How do you demolish democracy?

Venezuela's Congress Grants Chavez Special Powers to Remake Country

That's how!

The saga continues...

UN atom agency's Iran section head must go

File this under "Wicked cool"

U.S. eyes heat-beaming weapon by 2010

Now this is just ridiculous!

Is there anything people won’t blame on climate change?

Climate change seen fanning conflict and terrorism

This added today Jan 25th
Global warming possibly linked to an enhanced risk of suicide

Haven’t we been down this road before?

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

Iran has recently blocked several IAEA inspectors from entering the country as ordered by the United Nations. Iran repeatedly has rejected calls by the United Nations to halt its nuclear program. Iran has laughed at the threat of sanctions imposed by the United Nations, however watered down they are. Iran has time and time again spoken of the desire of wiping Israel off the map, much to the dismay of the United Nations.

Sounds a little like Iraq in the 1990’s to me.

What is the Democrat plan?

Do Nothing!

Now it really sounds like the 1990’s again.

Here we have a country that openly wants nuclear weapons, openly wants to use them against another country, and more importantly, does not care what the repercussions would be.

This is a really dangerous situation that has the potential of costing a lot of lives if it is not acted upon soon. I would prefer that the United States not have to get involved, but that would require someone else stepping up and taking charge. I do not see that happening anytime soon. The United Nations has become such a useless body that lacks the spine to confront anything. I may be mistaken, but I believe the UN passed a dozen or so resolutions on Iraq which Saddam ignored every time. Why are we to believe it is going to be any different this time?

Here is what I think could happen.

A) The UN does nothing. Iran gets nukes. Attacks Israel. We get involved. Many die.
B) The UN does nothing. Iran test fires a weapon. Not wanting to wait for an attack on them, Israel launches a preemptive attack wiping out Iran’s nuclear capability. Many die, but not as many as option A.
C) The UN does nothing. The United States launches an air/sea attack on Iran to wipe out its nuclear capability. The world starts wining how evil the United States is, but secretly appreciates that we did something. Many Iranians close to the targets will die, but not as many as options A or B.

My best guess at what is most likely to occur is option C. What do you think will happen or what should the U.S. or UN do?

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

Good question. Wouldn’t life be better if we all were just a little bit nicer to each other? After living in Texas for three years, one of the things I am having a lot of trouble re-adjusting back too is how standoffish and rude people are to each other here in Massachusetts. Say what you want about southerners, but they are so much more polite and easygoing that northerners.

So I was particularly excited when today I heard about a program started by a guy who feels similar to me. Actually this is really not a new idea as it was the subject of a Seinfeld episode, but I think it is a great way to get to know the people around you and help create a more positive social atmosphere. Enjoy!

Name Tag For A Year

Switching Gears

Since my last few posts were about the shady behavior of Democrats, I figured it was time to switch gears. I do not want to typecast myself as someone who only complains about others and does not offer anything constructive. However, for the benefit of the people who do not know me very well, I want to offer an explanation on why my last few post were of the nature they were.

There is nothing in life that irritates me more than hypocrisy. For the last several years, all I have heard from the left has been how evil the right is and how if they were in power, things would be different. Well now the Democrats are in power and guess what? Things are pretty much the same. When it was decided that Nancy Pelosi would be the next speaker of the house she offered this gem of a quote: “Democrats intend to lead the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress in history.”

I think my last few post, as well as the many other examples I did not post, strongly suggest she may have over spoken just a little. Am I wrong?

In discussing this very topic a good friend of mine said something to the fact that you could fill a football stadium with all the shady behavior of Republicans. I do not deny this one bit. Just because I think that most of the Democrats are useless and corrupt doesn’t mean I do not also think the same of most Republicans. Again it is just that when you say something like “Democrats intend to lead the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress in history”, I am going to look real close to what you are doing and comment appropriately.

So for my next few posts I plan on taking a more constructive approach to addressing what is going on in our world. Such as how we fight the war on terror, how we win in Iraq, and how we can address our domestic needs. I look forward to the discussions it will bring.

Take care!

Democrats behaving badly?

This week the House of Representatives lead by Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) voted to increase the minimum wage. I am not, at this time, going to debate the pros and cons of this action, that is for a later date, but I do want to point out that this “First 100 Hours” agenda item is really only going to affect an estimated 0.6% of the US population. Rather I want to point out what I see as a corrupt action by the supposedly “more ethical congress”.

The issue I have is that there is an exemption relating to who actually has to comply with this new wage increase. All US state and territories, except American Samoa, have to increase their minimum wage. The reason for American Samoa being exempt is they argued an increase would cripple their economy and force companies to seek workers else where. Here is my first point of contention: Why would a minimum wage increase hurt one economy while helping another? Something is really beginning to stink.

