Love it when the shoe’s on the other foot…
Like I said before I did not like the “Nuclear Option” in the Senate to run over the minority back when the Republicans ran things and I see that Harry Reid agreed with me too back then. Now however when the shoe is on the other foot he wants to change the rules.
Reid – what a Horses Ass.
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http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/
What a difference eight months make. Senator majority leader Harry Reid, still smarting from having his hat handed to him twelve hours earlier on the Senate floor by Mitch McConnell and the Republicans, opened the Friday session of the Senate by previewing coming events next week in the Senate. It was during his calendar talk on the Kennedy Student Loans and Grants Act that he noticed Utah Senator Robert Bennett also on the floor, and had this to say as an aside.
- So we?re going to hopefully conclude this matter on Monday. If all the amendments aren?t offered, it would of course shorten the time, and the two managers are Senators Kennedy and Enzi, who did such a good job on the bill yesterday until they lost control of it with the rules we have here, which I hope, I see my friend here from, the distinguished junior Senator from Utah, I hope as one of the key members of the Rules Committee, the ranking member of the Rules Committee, you and Senator Feinstein will look at a way we can change these rules. What went on last night was ridiculous. There?s no way to stop that unless?as the time ran. And we should change those rules, and I think it could be done with the Rules Committee. We may have to take a look at that. It just doesn?t help anybody. So anyway, but that?s what happened. But it?s not going to be that way on this matter on Monday. As I said, Senator Kennedy and Enzi managed the bill very, very well until it ran into the rule that we have here that allows unending amendments on any subject forever, literally, before you can get final passage.
Harry Reid wants to change the rules of the Senate. How far back do you think we need to go to see if he?s consistent about the rules of the Senate?
Firebird Race Report – Part Deux
Originally posted on 10/11/2001
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Due to Popular demand (well ok just two people emailed to say they liked it) I am submitting the second part of this report.
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Sunday, Oct 7th
Firebird Raceway, Phoenix, AZ
San Diego Double Regional
After the problems seen on Saturday getting the car running in time for the race it was a real relief that we did not experience any similar problems on Sunday morning. Since the FF/CF/F500/FV group was still in the #5 position we had time to walk around the paddock and admire some of the other cars that were there in the incredibly gorgeous weather we had that morning. There was one Club Ford in particular that was quite pleasing to the eye. The owner had made new custom body work for it (this was also his first attempt at laying up fiberglass) and he had painted it in Ferrari Red and it even had what looked like Ferrari decals on it, that is until you looked close and saw that the silhouette of the prancing horse had been replaced with a silhouette of his Black Lab!
Practice…
For the practice session the car behaved very well and seemed to have shed any of the problems that were seen on the previous day’s outing.
Firebird Race Report Part 1
Originally posted on 10/7/2001
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For those that have complained about a lack of race reports I present the following (Being posted to both the F500 list and on the Wheel:
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Since this is a Double Regional for the San Diego Region this weekend here in Phoenix at Firebird I will send two reports.
Prelude…
I had taken my car in to have the motor repaired (we thought we had experienced a lean burn again) but when the motor was taken apart it was discovered that a rod had broken. Of course all the parts I had gotten for a top end rebuild were only going to be part of the solution. Chuck Voboril had two spare Kawi motors and sold one to me so that we could get the car back together and running while I get the other motor fixed. We worked until late Friday getting the motor in and running (had a CDI fail) so the first practice on Saturday would be the first test of this motor (other than a couple quick bursts up and down the street before the car went on the trailer)
Saturday…Practice
The morning dawned a typical gorgeous early fall day here in Phoenix with the temperature just right and I could not wait to get on track and see how the car would run. Driving from the Paddock to Grid for practice was a real joy as the motor felt really strong and the acceleration snapped my head back against the head rest when the clutch engaged at 5k RPM.
Pulling onto track behind a LeGrand CF (the last one ever made) I quickly made short work of him and set my sites on reeling in another CF and then trying to keep up with the FF when it all came to naught! On the third lap a Swift DB-1 FF had gone into the wall in the “Valley of Death” and brought at the Black Flag. While sitting in the Pits waiting for the mess to be cleaned up we were told they had stopped the clock and would get at least seven more minutes of practice time. This turned out not to be the case however as just as were starting our cars they waved the Checker to end our sessions with just three laps having been run! As I stepped on the gas to head back to the Paddock I could not get the motor above 3500 RPM. Since the clutch does not engage below 5k this presented a bit of a problem and required a ignominious flat tow back to my Paddock. Since the motor would start and run (albeit weakly) I figured it must be a fuel starvation problem. Fuel Filter and fuel pump checked out ok so after checking the spark plugs I decided to check the fuel cell in case the pickup was not clogged. Rolled up my sleeve and dug out the foam and did not see a problem there either. Put the car back together and thought for grins lets try it. Fired it up and like magic the motor screamed to life when the throttle was opened. We thought it must have just been “one of those things”, so we sat down to talk to our guests that had come out to watch the races.
