Here Come Da Judge

Remember Laugh-In? If you're too young, I understand it's running on some cable channels now. I never fully understood the joke ('Here come da judge'), but vaguely understood it to have something to do with prosecution of drug users.

So those who were in on that joke in the 60's now make up the "establishment" in the Democratic party. They still love peace, sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll. Maybe that partially helps explain the whole confusing senate machinations around voting to confirm or reject Bush's judicial nominations.

We could argue about what value there is in the filibuster rules themselves, which have been a senate tradition for so long. But anybody who's been out there claiming the other party is shredding the constitution, whether by threatening to eliminate filibusters or actually using them is lying. There's no other way to say it. Very simply, there is no constitutional right to filibuster. It's a longstanding senate tradition that allows the minority party the ability to block legislation they find egregious.

So to compound the whole constitutional lie, the Democrats went a step further with a whopper of a lie about the right to filibuster judicial nominations being part of the longstanding senate tradition while suggesting it was enshrined in the constitution. Whoa, time for a reality check.

First of all, the Republican leadership was not even suggesting removing the filibuster from normal legislative debate; just judicial nominees. And they correctly pointed out that judicial nominees have never before been filibustered until the Democrats began doing it when they lost the majority in the senate. And it's become clear to me that the reason Democrats were filibustering the Bush judges was not at all about qualifications and only peripherally about the judges' philosophy. It's simply a power play to make sure they deny Bush the ability to nominate any judges at the highest levels from the Appellate courts to the Supreme Court.

Then the other lie is buried inside a truth. Democrats like to point out that they've allowed approvals on the vast majority of nominations brought to the senate from the president. It's a meaningless statement that's purpose is to mislead - that large majority of confirmed judges were for minor court appointments that have little bearing on what sort of high court decisions we will see over the rest of our lifetimes.

So was Priscilla Owen an extremist right-wing activist nominee? Well, if your view of the world is so skewed as to call a track record of outstanding abilities to interpret and apply the law extremist, maybe so. But the reality in Priscilla Owen's case is that she's one of most experienced and qualified judges in the country. What disqualifies her from appointment in the eyes of Democrats is that she apparently has expressed views against partial-birth abortion and in favor of parental notification of abortions for minor children. And she appears to be a church-going Christian (gasp!). The other disqualification might be simply that she's from Texas.

Democrats say that the Republicans blocked lots of Bill Clinton's nominees, and that's true. However, the way they blocked them was with their votes, not with filibusters. And of course the majority party controls the chair of the judicial committee, and they can just simply hold back a nomination from review in committee. Would the Democrats like to try to suggest that no Reagan or Bush Sr. appointees got tabled in committee when it was chaired by a Dem?

So which party has been more successful at getting their own "extreme" judges appointed to the bench? I think we only need to look back at Robert Bork and Ruth Bader-Ginsberg. Bork is a brilliant jurist who happened to have a conservative constitutional viewpoint. His nomination got huge media play and so much spin that the casual observer may have thought his appointment to the supreme court was tantamount to a Nazi regime taking power. In stark contrast, Clinton's appointment of Ruth Bader-Ginsberg, a radical leftist ACLU lawyer, sailed through with little scrutiny and not a little cheerleading from the news media.

Honestly, which is more extreme? Believing that the US Constitution set the clear direction for our free republic and all laws must be held up to its standards, or believing that the Constitution doesn't matter and a judge's own feelings about what is just and right should drive their decisions? Need I state the obvious conclusion I've reached, that if we appoint a majority of judges with the second opinion, we will lose our republic to a tyrannical socialist-communist elite government? I believe we're already almost there.

The compromise deal reached by the gang of 14 so-called "moderates" that allowed Priscilla Owen to get to the floor for a vote probably hasn't actually solved the problem. There are plenty of indications that the deal has probably already fallen through:

• As soon as the deal was made Harry Reid stated that they will continue to filibuster. Apparently, the wording that says they reserve the right to filibuster only the "most extreme" nominees he's going to feel free to interpret once again as pretty much every judge Bush sends for advice and consent.
• They've already engaged the filibuster on Bolton, the UN nominee. So it's business as usual less than a week after the deal.
• Gleeful Democratic leaders gloated about their victory in the compromise, effectively hanging the 7 Republicans who signed onto the deal by painting them as stupid and naive losers. Reminds me of what they did to Bush Sr. on the tax increase deal - they made the deal, immediately reneged on their part of the bargain, and gleefully watched as their efforts enraged the republican base and cleared the way for the election of Bill Clinton.
  

