Future Programming Alert and Format Update

Starting on Oct. 22 – 28ish, we will be out of pocket for sea trials and then in Vegas for Breeder’s Cup weekend. B-Daddy (hopefully) will have the con for the duration. As always, we will attempt to check-in, technology permitting.

Format addition: We’ve added a feature called “Friends of Beers with Demo” over on the right-hand margin. Our first link is to The Scratching Post. Proprietor, K T Kat was kind enough to blogroll BwD at the ‘Post. We were extremely honored and wanted to return the favor. Check it out when you get a chance, we think you will enjoy it.

And speaking of The Scratching Post, we found a match-making service for you and your Sci-Fi writer soul mate at the site called Which Science Fiction Writer are You? We thought it was going to be a lot of fun but after finding out we got paired-up with Ayn Rand our suspicions were confirmed and we have signed up for 3 months of therapy. Issues…? Us…?

Since we’re on the match-making topic, here’s another service to hook you up with your Presidential dreamboat. Again…. looked like fun until John McCain took the bait and gave us a call. We know what you’re thinking? What’s a nice Reagan/AuH2O conservative doing with such a total RINO like McCain? What we were thinking is, what better indicator is there to demonstrate just how lame the whole lot of the Republican field really is? Just signed up for 3 more months with the shrink.

O.K. We promised something on Barack's altar calls and Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize award. We're really going to try to get around to both before we leave but Algore may have to wait as he was going to be the backdrop for a Big Post.... one of a handful of posts that have been rattling around in our alleged minds in some form or another for years and which inspired us, in part, to get into this blogging thing in the first place.

It's O.K. to Like Merle Haggard Again.

Merle Haggard, who for years was broadly painted as just a backwards, s%it-kicking Okie is experiencing a renaissance of sorts… a renaissance that we can’t help but note coincides with his decision to come out and declare for Hillary.

Fawning article by “Primary Colors” author, Joe Klein can be found here.

Using Haggard as the context, Klein delves deeper into the dissatisfaction of white male voters with the Democrat Party over the past 40 years and the evolution of the “Reagan Democrat”. But he notes, perhaps Haggard’s leftward lurch is a portending sign of things to come. The money quote:

“Is it possible now, with the Republicans diving into foolish militarism and the indulgence of Thou-shalt-not killjoys, that Reagan Democrats might be tempted to come home?”

“Thou-shalt-not killjoys”….. That one left us in stitches. We’ll try to remember that next time we read about yet another community that wants to ban cigarettes in homes or passes ordinances dictating what restaurants can and can’t serve. We’ll try to remember the general Party affiliation of those do-gooding nags ordering us into the doctor’s office or kicking us off our dirt bikes and quads because of the endangered African Dung Beetle.

Sorry, Joe… You couldn’t be more wrong but as we’ve posted before, we welcome the continued misreading of the political tea leaves on matters such as these. Honestly, do these political wag-types live under a rock?

Attention on Deck!

After over 120 posts, we feel the following is the most important yet… due in no small part to the fact that we had nothing to do with it. The subject of the post is a friend of guest-blogger The Substitute who sent this out to family and friends and who gave us permission to re-print here. (Apologies for the somewhat campy image but we did not have a picture of Teresa)

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Teresa Neally, USN…

Today, October 15, 2007, was Teresa Nealley's first day in Afghanistan. Her military transport plane would have landed, possibly at Bhagram AFB, around 3 p.m. local time after flying from Kansas Sunday afternoon. She will be there for 12 months. Due to security, not even Teresa is exactly sure where she is going to be. After her initial landing in Afghanistan, she will be a part of a 13 hour caravan across Afghanistan to her final base -- a trip she must repeat whenever she goes on leave and when she finally leaves at this time next year.

