POST SCRIPTS: November 2007 Archives

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November 30, 2007

BIG OIL PROFITS

by Tina Grazier

Americans do a lot of complaining about corporate profits but rarely ask what corporations do with all that profit. A proposal by Conoco-Phillips offers one explanation:

HOUSTON - Oil exploration and production company ConocoPhillips said Friday it has proposed to develop a multibillion-dollar pipeline that would transport natural gas from Alaska to the lower 48 states and Canada.The company said it's "prepared to make significant investments, without state matching funds, to advance this project." ConocoPhillips spokesman Charlie Rowton said the company's best estimate for the entire project, including the pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to Chicago, is between $25 billion and $42

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

Mother Nature Talks Back

Patrick Condon of the Associated Press reports: "A North Pole expedition meant to bring attention to global warming was called off after one of the explorers got frostbite."

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:37 PM | Comments (0)

Tort Lawyers Indicted

by Tina Grazier

I know I shouldn’t be filled with such overwhelming glee, but I admit it…I am! The Wall Street Journal reported today that several of America’s most prominent, and aggressive, tort lawyers have been indicted on charges of conspiracy, fraud and bribery:

Bill Lerach, the king of class actions, stands disgraced as an admitted felon. His former partners at Milberg Weiss face trial for being part of the same kickback scheme as Lerach. Federal prosecutors continue to pursue a criminal probe into asbestos and silicosis litigation fraud.

And now comes the indictment of Mississippi tort legend Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, who is trying to soak insurance companies the way he once did Big Tobacco. *** On Wednesday, Mr. Scruggs and four cohorts were indicted for trying to bribe a state judge in exchange for favorable rulings. *** The alleged conspiracy flows from litigation after Hurricane Katrina. The Scruggs Law Firm established a tort consortium called the Scruggs Katrina Group to shake down the insurance industry for not paying enough in claims, even though most homeowner policies excluded flood damage. Not atypically, a dispute emerged between Mr. Scruggs and one of the group's attorneys, John Griffin Jones, over how to divide the $26.5 million in attorneys' loot from a mass settlement with State Farm Insurance Co. *** According to the indictment, after Jones v. Scruggs moved to court, Mr. Scruggs attempted to buy off presiding circuit court Judge Henry Lackey. Judge Lackey reported the bribery overture and assisted with an FBI investigation. *** If convicted, the Scruggs Five could each face up to 75 years in prison.

Lawsuits “for attorney loot” drive up prices and premiums, tarnish the reputations of companies, diminish legitimate suits, and make a mockery of the judicial system. I hope these indictments discourage others from overreaching and, if found guilty, I hope these men receive some of what they wrought.

Read the entire story, The Trial Bar on Trial, over at WSJOJ.

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:25 PM | Comments (1)

Woman Flogged for Getting Raped?

The Saudi Injustice Ministry announced that a girl gang raped by seven men was then sentenced to six months in prison and 90 lashes which became 200 lashes when she appealed her case.

"In 2006 a Shiite Saudi 19-year-old, known only as the "Girl from Qatif," said she had recently been married and met a high school friend in his car to retrieve a picture of herself from him. While in a car with him, two men got into the vehicle and forced them to drive to a secluded area where others waited, and then she and her companion were both raped."

She was sentenced to prison and 90 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her and when her lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, appealed the sentence, he was removed from the case, his license suspended and the penalty doubled to 200.

Where is the moral outrage from our hand wringing liberals and tough feminists in America and the rest of the world? I don't see any protests marches or candle light vigils over this barbaric injustice.

Please send or fax an urgent letter to the King of Saudi Arabia. Here are some key points you can include in your letter:

Expressing your grave concern that the woman known as "The Girl from al-Qatif" and her male companion are at risk of being flogged calling on the authorities to halt the floggings immediately, as the use of corporal punishment constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, in violation of Saudi Arabia's obligations as a state party to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), and Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states 'No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment' calling on the authorities to declare the sentence of Khilwa against the woman and her companion null and void as it contravenes international human rights standards, in particular the right to privacy expressing particular concern that the woman has been sentenced to flogging after having been gang raped, and that her physical and psychological suffering has been exacerbated by her trial and the sentence of 200 lashes urging that she be afforded all necessary assistance, including appropriate medical attention
calling for the sentences of flogging against those convicted of the rape to be commuted to a humane punishment.
Suggested wording for your letter is provided once you have logged into the Action Centre. You are encouraged to edit the letter so it is written in your words. There are no reliable email addresses available for Saudi Arabian authorities; you will need to print and then post or fax your letter. If you receive a response please let us know.

Send your letters to:

King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud
The Custodian of the two Holy Mosques
Office of His Majesty the King
Royal Court, Riyadh
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Fax: 0011 966 1403 1185

Posted by Post Scripts at 12:26 PM | Comments (1)

Muslim Students Angry - UC Irvine

by Chuck Devore, Assemblyman

Dr. Daniel Pipes spoke tonight at UCI. His topic: Islamic extremism.

First, what didn't happen, unlike earlier this year, members of the Muslim Student Union didn't try to shout him down.

What did happen was a Muslim Student Union-led walkout en masse, so, it was a disruption of a different kind as the MSU members did violence to Dr. Pipe's free speech rights using a kinder, gentler tactic. (Memo to the MSU: you can protest outside and hand out all the flyers you want. But pause to reflect on how your actions and fear of violence caused seven hired police officers to be present vs. no police hired to protect MSU events on campus“ how does that look? Also, big hint here: stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America. If you are not a citizen, you clearly should not pledge allegiance but for goodness sake, out of politeness, respect and protocol, STAND, if you can. I stand at a respectful position of attention when other nations pay respect to their flag. When in America, you should do the same. Not to do so looks bad, very bad.

As the MSU walkout emptied about half of the room, Dr. Pipes continued his remarks. Then the lighting system when dim several times, at one point almost plunging the room into darkness. Dr. Pipes just smiled gently from the podium.

As for the content of Dr. Pipes speech, it was all rather academic and reasonable. There was nothing he said that was extreme or at variance with what I learned while a Strategic Studies major at Claremont McKenna College with two years of Arabic and a semester overseas studying Islamic political thought in Cairo Egypt. Ironically, had the members of the MSU and their supporters stayed to listen, they would have heard Dr. Pipes say that going into Iraq and staying was a mistake and that we should not take responsibility for running Iraq and caring for Iraqis. Same with Iran. Toppling Iran or preventing their acquisition of nuclear weapons yes. Occupation, no. In this, Dr. Pipes draws a closer analogy to the defeat of Soviet communism during the Cold War in 1991, rather than the defeat and total occupation of the Axis powers in 1945 two examples he brought up three or four times in the course of lecture.

Dr. Pipes main thesis was that America needs a coherent strategy to deal with Islamic extremism of the type that took its political cues from Italy and Germany circa the 1920s and 30s and first developed indigenously in India and Egypt. In this, I am in full agreement with Dr. Pipes, both as to the origin of modern Islamic totalitarianism as an ideology that aspires to global conquest, as well as in the need for a comprehensive strategy. As Dr. Pipes said: this is not a war against terrorism, terrorism is a method. This is a war against Islamic extremism. To win this war Dr. Pipes said that we will need the assistance of moderate Muslims who seek to modernize their faith. He was confident that this was doable, if very difficult.

As if to underscore this point, the last question of the evening was asked by a young woman wearing a traditional headscarf. She asked Dr. Pipes what happens if Muslims don't want to modernize? If they decide they want to remain traditionalists and won't give in. Dr. Pipes tried to clarify the question, but in the end said that the war must then go on until Islamic extremists do decide to modernize and give up attacking the West. And if they don't give up, she persisted. Then we continue, Pipes replied, adding that Muslims such as herself in America have more to fear in losing their lives to extremist Muslims than they do from any generalized fear of an American response that may put their community under greater scrutiny. The young woman protested that Dr. Pipes was apparently stating that all terrorists were Muslims. Pipes responded to the effect that most terrorists were Muslim extremists and to pretend otherwise is foolish. He then cited the recent cases of a Bosnian Muslim yelling Allah akbar who opened fire in a mall in Utah, killing five and wounding four, and of the gunman who, yelling Allah akbar in a Jewish community center in Seattle last year, killed one and wounded five.

I'm glad I attended the event. Perhaps next time, the Muslim Student Union members and their supporters will figure out that they can have their free speech without infringing on the free speech rights of others. Oh, and remember, don't remain defiantly seated next time during the Pledge of Allegiance it really ticks most Americans off a lot. If you are a guest in our nation, act like it, otherwise, don't be too shocked when some Americans don't particularly want you around.

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

Kill The Teacher!

by Jack Lee

She is a harmless, caring, 54 year old school teacher from the UK who came to the Sudan to help educated some of the world's poorest children. Now the local citizens want to beat her to death with clubs. Her crime against the Sudanese people: A cultural faux paux - she named a Teddy Bear "Mohammed".

This odyssey of injustice began when Gillian Gibbons was asked by her high school class to name a teddy bear that would then be their class mascot. Of the many names submitted Ms. Gibbons choose one, "Mohammed", which seemed like a good choice because it was also the name of a popular student in her class. Although no parents complained, details of the so-called "blasphemy" got around to the police who were empowered to charge Ms. Gibbons with a crime under Sudanese law. As the word spread about this dangerous school teacher and her "intolerable offense" against peaceful Islam, Muslim protestors gathered by the hundreds in front of the high school. They chanted, "No one lives who insults the Prophet!" and they flew green flags depicting the Nation of Islam, they carried clubs, cerimonial swords and waved the Koran as they worked themselves into a frenzy ready to murder in the name of Allah!

Gibbons was convicted by a local Kangaroo Court and instantly whisked away to a secret location unknown to even the British Embassy. Embassy officials expressed "concerns" for her welfare and demanded to speak to her, however their pleas fell on deaf ears. In part, this was probably due to a growing rift between the Muslim government in Khartoum and the British because of Khartoum's genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. There hoards of hired gunmen (mostly Arab) systematically attack and murder villagers by the hundreds for no other reason than they are non-Muslims.

Gibbons was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation, which was the lesser of two possible sentences. The other carried more time and flogging.

Public flogging in Sudan

America has a long standing reputation for embracing diverse cultures and we try to make no judgement about one's religion, however incidents like the one above make me wonder if the time has come when civilized people of good conscience must draw a line and say, "This is barbaric and anybody who thinks this way and wants to come to the United States should stay home!"

Call me intolerant, bigoted or whatever, but I refuse to engage anyone who would some sort of moral equivalency between a few isolated crimes by our homegrown zealots and what is happening in the world of Islamic extremism. There is no relevant moral equivalency. Instead, it's time we stand up as Americans and denounce radical Islam for what it is, barbaric and backward and totally out of bounds in a civilized world.

When it comes to our society, we should only tolerate what is compatible within the bounds of our Constitution, our belief in our inalienable rights and our Democracy; to do any less is to undermine them all.

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:54 AM | Comments (1)

November 29, 2007

Idea to Re-Animate the Clinton Campaign

By Tina Grazier

I've heard that President Bill Clinton has been stumping for his wife of late and that she has been losing ground to Obama. Today I came across a story that just might bring new vigor...and it's the perfect, you'll pardon the expression, tool for the ex-president to utilize while campaigning. The idea hails from the Far East, Tailand to be exact:

“Bangkok - Parliamentary candidates in Thailand's upcoming election are trying to buy the votes of elderly men by passing out free Viagra, a local government official said today.” – Agence Presse-France

Yep...perfect!

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)

Commanding Performance

Orchestrating Defeat
by Tina Grazier

Three stories in the news today illustrate the difference between the democrat controlled congress and our president. The president is doing what he has always done; he is moving forward with plans to win in Iraq and in the broader war. The dems in congress continue to do what they always do, everything they can to win for themselves. First on the board is a story from >

The postwar relationship between Iraq and the United States is now a broader public topic. This week, the White House and the Iraqi government announced that state-to-state discussions are taking place with the goal of reaching detailed agreements that will govern Iraq and America's long-term political, economic and military ties. Iraqis have asked for "an enduring relationship with America."

This story heralds the success of our military and diplomatic efforts and the efforts of the Iraqi government and people. It is a story that in a sane world would be celebrated with thanksgiving and hope for the future. Our friends on the left, however, just can't seem to put down that wet blanket or make every attempt to in control, and so we hear from Rep. John Murtha as reported by Brian Bowling in the Pittsburg Tribune-Review:

U.S. Rep. John Murtha believes the Bush administration is beginning to show a willingness to negotiate with Congress an end to the war in Iraq. The Johnstown Democrat said Thursday that Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, Bush's "war czar" for Iraq and Afghanistan, called him Wednesday after Murtha returned from a four-day tour of Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey and Belgium. Congressional leaders want to meet with Bush to discuss a plan for getting out of Iraq.

Hello...Bush is way ahead of you...try to keep up! And while you're at it try doing your real job...finance this thing so we can move forward toward an "enduring relationship" with Iraq...it is unseemly that the president must admonish when our military has accomplished so much:

President Bush warned Congress yesterday that the Pentagon soon will have to start laying off civilian employees and reducing operations at U.S. military bases unless lawmakers send him an emergency war funding bill that does not mandate troop withdrawals from Iraq. - William Branigin, Washington Post

Playing childish games for political traction should be beneath our esteemed representatives. Alas, it is not!

Please vote wisely in "08!

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

This Weeks Best Joke

Submitted by TinmanB,

Two 90-year-old women, Rose and Barb, had been friends all of their lives.

When it was clear that Rose was dying, Barb visited her every day. One day Barb said, "Rose, we both loved playing tennis all our lives, and we played all through High School. Please do me one favor... when you get to Heaven, somehow you must let me know if there's tennis there."

Rose looked up at Barb from her deathbed and said, "Barb, you've been my best friend for many years. If it's at all possible, I'll do this favor for you." Shortly after that, Rose passed on.

At midnight a few nights later, Barb was awakened from a sound sleep by a blinding flash of white light and a voice calling out to her, "Barb, Barb."

"Who is it?" asked Barb, sitting up suddenly. "Who is it?"

"Barb -- it's me, Rose."

"You’re not Rose. Rose just died."

"I'm telling you, it's me, Rose," insisted the voice.

"Rose! Where are you?"

"In Heaven," replied Rose. "I have some really good news and a little bad news."

"Tell me the good news first," said Barb.

"The good news," Rose said, "is that there's tennis in Heaven. Better yet, all of our old buddies who died before us are here, too. Better than that, we're all young again. Better still, it's always springtime, and it never rains or snows. And best of all, we can play tennis all we want, and we never get tired."

"That's fantastic," said Barb. "It's beyond my wildest dreams! So what's the bad news?"

"You're playing Tuesday!"

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)

British Scare Off Pirates

ARABIAN SEA (NNS) -- British Navy warship HMS Campbeltown saved a civilian cruise liner from potential pirate attack while on coalition patrol in the Arabian Sea.

The Seabourn Spirit's call for help was taken at the Bahrain headquarters of Royal Navy and coalition operations in the Gulf, as the liner transited for Muscat, Oman. The crew had grown increasingly concerned about small skiffs believed to be pirates closing on their position.

Pirates are known to operate in the area - the Seabourn Spirit was attacked by armed criminals in nearby waters exactly two years ago. A number of vessels have been successfully hijacked in waters around the Somali coastline this year.

Over 120 nautical miles away Campbeltown's maritime attack Lynx helicopter was dispatched to the scene, armed with its machine gun to reassure the cruise liner, and if necessary intercept the pirates. By the time the helicopter had reached the liner the skiffs had disappeared.

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)

Terrorism Intel Site

Submitted by Dan B

Here is a global map of terrorism activity that is updated every 300 seconds...

http://www.globalincidentmap.com/home.php

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)

Presidential Debate

by Jack Lee

The question has been raised in a number of media-talk forums, is necessary to have a live audience in presidential debates? The audience seems to be made up single issue zealots, hyper-partisan hacks and mouth breathers and they boo and cheer according to their narrow and often irrelevant personal interests. Do we really need that, or are the American people sophisticated enough to get beyond the "canned laughter" mentality that tells us the speaker just said something funny?

Another thing that struck me odd was having CNN and MSNBC moderate the event, where's FOX? Obviously CNN and MSNBC wasn't up to the job or they would have asked more relevant questions geared to real conservative concerns like nukes in Iran, not just the fantasized notions about the issues that could only come from people living 24/7 on the left. I could care less about the "Confederate flag" flying in Slippryrock! I want to know what we will do about nukes in Iran or attacking Al Qaeda inside Pakistan.

From the Telegraph in the UK...

Huckabee won

"Bad-tempered slights and bickering over claim and counter-claim marked the latest Republican debate this morning, prompting an ordained minister to intervene and diffuse the situation with his folksy humour.

The minister, a Baptist, was Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and the new surprise front-runner in the first-voting state of Iowa.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has shaken up the Republican race Rudy Giuliani, the national front-runner, and Mitt Romney, who had been leading in Iowa months before the under-funded Mr Huckabee crept up and overtook him, immediately went for each other's jugulars."

"....In a clash over illegal immigration, Mr Giuliani responded angrily to Mr Romney's accusation that New York had been a "sanctuary city" for illegal aliens.

Mr Giuliani shot back that the former Massachusetts governor's home had been a "sanctuary mansion", because a newspaper had revealed that illegal Guatemalans had once tended his lawn."

