It was a little over 4 hour drive one way today and the sacrifice of an Easter Sunday. I took my little Flip HD video camera and started filming clips for a video commentary that will eventually merge footage from Huntsville and Washington D.C. TEA Events.

A search this evening after returning home found some very positive reportage on the event and by extension, the movement. Great job by WAAY TV ABC Huntsville on an angle rarely presented by the main-stream media, local or national.

http://www.waaytv.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=4675902&at1=News&h1=HSV Tea Party&flvUri=&partnerclipid=

I know that there is a better way to do this and I apologize for the amateurish attempt, but watch that link and you’ll see a way to combat the bad PR these events seem to get, that is when it’s not non-existent. We’ve got the most positive message to present, share it when you see it.

Let’s combat the misconceptions presented by the left by actually attending TEA Events and presenting first-hand accounts. Nothing speaks with the authority of real experience against the vile anti-TEA platitudes.

Common goals of the social species.

The bee

I’ve wondered (or maybe I’ve been “amazed” would be a better choice of words) about the selflessness found in the insect world. Specifically the colonized species, such as bees, ants, and termites which are organized to such a point of efficiency that individuality and pursuit of personal gain have been totally eradicated from their societies.

One would be hard pressed to locate the honeybee’s peer when it comes to team effort. The female worker bee especially, will demonstrate the worthiness to receive the insect equivalent of The Medal of Honor if it existed, if called upon to defend the hive. And with her ultimate weapon, her stinger, she will, in here small way. Of course the award would be posthumous, as the delivery of that stinger, her one and only strike for the team, would be punctuated with her entrails dragged from her abdomen as she unceremoniously expires without knowledge of her impact on the bettering of the colony, if any. But the queen must be saved, at any personal cost.

As an outside observer, we may see that a foe of the hive was warded off and revel in her sacrifice. Or we could watch an invading animal destroy the hive and enjoy its fruit, the worker’s life wasted in vain, though we have no doubt of her commitment. With tens of thousands of loyal subjects available to inject an infinitely variable level of discomfort into the life of an invader, the simplicity of the death of any member(s) of the bee society is probably a great failsafe position if there is no regard for the individual. If it takes the sting of only one bee, that would be great. If it takes 100, fine. Whatever the cost, great or small, the rest of the hive is unaffected and for that matter, uncaring. What do you expect, they’re just insects.

When the enemy is from within, a new queen is reared; the hive splits and half of it will abscond to start a new colony the other half of the population loyal to the old queen stays and the society is at peace, in twain, but not warring, just the same. Such are the politics of the honeybee.

The suicide bomber

I’ve observed the honeybee correlation in the Islamic extremist suicide bombers and their last defiant acts, though I’m sure not as close of an observation as the bombers might wish. So viscerally enraged or indoctrinated on their perceived enemy is the Islamic extremist that they will self-destruct to inflict maximum damage with no prospect of enjoying the fruits of the battle or even seeing the betterment of his/her world. Like the female worker honeybee, by either conditioning or natural selection, the bomber seems to have lost the sense of individual self preservation and will pay the ultimate price to “further” the cause. Having little known pleasures in life, the joy of knowing that his enemy may suffer seems to be of sufficient exchange. When the bombing is unsuccessful in yielding enemy losses, the futility of the act is at least amusing to us. There is always entertainment value.

The extremist bomber may not be the best possible comparative example since contrary to the “motives” of the worker bee, the terrorist’s fervor in his mission may be confused for the bee’s apparent sincere altruism, as well as an overwhelming allegiance to a monarchy. But the Islamic extremist does seem to share the honeybee’s willingness to self-destruct, even with the full knowledge of the likely unheralded outcome. We know the bee does this instinctively; the bomber has justified his actions with reason. Or is that a proper definition?

