His background would seem to make him appealing to Americans worried about the nation's massive debt and what many view as out-of-control federal spending. As Governor of New Mexico from 1995-2003, Johnson held state spending in check, vetoing more than 750 pieces of legislation in his two terms of office.
"I served New Mexico for eight years doing that," he points out. "New Mexico is 2 to 1 Democrat. So I've gotten reelected in a state that's 2 to 1 Democrat vetoing as many bills as I did." Only two of those vetoes were overturned. Term limits kept Johnson from seeking a third term.
Johnson believes there is plenty of blame to go around for the nation's current financial situation. "Both parties share in this responsibility, the fact that the Republican Party controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency eight years ago and passed the prescription and drug benefit. That's not why I signed up to be a Republican."
The lifelong Republican does believe the GOP is the only party that can fix America's financial problems. But, he believes the White House can only be won if the party becomes more inclusive. "If you take the 15 or so that may be out there as potentially running, I think for the most part most of them are saying the same thing about every single issue. I'm trying to grow the base; I'm trying to grow the Republican Party."
He does not see his stand on issues like marijuana legalization as detriments to a potential GOP nominee. "It's just one in a series of cost-benefits. What are we spending our money on and what are we getting for the money we're spending. Half of the money we're spending on the courts and law enforcement and prisons is drug related. And what are we getting for that? Well, we're arresting 1.8-million people a year in this country, which is just staggering when you considering the population of New Mexico is 1.8-million."
As for gay rights, "I support gay unions, and yeah, I think this country is first and foremost about liberty and freedom and the personal responsibility that goes along with that, and I can't imagine denying rights to gay couples that want to experience the American dream just like everybody else."
Thursday, March 31, 2011
YES!! ::: Gary Johnson to Announce Intent to Run for President in Late April - FoxNews.com
And Oh... Even With Everything Going On, Obama Still Doesn't Get To Work Before 10. 10!
Just Ridiculous... TSUCMU ::: Shh! Obama gets anti-secrecy award | POLITICO 44
President Obama finally and quietly accepted his “transparency” award from the open government community this week — in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House on Monday.
The secret presentation happened almost two weeks after the White House inexplicably postponed the ceremony, which was expected to be open to the press pool.
This time, Obama met quietly in the Oval Office with Gary Bass of OMB Watch, Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive, Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight, Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Patrice McDermott of OpenTheGovernment.org, without disclosing the meeting on his public schedule or letting photographers or print reporters into the room....The transparency advocates who presented the award to Obama say that the recognition is important, because despite the work left to be done, Obama has done a lot to change the government’s posture toward openness issues.
But others believed the positive reinforcement was more than a little unnecessary.
“I don’t feel moved today to say ‘thank you, Mr. President,’” said Steve Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. But he said he understands the award to be “aspirational,” in recognition of Obama’s potential to do more on the transparency front.
“And in that sense, one could say it resembles the award at the Nobel Peace Prize,” Aftergood said. “It’s not because Obama brought peace to anyone but because people hoped he would be a force for good in the world, and maybe that’s the way to understand this award.”
Yes, I've Been Reminded That It's Actually Thursday...
Friday Tunefest... Two From Foo, and a new Third Day Track
First, an acoustic version of Times Like These:
Which really made me want to hear the kickass version:
And a new fave, Make Your Move, by Third Day... time to get your Jesus on:
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Oh Lordy, It's Happened Again, Humans Fused To Their Furniture. Ugh ::: Police: Man had to be Freed From Own Home After 2 Years - WTRF-TV - WTRF.com
Police said the man's skin had become attached to the fabric of the chair after he sat in it for two years
Authorities said he was sitting in his own feces and urine and maggots were visible.
Police were called in to help transfer the man to the hospital.
Authorities said they had to cut a hole in the wall to get the man out of his home.
Shockingly, two other able-bodied people lived there---another man, who had a separate bedroom, and the girlfriend of the man who was stuck in the chair. Officials say the girlfriend served food to him, since he never got up.
