Health issues may define District races

An awful lot of folks are still wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth over the selection process for District Senate seats and other elections, as the districts still lack definition and that news is most likely to have a late April coming. Early May could be the actual layout of the borders of the Districts in question to Loudoun.

In the shadow of that timeline, another concern has stepped into the determination process, and no one is celebrating or controlling that issue.

Anyone who has spoken with Dick Black in the past six months has noticed the tremors. That could indicate Parkinson’s. I dated a gal for five years and during that time, was with her thru the process of her father's last days. He had been a Navy Captain of one of the first Nuclear powered-ships...and a striking figure in his prime.
And still more who have actually lost loved ones to Alzheimer's is familiar with the short term memory loss that it begins with. My wife's father, a once strong and vibrant architect in Cape Cod, lost his fight some 6 years ago. So, my heart goes out to any family who has to deal with the situation and the eventual loss.

I've been hearing from several sources that Black may actually decide not to incur the stress of a vigorous campaign and may well just decide to enjoy family and more important issues closer to home. I offer prayers on behalf of the family, and on Mr. Black . I'm sincere, because I've seen what lies down that road.

And just like that....there it was...

I like to browse back thru old postings at a number of political blogs every once in a while. Tonite, I was going back thru the history of my "warming" to Howie Lind....kinda like a refresher on how I got here.... month by month, if you will.

The last response in a particular thread caught my eye. Didn't mean anything back then. But has taken on a whole new meaning/explanation of the strange bedfellows I heard about back on October 9th. Seems like they were working near enough to each other to forge that new alliance back in May of 2010.
Too Conservative
by:Voice of Reason
on May 20th, 2010 at 10:05pm

"Guess who is a alive and well and selling real estate in Purcellville right across the street from Lazaro’s church. Yep! DPM, working her way back in and back up, right next to the Purcellville rino/dino/inde mayor. Still not sure what his political or religious affiliation is. Changes like the weather. DPM is representing carrington homes, subsid. of Lerner. Wonder what the western clan has planned for the LCRC? Watch out, it is not wise to play with self serving *#&%$@ (people) disguised as “friends”."

Emphasis is mine. I'd heard that she was assembling a "deathstar"... and the particulars were right there in that golden comment at the end of a dead thread.
Oh, well. It's not 2011 yet, and forewarned is fore-armed.

Laymen's Terms

Some simply do not understand the chain of events that got us where we are....choosing to blame it on wars and GW Bush. Fact is, GW Bush actually made comment to reigning in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae some eight (8) times from 2004 -2008.
If you still can't follow - unemployed and those who could never qualify to repay a loan were given one anyway, because it just wasn't fair that people who could repay their loans were given preference over those who couldn't.


Understanding Derivatives
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit . She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.

Heidi keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans). Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit .

By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages.
Consequently, Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS. These securities then are bundled and traded on international securities markets.

Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds really are debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. He so informs Heidi.

Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and Heidi's 11 employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINKBOND prices drop by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank's liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.The suppliers of Heidi's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from their cronies in government.

The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Heidi's bar.

Now do you understand?

Monday mornin' Quarter-backin' ...or worse

Seems alot of the local "talent" is all twisted up about the upcoming 33rd District Candidates. I've commited early to Michael "Spike" Williams, a good solid conservative fellow with a son just graduated from Liberty University.
I like Patricia Phillips as well, because Patricia has paid her dues in local party activism. She, unlike many others, stayed the course when the Committee was re-energized under the fantastic direction of Glen Caroline.(The author had the pleasure of serving as Mr. Caroline's 72 Hr/GOTV Chairman). At every turn, Patricia was right there moving the effort forward. She blended well with the team, and her enthusiasm never departed.

When Dick Black came back from Stafford'Spotsylvania's First District (after a 4th place thumping as I hear it) to reinsert himself into the 33rd District race, a whole host of irrelevant folks started spouting that he had to be stopped. Let me explain here (where it can't be deleted or altered) that Dick Black has every right to run in the District. The State and National Constitution guarantee that right to anyone who desires it and meets the criteria set forth. What is disturbing is that these individuals would attempt to disqualify Mr. Black in this run by using the same under-handed whisper campaigns that have been employed against them in the past.
I suppose their view of right and wrong is tainted by the "better good" as they interpret it.

I have explained on numerous postings, on numerous occasions ...that the best effective way to defeat Black is to mount an all-out call for delegates to a convention --- or to establish a primary and fill it with enough voters for the majority of one of the other candidates. Black is toast at that point...or he chooses to run as an independent (which would only serve to reinforce my opinion that he thinks alot of himself).

I've also pointed out...the District borders are unknown today. The Candidates have not even all announced. So all of this hand-wringing is a bit premature. It changes nothing.

