I’ve never been a particular fan of Ann Coulter… but I haven’t been particularly moved by wailing and gnashing of teeth of those on the left who loath her either.

Until now.

Here’s what Coulter said at the Conservative Political Action Conference just moments ago:

“I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot’ – so… Kind of at an impasse. Can’t really talk about Edwards, so I think I’ll just conclude here and take your questions.”

Calling anyone a “faggot” has got nothing at all to do with my commitment to limited-government conservativism.

It certainly isn’t the type of rhetoric we need to have injected into our presidential campaigns.

Oh, and aside from morality and basic human decency–it just isn’t very smart politics either.

My sister-in-law–a wonderful person and fair-minded Austin liberal–recently shared a great insight with me, making the point that our individual politics have been largely shaped by who the biggest *ssh**es we knew in college were.

I went to a left-wing hippie school, where the biggest *ssh**es were politically-correct leftists; thus, I’m conservative.

She went to a big state university, where the biggest *ssh**es were frat boys, sorority girls and jocks; thus, she’s a liberal.

I think she’s dead-on. And I can tell you this–the average non-partisan American voter, watching Ann Coulter tell a laughing audience of conservative activists that John Edwards is a “faggot” is going to say to themselves, “You know, those conservatives are really a bunch of *ssh**es.”

And I can’t say that I’d blame them.

Well, you can count me out.

Coulter was wrong and should apologize.

And for candidate Mitt Romney, who introduced Coulter, just three words of advice.

Sister. Souljah. Moment.

First it was our friends from south of the border that wanted in. Now, it looks like they are coming from much further away:

The sand circles — no crops involved — could be a sign of aliens in the borderland or a not-so-elaborate hoax in a spot of dry riverbed in the Upper Valley of El Paso.

That’s right, we have the Texas version of crop circles. Complete with a pet - sort of.

The circles are next to a subdivision under construction, and bicyclists ride along the river levee as ducks frolic. A stiff dead cat lay on a levee road.

Construction. Bicyclists. Ducks frolicking. Stiff dead cat. You’d think that creatures of superior intelligence would pick a better landing zone.

Sometimes, it just isn’t much fun poking around during the political season in Austin. The fun really takes a nosedive when it is your very own rep, elected as a conservative, that decides to grow the government and shrink your wallet.

I know, I know, I’m not the first guy in the trailer park to get burned, but it’s getting old.

The erstwhile Rep. John Davis (R) I.N.O. from state district 129 has decided to ditch fiscal conservatism in the guise of helping the children by filing HB 2049 to allow more children into the CHIP program for a longer period of time.

The total net cost of the bill would be $74.5 million All Funds in fiscal year 2008 and $118.8 million All Funds in fiscal year 2009 and subsequent years. These amounts include a net impact to General Revenue Funds of $22.8 million in fiscal year 2008 and $38.9 million in fiscal year 2009 and beyond. Also included are $51.7 million in Federal Funds in fiscal year 2008 and $79.8 million in fiscal year 2009 and beyond. It is assumed that these federal matching funds would be available; however, if the state exhausts its capped federal allotment, General Revenue Funds would be required in lieu of assumed Federal Funds.

But, but, it’s FOR THE CHILDREN! How could a compassionate conservative be against that?

Well, let’s hear from Michael Quinn Sullivan of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility:

For many years, the state made it easy for people to defraud taxpayers. The Children’s Health Insurance Program, nobly created so the poor can have their kids on medical insurance, was a breeding ground for bad behavior. Studies found parents driving expensive luxury SUVs, holding large investment accounts, and yet were somehow just too poor to pay for their kid’s insurance. So these leaches were allowed (even encouraged) to let you pay for it.

Leaches is a very appropriate term. I know it’s getting to be a tired comment these days, but go ahead, contact your rep and senator, tell them what you think of this bill.

And yeah, I’ll call my RINO and let him know too. If you have the same RINO as I do, you can email him here.