If you look closer, you will see that the major industry of American Samoa is Tuna fishing and tuna processing plants. The industry employs approximately 33% of the islands workforce.

OK, so you’re thinking “Who cares?” American Samoa is such a small portion of the bigger picture of Democrats helping the poor, because we all know the rich would just trample them otherwise.

If you look even more closely you will see that StarKist tuna is one of the major tuna processors. StarKist is owned by Del Monte Foods. Shall we guess where their corporate office is located? Anybody? You guessed it: San Francisco!

While Speaker Pelosi denies any lobbying was done, you cannot help but see this as a little fishy (sorry for the pun).

Here is a story from the Washington Times

Is there no end to the madness: Part 2

In San Francisco, CA, the hub of “American Enlightenment” and tolerance, a Yale University a cappella group was attacked by a mob after singing the Star Spangled Banner at a private party. I am sure the ACLU is going to be right on this, defending the civil rights of this group. Yeah Right! If this were a gay cross dressing a cappella group, singing “Give peace a chance” and were attacked by a mob, people would be screaming hate crimes.

So much for tolerance for all in San Fran.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070110/ennew_afp/afpentertainmentus_070110163008

Is there no end to the madness?

I know I pick on liberal or progressive values and policies a lot. I know I should be more balanced and watch the conservative or traditional values and policies as well, and I do. However, there seems to be a never ending stream of insanity coming from the left and it appears I have dedicated myself to pointing out the obvious flaws of such insanity.

Both of my rants today come from FOX NEWS’s Brit Hume’s political grapevine Fox News Political grapevine

First, Barney Frank (D-MA) accused the republican party of ethnic cleansing in its post hurricane Katrina reconstruction. He said: "What they (Republicans) recognize is they're in this happy position for them where if the federal government does nothing, Louisiana will become whiter and richer...they get the hurricane to do the ethnic cleansing and their hands are clean."

Where is the media outrage? Why can I only see this on FOX NEWS? I thought the mainstream media was, as it says, unbiased. HA! Practically every media sources characterizes FOX NEWS as right leaning, all the while denying their blatantly obviously own left leanings.

Niger Innis of the Congress of Racial Equality correctly points out that: “that if a Republican had made a similar statement "it would have been on the front page of The New York Times... and Katie Couric would do a special segment on it."”

Mr. Innis, I totally agree. Republicans or conservatives do something bad and we talk about impeachment and scandal, and “there must be justice”. But when a democrat or liberal accuses a group of ethnic cleansing, he gets a free pass or even a standing ovation (hey, we can ignore the $90,000 of marked bills you had in your freezer). I just do not get it. Can someone explain to me what I am missing?

Second, if you know anything about me, you would know I really loath Europe’s entitlement society. Why? Because I feel it promotes selfishness and laziness. Here is a perfect example. A London man died as a result of not receiving medical attention promptly (hey, at least it would have been free, had he lived). Despite being only 5 minutes away, the ambulance took over 20 minutes to get there. What took so long? Traffic? Nope! Ambulance break down? Nope! They were out to lunch and EU law dictates that one is not to be disturb while at lunch, even if a man is dying. Someone please tell me how a society that will let a man die so they can eat a relaxing lunch can, in any way, be labeled a more enlightened or sophisticated one? How is this better?

A new way in Iraq?

President Bush is expected to outline a new Iraq strategy to us sometime next week. I would like to make a prediction that whatever he says, some, and I repeat some in the media and in the government are going to viscously attack whatever he says. Bush haters are going to due what they are going to do and there is nothing anyone can do to stop them. But like the President or not, agree with him or not, the vile filth that some put out towards him is both morally wrong and destructive to our efforts. For the record, I disagree with the way the war was run, however, I do want us to win and I think that those in our great country who are rooting for the US to lose, walk a dangerous line.

So I am extremely interested in what our new strategy is going to be. News reports suggest a temporary increase in the number of troops. I am for this if the key word is temporary. The situation needs to be stabilized and if it takes more troops to do it fine, but if more troops mean more targets for insurgents, then I say get them out. I also think economic incentives will be effective if you can provide people with jobs, as I believe they would be less likely to commit acts of violence. We also need to speed up the training if the Iraqi army and police. But most important, we need to put the maximum amount of pressure on the Iraq government to control their own destiny.

I am going to put myself out there and make a personal stance. I say, as many other people do, including FOX NEWS, that Iraq pretty much has six or so more months to get their act in order. If by the end of the summer, there is no progress in Iraq, I will take the position that we need to get out. However, I will never subscribe to the BUSH SUCKS! mantra or root for us to loose. But there does come a time when you have to say enough is enough.

There is an old saying: "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink”. We have lead Iraq to the prospects of democracy and peace, it is now up to them to decide if they want to take a sip.