NewsLeader... Nothing, Nada, Zilch...

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Once again there was a significant Republican event in Augusta County that the NewsLeader failed to cover and present to it’s readers. Tuesday night at the Augusta Government Center in Verona there was a Augusta County Republican Committee meeting that was open to the public. At this scheduled meeting State Senator Emmett Hanger spoke about the recent State Assembly session in Richmond and several of the bills that came out of the session. Also speaking to the Local Augusta Republicans was Scott Sayre who is challenging Hanger in the upcoming Republican Primary for the Senate seat of the 24th district.

This was a very enthusiastic meeting with a large turnout of Augusta County Republicans who have become energetic and ready to support the important work done by the Representatives while in Richmond. More to follow on the meeting and campaigns in future blog posts…

The interesting thing I found was that once again a significant Republican event occurred in Augusta County only to be ignored by the Staunton NewsLeader. The Waynesboro NewsVirginian attended and reported the event with a story on their frontpage hardcopy and the NBC29 News service provided video coverage and reported the event as well.

A week prior to the 2006 Senate election Republican Senator George Allen came to Staunton to meet with over a hundred local Republicans at Mrs. Rowes for breakfast. Senator Allen also met with many Mrs. Rowes Patrons who were very interested and supportive of the Seanator. Both the NewsLeader and the NewsVirginian had reporters in attendance and the NewsVirginian did a large frontpage article reporting the event. NewsLeader? Nothing, Nada, Zilch…

A few weeks later Republican Delegate Chris Saxman had a public meeting with the Chamber of Commerce at which time he spoke about the Transportation “Crisis” issue with many in attendance. Once again the NewsVirginian provided substantial coverage of this important issue that has become a focal point of the pending state budget. The NewsLeader? Nothing, Nada, Zilch…

After this Republican State Senator Emmett Hanger met with another group open to the public which was attended by local media representatives, and spoke about efforts to improve programs dealing with substance abuse. The NewsVirginian and Harrisonburg Daily News Record both provided articles in their newspapers. The NewsLeader? Nothing, Nada, Zilch…

The NewsVirginian story can be found at: http://www.newsvirginian.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WNV/MGArticle/WNV_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149193565601&path=

What, now Mars has Global Warming also?...

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In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.
Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.
"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html

Brazile's World...

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Donna Brazile is at it again in the Washington Times (Zen, how can that be?) with her column disparaging the Vice-Presidents comments about Speaker Pelosi and Big John Murtha plans to restrict the military and the war on terrorism. Brazile claims that anybody who is against the war in Iraq is being labeled as Un-patriotic and the Vice-President is leading these attacks.

"Vice President Dick Cheney is at it again. Once again, the self-proclaimed "enforcer" is shooting recklessly, arrogantly disparaging the patriotism of those who oppose the continued escalation of troops in Iraq."

But actually what the Vice-President said pretty much sums it up and it appears the truth hurts and Brazile does not like it at all…

"If we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we do is validate the al Qaeda strategy. The al Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people."

A strategy that has worked in the past and continues to be used by the Democrats favorite tool, the Mainstream media, to form a negative view of the war on terrorism. Just look at this past weeks 60 minutes program and their claims of many military personnel against the war in Iraq. Post on this to come…

Brazile claims that if you question or come out against the war you are then labeled as somebody who is “demoralizing the troops”. Brazile then states that our troops are tough and can take it.
“They have a job. They have a mission, and they do it well. And we're proud of their service to the country. End of story.”

Brazile then sums it up by saying that the President is wrong, Pelosi is right, and the best thing for the troops is for the country to unite in pulling them out.

“The vice president was clearly out of line, and Mrs. Pelosi is right to call his bluff. The best way to support our troops is to unite our country behind a strategy that will bring them home as soon as is feasible.”

So cutting off reinforcements, equipment, supplies, training, and logistics is uniting behind a strategy to support the troops? What if we had the same military levels we had before “Surplus Slick” Willie Clinton cut the military like he did in the90’s? Where would we be now if he did not cut the military forces, training bases, and recruitment levels? If Clinton had maintained the military levels and kept the investment in our intelligence services this whole war on terrorism would have been completely different. If Clinton had addressed the terrorism problem during his tenure more aggressively instead of as a “Criminal investigation” the attacks of 9/11 could have been prevented.

