Presidential politics

First of all this cartoon from Mike Lukovich at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Captures the essence, don’t you think? Of course, one could argue the same thing about Fred Thompson, especially in regards to abortion, immigration, and religion (a tip of the conservative cap to Jay for the links). Sean also touches on these areas (this link duplicates the “immigration” link above).

I’m not wildly excited about Fred Thompson, but I think he’s a good enough conservative and a strong enough candidate. Mike Huckabee would probably be closer to my beliefs, but I don’t think he has a chance.

Filed under: 2008, Elections, Milwaukee, Political cartoons, Politics, Waukesha, presidential

The Fairness Doctrine

Life isn’t fair.

You can’t make it fair.

Make lemonade with your lemons.

Filed under: Politics

Here we go again

Immigration bill clears Senate test vote

Supporters needed 60 votes to scale procedural hurdles and return to the bill. A similar test-vote earlier this month found just 45 supporters, only seven of them Republicans. This time, 24 Republicans joined 39 Democrats and independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, to back moving ahead with the bill. Opposing the move were 25 Republicans, nine Democrats and independent Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont.

Unlike most of my fellow conservatives, I’m not worried whether this bill goes through or not, whether amendments are made that “toughen” it up or not.

Why? There won’t be any enforcement in the future than there is now. Who cares how many bills are put up? Unless we are renewed to enforce whatever law (third letter) we decide on, it means nothing. And I don’t think we will.

Amnesty? We have de facto amnesty now.

Evidently President Bush used “amnesty” in talking about the bill.  Tony Snow says he misspoke. Looking at it, it appears he did. But so what?

Filed under: Immigration, Politics, US Senate

Great minds think alike?

Cartoon by Stuart Carlson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Cartoon by Mike Thompson, Copley

Interesting, no?

Filed under: George W. Bush, Political cartoons

The AFI top 100

AFI TOP 100 U.S. FILMS (a tip of the conservative cap to Claude at Fuzz Martin for the list)

The ones I know I have seen are in bold.

1. “Citizen Kane,” 1941.
2. “The Godfather,” 1972.
3. “Casablanca,” 1942.
4. “Raging Bull,” 1980.
5. “Singin’ in the Rain,” 1952.
6. “Gone With the Wind,” 1939.
7. “Lawrence of Arabia,” 1962.
8. “Schindler’s List,” 1993.
9. “Vertigo,” 1958.
10. “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939.
11. “City Lights,” 1931.
12. “The Searchers,” 1956.
13. “Star Wars,” 1977.
14. “Psycho,” 1960.
15. “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1968.
16. “Sunset Blvd.”, 1950.
17. “The Graduate,” 1967.
18. “The General,” 1927.
19. “On the Waterfront,” 1954.
20. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” 1946.
21. “Chinatown,” 1974.
22. “Some Like It Hot,” 1959.
23. “The Grapes of Wrath,” 1940.
24. “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” 1982.
25. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” 1962.
26. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” 1939.
27. “High Noon,” 1952.
28. “All About Eve,” 1950.
29. “Double Indemnity,” 1944.
30. “Apocalypse Now,” 1979.
31. “The Maltese Falcon,” 1941.
32. “The Godfather Part II,” 1974.
33. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” 1975.
34. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” 1937.
35. “Annie Hall,” 1977.
36. “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” 1957.
37. “The Best Years of Our Lives,” 1946.
38. “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” 1948.
39. “Dr. Strangelove,” 1964.
40. “The Sound of Music,” 1965.
41. “King Kong,” 1933.
42. “Bonnie and Clyde,” 1967.
43. “Midnight Cowboy,” 1969.
44. “The Philadelphia Story,” 1940.
45. “Shane,” 1953.
46. “It Happened One Night,” 1934.
47. “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1951.
48. “Rear Window,” 1954.
49. “Intolerance,” 1916.
50. “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” 2001.
51. “West Side Story,” 1961.
52. “Taxi Driver,” 1976.
53. “The Deer Hunter,” 1978.
54. “M-A-S-H,” 1970.
55. “North by Northwest,” 1959.
56. “Jaws,” 1975.
57. “Rocky,” 1976.
58. “The Gold Rush,” 1925.
59. “Nashville,” 1975.
60. “Duck Soup,” 1933.
61. “Sullivan’s Travels,” 1941.
62. “American Graffiti,” 1973.
63. “Cabaret,” 1972.
64. “Network,” 1976.
65. “The African Queen,” 1951.
66. “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” 1981.
67. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, 1966.
68. “Unforgiven,” 1992.
69. “Tootsie,” 1982.
70. “A Clockwork Orange,” 1971.
71. “Saving Private Ryan,” 1998.
72. “The Shawshank Redemption,” 1994.
73. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” 1969.
74. “The Silence of the Lambs,” 1991.
75. “In the Heat of the Night,” 1967.
76. “Forrest Gump,” 1994.
77. “All the President’s Men,” 1976.
78. “Modern Times,” 1936.
79. “The Wild Bunch,” 1969.
80. “The Apartment, 1960.
81. “Spartacus,” 1960.
82. “Sunrise,” 1927.
83. “Titanic,” 1997.
84. “Easy Rider,” 1969.
85. “A Night at the Opera,” 1935.
86. “Platoon,” 1986.
87. “12 Angry Men,” 1957.
88. “Bringing Up Baby,” 1938.
89. “The Sixth Sense,” 1999.
90. “Swing Time,” 1936.
91. “Sophie’s Choice,” 1982.
92. “Goodfellas,” 1990.
93. “The French Connection,” 1971.
94. “Pulp Fiction,” 1994.
95. “The Last Picture Show,” 1971.
96. “Do the Right Thing,” 1989.
97. “Blade Runner,” 1982.
98. “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” 1942.
99. “Toy Story,” 1995.
100. “Ben-Hur,” 1959.

