I can't believe I'm losing to this idiot.--John Kerry

This is a hoot. From Reuters:

Americans flock to Canada's immigration Web site

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada's main immigration Web site has shot up six-fold as Americans flirt with the idea of abandoning their homeland after President George W. Bush's election win this week.

"When we looked at the first day after the election, November 3, our Web site hit a new high, almost double the previous record high," immigration ministry spokeswoman Maria Iadinardi said on Friday.

On an average day some 20,000 people in the United States log onto the Web site, www.cic.gc.ca -- a figure which rocketed to 115,016 on Wednesday. The number of U.S. visits settled down to 65,803 on Thursday, still well above the norm.

Bush's victory sparked speculation that disconsolate Democrats and others might decide to start a new life in Canada, a land that tilts more to the left than the United States.

See ya'll. Bye. Rent a flatbed truck and take that vitriolic, bile spewing slob, Michael Moore, with ya. Au revoir.

Oh, yeah. And take some Zoloft, Prozac, Welbutrin, Paxil, Xanax, or lithium with you so as to deal with the major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar, obsessive compulsive disorder or panic disorders many of you seem to be suffering with. Or as Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun Times put it: Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Speaking of the know-nothing slob, I copied this from his web site the night before the election:

To George W.:

I know it’s gotta be rough for you right now. Hey, we’ve all been there. “You’re fired” are two horrible words when put together in that order. Bin Laden surfacing this weekend to remind the American people of your total and complete failure to capture him was a cruel trick or treat. But there he was. 3,000 people were killed and he’s laughing in your face. Why did you stop our Special Forces from going after him? Why did you forget about bin Laden on the DAY AFTER 9/11 and tell your terrorism czar to concentrate on Iraq instead?

There he was, OBL, all tan and rested and on videotape (hey, did you get the feeling that he had a bootleg of my movie? Are there DVD players in those caves in Afghanistan?)

Speaking of my movie – can I ask you a personal question before we part ways for good on Tuesday? Why did you and your friends fund SIX “documentaries” trashing me -- but only ONE film against Kerry? C’mon, he was the candidate, not me. What a waste of your time and resources! Sure, I know what your pollsters told you, that the film had convinced some people to vote you out. I just want you to know that that was not my original intent. Funny things happen at the movies. Hope you get to see a few at the multiplex in Waco. It’s a great way to relax.

Fat and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

I stayed up way too late last night watching the post-election punditry. I flipped back and forth between CNN, FOX and MSNBC. I gotta tell ya, I really like this Joe Scarborough dude. He tells it like it is. No BS. He just calls it correctly.

Anyblather, "expert" after expert kept making references to the ongoing culture war in this country. Ah, the culture war. That's the decades-old conflagration that has had many of us stopping and wondering to ourselves on occasion, "What the hell is going on in this country?" Or, then there's the tired but oft-repeated, "This country is going to the dogs." "Hell in a hand-basket," perhaps? Whatever. Gone are the days when we had no locks on our front doors, and even if we did-we rarely, if ever locked them when we went to bed.

All of the culture war references and the puzzling attempts to explain what's going on here always leads me back to the Naked Communist. I read this book around the same time I was ooing and ahhing at Maureen McCormick's latest Tiger Beat pics. And I've re-read it many times since. In 1958, Cleon Skoussen, former high-ranking FBI agent, revealed in his book, THE NAKED COMMUNIST, the long term goals of the communist agenda. This information is also contained not only in the Congressional Record (August 1963), but also in the Communist Manifesto itself. For the sake of brevity, only a few of those goals are listed here:

U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the U.S. would be a demonstration of moral strength.

Permit free trade between all nations regardless of communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

Provide American aid to all nations regardless of communist domination.

Set up East West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.S.

Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the United Nations.

Promote the United Nations as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.

Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

****Note: This is where it gets really good. Does this not describe exactly what has, or what is transpiring in our country?****

Do away with loyalty oaths.

Capture one or both of the political parties in the U.S.

Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Get control of the teachers associations.

Gain control of all student newspapers.

Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.

Gain control of key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures.

Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them censorship and a violation of free speech and free press.

Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures and TV.

Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as normal, natural and healthy.

Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a religious crutch.

Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principles of separation of church and state.

Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the grounds that it was only a minor part in the big picture.

Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the communist apparatus.

Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents.

Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American traditions; that students and special interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political and social problems.

Heyna?

From the e-mail inbox:

*********Subject: Interesting

US Navy, using that nothing little island just off the coast of Puerto Rico for bombing practices, which they had used for the past 75 years? Demonstrations were held, Hollywood left wingers, Al Sharpton, and his fellow demagogues went down there to demonstrate to get the Navy out? I am sure it infuriated you just as it did me at the time. Wellllllllllllllll, here is our revenge.

Always be careful what you ask for, you just may get it!

One of the many headaches that the U. S. has had was the Puerto Rican Island of Vieques. In the waning years of the Clinton Administration, Protesters demanded that the US Navy abandon bombing and naval gun fire exercises that had taken place on the largely uninhabited island for nearly seventy years. Liberal icons bumped into one another to fly to Puerto Rico, boat over to the island, trespass (but never on a day that there was an exercise scheduled) and get arrested for the benefit of the New York Times or Newsweek. They included the

Reverend Al Sharpton,

Mrs. Jesse Jackson,

Joan Baez,

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,

Edward Olmos,

Michael Moore and

Ramsey Clark, just to name a few.

In 2002, the bombing exercises were transferred to an Air Force bombing range in central Florida, not far from the Jacksonville and Pensacola Naval Air Stations. In January, many of the protesters were back in Puerto Rico, celebrating the final bombing exercise on Vieques and waved Puerto Rican flags and placards that read

"U.S. Navy, get out of Puerto Rico."

The following Feb, Rumsfeld announced that the U.S. Navy will close the Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station in Puerto Rico in 2004, eliminating 1200 civilian jobs as well as 700 military positions. This naval facility is estimated to have put nearly $300 million annually into the local economy.

The next day a stunned Governor Sila Calderon, held a news conference in San Juan, protesting the base closure as a serious blow to the Commonwealth's fragile economy. The governor stated that

"The people of Puerto Rico don't now or never did have an interest in closing the Vieques bombing range or the Roosevelt Roads naval base. We are interested in both staying in Puerto Rico."

When asked, the Commander-in Chief, Western Atlantic Command, said, "Without Vieques, I see no further need for the facility at Roosevelt Roads. None."

So, Yanqui go home? Fine. But we'll take our dollars with us. Hasta la vista, baby!

On February 21, the Secretary of Defense also announced that starting this year, the U.S. European Command would begin moving most if not all of its active combat and support units from bases in Germany to others being established in Poland, The Czech Republic, Hungary and Turkey to "better position them for rapid deployment to likely hot spots in those parts of the world."

Immediately the business and government leaders in the German states of Hesse, Rhineland and Wurttemburg, protested the loss of nearly $6 billion in revenue each year from the bases and manpower to be displaced. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry speculated that the move may be "what the Americans call 'payback' for the actions of this government in opposing Military action in Iraq. does anyone know the German translation for

"Hasta la vista, baby?"

Oh, ain't it nice to see a government with guts and a good memory.

GOD BLESS AMERICA*********

Okay. Try this tiny snippet of news:

Senator Wants Air Guard Out Of NJ Skies

Nov 5, 2004 5:19 pm US/Eastern
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg on Friday called for a Washington D.C. National Guard unit to halt all operations in New Jersey until it determines how and why an F-16 jet strafed an Ocean County school with 20mm cannon fire.

Calling the actions of the pilot "totally incomprehensible," Lautenberg, D-N.J., asked the District of Columbia Air National Guard to suspend all training operations over New Jersey skies until an investigation into Wednesday's mishap is completed.

The senator also demanded a "guarantee that nothing like this can ever happen again."

A spokesman for the unit, Capt. Sheldon Smith, did not return telephone messages seeking comment Friday. New Jersey National Guard officials referred all inquiries to the 113th wing, which is based at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, which is where the jet came from.

The school will reopen Monday after workers repair the damage from the 2-inch-long lead bullets.

Hmmm. Be careful what you wish for, you whacked-out activists.

Can somebody 'splain to me these folks...

...sporting petitions with signatures from folks demanding that our two closed firehouses be reopened? Somebody is drinking their own bong water and it ain't me.

First off, our mayor is already on the record as saying that both of these firehouses will either be repaired or replaced altogether. Sounds like a plan to me, but I'm not running around blowing my own horn and trying to get myself elected to something in the process. Some others are.