The liberal

A better human analogy to an insect society is one that may be easily observed by Americans right in Washington, D.C. and everywhere across America. The most important elements of the hierarchy are in place: the perceived enemy, mindless rote, the monarchy, and the more human purpose of denying conservatives their earned rewards or any other joy in life whatsoever. That species is of course, the liberal, recently observed throwing its collective body on the grenade known as the Health Bill. This sacrifice is not so much to save or enrich society but in an effort to save the ‘King,’ namely, Obama. A desirable bonus would be impoverishing conservatives as much as possible through taxation. Any resemblance this may have to saving society is unexpected and I’m sure, unintended.

The best description of liberal instinctive action is already termed “the nuclear option.” The very appropriate term denotes a total disregard for the survival of society; tradition; the rule of law; or for that matter, the planet; unless of course, the liberals are in control of what remains. The liberal is also unconcerned with defecating in his own mess kit or the long-term prospects of his own personal station, political position, tenure, or the survival of his machismo. Whereas the Islamic extremist would be unaware of his failure or success, the liberal will at least physically survive his/her political kamikaze mission. The Islamic extremist knows nothing beyond the last moments in the imagined vision of success and his “important” contribution. This self-aggrandizing mental picture may exist in the mind of the bomber, despite the fact that even he has forgotten the name of the last bomber.

The liberal, undaunted by the fear of becoming the object of a “Fail” demotivational poster or the prospect of observing the survivors of their ilk, if any, subservient to the victorious opposition, pushes on without regard that the majority of the entire “hive” is screaming for their opposition to win. Even many on the home-team are stomping its bleachers and unfaithfully reciting the cheers of the “away” team’s cheerleaders. The liberal solemnly fights its righteous battle confident that hundreds of millions could not possibly grasp what the intellect of hundreds of liberals does. Surely their sacrifice will be as sanctified as that of the signers of The Constitution.

If  the liberals do prevail they will be removed for succeeding, because achieving their goal does not promote the health of the society as it will eventually be discovered. If they don’t prevail their countrymen will remove them for trying anyway. The liberal’s don’t consider their effort traitorous, as the liberal instinctively fights against individualism and socialized medicine doesn’t betray that instinct and nor has there been an effort to hide that fact.

The liberal’s mission, like that of the termite, is that of the demise of the host even though it is the demise of the liberal’s home and sustenance. It is not a reasoned action, it is quite intuitive, yet a trait that is not highly regarded in perpetuating a species outside of termites especially if the infestation is in the last wooden structure. However, a non-responsive conservative is a traitor even in the eyes of the liberal, as he has chosen the mission of self preservation and is bound to defend the individual. That defense is the liberal’s foe.

The conservative

The conservative has a difficult task and must fight a foe that looks, smells, travels, resides and communicates just as the conservative does. The conservative needn’t waste time on watch at the border or on self-flagellation. The enemy did not infiltrate, the enemy has always been here. You see, the conservatives built a country around the liberals and now, the liberals are building a country inside of the conservatives. It isn’t a matter that is rationalized nor reasoned. It is instinctive. If the least efforts of the conservative fall below the best efforts of the liberal, the USA will become controlled by liberals and the gift of individual liberty that allowed the liberal to rise to power will be eradicated forever. Individualism is the enemy of liberalism and will never be allowed to germinate again. Without freedom it never will.

The difference between the hive and the US is, as Ronald Reagan so eloquently spoke in his 1964 speech, “A Time for Choosing,” repeating the words of a Cuban refugee “How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to.” For the bees, there is always another hollow tree or a barn wall to start a new nation. The new queen, with her loyal following would once again enjoy their society, conveniently, and in numbers that are just right. For over 200 years America has been the World’s hollow tree, and the world has found comfort with its existence. What of a World devoid of a place that Reagan called a “last stand?” Where WILL man escape to then?

It is the curse of the conservative to maintain the vigil on behalf of protecting this last stand against the efforts of the liberal. The liberal, as the termite, have their instinctive duty to tear down what man has built. Neither foe will sleep and dozing by those on watch will be “rewarded” with an adversary who’s lines have advanced even closer, sometimes imperceptibly so.

