The Burden of Freedom
Now Playing: THIS Is The Point...
Topic: What's The Point?
"This nation has never found glory in war. Our people have never wanted to abandon the blessings of home and work for distant lands and deadly conflict. If we fight in anger, it is only because we have to fight at all. And all of us yearn for a world where we will never have to fight again.

Each of us will measure within ourselves the value of this great struggle. Any cost in lives -- any cost -- is beyond our power to measure. But the cost of closing our eyes to aggression is beyond mankind's power to imagine. This we do know: Our cause is just; our cause is moral; our cause is right.

Let future generations understand the burden and the blessings of freedom. Let them say we stood where duty required us to stand. Let them know that, together, we affirmed America and the world as a community of conscience.

The winds of change are with us now. The forces of freedom are together, united. We move toward the next century more confident than ever that we have the will at home and abroad to do what must be done --
the hard work of freedom.

May God bless the United States of America. Thank you very, very much."

George H.W. Bush, 41st President
Taken from his 2nd State of the Union Address
January 29, 1991 (1 decade prior to the 9/11 attack on U.S. soil by Muslim Terrorists)
Washington, DC

BLOG Protocol?
Topic: BLOG Protocol
Clintlodger & I have arrived at a dilema: he seems to believe that this BLOG has no particular direction and I don't agree. We have in our first posting a sort of "statement of intent" regarding this BLOG but it is convoluded in its content, I guess. I'm moving all arguments on this "protocol" issue by extracting them from other parent postings within our BLOG and placing them here within this particular parent posting. This way, we can root out unrelated comments from other parent postings which did not intend to air these "infrastructural" arguments. Click here if you'd like to debate our BLOG protocol!

Campaign Tactic: Target Sitting Ducks
Topic: Kerry's Bad Moves
Tactical Objective: Don't Be Taken Seriously
A sure sign of a politician's desperation level is how hard he hits the talk show circuit. So far in the past few months, John Kerry has been seen on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, "The Late Show" with David Letterman" and "The Daily Show" with John Stewart. In the coming days, we should expect him to have his sensitivity level gauged by Dr. Phil, appear before Judge Judy to file suit against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and make a cameo appearance with Bill Clinton on "The Jerry Springer Show" in an episode entitled "Dominant Wives and the Men Who Love Them."

Tactical Objective: Scare Senior Citizens
Attention: According to a very horse-voiced speech Kerry gave yesterday, President Bush and the Republicans have a "secret plan" to take 45% of social security away from those Seniors who depend on it!

Tactical Objective: Scare American Mothers
EXTRA, EXTRA! President Bush and the Republicans have a "secret plan" to reinstitute the draft right after the election!

Tactical Objective: Play The Race Card
This is HUGE! President Bush and the Republicans have a "secret plan" to supress the African-American vote!

This is more of the same from the DNC and their 527 groups. And they say the Republicans are bad! Do people actually believe this stuff? Within this posting are 50 "talking points" I received from a client in an email message (Subject: Why I Cannot Support George Bush). I believe these talking points were originally manifested by "moveon.org", a 527 group which lost real credibility within the 1st week it reared its ugly head.

The Oil-For-Food Scam
Topic: Oil-For-Food Scam
Did Saddam Hussein use any of his ill-gotten billions filched from the United Nations Oil-for-Food program to help fund Al Qaeda? This report seems to indicate that he did. Does this really surprise anyone? This Oil-For-Food program is something, as Clintlodger knows from previous writings of mine, I've always believed was corrupt. I have suspected a few major culprits in the scam involving the governments of China, France, Germany, Russia and key members of the United Nations itself. Specifically, I have pointed to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, and his son, a paid consultant in the Oil-For-Food scam. Is it a coincidence that China, France, Germany, Russia AND Kofi Annan ALL adamantly opposed U.S. military action in Iraq? I really don't think so. While Kofi Annan had previously denied these allegations, recently he has offered an "apology" to the U.S for what appear to be "links to the U.N." and this scam. Click here to read more or to contribute to this posting.

Growing Nuclear Threats
Topic: Bush's Bad Moves
It occurred to me that in my effort to begin conveying what I believe are obvious blunders in the Kerry campaign I have failed to come across as objective. I admit, too, that sometimes I really don't care if I am or if I'm not!

