It is NOT one world.

I rank this one up there with firing AK-47s in the air (a common practice in the Middle East).

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 15:14 0 comments

 
2004 Predictions:

1) Howard Dean will win a majority of the Democratic delegates (and thus the nomination) by mid-March. Attempting to pose as a moderate, Dean will select either Indiana Governor Evan Bayh or Iowa Senator Bob Kerrey as a running mate. The Democrats' convention in Boston will be particularly rancorous, mostly behind the scenes, but with some notable exceptions, as people beholden to the Clintons struggle with Dean supporters for the reins of power.

The long rumored entry of Hillary Clinton into the race will remain just that -- a rumor.

The 2004 general election campaign will be marked by increasingly histrionic attacks by Governor Dean, and calm, aloof responses from the White House. With the economy hitting on all twelve cylinders and the war on terror going well, Bush will easily gain re-election, winning an absolute majority of votes cast and 45 states (he will lose Vermont, Oregon, Washington, California, and New York).

2) Mullah Omar will be captured.

3) There will be at least four more publicized attempts on Pakistani President Musharraf's life. None will succeed.

4) Republicans will pick up at least ten U.S. House seats and five U.S. Senate seats. Tom Dashcle (D-SD) will be unseated by Republican John Thune.

5) There will be highly publicized arrests and/or civil fines for violations of the Campaign Finance Reform law.

6) The House will pass a Constitutional Amendment stating that no state shall have to recognize a marriage other than one between a man and a woman. The Amendment will remain stalled in the Senate until after the election.

7) There will be a minor (less than 25 dead) terrorist attack in the United States. Leftist groups will claim it is in response to American unilateral and imperialist actions in Iraq.

8) Republicans will split on a major Presidential initiative regarding illegal aliens. The measure will pass and become law, primarily due to Democrat votes.

9) Upon Bush' re-election, Sandra Day O'Connor and William Rehnquist will announce their retirement from the USSC. Conservatives will cheer as Bush nominates Antonin Scalia for Chief Justice.

10) The Dow Jones will close above 12,000 on Election Day. The NASDAQ will close above 2500.

11) Saddam Hussein will be tried, found guilty, and executed by the new Iraqi government. In addition, as the new Iraqi government begins interrogating captured members of the Iraqi resistance, we will gain more intelligence information than before as the resistance members become unsure as to the amount of "persuasion" their fellow Iraqis will use to get information.

12) Blair will win his election.

13) Pope John Paul will die and be replaced, after much rancor, by an Italian-born Vatican bureaucrat.

14) Walter Cronkite will die.

15) The Cubs will break the curse and win the pennant.

16) The Oklahoma Sooners will win the 2004 Sugar Bowl and the National Championship as Michigan pounds USC. The Sooners will be invited to return to the Championship game in 2005.

17) The last American WWI veteran will die.

18) The Iranian people will, with outside help, overthrow the Mullahs. The United States will send substantial aid and renew relations with the new government.

19) The French and German economies will tailspin into crisis as the over-valued Euro causes higher levels of inflation and hurts overseas sales of French and German products. The financial crisis will cause several members of the EU to significantly rethink their involvement with that organization.

20) Colin Powell will resign as Secretary of State. He will be replaced by Condoleeza Rice.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 08:59 0 comments

 
Sometimes I almost feel sorry for the donkeys.


Almost.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 13:36 0 comments

 
THIS is what passes for crime-fighting in France.

Never mind all the Islamofascists in Paris, or the anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish schoolchildren.

After all, those Jews probably have relatives in "that sh*tty little country", as the French Ambassador to Great Britain so quaintly put it last winter.

And they wonder why we don't particularly care for them.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 09:54 0 comments

 
Clayton has brought an interesting new issue regarding attorney's to light: a recent guideline for "trial attorneys" suggesting that they exclude people who strongly believe in personal responsibility from juries, particularly in tort cases.

Sigh. The Plaintiff's Bar strikes again. I've discussed my disdain for the term "trial attorneys." This is an example of why. Plaintiff's lawyers do not want reasonable people on juries -- they want people willing to assign blame to large corporations with deep pockets.

Ugh. More on this later. I'll edit tonight.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 14:22 0 comments

 
My son just asked me if I believe in Santa Clause. I immediately told him I did. . . he is seven, and I am not sure why he is asking the question.

