is right here:
Thanks to my old webmaster John for whipping this up. I’m not great fan of Rick Perry’s, but compared to the field as it is, he’s head and shoulders above most of them.
~Johnny~
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 2012, Perry | Leave a Comment »
In 2012, Texas conservatives need to focus our energies on removing
our own RINOs from office, and keeping them off the Republican
ticket, this coming election.
It’s impossible to overstate how important this task is, on both
the state and the national levels. RINOs are poison to a
conservative agenda. There is little real difference between them
and Democrats, and once elected they use their power to sabotage
attempts to enact good conservative legislation. We’ve seen this
take place in Austin over and over. No matter how loudly
conservatives speak at the polls, and how good prospects for
conservative legislation look, the RINOs in the party often manage
to water good bills down, or block them altogether.
On top of this, activist federal judges have thrown the election
into complete turmoil by throwing out the new legislative district
maps recently drawn up in Austin, creating their own maps, and
ordering the state to follow them. This was in response to a
lawsuit claiming that the maps drawn up in Austin discriminated
against non-white voters, particularly Hispanics. The court found
in their favor and drew up new maps that were much more to their
liking, because they include more districts where Hispanics are a
majority. (You can compare the legislature’s map and the court’s
map by doing an internet search for Texas District Viewer.) Given
long established voting patterns, what this boils down to is that
the court has created several more solidly Democratic districts,
and eliminated some solidly Republican districts.
Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed an emergency appeal with the
US Supreme Court to put the enactment of this ruling on hold,
partly because Monday, November 28th was the first day a person who
intends to run for office could file paperwork for a place on the
ballot. When it’s not even clear what districts will exist come
Election Day, it’s pretty difficult to file the proper paperwork,
so everything is in flux right now. Hopefully common sense and
judicial restraint will prevail at the Supreme Court, and this
ruling will be put on hold, but that is by no means certain.
Furthermore, even if this ruling does wind up being eventually
overturned on appeal, the voting trends driven by huge population
growth among Hispanics in Texas virtually assure that the state
legislature and Congressional delegation will become increasingly
less Republican and more Democratic.
Given all these factors – the dim prospects of a truly conservative
presidential candidate, the state elections being up in the air,
and the massive demographic changes taking place in Texas, it’s
imperative that we work harder than ever in 2012 to elect genuine
conservatives to the state house and to Congress. The 2010
elections demonstrated what we can do when we’re truly motivated,
and we need to recapture that same level of energy and motivation
for the Republican primaries of 2012, which take place in early
March.
If a RINO currently represents your district in Austin or DC, or if
one is currently the favorite for the GOP nomination, start
organizing now to defeat him or her in the primary. Wherever there
are genuine conservative challengers, it’s time to get behind them.
If there aren’t currently any, it’s time to recruit someone. If
you don’t know of anyone else that might run, consider running
yourself! It’s easy to think of reasons not to run or get involved,
but as Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for evil to
triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Don’t underestimate the impact you may have. All incumbents either
run unopposed or run scared. RINOs in particular know they have
betrayed their base and are scared of being called on it. Several
conservatives won in 2010 in the primary against well-funded
incumbents, like former RINO state representatives Tommy Merritt
and Delwin Jones. By running against someone, even if you lose,
you make them spend money, money that an unopposed incumbent can
use to prop up his fellow RINOs in other districts. If you lose
and do better than expected, you might still accomplish your goal.
Case in point: RINO Burt Solomons just announced he won’t be
seeking re-election. Insiders I know report that this is because
he was shown to be weak in the 2010 primary when he squeaked by
with 53% of the vote against an opponent who spent a tiny amount of
money, and big money conservative donors were looking to run a very
strong race against him this year, so he chickened out. There’s
nothing more humiliating for an incumbent than to lose in a primary
(and many of them are lazy from years in office with no serious
campaigns), so often fear of losing makes them quit, and you win by
default. This happened in 2010 when RINO Brian McCall decided not
to run after the Tea Party started organizing against him in 2009;
now that district is represented by a real conservative, Rep. Van
Taylor. Slowly but surely conservatives are removing the turncoats
who betrayed their constituents and elected Joe Straus as Speaker.
The Republican primary election date of March 6th is not very far
away at all. Right now, the candidate filing deadline is December
15th. That may change, depending on what happens in the courts.
In the next few weeks we’ll have a definitive answer one way or
another on the redistricting map, so if your district is currently
in flux that should change soon. So keep an eye on the news, and
get ready to do battle this March with GOP sellouts!
If you have any specific questions about your district, such as
whether your incumbent deserves a challenger, feel free to email
in. I can find out if there is an existing challenger and help
connect you with some folks who can help you if you decide to run.
The Peter Morrison Report
http://www.PeterMorrisonReport.com
http://www.facebook.com/morrisonreport
Sources:
http://www.empowertexans.com/around-texas/the-very-definition-of-modern-judicial-activism/
http://www.empowertexans.com/features/judicial-gerrymandering/
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Peter Morrison, RINOs | Leave a Comment »
Oh, you HAVE to be kidding me!
Rep. Larry Phillips identified in ethics inquiry involving speakers race
Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, the vice chairman of the House comittee charged with investigating ethics complaints, was identified today as the House leadership member who allegedly warned a colleague that lawmakers who fail to support Speaker Joe Straus for re-election could face retribution through redistricting.
Rep. Charles L. “Chuck” Hopson, chairman of the House General Investigating and Ethics Committee, made the disclosure before the committee went into closed executive session to discuss the allegation. Phillips recused himself as vice-chairman of the panel and was participating in the closed session. He was not immediately available for comment.
Hopson ordered the inquiry after Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, released a statement saying that a member of Straus’ leadership team warned him that members who fail to support Straus in the speakers race could be punished when lawmakers redraw legislative districts next year…
Full article here : http://blogs.star-telegram.com/politex/2010/11/rep-larry-phillips-identified-in-ethics-inquiry-involving-speakers-race.html
We play politics dirty in Texas; particularly when it’s a couple of RINOs who learned everything they know from DemoCraps.
~ACP~
Posted in Senate & House, Texas | Tagged Senate & House, Texas | Leave a Comment »
From Peter Morrison this week:
New information provides hard evidence of Joe Straus’ pro-abortion and anti-family-values agenda.
The fight to replace liberal, pro-abortion Joe Straus as Texas Speaker of the House continues. If you have not contacted your state representative, please do so and encourage them to vote for a true conservative for Speaker. You can find who represents you here:
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
If you have a newly elected Republican state representative, please see the list of contact information below. Voting on Speaker will be among the first official acts that your new state representative will get to do in the upcoming Legislative Session and they need to hear from you now, before they make up their mind on this important issue!
Remember, this is your state representative, not your Congressman. Finally, even if you have taken action on this, please make personal appeals in your circle of influence for others to contact their representative. Absent an outcry from the grassroots, Republican politicians will once again betray their base.
Don’t let the gains of November 2nd slip away due to complacency. Holding Republicans accountable after the election is just as important as defeating liberals during elections.
Last week, I told you about Joe Straus’ radical left-wing associations in regards to abortion. This week, I can provide you with even more hard proof of Joe Straus’ positions.
The pro-Straus camp is trumpeting the endorsement of Straus by a group purporting to represent the pro-life point of view. In response to this, Cathie Adams of Eagle Forum released a report exposing once and for all Straus’ pro-abortion agenda:
“When the leading abortion provider in the country, Planned Parenthood, honors Texas House Speaker Joe Straus in their fall 2009 newsletter, Horizon, for ‘his tireless efforts on behalf of Texas women and children during the last legislative session,’ it explains why every pro-life bill was killed during the session. (It is further explained by the fact that Speaker Straus received a 100% rating by the radical pro-abortion group NARAL, and that he even voted in support of third-trimester abortions (SB 419, vote 672, 2005).)”
I should note that Straus’ challengers, Rep. Chisum and Rep. Paxton, both are rated a zero by this pro-abortion group. You can verify these facts here:
http://www.votesmart.org/issue_rating_detail.php?r_id=4017
In addition, I feel I should share with you an item from a homosexual newspaper, the Dallas Voice. They’re clearly upset with the results of the recent election. It’s headlined “If one of these nutjobs defeats Joe Straus for House speaker, we could be in deep doo-doo.” The following is the unedited text of their story lamenting the possible loss of Straus as Speaker:
“If Rep. Joe Straus is ousted as speaker of the Texas House, it’s safe to say it will not be a good thing for the LGBT community. Dennis Coleman, executive director of Equality Texas, confirmed the obvious yesterday when he told us the statewide gay-rights group is sincerely hoping Straus can hang on to his post.
“One of Straus’ challengers, Rep. Warren Chisum of Pampa, is among the biggest homophobes in the Texas Legislature. Chisum was the primary author of Texas’ 2005 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and he’s also been behind efforts to outlaw gay foster and adoptive parents.
“Another candidate for speaker, Rep. Ken Paxton of McKinney, who entered the race this week, doesn’t appear to be much better than Chisum on LGBT issues. Paxton was a co-author of the marriage amendment and voted in favor of a ban on gay foster parents in 2005.
