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I’m continually frustrated by groups that call themselves Republicans, but really aren’t. They’re actually wolves in sheeps clothing. I had a discussion on this site a few months ago with one of them. I think they have a great idea, but they’re working in the wrong direction.

I think we need to create and support groups that infiltrate the Democrat ranks with a conservative agenda. Think of the effect we could have with groups like ‘Democrats for Lower Taxes’, ‘Mainstream Democrats’ who send out mailings in support restrained government spending on failed mass transit ideas, or ‘Family Values Democrats’.

On one hand they schmooze the Dem. elites and glad-hand all of the big Dem. donors, but on the other hand they promote conservative ideas like family values, a strong military, lower taxes and smaller government.

Hey, if liberals are going to try to infiltrate the ranks of the Republican party and bring their liberal agenda, then turnabout is fair play.
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I’m voting for Palin… I mean McCain/Palin.

I think this spells the end of Barry O’s lead in the polls. Barry O-bam-bam (a name I’ve given him for his campaign’s heavy-handed handling of bad press in the Ayers matter) can plan on a good 4-6 point spread in next weeks polls (my guess, not a prediction).

Barry, you should have picked Clinton as a running mate. Instead you picked a more liberal version of John McCain. Beltway inside. Senator since the Nixon administration. Old white guy. Doesn’t say ‘change’ to me.

For the first time I’m actually impressed with John McCain. And without this pick as VP, I would not have voted for him. Smart move, Johnny Boy.

Palin is a strong conservative. She’s a reformer and is outspoken on pro-life issues. She’s younger and better looking than Barry.

I’m feeling old. Not only is a major candidate for President a few months younger than I am, a candidate for Vice President is a few years younger than that.

I have a lot to say about this, McCain, Bush and the Republican Party. Busy day. More later.

Update:  I was off by a little.  With a 10% spread among likely voters in the latest poll and an average of about 2.5% among recent polls, I guess I wasn’t too far off.  I’m going to give it a few more days and see where the average falls.

By the way, conventional wisdom says that if a Republican is down by 3% or less in polls of likely voters he (or she) is likely to win.  The best reason to explain it is that Democrat voters are more likely to respond in a poll as being a likely voter then not show up.

Once again a Tacoma merchant is burned by the pipe dreams of local liberals. Tall Ships Tacoma finished their events with a loss of half a million dollars. That’s right. The “International Financial Services District” isn’t the only pipe dream still catching the fancy of local liberal cheerleaders. Tourism is still front and center in the minds people who should know better.

AngelouEconomics, the consultants hired to evaluate downtown Tacoma’s economic development options were very clear in their presentation about tourism. It’s not a primary industry for Tacoma to focus on. Tourism is a secondary industry that will grow as the primary industries in their recommendations grow. Yet, the cart is still before the horse.

Another money losing event. Another expensive tourist attraction (museums, museums, museums). When will local leaders wake up and change course into something productive?
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I guess someone had to say it. But it wasn’t those dastardly Evangelicals. It was CNN and a liberal who runs an anti-Christian Web site.

His Web site, beliefnet.com, promotes just about any religious belief you can find out there along with a bunch of stuff that doesn’t even qualify as a religion. The site even pretends to include Christianity, but in fact they only include the lamest versions of it, alternatives to it or plain old trash-talk about it.

When you contrast this to the media’s portrayal of Obama, they were the ones who started this issue. I think this blast against “Evangelicals” is just the next step in the progression as they advance their agenda of getting the Democrat nominee elected to office.

While the Obamessiah-Antichrist kerfuffle doesn’t even begin to support the idea that Barack Obama is the antichrist, it does illustrate that the world is once again ripe for just such a scam.
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A recent article in the News Tribune described the events leading up to the non-event protests in the Port of Tacoma as Stryker Brigade vehicles are off-loaded from ships. The army refused to pay for added security at the ports where military vehicles and supplies are being loaded and off-loaded. That left the city of Tacoma with a bill of about $661,000 for the March 2007 protests. Let me put it another way. That left us, the taxpayers, holding a bill for the added police presence needed for the army and the port to conduct business.

The army can’t be blamed for the protest. They’re a necessary part of the security and sovereignty of our nation. The police can’t be blamed, they’re doing their best to keep the peace. The protestors are certainly to blame, since they’re the ones causing the problems. But I think that there’s some blame that needs to be handed to the city, particularly the City Council and the Municipal Court Judges. The City Council for not pressuring the city attorney’s office to press charges and build better cases against protestors who violate the law. And the judges for their miscarriage of justice in handing out rulings that are less than a slap on the wrist and in most cases a complete dismissal of charges.

