He's Wagging His Finger Again - Watchout

Does this seem familiar to you? When he starts wagging that finger you better start checking his facts. Check out Michelle Malkin on the topic. Allahpundit at hotair has a great round up. Here is my favorite exerpt,

5.Despite the fact that it’s central to a debate that’s been raging for weeks, Wallace’s question about whether he did enough to eliminate Bin Laden is a “conservative hit job” designed to appease Fox’s right-wing viewers, who’ll all be very, very sore when they find out Rupert Murdoch is working with Clinton on climate change. Presumably Wallace should have stuck to the script followed by Meredith “Giggles” Vieira, CNN schlockmeister Larry King, who bombarded Clinton with tough questions like “How’s your health?” and “Have you seen Gore’s movie?”, and of course Keith Olbermann, who played his part perfectly except for the lack of a blue dress.

It always amuses me when liberals get mad because of the questions they are asked when they go on Fox News. They are so use to getting fawned over and asked softball questions by the MSM that they become undone and lose their composure. Instead of answering the questions they attack Fox as being "right wing." Well guess what, at least half of the country want those questions asked, and answered. Since no one from CNN or MSNBC is going to ask those questions, somebody has to. Conservatives are much better at this than liberals because they are used to tough interviews.

Mr Pot, Meet Mr. Kettle

HT realclearpolitics

How Nerdy Are You

A Smack Down GW Bush Style

This is the George W Bush I want to see more of, I love the finger in the chest. Matt Lauer is a joke. The day after we were reminded about what kind of enemy we are facing he is worried about waterboarding Al Queda members. It makes me ill.

Been Busy

Posting has been light over the last week because we have been very busy. This was Rose Festival week in Wasco and we had a lot going on. First, my daughter was a contestant in the Rose Queen pageant. It has been a great experience for Alysse, but it has taken up a lot of our time and energy (especially my wife and daughter's). Then we had the Rose Parade along with the Arts and Crafts Fair in the park, which took up Friday evening and the entire day yesterday. In addition, my son Aaron came home from college for the weekend with four of his new friends!

In one of my first posts on this blog, I wrote about why I love the Rose Festival weekend, and you can read the original post here. This year of course was special because of Alysse's participation in the pageant. The parade was great, it really is Americana. I took pictures of the parade so that I could share them with you. I hope you enjoy them.

The Crowd gets ready for the parade.

The parade always begins with this large American Flag.

The Color Guard

You won't see this kind of float in the other Rose Parade!

More Parade Pics

The Grand Marshall

Some lovely parade watchers (that is my wife in the middle and my youngest daughter next to her).

During the parade we congregate in front of our church which just happens to be right on the parade route.

Aaron's friends aren't sure what to think about small town U.S.A.!

Mr. Reding has been riding a scooter in the parade for over twenty years. It is his job to keep the parade entries moving along at the right pace.

Parade Pics Continued

Last year's Rose Queen

This year's Queen

Rose Queen and some of her Court

My Rose Queen

She definitely favors her mother!

Even More Pics

The Shriners are always a hit.

The Wasco High School Band

The Thomas Jefferson Junior High band

The Wasco City Council

Yes, There is More

It must be an election year!

The Last of the Pics

Every parade needs a pooper scooper!

Bachman Turner Overdrive

In previous posts (see here, here, here and here) I discussed why Rush is my favorite band. Now I want to talk about my second favorite band, Bachman Turner Overdrive or as they are affectionately known as BTO. Whereas Rush is known more as a "progressive rock" band, BTO is a more straight up "hard rock" band, although several of their songs have a jazz flavor to them.

As I began my High School years I became fascinated with BTO largely through my neighbor and classmate Bill Fisher . Bill had an LP (remember those?) by BTO called "Four Wheel Drive" and because I had just been given an old record player and needed something to play on it, he graciously let me borrow the album.