I met and had the absolute honor of getting to spend time with Teresa early this last summer. I have never met somebody so happy with life, and so eager to do good by people. She grew up rather poor. While you and I think of excuses of why not to give the change from our car seat cushions to the scraggly guy holding the cardboard sign at the street corner, Teresa on several occasions while I was with her reached in for whatever folding money she had. She would yell out my car window to say hello to the white-sleeved Mormon missionaries riding their bikes, and they would yell back their hellos in stunned disbelief, not being used to such a warm reception I suppose. She likes shooting stars. Evelyn Wood would be astonished at how fast she can read, giving me back 375 page books a day and a half after I lent them to her (When I tested her on content, she would not miss a beat). She heard the first sentence of a presidential candidate's response to a question during a debate, and furiously ordered me to turn off the TV -- replacing the canned response of the candidate with a response of her own so inspired that my jaw would not close. She would not hesitate to speak her mind on any topic, and confided to me that her knack for doing so even went so far as to press the officers when she thought it warranted it. "Their full of it!", she said on many an occasion. A day with Teresa could most easily described in one word: Chaos. You never new what was going to happen, or where you were going to end up.

Teresa wanted to fit it all in before she left for her Afghanistan training in Kansas. I took her hiking at Torrey Pines, and thought she might enjoy seeing the parasailers at the Glider Port. Next thing I knew, she was off gliding over the towering cliffs herself. The instructor hit on her during the flight. That experience lead her to an even higher altitude craving: jumping out of a plane. Her skydiving video is attached below. I taught her how to surf one day off Mission Beach. I taught her the basics of baseball, and took her to her first ever MLB game: Padres v. Orioles. Thinking she would naturally root for the local Padres, she instead took to the O's when she found out their current woeful situation. I think she even sang "root for the Orioles" during "Take Me Out to The Ballgame", which I think is the only time she's ever got to sing it.

What she loved more than anything was playing me in chess. She let me win the first game. But day after day from then on, she would literally toy with me and even get mad when I wasn't paying attention and made an obviously dumb move. I believe her winning streak with me currently stands around 17 games. I tried to get her to switch to Backgammon, but she found it boring and beat me anyway. Monopoly was an equally one-sided venture.

When something is funny to her, she has a laugh that is deep, loud, and genuine. Camera shy, she won't smile for a picture unless you literally tickle her. But when she smiles, there is not a brighter smile on the planet. Both are on somewhat of a display in the skydiving video.

Teresa had mixed emotions about going to Afghanistan. She loved the idea of helping the people over there, but her 4 year old daughter, Sierra, staying with her parents in Arizona for the duration, is constantly on her mind. She was able to spend 5 days in Arizona with Sierra two weeks ago, bringing her a little stuffed pink bear that sings the song, "I Hope You Dance".

Teresa takes her mission in Afghanistan very seriously. Due to the Afghani culture, an all-male American patrol treating or even talking to an Afghani woman without another woman present would lead to that woman being shunned, ostracized, and probably dead. Teresa's mission for the next 12 months is to go out on patrol with an American unit to act as the liaison. She is the unit's medic. She will be doing this in Kandahar, a province that borders Pakistan's active region of regrouping Taliban and hard-core Al Qaeda. It is perhaps the most dangerous place in the world for an American to be. She is excited to go. And scared. She poured over books on the various Afghani languages during her stay in Kansas, and was fascinated by the cultures. She is especially drawn to the Sufi sect of the Muslim religion. When she gets back, her dream is to attend Stanford for medical school.

This is being shared with you because I think today, too often, we see on the TV news our guys getting taking off from port on an aircraft carrier group, or flying back into the U.S. with Welcome Back signs and kisses from spouses... and that's it. They go on to the story about the city council, or next Tuesday's storm, or how the NFC East is shaping up. And we don't have to deal with the rest of it. We never have to touch it. No more attachment to it than we do characters on TV sitcoms or reality show contestants. Many of us were watching football on Sunday as Teresa's plane was loading. I wanted you to read about, and see below, that amazing people are going out and defending your freedom. Your freedom to think. Your freedom to study. Your freedom to speak. Use it. And when you have the opportunity, thank Teresa. Or just thank that serviceman, active or retired, down at the end of the bar or on the sidewalk with a pat on the back. Teresa will know it. She's that amazing.

