Friday, February 29

Wastrels

That would be our U.S. Congress. Honestly- don't they have anything better to do (like, say, renewing the patriot act?) than investigate Roger Clemens?. Why is our government involved in sports? Are they having a slow week, or something? This is a matter for MLB, maybe an ambitious prosecutor, not the lawmakers of our country! As if they needed to look any more pathetic...

In other news, how about this story- a 26-year old National Guard sergeant wins $1 million and still wants to go back to Iraq for a third tour!

And speaking of Patriots, how about Prince Harry?

And in local news, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's text message scandal continues, with City Counsel asking for his resignation.

Kilpatrick, asked on WWJ-AM (950) whether he would resign, said: "Nah. Not at all. I don't even understand how that is really in the public discussion."

And he later told reporters, "I'll be here for as long as I can be here."


Ah, spoken like a true Democrat!

Happy Friday everyone.
Go Wings!!!

Tuesday, February 26

Global Cooling Update

I wonder if all these signs of global cooling will make the environmentalists start advocating bigger carbon footprints to warm things up???

Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.

The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. ...the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average."

China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century

And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its "lowest levels on record?" Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past.

The ice is back.

Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year.

Kenneth Tapping of our own National Research Council, who oversees a giant radio telescope focused on
the sun, is convinced we are in for a long period of severely cold weather if sunspot activity does not pick up soon.

The last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850

Monday, February 25

Hockeytown Blues

This is getting comical, if it weren’t so painful to watch the Wings play two games this past weekend and score a total of one goal… We have FOUR defensemen injured! Four! Not sure I agree with Drapes that they’re our “best” four, but two of them are for certain. Add Cleary on top of that (broken jaw) and Hasek (being an old fart), and we might have to change our name soon to the Grand Rapids Wings…

In other news, we always enjoy a good derisive laugh at the Lions’ expense around here. This article pretty much sums things up.

It is the Lions' time of year. Other teams have the preseason; the Lions have the NFL scouting combine. Other teams have the regular season; the Lions have free agency. Other teams dream of the Super Bowl; the Lions point to the draft.... It is not surprising, then, that the Lions are more interesting right now than they are in a typical October.

Former offensive coordinator Mike Martz summed up the organization for all of us when he told reporters in Indianapolis, "I can't explain anything that they do."



Ah, well – at least we have the Pistons and the Tigers

Thursday, February 21

Democrat Debate Reaction

First let me just say that after watching that "debate," I feel so moved, my eyes filling with New Hampshire-esque tears, by how nice and friendly both the candidates and moderators were! It was just so nice to see such civility, such nice, carefully broached "questions," such civil discourse! For the first time in my life, it made me proud to be an American!

Now, to the substance of the debate- and it was there! Hillary is so benevolent - she cares about little babies, especially if they were born to illegal immigrants, and small children sitting on stools! (especially if they happen to be from Ohio) And Obama wants change.

Hillary is going to fix our economy by implementing a "trade prosecutor." (His salary will be paid by repealing the tax cuts for the wealthy.) What a brilliant idea! I hope they impose stiff jail terms for any evil American companies who don't kowtow to the new trade prosecutor. That's just what America needs! And Obama wants change.

Hillary is also going to help by creating "clean, green jobs," funded by repealing the tax cuts from the wealthy (you know, those filthy rich families making over $75,000 a year). Doesn't that sound marvelous? Don't you wish your job was clean? Or at least green? I know I do. Oh, and Obama wants change.

Lastly, while Hillary is taken by the sentiment of the English language remaining "special" to all Americans, it should never be made our "official" language. Oh, no. Instead, we're going to teach every American child to be bi-lingual! And we'll pay for it by repealing those tax cuts for the rich. Mind, we aren't going to test any of these children to see if they really can speak another language, but we'll keep throwing money at the program indefinitely, because the teachers need our help more than the wealthiest one percent. Obama agrees with her on all of the above, and he wants change.

Wow! I hope I haven't missed anything. I was listening very hard, though I did faint a few times while Obama was speaking.

Is anyone surprised?

