That’s Right Nate

Sharron Angle is running hard for Harry Reid’s spot as Senator from Nevada and Senate Majority Leader.   She’s excited the Nevada tea party and though she’s a fresh face on the national, she’s been known to Nevada residents for sometime.   She’s ahead in the polls and has been able to comfortably concentrate her campaign commercials on showing what kind of guns she can fire instead of policy issues.

She’s been a big advocate for religious rights ever since she pushed to get a Scientology program into Nevada women’s prisons in 2003.  In fact, Angle has argued that the separation of church and state imposed on this country in the first amendment is unconstitutional.

In the case of abortion, it is her faith that guides Ms. Angle.  Saying “God has a plan”, Angle is against abortion in case of rape and incest because she believes that God would not have had the woman in question raped if he did not have a plan for her and her baby.   The plan may be grand like the baby growing up to be President or it may be small like the shame of the mom being a lesson to other loose women to control their alcohol intake, dress more modestly, and not go into strange bars without a male escort.  I think it’s very reassuring for all rape victims to know that even if it was scary, God planned their rape and was guiding the actions of the rapist all along.

Angle is also ready to make big noise on the economy by forcing the lazy to get back to work.   Angle favors cutting unemployment benefits so that goldbrickers are forced to go back to work and take the many entree level jobs that they turn their noses up at.   Much of the current unemployment is caused by the desire of so many people to start in middle management or higher.  There’s an attitude sweeping the country that if you’re not going to get a key to the executive washroom, you might as well just live off your dividends and put off applying for work.

With a woman of faith and intelligence like this, the GOP is well on their way to taking over Harry Reid’s Senate seat and Majority Leadership.

There’s a Republican tidal wave growing to take back the Senate and this wave is going nationwide.  Nowhere is this seen as clearly as in a seat that the Democrats never thought they’d lose.   Former Notre Dame quarterback and astronaut Mark Kirk is poised to win President Obama’s former Senate seat in Illinois .

At a news conference today, Kirk who first gained prominence writing a series of hit songs for the band Jefferson Starship in the 1980s including We Built This City and Sarah, looked every bit the front runner.  “I have made mistakes concerning certain aspects of my accomplishments and experiences, and I apologize for those mistakes and I pledge to correct those errors,” Kirk said. “I am not perfect and was careless. I will do better and I will make sure this never happens again.”

Kirk, who designed the 46 defense for the 1986 Super Bowl Champion Bears, was unjustly attacked by the media after several claims he made about his background in the military and in education were shown to be false.   Kirk apologized with all the grace and aplomb that one would expect from the former Cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch and while he could not guarantee that he would not do it again, the former Starlight Express cast member did promise to apologize the next time it happens.

Through four starts with the Washington Nationals, 22 year old phenom Stephen Strasburg has been nothing short of diminating–leaving Yankee fans thrilling at the prospect’s success even though he won’t be eligible for the Yankees roster until 2017. 

Through his first 4 starts, Strasburg has not given up more than 2 runs in any start going 2-1 with a 1.78 ERA in just over 25 innings pitched.  He’s also struck out 41 batters.  Many look at him as the next great pitcher in the major leagues.   However, baseball’s odd and complexing free agency rules mean that the Yankees will need to compete with both the Red Sox and Mets to sign the pitcher when he is finally allowed to leave Washington.

For Yankee fans there’s little they can do except wait and follow their prospect as he develops and learns to pitch at an even higher level.  In the meantime, baseball fans in Washington should have a great show for the next half dozen years.

It has been over 60 days since the Obama administration fell asleep on the job and the chaos of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was born.   My question is after 60 days, haven’t we beat this thing to death yet?  Were we this vindictive against Jesse James, Tiger Woods, or Lady Gaga.  Surely, the time has come to move on and give Tony Hayward his life back.

Hayward is the CEO of BP and this whole thing has been very disruptive to his life.   Only this week people were giving him a hard time for going to a yacht race around the Isle of Wight in England instead of staying in Louisiana.  Excuse me, but how can they have a yacht race in the gulf?  The oil would require massive scrubbing on the yachts.

Its no wonder that Republican congressmen have described the attack on BP as a “shakedown”.   As we require them to pay for this damage, who looks after their share holders?   The people who live on the gulf should understand that this is a hazard that they are voluntarily subjecting themselves to.  It isn’t like Hayward has been heartless.  Do you think BP doesn’t care?  As BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg put it, “I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don’t care, but that is not the case with BP. We care about the small people.”

How much more can the public ask for.   Even Toy Story 3′s beloved Randy Newman doesn’t care for small people or short people anyway.  All Tony Hayward has ever asked for is his life back.  After two months, it is time for the American people to honor this request.  The man and the company have been hounded enough.

I may the world’s greatest father.   My daughter Emily is very lucky to have me in her life looking out for her and I’m sure she knows this.  I should be getting a call from her soon to wish me a Happy Father’s Day and as I reflect on the holiday I reallize that so much that I have learned about parenting, I learned from my own father.

