Breaking News

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McClellan Leaves White House Press Office
Apr 19 10:19 AM US/Eastern
Email this story

By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON


White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove is giving up his policy portfolio and press secretary Scott McClellan is resigning, continuing a shakeup in President Bush's administration that has already yielded a new chief of staff.

A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the president had not yet made the announcement, said Wednesday that Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on politics with the approach of the fall midterm elections.



Just over a year ago, Rove was promoted to deputy chief of staff in charge of most White House policy coordination. That new portfolio came on top of his title as senior adviser and role of chief policy aide to Bush.

But now, the job of deputy chief of staff for policy is being given to Joel Kaplan, now the White House's deputy budget director, said the official.

The move signals a possibly broad effort to rearrange and reinvigorate Bush's staff by new chief of staff Joshua Bolten. Bolten moved into his position last week; Kaplan was his No. 2 person at the Office of Management and Budget.

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I guess the heads are starting to roll.
Transcript.

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Peace Like A River

I've been meaning to link to this guy forever. Click on the post title to see what I mean. I also have to post a warning about his site before you go over there. This guy posts about the show 24. Dude, that is so wrong!!! I thought there was like a code about revealing plotlines for the currently 24-deprived souls like me, I missed the first part of the season, and downloading the episodes isn't even an option at 28k. So if you're waiting on the DVDs like me, just avert your eyes as you scroll past those posts.

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Tuesday Roundup

Fjordman has issued another report, "The Retreat of the Western World Order".

Joe Katzman posts on the growing blogosphere. I had no idea that it was that big!

However big it grows, there are about 50 or so blogs that I try to read at least once a week, and Milands' blog is one of them. His latest is on The Cuban Missile Crisis and It's Aftermath.

Remember when USATODAY upped its' price to 75 cents? That's when i quit reading nearly daily. Now, I only buy one when the cover story is compelling enough. The story about a post-Roe v. Wade America was one of those rare moments.

That's all for now, maybe we'll get some much-needed rain tomorrow and I can post instead of linking some of what I find intresting. Maybe I'll try to refute this moron, I heard peddling paranoia and his latest book on the radio this morning.

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Batteries recharged.

I did virtually nothing this weekend, and feel better for it...

Winds of War update.

Iran on Disarmament Commission?

Could a Shadow Opec raise the price of petroleum?

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Clean hydrocarbons?

Click on the post-title to take you to an interesting site. Yes, I'm on vacation, but I found a public terminal and could not resist poking around, the addict that I am.

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Screwy Hoolie live-blogs Taylor on radio

Go here to read the post.

I heard some of the interview, as I was in and out of my truck while running errands in Waynesville. I guess the spot didn't change anyone's mind, but may have kept some people from jumping ship and supporting Armor or Shuler. I think most people have already made up their minds on how they are going to vote, especially ones who listen to this program on the radio.

I was glad to hear him respond, because I thought his silence was counter-productive. I disagree with Screwy Hoolies' post on one issue... most of Shuler's money IS coming from out of district, while Taylor's money IS coming from the Asheville area, you can see the figures for yourself if you read my last post.

Related News

The Smoky Mountain News has John Armor and Michael Morgan featured on their cover this week. Do a Google search to see if they are on-line. if you aren't where you can pick up a copy.

Vacation

I will be away from internet access for the next few days as I take time off for Easter weekend.

Have a Happy Easter !!!

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2006 House Race Update

District 11: Money Flows

Here is my feeble attempt to analyze data from the Center for Responsive Politics, using information shamelessly stolen from the website Open Secrets. Any errors in this data are unintentional and will be corrected if you point them out to me before I find them, right now my eyes are crossed from looking back and forth from my hand-written copy as I type them into another machine, then will save to flash drive and uploaded to the internet from a public terminal. I really need a laptop bad, huh?

Update
Oh, it gets worse...Blogger for Word stripped out all my pretty tables and I had to re-type the blasted mess all over. Grrrrr !!!

And please note: This is the first time I’ve used tables in Windows 2003, so I’m not going for style, just data transmission and analysis from my perspective.

I hope all the tables are self-explanatory.


