HAPPY HALLOWEEN

If this doen't scare you nothing will - Click Here

Check out this one - I think I see Goldy and the PI editorial board in there

It's NOT about abortion

I am really getting tired of the MSM and actually just about everyone in the media repeating the misconception that conservatives/Republicans are focused solely on the abortion issue when considering a SCOTUS nominee. This criticism is leveled at everyone, including the White House.

They believe that the "religious right" are the ones that scuttled the nomination of Harriet Meiers. Patently false. A belief in God and being conservative does not automaticaly cast you as a member of the "far right wing" of the party.

In actuality, abortion "rights" in and of itself is not an issue at all. It is the underlying law that is the issue. That underlying principal, called the Constitution, is what it is all about. The founders of our country knew that the document they were authoring was not a document for just their time, but that they were establishing a foundation for future generations, and boy were they successful. The more time goes on, the more their wisdom shows through.

The problem comes when those comes when those whose sole job is to interpret this special document fail to do so in a manner consistent with the document itself and the intentions of our Founding Fathers. They begin to consult with foreign law for precedent and insight. Those laws, from countries not directed by such an insightful document, is not in keeping with the oath they took to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America".

For example, the "separation of church and state" does not exist. The Constitution protects us from the establishment of a state church. When placed in context of the times, they were protecting us from the goverment setting up a Church of America, in which all citizens are compelled to belong to the church and are not allowed to freely practice their faith. Religion, and not just christianity, is not forbidden in the public square. In fact, religion is the basis upon which this country was founded and is the basis for the most basic of our laws.

Conservatism, in part, is the belief that government should be limited. That applies to the Supreme Court as well. The justices, over time, have expanded both their sphere of responsibility (and their power) to include dictating law. We (the American people) have elected respresentative to perform that function.

Sims v. Irons - Looking at the polls

KING 5 commissioned aSurvey USA poll is from a couple of weeks agoreleased (10/17/05), but looking at the internals provides some interesting facts and explains Sims' current "aggressive" tactics.

Poll Results - Irons - 46% Sims - 43%

- Irons leads every age group except the 65+.
- Irons leads in 3 of 4 racial categories most notably with the Hispanic community 54% to 36%.
- Irons leads among men by 12 points, but only trails with women by 3 points.

As expected, Irons leads among R's 90 to 8, and among I's 49 to 35, but Sims only lead among D's by 72-15.

Taking trends from the previous poll (10/3/05), the news for Exec. Sims is dark. Sims increased his support in only 4 categories, his support fell among 15 categories and remained steady in 1 category. While on the other hand, Irons elevated his support in all 5 groups.

Interesting that the Sims campaign is on the offensive and has sent out their attack dogs (or horses asses if you prefer) to slander Irons with accusations that are suspect at best and outright lies at worst.

What do they say? Necessity is the mother of invention.

It will be interesting to see the results of the next poll and if the trends continue. Here's hoping.

Why did it take a Democrat?

HT: orbusmax.com - Thanks Orb, you are an indispensible resource.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), from my original home state, has proposed a "simpler, flatter, fairer" Tax Reform package.

This has been a grassroots Republican issue for some time, unfortunately, the powers that be in D.C. have merely paid it lip service in an attempt to sate the rank & file.

As of yet, I have not poured through the proposal, the fact that it is from Sen. Wyden, I am dubious, but I will give hime the benefit of the doubt and say that at least at first appearance, it seems to be a good start.

Rush Limbaugh Tribute - SUV Update

First, my thoughts and prayers go out to the driver killed in this accident and his/her family.

In a week where Rush has been more public than any other in recent memory, his performance on Broadway & rare sit-down interview with Hannity on Fox News, I thought an SUV update would be fitting.

In this story, which is a grand total of 5 sentences long, the fact that it was a SUV was mentioned 3 times. Would this have even been a story had it been a Camry, Civic or Focus?

Democrat supports Irons

Karen Rispoli ( Democrat challenger to Ron Sims during the primary) has come out in support of David Irons.

