Modern Conservative says Ron may run on the Constitution Party ticket if he fails to get the Republican candidacy:

ModernConservative.com has received a tip from a reliable source that may have election-shattering implications.

According to our source, an activist here in Arizona has been approached by the Ron Paul campaign; the campaign has requested that he run the Arizona effort to get Ron Paul on the general election ballot as a candidate of the Constitution Party.

Interesting development. It makes you wonder what effect this would have not only on the Republican side, but the anti-war left as well. Ron Paul would probably be the only candidate that would be an advocate for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. I have to wonder how many votes it would also pull from the Democratic candidate.

She probably would have gone for the Farmer’s Blow on his shoes if her hands were free:

A woman in this Charleston suburb was charged with battery on a police officer after the officer said she wiped her nose on the back of his shirt.

Cpl. S.E. Elliott said he had arrested the 36-year-old woman last week after seeing her slap a man, bite him on the elbow and spit in his face. Elliott said the woman wiped her nose on him as he led her into the police station for booking on a charge of domestic battery.

Real classy woman.

Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated. The former Prime Minister was reportedly shot in the neck and the chest before a suicide bomber detonated a bomb blowing himself up. Pakistan is in chaos:

As news of her death spread, angry supporters took to the streets.

In Karachi, shop owners quickly closed their businesses as protesters set tires on fire on the roads, torched several vehicles and burned a gas station, said Fayyaz Leghri, a local police official. Gunmen shot and wounded two police officers, he said.

One man was killed in a shootout between police and protesters in Tando Allahyar, a town 120 miles north of Karachi, said Mayor Kanwar Naveed. In the town of Tando Jam, protesters forced passengers to get out of a train and then set it on fire.

Violence also broke out in Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and many other parts of Pakistan, where Bhutto’s supporters burned banks, state-run grocery stores and private shops. Some set fire to election offices for the ruling party, according to Pakistani media.

Around Christmas time, there are always amusing Santa related stories. For those of you heading back to work after the long weekend, I hope this helps brighten your Wednesday.

First, news from a movie theater in New Zealand…

Kate Gorman, 35, was waiting to see “Enchanted” with her two young children.

“At least 50 drunk idiots dressed up like Santa came in through the main door,” she said. “They were kicking things over, ripping down posters and smashing everything in sight.”

“They were all dressed as Santa and shouting ‘ho f*****g ho’,” she told the paper.

Her children, Gabriella, 6, and Jackson, 7, had been confused by the incident, she said.

“They asked me, ‘are they Santa’s helpers gone crazy?’ and I said `no, they are just idiots’. [source]

Secret Santa Lives On

In Kansas City, a friend of “Secret Santa” carries on the good work started by the late Larry Stewart.

This Christmas, a friend who told Stewart in the hospital that he would carry on for him is out on the streets, handing out $100 bills, each one stamped with “Larry Stewart, Secret Santa.”

Between Kansas City and several other cities this Christmas, the new Secret Santa will give away $75,000 of his own money, mostly in $100 bills.

“I didn’t want to be a Secret Santa,” said the man, a business consultant who lives in the Kansas City area. “I wanted to give Larry money. But last year, he said I had to hand it out myself. So I did, and I got hooked.”

This new Secret Santa talks about Larry Stewart to just about everyone he encounters. “Have you ever heard of a man named Larry Stewart?” he asks before handing out $100 or more. [full story]

Good Lovin’ Gone Bad?

Here’s one from Danbury Connecticut. This lady wanted her Christmas package a little early, but ended up in the clink instead.

Santa Claus says that a woman who sat on his lap was naughty, not nice. A Santa at the Danbury Fair mall said the woman groped him. “The security officer at the mall said Santa Claus has been sexually assaulted,” police Detective Lt. Thomas Michael said of the weekend complaint. [source]

Santa Visits Soldiers In Iraq

Santa strapped on his body armor and sidearm Monday and got an early start on his rounds, taking candy canes and holiday wishes to U.S. troops in Iraq.

Santa is Army Maj. Harold Riggins of the 101st Airborne Division and his sleigh on Monday was an Army Black Hawk helicopter. He spent about five hours hopscotching around various U.S. bases.

“Just wanna see the troops, hand out some candy canes and make ‘em smile,” Riggins said as he headed out on his holiday patrol. [source]

Top that Osama, you nasty old grinch!

