2008 Election, Media, Politics, Uncategorized

Does McCain-Feingold Work?

Since its inception three years ago, the bill that was supposed to take the corruption out of Washington politics has done everything but. It has done exactly what critics of the bill said it would do. That is, it silenced certain political speech while at the same time giving exponential power to the media in political campaigns.

The ‘unintended?’ consequences of McCain-Feingold are no better explained than Ann Coulter’s column called ‘HOW TO KEEP REAGAN OUT OF OFFICE.’

How did we end up with the mainstream media picking the Republican candidate for president?

What a bizarre coincidence that a few years after the most draconian campaign-finance laws were imposed via McCain-Feingold, our two front-runners happen to be the media’s picks! It’s uncanny — almost as if by design! (Can I stop now, or do you people get sarcasm?)

By prohibiting speech by anyone else, the campaign-finance laws have vastly magnified the power of the media — which, by the way, are wholly exempt from speech restrictions under campaign-finance laws. The New York Times doesn’t have to buy ad time to promote a politician; it just has to call McCain a “maverick” 1 billion times a year.

McCain-Feingold ought to be repealed.

related links: HOW TO KEEP REAGAN OUT OF OFFICE | Questions For John McCain and Russ Feingold | Way More Than The Lincoln Bedroom | FEC Fines Democrat 527’s

Uncategorized

Recruiting Goals On Target

The Department of Defense announced today its recruiting and retention statistics for the active and reserve components for the month of April.

April 2008
Accessions
Goal
Percent
5,681
5,650
101
Navy
2,905
2,905
100
Marine Corps
2,233
1,577
142
Air Force
2,435
2,435
100

OOH RAA

Politics, Venezuela

Chavez Nationalizes Steelmaker Ternium-Sidor

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took over, stole, nationalized the largest steelmaker in Venezuela, Ternium-Sidor. Chavez’s minister of basic industries and mining, Rodolfo Sanz, has been appointed as the new company president, and has given the company until the end of June to hand it over.

In the past two years the Venezuelan state has taken over foreign-controlled companies (Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips) including cement, telecoms, oil, gas and electricity firms, print and broadcast media. Now the hemisphere’s idiot, President Hugo Chavez, is taking over the steelmaker after trade union talks broke down last month. The workers wanted better pay and benefits.

A better example could not be made to highlight the failure of socialism and communism. While sitting on one of the worlds largest supplies of natural resources, the Venezuelan people can’t afford what little food is still on shelves in the grocery stores, some of which have also been nationalized.

And yet, he is still the dictator that Democrats love to coddle.

related links: Venezuela takes over steel firm

2008 Election, Media, Politics

Rush, Happier Than A Pig In

Rush Limbaugh has got to be feeling good nowadays. Especially since not very long ago, the media was out there downplaying Rush’s affect on the political process and trying to put him out of business. Limbaugh? Yea, he’s an entertainer, a wacko, and the adjectives continue. Then, borne totally out of his genius in knowing Democrats like every square inch of … you may have heard it. I just can’t type it. Rush coins ‘Operation Chaos.’

Things are beginning to change in the eyes of the media. Now his ‘operation’ appears successful if you listen to Chris Matthews, who said that people who voted to be mischievous in the democrat primary, an open primary, ought to be ashamed of themselves. I don’t know where Chris was during voting in the New Hampshire primary when people were bussed in from out of state, Massachusetts, to vote for McCain in the republican primary. Democrats and the media ended up choosing the Republicans’ candidate. It was not a big problem back then. No laws were broken, just the Republican party.

The point is how well Rush knows Democrats. He knows what makes them tick and how they will react and, he knows the ‘Clinton machine’ and how it operates. Thus, the birth of Operation Chaos. All he had to do was call it, and take credit for what he knows will happen and what the Clinton’s will do. And it is all happening before us.

The more Democrats think Rush Limbaugh is spoiling their party the better. As he has said many times before, they’ll open the door on their nose every time there is an opportunity, this time by pointing fingers at everyone else but themselves for their troubles.

MRIOTD

Al Gore Wins MRIOTD Award

1 Comment

The inevitable has happened. Al Gore adds his two cents on the cyclone (hurricane) in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. It was caused by global warming. No doubt aided and abetted by his global jet travel. Hawking his latest book ‘The Assault on Reason,’ Gore tells Terry Gross on NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’ show yesterday. . .

“And as we’re talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated,” Gore said. “And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China – and we’re seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.”

The self-proclaimed inventor of the Internet supports his assertion with facts like ‘might be associated with’ and ’emerging consensus.’ No word from Gore on the emerging consensus surrounding the fact that global ocean temperature has actually dropped in the last 12 months by nearly one degree or its association with a decrease in solar activity.

Today’s Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day Award goes to Al Gore.

related link:Al Gore Calls Myanmar Cyclone a ‘Consequence’ of Global Warming

afterthought: Wait, I’ve seen this before.  First it was Rita Cosby with her book, ‘Blonde Ambition.’ Now it’s Al Gore with his book, ‘The Assault on Reason.’ Just too funny.

