William F. Buckley 1925 - 2008

From The National Review

I’m devastated to report that our dear friend, mentor, leader, and founder William F. Buckley Jr., died this morning in his study in Stamford, Connecticut.

He died while at work; if he had been given a choice on how to depart this world, I suspect that would have been exactly it. At home, still devoted to the war of ideas.

As you might expect, we’ll have much more to say here and in NR in the coming days and weeks and months. For now: Thank you, Bill. God bless you, now with your dear Pat. Our deepest condolences to Christopher and the rest of the Buckley family. And our fervent prayer that we continue to do WFB’s life’s work justice. - Kathryn Jean Lopez


William F. Buckley, Jr.

Declared a "national institution" by the Chicago Tribune, Buckley has established a well-deserved reputation as one of this country's most accomplished political analysts, critics and debaters. His Universal Press Syndicate column, On the Right, has been bringing his lively, eloquently written conservative analyses of current events to newspaper readers since 1962.

In a career that has taken him from Yale to the United Nations and into politics and journalism, Buckley has earned some of America's highest honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an American Book Award, an Emmy Award and numerous others. He is a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, and has received numerous honorary degrees.

Founder of National Review, the lively and respected journal of conservative thought and opinion, Buckley also gained acclaim as host of the long-running weekly debate program "Firing Line." The program, which ended its 33-year run on television in 1999, featured such distinguished guests as George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, John Kenneth Galbraith, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Barry Goldwater, Germaine Greer, Edward Heath, Henry Kissinger, the Dalai Lama, Norman Mailer, Groucho Marx, James Michener, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Theodore White and Tom Wolfe.

Buckley has written more than 40 books, including God and Man at Yale, Saving the Queen, Up From Liberalism, Airborne and most recently, Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton. He has contributed articles to most major American publications, including Architectural Digest, Art & Antiques, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Foreign Affairs, Harper's, Life, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Playboy, The Saturday Evening Post and Yachting.

Born in New York City in 1925, Buckley spent his early school years in England and France. He graduated with honors from Yale in 1950. He and his wife, Patricia, have been married for more than 50 years and have a son, Christopher.

Nader vows to save Republican Candidate!

"The consumer rights activist announced on NBC television's Meet the Press that he was launching a third-party campaign for the White House because voters were disenchanted with the Democratic ......"


From the highly esteemed The Borowitz Report

Nader Warns Bloomberg Not to Run

Only Room for One Egomaniac in Race, Activist Says


That was the message delivered today to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg by consumer activist Ralph Nader, who warned Mr. Bloomberg, “If some egomaniac is going to jump in and screw up this election, it’s going to be me.”

Mr. Nader established an exploratory committee for a presidential bid today to let Mr. Bloomberg know that there was “only room for one self-absorbed gas-bag in the 2008 race.”

At a press conference in Washington, Mr. Nader said that voters who are looking for someone to spoil the 2008 election should be suspicious of Mr. Bloomberg’s motives: “Michael Bloomberg has a track record of winning elections, not screwing them up.”

In contrast, Mr. Nader said, “I know how hard it is to wreck an election, and I am prepared to put in the long hours necessary to mess this one up big-time.”

If both Mr. Nader and Mr. Bloomberg were to enter the race, they would be competing head to head for the vote of egomaniacs, who make up three percent of the electorate nationwide but closer to fifty percent in California and New York.

Speaking to that egomaniac constituency, Mr. Nader called Mr. Bloomberg a “novice spoiler,” adding, “When it comes to screwing up elections, experience matters.”

“Michael Bloomberg can’t point to a single election he’s messed up – I can,” he said. “I am ready to screw this one up on Day One.”

Visconti in the 1st

*
Good looking Italian-American, and contrary minded enough to make a difference!


West Hartford's Joe Visconti

has agreed to take on John Larson

Shown here smugly denying this stack of cash.

(ACR exclusive: Hidden cam photo reportedly taken of inside walkin closet at Larson's posh DC townhouse.)

Larson's accumulated MASSIVE personal wealth while in office and he's done so without any meaningful speaking contracts, books; none of the usual methods by which honest people in politics acquire great sums of money.

Makes you wonder doesn't it?

You can read more (and some of ACR's mundane comments) here:
Connecticut Local Politics

Steve Collins (Bristol Press Reporter) blog

And you can even read what
the far left has to say about it!

Obama - Free Everything!

Free medical care, higher pay, free college for your kids!



Have I got a car for you!

Gun Ban Death Toll Rises

THE most basic human right is the right to defend one's very life.

Thanks to gun bans the young people below were denied that basic right and paid with their lives.


Students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and a couple of months later at Northern Illinois University were simply gunned down like sitting ducks.

Northern Illinois University

Two dreamed of becoming teachers.
Another gave friends rides to class and helped them with homework. One served in the military.

The five students killed when a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University Thursday afternoon were at college to begin building their dreams. On Friday, friends and family mourned them and remembered the effect they had on those they met.

___

DANIEL PARMENTER

Daniel "Danny" Parmenter was the kind of person who was always helping others out. He was always offering people rides to class, helping friends with homework or doing community service, said Pi Kappa Alpha chapter president Jason Garcia.

The 20-year-old sophomore from Westchester was studying finance at NIU, and sold ads for the campus newspaper. The paper's adviser, Maria Krull, described him as a "gentle giant."

The last time she saw him, he was stretched out on "an old beat-up couch" in the newspaper's offices. She teased him about having his feet on the furniture. "I said, 'Danny, you know better than that.'"

"The thing about Danny was, if he was in the office and I needed something done, I just had to mention it to him and he would do it," Krull said. "I knew I didn't have to worry."

