I'll Give You My First Impressions But........

First lets look and see how the betting public viewed this debate. Ahhh looky here, Tradesports started the debate with the Bush re-elect contract at 66%, after the debate, it is now trading at 67%. So score that a victory for President Bush. As far as my opinion of the debate, I think that Kerry, just like Gore in the first debate of 2000, probably won the debate on points, but Bush won on style with his plainspoken way. Kerry was more articulate, but Bush spoke to the American people like a neighbors speak to each other. I know why more people want to have a beer with President Bush.

*******8:05pm PST Update*************
Oh how the markets can change. The Bush contract is actually below the 65% level pre debate. This market reminds me of when the fed announces their decision on intrest rates, it goes crazy before it finds a trend, but on second glance, their are more sellors than buyers for the Bush contract. I gotta call em as I see em.

Debate Tonight Is Looming Large

Yes that's right. Tonight is the first of three Presidential debates. I can't wait to see what color John Kerry's face is errrr I mean I can't wait to hear them talk about the issues. I'm sure Sen Kerry realized his mistake of trying to look like an oompa-loompa, so I expect the orange glow he had earliear in the week to have subsided a bit. the topic of the night will be foreign policy. I will be blogging right after the debate with all my thoughts of who won the shootout.

Announcing The Irvine First Team Link

I'm proud today to add a link on my blog to the "Irvinefirst" team of Mike Ward, Mike House, Greg Smith, and Steven Choi. It's clear from recent developments that Irvine needs a fresh start and the Irvinefirst team will be a new beginning. I also had the misfortune as alot of Irvine residents I hear did, of receiving the first Larry Agran hit piece in the mail over the weekend. Who does he think he's kidding? His whole machine is crumbling and he is just rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic. Memo to Larry: It's over. You're done. Finito. You might as well start getting in touch with all your attorney connections and line up some work(I use that term loosely for an attorney) because your days as Irvine's dictator are through.

Side Benefits Of DUI Checkpoints

Apparently, the city of Oakland has stumbled on a great way of enforcing illegal immigration through DUI checkpoints. It's kinda like a backdoor enforcement mechanism. Alas though the illegal immigrant lobby in Oakland got a whiff of what was happening and now the DUI checkpoints will be all but abandoned. It's too bad. It's actually a great idea. You kill two birds with one stone so to speak. You get drunk drivers off the road and nab illegal immigrants at the same time. What a brilliant idea. I'm sure all the cities with a huge illegal population, i.e Santa Ana & Los Angeles are panic stricken right now and are scheming on how they can put a stop to those pesky DUI checkpoints. I guess a corollary of this is that the student body at UC Berkeley can go out on the town and get loaded without worrying about getting caught at a checkpoint. Newton's Law: for every action, there's a reaction or something to that effect :) (I didn't take physics, so lay off me)

John Kerry 5.0

Keeping track of John Kerry's position on issues is like keeping up to date on all the latest computer hardware and software, it can't be done! It is physically impossible. Bush joked about this today in a campaign appearance when he said(and I'm paraphrasing)" It's hard to study for a debate against my opponent when I don't know where he stands on the issues". How true. I'm sure we'll see plenty more different positions from Kerry on the issues because we still have over a month to go. It should be interesting.

Importance Of Election For Federal Judgeships

This upcoming election is crucial for the federal judiciary. The winner will get to appoint two or three Supreme Court judges and scores of appealate and district judges. Has anyone else besides me noticed that we conservatives have no margin for error when it comes to judicial appointments while liberals have had the benefit of Republican appointees turning "liberal" or as they call it, "growing" over time. Let me explain. Two perfect examples are Supremes John Paul Stevens and David Souter, both of whom were appointed by Republican presidents. They have both morphed into solid liberal votes for the most important issues near and dear to conservatives. One might also argue that Anthony Kennedy has been slipping into the liberal voting bloc also. Now lets look at Ruth Badar Ginsburg and Stephan Breyer, both are Clinton nominees and both have been consistently liberal from the start of their service on the bench. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've never heard or seen of a Democrat appointed judge turning into a conservative on the bench. It just doesn't happen whereas many Republican judges have turned into a reliable liberal vote during the last forty years. We have no margin for error if Bush wins re-election. He must nominate solid conservatives for all slots. We don't need any more Souters or Stevens.

