree with Pelosi on this one. Anybody who has a job should receive the rebate to spend anyway they like, regardless of how much or how little they pay in taxes.

Why not vote for the best candidate...period?

There's an interesting phenomenon taking shape as Obama and Hillary fight it out for the dem nomination....who should black women vote for? Or in other words, with which victim group will they likely identify ?

Recent polls show black women are expected to make up more than a third of all Democratic voters in South Carolina's primary in five days.

For these women, a unique, and most unexpected dilemma, presents itself: Should they vote their race, or should they vote their gender?

No other voting bloc in the country faces this choice.

Democratic analyst Jehmu Greene says, "We've all wanted the day to come where there was a black person in the White House, where there was going to be a woman in the White House. I don't think we imagined it would be having to decide one or the other."

I am shocked, shocked at the insinuation that some Americans may cast votes based solely on race or gender. I thought America was supposed to be a colorblind and gender neutral society. I guess colorblindness and gender neutrality is for the majority only. I guess if you are a member of some minority, it's perfectly valid to vote based on that group identity.

Here's a crazy idea....why not examine the candidates and vote for the one who most closely mirrors your views, regardless of race or gender? For democrat candidates and race hustlers that would be a disaster because they couldn't use those phony group identities to scare or guilt voters into voting their group ID rather than follow their individual ideologies.

Oprah is getting hammered by women for abandoning the woman candidate(Hillary) and she would get hammered by blacks if she sided with Hillary against Obama, for not sticking with her race. Do these gender/race voters not care about the positions of the candidates but only what they look like? It's really amusing to watch....liberals getting caught in the sticky web of race/gender politics that they spun themselves.

UPDATE: I forgot to criticize the right in this post for doing the same thing, only with them it's about religion, not race. There are many followers of James Dobson, Jerry Falwell(late), and other "Christian" leaders who reflexively and obediently vote for whatever candidate successfully convinces them(the voters) he is the biggest Christian. This is every bit as stupid as voting for a candidate based on race or gender. Sure, you want a guy/gal in office who basically believes in the same things as you but unless you want him/her to establish a theocracy, what real impact does that have on your every day life?

Global warming slams the deep south

The devastating effects of global warming were felt through central Alabama over the weekend as snow fell and accumulated for the first time in like 10 years. Temperatures stayed well below freezing for the entire weekend during a time of year when we're normally enjoying highs in the 50's. I thought if I injected as much CO2 into the air as possible, I could help to warm things up for people, so I kept a roaring fire going in the den all weekend....sadly it did nothing to warm up the environment. Al Gore can't say I didn't try.

The decline of the MSM

I was unaware until recently but MSNBC is still on the air. Despite dismal ratings and moronic show hosts like Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews abandoning all pretense of journalistic objectivity and clearly taking sides in the election, for some reason, advertizers still want to peddle goods to their remaining 4 viewers. This also explains the dramatic decline in subsriptions to left-leaning fish wrappers like the NYT, AJC, and LAT. People don't want to be told what to think when they are expecting straight news. Opinions are fair if they are presented as such, but to run "news" articles which are just veiled op-eds, alienates readers/viewers and they tune you out. Sure FOXNews is a little right of center but that in no way balances out all major networks and most major newspapers leaning way left....it just gives regular Americans a reliable place to get relatively unbiased information...we can make up our own minds about what to think about it.

Americans want to see bias in their news reporting like they want to see Tweety and Olby wrestle each other without clothes.

Concert report

My kid and I caught the Foo Fighters and Jimmy Eat World Saturday night. Excellent show, I have to say! Dave Grohl and the boys hit the new album, Echoes..., a few from In Your Honor, and lots of old popular stuff as well as album cuts you wouldn't have heard on the radio. They were very interactive with the audience and all in all, put on a great show.

If the Fighters come to your home town, it's worth it to go.

You find comedy in the unlikeliest places

This cracked me up when I read it....

A delegation of nine state legislators from Sonora was in Tucson on Tuesday to say Arizona's new employer sanctions law will have a devastating effect on the Mexican state.

At a news conference, the legislators said Sonora - Arizona's southern neighbor, made up of mostly small towns - cannot handle the demand for housing, jobs and schools it will face as illegal Mexican workers here return to their hometowns without jobs or money.

"How can they pass a law like this?" asked Mexican Rep. Leticia Amparano Gamez.