A Triple Celebrity WTF ::: New Wonder Woman, Olsen Twins, and Lindsay
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Amazing Medicine ::: Atheist Christopher Hitchens turns to evangelical Christian doctor in his fight against cancer
Dr Francis Collins, the former director of the National Human Genome Research Project was one part of the team which developed techniques to map out the entire human DNA make-up is using Hitchens as a guinea pig for a new treatment.
Hitchens, author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, has had his genome mapped out in its entirety by taking DNA from healthy tissue and from his cancerous tumour.
On each sample six billion DNA matches were run, in order to catalogue the mutations in the cancerous cells which had given Hitchens cancer of the oesophagus.
Then in the New Year Dr Collins found a mutation and went about tackling the DNA directly.
He discovered that a drug already existed to treat the particular mutation and now Hitchens takes just one tablet a day, rather than undergoing gruelling chemotherapy.
Hitchens, 61, told London’s Daily Telegraph: ‘I’m an experiment.
‘These are early stages, but in theory it should attack the primary site of the tumour.
'If that does happen, it won’t just be good news for me, it will be very exciting in the general treatment of cancer.’
The unlikely alliance between the Christian and Atheist formed when the pair used to debate each other about whether God existed, leading to the two becoming friends.
Dr Collins, who is director of America’s National Institutes of Health, has authored his own book on religion’s role in medicine: The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.
Hitchens added: ‘It is a rather wonderful relationship.
‘I won’t say he doesn’t pray for me, because I think he probably does; but he doesn’t discuss it with me.
‘He agrees that his medical experience does not include anything that could be described as a miracle cure.’
Hitchens, a prominent Atheist, he refused to change his views on religion even after his diagnosis in June 2010.
He said he finds the new treatment very exciting.
‘At least it spares me some of the boredom of being a cancer patient because what I’m going through is very absorbing and positively inspiring,’ he said. ‘But if it doesn’t work, I don’t know what they could try next.’
I also like their books, side-by-side.
The Rush To War... In Libya ::: 3/28/11 - Sen. Rand Paul Responds to President Obama's Address
Hey, God... If You Made Me An Artist, Why Am I Driving This Truck? (UPS Driver Makes A Masterpiece Out of Dust)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Love Him ::: Tom Ford's top five tips on how to be a modern gentleman | Mail Online
THE MODERN GENTLEMAN: TOM FORD'S TIPS
Passionate approach: The designer believes that one must work hard and contribute to the world
- You should put on the best version of yourself when you go out in the world because that is a show of respect to the other people around you.
- A gentleman today has to work. People who do not work are so boring and are usually bored. You have to be passionate, you have to be engaged and you have to be contributing to the world.
- Manners are very important and actually knowing when things are appropriate. I always open doors for women, I carry their coat, I make sure that they're walking on the inside of the street. Stand up when people arrive at and leave the dinner table.
- Don't be pretentious or racist or sexist or judge people by their background.
- A man should never wear shorts in the city. Flip-flops and shorts in the city are never appropriate. Shorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach.
As published in the spring/summer issue of Another Man
OMG The Tears Are Streaming. HILARIOUS! ::: 'Damn You Autocorrect': Funniest iPhone Autocorrect Mistakes (PHOTOS)
It's Thursday! Foo Fighters "Best Of You" Video + Elizabeth Taylor Streaming On Netflix.
Quote Of The Week (from Matthew Vadum) ::: Bill Maher Calls Sarah Palin a Female Vulgarism, NOW Stays Mum - FoxNews.com
The National Organization for Women (NOW) refused to comment on Maher’s use of the derogatory term. A rep told FOXNews.com it is a “known fact” that NOW does not correspond with FOX News.
"Bill Maher feels he can get away with such jaw-droppingly offensive verbal attacks on Sarah Palin because virtually the entire media-academia-entertainment complex agrees with him,” Vadum said. “Clinging to their political correctness and disdain for her quintessentially American values, the left-wing cocktail circuit regards Palin as a punch line.”