What A Great Sports Weekend

The Dodgers and Angels both had good weekends against the hated Nocals. The 49ers got shut out for the first time since 1977 and Peyton Manning racked upn 39 big fantasy points for me in my yahoo fantasy league. I also had a chance to watch USC barely squeak by the Stanford Cardinal.
I'm looking forward the first of three Presidential debates this Thursday. Bush is still holding about a four or five point lead between all the polls and most importantly he is holding steady in the futures market around the high sixties. I read where Bush's team wants to see Kerry sweat on Thursday, literally. Is there going to be some hijinks in the offing? We'll see Thursday. kerry did sweat profusely at the DNC convention and it was very noticeable.

The Plan for November 2nd

This is very important. There has been a lot of talk about how the country is divided evenly and that the race for President is going to go down to the wire. I am starting to discount the talk of a close race. I look at the futures contract for the Bush re-election and it has been doing nothing but going higher. It's now around 70% according to Intrade/Tradesports. Since I am also a huge football fan, I want to put this in words that every sports fan can appreciate and understand. We need to run the score up on November 2nd. We need to absolutely crush the opponent and take away their will to fight. That is essentially the thesis of professor Hugh Hewitt's latest book also. If this were a football game, it needs to be like when Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators used to keep passing the ball even while up by fifty or more points. By running up the score, we will create coattails for candidates down the ticket and there will be no doubt about a second term mandate. So in the words of Ronald Reagan, "let's go out there and run the score up for the gipper!"

The GOP Secret Weapon November 2nd

One thing that most of the pollsters and political prognosticators have not talked about is how the GOP swept to victory in the last election of 2002. The RNC put together a huge GOTV(get out the vote) effort called " The 72 hour project". It was one of the most successful GOTV efforts ever seen. The polls were showing an even race right up until election day. No one counted on a huge GOTV effort and as a result, we won back the Senate and added house seats to the majority. I think the same dynamic is at play this year. We will out hustle the Democrats in registration, phone banks, precinct walking, etc. I can't wait to see James Carville and company put trashcans back on their heads because of their embarrassment.

For Irvine Residents Only :^ )

Just kidding. I do want to update my Irvine readers what has happened in the latest installment of Larry screws Irvine taxpayers. In what can only be described as a fatal blow, Larry's best political friend, UCI poli-sci professor mark Petracca, has turned on Larry. It's nice to see democrats with ethics come forward and say enough is enough. I was beginning to think that Democrats had lost their moral compass after eight years of Bubba in the Whitehouse. The jury is still out on Democrats having ethics, but I definately give credit to Chris Mears and Mark Petracca for stepping up and saying "no mas".

Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rates By 1/4

Don't get me started about the Federal Reserve. It's not a federal organization and there are no reserves! It has to be one of the biggest oxymoronic names out there. Well, Greenspan and his pals raised the fed funds rate today by a quarter point. If anyone wants to read a good book about the history of the Federal Reserve, I recommend "The Creature From Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffen.

Bush at the U.N.

I just finished listening to Bush's speech at the United Nations while sitting here in my office at work. It's very apparent that the U.N is becoming more irrelavent as the years go by. Bush gave a great speech, but he only got tepid applause. In fact just this week Kofi Annan called the battle over in Iraq "illegal". Excuse me, illegal? This just shows how arrogant these U.N leaders are. We should just close down the U.N and send all those guys home. It is a toothless organization. I think they should move their headquarters to Paris. They'd find a much more sympathetic country to be headquartered in and maybe the French can teach all the member nations the proper way to surrender.

Heads Need To Roll

Now that Dan Rather and CBS have come out and said that their source provided forged documents, there needs to be some serious accountability taken. It turns out that Mr. Bill Burkett provided the false documents to CBS and Burkett himself said he is still protecting his source that actually gave him the bogus docs. So we still have not gotten down to brass tacks yet as to who is ultimately behind the documents. Dan Rather and Mr Heyward need to resign, plain and simple. here is their statement

"Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY story about President Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in question—and their source—vigorously. And we promised that we would let the American public know what this examination turned up, whatever the outcome.

Now, after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically. I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers. That, combined with some of the questions that have been raised in public and in the press, leads me to a point where—if I knew then what I know now—I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question.

But we did use the documents. We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry. It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism.

Please know that nothing is more important to us than people's trust in our ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully".

