I tuned into catch the series premiere of ABC’s new Sci-Fi series “V” and was pleasantly surprised. Not only is the show well written and decently acted with a good amount of action and intrigue leaving the viewers wanting more. It is a not-so-thinly veiled critique of Barack Obama and the cult of personality that surrounds him.

One of the biggest points in the series premiere is made by the priest, Father Jack Landry is to not blindly trust the “Visitors” a group of more advanced aliens seeking seemingly peaceful refuge with us and our resources in exchange for technology.

The visitors come from no where. Their leader, Anna, like all the other visitors look like really attractive human beings. She promises peace to Earth’s leaders and assures the planet she is looking to leave it better than when they arrived. Sound familiar?

The parallels don’t end there and they get you thinking that they may not be on accident. The pilot makes it very clear that America is in turmoil that will sound amazingly similar to what we’re going through now: economic uncertainty, international unrest with terror. That’s right, the pilot uses the word “terror” unflinchingly and calls those who commit it “terrorists” with out apology. It’s sad when a television series has more balls than the acutal White House. Anna makes references to people wanting “change” throughout  the world. And in case all those parallels weren’t enough for you, one of Anna’s goals is to establish free “healing clinics” in every major city in the world. That’s right, even Chad Decker, the reporter interviewing her played by Scott Wolf doesn’t hesitate to ask Anna to confirm the analogy every conservative is thinking of, “you mean universal health care?” he asks. My remote and my jaw hit the ground collectively. I could not believe what I was seeing.

If these don’t do it for you, see the V’s reaction to negative press coverage. Anna begins an interview and let’s Scott know that anything that is used to paint her or the V’s in a negative light will not be tolerated.

To top it all off - the resistance to the V’s is painted by the media as intolerant and fringe. Liberal critics of the show have already made the parallels to the birthers and have cast V simply as a “What if the birthers were right?” But that’s dismissing the point of V too easily. It’s not the President’s place of birth I question, and it’s certainly not the color of his skin I’m uncomfortable with. The questions we have about President Obama have to do with his views of America, which seem to be painted by Elitist American academia and euro-elite criticism and are completely alien to many Americans across the country. The fact that Americans so easily embraced Obama was shocking to many of us - and “V” will shock you again with it’s bold criticism of Obama and the O cult.

In his weekly New York Times op-ed, columnist Frank Rich declares, “The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York.” Not that Rich would know how to even get to upstate New York, let alone anywhere in New York beyond the John F. Kennedy International Airport. Rich describes, in a manner which I can only describe as “shriek-y” ,the “battle” in upstate New York, the election to pick a new Representative in NY-23, that has officially “devolved” the GOP into a “wacky, paranoid cult that is as eager to eat its own as it is to destroy Obama.” We may “eat our own”, Mr. Rich, but we at the very least don’t kill our unborn babies, or praise people who have killed MILLIONS of full blown adults and children. Mr. Rich isn’t the only one proclaiming how un-mainstream conservatives are by New York, Los Angeles, or Washington standards, Ms. Valarie Jarrett, the President’s senior adviser and long time friend said the Republican leadership is becoming “more and more extreme, more and more marginalized” for supporting Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman over liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava. Meanwhile, while pimping his book about the 2008 Presidential election, former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe thinks Democrats should thank Sen. John McCain for picking former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate as she endorsed “ultra-conservative” Doug Hoffman for Congress over Scozzafava.

Ultra-conservative? Hoffman seems pretty mainstream for most Republicans: he’s a fiscal conservative supporting lower taxes and less spending in Washington, including no bail-outs or massive “stimulus” packages. He opposes forced Unionization that would be rendered under The Employee Free Choice Act (which would make ballots public in votes to unionize) and he opposes a Government-ran health care program and supports real medical reform to bring down costs and get people who want insurance but can’t afford it covered. If you asked your run of the mill Republican congressman his or her views on these issues they would likely agree with Doug Hoffman. Scozzafava, on the other hand, would have stood with the Democrats two of these three issues (she opposes ObamaCare, whatever that means at this point.) Based on poll after poll after poll I’m pretty sure, most Americans stand with Hoffman over Scozzafava on those issues as well. Conservatives aren’t radical, except for their desire to defeat people who tout failed programs from the 1960s and 1970s as the brand new vision that will cure all woes for people in our country.

Contrast your average “ultra-conservative” with people in our “mainstream” administration: Van Jones, former green jobs Czar who resigned when it was revealed he was proud Communist and signed a 9-11 Truther petition. White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who led the White House attack on Fox News, praised Mao Tse Tung in a speech she gave while working for the administration in June of this year. “Mao wasn’t all bad” you might say. Oh really? How many right-wingers out there do you see praising Hitler or Mussolini? Mao killed more people than either Hitler or Mussolini, not to mentioned the political prisoners and people being killed by the current Communist regime in China, a direct decedent of Mao. There is nothing to praise any of these men because their regimes were based on a rabid hatred of humanity. Or what about Science Czar John Holdren? In the book “Science: Population, Resources, Environment,” Holdren with co-authors Paul and Ann Ehrlich argue that forced sterilization of welfare recipients may be required to protect the earth in cases of extreme famine brought about by Climate Change. And these are the ones leaning to the right in the Obama administration!

