Stand firm, House members!

I finally caught a break from my two-play rehearsals this morning and so decided to write to my congressman about immigration as my elected Senators have shown themselves beyond redemption.

To the Hon. Rep. Steven LaTourette:

I am writing to you to encourage you and other members of the House of Representatives to hold the line against the abominable immigration bill making its way through the Senate.

As poll after poll has shown, and echoing my personal feelings, Americans want illegal immigration shut off before we even begin to discuss what to do with the people already here. We DO NOT want lawbreakers in this country granted amnesty (which, despite the Senate's contortions to avoid the word, is precisely what is being floated) and we especially DO NOT want people here illegally to be turned into citizens and then granted permission to bring all their family members here.

As a citizen of the United States, I demand that legislators support my interests. Those include:

• Shutting off the flow of people entering this country illegally through whatever means necessary. Border enforcement, a wall and enforcement of existing hiring laws all come to mind.
• Immediate deportation for all illegals convicted of crimes.
• End the "anchor baby" farce.
• Quit giving Mexico "favored nation" status regarding immigration...the country and its people are abusing their proximity to our country. If immigration reform is necessary, then consider upping the quota from other countries with thousands of highly-skilled people on immigrant waiting lists rather than opening the floodgates to unskilled laborers.
• No Amnesty. No path to citizenship for people here illegally. No way.
• No benefits for illegals...and NO SOCIAL SECURITY - is everyone in the Senate taking stupid pills?
• No guest worker legislation until illegal incursions have been verifiably stopped.

You might think me anti-Mexican, but you would be wrong. You might also think me anti-immigrant, but you would again be wrong. We have hosted 12 foreign exchange students over the past eight years, including a Mexican boy, and our fondest wish would be for all of these very-capable young people to live here. However, I recognize that a sovereign country must have rules regarding who is privileged to reside within its borders...we are a country, not a McDonalds where everyone can be served. Immigration decisions must be made with the welfare of the country and its existing citizens uppermost in mind.

In summation, please remain firmly in opposition to the Senate abomination enabled, to my everlasting shame, by my two Ohio senators. Enforcement first and no amnesty!

The Rantmeister

Happy Mother's Day!

Rumplestiltskin and mom

Our newest baby, a boy, was born without fuss Mother's Day morning. We're calling him Rumplestiltskin for the time being. He's another Medicine Hat paint horse with a dark spot on his butt and another lighter spot on his flank. He has one full blue eye and another partial blue eye. He is very friendly and curious, something I attribute more to his father, Talako Dreamin Gold, than his mother (also pictured) Levies Fancy Annie. I will have more pictures later.

Monkey: It's what's for dinner

Remember King Louie the orangutan and the other monkeys teasing Ballou the Bear in The Jungle Book?

Well, Ballou got his payback, according to this story found, strangely enough, on the CNN website. Something interesting on CNN? Whoda thunk it?

I would have paid big bucks to see the crowd reaction…”Oooh! Look, mommy! (in my best Dutch accent), the monkey and the bear are playing! They’re playing tag! Mommy, why is the bear bouncing the monkey off those rocks? What’s he doing now? Mooooooommmmmmmyyyy!”

You’re sure not going to see THAT in a Disney movie are you? Well, maybe a Hannibal Lecter-produced Disney movie, but not the standard anthropomorphic fare being spewed these days. Here’s a news flash: animals didn’t live in harmonic bliss before the advent of humans…and they will still live by the law of fang and claw long after we’re gone. Predators eat everything not tougher and meaner than they are – if they hadn’t eaten monkey before, it’s simply because they hadn’t come into contact with them.

Brought into contact with the other zoo denizens, I’m sure the lions, tigers and bears (oh my) would feast on everything from those cute big-eyed lemurs to the gaudy flamingos. An idyllic natural order plays well in cartoons, but is far from the rule in nature – as those Dutch zoo goers discovered.

We must be GOOD!

My apologies for the lack of posting…lots of farming and rehearsing going on around here.

And speaking of rehearsing…

On Tuesday night I had rehearsal for Born Yesterday in Kirtland, a small, very-affluent town about 35 miles away. The rehearsal was at the home of the director. She has a very spacious deck on the backside of the house which overlooks a ravine. It’s all old-growth trees and no other houses visible…a very nice setting.

Anyway, for anyone not familiar with the play, the story is about a brutish thug who comes to Washington to fix some government regulations to his liking. He brings his beautiful-but-crude girlfriend with him. He pays a newspaper reporter to teach her better manners. She falls in love with the reporter and leaves the thug, taking enough evidence to put him away for life. There’s a lot of arguing, drinking and even some physical altercations.

So…we were rehearsing Tuesday and saw a cop sneaking around the side of the deck, hand on sidearm. Then came another, right behind. Out front of the house, there were suddenly three police cars, six cops and our costumer said she met the Kirtland Chief of Police at the door. It seems some invisible neighbors nearly half a mile away had heard the rehearsal ruckus, jumped to conclusions, and assumed drunken debauchery was afoot.

“We got a report of a drunken party and someone beating some woman,” the cop said, doing his best to maintain his coppish air of seriousness. We laughed our butts off. Her wouldn’t believe us, though, until we showed him the scripts and he even checked the IDs of two of the actors.

It must have been the biggest crime of the last 50 years in Kirtland. Thinking about it later, we were glad the cops showed up when they did, because moments earlier we’d been running through the scene where the thug tries to strangle the reporter. Getting an actor Tasered or handcuffed would certainly have put a damper on things.

