Nuestro Himmo

From The Chicago Tribune:

Verse 1
Oh say can you see, a la luz de la aurora/Lo que tanto aclamamos la noche al caer? Sus estrellas, sus franjas flotaban ayer/En el fiero combate en senal de victoria,/Fulgor de lucha, al paso de la libertada,/Por la noche decian: "Se va defendiendo!"

Coro: Oh, decid! Despliega aun su hermosura estrellada,/Sobre tierra de libres, la bandera sagrada?

Chant:It's time to make a difference the kids, men and the women/Let's stand for our beliefs, let's stand for our vision/What about the children los ninos como P-Star

These kids have no parents, cause all of these mean laws.

See this can't happen, not only about the Latins.
Asians, blacks and whites and all they do is adding

more and more, let's not start a war
with all these hard workers,they can't help where they were born.

Verse 2

Sus estrellas, sus franjas, la libertad, somos iguales

Somos hermanos, es nuestro himno.

En el fiero combate en senal de victoria,/Fulgor de lucha, al paso de la libertada,/Por la noche decian: "Se va defendiendo!

"Coro: Oh, decid! Despliega aun su hermosura estrellada,/Sobre tierra de libres, la bandera sagrada?

Hat Tip: Hot Air

Alien criminals in the streets: Hijinks expected!

Michelle Malkin is commenting on the way that the MSM, otherwise known as the Hate America Left's Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment is serving as the press agent for the alien criminals and their leftist allies. Allies who do not give one tinker's dam for them, but have simply attached themselves, lamprey like, to the immigration cause as the latest way to destroy the USA.

She is also publishing information on the pro-border control counter demonstrations.

The Ecosystem is Enlarged

All Hillbillys listen up. We have a new member. Kevin at The Amboy Times is joining up. He runs a good blog and his take on the planed attempt by the alien criminals and their hate America allies is the same as mine.

Go over and pay him a visit.

America Day!

As you know by now tomorrow, May 1, is the day that the alien criminals and their fellow traveling allies who hate this nation and want to see it destroyed have chosen to attempt to close down the American economy.

They plan to do this by going on strike for the day and turning out to rampage through the streets waving the Mexican flag and calling for the southwestern portion of the US to be returned to the control of the corrupt, incompetent, socialist Mexican government.

Some have suggested that real Americans should boycott anything having to do with Mexico tomorrow. I agree, but I think we should go a little bit further.

I call upon one and all true Americans to make tomorrow America Day. Fly the Stars and Stripes. Eat only American food and drink only American beer (there are enough microbrews and craft brews that no one will be forced to drink Budweiser). Desecrate a Mexican flag if you have one laying about.

And above all speak only English.

Send a message to the alien criminals that they are not welcome here and to the craven poltroons in the United States Senate that their precious jobs depend on doing the right thing on immigration.

Hillbilly Hog Roast

Here are the entries for the Hillbilly Hog Roast. We are picking our official Hillbilly Anthem.

White Trash Republican recommends A Man Of Constant Sorrow from the O Brother, Where Art Thou Soundtrack.

E L Frederick, who speaks for the blogs E L Frederick and PA Pundits, recommends A Lapdance Is So Much Better When The Stripper Is Crying by The Bloodhound Gang.

Alabama Improper recommends Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd or some selections from Big and Rich, Freak Parade, Coming To Your City or 20 Margaritas.

Hicks, Hounds and Halachah recommends Hicktown by Jason Aldean.

The Cook Shack - Gab & Grub gives us three choices, Dualin Banjo's or The Orange Blossom Special....or Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

Born Again Redneck recommends a song from the South, South Africa that is, Ag Pleez Deddy.

Hillbilly White Trash recommends Hillbilly Shoes by Montgomery Gentry or Copperhead Road by Steve Earle.

Follow the links to the posts for more information about their thought processes.

Songs did not have to be Country Western or Bluegrass, only the kind of song that a hillbilly might listen to or identify with.

It should be noted that more than one person listed Dueling banjos as a possible choice.

Here is how we'll pick the winner. Leave your vote in the comments. Since we have fewer entrants than we have blogs if everyone votes we can narrow it down. Only Hillbilly Ecosystem members can vote. If you want to cast a vote and aren't in the Ecosystem send me an email and I'll add you then you can cast a vote.

Voting will remain open for one week.

In the event of a tie Lemuel Calhoon and the Dowager Viscountess (the two who done the most work puttin the Ecosystem together) will hash it out and decide which entrant wins.

If you submitted an entry and I didn't list it leave a comment and I'll fix it.

Much thanks to everyone who entered a song and to those who vote.


UPDATE:

It should be pointed out that Kathy of Hicks, Hounds & Halachah consumed no pork during the production of this blog post, however there is a tub of potato salad and a large bottle of Manashevits missing from the buffet table.

Gimmie my rebate!

From The Washington Times:

Republican leaders yesterday proposed giving drivers a $100 tax rebate in the face of record-high gas prices, one element of a broad plan that includes oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

First of all drilling in Alaska is a good idea and it is something that we should have been doing years ago. If Bill Clinton had not vetoed it we would be getting one million barrels of oil per day right now. But what I want to talk about is the silly idea of giving every American a $100.00 tax rebate.

It is a silly idea. If congress wants to give the American public tax relief they should simply lower the massive federal gas tax.

As an aside to that we should note that the federal tax on a gallon of gas is several times higher than the oil companies profit on a gallon of gas. Until congress cuts the gas tax to an amount lower than the oil companies profit any representative or senator who uses language like "obscene profits" or advocates that the oil companies be broken up or that they be saddled with a "windfall profits tax" should be stripped naked and scourged on the Capitol Mall.

And by "scourged" I mean like in The Passion of the Christ where the skin is literally ripped off their bones.

But back to my main topic, which is the public reaction to the proposed gas tax rebate. This past Friday it seemed that every news outlet in the land was doing "man in the street" interviews to get the reaction to the rebate. The universal reaction (or at least the only ones that they chose to show) was to whine that with gas prices so high that $100.00 only amounted to two or three fill-ups.

Listen carefully you nanny-state-dependent, infantilized, free-loading morons. The purpose of the rebate is not to give you free gas. It is to offset the increase in gas prices. Most passenger vehicles in the US hold between 10 and 20 gallons of gas. $100.00 offsets the price increase for somewhere between 8 and 12 fill-ups. For most Americans living in urban or suburban areas that amounts to anything from 3 to 8 weeks of driving. Or it could get you through your summer road trip with a couple weeks communing thrown in.

It is a sad thing that the average American's reaction to something like this is to stick his hand out and bleat for more.

Now a good argument can be made that we have a right to the money. After all high pump prices are the fault of Washington. If the government had not allowed environmentalists (and not-in-our-backyard communities) to block new oil refinery construction and new nuclear power plants. If they had not forbidden drilling in Alaska and off the coasts of California and Florida. If they did not have such a bottomless appetite for tax revenue. If they did not mandate up to 17 different blends of gasoline for different parts of the nation. . .

If they did not do these things and many more gas prices would be at least a dollar cheaper at the pump. However this is not what is in Joe Sixpack's mind (or maybe we should start calling him Joe Babybottle) when he puckers up and cries for a bigger check from Big Daddy in DC.

A proud warrior

I was checking out some of the blogs on the Fighting Keyboardists blogroll I came across a very well written blog called Strong As An Ox and Nearly As Smart. Here is a sample of their work.

Go check them out.

