My honest opinion is the fact that Piggy is so weak she can’t eat, that it is too much of an effort.  Anyone who has been quite ill knows what an effort it is to even pick up a fork, let alone chew and swallow.  You must make yourself do it. 

RAMPAGING RUMSFELD – THE TINY ELEPHANT!

I don’t know why I am constantly amazed at the naughty antics of one 7 pound toy poodle, but sometimes he just surpasses his penchant for mischief.  Last night was one of those times.  I think the main problem was the fact that I left the little sociopath home alone (with the cats) for nearly 10 hours.  That’s a long time.  (For those who are interested, we use piddle pads –when we are not shredding them!)

I brought him a Boda squeaky kangaroo.  He ignored me and immediately started playing with his new toy.  I stopped and turned on the computer.  He bounced up on top of the table!  I shooed him off.  Doc jumped up to purr and love.  He tried to attack her, and the two had a hissy fight.  I went downstairs, he followed.  While I was slipping into something more comfortable, he hit the toilet paper, shredding it all over the guest bedroom.  

I went upstairs to work on the blog.  Rumsfeld followed.  He was tired after all that effort, and took a bit of a nap.  I suspect he had spent much of the day on the living room balcony barking at the pool cleaners.  

He and Doc then had a bit of a tussle on top of the table I am tiling.  I held my breath as Doc jumped off the table, and nearly knocked a shoe box full of tile on the floor.

I finally sit down for a few minutes.  It must be nearly 1AM.  He joins me, and starts gutting his little kangaroo, pulling the stuffing out of its feet.  The previous evening he gutted his old bunny rabbit, pulling all the stuffing out of it.

We head to bed.  I am so tired.  I notice there are 2 tin pie pans on the bed.  He’s dumped cat food out all over the floor.  Fortunately he starts nibbling that.  The cats join him.  I ignore it, and the fact that he attacked the toilet paper again.  FYI – both rolls are now off the roller and sitting on top of a place he cannot reach.

I get in bed, turn off the lights.  I heard enough noise to think he was going after my bedroom slippers.  Up until 6 months ago, this was one of his favorite vices.  We’ve basically out grown that, but I do keep my $95 Brighton thongs off the floor after I caught him munching on the raffia flowers the other day.  

I have no idea what he is into now.  I turn on the lights, get out of bed.  He just sits on the floor, smiling up at me, innocently.  I get back in bed and turn off the lights.  He makes more noise, like paper being shredded.  The getting up process occurs two additional times.

He jumped up on the bed and banged the tin pie plate against the wrought-iron post a couple of times, then  returned to his shredding.  One last time I turned on the light, climbed out of bed, and finally discovered what he was doing.  He had found an old magazine on the bottom shelf of my book shelves.  After I discovered what it was I simply went back to sleep.  By morning it was confetti. 

On Sunday there were the usual weekenders around the condo.  I was sitting on the sofa.  Rums was asleep on my lap.  His ears perked up when he heard a couple of children.  “Rums, why not go out and bark at the little kids.”  He jumped off my lap and ran out to the balcony to start barking at them!

ANTI-IMMIGRATION IDIOCY

Simcox purges his critics.

Kansas Minutemen have problems with Hispanic backers.

Rush has taken to quoting Heather MacDonald and her racist piece, “Hispanic Family Values”.

I have some information on MacDonald at The Subway Canaries.

WSJ interview on May 28^th. 

The SPLC cites her as one of the major purveyors of dis-information about Hispanic immigration.

SPLC report on Dobbs and his wrong information.  

Countering the MacDonald piece on “Hispanic Family Values”

 “…"All I hear," he told me, "from conservative leaders I work with, very socially conservative people, is, 'I can't continue to vote for a party that is exposing threads of bigotry and racism.' " Conservatives need to be reminded that Latinos -- Protestant and Catholic -- are, in some ways, different from the mainstream culture. Higher percentages attend church regularly. Higher percentages of Latino immigrants are married; lower percentages are divorced. "The elephant in the room," says Rodriguez, "is the Latinoization of America. What are the results? America will be a more religious nation. America will continue to be a nation that promotes family values. Wow, that really turns American culture upside down."…”

 Some AZ minutemen, et. al, are calling for the impeachment of the President and the VP.

613,867 names on one petition is not a GROUNDSWELL No wonder intelligent legislators are ignoring them! 

Steve Elliott, of Grassfire.org is just another of those “conservatives” who have nothing to do with the GOP.  Check out his blog entry.

I need to crunch numbers, and I am terrible at it.  I think I can take these grassfire numbers and make a very good argument that we are dealing with the non-GOP voter registered Republican, Libertarian.  This is my whole argument with Ron Paul's supporters.  I estimate between 300,000 to a half million hard core supporters.  If you get a concentration of them in a state or district, they can create chaos in pockets.  I think we might be seeing this in Utah.  I know we are seeing it in AZ with these people resigning from the GOP and changing parties. 

