Progressive Paranoia: Updated With The Evil Genious Karl Rove

Oh the horror, what a great article by the Weekly Standard's Noemie Emery on the paranoid delusions the left tries to parlay off onto the GOP and the Conservative movement in general its pogroms and intolerance and Bush's desire to extend his presidency through unconstituional means. You tell me who's paranoid and actually using the language of fascist scare propaganda against religion. Here are the first and last graphs of this rather revealing expose' of the lefty's mind set.

The fascists are coming! Or rather, they're already here, installed in the White House, planning like mad to subvert the Constitution and extend their reign in perpetuity, having first suppressed and eviscerated all opposition and put all of their critics in jail. Thus goes the rant of America's increasingly unhinged left. If only, sigh many Bush partisans, wondering when this administration will get out of the fetal position and show some fighting spirit. To them, as to most reasonable observers, the White House shows the chronic fatigue of a two-term presidency reaching its final year. Nonetheless, paranoia about what Bush and Co. are up to preys on the minds of many progressives, who have progressed, in this case at least, beyond reason.
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Let's give the last words to Mark Crispin Miller, as he told the blog Buzzflash in February 2006: "That sort of warped perception comes from extreme paranoid projectivity: the tendency to rail at others for traits or longings that one hates and fears inside oneself. .  .  . We're dealing with a movement that is anti-rational. It's faith-based .  .  . it's a movement that believes what it believes, and it believes what it believes is right. .  .  . It believes what it wants to believe. If it hears contrary evidence, it comes up with evidence of its own. .  .  . This is not a movement that the rational can ever shame into surrendering by merely demonstrating its illogic to its followers. .  .  . Paranoia .  .  . is based on fear, and therefore on a kind of 'logic' that's impervious to evidence and quite incapable of learning from experience. .  .  . Paranoia is an atavism, deep within us all."

Right you are.

Now that is irony at its best in a paranoid world where truth is conspiracy and conspiracy is truth. I am becoming much less worried about the '08 elections if this is the kind of idiots they have supporting them, in an attempt to describe what drives conservatism he indicts himself and the loony tune left.

Dang, Tony Snow is stepping down as WH Pressman, he had said when he started it wouldn't be for fullterm, we will miss you Tony, God Bless and God speed in killing that cancer! He won't be silent though, he will be speaking and writing and making very good money giving speeches and raising money for conservatives. This is the first WH official stepping down that I will miss. The reactions by the loonbats are typical at HuffPo and Kos, quite disgusting, I don't provide links to raving lunatics so you will have to look a little, Hot Air does provide a link where I first saw the story and video of the press conference.


Link: sevenload.com

Meanwhile Bill Ardolino is headed back to Iraq for another lengthy embed with the troops and JD Johannes is working on his second documentary after a lengthy embed and has bits of it posted on his blog, serious war porn. Jeff Emanuel is writing prolifically and has dispatches all over the place.
We are kicking ass and winning friends in a big way, a Police building in Ramadi is being named for the American soldier that turned the city around and is considered a martyr by the Al Anbar tribes, Captain Patriquin. Psst, that is a must read article!
Miss perky Katie Couric is headed over for two weeks of ratings shows for CBS with an exotic background. Is she going to touchy feely sitdowns with hardcore war fighters or citizens that have been severely disrupted by the war that are negative about America ? Will she tell the truth that she has no idea or spin it to fit her personal view as a pampered press princess? I'll stick to former war fighters deeply embedded like Mike Yon and Jeff Emanuel thank you. Funny that she thinks it safe enough now just before Gen Petreaus reports back to Congress and America that his surge and tactics are having a profound ripple effect throughout Iraqi society. She has a chance of a lifetime to become a solid news anchor and report the truth or to badly crash and burn further dragging down CBS News, once the most respected. To coin Bill O. what say you?

PS: Welcome new readers from the Thunder Run!
Update: Don't miss this great piece by Karl Rove on Pres. Bush's legacy, I tend to agree, even though I fought shamnesty, he brought it to the National stage thus highlighting the problem. Mr. Rove knows what he is talking about when it comes to politics.

A New Iraq: Updated With Unrelated Romney Good News And Video

Mike Yon's "Ghosts of Anbar Pt.III" is posted and it is a remarkable contrast from his early dispatches from the front filled with combat and IEDs, he has pictures of gardens and palm groves and colorful Iraqi soldiers afraid of nothing that were once trying to kill us and are now trying to emulate our Marines and their code, Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful.
That may be the Marine's code it is not that of our defeatocrats in Congress that would abandon the people of Iraq to the thugs of AQ and Iranian proxies. I posted a while back that much of what was going on was as much organized crime and typical gangster thug behaviour as driven by Islamic fundamentalism. Some of what I hypothesized has proven true as many of the so called insurgents were just desparate for money and terrorized into planting bombs, the stories that Mike and other longterm embeds have been telling are incredible history that I devour. I wish I could be there so I follow it as closely as I can through milblogs and the longterm embeds not the nightly news from the Green Zone or the pages of agenda driven newspapers.
The Iraqis are proud people and very willing to work very hard to better themselves, they are far more capitalist than socialist while being an extremely tightly knit family/clan/tribal based society, they had to be under Saddam's brutal rule. Iraq has an extremely rich agricultural valley much like California's and in many many ways shares our geology and growing zones of our southwest and Ca's central valley. I think it would be a great idea for our central and inland valley cities form partnerships with cities in Iraq, Bakersfield and Baquba, Fresno and Fallujah, for example to share agricultural know how, it was the bread basket of the Middle-East at one time after all. Employment and markets for their goods are far better weapons against AQ and extremism than bullets ever will be, that is why AQ targeted them with massive bombs. It backfired on them and bad.
I for one am more optimistic now than at any other time since I now have a feel for the people, decent folks that just want to get on with their lives, Islam and a Caliphate are not really even on their radar. They are just a simple people wanting to live their lives, they just want simple things we take for granted like clean tapwater, sewage and garbage disposal and electricity. Will it be a Jeffersonian republic? Probably not but it will be Iraqi born and bred and we must let them and guide them not dictate to them for our experience is unique among nations and history and very new in the annals of Middle-Eastern history, 400 years as opposed to 10,000 plus years and this is a most ancient of lands that many consider the birth place of man and the resting place of the Arc of Noah and the Arc of God. I am not an end of times Biblical nut but dang things are really wierd right now ?!?
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Update: Mitt Romney has roared to the front of the GOP Bloggers straw poll pushing 50%. I know these polls are unscientific and prone to error but this is a significant shift recently as I am a polled member of the GOP Bloggers. Mitt Romney is simply the most qualified candidate the electorate has seen in many years and the GOP field is the strongest in many years against one of the weakest DNC fields ever, Hillary, Silky Pink Saphire Edwards and the Rookie Obama. Did the GOP pull off an Ali style rope-a-dope with the '06 elections? I am beginning to think so .
Mitt's new ad, how many other candidates would put out an ad like this, this is good, its called sex appeal, he's fit and ready to lead and it will connect.



