ALE Raids Conservative Activist Engaged in Investigating Government Corruption

On Feb. 24, state Alcohol Law Enforcement agents carried out a raid on property maintained by business owner and conservative activist Chad Nesbitt, which ALE officials claim targeted illegal poker games that have been going at the site. No arrests were made — and the investigation continues.

“We’re still going through the documents and evidence we got,” ALE District Supervisor Allen Page told Xpress. “Once we do that, we’ll put a package together, sit down with [District Attorney] Ron Moore and decide where to go from there.”

Page also said that the ALE had conducted the raid in conjunction with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, which keeps a record of such an occurrence if it involves deputies. However, Deputy J.E. Allen, who handles incident reports for the Sherriff’s office, had no record of the raid.

Nesbitt called the allegations “totally false” and said that the raid was “blatant intimidation,” in response to efforts to uncover alleged corruption in the Buncombe County District Attorney’s office. His grandfather, Jim Rhew, owns the property, but Nesbitt maintains a convenience store on it, along with the two-story building that was the site of his now defunct Legends sports bar.

Source: Mountain Xpress

I was at the Breakfast Meeting the day before the raid, and I can tell you if what I saw in the videos was even halfway true...there is very serious corruption ongoing in law enforcement, as well as in the courthouse in Buncombe County, and in State Law Enforcement.

I will have more on this in the morning.

For those who are counting...this is the second attempt to shut Chad up.

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Buncombe GOP Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner Opening Video

Here is the opening video, and I've re-posted the Senator Dole speech below, so that you may watch both if you desire.



I should have the rest of the videos up sometime this weekend. I apologize for the delay.



Buncombe GOP

Senator Dole

Friends of Elizabeth Dole

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More Improvements for West Carolina Report

I have almost finished the next round of improvements for my headline news site, West Carolina Report, and have updated it with fresh headlines, and a series of widgets that will deliver fresh content from RSS Feeds.

I have been typically delivering content based on a mix of geographic location (for the WNC and NC pages) and theme (for the National and World War IV pages). Now, I will be adding a fifth page, Science & Technology, to cover scientific and technological news over the weekend.

Eventually, I hope to be able to have all 13 sections active and constantly being updated by me and other team members to deliver a comprehensive coverage of news and politics in the coming months. The learning curve has been steep.

So, be sure to check out what I've been up to over there.

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McCain Leads BOTH Obama and Clinton in National Poll

The Mason-Dixon Poll on the numbers for the general election:

• John McCain 47%
• Barack Obama 37%

• John McCain 49%
• Hillary Clinton 40%

McCain leads Obama 47%-37% and Clinton 49%-40%. The Arizona senator leads the Democrats across the board. About 80% of Republicans are behind McCain. Only 66% of Democrats are behind Obama and 72% are backing Clinton in one-one-one match-ups with McCain. Currently, 17% of Democrats indicate that in a match up with Obama, they'd support McCain; 16% say so in a match up with Clinton. Seventeen percent of Dems also say they are undecided in a match up with Obama; 13% say so with regard to McCain-Clinton. Those numbers though could be a reflection of McCain being the presumptive nominee and Obama and Clinton still engaged in a fight for the nomination.

Commentary

Wow! This confirms my assertions here, and in several forums that Obama will be easier to defeat than Hillary.

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New York Slimes Tries To Slime McCain AGAIN!

You wouldn't know that the Times recently endorsed McCain for President by their recent attempts to derail his campaign. First, they re-printed an old, already discounted rumor. Second, they question his eligibility to become President.

Idiots. Is there not one editor at that paper who has not had a class on US History, where the US Constitution is studied?

Am I more intelligent than the editors of that paper?

The latest sliming by the Times was forwarded to me by a local lefty blogger.

WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.

Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.

Source: New York Times

Commentary

I responded thusly:

I see the New York Slimes lives down to it's poor reputation and is bereft of knowledge common to me since High School US History Class, and a simple reading of the US Constitution by anyone with half a brain. (I know today that seems to exclude the majority).

In recent history, three people have run for President who were born outside the Union proper, George Romney (born in Mexico), Barry Goldwater(born in Arizona before it became a state), and John McCain (born in the Panama Canal Zone to US Parents, one of whom was serving in the military).

You may argue that the Canal Zone is no longer US Territory (thanks, Jimmah), but Art 1, § 9 and Art. 1 § 10 prevent an ex post facto conviction. So, yes, he WAS born in the United States, even though it is no longer our territory. [Eligible #1]

McCain is a natural-born citizen under 8 USC 1401(c): “a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents both of whom are citizens of the United States and one of whom has had a residence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions, prior to the birth of such person.” [Eligible #2]

I could go on, but there is no need. This does, however, give me an opportunity to note that the New York Times is engaged in tabloid journalism, creating controversies where none exist, and attacking a candidate for public office to the right of their position.


The question is settled law.

Feel free to email me if you have any further elementary questions regarding the US Constitution.

I had those references already on file due to having run across this problem before by reading through the fevered swamps of several Ron Paul forums [1] [2], and the equally fevered ramblings of Ted Samply, who (if he believes his allegations) should have pursued his crapola to get McCain removed from the Senate...and not wait until the man has the GOP Nomination locked up.



Previously on this blog:

John McCain IS A Natural Born Citizen

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Buh-Bye Hillary!

It looks like her last debate performance has done in the Hilda Beast!



Source: Gallup


I think I will be breaking out the bubbly next Tuesday night!!!

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Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling

Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures
wipes out a century of warming

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

Source: Daily Tech

Commentary

The evidence is mounting from every quarter that the earth is cooling, not warming. I can imagine lefty enviros out protesting Global Warming in the snow in the next few decades, as it piles ever higher around them.