So...the mayor promised to address the situation, but the usual publicity whores, the useless gadflies couldn't resist the chance to get their names in the papers again. The firehouses mean nothing to them. Building name recognition for future elections is at work here. Public safety, public schmafety. I willingly show up all the time and antagonize the powers that be, so replace them with myself at a later date. That's what is afoot here, and little else of note. Self-aggrandizement, if you will. I don't mind folks getting involved to help advance the city to where we all want it to be. But I do take serious issue with people pretending to be something they're not. It doesn't even matter to me if the message is correct now and again, if the messenger is delivering the message for purely personal gain.

And with all of that mindless drivel said, I will go on the record as saying the mayor is making a mistake. I don't think we need five firehouses anymore. I really don't. Just a few short ions ago, this city had some 70,000 residents. And then it slipped to 60,000. And then 50,000. And now it's 42,000. But...we still need five firehouses to hear some tell it. I disagree. I think we'd be fine with the South station, headquarters and a new-and-improved station to replace both the North and Northeast stations. We're not talking about any further reductions in staffing or available apparatus. We're taking about saving money and protecting the bottom line. And if the folks in the Heights are gonna argue that a four minute response time is too slow, I'm gonna tell 'em to move to the backside of Beaumont and see what the response times are like out there.

I chuckled out loud when I read the comments from one of the Heights folks raising hell at the council meeting. Gee whiz, we never ask for anything. We don't get flooded up here. We don't have bridges that need repair. We just want our firehouse. Oh, really? These would be the same Heights folks that demanded that the expansive South Street Bridge be replaced for no other reason than public safety. That wasn't very 'spensive, was it?

Hell. I'm gonna float a petition demanding that a firehouse be built on Thompson Street. I'll betcha I can easily fetch upwards of thirty signatures. We don't ask for very much up here. We don't get flooded. We don't have a single bridge on this street. We've even got an empty lot that the city can seize in the name of public safety. Does that sound stupid? I guess it depends on your perspective, but a dwindling population base demanding that services remain static forever sounds pretty f**king stupid to this rude asshole. But what do I know? I think that when a major college football team scores a total of four points in any game, they need a new coach.

The other thing of note here (in my spinning vortex of a world) is the overall tone of the recent council meeting. It was rancorous at best. Just like the good old days not so long removed. Who knew? We don't need ex-mayor McG to have our government functions devolve into near nonsense, by golly, we've still got plenty of folks willing to re-introduce chaos and tumult to Wilkes-Barre. The very same folks posing as the champions of the downtrodden average residents. With self-serving and clueless activists such as these, who needs out-of-control mayors? We'll get Kathy Kane to break that gavel in two. Just you watch.

Sh*t. We had one guy delivering a near filibuster while being totally cognizant of where the Citizen's Voice photographer was at all times. We had yet another screaming like a banshee at the mayor. And we had yet another playing secret agent man, or something thereabouts. For some reason, 829-1341 suddenly comes to mind. In the scattershot minds of the taxpayer watchdog/failed candidates, this is what somehow passes as good government. Shameless postering, shouting at the top of one's lungs and borderline lunacy. This is what the folks that wish to run this city in the very near future ultimately deliver when they show up at city hall. Gone is the new-found civility. Gone is the spirit of cooperation. And gone is the hope for measured, but steady progress. If this is a glimpse of the future they have in mind for all of us, I'm saying we need to completely rebuke them when their names next appear on a ballot.

Rather than apply a knee-jerk Band-aid to these rapidly failing structures of ours, the mayor has decided to explore every available option and get it right when a decision is finally made. And in response to his correct response to the current situation, all hell breaks loose? The folks not elected and not responsible for the bottom line demand that he spend, spend, spend, but out of the other side of their mouths, they call SAYSO and bitch about increased fees and whatnot. There comes a time when a prudent and informed leader has to flippantly ignore the growing dissent emanating from the factually-challenged hoi polloi, and trust me, this is one of those times.

If the usual gadflies knew what the f**k they were talking about in the least, they wouldn't be reduced to carrying petitions and causing disturbances every time the gavel comes into play. If they were so all-encompassing brilliant, they would have been elected during their last election go-round. But they were not elected. And that's what has got 'em all wound up. It's called revenge.

Mayor Tom, you gunky!

Thompson Street 10-2.

Later