Sunday Soliloquy

Coverage of preparations for Hurricane Gustav are showing how much FEMA and Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal have their act together.  He asked the feds for help days ago, and together they have evacuated 90% of coastal residents.

You do all remember that we have a federalist form of government, right?  State governors have final say over affairs within their state and the federal government cannot come in to help without being invited.  That permission wasn’t given until wa-a-ay  too late last time.

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Many on the liberal blogosphere are gleefully hoping the hurricane is mishandled so it can be used for political fodder.  Michael Moore said on national TV “Gustav is proof that there is a God in heaven.”  And former DNC chairman Don Fowler is on tape laughing about the fact the storm will hit on the first day of the Republican convention.   People’s lives and homes are on the line and they are hoping it’s bad just for political gain.

Shame on all of them.

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The federal government and FEMA have been very busy over the past few years developing a comprehensive Incident Command System in case of natural or man-made disasters, and teaching it all across the land. 

As an elected official I have personal experience with this system, since every employee of every governmental entity has to learn where they fit in it and take online tests to receive certifications.  (I had to study for tests on three sections.) 

If things go wrong in dealing with this hurricane it won’t be because of lack of preparation.  There are some things you just can’t prevent or foresee.

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The Democrats and the media seem to be in full panic mode over Sarah Palin, with misogynism falling out of talking heads everywhere.  Their chief point seems to be that she is not experienced enough to be qualified.  Compare her accomplishments with Obama’s at_this_site.   Good grief is she more experienced and better prepared.  And ethical.  (It’s kind of humorous, too.)

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I found screen shots of the decision on Daily Kos to make up and run the story about Sarah Palin’s youngest son not actually being her own but her daughters.  Daily Kos is as left wing a blog as you will find anywhere, and they actually had a poll about whether to run the story even though they knew it wasn’t true.  A plurality of those responding (49%) said control of the government was at stake and anything was worth it to win. 

Despicable.

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 N~ came in my back door this evening and excitedly told me to come see what was in my garden.  Since I had just picked everything I couldn’t imagine what he was talking about.

“Ticks!” he said excitedly.  “You have lots of ticks in your garden!”

This is what he saw.

                        

It’s a squash bug, or squash vine borer, a key pest of winter squash and pumpkins.  I had seen them all over the butternut squash while I was in the garden earlier.  They are very large bugs, and I would hate to meet a tick that big.

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I’m making a birthday cake for Kelli, whose birthday is on Tuesday, for Elaine’s Labor Day picnic tomorrow.  Happy Birthday Kelli!

 

The Battle Is Joined

You just knew it would get ugly fast, but who would have suspected surreal within one day?

It is beyond bizarre that Obama supporters are claiming Sarah Palin’s baby is not her own.  Huh? 

Fatherhood can be questioned, but motherhood?  Isn’t that pretty easy to establish, as in people saw you pregnant and a doctor delivered a baby?  Still, it’s all over the internet that the baby is really her daughter’s and she is hiding that fact.  The original post starting the rumor has been taken down, but not until it had gone viral.

The PUMA* websites are a beehive of activity, and I spent some time on this_one today.  (Warning:  don’t read this if you are easily offended by raw language.)  The PUMAs are going beyond “no ‘Bama, no way, no November” as revenge for Hillary.  Now there is talk of starting a New Democratic Party to take back their party and get rid of the “young thugs” who have taken up residence.  Oh, and they also want to get rid of Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, and all the other incompetents.  These are some angry, highly motivated people.  A lot of them say they are voting Republican this November for the first time in their life. 

I admire their motto – democracy before party loyalty.  Maybe both sides can get together and end this partisan bickering, and put democracy first again.  That’s my kind of hope.

When Hillary Clinton lost the primary, the Democratic leadership said her supporters should come together in unity for the good of the party.  Their response was “Party Unity My A**,” and they started a cyber revolution.  It grew and grew.  Now they are embracing Sarah Palin and do not want to see the media and the DNC do to her what they did to Hillary.

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Enough of politics; there is more to life.

I spent yesterday evening with Lolly and the kids, then stayed the night there.  It was nice to spend more than a few hours with the kids again, since It usually takes them a long time to open up and say the things that are really on their minds.  S~ got to that point about 12:30 a.m. and we talked for about an hour.  It was good grandmother/granddaughter time.  She is thinking deeply and looking ahead.  She starts seminary this week, which will be a life altering experience for her.

Bud and I went to the local 18th century fair today (what? – you don’t have a 1790’s era fair in your town?).  We checked out the woodland Indians encampment, the merchants and food vendors, the entertainment, etc.  Bud even got to cast his ballot for the presidential election, and voted for Thomas Jefferson.  I think I would have voted for John Adams, but of course women couldn’t vote back then so I wasn’t given a ballot.

