Almost two years ago to the day, ANTIbvbl.net was formed. We experienced immediate and continued success and have provided a valuable place for the expression of differing viewpoints while maintaining a sense of public decency and decorum. It has always been reassuring to observe differing viewpoints presented in a respectful manner. Clearly, nobody is going to agree 100% of the time on all issues but differences can be debated civilly.

For quite some time Moonhowler & Elena have been responsible for the daily operations of ANTIbvbl. During that time frame they have been extremely successful as evident by a 25% increase in traffic to the website. Also, the level of commentary exceeds levels registered on any other local blogs. Congratulations to them for a job well done.

I am pleased to announce the birth of a new blog, Moonhowlings.net. I am convinced it will be tremendously successful in its endeavor to continue to provide relevant information and a forum for lively commentary.

Laziness prevails.  The winds are already strong.  Flights are cancelled.  Now we are winded in, rather than snowed in.  Be on the look out for changes in attitude changes in lattitude.

Tilikum the Killer Whale turned killer again yesterday. He dragged 40-year old trainer Dawn Brancheau into the water and killed her in front of horrified spectators. Yesterday’s incident was not the first time this killer whale has killed. There have been 2 other incidents, one in British Columbia in 1991. 

According to the Orlando Sentinal:

Witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that the animal suddenly grabbed Brancheau by the upper arm, tossed her around in his mouth and pulled her beneath the water as dozens of tourists looked on in horror.

Trainer Dawn Brandheau was an experienced trainer and had worked with this animal many times before. 

Sea World says it has no plans to put this animal down.  Animal training experts were somewhat shocked by this news.  Other animals who kill in captivity are usually euthanized as a matter of public safety.  Lions and tigers, elephants, and other animals often kept in captivity are nearly always put down.  Dogs are put down.  Apparently Tilikum will not be. 

Should any animal who has killed humans 3 times be euthanized?  What should happen in this case?  Frankly, I am shocked.  I would think at the very least this animal would be returned to the wild.  It is unclear if this animal was born in captivity or not.

Huffington Post:

On Wednesday, former presidential candidate and Fox host Mike Huckabee pushed back at conservative bloggers who were “uncivil” about his recent decision to bring First Lady Michelle Obama onto his show to talk about her campaign to fight child obesity.

Huckabee’s show was the first lady’s debut appearance on Fox News, and there was considerable push back from viewers. “Some bloggers, it seemed, wanted me to bring her on my show only if I yelled at her. Or it seemed they wanted me to hit her,” Huckabee told a crowd in Wichita, Kansas.

The Wichita Eagle reports:

[Huckabee] said he disagrees with nearly every policy position of her husband, but that attacking people doesn’t accomplish anything. The viciousness of attacks from all sides, he said, are “disgusting … the anger and the meanness.”

Mediaite reports that Michelle Obama’s appearance on Huckabee gave the show its lowest ratings of 2010.

I like to bring Mike Huckabee out as a shining star every once in a while.  Huckabee respresents a decency I like.  Could I probably vote for him?  No.  He is far too conservative politically for me.   But I can like him.  Like goes a long way.   When I feel like I am getting too partisan (and Marshall-gate has made me feel that way.) the decency of Mike Huckabee restores my sense of equilibrium. 

Mr. Huckabee loves music and his band, the Little Rockers do a good job of highlighting artists who are not the stars of today.  The Little Rockers are building employees at Fox News.

We need more Mike Huckabees who always represent civility in politics. In many ways, Huckabee admonishes us all as bloggers also. As we sit behind our computer screens, would we say some of the things that come out of the ends of our fingers to a person’s face?  On Anti-bvbl, probably 95% of the time, yes.  Those who virulently attack others usually don’t make it ‘out on the floor’ of this blog.  However, not all blogs can make that claim.     Mike Huckabee is a standard we all can admire whether we agree with his politics or not.  Mike Huckabee is a gentleman.

So far the new Republican regime is off to a rocky start. It seems that  the Moderate McDonnell was really a cultural warrior.  I wish that hadn’t happen.  I was trying to support him.

Unfortunately, Marshall-gate has captured national attention.  He has tried to explain his words but having failed at that, he is now blaming  Capital News Service for misinterpreting his comments.

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

After first blaming himself, Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, now is accusing a student-run media service of misinterpreting comments he made last week that suggested that disabled children were a form of punishment for women who had abortions.

In a floor speech today, the General Assembly’s most prominent abortion foe said he used a poor choice of words but never made the comment the Capital News Service said he made.

