Sweet poetic justice! But wait, this might explain why they want the government to bail them out. It’s pretty sickening.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg)—The market storm that brought down Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., American International Group Inc. and other pillars of U.S. finance may have also blown holes in the portfolios of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator John Kerry and more than 50 other members of Congress.

Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of stock in AIG, which ceded majority control to the U.S. government this week in exchange for $85 billion of loans.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, disclosed that his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had more than $2 million of AIG stock at the end of 2007, when shares were worth $58.30. AIG has fallen 85 percent this week to close yesterday at $2.69. The lawmakers’ aides didn’t respond to calls seeking comment.

LINK to full article.

BAGHDAD – The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace — a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.

Despite the occasional bursts of violence, Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government.

That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending, years past the time when President Bush optimistically declared it had. The new phase focuses on training the Iraqi army and police, restraining the flow of illicit weaponry from Iran, supporting closer links between Baghdad and local governments, pushing the integration of former insurgents into legitimate government jobs and assisting in rebuilding the economy.

Scattered battles go on, especially against al-Qaida holdouts north of Baghdad. But organized resistance, with the steady drumbeat of bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and ambushes that once rocked the capital daily, has all but ceased.

This amounts to more than a lull in the violence. It reflects a fundamental shift in the outlook for the Sunni minority, which held power under Saddam Hussein. They launched the insurgency five years ago. They now are either sidelined or have switched sides to cooperate with the Americans in return for money and political support.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told The Associated Press this past week there are early indications that senior leaders of al-Qaida may be considering shifting their main focus from Iraq to the war in Afghanistan.

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the AP on Thursday that the insurgency as a whole has withered to the point where it is no longer a threat to Iraq’s future.

“Very clearly, the insurgency is in no position to overthrow the government or, really, even to challenge it,” Crocker said. “It’s actually almost in no position to try to confront it. By and large, what’s left of the insurgency is just trying to hang on.”

Shiite militias, notably the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, have lost their power bases in Baghdad, Basra and other major cities. An important step was the routing of Shiite extremists in the Sadr City slums of eastern Baghdad this spring — now a quiet though not fully secure district.

Al-Sadr and top lieutenants are now in Iran. Still talking of a comeback, they are facing major obstacles, including a loss of support among a Shiite population weary of war and no longer as terrified of Sunni extremists as they were two years ago.

Despite the favorable signs, U.S. commanders are leery of proclaiming victory or promising that the calm will last.

The premature declaration by the Bush administration of “Mission Accomplished” in May 2003 convinced commanders that the best public relations strategy is to promise little, and couple all good news with the warning that “security is fragile” and that the improvements, while encouraging, are “not irreversible.”

Iraq still faces a mountain of problems: sectarian rivalries, power struggles within the Sunni and Shiite communities, Kurdish-Arab tensions, corruption. Any one of those could rekindle widespread fighting.

But the underlying dynamics in Iraqi society that blew up the U.S. military’s hopes for an early exit, shortly after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, have changed in important ways in recent months.

Systematic sectarian killings have all but ended in the capital, in large part because of tight security and a strategy of walling off neighborhoods purged of minorities in 2006.

That has helped establish a sense of normalcy in the streets of the capital. People are expressing a new confidence in their own security forces, which in turn are exhibiting a newfound assertiveness with the insurgency largely in retreat.

Statistics show violence at a four-year low. The monthly American death toll appears to be at its lowest of the war — four killed in action so far this month as of Friday, compared with 66 in July a year ago. From a daily average of 160 insurgent attacks in July 2007, the average has plummeted to about two dozen a day this month. On Wednesday the nationwide total was 13.

Beyond that, there is something in the air in Iraq this summer.

In Baghdad, parks are filled every weekend with families playing and picnicking with their children. That was unthinkable only a year ago, when the first, barely visible signs of a turnaround emerged.

Now a moment has arrived for the Iraqis to try to take those positive threads and weave them into a lasting stability.

The questions facing both Americans and Iraqis are: What kinds of help will the country need from the U.S. military, and for how long? The questions will take on greater importance as the U.S. presidential election nears, with one candidate pledging a troop withdrawal and the other insisting on staying.

Iraqi authorities have grown dependent on the U.S. military after more than five years of war. While they are aiming for full sovereignty with no foreign troops on their soil, they do not want to rush. In a similar sense, the Americans fear that after losing more than 4,100 troops, the sacrifice could be squandered.

(Blogger’s Note – withdrawal timetables are absurd)

U.S. commanders say a substantial American military presence will be needed beyond 2009. But judging from the security gains that have been sustained over the first half of this year — as the Pentagon withdrew five Army brigades sent as reinforcements in 2007 — the remaining troops could be used as peacekeepers more than combatants.

(Blogger’s note – the “SURGE” worked!!!)

As a measure of the transitioning U.S. role, Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond says that when he took command of American forces in the Baghdad area about seven months ago he was spending 80 percent of his time working on combat-related matters and about 20 percent on what the military calls “nonkinetic” issues, such as supporting the development of Iraqi government institutions and humanitarian aid.

Now Hammond estimates those percentage have been almost reversed. For several hours one recent day, for example, Hammond consulted on water projects with a Sunni sheik in the Radwaniyah area of southwest Baghdad, then spent time with an Iraqi physician/entrepreneur in the Dora district of southern Baghdad — an area, now calm, that in early 2007 was one of the capital’s most violent zones.

“We’re getting close to something that looks like an end to mass violence in Iraq,” says Stephen Biddle, an analyst at the Council of Foreign Relations who has advised Petraeus on war strategy. Biddle is not ready to say it’s over, but he sees the U.S. mission shifting from fighting the insurgents to keeping the peace.

Although Sunni and Shiite extremists are still around, they have surrendered the initiative and have lost the support of many ordinary Iraqis. That can be traced to an altered U.S. approach to countering the insurgency — a Petraeus-driven move to take more U.S. troops off their big bases and put them in Baghdad neighborhoods where they mixed with ordinary Iraqis and built a new level of trust.

Army Col. Tom James, a brigade commander who is on his third combat tour in Iraq, explains the new calm this way:

“We’ve put out the forest fire. Now we’re dealing with pop-up fires.”

It’s not the end of fighting. It looks like the beginning of a perilous peace.

Maj. Gen. Ali Hadi Hussein al-Yaseri, the chief of patrol police in the capital, sees the changes.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Robert Burns is AP’s chief military reporter, and Robert Reid is AP’s chief of bureau in Baghdad. Reid has covered the war from his post in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. Burns, based in Washington, has made 21 reporting trips to Iraq; on his latest during July, Burns spent nearly three weeks in central and northern Iraq, observing military operations and interviewing both U.S. and Iraqi officers.

