So Samson Doesn't Know If He's Running For Governor

Yeah, listening to his interview about "large campaign donors" and "tax breaks for the corporations" tells me he's really leaning toward not running, you know?  SARCASM.

Since he's so unconcerned about social issues, here are a few business issues he should ask.

Should the power of the state be used to compel a person to violate their conscience?

Should the state have oversight of medical operations that require invasive procedures? (Like a certain Dr. Gosnell)

Should the state fine businesses for not using someone's "preferred pronouns?" (Yeah, that's the new thing. It's happening in New York)

Should the state start regulating churches and require that they deviate from their teachings and beliefs? (As was mentioned here on Wednesday in Iowa)

These are questions that an honest state media would ask him. But (spoiler) they won't. Instead, he'll get to pontificate and will always get the last word in. Unfortunately, his opponent will probably be Tate Reeves, who's probably woefully unprepared for the onslaught that he'll face. After all, Hood is pretty much it on the left. There's Brandon Presley, who really, really, really wants you to know about that no-call list, ya'll (The PSC is basically a remnant of the state's 1891 anti-business and, oh yeah, racist constitution, and like your appendix, it might need to come out at some point). But Hood's got the trial lawyers in his pocket, and they're gonna sink or swim with him.

I can see his announcement now. The groundwork has been laid, the move back to Houston, the little law office he's renting. Can't run as an outsider from Jackson, after all. The whole spiel about fighting the robber barons for the little guy. The faux-centrist but-really-trying-not-to-offend-Democratic-intrest-groups-while-not-offending-conservatives schtick. He's thought on it, he's prayed on it. He's going from Samson to Hamlet. He feels that he's got to, for the good of the state. All he'll be missing is R2-D2 with a hologram of the Princess saying he's our only hope.

Hood says he's short $ to defend 1523

Translation: Those sweet, sweet out of state campaign dollars ain't gonna get themselves into his account, folks.

I Can Call Em

So remember when I gave you the Jim Hood playbook?  You remember-"I'm Jim Hood, and I'm against Crime!" (And the implication is that if you're not Samson himself, YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT CRIME).

I turned on my TV this morning, and what did I see?  A Jim Hood ad targeting Mike Hurst for not prosecuting Domestic Violence cases.

Cause that's a federal crime, you know?  (HEAVY SARCASM GUYS).

You know what else Mike Hurst hasn't ever prosecuted?  People who ran against his buddies. You know, like Hood did for Jamie Franks.

Ted Kennedy Dies at 77

Ted Kennedy certainly lived a full life. Dying today at 77, he leaves behind a family, a number of grandchildren, and millions of dollars. He also leaves with a reputation as a statesman and a champion of "health care reform," a bill of which will likely bear his name when it comes to the floor of the Senate.

But in the midst of the sadness for a man who lived to three score and seventeen, we shouldn't forget Mary Jo Kopechne, dead 40 years now. Her life ended at ust 28 years old, and the main reason is Edward Moore Kennedy, who cravenly left her to drown as he swam to safety. A diver sent into the car believed she was alive up to 2 hours after the Senator drove off of a bridge. Had he been Edward Smith or Jones, he likely would have done a nice stretch of time in a penetentiary for his conduct. However, as one of our exalted elites, he was allowed a slap on the wrist. For his negligence, his driver's license was suspended for six months.

Six months of being driven around by other people for killing someone.

So weep for Teddy Kennedy, Lion of the Senate. Weep harder still for the young woman whose life ended because she trusted him, who has been largely forgotten today. It is she, not his years in Washington, that he should be remembered for.

Et Tu, Golden Boy?

Its funny that the Golden Boy decides NOW that galavanting around not doing your job is a bad thing. Too bad that for his entire tenure in Jackson, that's pretty much all he did. Charlie Mitchell is too nice to say it; I'm not.

There's a Claim of The Day if ever there was one.

Momma Always Said There'd Be Days Like These

I have watched the ongoing circus that the Democrat Party has engaged in the last few weeks with the kind of morbid curiosity that you might have when passing a particularly nasty looking wreck on the highway. And I have enjoyed every minute of it.

Putting aside the absurdity of racial, gender, and various other set-asides, the fact that they allowed themselves to get into this situation is proof enough that the entire carload lot of the Democrat party in this state isn't fit to run itself, much less steer the ship of state. When you have the trifecta of the somewhat combative Golden Boy (which is kind of like saying that a lion will kind of eat you), the perpetually nutty Barbara Blackmon, and the criminally corrupt Ike Brown anywhere in the leadership apparatus of the party, how do you not see this train wreck coming?

Really, was Sam Hall (and I Hate You One and All, Damn Your Eyes!) the hill they wanted to die on?