"Mexico is not prepared for this, for the tremendous problems" it will face as more and more Mexicans working in Arizona and sending money to their families return to hometowns in Sonora without jobs, she said.

Mexican legislators across the border whining indignantly about Mexicans without jobs or money flooding their towns.......That's gold Jerry, gold!

It's Friday!

Most of us have a long weekend, but that doesn't mean I'll be goofing off the whole time. Check back in from time to time and get insightful analysis and commentary on the election results and other news.

It's supposed to snow here tonight so dumb Alabamians are stocking up on milk, bread, and peanut butter. What they always fail to notice is that any snow we get always, always melts by noon the following day. There's really no need to stock up on supplies. There are actually people out driving around terrified that it might snow an inch or two. I actually need some milk for coffee and breakfast tomorrow but there won't be any.

Saturday night I'm taking my kid to see the Foo Fighters....we can't wait! I'll give a report at some point over the weekend. Should be a good show promoting Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace.

As always consider this an open thread and discuss anything you like.

Mother Nature......stubbornly uncooperative

Having lost all credibility because the weather won't cooperate, environmental zealots resort to self parody by demanding disastrous anti-global-warming legislation in the middle of a winter snow storm...

It snowed, but they still came. A heavy snowfall blanketed a global warming protest outside the State House in Annapolis this morning, but it did not dampen the shouts of about 400 activists who urged lawmakers to pass the nation's toughest greenhouse gas control law.



I wonder if their parents know that their hard-earned tuition money is being squandered protesting the weather.

This week's scary Hillary picture

Would you want this woman this close to your child?

Send in the clowns.....in to cell block C.

Most of you know of my irrational fear and loathing of clowns. There's just always been something creepy to me about a grown man in makeup taking such pleasure in entertaining children. Well you can stop the ridicule...

Ringling Bros. clown "Spanky" has been arrested for 10 counts of exploitation of a minor, due to having photos of children having sex.

See? I was right.

From AceofSpadesHQ, here's the Top Ten Signs A Clown Might Have Gone Bad

10. Big red floppy boots only partially hide electronic tracking-bracelet on ankle

9. His big "Fun-Time Happy-Land Activity" at children's parties is a game he calls "Wash My Dirty Feet"

8. His "clown make-up" just looks suspiciously like White-Supremacist prison tattoos

7. Says he can't bring his famous puppets, as they're currently being examined by the police for hair and fiber evidence

6. An hour of his "show" consists of him reading the racing forms

5. While making balloon animals, repeatedly makes inappropriate
references to "the so-called Holocaust"

4. Says that Pin the Tail on the Donkey is no longer part of his act, "just to conform with the court order"

3. Every time you leave the room, you hear him trying to sell your children some "sweet" Utah real estate

2. Says he'd prefer to be paid in cash, and/or "weed"

... and the number one sign a clown might have gone bad...

1. Is mentioned in Washintonienne's sex diary under the alias "Funnybone"

Collectivism in Nevada...democrat style

In Nevada, unions are huge business. On the one hand there is the Culinary Workers Union who supply all the casinos with employees, and then there's the Nevada teachers union. The Culinary union has endorsed Obama while the teachers have endorsed Hillary. Normally, to vote, you have to go to the polls before, during, or after work. It's a pain but that's the price for participation in the process. It seems Nevada has OK'd an idea for casino workers to be able to vote at work rather than have to take time off. This is a huge advantage for Obama and the Clinton camp is understandably furious.

In addition, the accusation of member intimidation is always an issue. The union bosses force members to give them part of their paycheck ostensibly to represent their interests in labor negotiations with management. In reality, the bosses donate to politicians in return for labor-favorable legislation. The trade-off is that the union bosses guarantee that thier members will vote for that candidate, regardless of the individual members' political leanings.

The Breck Girl, John Edwards, chimed in as if anybody cared what his thoughts were...

“I heard some reports tonight about the possibility of there being some intimidation of union members to caucus for a particular candidate,” Edwards said. “And I just want to say the reason I have worked so hard in the trenches to strengthen and grow the union movement is so that workers’ voices are heard.”

Do you see the problem with labor unions...and Edward's backwards ideas on them? The way to insure your individual political voice is heard is to not be in a union in the first place. Strengthening the union only puts more emphasis on the collective voice and diminishes the voice of the individual....that's textbook socialism folks.

It's Ann Coulter Thursday!

