Viable Tissue mass?...

.

An unborn elephant, tiny but perfect in every way. A dolphin swimming in the womb, just as it will have to swim in the ocean the moment it is born. An unborn dog panting.
Each one amazing and now, thanks to these remarkable pictures, they can be seen for the first time.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/galleries/index.html?in_gallery_id=9136&in_image_id=302430&in_page_id=1055

These photos of animals in the womb bring up an interesting question for those who believe that abortion does NOT kill a living being...

"So NOW we hear issues?!"

.

Now that we are past the election for Virginia U.S. Senator and Jim Webb is the new Senator-elect he is finally talking issues. Issues that, with the help of the media, he was able to ignore or sidetrack away from during the 2006 campaign. How could he avoid\ignore these issues during a campaign leading up to a mid-term election? Easy. When you have the MainScream media pushing their agenda at every chance they can keep the hard questions away from “their” choice in candidates.

The George Allen mis-step of using the word “Maccaca” was a one or two day story after he apologized for calling the Webb staffer the name. We should have moved onto more important stories that concerned what the candidates have done and intend to do for the citizens of Virginia. Instead the MainScream media, including local newspapers like the one here in Staunton, continued to focus and return to the “Maccaca” story. Even when this story started to fall off they found other stories to keep the “Issues” important to Virginia voters out of the spotlight. Brent Bozell had a great story on this topic on Townhall.com
"By Election Day, 112 Post (Washington Post) news stories and editorials had used the word "macaca." But that wasn't enough. Then came the truly shaky allegations that Allen used the "N-word" during his college days in the 1970s. Still, that wasn't enough. Stories that young Allen stuffed deer heads into the mailboxes of black folks for laughs were deemed as newsworthy history and not merely as hearsay. Reporters like Shear acknowledged that the accusers were Democratic partisans, but that didn't stop them from spreading them around. Rumors were king -- and the "defensive crouch" was established.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BrentBozellIII/2006/11/16/a_macaca_majority

Now that the election is over the Senator-elect has started to talk some of the issues that should have been presented to the Virginia voters before the election. Recently Webb had a article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal “Opinion Journal” section. The article is entitled “Class Struggle” and I urge you to read it to see how your Senator-elect feels about our economy and economic policies. http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009246

Now that we now know how the Senator-elect feels about these issues it would have been nice to have been able to see these issues highlighted by the media instead of stories from “Democratic partisans”… Maybe we could have heard the answers to questions like:

Mr. Webb. You stated that: “America’s Top Tier own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people.” Is it not true that the majority and up to 70% of the citizens are invested in the stock market and have seen the incredible returns in the last two decades since the Reagan and Bush
tax cuts?

You also added: “The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes“. “The average CEO of a sizeable corporation makes more than $10 million a year, while the minimum wage for workers amounts to about $10,000 a year”. While that is a large difference, ( minimum wage is now $5.15 an hour and $10,712 a year as compared to $10,000 a year and $4.81 an hour as you stated) I am sure the productivity and qualification of the CEO is probably a bit more then the minimum wage worker you mentioned. By the way, show me somebody working at the minimum wage and show their qualifications. There is probably a good reason why they are making the minimum wage for they maybe new to the job market, limited skills, part time worker, poorly educated, or the likes. What do you as the Senator-elect propose to do to increase the “Marketability” of that person to make them more productive and valuable to the job market? Also Mr. Webb, if you propose to raise taxes on the corporations who pays for those increases? Are the increased taxes just passed onto the consumer and gives the evil corporations more reason to move “offshore” to find lower taxes?
You also brought up: “In the age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground labor pool from illegal immigration” What is your stance on illegal immigration and how do you intend to deal with this “Underground labor pool?”

And how about the statement: “medical costs have risen 73% in the last six years alone. Half of that increase comes from wage-earners' pockets rather than from insurance, and 47 million Americans have no medical insurance at all."
How do you intend to address this issue and do you favor a “Socialist” view for the healthcare issue? Of the 47 million that are not insured is that because of their choice to spend their income and if they do not “Invest” in healthcare should the state provide it?

There are numerous other questions and issues that we could have asked the Senator-elect before the election but we will just have to watch his actions over the next 6 years. Shame the media did not focus on any of this during the campaign for they were spending valuable print space on people dressed in “Monkey & Banana” costumes in downtown Staunton…

More for the Troops...