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Just When They Started To Dis Pink Guns ::: Armed Beauty Queen Fatally Shoots Intruder in Florida Home Invasion - FoxNews.com
...we get this heart-warming story.
(Remember, friend, gun control means hitting your target.)
When a burly ex-convict forced his way into a posh Florida home last week, he had no idea what awaited him -- a 25-year-old beauty queen with a pink .38-caliber handgun.
...
Hill barged into the home at around 3 a.m. after Brown responded to a knock at the front door, according to a police report. He allegedly grabbed the 110-pound Brown around her nose and mouth and dragged her to an upstairs bedroom.
The woman’s fiance, Robert Planthaber, said in an interview that he was quickly awakened by the altercation and ran to Brown’s side.
"I attacked him and took a severe beating to the head," Planthaber told FoxNews.com. "But I got him off of her long enough for her to scramble to the room where she keeps her pink .38 special.”
Brown, who reigned as the 2009 Miss Tierra Verde, snatched her gun from a nearby bedroom and shot the suspect several times – hitting him in the chest, groin, thigh and back, her fiance said. Hill was pronounced dead at the scene.
Nice shootin', pretty girl.
Armed Beauty Queen Fatally Shoots Intruder in Florida Home Invasion - FoxNews.com
Rest In Peace, Magnificent Woman ::: Elizabeth Taylor dies of heart failure in hospital aged 79 (+ Videos)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Free Drinks, Free Food, And 100 Minutes of Awesomeness! ::: SXSW: Foo Fighters deliver great `surprise' for fans
The beauty of South by Southwest is that you never really know what each night has in store for you. Sure, you can map out some type of schedule weeks in advance, detailing exactly where you should be at what time, but you better be ready to toss those plans should something better come up.
That was the case for this critic when the 25th annual SXSW opened on Tuesday in Austin, Texas. I had no idea when my plane landed that day, nor for several hours after I checked into to my hotel, that I'd spend a good portion of the night watching the Foo Fighters in concert.
But plans changed -- for thousands of festival-goers -- once word leaked that the Foo Fighters were going to perform a "surprise" concert at Stubb's Bar-B-Q. So, there we were, the lucky ones that actually managed to gain admission before the gates closed, watching a platinum-selling band that has headlined stadiums in a cozy outdoor venue built for approximately 1,800. What a rush.
Head Foo Dave Grohl and his fellow Fighters were in town earlier that day to watch the new documentary on the band, "Back and Forth," which was receiving its world premiere during the film portion of SXSW. Attendees at the film screening were invited to an "after party" at Stubb's -- and, at that point, everyone knew what the entertainment would be.
Still, there was a collective sigh of relief from the crowd at Stubb's when Grohl and company finally took the stage just after 9 p.m. The vocalist-guitarist,who originally came to fame as the drummer in Nirvana, was obviously still giddy after the well-received film screening, held just a few blocks from Stubb's.
"Hey," the 42-year-old frontman shouted to the crowd. "We are (expletive) movie stars!"
With that intro, the five-piece band launched right into "Bridge Burning," the first track from its forthcoming seventh studio album, "Wasting Light," which is due out April 12. The group would play all 11 tracks, in order, from "Wasting Light," and the results were mighty impressive. As the Foos charged away with their mighty three-guitar attack, it was easy to imagine four — maybe five — of these new songs as major radio hits. The best of the bunch were "Bridge Burning," "Dear Rosemary" and "I Should Have Known."
As Grohl strummed the last line of track 11, "Walk," he announced to the crowd: "And that's the new album."
And then came the two words that signaled even greater times ahead: "This isn't."
With that, the group proceeded to play 11 more songs, the vast majority of which can be found on 2009's "Greatest Hits." The band seemed to get stronger as it continued to roll through such fan favorites as "Times Like These," "Learn to Fly" and "Monkey Wrench" during what turned out to be close to a 100-minute set.
