MTCW Pic of the Day (we have two pics today)

CHRISTMAS IN AFGHANISTAN

(Above): An Afghan man shops for a Christmas tree in Kabul, Afghanistan. This photo alone shows the progress that has been made in this country. Just a few years ago the selling and buying of a Christmas tree would have warranted death to both parties by the Taliban. Today Afghan Christians are able to openly celebrate Christmas and the birth of Christ.

US Soldiers celebrate Christmas by attending midnight Catholic Mass on Christmas Eve in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you and all of your families. I would like to thank each one of you for your continuous support and for reading My Two Cents Worth. I appreciate it more than you know.

Blogging will be light, if any at all into the new year, as I continue to work on my new blog.

My favorite Christmas poems.

I leave you with two of my favorite Christmas poems. They are both written and about US Servicemembers being away from home during Christmas. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Payment Enough
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,"
Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "It's really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,
"Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers.
"My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,"
Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."


A Soldiers Christmas
Twas the Night Before Christmas
He lived all alone,
In a One Bedroom House
Made of Plaster and Stone
I had come down the Chimney
With Presents to Give,
And to see just who
In this Home did live.
I looked All About,
A strange Sign did I see,
No Tinsel. No Presents.
Not even a Tree.
No stocking by Mantle,
Just boots filled with sand.
On the wall hung a picture
Of far distant lands.
With Medals and Badges,
Awards of all Kinds
A sober thought
Came through my mind.
For This House was different
It was dark and dreary
I found the Home of a Soldier
Once I could see Clearly.
The Soldier Lay Sleeping
Silent, Alone
Curled up on the floor
Of this One Bedroom Home.
The face was so Gentle
The room in such Disorder
Not how I pictured
A United States Soldier.
Was This The Hero
Of Whom I Just Read?
Curled up on A Poncho
The floor for a bed?
I realized the Families
That I saw This Night,
Owed Their Lives to These Soldiers
Who were willing to fight.
Soon Round the World,
The Children Would Play,
And Grown-ups would Celebrate
A Bright Christmas Day.
They all enjoyed Freedom
Each month of the Year.
Because of the Soldiers
Like the one lying here.
I couldn't help wonder
How many lay alone,
On a cold Christmas Eve
In a land far from Home.
The very thought
Brought a tear to My eye,
I dropped to my knees,
and I started to Cry.
The Soldier awakened
And I heard A rough voice,
Santa don't cry,
This Life is my Choice.
I fight for Freedom,
I don't Ask for More,
My life is My God,
My Country, My Corps.
The Soldier rolled over,
And drifted to sleep,
I couldn't Control it,
I continued to weep.
I Kept watch for hours,
So silent and still.
And we both shivered
From The cold night's chill.
I didn't want to leave
On that cold, dark night,
This Guardian of Honor
So willing to fight.
Then the Soldier rolled over,
With a voice soft and pure,
Whispered 'Carry on Santa,
It's Christmas Day, All is Secure.
'One look at my watch,
And I knew he was right.
'Merry Christmas My Friend,
And To All A Good Night.'

Forget about Freddie, give me Huckabee...

I have been trying to figure out just whom I want for the GOP presidential nomination. I was highly impressed with Mike Huckabee after the first presidential debate, but then Fred Thompson entered the race.

It has pretty much been a toss up for me between those two, with me leaning towards Thompson. I have really just been waiting for Thompson to say something clear about if he is going to support the FairTax or not. That became clear as the blue sky on Sunday as Thompson laid out his tax plan on “Fox News Sunday”

Thompson tax proposal would allow Americans to choose a simplified tax system with only two rates of 10 percent or 25 percent. The plan keeps the IRS intact unlike the FairTax and allows filers to remain under the current tax code or use the flat tax rates.

I agree this plan would be simpler than the current system, but the FairTax would be even more simplified. It eliminates the IRS and replaces it with a national sales tax, no more invasion of privacy to personal information, no more forms to fill out in April, and you get to keep your whole check on payday. It doesn’t get any simpler, does it? Learn more about the FairTax here.

So, Huckabee supports the FairTax, Thompson doesn’t. Forget about Freddie give me Huckabee.

Of course there is still plenty of time for me to change my mind…hmmm. I have never had this hard of a time picking a candidate.

Agreeing with Jesse Jackson Jr.:competion in school systems

Quick someone check to see if hell is freezing over! I am agreeing with Liberal U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.! (D) Illinois.
At an event held by a new group, Democrats for Education Reform, Jackson discussed the “alarming drop out rates” and the dangers of a “monopoly” with failing schools.

“We must explore options,” he said. “Every option for every American child so that every child might have the high-quality education they deserve in their lifetime…We need more competition in the system.”

This is good news for education reform and school choice. The democrats have always bowed down before the National Education Association. They have always made the claim that government schools were great, but failing because the lack of money. Now it looks like some democrats are starting to come around.

It should be no surprise that black representatives like Jackson are leading the charge. On average, black Americans support the idea of school choice, even when the NAACP does not.

A public opinion poll from 2002, conducted by the Joint Center for Political Economical studies in DC showed 57 percent of blacks support school choice as a whole. If they had children that number jumps to 67 percent and 70 percent of blacks ages 25-35 are school choice supporters.

If the NAACP is correct in there stance that school choice does not benefit black children, then why do black parents continue to participate and put their names on waiting lists for school choice programs.

There is no doubt parents are looking for a way out of failing inner-city schools. The numbers are staggering everywhere it has been offered.

In Milwaukee, the school choice program grew from 341 students in l990-91 to a mandated cap of more than 15,000 in 2005-06. The Cleveland, Ohio scholarship program grew from 1,994 students in l996-97 to more than 6,000 in 2002-2003. In l999, the private New York City based Children's Scholarship Fund endorsed by former Congressman Rev. Floyd Flake received 1.25 million applicants for only 40,000 scholarships to attend private schools.

Perhaps the NAACP should start paying attention to the community they supposedly represent and not the special interest groups like the NEA where they get their money.

Thompson says no to Huckabee challenge.

Fred Thompson advocated for Lincoln/Douglas style debates. Mike Huckabee agrees to take the challenge. Thompson changes his mind and says no.

Thompson claims there are to many candidates, and it wouldn’t be fair to pair just the two of them.

“We have the greatest respect for Gov. Huckabee and respect his desire to elevate the discourse in this campaign,” Thompson said. “But there are nine people running for the GOP nomination and an arbitrary pairing of just two of them does a disservice to the voters. We will push hard for Lincoln-Douglas style debates once we get into the General Election, when there are only two candidates running.”

I would love to see this kind of throw down debate. If I were running the Huckabee campaign; I would steal Thompson’s thunder and challenge every republican candidate to this kind of debate.

How bout we throw all nine candidates in. It could be like a royal rumble of words. If anything, it would be the most entertaining debate ever.

Mike Huckabee is Chuck Norris approved.

I feel a new Chuck Norris fact coming on. Voters don't pick the president, Chuck Norris does.

Chuck Norris endorsed Mike Huckabee back in October when he wrote an Op Ed Column ‘My Choice For President.’ In the column Norris writes:

“Though Giuliani might be savvy enough to lead people, Fred Thompson wise enough to wade through the tides of politics, McCain tough enough to fight terrorism and Romney business-minded enough to grow our economy, I believe the only one who has all of the characteristics to lead America forward into the future is ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.”

Now Huckabee has a new ad out featuring Norris. Does celebrity endorsements always transfer into votes though? You can see the ad on you tube.

I guess ads like this can’t hurt; after all John Wayne campaigned for Ronald Reagan in California. Check out the Duke's 1966 Campaign Commercial: Reagan for Governor.

Country Boy's suggested reading and viewing from around the web

A county in Maryland says get your kids vaccinated or risk going to jail. Get use to this with national health care on the way. After all we are like cattle owned by the government, not individuals with the right to make decisions on our own.