Table I. Donations by Metro Area

Representative Charles H. Taylor (R) Challenger Heath Shuler (D)

Asheville, TN 84,808 Knoxville, TN 103,700
Washington, DC 37,740 Tri-Cities, TN 16,800
Atlanta, GA 6,000 Asheville, NC 16,700
West Palm, FL 5,000 Nashville, TN 9,200
Hickory-Morg&Lenoir, NC 4,900 Jackson, TN 6,700



Table II. Donations by top ten zip codes



Representative Charles H. Taylor (R) Challenger Heath Shuler (D)


28803 Asheville, NC 15,720 28786 Waynesville, NC 16,450
28712 Brevard, NC 14,050 37919 Knoxville, TN 16,350
28804 Asheville, NC 11,293 28713 Bryson City, NC 13,580
20003 Washington, DC 10,750 37922 Knoxville, TN 12,500
28730 Fairview, NC 8,500 37912 Knoxville, TN 12,300
28813 Asheville, NC 7,650 28771 Robbinsville, NC 12,300
28806 Asheville, NC 7,450 37923 Knoxville, TN 9,800
28732 Fletcher, NC 7,350 37662 Kingsport, TN 8,400
28801 Asheville, NC 7,200 38305 Jackson, TN 6,400
28714 Burnsville, NC 6,900 37909 Knoxville, TN 6,200





Commentary

Most of Charles Taylor’s donations are coming from inside the district, while Heath Shuler’s donations are coming from outside the voting district…most of it from where he settled after his stint in the National Football League.


This next section will cover donations from Political Action Committees, or PACs.

Table III. PAC donations by Business, Labor, and Ideological

Representative Charles Taylor (R) Challenger Heath Shuler (D)

Business 173,807 6,500
Labor 3,000 55,500
Ideological 41,607 97,700





Table IV. Top Industries represented by PAC

Representative Charles H. Taylor (R) Challenger Heath Shuler (D)

Misc Business 94,323 Ideology/Single Issue 100,800
Agribusiness 71,386 Labor 55,500
Ideology/Single Issue 41,607 Finance/Insur/R Estate 40,050
Lawyers & Lobbyists 40,678 Construction 32,900
Construction 34,450 Other 25,150
Energy/Nat Resources 22,900 Lawyers & Lobbyists 14,850



Now we will look at the donations by Industry as self-reported by the donor.

Representative Charles Taylor (R) Challenger Heath Shuler (D)

Casinos/Gambling 51,383 Leadership PACs 60,200
Leadership PACs 33,507 Candidate Cmtes 26,500
Lobbyists 26,828 General Contractors 26,100
Retired 25,545 Real Estate 20,500
Forestry & For. Prod. 13,850 Industrial Unions 15,500
Agricult.Svcs/Prod. 13,450 Lawyers/Law Firms 14,850
Real Estate 12,450 Democratic/Liberal 14,100
General Contractors 11,500 Public Sector Unions 12,000


Commentary

On the Taylor side, I have problems with the money from people in the casino/gambling, the lawyers, and the real estate sectors.
On the Shuler side, I have problems with the leadership PACs, candidate committees, real estate, ALL the unions, lawyers, and , of course, the democratic/liberal.

You can go here to sift through the information for yourself. I didn’t include the other two candidates because there was none to be found, which to me, indicates those campaigns are examples of what I would call grassroots…or they have enough of their own money to suit their objectives.

The thing that bothers me most is the influx of money from outside the district, as the Democratic Strategists attempt to gain a seat.

The thing that bothers me secondly is the AmeriPAC support of Heath Shuler. This is a conservative PAC, that has proudly supported George W. Bush, Tom Delay, Bill Frist, Newt Gingrich and John Ashcroft. It has opposed Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle and John Kerry. I suppose that politics makes for strange bedfellows sometimes.

I wonder how Heath Shuler would vote, his conscience, or how those in the liberal leadership voted, if, in the unlikely event he was to be elected? I believe either the current incumbent, or his republican challenger John Armor would be more in line with my beliefs.

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El Gran Boicot

There are supposed to be more marches today by those who support Illegal Aliens gaining Amnesty in our country.