“Straus, meanwhile, voted in favor of the marriage amendment — not to do so might have been political suicide — but he did not sign on as an author. He also voted against the gay foster parent ban, which was actually killed by socially moderate Republicans like himself. Straus attends a gay-affirming synagogue that performs same-sex marriages in San Antonio.”
Hypersensitive liberals will likely flip out because I quoted this article. I’ve been subjected to a number of vile attacks over the last week from the liberal media because I mentioned, in passing, the religious affiliation of Rep. Chisum and Paxton in my last newsletter.
Yet here we have a liberal media outlet, The Dallas Voice, making religious slurs against Rep. Chisum and Paxton (“homophobes” and “nutjobs” are the liberals’ favorite epithets for Bible-believing Christians) and then a comparative reference to Joe Straus’ religious affiliation, of which they obviously approve.
As we all know, there’s one set of rules for the liberals, and another set of rules for the rest of us.
Because of this double standard, don’t look for the liberals to condemn the Dallas Voice for “injecting religion” into the Speaker’s race. Let me be clear about this quote: the issue is not religion; the issue is Straus’ endorsement by radical homosexuals. If Joe Straus is as conservative as he claims to be, why do they think they will be in “deep doo-doo” if he isn’t re-elected Speaker?
In another article from 2009, the Dallas Voice describes Straus as an “ally.”
Rarely do we see the Left on full display as in this article. You see, if you believe homosexuals shouldn’t be married, like the vast majority of Texans and Rep. Chisum and Paxton, you’re a nutjob and a “homophobe.” This same group that endorsed Straus, Equality Texas, is currently conducting a fundraising tour with foul-mouthed lesbian comedian Sandra Bernhard. You may recognize her name from 2008, when she publicly called for the gang rape of Sarah Palin.
We’re really starting to see the Left circle the wagons to protect Straus. Conservatives across the state are being called bigots for daring to oppose the Establishment’s preferred candidate. That means we’re being effective, as the Left only drags out these nasty charges of “bigotry,” “racism” and the like when they can’t win politically and hope to simply intimidate their opponents with name-calling; we saw this tactic on display this summer when the media falsely accused the Tea Parties of racism. Rush Limbaugh got it right when he defined a “bigot” as “someone winning an argument with a liberal.”
Straus and his opponents also continue to use unethical bullying tactics to intimidate the opposition. Rep. Chuck Hopson, the chair of the House Ethics Committee, is telling the press that my efforts to help voters communicate with their representative about the Speaker’s race is a crime! Yes, you read that correctly, he thinks you and I are criminals guilty of “coercing a public servant” just because we dare to demand our representatives take a certain action.
This is the same Rep. Hopson that amazingly discovered he was a Republican just before the 2010 primary, when he switched parties in an obvious attempt to save his political hide. He is hardly an impartial chair of the House Ethics Committee, considering the $42,000 that Speaker Straus gave him earlier this year.
The arrogance of these politicians never ceases to amaze me. They really do think they’re better than you, and according to liberal “journalists” like Paul Burka of Texas Monthly, now that the election is over, you need to shut up and let the “grownups” make the decisions.
That’s okay though, because thanks to the Internet and the efforts of citizens like you, never again will liberal politicians and their media allies be able to monopolize public opinion. We won and they lost in the last election, and to the winner goes the spoils. The fact that Joe Straus, the choice of the 51 Democrats, is even a viable candidate for the Speakership when Republicans hold 99 seats shows how much work we still have to do. We must continue to use all means at our disposal to make Republican politicians represent the interests of conservative voters.
The fight to replace liberal, pro-abortion Joe Straus as Texas Speaker of the House continues. If you have not contacted your state representative, please do so and encourage them to vote for a true conservative for Speaker. You can find who represents you here:
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
If you have a newly elected Republican state representative, please see the list of contact information below. Voting on Speaker will be among the first official acts that your new state representative will get to do in the upcoming Legislative Session and they need to hear from you now, before they make up their mind on this important issue!
Remember, this is your state representative, not your Congressman. Finally, even if you have taken action on this, please make personal appeals in your circle of influence for others to contact their representative. Send this alert to any conservative email lists you can, and personally encourage friends and family to make a phone call. Believe me, representatives are VERY attentive to calls from constituents; they assume, correctly, that each call represents hundreds of others who feel the same way.
Absent an outcry from the grassroots, Republican politicians will once again betray their base.
Don’t let the gains of November 2nd slip away due to complacency. Holding Republicans accountable after the election is just as important as defeating liberals during elections.
Newly Elected Republican State Representatives:
HD #35 Jose Aliseda
Phone # (361) 358-9400
Email: info@josealiseda.comHD #106 Rodney Anderson
Phone # (214) 679-4106
Email: rodneya68@sbcglobal.netHD #57 Marva Beck
Phone # (254) 292-9379
Email: info@marvabeckfortexas.comHD #101 Cindy Burkett
Phone # (972) 968-7774
Email: cindy.burkett@hotmail.comHD #3 Erwin Cain
Phone # (903) 488-3337
Email: info@erwincain.comHD #102 Stefani Carter
Phone # (972) 385-3313
Email: stefanicarter@gmail.comHD #41 Rebecca Cervera
Phone # (956) 451-7660
Email: Rebecca@rebeccacervera.comHD #134 Sarah Davis
Phone # (713) 320-2077
Email: info@sarahdavis134.comHD #84 John Frullo
Phone # (806) 853-8275
Email: contact@johnfrullo.comHD #117 John Garza
Phone # (210) 248-7766
Email: johnvgarza313@aol.comHD #52 Larry Gonzales
Phone # (512) 244-1280
Email: larrydgonzales@excite.comHD #127 Dan Huberty
Phone # (281) 961-3485
Email: DanHuberty@hotmail.comHD #45 Jason Isaac
Phone # (512) 850-5524
Email: Campaign@JasonIsaac.comHD #85 Jim Landtroop
Phone # (806) 288-0387
Email: jim@jimlandtroop.comHD #122 Lyle Larson
Phone # (210) 414-3536
Email: lyle@lylelarson.orgHD #1 George Lavender
Phone # (903) 838-7348
Email: george@georgelavender.comHD #69 Lanham Lyne
Phone # (940) 691-5200
Email: lanham.lyne@gmail.comHD #78 Dee Margo
Phone # (915) 313-7060
Email: dmargo@deemargo.orgHD #133 Jim Murphy
Phone # (713) 278-7796
Email: info@votejimmurphy.comHD #93 Barbara Nash
Phone # (817) 277-1900
Email: barbara@barbaranashfortexas.comHD #48 Dan Neil
Phone # (512) 619-1664
Email: dneil@austin.rr.comHD #149 Jack O’Connor
Phone # (281) 496-7007
Email: info@takeback149.comHD #87 Four Price
Phone # (806) 318-3997
Email: fourpricefortexas@gmail.comHD #20 Charles Schwertner
Phone # (512) 863-4563
Email: campaign@drschwertner.comHD #34 Connie Scott
Phone # (361) 884-8734
Email: info@voteconniescott.comHD #107 Kenneth Sheets
Phone # (214) 887-1978
Email: kenneth.sheets107@gmail.comHD #7 David Simpson
Phone # (903) 746-9474
Email: contact@davidsimpsonfortexas.comHD #33 Raul Torres
Phone # (361) 792-0294
Email: elect.raultorres@yahoo.comHD #12 James White
Phone # (936) 637-2400
Email: info@jamesWhiteforEastTexas.comHD #47 Paul Workman
Phone # (512) 402-1336
Email: paul@workmanfortexas.comHD #96 Bill Zedler
Phone # (817) 375-0104
Email: bill@billzedler.orgThe Peter Morrison Report
http://www.PeterMorrisonReport.com
http://www.facebook.com/morrisonreportSources:
http://www.votesmart.org/issue_rating_detail.php?r_id=4017
http://www.dallasvoice.com/straus-1052145.html
http://www.dallasvoice.com/new-speaker-an-lgbt-ally-1018590.html
http://hq-equalityfederation.salsalabs.com/o/35034/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=2663
http://www.rightwingnews.com/mt331/2008/09/sandra_bernhard_publicly_fanta.php
http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=8468
PO Box 8742, Lumberton, TX 77657, USA
Note from the Pundit: I usually try not to comment during Peter’s posts (what is there to say? The guy’s excellent every time out of the box!), but I will just add this. At one of the churches I attend regularly the guest speaker made this comment just before the election:
“The Tea Party is a group with a focus on fiscal (budget) issues. The social (i.e., Pro Life) issues have fallen by the wayside with the Tea Party. Yet it is the Social issues with the most durability. While a Pro-Choice Republican may not always support the fiscal issues, a Pro-Life Conservative will ALWAYS support the fiscal issues, every single time.”
Joe Straus is Pro-Choice; which by the speaker’s definition means he may not always be strong on budget issues. That’s MORE than enough reason for me.
