Caption contest

Sticky post, remains at the top until 9/30/08, Scroll down for new posts


This is a picture of John Kerry taken after the debate last night

Give me a caption


Ok folks, lets have some fun here

Obama And His Free Speech Hating Goons Strike Again - The Political Jungle

Obama And His Free Speech Hating Goons Strike Again - The Political Jungle

RIP Paul Newman

From Yahoo News:

Legendary actor Paul Newman dies at age 83

WESTPORT, Conn. - Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money" — and as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario — has died. He was 83.

Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.

In May, Newman had dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men," citing unspecified health issues.

He got his start in theater and on television during the 1950s, and went on to become one of the world's most enduring and popular film stars, a legend held in awe by his peers. He was nominated for Oscars 10 times, winning one regular award and two honorary ones, and had major roles in more than 50 motion pictures, including "Exodus," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Verdict," "The Sting" and "Absence of Malice."

Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Robert Redford, his sidekick in "Butch Cassidy" and "The Sting."

He sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages. "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray. They wed in 1958, around the same time they both appeared in "The Long Hot Summer," and Newman directed her in several films, including "Rachel, Rachel" and "The Glass Menagerie."

With his strong, classically handsome face and piercing blue eyes, Newman was a heartthrob just as likely to play against his looks, becoming a favorite with critics for his convincing portrayals of rebels, tough guys and losers. "I was always a character actor," he once said. "I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood."

Newman had a soft spot for underdogs in real life, giving tens of millions to charities through his food company and setting up camps for severely ill children. Passionately opposed to the Vietnam War, and in favor of civil rights, he was so famously liberal that he ended up on President Nixon's "enemies list," one of the actor's proudest achievements, he liked to say.

A screen legend by his mid-40s, he waited a long time for his first competitive Oscar, winning in 1987 for "The Color of Money," a reprise of the role of pool shark "Fast" Eddie Felson, whom Newman portrayed in the 1961 film "The Hustler."

Newman delivered a magnetic performance in "The Hustler," playing a smooth-talking, whiskey-chugging pool shark who takes on Minnesota Fats — played by Jackie Gleason — and becomes entangled with a gambler played by George C. Scott. In the sequel — directed by Scorsese — "Fast Eddie" is no longer the high-stakes hustler he once was, but rather an aging liquor salesman who takes a young pool player (Cruise) under his wing before making a comeback.

He won an honorary Oscar in 1986 "in recognition of his many and memorable compelling screen performances and for his personal integrity and dedication to his craft." In 1994, he won a third Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his charitable work.

His most recent academy nod was a supporting actor nomination for the 2002 film "Road to Perdition." One of Newman's nominations was as a producer; the other nine were in acting categories. (Jack Nicholson holds the record among actors for Oscar nominations, with 12; actress Meryl Streep has had 14.)

As he passed his 80th birthday, he remained in demand, winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the 2005 HBO drama "Empire Falls" and providing the voice of a crusty 1951 car in the 2006 Disney-Pixar hit, "Cars."

But in May 2007, he told ABC's "Good Morning America" he had given up acting, though he intended to remain active in charity projects. "I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to," he said. "You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me."

He received his first Oscar nomination for playing a bitter, alcoholic former star athlete in the 1958 film "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Elizabeth Taylor played his unhappy wife and Burl Ives his wealthy, domineering father in Tennessee Williams' harrowing drama, which was given an upbeat ending for the screen.

In "Cool Hand Luke," he was nominated for his gritty role as a rebellious inmate in a brutal Southern prison. The movie was one of the biggest hits of 1967 and included a tagline, delivered one time by Newman and one time by prison warden Strother Martin, that helped define the generation gap, "What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate."

Newman's hair was graying, but he was as gourgeous as ever and on the verge of his greatest popular success. In 1969, Newman teamed with Redford for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," a comic Western about two outlaws running out of time. Newman paired with Redford again in 1973 in "The Sting," a comedy about two Depression-era con men. Both were multiple Oscar winners and huge hits, irreverent, unforgettable pairings of two of the best-looking actors of their time.

Newman also turned to producing and directing. In 1968, he directed "Rachel, Rachel," a film about a lonely spinster's rebirth. The movie received four Oscar nominations, including Newman, for producer of a best motion picture, and Woodward, for best actress. The film earned Newman the best director award from the New York Film Critics.

In the 1970s, Newman, admittedly bored with acting, became fascinated with auto racing, a sport he studied when he starred in the 1972 film, "Winning." After turning professional in 1977, Newman and his driving team made strong showings in several major races, including fifth place in Daytona in 1977 and second place in the Le Mans in 1979.

"Racing is the best way I know to get away from all the rubbish of Hollywood," he told People magazine in 1979.

Despite his love of race cars, Newman continued to make movies and continued to pile up Oscar nominations, his looks remarkably intact, his acting becoming more subtle, nothing like the mannered method performances of his early years, when he was sometimes dismissed as a Brando imitator. "It takes a long time for an actor to develop the assurance that the trim, silver-haired Paul Newman has acquired," Pauline Kael wrote of him in the early 1980s.

In 1982, he got his Oscar fifth nomination for his portrayal of an honest businessman persecuted by an irresponsible reporter in "Absence of Malice." The following year, he got his sixth for playing a down-and-out alcoholic attorney in "The Verdict."