The Day the Leaf Blowers Went Silent

Monday (May Day the traditional holiday of communist murderers), is to be a day in which the alien criminals go on strike and rampage through the streets of America waving Mexican flags and singing a bastardization of our national anthem in Spanish.

This is to be done in order to intimidate the United States Senate (not the hardest thing in the world to do) into passing an amnesty for the alien criminals so that they can stay in the country legally and continue to consume our social services while depressing wages. They will also be able to continue to drive drunk at rates far surpassing other demographic groups.

I believe that they have miscalculated. By making themselves so visible they will demonstrate to the average American just how serious the problem is. By marking their allies in the business community (those businesses who close in solidarity with the criminals) they will make it easy to know who to boycott.

And that is what should happen. Any business that closes its doors to support the alien criminals who are doing so much harm to our nation should have no business from Americans.

Range Report

I just got back from the range. This was the last target that I shot and as is usually the case it was the best. This is a ten round group shot at a bit over 17 yards. The gun was my Glock m23.

Range Today

I'm off to Hendersonville for some business then I'll have time to stop by Rex's Indoor Range. Then home to have dinner and watch an exciting episode of Dr Who while eating a healthy salad.

Sometimes the simple pleasures are the best.

Cyber Terrorists Strike

Our friend Michelle Malkin is carrying a report of a denial of service attack which has shut down a number of blogs:

Many Hosting Matters-hosted blogs are down--including Instapundit, Power Line, and tons of others large and small. Hosting Matters' own website is also down.

The attack has apparently been confirmed to have originated in Saudi Arabia.

Here is a partial list of blogs that were taken down because of the attack:

Instapundit (***Glenn is posting on his back-up site here***)
Power Line
Captain's Quarters
Pundit Guy
Chuck Simmins
Small Dead Animals
Radioblogger
Hugh Hewitt
IMAO
Mountaineer Musings
Say Uncle
Counterterrorism Blog
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

It looks like most of these are back up by now, except fro Power Line.

UPDATE:

The Dowager Viscontess writes that the blogs were down as of 8:00 PM CDT and Michelle Malkin is posting that they were back up by 10:25 PM EDT.

This is not just a practical joke. It is deadly serious. What if the terrorists go after the DOD or DHS computers. The fact is that the government uses over-the-counter anti virus and firewall software. The government's protective software is not updated as quickly as most civilian's software is. While most of us have automatic updating the government requires that all updates be vetted by their IT specialists before being installed.

There are other areas of vulnerability as well. As we learned back in the lead up to Y2K the nation's railroads use computers to control switching of the tracks. What if savages loyal to Osama bin Laden got control of that network?

What we are seeing here is a trial run.

A new hillbilly joins the family

The Devilish Southern Belle has joined the Ecosystem. Go over and check her out. She's southern, she likes roller derby and she can hold her likker. What else do you want?

She's going to fit in right nice around here.

The Fighting Chicken Hawks

Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters has started
a new blogroll. Here are details in his own words.


And why the chicken hawk? When we looked into it, it turns out that the chicken hawk is a pretty impressive predator. It's the largest of its family. This species vigorously defends its territory, getting even more aggressive when the conditions get harshest. It adapts to all climates. Most impressively, it feeds on chickens, mice, and rats.

Make of that what you will.

Frank, Derek, and I invite you to join the 101st Fighting Keyboardists (motto: We Eat Chickens For Lunch). I'm starting a blogroll and will post the code for other members to display on their blogs. We welcome all of those who feel they qualify for the unit, but especially those who have a sense of humor as well as a sense of purpose. This way, the next time someone refers to you as a chicken hawk for your blogging, you can remind them that as a member of the 101, your talons are your best weapon and that feeding time is near!

UPDATE

Michelle Malkin has joined the Fighting KeeBees and invites other bloggers to do the same.

Sammenhold

Beth at Blue Star Chronicles also runs the Sammenhold Blogroll for those who wish to express their solidarity with the Danish. The Danish, you will remember, have come under savage attack from barbaric Islamofascists in the Cartoon Jihad.

When the Cartoon Jihad (try thinking about that for a minute and try not to laugh) my response was to post as many offensive cartoons of the pedophile prophet as possible. You can search through my archives if you want a look.

Beth took a different tack. She started a blogroll for those who wanted to make an ongoing statement. I should have asked to join a long time ago, but you know how easy it is to get distracted. I am requesting membership now.

Who knows, maybe some verminous mullah as issued a blanket fatwa for the entire blogroll. If so then bring it on.

A bit of good news

Michelle Malkin is reporting that moonbat radio network Air America is losing its flagship station, WALLOP in New York City. Without an outlet in NYC the doomed network is, well even more doomed.

Michelle has done an excellent job of covering the insane ultra left-wing radio network from the beginning and she has the honor of writing its obituary.

Stop The ACLU Blogburst

Many of us find it disturbing to hear the sympathetic apologists defend the ACLU’s work to protect pedophiles over our children. We watch the ACLU fight for sex offenders to live next to Elementary schools, and playgrounds. We watched in horror as the ACLU defended NAMBLA, under the banner of free speech, to plan and talk about how to rape young boys. It doubles the anger to hear the apologists defend the ACLU with some twisted talk perverting the Constitution.

In Mississippi, billboards of sex offenders and child molesters are being errected, but of course the ACLU oppose this. Of course all of these things we hear excused away by liberal apologists, but lets take a deeper look at the ACLU’s agenda. Let’s take a deeper look at the industry that the ACLU wants to defend here.

“It would be a mistake to think that all the children who are being exploited sexually are kidnapped by “kid porn” operators. Many of the children are being sold to people by their parents. In some cases, the parents have agreed to perform incest with their children. Gonorrhea of the throat in infants as young as nine and eighteen months has been reported”.sourceThis is as sick as it gets folks. But the ACLU believes it is a freedom being denied to people. And before liberals start to ask. Yes, the ACLU has a current policy advocating the legalization of child porn distribution and possession.

“Students of liberty, from John Stuart Mill to Thomas Emerson, have all intentionally excluded children from their formula for freedom. The ACLU does not. Not even when the subject is pornography.Quote from Twilight Of Liberty

In 1982, the ACLU, in an amicus role, lost in a unanimous decision in the Supreme Court to legalize the sale and distribution of child pornography.”

In a quietly prosecuted case in 1981, People v. Ferber, the ACLU won a 5-2 decision in the New York Court of Appeals that for a short time “legalized simulated intercourse, real intercourse, lewd conduct … with children,” says Reisman, author of the soon-to-be-released, “Kinsey’s Attic: How One Man’s Psychopathology Changed the World.” Fortunately, says Reisman, the Ferber case was later appealed by the New York attorney general and ultimately reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Oregon cases, like Ferber, just demonstrate how far the ACLU will go in defending pornographers, adds Reisman.WND

The case is…: New York Vs Ferber, 458 U.S. 747It can be found here.

The ACLU’s position is this: criminalize the production but legalize the sale and distribution of child pornography. This is the kind of lawyerly distinction that no one on the Supreme Court found convincing. And with good reason: as long as a free market in child pornography exists, there will always be some producers willing to risk prosecution. Beyond this, there is also the matter of how the sale of child pornography relates either to free speech or the ends of good government. But most important, the central issue is whether a free society should legalize transactions that involve the wholesale sexploitation of children for profit.”

