Well, Westboro did show up the funeral of Sgt. Charles Jason Jones in London, which is very close to my home town. I sent them a message telling them their message wasn’t wanted here, but they came anyway, sorta. Here’s what their protest looked like:
That’s pretty much it. A couple of adults and some kids not old enough to know better. The Patriot Guard and others showed up as well. This is what THEY looked like:
Kinda hard to get a good perspective, but they basically surrounded the funeral home facing away from the protesters. Their intent was to shield the mourners from the idiots of Westboro. Turns out, they got a little help. Wanna see?
To get a better idea of what’s going on. The Westboro bunch are on the right side of the street. A line of firetrucks, running, are in the middle of the street. And, the funeral home is on the left side of the street. The mourners never would have seen the Westboro idiots whether or not the several hundred people showed up to protect them. The net effect was something like this:
If you looked out from the funeral home, all you saw was this. Several hundred people and the firefighters and police of London supporting you.
Just as it should be.
And when the Westboro idiots packed up to go to the cemetery, those firetrucks, city police, and state police, were right behind them.
As I told Phelps’ bunch, we don’t need or want their hate in Kentucky. I wonder if they ever ask themselves why it is so many people show up to protest them?
Thank you Patriot Guard, I haven’t been so proud of a bunch of people in a long time! And for a very brief period of time, I have never been so proud to be associated with a group like that.
And, to answer the question of the topic of this post. One promotes hate, one promotes respect. Pretty amazing if you think of it since one is a “church” and one is not as well.
GOP and the City has an incredible post on who is boycotting Citgo, and how you can too by buying "American".
However, for me, the most useful thing they have is a link to "How To Buy American". It contains a list of gas suppliers and their country of origin. Pretty dang cool and not terribly easy to find. For chucksn and giggles, here it is:
| Chevron | American |
| Coastal | American |
| Conoco | American |
| Esso | American |
| American | |
| Gas Express | American |
| Getty | American |
| Gulf | American |
| Hess | American |
| Kerr-McGee | American |
| Marathon | American |
| Martin | American |
| Mobil | American |
| Murphy USA | American |
| Pate | American |
| Petro | American |
| Phillips 66 | American |
| Sergaz | American |
| Sinclair | American |
| Sonoco | American |
| Spur | American |
| Star Kleen | American |
| STP Fuel Centers | American |
| Sunoco | American |
| Tenneco | American |
| Texaco | American |
| Ultramar | American |
| Union 76 | American |
| Zephyr | American |
| Amoco | UK |
| Arco | UK |
| Boron | UK |
| BP | UK |
| Venezuela | |
| Futura | FIN |
| Red Rooster | Canada |
| Netherlands | |
| Sohio | UK |
| Standard | UK |
| France |
Now, along with the obvious reasons for not wanting to do business with Citgo, I prefer not to get my gas from Shell due to their total reliance on Middle East oil. And, I don’t like Total due to their involvement and meddling when the US attempted to get France to support us in Iraq. And, I’m not too pleased with Exxon for profiting in excess at the expense of the consumer. That only leaves about 80% of the vendors to choose from. I’m not going to cry for those local vendors getting hurt right at this moment because they can’t sell Citgo or whatnot, they can switch suppliers easy enough. Yeah I know, there’s time and expense involved, but this buy-American sentiment has been around a while and it doesn’t seem to be going away. When you’re in sales, it’s your job to give the people what they want. If you don’t, someone else will.
The guy who accused George Allen of using the N word now states unequivically he never heard George Allen use the N word. Instead, he now uses deductive reasoning to justify his claim:
My conclusion is based on the very credible testimony I have heard for weeks, mainly from people I personally know and knew in the ’70s," Sabato wrote.
In other words, he could have possibly cost Allen his career because of heresay. Now, because he used the N word, the media went bonkers and reported it as fact without checking on the fact that the whole contrived story was based on heresay.
There’s something bad wrong with that folks. It doesn’t matter that this butthole fessed up, this country is SOOOOO obsessed with political correctness and worrying itself sick over offending anyone for any reason, for a good while, and certainly until after the election, Allen is going to have that cloud hanging over his head whether it’s accurate or not.