Yes, this is your “mainstream” Democratic Obama White House. Meanwhile that “radical” Sarah Palin, who proposed and signed into law a windfall profits tax on oil companies and vetoed a bill that would have banned gays from receiving benefits for their partners in Alaska, is out there trying to get “fringe, ultra-right” conservatives elected to Congress. Yes that Palin, who has advocated radical, far right reforms for health care like tort reform and allowing consumers to purchase insurance across state lines to expand competition in the health care industry, she’s the one you can’t trust. Sebastian the Crab from the Little Mermaid has more credibility on the issues facing the American people than she does!

I hope those of you with Hopenchange fevah are holding on to something, because there is a storm brewing for Democrats in Congress and if Obama carries on the way he has, that storm is going to turn into a freaking hurricane.

As we wait in anticipation for the results of NY-23, hopefully in favor of Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in the race over DIABLO (Democrat in all but label only –Mark Steyn) Dede Scozzafava and Democrat Bill Owens, we need to ask ourselves a very important question: If we do run third party candidates, what is the end game?

In my opinion, Glenn Beck misses the mark here. Beck has advocated a third party uniting true conservatives and libertarians to defeat both liberal Republicans and Liberal Democrats. I think this is the path to suicide in most cases. We need to advocate conservative candidates, but we need to make sure they’re in the Republican Party.

Look at the effort that has gone into getting Doug Hoffman elected this year. He’s had the full support of most conservative blogs, the endorsements of high profile Republicans like Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson, Tim Pawlenty and Dick Armey, and talk radio all trumpting him as the path to success. Hoffman is the only sensible choice, but we need to recognize that someone like him should have been nominated by the GOP in the first place.

If Palin doesn’t win the 2012 nomination for the Presidency, there would be those who would advise her to run independently, this would be a huge mistake on her part as it would all but ensure the re-election of Barack Obama. She should stand behind the Republican nominee and do everything she can to get them elected.

The end game should be a conservative Republican Party, not a third party.

Well, Blue States and Austin, Texas. I’m sure there are Whole Foods locations in Red States too. But seriously, with droves of Libs now boycotting Whole Foods because of CEO John Mackey’s opposition to ObamaCare!

And what is not to love about Whole Foods? Yes, it’s got that dreary hippy thing going on, but most of the food is organic and if it isn’t certified organic, they do not use chemicals and pesticides in their products and their stuff is delicious!

And while they do support some wacko green stuff, including offsetting their emissions by purchasing carbon credits (a rip off and a contradiction, a license to pollute, basically.) They donate 5% of their profits to genuinely helping their community, which is something we can get behind.

And even if you can’t purchase your meat there (I sure as hell don’t.) Why not purchase things that cost the same like rice, pasta, sauces, canned soups, etc? The lefties are jumping ship because John Mackey didn’t follow the lib line on this one, I think we can help him out by getting what we can from Whole Foods.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said recently during a White House Press Briefing that President Obama was willing to be a one-term President if it meant passing Health Care Reform. Would the president be just as obliged to do so if it meant President Obama’s single term in office were cut in half? The fact of the matter is, 2012 isn’t the only election the President has to worry about, 2010 could be a doozy as well and if the President pushes the people hard enough, it could render him absolutely ineffective as there could be a GOP majority so large, it would be hard for the President to govern.

Why are the Republicans on capital hill accepting the premise that the GOP would be lucky to pick up seats in 2010? We should at least be setting out sights on a victory and if the Republican Party could get it’s head out of, >ahem<, the sand they’d see the American people are so fed up with this health care legislation that if they actually presented a plan we’d force the Democrats to plot on how to say the Republicans stole the 2010 election.

We need to go for the jugular in the House, force Nancy Pelosi to be served an eviction notice at the Speakers Office. This is going to require conservative candidates to get out there and utilize these fired up crowds (aka the “mob”) showing up the health care town hall meetings and getting passionate about winning in those districts. This means we don’t run watered down “I’m so sorry I’m a Republican” Republicans, we run conservatives. There’s no litmus test, one can be a moderate in certain areas where we’re not going to win with a deep red conservative. But in the areas where they ARE conservative they need to be passionate about it and they need to be with us. The perfect example of this is Rudy Guiliani. Rudy’s a moderate on issues I’m really passionate about (like Gun Rights and Abortion), however, where he is conservative on fiscal issues, national security, and crime, he’s passionate about it and a true believer. Rudy is also “with us”, he gets the conservative movement and sees himself as a participant in it. Getting conservatives on the ballot across our country is the key to victory.

