Why We Love Rush

Some insightful Rush quotes. Here are a few of my favorites:

"The Iraq war, to the vast majority of people in this country, is no more than a 30-second TV show every night. It makes them uncomfortable and they don't want to watch it anymore. It's not about the country being threatened or the worldwide conflict in which we find ourselves. It's just something inconvenient."

"When Putin was first elected president the world was all atwitter: 'Oh, he's so urbane! He's so sophisticated!' I said, 'He's a former KGB agent. He's trouble.' Once again, ladies and gentlemen, I knew what I was talking about."

"Wow. There's a pretty Democrat spokesman on TV. You just don't see those often. I did a double-take."

We have devised whole philosophies to deal with our unhappiness, and probably the most powerful one is that there is virtue in suffering. I've always had a problem with that; I have never thought that the gift of life was a gift of suffering."

"'Redeploy' is another one of these twisting and turning of words that just means 'quit.' It softens the message of 'cut-and-run.'"

"I know communists and I know liberals -- and they do not reform."

Democrat Speechwriters for the Freak of Iran

Conservababes have received uncorroborated information that the recent letter from the Freak of Iran was actually written by a collaboration of prominant Democrats. Our analysts have detected a little Murtha, a squeak of Rangle, a bit of Kerry, a splash of Kennedy, and a dash of Pelosi.

Let's see... He tries to sweet talk us by catch phrases he doesn't really mean ("noble Americans"/"we support the troops"), his analysis of the recent midterm elections was that Americans rejected Bush's Iraq/war on terror policy, and he's more concerned about "global resentment" toward America than he is about winning the war on terror.

Of course, his letter said nothing about stopping the enrichment of uranium or retracting his former statements that Israel should be blown off the map, but at least there's dialogue, right? At least we're talking! That's the important thing!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Light news and light blogging for the long holiday weekend. Hope everyone's travels and holiday goes well. Enjoy the turkey and the football and remember why we're celebrating this holiday --a day to count our blessings for living in the most free and prosperous country on earth; a country that has a better national sport than soccer and schedules games on holidays to make spending time with the relatives that much more enjoyable.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The Man

For true hockey fans, fans who really know the game, Don Cherry is the man. I always said that if America had Don Cherry, the hockey-watching audience would at least double in this country. Growing up so close to the border, we New Fallujahians have had the benefit of CBC and watching Cherry in action. I was surprised to see this lengthy feature story on espn.com this morning. Even if you don't have time to read through the entire story, the pictures are great...

Some highlights for those of you unfamiliar with Don Cherry--

"He's the most recognized face in Canada. It's like traveling with a rock star, the Rolling Stones, except he's bigger than them in this country."

"It's like if you took John Madden and overlaid him with Rush Limbaugh," adds Calgary-based columnist, author and broadcaster Bruce Dowbiggin, one of Cherry's frequent critics. "It's become larger than life. I don't think there's any position in the U.S. that equates to it."

Cherry's propensity to infuriate and alienate at least as often as he illuminates. Over the years, from his bully pulpit on Coach's Corner, firing from the lip at anything that moves, he has managed to enrage a long list of folks including but not limited to: his bosses at the CBC, French Canadians, European players in general, Swedes and Russians in particular, players who wear visors, and members of the media by whom he is regularly poleaxed.

He has repeatedly enraged French Canadians calling into question their heart and love for their country. Referring to the French translation of the Memorial Cup, Coupe Memorial, Cherry once famously quipped, "What's that? A car giveaway?" Cherry also referred to freestyle skier Jean-Luc Brassard, chosen as the country's flag-bearer at the 1998 Olympics, as "a French guy, some skier nobody knows about."

During the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Cherry weighed in when Russian Olympic officials made noise about withdrawing from the Games because of perceived bias when it came to drug testing. "I've been trying to tell you people for so long about the Russians, what kind of people they are, and you just love them in Canada with your multiculturalism," he scolded. "They're quitters and evidently they take a lot of drugs, too."