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RIP William F. Buckley (1925-2008)

One of the icons of the conservative movement has died:

I’m devastated to report that our dear friend, mentor, leader, and founder William F. Buckley Jr., died overnight in his study in Stamford, Connecticut.

After year of illness, he died while at work; if he had been given a choice on how to depart this world, I suspect that would have been exactly it. At home, still devoted to the war of ideas.

As you might expect, we’ll have much more to say here and in NR in the coming days and weeks and months. For now: Thank you, Bill. God bless you, now with your dear Pat. Our deepest condolences to Christopher and the rest of the Buckley family. And our fervent prayer that we continue to do WFB’s life’s work justice.

Source: The Corner

I am saddened to hear about this. During my early years of being a conservative, I watched his show, Firing Line, on the local PBS station, and read National Review, when the internet came along, I read the magazine online. I also enjoyed many of his books, and looked forward to his columns in the magazine he founded.
I like to tell people that Jimmy Carter made me a Republican, William F. Buckley taught me conservatism, and Ronald Reagan showed showed me conservatism in action.

This man was a giant who helped keep this nation from slipping completely into socialism.

My prayers go out to his family, friends, and co-workers.

Here are sources of info about him, his life, and tributes to him. I will post them as I find them:

Wikipedia Article

Quotes at Think Exist

Quotes at Brainy Quote


03-24-2006 on Charlie Rose


06-09-2004 on Charlie Rose Remebering Reagan


Chomsky Interview

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GOP to Play Lucy to Democrat Charlie Brown in Senate

Or, How the GOP Will Punk the Democrats on Retreating From Iraq!



The details:

Republicans remain almost unanimously opposed to any required withdrawal timeline, but they supported opening the debate because they want to draw attention to the decreased violence and other military progress in Iraq since the United States sent an additional 30,000 U.S. troops there last year.

"There's been so much improvement in the situation in Iraq. Since [Democrats] are the ones who want to turn back to the subject, we'd like to spend the time talking about the dramatic improvements in Iraq," Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters moments before a preliminary vote on the withdrawal measure.

The Senate voted 70 to 24 in favor of beginning a debate on a motion to formally vote on the bill, with 43 Republicans joining 26 Democrats and one independent.

In five previous efforts during the past 20 months, Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) had not received even 30 votes to bring his bill to a final vote. Not a single Republican had previously supported any of Feingold's withdrawal bills, which have proposed the deepest cuts of any legislation requiring troop pullouts from Iraq.

The Republican move to back the debate on the Feingold proposal caught Democratic leaders off guard. Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who supports the Feingold measure, had hoped the Senate would begin considering a package addressing the mortgage crisis late yesterday. He had expected Republicans to remain opposed to debating the withdrawal plan as well as another bill requiring a new administration strategy on the fight against al-Qaeda.

Source: Washington Post

Commentary

I am looking forward to this, especially since I can now download and edit video of the proceedings. This is a real opportunity to show just how stupid the Democrats (and the anti-war lefties who support Ron Paul) are...and it is good to see the GOP Senate finally showing some backbone.

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Kathleen Willey on Political Pistachio Radio

Note: the widget above will play the show live at 10pm if you click the play button while the show is in progress, otherwise, it will play the podcast after the show is over.

Details of tonight's show from Douglas Gibbs:

Kathleen Willey, wife, mother, and Democratic Political Activist, was working as a White House volunteer when, in 1993, President Clinton sexually assaulted her in the Oval Office. On the same day, her husband of 23 years committed suicide. Four years later, she was drawn into the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit and subsequently, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when she was forced to testify against Bill Clinton. Now, she has been targeted by the Clintons for daring to tell the truth, becoming the focus of media smear campaigns, terror tactics, and witness intimidation.

Willey was also betrayed by Hillary Clinton, stating in her book, Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton, that Hillary Rodham Clinton also ". . . betrayed all of the women her husband abused when she brought her power to bear on her husband's prey."

Despite Hillary's husband's 20 years of infidelity, made famous when the Monica Lewinsky affair broke in 1998, she is now a Democratic presidential frontrunner with Bill by her side.

Tonight on Political Pistachio Radio Kathleen Willey is our guest. She will explain years of accusations by women such as herself, Gennifer Flowers, etc. And we will discuss Mrs. Clinton's actions, and how she was willing to do whatever it took to ensure Bill Clinton's actions did not ruin their political careers. After all, for Hillary Clinton, it is all about power, and she is willing to do anything to reach the White House again.

Willey also says that her book contains explosive revelations that could damage Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, including accusations of campaign finance violations, new revelations about harassment and threats by the Clintons and their associates, and the identification of the person who threatened her just prior to her testimony against President Clinton - a man who turned out to be linked to the Clintons. Willey was also the target of an unusual house burglary that nabbed a manuscript of her book, while little else was taken from her home.

Now, Kathleen is warning that the Clinton Machine will sharpen its attacks on Obama, now that Hillary has been losing a string of primaries and caucuses to Senator Barack Obama. Willey has said that Hillary seeks to break Obama's momentum, "and we are going to see a lot more of the same Clinton tactics that I and a number of insiders have experienced."

Indeed, the Clinton Camp has launched a new "kitchen sink" strategy which intends to also go after pledged delegates, intended to get them to switch sides, regardless of state's caucus results. "In their desperation, they are creating another scenario for war within the Democratic Party."

Join us tonight at 10pm Eastern Time as we discuss this with Kathleen Willey on Political Pistachio Radio.

