NUGENT: Burning cash with gas

Oil makes the world go ‘round, or kaput

Gather around, boys and girls, for another quick lesson in real-world Nugenomics 101. Not “if” but “when”gas prices soar to four bucks a gallon this summer, the impact to our economy will be thunderous.

With the national average price for a gallon of gas already at $3.65 a gallon, our anemic economy already is being battered. Prices for food are already high and going higher. No tax on the poor - right, President Obama?

America’s economy is intrinsically aligned with fuel prices because the lifeblood of our economy is oil. Four-dollar-a-gallon gas will not just sting at the pump but also will put the squeeze on every American for milk and cookies at the grocery store and every product we purchase because they are all delivered to stores by truck.

For the millions of Americans who jostle for position during rush hour each day, higher gas prices mean fewer dollars to invest or spend on other things, such as going on a summer fishing trip.

As gas prices continue to rise, consumer debt probably also will rise as American families, already strapped for cash, will use credit cards to pay for the increased fuel costs.

Ultimately, higher gas prices put the squeeze on all things related to the economy, including job creation.

Interestingly, demand for gas in America is down. Typically, when demand for something such as gas is down, prices fall. But not now. Prices at the pump continue to rise.

Whatever you do, do not blame Big Oil for the price at the pump, as Bill O'Reilly mistakenly does. The oil companies have nothing to do with setting the price of gas. Gas prices are set by oil price futures, which are the prices fuel investors think oil will cost in the future.

There are other things in play besides oil futures that are causing the price to rise. Demand for oil around the world is going up as other nations are using more of it. The higher the demand, the higher the price.

Another reason oil prices are high is the deterioration in the value of the U.S. dollar. Our dollar is the denomination used around the world for oil. Because of our gluttonous borrowing and spending in Washington and the berserk level of our national debt, the value of the once-mighty dollar has plummeted on the international market in recent years. A declining dollar causes oil prices to rise. Getting our fiscal house in order would do much to restore confidence in the dollar’s value and cause oil prices to fall.

Remember this: The stock market hates volatility. With Israel threatening to demolish Iran’s nuclear facilities in the near future before Iran can make good on its threat to incinerate the Jewish state, oil speculators are nervous and obviously think that bombing Iran will create massive international volatility. This is causing speculators to “bet” that oil production and the transportation of oil out of the Middle East will be reduced, thereby causing oil futures prices to rise today.

At four bucks a gallon or even higher, the economy will enter a severe stall. At this price, Americans will further tighten their belts on driving and spending, thereby driving demand for gas even lower than what it already is. But tightening our belts and reducing spending will slam the brakes on our economy, which is, at best, only in first gear.

Class dismissed.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Trading freedom for free stuff

America without its dream is destined for suffocation

The Internet is full of health-related studies and articles. Most of them provide similar, age-old wisdom: Eat right, exercise and don’t smoke. There are no guarantees, but following this timeless advice generally leads to a longer, healthier life.

All of us have heard this and read it countless times, yet there remains a segment of the American public who would rather shovel junk into their mouths and sit on the couch than follow a healthy lifestyle. When these Americans become ill, they want others to pay for their health care, which is a key reason why America is broke and in debt.

We live in a La-La Land entitlement society where poor choices are condoned and rewarded and individual responsibility and accountability are largely ignored by the bloodsuckers who want the rich to “pay their fair share.” Unbelievable.

What is not as easy to find on the Internet is rock-solid wisdom on how to keep America healthy, wealthy and wise. But it is out there if you search for it.

Start with reading quotes by Thomas Jefferson, arguably the smartest person to ever take up residency in the White House. Jefferson had a healthy distrust of the very type of bloated, ineffective and now broke federal government we have embraced over the past 50 years when he wrote, “Most bad government has grown out of too much government.” Thanks to President Obama, we are living in the era of the biggest federal government in our nation’s history.

Jefferson must have been able to see far into the future when he wrote, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” Reckless, dangerous, stupid European-style entitlement spending is now sucking the life out of the American dream, and the guilty have a president.

President Reagan wisely stated, “Government isn’t the solution; it’s the problem.”

