Hallelujah!  Newt Sees the Light!  

Everyone knows the scene in the Blues Brothers when Jake and Elwood attend the Reverend Cleophus James' (the unfortunately late, great James Brown) church – where they saw the light.  This is one of those moments.  Please cue the appropriate music….Newt Gingrich has seen the light….hallelujah!  HE SEES THE LIGHT!  “…his party's biggest mistake is thinking that the way to a lasting majority is to emphasize its conservative voter base…”  

Hallelujah!  He Sees the Light!  Next question – is this an indicator of a possible dream ticket of Giuliani-Gingrich?

Hallelujah!  He Sees the Light! 

This is the most positive development I’ve seen within the conservative ‘base’ in months!

Hallelujah!  He Sees the Light!   Harold Hutchison of Called As Seen has always seen the light.  He concurs with Newt today.

Did you happen to catch ROME last night.  Like I said yesterday, I'm probably one of the few people who doesn't watch 24.  ROME was excellent, more an opera than anything else.  Anyone interested in history should be watching this one.

There are any number of reports that Castro is in bad shape. 

Lindsey has been honored for his sponsorship of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. You might want to read his op-ed in The State

"...Do we want an Iraq at peace with its neighbors and an ally in the war on terror? Or do we want an Iraq that is a safe haven for groups hostile to the United States, wracked by internal conflict and bloodshed, and a source of constant friction among neighboring nations? A final note: One of the highest re-enlistment rates in the military is among those who have served in Iraq. I hope Congress and the American people will take this into consideration and ask themselves why their fellow American citizens — in the line of fire and in harm’s way — are so committed to this fight? They know history will not judge us on when we leave Iraq, but by what we leave behind..".

Charles Murray has a very sobering op ed in the Opinion-Journal for Tuesday. 

"...Education is becoming the preferred method for diagnosing and attacking a wide range problems in American life. ...Another is the recent volley of articles that blame rising income inequality on the increasing economic premium for advanced education. Crime, drugs, extramarital births, unemployment--you name the problem, and I will show you a stack of claims that education is to blame, or at least implicated...One word is missing from these discussions: intelligence. Hardly anyone will admit it, but education's role in causing or solving any problem cannot be evaluated without considering the underlying intellectual ability of the people being educated. Today and over the next two days, I will put the case for three simple truths about the mediating role of intelligence that should bear on the way we think about education and the nation's future....Today's simple truth: Half of all children are below average in intelligence. We do not live in Lake Wobegon..."

Years ago when 2001 A Space Odyssey came out pop culture made a big deal about how the “Space Age” was going to change our culture by the year 2001.  Unfortunately none of it ever happened, including a mega-space program.  Among his other atrocities, Jimmy Carter basically ruined it by cutting the shuttle back to almost nothing.  What we see now is a product of Carter’s splendid vision.  Progressive budget cuts continued, with NASA being Senator William Proxmire’s constant budget cutting and personal vendetta against NASA and anything high tech.  Well, it looks like the fashion runway has finally caught up with science fiction. 

The beautiful thing about a blog is the ability to lodge complaints when and where!  Regular readers may remember my ongoing complaints about Windstream telecom.  I think today was the clincher.  I called to ask if there was a an outage because, as usual, my service was interrupted.  I finally found a person who worked for Valor before Windstream purchased them.  She admitted Windstream had changed everything and there was a problem. She connected me to one of their internet techie ‘experts’.  This one was even worse than usual.  I asked when they would be upgrading their equipment.  “We just don’t go out and pick it up at Radio Shack, you know!”  Yep that was their technical advise.

Mommy Cat is trying to get the babies to eat.  I put out some kitten Iams today.  We'll see what happens.  Three of them go to a home the minute they start eating.  Mommy Cat goes in for surgery to prevent additional kittens. Unless there is a further development I'll end up keeping the little red one.  I've yet to give him a name, as once you name a kitten you gotta keep 'em.  I've also called a professional kitten wrangler to come play with them for me.  The professional kitten wrangler is my friend Alicia's seven year old daughter, Sydney. 

The Dems now want to take on the “Fairness Doctrine”.  I just  hope people enjoy what they did here electing these demagogues.

I’ve been telling you libertarians are wacky.  Try this one about the UN, conspiracy theories, the Patriot Act, and some other things.