In the Senate, the Cook Political Report notes of the 36 seats that are up for election 21 lean Democratic, are Toss Ups, or lean, are likey, or are safe for Republicans (and one they’ve listed is “likely Democratic” is Nevada, held by Sen. Harry Reid) Ladies and Gentleman, we need to be positioning ourselves for at least those 22 seats, with our eyes on more if we can get them. If we picked up those 22 seats, we’d be looking at a gain of six senate seats, cutting the Democrats majority down to 54 senators, and more than enough omf to enact a fillbuster if neccessary. With a strong majority in the House, It would put pressure on some of the more conservative Democrats in the senate to join forces with us and bring policy that would bring about real positive change. (I would love to see Carly Fiorina take our Barbara Boxer here in California, by the way! ;-))

We can render President Obama absolutely irrelevant, but it will take the Republicans being organized. It will take the Republicans not accepting the false premises of the left. It will take us engaging the American people, being honest and up front. Approaching minorities and other people who don’t typically vote Republican, not with pandering or condensation or competing with the Democrats with who can pass out the best hand outs, but with a message of hope of what conservatism can bring to them. We also need to get our base engaged and out of the slump we’ve been in the last two elections.

We need to have a message of undoing the damage the Obama Admin and the Democrats have been doing since they took power and we need to promise Americans that if they can give us a super majority, we’ll do our best to give them real relief. Then we need to own in. After the Republicans won massive majorities in 1994, the Clinton Administration claimed the work of the House GOP and Senate was theirs. We can’t let that happen again. We need to remind the American people that with out the supervision of the Republicans, President Obama is a tax and spend, far left wing liberal and he can not be trusted to have another Presidential term when he’s up for re-election in 2012.

So, how does two years of Obamirrelvence sound to you? We can make it happen.

At last week’s horribly boring and long winded Presidential press conference on health care, President Obama laid out a Matrix metaphor, citing that we could choose a red pill or blue pill, one signifying we do nothing about the state of the health care coverage in our country and the other that we buy into his massive, debt ridden, government bureaucrat system. While Congress will have to hear their constituents and make that decision, The numbers for President Obama also reveal a choice that has to be made by the President. The latest poll by Pew Research reveals President Obama’s approval rating has slipped 10 points since April to 54%, Gallup’s latest poll? It has the President at 53%. Pew and Gallup sample adults. It gets even worse when you sample “likely voters” as Scott Rassmussen does at Rassmussen Reports where the President has a 48% approval rating and a 51% disapporval.

In the last 33 years we have had 3 Democratic Presidents including President Obama. The other two were President Jimmy Carter and President Bill Clinton. While Libs love to fantasize about Obama being like JFK (who was popular while alive because he was much more conservative than FDR Democrats) and FDR, President Obama has alot more in common with Carter and Clinton. Carter was hailed by the media as one of the smartest Presidents we ever had, they couldn’t get enough of what they saw as a charming penut farmer from Georgia. Like Obama, Carter was deeply liberal. Like Obama, Carter rode a wave of the country’s desire to put a “dark period” of US History behind us: Vietnam and Watergate. Like Obama, Carter was incredibly popular early on in his Presidency and was seen as someone fresh. President Carter, like President Obama, believed this personal popularity would translate in being allowed to pass a long liberal wishlist that was unpopular with the general American electorate.

President Obama also has alot in common with the husband of his Secretary of State, President Bill Clinton. President Clinton, like Obama, is seen as someone with enormous political talent. Clinton, like Obama, had an ability to connect with voters many politicians typically forgot about. Like President Obama, President Clinton was seen as someone outside the political establishment and surprised everyone by his nomination to the presidency. Like Obama, Clinton had a sharply leftist Democratic congress tired of 12 years of conservative policies and ready to pass all of their deepest desires in a matter of months.

Both Clinton and Carter had their troubles. Carter’s presidency was a huge faliure. He was a man engulfed in crisis after crisis and an embarrasment on the international stage. His response to the crises was even worse. The energy crisis? President Carter threw on a sweater and encouraged Americans to turn the thermostat down in their homes. The Iran hostage crisis? Well we wouldn’t want to upset anyone in the world would we? Carter ended up loosing re-election in 1980 to President Ronald Reagan. Determined not to be another Carter, Clinton chose a different path. After a massive Republican victory in the 1994 mid term elections, spear headed by then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Clinton decided that he would move to the center on his domestic agenda and some would argue the center-right. Clinton’s biggest achievements as President of the United States? Welfare Reform, a Crime Bill, and cuts to capital gains taxes that would begin to spur the stock market. Clinton ended up winning re-election in 1996 over the hideously boring Sen. Bob Dole and despite the revelations of his affair with White House Intern Monica Lewinsky, Clinton ended his Presidency enormously popular. Clinton still had policies that were unpopular with the American people, which is what helped lead Texas Governor George W. Bush to victory in 2000, but he smartly tacked to the center to give Reagan Dems and Independents something they could chew on.

Like Congress and Health Care reform, President Obama has a choice. Will he be like President Carter or President Clinton? His poll numbers suggest that America isn’t liking his liberal policies, can he save his presidency? Only time will tell.

In the midst of all the speculation about why Palin stepped down, did any one ever think it’s why she said she stepped down? 

Palin said that her and her staff were spending 80% of their time fighting bogus ethics charges, and it was wasting the tax payers money. Would you want a Governor working 20% of the time and having them go waste your money on fighting ethics complaints against your office? I know I wouldn’t. It’s not a matter of Palin sucking it up, it’s a matter of functionality and tax payer dollars being spent on something that is unneccessary. 