There are those who plan greater actions, some of which are targeted to hurt our economy. I seem to remember a similar attempt to hurt our economy on September 11, 2001. While these attacks probably won't kill any one, they will hurt our nation.

Don't believe me? Go here to find out about the attack planned for May Day, a Communist Holiday.
Then, Visit here, the homepage of the Voice of Aztlan, the name for the nation they hope to establish in the Southwestern USA and Northern Mexico.

Right. Get mad. Call your Elected Critters on all levels of government, not just national, and let them know you want our nation defended against Foreign Agression. Scare them. They need to be scared, because you are keeping track and will vote for or against them based on their handling of this situation. That is all for now

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Less pollution means more warming ?

Air trends 'amplifying' warming
By Richard Black
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website, in Vienna



Only when solar dimming disappeared could we really see what is going on in terms of the greenhouse effect

Martin Wild
Reduced air pollution and increased water evaporation appear to be adding to man-made global warming.

Research presented at a major European science meeting adds to other evidence that cleaner air is letting more solar energy through to the Earth's surface.

Other studies show that increased water vapour in the atmosphere is reinforcing the impact of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientists suggest both trends may push temperatures higher than believed.

Commentary

Whatever...

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Weekend Linkagery

Fjordman has issued a report via Gates of Vienna.

For those of you who wish to track Federal Spending, U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) has launched a website to help in that task. Check it out. Hat Tip to Joe Katzman of Winds of Change.

Citizens Against Government Waste.

Over at Jihad Watch, Zarqawi's people boast of killing Christians because their so-called prophet was "offended."

And to keep you busy, go here. The article refers to Open Source Warfare.
I will leave you with something of the how the other side sees the use of OSW.

Okay, just one more link from Defense Tech.

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In honor of the Senate Compromise yesterday, I suggest you go here to put this in its proper (I feel) context.

On a lighter note, visit this site to find out about a supposed time traveller named John Titor. This stuff is insane because there are people out there who believe it.

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Disturbing News About Taylor

Is Congressman Charles Taylor vulnerable?
Has he been mishandling funds?

I don't know. Here is an article on NC Conservative by John Armor, who coincidently is running for Taylors' seat.

Can we trust what John Armor has written?
I don't know. I trust that this will shake out in time for the Primary, because if it doesn't, then I am afraid Taylor will lose the race in November to Heath Shuler. Shuler may be okay, What makes me worry is all the far-left support that is behind him.

Anyhow, I have posted an excerpt of Armor's article below, and will comment more on it later as I have time.

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Taylor Reports Have Million-Dollar Errors

By John Armor

Every Member of Congress, and every candidate for Congress, is required to file Reports with the House Ethics Committee on their financial holdings and transactions. Apparently, few people take a serious look at these after they are filed. The Reports filed by incumbent 11th District Representative, Charles Taylor, for the last seven years (the ones available on-line) show five errors in excess of $1 million each, plus one unexplained item for about $20 million.

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Participate in a Virtual March !!!

NumbersUSA is calling for a Virtual March on Monday, April 3, 2006.
Visit the local offices of your Senators to express your concern about the Illegal Immigration problem in America.

Right March is also calling for the same.

You can also visit this web page to send free faxes to your legislators. Please do so.

Here is contact info on all Senators.

Here is the same for your Representative, just type in your zip code to find yours.

I will keep this post on top all week, encouraging you to keep the heat up.

If this doesn't work, we may have to take to the streets !!!

Find another Copy and Paste job below (with links):
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TAR’s four principles of immigration crime-fighting
Illegal immigration is not a complex issue. It is national suicide.

1.Secure American borders. See the Constitutional charter of the Guard, including Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.

2.Enforce American laws. See the Presidential Oath of Office.

3.No more amnesties for illegal aliens - or the criminals who employ them. See the article The McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill, by Rich Lowry, TownHall.com, May 27, 2005.

4.Vote only for candidates, at every level of government, who will make the above their first priority. See the article Immigration could be the hot election issue in 2008.

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What are the costs of Illegal Aliens?

Go here to see the price one family paid. Below is a clue.

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Monday Linkfest

No work today due to rain, I will update this post throughout the day with stuff I find.

