Say A Prayer

Folks, remember to say a prayer for all of the people that are in Jeanne's path and for all of those who are already suffering as a result of her destruction. Florida has had enough.

Out of the Rubble...

Below is the text from an email that I got from WB tonight. I have also included pictures of the damage to his property.

JED



Everyone,

I have managed to get online for a moment at a friend’s house that has gotten phone service back. Things here are pretty bad. We have basically lost everything and the house, which is structurally unsound. FEMA came out today, but they are understandably limited in what they can help with. We will have to see what happens next. Cleanup and salvaging what little is left is monstrous, and the area is littered with dead fish and eels, adding to the already overpowering smell of mold and mildew.


Ivan's Mess 

I am exhausted and have been at this for more than a week with less than 4 hours sleep a night. I’m not looking for pity, just telling it like it is…there are a lot of us here in the same situation. The photos are of the storm’s aftermath…some are of my friends at Eglin AFB cutting us a path through our driveway so we can get out.


Look at the SIZE of that thing! 

It took two days. The pictures only show the last day’s work.

The flood picture is of my front yard after the water had left the house.


And Noah sent out a dove from the ark... 

The storm surge was about 4 feet high in the house…all of it salt water (and I’m 17 miles upriver from the mouth of the bay). We lost more than 100 trees on my property that were one foot in diameter or more (some up to 4 feet dia.)


Downed trees on Blackwater River 

Thank you, Steve H. for your kind words in your HOG ON ICE blog about what happened here. It really did a lot to buck up my spirits when Jonathan read it to me over the phone. I told Val that we had a FOUR foot storm surge in the house…not 40 foot…I think he was still in shock about the rest of the damage I was telling him about and got confused.


Go Navy, Vote Bush! 

I painted the “Go Navy, Vote Bush” sign when I found a can of wall paint floating past me in my garage…right after the storm had passed. We’ve been getting a lot of helicopter and aircraft circling over since then…maybe they like looking at it…or maybe they just can’t believe we survived the storm.

Steve, Val, good luck with Jeanne…although I hear you guys will not be in the crosshairs with that hurricane. We weren’t so fortunate.

Well, I have to go. We are overcome with work, but wanted all to know that everyone is safe… I’ll check back when I can.


WB

Doodles Lives!

Mr. Doodles says, "Hurricane, schmurricane." 

Mr. Doodles has been seen since the departure and re-emergence of Hurricane Ivan and is alive and well.

WB is Alive!!!

I recently got off of the phone with WB this afternoon. He and his family are safe! I have to admit that I was really starting to get worried about him. I started trying to call him the morning after the storm hit and was never able to reach him. It turns out that his phone got wet. Guess I have to call the Red Cross back now.

The bad news is that the photo of the gazebo that I posted a couple of days ago actually WAS close to WB's house.


Flooding at a location not too far from WB's home 

Because his house sits a little higher than where the gazebo was, the flooding only came up to chest high. I guess 2 or 3 feet could mean the difference between survival and drowning for humans, but for personal items it really doesn't matter if the water is 4 feet deep or 12 feet deep. Nearly everything they own was ruined. WB is still sorting through stuff and trying to clean up heirlooms, but it doesn't look too good.

In a bit of irony, there is also a singlewide mobile home on WB's property that is being used as an office. Due to the strength of the hurricane, everyone assumed that the trailer would be reduced to rubble when the storm hit, so WB spent a good bit of time removing important items from the office to the main house. When all was said and done, the trailer had almost no damage, while the house was flooded. Weird. But I guess it is a blessing too: at least his family has a place to stay.

I haven't heard yet how his turtle friend, Mr. Doodles fared through the storm.


Mr. Doodles - a turtle. I don't remember what kind. I think he is a gopher tortise of some kind. 

WB has been keeping an eye on the little guy ever since he decided to take up residence in his garden last year. Hopefully, he was able to escape the floodwaters of the Blackwater River. I will make it a point to ask about Mr. D. tomorrow.

Anyway, please be praying for WB and his family. They are certainly glad to have their lives and a place to stay, but losing so many of their family heirlooms is tough for anyone. Perhaps we can pray that somehow most of it can be salvaged. I am still convinced that God causes all of these things to work together for good. We haven't found the silver lining yet, but I am sure that it will be evident before too long.