I know, Sen. McCain can't but he has a very good reason and sHucksterbee is a marathoner and nanny statist. Picture Hillary trying to pull that off, ouch, BO or Silky could have if they had thought of it.

Midweek Must Read: Updated With Some Killer War Porn, The Reaper Takes Flight.

This is a brilliant piece by counterinsurgency expert and advisor in Iraq and Afghanistan David Kilkullen writing for Small Wars Journal(hattip:Michael Goldfarb). He goes into the nature of Iraq's tribal culture and why they are so important to the success we have seen recently. It seems familial ties are stronger than nationalistic or even Muslim ones and AQ's version of Islam is strange to the locals and it quickly got ugly. Who knows maybe it was strategy to just let the thugs of AQ overstay their welcome and then come riding in as the good guy and save the populace from them winning the hearts and minds in the process. I don't know, but this is the best analysis I have seen when you combine it with Yon, Totten, Emmanuel, etc.

To understand what follows, you need to realize that Iraqi tribes are not somehow separate, out in the desert, or remote: rather, they are powerful interest groups that permeate Iraqi society. More than 85% of Iraqis claim some form of tribal affiliation; tribal identity is a parallel, informal but powerful sphere of influence in the community. Iraqi tribal leaders represent a competing power center, and the tribes themselves are a parallel hierarchy that overlaps with formal government structures and political allegiances. Most Iraqis wear their tribal selves beside other strands of identity (religious, ethnic, regional, socio-economic) that interact in complex ways, rendering meaningless the facile division into Sunni, Shi’a and Kurdish groups that distant observers sometimes perceive. The reality of Iraqi national character is much more complex than that, and tribal identity plays an extremely important part in it, even for urbanized Iraqis. Thus the tribal revolt is not some remote riot on a reservation: it’s a major social movement that could significantly influence most Iraqis where they live.

It is a little long but very worth the read if you are interested in what is really going on over in the sands of Iraq.
A breakdown on what Iran is doing can be found here also courtesy of Mr. Goldfarb and the Weekly Standard. The PDF analysis is here though very long by artcle standards it is well worth the time to read or save for future reading.
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I went on a beer infused head chomping of a fellow conservative blogger last night, somewhat out of character for me. He smacked me down in a well deserved e-mail this morning, I am not apologizing, just acknowledging the justified smackdown. Yes, I am a biased snob for American Supremacy and I am not going to let lefties overrun my comment section for the sake of discussions or disruptions that will change nobody's mind just to get more hits to the blog. I have an agenda and I will follow it. I have zero intentions of becoming a forum for loonbat lefty trolls to voice their views so I can get in endless, pointless arguments that descend into name calling and false accusations. I do my best to deliver facts and less publisized data with a little barnyard analysis on the side. I am not a journalist or writer just a concerned citizen and contractor that is self employed and a proud member of the GOP and the Conservative movement.I have a huge problem with whiners when the answer is obvious.
Update: War porn for us techheads, the Reaper launches!(hattip: Hot Air)

A subsonic unmanned 'F-16', is way cool war porn, hello Al Quaida, boom. We need this on our borders yesterday! Dang, I wish I was there, what an incredible life experience and our soldiers want to be there.

Way cool!

Patriot Quote

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily
"The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety."-- Thomas Paine (Common Sense, 1776)

Tuesday Tirade

If there is one conspiracy theory that really burns my tail is all this talk of a North American Union and one World Order under a Global Government, it is all hype with no basis in fact. Nobody, I mean nobody, in the US Canada or Mexico supports such a union, the 'Amero' is a fabrication of a paranoid mind. Trade and security are the basic elements of freedom and prosperity, isolationism is the basic element of tyranny, North Korea, Cuba, and Iran come to mind. Free and open trade does not mean free and open borders nor does joint security talks with our direct neighbors with whom we share thousands of miles of border mean we are becoming one NAU. Trade and security pacts between the US, Canada and Mexico are a very good idea, goods and services should be able to legally move smoothly between us, as it builds up all.
Mexico now has a true reformist President in Calderone and he has an ambitious plan to stop his country's drain of brains and workers to the North by building up Mexico, it has the resources and the labor force to really grow and fast once the corruption is countered and the socialists are proven wrong. I am all for the fence but the best way to stop illegal immigration here is to give them a chance at home. The global economy is a fact that we cannot deny, imposing tariffs on foreign goods will only draw tariffs on ours, I don't believe we want that.
If Ford, GM and Chrysler want to grow , they should go build plants in Mexico, Brazil, Africa, India and China just as Toyota and Honda did here and there so the shipping charges are lost and jobs are provided building name recognition and product loyalty. The unions are responsible for destroying the manufacturing industry in America with their unrealistic Marxist demands, not the free traders, and are working hard to bankrupt many cities here in Ca. including the state. I am a licensed contractor and I can't do free volunteer work for my local school district because I am not union, so the district has to pay at least triple what I would charge as a private contractor or donate for free, wasted money going to somebody with no local connection., to top it off I am not even allowed to bid on the job since I have no employees to pay a prevailing wage even if it is simple one man work, in other words I can't go fix a broken window for free as a gift to my community's schools.
Yea, unions have their uses in unliberal countries but not the US, here if you want more money , simply work hard and do a good job and politely ask for a raise every 6 months or so. Hmm, I have never been union, I started my trade at minimum wage, $4.25, and now own my own company with some connections you could only dream of, its called hard dedicated work ethic.
What I don't understand is the conservatives jumping on this socialist propaganda bandwagon. I challenge anybody to name one person in a prominent position and provide footnotes that supports a North American Union. I seriously doubt you can.

