It's How We Roll in a Small Town

I virtually never post anything specific about our town, Kosciusko, Mississippi. First of all, why would anyone outside of our little community care about a church luncheon or even the mayoral election? And second, we tend to keep our business to ourselves.

But, this story is just too good to pass up! As long time readers know I am a big supporter of the Second Amendment and, frankly, a big supporter of the right to carry a weapon, under strict licensing and control.

Far from causing crime, I believe the proper use of guns protect honest people and deters criminal behavior.

Here's the story. In our small town, which is almost always crime free, we recently have had a series of armed robberies taking place in daylight in the parking lot of our local supermarket. By series I mean three robberies. It's a small town. No one has been injured, at least up to this point.

However, yesterday, our local crime wave came to an abrupt halt. The would be robber finally picked on the wrong man. Melton King, co-owner of our wonderful Sonic Drive-In was the latest victim. As King came out of the supermarket, the gunman approached, gun drawn and held straight out at arms length.

“He held the straight out like in a movie,” King said. “He put the gun to my ribs.”

King said he tried to stay calm and when asked for money, he gave him money from his wallet and then from his bank bag containing Sonic money.

King said robber took off running behind the supermarket. King jumped into his Ford F-150 pick-up truck in hot pursuit. He had hoped to see the robbers vehicle and give a license plate to the police.

But King, also was carrying a firearm and he did fire a warning shot or two at the fleeing robber.

This clearly surprised and upset the robber who glanced back at the rapidly pursuing King. While looking back, the robber stepped into a hole along the side of the road and he stumbled and fell. King's pick-up truck was closing so fast he accidentally struck the robber a glancing blow.

“He was stumbling to get up,” King said.

King immediately returned to supermarket and called 911 for help. Once he returned to the accident scene, where he found his Sonic money bag, but the robber had recovered enough to flee the scene.

Moments later, Kosciusko Police officers apprehended the accused robber on a nearby road. Kosciusko Police Chief R.J. Adams said the man was armed with the weapon described as the one used in the robbery. He, of course, was detained and provided full medical attention for his minor injuries.

Police Chief Adams commended Melton King for his action and also commended KPD officers Brice Cole, Stan Beall, Herbert Dew and Curtis Pope for their quick actions in apprehending the suspect.

Chief Adams and every one of these officers are friends of mine. And Melton King is certainly a local hero.

And, as our accused robber can testify, it's simply not wise to mess with folks you don't know in small town America. We're not only clinging to our guns, we're often carrying them.

Facing the Future

Here are some rambling thoughts, in no specific or logical order, about the very difficult future that awaits President Obama......


Somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of my mind I hoped that the worldwide terrorist conflict with al-Qeada was somehow all President Bush's fault. Of course, in the logical and reasoning part of my brain, I knew this was not true. The attacks on 9/11 were planned well before Bush took office, during the tenure of President Clinton. And, unlike Bush, Clinton was relatively well like and well respected world wide. And Clinton had worked hard, if unsuccessfully, for peace between Palestine and Israel.

But, somehow in the very back of my brain and in my heart, I hoped the election of Barack Obama might allow a start toward the ultimate end of our conflict with radical Islam. However, Ayman al Zawahiri brought me back to reality. In a scathing communique, al Zawahiri condemned President-elect Obama ion the nastiest possible terms.

In a flashy and well produced video al Zawahiri condemned Obama as a hypocrite and traitor to his race, unfavorably comparing him to "honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s black Muslim leader. Parroting the words of Malcolm X, al Zawahiri called Obama a "House Negro," a docile slave doing the bidding of the white man.

The State Department dismissed the new video as spin control and a desperate tactic by al-Qaedo to blunt the world wide popularity of the new President who not only is black but has Muslim middle name. While this is undoubtedly true, it clearly shows al-Qaeda has no intention of dialing back the rhetoric or scaling back their on going efforts to attack and ultimately destroy the United States and much of western civilization.

As if this news wasn't upsetting enough, today we learned that Iran has enough nuclear fuel to create their first atomic bomb. Just how long do we believe it will take Iran to use the weapon on Israel or pass it along to a terrorist organization? Clearly the European led negotiations to curb Iran's development of the weapon have failed miserably. Can Barack Obama bring a fresh start to these negotiations or will he quickly learn that Iran's sentiments toward the US are identical to those of al-qaeda. I fear that Iran hopes Obama will be a docile "house negro." Based on what we witnessed during the campaign, I believe Iran will quickly learn he is nothing of the sort.