And please also consider sending financial support to one of the agencies that is helping to bring relief to all of those whose lives have been disrupted by Ivan the Terrible.

Why the Sanctions Against Cuba Are Right

Last night I began watching a segment on Fox News about the UN Oil For Food scandal. As I was listening to the report, it became evident to me that this is exactly why the sanctions against Cuba need to be so tight - to prevent Fidel Castro from being able to skirt the sanctions against the country and line his pockets in the process. Val Prieto over at Babalu Blog has been saying this for months, and, while I mentally agreed that he must be right, now I am beginning to see a concrete example of why what he has written must be true. I am going to be commenting on the Oil For Food scandal as I have the time to do a little more research on it, but for now, you can check out THESE LINKS for some information that was put forth in the report.

The main article doesn't come close to conveying the information included in last night's report. I'll have to see if I can't get my hands on a transcript of that show. Here is something from the article that my interest you:

“I believe the U.N., parts of it, have been corrupt for years. But this went to a whole new level,” said Rep. Christopher Shays (search), R-Conn., chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations.

Shays is leading one of several Oil-for-Food probes by the federal government. The General Accountability Office has already pegged Saddam’s Oil-for-Food take at $10.1 billion. It could end up being a lot more.

Shays says Iraqis aren't the only victims -- Americans are too.

“We're talking about American lives that are being lost in an attempt to bring democracy to Iraq,” Shays said. "If France, Russia, China and Germany had told Saddam it was time to back down and honor his commitments," Shays said, "it’s possible the United States may not have needed to go to war against Saddam."

Of course, it is entirely likely that these countries were unwilling to apply any pressure to Iraq because they were also on the take. This isn't just wild speculation either, the evidence put forward last night was pretty damning.

That is all I have time for tonight, but I will be commenting further on the UN and our other "allies" throughout the world soon.

The Problem With Dan Rather

The whirlwind surrounding the memogate scandal has raised alot of questions regarding whether Dan Rather should resign or not. Fox News has graciously suggested that perhaps Rather was merely duped - that he had no personal axe to grind in the story. I disagree. Rather's behavior from the time of the "discovery" of the documents through the debunking of those documents smacks of someone who has intentionally put the story forward regardless of the facts. His unwillingness to retract the story or order an investigation is very suspect, as is his bulldogged insistence that the story is true.


Cox and Forkum.com 

Apparently, from what I'm hearing from Fox News, CBS will be admitting today that they were "duped" by the fraudulent documents regarding President Bush's National Guard service. Does anyone out there really believe that CBS was fooled by the documents? Well, I guess that there are some out there who probably do - just like there are some out there who actually believe that higher taxes are just what we need to jump start our economy.

I think that the biggest problem that I have with those of Dan Rather's and CBS's ilk is that they purport to be unbiased. I could handle their partisanship and bias far better if they would just openly acknowledge that they are a Democrat-leaning news organization and that all of their news will be presented through that lens. However, that is not the case. These organizations claim to present only the facts in an unbiased manner, but these claims are pure prevarications.

Duplicity by anyone in a position of public trust is one of the greatest evils of all. People come to politicians and the press with the reasonable assumption that they should be able to believe that the information that they are getting from them is reasonably reliable. However, the memogate scandal is showing what I have known for years - that there are many unethical people in the media and in public office who have no qualms of inserting their bias into stories that are factually based in order to promote their own agendas. Worse than that, we have seen that CBS was willing to air a story using fabricated documentation and untrue premises in order to slander the President and benefit John Kerry's campaign.

So, while CBS and Dan Rather may cry that they have been deceived, I, for one, do not buy it for a minute. My sincerest desire is that everyone who was involved in this slanderous news item will suffer consequences for their involvement. And I hope that those who knew or suspected (or didn't care) that these documents were forgeries and still promoted this story will face criminal charges. What they have done certainly deserves it.

A Sad Discovery

Back in the day...when quality was rarely
sacrificed for profit... 

After extolling the virtues of Cheerwine in a glass bottle, I have discovered that the formulation for my favorite soft drink has been tampered with yet once again.

