"Knocking it out of the Ballpark" on the first question!

I know you've probably all heard this by now, but I can't stop chuckling over it! Those crazy lovable Dems, just when you think you've got them figured out..........

For years all we've heard is, "President Bush, stop the war! Bring our troops home NOW!" God, it's been the daily "mantra" of every Democrat in Congress and those running for anything, anywhere, since the war started! The whole Party's been screaming at Bush....."Stop the War!" "Get out of Iraq NOW!" You'd have thought you were listening to Tom Hayden & Jane Fonda in 1969.....Wait a minute - we are - she's still doing it!

Last night the "big three" Democrat candidates - along with "those other 5 guys" - squared off in a debate at Dartmouth College, in "New Hampsha." (You have to say it really fast, NewHampsha!)

The "SEMINAL MOMENT" of the entire debate came minutes after it started, when Obama, Clinton, and Edwards were all asked "if they would guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013?" Take note - the question wasn't would you remove them immediately, or in a year or two? The question was...would you remove them in 4 years? (I was actually sitting there thinking, "What ever happened to Bring 'em home NOW?)

For the "politically uninitiated," this question is what's known in debate circles as a "softball question" or a "Homerun pitch" because it's so easy to hit, and because the answer is always guaranteed to whip your side into a frenzy every time it's asked! What's more important, the issue, is exactly what the Democrats have been BLUDGEONING President Bush with, since....well.... since maybe 90 days after we took down Saddam's Iraq! Surely, here was coming the "answer" that would send Speaker Pelosi & Majority Leader Reid reeling into rapture! What happened was anything but. What happened was what Homer Simpson might call...a"D'oh" moment! Here are the quotes from each one of them as reported on CNNPolitics.com this morning.

• "I think it's hard to project four years from now," said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation's first primary state. (Hmmm, but you and the rest of the Dems expected this President and all the Generals to! Interesting.)
• "It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. NOTE: In addition - Mrs. Clinton declared, "that I intend to be the Health Care President!" (Really! Health care is more important than National Defense and Security, Mrs. C? OK ,you wanna go with that.)
• "I cannot make that commitment," said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. (I understand John, it might effect your hedge fund!)

DID YOU ALL HEAR THAT COLLECTIVE "THUMP?" Across the country - Liberal jaws had just "bounced" off Liberal floors!! The SAVIORS of our country, the best candidates to insure that America will reclaim her place among Nations.......the Democrat equivalent of "The 3 Wisemen." Each one has just said, they couldn't even guarantee that they'd pull troops out BY THE END of their first terms!!!

Geez, I guess all those protester signs are obsolete now! No more of that - and with one question Cindy Sheehan gets sent back home - again! Thanks guys!

Dear President Bush - The next time one of your "learned opponents" demands that you pull our troops out immediately - tell them to see Hillary, Barack or John.

Dum Spiro Spero!

"refreshingly NOT French!"

I thought it was "refreshingly NOT French" what the newly elected President of France, Nicholas Sarkozy had to say about Illegal Immigration when he took over the country.

After announcing that he had ordered an initial 25,000 illegal aliens to be deported to their home countries by the end of the year, Sarkozy told the French people and the clearly dumbfounded French Press, "France needs a new type of immigrant - one who is selected, not endured!"

" Oh la la! Zut alors!"

In a country that has proudly considered itself "Europe's choice" for asylum, (at least) Sarkozy recognizes that nearly 500,000 illegal aliens in a country of 63 million is becoming a problem! President Sarkozy followed up his declaration with tougher immigration legislation and "fast-tracked" deportation actions. To this point the Immigration Ministry has caught and acted upon nearly 12,000 illegals throughout France. Sarkozy keeps a weekly eye on the progress and has told the members of parliament, "I want us to be able to establish each year, after a debate in parliament, a quota with a ceiling for the number of foreigners we accept on our territory."

Gee, I wonder why our Liberal (but unbiased) press and news media haven't picked up on this story? Wasn't it just last year that Conservatives & President Bush were roundly chastised by Congressional Democrats - who urged us to change our legal system and become more like France??? (Doesn't Johnny Depp threaten to leave the U.S - at least once a year - because America isn't like France!)

(Hmmmm, I wonder if the U.S. has deported more than 12,000 illegal immigrants yet this year? Could we please start with Depp, Penn, Mrs. Sarandon, Mr. Sarandon, and Baldwin?)

Dum Spiro Spero!

CONGRESS "Betrays Us" more than any Gereral ever has!

The evidence is clear, ( I hope I can write it down clearly enough).
There are two examples that happened just yesterday.

The first example is the least obvious because it got the least amount of media play. (Naturally!) There I was looking at the news around 6:10 PM - YIKES! - close-up of Nancy Pelosi on the screen talking about the President and the Conservatives in Congress want to hurt children by voting against the re-authorization of the House's State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Well, not so fast Nancy........let's tell the truth OK?

The truth is that the bill already exists and the House has until the end of September to re-authorize it. The existing bill was successful in providing medical coverage to low income children. Kids whose families couldn't afford it. Let's not be bashful - the bill was written to help poor kids! I agree with that and think most everybody does! But never being satisfied "leaving well enough alone" Congressional Democrats decided it was time to take a good bill and ruin it! The re-authorized bill looks to drastically expand not only the scope of government involvement in healthcare, but also the definition of "poor" & "children." In addition, the new bill would encumber taxpayers with a new entitlement program - forever! And it's in these added changes and "re-definitions" where Speaker Pelosi is being disingenuous.

The new bill vastly expands eligibility, from a family of four at the Federal Poverty Level, to...

• a family of four earning up to $82,600.00 per year, which is 400% above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL)
• Of children in families currently earning between $60K - $82K (300-400% of FPL), 89% currently have private health insurance coverage.
• Of children in families currently earning between $40K - $60K (200-300% of FPL), 77% currently have private health insurance coverage.
• Of children in families currently earning between $20K - $40K (100-200% of FPL), 50% currently have private health insurance coverage!
• In addition, the re-authorized bill would allow persons up to age 21 to be recognized as "children" for purposes of the law.