The ACLU objects to the idea that porn movie producers be required to maintain records of ages of its performers; this would be ” a gross violation of privacy.”Quotes from Twilight Of Liberty
I don’t think that any other ACLU stance evokes more anger from me, than this one. I mean, how sick can you get? Do these people not have a conscience at all, or are they just plain EVIL? How can one argue this sick, twisted view in the name of “protecting civil liberties?” Please, some liberal out there that loves defending this evil organization…explain this to us. No wonder the ACLU doesn’t want the public to have access to its policy guide!

Since the ACLU thinks that child pornography should be legal, it is not surprising to read that it is against making it a felony to advertise, sell, purchase, barter, exchange, give, or receive child pornography. It is particularly distressed about the prohibition on advertisement, arguing that “the law cannot expect every publisher to decode every advertisment for some hidden and sinister meaning,” as if it took a technician-armed with a special decoding device-to ferret out pictures of children ludely exhibiting their genitals.Quote from Twilight Of Liberty

As legislative counsel for the ACLU in 1985, Barry Lynn told the U.S. Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography (of which Focus on the Family President Dr. James C. Dobson was a member) that child pornography was protected by the First Amendment. While production of child porn could be prevented by law, he argued, its distribution could not be. A few years later (1988), Lynn told the Senate Judiciary Committee that even requiring porn producers to maintain records of their performers’ ages was impermissible.“If there is no federal record-keeping requirement for the people portrayed in Road and Track or Star Wars,” he said, “there can be no such requirement for Hustler or Debbie Does Dallas.”Quoted Reference

Is the ACLU completely retarded? I would love to think there was some kind of saving grace for an organization that says it is about protecting civil liberties, but with positions like this…which you KNOW are against the will of the people, I don’t know if there is. My head is about to explode just typing this stuff!

Let’s take a deeper look at the industry that the ACLU wants to defend here.

“It would be a mistake to think that all the children who are being exploited sexually are kidnapped by “kid porn” operators. Many of the children are being sold to people by their parents. In some cases, the parents have agreed to perform incest with their children.

Gonorrhea of the throat in infants as young as nine and eighteen months has been reported”. sourceThis is as sick as it gets folks. But the ACLU believes it is a freedom being denied to people. And before liberals start to ask. Yes, the ACLU has a current policy advocating the legalization of child porn distribution and possession. Yes, the ACLU still currently defends pedophile organization’s.

“Mere possession should not be a crime,” said John Roberts, executive director of the Boston branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.”Quoted Reference

I have gathered all of this info from various books written by authorative, and reliable sources including William Donahue of the Catholic League, and Alan Sears of the Alliance Defense Fund. I have personally called the National ACLU HQ and asked them for evidence to the contrary, of which I was told their policy was not for the public, but only for internal purposes. If there is any ACLU representative out there that has evidence to the contrary of this policy, please provide it and this information will be included.

They are a radically, out of control organization that consistently goes too far, and they must be stopped, before they destroy our Nation. And as for those who support the ACLU, this is the kind of crap your money goes to. As a parent of a 5 year old child, and as a citizen of this great nation, I am outraged! Help us stop this insane organization!

STAND UP! TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO SUPPORT THE PUBLIC EXPRESSION OF RELIGION ACT OF 2005
Sign The Petition To Get The ACLU Off The Taxpayer’s Dole

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay or Gribbit. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 180 blogs already on-board

Kick over the wet rock

Thomas Lifson has an excellent essay up on The American Thinker. Here is an excerpt:

The firing of Mary O. McCarthy has unleashed a torrent of data-gathering and speculation, some of it highly informed, on the existence and extent of ties among enemies of the President. The torrent of speculation exactly
corresponds to the torrent of leaks which have bedeviled Bush presidency. Nothing is yet proven, but McCarthy served in the Clinton White House and then took a curious job in the Bush administration, in the Inspector General’s Office of the CIA.

Such a move is not explicable by careerism. This is an Internal Affairs dead-end sort of job, one that wins enemies not friends. But it is a job in which complaints about irregularities (justified or not) come across the desk with regularity.

Career suicide, but perfect for a would-be leaker intent on undermining a presidency and getting the opposition party candidate elected president. If there was planning to this, who was involved?

Many observers noticed at the time President Bush took office that a coterie of Clinton appointees remained in the bureaucracy. An unusually large number converted from political appointee status to bureaucratic status. Mary O. McCarthy was one of them.

Is there a ring of leakers infesting the national security apparatus? Hard evidence is lacking right now. As far as the public knows. We have been told that many other investigations within the CIA are underway. There are serious criminal penalties associated with leaking classified data, so once caught, there are incentives for leakers to implicate others who might be known by them to be engaging in violations of national security regulations.

We still don’t know if others will be charged, but meanwhile there is one aspect of McCarthy’s previous responsibilities well worth noting. Working in the CIA’s Inspector General’s office, she must have been involved in the bizarre referral of the Valerie Plame case to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation. Clarice Feldman has demonstrated that leaking of Plame’s name could not have been a criminal act.

Yet the CIA made the referral, after which there was no option but to proceed. To do otherwise would have caused howls of protest over a cover-up. Did McCarthy set-up the whole unnecessary investigation, resulting in the indictment of Scooter Libby?

I have been saying for some time now that there has been a covert war being waged by elements in the CIA, the State Department and the Defense Department against the administration.

I believe that the entire Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson affair was engineered by this cabal to discredit the President and possibly even lead to his impeachment.

Look at what happened. A Democratic activist who had some Foreign Service experience in Africa was assigned by the CIA, where his wife was an analyst - who had at one time been a covert employee in an overseas assignment. Mr. Wilson goes to Niger asks some questions and comes home. He presents a verbal report to the CIA (who did not require a written report, something that is almost unheard) which supports the contention of British intelligence that Saddam has been attempting to purchase uranium from that African nation.

This makes it into a Presidential Daily Briefing; a CIA investigation tends to support the British position on Saddam’s attempt to obtain uranium. The President mentions this, as only one point out of many, which supports his proposed action against the Hussein regime.

After this Joe Wilson writes a newspaper op-ed piece claiming the exact opposite of what he told the CIA. At least we think it is the opposite of what he told the CIA, notes taken during the meeting suggest that it is opposite of what he told the CIA, but we’ll never know because the CIA violated an almost ironclad rule and did not require a written report.

Wilson’s accusation ignites the entire “Bush Lied People Died” avenue of attack for the Left and their Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment. This gives every Democrat who voted in favor of the war an out with the Moonbat contingent of their party. It allows them to go on the Sunday shows and condemn the war without (at least in their minds) being guilty of hypocrisy.

Think about it. It is an almost perfect set-up. Can I prove it? No, I just note that it fits the facts, is not impossible and that there is no evidence to contradict it.

Draw your own conclusion.

Stabbed in the back!

Michelle Malkin takes note of the black-hearted and treasonous betrayal of the nation by the Senate and the White House. That’s right they’ve worked out a way to grant amnesty to illegal Mexicans. Of course the House will have to agree to this in the conference committee and then vote on the compromise bill so it ain’t a done deal. Get on the phone to your representative unless you want to wake up and find yourself living in Amerxico.

I have an idea for a new constitutional amendment. Strip away all power from the Senate and invest it in the House of Representatives for a period of at least 10 years. During this time the Senate would still exist, but their pay would be cut to 1 tenth of what it is now. They would be forbidden to even visit Washington DC except for 2 days of the year. On the day of the President’s State of the Union speech they would be required to attend, all wearing dunce caps. The next day they would be required to gather in the Senate Chamber and each write an essay titled, “The United States Senate Is Full of Craven Cowards Who Do Not Even Deserve to Live in This Nation”. They would then be required to read their essay for the CSPAN cameras. Then they would then get into carts which had been used to haul medical waste and would be pulled through the streets of DC by jackasses while American citizens lined the streets and threw garbage (non lethal) and yelled abuse at them.