Something Brazile seems to ignore in her “world”…
http://washtimes.com/commentary/20070225-095903-6775r.htm

The "Humble" estate of John Edwards (D)...

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Thinking back to the 2004 Presidential election when Kerry's buddy and V.P. running mate John Edwards made these comments, the Investors Business Daily had some interesting info on his new "spread"...

"But this home belongs to the John Edwards who said during the 2004 campaign that there are "two Americas," one "that is struggling to get by," another "that can buy anything it wants."

"Trial lawyer and presidential candidate John Edwards and wife Elizabeth live a 10,778-square-foot main home near Chapel Hill, N.C., that sprawls across a spread that would take up several blocks in an East Coast city."

Connected to Edwards' not-so-humble abode are 15,600 square feet of outbuildings that house a gym, a pool, a raquetball court, two stages, a four-story tower and a room set aside as John's Lounge.

http://ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=257471698173513

It’s tough being the Princess…

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Looks like Pelosi is finding that being the Speaker of the House is not as easy as it appeared in the Capitol Visitor’s guide and as she hoped… And living up to the “the most ethical Congress in history” goal is going to be pretty tough with the crew she brought to the dance.

“She is drawing fire for putting Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), who had $90,000 in alleged bribe money in his freezer, on the Homeland Security Committee.”

Even some of those working for the “Democratic” party seem to have a problem with Jefferson and the favorable treatment he is receiving from Pelosi.

"Pelosi had to put him somewhere," said Sloan, who has also worked as minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee for then-ranking member John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.). "But I am troubled by the fact ... that (Jefferson) is the kind of guy who could not pass a security clearance test and yet now he has access to top-secret government info."

Another goal was to have Congress work a full five day week but that has happened only once. And remember those claims she made before the election and how she was going to change the way those dirty Republicans ran things?

“The speaker has denied Republicans a vote on their proposals during congressional debates -- a tactic she previously declared oppressive and promised to end. Pelosi has opened the floor to a Republican alternative just once.”



http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2908.html

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"He can't do that"!!! ........But I can....

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Once again the Princess Speaker of the House is calling “Foul” and claiming that the Vice-President should not be allowed to talk that way about her “Majority” party.

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday phoned President Bush to air her complaints over Vice President Dick Cheney's comments that the Congressional Democrats' plan for Iraq would "validate the Al Qaeda strategy."
"I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the Al Qaeda strategy," the vice president told ABC News. "The Al Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people ... try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,253604,00.html

Seems that the Pelosi was so upset about the Vice-President’s comments that she called the White House looking to talk about this with the President. Unfortunately President Bush was not available to console the “Princess’s” feelings… It’s tough to be in such a high level position such as Pelosi’s and to hear comments that you may not always appreciate. Lets look at some of her comments and the comments of her party and how many of them have changed over time:

"I'm not saying that I am being discriminated against because I am a woman, I'm just saying as the first woman speaker, I have no intention of having less respect for the office I hold than all of the other speakers that have come before me."
Pelosi

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998-Truth!The text of this statement by Nancy Pelosi is posted on her congressional website

"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country."Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002-Truth!This and the quote below was part of prepared remarks for a speech in San Francisco to The Commonwealth Club.

"One of the biggest opponents of the federal minimum wage in Samoa is StarKist Tuna, which owns one of the two packing plants that together employ more than 5,000 Samoans, or nearly 75 percent of the island's work force". StarKist's parent company, Del Monte Corp., has headquarters in San Francisco, which is represented by Mrs. Pelosi."

"Not only did the tax cut fail to prevent a recession, as its supporters said it would, it probably made the recession worse," Tom Daschle

"He's (Osama bin Laden) been out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day-care facilities, building health-care facilities, and these people are extremely grateful. We haven't done that."
Senator Patty Murry (D)

"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."
Howard Dean

"We have a president who stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation, employing Republican operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by disenfranchising thousands of blacks, elderly Jews and other minorities."
Barbie Striesand

Donna Brazile, Al Gore's campaign manager, called the Republican Party "the party of the white boys." "A white boy attitude," explained Brazile. She later said of black Republicans Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma and now-Secretary of State Colin Powell that "they'd rather take pictures with black children than feed them."