Energy, Politics, Uncategorized, Venezuela

Chavez May Thank Democrats for H.R.5351

Yes, he can thank Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) and 36 co-sponsors, all democrats, for passing H.R.5351, to provide incentives as only Democrats can. What they call tax incentives, is actually an $18 billion tax increase on oil companies and oil producers. But not all companies and producers. CITGO, Hugo Chavez’s oil company (as opposed to the other U.S. oil companies that he seized in Venezuela last year) would be exempt.

So this is how Democrats in Washington plan on fixing our energy problem of high prices and oil dependency? You punish the only people here that can help, and you reward the hemisphere’s idiot, Hugo Chavez. And as an added bonus, we continue to be dependent on OPEC, Venezuela, and Russia for resources that we have but are unwilling to get ourselves.

On February 27, the Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5351 — legislation that increases taxes some $18 billion on American oil and gas producers — guaranteeing higher prices at the gas pump for U.S. consumers — while at the same time leaving intact tax breaks for Venezuela’s state-run oil company CITGO.

That’s right; the House-passed legislation exempts one of the most anti-American dictators in the world, Hugo Chavez, from the massive tax increase.

The Sierra Club, a Democrat special interest group, refers to this bill as ‘climate change legislation.’ No surprise there. The next stop for the bill is the Senate. Now would be the time to let your senators know your objection to this bill.

related link: Center for Individual Freedom

Pensacola, Race Relations, Uncategorized

Kids Killing Kids, In Pensacola?

Kids killing kids goes on in small cities too, like right here in Pensacola, Florida, for example. Philadelphia has been dealing with a record murder rate this year, mostly kids, mostly black. Such was the case last night in Pensacola outside a teen dance.

There are at least two mothers who wish this had never happened. And, had the juvenile justice system not broken down, what happened last night might not have happened at all.

The investigation will hopefully lead to who pulled the trigger among the 16 and 17 year olds present. Whoever the perp(s) turns out to be, the investigation will prompt some questions outside of what happened last night. Like these, did any of the youths held for suspicion of murder have a criminal record? If so, were any of them subsequently found to be in violation of probation? If so, were any of them given a new probation instead of being returned to jail where, obviously, he could not have been downtown last night? According to a source close to the investigation, the answer to all three of these questions is YES.

Philadelphia has a plan, borne out of desperation perhaps, but it deals with the problem where it exists. On the streets and with the kids. This is more than a law enforcement problem, this is a societal problem of broken families and broken hope, where being bad is cool. Can Pensacola put 100 men on the street to save a generation in trouble? How about 10? The community must stand up to the challenge.

related links: More Kids Killing Kids In Philadelphia | 10,000 Men On The Street In Philly

2008 Election, Energy, Politics

National Energy Day

Everybody is talking about energy today. It’s like a tug of war between those that want energy and those that don’t. President Bush is talking about getting some. Using ANWR for its intended purpose, oil & gas drilling, and building more refineries. Without more refineries, all the crude oil in the world won’t help the supply if it can’t be refined. And, thanks to the environmentalist movement, it has been thirty-two years (1976) since a new refinery has been built in the United States. President Bush from the Rose Garden today . . .

I’ve repeatedly submitted proposals to help address these problems. Yet time after time, Congress chose to block them. One of the main reasons for high gas prices is that global oil production is not keeping up with growing demand. Members of Congress have been vocal about foreign governments increasing their oil production; yet Congress has been just as vocal in opposition to efforts to expand our production here at home.

The cost of a gallon of gas has become news, as is the economy, and not so much Iraq. Everyone, and two out of three presidential candidates, would like to see lower gas prices, or so you would think? The fact is the environmentalist lobby and those anti-capitalists that have the ears and wallets of Washington actually like high gas prices. They’d be even happier if the prices keep going up. It is believed that they would reach nirvana when everyone quits buying it.

The logo of the environmental movement seems to be the polar bear. The environmental wackos use polar bear images in all of their propaganda. But I digress. Also in today’s news is this effort, by ‘environmentalists,’ to put a stick in the spokes of oil production, based on whether the polar bear remains on the endangered species ‘list.’ Polar bear populations are growing, have been for years.

Whether the polar bear remains means this . . .

If it is listed, campaigners will argue that anything that might impinge on the creature’s habitat, such as recently announced plans for oil and gas exploration off the Alaskan coast, must either be cancelled or put under much more rigorous scrutiny.

And if it is not listed? They lawyer up . . .

[t]o keep it off the list entirely – an option which would immediately lead to further legal action from the conservation coalition.

You like the high cost of gas, and food? Thank the environmental ‘movement’ and spineless politicians that refuse to stand up to them.

related links: ANWR 101 | ANWR | US ordered to act on polar bear | The White House

Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.