PLEASE-Don't believe me! These are all facts and figures I garnered from Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports on the SCHIP Bill that came out starting in May of 2007. (I've included a couple of references at the bottom of this posting.)

The bottom line about the re-authorized plan being pushed by Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats in Congress, as told by the CBO reports, is that a re-authorized SCHIP bill would greatly increase government controlled "welfare-styled" tax-payer funded healthcare and "CROWD OUT" private health coverage. In addition it would immediately cause the REMOVAL of 1.9 million children from private health insurance programs that currently cover them! Just another example of Congress trying to expand government even further into our daily lives!

So before you start believing Nancy Pelosi that President Bush and Conservatives are "hurting children by voting against this bill," ask yourself whether this is just "disingenuousness," an example of bill writing at its worst, or a congressional betrayal of the job we elected them to perform?

The second example begins with the Senate voting 75 - 25 yesterday afternoon to condemn the MoveOn.org "General Betray Us" full page ad that appeared in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago.

What's really important - and in my view a bigger betrayal of this country - is the fact that NONE of the current Democrat party candidates for President voted to CONDEMN the MoveOn.org ad.

Let's make sure everyone understands! TWO of the Democrat candidates for President voted their support FOR the MoveOn.org ad.(Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd). TWO of the Democrat candidates for President "chickened out" of voting. Thereby not condemning the ad! (Barack Obama and Joe Biden) A full list of the 25 Senators who voted AGAINST condemning MoveOn.org appears at the end of this post! This means these Senators think the MoveOn.org ad is just fine!

Could there be any clearer an indication of the extent to which MoveOn.org now controls the Democrats these days? It seems fairly obvious that the party of FDR, JFK and LBJ has become "addicted" to the purse strings of George Soros. NONE of the Democrats' candidates would "RISK" the ire and withholding of campaign $$$ from Soros.

Four candidates for President & Commander-In-Chief of the military, REFUSE to CONDEMN an ad slandering the reputation of the American Military! Isn't that a betrayal of the faith your soldiers put in you, and your Oath of Office?

Dum Spiro Spero!

* Congressional Budget Office, "Estimated of Changes in SCHIP and Medicaid Enrollment of Children Under H. R. 3162, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007, as Ordered Reported by the Committee on Ways and Means on July 27, 2007," July 27, 2007, at www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/85xx/doc8501/hr3162Rangel.pdf.

* See page 12 of Congressional Budget Office, "The State Children's Health Insurance Program," Pub. No. 2970, May 2007, at www.cbo.gov/ftdocs/80xx/doc8092105-10-schip.pdf.

* Here is the full list of Senators who voted AGAINST CONDEMNATION of the "General Betray Us" Move On.org ad: Akaka (D-HI) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Byrd (D-WV) Clinton (D-NY) Dodd (D-CT) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerry (D-MA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Levin (D-MI) Menendez (D-NJ) Murray (D-WA) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Stabenow (D-MI) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR)

KEEP TERRORISTS FROM "GROUND ZERO!"

Dear Friends,

PLEASE SEND A RESPECTFUL EMAIL OF PROTEST TO THE SECRET SERVICE!! (Just click the Link "Email Public Affairs" above. It takes 5 minutes!) THEN, PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE IMMEDIATELY TO EVERYONE ON YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS LIST! (What's that take 2 minutes?)

The website and email address & phone number above is for the United States Secret Service. These are the brave men and women who protect our leaders both here and abroad. Everyday they go to work knowing their job is to put themselves between a bullet and those they protect - they are true Patriots in every way! In addition they also protect foreign heads of state and their families who visit our country. Generally this does not pose a problem, today it has!

Yesterday, the NYPD announced they would not allow Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to tour or lay a wreath at "Ground Zero" in NYC during his 2 day United Nations visit starting September 25th. While NYPD, through a spokesman denied access because "Ground Zero" is an active construction site, I believe we should deny access because Iran & Ahmadinejad openly support al-Qaeda, Islamic radicalism and terrorism, and has called for the destruction of the state of Israel. Don't lie - tell him why he's not welcomed there!

This morning it was announced that Ahmadinejad's Secret Service Motorcade would bring the Iranian President to "Ground Zero," in defiance of the NYC Police Department ruling. THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN! To allow Ahmadinejad access to - or presence near - the HALLOWED GROUND where nearly 3000 Americans were murdered by terrorists Ahmadinejad supported - is an affront to the memory of our fallen countrymen and women, and an affront to all Americans!! (It's like letting a serial killer go to the funerals of his victims!)

Please email or call the Public Relations Department of the United States Secret Service and join the growing number of Americans who respectfully request that the Secret Service deny access at or near Ground Zero to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or anyone in his party. Be respectful, but firmly disagree and request them to change their decision and deny access to Ground Zero.

In fact, the NYPD - FDNY - and the United States Secret Service - should be working together to actively prevent Ahmadinejad's access to Ground Zero. This is our country and a National War Memorial!

Never Forget 9/11!!!!

Don't forget to Pass it along!

Thanks,

Paying for Parenting? What a sillly idea.

Last week I heard a report where in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was recommending a plan where folks from 6 poor neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Harlem, would get "paid" for taking their kids to the Doctor, for making sure they got all their shots; or for going to the Dentist or getting their annual medical checkup. He'd pay parents a cash bonus for getting their kids a library card and for reviewing their children's test scores and meeting with their teacher. Students would get paid for perfect attendance in school and also if they improved year to year on their standardized tests. Seventh grade students could get up to $100 for just taking all required math and English tests and if they got all the questions right - an additional $500!