Palin also happens to be the hottest ticket on the GOP side and can command large fees for speaking, with her speaking tour, her upcoming book, and a whole host of things, she can easily pay for all the ethics charges filed against her. Politically, there is no question this damages her, to people who don’t pay attention to politics it will look like she abandoned her job. But this will put her in a good position to campaign for like minded candidates in 2010 and if she is indeed putting the breaks on running for President for now, other candidates in 2012. 

This was not only the responsible thing to do because of time and money, but it could also turn out really well for Palin’s career if she plays her cards right.

According to Mike Murphy, A GOP Ice Age is upon us. Apparently, we’re not going to win because we’ve got to change. Murphy believes demographics, the fact that minority populations are growing is going to make us die. 

What bugs me about this is that Murphy is essentially buying into the bogus premise of this argument. Who says conservatism can’t appeal to minorities? Who says the GOP is monolith on the marriage issue? I would venture to say most minorities are conservative, and there are many opinions in the GOP. 

The real problem we face is a Republican Party with people like Murphy who feel the need to apologize for being Republicans and are ashamed of the conservatives in their party. There is no need to apologize for being Republicans, what’s needed is for Republicans to strike down the bogus premises established by the left. 

I know a person who every time we meet he brings up his belief that Ronald Reagan supported Apartheid. He knows I’m a huge Reagan fan, and so he makes sure I know that he thinks Reagan supported them. I asked him what on earth would make him think such a terrible thing. He said because Reagan did not support sanctions against South Africa, he supported apartheid. Reagan did not support sanctions on South Africa, and I think he was wrong there. But that does not mean he supported apartheid. In a speech outlining The US governments position on South Africa, Reagan said, “America’s view of apartheid has been, and remains, clear. Apartheid is morally wrong and politically unacceptable. The United States cannot maintain cordial relations with a government whose power rests upon the denial of rights to a majority of its people based on race. If South Africa wishes to belong to the family of Western nations, an end to apartheid is a precondition.” So, Reagan did not support sanctions because he believed sanctions would be harmful to people they were trying to help, and they would have been. Social unrest was rampant in South Africa, had there been economic unrest on top of that, there could have been mass bloodshed. 

This guy wasn’t making a policy argument, he was making an ideological argument. He believes what drives conservatism is racism. This is what they have preached to every minority group, every minority church. We are the boogey man, thanks to the absolutely false premises that the left has set up. 

The GOP needs to stop giving into these premises and they need to defend themselves. They need to go and talk to minority communities and tell them how conservatism can help them and every other American, the message is timeless and it appeals to everyone because it appeals to a key concept in the heart of every individual- freedom.

Margaret Thatcher. 

And she didn’t have a bad political run, did she? 11 years as Prime Minister, and she was forced out by a phony scandal, but her successor John Major and their party, the Conservatives, enjoyed another 7 years of power. A total of 18 years of successful conservative governance. The United Kingdom was much better off as they handed power over to Tony Blair and the Labour Party in 1997 and now that Britain is in such dire condition, they will likely loose power after 13 years. Labour was only really helped by Tony Blair’s personal likability amongst most rational people. Gordon Brown is just a disaster. 

Thatcher was never afraid to take on her critics, whether they be fellow leaders in the world or people in the media. Whenever there was a criticism of the Prime Minister, if she could, she would answer it and defend her actions. She also never accepted false premises put up by the media, which is what really annoys me about Republican politicians. Republicans almost coil in fear of the media, they accept the false premises of the questions the media hurls at them. 

I guess this is why I appreciate two of the most visible women in the Republican Party right now, Sarah Palin and Liz Cheney. I don’t think it hurts either of them to defend themselves against the wrath of the media. (IF Palin where to ever win the Presidency, I think Liz Cheney should be at the top of the list of people to be considered for her Chief of Staff. There are some who say it may be petty, but it’s important, because Republicans have allowed the media to get out of control. When outright lies and half truths are accepted as Gospel, it needs to be the responsibility of Republicans to stand up for the truth.

First, the president returns the bust of Winston Churchill to the Brits. Then, we gives a wimpy bow to the Queen and Michelle went right in for the handshake without a curtsey (the White House press office insisted she curtsied off camera). Presidents aren’t supposed to royalty, as they represent the sovereign of the United States, which is the People of the United States of America, but that wasn’t what raised eye brows (after all bowing to Queen Elizabeth is forgivable as the UK is one of our greatest allies), it was the fact that the president nearly kissed the floor when he met the King of Saudi Arabia. When you compare the two bows– it’s embarrassing. To add insult to injury the President’s gift to the Queen was an iPod loaded with his speeches (embarrassing for the White House– conservative blogs predicted the iPod has the President’s speeches on them)

The president also frequently incorrectly refers to the United Kingdom as “England”, it would be like Prime Minister Gordon Brown coming to the US and using Iowa and the United States interchangeably.  Either the President is confused or he seriously doesn’t know that England is only one country in The United Kingdom and there are three other countries in it– Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. 