Warmest Regards,

Douglas V. Gibbs
www.politicalpistachio.com

POLITICAL PISTACHIO
with Douglas V. Gibbs
on Blog Talk Radio
Monday through Saturday at 10pm Eastern Time
Sunday Nights at 9pm Eastern Time
www.blogtalkradio.com/politicalpistachio

FOUNDING TRUTH
with Loki & Douglas V. Gibbs
Saturday Nights at 8pm Eastern Time
www.blogtalkradio.com/founding-truth

THE ANDREA SHEA KING SHOW
with Andrea Shea King & Douglas V. Gibbs
9pm Eastern Time on Monday Nights
www.blogtalkradio.com/askshow

CIR RADIO
with MDConservative & A Panel of BTR Hosts
9pm Eastern Time on Friday Nights
www.blogtalkradio.com/cir_radio

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Profile of the Murderer Che Guevara

The Young Americans Foundation, carrying the torch of conservatism to a new generation.
Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit
Related: The Victims of Che Guevara
Profile: Discover The Networks
Merchandise: Che-Mart, for your anti-Che swag
Mocking Che: Free Republic, from which we get these gems exposing the myth of Che...





5. HE CONNECTED WITH THE PEASANTS. In fact, he died precisely because he never connected with them. “The peasant masses don’t help us at all,” he wrote in his Bolivian diary before he was captured—an apt way to describe his journey through the Bolivian countryside trying to stir up a revolution that could not even enlist the help of Bolivian Communists (who were realistic enough to note that peasants did not want revolution in 1967; they had already had one in 1952).

6. HE WAS A GUERRILLA GENIUS. With the exception of Cuba, every guerrilla effort he helped set up failed pitifully. After the triumph of the Cuban revolution, Guevara set up revolutionary armies in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Haiti, all of which were crushed. He later persuaded Jorge Ricardo Masetti to lead a fatal incursion into that country from Bolivia. Guevara’s role in the Congo in 1965 was both tragic and comical. He allied himself with Pierre Mulele and Laurent Kabila, two butchers, but got entangled in so many disagreements with the latter—and relations between Cuban and Congolese fighters were so strained—that he had to flee. Finally, his incursion in Bolivia ended up in his death, which his followers are commemorating this Sunday.

7. HE RESPECTED HUMAN DIGNITY. In fact, he had a habit of taking other people’s property. He told his followers to rob banks (“the struggling masses agree to rob banks because none of them has a penny in them”) and as soon as the Batista regime collapsed he occupied a mansion and made it his own—a case of expeditious revolutionary eminent domain.

8. HIS ADVENTURES WERE A CELEBRATION OF LIFE. Instead, they were an orgy of death. He executed many innocent people in Santa Clara, in central Cuba, where his column was based in the last stage of the armed struggle. After the triumph of the revolution, he was in charge of “La Cabaña” prison for half a year. He ordered the execution of hundreds of prisoners—former Batista men, journalists, businessmen, and others. A few witnesses, including Javier Arzuaga, who was the chaplain of “La Cabaña”, and José Vilasuso, who was a member of the body in charge of the summary judicial process, recently gave me their painful testimonies.

9. HE WAS A VISIONARY. His vision of Latin America was actually quite blurred. Take, for instance, his view that the guerrillas had to take to the countryside because that is where the struggling masses lived. In fact, since the 1960s, most peasants have peacefully deserted the countryside in part because of the failure of land reform, which has hindered the development of a property-based agriculture and economies of scale with absurd regulations forbidding all sorts of private arrangements.

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Barack Obama Ashamed of Being a Liberal !!!

I kid you not!

President George H. W. Bush really left a gaping wound on the Democrat Party when he crushed Dud-kakis with it in 1988.

AUSTIN, Texas - In his radio and TV ads that are blanketing Texas, Barack Obama claims a chief executive can make more money "in 10 minutes" than an ordinary worker makes in a year. Obama wants to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, enact a national health plan, offer a $4,000-a-year tuition reimbursement in exchange for national service, and have the government intervene to prevent home foreclosures.

But he doesn't want anyone to call him a liberal.

For despite Obama's vow to build a working majority for change - to win a clear mandate for his progressive agenda, rather than engage in Clinton-like "triangulation" - he's not yet willing to own the l-word.

Obama seems to have calculated that such labels can be distracting - that some voters have negative associations with the term liberal that obscures their support for such Democratic priorities as affordable healthcare and higher education for all.

Source: Boston Globe
Hat Tips: Rush Limbaugh and Free Republic

At least Obama knows that truth would kill his campaign for President just as surely as it did the Dud-kakis Campaign.

Since he is the presumptive Democrat Nominee...I need to give him a nickname to go with the Hilda Beast for Hillary, and McQeeg for McCain. I will open the floor for suggestions.

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1993 WTC Bombing 15th Anniversary

15 Years ago, a terrorist attack happened on American soil. The siting President treated it as a law enforcement issue. The rest is history.

Here are a few clips I have found that tell a little of the story.



A brief CNN Breaking News clip



CBS News into the 5 o'clock news


A playlist of the first 5 segments of the path to 9/11.

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Morning Reads

Since I really haven't had time to update my headline news site (a result of poor time management and almost a solid week of staying up past 8pm), I'll make the time this morning to post a few links here...fueled by coffee and the siren call of an omelet begging to be made.

According to Red State, wheat prices are at record highs, which I actually heard a couple of people talking about this weekend over lunch Saturday:

Most wheat varieties have been going for about $10 a bushel, give or take, in recent weeks. Today in Minneapolis, hard-red spring wheat for March delivery traded at nearly $25 a bushel. This contract was going for $8 three months ago.

(March is the front-month, so there's no daily limit on its price movements. A bushel of wheat or soybeans is 60 pounds. A bushel of corn is 56 pounds.)

This is totally wicked market action in a commodity that a year ago was trading for roughly half the price it is now. As I mentioned in a brief RedHot the other night, food prices will be the major wild card, or uncertain factor, in the global economy this year, and well worth your attention.

See a related story at SurvivalBlog.