LINK TO ACTUAL ARTICLE

From Charlie Brown’s Website – before he can pull it down…

Having coordinated surveillance flights over Iraq in the 1990’s, Charlie did not support the U.S. invasion because he knew there were no WMD’s present, that an invasion could unleash centuries old sectarian conflicts inside Iraq, and leave fewer American military resources available to defeat the enemy who attacked America on 9/11—Al Qaeda.

Despite under-manning, under-equipping, bad intelligence and naive post-war planning by politicians in Washington, America’s military has toppled a terrible dictator in Iraq. But as General Petraeus himself has said, our troops can only create the space for Iraq’s newly elected politicians to reconcile the political differences that have fomented sectarian violence and civil war. Ultimately, Iraq needs a political solution, not a military one. And America can’t defeat global terrorism by transforming the world’s finest military force into the Baghdad police force.

(Sorry Charlie – Looks like it is working now, isn’t it!!!)

Charlie believes accountability is the key to getting our troops home quickly and responsibly—-tying future U.S. aid to the achievement of key political benchmarks by Iraq’s elected leaders. Together with limited counterterrorism operations, training of Iraqi Security forces and accelerated reconstruction efforts, only real results from Iraq’s politicians can expedite the process of political reconciliation Iraq needs to create a permanent stable government that can sustain itself and defend its own borders. Ultimately, open ended promises of money and troops by our government provide little incentive for Iraqi politicians to take action and ownership of their nation’s future.

(Sorry Charlie – It looks like it is working, care to re-state your position anew???)

Ultimately, re-deploying US Troops out of Iraq will enable the United States to refocus on the real front lines against terrorism-fighting the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, strengthening our strategic alliances, improving intelligence gathering, expanding special operations capabilities, and giving our troops more time here at home- so they can be rested, trained, properly equipped and ready for quick deployment against terrorist concentrations or any other threats to America.

Nearly 7 years after 9/11, the Bush Administration has failed on it promise to capture and/or kill the top leaders of Al Qaeda. LINK

Our government is too busy infighting, or at least it seems this way. What is really going on at the White House? Who’s in charge anyway? Isn’t Bush the Commander in Chief? Why did he not take his change to take out the Taliban leadership at a funeral in 2006?

“Intelligence reports for more than a year had been streaming in about Osama bin Laden’s terror network rebuilding in the Pakistani tribal areas, a problem that had been exacerbated by years of missteps in Washington and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, sharp policy disagreements, and turf battles between American counterterrorism agencies.”

”...Special Operations forces are still waiting for the green light. The plan has been held up in Washington by the very disagreements it was meant to eliminate.”

“Just as it had on the day before 9/11, Al Qaeda now has a band of terror camps from which to plan and train for attacks against Western targets, including the United States. Officials say the new camps are smaller than the ones the group used prior to 2001. However, despite dozens of American missile strikes in Pakistan since 2002, one retired CIA officer estimated that the makeshift training compounds now have as many as 2,000 Arab and Pakistani militants, up from several hundred three years ago.”

“American intelligence officials say that the Qaeda hunt in Pakistan, code-named Operation Cannonball by the CIA in 2006, was often undermined by bitter disagreements within the Bush administration and within the intelligence agency, including about whether American commandos should launch ground raids inside the tribal areas.”

Who is running this dog and pony show? I thought Bush was serious about stopping terrorism? Why do we have open borders? Why is there no military presence on the US/Mexican border? Why are Taliban funerals attended by terrorist leaders and haters of America allowed to take place with US Intelligence knowledge and nothing is being done about it? I’m sick of all the talk and posturing, I want action!

If anyone is still having doubts about border security and the need to build a wall on our southern border better think again. Bush isn’t serious about closing the border so our next President better pull their head out of Mexico’s butt.

“Police documents show that at least one of the suspects involved in a home invasion and homicide were active members of the Mexican Army.”

“A top member of a Phoenix police union is standing by reports that at least one of the men involved in a Monday morning home invasion and homicide was an active member in the Mexican Army.”

“Even if you put aside the Mexican military, you have illegals in the country…they’re protected with tactical gear using tactical strategies in police uniforms willing to ambush police officers. I think that’s bad enough,” said Mark Spencer, President of the Phoenix Police Enforcement Association.

While on the J.D. Hayworth show Tuesday, Mark Spencer announced that the suspects were hired by drug cartels to perform home invasions and murders.

The incident at 8329 W. Cypress St. resulted in the death of the homeowner. Between 50 and 100 rounds were fired at the house.

Spencer said a police officer told him that one of the men captured said they were completely prepared to ambush Phoenix police, but ran out of ammunition.

He added that all were all dressed in military tactical gear and were armed with AR-15 assault rifles. Three other men involved in the invasion escaped.

LINK

In case you haven’t heard….

“Individual Americans have a right to own guns, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday for the first time in the country’s history, striking down a strict gun control law in the U.S. capital.

The landmark 5-4 ruling marked the first time in nearly 70 years the high court has addressed the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It rejected the argument the right to keep and bear arms was tied to service in a state militia.”

LINK to article.

A lot of news this week on the political front. We had two huge wins on Tuesday, and today The Wall Street Journal published an article I wrote about the need to defeat Alaska Congressman Don Young in the upcoming Republican primary.

As I wrote in the Journal, “The reason for the endorsement is simple. [Lt. Gov. Sean] Parnell is a solid conservative who led the fight for lower taxes and spending in the state legislature, and joined Gov. Sarah Palin in pushing for reform in the state. The man he is hoping to replace isn’t economically conservative in the least. Mr. Young is actually a poster child for what has gone wrong with the Republican Party in Washington.

“Over his 35 years in Congress, Mr. Young made himself into the most powerful Republican on the House Transportation Committee. But instead of using his power to steer Republicans down a principled, conservative track, he helped derail the GOP train in 2006.

“Mr. Young spends taxpayer money so wastefully he could make a liberal Democrat blush. As chairman of the Transportation Committee (from 2001 to 2007), Mr. Young was directly responsible for one of the biggest boondoggles of the Republican majority – the 2005 highway bill. With a price tag of $296 billion, the highway bill contained a record 6,371 pork projects.

“One of those projects was the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere, inserted by Mr. Young. The notorious bridge was meant to connect the city of Ketchikan, Alaska – population 8,000 – to an airport on Gravina Island – population 50. Instead, it came to symbolize Republican excess, and helped cost the GOP its majority.”

You can read the rest of the article below. For those of you who can’t wait to donate to Sean’s campaign to defeat Young, you can do that by clicking here.

This is one of our toughest yet most important political campaigns ever, and if we win, it would mark the second time this year that Club members beat an incumbent in a GOP primary, which I believe would be an unprecedented feat for any PAC.

