Alan Colmes does the math on the birth of Todd and Sarah Palin's firstborn and discovers that there is a 50-50 chance that......send the children from the room before you read this.....they may have had sex before they were married.

And since, in the Alan Colmes worldview, conservatives tend to be more fundamentally religious...this means that we will all now rise up and stone the harlot to death.

Which Mr. Colmes and his in-the-tank media brethren will then condemn as intolerance and barbarity on our part.

But we are a step ahead of him.

We are going to call it an "honor killing." You don't hear that condemned much by the Left.

So what we have here is a condemnation of Mrs. Palin's character by a well known member of the Left for possibly conceiving a child out of wedlock and who went on to marry the father who, by the way, was her high school sweetheart. And they had the child instead of...you know....taking care of the problem. Or as Mr. Obama has called it, "The Penalty." A condemnation based in some sort of charge of hypocrisy when viewed through the lens of "family values."

On the other hand, had the father abandoned her and the baby, and had she gone on to have a couple more out of wedlock with a couple of different fathers and consequently removed from herself any and all future opportunities, she (or someone just like her) would be seated next to someone prominent at the Democratic National Convention and pointed to by every third speaker as an example of how America has failed.

Yes, Alan, please, please, please run with this. It will be a great bookend for the DailyKos charge that she faked her last pregnancy to cover for her teen-aged daughter.

The National Organization for Women weighs in on Governor Palin.

What McCain does not understand is that women supported Hillary Clinton not just because she was a woman, but because she was a champion on their issues. They will surely not find Sarah Palin to be an advocate for women. Further, the last thing the National Organization for Women needs is a living, breathing rebuttal to 95% of our complaints.

Okay, I may have made that last part up.

From NRO:

Real people don't define "experience" as appearing on unwatched Sunday-morning talk shows every week for 35 years and having been around long enough to have got both the War on Terror and the Cold War wrong. (On the first point, at the Gun Owners of New Hampshire dinner in the 2000 campaign, I remember Orrin Hatch telling me sadly that he was stunned to discover how few Granite State voters knew who he was.) Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are more or less the same age, but Governor Palin has run a state and a town and a commercial fishing operation, whereas (to reprise a famous line on the Rev Jackson) Senator Obama ain't run nothin' but his mouth. She's done the stuff he's merely a poseur about. Post-partisan? She took on her own party's corrupt political culture directly while Obama was sucking up to Wright and Ayers and being just another get-along Chicago machine pol.

That is one of the most striking differences between Palin and Obama. Do you want to talk about the culture of corruption? Palin not only took on her state's corrupt political machine she has been reasonably successful in fighting it.

Captain Glide spent all that time in the Chicago machine and in the Illinois State legislature and saw no evil nor heard no evil.

Change. Judgment to Lead.

Read the rest here.

UPDATE: And from Powerline:

So Palin was an upstart in every possible way when she challenged Frank Murkowski, the former Senator and entrenched Republican Governor who, among other things, appointed his daughter Lisa to succeed him in the Senate. Palin was opposed by the entire Republican establishment in Alaska, including Senator Ted Stevens--after whom the Anchorage airport is named--and Congressman Don Young. Notwithstanding the hostility of her party's elder statesmen, Palin defeated Murkowski in the primary. She then faced the popular former Democratic Governor Tony Knowles in the general election. In what would have been considered an extraordinary upset just a few months earlier, Palin trounced Knowles, despite reported efforts by her own party's leaders to defeat her. As Governor, she has enjoyed approval ratings in the 80s.

Palin's overall time in elected office is a bit shorter than Obama's. Mr. Obama has zero time in any Executive capacity.

But Palin can actually list some accomplishments whereas David Brooks is entirely correct when he says that Obama loves to talk about the future because "that is where all of his accomplishments are."

Do I wish she had a few more years as Governor under her belt before this selection? Absolutely. But if it is assumed that Barack Obama has enough experience to be President with his credentials then any arguments concerning Palin's qualifications to be the Vice President are moot.

And suppose something actually did happen to John McCain and she had to step up to the big job. In terms of "team experience" couldn't she just go out and grab the most fossilized, weapons-grade Washington insider in the Senate from the right side of the aisle and be in the exact same configuration that the Dems are suggesting we vote for now?