Since I am on domestic items:

So Sunday's Oscar^TM broadcast was, underwhelmingly, a television ratings bomb. Not even the allure of Tinseltown's beautiful people walking down the red carpet in free gowns and borrowed jewels could tempt Americans to tune into what's known as the biggest self-congratulatory backslapping event in the history of mankind.

Early Nielsen numbers indicate that there were 14% fewer viewers than the last Oscar dud in 2003 (33 million that year).

I can only recall one instance of my watching the Oscars within the past 20 years: 1993, when Clint Eastwood's film Unforgiven won best picture. I've never been much of an awards show fan anyway. The occasion sticks out because I was a new mother at the time, perpetually short on sleep, and I resented the fact that I had to stay up so darn late to see the big finale.

Source: American Thinker

It has been more than a year since I have been to see a movie because Hollywood hasn't been making movies I like, and when a director, or big star, participates in an anti-American movie, I make sure I do not contribute to the box-office success of that movie. The writer was correct, the idiots in Hollywood won't learn from their mistakes...they'll think they just haven't done enough of whatever it is they are doing. Come to think of it, I haven't watched any portion of the Oscars since sometime in the 1990's.

I spent Oscar night on Free Republic, checking out Arratik's live-blog of the Oscars, and (after 10pm because of a stupid hockey game), listening to The John Batchelor Show.

Since we are local, I'll plug AshVegas, who noticed my video of Don Yelton and gives a good rundown of the people running for Buncombe County Commissioner, as well as keeping track of the goings on of the WLOSers.

Our Congressman Heath Shuler has appeared on Lou Dobbs, which led to a predictable kerfuffle in the Hooligan comments section, and that is always a good thing, just as this year promises to yield many rewarding hours of posts, and comments from the peanut gallery, in regards to the Buncombe County Commissioner Race.

As if that weren't enough, the anti-American war protesters losers will be swinging from the rafters next month when the 5th anniversary of our long overdue invasion of Iraq. There will be die-ins, anti-American movie nights, and other Direct Actions in Freakville. Fun for the whole granola-chompin' family!

I shouldn't focus on the local lefties...we have some right-thinking people who work hard, and deserve some coverage.


The big boy in town can't help but gloat at the Hilda Beast's poor showing at the polls:

Usually I am not the sort of person who likes to kick a person when they are down. However Hillary and Bill Clinton are such perfect living symbols of nearly everything that is wretched, detestable, vile, filthy and evil about the modern Democrat party that it is not just acceptable to pile on but even necessary.

Dean Stephens takes up the possibilities of The Perfect Storm for conservatives:

So what we are seeing on the horizon is a perfect storm for a group bound by common philosophy that is at odds with all the participants in the 2008 presidential elections. If conservatives would take a moment from eating their young, look up from the bloodied carcass of fallen comrades they have abandoned in the hunt for perfection, they would see a perfect storm on the horizon.

A Watauga Conservative worries about whether or not our children have lost their nerve. I think they have just grown up in a very soft world, and haven't been paying attention to the expansion of Islamofascism, the rebirth of nationalism in Russia, and preparations for military expansion by China. And, then nuclear war brewing from Iran.

A thunder storm is brewing here, so I'll have to cut this session short before the power goes...the internet is already cutting in and out...

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Goodbye Freedom Fighter Ronbo Barbour

A fellow blogger has committed suicide.

I would typically read his blog entries three or four times a week, and linked to them on a regular basis from my headline news site because they made good reading, and his analysis was bang on.

He quit posting at the end of last year, saying he was going on the road. I thought that he needed some time to figure things out. He still managed to average about 200 hits a day because his blog contains a vast amount of information, and (I'm sure) several people were checking periodically to see if he was back yet. (Once you've been bitten by the blogging bug, it's hard to let go for long).

Well, he did come back, for one last post to say farewell to the world. [Duplicate post from his backup blog] It was his attempt to make his planned death mean something. I am sure he wanted something good to come from his death. It may. That still doesn't justify what he has done.

He placed a great deal of blame on an incident in 1994 in which he felt railroaded by the feds. I can whole heartedly agree with his feeling. I know people who have been treated in a similar fashion, and every such incident took place during the Clinton Administration. Several people from western North Carolina are in federal prison from crossing an unwritten (then, anyway) line with federal officials who had ties to the White House.


Some of those people have served their time, and are still hounded by people who want to make their lives worthless.
Being part Scots-Irish and Cherokee, my advice to them (and to anyone else) is that the best revenge you can have is surviving, and succeeding though it may take the rest of your life. Never, ever, ever give the bastards the satisfaction of seeing you fail completely. If you fall, get right back up and crawl through broken glass if you have to, but never give in, never give up.

I feel like if I had known what he was going through, I could have talked him away from the edge.

Now, he'll not see another sunrise. He'll not be able to chuckle at the Hilda Beast's current struggles with Obama. He'll not get to horse laugh at Bill Clinton as he becomes totally irrelevant, not even able to help his wife win the White House. For that, I am truly saddened. I will have to remember to chuckle for him, to laugh for him. To take the time to appreciate what I do have...for him, and for all those I have known who can no longer do so.

Be sure you watch the last videos he posted over at his blog.

I will take the liberty of posting one of them here so you can see perhaps a glimpse of what he was worried about, but needlessly threw his life away trying to draw attention to:



Good Bye, Ron. I'll miss your posts, and your perspective. Both will be sorely missed in the coming Dark Days for the West...we will need freedom fighters to survive...

Others who have commented on Ron's passing...

Free Republic, where I first discovered it.

The Midnight Sun, where he sometimes posted.

