Endorsement Train

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today added his name to the list people endorsing John McCain for President. This begs the question, is there no end to this train of Pseudo-Republicans who are going to come out in favor of the Pseudo-Republican poster child?

Beyond this, in last nights debate, did anyone else notice that John McCain was very angry, defensive, nasty and vicious every time that anyone questioned his liberal record. He snidely and angrily proclaimed himself to be proud of his record, and twisted the facts about his record as much as possible to make it seem like it wasn't so bad.

As if his anger and twisting of his own record aren't bad enough, he told out and out lies about Mitt Romney, and even when he was clearly given the facts, he would not let go of those lies. He proved himself to be a politician, twisting not only his own record, but also Mitt Romney's record, and trying to twist his words, any way he could, to try to make himself look better than Romney. This is a classic trait of a liar. The liar feels that they can only look good if he can make other look bad. I don't understand why it is that people don't seem to be able to see through this.

McCain likes to talk of honor, but sadly, he has forgotten anything he ever knew about that subject.

Many will tell us that McCain's age shouldn't matter, and to some extent, they are correct. But one thing that the polls are showing is that seniors are voting for McCain at an alarming rate, that means that they are voting for him because of his age. This is just a crazy reason to vote for him. It's just as crazy to vote for someone based on age as it is to vote for someone based on race or gender. The fact is that none of these people are too young for the office, in fact, they can't be. Constitutionally a person must be a minimum of 35 years of age in order to be President.

McCain accuses Romney of mis-using buzz words, and yet all he seems able to do is use buzzwords to tell us that we should elect him. Of course, we shouldn't elect him, after all, if he couldn't keep his temper in check durring a debate, where you have to expect that people are going to say some not-so-nice things about you, how will he handle real problems on the world stage?

McCain accuses Romney of saying that he never held a real job, which is not what Romney said at all. What Romney said, and he has said it several times, that he (Romney) unlike McCain, has held a job in the real ecconomy. This is true. McCain was in the military, and he's been a politician, he has no experience actually getting things done outside of one of those two structures. Clearly military service bodes well for many people in many aspects of life, but there is no evidence to suggest it makes a person a better President, at least by itself.

Some are saying that because we are in a time of war, and McCain has been in the military, that he is the obvious choice to lead our country at this time. However, given that McCain is obviously the type of person who will not listen to other people, and will not allow for the possibility that he could be wrong, even when the errors in his own record are shown to him, he still will not admit mistakes. This makes him the worst option for the Oval Office. Someone like Romney knows the value of listening to people who know. He doesn't need to have his own military experience to draw on, he will have plenty of Generals to tell him what needs to be done, and let's face it, they are the ones that need to be listened to, even if the President has military service in his own past.

Now, for those who feel that they can't vote for Romney because of his Mormonism, I'll repeat something I've said before, by voting for him for President, you are not embracing or endorsing, or in any way approving of his religion.

I'm not saying that Romney is the best choice we could hope for, but he is clearly the best choice of what is left.

Another thing that Republicans should find telling, aside from the fact that McCain was endorsed by "The New York Times," and all his other endorsements are coming from liberal and so-called moderate Republicans, is the fact that Democrats are thrilled that he is doing so well. Why? Because, if McCain is the Republican Nominee, they get a Democrat for President no matter who wins. I still don't see how people don't see this.

McCain would be a disasterous choice for President of the United States of America. We cannot afford to put him in office. He has taken far too many stands against basic liberties, he has taken stands against the Constitution, he has a long history of pandering to Democrats, and embracing their point of view in the name of bipartisanship and getting stuff done. Sorry, John, doing the wrong thing is worse than doing nothing at all. He believes in Amnesty for illegal aliens, regardless of what he is saying in order to try to get people to vote for him. McCain is NOT the good choice for Republicans.

One of the ways that those in Washington get away with doing Unconstitutional things is because the American people don't know what the Constitution says. Don't let this be you, if you don't have a copy, you can go to http://www.heritage.org/ and they will send you a free pocket Constitution, so that you can see these things for yourself.

