October 30, 2008
Mitch, Mike, Tony and Sarah
The Palin rally was an experience to say the least. We waited for nearly an hour in traffic on the way there; getting home took 90 minutes, even though we live seven miles from the event site. Estimates put the crowd at 16,000, but that does not include the thousands of people who missed the entire rally because they were stuck on the nearby interstate and were forced to turn around and go home.
While the crowd was certainly enthusiastic and I met some very nice people, I still don't believe it will be enough to secure victory on Tuesday. Nonetheless, here are two photos we took:
October 28, 2008
Barracuda in the House
The Lovely Kelli and I are going to a Republican rally tomorrow after work. This rally is special as the featured guest is Governor Sarah Palin. Music is being provided by Hank Williams, Jr. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that a crowd of thousands will be present.
Actually, this rally is a bad thing because it means Indiana is potentially in play this year, something that hasn't happened since 1964. Normally, candidates don't visit Indiana unless there's a tight Congressional race somewhere. Other than Clark County, where we live, and the counties near Chicago, the state is solidly red. Getting the Republican VP nominee at a rally 8 miles from our house is a once-in-a-generation event.
Kelli and I will take plenty of pictures. I'll post anything interesting.
October 27, 2008
No Posto
There is much to discuss, but the past few days have been so full of news (both good and bad) that I don't know where to begin. Unfortunately, our web filter at work considers this site to be pornographic in nature, so I can no longer post a morning or lunchtime ramble. I'm working on a better system, like being able to post in my sleep.
October 23, 2008
One-Armed Pollsters
Depending on which poll you read, John McCain is down either 11 percent or less than 2 percent to Barack Obama. Why the discrepancy? I'm guessing there are more undecided voters in this election than in any previous contest and they keep going back and forth. I believe it is a foolish American who is still undecided at this point, but the fact is there are many conservatives who are uncomfortable with Senator McCain and many center-right Democrats who see Obama for what he is, a socialist with a questionable personal history.
Speaking of socialists: I have decided that if Obama wins, I will refer to him and the people in his administration as neo-Marxists until such time they prove they are not. Why? Because G.W. was assigned every imaginable title even before he took the oath of office in January, 2001 and anyone as arrogant as Obama deserves a title more fitting his true beliefs.
And, finally, I have been given a title in the podcasting world. Yup, that's me at the bottom of the list. Good times.
October 21, 2008
Child Abuse?
You decide. I'd love to meet the asshat parents who let this ad go forward. Groups such as this have done a great job of making abortion some sort of sacrament or a barometer of personal freedom. Disgusting.
October 20, 2008
Slow Joe, Again
Joe Biden, the best thing to happen to the Republican Party since Michael Dukakis, told supporters in Seattle on Sunday that Barack Obama will face an international crisis during his first six months in office. In doing so, Slow Joe is comparing The Chosen One to another young President, John F. Kennedy. We all know the story of the Bay of Pigs debacle and the Cuban Missile Crisis. What most people don't remember is Kennedy's first meeting with Kruschev, in Vienna, Austria in June, 1961. It was this meeting that left Kruschev with the impression that Kennedy could be bullied.
Kennedy, ultimately, showed the Soviet Premier that he was made of pretty firm stuff. Unfortunately, 47-year old Barack Obama is not made of the same material. While Kennedy was born into priviledge, he at least knew the rigors of combat. He had displayed personal courage more than once, something that serves for all time as the true measure of a man. Obama's background contains no such raw materials; instead, his exposure to the world as an adult has been limited to liberal college professors and radical idealogues in the most politically-damaged city in the country. In the face of foreign crisis, be under no illusion that Obama will perform well. His belief in this nation's greatness is questionable, but his willingness to negotiate with mudering dictators is not.
October 19, 2008
Twittering
I just noticed today that over 100 people are following me on Twitter. That's a pretty low number in the big scheme of things, but I think it's at least respectable.
What's Twitter, you ask? Twitter is sort of like blogging, but in miniature. Each 'post' is limited to 140 characters and is visible on both a public timeline and more specifically, those who choose to 'follow' you on their personal favorites list. You can use Twitter by visiting www.twitter.com and signing up for free. I use Twitterfox, a Firefox add-on that runs in the lower right-hand corner of my browser and tells me when people I am following update their message. It's a great way to keep in touch without IMing or sending e-mails or hanging on the phone.
