Mark Steyn captures it:

Watching the Commander of the Pacific Fleet’s deadpan face as Congressman Hank Johnson (D., Ga.) asks him about the danger of the island of Guam tipping over and capsizing is a glimpse of how the viziers to the loopier Ottoman sultans must have felt.

Presumably, when you’re the head guy of a major fleet for a big-time navy, you’ve got plenty of other ways of filling your time other than reassuring congressmen on whether miscellaneous land masses are likely to tip over and sink. But it’s business as usual in Congress. The Toyota execs hauled up to account for an entirely mythical epidemic of runaway Priuses surely had similar feelings — as will the Verizon/Caterpillar/John Deere CEOs summoned by Henry Waxman to explain why they had the lèse-majesté to factor the costs of Obamacare into their federally required earnings statements.

Bet Johnson gets re-elected.

We have serious people in this nation who make it work – factory workers, farmers, ranchers, miners. We have our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who defend it. And then we have the pinheads who currently hold the political power.

Its why things are jacked up – and until we get people in there in tune with the farmer and the Marine, its not going to get any better.

Sarah Palin lays out the fraudulent nature of Obama’s oil drilling program:

Many Americans fear that President Obama’s new energy proposal is once again “all talk and no real action,” this time in an effort to shore up fading support for the Democrats’ job-killing cap-and-trade (a.k.a. cap-and-tax) proposals. Behind the rhetoric lie new drilling bans and leasing delays; soon to follow are burdensome new environmental regulations. Instead of “drill, baby, drill,” the more you look into this the more you realize it’s “stall, baby, stall.”

Today the president said he’ll “consider potential areas for development in the mid and south Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, while studying and protecting sensitive areas in the Arctic.” As the former governor of one of America’s largest energy-producing states, a state oil and gas commissioner, and chair of the nation’s Interstate Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, I’ve seen plenty of such studies. What we need is action — action that results in the job growth and revenue that a robust drilling policy could provide. And let’s not forget that while Interior Department bureaucrats continue to hold up actual offshore drilling from taking place, Russia is moving full steam ahead on Arctic drilling, and China, Russia, and Venezuela are buying leases off the coast of Cuba….

This does seem to be mere cover for “cap and trade” and, of course, as a way of deflecting blame if gas prices rocket up this summer (we’re already over $3 a gallon for premium out here in Las Vegas – and this with significant reductions in American gasoline consumption…we’re really in for it this summer, it seems). Its all just smoke and mirrors – as most of Obamunism really is, upon close inspection. The only thing for real about this guy is his desire for government control – outside of that, its all eyewash.

We have the oil to significantly reduce our imports as we do the generational transition away from gasoline-powered transportation. All we lack is the political desire to exploit our own wealth. This is all just part of something Chesterton observed – the plutocratic origins of progressive fads.

Saving the world is a grand thing – but its not to be saved for the average man or woman. No, they are to be jammed in to noisome cities where they can take public transit to the job or welfare office, as appropriate. Just as it was rich progressives who first figured we didn’t need private property – because it prevented the development of what the rich progressives believe is the good life, for us – so the rich progressives figure we don’t nee cheap energy. Having such just wrecks the world, you see?

It is time to take America back and make it, once again, the land of the common man. It is our nation – it is to be used by us for our own benefit; not to be locked away because some rich progressives feel its in our best interest to be kept out (while they, of course, are allowed in). Who cares about a pristine landscape if you can’t go see it? Fish in its streams? Hunt in its forests? What good is countryside if there isn’t a farm on it? To what purpose is a world saved, if the people who live on it are forbidden to enjoy it?

We are to be stewards of this world – we are not to take God’s gift and bury it, fearful lest any harm should befall. It is time we set aside the absurd fear-mongering of environmentalists and start to use what is ours for our own benefit.