In 1995, he was nominated for his slyest, most understated work yet, the town curmudgeon and deadbeat in "Nobody's Fool." New York Times critic Caryn James found his acting "without cheap sentiment and self-pity," and observed, "It says everything about Mr. Newman's performance, the single best of this year and among the finest he has ever given, that you never stop to wonder how a guy as good-looking as Paul Newman ended up this way."

Newman, who shunned Hollywood life, was reluctant to give interviews and usually refused to sign autographs because he found the majesty of the act offensive, according to one friend.

He also claimed that he never read reviews of his movies.

"If they're good you get a fat head and if they're bad you're depressed for three weeks," he said.

Off the screen, Newman had a taste for beer and was known for his practical jokes. He once had a Porsche installed in Redford's hallway — crushed and covered with ribbons.

"I think that my sense of humor is the only thing that keeps me sane," he told Newsweek magazine in a 1994 interview.

In 1982, Newman and his Westport neighbor, writer A.E. Hotchner, started a company to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. Newman's Own, which began as a joke, grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All of the company's profits are donated to charities. By 2007, the company had donated more than $175 million, according to its Web site.

"We will miss our friend Paul Newman, but are lucky ourselves to have known such a remarkable person," Robert Forrester, vice chairman of Newman's Own Foundation, said in a statement.

Hotchner said Newman should have "everybody's admiration."

"For me it's the loss of an adventurous freindship over the past 50 years and it's the loss of a great American citizen," Hotchner told The Associated Press.

In 1988, Newman founded a camp in northeastern Connecticut for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. He went on to establish similar camps in several other states and in Europe.

He and Woodward bought an 18th century farmhouse in Westport, where they raised their three daughters, Elinor "Nell," Melissa and Clea.

Newman had two daughters, Susan and Stephanie, and a son, Scott, from a previous marriage to Jacqueline Witte.

Scott died in 1978 of an accidental overdose of alcohol and Valium. After his only son's death, Newman established the Scott Newman Foundation to finance the production of anti-drug films for children.

Newman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the second of two boys of Arthur S. Newman, a partner in a sporting goods store, and Theresa Fetzer Newman.

He was raised in the affluent suburb of Shaker Heights, where he was encouraged him to pursue his interest in the arts by his mother and his uncle Joseph Newman, a well-known Ohio poet and journalist.

Following World War II service in the Navy, he enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he got a degree in English and was active in student productions.

He later studied at Yale University's School of Drama, then headed to New York to work in theater and television, his classmates at the famed Actor's Studio including Brando, James Dean and Karl Malden. His breakthrough was enabled by tragedy: Dean, scheduled to star as the disfigured boxer in a television adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Battler," died in a car crash in 1955. His role was taken by Newman, then a little-known performer.

Newman started in movies the year before, in "The Silver Chalice," a costume film he so despised that he took out an ad in Variety to apologize. By 1958, he had won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for the shiftless Ben Quick in "The Long Hot Summer."

In December 1994, about a month before his 70th birthday, he told Newsweek magazine he had changed little with age.

"I'm not mellower, I'm not less angry, I'm not less self-critical, I'm not less tenacious," he said. "Maybe the best part is that your liver can't handle those beers at noon anymore," he said.

Newman is survived by his wife, five children, two grandsons and his older brother Arthur.
____________________________

Yes, I know, he was liberal as liberal can get, but hey, Cool Hand Luke is the BEST movie of all time.

You will be missed sir.

Thank you.

My impression of the debate

Obama made himself look like an arrogant buffoon last night

My wife commented on it

Our friends

A few Obama supporters were called and told about it

I think quite a few minds got made up last night, against Obama

I will be doing a roundup of blogs that have their takes and opinions on it

I think McCain did a good job

And the popcorn was DELISH!

What am I doing tonight?

Watching Obama get his collective ass handed to him by McCain.

Watching Obama be exposed on National TV for the idiot buffoon he really is.

And

Enjoying it all with a nice hot bowl of buttery popcorn

God Bless America

Back to Running

It has been two years since my son was born and a little over two years that I quit running all together. Sigh. This past week, I started running again. Luckily, I have always kept walking and most of that was done with a child in a jogging stroller in Bisbee, so we had lots of hills. (Is that a run-on sentence or what?) This has made the transition back to running much easier. I never thought I could, once again, get out of bed before 5am, but I am. And I LOVE IT!! Running in the morning gives me alone time. It gives me time to just enjoy being outside and watching the sunrise. I get fresh air and a clearer head.

The joy of running again also comes with new running shoes! Yay! I just got them today from Road Runner Sports. I've been shopping with them for years. I'm trying out the new Brooks Addiction for over pronators. Give me a couple of weeks and I'll review them for you.

Anyone else a runner? Comment here! The Tucson Marathon weekend is in Dec. They do have a 5k if anyone is interested. And let's not forget the annual Bisbee Stair climb!

And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

And the plot thickens!!!!!!!!

Hunt for Palin hacker shaping up to be simple case



By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer Tue Sep 23, 5:56 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The hunt for the hacker who broke into Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account is shaping up to be a remarkably simple investigation, by the standards of major cybersecurity whodunits.
ADVERTISEMENT

U.S. investigators figure the hacker claimed responsibility in a detailed accounting that included his own personal e-mail address and that he tried to cover his trail using a U.S. Internet anonymity service that has been surprisingly cooperative with the FBI in efforts to peel away that anonymity.