Limited-government freedom dreamers also will find solace in the famous and wise words of the Rev. William Boetcker, who famously wrote almost 100 years ago: “You cannot bring prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

Mr. Obama and his legions of bloodsucking supporters surely find Boetcker’s wise words a threat to their continued goal of expanding government at all levels and creating more dependency rather than independence.

Conservatives are not opposed to government. What conservatives are opposed to is an arrogant, oppressive, out-of-control, anti-Constitution federal government that seeks to impose its suffocating, heavy-handed will upon Americans.

Less government is best government. Jefferson and Boetcker knew that. The question for Americans this fall is this: Do more know this than don’t know this? America will get what we ask for, and with the dumbing-down of America at an all-time extreme, we should be very, very scared.

 Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Whitney Houston’s squandered gift

Songstress’ lost talent should serve as a warning to America’s youth

Another great talent has been silenced, probably because of abusing dope or booze and the criminal, irresponsible lifestyle that goes with that insane behavior. What a waste.

Whitney Houston possessed the most powerful, incredible, soaring and moving voice I have ever heard, and I have heard and revered them all. Her rendition of our national anthem at the Super Bowl 21 years ago was so powerful that it defies description. It is without question the most soulful, emotional, inspiring rendition I have ever heard.

Miss Houston’s God-given and incredible gifts won her numerous Grammy Awards and the respect and awe of every person who ever witnessed her beauty and talent. She sold more than 170 million records and made millions and millions of dollars. But in the end, none of that really matters. What matters is that another human being is gone much too soon.

If we truly care, we should not remember Miss Houston for her incredible talent. Instead, we should use her death as an opportunity to tell our children that her death spiral is yet another glaring example that dope and booze are killers. That is nothing to celebrate.

We should use Miss Houston’s death as a teaching moment: Live a responsible lifestyle; make intelligent decisions; hang out only with good, decent, law-abiding people; and by all means, steer clear of dope and booze and people still foolish enough to abuse them. I would like to think that is what she, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and many others would want us to say to our young people.

In the 50 years I have been in the entertainment industry, I have seen too many incredible talents like Miss Houston choose death rather than respect life. Indulging the fake, deadly highs of dope and booze is not a party or worthy of celebration.

Entertainers who die as a result of ingesting poison are just the very tip of the toxic dope iceberg. I meet with cops on almost a daily basis, and their stories are much the same: Dope and booze are destroying lives, families and entire communities all across America. It is a scourge, a curse.

As it pertains to life and death, we should keep our priorities in check. If you want to celebrate and remember people who have passed much too soon and who really matter, I recommend you visit Arlington National Cemetery, where you can walk among rows and rows of true heroes. Watch the guards march in silent reverence at the Tomb of the Unknowns. They matter. They are forever worthy of our remembrance. They made the ultimate sacrifice for worthy causes: freedom and the American way.

The families of our deceased warriors of the U.S. military whom I meet during my concert and hunting tours across America shake me to my core. Their soft, painful and proud voices are much more powerful than Whitney Houston’s soaring voice. I treasure and remember their voices, not the incredible talent that she wasted.

One plus one will forever equal two. The duo of dope and booze is the toxic express lane off the planet. We would be wise to teach that to our young people at every opportunity.

 Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: The Great Keystone XL Pipeline Massacre

Move was dead giveaway of Obama’s left-wing agenda

President Obama’s decision to put a bullet in the back of the head of the Keystone XL pipeline is all the proof you need to know that his modus operandi is to sidle up to environmental green-energy crackpots instead of creating thousands of American jobs and honestly pursuing energy independence for America.

What the Great Keystone XL Pipeline Presidential Massacre of 2012 affirms is the president’s out-of-touch energy policy: Oil is bad. The sun and wind are good. This policy, of course, is dumb and dumber.

After whacking the pipeline, Mr. Obama would have us believe that more time and more environmental studies need to be conducted. What a convenient political move, what a convenient lie.

The pipeline already has been studied for three years. The president elected to whack the pipeline even after his very own Obama-controlled Fedzilla energy and environmental agencies reported to him that the pipeline would have “no serious impact to the environment” and recommended to get it on.

This assessment and recommendation caused the global-warming and other environmental crackpots to go nuts. That surely got the president’s attention. He knew then that he had to whack the pipeline if he hoped to keep the left-wing crackpot voters, the very base of the Democrat Party, down on the Democratic farm.