Now, that brilliant Press Secretary of his, Robert Gibbs has delivered a scolding tirade against the media in the UK, mocking their news organizations. Why, might you ask? The mainstream media (namely The Times and The Daily Telegraph) in Britain is pro-Conservative Party and has been critical of the Obama Administration in these early days. The trashy tabloid press–which Mr. Gibbs is referring to and lumping ALL British media with–tends to pro-Labour. 

Nile Gardnier has an excellent write-up at the Telegraph on the whole situation, he is demanding that both the President and Mr. Gibbs apologize (or in the UK, apologise) I whole heartedly agree, and while the president is at it, maybe he can apologize to “England” for the horrible job he has done at practicing (or practising) diplomacy with out most important ally on the planet.

Why aren’t you supporting Marco Rubio over Charlie Crist for the senate? If this is about race and appealing to Hispanics and proving to Hispanics that we are not anti-Hispanic, Why are you supporting what we supposedly need to rid ourselves of: an old, white, white-haired man over we we supposedly need: a young, attractive minoirity?

The reason of course is the whole identity argument in politics is one big gigantic fraud. Liberals don’t care about race when it all comes down to it. They care about their agenda, part of their agenda is to coalesce minorities into one lock step voting bloc, and if a minority steps outside of that agenda they masacre them.

The irony of the arugment as put forth by people like Meghan McCain, Colin Powell, and David Frum is that women and minorities are usually amongst the most conservative in the Republican Party (and outside of it) look at Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, who’s looking to replace the moderate Kay Bailey Hutchinson in the senate. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is someone many people see as the potential leader of the conservative movement. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who might have been the first Hispanic nominated to the Supreme Court had there not been an all out race to assassinate his character. And who could forget what Justice Clarence Thomas called, “a virtual lynching” as he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President George H. W. Bush. Even many gay Republicans are usually conservative. Tammy Bruce and Al Rantel, both talk radio hosts on KABC are openly gay and Rantel is so conservative that he refused to vote for John McCain in the general presidential election (He’s out due to a hip-replacement right now, but I’m guessing . It was Palin who gave Bruce the confidence to vote for the ticket. Recently Meghan McCain’s beloved Log Cabin Republicans experienced a schism because a group of them felt the LCR became too liberal. They launched the conservative gay group GOPride.

Diversity in the GOP is found in the conservative movement, but we don’t flaunt it. I have argued in the past that in today’s climate it might do us some good to do so. But there is a reason we do not. Liberals argue that a metling pot is not ideal for society and that we should instead strive to live in a salad bowl. Their argument is we should celebrate eachother’s diversity and accept eachother’s differences. Sure. We should accept eachother’s physical differences and we should take pride in our different heritages. I do not think we should become a “salad bowl” though. In a salad bowl a piece of lettuce is still a piece of lettuce. A tomato is still a tomato. A green pepper is a green pepper. Take any of these components out of the bowl and it is what it is, it’s not longer a salad. We need to be a melting pot. If something is thrown into a melting pot it becomes apart of the mixture and if you pour the mixture out of the pot it is still what the mixture is.

America is a country not bound together by ethnicity but by ideals of freedom and liberty. This is why it is so important to oppose Crist, Obama, and Sotomayor becuase they do not understand the ideals of freedom and liberty though all three of them have clearly benefitted from them. It is why it is so vital we support Rubio, Williams, and Palin because the three of them DO understand liberty and freedom and what it is to be an American. They understand that if we stand for the principles that we were founded on, everyone benefits.

Ladies and Gentleman, I can now personally attest to the fact that the environmentalists are making the state of California absolutely unbareable to live in. My car registration was due in August of last year, I went and paid it and I was due for a smog. I took my car down to the smog station and when the guy opened my hood, he looked at me and said that if he ran the smog test, it would fail. I asked him if he could give me an explination and he said that because I have performance parts on my car, the car would fail visual. Now my performance parts were not “The Fast and the Furious” style illegal street parts, these were perfectly street legal parts. The guy doing the smog told me to go and take a closer look at the packaging and when I did, it said “legal in 48 states, excluding California and Alaska.” The big trouble was I inherited this car from my brother and these were his parts and I did not have the original ones. So between my brother and I, me in Orange County and my brother in Modesto, six hours away, we had to find all of the original parts to put in my car.

Meanwhile, because my tags were expired I was getting tickets left and right, I would walk up to my car to see cops writing tickets and I would have to go to them and beg them not to put the ticket on my car. I recieved one regular ticket and two parking tickets, one in Costa Mesa in OC and one in Modesto where my brother lives. I am a poor college student, so I went to the police station and asked what I could do to get the tickets reduced. The policeman kindly told me that if I got my updated tags, the police department would reduce the tickets to $10, he looked over the ticket and said there was no time limit, just to make sure I did it before August of this year.

We had finally found all of the parts in November and had put them on the car, I was literally two days from going to get my smog when my check engine light came on. A check engine light is an automatic fail in the state of California. I went to a mechanic I knew growing up in Modesto, and he ran the engine through a diagnostic and said while he couldn’t find anything wrong with my engine, he was dead sure turning off the light would just bring it back on again. He turned it off and sure enough on my way to OC it turned right back on. I took it to another mechanic down here and he said the same thing: my engine was fine and the check engine was coming on inexplicably. He turned it off and later that evening, it turned right back on again.

