LIGHTHOUSE BLOG

Guest Worker Program Isn't Needed

Politicians seem to be following like lemmings the call for guest workers here in Arizona and other states.  The idea being that Americans just won't do menial labor jobs like pick fruit and hand out burgers at McDonald's.  While the fact that many Americans think low end, low paying labor jobs are beneath them, they have no problem picking up welfare checks, food stamps and getting free health care from the rest of us.  Their snobbery costs the rest of us taxpayers billions of dollars a month.

Here's a thought, put an end to food stamps, welfare, and health care for every able- bodied person in the country.  Once the lazy snobs have all found employment, and as a consequence saved the rest of us billions in entitlements, THEN we can ask our neighbors to the south to loan us some workers to fill in the gaps.  Doing so now just enables welfare recipients and burdens the taxpayers.  Not good policy.

Please keep talkin' "Rev"

I love when "Reverend" Wright speaks.  He does damage to himself and to Barak Obama, and democrats as a whole.  Unfortunately, he also does much damage to black Americans, who need to speak out and distance themselves from Wright's anti-American and anti-white diatribes.  Keep on talkin' "Rev!"

Obama Right About Clinging to Religion and Guns

Presidential candidate Barak Obama spoke in Pennsylvania recently and said that many small town white folk are simply bitter people who cling to guns and religion. 

Instead of stating historical facts or current status, however, Obama was foreshadowing what will occur if he becomes president.  If he is elected and allowed to implement his very destructive economic agenda, and the radical policies preached by Obama's preacher and spiritual leader, former Muslim turned "Christian" Jeremiah Wright, most Americans may have nothing left to grasp but their religion and guns.   His election will no doubt be an obama-nation.

From "Squaw Peak" to "Squaw's Peak"

Five years ago, General Janet Napolitano illegally ramrodded the name change of Squaw Peak after a brave Native-American, Lori Piestewa, who died while serving in Iraq.  In reality, after all of the hoopla, the General has accomplished very little indeed.  In the last five years, few outside of politically correct circles have called the peak by it's new name.  Still fewer can even pronounce it.  Nope, the reality is that the General simply made the peak possessive.  Instead of being known as Squaw Peak, which few outside of the aforementioned political circles found offensive, the peak is now regularly called Squaw's Peak, since it's named after a Native-American woman.  Not much progress if you ask me.

Just wait until the General goes after Indian School and Indian Bend Roads.  That will certainly wreck some havoc.

"New Times" co-owner is under fire for using "N" word

Michael Lacey, co-owner of Village Voice Media which owns the "New Times," is being slammed for his use of the "N" word in reference to one of his employees.  The event was a celebration of the career of East Valley Tribune black sports journalist Bob Moran. 

Soon after Moran's elderly mother accepted the award on behalf of her son, Lacey accepted his own award.  During his acceptance, he said the following:  "... it brought me back to our guest speaker who was speaking about Tom Fitzpatrick, who, if you don't mind the expression, was my nigger."

Lacey is being criticized from many fronts on his use of the word, and correctly so.  But let's be real hear folks, what are we to expect from a guy who peddles shoddy journalism, deviant lifestyles, and near pornography in his newspaper.  No respectable person takes that rag seriously, and very few respectable advertisers advertise in it.  This might be a story if Lacey were hailed as a pillar of the community, but he just isn't.  Really this is just a story about a very sad individual recklessly using the right to free speech.

Wonderful Charlton Heston Speech

Harvard Law School, February 16, 1999

Heston:

I remember my son when he was five, explaining to his kindergarten class what his father did for a living.

"My Daddy," he said, "pretends to be people."

There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses,

including Michelangelo. If you want the ceiling re-painted I'll do my best.

It's just that there always seems to be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy. As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: If my Creator gave me the gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use that same gift now to re-connect you with your own sense of liberty. . .your own freedom of thought. . . your own compass for what is right.

Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America, "We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure." Those words are true again. . . I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what lives in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you . . . the stuff that made this country rise fromwilderness into the miracle that it is.

Let me back up a little. About a year ago I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects the right to keep and bear arms.

I ran for office, I was elected, and now I serve ... I serve as a moving target for the media who've called me everything from "ridiculous" and "duped" to a " brain-injured, senile, crazy old man." I know, I'm pretty old ... but I sure Lord ain't senile.

