The Savage Republican

Coleen Rowley....nothing has changed

Coleen Rowley (presumed candidate for Congress CD2) had an op-ed piece in today's Star Tribune. In it she takes exception to an editorial that the Strib ran last week.

"Radsan's piece began with the bold assertion that "no matter the jury's final verdict in Virginia, Zacarias Moussaoui's should be the last case in which the criminal justice system handles an operative in a major terrorist plot."
I certainly hope not. Despite some egregious mistakes, official bungling, prosecutorial improprieties, and legal irregularities -- e.g., Moussaoui not being allowed to call all witnesses, namely certain Al-Qaida operatives held under U.S. control, to testify in his favor -- the case proved our regular adversarial-jury trial system works. "

She can't be saying what I think she is saying, is she???? That we should be fighting terrorism in the courts???

"The mistakes that occurred in the Moussaoui case, however, do not support the proposition that we cannot use our criminal courts and their procedural and constitutional rights to combat terrorism. Instead, the Moussaoui trial proves we can. "

She is saying it!!!! She IS saying that we should be fighting terrorism in the courts.

"This is a huge issue, because if you fall into thinking that we cannot combat terrorism using our criminal justice system and all the rights and protections it affords, you open the door to all the extraconstitutional -- or more bluntly, illegal -- methods currently in vogue: the use of renditions, black sites and torture; lack of due process; and warrantless NSA monitoring on American soil. Enormous problems loom once we decide it's OK as a blanket measure to go around the constitutional rules and down this slippery slope. "

Coleen, Coleen, Coleen....apparently someone who knows more about the law needs to educate you on the legality of the NSA monitoring. Maybe someone we can get someone with a little better sense of history to explain to you the precident that was set by FDR. Maybe she will believe the US Supreme Court!

"The Constitution gives the president the responsibility to act quickly and decisively to defend the national security. Congress, freed from such responsibility, could indulge other preoccupations. At one point, Jackson wrote Rep. John Coffee that "I am confident that if you and any of the other liberals in Congress sat in my seat and were held to some degree of responsibility for the perpetration of acts of sabotage and espionage in this country you would feel differently about the wire tapping bill."

Let me repeat that for you Coleen....the Consititution gives the President the responsibility to act quickly and decisively to defend national security!!!

I really hate to be a "scare monger", but we can not afford to sit at home in November. As I said here, staying home in November will hurt the country more than it will hurt the Republican Party leadership. Captain Ed nails it! Rather than stay home, we refuse to give the leadership a dime until they start acting more responsively to the base. Instead, direct your donations directly to individual candidates instead!

The bio-terrorism of the illegals

Once again, I read this article that posted today. And it deserves a separate post.
The diseases coming across the border are dangerous, infectious and deadly.And if they were carried here by Al Qaida, Homeland Security would be on it immediately. With alerts galore.
And yet we have coming over the border, every day, multi drug resistant TB, which was formerly only endemic to Mexico, an outbreak of hepatitis A in Pennsylvania, leprosy, Chagas Disease, T-Cruzi protozoan that destroys heart tissue, hemmorhagic fever just to name a few.
And GWB dawdles. Congress compromises. Both complain that oil companies make too much money. Democrats demagogue. Republicans demagogue. And hospitals close. And Americans suffer and die.
And again, why should any of them remain in office?

Low numbers for Bush. Even lower for others!

I get regular mailings from The Patriot Post and always read them. Today, I got their recent mailing. They take apart Republicans and the NYT. The NYT has a poll that screams GWB's numbers are low. And then near the end of the article, they have a small piece of honesty (which I'm sure led to writer's immediate firing) where they state that John Kerry and Al Gore enjoy even lower approval numbers than GWB. The Patriot concluded that even with all the kudos and huggy wuggy articles on these two lefty Presidential aspirants, they still poll lower than GWB.
And the Congress gets even lower numbers than that.
Wake up kiddies!