Apparently, she is just way too tough on wife beaters.

Here is the story on the investigation from Flopping Aces....doing the job that the Mainstream National Press just won't do.

The Bridge to Nowhere?

Barack Obama voted for it. Sarah Palin killed it.

Politics as Usual?

Palin spent her entire political career crusading against the political machine that rules Alaska -- which exists in her own Republican party. She blew the whistle on the state GOP chair, who had abused his power on the same commission to conduct party business. Obama, in contrast, talked a great deal about reform in Chicago but never challenged the party machine, preferring to take an easy ride as a protegé of Richard Daley instead.

Both Chicago and Alaska can boast some pretty...er....ethically challenged political structures (see Ted Stevens). But lets face it, Chicago will always be in the top two on anyone's list of truly notorious political machines of the worst kind.

Sarah Palin confronts and fights the worst her state has to offer and Mr. Obama just glides on through with no serious dispute with the Chicago machine...indeed, with the active support of the Chicago political machine. Wow. Just what are the chances?

Hope. Change. Judgment to Lead.

Her. Not him.

Sorry, I meant Him.

Don't they know that any woman that men would want to hang out with is not considered a real woman? So, in the Dem worldview, Republicans won't actually have a woman on the ticket.

Back to reality: Not only did McCain pick a real woman, he picked one with more Executive experience than either of the Dem's nominees. She has only been Governor of Alaska for a couple of years but that trumps Obama's two years in the Senate even before you consider that he has essentially been running for President for more than half of that.

She hunts. She fishes. She snowmobiles. She governs. And she is a hottie.

She alone makes Obama and Biden both look like the arugula-eating metrosexuals that they are. Now add McCain to the scale.

UPDATE: Sarah Palin's husband is apparently Eskimo but is also presumably a Republican. Which means that this inauthentic woman is married to an inauthentic minority.

UPDATE:

And look! She manages to do something that The One couldn't manage once during his entire World! Citizen! And! Rock! Star! Tour! Of! Europe!

UPDATE:

This logo I found over at a "Hillary" board where the choice of Palin is (so far) being widely applauded. I believe this logo a lot more than I ever did those "Republicans for Obama" stickers.

As anyone who reads my grumbling on this blog knows, I figure that a day without bashing a liberal is a day without sunshine. Something about their smirking arrogance, hubris and solipsism just gets up my nose. But once in a while it's time to take a swipe at people who tend to vote with me and that time is now.

Hallmark has started selling cards for gay unions which seems pretty anodyne to me. No one is forcing you to buy the card. Hallmark is being flooded with calls and emails from people who want to make them stop selling the cards. Now if the emails were to stop Hallmark from selling any cards, that would be fine with me. After all, I've spent two nights at Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri, and thought that if we had to have an Osama bin Laden, I'd have chosen Crown Center instead of the WTC. And that was where the walkway in the Hyatt Regency collapsed on New Year's Eve. Under the weight of the kitsch?

But wanting Hallmark to stop selling a card of good wishes for a gay couple? That's pure meanness, and nothing more. And it's meanness which clouds judgment, adding stupidity to viciousness.

When a gay couple decides that they will settle down and make a commitment to each other, that's a step ahead of a lot of the world, the world in which men rotate, leaving fatherless children in varying homes. A world of one-night assignations, of doing enough to get by instead of doing what's right. If you want a view into that world, try theurbandictionary, a delightfully creative site of neologism, and all of it opportunistic and none of it moral.

And by "follows form" I mean three straight nights devoted to how much everything sucks.

It is not quite an Air America Radio level of Crying Moanapalooza but it is unmistakeable. I was listening to Air America radio on satellite the other day (because it was my turn) and happened again upon the train-wreck that is Randi Rhodes. I swear that she does her show drunk. Or ought to claim that she does because it is better than any possible alternative explanation. Her whole schtick is to announce something that the evil Bush "Crime Family" has done and then follow it with either fifteen "C'mons'!" or twenty "I don't belieeeeeeeve these peeeeeeoples'".

Her ratings (like those of Air America) absolutely stink. It is hard to build an audience when over a period of time your listeners either kill themselves or get better. Either way they leave.

