Tuesday's Tidbits

U.S. military deaths at 4,120 since March 2003.

Looks like it will be Mitt Romney as McCain's running mate. Given the governor's financial experience and today's economy, it's a very smart move by the Republicans. You can probably expect a bounce in the polls when this move is official. They'll be tough to beat.

Wow. It's a shame that I'm not surprised about this. Excerpts from an interrogation of a 16-year old being held at Gitmo.

Hat tip to the guys at RedState. I guess the President and I still agree on some issues. I interpret this to mean that he still has some lingering elements of conservatism flowing through his veins. I surely agree with him on this "forced conservation" stuff. If I want to drive an SUV and run my air conditioner at a constant 63 degrees, as long as I pay for it, whose business is it?

Brit Hume is stepping down after the election. This is a pretty big shake up at Fox News.

Back from Vacation!!!

Oh man. It's tough to go without blogging and writing. Much to say about goings on.

One thing quickly. Our country is very beautiful. It's a shame that we are often too busy to take the time to truly experience what it has to offer.

Today's Tidbits

Looks like we've given the Israelis our missle defense technology.

Congrats to Venus Williams for her 6th Wimbledon title. Serena started off strong, but Venus' consistency eventually prevailed.

Jesse Helms died. It will be interesting to watch the careful wording of the tributes to one of the biggest racists to ever serve in our country's Congress.

According to the Iraqi's, there is no more terrorism in their country. Prime Minister Al-Maliki announced that they have defeated the terrorists in Iraq.

Bush defends his decision to attend the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

FDA now sets its focus on Mexican jalepenos for the source of salmonella.

Senate Republicans know they are in big trouble in the upcoming election.

Tuesday's Tidbits

Deaths in Afghanistan rapidly approaching deaths in Iraq

The economy is bad. Energy prices are higher than ever. Perfect time for idiotic liberals in Chicago to once again raise taxes.

John and Cindy McCain one day from defaulting on their condo for 4 years of unpaid property taxes.

In the first case of judicial review, a court said the U.S. held a Chinese Muslim for six years on very little and unverifiable evidence. I wonder how many more of these will we have.

Jim Webb says Bush "blew it" on the G.I. Bill he once threatened to veto. BTW, he and John McCain both take credit for it now.

Fox News poll shows Americans believe John McCain and George W. Bush are too much alike. Guess that's a surprise to Hannity.

Beware of the fashion police.

Monday's Musings

"Getting shot down isn't a qualification to be President." Ouch!!!!

Joe Lieberman says the U.S. will be attacked by terrorists in 2009. Okay Joe. Go back to your chrystal ball and tell us exactly when and where so we can prevent it. Otherwise, stop playing Dionne Warwick.

Battle between FBI and CIA trumps battle between U.S. vs. bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.

If attacked, Iran will attack Israel.

Abu Ghraib detainees are suing U.S. contractors because of alleged torture.

Obama sets his sights on the South. Will not concede Southern states to the Republicans.

Bob Barr says GWB is the worst President in history. Says Clinton's mistakes were personal and mainly hurt himself. But, Bush's mistakes hurt the entire country.

Friday's Tidbits

According to the Pentagon, the Taliban has regrouped and is back in power.

U.S. pays ransom for release of kidnapped relative of Texas Congressman.

Congressional Republicans say they cannot overcome the tarnished image of the national party. C'mon guys. Who doesn't like politicians that spend like druken sailors, spy on Americans in ways Orwell couldn't prossibly imagine and make every attempt to install fear while destroying our Constitution?

Pakistan executes men accused of being spying for the United States.

Parents seriously need to pay closer attention to their kids' online relationships.

Coersion in the Zimbabwe election?? You don't say!!

Supreme Court Confirms 2nd Amendment

More info on this later after the opinion is released. But for now, suffice it to say that this is a great day for Americans' civil and constitutional rights.

Thursday's Tastings

Judge frees man accused of killing border patrolman.

Corrupt Mexican soldiers invade a house in Phoenix and end up killing someone.

Bush set to remove sanctions against North Korea. I guess they aren't so evil anymore.

Obama disagrees with the Supreme Court's ruling against the death penalty for child rapists.

Ecuador about to take reciept of Israeli war planes, radar and drones. Hmm, I wonder where Israel got the technology??

Very interesting column from Haaretz on the Christian church's assertion that Jews killed Christ.

Wednesday's Tidbits

Consistent with the Newsweek poll released last week, the LA Times/Bloomerberg poll has Obama with a 15 point lead over McCain.

Meanwhile, Ralph Nader says Obama is "talking white".

