I made the trip this past weekend up to

Cookeville TN for the first Fred Thompson Rally for President.  I was overly impressed that such a large crowd showed up in a little town to support a guy who is not even an announced candidate!  The organizers did a heck of a job putting everything together.  

            Over 500 people showed up throughout the day during the rally from all over the county.  I met several other fellow Georgians who are very excited about doing a rally of our own in

Georgia (stay tuned for more).   

            During the day the audience heard from Congressman Zack Wamp who is traveling the county raising support from conservative leaders for Thompson.  He gave an impassioned speech for why Fred is the right man for the job. 

            The Missouri State House Speaker Pro Tem Carl Beardenalso spoke and said that over 60% of the Republican legislators have committed to back Fred Thompson as soon as he enters the race. 

            The thing that has impressed me the most is how the following for Thompson has been from the bottom up instead of top down.  What I mean is that the momentum has come from the grassroots and common citizens verses political consultants and egos.  Thompson has never expressed any interest in running nor had any ambition to until he was asked to, much like Ronald Reagan. 

            It truly was a blessing to meet fellow Americans at the rally from all over the county who are full of optimism and energy, who still believe that America is the last bastion of hope for freedom and democracy.  I truly believe that this is the beginning of something big.  Stay tuned…..

America is the last bastion of hope for freedom and democracy.I truly believe that this is the beginning of something big.Stay tuned…..

Larry Kudlow described it best on Kudlow and Company:

KUDLOW: Here’s another one for the record books. Get this: US tax nonwithheld receipts from individuals hit a record one day $48.7 billion increase on April 24th. The prior record was a year ago at $36.4 billion. This reflects, almost always, capital gains tax receipts from the bullish market at the record low 15 percent marginal tax rate on investment. Did someone say Laffer curve?

This is big stuff. It’s been playing at the top of the Drudge Report all day. $48.7 billion dollars for the April 24th tax date. That is the largest in history, Arthur, the largest in history. It’s almost all from cap gains, nonwithheld.

I did a little math, Art. Since the Bush tax cuts of mid-’03, the fiscal years ‘04, ‘05, ‘06 and we’re almost halfway through ‘07, nonwithheld tax receipts up $144 billion, or 59 percent. Now, Art, I know you take a lot of flak in government accounting circles. They say lower tax rates lose revenues. This says lower tax rates increase revenues. Could you comment for us? Could you teach us something here?

LAFFER: Well, I just love these numbers, Larry. And, frankly, the one area where you can really expect to see this type of response is in capital gains, in the nonwithheld areas. I mean, the size of this one day receipt is so much larger than the next largest day’s receipt, it’s amazing. If you look all around this country, I don’t see how people can think that you really should let these tax cuts expire. We’re almost in balanced budget right now. It’s coming very close. Just let this thing keep going. Don’t stop it. I don’t know why these people want to stop it, Larry.

KUDLOW: Liz, I just want to ask you. Last night we ran a segment, Goldilocks and the three bears. Goldilocks being the Bush tax cuts, the three bears potentially being Hillary, Obama and Edwards, who want to reverse the tax cuts. What’s your thought? What Arthur is saying about the cap gains revenue yield, does that link to this bull market in stocks?

LIZ MacDONALD: Absolutely, and I think the world of Art Laffer. I privately call him Saint Art Laffer. Because God bless him, because he’s really shown the way here. And here’s the deal: the capital gains tax is a voluntary tax. In other words, people will sit on it and not pay it if the tax rates are high. When they go low, they will unlock those assets, right? And this is the best noninflationary liquidity that you can bring into the market. So yes, I am worried about the Democratic Congress coming in and removing these very powerful forces that are driving the stock market forward. 

Well said.  Fear not, though, because despite any proof to the contrary liberals will still claim that lower tax rates lead to lower tax revenues and are damaging to the American economy.  The rich people simply have too much money… forget the fact that the richest Americans now pay a higher percentage of taxes than before the Bush tax cuts.

Huckabee calls Gonzales a distraction

From Political Wire 

According to the Bluegrass Report, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) may be in trouble in his battle for reelection next year. A new DSCC-commissioned shows McConnell leading by just a single point in a hypothetical match-up against Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY), 45% to 44%.

Take all of this with a grain of salt as the poll was commissioned by Schumer and the DSCC.

PA Republican Assembly
1. Fred Thompson - 50%
…
?