A Super Tuesday

We got some great news earlier this week from Tuesday night’s primaries. The Politico newspaper reported (and Rush Limbaugh read on air yesterday) that the “Club for Growth had a big night Tuesday, as the two candidates it endorsed and funded prevailed in hotly contested Republican primaries in New Mexico and California.”

Rep. Steve Pearce (NM-Sen) edged out Rep. Heather Wilson 51% to 49% and Tom McClintock (CA-04) won by a surprisingly large margin, 54% to 39%, despite former Rep. Doug Ose spending over $3.25 million of his own money in attack ads.

Thank you to all the Club members who made these wins possible. The Club for Growth PAC bundled $275,000 from Club members for Steve Pearce in his primary race and over $200,000 for Tom McClintock in his primary race, and spent nearly $100,000 on TV and radio ads.

The Club PAC’s last four races, all wins, cost over $800,000 in TV and radio ads and other independent expenditures that were crucial to the victories. If you’d like to help refill the PAC’s war chest, please click here to donate.

Rush on the Club

Before I continue on Pearce and McClintock, here’s an excerpt of what Rush Limbaugh said yesterday about the two victories. (You can listen to the whole segment here.)

“One of the things I have suggested is focusing a lot on the future. These are cycles. We can rebuild. The conservative movement can triumph once again. It’s going to have to start locally, supporting state and local conservatives in their quest, getting to know who they are, supporting them, voting for them, giving them confidence to keep going. The Club for Growth, a conservative group, had a big night Tuesday. Two candidates it endorsed and funded prevailed in hotly contested Republican primaries in New Mexico and California. This is how it’s done. . .

“So this is the future. These are new roots being planted, and these are the kind of things that are going to have to happen all across the country along with other things in order to bring about this rebirth of conservative—and it isn’t going to be that hard, and it isn’t going to take that long.”

We appreciate the plug Rush, which brought a flood of new members to our website yesterday.

Rep. Steve Pearce is a strong economic conservative who has faithfully honored his pledge to oppose tax increases throughout his time in Congress. Wilson had one of the worst economic records of any Republican and sided with Democrats on key budget issues such as spending bills vetoed by President Bush.

McClintock is revered among California activists for being a limited government superstar in the State Legislature. He has long fought for lower taxes and opposed wasteful government spending even when it meant taking on members of his own party. During his years in Congress, Ose often sided with the big spending Republicans.

Now, Rep. Pearce will face New Mexico Rep. Tom Udall in the general election. Udall is an inveterate liberal who has voted for tax increases and increased government spending, receiving a 0% on the Club for Growth’s RePORK Card. No doubt, Udall would continue this tax-and-spend tradition if elected to the Senate.

McClintock faces off against Democrat Charlie Brown, who is no friend of economic conservatives and nearly beat retiring Rep. John Doolittle in 2006.

One final note. Club members who often visit our website may have noticed that our PAC endorsed Harri Anne Smith earlier this year in Alabama’s second congressional district, an open Republican seat. But we never sent any emails or letters asking you to donate to her campaign and our PAC also did not run any ads there. We held back because after the endorsement we were not impressed with how she was running her campaign. She managed to make the runoff and we are taking another look at her chances. Clearly she is the best candidate on our issues, but we also have an obligation to our members to see that they get a good bang for their candidate donation bucks.

Have a great weekend!

Best Regards,
Pat

Patrick J. Toomey
President, Club for Growth
2001 L Street, NW, Ste 600
Washington, DC 20036
PH: 202-955-5500

If you ever want to remove email address information from your membership to the Club for Growth, just click here.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121270989481150353.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

OPINION

Don Young Embodies What’s Wrong With the GOP
By PAT TOOMEY
June 6, 2008; Page A13

Today, the Club for Growth Political Action Committee endorses Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in his bid to unseat Republican Rep. Don Young in the state’s August primary.

The reason for the endorsement is simple. Mr. Parnell is a solid conservative who led the fight for lower taxes and spending in the state legislature, and joined Gov. Sarah Palin in pushing for reform in the state. The man he is hoping to replace isn’t economically conservative in the least. Mr. Young is actually a poster child for what has gone wrong with the Republican Party in Washington.

Over his 35 years in Congress, Mr. Young made himself into the most powerful Republican on the House Transportation Committee. But instead of using his power to steer Republicans down a principled, conservative track, he helped derail the GOP train in 2006.

Mr. Young spends taxpayer money so wastefully he could make a liberal Democrat blush. As chairman of the Transportation Committee (from 2001 to 2007), Mr. Young was directly responsible for one of the biggest boondoggles of the Republican majority – the 2005 highway bill. With a price tag of $296 billion, the highway bill contained a record 6,371 pork projects.

One of those projects was the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere, inserted by Mr. Young. The notorious bridge was meant to connect the city of Ketchikan, Alaska – population 8,000 – to an airport on Gravina Island – population 50. Instead, it came to symbolize Republican excess, and helped cost the GOP its majority.

But the bridge isn’t Mr. Young’s only earmark to draw negative attention. It seems the veteran lawmaker inserted a $10 million earmark into the 2006 transportation bill for a road project in Florida.

Of course, Florida is not exactly next door to Alaska, so more than a few people have wondered why Mr. Young pushed to fund the pork-barrel project. Among those inquiring into the matter is the Justice Department, which is looking at the fact that a Florida real estate developer, Daniel J. Aronoff, who stands to benefit from the federal earmark, has raised some $40,000 for Mr. Young’s campaign coffers.

It’s not just on spending that Mr. Young abandons Republican principles. Recently, he has joined with Democrats in voting to increase the minimum wage, increase income taxes on top earners, and to pass a bloated farm bill. Mr. Young also voted for “card check,” which would allow unions to organize without holding secret ballot elections.

He has a history of voting against important free-trade agreements and, just a couple of weeks ago, proposed a $1 per-gallon tax increase on gasoline. He must not have had to fill up at the pump lately.

During his time in Congress, Mr. Young has come to represent the worst of a Republican Party that became too comfortable in power. In 1995, a Republican majority passed a budget that actually cut spending. Today, only 40 Republicans out of 248 GOP senators and representatives have sworn off earmarks, despite overwhelming support for earmark reform among the party’s base and the general public.

Just 12 years ago, the Republican Caucus, including Mr. Young, voted for a bill to phase out farm subsidies. Three weeks ago, Mr. Young and many of those same members voted for a farm bill that exemplifies everything the GOP once stood against. Somewhere between then and now, many congressional Republicans abandoned their former commitment to limited government, fiscal discipline and economic freedom.

There is no question that the Republican Party is in trouble. Faced with staggering losses in 2006 and what might be an even worse election cycle this year, GOP congressmen are finally acknowledging the dismal state of the Republican brand. What are they doing about it?