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:44 AM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2007

Fred Thompson-Man with a Tax Plan

And a choice for every taxpayer
by Tina Grazier

I’m a serious American; a conservative that wants information. I want to know what the candidates’ goals are and how they wish to proceed as we move forward. Fred Thompson has offered a tax plan and is not being cute or coy about the details. According to a Wall Street Journal editorial, Flat Tax Fred, has a plan that will please most in the GOP. I’m just happy to hear a solid idea for a change…we can tweak later. Fred’s tax plan is simple:

to abolish the death tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax and cut the corporate income tax rate to 27% from 35%. *** …his really big idea is a voluntary flat tax that would give every American the option of ditching the current code in favor of filing a simple tax return with two tax rates of 10% and 25%. *** The Thompson plan would allow taxpayers to keep their mortgage and charitable deductions if they prefer, by adhering to the current tax code and rates. But it would also allow the option to abandon those credits and deductions except for a single allowance based on family size ($39,000 for a family of four). Most taxpayers would pay a 10% rate on income above that allowance, with a 25% rate kicking in at $100,000 for a couple. *** There would only be five lines on the tax form and most taxpayers could fill it out in minutes.

Way to go Fred!>

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:07 PM | Comments (4)

"What Would Jesus Do?"

by Tina Grazier

Tonight during the YouTube/CNN republican debate a young (mush filled) skull came up with the "Jesus" question (adding just a smidgeon of smirk) as regards the death penalty. My husband had the best response, but since he's not running for president, I thought I'd pass his answer on to you:

"He'd submit."

There it is in a nut shell! The young skull is obviously parroting the smarmy self righteous assertion of the athiest, that one is a hypocrite if he calls himself Christian and also supports the death penlty. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The death penalty is not an act of murder (thou shalt not)...it is an act of government. It can be avoided through personal restraint and choice. If we have been awake we are aware of the death penalty; if we are smart we avoid it. The victims of those who commit murder (actively "seek" the death penalty) have no such choice. There is a difference and our society has rightly noted and made a distintion concerning that difference.

Hot tip just in from Captain's Quarters:

UPDATE: CNN committed a major error by allowing Brig. General Kerr to stage a question without disclosing that he serves on Hillary Clinton's campaign. Instapundit posted that Anderson Cooper and CNN have apologized for it, admitting that they never checked Kerr out.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:40 PM | Comments (5)

$347,000 For Trimming Trees?

Everybody's got a horror story about a bureaucratic nightmare, but if you can top this one, call me collect at your earliest convenience.

Ann Collard was seven months pregnant with her third child in June when an abatement notice came from the Glendale Fire Department. She and her husband, Mike, were ordered to clear some foliage and maintain 5 feet of "vertical clearance between roof surfaces and overhanging portions of trees."

The Collards knew their oaks and sycamores needed a trim. And so they talked to neighbors, did a little research and called a recommended tree trimmer based in Orange County.

For $3,000, the guy said, he'd remove about 15% of the foliage and they'd be in the clear.

The Collards asked if a permit was necessary.

Not at all, said the licensed trimmer, who told the Collards he'd done lots of work in Glendale.

On the third day of the three-day job, the city's urban forester happened to be in the neighborhood, and noticed the tree trimmer doing his thing.

"She saw what was happening and said, 'Stop! Cease and desist!' " says Mike, a work-at-home software and computer guy.

Glendale has an indigenous tree protection ordinance that dates to the 1980s. It was enacted to discourage developers and homeowners from bulldozing or hacking trees willy-nilly. Earlier this year, because of citizen complaints that native trees were still being ruined, the city approved more restrictions and bigger fines.

None of which the Collards knew about.

They now admit that had they read the Fire Department notice closely, they would have seen in small print that a free permit was required to trim oak and sycamore branches larger than 1 inch in diameter. But it was an understandable oversight.

A week after her first visit, the urban forester was back, telling the Collards an arborist would come by soon to assess the damage. The Collards recall being told they might want to hire an attorney.

"That's when we realized the gravity of the situation," says Ann. "I was pregnant and crying, but it didn't help."

In August, the Collards got a visit from the arborist. She looked at the trees, took measurements and jotted down notes.

How bad could it be? The Collards began to anticipate the possibility of a fine, but it wasn't as if the trees were mauled. They looked pretty good, in fact.

Finally, on Oct. 1, a letter arrived. It was from Glendale's Neighborhood Services administrator.

"Dear Owner," it began. "The city of Glendale is committed to maintaining a community with quality streetscapes that include the care and well-being of protected indigenous trees."

The letter informed them they had improperly pruned 13 trees, some of them on city property because they were near the street, and some on their own property. The fine was listed on Page 2, where the Collards were informed they would be charged "two times the value of the damaged tree(s)."

"Total: $347,600."

"I about passed out," says Ann.

Posted by Post Scripts at 03:40 PM | Comments (2)

DOW UP 350 POINTS MIDDAY!

BRIEFING.COM] Heading into the final half-hour of trading, the major indices hit fresh session highs. The financial sector is now posting a whopping 5.1% gain. At yesterday's closing price, financials were down 21.7% year-to-date. Other beaten down areas, such as the S&P 500 Retailing Index (+5.1%) and consumer discretionary (+3.5%) are having strong days.

Posted by Post Scripts at 01:18 PM | Comments (2)

Army Must Be Desperate for Soldiers

by Jack Lee

He's been out of the army almost two years, he's been going to college on the GI bill, he's a newly wed with a nice job and he's even started a part-time acting career and then... and then he get's his official recall to active duty in the Army!

Life can be full of suprises...

This is pretty much akin to a draft, but in a way it's worse because we are recalling veteran soldiers that have already done their duty and they had every reason to think their military service to their country was behind them. Well, in 35 days this young man will be boarding a plane to Ft. Benning, Ga. for retraining and then he's likely off to Iraq...his M.O.S. is (11b) infantry, so it's a safe bet anyone who is infantry goes mostly to Iraq or Afghanistan. Which brings up the question, why couldn't we have invaded some nicer place like the Virgin Islands or Costa Rica? I wouldn't mind spending some recall time on a nice beach listening to marimba music.

Posted by Post Scripts at 12:32 PM | Comments (1)

November 27, 2007

Judging Book Covers

by Tina Grazier

Shakelford, who owns a small winery in Oregon, has shoulder length white hair with a matching beard. His youth was spent in a typical fashion for the day:

At 25, Shackelford had married, fathered two children, divorced and served a few weeks in a Cuban army prison after showing up to help Castro win his revolution. In the winter of 1964, a new girlfriend in hand, he set off for Mexico. They played in the sun and camped on the beach.

Today his coastal winery finds him playing host at wedding parties, anniversary celebrations, art shows and concerts and he has sponsered bluegrass festivals and concerts. His service to the community is legendary...as one woman put it:

"He always rose above the mundane and came up with some new way to support his passions for music, gatherings, charities -- and he was successful beyond anyone's dreams."

His community efforts might be considered the limits of what any one man can accomplish but that’s not the end of this man’s story. When he’s not playing host he travels and in his travels he’s found ways to touch the lives of others:

Shakelford helped Lang upgrade his bicycle to a motorcycle and then to a car, and he helped pay for Lang's schooling. Then, learning that Lang's village had never had a school, he built two -- one for students in grades first through third, and a second for learning English. It was a start, but it wasn't food on the table. *** Lang suggested a sewing room, and last summer Shackelford returned to Chheneng with $1,500 from sales of the colorful silklike handbags, backpacks and wine bags he sells in his tasting rooms. "Four hundred dollars would feed the village for 20 days," says Shackelford. "They don't have a lot." *** Shackelford is currently in Tanzania helping a friend he met 12 years ago in Ecuador fix up a house.

Now it’s time to judge this book by its cover. What say you…is Mr. Shakelford a conservative or a liberal? It's not always easy to tell. Let’s look a little deeper….

This veteran of the Vietnam War won two silver star medals and has not stopped giving of himself since:

In the past few years, Shackelford estimates, he's spent $25,000 to $30,000 helping out in Cambodia and other developing countries. "People should help each other," says Shackelford, who considers himself a Republican with strong libertarian leanings. "That is a conservative principle that built this country." *** His kindness, however, does not come without certain expectations, say those who know him. *** "Ray expects you to work hard," says Darrell Spacek, a disabled man who has worked at the winery for three years. "He's very demanding, and when it comes time to do something, Ray wants to just get in there and get it done."
But he's fair, says Spacek, and a believer in second chances.

Our notions of what it means to be conservative do not always match the reality! Conservatives are truly individuals...and we find individual ways to express ourselves.

Read about Ray Shakelford in The Oregonian in the story, Winery owner uncorks, by Lori Tobias

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

Muslims Rioting Again

Paris - More than 60 police officers were injured, five of them seriously, when bands of youths rioted late on Monday for a second consecutive night in the suburbs of Paris after the deaths of two minority teenagers, French media reported on Tuesday.

Five of the injured were reported in serious condition, including one riot police officer who was shot in the shoulder with a high-calibre rifle.

In addition, 63 vehicles and five buildings, including a library and two schools, were set on fire as the unrest spread to six suburban ghettos north of Paris 24 hours after two youths, aged 15 and 16, were killed when their off-road motorcycle was struck by a police car in the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel.

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:08 AM | Comments (1)

Big Green Footprint

Al Gore buddy owner of sunken
ship that left huge carbon footprint on Antarctic Ocean floor

Canada Free Press (Canada), by Judi McLeod

You’d never read this in the mainstream media: The owner of MS Explorer that sank, leaving a huge carbon footprint at the bottom of the Antarctic Ocean Friday is an acolyte of teensy-weensy carbon footprint crusader Al Gore. G.A.P. Adventures CEO and Explorer owner, Bruce Poon Tip and Gore have similar ideals, “filling their schedules with speaking engagements on environmental change to educate global audiences.” And that’s straight off of www.gapadventures.com.

Note from Tina: The gapadventures website is interesting and demonstrates the true gift that liberals have to offer.

If only they could learn that government is a very destructive and poor substitute for personal choice and enrollment they could make quite a contribution. Big hearts, adventurous spirit...fatal attraction to government programs and grand schemes.

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)

Household Spending

by Jack Lee

Latest study: We are spending just slightly more than we make...savings is minus .01 per dollar earned. We've never earned more, we've never spent more and we've never saved less. Anybody else have a problem with this or is just me?

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:15 AM | Comments (1)

In the Year 2010 an Amazing Discovery

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)

Quote of the Week

"There is no conservative party left in Washington. Conservative thinkers and writers who were to be the watchdogs of orthodoxy have been as vigilant in policing party deviations from principle as was Cardinal Law in collaring the predator-priests of the Boston archdiocese." Pat Buchannon

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)

The Cure Doctors Don't Want You to Know!

by Jack Lee

Chelation therapy, ever hear of it? It's based on a substance called EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) and it is supposed to remove the plaque in your arteries. Check out these claims from an ad on a popular internet site. This sounds like the greatest discovery since the polio vaccine.

The 23-Cent LIFE-SAVER Heart Surgeons NEVER TELL YOU ABOUT! The astonishing health miracle, 1.5 million grateful patients swear by... So safe, it's FDA-APPROVED for use in baby food: Proven THREE TIMES SAFER than aspirin—used worldwide for 56 years without any significant side-effects ever reported!

So effective, you can actually SEE it working: medical studies prove it works and U.S. doctors prescribe it every day! So cheap, it's JUST PENNIES A DAY: Just 23 cents per capsule — one-tenth the cost of a gallon of gas!

Ok, now wait just a sec, the product doctors don't want you to know , why? Really... why, because you will get well? Right off you should be suspicious because that statement is about as idiotic as they come. All doctors want to keep you sick? The next clue you are about to be frauded is this one, "grateful patients swear by it! " That's no evidence. This is testimonial evidence which is really next to worthless.

An independent research report said, "Between 1963 and 1985, independent physicians published at least fifteen separate reports documenting the case histories of more than seventy patients who had received chelation treatments. They found no evidence of change in the atherosclerotic disease process, no decrease in the size of atherosclerotic plaques, and no evidence that narrowed arteries opened wider."

In other medical trials..."EDTA did not result in any change in the patients' blood flow, red cell viscosity, red-cell aggregation, or triglyceride and cholesterol levels. Diehm also concluded that the improvements in walking measurements in both groups were directly related to his success in convincing them of his strong interest in their well being and his ability to motivate them to make an effort to perform greater activity."

The ad says, the brain cells that control learning, reasoning, coordination, and memory are being rejuvenated and sparking to life again... Nerve endings, once deadened, are being revived and electrified. Creaky, inflamed, and painful joints are being soothed, renewed, and rendered pain-free... Entire organs — from his eyes and ears... to his heart, lungs and liver... to his stomach, pancreas, and intestines — and even to his sexual organs — are being revitalized and are returning to their normal functions... Extremities — arms and hands, legs and feet — once cold, tingling and numb are now being warmed and sensitized by abundant supplies of life-giving blood! "

Chelation therapy has been conclusively shown to be up to 82 PERCENT EFFECTIVE at dissolving the plaque that blocks arteries!

Then this independant medical study says, "tests indicated no improvement in blood flow through the patients' coronary arteries and a slight progression of their atherosclerosis. Hopf concluded that chelation had no effect on diseased coronary arteries."

Do you think we need a truth in advertising law?

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:25 AM | Comments (0)

Citigroup Gets Help from Abu Dhabi

Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, will receive a $7.5 billion cash infusion from Abu Dhabi to replenish capital after record mortgage losses wiped out almost half its market value.

Citigroup rose 2.6 percent in New York trading today following acting Chief Executive Officer Win Bischoff's statement late yesterday that funds from the state-owned Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will help ``strengthen our capital base.''

Abu Dhabi will buy securities that convert to stock and yield 11 percent a year, almost double the interest Citigroup offers bond investors,

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2007

Hillary in Trouble?

by Dick Morris

Has Hillary’s candidacy just hit a bump in the road or is she seriously decomposing? It’s still too early to tell, but there’s definitely something big going on.

She’s lost her lead in Iowa.

According to The Washington Post/ABC poll, she’s down 4 points, with Obama in first place. (It’s Obama 30%, Hillary 26%, Edwards 21%).

And in New Hampshire, CNN reports that she has lost the commanding 23 point lead she had in September and has crashed down to an 11 point lead today.

This is not good news for Hillary.

And there are signs that her slippage has seeped through to her base. While national polls show that she still leads among women by twenty points, in Iowa, she is actually only tied with Obama among female Democrats!

This is a big change.

What happened? How could her debate performance cause such unraveling?

To grasp what is happening to her, one needs to explore the various levels of reaction to her bad debate three weeks ago and her tepid performance last week.

Level One: She Won’t Answer Questions

The first and most obvious reaction of voters to Hillary’s dodging and weaving in the debates is that she is trying to take both sides of various key issues. Like Bill Clinton during the early years of his presidency, she is trying to have it both ways.

She’s tapping into a collective memory of just how unattractive and ‘clever’ the Clintons can be.

She has a specific plan for saving Social Security…but she won’t discuss it until we achieve “fiscal responsibility.”

She understands why governors are moving to give illegal immigrants drivers licenses – and thinks it’s a good idea. It makes sense -- but she’s against it.

We need to pull troops out of Iraq, she says, but still need to leave them there to stop Iranian infiltration, hunt al Qaeda, and provide support to the Iraq Army.

And so forth…

Caught in the brazen contradictions of her own positions, she has floundered during the debates.

In the debate on October 30th, Obama, Edwards, Dodd and questioner Tim Russert were alert to her dodges and had no hesitation in pouncing on her doublespeak. “I believe Mrs. Clinton just gave too two different positions in the space of about two minutes,” Edwards jabbed. “You just said you were for it,” Dodd noted as Hillary was trying to worm out of endorsing drivers licenses for illegals.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was much kinder to her in the Nevada debate last week, but it appears not to have done her much good.

A lot of voters, particularly recent converts to Hillary, were shocked by her equivocations and double talk.

But many Democrats didn’t mind her dance around the issues because they are so determined to defeat the GOP that they don’t want their candidate to be pinned down to commitments which would make her easier to beat in the general election. For these voters, victory is the goal at any cost and a good dancer is a good candidate.

Is She Too Weak to be the Democratic Candidate?

Then Hillary compounded the problems raised by her debate flaws by implying that the men were ganging up on her. She flew to her old college, Wellesley, and complained that the all-male club of debaters and journalists had treated her harshly, drawing a contrast to the environment that had prevailed at the all-woman school she had attended.

Then she brought in her husband to fight for her. Bill Clinton openly attacked Russert for biased questioning and said Hillary’s rivals had “swift-boated” her during the debate. After much criticism, Clinton later claimed he was talking about the largely silent Republicans.

All his self-defense and self-pity roused concerns about Hillary’s strength as a president, but, more important to Democrats, as a candidate. For months, Hillary has been basing her campaign on her ability to defeat “the vast right wing conspiracy” and the “Republican attack machine.” She said she would “deck them.” While posturing about her White House experience, it was really her campaign experience that she was touting. The woman who had helped lead the battle to win in 1992, win in 1996, prevail in the impeachment battle, and win the Senate seat in New York, was the experienced warrior the Party needed.

But now, as she ran for cover, hiding behind her gender and her husband, she did not look so tough or formidable.

For the Democrats, the primary is a play within a play – a contest between potential presidents to be sure but also a mock election to see who would do best at the real thing come November of next year.

Hillary’s excuses for her debate weakness looked, themselves, weak and further eroded her support.

Obama and Edwards are Empowered

After one of the early Democratic debates, pollster Frank Luntz, monitoring his focus group’s reactions to the contest, said that Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment (“Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of a Fellow Republican”) was now applying to the Democratic contest. This Party, reputed to form firing squads in circles, was suddenly so focused on defeating the Republicans, that they reacted badly to attacks by one Democratic candidate on another, particularly against any criticism of the likely nominee—Hillary.