___

CATALINA GARCIA

The youngest of four siblings in a family from Guadalajara, Mexico, Catalina Garcia's family settled in suburban Cicero, west of Chicago.

The 20-year-old wanted to become a teacher, something her family admired.

"She was adored by our family because she wanted to become somebody in life — that's what she was going to school," her father, Jacinto Garcia, told Spanish-language radio station WOJO-FM, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

She was a 2006 graduate of Morton East High School, where she belonged to the Yearbook Club and a campus dance group. She was shy, very bright and a good student, recalled Michael Parrie, her chemistry teacher junior year.

"She always had a smile on her face, such a positive attitude and outlook on life. It was contagious," Parrie said.

___

RYANNE MACE

Just before Valentine's Day, Ryanne Mace posted a note for her friends on her MySpace page: "Happy Valentine's Day Everybody! ... Saying you love someone is not enough, it's how you treat them that shows your true feelings."

The 19-year-old sophomore from Carpentersville was studying psychology at the university.

Her mother, Mary Kay Mace, said she and her husband named their only child Ryanne, and pronounced it like the boy's name Ryan, because "we thought we were having a boy."

"She was beautiful and brilliant and caring," Mace said of her daughter. "She wanted to start a career helping people. She was in psychology to become a counselor. She was our only child, the light of our lives."

___

JULIANNA GEHANT

Julianna Gehant wasn't a certified teacher yet, but already she had people who couldn't wait to see her become one.

The 32-year-old from Meriden came to Northern Illinois University after a stint in the U.S. Army, where she taught construction. She wanted to teach elementary school.

She kept in touch with her teachers at her high school, Mendota Township High. Retired drama teacher Dave Schroeder remembered her an openhearted young woman with a keen sense of humor and warm laugh. In her 2007 Christmas card, she wrote, "I have four more semesters until I'm qualified to teach second graders."

"I told her I wanted to be one of the first ones to give her a recommendation" for the job, he said. "It's just a terrible loss," Schroeder said.

Her Army record shows she was deployed to Kosovo in 1998 and left active duty in March 2007. She entered the military in July 1993.

___

GAYLE DUBOWSKI

Dubowski, 20, of Carol Stream, was a sophomore at NIU. "She was a good person with a big heart," said a friend, Kelly Cavanaugh, who met her at the DeKalb Church of Christ.

Dubowski graduated from Glenbard North High School in 2006 where she sang in the choir, said Principal John Mensik. Teachers were in tears Friday morning when they heard the news, Mensik said.

"She worked as a teacher's aide for some of the teachers," the principal said. "She was a very positive student. ... She touched people."

Amanda Kent, 21, a fellow NIU student, said she was in Dubowski's second year Russian class and saw her Thursday before the shooting.

"She was very sweet. She was sort of shy, but always had a smile on her face," Kent said.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Ross Abdallah Alameddine, Christopher James Bishop,Brian Bluhm, Ryan Clark,Austin Cloyd, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak,Kevin Granata, Matthew G. Gwaltney,Caitlin Hammaren, Jeremy Herbstritt,,Rachael Elizabeth Hill, Emily Hilscher, Jarrett Lane, Matthew J. La Porte, Henry Lee, Liviu Librescu, G.V. Loganathan, Partahi Lumbantoruan, Lauren McCain, Daniel O'Neil, Juan Ramon Ortiz, Minal Panchal, Daniel Perez Cueva, Erin Peterson, Mike Pohle, Julia Pryde, Mary Read, Reema Samaha, Waleed Shaalan, Leslie Sherman, Maxine Turner, Nicole White

Baseball

Would this man lie?

Or....more to the point; has he ever told the truth?
Ever?
Even once?

Malaysian Flat Screen TV Subsidy Approved!

Claiming an overwhelming desire to prop up the economy, Democrats approved a plan that will surely help nations all along the Pacific Rim!

Sam's Club will be having a sale on big screen TV's timed to coincide with the arrival of the checks - bet on it.


All Americans deserve a new imported TV!



From wire reports:
Congress gave overwhelming final approval last night to legislation that would send government payments to most American households and grant tax incentives for business investment, sending President Bush a $152 billion stimulus plan for the faltering U.S. economy.

The legislation would provide $600 payments for individuals -- $1,200 for couples -- plus $300 for each child younger than 17.

What they could have done, which would have helped the economy in the United States instead would require a list:

Lower taxes
Vouchers for automobiles based on the North American content of the vehicle. (Cars are 65% labor - ie: W2 income)
Lower taxes
Capitol equipment tax credits
Lower taxes

McCain

Mitt Romney is a nice man who clearly would do a good if not great job as our President. He is however unexciting and while that has nothing to do with the job it has everything to do with winning it.

I like Huckabee - a lot. He's a quick wit, a pleasant honest man and we could do a lot worse; and in fact we often do.

Most of all I want a Republican in the White House because I care about our national security and there's a lot of crazy people running around loose on this planet that would blow this country off the face of the earth given half a chance.

John McCain gets it.
None of us will ever be in total agreement right down the line on every imaginable issue with anyone, much-less a presidential candidate.
Thus a little pragmatism might be in order.

1. Is the candidate an honorable person in their daily dealings with others regardless of the setting?

Using that criteria alone most of us would agree that all of the Republicans and even some of the Democrats (some no longer in the race) would be acceptable.

2. Does the candidate stand anywhere near where we do ideologically?

For me, that knocks out any of the Democrats left standing at this point.

3. Can the candidate attract enough independent voters and swing voters from the other party to win?

John McCain is that man.