President Obama is avoiding the white house at every opportunity. He is taking days off for vacations every few weeks, and when he is not vacating, he is fling around the country (at our expense) talking to those who give him the most support.

I think he has figured out that he is not up to the job, that everything he does turns out bad. I suspect that he does not want to be president any more.

When the Republicans seize Congress in November, I expect him to use that as an excuse to withdraw from active participation in policy and just ride out his remaining months in office. It will come as a complete surprise to me if he seeks a second term. He is being compared to Jimmy Carter, but he may think more like Lyndon Johnson.

Maybe the draft Hillary people have a strong insight into Osama’s mind. If he steps aside, Hillary’s nomination in the Democratic convention is almost a done deal.

I wish to express my support and encouragement to Michael Douglas in his battle with cancer. I know just how painful and debilitating the disease is. I have had two of them. I also know that they can be defeated. As of now, I am cancer free.

I hope his doctors are making it clear to him that recovering from the treatment can take longer than recovering form the disease. The loss of energy, especially, can take a long time to recover. I started treatments four years ago and I still have a significant lack of energy and motivation. I have to make myself get out of the chair and go do physical work. Then I have to take frequent rest breaks. Of course my age contributes to that problem.

To the rest of you, please get tested regularly, keep watch over your body and have any unusual symptoms checked immediately. The secret of winning over cancer is to detect it early. Not only does early detection and treatment improve your chances of a cure, it also reduces the amount of “collateral” damage to your body. Remember that both chemotherapy and radiation cause harm to you. The goal if the therapy is to kill the cancer while limiting damage to healthy tissues. The key word there is “limit”

I encourage another effective treatment for cancer, prayer. There were numerous people and groups who offered prayers for my healing and I am convinced that they made a difference. Thank you. I urge all of you to pray for Michael Douglas and all other cancer victims. When we fight that disease, we need all the help we can get.

In a recent article about the Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the site and the date that Martin Luther King gave his “I Have A Dream” speech, the writer quoted Al Sharpton as saying: “We're not giving them this day. This is our day, and we ain't giving it away.”

The “we” And “our” Sharpton referred too is the black community. While accusing Beck and his supporters of racism out of one side of his mouth, he clearly was claming the day and space was the property of the black race. Sharpton, then, is clearly the racist.

Left wing reporters made a big deal over the fact that most of Beck’s audience was white. They ignored the fact that ALL of Sharpton’s audience was black. They took careful note of the religious nature of Beck’s program at the same time that they carefully referred to Sharpton as Reverend.

I have said it many times, and I will say it again. A racist is a racist no matter the color of the racist. Racism was rampant in Washington last Saturday. Everywhere, that is, except for Glenn Beck’s gathering.

“Red Clay

August 11th, 2010
7:04 pm

Barnes has to be kidding. Just the flag issue should sink him. I know the libs love that, but in reality he found a way to circumvent and override the wishes of the majority of people in Ga that wanted to keep the 56 flag. He is a dictator . . . . . . . ”

My sainted grandmother always said that we should find something good to say about everyone. I have had a problem following that advice when it comes to President Obama. Just as I feared when he was elected, his presidency is proving to be a disaster.

There is one thing that I can say for the current president. He is removing a curse from the State of Georgia. Until now, Georgia has had the sad record of producing our nation’s worst president, Jimmy Carter. But Obama is quickly making Carter look outright capable.

Remember that Carter left office under a very dark cloud. Our economy was pathetic. Carter himself described the nation as being “in a malaise.”

He was no better in international affairs. It was under his presidency that the criminal government of Iran seized and jailed the staff of the U.S. Embassy. When they finally agreed to release the prisoners, they deliberately embarrassed Carter by putting them on a plane, and keeping the plane on the runway until Ronald Reagan took the oath of office before it was allowed to depart.

So I say “thank you” to President Obama. Thanks to him, Georgia will no longer be the home of our worst president.

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been found guilty of one charge of lying to federal agents, but the jury was unable to decide on the remaining twenty three charges. Now the Feds want to retry the case.

I think they tried to do too much at one time and managed to confuse the jury. They should have gone about this the redneck way, one step at a time.

