Saturday, March 10, 2012

INTREPID STALKER OF LIBERAL DEMOCRATS, INTERNET WRITER TRAINS HIS AIM ON NEW TARGET IN HIS LIFE -- CANCER.

BECAUSE IT IS TAKING ME LONGER TO DO THESE POSTS, MY NEW ROUTINE WILL BE TO BRING EACH CLOSE TO COMPLETION, POST, AND COME BACK LATER FOR REPAIRS AND SECOND COAT OF PAINT. HOPE THIS WILL WORK OUT OKAY FOR ALL VISITORS. IF NOT, JUST SPEAK TO THE WAITER AND I'LL BRING YOUR ORDER TO THE TABLE.

March 11, 2012
By Verne Strickland:

My passion is hunting liberal Democrats, in season. And 'tis the season which I perceive coming up just around yonder bend. I've been ready for it for a long time, and am slowly getting into game mode.

Liberals are destructive to American ideals, while conservatives introduce a more open, honest record of service, unselfishness and sacrifice to the halls of the State House, the U.S. Congress, the Senate.

I know where I belong. I know what I believe. I know who I am. So I've been carrying my sword and shield for years in this battle for the soul of America. And I've re-enlisted for another tour -- as a conservative, Christian, Republican Constitutionalist in the Year of our Lord 2012. But here's the deal. I'd much rather stay with the political game. I know it. I've fought it for a lone time -- back into 1960s alongside implacable conservative Jesse Helms, who hired me to help him write conservative editorials and voice the farm news on WRAL-TV5.

Verne Strickland / /Conservative Blogger
USA DOT COM

But something's different in the Spring of 2012. Before I really take to the battlefield to back Ilario Pantano again in the big General Election for the Seventh District Congressional prize, I have to make it through a primary too, just like my hero Ilario Pantano. He's facing Democrat David Rouzer, who quit the NC Senate to go after bigger game in the U.S. Senate. If Ilario sweeps the preliminary, he'll go on to the General Election for the Seventh District in November.

My battle is against cancer, which blindsided me with painful attacks to my hips and legs in Januauary of this year, forcing me to struggle while getting out of bed or walking with the aid of canes, plus relying on some powerful pain relief to facilitate fairly normal activity.

Because of the added exertion required, I tire quickly and my mileage is not very impressive. Beyond that that I often use a wheel chair, with the help my wife Durrene or our eldest son Martin I've never felt self-conscious about these aids. It's just a fact that my life would be so much more restricted if they weren't available. I till intend to discard them as soon as Dr. McNulty gives me the green light.

William McNulty, M.D.

The form of cancer I am experiencing is multiple myeloma, and I was channeled without delay to Dr. Williams McNulty, board certified in internal medicine and oncology at Hanover Medical Specialists in Wilmington, NC, where daily radiation treatment has been started, and should continue for perhaps ten days until he will take a break to assess progress.

Dr. McNulte is just the medicine I need for this challenge. He's positive, cheerful, incessantly cracking jokes to lighten the mood, and keeping up a running patter of information to fill me in on what his plan is for our treatment. It's an upbeat mood in the McNulte corner for this brawl, and I am charged up to go at it.

While Internet Medicine websites try to cover all ranges and severities of multiple myeoloma, Dr. McNulty is is my personal guide through this experience, and assures that my case is "readily treatable" -- unlike some of the more foreboding descriptions to which I've been treated on the Web.

Bottom line for me and my family is to steer a straight course back to health -- if possible -- with the Lord Jesus as my strength and my guide. He is always with me and with us all when he give Him our trust -- and keep His loving hand on the wheel of our life's vessel. Nothing could be more consoling.

I'll have to win it or I won't have the stamina to do the job I need to give Ilario a boost in the battle of words, wills, media and philosophy in Washington.

I've covered the Pantano campaign since the starting gun in the 2010 election, when his political paths intersected with excessively incumbent Democrat Mike McIntyre (who started 2012 by dodging one campaign -- for governor -- before settling back into more a more familiar setting as water boy for the Democrats in the Seventh District. As I don't consider Rouzer a contender of note, this leaves me contented with my first and only choice here -- our adopted Son of the South, friendly family man and Wilmington resident Pantano. I couldn't be happier.

Meanwhile, it's another world out there in the hospital waiting rooms, corridors, and treatment systems, as we all know, because all of us, to one degree or another will make our own trips through there. We can be thankful for the wonderful care and treatment we receive in our health and recovery facilities -- made and operated in the USA. And we must realize that any problems there pale in comparison with the level of care in many other countries, where government-run systems sag lower and lower as the years and months and intertwined lives go by.

Obamacare, friends, or anything like it, is not the way we want to go in America. Ilario is determined to help us what that one! God bless this wonderful Christian man, and his precious family!

And I'm 75 today. I can bench press my age, although the long-range odds are not in my favor here.

I'll tack some more ramblings onto this meandering treatise as time goes by. In the meantime, be well, be American through and through, and praise God forever and ever. Your pal and fan, Verne.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

ROWAN BOARD STARES ACLU DOWN AND PRAISES JESUS DESPITE LAWSUIT WARNING. HALLELUJAH!

