November 6, 2006 Posts
01:01 In Touch With My Inner Heathen 01:24 Honest Answers, Real Solutions Tour 11:26 I Told You So 14:04 VOTE! 19:56 John Murtha: Face of the Anti-War Left to the End
In Touch With My Inner Heathen
Man, it feels great to be home from a great weekend of deerhunting, relaxing, eating lots of good food & spending time with my best friend & his daughter.
Today's weather was about as perfect as a hunter has a right to expect. I didn't get hunting until 1:30 this afternoon, very late by deerhunting standards. I slept in & I didn't feel the least bit guilty about it. The Park Rapids C'Mon Inn defintely treats hunters right. It's been part of the tradition Jim & I have built since either 1993 or 1994. I think 93. We have a poolside room & everything. Did I mention that Jim & I are admitted cake-eaters? We're training Jim's daughter Amber right in that respect, too.
Anyway, I didn't get out until 1:30 because I had a near flat tire. The good people at L & M Fleet Supply drove over (about 2 blocks), filled the tire with air so I could drive over. There they fixed the tire in very short order. Thanks guys. A little piece of metal was the culprit, along with a leaky valve stem. They patched the tire & replaced the valve stem. Total cost: $5. Thanks ALOT Guys!!!
Saturday afternoon (I got out to my stand about 3:45), I went to one of my old favorite hunting spots, a section that's been logged off with a little meadow leading towards a monstrous swamp that runs for nearly 2 miles. Anyway, I wasn't disappointed with my choice the minute a nice dow weighing about 100 lbs. showed herself about 60 yards out. As I said Friday, the Age Old Gross Family Saying is "We prefer our deer big, stupid & close to the truck. This doe wasn't big but in the immortal words of Meatloaf "Two outta three ain't bad." I dragged the doe almost 125 yards to Jim's truck. (Thanks, Jim, for backing into the field. I know hard work hasn't killed anyone but I'd hate to be the first.) It felt SO GOOD to get back in touch with my 'inner bloodthirsty heathen'!!!
Today, I returned to that same spot. Jim was coming out of the woods from his stand so I motioned for him to join me in the meadow, pointing him to a vista overlooking another meadow that I couldn't cover. Jim walked to the top of the hill, spotted another doe, then let it have it. Jim was 'on stand' all of about 2 minutes. If that. Some guys have all the luck. I had to wait on my stand Saturday for nearly 45 minutes before my doe arrives & Jim gets his in 2 minutes. ON MY SPOT NO LESS. Like I said, some guys have all the luck.
Oh well, I guess I shouldn't complain TOO much.
Posted Monday, November 6, 2006 1:01 AM
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Honest Answers, Real Solutions Tour
I posted here about my hunting weekend. The thing is, the hunting wasn't even the highlight of our weekend. After we stopped at Thielens for some sliced ham for sandwiches, we stopped at the Little Falls Perkins (another deerhunting tradition is Jim getting some pastries there.) Just our luck, the Grams RV & the Kennedy RV were there so we got to hear a bit of Mark's presentation. Good stuff. I also got a Kennedy for Senate pin, which I've been wearing proudly since.
After we got to Park Rapids, we went to the North Forty Reastaurant on Minnesota Highway 34 West. We'd placed our orders when we were against surprised when Andy Aplikowski entered the restaurant. Oh yeah. Mark Kennedy was following Triple A through the restaurant. When they stopped past our table, I told Mark that Jim & I had already done our faithful duty & voted for him with the absentee ballot. Without skipping a beat, Mark says "So you're saying we aren't going to get shut out, huh." Not hardly, Mark. Not hardly.
One of the neat things about wearing the Kennedy pin is that several people asked me if I knew much about Mark. I told them that I knew a good bit about Mark but that I didn't work for the Kennedy campaign. I told them that I'd be glad to answer their questions if I could. I said that Mark believed in government that didn't spend like drunken sailors, that didn't tax people and small businesses into the ground & that he took his job seriously in giving the President Bush the tools he needed to prevent terrorist attacks. That last one drew alot of questions, most of which were of the "Don't they all care about national security?" variety. I said that you'd think so but no, there's a huge difference between the candidates.
I said that the best way to see that difference is in visiting Mark's website and Ms. Klobuchar's website, then see which sounded like nice-sounding stuff & which sounded like it was serious policy. A couple of the people who asked said that Mark sounded like their "kind of guy", which I hope translates into more votes for Mark this Tuesday.
I talked with one of Rod Grams' supporters in Little Falls. She told me that Rod was getting strong support in the western part of MN-8th District. I can see why. He's a very polished campaigner & Oberstar has lot touch with his erstwhile home district. What do you expect when the incumbent's primary residence is in Maryland?
The bottom line in the Grams-Oberstar is that Oberstar knows that he's been in a fight, alot tougher fight than he's used to. If Grams doesn't retire Oberstar this Tuesday, look for Oberstar to retire after this term, when Grams will win that seat for certain.
Mark Kennedy's success this weekend was obvious: He's very good at retail politics. don't be surprised if that's what pushes him over the top early Wednesday morning.
Don't think about not voting for Mark Kennedy. He's a conservative's conservative, a man who would represent the first 'Good Kennedy' in the Senate.
Posted Monday, November 6, 2006 1:24 AM
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I Told You So
When I posted something titled The Kerry Factor, I made this prediction:
I suspect that they won't buy Kerry's statement that he wasn't talking about the military. Further, I suspect that they've already started abandoning Democrats. Don't be surprised if Democrats experience an erosion with independant voters from now till election day.My political instincts have proven right once again according to this GOP memo:
The Kerry Factor -- John Kerry's "stuck in Iraq" remark has attracted the attention of eighty-four percent of voters, and 19% including 18% of independents say it has raised serious doubts about voting for their local Democratic candidates.The GOP memo was released THIS MORNING, meaning the GOP has finally accumulated proof that I'm right. How many races will the Kerry factor tip in the GOP's direction? Good question. I'll have a prediction on the final composition of the House & Senate up tonight after I've had a chance to read more about the 'Kerry Surge'.