Not exactly the plot of a Hollywood thriller.

In what may be a significant break in the case, the FBI searched the residence of the son of a Democratic state lawmaker in Tennessee over the weekend looking for evidence linking the young man to the break-in, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The apartment the FBI searched is in a complex about five blocks from the University of Tennessee campus, in a neighborhood popular with students.

David Kernell, 20, has not returned repeated phone calls or e-mails from the AP since last week. His lawyer said Monday the family is going through a difficult period. Kernell is an economics major at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

"The Kernell family wants to do the right thing, and they want what is best for their son," said attorney Wade V. Davies of Knoxville. "We are confident that the truth will emerge as we go through the process. David is a decent and intelligent young man, and I look forward to assisting him during this difficult period."

Kernell is the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat and chairman of Tennessee's House Government Operations Committee. The father declined last week to discuss the possibility his son might be involved in the case.

"I had nothing to do with it, I had no knowledge or anything," Mike Kernell told the AP last week.

"I was not a party to anything of this nature at all," he added. "I wasn't in on this — and I wouldn't know how to do anything like that."

No one answered the door at Mike Kernell's home in Memphis on Monday, and he did not return repeated phone calls Monday from the AP.

Palin's e-mail account with Yahoo Inc. was compromised last week by a hacker who revealed as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate. The McCain campaign confirmed the break-in and called it a "shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law."

Palin used "gov.sarah" in one of her Yahoo e-mail addresses she sometimes uses to conduct state business. The hacker targeted her separate "gov.palin" account.

During the break-in, the hacker used an Internet address that traced to David Kernell's apartment complex in Knoxville. The FBI obtained logs Saturday establishing the connection from Gabriel Ramuglia of Athens, Ga., who operates an Internet anonymity service used by the hacker.

Ramuglia told the AP the FBI asked him to confirm that the address appeared in his records. Ramuglia said his logs showed the hacker visiting Yahoo's mail service, resetting Palin's password and announcing results of the break-in on a Web site where the hacking was first disclosed.

"I think he just didn't realize the severity of what he was doing until afterwards," Ramuglia said.

After the break-in, a person claiming responsibility published a detailed chronology of the hacking on the same Web site. That person identified his e-mail address as one that has been linked publicly to David Kernell.

Kernell's father, Mike Kernell, has a strait-laced reputation among his colleagues.

"Mike Kernell is your quintessential Boy Scout," said state Rep. John Deberry, another Democrat. "Mike follows the rules. He will almost get on your nerve as far as making sure things are done by the book."

"If Mike had known anything about this, he would have had a fit on his son," Deberry said. "When I saw his reaction when he first heard about it, the absolute fear and shock that was on his face, I realized then he had absolutely nothing to do with it."

Experts said the hacker apparently left an easy trail for investigators.

"He might as well have taken a picture of his house and uploaded it," said Ken Pfeil, an Internet security expert. "He should have just set up a big beacon that said, 'Here's my house,' or confessed. If they can't catch this guy based on all the information posted on the Web then all bets are off."

_______________________________


Do I REALLY need to say it?

Do I?

Do I?

OK I WILL

Nah, nuff said

Way to go Maricopa County!

From AZCentral


Maricopa County cancels Guadalupe police services

343 comments by Yvonne Wingett - Sept. 17, 2008 01:17 PM
The Arizona Republic

The town of Guadalupe's contract for police services with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office will end in March, one year earlier than the contract calls for, the county's Board of Supervisors decided Wednesday.

The 3-1 vote by the board started the clock for town officials and Sheriff Joe Arpaio to try to negotiate a deal to reinstate the contract and continue law-enforcement services in the small town southeast of Phoenix.

Guadalupe and the Sheriff's Office have 180 days to strike a deal, and it appears they can.

Arpaio said Wednesday that he would be willing to negotiate with Guadalupe Mayor Frank Montiel only if no one will tell him how to police the town or whether he can launch immigration sweeps, similar to those done in April amid protests, fights with town politicians and accusations of racial profiling.

"You will not tell this sheriff what laws to enforce in Guadalupe," Arpaio said in a news conference.

"If they can get by that bypass, I'd be glad to talk to them to see what we can do to help them. I will do my crime-suppression operations. I will continue to lock up illegal aliens in Guadalupe. They're hurting, they know they can't find anybody to take that job."

Montiel, who took office last week, believes those are fair conditions: "It's not perfect, like anything. If those are the terms, I think we're OK with the terms," he said.

If the two cannot reach an agreement, Guadalupe will have to find another agency to pick up the police services or form a police force of its own.

For most of the past 20 years, the town has contracted with the Sheriff's Office for law-enforcement services and now pays the county about $1.2 million yearly.

Town leaders have turned to other agencies, including Phoenix, Tempe and the state Department of Public Safety for help, without success.

Wednesday's controversial vote came at the request of Arpaio, who has been embroiled in a dispute arising from his two-day immigration sweeps in Guadalupe, home mostly to Latinos and Native Americans.

Guadalupe officials and Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox wanted an extra 60 days to negotiate a deal between the Sheriff's Office and the town. Supervisors Fulton Brock, Don Stapley and Max Wilson approved the cancellation. Chairman Andy Kunasek missed the meeting and the vote.