Touched By The Sun

There is a common joke in Florida that Floridians are monumentally stupid. I've always said that just being from, or in, Florida doesn't automatically make one stupid, after all, there are stupid people anywhere you go, it's just that here in Florida, we have more than our fair share. Yesterday this was proven by the victory of Senator John McCain in the GOP primary.

If you haven't read the comments on my last post (Weasel Endorsement) you should really do so. John McCain is no kind of Republican, and certainly no kind of Conservative. When he makes a speech, he tries to pull off a certain boyish charm, but the fact is that he's an ill tempered old man with a hair trigger that we can not risk in the Oval Office.

Now there is talk that Giuliani will drop out of the race and endorse McCain, which could give McCain the nomination, which would give us much reason for distress.

I actually heard someone on Fox News last night make the statement that Rush Limbaugh was the saddest person in the Republican party right now because he is against McCain, and McCain won. Let me just say that this is ridiculous. Any Conservative Republican should be saddened by this turn of events. If this turn toward McCain continues, it signals an abandonment of the true Conservative principles that are the best hope for the future of this country.

McCain likes to talk about being a foot soldier in the Conservative Revolution started off by Ronald Reagan. That's all well and good, it's just too bad that he ended up being a turncoat and doing his level best to destroy everything that the Reagan revolution stood for. I hope that voters in the rest of the country will take a good hard look at McCain, see him for who and what he truly is, and not cast any more votes for him.

On the Democratic side, a few thoughts. If you don't know, Hillary stomped the snot out of Obama in Florida, 50% to 33%. Then the Obama camp said that it was really a tie because they both got zero delegates out of it. To me this statement says that Obama doesn't take the voters in Florida seriously. So eager was his camp to downplay the Clinton victory in the Sunshine state that they thumbed their noses at the entire state. Hopefully they will remember this when it comes to the General election in November, but with the stupidity that was rampant here yesterday, it doesn't seem likely.

Another thing that I find amusing is the number of Conservative radio personalities that hate Hillary so much that they end up speaking favorably of Obama, which is funny because, as bad as Hillary is, Obama is actually worse. The difference is that they haven't known Obama long enough to hate him, but they sure do hate Hillary Clinton, and so passionate are they against her that they almost sound like they are in favor of Obama becoming President. I'm sure they don't mean to come across that way, but they still do.

Also hearing now that John Edwards is dropping out of the race on the Democratic side. Not a big surprise, since he hasn't been a serious contender for months now.

It still remains to be seen what is going to happen as far as who gets the nominations from the major parties, but on the dem side it doesn't matter much to me, I won't be voting for either one of them. On the GOP side, if it's McCain I won't be voting for him either, as he might prove to be worse than the dems in some area's. If it's Romney, it'll take some convincing, but I just might vote for him, especially if he has a good running mate.

Looking at the possibility that the Republican party will declare itself to be finished with Conservatives by nominating McCain, it may well be time for Conservatives, the real Republicans as it were, to find a new party, or form a new party if needed, that is still based on doing what is right. There is nothing that says that once a Republican, always a Republican, and there is nothing that says that you must become an independent or a Democrat, these do not have to be the only options open to us. I'm not saying that the time has come just yet, but we very well may see the time come very, very soon. Just some food for thought.

Weasel Endorsement

Florida's Weasel of a pretend Republican Governor is at it again. This time endorsing John McCain, another pretend Republican, for the Republican nomination for President. Please note that the term weasel is applied solely to Crist and not to McCain. McCain is no kind of Republican, but he is respectable in that he hasn't really pretended to be something that he's not, other than a Republican, and he is a true American hero, and therefore deserves respect, just not votes. Crist on the other hand is a pretender (and a weasel) who rode into the office of the Governor of our great state on the coat tails of Jeb Bush, a truly great man and great Governor. Since his election, Crist has done very little to honor the trust that was placed in him, and much to disgrace the great man that he followed into office. Hopefully Republicans will see this and we will have a good solid Republican leader to step up and crush Governor Weasel... errr... Crist in the Gubernatorial Primary in two years... but I digress.

Do we really need to know anything about McCain beyond the fact that he was endorsed by the ultra-liberal, outrageously far left radical rag, The New York Times? And do we need to know anything more about Crist than that he is in agreement with the New York Times? I don't think so.