~ACP~
Posted in Election '10, Gays, Peter Morrison, Pro-Life | Tagged Election 2010, Gays, Peter Morrison, Pro-Life, Texas | Leave a Comment »
Note to @web_Supergurl – Here ya go!
And what fun would it be without a Power Girl image:
Note to the fanboys: You’re Welcome.
~ACP~
Posted in Comic Books, Uncategorized | Tagged comics | 1 Comment »
Beloved Guest Columnist Peter Morrison has some sharp words for Austin Insider and Texas House Chairman Joe Straus: FORGET ABOUT BEING RE-ELECTED SPEAKER!
Just as a reminder, here’s why Joe Straus needs to go:
* As Speaker, Straus appointed liberal committee chairs Burt Solomons and Brian McCall who effectively killed all immigration enforcement legislation in the 2009 session. Because the Legislature only meets every two years, this means the ongoing invasion of our state cannot be addressed until 2011 at the earliest.
* Joe Straus is pro-abortion. In fact, his rabbi sits on the board of San Antonio Planned Parenthood. I can tell you what I would do if my pastor supported Planned Parenthood: I would find a new church. Joe Straus clearly lacks the moral compass to be Speaker, the third most powerful office in the state.
* According to Heritage Alliance, in the last legislative session in which he voted, Joe Straus voted with conservatives only 52% of the time, which was the second worst voting record among Republicans. In fact, five Democrats were more conservative than Straus! His claim to be a conservative leader is laughable. He was elected in 2009 because of a coalition of turncoat Republicans and every Democrat in the Texas House.
Both Rep. Warren Chisum and Rep. Ken Paxton, who are Christians and true conservatives, have risen to the occasion to challenge Joe Straus for leadership.
Now I’m about to tell you breaking news about Joe Straus that should infuriate you. He just released a letter yesterday
attacking Rep. Chisum. I’m going to share the last paragraph with you:“If you truly believe that the Texas House of Representatives should be protected from the kind of scorched earth campaign unleashed by your allies, then I call on you to put a stop to it for the sake of the membership. Stop the threatening letters, mean-spirited emails, and angry phone calls. Let each member of the House, elected to represent the views of their constituents, decide this election free of such divisive hostility.”
Let me translate for you: the election’s over. The grassroots needs to sit down at the back of the bus while the insiders decide who’s in charge. Straus has nothing but contempt for the thousands of conservative Texans communicating with their legislator to try and elect a conservative speaker. You see, in Joe Straus’ world, legislators are supposed to represent their constituents’ views, but if a constituent actually shares their views then that’s “mean
spirited.”Right now I believe the Republicans in the Texas House are ready for a new Speaker. However, they’re also scared. They know if they come out for a conservative Speaker and Straus somehow survives, they will be punished in the 2011 session.
In fact, one of Straus’ bullying tactics just came to light as I write this. Rep. Brian Hughes released a letter saying he will not
support Straus, and among his reasons why: Straus’ staff threatened him with redistricting if he didn’t cooperate.Think about this: a Republican Speaker, threatening a Republican member with the prospect of a gerrymandered district that would disenfranchise his conservative constituents. This tactic reveals that Straus is truly a traitor, a man who would hurt conservatives in order to hold on to power.
I think there is great hope right now, but you need to take action. Joe Straus has played “Mr. Nice Guy” for the last two years, but cracks are starting to appear in that facade. His contemptuous dismissal of the grassroots and his bullying tactics reveal desperation in a man who feels threatened by the conservative victory of Election Day.
Now is the time to apply pressure. Now is the time to demand your representative support a true conservative for Speaker.
Your representative needs to hear from you today, demanding they support a conservative like Warren Chisum or Ken Paxton for Speaker. Please go to this site and call or email your member today:
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
Just enter your address and call your member of the Texas House of Representatives. This is not your Congressman, but your state representative. Then, please visit this site and sign the petition supporting a conservative Speaker:
http://conservativespeakermandate.com/
~The Peter Morrison Report~
http://www.PeterMorrisonReport.com
http://www.facebook.com/morrisonreportSources:
http://www.heritagealliance.com/tcr/tcrhome.php?Year=2007
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/05/straus-helps-democrat-with-gop.html
http://blogs.chron.com/texaspolitics/archives/2009/01/straus_on_the_a.html
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/speaker-straus-other-horse-race
http://www.dallasvoice.com/artman/publish/article_10409.php
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/Anger_over_Arizona_law_unites_May_Day_marchers.html
http://open.salon.com/blog/robert_flynn/2008/10/15/interview_rabbi_barry_block
http://www.beth-elsa.org/bblockbio.htm
http://blogs.chron.com/texaspolitics/archives/2010/07/speaker_pressed.html
~acp~
Posted in Politics In General, Tea Parties, Texas | 1 Comment »
Robert Gibbs, World Class Moron, arguing with a member of the Indian Parliament like he's important or something. Imbecile.
Anthony G. Martin at the Examiner quotes a blogger who has insider information on the coming Obama Administration scandals:
In a previous report Conservative Examiner delved into the claims of a White House insider who is feeding information to a blogger who goes by the name of ‘Ulsterman.’ The report contained revelations of the pending unraveling of the Obama Presidency due to the President’s inability to deal with growing opposition among the citizens and in the halls of Congress–and a scandal simmering under the surface that could explode at any moment.
‘Deep Throat’ also claimed that Obama is so self-absorbed that he actually believes he is adored by throngs of people all over the world. The observation was also made that the President is exhibiting bizarre behavior that suggests emotional instability.1.)Indeed, there is a growing movement on the Hill by top Democrats to pressure Pelosi to withdraw from consideration as Minority Leader.
2.) Deep Throat discusses ‘the Hillary issue,’ claiming unequivocally that the former First Lady still desperately wants to be President and that the only thing needed to get her to mount a campaign to oust Obama as the Democratic nominee for President in 2012 is a continued decline in the economy.3.) The White House insider reluctantly discusses the birth certificate issue after being pressured by Ulsterman, and suggests that the issue is simply too hot to handle.
Deep Throat was quick to assert, however, that the brewing scandal at the White House has absolutely nothing to do with the birth certificate issue.Questions have been raised as to the veracity of the insider’s information. But he correctly stated weeks in advance that Summers and Emanuel would be the first to leave the Administation–which turned out to be true. He now says that Gibbs is next.
I can’t wait to see ol’ Gibbsy pack his bags and un-ass the Briefing Room. His smug obnoxiousness just reeks to high heaven. Another casualty of the Obama Administration unemployment.
~ACP~
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Obama Backlash, Obama Screw-Ups | 1 Comment »
It’s Wednesday. On Hump Day we sometimes need a little “pick-me-up.” Here’s a few items of Random Bizarreness I’ve found lately.
Sometimes people send me links. Sometimes people send me photos. Being a nurse, they thought I’d like this old pin-up of a nurse:
My dentist thought I’d like this picture of a giraffe and a duck:
(Hey – she’s pretty, and had her fingers jammed into my mouth. I shoulda said “no”?)
Clayton Morris passed along this video of a pissed-off Bridesmaid, and the World’s Worst DeeJay. Yeesh!
Just for your curiosity, as Rod Serling used to say.
~Johnny~
Posted in Pets and Animals, Sociological Observations | Tagged Animals, Sociological | 1 Comment »
This is a Peter Morrison Report from earlier this month that technical problems didn’t allow me to post (my apologies to Mr. Morrison.) Yet it’s still very timely, giving an insider’s view of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) controversy without the invective and belittling the Left so loves to do:
It is extremely important that conservatives and patriots from around the state contact the Texas State Board of Education to voice support for the revisions that the SBOE made earlier this year to the Texas social studies textbook standards.
If you can, please take one of the following actions:
1. Sign up to testify before the State Board meeting in Austin. Wednesday, May 19th will be a full day of public testimony before the SBOE. The signup to testify starts early on Friday, May 14th. Be sure to call the Texas Education Agency early on that morning at 512-463-9581 to make sure you get a spot to testify!
2. Contact the SBOE by sending them an email at sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us and let them know that you support the revisions that have been made.
Right now, the SBOE is hearing from groups like the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), NAACP, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Texas Families of Incarcerated Youth, Sikh Coalition, U.T. Austin Department of History, Carrizo-Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Hindu-American Foundation, Coalition for Educational Reform, Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission, and many other individuals. They have been asked to include more minorities, more liberal groups, less about our Christian heritage, less about limited government, more about race and gender, and less about free markets and gun rights.
The SBOE has already heard from lots of liberals and liberal groups. They need to hear from conservatives as well!
Please either call 512-463-9581 and get a spot to testify or email the SBOE at:
sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us
The information below is from my SBOE representative, Barbara Cargill, one of the conservative members of the SBOE:
——————————————————————
This Fact Sheet clears up much of the misinformation from the media about the K-Grade 12 social studies standards. Please feel free to share it. Many of us on the State Board of Education (SBOE) will continue to work diligently for rigorous history standards that teach our children about their rich heritage and emphasize our country’s founding principles. We want students to learn more about the Founding Fathers and patriot heroes of both our state and nation. Important leaders who were neglected previously have been added to the standards. These include John Quincy Adams, John Hancock and John Wise. And we have placed stronger emphasis on key historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Students will learn the liberties and responsibilities guaranteed by each amendment in the Bill of Rights.
