NOVATOWNHALL

I’m just going to link to Laura W; you decide.

The Washington Redskins did what they had to do tonight, creaming the Dallas Cowboys 27-6.

It was a “meaningless” game for Dallas, insomuch as they had already clinched the number one seed throughout the NFC playoffs. But the Redskins did more than beat an uncommitted team: They showed they can hang with the best Dallas can offer. The Cowboys played their first string into the second half, and they did not even put up a fight.

The Redskins won, fair and square. Washington will be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs.

My take: The Cowboys have been terrible the past four weeks and the Redskins demonstrated they can beat them anytime, anywhere. It seems extremely likely the ‘Skins will beat the Seahawks next weekend, and will be the Cowboys’ opponent in two weeks. Dallas will have the fight of their lives in two weeks.

UPDATE: I did not catch most of the game on TV but apparently there was a questionable hit on Terry Glenn? Drama is a good thing.

Just as a matter of full disclosure, I am not a Ron Paul supporter. He is interesting, and far more substantial than MSM gives him credit for. He is not a media darling like Huckabee or McCain, which is why I prefer him to those two. I am currently in the Thompson/Hunter end of the party; still, Ron Paul should be given a look.

Ron Paul is a dark horse. He has raised close to $19 million in the 4th quarter of this year and his war chest is growing daily. He has raised over $4 million in a single day. The man’s support consists of 25 to 50 dollar contributions. This equates to lots of people when one looks at the amount of money he has raised.

Ron Paul has more volunteers than one can count. His supporters have been beating the grass at every major conservative blog, annoying the bajeepers out of me on many an occasion. They also swarm all over the MSM sights like locusts. I drive down small country roads in PA, WV, MD, NY and VA and see signs on front lawns extolling Ron Paul. Not home made signs, but your standard campaign fare, this implies that there is some organization. Paul is ignored by the media, but not by the conservative base of the Republican Party. How much is going on under the radar screen? Read the rest of this entry »

Try as I might, I still can’t get enthused to any great degree to weigh in on the news of the day. In recompense, I know our esteemed family of readers will appreciate the news feed from World Net Daily which now appears in the right sidebar.

What I can do, in the spirit of the holiday season, is offer some memorabilia of personal history, which in contradistinction to the ubiquitous news environment should help bring the blogosphere a little closer to what most of us believe it is really about in the first place; namely, endless prattling on about one’s own life. When I first started blogging many years ago, a wise mentor told me I’d do best to write about things on which I had a uniquely informed perspective. My life, it turns out, is aces in that category. I recently needed to do some organizing of mountains of family photos, so the time seems ideal to branch out in that direction.

Here is me with my late dad and late grandfather, Christmas 1967. I still own that hat.
This is me sitting in a sprint car at A.J. Foyt’s “Coyote Enterprises” headquarters in the early 1970s. My dad was a PR executive with Purolator - which was a major sponsor of Foyt’s racing team - and I spent several summers at the Coyote shop in Houston.

About 8 years later, this is in Key West after my 1979 high school graduation. The familiar beard and anomie had even then begun to take shape.

Fast forward about 18 years to my best friend’s wedding south of Rome, held at an amazing venue - an ancient Christian church built onto a pre-Christian Roman temple. It was a pretty spectacular experience which all who attended will no doubt remember forever. A fantastic family and friends get-together.

More of this incredible history below the fold.
Read the rest of this entry »

As we draw closer to the Iowa caucuses, the Golden Globes of modern political polling, here’s what we have on the Huckster:

Mike Huckabee is overselling his record of cracking down on illegal aliens as governor, claiming he ordered his state police to arrest illegal aliens when in fact he never signed the agreement with federal authorities that would have allowed it.

Mr. Huckabee signed a bill that began the process, but he never followed through with signing an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to secure training for state police officers. Without it, they cannot enforce federal immigration law.

We do not need the quisling holding elected office.

A little over 2000 years ago, an amazing thing happened. Most likely it occurred sometime around spring — late spring. It was the most amazing thing that ever occurred. The word that spoke “let there be light” (okay, he may have stated Maxwell’s equations specifically long before Maxwell “discovered” them, but the general gist of it was let there be light) took upon himself flesh and blood. The one who set the worlds in motion became a human on a small one of those worlds. There are those that deny it would even be possible. How could a creator take on the “stuff” of what was created? It didn’t fit any of the mathematical models.

Born of a woman? So poor a woman that his first bed was a limestone feed trough? Come on now, that just doesn’t make sense. Even if this creator did want to contact the human race (why would he want to do that in the first place … a jumble of immoral, violent, ingrates that would love nothing more than to be rid of him).

Born under the law? He was the author of all just law. The righteous law is a reflection of his character. There was absolutely no need for him to have the law, for his very nature would do what was required by the law. He would no more do wrong than a cat would fly.

