Checkin' in from the RNCC

At long last, we have a "Mark" sighting. Our intrepid NYC-living, Minnesota-born correspondent, from whom we last we heard was potentially being assailed by a bunch of self-aggrieved, middle-class white kids, has checked in with this report:


"Greetings from the RNC... although I am now safely back home after an unbelievably hectic week! The networking in St. Paul and Minneapolis surpassed my wildest expectations. In addition to meeting Bill O'Reilly (in a restaurant restroom, but hey a celebrity is a celebrity) and three US senators (at a panel discussion), I was able to secure tickets for the BIG event: delegate guest pass seats inside the Xcel Energy Center to witness Sarah's speech (as well as Rudy's, Romney's and Huckabees') first-hand! UNBELIEVABLE experience. The enthusiasm for Sarah almost brought tears to my eyes. It was so LOUD that my ears are still ringing 6 nights later, and my voice is still hoarse from yelling.

As Dean mentioned, it got a bit dicey on the shuttle bus back to downtown Minneapolis afterwards (I had to stowaway on a Kentuck delegation bus... long story), due to the dopey, unwashed "protesters" rampaging throughout downtown Minny that night. Our bus actually had to get a 10-motorcycle police escort back to the delegation's hotel! SCARY for a few minutes... but the police (in full riot gear) got things under control just before last call... hooray! I spent the last 2 hours of an incredible day toasting the GOP, as scummy socialists with no job (and apparently no soap) were being loaded into police vans.

My week at the RNC was incredible... and I come away, back to the friendly confines of my apartment in NYC, more enthusiastic and dedicated to the Republican cause than EVER. I am sure the GOP is thinking, as far as their convention in the Twin Cities is concerned, "Mission Accomplished!"



Nice work, Mark. Glad to hear you are safe in the NYC and didn't get any of that on ya.

The "Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Wind Turbine Farm" may sound like a great idea...

The report concludes: “A near fatal preoccupation with politically attractive but marginal forms of renewables seems to have caused a blindness towards the weakening of the UK’s power stations and a dangerous and helpless vulnerability to natural gas.”

Great Britain has some energy issues. More here from KT. Information, that is, not energy…. although…. oh, never mind.

Again, with the Semantics...

"The start-up of the first reactor at Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant will be "irreversible" by February next year, asenior Russian nuclear official was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying Monday." Article here.

Exit question: Define "irreversible."

Wedge Issue: the Fannie and Freddie bailout (UPDATED!)

John McCain has a golden opportunity to distinguish himself from Obama with respect to the pending bailout of Fannie and Freddie by the Feds. As far as we’re concerned, this is a perfect opportunity to stick a fork in these quasi-governmental institutions that are poorly run, make bad business decisions and wind-up being ripe for abuse precisely because of the notion that their collective ineptness will be forgiven with taxpayer money.

Click on over to our brother site at TILoBO for reaction from the candidates and to participate in a poll.

(UPDATE #1): Click here to watch video of Suit talking about the federal take-over of Fannie and Freddie and tell us if we need to go back on our meds because it appears that he has no idea what it is he is saying. Here’s Suit, early in the video:

“We have to protect the taxpayers, not bailout the shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

Whaaa…? And how exactly is $200 billion dollars of taxpayer money going to prop-up Fannie and Freddie “protecting” the taxpayer? And isn’t the “takeover”, a “bailout” of shareholders or are we just getting divisive with our semantics?

And later: “We must not allow government intervention to protect investors and speculators who relied on the government to reap massive profits.”

Did we miss something? Does this guy not support government intervention which will by extension protect the very investors and speculators he’s railing against? We give up. If Suit just stuck to favoring intervention because of “market volatility” or even “protecting low-income homeowners”, we’d certainly cut him some slack, but this? Seriously. If we misconstrued something, let us know, because we cannot believe what this guy said.

Grounded

Some random thoughts while waiting for the plumber…

For better or worse, it says something about the reputation of USC quarterbacks and/or Norm Chow’s tutelage that New England's back-up QB, Matt Cassell, who will be starting in place of the injured Tom Brady for the remainder of the season (torn ACL right knee), has not started a game since… high school. This would include riding the bench behind Heisman trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart while at USC.

And speaking of Norm Chow… you can be pretty certain that the Vince Young experience is just not going to work out if he didn’t appear to make any progress under Norm Chow. Young, the Tennessee Titan QB, had 2 Interceptions and threw for only 110 yards before going down with a left knee sprain in the 4th quarter in yesterday’s 17-10 win over Jacksonville. This was preceded by boos directed at Young as he appeared to be reluctant to come into the game for the Titan's offensive possession.

Norm Chow (whose list of protégés over the past quarter century reads like a who’s-who of collegiate quarterbacks: Steve Young, Robbie Boscoe, Ty Detmer, Philip Rivers, Palmer and Leinart) was the Titan O-Con for the ’05-’07 seasons and had the opportunity to coach-up Young in Young’s first two years in the League before moving on to be UCLA’s O-Con. That things didn’t click and Chow was reportedly frustrated with Young’s inability to pick-up the fundamentals of the passing game speaks volumes about either Chow or Young. We know to whom we are giving the benefit of the doubt.