Here are examples of some of the outstanding standards that have passed so far:
American History:
-The student understands the concept of American exceptionalism.
-Describe how American values are different and unique from those of other nations;
-Describe U. S. citizens as people from numerous places throughout the world, who hold a common bond in standing for certain
self-evident truths.
-Discuss the meaning and historical significance of the mottos “E Pluribus Unum” and “In God We Trust.”U.S. Government:
-Analyze selected issues raised by judicial activism and judicial restraint.Grades 1-3: (with the word “equality” added in Grades 2-3)
-Identify characteristics of good citizenship including truthfulness, respect for others and oneself, responsibility in daily life, and participation in government by educating oneself about the issues, holding public officials to their word, and voting.Grade 6:
-Understand the importance of morality and ethics in maintaining a functional free enterprise system.Grade 8:
-Describe how religion and virtue contributed to the growth of representative government in the American colonies.Over the last few months, the SBOE has heard testimony from people representing League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), NAACP, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Texas Families of Incarcerated Youth, Sikh Coalition, U.T. Austin Department of History, Carrizo-Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Hindu-American Foundation, Coalition for Educational Reform, Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission, and many other individuals. We have been asked to include more minorities, more liberal groups, less about our Judeo-Christian heritage, less about limited government, more about race and gender, and less about free markets and gun rights.
The final vote is on May 21st. The conservatives on the SBOE need help from patriots across the state to ensure that the revisions we have made to the standards are upheld. On Wednesday, May 19th we will have a full day of public testimony. People from many of the same organizations listed above will be back to speak to the SBOE. Please use this opportunity to come and address the Board yourself! Signing up to testify for the May 19th State Board meeting begins on Friday, May 14th. Please call the Texas Education Agency early at 512-463-9581.
If coming to Austin is not an option, let your voice be heard by e-mailing sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us. The proposed social studies standards are posted at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=3643. Charts that list the historical figures in the social studies standards are posted on that same page for verification of information. Please take a look at the standards for yourself and do not rely on what the media says. The Fact Sheet is pasted below for your convenience.
Thank you for your encouraging messages and for your support about this important issue.
For our children,
Barbara Cargill
State Board of Education, District 8
Chair, Committee on Instruction—————————————————————
State Board of Education
Social Studies TEKS Fact SheetA. FALSE ALLEGATION: The State Board of Education is not listening to educators and experts and as such the SBOE should send the social studies standards back to the original review committees.
FACT: The Social Studies TEKS review committees and some history experts made some revisions that were unsupportable, and the State Board of Education had to direct changes or vote to return to the original content.
Christmas, Neil Armstrong, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, religious heritage language, Independence Day, Veterans Day and Christopher Columbus were either removed completely or partially from several grade levels by the review committees. The State Board of Education members have assured concerned members of the public that these historical figures and important concepts were placed back in the standards where they had been taught for the previous 10 years. This action was based on the urging and feedback from numerous educators, experts and concerned members of the public. One “historian” even suggested Alexander Graham Bell and the Texas Rangers should be removed from Texas social studies standards. This recommendation was not adopted.
B. FALSE ALLEGATION: The State Board of Education is making decisions on its own and not listening to educators.
FACT: Numerous educators urged the State Board of Education to teach students accurately about the country’s religious heritage and American Exceptionalism.
The State Board of Education voted to include requirements that students study about America ‘s religious heritage and American Exceptionalism.
C. FALSE ALLEGATION: The State Board of Education is deleting minority figures from the social studies curriculum.
FACT: The proposed Social Studies TEKS include more minority representation than ever before.
Among the many individuals who have been added to the standards are Crispus Attucks, Jose Bernardo Guillermo de Lara, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Wentworth Cheswell, Francisco Coronado, Bernardo de Galvez, Juan de Onate, Adina de Zavala, Enrique Esparza, W.E.B. DuBois, Carmen Lomas Garza, Henry B. Gonzalez, Raul A. Gonzalez, Maria Mitchell, Ellen Ochoa, Jose Antonio Navaro, Irma Rangel, Juan Seguin, Erasmo Seguin, Phillis Wheatley, Lulu Belle White, Diane Gonzales Bertrand, Simon Bolivar, Bessie Coleman, Tomie de Paola, Marcus Garvey, Lydia Mendoza, Kadir Nelson, Danny Olivas, Raymond Telles and Amado Pena Jr.
D. FALSE ALLEGATION: The State Board of Education is eliminating Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall from the standards.
FACT: The State Board of Education members have not made any amendments to delete Cesar Chavez or Thurgood Marshall. The SBOE actually increased the emphasis placed on these historically significant individuals.
Both Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall have been made required elements of the curriculum framework. Students will study the legacy of these historically significant men in both the elementary grades and in high school, as Cesar Chavez has been added to Grade 5 American history and Thurgood Marshall has been added to the Grade 2 standards. Both already are taught in U.S. History Since 1877.
E. FALSE ALLEGATION: The State Board of Education has included conservative groups in the Social Studies TEKS without listing any liberal organizations.
FACT: The curriculum standards include historically significant individuals and groups from a wide array of ethnic, cultural, racial and religious backgrounds.
For example, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is required study at two different grade levels. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) also is required, as is separate study of founders W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells at various grade levels. Other notable leaders such as Anne Richards, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Jordan also are included. Students are required to study various social and political advocacy positions, including organizations that promoted civil rights for African Americans, Chicanos and American Indians.
Individuals who promoted civil rights, labor rights and women’s rights also are included, such as Upton Sinclair, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B.DuBois, Clarence Darrow, Martin Luther King Jr, Cesar Chavez, Thurgood Marshall, Hector P. Garcia, Frances Willard, Jane Addams and Dolores Huerta. The proposed history standards include diverse individuals and groups for study at each grade level.
F. FALSE ALLEGATION: The State Board of Education is excluding Hispanic and African American Medal of Honor recipients.
FACT: The State Board of Education expects students to know the significant contributions and heroic actions of Medal of Honor recipients from all backgrounds.
The SBOE added Medal of Honor recipients William Carney and Philip Bazaar to Grade 8 American history, and added Medal of Honor recipients Vernon J. Baker and Roy Benavides to the high school U.S. History course. The social studies curriculum standards specifically require that students study male and female Medal of Honor recipients of various racial backgrounds.
G. FALSE ALLEGATION: The State Board of Education has eliminated Tejanos who fought at the Alamo.
FACT: The Social Studies TEKS include Tejano leaders who fought at the Alamo .
In Grade 4 Texas history, Tejanos Juan Seguin , Placido Benavides and Francisco Ruiz are required to be studied as important participants in the Texas Revolution. Lorenzo de Zavala and Jose Antonio Navarro, Tejano leaders who died at the Alamo, also are required figures in Grade 4. In Grade 7 Texas history, students again study the significant roles played by Tejano leaders Lorenzo de Zavala and Juan Seguin as they review the events of the Texas Revolution, the siege of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto .
H. FALSE ALLEGATION: The State Board of Education has removed capitalism from the standards and substituted it with “free enterprise system.”
FACT: In Texas , students are required to study economics with an emphasis on the free-enterprise system and its benefits. “Free enterprise system” is the terminology used in the TEKS since 1998 to describe the U.S. economic system. The State Board of Education has voted to retain this term in the social studies standards. At each grade level starting in Grade 2, however, information has been added that states: “Students identify the role of the U.S. free enterprise system within the parameters of this course and understand that this system may also be referred to as capitalism or the free market system.” The SBOE will be retaining the term “free enterprise system” that aligns with state requirements.
I. FALSE ALLEGATION: Thomas Jefferson has been removed or downplayed in the Social Studies curriculum framework.
FACT: Only George Washington is emphasized more heavily than Thomas Jefferson in the social studies standards.
Thomas Jefferson is taught in Grade 5 American history, in Grade 8 American history and in U.S. Government. These are the same grades where Jefferson and his important legacy have always been taught, and the State Board of Education has not changed this emphasis. As the author of the Declaration of Independence , and as a strong proponent of limited government and states’ rights, Thomas Jefferson is the type of Founding Father and patriot hero about whom students should learn more, not less.
J. FALSE ALLEGATION: The State Board of Education has decided we no longer live in a democracy.
FACT: The United States is a constitutional republic, not a democracy.
The Pledge of Allegiance correctly identifies our form of government as a republic, and the State Board of Education members expect students to recite that pledge and understand its meaning. This reference to constitutional republic refers to the form of government our Founding Fathers instituted.
K. FALSE ALLEGATION: The State Board of Education doesn’t believe students should learn about separation of church and state or First Amendment rights
FACT: Students in elementary grades, middle school and high school will learn about the important freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, as the Bill of Rights is outlined in Grade 5, Grade 8 and again in U.S. Government.