But after scorching her in the debate, Edwards and Obama both saw their poll numbers rise. Some polls had Edwards moving up by about three points and Obama by five. Their gains, which rewarded rather than punished their aggressive debate strategy, brought with them an impunity which is letting them continue the attacks on Hillary.

Can Hillary Win?

With victory in the general election the only goal of most Democratic primary voters, Hillary’s sag in the polls is creating its own question: Is she really a winner? Willing to overlook a host of faults in order to choose someone to take the Republicans down, they are not willing to forgive the one cardinal sin: losing.

So with each drop in the polls, Hillary’s reputation as a winner, vital to her standing in the Party, has gotten weaker and her hold on the voters loosened.

And the questions her debate performance raised are, themselves, raising new questions, particularly as John Edwards – the more aggressive of Hillary’s two main rivals – zeroes in on her contradictory statements about Iraq. Pressing her to say how many troops she’d leave there and what they’d do and how long they’d be there, Edwards is backing Hillary into a corner. And her old dodge – I won’t negotiate against myself – holds less and less credence as the chances of her winning decline.

What About Iowa?

All these developments are being played out on the stage of a tiny state – Iowa – whose caucuses on January 3rd are the first real forum for the contest. The importance of the Iowa race is heightened by the fact that the Democratic and Republican nominees are likely to be chosen by February 5th, just thirty-three days later.

While Hillary has a big financial advantage over Edwards and a bit of a lead over Obama, Iowa is too small for money to be a decisive advantage. A heavy week of advertising costs only about $200,000 there. Spending on field organization can rack up the cost, but no candidate is too poor to run in Iowa.

Also, the very format of a caucus, where voters must attend meetings rather than just nip around the corner to their polling place, encourages only the committed to vote. Rather than just ducking into the voting booth and pulling a lever, voters must spend hours at a meeting, often casting tactical votes to help their candidate.

So the marginal primary voters don’t show up. And the most committed element of the Democratic Party is, of course, its left wing, now increasingly disenchanted with Hillary’s squishy and inconsistent position on the war.

Indeed, the Washington Post/ABC poll showed that only half of Hillary’s voters have attended caucuses previously in Iowa. By contrast, 57% of Obama’s have and 76% of Edwards’ supporters have been to a caucus in earlier years. If we assume that only those who have already attended a caucus will show up this time, Hillary plunges to third place with Obama and Edwards tied for first.

If Hillary can pull out a victory in Iowa, it will so reinforce the view of her inevitability that voters in the remaining primaries that follow Iowa will be reluctant to weaken their future nominee by voting against her. The perception will harden that Hillary is the winner, both adding to her vote share, and cutting into support for her opponents.

But, what if she loses?

What If Hillary Loses Iowa?

If Hillary fails in Iowa, does she have the hardened support the next contest -- in New Hampshire – to prevail in the face of an Iowa upset? Already, with her bad debate performance, Hillary has lost half of her lead in New Hampshire.

It is not so much that Hillary would falter after an Iowa defeat, but that Obama would surge after a victory. Suddenly, the potential of a black president, which has seemed to fade as Hillary’s lead continued to grow, will galvanize the nation and capture its imagination. Obama, attractive and compelling, will develop huge momentum from an Iowa win and probably will carry New Hampshire as well.

And What then?

Hillary’s national strength is such that she can’t be knocked out by one or two caucus or primary loses. To defeat her, a candidate must battle in all fifty states, taking her on delegate by delegate, winning in the big states. Symbolic defeats in Iowa or New Hampshire with only a handful of delegates at stake won’t derail Hillary. But they will make it harder.

But Obama does have the financial resources to fight a fifty state battle with Hillary, and, with his Internet based fund raising, has the ability to reload his coffers rapidly after a victory.

If Hillary loses Iowa and New Hampshire, the nominating contest could go either way. Obama’s chances at winning would rise, but only to 50-50. Suddenly, women would grow concerned about having the presidency snatched from their grasp and loyal Democrats would wonder if they can win a general election behind an African-American candidate. The Party establishment would not let go of Hillary easily and her IOUs from Democratic office holders and party officials – for whom she has raised boatloads of money – would hold many of her super-delegate votes in place.

But if Hillary loses in Iowa and then loses New Hampshire too it would become a contest.

REPUBLICANS: THE BATTLES WITHIN

On the Republican side of the fence, the Iowa battle is even more interesting. After leading for seven months, Romney suddenly has a problem on his hands. It’s not the problem he thought he’d have – Giuliani or Thompson. It’s Mike Huckabee. From nowhere, Huckabee is now hot on Romney’s tail. The average of the past five polls (always available on www.realclearpolitics.com) shows Romney at 28%, Huckabee at 20%, Giuliani languishing behind at 14%, Thompson crashing at 11%, and McCain at 7%.

So what happens if Rudy loses Iowa?

It depends on four questions:

1. By how much does he lose?
2. To whom does he lose?
3. How does Hillary do in Iowa?
4. And how does he do vis-à-vis McCain?

If Rudy is wiped out in Iowa, as the polls currently suggest, he is in for a long hard battle to get the nomination. His consistent lead in the national polls means that if he won in Iowa, he could end the contest right there (just as Hillary could).

But if Rudy is humiliated in Iowa, it opens the door to the argument that the base just won’t buy his social liberalism and may lead for many to hunt around for an alternative.

Which raises the second question: Who does he lose to? If he loses to Romney, it is a disaster. Romney has a built in advantage in the next two states on the calendar – New Hampshire and Michigan.

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney was on Boston television virtually every night and 2/3 of New Hampshire voters watch Boston TV. New Hampshire television reaches only about 1/3 of the state. So New Hampshire is virtually Romney’s home state. The average of the last five polls has him ahead there by a lot. Its Romney 33%, Giuliani 18%, McCain 16%, Huckabee 7%, Thompson 5%.

And in Michigan, Mitt’s father George was the Governor (he ran for president against Nixon in 1968 but was wiped out when he said he was “brainwashed” in Vietnam). A Detroit News poll from earlier this month has Romney at 28%, Giuliani at 25%, Thompson at 13%, McCain at 12% and Huckabee at 9%.

Rudy could overcome Romney’s lead in both New Hampshire and Michigan, but not if Romney wins in Iowa. The momentum he would get from the first caucuses would be so huge that he would likely win both states.

And, in South Carolina, a conservative bastion, it would be wishful thinking to believe that Giuliani could come back if Romney built up a head of steam. Realclearpolitics.com has Romney and Rudy tied at 21 there.

So, if Romney wins Iowa, he’ll likely do a sweep, winning New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina. Then, the question will be whether Rudy can stage a comeback in Florida where he now enjoys a solid lead. It will be tough but it is possible.

But the silver lining for Rudy is that Huckabee, who has surged in Iowa, could beat Romney. Mike has gone from invisibility to second place through dogged, one-on-one campaigning in Iowa and now has enough money to do some paid television advertising.

Can Huckabee beat Romney in Iowa? Maybe yes. After all, most of Romney’s support is really fear of Rudy and his social liberalism. If you are going to vote for a social conservative, why not vote for the real thing rather than a recent convert?

If Huckabee beats Romney, it sets up a three way race in New Hampshire and Rudy’s chances may depend on the third question: How did Hillary do in Iowa?

If Hillary wins in Iowa, the Democratic race is functionally over. That will free independents to enter the Republican primary and will give Rudy or McCain a big boost.

But if Hillary loses in Iowa, you can bet that Independents will stay in the Democratic primary, turning the GOP contest in New Hampshire into a confrere of the party faithful who will support Romney or Huckabee.

Remember that in 2000, it was Independents entering the Republican primary that boosted McCain to victory over Bush. And note also that in the current polling, 80% of the independents are voting in the Democratic primary – to elect or defeat Hillary. But if she is not in play by New Hampshire, having won Iowa and the nomination, then they may enter the Republican primary and deliver it to Rudy.

If Rudy is the moderate at that point. And that leads to the fourth question: How will McCain do?

Rudy appeared to have knocked McCain out of the race when he entered the Republican contest in January of 2007. Before that, McCain was trailing Rudy only slightly, but when Giuliani entered the race, he immediately racked up a big lead over McCain. And when the immigration debate heated up, McCain paid a heavy price for his support of the Bush reform plan which conservatives attacked as amnesty.

But lately, McCain has been doing well. Nationally, he is sluggish. The realclearpolitics.com average has him at 13% in fourth place behind Rudy (28%), Thompson (15%), and Romney (13%). But in New Hampshire, McCain is hot on Rudy’s trail. Romney leads at 33% but Rudy is in second at 18% and McCain third at 16%.

It depends on Iowa. Right now, Rudy is at 14% in Iowa and McCain is down at 7%. But if McCain could come up – and he is working Iowa very hard – passing Rudy there, combined with a strong base in New Hampshire left over from his 2000 triumph there, could give McCain an edge over Giuliani reversing the pattern of the past year.

So….on the right, its either Romney or Huckabee. Our bet is that Huckabee wins in Iowa and sets up a tough three way fight in New Hampshire.

And…on the left, its Giuliani or McCain, more likely Rudy. But how damaged with Rudy be after Iowa. He better hope that either he does better or that Huckabee wins.

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:12 AM | Comments (1)

Black Friday

by Jack Lee

Did you brave the crowds to get the bargains on Friday? Many people did! The Chico Mall parking lot was filled to capacity by 6 a.m.. The stores were busy but not packed suggesting we don't have a lot of carpoolers out there even with gasoline over $3.25 a gallon. Wait till their husbands get the new gasoline bill, ....then they get the Visa bill, ha! But, I digress.

So, I took the big challenge and accompanied one of my girls who went shopping for a holiday outfit. It was now around noon time and some of the frenzy had tapered off and the We found a parking space within 300 yards of the entrance to Gottschalks, our intended destination. She said this was due to the power of positive thinking that she learned from reading, "The Secret". I don't think so.

I bought her a dressy red top and black slacks. The bill was 50% off the tag and there was no waiting at the checkout. Life was good. I decided to quit while we were ahead.

My daughter didn't fair quite so well.

Soon after the first purchase she began showing signs of a "shopping attack" coming on, her eyes were glazing over and she was rubbing her credit card intensely chanting something about "rewards card...cash back". While she was in this pre-shopping trance I spun her around like a top and duck taped her from head to toe. With the help of a shopping cart I wisked her away to the car just as she went into shopping madness! "Lemme go, I gotta shop! I must spend...bargains, bargains!" I knew this would happen thus I was "prepositioned" with the versatile duck tape.

Once away from the sale signs she quickly returned to normal.

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:49 AM | Comments (0)

Homes Destroyed...again

by Jack Lee

Firefighters were prepositioned near Malibu when the fire or fires broke out that were both expected and whipped by the strong Santa Anna winds. Only 4500 acres and 53 homes were destroyed, although thousands were evacuated. One of the homes belonged to a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. However it was not a personal tragedy, it was basically empty and he had it up for sale for $5 mil, heavily insured of course.

I'm curious, do winds start fires or could there be something else going on here? Just a wild guess, but it looks like arson again.

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:41 AM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2007

Darwin Award Winner!

John, a Los Angeles real estate attorney, was skimming leaves from his pool when he noticed a palm frond caught in the power lines. His education had equipped him with sufficient acumen to become a successful litigator. Yet he was not shrewd enough to avoid becoming a toasty critter, when he reached up with the long metal pole and poked at the palm frond.

John was, for once, the path of least resistance.

Perhaps as an homage to his litigation skills, his family sued both the utility company and the pool supply store, for failure to disclose the danger of poking a metal rod into the power lines.

Runner up contestants...

2. Three entrepreneurs planned to profit from stolen scrap metal. They entered a former US military complex and approached the prize: an abandoned water tank. Bedazzled by the potential upside, the three threw logic to the wind, and began to cut the metal legs out from under the tank. Guess where it fell? Straight onto the thieves. Their flattened bodies have not yet been identified.

3. Oregon) An amateur snake collector caught a 20-inch rattlesnake on the highway near Maupin. Three weeks later, his captive took its revenge. The formerly fearless snake charmer admitted, "You can assume alcohol was involved."

He had a six-pack under his belt, and was consuming what he described as "a mixture of stupid stuff" at a barbecue. The calamity was precipitated when he handed a beer to his ex, using the same hand that held the rattlesnake.

"Get that thing out of my face," she said.

He protested, "It's a nice snake. Nothing can happen. Watch!" Famous last words. As they left his mouth, his fate was sealed.

One month later, still sore from muscle and nerve damage from the venom, the 23-year-old admitted that he stuck the snake in his mouth to prove his point. Instead, he disproved his point, for the snake bit him. He had no time for embarrassment. In great pain and gasping for breath, he asked his ex to drive him to the hospital. "She was the only one sober," he explained.

He was unconscious by the time he arrived at the hospital. His swollen tongue protruded from his mouth. Physicians performed a tracheotomy to restore airflow to his lungs, and administered antivenin. He was kept heavily sedated for several days. When the swelling went down, "we let him wake up," his doctor reported.

The Poison Control Center sees about 50 snakebite victims a year. Generally they are injected on the legs while hiking, or arms while reaching under a rock. Few are bitten on the tongue.

His friends at blunt. "They were, like, what the heck were you thinking?" His answer? "It's my own stupidity."

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)

Rumor - Doolittle Is Retiring! (untrue)

by Aaron Park

And the Kool-Aid Award goes to... (hin't, it's about Doolittle retiring)

Today the news has been recycled that John Doolittle is retiring… I was also called about the status of John’s Communications director.

Having talked to Gordon Hinkle this morning, and having talked to other staff during the same phone call, no one has resigned yet.

No one seemed to know that John was retiring either.

John didn’t seem to know he was retiring while giving the keynote address last weekend at the CRA convention.

Rico Oller didn’t seem to know when he introduced John Doolittle issuing very strong and terse words for those that are seeking to run against him.

No one has e-mailed this blogger, just two phone calls asking questions.

This afternoon, I had two phone calls with Ron Rogers, JTD’s chief of staff who would certainly know if JTD had retired. Instead we were talking about JTD’s plans for the Christmas season and possibly hosting another Placer CRA event for the Congressman. These are certainly not phone calls one has with the Chief of Staff for someone who is retiring!

The blogger from the Stockton record is likely rehashing some old news from months ago when the Rico Oller rumors first surfaced. John Doolittle is not retiring any time soon…

Until JTD calls me from his palatial mansion to give me my talking points for how to spin his retirement, I have to say that anyone thinking John Doolittle is retiring is drinking the Kool-Aid! (or working for Charlie Brown)

To the special wing of the ABD caucus known as the Retirement Caucus – this Jug’s for You!

Posted by Post Scripts at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)

(Funny) TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

READ TO THE BOTTOM FOR QUOTE OF THE MONTH BY JAY LENO. IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING ELSE---VERY WELL STATED !

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. < BR>
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because,
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms.......
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them. CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this.
For the rest of us...pass this on.

Posted by Post Scripts at 02:01 PM | Comments (1)

November 24, 2007

Rhonda Byrnes - The Secret

by Jack Lee

A commenter posted this today about the author of "The Secret": "Wow... Seems Rhonda Byrne has a new money making scam now. It's called "sue those who helped make you a multi-millionaire."
http://know-more-secrets.com Check out this site, does anyone know anything more about these Secret lawsuit filings by Rhonda Byrne?"

I looked into it and basically the allegation is Byrnes plagerized the work of a minister who published his own book about the power of postive thinking several years before Byrnes book came out, however the minister said he would not sue. I always felt Byrne was a fraud and flake, but this cinched it for me! I also read about the millions she has made and how she calls her dear ol Mum in Austalia to brag about the suckers buying her book, but she has yet to give even $1 to Mum, guess she is too busy counting her own fortune. She has promised to "help" her mother out and said she would send her a plane ticket to come out to California and visit her in her new mansion, but the plane ticket never made it either.

At least two authros have indicated Byrnes plagerized from their books. Currently Australian holistic healer Vanessa Bonnette is taking her to court. Byrne allegedly grabbed chunks from her book Empowerment for the New Era without permission

Sounds like Rhonda Byrnes, author of "The Secret", a big fat fraud and that's my humble not-so-secret opinion.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:22 PM | Comments (1)

Jedidiah Roy Percifield - Darwin Candidate

by Jack Lee

Nov 24 - Oroville, Deputies pursued Percifield after he ran from them near Thermalito Forebay about 8 p.m. "He reportedly ignored several attempts to stop his vehicle, a raised Chevrolet Silverado pickup, and reached speeds exceeding 100 mph on Cottonwood Road, and on highways 99 and 70.

He eventually turned onto Big Bend Road from 70, then onto Dark Canyon Road, which dead ends in the Feather River Canyon.

He quickly turned around at the dead end, clipping the front end of a sheriff's patrol car, and proceeded back up Dark Canyon Road to Highway 70.

There, just south of Deadwood Road, he ran over a spike strip laid down by the California Highway Patrol.

The device flattened two tires on the pick up, and one tire on a sheriff's car, but Percifield kept driving on Deadwood to Jordan Hill Road, where his truck crashed into a ditch. "

Percifield smashed out the rear window of his own vehicle in an attempt to continue running on foot. He was then confronted by officers after he was spotlighted in a tree and refused to come down. A CHP officer shot him out of the tree with two bean bags fired from a 12 gauge shotgun. Unfortunately Percifield was not injured and was taken to jail where he was booked for evading arrest, vandalism and drugs. Bail was set at $38,000. This time the people on the road with this guy were extremely lucky because he didn't kill anyone... but, it was just that...luck. So, do you think he will learn his lesson with a little jail time and a fine? I know he would if I were king! 60 days, stocks and bonds, bread and water, loss of his license and his big truck smashed into the size of 40 gallon garabage can. I know, I know, I'm being way too kind.

