Despite a cold decade and recent climate hoax revelations, no other person had more of an impact, for better or worse (see worse in Gore’s case), on life in America and on Planet Earth than the man that never was the next President of the United States.

Gore lacks the courage of Andrew Jackson and the judgement of Richard Nixon

The “naughts” of the Second Millenia, annos domini, began with an unprecedented act in the history of the United States: the retraction of a presidential election concession.

Yes, the Shining City on a Hill had been more divided than it became after Florida 2000 (Fort Sumter 1861 comes to mind), but never in the way the Love Story inventor of the Internet divided us. One would have thought that Bill Clinton’s vice-president was the first candidate in the history of the Republic to garner more popular votes only to lose the Electoral College vote that actually decides who will occupy the unitary executive seat for the following four years. 

He wasn’t, but Gore was the first to so lose and concede,  only then to retract the concession, embroil the nation in a months-long legal battle, concede a second time, and then proceed to roil his true-believers and more in the Democratic Party that his election was “stolen” by a “Republican” Supreme Court that merely applied the 14th Amendment’s requirement of “equal protection of the laws” to the counting of “chads” on ballots in all counties of the Sunshine State.

Not to mention the fact that all of the recounts by the Drive-by media branch of the Democratic party had President George W. Bush winning Florida by more than 500 votes.

Gore showed himself to be the antithesis of all that has made America unique, exceptional and great since Federalist President John Adams relinquised the position of Commander-in-Chief to Democrat President Thomas Jefferson, without rancor.

Gore lacked the courage of a General Andrew Jackson who famously said that one such man makes a majority, but accepted a bitter electoral defeat that was thrown into Congress after he won a substantial popular majority.

Gore can’t even meet the honorable standard of a Richard Nixon in 1960 who probably won the popular vote and the electoral votes of Alabama, West Virginia and Illinois, only to decide to concede the election rather than tear the country apart with provable evidence of fraud in those states.

Prior to September 11, 2001, we couldn’t forsee the consequence of Gore’s divisivness, and then the Towers fell.

Betrayal, playing on fears and the “Bushlied Era”

Despite the fact that the Democratic Party had exuded weakness to the world since at least 1975, there appeared to some to be a backbone of unity among the American people for awhile after 911, but it didn’t take long afterwards, even before the invasion of Iraq, for fissures to appear.

Remember the “why do they hate us” mantra of many on the left, including that specific question asked by Bill Clinton in a speech given while Ground Zero sill smoldered, not  mention his 2003 speech in Davos that praised the Iranian regime.

But the former President was never divisive. The former vice-president defined divisive soon after his Democratic party overwhelmingly authorized the Iraq War based partially on the same US, UK, French and UN intel WMD evidence that Bill Clinton relied upon for Desert Fox and other military actions against Iraq before 911.

Can anyone ever forget the red-faced, screaming at the top of his lungs, expatriot from the Volunteer State declaring  about the Commander-in-Cheif with troops in the feild, that:

“He betrayed this country. He played on our fears.”

That launch of the poisonous 2003-2008 “Bushlied Era” is seared in my memory exponentially more than John Kerry’s imaginary Christmas in Cambodia.

And so is the silence of all fellow Democrats but Lieberman and too many honorable friend Republicans that failed to call out Gore and his ilk as the true betrayer, liar, fear-monger and man most responsible for dividing this country at war and ensuring that the Miracle of Iraq would never be appreciated and the armed forces denied their glory.

Gore, Biden & Obama do not ask forgiveness to this day for their transgressions in perpetuating the Bushlied BIG LIE, despite Bush’s re-election and the progress in Iraq after the surge. And so, they receive no forgiveness from this Rooster, nor do the “good” people who acquiesced in silence.

America is kept safe for eight years after 911 and we essentially win two wars, yet no glory or unity due to Gore et al. Disgrace is too mild a word for the damage they have done to this country and for Liberty around the world.

The Man-Made Global Warming/Climate Change lie that cost the arsenal of freedom good paying jobs, lower energy costs, higher energy supplies and security while funding terror regimes via imported oil.

Some may be surprised that I include the main tenet of Gore’s Anthropogenic Church given that it has yet to be enacted into law as the attack on the poor that it is and since it is in the process of being discredited due to leaks of emails by the scientists perpetuating the fraud.

But the BIG LIE was enormously effective in its impact in what it prevented from happening. The old Soviet Union and Osama bin laden could not have conspired to harm the United States in its national security more than what the Democratic Party did on its own to its own nation.

