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A performance by the USMC Silent Drill Platoon. This is friggin awesome.

What’s even more impressive, and you don’t notice it because of the crowd noise, but this is all being done without audio cues, commands or counts.

Wow, just wow. The very definition of denial….Hillary Clinton claims she can “control” Bill.

Says the woman whose husband has cheated on her how many times??

And should it really be necessary to “control” your spouse??  If they cheat on you, doesn’t that say something rather bad about them to begin with??

Watching Florida was like watching an nuclear bomb drop. I didn’t post on it last night because, honestly I’m trying to collect my thoughts still. And I’ve found I still haven’t quite formed a coherent thought on it.

Sure there has always been the chance that McCain was the nominee, that’s one of the risks we run. But never has it really been likely. Now suddenly Florida has made it very likely.* So as candidates drop, and McCain is still standing I’m left to ponder….can I cast a vote for McCain??

In the primaries, I’m almost positive I’ll cast a vote for Romney, because….well I have no other options. I’ve briefly flirted with the idea of casting a vote for Reagan, because at 28 years old I’m still sort of bitter that I was never able to cast a real vote for him. However, I don’t think our ballots allow that so I’m stuck there.

But at this point, as McCain looks more and more certain, I’m having to contemplate if I can cast a vote for McCain in the general election. It’s a thought I’ve sort of mulled over for the last 48 hours or so, and have struggled to set it to words. ntrepid over at Red State actually did a damn good job of coming close to my line of thinking, so read his essay and then come back and I’ll fill in the gaps (it’s worth the read by itself).

….

You’re back? Ok good. Now on top of that I have several other points to make.

The first, and probably the most simple, because it’s just petty bitterness is I’m still pissed off at being called a racist by McCain over the immigration thing. Guess what Johnny, that’s an awfully strong word to be tossing around…especially when it’s false.

Which brings me to another point….his temper. He’s famous for having an amazingly short fuse, and a violent temper. Do you really want a guy like that with his hand on the button??

Now to the more seriously topics, because I know exactly what the partisans amongst you are thinking. Judges!!! And I agree, that is the trump card to trump all trump issues. However, I’m not even sure I can trust McCain on that.

First of all, he seems to take a perverse pleasure in poking a hot dagger into the eyes of conservatives. Secondly, the stories of McCain not willing to nominate another Alito because he “wears his conservatism on his sleeve”?? Well what the hell is wrong with that?!?!? What is bad about conservatism??

Ok I know, I know, McCain claims that isn’t what he meant. But I think we’ve all played this game long enough to realize that in almost every falsehood there is a grain of truth. I have no doubt that he does have an issue with conservatives being proud of being conservatives. And that scares me, because suddenly that trump card is destroyed.

But probably my most important reason of opposing McCain….checks&balances. The concept that makes our government work so well, if not smoothly. Just think it through. You have a Democrat controlled Congress, and you have a President who is a Republican (in name only). Normally, the check in the situation is the opposing party. In this case, McCain is probably more likely to take the liberal approach than anything else, besides McCain loves his media attention. So the Democrats are on board. The Republicans are handicapped by not really being able to oppose their own President. Presto, no checks. Liberal agenda gets railroaded through.

Oh sure, McCain may get a few things right….foreign policy I’ll give him. But by the time the next president takes over, Iraq is likely to be much less of an issue. And I’m not really overly worried about a pull-out, remember that the Democrats campaigned on that in 2006. If they really wanted to do it, they would have. I think they say what they need to say to appease MoveOn.Org and Kossacks, but they have to contend with reality too.

Remember if Obama or Clinton pull out and Iraq turns into the hellstorm we think it would, that’s on their watch and they get the blame for it. Republicans can sit back and say “we told you so”. Sure as heck, the Democrats, once they actually have to make the tough decisions, they’ll recognize that. For now they are free to just whine alot knowing that they won’t actually get there way and thus don’t have to deal with the consequences of their advocated action.