The weapon of the conservative is not one of reason, how does one reason with the termite who knows only to devour. The liberal takes no individual responsibility so as a member of a committee he is absolved of individual blame. How would one admonish the behavior of someone who had no regard for his own career and whose mission is to foul his own “house?”

Unlike insects our foe is not eradicated but his tools can be and obstruction and grid lock are the kryptonite against the proliferation of those tools. Progression is as much the life purpose of the left as procreation. Progression marked by an ever-increasing bond of law, the multiplying of length and number of legal chains that eventually grow to be the Unified Theory of the Collective. A straight jacket of regulation that stifles adventure and pioneerism and leaves in its place a kept population, deflated and controlled as much by the concepts of animal husbandry as by law. Eventually the human spirit is constricted by regulation and any spark of the hope of its rebirth is quenched.

This is it folks. This is for all of the marbles. This is Earth’s last stand for freedom and the American conservative is Earth’s team. Man can go anywhere if he wishes to be kept, bred, and arranged in neat little warehouses, but America is the last place where man can feel the exhilaration of risk and reward or failure. 20% then 30% then 60% government share of the GDP and then all of the private sector combined will be totally powerless and the Socialists will have conquered the last frontier and that my friends will be the death of liberty. For what will we strive then?

D.C. is giddy as it argues over the division of the spoils of controlling 1/5th of the U.S. GDP and to whom and to what extent the people of the U.S. be allowed to utilize and be “asked to contribute” to national health care. I search my memory for the original cries of the electorate for the state to place its steady and benevolent hand upon the helm and once again “save us from ourselves.”

As the discussion of national health care progresses, details have been escaping the legal labyrinth that is now under construction in Congress. As these little scraps wriggle free of the lobbyists and staffers on Capital Hill we are afforded the opportunity to critique and question their true purpose.

Since we live in a Democratic Republic this health care bill must be the answer to requests of the people of our nation to their representatives. So who asked for the denial of care for the elderly at a time when they need it the most? Who complained that the American lifespan was too long? Who asked that our discretionary incomes be reduced? Was there a concern for the loss of votes from an out-crying of illegal aliens? Does 84% of Americans that are happy with their health care compare unfavorably with other countries?

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I just wanted to help bring to the forefront of public awareness the currently resurfaced con game that preys on the most vulnerable among us, the elderly. As is usual in these cons, the arbitrary promised reward, normally inconsequential, in this case just happens to be the ever-elusive “affordable health care” and through slight of hand the victim is somehow convinced to endorse the signing away of their own life-sustaining decisions to others.

The scheme has no official name as yet, but the basic rundown is as follows: under duress, the citizens of the USA “contribute” toward a “protection plan” throughout their productive earning life. In return, the “plan” has incentive to maintain the contributor to be a reliable and steady revenue stream to the plan during the healthy “low maintenance” earning years when the offspring of citizens are in need of intense care, understandably an obligation with which the promoters of the “plan” wish to avoid involvement where possible.

This con is a variation of the infamous Ponzi scheme, which everyone is familiar, but this time with a twist. Instead of relying on humanity’s natural greed to attract and retain participants, this version has a turbo recruitment feature: namely the forced enrollment and enforcement by an armed and powerful government. The avoidance of fines and imprisonment is a time-proven incentive, and totally alleviates advertising and sales commission expense, a large and wasteful portion of most schemes. For further cost savings, there is a unique exit feature that make large claims by citizens after a lifetime of contributions fruitless and therefore removes much of the nearly one-half of American healthcare expenditures. The ultimate crowning glory will be the total cessation of the private marketplace and therefore any competitor to “The Plan.”

In the out years beyond earning/paying and when children (new recruits) are then fully contributing, the plan “takes care of” the retirees that may have catastrophic health care needs. The plan is compassionate and recognizes that there “may” be very valuable seniors that require extra care and deserve it for their valuable service to society, if requested within a reasonable age limit of course. Provisions will be in place to determine the appropriateness of treatment and the recipients of such treatment. Of course, there will be ambiguous rules to fairly make any denials, so when there are those that have been more troublesome requiring care, they will be allowed to make a dignified (and quiet and pain-free) exit without  unpleasant, expensive, and extended goodbyes, efficiently conserving resources for the more deserving: favorite statesmen, majority party members and leaders. Remarkably, scam promoters are proclaiming that victims prefer to give up control and are totally comfortable with taking one for the team in the twilight of life.