On a particularly long day at the office, I decided to treat myself to a bottled Cheerwine on my way home. I stopped at the store, and made my purchase, eagerly anticipating the excellence of the drink to hit my taste buds. But as its bubbly effervescence washed my mouth, something was amiss! The taste was off. I couldn't believe it! What was wrong? I proceeded to check the side of the bottle where the words Real Sugar appeared where once the words Real Cane Sugar had been proudly proclaimed.

It is hard to believe that there is a difference between Real Sugar and Real Cane Sugar. I always thought Real Sugar WAS Cane Sugar! Apparently not. The difference is evident from the taste. The Real Sugar is slightly less sweet than the Cane. This difference affects the cherry flavor of the drink dramatically.

Why on earth did they make the change? I am sure that it must boil down to a matter of a penny or two per bottle. The really sad thing is that the quality is noticeably diminished. I don't drink soft drinks very often, but I am far less likely to drink them when they don't taste the way that they should.

It is just sad, that in corporate America, no one really seems to care. Everything is about the bottom line. We lose so much when the only lens that we use to evaluate a process, a product, or a service comes down to how much it costs. Such a myopic approach necessitates an erosion of quality, and quality is what made America great!

I believe that we need to rethink the way we do business in this country. It is time for us to be able to honestly say that if you are paying more for American goods and services it is because they are superior to less expensive substitutes. That simply isn't the case in most instances today. I lay the blame at the feet of corporate management. The paradigm is wrong. The saying isn't "Build a cheaper mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." for a reason. People don't want a cheaper mousetrap. But they ARE willing to pay more for one that WORKS.

Make a product that is superior and you won't have to wring your hands at the loss of business to overseas competitors.

Still No Word From WB

Well, Hurricane Ivan is gone, but his memory still lingers on. WB wrote on his blog (Click HERE) of the preparations that he was making for the approach of the storm.

Unfortunately, Ivan ended up coming ashore at the worst possible place that it could, considering that WB lives on the Blackwater River in Milton, just across the bay from Pensacola.


Blackwater River Area, Milton, FL 

This area was in the NE quadrant of the storm and received the brunt of the winds, rain, and storm surge.


WB works on a burm to hopefully protect his home from storm surge flooding from Hurricane Ivan. 

I have been trying to get in touch with him since the morning after the storm hit with no success. Hopefully, he and his mom made it OK through the storm. My prayers are still with them and I hope that I hear some good news in the next couple of days.

While trying to see if I could find some information on WB, I did find an article about a couple of his friends in the Pensacola News Journal. According to the article:

At 2 a.m. Thursday, a co-worker called Vernon Compton and Mack Thornton, waking them from a hurricane snooze in the hallway of their home in Milton. Were they all right, he asked? “Then, boom!” Thornton said. A huge laurel oak almost 4 four feet in diameter snapped off at the base and smashed into the front porch and living room of their Conecuh Street home.

“A limb hit the front door and blew a panel off it and it flew all the way through the house to the kitchen,” he said. “It blew glass everywhere. If we had been standing there, we would have been dead.”

Damage to the Escambia Bay Bridge 

Thornton said they had moved into the hallway about midnight when radio reports said the worst winds were coming.

When the tree hit, they sprang into action to save the 1930s house -- which might have saved them with its strong wood structure and the skill of its long-ago builders.

“When the tree hit the roof, huge limbs split off it,” Compton said. “The beams in the walls and the roof held them off. Part of one limb landed in the living room, the tree rolled and lifted the roof about an inch. The wind blasted in and we thought we might lose the house.”
But the house held.

Within 15 minutes of the tree fall, neighbor Phillip Stangland was on the porch with a flashlight, asking if they were all right. “That’s the kind of people we have in our neighborhood,” Thornton said. “The wind was blowing 120 mph and he comes across the street to check on us. I shouted to him, ‘We’re OK -- go get under cover!’

For the entire story click HERE.

Unfortunately, from a couple of other photos that I have found from the area along the Blackwater River, I fear that the flooding may have been significant there. Hopefully the burm that WB built was sufficient to give him the extra elevation that he needed to protect his home and possessions from flooding, but until I am able to get a hold of him, I won't know whether his efforts were futile.