The vote took place after dozens of protesters with the Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability were kicked out of the meeting for being disruptive.

The protesters have been showing up lately to voice concerns over Arpaio's management of public money, his immigration enforcement and emergency-response times.

The demonstrations have been consistent and increasingly unruly, but Wednesday's protest was deliberately scripted to cause the biggest ruckus, said Raquel Terán, a paid organizer and project director with the group.

Members of the group asked to be put on the agenda to have a chance to address their concerns, she said, but that did not happen. Typically, the public is given the chance to address the supervisors on items related to specific agenda items or during the public comment portion of the meeting.

"Our intention was to take over a little bit of the meeting," Terán said. "We intentionally escalated. This was completely intentional, to disrupt the meeting, to take over the meeting at one point, and then leave."

From the beginning of the meeting, several shouted at the supervisors, first during the prayer, and then the Pledge of Allegiance.

Waving miniature American flags, some shouted, "Why aren't we on the agenda?" One by one, members stood, yelling at the supervisors. They were asked to leave the meeting and filed out, singing My Country 'Tis of Thee. One screamed, "We're not going away. We'll see you next month. Sheriff Joe Arpaio has you in his back pocket."

The protesters then stationed themselves just outside of the supervisors' chambers in downtown Phoenix.

Protective Services officers and sheriff's deputies guarded the chamber's doors, as some protesters yelled and taunted. At one point, law-enforcement officers decided to block the entrance for public safety reasons, and in doing so, denied access to the media and other people who wanted to attend the meeting.

The supervisors continued the meeting but then suspended it when they became concerned about possible violations of open-meeting laws after learning people were shut out.

The supervisors resumed the meeting after County Manager David Smith and Wilcox met with MCSA leaders to get assurance that they would not disrupt the rest of the meeting.

County administrators, who believe there were legitimate safety concerns, are trying to figure out how the decision was made to block the entrance, said Richard de Uriarte, a county spokesman. County officials are trying to determine whether it will affect the supervisors' vote on the Guadalupe contract, he said.

Officials with Protective Services and the county clerk's department declined comment. Sheriff's officials said they did not lock the doors.

Channel 12 (KPNX) filed a formal complaint to the supervisors, saying the lockout violated Arizona Open Meetings Law, the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution. "There was no justification for today's lockout of reporters from the meeting," the letter said.

MCSA leaders said they intended to file a class-action suit against the county for the lockout. On Wednesday evening, MCSA e-mailed a letter to supporters, vowing to return. "We will return to the Board of Supervisors Meeting October 15th, having requested to be on the agenda for that same board meeting. If we are not on the agenda, we will escalate more!"

______________________________________

I don't know what is more entertaining...the fact that Sheriff Joe Arpaio got what he wanted, cancellation of the contract because the Mayor of the town was bellyaching because he was doing immigration sweeps, or what some of the commenters have to say in response to it.

Hehehe, these lefties are just losing it, read the comments

There are times.........

When the 9th Circus court of appeals actually surprises me

From AZSTARNET.NET

9th Circuit upholds law on employer sanctions

Panel rejects challenges to penalties for knowingly hiring illegal entrants
By Howard Fischer

Capitol Media Services

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.18.2008

PHOENIX — A federal appeals court upheld the legality Wednesday of Arizona's nearly nine-month-old employer sanctions law.

Without dissent, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected challenges by business groups, employers and Hispanic rights advocates to the law, which allows a judge to suspend or revoke the business licenses of any firm found guilty of knowingly hiring undocumented workers.

The judges rejected arguments the law infringes on the exclusive right of the federal government to control immigration. Judge Mary Schroeder, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, said Congress specifically allowed states to enact exactly the kinds of laws that Arizona has passed and to impose the kind of penalties the state law allows.

Schroeder also rejected the contention state lawmakers acted illegally in requiring employers to check the immigration status of all new workers through the federal government's E-Verify system.

Finally, the court said legal protections exist in the law for companies charged with hiring undocumented workers to argue to a judge that they did not, in fact, violate the law.

Wednesday's ruling does have one potential bright spot for challengers.

Schroeder pointed out that, to date, no Arizona employer has actually been charged with violating the law since it took effect Jan. 1.

The law allows a judge to suspend a company's right to do business in Arizona for a first offense; a second conviction of knowingly hiring an undocumented worker within three years puts the company out of business, at least at the location where the violation occurred.

The judge said the court could reach a different conclusion if a company facing actual punishment can prove that the law, as it is being applied, is unfair or illegal.

A central point raised by challengers was who gets to punish companies that hire people not in this country legally.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act, approved by Congress in 1986, specifically precludes states and cities from imposing any civil or criminal penalties on companies for their hiring practices.

Schroeder noted, however, that law has an exemption for "licensing and similar laws."
And she said the federal law does reserve to states the power to decide a company's "fitness to do business" based on whether it hires undocumented workers.

David Jones, president of the Arizona Contractors Association, said Wednesday's ruling is disappointing but not surprising. Jones said his association and other groups that challenged the law may ask the full 9th Circuit to review the ruling, and, if necessary, go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said he believes the statute he crafted will withstand future challenges.

"I very carefully wrote the law to comply with federal law," he said.

Pearce said the law has safeguards for companies, starting with the requirement that to obtain a conviction, prosecutors prove an employer knowingly broke the law. He said that protects them against prosecution for innocent mistakes.