PA Leadership Conference
1. Fred Thompson - 34%
2. Newt Gingrich - 16%
3. Rudy Giuliani - 16%
4. Mitt Romney - 9%
…
9. John McCain - 3%

Declaring that the Bush administration’s actions in foreign and domestic affairs raise “serious questions of constitutionality,” Vermont state senators voted yesterday to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in what officials say was the first such vote by state lawmakers in the country.

Boston Globe

It’s apparent that the members of the Vermont State Senate have never read the U.S. Constitution, as unless Bush actually did lie about WMDs, no Constitutional provision has been broken. This is just an exercise in their socialist insanity. Personally, I would have no issue seeing Bush impeached because his actions regarding our southern border and Mexico, in my opinion, are treasonous and merit impeachment. However, the Vermont Senate’s reasoning is a just an acid induced trip into “Hippiedom.”

NASHVILLE — In a surprise move, a House panel voted today to repeal a state law that forbids the carrying of handguns on property and buildings owned by state, county and city governments — including parks and playgrounds.”I think the recent Virginia disaster — or catastrophe or nightmare or whatever you want to call it — has woken up a lot of people to the need for having guns available to law-abiding citizens,” said Rep. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains. “I hope that is what this vote reflects.”

KnoxNews

Sounds like Tennessee has some smart legislators

NCAA approves 32 bowl games for next season

The 32 bowls are: Alamo, Allstate Sugar, AT&T Cotton, AutoZone Liberty, BCS National Championship, Bell Helicopter Armed Forces, Brut Sun, Capital One, Champs Sports, Chick-fil-A, Emerald, Fed Ex Orange, Gator, Gaylord Hotels Music City, GMAC, Humanitarian, Insight, International, Meineke Car Care, Motor City, New Mexico, Outback, Pacific Life Holiday, Papajohns.com, PetroSun Independence, Pioneer Pure Vision Las Vegas, R L Carriers New Orleans, Rose, San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia, Sheraton Hawaii, Texas and Tostitos Fiesta.

So 64 of 118 teams, more than half, are going to a bowl game next year.  My personal favorite is the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

This whole Virginia Tech situation should, fundamentally, not be about gun control. It should be about what has happened in our society to allow this to happen. The response from the left has been about violence, war, and controlling weapons. The response on the right has been about government regulation and the nanny state. There is an issue that dovetails here that I believe needs to be talked about more. The death of any true conception of manhood.

Consider the school massacre years back in Canada. A gunman broke into a room, forced all the men out of the room into the hallway, and then executed one by one all the women. The men made no effort to resist and abandoned their female compatriots. Would this have even been conceivable a hundred years ago? Has radical feminism so neutered masculinity that self-sacrifice is no longer a virtue?

Maybe we need to revive the old WW”JW”D (What Would John Wayne Do?). John Wayne would’ve fought the gunman and maybe died in the process but died with honor and hopefully saving lives in the process. What honor is there in being marched out of the room only to have all the women left in the room killed?

Skip ahead to Virginia Tech, a campus without guns, without a means to protect itself, and yet the one shining paragon of heroism coming out of the attack is a 70 year old holocaust survivor. There are unconfirmed reports that students were lined up and shot execution style and yet no one charged him. I can’t say what I would do in the situation, but I know what would be the right thing to do: charge the man and try to stop him from killing your classmates. There is no doubt that there are many stories of heroism at Virginia Tech, but we need that John Wayne aura back in manhood today. To do that we need to find these stories of heroism and talk about them MORE. The students who blocked the door as gun fire was coming threw the table they held against the door, those are the stories we need to hear.
In the Texas Tower shooting in the 60s, a sniper went on top of a tower and started shooting at campus. The response? Several teachers grabbed their guns from their cars and offices and opened fire back on him. They put themselves in harms way, but that was their duty. How far we have come.
To die saving your friends should be the highest honor, but today I worry that it is no longer viewed that way. Maybe it all started after WWI when we threw out “Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori.” Just a thought.

There’s no polite way or time to say it: American colleges and universities have become coddle industries. Big Nanny administrators oversee speech codes, segregated dorms, politically correct academic departments and designated “safe spaces” to protect students selectively from hurtful (conservative) opinions — while allowing mob rule for approved leftist positions (textbook case: Columbia University’s anti-Minuteman Project protesters).

Instead of teaching students to defend their beliefs, American educators shield them from vigorous intellectual debate. Instead of encouraging autonomy, our higher institutions of learning stoke passivity and conflict-avoidance.