After 10 years the first House which had a Republican majority would vote on lifting the ban and restoring their power.

Attention all Hillbillies

Our very first Hillbilly Hog Roast.

I was originally going to call it the Carnival of Hillbillies, but the Dowager Viscountess suggested Hog Roast instead.

What I have in mind is something like this. We need some stuff to be “official”. Like the official Hillbilly Song. The official Hillbilly movie. The official Hillbilly beer, food, car, firearm (3 actually, pistol, rifle and shotgun) and so on.

We’ll take these one at a time. What I’d like everyone to do is to put up a post on your blog about what you think the official Hillbilly song should be. Send me a link in my email, or post it in the comments to this post or send a trackback. On Sunday, April 30 I will put up a post linking to all of them.

Then we’ll decide which is the winner.

How will we decide? I’m open to suggestions. Maybe we’ll write them all down on separate note cards and lay them face down in Born Again Redneck’s yard and see which one of them his chickens peck the most.

Or I could write each of them on the back of a target and take them to the range. Shuffle them and whichever one I shoot the tightest group on will win.

Or maybe I’ll use my Ecosystem creator powers to pick the winner myself. Anyway it should be fun. If enough people participate we’ll work through the list and establish our Official Hillbilly List.

One note. I know that the recording industry is going to be pulling out all the stops to influence you. They’ll be sending you $5000 per night call girls/gigolos and new SUV’s and all expense paid vacations to places like Nashville, Branson and Dollywood. Engraved Browning shotguns and Styer Scout rifles. Gold inlaid Ruger revolvers and boxes of the finest Dominican cigars with entire cases of Wild Turkey aged cask select bourbon. After all an endorsement like this could make an up and coming record label.

But I want this to be honest. I expect all of you to return all gifts. . .Who the hell am I kidding. Give me $5.00 and a can of Michelob lite and I’ll vote for anyone you want me to. That’s what I told the guy from the local Democratic Party back in 2004, after all.

Mr. Snow goes to Washington

From Stop The ACLU:

Sources close to the White House said Monday that Fox anchor Tony Snow is likely to accept the job as White House press secretary, succeeding Scott McClellan.

The sources said they expect him to announce his decision within the next few days.
A source familiar with the discussions said Monday that newly appointed Chief of Staff Josh Bolten asked Snow to make a decision by early this week.

Two sources familiar with the discussions said Bolten wanted to fill the post this week, as early as Tuesday.

Sources familiar with Snow's deliberations said he has been focusing on family, finances and his health.

The sources said Snow, who has been battling colon cancer, got a good prognosis from his doctor last week and that Snow resolved his concerns about taking the job over the weekend.
Neither Snow nor the White House would comment.

Sources familiar with the matter said the White House approached the Fox anchor several weeks ago. Snow then met with Bolten and other officials at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
I don't think they could have a better choice. Tony is a cool, and collected individual that always gets his facts straight, and has not fear of confrontation. He is always aware, accurate, and well informed. He's a clear cut kind of guy that would be an excellent choice for this positition. I definitely think he would be more articulate the area of communicating the Whitehouse's ideas than any of the last few Press secretaries. He knows the angles that the press corps will be trying to worm their way into, and is well experienced in dealing with sensitive issues. I've got my fingers crossed on this one.

As I said when I first commented on this it will be a good fit for the White House. Snow has been defending the Administration even when they have been wrong for years.

Looking at things from Tony's viewpoint I have to wonder. The job can only last a couple more years and then he's sending out resumes. Although Fox News will always take him back I doubt that Fox Radio will be able to. This causes me to speculate that maybe his show isn't doing so well. After all he has had to be absent for long periods due to his illness. This does not help build ratings.

Also it is possible that Fox Radio is less than successful. After all Tony's show is the only thing they have that is any good. The whole thing might be getting ready to just go away.

Anyway I wish Tony and the White House luck.

Another blog joins the family!

American and Proud of It has joined the Hillbilly Ecosystem!

Robert runs a great blog and he'll fit in right nice with the rest of us.

Go over now and take a look. He has a very funny post up about 21 Ways To Be A Good Democrat.

Its time to clean house

From The Washington Times:

NOGALES, Ariz. -- Hundreds of Mexican nationals who wear government-issued uniforms, carry official identification cards and are authorized to use weapons are helping smugglers move tons of drugs into the United States, U.S. law-enforcement officials say.

Known as "madrinas," from the Spanish word for "godmothers," they negotiate bribes for corrupt Mexican government officials from drug cartels and are suspected in numerous confirmed incursions into the U.S. by heavily armed men escorting smugglers of cocaine, marijuana and heroin.

"Madrinas are unaccountable middlemen who can negotiate with the drug cartels on behalf of whoever has appointed them and wants his or her government agency to thrive under this practice," El Paso County, Texas, Sheriff Leo Samaniego told a House ommittee last month.

[snip]

Several U.S. law-enforcement officials told The Washington Times that some of the suspected leaders of the country's largest drug-smuggling organizations -- the Juarez, Tijuana and Gulf cartels -- were former agents of the Mexican federal judicial police.

Several U.S. officials, including local sheriffs and federal agents from both Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, described the workings of the "madrinas," but only on the condition of anonymity.

The cartels employ many of the madrinas, some of whom formerly worked as Mexican police officers, to protect their illicit cargoes into the United States. Some Madrinas are thought to be confidential informants for the federal police.

In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Sheriff Samaniego said Mexican and U.S. government officials have "turned a blind eye" to the practice.

[snip]

Law-enforcement officials said they suspect the madrinas were involved in incursions into the U.S. by heavily armed men dressed in uniforms and driving military-style vehicles while escorting drug smugglers. More than 200 such incursions have been documented since 1996 in California, Arizona and Texas, according to a Department of Homeland Security report.

The officials also suspect they are playing a role in rising violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, especially in border towns where cartels have been accused of killing law-enforcement officials.

[snip]

"The judicial police use them to do their dirty work, then deny any responsibility," the report said, adding that they "are often paid out of the proceeds of drug busts, or with protection money supplied by drug traffickers and other criminals."

At this point I could say how outraged I am. I could say that this is just not acceptable and the government better do something about it. But I won’t. The truth is my capacity for outrage is about exhausted. There is only so much anger a person can feel before they just go numb.

You notice that not only Mexican but American government officials are “turning a blind eye” to this. I have simply lost faith in our government, as presently constituted, to do anything about this. Republican senators have just gotten back from their Easter break and they are remarking about how their constituents hammered them on this issue. Yet they are still planning to try to ram through an amnesty program.

They have revealed themselves to be irredeemable and it is time for a change.

I am most defiantly suggesting that we turn things over to the Party of Treason. They are even more motivated to pack the nation with as many illegals as possible. They, accurately, see this as the path to regaining power and keeping for at least the next century.

What needs to be done, and I don’t know how possible it is, is to use the primaries to dump the useless dead weight RINOs and replace them with genuine conservatives. As long as “men” like evil lunatic John McCain and his detestable little hand puppet, Lindsey Graham remain in the US Senate progress will be impossible.