At the start of the Iraq War in early 2003, Cherry loudly supported the Americans, while co-host MacLean defended Canada's position of noninvolvement, which, to Cherry, equaled nonsupport of an ally. The raucous debate lasted an entire Coach's Corner segment in March of that year and became a national news story. The CBC later removed the transcript of that segment from its online archives.

For those of you hockey fans who haven't had the insights into real hockey and would like to learn a thing or two, check out Cherry's Rockem Sockem DVD collection - some true classics in there, especially the original 5 or 6.

Mich-Again

(I didn't coin that title phrase - have to give the credit to espn) Sorry for the light blogging; The Sage has been traveling a lot for work in recent days... which led her to the conclusion that airports need to install punching bags for the frusterated traveler whose flights are delayed, cancelled, involve a New York airport, etc.

Likely you've heard of the passing of Bo Schembechler, one of the greatest coaches in college football history, this past Friday. What can you say about the man beyond his 10 Rose Bowls, his 20 winning seasons at U of M (for those on the east coast --it is NOT "umich"), his rivalries with his old mentor at that other school down in Ohio, and how he still had an office down the hall from Lloyd Carr, still had his door open for the players, and chose on the eve of his life to address the team Thursday night rather than worrying about his failing health. Bo was too weak to make the trip down to Columbus; he had planned on watching from home. But he was there, after all.

What a GAME that was! It was the most watched college football game since 1993 and didn't disappoint anyone. (In case anyone missed it, Michigan narrowly lost to the Nuts, 42-39)

Now the big question is - who deserves to play in the championship game? As of today, that would be Michigan, who is still ranked the #2 team in the country. (Can you think of one other team who would have lost by only 3 points to Ohio State?) Fact is, the #2 team deserves to go to the championship round and if Michigan is the #2 team, they should be back. (And, um, how do you think the TV ratings will be for THAT one? As opposed to a blowout if Ohio plays any other team). Some thoughts on this (pro and con) from espn.

I know a lot of people will be crying about USC, but let's face it --they narrowly beat so many subpar Pac 10 teams, how can you call them #2? Not even close. Besides, Notre Dame's gonna whoop their butts this Saturday. Payback time. In that event, though I am an Irish fan and would love to see them go to the championship game, there's that little fact that they got creamed by Michigan earlier this season. Go Blue!

Murtha, Murtha -he's our man!

Call your congressmen and voice your support for Murtha for House majority leader! The next best thing after Speaker Pelosi for revealing the true nature of the Democrat and ensuring Republican victory in '08 in John Murtha. Let's hope all goes well for this stellar House team in the next two years...

Freak of Iran

...seems closer to his goal of ending the world than we would have thought. Apparently, Iran is very close to having that nuclear weapon:

International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.

I wonder if their explanation will have anything to do with the Freak's threats yesterday that Israel will soon be wiped off the map?

How should we deal with this nut? We don't want to go to war with Iran even if he is threatening the entire world, apparently because of the anger we'd inspire among Muslims (why are we still worried about that?) and all the innocent civilians that would undoubtedly be killed in a conflict. But what are our options? Sit back and wait for him to nuke Israel?

Personally, I'd go Reagan on him and send a missile right into his bedroom. That might shut the Freak up for a few years or heck, maybe we'd get lucky and kill him!

In other, more frightening news, Hillary is talking about health care again.

Bring it on

Germany wants to prosecute Rummy for Abu gharib and Club Gitmo crimes.

Tell you what -we'll trade you. You can have Rumsfeld if you give us every German citizen who was alive during WWII.

Somehow I think rounding innocent people up into concentration camps and starting a world war in which hundreds of thousands died is a bit more severe than subjecting terrorists and enemy combatants to sleep deprivation. Oh, and we still have the death penalty in our country you sorry socialist losers.

Thanks, America

For electing Democrats. Let's just not make the same mistake again next time, mmmmkay?

Al Qaeda mocking "lame duck" president (They're almost as excited as the Democrats, don't you think?) and gloating over Rumsfeld's departure

More threats:

On the audio tape made available on militant Web sites, the al-Qaida in Iraq leader also welcomed the Republican electoral defeat that led to the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. He added that the group's fighters would not rest until they had blown up the White House.

