Here a short lecture from Dennis Prager, a man I respect greatly. He has a nationally syndicated radio talk show. This video is a part of his new endeavor, Prager University.

Flashreport.org is a great website if you want to stay current on California politics. Today, they have a nice piece by an assemblyman who shows us how policies in California are stimulating Nevada's economy.

Oh, and, um... the AP has an article following up on the incident at the Miss America pageant. Our girl from California reflects on that incident and talks about what has happened since.

Miss California got a tough question from a judge that decided to be a jerk. Go over to Little Green Footballs 2 and check out all the videos here .

We here enjoy the sounds of the electric guitar. Here is one in action.



Whos this guitar-playing sonsa bitch? , is a question common asked.
On his head a bucket of chicken bones, on his face a plaster mask.
Hes the bastard son of a preacher man, on the town he left a stain.
They made him live in a chicken house to try to and hide the shame.

He was born in a coop, raised in a cage. children fear him, critics rage.
Hes half alive, hes half dead. folks just call him buckethead.

Farmers would torment him as he snuggled with the hens.
Theyd hose him down with water, and steal his little friends.
Now late at night hed sneak off to the graveyard all alone,
And play a soapbox guitar to the faces made of stone.

Buckethead found his freedom at the age of 17,
When he burned the chicked house down with a quart of gasoline.
He did puppet shows on corners and bought a real guitar,
And with the help of colonel sanders, hes bound to be a star.

He was born in a coop, raised in a cage. children fear him, critics rage.
Hes half alive, hes half dead. folks just call him buckethead.

The Ballad of Buckethead by Primus

Some brave Firefighters are fighting the city of New Haven. The case has reached the Supreme Court of the United States.

Lou Dobbs is doing a great job on this story. Here is the direct link to Lou Dobbs at CNN.com, with lots of videos.

Here is another good piece from CNN if you don't want to watch video.

What I want to say about this is first, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS REVERSE DISCRIMINATION. Racial discrimination is the same thing no matter who suffers it. The use of this term, "reverse discrimination", really needs to end because it implies that only minorities can be discriminated against. It's irrational, it defies logic, and it's just plain dumb. I have no idea how this got into the vocabulary of any serious journalist but it is all over the place. It's a shame.

Finally, I am of the opinion that these twenty firefighters were discriminated against and they need to win this case. In the past, minorities have expressed that "the man" was keeping them down. Well, now it's an injustice of people of a different race but it's still racial isn't it? So I think any respectful American should agree with me when I say that this kind of racial quota system needs to be outlawed. The United States should not stand for hiring or promotion based on race, no matter the race. If we say goodbye to racial quotas and affirmative action we will be taking a big leap forward in mending racial tensions in the country.

From The Washington Times:

"The whole notion was that if we showed courtesy or opened up dialogue with governments that had previously been hostile to us, that that somehow would be a sign of weakness," he said.

This is kind of a classic straw-man argument. Nobody said you cannot talk to hostile regimes, just that you do not use the office of the President of the United States to do it with. This is however, what you did.

It is a sign of weakness Mr. President, a weakness of principle. You need to stand for liberty and justice, not the tyranny that you, and everybody else, knows Chavez embodies. These principles must never waver.

When you shook Chavez's hand you showed all the political prisoners in Venezuela, and in Cuba, that you don't so much care about the injustices they have endured. You also demoralized the people fighting for human rights and liberty in Venezuela.

You said your chat with Chavez was a good step forward but who took the step? It was not Chavez, Mr. President, it was you. And what did you get out of it? A book written by a Marxist, that bashes our country. You even shot it up to number two on Amazon.com for a brief moment. Nice going. (Mark Levin's book is still number one. This alien highly recommends it.)
So, you took a step forward but Chavez stayed right where he was. It's important to note this because it has been your belief that meeting with these dictators would change their minds. Evidently it has not.

(AP Photo/Alfonso Ocando, Miraflores Press Office)

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer Ben Feller, Associated Press Writer – Fri Apr 17, 10:56 pm ET

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – Presidents Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's socialist leader, met Friday and shook hands on the sidelines of a summit of their hemisphere's democracies.

Obama walked across a hotel meeting room to meet Chavez for the first time, said a senior U.S. administration official who witnessed it and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of the event. The official said Obama initiated the encounter.

Chavez has been a fierce critic of the United States during President George W. Bush's tenure.

"It was very, very short," the official said of Friday's meeting. "The president shook his hand, smiled and then went back to his position in the line."

The encounter comes as Obama softens U.S. policy against Cuba, a Chavez ally.

Asked later about the meeting, Obama elicited laughter from reporters with a brief response: "I said, 'Como estas?'"

That's the familiar form of Spanish for "How are you?"

Chavez was more forthcoming with reporters.

"We shook each other's hands like gentlemen, and it was predictable this would happen," Chavez said.

"We don't have any complexes that would prevent us from extending our hands to each other. I'm grateful for his gesture."

Photos released by the Venezuelan government show the two smiling and Obama touching Chavez on the shoulder. Other photos show them with clenched hands in the room next to the main summit ballroom while the heads of state and government were waiting in line to enter the opening ceremony.

The Venezuelan presidency also said Obama initiated the handshake and quoted Chavez as telling Obama he hopes for better relations between their nations.

Chavez told reporters he had a simple message in English for Obama: "I want to be your friend."

Obama's comments were limited to saying that he wanted to introduce himself to Chavez, the U.S. official said. The Obama official would not comment on what Chavez told the U.S. president.

But when a reporter asked if the Venezuelan account of what happened was accurate, the Obama official said: "I wouldn't dispute that."