I mention this because it reminds me of a post I saw last month on the DU website. For those of you back in Broken Arrow, "DU" is short for "DemocraticUnderground.com", a website frequented by hard-core lefties. These guys are diehard Dean and Kucinich supporters (for the most part), and are 99% hard Leftists.

In any event, the post was from a young mother asking whether she had done the right thing by telling her six year old that Santa Clause was not real. That shocked me. The responses were worse.

Some responses included that "one must be honest with one's children"; "Santa Clause symbolizes everything wrong with this materialist holiday", etc., etc.

Wow. I thought he was about bringing joy and happiness to young children everywhere. I thought he was a symbol of hope to man.

I guess I was wrong -- but I'm glad I told my kid that I believed.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 21:32 0 comments

 
Okay, yesterday officially sucked. Here is an update:

First, Dad got mixed news. The good news is that two of his cardiac arteries are still open, which means his condition is not life threatening. The bad news is that he needs to be exercising to keep them open, and he can't. He has a leaky valve (inoperable at this time due to the scar tissue around his heart) which prevents him from exercising. Hopefully, laser surgery will develop to the point that it will be an option soon.

I got all that news this morning right after I got two BAD rulings on a case I am handling. So, instead of having a nice easy week, I have to do a ton of research and draft an immediate response to this ruling. Sigh.

So, with all that weighing on my mind, the wife decides to stop in and take me Christmas shopping. Like I'm in the mood.

We went to the Dallas Galleria (very upscale, but nice), and after moping about for a bit, we decided to stop for lunch in hopes that a bite would cheer me up. We had just finished, and my mood had noticably improved, when we got a phone call from our nanny.

She told us our youngest daughter, Katie, had "fallen out of the upstairs window, but was okay. And that the ambulance was getting ready to take her to the hospital."

Huh? Yup -- she seemed okay, but my 13 year old daughter thought Katie was acting funny, so they decided to take her to the hospital "just in case".

Five hours and a bunch of x-rays, a cat-scan, and various other tests later, including (oh joy) a urethra cathetar, we find out she is okay, just bruised a bit.

We managed to get her home, and fed her a little chicken chunks from a nearby food-stop.

We didn't realize how nauseous the Tylenol-Codeine had left poor Katie.

Do you guys realize how disgusting processed, regurgitated catsup, chicken chunks, and waffle fries look on new, beige carpet?

Katie has thrown up two or three times, and had dry heaves on and off.

And tomorrow, we still have to do Christmas shopping, and I have about 13-14 hours of work to finish up.

Sigh. Thanks for your prayers, though -- without them, I'm sure today would have been worse.

I'll try to be back to normal in a couple of days. I just hope nothing else exciting happens. I don't think I can take it.

In better news, I talked with my computer guru last night, and I think we can get a nice gaming laptop for about $2K, and can upgrade my primary computer for about $500. So that will be nice -- but it can't be done until after Christmas. Oh well.

God bless,

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 11:30 0 comments

 
Dad called this weekend. His medical problems are getting worse -- and I don't know if they can do anything else for him. But my Dad is a fighter, and if there is a way through this, he'll find it.

More later -- I may be away from the Blog for a few days.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 08:37 0 comments

 
The demands of Christmas and work being what they are, I will not be posting much for the next week or so.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 13:48 0 comments

 
Barry has a beautiful description of the way the Left changes the arguments about the War on Terrorism:

Anti: Why haven't you proven your case for invasion to my standards?

Pro: We proved it to our satisfaction using the best available evidence.

Anti: I don't see it that way. Why aren't you invading other countries using that same criteria.

Pro: Well other options are still open.

Anti: Hypocrite Imperialist why haven't you invaded Syria?

Pro: OK lets move towards action in Syria.

Anti: Militarist! Where's your evidence to support your war-mongering.

Pro: Well there's the intelligence regarding truckloads of something going from Iraq to Syria. Many terrorist organizations have headquarters in Damascus and Syria is well known to fund these organizations.

Anti: Fraud! Liar! Why are you picking on Syria? Isn't North Korea, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia just as bad?

Pro: Would you support action against any of those countries?

Anti: Blood for Oil! Why do you never consider diplomacy for conflict resolution?

Pro: Well months of negotiations have proven fruitless and France is being contrary.

