Political Memories.

I thought I might share some of my political memories in Mississippi. I mentioned one time that my father was asked to run for Governor many times. He was Circuit Clerk of Hinds County at the time. But he always refused. He always said that level of politics was too ugly for him and boy was he right.

When I was a teenager in 1980 my family was rooting for a man for Governor named Bill Allain (a Democrat of course) and a few days before the election the news interviewed 2 black transvestites who claimed to have "been with" Mr. Allain.

Now that might not seem so unusual today, but this was freakin 1980 in the south!!! It was almost comical actually. Mr. Allain ex-girlfriend had to go on TV saying that he had completely normal sexual drives. CRAZY! Well, he won. **

I was gone after that and had nothing to do with politics for a while.

Then in 1992 Republican governor, Kirk Fordice was stopped coming back from Memphis for speeding. It ends up he was in Memphis visiting his mistress. He was divorced soon after.

My brother went to law school with the man who was Governor in 2000. A Democrat named Ronnie Musgrove. During his tenure his wife just up and left the governor's mansion never to be heard from again. Rumors were flying about affairs, but nothing was ever proven.

And then there is this one bizarre memory I have as a kid. My father was a wonderful man as anyone who has read my post on him knows. It wasn't unusual for the mayor or senators or any politician to end up on our doorstep for advice from my father.

When I was around 14 I awoke in the middle of night to see a man at my window. I screamed and I heard him say, "Could you go get your Dad?" Well I shot out of bed and ran to my Mom and Dad's room. Dad rushed out of bedroom and I hid behind the staircase and listened. It was a former senator, who had another elected position now, I can't remember what now. He was completely drunk. I heard my Dad talking in low tones to him at the back door and the man speaking loudly back slurring his words. All I could understand is that the man was in some sort of legal trouble and it seemed my Dad was the only possible person who could save him. ( my Dad had been a lawyer) Anyway, Dad called the man's wife to come get him and the man did end up in federal prison, but I can't remember what the charge was. I just remember my Dad referring to him later saying, "Poor guy, but he was guilty as hell."

And Finally, at my wedding reception I have on tape many prominent Mississippi politicians competely DRUNK making hilarious toasts to me. At the end of the tape after my husband and I had left to catch a plane in New Orleans, the mayor is heard on the tape saying, "Lets make a call and get them stopped in Delo," which was a small town outside of Mississippi. They wanted to "scare" us with a traffic stop. (Great use of political power, eh?) But my Mom can be heard clearly in the background, "NO! No! Just leave them alone! Let them get there."

Isn't political life fun???

** I did get the name wrong on Cliff Finch as one RUDE commenter pointed out. It was Bill Allain the Democratic Governor after Finch that that happened to. I may have gotten it confused since during the governship of Finch, he was shot (not dead) and the speculation was that his wife shot him. But it was never proven. Hard to keep the scandals straight just from memory.

*cross posted at UPC

Blog Law.

Naked Law brings us some interesting news on blogging around the world.

"There is no doubt that, at least in some parts of the world, blogging can be a risky business. Iranian bloggers were taken to prison and fined for "insulting the country's leaders and making anti-government propaganda"; Chinese bloggers using Microsoft's MSN Spaces site will find themselves censored if they try to use words like "democracy" and "freedom". Even in the US and UK, there have been some salutory reminders that a post on a blog is a publication that can give rise to real world consequences. First there was the sacking of air hostess "Queen of the Sky" for posting pictures of herself in uniform; then Joe Gordon, writer of the Woolamaloo Gazette, was sacked by Waterstones for comments he made about his employers; then Apple forced bloggers to reveal their sources for leaks about the company's new technology."
h/t Simon

Here’s this week’s Gravitational Pull-Up over at UPC:
At what age do you think you’ll retire at, and where do you plan to retire to?

My husband I have saved 20% of his salary since we both were working at 22 yrs old. It wasn't easy in the early years. I stayed on a tight budget. Hard work, no debt, and savings brings rewards. Good investments brought us even more savings. (one reason I feel so strongly about private accounts in Social Security) I would say now that 50 yrs old could be possible.

I want a beach house in Mexico. The homes there are actually leased through the government and a very nice beach home can be had for around $100,000, much less than the value of the home we live in now. I figure my kids will live in Texas, which is a short plane ride to the Mexican Riviera. I figure they and my grandkids will visit often, don't cha think?