How to do that? The only way I know is to get involved in the Republican Party at the local level. Everything feeds upward. Think about what it would be like in South Carolina if the state Republican machine endorsed contemptible little cornpone lickspittle Lindsey Graham’s primary opponent. Even though he is the incumbent senator he would be reduced almost to the level of a third-party candidate.

It will take patience and require discipline, two things American voters are notoriously short of, but it can be done.

Nathan Hale turns over in his grave

David Lunde has designed a new emblem for the CIA:

Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin

What are they saying?

This came in via email. I can't vouch for the accuracy of every quote, but I remember reading some of them in other news sources so I tend to think the others are valid as well.

HISPANIC LEADERS SPEAK OUT!

Augustin Cebada, Brown Berets; "Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people.

It is your duty to die . . Through love of having children, we are going to take over.

Richard Alatorre, Los Angeles City Council. "They're afraid we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They're right. We will take them over . . . We are here to stay."

Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico, "The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot."

Professor Jose Angel Gutierrez, University of Texas; "We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. The explosion is in our population . . . I love it. They are shitting in their pants with fear. I love it."

Art Torres, Chairman of the California Democratic Party, "Remember 187--proposition to deny taxpayer funds for services to non-citizens--was the last gasp of white America in California."
Gloria Molina, Los Angeles County Supervisor, "We are politicizing every single one of these new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country . . . I gotta tell you that a lot of people are saying, "I'm going to go out there and vote because I want to pay them back."

Mario Obledo, California Coalition of Hispanic Organizations and California State Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Governor Jerry Brown, also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton, "California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn't like it should leave."

Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General , "We are practicing 'La Reconquista' in California."

Professor Fernando Guerra, Loyola Marymount University; "We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos . . . "

Are these just the words of a few extremists? Consider that we could fill up many pages with such quotes. Also, consider that these are mainstream Mexican leaders.
THE U.S. VS MEXICO:

On February 15, 1998, the U.S. and Mexican soccer teams met at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Mexican even though most lived in this country. They booed during the National Anthem and U.S. flags were held upside down. As the match progressed, supporters of the U.S. team were insulted, pelted with projectiles, punched and spat upon. Beer and trash were thrown at the U.S. players before and after the match. The coach of the U.S. team, Steve Sampson said, "This was the most painful experience I have ever had in this profession."

Did you know that immigrants from Mexico and other non-European countries can come to this country and get preferences in jobs, education, and government contracts? It's called affirmative action or racial privilege. The Emperor of Japan or the President of Mexico could migrate here and immediately be eligible for special rights unavailable for Americans of European descent. Recently, a vote was taken in the U.S. Congress to end this practice. It was defeated.

Every single Democratic senator except Ernest Hollings voted to maintain special privileges for Hispanic, Asian and African immigrants. They were joined by thirteen Republicans. Bill Clinton and Al Gore have repeatedly stated that they believe that massive immigration from countries like Mexico is good. They have also backed special privileges for these immigrants.

Corporate America has signed on to the idea that minorities and third world immigrants should get special, privileged status. Some examples are Exxon, Texaco, Merrill Lynch, Boeing, Paine Weber, Starbucks and many more.

DID YOU KNOW?:
Did you know that Mexico regularly intercedes on the side of the defense in criminal cases involving Mexican nationals? Did you know that Mexico has NEVER extradited a Mexican national accused of murder in the U.S. in spite of agreements to do so? According to the L.A.
Times, Orange County, California is home to 275 gangs with 17,000 members; 98% of which are Mexican and Asian. How's your county doing?

According to a New York Times article dated May 19, 1994, 20 years after the great influx of legal immigrants from Southeast Asia, 30% are still on welfare compared to 8% of households nationwide. A Wall Street Journal editorial dated December 5, 1994 quotes law enforcement officials as stating that Asian mobsters are the "greatest criminal challenge the country faces." Not bad for a group that is still under 5% of the population.

Is education important to you? Here are the words of a teacher who spent over 20 years in the Los Angeles School system. "Imagine teachers in classes containing 30-40 students of widely varying attention spans and motivation, many of whom aren't fluent in English.

Educators seek learning materials likely to reach the majority of students and that means fewer words and math problems and more pictures and multicultural references."

WHEN I WAS YOUNG:
When I was young, I remember hearing about the immigrants that came through Ellis Island. They wanted to learn English. They wanted to breath free. They wanted to become Americans. Now too many immigrants come here with demands. They demand to be taught in their own language. They demand special privileges--affirmative action. They demand ethnic studies that glorify their culture.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?:
Send copies of this letter to at least two other people, 100 would be even better. Help us get the word out.

California Coalition for Immigration Reform
5942 Edinger, Suite 113-117
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
Phone 714 921 7142
Date: 4/5/2006

Another member of the family signs on

We have another member of the Hillbilly Ecosystem family.

Debbie at Right Truth joined at my request. Normally I leave it to people to ask to join. After all we're here for anyone to see and if you want in all you have to do is say so, unless you're a moonbat or a neo-Nazi or something like that (sorry Markos Zucchini or whatever your name is dailykos can't join).

But Debbie fit in so well with the theme of the ecosystem I just had to go and ask her. She said yes so here we are.

Now that we have 13 blogs on the blogroll perhaps we should start thinking about a Carnival of the Hillbillys. Any thoughts?

24!

I didn't really have time to post about 24 tonight so go over to White Trash Republican and see what she had to say. Then go to Blogs4Bauer and see what they had to say.

I'll make this observation, Jack Bauer's cell phone doesn't seem to have a "vibrate" setting.

Hillbilly Graphics

Here are the buttons for the Hillbilly Ecosystem. Take what you will. Sorry about the way they're scattered about, but I can't get them to line up for love or money.

All thanks for these are due to the White Trash Dowager Viscountess for creating these.

Fear and Loathing at Penn State

Michelle Malkin takes note of Penn State's censorship of a student's 10-piece exhibit. The exhibit, called Portraits of Terror, explores the conflict in the Palestinian territories. Among its topics are "the destruction of Jewish religious shrines, anti-Semitic propaganda and cartoons in Palestinian newspapers, the disregard for rules of engagement and treatment of prisoners, and the indoctrination of youth into terrorist acts".

Their stated reason, the exhibit "did not promote cultural diversity" or "opportunities for democratic dialogue"

I have not seen the exhibit, but I am acquainted with the kind of propaganda disseminated in the Palestinian controlled areas. It involves Holocaust denial, 9/11 conspiracy theories and the kind of blood libel paranoia and editorial cartoons that would have been at home in a copy of Julius Streicher's Der Strummer.

The question that Penn State students, parents of students and alumnus all need to ask themselves is why a modern university, a supposed bastion of liberal intellectual freedom and enlightened values, would so cravenly carry water for Islamofascists. These are, after all, people who enslave women, murder homosexuals, take censorship of dissenting viewpoints to the point of cold-blooded murder and demand that the entire globe be brought under one totalitarian theocracy.

Is this what Penn State means by "cultural diversity" and "opportunities for democratic dialogue"?

Two theories have been put forward to explain the Left's odd defense of all that they supposedly stand against. One is that it is brought about by fear. They are trying to send a message to the terrorists, "don't bomb us we're on your side".

The other is that the motivation is nothing but pure hatred. Hatred of the United States of America and its current President. They simply hate George W Bush more than they hate the fact that the Taliban used to collapse walls on homosexuals. They hate George W Bush more than the practice of female circumcision. They hate George W Bush more than they hate the murder of Theo van Gogh, the death fatwa against Salman Rushdie and the "honor" killing of women for no other crime than being the victim of rape.