Race Report 2/24/01
This weekend I took my T-83 Red Devil F500 out to Firebird for a NASA event (I treat these days as a test and tune session since we generally do not have that many cars that show up to run in the Open Wheel group).
I had just finished installing a new dash and a MY-CHRON Pro system and wanted to get it broke in for the SCCA Regional this coming weekend at PIR, the MY-CHRON worked fine it was my car that broke.
The field was made up of my F500, a Lola CF, two SRF a FM and a beast of a Lola (model ?? picture of it here –
http://www.nasa-az.com/PICS.html). A friend was supposed to bring his Ralt RT-5 FA out to run but a death in the family kept him seeing to more important matters. A couple other CFs were supposed to come also, but the trailer did not get here from out of state in time.
The forecast for the day had originally called for rain, but the moring came with a cloudless sky and temps in the 60’s. A beautiful day for racing!
World’s Shortest Endurance Race
Driving a rented Mazda Spec-7 car for a scheduled Endurance race at Phoenix International with Arizona Sports Racing Association back in 2000.
Blown radiator hose at +100 mph down the front straight into turn 1 with water all over the windshield and the tires makes for a pretty sucky day.
Race Report originally posted on 12/15/2000
In light of the complaints dealing with no race reports here is my report from the ASRA (Arizona Sports Racing Association) Enduro held at Phoenix International the weekend before last. This was alluded to in my last post.
I normally run a vintage 1958 TR-3 or more recently a Formula 500 neither of which would be fun or safe to run in a endurance event. For this event I rented a Spec RX-7 from HAsport (see their ad in SportsCar) and talked a friend who normally only runs Street Class groups with his Jensen-Healy into also renting a car for the event.
2006 Congress Elections
At 12:13 AM 11/8/2006, you wrote:
Dave,
 Are you up? What do you think?
Missouri is looking like it is going Dem.
Very interesting election Dems won where they ran as “Conservative” and not with the tired old “liberal” baggage. What will be fascinating to watch will be if these Freshman Congress-critters legislate as they ran or face the very real possibility of being one-termers in 08. The whole House is back up for grabs then. With an open Presidential seat and no VP trying to fill the slot there will need to be some serious trigonometry being worked out before these guys get seated in January. For example last night Major Garrett talked about Heath Schuler in NC. During the campaign he refused to say if he would vote for Pelosi to be speaker but “inside” info was that the Party let him say that to get elected but that come January he will vote for her. If that ends up being the way these newbies go of campaigning as conservative and vote the same “liberal” way they will get tossed out in 08.
Some of the seats that were won are definite one termers (the Foley and Delay seats for example).
Unexpected to whom?
How many examples will it take for tax receipts to go UP when tax rates are CUT before “liberals” and the “media” begin to see the relationship?
From today’s New York Times (they will probably be the LAST to see the correlation.)Â I love the first and third paragraphs of the story.
“An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit this year, even though spending has climbed sharply because of the war in Iraq and the cost of hurricane relief.”
and
“Tax revenues are climbing twice as fast as the administration predicted in February, so fast that the budget deficit could actually decline this year.”
Also, while the first paragraph refers to the war in Iraq the story totally ignores the hit the economy took on 9/11 and instead just refer to the “recession of 2001”
Schwarzenegger Vetoes Electoral College Bill
Arnold was right to veto this nonsense. Let me see if I can try to make sense of what this “dumbocrat” was proposing.
In 2000 Gore got a few more National “popular” votes then did Bush. In this guys proposal Gore would have then been awarded all of California’s Electoral Votes thereby telling the rural and suburban population of California screw you.
In 2004 Bush got more National “popular” votes than Kerry did so this dumbocrat’s bill would have told the majority of people in California screw you since all the states votes go to Bush regardless of how the majpority in the state actually voted.
What this dumbocrat is really trying to do is not to make California “relevant” but rather to make the smaller states where the vote is really in play irrelevant.
