Hillary = Toast

I was Im'ing Dr. Melissa Clouthier just a few minutes ago about this. Hillary must be absolutely beside herself in rage right about now. She must have been figuring that Obama is a lost cause and McCain would win. She must also have figured he'd pick some white male old time party hack who is a RINO and kinda iffy with the party base as his VP, or worse Lieberman, so she rolled over and didn't fight Obama's nomination figuring that in 2012, she'd have an open field as "America's first Woman Presidential Nominee" vs some white male RINO with iffy support of the base. But now, with Sarah Palin as his VP, she will be looking at another female opponent, one with GOOD support of the base. She must be chucking ashtrays at Bill like mad right about now......

A hypothetical question on profit margins

Suppose for a moment that you are the CEO of a major multinational corporation. Your company has a long term project, a project that is potentially very rewarding. But that project was going to take a minimum of 13 years to develop, and cost an estimated $5 Billion dollars before you make a single dollar back in return. And this is not the only project of this type that your company has in process, if perhaps not quite it's size or scope. None of these projects are assured to ultimately be profitable, some may not be, or will not be as profitable as originally thought. Your company's future depends on the profits that these projects will bring in. Your current profitable projects have a finite lifespan and you must replace them regularly. How much profit margin do you think you should make on your product in order to finance these long term prospects? 20%? 15%? 10%? Try 7-1/2%!

Compare that to a few other large multinational corporations:
General Electric 12%
Microsoft 29%
Halliburton 16%
Toyota 5.8%

I'm really having a hard time grasping the concept of "windfall profits" here.

Note to Liberals: Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

As I noted here, Obama's campaign is quite exercised about a TV ad that questions Obama's links to a unrepentant domestic terrorist who bombed both the US Capitol and the Pentagon back in the 1970's. They have written two letters to the Justice Department trying to get the ad pulled, and the millionaire donor who financed it jailed. but American Issues Project, the group that produced the ad fired back with their own response to the calls for censure and jail. You see, a couple weeks ago, another liberal group, calling itself "Accountable America" sent letters to major conservative contributors that were threatening in nature and were essentially attempts at blackmail, implying that the donations were somehow not in compliance with IRS tax law. They basically said "Donate to us, or we will try to make your life miserable".

So now, these very same liberal thugs are being hoist on their own petard. Funny, I thought Conservatives were supposed to be the fascists. That was what all the liberals always said....

I hope George Soros, Steven Bing, Peter Lewis, and others enjoy being investigated within an inch of their lives.

The ad Obama does not want you to see.

Obama has sought to have the Justice Department try to get this ad taken off the air. Is that not the DEFINITION of Fascism? To attempt to silence those who disagree with you?

At last, the heavens rejoice!

It is done....

Obama/Biden=Epic Fail Updated

Obama has a problem. The problem? He sucks as a candidate. Let us face it, given all the press he has been getting, he should be up 20 points over McCain, but he's not. He's going into the Democratic Convention as the heir apparent, and he just announced his running mate, he should be getting a bump from both, he isn't. In a CNN poll released Friday, only 60% of Clinton supporters are going to vote for him, 17% said they would vote for McCain, and 22% said they'd stay home. And word on the street is than his announcement Saturday of Joe Biden as his running mate hasn't made a bit of difference.

At this point, it is McCain's race to lose. Meanwhile Hillary is sitting back and rubbing her hands together thinking that 2012 is her year.....

Update: according to this USA Today story, the breakdown of the 60% supporting Obama is not a solid block either.

Poll: More than half of Clinton backers still not sold on Obama
By Susan Page, USA TODAY
DENVER — Fewer than half of Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters in the presidential primaries say they definitely will vote for Barack Obama in November, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, evidence of a formidable challenge facing Democrats as their national convention opens here today. In the survey, taken Thursday through Saturday, 47% of Clinton supporters say they are solidly behind Obama, and 23% say they support him but may change their minds before the election. Thirty percent say they will vote for Republican John McCain, someone else or no one at all. The findings spotlight the stakes for Clinton when she addresses the convention Tuesday and when her name is placed in nomination. "I know a lot of hardened Clinton delegates who are going to be OK, they're going to wind up supporting Sen. Obama," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter, told USA TODAY. "But they want to cast their votes for her. … I think that'll make it easier for there to be closure."

I knew the Dem convention was going to be interesting...

It would seem that a former Assistant Attorney General in Philadelphia has filed a Federal lawsuit against Obama and is seeking a court order enjoining the DNC from nominating him for President of the United States on the grounds that he is not a natural born US citizen and that even if he were, he lost his US Citizenship when he was adopted and made an Indonesian Citizen when he was 3 years old.

Meanwhile I sit back and watch the train wreck that is the Democrat Party thrashing itself to death with glee.
UPDATE:
There is a hearing scheduled for today at 2:00 pm (Eastern) to hear the case. The Judge hearing the matter is a Clinton Appointee.

Pissing in the wind...

Hell, I'd be happy if I could just piss in the toilet.... I have an appointment with one of these tomorrow.... See you on the other side.....

