Fred quit earlier today.  I think I can hear Reagan’s soul crying in heaven. My only hope and prayer now is that Mitt Romney can blow "The Tunnel Rat" and "Captain Cliche" out of the water. Those are Meat and Potatoes Nicknames for McCain and Huckabee, by the way.  :-)

I don’t know about the other conservative-traditionalists out there but my vote will not go for McCain, he has done too much to sabotage our movement over the years. Those wounds will NEVER HEAL and if I have to accept a Clinton or Obama presidency, so be it. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to begin a recovery. “Let’s hit rock bottom, vote for Rodham!”

The failure of the Fred Thompson campaign teaches us valuable lessons that we should all remember.  Contrary to what you may have heard, the failure is NOT DUE to his getting in the race too late or his lack of enthusiasm.  An informed and motivated electorate had PLENTY OF TIME to size Thompson up, get to his website, watch him in 4 or 5 debates and realize where he stands on the side of protecting our liberties.  So without being too long-winded.  Here are the lessons learned:

1)  the generation that elected Reagan is severely diminshed in size due to various reasons whether it be death, conversions to liberal-style thinking or apathy toward the political process.  My belief is that Ronald Reagan COULD NOT GET ELECTED in today's political climate.

2)  the electorate is so distracted in today's "information overload age" that they can't focus long enough on the candidates to make an informed decision about who to vote for.  I've said it before that we are mirroring the fall of the Roman Empire in this country.  We are fixated on the goings on at the "Colisseum" (i.e. IPODS, 500 cable channels, Blackberries) while the Senate allows the republic to go to hell in a handbasket!  Watch "Gladiator" and think about it!!!!

All I can say in closing is that today is a sad day for conservatism.  If Reagan's soul isn't crying, mine surely will be, sooner or later.  The only reason I can accept for Thompson's departure is an absence of money.  Sure his mother is sick but I'm sure she didn't get that way after SC.

Go Mitt Romney!!!!  You are the last and best hope for conservatism in the near term.

Additional thoughts since the news broke:

Fred should now throw his support behind Romney full bore!  The "Captain Cliche candidacy" has the nerve to say that Fred was a "stalking horse" for McCain?  Well, I've got some words for that douchebag who runs Huck-ster's campaign:  "Hey Mr. Rollins, convince me WHY your boy Huckabee isn't a STALKING HORSE for McCain?"  Word on the street is that Huckabee knows he can't win the nomination, his bank account has got that ole Italian disease "MYFUNZALO" and campaign staffers are working for free in some cases.  Rumor is that Suckabee is going to downsize his campaign bus in favor of a late 60's VW Microbus.  I think it's an outreach to the counter-culturalists on each of the coasts, what do you think? :)~~  If the outreach fails, Huck-ster has his eyes on the VP slot for McCain.  Hoo boy, what a combo that would be?  I think we'd be better off with Osama Obama and Edwards instead!!!!!

The primary returns thus far indicate that the Republican electorate is extremely DIVIDED as I predicted several months ago.  Posted below is the article I wrote back when I noticed this ALARMING trend of division among my fellow countrymen.  We better get a handle on this or we are doomed to accept either Clinton or Obama as our president for the next 4 to 8 years.  Let's get busy Grassroots Troopers, the SC primary is in 3 days!!!!!!!!

=================================================================================

Divide and conquer.  That is the methodology to defeating a foe which is organized and formidable, correct?  Well, I'm sick of all this talk which divides conservatives according to various criteria because I believe it is being engineered to conquer us next November.

If you're a devout follower of God, you must be a religious conservative.  If you don't necessarily go to church but believe in a traditional family unit, you must be a social conservative.  Perhaps you could care less about God and family but you're sick and tired of all this spending, then you're a fiscal conservative.  I've even heard some talking heads label those pesky, annoying "flag wavers" as patriotic conservatives.  Enough is enough for crying out loud with all the ways to split us up!!  So as of now, to counter this potentially damaging trend, I am going to introduce a new demographic for us to concentrate on.