Anti: Unilateralist! Your cowboy bumbling is wrecking the world.

Pro: Can we get back to terrorism?

Anti: Bumbler! Why haven't you accomplished anything?

Etc..etc...etc...etc...

Perfect. Just, perfect.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 13:20 0 comments

 
So, anybody up for a free trip to Australia?

Wankers.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 13:00 0 comments

 
Normally I wouldn't put his tripe here -- normally, I wouldn't go out of my way to see what this loon had to say.

Okay, normally, I wouldn't whiz on him if he were on fire.

But, this is Ted Rall's latest "work". It seems he had some problems dealing with the news of Saddam's arrest, so he has decided to go a different route:



Someone really needs to get Ted some help before he loses it completely.

Okay, so it may be too late for that. Can we at least keep him away from sharp or pointy objects?

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 15:29 0 comments

 
Bahgdad Jim is at it again.

Now, the same guy that went to Baghdad before the war, looked around the hotel in which Saddam esconced him, took a day tour and announced that we should trust Saddam regarding inspectors and weapons of mass destruction. He has also stated that Bush lied on multiple occasions in order to get the United States into a war.

Now, Baghdad Jim says that the United States could have captured Saddam at any time, but Bush just waited so he could choose the best moment politically.

What? That ascribes almost god-like powers to Bush, and presumes that Saddam would be a willing accomplice in this play (a play, by the way, that will end in Saddam's death), and not move around the countryside.

What is it about the anti-American, anti-Bush loony Left that drives them to such extremes? Back in the Clinton administration, conservatives who thought lying under oath was an impeachable offense were pilloried; now, conservatives who call McDermott out as the loon that he is are suppressing his right to dissent. Why is it that the Left can make as many irresponsible claims regarding the United States as it wants without question, but the Right is not allowed to criticize a democratic President on substantive issues (like the perjury that ultimately cost Clinton his license to practice law)?

The scariest part of this story? Baghdad Jim is a psychiatrist.

I wonder if he has to remove his tinfoil hat before seeing a patient?

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 09:40 0 comments

 
I just added a comments section. Let's see how well this works.

I am also going to add a counter to see just how few of you actually visit the page. I think I'll have to avoid looking at it for a while to avoid depression.

Ahh, boredom on a Monday.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 12:41 0 comments

 
Recently, Howard Dean insinuated that Bush knew about the 9-11 attacks in advance.

Bush was asked to comment on this statement today. He called it, "absolutely ridiculous."

As is Dean's entire candidacy, IMHO.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 10:50 0 comments

 
Amazingly, it has taken less than two days for the anti-Americans in the mainstream press to salvage something from the capture of Saddam over the weekend.

Joy at the capture of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) gave way to resentment toward Washington Monday as Iraqis confronted afresh the bloodshed, shortages and soaring prices of life under U.S. occupation . . .

"I hope that we get the chance to try him our way, to let everyone who suffered make him taste what he had made us taste," said Ali Hussein, 29, a stationery shop owner who said he was still dizzy with joy.


"But whether he's in a hole or in jail, it does nothing for me today, it won't feed me or protect me or send my children to school," he said.

Twenty bucks says the reporter had to ask Ali a series of questions to get that particular response. Pathetic, it truly is pathetic.

As to the shut-up-about-incumbents Campaign Finance Reform decision -- I've waded through it. I expect to post a little more this evening.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 08:09 0 comments

 
I've added two more lawyer resources -- the most excellent Volokh Conspiracy by the professor of the same name, and Overlawyered.com.

Now back to digging through the tripe that passes for a Supreme Court opinion these days.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 17:10 0 comments

 
Another reason I'm glad I'm single.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 15:28 0 comments

 
As a conservative and a lawyer, I have always taken issue with the term "trial lawyers".

I'm a trial lawyer -- I do litigation (plaintiff and defendant).

Perhaps a more accurate term to replace "trial lawyers" would be "liberal-scumsucking-profiteering-parasites-more-interested-in-lining-their-own-pockets-than-in-doing-justice-lawyers."

Of course, that wouldn't roll off the tongue as well.