Like I said, how do you not see this coming? Jamie Franks' friends couldn't fill up a phone booth, mostly because he's threatened to whip every ass between Mooreville and Fondren. People who vote for him tend to not know him. Barbara Blackmon's run for Lt. Governor was frought with strangeness, and Ike Brown is a racialist criminal. Only a nut would want to make a cocktail with those ingredients.

Then again, look who we're talking about.

Wait A Minute!

So the Democrat party in this state elected Jamie Franks Jr. to run it last year...and now he needs help?

I thought that he was one of the Great Minds of Our State, having authored every bill to come down the pike since being handed, I mean, elected to, his seat years ago! Surely he doesn't need help. After all, the only reason he lost the Lt. Governor's race last year is because Lloyd Gray, Davy Hampton, and Bobby Harrison all didn't give him enough love in print.

Don't you all remember the Democratic hosannas that were headed his way when elected? Remember the One himself saying that Mississippi could be a Democrat state again? I do. I guess he just needed somebody smarter to pull it off.

If I May Rebut Davy and Nash

Have you guys ever given consideration to the fact that people are leaving the Democrat party these days because the guys in charge are such a bunch of obnoxious jerks?

You've got the Speekah, Samson, the Godfather...not to mention the leadership of the Black Caucus, who are about as polite as a rabid wolverine and as helpful as the IRS. And we haven't even gotten to the Golden Boy, who might not be able to get elected the most popular guy in a phone booth. Maybe Nash and Davy should look at that factor before they bash anyone for leaving the party.

Stop Me If You've Heard This One

Barry Messiah nominated someone with tax problems. I know, I know...first Geithner, then Daschle, then whats her name...and now Ron Kirk, US Trade Representative, seems to have underpaid taxes by 10 grand since 2005.

I guess it was another honest mistake.

No wonder Democrats love higher taxes-they aren't paying them.

Of Bill Minor, Eric Holder, and All Us Cowards

We're all cowards when it comes to a conversation about race, says the Attorney General.

Nobody wants to talk about it, he says. When he says nobody, I assume he means, much like his boss, something else. See, "Nobody" is code for "none of you people." Eric Holder and many with beliefs like him desperately want to have a conversation about race. But the Attorney General and I define conversation differently.

Which brings me to the dinosaur of Mississippi political writers, the somewhat-lucid Bill Minor.

His columns recently have been the typical Minor Race Columns, which blame white, conservative Mississippians for just about every racial problem (and that's being kind-usually, he blames us for problems outside the state too) in the state while giving a pass to anyone of his political inclinations. He ignores fellow fossil David Jordan, a Senator from the Delta, who recently remarked that voter ID was only supported by those whose ancestors owned slaves, and others (white and black) of a similar ideological bent.

Because of this, I figured out what General Holder's idea of a conversation about race is.

See, the Eric Holders of the world, along with the Bill Minors, when he's not chasing down Karl Rove in seedy Biloxi parking garages, get to tell all of us why we're evil racists, and we get to sit there and listen to them. That's what a conversation with Eric Holder and Bill Minor would be like.

And frankly, its a conversation we've been having for a long time. See, the only reason Eric Holder thinks we're 'cowards' for not incessantly talking about race is because most of us, when its brought up, know the lecture is coming. So pardon us regular, non-enlightened folk, General Holder and Mr. Minor, for wanting to bow out. I finished taking lectures when the degree hit my hand. Lectures are for little children who screw up and people who don't know better. I'm neither.

Oh Blago, You So Crazy

The Illinios Felon-in-Cheif has named former Illinios AG Roland Burris to replace President-Elect Messiah in the Senate.

You gotta love it. Nothing like keeping the scandal on the front pages, Blago. A millstone around the neck of Barry Messiah, and now Harry Reid too, who pledged never to seat anyone appointed by Blago. The man sure knows how to put some bleeping people in their bleeping places.

Fight on Blago. Fight on.

I Must Be Experiencing What They Call A Disconnect

Let me see if I understand this correctly after reading this morning's Clarion-Ledger story on potential voting problems.

Jamie Franks Jr, the Golden Boy himself, spent twelve years in the state legislature. During that time, he was responsible, according to him, for everything that came down the pike. But during this time, he never once thought about working on the labyrinth that is our state elections system?

Per Chairman Jamie this morning:

"The cavalcade of confusing and conflicting statements from state officials would baffle every lawyer from Matlock to Perry Mason and could lead to a frustrating experience Tuesday for many Mississippi voters," said Jamie Franks, chairman of the state Democratic Party.

Twelve years in public office, ladies and gentlemen, and this year it became a problem.

