California Conservative has been included in the Presidential Watch 08 Map, tracking the 297 most influential blogs covering the presidential race.

The map is a fun way to see the major blogs, and find new daily reads. Check it out.

It’s hard to imagine how Detroit’s liberal populace can charge hip-hop Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for perjury. After all, doesn’t everyone lie about sex?

I’m not certain that Kilpatrick should be charged or convicted either. Those of us who live in cities like Detroit or Los Angeles accepted that kind of political double standard long ago.

Detroit clearly needs to loosen up a little – maybe create its own ethics commission. That’s what works for us.

In LA, our Ethics Commission makes it unnecessary for police to investigate messy corruption scandals or other embarrassing felonies. Our Commission would issue a warning and a fine to Kilpatrick faster than Hillary could tell Sandy Berger to take the archives out of his socks and join her campaign committee.

Equal Protection is one of the pillars of Democracy. After King John published the Magna Carta and Republicans passed the 14th Amendment, prosecutors have been prohibited from pursuing criminal complaints against one person that are ignored by others. Equal Protection demands that Mayor Kilpatrick be prosecuted like other Democrat office holders, regardless of race.

Despite the incontrovertible evidence of guilt, the US Senate (45 Democrats and five Republicans) acquitted Monica Lewinsky’s boyfriend of perjury. I’m not sure a black mayor should be charged or convicted for acts that Bill Clinton was acquitted of.

If prosecutors proceed and present overwhelming evidence against Kilpatrick, jurors have no choice but to acquit.

When police detective Taro Nakamura told Ellis Cleveland that he was suspected of robbing four banks, Cleveland allegedly responded, “Four, I didn’t do four, I only robbed three banks. But it doesn’t matter because I’m not talking…”

The story here.

(via Slate.com)

* Barack Obama is the alternative-energy sector. Hybrid, next-generation upstart, unafraid of entrenched market leaders, and embraced by corn-growing Iowans, Silicon Valley venture capitalists, and East Coast moneymen.

* Mike Huckabee is Chick-fil-A. Cheaper, healthier Southern alternative to steak and prime rib dished up by urban rivals. Explicitly fuses religion into business strategy in a way that no competitor does.

* Hillary Clinton is Citigroup. New York-based, enormously well-capitalized, longstanding market leader whose name is synonymous with the sector it dominates. A powerhouse in the 1990s is having difficulty reclaiming past glory.

* Mitt Romney is the Blackstone Group. Insecure private-equity player that tries to wow the masses with ostentatious displays of wealth-kitted out Mitt-Mobile for Romney, $3 million birthday party for Blackstone head honcho Steve Schwartzman.

* John Edwards is McDonald’s. Disdained by the media elite as déclassé, shunned by the fashionable as too populist and unhealthy to body politic, manages to thrive by working hard and dishing out cheap meat and potatoes to working-class patrons.

* Rudy Giuliani is Bear Stearns. New York-based firm spent years since 2001 raising easy money and globe-trotting. Initials of both should be B.S. Questions raised about judgment and adolescent personal behavior of standard-bearer-alleged dope-smoking for Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne, sex on the city for Giuliani.

* John McCain is General Motors. Old warhorse with solid reputation as patriotic brand takes repeated kicks but refuses to give in. Buoyed by poor performance of two top domestic rivals and by positive developments overseas- Iraq for McCain, growth abroad for GM.

Read more

To All My Democrat Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To My Republican Friends:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

–

Kip Allen is an award-winning broadcast and newspaper journalist currently residing in Southern California. He is a contributor to CaliforniaConservative.org, and you may read more of his work here.

Stuart Shepard gives us the name of what we do with holiday catalogues related to the 25th of December - Tossmas (video).

I just got an email from one of my favorite relatives, my aunt Alice. What I found is today’s must reading. It’s attributed to Jay Leno. When I finish posting this, I think I’ll meander over to the Tonight Show website and send him an email thanking him for this ‘reminder’. Here’s what he said:

If you’re not a Jay Leno fan read what he wrote anyway. My respect and esteem for him has really increased.

“The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right?
The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president. In essence 2/3s of the citizenry just ain’t happy and want a change.
So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, “What we are so unhappy about?”
Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter? Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job? Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?
Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state? Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter? I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough. (continue reading post »)

Reforming America’s immigration policy is stalled for the simple reason that the current situation benefits too many people. Immigration reform is impossible until a solution is found that offers even more benefits to the vested interests.

It seems to me that we may be over thinking the entire immigration question. The very problems and issues confronting America suggest a solution agreeable to all parties. First, let us more closely examine the issue.

On one hand are those who favor open borders, amnesty and a path to citizenship. Many of these are the would-be immigrants themselves and their home countries.

The governments of those people are unable or unwilling to provide the simplest services or economic opportunities for their populace. To do so would mean the dictators and oligarchs would have to curb their own corruption and even permit the underclass a voice in their ruling circles. This is intolerable because it would necessarily mean such adverse concepts as accountability, power sharing and a fewer dollars pouring into their pockets or offshore accounts.

Yet to crack forcibly down on those seeking economic and political reform is to risk armed revolt. Even if the existing order were to retain control, it would cost money and might even put some of the oligarchs in physical danger.

So, they seek a third path.

That is emigration for their disadvantaged opportunity seekers. The governments facilitate the movement of these elements into the United States via a variety of mechanisms. Mexico’s government-funded Grupo Beta aids would-be immigrants in a variety of ways, including issuing publications on how to cross the Mexican-American border in safety.

In addition, the Mexican government, through its consulates in the United States, issues Matricular Consular Identification Cards to its citizens, whether they are in the U.S. legally or not. This is official identification that is recognized by various commercial groups on the American side of the border, thus bypassing the inconvenient obstacle of having necessary legal status to obtain other documents required for such things as housing, banking and the like that encumber U.S. citizens and legal aliens. (continue reading post »)

The only thing I can say about this ad is BRILLIANT!!! SIMPLY BRILLIANT!!! Enjoy.

I’ve seen alot of great campaign commercials in my lifetime & this is the best I’ve ever seen. I tip my cap to the MNGOP for putting this together.

I’d bet good money that this internet commercial will be bouncing all across the internet by the end of today. I’ll further predict that this will put the DFL on the defensive with almost every demographic group in Minnesota.

Technorati: Taxapalooza, DFL, Tax Increases, Tony Sertich, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Tarryl Clark, Larry Pogemiller, Campaign Promises, Broken Promises, Tom Bakk

(Hat tip: Reader Saul A.)