In any event, if you are concerned about this issue, check out Trial Lawyer's Inc. for updates. I'm adding them to the links list.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 08:34 0 comments

 
2004 Will Be the U.S.'S Best Year Economically in Last 20 Years, The Conference Board Reports in a Revised Forecast

So I guess this might be the worst election for the donkeys in the last twenty years . . . hmm . . . twenty years ago, Reagan won every state but Minnesota (and that only by a slim margin voting for their favorite son) . . .

Yup, I can live with that.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 22:01 0 comments

 
I'm about half way through this abominable opinion. Hopefully I will have something up late tomorrow night (when the wife and two of the kids are gone).

I'll say this -- I haven't seen this much dancing since my senior prom.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 20:02 0 comments

 
Overcriminalized.com discusses the expansion of criminal law into areas traditionally addressed by civil law remedies.

Cutting back this trend is long overdue.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 15:11 0 comments

 
This is a major defeat for free speech.

The McCain-Feingold Free Speech Limitation Campaign Finance Reform law is basically bad law. Among other provisions that are horrific are restrictions on third-parties' ability to purchase advertising for or against a candidate during a set period before election dates.

I thought freedom of political speech to be the most basic of our rights.

I will download the opinion later today and thoroughly Fisk it, but this, more than anything the Supreme Politburo Court has done in the past several years scares the crap out of me.

Now do you all see why it is important that we get conservative judicial appointments?

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 11:54 0 comments

 
Good word. Both Clayton and I are

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

At least it comes with some nice digs. I get Neuschwanstein.



And how cool is that?
- posted by MrSpkr @ 16:28 0 comments

 
By the way, can someone please explain to me how in the heck you have ten kids by age 30?

Maybe when she gets out of jail, she should consider investing in a television.

Or somefink.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 15:19 0 comments

 
Have I mentioned how talented P.J. O'Rourke is?

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 15:07 0 comments

 
Upset about the BCS? I'm not, as my beloved Sooners are going to meet me in N'arleans next month, lay down a smackdown on LSU, and, as Michigan WILL beat USC (put your money on that one, kids), clinch an eighth National Championship.

But, if you are one of the ones upset by all that, then by all means vote in the ESPN playoff battle over the next few days.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 15:03 0 comments

 
Amish Tech Support's Deadpool is open for entry (note the fat Grim Reaper on the sidebar):

My picks:

1. Fmr. Pres. Ronald Wilson Reagan
2. Keith Richards (Stones)
3. Audrey (Brett) Somers ("The Match Game" panelist)
4. Dorothy DeBorba (Little Rascals chick)
5. Fmr. OK Gov. and U.S. Senator Henry Bellmon
6. Ruth Buzzi
7. fmr. Pres. Gerald Ford
8. Kirk Douglas (Sr., not Jr.)
9. Billy Graham
10. Mickey Rooney
11. Robert Downey, Jr.
12. fmr. Sen. George McGovern
13. Justice John Paul Stevens
14. Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino ("Tokyo Rose")
15. Courtney Love

First alternate pick should any of these be unacceptable:

16. Fmr. First Lady Nancy Reagan

Steve

- posted by MrSpkr @ 14:27 0 comments

 
Okay, okay, so it's been a while, but I've been busy, see?

Where to start.

Gore's announcement today? I like it. By formally backing Dean so early, Gore has potentially started a civil war in the Democratic party. He is fighting to wrest the party back to the left, and away from the moderate stance it took (at least facially) under Clinton. This will have the unintended affect of driving moderate Democrat turnout way down -- which will help Bush. It will also tend to make the 2008 Democratic primary incredibly nasty -- a thought I relish.

My father and his parents are Democrats -- out of habit, more than anything else. The problem is, the Democratic party of their youth (i.e., Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, etc.) is gone. The Republican party of today is far closer to Harry or John than the modern Democrats.

The change really came about following the 1968 and 1972 conventions. There, leftist radicals managed to seize control of the party machinery. The 1974 impeachment of Richard Nixon and the subsequent Democratic sweep in Congress and in state office that year put these leftist radicals in power for a generation.

Unfortunately for them, old age, retirement, and death are clearing them out of power. Their message of doom, gloom, and evil Republicans doesn't sell to a newer generation that wants solutions rather than rhetoric. It's telling that, while many of the youngest American adults don't believe they will ever receive social security or medicaid, the Democrats won't dream of touching it for fear of losing one of their last strongholds -- older Americans, like my dad and his folks, who vote for the donkey out of habit.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 14:10 0 comments