And as the erosion of intellectual self-defense goes, so goes the erosion of physical self-defense.

Real Clear Politics

I agree wholeheartedly with Michelle Malkin’s opinion. There have been a few pundits now that have already questioned why exactly nobody tried to stop this guy. Why, for instance, when students were lined up against the walls they allowed themselves to be executed instead of a group of them charging the guy. Why nobody tried to sneak up behind him. He was, after all, only one man and he wasn’t Rambo. I am not going to pass any judgment on this because I honestly can’t say how I would react in such a situation myself, but they are valid questions.

Let us not forget that last year the Virginia State Assembly attempted to pass a law allowing student to conceal carry on campus. Larry Hincker, Virginia Tech spokesman, had these words to say about the defeat of the law:

“I’m sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly’s actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus.”

I wonder if he still feels the same way. Malking sums it up well.

Enough of intellectual disarmament. Enough of physical disarmament. You want a safer campus? It begins with renewing a culture of self-defense — mind, spirit and body. It begins with two words: Fight back.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a coalition of 214 mayors are using the Virginia Tech massacre to pressure Congress to give local cops the information they need to trace illegal guns used in crimes.

CBS 2 has also learned that they’re also launching a TV ad campaign starting Sunday.

“We’re fighting criminals and illegal guns. Why is Congress fighting us?” Bloomberg said Wednesday.

The ads will start running in four days in New York, Washington and the congressional districts of key gun advocates.

WCBSTV

I am trying to understand the concept of an “illegal” gun. The Second Amendment is pretty cut and dry. Additionally, why he is using Virginia Tech to fuel this crusade is also in question being that there was no use of “illegal” guns in this massacre.

Partial-Birth Abortion Ban upheld.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority handed anti-abortion forces a major victory Wednesday in a decision that bans a controversial abortion procedure and set the stage for further restrictions.

For the first time since the court established a woman’s right to an abortion in 1973, the justices upheld a nationwide ban on a specific abortion method, labeled partial-birth abortion by its opponents.

The 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

The law is constitutional despite not containing an exception that would allow the procedure if needed to preserve a woman’s health, Kennedy said. “The law need not give abortion doctors unfettered choice in the course of their medical practice,” he wrote in the majority opinion.

Well a conservative majority is laughable, but I am thankful they got this one right.

If you are a Fred Thompson supporter, there are two groups you need to check out.  Especially if you live in Georgia!

www.ga4fred.org and the facebook group Georgians for Fred Thompson for President

Sam and Alex alluded to the typical leftiist response to tragedies like Columbine and Virginia Tech for tighter gun control. The rationale of the left is if you get rid of the guns then tragedies like this can be avoided. Interestingly Virginia Tech was already a gun free zone. But this tragedy still happened. It seems the shooter did not abide by the sign “No guns allowed” when he entered the Virginia Tech campus.

This would never have happened at my alma mater Hampden-Sydney College. At HSC every student is allowed to have a gun on campus. Each student wishing to bring their gun to campus is required to store it in a school provided gun locker in a gun room that is centrally located on campus. Every gun owner has 24 hour access to their gun. As a student I knew I had to be responsible for the 2 guns I kept on campus. A Browning Citori Grade V 12-gauge shotgun and a Ruger M77 7MM rifle. With privilege comes responsibility and I and my gun owning classmates understood this and did not abuse it. I have no doubt the shooter would have had little or no success trying this at my school because 50% of the students were armed.

Liberals and Rinos like Giuliani call for tighter gun control. The only thing gun control laws accomplish are to remove guns from the hands of law abiding citizens. Criminals will keep their guns and sleep better knowing their victims are not armed. There are countless examples where tragedy was adverted or limited because of an armed citizenry.

In wake of what happened at Virginia Tech today, I have seen a lot of discussion on different Internet forums, as I have had time to browse through some, by people using this incident as a justification for stricter gun laws.  The fact that this happened on a college campus that already bans the possession of firearms is all the more reason to tighten restrictions on civilian gun ownership, they argue.

I would reason just the opposite.  The fact that Virginia Tech, like most academic institutions, is a “gun free zone” is what made these students sitting ducks, for if there were students on campus who conceal carried or had one stashed away in their dorm room this massacre may have been stopped well before the lives of 33 people were taken today.

Something to think about…….