Filed under: After hours, Movies

Gmail and Google Apps

From folkbum’s Rambles and Rants.

First of all, I just want to thank Jay for providing blogging space for me, during my transition. But I wanted to just describe my trials here for my first post so that others may benefit.

Fittingly, there was an article in eWeek magazine this week about Google and its wonderful applications that make collaboration possible. It’s true.

Until you lose the email account that you use all this wonderful stuff with.

Early last week, I discovered I could not log on to my Gmail account. Interacting with the Gmail Help group, I tried several things to no avail. I’m still waiting for a human from Google support to get back to me.

Since I use that account to log on to Blogger, there is no blogging to be done at my blog until this is fixed. And the way this has happened, I doubt I’ll blog there even if it is fixed. So look for me on WordPress for now.

Google calendar? Gone. Docs and Spreadsheets? Gone. iGoogle? Gone. Reader? Gone. And the list goes on.

And every account that I’ve used the Gmail account to log in to has been lost to me. And the newsletters that I had sent to that account.

One, in particular was the WordPress site. It had been hacked by S— Eater 007. I don’t know if there is a connection, but I suspect there is. Fortunately, WordPress.com’s support is better than Google’s, so that’s fixed.

And this has also sent me into a password changing frenzy.

I’ve changed my method of operation now also.

1. Every Gmail account has a secondary account. You can do this very easily and I highly recommend it if you haven’t already.

2. If I ever get my original site back, I may keep it, but will add myself under another email as an administration author. Hopefully, if one goes down, I can still log in with the other.

3. I’ll backup my blog. Blogger gives instructions for doing it, but I always put it off. The template was backed up, but not the posts. I’ll take advantage of every backup. For example, WordPress has an API key. Write it down someplace.

4. I may even set up a shadow email account and auto-forward everything there.

There may be other things I’ll do, and some of you may share things also.

Again, thanks, Jay, for letting me post here.

Filed under: Blogging, Google, Technology

But what if I want a nice royal blue?

Honda to produce green diesel cars

Filed under: Environment

I haven’t been to any of these restaurants

Getto’s Top 30: Red meat, great treats and more.

Is that good or bad?

Filed under: After hours

Transit

Jo Engelhoff of FoxPolitics.Net (They’re not on your blogroll? Shame.) takes a look at the love-hate relationship some of us have with mass transit. Many of her points mirror my own thinking.

Regionalization is great. Another taxing authority? Not so much. But how do we have regionalization without giving it the authority to tax?

Here in southeast Wisconsin government officials are looking at the KRM line as well as possibly a Milwaukee-Madison line someday.

It may be good, but how do we pay for it and how do we get more people to ride it?

Filed under: Transportation

Sports shorts

You know you’re a football fan, when you find an ultrasound of a kid making your team’s sign. They grow ‘em young in Texas. (A tip of the conservative cap to the Waukesha Freeman).

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays (Good news, they’re only one game behind the Yankees. Bad news, the Yankees suck!) gave up a 5 run lead Tuesday night and lost to Toronto 12-11. Wednesday night the bullpen pitched 4 innings of shutout ball as the D-Rays won 6-2.

Tim Schilke proclaims the Cubs are a mess and they beat the Brewers 2 out of 3. Further proof liberals are wrong ;^)

I don’t know why but headlines like this always make me chuckle: LOL to induct six into Hall of Fame.

Former Yankee third baseman Clete Boyer died Monday at the age of 70. Boyer was a great third baseman (even if he was a Yankee) who might have gotten more press if he hadn’t played in the era of the greatest fielding third baseman, perhaps, to ever live, Brooks Robinson. Robinson, if memory serves would play back to stop those shots by him and dare people to bunt. Boyer would play up against the bunt and dare you to hit it by him.

He died on the 50th anniversary of his coming to the Yanks in a 12 player trade with the K.C. A’s, when the A’s used to be the Yankees farm team.

Finally, if you’re one of the two people who missed the tirade of the minor league manager, you can catch it here.

Filed under: Sports