My Friend Steve......

I am a proud citizen of this country, as I am sure you are all aware. I am a natural citizen of this country, I was born here and I will die here. When the Star Spangled Banner plays, I get chills. When I hear of a soldier serving and dying for this country it brings tears of pride and sadness to my eyes. Do I sometimes take for granted the liberties that are commonplace to me because I was natural born into the greatest country on the face of the planet? Yes I do. Everyone does. These thoughts have brought me around to my friend Steve. I can take or leave most of the customers I come across in my line of work, but Steve was different. When I first met Steve I found him to be funny, sincere, nice and just a generally good guy to hang out with. When so many people are fake, he was not. He was a department manager, married, working through college as an engineer, 1 kid.....living the American Dream. I have now known Steve for almost 5 years and he has since moved on to his own store and is one of the most successful managers in the Central Valley, his store is consistently in the top of the charts. He has continued his education and is very close to a degree, which is more than I can say for myself. Although we have never been everyday friends, I still consider him a close friend. He has my work and personal cell phone numbers and knows he can call me anytime with any problems he has.
Steve is living the AMERICAN DREAM!
There’s just one little thing......Steve is not an American. Steve is Jordanian, and his name is not Steve, his name is Azmi (OZ-MEE).Steve is the name he uses here in America, although his legal name is Azmi, which means "determined" in Arabic. If there was ever one word for Steve, determined is it. After I had known him for a couple years one day I had just gotten to his store and I was sitting there talking with him when He got a call on his cell phone. All of a sudden I could not understand what he was saying. He was speaking Arabic. I had always just considered Steve an American, when I heard him speaking Arabic it was very surreal. He proceeded to tell me that was his mom on the phone; she still lives in Amman, Jordan with pretty much the rest of his immediate family. He then proceeded to entrust me with the story of how he came to be where he is at today. I will not get into the specifics but let’s just say things were not very good in Jordan when Steve and his Mom decided it might be good for him to get out of the country, right around January 1991 at the begging of the Gulf War. He went through a lot to get his Visa and come to America. Steve loves America. Even though he loves his home country, he told me how different his life would have been if he had stayed home. He is grateful that the USA opened the door for him, took him in. When he was done telling me the story I was trying not to cry. America has been good to Steve and his family, which he still sends money to in Jordan to help out. Steve is currently in a resident alien status which means he can live here and work here legally, but after a certain amount of time he will have to go back to Jordan.
Here’s where the story gets real good.
I called Steve the other day to go over some work related stuff with him. After we had finished the conversation about work Steve informed me that he had just heard from Immigration, he had completed his final interview and would be able on 11/7/05 to take his oath of citizenship as a United States Citizen. He was very excited; I was very excited for him. This is a huge moment in Steve's life and I will be there to see him take his oath.
Steve has fought long and hard, 14 years to get where he is today. Now he is going to be a citizen. Steve had to fight and scrape for all this time to achieve what was a god given right to me when I was born.Everytime I think things are going bad, or I get pissy because I have to drop 500 dollars into the car (which happened recently) I just think about the fact that I have a car and 500 dollars to put into it. I thank God every day for the fact that I was born into the greatest country on the face of the earth, it’s like winning the lottery! I can believe what I want, do what I want and be anything I want to be.
Don’t ever take this country for granted my fellow Americans, praises your God, whoever he/she might be, every day that you live in the "shining city on the hill"

Steve is happy and proud he is becoming an American, I am happy and proud I am an American.

You are a Social Conservative (21% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (73% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Republican Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Wow.......big surprise huh :)

The Blame Spinner Finally Lands on...............

Michael D Brown- FEMA Head

Thats right ladies and gentleman, the first head has rolled in the fiasco that is the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The blame game is now in full force and Mike Brown has become the first casualty. The Democrats have been whining and caterwauling all week for blood and they have finally gotten their wish.
As far as I can tell from what I have read about the days leading up to Katrina making land fall, it seems that the unpreparedness of the New Orleans area can be directly placed at the feet of the Local and state government, Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco. Take a look at this release from the city of New Orleans Website, the tone of this message does not impress upon me the seriousness of the situation that this city ended up facing.

http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=1&load=~/PortalModules/ViewPressRelease.ascx&itemid=3139

Although I will submit to the fact that the initial federal response was a little slow and lethargic, as did the President. The initial response could have been so much better if Nagin and Blanco (Sounds like a bad music group) had assessed the threat a little more properly and asked for federal help ahead of time. I hear people saying that Washington did not do enough to prep before Katrina struck. In a regional emergency situation such as this it is the responsibilty of the local and state govenrment to request assistance in advance of its need. If President Bush had stepped in any earlier with FEMA and HLS he would have never heard the end of it from the Dems and Liberal Wieners. "STATES RIGHTS!!!!, BUSH PLAYS LITTLE HITLER!" they would be screaming at the top of their lungs, "BUSH OVERSTEPS AUTHORITY, MILITARIZES NEW ORLEANS!" I can hear the shrill screams of the Democratic Asses now. In the eyes of the Libs/Dems Bush can do no right. If Bush had donned a cape and flown into the eye of Hurricane Katrina and smote it the headlines would read like this
"BUSH PLAYS GOD, STOPS HURRICANE KATRINA, ETHICAL QUESTIONS RAISED!"
Im sure there will be more sacrifices to the liberal god as time goes bye.

Mr. Brown , Your service is appreciated. sorry you got scapegoated :(

RIP Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist

RIP William H. Rehnquist

May god be with you and bless you for your dignified service to this country.
RIP

My Letter to Cindy Sheehan......