Bloomberg, who wants parents to start acting responsibly toward their children, is enrolling 2550 parents in what he calls "Opportunity NYC Conditional Cash Transfer." It's a $53 million dollar pilot program funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, Bloomberg himself, and the George Soros Open Society Institute. In the future if successful the program will be formalized, extended city-wide and funded by hundreds of millions of tax dollars. (Dear Mr. Soros, How much more of an "open society " do you want us to have? Just askin')

Defenders of the NYC pilot program say it's a great way to fight poverty, "Because it's working in Mexico."

Let me make sure I understand the "premises" in play here.......Mexico's poverty issues are the same as the United States poverty issues? The poor in Mexico are in the same economic condition as are the poor here in NYC? ¡Apesadumbrado! ¡No pienso tan! (translation for all you who don't "habla," Sorry! I don't think so!)

Let's look at it from a different perspective.

• On the surface, people of all ages and backgrounds are fleeing to the United States from Mexico.
• Somewhere between 12 and 20 million Mexican citizens have come here.
• Somewhere between $21,000,000,000.00 and $24,000,000,000.00 U.S dollars are sent back to Mexico each year by Mexican's earning them in the United States.
• This means that the Mexican Government can annually offset it's budget by $20 plus billion American dollars.
• Poor children in Mexico often can't get food to eat, might live in a home without electricity or running water, might not have new clothes or shoes. Many have never been to school.
• Every child in NYC has the ability to go to school - free. There may be some destitute kids in Brooklyn and Harlem as there are everywhere. However many children in Brooklyn and Harlem have nice clothes, many wear designer sneakers, and carry a cell phone. Most apartments at least share a phone, have running water and electricity. I don't think it's fair to compare the "poor" of Mexico and the "poor" of the United States.
• Therefore I question implementing a program simply because it has been successful in Mexico. You may not be measuring the same issues.

Putting that argument aside, let's examine this again.....

You're going to pay parents - for being parents - and for taking an interest in their children's lives, health & education. Do I have this right? You're going to pay kids - for taking an interest in their own FREE education, their own self-improvement. Right?

Well, in my humble and perhaps backward way of thinking, when any society begins to pay parents for being parents, and has to pay children for taking part in a free educational system, I think that society has pretty much dropped off the cliff of self-sufficiency, back into the "Shephard / flock" arrangement! You may have heard of this system before, they had it in Europe during the middle ages......it's called the feudal system. The "Lords" (aka Bloomberg & Soros et al), provide everything for their subjects and even reward the lowly serfs when they have done well. Ah, but the Lords can also withhold things, when they think the serfs haven't been doing what they should. This system was especially interesting because it included a wonderful little caveat called "indentured servitude." Can you spell "slavery" boys and girls?

Why not look at this problem in a really novel way and be real social mavericks!

Here's an idea .... To all young adults.....If you're not ready to take care of and support a child or a family for the next 21 years ..... DON'T have a child. If you brought a child into this world, it's YOUR responsibility to provide for it - not your mom & dad! You made yourself a parent - Be a parent! "Parent UP!" as the saying goes. Don't expect society to clean up after your mistakes. Take responsibility for what you've done. We'll help - but it's your responsibility to make sure you child is healthy, well nourished, and getting the most out of their free education.

Something else for young adults....consider it "free advice" from society! Please remember it! Marriage, like Parenthood is a choice! You see the way it works is ... you both fall in love - you both decide to get married, and work at it for a while - when you can afford it, you both decide to have a child - you both bear the responsibility of being parents. All the "Warranties" work best when this order is followed!! But of course, the end users bear all responsibility.

Kids.....your job is to enjoy growing up and learning the most you can in the 16 years you must stay in school! A free education is the BEST GIFT our country can give you. Trust me! But you have to work at learning - it doesn't come without work. We'll give you teachers and tutors but it's up to you. Fight until you get it! Along the way there's going to be temptations - you have to know when to say no, and stick to your goals! You can do it - millions already have - all of today's leaders were right where you are at one point! By the way, understand that your folks love you more than anything - even when they yell. But they probably work so hard, they're just absolutely dead tired most of the time! Don't get discouraged and don't give up on them, or on yourself! You're worth it!!! I promise, they'll be proud of all your accomplishments-just like you will be. Do the best you can, and then try a little harder. Believe me, it will be worth it!

Lovingly,
Your "Uncle Sam"

Dum Spiro Spero!

Folks can always understand someone making a mistake....

..... because it's "human" to make mistakes! We can always forgive someone who makes a mistake. Remember when your Mom would say to you, "That's alright dear, it was an honest mistake!" With an honest mistake...you knew you had done something wrong, but you knew it was going to be alright. Whatever you'd done wasn't really malicious and could be corrected. Like using your mom's silverware to dig in the dirt, or breaking a window with your baseball.

What makes us step back & scratch our heads in wonder, is when someone makes the same mistake more than once. What's that old Einstein quote about 'insanity'...."doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." Lindsey Lohan might be a current example of this, or for those of you as old as I am, Willy Sutton the bank robber who spent most of his life in and out of prisons for robbing over 100 banks during the first half of the last century! ("Cause that's where the money is!")

Well, I think the American is going to start learning about "Einstein's insanity theory" very shortly.

There's a story coming to light around the country concerning illegal immigration - and when you hear about it, I think you're going to scratch your heads at first, and then you're going to get mad, like I did. If it wasn't so scary, it would be hilarious. If it didn't already have such tragic consequences it would just be incredible! It's a story that shows the inefficiency and total ineffectiveness of our national security system. Top to bottom - no one in this story is immune from criticism! Included are, one of my hero's a former President, the current President, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service (ICE), Congress, The Department of Justice (DOJ), various State government and Local Law Enforcement agencies, sheriffs and jail administrators.

I was first turned onto the story by a friend of mine who asked me what I thought? I did some research. The story first surfaced as part of the Lou Dobbs Tonight Show on Thursday September 13th. I got the show's transcripts and just shook my head after reading it. It was a story originally reported by Lisa Sylvester, a pretty good reporter. Here's the story's lead paragraph that will just knock your socks off....taken directly from the Show's transcripts .....