It sure didn't take long after McCain shored up the GOP nomination for the MSM to "remember" the Keating Five scandal. I'm sure you've all heard about the supposed affair McCain had with a lobbyist 8 years ago - the NY Times dug this story up from some "unnamed sources," so you know it must be true. But if you read their breaking news story, you'll see it's nothing more than an excuse to rehash the Keating Five scandal (which, btw- I still haven't been able to figure out how one of the five went to jail, 3 lost their senate jobs and McCain somehow escaped with a mere censure?). After devoting a few intro paragraphs to the alleged affair (about 11% of the article's content), the other 89% is devoted to the Keating Five tale. Maybe this will teach the GOP a lesson - let's choose our own candidate next time, instead of letting the media select him for us.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Just when we finally break our worst losing streak since the early '90s, they've announced today that Nick Lidstrom is expected to be out for 3 weeks! And who knows when Rafalski will be back. This is awful. Not only will I miss watching them, but my fantasy hockey team is suffering gravely. I've been knocked out of first place for the first time since the second week of the season! There's got to be some vast, No-Wing conspiracy going on out there...

One more reason for Michelle Obama to be proud of her country

We have the best military in the world! They hit their target (a spy satellite that had malfunctioned) on the first try. Always impressive to see our military succeed in something so challenging.

(BTW-I wonder how much more or less a President Clinton or Obama would cut funding for our military than the first President Clinton did...)

Tuesday, February 19

Another person realizes our media is biased

I loved this little article, and reading all of the comments by indignant Americans.

Basically Bob Geldof (an Irish rocker, read the article to learn more of him), is astounded that President Bush is not receiving the credit he is due for everything he's done for Africa during his presidency.

In fact, Geldof says that Bush "has done more than any other president so far."

"This is the triumph of American policy really," he said. "It was probably unexpected of the man. It was expected of the nation, but not of the man, but both rose to the occasion."


"What's in it for [Mr. Bush]? Absolutely nothing," Mr. Geldof said.


Mr. Geldof said that the president has failed "to articulate this to Americans" but said he is also "pissed off" at the press for their failure to report on this good news story.


"You guys didn't pay attention," Geldof said to a group of reporters from all the major newspapers.

Monday, February 18

Worst Presidents

We could learn a few things from these three - check out the American Thinker essay regarding America's Top (or should we say bottom) 3 Worst Presidents.

See if you can guess who they are:

#1 ...arguably has actually been as detrimental to freedom, democracy and the American ideal as during his catastrophic tenure.... ..... paving the way for the rise of Radical Islam now threatening the free world.

#2 ...apparently learning nothing from the failures....He kept to the Democrat status quo, asserting that slavery should be a matter for individual states and territories to decide for themselves. The Southern slaveholders, largely Democrats, approved..... still ignoring common sense and appeasing evil.....

#3 ...
his long lasting social policies which have had lasting, regressive, deadly effects.... [his] policies laid the groundwork for victicrats Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Inner cities and black America have been relegated to poverty and lack of incentive to succeed as a direct result of [his] socialist policies.

Presidents' Day

In the general theme of the below post, I'd like to point out a few things that I'm proud of President Bush for. He's never wavered from the goals he campaigned on, and the statements he made after 9/11 about encouraging and supporting democracy throughout the world. I know our media likes to gloat about how all of the socialist countries in western (a.k.a. "Old") Europe don't like our conservative, princiapled leader. But here are some places that do:

Kosovo declared their independence yesterday -and they're celebrating in the streets waving American flags. Here's another one. And another one. I like the ethnic dress in this one. One more. Aww, this man's cute.

(Now, I'm sure you'll see all of these images if you watch CNN tonight. Oh, nevermind - they only like to show the flag if it's burning! Forgot about that.)

Now check out all the American flags waving in Africa for our president. Oh, and they must think Dubya is a handsome fella or something, because his face seems to be everywhere - including on costumes and clothing... I sure will miss this man next year on Presidents' Day.

Props to Dubya

Has anyone even heard of President Bush's successful endeavors in Africa before now? I don't seem to recall it being reported often, especially by those "compassionate" liberals in the MSM, who seem to care more about helping poor, little, American-murdering terrorists than anyone really suffering and in need of our help (hmmm, say, like the Iraqis under Saddam Hussein).

President Bush is receiving warm welcome on his visit to Africa. (Don't worry, I'm sure we'll hear the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton praising Bush on all the evening talk shows tonight...) Unlike a liberal who just wants to throw money at the problem, Bush's aid has stipulations. And unlike a liberal, Bush is actually getting results.

Listen to this:

...there is widespread recognition of his successful humanitarian and health initiatives on the continent.

Bush has spent more money on aid to Africa than his predecessor, Bill Clinton, and is popular for his personal programs to fight AIDS and malaria and to help hospitals and schools.

Bush has stressed new-style partnerships with Africa based on trade and investment and not purely on aid handouts.