CNS is run by students at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Urging a prohibition against state funding of the pro-choice Planned Parenthood, Marshall told a news conference last week that “the number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children.”

He continued: “In the Old Testament the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”

In its opening paragraph, CNS reported Marshall “says disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy.”

Read more…

According to the Huffington Post:

Today, the Pentagon employs more than 217,000 contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, doing the kind of work that enlisted military personnel would have performed in the past, according to a Congressional Research Service report.

Now, there’s a move in Congress to change that. On Tuesday, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) introduced the Stop Outsourcing Security Act, which would make it the military’s responsibility to use its own personnel to train troops and police, guard convoys, repair weapons, run military prisons and do military intelligence activity.

There are strategic reasons to move away from a reliance on contractors, says Schakowsky, a senior member of the intelligence committee. They damage the U.S. reputation with reckless behavior, are overly costly and hurt the morale of troops, who see private guards earning much more money than they do.

Many people tend to look at the military contractors has a big USA investment. They have gotten their training from our military. After the troops serve their time, they retire and sign up with a military contractor such as Blackwater, and make 4 to 5 times more money than if they were with our military.

Other critics fault the lack of discipline and the fact that the military and the contractors have 2 different set of rules of engagement.

How do our contributors feel about the United States scaling back its use of military contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq? Is this a good thing? Will it help troop moral to not have those making the big bucks doing the same jobs?  Should this scaling back be done during a war?  Why did Blackwater change its name?

Note: Blackwater has changed its name to XE.

Jon arrived a little early this week. You know, too much weekend.

Part 2 Rage Within the Machine – Progressivism

The GOP filibuster failed to materialize after 5 brave Republicans cast procedural votes in favor of the Democratic jobs bill.  Newly elected Scott Brown on Massachusetts led the charge and 4 other Republicans followed his lead:  Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and  Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.).  Sen. Bond is retiring.

The Democrats ended up with 62 votes, 2 more than needed to avoid filibuster.  according to Huffington  Post:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) thanked the newly-elected Republican from Massachusetts. “I hope this is the beginning of a new day here in the Senate. Whether this new day was created by the new Senator from Massachusetts or some other reason, I’m very, very happy that we were able to get this done. But there are some winners. Not any individual Senator, not Democrats or Republicans. The winners are small business people throughout this country.”

Senator Voinovich spoke with Senate Majority Leader  Harry Reid to make certain a surface transportation reauthorization bill was brought to the floor this year.  Reid Agreed.  The Republican senators didn’t seen to be too worried about what the minority leadership said or thought. 

Voinovich, who was patted on the back by a grateful Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) after the vote, said that he could see himself working jointly with Brown and Democrats for the remainder of the term.

“I think he and I are going to do a lot of music together,” said Voinovich. “My vote was reflective of what I thought made sense.”

Voinovich didn’t stick around for any loyalty lectures after his vote. “I have no idea,” said Voinovich when asked what leadership thought of his vote. “I voted and took off.”

Brown also said that he had “no idea” how the rest of his colleagues would vote. But it was good enough for him. “It’s not a perfect bill. I would have liked broader and deeper tax cuts, but I was comfortable with that first vote,” said Brown.

Of the 41 Republicans, 29 opposed the measure, while six skipped the vote. More Republicans skipped the vote than voted in favor.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), meanwhile, muddled the message of Democratic unity behind the jobs bill. He voted against it.

Those who did the happy dance over the election of Scott Brown the other week are probably scratching their heads wondering what happened.  It looks like the Republicans have themselves another. ‘maverick’.'  So what will the minority party do about its new kid in town?  He obviously isn’t going to behave himself.

Senator Reid played a little hard ball when he made a direct challenge:

 ”So to my Republican colleagues, here is your chance. Show us you’re serious about legislating. Show our constituents you’re serious about leading. Show the skeptics that you know putting people back to work is far more important than putting points up on the political scoreboard.”

Another article people have to read for themselves appears below, therefore it is posted in its entirety.  We are not going to comment from the post.  All 3 moderators do not agree on the topic of abortion.  Therefore, we will not comment from the post. 

UPDATE:  Thread titled changed.  I just found that too offensive to have sitting there on this blog. 

From The Gainesville Times:

Lawmaker: Disabled kids are god’s punishment

 

February 22, 2010 – 11:27am

Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W. Bush, and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has spoken out on Face the Nation about national security and whether we are as safe now as we were under former President Bush.  Powell says yes.  Very little has changed under President Obama and most of the policies put in place by President Bush are still in place. 