Mike

There is a popular rhetorical refrain from a radio show that expresses the amazement, gratitude and humility when reflecting on the quality of the individual that this country produces that certainly applies here: “Where do we keep finding these people?”

An "A" for Effort, Though.....

We’re almost starting to feel sorry for the kook-Left in this country. Yet another attempt to generate controversy based upon complete fabrications and intentional misrepresentation of the facts has fallen flat on its face.

Air America host Randi Rhodes was walking her dog on Sunday night near her Manhattan apartment and the initial reports, err… rumors were that she was attacked. This “attack” resulted in her missing a few teeth. (And in the spirit of compassion over here on the right, we wish Ms. Rhodes a speedy recovery from her injuries no matter how it happened).

Fellow Air America host, Jon Elliot though, saw darker intentions behind the attack blaming it on a, yep, Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. According to Talking Radio, a blog that monitors… talk radio, Elliot said:

“Is this an attempt by the right-wing, hate machine to silence one of our own?" "Are we threatening them? Are they afraid that we’re winning? Are they trying to silence intimidate us?"

(The irony of a blog providing the quote for the story was not lost on us. The absence of any tapes or transcripts kind of gives you an indication of how much people are paying attention to the station and what they are saying…. and how much they are winning.)

This was followed by reports that her attack was not a “hate crime”. Well, if they’re sticking to the attack story why are they convinced that it was NOT a hate crime?

The latest word from both the police and her own lawyer now is that she was never attacked at all and suffered her injuries by simply falling on her own.

wow.

Whether it’s the bogus Bush Texas Air National Guard memos, or Scott Beauchamp filing false reports from Iraq, or the phony Rush “phony soldiers” accusations or this ginning-up of a right-wing attack on a liberal talk-show host…. what has struck us about each one of these is just how feeble they are and just how little time it took for each of them to fall apart under just the most nominal of scrutiny.

All this energy and passion focused on discrediting and/or embarrassing Bush, Republicans, conservatives and the U.S. military.... and this is the best they can come up with?

These people are an affront to the good name of “conspiracy” where the usage of the term implies at least a degree of aptitude and competence.

When 25% Just isn't Low Enough

Beers with Demo obtained a copy of Nancy Pelosi’s monthly to-do list. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of this document it was transcribed by hand under a trailer on a D.C. construction site and that transcription was passed along to us by our source:

October’s To-Do list:
1. Work with Harry Reid to pass a resolution condemning Rush Limbaugh for “phony soldiers” comment. Have staffer get transcript so I will know what this phony accusation is that Reid has put me up to.
2. Pass resolution condemning Mrs. O’Leary’s cow for culpability in the Great Chicago Fire.
3. Pass resolution condemning Karl Rove of (fill in the blank). Have staff give me top 5 recommendations by COB Oct. 19.
4. Pass resolution condemning the Turks for killing a lot of Armenians a long time ago. Have staffer get some dates and figures…. figures meaning body count.
5. Continue undermining country’s war effort in Iraq (see also #4).

Not merely content with their already pathetic Congressional approval ratings, House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi feels there is more work to be done and doggone it…. if you can kill two birds with one stone by pissing-off an ally at the same time then it’s a no-brainer.

We’re not making this up: Pelosi is actually working on a Congressional resolution that would label the killing of Armenians at the hands of the Turks nearly 100 yrs. ago, “genocide”.

Turkey has been a key logistical point for supplies both into Iraq and Afghanistan and has warned Washington that they will cut back on their logistical support if Congress passes this resolution which is expected to come up for a vote in December.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed that this attempt to secure defeat in Iraq and elsewhere in the War on Terror will fall flat as all the others have. Part of the reason they have failed is an informed American public… and an informed American public that makes its own opinions known to people in power. Click on link here if you feel the desire to Reach Out and Touch Someone. (This is the newly-minted “ROTS” feature that will be provided from time to time here at the site.)

