Restless Independent

Where were you when you first heard of the attacks?

2009-09-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

Patty & I were caught in a major traffic jam in Sarasota, in a place where traffic doesn't normally jam, but caused by Bush's visit to the Booker Elementary School that morning. When we finally got through, and as we were driving past the Sarasota Airport where Air Force One was parked, we started hearing the news on the radio of a small plane that crashed into the World Trade Center. We live near the airport, so we got home quickly, and reports were starting to come in...I sat on the corner of the bed in disbelief for what seemed hours...and then Air Force One started moving live on tv, a couple miles away...as it started to takeoff, we ran outside to our deck which was in the flight path...and watched in amazement and a bit of chilling fear as The President flew by, large and majestic, and so low you could almost reach out and touch it...goosebumps and hair standing on end...and then I returned to the corner of the bed, watching in shocked disbelief....

Regarding The Won's 9/11 speech...

2009-09-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

I didn’t hear Obama's whole speech at the Pentagon this morning…I was conflicted by my personal disdain for the man, and a desire to know if he was going to respect the victims or disrespect the day.

A couple things struck me…

For one thing, why is the man, one who hasn’t picked a place of worship since he “reluctantly” disavowed his bosom buddy Jeremiah Wright and Black Liberation Theology, the man who had religious symbols covered up for his speech at Georgetown, a Christian school, now quoting scripture to us?! Has he even been to church since then? Hypocrite.

I also found it distasteful that he made today NOT about the victims or the evil that rained down on us that day and continues to want us dead, but rather about the “volunteers”, and all the good touchy feely-ness about the terrible event that brought us together, even if only for a short time. I find his disrespect of this day disturbing, and screw his “National Day of Service.”

And as others have already pointed out, his words of his mission to “protect” the US are betrayed by his actions at home and his “other” words on foreign (and sometimes enemy) soil overseas, apologizing for America. Don’t bother apologizing for me, Hussein.

And why is he at the Pentagon, but saying “today we are all New Yorkers”? What about the soldiers and the military? You’re at our military HQ…show some respect!

What will it take to keep Dear Leader off our tv’s? In one week, we had the indoctrination of the “schoochildren“, the lies, name-calling and fear-mongering health “care” speech, today’s disrespectful 9/11 speech, and still to come is Sunday’s 60 minutes, and I think another speech on Monday (on Wall Street?) to demonize profits, free-markets and capitalism.

Hmmmm….ok, so that was more than a couple things…

NEVER FORGET!

Hussein, you disgust me. Now GET OFF MY TV!

They don't have "death panels" in the UK...

2009-09-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

They call them "death pathways" instead, and they leave it up to the doctors to just deny medications, food, and life-sustaining liquids if they think you're a goner, even if you're not. How's THAT for a shot of reality into the debate over socialized government-run "healthcare".

Sentenced to death on the NHS

A good article on Palin...by a Democrat?!

2009-09-03T06:12:00.000-07:00

Prelude to 2012: how did Democrats let Sarah Palin destroy health care reform with Facebook?by D.K. Jamaal

It’s not even 2012, and Sarah Palin, the “lightweight” Caribou Barbie stupid dumb right-wing inexperienced unqualified unaccomplished religious wacko birther enabling nut that came from Wasilla, has already defeated President Obama.

She has trounced Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

She has trumped MoveOn, ACORN, and Obama’s mass army of volunteers at Organizing for America.

She has out-demagogued the three stooges of MSNBC Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, and Rachel Maddow.

Oh, and she did it with Facebook notes.

Read that again: she did it with Facebook notes.

(...read the rest...)

BING is now dead to me

2009-09-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

On a "bias" note, I just had a bit of a "wow" moment. I've switched to using Bing quite a bit because of the liberal bias of Google (yeah, I realize the irony of using Blogger to post this), but I just tried to do a simple search of "Sarah Palin" there, and got an odd response. I have Bing's "Search Suggestions" turned on, and so after I typed in "Sarah ", a list of suggestions pops down, but strangely, no option for "Palin". But there are options such as "Sarah " Jessica Parker, Brightman, Silverman, Machlachlan, Jessica Parker clothing line, Dessen (who the hell is THAT?!)

So I went a little further, typing in a "Sarah P"...and still no Palin, but instead I get "plain and tall/palan/ purcell/pender/polly/purcell/etc..."