I feel Percifield has earned the right to be nominated for a Darwin Award!

Posted by Post Scripts at 05:58 PM | Comments (5)

November 22, 2007

A Growing Racial Division

by Jack Lee

California scores two big zeros! First, we must have the nation’s largest pro-illegal representation in our legislature. They prove it all the time, for example, most recently they voted to give away tens of millions in tuition subsidies for illegals. Thats a big zero! Next, California is the ONLY state in the union that does NOT give its National Guard soldiers free tuition at state colleges and universities, another zero.

I can't even begin to understand what the democratic controlled legislature has against our National Guard soldiers, unless it is some perverse extension of their antiwar stance? But, what's up with the support for illegals? Illegal is illegal. You can't be a little bit illegal, only those who rely on situational ethics can rationalize that, just like they rationalize drivers licenses for illegals or free, K-12 education for illegals or free medical treatment for illegals, etc.

I'm only guessing now, but this might explain it. . . .

The Hispanic Caucus

In the Assembly we have, Juan Arambula (Democrat), Anna Caballero (Democrat) Charles Calderon (Democrat), Hector De La Torre (Democrat), Kevin De Leon (Democrat), Joe Coto, Chair (Democrat), Ed Hernandez (Democrat), Tony Mendoza (Democrat), Pedro Nava (Democrat), Fabian Núñez (Democrat), Nicole Parra (Democrat), Mary Salas (Democrat), Lori Saldaña (Democrat), Jose Solorio (Democrat), Nell Soto (Democrat), Alberto Torrico (Democrat).

Members of the Senate, Ron Calderon (Democrat), Gil Cedillo, Vice Chair (Democrat), Lou Correa (Democrat), Denise Ducheny (Democrat), Dean Florez (Democrat), Gloria Negrete-McLeod, Jenny Oropeza (Democrat), Alex Padilla (Democrat) and Gloria Romero-D.

My all American mongrel values tell me any organization that segregates itself by race or ethnicity has no business in our government. White, black, brown, yellow, etc., we should be color blind as voters and so should our representatives! To do less is to take a giant step backwards.

The Hispanics in the legislature seem determined to fulfill the LaRaza doctrine, of anything for the race. They just may have the power to do it too, if they keep exploiting and abusing their voting block.

Here are the facts and just the facts: Latinos make up about 31 percent of California’s adult population but only 14 percent of California voters most likely to turn out in elections. The Latino vote has the widest voter gap of all races in California. Should they harness this voting power, their control over California would be virtually unlimited.

While seven in 10 white likely voters are age 45 and older (68%), a majority of Latino likely voters are under age 45 (55%). Latino likely voters (35%) are less likely to have a college degree than Asian (67%), white (58%), and black (44%) likely voters. Latino (27%) and black (31%) likely voters are also less likely to live in households with annual incomes of $80,000 and higher, compared to white (42%) and Asian (50%) likely voters.

Six in 10 Latino likely voters (61%) are Democrats, 20 percent are Republicans, and 19 percent are registered as independents (“decline‐to‐state”) or with a third party. White voters are somewhat more likely to be registered as Republicans than as Democrats (42% to 38%), and black voters are overwhelmingly Democratic (75%).

For details click here.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)

A Thanksgiving Day Prayer

Lord, so often times, as any other day
When we sit down to our meal and pray

We hurry along and make fast the blessing
Thanks, amen. Now please pass the dressing

We're slaves to the olfactory overload
We must rush our prayer before the food gets cold

But Lord, I'd like to take a few minute more
To really give thanks to what I'm thankful for

For my family, my health, a nice soft bed
My friends, my freedom, a roof over my head

I'm thankful right now to be surrounded by those
Whose lives touch me more than they'll ever possibly know

Thankful Lord, that You've blessed me beyond measure
Thankful that in my heart lives life's greatest treasure

That You, dear Jesus, reside in that place
And I'm ever so grateful for Your unending grace

So please, heavenly Father, bless this food You've provided
And bless each and every person invited

Amen!

--Scott Wesemann

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:57 AM | Comments (0)

Incredible Find Unearthed in Peru

Archaeologists digging on the northern coast of Peru have discovered a 4,000-year-old temple that is filled with murals. Located inside a larger ruin, the temple features a staircase that leads up to an altar that was used for fire worship, reports Reuters. Click here for details.

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2007

Police Arrest Suspects in Holloway Case

By MARGARET WEVER - ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) - Three young men previously detained as suspects in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway were re-arrested Wednesday, the Aruban public prosecutor's office said, citing new evidence in the case. For more click here.

Posted by Post Scripts at 06:53 PM | Comments (0)

The Real History of Thanksgiving

Ever wonder what the pilgrims and their Native American guests really ate at the first feast? The truth may surprise you. Contrary to popular belief, they didn't sit down to a meal featuring turkey, corn, cranberries, and pumpkin pie (in fact, they didn't even have forks!).

Travel back to Plymouth and discover some of the humble origins of Thanksgiving traditions we celebrate today and what the original celebration was actually like! Follow this link

FROM TINA AND JACK - HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!

Posted by Post Scripts at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2007

Question of the Day RE: Insurgent Libertarians

by Jack Lee

The Washington Post has raised the question, are Libertarians essentially "insurgents" as they have been referred to in a recent news article and if so, should we behead them or drive them into the sea? Any thoughts?

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:27 AM | Comments (4)

Your Mispent Tax Dollars in State Education

by Jack Lee

The democrats in the legislature say we don't have an efficiency problem when it comes to spending on education, we just need to raise your taxes to fund it better.

Today we fund each child in K-12 to the tune of $11,000 per year. In a class of 30, that's $330,000. If you deduct the teacher's salary of $42,000, with benefits about another $30,000 that equals a net of $258,000. The teacher is allocated about $3 per child for pencils, paper and other incidentals. Yet, we can't we fund band uniforms and equipment or sports uniforms with the remainder?

We should have plenty of money to go around, so where's the money going? That is the big question asked by many irate California teachers and equally irate taxpayers! I think the democrats need to prove they don't have an efficiency problem and if they can't and they remain in denial then that's when we enforce "accountability". . . at the voting booth.

I'm all for funding our children’s education, if they truly need it, but I demand reasonable accountability and good academic performance. Todate California schools rank at the bottom of all but three states in overall quality of education. This is unaccpetable! And you can't blame this all on the teachers either, there is plenty of blame to go around from the federal government that has consistently failed us on border security and allowed millions of illegal aliens to sneak in to our state school system. We also have this one size fits all curriculum forced on communities, unrealistic teacher tenure, lack of power for school boards and principals and so much more! We don't have a funding problem - we have a spending problem! We can do better.

Thanks to democrats we now spend $75,000,000 per year to subsidize a mostly free college education for illegal aliens. And this may be a little off the subject, but did you know we are funding 6000 state employee positions that are empty? The various departments pour this unspent cash into their general fund and where it goes from there nobody is quite sure because there is no tracking once it hits the general fund.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:47 AM | Comments (1)

New! Pump Prices Being Forced Up!!!

by Jack Lee

The ARB is threatening to run up pum prices by a dollar! The ARB regulates fuel formula's and the democrats that controll the assembly and the senate that empowered them. They apparently think you won't mind paying $4.50 a gallon at the pump. Under the new ARB mandates signed into law by the Governor, for a 10% mix of ethanol, it would raise your current pump price by about $1.00 per gallon when all subsidies are included.

The new mandate is to take effect within 3 years. In order to accomplish this lofty task we will have to devote almost 40% of the state's crop growing acreage to growing corn for alcohol and we're going to need a lot of infrastructure to produce it all. This is going to have an inflationary effect on other crops and that has not been factored into that $1.00 increase and it's going to take a lot of borrowed money to build the infrastructure.

California is already spending more than under Grey Davis!

The end result of methanol is a mixed blessing at best. While it has a minor effect on reducing air pollutants it also produces carbon dioxide which the people at the ARB claim results in global warming. Currently California produces only about 12% of what will be needed to fulfill the mandate.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:30 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2007

Washington Post Uses 'Dollar Raid' To Call Paul Supporters 'Insurgents'

As if Ron Paul's supporters needed any more motivation to storm the battlements and wreak havoc on the Republican presidential primary, now comes this: the feds are trying to take away their money.

Federal agents on Wednesday raided the Evansville, Indiana headquarters of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Codes (NORFED), an organization of "sound money" advocates that for the past decade has been selling what it calls Liberty Dollars, a private currency it says is backed by silver and gold stored in Idaho, with a total of more than $20 million in circulation, according to the group.

Click here for full story.

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:02 PM | Comments (1)

Holy Cow! FBI and Treasury Agents Raid Libertarian's Mint

The future of an Evansville-based company that produces a "private voluntary barter currency" known as the Liberty Dollar is in question after federal agents raided the facility this week, according to an e-mail sent by its founder.

Federal officials reportedly raided the group's headquarters, located in a strip mall at 225 N. Stockwell Road, early Wednesday morning and seized documents and precious metals.

FBI Agent Wendy Osborne, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Indianapolis office, directed all questions on the raid to the Western District of North Carolina U.S. Attorney's Office. A spokeswoman there said she had no information on the investigation. For the full story go here.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:55 PM | Comments (0)

Prison Guards Reverse On Term Limits!

by Anthony York, Capitol Weekly

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association is publicly opposing Proposition 93, the measure that would change the state’s term limits law.

The union’s move is a reversal of its earlier decision to back the initiative. And it comes in the wake of an 11th hour defeat of a pay raise for prison guards at the end of this year’s legislative session. Sources close to the union have privately placed the blame for that raise’s defeat at the hands of legislative leaders. The union also opposed a prison construction and reform package, AB 900, that cleared the Legislature earlier this year.

Now, it appears, payback is coming in the form of the measure that could lengthen Senate Leader Don Perata's and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez’s grip on power. The 28,000-member union, one of the most powerful political players in the Capitol, has long been known for aggressively bankrolling its causes.

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:01 PM | Comments (2)

Incumbents being investigated raise $1.2M

By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Seven lawmakers seeking re-election while under federal investigation raked in nearly three times as much in campaign donations as their opponents in the latest fundraising period, records show.

The incumbents raised more than $1.2 million, while six challengers raised almost $425,000 in the three months ending Sept. 30, according to Federal Election Commission records. Three of the incumbents - including Rep. William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat under indictment on corruption charges - don't have announced opponents; some have multiple opponents. Of the seven, only Jefferson has been charged with a crime. All have denied wrongdoing.

For the full story follow this link.

Posted by Post Scripts at 05:41 PM | Comments (0)

It's A Miracle!

by Jack Lee

Occasionally, when a local business does an extra good job or provides and excellent service, I like to highlight them here. This time it's Miracle Auto Painting and Body Repair at 2304 Park Ave., Chico. I had an old clunker with about 6 different paint touch-ups on it and I took it in expecting to hear at least $1000. What I got was a smooth glossy black urethane paint job for $700. They had to do a lot of extra sanding, but the end result was excellent. I'm really happy with the nice taping job too. It's hard to tell this from a factory job. I guess this is why CHP sends them their cars. Anyway, just wanted to pass this along to you and if you happen to go over there, ask for Mike. He's the owner and a really nice guy who will treat you right.

Good job Mike, keep it up!

Posted by Post Scripts at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)

Maxine's Wisdom

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2007

The Black Hole of Bad Loans Keeps Growing

$2 trillion lending crunch seen

Goldman Sachs economist says mounting credit losses could force banks to significantly scale back their lending.

By Grace Wong, CNNMoney.com staff writer
November 16 2007: 10:21 AM EST

LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- The mortgage wipeout could result in a $2 trillion cutback in lending and have dramatic implications for the U.S. economy, according to Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs.

The housing slump is expected to end up costing banks, hedge funds and other lenders an estimated $400 billion as defaults on home loans rise, according to Goldman economist Jan Hatzius.

A $400 billion loss is equal to just about 2.5 percent of U.S. stock market capitalization - or a bad day on Wall Street, he wrote in a commentary on Thursday.

But most stock investors don't react aggressively to capital losses the way banks and other lenders do. A bank that aims to maintain a capital ratio of 10 percent would need to shrink its balance sheet by $10 for every $1 in credit losses, the note said.

That means that if lenders end up suffering just half of the $400 billion in potential credit losses, they could be forced to reduce the amount they loan by $2 trillion. Such a drastic credit crunch could have dire consequences for the economy.

"Even if this occurs gradually, and even if there are some offsets from reduced credit demand and increased lending by other sectors, the drag on economic activity could be substantial," Hatzius wrote.

Wall Street banks and brokerages face pain on two fronts. They hold home loans, as well as securities backed by mortgages. Losses on these holdings are expected to deepen as falling housing prices trigger more defaults.

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)

Cold Sunday Morning and Hummingbirds

by Jack Lee

It was cold and foggy just after sunrise, another one of those gray mornings where the sun doesn’t come out till after noon and things move a little slower, including me.

I trudged into the kitchen and stood there at the sink, still waking up, thinking about the projects I had to do later. I stared out the window at the young walnut trees across the street that were now half obscured by the fog. Then a single hummingbird zipped up to the feeder outside the window. The feeder usually has a half dozen or more of these tiny birds fluttering around in warmer times.

The hummingbird was hovering as it dipped its long beak into the feeder hole, even though there was a perch. Did you know hummingbirds will flap their wings anywhere from 15 to 80 times a second? I didn't know this until I looked it up in Shari's bird book a moment ago. Pretty amazing; how can they do this without burning up a muscle or a joint? So here’s this little guy casually hovering and taking in the sugar water then suddenly, when he had his fill, he was gone in a split second, in a sudden burst of speed no other bird could equal. What a marvel of flight these things are and doing what modern science, with all our technology, couldn’t even come close to doing.

Well, now it’s my turn to get moving, I’m off to fix the corral. The cattle somehow got packed in there last night and knocked over a fence panel leading to the headgate. When it comes to cattle there's always something to fix!

Have a nice Sunday and do something nice for somebody you love; the warmth from that helps lift the fog in your life.

"Your wings unzip from southern warmth
to map new latitudes of dawn;
you brave the Gulf's voracious gape -
a twenty-hour marathon.
Through winds and rains and solstice change,
you soar on homing threads of birth;
a flashing dynamo, a wisp
of consciousness above the earth.
You chart the miles with blossom-breaks
between your forays after flies
refueling on their nectar blends
a swizzle-pause to energize.
We hang our scarlet beacons out
to signify a landing site;
our honor is to briefly share
your iridescent glory flight.
Diminutive, defiant darter -
tiny heart in pounding pace;
we savor every fleeting glance -
a streak of heaven's fragile grace."

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2007

CRA Endorsed Mitt Romney?

by Nick F

So the CRA has endorsed Mitt Romney. For those of us who have a great deal of respect for the CRA and their dedication to traditional conservatism, we are faced with a choice. Do we accept this endorsement of Gov. Romney?

There are some practical reasons to do so. In reality we are fighting for the soul of our party. There are many who would have us move toward the center on our social positions for the sake of “remaining relevant”. Rudy Giuliani is an example of such a compromise. The CRA unwilling to support the kind of left wing social policy has settled for Romney as the best chance we have of maintaining some vestige of our former Reagan selves.

Here is the problem. I do not believe that the CRA chose Romney because he best represents the ideas and positions of the CRA. I do not even believe that he is the candidate most capable of articulating and advancing those principles. I think that position falls solidly to Fred Thompson.

At this point what Romney has that Thompson does not, is a far better organized and funded campaign machine. While it would be ridiculous to ignore such a fact, should it really be a deciding factor this early in the race?

Money will flow to whatever candidate comes out of the first three primaries the front runner. So why are we not putting our best candidate out in the fore front. Fred Thompson is the only conservative candidate who was drafted in t this race. He is here by popular demand, and because of this it will take time to build up the money and experience that some of his opponents possess, by virtue of having spent most of their adult lives in politics.

I support the CRA, but I deeply regret this decision. I think it is below them, and I will continue to support Fred Thompson. I hope that decision will be shared by other traditional conservatives.

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:44 PM | Comments (2)

Election Thoughts

by Jack Lee

I really want to vote FOR somebody, not the lesser of the..., well, you know. It's really frustrating these days with so much information about our candidates, no one is allowed to look heroic or saintly. What happened to the good old days when ignorance was bliss? A new harsh reality is forced upon us! The ever present media has done their job almost too good; is there such a thing as too much information...like reporting if Bill wore boxers or briefs. Some things I just don't want to know! lol

On another level, do the details of Newt's divorce 15 years ago really matter now? Is Rudy's more recent divorce relevant? And in all this detail, just how much is just tabloid journalism and how much is fact?

Democrats argued Bill's sexual escapades were nobody's business, saying, all that matters was his performance as a leader. But, I think they were wrong because what happens in the White House, unlike Vegas, does not stay in the White House. Exploits long before the White House... forgivable - exploits in the White House - not.

I know we would all like to have our President be pure as the driven snow, free from undue partisan interests and any taint of corruption, but, and this is a big but, (no pun intended lol) he can't get there from here without undue partisan influence and tainting. By the time a President has risen this far through the political ranks he (or maybe some day she) has all but made a deal with the devil. This sucks, but it is the reality of politics and how our elections are structured. You apparently want it that way because you have never demanded any change.