Whether it was Democrat congressional majorities or President Clinton in the 80s and 90s or a president Obama or Democratic senate filibusters in the 2000s, it was the World’s Oldest Political Party led by Al Gore that kept any new areas for domestic oil and natural gas exploration from being opened up after Three Mile Island in 1978, and for there to be no new nuclear power plants or oil refineries to built after the Exxon Valdez spill that seagulls cleaned up in months.

And so, we find ourselves much more vulnerable to terror sponsoring, oil producing states with still no magic energy bullet. Alchemy turning granite into gold still eludes the liberal think tanks as well, and the only true vision of a Gore-Obama green world would be horse dung in the streets and water and wood burning stove smoke in the air. See Dickens’ novels for that “green” paradise.

What should have been…

Do I believe that America 2009 would be a paradise absent Al Gore and the cultural and political left? No, but surely we would be better off as a nation united against terror; united in exultation over peace on the homeland for eight years; and at work drilling for oil and constructing refineries.

We aren’t because of the Al Gores of the world.

Housing, Greenspan-Bernanke and 2009′s Man of the Year

I haven’t mentioned the economic crisis yet, but even there, it is primarily Gore’s party that kept Fannie and Freddie from being reined in, but I would concede that had it not been for the governmental debt both parties ran up over the past three decades (as well as personal debt by all) and the too easy money/low interest rate policy of the Fed for too long after 911, we might have avoided the 2008 housing bubble/credit crisis that we still suffer the grave consequences of today.

But the fact is that both Bush and McCain tried to rein in the Democrats housing distortions only to be rebuffed by minority filibusters.

We agree, btw, with Time’s choice of Ben Bernanke as having had the most impact on the world in 2009, but we would point to his role in egging on Greenspan from 2002-2006 as more significant in his negative impact on the reality at hand than his admittedly positive actions after the crisis arose.

I never heard Gore come out against forcing banks to make bad loans lest they be accused of racism or bigotry against the poor. Gore owns the Democratic Party and it owns him. Thanks for nothing to both for making the naughts mostly good for naught.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.

Its a rare week when one liberal Democrat, much less two, get apologies right

Former President Jimmy Carter is a Christian.

In fact, he is one of the most famous, publicly declared, Bible-believing Christians of the 20th Century. Sadly, despite his great work in accommodating the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel, he had become a stereotypical charicature from many centuries past of a Christian without much Christian accord for Jews named David.

Incredibly, despite the Spanish Inquisition, Nazi and Soviet Holocausts and multiple Arab war actions against Israel since 1948, Carter has, at least since the mid-70s and continuing thru his recent book comparing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the former apartheid segregation in South Africa, adopted the revisionist, morally equivalent history of the Left. The fact is that Israel has been nothing if not restrained in their responses to war and terrorist acts against them, and the treatment of Palestinians within Israel is better than the treatment of average citizens in any other state in the Middle East.

President Carter had a lot to apologize for, for a very long time, with respect to his rhetoric towards Israel, but has been under no pressure or clamor to do so, given his membership in the Democratic Party.

All of which makes his unsolicited Christmas apology all the more remarkable and appreciated by this announcer of dawns. This rooster regularly announces dawns from Georgia, and we hope this statement by the most famous Georgian alive today is the beginning of a realistic look at Israel and the enemies that surround them:

ATLANTA (AP) – Former President Jimmy Carter apologized for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community in an open letter meant to improve an often-tense relationship.

He said he was offering an Al Het, a prayer said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. It signifies a plea for forgiveness.

“We must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel,” Carter said in the letter, which was first sent to JTA, a wire service for Jewish newspapers, and provided Wednesday to The Associated Press. “As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”

Carter’s apology was welcomed by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a vocal critic of Carter’s views on Israel.

“When a former president reaches out to the Jewish community and asks for forgiveness, it’s incumbent of us to accept it,” he said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem. “To what extent this is an epiphany, only time will tell. There certainly was a lot of hurt, a lot of angry words that need to be repaired. But this is a good start.”

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee could not immediately be reached for comment.

I know, a full mea culpa would be worded differently, and who knows whether the former President’s views have changed, but the most significant aspect of this apology, it seems to this observer, is that obviously President Carter felt personal guilt as a Christian that prompted him to say this.

