Illinois politics a smear on Obama resume

Barack Obama has a lot of negative baggage because of his Illinois political background according to an article found at the link below.

Is America, nay, the world, ready for a U.S. president -- Barack Obama -- who bubbled up from the sordid politics of the Illinois legislature? From a political party whose stranglehold on Illinois government has brought the state to the brink of insolvency?

The rest of America should excuse many of us here if we blanch at the idea that someone, anyone, who just a few years ago occupied a seat in Illinois' laughable legislature might soon be president.

Barack Hussein ObamaWorld leaders are sure to tremble before him

The article goes on:

The first president to emerge from the Illinois legislature was Abraham Lincoln, but that's little comfort.

Today's Illinois legislature is rock bottom, exceeded in incompetence only by the preening, useless Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And true, Obama can't be blamed for the current madness in Springfield and the Democratic Party's abject failure to govern. Yet, that's where Obama cut his political teeth.

The article concludes with:

A new day in Obama's Washington? Spare us. Obama in the White House would be an old day, incorporating the worst of the Bush administration (according to his critics) and the worst of the Clinton administration. Not to mention the Illinois legislature.

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Interesting pics along the way

Shown below are things you often miss when travelling in a hurry:


We didn’t know Billy Bob lived in Iowa. The solar collectors are nearly as big as the house with enough debris scattered in the yard to build a couple more. Photo taken near Dexter, Iowa


Most cannons displayed in public parks are large and impressive. This cannon is neither. Valeta poses with this lilliputian relic in Stuart, Iowa to show its relative size.


“Share the Road” signs like this can be found in Amish country near Sturgeon, Missouri.




This rock is located north of Greenfield, Iowa and is repainted every Veterans Day by local artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen.

More about the Veterans/Patriotic rock can be found here. Pictures of this rock from prior years can be found in the Photography photo album on the right side bar of this blog.

Link here for directions to the rock.

Another patriotic symbol was found near Chappell, Nebraska in the form of an American flag painted on the side of a very large grain storage elevator.

How cheap can PC’s get?

Mike Elgan’s Computerworld article asks: What can you get for less than $700? The answer: A lot.

You've no doubt heard that Dell plans to sell PCs at Wal-Mart. It turns out that the prices of these systems will be extremely low. A Dell Dimension E521with a dual-core Athlon chip, 1GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, Vista Home Premium and a 19-in. monitor will cost less than $700. (Note that Vista Home Premium by itself would cost you $200.)

Meanwhile, Asus announced at Intel's Computex a $189, full-size, solid-state Linux laptop that boots in just 15 seconds from its 2GB flash hard disk. Called the 3ePC, the low-cost PC isn't a humanitarian effort for third-world kids, but a consumer product that will be sold in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.

I don’t know about the $189 laptop, but the Dell E521 with a 19-inch monitor sounds like a great buy.

I’m all for supporting the Linux operating system but buying a flash-drive laptop doesn’t get me excited.

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Dry cleaning shop with sense of humor

Prince William and Kate romance is on again

The on-again off-again romance of William (upper picture) and Kate (lower picture) is on-again.

Prince William has persuaded his long-time girlfriend Kate Middleton to get back together again 12 weeks after the couple split.

Rumors that the couple, who met at university and at one stage were said to be on the verge of marriage, had decided to rekindle their relationship have been rife since she appeared on Sunday at a concert in honor of William's late mother Diana.

William has persuaded Kate the problems of dating a future king are a price worth paying.

Why do I bother with this story?

First of all, there is a category on this blog titled: British Royal Soap Opera that needs a little activity now and then.

Second of all, William is more interesting to write about. His brother Harry seems to be a bit of a brash brat. Prince Charles is a bore most of the time and a bit obnoxious when he is trying to sound like an intellectual.

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Fat fight fails in public schools

The public school nutrition education program is “generally not working.”

The federal government will spend more than $1 billion this year on nutrition education—fresh carrot and celery snacks, videos of dancing fruit, hundreds of hours of lively lessons about how great you will feel if you eat well.

But an Associated Press review of scientific studies examining 57 such programs found mostly failure. Just four showed any real success in changing the way kids eat—or any promise as weapons against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.



"Any person looking at the published literature about these programs would have to conclude that they are generally not working," said Dr. Tom Baranowski, a pediatrics professor at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine who studies behavioral nutrition.