His Millennium Challenge Corp. rewards countries that continue to satisfy criteria for democratic governance, anti-corruption and free-market economic policies.

Bush signed the largest such deal, for $698 million, with Kikwete on Sunday.

Because of the U.S. anti-malaria program, 5 percent of patients tested positive for the disease on the offshore islands of Zanzibar in 2007 compared to 40 percent three years earlier, the Tanzanian leader said.

Bush's legacy in Africa would be saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of mothers and children who would otherwise have died from malaria or AIDS and enabling millions of people to get an education, he said.

Friday, February 15

On a roll

Ann's weekly column- worth a read. It had me laughing out loud with lines like those I've excerpted below. And of course, she makes more good points about McCain...

We keep hearing about McCain's "lifetime" rating from the American Conservative Union being 82.3 percent. But McCain has been a member of Congress for approximately 400 years, so that includes his votes on the Spanish-American War.

---

Since 1998, only four Republican senators have had worse ACU scores than John McCain -- and none were from Goldwater country: Lincoln Chafee, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter. The last time McCain ranked this far down in his class, he was at the Naval Academy.

Wednesday, February 13

A Wonderful Place to Live... If you can keep your house

The New Fallujah metro area tops the country in forclosure rates for 2007. According to this link:

Some 4.9 percent of the households in the Detroit metro area were in some stage of foreclosure in 2007 -- 4.8 times the national average, according to the study being released Wednesday by mortgage research company RealtyTrac Inc.

OK, indulge me for a minute of whining: Will you people have some patriotism and at least CONSIDER buying American cars again?? Check out this car and try to tell me we aren't on a comeback???

Monday, February 11

Global Cooling Update

It's frickin' freezing here in New Fallujah!!! Yesterday evening it was 0. Yes, that's ZERO. And that was without the wind chill. It's warmed up today to about 7. Yes, that's SEVEN, not seventeen or twenty-seven - SEVEN. And I'm not talking celsius.

I was watching the local news the other day and they had a radar showing the frigid temps and the weatherman had to point out that the big blank area over Minnesota was due to the fact that their radar equipment did not measure tempuratures below -30. Yes, that was colder than NEGATIVE THIRTY.

Now, if this isn't enough evidence for you all to go out and buy pickups and SUVs, I don't know what is. We are talking about the coldest temps Fairbanks, Alaska has seen in eight years! Don't you know the water will freeze and the poor polar bears won't have anywhere to swim or fish??

Out of Touch

I loved these two stories from Drudge right next to each other:

"Pelosi: Iraq 'is a failure' followed by 'al qaeda in Iraq in total collapse'

Some of that second link bears copying:

Al-Qaeda in Iraq faces an “extraordinary crisis”. Last year's mass defection of ordinary Sunnis from al-Qaeda to the US military “created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight”. The terrorist group's security structure suffered “total collapse”.

These are the words not of al-Qaeda's enemies but of one of its own leaders in Anbar province — once the group's stronghold. They were set down last summer in a 39-page letter seized during a US raid on an al-Qaeda base near Samarra in November.

The US military released extracts from that letter yesterday along with a second seized in another November raid that is almost as startling.

That second document is a bitter 16-page testament written last October by a local al-Qaeda leader near Balad, north of Baghdad. “I am Abu-Tariq, emir of the al-Layin and al-Mashahdah sector,” the author begins. He goes on to describe how his force of 600 shrank to fewer than 20.

Pelosi needs to loosen her headscarf or something. I think even Hillary is admitting that the surge is successful. And Obama says... well, Obama has hope that it was.

Friday, February 8

Priorities

In all this election hubbub, we can't forget about global warming!! Or is it global cooling that we should be worrying about --as these non-agenda driven scientists seem to think? I highly recommend reading the entire article for scientific analysis of the sun's activity and why they equate this to future cooling periods.

It concludes:

The study says that "try as we might, we simply could not find any relationship between industrial activity, energy consumption and changes in global temperatures."

The study concludes that if you shut down all the world's power plants and factories, "there would not be much effect on temperatures."

But don't worry, I'm sure these findings won't stop the environmentalist whackos like Algore. If the planet starts cooling, they'll just fret about the mosquito going extinct instead of those poor polar bears...