What is disheartening for me is seeing that only 2 Democrats had the courage to defy their party leadership to vote for Owens. That shows that the majority of senators have lost their ability to make their own decisions and have placed their party's political aspirations for power above doing the right thing for their country.

Republicans are guilty too, just look at the messes with healthcare, trade and immigration that neither party is willing to tackle in a meaningful way. One might say with some credence that this judicial stuff is just a distraction from what's really important. However, at least one Supreme Court nominee is likely this year, and that nominee will represent what philosophy will dominate the court for the next generation. So it is true that both parties understand how critical this fight is to the future of the nation.

As do I.

Mainstream? You gotta be kidding!

We don't have any premium channels at home, and I rarely see them while on the road working. But last week was an exception. I was staying in a hotel room with HBO included on the TV. One evening while flipping through the channels, I stumbled on some sort of wierd talk show run by a smirking pile of doo-doo named Bill Maher.

He had three guests, which I soon learned were Al Franken, Gore Vidal, and a young woman I didn't know and never really caught her name. It only took me about 5 seconds to figure out that these guys were talking politics from an extreme left-wing approach. So I thought I'd hang in for awhile just to see what the goofball lefties were up to recently.

It wasn't pleasant. Before long, I wanted to twist Maher's chicken neck with my left hand while pummeling the never-changing smirk into a bloody clown grin with my right. He and his pals (the female excluded) weren't just going off on W, which I've gotten very used to from that crowd. But they were going after me. Personally. Apparently I represent everything they hate in America.

What do they hate about me? Well, just that I'm a nominal Republicans to begin with. But I am also a member of a "Red State", Christian, and haven't yet swallowed the whole mythology about Iraq being harmless and the war just about making Haliburton rich.

Apparently I, and people just like me, think poor people should starve and be denied any medical treatment. That gays should be rounded up and soundy beaten. That it's perfectly fine for corporate fat cats to keep getting richer while their companies walk away from employee pensions and healthcare commitments. That the air and water can be polluted until the planet no longer supports life as long as it helps the same corporate fat cats. That other fat cats in the investment community should be able to raid social security to line their own pockets. That I am a stupid and unsophisticated bumpkin that goes along with whatever W and his talk-radio cronies tell me. And finally, that I should immediately be packed up and sent over to fight in Iraq along with the Bush twins, because if enough of us are sent over there and get blown up by insurgents, Bill and his friends can finally take over and make things right.

They have never met me or anyone like me. They have no idea what I think about the topics and issues. They cannot begin to understand that I'm upset with W about many things he's doing, but supported him enthusiastically in the last election because the alternative was so obviously and horribly worse.

Maher did most of the talking, and the audience of what I can only assume to be a handpicked bunch of New Yorkers hooted, hollered, and applauded every invective from Bill and his cronies. Franken didn't say much, but mostly sat and tried to match Maher's smirk and making the occasional comment about Halliburton, as if just stating the name of that company was enough to inspire derision. Vidal said the least, leaning on his cane like Budda and making the occasional witty Bush put-down to the audience's noisy delight. I wondered if the unknown female was the token moderate in the group, as she said very little but said nothing approaching the inflammatory drivel being spewed by the jerks surrounding her.

Understand that I'm not crude or vulgar, so I refuse to put the above messages into their own nauseating parlance. But here was a lesson in what the group of people commonly referred to as "liberal elites" are really like.

What shocked and dismayed me was the statement Maher eventually made, that he and his buddies, as well as the Democratic party, represented the mainstream of America. That nobody with any brains could possibly oppose the right-minded ideals of their beloved party. Please. Since when is partial-birth abortion and abortions for 12-year-old girls without parental consent mainstream? Since when is removing any religious expression from the public and forcing churches to hire, marry, and place gays in leadership positions mainstream? When did socialism and communism become mainstream? When did it become mainstream to agitate against your own forces and support the enemy during wartime? Is mainstream thought in America now defined by PETA, MoveOn.org, the Gay/Lesbian Alliance, Jesse Jackson, and Howard Dean? What is mainstream about opening borders to everybody who wants to come across and bankrupt our country's social services?