I posted this as a comment on Cindy Sheehans weblog, You can find it at:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cindy-sheehan/camp-casey-day-18_b_6184.html.This is Arianna Huffington's website, a true liberal bastion ( know thine enemy)

I got there from a link on www.drudgereport.com


Cindy,Your son will not be proud of you when and if you see him when youdie. He will look upon you disdainfully, he will raise and eyebrow.and then I see the conversation going something like this:

Casey:Mom, why would you, my mother?, talk about me the way you have? you say I was used, duped, lied to. Have you ever thought....for one second that I am proud of the fact that I served my country? that I made the ultimate sacrifice. You have dishonored me, my memory, my name and all of my brothers who have fallen, and are still over there doing their country's work.You have taken my honorable and heroic death and used it to push an agenda that I would never sign my name or likeness to. You have cheapened my sacrifice, my name my love of god and country. Let me tell you a secret Mom, You are the one who has been lied to, duped, misled. You are now a mouthpiece for the radicals.I would never expect this type of behavior from someone who loved me.Thats why Dad and the rest of the family have stepped away from you, because they know that I would disapprove of the sacrilege that you have performed upon my memory. You have turned my noble,heroic effort into a 3 ring circus.I cant tell you how distressing it is to see these groups use you the way they have. Are you truly so blinded by the grief of my death that you cannot see this? I want you to stop now, pack up the circus. I did what I was ordered to do, I signed the papers, I raised my hand and took the oath of my country.Why cant you understand that this was my decision Mom? I went into it with my eyes open, when you join the military, war is always looming on the horizon.I dont need you to crusade for me Mom, I need to you to honor my memory, which you are not doing, and love me like you always did.The things you are saying about me now are tantamount to calling me a easily misled automaton. I was not misled, my eyes are wide open.........why cant you open yours now mom?I have a feeling he would then turn and walk away. Why do you dishonor and cheapen your sons sacrifice Cindy?
think about it.

I submitted this to the site three times but for some reason the Libs would not post it, I wonder why :)

Welcome to Sweet Neo-Con

I would like to start my experience as a blogger by saying Hello to everyone. I am a 29 year old Conservative Republican living in California's Central Valley. I work for a large corporation as a Low level electrician. I am married to a wonderful wife and I have 2 beautiful daughters (Sam, Torey and Carys, respectively). I grew up in Southern California and moved to the Central Valley in my teens. I was a decent high school student and lived in a rather rural area, I was in the 4H. I joined the Army 6 days after my graduation from high school at the age of 17. I did my basic military training and specialty training at Fort McClellan Alabama as MOS 95B (Military Police). I served in several of the hotbox conflicts of the 90' under President Clinton ( Panama, Haiti, Bosnia-Herzogovina). I was rather unimpressed with politics in my early 20's and never even registered to vote. I was to busy doing the things that 20 something year old men in the Armed forces do, Chase women, drink alcohol and try to stay alive in some pretty tight situations, I never saw actual combat though (although I was close). After leaving the Army in 1997 I returned to the central valley. I had previously worked as a rig hand in the oil fields but did not wish to return to that lifestyle, as it has an ability to make a man old before his time. I lucked into a position as a Loss prevention agent for a major deparmtent store chain and that became my trade for the next 4 years. I worked for several companies as a shoplift catcher while trying to get on with local law enforcement or state corrections, sadly I did not make either. I lived from paycheck to paycheck during this time, I lived in a mobile home park in a 12,000 dollar mobile home I had bought and scraped by barely, I even took a paperroute with the local paper to make ends meet. I partied and lived a pretty crazy life during this time. I then had a huge break, I was hired by a major electronics retailer for a management position in Richmond , Virginia with all moving expenses paid, I took the position. This was a hard period fro me being in a state where I knew no one and being all alone, I was a recluse for the 6 monts I lived there. The company then asked me to return to california and put me at the disposal of the Regional Manager out here, I lived in a hotel in San Francisco for almost 2 months before they finally moved me out here for good. It was during this time frame that I had the greatest moment in my life. While sitting at a crappy bar a dark haired Beauty named Samantha Roberts walked into my life. It is one of 2 defining moments in my life (the other being the birth of my little angel Carys). I was at a very self destructive point in my life when I met Samantha. To this day I think I would have been dead before 30 had I not met her (melodramatic, I know, but I feel it to be true). I knew Samantha for 3 weeks when I proposed to her and we were married four months later. We are now heading towards 5 years of marriage and we have 2 beautiful daughters together. Two things conspired in my life to awaken me at this point to the necessity of being politically informed. Number one was the 2000 election, its the first time I had really seen the enemy (IE: liberal left wing democratic wieners) show just how truly destructive and bi-partisan they can be. Number two was meeting my new mother and father in law, Lonnie and Brook. Now to be fair I have always had conservative leanings, Lonnie and Brook just gave me an outlet to discuss it for the first time in my life. We see eye to eye on almost everything (except for maybe the Terri Schiavo case....sorry mom). Since I have met Brook and Lonnie they have gone out of their way to make me a part of the family and I love them both very much. They are truly what parents should be. They offer guidance and correction in equal parts when it is needed. I have since lost my biological father to cancer and Lonnie has filled the role for me. Suffice to say I have the coolest inlaws on the face of the planet, if you need more proof just be advised, they play video games :)
As the Led Zeppelin song says "Ramble On" looking back it appears thats what I have done. I have taken the name of this blog from a recently released Rolling Stones song, and before I get everyone yelling at me, yes I realize it is a derogatroy song about ne0-conservatism. I have adopted the name for this blog and I stick my toungue out and wag it profusely at Mick Jagger (Not Keith though, he demanded the song be removed from the tour song list, hes a good american). I am PROUD to be a New Conservative. I know it was coined as a derogatory term, but I dont see it as such.
That being said, I look forward to posting my thoughts and I also look forward to any feedback, from either side, If I can make one Lib see the error of their ways then I have accomplished my mission.

Take Care and stay right