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Department of Homeland Security inspector general estimates more than 300,000 illegal aliens convicted of crimes will be locked up and stayed in local jails this year. After serving their time, instead of being deported, most will be released onto U.S. streets because Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not have the resources or bed space to (d)report them.

I didn't include a lot of what the transcript reported because frankly - it was depressing - and you can find it yourself on the CNN website! A little perspective may be necessary........

• a group of 300,000 convicted and already incarcerated criminals,
• more than two and a half times as many CONVICTS as we have soldiers in Iraq
• will be RELEASED into our cities and towns - to walk among our family members and friends
• because those sworn to protect us - can't get it together enough to FIGURE IT OUT.

GEEZ!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Taking a deep breath!)

Now I have the benefit of a little more information than you do, but what it boils down to is that all of the organizations I mentioned above, are pointing at each other saying, "it's their problem not ours." Sound familiar? "Honest Dad, I don't know how the lamp broke, Johnny was playing inside and I heard a bang and when I came in the lamp was broken!" Unfortunately there have already been murders because of this stupidity! The three college students murdered in Newark, were killed by an illegal Peruvian immigrant who had already been arrested and released twice for a) raping a 5 year old girl and b) assaulting a number of people in a bar fight. How nice. No wonder there are people who hate us, laughing tonight!

So here's my cast of who's culpable ........

• President Ronald Reagan for signing an amnesty program for 3 million way back when - and not forcing INS and the Border Patrol to get nasty out there.
• Congress for allowing Sen. Ted Kennedy to push through 7 - count'em S E V E N - national bills that made illegal immigration easier and border enforcement and deportation harder.
• President George W. Bush for signing the Security and Prosperity Partnership with Mexico and Canada which reduced our country's sovereignty and moved us one step closer to a borderless continent.
• The Department of Homeland Security: with nearly 130,000 employees the department least likely to keep the homeland secure!
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: part of DHS, a group of over 15,000 employees and a budget of over $4 billion, that touts itself as an integrated 21st century law enforcement agency!
• the Department of Justice: home of the United States Attorney General who has to be aware of this sort of thing.
• various State Government and Local Law Enforcement agencies, sheriffs and jail administrators: the folks on the bottom of this "food chain," but the ones most responsible for keeping our families safe on a daily basis! These are the people who's salaries our taxes pay for!

Of all of these groups, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the organization that drives me around the bend the worst! You'd think that with a budget of $4 billion dollars and countless years to figure it out, they'd at least have come up with a method to remove the worst group of illegal aliens out of the 12 million illegal aliens already here. What makes it worse is that ICE doesn't even have to go looking for these bad guys....these 300,000 are already in jail! All they have to do is pick them up and deport them back to their home countries jail system! (It would be prudent if our government reached an agreement with the "sending" governments that they'd better keep these bad-boys locked up, or else there might be treaty or trade complications, but ICE doesn't need to get involved with that - that's where our Executive branch should work its magic!)

And what kind of an argument is "we don't have the resources" to deal with them? How can a 12 month budget of $4 BILLION DOLLARS not be enough? That's 4,000 individual stacks of one-million dollars each. That's more than three-hundred thirty-three million dollars A MONTH! I tell you what --- you give me and Sheriff Joe Arpaio three months time and three months of that budget, and we'll have you the dandiest, most effective, most amazing, and most remotely located incarceration center you've ever seen! And we'll work out the long term leasing arrangements with the hosting country! We'll also write the procedures manual you'll have to follow in subsequent years!

But it's not just the mindlessness of ICE and Homeland Security that are at fault here. Your State, County and Local Law Enforcement also bear a major burden in all of this. It's their job to keep you and I safe. PERIOD! Telling "society" after the fact that they had to release a known criminal just because they couldn't get a return call from ICE, is as bad as watching the criminal commit a crime and doing nothing about it! That's not making an honest mistake, that nearly being criminally culpable! Isn't there a legal term like criminal facilitation? An action you take - releasing a known criminal - back onto an unsuspecting society - directly results in another crime?

If our Federal, State and Local governments are going to continue this "catch & release" program, then citizens should be allowed to carry weapons for their protection. The release of criminal illegal aliens should be announced a few days in advance and their pictures prominently displayed on television and in all Police & Post Offices. Citizens could not be held liable if their weapons accidentally discharged around or into a previously arrested, convicted, incarcerated, released, illegal alien. Wouldn't that be insane?

What's more lucid - releasing a criminal you already have locked up, who you know is going to commit another crime - or allowing a normally law abiding citizen take justice into their own hands because you won't can't? Am I making you crazy yet? Doesn't it seem more sane to keep a criminal you already have locked up - locked up?

"Meum cerebrum nocet!"

Hillary wins - but ultimately looses - by abusing a beautiful quote!

If you read the Daily Kos or other Liberal websites following the completion of General Petraeus' and Ambassador Crocker's two days in the barrel, you'll find much gnashing of teeth; applause for MoveOn.org slander; and a clamor of disbelieving outrage that the General & the Ambassador survived their Liberal inquisitors! Then you'd come to Hillary's reserved comments..........

In front of the camera and wearing a very conservative suit, Hillary appeared unruffled and calm. In not so many words, and in-an-oh-so-courteous-and-politely-inflected manner, Senator Clinton questioned how she or anybody else could be expected to believe the facts the General presented... and by the words she used when she said it - Hillary Clinton called General Petraeus, a liar. For those of you who may have thought Hillary coined it herself, here is her now oft-repeated line, "I think that the reports that you provide to us really require a willing suspension of disbelief."

While many of us would question whether Mrs. Clinton really is, "the smartest woman in the world," she may certainly have some of the best researchers & speech writers working for her, that I must admit. But the fact remains that the "line" for which so many Liberals are now "cheering" her, she appropriated from someone else. (Why? Because...they can). To me, her calmness, and her cool off-handed "cut" at a uniformed member of our armed services indicates her much more pernicious and camouflaged hatred of all things military!