Flooding at a location not too far from WB's home 

You can rest assured that I will post new information once I have it. In the meantime, please remember to keep WB and all of the others who have lost property and loved ones to the destruction of Hurricane Ivan in your prayers.

Fly Fishing

This past Sunday, I decided to strike out on my own to a local fishing hole. In one hand was clutched my fly rod and reel and in the other I grasped my tackle box. I was determined that at last I was going to catch a fish with the blasted thing!

I have fished with flies for panfish for years, but only recently have begun to attempt to fish for them with a bona fide fly rod. The experience has been challenging to say the least.

First of all, my fly rod is only 6 1/2' long. From what I have been told, it is helpful to have a rod that is at least 8' - 9' long for delivering the fly. Secondly, most of the times that I have attempted to use the fly rod I have had people fishing around me. Learning to whip a line around with other people present is undoubtedly not the best way to win friends and influence people - at least not positively! Thirdly, the times that I have been out fishing with said fly rod haven't been the times of the day that I have found that panfish typically rise to flies. With these three strikes against me, it is hardly any wonder that I hadn't had any success yet!

So it was with a mixture of trepidation and growing excitement that I headed out to the fishing hole late that Sunday afternoon.

Predictably, things went pretty slowly at first. I was attempting to roll cast, but it wasn't working very well. The wooly bugger that I had tied on didn't seem to want to break out of the water on the cast, so I basically ended up thrashing around a bit. After that, I decided to go back to the false cast style that I had been practicing on and off for the past year or so. It was of little avail. In fact, after fishing for the better part of an hour, all I was doing was making some really nice splashes in the pond, catching lots of grass (on the back cast) and working up quite a sweat from the casting. I eventually gave up on the wooly bugger and switched to a small white fly. (I have no idea what it is supposed to represent, but know that bream dig them.) I fished with this for a while without much success.

However, just as I was beginning to despair I switched locations on the pond. I hate to admit it, but the first fish that I caught on a fly rod wasn't bigger than a quarter. No, I'm not really exaggerating much. I'd wager that a quarter would cover at least 2/3 of the fish with only a little bit of his tail hanging out!

Anyway, the catch was somewhat of a surprise. I was starting a back cast to try to let out some line when out of the water flies this itty bitty silver rocket fish right by my face! I don't know who was more surprised: me, or the fish! It was actually quite amusing.

Once I had caught the first one, others followed. I also started getting more proficient with my casting. All told, I managed to catch 10 fish before it got too dark for me to go on. One of them was a really nice crappie. It measured 11 1/2 inches. Unfortunately, my scale wouldn't register him, but I'm guessing that he came in between 1/4 and 1/2 a pound. He wasn't as fat as he could have been for his length. Not a bad total I think. I only lost 2 flies - both were victims of back cast snags in tall grass.

Hopefully, I will be able to remember what I learned, so that I don't have to fish for an hour and a half next time before I start getting the hang of it again! Now, if I can only figure out the roll cast!...

What A Week

Wow, what a week. I have been wanting to write all week about my fishing trip last Sunday, but between stuff at work, feeling a little under the weather, and worrying about WB down in Pensacola, I've been swamped. Like I said earlier - I've got to get the internet at my house so that I can post without having to stay at the office. It's nuts!

So, bear with me as I try to address the things that have caught my interest this week...

Y'all Pray For WB

My good friend WB is right in the path of Ivan the terrible. Please remember to pray for him and for all of the other folks that are in the path of this fierce hurricane.

Two Hands Caught in the Cookie Jar

In breaking news Drudge reports that the "smoking gun" produced by the Left-Wingnut media proving that President Bush was "AWOL" may be a forgery.

Why am I SO not surprised?

According to the article:

The 32-year-old documents produced Wednesday by the CBS News program "60 Minutes," shedding a negative light on President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard, may have been forged using a current word processing program, according to typography experts.

Three independent typography experts told CNSNews.com they were suspicious of the documents from 1972 and 1973 because they were typed using a proportional font, not common at that time, and they used a superscript font feature found in today's Microsoft Word program.

