I am always amazed at how blatant the face of liberalism is and how seemingly blind or apathetic so many of the voters and opposition are. It's been reported that California Democratic National Committee official and regional coordinator of Latinos for Dean Steven Ybarra (search) has sent a e-mail to party faithful condemning Senate GOP candidate Rosario Marin.
In the note he characterized her as a “house Mexican” which apparently is a derogatory term akin to calling a black person an Uncle Tom. This from those who claim to champion tolerance, inclusion and ethnic diversity. Seems his problem is not that she is a Latino, but that she is a Republican Latino.
In his opinion she has deserted her "people" by holding to conservative principles and convictions. Principles that encourage responsibility and self-reliance. Principles that call on individuals to improve themselves and their families through education, hard work, entrepreneurial spirit and honesty. Principles that draw people to a lifestyle to self-dependence, not government dependence.
Yet because she is Latino, Ybarra has decided that she should think differently, she should think like him. No diversity for this Latino. No tolerance for this woman. No compassion for this daughter of the barrio. No honor for one whom has come from, in his opinion, a disadvantaged background to succeed in business and politics. For this person of Mexican heritage who has worked hard and through the aforementioned principles has become more than what she was.
I guess for Mr. Ybarra, the only good Mexican is a poor, despondent, and dependent Mexican. One in need of the services of a government that would care for her in the squalor of government housing, living from month to month on the minimal food stamps and welfare provided by her benevolent government.
But, why should I be surprised of Mr. Ybarra's comments? If liberalism is anything, it is unprincipled and dishonest with itself. While castigating others for racial intolerance, they stereotype blacks, Latinos, Jews and other minorities as unable to have any opinion other than what the liberal says he/she should. The liberal thinks anyone in these “disadvantaged and disenfranchised” groups cannot succeed without government help because they are too ignorant to do so without first receiving a boost, preferably from their benevolent liberal government.
Therefore, if an individual makes good and then holds to conservative principles, it’s not because they are of strong character and hard work. They must be, in the liberal mind, beholden to conservative, Republican benefactors.
While calling on others to a higher standard, the liberal stoops to the mire and muck of the worst of human characteristics in lying, cheating, name calling, stereotyping and racial profiling. The reason they can do this is because in the liberal mentality, there are no absolutes other than absolutely winning the argument. Their truth is relative and ever changing leaving no foundational principles to hold them in check.
The liberal is free to use any and all mean to achieve winning. Even if those “means” violate the principles they claim to stand for. But then, those principles themselves are like smoke, wispy and impossible to hold onto.

I agree we as a country needs something bigger than ourselves to strive for. During the 18th century it was the establishment of this great land of freedom and opportunity. In the mid and late 19th century it was the struggle to hold this nation together under one banner and government rather than fracture into two very different nations.
In the early part of the 20th century it was to war against tyranny and despotic rule. In the early 1960's we set our goals to the moon. Whether as a means of diverting attention from SE Asia or to truly promote the greater good, we achieved it.
Now our president is set to announce another ambitious goal, that of setting up a small colony on the moon and sending manned spaceflight to Mars within 10 years or so.
It is vital to set goals if we want to achieve. NASA has for to long seemed to flounder as an agency to support zero gravity experiments and so forth. Certainly discoveries found in the space program have become useful in our daily lives. Still, I wonder if this is the time to begin infusing billions of dollars into manned space exploration.
Certainly there is still much to be discovered and achieved through robotic exploration and while returning to the moon, establishing a colony, and sending a man to Mars can advance science, it seems to me there are more immediate needs this administration should address. Such as the budget deficit.
I am not in the camp that say the Bush tax cuts are the cause of the current deficits. To the contrary it can be shown that though they are a contributing factor, the great majority of the deficit is due to rampant congressional spending. Some vital and necessary. But there is also a lot of pork and political capitial being spent in the federal budget. Get that under control, return this government to a balanced budget, then I can get excited about funding further space exploration.

I (and those I talked to) must have been wrong. On December 29 I wrote, "My feeling, no hard numbers yet, is that volume, especially parcel volume, was down." According to a postal news release I was off, way off.
According to PMG Potter volume was off through mid-December. Then in the last 6 days before Christmas volume surged and we ended up setting a record.
This is good news. Still, Potter says we have a number of challenges ahead as we strive to improve service, increase revenue and promote reform of the system.
A look at the financials for the fiscal year ending September 31, 2003 look good with a net income of $3.86 billion. That took place in an environment where the workforce was reduced by 23,914 and the number to deliver points was increased by 138,625. The loss of 637 million in 2003 volume on top of a loss of 4.6 billion pieces from 2001 to 2002 is disturbing though it seems to be stabilizing. At least for now.
The greatest amount of this loss is not due to e-mail, as many think, but due to the increasing use of online billing, bill payment, account management and so forth.
Even within the USPS we are using the power of the internet to increase communications and reduce operational costs. So how can we get too upset when the rest of the business world does the same.
Our challenge is not so much how to slow the migration to electronic business and finacial management, but how to capitalize on the trend. To do that we will need more flexibility to operate and that must come through reform.
The presidents commission on reform set forth a roadmap and the USPS Transformation Plan will hopefull move things along towards bringing the Postal Service into the 21st century and better serve our customes changing needs.