First Amendment rights are among the most fundamental we share in this country. Each of these freedoms should be studied, including the freedom of religion. Constitutional protection of religion was provided by banning the Federal Government, specifically Congress from establishing a national religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. A majority of the State Board of Education members voted against a new amendment to the TEKS because its wording downplayed the “free exercise” clause. The Founding Fathers actually encouraged religion, as can be seen in the emphasis given religion in the Northwest Ordinance which passed the same year the Constitutional Convention convened to draft the U.S. Constitution.
The Peter Morrison Report
http://www.PeterMorrisonReport.com
http://www.facebook.com/morrisonreport
Posted in Education, Peter Morrison, Texas | Tagged Education, Peter Morrison, Texas | 3 Comments »
THIS, while disgusting, is surely just another symptom of people with too much power being corrupted by it:
Guess what part of the Aide's anatomy Rep. Souter is describing here.
Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) is resigning from Congress after telling colleagues he had an affair with a female aide.
Souder said his resignation – which will take effect Friday — is “the best decision for my family, the people of northeast Indiana and our country.”
Sounder and his wife have three adult children.
Souder’s staff informed Minority Leader John Boehner’s staff of the affair on Sunday. Boehner and Souder spoke on Monday, and Boehner told the Indiana Republican he should resign, according to GOP sources.
“Boehner has been perfectly clear that he will hold our members to the highest ethical standards,” said Michael Steel, Boehner’s spokesman.
Souder was an aide to former Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) before being elected to Congress. Coats is running this year to return to the Senate.
A hard-line conservative, Souder recently survived a tough GOP primary in the Hoosier State, edging two opponents who held him under 50 percent. Souder’s Republican rivals criticized Souder over his support for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and Cash for Clunkers programs.
Notice how Souder didn’t offer to resign until John Boehner told him to do it? I’m sorry, Rep Souder, but whose interests are you really looking out for here — yours or your constituents? After Republicans have been stung recently by Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s decision to bolt the party and run as an independent, I’m sure Boehner’s “talk” was brief, and to the point.
Now you might think that the Republicans in the Third District would seek to appoint one of the other candidates who lost to Souder to fill his seat – and you’d be wrong. For one thing, Indiana law only allows seats to the House to be filled by special elections. as Northwest Indiana Politics can explain to you here. The other problem is that the best man for the job may not have been running.
The best man for the job was, very likely, recently defeated Senatorial candidate Marvin Stutzman, a Tea Party favorite.
State Sen. Marlin Stutzman, who came up short in a Republican Senate primary this month, has told associates he will announce his candidacy for the seat Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) resigned from Tuesday.
Stutzman, state Rep. Randy Borror, Fort Wayne City Councilwoman Liz Brown, and Fort Wayne attorney Phil Troyer, who came up short in his primary challenge to Souder earlier this month, have all begun to inform party leaders they will seek Souder’s seat, according to a local Indiana GOP official.
Other possible candidates for the seat include, state Senate President Pro Tempore David Long and Bob Thomas, a wealthy auto dealer who drew more than 30 percent of the vote in a self-funded primary challenge to Souder.
Indiana Republicans will begin a process within the next 30 days to choose a special election candidate for the House seat. The selection process will begin with a precinct caucus meeting. Since Indiana already held its primary elections earlier this month, local party leaders will convene again later in the year to choose a nominee for the regularly scheduled November election.
Somehow I don’t think the timing of Souder’s announcement was coincidental. Had he resigned earlier his seat could have been filled during the primaries. Rep. Boehner had to TELL him to resign; a sign he was unwilling to do so. And he resigned when all attention was diverted to the primaries being held in Ohio, Arkansas, and Kentucky.
And, I’m sorry, but a man who will cheat on his wife is a moral and ethical scumbag who will tell anyone anything; so we can’t trust a thing he says.
Big Honkin’ Hat Tip to Northwest Indiana Poltics’ Steve Dalton for the tip on this.
One down, another 400+ to go.
~Johnny~
Posted in Election '10, Most Ethical Congress | Tagged Election 2010, Most Ethical Congress Ever | 1 Comment »
Miss me?
Sorry for the sudden departure. I could go into great detail about the distractions I’ve had in my life the last six months that came to a head mid-March, but it would be boring, and I have no desire to imitate the POTUS by excusing my life away.
Sorry about that.
If you really MUST have a complete detailing, e-mail me at alamocitypundit@hotmail.com and I’ll be glad to send you a short laundry list of my life. As always, the prayers have been greatly appreciated, and much-needed. Now if I can just get this POS Dell crap computer to work right . . .
Now where was I? Ah, yes . . .
~Johnny~
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Blog Stuff | Leave a Comment »
These are your Congressmen, America. Your Senators, your Elected Representatives — that the rest of America and the World see and say, “This guy is a fair representation of the people of ______________” (fill in the blank with the nae of your state here.)
For instance, HERE’s Henry Waxman, and “This guy is a fair representation of the people of New York”:
A House Energy and Commerce Committee spokeswoman tells me that Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has indeed cancelled the April 21 subcommittee hearing in which CEOs were to testify about Obamacare. So far, the only indication of this change appears on the committee’s website is on the Republican minority ranking member’s site. In fact, the hearing still appears on Waxman’s committee calendar for that day.
Waxman had called the hearing in reaction to public statements by several companies — including Verizon, AT&T, and John Deere, among others – that Obamacare would cost them hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars because it laid a new tax on their retiree health benefit payments.
Ever since the passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug benefit, the payments had been subsidized, tax-free, as a way of preventing these companies from dropping enrollees onto the Medicare rolls, where they would cost the government far more. When Obamacare changed the tax rules, it was quite clear that this would result in huge losses, but President Obama and Democrats had failed to heed warnings to this effect in the run up to Obamacare’s passage last month.
The CEOs, required by law to be honest about earnings projections, re-stated their bottom lines in reaction to Obamacare’s passage, earning the ire of Waxman and other Democrats.
Hearings on this matter would likely have proved an embarrassment to the Democrats and helped drag out discussion of Obamacare’s unexpected ill effects.
In short, the Dems have been subsidizing the Prescription Drug benefit to Medicare as a way of hiding just how much it costs. Obamacare wasn’t going to pay for this, and the CEOs of these Drug Companies - In Accordance with Federal Law – restated their earnings
And the results looked disastrous!
Idiot Chairman Waxman didn’t like that this would make Obamacare look bad, and wanted to harangue the CEOs publicly. But now that it’s been pointed out publicly that they were just following the law – he’s dropped the idea.
And the results will STILL be disastrous, won’t they?
Imbecile doesn’t begin to cover the stupidity of this moron who actually MAKES the laws of this country, but is ignorant of them himself..
Meanwhile, Congressman and Dark Lord of the Sith Barney Frank had his own run-in with the vox populi:
Barney Frank has enemies, even 30,000 feet in the air.
Flying back to Boston from LA, the congressman was assailed by a pair of ophthalmologists upset about the health care reform bill. An argument ensued that prompted some passengers to wonder if the plane might be forced to land.
“No one was calming things down and people were standing up shouting,” said Brooke Sexton, who was seated seven rows behind Barney.
Which brings up point Number 1: “No one was calming things down.” Have you ever seen Airline employee benefits, Ms. Sexton? My sister has them — they’re great. And under ObamaCare, they’re bound to get worse, as EVERYBODY’S WILL.
"Away from me, you peasants! Away!"
Sounds to me like the Flight Crew was voting with their feet to let the number one proponent of Obamacare get torn apart by the maddened crowd. Good for them. All you Libtards who truly, honestly believe Tea Party folks are violent racists — you might want to reconsider crashing the Tea Parties on April 15th. Those cops might just vote with their feet, too, and let the violent Tea Party people tear you up some.
But I digress.
Accustomed as he is to being conservatives’s favorite bad guy, Frank mostly ignored the doctor’s taunts, Sexton said, but the congressman’s partner, Jim Ready, did not.
“Away from me, you peasants! Away! Jim, attack, ATTACK!”
The problem started soon after the ophthalmologists – two sisters on their way to a conference in Boston – boarded the Virgin flight. When they discovered that Frank was sitting nearby, the women loudly dissed the landmark health care bill as an “Obamanation.”
“They wanted to talk to me, but I apologized and said I like to read and watch on planes,” Frank told us today. “They began to talk louder and that’s when Jimmy (Ready) said, ‘If you’re trying to be bitchy, you’re doing a good job.”
Way to go “Jimmy” — egg them on. Please note Point Number 2: at NO time did the ophthalmologists become Violent — did they, Barney?
Needless to say, the women didn’t appreciate the remark, and things got heated. (Attempts to locate or ID the women were unsuccessful.) Sexton, who’s an HR director for the UK-based retailer All Saints Spitalfields, said flight attendants weren’t working hard enough to defuse the situation, so she got involved.
“The women had been drinking, and they were crying and shouting,” Sexton said. “They were clearly the antagonizers, and Mr. Frank was kind of minding his own business.” (She said Ready also upset another passenger, calling him “Santa Claus.”) Finally, the parties calmed down and remained quiet for the rest of the flight. (Sexton was offered some complementary wine for her trouble.)