Just one illegal-x 800,000 a year x decades

A few years back I came across an article warning about illegal aliens coming to America that were carrying horrible diseases that were highly infectious. There was a story coming from Austin, MN where there was a strain of resistant tuberculosis that was found amongst the police and was traced to illegal aliens and their increase in numbers in Austin. Another article went on to talk about the complete lack of hygiene from illegals that bred disease.
And now, there is this article on just one illegal alien (from Anti-Strib).Read it. And that all his friends tested positive.
In fairness, the last paragraph gives kudos to this one illegal alien. But, read what the doctor's experience has been for countless others.

And what do women say about Hillary? OW!!!!

Juanita Broadrrick, Kathleen Willey and Candice Jackson give an inside view of Ms. Rodham. And they urge you to read "I've Always Been A Yankees Fan". Hitlery's quotes follow her in this great book.
Yesterday I heard John Podhoretz talk about his new book "Can She Be Stopped?". He commented that if there are enough supposedly Republican women ( perhaps just 10%) who are just so in love with the idea of a woman President, then Hillary moves back to zip code 20006.
These women need to read Candice Jackson's book "Their Lives:The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine". It will make your blood run cold...then hot if you're any kind of thinking woman.
Forewarned is forearmed.

Bill Clinton and spreading HIV

No, it's not about spreading HIV THAT way.
This is another of those underreported events in the life of William Jefferson Blythe Clinton.
Seems that as governor, he was involved in an HIV, Hepatitis C infected blood selling program that has been ignored by, well, the usual suspects.
And now, he's being protested for his role in killing people with tainted blood.
Just another chapter in the story of the Rock Star of the National and International Lefties.

Collectivists at Prairie Pravda or It's really not YOUR money

Once again, be warned, the only reason you, or anyone else works is not for you or your family. It's to keep Congress in power and control. So says Prairie Pravda . From their long disproved Keynesian outlook the reason for deficits is that there are tax cuts. That the solution to deficits is (of course)...RAISE TAXES!!! The only way to prop up failed, ineffective and in many cases counter-productive programs by taking even more of your money (see my post on riding dead horses. The editorial board at PP seems that point #9 is the way to get a dead horse to at least trot). Always remember, with lefties all tax cuts are unwarranted and too much, all tax raises are never enough, all programs (except the constitutional defense program) are underfunded, and any expansion of government is OK. The collectivists at PP always cry that you and I are idiots and just don't know how to spend our own money. It takes the combined wisdom,intelligence, compassion and foresight of 535 people under a marble dome to effectively and prudently spend your money. Well, PPP (Prairie Pravda Pukes), I have a splendid idea: show us your commitment and have the government take all our money and give us all that we need. Go all the way, not part way. Come on! Minimum wage at $25.00 an hour, government meals at 7 am, 12 pm and 6 pm. Make us all happy! Vitamins at breakfast and urine tests to make sure we're taking those vitamins. Mandatory and random dental exams to make sure that we're all flossing. Sniffer dogs ensuring that we're changing our government issued and washed underwear. TAKE ALL OUR MONEY AND BRING ON UTOPIA, YA' COWARDS!
As Savage Republican once said "Any deficit is not and will never be a taxing or revenue problem. Deficits are and will always be a spending problem."
The deficit problem solution is quite simple: cut programs. Cut spending.No deficits. Any questions?

IS thinking obsolete?

Thomas Sowell has an excellent article on the hysteria surrounding the current high gas prices.

"If the profit per gallon of gas were reduced to zero, would that be enough to reduce the price by even a dime? If the oil company executives were to work free of charge, would that be enough to reduce the price of gasoline by even a penny a gallon?

Surely media loudmouths making millions of dollars a year and the multibillion dollar TV networks they work for can afford to get some statistics and buy a pocket calculator to do the arithmetic before spouting off nationwide.

But this is the age of emotion, not analysis."

WOW - I don't think truer words have been spoken in the media.

"The very politicians who have piled tax after tax on gasoline over the years, and voted to prohibit oil drilling offshore or in Alaska, and who have made it impossible to build a single oil refinery in decades, are all over the television screens denouncing the oil companies. In other words, those who supply oil are being denounced and demonized by those who have been blocking the supply of oil." (emphasis mine)

OK maybe truer words HAVE been spoken in the media! Please go read the whole thing! There is nothing more to add, other than we need to hold Congress responsible, not "big oil". Congress needs to get off of the dime and allow drilling in ANWR and off-shore exploration and more refineries!