Looks like Mike Huckabee will be packing heat at the CNN/You Tube debate Wednesday night. He is bringing his recent endorsement, Chuck Norris.

Speaking of endorsements, Dennis Hof, owner of the famous or infamous depending how you look at it, Bunny Ranch brothel in Las Vegas has endorsed Ron Paul. I doubt Paul will be bringing the pimp to the debate.

Oprah Winfrey hitting the campaign trail with Barack Obama. Can she draw enough female vote away from Hilary Clinton? I wonder what celebrities Hilary is going to roll out?

Ted Kennedy is getting an advance of more than $8 million to write his memoirs. I can't wait for the part where he describes the night he let Mary Jo Kopechne to drown in his car. I have a funny feeling that part will be left out.

Osama bin Ladin will address the people of Europe with an Internet message "soon." To let them know he has defeated the Americans and tyrants. Hey Osama, since you have defeated us why don’t you stick your head out of the cave your hiding in? Didn’t think so…

Hezbollah says that it is ready to launch "a bloody reprisal" in Britain if there is any Western attack on Iran. Islamic terrorists threatening a bloody attack, shocking!!! Let me alert the media.

On Friday Pakistani President Musharraf will quit as army chief and take an oath of office as civilian president. Hopefully, things will calm down over there.

Republican Minority Whip leader Trent Lott is resigning from the Senate. Good riddance Trent. Don’t let the door hit you where the good lord split you on the way out. We are now rid of Lott, Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert. Their leadership in the GOP brought us out of control government expansion and spending responsible for the republicans losing the majority in the first place.

The IRS has failed to refund $4 billion in improperly collected taxes from 165 million taxpayers. Hmmm. Wonder what happens when the shoe is on the other foot. Oh yeah, they confiscate everything you own in back taxes and interest. Isn’t it time to banish the IRS forever and pass the FairTax.

These two women will not have babies in order to help save the planet. One of them actually had an abortion and then became sterilized. She says having children is selfish and is about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet. What a loon! Perhaps it is good she sterilized herself, now she can’t contaminate the rest of the world with her offspring. I wish more environmentalist loons would follow her lead.

Happy Thanksgiving

Even while in Afghanistan Thanksgiving is still my favorite holiday

Ah, the smell of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy coming from the kitchen. Family members begin to arrive from their travels for the holiday feast. Football on the TV in the living room tuned in for the annual spanking of the Detroit Lions by Brett Farve and the Green Bay Packers. Is it any wonder why this is my favorite holiday?

Although I will still have turkey with all the fixings, I will not be at home to share in the festivities this year. Instead, I will be eating with my other family, my brothers and sisters of the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

I am actually thankful for having the pleasure to be in such great company in such a rough place. Afghanistan truly reminds me just what America and I have to be thankful for, and it is a lot.

The one thing I am truly thankful for, and forever will be is that I am an American. I don’t have to live in a place like Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is a country that has been oppressed and torn apart by political strife and war for more than 20 years. A lot of people in Afghanistan have no running water or adequate housing. They live in houses with dirt floors, no electricity, air conditioning or heat. It is truly hard to grasp this without seeing it for yourself, but they are truly doing without.

The majority of the poorest in America have access to housing with running water, heat and food. Go to the poorest neighborhoods in America you will find most have cell phones, computers and televisions.

You will never hear me complain about having to do without again, because for me in America doing without probably means not buying that new car I really want and settling for the used car. The United States of America is God’s greatest gift to mankind and for that I am thankful.

So sometime between football and dinner you should take a moment and think about how thankful you are for what you have been blessed with. We truly do live in the greatest nation on Earth.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Now would someone please pass the mashed potatoes and gravy and Go Packers!

President Bush carries out traditional pardoning of turkeys

President Bush carries on the traditional pardoning of the turkeys dating back to the Truman Administration in the Rose Garden. The turkeys were named on a “May” and “Flower” on a online poll. I preferred Vice President Cheney’s suggested names of “Lunch” and “Dinner” better.

MTCW Pic of the Day

Rough Time for Hillary

It's been a rough time for Hillary Clinton -- a tough debate performance, a lost voice, accusations of illegal campaign funding and the Clinton campaign caught coaching questioners at events.

Then at the end of a Veterans Day press conference, American flags attacked Hillary as they started falling down around her. What I am interested to see is how the media will treat the Clinton campaign coaching questioners at events. I wonder if this will be a weeklong mediagasm like it was for President Bush when the media accused his aides of coaching Soldiers in Iraq for a photo op? You don’t remember that? Let’s go back into the My Two Cents Worth archives and refresh your memory.

Hillary Clinton's Healthcare Records

Hundreds of pages worth of memos and correspondence that involve Hillary's healthcare plan in the early 1990s can not be released from the National Archives because they have been deemed confidential. The documents are being withheld under federal law allowing the restriction of "private communications between presidential advisors."

Wow, Is there any doubt if Hillary were a Republican the democrats would be sending subpoenas for these documents?

Anyways, let’s take a look at some of the titles of memos that are not releasable: “Positioning ourselves on healthcare” or “General targeting strategy”
Ironically, the Clintons are blaming the government for the material not being released. A spokesperson for the Clinton campaign says there is nothing the Clintons can do to speed up the process. In other words the government can’t get the job done and there is nothing they can do about it.

That is OK cause the only thing I need to know and the one thing every voter should not forget about Hillary's previous attempt at nationalized medicine. If you wanted to take your own money and find your own private doctor and pay for your own health care ... it would have been a crime. This, must be the Clinton’s idea of "freedom."

President Bush was right to vetoe healthcare bill: Why the SCHIP

Country Boy has no tears for the S-CHIP sob story!

The Democrats and the media have been hammering President Bush for vetoing the S-CHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) legislation and accusing him of robbing the poorest children of the poor healthcare.

In the Democrats efforts to gain enough support to override the veto, they found a family in Baltimore to parade in front of the media.

The Frost family has two children that were injured in a car accident three years and received care paid for by the government program S-CHIP because they supposedly could not afford Healthcare.

Graeme Frost, one of the children injured in the accident, gave the rebuttal to the veto during the Democratic radio address , written for him by Senate Democrat staffers, and made several Beltway lobbying appearances with top Dem leaders last week. (Listen to Graeme’s address here.)

Graeme describes his and his sister’s condition after the car accident. "I was in a coma for a week and couldn't eat or stand up or even talk. My sister was even worse," Graeme said. "My parents work really hard and always make sure my sister and I have everything we need, but we can't afford private health insurance."

That evil President Bush, trying to take healthcare away from these kids! Whatever will this poor family do? Well, just like with a lot of other stories there is more than meets the eye. Let’s take a look at just how poor the Frost family is and why they couldn’t afford health insurance.

In a Baltimore Sun article the family claims to be raising their four children on combined income of about $45,000 a year. "Bonnie Frost works for a medical publishing firm; her husband, Halsey, is a woodworker. They are raising their four children on combined income of about $45,000 a year. Neither gets health insurance through work."

What the article neglects to mention is that somehow the Frost’s are able to afford to send their children to the elite Park School, a private school were tuition is $20,000 per year, in Baltimore, MD. If you visit the Park School website there are photos of the school's 44,000 square foot Wyman Arts Center: two galleries, an outdoor ampitheater, Meyerhoff Theater, Macks-Fidler Black Box Theater, practice rooms, rehearsal space, and ceramics, 3-D sculpture, woodworking, jewelry, painting, photography, digital graphics studios, recording studio, and keyboard lab.

The Frost’s send at least two of their children to this school, (There is no proof on whether the other two Frost children attend this school or not) which means they are able to come up with 40,000 dollars a year on a 45,000 dollar salary! Is that even possible? Well here is confirmation both attended Park found here (using edit-"find on this page"-Gemma). It will take you to an article in the schools newspaper about a fundraiser for Gemma class of 16, and Graeme class of 13.