“To suggest that somehow we have become much less safer because of the actions of the administration, I don’t think that’s borne out by the facts,” Powell said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Colin Powell also stated:

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was also created under President Bush, “and it is still under President Obama, working hard,” Powell continued. “Our counterterrorism authorities and forces are hard at work. Our law enforcement officials are hard at work. We have gone after the enemy in Afghanistan with 50,000 more troops, more predators are striking al-Qaida and Taliban leaders in Pakistan. We have continued the policies that President Bush put in place with respect to Iraq. And so I don’t know where the claim comes that we are less safe.”

Powell is a Republican.  He  shocked many Americans by eventually supporting then Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the presidential bid, ultimately throwing his support to Obama.  He said he liked and respected Republican candidate John McCain but he felt he was unsure on the economy and he didn’t feel Sarah Palin was ready to take over as president, which is the VP’s job.

Powell’s discussion on security begins about 10:00

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Powell reminds us of the need to search for compromise.  He feels our system is in some disarray.  Powell has always seemed like the voice of reason and truly a person of the people.  He speaks to  concerns over military trials over criminal trials.   Colin Powell is a smart man.  I always find him to be reassuring. 

It seems that our politicians get crucified by their base if they compromise.  The American voter has to get over this idea that compromise is tantamount to caving in.  If we don’t learn to accept compromise and common ground, then we simply need to begin procedings to divide the country.  It is absolutely ridiculous to never get anything done because congress fears that compromise will get them thrown out of office.

As a response to Glenn Beck’s yearning for another time, perhaps John Oliver has the answer. 

Jon Stewart and John Oliver seek to find the good old days.  They are trying to go back to those simpler times when life was good in American.  Could it be that those days simply do not exist? 

Stewart and Oliver both discover that the reason Americans have such nostalgia over the good old days is because they were children.  Most children had much simpler lives.  They remember the good and don’t dwell on the bad.  Is this true for all children?  No.  But somehow most kids are resilient and seem to have good memories.

For those who thought the 50’s were happy days, they really weren’t in some respect.  Your parents scared the crap out of you over polio for a while. Then came the cure which meant getting stuck with horse needles.   Kids also had air raid drills still where you had to dive under a desk and duck and cover.  The films about the A bomb weren’t so swift.  But that stuff only took up a tiny sliver of your life as a kid.  The rest of the time you could put on your zorro cape, Davy Crockett coon skin cap and have the time of your life. 

America is still a good place.  It might have its issues, its days, its not so bright spots, but it is still home and beats the hell out of all the other places. 

Warning:  Offensive language.

Remember Chris Farley in the SNL skit In a Van Down By the River?

How soon before regular Republicans will be jumping up and locking their doors? Most people don’t like being insulted. Is it possible to be too conservative? I am not exactly sure what too conservative America would look like. It does not seem very realistic.

Right now, it appears President Obama’s best friend is this group. The Republicans all get together and their key note speaker disavows their party?

The CPAC has come to town. It arrived on Thursday. For those who aren’t card carrying conservatives, CPAC stands for the Conservative Political Action Conference and it has come to town full throttle. The list of key note speakers is enough to make moderates and liberals break out in a sweat:

Hon. Dick Armey
Hon. John Ashcroft
Rep. Michele Bachmann
Glenn Beck
Amb. John Bolton
Andrew Breitbart
Herman Cain
Tucker Carlson
Liz Cheney
Ann Coulter
Sen. Jim DeMint

Read more…

Al Alborn continues to share his thoughts on where America is now and where it is going. Hopefully, discussion will be about his ideas rather rather than about who filmed Al. No one cares. Trying to pigeon-hole Al into some sort of ideology doesn’t work. He just doen’t fit. If you want to sit down face to face with Al, let me know. He has indicated he would be more than willing to sit down to share ideas.

It is a relief to see well thought-out political discourse coming out of our own area! Mr. Alborn makes some excellent points. Interesting that he feels the Tea Party is yesterday’s news. How does the Coffee Party movement differ? Perhaps the Coffee Party will force the Tea Party to shed its extremists and come forward with some new ideas. It needs to move beyond sound bites, birthers, polarizers, and the like. I agree with Mr. Alborn. Right now the Tea Parties appear to be a risk to the Republic. Their object, heretofore, has been to shut down debate, rather than finding a place in the middle we can all build on.

Al Alborn’s analysis of some of our current national issues seems dead on. His ideas don’t fit into slogans and sound bites easily which makes them more interesting to discuss. I believe we will be hearing a lot more from Al in weeks and months to come.