Forewarned is forearmed, this is spreading like a virus right now and be assured that there are those that are scheming to tap that vast resource representing 1/5 of the US GDP. The last time this was tried was in 1993 and it failed. Today there are even fewer willing participants than then, but today there is a single party majority of 537 bureaucrats hell-bent on seeing this enacted.

Beware, “The Repackaging of HillaryCare.”  We’re gonna party likes it’s 1993!

After forty years of smoking cigarettes and cigars; chewing and dipping, quitting for days, weeks or months every few years but always picking the habit back up; I’ve finally found the weapon that even my deeply entrenched habit cannot withstand: anger.

Going on about a week now, and no tobacco. The chewing gum, patch, and the packages for every other crutch available to the nicotine addict litters my lavatory drawer – ALL ineffective. My most recent quitting aid was recommended by our new President: the tobacco tax increase and its resultant negative emotion: disgust. Couple that with GA’s $.37/pack, the federal tax increase brings the total tax to nearly $1.55/pack with sales tax (which compounds on top of the other tobacco taxes,) how nice. I know you Northerners classify any cig tax under $2/pack as lightweight, but that’s big in the South, where SC is still running 7c/pack for now.

The elation over the ever-improving smell in my pickup truck, house, and office; the slow whitening of my teeth that is sure to please my dental hygienist; and my wife’s (an RN) and my physician’s accolades will pale as positive recognition compared to my personal satisfaction of finally controlling some portion of my tax liability. There is so little I can do to control the impending energy taxes, carbon offsets and other eco guilt-trips that have and will be laid upon us as necessary atonement for our “monstrous” Capitalist appetite. Curly light bulbs can offer only a temporary reprieve before they will be determined to just not be enough and an insatiable taxetite will growl for more. But as for those tobacco taxes? THAT, I can control.

I now know how a high-school dropout must feel when buying Georgia lottery tickets, the proceeds of which enriches some college kids’ lives as it impoverishes the already poor lottery player’s life even further. Now, the extra federal tobacco tax funds the health insurance of other families, some of which with greater incomes than my own, and my family pays it’s own health insurance, thank you.

Tobacco has been cast as the scourge of mankind. Heroin addicts, alcoholics, and even career criminals are all considered victims, but not the smoker. The smoker is made to weather any condition to smoke in a designated area, no matter how remote or inhospitable. Smokers are to bear any financial burden for their addiction and endure any amount of ridicule to sneak a puff. Smokers have no feelings and are even considered bums by actual non-smoking bums. Smokers are the politically correct “can” that can be kicked around by anyone. Yes, anyone! The product of decades of conditioning, the reduced self-esteem of the “common” smoker is now at a level formerly occupied by only lice and dysentery.

Well sir, there is a level to which even this ardent puffer will not stoop, and it has been reached. I have little affect on the disbursement of tax monies, beyond what conservation alone may save through reduced consumption. But when our President defines so precisely the use of revenue derived from a tariff on a specific item of joy, we may make the outright moral determination as to whether or not we wish to impoverish the life of our own family while directly enriching the family of another, I say thanks Obama. Thanks for the easy decision, and thanks for the line-item veto.

Though the price alone would not have itself been great enough to push me over the edge and quit my filthy habit, the choice of funding a Socialist agenda through the exploitation of the frailties of my countrymen does so disgust me by its pure diabolical meanness, that I’m moved to deny this administration the satisfaction of using me in the fulfillment of that goal. And thanks also President Obama, for the creation of an even lower life form than smoker, namely, human livestock, with its collective snout in the feed trough, shedding what little may be left of American pride, individualism, and liberty. The new administration is gearing up to efficiently transport, feed, house, and care for even greater numbers of plebes into the new national army of proletariats yearning over generations for a chance to perform a useful purpose.