LaDanian Tomlinson: NOT a Team Player.

Late Sunday afternoon out at the old Murph, LaDanian Tomlinson’s plans differed slightly from Defensive Coordinator, Ted Cottrell’s. At least from our perspective it appeared that Cottrell was scheming to let the Raiders back into the ballgame by NOT putting pressure on Oakland Raider QB, Daunte Culpepper who is notorious for not taking care of the football. (With his gimpy knee, questionable decision-making and looseness with the rock, this guy is absolutely tailor-maid for blitzing).

With the Raiders down 21-7 early in the 4th quarter, they embarked on a 17 play touchdown scoring drive that involved several successful conversions of 3rd and 4th down plays. In every pass play of those 17, when the Chargers put heat on Culpepper the play resulted in an incompletion or a very short gain as Culpepper had to check down to his outlet receiver for a short gain. But in every instance when the Chargers did not put pressure on Culpepper, he was allowed to sit back and make plays down field. Just the appearance of the Chargers loading up to blitz appeared to rattle Culpepper as he made hurried decisions before the pressure even materialized.

Up to this point, we were very impressed with the sets the Chargers were showing on the defensive side of the ball. Linebackers Shawne Merriman and Shaun “O.G.” Phillips, in particular, were being moved around and lined up in different positions and yes… were allowed to go after the quarterback.

We liked what we saw but it was all a ruse. That sly old dog, Ted Cottrell lulled us into thinking that he was going to turn the hounds loose against Culpepper. We got set up for this moment when he would reveal his true colors and sit back in a soft zone in the most critical moments and allow Culpepper and the Raiders back into the ballgame… which they did by closing the gap to 21-14 with about 6 minutes to play.

A quick 3 and out by the Chargers in their subsequent possession would have the Raider offense back out on the field and give the devious Cottrell an opportunity to thrust the dagger even deeper into the hearts of Charger fans. But not so fast… Enter L.T.: The man took over the ballgame on that Charger possession picking up chunks of yardage AND staying inbounds to burn clock. The drive and any chances Ted Cottrell had of coaching- away the game ended with a 40 yard TD scamper by L.T. with about 2-1/2 minutes left (Jesus in cleats finished with 198 yards and 4 touchdowns. He really, really likes playing the Raiders. Its as if a bit of his old coach Marty Schottenheimer’s Raider-hating and beating soul has been imparted to him) It would be tough for even Ted Cottrell to overcome a 2 touchdown lead at that point and we wouldn't doubt if Coach Ted had a few choice words for L.T. on the sidelines afterwards.

We’ve suspected it for sometime now but at this point its pretty clear L.T. is just not the class act and team player that everyone thinks because this isn’t the first time this season even that it has appeared that L.T. has gone against the coaches’ wishes. Late in the first half of the K.C. game, the Chargers were content to just run out the clock and take their 10 point lead into the lockerroom. Their dives into the middle of the line and leisurely pace in between plays was proof of that. L.T., though, was having none of it as he broke off a 35 yard run and changed the entire complexion of how the remainder of the half was to be managed. We wished the camera would’ve shown head coach Norv Turner after that play. No way of ever knowing for sure but we imagine Turner wincing and muttering, “Damn that L.T. He’s actually going to force me to make some tough coaching decisions here”.

The secret’s out: You gotta keep your eye on a guy like L.T. All the soft-spoken sweet talk, the community service, the exemplary leadership on and off the field… fuhgedda-boutit. He’s a coach’s worst nightmare.

Doesn't Anyone Want to Win This Damn Thing?