This week Ann weighs in on the election with her endorsement. A must read for those of you who haven't decided on a candidate. This is off topic but it's the best line of the article...

"Democrats are notoriously unreliable voters in bad weather. Instead of putting on galoshes and going to the polls, they sit on their porches waiting for FEMA to rescue them."

Witty and dripping with sarcasm as always. Go here and read it.

The next best thing to gridlock

Whenever bureaucrats in Washington are "getting things done" you can be assured of two things, they are curtailing more of our freedoms in favor of nanny-state oversight and they are plotting new and creative ways to seize more of our paychecks. So when the media complain that Congress is in gridlock and aren't "getting things done", I celebrate. Well the democrats control both houses so there's no gridlock, but thankfully Nanny-State Nancy is distracted from legislation, by saving the planet from the global warming menace, by "greening" the congressional cafeteria. (It's exactly like distracting a child from a hot stove by giving it a pot and wodden spoon to bang it with.)

The processed cheese has been replaced with brie. The Jell-O has made way for raspberry kiwi tarts and mini-lemon blueberry trifles. Meatloaf has moved over for mahi mahi and buns have been shunted aside in favor of baguettes.

A revolution is afoot at the deli counters, grills and salad bars of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Newly ascendant Democrats may have hit roadblocks on Iraq and fiscal issues, but they have revamped congressional menus, replacing fatty, pre-made foods with healthier, gourmet alternatives. The once dreary congressional cafeterias now abound with haute cuisine.

The menu transformation is part of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “Greening the Capitol” plan to make the House campus more environmentally friendly and socially progressive.

But there can be a downside to delicious. Not everyone is happy with the enhanced offerings. Many congressional employees have complained that as the food quality has increased, so have the prices.

“It’s a big jump from high school cafeteria to fancy-pants gourmet. I just wish my pay improved,” said Caryn Schenewerk, a staffer for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

A fruit and cheese side dish with two small wedges of brie and cheddar, six grapes, two saltines and one strawberry cost $4.95, for example.

Stupid compostable straws don't stand up too well to hot coffee, Nancy. To liberals like Nancy Pelosi, it's all about intentions over results---who cares if the compostable straws don't work, the important thing is that she's trying to save the planet.

Nancy Pelosi is a vile, loathsome wretch. So I guess the silver lining to the whole global-warming hoax is that liberals like her are easily distracted from harming America, and into harmlessly foisting their idiotic brand of enviromoonbattery onto diners at the cafeteria. It's too bad for the staffers who have to eat ridiculously expensive rabbit food, use only one recycled napkin, and drink from soft, biodegradable straws, but it's good for America in that she's not increasing our taxes or curtailing our freedoms.

Hat tip to Politico.com.

Charity is whose responsibility?

Fred Thompson had this to say about charity the other day....

A woman asked him if he would “as a Christian, as a conservative” continue President Bush’s programs to combat global AIDS.

“Christ didn’t tell us to go to the government and pass a bill to get some of these social problems dealt with. He told us to do it,” Thompson said.

“The government has its role, but we need to keep firmly in mind the role of the government, and the role of us as individuals and as Christians on the other.”

He received a round of applause for his answer, and went on to expand on the role of government in fighting AIDS and other diseases.

“I’m not going to go around the state and the country with regards to a serious problem and say that I’m going to prioritize that,” he said.

He is exactly right and in saying that, distilled down one of the fundamental ideological differences between conservatives and liberals. That is, that conservatives recongize that it's the individual's responsibility, whether through churches, non-profits, foundations, etc, to attend to the charity-based needs of society through individual giving. Liberals, on the other hand, believe that it's the government's responsibility to take care of the needy by taking money from some Americans and using it to fund their giving to other Americans. Liberals love to point out how loving, and generous they are toward "the less fortunate among us". Well it's easy to be generous and loving with other peoples' money.

This difference explains the huge disparity between personal charity donations between conservatives and liberals. Liberals give way less charity than conservatives because they don't believe it's their responsibility to give, it's society's responsibility to let the government take money in the form of taxes and dole it out as it sees fit. Liberals love spending other peoples' money but they don't give any of their own.

If you haven't decided on a candidate who deserves your vote, you could do a whole lot worse than Fred Thompson. He gets it and is not afraid to point it out.

Another reason to be outraged

A pair of German researchers claim to have proof that the Koran wasn't written by the prophet Mohammed through divine direction, but was cobbled together by several people using ideas borrowed from Christian and Jewish texts. To Muslims, the existence of the Koran is the equivalent of the belief in Jesus by Christians.