I know that my individual statement of abstinence is of little consequence beyond my personal relishing of victory over a pact with the Devil. But if through large numbers of objections, a measurable reduction in revenue were felt, would it be an “unpatriotic” thing as Joe Biden has said or would it expose a government hell-bent on controlling its flock’s behavior with oppressive taxation on tobacco, alcohol, French fries, soft drinks, or cholesterol content.

The general health of the herd would dictate that government would, of course, have to control the habits and activities of its population so get ready for more and more action already evidenced by government removal of soft drink machines from schools; the removal of animal fat and all flavor from deep frying; or criminalizing the use of saturated and hydrolyzed fats in NYC.

Don’t be alarmed when at some future date that a nearly immeasurable mortality decline will be discovered due to chocolate consumption. It will be deemed useful for the State to place chocolate on the tax hit list because of the obvious high cost in maintaining a government-sustaining population with the expense of such an extravagant habit. You see, government can be sustained more efficiently if the wasteful expenditures devoted purely to the joy of the workers are kept at a minimum or even better, banned, so that a better revenue/calorie ratio may be achieved. A happier government will be the product of such minor sacrifices. A result that I’m sure we would all be proud of.

Oh, and don’t be alarmed if I don’t “remember” to be outraged at the State for poopooing your chocolate habit. I can think of few things better than removing one more tie-staining weapon from a child’s grubby little fingers and turning it into a revenue generator for the State. I know you don’t smoke, but it would serve you right since you have said nothing as the government incrementally removes all of the joy from a cigar and brandy.

So, to go along with that new chocolate tax, what do you think about examining the carbon footprint of that obnoxious little dog of yours more closely? Hmmmmm?

I am in receipt of a copy of Georgia’s Senate Bill 12, which I have read in its entirety. The bill’s intent is to serialize each and every bullet and casing that is used in handguns that are concealable. Many states are looking at laws similar to this but my commentary here is specific to the bill introduced by Georgia’s very own State Senator, Ronald Ramsey(D) of Dekalb and Rockdale Counties. I have already forwarded letters to my own State Senator, Cecil Staten(R) and Legislator, Tony Sellier(R.) There is much to digest in this type of backdoor registration of firearms, and the following is to the best of my ability, the exercision of superhuman restraint in presenting what I think is the most unemotional and practical aspects of my feelings on such legislation.

As a lawful gun owner and Georgia Firearm License holder I am vigilant in maintaining my compliance with the law as it relates to the lawful use and ownership of firearms and ammunition. I see this proposed bill as an unnecessary imposition on lawful Georgia gun owners and see little if any benefit to law enforcement and the apprehension of criminals and the criminal use of firearms.

I’m sure that lawful gun owners will begrudgeonly comply with such a law if enacted, but the law is a lopsided and unreimbursed burden on lawful citizens who are the most unlikely to contribute to the perceived problem that this legislation is targeted to solve. What is created is the real possibility of making an unwitting criminal out of the bedrock of Georgian society due to the fact that the very possession of an unserialized cartridge places the thousands of permitted concealed weapon licensees at jeopardy of a criminal record with a gun law violation, an infraction that would remove a cherished privilege for a lifetime.

The criminals that are associated with most gun-related deaths are unlikely to be qualified to openly and lawfully purchase guns. Furthermore, if their weapons were by default unlawful, logic would dictate that they would be unconcerned with the “I” dotting and the “T” crossing required by such a law as Senate Bill 12. Career criminals are unlikely to use a weapon directly traceable to them, and it could not be expected that such a person would purchase a serialized cartridge with the correct identity. As most throwaway weapons are stolen and untraceable to the offender, such a requirement of ammunition could hardly be expected to turn up anyone but the unwitting accomplices, lawful gun owners that themselves were the victim of theft or robbery. Knowledge of the original purchaser would contribute nothing to solving the specific case, only place a burden of record keeping on the lawful purchaser of ammunition and the involvement of law enforcement in the disposition if even known, of such ammo if stolen and place the dead end of the investigation one step further from the culprit.

