GRRRRRRRRRR

Ok, I just wanted to let everyone know I haven't forgotten you. I keep getting e-mails from friends asking me if I forgot about this forum. No, I haven't. I've just been really busy at work and with my boys. I just got back recently from another underway period, and I'm getting ready to deploy in early January. So, the posts will be further between, but I won't forget to post whenever I pull into a port with wifi.
I'll be spending this weekend up in Anaheim taking the kids to Disneyland with 3-day park hopper tickets. :)
I gotta admit, I'm a little excited, too. This is my first time going to Disneyland here in California. I've been to Tokyo Disneyland enough times.
On our way back home on Sunday night we're stopping off at a restaurant called Gyu-Kaku. It's a Japanese style Korean BBQ restaurant that we went to a lot when we lived in Yokosuka. There's a location in Costa Mesa. I'm already hungry...

I'm sort of back

Greetings good internet folk. I'm sure it's now sort of safe to say, I'm back. There've been a few set backs in my real life as of late, but it's not enough to keep me from providing my thoughts on things in general. In case anyone is wondering...yes my boss is still retarded, most of the people I work with are morons, and we now have a socialist as our president-elect. Hooray!
Tonight's post isn't going to be too long..at least I don't think it will be.
Just to re-cap however: McCain/Palin were up for a minute in October and then overshadowed again by the big leberal lie machine as Obama was promoted into the ranks of presidency on the night of Novemeber 4th. Election results came back surprisingly quick. Everyone is blaiming Sarah Palin for the loss, and I still have no real idea why other than people being unable to accept their own idiocy and shortcomings in life and blaiming others for their being inept.
Pirates are running ramapant still off the horn fo Africa, and people are surprised by this. I believe the word "duh" sums up my thoughts on this. Think back to the times of wooden, tall-masted ships, and think, "Gee...pirates weren't too nice back then either. Only now technology prevails and they can use an RPG instead of a cutlass." Too bad those swashbuckling days are over.
Casey Anthony...oh screw it. This girl's head is so screwed up it's scary. Worse yet her little girl is dead, and she's too dumb to figure out she did it. I'm moving on.
Shrillary Clinton has been given the nod for Secretary of State...f--- me. We're screwed. If Jimmy Carter didn't set our Foreign Policy back 20 years, she'll finish the job.
What ever happened to the news of Osama Bin Laden's new video? Oh yeah, the liberal media didn't want us to see UBL being happy that Obama won the election. Why does he hate us again? Oh yeah, because we aren't muslim like he is. Hey, that's reason enough for me to go kill people with airplanes! Whoopee!
High School Musical 3 came out recently...can't they just quit? How many more of those movies do we really need in our society? That and the Home Alone series. They should've quit half-way through the first one.
Oh! before I forget Prop 8 won! I rejoice. Not because certain people can't get married, but because of how it came about. Back in 2006 it was put up for voting as Prop 22. Guess what? It passed! But, California's activist Supreme Court overruled a valid winning vote and overturned what the populous of California voted on. So, you can vote on it, but the judges in Sacremento can tell you to take your vote and shove it if they want to. Even though the vote fell in line perfectly with the state's constitution, and the U.S. Constitution that all the state's govern themselves. I've had many debates on this issue with countless folks. It always comes down to legallity of the whole thing in general. Now, I did vote Yes on 8. I made a concious decission to ban gay marriage...in California of all states. Go figure. The measure passed and what's happening now? History Part II. The California State Supreme Court is hearing cases. Do we really have to go through this every two years?
The news can somtimes be a funny thing. Unlike Al Franken. Did he end up finally accepting defeat?
Oh well. I'm out.

bad times

Hi everyone, I haven't forgotten my blog here, I've just been pre-occupied with other things happening closer to home. I'm fully aware of the idocies going on in both parties, and actually agree with Congressman Ron Paul on certain points with this whole financial disaster. But, that will come later. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks.