Santa Gets A Mountain

The former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan has mountains honoring Communist and Russian leaders. Just in time for Christmas, authorities say they plan to name a snowy peak “Mount Santa Claus.”

Three climbers set off Wednesday to scale the designated peak and bury a capsule containing the flag of Kyrgyzstan at the summit on Christmas Eve. [source]

And that’s your Santa news for 2007. Hope you had a great Christmas.

How much campaigning does it take to get your attention in Iowa? If you live in Iowa, and still don’t know the positions of the candidates, you just haven’t been paying attention.

Or, it simply shows how difficult a decision this is for conservatives. Between the candidates, there are good points and bad points. Huckabee is a great communicator, strong social conservative, but weak on the fiscal side. He’s also suffering due to his liberal stance on illegal immigration.

Romney has spent a lot of time and money in Iowa, and led there for a long time. Now the Huckaboom seems to be raining on his parade. People are still looking at him, but if they are like me, they wonder how much of his schtick is real and how much is polished plastic.

Thompson seems to be turning up the heat in the last few weeks, but many, myself included, wonder if it is just too little, too late. Thompson is probably the best conservative in the race, but his unmotivated campaigning has left a lot to be desired. And he has let Huckabee hijack the laid-back Southern charmer lead that Thompson is known for. If he is going to make an impact in this primary, he needs to really pour his heart and soul into these last few days.

McCain is still rising a bit, and if you remember back early in the campaign, Ron Paul drew a bigger crowd at his rally than all the other candidates did at their debate. Duncan Hunter is basically DOA.

It is a difficult chore in choosing a candidate this election, and many in Iowa are still looking at the choices before them. It will be interesting to see the results of all the time and money spent in the Hawkeye state. At this point, nothing would surprise me.

Except an Alan Keyes victory. I’d never see that coming.

It was a peaceful Christmas for Iraqi Christians, who felt safe enough this year to celebrate the holiday. Last year, many were too scared to openly celebrate, but those same people found themselves going to church to remember the birth of Jesus.

Families streamed into the church’s courtyard, wrapped in heavy winter jackets to protect them from the early morning chill. Young children with neatly combed hair held their parents’ hands, and women stopped by the front door to pick through a basket of small lacy headscarves, placing them over their hair before walking in.

The pews were almost full—women toward the back and on the right side of the church, the men on the left—and still more people streamed in. Outside, police armed with automatic rifles manned a checkpoint at the corner of the narrow street, searching every passing car for possible bombs.

Christians have often been the target of attacks by Islamic extremists in Iraq, forcing tens of thousands to flee. Many of those who stayed were isolated in neighborhoods protected by barricades and checkpoints. Less than 3 percent of Iraq’s 26 million people are Christians—the majority Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians, with small numbers of Roman Catholics.

The violence in Iraq is down almost 60% since June. The drop in terrorist attacks has lead many in Iraq to have hope about their future. Remember, this is a result of a failed surge and a war that we lost, according to Harry Reid anyway. If he and his cohorts had their way, these people would be hiding this Christmas, instead of worshiping in church.

I know what the libs would say here: correlation does not equal causation. While true, sometimes it is worthwhile to look at two sets of figures and consider that maybe this time, it does. Areas of England have less armed police officers than before. In those areas, crimes involving guns has increased. Significantly:

Between 1997 and 2006,m, the number of authorised firearms officers in England and Wales fell from 6,738 to 6,584, even though there have been increases in overall police numbers.

Yet statistics released by the Home Office show the number of individuals found guilty of possessing weapons rose by 43 per cent from 2001 to 2005.

Over the same period, the number of crimes involving firearms recorded by police rose by 11 per cent, from 10,023 in 2001 to 11,084 in 2005.

The overall drop conceals far greater falls in key areas of cities with some of the country’s worst records on gun crime.

On Merseyside, where Liverpool has been ravaged by violence, the number of firearms officers has fallen by 15 per cent, from 147 in 1997 to 129 in 2006.

Yet the same area has recorded a 183 per cent rise in the number of persons found guilty of possessing or distributing prohibited weapons or ammunition between 1997 and 2005.

And Merseyside has seen the number of crimes where firearms were used soar by 62 per cent, from 299 in 2002 to 485 in 2006.