And he said the law also gives a "rebuttable presumption" of innocence to any firm that used the E-Verify system to check on new workers.

Pearce said the law has already saved taxpayers millions of dollars in education costs because it cut enrollments of children in the state illegally.

But Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the law is hurting the state.

"It's created an environment that's diminished business investment," said Hamer, whose organization was one of the challengers in the suit.
_____________________________________

Its unfortunate that this law is not being enforced, but I suspect it will take a major raid by CBP to begin a state level investigation.

I hate to say this but...Kudos to the 9th circus court of appeals for finally getting one right.

A little humor

THE MORAL OF THE STORY - THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER


This one is a little different...Two Different Versions!

Two Different Morals!


OLD VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,
building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and
dances and plays the summer away. Co me winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!


MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be
allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his
comfortable home with a table filled with food. American's are stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group
singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the
grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the Summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his
retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried
before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.
The ant loses the case.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house
he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident
and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Be careful how you vote in 2008

Group Posts E-Mail Hacked From Palin Account - The Political Jungle

Group Posts E-Mail Hacked From Palin Account - The Political Jungle

Sheriff Joe Arpaio once again sets the ethical standard for Law Enforcement in Arizona

From the Tucson Citizen:

Arpaio set to drop police protection for town of Guadalupe

The Associated Press

The Town of Guadalupe is facing a loss of police protection from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

Wednesday, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors could vote to cancel sheriff's office protection for the Phoenix suburb.

The move, which some on the board said they approve of, would put Guadalupe on a 180-day notice for cancellation of a contract originally set to expire in 2010.

A heated confrontation between Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the former town mayor led the sheriff to cancel a contract between the sheriff's office and the town.

The contract pays Maricopa County $1.2 million annually for providing police protection in Guadalupe.

Town officials are hoping for a change of heart from Arpaio and the board.

"At this point, we have no alternatives to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office," Guadalupe Mayor Frank Montiel said.

Montiel replaced Rebecca Jimenez as mayor earlier this month. Jimenez remains on the town board.

Montiel said he wants to establish a better relationship with the sheriff's office and is hoping that the two sides can reach an agreement before the contract expires.

"I hope Mr. Arpaio will see it that way, also. We do have new leadership," Montiel said.

Arpaio said he might be willing to continue police protection in Guadalupe if things go his way.

"If I want to come back in there with my suppression operation, I will," he said.

It was a crime suppression operation that stirred anger in former Mayor Jimenez. She called the sweep racial profiling and said she planned to consider other options for law enforcement.

During one sweep, Jimenez confronted Arpaio on live television, which led the sheriff to cancel the policing contract.

Supervisors have been inclined to go with Arpaio's recommendation on the matter. The sheriff originally made it in April, when the discussions with Guadalupe officials were most heated.

"The sheriff is determined to move on, (and) outside law enforcement is largely a creation of his own ability and desire," Republican Supervisor Don Stapley said.

"When he calls me and says, "We're not going to continue there,' it's real hard for me to say, "Yes, you are.' "

Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, a frequent critic of Arpaio's immigration policies, will oppose the cancellation. Wilcox's district includes the town. "Guadalupe is going to become a casualty of these immigration battles, and we're going to leave a small town without services," Wilcox said. "It's really irresponsible of us."

As far as alternatives, Phoenix and the Department of Public Safety have declined to contract with Guadalupe.

Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris says doing so could lead some neighborhoods without adequate police protection.

The DPS also told town leaders it could not provide police services, DPS Deputy Director Pennie Gillette-Stroud said.
_____________________________________________

Arpaio...enforcing laws and doing what he is paid to do..and he becomes the villain for doing his job

KUDOS TO YOU SHERIFF JOE!!!!!!!!

I wish all law enforcement was like this!

Would be interesting to know why the Department of Public Safety turned down a contract with them...perhaps for the same reason that the Sheriff is canceling his contract?

Religion In Politics: The New Cool Thing - The Political Jungle

Religion In Politics: The New Cool Thing - The Political Jungle

Why I am going to miss President Bush

This is the man that America voted and elected to office, this is the man the left vilifies...this is the man who hasn't stopped caring and doing the right thing.

Mr President, History will remember you as the greatest President of our day, save Ronald Reagan.

If you search, you will find COUNTLESS stories like this which the left wing liberal media hides. Bush is a man who cares, the most powerful man in the world, and he cares about the little guy.

God bless America

HT To Mikes America and Flopping Aces

Can we say .. Bonehead play?

10 Iggles Not Smart @ Yahoo! Video

Yes folks, I am a Cowboys fan.

This is funny stuff when things like this happen.

Hehehe

Gotta love them schools..........NOT

So yesterday was an important day in American History, though you would never think that if you are a lefty.

It was so important, that my oldest boy, who is 8, and I sat down and watched the video that I posted yesterday on the memorial tribute. Before starting I explained to him that it was a tragic day and lots of people died. He asked, How many dad?. I said over 3000. He is 8, that is a number he can not comprehend.

So we watched the video with me stopping it in parts to explain to him what he was seeing.

Some examples...this is the the towers after they fell. This is a person who is covered in dust from the buildings, these are people who got out before the collapse. Etc.

I cried in parts as I explained to him just how pissed off Americans were that day.