-Brock

This week in voting away your pocket book

Well, Monday had to have been one of the most treacherous days in congressional history. Probably one of the most important bills for congress to vote on, was written hastily, unclearly, rushed, pushed and then the democrats pulled a sheet over the eyes of the American public and voted the bill into the Senate the next day. Some of you may already be aware of HR 6899. This was going to be the big Bi-partisan energy bill that would help us to drill for more oil here in the United States, and get us off of our dependence for foreign oil to refine and may huge amounts of taxes on. I'll take this opportunity to say to House Minority Leader, Representative John Boehner, Kudos to you! Folks, the way Representative Boehner stood up before his fellow members of the House and called this bill for what it was, a sham, was gutsy, brave and almost heroic. A 230 page document introduced at 9:45 pm, and then expected to be voted on the following afternoon. The democrats wanted everyone to read this...nobody did. Rep. Boehner even asked, by show of hands, how many people had actually read the entire bill. The room fell silent, and not one hand was shown on CSPAN. I was absolutely disheartened on Tuesday by the actions of our House of Representatives. To actually vote in a bill that they had just admitted to not fully understanding is wreckless and irresponsible. To everyone living in a district represented by a Democrat, or even one of the 14 or 15 Republicans that actually voted for this written piece of garbage, call them up and demand a reasonable explanation. The only purpose I see this serving is the opportunity for them to say, "Look, there was a bill in favor of drilling, and I voted for it!" Unfortunately, this particular bill did not relax any of the current restrictions on drilling, and in fact, put in more red tape in some areas. Really, the only thing that was voted on with this bill was more Democrat strategy for them to keep their jobs by lying to hard working, tax paying Americans who they are hoping don't pay too much attention to the news, and channel surf past CSPAN. Shame on them.
Enough of that. There were a few things going on this week. Governor Sarah Palin sat down with Sean Hannity for a one on one interview, and consistently answered every one of his questions with ease and confidence. Not once contradicting herself. The more and more her ideas for this country come to surface, I get scared of having an America without McCain and Palin at the helm. We need the kind of change they will bring to DC.
Oh! before I forget, let me back up a little. Monday morning. I was driving from the gym back to my office around half past eight, and passed a black SUV with some shoe polish writing in all the windows. No biggie, see stuff like that all the time, right? Wrong. This lady had every window covered with praise for Obama. The rear window is what really got me worried, though. "OBama '08 / Time for (up arrow) Change! / VOTE OR DIE!" Does anyone else see a problem here? Other than a liberal driving a gas-guzzling SUV? Vote or die? I'm wondering how she exactly plans to enforce this. But, this wasn't the last time this week that an Obama supporter would do something like this. Think back further in this campaign to Senator Obama making a statement that our National Anthem promotes war, and should be changed to something different. Earlier this week, a YouTube video was posted dating back to July, in which forward for the Dallas Mavericks, Josh Howard, is shown while the the Star Spangled Banner is playing. He's told that the national anthem is playing, and he says, "The Star-Spangled Banner' is going on. I don't celebrate this s---. I'm black."
So, apparently skin color makes you exempt from showing respect to the nation in which you live, and provides the very freedom he's exercising in not standing still. That's fine, he's entitled to his opinion. But, what really gets this going is what he said next, you hear another male, probably the cameraman say, "Obama '08!" Which is then immediately followed by Josh Howard with, "Obama, and all that s---!" Gee...Obama has some swell support for him. These are the kind of guys he should put on tv to campaign for him.
Has anyone seen these new ads on spanish tv for both candidates? As I hear more about it, it seems that Senator OBama first put out a spanish commercial claiming that Senator McCain is anti-immigration, and that Rush Limbaugh thinks all mexicans are monkeys and unintelligent. Senator McCain countered with an equally untrue commercial claiming that Obama voted "No" on the immigration reform, and national security bills that would enforce immigrations requirements and laws. In truth, and I hate to admit this, Obama voted in favor of both issues. Not once, but twice. I know that recently I've been showing a lot of support for John McCain, but wrong is just plain wrong. Both candidates showed poor judgement when they endorsed these ads, and both should face the music and apologize to the American public they expected to be dumb enough to believe the lies. Sadly, I only see John McCain as being man enough to step up to the plate and actually do it. Which is also one of the reasons, I can't vote for OBama...ever. I just can't trust him to ever show strong enough conviction to anything, and definitely not enough cojones to admit when he's wrong, or has done something wrong. I honestly expect him, in some way to twist this just enough to where he won't have to apologize to anybody for anything, and shift the blame onto the republicans. I see it coming. Mark this day on your calendars.
As I write this blog, I'm getting tired. It's kinda late at night, and I desperately need some sleep, so I'm going to wrap this one up here. I will post again a little sooner than I posted this one. In the meantime, however, I will remain diligent in my research for issues that should be addressed here, and make sure that at least my voice is heard from the tiny corner of the Blog-osphere.