"The American people have put their feet on the right path by ... realizing their president's betrayal in supporting Israel," the terror leader said. "So they voted for something reasonable in the last elections." (Al Qaeda thinks the Democrats are "reasonable" --must give them great comfort that the terrorists are starting to understand them...)

Describing President Bush as "the most stupid president" (GEE- where could they have gotten that idea?) in U.S. history, al-Masri reached out to the Muslim world and said his group was winning the war in Iraq faster than expected due to U.S. policies. (How about this one? Must be great to share so many of the same ideas with the terrorist group who killed 3,000 American on 9/11)

So Dems out there --does it feel good being on the same side as Al Qaeda?

Maybe, just maybe, despite your disagreements with Bush over various issues and the way he is fighting the war on terror --just MAYBE it would be nice to show some solidarity as a country and support your commander in chief while he has troops out there in the field. You know, like Americans from both parties did during EVERY SINGLE PAST WAR aside from the last, dying years of Vietnam.

W. Ketchup

If any of you are still using Heinz, get with it! W Ketchup is a great alternative, made by Republicans.

I get email updates from them (ever since stocking up during the '04 election season) and the one I had today was hilarious. Wish I could link to it, but here is an excerpt:

Eagle Bridge, NY — November 11, 2006 — W Ketchup congratulates Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi on the victory of the Democratic Party in Tuesday’s election. A wise political observer once said: Republicans who act like Democrats don’t win elections. Tuesday’s election proves the point. W Ketchup welcomes the opportunity this election has given Republican to refocus their ideals and return to the Reaganite, American principles of limited government with a strong defense.

Also offering their congratulations to the Democratic Party were 200 members of the European Parliament who signed a joint statement saying the election was “the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world.” In Pakistan, lawmaker Ahmed greeted the news by saying that Bush “deserves to be removed, put on trial and given a Saddam-like death sentence.” Venezuelan Marxist leader Chavez chimed in calling President Bush a “genocidal leader” and also called on the Democrats to sentence President Bush to death. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei commented: “this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation.”

Friday Round-Up

What a game last night! So much for Louisville. You've got to feel for them --esp. that guy who stepped off sides, giving Ito the chance to rekick that field goal to win the game... And how about those fans rushing the field? That was a sight that you don't get to see too often in these days of heightened security...

We'll see what happens tomorrow, but the top ranked teams will obviously be shuffled around after this loss. At the end of the day, providing all goes well tomorrow for them, Michigan and Ohio State are the #1 and #2 teams. And they still will be, even after one of them loses to the other a week from tomorrow. The bowl championship should just be the re-match.

In other news, Democrats are already insulting us peons in fly-over country. This time it was the chalk-on-a-blackboard, squeaky voiced Rangel condescending to Mississippi. (Who the hell would want to live there after all, right Rangel?) In fairness to the Democrats, he's just expressing the sentiment of most all New Yorkers I've ever met... Just fill in the blank for anywhere in America not in the vicinity of NYC.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steel (who just narrowly lost a Senate bid in that state) has been asked to head up the RNC. I'm a big fan of Steels and think it would be great if he takes them up on the offer. We'll see how that goes...

Oh, and Dean has assured us Bush won't be impeached --and he made this great announcement at a primary source of news
for many Democrat voters --The Daily Show. So you know how reliable that is. We'll see if they live up to this "promise"...

In other news, Chavez is calling for Bush to get the death penalty! Let's invite him back to address the United Nations and discuss the matter in more detail, shall we?

Speaking of the Useless Nations, the worst casualty of this election loss will be losing a great ambassador to the U.N. Any chance you think the Dems would confirm a man who still has both his balls attached? Bolton doesn't stand a chance.

Ann's column is always a treat:

So the left won the House and also Nicaragua.

Jon Tester, Bob Casey Jr., Heath Shuler, possibly Jim Webb — I've never seen so much raw testosterone in my life. The smell of sweaty jockstraps from the "new Democrats" is overwhelming.

Having predicted this paltry Democrat win, my next prediction is how long it will take all these new "gun totin' Democrats" to be fitted for leotards.