As I have stood in the cross-hairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue.

No, it's much, much bigger than that.

I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.

For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963—long before  Hollywoodaudience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist. I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.

Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country.

But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.

From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they're essentially saying, "Chuck, how dare you speak your mind like that? You are using language not authorized for public consumption!"

But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys—subjects bound to the British crown.

In his book, "The End of Sanity," Martin Gross writes that "blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new anti-intellectual theories

regularly foisted on us from every direction.

Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the country, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don't like it."

Let me read a few examples. At  Antioch college in  Ohio, young men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from kissing to petting to final copulation ... all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive. In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDS—the state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not. . .need not. . .tell their patients that they are infected. At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team "The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name. In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery. In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic. At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students.

Yeah, I know . . . that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes." Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said "black." But it's a no-no now. For me, hyphenated identities are awkward . . . particularly "Native-American. " I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side, my grandson is a thirteenth generation native American . . . with the capital letter on "American."

Finally, just last month . . . David Howard, head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate, used the word "niggardly" while talking to colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, "niggardly" means stingy or scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and resign. As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David Howard got fired because some people in public employ were morons who (a) didn't know the meaning of niggardly,' (b) didn't know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance."

What does all this mean?

It means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression? Let's be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they really believe?

That scares me to death. It should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason. You are the best and the brightest. You, here in the fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles

River, you are the cream. But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that ... and abide it ... you are—by your grandfathers' standards—cowards.

Here's another example. Right now at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs.  Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor's pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers.

I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard theraw material of unfettered ideas, if not you?

Democracy is dialogue!

Who will defend the core value of academia, if you supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead, "Don't shoot me." If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you sexist. If you think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion. If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe.

Don't let America's universities continue to serve as incubators for this rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism. But what can you do? How can anyone prevail against such pervasive social subjugation? The answer's been here all along. I learned it 36 years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people.

You simply ... disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely.

But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom. I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr. King . . . who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might.

Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in Viet Nam.

In that same spirit, I am asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous laws that weaken personal freedom. But be careful ... it hurts. Disobedience demands that you

put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be humiliated ... to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water cannons at Selma. You must be willing to experience discomfort. I'm not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have left their mark on me.

Let me tell you a story. A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called "Cop Killer" celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so—at least one had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black. I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so I decided to attend. What I did there was against the advice of my family and colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer"—every vicious, vulgar, instructional word:

"I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFF I GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF I'M ABOUT TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFF I'M ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF..."

It got worse, a lot worse.

I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. The Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that.

Then I delivered another volley of sick lyric brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore.

"SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST MY ...."

Well, I won't do to you here what I did to them. Let's just say I left the room in echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps, one of them said "We can't print that."

"I know," I replied, "but Time/Warner's selling it."

Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warners, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk. When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself... jam the switchboard of the district attorney's office. When your university is pressured to lower standards until 80% of the students graduate with honors . . . choke the halls of the board of regents. When an 8-year-old boy pecks a girl's cheek on the playground and gets hauled into court for sexual harassment . . . march on that school and block its doorways. When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you . . . petition them, oust them, banish them. When Time magazine's cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, crazy Christians holding a cross as it did last month . . . boycott their magazine and the products it advertises.

So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobediences of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by

God's grace, built this country. If Dr. King were here, I think he would agree.

Thank you. [TOP]

____________________________

God bless you Mr. Heston.  We will surely miss you!

Democrat Spokeswoman Behind on HOA Payments

Several blogs, both right and left, have covered the HOA lien filed in November against Democrat Party Spokeswoman Emily Bittner.  Apparently Ms. Bittner was roughly four months behind on her HOA dues last year.  While this hardly calls for a congressional investigation, it explains why the spokeswoman can so easily give our governor a pass on our current budget woes: she's not so good at budgeting herself.

The real story here though is the heavy handed tactics of her allegedly Republican fiance, Chris DeRose.  According to reports from various sources, Mr. DeRose has come to the defense of Ms. Bittner by threatening lawsuits of various types against those who reported the facts of the lien.  The lien, a public document, can be found quite easily on the Maricopa.gov website under "Recoded Docs."