I am sure that with his talk of Changy Hopiness that Mr. Obama will alter the tone a bit.

At least I hope he does. That would be a change

That is what it looks like here on his website.

Oh, but it isn't a draft! It is compelled community service!

Which is totally different.

My assistant went to the post office. Don't be sorry for her; normally it is not nearly the torture here that it is in Midland, where once, owing to their blinding incompetence, I had occasion to go to the back of the main one. A bureaucrat, with a seismic sigh, pulled out a disk, shook it before putting it in the machine, told me something, which I took back to the front. The woman in the front then reached under the desk and got an Uzi and started for the back, screaming, "I told that bitch..." That last sentence was a slight exaggeration but not much. It was only a semi-automatic.

As I was saying before being hijacked by the anfractuosities of my mind, my assistant E. went to the post office and wanted to collect a package at the window. A woman in front of her was waving a key. "What post office box do I have?"

It gets better, or worse, if you haven't given up.

The agreeable clerk L. went to the back and went through cards and said, "Ma'am, if you come back tomorrow, B. can get on the computer to tell you." He's worked there 30 years and hasn't bothered to learn how to use the computer.

The woman with the key waved and and stated, "I won't be here tomorrow."

"I don't know what else to tell you."

"Can you tell me if I have any checks?"

A friend of mine stopped years ago overnight en route home. The first thing he said was, "The world is too safe. The idiots are reproducing."

We know the woman with the key but with no idea of her post-office box number.

She has reproduced, spreading her DNA far and wide. Get ready for Obama '08. They may be the ones they've been waiting for and they may be the ones that the keyed but clueless woman has been waiting for but as for me, a few acres at Limpia Crossing are looking better and better.

I'll say this for John Kerry. Even before they were married, there is no way that he wouldn't have known exactly how many houses his wife-to-be Theresa owned and exactly where they all were.

Be less discouraged. More determined.
Less distracted. [A sour, middle-aged straight white man, of course, who repents on camera.] More present.
Less me. More we.
We ask a lot of ourselves. Should we ask as much of our cars?
A Toyota we're creating future technologies that minimize the negative, maximize the positive.
And humanize mobility.

Whenever anything advertises itself instead of its products, beware. It's misdirection, an attempt to bring you into the cult because the products themselves are lacking. The thrust of this is to try to inculcate a cult of Toyota: Toyota is a worthy company because it has worthy ideas. Cool ideas. Kewl ideas. Buy into Toyota. It's meant to make you forget that the real reason for the company is the products, which you're now not supposed to notice but rather to excuse.

The same caution goes for Senator Obama.

The One's selection of Joe Biden as his V.P. nominee tells me that nobody was really standing in line to be The One's running mate.

UPDATE: The "Dead Cat Bounce".

It's the robust competition of the free market that reveals what's best.

Please go and read John Stossel on the folly of energy independence. But those of us in the bidness understand that the more we are able to produce in the US, given that the product is sold into a free market, is a Gen-You-Wine, Absolute, Good Thing.

Stossel's clearheadedness is a Godsend in today's overheated discussion of energy alternatives and "independence."

Shepherd's view: more oil and natural gas from US lands; work hard with Canada and Mexico so that they can produce more oil and gas; create more electricity from nuclear and clean coal; knock off the incentives for solar and wind, they are good enough now that they can compete - where they truly make sense - in the free market; develop more geothermally generated electricity where it makes sense, too.

"Makes sense" means the economic math works out to a 10 to 15 % risked rate of return on the investment. The investment must be more than competitive with other places to put the money, else it will require some kind of government handout, tax break or rebate (read: my money, with a zero rate of return) to work.

BTW, I am taking the gentle nudge here, administered during a recent luncheon conversation by one of the 6 people who know who I am in the Real World, to get back to writing. I have been reading incessantly. Now it is time to poke at the keys on the computer. Hopefully, something semi-readable will occasionally result. (I am only slightly comforted by by the old monkeys/typewriters/Shakespeare myth.)

Thanks for the nudge, You Know Who You Are.