Lets say that your roof is leaking in a dozen places. But you do not have enough shingles to repair the whole roof at the same time. You are short of nails, and a new storm is approaching. What do you do? You use the shingles, nails and available time to repair the largest hole first. Then you look around for more shingles, nails and dry weather to tackle the next largest hole.

The feds ought to have devoted their resources to trying Blagojevich for the moss serious charge, and left the rest of them for a later trial. Had they done that, it is much more likely that the jury would have understood the case at hand and the chances of a conviction would have been greater.

Now they have to spend all that money, time and energy over again in a second attempt to do it right. Sometimes we rednecks have the better way.

Well, here we go again! Eight years ago we the voters of Georgia were unhappy with the way the then governor, Roy Barnes, was running the state. He made the teachers mad, he made many of our small businessmen mad, and he especially made the Southern Heritage people mad about his refusal to allow the 1956 Georgia flag onto the ballot when the state was deciding whether to keep that flag or to change it. Roy Barnes made so many people mad that they voted him out of office after only one term.

Now, eight years later, he is back. Once again he wants to be governor and run the state according to his political views without regard to the desire of the majority of our citizens He is running TV adds bragging about his “experience,” saying that he would be a governor who did not have to learn on the job.

All of Roy Barnes’ ads talk about going back to the way it was when he was governor. That is the problem. We have already rejected his ideas of government, and I think we will reject them again. But if Roy and his hand full of supporters want to waste their time, energy and money on another attempt to seize control of Georgia, let them. Maybe the price they will pay for their failure will convince them to leave governing to the people where it belongs.

A Republican congressman, John Shadegg of Arizona, says all bills introduced in Congress should include a statement setting forth the specific constitutional authority under which a law is being enacted. I have long held that position.

Every bill written by Congress ought to have a preamble that states the exact purpose of the bill, and the constitutional authority that allows congress to take the action.

In addition, each bill ought to address one single subject and do so in a clear uncluttered way. I suggest that every bill from Congress be limited to no more words than are contained in the Constitution, bill of rights and the amendments. I am of the opinion that such a law would reduce the size of government by about 80% of its current size, and cut an equal amount out of the federal budget.

Thomas Jefferson was right when he said that “Those who govern best, govern least.”

A single federal judge in California has over ruled eight million of that state’s voters by declaring that a law prohibiting same sex marriages is unconstitutional. I have re read my pocket constitution and I cannot find anything in there that allows the federal government to regulate marriages.

I think the judge is correct but not for the reasons he gave. I think that a marriage is a religious ceremony and as such belongs to the church, not government. Every major religion has rules and regulations about marriage. If you hold that there should be “A wall of separation” between church and state, then “marriage” “wedding” “nuptials” or any other words describing a religions celebration uniting a couple should not appear in government documents.

Government can, and should, maintain copies of contracts between two or more people of whatever sex determining their joint responsibilities and call them “domestic contracts.” They can even recognize a ceremony performed by a minister, rabbi or priest as a domestic contract, but never as a marriage.

And there ought to be no limits to such contracts. If two people of the same sex want such a contract, they have the right to draw it up and sign it. Or if two women want to share a home with a man, or vice versa, they also have the right to do so.

If these same people want their “union” to be recognized as a marriage, then they need to find a minister, priest or rabbi willing to perform the ceremony. The spiritual aspects of that union are the business of the religions body authorizing it, not the government.

It is no mystery why our children are falling behind the rest of the world in quality education. We simply do not have time to teach them the fundamentals, like reading, writing and ‘arithmetic. We are far too busy teaching them about birth control and male enhancement.

Now the teachers unions in Milwaukee are demanding that the taxpayers finance Viagra and other “erectile dysfunction” drugs and devices as part of the teacher’s health benefits. That comes after a recent story about some other northern schools who are giving condoms to their young students without the knowledge or approval of the parents

We often see stories about sexual contact between teachers and students even though most states have ridged laws about such contact. This story will give credence to such stories making parents ever more reluctant to place their children under the influence of teachers. No wonder home schooling is on the increase!