Friday, September 29, 2017

The National Knee-Ball League! (NKL)

                                                                   

Good news, people! The NFL is starting up a new league, called the National Knee-Ball League (NKL).

Having been criticized of late for not taking a knee for domestic abuse, or Michael Vick's animal abuse, or the startling fact that 75 percent of Blacks are born to unwed mothers, who command 43 percent of every welfare dollar, and, in the past have failed to condemn their own players participating in late night bar brawls and gunfights, who have in the past never condemned Michael Jordan and Le Bron James for hawking $300 dollar a pair basketball shoes to the urban poor, are finally announcing they'll now take a stand against every injustice...including Urban Black crime.

Accordingly, all Knee-ball games will of course be played on their knees for the entire 60 minutes! Just try to imagine how that will go! Odell Beckham Junior will scurry two yards down the field and make a tremendous one-knee catch. Tom Brady will back-pedal two feet and send a two yard pass between the yard markers!

In this new NKL no one will be required to stand for the National Anthem, nor the presentation of the colors. However, images of Jay Z and three dead rappers will appear on the big screen and players will be able to raise one knee to pay their respects.

Roger Goodell readily admits that scoring in the new NKL will be more akin to soccer scores, he hopes the new league will catch on with fans.

Oh, by the way, Underarmour has agreed to be the official sponsor of the new NKL.

You're welcome.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

USA Today; The 'Bubble Gum' Version of Journalism

                                                                   

Last week USA Today celebrated their 35th birthday.  I still remember first seeing USA Today on the newsstand.  Of course, like everyone else, I was struck by its cartoon colors.  In those days our news came in serious black and white.  One read of the newspaper told you that this was not a serious newspaper...three fourths of it nothing but big weather maps, sports stats and entertainment fluff.  If some foreign conflict broke out overnight USA Today would lead with a front page story about cast conflicts on the TV show "Three's Company".  Very sad.

Monday, September 25, 2017

"Baseball, Apple Pie..And Saving The Flag"

                                                     
I wrote this blog essay five years ago.  In light of what's happening these days, I thought I'd remind you that we once had sports heroes who really were:

Friday, September 22, 2017

"Waxing Truthful"

                                                                   

A majority of the student body, and half of the liberal faculty have their panties in a bunch over an editorial published in the Philadelphia Inquirer last week.  The editorial came from one of their own...one Professor Amy Wax.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

"What Posse...Don't Need No Stinkin' Posse"

                                                               

As most of you know by now, Sheriff Joe Arpao is no longer running the Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff's Department.  Enough liberals and outraged Mexicans turned him out of office in the last election.

Monday, September 18, 2017

Time To Send Congress A Thank You Card

                                                                   

If you didn't send your Congressmen and Senators a congratulations card this month you should do so poste haste. Our Congress, after flirting with that $20 trillion dollar debt mark, finally achieved that glorious milestone this month.

After Trump signed both the Hurricane legislation, and after granting Congress a three month extension of their current spending spree, our debt finally hit the 20...followed by a whole bunch of zeroes. Think about it like this: Trump just gave Congress a higher spending limit on that Congressional credit card.

Now it's kind of hard for anyone to wrap their head around that $20 trillion figure. But our Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has done that for us. For a family of four you and your children now owe $240,000 dollars (actually over $400,000 because half of Americans pay no taxes). Pray tell, what have you received in return? And keep in mind, that $240,000 you owe does not count the tens of thousands you already kicked in for taxes...that's all been spent as well.

And while that $240,000 is horrific, that's not even the worst news. Even more scary is the future interest you are going to have to pay to service your $240,000 dollar "loan". Depending on how inflation rolls out in the coming years, the interest on that debt is going to be monumental. As of now, as the Federal Reserve continues to manipulate federal bond rates, your interest payments are manageable. However, if bond rates revert to their historical averages of 6 percent, you're going to be in big trouble.

Forget about what you're going to have to shell out in taxes to feed, educate, medicate and incarcerate the 47 percent who won't or can't work, your share of the interest on that national debt is going to require at least a doubling of your current taxes...just to service that debt.

So, when you have the time, be sure and send your Congressional representatives a "congratulations card". In the last ten years your Presidents and your Congress has managed to achieve a 75% increase in your national debt.



You're welcome.

Friday, September 15, 2017

Article Five Convention Arrives In Phoenix

                                                                   

This coming week representatives from 28 states will convene in Phoenix...to prepare Arizona's entry into the nationwide Article V alliance.  For those not familiar with the term, Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides authority for the U.S. Citizenry to propose amendments to the Constitution.  

The Article V alliance proposes an amendment that would force Congress to balance their budget each and every year, that $20 trillion dollar national debt a millstone on the backs of our children and grandchildren.   We all know that, unless a balanced budget amendment is enacted into law, our cowardly Congress will never stop the runaway spending.