They closed the show with a cranking rendition of Everlong!
A SXSW Highlight: Bill Frakes Video - Backyard Babies: Abandon
Monday, March 14, 2011
Oh, The Breathtaking Hypocrisy!! ::: China wants compensation for parents who lost their only child in New Zealand quake - Staradvertiser.com
WELLINGTON, New Zealand : A Chinese official said Monday that New Zealand should consider special compensation to parents of Chinese students killed in an earthquake last month because their loss was magnified under the country’s one-child policy.
Seven students from China have been identified among the 166 confirmed deaths in the quake that devastated Christchurch city on Feb. 22, and as many as 20 others are still missing.
Chinese Embassy official Cheng Lei said Monday that Chinese quake victims had lost not just their only child, but also a future breadwinner.
He said New Zealand should consider providing additional financial assistance to those families.
“You can expect how lonely, how desperate they are ... not only from losing loved ones, but losing almost entirely the major source of economic assistance after retirement,” Cheng told Radio New Zealand.
I've Been At SXSW
Lots of time for cocktails though.
So please forgive my absence.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Cuckoo! Cuckoo! ::: Jesse Jackson Jr.: Way Out of Unemployment Crisis Is to Change Constitution So Every Ghetto Kid Gets iPod and Laptop | The Blaze
There's really no point in commenting, is there.
Jesse Jackson Jr. Says Way Out of the Unemployment Crisis Is to Change the Constitution So Every Ghetto Kid Gets an iPod and a Laptop | The Blaze
Just damn. ::: Cap'n Crunch sails into obscurity
Things to hoard:
- Guns and ammo
- Light bulbs
- Kombucha
- Teething tablets
The Soggies have finally won: Cap'n Crunch is quietly sailing into retirement.
Long derided by health experts for its high sugar content – a single serving contains 12 grams – the cereal is no longer being actively marketed by Quaker, DailyFinance reports. It appears parent company Pepsico is forcing the good Cap'n to walk the plank.
Cap'n Crunch was once the No. 1 breakfast cereal, but pressure from the White House and health activists is having an effect on how PepsiCo and other food companies peddle their products to kids. Sales of the cereal were down 6.8 percent in 2010.
Last year, PepsiCo vowed to reduce added sugar per serving by 25 percent and saturated fat by 15 percent in its products over the next 10 years.
"PepsiCo is no longer marketing Cap'n Crunch cereal directly to children. In a sense, you could say that they have retired Cap'n Crunch, and that's a good thing," Jennifer Harris, of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University, told DailyFinance. "Unfortunately, children continue to view hundreds of ads per year for high-sugar cereals from General Mills, Kellogg's and Post Foods."
Okay... I only let the kids have it once a year... on their birthdays... but golly even I look forward to the treat.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Over 20,000 flock to remote village to mourn Shahbaz Bhatti | CatholicHerald.co.uk
Pakistani Christians shower rose petals on the casket of Shahbaz Bhatti during a funeral in his native village Khushpur near Faisalabad, Pakistan (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
More than 20,000 Christians from all over Pakistan flocked to the remote village of Kushpur in the Faisalabad Diocese for the funeral of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s assassinated minister for minorities.
Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the Pakistani bishops’ justice and peace commission, told the Catholic News Service by phone from Kushpur: “It was a very emotional funeral, with the people wailing and weeping all through.”
Bhatti, 42, a Catholic, was assassinated by unidentified gunmen who pumped bullets into his car from automatic weapons as he was being driven to his office in Islamabad last week.
The final leg of the funeral was led by Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad, joined by two Protestant bishops and dozens of Catholic priests.
Bhatti’s body was flown to Kushpur in the afternoon from Islamabad, about 300 miles away, after a memorial Mass at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Islamabad. Bishop Rufin Anthony of Islamabad-Rawalpindi was principal celebrant.
