Cellphone camera fun

Sunrise over White Rock Lake. It always brings out the Doxology from me.

This is where Brushy Creek drains into the lake. The old concrete Art Deco boat houses can be seen along the inlet's shore.

Introducing the newest member of the expanding Summer-ish household.

Jesse Downing

Born: June 16th, 2008, Seton Hospital, Austin Texas
Mother: Anna Downing (my daughter)
Father: David Downing
Holder: Linden Summer (my wife)

Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow... especially the little big ones.

Be afraid.

Be VERY afraid.

I thought the Obama Campaign's official "Kids for Obama" website that asked children to draw pictures of Obama as a group activity, and encouraged them to talk to their parents about voting for Obama, was about as over the top as it could be. But no.

This is seriously bad stuff.

Two little things...

From the HillBuzz weblog, comes this post, echoing what I have been telling friends and relatives (whether they wanted to hear it or not).

Two Issues - Because of Obama - Democrats Can Never Use Again

We just realized there are now two issues Democrats can never use effectively against Republicans ever again, because of Barack Obama:

(1) Voting Rights --- On May 31st, 2008, the Democrats lost any moral ground in voting rights, and also forfeited all grievances for Florida's handling of the 2000 Gore Recount. When the Democratic Party ruled against voters in favor of Obama on May 31st, 2008, the Democrats lost all moral authority on the issue of voting rights.

(2) Campaign Finance Reform --- On June 19th, 2008, the Democrats lost any moral ground on the issue of campaign finance reform, when presumptive nominee Barack Obama backed out of his firm pledge to hold to current campaign finance reform law. If the Democrats don't hold themselves to this in 2008, why should the Republicans, in this or any other year?

How many more items are the Democrats going to add to this list of issues they can never use against the Republicans again, by following Obama's lead?

If the Democrats keep adding to this list, they beg the question: "What does the Democratic Party stand for now, under Obama, when everything it stood for before was tossed aside in favor of Obama?"

Got my PUMA gear on!

Pro-life and anti-death.

Remember.

Remember, remember, this fourth of November
The DNC treason and plot.
I see no reason, why the DNC treason
Should ever be forgot.

P U M A

Party Unity My Ass.

Vox Populi.

Dear Dr. Dean,

May 31, 2008.
P.U.M.A.

Sincerely yours,

P.M. Summer

Yellow Dog Democrat?

Wikipedia tells of the origin of the term "Yellow Dog Democrat".

"Let it be understood now and hereafter, that this is to be no joint debate," he said in that high-pitched shrill voice of his. "My friends have arranged for the use of this building and I intend to be the only speaker. But it is a tenet of our faith that in a Democratic gathering no man who calls himself a Democrat shall be denied the right to be heard. If the gentleman will be content to ask his question, whatever it is, and abide by my answer to it, I am willing that he should speak."

"That suits me," clarioned the interrupter. "My question is this: Didn't you say at the Louisville convention not four weeks ago that if the Democrats of Kentucky, in convention assembled, nominated a yaller dog for governor you would vote for him?"

"I did," said Hallam calmly.

"Well, then," whooped the heckler, eager now to press his seeming advantage, "in the face of that statement, why do you now repudiate the nominee of that convention, the Honorable William Goebel?"

For his part Hallam waited for perfect quiet and at length got it.

"I admit," he stated blandly, "that I said then what I now repeat, namely, that when the Democratic party of Kentucky, in convention assembled, sees fit in its wisdom to nominate a yaller dog for the governorship of this great state, I will support him — but lower than that ye shall not drag me!"

But lower than that, you will not drag me.

PUMA.

Party Unity My Ass.

FDR wept.

Fourteen and ninetytwo

1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.

The chief weapon of sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was too late, how heartless and greedy they were.

Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

I. Will. Not. Support. Barack. Obama.

Just in case anyone was wondering. Probably won't be supporting any Democrat who does, but I will be voting against Obama.

I think it's safe to say that if Obama wins the un-Democratic nomination (based upon skewed caucus results and voter disenfranchisement in two of the nation's largest states), that this is the end of the Democratic Party as we have known it since FDR's New Deal. The Democratic Party was re-built by Roosevelt as a coalition of social progressives, labor unions, Southerners, blue collar workers, and African-Americans.

The drive to pass the Voting Rights Act by LBJ cost the Democratic Party the Southern part of the coalition. It was the right thing to do, but the leadership void was filled (partially) by the Stevenson wing of the Democratic Party. The Labor Union members (and some leadership), having achieved so many of their financial goals, began moving toward the fiscal conservatism of the GOP. As the Liberal wing gained more power nationally, socially conservative Democrats began to waver in their support of the Party (including many Union and blue-collar Democrats).

The once powerful coalition that FDR built became a shell, with dangerous fault lines running across it, and since 1960, has only elected three U.S. Presidents. All three came from the South, all three ran as Centrists, and only one was elected to a second full term (Bill Clinton), a a time when the excesses of the Democratic Party had resulted in losing both the Senate and the House to the GOP.

Barack Obama is the fruit of the devolution. Created as a candidate by those who espoused violence against America in the late '60s and early '70s, foisted by the Party "Elites" as both a sop to their loyal African-American support, and as a way to mask their own essential racism/classcism of the "Elites".

The shell has now been broken. Some see this as a "re-birth", while others see this as a death.

I am in the latter category. It is the death of a flawed, but noble, effort for the common good.

What has been born new is a left-wing neo-facism reminiscent of the late '60s, but now driving Toyota Priuses, wearing $150 Birkenstocks, and shopping at Whole Foods. It has combined the "I've Got Mine" attitude of the worst instincts of some Republicans, with the "I Can Do Anything I Want" and "Power Makes Right" attitude of Anarchists and Totalitarians. The result is closer to Libertarianism than to the New Deal.

From communes, Volkswagen buses, and brown rice, to Roth IRAs, $30K Toyota Priuses, and $8 a pound arugula from Whole Foods... what a long strange trip it's been.

The Triumph of Hope

There's just something about the Obama campaign and his enthusiastic supporters that seems somehow familiar to me, like we've seen it before.

Cutting edge cyclist.

Now what?

Is this all there is?

Still not bitter... yet.

I'm not bitter... but wait.