Linda Chavez is now the subject of much criticism because, in her most recent Townhall column, she suggests that there is more than a touch of racism against Hispanics in the hearts and minds of those who are against the immigration bill.  As if to prove her point,  the KKK held an anti –immigration rally in Alabama this past weekend.  I thought there were no bigots in the movement and anyone who suggested there were is just a nutcase.   Immigration has proved to be a platform to help the once dying KKK rebound. This is an ADL report from last year.

  The KKK is growing in the Carolinas.

“…“Dig the hole, shoot ‘em, and bury ‘em!” Fincher said. He is talking about what the KKK thinks should happen at the Mexican border.  Virgil Griffin echoed those sentiments, “Well if it’s necessary to shoot one to stop them, yes!” I asked him, “So you think that if they are coming across the border, they should be shot?” “Shoot in front of them! And let them turn around. And if they keep coming, shoot one and let them know we are sealing our borders,” Griffin said. “But isn’t that the death penalty?” I asked, “for breaking the law of coming across the border without papers?” “Well, call it anything you want,” Griffin said, “but we need to seal our borders.” Fincher explained, “If they can’t be stopped from coming across the borders and the government doesn’t want to stop them, that’s exactly what should be done.”…”

Harold Hutchison at Called As Seen defends Linda Chavez.

Race for 2008 on the possibility that conservatives are going to go with libertarians this time around.  I keep telling you they are already there.  

ARE PEOPLE CATCHING ON?

Okay, just shoot me now.  I don’t’ believe it.  Red State has a positive posting about John Kyl and condemns single issue voters!  Maybe I’m just living in a parallel universe.

Steven Taylor at Outside the Beltway slams Lou Dobbs!  Thank you Steve.  (Oh, Heather MacDonald is one of those who spoon feeds Dobbs his bogus facts and figures). 

MUST READ:  AJ Strata has been excellent this week on the subject.  Today is no exception.

Mark Margolis, at GOP Bloggers, is very annoyed with the Ron Paul supporters who completely destroyed the last straw poll.  These are the same people who are propelling and keeping the opposition to the immigration bill alive and kicking.

Harold Hutchison (Called As Seen) on the President’s speech and the conservative panic attack that followed.

MY RANT OF THE DAY

INSPIRED BY GOP BLOGGER’S

RE:  Ron Paul Straw Poll Debut!

Right now from what I can tell, we’re probably talking anywhere from 300,000 to a half million people.  The big problem is the fact that many of these people are registered as Republican so they can vote in GOP primaries, but then vote Libertarian or other third parties in a general election.  While their actual power is limited, they can, indeed cause quite a bit of mischief.  I truly believe they are responsible for the loss of the Senate in November.  I think they may have effected a House race or two, but not much more.  Their concentration is not strong enough to go district by district, but they can have a state wide effect.  I think you are seeing them flex their muscles in Utah this week, in also in AZ with their opposition to Senator Kyl. (Interestingly, the Grassfire petition against the immigration bill stood at around 600,000 this morning. )    I think you will find most of the supporters of this petition are Paul supporters, and probably give an excellent indication of his actual support.

One of the reasons I started blogging about 2,5 years ago is because of the information I would constantly receive from “Paul” supporters.  I don’t know if this is a proper term or not.  I have been struggling for about a year to come up with a way to pin these people down as to who they are.  I think they masquerade as GOP and ‘Conservatives” and give conservatives a very bad name.  I would also put what I term ‘wacky’ conservatives into this group. 

The big problem is the fact that they ‘pretend’ to be Republican.  I am absolutely positive they are the propulsion behind about 75% of the whole anti-immigration rhetoric.  They are anti-war.  They are anti-Bush.  They see government conspiracies behind every movement of the Bush Administration.  Today in my inbox I received a panicked email that George W. Bush is intent on turning the US into the equivalent of Rome during the time of Julius Caesar.  (I am serious).    News With Views is promoted by Chuck Muth.  It is also tied in with Chuck Baldwin of the Crossroads Baptist Church.  These people are extremely anti-Bush and doggedly pro-Paul.

They are incredibly well organized.  Fact is, they have been working on their organization, tapping into the anti-Clinton sentiment since the late 1990’s.  I have been on an email mailing list from one of the primary organizers and movers and shaker in their group since 1998.  This group is the reason I started blogging.  I truly believe their actions are bordering on sedition. They are spoon-fed their craziness by Ron Kessler of News Max and Joseph Farrah of WND. 

