Via The Corner:

On the Internet as of sometime this afternoon, Fred Thompson’s closing argument to the people of Iowa.

Whereas Romney is saturating the airwaves with attack ads, Thompson pays the voters the courtesy of speaking calmly, and in detail—the video runs to just over 15 minutes. Why should the good Republicans of Iowa support Thompson? Because, the candidate argues, he can win.

YouTube video below:

 Trackposted to STA, Macsmind, Wizbang, Stop the ACLU, Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Is It Just Me?, The Midnight Sun, Rosemary's Thoughts, Stix Blog, Right Truth, DragonLady's World, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Chuck Adkins, Adeline and Hazel, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, The Uncooperative Blogger, Pirate's Cove, Celebrity Smack, The Pink Flamingo, Stageleft, Right Voices, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, guerrilla radio, 123beta, Adam's Blog, Cao's Blog, Big Dog's Weblog, Phastidio.net, Conservative Cat, Nuke's, Allie is Wired, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

More at Memeorandum.

It is official, we can now bid farewell to Bryan as a region.  Bryan emailed me the official news (gee, It's an EXCLUSIVE!) and he wants you all to know his good fortune. 

I personally will miss him, and will try to call down to his new radio home occasionally, just to keep him on his toes. 

Expect it Bryan!

So, with a bittersweet smile, LSU says:  Congrats Bryan!  This is nothing you did not deserve, and I hope they know how lucky they are to have you.

So....I work in Los Angeles (again). KFI (640am -LSU) has offered me the 7pm-10pm gig and my peeps are working things out. Needless to say, it's a bit of a step up.

KFI is hands down the number one news/talk station in America( the #1 english station in LA) and jobs there happen once in a generation. Pretty good for getting off the plane without an aircheck and going on that night.

But Program Director Robin Bertolucci is the best in the business and she knows what she wants as soon as she hears it. When I was fired ( on Veteran's Day weekend...as I recall) Robin called me before I got home.

"So...now will you come to LA?"

I'll start next week and we'll be moving down there over several weeks time. I'm obviously very excited about all of the opportunities that having a show in LA represent, but I'll always miss Seattle. It's home and it's where I started in talk radio. I've been doing the KFI show from Clear Channel in Seattle, and I gotta say..I could get used to that. However, the move is unavoidable. Having started in KROQ LA in 1992, I know the area and the shock will be minimal. Housing prices are plummeting (luckily) and it appears to be a cosmic confluence of factors calling me back to that town.

Syndication? Maybe. If that happens, Karl will be one of the first to know.

I posted an article a few days ago about Manuel Jesus Cordova, and how his decision to take the moral high road and save the life of a kid cost him his bid to come here illegally.

It mentioned in passing that he was coming here to work to support 2 families, which I gather was two women and the children he fathered by each.  Admirable on its face, but why come here? 

Well, simply put, he can make enough money here to do it.  The question is, how?  And the answer is that he lives small and works hard. 

This brings us into the whole jobs we won't do argument, that illegals are harder working and more willing to work low paying menial jobs, to the extent that they will come here illegally to do so.

A friend, Connie, sent me this link to a blog by a radio host, who takes exception to that premise:

http://760kfmb.com/rick_blog/?p=15

FAT LAZY AMERICAN -VS- HARD WORKING ILLEGALS

CBS has done a poll on the problem of illegal immigration in the United States.

Most of the results are reflective of what you hear in The Court of Public Opinion… except for one.

We self-deprecating Americans believe that immigrants work harder than people born in the U.S. .

There is, unfortunately some truth to it.  The fact is that immigrants will take any job they can, leaving them open to the unskilled and low skilled jobs that many Americans shun, not necessarily because they are menial, but because they don't pay well.

Another factor is the wage gap between the 'skilled' jobs and the unskilled, a gap driven in some small measure by the unions.  Why work at a hotel as a maid for 20k when you can work at a factory making 50k?

And that is not entirely greed, it is often survival, because the reality is that few people can live on minimum wage jobs.

I really thought New York was gonna pwn them, but they came back hard.

Congrats to the New England Patirots for their historic perfect 16-0 season.

 Now, let's see how they do in the playoffs...

I was reading up on Ken Schram's commentaries and I ran across two he did about Manuel Jesus Cordova.  In them, he detailed the story of this guys deportation and how the conservatives were essentially cold hearted bastards.

While his comments are grossly over generalized, he is essentially correct.  It is the anti illegal immigration people, which is not exclusively conservatives who are being a bit short sighted, but besides that, though it galls me, I agree with him.