So I try to force the suggestion by typing "Sarah Pali"...and still, the odd suggestions leave out the person, but instead give me her "pastor/son/wardrobe/pregnant daughter/college education/eyeglass prescription/etc..." You get the picture.

So I finish typing the name and hit SEARCH, and what would you guess the top hit was?

The F'n HUFFINGTON POST! "Sarah Palin's CLSA Speech May Be "Borat"-Style…"

...plus a small thumbnail pic of Sarah reading and having a cocktail at the pool with the caption "Will Sarah Quit on Asia Too?" linking to an article with that title.

Unbelievable.

BING is now dead to me, and should be to you too.

…and on a related note, I tried the same thing with Yahoo, and the “Search Suggestions” gave me the right person (Sarah Palin), and the results were much more balanced.

So it’s back to Yahoo for me, unless someone can suggest something better.

The Cuda speaks out on Tort Reform

2009-08-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin posted a new "note" on her Facebook page today calling for tort reform to be a focal point of any health insurance reform. Love her (I do) or hate her, she repeatedly demonstrates an ability to focus attention and debate on any issue she chooses, and tort reform is a perfect example. I have seen people at town halls ask their muckety-mucks about tort reform and get blown off and their questions ignored. I have yet to hear P-BO and the rest of our rulers with a (D) behind their names utter the term, and yet the public is clamoring for it.

The Cuda just changed all that with another single opinion piece from the sidelines. “They” will not be able to ignore it now, as in their ongoing rush to discredit her, they will have to confront the issues she brings up, and today’s issue is tort reform. I bet the D’s are glad it’s Friday, and they hope it will all blow over by Monday. It won’t. She brought up the “death panels” about 2 weeks ago, and it’s still being talked about, even by P-BO & Krauthammer, whom I disagree with on this issue.

There is an article written by an Alaskan Fisherman that is so good that I believe it merits linking. He brings up several points about Palin that are largelt ignored by the state-run media.

Alaskan Fisherman talks about Sarah Palin

Scare Farce One does another flyby

2009-05-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

Scare Farce One does another flyby, this time of the Statue of Liberty at the New York New York Casino in Las Vegas. After earlier telling business executives that they shouldn't be flying to Vegas for company meetings, The Thug-in-Chief flew in to Las Vegas on the taxpayer dime to raise money for dingy Harry Reid.

Sarasota Tea Party, Lakewood Ranch, Ed's Tavern

2009-04-17T00:13:00.001-07:00

Here's my images of the last hour of the Sarasota Tea Party in Lakewood Ranch at Ed's Tavern. Being off the beaten track a bit, it was more than I expected. Totally different than the sign-waving in front of Marina Jack's, this gathering had lots of citizen speakers, first-time protestors, a large PajamasTV video screen, and good beer! Samuel Adams would be proud!

Sarasota Tea Parties

2009-04-16T22:28:00.000-07:00

There were two Tea Parties in Sarasota that I know of. I arrived at both of them rather late, because I was y'know, working, and meeting with my accountant after hours upon hours of annual tax prep. I'll never get those hours back. (See the FairTax for a better way)

Anyway, I took some pictures, not award winning stuff, but the 2 images I saw in our local fish-wrapper were terrible, IMO, with hardly any people in them, so maybe these will give a better sense of these Sarasota Tea Partys. Or maybe not, cuz like I said, I got there really late, and a lotta folks had already left.

First up...on 41 in front of Marina Jack's, in front of the Eternal Kiss(?) sailor statue:

Ok, let's try this again...

2009-04-16T22:13:00.000-07:00

Ya, there's a big gap between my last post and this one. That's because I got sick of the direction in which the election was heading. The whole thing was upsetting, and like my pappy, I get quiet when I get upset.

...don't get me wrong, I'm still upset, but I see a fighting spirit arising from the majority middle. I sense a lot of "buyer's remorse", and the great success of the Tea Partys yesterday inspired me to join the underdogs, and fight for the America I believe in. So I'll post occassional thoughts and pictures here we'll see how it goes...

It was said during the 2008 Presidential Election that "restless independents" would decide the election. We didn't, but maybe we can have a positive influence on the upcoming elections. And according to the new report put out by the DHS, I'm already considered a "right wing extremist" because I don't agree with Hussein's leftist policies, so why stay quiet now?