That’s it — get the one person willing to defend the Congressman drunk, too. Please note it was a Brit, who already has Socialized Health Care.
“This guy is a fair representation of the people of Massachusetts Taxachusetts.”
Hey, Massachusetts? What you gonna do about this in November? Keep looking stupid? or do something about him? New York — same question?
~Johnny~
Posted in Health Care, Nutroots & Extremist Leftoids | Tagged Health Care, Leftoids, Nutroots | Leave a Comment »
I’ve been having one hell of a time logging on to WordPress lately.
In fact, I’ve been having one hell of a time logging onto the web, period. At first I thought I might have damaged the computer somehow (the messages kept telling me I had a script running somewhere), but I’ve come to realize it’s more likely a virus the former owner of the computer left the firewall open for.
I’m in the process of getting that addressed; and before the end of May it will be permanently fixed. Meanwhile, you might see some days without posts. Just remember, somewhere in Texas, my computer is still loading . . . .
Screw PCs – I’m getting a Mac!
~Johnny~
Posted in Blog Stuff | Tagged Blog Stuff | 2 Comments »
National Review Online has a chilling couple of paragraphs HERE from Victor Davis Hanson that should give us all pause, as well as pointing out the utter stupidity of the Obama Regime:
Meanwhile, when the recovery begins in earnest (and it will elsewhere without U.S. style massive borrowing), interest rates will climb, and oil will again become scarce. Then we will rue our decisions in 2009 not to cut government spending, and not to start massive exploitation of new-found natural gas, vast deposits of oil in Alaska and offshore, and fast-tracking of nuclear plants. It will not take much of a climb in interest rates to make the servicing of even the current debt crushing. And should gas hit $4 a gallon, when oil, new natural gas finds, and nuclear power went untapped amid Al Gore-Van Jones-like sermonizing, the present Tea Parties will seem tame in comparison with a new round of populist anger. Nothing quite ticks people off like $1.50 more a gallon at the pump, and the knowledge that local, state, and federal tax increases led to greater, not lesser, annual deficits, together with cuts, not expansions, in public services.
Impacting hard, oh, say about Christmastime or so . . . .
~Johnny~
Posted in Energy and Oil, Obama, Recession | Tagged Energy, Obama, Recession | 1 Comment »
I have no idea if this footage HERE is real.
But I really, REALLY hope it is. That’ll teach the schmuck to try to molest a martial-arts trained girl.
You really need to watch it. It’s pretty funny when she pulls him back into the elevator and whales the tar out of him; then chases him down the hallway when he tries to escape.
~Johnny~
Posted in Our Pornographic Society, Predatory Sex for Fun and Profit | Tagged Molesters, Pornographic Society | 1 Comment »
San Antonio in the old days (yes, even before *I* was born, Thank You) was know for it’s rough and tumble nature; starting from being a frontier outpost in Mexico through the Battle of the Alamo through the times all those great old John Wayne movies highlight. In recent times San Antonio if more well known for it’s tourism industry and it’s Healthcare facilities, which are second to none in quality and in the top five in the nation for any metroplex.
So, in an odd confluence of the two, it appears that the battle over the Healthcare Bill may be decided by . . . a 1990′s San Antonio Gun Control case, of all things!
WASHINGTON — A San Antonio high school senior’s decision to bring a .38 caliber handgun to class in 1992 could end up at the center of the coming legal fight over President Barack Obama’s health reform plan.
Alfonso Lopez Jr.’s arrest at Edison High School set in motion a courtroom battle that is likely to be studied by the 13 state attorneys general fighting the new health care law. Lopez, a high school senior when he was arrested on a handgun possession charge in March 1992, ended up facing federal charges of violating the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990.
But the Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, threw out his conviction in 1995 on the ground that Congress exceeded its regulatory authority under the Constitution when it approved the 1990 law, which made it a violation of federal law to possess a firearm in a school zone.
In filing a lawsuit last week challenging the new health care law’s mandate that everyone must have health insurance, the 13 state attorneys general cited the same legal reasoning that went into the high court’s Lopez ruling.
At issue in both cases is the Constitution’s commerce clause, which limits the regulatory powers of Congress to matters involving interstate commerce. The attorneys general argue that Congress exceeded that limit by requiring individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a fine.
In the Lopez decision, conservatives on the court led by then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist ruled the 1990 gun law unconstitutional because it had nothing to do with commerce between states. The 13 attorney generals contend, similarly, that the health care mandate does not fit within the legal definition of interstate commerce.
“In the past 15 years the Supreme Court has scaled back Congress when they’ve tried to inject themselves into purely state matters,” said one of the 13 plaintiffs, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, in an interview on MSNBC. The Lopez ruling was one of two he cited, saying it was a case where the federal government “tried to criminalize purely state behavior within a state.”
The attorneys general also argue that the health care law’s insurance mandate for individuals violates the 10th Amendment, which states that powers not specifically delegated to Congress by the Constitution are “reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
The health care law’s mandate extends congressional power under the Constitution “beyond economic activity, to economic inactivity,” Randy Barnett, a Georgetown University law professor, wrote in the Washington Post. “That is unprecedented. While Congress has used its taxing power to fund Social Security and Medicare, never before has it used its commerce power to mandate that an individual person engage in an economic transaction with a private company.”
Considering the high support the Healthcare bill has right now on the predominantly Hispanic west and south sides of San Antonio, Alfonso Lopez Jr. could very well find himself an unpopular person if this works.
Heh.
~Johnny~
Posted in Health Care, SCOTUS, Second Amendment | Tagged Health Care, SCOTUS, Second Amendment | 2 Comments »
Twitter user Greg W. Howard is a profligate user of the communications medium known as Twitter. (To you Libs, that means he Tweets a LOT.) And, being a Conservative (and a very prominent conservative at that) he gets slammed by the Lefties – a LOT.
So he’s written to Twitter about the slamming; which is not just limited to death threats, foul language, and generalized uncivilized behavior. There’s also the photoshopping his name onto racist tweets and such, too.
Twitter’s response; Form Letters, and more form letters. He even got a form letter in response to his blog post HERE
Sad. Like the way AOL became the same kind of cesspool years ago, so goes Twitter, Greg wonders?
In recent months, a disturbing trend has been emerging where a small percentage of users have grown increasingly bold in their attacks on other users. These attacks may include outright slander, libel and defamation. At times, the attacks contain overt references to sexual or other bodily function activity in the most graphic and vulgar of terms. The attackers will also resort to posting links within messages appearing to be news and opinion tweets in which the links go to graphic pornographic or scatalogic images. Finally, the last method of attack so to create faked retweets of messages from users in which overtly racial (including use of the “N” word), pornographic, or graphic sexual activity is falsely attributed to the target of the attack.
Twitter does not have any stated minimum age for users in its Terms of Service, unlike Facebook and other services. Therefore, not only are the attacks being seen by all users of Twitter, they are being seen in many cases by users under the age of 18. Video games and movies contain ratings that bar inappropriate material to minors. Twitter has become a free-fire zone where nearly anything goes. It should be rated NC-17 based on the content that is appearing more and more frequently. Users of Twitter may expect to see the “N” word used with disturbing regularity as a means to attack another. Users should also prepare themselves to hear discussions and see images of explosive diarrhea, images of gay orgies imbedded in tweets supposedly about White House Easter egg hunts, see open and graphically vulgar sexual activity being offered or used as abuse, and anything else that may come to mind of the cyberbullies.
Twitter’s official stance is to do nothing unless the activity falls within a very narrow range of proscribed activities. In essence, Twitter condones the activity and makes no effort to control it or shield users from the attacks of other users.
Can’t say I disagree, or that my own experiences have been any different.
Judge for yourself. Pay attention to the form letter from Twitter Customer Service in the comments section, too.
~Johnny~
Posted in Media | Tagged Media | 3 Comments »
If you’re like me, the first thing You did when you received an e-mail saying that the moon was full of UFOs or that President Obama was a Kenyan trained Ninja assasin, you went off to SNOPES.com to see what the deal was with those crazy e-mails. And for the most part, SNOPES has been a reliable informant on the truth about these Urban legends.
Or . . . apparently not. I began to notice that Snopes was taking more of a Leftist tack with things I obviously knew to be true, and was unwilling to revise their opinion when things went more for the right-wing than the lefties. This message board post HERE agrees, especially when it comes to politics; and especially lefty politics.
(And just in case this Message Board post “disappears,” I’ve reprinted the post in toto so it will be archived. Should the author have any problems with that, they can contact me and we’ll fix it post-haste; but as of this printing they haven’t responded to my e-mails.)
For those of you that think snopes is god when it comes to knowing the truth or not. By the way you might want to check this out on snopes.
I present this for your own evaluation.
Who “Snopes” are was written up in READERS DIGEST and agrees with this account.