It's even scarier because I discovered on Sunday from Howard Dean that the whole "mainstream" argument is now officially part of the official message of the Democratic party. Apparently the Democrat's new message for the masses is "We're mainstream, and the Republicans are extremists!" The reason that's scary is because the last people on earth I want defining what is "mainstream" are Bill Maher, Gore Vidal, Al Franken, and Howard Dean.

I now fully believe that these guys have an agenda based on fooling as many people as they can to regain power. Because how else could we end up governed by a group of anti-religious anti-capitalist anti-life anti-freedom elitist thugs, but that they succeed in so obscuring the truth about their agenda that people actually vote for them because they heard the Democrats "hold the same views as me"?

Want to be President?

I've got the secret formula for anybody that wants to be president in 2008. It doesn't matter if you are Republican or Democrat, all you have to do is separate yourself from the idiots inhabiting Washington DC and simply express common-sense solutions to the problems no other politician is talking about.

Here's the very simple platform that will win you more voters than anybody, if you can just break through with the message.

Fix Illegal Immigration: Beef up border security and simply get the government to look at the documentation submitted by employees when they go to work for a company. See a fake social security card or green card, go get the illegal and deport him/her. Catch a company employing illegals "off the books" - hit them hard with huge fines. It really can work.

Fix Offshoring and Trade Deficit: First of all, push legislation that forces domestic companies to pay any employee they lay off to replace with a foreign worker or contracting firm a minimum 1 year's severance at full salary, plus pay their benefits for 18 months. Voila, no more jobs going overseas!
Then, get tough on trade policy. If China wants to import their goods, they have to have their own markets open to ours. If they keep blocking those efforts, impose tarriffs and hold up their products at the ports. Boom, our trade imbalance starts to rebalance.

Fix Healthcare: Push a realistic plan that helps save healthcare costs and makes it available to the uninsured for a reasonable cost. If you've read my healthcare-related stuff here, you already know what I think needs to be done.

Fix Social Security: This one is the proverbial third rail - touch it and die. However, there is a gathering storm there that has to be addressed somehow. I think the way to fix it is to attack it from multiple angles, including rewarding people for contributing more to IRA's and 401K's, incenting employers to offer more and better pension plans, opposing trends like the current famous United Airlines problem where companies are allowed to walk away from their pension plans, etc. Basically, there are lots of great opportunities to turn this third rail problem into a positive for a presidential candidate.

Be friendly to people of faith: Express opposition to the stupidity of the ACLU in their attempt to remove all expression of religion from society by supporting free and open expression of any religion anywhere, as long as the religion doesn't preach horrible stuff like murder, suicide, rape, robbery, etc. Profess a practical and level-headed point of view on the big moral issues of the day, like abortion and gay marriage. Couching the abortion issue in terms of making the goal that we should remove any reason for a woman to abort would not allow anybody to call you names without looking evil themselves. Use my argument about Gay Marriage, that it's discriminatory against other family units! Leave marriage to the churches and between a man and a woman, but let everybody else have whatever living arrangements they like as long as it's not illegal or contributes to some disease epidemic. (Oops, AIDS might be a problem there).

Those are the major things, I think. Any takers? I would support anybody willing to run on this platform, regardless with what party they associate. I just fear that our candidates are already bought and paid for, and I'm really scared that we're going to get Hillary in 2008. Heaven help us.

Here Comes Summer

Tim's done next Thursday and Nick's done in about 2 weeks, and the summer is here. I'm expecting a good summer, and hope to have time to do more fun stuff outdoors with the kids.

I really want to drop some pounds and have a little more energy to do the things I like. Got to find that balance between working just hard enough to keep the income where I need it but leaving free time to play.

It's very good that both Nick & Tim have decent jobs this summer. It helps both from the perspective that they're taking responsibility for what they can do for their college financing and not choosing to lay around all summer expecting Mom & Dad to take care of everything.