While Mr. DeRose can perhaps be forgiven for some of his zeal in trying to protect a loved one, his heavy handed and threatening tactics are beyond the pale.  Ms. Bittner made a mistake which she claims on another blog she has corrected.  So be it.  Mr. DeRose, however, is compounding the mistake and creating additional blogosphere attention with his threats of retribution.   As a lawyer, he should know that his lawsuits are baseless in light of the Maricopa County Records, and his threats put his law license in jeopardy. 

I have to say with regard to this matter that I have more respect for Ms. Bittner, the Democrat, with whom I agree on nothing, than I do for her fiance, the alleged Republican.  At least Ms. Bittner did not deny the facts and threaten people in her blog comment.  She seemed to have the class to admit her error and correct it.  Will Mr. DeRose do the same?

Weather Channel Founder Says Global Warming a Fraud

From Brit Hume's Political Grapevine:

Weather Channel founder John Coleman is calling global warming a fraud and says the station he founded needs to stop telling people what to think about climate change. The Business and Media Institute reports Coleman was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's Climate Change Conference in New York. Coleman was referencing what some call the Weather Channel's global warming alarmism.

One of its meteorologists suggested two years ago that weathercasters who have doubts about global warming should lose their certification. Coleman advocates suing people who sell carbon credits — including Al Gore — because the attention in the courts could, in his words, "put some light on the fraud of global warming."

The two-day conference is actually getting quite a bit of media coverage — with stories in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Sun and many others.

Polar Ice 20cm Thicker Than Last Year

From Brit Hume's Political Grapevine:

New information from the U.S. National Climatic Data Center indicates much of the world is suffering through record cold and snow this winter. Snow cover over North America and much of Asia is greater than at any time since 1966. The average January temperature was three-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit colder than the average for the 20th century. China is said to be experiencing its must brutal winter in 100 years.

And despite fears by some that the Arctic ice pack is melting — one senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service tells the National Post that ice is up to 20 centimeters thicker in many places than at this time last year. Experts from the National Research Council — and the Russian Academy of Natural sciences — both predict global cooling in the near future if sunspot activity does not increase soon.

Ethanol Harmful to Environment and Dangerous

From Brit Hume's Political Grapevine:

Recent reports have said that the use of ethanol may cause more harm than good to the environment — and now there is word that the transportation of ethanol also poses a real danger.

It turns out that ethanol fires are harder to put out than gasoline fires. Water cannot be used — and the foam that is sprayed on gasoline fires does not work on ethanol. Many fire departments do not have the ethanol foam — or have not been trained how to use the foam or approach the fires. The foam is 30-percent more expensive than the foam used on gasoline fires. Experts say wrecks involving cars and trucks are not the major concerns. But fires involving tankers transporting large amounts of ethanol can pose significant dangers.

We're Cooling Again, Sorry Al

From Brit Hume's Political Grapevine:

Tuesday we told you about several areas around the planet experiencing record cold and snowpack — in the face of all the predictions of global warming.

Now there is word that all four major global temperature tracking outlets have released data showing that temperatures have dropped significantly over the last year. California meteorologist Anthony Watts says the amount of cooling ranges from 65-hundredths of a degree Centigrade to 75-hundreds of a degree.

That is said to be a value large enough to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years. It is reportedly the single fastest temperature change ever recorded — up or down.

Some scientists contend the cooling is the result of reduced solar activity — which they say is a larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases.

More Michelle Obama Thoughts on America

From Brit Hume's Political Grapevine:

A profile of Michelle Obama in the upcoming issue of The New Yorker magazine may help explain why she said last month that — "for the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country."

The article quotes from a speech Mrs. Obama made to a crowd in a South Carolina church in January. Reporter Lauren Collins writes – "Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we're a divided country, we're a country that is 'just downright mean,' we are 'guided by fear,' we're a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. 'We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,' she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. 'Folks are just jammed up, and it's gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I'm young. Forty-four!'"

RENZI INDICTED ON MULTIPLE FEDERAL FRAUD CHARGES

Raise Taxes to Fix Budget Shortfall?

With the looming shortfall in the state budget, it is incumbent upon elected officials to do what the voters elected them to do.  In 2006, General Janet Napolitano won a second term as governor in an overwhelming landslide as a big government and big spending liberal.  She couldn't have won that election, particularly with the margins with which she won, without a huge amount of support from Republican voters.