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A record 377,616 people showed up at McChord AFB this weekend to take in the sights illustrating the power of the U.S. military. Compare that to the number that showed up to protest the Iraq war at various times around the area.

I would have to say that the voices of anti-war loudmouths was officially drown out by the sheer numbers of people who support our men and women in the armed forces. It reminds me that the biggest protest I’ve seen was the support-the-troops rally outside Ft. Lewis that stretched for more than 8 miles of overpasses (as that 2003?). And that was actually a counter-protests. The protesters showed up and according to eye-witnesses didn’t even get off of the bus.

I wasn’t able to make the show because of other responsibilities. I heard it was great.

McChord AFB Air Show 2008 - fencecheck.com

Air Show Millitary Expo 2008 McChord AFB USA - YouTube.com

McChord AFB Air Show 2008 - Web site

As I’m reading a post on the Washington Policy Center’s blog I found myself somewhat stunned at the simplicity of the statement in this paragraph:

During our annual transportation event, Dr. Ronald Utt, a transportation and economics expert from the Heritage Foundation suggested that moving toward performance-based transportation decision making (and away from the current political system) means resources are distributed on getting the biggest bang for your buck. Instead, Sound Transit’s resource allocation appears to have very little to do with performance and everything to do with buying votes.

The more I’ve thought about it the more sense it has made. Over the years I’ve learned that there is great wisdom in simple things. A change in goals can lead to a complete overhaul of the way things are done. Focusing on a clear, attainable result can make a lot of choices along the way a lot simpler to decide.
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The first energy crisis, back in the 70’s, was created by foreign interests who hate America. It was people from the ilk that took American embassy workers hostage in Iran and blew up a marine barracks in Lebanon. And along came a Democrat U.S. President and Congress and made the problem worse with their consistently bad economic policy.

The next time the Democrats provided us with a president that same ilk reappeared and was re-energized by the lack of proper response to their threats and attacks. Now the oil prices are rising again, for many reasons. Partly because our enemies can get away with it, but mostly because we have no alternatives to buying their oil.

Thanks again to the Democrats, oil companies cannot drill in areas that have the largest oil reserves in the U.S. President Bush has lifted the ban on offshore drilling, which was half of the problem. The other half is caused by the Democrat controlled congress. Thanks to them and their continual resistance to using our own oil, we are stuck paying exorbitant prices at the pump, most of which goes to rich oil sheiks who hate America (but love American money.)
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After several employees of the Tacoma ACORN office were indicted in Seattle, with the help of Tacoma prosecutors, we’re now learning more about corrupt practices within their organization.

Despite raking in a troubling 40 percent of its revenue from taxpayers over the last three years, ACORN Housing Corporation’s actions range from controversial to borderline illegal:

• AHC has worked to obtain mortgages for illegal aliens
• AHC relies on undocumented income, “under the table” money that may not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service
• ACORN’s “financial justice” operations attack lenders for “exotic” loans, but AHC has recommended ten-year interest-only loans (which deny equity to the buyer) and reverse mortgages (which can be detrimental to senior citizens)
• AHC may have violated federal law by failing to maintain a proper distinction between its tax-exempt housing work and the aggressive political activities of ACORN

Not much of an advocacy / counseling group if they steer people wrong when they come in for help. Makes me wonder who’s interests they are really advocating. Actually, no it doesn’t. There’s ample evidence that they’re nothing more than a left-wing political group pretending to be something else.

When charges where filed in Seattle the organization was supposedly cooperating with authorities to prosecute their supposedly wayward employees. Considering there were several other cities where charges were filed against their employees, some of us doubted that these people were acting outside of their organization’s policies. Now we see even more evidence of corruption.

I’m not sure if this is a sign of improvement, but Puget Sound is ranked only 9th worst in the nation for drive time congestion in a recent report by Inrix of Kirkland. Some other lowlights from the report puts us 10th worst in overall congestion, 6th worst in their ‘Drive Time Travel Time Index’ and we have the 8th worst travel time hour.

Funny thing about these rankings, they don’t often show any improvement when a city’s rank changes. Instead they show that the other cities got worse. However, in this case we can claim that we have the 7th largest decrease in drive time congestion from 2006 to 2007. Things improved by a whopping 0.2%. Sounds like a new plank in the Democrat governor’s campaign. Finally she has something to hang her hat on besides quid-pro-quo legislation for her campaign donors.

In other news Silicon Valley can produce more then chips and disks. Scientists there have come up witha genetically altered microbe that eats agricultural waste and excretes crude oil. They wouldn’t put it in their own cars, but they think it will get us off of our Saudi oil dependency (no mention of Venezuela). Maybe someday I’ll be able to put my grass clippings into my SUV.
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