As recently as last week, Chavez expressed a desire to "reset" relations with Washington.

___

Associated Press writers Frank Bajak, Mark S. Smith and Alan Clendenning contributed to this report.

from Yahoo News

The article fails to mention that this thug has also had some words for President Obama, like calling him an "ignoramus". That came after the President himself accused Chavez of supporting terrorists. In fact, many experts do say that Chavez is working with Hezbollah. So why shake hands with this jerk? What a disgrace.

Paul Gilbert being INTENSE

Today, from The Stockton Record:

Alan Pettet is forming an armed militia to patrol Stockton

By David Siders
Record Staff Writer
April 11, 2009 6:00 AM

STOCKTON - Alan Pettet, who announced Monday he is forming an armed militia to patrol Stockton, said Friday that 270 people have called to sign up and that he has had attention from such media outlets as National Public Radio and "The Rush Limbaugh Show."

Both the city administration and the Police Department said to roam Stockton in cars with loaded rifles - as Pettet, a midtown neighborhood advocate, has proposed - would be illegal and unwise.

Pettet said the militia would only "activate" if the city lays off police officers, causing some residents and officials to speculate he is only posturing to dissuade City Hall from laying off officers. The city is trying to balance a $31 million budget deficit and plans to lay off at least 43 officers by summer.

Pettet, 66, said he is serious.

"This thing's gone national," he said.

Pettet, who at first planned to run one car at a time with four men inside, said he now intends to staff as many cars as he can.

Vice Mayor Kathy Miller said the attention Pettet is receiving is unfortunate.

"It feeds a really negative image," Miller said. "It's really unwarranted, and it hurts us."

She said she believed no militia will materialize.

"I don't think there's any way it's going to happen," she said.

That is, if the Israelis choose to bomb Iran's nuclear sites. Click to read the whole thing:

With his brief comment Tuesday, Biden became the highest-ranking administration official to caution the Jewish state against a military strike. In the interview, Biden was asked whether he was concerned that Netanyahu might strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

"I don't believe Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that. I think he would be ill advised to do that," Biden said.

"And so my level of concern is no different than it was a year ago."

They banned our perfectly good light bulbs. They banned trans fat. They even banned chimneys. Now, they're trying to take our HDTVs. Thems fighting words!

"The California Energy Commission is proceeding with a proposal this summer to ban the sale of TV sets that do not meet new efficiency standards when they are turned on and displaying a picture — a measure of power consumption that is not currently regulated at all."

I have a 50" Panasonic Plasma. It's friggin' brilliant and the less energy sucking LCDs cannot compare to it yet, but let's not impose any stinkin' regulations.

"The Commission, says the law's main goal is to reduce the strain on the energy grid, which will help avoid building expensive new power plants. It cites the fact that TVs are among the fastest growing electronics in the business and are slated to grow further.

But that's a deceptive citation because recent TV growth has focused on LCDs and other 'greener' TVs.

Energy-hogging TVs are on their way out, without the help of the government or an overriding desire by consumers to own energy-efficient TVs. Most buy LCDs because they're simply cheaper and are finally approximating the quality of larger plasma televisions."

The free-market works. Unfortunately, that is something my state of California forgot a long time ago.

Here is a video that didn't get deleted from my Youtube account. If you're a 49er fan, or a football fan, you'll enjoy it.

Iran is still trying to build a nuke.

"The Manhattan district attorney's office has smashed a sinister plot to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran through unwitting New York banks, the Daily News has learned.

Officials plan to unseal a 118-count indictment Tuesday accusing a Chinese national of setting up a handful of fake companies to hide that he was selling millions of dollars in potential nuclear materials to Tehran."

Whole article here

and General Patraeus had this to say a few days before:

"The Israeli government may ultimately see itself so threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon that it would take preemptive military action to derail or delay it,"

Could he be hinting that Israel will have to bomb Iran's nuclear sites without our help? With or without our help, an Israeli strike is bound to happen. It could be really difficult. The Iranians probably have their most vital nuclear sites spread out in different locations and surely surrounded with nice shiny new Russian anti-aircraft guns and missiles. We should sell the Israelis some of these little toys:



Since it looks like we won't be ordering any more :/

Gates proposes halting F-22 production

and this is funny.

Chances are you've heard about the unmanned Predator drones that the U.S. military uses. They're flown by remote control into the tribal areas of Pakistan where the Taliban are held up. Well, now they've got something even better. Apparently the U.S. military has a new technology that allows them to see through walls!

"Predators were originally designed as video surveillance aircraft that could hover over a target from high altitudes. But new models are outfitted with additional intelligence gear that has enabled the CIA to confirm the identities of targets even when they are inside buildings and can't be seen through the Predator's lens."

Read the whole article here at the LA Times.

I first heard about this thing when Bob Woodward was going around touting his new book. Here is what he said:



I didn't know what to believe. Then, I read this great piece at Michael Totten's blog, here. Make sure you visit. Here is what he said:

"A suspect matching the terrorist leader's description had just been spotted fleeing the area a few blocks away.

I have to protect the Army's operational security, so I cannot tell you how the suspect was spotted. But I can tell you that if I were a terrorist or insurgent in Iraq, and if I knew what kind of sophisticated high-tech surveillance equipment the Americans used as a matter of course, it would scare the living daylights out of me. No one can hide in Iraq forever from the American military."

Woodward referred to it as "techniques and operations". Totten says it's "sophisticated high-tech surveillance equipment". I think the military has something. What do you think? What could it be? Is it just an exaggeration thrown out there to scare terrorists or does the military really have something truly revolutionary?