Faded photographs

More brillance from Ozark Billy

This just in from "The Erstwhile Conservative" (I'll bet he was on the list):

Ozark Billy has weighed in on Obama’s speech.

Here’s a compilation of his brilliant commentary, courtesy of the Springfield News-Leader:

Rep. Billy Long, R-Springfield, said he thought the president was “off.”

“The content, to me, was lacking,” Long said in a post-speech interview.

“We’re in serious, serious problems in this country and we need to cut spending immediately. And he was talking about electric cars,” he said…

Long…said the president should have gone a step further and cut spending, instead of freezing it…

Long was especially disappointed with the president’s call to abolish oil subsidies* and the part advocating bipartisan work on last year’s health care bill, he said.

He liked some of the president’s suggestions, such as medical malpractice reform, which Republicans have championed. But, he said, Obama was late inviting Republicans to the table to discuss health care reform.

“It’s interesting now that he wants our ideas where last year he cut us out totally,” Long said.

And Long, along with his fellow Springfield Republican, Sen. Roy Blunt, criticized Obama’s lack of focus on jobs.

“I didn’t hear what I wanted to hear about cutting spending and creating jobs,” Long said.

Naturally, President Obama should have tailored his speech to please Ozark Billy, or maybe a Boss Hogg hat would have helped.

In any case, according to the News-Leader, “Long sat with members of the South Carolina delegation, including another auctioneer.” That auctioneer is union-basher, Jeff Duncan, and I, for one, believe it is totally appropriate for our respected representative to spend quality time hanging around Republicans from South Carolina.

And I don’t know if Joe “You lie!” Wilson was among the group Ozark Billy sat with, or if Jim “Waterloo” DeMint was nearby, but it is altogether fitting that someone who could say that Obama was “off” last night has all of the qualifications for membership in a rather strange fraternity of goofy Republicans from South Carolina.

__________________________

* Obama ask Congress to eliminate the subsidies because the industry seemed to be doing okay. Here is one example:

ConocoPhillips said Wednesday its fourth-quarter net income jumped 54 per cent as oil prices increased and its refining operations turned a profit.

The Houston company, reported net income of $2 billion, or $1.39 per share, for the final three months of 2010. That compares with $1.3 billion, or 86 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 22 per cent to $53.2 billion.

The sad thing about that is this, from the last summer’s New York Times:

…an examination of the American tax code indicates that oil production is among the most heavily subsidized businesses, with tax breaks available at virtually every stage of the exploration and extraction process…the tax breaks…average about $4 billion per year.

Now, nevermind that it makes no sense for Ozark Billy to get so upset about taking away subsidies for oil companies—southwest Missouri isn’t exactly Saudi Arabia—but to be so upset about that and at the same time whine about government spending is, well, that’s Ozark Billy for ya!

Photographic recreation of Billy Long in an electric car.

Pony for sale, cart and harness too.

Daughter Sara has her pony Pete for sale.

I can't speak for the horse, but the equipment is nice.

More pictures on Sara's blog here. Sara writes:

After much thought and consideration, I have decided to sell my pony Peter. :(

Pony: Named "Pete" 10 hh, Chocolate palamino with one white cornet band, gelding, grade Shetland, 5 years old, green broke to drive, ties, trims, loads, bathes, slightly ornery, would only work for exp. children with supervision, better for an adult, not broke to ride.

Harness: New leather pleasure harness, pony sized, bought new last year for $350

Cart: Bicycle wheeled pony cart, fits Pete, totally redone last summer, new paint, bearings packed, building a new seat for it now

(Harness and cart in picture are my old ones, sold, the set that comes with Pete are MUCH nicer.)

$1000 obo

If we are going to be drug testing anyone,

maybe it ought to be that guy who gave $30,000 to Melissa Leach who in turn is co-sponsor of a birther bill in the MO house.

Who is Melissa Leach? She used to go by Lisa Leach, she lived out west, was born in July, 1960, graduated from MSU in 1994 with an individualized bachelor of science degree, is a single parent who was on food stamps for a while, is a senior fundraiser at Strategic Fundraising, Inc (member of the "Strategic Million Dollar Club" - you may have seen their ads in the SN-L) and she is the state representative in the 137th district in north Springfield.

In a video produced by her campaign, (probably what the $4,200 inkind donation from Rachel Young Design and Photography was used for - but we won't know because line 18 shows -0-) a banner text on the bottom of the screen states: "I support the Tea Party Movement - Taxed Enough Already". Her video is on youtube.

But that still doesn't answer the question of why a Car dealer in Fayatteville, N.C., gave $30,000.00 to a political rookie in Northwest Springfield.

Leach also appears to have the same problem delineating 'in kind' contributions and expenses as does Bob Dixon.

Look it up on the MEC website, her MECID # CO91126

Maybe those ethics reformers in Jefferson City ought to make it a part of the package if you can't vote for a person you can't give her money?