I accept his apology and hope that everyone else will. That does not mean that carter is given carte blanche for any future unjustified attacks against Israel. If such attacks are forthcoming, then we will call him on them; remind him of this apology; and demand another.

But for Christmas, we accept Carter at his word, and pray that the New Year will find a strong voice added to those that already understand the immoral Palestinian death cult that opposes Israel.

No Obama apology tours since the last one

This Gamecock also welcomes recent military actions at President Barack Obama’s direction against terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen, the last of which has not received enough attention in the press, including especially the conservative press, that should be cheering Obama for actions similar to those taken by former President George W. Bush that caused him to be vilified by the liberal press due to civilian collateral damage and in supposedly “creating terrorists.’ From the AP on December 17:

Yemen’s Houthi fighters say scores of civilians, including many children, have been killed in US air-raids in the southeast of the war-stricken Arab country.

The Shia fighters on Friday reported the deaths of 63 people, including some 28 children, in the southeastern province of Abyan.

Almost 90 people were also injured in the attacks by US warplanes in the village of Bakazam, they added.

Yemen’s southern provinces have recently been the scene of US airstrikes which Washington claims to be aimed at uprooting an al-Qaeda cell operative in the Persian Gulf state.

But the residents of the area dismiss the claims that al-Qaeda members are being targeted in the US attacks, while a Yemeni lawmaker has also called for an investigation into the raids.

The US operation in southern Yemen comes on top of a joint Saudi-Yemeni military campaign in the country’s war-weary north where Sana’a and Riyadh forces are engaged in a fierce fighting against the Houthi fighters.

The Houthis are terrorist proxies of Iran, similar to their Hamas and Hezbo counterparts in Palestine and Lebanon, respectively.

How long will the United States continue to refuse to take the war Iran is waging against the West to Iran proper? I don’t know, and quite frankly have had this complaint about American foreign policy since at least the Khobar Towers attack in the 90s and especially since the Quds forces alliance with Iraqi separatists in attacks against the U.S. armed forces in Iraq.

But tha U.S. attacks inside Yemen (similar to some actions taken by Bush soon after 911 in Yemen) are a great step forward for an Obama known more for turning his back on the oppessed in Iran and reaching out in apologetic terms to the mullah terrorists of Iran.

Bravo this time Mr. President, and bravo to your continuing drone attacks in Pakistan; military actions in Afghanistan; and continuing progress in Iraq.

A.J. Strata wonders if the Ft. Hood incident and increasing attempted attacks against the U.S. on planes and on the ground might be a sign that Obama’s Administration is dropping the ball on homeland security. It certainly would not be surprising to learn that FBI and CIA lawyers and agents were gun shy about defending the nation given the expostfactObamalism threats against the Justice Department lawyers and interrogators that kept us safe for 8 years after 911 under President Bush.

Hopefully Obama will realize that killing terrorists and preventing them from having the publicity of successful attacks killing Americans does more to prevent the creation of new terrorists that apology tours or Abu Ghraib obsessions.

The threat from Iran is acute, and not just because of their ongoing nuclear threat development. Iran has been the number one sponsor of terror since 1979 and are presently in an armed stand-off with our Iraqi allies over possession of an oil well, on Iraqi territory.

Obama now needs to heed Charles Krauthammer’s advice and apologize to the Iranian people.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.

Grading the 2009 legal, political and sports prognostications of Cockstradamus

Its that time of year again when Mike DeVine Law gamecock turns over this treasured space to his rooster oracle, Cockstradamus (pictured).

Last week we issued our sports predictions for 2010 and look forward to seeing Tiger tee off in Augusta, as happens every Spring. Between now and New Year’s Day we will make our legal and political visions for 2010 known in this space and DeVine Law will return to announce his persons of the year and decade as well as other awards.

Today, we review last year’s predictions and results, keeping in mind that we still have seven days to go. All of last year’s visions may be reviewed here. My comments on selected prognostications:

• We correctly foresaw the lowering of the oceans on President Barack Obama’s watch, which occurred, incredibly, without the passage of the cap and trade high energy price hike attack on the poor and middle class.
• Not to worry though, Obama still got to teach us a lesson with his non-stimulus, government growthulus bill which did save over 151 million jobs. Why do I say that? Because over 90% of Americans still have their jobs. Hence, Obama “saved” them. We correctly predicted that unemployment would top 10% on December 31, 2009.
• So far, however, despite the ocean manipulation, Barack has not changed his name to Moses, but he did re-claim his middle name of Hussein, and is investigating the availability of a more messianic moniker than that of the great lawgiver.
• Also correctly divined were Turkey and Syria’s withdrawal from Iraqi Kurdistan and the Tar Heel’s March Madness triumph. Union card check was not enacted into law and comprehensive health care reform was not made law….yet.
• Obama was not caught on film puffing a Kool on White House grounds, but only because the press was diverted by uninvited guests.
• Finally, Congress did re-impose restrictions on expanded oil exploration, but our crystal ball was cloudy with respect to the World Series and NBA finals.

