More fun bumper stickers!

I Voted Today!

Really, the title says it all - I took advantage of the awesome early voting setup here in our county and I voted today. Fast and easy and, as an added and unexpected bonus, I even got to have a short conversation with a veteran of the United States Navy. As I walked outside, I was feeling quite proud of fulfilling my civic duty; I took a deep breath and filled my lungs with the clean, fresh air of liberty.

(Then, after all the poetry subsided and the music died down, I realized that my keys were securely locked inside my car - no good deed goes unpunished...)

I don't know how crowded the average voter's ballot will be this election season but here in my precinct we have a whole slew of candidates running. We get to vote on the

three Federal races: US President/Vice-President, US Senator and US Representative;
nineteen State races: Railroad Commissioner, 3 state Supreme Court Justices, 4 Court of Criminal Appeals Judges, State Board of Education Member, State Senator, State Representative and 8 District Judges;
four County races: Sheriff, Tax Assesor, J.P., Constable (all running unopposed) and
two School District Places. I'm not familiar enough with law enforcement to know why one county needs a Sheriff and a Justice of the Peace and a Constable. Does that seem redundant to anybody else? (but I digress...)

All together that's 28 decisions I had to make. Of course the 4 running unopposed only made me decide "Do I vote in this race or not?" - the short answer "No". They didn't answer questionnaires from either non-partisan group whose voting guides I was using, so I didn't vote in their silly little sham "election". Seriously, how do you lose when you run unopposed? All it takes is one person hitting the button to vote "Straight Ticket" for your party and you're in. Those races were decided in the primaries back in March.

You might think the whole point of this post is "Go Vote!". If that's what you think, you're wrong. The whole point of this post is "Educate yourself about the candidates and then go vote your conscience!"

And by the way, if you don't bother to vote then for crying out loud Don't Bother to Complain!

Elect the HERO not the ZERO

HERO: Sacrificed more than most of us can imagine.

ZERO: Smoked crack and ripped off low income people as a rabble rouser.

HERO: Kept his promise to the American people and abided by the limits of public campaign finance.

ZERO: Broke his promise to the American people to abide by the limits of public campaign finance.

HERO: Refused to give a propaganda victory to America's enemies in North Vietnam.

ZERO: Associated with marxists and started his politial career in the living room of known (unrepentant) domestic terrorists.

HERO: Served his nation honorably for many years.

ZERO: Served his racist church honorably for many years.

HERO: Has worked both sides of the aisle and authored major legislation over and over again.

ZERO: Voted present 130 times and has only been in the Senate for 143 days before thinking he was the next sultan.

(is it just me or does BO's seal look suspiciously like the communist sickle over a wheat field?)

Born Alive Truth

From bornalivetruth.org (and YouTube)

Ad featuring abortion survivor Gianna Jessen. This ad tells Obama's record of voting against protecting survivors of failed abortions.


Anuncio con Gianna Jessen. Ella sobrevivo un aborto no logrado. El anuncio dice la historia de Obama que voto' encontra de una le para protejer bebes abandonados despues de un aborto no logrado.


After the ads showing Obama's voting record, the Obama camp then released an ad attacking McCain and the abortion survivor Gianna Jessen. Here is the ad countering Obama's attack.



Here is the text of the bill that Obama voted against.

In the News

1) Sheriff's Department confused
2) The Democrats Want Your 401(k)

1) (From the LA Times) "A West Hollywood Halloween display showing a likeness of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin hanging by a noose has caused a furor among some residents who reported it as a hate crime, authorities said Monday.
Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said the mannequin sporting a beehive hairdo, glasses and a red coat does not rise to the level of a hate crime because it was part of a Halloween display."
Then we get a very telling comment from the sheriff's department's mouthpiece: Whitmore (spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department) said that potential hate crimes are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. If the same display had been made of a Barack Obama-like doll, for example, authorities would have to evaluate it independently, Whitmore said.
Translation: While the sheriff's department would be really uncomfortable with anybody around here hanging a black man in effigy for any reason, we're perfectly fine if you want to string up a white lady in effigy - as long as you call it a "Halloween decoration".
Someone needs to inform the West Hollywood sheriff's department that civil rights are for everyone. Murder in effigy is either a hate crime against anyone or it is never a hate crime.