And I tried my best, in his way, to get him to comprehend what he just saw.

All he could say was, Dad, that was a sad day.

Yes son, it was.

When he got home from school, I asked him if any mention was made in school of this day and its importance to Americans. He said noone talked about it. I asked my oldest daughter, who is 9, was anything said today in school about today and its importance to America.

Want to know the answer?

No....there was no mention made, no lessons ... No talking about it.

This really makes me mad. On 9/11/2001 terrorists brought their war to us...on our soil..the attacked the United States of America. Just like the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. But was anything said? No

And what kills me is a good percentage of those kids have relatives who are either serving in the Armed Forces or have served.

Its important that we never forget, but for all intents and purposes, the schools don't seem to understand that.

I am attending the next PTO meeting at the schools my kids attend. And my outrage at them not teaching our children what happened will be heard. If your kids attend school, make it a point to do the same.

WE WILL NEVER FORGET


UPDATE 3:55 PM

Just got of the phone with the elementary school principal who was responding personally to an email I sent.

She told me that the district doesnt want to "scare" kids that young, the reason...there are some kids parents who would rather forget it. She related to me and we had a conversation as to what she was doing that day and how she felt. She told me that she has a first grader that will never forget as well, but she would rather not deal with a school full of scared children.

Fair enough, some parents want to hide their heads in the sand...the principal sounded irritated when she talked about that, she said she wishes that every kid could understand and have it drilled into them every year, but she is held back by district policy.

The upshot? In the 4th and 5th grade they talk about it during social studies.

I guess there is hope yet

Teaching Method: Remove Desks

My step daughter sent me an email about a military history teacher who, back in 2005, taught her students a valuable lesson by removing their desks from the classroom. She told the students they could have their desks back if the students could tell her what they did to "earn the right to sit in the desks." Check out this true story HERE and find the answer. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Today marks the anniversary of the attacks by cowards on the twin towers and the pentagon. We will not forget that over 3000 of our fellow citizens, regardless of their politics, died at the hands of the terrorists hell bent on the destruction of America.

They do not care about politics, nor do they care to make peace with us, they want nothing more than to see our destruction.



Today we remember the tragedy. Today we relive the pain. Today we are reminded why our soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. We took the fight to them so we don't have to fight them here.

---------------

It was 7 years ago, I was getting ready for work and had the TV on for noise as I got dressed. I heard a snippet, and it sent chills down my spine...the newscaster said that there has been a plane crash in New York, and reports were that it hit a building.

I turned around expecting to see a plane crash, and my heart sunk when I saw the smoke and realised, it was the World Trade Center.

I sat on my sofa and just watched.

My jaw open...my heart breaking...disbelief at what I was watching.

As I listened to the news they started talking about possibilities...was it a navigation error? Was it an accident? Was the equipment at a nearby airport malfunctioning. I thought of the movie Die Hard, was it a similar situation where someone has messed with the electronic equipment? Wierd thoughts.

Then abject horror as a I watched the 2nd plane fly into the South Tower.

I had to process that.

Did I really just see what I think I just saw?

The news caster droned on and I was screaming, look at the monitor you bitch!

Then the male came on, and said that a 2nd plane hit the towers.

At this point they rewound and it confirmed what I had just thought I saw.

Tears came fast and furious and I was desperate, I realised what happened, someone purposely rammed 2 planes into the towers. Who could do this? Why?

I was on my knees at this point. Praying to God that his will be done. Praying for the people who I knew would be trapped, hoping they got most of them out.

Phone rings...its my mom. "Dennis, are you watching this?" Her voice is shaking.

"yes Mom, I don't believe it but I see it"

Nothing more is said and somewhere at some time we hung up the phone.

It was time to go to work, I was already late. I get to the office, and the mood is somber, everyone is quiet and watching the tv in the break room. I take my place and we all just watch, not a word is spoken.

The day is a blur from that point on, I did my job, but it was mechanical. My passion wasn't there, it was gone.

_______________

Today as I sit and write this, everything is in full color.

I will not forget, the memory of those who died on 9/11/2001 lives on.

We will never forget

A little humor

Once upon a time, on a farm in North Carolina , there was a little
red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered quite
a few grains of some wonderful Kansas Durham Red Winter Wheat!
She called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said, 'If we
plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?'
'Not I,' said the cow
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Not I,' said the pig.
'Not I,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.
The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.
'Who will help me reap my wheat?' as ked the little red hen.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Out of my classification,' said the pig.
'I'd lose my seniority,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my unemployment compensation,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so
she did. At last it came time to bake the bread.
'Who will help me bake the bread?' asked the little red hen.
'That would be overtime for me,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my welfare benefits,' said the duck.
'I'm a dropout and never learned how,' said the pig.
'If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to
see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share.
But the little red hen said, 'No, I shall eat all five loaves.'
'Excess profits!' cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
'Capitalist leech!' screamed the duck (Barbara Boxer)
'I demand equal rights!' yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around
and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities
Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen,
'You must not be so greedy.'
'But I earned the bread,' said the little red hen.
'Exactly,' said Barack the farmer. 'That is what makes our free enterprise
system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants.
But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must
divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.'
And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled
and clucked, 'I am grateful, for now I truly understand.'
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked
bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free. And all the
Democrats smiled. 'Fairness' had been established. Individual initiative had
died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared...so long as there was free
bread that 'the rich' were paying for.