Posted Monday, November 6, 2006 11:27 AM
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VOTE!
Yes, that's my command to this blog's readers but it's also the title of Salena Zito's latest column. Salena points out some important things that we take for granted:
It is annoying, aggravating, intrusive. You cannot turn on a radio, television or computer or pick up your home phone without being informed that you have choices to make on Election Day.Are my fellow conservatives going to pout and stay home because they didn't get what they want? I doubt that that'll happen as often as is being reported but it'll happen too often nonetheless. The 'Message-Sending' section of the conservative movement would do well to think of what the Iraqi patriots went through before sending the wrong 'message'.
Well, know what? You are lucky. Darned lucky.
And here's why: No matter how you feel about the war in Iraq, the people of Iraq should inspire you.
While more than 70 percent of Iraqis last year showed up at voting booths despite the risks of suicide bombings, mortar attacks, snipers and other sectarian violence, we shrug off voting if the weather is bad.
We give way too much attention to the absurd and we have only ourselves to blame. Instead of being enthralled by Howard Dean's next caustic anecdote or a rubber stamp with George Bush's image on it, we should consume this historic process and vote.Let me add this to Salena's message: We shouldn't pay attention to exit polling or to the pundits. Exit polling has historically shown a bias towards Democrats. It'll be even worse this year because conservatives are voting early like never before. The result is that these early voters won't be available for exit polling. The word thus far is that early voting heavily favors Republican candidates. Take a significant chunk of GOP voters out of the exit polling mix and it's pretty obvious that they aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
Posted Monday, November 6, 2006 2:05 PM
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John Murtha: Face of the Anti-War Left to the End
Let me start this post by saying that Diana Irey and her staff deserve a huge round of applause for how they've kept the spotlight on John Murtha, specifically in making him the irrational left's face of defeatism. All Republicans owe the Irey campaign a debt of gratitude for their efforts in that 'theater' of the GWOT. Let's take a look at the latest official Irey statement on Murtha's disgusting rhetoric:
"Right up to the very end, Jack Murtha is playing politics with national security. Yesterday, in the wake of an Iraqi court's decision to sentence Saddam Hussein to death by hanging for mass murder, Jack Murtha was quoted as follows by the New York Times:John Murtha is again relying on the fossilized media to 'prove' him right. It's a predictable tactic considering Murtha's reliance on an obsolete paradigm. The Fossilized Media is what Democrats rely on. It's something they've done for almost thirty years.
Representative John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has become the face of his party's opposition to the war in Iraq, said the verdict was the right one but predicted it would not make a difference in this campaign. What would matter more, Mr. Murtha said, were editorials in military papers being published Monday calling for the resignation of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"When The Army Times, The Navy Times, The Marine Corps Times, they have all said that we're not supporting the troops, that they're losing confidence with the administration, that's what's important," Mr. Murtha said, campaigning in Croydon, Pa., outside Philadelphia, for Patrick Murphy, a Democrat seeking to unseat Representative Michael G. Fitzpatrick.
"Again, Jack Murtha is trying to get us to believe something that just isn't so -- in this case, that editorials in The Army Times, The Navy Times, and The Marine Corps Times reflect either public opinion or, more importantly, the opinions of our active duty, reserve, or retired military.
"For the record, these publications are owned by a subsidiary of Gannett Newspapers (which, not coincidentally, makes them sister publications to USA Today), and are in no way affiliated with the professional military. They are headquartered in Springfield, Virginia, just outside the Washington Beltway.
"Surely, Jack Murtha, with his vaunted and loudly-touted connections to the Pentagon, knows this. Yet he touts these editorials as 'proof' that our armed forces are losing confidence in the Administration. What utter balderdash!
When you read publication titles like "The Army Times, The Navy Times and The Marine Corps Times", it gets people's attention. Unfortunately, the hoped-for positive attention is short-lived because the Irey campaign shoots it down as another outlet for Gannett. It sounds so official but it's quickly discredited because it's all headlines and no substance. Like so much of liberalism, voters are left crying out "Where's the beef"? So the liberal editorial board of the The Army Times, The Navy Times and The Marine Corps Times is calling for Runsfeld's resignation the day before the election. What of it?
Do these political idiots think that people get their marching orders from another liberal newspaper? Such is the folly of the left.
Saddam's verdict tells the American people that (a) invading Iraq rid the world of a violent thug; (b) showed the world that the Iraqis have a legitimate judicial system and (c) that that verdict represents progress that John Murtha denies is happening.
"When The Army Times, The Navy Times, The Marine Corps Times, they have all said that we're not supporting the troops, that they're losing confidence with the administration, that's what's important," Mr. Murtha said, campaigning in Croydon, Pa., outside Philadelphia, for Patrick Murphy, a Democrat seeking to unseat Representative Michael G. Fitzpatrick.Mr. Murtha, since when is it important that a liberal publication says that it's losing confidence in the Bush administration's handling of the military? That's as newsworthy as another article telling us that you're anti-war. Forgive me if I don't think that Gannett's Election Eve declaration is more important than Saddam's verdict.
Something else that's worth noticing here is that all three publications are running the same editorial in the same edition that's sent out the day before the election. Isn't that coincidental? I think it's anything but coincidental. It reeks of foul play. It reeks of someone with an agenda attempting to cause trouble via a headline because he can't win his arguments on their merits.
Posted Monday, November 6, 2006 7:56 PM
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