Up Pompeii

Something, and Half of Nothing

I'll add blogs as I find them:

Gates of Vienna

Time Bomb 2000

Something Awful Forums

Lionheart

Winds of Jihad

Weasel Zippers

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NC-11 GOP Candidates Give 2 Minute Sales Pitches

Each of the candidates were given about 2 minutes each to speak to the crowd, and here are the Republican primary candidates for the NC-11 seat currently held by Congressman Heath Shuler:



Here are their websites:

John Armor

Spence Campbell

Carl Mumpower

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Don Yelton for Buncombe County Commissioner

The rumors are true...Saturday night, Don announced, and I have the video:



I'll let you know if he develops a Campaign Website.

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NC-11 GOP Candidates Debate 02-21-2008

This was recorded Thursday, February 23, 2008 at the YMI Cultural Center at the corner of Eagle and Market St. in Asheville, NC:




This is the 11th Congressional Debate for the GOP Candidates. This event is sponsored by the Black Republicans of Western North Carolina.

Contact the Producer

Background on the panelists for context:

Gary Shoemaker [copy of profile]
Johnnie Grant
Ron Ballard

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The John Batchelor Show Feb 24th

The New York Show was preempted by Hockey, so point your browser to KFI in Los Angeles at 10pm for the Los Angeles Show.

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(VIDEO) Senator Dole's Keynote at Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner

Here is the video I took of Senator Dole's keynote speech last night. I forgot all about her 'Dole Stroll', or I would chosen a different place to park my tripod. She worked me to death following her! (Sorry about the jerky movements and the noise...my tripod doesn't have a fluid head).

Compare the speech to the coverage at the AC-T, and the ugly Topix comments by the born haters from the left, or lefty bloggers.

From now on, print reporters and spin doctors will have to be cognizant that the event they report upon might just end up available to the general public in its entirety.

I'll have other videos from yesterday's events up starting tomorrow, starting with the True Conservatives Breakfast hosted by The Carolina Stompers.

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Notes on the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in Buncombe County

Here is a photo of me (I couldn't resist) posing beside a BCSD Patrol Car before the reception held before the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner yesterday.
My day yesterday was a full one, with me leaving about 6.45 am for the Carolina Stompers True Conservatives Breakfast, and then from there, I arrived at the Civitas Blueprint for Victory Campaign School just in time for lunch (Yippee! Food!), and took in the afternoon session. I have a video of Spence Campbell (NC-11 Primary Candidate) and Bill Graham (NC Gubernatorial Primary Candidate) from that event. I wished that I had been able to attend the morning session, because the afternoon session was very informative.

Then, I attended the reception with Senator Elizabeth Dole before the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner, and the dinner itself.
I was able to get a couple in minutes from John Armor (NC-11 Primary Candidate), and most of the proceedings. I missed most of the first speech because I was still eating, but I did capture the presentation of a special gift to the speaker afterward.
The event was over, at around 9.30pm last night, and I didn't get home until 10.30, so I called it a day. I took over 3GB of photos and video on my SD Cards, and am sorting through them now.

Since Senator Elizabeth Dole was the main attraction, I'll be putting her speech up first. She caught me unawares with the 'Dole Stroll' so some of the camera angles are bad, and I am contemplating ways to tackle that challenge. I still remember the 1996 GOP Convention, when she strolled into the audience to give her speech, and she seems to me as youthful and vibrant as she was then.

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Mike Fryar Files For Buncombe County Commissioner

Mike's website will be up soon.

Nathan Ramsey has also filed, as have numerous Democrats, and more information on them can be found at Scrutiny Hooligans.

I will be at the various GOP Functions in Buncombe County today, interviewing candidates for office and networking, so it is unlikely that I will be filing further reports until later tonight after I return home (it's an hour and a half one way), however, I have been promised the use of a laptop today, so I may be able to upload some observations, photos, and perhaps a video or three. If I can gain the proper connection to the internet, I may be able to webcast Senator Dole's Speech at the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner live sometime around 5 or 6 pm tonight.

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How To Catch Wild Pigs

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some Exchange students in the class.
One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student)who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'

Read the rest, and consider yourself warned.

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Gallup Poll Tracking 02-22-008

Here are the latest figures from Gallup:

Democrats:

1. 45% Hillary Clinton
2. 44% Barack Obama
3. 01% Mike Gravel

Here is a graphic to show the poll tracked over time:



Has Obama peaked? Is the Hilda Beast making a comeback? Or is this just statistical noise?

The Republicans:

1. 62% John McCain
2. 22% Mike Huckabee
3. 05% Ron Paul

Here is a graphic to show the poll tracked over time:



McCain and Huckabee are going in separate directions, McCain is up, and Huckabee is down, 2 out of 3 of Mitt's Supporters going to McCain, and Ron Paul is in the weeds...below the radar on this graph. Instead of useless money bombs, poll-jacking and sign waves, the Ron Paul r3VOLution should have engaged in membership drives. They will probably never realize their childish behavior ran people away from Ron Paul. As an example, listen to this podcast: [1] [2]
I have been using that podcast locally as one of my tools to demonstrate the need for conservatives to become educated on the philosophical underpinnings of conservatism, and to get involved in politics on the precinct level.



Methodology: Gallup is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008. The results reported here are based on combined data from Feb. 18-20, 2008, including interviews with 1,006 Republican and Republican-leaning voters, and 1,218 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters. For results based on these samples, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

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Blogs4Borders Video Blogburst 021808

The Merida Initiative: heard of it?

A “wave of hate?” Sure, but it’s not who you think it is!

100% Preventable! Two illegal alien criminals — 39 crimes! When will the madness end!



You can download the show for your Ipod here.

This has been the Blogs For Borders Video Blogburst. The Blogs For Borders Blogroll is dedicated to American sovereignty, border security and a sane immigration policy. If you’d like to join find out how right here.

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Post Eclipse Post

I enjoyed watching last night's eclipse, but was dogged by a desire to experiment with various modes and exposures for most of the night. Out of 286 photos I took, only about a dozen are worth sharing. Of those, I whittled things down to the 6 best.