...the use of the superscript "th" in one document - "111th F.I.S" - gave each expert pause. They said that is an automatic feature found in current versions of Microsoft Word, and it's not something that was even possible more than 30 years ago.

"That would not be possible on a typewriter or even a word processor at that time," said John Collins, vice president and chief technology officer at Bitstream Inc., the parent of MyFonts.com.

"It is a very surprising thing to see a letter with that date [May 4, 1972] on it," and featuring such typography, Collins added. "There's no question that that is surprising. Does that force you to conclude that it's a fake? No. But it certainly raises the eyebrows."

(There is also some EXCELLENT commentary on this subject over at Power Line.)

Can I ask the obvious question? Would you want someone who hired someone too stupid to make a decent forgery to be President?

All I can say is that if this is indeed a forgery, I hope that they catch every person responsible for propagating this lie and throw them in jail for a long, long time. They deserve every moment of it. I also hope that this backfires against the Kerry campaign. It is unconscionable for them to pull something like this, and I wouldn't want to be standing too close to them on the Judgment Day.

This latest round is very revealing about the Kerry camp, though. Obviously, they realize that they have nothing to talk about outside of Kerry's THREE PURPLE HEARTS!!! I'm starting to think he is as looney as Al Gore.

Where is the talk about the issues? Where are the grand strategies? Oh yeah, I forgot. If Kerry and Edwards get elected: 1) We're going to get more cooperation out of Europe and the UN by kissing up to them and begging them to approve before we use military force. 2) We're going to make Iran stop making nuclear weapons by letting them develop their own nuclear reactors - as long as they give up the weapons grade material they already have. 3) We're going to make sure that Iran keeps its promise by allowing the UN to oversee their nuclear program. 4) We're going to stop the terrorists from attacking us by only attacking them (albeit swiftly) after they attack us. 5) And we're going to be taxed into oblivion.

Some plan.

If Kerry wins the election, I will grudgingly have to agree with Michael Moore: Americans ARE stupid. Fortunately for me, I'm not that jaded yet.

This Makes Me Smile...

Congress Won't Renew Assault Weapons Ban

This nation's most worthless piece of legislation is about to die. It was passed in the aftermath of the Columbine tragedy so that Congress and President Clinton could act like they had actually done something to keep it from happening again. While proponents of the bill swore that it would produce a dramatic decrease in violent crime across the nation, these claims were never realized. Similarly the same people claim that the expiration of the ban will cause a dramatic increase in violent crime. Let me go on record to say that there will be absolutely no increase in the occurrence of violent crime as a result of the sunset of this stupid bill. Check the numbers in 4 years. I'll be right!

Protecting the Unborn

Because a caring society will value its weakest members, we must make a place for the unborn child.
- President George W. Bush

I was shocked when I heard the President utter these words during his speech at the Republican National Convention - not because I doubted that he felt so strongly about the right to life, but because of the force that these words carried. He followed in Ronald Reagan's footsteps and drew a line in the sand. There is no element of the Republican Party platform in which I feel more strongly in tune. If there were no other reason to support the Republican Party, its clear stand on the side of life is reason enough for me. That is not to say that I disagree with the other planks in the platform. I strongly believe in smaller Federal Government, lower taxes, a stronger military, defense of the family, and gun rights. Still, there is no other plank that is more important. The right to life for the unborn has its roots in the Judeo-Christian bedrock on which this country was built.

It is crucial for our country to realize that the things that our government endorses are judged ultimately not by other nations or even the people of this nation. They are judged by the God of all creation and by the standards that He established long before the Earth existed. The legality (or illegality) of an action doesn't change whether it is right or wrong. Right will always be right, and wrong will always be wrong regardless of what others say about it. "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!"

How does God feel about abortion? "There are six things which the LORD hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers." Man, that sounds like a description of the Democratic Party leadership! The fact is that people who shed innocent blood make God REALLY mad. That goes for those who support those brazen enough to do it too.

