Sauron?

It appears the Great Eye of Sauron has been spotted a mere 25 light years away. I hope we still have access to the One Ring.

ht/Vodka Pundit

Sorry Jamie

Happy Birthday 1 day late to my daughter Jamie! I love you, and I will see you a week from tomorrow.

Sorry Father's

I was out of town (again) and unable to get to a computer this past weekend, so let me say a heartfelt, although belated Happy Father's day to all of you father's out there. My father has been gone for 4-1/2 years, but I still say Happy Father's Day Pop! I miss you and think of you every day.

Busy day

There have been a lot of things in the news today. First and most important, Brennan Hawkins was found safe and sound, although dehydrated and hungry, 5 miles from where he was supposed to be 4 days ago. His mother said that miracles can still happen. I say they happen every day, you just have to look for them.

Senator Frist said today that there would not be another cloture vote for ambassador nominee Bolton, saying "what would be the point?"

Senator Frist said today that he would continue fighting for an up or down vote for ambassador nominee Bolton saying it is the right thing to do.

Senator Frist today, I think, got a White House spank at lunch.

Senator Reid seems to have as his goal to out Daschle Daschle. He has decided to have a political game of chicken with President Bush and obstruct everything that has the president's backing. This of course will be political suicide, not only for Reischle....sorry, I couldn't help myself....but also for any senate democrat who is up for reelection in 2006. Yes, I believe that includes her highness Hillary too.

There are a certain amount of Americans who favor democrats, and a certain amount who favor republicans. I think what Senator Reid and his followers have not taken into account is that there are a lot of Americans who want to see things get done whether it is proposed by one party or the other. At this time in history, the republicans seem to be coming up with the majority of the ideas being put forth for votes in the congress. The democrats, under the current leadership, are seen merely as an obstructionist party with no ideas of their own. If this is the path that they continue to follow, come November of 2006, they will no longer have enough votes to hold a filibuster. They seem to be taking their lead from the far left Micheal Moore's (is he still around?) and George Soros's of the world. I have said this before and I will say it again. Their views are not the views of mainstream America. If they were, then John Kerry would be president (gulp) and the Senate Majority Leader would be a democrat (God save us).

Let's see, what else? Oh, Senator Durbin gave a tearful apology for his comments of last week. I don't believe for a minute that the tears he almost shed were for comparing the United States Military to Stalin's gulags, or Hitler's massacre of the Jews or of Pol Pot's killing fields. No, his choking up came from making an apology that he doesn't believe in his heart. He is another "blame America first" liberal who was forced to make an apology or be censured by the senate. Since his "apology", our favorite democrat in republican clothing John McCain made sure he got his face time and accepted the Senator's so called apology.

Nancy "Why can't I blink" Pelosi has demanded that an independent council investigate the accusations of abuse at Guantanamo Bay. I don't think as Minority Leader she is in a position to demand anything. Besides, as far as I can tell, there are no cases of abuse leveled at the military prison other than from Senator Durbin. The American people believe, and there are recent polls to prove it, that the detainees in Guantanamo Bay's detention area are being treated very fairly.

Not Guilty

Michael Jackson has been found not guilty of all 10 counts against him. There is an AP story via MyWay's website here. I didn't follow the trial all that closely, but there are two things that jump out at me about the whole case. For one thing this Sneddon guy who prosecuted the case is an idiot. He let his vengeful lust for convicting Jackson cloud his sight. Given the evidence that I saw, and it certainly wasn't all of it, I don't believe they proved their case. That brings me to the second thing. There is just too much smoke for there not to be any fire. Even if there was no impropriety, there is something wrong when a 46 year old man sleeps with children that are not his own.

Whether he is guilty or not, I don't know. If he is, that is something that he will have to answer to later. If he isn't, then he has suffered badly and wrongly so. His career is all but over. His reputation is completely shot. He will be the butt of jokes (no pun intended) for years to come. I just hope for the boys sake that he doesn't deserve it.

Blogging

As you can see I have still not been able to blog as much as I would like. Spending time going back and forth to my house and work just isn't allowing me enough time to do this on a regular basis. I am still very hopeful that this will change in the very near future. Please be patient.

Classic Floyd

If nothing else, the "Live 8" concert that Bob Geldof is putting on has managed to re-unite the classic line-up of Pink Floyd. This should make my brother Dana very happy. He is huge into Pink Floyd. It will be the first time Roger Waters, one of the founding members, has played with the band since 1981.

E.U. Constitution

Well, I haven't had a whole lot of time looking at the different news sights and blogs to get a feel for how the rest of the world thinks of how the Netherlands voted yesterday for the European Constitution, but I have witnessed a little bit of a reaction.

The Netherlands overwhelmingly rejected the constitution by 62% of the vote. Now I am sure that in the media there are many reasons why this would happen, and they may all be true, unlikely, but maybe...

As it happens, I am sitting smack dab in the middle of the Netherlands as we speak....or write. At the end of the voting day I had dinner with several people of the area....people who voted....and we had a beverage or two and discussed it.

The people of the area where I have been staying all week (Harderwijk, Ermilo and the surrounding area) I think would really be in favor of an EU constitution, if only their politicians would tell them what is in it. The majority of the people that I have talked to here....no, all of the people I have talked to here, don't know what is in the document! The Dutch are told to vote "Yes" by their politicians, but they don't know what that "Yes" vote will stand for.

As far as I understand it from my Dutch friends, the countries that have said yes to this constitution have done it without the majority vote from the people. Germany, Spain, etc. have decided to speak for their people (where have I heard that before) and say yes without the input of a popular vote. I don't know how that plays out for the US, I have been in Europe for about a week now, and I have been treated with nothing but respect.

I think the anti-American sentiment that is being played out in the American press is a lot more hype than truth. I have gone out and mingled with the local people here and have not had any problem, quite the opposite. Most of the people I have spoken to, if they have not been to the states, want to go. They are very pro-America.

I think what this election has done more than anything, it has shown that the days of the Socialist movement is probably over. Gerhard Schroeder has moved the date of his next presidential election up by one year. The conservative Christian leader.....her name escapes me for the moment...anyway, she is making huge progress against Schroeder. Then there is Chirac. In a political move, that I believe was complete suicide in the wake of the EU election loss, has named DeVillipan (yes, that DeVillipan, although I question my spelling) to be his new Prime Minister. He is toast. No one likes or believes DeVillipan (although his suits are nice) or his boy Chirac.

My position, and I must say I am quite alone in this, is that the EU Constipatio...er...tution is done. Too many people in Europe are against it or don't know the ramifications. Also, too many heads of state that are for the Constitution are going to lose in the next election, I think just out of spite or for a scapegoat for soaring inflation and unemployment, for this to pass any time soon. There will be many ammendments and many more votes before it will be ratified....Hmmmm, that sounds familiar too....