Republican voters knew that by voting for a big spending liberal that they were supporting big government programs and the potential for major budget problems while paying for those programs.  Well here we are.

So what's the General and the legislature to do?  They certainly can't reduce the size of government and eliminate entitlement programs mandated by the people in 2006.  Instead, they must raise taxes to pay for the shortfall.  The reelection of Napolitano basically created a mandate to do so, and the General shouldn't have any qualms about following the voice of the people.  Nor should the legislators who were forced by the people to work with the General. 

That all said, I hope the legislators do ignore the 2006 voice of the people, avert any tax increases, eliminate unnecessary programs and decrease the size of our state government.  Conservatives, and the few Republicans who voted for Munsil, know that raising taxes impairs growth and hurts the average family.  Taxes thwart investment into innovation, product R&D, and technology, and basically inhibit economic stability. 

No government in the history of the world has ever taxed its citizens into prosperity.  But we knew all of this in October of 2006, and nonetheless Republicans re-elected Napolitano that November.  We have mostly them to blame for whatever happens now.

Does the Republic have spell-check?

Yesterday's front page of the Business section had a misspelled word, "becuase."  I guess Espresso Pundit is right, the paper is slipping big time in both readership and quality.  For the paper's sake, I hope I'm not the only one who noticed.

Coalition for a Conservative Majority in Scottsdale Tonight

Tom Delay and Ken Blackwell held a meeting tonight at the Scottsdale Gun Club.  There were about 250 conservative activists in attendance.  It was the first meeting of the Phoenix chapter of the newly created Coalition for a Conservative Majority, a national group of conservative grass roots activists working on promoting the conservative agenda among the nation's 510,000 local, state and federal elected officials.

The basic mission of the organization, a 501c4, is to assist and work with other conservative organizations to further the movement as a whole, not simply focus on single issues.  Delay and Blackwell stated that it is their intent not to complete with other organizations, but instead bring them all together.

So far the organization has started in three other cities, with several more to come in the next month.  The Phoenix chapter will meet monthly.  Visit their website for more information on dates and times.

Lemmings, Not Leaders

I have to laugh as a slew of McCain endorsers come out to jump on the bandwagon every new day.  The courage of the endorsers, and the weight of the endorsements, need to be seriously called into question.  Choosing to endorse a mathematical certainly makes the endorser look foolish to me.  Lemmings, they are called.  Leaders with conviction endorse early and work hard for their candidates.  They certainly don't wait until the nominee is all but a foregone conclusion.

I mean seriously, Gary Bauer and John Bolton came out to endorse McCain today, days after McCain is virtually mathematically assured the nomination.   By doing so now, exactly what conviction do Bauer and Bolton mean to express?  Their belated endorsements tell me  that they lacked conviction to choose a candidate until the nominee was a mathematical certainty.   It's kind of like endorsing Ronald Reagan now for the 1980 nomination, or betting that the Giants will win the Super Bowl of two weeks ago.  Leadership requires risk.  Bolton and Bauer used to know that.

Prediction: McCain ends cordial relationship with Huckabee today

My prediction is that John McCain's nice-guy attitude toward conservative rival Mike Huckabee ends today.  With Huckabee contesting the bogus caucus results in Washington State, McCain's coronation is again postponed.  That just won't sit with an egomaniac like McCain, who feels entitled to the thrown.

What had begun as a minor annoyance for McCain is now a full-fledged embarrassment to McCain, with Huckabee continuing to win primaries and caucuses across the nation.  McCain simply doesn't have the temperament to continue being cordial to anyone who gets in his way.  I could be wrong, the nice-guy thing could end tomorrow.   Either way, it ends soon.

Yippee! The Mostly God Hating, Deviance Loving, Culture Destroying Writers Are Back!

Huckabee Handles Russert Perfectly

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was thrown a bunch of gotcha questions by Tim Russert this morning, and proved yet again why he is the best presidential candidate running. 

Absent in response to the tough questions were the typical non-answers you get from politicians.  Huckabee not only answered all of the questions, but even admitted why he had refined some of his pre-candidate positions, most having to do with the fact that he is no longer just a governor but potentially the leader of the entire nation.  How refreshing to hear a candidate admit he learns.