Our constitution is a remarkable document. It calls for representative democracy not the mob rule of a direct democracy. The House gives the bigger more populated States the ability to have a bigger say in that Body while the Senate balances and protects the smaller States by giving them an equal say.
The Electoral College does the same thing. Each State get’s Electoral votes in proportion to their representation in the House. But,with the Electoral College votes being apportioned within the state based on the vote you receive within the state it allows the rural and less populated areas of a state to not have their entire voice downed out by the larger population centers.
Response to a guy blaming Bush for Katrina
Eric’s comments that I am responding to are at the bottom. My response is long but I think you will like it and give you aid if discussing this with some like-minded Bush hater.  BTW, the guy Eric that I am writing too is very smart and the published author of quite a few history books that the US Military actually use and recommend so he is not normally a knee-jerk “liberal” while he would be considered a liberal.
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Eric,
I think you are allowing your hatred of Bush to seriously impair your judgement. I think that most real analyst will condemn the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of LA for their handling of this debacle.
Could Bush have mobilized the Federal response faster? “Maybe”. Sorry, it is not possible for Bush (or any President) to have twitched his nose like Samantha on Bewitched and magically caused a convoy of military vehicles with the requisite support troops, medical gear, food and clothing to appear out of thin air in a Hurricane zone. If he had decided to preposition those type of forces before the hurricane hit I can just imagine the comments (Cowboy, etc…) you and others would be making about him if Katrina had missed New Orleans like Ivan and the other near misses did. Why didn’t the Governor preposition the State Police and the National Guard on her own? She did not need Bush’s approval to do that? Why didn’t she request help from the Texas Guard if she thought the 3,000 LA National Guard in Iraq had depleted her reserve below the level that was going to be needed?
Pull Your foot out
Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2005
Xxxx Xxxxxxx I can just say Screw You. Assholes like you are what give good conservatives that love this country a bad name. Guys like you and Sean Hannity constantly use half-truths to spread an agenda.
Either something is true or it is false. Did Storm’n Norman “say” it as reported. No. Therefore it is false. Does he agree with the sentiment? Sure. Do I agree with the sentiment? Absolutely! Does that make the quote true? Of Course not.
For the record. I was an Air Force Air Cadet Lt. Col and spent the Summer of 1981 on exchange with the Israeli Air Force. I was going to go to the Naval Academy with a Recommendation from my Congressman (Mack Mattingly) from Georgia (we were stationed at Hunter Army Air Field where the my Father was the Operations Officer. Hunter is were the 1/75th Rangers are stationed along with the 160th SOAR – the group that just had a Helo go down in Afghanistan). I decided against the Naval Academy and hopefully flying F/A-18’s for the Marines when I decided that maybe I wanted to try something different.
I did and was an “asset” for a while with one of those three-letter outfits that are located just outside the DC area. I happen to speak, read and write Korean.
BTW, While in College I was in Marine PLC.
“It’s Getting HOT”
At 02:49 PM 10/19/2005, XXXXXXXXX@aol.com wrote:
Be careful what you wish for! The point is that by supporting someone because he is some kind of Christian and ignore his (or her) qualifications, you don’t know what you may get. Many Catholics and other Christians take
Certainly evaluating someone as fit for office/position/promotion strictly on their publicly espousing or public demonstrations of supposed adherence to a religious/moral code is stupid. Just as stupid as prohibiting the office/position/promotion for the same grounds. That particular “qualification” should be just one facet in evaluating fitness for office. Too many of those on the “right” overlook other failings because someone is supposedly “religious” just as there are people on the “left” that want to rule someone out of consideration because they teach a Sunday School class. Both of those points of view are absurd when taken to the extreme.
 “Thou Shalt not Kill†quite literally. It is not up to us mortals to kill a person. When a killer dies of natural causes, God is certainly capable of punishing him, or don’t you believe that?
Of course I believe that God will render his judgement on what you do or don’t do in your life. However, your argument shows your (and those that you describe) complete misreading of scripture.  To follow the non-logic of your argument would be to say that anarchy should reign because who are we to judge and punish the shop lifter/red light runner/bank robber because in the end God will be the one to judge.
See how your argument lacks any pretense at logic. The Ten Commandments in addition to saying “Thou Shalt Not Kill” also says “Thou Shalt not Steal” etc… So the same logical argument MUST apply.
Political Quizes – Take 2
Ray, I’m much more “centered” then you are.
My ranking on this test placed me at:
Economic Left/Right: -0.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.97
Which is one intersection left and down from center.