It is simply this:  Are you a TRADITIONALIST or not?   That is the question for you to ponder this day.  Do you watch an episode of "Leave it to Beaver" and think of a time when the family unit was bedrock solid and people turned to their family before the omnipotent government?  Do you stand when the National Anthem is played and take off your hat, maybe get an embarrassing tear in the corner of your eye?  Do you love the thought of a July 4th picnic when baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and even a classic Chevrolet or two make their appearance?  If so, you run the risk of being a traditionalist. 

Now, I know what many of you are thinking:  "Come on Meat and Potatoes guy, all of this stuff you mention is what defines us as conservatives.  What kind of stunt are you pulling?"  I can assure you that I'm up to no stunt.  What I'm trying to do is to get people away from the divisive issues that define conservatism and concentrate on the issues that can unite us as traditionalists.  Do we long for the "old America"?  Up until the mid 1960's, the America we enjoyed was one that boasted personal responsibility as the order of the day and reliance on the family or community to meet our daily needs.  It also encouraged a nationalistic fervor of flag waving that would never be seen again with the possible exception of the few months after 9/11.

We lost our way in the late 60's and spun out of control all through the 70's but for some inexplicable reason, the gyroscope of our country began to right itself in the 1980's.  But alas, the traditional America was lost again to forces who gained control of the country and guess what?  They are making their last stand to do it again by seizing control of policy making at the highest level.  These people are non-traditionalists, indeed.

If there ever was a time for citizens of this country to regain their inexorable desire for traditionalist thinking, it would be now.  Conservatives or not, we want our "old America" back and WE WANT IT NOWWW!

Exit polling from the Michigan primary proved conclusively what many of us already know.  That women are falling in lockstep behind Hillary Clinton en masse and many will be voting Democrat come November of this year.  It's no secret that in past elections, women have been responsible for the election of Democrat presidents such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.  In fact, it has been opined by Ann Coulter that only one Democrat would have been elected president after 1920 had women never been given the right to vote.  Now, I'm not saying that women's suffrage was a mistake but I am saying that they are responsible for electing some real doozies as our president over the years.  Women better get on the ball here and start looking at the future of their country, start INFORMING THEMSELVES OF THE CHALLENGES WE FACE and make the right choices.  The biggest challenge we face as a nation is the downhill slide of our culture and women are in the middle of it!  Read on.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have gradually become convinced that the unraveling of American culture is inextricably tied to the downhill slide of American women.  In 50 years, we have gone from "Rosie the Riveter", the quintessential symbol of American industriousness and toughness to Anna Nicole Smith, a deplorable symbol of female opportunism and debauchery.  This parallels closely, the conduct of such personalities as Nicole Richie, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and that pinnacle of personal behavior, Paris Hilton.

At a previous time in American history, women were its BACKBONE!  The term "matriarch" meant a family butt kicker, who kept order, meted out discipline, managed the family finances and made sure the family was sound.  Today, who knows that the term means and I don't think it's even used anymore.  Does anyone reading this blog know if it truly applies to women in today's society?

How has this transformation occurred in a short 50 years?  Well, I have my theories and they have to do with legislation from our state and federal congressman.  Over the years, these folks have made laws in such a way as to shield women from the "unlimited oppression" of the American male.  Policies on divorce, child custody, alimony and sexual harrassment have been crafted in such a way, that women are favored over men in almost every case!  Thus, politicians who care ONLY about being re-elected, can brag about these achievements each time their favorite demographic approach the ballot box in November.  Think about it, doesn't it make sense to ensure that your "bread is buttered" in a political sense?  If you know that women vote in massive numbers, you would be STUPID not to write laws which favor this demographic!