I'm wrapping up the project up in the Chicago area, and so far don't know what my next assignment might be. On one hand, I don't mind it if I have a week or two lag between projects, but on the other I don't want to be idle for a month. It definitely is time to get the new Corporation organized and do some strategic planning. I'd like to get some other people working and providing revenue for the corporation very soon to take some of the pressure off of me to get out there and bill as many hours as possible. Gotta find that first commission salesperson to work the Web business first.

The feedback from this client has been very good, so I hope to get another letter to continue to build my reference base. It's also time to build my consulting website as soon as I get some time.

Sounds like a busy summer after all.

Nothing New

Even though there isn't anything terribly earthshaking on my mind, blogger still beckons me to write something. So, how about a collection of random ideas?

The Pacers did a nice job fighting through to win the series against Boston, but then turned around and laid an egg in their first game of round 2 against Detroit. They looked tired and sluggish last night. But can they recover a-la Boston and still win the series? It seems doubtful.

I can't believe they are still arguing about the whole filibuster business in the Senate over confirmation of judges. I've tried to figure out why the Democrats are blocking Bush's judges, and although they claim it's because they are "radical", the reality is that they are the opposite. Perhaps the most egregious sin of any of them is if they're Christians. So there are two very simple conclusions; 1. They're paranoid about Bush's judges maybe overturning Roe v. Wade, and 2. They just want to block Bush from appointing any high-court judges in hopes that their own president can send in their own in a few years.

And both sides argue points that are basically correct but sound contradictory. When the Democrats say they are simply trying to protect an age-old practice that helps the minority wield influence in important matters, what they are leaving out is that the filibuster has never been used to block judicial nominees before. When the Republicans say there is no precedent for filibustering judicial nominees, what they are leaving out is that they blocked some of Clinton's judges by simply keeping them from getting out of committee.

Here's what I think. Go ahead and keep the filibuster. But make the Democrats use it if they object to a particular judge so vociferously. Give the filibustering senator the floor for as long as he/she wants, but make it clear that there will be no breaks. When the filibustering senator has to pee, gets tired, or loses voice, their time is over and the vote is next. No business will be brought to the Senate floor until the judge being presented is voted on.

Very simple. I have no clue why they don't just go ahead and turn over the floor to the filibusters until it runs its course.

I miss football. Arena football doesn't do it for me. I'm ready for the Colts, Notre Dame, even IU to get started again.

Congratulate me. I just became President of Cornerstone One, Inc. Now, if that company ever makes a name for itself, that might just mean something.

My high school class reunion (yes, it's #30) is this summer. I think I'll skip it this year. Once a decade is plenty.

Harmless Secrets

Went to the doc today for the first time in years because I've been ill with what seems like a cold for over a week and haven't had more than 4-5 hours of sleep since Sunday. I'm surprised I'm functioning as well as I am under the circumstances, and I worked 10-hour days right on through the illness. But the doctor visit was bad news. I've suspected what is now confirmed; I'm killing myself slowly with bad habits, and if I don't get serious about some changes the misery might only get worse. Time to say a tearful goodbye to my favorite bad habits.

Anyway, I don't have any real big outrages gnawing at me today, so I thought just for fun I would post some harmless secrets about myself. These are secrets that might make me look a little stupid but are otherwise harmless, and I'm at the stage where it doesn't matter much if people want to laugh at me. So here goes.

I actually like watching American Idol. Well, this year, anyway. Last year I thought there wasn't a single contestant who deserved to be there. But I really like this group. And the final two should be Bo and Carrie, with Carrie taking it all. Bo's unique and will be a star, and Carrie's awesome.

I actually enjoyed the Disco years in the 70's. I know people make fun of those times and the stupid looking clothing of the era, but I actually had a lot of fun back then. I even still enjoy hearing a Barry Manilow song now and then. But the one thing I never did like was the leisure suit - good riddance on that bad idea.