Even some labor unions that are stalwart supporters of the Democratic Party support building the state-of-the-art Keystone pipeline. Believing the labor unions will never abandon him, he spit in their faces and will do his best to blame the Keystone massacre on greedy oil companies, conniving Republicans and George W. Bush, a former oilman, president and favorite Obama doormat.

While tossing Big Labor under the Obama bus, he also whacked Republicans, who thought they had cut a deal with the president in December: a two-month payroll extension in exchange for the Keystone pipeline.

Meanwhile, the president’s lapdog media willingly looked the other way while the president killed the pipeline and thereby killed energy and jobs for America. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

And move along is exactly what just might happen with the Keystone pipeline. Don’t be surprised if the pipeline is built from Canada to the West Coast, where the Chinese will buy all the oil the Canadians can pump through it. The Chinese literally have to be laughing at the naive ideologue ensconced in the White House. They have to be hoping the American public is dumb enough to re-elect the president who prefers to help America’s enemies instead of America.

To those of you unemployed and underemployed who still cling to that “hope and change” malarkey, what this decision proves is that the president does not really care about creating jobs. What he cares about is advancing an ideology of expansive government and dependence. His ideology and policies do not create jobs - they kill them.

Whacking the pipeline was another decision born of his left-wing radical training on the streets of Chicago. For example, when presented with the findings of his very own National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, he promptly ignored those findings and refused to do anything the commission recommended to get our fiscal house in order. The president essentially whacked it, too. Richard Cloward, Francis Fox Piven and Saul Alinsky would be proud.

Our president is a left-wing ideologue. He learned his lessons well from America-hating commie Alinsky. I am convinced they are one and the same.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Tale of the GOP tape

It’s Newt or Mitt - take your pick

Here is how I see the GOP primary race shaping up: This is by no means an endorsement of any of the four GOP candidates. I am impressed with each of them for a variety of reasons and adamantly believe that any one of them would be monstrously superior to President Obama, who has charted a course for the destruction of America as we know it.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has excellent oratory skills and would give Mr. Obama fits in a debate. Mr. Gingrich is also a deep thinker who has proposed and continues to advance ideas that are not heard of or widely endorsed in the swamps of Washington. This is all very good. Newt and his ideas are exactly what the capital needs if we are going to turn America around. Newt is a polarizing figure who many moderate Americans and even some conservatives may be hesitant to support. There is, however, time to turn that perception around but it will be hard since many feel that Newt’s die has already been cast.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has an impressive record in the private sector, something none of the other GOP candidates or the president can match. This alone makes him attractive to those of us who realize the engine of America is indeed the private sector, not Fedzilla. In addition to serving as a GOP governor in a heavily democratic state, he ran the Olympics and is not a Washington insider. The governor could also give the president fits as he would draw deep contrasts between the private sector and the president’s addiction to expansive government. Mr. Romney’s problem is that some conservatives do not believe he has been a tried-and-true conservative. He also seems to lack fire and often appears stiff and scripted.

Rick Santorum was elected to the House and the Senate in the heavily democratic state of Pennsylvania by beating Democrats. That rocks. He is a principled social and fiscal conservative with a resume that sings to many Americans who are suspicious of Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Romney. Mr. Santorum also has ideas that run counter to Mr. Obama’s addiction to big government. The senator’s problem is that he has little name recognition among the GOP or other Americans, is running a distant third in the GOP race, and will not get the GOP nomination.

Rep. Ron Paul is wonderfully addicted to freedom and liberty, believes Fedzilla has swollen to an unsustainable and unconstitutional size, is a strong advocate of the 10th Amendment and returning power to the states, and is the only candidate that routinely speaks about the national debt and other fiscal matters. That gets my attention. Mr. Paul appears to have the most passionate base of any of the four. Many Americans, however, are suspicious of his international policies and disagree with his stance on the legalization of dope. Hell would freeze over before he would win the GOP nomination.

It’s down to either Newt or Mitt. Both are good men. What GOP primary voters need to decide is which one of these good men has the best chance of beating Mr. Obama in November. Due to the circumstances America finds itself in, defeating Mr. Obama is the first order of business. And then the really hard work begins.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Romney shouldn’t release tax returns

We should praise success, not pick it apart

By the time you read this, Mitt Romney may have released his tax returns. Let’s hope not. So long as Mr. Romney or any other prospective or elected public official has not made his money illegally, no person’s financial status is any of my business or yours.