(no politcal bias was mentioned in the article).SNOPES EXPOSED
For the past few years http://www.snopescom/ has positioned itself, or others have labeled it, as the ‘tell-all final word’ on any comment, claim and email. But for several years people tried to find out who exactly was behind snopes.com. Only recently did Wikipedia get to the bottom of it – kinda makes you wonder what they were hiding. Well, finally we know. It is run by a husband and wife team – that’s right, no big office of investigators and researchers, no team of lawyers. It’s just a mom-and-pop operation that began as a hobby. David and Barbara Mikkelson in the San Fernando Valley of California started the website about 13 years ago and they have no formal background or experience in investigative research. After a few years it gained popularity believing it to be unbiased and neutral, but over the past couple of years people started asking questions who was behind it and did they have a selfish motivation?
The reason for the questions – or skepticisms – is a result of Snopes.com claiming to have the bottom line facts to certain questions or issue when in fact they have been proven wrong. Also, there were criticisms the Mikkelsons were not really investigating and getting to the ‘true’ bottom of various issues.
A few months ago, when my State Farm agent Bud Gregg in Mandeville hoisted a political sign referencing Barack Obama and made a big splash across the Internet, ‘supposedly’ the Mikkelson’s claim to have researched this issue before posting their findings on snopes.com. In their statement they claimed the corporate office of State Farm pressured Gregg into taking down the sign, when in fact nothing of the sort ‘ever’ took place. I personally contacted David Mikkelson (and he replied back to me) thinking he would want to get to the bottom of this and I gave him Bud Gregg’s contact phone numbers – and Bud was going to give him phone numbers to the big exec’s at State Farm in Illinois who would have been willing to speak with him about it. He never called Bud. In fact, I learned from Bud Gregg that no one from snopes.com ever contacted anyone with State Farm.
Yet, Snopes.com issued a statement as the ‘final factual word’ on the issue as if they did all their homework and got to the bottom of things – not!
Then it has been learned the Mikkelson’s are very Democratic (party) and extremely liberal. As we all now know from this presidential election, liberals have a purpose agenda to discredit anything that appears to be conservative. There has been much criticism lately over the Internet with people pointing out the Mikkelson’s liberalism revealing itself in their website findings.
Gee, what a shock?
So, I say this now to everyone who goes to snopes.com to get what they think to be the bottom line fact ‘proceed with caution.’ Take what it says at face value and nothing more. Use it only to lead you to their references where you can link to and read the sources for yourself. Plus, you can always Google a subject and do the research yourself. It now seems apparent that’s all the Mikkelson’s do. After all, I can personally vouch from my own experience for their ‘not’ fully looking into things.
http://http//www.wikipedia.org/ or http://http//www.snopes.com/
I have found this to be true also! Many videos of Obama I tried to verify on Snopes and they said they were False. Then they gave their liberal slant! I have suspected some problems with Snopes for some time now, but I have only caught them in half-truths. If there is any subjectivity they do an immediate full left rudder.
Truth or Fiction, is a better source for verification, in my opinion.
TruthOrFiction.com-Is that forwarded email Truth or Fiction? Research into stories, scams, hoaxes, myths, and urban legends on the InternetI have recently discovered that Snopes.com is owned by a flaming liberal and this man is in the tank for Obama. There are many things they have listed on their site as a hoax and yet you can go to You tube yourself and find the video of Obama actually saying these things. So you see, you cannot and should not trust Snopes.com, ever for anything that remotely resembles truth! I don’t even trust them to tell me if email chains are hoaxes anymore.
A few conservative speakers on MySpace told me aboutSnopes.com. A few months ago and I took it upon myself to do a little research to find out if it was true. Well, I found out for myself that it is true. Anyway just FYI please don’t use Snopes.com anymore for fact checking and make your friends aware of their political leanings as well. Many people still think Snopes.com is neutral and they can be trusted as factual. We need to make sure everyone is aware that that is a hoax in itself.
Thank you,
Alan StrongAlan Strong CEO/Chairman
Commercial Programming Systems, Inc.
4400 Coldwater Canyon Ave. Suite
200 Studio City, CA. 91604-5039
By faith Noah,being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear,prepared an ark to the saving of his house;by the which he condemned the world,and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith Heb.11:7
Now mind you, Snopes is still a good resource for the weird chain mails and such. I just wouldn’t trust tem with anything political.
Anyone with differing opinions? Email me at alamocitypundit@hotmail.com or hit the Comments section.
~Johnny~
Posted in Nutroots & Extremist Leftoids, Obama | Tagged Leftoids, Nutroots, Obama | 3 Comments »
Luke 24
The Resurrection
1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7′The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8Then they remembered his words.
9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
On the Road to Emmaus
13
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16but they were kept from recognizing him.
17He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19″What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
25He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Christ[b] have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
33They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
36While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate it in their presence.
44He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
The Ascension
50When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.
Footnotes:
- Luke 24:13 Greek sixty stadia (about 11 kilometers)
- Luke 24:26 Or Messiah; also in verse 46
Why, you might be wondering, did the creator of Heaven and Earth rise from the grave? Certainly not for little old me?
Actually, YES. That’s exactly why; for little old You. Mostly because You need a Savior!
Trying to make it to heaven on our own goodness is like trying to get to the moon on a moon beam; nice idea, but try it and see what happens.
Listen. Quit trying to quench your own guilt. You can’t do it. There’s no way.
Not with a bottle of whiskey or perfect Sunday school attendance. Sorry. I don’t care how bad you are. You can’t be bad enough to forget it. And I don’t care how good you are. You can’t be good enough to overcome it.
You need a Savior.
~Johnny~
Posted in Christianity, Holidays | Tagged Christianity, Holidays | 1 Comment »
I won’t be posting much this weekend. This is the single most important three days in the history of the world, and it seems the least I can do is dedicate some small portion of that time to prayer and worship of the One who makes it all possible.
From time to time I may “liveblog” the events of the days this weekend as they happened at the time they happened. Somehow it really seems to deepen my understanding and insight into the crucifixion when I read the crucifixion passage at 3:00 pm on Good Friday.
Your mileage may vary.
Otherwise, I’ll be out performing acts of service (my pastor needs to move today), so here’s a big hunk o’ gospel to tide you over till later.
John 18: Jesus Before Pilate
28Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.29So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
30“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
31Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected. 32This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.
33Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
34“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
35“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”38“What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
40They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.
John 19
Jesus Sentenced to be Crucified
1Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck him in the face.
4Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”6As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”7The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10″Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
12From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
13When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.15But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.16Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read:|sc JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”22Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
23When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24″Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said,
“They divided my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.”[a] So this is what the soldiers did.25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” 27and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
The Death of Jesus
28Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”[b] 37and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”[c]The Burial of Jesus
38Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.[d] 40Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Footnotes:
18- (b) John 18:24 Or (Now Annas had sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.)
19- (a) John 19:24
(b) Psalm 22:18 John 19:36 Exodus 12:46; Num. 9:12; Psalm 34:20
(c) John 19:37 Zech. 12:10
(d) John 19:39 Greek a hundred litrai (about 34 kilograms)
~Johnny~
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
John 13
Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet
1It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.[a]
2The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
9“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
10Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
~Johnny~
Posted in Christianity | Tagged Christianity | 1 Comment »
You gotta give the squiddies credit; They do great work when they’re in their element:
NAIROBI, Kenya | U.S. naval forces say they’ve captured five pirates after exchanging fire with them, sinking their skiff and confiscating a mother ship.
The USS Nicholas came under fire early Thursday from pirates in an area west of the Seychelles.
The U.S. Africa Command said the five pirates seized would remain in U.S. custody on board the frigate for time time being. The Nicholas is home-ported in Norfolk, Va.
Experts say piracy will continue to be a problem until an effective government is established on Somalia’s lawless shores. The country has not had a functioning government for 19 years.
Wikipedia notes the idiot pirates were sorely outmatched:
USS Nicholas (FFG-47), an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Major Samuel Nicholas, the first commanding officer of the United States Marines. A third-generation guided missile frigate of the Oliver Hazard Perry class, she was laid down as Bath Iron Works hull number 388 on 27 September 1982 and launched 23 April 1983.
Nicholas was designed to provide in-depth protection for military and merchant shipping, amphibious task forces, and underway replenishment groups. Her 453-foot (loa) hull displaces 4,100 tons and her gas turbine power develops 41,000 shp (31,000 kW) for a single screw, giving a top speed of 29 plus knots.
Since her commissioning, Nicholas has deployed to the Persian Gulf, Mediterranean and North Sea, as well as participating in maritime interdiction operations and various fleet exercises. During her first four years as a commissioned vessel, she earned three Battle Efficiency “E” awards, and theBattenberg Cup as the best ship in the Atlantic Fleet. She earned the Top Ship award from Commander Battle Force Sixth Fleet during her first deployment to the Mediterranean.
You gotta be smokin’ one heck of a lot of jimson weed to mistake the “Top Ship in Two Fleets” for a freighter, buddy. Plus pile all the Brain-Addling on top of an underlying bedrock of bone-stupid to start.