The State Comptroller publishes an economic development flyer called Texas Rising. This publication gets sent to pretty much every local elected official in the State of Texas. I happened upon the June 2008 Issue and under the "TEXpansions" column there is the following:

Businesses and industries are expanding their facilities throughout Texas. Here is a sampling of recently announced expansions, tracked by the Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism Division.

Midland

Dean Baldwin Painting LP

Aircraft strip and paint services company.

Midland Development Corp. lease and economic development agreement is worth nearly $23 million.

At least 200 full-time jobs by October 2011

Too bad the deal was killed on April 15...seems like enough time to pull that "TEXpansion" in a June issue.

Alright all you opinionated people. It seems the Midland-Odessa Metropolitan Planning Organization (MOTOR) has developed an online survey.

Thank you very much for taking the time to help the Midland-Odessa Metropolitan Planning Organization (MOTOR) better plan for the region's transportation future. The answers to this survey will help shape the MPO's long-range Metropolitan Transportation Plan, a document that will be used to guide the development of the region's transportation system over the next 25 years.

Within this survey, you will be asked 20 questions that should take you no more than 15 minutes to complete. As an incentive to complete the survey, five lucky respondents will win a $100 gift card to Wal-Mart or Target. In order to be eligible to win, you must answer all the questions and enter your email address at the end of this survey.

Here's your chance to be included in one of those "Studies" that always seem to drive local decision making for decades.

The self-regarding Obama campaign has reached a new height. They're offering designer wear from Isaac Mizrahi and nineteen other designers. Who have all lined up to offer clothing marked with Obama's imprimatur.

How cool is that? Diane Von Furstenberg, and it frightens me that my spelling checker does not flag her last name, initially supported Empress Hillary, but decided that Obama was her guy after reading his autobiography. This is reported in New York Daily News. The article helpfully tells us not to expect that the new lines will come with a designer price tag; in fact one piece was originally a $400 silk Georgette dress for Michelle Obama but it was rejected to be replaced with an $80 tee-shirt. I think that I'll buy a whole closet full of $80 tee-shirts, advertising someone else. Paying to advertise someone else is sad. This is the saddest.

Up until recently the more affluent white voters had trended Republican, afraid of the nanny state and its taxes. But I've heard a theory, sensible to me, that this group is now postmaterialistic, in that they have enough money for their needs, and spend the excess in ways that make them feel good. And since they have the creature comforts that they want, they vote Democrat, wreathing themselves in virtue by reason of their fine feelings. Since they hire their needs done, why not use the Democratic party as their personal shopper for their conspicuous compassion?

There is a new blog in town. Borne of the fascistic, jack-booted crushing of his dissent here at Jessica's Well a new blog has been created by one-time frequent commenter "Stu".

Here it is in all of it's glory.

Like I have said before, I am not predisposed to doing the author of this new blog any favors so of course I am going to direct as much attention as possible to his commentary.

Anyone wanting backstory on this can read the post and comments here.

Wow. How is this for an introductory line for a website?

Bad Subjects seeks to revitalize progressive politics. We challenge progressive dogma by encouraging readers to think about the political dimension to all aspects of everyday life. We seek to broaden the audience for leftist and progressive writing through a commitment to accessibility and contemporary relevance.

I picture a main office where the women are all taller than the men.

There is a group of people who, in the last century, have relentlessly advocated the rights of mankind. They have identified themselves with the labor movement, for the empowerment of the worker. They have advocated ownership of the means of production, to enrich the workers instead of the owners.

And to make sure that their noble designs are carried through, they have murdered at least one hundred million people. These are the bodies of the victims of the coercive left. Over a billion more are not dead--yet--but are enslaved, living in a world without due process of law, where access to information is censored, and where rights, as we understand them, do not exist.

I am referring of course to the Communists, who have here endorsed Barack Hussein Obama.

Yes, it's a cheap shot. Obama's in much better shape.

I do not object to disputative people, rebarbative comments, calumny, objurgation, or even just plain old-fashioned contumely. I can handle that. And as I've said many times before, I can be wrong.

But I insist that you engage in the discussion and do not projectile vomit sodden liberal pieties. I will not brook the sneering, facile accusations of the thin-minded, feel-good, self-righteous left.