A Poll - "Who won the VP Debate?",

2008-10-04T04:13:00.000-07:00

re: The St Petersburg Times Poll -

What a bogus poll! The link said "Who won the VP Debate?", but there is no option to select a "Winner!" I'm betting that's because Gov Palin so owned the night while Biden spewed a string of untruths about McCain's record and other inaccuracies. Yet you leftys at the Times gave Biden a higher truthy score on your blantantly biased "Politifact" selection today, then you slam Palin on your editorial page. You say Biden "knows issues" in a headline, ignoring his MANY factual errors, but the best Wes Allison can say about Palin is she "appeared at-ease".

BTW, Drudge has Palin up 70% to Biden's 28% after about 500,000 votes.

The SP Times is so obviously and so far in the tank for Obama its disgusting. It has me considering canceling my subscription, something I already did with the NYT-owned Sarasota Herald-Trib. Keep up the bias guys, and watch your readership wither...something to which I would think your reduced staff would be sensitive.

Uhbama

2008-09-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

Oh, right...we should exercise our right to vote, as long as it's for Barack Hussein Obama. 'scuse me while I puke

If elected, Obama on his own wouldn't do too much damage to our country (I hope), but with San Fran Nan and Scary Reid pulling his strings to to complete the triumvirate of incompetence with a blank check to pass anything they want, the United States will become the Socialist States almost overnight.

Obama by himself is a rather harmless waffling idiot lawyer with the substance of a soap bubble. But when he gives jobs to his "friends", his darkly corrupt circle of influence who have groomed him for this for years, irreversible damage will be done to our Republic.

I'm an independent, and I'm voting for McCain.

Anyone BUT Obama.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NIPPY said:

"Get out and vote folks and do what you think is best for the world, not just your country."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You've GOT to be kidding! In a world where many places cry "Death to America", even on our own soil (such as that nutjob from Iran who was just in NY spewing his bullshit), and many if not most other countries would like to see a weaker United States, we're supposed to care what the "world" thinks?! That's crazy talk.

For a weaker USA, vote for the community organizer. Why do you think he has been endorsed by Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, North Korea, Castro, Qaddafi, etc? Cuz Obama wants to give them all a group hug? Ya, maybe that's it.

A strong USA props up free people and democracies around the world. A strong America also allows us to continue to be the most generous country this planet has ever known. I'm voting for the man who understands the geopolitical ramifications of his decisions, not the guy who waffles and backtracks on his positions in regard to world events until he "gets it right".

Rememeber, you can't vote "Present" as President.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh no he didn't

2008-09-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

From today's NY Post:

OBAMA TRIED TO STALL GIS' IRAQ WITHDRAWAL

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview.

Read the whole thing ...

If this is true, and I'm not saying it is, Obama will be headed to the BIG HOUSE instead of the White House. I'm no expert, but I believe unauthorized negotiations with foreign governments is a violation of the Logan Act. That's treason folks.

The author of the colum has apparently had credibility problems in the past, but he names his source here, so this needs to be investigated. I'm sure it isn't true though, cuz Obama is like, so patriotic and all.

Where in the World is Joe Biden?

2008-09-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

"Joe who?" you say? If you recall, he's the guy nominated to be the Democrats VP pick. Apparently he's been traveling the country "campaigning" with nary a reporter in sight. From Jake Tapper's ABC Political Blog comes this:

Joe Who?

Since the Delaware senator left Obama's side and ventured out on his own on Labor Day, he has hardly garnered any national media interest at all.

His plane, a blue chartered 737, now crosses the country with about three-quarters of its seats empty, rows and rows with nary a warm body to be found.

....

...as Air Joe flew from Wilmington to Charlotte Sunday, the only reporters onboard were off-air reporters from the five television networks and correspondents from NBC and Politico. There was only one camera crew. The back of the plane, reserved for press, sat totally deserted.

The New York Times? Gone. The Washington Post? Not seen since the first days of September. The otherwise ubiquitous Associated Press? Left even before that.

And when the senator spent two straight down days at his Delaware home this weekend, the press corps dwindled further, with some members bolting the "small wonder" state altogether, leaving Wilmington a media ghost town.

On Saturday, only four reporters were around to cover any Biden action. Not that there was any.

Ouch! I feel for the guy, I really do. His spotlight lasted only about 36 hours.

What should he do? Hang on and be part of the greatest presidential political collapse of all time, or bail out now and leave Obama without a wingman? Even if he wants to bail now, no one will want to step into those poison shoes...certainly not Hillary Clinton.