So basically what I’m saying is that I’m not sure I can participate in sliding the Republican party to the middle. The normal trump issues just aren’t coming together. So when it really comes down to it, I’m a conservative, not a Republican. If the Republican Party wants to move away, lots of luck gentleman, but you’re doing it without me.

Which I guess does address one issue I have….I’ll cast my vote for Romney at precinct caucuses. Then in the general election, if McCain is the nominee I’ll finally get to cast that vote for Reagan that I’ve always wanted to do. I feel better already.

* Can’t Florida get ANYTHING right???

Well Secretary Chertoff, here’s your line in the sand, let’s see how serious you really are about deporting illegals. Yup we have another illegal immigrant hiding in a church. If it makes it easier on you she isn’t actively picking lettuce since she’s just hiding out in a church.

What really gets me is the news article that the AP wrote about her and how intellectually void it is….

Crisostomo, who spoke through a translator, said she left Iguala Guerrero, Mexico, after she was unable to find a job that would allow her to buy enough food for her two boys and one girl, ages 9 to 14.

In July 2000 she paid a smuggler to take her across the border and spent three days lost in desert-like conditions before making it to Los Angeles, she said.

Yeah, that’s supposed to be the heart-rending lead in. Fortunately, I have no heart so I can see it for what it is. Unable to find a job to buy food huh?? Then how did you pay a smuggler?? Especially since we know smugglers charge at least $2K - $4K per person, and lately prices have gone up. You didn’t have a job, you couldn’t pay for food, but you had $4k just laying around huh?? I smelly something fishy.

A month later she arrived in Chicago, where she worked 10 hours a day, six days a week in an IFCO Systems site that made packing materials.

That’s one of those jobs that Americans won’t do?? I got news for you….I used to do a job exactly like that at one point. It was boring sure, but it wasn’t hard.

By last year, she earned about $360 a week, sending $300 to her children for food, clothes and school books, she said.

Ok I have to ask who the heck is taking care of your children?? I presume their father isn’t around or else it would have made more sense to send him to the US instead. So I have to assume you just abandoned them back in Mexico?? Got a Mother Of The Year candidate right here.

“My children’s lives improve a lot as a result,” she said. “It wasn’t luxury. But it meant they could survive.”

I bet that $4k you blew on a smuggler could have bought a few luxuries. And since you had that much laying around, I have to assume that by “they could survive” you are exaggerating quite a bit.

The Board of Immigration Appeals last year denied Crisostomo’s appeal and told her to leave the United States by Monday.

Ok you had your day in court…no more excuses.

Crisostomo said she didn’t know how long she would stay in the church, adding that she would keep busy by lobbying via phone, e-mails and letters on behalf of millions of illegal immigrants.

SCREECHHH……wait a second….I smell hypocrisy.
Your life was so miserable in Mexico that you abandoned your children for the chance to send them some money every week to pay for their needs. Ok it’s shitty move, but I can see some good intentions in it.

Now, despite being told to leave, you are leaving your children motherless back in, by your own admission, a shithole of a country. And now you’re not even going to do them the courtesy of sending back money since you can’t leave the church?? You just want to stay in a comfy church for free so you can pursue some selfish desire to “lobby”???

You abandoned your children to make money to keep them feed. Now you aren’t even going to do that????

Admit it, this is no longer about making a living or a life for your kids, this is about your own selfish desires….your kids needs be damned.

And here I thought illegal immigrants were just decent people doing jobs Americans won’t do.

Ok they didn’t start out well. Early on in the Democratic nomination process, we had one of our Democrats analyze and criticize the kindergarten macaroni pictures of one of the other candidates. Apparently instead of picking the standard “I want to be a firefighter/policeman/Ron Paul*/etc”, he picked “I want to be President”.