T-Bonetooter's owner Diane Rankin meets Mike Flook for the first time after he stops by Monday night to help pack more boxes to be sent to the Troops in Iraq & Afghanistan. Mike has been serving in Iraq working for the Department of Defense as a Firefighter with a crew stationed in Kalsu Iraq which is 45 miles South of Baghdad. Mike's unit has been receiving packages from the "From Our Hearts" program http://fromrhearts.blogspot.com for sometime and he made it a point to stop by and meet those responsible for these gifts from home for the troops.

Mike also took the time to meet with TV-3 who stopped by to cover the packing of boxes to be sent out this week. During this time Mike spoke about how the members of his unit have shared the contents of their packages with as many people as possible. He spoke of how the guys treasure each item and are sure to pass some of the "essentials" on to servicemembers who may not get packages from home. He also spoke of driving their fire apparatus along the fenceline so to be able to throw candy and toys to the children that gather to see them. In fact Mike made a request from his teammembers that any items sent to them during the holidays should be toys or items for children for they wish to have something to pass onto the children in the area. Flook also said how much it is appreciated to get packages from 9,000 miles away and from home and people who took the effort to send them something.

Awhile back I ran into Arin Sime at the Shad Planking event and learned that he was running for State Senate in 2007 in the 24th district. I have seen him several times during the past year and enjoy talking with somebody who agrees that both the State and Federal government is taking too much of our hard earned money and not spending it wisely. I was gald to see Arin join in Monday and help pack boxes for the troops and I believe he was very impressed by the amount of effort and supplies that go into these packages. It was great to see him join in and help out in this very special and worthwhile project...

"This was a wonderful evening of community and a great example of neighbors coming together to help neighbors, especially when those neighbors are a world away defending our nation. The little touches and heartfelt appreciation that were put into every item prepared and packed was impressive. It was a real honor for me to be there and contribute in some small way." Arin Sime www.arinsime.com

.

"Of course Jim, I did not mean you"...

. "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."

"Invincible?"

,

"The New culture of corruption"

It appears the new Speaker may have hit the first “Speed-bump” of her new coveted position and it came from her own party. The Democratic majority has picked Hoyer over Pelosi’s choice of Murtha by a landslide vote of 149 to 86...
Gonna be a bumpy ride Nancy?

During the run up to the 2006 election Nancy and her crew pushed the “Culture of Corruption” theme whenever possible to smear the Republican Party for their gain. The MainScream media was more then happy to focus on wrongdoings of elected Republicans but yet failed to note and report the same\or worse coming out of the Democratic Party.

While working the polls during this past election we had a significant increase in volunteers to help out at the polls and people were asking on election day if they could help out even before and after they voted themselves. I met a local in my district who volunteered at the polls and has become interested in joining the “GOP Valley” blogs. He has since started documenting the recent\past incidents and statements by those of the Pelosi team. Most of these are not anything new and have been out there for sometime but just seem to be ignored by the “Big” media if these incidents do not fit in their “Game Plan”. Mike also spoke of his disappointment with our local newspaper and we had a long discussion just on that for I have noted the “bias” and selective reporting in the past many times here.

I have added his new blog, “Hard to the Right” to my list and it will be interesting to see how busy Nancy and her crew of “The New Culture of Corruption” keeps him busy in the future…
http://hard2right.blogspot.com/

2006...

.
"Trent, Trent, Trent, Trent,"

"Journalist?"

..

Journalist?

Me? No. Nope. Nada. Never claimed to be one. Don’t want to be one. Don’t think I will ever be one.

Recently I summarized comments made to the post about the “Democrat Victory Party Agenda” and did not use actual quotes in doing so. I was called on this and I corrected my statement but still feel the same way about my summary. Not something a “Journalist” would do, but like I said I am not one, but this opens the debate on the growth of “Bloggers” in the internet world and the Pros\Cons of this…

Attended the VCAP “Virginia-Conservative-Action-PAC” convention this past weekend in Richmond and sat in on a conference of several well known political bloggers. When not patting each other on the backs or attacking each other it was informative and they discussed the influence of bloggers on the last election and how “news” has come to be reported. It is not always now the local or national “Mainstream” media outlets deciding what is and is not news anymore.