Thursday, February 7

Conservababe for Clinton

Ann has a great post this week that thoroughly sums up my feeling about John McCain. I would like to add to Ann's thoughts by saying that I will never vote for a man who thwarted the President I supported for 8 years because he was bitter about losing in the primary, went against his party, was a big part of why with a GOP-controlled congress we got almost NOTHING done in the last 8 years (thanks!), ridiculed me as a racist because I don't believe in open borders and amnesty for all illegals and calls me a "denier" for not falling prey to this ridiculous, politically-motivated man-made global warming hooey. After all that, he's wants me to "calm down" and vote for him. He is taking my vote for granted, assuming that I am so afraid of Hillary that I'll vote for this GOP turncoat. Sorry, John, but no one takes my vote for granted.

As Ann concludes:

If Hillary is elected president, we'll have a four-year disaster, with Republicans ferociously opposing her, followed by Republicans zooming back into power, as we did in 1980 and 1994, and 2000. (I also predict more Oval Office incidents with female interns.)

If McCain is elected president, we'll have a four-year disaster, with the Republicans in Congress co-opted by "our" president, followed by 30 years of Democratic rule.

There's your choice, America.

Wednesday, February 6

Super Tuesday Recap

I can't say we didn't see this coming, but it is rather disappointing. Let's see... McCain won a bunch of mostly blue states that he has no choice of winning in a general election. A bunch of Southerners who would rather have McCain be president gave Huckabee several states. Romney won several, as well, but everyone is counting him out. (By "everyone" I mean the MSM who are eager for the only good, conservative candidate we have to drop out of the race.)

What was most telling about yesterday's race was how many more Democrats voted than Republicans. They're excited about their candidates; we're not. Even though I've been supporting Romney, it's because he's the best we've got, not because I'm really excited for him to be our candidate. So there you have it. If the Republican party wants to abandon it's conservative principals and its conservative base. If they think the way of the future is to act like Democrats. If they want to demean our beliefs and court the NY Times. I hope they lose.

This is copied from Rush's site; a caller on today's show summed up how I feel about the whole thing:

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Listen, I don't think the media gets it. I don't think these Republican pundits get it. I'm 50 years old. I've been a Republican since I was a child because my mother was a Republican Party precinct leader, and I have never voted in a federal election for anybody but the Republican candidate, not because they were Republican, but because they were conservative. I cannot vote for John McCain. I don't care what he says between now and --

RUSH: Why not? Why not? I hear so many people say that, why not?

CALLER: Because, as Thomas Sowell so well put it, you know, people are looking at it, he betrayed us. You know, Hillary and Obama can go out there and be liberal and say what they are. He said he was one of us. And then, because he lost an election, he turned around, and because he hated Bush, you know, he always has to hate somebody, he hated us, he hated the conservatives, he hated the Christian right, he turned around and slapped us over and over and over again. He twice wanted to leave the party, and now the Republicans have the audacity to ask me, a person who has supported them, given them money, given them time, to support this man. I'm not going to do it. I don't care what he says. He can reincarnate Reagan and run with him; I will not vote for this man for president. And this hurts. This is a hard thing, to come to this realization.

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. Are you just going to not vote, or are you going to go out there and vote for the Democrats?

CALLER: At this point, I'm not going to vote. If I think McCain can win, I will vote for the Democrats, but I do not want him as a representative of all the things Republicans have fought for, and Rush, I'm not the only one. Nobody in my family, I know a lot of people, my husband, his wife, my cousin, his wife, my grown children. Nobody gets this.

Tuesday, February 5

And I wondered...

...why Huckabee was still staying in this race that he clearly has no chance of winning. Speaking to my dad last night about my general frusteration with this election process, he pointed out the obvious: Huckabee (and countless others) are counting on McCain to win and they want jobs or favors when he's president. It's that simple. Apparently, Mitt isn't as apt at playing politics as our long-long-longtime Washington friend, John McCain.

Today in West Virginia, the Romney camp alleges a "backroom deal" between McCain and Huckabee to thwart Romney. This stinks.

Monday, February 4

UPSET

Wow. Did everyone see that game last night? Being a Pats fan, I was not very happy with the outcome, but what a game! You have to hand it to the Giants. I've read some analysts who think the Pats just blew it, but they aren't giving the Giants enough credit for that amazing defensive play. Brady was sacked 5 times! Are you kidding? The Giants were all over NE's offense. Sure, Eli came up with the big plays on that last drive, but it was the Giants' defense that should have won the MVP in my opinion...

That was one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history. Let's hope it's a harbinger of things to come. (Like, say, Romney upsetting McCain on Super Tuesday tomorrow...)