Now, I don’t care how good your budget is that just doesn’t add up. How are the Frost’s able to survive on just $5,000 of income after tuition?

Well, a little more investigating will find that Halsey Frost has owned his own company, “Frostworks,” since this marriage announcement in the NY Times in 1992. He also employed his wife as a “bookkeeper and operations management” prior to her recent 2007 hire at the “medical publishing firm.” As an owner of his own company Frost did not provide himself or his wife with health insurance.

Frostworks, is located at 3701 E BALTIMORE ST. in a building that was purchased for $160,000 in 1999. The buildings owner is listed as DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIAL DESIGN CENTER, LLC whose mailing address is listed as 104 S Collington Ave which is the Frost's home.

The commercial property he owns is also listed as the business address for another company called Reillys Designs. This leads to the question of whether rental income is included in the above-mentioned salary total.

Here is a photo taken in the Frost’s family kitchen, which shows what appears to be a recent remodeling job with granite counter tops and glass front cabinets. It is unclear what the current market value of the Frost’s 3,040 square foot home at 104 S Collington Ave is, but the house up the street at 113 S COLLINGTON AVE, also an end unit, sold for $485,000 this past March and it was only 2,060 square feet.

So the Frost’s are able to find the time and money to remodel a home, send kids to exclusive private schools, purchase commercial property and run their own business, but they can’t find money for health insurance?

This is what the Democrats consider the poor. In fact Democrats want to tax actual working families, living in smaller houses, sending their kids to much less luxurious schools, with no commercial property ownership to pay for the Frost’s health insurance.

The SCHIP is suppose to be designed for children whose families can not afford health insurance, not families who choose to not buy health insurance to fit their life decisions.

Mr. Frost, check out www.ehealthinsurance.com for family health plans you can actually afford, even if you under-reported your income.

Obama knows it is a game of words

Barack Obama may not have much experience as a politician, but he has enough to know that politics is not always about what you say, but how you say it. One word can make a difference.

Recently Barack Obama has joined the rest of the democrats in supporting increased social security cap so that the rich pay their "fair share."

Isn’t it interesting every time the democrats need money they say the rich needs to pay their “fair share?” How high can you tax the rich before it is more than their fair share?

Anyways Obama says, "I think the best way to approach this is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like myself are paying a little bit more and people who are in need are protected." Come on rich folks it's just a little bit more! And look at all the people we need to protect!

Oh but it gets better folks, here is my favorite part. "I think a lot of us who have been fortunate are willing to pay a little bit more to make sure that a senior citizen who is struggling to deal with rising property taxes or rising heating bills, that they've got the coverage that they need."

Did you catch the key word there? The key word was “fortunate.” Now, for those of you who are long time fans and readers to my blog already know that Obama just made my country boy blood boil with his income redistribution rhetoric. We have been down this road in the past. (For new readers here is a MTCW Obama archive)

By using the word “fortunate” to describe the rich, Obama is promoting the idea that success in this country did not come from hard work, but from some kind of fortunate luck. Obama wants to paint the picture that becoming wealthy has nothing to do with sacrifice, or a strong work ethic. It has nothing to do with dedication or making smart choices. It is all about luck.

There is a reason for this. If Obama can convince you that high achievers are just lucky then his argument for income redistribution becomes easier. If wealth is determined by luck and not hard work then he is just evening out the playing field.

It is all about the words…

Michael Yon reports: Muslims and Christians working together

I know I criticize the Muslim religion here frequently, but I also recognize there are good Muslims out there doing great things. These are what I call real Muslims. Here is a great story from Iraq about Muslims and Christians working together to bring Christians back to the country. Great read, as always, from the best reporter in Iraq, Michael Yon. Of course you will never find his work in your morning paper. It is sad most Americans will never know about this.

One dumb redneck!

A 66-year-old man couldn’t get a lug nut off his wheel. So he decided to shoot it with a shotgun. The blast ricocheted off the wheel and injured the man from his feet to his stomach. This was one dumb redneck folks. I guess he has never heard of a BFH. (Big Freaking Hammer) some garages may substitute freaking with something else. Thanks for the tip Joanna.

Country Boy's suggested reading and viewing from around the web.

Here is the video of Billary Clinton being attacked by American flags on Veterans Day.

Ft. Collins Colorado has created a Holiday Display Task Force. You know for the Christmas Holiday Season. Yeah, I called it Christmas, it’s the most offensive time of year!

Santa in Sydney, Australia is told “ho ho ho” is offensive to women. This makes me think I should move to Sydney. I mean if whether or not Santa should say “ho ho ho” or not is an international news story than that must mean all their other problems are solved!

Taliban militants in Afghanistan entered a school, dragged a teenage boy out of class and shot him dead for teaching English. The boy was teaching English to other students after school hours and had been warned to stop. This is the evil we continue to fight in Afghanistan. Evil must be recognized and defeated.

Well-known global warming critic Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic, criticized Germany's Angela Merkel for her efforts to fight "climate change."

The new secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, visited Antarctica to see the "firsthand impact of climate change." He is the first secretary general to visit Antarctica. I wonder what the chances are he could find some real estate for a new U.N. headquarters while he's down there.

Thanks to zero-tolerance policies, more and more schools are sending children to court for simple disciplinary matters. The real reasoning behind this is to teach them there is not a problem to small for government or law enforcement to solve. Just one step closer to a police state.

Here's an interesting report. More active soldiers died during two years of peacetime in the early 1980s than died in a two-year period of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here some irony, you must be a legal resident to get a driver's license in Mexico.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, is now attacking Michael Savage because of his "anti-Muslim bigotry." Time to rally behind Savage. In case you forgot who CAIR is read this MTCW refresher. CAIR is a front for Islamic terrorism in the U.S.

What are Muslim countries Googling on the Internet? You might be surprised with the results, or maybe not. Nothing really surprises me about these people anymore.

Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey that have been aged almost 100 years could be poured down the drain because the government suspects that they are being sold without a license. Oh my God! Someone out there is doing something without a government license! This is surely alcohol abuse, or at least a huge party foul.

What if Jack Bauer didn’t have all that savvy technology to fight terrorists? Take a look at how "24" would have been like if it were aired in 1994 ... This is to funny.

I love a story with a happy ending. A car burglar in Florida flees from the police, but gets caught by a gator. Little disappointed they killed the gator. Personally, I think they should have made him an honorary member of the police department.

Undermining the success of our troops in Iraq

Glad this news could be found on page 19 of the New York Times: "American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today." The troops surge continues to go as planned. However, the Democrats debate to withdrawal the troops from Iraq is back on the House floor.

Thank you Nancy Pelosi for your continuous efforts to embolden the enemy and destroy the morale of the troops. Of course she is not the only one. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, made a statement that declining casualties in Iraq were because "much ethnic cleansing has already taken place."

“Violence is down, and certainly that is important and good, but many of the experts are saying one reason the violence is down is that so much ethnic cleansing has already taken place,” said Reid. “It is true they found 35 or 40 dead bodies today, and they are still finding them--not to the amount they were finding before. They were finding more than 100 a day. Many of the areas have been ethnically cleansed.”

If ethnic cleansing is what is responsible for the reduction of violence in Iraq as Reid says then that means he must believe one of two things. It is the terrorists who have been successful at reducing the violence in Iraq, or U.S. Troops are partaking in ethnic cleansing resulting in a reduction of violence.

What an asshole.... Sorry ... but it just had to be said.

The truth is the surge is working the military commander of Baghdad says the city is 87% cleared of al-Qaeda and the military commander of Anbar province predicted that security operations in that province could be turned over to Iraqi security forces by this coming March. That means the military goals of the troop surge, securing Baghdad and rooting out terrorist strongholds in Anbar, are largely completed.

