Author: Patrick

Short Bio: I started blogging about politics in 2006, as a populist, skeptical left of center type, with a blog called simply, "The Populist."I suspect, but cannot prove; that my blog might have been hacked by some evil neoconservatives. I cannot prove that at all and also too, around the same time. Hackers from China where attacking wordpress blogs. I believe either the Neocons or the Chinese got my site. I don't know honestly know which.Either way, by 2007, I began to see that I really did not fit within the Democrat Party and liberal circles and after my blog was hacked; I created a blog called "Political Byline" and I kept writing; first as a Centrist and then as a Conservative PopulistFor my long bio, see the "About Me" section on this blog.

The Republican Party's resident RINO, John McCain, is now running radio ads

Looks like John McCain is running radio ads out in Arizona.

Click here to take a listen to them.

He says he is Arizona’s last line of defense, and is going to stop Barack Obama’s socialism. 🙄 Yeah, like he stopped George W. Bush’s spending during that era too, right?

As always, McCain tries to cash in on his Military record, in order to get elected. I wonder if it will actually work this time, or not? Hopefully not. The late Senator Barry Goldwater could not stand McCain, called him a phony; and I can totally understand why.

Hmmmmmmm: Fighter jets escort plane to after passenger becomes 'unruly'

Saw this earlier… and it did make me wonder….

Two F-15 fighter jets escorted a passenger jet that had been headed for Hawaii back to Portland International Airport in Oregon after a passenger in coach became “uncooperative,” an airline official said Wednesday.

Hawaiian Airlines Flight 39 took off from Portland at 10:10 a.m. with 231 passengers and a crew of 10 when — 90 minutes into the flight — its captain decided to turn around the Boeing 767, said Keoni Wagner, the airline's vice president of public affairs.

The fighter jets intercepted the plane at 1 p.m. North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a written statement.

It landed at 1:16 p.m. without further incident, the TSA said.

Upon the plane's return, the passenger — a 56-year-old Salem, Oregon, man — was escorted from the plane with his female companion without incident, the FBI and the Port of Portland said in a joint statement.

The FBI said it was not releasing his name because he had not been charged.

FBI agents and Port officers interviewed the passenger and his companion, the flight crew and others, then released the two and referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for review.

via Fighter jets escort plane to after passenger becomes unruly – CNN.com.

What did he do?

In a statement, the Transportation Security Administration said the captain decided to return the plane to Portland “due to a suspicious passenger who made threatening remarks and refused to store his carry-on bag.”

Port of Portland Public Information Officer Martha Richmond told CNN that the plane was turned around “due to concerns the crew had.”

Do I think it was an overreaction? Possibly. However, in light of what happened over the Christmas Holiday; any action, is better than no action at all. Glad to see that TSA is on top of things.

Quote of the Day

I would say the greatest failure of the Church today is its unwillingness to say and do the unpopular thing. Too many Christians busy themselves these days trying to come up with new ways of being admired and desired by the world rather than simply being obedient to the Lord they claim to love.

With a self-sustaining focus on acquiring evermore results and relationships (i.e., “church growth”) by way of pragmatism and consensus, none of which is biblical, today’s Christians are, by and large, being persuaded and trained week after week to embrace surveys, marketing principles, public relations programs and people skills as their new commandments with dialectically-trained consultants and facilitators posing as prophets and preachers – people pleasers who know how to work the crowd and steer the herd while selectively applying the scriptures as needed to maintain a biblical appearance of righteousness and religiosity.

We’re essentially giving people what they want at church these days in hopes they will reciprocate with more participation and support. How is this “tactic” any different from those used on Wall Street and in Washington D.C.?

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” – 1st Corinthians 1:18

Are the Democrats jumping from the ship?

It is a plausible question, and an interesting one at that.  Are the Democrats now jumping from the bloated ship of socialist waste ever known to humankind?  Are Democrats preparing themselves for the “Nuclear Option” on healthcare?  The questions abound, the speculation is running rampant, and internet meme’s are burning up the bandwidth.  I, on the other hand, will tell you what I do know.

First off, let us start with the local story; Michigan Lt Governor John Cherry was expected to be the person to succeed Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm at the helm of Michigan Governorship.  However, Democrat Governor Jennifer Granholm’s performance as Governor of this state has been less than stellar.  I ought to know this, I have lived here all of my life.  Double-digit unemployment, a one state recession that towered over the national recession for many years now; put quite bluntly, there are no jobs here in Michigan. Sure, there are jobs, if you want to work in a fast food joint, making minimum wage.  However, if you happen to be a 37-year-old man, looking for a decent paying, full time job, with health insurance — you are frankly out of luck.

However, to be fair, some of Michigan’s woes cannot be laid at the feet of the Democratic leadership.  GM’s credit crisis cannot be blamed entirely on the Democrats, at least not the current ones in office here in Michigan.  GM and Chrysler’s troubles are a direct result of the mortgage crisis, which was caused by President Jimmy Carter and President Bill Clinton and that idiotic piece of legislation that opened up the mortgage market to high-risk individuals.  When the credit markets froze up, due to the stock market crash and subsequent credit freeze, the big three found themselves in the middle of it.  This is my biggest issue that I have with the “Republicans” or those within the Conservative movement.  They always, without fail, blame the unions for the troubles of the big three; when in all honesty, unions had zero to do with the meltdown or its effect on the automakers.  The entire mess was, in fact, lack of proper regulation in the mortgage industry and the stock market in regards to credit swaps that caused this whole mess in the first place.  Sorry to my fellow Conservatives, but I am just not buying that talking point.

