Saturday, January 29, 2005

Sec. Tommy Thompson to appear at OCRP LDD.

Sec. and former Gov Tommy Thompson will appear at the Outagamie County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner! Come out to see Tommy speak! See The OCRP Calendar of Events for more information!

Friday, January 28, 2005

test test testing the blogroll!

I just got set up with a blogroll, look over to the right side and see "Bloghards" for some cool blogs.

Anyway I think I am supposed to ping blogroll after posting a blog so anyone that has Blogger Beer blogrolled will indicate a proper last post time.

The latest smear against the WOT.

Gitmo again is at the center of a "torture" controversy. You may have heard how women interrogators were acting in a sexually provacative manner towards interrogatees. Wearing miniskirts & thongs, rubbing up against them, smearing fake menstrual blook on the interrogatees etc.

The left is now getting themselves worked up over this. One thing abou the Left, they certainly can maintain a remarkable state of "work-upedness" that most reasonable people would be unable to sustain.

Anyway they are claiming this to be torture. This is like saying a family of four with three cars, five TVs, a house, AC, and health insurance is poor because they can not send Little Johnny to Harvard. It is simply not torture it is turning the interrogattee's culture on him.

Another example of this I saw on The History Channel (can recall no specifics). The setting was the war in Vietnam and our forces captured an important regional VC leader. The VC guy was being tough and was not cracking so our guys brought in a man much younger than VC to do the interrogation. This hit the man in his culture because it was insulting for him having to deal with a man much younger than himself. The interrogator than took to talking the VC about the VC's father who VC finked out and was subsequently killed by the VC again hitting him in his culture. Our forces used the interrogatee's culture to break his resistance to the interrogation. Was that torture? Hardly.

The same thing is going on at Gitmo with the sexual oriented interrogation. Clearly these guys have something against women having independence and here they sit bound but in control of a woman they do not know. Not only that, but they are being touched by the interrogators. I have seen Muslim men refuse to shake a woman's hand.

The interrogatees at Gitmo are being hit in their culture and I say let 'em get it.

I keep coming back to this but is the only form of interrogation acceptable to the Left is the comfy chair with coffee being served at 3:00 pm?

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

The blogout.

Greetings!

I apologize for not giving my detailed take on the President's inauguration speech. But this is not why I am blogging now.

I am blogging now to relate the past days going back to Friday. As some of you may know Marcus is not just an Outagamie County Republican but Marcus is also co-founder of an organization called NEW Bayanihan.

NEW Bayanihan's driving goal is to establish a charitable foundation based to donate to charities in our area and in the Philippines and in general to be helpful. Well we were just involved with some real top notch folks to help a friend in distress. She was stricken with lymphoma about one year ago and despite her insurance has acquired substantial debt.

Last Saturday Jan 22 we put on a dance to raise cash for Ruby. The event was a smashing success and while the dollars are still being counted we generated around $6,000 for Ruby.

Anyway longtime readers (are there any?) may recall this blog, well Augustus and Adria returned for the Boogie for Ruby event and it all worked out perfectly since Augustus had business meetings in Green Bay, so Claudia and I hosted Augustus and Adria at our house. Since they were living out of the "office/guest room" I had less time for blogging (and reading them). Plus I have been doing tons of programming and image processing for the follow up to "Boogie for Ruby".

When I was growing up when friends and I would part ways we would often swear up and down how we would be friends for life despite the distance. Claudia and I have found a couple I think the distance will not separate.

Anyway the project now is revamping the NEW Bayanihan website so gotta run!

Thursday, January 20, 2005

My quick take.

The Inauguration of President Bush is over.

My quick take on his address is breathtaking. I want to do a full commentary on it later on as (some may take this as a sign that I am starting to become an old man) much of that speech can be found in writing projects I have engaged in. Check out: National Defense and Promoting Democracy and read it? If you were watching the Inauguration then it should sound familiar.

later!

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Religion and Democracy.

Ali from "Iraq The Model" fame blogged on the compatibility between religion and democracy.

In it Ali (on his new independent blog) states
The American society is a slightly different case and the American readers of this blog can argue in this better than I can, but I think it's reasonable to say that Americans are generally more religious or has allowed religion some invisible role in politics because they didn't have to go through a bitter struggle against it to gain their freedom as the Europeans. Still, I doubt that anyone can really say that the American society is a Christian one, as it's obviously not!


Ali makes some points that are worth talking about here. First his coment about American not being a Christian society. I have to disagree. It is. Its founding was inspired and based on Christianity. The separation of church and state is widely misunderstood even in our own society and Ali falls into that same trap.

The first Amendment is first and foremost about no official federally mandated church along the lines of "The Church of England" or what other European nations have. In fact, many of the states had their own state churches but that eventually was broken up. You see, the original colonists were those from unofficial faiths and as such found life in Europe very hard. They fled Europe so they would be able to practice their faith without fear of harrasment or persecution. Some of those states did what too many of the persecuted do when the tables are turned other states learned their lesson. In fact we have bouts of this same thing in the settlement of the land, for instance the Mormons went to Utah to escape similar persecution.