Why? That is the most amazing thing of all. The king had a people who rebelled against him. They wanted to throw off his rule — even though that rule was good, honorable, incorruptible, and perfect. The just penalty for this treason was death. The problem is that the creator was both just (he could not ignore the traitors’ treason) and merciful. Justice requires that all debts are paid. Mercy seeks to forgive those who have done what is wrong. A just and merciful creator pronounced the death sentence, then took the form of the traitor so he could take the place of the traitor. And that is why. The creator/word took on flesh and we celebrate that this season. We are not commanded to do so, but we choose to do so. It is not particularly the time, but it is worthwhile to set a time — and what better time than that which the people who had been traitors used to celebrate, but now with a different meaning.

Maxwell’s equations were spoken into the void and light could not help but come forth. Mercy was spoken by the father and the son became flesh and dwelt among us.

Remember the gift that this season is about. I would wish wars to cease, famine to stop, disease to be conquered; that will not happen in this age.

Remember the gift. It was for us that he came. I would wish everyone would love each other with sincere hearts, treat one another with kindness, theft and violence to be replaced with charity and compassion; that will not happen in this age.

Remember the gift. Now we are the children of God … it is not yet revealed what we shall become.

Merry Christmas

The 2008 presidential campaign is shaping up to be a bipartisan letdown of monumental proportions. Can there possibly be a die hard fan base for any of the “front runners” larger than the number of people who can crowd around the back of a pickup truck to share a 12-pack?

No, there can not.

The nominating “system,” such as it is, is poised to deliver a bite in the butt to everyone who honestly gives a damn about the future of our nation. Therefore, I say, our best hope as Americans is that the system gets played, tested, teased to the breaking point by circumstances it was not meant to encompass, much like what happened to the BCS this year when everybody started losing games at the tail end of the season.

The integrity of the existing process depends on the primaries boiling down to a single candidate from each party, each with a substantially larger base of support than any third-party challenger can muster. Then, everything can run its supposedly proper course to deliver us two viable candidates - one Democrat, one Republican - by November.

To completely hose this process, we need spoilers, plural: people who can attract enough public support and shave off enough votes in the general election to whittle support for the Two down to surmountable levels.

We know who one of these ought to be: Lou Dobbs. If the Republicans nominate an open borders guy, Lou will have a huge opening.

Who else might jump in as an independent? I don’t know, but chances are better than 50-50 it would be a fortuitous development.

To shave the Democratic side, we need … anyone. Anyone will do. I don’t immerse myself in the strange world of the Democratic electorate enough to pretend to offer an analysis of the most salient issues by which a front runner is likely to piss off a sufficient number of voters to make a third party candidate viable.

But I do know one thing: A ham sandwich with a billion dollars can give anyone a run for their money.

On that note, I hereby heartily endorse New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s nascent candidacy.

Bloomberg aides reached out to people involved in ad-making - including one who had been involved in creating the mayor’s vaunted TV spots - asking about their availability in the coming months, the sources said.

That Bloomberg aides would look to lock up an ad team dovetails with what the mayor has privately told people about how he would spend up to $1 billion of his own fortune on an independent run, which would be played out mostly on the TV airwaves and through direct mail.

Do it, Mr. Bloomberg. The system is broken. Your country needs you to help break it completely.

On Meet the Press, Ron Paul just stated there is moral equivalence between al Qaeda, on the one hand, and on the other the Bush administration, “neo cons” and whoever else is responsible for the U.S. having military bases all over the world.

My first thought was, This guy is toast.

But upon further reflection, I wonder if his fundraising will now go through the roof and his positive polling numbers spike. That’s not a flippant comment.

Greg Letiecq of Black Velvet Bruce Li will be a guest on the Lou Dobbs show tonight to discuss Save The Old Dominion. Be sure to watch!

The project was also featured in today’s Washington Times which, like the rest of the country, becomes more spelling-challenged with each passing year.

This is the first in a series of articles in which I will be examining each of the candidates. The order is based upon which candidate I find most interesting. It is not a question of electability; or for whom I would vote. In this posting I am providing an overview and a basis for examination of the candidates.

Several things are going on in the Republican primary race that make me wonder about the current crop of front runners. The main element is the overall dissatisfaction of the party with the raging mediocrities that have been put forward by the press. I am saying this because I have yet to find a Giuliani supporter who is a conservative Republican.

More examples are Huckabee and Thompson, who were/are as much products of the media covering the race as they are products of the electorate. All candidates need to get past the press first nowadays, but these two have experienced press support out of proportion to their abilities and standing with the electorate. As a matter of full disclosure in this particular, I like Thompson on his own merits (warts and all), I find Huckabee to be a second and diminished coming of George W. Bush. Huckabee is not getting my vote.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not surprisingly, Lt. Governor Bill Bolling is continuing to stand for fiscal responsibility and controlled spending, in this case opposing Governor Kaine’s reckless spending and new programs in his biennial budget:

STATEMENT OF LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR BILL BOLLING ON GOVERNOR TIM KAINE’S BUDGET PROPOSALS

RICHMOND - Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling today released the following statement in response to Governor Tim Kaine’s proposed budget for the
2008/2010 biennium.