In many ways, the fight for the sanctity of marriage is just as important. With the issues of abortion, euthanasia, and homosexual marriage the question is not whether these things go on, as much as it is a question of whether they are SANCTIONED by the government. The approval of this kind of evil by the governors of this country will bring judgment on the nation. The measuring stick of a country isn't whether there are bad people living there (There are evil people in every country.) The question is how the rulers of that country deal with the evil that resides there. In many ways the ruler is a reflection of the people. There were good rulers in Israel who followed God, but didn't completely wipe out the idolatry that was in the land. The goodness of the ruler was a shield against the judgment of God, just as surely as the bad kings invited God's wrath. As God said through Jeremiah, "Shall I not punish these people, and on a nation such as this shall I not avenge Myself?"

I can honestly say that if the Republican Party ever removes the Right to Life plank from their platform I will in that very moment cease to be a Republican. It will certainly make voting more difficult, because it will take more time for me to find out where the individuals stand on this issue and on the many others, but I will sacrifice the ability to vote straight ticket for the sake of the innocent helpless children that are being murdered right here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. God bless the President for taking such a bold stand, and God bless America!

Check This One Out...

Val over at Babalu Blog wrote a great article a couple of days ago called Old Gems. Val Prieto at his finest!

And another thing...

Have you ever noticed how the Liberals are able to use Churches as platforms all the time, but Conservatives aren't? From what I understand Clinton shouldn't have been able to campaign at a church without the church running the risk of losing their tax-exempt status. Why is it that there is always a double standard when it comes to Liberals? How can Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton get away with this kind of stuff? It isn't right!

I Find This Amusing...

According to an article that I read today comparing President Bush and President Clinton's public references to Jesus (click HERE), it seems that ex-president Clinton was in a church lying about President Bush and the GOP shortly before he began having his heart palpitations.

The under-reported story at the start of convention week was Bill Clinton’s Sunday talk at the radical Riverside Church in New York. Clinton addressed the congregation during the worship service. He accused Republicans of bearing “false witness” and being “the people of the Nine Commandments.”

Could there be a connection? Perhaps Billy-Boy should re-read the story of Ananias and Sapphira...

The Tide Is Turning

There is now a group out there called Jewish Democrats for Bush. How cool is that? My only question is what took them so long? I guess old habits die hard. There was an article at Newsmax today about this group and some of the factors that have gone in to getting this group of people to walk away from the Democratic party and support the President.

I have often been amazed that as a demographic Jewish people have favored the Democrats. I have never seen a particularly large base of support for Israel among the Democratic Party. In fact, there have been several gaffes by Democrats in regards to Jewish people in general. There was that "Hymietown" comment by Jesse Jackson. Then there was Clinton's deceitful treatment of Netanyaju in the Wright Patterson accords and in the election between Barak and Netanyaju. And the Left is constantly coming down on the side of the "palestinian" cause.

I am glad to see this demographic starting to recognize who its true friends are. I hope that I never see the day that the United States abandons Israel. Our security is tied up in hers.

What is Wrong With This Picture?

China is cracking down on pornography. In fact, if you have a pornographic website in China you could get life in jail.

In America, according to the courts, pornography is protected by the First Amendment. Regardless of the fact that pornography has been linked to violent crime against women and children it is still legal to produce this filth here.

How is it that a Godless country like China can get it right, but we can't? Something is wrong with this picture.

Kerry's Got a Gun...

Davey Crock...
At least he knows which end to hold on to! 

Today John Kerry began confiscating guns in West Virginia...

OK, not really, but he might as well have. According to an interesting article today that I found on Drudge (click HERE for the article) the shotgun that Kerry is holding (...rather alot like a new dad that has been handed a baby with a poopie diaper, if you ask me!) would have actually been BANNED under legislation that he helped to co-sponsor.

Kerry co-sponsored S. 1431 last year (“The Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003) which would have banned a "semiautomatic shotgun that has a pistol grip.”

Apparently this Democratic denizen didn't bother to check Kerry's record on gun control. No surprises there.

Kerry inappropriately joked, "I thank you for the gift, but I can't take it to the debate with me." Of course the press corps found this statement rife with humor. What would have happened if a Republican had made such a comment? I'm inclined to agree with Steve at Hog On Ice. Had President Bush or any other Republican (or Zell Miller for that matter!) made that comment we would be reading about it for the next month on the front page of the New York Times. Isn't it a felony to threaten the President (even in jest) in such a public way?