I thought I was a Democrat until I entered the working world. Dad was one, and virtually all my teachers and professors were, so the only Republican I ever knew growing up was my mother. And I just thought it was funny how mom & dad make sure to cancel out each others' votes every election day. Later, as a working stiff, I found out that Jimmy Carter was an absolute idiot, unbelievably naive and unable to effectively manage Iran, the energy crisis, and our country's crashing economy. He's the poster child for what happens when the Democrats control everything. So I became a Republican when I voted for Ronald Reagan. Worked out pretty well for me, and as far as I can tell for the rest of the country and the world as well. Now it seems like the Democrats have become the Socialist/Communist party and the Republicans have become just like the Democrats were in the 60's. Very sad.

I'm a converted Catholic, even though the rest of the male members of my extended family are pastors in the Brethren Church. What I've mostly learned is that different Christian sects are too hung up on their differences during a time when the entire religion is under attack from secular and Islamic interests. I've learned that Catholics and Brethren, for example, have far more theology in common than in conflict. There's also a lot of misunderstanding on both sides about what the others' beliefs really mean. Christians in general should stop arguing about who's going to heaven and hell and focus more on our common faith, or I foresee the real Christian faith and values being removed from our culture entirely.

I once took a long walk off a short pier. Yes, dumb ol' me during a lake vacation walked out to the lakefront early in the morning to enjoy the sunrise. I strolled out onto the pier and lost track of how far I had walked before stepping down ... to a nice cold dunking in the lake.

When I was, hmm, in college maybe (?), my parents discovered an unopened six-pack of beer hidden in the basement. They wondered for years where it came from, how long it had been there, etc. OK, time to come clean. I put it there. When I was still in High School or maybe just graduated, a friend had asked me to buy him a six pack of 3.2 beer when I was making a trip to Ohio. (At that time, 3.2 reduced-alcohol beer was available to kids between 18-21.) So I did, and when I got home, I hid the beer in the basement and called the friend to come and get it. Well, he never came over to get it, and I completely forgot it was there. So now you have it - the mystery of the six-pack solved.

In Jr. High, I raced a friend, Tim, back to the school entrance door at the end of our lunch period. I think I just edged him at the finish, but he would probably remember it the other way around. Anyway, the entry door had reinforced glass panels on either side, and I arrived at the one on the right at the end of a full sprint. Bracing myself on the frame with my hands, my momentum brought my right knee up into the glass, which promptly and spectacularly shattered. I was amazed first that I was able to shatter the reinforced glass - you know, the kind that you can see the honeycombed pattern of wire running through. But also I was amazed that it broke with seemingly very little force and my knee wasn't bruised or cut at all. Also amazed was the assistant principle who observed the whole thing. Then for the final amazing event, I received no punishment other than an admonishment to "slow down" next time.

In High School, the Assistant Principal (not the same as the Jr. High guy of course) pulled me out of an English class and walked me to the office. I was a little bit concerned, but mostly just curious about why they would want me in the office. It wasn't long before I found out the purpose of the trip - I was accused of destroying school property. The high school was getting old, and showing its age. It was overdue for some major renovation and remodeling, with old creaky stairs and banisters and drafty, dry-rotted windows. Anyway, someone had been trying to show off his strength by shaking loose the banister at the top of the third floor stairwell, which broke off and fell all the way to the first floor. And a rumor had gone back to the office that the perpetrator was me.

Well, I immediately understood what had happened. And even though I wasn't sure, I had a pretty good idea already of the identity of the actual culprit. It fit very well that he and his friends would consider it highly comical to hang the offense on a model student like myself, who had never come close to trouble in school (at least never been caught). But I just truthfully told the Assistant Principal his account was the first I had heard of the incident, and I not only was not responsible, but was nowhere near that stairwell at the time. He gave me a lecture anyway about destroying school property and endangering other students, but sent me back to class with some obvious disappointment that he had not extracted the confession he hoped for. Oh, and before school let out that day, I had confirmed that the person I suspected was indeed the one responsible. But of course, it's bad form in High School to report on someone, so I kept it to myself. Dad came home that evening and questioned me about it, as he received a call during the day. I appreciated very much that he completely accepted my response and did not show the slightest indication of anything but complete belief in my innocence.

There are plenty more harmless secrets, but I need to get some work done so that's it for today. I hope anyone stumbling on these stories found them somewhat entertaining, and permission is granted to have your laughs at my expense.