Monday Meltdown: Updated

Wow, AG Gonzo has resigned, good riddance, that is all I have to say on the matter, the Politico has all you want on the subject.
This is a grotesque bombshell though, a GOP Senator got caught and arrested for soliciting gay sex in a public restroom at an airport after soliciting an undercover officer investigating complaints of lewd behavior in said restroom. This is just sicko San Fransisco type behaviour and Sen. Craig(Id.) should resign in total disgrace yesterday, there is no room in the GOP for this type of pervert. I mean what type of fool would seek to have gay sex in a public restroom with a complete stranger, it says more about the faggots that ingage in this than it does about the GOP but it still hurts. I am just glad it came out now and not a year for now, he had already been targeted by a lefty group that wants to out gay republicans so that news is not new. At least he should resign and let Gov. Otter(R) apoint a replacement that can hold the seat in this red state.
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Meanwhile more and more good news continues to pour out of Iraq at the speed of winter molasses but it is coming and when it does it sweet. We finally have grassroots planted and watered and they are starting to spread far rapidly than we could have dreamed just a few short months ago as local leaders are stepping up the task of securing their towns and neighborhoods and learning the ropes to work with the National Gov't. Time is all Gen. Petreaus and Iraq needs along with some international investment. With security in place, the very entreprenurial Arab people will go back to work, mills and factories are reopening all over Iraq's vast agricultural regions and the breadbasket of the Middle-East will come back quickly with the security and markets opening up. With those weak-kneed brits bugging out of Basra, it could/will become another big fight for us against Iranian backed proxies this time. We do have ongoing SpecOps there as well though and we should be able to get a handle on it pretty quick as we can move other surge troops in as Anbar and Diyala are cleared.
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This is so saddly funny I had to post it, (hattip:Matt Lewis), my question is why does a southern belle from South Carolina have a SoCal "Valley Girl" accent? Poor girl, pretty and empty, like gag me with a spoon, she must have attended USC for college.


Sidenote: My 9th grade geography class final was a blank map of the world that we had to fill in the countries, major rivers, a major city, mountain ranges, and major bodies of water. I owe alot to that teacher and have told him so fairly recently. If you have a child fixing to enter High School, email me and I can point you to one of the very best in the nation in an idealic setting if a high quality private education is what you desire,pictures of the campus can be furnished, me Pops taught there.
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A flashback: the Barnyard '05, glad to know my old comment section is still cached somewhere, TequilaRain is Lisa, cohost of the Barnyard, I wonder where Cindy is?
Update: I thought about roasting a lamb to celebrate the lunar eclipse tonight/tomorrow morning but decided to sleep instead, nobody wanted to get up and party with me before going to work, a good thing, lol. I might try to get up early enough to get a pic or two though since it is a cool celestial event.

Weekend Roundup

The dog days of August are always slow for news unless you want to cover floods and power outages and not the positive gains in Iraq. I have been watching some of the fringe candidates for POTUS on Cspan, Kucenich and Paul, and what was interesting was the people around them and the questions asked. The Dems ask the candidates what can be done for them on a personal level. The GOP voters ask what can be done for the country, to me that is a huge difference. We, the GOP, look at the macrosphere and they dwell on the microsphere and selfish demands, gays, abortion, perverts, illegal alians, atheists, etc. ad finitum.
So the GOP is left to save the free world once again from totalitarianism, once again in a depressed political climate. Hey we have done it many times before and we can do it again !
Dem. David Obey is on Cspan promoting his book "Raising Hell for Justice", seems he he lifting the wrong force up for justice, last I looked hell had Satan for a leader, does he really want to lift the underworld up? Watching the DNC of late , that seems what they want to do and he confirms it.

Weekend Rambler

There is gold in dem dere hills folks, the view from Pliocene Ridge in route to Alleghany and Forest City on a Motherlode foray.

There are few active mines left up here other than placer gold claims along the rivers and a couple of them are here in Alleghany home of the oldest active claims.

The 16-1 mine is over 80 years old, this isn't a photogenic town, lots of junked vehicles and junk everywhere.

The old Wells Fargo stage stop vault is all that's left.

The saloon was open for business though, time for a cold one.

An ancient 4x4 truck, any old truck enthusiasts out there that can identify it its make? I bet it has one heck of a granny gear, it is flathead powered and the engine is next to the driver.

The surviving general store of Forest City, like most the front was the store while the family lived in the back. Forest City boomed quick as it had rich deposits that were relatively easy to get to .

The dance hall bar suspended in time, left for eternity.

The dance hall itself and its collapsing facade, though it appears the Historical Society and E Clampus Vitus are trying to do some clean up and restoration here in Forest City, and it has a population of forty down from a population of over 1000 during the boom days.

Main street today, it was once lined with shops and saloons and no trees were visible in old photos, the town burned three different times but a few of the remaining houses are still lived in full time or used as hunting cabins.

A boulder miners used for drilling contests and a few drills, it is behind where the Brewery stood, apparently some of the best available, Prohibition never made it here.

Ye olde school house.

An assembled steam driven two stamp mill, the first one I have seen complete for the most part, it even had the old drive belts in place.

Of course all these towns had "Houses of Comfort" or ill repute if you prefer, the brothel marked by red painted stones on the front steps.

Of course it had a second story back entrance with a hillside trail for those wanting to be more discreet about their visits.

These towns are both deep in the foothills, a very rugged country of steep canyons, deep winter snows and perilous narrow shelf roads. Many investors refused to invest in these towns after being scared to death on the stage ride in, the roads were so dangerous, steep, slick, narrow, and perfect for ambushes from the guys in the black hats. There is still plenty of gold to be had up here if you have the gumption to look for it, the experts figure only 10- 20% has been recovered but there is no way to actually figure that out. There is no telling what these vast hills hold deep within their bowels.

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Dang, a sure sign I am getting old, Laurence Welk is on and I haven't changed the channel yet. I remember watching Hee Haw, LW, Gunsmoke and Bonanza at my Grandparents on Saturday nights when we were helping them with the farm as a child in the Deep South. Funny us true rednecks did not find Hee Haw insulting, even the California perspective of us, I can vouch that Ca. rednecks are just as stereo-typical as those of us from Dixie and cruising these backroads can have a "Deliverance" feel for sure as you are isolated in a big way. Stay tuned the adventure will continue...

Oops, Skipped a Day

The days pass fast enough that I don't need to get ahead of myself, anyway, my I Aunt and I got in a good but slow and hot round of golf this morning, we were behind the Ladies club Thursday outing. Hey my Aunt was the one complaining how slow they were not me, she is an avid golfer and likes to get on around the course. My old group back in Al, always walked, and our fivesome,at times, would push riding twosomes around the course. We all played well and hit when ready, no worry about the others unless they were in the way, 'away' etiquette was abandoned till we were greenside. I hate slow play!
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Meanwhile, the burned Iraqi child I posted about last night, Great News! The Children's Burn Foundation is going to step up. That is why I love America so much, no other nation stepped up and said "No Problem, we will help you". It took less than 24 hours and paperwork was in motion, he will be treated by one of the top plastic surgeons in the world, a miracle worker by many accounts.
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Pray for our fellow citizens in the midwest getting hammered by floods and tornadoes, send what aid you can and pray hard for them. My visiting Aunt lives in that area, Northeast of Chicago, so we spent the evening going over weather reports, talking golf and various ways to drive out of California heading East, Yosemite or Tahoe.