One item worth noting; the Seychelles (B) are one hell of a long way from the Horn of Africa (A); actually the better part of the way to the U.S. Marine Base at Diego Garcia (C).
One almost wonders if the pirates might be basing from Madagascar now, which, as we al know who’ve seen the movie, is home of Julian, King of the Lemurs. If these pirates were lemurs, that would explain a lot.
Go Squids!
~Johnny~
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Texas is in the midst of controversy today. As our Attorney General Greg Abbott has just recently joined 14 states in challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare, Governor Perry is stubbornly refusing to re-convene the Texas Legislature (which meets only every other year) to invoke the Tenth Amendment and Nullify ObamaCare.
The Reason? It’s an election year, and candidates (including Perry) are prohibited from fundraising when the legislature is in session. As you can imagine, many of us are up in arms about it.
The Facebook Group Texan to Texan posted these two messages in the last few days. This first is from March 29th:
It’s official as of today:
With the Governor refusing to take action to call a special session of the legislature to formally nullify the disastrous legislation or to take SUBSTANTIVE protective action on behalf of Texans, or to take a stance on the matter, a delegation from each county will be selected to convene as allowed by the Texas Constitution, Article 1, Section 2 which states that the People of Texas have the right at all times to alter, reform or abolish their government.
We don’t need more legislation, we need leadership to enforce the Tenth Amendment which declares all powers not specifically delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states and to the people.
If our government will not take action, the people of Texas will.
Historically, the federal government has declared nullification illegal and has declared that federal law trumps state law, so we do not expect that the joint law suit which the Texas Atty. General joined, will be successful.
Christians (but not only Christians) are up in arms over federal funding of abortions, which causes them to be complicit in the murders; Texas is on a deficit trajectory and in fact, 12 billion dollars in stimulus money was used to balance the budget this year. We cannot bear these new mandates, which will destroy our competitive advantage and our economy.
The federal government has not only refused to protect our border, but has supplied incentives to illegals to cross into Texas and the federal government is planning to grant amnesty.
The federal government is altering our Republican form of government legislatively and without our consent. These are but a few of the reasons we must act.
IT IS NOW TIME TO CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO EXERT PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNOR AND TO RECONSIDER THEIR POSITION. Please call your reps immediately and inform them of our intent to convene. You can find them easily at:
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
And just in case you thought that was so much hot air, this one arrived this morning. And, no, None of this is an April Fool’s joke:
Since we learned there is a movement afoot to call for a convention of delegates to protect the sovereignty of Texas and nullify the oppressive and unconstitutional legislation that would destroy our form of government and our economy, citizens from these 13 counties have voiced their personal support for the endeavor:
Johnson, Brazoria, Gonzales, Rains, Ft. Bend, Jefferson, Hood, Hill, Dallas, Hunt, Navarro, Comal and Harris counties.
Some are calling for an Ordinance of Secession rather than Nullification.
If you are FOR taking this measure so that our Texas government will have authority from its people to rebuff the enforcement of these mandates, please send me your YES vote and state the county you reside in.
It will be necessary to enlist the aide of high-ranking officials in the Texas government in order to gain political legitimacy for this action and secure support at the county level. I will be taking the list of counties with me to a meeting with the Conservative Coalition on April 1st–and I hope we are able to persuade them to take a stand with the people. The names of individuals supporting this action will NOT be revealed.
It is still necessary to keep up the pressure on Governor Perry and our legislators:
Governor Perry:
Opinion Line: 1-800-252-9600
Direct Line: 1-512-463-2000Find your rep at: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
If you are AGAINST this measure, please respond as well. If you are NOT sure, please discuss it with each other, Texan to Texan. This is a grassroots effort, just talking Texan to Texan about what we can and should do about our current situation. Thanks,
Theresa Matthews
I’ve just replied to Theresa, so you can count Bexar County in as well.
Boy, THIS could get ugly fast. Continuing to gain steam as we watch — and you heard it here first.
~Johnny~
Posted in Rick Perry, Tenth Amendment, Texas | Tagged Rick Perry, Tenth Amendment, Texas | 2 Comments »
From KVAL in ever-so-liberal Portland, Oregon; comes this story of peaceful Liberals offended at the Police (naturally), and peacefully expressing their disagreements through tea and cookies seminars.
NOT. {/sarcasm}
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A chanting crowd of at least 200 protesters angry over two recent police-involved shootings marched Monday evening through downtown Portland.
The Oregonian reported that police took at least four people into custody. One officer told dispatchers he had been hit by a rock.
Separately, the Rev. Jesse Jackson was in town Monday. He, too, criticized the recent fatal shootings, calling them “symptoms of a deeper problem of insensitivity and detachment.”
Oh yeah; I’m Suuuuuuuuuuure his being their was completely unrelated to the demonstations. Riiiiiiight. (Parasite!)
On Jan. 29, Officer Ron Frashour shot and killed an unarmed man, Aaron Campbell, in an apartment building parking lot in a situation that started out as a welfare check.
The U.S. Justice Department has launched a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Campbell, 25.
On March 22, Officer Jason Walters shot and killed Jack Dale Collins, a 58-year-old homeless man who reportedly was causing a disturbance in Hoyt Arboretum. The officer said he fired when Collins came at him with a knife and refused to drop the weapon.
Jackson said the lack of resources available to homeless people is an “an embarrassment to the church and to the state.”
Well, not to point out the obvious, Reverend Dumbass, but what has YOUR church done to help the homeless lately? (Oh that’s right – you don’t actually HAVE a church you pastor; you just try to extort money from corporations in Chicago. Sorry, forgot that.)
A grand jury is expected to consider the Collins’ shooting later this week.
During a visit in February, Jackson called Campbell’s death an “execution” and criticized a Multnomah County grand jury’s decision to clear Frashour of any wrongdoing. Jackson’s latest visit was planned before the Collins’ shooting.
A police spokeswoman said the Police Bureau didn’t have a response to Jackson’s comments.
During Monday evening’s protest, police used bicycle officers and officers on horseback in an effort to keep the marchers on sidewalks as they followed a route past the federal courthouse, the justice center and the federal building.
At one point, a window was broken in a Bank of America office.
The protest was the latest of several recent demonstrations in reaction to the police shootings.
Monday’s event was promoted by the Cascadia Convergence Network, which called online for a protest march to mark the second-month anniversary of the Campbell shooting.
A group known as the Black Bloc had also posted plans for Monday’s protest, advising members how to split up and evade police detection by bringing a change of clothing.
And how nice that the “Black Bloc” is helping people evade arrest. Isn’t that some kind of crime? Harboring a criminal or something? Don’t look for anybody in Oregon to even think about prosecuting this as a criminal act, though.
Just out of curiosity, I wonder who Jesse Jackson calls when he’s in trouble? It sure isn’t the cops.
Obama maybe?
~Johnny~
Posted in Nutroots & Extremist Leftoids, Obama | Tagged Leftoids, Nutroots, Obama | 2 Comments »
It is with a great deal of regret that I have decided not to link to the blog of Debbie Schlussel any more. She’s linked here before, for which I am extremely grateful. We’ve even exchanged e-mails (not all of them happy), which was a tremendous encouragement to me as a young neophyte blogger.
Debbie’s a great blogger, a wonderful writer, and I should be so lucky as to write half as well as she does on a daily basis.
But Debbie’s got a bug up her bonnet. And the bug’s name is Sean Hannity.
Debbie has written twice about Sean Hannity’s involvement with the Freedom Concerts and The Freedom Alliance, on March 25th and March 18th. But Schlussel’s enmity for Hannity goes far deeper than just the “Freedom Concerts Scandal”. A search of her website mentions Sean Hannity literally dozens of times, for 7 pages of search results.. She even mentions him in negative ways in her movie reviews!
She criticizes his guests. She criticizes his programming choices. In fact, I was unable to find one single positive mention of Sean Hannity anywhere on her website.
And I’m a fan of Debbie’s. I’m not necessarily a fan of Sean’s. He seems like a nice guy; and I admire his effort with the Freedom concerts. But I don’t have cable – nor an antenna or satellite. I don’t watch ANY TV; and when i did, I though Fox’s “Hannity” was the weakest show in their evening lineup. (That’s not meant to be a slam against Sean; just my personal preference.)
The basis of her original animus appears to be that someone on Hannity’s staff may have plagiarized one of Debbie’s articles in February 2007 — see HERE. But you be the judge.
Brent Bozell has too, as he notes on Newsbuteres HERE which was originally taken from his Facebook page. He also notes the Libs are starting to pick up on Debbie’s screed, too.
Brian Maloney and the Freedom Alliance have weighed in on the controversy. Plus Newsbusters, FrumForum, and American Spectator have all done their own investigations. None of them have found any wrongdoing.
Me? It’s just getting painful avoiding the Hannity screeds on Debbie’s site. Debbie, I love your stuff, but I’ve had enough.
So, I’m no longer linking to Debbie’s site. Just so you know. My apologies for any inconvenience this might cause.
~Johnny~
Posted in Blogs, Conservative Thoughts | Tagged Blogs, Conservatives | 1 Comment »
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