So, how do we fix the problems with American women that we face today?  Well, any fix will take a long time, perhaps generations to accomplish.  After all, we took 50 years to get where we are today so we can't repair such deterioration overnight.  A good step for our politicians, to cut their pandering nature off at the knees, is to pursue TERM LIMITS legislation.  Once you take the career element out of legislating, the entire focus changes forever.  Term limits were tried in 1995 but The Father of 9/11 vetoed them, for your info.  Besides any legislative changes, the citizenry of America can engage this problem by talking about it and not taking part in furthering it.  Avoid women who exhibit a lack of character in their daily life and report those who don't meet their daily obligations as mothers to the appropriate authorities.  Female entertainers who set a terrible example like the ones I listed above should be abandoned so that they cannot sell a record or sell a seat at a concert. 

The effort to reform our sick and broken society begins with EACH ONE OF US.  The only requirement to join the fight is that you must care to take an honest look at what is going on and come up with an informed opinion.

Richard Durbin (Illinois) - Turban Durbin, the Pander Bear

Steny Hoyer (Maryland) - Stempy, The Horse Manure Salesman
Robert Byrd (West Virginia) - the Klan-Man, Sheets, the Human Sleeping Pill

I'm here screaming expletives at my television set in an exasperated fashion over none other than Palmetto Bug- sized brains in South Carolina!  Yes, I know there are doctors willing to treat me for my inner rage but I'd rather vent here and put it on the Meat and Potatoes record for all loyalists to witness and comment upon.

In earlier columns, I have opined about Frank Luntz and his focus groups (which I'm sure would make Mister Perjury proud since he focus grouped EVERYTHING).  Luntz gets a bunch of "local schmokels" together and asks them a series of questions after a presidential debate.  I'm not sure of his methodology used to voidire the participants but judging by the responses he got, none of them were political science majors in college!

What frustrated me most was the discussion of Fred Thompson's performance and the absence of one singular word:  CONSERVATISM!  That's right, not one individual in the room stated that Fred is an unabashed conservative and it scares me to wonder why!!  Could it be that none of these focus groupees know specifically what a conservative is?  If so, this is alarming.  Get ready for a strong statement that will shake your eardrums to their core you Palmetto bugs.  If you are unable to articulate what the vision of conservatism is, then you have absolutely NO BUSINESS being a Republican, period!  Let me spout off a few tenets of this philosophy:

1) the strength and greatness of America lies in its individuals and their inexorable drive for freedom.
2) each individual has talents which must be harnessed in order for them to achieve their own level of success.
3) when people are knocked down repeatedly, it is their OWN rugged individualism and self-reliance that gets them back on their feet and keeps them productive.
4) government must exist for the good of its people but its power must be LIMITED in scope.
5) each of us should do the right thing for American society because it is the right thing to do.
6) our freedoms come from God and nobody can take them away, especially not the state.

This is by no means a complete list, just a basic "starter" list for what conservatives believe.  For people in a focus group to NOT be able to recognize conservatism as Fred Thompson's greatest strength, it tells me that millions of Americans do not understand this most basic philosophy.  My hope for future Frank Luntz groups is that Republicans show an intellectual capacity to articulate this vision.  Our nation is depending on it!

Watching Huckabee on C-SPAN right now and am gratified to see this guy going into a graveyard spiral like JFK Junior over Long Island Sound in July 1999.  Some observations about this guy:

0) he's a bit of a wise-a$$ with a short fuse in private and I'll bet money on it!

1) he is a media created sensation, an empty suit whose 15 minutes of fame are hopefully coming to an end.

2) he is better suited as a Democrat with a record of being strong on entitlements and taxes while being weak on punishment of criminals and cracking down on illegal immigration.

3) he's a major back-bencher when it comes to foreign affairs experience and cracks jokes to hide it.

4) he's a walking bag of cliches, in fact using one right now as I'm writing this entry.  Let's all call him "Captain Cliche" for the duration of this primary season or until he flames out like Howard Dean in 2004...haha.

5) he is offering no vision for America, only a laundry list of reasons why Mitt Romney and Thompson suck.  The way this guy spews economic populism, he sounds like John Edwards minus the southern drawl!

6) he ought to stand in for Jay Leno sometime when Jay is sick because the guy's got pretty good timing.