So, I drove around for FIVE MONTHS with expired tags, tickets on hand explaining to the cops that stopped me that this was in process and I’d get it done as soon as I could figure out what was going on. I had all of my mechanical friends take a look at my car and they couldn’t figure it out one of my friends familiar with the smog process took a look at it and said it should pass smog, no problems. Finally when one of my headlights when out, I happened to be in Santa Rosa visiting my parents with my brother who was visiting them at the same time. We opened the hood and my brother had a revelation. The headlight that needed to be replaced sat in front of the battery and the battery had to be removed in order for us to replace the headlight. My brother said removing the battery should reset the check engine light. Sure enough, we removed the battery and the check engine light disappeared and has not come on since.

My Dad took me to get my smog and it seemed this was finally over! When I went intio the DMV to get my smog check done, the lady at the counter informed me that I had to pay $325 in unpaid parking tickets. I told her what the police had told me and she said that was fine, but she could not give me my tags until my parking tickets were paid in full.

So now I’m in the process of working that out with the police, but I have a feeling I’m going to have to pay that $325 before I get my tags. 10 months after I paid my registration and I have still not gotten them because of the ridiculous environmental standards that have been placed on us here in California by the Green Gestapo and an incompentent bloated beauracracy!

Good branding goes beyond just having a nice logo or website. But it’d defintely a step in the right direction.

It looks really good. Simple. To the point. I’m not crazy about us advertising proudly that we’re the “Grand Ol’ Party”, but it’s pretty darn good.

What I would say to Chairman Steele is that the Republican Party needs to look at their core principles and give people a clear vision of what the Republican Party Stands for.

I must admit, I am a recent Trekkie convert (and I know Star Trek’s legions of fans would say this is blasphemy because I like Stark Trek now because of the new movie.), but this whole business about Obama being Spock is really ridiculous. This has become the left’s new favorite hobby and learn to love it because it’s going to happen every time a new movie featuring a classic Americana creation comes about. If it’s an American creation and it’s good, it must have some connection to Barack Obama. Hell, scratch just American creations, don’t be surprised if we start hearing Obama’s Harry Potter in a few weeks time.

From what I have learned from Spock in just my five days of being a Trekkie, he is calm, cool, and collected as Obama’s public face suggests and the left’s idea of how Obama is. Spock, however, seems to be the anomoly in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek Universe. According to Roddenberry, In the 23rd Cenutry, man has embraced socialism and all the other values the left holds near and dear to their hears–diversity, equality of income, etc. and the world’s a better place for it, dammit. Captain James T. Kirk epitomizes humans of the 23rd century. Kirk is pure Id and pure Super-ego, taking the best parts, according to liberals, of each and running with it.

Spock is, as his father describes him in Star Trek a “child of both worlds.” While he defintely has a human side the feels empathy and compassion, he is prone to do what is logical because of his rearing on the planet Vulcan. It seems to me, based on his past, oh 125 days or so, Obama runs from what is logical into “what feels right.” He’s closing Gitmo on the basis that the Europeans don’t like it and it feels good to do so . He’s passed a massive stimulus bill which wasn’t really about stimulus and more about helping leftist groups that felt shafted over the last 30 years or so. He’s gone to Europe to apologize to everyone’s who’s feelings were hurt.

A more accurate Star Trek character to link Obama to would be Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation, while Picard is a brave man in the series and is known to make some wise decisions (just like Obama has made some wise decisions, The Afghanistan Surge for example), he comes off as very preachy, and the subject of his sermons are mostly leftist ideas. But if we’re really going to be honest, Obama is more Jedi than Starfleet.

Mr. Roddenberry, based on the leftist ideas promoted on the various Star Trek series,  would have surely praised the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, but Mr. Obama is no Mr. Spock. Not by a long shot. Spock lives by logic, Obama lives by feelings.

Gen. Colin Powell suggested last week that the Republican party moderate in an attempt to expand our tent and attract more voters? To this I say, we have tried this Mr. Powell and the American people hated it. In the midst of an economic crisis the media insists was created by the deregulation and tax relief provided by the Bush administration (which is completely false), we forget the reason the American people threw the Republicans out of office in droves in 2006 in the first place. The first, of course, was the war. The American people were tired of hearing about climbing death tolls and it didn’t help that we had the Democratic leadership and the media, sans Fox News, openly advocating and cheerleading American defeat for their political benefit. The second reason the GOP got it’s proverbial ass kicked in 2006 was because of their out of control spending and both sides of the immigration reform debate. Yes, believe it or not there was a time when Nancy Pelosi spoke of the importance of fiscal responsibility. My how times change. The truth is the GOP has been on a downhill spiral after the  since 1996 and it’s because we abandoned Conservative Principles. We have not had success since 1994 and we have not had golden days since the 1980s.

In 1994 Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich lead Republicans to a massive victory and take over of Congress, Speaker Gingrich picked up 54 seats for the Republican Party, to put this in perspective Speaker Nancy Pelosi picked up 31 seats in the 2006 election, which was considered a massive victory for the Democrats. As the new class of Republican Congressmen took office in 1995 and began work on bringing forth the Contract With America, with President Clinton’s numbers weak and an energized conservative base, there was nothing stopping another conservative candidate from winning in 1996. This did not happen.