Thursday Thinker:Updated

This piece has been making the rounds of the blogosphere "The Peace Racket" by Bruce Bawer in case you are wondering what they are studying in 'peace' study programs, well it is socialist totalitarianism. It is a must read article and ties in nicely with last night's rant.

This purports to be wise counsel, a motto for the millennium. In reality, it’s wishful thinking that doesn’t follow logically from the history of the cold war, or of any war. For the cold war’s real lesson is the same one that Sun Tzu and Vegetius taught: conflict happens; power matters. It’s better to be strong than to be weak; you’re safer if others know that you’re ready to stand up for yourself than if you’re proudly outspoken about your defenselessness or your unwillingness to fight. There’s nothing mysterious about this truth. Yet it’s denied not only by the Peace Center film but also by the fast-growing, troubling movement that the center symbolizes and promotes. Call it the Peace Racket.

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Update: From Rusty at the Jawa Report is this disturbing video, jihadis set a little boy on fire to intimidate the parents. I commented on Rusty's site that our troops would be all over this, treating the kid as their own and assuring the best of care, all she had to do was flag down a passing US patrol group.

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This piece on Hillary is also a must read from AmSpec's Jeffery Lord comparing her to Captain Queeg of the Caine Mutiny. He's right you know. We can't let that woman get close to real power, imagine the abuse.
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The last must read for now is from American Thinker's Amil Amani on the mad mullahs of Iran and the opium they smoke, opiate addiction is rampant in Iran, it keeps the masses subdued.

America and her quasi-backboned "allies" have a huge problem that grows by the day. Expectedly, there are as many analyses of our problem as there are "experts" to tell us what to think. A deluge of Western analysts have their diverse expert opinions regarding the "Mullah Problem" and what do about it. Some strategists advocate a military solution that ranges from full invasion of Iran to selective bombardment of its burgeoning nuclear centers and related facilities. Others are proponents of imposing economic sanctions of various types and severity. Still others feel that we simply have to learn to live with the inevitable-those "crazy" Mullahs with the bomb.

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Meanwhile my favorite traveling Aunt from Michigan is in my neck of the woods and is coming by for a visit, maybe we can get a round of golf in while she's here.
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Tuesday Tidbits: Updated With Video

Wesley Morgan returning from an embed in Iraq recounts a conversation he had with a woman Soldier also headed home after a year on the front. This Specialist had a story to tell that would turn most normal folks in to a quivering mass of sobs but told it with an ease and confidence that was inspiring and moving, she's pissed cancer has taken her out of combat, these are the new leaders of tomorrow. He is a fine young writer for the Daily Princetonian and ROTC man and a suggested bookmark.
The silence from Iraq in the OME, old media elite, is definitely a good sign that good things are happening over there as they refuse to report the positive because it does not fit their anti-Bush agenda driven pseudo-journalism.
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Meanwhile NASA has had to revise its temperature data recently after major mistakes were made, turns out we haven't warmed at all, since our hottest years occurred in the dust bowl years of the '30s not in the last ten years and before the industrial revolution: more, here, here and here.

This story is proof the lefty whackos run by George Soro's and the environmentalists don't care about people, they only care about controlling them by keeping them in poverty. They have no interest in the world's poor actually being able to rise out of poverty on their own through work and development of their resources. A tiny impoverished town in Transylvania sits on a mountain of gold and our rich lefty elitists are trying their hardest to stop them from mining it because it would lift them into modernity and out of the 19th century thus destroying the quaintness of horse drawn carts and outhouses.

Like I have said many times, the Left does not care about the environment, it cares about controlling people, it is about money and enriching those that agree and destroying those that don't or making them serfs. I have to wonder how many hundreds of millions have died as a result of the policies of the left, Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, Lenin, NoKo nuts, African dictators, abortion, anti-DDT laws, it goes on and on and on.
The Left prefers animals to people, poverty to success, socialism to free-markets, and dictatorship to democratic republics and they have made that clear with their open love affair with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro and his murderous compatriot coward, Che Guevera. It is obvious open and without shame that they proclaim their hatred for America and all She represents, their presidential candidates talk of appeasing our enemies and sitting down for tea with those that have pledged our destruction.

There ain't nothing quaint about being poor, hungry and unable to advance.


Green Peace has lost all respect I had for them, same with the Sierra Club, I am a former member of both, they left the environment in favor of socialism. I am an amateur naturalist, birder, nature lover, conservationist, note, conservation and conservative share the same root word and belief. Modern liberals or 'progressives are nothing but a reincarnated version of socialism, a failed and failing system.

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A blogger buddy, a SoCal Sheriff's deputy has a great post up

Weekend Rambler

Bidwell House in Chico, as Sutter's right hand man John Bidwell has a hand in much of NoCal's history, though involved in the gold rush from its very start with valuable strikes in the nearby Feather river, He was an agriculturalist and launched the massive orchard industry that today drives the region. That is not an oak tree, it is a southern magnolia, and the biggest I have ever seen and I am from the deep south.

I guess this would be called spanish-colonial architecture, a side view. They have hourly tours and I just missed the start of one and didn't have time to wait around. My mom is coming to visit in a few weeks and that would be something she will enjoy so I'll be back. This was the first house in Ca. to have indoor plumbing and toilets.

The carriage house, fire wagon front and center.

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Update:

Dang one of my favorite places is fixing to get hammered by a massive hurricane, Jamaica, I am praying for you. I have been there twice, once for the reggae Sunsplash Festival with a buddy, young and crazy, dang few chicks to our great disappointment and again on my honeymoon, much better. It is a gorgeous and very poor nation outside the inclusive resorts with an extremely friendly culture. I have explored the island by motorcycle and it is a tinfoil shack town outside the resort areas, our camera was stolen in baggage handling the first time, dumb ass, it wasn't mine, and my ex has the other pics, so alas I have only my memory. I have ridden deep into the Blue Mtns. chasing dreams. Jamaica, I feel for you. Folks, Send a shiny penny as you can, to Peru as well. I know fresh roast blue mountain coffee, the best, and a Jamaican sunrise and aged Appleton rum, the best, on the rocks at sunset, a twist of lime, latin jazz....

Pray for them !

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And if you just want to be a fool, get naked on ice.

Friday Frolic

Taken from a ridge in route to Strawberry Peak, in the Angeles high above LA, a rainbow. is there gold at the end?
Michelle Malkin has a chat with Mitt Romney posted at HotAir. She asks alot about illegal immigration of course and she didn't have to really follow up much. Mitt is very good on an another key issue to American voters.
Part one:

Part two:


This maybe the issue that launches him to the front of the campaign as Rudy sued the Feds on behalf of 'sanctuary city' policies as Mayor, oops.