Remember that post I made about the Democrat strategy for Mississippi this year? That quote is the first shot being fired. The ground is being prepared to lay every bit of the blame on Secretary of State Hosemann when the whole thing plays out Tuesday. Let's be 100% clear: the "state officials" are all going to be in the Secretary of State's office, not the AG's. The prediction of a "frustrating experience...for many Mississippi voters" probably won't apply in Madison, Rankin, or DeSoto counties.

I called it last week. This is the shot across the bow by the Golden Boy.

We Are Not A Wing of the Democratic Party

Recently I drove by the state headquarters of the Mississippi Association of Educators. In the windows were huge Ronnie Musgrove signs. When I say huge, I mean that they covered most of the window.

People should keep that in mind when they hear of an MAE endorsement or read MAE propaganda. Members should know that their dues don't go entirely to teachers, but in large piles of cash to the Democratic party. They are in effect an organ of the Democratic party.

Since You Won't See It On CNN or MSNBC

Apparently John Galt has donated to the Obama campaign. Why is this newsworthy, you ask?

John Galt is a character in an Ayn Rand novel.

The Obama campaign has been taking donations from people who don't exist, with fake addresses, but from the same credit card, in its online fundraising. Apparently they have disabled any and all security for this kind of thing on their website (this was the case earlier in the day).

How much of last months $150 million that he raked in will have to be sent back? How many people donated multiple times? Why is there no media investigation?

I can't answer the first two but the third is pretty obvious.

National Review has been all over this today. Check this out on NRO.

So Let Me Get This Right

Gas has dropped to under $3 in and around the Jackson Metro, and NOW Samson wants to investigate gas price gouging? One month ago the average gas price in Mississippi was 3.87; a week ago it was 3.34; yesterday it was 3.02.

He wonders why people joke about his propensity to only investigate murders that are 40 years old while ignoring the ones happening right down the street from his office.

By the way, you want to find cheap gas? Here's a site for you:

http://www.mississippigasprices.com/

Just to add: Jamie Franks proposed that the state run a website doing the same thing. Amazingly, the free market beat him to it.

So Monty, A Question...

Is a pay raise more important than declaring a state of emergency so that you could get a new ottoman for the Governor's Mansion?

Just to Get You Ready...

McCain is going to lose Ohio. How can I tell this now, a month out? What poll has given me this insight?

http://www.redstate.com/diaries/redstate/2008/oct/01/oh-sos-rejecting-election-observers/

As Stalin is supposed to have said, It's not who votes that counts, its who counts the votes.

Since the JFP wants to complain...

The lack of a partisan marker on the ballots for Senate, perhaps they'd like to read this little nugget about a special election on the coast.

Yes, that's right: Special elections in Mississippi come with no partisan label. At least until our Intrepid Attorney General decides that they need one. They didn't have a problem with no ID on them for Snidely. Why now?

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080924/NEWS04/80924012/1002/newsfrnt

Timeout for You, Sir

Obama's people don't believe that their man is in danger of losing the election. Today, from Team C.H.A.N.G.E.:

His campaign manager, David Plouffe, was more pointed when asked about the findings at a briefing on Monday, telling a Washington Post reporter, "Your poll is wrong."

Later, Plouffe told the same reporter that he was a "stupid-head" and a "crock of poo-poo." At that point James Carville put him in the corner.

http://news.yahoo.com/story//nm/20080909/pl_nm/usa_politics_women_dc

Monty Goes Back to the Playbook

Monty Rushgrove has apparently gone back to the standard Dem playbook, and has decided that the way to win is to demonize free trade. Its actually not dumb politics, considering how the furniture industry in North Mississippi has contracted. Of course, he forgets to mention that the president who shepherded NAFTA into law was one Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

It isn't smart, however, since one of the big critics of NAFTA is the union establishment-those beacons of integrity-and Wicker has hit him on union ties, and card-check legislation. Mississippi being a very proud right-to-work state, it's a huge gamble.

Every 30-40 years in North Mississippi the economy is going to change. It's a fact of life. We started out as the poorest of the poor in the US, back when rural life was a symbol of poverty. In the 1930s we started our way out, and developed the dairy industry. By the 1960s the economy had shifted toward manufacturing. Its shifting again, now to more heavy manufacturing like Toyota. This inevitably causes pains for those caught in the change, and Monty is hoping to cash in on that in November.

It should be noted that the saving grace of North Mississippi is our Community College system and its non-traditional education programs. In the early 2000s, the JuCo system was wracked by cuts due to the perilous financial straits the state found itself in. Those cuts were made by one Ronnie Musgrove, Governor. This in spite of the fact that his cheif of staff was a Community College president!