The Moon rose behind a bank of clouds that began to thin into partly cloudy, with the Moon being visible for a few moments at a time. So, I took this 8 second exposure while the clouds scurried in front of the Moon.



Then, the sky began to be mostly free of the clouds, allowing the Moon to shine forth in all her glory just as the Eclipse was beginning. This was a 4 second exposure to allow some detail of the clouds to be shown.


After a period of time, the Moon became covered by the Earth's shadow.


This is a slight over exposure of 0.62 seconds to bring out some detail of the eclipsed portion of the lunar disc. It also allows an appreciation for the beautiful red color that the Moon had begun to reflect, as all the world's sunsets shown through the atmosphere some 240,000 miles away.


This is the Moon in eclipse.

And here is what made this particular lunar eclipse unique, the Moon was with a few degrees of a bright star, and a bright planet. I have labeled the photo so you can identify the players.


Now, we have to wait until December 21, 2010 for the next total lunar eclipse in North America. Bummer. Maybe I'll have better equipment by that time so I can do some really geeky things during the eclipse!

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Lunar Eclipse Live-Blogging (Redux)

Scroll down for daily posts, this will stay on top until after the eclipse tonight.

While you wait, here are some web pages to look at to learn more about the eclipse tonight:

NASA Lunar Eclipse Page


Astronomy Magazine

Sky & Telescope

Tom's Astronomy Blog


And, the cloud curse forecast has the cloud cover at 7pm being 68%, and 10pm being 54%; chance of rain increasing from 10% to 30%.

**update** 8.24pm

I'm here, and I have be watching the moon play peek-a-boo from behind the clouds. I should be able to get some good shots, provided the cloud cover stays as is. I'll make another report before 9pm. The event is scheduled to start at 8.43pm. At least it is warmer tonight. New posts will be below. BTW, the Pisgah Researh Institute has their equipment online. You might want to check it out. You will have to refersh your browser every few minutes to download a new image.

**910pm**
Here are the next batch:


Partly Cloudy

846pm

852pm


**update 1013pm**
I have some more clips uploaded to this album...I don't have time to process them right now.


**update** 1104pm THe clouds have rolled in, but I got photos up to totality, and am processing them now for presentation in this post. It is too bad that we are gonna have to wait until Dec of 2010 for the next total lunar eclipse.



10.15pm


Here is the moon at totality with the star Regulus above and the planet Saturn below. Saturn is brighter than Regulus.



Here are the rest for now...I will post the rest in a new post tomorrow.



This one was taken at 10.20pm for an exposure of one second to bring out the red color.


This one is the same as the first in the new group, but at totality. It was taken at 10.29pm.




This last one for the night was taken at 10.45pm. The last few photos were just re-sized to 500x375 for quick presentation.

I hope you enjoyed the quick and dirty photos, and will come back to look at the cleaned, cropped, and processed photos tomorrow. I should have them up by noon.

Okay, I couldn't resist just one before I went to sleep...doggone clouds have ruined the end of the event:

This is the one that was taken at 10.20pm, cropped at actual size. I apologize for the lack of fine focus, but my camera isn't a D-SLR, and is just a fancy point and shoot digital camera.
Good Night!

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Auchi, Rezko, Obama: "Who Are They?

Hold on to your hat and your lunch:

Who is Mr. Auchi?

Who is Mr. Auchi? A British billionaire living in London, born in Iraq in 1937. And why would he, as it is alleged, lend money via a Panama company, Fintrade Services -- of which his wife, Ibtisam Auchi, is said to be a director -- to a freshmen U. S. senator from Illinois just a few months after he is sworn in as a very junior member of what was then a Democratic minority?



Who is Mr. Auchi, said to be the 279th richest man in the world, that he would provide through his overseas company wire transfers of $3,499,471 in April 2007, and another $200,000 in July 2007, to Antoin "Tony" Rezko, an indicted Chicago developer accused of defrauding Illinois citizens of at least $6 million? Rezko is a successful and veteran fundraiser for, among others, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and U.S. Senator Barack Obama.

Who is Mr. Auchi that he would be in business at least since 2003 with the Syrian-born American citizen Mr. Rezko, a man who is by the most forgiving accounts an undercapitalized Chicago developer; the same Mr. Rezko who proposed to the lionized British developer Mr. Auchi a joint development for a vacant a 62-acre tract along the Chicago River in downtown Chicago into which eventually Mr. Auchi invested, through his primary company, General Mediterranean Holdings (GMH), at least $170 million, sharing possession with the politically connected and pizza parlor-owning Mr. Rezko?

--SNIP--

Who is Mr. Auchi -- in connection with whom is it alleged that two websites belonging to GMH holdings have deleted information on Mr. Auchi's April 2004 visit to Illinois when Mr. Auchi met and was photographed with Governor Rod Blagojevich; Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones Jr.; the Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick; Mr. Auchi's business partner, Mr. Rezko, and, it is speculated, the then-State Senator and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama?

Source: John Batchelor, writing in Human Events
Hat Tip: Rezko Watch, where there is even more about Mr. Auchi, including:

The Associated Press reported February 7, 2008, that Christopher Kelly, the head of Illinios Gov. Rod Blagojevich's "campaign fund in both of his races for governor and now under federal indictment, pledged all of his shares in a Nevada land partnership as collateral in exchange" in exchange for a loan from Nadhmi Auchi, the "same Iraqi billionaire whose $3.5 million payment" got Antoin "Tony" Rezko, "another member of the governor's inner circle thrown in jail."

There is even more "Red" Meat on Obama...especially his mentor, who was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party, USA.