Speaking of the Kennedys of Massachusetts

Senator Edward Kennedy has long talked a good game on alternative energy and yet when a wind farm is slated to go in Nantucket Sound where it could possibly spoil the good Senator's view from the family compound, well then all bets are off!

"A shoal in the center of the Sound is where Boston-based Cape Wind Associates hopes to build the nation's first offshore wind farm -- an array of 130 wind turbines capable of generating enough electricity to meet 75 percent of the Cape and Islands' energy needs, without burning any oil or emitting any pollution. The turbines would be miles from any coastal property, barely visible on the horizon. In fact, Cape Wind says they would be farther away from the nearest home than any other electricity generation project in Massachusetts."

Jeff Jacoby writes the above in an opinion piece about how the Senator is trying to change the rules in mid-stream for the operators of the Cape Wind Associates.

"Every child knows that you don't change the rules in the middle of the game," Kennedy says."

True enough Senator, so why is it you are trying to change the rules here. Could it be because you don't feel that the rules apply to you?

Irony

Here is the epitome of irony, from our friends at the Star Tribune.

"I find it very interesting that Rush Limbaugh managed to plea-bargain his way out of trouble for drug possession (Star Tribune, April 29).
On his own show, he had loudly advocated the imprisonment of all drug addicts. Yet when he is caught with his hand in the Oxycontin jar, a whole new set of rules suddenly apply.
If he were not who he is, a very rich celebrity, he would already be in jail. Truly there are separate systems of justice in this country: one for the rich and famous and one for the rest of us.
If justice is not meted out evenly, we cannot call ourselves a civil and just society. Paraphrasing George Orwell's "Animal Farm," in the United States, everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others.
DJV, CRYSTAL "

Now normally I leave the fisking of Strib Letters to those bloggers who do it best, but this was too rich to pass up!

Let's see, on one hand we have a Republican radio commentator who is prosecuted (in the courts and in the media) for 3 years and when push comes to shove no charges are filed and on the other we have a Democratic member of Congress with a history of drug abuse crashing his car into a Capitol barrier and no field sobriety tests are issued and there is minimal coverage in the media. Just lots of sympathetic "tsk, tsks" about how he's in need of rehab.

Yeah DJV, you're so very right...some Kennedy's are more equal than the rest of us. Cynthia McKinney...call your attorney - that discrimination case just grew legs!

Domestic Surveillance outrage!

Scott at Powerline points us to this.

"IN A BOLD AND CONTROVERSIAL DECISION, the president authorized a program for the surveillance of communications within the United States, seeking to prevent acts of domestic sabotage and espionage. In so doing, he ignored a statute that possibly forbade such activity, even though high-profile federal judges had affirmed the statute's validity. The president sought statutory amendments allowing this surveillance but, when no such legislation was forthcoming, he continued the program nonetheless. And when Congress demanded that he disclose details of the surveillance program, the attorney general said, in no uncertain terms, that it would get nothing of the sort. "

George W. Bush???? No - Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Read the entire article. It's one of those things that makes you go "hmmmmmm". So there is precident for what President Bush has done...and it was legal then....therefore...

When "God" is insulted

"The DaVinci Code" movie is coming out soon...yawn! I read some of the book, but found it rather boring - although I had a manager at a previous job who SWORE it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. She kept talking about the "revelations" in the book as if the book was fact based instead of fiction.

This Reuters story got me to thinking though. While I don't agree with the Cardinal's call to sue over the book/movie, I do find his reaction to be a striking contrast to the "Islamic World's" reaction to the "Mohammed" cartoons. Let's see - burning embassies, killing people or filing a legal brief. Which do you think is the more civilized reaction to a percieved insult?????

We'll show them....

Lots and lots of Republican supporters feel (as Amendment X does) that since the Republicans have turned their legislative backs on us, we should turn our backs on them and not show up to the polls in November. I fully understand that frustration, I was NOT happy with Governor Pawlenty when he passed that $.75 per pack tax - er fee - on cigarettes and I told him so! I am still unhappy (and get more unhappy with each visit to the gas station) with Senator Coleman and Congressman Kennedy for their votes against drilling in ANWR and I told them so. I am not totally pleased with the stadium bill that came out of the Senate and the House bill is only partially palatable (I still believe that the voters of Hennepin County deserve the right to vote on the new tax).