1. Play with Your Kids – My father wasn’t shy in playing with my sister and I.  He was a big kid at heart and it was from him that I developed my killer instinct.  Whether it was tackling me on the football field or returning my sister’s serves right back at her until she was one big bruise from all the tennis balls crashing into her, my father never took it easy on us just because we were kids.  I still remember the time I almost beat him at basketball.  It was a cold November Sunday and the score was 14-13 in my favor.  I faked left and went right and threw up a layup.  It was a prayer that rolled around the rim 3 times before going in.  As I started celebrating, my dad started yelling at me that you had to win by 3.  My dad and I had a big argument and that was the last time we ever played.  I really wish I would have beat him legitimately just once, but it still meant a lot to me just to get to play with him.

2. Have a Sense of Humor – My dad was forever playing pranks.   One of his favorites was to wake us up in the morning by splashing a glass of ice water on our face while we were sleeping.  My mom was always yelling at him to take the ice out of the glass first.  He loved to light fire crackers underneath his bedroom window when my mom was trying to nap just to watch her wake up with a start.  He loved to hide her tranquilizers or to switch her medicine.  He even had a younger sister he never told her about–My Aunt Samantha.  I met her several times when I was with my dad, but I was always told to keep it secret from my mom and that we’d surprise her someday with the news.   I wish I hadn’t lost track of her.  Family is important.

3. Live your Values – In 1968, the South Side of Chicago was a dangerous place for a white man to preach racial equality, but my dad worked with Dr. Martin Luther King when he marched through Marquette Park.  While King was walking in the street getting all the headlines that Summer, my dad was organizing a neighborhood watch.  Armed only with baseball bats, his friends and he patrolled the South Side to make sure that race riots wouldn’t break out.  He was always thinking of the marchers too.  When they marched in the sweltering summer heat, my dad was always yelling for the fire department to turn their hoses on the marchers to cool them off.

4. Value Education – My dad was always involved in our schooling.  If a teacher gave my sister or I a bad grade, my father was up at school to demand they be fired.  When communists tried to infiltrate our schools in the 70s, my dad stood up for American values by demanding that communist or socialist teachers be fired.  He always reminded us that education was a competition against the other kids in our class and that there was no such thing as second place.

5. Honor God – My dad was not a religious man.  He rarely went to church when it wasn’t a wedding or Christmas.   Still, he always instilled a believe in us that if we misbehaved, God would get us even if we escaped his notice.   He reminded us that God was vengeful and homosexuals, communists, and fornicators would soon meet his righteous wrath.  He showed the ultimate strength of his convictions when my sister married a Catholic and he disowned her.

Thank you for being such an amazing dad!

Every now and then, I get just a little too big for my britches.  Because of my tremendous access to Congressman Jack Kimble (R-CA), I sometimes try and get in touch with other politicians to promote them through the blog.   One politician, whose cause I have championed is Rand Paul.  Rand is the son of Ron Paul and he’s following in his father’s footsteps by running for Senator for Kentucky.

I tried to set up a telephone interview with Mr. Paul and unfortunately discovered that Rand Paul has changed his media strategy since  Paul has canceled on Meet the Press and refused to speak to non-ideological media, preferring the safe platform of Fox News. Last weekend, after a speech to Republican activists in the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Paul balked at the prospect of talking to local reporter Ryan Alessi. Paul instead instructed Alessi to “submit your questions to us and we’ll look at them”

I figure the easiest thing for me to do is to submit my questions here and alert Rand Paul’s campaign I have done so.  Maybe I will be granted some answers:

1. You have made it clear that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake and that private companies like Greyhound should be free to require black people to sit on the black of the bus, while government owned mass transit should not have preferential seating by race.  What do you think the rules should be for a company like Amtrak which is privately owned, but heavily subsidized by the government.

2. Could our government make a bureaucracy so big that it would be unable to create a government agency to untangle it?

3. How much do you believe car accidents are the results of government imposed speed limits?

4. How do we bring back sweater vests?

If you like those Mr. Paul, I would very much like to continue this dialogue.

A lot has been made recently about a statue of Jesus that was struck by lightning.  The giants statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway has been struck by lightning and burned to the ground.  The King of Kings statue was six stories tall and one of the most familiar landmarks in South-West Ohio since it was erected in 2004 outside a church just north of Cincinnati.

I’ve heard several Christians talk about this being caused by graven images because somewhere in the Bible it says we shouldn’t make statues of Jesus.  That seems kind of Moslem to me personally.  I mean if we can’t name an Airport or an expressway after the almighty like we can for Ronald Reagan, the least we can do is build a statue in his honor.  What it seems these Christians leave off is where that lightning would have struck if that statue wasn’t there.  I am willing to bet that the statue threw itself in front of a church bus or sacrificed itself in some way saving commuters on the highway.  I’m sure the church will rebuild an equally stirring, but tasteful poster

He’s a friend of the blog so even though I’ve been off for awhile, I didn’t want to miss his victory speech from his primary victory.  Kimble beat Paul Salazar in the 54th District by 72% – 24%.  The people of California must love Jack as much as we do.