None of this matters to the Democrat leadership. They would rather give credit for success to the enemy rather than the brave men and women of the US military. They want you the American voter to see nothing but a quagmire in Iraq, and they are willing to undermine the successes of the troop surge for their own political gain. This is shameful for anyone calling themselves an American not to mention a leader in the time of war.

Pakistans state of emergency: Why it should be of concern to us.

Due to the growth of al-Qaeda, a militant Islamic and movement and a court system hindering his powers the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, declared emergency rule last week suspending the constitution and firing the chief of justice giving himself virtually absolute power over the country.

Since becoming a U.S. Ally in 2001, Musharraf has received $11 billion in U.S. aid. Condoleezza Rice says that Washington is now reviewing its aid to Pakistan in light of the new emergency measures. Britain is also trying to figure out what to do with the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid it also gives to Pakistan.

What is important to remember here is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. For years there has been reason to believe that Osama Bin Ladin has been hiding in the tribal regions of Pakistan. This is the very region from witch these Islamical militants are upsetting Musharraf from.
If this crisis results in al-Qaeda and Islamic militants, possibly headed by Osama Bin Ladin, gaining control of Pakistan they would have direct control of nuclear weapons!

For years we have been given the reason we could not move against these tribal areas to rid the world of Osama bin Laden because it might loosen Musharraf's tenuous hold on power. Under the present circumstances ... are we free to move on bin Laden now, or should we wait until he is in full control of Pakistan and then deal with a nuclear Bin Ladin's al-Qaeda?

This is a question that is going to have to be answered fairly quickly.

G.I. Joe still A Real American Hero, Even if Hollywood thinks otherwise.

Remember G.I. Joe A Real American Hero? You know GI Joe is the codename for American's daring, highly trained special mission force. It's purpose, to defend human freedom against Cobra-a ruthless, terrorist organization determined to rule the world. Well, looks like it will be no more. Hollywood wants to change it!

It seems Paramount pictures is making a movie based on the G.I. Joe toy line and , it looks like G.I. Joe can no longer be an "American hero," Instead he must be a part of an international force based in Brussels that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, an international co-ed force of operatives who use hi-tech equipment to battle Cobra, an evil organization headed by a double-crossing Scottish arms dealer."

God help us ... we just can't have an American military hero out there. That would be so politically incorrect. Of course, most of Hollywood has never looked at our Servicemembers as heroes, instead they see cold-blooded killers!

Also, God forbid that the United States ever act alone. We need an international force to protect our interests! These liberals make me sick. Another question? Why is Cobra not an international terrorist organization determined to rule the world anymore? Maybe that scenario was to real for the Hollywood types, who would rather live in denial of the threat we face.
In honor of the greatest cartoon of my childhood I decided to put the lyrics to the theme song here.

Yo Joe!
He'll fight for freedom where ever there's trouble.
GI Joe is there.
It's GI Joe against Cobra the enemy
Fighting to save the day.
He never gives up.
He's always there,
Fighting for freedom over land and air

GI Joe- A real American hero
GI Joe is there

GI Joe is the codename for American's daring, highly trainedspecial mission force.It's purpose, to defend human freedom against Cobra-a ruthless, terrorist organization determined to rule the world.

He never gives up.
He'll stay til the fight's won.
GI Joe will dare.
GI Joe- A real American hero
GI Joe...

After reading this I realize Hollywood or Paramount Pictures can not kill off G.I. Joe - A Real American Hero. G.I. Joe currently lives and is fighting well in the desert towns of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. That is right, the men and women of the United States Military is G.I. Joe and they are Real American Heros! Regardless of what Paramount pictures or anyone else thinks.

Everything is now Global Warming's fault

It seems the left has found something else to blame everything on other than President Bush, the new scapegoat? Global Warming.

A new report claims children are especially vulnerable to the "adverse health effects of global warming." Oh my...the poor children. We have to fight global warming for the children. I'm really surprised it took the Global Warming crowd this long to roll with this one.

In other Global Warming news Australia is now blaming heart attacks, strokes and respiratory disease on global warming. Oh and not to mention instances of obesity, food poisoning, and mosquito-borne diseases ...Obesity and food poisoning???? Is there anything out there that is NOT caused by global warming? I cut my chin shaving this morning...I bet it was something to do with global warming...

Maybe the new blame Global Warming game will aleviate some of the blame from President Bush's plate. Oh wait, forgot, Global Warming is Bush's fault...my bad.

Thwarted US embassy attack

The U.S. and British embassies suspended operation yesterday in Azerbaijan. The government says that it avoided a radical Islamic group's plot to employ a "large-scale, horrifying terror attack."

The Azerbaijani National Security Ministry says that one suspect has been killed and several others detained over the weekend, in a sweep of a village outside the country's capital. The Islamic group included an army lieutenant who had stolen 20 hand grenades, a machine gun, four assault rifle and ammunition from his own military unit, and planned to use them in the attack.

Here is more proof of the world threat from Islamic terrorism. Some of you just ain't getting it.

Fearing Fear Itself

Speaking of not getting it. Paul Krugman had an eye opening op-ed in the New York Times. How about a little taste.

"For one thing, there isn't actually any such thing as Islamofascism — it's not an ideology; it's a figment of the neocon imagination."

Really....Neocon he says... So if you see radical Islam as an imminent threat, you are considered a neocon. Neocons exist...but that whole Islamofascism thing, that is fake. Made up actually by the real and dangerous neocons.

Read Krugman's column. You'll come away with the idea that this man doesn't think that Islamic radicalism presents any meaningful threat to this country at all. Typical, for most liberals feel the same way. After all they are the peace-at-any-price left that have been educated past their ability to comprehend common sense.

Saudis upset with the UK

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah became the first Saudi monarch to visit the UK in over 20 years, but King Abdullah wanted to make sure to insult Great Britain by accusing them of not doing enough to fight international terrorism.

Abdullah claims that Great Britain is not taking the issue of terrorism seriously and that he passed information to the Btits which could have prevented the 2005 London terrorist attacks. He said he is upset that the British failed to act on the information.
Investigations by the Parliament's Intelligence Security Committee states there was no intelligence from the Saudis.

Abdullah went on to say fighting terrorism requires a huge efforts from countries like Britain. He then complained al Qaeda is a big problem in his own country and criticized other countries for not acting on his proposal for a UN clearing house for information about terrorism.
Now this is an interesting take from the Saudi King... And please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the leader of the country that produced all but two of the Islamic terrorists who brought us 9-11?

If the Saudi King is so worried about fighting international terrorism perhaps he should take a look to his own country with those madrassa schools where Muslim children are taught that Jews are less human and like apes and pigs. Just where does he get the room to criticize England on the issue of fighting terrorism?

If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.

The only thing saving the Saudi King from the same fate of Iraq and Afghanistan is his oil.

Bias News Coverage

According to this study Clinton and Obama are getting the most coverage from the media. No surprise. In other non surprising results from the study Democrats have had more positive coverage than Republicans. Gee wonder why that is? Can someone say media bias?

Of course on talk radio, Hillary Clinton gets 86% negative coverage.

So why do I care about the mainstream bias and not so much about talk radio's? Maybe it is because talk radio admits their bias. The media tries to claim they have no bias or agenda.

What they teach at the University of Deleware on racism!

A friend of mine who attends the University of Delaware sends me this. The definition of a racist according to the University of Delaware:

A Racist: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e. people of European descent) living in the United States regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities or acts of discrimination."

All resident students at the University of Delaware are required to not only learn, but to accept as their own dogma.

I wonder how much my friend is paying to be taught he is a racist? Thanks for the information Tyler.

This is the type of BS being taught at colleges around the nation.

U.N. investigates the U.S., but not terrorists?

A U.N. specialist on illegal executions is planning to investigate the use of deadly force by American troop and military contractors in Iraq. Focusing mainly on Blackwater. When was asked whether he also planned to investigate the ethnic cleansing and militia killings in Iraq, he said he saw no point.