I leave it to the reader to speculate about why they hate George W Bush -- a man whose domestic policies rescued the nation from an inherited recession and whose foreign policies freed one nation from a theocratic tyranny with roots in the 7th century and another from a form of fascism directly spun off from Nazi Germany.

What is it about the President that inspires such hatred and does it not, perhaps, tell us more about the haters than the hated?

Another Family Member!

Big White Hat has joined the Hillbilly Ecosystem!

Go over and pay him a visit. He runs a good blog.

He isn't married to his first cousin, but he does have a whole mess of redneck kids and that counts for a whole hell of a lot in these parts.

One More Family Member!

Carol at The Median Sib has asked to be added to the Hillbilly Ecosystem. She can come in as a Saloon Keeper if she wishes.

Go over and check her out.

Like I tell everyone else, marry your first cousin and keep your shotgun loaded and you'll fit in fine.

She looks like another one who reads.

A new family member!

Attention Hillbilly Ecosystem members. We have a new family member and this is one of the big ones.

Beth at Blue Star Chronicles has decided to join.

Go pay her a visit and consider joining her Blue Star Blogroll.

The term "Blue Star" refers to the serivce flags that were the symbol of a family member serving overseas during wartime. Here is some histroy taken from the American Legion website:


The Blue Star Service Banner was designed and patented in 1917 by World War I Army Capt. Robert L. Queissner of the 5th Ohio Infantry who had two sons serving on the front line. It quickly became the unofficial symbol of a child in the service.

On Sept. 24, 1917, an Ohio congressman read the following into the Congressional Record: “…The mayor of Cleveland, the Chamber of Commerce and the governor of Ohio have adopted this service flag. The world should know of those who give so much for liberty. The dearest thing in all the world to a father and mother - their children.”

During World War II, the Department of War issued specifications on the manufacture of the flag as well as guidelines indicating when and by whom the Service flag could be flown or the Service Lapel button could be worn. The Department of Defense updated the guidelines on December 1, 1967 with DoD Directive 1348.1, which implemented an Act of Congress authorizing a service flag and a service lapel button (U.S.C. 179-182).

[snip]

If the individual symbolized is killed or dies while serving the star representing that individual will have superimposed on it a gold star of smaller size so that the blue forms a border. On flags displaying multiple stars, including gold stars, when the flags are suspended as against a wall, the gold star(s) will be to the right of, or above the blue star(s) a place of honor nearest the staff.

Earth Day for Republicans

I found this on Evil Conservative Industries:

Hat Tip: Reformed Chicks Blabbing

The Sting?

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters posts this:

Rick Moran at Right Wing Nuthouse wonders if the story on CIA detention centers might not have been a sting operation to unmask leakers at Langley. The possibility comes up because on the same day that the CIA terminated Mary McCarthy for her communications to the press, the New York Times reports that European investigators cannot find any evidence that the detention centers ever existed:

[Snip]

How do intel agencies find leakers and spies? They pass around carefully designed misinformation to selected individuals considered likely suspects, and see what winds up exposed as a result. It's possible that after Porter Goss took over as DCI when George Tenet left, he began mole hunting in a big way. It's certain that the administration would have demanded some action on leaks, and Goss would have been of a similar mind. It appears that the story she gave Dana Priest has a lot less substance than first thought. Two separate investigations by Europe turned up nothing. They have reported on both occasions that no evidence exists to substantiate the story, either of the detention centers or of European cooperation.

The story about secret CIA prisons overseas has generated an enormous amount of bad press for the administration. For this reason Fits over at Shooting the Messenger doubts that it was any kind of sting operation. He could very well be right. The bad taste that this story has left in some mouths will not go away just because it turns out to be untrue. If in fact it turns out to be disinformation designed to smoke out one of their sources they will likely be livid. Especially if it puts some of their number in danger of a prison cell.

I can predict the moonbat reaction. “Bush lied about the secret prisons so that a legitimate whistleblower will not be believed. Whatever the truth is it must be much worse than CIA torture chambers on foreign soil”. But here’s a question. How else do you expose a leak, especially if you want to do it quickly?

An embittered government employee isn’t going to leak information to the left-wing press that makes the administration look good are they? And the left-wing press will not print that kind of leak, will they? The fastest and most reliable way to unmask a leaker is to plant disinformation and then wait to see where it turns up. It might very well have been worth it to Porter Gauss and George W Bush to take a PR hit to send a message to the rank-and-file at the CIA, State and the Pentagon that continuing their covert war to undermine the administration can carry an extremely high price tag.

After all the moonbats and their servants in the Democrat Party and their enablers in the mainstream press have already maxed out on Bush hatred. The people who are upset by the supposed revelation of “foreign torture chambers” aren’t the people who vote Republican anyway (at least outside of Rhode Island).

Republican voters will be disappointed that we don’t have overseas prisons where we wring information out of captured terrorists.

Bottom line, the only thing about the “sting operation” scenario that strains my credibility is my doubts that the CIA could be smart enough to pull it off.

All about The Leak

From Stop The ACLU:

As investigations into the leaking of classified information nabbs Mary McCarthy, the far left are jumping to the leakers' defense. Of course the NY Times wants to be included with those doing the defense. Wizbang notes how the media is circling the wagons.

Atlass Shrugs notes that:

In what is becoming a bad trend for Mary, she is now linked with Sandy Berger and Richard Clarke. Especially this strange reference (again from the 9-11 report):

9. See Joint Inquiry briefing by Mike, Sept. 12,2002.For briefings to the NSC,see NSC email,Clarke to Berger, "Threat Warning: Usama bin Ladin," Mar. 7, 1998; Mary McCarthy interview (Dec. 8, 2003); CIA memos, summary of weekly Berger/Tenet meeting, May 1, 1998.
And she has some advice for the Bush's:

FIRE ANY ONE THAT WORKED UNDER THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION, I mean really.

The investigations are growing into big news, and the CIA is warning that this is only the beggining. This may even reach into the Senate, where a few liberal Senators may be facing polygraph tests.

During the Bush Administration, a nexus of politicians, government workers and members of the news media have worked overtime in leaking classified information. From the secret terrorist prisons to the National Security Agency's super-secret surveillance program, intelligence officials and the Bush Administration have had to watch their counterterrorism efforts neutralized for political reasons.

But people such as former deputy-undersecretary of Defense Jed Babbin don't think the Justice Department investigators and prosecutors have the guts to indict a US senator. Babbin said it would cause a battle royal on the Hill, if not a constitutional crisis.

He did say however, that any senator or Congressional staffer that holds a security clearance can be asked at any time to take a polygraph. The individual can of course refuse to take the test, but failure to do so is reason to remove that person's security clearance. Babbin further said that Senators Rockefeller, Durbin, and Wyden, and some on their staffs will soon be requested to take polygraphs.

But don't expect too much to come from these leak investigations. When the leakers are Democrats, they are called whistleblowers; when they're Republicans they're called leakers.
Also, no senator has been disciplined for leaking since 1987, when Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was forced to give up his seat on the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee. It was discovered he leaked classified information to reporters. Now he's on the Senate Judiciary Committee which is currently investigating top secret information regarding the NSA surveillance activities.

Gateway Pundit wonders if it was this news that impressed Time magazine enough to include Dick Durbin on their "Best Senators" list:

Captain's Quarter's and Rightwing Nuthouse ponder whether it was a sting operation.