Given that it was going to take some time for me to earn the money to buy new albums I literally played "Four Wheel Drive" day and night. Every song on the album became my favorite as I listened to each one until the words and music were etched in my memory. Even today, I can still hear the music in my mind.

In any event, this led to the purchase of my second BTO album, "Not Fragile." Arguably their best album, there is no debate that it was their most successful, reaching number 1 on the pop album charts in 1974. It also included two number one hits, "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" and the instrumental "Free Wheelin." This album also included several of their best known songs, like "Roll on Down the Highway," "Not Fragile," and "Sledgehammer." Over the next few weeks I will be posting more on my favorite BTO albums and songs, but for now I want to post a couple of BTO videos from youtube.

One thing I want to add is that you shouldn't judge the band by their looks or by the quality of these videos. Randy Bachman and especially C.F. Turner do not look like your usual rock band members, but that doesn't mean they can't produce some very good tunes. So enjoy.

Bachman Turner Overdrive - Roll On Down The Highway

Bachman Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Bachman Turner Overdrive - Let It Ride

Bachman Turner Overdrive - Hey You

Game Week - San Jose State

Well, game week has finally arrived. This week the Washington Huskies prepare for their first game of the season, against San Jose State. It has been a tough couple of years for this Washington transplant living in Southern California. Most of the people here are either UCLA or USC fans. Since it is just up the freeway, there are some Fresno State fans here as well.

Quite a few people here root for UC Berkley, mainly because one of Wasco's own has played and started there over the last few years (by the way, his name is Aaron Merz and he was drafted by the Buffalo Bills, go Aaron). Aaron started playing for Cal, the year they broke the losing streak to UW. Mostly people here have been gracious about the condition of my Huskies, but it has been humbling to see how far this once mighty program has fallen.

I was excited when they hired Rick Neuheisel, but he was a big disappointment. He and Barbara Hedges helped take Washington from the best and most consistent program in the PAC-10 to where it is today. Our record for the last two years? 3-19, it even pains me to write that. Keith Gilbertson (the most recent coach) probably should also get some credit or rather blame for our sad state of affairs, but he was put in a no win situation.

I was not very thrilled when they hired Ty Willingham as head coach because I considered him to be a retread, and what we needed was fresh ideas and new blood. However, Ty is a quality individual and a great man of character. He has put together a good staff and there is some talent on this squad...we are going to find out very soon if this staff can get the job done, let's hope so. Here is this year's schedule and it looks pretty tough.

Sept. 2 San Jose State
Sept. 9 at Oklahoma
Sept. 16 Fresno State
Sept. 23 UCLA
Sept. 30 at Arizona
Oct. 7 at USC
Oct. 14 OREGON STATE
Oct. 21 at California
Oct. 28 ARIZONA STATE
Nov. 4 at Oregon
Nov. 11 STANFORD
Nov. 18 at Washington State

GO DAWGS!!!!!!

The 527 Media

Jed Babbin has an excellent letter to Ken Mehlman of the RNC. Nothing drives conservatives like me crazier than the Bush bashing, Republican hating MSM. It is time for the Republicans to fight back and to tell the truth to the country. In his article, he quotes Washington Post editor Marie Arana who confirms what we all know to be true.

"The elephant in the newsroom is our narrowness ... If you work here, you must be one of us. You must be liberal, progressive, a Democrat. I've been in communal gatherings at the Post, watching election returns, and have been flabbergasted to see my colleagues cheer unabashedly for the Democratic candidates."

Babbin's advice, "Tell America that it's a media culture, not a conspiracy."

In one of my favorite movies "You've Got Mail," Meg Ryan's boyfriend (played by Greg Kinnear) tells her as they are breaking up that he has fallen for a Conservative T.V. Talkshow Host. Since his character is a left wing columnist, Ryan's character is shocked. Kinnear's answer is, "I just can't help myself." That is the problem with the 527 media, they just can't help themselves. The only people they are around, the only people they listen to and read are fellow liberals. They really don't know anyone who lives in "fly over country" (i.e. middle America). They live and work in an echo chamber and they are narrow in their worldview.