Here is another Quiz. Just five “Personal Issues” and five “Economic Issues” qustions.
http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.htmlLast year (in April) when I first took it my score was…
Your PERSONAL issues Score is 80%.
Your ECONOMIC issues Score is 70%.
This placed me on the crossed line directly below the E in Libertarian. Which is certainly in line with my agreement with Lynn Nofzinger when he said:
“…I am a Republican because I believe that freedom is more important than government-provided security. Sometimes I wish I were a Democrat because Democrats seem to have more fun. At other times I wish I were a Libertarian because Republicans are too much like Democrats. What I actually am is a right-wing independent who is registered Republican because there isn’t any place else to go…”
Global Warming 3
At 08:46 PM 3/12/2007, you wrote:
Facts? Which facts? The ones that bush’s anti-science corps makes up, or
the facts that 99 percent of the scientific community agrees with.
Joe, don’t believe the hype. 99% of the scientific community does NOT believe in Global Warming caused by Man. “Maybe” 99% (and I doubt that too) of the Scientific community believes that we might be going through a natural warming trend like the world has gone through countless times before. However the VAST majority of actual Climatologists (as opposed to Botanists, Anthropologists, etc…) are in firm agreement that we do not have anywhere near enough data to draw any conclusions whatsoever.
Here is the text of an email that my Uncle Larry (a real Climatologist – not just playing one on TV) responded to when he was interviewed on TV about this topic last July.
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When you watch this video, just keep a couple of things in mind. The first point is that this was a 10 second sound bite taken out of a 20 minute interview. And on a subject she was told in advance, by the Director’s Office of Communications, not to ask me about as that isn’t the research I do. The second thing to keep in mind is that my statement was taken out of context.
I am frequently interviewed by reporters. Some of them are really good and some aren’t. And some of them are just down right venal. I have a mental list of reporters who are persona non grata with me. Until this interview, there was only one name on that list. Now there are two.
Global Warming 2
Dave,
I see that you have subscribed to the notion that “all is well” and we have
nothing to fear but fear itself, So we can go right ahead and be the most
wasteful economy on earth, completely uncaring about the consequences of out
actions.
How the hell did you get that from what I wrote. There is a ground between the sky is falling camp and the let’s party all night till we puke. I am in neither camp. I said “should we reduce CO2” and I answered “yes”. Should we reduce it because it might have an affect on a possible phenomenon popularly called Global Warming that may or may not exist and if it does exists is caused more by cow farts than it is by SUV’s running wild across the plains.  That is what the UN report on Climate Change reported last month.
Hell, why not leave the health of out planet to future generations just like
we are leaving Bush’s deficit to them while his fat cat constituents
continue to get richer and richer.
Oh I see that your opinion is clouded with hatred for Bush and not with actual facts. That seems to be the typical response from those that view the Climate “debate” as one between the Religion of Climate and the pagan unbelievers, disbelievers and agnostics. I am an Agnostic in this debate.
As to the “deficit” you might want to take a minute to review the actual numbers.
Global Warming 1
Off-list…
The word “deny” is such a loaded word in this context because it tags someone as being on par with a Holocaust denier.
Science is based on being a Sceptic. Does “Global Warming” exists? Maybe (and that is a HUGE maybe). The month of February here in the US was one of the coldest on record. Last spring the Global Warming alarmist were in an up roar that the summer of 2006 would see the destruction of the eastern seaboard do to increased Hurricane activity brought about by the supposed warming. Did it happen? Not hardly. Did they apologize for their Chicken Little impersonation? Of course not.
It would help the debate and the actual science (not that Hollywood fantasy of Al Gore’s) if Scientists were allowed to actually practice science. You asked the question did any Oil companies contribute money to the making of that documentary? If they did so what? Do you hold the other side of the debate to the same standard when “Greeny” groups provide funding to their documentaries and “research”?
Are there other benefits to reducing CO2 emissions? Sure. Should we pursue reducing them for the other benefits? Sure.
Those that scream the loudest for a change in human activity should lead by example. If the idea is to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions then we should reduce them. Not purchase indulgences from some snake-oil salesman in the name of “carbon credits”. If doing that is ok then I should be able to buy my Brother-in-law’s unused emissions since he is driving a Honda Insight (to drive in the carpool lane in LA and NOT to reduce CO2) so that I can drive my big block 454 powered Suburban guilt-free. Of course un-like Al “hypocrite” Gore I won’t be owning the company that I buy the carbon credits from. Neat how his ability to claim he is “carbon neutral” is really an advertisement for the “snake-oil” saleing that his “carbon credit company is doing. Basically Al get’s to buy his carbon credits from himself. I did replace ALL the incandescent light-blubs in my own house with those mini florescent bulbs about three years ago but that was to get lower utility bills due to some scare about an ice sheet melting.