How do you like them apples folks? The U.N. sees no point in investigating terrorists, but when it comes to the big bad United States, the U.N. will not hesitate to pay close attention to its wrongdoings.

The U.N. generally investigates honor killings, mass executions and black-masked death squads, and we all know U.S. troops and military contractors are on par with masked death squads ... at least according to the U.N. Why do we still continue to fund this anti-American organization?

In other Blackwater news the Iraqi government approved a law to lift immunity for foreign security companies like Blackwater. The law would not be retroactive though, so any punishment for Blackwater would be left up to the states. Iraq's Prime Minister Al-Maliki demands that the U.S. end its relationship with Blackwater within six months. OK...fine... Oh but wait, he also wants the U.S. to pay $8 million in compensation to each victim.

Personally, I think someone should remind Al Malki that Blackwater personal and American Soldiers are paying with their lives to protect his sorry ass and people. Also Al-Maliki the American taxpayers have spent quite enough on Iraq.

Country Boy's Suggested reading and viewing from around the web.

The UN voted – for the 16th year in a row – to have all nations lift any trade embargoes against Cuba . Again I ask, why do we continue to fund the U.N.?

Former Governor of Arkansas and Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is proud of his record in Arkansas and defends it in in an op ed. This was my candidate before Fred Thompson entered the race. Huckabee remains #2 on my list.

A team of Swiss and German researchers found that young men speed in cars because speed is inherently male. Damn right it is! In a Country Boy research team study we also determined that not only do males pursue fast cars but also fast women but they want low mileage on both! Of course we spent no money and about one second on our study.

Here is a link for an article written by a waitress. She says she hates your kids! After reading it, I can't say I blame her. Oh make sure to read the comments. Some are quite good ... plus some whining parents, you know the kind, my kids are never wrong kind... I love it.

The FBI says that al Qaeda may be prepared to attack shopping malls in Los Angeles and Chicago this holiday shopping season. All they would have to do is attack just one. If that happens, and let's pray that it doesn't, let's see how long it takes Pelosi and the Democrats to blame it on Bush and the war. We maybe one terrorists attack away from removing troops and al Qaeda knows it.

A professor at the University of Maine is offering extra credit to students who burn the American flag or the U.S. Constitution or get arrested for defending free speech.

Even the UK recognizes that serious success in Iraq is not being recognized as it should be.

Looks like at least one Democrat can see the light... House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that the troop surge has had a significant impact on the situation in Iraq.

Kyle-Anne Shiver writes an awesome column describing republican women and says Republican women are too smart to vote for Hillary. I wonder if Shiver, is single? Probably not, she is way to smart.

Mitt Romney compared Hillary Clinton to an intern. I wonder what Bill thinks about that? Anyway, Romney claims she lacks experience of actually running anything. "The government of the United States is not a place for a president to be an intern." No .. but apparently it is the place for an intern to “get it on” with a president.

Democrats are trying to decide whether or not to approve $50 billion to $70 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan ... this is less than half of President Bush's 196,000 request, but it is said to be enough to keep the war going for a few months. Nothing like playing with the money our troops need. Way to support the troops jack asses!

This may be the most amazing thing I have ever seen in football at any level and you will have to watch this video to believe it. Trinity College from it's own 39 yard line with two seconds to go in the game. Snaps the ball, completes a pass .. and then 15 laterals to score a touchdown and win the game.

One out of every ten schools in America is considered a "dropout factory," where no more than 60% make it to graduation. Wow. Why am I not surprised. Who controls the education system? Oh...that is right the government. The same folks a whole lot of you want to control healthcare! God Help Us!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has now been quoted as saying that marijuana is not a drug it is a leaf, and a leaf he use to smoke actually. His spokesman was quick to say that the governor was only joking. Seriously, does anyone really care.

A while ago we told you about an expensive desert at a resort, well a famous New York eatery has set the world record for the most expensive dessert by offering a $25,000 chocolate sundae.
Who the hell buys a 25,000 dollar choclate sundae???

Country Boy's College Football Commentary

This season continues to live up to being unpredictable as the Titans of college football fell last week when #1 LSU lost to #17 Kentucky 43-37 and #2 California was upset by unranked Oregon St. 31-28 but that is why they play the games.

Here is what to watch for in week 8:

Who’s Hot
Well, we have reached the half way mark in this wild season. So who is hot? College Football! Can anyone recall a wilder season than the one we are watching this season. Here are some defining moments: Appalachian St. shocking Michigan at the Big House and Notre Dame’s 33-3 loss at home to Georgia Tech making it the first time ever both teams lost there season opener on the same day!

Then Notre Dame goes on to a gut wrenching 0-5 start for the first time in history.

What happened to Louisville? The Cardinals started the season national title contenders now they’re fighting to keep a nine-year in a row bowl appearance intact. Wisconsin has been another disappointment.

There have also been some pleasant surprises along the way.

South Florida may be the ugliest undefeated team I have ever seen play, but they keep winning, and after the top two teams losing last week South Florida finds themselves in the #2 seat. Who’d a thunk that!

What a surprise Ron Zook has brought to Illinois in freshmen WR Arrelious Benn and work horse running back Rashard Mendenhall puts the “paign” in Champaign with his smash mouth style of running that ensures the Illini’s first bowl bid since 2001 and a chance at a Big Ten title.

At South Carolina, coach Steve Spurrier handed the keys to a redshirt freshman whose improving passing just might lift the Gamecocks to their first SEC title.

Who’s Not

Stanford was 41 point underdogs two weeks ago when they upset USC 24-23 in the biggest upset of the season that has become the Year of the Upset, but the stunner could just be the beginning of a downward spiral for the Trojans. The Trojans have games at Oregon, Cal and Arizona St. that may leave them eating more pieces of humble pie and the way this season has been going USC traveling to South Bend to fight the Irish of Notre Dame could get interesting.

Upset Watch:#13 USC vs. Notre Dame
I know it’s crazy! There is really no reason to make this pick. In fact, you have to be one slice of bread short of a sandwich to even consider it, but something tells me USC is going to get the scare of their life in South Bend this weekend. Even though this should be a game that the Trojans win easily.

However, the way this season has gone is it really that much of a stretch? Is it.

Plus, who is going to be USC’s quarterback? And how effective will he be? If John David Booty gets the start, one has to wonder how the broken finger will effect his accuracy. It wasn’t too pretty in the Stanford game. If it is Mark Sanchez who gets the start, how will he react in his first road start in a tough situation? He didn’t look that good last week in a win over Arizona.

Let’s not get it twisted. I am no fool. There is no way that I think the Notre Dame defense can take control of this football game. The reality is USC should win by two or three touchdowns, but if the Trojan offense gives away a few turnovers and gives the Irish offense short fields the game changes. Winning this rivalry game also saves the Irish’s season, and the way this season is going nothing is that much of a stretch.
Prediction: #13USC 12 vs. Notre Dame 14

Other games to watch for upsets in:

#20 Tennessee 24 vs. Alabama 28
Illinois 24 vs. #24 Michigan 17

Now the rest of the top 25:
#23 Cincinnati 17 vs. Pittsburgh 14
#19 Texas 24 vs. Baylor 10
Vanderbilt 10 vs. #6 South Carolina 24
Mississippi St. 14 vs. #9 W. Virginia 28
Michigan St 21 vs. #1 Ohio St. 38
#14 Florida 31 vs. #8 Kentucky 42
#10 California 21 vs. UCLA 10
#22 Texas Tech 28 vs. #15 Missouri
#16 Kansas 34 vs. Colorado 21
#25 Kansas St 17 vs. Oklahoma St 10
#7 Oregon 38 vs. Washington 19
#18 Auburn 35 vs. #5 LSU 37
#2 S. Florida 31 vs. Rutgers 24

Country Boy's College Football Commentary

The craziness of this season continues. First off let me apologize to all the Texas and Oklahoma fans for not mentioning the Red River Shootout in the top games last week. I can’t believe I left it out myself, and what a great game it was. It came down to the wire as Oklahoma scored in the final minutes to beat Texas 28-21.