When Ali states "...or has allowed religion some invisible role in politics..." well, Michael Newdow (to most people's chagrin) refutes that point loudly. After all, Mr. Newdow seems to spend his entire time working to sue religion out of our public square. However when one believes in religion and considers the eseence of religion, how can one not be motivated by it?

The Bible the great book of Western Civilization early on asks "Am I my brother's keeper". The Bible does not just say yes, it shouts it. The Bible if one reads for instance The Book of Proverbs or the Eclisiastucus (IIRC Protestant Bibles typically drop that one, get a Catholic one and some happy pills, Eclisiastucus has good advice but the price is reading thoughts of someone with a depressing outlook on life) those two books offer sound advice on normal affairs. Anyway that is besides the point. The point of the Bible is to try to instruct us on how to act justly.

So if a nation acts unjustly in some area of life it is the duty of the Christian leader to steer the people to act with justice. How does a leader steer people to justice? Two ways via the bullet or by the book. A Christian leader attempts to convince people on their views of just action, if the people fail to heed that call then what? This is where separation of church and state comes to the fore.

If I understand the Islamic model correclty the Ulama (the body of Islamic scholars) would advise the ruler of this and the ruler would issue an edict on the matter and it is done. In Europe of the Middle Ages the Church reigned supreme and it was done. The reason why this does not work anymore is because of diversity.

The diversity factor (aka globalization) and consent of the governed means we have to factor out the uncommon and govern society by the common. Most groups of people agree theft is bad we can keep it in. However diverse groups of people do not agree on the suitability of eating pork, so that one goes out. The core beleifs of all religions are recognized in the laws of most nations. For instance it is generally considered bad to willy-nilly kill your neighbor no matter the circumstances. It is generally considered bad to steal his property. It is not generally considered bad to drink Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in my neck of the woods, but in a land I used to live I had to be licensed to do so in my home (supposedly you were required to be a member of the "club" in the hotels that had bars, but green, purple, and red pieces of paper about 2x6 inches was all one needed as proof of membership)! So in a diverse society it is impossible to govern by one religion without resorting to violence. Violence is generally one of the things religions try to limit so the religious tyrant eventually loses touch with his faith and becomes a hated hypocrite.

Now back to one last important aspect of the just religious leader in a diverse society. They see themselves on a mission from God (I just saw the Blues Brother the other night, when I type that phrase I hear Dan Akroyd in my head) and why must they remain silence because they are motivated by religion? In fact, IMO most of the (American) left is for cloning for one reason only, the religious in this nation oppose it. To make it more plain, if a religious leader were running away from a cliff the (American) left would not follow but instead choose to go "full speed ahead, damn the torpedos" over the cliff. Michael Newdow no doubt would be in court trying to get that leader to reverse course and so on and so forth.

Yes, my religion has a big role in shaping my morals and my political beliefs. No, what Father John tells me on Sunday has little bearing on those beliefs. So too should it be for the Iraqi voter. It is vitally important for your vote to be informed by your religion, but it should not be dictated by it. After all many very positive movements in America were intitiated by those driven by the Holy Spirit, does that fact make the abolition movement bad? How about the movement to destroy segregation?

Goodbye rep for Clean Govt.

Alas.

Michelle Malkin is publicizing another Wisconsin voting scandal. What is it now? 2 Days in a row Wisconsin voting chicanery figure prominently in the national blogs?

This time Michelle notes that charges are soon to come in the tire slashing case. Apparently felony charges will be pressed against he sons former acting mayor and son of the Gwendelyn Moore (just elected to congress).

Let us see:

  1. Smokes for votes

  2. Kringle for votes.

  3. Fraudulent voting in Democratic strongholds

  4. Tire slashing of GOP got out the vote vans.



All brought to us by the DNC & DPW.

Let us all say goodbye to Wisconsin's reputation as a clean government state.

16-2

Condeleeza Rice is approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Now onto the full senate.

The two no votes came from Barbara "Freight Train" Boxer (i.e. always fighting the inevitable), and John "Dear Commandante" Kerry.

It is old by now but here goes anyway.

Glad to see you back in the senate Senator Kerry!

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Vote Fraud in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Blogs are really getting worked up in a tizzy about Milwaukee voting practices. They have reason too.

In the 2000 election IIRC Algae (think Al G. i.e. Al Gore) won by 6,000 votes this time around Kerry wins by 11,000 or so. In both cases it appears (if the reports from Michelle Malkin, Boots & Sabers, from Lakeshore Laments, etc are to be believed and they are talking about dry facts here) as if more than enough same day registration confirmation cards came back undelivered (due to non-existent addresses and the like) to have put the Dem over the top in both cases. I am not going to go over those but instead this comment I dug up from Boots and Sabers:

Milwaukee's top election official said today that claims of fraud in the Nov. 2 election are overblown, noting the number of registration confirmation cards that could not be sent out this year was comparable to the last presidential election.