However, it would be fair to mention that the unions did play a role in the financial woes of the big three, as did the big three’s failure to listen to the automotive experts, who saw what Japan was doing in the 1970’s and their arrogant attitudes.  The big three could have saved themselves much heartache, by building smarter, higher quality vehicles.  However, by the time the big three got around to embracing the ISO standards, it was too little, too late.  As for the talking point of Union workers making too much money, I find it amazing how many Conservatives have axe to grind with those who simply want to make a decent working wage.  Most of the people that make these idiotic claims are those who are making more than two hundred and fifty thousand a year and have no financial worries at all; but they want to rip away the comfortable living of others.  Do you see now why I have not voted “Republican” yet?

Another point that I feel that is important to make, is the fact that the big three are just designing some of the most god-awful looking car nowadays.  Heck, even the trucks are now getting just plain butt-ugly.  Does it make any damned sense to build cars for every day Americans that look like they taken from the pages of a twenty fifth century comic book?  Whatever happened to graceful, classic designs from the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s?  Those were real cars back then, now all the big three can produce is glorified garbage — and do not even get me started on the idea of an electric car, now that is a idea that is going to go right straight were the Chevy EV1 went, right straight into the scrap heap.

Now back on the subject of politics, it seems that Chris Dodd, going to retire.  Getting sweetheart deals on a house mortgage can do that to a fellow, especially when people in your district are losing their houses left and right.  I also notice that Bryon Dorgan is also retiring; he supported Obama’s healthcare plan, which made him damaged goods.  I also notice that Colorado Governor Bill Ritter is withdrawing from that race — corruption will do that to a fellow.

Now what is my personal take on these retirements and how it affects the 2010 elections?  My take is this; I believe that there are going to be some very big upsets come election time.  Now, I do not necessarily see a Republican wave or anything like that.  However, I do see a drastic change in Washington D.C.  I do also see a “defanging” of the socialist monster that exists on Capitol Hill right now.  As for the Governor’s race here in Michigan, I believe that the Republicans can win Michigan, but they are going to have to work to earn the trust of the American people.  It would take some very hard work and some massive breaking of some very established political rules to do it.  However it can be done.  The people of Michigan want real answers, real results, not political grandstanding, and platitudes.

It is going to be a very interesting 2010.  I look forward to writing about it and giving you my take.

Switched back to my original theme

As you can tell, I have switched back to the theme, that I had been using for the last 8 months. I am using a bit older of a version of that theme. The one I was running before I upgraded and started having problems with it.

Anyhow, I will change the rotating header images, what I get the gumption to do so. I personally think they are quite pretty myself. But this a political blog; I should have something political looking up there. 😛

Anyhow, so, we’re back to square one, at the moment. I may just keep this one, it looks pretty and it does what I want it to do.

Thanks for putting up with the ever-changing look of the joint.

Behold the Anti-White Anti-Conservative Bigotry of the Democratic Party

As articulated by the Progressive Movement’s resident “John Madden”

The Video: (H/T HotAir)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hmmmmm… Someone needs to tell Michael Steele, that the Tea Party Movement is a “Whites Only” Movement, as suggested by Chris Matthews:

President Bambi Teleprompter Says, 'Yeah, We screwed up'

(H/T HotAir)

Yeah, Where the hell were you on Christmas Eve?  🙄

An aside, This agency, National Counterterrorism Center, was slated for budget cuts, before this little incident happened:

The highly touted intelligence fusion center at the heart of the nation’s counterterrorism establishment was preparing for deep budget cuts across 2010, senior intelligence officials said. According to one official, who asked not to be identified because intelligence budget matters are classified, the administration and Congress slashed the budget for the National Counterterrorism Center by at least $25 million. Those affected, the official said, included employees responsible for maintaining the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) system, which contains the list of about 550,000 known or suspected terrorists…

“Without question, recent events will cause those proposals to be re-considered,” an intelligence official said.

As I wrote before, “Government Incompetence? Yes, We haz it!” 🙄

Updated: It is official, Keith Olbermann and MSNBC have gone off the cliff!

Two Words for this video clip…. Holy hell…. 😯

The Video, which comes to us via Olbermann Watch: (H/T to Ace)

No wonder I quite watching that idiotic network. 🙄 As an extra added bonus, a 9/11 truther at the end this video; makes for a great one.

Update: Reader Rich Writes in to say:

I think that Olbermann Watch is connecting dots that aren’t there on this one.  Several reasons:

1)  The theory is based on Wolffe’s statement about what the White House is examining.  Unless you hear this type of claim coming from a White House spokesman, I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in it.  I’m sure the White House is looking at lots of things but that doesn’t mean they have drawn any conclusions;  perhaps Wolffe is hearing only what he wants to hear.

2)  Obama calls this episode the result of a “systematic failure.”  That sure doesn’t sound like a statement from someone who wants to duck responsibility for it.

3)  Does one intelligence agency not share complete information with the other agencies?  Probably.  But the reason is likely related to competition between the agencies, not any conspiracy plot.

TV, be it Olbermann or Fox, is always looking for  controversy;  that doesn’t make it true.  Same goes for the “Obama wasn’t out there” (after the event) line;  I understand that Bush took six days to make a statement after the Richard Reid episode and that, at Bush’s next press conference, the neither the President or the press even spoke about Reid until well into the press conference.  It is all about stirring up conflict, which makes for a more engaging story.   Unfortunately, doing so only distracts from the genuine problem that we face here, which is best addressed though bipartisan action rather than political bickering.  Very sad, IMHO.

BTW, I just discovered your blog;  I like to read a wide range of political views, so I will be back!

Best regards,
Rich