Because the base is mostly interested in symbols:

Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they intended to hold symbolic votes in the House and Senate on President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Baghdad, forcing Republicans to take a stand on the proposal and seeking to isolate the president politically over his handling of the war.

Or as I’d put it…vague posturing with no hint of substance. Next time I read or hear one of those “Didn’t the President see what happened at the polls in November?” arguments, I’ll just…well, laugh a little harder, I guess. And ask why we’re risking Global Warming by turning the lights on for a “symbolic” vote. Can’t they just phone that in from their home, back in their district, maybe even in a public venue surrounded by their constituents?

Americans can sure be stupid, bless their hearts. They elected a higher minimum wage, and a Pontius Pilate-like washing of their hands on Iraq. I just can’t imagin that those voters thought they were getting symbolics. Fun times, though, seeing how this plays. Hell, I’m probably the stupid one.

This is why we need hard winters in Minnesota:

But, I’ve been out on the ice a few days this Winter, and all that time spent on a bucket, jigging over a hole really releases the synapses of my brain and lets things bubble to the surface.

Who else do we know and love in the land of the square-heads? Jack Sparks, that’s who, and that bubbling brought something important to light:

Then it hit me. Where was the tribute to Buck Owens? Why wouldn’t they carve 5 to 10 minutes out of the bullshit and bad jokes awkwardly delivered by the Country Wham, and have 3 to 5 singers or groups do a quick medley of Buck Owens tunes?

Let me put this into persepctive…Buck had a lot of #1 songs in the 60’s all the way up until the time he took over on Hee Haw. You know who had more #1’s? THE FUCKING BEATLES!

This can only be described as a calculated slap in the face to the legacy of a man who purposefully avoided Nasvhille until they drove a dump truck full of money up to his house and ruined his career with that Hee Haw bullshit. Aside from that, they never got their claws on him, and he simply overran them and their asinine machinations of America’s music. There was not a single person in that building that night who deserved to polish the shit off of Buck’s boots, and they should all be ashamed of taking part in a ceremony that so cowardly and hamfistedly ignored his importance to what they all are now.

This is just reason number 3,568 why Nashville can kiss my ass. There’s not a single thing going on in that town that’s worth a shit.

Jack watches that CMA crap-fest so I don’t have to, and it gives me some good giggles every year. I feel bad copying that much of Jack’s post, but hell, nobody’s going to click over…nobody clicks anything anymore unless it’s see Britney’s wax-job. Rush, rush, rush. But it needs noting, so I’m happy to note it, and give all the credit to Jack, and add my lousy voice to the chorus. Piss on Trashville. Hank 3 has that town dead to rights…“All I see out of Nashville/is a bunch of backstabbers/taking you and me/They don’t care about the music, you see.”

Thank God for fishing, and thank God for Jack, and thank God for Buck Owens.

I love it:

During the investigation, Hackett told police Nov. 30 that he was carrying an AR-15. He said one round was in the chamber and that he usually has 28 rounds in the magazine. He also told police that he did not point the weapon at the three men, the safety was on and he never put his finger on the trigger.

Hackett said he had followed a trail of fluid left by the car, and the vehicle stopped in a driveway. Hackett told police that he hopped out of his truck and that he was armed.

“He told the boys to ‘Get the —- out of the car and get on the ground.’ … He said he did not touch the vehicle with the rifle and maintained his distance. ‘I knew they saw I was armed,’ he said. He said he had done this about 200 times in Iraq, but this time there was not a translation problem,” the Indian Hill police report said.

Moore said Hackett was woken up by “criminal activity” and “took affirmative action to protect his wife and family from an unknown disturbance at his house.” He then “attempted to bring the perpetrators to justice who had fled from the scene,” according to Moore.

I would call that setting a precedent. But I genuinely don’t believe that the coppers would cut me that much slack if I were chasing down dipsticks who ran into my fence. Funny stuff, though, all the doubletalk officialese.

I salute you, Mr. Hackett, and I hope the constabulary of Ohio extends their exceptionally courteous respect for the Second Amendment to all Ohioans, not just rich lawyers who have run for Congress.

Thomas Jefferson & the Barbary Pirates:

That this might not be so easy was discovered by Jefferson and John Adams when they went to call on Tripoli’s envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman. They asked him by what right he extorted money and took slaves in this way. As Jefferson later reported to Secretary of State John Jay, and to the Congress:

The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.

Medieval as it is, this has a modern ring to it.

The Religion of Peace, American Revolution Edition. Do you get the sinking feeling that this is going to be a Long War, what with all the 4GW stateless insurgency empowered by cell phones and the internet and freely-available nuclear devices? Musselmen just aren’t interested in co-existence. It’s not just raging American capitalism & democracy & globalization that they want to wipe out…they’d gladly, cheerfully, and bloodily subjugate non-combatants such as the failed plutocracy of Mexico or a quasi-Socialist Canada. In other words, we’ve got to convince a billion Musselmen to a) convert to Christianity, or b) we’ll knock their blocks off if they don’t keep it to themselves. That is to say, if you like things like Tivo, the internet, and Hooters — never mind that Bill of Rights crap.

Speaking of Hooters, GO TEXAS! Stacie Burns of San Pedro needs your vote:

Reason Numero Uno Two-o or Three-o that we can’t let up on ‘em

Via AoSHQ.

Laugh while you can, son. Just a few reminders about who’s your daddy, though: one, two, three, four, five. The Iggles aren’t even the best team in their state.