Amir Taheri has several very interesting pieces posted at Benador Associates on Middle-Eastern politics and its nature, we have to remember it ain't America and they have different ways of doing things. We criticize them for taking a break during the surge, but could it be they are using the relative stability now to talk to their constituents and build coalitions. That is exactly what seems to be happening in tribal jirgas, their town hall meetings and major progress is being made at the grassroots by the people tired of all the killing and destruction. Iraq is becoming that "little engine that could", shouldn't we be pulling for them not wanting to run away and desert them?
Iran, on the other hand, appears about to come apart at the seams. The mad mullahs don't let much out but they can't stop technology and the people hate them. I support the folks of Iran, they aren't the problem, it's their fascist regime that is, note last night's post and the left's support for the mullahs and Chavez.

Socialism And The New Democrat Party

There are a couple of must read articles at the American Thinker on that very topic. The first one by James Lewis explains the connection well and explores the psychology of it .

"Everything must be different!" or "Alles muss anders sein!" was a slogan of the Nazi Party. It is also the heart's desire of every Leftist since Karl Marx. Nazism was a deeply revolutionary creed, a fact that is always denied by the Left; but it's true. Hitler and his criminal gang hated the rich, the capitalists, the Jews, the Christian Churches, and "the System". They went through their Leftist phase early in life, and then went on to discover Aryan racial purity as their beau ideal. (As a swarthy Italian, Mussolini preferred to appeal to ancient Roman imperial glory).

The other is by Jeffery Schmidt on the Democrat's abandonment of the middle that Bill Clinton claimed but has since been lost to the loud far left nutroots of Kos and ko., I don't think they can fool the folks much longer.

The story implied a shaky, if not outright false, premise: that the Democrats had found their way to the middle in the 2006 midterm elections. No such thing happened. Pelosi, Reid and party strategists recruited enough "centrist" candidates in the South and Midwest to beat out-of-touch or hapless Republicans, giving the Democrats slim majorities in Congress. What has this new centrism translated into in terms of legislation this year? Well, not much, unless you consider proposals for higher taxes and more regulation on the oil and gas industry moderate. Or the backdoor attempt at socializing medicine through legislation that aims at a multibillion dollar expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Or the endless calls for withdrawal from Iraq and efforts to undercut our military there.
Judging from words and deeds, the center of gravity in the Democrat Party remains decidedly left, as party leaders and architects intend it to be. The centrist Democrats elected in 2006 were, well, useful idiots, or tools for the party's leadership to retake Congress and press ahead with their leftwing agenda.

While you are at American Thinker's site you may as well catch this list of elite Old Media blunders of recent years, like Rathergate, the Beauchamp affair, Jayson Blair and Steven Glass, all leftys, compiled by Randall Hoven. Is this really a new phenomenon, I doubt it, the Elite Old Media got away with it for years till the new media of talk radio and the internet are now able to easily fact check them and then break the real news. No wonder the old print media is struggling so bad, it's sad, I love newspapers and magazines, they're great for trips to the 'john' or on the road. I don't want to read jabs at war policy in sports reports, or "global warming" in August weather stories, which has been unseasonably mild here. If I want celebrity gossip and outlandish 'news', I'll by a tabloid rag, if I buy a "Newspaper" I expect serious unadulterated news, not agenda driven punditry masquerading as news. Of course when they print unbiased material the left screams that they are rightwing mouth pieces, ie Fox News.
I actually agree with Kos on one point the old media is not the mainstream media anymore, MSM, implies bloggers are not mainstream, so I am going to use OME, old media elite, from now on. That could be, Oh Me...

Wednesday Wanderings

I perused a few more imbedded reporters dispatches from Iraq today, most major weeklys have reporters there now, why, because it is a whole lot safer. NRO has The Tank and TWS has two former Marines embedded, Matt Sanchez and Jeff Emanuel .
Bill Roggio's new organization helped sponsor Mike Totten's recent embed and has an embed there now at Gen. Petreus' request and invite.
There are still hotspots with some serious clashes still to come, the Mahdi army for one but a vast majority of Iraq is very peaceful and humdrum day to day life. AQ is being routed by its former supporters in it's former bases and is now widely hated by that base. The recent truck bombings in the Kurdish region will win them no fans, only a death warrant. Mike Totten visited that region a few months back and described it as more like SoCal than Iraq. The Kurds will get the bad guys justly, they are a good people, they don't do the ethnic cleansing thing, they follow just rules of law and are our strongest Iraqi allies. Other Iraqis have realized that we are there to help them not conquer or rule them but to free them from that.
The political process will recoagulate along Iraqi ideas and judgements and we must help provide basic guide lines but we cannot provide those Iraqi ideas. That is why our new approach is working by getting out and talking to the people and finding out what they need and then doing their best to provide it, power, water, sewage management, etc., not riveting news but so very basic to what we are trying to achieve on the ground.
This story in particular caught my eye from W.Thomas Smith imbedded for The National Review's The Tank about soldiers finding a badly injured child on patrol and making sure he and his family were looked after. It is a moving post from the depths of Iraq. We are winning the ground game now very easily, hey we say alott about grassroots and politics here, well, we're teaching it there Iraqi style. Their heros are starting to emerge and make themselves known. This is a generational war that must be won at the grassroots level as well as the military level. The jihadis cannot help the people, they can only threaten and harm.
I have been reading the Quran and along with DR. Spencer's new book "The Religion of Peace: Why Christianity is and Islam Isn't" and his posts at at HotAir are very illuminating to what we face as a nation, especially one based on Judeo-Christian fundamentals and a free Constitution. I admit my opinion of Islam is not good,I see it as a false religion built by Satan, himself, Mohammed, the "False Prophet". I am just a redneck countryboy and if it sticks out this obviously to me it has to be too millions of others as well.
I hate to say it but my generation will see a nuclear device go off in one or more of our major cities in the US, are you ready? I am a survivalist to an extent so if you want advise email me, firearms, ammo, food and water.
Think about a bit, are you ready? The war is just starting, not ending!?!

Tuesday Tidbits

Must read from Der Spiegel, even the lefty press in Europe is seeing the progress in Iraq made by our troops and paints an even handed portrait but gets a couple facts wrong. The Bush administration never said Saddam planned 9/11 or even claimed he had anything to do with it, only that he had supported and endorsed terrorist activities against the US and our allies and was pursuing the acquisition of nuclear arms not that he had them.