Like I said, it wasn’t an good start. Then came approximately, fourteen months of race-baiting…or at least it felt like it to the rest of America. Now at the SOTU address, both Obama and Clinton demonstrated that apparently they have the emotional maturity of four-year olds….so suddenly the macaroni picture debate makes much more sense.

As a Daisy Ad laughing conservative, I felt pretty smug, we’re above this silliness. We’re the mature ones, we discuss issues of substance. We….

[ REALITY CHECK ]

Mitt Romney’s failure to eat fried chicken with the skin on is nothing short of blasphemy here in the South, according to GOP rival Mike Huckabee.

We’re arguing over who is better because of their taste in fried chicken?? Really??? Seriously?? And the person criticizing another for picking off the skin for health reasons, is the health food nut???

* Head Explodes *

Ok listen up, I’m only gonna say this once. I was wrong. We are not, in fact, governed by morons….we are actually governed by children. I regret this now obvious mistake…looking at Washington DC through the lens of a giant elementary playground everything makes more sense.

Is it too late to take my ball and go home??

* I only mention Ron Paul, because he has replaced the term “Britney Spears Naked” is a cheap way of generating lots of Google hits. Nobody really wants to be Ron Paul when they are little…although with enough Ritalin I suppose anything is possible.

Sen. Sessions, one of the good guys of the immigration debate in the Senate, is unsatisfied with the answers our great adequate slate of GOP candidates are giving on immigration. He’s provided fifteen questions he wants our candidates to answer and sign onto. They are very valid questions, and rather than see the candidates give the same BS song and dance they’ve been giving so far, I’d love to see the answers to these. Actually I probably don’t…I have a feeling deep depression would quickly follow.

In any case here are the questions [as provided by The Heritage Foundation via The Corner] :

REAL IMMIGRATION REFORM

A Roadmap for Demonstrating Presidential Credibility on One of America’s Most Important Issues

I. SECURE THE BORDER
1. Border Fence and National Guard: If elected President, will you secure the border, including completing construction of the 700 mile southern border fence required by the Secure Fence Act, constructing more miles if needed, and keeping the National Guard on the border until it is secured?
□Yes or □ No

2. Border Prosecutions: If elected President, will you deter illegal entry by expanding the already successful Zero Tolerance Prosecution Policy (Operation Streamline) from 3 to all 20 border sectors, and support statutory mandatory minimums for the crimes of illegal entry, reentry, and reentry after deportation for any felony?
□Yes or □ No

3. Control Visa Overstays: If elected President, will you give our immigration system integrity by completing the 10-year past due exit portion of The USVISIT (Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology) system and eliminate other weaknesses in the system so that future visa overstays can be identified?
□Yes or □ No

II. END THE MAGNET AT THE WORKPLACE
4. Enforceable Employer Verification System: If elected President, will you end the jobs magnet by requiring all employers to use the electronic verification system to check the legal status of all employees, reduce fraud by decreasing the number of documents employers must accept to prove legal status, and will you offer cooperating employers a safe harbor?
□Yes or □ No

5. Biometric ID Card For All Non-Citizens: If elected President, will you require a biometric (fingerprint encoded) identification card for all aliens authorized to work?
□Yes or □ No

6. Eliminate Identity Theft: If elected President, will you increase security for legal workers by requiring social security earnings statements to list all employers reporting wages under an individual’s social security number so that fraudulent use of that number can be spotted and will you fight to keep using “no match notices” as evidence that employers knew they were employing an illegal alien under a social security numbe issued to someone else?
□Yes or □ No

III. STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT
7. Form Effective Partnerships: If elected President, will you form effective immigration enforcement partnerships with state and local law enforcement by clarifying their authority to enforce federal immigration laws, deputizing state and local officers in every state (through the 287(g) program), offering a basic training course for all state and local officers, and compensating state and local entities for immigration enforcement related expenses?
□Yes or □ No