There are no checks and balances in elections. This is a free for all game... what few rules we have get bent and twisted like pretzels. It's a miracle we can stomach voting for anybody who would be powerful enough to become President.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:45 AM | Comments (1)

Turkey Tip - It's Really Good!

by Judy G

BROWN TURKEY STOCK AND GRAVY BASE

I originally didn't make brown turkey stock (see alternate method of stock and gravy ). The past couple of years, I have altered my method to do it this way as the stock becomes a gravy base and is already thickened and ready to be finished. I like to keep a lot of chicken stock on hand and use this when I cook the turkey (see below), letting me reserve the turkey stock for more important purposes. This is based on a recipe by Julia Child.

Chop the turkey neck into 2 or 3 pieces, halve the gizzard. Heat ab. 3-4 Tab. oil in a heavy pan and brown the giblets. If you are lucky enough to have extra giblets, to make a really rich giblet gravy, brown these also. Remove the giblets from the pan and reserve. have ready about 2 cups each chopped carrots and onions - put these into the pan, cover and let cook slowly for about 7-8 min. or until tender. Uncover pan, raise heat and lightly brown the vegetables for a few minutes.

Return the giblets to the pan, add 1 cup dry white wine (omit this if you don't like or use wine) , 2 cups chicken stock (more if not using wine) and enough water to cover the ingredients by about 1 inch. Add a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme or sage, and cook, partially covered for 2-3 hrs. or even a bit longer. Strain the stock, degrease. This is easily done if you make the stock at least a day or so ahead of time, Refrigerate the stock and remove the congealed fat the next day. Return the stock to a pan, heat, and add 3 Tab. cornstarch, blended with 1/4 cup port wine or chicken stock. Simmer a few minutes, until lightly thickened. Cool and refrigerate until just before the turkey is done. The thickened stock can be made a day ahead if you want. I do the whole thing and have it ready and waiting!

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:42 AM | Comments (1)

November 16, 2007

Main Stream Media News

In a political year it’s...anything goes!
by Tina Grazier

The headline is sensational: "Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans" says CBS News. The network asked all 50 states (45 responded) for their suicide data for veterans and non veterans going back to 1995. What they found was disturbing: In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. ** But a deeper look at the numbers reveals something even more surprising; the suicide rate for vets is only slightly higher than it is for all males, both vet and nonvet, in the US.

CBS Cooks the Books on VetSuicide Numbers? By Rick Moran

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:14 PM | Comments (3)

The Big Debate

I confess I did not watch the democrat debate in Vegas. I figure what happened there...happened there! In fact, the big debate all week, whether or not the boys were piling on, really discouraged me. If that is going to become the major focus od the debates, overshaddowing all serious discourse...well, for instance...

Can you imagine such a discussion about Margaret Thatcher?

Posted by Post Scripts at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

Words of Wisdom

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress...But then I repeat myself.
Mark Twain

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. George Bernard Shaw

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
James Bovard, Civil Libertarian

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2007

Bring Our Troops Home

A tale of supercilious legislative intrigue.
by Tina Grazier

Democrats proposed legislation to bring the troops home…AGAIN…some say this is try number 40! Why would they keep doing this when they know it won’t be signed into law…it’s insane! Statistics posted on the blog, Blackfive, might hold the key:

Terrorist operations have decreased by 59%. Second, the terrorist operations have decreased against innocent Iraqi people by 59% also. A decrease in operations against Iraqi security forces by 62%. A decrease in the assassination attempts for sectarian reasons by 72%. Fifth, a decrease in car bombs by 65%. Sixth, a decrease in the fatalities in the civilians killed by car bombs by 81%, including IEDs. Seven, a decrease in human casualties of civilians resulting from car bombs and IEDs by 80%.

Could it be they see a conclusion that will naturally result in troops coming home…and THEY want to be out front to take the CREDIT!!!

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)

Personality Quiz

Want to take a no brainer personality quiz? Click here.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:01 PM | Comments (5)

Officer Get's An Attaboy!

Police Officer Ken Lee used his initiative to overcome several unplanned logistical problems in this year's Homeland security drill in Stockton. Operation Golden Guardian involved about 5000 people and was designed by Homeland Security and allied agencies to test emergency preparedness to a mock terrorist attack.

During a school evacuation, it was discovered that the buses could not use the escape route because it had been compromised by a bomb laden vehicle. The clock was ticking to get the students away from danger when Lee devised a plan and marched them off campus in an orderly fashion to a nearby church parking lot. This proved ideal for the buses to use and they got the kids safely away before the deadly "dirty bomb" exploded.

This was one of several flaws discovered in this mock disaster that Lee resolved on the scene as one of many police officers sent to the site. He was later congratulated by Homeland Security officials as well as by his Chief. Lee is a 7 year veteran and one of his department's newest field training officers. He is also a 3 time recipient of the "10851" award for auto theft recoveries. He received wide spread media attention 6 months ago when he rescued a classroom of disabled children from a deranged hostage taker. Ken Lee is a former Chico resident and the son of Jack and Sandra Lee.

Posted by Post Scripts at 12:39 PM | Comments (2)

Jack Gets An Attaboy From Reporter

Jack Lee, candidate for assembly, received a letter of appreciation for standing up for ethics in his campaign.

The letter was from Deborah Saunders, staff writer for the San Francisco Chronical. She recently wrote an editorial about Congressman Doolittle. For a copy of her story read below:

Doolittle Inc.

by DEBRA J. SAUNDERS

November 11, 2007

This year, Rep. John Doolittle made Roll Call's "10 Most Vulnerable House Incumbents" list.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington placed Doolittle on its "22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" roster. The Placer County, Calif., Republican also is in the small club of elected officials under federal investigation for corruption. His name has come up in connection with convicted uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and with convicted (as of Monday, on bribery charges) defense contractor Brent Wilkes. In April, the FBI searched Doolittle's Virginia home.

Doolittle was forced to resign from the House Appropriations Committee. Nonetheless, Doolittle is running for re-election.

In September, Doolittle told the Sacramento Bee, "I understand the phrase that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I am not going to have any of these weasels who, for self-promotional efforts, are cooking up these half-baked polls and trying to influence me. What I find amazing is that they want me to give up so they can get what they want."

Getting what he wants -- that Doolittle knows. Doolittle, you may recall, made news for letting a campaign fund pick up the tab for babysitting his daughter -- $4,581 since 2001, The Washington Post reported in 2006. He brought new meaning to the phrase "family values."

Doolittle's annual salary has been more than $150,000 since 2002. Not enough. So he and his wife gave themselves a raise. Wife Julie set up a political fund-raising firm that allowed her to earn 15 percent off of every dime raised for Doolittle's Superior California Fund. She also received a cut for donations she raised for his re-election campaign -- to the tune of $140,000 over three years.

Legal? Apparently, Doolittle was told it was legal. And I want to make it clear that the feds have not charged Doolittle with any crime. He deserves the presumption of innocence. But that doesn't make Doolittle Inc. right. Savvy donors knew that if they wrote a check to a Doolittle campaign through Julie Doolittle, the congressman's household income would be richer by 15 percent of the check. This arrangement was a recipe for conflict of interest.

Eric Egland, a U.S. Air Force reservist and counter-terrorism consultant, is one of two Republicans running against Doolittle in the primary. "I can't believe I have to say it," Egland told me, but he promises that if he wins office, his wife, Ania, won't set up a fund-raising business.

"If you want to make a lot of money, great," Egland added. "Make it in the private sector."

"In my heart, I don't think he's committed any crime," Jon Fleischman, publisher of the influential conservative Website www.flashreport.org told me. Still, Fleischman added, "No one has ownership rights to a seat in Congress.

There's a responsibility to your party to acknowledge that objective data show you cannot win'' -- under less of an ethical cloud, Doolittle barely squeaked to victory in 2006 with 49 percent of the vote -- "and to step aside." People who know Doolittle well don't want to hurt him by saying publicly that he should bow out, although some party biggies have made it clear they want Doolittle to just go away.

As one who knows Doolittle less well, all I see is the rot that has corroded the Republican Party. This is the party that lost votes in 2006 because the leadership was too free spending other people's money. The conservative Club for Growth recently issued a RePork Card to grade members' voting record on 50 bills designed to fight wasteful pork-barrel spending, known as earmarks. A "perfect 100 percent" went to 16 members, all Republicans, who voted against all 50 pork bills. Doolittle scored 2 percent.

He voted against only one earmark. So when John Doolittle calls critics "weasels," I guess he figures that voters have a duty to pay for his pork -- and like it.

Posted by Post Scripts at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

LAPD DRAWS FIRE OVER COUNTER TERRORISM

By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

A counterterrorism project in Los Angeles that would collect information about Muslim neighborhoods is drawing outrage from Islamic groups and civil libertarians who say it unjustly singles out residents based on faith and could lead to unconstitutional police tactics.

The groups complain that the Los Angeles Police Department's "community mapping" project, which aims to prevent radicalization and homegrown terrorism, unfairly brings suspicion on Muslims.

They say it undermines trust established between Muslims and police since the 9/11 attacks and is reminiscent of how Nazis identified Jews during the Holocaust.

"This is anti-Semitism reborn as Islamophobia," said Shakeel Syed, director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. "We will fiercely resist this."

The mapping project would collect information about specific neighborhoods but not individuals, according to Michael Downing, the LAPD's counterterrorism chief.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: LOS ANGELES | Muslims | Council | LAPD | Hussam Ayloush
Downing said the aim is to study where enclaves of Muslims live so that police can study their culture, history, language and socioeconomic status to gain an understanding of their communities.

If a community is isolated, it may be determined that it is susceptible to extremist ideology, Downing said. In such cases, he said, police could then go into those communities and try to head off potential problems by offering people access to government and social services.

"Our goal is to try to be a catalyst to integrate the communities into the greater society," Downing said.

How much information would be collected and how it will be used remained unclear to groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which joined Muslim groups in writing a harshly worded letter Thursday to the LAPD.

"Singling out individuals for investigation, surveillance, and data-gathering based on their religion constitutes religious profiling," the letter said. "In addition to constitutional concerns … religious profiling engenders fear and distrust."

Darrel Stephens, president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said large police departments routinely use community mapping to understand crime trends.

Muslim leaders say mapping based on a community's faith and ethnicity is different from mapping based on crime. "In the Muslim community, there hasn't been terrorism," said Hussam Ayloush of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Ayloush said the police department's job is to enforce laws. "Police should not be in the business of analyzing political views and religious views," he said. "It's really dangerous. This is a slippery slope."

The ACLU agreed. "Religious profiling is not a legitimate tool of law enforcement," said Ranjana Natarajan an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California.

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:19 AM | Comments (1)

HOSPITALS LOVE WORKERS COMP!

by Jack Lee

A friend of mine told me this story yesterday that's worth passing on. About a month ago an employee of his was injured on the job. It was a cut to his index finger, it wasn't a bad cut, but it probably needed a stitch, maybe even two. So my friend (his boss) put a bandaide on it and took the employee to the hospital. When filling out the paper work it was noted this was an industrial accident. Aha... workers comp! Well, suddenly this is a different sort of medical event...why this is serious! The employer said, look just want to pay for it, we don't need to fill out a workers comp form do we? Oh, yes, we must, we must! But, it's just a cut...I'll pay for it and the boss's words fell on deaf ears. We better get an x-ray said the attending doc, but it's just a cut said the patient. Oh, one can't be too careful about such things, said the doc. Awhile later the stitch was in and then there was talk of future therapy, workers comp of course... they both got up and walked out. The bill came into the shop about a week later... $1100, for a minor cut that required just one stitch! But, the boss paid it because Worker's Comp would have cost him a lot more and all us a lot more too.

You kinda get the feeling the hospital was trying to get the boss to file an insurance claim wouldn't you?

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:03 AM | Comments (3)

And now a word from our sponsor...

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2007

Who Would Provide?

by Tina Grazier

We make a big deal out of equality in America...a very big deal. So I find it amazing that we willing accept progressive tax structures. Where is the equality when 1% of the people pay 40% of the tax? This means that 99% of the people have a lesser (and progressively lesser) stake in America...

The Washington Times has an op ed that asks a great question: "Did you ever think about what would happen if the top 1 percent of the taxpayers suddenly decided to go "on strike" and refuse to produce all that income?

This has been a #1 fantasy of mine for some time...what if all the producers in the market just said no?

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

Way To Go Joe

“There is something profoundly wrong—something that should trouble all of us—when we have elected Democratic officials who seem more worried about how the Bush administration might respond to Iran’s murder of our troops, than about the fact that Iran is murdering our troops.” —Sen. Joe Lieberman

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:49 PM | Comments (1)

Bad Actor

“[Mormons] are very adept at not being fazed and speaking fluently and gracefully. Why? Because every single male who’s a Mormon goes on a mission for two years when they’re 19 or 20. They learn how to deflect blows and stay on message... So when you see Mitt Romney, he’s already been practicing how to deflect blows and stay on message. But it’s plastic.” —actor/director Robert Redford

I can't tell...maybe it's just bad acting....is Redford playing a bigot here?

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:31 PM | Comments (0)

Those Crazy Peacenik Russians

Moscow - Russia's top military commander said Tuesday his country has no obligation to defend other countries against "the evil Americans." "Today, there is no need to be afraid of the Russian armed forces," said Russian army Gen. Yury Baluyevsky. "However, I do not believe that the Russian military is obliged to defend the world from the evil Americans."

Another Cindy Sheehan pinko for peace...mail that man a bumper sticker, NOW!

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)

Hillary Clinton for President!

by Jack Lee

Never let it be said that Post Scripts presents no other views except those from conservatives. It's true we do have a slight rightwing bias, but then we try to be fair. We welcome all views, even views from the left.

That is why I am saying, "Fair Play for Hillary". Give her a chance to be heard absent the snide comments and childish cracks! We at Post Scripts want you to see what Hillary really stands for, because she is likely to be our next President! So, without further comment, here are Hillary's planks. And be sure to visit her website at HillaryClinton.com:

Strengthening the Middle Class

America's wealthy middle class is ready for change, because you know you have had it too good for too long . You people should be working harder and longer to support a caring and loving government. For six long years, America's wealthy middle class and their wealthy working families have been let off easy by our president. When Hillary is in the White House, this will change. When we talk about equality, we mean sharing the load and it's about time time you wealthy Americans making over $19,000 a year pay your fair share!

Providing Affordable and Accessible Health Care

Nearly 14 million "so-called" illegal Americans -- including their 7 million children -- don't have health insurance and you need to pay for it! America is ready for socialized medicine to go with a new socialist government. Hillary has the vision and the experience to make this a reality. This is a battle Hillary has fought before -- and she has the scars to prove it. She knows better than anyone how to fight for socialism against the evil forces of democracy and to get the job done, no matter what it costs you.

Ending the War in Iraq

America is ready to run and call it quits in Iraq, you know it and I know it. Hillary has a plan to get us out of Iraq and some day, after she is elected, she will tell you what is in that plan. But, for now brothers and sisters just know in your hearts that Hillary has a plan. It's a really good plan. Some say it's a really, really good plan. But, you will have to wait until she is elected before we can tell you about the plan. This takes faith and faith is good right? So have faith in Hillary and trust that her extensive military combat service will be the kind of experienced leadership that will pull us out of Iraq as jihadist terrorists sprinkle rose petals on our road home and we feel their love that can only come when we say uncle!

Promoting Energy Independence and Fighting Global Warming

The choices we make about energy touch nearly every aspect of our lives. Our economy, our national security, our health, and the future of our planet are all at stake as we make a choice between energy independence and dependence on foreign sources of energy. Hillary has proposed a ban on volcano's that have previously been spewing out all sorts of pollution. The sun is another culprit that has been contributing to global warming. Hillary is proposing we construct and network of giant sunglasses to orbit the earth and protect us from harmful UVA and UVB rays so that all the people, especially the children, can enjoy a healthy and cancer-free suntan.

Fulfilling Our Promises to Veterans

Hillary will ensure that all those who sacrifice on behalf of our country will get a hearty handshake and pat on the back from a Hillary representative near you. They not only deserve this acknowledgement, they deserve a lot of kind words. Hillary has a plan before Congress to give each veteran a "Don't blame me I voted for Hillary" button and a personal letter of absolution for all their war crimes committed for Bush the terrorist.

Supporting Parents and Caring for Children

America is ready for a president who will care for all our children. We want and need government caring for our children. It's takes government to raise a child right! From her first job out of law school at the Children's Defense Fund to her time as First Lady of Arkansas she has been caring for your children. Let the caring continue through a circle of love in the presidency. Can't you just feel that love already?

Restoring America's Standing in the World

The next president's most urgent task will be to restore America's standing in the world to promote our interests, ensure our security, and advance our values and what better way to do that than becoming just like them. Equal, not superior. America must be made weaker before we can realize the dream of being just like Mexico or Guatamala or Somalia. We're tired of being rich and Americans are demanding we blend in with the rest of the world. As president, Hillary will lead by words, not deeds and the Declaration of Independence, who needs it that old white mans rag anyway?

A Champion for Just the Women

Hillary's historic statement in 1995 said it like it is, "We do it for the children" and you can interpret that anyway you want. That's the beauty of it! As a lawyer, advocate and First Lady Hillary knows how use words to her advantage. Hillary has fought for issues important to just women and has wrote several country western songs about cheating husbands and divorce. Hillary will continue her lifelong fight to ensure that women get what's coming to them, as she says, "Tell your old man... we'll see HIM in court!"

Comprehensive Government Reform

Americans are ready for a government that puts incompetency and cronyism ahead of evil tax cutting and other unecessary reforms. For the past six years, we've had an administration that has total contempt for more taxation and we need to fix that fast. And because they view precious "taxes" with such contempt, they haven't raised taxes in 6 long years! This injustice must end. We need a return to a system of tax and spend. It is our form of checks and balances. Besides a 21st century government needs lots of money to provide all the free things you are going to come to depend on. The more you depend on government the more government makes you dependant...it's a win-win.