And that is not all of the story, Stefan has again dug up the inside story and the apparent cover up (another one) of the Sims administration.

Right Power

Could it be that conservatives, by holding firm to our convictions have actually grabbed the steering wheel and straightened out the drifting Republican party? Or, is it just cover for the train wreck that is the Harriet Meiers SCOTUS nomination? Probably a little of both I figure.

Earlier this week, Pres. Bush made the following statement during the ceremony for the signing of the Homeland Security Appropriations Act for 2006:

To defend this country, we've got to enforce our borders. When our borders are not secure, terrorists and drug dealers and criminals find it easier to come to America. This administration is going to work with Congress to make sure we do our job, and that starts with having a clear strategy. And here's how the strategy has got to be: We've got to strengthen security along our borders to stop people from entering illegally. In other words, we've got to stop people from coming here in the first place. Secondly -- (applause) -- secondly, we must improve our ability to find and apprehend illegal immigrants who have made it across the border. If somebody is here illegally, we've got to do everything we can to find them. And thirdly, we've got to work to ensure that those who are caught are returned to their home countries as soon as possible.

As any sane person figured out, especially after Sept. 11, it's the borders stupid. In other words keep the bastards out in the first place and we significantly reduce our suseptability to terrorism, to say nothing about the economical and social benefits of the expulsion of illegal immigrants.

Second, fiscal restraint is back in vogue for the Republicans. Speaker Hastert and other House Republicans are finally stepping back from former Leader Delay's no pork to cut statements and are looking to reign in the spending binge the Feds have been on for the last few years.

How long will this catering to the base last? Is this right turn intended to provide cover for Meiers, Delay, Rove, Libby...?

Who knows and who cares! We have the momentum, at least partially due to the pressure applied by conservatives over these two and other conservative issues. The challenge to all conservatives is to continue to keep the heat on our elected representatives and not be satisfied with the lip service that has been paid so far. Remeber, nothing has actually happened yet, words are cheap, and in my eyes they have accumulated quite the bill to pay.

Only the Anti-American MSM

If you have a strong stomach, try this editorial passing as a news story from The Seattle Times (via the Washington Post).

I recognize the rights of the Iraqi's to vote yeah or nay on the constitution during their 2nd free election yesterday. In fact, the fact that Iraqi's feel free to vote against the majority and then publicly express that sentiment to a reporter is a testament to the good America has done in that country.

But, leave it to the MSM to ignore the fact that a real election did happen in just a couple of years after Saddam was re-elected with 100% of the vote (because anyone who voted against him is now dead).

The writer goes into a Sunni dominated area and finds a 73-year old man who longs for the days of Saddam and no American "occupation". It just makes your stomach turn.

According to the news of the election so far, the constitution will pass, even in some areas where it was not expected to pass. That and the fact that violence was significantly less than anticipated and to most it would be measured a great success.

But the MSM can't have that, that would be a victory for the President and the Iraqi people and more importantly, it would contradict their hopes and dreams for the Iraqi people - failure of the implementation of a democracy.

When you have been so wrong for so long, you would hope that they would recognize that fact and quit trying to legitimize their opinions.

Tent City Alternative

It seems that some people in the area actually understand how to resolve a situation (or at least start) as oppososed to SHARE/WHEEL whose attitude is to perpetuate the problem in order to ensure their own power and funding (tax payer funds).

Sierra Club Criticizes Irons?

I guess this is supposed to be a hit piece on David Irons. I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Sierra Club put this out on David Irons, but from where I sit this could almost be a press release by the Irons Campaign.

2000 - Opposed increased subsidies for Metro with no increase in bus fares. - Evidently the Sierra Club is keeping with the attitude that us low-lifes in the general population who drive our car to work by ourselves are worthy of disdain and should be punished by further subsidising mass transportation for the small percentage of those who actually use it. How many lane miles would you get for $40 per family of four?