8. Federal Response To State And Local Arrests: If elected President, will you promptly evaluate the 27% of prisoners that are non-citizens so that illegal alien criminals can be processed and deported at the end of their sentences, and will you implement a mandatory federal response to state and local law enforcement when they apprehend an illegal alien for a DUI, child abuse crime, or any felony?
□Yes or □ No

9. End Catch and Release: If elected President, will you put an end to the existing policy that allows illegal aliens caught inside our country to be released on bail after their arrest while they await their initial court appearance?
□Yes or □ No

10. List Illegal Aliens In the NCIC: If elected President, will you immediately expand the National Crime Information Center’s (NCIC) Immigration Violators File to include: (A) aliens against whom a final order of removal has been issued; (B) aliens who have signed a voluntary departure agreement; (C) aliens who have overstayed their authorized period of stay; and (D) aliens whose visas have been revoked?
□Yes or □ No

IV. DISCOURAGE SANCTUARIES
11. Deny Federal Funds: If elected President, will you encourage compliance with Federal law by implementing a reduction of at least 10% of discretionary federal grants and highway funds to cities, states, universities, and other entities that undermine Federal law by implementing sanctuary policies, issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, or offering education benefits to illegal aliens (such as in-state tuition) that are not available to all legal residents and citizens?
□Yes or □ No

12. Close Financial Loopholes: If elected President, will you rewrite the Treasury regulations to close the loophole that allows illegal aliens to open U.S. based bank accounts?
□Yes or □ No

V. IMPROVE THE LEGAL IMMIGRATION PROCESS
13. Replace Visa Lottery and Chain Migration with Merit Based Immigration System: If elected President, will you eliminate the visa lottery program and change current preference categories that guarantee automatic entry for aging parents and extended family members and replace it with a system that fairly and objectively evaluates at least 50% of applicants based on characteristics such as education, skills, English ability, and age?
□Yes or □ No

14. Pathway to Citizenship: If elected President, will you take a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens off the table?
□Yes or □ No

15. Seek Necessary Authority: If elected President, will you ask Congress for necessary laws or funds to execute these commitments?
□Yes or □ No

By signing this document, I express to the American people that I understand the challenges of ending illegal immigration, I am personally committed to that goal, and I will take the actions reasonable and necessary to achieve it.
________________________________________________ _____________________
(Signature of Candidate) (Date)

Well candidates?? We’re waiting….

I didn’t liveblog it because, heh, most of you probably didn’t even watch it, why would you watch a liveblog. I didn’t watch it live because despite there being about an inch of water on top of the ice tonite, I had a game and playing goalie in a floating net sounded more fun than watching a political speech. For reasons unknown, I did eventually watch it when I got home and unfroze my feet.

Here’s the money quote of the whole speech :

Some in Washington argue that letting tax relief expire is not a tax increase. Try explaining that to 116 million American taxpayers who would see their taxes rise by an average of $1,800. Others have said they would personally be happy to pay higher taxes. I welcome their enthusiasm. I’m pleased to report that the IRS accepts both checks and money orders.

Amen!

I get the sense that President Bush is talking down to Congress. Like he’s addressing slightly unruly children. Unfortunately that’s not an inaccurate assessment of Congress lately, so perhaps it’s appropriate. But if it’s any indicator of how he plans on treating Congress for the next year, it’s gonna be a very interesting year. Plus he seems to enjoy it…perhaps a little too much.

Hit earmarks hard, which was expected. And it’s not bad, I wish he took it further, but it’s a heck of a lot better than where we were previously. I’ll take it as incremental progress. A little surprised at the standing ovation from both sides of the aisle on this as well. Perhaps they just don’t take him seriously yet??

Uhhhh….

Yet for some Americans, trade can mean losing a job, and the federal government has a responsibility to help.

It does?? Why?

