An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 19 January 2008
Totally Baffled!
John McFeingold won South Carolina? The Huckster was second? I have to question the values of the South Carolinians. Do they like higher taxes? Do they want to be overrun by illegals? They don’t value their 1st Amendment rights? Do they believe the government should run their lives?
Candidate Made “Global Warming”
Some Essential Reading for a Cold January Afternoon
I have ‘Oppositional Defiant Disorder’ – Taxing Tennessee
Update to NYTimes Soldier Smear – Sparks from the Anvil
Hillary Clinton Bumper Sticker – Tennesseans for Thompson
The Consensus of Experts – Barking Moonbat Early Warning System
Darshan Dhaliwal, major Jim Doyle donor – McBride’s Media Matters
Re: “We leave the paws on so people know they’re getting a raccoon, not somebody’s house cat” – BBA
Beware of the sexy suicide bombers, and other terror news – Right Truth
Things You Find in Google Image Searches – PheistyBlog
Bumper Stickers can be so insightful… – Real Debate Wisconsin
MPS school board screws it up again – Stepping Right Up!
AP Clairvoyant – Captain’s Quarters
Needed: True Conservative – Conservatively Speaking
The High Cost of Roe at 35 – Isn’t It Rich
THE OBAMA-REZKO CONNECTION – Texas Hold ‘Em Blogger
BIODIESEL: Feed a Farmer – Starve a Terrorist – Woman Honor Thyself
Rove Gives Advice On Beating the Democrats – The Roundtable
Minnesota: the liberal dreamland – Lance Burri
Fred on Reducing Government Spending … – Blue Collar Muse
semper fi karma – Southern Sass on Crime
Democrats; give tax rebates to non-taxpayers – This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here
Ten Reasons to Get Rid of the European Union — A First Draft – Gates of Vienna
Leave It To A Politician – folkbum’s rambles and rants
Hate Speech in Europe – The Brussels Journal
This is by no means a complete list, but it’s a good start!
You Know It’s a Bit Nippy…
….when even the sellers don’t show up at the local ‘flea market’!
Every weekend, traffic slows on U.S. 64 due to the heavy traffic going in to, and coming out of, the flea market. Come rain or shine, that place is packed on Saturdays and Sundays. Cold, on the other hand, has a major effect on both shoppers and vendors.
Now, when I say cold, I don’t mean the absurdly frigid temperatures as are being experienced by the tundra this weekend. I’m talking cold, as in the mid 20′s, with a wind chill that that does blows straight through your bones.
Yes, silent E, I am freakin’ COLD! 
I’m Sincerely Dismayed
I read a lot of stuff on the internet. I watch a LOT of news. While some have legitimate concerns about the candidates, on both sides, others just continue spouting the talking points that the MSM wants them to parrot.
Before making my decision to support Fred Thompson, I looked at the others who jumped on the band wagon before the ink was even dry on the election of 2006. While several were extremely palatable (Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo), all were missing some key ingredients (too many) that I feel are important in choosing a leader. While Thompson is not the perfect candidate, none of the others are either, and are actually even farther from what I believe a president should be.
Mitt Romney is acceptable, if he wins the nomination. The others, Guiliani, Huckabee, McCain are NOT acceptable. If there was just one or two issues, I could deal with that. I wouldn’t be happy, but I’d adapt. They have too many negatives for me to consider active support of their nominations. Oh, odds are, I wouldn’t do what many have said, and stay home. I value my vote way too much to just give it away, but I might have to hold my nose when voting if any of the 3 become the nominee.
Fred might not be the most charismatic candidate…..ok, let’s face it, he’s not charismatic at all.  He IS, however, a plain talking, common sense, candidate. While the others talk big, about ‘change’ and such, with all the plans they’d implement if they were elected as president, here’s a clue….the president can NOT do all the things people seem to think he/she can. The POTUS can suggest….very strongly, but without the support of Congress, it just can’t be done. Well, unless the word ‘dictator’ is involved. Luckily, we haven’t gotten that far….. yet. (This is why I often take issue with the claim of “Bush’s war”.)
If you want pretty speeches from an empty suit, by all means, continue supporting someone who would do more harm than good. If you want real substance, look into Thompson, find out for yourself what he’s done (including the split vote on Clinton’s impeachment) and who he really is. Don’t take anyone’s ‘word for it’. Do the work, and make your choice based on fact, not supposition.