A couple of surprises this week as well. Stanford upset #2 USC 24-23, Tennessee found some defense to knock off #12 Georgia 35-14. Georgia was never in the game trailing 28-0 at the half, and the Fighting Illini of Illinois continues to roll as they clip #5 Wisconsin 31-26.

Here is what to watch for in week 7:

Who’s Hot

I mentioned last week that the Fighting Illini of Illinois may be the most underrated team in college football, not any more. Get ready, Ron Zook. A week ago Illinois was hardly on anyone’s radar. Their win over Penn St was a fluke they said. This week the detractors will be jumping on the Illini bandwagon after upsetting #5 Wisconsin for their 5th win in a row and second win in a row against ranked teams.

Illinois is hot, real hot! Of course don’t mention it to Fighting Illini coach Ron Zook. He won’t admit it and will change the subject.

“We have to just keep playing,” Zook says. “We can’t be concerned by the noise in the system.”

Great advise from the former Florida Gator coach, but how about this for some noise: Illinois is…the best team in the Big Ten. They have better wins than anyone in the Big Ten. A punishing ground game and offense that can score from anywhere on the field.

There is no team in the Big Ten that possesses as much talent at the three key positions of quarterback, tailback and wideout as Illinois.

Quarterback Juice Williams, tailback Rashard Mendenhall and wideout Regis Benn combined for 505 yards and three touchdowns against the Badgers. Mendenhall gained 160 of those on only 19 carries.

Defense…although not great, it improves every week led by linebacker J. Leman.

“We’re getting there, man,” said Leman. “We’ve got to play at the same level as the offense; the same attitude.”

If that happens the Illini will be smelling roses in Pasadena come January.

Now that is noise in the system.

The now 18th ranked Illini (5-1) will travel to Iowa (0-4) but don’t let the record mislead you. This will be a battle of a football game. Iowa’s defense will match up well against the Illini’s spread option style offense. Illini will win in a low scoring game 14-10.

Who’s Not

Previously #9 Florida has now lost two in a row to unranked Auburn and #1 LSU. Good news for the Gators. They get a bye this week to regroup, but things won’t get any easier as #17 Kentucky is next on their schedule.

Upset Watch:Sorry, no time for analysis, but I got a few games on the upset watch:

Louisville 32 vs. #15 Cincinnati 28
Penn St. 24 vs. #19 Wisconsin 10
#11 Missouri 34 vs. #6 Oklahoma 28

Now the rest of the top 25:

#21 Florida St. 17 vs Wake Forest 14
#16 Hawaii 38 vs. San Jose St. 21
UCF 10 #5 South Florida 32
#3 Ohio St. 48 Kent St. 3
#12 Virginia Tech. 34 Duke 7
#23 Texas 52 vs. Iowa St. 9
Baylor 6 vs. #20 Kansas 45
#25 Tennessee 28 vs. Mississippi St 24
#9 Oregon 42 vs. Washington St. 10
#7 South Carolina 30 vs. North Carolina 6
#1 LSU 43 vs. #17 Kentucky 38
#4 Boston College 21 vs. Notre Dame 16
#10 USC 17 vs. Arizona 14
#24 Georgia 34 vs. Vanderbilt 16
Oregon St. 21 vs. #2 California 31
#22 Auburn 10 vs. Arkansas 7

Washington 14 vs. #14 Arizona St. 44

MTCW Pic of the Day

Supporting the FairTax in Ohio

$5,000 for every child

Hilary Clinton wants to give every baby born in America a $5,000 dollar account that can start growing and earning interest so that by the time they turn 18 they’ll have money to go to college.

Isn’t that nice, have a baby and boom the government owes your child five thousand bucks! Where will the money come from to fund this new entitlement program? Where do you think…the taxpayers of course.

Hilary hasn’t explained exactly where the money would come from or how the program would work, but do we really need her to? I am pretty sure how this income redistribution plan will work.

First we will have to repeal the Bush tax cuts to help pay for it. Next we will get to listen every election year to Democrats say vote for me and I will raise the baby bonus, vote for Republicans and they will try to take your baby bonus away! It already happens with Social Security.
So what happens when the program ends up in financial crisis? Well that is easy. Democrats will suggest that the baby bonus get phased out for people in upper income brackets. In other words, stiff the high achievers.

Government Healthcare from around the world

For all you folks that want universal healthcare in this country maybe you should take a close look at how it is serving citizens in other countries.

The British National Health Service rates mediocre at best even with more and more funding being put into it.

Britain now ranks 17th out of all of Europe in terms of healthcare. All the countries ranking lower than Britain were much poorer.

Now here is something to make a note of, in Europe there are two types of healthcare. The British "Beveridge" system unifies funding and provision. The other is the German "Bismarck" system based around the competing interests of insurance organizations that are independent of health service suppliers.

The top five countries in Europe all follow this "Bismark" system. Imagine that!

The healthcare system in Ireland is even worse. New figures shows 12,000 folks are waiting six months or more for hospital treatment, and over 2,200 children are waiting three months or more for treatment. In total, there are currently 41,000 people on hospital waiting lists.
Now they have announced that they are going to freeze staff recruitment because of overspending.

Aren’t you looking forward to national healthcare?

Country Boy's College Football Commentary

What a season it has been so far. Appalachian St. beats Michigan at the Big House! Notre Dame starts 0-5 for the first time ever! What is going on here?

Lets take a look into week 6 with some commentary from Country Boy:

Who’s Hot
The hottest team in college football right now is the 11th ranked South Carolina Gamecocks. Steve Spurrier led his team to a sound victory over the 8th ranked Kentucky Wildcats 38-23 last night.

Defensive end Eric Norwood tied an NCAA record with two fumble recoveries returned for touchdowns against the previously undefeated Wildcats.

The Gamecocks now 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the SEC with wins over Georgia, Mississippi St. and Kentucky finds themselves in the hunt for an SEC title and should break into the top ten before traveling to the University of North Carolina next week.

Who’s Not.
Notre Dame, as a fan of the Irish it is just sickening to watch anymore. At 0-5 it is the Irish’s worst start ever in the schools history. At the beginning of the season the debate was if Notre Dame could win 6 games this season, and I thought they could. Now I wonder if they can win at all! It’s going to be a long season for Charlie Weiss and the Irish as they face UCLA this week and a possible 0-6 record.
Prediction: UCLA 21 Notre Dame 10

Upset Watch
#5 Wisconsin vs. Illinois
The game with the biggest upset potential this Saturday is 5th ranked Wisconsin at non-ranked Illinois. Former Florida Gator coach Ron Zook has recruited some of the finest football players in the country at Illinois and they are proving that the Illini are pushovers no more. Football is a game of momentum and right now there is a lot of momentum in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The Fighting Illini have won four in a row and upset then ranked 19th Penn St. last week 27-20. The Illini are 4-1 overall, 2-0 in the Big Ten and should be ranked. The Illini maybe the most underrated team in college football. The Badgers are undefeated at 5-0 and hold the longest winning streak in the nation at 17 games, but have yet to play a ranked team this season, have trailed in the fourth quarter in its last 3 games and beat their last two opponents by combined score of only seven points.

Last week, the Badgers escaped Camp Randall with a 37-34 win over unranked Michigan St. when Taylor Mehlhaf kicked a 22 yard field goal late in the fourth quarter.