You see their organization in the whole vocal anti-immigration movement.  To be honest there are conservatives who are concerned, as are we all.  BUT – and the big BUT is we are not single issue voters.  Neither are these people.  But, because of their organization, and the assistance of other sources I will explain in the book I am currently researching, we see this massive wall of ‘ground swell’ against immigration, when, in all actuality, this wall does not exist.

I find this 600,000 signatures on the Grassfire poll extremely revealing.  The same source that is promoting the Grassfire poll is promoting at least 4 additional ones.  The five minutes I could tolerate listening to Rush today (I was once a regular listener) he was bemoaning the fact that our legislators are ignoring the clarion call from “Conservatives” who are against the immigration bill.  Maybe our legislators aren’t as foolish stupid as we think they are.  I know there is a formula for gauging actual support for a bill or issue.  I can’t see how 600,000 names, blast faxed, can be considered a ‘groundswell’.  Once upon a time, in another life, I was a lobbyist dealing with the space program during those golden days of Reagan.  I know how the system works.  Evidently, and fortunately, our Ron Paulites do not actually comprehend how to work directly with a Senator or member of Congress in a lobby capacity. 

Or, even more interestingly, they do not have the actual state by state or district by district numbers to actually engineer a legislative coup or action.  I think these next few weeks are going to be very interesting and very revealing, separating the “Conservatives” from conservative Republicans.  There is a difference.  I’ve been researching and blogging about it to the point where I’ve wanted to bang my head against the wall, trying to get people to listen.  I think we are also entering an interesting era for our “conservative radio talk-show pundits”.  Are they going to fall prey to Paulites, and their false premise of actual power and numbers, or are they going to tick with the GOP?  We could end up seeing some very popular conservative celebs marginalized if they do not stop and realize they are being propelled farther and farther to the right by people who have an actual agenda that is contrary to the best interests of the GOP.

What you need to look at are the final results for “conservative” parties.  In 2004 a combination of both the Libertarian and Constitution parties pulled nearly 550,000 votes in the Presidential election.  In 2006 there were about a half million “independent” votes cast for the House and in the Senate, there were 600,000 Libertarian and about 800,000 independent votes cast.  In 2007 the Libertarians pulled three-quarters of a million votes.  In 2000 there were over 1.1 million votes for libertarian and constitution parties.  In 1998 the combination of the two netted a little less than a half million votes.   In 1992 600,000 voted libertarian.   Using these numbers, we can extrapolate that the libertarian Paulites can pull anywhere from 450,000 to a million votes.  The bottom line is the fact that these people can make a nuisance for themselves, especially if they decide to protest vote Dem, but there’s not much else they can do – except make a heck of a lot of noise.

This morning Rush Limbaugh was lamenting, just rabid, almost incoherent because very few Senators and not all that many members of the House were taking the grass roots voter who is anti-immigration serious. Perhaps the reason these voters are not being taken seriously is simple.  If we are dealing with a million voters – max – start doing the numbers crunching and dividing by state and district.  Unless they concentrate all their votes in a state, they can’t amount to a hill of beans.  The only votes they can influence are anti-GOP voters and get Dems elected instead of Republicans.  I have a feeling our Republicans are going to start figuring this out.  When they do it is going to be very, very interesting.

I wonder if we are going to see the marginalization of the conservative talk show host.  Funny, but immigration – by the time it is over – may do more to damage the credibility of our million dollar baby conservative talk show celebs than the Fairness Doctrine ever could.  I wonder how many listeners Rush Limbaugh lost today?   

We also need to make sure that pundits, writers, and the media understands that most states only offer a real two party system.  It is absolutely useless to register as anything other than Democrat or Republican if you want to vote in a primary.  The big show we saw in Arizona of Republicans changing parties is nothing but a show.  I will wager Rumsfeld’s basket of toys that those who “resigned from the GOP” rarely if ever voted Republican!

THURSDAY THIRTEEN  

My Thirteen Favorite James Bond Movies – IN ORDER!

1.       The Spy Who Loved Me (best them ever, also)

2.       Dr. No (you can’t beat a classic)

3.       License to Kill (I think Timothy Dalton’s Bond in this is probably the most accurate Bond ever!)

4.       For Your Eyes Only (Not a lot of gadgets, just story line.)

5.       Die Another Day (Okay, the movie isn’t all that good but Pierce Brosnon is H-O-T hot!)

6.       Live and Let Die (My favorite Sir Paul song)

7.       Diamonds Are Forever (It is so kitchy it is fun)

8.       Moonraker (Same reason as above)

9.       Goldfinger (The first Bond movie I ever saw!)

10.    Goldeneye (Sean Bean’s villain is too good to be a villain)

11.    You Only Live Twice (The theme song is so lush)

12.    Tomorrow Never Dies (It’s a decent Bond flick!)

13.    In Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Movie good – Bond horrendous - redeemable because we discover just what James Bond doesn’t wear under his kilt!)