Deli encounters

I went to dinner tonight with my family to a little Austin-based delicatessen that happens to have a shop in La Mesa, California. For those not familiar this Southern California, La Mesa is a small suburb of San Diego. As I was sitting there, enjoying my Turkey, Bacon Club on Sourdough (quite delicious), I noticed some folks wearing a lot of Texas Longhorns emblematics. "How quaint," I thought. The older woman in front of the family also happened to be wearing a Longhorns jacket. As all of us began talking, sensing that we were all from the Central Texas region, and it did eventually come out the I am a die-hard Aggie Fan, we discussed briefly the many changes in our beloved home state. That's when the Lib-Bomb hit. The older woman blind-sided me in a casual conversation with the classic "and that's why I hate Karl Rove!" Huh? I was talking about Kerby Lane Cafe. As she explained herself, she kept the finger pointing tactics up with the famous "you people" comments dropped here and there, and everywhere. I feel less on the defense when I talk with Bryan. This woman was in attack mode. And, of course she brought up the Supreme Court "handing over" of the presidency to our current President Bush. Not fair. Let's recap that little debacle. Al Gore lost the whole state of Florida with three heavily democratic counties, Miami-Dade county being one of them. Huge populous. Yes, he may have had those, in turn he did. However, what actually happened with the Florida Recount, was that Al Gore only wanted those three counties to be the recount, not the rest of Florida, which as it turns out is quite conservative. Not only that, but it's part of Florida's State Constitution. After the first state-wide recount, the votes still didn't fall into Al's favor, and he pouted. And, like hoping the scary shadow will go away if you just close your eyes and open them, he demanded another recount, which he lost again, and again. It finally got so ridiculous that the Supreme Court had to step in and tell Al Gore that enough is enough. But, unfortunately all the Dems tend to conveniently forget this. Good for America, though, John Kerry had a sudden flashback the morning of Nov. 5th and ceded his bid instead of wasting countless taxpayer dollars in another useless recount. Finally, she had to leave, and that was that. I could only shake my head and hope that her misguided beliefs could one day be brought to her attention as ill-informed.
Now, on to the many happenings over the course of this week. Governor Sarah Palin went on tv with Charlie Gibson. This was a moment of triumph for all of us conservatives. When you go back to the moment when he kept asking her the same question about Israel and Iran, she stuck to her guns, and just would not let him put words in her mouth. She kept giving him the same answer like a broken record to make sure he understand that her stance was exactly what it was, and no matter how many times he asked the same question with different words, he was not going to make a fool of her, and she would remain steadfast.
You can see it in each of her responses to each time he asked, check it out.
GIBSON: "What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?"
PALIN: I don't think that we should second guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves, and for their security.
GIBSON: So if we wouldn't second guess it and if they decided they needed to do it, because Iran was an existential threat, we would be cooperative or agree with that?
PALIN: I don't think we can second guess what Israel has to do to secure its nation.
GIBSON: So if it felt necessary, if it felt the need to defend itself by taking out Iranian nuclear facilities, that would be all right?
PALIN: We cannot second guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself.
That was a beautiful moment. She told Charlie Gibson to screw off with her answers. All he was looking for was one slip up that the left could use to spray all over the headlines of the next morning's news papers. And, of course, she didn't fall for it. I was giddy.
Charlie Gibson, on the other hand, ended up looking like he was unprepared for anything substantial,a s he should have been, and was obviously under-prepared.
Later, on a CNN round-table discussion, in which Lou Dobbs was sitting, Governor Palin was defended by none other than Mr. Dobbs himself. I was in shock when I heard it. Could it be that he's a supporter? Dunno. We'll find out when the time comes. For now, as I understand it, he's in the Obama camp. There was an exchange between Jeffrey Toobin, Wolf Blitzer and Lou Dobbs all about the question that Sarah Palin was asked about the crisis in Georgia with Russia's invasion and absolute refusal to leave. Check this exchange out.
BLITZER: On the Georgia thing and what Palin basically said was that if Georgia were to be a member of NATO the US, of course, would be obliged to come to the defense of Georgia or Ukraine or any other NATO ally under those circumstances, so she had that little nuance in there.
TOOBIN: Well, yes, but we went through 50 years of a Cold War without going to war with Russia over things a lot more important frankly than Georgia, so I mean I just thought it was a somewhat odd answer, but we'll parse them very carefully.
BLITZER: First of all, what do you think about this latest sort of twist and turn in the presidential contest?
DOBBS: If you're sitting there listening to Obama, who's run the slickest, smartest, shrewdest campaign right up until Russia invaded Georgia, the man cannot find his tempo again. His campaign is like they're still on vacation. You just heard the man talking there with Letterman. He's boring, just as Palin comes in to give excitement to the Republicans. He talks about exciting the base -- 62 percent of men in this country have a favorable view of Governor Palin. And I heard our colleague Jeff Toobin say, "Well, he's got some questions or he's got to think about that answer of hers on whether or not, as a member of NATO, the United States would have to defend Georgia had Russia invaded it." Let me help you out, Jeff Toobin. No nuance required. We would be required to do so, as would all of the members of NATO.
BLITZER: So I hear you saying that Obama seems to have lost his momentum, his mojo, if you will, but McCain's gained it, is that what you're thinking, Lou?"
DOBBS: This woman has turned feminism on its head. You're watching women in this country trying to figure what in the heck, on the left, what in the heck this woman is doing to them. Women on the right are sitting there saying, you know, wow she's talking sensibly because she's first, pragmatic, who is trying to be painted as an ideologue of course by the Democrats, but she's coming across very pragmatic, she's strong, and, man, you gotta love the fact that this woman knows how to shoot.
Did anyone else have to read that over? I had to hit rewind to believe it. Later, in the same interview with Charlie Gibson, he ask Governor Palin what she thought about the Bush Doctrine. After goading her for a minute, he finally described what he THOUGHT it to be. Palin came back with yet another solid answer.
GIBSON: The Bush Doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense, that we have the right tie preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that?
PALIN: Charlie, if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country.
This is right in line with the answer she grave previously with Israel and Iran. She remains consistent and with tons of confidence she rolls out her answers and just shuts him down every time he tried to derail her. I was in awe.
Did anyone else notice the hurricane in Texas? I also noticed that Michael Moore didn't have any sarcastic comments this time around. Was it because people that have a different view point from his weren't having a convention? I noticed he hates people that think differently than he does. Maybe that's why he likes Cuba so much.
However, to the police, paramedics, fire-rescue crews in Louisiana and Texas, I sincerely hope that all of you are able to accomplish all the things you wish to accomplish without any incidents. You have a tough job ahead of you, and not enough time to do it in. our thoughts and prayers are with you.