Nor will I take the jeering sniggering of anonymity. So any commenter who persists in this trollish behavior will have his comments moved to below the fold.

---------------

Update. Anonymous inside has proven that like all leftists he lives in his own little world, utterly refusing to believe that he has to engage in a debate, believing that he has a right to make himself heard regardless of whether or not his comment is responsive.

This is called psychosis. Any more and we'll have another Pandora's Box.

If you read the reviews of Speakerette Nancy Pelosi's book on Amazon you'll be amazed at how negative they are. "Tripe" is kind. There are a few obviously planted ones giving her five stars--one learns to recognize this sort of review, particularly when reading reviews of shady electronics stores on Long Island.

But evidently the Thought Police run Amazon too, and they are determined not to be too unkind to this utterly vapid, silly and vain woman. Reviewers have complained that over 200 negative reviews have been deleted, raising her rating from one star to two. One reviewer said that two of his were removed and even a third was removed. Some complaints are here.

Well, I do understand. It is essential that Ms. Pelosi be shielded from the consequences of her actions if we are to enter the Progressive World of Next Tuesday. I'd make a joke about goose-stepping into the Progressive World of Next Tuesday but that would require more organization that this frivolous woman is capable of.

If the link disappears, let me know in a comment. I emailed the page to myself and can post it here.

In case the Amazon Thought Police delete that too.

I cannot imagine the world without Google, or something like Google. It has for all practical purposes made dictionaries, inter alia, obsolete: if you are uncertain of a word, it's faster to Google it than to use the American Heritage dictionary which I have relied on for decades. But there is something about it that bothers me and it is symbolized by the fact that Google is a de facto verb.

In a comment I wrote that it reeks of the left and there is a reason for it. Google is in the process of scanning in all the books on earth: type in a phrase dredged from your memory and you may find it in a scanned book, delivered to you on your computer screen, by Google. Very handy indeed, and the blogger's best friend.

When Steve Jobs started the iTunes store he made agreements with the various holders of copyrights to sell their content by payment of royalties: there are occasional dust-ups when some network decides that iTunes can no longer carry their stuff, but the thing to note is that iTunes has made contractual arrangements with the copyright holders.

Google has done no such thing with the authors. They claim that it is impossible, legally intractable and anyway they're not really giving away copyrighted material for you cannot download the entire book, and can look only a few pages on either side of what you found.

Sounds very good, no?

No.

"Why won't America and NATO help us? If they won't help us, why did we help them in Iraq?"

Read the rest here.

The long term implications of Russia regaining control over this democratic country are just now dawning on the handful of folks that are paying attention. Putin/Russia just called our bluff and won a big hand. The death of hundreds of Georgians was immaterial to Russia's ambitions. The ex-KGBers in charge are reexerting their influence. And have no reason to stop now.

Georgia has gone blank on Google maps.

Google has some great products and tools.

And for a couple of years now I have used many of them with a profound level of distrust.

Maybe it is time to look elsewhere.

Any suggestions?

At least that is what I get from this article.

In its first year of operations in 2006, the venue hosted 70 events totaling 126 days. While in 2007, that number grew to 99 events totaling 157 days.

With its first two years of operations, it is estimated the venue has contributed more than $10 million in economic impact with more than 223,000 people in attendance.

But just to make sure we will hire some consultants to estimate the economic impact anyway.

The county also hired a third-party firm to conduct a study on the venue's economic impact. However, County Judge Mike Bradford said it won't be ready for a few weeks.

But we don't need to wait for the study we are going to go ahead and pay for to affirm our opinion that the facility is operating and having the impact as originally planned.

However, members of the Commissioners' Court still contend the venue has served its intended purpose: Giving the community a multi-purpose facility to hold events.

"I think the small operations lost we have encountered is a fair swap for the economic impact the facility brings," [Midland County Judge Mike] Bradford said.

But wait! In the first two years of operations we have turned down almost as many events as we have accommodated!

Since operations began at the venue, 122 events were lost due to dates already being booked, the report states.

So if the estimated economic impact of the events that have been held at the Horseshoe above is a given and the number of events we must turn down due to the venue already being booked is roughly 70% of the number we actually book and this number will necessarily rise because we cannot expand the calendar year...then it all becomes obvious:

We need to build a second Midland Horseshoe.