Considering the reaction from the deranged Muslim community to the Islamic cartoons and Mohammed the teddy bear, this should end well.

Big Brother is watching

As a liberterian, this scares the crap out of me...

Spychief Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to protect America’s cyberspace that will raise privacy issues and make the current debate over surveillance law look like “a walk in the park,” McConnell tells The New Yorker in the issue set to hit newsstands Monday. “This is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”

At issue, McConnell acknowledges, is that in order to accomplish his plan, the government must have the ability to read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States in order to protect it from abuse. Congressional aides tell The Journal that they, too, are also anticipating a fight over civil liberties that will rival the battles over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The argument in favor of such broad latitude for intelligence services goes something like this:

"But Ed" you point out, pretending to know what you're talking about, "the terrorist threat is real and as long as you aren't doing anything illegal, why do you care if the feds listen in? They need all the tools available to them to stop the terrorists"

What if a pencil-necked spook is listening in while you're talking to you grandmother about apple pie recipes, and you start talking politics and harshly criticize the President? Do you want an operative of that administration knowing that you dislike his boss? What if you're having marital problems? Do you want the feds listening in while you discuss it with your best friend?
Do you want some sweaty, nameless, faceless bureaucrat sitting in a van down the street knowing what you get in the mail, who you talk to on the phone, what 900 numbers you call once in a while? Look, once the federal government gets the right to surveil regular, law-abiding Americans for no reason other than they're trying to catch you at something, then this ceases to be America to me.

I am in favor of 1. profiling Americans who use the phone or internet to contact individuals in terrorist-sponsoring countries. and 2. monitoring the domestic and international calls of known or suspected terrorists or terrorist associates.

I realize that there is no constitutional right to privacy(most people think there is), but that doesn't mean the federal government should be granted the right to snoop in the affairs of ordinary, non-suspected citizens.

Solving prison overcrowding

Predictably, the civil-liberties moonbats across the pond are upset about this idea....

Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.

Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals.

But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in the community, to help enforce home curfews. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as long as two grains of rice, are able to carry scanable personal information about individuals, including their identities, address and offending record.

The tags, labelled "spychips" by privacy campaigners, are already used around the world to keep track of dogs, cats, cattle and airport luggage, but there is no record of the technology being used to monitor offenders in the community. The chips are also being considered as a method of helping to keep order within prisons.

Here's my solution to prison overcrowding: fit all parolled prisoners with a GPS collar kind of like in that Rutger Hauer movie Wedlock. If a prisoner wanders too far away from home detention or goes somewhere he/she shouldn't be, the collar explodes, removing the prisoner's head. You would effectively be able to empty the prisons of all but the most violent criminals and monitor their every move.

These bleeding-heart, prisoners'-rights, civil liberterians....I swear!

It's Friday!

OK people, here's your weekend assignment. Go to ElectoralCompassUSA, take the short test and see where you land on the political landscape with all the remaining candidates. You may be surprised, I was. I landed almost exactly with Rudi Guiliani. I never would have guessed.

It only takes 5 minutes. Report back here in the comments thread so the rest of us can ridicule you.

I may post some stuff over the weekend so check in from time to time. Otherwise have a good weekend and see you on Monday.

The kiss of death

In an attempt to become relevant again, Lurch jumped into the campaign fray by endorsing Barak Obama for President. Obama reluctantly accepted the endorsement knowing full well that it meant almost certain failure.

I didn't know John Kerry was still in the Senate. Seriously, who cares who Kerry endorses for President? Does he really think brain-dead dem. voters will be swayed by his endorsement? Democratic politics are about cults of personality, not substantive policy.

Kerry endorsement.....gimme a break.

Ready .. Aim... Fire!!!

The so-called "Reverend Al" is back at it again. Poor Kelly Tilghman is in his sights. He will stop at nothing to protect the world from this person. What a load of malarkey!!

Ya gotta feel sorry for Kelly. She had just landed the tower anchor job on the Golf Channel Tournament golf telecasts this year. Friday (day 2 of her new gig) late in the afternoon rounds, she and co-anchor Nick Faldo are clowning around. Faldo brings up the topic of Tiger Woods and suggests that the young guys on tour need to "take him out into a back alley...". Interjected by Tilghman was the phrase " yeah, and lynch him". Not sympathetic and not nice, but not to be taken out of context like it has been. She and Tiger are friends, he is soon to the first billionaire golfer in the world (that's right Billionaire). All she does is to convey that he is virtually unbeatable when on his A-game and that the only way to usurp him is to have him not play (in an off-beat way).