A new hopelessness

So, I just got off the phone with my brother back in Texas. It was an interesting conversation to say the least. The thing everyone needs to understand right off the bat, id that he is a diehard Libertarian. I've learned to take everything he says with a grain of salt. His ideas, while a bit extreme in nature, and ill-thought out, at least have the best intentions at heart.
He's still under the presumption that the Patriot Act gives blanket authority for the NSA and CIA to wiretap his phones at will. In truth, he couldn't be more wrong. As I tried to remind him that in order for the wiretapping to take place there has to be Probable Cause (PC). No different than a Police Officer pulling someone over or entering a private residence without permission. Reasonable PC has to exist, and you would then have to be able to back it up in a court. In this case it would be a FISA court. The biggest thing to understand with all of this, is that the average citizen is in no way targeted for surveillance. the CIA and NSA in no way have the manpower, the capabilities, and the inclination to wire tap the phone lines of every last person in the country and listen to their phone calls back and forth between them and the pizza delivery place, or Gramma. It's just not feasible. What they do is find PC with one person individually, be it they make frequent overseas calls to known terrorist organizations, they contribute large sums of money to terror groups, etc... There has to in some way be a logically deduced relationship between the individual and terrorism. Yet for some reason he's still up in arms thinking that the Government has violated his rights. Suuuuuuuuuuuuure.
Also in our conversation he stated he believes that every group within government that has an acronym should go away. IRS, CIA, NSA, FBI, etc... I gotta say that this idea is pretty retarded. As much as I dislike the IRS, they do serve a fundamental purpose within the existence of our nation. As a country we do need a method of collecting revenue. And, while paying taxes does suck, it is a necessity if we wish to survive as a country. Now, I do agree with my brother that the American public is taxed entirely too much, and for frivolous programs that should have gone away decades ago. However, eliminating the IRS is not the way to go about it. Nor is eliminating the FBI or CIA. Both of these organisations maintain the security and integrity (what little is left) of our national borders from within and externally. Without these two organizations, believe me, this country would be really screwed. Not to mention I would have to argue that once their failures outnumber their success, classified and unclassified, then we should talk about dismantling them. Then and only then. Right now, we need them too much. Whether anyone likes to admit it or not, they play far too important a role in our National Security to even consider getting rid of them.
Another topic that got brought up in our conversation was eminent domain. I couldn't agree more with him about this topic. It's just flat out wrong, and yes unconstitutional. Businesses and government do have the right to offer someone compensation to move for the development of an area, but to flat out force them out, is just wrong. And, I would argue that the individual citizen would then have a case against the government. Ownership of property is a liberty that is guaranteed under our living Constitution. This is one of the few things that I do agree with my brother on. That and we do need to shrink our government, and in turn lower taxes due to a lot of these useless programs sucking up money and not providing any return. Our current government is pumping all of our hard earned money into frivolous spending that none of us will ever see the fruits of it's labor. Meanwhile we slave away in our own jobs, so that we can support someone else's family, and not our own. Does anyone else see a problem with that? I'm not going to play partisan on this one, because both sides have screwed the pooch here. Republicans are just as much to blame. Until half of these idiotic taxes are in place get removed, then I will be constantly pissed and hold everyone in government accountable. It's just unrealistic to continue to increase taxes and expect everyone to maintain their current way of life. We're creating a welfare state. The more taxes increase and get pumped into welfare programs, the more people are going to fall into the welfare trap, because they can't maintain. I guarantee we're going to start seeing a rise in welfare families in the next decade unless we stop being stupid. When it comes to balancing the budget, the answer is not to increase the income, but instead decrease the output of money. Duh.
I want to take this opportunity now, before I close out this blog entry, to challenge our elected officials. Have some balls. It's ok to lower taxes and cut programs. Most of the republicans have already promised to do so.....now it's time to actually go forth and do it. Your constituents would appreciate it, and you'll probably have a better chance of getting re-elected. Not to mention folks will actually have money in their pockets to actually have enough gas to drive down to the polling precincts. Let's use our heads, Folks. That's why we got 'em.