The Democrats certainly have their work cut out for them. They have only two years to release as many terrorists as possible and lock up as many Republicans as they can.


That's it for me --happy Friday! Enjoy the weekend.

Who's Happiest to See Rumsfeld Go and Democrats in Control

This article is very enlightening...

The electoral rebuke for President Bush and the resignation of his defense secretary, both deeply unpopular away from American shores over the Iraq war, was celebrated throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia.


(gee- must be nice to share the same goals for America's future as American-hating countries in Old Europe and the Middle East!)


...from Paris to Pakistan, politicians, analysts and ordinary citizens said Wednesday they hoped the Democratic takeover of both Houses of Congress would force Bush to adopt a more conciliatory approach to global crises, and teach a president many see as a "cowboy" a lesson in humility.


(Yes, and like Democrats without pride or shame, I'm really glad that the leader of our country will be humbled before all those Parisians and Pakistanis!)


In an extraordinary joint statement, more than 200 Socialist members of the European Parliament hailed the American election results as "the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world."


(And I sure am glad the socialists are happy! What's good for the socialists is good for America, right? Maybe our economy will tank now with Democrats in charge and reinforce their arguement that capitalism doesn't really work! Wouldn't that be great? At least the nightmare would be over...)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has consistently railed against the Bush administration, called the election "a reprisal vote."

(I almost want to switch parties over this one -would be nice to be with the party who shares the same goals and hopes as Hugo Chavez...)

In Paris, American expatriates and French citizens alike packed the city's main American haunts to watch results overnight and early Wednesday, with some standing to cheer or boo as vote tabulations came in.

One Frenchman, 53-year-old teacher Jean-Pierre Charpemtrat, said it was about time U.S. voters figured out what much of the rest of the world already knew.

(Wow. I sure am glad we finally figured out what the rest of world knew. Maybe now we can have unemployment numbers as good as the French. Sure would kill for their stellar economy, I tell you. And how about their record on defense! We sure could learn a thing or two from those intelligent, brave French, yessir.)

Sacrificial Rum

Way too depressed and deceived and frankly still busy at work to comment on Rummy's departure. Just to say that I am PISSED. In a major way. I can't believe Bush made this announcement today, of all days. Nice timing. Why doesn't he just bend over and sign that amnesty bill for illegals, free health care for all (including illegals), and a big tax hike. Way to go, Dubya. Way to stick it to all of your supporters because of a perfectly normal and expected midterm election loss.

So I'm linking to Atlas Shrugged, a great blog, that echoes my thoughts tonight. She also has posted a good letter from a soldier in Iraq before her Rumsfeld comments.

OK, I need a drink now...

Owch.

We can't be surprised. Based on historical predecent, the party in power always loses seats in the off year elections. We lost - big.

Now, if we were Democrats, we'd be crying, on suicide watch, demanding recounts, and focusing on accusations of voter fraud. But as Republicans, our lives aren't over and we still have a lot to be optomistic about:

-Lincoln Chafee can no longer claim to be a "Republican" senator

-After two years of House leadership, we can hope that more than 20% of Americans will know quite well who Nancy Pelosi is

-We are rational enough to know that, despite how awfully liberal she is, Nancy Pelosi is not as evil as Hitler

-We won't have to hear from the MSM that 4.4% unemployment, lower gas prices, record high Dow, and lower taxes are somehow bad

-We will know who to blame if unemployement is higher, gas prices are higher, and the stock market and economy aren't this fabulous after two years under a Democrat-controlled Congress

-We can take pride in the knowledge that we don't have to take the side of terrorists to win elections

-We can laugh and take comfort that in order for many of these new Democrat congressmen and women to win, they had to run as conservatives

-We can look forward to two years of Democrat wasted capital and retaking Congress in '08

Election Day

Don't forget to vote!

Amber Alert

An Amber Alert has been issued for the would be new speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi has not been seen nor heard from since 10/22. Friends and family are very concerned and Sean Hannity has offered a reward for any sitings of the missing congresswoman. If you have seen or heard from Ms. Pelosi, you are asked to contact authorities immediately.