UPDATE: Well, the Lithotrypsy went off as planned yesterday at 2:00. Luckily they could access it with me laying supine(on my back) so they didn't have to intubate me. But things weren't so fun afterward. I blew through 150 mg of Fentanyl in the time I was in phase one recovery, and it still didn't stop the pain fully. Once I had been moved out to phase 2 recovery, I blew through an injection of morphine and Phenergan as well as popping a Narcan (10 mg of hydrocodone and 325 of tylenol) only to still have the pain eventually build to a 9+ on the 1-10 pain scale. To top it off I needed to be able to urinate adequately before they would release me. After an initial successful attempt I was stuck. It would appear my ureter did not take kindly to being blasted with ultrasound and it swelled closed on me. (this is a common problem with me and kidney stones.) An injection of Toradol finally did the trick on the pain and swelling (it is a very strong NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) in the same family of drugs as Advil, Asprin, and Aleve) and I was able to finally get rid of the pain and enough urine to get me out of the joint around 8:30 last night. But of course along about 1:30 this morning the Narcan and Toradol wore off, necessitating another round of Narcan and Phenergan. I think it is safe to say I'm not going to make it in to work today....

"International Relations" Part Deux.

By now everyone has heard about yet another instance of one nation "loving" another. Loving in this case is much like the "loving" that a serial pedophile has for his 3 year old daughter. I of course am referring to Russia Vs. Georgia. Last night in e-mail discussions with a friend of mine whose business it is to ascertain political risk for oil and gas operations, I speculated that I thought that Bush would do two things. He would send American troops in a peacekeeping/humanitarian role, and he would push for accelerated NATO membership among all of the former Soviet republics that wanted in. Word has it that Bush has done the first thing as of now. He is sending humanitarian relief in the form of US Military C-17 transports with relief supplies into the country as I type. This does three things:

• First, it shows both Georgia and Russia that we really do give a crap and that we are willing to put our money (or more accurately, our soldiers) where our mouth is.
• Secondly, it provides humanitarian relief to the populace which sorely needs it.
• And third, it ups the ante to Russia. If Russia wants to continue beating up on this infant of a country, they will have to do it with US troops in the way. Does Russia REALLY want to run the risk of attacking US troops?

This is the LEAST we as a nation can do. Georgia sent a very large fraction of it's military might (such as it was) to support our mission in Iraq. We pledged support for it's entrance into NATO. We encouraged Georgia to develop it's democracy. We need to support it every way we can.

A reminder... "International Relations" is a euphemism for one nation screwing another.

Yesterday was the 63 anniversary of the delivery of Fat Man to Nagasaki, and Wednesday was the anniversary of Little Boy paying a visit to Hiroshima. As an American, I will not apologize. I will not hang my head in shame or guilt. For our nation has absolutely nothing to apologize for. We were brutally attacked by a nation who used the diplomatic process in the PURSUIT of war. Therein lies an important lesson. Not all diplomatic missions are possible to resolve amicably. For diplomacy to work, all parties must honestly engage in it. Iran has been pursuing Nuclear Arms in violation of treaty. By itself and in an ethical and diplomatic vacuum, that would not be worrysome, but the fact is that nobody lives in such a vacuum. Iran is developing nuclear weapons not because another country threatens it, but because it wants to threaten others. THAT, is the fundamental problem. Iran is led by a lunatic who's fondest wish is to begin the next major world conflict by wiping Israel off the map, and in doing so bring about the return of the Twelfth Imam. Iran therefore does not want to STOP war, it wants to instigate one. Under such circumstance, diplomacy cannot work. But yet, the naive leftists of the world want to ignore reality and convince themselves that if they only talk to their enemies, they will become their friends. This is a constantly repeating failure of diplomats.
Neville Chamberlain believed it.
Josef Stalin believed it.
Woodrow Wilson believed it.
Barak Obama believes it.

The lesson for today is that Appeasement = Danegeld
Peace can only be achieved through the CREDIBLE threat of complete and total annhialation for those whose goal is chaos and anarchy.

It is 3am, the phone is ringing. What are we as a nation going to do about it?

Healing the injured illegals that the Guatemalan government won't...

No good deed goes unpunished....

An uninsured, unlicensed illegal alien was struck and severely brain injured by a drunk driver in Florida. He was taken to the local trauma center who saved his life twice, and when it was time to transfer him to a rehab center to continue his recovery, the hospital could unsurprisingly find no takers, so they had to keep him and continue to care for him and provide rehab. After spending over 1-1/2 million dollars to care for and heal this illegal alien, the Hospital determined that he was as healed as he was likely to ever be, so they started looking for a long term care facility to take care of him, since he was violent and suffered seizures several times a day. Again, no takers in the US, but after much wrangling, the hospital got assurances from the Guatemalan government that if returned to Guatemala, he would be cared for by the Guatemalan government. So the hospital whistled up an air ambulance and flew him AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE, back to Guatemala, where to this day he languishes without proper treatment.

The family has hired a lawyer to sue the Hospital, claiming the patient was "dumped" in Guatemala, despite that the Guatemalan government agreed to care for him.

Audience participation time

Ladies and gents, I am conducting an experiment, and I need your help. There has been a rash of blogs on the blogger system that have been flagged as "spam" recently that were in fact critical of the Obamamessiah. So I have decided to perform an experiment. I have set up a blog with exactly one post. I want everyone to go over and flag it as spam and then come back and leave a comment so that I can keep a count. Since the system may use the number of unique visitors that flag it as a variable, if you do so anonymously, please be honest and pick a unique number and identify yourself that way so I can keep an accurate count. Additionally, I want you to post a link to it any and everywhere you can think of. I want the traffic patterns to appear to be that of a spammer blog. Your cooperation is appreciated.