Nice little Tropical Storm “Ike” tracking site, here, courtesy Justin.

Republicans get “bounced” in wake of Sarah Palin selection and last week’s RNCC. McCain 49% , Suit 44%.

We know we give quite a bit of grief to Obama supporters for their swooning over his superior teleprompter reading skills so we’ll be happy to take some grief for admitting we still get chills watching the end of McCain’s acceptance speech where he plowed through the applause, not pausing for effect, bringing home what was a very personal-journey accounting of his life and political career. “Nothing’s inevitable… We’re Americans!” Loved it.

The “money” is putting quite a bit of stock in Ohio State’s lackluster performance against Ohio University on Saturday and USC’s demolishing of Virginia two Saturday’s ago. Trojans open as 10-1/2 point favorites against OSU in the “Game of the Year”. We’re not biting…. yet.

Plumber’s here. Hey, we got the new basin in and plumbed-up ourselves only to realize we’ve got a serious blockage on our hands that our manual snake is not dealing with too well. As Dirty Harry said, “A man’s gotta know his limitations” and we certainly know ours.

Warning: Exploding Sink Basins

What's keeping us home this morning? Plumbing issues raising their ugly head 15 minutes before Home Depot closed yesterday evening. Good times.

(Dis)comfort Food

Welcome back, Charger fans. Another season is here and another season of the man pictured at right doing his best (and succeeding, this week) to let opposing offenses back into the ball game. But you knew it was coming, right? Go ahead and admit that after the Chargers took a 5-point lead with just a little over 2 minutes left, you knew that Defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell would play that blasted, ever-loving prevent defense instead of using the Chargers’ defensive strength in getting after the quarterback.

You just knew that instead of putting the hammer down on Panther QB, Jake Delhomme, Cottrell’s scheme would be to allow the Panthers to march right down field and roll the bones on one or two shots into the end zone from around the 10 yard line and hope to G#d for a tipped pass or a poorly thrown ball because putting pressure on the quarterback sure as hell wasn’t going to come into play. You knew, ‘cause everyone in our crew knew and we couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Sho’nuff, Delhomme goes 8 of 11 for 68 yards in the final drive including the game-winner, a 14 yard touchdown pass to Dante Rosario as time expired. Bonus points for clock management, Ted.

Final score: Carolina 26, Chargers 24.

Lest you think we’re just going to beat-up on poor old Ted, there was plenty of blame to go around. The Chargers slept-walked through the first 3 quarters before coming to life in the 4th. This is the risk-reward of not playing a lot of your starters in the pre-season. They stay healthy but look sluggish and ill-prepared for the speed of a game that counts coming out of the blocks.

This was mostly evident on defense where the run defense was, in a word, pathetic. The supposedly patch-work Carolina offensive line physically dominated the supposedly brutish Charger D as the Panthers gained over 150 yards on the ground. Also, the pass defense still can’t seem to defend the quick slant to the wide-outs. Charger defensive backs gambled too much on interceptions and on at least 3 plays we saw, paid the price in giving up big plays to Carolina’s receivers. Put down the press clippings claiming what a wonderful set of corners the Chargers have, boys, and starting executing some sound coverage techniques.

QB Philip Rivers looked out-of-sync in the first half but came on strong in the 2nd, particularly in the 4th when he threw 2 touchdown passes. One thing we noticed that we really liked: His pocket presence and ability to sense pressure and slide to one side or another to avoid pressure was a quantum improvement over just last season.

A lot of work to be done and a lot of stuff to be cleaned-up before the trip to Denver next week.

Headline of the Day (...if today were yesterday)

U.S. nears rescue plan for Fannie and Freddie
Deal said to involve change of leadership, infusions of capital


In case you were wondering, that would be “your” capital.

To paraphrase B-Daddy when discussing this wonderful turn of events: “When, ultimately, everyone knew the Feds would step-in, was it any surprise that bad lending practices would be permitted to flourish?"

Story here.

Also, great read here from the WSJ on the dangers of combining crony capitalism and lefty do-goodism as practiced by the Fannie Mae gang

Warming Trend Pt. III

Up until a few days ago, we were at a complete loss as to articulate why it was we’ve become more and more comfortable with the thought of John McCain as President. Readers of this blog know that we’ve taken serious issue with the Senator in the past, especially with respect to some of his legislative actions. So, what’s happened… what has transpired to effect this change of heart? Certainly the fantastic ineptitude displayed by The One whose name cannot be spoken has helped but it goes beyond that…

… and just a few words about his speech this past Thursday (which, by the way, was witnessed by more people than Suit’s the week before). We thought Senator McCain gave a fine speech and we were particularly moved by the segment where he recalled his time in the Hanoi Hilton where he underwent a “conversion experience” of sorts that transformed his brash, cock-sure fighter pilot nature into that of having a “servant’s heart”. And that ending…? “Stand up and fight with me.” Let’s just say we don’t see too often that sort of evangelical fervor grip the normally button-down GOP.