AJ Strata is all over the leak story.

Tagged!

Cookie at the Cook Shack - Gab & Grub tagged me to write a post about 10 of life's simple pleasures. So here I go:

10. Sitting on a bench in downtown Asheville on a pleasant day and observing whatever walks by. This is how I heard about the Gold and Silver Robots.

9. Driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway in either the Spring when things are just coming back to life after the winter sleep or in the Fall when the leaves are at their peak.

8. Reading a good book or watching a good TV show that takes you to another world, either a future world like David Weber's Star Kingdom or Ron Moore's version of Battlestar Galactica or an historical world like Barbara Hamby's novels of ante-bellum New Orleans.

7. Going out to the movies. The smell of popcorn, the previews, the reaction of the other members of the audience all add up to an experience an order of magnitude different from television. I'll add going to the theater to this as well. You lose the popcorn, but you can have a gin and tonic so it all evens out.

6. Eating out in a good restaurant, especially an Italian one.

5. Cooking for people that you like. I mean cooking food for friends, not roasting people who look like they might be tasty.

4. Taking a road trip with friends.

3. Visiting a good museum, like the Met in New York or the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago or the Smithsonian in DC.

2. Photography. I love taking pictures of beautiful things and sharing them with others.

1. Anything to do with firearms. Shooting guns, cleaning guns, reading about guns, shopping for guns, talking about guns. . .

Use the Force, Skippy

I swiped this from Say Uncle.

No clear victor in New Orleans

But the city might wind up as the clear loser.

From The WashingtonTimes:

NEW ORLEANS -- Incumbent C. Ray Nagin and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu headed for a May 20 runoff after a first-round election in this hurricane-ravaged city yesterday, both falling short of the 50 percent needed to clinch an outright win.

In a race with over 20 canidates it isn't a surprise that no one got more than 50%.

Thousands of voters scattered across the country by Hurricane Katrina returned to choose the mayor who will lead the city's rebuilding effort. With 90 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Nagin was leading with 38 percent while Mr. Landrieu had 29 percent of the vote. Mr. Nagin spent the day rallying his team at his campaign headquarters, reminding them of why he should be given another four-year term.

This is better for Landrieu and worse for Nagin than you might think. 62% of the people of New Orleans do not want Nagin to be mayor and the last time Landrieu ran for mayor he only recieved 10% of the vote.

"They want the city to go back to what it was before we got here, and let the politics dictate where all this money that will come in is going to go, and we can't let that happen," he [Nagin] said. "We are in a battle for the soul of New Orleans."

This coming from "Schoolbus Ray" Nagin.

We've made Osama mad

From Stop The ACLU:

Al-Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, said the new tape is from bin Laden. CNN could not immediately confirm the tape's authenticity, but analysts said the voice sounds like bin Laden's.

A U.S. intelligence official said technical analysis of the tape is under way.

The speaker on the tape says "the opposition to the Hamas government is proof of the crusade against Muslims."

The speaker repeats his description of a "crusade" against Muslims, pointing to activities in other areas such as Chechnya, Somalia and Sudan, where bin Laden lived in the mid-'90s before being expelled by the Sudanese government.

Bin Laden and other al Qaeda figures use the term "crusaders" to refer to Christians.

The remarks about the halting of funds suggest the tape is relatively recent. The United States and some other Western nations have officially stopped contributions to the Palestinian government since Hamas assumed power March 30. Humanitarian aid is donated through nongovernmental organizations.

Michelle Malkin also takes note of this and recommends that we read Robert Spencer's Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades).

As far as I'm concerned the only thing of any significance to this is the fact that it (if it is really bin Laden) proves that he is still alive. What else does it teach us? That the Islamofascists hate us? That radical Muslims have a massive sense of entitlement? Didn't we already know that?

Iranian nuclear fallout

Victor Davis Hanson has an essay in The Claremont Review of Books:

“Bad and worse” is now the conventional wisdom regarding our choices in dealing with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s efforts to obtain the bomb. We are told that Western air strikes will lead to violent reactions in the Islamic world; increase terrorism; empower the Iraqi Shiite obstructionists; destroy the much ballyhooed but little heard from Iranian opposition; and that even after days of bombing, we will be unable to level all Iran’s nuclear facilities. That’s the “bad” option we face.

This is the conventional wisdom regarding any military action taken to disarm the Iranian theocracy. “Worse” is defined as Iran getting the bomb and all the instability that they could generate with it.

But he also makes this observation:

Apparently no one believes that stopping the Iranian bomb would humiliate the mullahs and teach others in the region not to try something similar — even though Libya gave up its WMD arsenal, by its own admission, only because Muammar al-Qadhafi feared the fate of Saddam Hussein.

This is a good point, isn’t it? After 9/11 the Palestinians were dancing in the streets and the most popular name for new-born baby boys was “Osama”. Then when the US and allies began military action against the Taliban and it became obvious that no Islamic military could do much more than provide target practice for a Western army and that Allah was not going to strike down from Heaven and smite the infidel invaders the pro-bin Laden signs came down and baby boys went back to being named “Mohammad”.

Perhaps the expected conflagration would be brief and limited? After all Iran is now the chief exporter of terrorism to the rest of the world. If they were invaded and occupied with their leaders either dead, captured or in hiding with their money supply cut off how much attention could they focus on destabilizing the rest of the Middle East? I’m not saying that there would not be a terrorist insurgency in Iran just like the one we are dealing with in Iraq. However we have largely learned how to cope with that and are making good progress in learning how to defeat it.

What would happen to world oil prices if American troops occupied the Iranian oil fields and made a priority out of maintaining their smooth operation? I know that moonbats in the US would scream about “blood for oil”, but have we not learned by now that nothing that a Republican president and/or congress can do (short of committing ritual mass suicide) will ever please the moonbats? By now protests and complaints have become part of our societal “white noise” and change nothing.

VDH ends with an observation that I’m not sure is completely accurate, however it may be becoming accurate:

All that has changed in the past six months is the growing Western realization that radical Islam thrives on appeasement, and really does mean what it says. Once elected, Hamas, despite Western money and support, did not budge from its charter’s promise to destroy Israel. Far from withdrawing his pledge to wipe Israel out, President Ahmadinejad doubled-down on the boast by organizing formal Holocaust-denial conferences, the prerequisite for any Jew-hater who wishes to move from rhetoric to action. Unlike Hitler, however, Ahmadinejad outlined in advance not merely the intent but the method of his intended follow-up to the Holocaust.

The burning and killing over the Danish cartoons — coming on the heels of the French riots, the bombings in Madrid and London, and Theo van Gogh’s murder in Holland — have shaken the very foundations of Europe. Perhaps the European Union will realize that its 450 million citizens cannot tolerate living in range of radical Islam’s missiles, with Ahmadinejad’s finger on the button. Thus Holland increased its troop deployment in Afghanistan. Many European newspapers reprinted the cartoons in a show of solidarity. Germany’s Angela Merkel compared the Iranian President to Hitler. And even earlier, Jacques Chirac talked of using his country’s nukes against state sponsors of terrorism. We are coming to a showdown where the headshaking over “bad or worse” is no longer an excuse for inaction, but a tragic acceptance that there is still a bad choice, after all.

From his lips (or word processor) to God’s ears.

Hillbilly Homes

Someone got here by searching "Hillbilly Homes".

I guess it was the post about the Biltmore House that drew them in.