7) the media wants him to win the Republican primary because he's the easiest guy to beat, plain and simple!

8) there must be something in the water down in Arkansas because this guy is a smooth talker like Clinton, plays musical instruments like Clinton and is just as slippery as Clinton.  Well, at least he's religious!  :-)~

Conflicted:  Being a black female voter in South Carolina's January 19th primary and not knowing for who to vote!  On the one hand you know you just have to vote for the FIRST female candidate but on the other hand you're dying to vote for the FIRST black candidate.

You're like the proverbial donkey with two bales of hay to eat but who starves to death because he can't figure out which one to take a bite from. People say "Think of which candidate best serves the interests of your country and will make the best leader".  But you say in return "To hell with that, remember I'm a Democrat and issues never really matter.  Symbolism over substance is the order of the day!"

Now, is that a great definition of being conflicted or what?

We are fast upon a presidential primary that may well define the future direction of the Republican party in America.  Do we follow in the footsteps of Reagan or do we go down the path of John McCain?

Presidential campaigns are about the 3 M's:  Media, Momentum and Money.  Once a candidate achieves critical mass with media and momentum, the money flows in like a river.  If the media cooperates, then its all good but if the media doesn't finger you as their "darling", you'll have a tough "row to hoe".  Right now, the media darlings on the Republican side are Huckabee and McCain while Romney, Thompson and Giuliani have been all but forgotten.  This is where Grassroots Troopers from coast to coast come into the equation.

My philosophy is that it doesn't take alot of people to start a movement but it does take a few crusaders who are committed to the effort and unwilling to give up.  Once those people can get the word out to patriots who care enough about the future of the country, geometric progression will take care of the rest. 

Tomorrow's primary in Michigan could well be the moment where John McCain builds sufficient momentum so that he's unstoppable as a Republican presidential nominee.  To say that this development will be catastrophic to the future of the United States would be the understatement of my lifetime.  You see, this election year we face a compressed primary season where candidates can "slingshot" past each other virtually unnoticed and by the time the "Lion's Share" of Americans notice, IT COULD BE TOO LATE!

Please, if you know someone from Michigan or if you know someone who knows someone from Michigan, think about contacting them for a quick convo about tomorrow's primary.  There are some things to discuss about the background of John McCain and what kind of legislation he has promoted as a so-called Republican.  To wit:

1)   John McCain is a "Joe Lieberman Republican" meaning that he is strong on national defense (which I do indeed applaud) yet socially liberal on policies that WILL AFFECT YOU and your children.  Why do you think that McCain has Lieberman's endorsement for president?  It all begins to make sense now doesn't it?

2)  John McCain only sponsors legislation with liberal democrats such as Ted Kennedy, John Edwards, Russ Feingold and Joe Lieberman.  How come McCain never teams up with conservative Democrats or even other Republicans to sponsor legislation?  hmmmmmm (currently lost in deep thought on this one.....)

3)  John McCain sponsored an amnesty bill which would have legalized some 20,000,000 illegal aliens who defied our laws and snuck across our borders.  When people demanded that the bill place border closure as a first priority ahead of citizenship, McCain branded the opposition as racism!  Are you a racist just because you want the law to be followed?  Yes you are according to John McCain.

4)  When President Bush authored the first tax cuts since the Reagan-era in 2002, in the wake of the sagging economy, he counted on full support from his Republican brethren in the U.S. Senate.  But wait, 2 Republicans saw fit to vote against the tax cuts and I'll bet you're shocked to hear that McCain was one of them!  How did he explain his opposition to the tax reductions you ask?  Well they were tax cuts for the rich, of course.