‘Animal Cruelty’ is An Understatement
Benton County mayor, 2 animal control officers arrested
Benton County Mayor Jimmy Wiseman and Benton County Animal Shelter employees Jacqueline Boyett and Gilbert Jourdan III were arrested Friday on animal cruelty charges and will be arraigned next week, said Camden Police Chief George Smith.
The charges were made a week after eight dogs were found dead at the county-run shelter. An additional 25 puppies and a cat had to be euthanized, according to a veterinarian who examined the animals.
Wiseman, 62, faces one count of cruelty to animals. Boyett, 21, and Jourdan, 23, faces four counts apiece. All three declined to speak to reporters. They are scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
The charges are Class A misdemeanors, authorities said. The charges were made based on evidence police found at the shelter on Jan. 11, Smith said during a press conference Friday afternoon before a standing-room-only crowd in the community room at the Camden Police Department.
As horrible as these crimes are, I can’t help but think….why don’t we show as much outrage when we hear about the similar treatment of unborn babies?
Game Day
Y’all ready?
Morning Coffee 01/19/08
No Guns founder pleads to gun charges
A former gang member who founded an anti-violence group called No Guns has pleaded no contest to federal weapons charges.
Hector “Big Weasel” Marroquin, 51, and co-defendant Sylvia Arrellano, 25, entered pleas Thursday for three counts of manufacture, distribution and transport for sale of an unlawful assault weapon.
Arrellano also pleaded no contest to machine gun conversion and possessing a silencer and acknowledged that the crime was committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang.
“If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns!”
Hamas says it has foiled Fatah plot to kill leader
A senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip on Saturday accused rival Fatah of plotting to assassinate Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as he prayed and said the would-be suicide bomber had been arrested and had confessed.
Tension between Islamist Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s secular Fatah faction has increased since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief but bloody civil war in June. Fatah still holds sway in the occupied West Bank.
For some reason, I automatically thought of a plan by Hamas to gain more support with such claims. I really wouldn’t put it past them, they aren’t exactly an honorable bunch.
Teen Suspect Held in Bhutto’s Killing
A teenager who said he was part of a team of assassins sent to kill former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was arrested near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said Saturday.
The teen also confessed to taking part in a plot to attack Shiites during Ashoura, even as police in Pakistan’s far south said they had foiled suicide attacks planned for the Shiite Muslim festival.
I guess being a teenager in a country like Pakistan is even tougher than it is in the West. Our teens are assaulted on a daily basis with immorality. Their teens are assaulted by fanaticism. I’m having a tough time figuring out which is worse, but perhaps, they are both equally as bad, in very different ways.
DHS to Unveil New Disaster Response Plan
The Bush administration is set to announce an overhaul of the nation’s emergency response blueprint Tuesday, streamlining a chain of command that failed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, sources familiar with the plan said yesterday.
After years of aggressive lobbying by unhappy state governments, the administration chose to restore FEMA’s power to coordinate federal disaster operations. That power was undermined in the administration’s previous plan — used just once, after Katrina — when the secretary of homeland security appointed his own officer to oversee disaster response.
Would it be terribly UJpc of me to suggest that maybe people should be more self reliant, and not expect the gubmint to come in and save their sorry asses?
Hezbollah has Israel ‘body parts’
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah says his armed group has body parts of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon during the 2006 conflict.
He said they had the “heads, the hands, the feet and even a nearly intact cadaver” in a speech marking his first public appearance in more than a year.
And having these rotting ‘body parts’ is going to make him the big man on campus?
No mud, no hoopla — no dissent — in Cuban vote
There is no mudslinging or million-dollar war chest. No party nominations, dirty tricks or battles for key endorsements.
In fact, there’s no campaigning at all — and the most famous candidate, Fidel Castro, hasn’t been seen in public for almost 18 months.
Still, more than 90 percent of voters are expected to turn out Sunday for parliamentary elections viewed as a vital factor in determining whether the ailing, 81-year-old Castro will remain as the communist-ruled island’s head of state.
Maybe these folks like to pretend they are being given a choice? Why do they even bother to show up at the polls to vote. The outcome is already a given. As for the ‘no dirty tricks’? The whole damn thing is a dirty trick….on the people.