Asked about Romney's speech and the need to clear the way for McCain, Huckabee answered that the Republican Party set up this system, and neither John McCain nor he himself has won enough delegates in that system to clinch the nomination.  He also made the excellent point that there are people across the nation in states that haven't voted yet, and that they should be allowed to have a choice and not simply be told that they don't matter.  He further stated that the democrats are a long way from choosing their own candidate.

Huckabee's even temperament in the face of a few ridiculous questions from Russert was further evidence why he is the man to be in the White House.   He is good humored, honest and comes across as genuinely sincere.   That may just be what the Republican elite like least about him.  Americans however, as they get to know him, seem to like him more and more.

1st Black, 1st Woman, or 1st Septuagenarian?

In a presidential election of potential firsts, there are at least three that are interesting, but only one that is really true in its claim.

Barack Obama is running as the first black president, though in 2001, President Bill Clinton was honored as the nation's "first black president" at the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Annual Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C.   One would assume that group would know.  Also, there are myriad websites claiming black heritage among some of our earlier presidents.  So Obama is probably better sticking with the first Muslim-middle-name president, if elected.

John McCain, if elected, would be the first septuagenarian elected in his first term.  Reagan wasn't elected as a septuagenarian until his 2nd term.  Thus McCain's claim, which he actually isn't making, would be true.

Poor Mike Huckabee with regard to firsts.  He wouldn't be the first Baptist, nor the first president from Hope, Arkansas.  Bill Clinton took that honor.

That leaves us with the first woman president.  Hillary Clinton is running under that label.  Two problems with that contention.  First is Edith Wilson, who wasn't elected, but was long considered to have been running the country when Woody fell ill.  The second problem with Hillary's claim is Jimmy Carter. 

So now that we've gotten that all out of the way, perhaps we Americans should do something exciting like choosing the best candidate not by gender or by the color of their skin, but instead by the content of their character.

Murderous Super Bowl Plot Revealed

The Republic revealed in today's paper a plot by a Tempe man to murder innocent civilians at the recent Super Bowl in retaliation for not getting a Tempe liquor license last Fall.  It turns out that the man turned himself in on Sunday morning.  Whew!  Glad we got him.

Then I started thinking more about this.   What was plan B if the guy hadn't turned himself in to authorities the same day of the event?  Were the police going to warn people about the threat?  Were innocent people just going to be led to slaughter so as to not tarnish the image of Super Bowl or the City of Glendale?   

Lest you believe this to be an idle threat, be aware that the perpetrator had notified eight local media outlets of his plan and had just recently purchased an AK-47 assault rifle with which the perp could kill hundreds.  Did any of the eight local media outlets reveal the threat?  I certainly hope we get more details about this from the affiliated authorities and media outlets.

It's Moderate vs. Conservative

Mitt Romney ended his presidential bid today in a speech to CPAC.  That leaves a clear choice to Republicans with about half of the nation's delegates still to be counted.  With Romney out, there is now a clear choice between a moderate Republican in John McCain, and a conservative Republican in Mike Huckabee.

Mike Huckabee has so many qualities and traits that would counter Hillary and Obama that he would by far be a better candidate to go up against whomever is the Democrat nominee.  He is witty, charismatic, populist, charming, and can clearly connect with voters in a Reagan-like way.  He has run a government before and is a Washington outsider.  He is young and even tempered.  He is conservative on all social issues, and hasn't embraced global warming.  On issue after issue, Huckabee beats out McCain in terms of matching conservative ideology.  As far as this conservative is concerned, Huckabee is the only choice for conservative voters.

Romney Out

FOX News confirms that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will announce plans to suspend his presidential campaign in speech at conservative convention in D.C.

Democrat Turnout 2-1 Over Republican

According to aggregated voter turnout numbers from across the nation, Democrats seem to have turned out voters 2 to 1 over Republicans.  While some of these voters were Independents, the disparity indicates that Republicans are having trouble generating interest in their candidates at this stage of the game.  This is not good news, and doesn't bode well for the November election.  Add to that the vows of many Conservatives to stay home if the nominee is John McCain and you have a huge uphill battle for the White House.  Republicans have their work cut out for them.