There are several developments today including the CPAC straw poll where Mitt Romney proved he can’t be trusted to run the country without cheating and the continued fallout from Coulter’s ongoing foot in mouth disease.  But, I think the most important discussion should be about the new micro-fiber caps MLB will begin to wear on opening day. My interest is in the interesting possibilities or complete ruination of that great American tradition – the well-pitched doctored baseball. I’ve consulted several people, including an expert on fabric.  None of us can come up with a consensus.  I have a feeling it might be easier to gunk up a ball, but then again because of the possibility of rapid evaporation of water, certain foreign substances might be easier to detect.  But then again, a good practitioner of the perfectly pitched ball will always find a way to apply said substances to the surface of said ball and go undetected, until some opposing manager starts bellyaching about it.

 

Miss Piggy appears to be a Mets fan!  She also likes to watch baseball.  She has been playing in a box this evening and is cute.

 

Hondo, a six year old black and white short-hair, with a vile disposition, who controls my parents, had an accident this evening, and he is humiliated.   He backed into a candle and set half his tail on fire!  My mother grabbed his tail and put it out quickly.  The worst thing is he didn’t even know his tail was burning!  This is the cat little Miss Kara named one of Mommy Cat’s kittens after.

 

I am furious with my Ipod.  Everyone talks about going after Microsoft, but no one ever bothers to complain about the absolutely tacky way Apple behaves.  I updated my software several weeks ago.  I have 2361 songs in the library.  Only about 200 or so will play.  There is no rhyme nor reason for which will and which will not play.  I’m on my second call to Apple with a very rude man.  Why is it men who are tech “experts” are so rude when dealing with women?  So now they tell me any album I copied I must re-copy.  I would really  have liked to know that before I started culling all my CD’s after downloading them.  I can back the whole thing up, but am afraid to do so.  I have no earthly idea how much space all this music is taking, since this is the 3rd or 4th time I’ve tried to back things up.  All I know is we’re dealing with at least 1 quarter of my hard drive.  Right now I would love to say something about liberals and their smug self-righteousness!

 

MITT ROMNEY IS THE BARRY BONDS OF THE GOP!

Last night I was trying to figure out what was bothering me about the current CPAC gathering and all the abject gushing about Romney, but it was like one of those itches you just can’t scratch.  Then I read Liz Mair’s posting  over at GOP Progress, which caused me to ask a few questions and do a little investigating on my own.  This found its way to my inbox.  It is about Romney

 

“…He paid for 200 people to attend and vote for him, yes.  In some cases, he paid for everything including their travel from places like Utah and Michigan, their hotel, their food and their entrance fees ($25 for students, $125 for everyone else)….”

 

Then read what Captain Ed has to say on the subject.

 

The bottom line here, and I know of no other way to put it, is this:  Mitt Romney juiced the straw poll the same way Barry Bonds has juiced himself past Babe Ruth’s HR record.  He cheated. Do we want a president who would do something so petty?  This speaks volumes about Romney’s ethics – he has none.

 

A PINK FLAMINGO INVESTIGATION

The LA Times had declared the KKK is dead.    I’ve been trying to find time to work on this one for nearly a week.  According to the ADL, it is just the opposite.  After being nearly DOA for several years, the whole anti-immigration and anti-gay movement has invigorated an entire new era of hatred.  Currently the Klan is undergoing a major period of growth, especially in South Carolina.      New groups are also emerging.

 

Some groups are merging with neo-Nazis. (I keep telling you this), with a major development this past January.

 

“…Klan expansion in the Mid-Atlantic states received a setback, however, with the unexpected disbanding of the World Knights in late November 2006. Members of competing factions left the World Knights to join other groups. The World Knights’ leader Gordon Young took his followers into the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and became that group’s Maryland state leader, while some dissident World Knights joined an NSM splinter group, the American National Socialist Workers Party. In January 2007, Young was arrested on seven criminal counts, including two counts each of second-degree assault and sex abuse of a minor, and the NSM disassociated itself from him…”

 

And, just as I have been telling you, the Klan is becoming increasingly ‘Nazified’. 

 

“…Some Klan groups, meanwhile, have themselves become increasingly “Nazified,” eschewing hoods and robes in favor of the look and regalia of neo-Nazis and racist skinheads. Perhaps the best example of this is the Kentucky-based Imperial Klans of America (IKA), one of the larger Klan groups. Many of its members resemble racist skinheads more than traditional Klansmen, and the IKA has developed even closer ties with neo-Nazi skinhead groups in the Midwest such as Blood & Honour and the Vinlanders Social Club. The IKA’s annual racist music festival, Nordicfest, one of the largest racist music events in the United States, was in 2006 co-sponsored for the first time by Blood & Honour. In March 2006, IKA leader Ron Edwards announced that his group, formerly associated with the racist and anti-Semitic religious sect Christian Identity, would now also accept “Odinists, National Socialists, Skinheads, Nazis, Defenders, Confederates, [and] other White Racialists” as full members—an obvious attempt to appeal to neo-Nazis and racist skinheads….”