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Rowan County commissioner opened the board's Monday meeting with a Christian prayer, despite a warning from the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union that it would violate the law and potentially trigger a lawsuit.
As has long been the elected board's practice, Commissioner Jon Barber opened the public meeting with an invocation asking for a blessing in the name of Jesus.
The ACLU recently began contacting local governments across North Carolina after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., that found sectarian prayers at public meetings violate First Amendment protections. So far, at least 15 government bodies have changed their prayer policies.
An ACLU spokesman said Monday the group would now consider filing a lawsuit against Rowan County.
"The law is very clear that government officials cannot use sectarian prayers to open public meetings," said Mike Meno, communications manager for the ACLU of North Carolina. "As long as the commissioners continue to violate the law, they risk subjecting the county and its taxpayers to an unnecessary and costly legal challenge that they would ultimately lose, whether it is brought by the ACLU or some other entity."
The Salisbury Post (http://bit.ly/xUQwPx) reported that supporters of continuing the Christian prayers packed the meeting room Monday, while others sang hymns outside in the lobby. But there were also speakers during the board's public comment period who expressed opposition to continuing the sectarian prayers.
Of the 25 government bodies contacted by the ACLU, only the Rowan County board has flatly refused to make changes, according to the ACLU.
Four of the five commissioners of the Rowan board have said they plan to continue praying to Christ. They have said their prayers are different than those from the case out of Forsyth County considered by the 4th circuit, because individual commissioners take turns leading the prayer rather than volunteer local clergy.

Obama shifts G-8 from Chicago to Camp David. May DemoThug Rahm Emanuel's Plans Be Jinxed.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / March 5, 2012

By Associated Press, Published: March 5

WASHINGTON — The White House abruptly announced Monday that it had scuttled plans to hold the upcoming G-8 economic summit in Chicago, and would instead host world leaders at the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.

It was an unusually late location change for a large and highly scripted international summit and came with little explanation from the White House. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — the former White House chief of staff who personally lobbied President Barack Obama to hold the summit in Chicago — was informed only hours before the official announcement.

383

Comments

Personal Post

Gallery

President Obama’s reelection campaign is raising money and reaching out to voters and volunteers.

What to watch for on Super Tuesday

Chris Cillizza 1:23 PM ET

THE FIX | Ten states across the country are set to have their say in the GOP primary race, with more than 400 delegates at stake.

What do the latest polls say?

Washington Post Staff 4:29 PM ET

LIVE BLOG | Get the latest Super Tuesday news from Post reporters around the country.

Did Ann Romney make a gaffe?

Chris Cillizza 9:58 AM ET

THE FIX | The wife of the former Massachusetts governor made headlines on Monday by suggesting that she didn’t consider herself wealthy.

White House national security spokesman Tommy Vietor simply said that Camp David, the rustic retreat in the mountains of Maryland, was a setting that would allow for more intimate discussions among the G-8 leaders. He said security and the possibility of protests were not factors in the decision, noting that Obama would still host the NATO summit in his hometown of Chicago from May 20-21.
The White House said the G-8 summit would take place May 18-19.
The White House announced plans last summer to hold both summits back-to-back in Chicago, giving the president a high-profile opportunity to tout his foreign policy and diplomatic credentials on his home turf in an election year.
The idea of moving the G-8 to Camp David was raised to the president a few weeks ago, a senior administration official said, adding that the president was intrigued by the novelty of the idea and asked staff whether they could pull off the change.
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity about internal White House thinking.
Adding to the curious nature of the White House announcement was the fact that Obama rarely spends time at his presidential retreat. And unlike many of his predecessors, Obama has never hosted a world leader at Camp David.
Monday’s announcement appeared to catch many in Chicago by surprise.
A spokeswoman for Emanuel said the Chicago mayor was informed about the location change in a Monday phone call from a White House official.
Chris Johnson, spokesman for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said his organization was “just as surprised about the announcement as anybody else.”
The world’s eight largest economies are represented in the G-8 and hosting duties for the annual summit are rotated among the member countries. The summits have become a target for large, and sometimes violent, protests in recent years, making security costs a concern for host cities.
At least one protest group heralded the news as a major victory. But Joe Iosbaker of the United National Antiwar Committee in Chicago said protests would still go on during the NATO summit.
Chicago officials began planning for the summits last summer, with city officials predicting it would give the city a chance to shine internationally, while the police rank-and-file worryied whether they would be prepared to handle the thousands of protesters expected to converge downtown.
Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Obama’s senior director for European affairs, said recently that the president was confident his hometown could put on a “great show” and that its police department was up to the task of providing security.
The city’s host committee had estimated it could cost $40 million to $65 million to stage the events, including the costs for security.
Gordon Johndroe, who served as National Security Council spokesman for President George W. Bush, said the immense logistics involved in setting up an international gathering like the G-8 would make it difficult to split the summits at such a late date.
“It is very complicated to set these things up, and even more complicated to move them that quickly,” said Johndroe.
Leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union, are expected to attend this year’s gathering.
___
Associated Press writers Ben Feller in Washington and Carla Johnson, Tammy Webber and Caryn Rousseau in Chicago contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be