Amendment X asks (in the above linked post) "Do these people deserve re-election? Do they represent me? The Republican Platform? Small government?" valid questions all. I would answer that we have the opportunity, especially now as early in the convention/primary process as we are, to hold these people accountable! Now is the time to let the Governor and the State Senators and the Federal legislators know that they are NOT representing their party and that the grass roots is not happy. There is no guarantee that they will listen and if they don't, then you do have to vote your conscience. However, before you decide to stay home in November I would ask you to consider the following.

Just who will really suffer should the Republican base stay home and refuse to vote. Would the Republican candidates suffer? Yeah they may not be re-elected but they would hardly "suffer"? Would the Party suffer? Hardly - they might pay a little more lip service to the base, but really would it change much? No, the ones who would really suffer is the country as a whole! Take a look at what we are in for should the Democrats get control of the House and Senate.

On a Federal Level, you have John Conyers (D-MI) who would become Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee should the Democrats regain control of the House. He has already declared that he would IMMEDIATELY start investigating the President for "lying" us into the War in Iraq. He has also sponsored a bill (HR 40 - for 40 acres and a mule) to investigate the impact of paying reparations for slavery to African Americas living today! Or consider Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who would become Speaker of the House should the Democrats take control. She vowed (in a Washington Post interview and on Meet the Press) to "raise the minimum wage, roll back parts of the prescription drug plan, repeal the Patriot Act, roll back the Bush tax cuts and investigate the Bush Administration."

On the state level you have the two DFL candidates for Governor promising to raise taxes IMMEDIATELY on the top earners. The DFL controlled Senate has already passed a stadium bill that would tax EVERYONE in the seven county metro area to pay for all 3 stadiums and REFUSE private donations from TCF Bank (because they asked for naming rights). We have DFL candidates at all levels campaigning for more light rail, universal health care, education and publically funded stadiums and all of those proposals are going to require MAJOR tax hikes to pay for them!

So in the long run, just who would be hurt worse if the Republican base stayed home this November????? I would submit that it would be worse for the country and the state if we disgruntled Republicans refused to show up on election day.

In the name of Allah

This is the hardest post I have had to write and the hardest story I have ever read.

The Times of London bring us this horrific story.

"EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq's unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country'ss top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty. "

Atwar Bahjat was a 30 year old woman journalist in Iraq. She built quite a following for her reports for al Arabiya on the day to day fighting in Iraq. She was abducted at the edge of her native city of Samarra after a day of reporting on the bombing of the Shi'ite mosque (reportedly bu Sunni factions).

"Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. "

One can only imagine the terror and betrayal that she was feeling as she begged her follow Samarrans to help her. However, the horror she felt then was just a faint shadow of what was to come. What follows is not rated PG.

" First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.
Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.
By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.
It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear. "

By the time the filming begins.....the animals that had taken Bahjat were filming the torture that they were inflicting on this defenseless woman! WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE FROM NOW?????

"A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.
Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.
Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.
Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera."

But the monsters were not finished with Bahjat...

"She had nine drill holes in her right arm and 10 in her left, he said. The drill had also been applied to her legs, her navel and her right eye. One can only hope that these mutilations were made after her death. "

DRILL HOLES in her arms, legs, abdomen and head! What kind of animals are they?

Captain Ed wrote about the "cowardice" of the monsters that murdered Bahjat, Michelle Malkin called them "insanely evil" neither of which captures (for me) the revulsion that courses through me at the thought of what these animals did. I don't think that there is anything "insane" about this. It is pure evil.