I do find it telling, however, that Kerry feels that having the gun there would be helpful. Since the Republican Convention the Democrats have been floundering around. Good!

Kerry's apparent discomfort with the shotgun (one well-informed reporter called it a rifle!) seems to stem from his deep-seated aversion to private ownership of guns. It really doesn't come across as convincing. Perhaps it has something to do with a Yankee Blue-blood trying to act like a Good-ol-boy. (He stole that one from Dean I'm just sure! Hope it works as well for him as it did for Dean.)

If the Dems want to get it right they should get Kerry some lessons from a real man when it comes to handling a firearm. (Granted, I don't think that he'll be able to get on Charlton's schedule!)


...From my cold, dead hands.
(By the way, this is what a
rifle looks like!) 

Must...sleep...

OK, in spite of WB's need for me to post new stuff here, it is getting late, and I'm knackered. (Well, not really. It's just an expression.) Anyhow, I'll continue on tomorrow, I hope. I need to write about something that I learned about Kerry from the Newsmax website today and to comment on his and his running mate's idiotic notions about how to handle the nuclear situation in Iran. On top of that I will need to deride the utter cowards who think it is praiseworthy to intentionally kill innocent people. Seems like there are a couple of other things that I need to rant about. Hopefully, I can also think of some interesting stuff to write that is totally non-political. We'll just have to see how it goes. Until tomorrow!

Madder Than Zell, And I'm Not Going to Take It Anymore!

"Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators." 

Of course this is old news, but Senator Miller really did me proud at the Republican National Convention. When Sean Hannity of FNC interviewed the Senator the day after his speech he commented that the good Senator looked really angry. I thought it was great when Zell responded, "Well, I WAS angry!"

There sure is plenty for him to be angry about. The Democrats have done exactly what Zell accused them of. They have lied at every turn. They have unfairly criticized the President. They have accepted MILLIONS of dollars of soft money from people whose only goal is defeating President Bush. They have compromised American security for the sake of regaining the White House and Congress. They have hamstrung the judiciary by blocking President Bush's nominees. The more I think about it the madder I get!

Take, for example, the article that I found on Friday that suggests that, like Clinton, John Kerry has ties to red China. Apparently he has been just as mixed up in the Chinagate affair as Bill Clinton was.

According to the article:

"We don't have McDonald's, but we do have KFC," offered Yun Ning, a base spokesman.

While members of the Chinese military enjoy KFC chicken, they also use a vast array of U.S. space technology from various American high-tech firms such as Hughes and Loral. The current success of China's latest military satellites is a direct result of the U.S. high-tech sales to the Chinese army by the Clinton administration.

The U.S. technology sent by Clinton to China included a list of items sought by the Chinese military: anti-jam capability, advanced antennas, crosslinks, baseband processing, encryption devices, radiation hardening, and perigee kick motors.

This technology has been used to send numerous spy satellites aloft to snoop on the United States. The American firms Hughes and Loral both petitioned then President Clinton to transfer control over the export controls on their goods from the State Department to the Commerce Department. When President Clinton made this change the technology that the Chinese desired was made available to them.

In the end, both Hughes and Loral were charged with violating U.S. national security. Hughes pleaded no contest to the 123 charges filed by the U.S. State Department and has since paid a record fine. Loral also pleaded no contest and paid a record fine.

Now, on to John Kerry's involvement...

According to the article, the aerospace industry has been pressuring the Bush Administration to relax export controls on space technology. However, with the current climate where rogue nations are attempting to develop their nuclear capabilities the administration has wisely resisted them. The article goes on to point out:

Loral CEO Bernard Schwartz backs the Kerry campaign. Since 2000, Schwartz has donated over $4 million to Democrats including Kerry.

Kerry also has a secret relationship with Beijing. During the late 1990s, John Kerry traveled to Beijing on behalf of a firm associated with the Chinese military and today he does not want to talk about it.

Imagine that! I wonder why our most liberal Senator wouldn't want to talk about his connections with the Chinese?

Yet the Massachusetts-based firm of Boston Capital and Technology openly advertised its connection to Sen. Kerry and also admitted selling advanced U.S. space technology to China. Boston Capital's Web site noted that the firm was "China Advisor to U.S. Senator's commercial agenda for China."