I found an article over at The Gates of Vienna posted by Dymphna.
I couldn't help but paste a teaser of the article below:

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Sunday, April 02, 2006
Aztlan and al-Andalus: Return to a Mythical Golden Age


Mike Austin has an intriguing take on the immigration marches, the La Raza push, etc. This aspect of the situation has been mentioned before, but he has a more complete report than most.

It’s about Aztlan (Aztec land?) and the fantasy of “taking back” all of the parts of former Mexican territory, both those that were captured in war, and those that were sold by Mexico to the U.S. when Polk was president.

Austin’s blog has good maps and a brief history of the process. But what is most worthy of your attention is his visualizatiion of the Aztlan dream. This map from his main page is the simple version, but you ought to ....Click here for the rest.

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I followed some of the links and found this. These guys are serious about their grandiose fantasy of establishing their own nation in our southwest.


Indeed.

14.44 Hrs WW IV Daily has transmorgrified into Lima Charlie. Check it out.

The World Histroy Blog has a link to History Carnival 28.

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Bill Clinton a Dhimmi ???

From Dhimmi Watch:

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April 02, 2006
Fitzgerald: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses Bill Clinton's increasingly enthusiastic plunge into dhimmitude:

Three times in the last month or two Bill Clinton -- when not busy with his Clinton World Initiative (not to be confused with any Initiatives by Jeffery Sachs, or Jimmy Carter, or others intent on Saving All of Humanity All the Time, with themselves at the helm) has displayed a remarkable willingness to stand up for Arab and Muslim interests. He deplored, in front of and for his Arab hosts, those Danish cartoons. He said neither a word about the need to uphold freedom of speech by practicing it, nor a word about the mob violence and economic boycotts and threat to kill Danes -- as he might have done, with no cost and great credit to himself.
And we all know he is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he met his wife. Surely what must have stuck in his mind was not Civil Procedure but Constitutional Law, and not only Constitutional Law, but the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and not only the First and Fourteenth Amendments, but Freedom of Speech, and Holmes and Brandeis, and all that. It didn't matter. He was in Qatar. Was he coming to, or from, Davos or some other World Summit where Earth-Shaking Leaders Shake Hands Only With Each Other? And he was pocketing money from his Arab hosts, and he wanted to give them their money's worth. Others in the region would hear of it, and want him back.

And then there was the news...

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Read this for the whole article. My only comment is to say my impression of The Hildabeast would bathe in blood, not try to wash it off.

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Blast from the Past !!!

Remember the snow in WNC the weekend before Valentine's Day?

The National Weather Service has issued a report about it.

Here is my Public Photo Album of scenes around my place.

The Old Home Place

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Illegal Immigration

Thanks to a problem with Blogger, and a very late start, my post for yesterday didn't make it to the web. Where is it? I dunno. Probably alongside about three hundred unmatched socks.
Update:I found the missing here.

Commentary

Are we going to reward people for breaking the law, just because there are a lot of them and they contribute to the economy?
What if our forefathers had had that attitude about slavery?
Oh, wait. They did do that, didn't they? The issue was too difficut to deal with, and their descendants paid the price in blood to free their brothers.

We need to face the problem of illegal immigration now, or pay the problem with interest, later.

I think our problem, and that of the illegals, is Mexico.
The Mexican economy is a basketcase. Corruption is rampant... Their whole country resembles life inside the beltway of Washington, DC.

I say if they can't solve their own problems, and those problems spill over our borders, then perhaps it is time to look at solving their problems for them. We need to consider putting boots on the ground inside Mexico.
NAFTA has increased the problem. Our factories have gone south for lower taxes, lower costs, and lower wages. This has fueled the Mexican hope for a better future. They see more money across the border in America. Why work for slave wages in Mexico when you can get twice, thrice, or more in America?
I can't blame them, really. I blame the morons in Washington for allowing this lawlessness to continue. I hope we don't inherit the whirlwind.

Call, Write, Email your Elected Critters. If you live in WNC, you can find them on my sidebar. If you're not worked up enough to look up the contact info, then you don't understand the danger we are all in, or soon will be.

Here is a link I found interesting.

It is now time for me to eat my breakfast and go to work.