The Badgers fall short this week. Prediction: Wisconsin 31 Illinois 34

Top Games of the Week:
#9 Florida vs. #1 LSU
All eyes were suppose to be on Baton Rouge, La., this week as LSU was suppose to play Florida in potentially the biggest game of the year. I had this game marked on my calendar back in July, but something happened on the way to Death Valley. The Gators lost to Auburn last week and Florida Gator senior safety and team captain Tony Joiner was arrested and charged with burglary early Tuesday morning. He probably will not play, but will have to wait and see.

So this week’s clash of the titans has lost a lot of its size. I guess that is why they play the season, because you just never know what will happen. Anyways, it will still be an important game for both teams.
If Joiner doesn’t play, Tiger quarterbacks Matt Flynn and Ryan Perriloux will pick apart the Gator secondary with much greater ease than what Auburn’s Brandon Cox was able to do it last week.

If Joiner does play, the Gators may have a chance, but they will have to become more diverse on offense and spread the ball around a little bit more that the two man show they currently have going on with quarterback Tim Tebow and receiver Percy Havin. They will have to establish a running game early and that is going to be a hard task to do against LSU’s front seven. Prediction Florida 17 LSU 31.

#12 Georgia vs. Tennessee
This is another game that lost some of its flavor when Georgia lost early in the season to South Carolina and Tennessee lost to California and Florida, but Auburn’s upset over Florida last week opens the door to the SEC race for both teams.

Saturday’s game in Knoxville will not likely decide the division winner, but it is safe to say the loser will be out of contention. The Bulldogs have beaten the Vols in its last three trips to Neyland Stadium.

The Vols have lost against its last four ranked opponents and have struggled on defense this season. They rank 88th in the nation against the run which should benefit Bulldog running backs Thomas Brown and Knowshon Moreno, who combined for 277 yards against Mississippi last week. Moreno has been averaging 86.4 yards a game and Brown has gained another 78.6 average yards per game. Prediction: Georgia 24 Tennessee 14

#4 Ohio St. vs. #23 Purdue
This one may be the best game to watch with a potent Purdue Boilmaker offense hosting a smothering Ohio St. Buckeye defense. The key factor in this game will not be the Boilmakers offense but whether or not their defense can slow down Buckeye running back Beanie Wells who has rushed for over 100 yards in four games. However, Wells has had a case of fumbleitis in the past and lost a fumble against Minnesota. The Buckeyes definitely do not want to give the Boilmaker offense field position, points and/or momentum at home by turning the ball over. Wells must hold on to the football. Prediction: Ohio St 31 Purdue 24


Predictions of the rest of the top 25

#13 W. Virginia 31 Syracuse 10
Kansas 7 #24 Kansas St. 24
Bowling Green 9 Boston College 31
#10 Oklahoma 38 #19 Texas 34
#6 S. Florida 42 Fla. Atlantic 14
#18 Arizona St. 32 Washington St. 17
#15 Virginia Tech 10 #22 Clemson 21
Stanford 9 #2USC 34
#20 Cincinnati 27 #21 Rutgers 20
#25 Nebraska 21 #17 Missouri 17
Utah St. 6 #16 Hawaii 35

Country Boy's suggested reading and viewing from around the web

Barack Obama will not wear an American flag pin anymore because he says wearing the flag shows “false Patriotism.” Really… I wonder what promising to never cut funding to the troops in the field and then voting to cut the funding is? A sign of a true patriot indeed, Barack Obama an American Patriot…gimme a break!

1 out of five democrats think the world would be better off if the U.S. would lose the war in Iraq. I would say the number is probably secretly higher, but this once again makes my point for me. The democrats are truly defeatocrats invested in our defeat…I bet they don’t wear American flags on their lapel either.

A new poll shows 77% of voters are in favor of a law requiring proof of a photo ID to vote. The other 23% must have been Democrats who want illegal immigrants to vote for them.

This proves most Americans don’t have a clue…Of course, based on the government education most Americans receive, they probably don’t even know what the Constitution is in the first place..

MTCW Pic of the Day

That's My Dog!!!

He may not be the biggest dog on the block, but he is definately the smartest..

My absence and the new blog

Sorry folks, but I have been extremely busy and have not had much time to spare. I am back and should be posting more frequently.

Thanks for all those who voted for the name of the new blog. “Country Boy Logic” was the winning name. The new blog is in the works and should be available by the first of the year at the latest. I will keep you posted.

It is official; Fred Thompson wants to be president, bad news for Hilary

After months of much anticipation from conservative supporters, Fred Thompson announced his campaign on NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno Sept 6.

After the show Thompson aired a video on his campaign web site stating he is running because of threats to national security, the economy and the need to change Washington . “I know that reform is possible in Washington because I have seen it done,” he said. “I do not accept it as fact of life beyond our power to change that the federal government must go on expanding more, taxing more and spending more forever.”

Thompson, former Senator from Tenn. , has been extremely popular among the more conservative base of the Republican Party, and his Southern roots, conservative message and celebrity appeal as an actor in movies and the hit TV show “Law and Order” has kept him among the front runners in the polls before announcing his campaign.

Since announcing his campaign Thompson has been neck to neck with Rudy Giuliani for the top spot and as of Sept 23 he leads 26% to Giuliani’s 22% in a Rasmussen Poll of likely Republican Primary voters.

I expect this lead to increase over the time leading up to the primaries.

This is bad news for Hilary Clinton, because now conservatives have a candidate to vote for instead of just voting against her. These two factors will motivate the conservative base of the Republican Party to heights not seen since 1980.

Ever hear of the Immigration Diversity Program? Visas for potential terrorists!

The U.S. has admitted to allowing nearly 10,000 immigrants from countries designated as sponsors of terrorism through an Immigration Diversity Program that has few restrictions for admittance.

The program is part of the Immigration Act of 1990 and has allowed 3,703 people from Sudan , 3,164 from Iran , 2,763 from Cuba and 162 from Syria to enter the United States and apply for permanent legal resident status since the year 2000.

Here is the real kicker though folks. All of these people were allowed to become legal residents without having any family in the U.S. or an employer petitioning on their behalf.

The State Department warned in 2003 that the program posed a significant threat to national security and recommend it be closed to people from countries on the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism, but the program remains.

Top terrorism experts and federal law enforcement officials familiar with immigration fraud, to include the Department of Homeland Security, believe that it could be possible for terrorists to use fraudulent means and enter or remain in the United States.

A U.S. security officer in Turkey said it would be possible for Iranian intelligence officers to pose as applicants and not be detected if their identities were not already known to U.S. intelligence.
Why on Earth is this program still in existence? Perhaps it is time for a letter to your congressman telling them to put an end to this nonsense.

Not sure who your congressman is? Well, that is embarrassing, but maybe this will help. Find your representatives here.

Ahmedinejad and Hitler are welcomed guest at Columbia U, but not the Minute Man or ROTC

The President of Iran Ahmadinejad visited New York where he spoke at the U.N. and was invited to speak at Columbia University. The University took a lot of heat over their decision to allow the Iranian leader to speak.

Now the University is hiding behind the concept of free speech for the reasoning of letting him speak.

I have no problems in the idea of free speech and allowing this madman to speak at the University. I find it ironic that the students chance to free speech in the form of questions to the Iranian leader will however be monitored.

Here is my problem with this whole situation. Columbia University seems to only care about free speech when it comes to certain ideas or people.

In fact John Coatsworth the Dean of Columbia University said recently on Fox News that he would have allowed Hitler to speak if he was available, but in the past when the founder of the Minute Men Project was scheduled to speak, the speech was cancelled and he was uninvited. Columbia also does not allow ROTC on their campus. So it seems Hitler and Amadinajen are good to go, but a man who founded an organization to monitor illegal activity along our borders, or young men training to be officers in the military are not welcomed.

I guess you can tell a lot about someone by the people they welcome to their home, and those they turn away.

Obama's Social Security Fix: raise taxes of course.