And please no one give me that rich Republican crap. I was a poor Republican for a long time. And believe me when I say I help this economy along as much as I can now....;-)

There. I said it.

In watching the exchange between Kennedy and Rumsfield today I finally figured some things out. One thing I figured out is that Rumsfield has a lot of class. When Kennedy said "Isn't it time you resigned?" Wouldn't the perfect response have been, "Isn't time that you resigned Senator Kennedy?"

But Rumsfield chose the high road and simply stated that he had in fact offered to resign twice and President Bush had refused it.

But this was the main thing I figured out. Conservatives in general strongly disagree with liberals and fight against them for what we believe is right.

Liberals, on the other hand, don't just disagree with us, they hate us. A deep seething hate that was clearly shown on Senator Kennedy's face.

I notice this in my blogging and reading of the blogs. I read leftie blogs that I totally disagree with or think they are completely wrong, but I never feel hatred toward the blogger. I may leave remarks that show my side, but I don't personally feel a need to insult them. There have been times on this blog when commenters have offended me so much that I have gotten angry and shot back something, but that was a reaction. Liberals don't even need a reason to hate us personally. They just do.

I usually get angry when someone says something personal or denigrates our country, military, or our President. But the liberal commenters here get angry over a simple post of my beliefs. I mean really angry. I cannot imagine myself sending a mean personal hateful e-mail to someone over a post on an issue, no matter how much I disagree with them. I just find that strange.

So I will go farther than Rove here. I'm speaking in general, of course, when I say that we may dispise what liberals believe, but they dispise us.

Move over Bill Cosby.

I disagree with Barack Obama on many things, but in this Father's Day sermon Sunday at a South Side church in Chicago he gets it:

"The first is setting an example of excellence for our children.... If we are to pass on high expectations to our children we've got to have high expectations for ourselves. It is wonderful if a black man has a job, but it's even better if a black man owns a business.... It is a wonderful thing that you are married and living in a home with your children, but don't just sit in the house watching "SportsCenter" all weekend long....We know that our children's future is in education. The day when you could walk into a steel mill, and if you had a strong back and were willing to work you would be able to support a family--those days are over. Our children are competing against not just folks from Indiana ... our children are competing against folks in China,... playing the world game, which means we have to achieve the highest educational levels.Sometimes I go to an 8th-grade graduation and there's all that pomp and circumstance and gowns and flowers. It's just 8th grade, people. They've got to get out of high school, then they've got to go to college, then they've got to get a graduate degree if they want to compete. ... An 8th-grade education is not going to cut it! Just give them a handshake. Congratulations, now get your butt in the library.

He goes on:

We have to get beyond making excuses if we are going to be full-grown.... To be full-grown, you have to live out your values, and teach your children to live out your values, not just give them lip service to your values. You can tell what's important to somebody, not by what they say, but by what they do. Where they put their bite, where they put their energy, where they put their time...."

Great sermon.

Now on another note. Can you imagine if Rick Santorum gave a "sermon" at a Church on Father's Day with his take on values? I'm thinking it would be headline news. Liberals screaming for separation of Church and State. Why is there a double standard here?

Kawaiti's First Female Minister Sits In Parliament. I think I LOVE her attitude! Is that cool, or what??

This one just begs to be captioned!

Apology Accepted.

Senator Durbin apologizes tearfully on the Senate floor yesterday. It takes courage to apologize and admit you were wrong in this political world of high tension. Heaven knows the left sure as hell was not encouraging him to apologize. All they could do was defend the indefensible.

Durbin saw he was wrong and said he was sorry and said our military "was the best."

That is enough for me.

Kofi Annan extolls the progress in Iraq. He gives a lot of the credit to the U.N. of course, but hey...it's a start.

via Ace.

What The News Might Look Like.

AP: Today brought another car bomb in Jackson Tennessee near a police station killing 34 officers and 20 civilians nearby. This is 97th car bomb since 9-11.

In the last three years our country has had to endure the murder of 172 of our schoolchildren in 12 different schools across this nation by Islamic fundalmentalist homicide bombers. 943 church and synagogue members have been victims of homicide bombers as well. Our souls are crushed, our tears neverending.