Though it's early January, here in central Florida we are in the early stages of the annual fire season. Currently our drought index here in Marion County is at 580 on a scale of 800. Every 100 points indicates 1 inch of depth you have to dig in the soil to find moisture. We had less than 1 1/2 inches of rain since mid-November and are currently over 4 inches short of our average rainfall for this time of the year.
That is significant. Unlike many areas of the country, the soil in central Florida is very sandy and does not hold moisture well. Therefore regular rainfall is needed to hold back the threat of fire. Currently the county is under a voluntary burn ban but authorities are considering making that mandatory.
Florida is very familiar with the ravages of wildfire. Recent history documents several years of out of control fires that caused heavy damage. While the economic destruction was nothing like the California fires of last fall, the fires of 1998 resulted in 100,000's of acres burned, millions of dollars in damage to property and the complete evacuation of one county on the east coast, Volusia. In that year it was Floridians who were the recipients of the help of fire jumpers as they plied their difficult and dangerous trade in our state, waging war against the monster fires that beset us.
The history of wildfires here includes one year just prior of my moving here in 1988 that destroyed a huge area of the Ocala National Forest and a drive out US 40 towards Ormond Beach still reveals the lingering scars. We can only hope and pray that the needed rain will come, and come regularly.

Been distracted on other things today and have missed much of what's going on in the world. However, when it comes to out of this world how could anyone miss the pictures coming back from Mars! Wow! The Mars Rover Image Gallery on Space.com makes some interesting viewing.
While watching NASA's project with interest, I still wonder what happened to the British led Beagle 2 expedition. They think they still have a shot at getting it up. Hope so. Later.

The dems were on a feeding frenzy in Iowa over the weekend, going after Dean as they tried to cut his lead before the upcoming primaries and caucuses. In the process they are playing fast and loose with the facts, hello! Did you think they bent reality just when it came to their party opposition? In politics, and even more so in the liberal side of politics, facts very often get in the way of the present agenda.
If reality doesn’t fit, just change it to make the point and count on the person or entity being attacked not calling you out. That seems to work real well when the dems go against the Republicans. Members of the GOP appear to want to take the gentlemanly approach to politics and avoid confrontation. Maybe in a "kinder, genteel" time that worked. But then, during those times honesty in politics was the norm, not an aberration.
Now days, when attacked with falsehoods, the GOP for the most part turns the other cheek and rarely cry foul. If they do it is very quiet and very short lived. On the other hand, the Democrats are very aggressive in their use falsehoods and rarely let up when in attack mode. The concept of "repeat the lie until it becomes fact" is their basic game plan and it works very well with an opponent who will not call them on it.
To be sure, the dissemination of the debate to the public is filtered through the media in this country and filter is what that media does. Though some question the charge of a leftist media bias, most of us agree the most visible and prolific media personalities lean left, and the stories they write and present follow that bias.
But back to Dean. He and his primary opponents used false charges and obfuscation in debating each other and to their merit called each other on false statements. Even to the point of nearly sounding conservative in some of their talk about taxes the situation in Iraq. Liebermans questioning Dean's position that the country is not safer with Saddam in custody caught my attention. But then most of the candidates seem to be dancing around this one. How to oppose Bush on his Iraq policy in the face of the ongoing successes in Iraq. It would be even more difficult if the media would report the avalanche of good news coming out of Iraq rather than turning the stream of bad into a torrential flood.
On taxes Dean was caught by his opponents in his declaration to reverse the Bush tax cuts while reducing middle class taxes. Huh! But then they all are playing fast and loose with the facts when it come to the amount of dollars Americans kept in their pockets and then poured into the economy. Seems they can't admit that letting a family keep what they earn is a good thing and keeping the greasy hands of government out of the wage earner and businessman's pocket is good for individuals, families, business and the economy.
Many of the arguments the candidates used against Dean could easily turned around and use against those making them. After stating his opposition to the Iraqi war and Bush’s education program, Sen. John Kerry made the pronouncement, “I think those changes raise questions about your ability to stand up to George Bush. It's easy to bash Washington, to bash someone for voting for something you don't like."
Yeah Sen. Kerry, think about it. It’s easy to bash someone else, the difficulty is coming up with a positive alternative plan that will stand scrutiny. Better move out of that glass house.
It's going to be another interesting political season.
For more see:
Democrats hammer Dean at Iowa debate - International Herald Tribune
Democrats pummel Dean at raucous Iowa debate - Contra Costa Times
Dean versus the Democrats - Washington Dispatch