John at Powerline reminds us that there are those who harp on US "abuses" all the while ignoring the real atrocties that aatrocities done in the name of Allah and the guys at Anti-Strib continue to remind us why Islam "stinks". However, this story, more than any other that I have seen so far, drives home (to me) the reality that was revealed to me when I read when I read the Koran a couple of years ago. It reminds me of my visceral reaction, my "gut feeling" to reading the words of "Allah". That feeling was fear. The writings of the "Prophet" scared me more than anything I had ever read in my life. Prior to my reading of the Koran, all I knew about Islam came from reading "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran - a book that was given to me as a gift (from a young man I was dating at the time). Until I actually read the words of the "prophet" I, like my President, thought that Islam was a "religion of peace". If that were an accurate representation, then the outcries of outrage from "mainstream Islam" against this kind of barbarity would be deafening. Instead the only cries of outrage we get are when someone "insults" Islam. I tried to convince myself that there were "moderate Muslims" out there and that they would indeed speak out against the atrocities. The silence was deafening. Meanwhile, Islams believers insult the Gods of other religions on a daily basis.

Until the rest of the "civilized" world, stands up with one voice and DEMANDS that Islam grows up and becomes part of the 21th century (as opposed to living in the 2nd century like they do now) we will continue to be at war with Islam. No amount of sugar coating by the press or the President will change that fact - I fact that I have finally come to admit.

UPDATE: Captain Ed and Michelle Malkin both report that there are those who are casting doubt on the veracity of this Times story. The video is accurate, but the victim may not have been Atwar Bahjat, but a Nepalese man who had been captured in 2004. Regardless, what was done in this video, be the victim male or female, is reprehensible and those that practice this should be dealt with swiftly and firmly.

Tribal Wisdom

Got this from a friend at CD2. Unfortunately wisdom and common sense (along with a any desire to keep the oath of office) is lacking in St. Paul and Washington.
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."

However, in government and education in

America

, more advanced strategies are often employed in such situations, such as:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Visiting other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead
horse's performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve
the dead horse's performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is
less costly, carries lower overhead, and therefore contributes
substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other
horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And of course my favorite. .
13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

Threat as encouragement

I happened to catch the lead "Rove Seeks to Re-Energize Conservative Base" on Drudge. I thought "this could be interesting". Well, the lead doesn't quite do justice to the article title "Rove Is Using Threat of Loss to Stir Republicans ". No surprise here. The Republicans are so far off the reservation, the only way to get people like me back on board is the "it will be worse with the lefties." I've been hearing this same line from a number of talk show hosts for years. Not a real convincing argument. At all. For me, the issue is do these people deserve re-election? Do they represent me? The Republican platform? Small government? I've held my nose in the voting booth way too many times. I've seen the Republican House and Senate expand government way beyond what the lefties had ever envisioned. But to save face, the ultra-collectivists needed to say something along the lines of "the Republican programs should have gone further", while in private I'm sure the lefties were high fiving like Super Bowl winners.
Karl, a quick FYI- I'm energized. But not in way you'd like.

Confident Dems lay out their agenda

Thus says the Washington Post in this article. What is that agenda you ask? Sue the President, censure the President, impeach the President.....are you sensing a trend here? Do you see anything about what they would do to solve the current Social Security solvency problem? How about solving the high cost of fuel? Or fighting the Global War on Terror?

You can not run solely against the President. You have to run ON something. In 1994, the Republicans had the "Contract for America" which listed all of the things that they would DO should they get elected. It was not all "Anti-Clinton". Until the Dems get that simple fact they will continue to lose elections.

Immigration fallout

In the wake of the illegal immigrant protests, comes this lovely bit from the New York Times.

"Warnings of a crippling immigrant boycott did not come true yesterday. The economy survived. But what may not survive — we hope — is people's willful misunderstanding of the nature of the immigrant-rights movement. The worst among our citizens and politicians are eager to depict illegal immigrants as criminals, potential terrorists and alien invaders." emphasis mine

Here is a news flash for the editorial staff at the Times. When someone comes into this country in a manner that does not follow our existing immigration laws, then that person is a criminal! That is something that has gone horrifically under-reported during the last 4 weeks of debate on the issue.

What the proponents of preferential treatment (and that is what they are demanding when they demand to be given immediate citizenship) neglected to take into account was the possibility of a backlash. John Podhoretz writes about it in the NY Post and Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) went on Fox News and started that he was "highly offended when illegal people come into this country, take jobs illegally, and then protest and wave foreign flags." I know a lot of people that were also offended by that, myself included.

Well finally some cities and states are starting to do what the federal government refuses to do. Daily stories like this are popping up around the country.