Any possibility of positive effect for the citizens of Georgia will be far outweighed by the burdens of accounting and cost of replacement of handgun ammunition which is historically purchased in quantities that take into account the extended shelf life a of product of this type. An investment that can easily amount to hundreds of dollars per gun owner if one owns many different weapons.

Additionally, like most gun control legislation, the likely perpetrator of crimes that this law is altruistically meant to deter or apprehend is hindered the least by the existence of such identification, both in foiling the accountability or in the total disregard of even the existence of such markings on the ammo in their possession. As ammunition that was manufactured during WWII is routinely used today, the effective eradication of uncoded rounds could not be realized for 50 years or more.

It is my opinion that whatever the intentions are that prompted the conception of Senate Bill 12, or the perceived benefits of this type of law, the effect is to burden the lawful and conscientious gun owners of this state and place upon them the punitive expense and effort of compliance to an exercise that may prove only to be a prelude to outright bookkeeping of every round purchased and fired and a personal accounting of every undischarged round as it would be as unique as a fingerprint and ultimately traceable to the lawful purchaser, who as such, would be a criminal suspect until other evidence if existing, exonerated him. Not a farfetched assumption as a stolen automobile or weapon currently leads law enforcement to such conclusions. Furthermore, this bill carried to its logically fully developed state would eventually place the accountability of every bullet and cartridge casing on the shooter, as a criminal could cast unwanted attention away from themselves and on any other individual by simply gathering spent cartridges from a shooting range and depositing them at a crime scene.

This is bad law. This is the accelerated continuation of an effort to criminalize the rights acknowledged in the 2^nd Amendment by smothering an otherwise lawful citizen with the unnecessary and cumbersome responsibilities of compliance so great that the individual can no longer manage or tolerate the effort. This law’s ultimate form will be to stifle the joy of sport shooting and diminish if not entirely extinguish the lawful individual’s capacity to defend one’s self. It is easy to envision a stair step of evolution of this type of law to eventually include long guns, antique collections, primitive arms and even .22 caliber ammunition that are popularly used in training guns for youth. If .22 ammo is considered pistol ammo and included in this law, the cost of its cartridges could easily triple and diminish the usefulness of the wide variety of rimfire weapons sharing that cartridge and enjoyed by families for generations. All the while, the criminal is as always, non-compliant and the law does nothing to curtail the crime that it is proposed to deter.

To read Georgia Senate Bill 12, click here.
http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/fulltext/sb12.htm

To contact Georgia State Senator Ramsey, click here,
http://www.broc.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/senate/ramseybio.php

To contact your Georgia State Senator, click here
http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2007_08/senate/senatelist.php

Hoorah! Let’s uncock our guns for a moment. We now have our new president-elect, and one small piece of possibly overlooked good news is that there is enough difference in each candidate’s tally so as not to drag this country through many punitive weeks of gut-wrenching by the barely-losing side.

The biggest piece of good news is that Barack Obama has now officially removed the shackles on black America by demonstrating that even the highest office on Earth is within reach of each of us. Black America should hold its head up proudly as there is now an example that there is nothing that a dream, hard work, and determination cannot accomplish. Congratulations, may Obama’s victory serve as an inspiration to us all, individual desire is the only obstacle to any American attaining lofty goals. May we now all put down the party banners and work together for the best America possible?

As has been the cycle for over two hundred years, two or four years from now the expectation/reality gap will widen and a renewed and energized body politic will put forth their candidates and try to convince a majority of the need for to stay/change the course. Once again, the citizens of this great country will remind our leaders by speaking up and letting them know just who’s boss.

The 20th century journalist, H. L. Mencken said it best, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

Record-breaking low temperatures and snowfalls recorded this fall have dramatically punctuated the data showing unprecedented evidence of cooling not equaled in many areas for over a century. Unsympathetic thermometers, snow accumulation, and other incongruences humorously challenge the seriousness of global warming groups as winter power outages, snowfall, and frigid temperatures preempt their symposiums and conferences.