Barrack Obama has an idea on how he would fix the Social Security system. He would eliminate the earning cap and tax every dollar someone makes at the Social Security rate. Obama then wants to impose an additional 12.4% Social Security tax on the rich of course. There is nothing like punishing the over achiever in America.

Obama says that by taxing the rich we can eliminate the entire Social Security shortfall. Isn’t that just a wonderful idea? I mean after all the rich can afford it, who cares?

Well, you might find it interesting to know Obama’s idea of rich is anyone who makes more than $97,000 a year. I bet you folks that make 97,000 didn’t know you were rich.

Anyway, this is a typical liberal solution to a social program like Social Security and should come as no surprise. One thing is for sure, if Obama gets his way Social Security will finally be exposed for the income redistribution scheme it has always been. You take from those who are working and give to those who are not.

Robert Bixby is the executive director of the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan group advocating a balanced budget. He says that this would be a radical change from how Social Security was originally designed, because "it would end the contributory idea of Social Security, where you get back something for what you put in."Folks I will never get back even 10% of what I will have put in to Social Security…

Country Boy's Social Security fix: FairTax

The FairTax could easily be the solution to fixing Social Security. The economic growth that would stem from the expansion of business and our economy from the FairTax would protect Social Security for generations to come.

It would also create tax revenue from sectors of the economy the federal government currently does not receive any revenue from.

When tourists come to the U.S. and spend their billions of dollars do they pay any Social Security Tax? Nope, but under the FairTax they do.

How about the billions and billions of dollars that goes untaxed in the underground economy of organized crime, drug dealing, and the income of our illegal aliens? The FairTax makes them all taxpayers as well. Never heard of the FairTax? Isn’t it time you learn about this revolutionary grass movement that would eliminate the IRS forever and transfer more power from politicians to the people since 1776?

Go to FairTax.org to learn more or buy the New York Times Best Seller FairTax book here.

Bush threatens veto on budget; wants dems to cut $22 billion

As the Oct 1 deadline approaches for the federal budget, President Bush is threatening to Veto the proposed budget if the democrat controlled congress can’t cut more than $22 million out of it.

It will be O.K. folks. You will still get your government checks if they miss the Oct 1. deadline thanks to stopgap legislation, which allows the government to operate at current spending levels.

The President has proposed a budget of $933 billion and the democrats want to add $22 billion more.

Democrats are arguing that it is only a 2.4% of the domestic spending and less than 1% of the total budget. It is just a “small difference.”

Well, if it is such a “small difference” why we so worried about it. I mean, what $22 billion will buy you anyways. It is such a “small difference.”

Of course, let us not forget that Republicans acted the same way when they controlled the budget process. That is why Democrats are in control now. Some things never change I guess….Bush says Democrats are trying to sneak special projects into the budget because they are unwilling to debate the “projects” openly. Now why would they want to do that? Maybe because they know that is the only way there “projects” can become a reality.

That just ain't right, right there...

Well, I have already boycotted products from the Miller Brewing Company from my fridge because of their support for illegal immigration, but here is another reason that is even more outrageous.

The organizers for the San Francisco Folsom Street Festival, who’s main sponsor is the Miller Brewing Company, has made a mockery of the Da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper” portraying Jesus and his disciples as half-naked homosexual sadomasochists and replacing the “body and blood of Christ” with sex toys!

If they had mocked Mohammed in similar fashion there would be riots and murder on the street, but since it is Christianity being mocked, well that is ok.

Regardless about how you feel about homosexuality how can anyone possibly justify these actions? Shouldn’t descent honest people boycott the sponsors of this event?

Here is a link to the sponsors of this event, but other than the Miller Brewing Company most of the other companies look like they probably market to the gay community and probably don’t care about their connection to such blasphemous trash. Miller Brewing Company might…but then again…they might not.

Either way, as Larry the Cable Guy says, “That just ain’t right, right there…”

Pedro the dishwasher has $59,000 confiscated by the government

Eleven years ago Pedro Zapeta illegally entered the US from Guatemala and got a job washing dishes in Florida. For 11 years Zapeta worked hard and saved his money. Zapeta saved $59,000 and tried to take it back to Guatemala in a sack. The feds find the money at the airport, confiscate it, and now will not give it back. I really just don’t know how to feel about this one.

Pedro was here illegally, but the money he made is his in my opinion. Pedro admits he didn’t pay taxes, but he probably never made enough to pay taxes anyway.

I really just don’t know who to be mad at…Pedro or the government…I am leaning toward the government who essentially stole all of the money that Pedro worked his tail off for. How bout we take any taxes owed, give his money back and send him back to Guatemala.

Voter I.D. Law to be decided by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments early next year on whether or not voter ID laws should be allowed. The law in challenge is from Indiana and requires voters to show a photo ID before being allowed to cast a vote. The state says they do this to prevent voter fraud. Makes sense to me…

Of course Democrats says it targets the poor and minorities who predominately vote Democrat…not making to much sense to me…

Anyways, Bill Groth is the attorney representing the Indiana Democrat Party. He says, "The court has over and over stressed that the right to vote should be protected, and any state law that burdens that right should be carefully and meticulously reviewed."

I wonder if Mr. Groth can show me the part in the U.S. Constitution that protects the right to vote in a federal election? He can’t folks, because it isn’t there. There is no right to vote in any federal election under our constitution. You don’t believe me, go ahead try to find it for yourself.

The Presidential Calculator

Try this site out, it is called the “Candidate Calculator.” You answer some questions, rank the questions into three categories of importance: low medium or high and the calculator gives you the candidate that best mirrors your positions on the issues. So far almost 500,000 people have tried this thing out. How bout you give it a shot and post your results here. That should be interesting… According to the calculator my top match is Tom Tancredo

Country Boy's suggested reading and viewing from around the web.

This report says democracy is not spreading throughout the world, in fact it is retreating. Political oppression, corruption and restrictions on freedom of expression are all on the rise. Wow…sounds almost like the United States!

Newt Gingrich says that Democrat and Republican candidates are failing their parties and their voters. The real divide is between the tax-paying Americans and the government system in Washington that is out of touch with its constituents. Such a shame Newt isn’t running.

The media keeps telling us how bad Fred Thompson is doing on the campaign trail. So why is Fred Thompson winning in the polls?

Here is a poll that shows Fred Thompson would easily win his home state of Tennessee over Barrack Obama or Hilary Clinton. O.K., so that is not much of a surprise as the fact that Obama or Clinton would win if Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney are the candidates.

Columnist Peter Mulhern says Fred Thompson will not only win the Republican nomination, but the general election as well. Interesting read.

The New York Times finally admits that giving MoveOn.org a discount for their "Betray Us" ad was wrong. You think? No word on when they will admit to being liberally bias.

MoveOn.org paid The New York Times the $77,508 it owed for the "Betray Us" ad.

The Colorado State University newspaper ran an editorial "Taser this. F**k Bush." Despite criticism, the editor of the paper refuses to resign. Well ... that's understandable, I guess. I see a bright future awaiting this kid at the New York Times.

You would think Israel launching a massive air strike against Syria would be huge international news and cause international criticism but it hasn’t. There has not been a peep out of anyone one. Why the secrecy? What did Israel bomb and did we help them do it?

Ever wonder just who are the 45 million Americans Hilary Clinton keeps saying needs health insurance? 9 million are illegal immigrants; 18 million can afford their own health insurance, but are young, healthy and are feeling immortal. They rather spend their money on new cars and HD television sets. Of course Hilary wants us to pay for their health care too.

Dick Morris writes about Hillarycare, and her definition of "Americans." Who exactly would be covered? Remember, when Hillary gets her health care plan, rationing of health care in the U.S. will be inevitable.

Hilary’s healthcare plan claims to exclude illegal aliens, but this article will show you that is just not the case

.It's a political war to gain control of your health care ... and the Democrats are using every weapon they have, including your children. Jim Wooten explains in his common sense conservatism column. Good read.