Last Saturday, in Baton Rouge sometime during the 3rd quarter, the P.A. announcer informed the crowd that Stanford had just beat USC. The crowd went bonkers and did appear to energize the LSU Tigers who were down by 10 at that point but pulled out a victory over the Florida Gators and which also solidified their hold on their No. 1 AP ranking.

Fast forward to this Saturday up in Strawberry Canyon where the No. 2-ranked Cal Bears were hosting the Oregon St. Beavers…. during the 1st half, in an eerily similar situation, the announcement was made that LSU was just defeated by the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington. This crowd also went wild but that is where the similarities stopped as the Beavers held on to win 31-28 and ruined any chance of Cal taking over the top spot in the polls. The conventional wisdom is that Ohio St. will take over that spot when the polls come out later this afternoon.

Pete Carroll and the Trojans are just glad they have an out-of-conference game next week… against Notre Dame no less. The long-awaited Mark “Dirty” Sanchez-era looks like it may have begun Saturday at the Coliseum where USC eeked a 20-13 win over Arizona. There was much speculation on just how bad the injury to John David Booty’s finger on his throwing hand really was. It was the classic case of an injury being a convenient excuse for making a switch that probably needed to be made.

We posted last week about this topsy-turvy season forcing us to re-evaluate some long-held beliefs. Well, here goes another one: We were big time defenders of Booty last year and the beginning of this season in the face of people who wanted to pull the plug on him and make Sanchez the starter. Our defense was based primarily on the fact that Booty, though not spectacular, was a solid game-manager who didn’t make the Big Mistake and with all the talent that SC possessed, one did not need a whole lot more.

Just looking at the last 10 games USC has played extending back to last season, perhaps this is not the case or is no longer the case because of the way all that other talent on SC is performing or not performing. Because the defense is not flying around and creating the havoc we thought they would and because the running game lacks a singular game-breaking talent (hello, Joe McKnight?), the quarterback position now needs to be a more dynamic and play-making position for the Trojans.

What John David (we couldn’t resist a reference to the Figurehead) lacks in the ability to possibly take over games with his throwing ability or athleticism is what Sanchez does possess. And in a single play late in the 4th quarter as USC was driving deep into Arizona territory trying to salt the game away, Sanchez picked up a first down by keeping his legs churning after the initial contact by the defenders and which allowed him to stumble forward to gain the necessary yardage. Two or 3 lineman came running over to help him up after he was downed… those are the type of plays that win teams over.

Booty has been the consummate student-athlete and has quietly bided his time (he graduated early from Evangeline Christian in Louisiana so he could come out to L.A. and participate in spring practices in what seems like 10 years ago now) to be the starting quarterback so it pains us to say that we believe that Sanchez gives USC the best chance to win the remainder of their games.

… and in other news, a bye week prevented UCLA from choking-away their game on Saturday.

Big week this coming week: We have some thoughts on Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the notion of the Religious Right bolting the GOP in the upcoming Presidential elections and possibly Barack Obama’s own spirituality.

Hate Speech, Free Speech

Dean has called me out, but after prayerful consideration I decline.
Some background. Dean and I have been having some personal discussions about the idiocy of those who make a moral equivalence between hate speech and violence and the investigations of symbolic speech as "hate crimes." I was tempted to burst the bounds of decency by posting images that were examples of what various groups consider hate speech; nooses, pictures of Mohamed with a bomb for a hat, crucifix in a urinal, some homophobia, a burning American flag, etc. in order to make the point that, yes this is offensive, but how is it a crime or excuse for violence in a nation that guarantees free speech? However, when I started blogging I personally committed to avoiding the extremism and demonization that is so rampant in the blogosphere and on television. Sure I could make my point, but I would abandon the principals of fair play in which I believe.