Not much. The reason is that Mr. Young and many other members are not willing to change. They don’t want to give up their pork projects, their subsidies and their favorite big-government programs. And those members with the temerity to challenge the broken system are berated as disloyal and threatened.

“Those who bite me will be bitten back,” Mr. Young warned New Jersey’s Republican Rep. Scott Garrett last July. Mr. Garrett had tried to remove a $34 million earmark inserted into an appropriations bill by Mr. Young.

The Alaska primary represents a crossroads for Republicans. Will party leaders line up behind Mr. Young, even as the Justice Department is looking into his earmarks? Or will they tell him they cannot support a member who has flagrantly disrespected taxpayers and abandoned Republican principles?

If Republicans want to start winning again they need to return to the principles of fiscal responsibility and limited government that won them control of Congress in 1994. This is no easy task. But the GOP can start by showing Mr. Young the door.

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Anyone still think border security is not a top issue for our country?

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) – Fifteen Mexican drug gang members were killed in a gun battle near the U.S. border on Saturday, their bodies soaked in blood in the road after one of the deadliest shootouts in Mexico’s three-year-long narco-war.

Rival factions of the local Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana on the Mexico-California border fought each other with rifles and machine guns in the early hours of the morning, police said.

LINK

“Need more confirmation that a majority of Americans support the Right to Keep and Bear Arms? Look no further than the results of a Gallup poll, which were reported in a March 27, Gallup.com article. The poll found that an overwhelming majority of the United States public—73%—believes that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of Americans to own firearms.

Other recent polls have shown that Americans support gun rights. A Zogby International poll for Associated Television News, conducted December 13-17, 2007 found 27% of voters would be more likely to support a candidate endorsed by NRA (through its PAC, NRA Political Victory Fund). That survey showed that NRA ranks above Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, the AFL-CIO, Oprah Winfrey, and Barbara Streisand in influencing voters! And another Zogby International poll conducted earlier in 2007 found that 66% of the American voting public rejects the idea that new gun control laws are needed.”

LINK

Not Hardly – the dirty little secret is all that money Ose supposedly has comes with strings attached to it. (Recently, the Ose’s land just took a major drop in value with the Sacramento River levees getting downgraded by FEMA. More on that, later)

The Ose money has an interesting way of finding itself in the campaign accounts of Democrats running for office in the area. That isn’t so bad – because occasionally many Republican officeholders have had a few Democrats that they liked to help out as well.

With Ose, his membership in the MainStreet Partnership – an organization dedicated to attacking other Republicans in the primary for being Conservative and Pro-Family – gives you cause for concern. This gets even more concerning when you realize that Ose has given money to Democrat opponents of Republicans running for office.

This is a step worse than voting for a bad campaign finance law that protects your own interest while you were an incumbent. (Ironically, that law is going to screw Ose over trying to raise money to compete with McClintock)

I have blogged in the past that the MainStreet Partnership spent almost $200,000 assassinating the Character of Chuck DeVore (an assemblyman from Orange County), and MainStreet Partnership leader Christine Todd Whitman chose to support Jim McGreevey over Republican nominee Brett Schundler (in NJ gov race) almost exclusively over the Abortion issue.

When local Conservative activist Craig DeLuz, a long time resident of the Del Paso Heights / Robla area ran for City Council, Ose gave money to Sandy Sheedy. Sheedy lives in an exclusive neighborhood and has done nothing for Sacramento at all… other then keeping labor union bosses happy.

Did Ose support Sheedy because Craig is a Conservative? Why didn’t Ose stay out? Why has Ose consistently given money to entrenched liberals in office in this area against Republican challengers?

Back in 1998, when Ose was running for his seat in Congress, Ken Payne (known to local Placer GOP Central Committee / Sacramento Central Committee types) was on the ballot against Bob Matsui. Doug Ose refused to allow Ken Payne to have his picture taken with him – because the Matsui family and the Ose family are friends.

This underscores the choice for the 4th Congressional district – someone (Ose) who is in deep with local Democrats with a horrid voting record… or a true Republican (Rico Oller / Tom McClintock) that supports Republicans for office.

Look at Rico Oller’s legacy – Rick Keene / Sam Aanestad / Dan Logue / Craig DeLuz / founding the Placer CRA / of promoting the Republican team / raising money for county central committees. You can say the same about McClintock’s GOP legacy – then compare that to the Democrats Doug Ose supports and the Republicans he attacks…

Now, start asking why those supporting Ose are holding on for dear life in the face of Tom McClintock and his 60% poll numbers coming into the race. There is more going on here with local government support of Ose than meets the eye on the surface.

So much for the global warming cult. Doesn’t seem like much evidence is backing up AlGore’s lam theories of the earth getting warmer. What about all the Hollywood Hypocrites who last night drop to the Academy Awards show last night in super stretch limos, even one celeb in a super stretch Hummer H2. How’s that for principle?

“Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.”

Read the full National Post article here

Another good article:

Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling
“Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile—the list goes on and on.”

Link

If you care about your Second Amendmednt rights, keep the pressure on your electeds to make certain this bill doesn’t get anywhere. When we lose the White House and Congress in November, this will be an even larger concern.

In 1974, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said that the “manufacture and sale of handguns should be terminated. Existing handguns should be acquired by the states.” Since then, Kennedy has been the most anti-handgun member of the Senate, having introduced legislation to ban handguns, register handguns, license handgun owners, ban ammunition, authorize the Consumer Products Safety Commission to prohibit the manufacture of firearms and ammunition, and impose waiting periods on handgun purchases.

As we recently reported, on February 7 this year, ten days after endorsing another handgun ban supporter Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president, Kennedy renewed his efforts to ban handguns by introducing S. 2605, a bill that seeks to ban the manufacture, importation, and transfer (sale, etc.) of any semi-automatic pistol that does not possess “a microscopic array of characters that identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol . . . etched into the breech face and firing pin of the pistol,” and stamp both sets of characters into the cartridge case of a round of ammunition, when the round is fired. On the same day, Representative Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) introduced an identical bill, H.R. 5266, called the “National Crime Gun Identification Act.”

The Kennedy-Becerra bill is much more severe than the micro-stamping handgun ban passed in California last year. Where the California ban applies only to models of semi-automatic pistols that are produced after January 1, 2010, the Kennedy-Becerra bill would apply to all models of semi-automatic pistols.

