Dangerous Streets

A new report out yesterday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has put the total of drunken driving deaths for the year 2006 at 13,470.  USA Today reports that 22 states experienced higher numbers of fatalities, while 28 states had declining numbers. 

Frightening to think that almost 40 people die per day at the hands of stupid individuals who get behind the wheel when they know they’ve had too much to drink. 

Another interesting question to ponder: Is it safer to sign up for service in Iraq than it is to drive America’s streets?  Well, the numbers certainly indicate it is.  Over the past six years, the US has lost nearly 3,100 of our brave men and women in the conflict in Iraq. 

Every one of those 3,100 sacrifices has been a powerful example of everything that we stand for as Americans — men and women who gave it all for the principles of freedom.   What they have given shouldn’t be cheapened in any way.  Yet it leads me to wonder…with the constant angry protests, continual bickering in the halls of congress and now on this early presidential campaign trail, why has nothing been said about drunken driving??  Perhaps this should be an issue more of our leaders address. 

Grant the fact that war and drunken driving are two very different things.  Yet somehow it seems that our national perspective needs a little realignment.

President Bush resigns

Posted a few weeks ago on the New Republic – pretty good commentary and worth a read.

President Bush’s Resignation Speech
email | 7/21/2007 | unknown

Posted on 07/23/2007 11:09:43 AM PDT by Kellis91789

PRESIDENT BUSH’S RESIGNATION SPEECH Normally, I start these things out by saying “My Fellow Americans.” I’m not doing it this time. If the polls are any indication, I don’t know who more than half of you are anymore. I do know something terrible has happened, and that you’re really not fellow Americans any longer. I’ll cut right to the chase here: I quit. Now before anyone gets all in a lather about me quitting to avoid impeachment, or to avoid prosecution or something, let me assure you: there’s been no breaking of laws or impeachable offenses in this office. The reason I’m quitting is simple. I’m fed up with you people. I’m fed up because you have no understanding of what’s really going on in the world. Or of what’s going on in this once-great nation of ours. And the majority of you are too damned lazy to do your homework and figure it out. Let’s start local. You’ve been sold a bill of goods by politicians and the news media. Polls show that the majority of you think the economy is in the tank. And that’s despite record numbers of homeowners including record numbers of MINORITY homeowners. And while we’re mentioning minorities, I’ll point out that minority business ownership is at an all-time high. Our unemployment rate is as low as it ever was during the Clinton Administration. I’ve mentioned all those things before, but it doesn’t seem to have sunk in.  Despite the shock to our economy of 9/11, the stock market has rebounded to record levels and more Americans than ever are participating in these markets. Meanwhile, all you can do is whine about gas prices, and most of you are too damn stupid to realize that gas prices are high because there’s increased demand in other parts of the world, and because a smallhandful of noisy idiots are more worried about polar bears and beachfront property than your economic security. We face real threats in the world. Don’t give me this “blood for oil” thing. If I was trading blood for oil I would’ve already seized Iraq ‘s oil fields and let the rest of the country go to hell. And don’t give me this ‘Bush Lied People Died’ crap either. If I was the liar you morons take me for, I could’ve easily had chemical weapons planted in Iraq so they could be ‘discovered.’ Instead, I owned up to the fact that the intelligence was faulty. Let me remind you that the rest of the world thought Saddam had the goods, same as me. Let me also remind you that regime change in Iraq was official US policy before I came into office. Some guy named ‘ Clinton ‘ established that policy. Bet you didn’t know that, did you? You idiots need to understand that we face a unique enemy. Back during the cold war, there were two major competing political and economic models squaring off. We won that war, but we did so because fundamentally, the Communists wanted to survive, just as we do. We were simply able to outspend and out-tech them. That’s not the case this time. The soldiers of our new enemy don’t care if they survive. In fact, they want to die. That’d be fine, as long as they weren’t also committed to taking as many of you with them as they can. But they are. They want to kill you. And the bastards are all over the globe. You should be grateful that they haven’t gotten any more of us here in the United States since September 11. But you’re not. That’s because you’ve got no idea how hard a small number of intelligence, military, law enforcement and homeland security people have worked to make sure of that. When this whole mess started, I warned you that this would be a long and difficult fight. I’m disappointed how many of you people think a long and difficult fight amounts to a single season of ‘Survivor’.  Instead, you’ve grown impatient. You’re incapable of seeing things through the long lens of history, the way our enemies do. You think that wars should last a few months, a few years, tops. Making matters worse, you actively support those who help the enemy. Every time you buy the New York Times, every time you send a donation to a cut-and-run Democrat’s political campaign, well, damn it, you might just as well Fedex a grenade launcher to a Jihadist. It amounts to the same thing. In this day and age, it’s easy enough to find the truth. It’s all over the Internet. It just isn’t on the pages of the New York Times or on NBC News. But even if it were, I doubt you’d be any smarter. Most of you would rather watch American Idol. I could say more about your expectations that the Government will always be there to bail you out, even if you’re too stupid to leave a city that’s below sea level and has a hurricane approaching. I could say more about your insane belief that government, not your own wallet, is where the money comes from. But I’ve come to the conclusion that were I to do so, it would sail right over your heads. So I quit. I’m going back to Crawford. I’ve got an energy-efficient house down there (Al Gore could only dream) and the capability to be fully self-sufficient. No one ever heard of Crawford before I got elected, and as soon as I’m done here pretty much no one will ever hear of it again. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to die of old age before the last pillars of America fall. Oh, and by the way, Cheney’s quitting too. That means Pelosi is your new President. You asked for it. Watch what she does carefully, because I still have a glimmer of hope that there’re just enough of you remaining who are smart enough to turn this thing around in 2008.So that’s it. God bless what’s left of America . Some of you know what I mean.