$30,000.00 from a Cadillac dealer in North Carolina! Maybe she met him while she was doing fundraising for the republicans? Maybe they used to date? Maybe he likes her? Maybe it's her brother? Or did he give her thirty grand because she's a teapartier?Photographic recreation of Melissa Leach soliciting.

Talk in the abstract is cheap.

From the New York Times story on Pentagon budget cuts:

In an interview, Representative Vicky Hartzler, a freshman Republican from Missouri who was backed by former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, said that her priorities were jobs and “reining in runaway spending.” But when asked about the Pentagon budget, Ms. Hartzler, who defeated former Representative Ike Skelton, the longtime Democratic chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said that “now is not the time to talk about defense cuts while we are engaged in two theaters with men and women in harm’s way.”

Ms. Hartzler said she questioned the $78 billion in cuts to the military budget over the next five years, and added, “I will be a staunch defender of military installations in my district and across the country.” Ms. Hartzler’s district has two large military bases, Fort Leonard Wood and Whiteman Air Force Base, home to the B-2 stealth bomber and a new ground-control station for unmanned Predator drones.

I miss Ike already.

Flashback February, 2008

Southwest Missouri legislators lead charge to call President Obama a foreigner

From the Turner Report:

Barack Obama is an American.

It is sad that we still have a large number of wild-eyed conspiracy theory addicts who believe that our president has risen to the top of fhe political ladder thanks to a bizarre plan that supposedly originated back when a Hawaii newspaper announced his birth nearly five decades ago.

Now that President Obama has been in office for two years, you would think that this issue would have been put to rest and we would stop wasting taxpayers' money on furthering this mythology.

Sadly, that is not the case in Missouri, and it appears that much of the waste is originating in this corner of the state.

HB 283, filed by Rep. Lyle Rowland, R-Cedarcreek, requires state political committees to certify in writing that their candidates for president and vice president shall be certified and "such certification shall include proof of U. S. citizenship for each nominee."

The Springfield News-Leader reports that Rowland says he believes President Obama is a citizen, and that his bill is for future candidates. Future perhaps as in 2012 when Barack Obama is likely to run for re-election.

At a time when Missouri legislators have professed over and over that the number one priority in this session is jobs, it is amazing just how many ways they are finding to deal with nonsense.

Rowland is far from the only southwest Missourian to attach his name to HB 283. Sixteen representatives are co-sponsoring the measure, including Rep. Mike Kelley, R-Lamar, Kevin Elmer, R-Nixa, Don Wells, R-Cabool, Darrell Pollack, R-Lebanon, Don Phillips, Kimberling City, Shane Schoeller, R-Willard, Barney Fisher, R-Richards, and Melissa Leach, R-Springfield.

The other representatives co-sponsoring the measure, all Republicans, are Stanley Cox, Sedalia, Tom Loehner, Koeltztown; Dave Hinson, St. Clair, Lindell Shumake, Hannibal; Jason Smith, Salem, Andrew Koening, Winchester; and Diane Franklin, Camdenton.

The bill was read for the second time today. It is not on the house calendar at the moment and if the House's Republican leadership has any common sense (and it does), this bill will be buried in committee and never see the light of day.

At a time when Missourians are suffering due to the continuing harmful effects of a downward-spiraling economy, the last thing we need to see is our legislators pandering to the extreme fringes of their constituency.

Put Missourians back to work and put the birthers back under the baseboards where they belong.

In Steve Helms' world "Firearms Equal Freedom"

From the latest issue of Greene County Circuit Clerk Steve Helms' online newspaper comes this column written by Bill McCoy.

Why does the left oppose personal firearms in a democracy? The rise of personal firearms closely correlates with the rise of personal liberty and democracy in Europe and the Americas.

The Second Amendment of the Constitution is in place to protect, defend, and guarantee the First Amendment. Those crafting the Constitution knew well that neither governments, nor militaries or police could be fully trusted and had every intention of assuring that the population of the United States had the means to counter authoritarian attempts.

Prior to the advent of personal firearms, governments’ derived power from the accumulation of political and economic allegiances held in place with armies and politically trusted praetorian guards. The state imposed its will by massing large numbers trained and well-equipped soldiers against populations having only farm implements and stones for defense. Personal firearms rebalanced the algorithm and introduced a new political calculus, intruding on the authoritarian bent of any state.

The progressive left and their government icons represent a new twist on a feudal system replete with modern vassals and suzerains, in reality the foundations of the royalist system that many Europeans took a millennium to defeat. Firearms are the first target of oppressive governments be they ruled by a king or socialist elites. There is no social contract that can stand up to a leftist philosophy which demands a state monopoly on violence and any means to challenge the state.

Loughner’s shots were still echoing in Tucson when the left commenced its attack on Second Amendment rights. Setbacks in Supreme Court cases has required the left to temporarily set aside its frontal attack on firearms and to pursue an oblique strategy against ammunition, magazines, and denying firearms to those judged to be mentally impaired. The Soviet Union was renowned for its incarceration of political dissidents in mental wards, simply because they disagreed with the socialist elites. In the end, whom can we trust with this decision?