The decision may be out of his hands anyway. It looks to me like he's in a no-win situation.

SNL Palin/Hillary Skit

2008-09-14T22:48:00.000-07:00

That Saturday Night Live skit with Tina Fey (Palin) and Amy Poehler (Clinton) is funny stuff! Gov Palin even said so herself...and FWIW, she played Tina Fey before Tina played her.

It could have been MUCH funnier, however, if Obama had showed up as scheduled and stood at the podium between the two women who have been kicking his ass since oh, last Feb or so. Hillary won like 12 of the last 15 primary states, and if I recall, even some states AFTER she had withdrawn her bid, or maybe that was just polling results. Either way, THAT's gotta hurt. And Sarah has been kicking his ass bigtime since the RNC.

"Psssst, Hey Big O!...you're doing it wrong....you're supposed to be running against John McCain!"

Never forget

2008-09-11T23:28:00.000-07:00

Palin rocks the house!

2008-09-04T00:59:00.000-07:00

In what may likely be designated the best VP speech of all time, Sarah Palin rocked the house tonight at the Excel Center in St Paul, MN. Excellent speech!

It's Palin!

2008-08-29T09:06:00.001-07:00

Checkmate! Game Over! John McCain today executed a beautiful head-fake on the entire media and the country on his pick for a running mate. It wasn't one of the 4 white men that were presumably on McCain's "short list", but rather a conservative, woman govenor with a reputation as a effective reformer. No wonder McCain was smiling at Obama in his commercial last night while congratulating Obama on his "job well done!" He knew that his brilliant move this morning would knock Obama off the headlines in a New York minute.

I've been saying for months that McCain should pick Palin to counter the Hillary factor. If Hillary had been the Democrats' nominee, Sarah could have helped counter the female vote going for Hillary. But since Obama is now the nominee, there are at least 18 million Hillary voters who may still like to see a woman in the White House. Her pluses are too many to note right here, with very few minuses. Some are saying she has little experience, but she has way more experience than Obama at an executive level, and she has been the Commander-in-Chief of the Alaska National Guard for 2 years. She's got the right stuff...I can't wait to see her upstage that pompous windbag Joe Biden.

Awesome awesome awesome! Game on!

Obama's Anthem

2008-08-27T17:02:00.001-07:00

Will they be playing this when The ONE ascends the Baracropolis, to take his position among Kings?

God is not happy with Denver

2008-08-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

God is not happy with what is happening in Denver right now with the DNC. Rare tornadoes hit the area near Invesco Field today...

Obama/Biden?! Good luck with that.

2008-08-24T00:18:00.000-07:00

Republicans are downright giddy with the selection of Joe Biden as Obama's President, er, Vice Presidential running mate. Barack very nearly screwed up bigtime by introducing "President Joe Biden", and Joe soon paid the gaffe back, by referring to Obama as "Barack America".

Although, his selection as the VP nominee seems almost too easy to defeat. After all, his IQ is higher than ours. But like my pappy used to say, if it sounds too good to be true...

John Edwards is sooooo busted!

2008-07-31T22:04:00.000-07:00

What's up with John Edwards, and why isn't the MSM covering it? The National Enquirer has been relentlessly investigating Edwards since last year, when they outed Edwards' baby momma (Rielle Hunter) and love child. Edwards was able to lie his way out of that one, with the help of his friends, but this time he was caught with his pants down. Well, not really, but probably not far from it.

Hey John, you scumbag, how's the wife doing with her battle against cancer.

This guy was being talked about as a possible vice presidential candidate just a few short weeks ago. And now that there is basically confirmation of his alleged philandering and the alleged resultant love child, the main stream media is covering for him by not covering the story! It's not terribly surprising though, because the story might make Dems look bad, so of course it must be buried. (Too bad guys, the word is getting out anyway)

Kudos to the National Enquirer for staying on the story.

Obama Goes Green - Using Recycled Speech

2008-07-25T10:35:00.001-07:00

It appears that Obama's speech writers got a bit of inspiration from Bono. Rush Limbaugh has dug up audio of Bono that's eerily similar to the words Obama spoke in Berlin. The plagiarists are sooo busted.

And then Obama has the "audacity" to blow off a scheduled visit to our wounded soldiers at the Landstuhl Medical Center and Ramstein, Germany. It turns out that the media and their cameras are not allowed in military installations, so since he couldn't turn the visit into a photo op, it wasn't worth his time.