That phrase as it was originally written - that wonderfully vivid and descriptive phrase - was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his book entitled "Biographia Literaria" published in 1817. It describes how a person who loves fiction, willingly gives away (suspends) their disbelief for the moments they are enjoying the fiction. Coleridge was referring to his poetic writing efforts in a collaboration with William Wordsworth. He spoke about it specifically, applying the rules of the collaboration, to Wordsworth's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Here is Coleridge's entire "recollection" (with my italics);

"... it was agreed, that my endeavors should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth on the other hand was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us ..."

So while many of her constituents and democrats at-large, lauded her for her wonderful "turn of a phrase," they should know that once again "a Clinton" has literally "stolen" the show. (At the very least she could have attributed it to Coleridge! Now, along with everything else I need consider her a plagiarist!) More importantly, since it seems unlikely that General Petraeus studied English Romanticism (no laughing!), he might easily have missed the "gibe" - and sat there thinking about what the phrase meant - rather than recognize the insult it proffered.

Unless I have greatly misread Mrs. Clinton for many years now, to me there is one thing that is glaringly, chillingly obvious. As has been recorded many times in books about her and her husband - here are two people - who have been together for a very long time - who share a total and unbridled abhorrence for anyone and anything associated with the military. It was remarkable enough to me that her husband could serve as President and C-I-C for two terms harboring such an attitude. That he survived is testament to the oath of duty our soldiers take!

From everything that I've seen, heard and read, no matter how hard I try, I can not fathom Hillary Clinton as a "Commander In Chief." What's more, I can't envision military personnel granting her the respect a C-I-C should enjoy, but must have, after already having dealt with her husband, and knowing her contempt for the military.

Now that would require a willing suspension of disbelief! (Thank you Mr. Coleridge).

Dum Spiro Spero!

Breaking News Story! Petraeus Ad.

Sorry to "ping" you all twice in the same day, I was going to save this for tomorrow, but it's just so unbelievable and the group I talk with on a regular basis was just given permission to "let the news fly," cause the author got it published! Great for her by the way!

OK, so you know how a lot of your liberal friends keep saying that there isn't a liberal bias in the PRESS? Hmmmm?

Well it turns out that that despicable General Petraeus ad that ran as a "full page" section cover in the New York Times last Monday, normally costs around $181,000. But those big-hearted, bi-partisan, middle-of-the-road good guys and gals in the advertising department at the New York Times decided to cut MoveOn.org a break and only charged the Soros backed hate group........................(wait for it)...........................$65,000.00 ! ! !

I did the math.....And even a "dullard" like me can figure out that's a 66% rate cut! What's more that's a hundred and twenty thousand dollars off the standard ad price!! ( I gotta ask the experts...) Hey Hal? Don? John? When was the last time we got that kind of a ad price reduction?

When I was a "wee tyke" growing up in West Orange, there was an expression I learned from a very young age from all my neighbors ...."You Never pay retail!" There were a couple other expressions my father taught me...... one was, "Those guys are in cahoots!" And the ever popular....."He's in somebody's pocket." Any way you wanna slice it, where I come from, we call that a pretty freakin good deal!

I'll leave it up to you to choose the expression you think fits the New York Times in this case. But please ... PLEASE...especially my good friend in Verona.....please don't tell me the NY Times is on the up and up

"All the news that's fit to print - - as long as what prints, fits what we want!"

(I wonder if Mr. Soros had to plead poverty to them?)

"The Land Of Make-Believe" - Items 1 & 2

Turning on the television, I have a habit of keeping the volume off until I see what's on. (Maybe it's a subconscious fear of being accosted by a "screeching Hillary." I think this has been classified as a recognized medical condition by the AMA). Anyway...

The sound was "off" yesterday and I noticed gnome-like Senator Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) sitting in a chair, his little shoes swinging above the floor and his lips moving (always a bad sign), with Arabic scrolling across the screen. "How odd," I thought! (Not the Arabic - Kucinich) And engaged the volume.

The paramedics (who eventually revived me) told me an hour or so later that they were summoned by my neighbor who'd been walking her children and heard my screams. One EMT said she figures I was unconscious for about 20 minutes but only in mild shock for the rest of the time. She said that when they first found me, I was drooling on the floor, babbling something about "must stop squirrelboy from Ohio" over and over!

I really can't understand why hearing Dennis Kucinich make stupid asinine neolib comments to Syrian television interviewers would have effected me so? It's not like I haven't heard other nutty Libs call George Bush a "Nazi" on national television; or tell anyone who would listen that, "Bush lied to Americans - and forced us to go to war with Iraq ONLY because he is Beel`zebub!" I mean, this really isn't news....we hear it every day, on The Daily Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric! I guess it was hearing him say it while he is,

• a) running for President, and
• b) in Syria meeting with the president of a terrorist supporting regime, and
• c) had been personally reminded by the State Department officials before his trip to stay out of international politics and refrain from criticizing another American politician beyond U.S. borders...

that really caught my attention and sent me into convulsive apoplexia!

Here's just a little sample of what he said while he was giving an interview - in Syria - on Islamic television - being aired in every Arabic speaking household/cave in the world - criticizing his own government.

• "The fact of the matter is we are all being weakened by continuing a war that's based on a lie. This war was based on lies. Iraq didn't have the weapons of mass destruction. It wasn't connected to 9/11. It had nothing to do with Al Qaeda's role in 9/11.

• Kucinich then suggested that the United States should pay war reparations to Iraqis. "The United States must take steps to repair the damage that has been done to the lives of the people of Iraq for the people who have lost their lives," he said, adding that the debate on the Iraq war has been skewed by false information.

(Ohhh my head!) Need a little more? Even his "Missus" gets into the act!