Thank you.  It is people like you who came here tonight. I come tonight with a very, very full heart.

And I want especially to thank the voters of the 54^th District. Over the last week, I listened to you and, in the process, I found myself why I hadn’t done this sooner.

(APPLAUSE)

I felt like we all spoke from our hearts, and I am so gratified that you responded. Now, together, let’s give America the kind of victory that California has just given me.

(APPLAUSE)

For all the ups and downs of this campaign, you helped remind everyone that politics isn’t a game. This campaign is about people, about making a difference in your lives, about making sure that everyone in this country has the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential, about scary government programs and even scarier minorities. That has been the work of my life.

We are facing a moment of so many big challenges.

(APPLAUSE)

We know we face challenges here at home, around the world, so many challenges for the people whose lives I’ve been privileged to be part of.   We have skyrocketing unemployment, illegal immigrants pouring over the border, and even the most advanced DVD players still flash 12:00 uncontrollably.

I’ve met families in this state and all over our country who’ve lost their homes to foreclosures, men and women who work day and night but can’t pay the bills and hope they don’t get sick because they can’t afford health insurance, young people who can’t afford to go to college to pursue their dreams, senior citizens with neighbors who won’t stay off their lawns.

(APPLAUSE)

Too many have been invisible for too long. Well, you are not invisible to me.

(APPLAUSE)

The oil companies, the drug companies, the health insurance companies, the predatory student loan companies have had four years of a representative who stands up for them. Let’s give them another two.

(APPLAUSE)

I intend to be that representative, to be a representative who may not put you first, but always puts your lives, your families, your children, your futures somewhere in the top ten. I believe deeply in America, in our can-do spirit, in our ability to meet any challenge and solve any problem. I believe in what we can do together to serve our corporate masters.

In the future, we will build together. There will be no more invisible conservatives. So we’re going to take what we’ve learned here in California and we’re going to rally on and make our case. We are in it for the long run.

(APPLAUSE)

And that is because we are in it for the people of the only state courageous enough to have a bear on their state flag.

(APPLAUSE)

This victory will serve notice that people across our district know what’s really at stake, that we will all be called upon to deliver on the promise of America. We’ll be called upon to deliver on the promise that the wealthy will grow and prosper again, and that they will trickle down their blessings on the lower classes.

(APPLAUSE)

To deliver on the promise that the greatest generation will have their shot at the American dream, to deliver on the promise that we’ll have the will and the wisdom to create television shows like Murder She Wrote and Diagnosis Murder once again.

(APPLAUSE)

To deliver on the promise of not leaving one inch of ocean floor left undrilled for the oil that fuels our economy.

(APPLAUSE)

We know that for the promise of America to be real, we are called upon to deliver on that promise. And if you join in this call to greatness, we will together answer. So, if you are called will you join with me to promise to answer and when you answer will you promise to go and when you go will you answer the promise of America.

(APPLAUSE)

We are determined to tackle our toughest problems and stand up for those who most need a champion, because we are determined to make America work again for all of our people. We came back tonight because you spoke loudly and clearly.

You want this campaign to be about you, but this is my campaign and it must be about me, but you have shown me that you like me.  You really like me.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank Paul Salazar and his staff for their incredible commitment, their passion and their heart. I want to thank my entire family, particularly my wife who cut short her hike on the Appalachian Trail to be home and watch this speech tonight.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank my extraordinary staff that never faltered one minute and all the volunteers that my father loaned to me from the family farm..

I want to thank the old people across this district who came out.

(APPLAUSE)

They asked the hard questions, and they voted their hearts and their minds, and I really hope that this will not be necessary in the general election.  You can trust me now.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you, and God bless you.

There are some moments that just make you proud to be an American.  Whether it was the Miracle on Ice Hockey team, the Space Shuttle Challenger, or the U.S.A Dream Team’s 68 point blowout of Angola in 1992.  Today was one such moment for me.  Today, the Iraq War surpassed the Vietnam was are the longest war in our history.  While, we have a long way to beat the all-time record, which is in dispute, but for my money goes to France and England, our personal best is something to be proud of.

When we first started this war, people did not believe that we could do it.  Many critics said that it was a quagmire and we would be in for a very ugly and drawn out battle that accomplished nothing, but as a nation we stood strong.  With John McCain’s famous surge strategy as well as the hard work by the Bush and even Obama administrations we stood firm, when many thought we should just leave Iraq anyway.  We did it and we owe a big debt of thanks to all who made this possible from Donald Rumsfeld to the lowliest grunt—U-S-A!! U-S-A!!