More coal power?? Why not nuclear? Ahhh, nevermind, that was the next sentence…

I liked the not-so-subtle shot at the Kyoto treaty…

Grrrr, Fox keeps panning away to a shot of the gallery or the floor, and when they go back to Bush, he’s giggling his ass off about something. Keep the damn camera on the guy giving the speech guys. At the very worst do a split screen, it can’t be that difficult.

Illegal immigration is complicated, but it can be resolved. And it must be resolved in a way that upholds both our laws and our highest ideals.

I both agree and disagree. Illegal immigration is not complicated, just enforce the damn law already. And I don’t know which one of your ideals involves rewarding lawbreakers with amnesty. None of mine do, certainly my high ones don’t.

Subtle slam on Reid for declaring the war lost. Very nice. Reiterates that the situation in Iraq is improving, no matter how much the Democrats refuse to admit it. Spent a lot of time on Iraq actually, appears as if he’s trying to keep this a political issue. Probably not overly happy that so far people have not given him credit for it. History will though.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael “Lettuce” Chertoff still looks like Skeletor.

I think Pelosi spent most of the speech either blinking feriously, or chewing off her own tongue. Seriously, what were those facial expressions about? Distracting isn’t even the word for it.

Norm Coleman got in a quick meet and greet with the President at the end as he was walking out, appeared to want to talk to him more but got interrupted. Then appeared to have an extended conversation with Condi Rice about something. They kept looking towards the President, looks like Coleman wants the Presidents ear about something.

Michelle Bachmann had someone else bring her program over for Bush to sign, so no repeat of the weird hug thingie from last year.

Summary : Eh, not an overwhelming noteworthy speech. A key key bits, but mostly appeared to be rehashing of existing initiatives. Granted they are still unaccomplished because Congress is a bunch of unproductive boobs. I like the bit on earmarks and taxes. I would have preferred a harsher line, but it’s something at least. It appears fairly obvious that Bush intends to keep taking on Congress in 2008 and isn’t backing off any time soon. Not overly surprising considering that Bush has never made it a secret that he intends to spend every bit of political capital he has.

Linky Goodness

Speech Transcript

Earmarks Fact Sheet

SOTU Initiatives 

According to John McCain, he’s heard the American public on immigration. He heard our feelings on immigration and amnesty.

And apparently he’s ignored it all, because despite all that he would still sign the McCain/Kennedy Amnesty bill if he became President.

Sounds like a hell of a good reason NOT to have him as president doesn’t it?

If there is one thing Europe is good for, is to provide a example of what the long term consequences of liberalism is.  For example, Paris is perpetually in flames and riots are an every day occurence because of years of rampant political correct multiculturism.

And now the UK provides us the long term result of universal health care.  It gets really expensive really quick.  And by really expensive, I mean unsustainably so.  To which apparently the answer is not providing health care to…..well, the people that need healthcare, the sick and elderly.

Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.

Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.

I often hear the phrase, “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s free”.  Apparently it holds more truth than even I thought.

If it weren’t so tragic, this situation would be rather amusing.  After all, the big criticism of private health care is that the sick and elderly can’t afford it.  Well under universal health care, the state denies it to them.  So how does that change things??  And everyone else that is still covered has to wait months for a simple appointment.  Another perfect example that socialism doesn’t provide collective prosperity but rather collective misery.

….comes this little Strib story….apparently producing ethanol uses up a frightening amount of water and is running wells dry all over the state.

The issue was brought into focus last year in Granite Falls, where an ethanol plant in its first year of operations depleted the groundwater so much that it had to begin pumping water from the Minnesota River.

It takes between four and five gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol at a biofuel plant, and with 17 ethanol plants now operating in the state, six under construction and 10 more proposed or in the planning stages, the threat of more drains on underground water are rising.

Well who would have thought…I mean other than everyone that isn’t involved in this boondoogle we call the ethanol industry.

First everyone starts noticing the damaging effect ethanol has had on the price of corn and food in general. Now it uses up too much water. Next thing you know people are going to finally notice how insanely inefficient ethanol really is.