Because we have lost out on $7,000,000 million in economic impact and we just can't afford that!

Which reminds me.....isn't it about time for another Monthly Financial Report?

UPDATE: The County Auditor has now posted the County Financial Statements for May and June....but without the pages showing the performance of the Midland Horseshoe in those months. So what are the chances we will ever see those figures broken out of the main report again?

Over the course of just a couple of minutes, the U.S. Men win Gold in the 4x100 Relay.

In the same time, the French earn the Silver Medal but also now hold the record for the Worst "Bulletin Board Material" Disaster of All Time.

During the 14th century when Europe was being ravaged by the Black Death, there arose a cult of people who thought that the reason for the plague was the displeasure of God, earned by mankind's wickedness. These people hoped that God would forgive them if they acknowledged their perceived evil, and they went from town to town, carrying crosses, and scourging and beating themselves for their imagined sins.

It didn't work of course, if they were trying to mitigate the Black Death, but it did work in other ways. Women would follow them in their progression through the villages and catch their blood in cloths, and apply it to their eyes, claiming miraculous powers, and women would find them irresistible and they'd party--they were the rock stars of the day. Or perhaps the environmentalists.

They were the flagellants. The Catholic Church recognized a challenge to their totalitarian stranglehold on the populace but were advised, at first, not to say anything, fearing an uprising. And then the Pope spoke out at this direct challenge to his ideas and authority, and was ignored. The party went on--moaning, self-denunciation, drama, loud protestations of evil and sin, and of course the endless supply of groupies and debauchery which came with the dramatic profession of evil, renounced, loudly, for a holy cause.

I think I have finally figured it out.

Righties hate writing rules but are willing to live by them and Leftists looooove writing rules but are unwilling to live by them.

Generally speaking of course.

Drill! Drill Now! .... in Iraq.

Iraq said it's resuming oil exploration after a break of nearly 20 years due to United Nations sanctions, wire services reported from Baghdad. Exploration will start at the Al-Garraf field 220 miles south of Baghdad.

I have had the scales fall from my eyes in the last week. All of these years I have thought that the world was a cold, cruel place which didn't care about me or my ideas, and that it was up to me to fit in the world and to make sense of it. But I was wrong. I see that all I have to do is insist on my Ideas and Authority to make it all better. Better insofar as I am concerned and that's all that counts.

Islamists hate us and want to die to kill us. Well, before I would have worried. But now, by my Ideas and Authority, I decree that we shall all hug an Imam and all will be right and we'll meet for a macchiato at Starbucks. And if I'm lucky, using my Ideas and Authority, they won't cut my head off.

Gas prices are high, but I don't want drilling in my back yard, or windmills where I can see them, and the caribou don't really like the warmth of the pipelines that they cluster around in Alaska but by my Ideas and Authority I shall decree that gas prices...just...drop. And that no exploration for energy be done. But that the prices...just...drop. By my Ideas and Authority.

I don't like having to live on my income; it vexes me and I have so many good ideas on how to spend money, and whose money it is doesn't matter. By my Ideas and Authority I shall spend all the money that I want, and since it's OPM that's all right, and if they don't like it, that's even better because it's arising out of my Ideas and Authority and I like it when people are displeased by my Ideas and Authority.

And what about those times that I itch in the nether regions? By my Ideas and Authority I shall have complete suasion over any gym of my choosing. By my Ideas and Authority no one that I want to have suasion over will object, even if that person can bench press #250. Because by my Ideas and Authority I will bench press a hundredweight more.

Why stop there? I really want to be able to eat a half gallon if chocolate mint ice cream a day without straining elevators. And so I shall because by my Ideas and Authority I decree that I can eat what I want without getting fat.

This is great. Beats the hell out of working, thinking, being responsible or adult. Why, oh why, did I ever try to responsible when all I had to do was pitch a fit? And this way I don't have to be more than the sum of my resentments.

Moveon.org is currently running a radio ad attacking Representative Mike Conaway for supporting.... wait for it.... Oil Drilling!