Campaign Tactic: Forgery
Topic: Kerry's Bad Moves
CBS says its experts believe the documents it obtained about President Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard are authentic. But others aren't so sure. The documents, which state that Bush ignored a direct order from a superior officer while in the Guard, are coming under question as possible forgeries. One independent document examiner says it looks to her like they came from a computer using Microsoft Word software -- and not a Vietnam-era typewriter. She points to the superscript "t-h" in "111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron" as evidence. She says those letters are inserted in the documents C-B-S obtained in the exact style as they would be in a Microsoft Word document.

This posting (as I suspected) is getting UGLY! Click here for more!

Again With The Economy!
Topic: The US Economy
Well, once again we're hearing in the news from the Kerry camp that the economy sucks. Jeez, talk about beating a dead horse! I will be adding to this post FACTS about the state of our economy (something we apparently can't depend on from the largely left-biased media anymore). I challenge anybody to dispute these FACTS! Click the "post your comment" link below to respond if you so choose!

Do Moderates Really Exist?
Topic: Do Moderates Exist?
Clintlodger & I agreed when we decided to create this BLOG that this particular issue could be interesting to explore. For kicks I posted the issue in our "Suggest a Topic" posting area as follows: "Clintlodger (as I mentioned in the opening comment of this BLOG) claims to be a moderate. I disagree on the premise that nobody can be truly moderate on all issues, therefore cannot be truly moderate at all. Would any one care to comment? I suggest we create a topic on weather one can be a moderate?" I did not expect any reponses to this suggestion (since we've just recently got this BLOG started) but somebody using the alias "Liberal Rebellion" wrote back in response to the question with questions of thier own. I guess that validates this as a legitimate topic and makes me happy that somebody found our BLOG! So for "Liberal Rebellion" I sent email to Clintlodger advising him that you have a few questions for him! Clintlodger has written me to indicate he will be writing a paper on this subject which we will post to this topic. I am anxious to see his position. In the meantime I am moving LibReb's comments from the "Suggest A Topic" posting to this new one to keep it in context with the subject. Please feel free to view LibReb's comments or post your own by clicking on the "Post Your Comment" link just below this paragraph.

Suggest a Topic!
Topic: Suggest A Topic
Please respond to this posting to suggest new topics for comment, discussion or debate. Click on the "post your comment" link just below this paragraph to make a suggestion!

About Clintlodger & Grog
Since nobody knows this BLOG exists (except for our immediate family) we've agreed to register our BLOG with popular search engines. If I get that done correctly you should be able to find us by typing "Clintlodger and Grog" in your favorite search engine. We've also decided to post our BIO's so you can get a feel for who we are. Mine will be posted to angelfire.com/blog2/grog/bio.htm. Clintlodger will post his BIO to angelfire.com/blog2/clintlodger/bio.htm. For now it may suffice to know that Clintlodger is a college graduate, having earned his Masters in Philosophy from UCSC. He has recently returned from teaching high school students in France. Clintlodger, I believe leans to the left. He is from the west coast and claims to be a Moderate (I disagree on the premise that one can't truly be completely moderate on all the issues). I, on the other hand, am not a college graduate. I did make a short-lived effort to complete an Associates program at SJDC in Stockton. After a year of that I thought I would be happier pursuing my music aspirations by working and playing the club circuit in the south and north SF Bay area of CA. I am a blue collar, family guy who after about 15 years of voting as a registered Independent have decided this year to vote as a registered Republican. I chose a side and my views obviously lean to the right.

Welcome to Clintlodger & Grog's BLOG!
Welcome to our BLOG! By "our" I mean my brother-in-law, Clintlodger and myself, Grog. We decided to create this BLOG site because so much is going on culturally and politically in our country these days. We both agree that much is going on and that a BLOG is good way for each of us to express our views out there as well as for you to interact by putting your views out there, also.

We intend to keep our BLOG forum open for anyone who would like to participate. We will allow HTML in your postings--so web links, graphics and even sound bytes are permitted and encouraged. We do, however, declare our intent to edit or remove any posting which may be considered unjustifiably offensive. Bad language is acceptable if it serves your point, but please show some restraint. Pointless comments which serve no viable purpose will be removed. Clintlodger & I are both open minded to and welcome even extreme, unpopular views for the sake of debate. The purpose of our BLOG is to open a forum for everyone to present and debate their viewpoints.

Thanks to AngelFire for providing the webspace for our BLOG!