Strengthening Our Democracy

Fair and honest elections are what brought us to this low point in democracy. Hillary is a leading champion of socialism and she will fix the deficiencies in our democracy by a policy sensible and responsible Marxist dogma. She has introduced the Your Vote Means Nothing to Me Act to avoid repeating the big mistakes of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln!

Remember our battle cry, "Hillary's head deserves to be on Mt. Rushmore! " lol (Sorry, but you really didn't think I was going to put Hillary on this site did you? I like to be fair, but I'm not crazy! lol

Posted by Post Scripts at 03:13 PM | Comments (1)

November 13, 2007

A New American Record

by Tina Grazier

The AP is reporting an all time high record…we can be so proud:

ATLANTA - More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year — the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday. "A new U.S. record," said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr. of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More bad news: Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a "superbug" version…

If that’s not startling enough here’s another AP story that gives us the skinny on what we’re doing about it:

RICHMOND, Va. - Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has cut off state funding for abstinence-only sex education programs, making Virginia the 14th state to refuse to support abstinence-only education.

Abstinence may not be popular or cool but it will keep you healthy. These statistics are tragic.

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:43 PM | Comments (1)

(Follow Up to Poll Results) You Elected Ron Paul and Now See What You Did!

by Mike Wacker

It get’s even worse Jack. If Ron Paul is elected and the income tax is eliminated, think of all those poor lobbyists in Washington that would be out of a job. There are 10s of thousands of them whose purpose in life is to get special tax treatment for their special interest clients. Gosh, they’d have to get a productive job or go on welfare.

If Ron Paul is elected, another huge group of 10 to 20 million people would lose out – the illegal aliens. He supports the Social Security for Americans Only Act (H.R. 190) that ends the drain on Social Security caused by illegal aliens seeking the fruits of your labor. We Americans have welcomed immigrants who seek opportunity, work hard, and play by the rules. We do not think our taxes should pay for illegal aliens use of our social services, hospitals, clinics, schools and roads. Ron Paul has this strange idea that we should not reward people who break our laws.

Finally, Ron Paul is really out of step with almost all of the other Congressmen. He has the odd notion that when he took the oath to uphold the Constitution, that this includes the 10th Amendment which states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” He never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution. Gosh, if the majority of Congress voted this way, the federal government would shrink to a tenth or even a twentieth of its current size.

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:27 AM | Comments (8)

November 12, 2007

Income Inequality – A Few Facts

Posted by Tina Grazier

James Toranto over at the Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal exposed yet another democrat mantra as just a little outside…the truth that is! Are ya listenin’ Mr. Soros?

Movin’ On Up - A Treasury study refutes populist hokum about "income inequality."

If you've been listening to Mike Huckabee or John Edwards on the Presidential trail, you may have heard that the U.S. is becoming a nation of rising inequality and shrinking opportunity. We'd refer those campaigns to a new study of income mobility by the Treasury Department that exposes those claims as so much populist hokum. *** OK, "hokum" is our word. The study, to be released today, is a careful, detailed piece of research by professional economists that avoids political judgments. But what it does do is show beyond doubt that the U.S. remains a dynamic society marked by rapid and mostly upward income mobility. Much as they always have, Americans on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder continue to climb into the middle and sometimes upper classes in remarkably short periods of time. *** The Treasury study examined a huge sample of 96,700 income tax returns from 1996 and 2005 for Americans over the age of 25. The study tracks what happened to these tax filers over this 10-year period. One of the notable, and reassuring, findings is that nearly 58% of filers who were in the poorest income group in 1996 had moved into a higher income category by 2005. Nearly 25% jumped into the middle or upper-middle income groups, and 5.3% made it all the way to the highest quintile. *** Of those in the second lowest income quintile, nearly 50% moved into the middle quintile or higher, and only 17% moved down. This is a stunning show of upward mobility, meaning that more than half of all lower-income Americans in 1996 had moved up the income scale in only 10 years.

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)

A Taxing Problem for Dem Contenders

Posted by Tina Grazier

The American Spectator is running a terrific response to wealthy democrats calling for a policy to “tax the rich”…

The Credibility Tax – by Jeffrey Lord

Hillary and her fellow Democrats say they want to raise taxes on the rich. Really? Well then, there's no time like the present. ** Citizens who wish to make a general donation to the U.S. government may send contributions to a specific account called "Gifts to the United States." This account was established in 1843 to accept gifts, such as bequests, from individuals wishing to express their patriotism to the United States. Money deposited into this account is for general use by the federal government and can be available for budget needs. These contributions are considered an unconditional gift to the government. Financial gifts can be made by check or money order payable to the United States Treasury and mailed to the address below.

Gifts to the United States
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Credit Accounting Branch
3700 East-West Highway, Room 6D17
Hyattsville, MD 20782

Not long ago several top Democrats in the House proposed that in the spirit of sacrifice high-income taxpayers should have a 12%-15% "war surtax" added to their tax bill if they favored the war on Iraq. There is no reason to limit this idea to paying for the war, and the beauty of the Credibility Tax is that one doesn't have to wait for that irritating legislative procedure to make something like this a law.

You are going to LOVE this article.

Meanwhile, how many tax the rich democrats can we name? Hillary Clinton…John Edwards…

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)

Soros Pitches Political Snake Oil

by Tina Grazier

George Soros has written a piece designed to make Americans believe in Hillary Clinton’s “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”. His purpose is to get her elected and the agenda is to plant seeds of doubt. Soros attempts to pass himself off as merely an observer comparing the controlled system of communication in George Orwell’s “1984’ to the new and various news and information sources in America today. He is a snake oil salesman. Of course he knows this, but he’s pretty sure you and I are too stupid to see through his “subtlety”.

His article, “From Karl Popper to Karl Rove” begins:

In his novel 1984, George Orwell chillingly described a totalitarian regime in which all communication is controlled by a Ministry of Truth and dissidents are persecuted by political police. The United States remains a democracy governed by a constitution and the rule of law, with pluralistic media, yet there are disturbing signs that the propaganda methods Orwell described have taken root here.

Soros doesn't offer indications of this trend at this point but merely makes the suggestion that Orwellian trends are “taking root”. Next he takes several paragraphs to establish himself as high minded; a man of principle and reason. And when he thinks we have become mush he drops a hook rightly saying that politicians, desiring to win, often “skew reality to their own benefit.” He does not mention the practice as perfected by democrat politicians but instead, using the very tactics he has just called disturbing, invokes the names of Karl Rove, David Horowitz, and FOX News to plant seeds of suspicion and doubt:

One influential technique ― which Republican pollster Frank Luntz says that he learned from 1984 (when?)― simply reverses meanings and turns reality on its head. Thus, Fox News calls itself "fair and balanced," and Karl Rove and his acolytes turn their opponents' strongest traits into their Achilles' heels, using insinuations and lies to portray the opponents' achievements as phony. ** Another technique is transference: accusing opponents of having motives or using methods that characterize the accuser himself. For example, David Horowitz, who accuses me of being "the Lenin of the anti-American conspiracy," is a former Trotskyite for whom opponents are never adversaries to be debated, but rather enemies to be crushed. ** The American public has proven remarkably susceptible to the manipulation of truth, which increasingly dominates the country's political discourse. Indeed, a whole network of publications, some of which manage to parade as mainstream media, is devoted to the task. Yet I believe that it is possible to inoculate the public against false arguments by arousing resentment against Orwellian Newspeak.

He thinks the “American public” are “remarkably susceptible to manipulation”…so he tries himself to manipulate the public through “inoculation” tactics…by making you suspicious of alternatesources of information. He’s saying, ”trust me, and trust the MSM"…just like a snake oil salesman would.

The reason we cannot trust him, or this ridiculous assertion, is quite simple. When democrats held the power of Congress for most of forty years and the three major networks and PBS were sympathetic to democrats we had a system very close to Soros’s Orwellian scenario. The media spoke as a single voice...they provided the only story. Today we have a great variety of information and news sources, more than ever before, including sources for discovering the exact meanings of words and the associations of folks like Mr. Soros. We really don't need explanations from him.

So go away Mr. Soros, ya bother me!

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)

PRESIDENTIAL STRAW POLL RESULTS - Monday

1. Ron Paul ......................36%

2. Fred Thompson........... 30%

3. Rudy Guilania..............13%

All Others Less than....... 3%

Candidates scoring zero:

Hillary Clinton.................. 0%

Ok readers you have elected Ron Paul as our President. But, do you know what you have really done to us if this becomes true?

You have cost the jobs of tens of thousands IRS employees! The IRS is all but doomed. The next thing you know we will not be in Iraq and then almost all of our troops deployed from WWII will be coming home. And what about all that surplus money in our treasury, huh? Yeah, just what are we going to do with that??? We sure can't be giving it away to other countries anymore, not with this guy as President! And no more policing the world, no more meddling in the affairs of other nations, no more UN payments and all the fun and support we've had with those guys, no more IRS, way too much money in the treasury...this ain't going to be the US of A I know anymore under Ron Paul...well, I just hope you're happy!

Posted by Post Scripts at 12:44 PM | Comments (5)

The New Amero Dollar - Si, Esta Aqui'!

by Jack Lee

There are so many issues complicating the minds of Americans these days like, "Should dogs wear clothes" or "Is Bud Lite really less filling?" So, naturally I really hate to bring up one more thing, but if you wouldn’t mind I would like to make mention of the new Amero. This is a topic that has been circulating amongst my rightwing conspiracy-monger friends for several years.

You've heard about the Euro and soon you may be spending the Amero. In fact, it may be sooner than later too, if the dollar continues dive and we're forced to devalue the greenback.

But, never fear the Amero will be coming to the rescue just about the time our dollar is worthless and it's all thanks to our new alliance, known as "The North American Union" this is Mexico, Canada and the USA. No more nasty borders and we get a common currency. By the way, instead of in God We Trust on our coinage, the new motto will be, If You Can't Beat em Join em.

It's predictable that some folks might get a little nervous, if not down right aggitated, about replacing our currency and defiling the Constitution in the process. Even despite the assurances of the "New World Order" and King Juan Carlos of Spain. King Juan is our friend; after all he is currently helping to finance the new super highway running from Mexico up through Kansas City to Chicago and there is no "New World Order" or so I've been told.

For more information on the raging "Bud or Bud Lite" debate or this lesser issue on the "Amero" you might want to "Google" it or click this link. Or you can come back here later because there will be more to follow on this subject, but for now I must leave you. I have a luncheon appointment with my new pals, ... Rhienhardt (Bud) and Bob Bildaberger. You have probably heard of the Bildabergers, eh? They are European bankers, eh.

After our multi-cultural lunch of grits and taco's with shredded moose meat, I'm off to my "Spanglish" class at Butte, eh. I'll write more on all this later, eh? Adios mi amigos, eh. Oh, and don't forget to fly our new flag (see above)...eh.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:55 AM | Comments (2)

CRA Convention and Most Violent City Thoughts

by Aaron Park

Sunday - Sacramento: The CRA (Conservative Republican Assembly of California) voted to endorse Mitt Romney for President.

Next, on the most dangerous places to live...I have clients in Compton - I can't imagine how anywhere could be scarier!

I usually schedule in the morning and get out by noon if at all possible.

In Oakland, people smoke pot right on the street corner. The cops do nothing because I guess they are on their way to something worse. Thanks Jerry Brown... maybe he was smoking with them.

Now Brown is filing eco-lawsuits to stop development. (Thanks to Arnold signing the golbal warming bill...)

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:30 AM | Comments (1)

November 11, 2007

Evil Corporate News

by Tina Grazier

We have been told that corporate greed is destroying America...even the world. PROFIT is the culprit...undeserved, over the top profit. The implication being that this ill-gotten money lines the pockets of CEO's and stock holders who use them to finance lavish lifestyles...fancy sports cars, yachts, mansions, vacations, ya da, ya da...

People who reach the pinnacle make very good money; Stockholders love to make money on their investment...and here comes the BUT:

US ahead as global R&D spending up 10% - By John Willman in London

Growth in spending on research and development by the world’s largest companies accelerated last year, according to the 2007 R&D Scoreboard published on Monday by the UK government. ** The scoreboard, the world’s most comprehensive R&D ranking, showed the US continuing to pull away from Europe and the rest of the world. Its largest companies boosted their R&D investment by 13.4 per cent to £98.6bn, 40 per cent of the global total.

Ohhh...so that's where the BIG corporate money goes...back into the business...back where it will ensure continuing viability in the marketplace...think of it as JOB security.

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2007

Great Marine Video

I have it on good authority that this is "one of the most moving veterans videos" ever seen. Thanks should go out to W. Thomas Smith Jr. at the tank at NRO for the link.

Now...fly your flag, donate to a veterans support organization or cause and then...go thank a vet!!

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

20 Most Dangerous Places To Live

U.S. cities rated for crime and California has three of the top 20 most dangerous places to live. For dangerous California cities under 250,000 in population, it's even more alarming because some of those places are even closer to us than Oakland or Richmond. When I say dangerous, this is relative to the number per capita in terms of rape, robbery, assault, murder, carjacking and burglary. And now here are the winners:

St. Louis, Missouri (Worst in US)
Detroit, Michigan
Flint, Michigan
Compton, California
Camden, New Jersey
Birmingham, Alabama
Cleveland, Ohio
Oakland, California
Youngstown, Ohio
Gary, Indiana
Richmond, California
Baltimore, Maryland
Memphis, Tennessee
Trenton, New Jersey
Richmond, Virginia
Kansas City, Missouri
Atlanta, Georgia
Cincinnati, Ohio
Washington, D.C.
North Charleston, South Carolina (20th worst)

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:08 AM | Comments (1)

November 09, 2007

Obama Accused of Not Saying Pledge - Hoax

by Jack Lee

There is an internet hoax going around that claims Obama (does that name remind you of anyone esle?) would not say the Pledge of Allegiance and there is a picture with Obama's hands folded in front of him while other politico's have their hands across their hearts. This was during the singing of the national anthem at a steak fry event. It would appear that protocol was violated by all the people, not just Obama, so it would appear this was just one of those photo's that somebody concluded shows him being anti-American. It was not true. I was fooled by this and in my haste to pass on something interesting I did the passing first and the checking second. My bad. For those that received the pic...uh, never mind.

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:59 PM | Comments (3)

November 08, 2007

Best Idea Yet

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:38 PM | Comments (1)

Political Endorsements, the Who, What and Why's

by Jack Lee

Would you like to continue wearing those rose colored glasses or do you want to hear the brutal truth about some of the most severe perversions of political endorsements?

If you haven't started to run away covering your ears and shouting nah-nah-nah-nah-I can't heaaarr youuuuuuuu… I'll presume you're up for the truth! Here goes:

When it comes to politics and especially at the fundamental level of candidates heavily backed by incumbents, their endorsements generally come with a heavy price tag. And therein boys and girls follows the mystery of ... what was just bought, what was just sold and what will be the cost to us, the taxpayers?

Before we get down this road too far, I want to disclose that I am a candidate and I have worked on campaigns and I am fairly well versed with how things work, be it at the federal or state level. What I don't want you to do is read into what is not stated. What I am going to say is just what I meant. This is a generalized opinion, ok? Ok...lets continue:

In many if not most cases the endorsement is fairly benign, "You support my candidacy now and when you need a favor later you got it". Simple, right? It happens every day in politics. The questionable part is what the favor later really entails. This is our first hint there is the potential for corrupt practices to follow. If that was all there was there was to it, we could live with it, but it's not.

In other cases, and it seems to me to be increasingly so, the endorsement support a candidate gets begins with some very long range planning (If only the legislature could have such a vision and use it for the public good, but I digress) This endorsement is likely part of a years out plan of commitment for political advantage and opportunity by a select few and it gets worse, much worse.

When the election time rolls around the endorsement support becomes due and payable. This is how political careers are built and its also how a line of succession is passed from one candidate to the next.

And perhaps you're thinking, "OK, so what? It all serves the purpose!" Right, it serves the purpose, but do you really know what that purpose is?

Please fasten your seat belt securely before proceeding, your understanding of what you thought you knew may be about to crash into reality!

Too often political races are a fix long before all the candidates have been declared. It becomes something that was ordained years earlier. Candidate X would be selected to succeed incumbent Y. Therefore all other candidates need not apply; their entry into the election is not welcomed by the mob of "favor traders" and "career builders."

This process of very real exclusion serves to subvert competition; it eliminates the independent free thinker, the idea guy, the man with the vision and replaces him with the "made man" who is in theory untouchable if he is endorsed by the incumbent and all the plethora of endorsements about to follow.

The made man gets the bulk of campaign contributions because the big donors are protecting their previous investment and insuring business as usual continues uninterrupted. The made man gets the big endorsements from other made men. He gets led around by the hand to all the right contacts and the other challengers get the shaft! They are turned away at the hallowed door of their own party and central committees because their meddling is NOT wanted by the incumbents people manning the castle gates. The dye has been cast and the voters are about to be sold on the idea this is the candidate "THEY” wanted.

Our elections are descending into something that would have shamed our founders. It's really not a matter of who is best for the people. Money and power, power and money, has all but ended that noble notion. It's more a matter of who will be the best for the partisan mob and serve their closely guarded nepotistic/monopolistic political careers.

It's a wonderful thing to be a made man in an election, isn’t it? Things happen easily and the support is so generous! Conversely, it's a horrible thing for a good candidate to run opposing the made man. That candidate is attacked and undermined from the day he announced to run. The clandestine operatives belonging to the made man keep him a safe distance away while the ignoble undertakings of character assassination take place and he remains unsullied and protected by "plausible deniability"!