Micro-stamping has repeatedly failed in scientific tests. Micro-stampings are easily removed. And most gun crimes cannot be solved by micro-stamping, or do not require micro-stamping to be solved. Additionally, most criminals who use guns get them through unregulated channels, thus micro-stamping may increase gun thefts, home invasions and other burglaries, and expand the black market in guns. Moreover, most guns do not automatically eject fired cartridge cases, only a small percentage of guns will be micro-stamped, and most violent crimes are committed without guns. Finally, micro-stamping would waste money—money that is better spent on traditional crime-fighting and crime-solving efforts.

The New York Times lands a bombshell on McCain today. Interesting to note they’ve sat on this story for quite some time and decided to release this after McCain has pretty much wrapped up the GOP Presidential Nomination. This is what conservatives have been saying all along, McCain is not the guy we want representing our party or in the White House. Anyone now doubt the liberal media bias?

New York Time article

From that rag: “A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.”

We all know Ose is Pro-Choice and Pro Gay Marriage – this post from Ken shows Ose’s consistently liberal views on every issue.

Ose would rather waste tax dollars on garbage social programs than use the money to build infastructure. Remember – the Main Street Partnership is all about the Environment.

Ken Writes -

Supervisor Bruce Kranz tells us he supports Doug Ose because Ose is good for Placer County’s District 5. District 5 extends from north Auburn to Lake Tahoe and is in fact the district Kranz represents.

In order to understand what Doug Ose has done to District 5, you must understand how much Ose loves the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The NEA (read taxpayers) funds “art” that cannot find funding elsewhere. The crucifix in a jar of urine was their best-known “art” exhibit along with what was called “homo-erotic art”. Honestly I am too embarrassed to describe that “art”, but I am sure you can imagine.

With my quick research I found that left-of-center Ose voted at least three times not to make minuscule cuts and not fund this “art”—HR 2466, July 14, 1999, roll call vote 287; in 2000 with HR 45, roll call vote 282; in 2001 with HR 2217, roll call vote 184.

How this relates to District 5 is found with HR 5093, 7/17/02, roll call vote 314.

Tom Tancredo’s amendment would have transferred $ 50 million from the NEA to the US Forest Service, and Ose voted against this.

Remember much of District 5 is US National Forest including the Tahoe Basin. What is the purpose of the US Forest Service? They manage the forest…. and prevent forest fires. Think Smokey the Bear.

So for left-of-center Ose, and apparently Bruce Kranz, a NEA funded (read Placer taxpayer funded) crucifix in urine is more important than forest (and fire) management in the Tahoe Basin. I guess this is called priorities.

I don’t know if I’d lump Kranz into loving the NEA – but Ose favoring the NEA over forest fire protection is an abomination.

“Every time I hear the word ‘conservative’ it makes me sick to my stomach.” – Charles Barkley

If you liked this guy before, here’s a great reason to re-think that position if you are a Conservative or a Christian or both. And he uttered these words on non other than CNN.

View video link here

First, Rex Archer…

Now Ted Terbolizard? While a DUI is nothing compared to Archer’s maladies, suffice to say… this weekend was a rough one for would-be candidates for office.

Ted emailed me personally and said he is going to forge on with his campaign.

Excerpt from the article: Terbolizard, who calls himself a paleo-conservative, began his campaign for the 4th Congressional District Seat last fall. His platform is based on increased personal freedom and more government restraint.

The entire article can be viewed HERE

I hope the ABD caucus is happy – because the 4th Congressional race this year is going to be long and UGLY.

Somewhere off in the distance Eric Egland is relishing being a spoiler. Or maybe that should be Eric Ose-Egland.

There were too many in the race in the first place – and none of them were the “Classic Conservative”, so the votes kept getting split.

Looking at Huckabee winning three states today tells – three states as different as Louisiana, Washington and Nebraska… tells you that Huck is running for VP.

McCain is going to need a better choice than squishabee… because squishabee and McScam want to hand out bank of Amigo cards by the millions to new Democrat voters…

Apparently, I am not the only one that is having major issues with McCain – a very well written Blog Post on the Liberty Bulletin pretty much sums it all up.

The LB’s point is about the leftward yank of the Republican Party both by Bush and now by the establishment forcing McScam down our throats a la Bob Dole in 1996.

Now that same wise establishment is trying to force Doug Ose down our throats – Ose and McCain are partners in the Main Street Partnership, an organization dedicated to removing any conservative influence in the GOP.

READ HERE as this blogger says – “No Mas” – I am staying home.

We lost our chance to stand up for Romney – but we have a chance to stand up against the local establishment and stop a man who is a Gun grabber, tax-raiser, pro-choice and supports open borders, Doug Ose.

Don’t let McCain stop you from voting in June for Rico in the GOP primary…

This is an excerpt from this AP story

Note also that the MSM puts in the headlines that Clinton is loaning herself money… things that make you go hmmm…

Huckabee scored a series of Southern victories on Super Tuesday and has said he will stay in the race until someone has enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

Interviewed on CBS, Huckabee sidestepped when asked whether he might be an irresistible vice presidential running mate on a ticket headed by McCain. “I still want to be the irresistible choice to be the president,” he said.

McCain wasn’t talking on that subject, but the vote totals and exit polls made it abundantly clear that he was weak where the former Arkansas governor was strong — in appealing to evangelical conservatives in the Bible Belt.

A Louisiana primary and caucuses in Kansas on Saturday offer an inviting target for Huckabee, who has demonstrated a strong appeal to social conservatives.

McCain didn’t say so, but there is ample evidence he is pleased to have Huckabee in the race. In state after state, Huckabee has divided the anti-McCain vote with Romney, preventing the former Massachusetts governor from emerging as a more serious threat.

On Tuesday, McCain’s delegates at the West Virginia convention swung over to support Huckabee at the last minute in a successful maneuver designed to deprive Romney of a victory.

When the MSM lets the cat out of the bag about their dearest McCain… you know that they are starting to turn on him now that he is the definitive front-runner. It also proves that the left agrees with all those Right-Wing talk show hosts – collusion between Huck and McCain.

A good article about how McCain will act if he gets into office. It’s scary how many Republicans are behind this guy, even conservatives. It’s all a fraud. McCain says he’ll end the Republican Party as it’s known today, and I don’t doubt him one bit.

“RUNNING as a conservative, John McCain rolled up huge victories last night in New York, New Jersey and beyond. But if history is any guide, the McCain we’ve seen of late on the campaign trail is the most conservative McCain we’ll ever see.

He will return to his lifelong positions as soft on illegal immigration, skeptical of tax cuts and favoring strong federal control over things like campaign financing.

McCain has so radicalized key conservatives that some have vowed to turn themselves into suicide voters next November by pulling the lever for Hillary Rodham Clinton over him.

But if those conservatives sit out the general election, they will help Democrats make history by electing either the first black president or the first female president next November.”

Full Article

The River City Republicans are a chartered unit of the anti-CRA, the California Congress of Republicans.