Meanwhile, Victory Caucus has a revamped site and I added their RSS feed to the sidebar for up to date news from the front and IKA's Roll which has links to many more Pro-America, Pro-Troops, conservative bloggers, The Barnyard is a proud member of both. Mikes Yon and Totten both have new posts up, Yon, found things so boring he went to Indonesia for a break.
I have also added direct links to the Romney campaign and news from there, enjoy and thanks for visiting.

Romney Takes on Obama

"We've got to get the job done there," he said of Afghanistan. "And that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there."--Barack Obama


This is what is standing between Hillary Clinton and the Democratic nomination.

Barack Obama is Hillary Clinton's dream come true.

Obama is simply not up to the task of being a presidential candidate and this statement unequivocably proves that. You will never, if you live to be 5000 years old, see Hillary make this degree of a gaffe on the campaign trail which is why she turns Obama's greeness into a special shade of bright neon when sharing a stage with him.

You simply can not give your opponents this kind of an opening and expect to survive the campaign. The beauty of it all is, Hillary doesn't even have to say a thing if she doesn't want to because the GOP side, as Romney did, will respond and do the work for her.

Monday Meander

Local story of the day, an ambulance on call had a run in with another car at an intersection two houses from mine and bought a power pole in the process, as a result I lost all power and ability to work, so I watched and it was really neat to see how they transferred all those wires. I was to pissed to think about taking some pictures, I had alot of computer work to do.
My space bar is all but dead, I will be back with a better stronger and faster keyboard.
More on Rove when I have a chance to catch up.

Weekend Roundup

Well Tiger takes major #13 winning the PGA for the fourth time. I am not a fan but the guy is an amazing golfer. When he has the lead going into Sunday he is unbeaten but has never come from behind to win like some of Jack's or Greg Norman's famous Sunday charges. One day the record books may have only one name Tiger Woods except for victories in a season which is set in stone now.

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My coblogger Lisa has a couple excellent posts below this one that are well worth scrolling on down to read. She makes some excellent points about Hillary and the Dems. Lisa knows politics as well as anybody and is our Boston insider.

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Update: A little humor, frankly, I had never seen Larry the Cable Guy till tonight's '60 Minutes', that is why I am proud to be a redneck, we are able to laugh at ourselves, I love Jeff Foxworthy's schtick, conservative humor. Warning!!!Politically Incorrect Video

To Mitt, yes I Am!

If I Hear Hillary-Obama One More Time.......................

"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." - - Michael Corleone

This quote often comes to mind when I hear or read supposed "political professionals" spewing off at the mouth that Hillary Clinton will pick Barack Obama as her VP.

OK.

First of all, Hillary would have to be amoeba bait to do this.

Secondly, Hillary is not amoeba bait.

That's another factoid I wish I could get my fellow GOPers to accept and grasp but alas, I digress. The lesson of this post is Hillary will never pick Obama. If I had anything worth betting, with the exception of my life, I would put it on the table. Here's why.

#1) America is America. I love it. It's the best country in the world. Cue the music.

OK. Time to be frank. We are what we are and at the end of the day, despite opinion polls and other various survey research data, America has its prejudices and in my opinion, although it may not be popular, America is barely ready for a minority president be it gender or race based in its origins. If the Democratic Party nominates Hillary and uhm, err, yeah, trust me, they will, she is going to need someone to truly pick up all of her slack. Bill Clinton serves this purpose on the campaign trail now but he can't get out there and debate as the #2 on the ticket. I, regrettably, do not think America is ready for both a woman and an African American on the ticket. One or the other, sure. Both? Nah. And oh yeah, we as a general rule don't like to promote Senators to the Oval Office. What's it been? 45 years or so since we last did that?? Now people think we're going to vote for two of them on the same ticket??

#2) Hillary has several, and I do mean several, weaknesses as a candidate. You'd never know it if you didn't pay close attention because she is an exceptional politician who rarely, if ever, makes a mistake that allows for an opponent to exploit such an opening, but they're there. At this point in time, polls show that the top three concerns of Americans are the war in Iraq/America's standing in the world, the economy and healthcare. At the end of the day, Senator Clinton has limited experience in all. Sure she was First Lady and she sits on a few cute committees in her role as a senator but what does this equal to the average American voter who couldn't tell you one thing about a Senate Committee???? I'll tell you what it equals. It equals a need for real help, not "help" from a Junior Senator who loads his resume with committeeships. Another major weakness of Clinton's is her lack of likeability on a grand scale. She comes off as stiff and guarded and well hey, I will let this one slide based on what she's been through but she still needs intense help to pick up the slack in the personality department. Obama is a great orator but Hillary is such a towering figure he can't lift her up.

#3) In order to win, Hillary needs to pick up a few "Heartland" states and she needs to swing the Independent vote her way. In this political climate, that really should not be a tall order but still, she will need some reassurances and the VP slot is an opportunity to do just that. Barack Obama provides nothing, nothing to a Hillary led ticket. Hillary already carries the African American vote. Most any Democrat would if you look at the voting history of the block. Obama can not help her pick up any key states.

So what's the point of having Obama in the VP slot? According to the likes of people like Newt Gingrich, it is to pick up the far left of the Democratic party and those in the Independent field who are unhappy with Hillary's positions on Iraq. But to me, this is flawed. Those against the war are going to go with the Democrat no matter what. The end.

So who will be Hillary's VP in my opinion?

It's obvious isn't it?

Bill Richardson.

Not only is he an exceptionally qualified candidate via his very real experiences, he is often viewed as the second most affable politician in the country behind yes, the other Bill. And he's a governor, not a member of this extremely despised Congress. Oh yeah, he is also of Mexican descent and would hand deliver the most sought after voting block in political history--the Latinos who are now more than a force to be reckoned with. Quite simply put, the Latino voting block decides elections.

Would someone be so kind as to educate me on how a Clinton-Richardson ticket is stopped?

Soooooooo, if you're sitting around minding your own business and you happen to hear a very loud scream, be not alarmed. It's just me. Check your local programming. Odds are some talking head somewhere just uttered the phrase "Clinton-Obama 08."

Assessing the Romney Win

As everyone expected, former MA Governor Mitt Romney achieved a run away win in Saturday's Ames Straw Poll in Iowa. I congratulate Mr Romney and applaud his organizational skills and clearly disciplined campaign team.

But why are some tossing such derogatory terms as "hollow" and "meaningless" around square in the direction of the Romney camp?

While it is true that in 1999 over 23,000 voters turned out compared to only 14,000 this year, clearly, the circumstances are not the same. In these polls, candidates load up their supporters and bring them in to show their support. So while only roughly 14,000 turned out for this year's straw poll, I think any clear thinking person needs to attribute it not to a lack of support for Mr Romney, but for a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the other so called candidates and their "supporters." Dare I say the others were plain afraid? I think I will.