These are not isolated cases of freak fronts or other singular weather anomalies, but startling continent-wide massive weather movements. North America, Asia, and Australia are battling global chilling in the true sense of the term. A very few recent examples below:

London is experiencing the first October snowfall in 74 years.

Arctic Ice is 28.7% greater than last year and still climbing.

Brisbane endures coldest October (Spring) morn in 32 years.

Ocala, FL records coldest Oct. 29 in 65 years. 2nd coldest Oct. day since 1850.

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Link on Drudge of article in ynetnews.com. Iranian Speaker, Larijani was quoted in this article,

“We are leaning more in favor of Barack Obama because he is more flexible and rational..”

The sheer weight of the recognition of Obama’s rationality by the standard bearer of coherency, Iran, challenges my vocabulary for words that can describe my awe.

This easily trumps Obama’s magnanimous acceptance of the Bush Administration’s former point man and the left’s proclaimed personification of evil, Colin Powell. I guess that would be that “flexible” part that the Iranian’s were so excited about.

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I was talking to a friend that went to the Georgia Nat’l Fair in Perry, Georgia this evening. He said that he was checking out the electronic zapper fly swatters at a booth near the Obama campaign booth and the only people in the booth were the two volunteers manning it. The fly swatter guy was an interesting conversationalist, so my friend watched Obama’s booth for about a half-hour’s worth of colorful salesmanship and no takers on the Obama message. They Dems were giving away t-shirts, buttons, and stuff and not a single taker during his observation time.

Later he went by the McCain booth and he said they were out of the Dumdum suckers, but there were 50-60 people waiting in line there to buy buttons and t-shirts and such. The McCain booth was selling the stuff and it was a 20 minute wait to give them the money! They had sold out of the McCain/Palin yard signs.

I know this is Georgia, but Middle Georgia has a very high African-American population count, and they were reasonably represented at the event. You reckon that the people at the McCain booth were energized or just collectors of losing candidate memorabilia? I don’t know but I’ve still got a “W ’04″ sticker on my car.

This diary entry will not be well-phrased eloquent prose. But I felt motivated to pass along a report I received today from the Marc Morano, a staff member of Sen. James Inhoff R-OK, the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

I have not been a fan of the bailout plan mostly due to the fact I knew so little of it. I was relieved to find that the provisions that would have potentially greased such organizations as A.C.O.R.N. had been removed prior to its failure to pass on Monday Sept. 29. The subsequent passage by the Senate and the general discussion of much improvement over the weekend draft was viewed by me with guarded reassurance.

Today’s report from Mr. Morano has reinforced my natural skepticism of congress. Page 180 of the now 451 page ‘‘Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008’’ pdf here includes some very disturbing and in my opinion, sneaky and subversive utilization of what is being jammed through congress altruistically as the very lifeline for our economic well being and quite possibly the World’s.

This time-is-of-the-essence emergency bill, HR-1424 has embedded in its belly, the well thought out beginnings of the treatment, auditing and taxation of carbon taxes and credits.

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I noticed on Drudge this afternoon a link to a Denver Post Blog concerning the discovery of thousands of small American flags that were trashed by the Democrats following the acceptance speech of Barack Obama at Invesco Field. I did not have the hyperbolic reaction of ‘horror,’ but was saddened that there is a candidacy for the President of our great country that considers the symbol of our nation a prop, like the discarded signs that are waved for the speakers in the frenzy of a political convention or the lapel pin that is here today and gone tomorrow.

I’m not the American that stuck the flag on the mailbox for a few weeks following 9/11; or wears a flag hat, shirt, or pin on only the 4th of July. I’m the nutcase that has a flag pole cemented in the front yard; that raises the flag to full staff at noon on Memorial Day; that checks for the official presidential orders on use of half-staff for the deaths of important national leaders; that has his dead WWII veteran father’s flag neatly folded and displayed in it’s case in the living room and calls home to be sure the flag is lowered if my arrival will be after sundown.

