THE GREAT CAT SOAP OPERA

CUTE ALERT:  Mommy Cat stashes Miss Piggy in the nursery for nap time.  I’m serious!  Then, after a few hours she goes downstairs and gets her! Okay, it’s cute.  Piggy’s grandmother saw her for the first time today, and pronounced her ‘beautiful’.  She is going to be a gorgeous cat.  Brunhilda is failing more and more every day.  I don’t know how much longer she is going to last, and I am not sure if she is eating much of anything lately.

 

Today is a disjointed mess.  I’ve been working on rewrites and edits for the new book.  The Windstream Telecom had yet another DSL break down in the Hobbs station.  But – I finally have a projected date for the new equipment to be installed, Feb. 28!  With luck I will have maybe ten days more of ISP problems, then have my DSL back up to speed. 

 

A Jurassic Park moment: 

 

Would someone like to explain why Austrian made sniper rifles are showing up in Iraq, via Iran? http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009674

 

 

The Christian kindness and tolerance of Bishop Akinola and his associates is absolutely remarkable.  They prove to the world how great they are by walking out of a Holy Eucharist where the American Presiding Bishop was present.    They are truly great men.

 

“…Conservative Anglicans have formed a rival network in the U.S., under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has called the acceptance of gay relationships a “satanic attack” on the church. Archbishop Akinola was among those who refused to have Holy Communion with Bishop Jefferts Schori….”

 

How about an “oh my gosh photograph moment” A photographer catches erosion in the act at Monument Valley.

 

Daniel Pipes has an interesting posting about the Hilton at Mecca.  Just read it.

 

IWake Up America has a excellent post today about the real truth of Iraq and the real lies of the Dems in the House and the Senate. 

 

Kudos to one of the local rags, The Alamogordo Daily News for doing something constructive when dealing with ‘illegal’ statistics.  They ran an interview with on of our local minutemen ‘leaders’, then did a fact check (very impressive) debunking his ascertains.

 “Reviewing the numbers: The following is a series of editor's notes on some of the assertions and statistics cited in this story, which have been fact-checked by the Alamogordo Daily News.

 * "...the Border Patrol credits the Minutemen with reducing illegal entries and drug trafficking by 20 percent..." The Border Patrol does not work with the Minutemen, and its official policy is to not comment on their activities.

 

 * "...this country spent, on services for illegals, $253 billion..." The General Accounting Office estimates there were 10 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. in 2005. Other estimates put it as high as 20 million. Using the latter figure, Al Garza is saying the U.S. spends $12,650, apiece, in services on every illegal alien. The average family of three on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families one adult and two children gets $7,240 a year. Using Garza's figures, a family of three illegal immigrants would receive $37,950 in services.

 

* "...the busloads of children who come across the border from Las Palomas, Mexico, to attend school in Luna County..." Las Palomas and Columbus, N.M., have a number of intergovernmental agreements to share various services. For example, Columbus provides fire and ambulance services to Las Palomas; kindergarten through sixth grade students from Las Palomas are bused to school in Columbus. The students are not illegal immigrants. Columbus and the school district are reimbursed by Las Palomas for providing those services.

 

* "...800 illegals a day receive medical service at Thomason Hospital in El Paso..." Thomason's emergency room treats, on average, 145 people a day, and the hospital has a total of 346 beds. *

 

"...illegals are responsible for 45,000 murders in America since Sept. 11. He said 27 percent of prisoners in America are illegals..." There were between 65,000 and 70,000 murders total in the U.S. since Sept. 11, according to the FBI. According to the GAO, 27 percent of prisoners in federal prisons are "noncitizens convicted of crimes while in this country legally or illegally." Federal prisons comprise some 10 percent of the total prison population in the U.S. When state and local prisons are factored in, illegal immigrants make up 12 to 17 percent of the total prison population. In addition, some 50 percent of illegal immigrants are charged solely with being in the country illegally. The GAO estimates 15 percent of illegal immigrants in prison are serving time for burglary, theft and related property crimes; another 12 percent are serving time for murder, robbery, rape and other violent crimes.”

 

The San Diego Minutemen are feuding.    This one is more a quarrel between two unstable individuals who quit dating.  I think unstable is such a good word for them!  The cops raided the home of the former leader, the datee, who was fighting with the dator, complete with fisticuffs and suicide threats. ,   

 

Selling the anti-immigration issue has become big business for ‘white’ Christians, with something like 63% of “Christian” evangelicals taking a hard-line approach to immigration.  The alignment occurred sometime after the 2004 election cycle with anti-immigration forces joining ranks with the anti-abortion mailing lists.  The leading suspects in this are Alan Keyes, Chris Simcox, Phyllis Schlafly, Jim Gilchrist, and a few other ‘right’ Christian leaders.