It’s difficult for any school program to convince kids to trade in their potato chips and fires for carrot and celery sticks when unhealthy “comfort foods” are readily available at home or the nearest McDonald’s.

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Bluegrass and Western Swing bands in Ft. Collins

Blugrass band at Civic Center Park

Western Swing band in Ft. Collins Old Town

Fairness Doctrine: down in flames 305-115

Congressional Democrats tried to re-launch the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” last week.

The measure failed by a 305-115 vote in the House. It probably would have been defeated in the Senate as well in spite of staunch support by Hillary, Kerry, Durban, Feinstein and others.

Just what is the Fairness Doctrine?
In a nutshell, the Fairness Doctrine would force radio and television outlets that broadcast “controversial” programming to devote equal time to opposing viewpoints.

The idea behind re-launching the Fairness Doctrine is a thinly veiled effort on the part of the nation’s liberals to shut down conservative political talk radio.

Commercial liberal talk radio has failed. Air America, the flagship of liberal talk radio movement, is a testament to that.

The only liberal talk radio left is (NPR) which is taxpayer funded. National Public Radio (NPR) is funded by taxpayers and is made up of Liberal talk hosts such as the unabashedly liberal Juan Williams (pictured).

Since NPR is taxpayer funded it should provide equal airtime to conservative political programs. It does not.

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What about the Fairness Doctrine and the Constitution? Should we kill free speech in the name of fairness?

The Constitution protects free speech, not equal speech.

Congress is to make no law abridging the freedom of speech whether we like the speech or not.

It's simple; speech is to be free even if it is not fair. Fair is too subjective a word. Our founding fathers guaranteed us free speech, not fair speech, and there is a big difference

If they ever want to bring the Fairness Doctrine back, they should apply it to TV and radio that is taxpayer funded.

For every Juan Williams hour on NPR there should be a Sean Hannity (lower picture) hour etc.

An equal number of hours for conservative radio as for liberal radio.

Rather than having the government regulate what people can say, we should let the market decide what people want to hear. That’s precisely why the Fairness Doctrine was abandoned, and that’s why it ought not to be revived.

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A serenade by Teddy before giving them all amnesty

Ted Kennedy (pictured) and other Senator’s want to give them all amnesty.

But first, he has decided to sing to them before telling them he “won’t let them down.”

The Kennedy serenade is here, if you have the stomach for it.

Kennedy leads a coalition to make all of the “undocumented workers” citizens of the United States.

I was undocumented for short time when I lost my wallet. These people are more than just undocumented. They are illegal.

What about the law-abiding aliens who are here with valid green cards working toward citizenship. It takes them about seven years to become citizens.

Teddy, and the others, are determined to have the illegal aliens become citizens with the swish of a pen.

Before you make up your mind on immigration, think about this:

The president himself says in his first five years, six million people tried to break into this country.

One in 12, which is 500,000, had criminal records.

Five hundred thousand criminals trying to break into this country! The entire Army of the United State only nuimbers five hundred thousand.

This is not immigration.This is an invasion.

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Gore banned the media but gets coverage anyway

Mr. Al Gore (pictured) made yet another closed door speech Saturday. This time it was at the American Institute of Architects convention.

He has banned the media many times before. Why is he afraid of the media covering his global warming alarmism?

Here is something Al Gore ignores and doesn’t want you to hear: Sunspots are causing the current global warming. Link here.

The current sunspot cycle peaks in 2011 and then all the politicians will be calling our attention to global cooling.

Mr. Gore is building his bankroll and liberal political popularity on his man-made global warming alarmism and the resultant carbon credit scam.

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Obama calls for Detroit to improve fuel economy

In Detroit, Barack Obama (pictured) said automakers should improve fuel economy.

Wow! What a simply ingenious idea (sarcasm intended). But what can we expect from a candidate-in-training hoping to become a president-in-training?

Maybe he is speaking into an echo chamber. How many times have we heard other candidates say the same thing down through the years?

Can computer controlled injectors be improved on? Probably not. Detroit is producing hybrids and working on more hybrids. Detroit is also building bio-fuel vehicles.

If Obama called on Detroit to build smaller cars he would lose his large base of SUV owners. It's safer to point the finger at Detroit by echoing hundreds of politicians before him by calling on Detroit to improve fuel economy.

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Harry Reid passes on white-tie Affair with British Queen

The Democratic Senate leader decided to snub the Queen of England.

Harry Reid (pictured) has been complaining that we don't have enough international allies and then he snubs the best we have.