This guy is a real piece of work.

This is Obama's Moment? Really?

2008-07-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

"This is the moment"? Is that the best BH Obama can do to shoot for a memorable line from his speech in Berlin today? Lame. What a load of hooey he was spewing, more like an Obama pep rally...good thing Germans can't vote. It sounded as if Mr "Citizen of the World" wants to be Mr President of the World. I want a citizen of the United States who wants to be President of the United States., not to turn it into some Euro-style socialist utopia.

And what's the deal with him "apologizing" for our country. Screw him...he doesn't speak for me. This country has done more good than ANY other and it's people are the most generous on the planet, even in challenging economic times.

Funny, ALLLL this attention he's getting, but no bump in the polls, still nearly even-steven, within the margin of error. The same way it has looked for some weeks now. If I were a bettin' man, I'd that bet BH Obama's honeymoon with America will be over by the time the polls open in November. People will get wise to his schtick, tired of his position-shifting, and resentful that he already presumes he is President, and then will pull the lever for McCain.

Fantasy Debate - Obama vs Miss South Carolina

2008-07-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

A fantasy debate I'd like to see is Obama vs Miss South Carolina, Lauren Caitlin, because they seem so evenly matched with their off-the-cuff answers. Terry Moran of ABC is asking the questions:

MORAN: Mr Obama, if you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you support the surge?

OBAMA: No, because, I -- I -- I -- eh -- I -- Keep in mind that -- that --

MORAN: You wouldn't?

OBAMA: Uh, eh, um, well -- These kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult. You know, hindsight is 20/20. But I think that w-what I am absolutely convinced of is that, uh, at that time, we had to change the political debate because the view of the, uh (pause), Bush administration at that time was one that I disagreed with.

MORAN: "Lauren, same question..."

CAITLIN: "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uhmm, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our education over here in the US should help the U.S., umh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us."

New York Times - not fit to wrap fish

2008-07-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

Can the New York Times get any more blatant about their Obamabias? Obama submits an op-ed piece about his plans for Iraq & Afghanistan, and the NYT prints it. Fine.

A few days later, John McCain submits his rebuttal as well as a detail of his plans for the regions. And they reject it, and send it back with notes to rewrite it to be more like Obama's!

In the past, they have printed pieces from Yassir Arafat and Hamas, but they are rejecting the Republican presidential candidate's submission?! Unbelievable!

R.I.P. Tony Snow

2008-07-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

Tony Snow Funeral Held in Washington

A great and wise man has been silenced way too early in life. Tony Snow excelled at everything he did, from being a political FOX NEWS TV and radio commentator, to a Presidential Press Secretary with a wry sense of humor, to being a multi-talented musician, to being a great Dad to his children. And he did it all with an amazing optimism, even while battling the disease that claimed his life all too early.

He died of colon cancer over the weekend and was buried today, in a ceremony that was attended by President Bush and many political luminaries and White House correspondents.

An Oilman with a Plan

2008-07-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

It's refreshing to finally see an oilman coming forward with an energy plan, and it's not about oil...other than reducing our dependence on foreign oil. I don't know too much about Texas oilman T Boone Pickens, but I'm liking what I've seen from him over the last year. He just released My Plan to Escape the Grip of Foreign Oil, which seems like a sensible start to develop wind farms, but I'm wondering why he doesn't mention nuclear energy. I like the idea of wind energy, but we should still lift the obstacles to building nuclear power plants, developing coal sands technology, and drilling in ANWR and offshore.

Right now, our dependence on foreign oil is our Achille's Tendon, and you know what happens when that tendon is cut.

God Bless the USA!

2008-07-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

Hello World.

And Happy Independence Day USA!

Way back on April 13, 2008, Bloomberg noted that "'Restless’ Independents, Not Parties, May Select U.S. President". That was almost 3 months ago, and the election is now exactly 4 months away, so I figured I better get busy.

This is a very important election to the future of the United States, made even more so because the leadership of both major political parties are moving in disturbing and sometimes even dangerous directions. This will be a place for this restless independent to put in my two cents on that, and whatever else comes to mind.

But now, I'm going down to the Sarasota waterfront to see the power boats in town for the Suncoast Offshore Grand Prix, eat some barbeque, listen to some music, drink some beer, watch the fireworks, be proud of our country, and think about what today means.

God Bless the USA!

USS Constitution, Boston