The Supreme Court has ruled against the death penalty for child rapists. I can think of other ways to punish these folks that would make the electric chair seem like the easy way out.

Iran issues a warning about its nuclear program.

Senate close to passing housing aid.

What's Wrong with Wheat Bread?

America's first Muslim Congressman was excited about the Obama campaign. He wanted to campaign on his behalf at a local mosque in Iowa during the primaries. However, the Obama campaign wanted to avoid a contreversy and denied the request. Later, Mr. Ellison wanted to provide his assistance in the North Carolina primary. However, the campaign said North Carolina was too conservative. Once again, his request was denied.

This is the second story that has came out recently in regards to the distance the Obama campaign has kept with the Muslim community. After his fierce denials about being a Muslim and then repeatedly deciding against appearing at mosques, while finding time to attend churches and synagogues, some of his Muslim followers have began to feel unwanted.

However, Obama's arms reach strategy is not exclusive to Muslims. The latino community is starting to express the same frustrations. Last week, the LA Times ran an article about the cautious approach the Obama campaign is taking while pursuing the black vote.

I see this as a clear political strategy to avoid alienating any potential white voters. Although he is up by a substantial margin, his campaign is handling his white voting block very fragilely. The indication is that their loyalty is very precarious and can blow up at any time. The only minority he can aggressively pursue without negative political repercussions is the Jewish community.

Some folks wondered why he didn't campaign harder in Philadelphia during the Pennsylvania primary. While in Indiana, he avoided Gary and Lake County. That area contains over 100,000 residents and is more than 90% African American. Many Hoosiers noted that he probably would have won Indiana, and therefore ended the primary sooner if he would have won the county by the margin that he won other heavy African American districts. He lost Indiana by less than 2%.

To be fair, I know that some Muslims have worked directly with the Obama campaign and haven't had negative experiences. I'm also not judging him. He is in the middle of a historic presidential campaign.

To really make history, he needs to win. Keeping it lily white helps him to that end. Everyone else can come out of the shadows after the election.

Importing Mexican Salmonella

This is another unfortunate by-product of NAFTA and the new agreement with Mexico that allows additional Mexican products to make it to the United States.

For a week, we've been hearing that the health agents are searching farms in Florida and in Mexico for the stand of salmonella that has been causing the outbreaks. Now we hear that their agents are concentrated in Mexico.

Similar to the Chinese lead scandel, American consumers are suffering from products produced in foreign countries without the rigorious health and safety standards that would be required if they were produced in domestically.


But, equally consistent with the lead scandel is our government's reluctance to point the finger at a trade ally. Surely, they don't want to anger their sources for the cheap labor they're always obsessed with.

Tuesday's Tastings

Rockets attack Israel from Gaza. Shaky truce now broken.

John Bolton says Israel will attack Iran after the U.S. elections.

Meanwhile, the McCain camp says another terrorist attack on the United States is just what they need to win the election. Anybody up for an October surprise?

The Dutch are preparing for the apocalypse they believe will happen in 2012.

James Dobson says Obama is dragging the Bible through the mud with his distortions. What???

Don Imus is once again suffering from uncontrolable foot in mouth syndrone.

Navy aircraft carrier leaves port a day earlier than scheduled and strands 100 soldiers in China.

Monday's Musings

Another court decides against the Bush administration. This time a federal appeals court ruled against the Pentagon's "enemy combatant" classification of a detainee.

The White House denies Army's newly proposed panel designed to oversee contracting failures in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Who cares about supply and demand as it relates to the price of oil/gas?

McCain offers $300 million to the person who can create efficient battery operated automobile technology. Hey, how about upping the anty closer to the $40Billion we provide the oil companies in subsidies? The inventors will come out of the woodwork.

Meanwhile, Obama has his eyes set on the speculators who have made a fortune by destroying our economy.

From the folks that made Willie Horton a household name, come the next round of race-baiting political ads.

Some believe Bob Barr will play the spoiler role very well in the next election.

Sad Day for Americans and Civil Liberties

Congressional Democrats have struck a deal with the liberty grabbers in the White House that gives immunity to the law-breaking telecom companies that have been tapping phones without any judicial authorization.

This is a sad day for our country. I guess it's okay for some companies to break the law. As long as and deprive citizens of the due-process and freedoms that we put in place by the founders of this great country.

Telecom companies have been doing phone taps for years. The only difference is the lack of evidence and judicial approval. The companies knew they didn't have court permission to tap the phones.

They knew their actions were illegal. They should be held accountable.

*Update* Obama provides his support for this hideous piece of legislation.