• On Saturday, Dennis Kucinich and his wife Elizabeth visited the "Shouting Valley" in the Golan region. Family members who had been separated when the Majdal Chams was occupied in the war with Israel keep in contact with each other by shouting across the distance of several hundred yards in the "Shouting Valley." The Kucinichs also toured in the Golan region the site of Quneitrich, an area that was destroyed extensively by Israeli forces in 1973 even though a peace had just been negotiated, according to the press release.

Here's a "Shout out" to Dennis & Elizabeth across the valley ............. "Hey squirrelboy - YOUR State Department wants to let you know that since you're going to disregard YOUR country's requests - YOUR State Department has 'disregarded' your U.S. Passport. Maybe YOUR wife can arrange long-term housing in England. Sorry about you missing the remaining debates - but it isn't like you were going to win anything! Continued success pandering to terrorist media outlets & George Soros! Hugs from Washington."

My other "Land of Make-Believe" moment came later in the evening as I was reviewing the NewsBusters website. (http://www.newsbusters.org/). Noel Sheppard (one of their preeminent reporters) commented on an interview in "Playboy" of Keith Olbermann. You know Keith, he's the fellow at MsNBC who hates anything conservative, and has been having a running feud with Bill O'Reilly at FOX, for the last hundred years or so! (I don't particularly agree with everything O'Reilly says, but neither do I agree with bighead Olbermann that O'Reilly can be the "Worst Person in the World" 495 days in a row!)

Susan tells me that the Paramedics made it back in record time and had me revived in minutes after I collapsed hearing this quote from Olbermann's Playboy interview;

• "Al Qaeda really hurt us, but not as much as Rupert Murdoch has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda - worse for our society. It's as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan ever was."

Ahhhhhhh!!! Is it time for my medication yet??????????????????

Dum Spiro Spero!

"MoveOn.org" begins the Petraeus carnage - part of All the Ususal Suspects!

I was right!

And it didn't even take either General Petraeus or Ambassador Crocker to give their testimony before Congress to have the first shots fired by (who else???) MoveOn.org!!! God I love being right...........but just so that you can say I gave you the factual scoop here's a paragraph from an article written by Pete Hegseth for "The Daily Standard." (The link for the full article appears below - enjoy!

"Tomorrow--as General David Petraeus provides his Iraq assessment to Congress--the antiwar group MoveOn.org is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times under the headline: "General Petraeus or General Betray us? Cooking the books for the White House."

Soros and his smarmy bastards strike again!

http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/091rhesh.asp

QUICKY! Accusations & Contradictions

I read the transcripts of Osama bin Laden's latest propaganda video over the weekend, and watched as dozens of American "experts" gave myriad interpretations of what his ramblings "foretold" for the United States, (and "infidels" in general)!

In one part of his speech ObL lectures us by saying, "The leaders of the West -- especially Bush, Blair, Sarkozy and Brown -- still talk about freedom and human rights with a flagrant disregard for the intellects of human beings."

As a response, I'd ask Mr. bin Laden to justify his flagrant disregard for freedom, human rights and the intellect of human beings - - when instructing Muslims to "kill all infidels where ever you find them," and beseeching parents to allow their beloved children to become "homicide/suicide bombers."

"Yeah, ya see Osama .... I can't think of a single religious group in either Britain, France, or the U.S. that's going around telling parishioners to kill other people & promising 72 virgins to believers who kill themselves. See, the suicide part would cut way down on the size of congregations and weekly almsgiving! It's sort of self-defeating don't ya think? "

In another part of his message, he jokes about the mortgage and subprime interest rate problems here in the States - and uses it as a potential recruiting tool for Islam, saying that we should join them because the tax rate for muslims is much lower! Isn't it cool that a terrorist, living in a cave somewhere is so interested about current financial events in the United States! I guess even with his engineering degree, and maybe an issue of "FORTUNE," he's forgotten that in the free market capitalist system, the market goes up and the market goes down. Don't worry about us, we'll ride out the economic waves just fine Osama!

"And how do you as a so-called leader of Islam, justify the "human cost" of keeping entire regions of the world, even entire countries, and certainly many members of your own religion, living in 12th century conditions? And by the way O, what's the mortgage 'nut' you gotta meet each month for that cave-condo in Pakistan? "


"Monastica quod Logic es redarguo. Meum cerebrum nocet!" ("Religion and Logic are contradictory. My head hurts!")

PS: Today's the day Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are speaking before Congress. Here's my prediction ..... Just you watch, by the end of their 2 days in Washington, they're going to be called every foul thing the Libs can think of, from "Bush-lackeys" to outright "liars!" Keep your eyes on "all the usual suspects" Reid, Durbin, Pelosi, Feinstein, Kennedy, Shumer, Murtha, Kerry, and the mainstream PRESS will be close behind! It's going to be a hoot! - KAJ

bigotry, an invasion of my individual rights, or life?

Last night there was relatively little on television early in the evening. (Starting at 9PM, my wife and I had decided to watch a wonderful old film with Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, and Tyrone Power entitled "Witness for the Prosecution." Excellent old classic - 1957 vintage. )

So I spent the beginning of the evening reviewing "things" that happened shortly after the terrorist "sneak attacks" of 9/11. Shed a lot of tears from the end of dinner-time until 9:00 PM! Remembering the initial fears I had for my wife & kids in a quickly changing world ... and remembering some "absent friends."

One of the things I had forgotten was that within little over a month of the Towers collapsing, President Bush and Congress had created the Transportation Security Administration (the TSA) by signing into law the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. Wow! It only took 5 weeks! I remembered thinking at the time how proud I was that Congress and the President could put away the petty partisanship that had infected our political system, and get things done quickly to protect the American public.

In addition I reviewed the establishment of The Patriot Act and its provisions, as well as the related wire-tapping and invasion of privacy controversies that grew and grew during 2003, '04, and continue through today. I remembered with laughter the times I've been pulled out of line at the airport and forced to stand "spread-eagled" without my shoes & belt, and as the saying goes, without my "spectacles, tes - - cles, wallet and comb" as a TSA officer wanded me. Me!! All 6'4," 250+ pounds of 'bland whiteness,' blonde hair and blue eyes ........ consummate physical profile of a terrorist don't ya think? Me, and 80 year old white grandmothers!