The Democrat's Problems

I have been in sales for the last ten years of my life. I know how hard it is to sell a product that I myself would not want to own. I also know a little bit about marketing and it's hard to market to an audience when you have a bad product. This is the problem right now the Democratic party has with John Kerry. He is not marketable. No one knows where he stands on the issues or where he will stand in the future because he does not have a consistent message. The only track record people have to go by is Senator Kerry's Senate record. It's no wonder that there is no coherent message coming out of his campaign. He's trying to sugarcoat his Senate record of twenty years of being arguably the most liberal Senator out of the bunch. People may not agree with Bush on all of the issues or most of the issues. I myself have huge problems with the President's immigration policy, overspending, and a few others, but at least I know where he stands and where he wants to lead the country in the next four years. I don't think you can say that about John Kerry.

Jay Leno on "Memogate"....

Here’s some good news - unemployment is down to 5.4% but a lot of people are still looking for jobs. If you’re looking for a job in TV, I understand "60 Minutes” needs a fact checker.
CBS News has a new slogan…."it seems real to us.”
The big story this week continues to be these forged documents that turned up on "60 Minutes”. Or, as the Democrats call them, weapons of mass "distraction”!
As I’m sure you know, there was speculation now that someone may have intentionally duped Dan Rather and "60 Minutes” cast by passing them forged documents. Don’t you hate to see these scams that target the elderly? It is wrong!
I think Dan’s getting a little desperate. Like today he produced another witness. This time he brought out "Joan of Arcadia” and she said that god told her the documents were real.
Dan Rather finally acknowledged there are "unanswered questions.” The last time they had this many "unanswered questions” on a TV show, Jessica Simpson was on "Jeopardy”.
Happy "TGIF” everybody – or as Republicans call it "thank God it’s a forgery”.
That was the big head in the "New York Times” said the CBS memos are "fake but accurate.” Fake but accurate? They’re like breasts in California. "Fake but accurate.”
CBS has a new slogan, "truth, you can't handle the truth!"
Actually there was one kind of embarrassing moment for President Bush when he heard that forged documents about him were discovered. Bush said, "What?!You mean they found my diploma from Yale?”
Today Dan Rather got some bad news, he's being investigated by "60 Minutes”.
On "60 Minutes” the other night Dan Rather interviewed the 86 year old former Texas National Guard Secretary. And Mike Wallace was furious. In fact he complained to "60 Minutes” producers, "How come Rather always gets to interview the hot chicks?!”

This Is Getting Ridiculous

The first step to make when you're in a hole is to quit digging. Obviously, Dan Rather never received that memo yet. Edward R Murrow must be rolling over in his grave knowing that Dan Rather has ruined a news division that over the years has reported and broken some very important stories. I would like to know what "the most trusted man in journalism", Walter Cronkite, thinks of this issue. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail and maybe CBS can convince Walter to do an intervention with Dan Rather. Just a thought. The longer they go without apologizing and retracting, the uglier this thing will become for them.

Political Human Sacrifice Moving Forward.

John and Ken of KFI AM640 radio here in Los Angeles held their first political human sacrifice rally outside of David Dreier's office in Glendora yesterday. I was not there, but from the sounds of it and the reports from the local media, it was a smashing success. Jane Chastain has a great article on the rally here also. There is going to be a big shockwave sent to Washington DC when "Dreier the liar" is voted out of office in November. I like David Dreier, but he has been in office for twenty four years and quite frankly is way out of the mainstream on the most important issue facing Southern California right now which is illegal immigration. Just this week he voted for an amendment to the 2005 Treasury Appropriation bill that would permit banks to allow illegal aliens to use a "matricular consular card" from Mexico as a valid ID. Dreier has a score of 13 from Americans for Better Immigration. Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein have higher ratings than Dreier on Illegal immigration than Dreier. The boys interviewed Cynthia Matthews at the rally. She is running against Dreir for the seat. I am predicting right here and now that she will pull a huge upset and defeat Dreier on November 2nd. To balance this seat out, the guys are also targeting Joe Baca for defeat. He was the congressman you remember who had a cow that the border patrol were doing interior sweeps and went and bitched to Asa Hutchinson. Asa caved in to him and the sweeps were told to stop. This is a good trade off. We defeat one Republican and one Democrat and we send a huge message. By the way, the gentleman who is running against Joe Baca is Ed Laning.