Friday's Tidbits

I guess nothing surprises me anymore. Because of last week's historic Supreme Court decision, the Bush administration is seeking to "rewrite" the evidence they have against the detainees.

Another case of over-zealous cops. They waltz into this guy's house at 3am, go upstairs, wake him up to tell him his door is unlocked.

Scott McClellan says that Bush and Cheney wanted him to lie about Libby's role in the CIA leak case.

Fake conservatives are angry at Obama for not taking taxpayer money to fund his campaign. What???

Israel endorses John McCain.

Obama takes a whopping 15-point lead in the Newsweek poll.

Israel Preparing to Attack Iran

As I've been mentioning pretty frequently, the war drums are beating very loudly over there in the Middle East. Israel has been clamoring for an Iranian war recently. They are now doing a war exercise to simulate an Iranian war. The President has also been hinting about the need to attack Iran. However, they haven't been given the cooperation from Congress and the American people that they've been seeking. Regardless of the fact that most Americans do not want another war, we all know that if Israel goes to war, we'll be involved in some capacity.

Russia is warning against an attack on Iran. The Iranians themselves say that their response will be meaningful and significant. Is this really in our interest?

Brace yourselves Americans. We're being led into another war. It will be interesting to see how this will be presented to us. Will this really make us safer and stronger? Surely, this one has more to do with Israel's security than ours.

More Proof that Oil/Gas Prices are Inflated

Okay. For any other industry, for any other product sold and distributed worldwide, this news would mean a significant decline in prices. However, the oil and gas industry is allowed to ignore all tangible facts before them and "speculate" themselves to higher prices and therefore, higher profits. The normal rules of supply and demand do not matter.

Check the news today:

SUPPLY
Saudi Arabia announces it will increase production by 200,000 barrells per day.

DEMAND
Americans drove 4.5 billion miles fewer in April.

Significant amounts of supply is being added to a market with significantly less demand. Again, in any other industry and with any other product; according to basic economic principles, this would cause lower prices.

Don't hold your breath.

Tanker Deal Back in Play

You know, this story has infuriated me since it came out. People wonder what's happening to good American jobs and question why the dollar keeps losing value against foreign currency. Then, we attempt to award a foreign company a $35 billion dollar Air Force contract that may grow up to $100 billion.

Seriously. Are these folks really this stupid? Do they honestly wonder what's happening to our jobs and why the euro is outperforming the dollar when we send $100 billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money to Europe? Estimates show that if award this contract to a domestic supplier, we could add almost 44 THOUSAND new jobs.

Now, they say that Americans will benefit because some new jobs will be created in the South. But given our current economic conditions, shouldn't we decide to keep these "in house"?

Olbermann's Research into Gas Prices

Thanks to the guys over at Crooks and Liars, I ran across this gem. This is probably the most detailed and comprehensive take on the gas and oil prices that I've seen. It echoes much of what I've said already. However, Keith has been able to provide the gap in why things are much different now than a few years ago.

A powerful lobby, a few pieces of bad legislation and a cooperative administration makes for a "perfect storm" of anti-capitalistic practices and the highest energy prices the world has ever experienced.

Another good point articulated here is that alternative energies will not help us at all until we rid ourselves of the speculators that have selfishly and severely harmed our country's economy. They'll simply "speculate" with the other energies to artificially drive up the price.

War on Terror Update for Thursday

I'd be the first to agree that removing Saddam from power is good for the world. It helps remove a tryrannical dictator and installs democracy. However, we now know that he had no associations with Al-Qaida. But, what he did have was plenty of oil that he wouldn't allow Western countries to access for almost 40 years. We removed that troublesome Saddam, now the oil companies can slime their way back into Iraq. This time they have no-bid contracts. I'm sure that Bush and his oil cronies had nothing to do with this decision. Oil was the last thing on their mind when they went to war with Iraq. Yeah right. Doesn't matter, the oil companies still say there are supply problems. They must raise prices!! They'll rake in more crazy profits. We'll still pay more at the pump.

Two-star Army general accuses the White House of authorizing "systematic and illegal" torture practices in Abu Ghraib. Wonder what he would say about our secret prison ships, or the people that we hid from the Red Cross when they were checking out our conditions. History will not judge this very nicely.

More mis-management of our nuclear arsenal. The Pentagon says that over 1,000 critical nuclear components are missing.

Ahmadinejad says he won the standoff over his nukes. Given the fact that Kim Jun Ill has yet to verify that he stopped his nuclear program, that would make us 1 for 3 against the Axis of Evil. Good stats for baseball. Bad stats for the prevention of nuclear chaos.