But this rooster never missed a dawn!

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.

Again violating it’s promise and guarantee of transparency, the White House has moved to block the testimony of former top aide to First Lady Michelle Obama, Jackie Norris.

Republican efforts to interview a former top aide to Michelle Obama in the controversial case of a fired inspector general have been stymied by the White House, the the top Republican looking into the case said Tuesday

The White House counsel’s office has blocked Republican investigators from interviewing Jackie Norris, former chief of staff for the first lady, about President Obama’s dismissal of former AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin.

Republican investigators from the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform have wanted to question Norris — who is now senior adviser to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that oversees AmeriCorps — since they discovered earlier this month that she met with Alan Solomont, chairman of CNCS on June 9, the day before Walpin was fired.

Solomont was heavily involved in the Walpin firing, according to the Washington Examiner, which first reported the response by the first lady’s office.

The White House move was revealed in a letter sent Monday to Norris by Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the oversight panel.

“Our request to meet with you was denied by (Corporation for National and Community Service) general counsel Frank Trinity,” Issa wrote to Norris. “Mr. Trinity told my staff that the White House counsel’s office has advised him that they were not permitting the corporation to make you available for an interview.

“The White House has averred that you had no role whatsoever in the president’s decision to prevent your testimony. If the information provided by White House officials is true, it follows that no colorable claim of executive privilege should impede your cooperation with the committee,” he continued.

Issa said in a statement Tuesday that he does not see a difference between this case and Democrats’ pressing the political nature of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys under President George W. Bush.

Judaical Watch has more at their Corruption Chronicles blog:

Norris is currently a senior advisor at the organization that oversees AmeriCorps, the country’s national services program which annually receives millions of federal dollars to conquer everything from illiteracy to affordable housing and the environment. During his tenure as inspector general, Walpin exposed a multi million-dollar fraud scheme in AmeriCorps’ most expensive program, a teaching fellow project at the City University of New York, and he busted a Sacramento charity, operated by a powerful Obama ally who happens to be the city’s mayor, for misusing nearly $1 million in federal grants.

The mayor (Obama pal Kevin Johnson) illegally used the money to pay volunteers for political activities, run personal errands and even wash his car. Johnson, a former professional basketball player, acknowledged that there “may have been administrative errors” and reached a settlement with federal prosecutors to repay about half of the money. This certainly indicates that Walpin did his job of rooting out government fraud, waste and abuse quite efficiently.

It also explains why Obama has yet to come up with a valid reason—other than retaliation for busting his corrupt friend—to fire Walpin. The president violated a law that safeguards the independence of government agency watchdogs and the Democratic senator (Missouri’s Claire McCaskill) who authored the measure blasted the commander-in-chief for removing an inspector general who exposed widespread waste in taxpayer-financed community service groups.

Vindication rooster crowing is sweet and this is how the Reagan Revolution began

Within hours of Dem-o-bat Ben Nelson’s cave on ending debate on socialized medicine for America, we bemoaned the fading away of the America we grew up in and apologized to Huckleberry Hound for using his image to identify the mythical moderate elected to serve in D.C. democrat, with one exception. We wrote on Sunday:

The only true blue dawgs are Parker Griffith (D-AL) in the U.S. House of Representatives, who voted against the Stimulus, Cap and Trade and ObamaCare and who vows to vote against Nancy Pelosi as Speaker if he wins re-election in 2010; and Huckleberry Hound in the Dog House.

Lone Blue Dawg switches to GOP and then there were none

Today, Parker Griffith (D-AL) reached the tipping point even Zell Miller never found:

HUNTSVILLE, AL — U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith said he can no longer align himself with a party that doesn’t represent his values.

Griffith, D-Huntsville, officially announced his decision to switch to the GOP in a 1 p.m. press conference at his home. Griffith, a medical doctor, cited his opposition to the health care reform bill and the national debt as two factors that led to his decision.