2) (heard at lunchtime on Rush) "RUSH: George Miller, who runs a congressional committee, Democrat in California, came out with the first notion of just getting rid of your being able to deduct for your income your contribution to your 401(k), that the government is "losing" $80 billion and we can't afford lose that so they want to take that away.Then they had a hearing last week ... Teresa Ghilarducci, who is a professor of economics at the New School for Social Research, and she testified before a House committee, Democrat committee last week on how she thinks the government should basically take your 401(k) and administer it, take it away from you."
"Yesterday [Monday Oct 27] in Seattle, Kirby Wilbur had this exchange with her.
She said, "Your plan, as I understand it, would end the tax deferral status of 401(k)s. I have one, and I put in a certain amount every month and that deducted from my growth so I don't pay taxes on it 'til I pull it out when I retire. So it would end that and it would bring about a new government retirement plan. Is that correct?"
GHILARDUCCI: Not quite.
WILBUR: Okay.
GHILARDUCCI: You know, Rush Limbaugh said that's what it was.
WILBUR: Okay.
GHILARDUCCI: Whatever you have in your 401(k) now will keep its tax break. So everybody who has their 401(k) plan will be grandfathered in. But what I proposed, instead of getting a tax deduction -- like a decrease in your taxes by whatever your tax rate is, so if you're at the very high income, your tax rate is 39%, and if you're at the very low, you're at 15%, and 40 million people make so little they don't pay any taxes at all. Instead of the deduction coming from your tax rate, so if you're high, whatever you put in your 401(k), like a dollar, let's say, or a hundred dollars, you get back 39 cents, or $39, if you're the high rate; 15 dollars, or 15 cents if you're at the low rate, or nothing if you're at the low rate. I proposed that we just transfer the deduction to a credit so that everybody gets $600. So I'm not taking away the tax break. I'm actually, um, giving everybody a flat amount so that it's more equal.
RUSH: (laughing) Where am I wrong about this? Everybody is going to get...? Socialism. Everybody is equal now, whether you've got a 39% tax rate and you can deduct that amount, you get that equivalent deduction. This is all gobbledygook. Basically I'm just going to give everybody 600 bucks and you give me your IRA, and I'm going to buy government bonds with it at 3% a year. I'll just give you 600 bucks and that's how we'll take care of this. So Kirby says, "Now, wait, there will be a new plan. All of us who bring in a paycheck will put 5% of our income into a retirement plan administered by Social Security -- guided by the pension folks who do Congress and the Federal Reserve and then you're gonna guarantee at least a 3% return. The government would supplement that with $600 annual payment to the plan?"
GHILARDUCCI: The government would guarantee 3% plus inflation.
WILBUR: Okay, 3%, okay, plus inflation.
GHILARDUCCI: Yes.
WILBUR: So the bonds would be adjusted. As I understand the $600 would be adjusted as well, right?
GHILARDUCCI: It would. It would.
WILBUR: Okay.
GHILARDUCCI: And what's amazing about this is that it's actually, um, doesn't cost the government anybody. (sic) I'm just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading -- spreading the wealth.

I don't know about you but the reason I contribute to my company's 401(k) plan has nothing to do with "spreading the wealth".

My Wife Wins The Election!

Just kidding - my wife didn't actually "win" an election but I just got done watching Jay Leno doing his bit on "funny headlines" so I couldn't resist.

The truth is this - my wife has been going through the long process of becoming a naturalized citizen. She was sworn in as an American citizen earlier this month and just recently received her voter registration card in the mail. We have both been poring over election information to make sure that we are well informed about all the candidates on our local ballot. Due to the mass of people that I encountered during the Texas primary in March, we will both be taking advantage of early voting. Our county has many locations for early voting and they are open seven days a week!

Inform yourself! Know where ALL the candidates stand on issues that are important to you! Don't waste your vote - every current Supreme Court Justice has served as a lower court judge and many people with high political aspirations start out in small local elections.

Who will be the next President of the USA?

You can see that I didn't post anything here in August or September - I wanted my memories of Matt to stay at the top of the page for a while.

Now, with early voting already started and November 4th only days away, I'm going to be hitting this blog with a vengeance. I know that some of you will be glad to hear that it will ALL be political.

I don't support B Hussein Nobama and I'm not a huge fan of J Sydney McCain, either. But a choice has been put before us and a choice has to be made. First the issue of eligibility.



The funny thing is that Senator Obama could stop all this just by being honest and opening up his records. Some friends of mine don't trust the Bush administration because they say that "Bush lied" - remarkably these same people think that Indonesian citizen Barry Soetoro (Barack Obama) is being honest with them. Amazing.