Tomorrow is that day that Floridians will vote for their pick for the Presidential nominees, and my guess is that Romney will take the Republican side. Obviously I don't know for sure, and this is not a prediction, only a guess. I base this on the fact that McCain has only carried the primaries that he has so far because independents, and in some cases Democrats, were able to vote in the Republican Primary. This is not the case in Florida, nor should it be, this is not the general election, and each party should nominate it's own candidate without interference from uncommitted persons, or the opposition party. With dems voting, it's no wonder McCain has pulled off some victories. Also, despite what some in the media would have you believe, I think that a lot of Thompsons supporters will vote for Romney, not Huckabee. And Guiliani is doing very poorly in the polls right now, looking at a hard fight just to finish third. Therefore I am guessing that Romney will take the pot of gold that is the Florida Primary.

Truly the Florida Primary is a pot of gold, being one week before Super Tuesday, a victory here gives a candidate a lot of momentum moving into other big states. Florida is also a big state with a lot of delegates at stake, and unlike many other states, it is a winner take all state, with the first place finisher getting all the delegates and second place getting treated badly.

As for Guiliani, if you have paid any attention to the Republicans in the election cycle at all, you have almost certainly heard him talk about having been appointed by Reagan, and having worked for Reagan. Well, as luck would have it, I just finished reading "The Reagan Diaries" this morning, and found something absolutely delicious on page 618, in the entry for Tuesday, June 14th of 1988. Reagan writes, "And Guiliani (U.S. Attorney) is talking of drawing up an indictment against Marcos. I think he's crazy." (Bold Mine.) So there you have it, Reagan thought Guiliani was crazy!! How great is that!??! Ok, I admit, he's only talking in reference to one issue, but I still think it's great. I nearly laughed myself silly upon reading that line. I understand why Rudy hasn't used that in his stump speech, but I do wonder why no one in the media, or one of his opponents, hasn't latched onto it yet. To me, it's too much fun to pass up.

On a completely different, and non-political note, today marks the 22nd anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster. In his diary for that day President Reagan writes, "A day we'll remember for the rest of our lives." ... "Then I was getting a briefing for a meeting I was to have with network anchors--an advance on the St. of the Union address scheduled for tonight. In came Poindexter & the V.P. with the news the shuttle Challenger had blown up on takeoff. We all then headed for a TV & saw the explosion re-played. From then on there was only one subject--the death of the 6 crew & 1 passenger--Mrs. McAuliffe, the teacher who had won the right to make the flight. There is no way to describe our shock & horror. We cancelled--I should say postponed the St. of the Union address til next week. Cong. closed down for the day." I think it important that we never forget those who died that day.

Also, tonight is President Bush's final State of the Union address. Regardless of who wins the Presidency this year, this will be the final time that George W. Bush will be giving this address, as he has less than one year left in office. While I don't count myself amongst his strong supporters, I do wish him the best in this final year, and hope that he will lead our nation well, and hand the incoming president some real progress to build on.

Doctored

A little while ago I made some reference to Dr. Phil getting himself some scorn for going to see Brittany Spears and then talking to the press about her. Apparently some in California want to add some trouble to the scorn.

From a news story that I read, since Dr. Phil is not licensed to practice in California, they want to charge him first off with practicing medicine without a license, even though, according to him, all the did was visit her and talk to her, and it was not a counseling session. He says he was there as a friend to the family. Anyway, it takes another twist, because he talked to the press they want to charge him also with violating Dr.-Patient privilege. At this point I'm a little confused. Aren't the two mutually exclusive? If he couldn't be there as a Dr. because he can't practice in that state, can he really be held to any sort of Dr.-Patient privilege? I just don't see how you could charge him with both at the same time.

I think that there is more to this however. I think that some of these people just don't like the guy. On top of all of the above nonsense, they also want to either ban his show from the airwaves in California, or to have a disclaimer placed in the front of it that the advice dispensed by Dr. Phil is contrary to what a licensed Psychologist might tell you. That's why I say that it would seem that those people just plain don't like him. It's really too bad that some people try to abuse power to force other people to go along with their own personal likes and dislikes.