“I now believe I have to go further and stand with a party that is more in tune with my beliefs and convictions,” Griffith said. “This was not an easy decision for me.

“I take this step because I believe our nation is at a crossroads and I can no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy, and drives us further and further into debt.”

Griffith voted with Republicans on major issues such as health care reform, the “cap and trade” climate bill, Obama’s first budget and the stimulus bill.

Welcome home Parker!

These are the moments conservatives should live for. In America, good laws get passed and bad laws get repealed only thru parties, and the left has resided in the DemParty for over 70 years and has owned it at least since 1975, so that, the only chance America has is if conservatives re-take the party Reagan built.

The “R” matters, and Griffith’s big four votes justifies our embrace of him.

Some political hope for Christmas, much like the hope that accompanied conservative icon Phil Gramm’s switch in the 80s. Reagan and Gamecock were also democrats before they saw the light and came into the Party of Lincoln, and of course, Lincoln was a Whig before he was a Republican.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

This is truly unbelievable – President Obama said today: “But as I’ve said, in the long run, we can’t continue to spend as if deficits don’t have consequences; as if waste doesn’t matter; as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Transcript here:

When my administration walked through the door, the country faced a growing economic downturn as well as a deepening fiscal hole. Washington had passed massive tax cuts for the wealthy (producers) and an expensive new entitlement program without paying for any of it. Health care costs continued to rise, year after year. And little effort was made to cut wasteful spending. As a result, over the previous eight years, the national debt doubled — doubled. In January, the deficit stood at $1.3 trillion. And we had to make the difficult decision to add to the deficit in the short term to prevent the potential collapse of our economy.

But as I’ve said, in the long run, we can’t continue to spend as if deficits don’t have consequences; as if waste doesn’t matter; as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money. That’s what we’ve seen time and time again. Washington has been more concerned about the next election than the next generation. It’s put off hard choices in spending bill after spending bill, budget after bloated budget.

H/T to Gateway Pundit

And how many of us would still be alive, if tomorrow, we started doing everything right to restore it?

Socialist tipping point

The only true blue dawgs are Parker Griffith (D-AL) in the U.S. House of Representatives, who voted against the Stimulus, Cap and Trade and ObamaCare and who vows to vote against Nancy Pelosi as Speaker is he wins re-election in 2010; and Huckleberry Hound in the Dog House. (My apologies to the the Hound for the past use of his image to represent such a sorry lot. This will be his last appearance in columns related to that mythical creature called the moderate Democrat.)

Yesterday’s caving of Ben Nelson joining the other 59 yellow dawg Dem-o-bats on ending debate on socialized medicine, may well be the tipping point of no return from the end of the Miracle that began in 1776.

The fact is that America can not be protected from the Left is they elect Democrats to make laws, and certainly the return of the Democrats to congressional power in 2007 and to filibuster-proof super-majorities in 2009 sealed the vote ObamaCare.

The GOP can’t do as a minority, what they didn’t prevent in the majority, but let’s not delude ourselves that our failures are the proximate cause of the precipice we are falling off of.

What set the stage for American voters to put this crowd in power, especially after the Reagan Revolution?

Was it FDR and New Deal or was it the Republican majorities and Ike who acquiesced in the fact of Big Government in the 50s?

Was it LBJ and the Great Society, or was it Nixon’s expansion of same?

Was it the failure of conservatives to occupy positions in academia, the press and other cultural institutions before and after Rush Limbaugh?

Was it the puniness of Newt’s Contract with America, or was it too late by then, not to mention was it too late by the time Dubya and Delay got power?

Do enough Americans have the right stuff to save us?

When even conservative members of the armed forces won’t protect themselves from obvious dangers at Fort Hood; students instructed to draw a picture about Christmas are sent for psychiatric counseling for drawing a picture of Christ; and when even Sean hannity buys the liberal health care narrative so much that he favors forcing private insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, I have to wonder of the political correctness and economic ignorance long ago reached a tipping among We the People, that the slouching towards Gomorrah that Robert Bork wrote of is inexorable.

McCain’s honorable friends and Coburn as the atom bomb

Laws are made in Congress, where representatives cast votes. Most members cast votes like those in their party and having the majority determines what gets votes on.

Since the 70s, the votes cast by the vast majority of Democrats have not only been wrong, but have been hostile to American values and usually in favor of policies already shown to be failures.

The Party has also been un-patriotic in foreign policy.