Now the powers that be at TGC decided to give her a 2 week suspension for her off-color remarks, but that's not enough for the "REVEREND AL". He is hollering and screaming that she should be fired for racial remarks. Even though he was eventually outmaneuvered in the Don Imus ploy, he is back at it again. What I truly don't see is the racist side of this. I can see that she made a comment that could be viewed as a personal threat, but no color was injected or intended. Tiger is done with the issue, so why does Al still have his panties in a wad. Nobody else to sacrifice this week for Al?

I thought that all ministerial/reverend type folks are supposed to help the rest of us spiritually. Not Al. He only tries to tear down people. He isn't even inconvenienced in this matter. He nor "his people" have been attacked or besmirched by this. I just don't understand this whole thing. What's your take on this?

It's good to be conservative

Political Correctness Warning: If you are a humorless, insufferable liberal, skip on down to the next post or you might get your feelings hurt. So before you go and soil yourself from indignant outrage and moral self-righteousness, this post is purely for comedy and is not meant to hurt anybody's feelings....except for Nancy Pelosi's.

Who's prettier, conservative women or liberal women? You decide...

Click on the picture to get the full size version.

Oh, the irony!

Hapless former Sec. State and embarrassing Clinton lickspittle Maddie Albright made an announcement today. Let's take a look...

Nearly seven years out office, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright pulls no punches bashing the Bush administration’s handling of certain issues – calling it one of America’s “worst presidencies.”

The "worst presidencies" condemnation from the Clinton administration's biggest failure...and there were many. I tell you, the day when the Clinton dingleberries cease to be part of the American political pageant can't come too soon for me.

Here's Maddie in her finest hour....representing America by sucking up to the world's worst dictator and murderer, the pathetic, deranged Kim Jong Il.

It's Ann Coulter Thursday!

This week Ann mourns the loss of her father. She talks about his life in the FBI, conservative politics, as a union-busting lawyer, and as a father. Ann draws contrasts with him and the limp-wristed, feminized, liberal guys who pass for "men" these days. He's sounds like he was a pretty interesting guy. Go here and read the article.

Petulent moms create risk for everyone

Finally, something reasonable and prudent coming from the UK. It seems the doctors over there are going to campaign against the overuse of antibiotics in an effort to combat deadly drug-resistant strains such MRSA....

Using antibiotics too liberally has led to bugs such as MRSA becoming resistant to treatment with the drugs. Most colds, coughs and flu are caused by viruses, which cannot be treated with antibiotics anyway, Mr Johnson points out.

I work in, and know lots of people in the medical community. They all know pediatricians who do what amounts to treating the whining mothers of sick children by prescribing antibiotics when 9 times out of 10, it's a virus and will go away on it's own. If you are one of those whining mothers who drags your kid to the pediatrician demanding antibiotics everytime they have a runny nose, then you are responsible for the existence of MRSA and you should be ashamed. Your kid has an immune system, let it fight off the illness for a few days before taking him to the doctor. Otherwise how will he ever develope immunity?

"But Ed" you whine, "the pediatricians don't have to write the prescription. It's their fault."

Right you are, but the pediatrician knows that if he doesn't write the scrip then the over-protective mom will go to another doctor. They are just preserving their revenue stream. They're wrong, but that's what they're doing. You see, most of these demanding mothers are stay-at-home types who spend most of their daytime either at the gym with a cute trainer, then at the local bistro with their girl-friends drinking martinis for lunch and pinching the rears of the cute wait staff. They sit around telling stories about what great moms they are as proved by their weekly trips to the pediatrician's office. These moms and their indulgent pediatricians are to blame for the drug-resistant bacteria that threaten the rest of us.

Hollywood glitterpigs take a night off

News Flash!!! The Golden Globe awards show has been cancelled this year because actors refuse to cross the writers' picket lines.

Self-loving, Hollywood glitterpigs have lost an excuse to praise themselves and each other. Too bad, I'm sure all 14 of the viewers will be very disappointed. Seriously, does anybody watch anymore, these vapid, prosaic narcissists preen and stroke each other?