EPILOGUE
Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That's $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years,

repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.

IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?

Sheepdog's Blog: Another Rant on Obama

Sheepdog's Blog: Another Rant on Obama

On a Positive Note...

My son turned 2 years old today! Woo Hoo!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, XANDER!




To check out the birthday festivities, go to My Live Journal page.

Fire & Hammer: The Christian Walk, an Impossible Task

Fire & Hammer: The Christian Walk, an Impossible Task

Chickenhawk Express: Cop Killer's Execution Date Set

Chickenhawk Express: Cop Killer's Execution Date Set

For the record

This is one case where I fully support the death penalty and its swift ... um ... execution

More of the same leftist CRAP

They have no class

StopTheACLU has this posting about an EBAY listing done by the Democratic Underground:

Outrageous: Fake ebay Listing Selling Palin’s Baby Trig as ‘Political Prop’

Posted on September 9, 2008

-By Warner Todd Huston

**Image Below The Fold**

This one was all over the net yesterday. Apparently, a poster at the radical nutroot site, DemocraticUnderground, created a fake listing for someone pretending to sell baby Trig on ebay. The faux listing read “Baby used prop newborn boy 3-6 months special needs,” and included a description that called Governor Palin a “pushy social climber, unwilling to let pregnancy and children stand in the way of ambition.” It also listed baby’s Trig’s father as “unknown.”

Originally appearing on the DemocraticUnderground at around 1PM on September 4, by DU poster Bob Weaver, the thread was soon locked by DU moderators and the image scrubbed from the site. But not before a screen shot was taken…
______________________________


Read the rest HERE


Seriously...the left has no class, no decorum and no sense of right vs wrong.

Perusing the blogs...........

I was perusing blogs over my morning coffee just now and ran across this from Sweetness & Light - Hope they don't mind me plagiarizing their work :)


Obama: Terrorists Have Habeas Rights

The Anointed One hands down another pronouncement to the contemptible ignoramuses known as the American public “these people.”

From an outraged (that anyone could doubt this) Washington Post:

Obama to Palin: ‘Don’t Mock the Constitution’

By Peter Slevin

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. — Sen. Barack Obama delivered an impassioned defense of the Constitution and the rights of terrorism suspects tonight, striking back at one of the biggest applause lines in Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s speech to the GOP convention.

It was in St. Paul last week that Palin drew raucous cheers when she delivered this put-down of Obama: “Al-Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America and he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.”

Obama had a few problems with that.

“First of all, you don’t even get to read them their rights until you catch ‘em,” Obama said here, drawing laughs from 1,500 supporters in a high school gymnasium. “They should spend more time trying to catch Osama bin Laden and we can worry about the next steps later.”

If the plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks are in the government’s sights, Obama went on, they should be targeted and killed.

“My position has always been clear: If you’ve got a terrorist, take him out,” Obama said. “Anybody who was involved in 9/11, take ‘em out.”

But Obama, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago for more than a decade, said captured suspects deserve to file writs of habeus corpus.

Calling it “the foundation of Anglo-American law,” he said the principle “says very simply: If the government grabs you, then you have the right to at least ask, ‘Why was I grabbed?’ And say, ‘Maybe you’ve got the wrong person.’”

The safeguard is essential, Obama continued, “because we don’t always have the right person.”

“We don’t always catch the right person,” he said. “We may think it’s Mohammed the terrorist, but it might be Mohammed the cab driver. You might think it’s Barack the bomb-thrower, but it might be Barack the guy running for president.”

Obama turned back to Palin’s comment, although he said he was not sure whether Palin or Rudy Giuliani said it.

“The reason that you have this principle is not to be soft on terrorism. It’s because that’s who we are. That’s what we’re protecting,” Obama said, his voice growing louder and the crowd rising to its feet to cheer. “Don’t mock the Constitution. Don’t make fun of it. Don’t suggest that it’s not American to abide by what the founding fathers set up. It’s worked pretty well for over 200 years.”

He finished with a dismissive comment about his opponents.

“These people.”

___________________________

Read their commentary on it. This guy has GOT to be stopped

Quick note

After listening and reading Sarah Palins speeches

She is okey dokey in my book

Just sayin

Those sexist pigs on the left.............

Are attacking our female candidate...because she is a woman

Snicker

From the Washington Post:

McCain Strategist Blasts Media
Top Aide Says News Organizations Are 'on a Mission to Destroy' Palin

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 3, 2008; Page A17

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 2 -- Sen. John McCain's top campaign strategist accused the news media Tuesday of being "on a mission to destroy" Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by displaying "a level of viciousness and scurrilousness" in pursuing questions about her personal life.

In an extraordinary and emotional interview, Steve Schmidt said his campaign feels "under siege" by wave after wave of news inquiries that have questioned whether Palin is really the mother of a 4-month-old baby, whether her amniotic fluid had been tested and whether she would submit to a DNA test to establish the child's parentage.

Arguing that the media queries are being fueled by "every rumor and smear" posted on left-wing Web sites, Schmidt said mainstream journalists are giving "closer scrutiny" to McCain's little-known running mate than to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

The McCain camp has been unusually aggressive in pushing back against the media, and it seems to hope to persuade journalists to back off in their scrutiny of Palin. Obama campaign officials have complained to news organizations that their man has been subjected to considerably more investigative reporting than McCain has, but they have done so in more low-key fashion.