The main point of polls such as the Ames is to continue fundraising momentum into the later season and to build or build upon your buzz. This election is so unique in so many ways but the variable of the utmost importance is the front loading of the primaries which will require candidates on both sides to compete in several states simultaneously. The amount of money this is going to cost is going to dwarf previous presidential elections when all is said and done. The 2004 presidential election approached a final figure of close to one billion dollars. Think about that.

As such, anyone who thought they had a chance in Hell of doing well (top three) in the Iowa straw poll would have been present and accounted for with their supporters in tow. This accounts for the low turnout. The other alleged front runners weren't there so their supporters weren't there, hence, 14k as opposed to potentially over 20k.

The bottom line here is Iowa is a pulse of middle America and as anyone who has so much as perused an electoral map lately could tell you, middle America wins elections. If you are going to ignore Iowa, you just slapped the voters of middle America in the face.

Do I understand why they did it?
Of course.
Neither Giuliani or McCain could have shown well in an Iowa poll at this point.
However, Iowa is a place to show your guts even if the glory may be limited and at least one of these two men went on record saying he'd be there.

“Would I prefer that there wasn’t an Iowa straw poll? Probably, because then I could be doing other things,” McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, said. “But that’s what the party wants, and that’s what the party’s going to get.”

Last I heard, Hillary Clinton was "110% committed to participating in Iowa" and other potentially hostile states regardless of the outcome. Why? She is smart. Her team is smart. She knows it is better to be there taking the heat, as she has been doing in various angry atmospheres where she has been boo'd by the far left of her party, than it is to run and hide. If nothing else, an appearance in the face of opposition shows integrity.

Ask yourself this: What have we become when Hillary Clinton is showing more strength of character than two of the GOP's front runners?

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Weekend Rambler

No driving today after having been from Placerville to Paradise over the last couple days on the job.
So I will celebrate Mitt's big victory today in Ames, Iowa

1. Mitt Romney, 4516, 31.5%

2. Mike Huckabee, 2587, 18.1

3. Sen. Sam Brownback, 2192, 15.3

4. Tom Tancredo, 1,961, 13.7

5. Ron Paul, 1305, 9.1

6. Tommy Thompson, 1039, 7.3

7. Fred Thompson, 203, 1.4

8. Rudy Giuliani, 183, 1.3

9. Duncan Hunter, 174, 1.2

10. John McCain, 101, 1

11. John Cox, 41, .1

Total Votes
14,302
(Hattip:Polito's Jonathan Martin)He bllogs from there and it sounds like a fun, family oriented, political circus. Laura Ingraham is there as well and she, K Lo and the folks at NRO's The Corner and The Campaign Spot mix it up a bit as well. Huckabee and Brownback came in as I expected. I am disapointed Duncan Hunter didn't do better, the eventual nominee couldn't make a better pick for SecDef though or VEEP.
I am also glad Tom Tancredo beat Ron Paul after his supporters made such jerks of themselves.
Sam Brownback spent nearly as much as Mitt on the event got Mitt-slapped 2-1 and finished third, good, I like him the least of all the candidates, we need to weed the debates. I admire his pro-life positions, its the way he communicates it that irritates rather than resonates.
Mike Huckabee did well because his manner is down home and likable in rural Iowa, as a former Preacher he knows how to connect with people but he has more than a few scandals in the Arkansas Statehouse to make ethics watchers uncomfortable.
The next few weeks will prove interesting.

Friday Frolic: Updated With Video

I know posting has been slow, making money takes the upper hand especially when you are self employed. Anyway I did get a chance to visit my favorite house to have worked in, a fabulous Greene&Greene mini-mansion, about 8,000 sf. including garage. It is the attention to detail that is stunning, I was out on a service call, and she was gracious enough to allow to roam around and take some pictures. This an awesome house and could take many many pictures but out of respect limited my roaming though my old shop has alot of glass art in this house. It has been written up in several design and trade publications. Here are a few highlights I was involved in personally.

Wood carvings festoon the exterior, this is by the back door to the backyard BBQers dream of an outdoor kitchen. There is also much excellent iron art about but I am into wood and glass and didn't get any shots. It is nice to be welcomed into this guild of craftsmen, it means I will not be short of work. I am bidding on work now in a spot that would make my buddy Gawfer whine.

For some size perspective of this skylight, the center dome is about 8ft. across, the vines are tomatoes, the source of their wealth.

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Ames Straw Poll is tomorrow and as all know I am a Romneyite and am pulling for a big win. I look at what they have accomplished besides being a pol, what have they run? Ross Perot was my first and second vote for POTUS, why, because is a business man, Forbes in '00 and Bush '04, because they are businessmen. That is why I like Mitt Romney, he wants to get down to business to work for America, he is a very wealth, self made man and could retire at ease. He is volunteering, donate salary, to serve America and is willing to pay a steep price for it. Mitt is so clean it almost hurts him, so all his attackers have is nuanced positions on social issues, so I ask them, Mitt or Hillary, who would yoou rather be your President? Most critics of Mitt come from the left, not the right, check your sources, they are deathly afraid of him. Meanwhile, let's go on another cruise with Mitt, part II.

Iowa voters are not hicks, they are America and if Mitt rallies them big....
I would like to see Duncan Hunter win the second tier vote. Hucksters got a closet full of ethics and tax problems, and Brownback is just to in your face holier than thou, The nutty Dr. Paul could very well win this subrace by coming in second and therefore reminding the others to hunt or leave it to the big dogs, Rudy and Mitt, Fred???? Newt???? As college football fan, Mitt is behind because that is where the press wants hime to be,I don't trust them on football so why should I on politics?
Update: Dragon Lady is up to her usual Frday antics.Don't forget to stop by Amy's place as well for some war stories.

Tuesday Tidbits

Baby Rat snake, nonvenomous constrictor, on the hunt for grasshoppers and such, the active hunter of the snake world.

Baby Northern Pacific rattler on the hunt for grasshoppers and such, bite and sit back and wait for your prey to die, these little guys are really dangerous as they will inject all their venom and an adult can control it and may release little if any venom in a defensive strike.

Why you may ask am I writing about snakes, well other than I am an amateur herpetologist and snakes are my favorites, yes I can wrangle them Steve Erwin style. Dang, we lost a good nut there, my prayers for his young family. Anyway, I am no longer a 'crawly amphibian' in the TTLB ecosystem, The Barnyard has evolved to a 'slithering reptile', thanks to the growing number of folks that stop by for a bit of Americana, conservative politics, and positive reporting on the war and decide a crosslink is a good idea.