In 1996, we ran snooze-fest Sen. Bob Dole of Nebraska. You know you’re in trouble when you’re so old you’re telling people you can be a bridge to the good ol’ times they remembered as kids….. in the 1930s. This lead to Clinton telling people that while Dole was a bridge to the past, he was the bridge to the new millennium. Dole, a typical moderate, didn’t really stand for much, wasn’t too hot on launching any sort of substantive critique on Clinton’s policies. With a dispirited conservative base, Clinton won re-election easily in 1996 and the Republicans lost seats in the House and picked up a measly 2 seats in the senate. It was a similar story in 1998, we lost 5 seats in the House and neither picked up or lost seats in the senate. We had Clinton and The RINOs to blame for trying to destroy the career of Newt Gingrich.

In 2000, we ran a candidate who talked like a conservative. George W. Bush convinced people he was the best of their conservative values, and the best of Bill Clinton as well. A “compassionate” conservative, he believed both in tax cuts as well as an expansion of federal education programs and prescription drug benefits. We were all so desperate to find a candidate with any kind of charisma to help us win. We barely won the electoral vote in the Presidential election, lost the popular vote, lost seats in the House, and lost four seats in the senate.

Things changed briefly in 2002 and 2004. With the nation still reeling from 9/11 and wanting robust national security, and with Bush still talking like a conservative he was able to bring the Republicans House and Senate wins in 2002. We picked up 2 senate seats, regaining the majority in the senate, and 8 House seats. In 2004, Bush won reelection, this time with the majority of the popular vote, a gain of four Republican seats in the senate and three seats in the House. This was not terribly difficult considering the Democrats ran their worst candidate in years, Sen. John Kerry.

During their time in power, Republicans passed massive budgets, passed the largest entitlement package in our history since The Great Society, the senior citizens prescription drug benefit program. The party that once called for the end of the Department of Education passed the No Child Left Behind Act, which expanded the federal government’s role in education to unprecedented levels. Then came the advocation of Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill of 2006 and Americans had enough. It was a toxic cocktail mind you, the conservative base hated the idea and the media made out like the conservative base were racists against Hispanics. This ruined any gains the GOP made with the Hispanic vote in 2004. There is of course a happy median. Conservatives want the borders secure and laws enforced, the first people that would be hurt by a comprehensive immigration reform scheme are law abiding Hispanic immigrants. Americans were tired of the Republican Party, and who can blame them?

In 2008, until Fred Thompson joined the race for the Republican Presidential nomination, it was “pick your poison,” we had a group of moderates. One acceptable moderate, Rudy Guiliani didn’t seem to care about any state except Florida. A man who talked like a conservative, Mike Huckabee’s populist past was coming back to haunt him. The thought of Mitt Romney trying to take the mantle of Reagan was almost laughable because of his convenient election year conversions on key conservative issues and his RomneyCare Health Care system in Massachusettes which was failing as bad as anyone who knows anything about Universal Health Care might expect. The lone real conservative, Fred Thompson, just didn’t seem to care. It was the devil Repupublicans knew, John McCain, vs. the devil they didn’t know. And they chose the ultimate moderate and the rest is history. We took our biggest blow since 1964.

With all due respect to Mr. Powell, I think we’ve tried the moderate track for quite a while and it has not worked. What we need to do is go back to that blue print of winning land slide election. We need to talk about core principles and we should not be afraid to challenge President Obama on key issues that would change our country forever. We need to go back to less government, not more. Less interference in our lives, not more. We need to be the party of fiscal responsibility, national security, energy indepenence. We need to the be a party that inspires people, that sees the potential in every individual and wants America to succeed. At the risk of offending Gov. Jeb Bush, we need to be the party of Reagan once more. Until the Republican Party gets that, expect the downhill spiral to continue and get worse and worse.

I recently watched the series of interviews Larry King did with the ladies of “The View” and at least twice Larry brought up Bristol Palin and her becoming a spokesperson for The Candie’s Foundation, a non-profit organization aimed at preventing teen pregnancy. Larry brought up the question the left has been buzzing about since it was announced Bristol was doing this, “What right does she have to talk about abstinance when she wasn’t abstinant.”

Does the left realize they sound like a pathetic teenager. This sounds like, “You got drunk in high school Dad! So that gives me the right to get drunk in High School as well.” Memo to the Left: Just because someone makes a mistake doesn’t mean you push them over the cliff. I thought it was conservatives who were the ones who were supposed to be sowing scarlet letters onto people’s chests and make them never forget what they did.

This reveals an immaturity on The Left. “Don’t tell me what to do, man. You’ve made your mistakes, let me make mine!” Bristol Palin is OBVIOUSLY a wrong spokesperson for this, I mean she can’t possibly understand the gravity of the situation of teen pregnancy, I mean it’s not like she’s been through it or anything. It’s stuff like this that makes me want to throw my TV out the window.