The more things change…
You must be talking about a different book. The book I am talking about deals primarily with his editorial cartoons about Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Mussilini’s Italy. There were a handful of cartoons in the book, certainly not “many” – only 8 out of a couple hundred cartoons, dealing with racial and ethnic segregation related to jobs in war industries and the bias against hiring Black and Jewish workers which is why I said “national” stereotypes and not racial or ethnic stereotypes. Besides, the cartoons dealing with that subject did not show a “minority” stereotype but rather more the stereotype of the “bigot” opposed to racial and ethnic integration. His pictures of Japanese civilians/soldiers/sailors/politicians etc… where primarily the ones that I was thinking of if placed in a modern context of “middle-east” type adversaries and what a group like CAIR would say in protest if a paper were to run a cartoon flavored like his. Especially his cartoons saying that Japanese-Americans were waiting for word from Tojo to act against the US.
Besides the Axis powers he rips on Isolationist, Appeasers, Lindbergh, slow production of Military supplies, etc…
Very interesting book when viewed in a modern context and seeing that the more things change…
Also interesting to sees his slams on the Congress and the Media for nit-picking the war and our involvement – even well into 1942! Might make for an interesting book exploring this topic. Everyone looks back now and says how united the US was in fighting WWII and the willingness to pitch in and sacrifice for the “cause” but these cartoons certainly paint the outline of a very different picture from Dr. Seuss’s perspective.
At 02:37 PM 1/20/2006, you wrote:
At 08:23 AM 1/20/2006, Dave Riddle wrote:
Quite a few years ago my Dad gave me a particularly un-PC book as a gift. “Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel”. If an Editorial cartoonists was to even try a similar toned/drawn cartoon with it’s unflattering “national” stereotypes today I dare say he would be fired by his paper due to the condemnation that the PC crowd would heap on him.
In fairness, while the caricatures may not be very acceptable today, many of the cartoons were protesting against segregation and businesses refusing to allow Negros to work along side whites.
US sends nitwits to negotiate
Not true at all. spend a little time looking at the Kyoto accordsand other political resolutions to global warming. It’s economic warfare. we sent nitwits to the bargaining table and wound up getting screwed.
We always send nitwits.
<rant on>
Another lifetime ago (17 years – hard to believe) I was doing work for one of Uncle Sam’s three-lettered Agency’s in a Country that shall remain nameless (would not be to difficult to discover). I had been in country for just over a year this particular trip laboring away in private sector positions (magazine editor/contributor, radio show host, US company quality control inspection rep, etc…) when I managed to obtain employment within the Host country’s government. In fact I was working within their version of a State Department. Not only that I was employed within the office that
dealt with US 301 trade issues. Nominally I was charged with attending trade conferences on their behalf to listen to the US side and prepare reports as to what the US position really was in general and some items in particular.
US Trade missions to these conferences/meetings are a conglomeration of Bureaucrats (State, Commerce, etc…) and representatives of US companies with a particular interest in the current round of talks (aviation, agriculture, etc…).
For the Host Country’s side I was able to obtain a significant amount of intel for them during the “Continental Breakfast” before sitting down at the conference table. The US attendees would see me bellying up to the pastry bar with them and since I had a “white-face” they assumed I must be part of their delegation. I overheard lots of good information for my reports to the Host.
Obviously similar reports and much more were going out the backdoor to Uncle.
For the most part US attendees at these conferences seemed to be caught up in the moment of being overseas and wanting to get away from the stale boardroom setting to get some shopping down or sample some of the local delights. They didn’t seem particular focused. I can assure you the other side was focused 100% on a successful outcome to these meetings.
The reason I am no longer doing this type of work is that my Agency case officer blew my position through his sloppy procedures. We (my wife and I) hightailed it back home before I got a knock at the door to become a “guest” rather then a visitor. She had just become pregnant with our first child so the excuse was that we were moving back to the states for the baby. She only found out the truth this last fall when I was yelling at the TV when some no nothing reporter/reportettte was going on about Plame being “undercover” and my kids how asked me how I knew that Plame wasn’t undercover and therefore no law had been broken. Since it had been 16/17 yars I figured what the hell and told them. Still have an old briefcase full of documents that worked their way out the backdoor.
<rant off>
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