The “Soviet” plot thickens.  Now an ‘expert’ out of DC has been shot.  Strata hasn’t blogged it yet, but you can bet he will be on it in a day or two.

  

Is the MSM just discovering that the wealthy from Venezuela are heading to the US?   My probably future nephew-in-law’s grandmother had her estate confiscated by Chavez ages ago.  She’s been here for awhile.  This has been going on for several years.

 

ISLAM

Is it possible for radical Islam to change? 

 

IRAQ

Al Qaeda is takin’ a lickin’ in Iraq. 

 

DEMS & LIBERALS UNHINGED

Bill Maher is sorry Dick Cheney was not murdered in Afghanistan.  What is wrong with these people? If Ann Coulter would keep her big mouth shut maybe we could gain the moral high ground.

 

CONSERVATIVE SHAME

AJ Strata on the problems with conservatives. 

 

MY SECOND RANT OF THE DAY – DEFENDING LINDSEY

 

Quit frankly I am getting sick and tired of the daily ‘gang rapes’ by our good conservatives.  It is getting old and quite transparent.  If they would be a little intellectually honest and do what is right and proper, like completely distancing themselves from people like Ann Coulter when they make truly embarrassing remarks they might have a little more credibility.  But now.  Let some half-baked twit   start in on Lindsey because he is doing what is right on one of the judicial nominations and  all you know what breaks out, to the point where these idiots are saying he is blocking a good conservative to get a liberal judge appointed.  I think not.  Let’s get a little intellectual honesty here, for a change.  

 

The nasties are out again, trying to drum up someone to take on Lindsey in SC.  There are some very serious problems in SC when it comes to a very radical right wing of Conservativism that has nothing to do with the GOP.  They absolutely detest Lindsey and  keep talking about Ravenel, which is laughable.  Ravenel is a feather-weight when compared to Lindsey.   The real problem in SC is the fact that there are some very disgusting “conservative” entities trying to take over the party.  They are in the process of trying to oust anyone who isn’t conservative enough.  Start with Ron Wilson  , then go to the CofCC (scroll down to the middle of the page).  They are trying to oust Lindsey. I  have shown, repeatedly, that the CofCC are directly associated with Stormfront, a neo-Nazi organization.   Read the ADL report on the event.

 

 There is also a group called Christian Exodus that is trying to take over SC Republican politics and remove anyone who disagrees with them, then turn SC into a “Christian state”.  Considering the people involved in ultra conservative politics in SC, I wouldn’t call any of them Christian.  How about Stormfront going after Lindsey? 

 

The real problem with the wacko conservative bunch is the fact that many of these people are new to SC.  They do not even begin to comprehend the relationship Lindsey has with the people of SC.  South Carolinians pride themselves on being ‘independent’.  Instead of penalizing a politician who shows a streak of independence, the voters have a tendency to reward that person. 

 

Oh, and for those mindless conservatives who are marching lockstep over a cliff, Lindsey has a very specific reason for opposing the judge in question.

 

“…A key Senate Republican clashed yesterday with President Bush's pick for a federal appeals court, taking aim at the nominee's past support for harsh interrogation methods at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba....Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) said that Pentagon General Counsel William J. Haynes II had pushed for the tactics over the objections of top uniformed military lawyers who considered the policy process a "sham." The result, Graham told reporters after the hearing, was "legal confusion" that contributed to the scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison -- and the attendant courts-martial and other career damage for those held responsible.

Noting that the U.S. commander in Iraq during Abu Ghraib, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, has seen his career stall, Graham said, "The question is whether enough things went wrong on [Haynes's] watch that he needs to be held accountable."... While conservatives have accused Graham of waging a "silent filibuster" against the nominee, Graham insisted yesterday that "I'm not holding up any nomination." In a lengthy opening statement, Haynes, 48, portrayed the Pentagon general counsel's role as similar to that of a large company's in-house lawyer. He was responsible for identifying legal issues but not making policy, he said...… The clash between Graham, who is a reserve Air Force lawyer, and Haynes showed how much the political climate has changed in the past two years. Haynes cleared the committee in 2004, before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, with Graham's support, but his nomination was not approved by the full Senate before the end of the first Bush term. The president renominated him last year for the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Now the administration is facing a tough legislative battle to rebuild its legal approach to terrorism policies after the Supreme Court rejected its proposed military commissions on June 29.”

 

More on Haynes appointment. And Lindsey has a fan page that has a history of the nomination that is quite remarkable.

 

REPUBLICANS

Is the era of the conservative litmus test over?  Please, please say it is!  This is an excellent article, well worth reading.

 

PRIMARIES 2008

Obama (the messiah) picks up another Clintonista. 

Is the RCP take on Romney accurate?

The excellent SC political blog Faith in the Sound managed to get the best of  Algore the other day.

But – Giuliani wins the two part straw poll at CPAC.

Raffini thinks Giuliani won.