I don't know how it bounced into my brainpan but I started thinking about how absurd certain "political positions" are. Here's one - you can't allow racial profiling - it's discriminatory! I've heard Ron Kuby (ACLU advocate & law partner to the late William Kunstler) rant & rave about how "singling out Arab looking or Muslim looking men" in the line at an airport is the worst form or racial profiling. I've heard the Reverend's Sharpton & Jack - - son, screaming about how racial profiling is unconstitutional. Recently, we've all been learning about certain cities where Police Officers can't ask detainees for identity papers because it's racial profiling! How nuts is this?

And yet, Kuby, Sharpton & Jack - - son, in addition to Liberals nation-wide, and all the Libocrats in Congress fully support and believe that racial profiling is perfectly fine when we're admitting students into college, or choosing people for jobs or promotions, or even when we're confirming appointees to a Presidential Cabinet post. As a matter of fact - in those cases - Liberals and elected Libocrats actually encourage racial profiling!

As I often do in these postings - speaking exclusively for me - I give the TSA permission to pull my fat white ass out of an airport line as many times as you want, as long as you pull out a greater number of middle eastern looking people as well! I don't think that's bigotry either. The facts are that NOT all middle eastern looking men (and women) are terrorists; but ALL terrorists are middle eastern looking men (and women)! (I'm throwing women in there because maybe, just maybe, these guys are going to start using their own wives as "escorts" during their next homicide flight!)

You may say, well Ken, that's just nuts! Really?
The way I see it, "Better safe than sorry" don't cut it as far as I'm concerned! Not when you're in a metal tube loaded with flammable stuff and people, hurtling along at 600 MPH!
"Safe" does!

It's sort of like the international slogan for Suicide Prevention....."I CHOOSE LIFE!" And I invite anyone in line at an airport who doesn't want to understand or comply with that, to step out of line and travel by car, bus or taxi! I say find a way to "x-ray" all passengers and luggage as they did in the "Arnold" movie, "Total Recall."

Like the Latin quote at the end of most of my postings says, "While I breathe, I hope!" So, I Choose Life!

Dum Spiro Spero!

Whose side are you on??

Couple of things before I get into my posting............

Is it Usama - or is it Osama?
Is it al-Qaeda - or al-Qaida - or is it al-Quida?
BONUS question: Which two of the Seven Dwarfs were Dick Durbin and Harry Reid named after?

You'd think that after almost 6 years we'd all be reading from the same sheet of music, but in every newspaper and website I read there invariably are any number of spellings for each. Six years and we still don't know......

Yesterday I got pissed even before I watched the latest bin Laden video on the news. Sometime in the late-afternoon I happened to be watching CNN as Harry Reid and Dick Durbin appeared on camera. (Sitting at a table nearby was Sen. Teddy "Vehicular Homicide" Kennedy). I turned up the volume because this comedy team is usually good for more than a few laughs! Harry and Dick didn't disappoint.

(First off, what is Harry Reid taking these days? Everytime I see him I get the feeling he's either just "woken up" from - or is just about to be put down for "nappy time!" Does anyone else see this? He's always fumbling around for words, looking down & picking at the podium, sort of mumbling. His eyes are always half closed behind those glasses. All he has to do is yawn and drool and I'm telling you, the picture would be perfect! It's like he's in a stupor!)

Anyway, Harry's nap time aside - I guess we should have expected it! Here were Harry and Dickey yesterday afternoon, doing what we should have known the Libocrats would do - badmouth the Iraq surge report by Gen. Petraeus BEFORE the General even gets his butt in a chair before Congress. Contrary to what many of the news reports have been saying, contrary to what most of the troops & commanders on the ground have been saying, contrary even to what some Lib Congressmen and Senators who visited Iraq have been saying, Harry and Dick see it very differently!!

Basically, Reid and Durbin said yesterday (now follow this) that since Bush was on the ground in Iraq last week, he's already altered Patraeus's report. Their point was, Bush has told (or ordered!) the General what he'll say before Congress. Here are two leaders of Congress who agreed wholeheartedly a few months ago, that General Petraeus was the most qualified person to make the progress report to Congress - now, all of a sudden he's Bush's lackey! Durbin even went so far as to call the report, "The Bush Petraeus Report." Reid stood before the cameras and microphones and said that the surge hadn't worked, it's been long enough, we should leave.

Both said that regardless of what Petraeus's report says, they won't believe it and we should leave Iraq right away!

Then later on in the evening I got to watch another Usama bin Laden "manifesto!" This one was much more Marxian that his previous messages - but clearly this guy has had a lot of time to read scrabbling around in the caves! He even touted Michael Scheuer's book, "Imperial Hubris." Now there's something to tell the grand-kids huh! "Yeah, Grandpa's book made it to the reading list of the Most Wanted Terrorist in the World!" Not quite the same as making the Oprah Book List I'm thinkin', but still....

The thing that struck me most about bin Laden's "harangue" was how hard whoever authored it was trying to interject timely references. For example, citing Sarkozy as the new French President, and referring to the new PM in Britain, that was a neat touch and showed that this wasn't an old piece of tape. But aside from a pretty good line about American's joining Islam "because the alms tax is only 10.2%" well everything else - and this is just my opinion - everything else if you close your eyes, could have just as easily been "talking points" from the Libocrats in Congress or those Presidential Libs out on the stump! Seems like American borne Adam Gadahan has become the James Carville for OBL!

"Get out of Iraq," he says. "America has lost the war," he says! "The vast majority or Americans want it stopped," he lectures us. Well hells bells Osama, the Liberals in Congress and in the media have been pushing those very same slogans down our throats for the last two and a half years! Hell, Harry and Dickey could have been sitting in the dirt floor along-side you, wearing "schmatta's" and I don't think I would have noticed a difference! The only thing missing was the rest of their Congressional Tribe of Traitors!