A similar picture emerges in Avon and Somerset, where the number of firearms officers has fallen by 29 per cent, from 165 in 1997 to 117 in 2006, while the firearms crimes soared by 62 per cent, from 131 in 2002 to 167.

And in Northamptonshire, another gun crime ‘hotspot’, the number of firearms officers has fallen by 39 per cent, from 92 in 1997 to 56 in 2006.

There is a good reason to consider the idea that the reason firearm related crimes are on the rise in those areas is directly related to the decrease in armed police. When gun control advocates preach the dogma of gun grabbers, they never seem to understand the idea of self defense. It seems that if the good guys give up their guns, the bad guys will follow suit. You can see, and hopefully learn from, Britain’s mistake in inhibiting its citizens ability to defend themselves.

I don’t have a reason to own a gun other than hunting, collecting and self-defense. There are millions like me. There is no good reason to increase the likelihood of a criminal attack and decrease my ability to defend myself at the same time. It simply doesn’t make sense.

Some quick links for the weekend:

• The blog Maine for Thompson has collected some quotes from media outlets about Fred Thompson’s sleeper campaign.
• Deep Thought wants to know “Why is the Republican establishment so afraid of Mike Huckabee?“
• Ron Paul has already won. We just don’t know it because we suck at math.
• Chuck Norris destroys publishing giant with one roundhouse kick. Actually, he’s just suing them.
• How much does the prohibition of marijuana cost American taxpayers? Try $40 billion a year.
• The Media Research Center has compiled the The Best Notable Quotables of 2007.
• Here’s something else that giant omnibus bill does. It prevents development of shale oil.
• The Governator has increased spending 40% in California.
• PoliPundit says Thompson’s numbers are rising.
• Gatewat Pundits covers Ahmadinejad’s claim that Islam’s goal is a global Muslim government.

And the non-political ones:

• “The Akashi Kaikyo Suspension Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world and it is probably Japan’s greatest engineering feat.”
• The First Cargo Ship Pulled by a Kite
• Three hundred miles per gallon and a Jetsons-style look are enough to get anyone excited.
• With Diet, Exercise and Friendship, Man Loses 400 Pounds
• “Sideshow Collectables is now selling a Life-size Cylon, as seen in the re-imagined Sci-Fi Channel series ‘Battlestar Galactica’.”
• Five things you need to know about the 2009 Chevy Corvette ZR1.
• Top 25 Life-Improving Christmas Gifts for Under $10
• The Ultimate Rollercoasters On Earth
• 10 great Web site designs/redesigns of 2007
• The Best ‘Best of’ Lists of 2007

Take care and Merry Christmas!

Tom Tancredo has dropped out of the race, and he explains on The Big Story why he’s backing Mitt Romney.

Tom Tancredo would be my Secretary of Homeland Security.

Marvel Comics killed off Captain America this summer, but what is this:

Police in the Lake District have been left baffled by the discovery of a man’s body encased in ice.

The body was spotted by a local farmer, Cumbria police said.

But it was unclear how it came to be on the side of a field at Black Hall, near Broughton-in-Furness, nor how long it had been there.

The man’s identity is not known, and police said the find was not being treated as suspicious.

A police spokeswoman said: “The body was found encased in 2 inches of ice.

The return of Steve Rogers? No, not really. But it would be a great promo if it was.

Farewell and Godspeed:

NORTH BALTIMORE, Ohio — The last World War I veteran in Ohio, and one of only three known remaining U.S. veterans of the conflict, has died.

J. Russell Coffey was the last WWI vet in the state, according to the Veterans Affairs Department. He died Thursday at the age of 109, said the Smith-Crates Funeral Home in North Baltimore, about 35 miles south of Toledo.

I have to be honest with you. I don’t follow celebrity gossip. To me, it seems like cotton candy. It’s pretty, and it’s sweet, but there’s really nothing there. I prefer the meat and potatoes of politics, with liberals playing the part of the vegetables. But I know there are a lot of people who are really concerned with what Jessica Simpson is doing, or who she’s doing it to, or whatever. So when some gossip news sneaks past my firewall, I give it a look just so I can see what kind of example the glitter brains of the world are setting for the kids – and adults who act like kids.