The Congress Club has its’ genesis in the same sound logic of the Mainstreet Partnership – we need to avoid the social/moral issues and attack anyone Conservative.

The River City Republicans are noted as the club that essentially controls the Sacramento County Republican Central Committee. The log cabin Republicans also call the River City Republicans home.

I am pasting the e-mail sent out by the President of the River City Republicans – Carl Burton. Carl is noted for attacking the state CRA in writing in the State CCR newsletter on two separate occasions… he is also noted as a cheerleader for Arnold. Finally, he was also instrumental in the Log Cabin Republicans taking complete control and seeing to it that the Conservatives were almost totally eliminated from Sacramento GOP leadership. In the past, Doug Ose has effected similar change when he was in Congress.

At our Republicans of River City January meeting, our members unanimously passed a motion urging former Congressman Doug Ose to run for Congress in the 4th Congressional district.

Rico Oller and Eric Egland need not apply – (they are Conservative).

This Friday (Feb 1, 2008) at 11:00 a.m., on the steps of the Historic Placer County Courthouse in Auburn at 101 Maple Street , Doug will announce that he will run Congress.

Please note that Auburn has historically been the epicenter of the ABD caucus. (anyone but Doolittle) John Doolittle’s last two Primary opponents (2002, 2006) came from Auburn.

I would like to encourage all the members of Republicans of River City and the other friends of Doug, who believe that he the most qualified and capable candidate with the leadership ability to keep the seat from falling into the hands of a Democratic candidate in the November general election, to attend this event.

With the exception of opposing the 1st amendment, the 2nd amendment, life, the family and Conservatives, I guess Ose is a Republican.

Congressman Ose has a record of fighting tax increases and he is a champion of good government and good values in Congress. He will regain his seniority on committees critical to the district. That’s why Republicans of River City urged him to run.

Let me un-spin the last setence – Former Congressman Ose has a record of fighting spending and tax cuts and he is a champion of bigger government in the name of the environment and opposes the defense of marriage ammendment. He will re-join the establishment in Washington. Most importantly, he is a liberal Republican – that’s why the non-Conservative Republicans of River City urged him to run. (Anyone But Oller)

More anger from the Right. You cannot with good conservative conscience vote for McCain, not now, not Tuesday and not this November.

As the Democrats debated Thursday night, Ann Coulter was on Fox’s “Hannity & Colmes” declaring that if John McCain faced Hillary Rodham Clinton in the general election, she would vote for Clinton.

“She’s more conservative than he is,” Coulter said.

McCain also faces a conservative insurrection over his opposition to interrogation techniques that border on torture and opposition to drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Wall Street Journal headed its editorial Thursday, “McCain’s Apostasies.”

That same day, Human Events headlined its lead story online, “Who hijacked the primaries?”

And then there’s Rush Limbaugh. In recent days, the supremely influential radio icon has been vociferous (even for him) in declaring that a McCain nomination will cause the destruction of the conservative movement.

“My so-called base is not rushing to vote for McCain,” Limbaugh said on his radio show.

“He relishes kind of tweaking conservatives,” said Don Devine, vice-chairman of the American Conservative Union.

“He doesn’t have, or has very few, friends in the leadership of the conservative movement. There is no question about it.”

Devine said he would likely not vote for McCain should he win the Republican nomination.

Article from the Politico

Just when you thought your evil SUV was bad enough, or fixing breakfast - your carbon footprint is now the cause of a new, frightening horror… Zombie Attacks.

Maybe the Republican Mainstreet Partnership should take up this cause. Maybe we could see an Ose-Waxman counterpart to McCain Feingold – campaign Zombie reform.

The Mainstreet Partnership website talks about global warming and the new platform being proposed by the Bay Area Liberal wing of the Republican Party – adopts Global Warming into the lexicon.

Someone please slap the Mainstreet partnership upside the head! The GOP is not the party of high gas prices, small clogged freeways and wildfires. I think the Mainstreet Partnership missed the memo -

Zombie attacks might increase due to global warming, study shows

January 31st, 2008

A new study by scientists has suggested that zombie attacks might increase if the current projections of global warming are realized. “If the earth gets warmer, it means longer springs, summers, and falls, and shorter winters,” said John Carpenter-Romero, Ph.D., a zombie-ologist who co-authored the study. “And shorter winters means more time for the undead to prey on the populace.”

Dr. Harrister, the other co-author, and head of Zombie Robotics at Wayward Robot, Inc., explained that cold winters typically stalled the walking dead. “It is well known that zombies can’t operate in cold weather. It freezes their brains.”

The pair calculated a 32.782412% increase in zombie attacks if CO2 increased to twice its pre-industrial rate. “Clearly, this is a very troubling result,” said Dr. Harrister, “If we don’t do something soon, the streets will be filled with blood.”

LINK

This e-mail comes from Dan Dove, a Placer GOP activist from Colfax (Bruce Kranz’ district).

This is also typical of what this blogger is seeing from GOP activists all over the state. We feel like we are being “Bob Dole”d all over again.

Dan Writes -

Ken,

You raise a question that should really challenge everyone now that the Florida primary has been cast, and while his victory narrow, the media and his delegate count have gained strength in John McCain’s favor.

The answer for me is one that should be considered by all Republicans because it might provide them some direction for the California primary.

I WILL NOT vote for John McCain. (yes, that is a period)

The denial of my vote is not because he is lying about Mitt Romney “calling for a timetable to withdraw” which has been clearly shown as a lie.

The denial of my vote is because John McCain has been working from inside the party to do his utmost to destroy it since I can remember.

In a conversation the other day, I mentioned that I would rather let Hillary win than vote for John McCain and a friend asked me “why?”

My answer…

When 15 million illegal aliens are given the right to stay in the USA for the rest of their lives, who would we blame?
When ANWR is permanently shut down and Kyoto is signed pushing our economy into the tank, who would we blame?
When Guantanamo is shut down and torture redefined to suit our enemies, who would we blame?
When the Bush Tax cuts are rescinded, death tax expanded, and economy tanks, who would we blame?

I would rather blame Hillary or Obama and see the Republicans regain Congress in 2 years.

McCain is like Schwarzenegger on steroids…wait…I guess that means he is like Schwarzenegger.

Now, if someone says to me “You are not standing up for Republicans” I will say “McCain did not only fail to stand up for Republicans on many occasions, he knifed them in the back at all of the worst times”.

I will not vote for him, PERIOD.

If someone is on the fence, keep in mind that there will be other Republicans like me that cannot hold their nose on John McCain. He would destroy the Republican party by telling the conservative base to shove it whenever the opportunity arose. He would tear down the coalition that Reagan built and I will not be a part of it.