A Record Day at Powder Blue Report Today

As I'm writing this, I have had 47 people click this web log today. That is a record for me so far. I thank everyone who has visited so far. I've only been doing this for about three months now. I'm no Glenn Reynolds or Matt Drudge yet, but you have to start somewhere! I sincerely thank everyone for clicking onto my blog.

Commentary From Ron Insana of CNBC

I am not political analyst but I do believe the markets are very good barometers of where the country is both economically, politically and socially.

As you know by now, I am a believer that markets help us predict future outcomes. And in the case of the presidential race, the market has placed its bet squarely on George W. Bush. And not on John Kerry. And that's not a preferential statement... it is just a statement of fact.

Just look at the presidential futures markets and what they are saying about November.

The Iowa Electronic Markets has President Bush widening his lead by 18 points over his Democratic challenger, while "Tradesports" a British on-line futures market, has President Bush with a neatly 40 point lead over John Kerry.

As late as the middle of August, this race was a dead heat.

The rally in stocks also underscores the notion that the financial markets are pricing in the status quo, no tax hikes and no attempt to radically alter the health care landscape, the two areas that would show the most obvious reactions to the prospect of a Kerry presidency.

Please remember that this is not, NOT, personal. Political commentary... this is only my view of how the markets are behaving with respect to the election outcome. But as the lead widens, it becomes clear that the markets are betting that John Kerry is on a swift boat to join Al Gore and Robert Dole and Michael Dukakis down the political river Styxx.

Morning Update

John Kerry just can't catch a break right now. At some point he is going to have make his own luck because world and domestic events are driving the campaign right now. All of the political oxygen right now is being spent on memogate and hurricane Ivan. Oh by the way Bush rallied another three points overnight to 70% overnight. Amazing.

Question For CBS News?

What did Dan Rather know and when did he know it?

Listen Up Everybody....

Please get a pen and piece of paper and write out a thank you note to Dan Rather care of CBS News in New York City. This is very important. For the John Kerry people out there, your man is a goner. Secretly you know you have been admiting this to yourself for the last few days. Come on be honest. Just today alone Bush has rallied another four full points over at Intrade/Tradesports! He is trading at a crisp 66.7% last I checked a few minutes ago. That's up from 62% this morning. I can't emphasize enough how we must all send Dan a thank you note. He tried his best to bully Bush 41 back in 1988 when Vice President Bush was running for President and of course his latest folly of trying to use fraudulent documents to take down Bush 43. Both times, he has failed miserably. Maybe when all this is finished John Edwards can go back to doing what he does best and sue Viacom/CBS for sinking their ship before it really got out of port.

CBS Getting Ready For Big Announcement At 2PM

Wow the suspense is killing me. CBS keeps pushing back the time for their big press conference. My guess is that something big is going down and they are getting all their ducks in a row. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that they are going to announce that the document in question was in fact a forgery, but they are standing by the info actually on the memo. Stay tuned.....

************UPDATE********************************
Statement by the President of CBS News, Andrew Heyward:

"We established to our satisfaction that the memos were accurate or we would not have put them on television. There was a great deal of coroborating [sic] evidence from people in a position to know. Having said that, given all the questions about them, we believe we should redouble our efforts to answer those questions, so that's what we are doing."

I take this to mean that this will not be the last statement about this issue and in fact they are going to come back at some point next week and say that indeed the memo was bogus, but we stand by the info on the memo. They are just trying to cushion the blow of them reporting a fraudulent memo trying to take down President Bush.

Larry Agran Getting Smacked Around By The Local Press

All I can say is, it's about time. Both the LA Times and OC Register had editorials and articles slamming Lary Agran for the political fiefdom he has tried to create here in Irvine. The council meeting tonight should be filled with more fireworks. Larry doesn't get it. He thinks he hasn't done anything wrong. Well Larry, the citizens of Irvine don't approve of you using us as your bitch. We will have the final say in November.

Great Article On Political Futures

The evidence is starting to mount that places like Intrade and Iowa Electronic Markets are becoming more well known. Here's one from MSNBC. The best part of the article was part about the futures market predicting the lack of a Kerry bounce out of the DNC convention. The market rallied for Bush if you remember right after the convention was over. A few days later you saw this confirmed by a number of scientific polls.