For myself, I've watched Dr. Phil before, but I don't care too much about watching his show. Honestly though, I think that it's the people that he has on that bug me more than he does. Actually, a lot of the advice he gives isn't half bad. Mostly he talks about common sense ideals and taking responsibility for a persons own actions. That being said, I don't agree with all the advice I've heard him give, and most of the people that he has on his show are so idiotic, and have such nonsensical problems that you just want to smack them instead of listening to them whine and drone on and on about their nonsensical problems.

I even read one of his books once. It was the one on weight loss, and again, it wasn't half bad. Basically he took a common sense approach, and told everyone to be smart and make the correct decisions, but he did it in such a way as to make it more interesting, and he probably helped a lot of people with that book.

Like I said, I don't care much for watching his show personally, but I also don't think it's right to try to force other people not to watch it just because you don't like his style, or the advice he gives.

Isn't it time that some people grow up?

And yes, I understand that I have hit an all time low, blogging about Dr. Phil... I am ashamed... Ok, so not really.

Stimulus

We are all pretty much aware of the fact that our economy isn't in the greatest shape. Many fear that we are heading for a recession. We know that a lot of people have lost jobs as companies move productions facilities overseas to take advantage of lower wages and lower tax rates, and few regulations and restrictions, and even though a lot of these people who have lost these jobs have been able to replace them, they often end up working for far less than they had been in the job that they lost. Suffice it to say that things aren't as good as we would like to see them.

Some of the problems that people are facing were brought on by themselves. Buying houses that they couldn't afford in the first place, on adjustable rate mortgages, has really hurt a lot of people, but they did it to themselves. Also, with the outrageous cost of cars these days, a lot of people have bought cars that they can't begin to afford. A lot of this comes from our instant gratification culture, where you must have whatever it is that you want right now, without regard for the long term consequences. This also leads to increased credit card debt, which just puts people farther down, never a good situation.

On top of all of this is the fact that our Government has done a lousy job of managing our economy. With high taxes, and over regulations in certain area's, and not enough in others, have driven companies to move operations overseas. Also, with outrageously out of control spending, and not being able to control themselves with our money, they have taxed the American people nearly to death. On top of that they have spent so much money that they have had to borrow it in order to meet all of the obligations that they have come up with. Then you have social programs that reward people for not working, and give them no enticement to get out and get a job, which is a further drain on our economy. Of course there is also their refusal to act on illegal immigration which has the same affect. Out of control spending, out of control taxes and borrowing, and just plain stupidity has put us in the situation we are in.

The problem is not with Capitalism, the problem is with Government officials, elected and otherwise, who are not doing the jobs that they are supposed to be doing. I wish I could say that it was all the Democrats fault, but that would be dishonest, the Republicans had more than ample opportunity to straighten things out and make them better, but instead they just kept making them worse.

So now we can all rest easy, you see, the President and Congress have come up with a plan to "stimulate" the economy by giving us all money. Isn't that a great plan? They say that they will give $600 to each working adult, $1,200 for a working couple, plus $300 per child, in order to entice people to spend money. Of course it won't work, most of the people who qualify are going to use the money for bills, or to pay off credit cards and such things, but that is not my point. The point is that they broke it, and they don't want to take the hard steps to fix it, and so now they want to buy us off, with our own money, which we only don't have because they took it from us in the first place. And this is supposed to make everything better? Does anyone see any logic to this? Apparently they haven't heard that sometimes it really is better to do nothing, if you're too stupid to do the right thing anyway.

If this doesn't prove to you that a vast majority of elected officials need to be sent packing, and replaced with intelligent people who are interested in doing what is right, rather than playing political games and following their ideology, then I guess nothing will.

A lot of attention is being given to the Presidential election, by me and everyone else, but we need to be careful not to forget that the President is only one person, and has limited power to affect change within our nation as it is the Congress who controls the purse strings. We need to take a good hard look at the people who will be running for Congress this year, so that we pick a Congress who will do the right thing, and not play politics with our lives.

Studies

A new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which means it's not some fly by night group that nobody has ever heard of, it's the Federal Government, says that an increase in Ocean Temperatures, due to Global Warming, will result in more wind sheer over portions of the Atlantic Ocean, which will cause far FEWER Hurricanes in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean, and make it nearly impossible for a Hurricane to hit the Southeastern US. I wonder how Al Gore will spin this one.