2002 - He (Irons) championed a plan to ammend the county's concurrency traffic rules to let rural residents subdivide their land. - It is there property isn't it? If we spent that $40 per family of four mentioned above to increase capacity on our area roads, would that not help mitigate the traffic issues? (The circular arguments of the Sierra Club and other environmentalists is mind boggling)

2003 - ...Irons said he believes roads have been underfunded compared to transit. OK, I am trying to figure out how that is a bad thing.

2004 - Irons has repeatedly been a road block to...the critical areas ordinances. Again, and that is a bad thing?

Can someone please help me figure this out? This is a perfect example of how out of touch these wackos are. The arrogance is astounding. Were I with the Irons campaign, I would make an ad using the points they use and spoof the press release. Talk about pissing off some libs.

Sims v. Irons II - Municipal League of KC

Every election cycle, the Municipal League of King County issues questionaires to candidates for various offices and evaluates those candidates on their responses to the questionaire and an interview with the candidates. Here are some observations from the questionaires.

RATING:
Sims - Outstanding
Irons - Good

Don't even ask me to explain this one. Let's look at them:

Ron Sims:

Political Background:

KC Executive - 1997 - Present
KC Council - 1985 - 1997
Lost races for US Senate - 1994 & Governor - 2005

That's it. Normally, a lack of governmental experience would be a good thing, but someone with 2 governmental positions in 20 years? It's not like he hasn't had ambitions for higher office, he just couldn't win any higher office.

As with anyone else, stagnation in your career life is not a good thing, especially when you have unfulfilled ambitions. Can he really lead when his focus is obviously elsewhere?

Here are some interesting tidbits from the questionaire -

Q: Why are you running for this office?

No kidding, his first answer starts -

First and foremost, I believe in good governance...

Hmmm and the best example of this is..............anyone?

Q: Describe your most important charecteristic traits...for this position?

Someone needs to talk to Ron, punch lines are supposed to wait till the end. But why keep us waiting, he starts -

I am not afraid to lead.

Noteworthy: NOT ONE mention of elections, fixing the Elections Department.

And for all of this, the Municipal League of King County rates him as OUTSTANDING?

David Irons:

Political Background

Multiple positions from Issaquah School Board to KC Council. All starting in 1992 and not all full time positions.

Q: Why are you running for this office?

• Reform Elections - Elected auditor!!!
  
• Transportation - ...real improvements on the ground
  
• Land Use - CAO
  
• Social Services - Real answers to homelessness (see Portland/Multnomah Cty)
  

Note the first reason listed. Without reliable elections we can all trust, what difference does the rest really make?

It continues, with Mr. Irons making his points in short, but specific points that spell out exactly (given the limited space) what he intends to do.

I will let you determine for yourself (of course with additional prodding in the future) who deserved the Outstanding and who the Good.

Sims v. Irons

Here we go! This will be fun!

First, the Municapal League of King County requested each candidate to complete a questionaire. Here is Mr. Irons'and here is Mr. Sims'.

Interesting reading, I will comment later, but just from a quick skim, one can not help noticing the asthetic differences between the two questionaires. Irons' is neat, organized into detailed bullet points and easy to follow as compared to the essay-like (easier to lose your reader)ramblings of Sims'. Not necessarily a substantive difference, but an interesting comparisson of styles.

Coming soon:

• Ron Sims begins ad campaign
• David Irons bucks the base
• Ron Sims - spending our money to campaign to his wacko base
• and much, much more
  

Quiet for a while

Been quiet for a while, summer tends to keep me busy. We are planning a move next year, so we have been scoping out cities to which to move. We are currently checking out (and are leaning HARD toward) Boise.

My daughter just moved out to go to college and we now have the freedom to live where we want to live. Not that we dislike North Bend, actually we LOVE North Bend, but it's the Puget Sound - taxes, government, traffic, weather, cost of living..................(I could go on indefinitely) and we are looking for somewhere smaller, slower and more hospitible to people not slanted heavily to the left.
Were we from Wash. State, we would probably stay in state, but being a conservative from Oregon (not exactly a red state either), we would like to live in a red state for once, if for no other reason than to for once, live among a majority of like minded people.

Well, I will try to keep a little more active on this and will narrow my focus. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.