Jedediah Bila explains how:

It’s time for us to help the GOP take back the House and Senate, as well as place an authentic conservative in the White House in 2012. Remember that it’s not just about Republicans defeating Democrats. It’s also about conservatives defeating RINOs (see the Rubio/Crist race in Florida for details). With issues like cap-and-tax and immigration soon to be coming down the pike, it is imperative that full-blooded conservatives make big gains in 2010. They will see to it that the tenets of limited government and constitutional integrity stand in the way of legislation that would cripple American industry and give the government an even tighter grip over our liberty. Let’s make the Founding Fathers proud.

Any Republican is better than any Democrat because each one of them will be one more chance to get Pelosi and Reid out of leadership – but any conservative better than any non-conservative (though, in a pinch, a libertarian will do).

It is our government. This is our nation. It is time we took it back, and returned it to the Founder’s vision.

Its not just over policy differences – important as they are – but over the way Democrats govern:

Yesterday I noted the seemingly odd finding by Gallup that more Americans blame Democrats than Republicans or conservatives for the rash of violence that greeted the passage of the reform law.

Now Gallup has released some new numbers that shed a bit of light on this:

Regardless of whether you favored or opposed the health care legislation passed this week, do you think the methods the Democratic leaders in Congress used to get enough votes to pass this legislation — were [they] an abuse of power, or were [they] an appropriate use of power by the party that controls the majority in Congress?

Abuse of power 53%

Appropriate use of power 40%

No opinion 7%

A surprising 58% of independents, too, said Dem tactics constituted an abuse of power.

The back room deals. The serial insults of opponents. The lies about opposition programs. And, finally, the ramming it through on a partisan basis.

People are furious with government – Democrats don’t seem to realize that they were awarded power in 2006 and 2008 because people were angry with the shennanigans of Republicans…they didn’t vote to put in Democrats who would take those shennanigans and put them on steroids. Democrats did have a chance to win a generation of political power – but that would have required honesty and decency.

Two things entirely outside the possible for our current Democratic leadership.

While many out there might look at Google as an unstoppable giant and cringe at the thought of their growing empire, I have to say I have mostly held a generally positive (but only slightly above neutral) view of Google. The search engine is my standard. I use Gmail, Analytics,  and several other tools they offer for free. Good stuff right? Well, recent events have had me question a few things about Google.

Yes, I know that the people in charge are liberal and probably donate to liberal causes and all that, but you know, they are free to do that. I drink Starbucks Coffee and support the company regardless of the company’s political leanings. I would have a problem however, if Starbucks treated me differently on political grounds. Anytime I go in, I expect the same treatment, service and available products as anyone else who goes in, and expect to pay the same price for given product as anyone else. Any other treatment would be discriminatory.  Can we agree on that?

There is, of course the issue of search neutrality. I’ll direct you to a blog post by Melissa Clouthier, I have another angle to approach.

A few weeks ago, my co-blogger here, Mark Noonan, told me that his personal site Noonan for Nevada was unexpectedly dropped from Google’s Adsense program. This, if you do not know is a program that allow blog publishers like us to put contextual ads on our blogs in the hopes that we can generate some revenue.We don’t expect a huge amount of money out of it… Enough to cover the cost of hosting would satisfy me. Anyway, I wasn’t sure what to tell him. He never violated their terms of service… what explanation was there. I had no idea.

Well, a mere two days later, I found that my Google Adsense account was also suspended. Herre’s the email I received:

Hello,

While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we’ve decided to disable your account.

Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect the interests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. We realize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you in advance
for your understanding and cooperation.

If you have any questions about your account or the actions we’ve taken, please do not reply to this email. You can find more information by visiting https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

It is worth noting that while you can “appeal” the decision, Google maintain some secrecy on their methods of determining questionable activity. From the link they provided is the following information:

Because we have a need to protect our proprietary detection system, we’re unable to provide our publishers with any information about their account activity, including any web pages, users, or third-party services that may have been involved.

As you may know, Google treats invalid click activity very seriously, analyzing all clicks and impressions to determine whether they fit a pattern of use that may artificially drive up an advertiser’s costs or a publisher’s earnings. If we determine that an AdSense account may pose a risk to our AdWords advertisers, we may disable that account to protect our advertisers’ interests.