5)  Many of us complain about career politicians who get entrenched in the Washington, D.C. culture and then fail to respond to the needs of constituents.  John McCain listened to these lamentations and saw fit to change things but did he do it by sponsoring legislation to institute term limits?  No!  Instead he sponsored legislation with one of the most LIBERAL Senators on Capitol Hill to limit free speech for citizens who sponsor a candidate within 60 days of an election.  Campaign Finance Reform was a clear-cut violation of your First Amendment rights but this travesty of McCain's own creation didn't stop there.  Loopholes in this finance law allowed these detestable "527 groups" to form which take in donations from supporters and then use the money to create despicable advertisements which distort and lie with virtual impunity! 

6)  President Bush sought to appoint judges to the Federal bench which would respect the Constitution and not write their own version of the law. What did the Democrats in Congress do when a nominee would come before them for approval?  Why filibuster the judges, of course.  So, instead of requiring a simple majority as had been required previously in history, now these judges needed a "super-majority" of 60 votes or greater.  Republicans sought a change to the U.S. Senate rules to prevent Democrats from blocking judicial nominees in such an insidious and cowardly fashion.  But alas, guess who stepped up, to form a group of Senators who would not allow the rules change?  You got it, good ole John McCain formed the infamous "Gang of Fourteen" who stood in the way so that Democrats could continue their underhanded tactics.

Had enough yet?  Well, I certainly have and you should have as well.  It is easy to listen to someone flap their gums and sound convincing while it is much harder to look up their record and see for yourself where they stand on the issues which challenge our representative republic.  Once Michiganders cast their vote tomorrow and provide momentum to one or more candidates in the field, history will be set in a more definitive direction towards a desired or undesired outcome.  If you have the ability to affect this outcome and my plea has had any impact on you whatsoever, I hope and pray you will take any action that you feel necessary to do your patriotic duty for God, Country and Family.  John McCain is not the right man to lead this country and I know this with all my heart.

My fellow Grassroots Troopers, this country is positioned on the precipice to disaster with mounting fiscal challenges that make our present national debt look paltry in comparison.  Currently, the national debt is at about 9 trillion dollars.  Our future unfunded mandates for social security and medicare costs (which have to be paid at some point) put our debt at more like SEVENTY TRILLION DOLLARS!!!  Meanwhile, our manufacturing has blasted off for the Far East to bolster a communist country which doubles in size every seven years!  We are in the bottom of the 9th inning folks, the bases are loaded and the count is 3 and 2.  Now what are we going to do about it?  WE NEED TO WAKE THESE DUNDERHEADED DOUCHEBAGS UP IF IT IS THE LAST  THING ALL OF US DO!  So, get out there and take 'em to task.  When you hear some potential Dumb-O-Crat voter uttering  silly platitudes like:  "Republicans are for the rich, Democrats are for the middle class and poor.", ask them why they feel the way they do.  Then engage them on the issues I spoke of just now.  Watch them squirm as you embarrass the living dogsqueeze out of them.  Then tactfully suggest (you don't want to end up in a fistfight, of course) that they inform themselves.....PRONTO!

We have less than a year until we go to the ballot box and wage a fierce battle against the TRUE ENEMY within our own borders.  That enemy will not compromise and certainly will not back down, it can only be vanquished as it was in 2000 and 2004.  The counter-culturalists inside our own borders will stop at nothing to bring about a radical and total restructuring of this country that will make you look back someday and say "what the hell happened?"  In some cases, the restructuring has already begun, let's work together to stop it DEAD in its tracks so that all of us may benefit in the long-term.

If you're a "Meat and Potatoes Loyalist" you know the abbreviation "Double D" has nothing to do with female anatomy.  Rather, I use it to describe a HUGE segment of today's attention deficit disorder plagued society, the "Dunderheaded Douchebags".  You know the type I'm talking about, they can recall a super bowl score from 1969 and who the quarterback was for each team but they don't know who their senators are........what a joke!

What's funny is that the same individuals who will lament ad nauseum about crooked politicians and broken government are ironically the cause of their own torment!  Just think about it.  As a representative republic becomes filled with people who pay little or no attention to political matters and all of their attention to "American Idol", Blackberries and IPODS, the republic will begin to come apart at the seams.  Politicians will become unaccountable to the electorate and emboldened, even intoxicated with limitless power to rob your wallet and run roughshod over the United States Constitution, the supreme law of the land.