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the bottled water bonanza…

Interesting article, courtesy of Jennifer Mead

 What is the big deal about bottled water!?

The Primary Concern…

The battle for primacy in the Republican Presidential race is about to break loose,  and the MIGOP is poised to feel the heat in a major way.  MIRS News published a story last Thursday detailing the battle between Chairman Anuzis and 9th District Chair Glenn Clark over the procedure of the potential “party-run” primary coming up next year. 

Anuzis proposes a system of paper ballot voting by delegates to the convention, while Clark’s proposal is essentially status quo – allowing district chairs to conduct the polling within each delegation. 

Romney supporters seem to be the only ones securely in Anuzis’ camp – while the other candidates back the current system of convention voting, alleging that Saul Anuzis and MIGOP opperatives are secretly backing Romney.

The truly frustrating issue is not the bickering over which method of convention voting should prevail – but the fact that we should have to resort to this kind of primary in the first place.  Honestly, do you really want the biases of the party chairmen to be an element in the primary race at all?? 

With all due respect to Mr. Anuzis and Mr. Brewer, I would rather have the impartial hand of the Michigan Secretary of State and Bureau of Elections in charge of a presidential primary.  We are bound to have some chaos otherwise.

Gingrich vs. Detroit

Manny Lopez had a great op-ed in the Detroit News Sunday, debunking the critics of Newt Gingrich’s criticism of Detroit. 

 The fact of the matter is – we have to face the music about Detroit.  Whether the criticism comes from within or without – the reality of the problem is staring us in the face.  Outrageous taxation, failing schools, police and other public services, the onslaught of the gambling industry — all of these issues are real. 

I don’t know if anyone else has thought of this  – but perhaps we should applaud Mr. Gingrich for stepping up to the plate and proposing some solutions to the problems.  The first step in fixing Detroit must come from the rest of Michigan acknowledging that its not just Detroit’s problem.  We should all be concerned with lending a hand in the constructive solutions – rather than writing Detroit off as a failure or blindly believing that everything is fine. 

I will have to disagree with Mayor Kilpatrick’s office when they say that people should live in the city before they talk about Detroit’s problems.  Often the best answers come from those who are outside the frey – and able to make more clear judgements. 

The first step in Detroit’s improvement must come from an admission that there actually is a problem -  and that people other than the city council and school board might just have some better solutions.