In his biography of Barack Obama, David Mendell writes about Obama's life as a "secret smoker" and how he "went to great lengths to conceal the habit." But what about Obama's secret political life? It turns out that Obama's childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist.

In his books, Obama admits attending "socialist conferences" and coming into contact with Marxist literature. But he ridicules the charge of being a "hard-core academic Marxist," which was made by his colorful and outspoken 2004 U.S. Senate opponent, Republican Alan Keyes.

However, through Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an admitted relationship with someone who was publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The record shows that Obama was in Hawaii from 1971-1979, where, at some point in time, he developed a close relationship, almost like a son, with Davis, listening to his "poetry" and getting advice on his career path. But Obama, in his book, Dreams From My Father, refers to him repeatedly as just "Frank."

The reason is apparent: Davis was a known communist who belonged to a party subservient to the Soviet Union. In fact, the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii identified him as a CPUSA member. What's more, anti-communist congressional committees, including the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations.

Trevor Loudon, a New Zealand-based libertarian activist, researcher and blogger, noted evidence that "Frank" was Frank Marshall Davis in a posting in March of 2007.

Source: Accuracy In Media
Related: Trevor Loudon's March 2007 blog post, which preserves part of the curiously now missing article from the University of Hawaii's website.
Related: Google Cache of a page on the Commie at the University of Hawaii, because their website is currently down.

Without the rise of the bloggers, this is one piece of information that would be allowed to fall into the memory hole and be forgotten. Not any more. I also expect efforts to be made to censor, or co-opt, bloggers to limit their effectiveness...and control their output. Back to our story:

There is more about the disturbing implementation of a Global Poverty Tax, administered by the United Nations: [I have the audio of this somewhere]

RUSH: We have uncovered something. We have dug deep and we have found something Obama has done. It is called Senate Bill 2433, the Global Poverty Act of 2007. Senate Bill 2433, the Global Poverty Act of 2007, would "require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day."

Cliff Kincaid, in Accuracy in Media, has studied this, and has written it up. He says "[A] hugely expensive bill called the 'Global Poverty Act,' sponsored by ... Obama, was quickly passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday and could result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States. ... In a column [that Cliff] posted on the [Accuracy in Media] web site, Kincaid noted that Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was trying to rush Obama's 'Global Poverty Act' (S. 2433) through his committee without hearings. The legislation would commit the US to spending 0.7 percent of gross national product on foreign aid, which amounts to a phenomenal 13-year total of $845 billion over and above what the US already spends," on foreign aid. "It was scheduled for a Thursday vote but was moved up a day, to Wednesday, and rushed through by voice vote. Kincaid learned, however, that conservative Senators have now put a 'hold' on the legislation, in order to prevent it from being rushed to the floor for a full Senate vote." Now, the House passed this bill in September. It's now getting rushed through the committee in the Senate, the Biden committee, to soak the US taxpayers again to fund global, liberal, feel-good garbage.

Senator Obama wrote the bill. This is just the tip of the iceberg, should he win. This is the kind of stuff he wants to do: Blame the United States for the problems of the world; meet with all the thugs and the bad guys, and say, "What's wrong with us? What can we fix to make you like us?" while he's out there talking about these platitudinous, vapid change speeches where he says nothing. By the way, I find it very interesting that Senator Biden was trying to rush this through the committee without hearings and to get this thing to the floor. Would this not have been a great thing for Obama to be able to talk about on the presidential campaign trail? When people say he hadn't done anything and he's got no record, he could say, "Well, I have! I have a Global Poverty Act! We're going to cure poverty around the world." "Oh, he's so wonderful! Obama is going to end poverty." And, of course, who knows what Mrs. Clinton's reaction would have been. The point is, there is substance to Obama, and it isn't good, from our standpoint.

It is now appearing that Obama would be an even easier candidate to face in 2008 than Hillary. I only wish that the GOP had been able to nominate a Reagan Coalition Conservative like Fred Thompson, or even Mitt Romney...

The matchup between Obama and McCain would still be a study in contrasts. In the 1980's, Barack Obama was a community organizer while John McCain served in the US House (AZ-01) and then the US Senate from 1986.

Even Obama's wife is an unrepentant America-hating lefty.

One thing we can look forward to is that Obama is our dragon-slayer who will, we hope, prove easy to dispatch in November...in effect killing two birds with one stone.

One thing we must remember about lefties is that they believe that proper government policy can solve all our problems, often through the use of citizen "soviets" or councils of citizens working in concert with elected officials. It is very insidious, and gives progressives a big foot in the policy wonk door of local politics.

I'll leave you with a quote from Ronald Reagan that tells us all we need to know about government policy:

"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."
-- Ronald Reagan

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Pro-Taliban Party Loses in Pakistani Elections

Election results are available for 240 of the 272 seats for the National Assembly, as well as for the four provincial assemblies. The PPP -- the party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto -- is in the lead with 87 seats, followed by the 66 seats won by the PML-N, the party of Nawaz Sharif who is also a former prime minister. The PPP is on track to form the governing coalition.

The Pakistani Muslim League-Quaid, Musharraf's party, has won only 38 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement -- a students’ movement based in Sindh province -- won 19 seats and the Awami National Party (a secular Pashtun party) won 10. The MMA only won three seats. Thirty-five seats have been distributed to independents, while results are still being counted for 26 of the seats. Elections were postponed in four districts.

Source: The Long War Journal, where more reporting and analysis can be found.

Lahore, 20 Feb. (AKI/DAWN) - Leaders of the two parties that won Pakistan's parliamentary elections, Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, are expected to meet in Islamabad on Thursday to discuss the formation of a new government.

Zardari, widower of former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December, took over as head of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) after her death, while Sharif heads the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz group (PML-N).

According to preliminary results, the PPP won the most seats with 87 in the national assembly elections while the PML-N gained 65 seats.