Now maybe the half of America who can tell you how many times George Clooney bathes each week, but can't find Canada on a map of North America, will actually pay attention for a change tonight and form a coherent thought about the direction the country will be headed as a result of this election. I won't be holding my breath, but it's a nice thought.

Iranian navy flirts with disaster

Members of the Iranian Navy earlier today almost succeeded in enjoying 72 virgins in paradise when they attempted to provoke the US Navy in the Straits of Hormuz. The Straits are a critical shipping channel for oil exports from the Gulf and the US Navy insures it stays clear and ships are not harrassed or attacked. A flotilla of Iranian speed boats approached the US Navy ships at high speeds, broadcasting threats, and appearing as suicide bombers in an effort to provoke us into shooting first. But being the most highly trained and disciplined fighting force in the world, our guys didn't fall for the bait.

I don't want to get in a shooting fight with Achmadinnerjacket right now(we can deal with him later), but it sure would have been fun to watch the gun-sight video tapes as the Iranian navy went en masse to meet Allah.

The crazy Iranians might want to rethink provoking a United States guided missile destroyer.

DK picks up an endorsement

Flaky actor Viggo Mortensen endorsed for President, the Keebler elf and UFO believer, Denish Kucinich yesterday. Somehow I don't think the backing of a screwy, Hollywood glitterpig will earn DK any more votes than the handfull of crazies who already support him. Liberals think the gullibility of the American voting public is boundless and it can be tricked into installing a nutjob like Kucinich in a position of leadership. And crackpots like Kucinich love the help of celebrities because it gives them credibility.

Viggo was great as Aragorn in Lord of the Rings but his sucking up to supreme nutjobs Cindy Sheehan and Dennis Kucinich is a role from which his career may never fully recover.

Once again, I'm ahead of the curve

I called it on Saturday, either Hillary will bail now or go on the offensive to try to salvage what's left of the campaign. It looks as though I was right....again...

Facing a double-digit defeat in New Hampshire, a sudden collapse in national polls and an expected fund-raising drought, Senator Hillary Clinton is preparing for a tough decision: Does she get out of the race? And when?!

"She can't take multiple double-digit losses in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada," laments one top campaign insider. "If she gets too badly embarrassed, it will really harm her. She doesn't want the Clinton brand to be damaged with back-to-back-to-back defeats.

Key players in Clinton's inner circle are said to be split. James Carville is urging her to fight it out through at least February and Super Tuesday, where she has a shot at thwarting Barack Obama in a big state. But others close to the former first lady now see no possible road to victory, sources claim.

In American politics, once the perception exists that you are losing a campaign and are weak, it is very difficult to recover from. Once voters hear that even campaign insiders are skeptical of her chances, then they stop donating money and effort. Americans love a winner, and Obama looks like one right now. I predict Hillary abandons the race after New Hampshire. Good riddance.

Elected, not annointed

Fresh off her embarrassing defeat in Iowa and down by 10 points in New Hampshire, Hillary will do one of two things if she loses there next week: either she'll fold the tents and her moment in the sun will be thankfully over, or she'll revert to what the Clintons know best, character smear. I'm not fan of Obama(see my previous post below), but the guy has a lot of young people fired up that would have otherwise been Clinton supporters.

I can't remember who observed it first but as of Thursday, the Clintons no longer have a strangle hold on the democrat party. I believe if she cannot win in New Hampshire, the rats will bail from that sinking ship like......well, like rats from a sinking ship. Hillary's political popularity is based on the cult-of-personality that explained Bill's success. That cult has shifted to Obama and Hillary is clinging to the shreds of Bill's coattails that she's ridden up until now. Hillary can't do it on her own and people don't want another 4-8 years of the Clintons. Both Obama and Clinton are dyed in the wool European, nanny-state socialists. The only difference Barak Obama is new and fresh and that's making the difference right now.

Obama....nothing but an empty suit

It was disgusting watching democrat shills like Chris Matthews fawn and worship at the feet of Obama after he won Iowa convincingly over Hillary last night. Referring to Obama, he actually used the term "delivered to us", as if he is the second coming of Christ or something. Is America so absorbed with the Spears hillbillies that we'll elect a socialist, former-Muslim to be our President, because we like the empty platitudes with which he makes us feel better about ourselves? Watch out because the media will be cramming Obama down your throats if he wins in New Hampshire. And they'll make you feel like a racist if you don't get on board with the program. Think I'm kidding? Wait and see. You can see the hype starting listening to Chris Matthews.
Before you watch this clip, you'd better grab a trash can to vomit in.