… there was something else working that we could not place our finger on until last week when it dawned upon us: (If he wins) John McCain will be promoted out of the way.

And we mean that with heartfelt sincerity and with as little snark and backhandedness as that statement in black and white will allow.

John McCain spoke like a leader on Thursday. As a leader of men and as a leader of a nation. Leading from the Oval Office removes him from the arena of legislative politics that was the cause of so much anger for us and many other conservatives. While leading this country as its CEO, he won’t be able to craft any counterproductive, unconstitutional legislation like Campaign Finance Reform or Amnesty legislation or spearhead any shenanigans like the Gang of Fourteen with respect to judicial nominations.

True, he would still be able to sign into law some very bad legislation but we're trusting that in his executive leadership role, what we saw as some of his more rash impulses as a Senator will be tempered by the gravity of responsibilities taken on as President. As such, we are much more comfortable with and will gladly endorse the prospects of a President McCain over merely Senator McCain.

Radio KBwD is on the Air

Its been a while since we spun some wax (that’d be play some records, err… play some CDs for you young’ns). This selection from our boys Stevie and Big Gay Al plumbs the depths of angst and despair felt by those who perhaps still live in their parent's basement or... just did really poorly in their football fantasy draft (the two sometimes go hand-in-hand).

Ladies and Gentlemen, from San Diego California its Jews, Christians, Gypsies and other Undesireables performing “Mama-(I benn Drichin)”

....and moving right along (UPDATED!.. and UPDATED again)

A few more thoughts on the Sarah Palin RNCC Experience and hoping you aren’t paying any attention to that last post (good grief)…

We are now fully able to experience what it is that Obamaniacs have been experiencing for months now. That “thrill up the leg” feeling that comes from an unexperienced candidate bringing an uplifting and inspiring message from a completely scripted speech in front of a hopelessly devoted (worshipful?) crowd at an entirely choreographed affair is now ours. And goodness, it feels great!

Hey, didya hear someone else wrote Sarah Palin’s speech? Why did we keep hearing that last night and today? That, and the kissing cousin of the same, “her speech was made in an tightly controlled environment”. Well, its because no one that attractive, with 5 children and being the governor of a backwater no-fly-over state could come up with a speech that good. Folks, let’s just say that all this code-speak from the press and her liberal detractors has been, uhhh… enlightening?

Ken Blackwell, former secretary of state of Ohio and now on the RNC platform committee was on Hedgecock’s show yesterday and brought up the conventional wisdom of the Presidential candidate needing Ohio to win the election. He spoke of the gay marriage amendment being on the ballot back in ’04 that brought out Ohio conservatives which helped swing Ohio and ultimately the election to Bush. Since no such or similar initiative is on the ballot this time around, his exhortation was that Palin did not merely need to “energize the base, but turn-out the base, as well”. Last night was very definitely a step in the right direction.

So, some 40 years on from the begun-in-earnest “womens’ movement”, the fresh, new, relevant face of that movement is a conservative, pro-life, gun-toting, beauty-queen mother of five. Ditto that for the “conservative movement”. Only in America.

And Piper Palin has now supplanted gymnast Shawn Johsnon as the planet’s cutest living being.




Oh, we almost forgot – Sarah’s got herself a pastor controversy. She’s more like Suit than we thought… except for the fact that she’s at the bottom of the ticket instead of the top.

Lastly, we’re still waiting to hear from our intrepid RNCC correspondent, Mark, who called us last night to inform us that he scored tickets to the floor of the convention for all the speeches. He called us from the bus that was taking him back over the river from St. Paul to Minneapolis and his hotel and as we were talking the police halted the bus and told the driver to turn around and return to St. Paul as the rioters in Minneapolis were making things a bit too dicey for any Republican-carrying shuttle buses. Mark had no idea what he was going to do as it was around midnight and he had no backup plan. We suggested repairing to the nearest watering hole to imbibe and contemplate options. As of this writing and one message left, we haven’t heard from him. We hope he’s alright.

(UPDATE #1): So sorry. One more. Watching the beginning of McCain's speech it confirmed our suspicions of the brilliance of the strategy behind Palin's speech. McCain made some very nice, conciliatory gestures towards Camp Obama. With Palin's speech, Team McCain has effectively opened-up a two-front offensive on Obama. McCain can engage Obama on one, more Presidential level, while at the same time Suit wonders just who the hell this, this, this self-described "pit-bull" of a woman is who has got a hold of his ankle and just won't let it go!

(UPDATE #2): We're too beat to provide an analysis of McCain's speech but KT has a nice wrap-up, here. And B-Daddy has irrefutable video proof that Andrea Mitchell was blitzed out of her gourd last night while interviewing Rudy Guiliani. Sweet.