The party that backs President Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan Muslim League -Q (PML-Q) was roundly defeated and many former ministers were also rejected by voters.

Source: AKI

Well, it appears that others will be finding out what it is like to dance on a razor blade in Pakistan...with millions of lives in the balance.

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Live-Blogging The Lunar Eclipse (With Photos)

I will be live-blogging the total lunar eclipse tonight with photos added every little bit as the eclipse progresses.

I have already been out playing with my camera (specs) and here are a few:


Moon Rise


Canis Major and Orion


Flying Through Orion





I am puzzled...because I should...crap...I am ahead 24 hours....

I should look at this as practice...sorry folks. I hate it when this happens. Come back in 24 hours for the real show...after I spend some time in the corner...


Egads, I feel so stooopid!!!


**update** 02-20-008 (910am):
You can see the rest of the photos I took in this *cough* dry run *cough* for tonight's show.

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Record Breaking Cold Weather in Vietnam

Hanoi - Record-setting cold weather has killed more than 8,000 cattle and 100,000 hectares of paddy rice in northern Vietnam since mid-January, officials said Tuesday. Most of the cattle have died in northern mountainous provinces, where temperatures during the month-long cold spell have sometimes dropped to below zero Celsius, a rarity in Vietnam.

"We fear that the number of cattle killed by coldness and shortage of food in northern provinces will keep rising in the coming days," said Hoang Kim Giao, director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Livestock Department.

The cold spell, which the National Hydrometeorology Forecast Center says is the longest ever in Vietnam, has also killed up to 100,000 hectares of the winter-spring crop of paddy rice throughout the northern provinces.

Source: Gateway Pundit

That ain't the half of it, Canadian Scientists think we may be in for a cooling trend. And given the curious lack of sunspots, and the tardiness of Solar Cycle 24 beginning...we may very well be in for some very cold weather:

Accompaning this lower state of the sun called a 'solar minimum' by the solar physics community, will be a prolonged cold era according to the SSRC. This next climate change to many years of a slowly cooling Earth environment, is predicted by the SSRC to begin within the period 2010 to 2021 with lowest temperatures during the bottom around the year 2031. The SSRC refers to this dramatic change in climate as a 'solar hibernation' because of the depths of cold that are associated with it based upon many hundreds of years of repeating cycles with similar recorded cold eras, as discovered by the SSRC.

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The Main Reason to Vote for McCain in November

Before I get to that, let me hand out the Official McCain Barf Bag for the conservatives to use when they go to the polls this fall:



Here is the video:


Video Source: Gateway Pundit

Commentary

I will now speak to the conservatives regarding the hijacking of our party by some truly despicable characters, and the manipulation of our party by the same people, and the media.
RINOs have long held the reigns of power in our party, and they have, on occasion, been outsmarted by a conservative candidate...or temporarily bowing to popular demand, have "dressed themselves" as conservatives. They have mouthed the proper words where necessary.
They have nearly always received our support in the grunt work of campaigning for the candidate of our party. We have hung the banners, planted the signs, distributed the literature, walked the districts, knocked on the doors, made the calls, and drove voters to the polls.

When Ford was chosen as our candidate, we grumbled under our breath and set to work. We worked for Reagan, twice. That was when we were able to sneak one past the leadership. We supported Bush 41 and Dole despite their ideological impurities.
We thought we had snuck another past the leadership when we got George W. Bush. On the most important issues, like National Security and tax cuts, he has been spectacular (that is my word for the day), and on other issues...like the border, spending, etc; he has been as spectacularly bad.
Now, we have found ourselves with McCain.
(Pardon me while I use the barf bag).
Senator McCain has tried to "dress himself" as a conservative. His horn still shows.
This year, GOP leaders, you are lucky. There is a war on, and we realize how important it is that we fight this war. Otherwise, we would repeat our lesson of 2006. We will not.

Instead, we have a different plan. We will come for you. We will take your jobs away from you. We will take our party back. You might want to start dusting your resume off.

Now...to the conservative base of our party, I ask that you consider not only voting for Senator McCain, I ask that you get out there and work to get him elected. And after we are through with that dirty job. I ask that you join with me in taking our party back. You can identify who your allies will be while you are working with others in our party this fall. Talk with them, feel them out on their philosophy, and identify if they are a conservative or not. Get together, and start going to party functions, and bring other conservatives with you. We can use 2010 as our test bed for ideas to apply in 2012 to get a conservatives elected in your city, in your county, in your state, in Congress, and in the White House.

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Rashid Khalidi and Barack Obama

It is no secret to anyone who reads this blog to know that I am a firm supporter of Israel. I am becoming increasingly concerned with the people around Barack Obama.
We have all heard about how his pastor has honored 'Calypso Louis' Farrakhan as a 'Great Man.'

Now comes Rashid Khalidi [note the wikipedia article leaves out his employment with the PLO], former director of the WAFA, the official Press Agency for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a Palestinian Terrorist Group, in Beirut, Lebanon from 1976 to 1982...the latter period where our troops were engaged in combat with the PLO.

Here is an example of some of this man's radical opinions, according to Campus Watch:

When Palestinian violence garners unfavorable publicity, Khalidi’s response it to blame the messenger, not the murderers. Thus, in response to Palestinians lynched two off-duty Israeli officers on October 12, 2000, Khalidi did not critique the perpetrators of this crime, but railed against the “prostitute” and “cynical” media that dared to show Palestinians triumphantly displaying bloodied hands after the killings. In like spirit, he faults not those Palestinians who erupted in joyous street celebrations at the murders of 3,000 Americans on 9/11, but the media for having the temerity to report these occurrences.

More information can be found, including donations to his campaign by former Weather Underground Leader Dr. William Ayers and PLO Operative Rashid Khalidi at Rezko Watch.

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