Lastly, please note that as outlined in our Terms and Conditions, Google will use its sole discretion when determining instances of invalid click activity.

I appealed the decision. About three hours later I got a response that my appeal was denied.

Well, that means I am down with Google Adsense. Yet, I have no idea what caused the problem, and thus no ability to determine the cause.

While I am sure that this happens regularly with sites all the time, the fact that Mark and I each got booted in a matter of days suggests to me that that our being booted off of Google’s Adsense program was not random. This can mean a few things, including someone who goes on both NoonanForNevada.com and BlogsForVictory.com deliberated created the appearance of invalid click activity, or Google is systematically dropping conservative sites from its Adsense program.

Prior to being dropped from the Adsense program, I did receive a check (for a sum larger than $100)  … Shortly after the check was deposited my bank sent it back, the money was taken out of my account, and a small fee charged to my from my bank. Great huh? Payment for a period prior to the alleged invalid activity was cancelled, despite my inability to get any information to explain the problems that lead to my removal from the program.

I would like to get back on the Google Adsense progam, but unfortunately I have no recourse at this point. I made one and only allowed appeal. All I can do is write about the situation, and maybe a pattern of this behavior from Google will surface, and we can get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, based on the circumstances surrounding this situation, the simplest conclusion to make is that there is some anti-conservative bias at Google.

Geesh:

NASA Data Worse Than Climate-Gate Data, Space Agency Admits

NASA was able to put a man on the moon, but the space agency can’t tell you what the temperature was when it did. By its own admission, NASA’s temperature records are in even worse shape than the besmirched Climate-gate data.

E-mail messages obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that NASA concluded that its own climate findings were inferior to those maintained by both the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) — the scandalized source of the leaked Climate-gate e-mails — and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center.

The e-mails from 2007 reveal that when a USA Today reporter asked if NASA’s data “was more accurate” than other climate-change data sets, NASA’s Dr. Reto A. Ruedy replied with an unequivocal no. He said “the National Climatic Data Center’s procedure of only using the best stations is more accurate,” admitting that some of his own procedures led to less accurate readings.

So, we’ve been relying on the “better” data which turned out to be fraudulent. Does anyone out there – other than con artists like Gore – really want to defend anthro-pogenic global warming? Its clear that the best possible face to put on this business is that we just don’t know what is happening in the overall climate. The worst-case scenario is that which has environmentalists deliberately falsifying data in service of their totalitarian goals (which is what I happen to believe is the case).

Time to ditch this albatross and concentrate our environmental efforts where they should have been all along – day by day, cleaning up a bit more and putting a bit less pollution in to the environment. Leave off the “world is coming to an end” nonsense.

If the economy is improving, then why do State revenues continue to collapse?

I feel safer, already – Sarkozy and Obama teaming up to deal with Iran. Kinda like sending the Boy Scouts in to clear out a biker gang. I think we’ve rather missed our chance in dealing with Iran – there was a window of opportunity when sanctions/blockade/targeted aerial attacks in escalation could have done the trick. Now, all we seem to be going for is some rather toothless sanctions – and at a time when even military operations might not deter the Mullahs. We might be heading for a long, terrorist-violence-filled Cold War, or the necessity of full-scale war to deal with this.

Steele to survive Stripper-Gate. Which does make sense, given he had nothing to do with it.

A rancher is murdered – probably by illegal aliens. The guy was one of those who, in an act of pure, Christian mercy, would aid those poor souls struggling across the desert. Just one more innocent man murdered because our political class – slaves to ideology – refuse to secure the border. How many more rapes, robberies and murders along the border will the liberals require before we’re allowed to enforce our immigration laws?

Telegraphing our punches: should we really be saying that the Kandahar offensive will start in June? Shouldn’t that be a bit of a military secret?

Scientists discovering the secrets of the Big Bang. Or destroying the Earth. Or, just perhaps, playing around with big toys which will really tell us nothing we really need to know. Reuters reports, you decide. What are the practical applications of a “mini-Big Bang”, anyways?