Return of the Conservative

That would be the return of conservative values to the plate. I woke up yesterday morning to find some long awaited good news on my television set. As I sat down with Fox News filling my screen, I saw the headline that Senator McCain had finally picked, and announced his VP choice. Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. I first got to research her a few weeks ago, actually. It was during a google search for hot politicians, that I came across an issues breakdown page that had her stances on key issues, and her ideas for direction. Pro-Second Ammendment, a life-time member of the National Rifle Association, avid hunter and fisher, and so on. I first thought to myself that she seemed like she had at least half a clue what she was talking about in regards ro gun ownership rights, which is far more than what we can say for most other politicians. Governor Palin is also vehemently Pro-Life. And for this she is to be commended. She recently gave birth to a new child, who unfortunately is afflicted with Down's syndrome. Instead of cowering behind Roe V Wade, as so many liberals like to do, she and her husband stepped up to the plate, accepted the responsibility that they put themselves into, and welcomed their new baby boy into the world (which would be their fifth). And they couldn't be happier. Nor is there any reason they shoudn't be.
Over all day yesterday and today, I've been hearing both praise and comndemnation for Governor Palin. Rush Limbaugh, Roger Hedgecock, and many other media outlets on the forefront of coherent thinking, have stood up and lauded the efforts of the VP pick, and are showing enthusiasm for where this election could go. In fact, I would honestly have to say, that I believe that Senator McCain picking her as his Vice-Presidential running mate has energized his almost doomed campaign. I can only speak for myself when I say that before this announcement, I really had no idea what I was going to do on election day. Senator McCain had left a slightly bad taste in my mought during the primary campaign. I knew that I couldn't and would not ever vote for Obama, and the idea of voting for McCain gave me reserves, but I still gave thought to it, since I knew note voting would be the same as giving a vote to Obama, and giving the Democrats the White House. However, after hearing that this election will be McCain/Palin against Obama/Biden, I knew that my vote was solid in the Republicans court. Should anything happen to President McCain, let's pray nothing does, then Vice-President Palin would step up to the plate, and show the world that she is more than capable to take the reigns. America would then, along with having the first Madame President, have the first, First Gentleman. Governor Palin's husband is a man's man. He doesn't get $300 haircuts, and manicures. He's a blue-collar, steel workers union (No, I'm still not pro-union), hunter, fisher, sportsman, father, and leader. He's has just as much class, as his beautiful wife, and she has a lot. I think it would also be safe to say that these two may also bring back some class to Washington DC that has been missing for many, many years.
To continue to toot Governor Palin's horn, she, like many other mother's, has an enlisted son. Her eldest son, about a year ago enlisted in the United States Army, and will be shipping out to Iraq on September 11th. Cindy Sheehan...eat that. Your insipid belly-aching over the loss of your son has cast a digusting shadow over your son's death, and left a stain on the country he swore to defend. I'm sure he'd be turning in his grave if he knew what you were up to. I seriously doubt that, if in the same situation, that Governor Sarah Palin would follow in your footsteps. She understands the choice her son has made, and stands by him in his decision. That's how responsible parents act.
And with that, there is reason to celebrate now in the GOP. It's time to break out the walking shoes. With her acceptance to run with Senator McCain, I feel rejuvinated with this campaign, an dI look forward to doing whatever I can to make sure the McCain/Palin are shown to their new offices in Washington DC come January.