Regards,

Dan

Yes, it’s true. More insane policies by the Bush Administration. You’d think we already had Hillary as President with these laws passed of late. When is this country going to finally wake up and see what’s its doing to destroy itself. We need change in this country. I’m tired of the politics as usual crowd.

“In their bipartisan zeal to quickly cut a deal on an economic stimulus bill, GOP lawmakers overlooked something that will certainly inflame the conservative base _ illegal immigrants could receive a tax rebate check from the government.”

Link from the Politico

Not 1/31/2008 as I had previously written…

The Republican Congress of Placer County is running point for Ose. Their leadership have been making lots of phone calls.

Ose is going to announce at a time TBD in front of the historic Courthouse.

You may remember the Republican Congress – they were the organization behind the attempted takeover of the Placer County Republican Central Committee. They ran a campaign of Mainstream Republicans (there’s that word again) to combat the religious extremists that had taken over the Placer County Republican Party.

Their aim was to take over the Placer GOP Central Committee with a slate of moderates and install Log Cabin Republican Paul Hrabal as the Placer GOP Chairman. How Doug Ose is connected will be explained later.

At the same time, one of their large donors – Dr. Bill Kirby was running against John Doolittle in the Primary.

For further irony – two members of the Conservative Slate of Pro-Doolittle committee members that were recruited to repel the attempt by the Congress Club were none other than Kirk Uhler and Bruce Kranz.

The Conservative whose County Chairmanship was emperiled by the attempted takeover - Ken Campbell.

Irony.

That is what this blogger is hearing.

It stands to reason as Robert Weygant has a liberal record, and Jim Holmes represents Auburn. Auburn is the heart of the ABD caucus and it seems that the ABD mindset is going to transfer to Rico Oller.

With Kranz and Uhler already on board with Ose, that leaves only Rocky Rockholm. Rockholm would follow his colleagues as I know of no personal issue or idealogical reason for Rockholm to choose the Liberal Doug Ose over Rico Oller.

In other news, Ose is citing polling data that shows Rico in a dead heat with Charlie Brown.

Rico has 80% name ID in this district – Ose 20%. There’s the tiebreaker – also, the Republican that wins the primary is going to win the General.

Charlie Brown is dealing with an 18% registration differential – that is insurmountable when you can’t throw the corruption label around.

When Ose’s liberal record comes into the minds of the voters – I anticipate that Ose will have to attack Rico. This campaign is shaping up to be brutal.

Most everyone can figure out why Kirk Uhler is endorsing Doug Ose… it is a 12-year old issue from when Uhler ran for the 4th AD against Rico.

That campaign got nasty, like most and the rest is history.

Why not endorse Eric Egland? He is a religious Conservative… Ose is a liberal.

Bruce Kranz- I am not sure what his motivation was to endorse Ose. What promises did Ose make him? What score is Bruce trying to settle? (if any)

The major reason why I will be opposing Doug Ose is a treasure trove of bad votes as a congressman, and his leadership in the Main Street Partnership. Ose has a career score from the American Conservative Union equal to John McCain and worse than liberal Republican stalwart Bill Thomas.

What’s worse is that Ose was a leader in and will receive a lot of financial support for his current race from the organization of the Main Street Partnership.

The Main Street Partnership sends out fund-raising letters proclaiming that we need to save the GOP from Religious extremists and keep the Moderate voice strong. Ose’s name was all over such letters. John McCain is a member of the Main Street Partnership as well – he is currently relying on non-Republicans to win a Republican Presidential Primary.

Main Street Partnership type former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman supported Democrat Jim McGreevey over Republican nominee Brett Schundler to suceed her as governor- because in her words “He is an extremist”. (Schundler was pro-life) Those of you that follow politics remember that McGreevey while governor was forced to resign because he had an affair on his wife with a Male member of his staff.

Now known Conservative leaders are endorsing Doug Ose and I am sure they did not know about this angle before making their decision. Why didn’t any of them consider Eric Egland?

This and many more reasons I have yet to cover will be laid out in the coming months – including more detail on the Main Street Partnership and their war against Conservatives and the CRA.

James Bond said it best in the Movie For Your Eyes Only – “When you want revenge, you’d better dig that second grave”

Kirk and Bruce are friends and they have made a bad choice in the opinion of this blogger.

If there was ever a stronger case to be made in favor of Rico Oller and Against Doug Ose -

Read this blog post from Gun Owners of America… I am going to link the page + post it’s content in its’ entirety here…

LINK

The text of the post -

Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Pl Suite 102
Springfield VA 22151
(703) 321-8585
GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA WEBSITE

Thursday, January 17, 2008

California’s very conservative (and pro-gun) 4th Congressional District has just turned into an “open” seat with the retirement of Congressman John Doolittle. Conservative former state legislator Rico Oller has thrown his hat into the ring, making this race GOA’s Number One target for a house seat in the entire country.

A couple of points about this race. The registration numbers show 48% of the district as Republican and 30% as Democrat—so whoever wins the Republican primary clearly is the next Congressman. Especially since the Democrat is an ultra-liberal card-carrying (really!) member of the ACLU. (The Tin Soldier, Charlie Brown)

Next point. That California primary is mere months away, so
everything we can do for Rico Oller needs to be done NOW. That’s why GOA is asking every member of our team to use the web to send Rico Oller your most generous on-line campaign contribution as soon as possible. If you can send additional donations during the few months ahead, we urge you to do so.

Point three. Rico has a primary opponent in former liberal Republican Congressman Doug Ose. During Ose’s six years in Congress, he earned a GOA “F” on every single one of our ratings for house members.

Ose voted IN FAVOR of keeping the Washington D.C. gun ban. He voted to outlaw individual sales at gun shows. He voted for mandatory sale of trigger locks for any handgun sold. He voted to silence outside groups like GOA at election time.

Doug Ose probably has his picture framed and hanging on the wall at Handgun Control Inc. (now the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence), since he was one of their best friends in Congress.

In contrast—Rico Oller was a perfect “A” rated member of the California Legislature during his tenure. And, Rico is the human equivalent of the “energizer bunny.” This guy is a type A++ personality, who never stops campaigning and promoting our Second Amendment rights. Every time Gun Owners has an event in California, Rico Oller is there, promoting our organization and the Second Amendment. And he will be there for gun owners all over the country when he is elected to Congress.

But he needs our help! Rico’s big opponent, Doug Ose, is personally wealthy and will put substantial amounts of his own money into the campaign, along with money from liberal groups around the nation.

We need to step up and make sure this solid conservative pro-gun congressional seat is filled with “one of ours!” Please use the url below and send Rico Oller your most generous contribution right now. Then, please be sure to let all of your pro-gun friends and family know about this great opportunity.

Thank you.