As if our truckers didn’t have enough to worry about, the Bush administration has decided to allow more Mexican trucks and truckers to enter the country.

Last week, the Bush administration announced a plan to send U.S. inspectors to check trucks in Mexico that would then be allowed to cross over the border and deliver loads anywhere in the United States.

Great. So the US taxpayer gets to foot the bill to send inspectors into Mexico to help get them across the border quicker. Aren’t we nice? But Canadians are doing it, right?

She says that Canadian truckers have been traveling U.S. highways for years and that no one has complained about them.

Galen Munroe, however, counters that Canadian trucks operate under safety rules that meet or even exceed U.S. standards.

Comparing Canadian trucking laws and regulations to Mexico’s is like, well, comparing apples and oranges. Why would the Bush administration move forward with this and what purpose does it serve?

Truck driver Freddy Harbison made $75,000 a year working at a paper mill in Louisville, Ky. But he lost his job after the company embraced cheaper, foreign labor.

Now making about $40,000 a year driving a tractor-trailer, Harbison said he’s worried that his current job is in jeopardy.

It serves to undercut American truck drivers wages, that’s what it does. Frankly, these guys are underpaid already, dealing with days away from home, brutal traffic conditions and ever-changing regulations. Look, it’s one thing for a business to look for the lowest cost vendor. It’s another thing altogether for our government to help undercut its own taxpayers. The administration needs to rethink this one. Can’t wait until the driver from Central Mexico tries to navigate through downtown Houston from 59 to the Pierce Elevated carrying a hazardous load. Perhaps then people will wake up.

Here are a few comments that caught my eye this past Fri - Thu.

In the category of government focusing on the wrong things goes:

duhmoose Says:
February 24th, 2007 at 5:19 am e

OK, I can fix our energy problem and child obesity in one easy solution. Mandatory after school exercise bikes. We hook up the wheels to generators, and as the children work off all that unhealthy weight, we generate tons of energy. Of course if you can’t convince the children to do it, we could get the illegal immigrants to do it. After all, they should be in pretty good shape from doing the Rio Grande marathon.

In the category of best mockery of Gov. Perry’s imitation of Bill Clinton feeling your pain goes:

Matt ‘Zilla’ Bramanti, CPO™ Says:
February 27th, 2007 at 2:21 pm e

“I refuse to look a gay man in the anus, and tell him we could have done something to prevent this cancer, but didn’t.” -Rick Perry

In the category of political hypocrisy goes:

Lawrence C. Says:
February 28th, 2007 at 9:12 am e

#35. Rep. Lois Kolkhorst - ” I am confident that the governor did not run on an issue and (then) is not going to fulfill it. I’m confident that this governor has said publicly that he needed $100 million for border security, and I am confident that was not rhetoric.”

Perhaps you have misplaced your confidence Rep. Kolkhorst. Perhaps you need to consult with someone who is a better judge of the One tRick Perry’s character. Like Rep. Sylvester Turner, for example - ” Maybe it was just an ad. A campaign ad.”

In the category of quickest way to get put in the barrel goes:

hamous Says:
February 27th, 2007 at 7:58 am e

At the risk of provoking the ire of the GLOLST, I have to say this: George Strait is overrated. Never understood why he was so popular. He doesn’t write songs. He can’t play the guitar. The thing that ticks me off the most is he uses a guitar as a prop. There should be a law against a “musician” holding a guitar but not playing it. Oh, and lets talk about his “acting”. Remember Pure Country?

And many more…. Read more

Happy Birthday Texas

The Unanimous Declaration of Independence made by the Delegates of the People of Texas in General Convention at the town of Washington on the 2nd day of March 1836.

When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.

When, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet.

When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future welfare and happiness.

Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind. A statement of a part of our grievances is therefore submitted to an impartial world, in justification of the hazardous but unavoidable step now taken, of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an independent attitude among the nations of the earth.

The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation.

We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations.

Hat Tip Hamous

Edited for brevity.

Please take a moment and read the complete text here.

 

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