That’s about as low as it gets. I wasn’t really too concerned with Allen’s race, but now I do hope he wins just to set an example to the NEXT person who wants to try to affect the outcome of a race by making stuff up and releasing it right before the election.
The most disgusting group of Americans I know of are planning on visitng near my home town this Saturday. They are the people that think carrying signs to funerals saying things like "God Hates Fags", "Thank God for Dead Soldiers", or "Thank God for IED’s" is a good thing. I sent them a message on their board asking them to keep their hate in Kansas, we don’t want it here. I doubt they’re too concerned. The Patriot Guard is supposed to be there. What’s more, I truly feel like others will be there a lot less concerned with the law than the Patriot Guard are. This could get ugly.
Frankly, I hope it does.
27
Sep
In light of Hugo Chavez’s recent public performances in the US, 7-Eleven has dropped Citgo as it’s gas supplier.
I’ll be getting my gas at 7-Eleven for the next few days! Let’s see how long Chavez continues his crazy tirades when it hits his economy.
Ever hear the phrase lately of "tax breaks for the wealthy"? If not, I’ll give a few examples:
- Dissident Voice
- Fair Taxes
- Open Letters to Bush – Ultimate Field Guide to Economy
- Common Dreams
- National Organization for Women
- Campaign for America’s Future
- National Women’s Law Center
- Nancy Pelosi
- John Kerry ( He then voted for it. )
- Ted Kennedy ( He then voted for it. )
- Any liberal, any Democrat, any media.
Ever read anything to back it up? Here’s the latest figures from The Tax Foundation. An organization that simply looks at tax figures:
| Income Bracket |
Individual Percent
2000 |
Individual Percent
2004 |
Percent of all
2000 |
Percent of all
2004 |
||
| $1-$5,000 | 0.50% | 0.50% | NC | -0.20% | -0.20% | NC |
| $5,000-$10,000 | 1.50% | 1.30% | LESS | -0.70% | -0.90% | LESS |
| $10,000-$15,000 | 2.40% | 2.10% | LESS | -0.50% | -1.30% | LESS |
| $15,000-$20,000 | 3.20% | 2.90% | LESS | 0.20% | -0.90% | LESS |
| $20,000-$25,000 | 3.50% | 3.20% | LESS | 1.10% | -0.10% | LESS |
| $25,000-$30,000 | 3.60% | 3.40% | LESS | 1.70% | 0.80% | LESS |
| $30,000-$40,000 | 7.40% | 7.10% | LESS | 4.20% | 3.20% | LESS |
| $40,000-$50,000 | 7.30% | 7.00% | LESS | 4.80% | 4.20% | LESS |
| $50,000-$75,000 | 16.40% | 16.30% | LESS | 12.20% | 11.90% | LESS |
| $75,000-$100,000 | 11.60% | 12.90% | MORE | 10.50% | 11.00% | MORE |
| $100,000-$200,000 | 16.80% | 19.00% | MORE | 19.40% | 22.50% | MORE |
| $200,000-$500,000 | 9.60% | 1.00% | LESS | 15.40% | 17.90% | MORE |
| $500,000-$1,000,000 | 4.20% | 4.30% | MORE | 8.00% | 9.20% | MORE |
| $1,000,000-$1,500,000 | 1.90% | 1.90% | NC | 3.70% | 4.00% | MORE |
It seems that the wealthy are now paying an even bigger bulk of taxes than they were before the "tax break for the wealthy". It also seems the people who got the break were the working poor. It also seems that this is what the Republicans were saying when they tried to pass it at the time. It also seems to me this has been 100% ignored by all major media. Wonder why that is?
So, next time you hear someone bitching about the "tax breaks for the wealthy", point them here for an education they’ll soon forget.