The conservative blogsphere is a-twitter with the possibility that Senate Bill 1, Section 220 would limit grass-roots lobbying.  It took quite a bit of time to locate the information, but this is what I found on the subject.:  This is the section that appears to be upsetting a number of people.

“(B) PAID ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE THE GENERAL PUBLIC OR SEGMENTS THEREOF- The term `paid attempt to influence the general public or segments thereof' does not include an attempt to influence directed at less than 500 members of the general public.

`(C) REGISTRANT- For purposes of this paragraph, a person or entity is a member of a registrant if the person or entity--

`(i) pays dues or makes a contribution of more than a nominal amount to the entity;

`(ii) makes a contribution of more than a nominal amount of time to the entity;

`(iii) is entitled to participate in the governance of the entity;

`(iv) is 1 of a limited number of honorary or life members of the entity; or

`(v) is an employee, officer, director or member of the entity.

`(19) GRASSROOTS LOBBYING FIRM- The term `grassroots lobbying firm' means a person or entity that--

`(A) is retained by 1 or more clients to engage in paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying on behalf of such clients; and

`(B) receives income of, or spends or agrees to spend, an aggregate of $25,000 or more for such efforts in any quarterly period.'.”

From the American Policy Center: “…Section 220 targets any organization with more than 500 supporters or an organization that communicates with 500 or more individuals. Those affected include every blogger, every church, every non-profit or any group that uses direct mail, telephone calls, newspaper or print ads, paid organizers, radio and TV ads and Internet communications. This would require all organizations like American Policy Center and EdAction to go through miles of red tape, including notifying Congress 45 days prior to engaging in an Action Alert. This would prevent us from sending out an urgent message to you like this one about a specific vote. We could even face $100,000 fines for running afoul of the oppressive regulations. However, the legislation exempts labor unions, corporations and even foreign companies from these reporting requirements. Senator Bennett of Utah has an amendment to remove the grassroots provisions from S.1, the section that clearly tramples on our First Amendment rights to free speech and the right of every citizen to petition his government!...”

Free Republic    Traditional Values Coalition   From The Hill

I don’t know about you, but this would eviscerate the Richard Viguerie - William Green machine, and that is not a bad thing.  I would also completely destroy the false front anti-immigration organizations run by these two and the Tanton machine.

What have I been saying about Syria?  I keep saying that something appears to be going on with them, maybe making overtures to us.  Now comes word that there may have been a series of meetings between Israel and Syria for several years, up until July 2006.   Then it fail.  Quite frankly, I think Olmert probably blew it.  But, it was obvious until then that something was definitely going on. Little Green Footballs has picked up on the same story.

I noticed WFB's Townhall column today, then thought about something I saw on War Stories last night.  Ollie North brought up the fact that the Sardinia Campaign during WWII (I think it was Sardinia, or was it Sicily?  I never can keep the two straight except that Marcus Antonius came from Sicily.)  The campaign lasted about a month.  Something like 5000 American troops died.  Compare that with the approximately 3000 that have died so far in Iraq.

WFB wrote "...Life in free countries produces victims in every field. In the past four years, 3,000 American soldiers have died in Iraq. In the same period, about 170,000 Americans have died in car accidents, and about 1.6 million have died from tobacco-related illnesses...."

Maybe it is time we get a grip on reality here.  The one huge problem is the fact that the American people are abject stupid idiots when it comes to history.  The rank and file stupid American would rather be spoon fed liberal upchuck pabulum served to them by Oprah, Katie, and the cat-fight hussies from The View.  People in this country are ignorant wretches (line stolen from Tombstone) when it comes to history.  Plus, as shown over at Blog Lizards, we allow ourselves to be manipulated by false polls, which somehow seem to rank up there in sinful nature along with worshiping false gods.

ISLAM:  Counterterror blog

DEMS GONE WILD

Mary Kay Ham is filling in for Malkin.  You need to read this post.  It is rather humorous.

PRIMARIES 2008:  Ah yes, the ____ that is Tom Tancredo.  Now it is possible he knows he isn't going to run, but according to some reports is tired of the House - or maybe he's being hit with a dose of reality and realizes it is possible he could actually lose his seat next time.  Has anyone noticed how NOT ready for prime-time Team Romney actually is? Barone on 2008.