                                               
To enact an amendment we will need 37 states to vote for it, at least 34 to put it to a vote in each state.  so far 28 states have signed on, with Arizona soon to be the 29th.  And while we can never expect free-spending California to go along, Idaho would seem to be a "shoe-in", and perhaps Maine, leaving only three more states to sign on to secure a national vote on this matter.

Happily, for the first time, there is real hope for a balanced budget amendment, often suggested by selective Congressmen and women, but never taken seriously.  But, if we can get those three additional states to sign up, we might at long last force our Congress to do what they hate worst....having their credit card cancelled.

We can only hope.


Wednesday, September 13, 2017

"Hurricane Donald"

                                                                         

No one was more pleased with the arrival of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma than Donald Trump.  The two monsters were able to crowd out political news, the most remarkable being Trump's own stumbling.

Monday, September 11, 2017

Sunday Morning Soap Opera

                                                                           

For as long as I've lived in Arizona the Gannett-owned Arizona Republic dedicates three to four full page sob stories about illegal Mexicans living here.  Well, you can imagine, given the DACA news this week, that the Republic would come up with a real tearful dandy for my Sunday morning paper.  They did.

The newspaper reporters interviewed a round dozen of illegal "dreamers" whose hearts were broken by Trump's cancellation of Obama's Executive Order on DACA, then threw it over to the Congress to constitutionally come up with something both legal and more permanent.

Two things struck me by The Republic's coverage of DACA.  One was that the newspaper didn't even report on a story about a 23-year old Nickolas Hernandez, "dreamer" here in Phoenix, who beat a 70 year old man nearly to death because the old guy ask Hernandez not to speed around school children walking home from school.  (Hernandez was already fresh out of jail on a work furlough....a liberal judge forgiving him for committing a robbery).  While I was not shocked that the liberal Gannett totally suppressed this story, (they censor Hispanic crime in all of their network of newspapers), I thought it especially cheeky to avoid this story, while painting halos on the head of their "ditzy dozen" dreamers featured today.

What struck me about today's coverage was the vast plethora of those dreamers who are either working in a government job, or are employed by a liberal political organization.  For instance, three of today's miserable "dreamers" were being paid to campaign for Hispanic rights organizations, or were paid "demonstrators".  Another was a district paid political hack for Hillary Clinton's campaign, while still another worked for an organization promoting Latino LGBT issues...."queer" being his favorite catch phrase.

So, boys and girls, when you see those signs bemoaning the fate of poor Mexicans picking your crops, or landscapers slaving away, keep your handkerchief in your pocket.  Most of those "dreamers" featured in today's newspaper were well paid, organizational bureaucrats enjoying fat salaries...not one of them ever walking in a lettuce field.  In fact, most of them were given in-state tuition rates by our local community and state colleges, even as American kids have suffered from a 1,000 percent tuition increases over the last decade.  In much of the Southwest a kid from Cleveland, an American citizen, will pay twice the tuition rate of an illegal alien.  On Friday our attorney general just filed a law suit against our two major universities, to put a stop to this inequity.  Given the liberality of our courts, I see little hope that he will win the suit.

I am now waiting for our Gannett owned newspaper to send a reporter down the the county jail...to interview that poor dreamer who beat up a 70 year old man.  I would not be a bit surprised to see that story next week....for the next version of "The Sunday Morning Soap Opera".

Sigh.



Friday, September 8, 2017

"It Ain't Braggin If You're Good"

                                                                       
You guys might be surprised at how many prophetic things have been written in my blog.  Here's one I wrote four years ago:

We've got a freshman Democratic Congresswoman from Phoenix who just took her seat in Congress last January.  And Republicans had better watch out for her, cause she's going places.  I predict she'll serve her time in the House, then come back here and take John McCain's Senate seat when he comes up for re-election.  I don't think McCain's 30 percent popularity rate is going to get any better; he's played RINO long enough and the conservatives are tired of his prima donna act.

As a conservative I oppose Kyrsten Sinema in every position she's taken.  But I've watched her for years now and she is a very talented politician.  She started out as a state rep here in Arizona, representing a minority district so amenable to liberal politicians.  But I also saw her drive Republicans in the State House right up the wall with her probing questions on conservative legislation and she does it without the nastiness of a Pelosi or Wasserman Schwartz.   And I also saw her abilities to work with Republicans on their issues in order to get them to support her with some of her own priorities.

Sinema was just elected to Congress this past November and I watched each and every one of her campaign debates, and I was shocked to see a rare talent emerge.  She has the rare ability to turn her opponents anger back at them by responding with a focused and well thought out answer..and she dresses those responses with a charm and charisma you'll rarely see.  I've been following politics for 50 years and the only two pols I saw who had it were Reagan and John Kennedy.