But the biggest problem that President Obama will face is the collapse of the world economy. I remain convinced we are entering a period similar to, but much worse than, the great depression of the 1930s. Unemployment will quickly move into double digits and major and massive bankruptcies loom immediately as Obama in sworn into office. Even as I write this today the stock market is on the verge of losing 50% of its value from it's peak. And some people I know personally have virtually lost their life's savings.

The big issues will be the loss of jobs and the cascading collapse of the retail marketplace. It will be difficult to overcome these twin problems and solutions don't come easily or quickly.

So far I'm very impressed with the choices Barack Obama has announced for his staff and cabinet. He is assembling a team with depth and talent. He is going to need them. We all will.

Campaign Finance Fraud

The right leaning blog The Gateway Pundit's lead story today is "Confirmed: It Looks Like Obama Just Got Away With Largest Election Donations Fraud in History" Gateway Pundit, along with a host of other right wing bloggers (all cross linked) has well documented the purposefully shoddy bookkeeping, elimination of security checkpoints and questionable donations and even more questionable accounting that allowed Barack Obama to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from unknown and possibly illegal sources.

Sadly, the mainstream media is still largely ignoring the story, although there is some rustling of the leaves among the press.

Pundit hypothesizes that is would actually take a "Special Prosecutor" to unravel the deception of the Obama campaign and I fear that is correct. Of course, during the glow of the honeymoon and a Democrat Party lock on Congress, no such prosecutor will be appointed.

What has happened here is appalling. If the actual list of donors were released it could, and I believe would, ruin the Obama Presidency. Of course, the massive cover-up is under way. Well, sort of. Bloggers investigating the scam at the Obama campaign website report that it is still possible to make fraudulent donations even today, even after the campaign had sworn they has fixed the problem.

I don't want to ruin the Obama Presidency. And and I don't want the massive fallout that would occur if a real investigation took place. I'm sure there are ample campaign staffers would would fall on their swords for Obama.

We the people should demand a full accounting and a full investigation of this grotesque fraud. And liberals should be leading the parade demanding accountability. Alas, I'm in a tiny minority.

The worst part of this evil is that it was totally unnecessary. Barack Obama would have easily won the election if he had followed reasonable security measures.

While I blogged about this numerous times before the election, here is my primary blog entry, "Can the Presidency Be Bought?"

Tea Leaves

Wouldn't it have been nice for politicians of all stripes, the media and the public to be able to take a few days off and bask in the glory of Barack Obama's election to the office of President. We should all be pleased and proud of this historic election. Absolutely everyone, including McCain supporters should take a bow.

Alas, the politicians, the pundits, the mass media and the blogosphere hardly missed a beat, dissecting every breath from everyones mouth. Talk about "much ado about nothing." Even Joe Scarborough was reduced to using the infamous "F-Word" live and on the air when discussing "Rahm 'F--- you' Emanuel." It's a hot video over on You Tube. I'm guessing no one ever heard the word before.

And, oh my god, the hysteria about Sarah Palin! What the hell is that all about? I don't believe she was elected to anything. Did I miss something? Let's see here. We elect the first African American President in history and the media is obsessed with Sarah Palin. So is the blogosphere. The #1 topic today at The Huffington Post, based on the number of times a tag is used is Sarah Palin!!!! Talk about a rock star.

So here I am reading all the posts about everything, which are, in reality, little pieces of nothing.

We are all reduced to reading the tea leaves, trying to find a sign. And I did find one especially good sign today. It seems Barack Obama wants Senator Joe Lieberman to remain in the Democrat caucus in the US Senate. Obama has sent a sign to Senate Majority Leader Reid to "back off." and let Lieberman remain, with his chairmanship in tact.

It seems President-elect Obama really does want reconciliation. And he may well just recognize Lieberman's value to the party and to the country.

It's a good sign.

Congratulations America!

Principles versus Partisanship

"I love humanity, it's people I can't stand."
Linus van Pelt, Peanuts (Charles Schultz)

Tomorrow we will celebrate once again our wonderful freedom to choose democratically our leadership and government. The voice of the people will be heard. Your voice matters. Your vote matters.

For the last few years (or ten years in my case), the Internet has provided an amazing soapbox for each of us to state our ideas and advocate our positions. The free blog software and webspace provided by Blogger (and it's parent Google) and other providers is a great gift and a wonderful tool. And millions of us world wide take advantage of this great gift of democracy and freedom.