So with less bombast, here is what I believe. Attempts to suppress free speech always result in worse abuses than results from the offending speech. The Supreme Court has ruled that flag burning is afforded First Amendment protection as symbolic speech, so why must a district attorney investigate the leaving of a noose at a tree in Jena? Is that not symbolic speech as well? Why is it rational to commit violence over offensive (hate) speech. Is that not protected? Isn't it a civil rights violation to assault someone exercising their first amendment rights? To quote Jonah Goldberg in NRO:

If I needlessly offend my neighbor, shame on me. If, in response, he burns down my house and threatens to murder my entire family, who cares what I said in the first place?

So if we are offended by hate speech, whatever that is, by all means protest, launch a boycott, petition our government not to fund it (another first amendment right), or better yet, just ignore it. Let the idiots be ignored for the idiots they are. But violence and legal action? Give me a break, this is America, land of the free, home of the brave. If we can't face down hate speech with our moral indignation, what is this country coming to?

"A Quick One While He's Away"

We made a semi-emergency call to B-Daddy this evening to cover for us. A late phonecall while at work from friends beckoned to a swank little watering hole in the Gaslamp and since they offered to buy… who were we to resist? And since B-Daddy refused our offer so he could instead, wine and dine Mrs. B-Daddy, we felt obligated to post on what we witnessed this evening.

While at the bar, kept an eye on the Florida St./Wake Forest game which as recently as 2-3 years ago would not have even drawn our attention from the libations and company in which we were enjoying. After all, Florida St. put together one of the most phenomenal runs in college football during the 80s and 90s, finishing with consecutive Top 5 rankings during one 14-year stretch straddling those decades. And Wake Forest…? Tim Duncan went there, didn’t he?

Wake Forest won the ACC championship last year and after 2 losses to start this season, the Deaks have won 4 straight and are 3-1 in conference after tonight’s win against FSU setting themselves up for another run at an ACC title. But sorry, this shouldn’t be happening… even in a basketball conference should Wake Forest be winning football titles as long as Florida schools (FSU and Miami) are in that same conference. (We will venture forth a theory here that the rise of teams like West Virginia, Rutgers, Louisville and the University of South Florida in the Big East has coincided with the relative demise of the ACC as prep talent has been diverted to the geographically-similar Big East).

On Florida St. though… what happened to these guys? Once one of the most consistently dominant programs has been downright mediocre the past 5-6 seasons. Despite what was noted just above, they still manage to get top-flight prep talent from both Florida and selected spots around the country. So, what gives?

We think we found it in a quote that was put up on the screen as Wake Forest was shoving the game-winning drive down Florida State’s throat late in the 4th. Being a Thursday night game, Bobby Bowden was apparently not too excited about it and (we’re paraphrasing) said, “Thursday night games are great for teams that do not yet have reputations but for teams that already do, they don’t do much”. Can ya hear Bowden’s arteries hardening?

This is from a coach that invented the expression, “Any time, any place, anywhere”. Florida St. made their bones in the late 70s and early 80s by playing teams they had no business playing. They would sucker national powers into home-and-home schedule arrangements where they would sneak up on these teams on the road on the first go-around and then absolutely blitz them the next year at Doak Campbell in Tallahassee.

We guess that this only proves that Bobby Bowden is human and at some point he is going to lose his edge. His team may have never seen that quote but it wouldn’t have mattered. If that is the coach’s attitude then the team will sense that as well and perform accordingly. Never in a million years would Bowden have uttered anything remotely like that some 20-30 years ago. The Noles program is done – stick a fork in ‘em.

Many thanks to The Who for the cheap, throw-away pop reference of the title. Perhaps it will bait B-Daddy into taking the reins tomorrow as we will be sampling some of Jalisco’s finest at the Tequila Expo down in Tijuana. We sense something epic that he wants to get off his chest that may get this site shut down…. were we in the EU but not yet here in America!!!

.... Because Their Lips are Moving.

After the Democrats got their pee-pees wacked by a 308-115 vote in the House to block re-instatement of the Fairness Doctrine a few months back, many supporters of the Doctrine have steered clear of referencing the same while still talking about accomplishing the same ends.