 

“…The list of religious-right figures signing the coalition statement is long and varied. It includes Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition, Howard Phillips' Conservative Caucus and Bishop Harry R. Jackson of Hope Christian Ministries. The signatories concerned primarily with immigration include English First, the American Council for Immigration Reform, the Center for Immigration Studies, Pro-English, and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

 

One possible future for this nexus can be glimpsed in the budding relationship between two Secure Border Coalition members -- a relationship that links religious-right political muscle to the literal muscle of the vigilante border-patrol movement. Last spring, Chris Simcox put his Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) under the wing of Alan Keyes' Declaration Alliance, a group dedicated to overturning Roe v. Wade that also believes in a "founding mandate to freely and publicly acknowledge the authority of the Creator God." Along with imbuing the Simcox group with a touch of the divine, the MCDC/Keyes arrangement saw Simcox's mailing lists handed over to Response Unlimited, a Keyes-connected Christian mailing and telemarketing firm that now sells lists of MCDC donors for $120 per thousand names.

 

Another, similar relationship is developing between the Eagle Forum (founded in 1972 and one of the oldest religious right groups) and the Minuteman Project of Jim Gilchrist, Simcox's former organizational partner (Gilchrist did not join the Secure Borders Coalition). The Eagle Forum's Schlafly, a long-time gay-basher, believes that guest-worker programs and amnesty are "immoral." The Christian thing to do, argued Schlafly in her newsletter last January, is to "erect a fence and double our border agents in order to stop the drugs, the smuggling racket, the diseases, and the crimes." Gilchrist, who holds a similar view, was a featured guest at the 35th annual Eagle Forum Conference in September.

 

Other religious right groups may not be officially aligned with the border-vigilante movement, but hold views indicating sympathy or approval. "As the United States Senate continues debate on an immigration reform bill, the American people are backed up by the Bible in their demands that America's national boundaries are to be respected," writes Roberta Combs, national president of the Christian Coalition. "The left wing in this nation is thoroughly wrong when they argue that 'because Christ showed compassion to all of God's children, Christians should ignore violations of the law by aliens.'"

 

I am getting the idea that The Smoking Gun does not like Giuliani. They make a big deal about Giuliani’s $100,000 speaker’s fee but neglect to mention a few others who are in that range.   The Smoking Gun's  hit piece is just a little lop-sided.  They need to mention others who are in the top list:

 

Zig Zigler

Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Brady

The Doobie Brothers

Steve Wynn

Spencer Johnson

Michael Flatley

Katie Couric

John Stewart

John Cleese

Joe Namath

Jay Leno

Jack Nichlaus

Arnold Palmer                                                                                                                                                                                              

Bill Clinton & Colin Powell

Clinton makes millions.

 

No wonder everyone is in a snit.  Jimmy Carter only gets 50K. So does

Aretha

Bill Cosby (one source says $350,000)

Bill Maher

Bill Parcells

Bob Costos, Dole, Newhard

Bryant Gumbel  and quite a few others.

 

Joe Torre gets around 75K for an appearance.

Ben Stein gets 40K

Fergy gets 75K, as does Neil Armstrong, Jerry Lewis, The Donald

 

For those of you who haven’t been listening when I tell you some of the major white supremacist problems are in South Carolina, mediate on this for awhile.  The Nazi Party presidential nominee is from Laurens.

 

Lindsey on the House resolution against victory in the war on terror. 

  “…“Contrary to what Democratic leaders may publicly say, they are laying the groundwork to cut off funding for our troops in Iraq.  The Iraq resolution is the first step in a policy of retreat which I believe will come back to haunt us for decades in the War on Terror. “Our enemies have repeatedly said they view Iraq as the central battlefront in the War on Terror.  So should we.  The House of Representatives’ actions will embolden our enemies and put our troops in additional jeopardy.  “An overwhelming majority of Democrats in Congress appear to have given up on the idea of winning in Iraq.  The resolution is a blunt admission they are willing to accept the status quo — which is unacceptable — and undermine chances of future success. “Because of today’s vote, the Senate should immediately take up this matter.  We need a full debate and recorded votes on differing ideas and resolutions.  “Majority Leader Reid has and will continue to stifle debate and limit the Senate to a single option which is a precursor to retreat.  Senator Reid knows an overwhelming majority of Senators will vote for the Gregg resolution which states that cutting off funding will undermine our troops and the war effort.  It has broad, bipartisan support.  “Several weeks ago Senator Reid made the statement that the GOP can run, but not hide from this debate.  I’m standing firm in the light of day.  I welcome this debate and believe the reason we are not voting on all of the Iraq resolutions is because of a fear of left-wing anti-war activists attacking the 2008 Democratic presidential hopefuls.  It is a sad day when special interests take over the debate in the Senate. “The Senate is not the House of Representatives and I believe the Republican Senate will be united around insisting on multiple votes reflecting a wide range of opinions on Iraq.”