Hammering Romney over his support for socialized medicine in Massachusetts. That will be a very steep hill for Romney to climb as he seeks the 2012 GOP nomination. I figure it will eventually kill his chances – but we shall see.

Picture are indeed worth a thousand words.

President Obama made his first trip as chief executive to Afghanistan over the weekend to, among other things, visit troops close to Kabul. He spoke to them at Bagram Airfield and we had the full text right here.

The White House released this picture by official White House photographer Pete Souza, showing the president shaking hands and grabbing a soldier’s finger, and the troops’ reactions.

The picture below was taken by official White House photographer Eric Draper of another president, George W. Bush, visiting U.S. troops in South Korea and their reactions.

I think anyone serving in the military abroad would appreciate a visit from President Bush more than a visit from Barack Obama. The difference in the reactions is very telling. This is hardly the first time we’ve seen such a difference in reaction… I’ve seen past video showing different troops reactions, and they tell the same story.

Former governor Ehrlich will challenge the Democrat who beat him in 2006:

Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. confirmed Tuesday that he will try to reclaim his former job as governor, hoping to benefit from a national anti-incumbent sentiment that emerged since the last presidential election and has deepened during the health care debate.

If victorious, Ehrlich, a Republican, would become the first politician in modern Maryland history to win a rematch after losing as an incumbent governor. Ehrlich was defeated by Democrat Martin O’Malley in 2006, the only sitting governor ousted by voters that year. Ehrlich, 52, has been contemplating a rematch with O’Malley for months, and said he was encouraged by the mood of voters he encountered during recent travels.

“There’s a real sense of concern about the direction our state is taking,” Ehrlich said in a conference call with reporters, adding that he plans to launch his campaign April 7 in Rockville, followed by a stop in Baltimore County.

He won in the big GOP year of 2002, lost in the big Democrat year of 2006 – now its 2010, and it may end up being a GOP year, again. Maryland is, of course, an overwhelmingly Democrat State – and thus it is horribly mis-governed, wracked by corruption and wallowing in a fiscal morass.

Now, in any given year, none of that would matter. Democrats are used to doing what they’re told and if they’re told to re-elect the people who caused all the problems, then that is what they’ll do. Normally. But 2010 isn’t a normal year.

The mask is finally off the corrupt government system – and Democrats are the government, plain and simple. It could be, at long last, that time when people reject permanently the party of government.

Pulling no punches:

The GOP needs to continue to oppose Obama on every front, vocally and without fear. It needs to offer market-based solutions to liberalism’s command-and-control economy. And it needs to do what some of us have been doing since the beginning of this administration, which is to say and to show that Barack Obama is the most radical president we have ever laid eyes on. Republicans need to point out, with the intellectual force and personal charm that characterized Mr. Reagan, that Mr. Obama is a threat to the things we most cherish, the principles our country was founded on, and the documents that gave birth to this country.

If some might have found this indictment overstated and melodramatic a year ago, that is no longer true. America has lived under Obama for 14 months now, and that experience has been a harsh teacher. We now know what we are dealing with. And the American people, in growing numbers, want to hit the reset button. Out of this a conservative victory will emerge — and a new political era will dawn.

It does seem to be working – don’t attack Obama, the man, but relentlessly attack everything he’s doing. He’s a nice guy. He’s good looking. His daughters are his crowing glory. Nothing much to hit at there, even if one wishes to eschew being a gentleman. But on what he does, there is room and to spare to hit hard and keep on hitting.

ObamaCare. Cap and Trade. Card Check. Iranian nuclear weapons. Insults to Israel. Corporate bail outs. Unemployment. Pork spending. This is a target-rich environment – and a list of particulars which can be used to appeal right across from conservative Republican to libertarian Independent to disaffected Democrat.

We have the materials ready to hand – we can craft a message and campaign which will score us an immense victory in November and set the stage for an even larger victory in 2012. Have we the courage to do it? Time will tell – but I really think we’re on to something.