By the way, I'm off to our Michigan office on Monday morning. Both the new and old offices are in Temperance, a town near the Ohio border. It's near the western tip of Lake Erie, which I've never seen. It's also not far from Canada, but I probably won't have time to run up there. I'd like to cross the border and then come right back just to say I've been, but I doubt the border people are into that kind of thing these days.
October 16, 2008
The Song Is Over?
John McCain is going to lose on November 4th. This is not a prediction I make lightly, for I believe his loss marks the beginning of this nation's quick decline into a socialist quagmire. Senator Obama's class warfare strategy is paying off handsomely. But we will all pay in the end, regardless of our economic situation.
What I'm about to say is probably going to sound elitist, but so be it. Put simply, I have lost my faith in the base intelligence and awareness of the American voting public. I have known for a long time that millions of our citizens are too stupid to be active participants in helping to create a better society. Now, there are millions of voters who fall into the same category. We live in a nation where more people watch 'Dancing with the Stars' than can name even one Supreme Court justice. This is willful and blatant stupidity. It has nothing to do with education, socio-economic situation, race, religion, sex or mental ability. It is the result of decades of deadening entertainment presented as the cornerstone of our culture.
Have you ever heard someone say, "I'm just not into politics"? Of course you have. But we're Americans; we're supposed to choose our leaders. One of the our responsibilities as citizens of the United States is to be informed about the issues before us. It's not an option or a hobby. It's not equal to, say, someone's love of soap operas or reality TV. You can leave those things out of your life and be fine. But if you leave political awareness out of your life, you are turning your back on your nation. And on all those who have sacrificed everything so you could vote and live in a free society.
Barack Obama and his ilk are never going to tell you this. Instead, they will tell you that government exists to give you things and fix things for you. But there's a hard lesson in this, a lesson that has cost millions of lives in dozens of countries: every time your government gives you something, it also takes something. Most of the time, that 'something' is a little bit of freedom. Too many Americans are too simply too selfish and stupid to see the corner we have backed ourselves into. Maybe we'll smarten up by 2012. I just hope there's enough of the real America left to save.
October 15, 2008
The First 48
The last two days have been hectic here at Casa Dattilo. Kelli starting getting sick yesterday; I won't go into the details here other than to say it wasn't pleasant. We had a late-night trip to the emergency room last night and the doctor today plus some tests in the future. We don't think anything serious is wrong, but when you exhibit the symptoms she was experiencing, it's time for a trip to the ER. I would ask that you keep her in your prayers over the next few days.
McCain For The Win
As you know, most polls show Senators McCain and Obama essentially tied among the voting public, or at least within the margin of error. No matter how you split it, this is going to be a close election. But I believe there are a few things McCain/Palin can do to shore up their support and carry the day on November 4th:
First, play the part. McCain’s critics like to joke about his age; his performance at the last debate was described as being an imitation of Yosemite Sam. These jabs are going to continue, so McCain should play up to them. Remember Hillary Clinton’s ‘3am Phone Call’ ads? McCain should mention that he’s the man to receive those calls because he’s normally up going to bathroom around that time anyway. He should also work the phrase “back when the ships were wooden and men were steel” into his presentations to further mock those who would make his age an issue.
Second, turn the woman loose. Governor Palin has a reputation in Alaska for being a fierce campaigner. It’s way past time that McCain gave her the go-ahead to open fire on anything she considers a target. Call Obama a socialist; define “community organizer” at every stop; mention how corrupt politics in Chicago was and continues to be; question how a man could attend a church for 20 years and not realize the pastor is an anti-American racist. They’ve got nothing to lose here. The media looks down on such displays because they fear the damage it will do to The Anointed One.
Third: Ayers, Ayers, Ayers. William Ayers should be mentioned every day of the campaign. The fact that Obama began his statewide political career in the home of an unrepentant terrorist is a big deal because it calls into question the Senator’s judgment on everything. The excuse that Obama was a child in the late 60’s is irrelevant at best; if McCain befriended a former SS officer, would the fact that he was a child during the Second World War be an acceptable excuse?
Finally, stop saying “my friends”. It’s an annoying habit and one that reminds many of us of Richard Nixon. McCain is not running to be The First Friend, but the President of the United States.
October 13, 2008
I Quit
My friend Dave sent me this little gem, a speech President Bush made over the weekend that many of you, I'm sure, missed:
Normally, I start these things out by saying 'My Fellow Americans.' Not doing it this time. If the polls are any indication, I don't know who more than half of you are anymore. I do know something terrible has happened, and that you're really not fellow Americans any longer.