But what can conservatives and republicans do to counteract the 527 liberal media culture? Or, as Babbin asks, how can republicans find "the pony in this pile of macaca?" Babbin offers some interesting ideas.

· Renounce any idea of using the power of the government against the press. The New York Times should be publicly ridiculed, not prosecuted. Remember the best lesson we can learn from Rush Limbaugh: You can do much more political damage with humor than with insults.

· Produce a series of television ads going after the "527 Media." Expose who they are and show how the typical newsroom is more like a dysfunctional, liberal family than a business run by adults.

· It's time for the Vice President to give a speech taking the press to task. He should name names. If Pinch Sulzberger wants to be a political activist instead of a publisher, why not call him on it?

· Organize a group called the Swift Veteran Reporters for the Truth. Every time one of those contrived stories comes out, make sure your team, experienced reporters all, can access the facts and get them out -- fast -- on blogs, talk radio and everywhere else.

· Get Republican congressmen and senators to write letters to their local papers and local network TV affiliates. Ask how they can pretend to be fair if they have nothing but liberals in the newsroom? Why did Clinton crony George Stephanopoulos get a big show on ABC? Culture, not conspiracy.

· Establish a media hotline for disgruntled reporters to call in about the contrived stories, connivance with the Dems and the bias they face in their newsrooms. Hire a couple of old-time conservative journalists to run it, guarantee anonymity, and then publish what the whistleblowers say.

· Get your best joke writers to study everything they can about the worst of the 527 Media and let 'em rip. I can just hear Mr. Cheney tut-tutting about the New York Times' stock collapse and comparing it to the dividends of, say, Halliburton.

The article is a whole lot of fun. HT NRO Media Blog

Now That I am Praising Bill Clinton

Nothing makes me more angry than the whole "Bush Lied" meme. It is dishonest and flies in the face of all the facts. Austin Bay has posted a column by Tom Nichols that makes this quite clear.

The article quotes none other than my new favorite person to praise,
Bill Clinton. Here is what Clinton had to say...

“It is obvious that there is an attempt here, based on the whole history of this operation since 1991, to protect whatever remains of [Saddam’s] capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction, the missiles to deliver them, and the feed stocks necessary to produce them. The UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq still
has stockpiles of chemical and biological munitions, a small force of Scud-type missiles, and the capacity to restart quickly its production program and build many, many more weapons.”

Clinton then added:

“Now, let’s imagine the future. What if [Saddam] fails to comply, and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the
solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And some day, some
way, I guarantee you, he’ll use the arsenal. And I think every one
of you who’s really worked on this for any length of time believes that, too. [emphasis added] If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with
impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United
Nations Security Council and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program.”

That was Bill Clinton in 1998. Here he is on Larry King in 2003...

“People can quarrel with whether we should have more troops in Afghanistan or internationalize Iraq or whatever, but it is incontestable that on the day I left office, there were unaccounted for stocks of biological and chemical weapons.And then we bombed with the British for four days in 1998. We might have gotten it all; we might have gotten half of it; we might have gotten none of it. But we didn’t know. So I thought it was prudent for [President Bush] to go to the U.N. and for the U.N. to say you got to let these inspectors in, and this time if you don’t cooperate the penalty could be regime change, not just continued sanctions.”

Read the whole article, I think it is very convincing and a sharp rebuke to those who want to continue to scream, Bush lied.

Who Should We Believe - The New York Times or the Facts?

Check out this post at Gateway Pundit. Once again the blogs are doing the work that the MSM won't do (I will leave it to you decide why).
HT Instapundit

My favorite for 2006 Rose Queen

If you want to see who I am rooting for in this year's Wasco Rose Queen Pageant click on this link and then click on the bottom far right contestant. It is a good thing she takes after her mother.