Certainly over the last few months opinions have flown from left to right, from one extreme (and I do mean extreme) to the other. I've read things I've found appalling, even abhorrent. Hate speech appears all too often. People feel so strongly about their positions they resort to extremes of hyperbole. Name calling is not uncommon. And lies and exaggeration fill the atmosphere.

Tomorrow the election is over. And, I must be honest, I don't expect the name calling or hyperbole to end. But most folks will dial it back a notch. And many will simply turn their attention to other issues and other interests.

If I had one hope for the post election period it is that all people would place principles above partisanship. Make decisions and state positions based on what is morally or ethically right, not what suits your party or candidate.

Let me provide one little example. If you, like Representative John Conyers, are appalled at the possible misuse of governmental power in the release of information about Barack Obama's illegal alien aunt, please also be equally concerned about the now proven horrific abuse of those same governmental powers in the release of information about Joe the Plumber.

Right is right. Wrong is wrong. To steal the blog tag line from one of my favorite bloggers (and often my ideological nemesis) Mary at Freedom Eden:

"Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong."
Abraham Lincoln

Can The Presidency Be Bought?

This story ought to be the top headline in every newspaper in America. It ought to lead every network news broadcast. And, frankly, this story ought to thoroughly disqualify Barack Obama from the Presidency.

The Obama for President campaign has purposefully allowed and encouraged illegal campaign contributions from large donors, corporations, foreign countries and even illegal aliens. It is probable that these contributions were made with the full knowledge of the Obama campaign staff and management. It is possible that Barack Obama knew himself.

If the major news media wasn't so thoroughly in the tank for Obama the investigation would be in full force. It will take paid reporters to dig out the facts and ask the important questions. And it will eventually happen. The only question is when.

Right now only a few newspapers are beginning to ask the key questions. One real leader is Investors Business Daily who wrote in an editorial on Thursday:

Barack Obama has turned a blind eye to the use and abuse of prepaid credit cards. It's just one way he hides who his contributors are and just how much they're giving. When Steve and Rachel Larman of North Kansas City, Mo., opened their credit-card bill recently, a strange charge appeared on their statement — a $2,300 donation to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. This was odd, they thought, since they had not only not made the donation, they were planning to vote for John McCain. It was one more piece of evidence that the unprecedented flow of cash to and through the Obama campaign is not entirely legit. In any campaign, bogus or unwanted contributions can slip through the cracks. But team Obama has deliberately created a chasm of credibility. In addition to noncontributors being charged for contributions, at least $218 million has been received by the Obama campaign from donors of under $200 whose names it is keeping secret, according to FEC spokesman Robert Biersack. Fact is, team Obama has deliberately encouraged credit-card fraud by deliberately turning off the online safeguards normally used by sites receiving contributions or payments. There is no checking of names, addresses or card numbers done on the front end. According to the Washington Post, "Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged." Campaigns can accept donations of under $200 without disclosing contributors' names. McCain, who accepted public financing while Obama did not, has made his full donor database available on the Internet. Of the $150 million Obama claims to have raised in September, some $42 million was raised from secret contributors and listed under a single line, "Donors, Unitemized." Obama's deliberate lack of finance vetting allows the use of largely untraceable prepaid credit cards. These can be purchased at a local drugstore and used under any name, allowing anonymous donors to exceed limits on contributions and even foreign donors to funnel money to Obama's campaign. A Newsmax report noted a separate FEC database, of more than 11,500 foreign contributors to the Obama campaign, totaling $33.8 million. It was the largest influx of foreign money into a campaign since the Clinton-Gore campaign took millions of dollars of unregulated soft money from donors with ties to Chinese military intelligence. Typical is Viktor A. of Lagos, Nigeria, who gave $500 to Obama in May. State abbreviations accepted by the Obama campaign include IT (Italy), FR (France), GR (Greece), NZ (New Zealand), JP (Japan) and GA (Gaza). According to Newsmax, 2,372 donors gave their state of residence as "ZZ" with addresses from Beirut to Kiev to Shanghai.

I hate to sound like a paranoid right winger, but can you imagine the uproar if the roles were reversed and McCain had encouraged and accepted illegal campaign contributions and overlooked basic security? The press would have gone ballistic! And with good cause. No matter who does this kind of illegal activity, it should be investigated. And it should not be tolerated.

What Barack Obama has done is placed America for sale to the highest bidder. Elections shouldn't be bought and sold on the Internet.

Barack Obama should not be allowed to purchase the Presidency with illegal campaign funds.