A new poll from McClatchy shows Gov. Sarah Palin’s approval rating is now at 54% this is down from nearly 90% before she was chosen as John McCain’s running mate. I am sure there are good conservatives up there in Alaska who support her and stand by her, but the effort needs to become more organized.

If Gov. Palin looses re-election in 2010, her chances of going any further in politics–either to the senate or to The White House–will be severely hampered. The fact is, we need Gov. Palin on the national stage, she is one of the most effective voices for conservatism and one of the people who has the ability to lead us back to victory.

What can be done? What can those of us in the Lower 48 do for Gov. Palin aside from donating to her re-election campaign? (Which, we’ll undoubtadley do) Is there any Democrat who poses a threat to her re-election chances?

If we’re going to be successful we’ve got to be more organized and stand up against the hit jobs taken against our best people.

I’m not the biggest fan of Michael Savage who currently hosts the third most popular talk radio show in the United States. He lost me when he went on about how dyslexia is fake and how people with dyslexia are just stupid. I have a mother, grandmother, brother and a sister with dyslexia and I can assure Mr. Savage that they are not stupid and really do have a different way of thinking.

That being said, it really amuses me that Labour has sat back while radical muslims have invaded their country and even welcomed them with open arms but bans an American shock jock because of his controversial views. While not all muslims who have entered the UK are radical, there are many radical clerics that spew all sorts of hateful things toward the west. I don’t see the Labour government running into their mosques and deporting them.

The truth is, the Labour government has put the UK (as in The United Kingdom, which includes England, but is not equal to England, Mr. President) into a bit of a bind. Massive, uncontrolled immigration, loads of spending (Gordon Brown makes Barack Obama look like Barry Goldwater), a health service falling to pieces, other public services falling to pieces and an inadequite conservative government waiting in the wings with no Maggie Thatcher in sight.

Maybe it’s better for Michael Savage that he’s not allowed there.

The Politico has a story out today quoting Republican strategists who all say the GOP would rather just “ignore Palin.” Mike Murphy, long time friend and adviser to John McCain said, “She’s bigger in the media than in reality. Palin is the only Republican politician right now who is interesting, a little different, connected to the last campaign and related to an occasional story in the National Enquirer.” He also said that the GOP would rather just ignore Palin, but the media won’t let them.

I wonder if Mr. Murphy realizes that it is us that won’t let him and other Republicans forget about Sarah Palin. She is the only reason his friend didn’t get “Goldwatered” against Barack Obama in 2008. She energized the conservative base, she jeopardized her own political career and brand to help John McCain get elected and she nearly succeeded where it not for the economic meltdown of 2008 and the media’s constant underminding of her credibility.

Mitt Romney also made a pass at Palin. When discussing why there weren’t more Republicans on Time’s 100 Most Influencial People, which Palin made and Romney did not, He quipped, “I think there are a lot more influential Republicans than that would suggest, but was that the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people?” he continued. “I’m not sure. If it’s the most beautiful, I understand. We’re not real cute.”

Oh, Mitt’s back to his dirty old tricks again. Mittens better be careful, the conservative base only got behind him because he was the only second-tier conservative in the 2008 Presidential race, no one was real enthusaistic about his candidacy, but most conservatives were thrilled as hell over Palin. Mitt should save the sanctimony for all of his liberal friends he threw under the bus to run for President in 2008. As you can tell, I’m not as big a Mitt fan as some people here are (though I’m alright with him.) If he attacks Palin the way the left did he can be sure, there will be conservatives running ads of him declaring he will be more gay friendly than Ted Kennedy, we’ll play ads running statisitcs of RomneyCare, we’ll show the clips of him flip-flopping on abortion. We’ll make it extremely difficult for him to ever win the Republican nomination and if he’s really ugly to Palin, we’ll make it hard for whomever the nominee is to pick him for VP.

From the sounds of it, the attacks on Palin by both the left and the GOP are very similar to the attacks on Reagan in the late 1970s, just watch all these assholes become her greatest boosters if she turns out to be one hell of a good Presidential candidate and wins the nomination in 2012. All I know is this, when 55% of the Republican Party wants it to be more like Palin, dissing her left and right may not be a good idea.

Memo to the GOP: Ignore Palin and people like her, and we’ll ignore you, and you’ll keep loosing.

Yes, I too was dismayed by the news that Justice Souter is throwing in the towel (not because I’m a Souter fan, but I’m absolutely frightened by the prospects of whom Obama could pick), but after thinking about it for a while, might Obama nominating a Supreme Court Justice be a good thing?

The chance to nominate a justice is the presidents chance to leave his or her lasting mark on the court. Especially in the most modern of times, Presidents have usually put someone on the court who reflects their deepest held convictions. There are exceptions: H. W. picking Souter, Reagan picking Kennedy, but overall it’s generally true.

Think of how radical Obama’s Supreme court nominee could be. I mean how moderate could Obama possibly go in the judicial wing of today’s Democratic party? The most “center of the road” he could go is Hillary Clinton and it’s not so much that she’s a real big moderate more than it is people are used to how radical she is and how she would be. Obama’s going to appoint a foaming at the mouth leftist and it’s going to give people an idea of how radical he actually is.

Hopefully whomever the President elects will remind people never to vote for a far left winger ever again.