There are protests daily outside the White House. People carrying signs saying "Bush, why didn't you protect us???" As President Bush has explained many times, he felt if the Patriot Act had passed then we would have better intelligence and could have prevented some of these horrible bombings. But the people aren't buying it.

The closing of Guantanamo is another factor the President cites. He insists that the ones we knew in this country that were dangerous should have been locked up and interrogated. He also says that the Homeland Security department he pushed, but was dismissed as not necessary, would have prevented these tragedies. But his words ring hollow. His "this might have worked" scenario's do not help us or comfort us as we bury our children.

There is a feeling of deep hatred for our President. He should have done more. After Afghanistan he took the easy road and said that we had killed those responsible for 9-11. That Osama was probably dead. He bask in the glory of that victory and easily won re-election.

Then hell descended upon us.

Our military is consumed now with border protection and paroling our streets. But it is almost impossible to circumvent these monsters who casually walk into our schools, churches, and police stations and blow themselves up.

There is talk now of a military invasion in the Middle East, but we have enough on our hands here at home. No one feels safe. We are prisoners in our own homes. Parents are scared to send their children to school.

How could this have happened?

There must have been a way to protect us. We are lost in fear now and the ending of it seems no where in sight.

Dispelling Myth From The Left.

How many times have you heard from the left how our invasion of Iraq created so many of the terrorists? How many time have you heard that our presence in Iraq caused the hatred??

Victor Davis Hanson has an excellent paper proving that not true.

He reports how the International Herald Tribune and the Washington Post interviewed a Syrian smuggler of jihadists to Iraq, Abu Ibrahim and he describes "that two weeks after the (Sept. 11th) attack, a celebration was held in his rural Syrian community celebrating the mass murder, and thereafter continued twice-weekly." And he goes on to quote Abu, "that Syrian officials attended such festivities, funded by Saudi money with public slogans that read, "The People ...Will Now Defeat the Jews and Kill Them All."

Abu says "that the goal of the jihadists is the restoration of the ancient caliphate ("The Koran is a constitution, a law to govern the world") and that " September 11 was "a great day."

There is much more, so read the whole thing. But this is the key point:

"First, there was always radical Islamic anti-American hatred that preceded Iraq. Indeed, celebrations were spontaneous immediately after September 11 on the mere news of slaughtered Americans."

So we need to dispute this false message that the left keeps putting out there that we are creating the terrorists.

But Hanson hits the nail on the head with this last paragraph:

"This is a dangerous trend. Despite murderous Syrian terrorists, dictatorial Saudis, crazy Pakistanis, and triangulating European allies, and after so many tragic setbacks, we are close to creating lasting democratic states in Afghanistan and Iraq — states that are influencing the entire region and ending the old calculus of Middle Eastern terror. We are winning even as we are told we are losing. But the key is that the American people need to be told — honestly and daily — how and why those successes came about and must continue before it sours on the entire sorry bunch."

Just when I think I can't find anything weirder on the net, I find this site for jewelry made of Barbie body parts. Most interesting? The Barbie boob necklace.

If you order anything I don't want to know.

William Kristol does have a better idea than censure for Senator Durbin as Hugh Hewitt and Newt Gingrich are suggesting:

"Why not put the burden on the Democrats? When Sen. Trent Lott made a far less damaging, but still deplorable, statement two and a half years ago, his fellow Republicans insisted
he step down as their leader. Shouldn't Democrats insist that Sen. Durbin step down as their whip, the number two man in their leadership? Shouldn't conservatives (and liberals) legitimately ask Democrats to hold their leader to account, especially given the precedent of Lott?"

Sounds good, but don't hold your breath. There is a pack mentality in the Democratic party that no amount of misdeeds can pull apart.

The Unpaid Punditry Corps has a new design! My new post, "The Politics of Sex" is up over there. Here is a lovely related post. h/t WindsOfChange.

Respect Authority.

I am beginning to think that we need public service announcements on TV to remind people how to act when a police officer is speaking to you. It doesn't matter if you think you have been unfairly stopped. It doesn't matter if you don't trust cops. When a cop tells you to get out the car or turn around or put your hands on your head, YOU DO IT! Discussions can happen later.

Because you if you don't, things like this can happen.
h/t SondraK