Burns, US negotiator on Iran, is latest top diplomat to resign
R. Nicholas Burns, one of the highest-profile diplomats at the State Department and a former Massachusetts resident, is resigning and will be replaced by US Ambassador to Moscow William Burns, the State Department said yesterday.
As undersecretary of state for political affairs, R. Nicholas Burns dealt with many of the most controversial issues facing the Bush administration, including negotiations with India on its nuclear weapons program and the future of Kosovo.
Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?
28 charged in trashing of Robert Frost home in Vt.
Twenty-eight people are accused of attending a birthday party and New Year’s celebration that left a farm house where poet Robert Frost once spent his summers in tatters.
They were all charged with trespassing and five of them with unlawful mischief — both misdemeanors — stemming from the Dec. 28 party at the Homer Noble Farm house, authorities said.
The farm house had broken windows, broken antique furniture and tables burned in a fireplace. Vomit and urine stained the carpeting and beer cans, cups and drug paraphernalia were left behind.
The damage was estimated at $10,600. Witnesses said marijuana was used, but no drug charges were filed for lack of evidence, Vermont State Police Sgt. Lee Hodsden said.
Is the concept of right and wrong so completely lost?
Fears about rigging before polls unjustified: Musharraf
President Pervez Musharraf has said the fears of the opposition parties over the possibility of rigging in the upcoming polls may create problems afterwards.
Musharraf stated this while addressing newsmen, editors and writers here on Friday.
Fears about rigging even before polls are unjustified, he said.
In a country where dissent is silenced by trumped up charges and the sentences of said trumped up charges, I wouldn’t put anything past these weasels.
Russia Could Use Nuclear Weapons as Preventive Measure to Thwart Major Threat, Official Says
Russia’s military chief of staff said Saturday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes in case of a major threat, the latest aggressive remarks from increasingly assertive Russian authorities.
“We have no plans to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand … that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons,” Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky said.
Wouldn’t it be nice for U.S. officials to be able to state the same warning? Instead of whining and kowtowing to the bad guys? No, I do NOT want to see a nuclear confrontation by ANYONE, but in order to be maintained, there must be strength behind it.
Wrong!
“This (immigration) is a demagogue issue. . . . There is a sense out there that there is some simple solution. I think all of you know the following rule of thumb: For every complicated problem, there is a simple solution that’s wrong.” Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn
Only weeks on the job and he’s already talking sense.
Flynn, responding to a question in a meeting with the Editorial Board on Wednesday, said he doesn’t have plans to alter how the Police Department deals with the immigrant community, a significant part of which he and everyone else knows is undocumented.
Other local departments can learn from the common sense the chief had to offer on this topic. Police departments elsewhere in the country seemingly want to turn themselves into immigration officers. A bad move. Flynn noted how counterproductive this is.
“If someone shot you, is our first question, ‘What’s your immigration status?’ or ‘Can you describe your assailant?’ ”
He said he was satisfied with the department’s current policy. Which is: “If you’re a felon, we’re happy to get rid of you and notify the appropriate authorities.”
In the routine course of business, however, it benefits everyone if any victim or witness to crime feels free to contact and speak freely with local law enforcement, he seemed to be saying. He’s right.
The majority of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country are not committing crimes. The chief estimated that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has maybe 33,000 slots for the illegal immigrants they catch. Deportation? Twelve million, 33,000. The math doesn’t work.
And there’s this: “Do you really think they’re going to come at 2 o’clock in the morning in District 7 to pick up a bricklayer who just got caught without a driver’s license and is here illegally?” the chief asked.
No, neither do we, though there are many in this country who wrongly believe in the enforcement-first-and-only policy.
“Pretending that there is a role for local law enforcement of significance in this is disingenuous,” the chief said.
Right again.
Wrong. I’d suggest Milwaukee be prepared for an influx of illegals. Once the word gets out that the city isn’t concerned about the legal status of people, the flow in is much greater than the flow out. If you look at cities who are cracking down, you’ll notice a serious exodus. I’d say, odds are, the crime rate will drop too.
I don’t want victims of crime, no matter what their status might be, NOT to come forward. However, if you send the message that you aren’t going to tolerate law breaking (aka breaking in through the back door), the crime rate just might dip a bit.
Oh, and just a little correction for the MJS folks, it’s not ‘immigration’, it’s an ILLEGAL invasion.