Bill Clinton was on Fox New Sunday yesterday. Chris Wallace asked him why he didn’t do more to get Osama Bin Laden. Clinton went off. In usual Clinton fashion, he totally dodged the question by accusing Chris of being part of the vast Fox wing conspiracy. The evidence of his accusation was Chris Wallace had never asked the Bush administration the same thing. Chris Wallace said he had. Bill said he hadn’t. Well, according to Patterico’s Pontifications, Chris Wallace HAS asked the Bush administration those questions. In fact, Wallace was harder on Rumsfeld than he was on Clinton:
- I understand this is 20/20 hindsight, it€™s more than an individual manhunt. I mean what you ended up doing in the end was going after al Qaeda where it lived. . . . pre-9/11 should you have been thinking more about that?
- What do you make of his [Richard Clarke€™s] basic charge that pre-9/11 that this government, the Bush administration largely ignored the threat from al Qaeda?
- Mr. Secretary, it sure sounds like fighting terrorism was not a top priority.
Now, the evidence is blindingly obviouus. But do a Google out there and see how many people are repeating exactly what Clinton claimed without a care in the world whether he was right or not. And, in the usual Clinton fashion, the question was never answered. He said he did this and that, but the evidence is totally contradictory to what he says he did. There are all kinds of inconsistancies in Clinton’s interview. However, per the norm, the Clinton army muddles the fact he either is grossly wrong or lying out his butt again by following exactly what he tells them to do. Amazing really.
For a full analysis of the Wallace-Clinton interview, please read Patterico’s. The content is excellent.
23
Sep
Well, I won’t be the first person to report I’m highly skeptical of this report. And, even if he were dead, I don’t think Al Qaeda would be in too big of a rush to report. It wouldn’t do them any good at all to have Bin Laden drop dead of God inflicted natural causes. He wouldn’t be a martyr then. And, for that matter, I’m not sure it would do Bush any good to have Bin Laden drop dead of natural causes either, the US people want to see his corpse. So, I don’t see us pursuing this rumor to any great degree and I don’t see Al Qaeda fessing up on it either. We’ll just have to see if he shows up any time soon. And, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Al Qaeda doesn’t have a whole bunch of stock film to prop him up for a while.
-
And as usual, Scrappleface has an uncanny knack for putting two and two together and getting a touchdown. They may be on to something.
I have long contended certificate of need laws inhibit competition and progress in the health care field, allowing providers who control the existing CON’s to charge basically whatever they want due to restricted competition. Now, it appears, SOME people are agreeing with me:
Well, it’s about time. I couldn’t readily find a list of states that still enforce CON’s, but I know not all do. My experience has been primarily in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Florida. Florida doesn’t have any, everyone has to be licensed to do almost anything. The result in Florida has been rabid competition where only the most efficient survive. In Kentucky, wasteful and over-charging hospitals and clinics charge anything they want to the general public. This is in a state where the median income is one of the lowest in the country. There is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it so long as those hospitals et al meet the terms of their CON, which says nothing about pricing outside of state regulations ( the private sector and private insurance ). Allowing competition will allow others to provide cheaper services if there is a demand in the market. In my particular town, the demand is there, but the state has refused to issue any CON’s. Therefore, these people of Appalachia are forced to pay whatever rate that one hospital chooses to charge. The answer to that problem is eliminating CON’s entirely, and that is what the Kentucky Medical Association is now endorsing. This is the first time in my life I am endorsing the KMA’s recommendations. And, I’ve been a medical services provider in several facilities.
This is big folks. Although I am citing Kentucky as the example, it needs to be done everywhere if we want to allow more progress and cheaper services. Those that can pay for those services should have the choice, those that can not should be allowed to find the cheapest provider. That’s free market, that’s what the US is all about.
Three idiots got real lucky this week.
Now, these guys got real lucky not because Wisconsin has never seen fit to ban having sex with dead people, they got lucky because they got an incredibly stupid judge in charge of their case. Someone care to explain to that judge what the law is when a person attempts to have sex with someone without their consent?
I imagine there will now be a rush to pass legislation in Wisconsin to ban necrophilia. That’s a good thing. However, as long as they’ve got judges who can’t see the obvious, it won’t really matter right now will it?
And, per my norm, there’s some parents in Wisconsin that need to have a serious discussion with their offspring. When people talk of Grunking from now on, guess what they’ll be referring to.