I'll cut right to the chase here: I quit. Now before anyone gets all in a lather about me quitting to avoid impeachment, or to avoid prosecution or something, let me assure you: There's been no breaking of laws or impeachable offenses in this office.
The reason I'm quitting is simple. I'm fed up with you people. I'm fed up because you have no understanding of what's really going on in the world. Or of what's going on in this once-great nation of ours. And the majority of you are too damned lazy to do your homework and figure it out.
Let's start local. You've been sold a bill of goods by politicians and the news media. Meanwhile, all you can do is whine about gas prices, and most of you are too damn stupid to realize that gas prices are high because there's increased demand in other parts of the world, and because a small handful of noisy idiots are more worried about polar bears and beachfront property than your economic security.
We face real threats in the world. Don't give me this 'blood for oil' thing. If I were trading blood for o il I would've already seized Iraq 's oil fields and let the rest of the country go to hell. And don't give me this 'Bush Lied...People Died' crap either. If I were the liar you morons take me for, I could've easily had chemical weapons planted in Iraq so they could be 'discovered.' Instead, I owned up to the fact that the intelligence was faulty.
Let me remind you that the rest of the world thought Saddam had the goods, same as me. Let me also remind you that regime change in Iraq was official US policy before I came into office. Some guy named ' Clinton ' established that policy. Bet you didn't know that, did you?
Now some of you morons want to be led by a junior senator with no understanding of foreign policy or economics, and this nitwit says we should attack Pakistan , a nuclear ally. And then he wants to go to Iran and make peace with a terrorist who says he's going to destroy us. While he's doing that, he wants to give Iraq to al Qaeda, Afghanistan to the Taliban, Israel to the Palestinians, and your money to the IRS so the government can give welfare to illegal aliens, who he will make into citizens, so they can vote to re-elect him. He also thinks it's okay for Iran to have nuclear weapons, and we should stop our foreign aid to Israel. Did you sleep through high school?
You idiots need to understand that we face a unique enemy. Back during the cold war, there were two major competing political and economic models squaring off. We won that war, but we did so because fundamentally, the Communists wanted to survive, just as we do. We were simply able to out spend and out-tech them.
That's not the case this time. The soldiers of our new enemy don't care if they survive. In fact, they want to die. That'd be fine, as long as they weren't also committed to taking as many of you with them as they can. But they are. They want to kill you, and the bastards are all over the globe.
You should be grateful that they haven't gotten any more of us here in the United States since September 11. But you're not . That's because you've got no idea how hard a small number of intelligence, military, law enforcement, and homeland security people have worked to make sure of that. When this whole mess started, I warned you that this would be a long and difficult fight. I'm disappointed how many of you people think a long and difficult fight amounts to a single season of 'Survivor.'
Instead, you've grown impatient. You're incapable of seeing things through the long lens of history, the way our enemies do. You think that wars should last a few months, a few years, tops.
Making matters worse, you actively support those who help the enemy Every time you buy the New York Times, every time you send a donation to a cut-and-run Democrat's political campaign, well, dang it, you might just as well Fed Ex a grenade launcher to a Jihadist. It amounts to the same thing.
In this day and age, it's easy enough to find the truth. It's all over the Internet. It just isn't on the pages of the New York Times, USA Today, or on NBC News. But even if it were, I doubt you'd be any smarter. Most of you would rather watch American Idol or Dancing with the Stars.
I could say more about your expectations that the government will always be there to bail you out, even if you're too stupid to leave a city that's below sea level and has a hurricane approaching.
I could say more about your insane belief that government, not your own wallet, is where the money comes from. But I've come to the conclusion that were I to do so, it would sail right over your heads.
So I quit. I'm going back to Crawford. I've got an energy-efficient house down there (Al Gore could only dream) and the capability to be fully self-sufficient for years. No one ever heard of Crawford before I got elected, and as soon as I'm done here pretty much no one will ever hear of it again. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to die of old age before the last pillars of America fall.
Oh, and by the way, Cheney's quitting too. That means Pelosi is your new President. You asked for it. Watch what she does carefully, because I still have a glimmer of hope that there are just enough of you remaining who are smart enough to turn this thing around in 2008.
So that's it. God bless what's left of America.
Some of you know what I mean. The rest of you, kiss off.
PS - You might want to start learning Farsi, and buy a Koran.
Oh, if only W would give this speech on January 10th or so; it would make Eisenhower's farewell speech look feathery.