Darn.  Back to politics again.

I Tried To Watch It All The Way Through

I turned on the Democratic convention this evening to catch Obama’s acceptance speech.

Hmmmm.  I thought this man was supposed to be a great orator.  He seemed like an angry man reading a laundry list of complaints.

After watching for awhile I understood why he is always shown with his head sideways, like he’s looking off into the distance.  He is.  He’s looking at the teleprompters stationed on either side of him, with only an occasional head-on glance.  At that, he seemed to skip a line and shift topics in mid-thought at one point.

I think I made it about halfway through, then went into the kitchen to make cookies.  I could take only so much of this angry man berating our country and promising to fix it by spending more of our money.  He says he’s going to raise the money by increasing taxes on businesses, but guess who ends up paying for that tax increase?  You got it – we do.  The businesses just pass the added expense along to the consumers. 

A friend sent me this video last week, and I did some research on it.  You can find the documentation online, as in scanned documents of roll call votes, showing that the accusations made here are, in fact, true.

Obama claims he voted against the legislation because it wasn’t needed, that there was already legislation in place to prevent allowing babies born alive to die without care.  If that is true, what would it have hurt to vote for it?  You know, sort of just reinforcing the concept.

I am not a single issue voter, yet this hits close to home for me.  Three of my grandchildren are adopted, all of them sons of single mothers who carried their babies to term and chose to put them up for adoption. 

How did our society get to the place where it is more socially acceptable to abort a baby than to put it up for adoption?

How many other women would be adoptive mothers, if there were babies available to nurture?

The Candidate Of Change – And Folding Cash

Your reaction to this link will likely depend on whether you lean Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal progressive.

BTW, where did that “progressive” label come from?  Especially since the current Progressive candidate seems to be advocating a retread of Carter’s policies?

Back on topic, which is this interesting little article.  It is about “street money” that will be passed out to local precincts in Philadelphia on election day.

When he came to Pennsylvania, Obama ignored pleas to fund street operations in Philadelphia. He did spend record sums on TV advertising, but still lost the state to Hillary Clinton by nine percentage points. Some insiders said that he should have worked harder at driving out his base in Philadelphia, even if it meant handing out some Election Day cash.

“The apparatus was not energized,” said Al Spivey, chief of staff to Councilman Curtis Jones and an expert in Philadelphia elections. “They can’t just do this campaign with ads.”

(snip)

The path to winning elections in Philly includes street money, cash doled out to ward leaders who use the money to pay party committee people to work their voting divisions on Election Day, and sometimes for other expenses like meals or transportation or to hire extra workers.

(snip)

“In the fall I think there is going to be an expectation of City Committee that just like in the Kerry campaign and just like in the Gore campaign there will be money moving into City Committee for election-day activity,” said political consultant Ken Smuckler.

Ahem, “progressive.”  As in, this is progress?  I guess I am a naive idealist, but I would like to think our elections are decided by people who have studied the issues and understand the responsibility that comes with the privilege of voting, not those who are hustled in by those with campaign cash in their pockets.

Can someone explain to me how spending money for meals, transportation, and to pay your “volunteers” is different from buying votes?  I guess if it was good enough for Gore and Kerry we need to keep the progress rolling.

Then I came across this_one:

Secret web pages and hard-sale tactics have replaced Hope and Change for the Democratic convention. The CBS affiliate in Denver discovered a hidden website that sold tickets to the Invesco Field acceptance speech by Barack Obama on August 29th, while Team Obama continued to deny that tickets were anything but free. Democratic activists complained to the reporters about Obama’s sell-out. Oddly enough, when CBS started asking questions, the site suddenly stopped offering tickets. What a coincidence!

Well, that certainly puts a different complextion on why Obama moved his acceptance speech to a larger venue. 

More seating = more tickets = more $$$$$$

And another idealistic dream gets dashed in the pricey stands of Invesco (is there irony in the name?) Field.

I really have no intention of turning my blog into a political screed, but some things are just too good not to share.  Meanwhile, I need to spend less time surfing the net for political commentary.

In other news, we almost closed the windows and turned on the air conditioning today.  We will tomorrow, as it is supposed to finally get up into the high 80’s – yea for summer!  Finally!  Bring on that global warming!

I can’t remember ever spending the first two weeks of August with the windows open all day to enjoy the mild weather, and blankets on at night because the temperatures dipped so low.  Well, at least not since we got central air years ago.  But that has been our weather this year; I’m not complaining, but I do wonder what winter will bring.

With another issue of the historical society’s newsletter written and published this evening I am ready for tomorrow’s meeting.  I had an interesting interview today with a local vet who is preparing to travel to Washington D.C. to view the WW II Memorial, and made him the lead story. 