Thousands of Christians, religious leaders, foreign diplomats and government officials led by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani attended the Islamabad service, which included a state salute.
“Today is a very sad day,” said Mr Gilani, describing Bhatti as a “very rare leader”.
“All the minorities [in Pakistan] have lost a great leader,” he added.
Bhatti founded the Christian Liberation Front in his student days and launched the All Pakistan Minority Alliance in 2001. He joined the Pakistan Peoples Party in 2002. When the party, under President Asif Ali Zardari, assumed power in early 2008, Bhatti was named to the National Assembly under the quota reserved for Christians and was soon the federal minister for minority affairs.
An outspoken critic of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, Bhatti became a target of Islamic extremists in November after he initiated a clemency petition for Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five sentenced to death for blasphemy.
Awkward! ::: White House memo notes shortage of applicants for contest to have Obama to speak at high school graduation - CBS News
I know, I know... schadenfreude, and all that.
The White House is ramping up an effort to promote a nationwide competition to decide which high school wins a commencement speech by President Obama.
An internal White House memo indicates that the White House is facing a shortage of applications less than a week before the deadline.
The competition was extended from the February 25 deadline until Friday, March 11 after few schools met the original application deadline. CBS News has learned a White House Communications Office internal memo dated February 22 noted "a major issue with the Commencement Challenge."
"As of yesterday we had received 14 applications and the deadline is Friday," the memo said. The memo also urged recipients to, "please keep the application number close hold."
A follow-up memo on February 28 reported receipt of 68 applications. Noting the competition among more than 1,000 schools last year, the memo said, "Something isn't working." It called on staffers to ask "friendly congressional, gubernatorial and mayoral offices" to encourage schools to apply.
"We should also make sure the Cabinet is pushing the competition out to their lists," the memo said. The note reiterated, "We do not want the actual application number out there (we didn't release the number of applications we received last year until after the submission period)-so folks should not use it in their pitches."
White House memo notes shortage of applicants for contest to have Obama to speak at high school graduation - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
Awesome Video: Young Socialist Describes Fast-Food "Dictatorship" ::: A Brave New Plan for America, the World, and Noodles
Aaron Kennedy, the founder of Noodles, grew up on a farm with few to no connections to money. Like my friend Rob, Kennedy also studied at the University of Wisconsin. At 29, while eating at a Chinese restaurant, Kennedy had an idea, and scribbled his business plan on a napkin.
Scraping some money together from his friends and family and maxing out eight credit cards, Kennedy opened the first Noodles in his basement, and then put together a team with whom he’d build and operate 100 Noodles branches all on their own. It is now a $75 million franchise with 240 locations in 18 different states, providing jobs to over 3,000 employees just like Rob. This is what the American Dream looks like.
Under [young socialist] Lewis’ vision, however everything [Noodles owner] Kennedy has worked for would be taken away from him. The status he has earned for himself through his achievements would be reduced to that of one filling out an application for the very business he built from the ground up. Perhaps my imagination is limited, but I at the moment I cannot imagine a greater humiliation. This is what socialism looks like.
Friday, March 04, 2011
We're Arming The Cartels, But Not Our Border Patrol. Brilliant! ::: Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico - CBS Evening News - CBS News
(CBS News)WASHINGTON - Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.
He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico?
"Yes ma'am," Dodson told CBS News. "The agency was."
An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.
Investigators call the tactic letting guns "walk." In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the United States.
Sharyl Attkisson's original "Gunrunner" report
Center for Public Integrity report
Dodson's bosses say that never happened. Now, he's risking his job to go public.
"I'm boots on the ground in Phoenix, telling you we've been doing it every day since I've been here," he said. "Here I am. Tell me I didn't do the things that I did. Tell me you didn't order me to do the things I did. Tell me it didn't happen. Now you have a name on it. You have a face to put with it. Here I am. Someone now, tell me it didn't happen."