Of course, this all started this past summer when the racists and nativists in this country gloriously rose up and shut down the efforts to pass the Rube Goldberg Amesty Act. Typical of the confoundment that people out in America were actually paying attention to what was going on was Republican Senator Trent Lott who infamously quipped: “Talk Radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem”. This quote best summarized the condescension and imperial nature of many in Congress.

Now, the Democrats are upset with Talk Radio because, quite simply, no one listens to Air America. And because no one listens to Air America and others of its liberal ilk, they can’t get their message out or find anybody to carry their water. Apparently, owning the print media and 95% of television just ain't good enough. Further, these attempts to re-implement the Fairness Doctrine are proof positive of just how much the Democrats feel Old Media moves the needle anymore.

Typical of dancing around the Fairness Doctrine landmine is General Wesley Clark who was on Tucker Carlson’s MSNBC show last week (transcript can be found here). Clark was using the wholly- fabricated-to-justify-their-ultimate-ends Rush Limbaugh “phony soldiers” brouha-ha to justify cutting off public funding to people that don’t say nice things about the military. And when pressed by Carlson whether it would be exclusive to public or private entities, Ol' “Crazy Eyes” Clark (by our reading) didn’t differentiate when he suggested that he’d like to see Congress decide what is naughty and what is nice.

Congress? Great. You know there was a reason Major League Baseball kicked steroid testing into high gear a couple-three years ago after Congressional hearings. The warning of ".. if you don't do something about it, we will..." sent a panic through the owners and commissioner Bud Selig who knew that they had done enough damage to America's Pastime and didn't need it ruined completely by Congressional meddling.

Yeah, the irony of a Democrat talking about how horrible it was for Rush to say bad things about members of our military knocked us over with a feather, also. But in case some of you forgot, here are the leading lights on the Democrat side opining on the military: John Kerry, Dick Durbin (long transcript but Dick equated alleged actions of U.S. troops in Iraq with those of Nazis among others), John Murtha and Ted Kennedy who is such a miserable SOB he isn’t worthy of digging around for the quote which was in reference to the Abu Ghraib prison opening under new (George Bush’s) management.

All this to say: similar to Amnesty legislation that got beat down the first time, the Fairness Doctrine and its evil spawn are going to keep coming back in different guises with different but decidedly more flowery and palatable language. The more they deny it, the less we believe them.

Vincente Fox Takes a Very Dim View of You and Your Opinions

Former President of Mexico, Vincente Fox, has felt compelled to chime in on the whole immigration debate taking place here in this country. Read article here. We weren’t going to post on this until we read one of the quotes of his that we found quite amusing. (Well, two actually as we're starting to wear this "racist" tag proudly for the simple reason that it demonstrates that these people really have no legitimate argumentative position).

Apparently, Vincente is laying blame at Bush’s feet for not passing immigration reform measures.

"There was always a reason for why it couldn't be done. 'It is not possible because of the elections.' He couldn't touch the topic because this election is very important, or because security was more important," Fox said. "So, when are they going to finally address it? It needs to be resolved."

Not quite sure what elections Fox was referring to – Bush is termed-out. And deepening the mystery of his quote it appears that he believes Bush and by extension the Republicans…. and the Democrats and Big Labor, Big Business, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Illuminati… didn’t do enough to pass the Rube Goldberg Amnesty Bill.

But we’ll give El Presidente’ the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe he was on vacation for the entire months of June and July at the spread referenced in the article and wasn’t aware that the aforementioned cabal did everything within and without their powers to shove that cockamamie bill down the throats of the American public.

We don’t want to turn this blog into an advocacy site – that would be boring. But we are going to stick with this immigration reform thing and cover whatever comes up – remember, you were warned. The high-handed nature of how this is all being handled, from the casual, throw-away “racist” accusations to the back room wheeling and dealing has been a tremendous indicator of this country’s elected leader’s opinion of you and their respect for the democratic process.