To me this is not proof of anything other than what I have been saying right along, that the people who cannot tell you with certainty if it will rain tomorrow, or where those Hurricanes will go in 36 hours, cannot possibly know what is going to happen decades down the road.

Besides this is the fact that Global Warming, that is to say, the slight increase in average surface temperatures around the world, has not been proven to be anything beyond normal climate temperature cycles. And we keep hearing lies about what it all means in any event. For instance, we hear about ice melting in Antarctica, while the truth is that the temperatures in Antarctica have gone down, and the ice shelf has increased over the last few years.

When the lies are so blatant, and so easily debunked, how can we trust any of these people anymore?

Ramblings

I made my opinion of Oprah's endorsement of Obama very clear in a previous post, however, I just heard something on the news that I found kind of funny. I guess some of Oprah's female fans are all up in arms because she endorsed the black male candidate instead of the female candidate. In other words, they are upset because they feel that she picked a candidate based on race... instead of based on gender. Ok, for me, I don't know, and never claimed to know, if race was a deciding factor in her choice to endorse Obama or not. I don't think it's too large of a leap of imagination to assume that it was, but we really don't have any way to know for sure. I could see if people somehow found out that she did, and were upset about that, for obvious reasons, but for those same people to be upset because she didn't pick a candidate based on gender is just so outrageous. It's just as silly and ridiculous to vote based solely on gender as it is to vote based solely on race. We need to vote based on issues and character that we learn about because we take the time to learn about them for ourselves. How silly is this?

Some say that John McCain learned his lesson on immigration (and if you're one of the people who said that to me, you're not the only one, I've heard it from several different people) following the defeat of the insane McCain/Kennedy farce bill, but I don't see how that can be. To this day John McCain does not admit that his plan was amnesty. I guess people say that they like that he says that he does not believe in amnesty, which is good, neither do I, but where I think we need to part ways with McCain is that he swears that his bill was not amnesty. The truth, though, is that it was amnesty, all dressed up and disguised in an ultimately vain attempt to sneak it by the American people, but it was amnesty, and I would respect honesty from the man far more that I could ever respect his new "I'm tough on illegal immigration" rhetoric. I'm a sheep in terms of my relationship to God, but not in terms of my relationship to other humans, so, sorry Senator, I won't follow blindly into your bold vision of the North American Union.

Have you been left wondering lately if it is possible to Worship God outside of your local Church? I think, and I admit that I could be wrong, that a lot of people are confused by what worship means. I think that some people do feel that they can only worship on Sunday morning with all the other Church-goers. I can tell you, for certain, Worship comes from our hearts, and can be done anywhere, at any time, it can be spontaneous within ourselves, or it can be triggered by some stimulus. Just today at the Gym the song Adonai by Avalon came on my MP3 player, and it really moved me. I actually felt compelled to raise my hands in Worship, but I was stopped from doing this by a very real and legitimate fear that if I did so I would fall right off the treadmill, which I didn't think would be a good idea.

I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard by now that movie star Heath Ledger was found dead yesterday, apparently from a drug overdose, possibly accidental, and potentially from prescription drugs, they haven't really cleared all that up yet, but it is a sad thing any time that someone dies. I didn't see much of his work, though I'm sure I'll see his final film, the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight" where he plays the Joker, because it's the kind of movie I'm likely to see anyway. Other than that I saw the Patriot where he played alongside Mel Gibson, and proved himself to be a really great actor. I wish his family, and especially his daughter, the best going forward.

Another news story is about the wife of a school administrator who fairly well ripped into a student who called her house looking for her husband. Of course, the kid recorded the conversation, and the TV people only played the woman's side of the conversation, which makes me wonder right there. She was obviously very angry, so I'm guessing the kid was pretty snotty to her, and she unloaded quite a bit on him. My position on this is, good for her. The kid had no right to call her home and give her a hard time because he didn't like something that her husband had done. Besides, she never swore, she never threatened, she just told it like she saw it. More people should have to guts to stand up and say what needs to be said. If they did, just maybe, the obnoxious among us wouldn't cause quite so many problems.