EckerNet.Com

No, I don\’t mean the guy puking in the other corner.  That\’s Drunk Guy, my co-blogger-who-never-blogs….probably because he\’s too drunk to do anything other than dry hump his keyboard.

We have a new addition to EckerNet, and he\’s brave enough to use his real name….Pat Staley.  Although with a name like that who\’d believe it was real?  I\’m tempted to say all sorts of great things about him, but I\’m an awful liar.  So once he figures out how these InterTubes work, he\’ll probably be along with his first post.

Please do me a favor and understand that he\’s new to this, so roast him over the coals as much as possible.  Thanks.

You thought I was gonna put up a new post today?

April Fools.

They are doing some upgrades and maintenance on the server that hosts EckerNet early in the morning of Tuesday, February 3rd.  I\’ve been told to expect the site to be down for a few hours.

Under new executive orders by His Holiness President Obama, all bloggers are required to use the words \”Hope\” and \”Change\” no less than 38 times in all posts.

I had sort of figured as a private enterprise I shouldn\’t be subject to such rules but then I figured I probably shouldn\’t pick a fight with a guy who walks on water and farts rainbows.  However, since this blog is a half-assed effort at punditry, EckerNet will hold ourselves to 18 uses.

I Hope© this fulfills the wishes of our Glorious Leader, and may Obama have mercy on my soul.

Hope Change Hope Change Hope Change Hope Change Hope Change Hope Change Hope Change Hope Change

Now it\’s true that regardless of who won the election we were going to have a pro-amnesty President.  So this was an issue that was going to resurface no matter what.  So this storm was coming no matter what.  Time for some forecasting.

On the surface things look pretty bleak for the pro-enforcement side.  You have an President who openly supports amnesty and his party controls both houses of Congress.  Even the other parties presidential candidate, who is still in Congress, supports amnesty.  McCain could be a leader of a bi-partisan effort.  The new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Arizona Gov. Napolitano, is a clear open borders supporter.  E-Verify expires again in March, 2009.  The border fence, despite having hundreds of miles of Israeli-style fencing being mandated by Congress, is uncompleted, consisting of little more than a few hundred miles of cattle fencing.

Let all that sink in for a minute….  Sounds pretty bad right?

Well there are also some reasons to think positive here.

Republicans are in the clear minority here, but they also aren\’t going to feel pressured to support their own president.  The next four years, the first impulse of many Republicans is going to oppose anything Obama tries to do.  And Karl Rove isn\’t up there trying to convince Republicans that if we just make citizens of the entire nation of Mexico, they\’ll all vote Republican.  Conservatives were already pissed off the last time around and Republicans have done nothing to ease their anger the past few years.  Holding together a Republican caucus should be much easier this go around.

What\’s that?? McCain??  Look conservatives and Republicans were never that fond of McCain.  They supported him because they had to.  He\’s run for President twice now, he\’s lost.  He\’s a solid RINO, the Republican conservatives hate and Democrats love.  His political capital is about used up.

Democrats now have a clear majority, but with a majority comes balkanization.  The us vs them mentality starts getting lost and individual factions begin to reappear.  And let\’s face it Pelosi and Reid aren\’t exactly stellar leaders.  And many of the junior Democrats have been voted in by right-leaning districts.  Immigration is a hot-button issue that doesn\’t tend to be forgotten.  Vulnerable Democrats aren\’t going to want to be a sacrificial lamb and with a clear majority there is going to be less pressure to take one for the team.

The economy oddly enough will also help in this aspect.  The bad economy has lessened the flow across the border, or even reversed it.  With rising unemployment there is less demand for foreign workers and more resentment amongst Americans towards any holding down jobs in the US.   All in one less illegals in the US makes the problem seem less daunting, but the job market makes the problem seem more critical.