And to those who think I've evolved into some sort of "party hack/LCRC loyalist/Dick Black supporter" I simply respond, you do not understand now, nor will you ever truly grasp politics. If I pout and go to my corner- then my worst nightmares come true. I have no input mecahnism that actually changes things.
BUT, If I engage and argue from the floor of the LCRC to defend what I see as fair and reasonable practice- then I'm engaged. I do affect decisions. And I influence (with the other folks who are also challenging the Committee to adhere strictly to the rules of the Party Plan) the monthly outcome of the Committee's direction.

And they've forgotten...I have a history of breaking clean and doing it my own way if the situation calls for it.

But to QUIT. Leave. Pout. Whine.
All of these actions are the actions of losers. They are the actions of quitters. Those who carry the notion " my vote doesn't count anyway, so I just won't bother"...

But if these folks want to be heard, they have to mount a campaign and begin aligning actual warm bodies that will attend the decision-making process and heavily influence the outcome. Dick Black's people will do no less.

BDS II

Common Cents Blog has a video of the interview with Bill O'reilly posted here.

Seems like an awful lot more snarky comments around the media outlets than when Jimma Carter injects his latest idiocy. Or Clinton chimes in on what Bush was responsible for. There's a general courtesy, boys. As former Presidents, you don't critique a sitting President. It's just really bad form. (not to mention that the current resident of the office is doing a bangup job all by himself. Korea and others have told him to pound sand with his damned Union thugs needs and wants)

This former President explains to the American People what formed his opinions and actions. Something he didn't even bother to do while he was at the helm. Can you imagine G.W. Bush whining about his treatment on MSNBC while he was seated???
His actions of the time regarding the press should have set the bar, and Obama would have done well to employ them. Instead, the current President seems hell-bent on blaming Fox News for his every dilema. The comparison with the rock that was Bush is stark.

While I disagree with much of what Bush and company did in his latter term, his first term should be the very definition of how the office is run. Strong and unflinching on defense and how we approach the rest of the world. Compassionate when it was needed at home, and smart enough to listen to the people who actually deliver the jobs to that job report. Our current President seems hell-bent (again) on handing out our candy to the special interest that he bemoaned Bush of having. And as an inexperienced state senator, who's never once owned a company, he should have surrounded himself with business owners who could tell him that those upper end tax cuts are actually being deployed to sole small businesses who show better on paper...and currently produce 70% of the actual jobs in the country. Because using this strategy, Obama and his people could have grown the job market. But, as I'm prone to pointing out: Liberal economists overlook this --- Two and Two are always going to equal Four - regardless of how you FEEL about the numbers.

Glad to see Bush back in the limelight, and delighted to see he's still classy enough not to break the cardinal courtesy that Carter and Clinton never observed.

The Project behind it all

As many of you know, I've been working on a replacement vehicle for the SuperVan. I've covered the beginning of the project here and here .

I collected the side rockers, "B" bar and hood back in May from a military vehicle swap meet in Aberdeen. I secured the windshield from a fellow in Pennsylvania on Ebay around then, too.

I secured a kevlar top and doors in July...and they've decorated my yard for that long. Last weekend, I got the tractor and pulled the vehicle out of the shop long enough to snap some pics and lift the 450 lb. top onto the project. I was delighted to find that I built the body to about a 1/4" tolerance using only photographs to scale the parts, and an occasional measurement of the real thing to nail the dimensions. The top fit like a glove, meaning that I got it right.

See, this body spaceframe was built in my front yard, using an old arc stick welder, until the accumulated parts got to the point where the body got so heavy that I couldn't lug it around anymore. At that point I cleaned and denuded the truck chassis, and mounted it to the rolling chassis for portability.

I still have floorpans and an altered firewall to mount, as well as all the lighting and brakes to do. But getting the exterior finished was a huge first step. The rest will seem like a cake walk.

Blame Game

I'm telling you now...so hear me later.
Democrats and liberal media will begin an all out assault on the American People tomorrow night. Some of the choiciest words will be ...idiots/ misinformed/ dumb/ fickle/ and misguided.
You see, when the American People do what Dems want, they are empowered, informed and sharp as a tack.
But let the game go the wrong way, and dems are the FIRST ones to toss the American People under the proverbial bus. I do not make a habit of watching MSNBC, but I'm making an exception on Wednesday. I specifically want to see how bad they berate voters, and watch them wallow in it for a couple of hours.

Update: It's even worse than the casual name-calling from the left media. They are continuously covering the democrat wins in California and NY.....and purposely avoiding any reference to the losses they incurred to Republicans across the country..
Even as late yesterday, Matthews on msnbc was reffering to the day as "stupor Tuesday" as a slam against those petty stupid and uninformed voters who would weild the blows to Obama and Dems.