Lisa Artison, executive director of the city Election Commission, also noted that those who registered to vote on Nov. 2. had to present valid identification to poll workers before they were issued a ballot.



Two points:

  1. This may explain a reputable officials certainty that W won Wisconsin in 2000.


  2. Valid ID means one of two things. First a valid id or it could mean someone vouches for that person.. In fact I heard of reports of busses full of voters pulling up to the polls and one person vouching for everyone on the bus. Ms. Artison's second comment is not has airtight as one would like it to be.



The only concern I have is Wisconsin tighten up procedures for registration and voting. Same day registration has to go and all voters should be required to present picture ID when voting.

A mix of crazy and not so crazy.

Am researching on TABOR to write an editorial piece on in support of it. Apparently the Milwaukee Journal knows of only one way to close a deficit and that is to increase taxes:

The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates an additional $711 million in new tax revenue would be needed to balance the two-year budget that begins July 1, 2005, because of the spending commitments.

Now some people may say well there has been cutting enough done to the budget time to bring in some tax increases. However, Governor Doyle managed to find some cutting to what the legislature brought him. As painful as it is for this Republican to admit Doyle is doing okay by the budget however, I believe McCallum would have done the same.

The research I have been doing indicates if a TABOR like scheme would have been in place during the boom years we would not be squabbling about what to cut but what to do with the surplus. IMO, that one is a no-brainer at least it is in comparison to fighting about what to cut.

TABOR should be implemented in Wisconsin. It should contain limits based on population and the CPI instead of linked to growth in personal income. It should contain a provision to build up a $1.billion emergency fund to be used to close future budget deficits or to spend on other emergency (let us say a signficant terrorist hit on Miller Brewing or similar) any funds in excess of the $1.00 are promptly returned to the taxpayers. Local governmental and educational units have similar caps placed upon them as well. All taxing authorities can appeal by referendum to exceed the caps, but barring such appeals and emergencies (of a truly awful nature, e.g. terrorist attack, or other such large scale disaster) no exceptions.

Yes, yes, yes. I know we are supposed to trust our elected officials!

RUBBISH!

Our whole system of government is built upon a HEALTHY mistrust of government, TABOR would be yet another check & balance upon government taxing power in Wisconsin.

There are way too many Republicans who treat the tax dollar as an entitlement. One famous GOP line of attack has been to call the Democrats "taxers & spenders" unfortunately that line is not really working anymore. Republican legislators are often tax-cutters and spenders thereby giving tax-cuts a bad name.

Chris Dodd Terrorist's Buddy in the Senate.

Chris Dodd was just trying to get Condeleeza Rice to come yes or on whether against various interrogation techniques are torture. The left's favorite waterboarding was brought up.

Condi wasn't biting so he asked how she would feel if Americans were being treated similarly. Condeleeza ducked the question. Then Dodd lectured Condeleeza telling her to spend some time with John McCensor (R-AZ).

If the terrorists would treat Americans in a similar fashion I would rejoice. Quite an improvement from the butchery we witnessed on the Pearl, Johnson, and Berg butcher-snuff-films.

All they are trying to do is to downsize the definition of "torture" so it becomes even harder to prosecute the war against the jihadists.

Jay Nordliner notes:

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Ohhh the irony!

Ooohhhhh the irony!

Tim Graham over at National Review Online's The Cornder says: "Visiting Mom and Dad at Christmas, I saw their letter from a dear liberal cousin of mine lamenting that the re-election of Bush is a sign of the astounding low "educational level" of voters."

What irony. Whose job is it educate the American youth and who do they predominantly endorse and vote for?

Friday, January 14, 2005

The "tolerant-left"!

Michelle Malkin recently posted some of her "fan mail" on her blog site. You really need to check it out. This blog lead to another one where she talks about similar e-mail being sent to Margaret Cho. I read those and IMO they are not close to the level of vileness that the notes Michelle gets.

You know what? If one makes a generalization based on another's ethnicity usually they get blasted as a being a bigot. Here we get the left engaging in the same thought pattern and does not get the condemnation this thinking deserves.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Toss 'em into the mental wards.

I remember back in the Cold War days about hearing how in the USSR it was not uncommon to toss dissidents into the mental hospitals.

Is this what America is coming to? Perhaps but not in the way you may think. In the USSR you were tossed into the mental institutions if you did not toe the Soviet line, in America you are threatened with institutionalization if you support America. Perhaps the student in the story did not quite understand the "joke" but I do not believe a joke was being played on the student.

To sum up a foreign student from Kuwait wrote a paper for his American Government class. The paper talked up the founders. The paper was returned without grade and a comment to visit the prof the next morning. The prof then told the student he was nuts and was in serious need of psychological treatment and threatened to discuss the matter with the Dean of International Students who has the power to pull his visa. The student complied and only then did common sense come out. I hope the student will pursue action to discipline this professor.

See the complete story "How Crazy Can You Get?" at Powerline.