October 11, 2008
Weekend
Sorry for the lack of posts this past week. Work was very busy for a number of reasons, all of them positive. Kelli and I celebrated our tenth anniversary on Thursday; this is the first anniversary during which we have not been on vacation. With Kelli now a teacher, taking a week off in October is permanently down the drain. However, we did have a nice Friday night of steak and a movie. I guess we're becoming old people!
The politics continues on. More later.
October 06, 2008
Frankenstein Created The Monster
I was thinking this morning about former President Bill Clinton. He comes to mind when I think about the mainstream media because he was, and continues to be, a creature of their creation. In 1994, during the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, President Clinton took a long walk along one of the invasion beaches, seemingly alone. Of course, a greater number of media types than the number of souls jumping out of C-47s that fateful morning in 1944 were following the President’s every move as he thoughtfully crossed the hallowed ground where thousands of Americans died. At one point, he stopped and looked down at a small pile of stones miraculously present at his feet. He crouched down and made them into a cross. Cameras clicked and whirred. A moment in history was caught for all time.
As with almost all things Clintonian, the moment was staged. The neat pile of rocks had been placed there beforehand and the President knew exactly when to stop and make his little devotional cross. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knew this was just another scene in the soap opera of Bill Clinton's presidency, but the media ate it up. They knew they were being led to a contrived scene, but it didn't matter: the fact that the Clinton Machine was so slick made it worthy of worship.
Now, nearly 15 years later, Barack Obama has become the next magic manipulator for our leftist media. He attracts huge crowds (not one word about the popular rock bands who almost always precede his arrival), makes grand, sweeping speeches (not one word about his ramblings when no teleprompter is present) and is worshiped as an agent of change (not one word about his makers, the sleazy machine politicians who have run Chicago for generations).
As with Bill Clinton, Barack Obama is popular for two main reasons: the media loves him and the majority of Americans don't know any better. I keep telling myself that there is, indeed, a silent majority of citizens who know the score and don't want a terrorist-befriending socialist with delusions of grandeur running the nation. But as more time goes by, I am less and less convinced this is true. In 1992 and 1996, these clueless voters simply helped lower the moral standards of the Presidency. President Clinton was lucky: his eight years in office saw the booming internet bring economic prosperity to the nation despite his wife's attempt at nationalized health care and his belief in taxing the "rich" (insert your definition here).
Barack Obama will not be so lucky. Regardless of who wins in November, the economy is going to remain shaky for some time. Taxing small businesses into bankruptcy and holding hands with the leaders of Iran and North Korea will not improve our standard of living or make this nation any safer. Obama has been sold to us as a product, just like every boy band you've ever seen. Thanks, Democrats and your fellow travelers in the media, for coming to the brink with a rock star. We'll all sleep better tonight.
October 04, 2008
In Pursuit Of Justice
Two stories in the news this weekend serve to make me happy in a grim sort of way. First, there is news that OJ Simpson may be going to jail. I know the jury in his recent Las Vegas trial was instructed to disregard his previous trials for the murder of his wife and Ron Goldman in 1994, but there's not an American alive today who can separate Simpson from his 1995 escape from justice.
One can make the argument that Simpson's guilt in this latest case should not be due to his previous behavior. While I agree with this argument, I can't help but smile when I think of this smug murderer finally getting a little bit of what he deserves. He will never get what he really deserves, but I'll settle for a sentence of life in prison. It's too much to ask that he serve that time in the general prison population, isn't it? I'm sure there are quite a few white supremacist types (who are vile human beings all by themselves) in the pen who would love to get credit for making OJ go away. I can always dream.
Secondly, I am happy that someone on the McCain-Palin team is making an issue of Barack Obama's friendship with Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the Weather Underground. Obama's defense of this friendship boils down to two points: Ayers' crimes were committed when Obama was a child and the Senator has condemned the Weather Underground's illegal activities.
The salient point is that Ayers is still a radical. He is completely unrepentant, even going so far as to say that his group "did not go far enough" in pursuit of their agenda. If nothing else, Obama's relationship with Ayers demonstrates very poor judgment, something we can't afford at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
October 02, 2008
Ouch
I'm back from my long road trip (2,700 miles) and our internet connection is back up---life is good. As I write this, the Palin-Biden debate is in full swing. I think debates of this nature have become a joke. Take, for example, the moderator, a woman who has written a pro-Obama book due in November. Is she unbiased? Sure. Sure.
I have always been of the opinion that debates should be between two people with no moderator and should last about 60 minutes. That way, each candidate could ask questions of the other of any nature. The talking points wouldn't matter as much. Remember reading about Lincoln-Douglass? That was a real debate, not the puff pieces we see today.