"In response to what the Board of Health sees as a growing health crisis, local restaurants may be banned from employing illegal immigrants as a condition of their food serving licenses. "

Well New York Times editorial board...what do you have to say about that???? Is the Milford Board of Health "the worst among our citizens"?

Meanwhile, you have American citizens and other immigrant groups who need jobs who can't get them because there are people willing to take these jobs at below prevailing wages.

Voter ID is legal

Here is some bad news for the DFL. A Federal Judge has ruled that Indiana's Voter ID law is NOT an undue burden on voters! The law requires that all voters must show a state issued photo id in order to vote! This is a huge win for anyone who wants to ensure that our elections are fair for all!

Now we just need to push the Minnesota State legislature for similar legislation here!

Welcome to the Party

I wrote a couple of weeks back about the silence of the liberals in the media to the suffering in Darfur. Well apparently George Clooney has discovered Darfur and is making a cause of it. Good for you Mr. Clooney - glad to have you on board! There was also a rally (that went largely unnoticed thanks to the rallies of illegal immigrants the following day) on the Washington Mall to try to bring America's attention to the genocide in Darfur! Many of the planners of the Washington Mall Rally were US Jews, something that will never get mentioned by the anti-Semitic factions around the country and around the world.

The NY Sun brings to our attention, though, the total hypocricy of some of the organizers and protestors.

"We'd be remiss, however, if we didn't say that we also hope that the Darfur rally yesterday helps to illuminate the hypocrisy of some of those on the left. They want military action now to oppose a genocidal regime in Sudan and to protect its victims. Yet they opposed military action in Iraq to oust a regime, in that of Saddam Hussein, that had engaged in ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites and had rained scud missiles on Israeli cities."

OUCH! However, they are so very, very acurate in that assessment. Several vocal anti-war Congressmen and women are equally vocal that we should send troops to Darfur! An anti-Bush, anti-war group called Working Assetts is lobbying to get our troops pulled out of Iraq and shipped to Darfur!

The editorial writer concluded with this bit of common sense/logic:

"Opposing the war in Iraq while favoring an intervention in Sudan is akin to the position of an American during World War II who favored fighting Japan but taking a strictly pacifist stance toward Germany. It's so illogical as to make one wonder why."

All I can say to that is AMEN.

Pandering at the pump

Because I am so behind on things, I am going to probably do a couple of generic subject posts. Please go to the links provided for more in depth details.

Charles Krauthammer said it best in this article. It's Economics 101 - when demand for a product is high - the price goes up accordingly! Meanwhile, our Republican legislators are pandering to us by proposing a $100 per family gas rebate check. Well whoop-de-do...

Meanwhile, China is starting to drill in the Gulf of Mexico - thanks to their friend Fidel Castro! They are getting rights to drill in the same sensitive areas that our oil companies are NOT allowed to drill in due to environmental restrictions!

And then there are the Democrats....the same people who are now demanding lower gas prices are the same ones who have, for years, been pushing for higher gas taxes in order to reduce driving and thus reduce greenhouse gases.

The New York Times said it best in an editorial (no longer available online)...the price of gas today is a direct result of years and years of horrible energy policy. This is not a Republican or a Democratic failure - it is a House and Senate failure. We need to get a real energy policy in place - on that encourages development of alternative fuels as well as drilling and refining available oil deposits, no matter where those deposits are (ANWR or off the coasts of California or the Gulf of Mexico). Until we get that, we are destined to have even higher gas prices than we are seeing today!

Back in the saddle...

Thanks to some personal issues, I have been AWOL from the Savage Republican. However, now that I am back and have a few scant minutes, I will try to get a couple of quick posts in before the catch up process begins in earnest.

Is it any surprise that the media did not react with the same faux outrage that greeted VP Cheney when Patrick Kennedy didn't report his automobile accident (which higher ups in the Congression Police force apparently tried to cover up a la his father in Chapaquiddick) for 19 hours? Did you also notice that the press had more sympathy for Congressman Kennedy than they had for radio talk show host (Rush Limbaugh)? If we are indeed, equal under the law, then why isn't Congressman Kenndy being charged with any drug related crimes? I find that curious indeed.