5000

We just passed visit number 5000!

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and had a look around. Keep coming back cause I'm just getting started.

Next stop, 10,000.

The Biltmore Estate

I went to the Biltmore Estate last weekend.

Here is the Biltmore House. It occupies 4 acres of land and has 250 rooms. It is the largest privately owned home in America.

Designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt (designer of New York's Flat Iron building) construction was begun in 1889 and completed in 1895. George Vanderbilt officially opened the house to family and guests on Christmas Eve in 1895. The house is a grand monument to what can be done in a nation without an income tax.



This view shows the carriage house. It now houses a restaurant and shops. There is a cobblestone courtyard with food vendors.

Having an annual pass allows you to visit and shop, photograph and explore the grounds as often as you wish. I only enter the House itself about one out of four visits.

The white tent is where you get your timed entry pass. On the heaviest traffic days they make you reserve a time so that the inside doesn't become packed with people.

I can't show you any pictures of the interior as no photography is allowed inside. You can see some photographs at the Biltmore Estate website.



Here is the line to enter. On most days there is no line. You just walk in the door and show your ticket.

This was the Saturday before Easter Sunday. This is one of the busiest days of the year, what with the Easter egg hunt.

As many people as there are it never manages to look crowded because it is just so big.





Every August this there is a series of evening concerts on this terrace. In the past Bruce Hornsby and Alison Krauss & Union Station have performed.

The great thing about a venue like this is that after the show you can meet and speak with the artists.

Now we're heading down to the gardens. The grounds were created by the great Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed New York's Central Park. Olmsted was the father of American Landscape Architecture. Olmsted established the nation's first scientifically managed forest on the Biltmore Estate. The Estate originally covered 125000 acres.

The Estate's wildlife biologists had set up a display of some of the animals, plants and insects that live in the area. The stars were a pair of groundhogs. These animals are bred in captivity and acclimated to human contact. Do not try to pet wild animals. They will run away and if you corner them they will attack.

Here is the Walled Garden. The April Festival of Flowers features tulips.

The building in the distance is the conservatory.

Conservatory is a fancy way of saying greenhouse.

Here is a close up of some of the tulips. These are some of the largest tulips that I've ever run
across.





Here is the view of the house from the grounds just above the Walled Garden. Walking the trails and gardens it is easy to forget that you aren't in just another park, albeit a well maintained one. Then you look up and see this.


That's all I have for today. If you are ever in the Asheville area a trip to the Estate will not be a waste of your time.

The Undocumented Anthem

Michelle Malkin has a link to an article about a group of Latino artists who have recorded a bilingual version of "The Star Spangled Banner" that they're calling "Nuestro Himmo".

She concludes by asking, "Who's assimilating whom?"

This is timed to support the massive demonstrations of illegal aliens who have been rampaging through the streets in an attempt to intimidate the US Senate (not the hardest thing in the world to do) into passing some kind of amnesty bill.

This, like the Mexican flag waving protesters and the planned strike (which will go down in history as "The Day the Leaf Blowers Went Silent") will backfire. Average Americans, even in Blue States, are fed up and want action to secure our borders.

. . . They just fade away

From The Washington Times:

Russia's population is declining rapidly, with almost half of Russian families childless, a senior member of Russia's lower house of parliament has said.

[snip]

She added that the Russian birthrate is 1.34 children per woman, which is below the replacement rate of 2.14, causing a steady decline in the population growth rate.

U.N. statistics say that at this rate Russia's population will be 101.5 million by 2050, shrinking by almost half from the over 143 million population of today.

I remember reading as essay written by Robert A Heinlein sometime in the early ‘60s. He and his wife went to the Soviet Union for a vacation. Mrs. Heinlein had spent more than a year studying Russian and was reasonably fluent. In striking up conversations with people she asked the polite questions about family, children and such and noticed that not too many young Russians were having kids. She calculated that they were in danger of falling below replacement rate. I guess she was right.

The interesting question is why? During Russia’s entire violent and sad history the people, no matter how oppressed and poor, did not give up on the future to the point of stopping reproduction. Of course it hasn’t been that long, in world history terms, since mankind developed reliable population control technologies.

And it is not only Russia but all of Europe that is suffering a population contraction. The falling birthrates in the rest of Old Europe are not as dramatic as Russia’s but the trend is there.

One possible explanation suggested by novelist John Ringo is that in societies which are experiencing increasing levels of affluence adults find that they have more enjoyable things to do than have children and spend more than a decade changing diapers and answering an endless series of “why, why, why questions”.

This may be true in the United States, whose White population is barely growing, and France with its legally mandated short work week and generous cradle-to-grave social welfare system. But that hardly explains Russia.

Perhaps the answer is that the Russians would have given up centuries ago if they had been able. Could it be that the human race isn’t so resilient after all? Perhaps God has designed us so that we owe our existence to the fact that our libido is more powerful than our angst.

Saying the obvious

Misha posts his take on the latest Ann Coulter column in which she commits the horrible sin of telling the truth. Amazing isn't it how common sense affects moonbats the way holy water affects vampires.

Ann makes the point, which Misha seconds, that actions have consequences.

Natalie Holloway got drunk in a bar in another country and left with a person or persons that she could have known for, at most, a few days. Her body may never be found.

Some years ago a teenage boy (nice kid, good grades, well thought of, church member) wanted money to buy a truck. He approached an adult man that he knew to be involved in the building trade. He asked the man if he could get a job on one of his construction sites. The adult offered the teenager money for sex. The teenager agreed (it was only once, it didn't make him gay or anything and he really wanted that truck). The man was John Wayne Gasey. The body of the teenager was found buried under Gasey's house with nearly 30 others.

Acting like an idiot can have a very high price tag. It is no sin to point out to our children that some kinds of behavior can make you an accessory before the fact to your own murder.

Partners in Peace

From Captain's Quarters:

The Hamas government of the Palestinian Authority underscored
its terrorist nature by placing one of the more notorious terrorists in charge of its new Islamist security forces. Jamal Abu Samhadana, whose track record includes the murder of US Marines in Gaza during a diplomatic mission, will create and command the new force. . .

[Snip]

In case anyone doubted the nature of this regime, Hamas has just made it clear. They will recast the Palestinian protostate into an Islamist rogue nation, complete with Islamofascist terrorists as an arm of government oppression and aggression. The selection of Samhadana has to be seen as a deliberate slap at the West,
especially the US. However, the Hamas embrace for Islamist terror confirms everything that the US has claimed about the new Palestinian government. It also provides yet another diplomatic embarrassment for Russia, if they even have the capability of experiencing shame any longer.

I could act upset about this and huff around in an outraged fashion, but I'm not Sean Hannity and I am not upset. The fact is I'm glad. Hamas is an evil murdering terrorist organization, always has been and always will be.

The fact is bad would have been Hamas appointing some kind of phony-baloney "moderate" to the post. That way all of their brain-dead enablers in Europe and American college campuses and the State Department could have said, "see they've changed we need to open the money spigot again".

At least now the mask is off. No one with the brains God gave a corn dog* can now claim that there is any desire on the part of Hamas to peacefully coexist with Israel.

We are now free to move forward without the encumbrance of illusion.

BTY, Russia has not had the ability to feel shame since 1917.

* To those linking in from San Francisco. A corn dog is not some kind of sexual aid. It is a frankfurter on a stick dipped in a batter of corn meal and then deep fried. Large numbers of them are consumed at carnivals in real (that is Red State) America.