“I am very disappointed by the budget Governor Kaine introduced earlier
today.  The Governor’s budget does not properly address the shortfalls
being experienced by the Commonwealth in the current fiscal year, and it
includes unwise spending commitments and unreasonable economic
assumptions in the upcoming biennium.  This budget is not in keeping
with the Virginia tradition of fiscal responsibility.

“In the current fiscal year, Governor Kaine has proposed eliminating a
significant budget shortfall, which arose because economic growth has
been less than anticipated, by taking money out of the state’s savings
account and raiding the Transportation Trust Fund.  We should not take
money out of the state’s savings account at a time when the economy is
still growing.  That is not the intended purpose of the savings account.
We should look for other ways to eliminate the budget shortfall.
Likewise, the Governor’s assault on the Transportation Trust Fund is an
affront to the people of Virginia, who just last year were asked to pay
higher fees and taxes for transportation construction.

“In the upcoming biennium, the Governor’s budget includes hundreds of
millions of dollars in new spending initiatives that appear to be
financed by overly optimistic revenue projections and billions of
dollars in new debt.  This is a fiscally irresponsible budgetary
approach, and it should be rejected by the members of the General
Assembly.

“If we fail to meet the Governor’s overly optimistic revenue projections
of 6.6% in the 2010 fiscal year, we could face budget shortfalls even
greater than those we are facing today; and the massive debt the
Governor has proposed will move Virginia very close to exhausting its
current debt capacity.

“The Governor’s budget includes a number of worthwhile initiatives, but
we simply don’t have the money to pay for these initiatives at this
time.  Rather than accept and acknowledge these realities, as his
predecessors have done, Governor Kaine has chosen to embark on a
spending frenzy that could have disastrous long term results for
Virginia.

“These are challenging economic times for Virginia and other states, and
fiscal responsibility requires that we resist the temptation to advance
new spending initiatives at a time when economic growth is
unpredictable.

“The budget Governor Kaine presented today appears to be a political
document that seeks to appease numerous special interest groups, while
throwing fiscal responsibility and budgetary restraint to the wind.  I fear that the General Assembly will have little choice but to set the
Governor’s budget aside and seek to come up with an alternative budget
that better reflects the realities of the fiscal challenges facing our
state.”

The more I learn about the LG, the more I like the man.  My family is forced to live within our budget, it’s good to hear someone in Richmond advocating our state government do the same.  2009 will be interesting indeed.

Yes, when you are a front runner “that’s part of the deal,” as the Huckster so aptly put it: People check to see whether your statements are true.

Welcome to the big leagues - that wacky, schizoid realm where you are supposed to tell the truth.

Unfortunately, the Washington Post has fact-checked Mike Huckabee and discovered what so many others have been saying for nearly a month: Huckabee is truth-challenged.

One leading rival, Fred Thompson, has accused Huckabee of having “championed” an effort to permit illegal immigrants to benefit from in-state tuition rates at state universities. Huckabee has denied the charge, claiming that his support was limited to a much more restrictive scholarship program….

During his annual “State of the State address” to the Arkansas state legislature in January 2005, Huckabee proposed making “any student graduating from a high school in Arkansas” eligible for state financial aid. He said it was “terribly unjust” to deny such aid solely on the basis of the student’s immigration status, “a status that he had no decision in and no control over.”

It is hard to fathom how redirecting limited state resources from legal residents to trespassers is “unjust” in any way at all. The operating assumption must be that the legal residents who lost out would never know to complain.

The Paper of Record has an interesting article about current terminology related to illegal migrants. Generally speaking, I have always figured “illegal immigrants” is the most useful because everyone who hears it knows what you are talking about, and in the communications field that is one of the things you are shooting for. But technically, illegal migrants is what they really are, because the term refers to people who have eschewed the immigration process - which is a legal process - and taken it upon themselves to migrate to the U.S. illegally. The downside of this terminology is it causes unfamiliar listeners to do a double take - they have to think before recognizing what is being said.

And as the author notes, illegal “alien” is the proper term for the illegal migrants in the context of U.S. law.

But semantically we can quibble over categories such as “authorized” or “documented” in the “un-” tense. Also, it is surely not unreasonable in shorthand to refer to those in the U.S. illegally as “illegals.”

In the interest of clarification and social harmony, I propose we call it what it is from here on out, and simply refer to the interlopers as “trespassers.” They are not allowed to be here, and therefore they are trespassing.

That being settled, I assume we can move on.

If the guy can do this, isn’t it probable he will win some primaries? I mean, if the Huckster has managed in one month’s time to rise to the top of the polls just on the basis of being the “religion” candidate, Mr. Paul is bound to turn all that cash into votes somewhere, right?

UPDATE: That is, of course, if he manages to stay alive.

He represents the cause every one of us should be supporting.

Undoubtedly, you’ve heard about Joey Vento, owner of the Geno’s Steaks restaurant in Philadelphia.

Mr. Vento made the news by requiring customers to order in English. Today, he was brought before a hearing of the city Human Relations Commission, where he was told by one commission member:

“It is the commission’s belief, that the sign constitutes discrimination, on the basis of national origin, in violation of the Fair Housing Practices Act.”

Stay tuned to this blog for further updates on the assault on Geno’s Steaks.