The ScoreCard Blog over at Politico.com is predicting this will backfire, big time, and includes a choice quote from the National Republican Congressional Committee:

"We wholeheartedly endorse this colossal waste of funds," said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain. "Not only is MoveOn.org's anti-drilling position out of step with 70 percent of Americans, but a member like Mike Conaway who represents the Texas oil patch will probably see his approval rating surge upward as a result of these ads."

Here's the text of the advertisement:

Why is Mike Conaway grandstanding in Congress instead of working toward real solutions to high gas prices?

Maybe it's because he's taken more than $200,000 from the Big Oil companies.

He's been part of a failed energy policy written by Big Oil. In the last eight years, we've seen oil profits soar as the price of gasoline has gone from $2 to $4 a gallon.

Big Oil keeps running the show, getting millions in tax breaks.

Now we have John McCain who's taken more than a million dollars from Big Oil in the last few months.

What do McCain and Mike Conaway want to do next? Drill offshore?

That's a gimmick. Not a solution. We wouldn't see a drop of oil from offshore drilling for at least ten years. By then, who knows where prices will be?

But Mike Conaway is more interested in political stunts than honest solutions to rising gas prices. Tell him to hop out of Big Oil's pocket and to start paying attention to the people who elected him.

It might be possible that Mike Conaway received $200,000 from Big Oil, but that seems a little light compared to his contributions from Small, Medium and Independent Oil.

So, do ya Think Mike Conaway is "paying attention to the people who elected Him?"

Idiots.

One of our indefatigable commenters became exercised when I excised some of his comments which made even me blush. He responded with

(Bleep) you, you (bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)!! How dare you censor me, you (bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)!! Why don't you and your (bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)buddies go (bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep) yourselves. The next time you (bleep)(bleep)(bleep) my ideas and authority I'll (bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep) your (bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep) to (bleep)(bleep)(bleep)!!

So there!! Oh, yeah; and Bush sucks like his (bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)(bleep)!!

The emphasis above in bold is mine.

I could not help but think of this:

And, Anonymous, I did today have a reason to trawl through YouTube--which is so well done that the video clip I wanted was the first one on offer.

--------------------

Update August 7:

I am not the one who added in the (bleep)s. They were in the original comment.

This is not my title but rather the title of the movie below, which is about 10 minutes. It's a history of the tricks that the Obama campaign pulled, and tried to pull, in Texas.

Skullduggery and vote fraud. Why be surprised? I'm still angry over what the Goracle's people tried to do, and did do in Florida. Not well enough, thank God, to have the Goracle installed in the White House but they disqualified four times as many votes in military counties as others--blinding bad faith.

There is nothing new in election fraud, especially among Democrats, who have it as their middle name. Daley = election fraud, and the same for JFK and LBJ. What is disturbing is that this Obama chicanery is not just usual Democrat election fraud but is tinged with a true cult feeling--one of the people said that they love-bombed you until you came aboard, and that the Obama people were smarter, prettier, better educated, and you could be like them. That's what they wanted you to believe to get on board. "Come join us and be cool." When did cool mean simple? Always?

Unlike the last YouTube video that I posted (saving me the trouble of actually working to write), this one is by and large not funny, except for a white man rapping.

Which is always funny. Even funnier than regular rapping.

Rocket explodes scattering Star Trek's "Scotty's" ashes all over the Pacific instead of taking them in to space.

Perhaps that's the true defining characteristic of the left: that amour propre that admits of humor no more than an old woman's cosseted fat poodle does. For humor, distinguished from their political sneering, would puncture them.

These precious, self-regarding, and very silly people can breed, talk, drive, and vote. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

But you gotta admit: it's the funniest thing on earth. Quite unintentionally.

The Bad News: The AstroPlay surface that was installed just six years ago at a total cost of $775,000 is in need of up to $600,000 in repairs.

The Weird News: We now need to install irrigation in order to water the artificial surface.

And the cost also includes adding irrigation. Officials said irrigation helps extend the life of the turf. It helps pat down the rubberized material underneath the turn so that it doesn't stick to shoes or cleats, [City of Midland Parks & Recreation Superintendent Max] Reyes said.

The Good News: The seating and the parking lots should last forever.