GOP minions face doom

Watching the implosion of the GOP is fascinating.

Do you remember that scene in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery where the Evil Minion covers his face, screams “No!” and cowers in abject fear as the steam roller inches at a snail’s pace toward him? He had 20 yards clearance and could have simply taken a step to escape his fate, but chose to duck, scream and cover as the squish-o-matic moved inexorably closer.

That’s what it’s like watching the GOP Congress and President as poll after poll has confirmed that “yup, that steam roller is definitely coming.” The steam roller, in this case, is powered by voter outrage over illegal immigration, out-of-control spending and corruption.

And how do our own congressional minions seek to escape their fate? A $100 gas bribe? Anti-flag desecration laws? More pork for their constituents?

And all the GOP congressmen have to do to escape their impending doom is follow the will of the people and do the job they were elected to do. Instead, they watch with fear as their fate inches slowly closer. All they have to do is follow the principles on which they were elected and ignore the Beltway lobbying cacophony and mindset that the world will end if they do their jobs.

It seems as though legislators are unwilling to do anything that will result in some special interest group being unhappy at the end of the day. Well guess what, guys? While you’re busy cozying up to special interests, you’re losing your mainstream supporters.

The bulk of the people who voted for you want:

• An end to illegal immigration. Do what is necessary to staunch the flow of illegal entry through our southern border, whether that includes a huge fence or Draconian crackdown on employers of illegals. We don’t want platitudes, we don’t want feel good guest worker provisions and we sure-as-heck don’t want amnesty.
• An end to extravagant spending and earmarks for funding special projects in your home districts. I realize the “pork barrel” has been the key to preserving incumbency in the past, but this era of immediate information availability exposes this practice for what it is: bribes for your voters at the nation’s expense.
• Your allegiance to them instead of Beltway lobbyists and big business which promises to feather your nest in exchange for legislative consideration. Repeat after me: “It’s public service, not use-your-legislative-power-to-pad-your-bank-account service.

I’m a member of the disheartened majority. We didn’t have a million people taking to the streets this week in support of everything from border-crashing lawbreakers to socialism to Che Guevara…what we do have are millions of little soapboxes spread throughout the blogosphere. In the old reality, politicians could count on the media to control the talking points and spread of information – and media members could be wined, dined and the story refined to the liking of the politician. Voices from pundits in the blogosphere have diminished the mainstream media’s influence – and there are too many soapboxes to buy them all off.

It’s a new era, but today’s politicians are trapped by the Beltway belief in the old one and so cower before the creeping engine of their demise…when all they have to do is take a step in the right direction.

GOP action+50 cents will get you cup of coffee

You know, I got an email yesterday from Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. It was one of those mass-mailed messages seeking to whip up support and funding from the GOP base, presumably in light of plummeting numbers.

From the email:

“And if you make a Grow Our Party Funds monthly donation of just $25 or more, you'll receive this free "I am Proud Bush is my President" mousepad. With a commitment of $50 or more, you'll get two - one for you and one for a friend.”

First of all, if I had this mousepad, I’d have to turn it over – leaving it face up would risk some mouse-violence as Bush wanders from insult to insult to his constituents. He’s complicit in driving the country deeper into debt, turning a blind eye to ending illegal immigration and failing to address looming Social Security problems. As the leading light of the power of “smaller government,” he was also way off-base in involving the federal government in the Terry Schiavo case. It is all the more frustrating because his tenure started off with such promise – expiration of the assault weapons ban (though he was willing to extend bill,) the tax cuts, the appointment of John Bolton as U.N. representative and the appointment of Samuel Alito and John Roberts to the Supreme Court (after the Harriet Miers near-debaucle.)

Mehlman’s email characterized the upcoming election cycle as particularly important.

“This year, we face another momentous choice. Fight and defeat the terrorists, or retreat from the central front in the War on Terror. Live up to our calling as Americans to stand for freedom, or choose Democrats, who have been clear that they will censure and impeach the President if they win back Congress.”

You know, at this point I don’t care whether they take the President, dress him up like PeeWee Herman and make him do the “shoe dance” on his Oval Office desk with the strains of “Tequila” echoing in the background.

My response to the Kenster:

“The Republican Party’s got to show me it’s interested in representing the people before I’ll donate another dime or punch another button to elect a GOP candidate.

“The GOP appears willing to give away our national sovereignty and security in the matter of illegal immigration, over the objections of a bipartisan majority of the public. No amnesty, no guest worker program until illegal immigration is SHUT OFF!!! The party also appears willing to mortgage the future of the country by eschewing any pretense at fiscal restraint. You know, it used to be the Republican Party was the party of smaller government, limited spending and laws – now, from the President on down, it’s the pustulent party of pork and arrogance. So take a hike until you can show me the party listens to its constituents – without change, it will be a cold day in hell before I vote for another GOP candidate.”

The Rantmeister

Top-shelf only, please

My $50 rifle

I went deep into the money vaults for my purchase this weekend from The Gunrunner's internet auction. This Steyr Mannlicher-Schoenauer 1930 System sporting rifle cost me a whopping $50 plus auction fee and sales tax. The rifle is already drilled and tapped for a scope and though listed at 6.5 mm on the auction site, the rifle is clearly of much larger bore...perhaps 8 mm. Of course, I'll have it slugged by a gunsmith to determine the actual chambering. It's got a very clean-breaking trigger and a nicely-dimensioned stock in need of a little finishing work...maybe some hard maple accents? Barrel length is just under 24 inches.