You blog readers from outside Arizona, don't think for a minute you too won't hear about Kyrsten Sinema; she's already begun appearing on Meet The Press on Sunday mornings and she's being given some impressive committee seats in Congress as well.  

So look for her.  She'll charm John McCain, then steal his Senate seat from underneath him.  She'll charm all the Dems and just enough Republicans to win the Senate.  And she's every bit as well spoken as Hillary Clinton without the snarl and without the nastiness so look for her on a larger national stage as well.

Gripes my ass to have to worry about someone like Kyrsten Sinema but I do.  And mark my words fellow conservatives, she'll be throwing a little worry your way sometime in the future.


                                                                 
                                                                                                 

Then read this, from our Arizona Republic, last week:


Rep. Kyrsten Sinema says she is weighing a run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Jeff Flake, but there are ample signs she has already decided to do so.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has had discussions with both Sinema, D-Ariz., and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, who's widely viewed as another possible Democratic Senate candidate, about who will challenge Flake in 2018.
The powerful Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, meanwhile, has indicated it is supporting Sinema in the race, according to a source familiar with those discussions but who isn't authorized to speak officially about Democratic strategy. That decision would not typically be made unless Sinema intended to run.
In a statement Friday, Sinema, who is traveling outside the state, sidestepped giving a definitive answer.
"I’ve heard from many Arizonans encouraging me to run for the United States Senate. It is something I am seriously considering. When I make any decisions, Arizonans will be the first to know," said Sinema, a three-term congresswoman.
The statement is a departure from her usual message: that she is running for re-election.
Stanton has weighed running for Senate or for Sinema's U.S. House seat, if she runs for the Senate. He recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with the DSCC, but declined to comment about his political plans. 
Republicans also expect Sinema to enter the Senate race, releasing a statement Friday about their improved chances in her district.
"The (National Republican Congressional Campaign) not only believes this seat is in play, but is a prime pickup opportunity in 2018," said Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the organization.
Her entry in the Senate race would break a mounting political log jam for Arizona Democrats sizing up their prospects for 2018.
Steve Ferrara, a Republican radiologist who worked in the VA, is already running in Sinema's district and raised more than $200,000 in his first month in the race.

Democrats see opportunity

A Sinema Senate run would test the statewide appeal of her self-styled centrist, cooperative politics against Flake, who promises a brand of conservatism sometimes at odds with President Donald Trump and others in the Republican party.
Sinema has represented the state’s 9th Congressional District since the seat was created with the 2012 elections. She is a prolific fundraiser who obsessively casts herself as a problem-solver looking to get things done in Washington.
Arizona’s Senate race has drawn national attention, in part because it represents one of the few plausible seats Democrats could win from Republicans next year. Twenty-five of the 34 Senate seats on the ballot in 2018 are currently held by Democrats, limiting that party’s prospects for retaking control of the upper chamber.
Nevada’s Sen. Dean Heller is the only Republican facing re-election in a state that Hillary Clinton won last year. Flake, who is in his first term, is widely seen as the next-most vulnerable Republican senator.
Flake is already battling former state Sen. Kelli Ward for the GOP nomination next year.
Several polls have shown voters give Flake poor marks, and Trump has threatened to help finance a primary challenger, though it is unclear if he will follow through.
Still, only political novice Deedra Abboud has formally entered the race for the Democrats.
Randy Friese, a state representative from Tucson, has been considering a run for the U.S. Senate as well. Little-known Richard Sherzan of Mesa, a former Iowa legislator who made a short-lived 2016 Senate run that ended more than a year before the Democratic primary, also says he's running.
Sinema has made veterans' care a focus of her tenure in Congress and burnished her reputation for working across the aisle. At the same time, no one considers the VA hospital system in Phoenix free of the problems that have plagued it for years.

Matchup of unconventional partisans?

In some ways, Sinema and Flake are battling images as traitors to purists in their party that is at odds with their voting record under the Trump administration.
Both declined to support their party’s presidential nominee last year, and both have provided grist for critics of their parties.
Sinema, for example, has supported Trump's position 46 percent of the time in key votes this year, according to FiveThirtyEight. Her tough-on-crime positions have at times put her at odds with Democrats who characterize some GOP efforts as demonizing illegal immigrants.
But in the most important vote in the House so far this year, Sinema voted against the Republican-led health-care bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, along with every Democrat in the country.
Flake’s stylistic and ideological critique of Trump, and his support for immigration reform have earned him scorn within the right flank of his party.
But Flake voted for all three major versions of the GOP health-care plans that failed in the Senate and has voted to confirm every one of Trump’s nominees, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Sinema’s congressional website, like her wardrobe, is anchored in purple, a signal that she wants the public to see her as looking beyond the usual red or blue partisan playbook.