OK, in all seriousness --we have to ask why the woman the Democrats want to be their House majority leader has been MIA these last 2 weeks leading up to the election. The obvious answer is that she scares the hell out of voters. It has nothing to do with her personally --it's her voting record and extreme liberal beliefs that the Democrats VOTE for, despite knowing that the vast majority of Americans would stage a riot if they actually knew how far their true beliefs went. Most Democrats play this hide and seek game --there's what they say in public v. what they actually believe. There's what they say they want and what they really want. It's pretty pathetic that this party that claims to represent so many Americans has to hide it's real agenda in order to get elected. Don't believe me? Name one specific of any plan they've campaigned on to make America better? They've done a lot of Bush bashing and "we need a change" shouting, yet they don't venture so far as to enlighten us with a hint of what that "change" would entail. Wake up, America.

Excerpt:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi would bring to the office a level of left-wing liberalism that will be unprecedented.

In the National Journal's 2005 ideological ratings, which were based on scores of votes, Mrs. Pelosi was ranked more liberal than 91 percent of her House colleagues on economic issues, 96 percent on social matters and 82 percent on foreign-policy issues

So if you want your taxes raised, our military budget slashed, no missile defense system, abortion on demand (even partial birth), huge spending on welfare programs, no domestic oil exploration or drilling, and feel this lady from San Francisco accurately represents your beliefs, by all means vote Democrat next Tuesday.

The economy keeps on rolling...

...all around Michigan. Our national unemployment rate is the lowest it's been in over 5 years. (Oh, and both this amazing 4.4% rate and the 4.3% from 2001 are both lower numbers than what the media likes to trumpant as the best under Bill Clinton). Happy Friday.

Ann's Election Predictions...

This is too good not to link to...

Some excerpts:

The only way to get Democrats to focus on terrorists would be to convince them that the terrorists are interfering with a woman's right to choose or that commercial jetliners exploding in midair are a threat to America's wetlands.

This means that for Democrats simply to match the historical average gain for the party out of the White House during the first and second midterm, they would have to pick up 67 seats in the House and 11 seats in the Senate. They're about 30 Mark Foleys short of having that happen.

Despite the precedent of big wins in midterm elections for the party out of power — especially in a sixth-year midterm election — something is depressing the Democrats' popularity with Americans this year. I suspect it's the perception that many of them are Democrats.

Lurch Making a Joke?

Yeah, and Bill Clinton's given up sex, Nancy Pelosi is speaking at a pro-life rally, Mel Gibson's converting to Judaism --oh, and the Lions will make the playoffs this year. It just doesn't happen. Or at least it doesn't work.

You decide --does this sound like he's joking to you?

John Kerry is your typical, obscenely wealthy (thanks to his wife...), elitist, New England liberal. I went to school in Boston --I know how they think about the rest of us stupid hicks in "flyover country." And it's safe to say that Kerry really did slip up on that "botched joke" and reveal his true feelings about our fine military. (We all know his respect extends as far as throwing purple hearts over walls --other peoples' medals, not his, mind you.)

Here's what our president had to say on the matter. (BTW-if anyone caught his entire speech yesterday --what a kicka** rally! Reminded me why I still love Dubya)

Even Republicans like Tennessee Senatorial candidate Harold Ford Jr. are demanding an apology form old Lurch. (oh, sorry --I keep forgetting Ford is actually a Democrat; you'd never know it by his campaign ads and recent speeches. You have to check his voting record to remind yourself.)

Wow. All I can say to Kerry is THANK YOU! Thank you for reminding us why we no longer trust Democrats to lead our country in a time of war. Thank you!!

Good votin' next Tuesday, ya'all.

UPDATE: Even Hillary wants Kerry to apologize. Also, check out this nice banner some of our troops in Iraq made for "carry"

Reminder: Kerry's recent "joke" reiterates past derrogatory and flatly false statements about our military. And excerpt:

During a Vietnam-era run for Congress three decades ago, John Kerry said he opposed a volunteer Army because it would be dominated by the underprivileged, be less accountable and be more prone to "the perpetuation of war crimes."