Yet, Republicans still call them honorable friends and most of the public views the parties as not having a dime’s worth of difference between them, which is a damnable lie?

But who can blame them when Democrats regularly accuse the GOP of being heartless towards the weak at home and warmongers abroad, while nice little Republicans shrug and suggest that their honorable friends just have a disagreement.

A friendly disagreement? I guess that what Patrick Henry had with King George? Not!

What passes for tough action now is when Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) forces a clerk to read a long bill, and then, only at the 11th hour. Couldn’t we have shut down the socialist law-making machine via refusals to grant unanimous consent before Friday and even now?

The miracle may not have been sustainable

But I have to temper my criticism of our champions in elected office when I remember that America’s past 200+ years is THE LONE Liberty miracle of the past 5000 years and that its all been damage control since Eve bit the apple.

Affluence weakens a people. Liberty brings on affluence. See the problem?

And we certainly can’t prolong the miracle when we won’t draw the obvious sharp lines between us and our opponents.

Pilgrim’s Progress

As a Christian, I have felt a tension concerning how I should economize the use of my time for God’s will. I am not of the school of thought that advocates isolation from the secular world. I am of the other school, yet, given that most Christians lived under circumstances alien to the 200+ -year mircale we call America, I wonder if it isn’t time to re-evaluate my time management?

There are only 24 hours in the day, and given the cultural rot that made the Cornhusker cave-in and Hannity’s ignorance  possible, is it time for conservatives to spend more of their time addressing that culturerather than politics and, not to mention, trying to make enough money to eat?

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.

Bill Clinton didn’t resign and Tiger won’t skip Augusta

Its that time of year again for New Year predictions, past year awards, and a review of last year’s predictions, hence, Cockstradamus fills in for the vacationing Braves-Gamecock for the sports prognostications for 2010.

1. Alabama Crimson Tide will roll over the Not-Long-enough-Horns of Texas in the BCS bowl and share the mythical national championship with the winner of the slap-in-the-face-to-mid-majors-Fiesta Bowl.
2. Saints go marching home as Vikings defeat Colts in Super Bowl.
3. Kentucky Wildcats defeat Duke Blue Devils in March Madness and then join the NBA so as to end the inefficiency of current Calipari farm system.
4. Tiger Woods interrupts Cartoon Channel marathon in Orlando for a week-long sojourn in Georgia; cancels previously scheduled dates with Hooters waitress; and makes long distance call to Sweden to hear DaDa coos.
5. Lakers defeat Hawks for NBA Championship and Chicago Blackhawks beat Washington Capitals for Stanley Cup.
6. The Atlanta Braves exact revenge from the 90s, win World Series over New York Yankees.

Athletes of the Decades: Bonds, Bryant and Brady

Braves-Gamecock has no qualms with Tiger as the athlete of the 2000-naughts decade, nor with Lance Armstrong as runner-up, but think that the steroids-scandal deprived a team sports participant of a higher vote-getter. Barry Bonds would probably have finished higher than Tom Brady had he remained clean. Kobe Bryant was the player of the decade in basketball.

Cockstradamus says the leaders for athlete of the 2010s decade on December 31st next year will be: Brian McCann, Joe Johnson and Calipari’s next recruit.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Iran has invaded Iraq

This is an act of war by Iran against the United States:

Begin AFP story

NASIRIYAH, Iraq (AFP) – Iranian forces took control of a southern Iraqi oil well on a disputed section of the border on Friday, US and Iraqi officials told AFP.

“There has been no violence related to this incident and we trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between the governments of Iraq and Iran,” a US military spokesman told AFP at Contingency Operating Base Adder, just outside the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.

“The oil field is in disputed territory in between Iranian and Iraqi border forts,” he said, adding that such incidents occur quite frequently.

An official of the state-owned South Oil Co in the southeastern city of Amara, and west of the field, said: “An Iranian force arrived at the field early this morning (Friday).

“It took control of Well 4 and raised the Iranian flag even though the well lies in Iraqi territory,” the official added.
 

End AFP story

It appears that the Obama Administration doesn’t get it. America can expect escalating aggression against us in the near future  so long as President Barack Obama continues to send a message of weakness abroad.

What we need to hear is Bugs Bunny’s that, “of course you know, this means war” refrain.

But Obama isn’t Bugs. He’s a Dumbo.

More later on the Iranian threat since 1979 and especially the seeming blindness to the gravity of the threat  today, here, over the weekend.