Maybe he was afraid he would not recognize the Queen. All he needs to remember is that she would be the one with the biggest hat.

This is the same petty little man who also refused to attend Ronald Reagan’s funeral.

I repeat -- he is the Democratic Senate leader. What an embarrassment for the Democrats and for Washington and for the entire country for that matter.

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Sarkozy as new French President widely welcomed in Western press

The Nicolas Sarkozy (pictured) win over Socialist Ségolène Royal was broadly welcomed in the Western press on Monday, though some media in Africa and the Middle East expressed hostility to the new leader.

African countries may fear they can no longer use France as a dumping ground for their unwanted Muslim’s.

The wide-open borders of France offered countries in Africa and the Middle East a convenient place to send their riffraff.

A large number of the rioters in Paris, and other french cities, are Muslim transpants from Africa.

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A poll I would like to see …

I would like a simple poll by one of the leading polling firms..simple question:

Level playing field, 1,000 democrats, 1,000 Republicans..
ONE question:

Do you want America to win the war in Iraq?

1. YES
2. NO

You already know the answer? So do I.

The Tenet tell-all book is untenable

George Tenet, the former CIA Director, has written a book that many observers say was driven by his ‘sour grapes’ affliction.

Tenet, a poster child for “The Power Of Positive Brown-Nosing,” has hit a new low, even for Washington.

Having worked his way up the political ladder by leaving no back unslapped, on the way down he’s leaving no back unstabbed.

George Tenet is the Barney Fife of the spy world. Every bad guy got away, and he never took his bullet out of his pocket.

Screwing up the pre-Iraq war intelligence alone makes him a failure. Utterly missing the 9/11 attacks and having not a single CIA asset in the Taliban or al-Qaeda at the time earns him “Worst CIA Chief Ever.”

But Tenet’s incompetence overshadows even these “accomplishments.”

The liberal media is Tenet’s cheerleading section. They are hanging on every word of the new Tenet book hoping to, at the very least, smear Bush for not firing the former CIA Director long ago.

Bush deserves criticism for allowing Tenet to remain as head of the CIA far too long.

Will the Tenet book be filed in the fiction section at the Library of Congress?

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House fails to override Bush veto

During an hour-long debate before voting to override the Iraq spending bill veto, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (pictured) said:

The president has turned a tin ear to the wishes of the American people.

The president wants a blank check. The Congress will not give it to him.

But Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., urged his colleagues to sustain the veto, saying politicians should not make military decisions.

"Now is not the time for the United States to back down in its war on terror," Lewis said

Wonder what Senator Biden is saying now?

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Biden: shove the Bush veto down his throat

Senator Joe Biden (pictured) proves once again that his positive traits are almost non-existent.

This mean-spirited threat came from a presidential candidate.

The YouTube video of Senator Biden’s threat is here.

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McCain complains of rough media treatment

In the past war hero McCain (pictured) was given great press my most of the media.

Now it’s different and the Senator acts like his feelings are hurt. Well, welcome to the real world Senator McCain.

Sen. John McCain, who was the darling of the political press corps during the 2000 election cycle, complains to friends that he is getting much rougher treatment from the news media than his competitors for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

McCain feels that his support for President Bush's Iraq policy has soured his erstwhile reporter friends. Although Giuliani and Romney also have been criticized by the media, McCain privately expresses the view that they have gotten off easy.

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Democrats caving in on war bill

The Iraq white flag wavers (Democrats in Congress) have conceded on the war bill.

They knew it would not get by a presidential veto, so why did they push it this far? To keep their “hate Bush” mania going.

The Republicans are not blameless. They keep on rolling over and taking whatever the Democrats try to smear them with. For centuries it has been proven that people will “do to you what you allow them to.”

Turning the other cheek is an admirable trait -- but it has gone far beyond that. Time for the Republicans to develop a little spine.

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Former Tennessee state senator guilty of bribery

There is an Associated Press article at the link below about former Tennessee state Sen. John Ford who was convicted of taking $55,000 bribe.

A Democratic Senator charged with a crime, whether on the state or national level, is not uncommon.

It is also not uncommon to show the politician’s party affiliation deep in the article if the corrupt senator is a Democrat.

Senator Ford, a Democrat, is a prominent member of one of Tennessee's most active political families.

The article is true to form -- the fact that he is a Democrat is not mentioned until the 14th paragraph. However, had the politician been a Republican, the party affiliation would have shown in the first paragraph

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