Retain Justice Polston

Ok, I promise this will be the last post on merit retention this election cycle!

But, Justice Ricky Polston of the Florida Supreme Court is worthy of retention.

Though technically born across the state line in Alabama (ick!), he grew up on a small family farm here in Florida.

As a young man, he earned a degree in accounting from that institution that shall never be named in this blog. He later went back to the same place (a glutton for punishment?!) to earn a law degree.

As an attorney, he defended the state against suits filed to ban the "Choose Life" license plates ye socks may have seen on vehicles cruising around this little corner of heaven.

He has also publicly defended the state's school voucher program.

Privately, he and his wife raised four children before adopting six more from the state's foster care program.

He brings a lot to the bench.

Vote YES to retain Polston.

Retain the Chief

Florida's state supreme court is led by Chief Justice Charles T. Canady, who is up for a merit retention vote this year.

Canady is a native Floridian who earned a law degree from Yale University.

He returned to this little corner of heaven to establish his law practice and quickly entered the political arena . . . as a Democrat, no less.

Unfortunately, as many conservative Democrats would eventually discover, the national party left him a long time before he felt compelled to switch his registration.

He ran for U.S. Congress as a Republican in 1992, and won narrowly. In DC, he distinguished himself as a leading opponent of partial-birth abortions.

After a self-imposed term limit, Canady returned to Florida and served as general counsel to Governor Jeb Bush for a time before accepting a judicial appointment.

He was named Chief Justice by our current illustrious governor in 2008, but don't hold that against him. He deserves retention.

Vot YES to retain Chief Justice Charles T. Canady on the November ballot.

Adios, Mel!

No doubt in response to the withering criticism in yesterday's post in the dryer, Florida's most beloved spineless RINO announced his resignation at Orlando International Airport at 3pm today.

Senator Mel Martinez once inspired great confidence in these parts, and even succeeded in getting yours truly off his wallet to make a campaign contribution back in 2004.

All I can say now is that he hosed me. He hosed us all.

After taking his senate seat, Mel fell into some bad company. Supporting the ObamaNation's recent Supreme Court nominee was only the latest example. The most egregious was his partnership with Ted Kennedy back in 2006, when they crafted a bill that would have granted amnesty to ten million illegal aliens.

Ironically, despite his affinity for Democrats and their policies, the Republican National Committee made Mel their chairman about the same time. And, it was under his "leadership" that the party lost its majority in Congress.

So, goodbye, Mel. I wish you well in your future as a private citizen, but can't say I'll miss your style of "public service." I only hope your departure hasn't opened the door to 6 years of Charlie Crist warming your seat on the left of the aisle in the senate chambers . . .

200 days of mob rule . . . and counting

Boy, did one unsuspecting pollster get an earful when she placed a call to this little corner of heaven and asked yours truly for an opinion on the first 200 days of TheObamaNation!

Could I identify three of his greatest successes since taking office?

Well, to paraphrase an over-used campaign slogan, "Yes, I can!"

1. He and his minions in Congress successfully printed trillions of "stimulus" dollars, thereby saddling our children and grandchildren--and THEIR children and grandchildren--with a mountain of debt.

2. He did the Bush administration one better by not only continuing to hijack Wall Street, but also putting the federal government in the business of manufacturing and marketing automobiles.

3. Well . . . um . . . oh, yeah, it happened today. He succeeded in replacing one lackluster Supreme Court justice with another who issues rulings based on empathy rather than the letter of the law.

I suppose on this momentous 200th day of near-divine rule, we should remind ourselves the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue cannot claim sole credit for these "successes." He had plenty of help on the other end of the mall on Capitol Hill--including some spineless RINO's. (In the case of "success" #3, we can heap particular gratitude on our own illustrious senator Mel Martinez.)

Thomas Jefferson, ironically the founder of the Democratic Party, once warned that democracy has the dangerous propensity to descend into mob rule. Sadly, we are there.

Satisfied, Madame Pollster?!

ObamaNation's first big constitutional crisis

Well, ye socks, yesterday the red herring throwers that yours truly mentioned in earlier posts succeeded in ramrodding a resolution thru the House of Representatives to retroactively impose a 90% tax on AIG bonus recipients.

The vote on HR1586 was overwhelming, 328-93. Shame on members of the loyal opposition who marched in lock-step behind the "democratic" majority!

If anything like this resolution reaches the oval office and is signed into law by El Presidente, it will be nothing short of unconstitutional and will demand an appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Thank God that George W. Bush got Justices Roberts and Alito on the bench before he left office. They may be the last line of defense against the irrational socialist juggernaut.

I maintain that all of this political theater is disingenuous in the extreme, meant to distract the public's attention from the fact that the bailout bonuses were approved by the ObamaNation's Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. The legislation that ok'd them was shepherded thru Congress by one of the administration's most capable minions, Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut. And, the bill with that provision was signed into law by El Presidente himself! So, why all the outrage?!

I guess the lesson here is what the ObamaNation gives you today can and will be arbitrarily taken back tomorrow.

If we open the door to retroactive and punitive taxes to satisfy every outrage these socialists can gin-up with their herring tossing hi-jinks, just how far back will they go?!

I'm afraid the sky's the limit with these folks. And, that's why they've got to be stopped.

Hope and change . . .

This makes no census!

Well, ye socks, the latest over-reach by the ObamaNation really has yours truly reeling.

In case you haven't heard, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) declined his nomination as the next Secretary of Commerce.

He did this, because he found out Rahmbo and the White House staff were going to yank control of the U.S. Census out of the hands of the Commerce Department officials who have traditionally overseen the enumeration every ten years. Instead, they want to run the head count from the West Wing . . . as if they didn't have enough on their plates when it comes to overseeing the downward spiral into socialism.

Why is this such a big deal, you ask?

Well, it's a big deal because the new maladministration wants to flout 220 years of precedent and a constitutional mandate to conduct an actual head count. Instead, they want to use "statistical sampling." Basically, they will make up the numbers to satisfy who THEY think lives in a given geographic area versus who is actually there.

No room for Chicago-style shenanigans with that approach, right?!

As an avid genealogist and amateur historian, the possibility of some partisan hack pulling numbers out of the air is even more distressing. It will do away with those handy enumerations full of biographical detail that have helped so many of us research our family trees and local heritage.

The good news is, we've survived this threat before. Ten years ago, Slick Willie tried the same thing and was slapped down by a Supreme Court ruling. Perhaps the ObamaNation will come to their census senses before we have to repeat history thru litigation.

Hope and change!