Why am I talking about this today?  Well, I was just listening to C-SPAN callers and a "Triple D" called in with a baseless rant about how President Bush is responsible for the "single-state recession" being enjoyed by Michigan.  By the way, a Triple D is a "Dunderheaded DETROIT Douchebag" in case you were wondering.  The convoluted, ignorant logic went as follows:  President Bush gave tax breaks to all the rich people which robbed the country of revenues, while at the same time fought a war in the middle east for oil which busted the budget.

Now, it's a saturday and I have much better things to do with my time than take the twisted rantings of a Triple D and try to explain why it is so sophomoric!  Michigan is enjoying a "single-state recession" for one major reason and that is because their solitary industry has not been globally competetive for several years.  Now, is this President Bush's fault?  Hell no.  It is the fault of the auto industry itself.  Of course, it doesn't help that the elected leaders of Michigan, most of which are Dumb-O-Crats, have done nothing to help the auto industry and the overall economy of Michigan.  In fact, Democrat Governor Granholm chose to RAISE TAXES rather than cut spending to close budget shortfalls.  Now there's a sure-fire way to help a collapsing economy, nice job!

Time for the tough love you Triple D's.  Ya'll better wake the hell up and take a look around you to see what your elected leaders are doing LOCALLY!  You want to take the easy, cowardly route and blame President Bush as your handy SCAPEGOAT.  Has it occurred to any of you that President Bush is going into his FINAL YEAR as president and will be out of there before you know it?  What are you going to do then?  Maybe you'll fall back to blaming Governor Engler or better yet, Mitt Romney's dad.  Yeah, that's the ticket!

Ross Perot, Jimmy Carter, James Webb and John McCain, what do all these men have in common?  Is it that they serve to bastardize the U.S. Constitution, grow the size of government and subvert YOUR liberty?  Well kinda, sorta but they have something else in common that is much more thought provoking.  Answer?  All of them are graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.

You remember Ross Perot don't you?  Known as the "hand grenade with a bad haircut", he got into the 1992 race only to get out and back in again.  He claimed that doctored photos of his daughter's wedding were aired in a dirty tricks campaign that necessitated his early exit, WHAT A NUT!  His fickle (female-like) behavior resulted in an electorate that lost faith in him but he still managed to hold onto enough would-be Bush voters to give us the Clinton presidency.  Someday when the Freedom Tower is built at the spot of the WTC complex, a sign should be placed which reads:  "This tower courtesy of Ross Perot and his ill-fated 1992 presidential run".

Jimmy Carter, a one-termer from the peanut fields of Georgia, is to this day the bane of our existence as Americans.  Will this guy just go and die already?  I mean come on Jimmy, your brother Billy knew when to exit stage left, why don't you?  Well Billy did have that alcoholism thing after drinking case upon case of "Billy Beer", Jimmy probably learned from his brother and stayed off the sauce.  The Carter presidency was by all objective accounts, an absolute nightmare extraordinaire.  Unable to effectively delegate authority, he micro-managed all aspects of his administration's operation, right up to the point where he was throwing a hail-Mary pass to the Iranians.  Attempting to pay them off in exchange of our hostages who had been in captivity for over a year.  The United States was the laughing stock of the world under Jimmy Carter and our economy was an utter disaster.  Good ole Jimmy keeps us Navy grads proud to present day, each time he stands up for Palestinian animals who blow up innocent Israelis with suicide bombers or launch rockets into Haifa.