I’ve heard that good character is washing your hands when you are the only person in the restroom, when no one is looking. In the context of a national political campaign, character is defined as when the cameras and lights are down, the mic is off, the press has left for the bar. What is left is the real deal. What is left is what can be expected of our elected leaders when the election is over and the makeup is removed.

When I raise my flag my heart is full. I love my country and though I can’t embrace her enormity physically, I can embrace her symbol and through it those that have fallen to fly it. There is no audience when I raise, lower, or fold my flag. There is no witness if I were to let it touch the ground. But I would know, and that’s enough.

Would the Democrats let my flag touch the ground? I know the answer now, and that’s enough.

Launch Magazine’s July-August issue features a piece by the famous Apollo 7 astronaut, Walt Cunningham.

There are excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations of the Sun and the Earth’s temperature, while scientists cannot find a relationship between industrial activity, energy consumption, and global temperatures. But global warming is an issue no longer being decided in the scientific arena.

I’ve noticed over the past several months, an ever increasing number of notable scientific players willing to buck the money stream and speak on the real science that the religion of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming proponents say that their hyperbole is based upon. As these numbers grow, even the shy among those that have remained in the background are emboldened to come forth and shore the foundation of scientific method in our search for sensible answers to what may be actually happening in our climate.

believe in global climate change, but there is no way that humans can influence the temperature of our planet to any measurable degree with the tools currently at their disposal. Any human contribution to global temperature change is lost in the noise of terrestrial and cosmic factors.

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I salivated as usual as I clicked on my Friday weekly email cap from the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Senator Inhofe’s award-winning ranking-committee-member site always informs and entertains. Today’s was no exception. The EPW Press Bloghad an even greater offering of excerpts and links to the most recent scientific dissention of the global warming debacle. This was especially tantalizing due to Al Gore’s latestembarrasing (for him) announcement in the form of a JFK-esque appeal for an alternative energy miracle to be realized within the next decade.

Mr. Gore’s mission towards a reduced CO2 Earth and increasing his more than $100 million personal wealth was especially humorous against the backdrop of a voluminous listing of excerpts from the EPW Press Blog.

Top UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Turns on IPCC. Calls Warming Fears: ‘Worst scientific scandal in the history’ – June 27, 2008 – By Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist who specializes in optical waveguide spectroscopy from the Yokohama National University, also contributed to the 2007 UN IPCC AR4 (fourth assessment report) as an expert reviewer.

Over the last several years I have watched the cautious questioning by a few brave scientists snowball into a deafening mob reminiscent of the townspeople of Transylvania outside the castle of Dr. Frankenstein. Now that the evidence (or lack thereof) has grown to include a decade without warming the boldness of the opposition has become satirical denouncing the indefensible position of the IPCC and the Enviro-Political Complex (EPC).

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Any market appears fickle to an ordinary capitalist like myself. The mystique of economics and the psychology (pathology?) that drives buy/sell decisions oftentimes confounds us mere mortals. A case in point is the current oil futures price that has seen no news that did not send it soaring to new heights. I’ve pondered on what would crowd such a bandwagon, one that apparently had no end to a line of investors that would continue to pay higher and higher prices. A market that was the very definition of “irrational exuberance.” Was there nothing that could turn this tide? Well today may have witnessed the secret handshake to the down escalator. A piece in the National Review Online by Larry Kudlow got me to thinking about how the perceived future price is influenced by a sound bite.

Traders took a look at a feisty and aggressive George Bush and started selling the market well before a single new drop of oil has been lifted. What does this tell us? Well, if Congress moves to seal the deal, oil prices will probably keep on falling. That’s the way traders work. They discount the future. Psychology and expectations can turn on a dime.

What if congress did the same and the media announces contracts being let for new oil drilling rigs; the softening of environmental approval; new and more promising mineral leases. If the relaxing of President Bush’s executive order alone can fire one over the bow, how much effect can a true team effort have on global oil futures?