CONTRIBUTE TO RICO OLLER

Tim Macy
Vice-Chairman
Director of Political Affairs

Liberal Republican Doug Ose is going to make his candidacy official next Thursday…

The sources who contacted this blogger indicated two key items:

1. That Ose will announce in Auburn (Headquarters of the ABD caucus)

2. That Ose will march out as many local electeds as he can -

Including Supervisors Bruce Kranz and Kirk Uhler.

(UPDATE – I spoke with Kirk Uhler in person, he is going to endorse Ose. We spoke about the issues and have agreed to keep a dialoge open)

This would be amazing as both Uhler and Kranz are up for re-election this year and have relied on Conservative support in the past for their elections.

With Kirk Uhler, I could understand the motivation behind why he’d endorse Ose – but what about Doug Ose’s incredibly liberal record?

It would seem that they would stay on the sidelines as Ose is way more liberal than either of them.

Ose is Pro-Choice, Supports Gay Marriage, Lifetime “D+” rated by the NRA, voted against Tax Cuts and voted against spending Cuts. (the only thing missing is supporting McCain amnesty)

It would appear that Democrat Charlie Brown is more conservative than Doug Ose.

Excerpt from the WSJ written by Peggy Noonan 1/25/08

“On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, “I’m here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it’s going to destroy the Republican Party. It’s going to change it forever, be the end of it!”

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.

And this needs saying, because if you don’t know what broke the elephant you can’t put it together again. The party cannot re-find itself if it can’t trace back the moment at which it became lost. It cannot heal an illness whose origin is kept obscure.

I believe that some of the ferocity of the pundit wars is due to a certain amount of self-censorship. It’s not in human nature to enjoy self-censorship. The truth will out, like steam from a kettle. It hurts to say something you supported didn’t work. I would know. But I would say of these men (why, in the continuing age of Bill Clinton, does the emoting come from the men?) who are fighting one another as they resist naming the cause for the fight: Sack up, get serious, define. That’s the way to help.”

WSJ article

This is old news, but… is a very wise move on the part of the Assemblyman.

Ted Gaines is a conservative and this endorsement demonstrates that while this blogger disagreed with his decision to open a committee against Doolittle – in the end Ted Gaines is a Conservative. (And a Placer CRA member in good standing)

Pasted Below is the release from Rico Oller’s Campaign -

Assemblyman Ted Gaines Endorses Conservative Businessman Rico Oller for Congress

Gaines: “Oller will fight wasteful spending and secure our borders”

ROSEVILLE, CA—Conservative Republican business owner Rico Oller announced today the endorsement of Assemblyman Ted Gaines (R-Roseville) in the race for the Republican nomination for the 4th Congressional District.

“ Rico Oller , like me, is a small business owner who knows how to create jobs,” stated Gaines. “He will not only use that business experience to cut wasteful spending, but Rico Oller will lead the charge to clean up the mess in Washington , D.C. ”

Gaines, who is the father of six children, said Oller’s performance during his service in the State Legislature proves that Oller is “a strong conservative that will protect traditional family values, fight to secure our borders, improve our local infrastructure and always vote against tax hikes.”

“My wife, Beth, and I personally know Rico and his wife, Londa,” continued Gaines. “We know the Ollers are a good family who share the same values as we do.”

Oller, who recently celebrated his 29th wedding anniversary with his wife, Londa, is pleased to gain the support of the Assemblyman from the 4th Assembly District.

“Assemblyman Ted Gaines’ endorsement is a big boost to my campaign for Congress,” said Oller. “I’m honored to have the support of such a respected, conservative leader.”

Gaines, who represents Placer, El Dorado and Alpine counties plus a portion of Sacramento County in the State Assembly, had previously served six years as a Placer County Supervisor.

“ Rico Oller will stand up for hard-working taxpayers and make government accountable again,” proclaimed Gaines. “We need his conservative leadership in the United States Congress.”

Rudy Giuliani has hit the skids in a Florida freefall that could shatter his presidential campaign and leave a two-man Republican contest in the state between John McCain and Mitt Romney, a Miami Herald poll shows.

Despite hovering over Florida voters for weeks, Giuliani is tied for third place with the scarcely visible Mike Huckabee in a statewide poll of 800 likely voters.

Miami Herald link

World Net Daily – Posted: January 17, 2008

With a divided GOP field going into South Carolina, voters have a chance to make the Second Amendment an issue in this election. And they should.
South Carolina holds a distinctive place in our presidential nominating process. As the first in the South primary, its focus on faith, family values, military service and American traditions makes it one of the most conservative states in the country.

Anyone who’s ever campaigned in South Carolina will tell you that it’s worlds apart from many other parts of the country. And while Second Amendment rights are a sizeable factor in many states’ elections, in South Carolina you cannot win a general election if you’re seen as hostile to firearm freedoms.

That’s in general elections. In the GOP primary, you don’t even want to show your face in a crowd of Republicans if you aren’t ready to protect their gun rights.

Both Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson have a perfect record for supporting Second Amendment rights. They’ve both talked about that in South Carolina and should make an issue of this latest development.

Is anyone listening? To all the Romney bandwagon jumpers…Where’s Mitt’s name here???

Mitt Romney really must take this opportunity to explain exactly where he stands on the Second Amendment. He angered gun owners in December by endorsing and promising to sign into law the Clinton gun ban and the Brady Bill on “Meet the Press.”Those were two of the worst anti-gun laws in American history. He should forcefully take a stand on this Justice Department brief, and while he’s at it he (Romney) should retract his support for these anti-gun laws.

-The writer of this article is the immediate past president of the NRA and a longtime member of the NRA Board of Directors.

By: Jonathan Martin and Lisa Lerer – The Politico
Jan 17, 2008 06:11 AM EST

Looks like the heat’s getting to Mitt.

Just a day after his big win in Michigan, Mitt Romney ceded South Carolina to his rivals.

“This is a state I’d expect that Sen. [John] McCain has pretty well wrapped up,” Romney told reporters at the Sun City Hilton Head Retirement Center in Bluffton. “It would be an enormous surprise if he were unable to win here.”

Polls show Romney standing in solid third place in South Carolina, taking anywhere from 13 percent to 17 percent of the vote. But in Bluffton, Romney put himself in fourth place, noting that “even a strong fourth is better than what some of the other guys saw in Michigan last night.”

Full article

by Patrick J. Buchanan
Posted: 01/15/2008
Human Events

Since it began to give credit ratings to nations in 1917, Moody’s has rated the United Statesw triple-A. U.S. Treasury bonds have been seen as the most secure investment on earth. When crises erupt, nervous money seeks out the world’s great safe harbor, the United States. That reputation is now in peril.

Last week, Moody’s warne