Tom Dascle's Days Are Numbered

This is exciting news. The Dascle vs Thune Blog has Thune up three points in new poll out yesterday. Tom's days of being a liberal cheerleader in Washington DC and a "conservative when he gets home" are coming to a close. What is the most striking thing in the poll is the favorability gap between the two men. I will give this to Sen. Dascle, he is still leading over at Intrade/Tradesports. He was just trading at 56% last I looked. Once he gets starts trading below 50%, I believe the bottom will fall out. For years Dascle has gotten just enough crossover Republican votes to stay in power. He had to have those votes because South Dakota has a strong GOP registration advantage. Alas though, it is looking like those who have been croosing over are coming home this election.

It's Official: Asa Hutchinson Says We Should Surrender To Mexico

Asa Hutchinson has inserted his foot into his mouth again. I'm so pissed off about reading this that it makes me want to puke. What the f**k is Asa saying? "We don't have the will"...my ass we don't have will. Get out of the way and put someone in there who will have the will. This is absolutely disgusting. He has sworn to uphold the laws of this great country and they've broken the law, hello, they're here illegally. Emphasis is on illegal. That's what we have laws here for. We have borders for a reason. Why do think 53% of Los Angeles adults are illiterate according to a new study? Most of those 53% are illegal and don't care about learning English. Why are emergency hospitals in LA County closing? It's because of the burden that illegals are placing on the system. So many of our problems in Southern California stem from illegal immigration. Why has the once beautiful city of Santa Ana turned into a ghetto? Why is half of LA a ghetto? I'm so frustrated right now.

The Great Unraveling of CBS

My my how the great have fallen. We all know that CBS,Dan Rather, 60 Minutes, et al are just shills for the Democratic party and John Kerry, but this might be a blunder that takes a network down. In what can only be described as a hail mary pass trying to say that Bush got preferential treatment from Mr Barnes, the Formerly great network of CBS has completely discredited itself from any other coverage of news. They are supposed to report the news, not make the news because of their imcompetence/bias. It is coming out that someone at the network has doctored a copy of a supposed Bush Natioal guard record. This is so embarassing for CBS.

Media Commentary

Let me see if I have this straight. The NBC Today Show hasn't interviewed any of the swiftboat veterans for truth, but they are devoting three days to interviewing and pluging Kitty Kelley's new book bashing the Bush family. No, the mainstream media isn't liberal! Thank God for Fox News, talk radio, and the internet.

Half of Los Angeles Adults Illiterate

This is an amazing story. Half of LA adults cannot even read a simple bus schedule. Are you freakin kidding me? Yeah those public schools sure are doing a good job aren't they. What a complete joke. I'm sure illegal immigration has nothing to do with this. I'm going to file this article away in my memory when liberals bitch about schools not getting enough funding. It's sounding like all the money in the world can't help these people. Think about that liberals.

USC Jokes

This is for all you Orange County USC graduates out here. They grow on trees down here.
1.What do USC and UCLA students have in common? They both got in to USC
2.A Trojan grad and a Bruin grad were on death row. The warden came to them to ask them if they had any last requests. The Trojan said, “I’d just like to hear ‘Conquest’ one last time.” When the warden asked the Bruin what his last request was, he replied, “kill me first.”
3.Did you hear the library at USC burned down?
They lost both books, and one hadn’t even been colored in yet.
4.A guy in a bar leans over to the guy next to him and asks, “Wanna hear a USC joke?” The guy next to him replies, “Well, before you tell that joke, you should know something. I’m 6’ tall, 200 lbs., and I’m a USC graduate. The guy sitting next to me is 6’2”, weighs 225, and he’s a USC graduate. The fella next to him is 6’5” tall, weighs 250, and he’s a USC graduate. Now, you still wanna tell that joke?
The first guy replies: “Naw, not if I’m gonna have to explain it three times.”
5.Members of the USC football team were placed in a remedial English class. “Because we are all new on campus we are going to start with the basics,” the professor explained. “Does anyone know what comes after a sentence?” All of the players raised their hands. “The appeal!” they all shouted with pride.
6.Q: What are the best four years of a Trojan’s life?
A: Third grade
Q: What does a Trojan and a bottle of beer have in common?
A: They’re both empty from the neck up.
Q: Why doesn’t USC have ice on the sidelines?
A: The guy with the recipe graduated.
Q: What do you get when you drive slowly by the USC campus?
A: A degree.
Q: What does the average USC player get on his SAT’s?
A: Drool.
My personal favorite:
Q: How do you get a USC graduate off your porch?
A: Pay him for the pizza.