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Shuler update for March '006

I received an update from The Shuler Campaign in my e-mail this morning. I will post some of it and comment a little. If you are interested, you may subscribe to the newsletter here.

Heath Shuler has recently been endorsed by: the North Carolina AFL-CIO, the Blue Dog Democrats, and the Western North Carolina Central Labor Council.

Commentary

Follow the links to find out who has cast their lot in with Heath. I will note that the Western North Carolina Central Labor Council appears to be part of the AFL-CIO, but maybe they are incorporated separately. In my view, a labor union endorsement would lessen my chances of voting for this candidate because I don't care for unions.

The Blue Dog Democrats are also listed here as the Blue Dog Coalition, with 35 members listed. From their site:


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The Coalition has been particularly active on fiscal issues, relentlessly pursuing a balanced budget and then protecting that achievement from politically popular "raids" on the budget

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I agree with practising fiscal conservatism and balancing the budget where ever possible. It would be interesting to see if these elected critters would band together with like-minded critters on the other side of the aisle and trim the budget where appropriate. I view this endorsement as a potential positive.





The candidate visited Industrial Opportunities, Inc. in Andrews, NC last week. Find coverage in a local paper.
I coulndn't find a web site for IOI, but did find some history here, and an idea of some of what they manufacture for the feds.

This endorsement is a good one. Of course, the endorsement is used as a spring board to attack the loss of 170,000 manufacturing jobs in NC. Also another swipe at Representative Charles Taylor's CAFTA vote, which I think will make things harder in the primary, and, if he survives, the general election in November.

I will also be posting on the other candidates as I have time and events allow.

It's times like these I wish I had a regular 9 to 5 type job. My present job leaves me wore out since I leave the house around 6am and don't make it back until just after 7pm..even later as daylight lasts longer.




Here is a view of some of my fellows as I take a break from running the chainsaw:

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A very disturbing post

Have you ever seen the movie "Dctor Strangelove?" Oddly enough, it is one of my favorite movies that I never tire of watching. I was shocked when I discovered it was supposed to be an anti-war film. Oh well. Not being brought up to enjoy the nuances of the fine arts, I think it is a hilarious movie with some ridiculous imagery.

The following copy and paste job is not funny. The full article is over at The Winds of War. You should go read it, and follow the links. Very troubling stuff.

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying about Mullahs and Embrace The Bomb
by Guest Author at March 24, 2006 06:56 AM

by "Dr. Strangelove," a.k.a. Mark Buehner
Why We Must Nuke Iran; or
How I Learned to Stop Worrying about Mullahs and Embrace The Bomb

American foreign policy is approaching a crisis more catastrophic than any since at least World War 2. According to some sources, the terrorist nation of Iran has already acquired an unknown number of nuclear weapons of at least the Hiroshima variety. Trent Telenko has written about the high likelihood of Iran being in possession of nuclear weapons, and the "certainty of nuclear war" should we attempt to divest them of these weapons via a bombing campaign as some have suggested. Ladies and Gentlemen, this evidence is impossible to ignore. Even if by some unlikely quirk our Intelligence Services prove incorrect about Iran’s current state of nuclear readiness, it is still only a matter of time before the Mullahs retain a full nuclear arsenal, perhaps rivaling our own. Perhaps soon.

As glorious as the halcyon days of the Cold War proved to be, with our shining bombers and prowling submarines on constant standby to shower our enemies with American ingenuity, those days are gone forever. A standoff with Iran will prove to be a messy affair of dirty bombs and irradiated oil wells, hardly worthy of our bravest warriors and finest minds....

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How can i comment on this stuff?
On a Monday, sure. But on a Friday?
I guess I should be prepared for bad news anyday.
Don't say you weren't forewarned.

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Miscellany

Here is a humorous "test" I came across the other day. I wouldn't advise anyone under 18 to read it, or anyone who hold their political beliefs sacrosanct for that matter.

Dymphna, one of my favorite thinkers, has an interesting post primarily concerning another favorite, John Robb.

I'm not a fan of wrestling, but did you see that smack down W put on Helen Thomas? I was waiting on one of the other reporters to break out a chair to avenge their queen of discontent.

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