So Britney Spears has lost her children to her baby-daddy, Kevin Federline. How bad of a mother do you have to be to lose your kids to a shiftless wigga like Federline? Well pretty bad, let me tell you. This is someone our society is idolizing as a celebrity. She lost her kids, showed the world the bearded clam because she can’t remember to put on her undies, shaved her head, and is now knocked up again by some random dude. You go girl!

Now her little sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, is sixteen years old and pregnant. Let me phrase that another way. Sixteen year old star of Nickelodeon’s highly rated program, Zoey 101, has gotten knocked up just like her dumbass sister Britney. The highly responsible father is a 19 year old statutory rapist. Nice work, Jamie Lynn. The 9-14 year old girls who idolize you because of your television show are sure to learn great things from the example you’ve set.

I know what you’re thinking. Who is the retard who raised this dynamic duo? That would be Lynne Spears, who has written a book on parenting. The book has been put on hold (gasp) by Christian book publisher Thomas Nelson, which publishes mostly inspirational books and Bibles. You can be sure that the book will come out eventually though. The world has just got to know how to raise more slutty and immoral daughters.

There, I’ve gotten it out of my system and can get back to things that matter. Now I wonder if the Democrats will push for emergency funding for Jamie Lynn’s baby…

Selwyn Duke at The Intellectual Conservative has posted a great article that takes a look at Mike Huckabee’s illegal immigration positions in the past:

Huck would be a disaster – a disaster – on immigration. In fact, in 2006 he compared those who would crack down on illegals to antebellum slave masters, saying,

One of the great challenges facing us is that we do not commit the same mistakes with our growing Hispanic population that we did with African Americans 150 years ago and beyond. We’re still paying the price for the pathetic manner in which this country handled that.

Outrageously, it seems Huck can’t distinguish between denying citizens the protection of the law and requiring non-citizens to follow it.

According to Roy Beck, president of the immigration reform group NumbersUSA, this isn’t out of character for Huck. Says Beck,

He was an absolute disaster on immigration as governor. Every time there was any enforcement in his state, he took the side of the illegal aliens.

This was evident when Huck condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on chicken plants in Arkansas. But his stance was no surprise.

Huckabee is on the wrong side of this issue. This is one of the many reasons I cannot give him my vote in the primaries, even though he is the strongest advocate for the Fair Tax. We have to have a president that sees an open border for the national security threat that it is and recognizes the danger it poses to our culture.

We cannot allow the country to divide itself on the grounds of race, speech, culture. We have to have a melting pot, not a salad bar. America is a great country because of the assimilation process, not because of hyphenated Americans. We are strongest when we stand as one people, one country. I don’t want people to stop coming here. I want people to come here and become Americans. We will fall if we divide ourselves. We wouldn’t be the first.

Presidential hopeful Rep. Tom Tancredo dropped out of the race to win the Republican Presidential nomination today. The move left many Americans asking the question, “who?”.

Although Tancredo wasn’t a so-called “top tier” candidate, he did bring the issue of illegal immigration into the debate, and into the minds of voters.

Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, is a fierce proponent of stricter illegal immigration laws, but his campaign struggled to gain traction with Republican primary voters, despite many naming illegal immigration as a top concern. [source]

In the message on his campaign website, he had this to say:

This month alone The Economist, the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal and a score of other newspapers have written similar assessments, grudgingly crediting our campaign with forcing the issue of immigration to the center of the national stage and—more importantly—with forcing every presidential candidate to commit themselves to an immigration plan that calls for securing the borders, opposing amnesty and enforcing the law.

One can only hope that whoever goes on to win the nomination will carry the cause into the general election – but I don’t recommend getting your hopes up.

From “The Daily Redundancy”:

NEW HAVEN, CT – In an effort to recognize the diverse traditions of the holiday season, the City has installed a Festivus pole in the Market Street square. A dedication ceremony is scheduled for Saturday afternoon. With the addition of this new holiday centerpiece, the square is now thought to be the most diverse public display of late fall holiday symbols in the country.

“We’re glad that we can please so many different people.” said Phyllis Strauttman, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Religious and Ethnic Tolerance Initiative. “These Festivus people seem like a lot of fun.”

The problem with the picture is the pole is decorated. A true follower of Festivus would not allow it to happen. *

*^{Yes, I know this is satire.}