My Day In The Courtroom

I have never served on a jury before. After today I still haven't served on a jury! I have always wanted to be a juror to see what the process is like firsthand. I have been called in the past, but had always just wasted away in the jury assembly room only to be told at the end of the day that the case was settled or they didn't need us anymore and we were excused. Today I actually made it out of the jury assembly room and into the courtroom for the first time ever. I was getting excited about finally getting to serve. There were sixty potential jurors brought into the courtroom. I was the eighth person called up and made my way to the jury box. There looked to be a good mix of people called on the first round. Before I go further, I want to back up and tell everyone about my expectations when I walked into the courtroom. There were two lawyers and a defendant when we walked in. The defendant had long hair, dark complexion, total skank, and looked to be around in her early twenties. I thought to myself that this was probably some Newport Beach bimbo that got caught driving under the influence of alcohol or something like that. Boy was I wrong! It turned out that she, the defendant, used to be a he! It was hard not to start busting out laughing. So I'm in the jury box and the judge starts his spiel about criminal versus civil, the burden of proof, circumstantial versus direst evidence, would we have a problem wit transgender/transexuals,etc. Then he started asking us, the jurors, if we had any religious, moral, or philosophical hang ups that might render us unable to be fair and impartial. Some uppity older man raised his hand and started talking how homosexuality was a sin and that he would have a hard time viewing the evidence fairly because of his biases. Nuff' said, your gone, bye bye. I raised my hand and having the libertarian streak in me, said that I didn't think prostitution should be illegal because it is a victimless crime. As George Carlin said in one of his classic lines..." selling is legal, f**king is legal, why isn't selling f**king legal?" Anyway, I said I could still be impartial to the judge and he let the lawyers continue their jury questions, but I knew i had just blown my chance of serving on this jury. Pretty soon it got down to excersising peremptory challenges. The defense was first and got rid of a guy that had previously told the judge that he thought homosexuality was a sin, so he got axed. It was now the DA's turn and guess who got his ass dismissed? You guessed it, me. See ya later alligator. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. At least I was honest about my opinions. I'm sure a lot of people lie to get on a jury, but I would not be one of them. Anyway, I'm curious what happens at this trial. Hopefully the OC Register will have a little blurb about this case when it finishes, but I doubt it. Oh well, at least I actually got to sit in the jury box finally. Some day I will serve as a juror.

Kerry Waves Gun He Proposed to Ban !

Could this man be any more hypocritical? This is from Drudge. KERRY COSPONSORED BILL BANNING GUN HE WAVES

Was Dem presidential hopeful John Kerry seen this weekend waving a gun which would have been banned if legislation he co-sponsored became law?

Kerry co-sponsored S. 1431 last year (“The Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003) which would have banned a "semiautomatic shotgun that has a pistol grip.”

Opponents of the bill successfully argued how nearly all guns have "pistol grips," inluding millions of Browning Auto-5 shotguns produced since 1903.

Photos show Kerry's hand resting on the "pistol grip," as loosely defined in the bill. [Section SEC. 2; (H) (ii) and (b)(42): "The term 'pistol grip' means a grip, a thumbhole stock, or any other characteristic that can function as a grip."]

Kerry was presented with the semiautomatic shotgun during a Labor Day stop in Racine, West Virginia.

"I thank you for the gift, but I can't take it to the debate with me," Kerry told a cheering crowd as he held up the device.

But Kerry's gun bill would have also banned any "gift" transaction!

[It is not clear if Kerry completed the required paperwork (Form 4473) before he claimed the gun.]

New CNN/Gallup/USA Today Poll Out

It's more bad news for John Kerry. Bush is leading Kerry 52% to 45% with likely voters. This is a four point bounce from their last set of numbers. This sounds about right to me. Bush had already gotten a bounce prior to the convention from the swiftboat vet ads. We should be getting some numbers from NBC, CBS, and ABC in the next few days also. I'm sure they will be showing the same trend.