P.S.  I'm pretty sure one of our two RINO Republican senators is going to be looking for a job next year.


Mic drop.


Wednesday, September 6, 2017

A Note Or Two About "Dreamers"

                                                               

The Democrats, and their Open Borders legions, proclaim that a million or two of our 30 million illegal Mexicans are saintly. The call any kid who came here as a child "a dreamer", virtuous, ambitious, angelic.

Now wouldn't you love for America to characterize your American born kids with that same adulation...everyone gets a halo along with their blue ribbon for soccer participation?

And yet the Democrats have crowned each one of those Mexican "dreamers" with a halo, bright and shiny! They award them with reduced cost "in state" tuition, providing them a lower tuition rate than an out of state American kid, and saving them tens of thousands of dollars in the process.

And when those "dreamers" are brought here they are given WIC benefits, are allowed to attend our schools without anyone ever questioning their citizenship status. They are fed free school breakfast and lunch, provided free pre-school and publicly funded day care and, if they are alert, will collect a back pack full of school supplies at any one of 20 back pack giveaways that flourish across the land.

Are those millions of "halo-endowed kids" really dreamers? What about the tens of thousands of Hispanic gangs that infest our cities? Are they "dreamers?" Are the "hit and run" folks dreamers? How about the home invaders, or the local meth dealer? Are they too, dreamers?

The problem with our government granting "halo status" to small armies of illegal aliens is that the bad guys are awarded those same halos! After all, Obama's DACA program is extremely generous...even allowing four or five misdemeanors before anyone even turns a head!

Can anyone remember when Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney suggested that "dreamers" could earn citizenship by serving in our armed forces? Do you remember the outrage among the illegal ilk when he proposed that?

Just what does "dreamer" mean? If "dreamers" feel far superior to having to serve in two years of community service, or in our military, what does that say about their affection for an America that would offer them a chance to earn their citizenship?

Let's face it......whenever you arbitrarily give someone on something, whether it be spoiled child, or welfare queen, or "dreamer", you can be damned sure you are creating a citizenry that will continually sit at the public tit, and suck.

Face it; not everyone from six years old, to thirty-five is a "dreamer". Many are of the worst sort. And no one should get a halo without earning it. And we really ought to save the halos for our own kids....when they deserve it.

Monday, September 4, 2017

Music To My Ears

                                                                 

It was in the spring, 1987, Mather Air Force Base, Sacramento, California.  At lunch time I go to the gym, don running gear and go for a run.   I run a couple of miles, come back in and hit the steam room, my AM/FM Walkman still clipped to my shorts, ear plugs in my ear.

I sit in the steam room, switch from FM to AM and I hear this guy talking politics.  And he's saying exactly what's been up in my own head for several years.  The station is KFBK and the guy talking is a guy I never heard of...a guy name Rush Limbaugh.

Now, in those years there really weren't many conservative spokesmen in the media.  Aside from a couple of newspaper columnists, and Pat Buchanan over on CNN Crossfire, there were no really major voices for conservatism.  William F. Buckley was busy writing mysteries and showing up on The Firing Line when he felt like it.

Back there in Sacramento, before Rush went national, he was pretty much doing what he's doing now...articulating conservatism and blowing away liberals who dare to call in and face his wrath.

Rush has had his ups and downs, including completely losing his hearing, until he got coclear transplants, had a bout of prescription drug addiction, but, for 35 years now, Rush has been making liberals look silly.  And he's made hundreds of millions of dollars doing it, even in the face of massive pressure on advertisers by liberals to take Rush out.  Each year the liberals predict Rush's demise...and yet he's still trucking.....rousing us with that signature program music intro.  

For those who don't know, the instrumental version of that Rush intro comes from The Pretenders hit, "My City Is Gone", the lyrics from that song bemoaning the devastation of small town America and written by band member Chrissie Hynde.  Limbaugh had been using that song as a program intro since the early 80's. ...and no one seemed to care.  But when Limbaugh went national, and began roping in tens of millions of listeners, EMI, The Pretenders music label, sent Limbaugh a "Cease and Desist" letter, claiming Hynde did not want her song used by a conservative thug like Limbaugh.  Well, for the next few weeks, Limbaugh had to use some different intro music.  Except that Chrissie Hynde, while doing an interview on National Public Radio, said she had no problem with Rush using the music...because her parents were regular Limbaugh listeners and loved him.  So Rush got his music intro back, and Chrissie Hynde collects her royalties...as the liberal lamb lies down with the conservative lion.

And when I hear that heavy base string coming through the radio, I'm simply got to stop and hear who Rush is going to skew this morning.