Government bailouts encourage wreckless behavior

Here's another example of your tax dollars being spent to rescue stupid Americans from themselves...

NEW ORLEANS — A federal plan to buy thousands of flood-prone homes on Mississippi's hurricane-battered coast is shaping up to be far more modest than many residents had feared. In September, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stunned a gathering of homeowners in Bay St. Louis, Miss., by announcing that up to 17,000 properties could be bought and converted into wetlands or other public uses as part of an ambitious coastal protection program.

Why should my tax dollars be spent to buy the home of somebody who was too dumb not to build on a flood plane? Isn't that what insurance policies are for? If the government wants to extablish a protected wetland or somehthing, then don't allow any new construction, and the next time there's a flood, all the houses will be gone and they won't have used my money to accomplish it.

This is typical liberal mentality that assumes that people aren't capable of taking care of themselves, and government must be a nanny to us all.

Brit at the top of another list

Man, nothing rockets you to the top of everyone's celebrity dead pool like getting dragged off in the middle of the night to the rubber room hand-cuffed to the guerney after getting hammered on drugs. Britney is now the odds-on dead-pool fav in 2008, as she is highly likely to kill herself this year in some typically embarrassing way that celebrities always find. I think she even outranks Liz Taylor who most people thought was already dead.

Pretend rage in India

Let's check in on our Islamic friends across the pond in India and see what's riling them up this week...

ERODE: Tension prevailed in Dharapuram after a slice of pork was found inside a mosque at Kannan Nagar near the by-pass road in Dharapuram on Friday.

Sources said that the slice of meat was thrown into the mosque through the iron gates. A mosque worker Ibrahim spotted it when he opened the door of the mosque this morning.

Later in the day, over 5000 Muslims assembled near the Big Mosque, Jinna Maidan and took out a march to the RDO Nagarajan’s office and sought action against the miscreants behind the incident.

Seriously! 5000 indignant Muslims marched in outrage over a slice of ham?
241 Marines killed in Beirut....nothing.
Hundreds of women and children slaughtered in Israel....nothing.
U.S. embassies attacked overseas....nothing.
Countless innocent civilians killed and property damaged by enraged Muslims over the years....and nothing.
3000 civilians killed in 2001 at the WTC.....and still nothing.
But some prankster tosses a slice of bacon into a mosque and 5000 enraged Muslims march in protest. Forgive me if I snicker when somebody calls it the religion of peace. Feigned outrage and violence are a way of life for unemployed, third-world degenerates.

A slice of pork....gimme a break!

The Breck Girl

Just in case you haven't seen it, in honor of the Iowa caucuses and the kick-off of the presidential race, I present the Breck Girl prepping for an interview a while back. Seriously, would you want a president who did this every morning in the White House?

It's Ann Coulter Thursday!

This week Ann offers an article that she published a few years ago, which reminds us where the manufactured "holiday" known as Kwanzaa originated. It's steeped in Socialism, Marxism, and violence but everybody seems to have forgotten that an FBI snitch created it with secret government backing. Embarrassingly, even George Bush issued a Kwanzaa proclamation this year. Seriously, if you don't know the origins of this made up celebration of collectivism, go here and read Ann's column.

The liberal DMN shows it's colors

If you are one of those Ostrich-like Americans who thinks the main-stream-media are politically fair and balanced, then you are not only an idiot, you're also delusional and deserve to be in a home for the functionally retarded under professional care.

Here's what I mean by the media abandoning all pretense of objectivity and choosing sides. Not to be outdone by TIME naming Russia's Pooty Poot their "Person of the Year", the Dallas Morning News named the "illegal immigrant" their "Texan of the Year". The liberals over at the DMN have no intention of reporting that nearly 3/4ths of Americans want the border closed immediately or that Congress has no intention of closing it. They're liberals and they want as many illegal aliens here as possible to plunder the public tax coffers and to become voting government dependents.

Journalists these days don't view their responsibility to report the news as a rule so much as a guideline. To them, their responsiblities as journalists include changing the world by shaping the news to fit their personal politcal template.

DO NOT TRUST ANY ONE NEWS SOURCE! Get your information from as many sources as possible before making up your mind about an issue.

If the the liberals over at the DMN have their way, even this pitiful border fence would come down.