"Advised, assisted, and executed Minister level commercial agenda for U.S. Senator. Advanced Senator in China for all Minister level meetings, coordinated and acted as liaison to: The U.S. State Department, The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, The Department of Commerce, and all relevant Chinese authorities," states the Web site.

The article sums it all up nicely:

The Bush administration's position on space technology exports to China is a matter of public record. President Bush has resisted the big money trying so hard to help the Chinese military.

In contrast, Sen. Kerry's position remains secret. Both the senator's campaign and the senator's office refused repeated requests to answer questions. The Kerry policy toward the Chinese military space program is written on large donation checks and remains behind the closed doors of a secret meeting in Beijing.

So there is at least circumstantial evidence that Kerry is as big a traitor as Bill Clinton. Hopefully someone will hold his feet to the fire on this one. Regardless of whether it looks partisan or not, the American people deserve a straight answer from John Kerry about this issue.

In other news on Friday, John Kerry and John Edwards announced their cunning plan to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions. Unfortunately, I didn't get a copy of the article and I can't find it anymore. (It makes me feel like Winston Smith a little bit. I'd best look out for the Thought Police!) You'll just have to live with my memory of what I read. Ahhh. I FINALLY found one. (Click HERE) Let's see if I understand this... The whole plan is to let Iran, card-carrying member of the Axis of Evil, keep their nuclear reactors if they give up all of their weapons-grade radioactive material? To make sure that Iran doesn't use its nuclear reactors to create more weapons-grade stuff we're going to trust the UN to keep an eye on them? I think Kerry must have done too many drugs in Vietnam... Since Edwards never served in Vietnam he must have done all his drugs in college... but I bet he didn't inhale!

Finally, there was the report that I read that suggests that the unemployment data that the Democrats have been trying to beat the President with are flawed. Why am I not surprised? Instead of boring you with the details, I'll let you read the article HERE

So, as I said there is plenty to be plenty mad about.

Too Much to Write About Tonight

Well, between trying to get some stuff sent to clients tonight and figuring out how to do the sidebar my evening has gotten away from me. The really crazy thing is that I probably have six hours' worth of stuff to write about tonight. I am guessing that I won't get to most of it, but will try to hit some of the most important items.

Do you find it as amazing as I do that you can actually get news faster from Blogworld than you can from the "real" news media? It just stuns me. I heard about the terrorist suspect that was caught crossing the Rio Grande at least a week before it hit Fox News. I found out about Reagan's death from a blog, and today I found out about the AP's fraudulent reporting on President Bush's well wishes to President Clinton via a phonecall of a friend that read a blog! For information about it check out Alamo Nation.

Things have been kind of crazy this week. I'm not really sure what the cause of it has been. I look back and can't really figure out where all of my time got to. The thing that I have been most focused on has been trying to help my sister and her husband find a new house. This has been difficult because we have had a very limited geographic area that they wanted, and they are very particular about what they like. In addition to that, we have been trying to cram it all into the 3 days that Dusty was home before heading out to finish up the season. By the time that I have finished up, I have been close to home and there was no way that I was going to drive back to the office to type up a blog entry.

Now I know that WB is going to probably slam me for not getting internet at my house, and I am considering it, but not this week. Bigger fish to fry....

I am guessing that as the days get shorter and shorter the likelihood of my posting more regularly is going to go up. Right now, the weather in NC has just been fabulous and I really hate to be cooped up inside when I could be out there enjoying my favorite time of year. There are fish that need to be caught, weeds that need to be pulled, grass that needs to be cut, etc., etc., etc.

Actually, I think that dove season begins tomorrow. I haven't been dove hunting in years. It might be fun to take some time tomorrow and bust some caps and see if I can get lucky. From what I remember of dove hunting, luck factors in hugely! (At least for me!)

Well, that is about all for now. Later!

Modifications to the site...

Got to send a big THANKS to Trey at Alamo Nation for the instruction on adding a sidebar. Now I have most of the blogs that I check regularly linked in the sidebar. If I had asked WB he would have just mocked me (like he won't anyway!) Now I just have to figure out how to control the font on the sidebar header...