The story starts in Mexico where Manual began his trek to enter the USA illegally.  After walking for two days he came across a 9 year old boy.  The boy, Christopher Buztheitner, had been in a car accident where his mother was killed.  Stranded, he was wandering looking for help when it found him, in the form of Manuel.

Manuel had a choice.  He was a relatively short walk to freedom, and he could have left the boy, who could have died.

He chose a higher path.  He stayed, gave the boy his sweater and fed him, then built a campfire, and as the boy slept, kept watch over him throughout the night.  They were found there by hunters late the next day.

The boy was taken to a hospital and Cordova was sent back to Mexico.  Read more here.

Those are the basic facts in the case.  Ken noted that the conservatives gloated that Manuel should have been deported, as that is the law, and I might normally agree as I am pro enforcement of immigration law.

But I have to say that I think if anyone deserved a chance to stay, he was a prime candidate. 

Look at it this way:  he had a choice and chose humanity.  As he put it:

"I am a father of four children. For that, I stayed. I never could have left him. Never."

He didn't make a calculated choice hoping for reward, he knew his choice would doom him to likely deportation.  He did it anyway because he know it was the right choice.

Bryan will be guest hosting at KFI 640 am this week.

Today from 3-7 and the rest of the week 7-10

If you can tune in via the internet, enjoy the shows.  He hasn't lost his wit.

The KFI website also saves the shows in pod cast format, so save your favorite for later enjoyment.

This Christmas was my daughter's first "real" Christmas.  No she is not a baby, she is 17 and a senior in High School.

The reason I say it is her first one, is that this year she is working and decided to buy presents for all of our family herself, and in doing so, she went all out.  And it was a joy to behold.

First some history.

Throughout Kayla's early years, times were somewhat hard.  I was military, recently divorced and remarried, and frankly we had little money for many years.

Kayla never lost her holiday spirit, and always took great delight in Christmas, even when there were only a few presents under the tree.

When she reached an age to want to give presents, we often didn't have the resources to help her buy presents for the other kids, so she made her own.  Her present of choice for many years was to take scraps of cloth (she loved to sew and collected fabric) and batting and make mini pillows, some only a few inches long.  She would spend hours making them by hand, then wrapping them, so no one was forgotten.

They are treasured gifts.

She more then most kids her age "gets" Christmas, the spirit of giving and of sharing love.  This year was no different, as she has Christmas lights in her room.

so armed with a paycheck, she set out to spend more money on us than I wanted her too.  Her response was that this was her first real Christmas of buying her own presents for people, and she wanted to do it right.

So, when I think about Christmas this year, she occupies much pride in my thoughts.  What she bought me is not important, it is the thought and love she gave it.

What this is not:  A campaign commercial.  If he had not flashed his name at the end you would not have known.  No voice overs, no photo ops.  Just the music, and the photos which speak volumes.

What this is:  A classy way to wish the troops a happy holiday, considering where many of them are, without overtly trying to sleaze a few votes.

Via Hot Air

 Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Stop the ACLU, The Midnight Sun, Rosemary's Thoughts, Stix Blog, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Chuck Adkins, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, Pirate's Cove, Celebrity Smack, The Pink Flamingo, Right Voices, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, 123beta, guerrilla radio, Adam's Blog, Big Dog's Weblog, Cao's Blog, Conservative Cat, Nuke's, Faultline USA, Allie is Wired, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Walls of the City, Blue Star Chronicles, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, CORSARI D'ITALIA, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Thanks to fellow Linkfest blogger Carl for this video.

Enjoy.  Warning:  Contains Kitten Cuteness. 

 Trackposted to Rosemary's Thoughts, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, Big Dog's Weblog, The Amboy Times, Cao's Blog, Chuck Adkins, third world county, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Walls of the City, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Celebrity Smack, CORSARI D'ITALIA, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Sorry for the quietness of late.

I had a major computer crash, coupled with some food poisoning, making it a little hard to blog for a few days.

So now, the food poisoning has...well...passed. 

And the old Dell 610 PIII Xeon 500 system has been replaced with an HP Intel P4 system, so all should be back to normal shortly.

I will be upgrading wordpress this weekend, so one more set of delays to come, but expect my posting to increase dramatically.

Thanks for bearing with me, and look out world, here I come again.

2008 is going to be a seriously FUN year.

 Trackposted to Rosemary's Thoughts, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, Adam's Blog, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Walls of the City, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Celebrity Smack, Big Dog's Weblog, Chuck Adkins, CORSARI D'ITALIA, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.