John & Ken Political Human Sacrifice Announcement

John & Ken of Los Angeles KFI AM 640 radio are going to announce their pick on Tuesday afternoon for their "political human sacrifice". The odds on favorite is Rep. David Dreier of San Dimas. They have already chosen Joe Baca from the 909 area. The big announcement though is going to be David Dreier. Congressman Dreier has ducked repeated interview attempts for him to clarify his position or lack thereof on illegal immigration. I think he made a big mistake. If he doesn't have the courage to explain his illegal immigration friendly votes, then he doesn't deserve re-election in my opinion. John & Ken have used their clout already to defeat Judge Kline, the child porn dude, here in Orange County and they were also instrumental in the recall of former governor Gray Davis. I love their idea of sending a message to other politicians that voting in favor of illegal immigration will have dire consequences. Dreier really hasn't even had a tough election since getting elected way back in 1980.

Bubba Tells Kerry to Drop Vietnam

Hopefully Bill Clinton will be around for awhile. I hated his policies and how he debased the Presidency, but I have to admit, time heals wounds and I kinda like the guy now. Drudge is reporting tonight that Bubba has told John Kerry to get off Vietnam and hammer away at domestic issues(Bill Clinton spoke with John Kerry from his hospital bed on Saturday night in a 90-minute conversation in which he offered Kerry detailed advice on how to reinvigorate his candidacy... Clinton told Kerry that he should move away from talking about Vietnam... Clinton aides who are expected to play an increasingly prominent role in Kerry campaign are James Carville, Paul Begala and Stanley Greenberg... Developing... ). I hope this is not the last bit of advice that Bubba gives in his life. The media is reporting that bypass surgeries are pretty routine. Well I don't know about that. I think having a quad bypass is not exactly routine. Drudge is also reporting that the hospital where Bubba is to have his procedure tomorrow has one of the highest death rates for that surgery. Again that is not very reassuring.

Bruins Out of the Gate With A Thud

The first game of the year is in the books and UCLA was on the wrong side of a 31-20 ass kicking at the Rose Bowl. Oklahoma State exposed our gutty little bruin defense and opened a can of whoop ass on us. They rolled up over 450 yards on the ground! Nice defense guys. I'm sure every team that plays will be laughing when they see the film of this game. Who needs the passing game when you can just ram the ball up the gut at will. I am happy in a sense though because if you remember a few months ago I predicted that this would happen. One down and ten more to go. Let's see if we can roll up a perfect winless streak this year. Karl Dorell is so over his head it's not even funny.

Mutiny is at Hand

The news keeps getting worse for Senator Kerry. The NY Times is out with an article quoting senior democratic Senators that the campaign is in complete disarray. Chris Dodd, an influential Democrat from Connecticut, said his party's standard-bearer had "a very confused message in August, and the Republicans had a very clear and concise one." Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana said Mr. Kerry had spent too much time talking about national security, including his own views on the Iraq war, and overplayed Mr. Kerry's Vietnam war experience, inviting the attacks that have dominated debate in recent weeks. "He needs to define this election," Mr. Bayh said of Mr. Kerry. "So much of the convention was focused on national security - if that's where the election is, I don't think he can win." "All of a sudden Kerry is on the defensive about his service and Bush is on the offensive about his service," Senator John B. Breaux of Louisiana said. "It's absolutely amazing."

H.M.S. Titanic John Kerry

The damage reports are starting to trickle in from the H.M.S Kerry. Time is the first to report. It is not pretty for Senator Kerry. Zogby and Rasmussen have also reported in. And what is with Kerry having a panic attack at midnight last night in Ohio. Three signs of a desperate campaign are challenging your opponent to debate as much as possible, saying that the only poll that matters is on November 2nd, and acting like he did last night by not even waiting for the ink to dry on the RNC convention. I've said this before that a lot can still happen before the election, but the window is closing for Kerry. All and all, I'd have to say that John Kerry is on the same trajectory that Dukakis and Mondale were on at the same time in 1988 and 1984. It should be fun to watch all the lemmings jump over the cliff in November.

A Good Speech

President Bush's speech last night was a great rhetorical speech. I give him credit for a great delivery too. My big problem with it was all the frickin new spending proposals! Oh my god. I know he has to appeal to swing voters, but this is ridiculous. I'm going to do all I can to make sure he is re-elected, but I'm on record that he had better get the spending under control in the second term. What is up with calling for a health center in every rural city in America. Who is going to pay for that? I guess we taxpayers as usual. He has better start speaking more of my language on this and other issues. He also didn't speak about illegal immigration. It's like he pretends the problem doesn't exist.