Blogger’s in the past have filled the “Voids” that were left when the Mainstream decided what was not interesting or “Newsworthy” for us to see. They have also provided “news” and reports when the local media was not there or looking the other way. Remember back last year when we had the election recount for the Attorney General seat that was won by Republican Bob McDonnell? Here in Staunton the media did stop by and observed for a bit but there was no real news that night, and little coverage the next day once it was determined that McDonnell actually won. The night of the recount there were many reports on the blog’s of Virginia with people reporting what they saw at the actual recounts with gains and loses… The bloggers reported the changes and final result long before the “Traditional” media did…

This “media coverage” continues…
Here in Staunton a week before the 2006 election Senator Allen stopped by a local restaurant for breakfast and to meet with 160+ supporters and patrons at the restaurant. The Senator stayed for about 45 minutes, met with the local press, and made an informative speech outlining the issues important to the citizens of Virginia. Our local newspaper had a reporter there the whole time but failed to mention it at all in its news copy the next day. Not even a tagline in a sentence to even note the U.S. Senator had been in town. In contrast the Democratic candidate had visited Staunton weeks before and stayed “15 minutes” and received half of the front page with large photo the next day in the same newspaper. The lack of the U.S. Senators visit in coverage was noted by many and several stated that they turned to the blogs as to what happened and what was not reported. Just this week Delegate Chris Saxman met with the Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce and spoke about the proposal consolidating VDOT to save money and improve roadwork. This proposal will reduce the number of VDOT maintenance facilities from 335 to 244 across Virginia and make them more efficient. One local newspaper covered this meeting and proposal on their front page with direct quotes and information. The newspaper that failed to mention the above visit by Senator Allen did not report anything, not even a mention, of this meeting and the proposal… Another Void?

Every week or so I take a look over at the “Air America” station to see what they are up to and ironically this week they were talking about the influence of blogs also. I found it interesting to see that they claim they are needed to keep the “Mainstream” media from being the lapdogs of the Presidents administration! Lap Dogs???!!! This is the media that has attacked him whenever possible and even made up a memo or two that got Dan Rather and CBS in some hot water…

The popularity of blogs has happened because of technology and the free market we have. It is now possible for people to get their message, observations, ideas, thoughts, and opinions out there in a format where others can read and reply themselves. Recently one of the local newspapers website introduced their blogs per department of the newspaper. The Editor has a blog. Sports Department has a blog. Opinions editor has a blog. Two reporters had a blog. (What happened with that?.) Each department could post items regarding topics to their department\position for the community to see and respond to. In fact a reader posted the other day “I know from others in the Gannett organization that they encourage their editorial writers to be as controversial as possible”. I do not know the person making that statement on the NewsLeaders blog or what source he has but it does tie into what is happening on some blogs. The NewsLeader blog posted this question the other day about Virginia Senator George Allen after he gave his concession speech.

“but did anyone else get the feeling the outgoing junior senator from Virginia had had a liquid lunch?”. “Was Allen blitzed?”

This is why blogs have become popular and are growing as a source of news, news not reported by the mainScream, opinions, questions, trivia, and observations that just don’t always get reported.

Like I said. Not a Journalist. Never was. Never wanted to be. Probably never will be one. But like the ability to get the questions\statements out there to be discussed… Just filling the “Void”…

"Really that hard to see?"...

.
Look back about 7 posts before this one and you will find one "Dem Victory Party" post that drew several observations from the local Democratic Party of Augusta County. It seems that several\many of this "Jabs" to the Democratic Party may have hit a little bit too close to home. Several people commented how hard it appeared the local Republican Party was taking the loss of Senator George Allen's seat and that we were crying. Numerous times we have asked for examples but have been provided none... Interesting...

Investor Business Daily had a great article on this topic from a "National" perspective:

"The Democrats were ready to challenge the outcomes of races across the country. But then they won. Suddenly, the races were all fair — there's nothing to complain about.
In the days leading up to Election Day, the Democrats were ready to scream loudly and go to the courts to overturn the outcomes they didn't like."


"Well, the Democrats got their way, and we've heard nothing about irregularities or Republican intimidation or conservatives' dirty tricks or red state suppression — just a lot of Democrats crowing about their coming majority in the House and the big numbers they posted in the Senate races."

Please read the entire article at:
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=248314309448738

The Politics of Stem Cells...

.

"British scientist announced a break-through in stem cell technology last week. They grew the world's first artificial human liver in a lab using stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood." Investor Business Daily 13 Nov 2006

Unfortunately we do not see this reported in the Mainscream media as it would be if the human liver had come from embryonic stem cells. Actually it has been reported that there have been numerous problems with projects using embryonic stem cells resulting in tumors and other problems most of the time.

It is sad to see that this issue has become a "Political" tool used by many during the election season...

2008...

.

"Rudy, Rudy, Rudy, Rudy"...