This ordaining of the next incumbent is an affront to democracy just as surely as that mob in Sacramento becomes an ever more difficult group to penetrate and change!

You might wonder, what does it take to be a made man?

For starters, it requires a devout belief in the power grab system and a willingness to play along. It requires an ability to put the bite on the rich contributions who love to gravitate to the power and be part of the making of the newest made man!

It requires absolute loyalty to your incumbent (sponsor) who is probably trying to climb his own political career ladder, moving from lieutenant to captain and so on up the line, er, that would be assembly to senate and higher. And to those other powerful political players that endorsed the made man, well, loyalty is also demanded and favors are expected to be repaid…later.

This is "mob rule" at its strongest and its safe to say that few independent candidates have ever overcome these powerful covert forces to make it into office without them and running only on their ideas and abilities. Talent pales compared to a made man's connections to power and influence.

The performance of the state legislature has been on a steady decline for decades and if you have ever pauysed to wonder why, this little expose' should explain a lot. When you subvert free and fair competition for a monopolistic system, be it in industry or politics, the results are never good.

The concept of one man, one vote is at risk and so few would even know. Even as you read this I am sure it seems preposterous that such things should be going on by your trusted public servants. That's exactly what I would have thought too 10 years ago. Even when I was an insider I saw some of this going on, but it didn't registrer, it took me becoming a candidate to see the true extent of what this diabolical tangle of alliances, subterfuge and cronyism plays in elections.

Let me be very, very clear now...you and your vote are being manipulated. It's no exaggeration to say, democracy is being subverted in far too many of our so-called free and open elections. And sadly, as I said before, most of the voters really have no clue this is happening. Yet, our very basic concepts of how the democratic process should work is at risk because of these hidden forces fixing elections. Ironically it’s a secret that is actually right out there in the open! Look at the endorsements that flow from the incumbents to the made man candidate. Look at the money trail of who gave to the incumbent and who is now giving to the candidate. Look at the weak legislation for the people and the strong legislation for the special interests that has come from Sacramento! The San Jose Mercury won a Pulitzer for exposing some of this, but there was much more they didn't discover too. It's all out there and the truth is UGLY and DANGEROUS, but the mob counts on you to not follow up, to not do your homework, to not investigate and find out for yourself. They think you're stupid and lazy and they count on you to be apathetic so they can continue...so far it has too!

Crime, gangs, drugs, prisons, education, illegal immigration, welfare, health care, water rights, property rights.. these are all issues in dire need of serious attention, but are they getting it? You tell me! And you wonder why?
C'mon, is any of this sinking in?

We (the people) have long held the high and noble notion that candidates should run on their own merits, not on the notoriety or the accomplishments of others. Yet we often supplant our evaluation of a candidate's talent in favor of an endorsement by our trusted incumbent and his allies who graciously tells you how to vote! Oh, never mind the performance of these new made men and their backers, it's their star quality, it's their power, it's their alliances that wins the day at the ballot box!

We have also honored the notion that candidates ought to place the interest of the people first, before career and before partisanship and then when we have the chance we deny them in favor of the partisan incumbent and his endorsed made man candidate! It's incredibly frustrating to see this happening. Why do you think that in assembly districts of hundreds of thousands of people you might get 2 or 3 candidates to run? This is for a responsible job that pays $116,000 a year, and with benefits and staff allowances it adds up to $500,000 a year. Why are there not more applicants? Clue: It's because those that would dare are soon made aware of the reality and they quit before they even start.

Most of our elections are not representative of the people anymore and the results speak for themselves!

WHEN YOU HAND PICK A "SUCCESSOR" YEARS IN FRONT OF THE NEXT ELECTION YOUR ARE SHORT CIRCUITING THE ELECTION PROCESS AND THE PEOPLE ARE DENIED A FAIR OPPORTUNITY TO EVALUATE CANDIDATES AND PICK THE BEST ONE!

THE PEOPLE BEING CONTROLLED BY THE "MADE MAN" SYSTEM ARE BEING TOLD HOW TO VOTE LONG BEFORE THE OTHER CANDIDATES ARE EVEN KNOWN AND THEY DON'T EVEN GET IT! THEY ARE BEING BLIND PARTISANS AND its KILLING DEMOCRACY!

Now the disclaimer: For every rule there is the exception. There are many honest candidates and there are many honest politicians. There are also many endorsements that are done only for the most ethical reasons! I would call still call them, the “exceptions.” And lastly you can counter everything I said and call this sour grapes or jealousy or whatever.

The truth is I will seek endorsements too, but it won't be hipocrisy if those endorsements do not manipulate me or the voters or intangle me in obligation to sombody, other than the people I will swear to represent. I love endrosements from the right folks for the right reasons!

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:29 AM | Comments (1)

Uncle Jay Explains Congress - Hilarious!

This is a must see video and it is so timely as our California lawmakers take a Hawaiian retreat to discuss "business" with lobbyist.Uncle Jay explains Congress! Hilarious.

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2007

Sarkozy Speaks to the US Congress

Posted by Tina Grazier

If you have not heard or read the full speech to Congress made by the French president, Nicholas Sarkozy you missed something special. I’ll give you a taste but then you must go to IBD and read, “America Can Count On France.”

Friends may have differences; they may have disagreements; they may have disputes. But in times of difficulty, in times of hardship, friends stand together, side by side; they support each other; and help one another. In times of difficulty, in times of hardship, America and France have always stood side by side, supported one another, helped one another, fought for each other's freedom. *** The United States and France remain true to the memory of their common history, true to the blood spilled by their children in common battles. But they are not true merely to the memory of what they accomplished together in the past. They remain true, first and foremost, to the same ideal, the same principles, the same values that have always united them. *** From the very beginning, the American dream meant proving to all mankind that freedom, justice, human rights and democracy were no utopia but were rather the most realistic policy there is and the most likely to improve the fate of each and every person. *** America did not tell the millions of men and women who came from every country in the world and who — with their hands, their intelligence and their heart — built the greatest nation in the world: "Come, and everything will be given to you." She said: "Come, and the only limits to what you'll be able to achieve will be your own courage and your own talent."

All is not cozy with this American and Sarkozy, as you will see, but the context of his speech, friendship based on our mutual commitment to freedom and democracy, creates the basis for a lasting relationship.

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

Doolittle Update

Doolittle, Inc., by Debra J. Saunders

The conservative Club for Growth recently issued a RePork Card to grade members' voting record on 50 bills designed to fight wasteful pork-barrel spending, known as earmarks. A "perfect 100 percent" went to 16 members, all Republicans, who voted against all 50 pork bills. Doolittle scored 2 percent. He voted against only one earmark. So when John Doolittle calls critics "weasels," I guess he figures that voters have a duty to pay for his pork -- and like it.

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:02 PM | Comments (2)

November 06, 2007

BIG Government Meddling

by Tina Grazier

Legislation proposed to fix a mess created by past legislation will set the stage for the next mess and that will provide a new opportunity for some congress critter to step into the spotlight to “do something!” which will create yet another problem…and so it goes. Can America take much more of the constant meddling?

Today’s example comes to us from the Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal. The story, “A Sarbox for Housing-How to restrict lending to the poor for housing for years to come,” explores the current housing problem and the legislation that set the stage for it, plus a new proposed “fix” that will only lead to another debacle:

Throughout the 1980s and '90s, Congress prodded, even strong-armed, banks into making more mortgage loans to low-income and minority families. Washington enacted anti-discrimination and community lending laws with penalties against lenders for failing to issue riskier mortgages to homebuyers living in poor neighborhoods or with low down payments and subpar credit ratings. And so it was that the modern subprime mortgage market was born. ** Now, and for a variety of reasons, some two million of those loans have gone sour, and the same politicians are searching for villains. Leading the charge is House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, who is accusing banks of "predatory lending"--by which he means making loans to the very group of borrowers that Mr. Frank and his colleagues urged banks to serve.

This kind of government meddling and intrusion into private affairs is a nightmare that repeats and repeats with every passing decade. Instead of letting business operate, plan, and execute according to market forces and wise decision-making, the government jumps into the mix trying to control and direct business in a particular direction. The “fixes” are rarely intelligent or reasonable:

Mr. Frank's proposal is a trial lawyer's dream. It would forbid banks from signing up borrowers for "overly expensive loans"; require banks to make sure that the consumer has a "reasonable ability to repay the loan"; and insist that loans must be "solely in the best interest of the consumer." This kind of murky language would invite litigation from every borrower who misses a payment. If it becomes law we can expect to see billboards reading: "Behind on your mortgage? For relief, call 1-800-Sue-Your-Banker."

Murky language…yep, that’s the biggest wrench in the legislation meddlers tool box! Government is ridiculous.

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)

Sen. Joe McCarthy, Ordinary American - Extraordinary Times

by Jack Lee, a follow up to the PS story, "Was McCarthy right?" by Tina Grazier

“For meritorious and efficient performance of duty as an observer and rear gunner of a dive bomber attached to a Marine scout bombing squadron operating in the Solomon Islands area from September 1 to December 31, 1943. He participated in a large number of combat missions, and in addition to his regular duties, acted as aerial photographer. He obtained excellent photographs of enemy gun positions, despite intense anti-aircraft fire, thereby gaining valuable information which contributed materially to the success of subsequent strikes in the area. Although suffering from a severe leg injury, he refused to be hospitalized and continued to carry out his duties as Intelligence Officer in a highly efficient manner. His courageous devotion to duty was in keeping with the highest traditions of the naval service.” Presented to Capt. Joe McCarthy, USMC during WWII by Adm. Chester Nimitz.

That was then....this is now:

Joe McCarthy was hounded and disparaged by the left as he tried to expose communist infiltration in the United States in 1953. The hatred and criticism of McCarthy was vile and unrelenting and continues to this day. He died an ostracized member of society with his character and patriotism impuned.

"With the opening of the KGB archives and the release of the VENONA intercepts - decoded Soviet KGB and GRU traffic - it has been proved that McCarthy was absolutely right about the extensive Soviet penetration of the U.S. government in all the most sensitive sections and its danger to America. According to the KGB archives the NKVD had 221 agents in the Roosevelt administration in April 1941 and the Soviet military GRU probably had a like number. He was proved right that the Communist Party, U.S.A., was an arm of the Soviet intelligence apparatus and the Soviet Union considered the US as their "main enemy." His liberal critics in academe and the mainstream media, who denied there was Communist subversion and made excuses for it, were proved absolutely wrong! This should have discredited the liberal ideology and those who mouthed it. Because the left had no answer or effective reply to the challenge McCarthy posed, they engaged in personal destruction - they smeared and demonized McCarthy because he was right."

At his memorial in 1957 Senate Chaplain Rev. Frederick Brown Harris said, "There he came, from the heartland of America, a tenacious and quite ordinary politician; and in a sudden and lasting moment of recognition, he saw the central truth of his age: that his country, his faith, his civilization was at war with communism, war pure and simple. 'This war will not end except in either victory or death for this civilization' he said again and again."(Willi Schlamm)..."And so this fallen warrior, though dead, speaketh, calling a nation of free men to be delivered from the complacency of a false security and from regarding those who loudly sound the trumpets of vigilance and alarm as mere disturbers of the peace."

Excerpts from, The Life and Times of Joseph McCarthy, Professor Thomas C. Reeves, 1997

Posted by Post Scripts at 06:36 PM | Comments (1)

1957 verses 2007, My How Times Have Changed (R-rated)

Submitted by Murderpolice

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Juan fails high school English.
1957 - Juan goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Juan's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a! requir ement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Juan's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Juan given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Posted by Post Scripts at 06:29 PM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2007

Was Joe McCarthy Right?

by Tina Grazier

M. Stanton Evans spent seven years of his life searching through never before seen documents and FBI files made available through the Freedom of Information Act to find out if the hated Joe McCarthy was indeed guilty of conducting a communist witch hunt. The result of his work is revealed in his new book, “Blacklisted by History” due to hit the bookstores this week. The author contends that penetration to our government by Communist Party members and sympathizers was extensive and McCarthy was “right on the essence of it and right on many (90%) of the cases.”

As with so many other things in American history I don’t expect this book will open or change the minds of those who defend communism…I just wish those who defend communism would pick a country, say Cuba?...Venezuela?...North Korea...(yeah!)…and go live there.

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:54 PM | Comments (4)

Not Fit for Education

SCROLL TO END OF STORY FOR IMPORTANT UPDATE

“In God We Trust,” the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence may be found unsuitable in Bakersfield schools.
by Tina Grazier

Sometimes it feels like I’m in some wild and crazy dream...life in these United States is so very different from what it once was. How in the heck have we come to a place where the founding historical documents and official motto of our country are being considered for possible exclusion from the classrooms of our children’s schools? It’s unthinkable to me that an educatror could say something like the following:

Board President Bob Hampton, a former teacher in the district, told The L.A. Times that he'll vote against the posters because they reflect a "spiritual agenda." ** "The spiritual side of students belongs at home and at church, not in the educational system," Hampton said.

The folderol is, of course, over the word “God,” a word considered by some so vile and offensive that it must be banned and condemned. (The non-judgmental clique that can’t wait to grab a crayon to make a free speech poster is, alas, in a hypocritical tizzy once again.)

Whether or not we believe in God these documents and “words” are part of our ongoing history and should be taught as such in our classrooms. There is a difference between being shown what our founders believed through documents and quotations and being asked to accept the Judeo-Christian God. Children should be exposed to all forms of thought and belief in school for a well rounded education. Preference and choice regarding religion, and the practice or abstainance of same, should be taught at home.

These protests do provide an important insight into the liberal/atheist mind. It would appear they believe children are paper cut-outs to be painted upon or vessels to be filled with carefully chosen information, rather than thinking beings capable of reaching the threshold of understanding on their own terms and in their own time. How unfortunate.

Foxnews.com has the story.

AMERICAN HISTORY WINS!!!

This morning FOX is reporting that the Bakersfield District Trustees decided the following:

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Trustees of the largest high school district in the country voted 4-1 Monday night to mandate displays bearing the nation's motto — "In God We Trust" — and other historical documents in over 2,300 district classrooms and offices. *** The display of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights will be included in the posters approved by district trustees in Bakersfield, Calif. Monday night. *** In addition to placing the displays in over 2,300 classrooms, the posters will also be hung in district boardrooms, libraries, administrative offices and other rooms.

One citizen summed it all up nicely:

The classroom displays were first suggested by the non-profit group In God We Trust — America Inc., whose president, Jacquie Sullivan, is a Bakersfield councilwoman. *** "I encouraged the trustees to put this on the agenda," she said. "It's very important. We need to promote patriotism and promote it in our schools. We can’t just assume that the younger generations are going to have that strong love for God and their country the way the older generations do."

See the FOX UPDATE

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:11 PM | Comments (4)

Pirate Attacks

The Associated Press - NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali pirates gave up control of two ships hijacked months earlier and U.S. Navy escorted the boats to safer waters Sunday as it stepped up efforts to bring security to the seas off the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.

The pirates climbed into small skiffs and headed back to Somalia after speaking by radio to U.S. naval personnel. A Navy ship and helicopter guided the South Korean-owned boats Mavuno 1 and 2 further out to sea.

It was the third time in a week the U.S. has intervened to help ships hijacked by Somali pirates. Sailors boarded a North Korean ship to give medical assistance to crew members who overpowered their hijackers, and a U.S. naval vessel fired on pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese-owned ship.

Naval personnel boarded the South Korean-owned ships and gave medical checkups to the crew, said Cmdr. Lydia Robertson of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. No injuries were reported. The two Tanzanian-flagged boats were seized May 15.

The Navy was also urging pirates to leave the Japanese ship and two hijacked boats in the region and sail back to Somalia, she told The Associated Press.

Robertson said the increase in U.S. military interventions was mostly due to the a surge in piracy. As the Navy moved ships into the area to respond to one incident, increased contact with other hijacked ships in the area was more likely, she said.

South Korea said all 24 sailors on board the two ships freed Sunday were safe. The Foreign Ministry said the ships were being escorted to Aden port in Yemen at the request of the South Korean government.

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:54 PM | Comments (2)

Pocket Taser Stun Gun Story (Rated R)

Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 22nd Anniversary, and I was looking for a little something "extra" for my wife.

What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on the assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety.... WAY TOO COOL!

Long story short, I bought the device, and brought it home. I loaded two triple-A batteries in the thing, and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed.

I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs. Awesome!!!

Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to the Wife what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all THAT bad, with only two triple-A batteries, right?!!! There I sat in my recliner with my cat, Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions, and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target.

I must admit, I thought about zapping Gracie, (for only a fraction of a second) and then thought better of it. She's such a sweet cat But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised.

Am I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top, with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms, and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would just be wasting the batteries.

All the while, I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5" long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; (pretty cute really, and loaded with two little bitty, itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, "NO possible way!"

What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best.

I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as if to say, "Don't do it master," reasoning that a one-second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn't POSSIBLY hurt all that bad...

I decided to give myself a one-second burst, just for the heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION @!@$$!%!

I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over, and over, and over, and over again.

I vaguely recall waking up on my side, in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs.

The cat was standing over me making meowing sounds I had never heard before, licking my face, and undoubtedly thinking to herself, "do it again, do it again!"

Note: If you ever feel compelled to "mug" yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is NO SUCH THING as a "one-second burst" , when you zap yourself. You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst would be considered conservative. SON-OF-A-%#&**%#... that hurt!!!

A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up, and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. (How did they up get there???) My triceps, right thigh, and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I'm still looking for my right shoe.