Bubba To Have Heart Bypass Surgery

It looks like all those Big Macs have finally caught up with Bubba. I hope he pulls through this thing. I'd miss all that lower lip biting.

Kobe Is Free!!!!

Was their any doubt about this outcome today? I mean really. This case was a loser from the get go for the prosecution. I can only guess that Mark Hurlburt saw this case as a stepping stone for him to higher office probably. As it stands now, I don't think he could get elected dog catcher in Eagle after this debacle. Kobe put together a great team of attorneys to challenge every piece of evidence and do their own independent investigations of the accuser. This just further enhances everyones belief that if you have a lot of money, you can buy your own justice almost all the time. I'm not saying Kobe was guilty though. He was guilty of poor judgement and hopefully he has been scared straight after this ordeal. There is still the matter of the civil trial looming though. Does anyone really believe this will go to trial, no way jose. Kobe will pony up the required jack to buy errr I mean settle the case out of court. Now he can go about the business of getting LA another championship.

Zell Miller Tears Chris Matthews & John Kerry A New Ass

WOW, WOW, WOW!!!! I just got done laughing my collective ass off and screaming my approval of the senior Senator from Georgia Zell Miller. He just ripped Chris Matthews a new one. I'll get to his speech in the convention hall in a minute, but wow did he give Chris Matthews the business. This interview is going to be talked about for a long time in my opinion and the blogosphere is going to crush Matthews tonight and the rest of the campaign. All Chris had to do is give Zell an opportunity to answer his questions, but like a jackass(no pun intended), he did his usual ask a question then cut the interviewee off to move to another thought. Zell was having none of it. Zell also excorciated Chris for "browbeating the women a few days ago" (referring to Michele Malkin). I think Chris Matthews will listen a little more carefully from now on, just a hunch. As for Zell's speech, dynamic, pointing, accusotory, biting, indictment, et al are adjectives that come to mind. He talked about George W Bush being the best candidate to defend the nation and people's families. I'm still buzzing over that interview. Damn. The fact that this is all coming from a democrat made the speech even that more damning of John Kerry and the modern democratic party. I just got done watching the focus group that Frank Luntz put together of independents and democrats and all I can say is that if that sample of people was accurate then John Kerry doesn't have a prayer in November.

News Flash **Larry Agran Is A Corrupt Mayor***

What is happening to my beloved city of Irvine is an absolute disgrace. I was raised here and currently live in the beautiful city. R. Scott Moxley has dropped another bomb on everyone by reporting that Mr Agran and his cronies have set up landscaping companies/tree companies to profit from all the new landscaping that is to be done on the Great Park. The scope of his corruption is immense. The council needs to take strong action to get the facts out ASAP. At the very minimum now all city contracts should be reviewed with a fine tooth comb. There's no telling what else the mayor has his tangled web in. The mayor has more than crossed the line in my opinion. I think it is criminal if all these serious allegations are true. He is enriching himself and his friends on the backs of the Irvine taxpayers. This is outrageous. Here's the link for the new OC Weekly article. It was also reported that Chuck Devore,the Republican nominee for the 70th Assembly district which includes Irvine, has filed a complaint with the Fair Political Pratices Commission. Mr. Agran must be stopped at all costs now.

Last Night at the RNC Convention

Last night was Arnold's night to shine and he did not disappoint. He was the first keynote speaker of the night. He spoke of his story growing up in Austria. He told of driving in his uncle's car past the Russian checkpoint and how worried they always were that the Russian soldiers would take his dad away and send him to a hard labor camp. He also said growing up that he was taught to not look the soldiers in the eye because that might be grounds for suspicion. Then he shifted to his story of dreaming about coming to the U.S.A. He arrived here in 1968 barely speaking any English. He was watching Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon speak and he liked Nixon because Nixon talked about free enterprise and Humphrey sounded like the politicians from his socialist Austria. He has overcome so many obstacles to get to where he is today. He then went into his Jeff Foxworthy type lecture on "you might be a Republican if you believe in free enterprise,etc". It was pretty good. He came out solidly for George W Bush also. He called on people that are pessimistic about the economy to not be "economic girlie men". That was the line of the night. The big question that still remains is if he will be able to translate his popularity in California over to Bush. My hunch is that he will definitely get him some votes, but that Bush will come up short in November in California.