Then there's that recent electoral sensation in Virginia, James Webb.  When I was a pleber at the "Boat School", his book "A Sense of Honor" was required reading.  Seems ironic, that since being elected to the U.S. Senate from Virginia, Webb has lost all sense of honor.  He has teamed up with the counter-culturalists who run the Democrat-led Congress repeatedly, to bring about defeat in our War on Terror.  It was James Webb himself, who tried to pass a restriction on troop state-side rest periods to tie President Bush's hands so that he would be unable to continue the progress in Iraq that we now celebrate.  When General Petraeus engineered the surge at the President's request, Webb teamed up with majority leader Harry Reid in demagoguing the effort and declaratively stating that it would fail, period!  Hey Colonel North, the academy folklore was that you and Webb did some boxing in Halsey Field House during your 2nd class year.  I think you should have hit Webb in the head a little harder, Colonel.  You might have shaken a few of the rocks loose.

Last but not least, we get to the final Naval Academy alumna, good ole John McCain.  A man who can turn on you and snap at your nose like a pit-bull, just ask Maria Shriver!  History is replete with moments when McCain let his temper get the best of him, including during the 2000 campaign when he went "postal" on Sean Hannity during a phone interview and hung up on him.  Keep your eye on John McCain during these debates and watch as a torrent of frustration will cause him to glare and mutter under his breath.  He's like a train-wreck on two legs, just looking for somewhere to happen.  Speaking of train-wrecks, let's deal with his legislative record as a U.S. Senator, shall we? 

Question for you to ponder this day:  Why is it that John McCain always teams up with hardcore socialists when he does most anything in our nation's Congress?  McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Feingold, McCain-Lieberman and McCain-Edwards-Lieberman are some of the lovely, legislative combinations he can brag about.  We all know that McCain-Kennedy was the massive AMNESTY program that would have given 12 to 20 million illegal aliens a welcome invite to enjoy America and all her trimmings such as welfare, medicaid, food stamps and even social security!  Of course, listening to McCain today it sounds as if he wasn't in favor of amnesty, he's assuming you have a short memory span, kind of like a puppy!  How about McCain-Feingold for all you "cheeseheads" out there who know about Russell "Foolsgold".  Campaign Finance Reform was nothing more than an ASSAULT ON YOUR LIBERTY!  It restricts free speech within 60 days of an election and gives the power instead to these "527 groups" who have exploited loopholes in the legislation.  Thank you for giving us these subversive groups like "MoveOn.org" and "Center for American Progress", Senator McCain you've done one heck of a job......NOT!  Then there's tax cuts, did you know that John McCain was one of ONLY two GOP senators to vote against the Bush tax cuts?  That's right, he felt they were tax cuts for the rich and demagogued them as such, LOOK IT UP!  Using this kind of class warfare, McCain sounds more like a liberal Democrat, I think he should change parties pronto and give Hillary Clinton a run for her money.

The bottom line is this:  If McCain didn't spend 5 plus years in a Vietnamese POW camp, we wouldn't even be talking about him as a presidential candidate right now.  He's got no business being our president and as far as being a senator goes, that's Arizona's problem.  I'm done with THIS guy!

This is from a column I wrote locally on September 16th 2006 and highlights just how out-of-touch and ridiculous John McCain can really be:

News has been leaked that torture is happening at one of the nation's service academies, namely the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD.  "Torture at a college in America, impossible!" you may say with righteous indignation.  Yet according to the definition of torture posed by many people in the country these days, it is a "fact"!

One of these people is Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who along with myself, is a graduate of the "Boat School" as we like to call it.  Put simply, McCain feels that types of "degrading and humiliating treatment" should not be applied to captured TERRORISTS who are undergoing interrogation by the CIA because this is akin to torture and violates agreements in the Geneva Conventions Act.   Although THIRTY years stand between our attendance, this blurred distinction includes some of the same treatments the Senator and I received during our plebe (freshman) years at Annapolis.

Thus, following the logic of McCain and others, torture is occurring at a nation's service academy and the institution should be shut down until the behavior is investigated and stopped.  This week, I will be writing letters to local newpapers and the Secretary of the Navy, asking for this to happen ASAP.  What's fair is fair!  If we are going to blur the lines and use backwards logic with captured terrorists, we must use that same logic with our own citizens.  Midshipmen are being "tortured" at Senator McCain's alma mater and he's done nothing about it!