Plus the pro-enforcement lobby is one of the few conservative interest groups that hasn\’t fallen behind the Democrats in technology and sheer collaborative advocacy.  They\’ve proven they ability to raise holy hell if need be more than once.  The ability to overwhelm and shutdown the Congressional switchboard several days in a row is a feat not to be ignored.

The immigration issue is coming back this time around.  And there are lots of reasons to be worried.  But there are also lots to be optimistic about.  Either way this next session will not be boring.

[Crossposted at True North]

Congrats to my occasional rare co-blogger Drunkguy, whose wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl a couple days ago.  The fact that the kid is cute does lead to some doubt as to the father of the child.  I suspect a modern case of immaculate conception.

Either way, congrats to Drunkguy and Mrs. Drunkguy.  In just 16 short years she\’ll be wrecking your car and dating guys you don\’t like.

If you\’re reading this your DNS server has now started pointing at the new home of EckerNet.Com.

While I was happy with my hosting company I was not happy with the server my site was hosted on.  Slow, overloaded, constant 404 errors, and more than a minor amount of downtime.

So I moved it to one of their brand new servers…it\’s still got that new server smell!  Already I\’m liking it.  Anyway I\’ve pointed the EckerNet.Com domain to point to the new server now but it takes time to propogate across the internet.  You\’ve finally made it….poor you.

Tonite, myself, the girlfriend and several other folks from MN CD2 GOP will be attending the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner Fundraiser.  Amongst others we\’ll get to hear from Norm Coleman, John Kline and Rudy Giuliani.  Should be a great chance to listen to some great speakers as well as kick back for a relaxing evening with some of the other folks who collectively help keep CD2 a well-oiled machine.

Even better is that I\’m pretty much calling it a week, because I\’m leaving straight from the dinner to head out to western MN to join the rest of the MN Militia to hunt the elusive ring-necked pheasant.  Hmmm…I wonder if my suit&tie would make good hunting attire??

Cya…

Yes, I have returned.  Myself and several other members of the MN Militia just got back from several days of hinting in the NoDak badlands/desert.  We figured it necessary to stage this trip since one of our members is preparing for another deployment (currently to Iraq) and he\’ll probably miss next year\’s trip.  He demonstrated his shooting skills were definitely up to the task.  However, I sincerely hope, and I\’m sure both him and his wife/family agree, that he never has use for them.

But even in it\’s own right it was an enjoyable trip.  Middle of what is essentially a desert shooting at prairie dogs from 300 to 600 yards away with a 30+ mph crosswind.  It seems they\’ve gotten a bit skittish from being shot at all summer so combined with the conditions I won\’t pretend we put much of a dent in their population but it was good fun anyway.  Except for the rattlesnake.

Having returned and finally gotten cleaned up, it\’s time to catch up with the world.

New Orleans is under water again?? You don\’t say.  Who could have seen that coming?  I\’m so glad we spent millions of tax dollars rebuilding a city that was guaranteed to be destroyed again soon and which contributes virtually nothing to the nation with the notable exceptions of copious amounts of most of the seven deadly sins, and a few sins that haven\’t even been invented yet.

GOP convention is going on, albeit in a very abbreviated format.  I\’ll be participating, so to speak, for the rest of it.  I hope to relate my experiences here but we\’ll see what I have time for.

Palin has been picked as VP.  I think I\’m damn near required to comment on that but it\’s now old news having been announced as I was on my way out the door.  But we\’ll see.

Other than that the world is pretty much as I left it.  Which is nice that it can survive without me.

It\’s been at least a couple months since my last hunting trip so obviously I\’m very overdue. So as of today, I am heading to an undisclosed location (western NoDak) with several other members of the MN Militia to a relaxing few days of copious amounts of shooting.

I will return sometime on Monday, just in time to participate in the RNC festivities in an undisclosed role (seriously that one\’s actually undisclosed…for now). My ability/time/resources to blog during that time are currently unknown and will likely be very much in flux so you\’ll have to bear with me on that one.