So Osama...how's it hangin' dude? Long time, no see dog! Geez, your right eye is kinda droopy and looks like you might have had a 'lil stroke. Just a small one though-probably nothin' to worry about. Even your nose and eye-brows look different...been "plucking" a little too much? I know it's hard getting out into the sun where you are, but your skin and complexion have really gotten jaundiced! Maybe it's just my television from so far away - yeah, I bet that's it! That's probably half the reason why your beard needed that "Henna Rinse," but I'm telling you "O" you gotta get another colorist - that beard looks really stupid!!

Here I sit in my spotlessly clean, air conditioned home, in a very prosperous country, watching the leader of a terrorist organization tell Americans (probably from a "well appointed cave" somewhere in Pakistan) how we should live, and what religion we should follow. "Yo Osama how's cave life working out for you? Get many visitors do ya?"

I remember thinking, you know I'll admit to being a bit frightened for my country immediately after 9/11. But once I saw us mobilize against the threat, that fear left me pretty quickly. I've continued to say my prayers daily, for all those men and women here and abroad, who put their lives on the line for me and mine - I admit it - so, I know there's still a war on, and I know we must continue to be vigilant.... But "dear mr. bin Laden" I don't know if they told you or not, but things out here in the world, away from cave life are just a l-i-t-t-l-e b-i-t better than what they are for you. Last week alert officials in Demark and Germany broke up yet some more of your smarmy terror cells. Sorry! I'm here to tell you 'cur' that America is far from loosing this war. Nor do we think that becoming part of an Islamic caliphate is really the best way for our over 300 million citizens to go - you see, we believe in the "freedom of religion." That's why we celebrate so many wonderful different religions here - including Islam! So you just run along back to your Fred & Barney existence and tell yourself that you're still a viable option for some easily misled wacko's. We'll get around to you and your tribe in a while. OK? Ooo, before you leave.....

Osama....I've been wondering....did you happen to make the historical connection yet? That the last two crazy mad fascist dictators ended their reigns similarly, one in a cave-like bunker complex in Berlin and the other in a tiny "hidey-cave" somewhere on an Iraqi farm?? Yup, you're making history dude!! Gotta tell ya' though, not such a good career move "Mr. Engineer" .......you, Adolph Hitler and Saddam Hussein - spendin' the last part of your lives in basically the same accommodations ...... underground .... in caves ..... cowering .... hell, you're already buried.

As we say here in prosperous FREE America..................PRICELESS!

Dum Spiro Spero!

Message to All my Gay & Lesbian Friends

(This almost sounds like the beginning of a joke!) A politician and a comedian put their respective "foots" in their mouths over the long holiday weekend! No kidding unfortunately.

This weekend during his annual Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Jerry Lewis was doing a "gag" on stage for his international audience. In the skit he was supposed to introduce & invite various members of someone's family onto the stage. At one point he said (words to the effect), And here's Jesse, the illiterate - - - ! (using the 3 letter "f-word" that rhymes with "gag.") Needless to say, Mr. Lewis immediately recognized what he'd said, turned from the camera and ended the "gag"- while gagging. Unfortunately, a "live" oopps!

Lewis' comments drew this immediate condemnation from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). "Jerry Lewis' on-air use of this kind of anti-gay slur is simply unacceptable," GLAAD President Neil Giuliano said in a statement, adding that the comic's remark "feeds a climate of hatred and intolerance" that could incite anti-gay violence. GLAAD urged Lewis to apologize for the comment and asked the entertainer to meet with members of the group "to help him understand why these words are so hurtful." Through his spokespeople at the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Lewis did apologize saying he was sorry if his comments offended anyone.

I have a really big problem with Mr. Giuliano's assertion that Jerry Lewis's "gaff" was feeding a climate of hate and intolerance! Really? I don't know any other group of people in American society that EVERYBODY fawns and Kowtows to more than gays and lesbians. Hate and Intolerance? You have to be kidding me! Think about it - gays and lesbians are held in higher esteem today than "white guys" in general, and certainly any and all "white politicians!" You don't hear our military screaming about "feeding a climate of hate and intolerance" when actor Tim Robbins or Sen. John Kerry accuses them of murdering Iraqi civilians! Well, do ya? Stop the sniveling - Cowboy Up!

But let's move onto our second example.

On Tuesday at a High School in New Hampshire, candidate John McCain was taking questions from the audience, when one of the high-school students wondered .... if at 71 years old, the Senator wasn't too old to run the United States? Now, I'm sure it's already been a long tiring campaign, and perhaps the Senator has answered one too many questions in general, but his answer still seemed a bit "sharp." He replied through that patented McCain smile, "Heh,heh, thanks for the question you little brat....you're drafted!"

Which, I guess answers both the students question, and questions the voting public might have! Good work kid!

However, there was one truly terrifying story coming out of the south-land over the weekend. A story that should strike every American - regardless of party affiliation or sexual preference - with abject fear! When you weigh Jerry Lewis's "mistake" and Senator McCain's "answer" along side the potential devastation this next issue might cause..... well, this could be a tragedy of truly Biblical proportions! Here it is......

51 year old Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans may announce this week that he is running

for the Governorship of the State of Louisiana. When asked why he might run the Mayor said, "What I'd like to make sure everybody understands around America is that this city is overcoming a lot of odds. It's like a miracle city in some respects. Our citizens are doing incredible things out there in spite of a lack of resources, or broken promises."

Despite the city's appalling murder rate Nagin recently said that news coverage of the city's violent crime has at least one advantage - it "keeps the New Orleans 'brand' out there, and it keeps people thinking about our needs and what we need to bring this community back."

(Boy, true genius there! Can't argue with that logic! Oyyy.)

See? Terrifying! So GLAAD and New Hampshire... suck it up for a few minutes while we take care of a really stunning possibility in Louisiana! Everything else pales in comparison. ("Oh the humanity!")

Dum Spiro Spero!