I have met many very interesting, very well informed folks from a broad swath of America and hope to grow that connection. I have seen alot written about the conservative online community and lamenting its not stronger, I would say it is very strong, just in the undercurrent, the one that dominates. The frothy content of liberal moonbats of course appears on the surface but Michelle Malkin has two blogs in the top 15 and hers is #3, HotAir is #13. I would say we are there and in force ready to fight, we are helping win fights in Congress. When I look through the various compilers of rankings of the blogosphere I see a pretty even mix of a mish mash that is America.

The main thing I have noted is the level of commentary, the right argues issues the left they hope for VP Cheney's PS Tony Snows death and dream of a socialist state that lets them do drugs all day on the state dole.

I guess George Soros isn't paying them enough to be volunteers for the cause of socialism so now they want to unionize, what a union to demand unless you financially support them they will stop writing. Oh, what a blessing that would be for us conservative Republicans, Kos has already walked off the edge and he is claiming to own the Democrats.

Ok, guys and gals time to saddle up, our fight is not amongst ourselves, it is against defined political ideologies, insipid socialism and islamo-fascism, that the Democrats either want to concede to or implement. I don't have time to load this post up with hyperlinks because they are so easy to find, ask if you have a question.

Enough of that, lets go for a ride with Mitt Romney and his boys, he is running the perfect campaign, in my opinion. Remember we have more voice in the net world than the left tilted MSN would ever report.

Monday Meander: Updated

Mike Yon has one of the most important dispatches he has written posted about what is happening on the ground in Iraq. This is an incredible story and one of the most important of the war and totally missed by our MSM because it is fabulous news about Baquba and suggests that we are indeed winning as Al Quaida is openly mocked and made fun of by Sunnis in the videos Mike shares.
It is like someone flipped a switch in Iraq and things started working, I suspect that someone is Gen. David Petreus. The progress is not just happening it is snowballing exponentially and is really bad news for those that have hitched their political futures to failure in Iraq or more specifically Republican and Bush failure.


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Update: Trader Rick has a moving account of a Military funeral in Texas.
Update: Dr. Spencer's latest in the exploration of the Qu'ran is up at HotAir.

Weekend Roundup: Updated

I went up to Chico in Butte county to find a covered bridge over Butte creek, the creek and a view of the buttes framing this pretty canyon.

The bridge, foot traffic only now and some more of the buttes in the background, the remains of ancient lava flows. I don't know about the gold history here but the tailing piles from dredging operations are evidence of some history.

Built in 1890 and over 200 feet long and like the Nyes Crossing bridge near Grass Valley was a toll bridge and cost a nickel for a person on horseback to cross. The creek is shallow and easy to ford in the summer but I imagine the owners made a pretty penny in the winter. This is the only other covered bridge in Ca. within day trip distance for me, there are about 10 others scattered around NoCal mostly along the coast with one other gold country bridge in Yosemite NP. I guess I will continue my search for old mines and 'ghost' towns lost in the foothills and time.

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The third GOP debate was this morning and clearly four of those on the stage should not have been there, S. Brownback, T. Thompson, T. Tancredo and the wacky Dr. Paul. I thought Mitt and Rudy showed why they are the frontrunners and Duncan, John and Mike at least that they are serious candidates possibly angling for Veep. I do not know what it is about Sen. Brownback that grates on me so much but I don't like the guy, maybe it is his holier than thou attacks and whiney attitude when called on his antics. Tommy, Tom, and the loonbat Dr. just don't have it. I like Tom Tancredo alot and he was the first politician I ever gave money to and a reason I joined the GOP but he just isn't ready for the hot seat of POTUS. He would be awesome as head of BICE, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though. Tommy Thompson just comes across as goofy and uninformed though he would be good in HHS as would Gov. Huckabee. Dr. Paul is our moonbat and a reliable no vote in the House over spending and taxation, I like his Constitutional stance , to bad he barely understands it.

Mitt will win the Ames, Iowa straw poll in a few days to add to his growing list of straw poll victories, it is the strength of the second place finisher that will thin the ranks further. The second tier candidates need a good showing to carry on their candidacies.
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Update: Terrorist dry run or a real attempt, Michelle has the details.

Mitt Unleashed

Click on the link and watch at least the last 6 minutes of the video. It gives a rare glimpse into Mitt's passion.

Weekend Rambler

Blogger won't let me post my pictures for this post so it will be delayed.

Friday Frolic

What happens when you combine RC vehicles, video games, modern robotics and warfare? Weaponized robots, we all know about the drones and Hellfire missles but here's another cool one to kill the enemy with, the acronym is SWORD. check it out.Hattip: HotAir.

If this is on Utube,imagine how good the actual system is and no telling what those nifty Japanese are working on in secret, making their cartoons into reality...
This is so cool but an RPG would take them out pretty easy, great for unmanned pillboxes though and other guard and surveillance duty. Heck just think about the Mars rovers on steroids with rocket launchers and machineguns, and mass produceable. Warfare is changing and the US, Israel and Japan are leading the way. The way I see it, if we are hearing about a weapons system it is in use and already obsolete in the design room.
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Another reason why I like Mitt, Hattip Dean Barnett.

Go Mitt Go!
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My buddy the Dragon Lady as always has a fun post for Friday.

Thursday This and That: Updated

Barnyard prayers go out to the families, friends and victims of the I35W bridge collapse, wow what a ride that would have been. I have seen video of the collapse and thank the Lord that the death toll is so very low considering what happened.
(HT: HotAir)
James Lileks a 'twin cities' columnist and blogger has the absolute best coverage being a great writer as well. I am not ruling out terrorism yet as this took out three major transit routes, the Hwy, the river and a railroad, if not, it's a damn lucky coincidence. From what I have gathered it would not have been hard to take out that bridge and there is a significant jihadi presence in that region, some of the best bloggers also live there besides Lileks, Powerline, Captains Quarters, NARN, Frater Libertas also base from there.
The moonbats are of course blaming Bush and spinning wild conspiracies already and DHS is playing stupid as usual.

As a contractor that has to know more than a little about structural engineering, living and working in an earthquake zone, I can say that a bridge of that type could be sabotaged quite easily, untraceable and with little skill level, and many jihadis are far better trained than I am. To add to the equation is that the GOP National Convention will be held there, hmm, plus chatter on jihadi sites?!?

Update: A treaty that needs to be LOST for good and buried in Davey Jones' Locker

Mrs. Giuliani sounds like a Madame Hillary of the GOP in this less than flattering piece in Vanity Fair, (HT:Matt Lewis), Ann Romney for First Lady!

Update: A couple really good reads can be found here and here.