Sen. John McCain, once considered the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has fallen to third place in a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, and is running behind Fred Thompson, an actor and former senator who has not even entered the race.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani leads the crowded field of announced and potential contenders with support from 29% of probable Republican primary voters surveyed, followed by Thompson with 15% and McCain with 12%. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and a fundraising powerhouse, had 8%.

LA Times

The reason isn’t all that surprising. Reagan conservatism wins.

The Arizona senator’s showing in the poll is his lowest in any national survey to date, marking a new benchmark in his flagging fortunes. The surge of interest in Thompson is a sign of conservative dissatisfaction with the established field of candidates and underscores just how unsettled the Republican race remains.

“Thompson is a Reagan conservative, and that’s what I want,” said Robert Little, a poll respondent in Duluth, Ga., who views other leading Republican candidates as unreliable allies on social issues.

Top Ten Reasons Thompson Should be President:

1. Fred Thompson has two speeds: Walk and Kill.
2. Fred Thompson once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, “Bang!”
3. Fred Thompson has counted to infinity. Twice.
4. Fred Thompson is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis.
5. The opening scene of the movie “Saving Private Ryan” is loosely based on games of dodge ball Fred Thompson played in second grade.
6. When Fred Thompson goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.
7. Fred Thompson’s house has no doors, only walls that he walks through.
8. When taking the SAT, write “Fred Thompson” for every answer. You will score a 1600.
9. The show Survivor had the original premise of putting people on an island with Fred Thompson. There were no survivors and the pilot episode tape has been burned.
10. Fred Thompson ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.

H/T to Confederate Yankee.

Don Imus has uttering insults and ignorance across America’s radio waves for 30 years. There is a reason why people like him, Howard Stern, and others are referred to as “Shock Jocks”. This is what they get paid to do and this is why they have a large audience that tunes in to listen. He has made disparaging comments about blacks before, Jews, women, Christians, everyone. He is an equal opportunity offender.

I don’t know why after all these years “nappy headed hos” has suddenly sparked all of this controversy when he has said far, far worse in the past, but I fully agree with this opinion in yesterday’s New York Daily News:

Imus hosts a radio show and a lot of people listen to it. During a few seconds last week he said something tacky. The show went on, as did life. Black people continued to constitute most new AIDS cases, black men continued to come out of prison unsupervised. And we’re supposed to be most interested in Imus saying “nappy-headed ho’s”?

What creates that hypersensitivity is a poor racial self-image. Where, after all, did Imus pick up the very terminology he used? Rap music and the language young black people use themselves on the street to refer to one another.

What Imus said is lowdown indeed, but so is the way blacks refer to each other. And life goes on.

Street theater is not strength. It saps energy better put to other uses. The focus we’ll be dedicating to the next gaffe sometime in (this time I’ll give myself a little more wiggle room) May will mean that much less commitment to addressing black people’s real problems.

New York Daily News

Today, Senator Arlen Specter, the senior senator of Pennsylvania, introduced legislation that would scrap the 17,000 pages of current IRS code in favor of a 20 percent flat tax for all individuals and businesses. The revenue-neutral legislation would allow tax-payers to file returns on a postcard that could be completed in 15 minutes.

U.S. Senate

Specter has been a long time supporter of a flat tax, going back to the mid 90s. As much as I applaud his effort in trying to make sense out of our absurd Federal Income Tax code, Specter’s Flat Tax rate is far too high. A 20% Income Tax rate is outrageous for the vast majority of Americans particularly when you add on the 7% FICA withholding and any state and local income tax rates. This would put a severe dent in the lifestyles of just about anyone making under $100,000 a year.

A much better alternative would a much lower flat tax rate, in the realm of 5 to 10% with a significant reduction in the Federal Government budget, or the implementation of a national sales tax in lieu of an income tax.

In all reality, however, with a Democrat controlled Congress there is no such chance of any simplification in the near future. Even for the past four years with complete Republican control tax code simplification went nowhere.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter today called for the federal government to vastly expand funding for embryonic stem cell research, while Sen. Bob Casey has said he won’t support a bill coming up before the Senate for a vote this week.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ironically, our Republican Senator in Pennsylvania fully supports Federal funding of stem cell research while our Democrat Senator in Pennsylvania is opposed. Then again, Specter has never been much of a Republican so it may not be that ironic.

I am glad to see Casey fulfilling his campaign promise to vote against this. Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research is an unconstitutional use of our Federal tax dollars. If this research had such promise as the Left always claims, private companies would be investing in this hand over fist. This is nothing but a ploy for a small group of lobbyists to leach off of our tax dollars.