Posted by Post Scripts at 06:09 PM | Comments (1)

Straw Poll in Assembly Race - Results

by Jack Lee

Well the poll has been running for about 5 days and the results are Dan Logue is first, me second and Sue Horne is 3rd. At some point we have to call it and since we usually run a poll here for just a few days, this is close enough.
Considering the big names, money and endorsements I'm up against I think I did better than I had right to expect! Thank you for taking part.

Posted by Post Scripts at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)

Pakistan Teetering On the Brink of Civil War

Above Top Secret...

by Jack Lee

Just when you thought it was safe to read the newspaper or listen to the news: Pakistan represents a new crisis for America, a second chance for the Taliban and a new mission for Al Qaeda.

AP- Police fired tear gas and clubbed lawyers protesting Monday against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule. The U.S. and other nations called for elections to be held on schedule and said they were reviewing aid to Pakistan.

A military coup in 1999 put Musharraf in power and his regime has been promising a return to democratic elections ever since. Openly opposing Musharraf is Pakistan's Supreme Courtly and the judiciary. In response to this and a growing fundamentalist Islamic movement Musharraf has been using the police and the military to crush dissent and quell violence.

To complicate matters Musharraf has been playing reluctant host to the Taliban and Al Qaeda that roam freely in the mountainous tribal lands bordering Afghanistan which are deemed largely uncontrollable by Pakistani authority. To placate the radical Islamic elements, the Musharraf government struck a deal that basically allowed the terrorist factions to remain in their fortress hideouts unmolested as long as they did not attack the government troops. The fundamentalist terrorist groups have been gathering strength and adding to their numbers. Analysts say the long range goals of these groups are to subvert the pro-western government in Pakistan to an extremist Islamic theocracy and restore the Taliban to power in Afghanistan. As if this was not enough for Musharraf to juggle, now the exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has returned to resume her political ambitions.

AP - Chief justice Chaudhry was removed from his post on Saturday, just as the Supreme Court was preparing to rule on the validity of Musharraf's Oct. 6 re-election.

"I am virtually arrested," Chaudhry said in a written statement, describing the emergency declaration as a "naked attack" on the rule of law." "The main gate of my residence has been locked."

In a response to curry favor among the Islamic radicals the US is weakening Musharraf's power by threatening to withhold millions of dollars in foreign aide, as are other western nations and demanding he return Pakistan to democratic rule. This is a high risk maneuver which could easily backfire and result in a Taliban and Al Qaeda takeover of Pakistan's government and its stockpile of nuclear weapons. No doubt the powerful Islamic forces opposing Musharraf and the U.S.A. are hoping Bush will play into their hands and withhold the aide money.

Posted by Post Scripts at 04:36 PM | Comments (2)

November 04, 2007

Good News for Your Heart

When you work up a sweat on the treadmill or stationary bike, it sparks the creation of new blood vessels in your heart. Essentially, if any part of your heart is damaged, exercise helps to heal it. No pills required.

That is the stunning finding from researchers at Leipzig University in Germany. The Associated Press reports that Dr. Robert Hollriegel determined in a small study of just 37 people that when those who had serious heart failure rode a bike for up to 30 minutes a day for four months, new stem cells were produced in their bones. In addition, they had more small blood vessels in their muscles. A control group of people who did not exercise had no change in their vessels or muscles.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)

Gores Investment Holdings

Reveal his paper thin commitment to "saving the planet."
Posted by Tina Grazier

"Despite its widely publicized rhetoric, the Gore firm's stock portfolio looks to be that of an ordinary diversified mutual fund," said JunkScience.com publisher Steve Milloy. "If this is 'sustainable' investing, then it is a meaningless term," Milloy said. *** GIM, of which Al Gore is the chairman and founding partner, filed its Form 13F-Holdings report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 23, 2007. *** According to the report, GIM has $438 million invested in the following 22 companies: AFLAC, Amdocs, Autodesk, Becton Dickinson, Blackbaud, Donaldson Company, General Electric, Greenhill & Co., HDFC Bank, Johnson Controls, Laboratory Corporation of America, Metabolix, Millipore, Mueller Water Products, Northern Trust, Procter & Gamble, SPDR Trust, Staples, Techne Corp., UBS, Varian Medical Systems and Waters Corp. *** Al Gore says on the GIM web site that, "Integrating issues such as climate change into investment analysis is simply common sense." *** But with the exception of General Electric ─ which actively lobbies for global warming regulation while its stock significantly underperforms the broad stock market ─ GIM's portfolio doesn't seem to have anything to do with climate change. Notably absent from GIM's portfolio are energy and utility companies ─ even those that claim they will benefit from global warming regulation.

Our thanks to JunkScience.com for this information. Visit the website regularly for stories and information debunking the PC science view. You'll also find a link to Anthony's blog, "What's Up With That"...good going Anthony!

GIM's form 13F-Holdings Report may be viewed in pdf format:

http://www.junkscience.com/oct07/GIM_Holdings_102307.pdf.

Posted by Post Scripts at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

Scaife Turns Left

WorldNetDaily.com posted the story, "Dick Scaife no longer leading 'Clinton hater'" yesterday proving that politics is a very strange game of power and money.

WASHINGTON – When first lady Hillary Clinton famously lashed out at foes as a "vast, right-wing conspiracy," there was no question in the minds of Democrats as to who was directing it, funding it and pulling the strings.
It was Richard Mellon Scaife, an heir to fortunes made in banking, oil and aluminum who subsidized the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and underwrote countless conservative and Republican causes – including "the Arkansas Project," specifically designed to expose Clinton scandals. *** But that was then. This is now. *** Today, Dick Scaife has joined the anti-war movement, directing his newspaper in July to call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, and watching another of his media prizes, NewsMax.com, embrace Clinton with a surprisingly friendly interview about his new book, "Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World." *** In the midst of a messy divorce from his wife, Ritchie, Dick Scaife stunned many in his own community of Pittsburgh by joining hands with Clinton, George Soros, Rep. Jack Murtha, Sen. John Kerry and other former political foes in anti-war activism.

Scaife's NewsMax, a popular and once enthusiastically pro-Republican news website co-owned with Christopher Ruddy, who famously investigated the mysterious death of Clinton's deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster and the strange death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, also began attacking the war in Iraq following Scaife's personal metamorphosis. *** Whatever has caused the change in Scaife, it appears infectious. In an interview with Bill Clinton published in NewsMax, Ruddy has nothing but kind words for the "new Bill Clinton"

Posted by Post Scripts at 03:01 PM | Comments (0)

SOOEY!

Even Cut 50 Percent, Earmarks Clog a Military Bill
New York Times, by Marilyn W Thompson, Ron Nixon

WASHINGTON — Even though members of Congress cut back their pork barrel spending this year, House lawmakers still tacked on to the military appropriations bill $1.8 billion to pay 580 private companies for projects the Pentagon did not request. Twenty-one members were responsible for about $1 billion in earmarks, or financing for pet projects, according to data lawmakers were required to disclose for the first time this year.

Posted by Post Scripts at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

BIG OIL

Here’s an interesting tidbit to chew on:

The Perils of Petrocracy
New York Times Magazine, by Tina Rosenberg

Who holds the world’s oil? You might assume it’s in the hands of big private oil companies like ExxonMobil. But in fact, 77 percent of the world’s oil reserves are held by national oil companies with no private equity, and there are 13 state-owned oil companies with more reserves than ExxonMobil, the largest multinational oil company. The popular perception in the United States is that if leaders of oil countries nationalize their oil, they are bucking a global trend toward privatization. In reality, nationalized oil is the trend.

So I guess BIG OIL is about 77% progressive!

Posted by Post Scripts at 12:15 AM | Comments (2)

November 03, 2007

A Green Bill Clinton Sidles Up To Big Business

And liberals scheme to make us pay one way or another…
by Tina Grazier

Now and then, as I travel along the Al Gore Superhighway, I stumble upon two or more stories that converge. This particular meeting at the crossroads features Al’s favorite subject, “global warming.” Our journey will demonstrate the hypocrisy and misguided conceit of the liberal way.

Let’s begin with a few basics. It’s no secret that Al and friends in the liberal Democrat Party believe human beings, and specifically humans beings involved in the huge industrial complex, have caused global warming. It’s also widely understood that liberals despise big business and, in their heart of hearts, believe that all solutions come from government: government laws and regulations, and government programs funded by tax dollars…preferably from the rich. And finally, liberal democrats, progressives if you prefer, like to claim that everything they do is for the children, minorities, and the poor. These are the signposts to watch for today…I hope you enjoy the ride.

First stop is in the backyard of former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who, through his foundation, is teaming up with the widely despised corporate behemoth, Wal-Mart. Together these two giants of influence and industry have conspired to offer low cost green products to cities across our nation…one small step to save the world:

SEATTLE — Former President Bill Clinton told more than 100 mayors Thursday that stopping global warming depends on them demonstrating that it makes economic sense. He said his foundation is teaming up with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to save cities money on environmentally friendly supplies by buying in bulk. ** "We will not get a global agreement on climate change unless you can prove this is not a burden," he said. "This is the greatest opportunity we have had in our lifetimes." ** The Clinton Foundation has previously worked with 40 of the world's largest cities to create a buying pool to bring down prices for green supplies such as hybrid vehicles and more efficient street lights.

I don’t know about this being the “greatest opportunity” we’ve had in our lifetimes…there are some immediate concerns that might qualify as greater. Could it be Bill was thinking mostly of himself? He’s got to be a bit irked by now what with Al stealing the spotlight and winning worldwide fawning and favor in very splashy ways.

Clinton’s idea isn’t bad, in fact I like the basic private sector solution. One question immediately comes to mind, however. How will cities that have spurned the building of Wal-Mart stores in their communities now go about back peddling and sucking up in order to benefit from the great deals offered by the BIG president they adore... and the BIG business they hate? And how do they square this with unions that are wondering why Bill Clinton didn’t work through Costco or Safeway? I guess as long as it’s this liberal (Clinton) that holds the hero’s seat all will be temporarily forgiven.

Our second stop along the superhighway takes us to the U.S. Senate where a committee is putting together a bill that demands certain ecological standards…whether or not these standards can actually be met and whether or not they fit into budgets and workable plans. The most important thing is that the senators look good to their constituents who expect solutions by government decree:

The bill calls for setting limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are emitted from power plants, refineries, factories and motor fuels. Polluters could exceed the limits by buying credits from companies (Al Gore’s company can facilitate this for a small fee) whose emissions are under their allowable ceiling. ** Lieberman called the vote "potentially a landmark event, the moment at which the United States finally began a serious fight against the threat of unchecked global warming." ** The full Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plans to take up the bill in coming weeks, when its chairman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is expected to seek greater greenhouse gas cuts.

Democrats don’t believe that you and I have it in us to seek the best solutions to whatever problems we face…not without their oversight, input, mandate and CONTROL. “Scientific consensus” (not proof) is all they require to tell us how things are going to be from now on…and hang the unintended consequences! Environmental mandates will require expensive changes that will affect both jobs and the price we pay for everything…that is it will if we have any buying power left after they raise our taxes. The fact that “carbon credits” are part of the mix makes this even more ridiculous and suspect. But the most ridiculous thing about making these demands is how they will affect the lower classes. Great harm will come to the poorest among us who will have to pay more for food, clothing and bus tickets. Democrats know how to fix that however, they will just find new (and even more costly) ways to appease the poor...which takes us down a little detour on this road trip:

Front page magazine features an article that takes us across the globe. It’s by Mark Tooley and demonstrates, “How Global Warming Activism Hurts the Poor.”

The National Religious Partnership on the Environment (NRPE) organized Mainline Protestants, Roman Catholics, Evangelicals and Jews in a special statement to the U.S. Congress pleading for a joint crusade against Global Warming and poverty. ** Ironically, it is indeed the poor who will suffer the most from the hundreds of billions of dollars in additional taxation and increased regulation that Global Warming activists demand for saving The Planet. ** Reducing economic growth through climate change regulation will further reduce the poor's ability to escape poverty. Newly empowered people who have escaped their poverty through economic entrepreneurship are always a political threat to the statism of the Religious Left. ** Unappreciated by Western environmentalists is that hundreds of millions in Africa and Asia will have to sacrifice more than their favorite espresso. Capping international economic growth means preventing industrialization in the Global South. It means Indians and Congolese and Chinese and Nigerians and Indonesians and Brazilians and countless others will not have refrigeration, or air conditioning, or easily potable water, or cleans ways to heat their homes. For the Global South, freezing the global economy in a ephemeral attempt at affecting the climate means permanent poverty, with reduced life spans, continued plagues, unsanitary living and working conditions, and diminished opportunities for education, for Western-levels of medical care, and for convenient and safe transportation.

If global warming mandates that act like leeches sucking away at the lives and future potential of the worlds children isn’t enough to make us all skeptical of liberal government solutions try this story from TCS, “Green Self-Fulfilling Prophecies,” by Roger Bate:

In mid-October, former Vice President Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his climate change campaigning. Two weeks later the United Nations Environment Program published its Global Environment Outlook, claiming the world was running headlong toward disaster by ignoring environmental problems, particularly climate change. Both announcements made numerous headlines, prompting myriad politicians to show off their green awareness and commitment. ** Indeed, the same week the UN report was causing such hand-wringing, Members of the European Parliament were urged by environmental groups and Green MEPs to mandate lower pesticide use across Europe. The Pesticide Action Network Europe argues that children are most vulnerable to pesticide exposure and -- with laughable specificity given the paucity of data of any harm from such exposure -- claims children are 164 times more at risk from up to 13 organophosphate pesticides than adults. ** In their well-meant desire to eliminate potential risks, MEPs have overlooked a stone-cold certainty. Infections carried by insects, especially malaria, are mankind's most successful killers. And unfortunately US officials preceded their European counterparts in ignoring the signals. When West Nile Virus arrived in New York around 1999, probably carried by a bird which had been bitten by a mosquito, widespread insecticide spraying of New York state, Connecticut and New Jersey would probably have controlled the disease. Instead, officials dithered, as environmental groups protested, arguing spraying was more dangerous than the disease. West Nile virus has now spread to every state in the union (except Hawaii and Alaska). Over 700 people have died from the disease. Meanwhile, the only people who die from pesticides are those who use them recklessly or deliberately drink it to commit suicide; the same as can be said for kitchen cleaner. ** Meanwhile, mosquito experts remind us that mosquitoes can survive almost anywhere. Professor Paul Reiter, of the Pasteur Institute in Paris gave written evidence to the British House of Lords of a malaria epidemic in the Soviet Union in the 1920s which had a peak incidence of 13 million cases per year, and 600,000 deaths.

Isn’t it a bit foolhardy to rush headlong into government solutions before identifying the actual causes of problems? And isn’t it foolish to refuse to even consider the unintended harm that these solutions will cause?
Liberals like to think they own compassionate concern; they, and only they, have cornered the market on what makes life work. Whatever the fad or issue, sharing about it sparks a kind of passionate hyperactivity of feelings. All focus is honed on a perceived villain and this villain is demonized with loud and nasty protest, and fierce demands for political solutions. This is liberal caring. This is what passes for making a difference.

While liberals meddle, dither, and call names men of good will and self interest will quietly noodle away seeking actual causality. They will be inspired to discover reliable solutions to the problems they find worthy of their time, energy and expense. This simple act of preservation and survival, the very process of life, will lead to creative solutions and marketable products and services. The public will participate by choosing (freely) to purchase these products…or not. Those that prove to be of value will sell like hotcakes; those that don't will fall by the wayside. Life works when faith, determination, creativity and hard work come together. These are the things that cause all people to thrive, survive, contribute and win.

The liberal way demands money from the public in the form of fees and taxes, forces solutions without the benefit of planning or test, and constructs greater levels of wasteful government bureaucracy. When Bill Clinton plays the green card by sidling up to BIG business you can bet it's just his way of auditioning for his next big lib roll.

Posted by Post Scripts at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)

November 02, 2007

Media Bias Confirmed!

Even Harvard Finds The Media Biased
Investor's Business Daily, by Editorial Staff

Journalism: The debate is over. A consensus has been reached. On global warming? No, on how Democrats are favored on television, radio and in the newspapers. Just like so many reports before it, a joint survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy — hardly a bastion of conservative orthodoxy — found that in covering the current presidential race, the media are sympathetic to Democrats and hostile to Republicans.

Posted by Post Scripts at 09:34 PM | Comments (2)

November 01, 2007

Scalia on the Constitution

Posted by Tina Grazier

“An originalist is someone who adheres to the text of the Constitution, but — more importantly — gives the text the meaning that it had when the American people adopted it,” he said. “It is such a minority view currently that people sometimes come up to me and say, ‘Justice Scalia, when did you first become an originalist?’ This is some kind of weird affliction, like ‘When did you start eating human flesh?’” ** “Originalism used to be orthodoxy,” Scalia said. “Nobody ever thought the Constitution morphed. If you had told [19th-century Associate Justice] Joseph Story that what it means is going to change from decade to decade on the basis of whatever five out of nine justices on the Supreme Court think it ought to mean, he would have been uncomprehending.”

Scalia made these remarks after receiving the Helms Center Foundation’s James W. Nance Medal of Freedom. That award is presented each year to “that individual in government who best exemplifies a devotion to public service and the protection of the nation’s foundational values,” according to a Helms Center news release.

Find more of Scalia's thoughts HERE.

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:06 PM | Comments (1)

SoCal Fire Had Adequate Military Personnel

by Jack Lee

There has been some criticism that California's joint military forces were too depleted by demands in Iraq to adequately respond to the fires in SoCal. Let me assure you, this just is not true. About 16% of our total force was deployed (State Active Duty) and that was all that was requested or needed. This number included air and ground units. There was an abundance of personnel in reserve that could have handled multiple emergency situations.

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:26 PM | Comments (3)

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