We are losing that generation who fought for freedom and wonder if such a defense of liberty could ever be possible again.

God Help Us All – Updated

Ohio is becoming the Zimbabwe of this year’s election.  Read this to find out why.

I emailed my congressman to ask if it is true and already have gotten a reply.  It is true.  It did not go through the legislature for a vote – it is an edict from one woman.  Can ONE WOMAN really change the voting laws for an entire state?

This is not democracy in action, it is corrupt community organizing, Chicago style, in action.

Update:  Jennifer Brunner, secretary of state, was able to issue this directive due to a loophole in the law.  The law states that boards of elections do not send a verification card to people who vote absentee within six days of the election, reasoning that there isnot be enough time for the card to get there and be returned by election day if it is a bogus address.  The law does not close voter registration for absentee ballots until the election, so only those six days are in play.  T

This law has been in place for two years, but Ms. Brunner just now pointed it out and demanded it be enforced as is.  Meanwhile, the legislature, which is majority Republican, is attempting to close the loophole.  They are threatening legal action if she goes forward with her plan, and Democratic leaders in the state are making mature statements such as, “The Republicans are trying to confuse the voters,” and “Next they will be looking for Bigfoot.”

Politics, Local and National

We voted to formally go out for bids on a new fire station tonight.  We have been working this project for a long time and the stars finally aligned to get it done.

Now for final preparations to solicit bid packages on the fire house/township offices construction.  It will be a nice building when we are done – not glamorous, no Taj Mahal, but spacious and functional to replace our current cramped station and tiny administrative building.

Our meeting went long, from 6:30 to 10:00, but we covered a lot of ground.  Lots of citizen input, lots of questions answered.  A good meeting.

On the national political front, I am beginning to hear from the occasional Democratic friend that they can’t believe it, but it looks like they are going to have to vote Republican this year.  Anyone else hearing that?  There seems to be a subtle dynamic changing.  People are paying attention and aren’t liking what they are seeing on the left.

The more I read, the more I see, the more interesting this election year becomes. 

What happens if Obama’s numbers keep dropping between now and the Democratic convention.  Will they stick with him, or will Hillary try for a coup?  I am seeing an awful lot of PUMA blogs showing up, and wonder if these people really are as committed to promoting Hillary as they say.

In the midst of everything, John McCain can’t get much coverage no matter what he does.  And of course none of it is going to be positive.  The MSM are ridiculously biased.

Yes, it becomes more and more interesting.

And if you haven’t seen this year’s jibjab sendup yet, you really ought to.

Gambling, Anyone?

Do you suppose the people who send out all the spam for online gambling ever get responses?  I figure they must or they wouldn’t send so much, but it’s hard to imagine that anyone would respond to such crass ads.

Am I the only one who gets offers for “free” online gambling, roulette, blackjack, and other ways to throw your money away?  That is about all that ever shows up in my spam qeueue.  Maybe that means I’m lucky I don’t get worse?

Still, do I look like a gambler?

Enough ranting about gambling.  Now I’m going to rant about Algore and global warming.

It was beautiful today, sunny and a high of 74.  Perfect fall weather.  Oh, wait, this is early August.  It is supposed to be ten or fifteen, maybe twenty degrees warmer than that out.  I wore a long sleeved shirt all day and considered a jacket when I met a friend for ice cream at 8:30 in the evening.  It is downright chilly out there now.

It’s Algore and the global warming, er – climate change – problem. 

We can’t call it global warming anymore, since they realized a while back that the earth seems to be in a cooling cycle and the warming theory won’t fly anymore.  When all else fails, change your terminology to confuse the issue further.  Maybe no one will notice.

Yep, I’m a full-fledged global warming skeptic.

Change I Can’t Believe In

It seems Barack Obama does not think the U.S. is a good model for the world.  I wonder how he thinks it needs to be changed, or if any other country is a good model.  If so, which one?

From what I have been reading and seeing, it looks like Obama thinks the Constitution gives us the right to pursue our own happiness, but an obligation to help the less fortunate.  That’s socialism, pure and simple.

Actually, I prefer the words of Jesus (emphasis added):

Mark 14: 7

  7 For ye have the ^apoor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always

I would like to think that most people have a giving heart and will help the less fortunate.  More importantly, I do not believe the government belongs in the business of commanding that of everyone. 

Jesus’ use of the word “may” shows us our free agency while he teaches us to care for one another.

Listen to Obama again. 

What on earth does he mean by “our civic religion as a people”?

And here I thought we had separation of church of state.

ROFLOL

 

It doesn’t get any better than laughing at your opponent’s pretensions. How can anyone recover from that?

Enjoy!