"You think the RNC could get this many people of color into a single room?" he marvels. "Maybe if they got the hotel staff in there."
Howard Dean

"Education -- if you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well," said Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat. "If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

"They won’t be able to continue. They won’t be able to do the deployment. They won’t have the equipment, they don’t have the training and they won’t be able to do the work. There’s no question in my mind," Mr. Murtha said.

So if the comments just above by Murtha are true will this not send the message that the Vice-President was talking about? "The Al Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people ... try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit."

It may not be “Acceptable” to Pelosi that the Vice-President made this statement about Murtha and her party, but she is playing in the big leagues now and needs to get use to it…

The truth is that by preventing the “Surge” of troops going to Iraq to fight in the war on terrorism, Pelosi, Murtha, and the “Democratic” party are putting our Troops already there more at risk and limiting the support to them. They are not interested in supporting these troops as they claim but rather to ensure they get the votes from their “base”.

Welfare at the Golf Course?...

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Saw this note yesterday in the Washington Times and it shows what the students are being taught and the information provided to them by the school system. I had a talk with several High School students the other day and it was also interesting to hear what they are being taught on the High School level and how it does not always provide both sides of the story.

Campus climate ", only two of the 12 students had ever heard of a major conservative intellectual like Thomas Sowell. "I had also asked the students how many of them had read anything by Friedrich Hayek, a libertarian thinker on political and economic issues who had won the Nobel Prize. Only two had ever read or been assigned a text by Hayek. "But every hand went up when I asked how many students had been required to read a book by Noam Chomsky. Chomsky is a radical whose animus against his own country is so great that he has described the attack on Pearl Harbor as 'a good thing' and warned in his most recent book that the 'American empire' is a threat to 'global survival.'" David Horowitz, from his new book, "Indoctrination U.: The Left's War Against Academic Freedom"
http://www.washingtontimes.com/culture/20070221-102341-4436r.htm

Also came across a article written by Thomas Sowell, who is mentioned in the above text, and it is interesting the way Sowell presents the "Politics of Welfare" in a economic form. I have read several of his books on economics and his editorials are a very good source of information on the economy...

"Among the many rationales used to defend the welfare state, the most powerful is that it is necessary, in order to take care of the poor and the downtrodden. But the amount of money required to bring every poor person in the country above the official poverty line is a fraction of what is spent by government on the welfare state."

Sowell then shows an example of the "Welfare" system and how our politicians use this system to help them get re-elected. If the system was used to help elevate all those at the poverty level as it was intended, where would we be now? Instead the "Welfare" system has morphed into a system to provide that which is perceived "Needed" to all. Especially those who VOTE...

"If you put San Francisco's golf courses on the open market, in a city with a serious housing shortage and sky high housing prices, chances are good that the land occupied by golf courses would quickly be bid away by those who would build some much-needed housing."
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/02/priceless_politics.html

Scott Sayre 2007...

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"We Support the Troops!!"...................... sort of, kinda, in our own little special way...

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The Daily News-Record newspaper out of Harrisonburg Va. had an interesting editorial this week that quotes Big-Boy John Murtha on his plans to effectively shut down the funding of the troops fighting the war on terrorism by attaching "conditions" to spending bills. His hopes are to keep the spending bills from being passed and resulting in cutting the funding for the war in Iraq. Murtha and his buddies have said they want to bring the Troops home. What, when they run out of bullets to defend themselves with???

In an interview yesterday with MoveCongress.org, a Web site for a coalition of anti-war groups, Mr. Murtha explained that by placing conditions on $93.4 billion in new combat funds, he would be able to effectively stop the troops in their tracks. "They won’t be able to continue. They won’t be able to do the deployment. They won’t have the equipment, they don’t have the training and they won’t be able to do the work. There’s no question in my mind," Mr. Murtha said.

Supporters of Rep. Murtha want to attach hundreds of legislative strings to military funding, which will in effect cripple the war effort, but may immunize them from any political fallout.

http://dnronline.com/opinion_details.php?AID=8811&sub=Editorial