By contrast, Schmidt spoke on the record in denouncing as "an absolute work of fiction" a New York Times account of the process by which the McCain campaign vetted Palin. He also charged that Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman was predicting that the governor might have to step down as McCain's vice presidential choice.

Fineman said that he has "never, ever said that," and that he has pointed out positive aspects of Palin's candidacy. "They decided a long time ago that they were going to work the refs," he said.
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Elisabeth Bumiller, the lead author of the Times report, said she is "completely confident about the story." As for the campaign's criticism, she said: "This is what they do. It's part of their operation."

McCain also canceled a scheduled appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Tuesday in retaliation for an interview a day earlier in which prime-time host Campbell Brown repeatedly pressed campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds to provide one example of a decision that Palin had made as commander of the Alaska National Guard.

"The interview was totally fair," Brown said. "I was trying to get an answer. I was persistent, but I was respectful. That's my job. Experience is a legitimate issue when John McCain raises it about Obama, and it's also legitimate for us to raise it about Palin."

Schmidt, a former spokesman for President Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, talked openly about his frustrations in an interview with The Washington Post. He said the McCain camp is in the middle of the worst media "feeding frenzy" he has ever seen.

The fact that unsubstantiated allegations appear on the Internet "is not a license for smearing" Palin, he said. "The campaign has been inundated by hundreds and hundreds of calls from some of the most respected reporters and news organizations. Many reporters have called the campaign and have apologized for asking the questions and said, 'Our editors are making us do this, and I am ashamed.' "

The intensity of media inquiries hit a new level after an anonymous blogger on the liberal Web site Daily Kos last weekend charged that McCain's running mate is actually the grandmother of Trig Palin, the 4-month-old baby born with Down syndrome, and that the real mother is her daughter, 17-year-old Bristol Palin. That led to mainstream media inquiries, which prompted the McCain camp to disclose in a statement Monday that Bristol is five months pregnant and plans to have the baby and marry the teenage father.

Markos Moulitsas, the site's founder, said he did not know the contributor's identity but thought that the admittedly "weird" pregnancy questions were a legitimate line of inquiry that he should not suppress.

Some journalists, Schmidt said, have demanded to see Trig's birth certificate, or have asked when Palin went into labor and whether her contractions increased or decreased as she traveled from Texas to an Alaskan hospital in her home town, Wasilla. Others, he said, have asked whether Palin's eldest son, Track, who serves in the Army and is deploying to Iraq, is a drug addict. "Categorically false," Schmidt said, adding: "This is crazy."

News organizations routinely ask questions about allegations in an attempt to determine their veracity, and Schmidt did not contend that they were publishing or broadcasting false information about Palin and her family. But he said the media is asking more questions about Palin's pregnant daughter than about Obama's real estate deal with fundraiser Tony Rezko, who recently was convicted on corruption charges. Obama has called that transaction a "boneheaded mistake."

Bloggers on the left and right increasingly drive media coverage by turning up the volume on questions until they are difficult to ignore. Sometimes they are right, as when they questioned what CBS's Dan Rather said were National Guard documents in a 2004 report on President Bush's military service that led to Rather's ouster as the network's anchor. And sometimes they are wrong. Last year, the New Republic retracted a soldier's dispatch on petty wartime cruelty in Iraq, and National Review Online acknowledged that two blog postings by a former Marine about military movements in Lebanon were misleading.

Major newspapers, magazines and networks no longer play their traditional gatekeeper role in the digital age, as was evident during the eight-month period when the National Enquirer was charging former senator John Edwards with fathering an out-of-wedlock baby. Most national news outlets did not report the allegations until last month, when Edwards acknowledged an affair with a former campaign aide but denied being her child's father.
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Still, traditional media outlets can amplify and legitimize such reports, which may be why the McCain campaign is fighting so hard to keep the Palin allegations confined to the Internet. Denouncing the news media as biased also plays well with many Republican voters.

Palin has been unavailable to the media since she became McCain's surprise choice Friday, adding to the difficulties for news organizations pursuing stories about her life and career. Campaign manager Rick Davis said it would be unrealistic for her to grant interviews as she prepares for "the most important speech of her life," her acceptance address at the convention here. Schmidt said she will be made available for interviews after the convention, a similar timetable followed by Obama's running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.).

Perhaps the greatest concern to the McCain campaign is that the constant inquiries, amplified by cable television debates over whether a mother with a pregnant daughter and four other children can effectively function as vice president, will create a perception that her nomination is in trouble. "We are being bombarded by e-mails and phone calls from journalists asking when she will be dropping out of the race," Schmidt said.

___________________________________

Those sexist bastards

Happy Birthday to my loving wife

Just wanted to share that today is my wifes birthday.

Happy Birthday baby, I love you

Joe Biden...not just wasted

But YASTED

LOL




HT To Jen over at the Political Jungle

More Palin Derangement Syndrome:UPDATED - The Political Jungle

More Palin Derangement Syndrome:UPDATED - The Political Jungle

Cant say as I agree with her this time on all the issues she presents, there is something to be said about Christian values, which is where the left is going to attack, but you know what....at least her daughter kept it instead of killing it like the libtards would have done.

Its going to be a LONG and HARD road folks