Agent Dodson and other sources say the gun walking strategy was approved all the way up to the Justice Department. The idea was to see where the guns ended up, build a big case and take down a cartel. And it was all kept secret from Mexico.
ATF named the case "Fast and Furious."
...
Documents show the inevitable result: The guns that ATF let gobegan showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets... the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.
One e-mail noted, "958 killed in March 2010 ... most violent month since 2005." The same e-mail notes: "Our subjects purchased 359 firearms during March alone," including "numerous Barrett .50 caliber rifles."
Dodson feels that ATF was partly to blame for the escalating violence in Mexico and on the border. "I even asked them if they could see the correlation between the two," he said. "The more our guys buy, the more violence we're having down there."
Senior agents including Dodson told CBS News they confronted their supervisors over and over.
Their answer, according to Dodson, was, "If you're going to make an omelette, you've got to break some eggs."
...On Dec. 14, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down. Dodson got the bad news from a colleague.
According to Dodson, "They said, 'Did you hear about the border patrol agent?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And they said 'Well it was one of the Fast and Furious guns.' There's not really much you can say after that."
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
What A Real Martyr's Video Looks Like ::: [Pakistani Minister] Shahbaz Bhatti Assassinated (Comments On Receiving Death Threats)
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Meet The [Super Adorable] GOP Lawmaker Who Was Threatened With Death By A Dem Colleague
'Mkay... Who's The AG For The Rest Of Us Then? ::: Eric Holder: Black Panther case focus demeans 'my people' - Josh Gerstein - POLITICO.com
Attorney General Eric Holder finally got fed up Tuesday with claims that the Justice Department went easy in a voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party because they are African American.
Holder's frustration over the criticism became evident during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing as Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) accused the Justice Department of failing to cooperate with a Civil Rights Commission investigation into the handling of the 2008 incident in which Black Panthers in intimidating outfits and wielding a club stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia.
The Attorney General seemed to take personal offense at a comment Culberson read in which former Democratic activist Bartle Bull called the incident the most serious act of voter intimidation he had witnessed in his career.
"Think about that," Holder said. "When you compare what people endured in the South in the 60s to try to get the right to vote for African Americans, to compare what people subjected to that with what happened in Philadelphia, which was inappropriate....to describe it in those terms I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line for my people," said Holder, who is black.
No Surprise Here ::: John Galliano fired by Dior in wake of 'I love Hitler' video | Ministry of Gossip | Los Angeles Times
"In light of the deeply offensive statements and conduct by John Galliano [in that video], Christian Dior has commenced termination procedures against him," the company said in a statement, also quoting Chief Executive Sidney Toledano: "We unequivocally condemn the statements made by John Galliano which are in total contradiction to the longstanding core values of Christian Dior."
Yeah... Good Luck With That, Buddy ::: [Muslim Cleric] to lead White House protest calling for Muslims to 'rise up'
A hardline Muslim cleric who sparked anger across the U.S. with his anti-American comments in a television interview this month is to hold a protest outside the White House.
British extremist Anjem Choudary - who once said 'the flag of Islam will fly over the White House' - has announced he will lead a demonstration calling on Muslims to establish the Sharia law across America.
The rally, planned for March 3, is to take place just weeks after his on-screen row with Fox News presenter Sean Hannity.
Mr Choudary, 43, called Americans 'the biggest criminals in the world today.'
The former leader of outlawed group Islam4UK told the Daily Star 'we expect thousands to come out and support us.'
Mr Choudary said the March rally was organised by the Islamic Thinkers society, an extremist group based in New York.
Two other British extremists, Abu Izzadeen and Sayful Islam, have also been asked to speak at the demonstration.
Izzadeen is the hate preacher who caused fury last year when he called British soldiers 'murderers' the day he was released from jail after a three-and-a-half year sentence for inciting terrorism.
Mr Choudary told the newspaper: 'The event is a rally, a call for the Sharia, a call for the Muslims to rise up and establish the Islamic state in America.'