There is no law mandating Mr. Romney or anyone else to release his tax returns. What we do know is that Mr. Romney took no salary when he was governor of Massachusetts or when he saved and ran the Olympics. He and his wife probably have donated millions of dollars to charity. Good for them.

It would be fascinating to know if Mr. Romney, if elected president, would accept a salary or not.

The real reason Mr. Romney is being pressured to release his tax returns is because his fellow GOP presidential candidates, his hateful critics and crazy Demoncrats live to wage class warfare against him for being successful. This is so very wrong. We should respect a person’s financial privacy and celebrate any American who succeeds.

If Mr. Romney wants to tell America how much money he is worth, how much he has donated to charities or his church, how much he paid in taxes last year or in previous years, that’s his choice.

There is this toxic, anti-American idea that has surfaced that financial success is something that should be questioned, maligned and condemned and is somehow malicious. This is dangerous and dumb. The Occupy idiots who condemn and blame Wall Street for America’s stagnant economy are simpletons. Let’s hope these morons just keep getting stoned and forget to vote in November.

Americans should want a successful person to be president. We should want someone who understands how the free market truly works. We should reward and praise success, not try to find ways to condemn it or cast aspersions on successful people.

Indeed, we have a right to know certain things about a candidate who wants to be president and the most powerful and influential person in the world. We should want to know his core political ideologies and beliefs, the specifics of how he will lead and shape America domestically and internationally and how he proposes to make America an economic powerhouse that once again encourages success. These are the things that matter most.

It would be refreshing to hear Mr. Romney or any other candidate state: “I made my money legally. How much money I made, have and donate is none of your business. What I can tell you is that if elected president, I will do the job for free. I also will work my hardest to ensure that any barriers that prohibit you from achieving your dreams will be terminated with extreme prejudice on my first day in office.”

Let’s make sure we don’t condemn success but, instead, praise it. Let’s focus on things that matter most, not whether a candidate releases his tax return.

Successful people create jobs and grow the economy, not life-long Fedzillacrats and community organizers. Weld that into your frontal lobe.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Fast and Furious stinks

Gun-smuggling scheme another reason to distrust government
By Ted Nugent

The United States of America has turned into bizarro land. Think of this: Our very own Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), under the direct guidance of the attorney general of the United States - America’s top cop, mind you - not only allowed, but encouraged American gun dealers to sell about 2,000 guns to known punks involved in the drug trade in order to trace the guns to Mexican drug cartels. If you think that’s unbelievably nuts, get a load of this: The suspected goons who bought the guns were not even placed under law enforcement surveillance.

This is analogous to the Drug Enforcement Administration knowingly allowing international dope pushers to sell heroin on American streets without placing the dope dealers under surveillance in hopes that somehow, some way, the dope pushers would enable the DEA to trace the heroin back to some dirty, cave-dwelling Afghan opium poppy farmer so we could then poison the farmer’s poppy fields. Wait a minute, let’s not give this crackpot administration any more loony ideas.

In all of its bureaucratic buffoonery, the ATF lost control of the weapons. Of course it did, as there were no electronic tracing components on the guns. Our less-than-esteemed attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., to whom the ATF reports, claimed not to know a thing about this brain-dead operation.

What kind of inebriated idiot would hatch an evil scheme such as this and then believe that, somehow, the guns could be traced to Mexican drug cartels without an electronic tracing component? This isn’t some low-ranking bureaucratic village idiot but a high-ranking government bureaucratic idiot who is paid by U.S. taxpayers.

It’s not as if the drug cartels needed any more guns. An estimated 35,000 Mexicans have been slaughtered in recent years in drug-related violence. What could an additional 2,000 guns provide the already heavily armed drug cartels, which get all the fully automatic machine guns they could possibly want from their own military and Central American gunrunners? Are you kidding me?

We should be given the names of the bureaucratic idiots at ATF who hatched this criminal idea and the bureaucratic punks who authorized it. They shouldn’t just be fired. They should be prosecuted and put in a cage with other gunrunning thugs. That’s what this was: a U.S. government-sanctioned gun-smuggling scheme.

Meanwhile, because the bureaucratic punks in Washington who hatched and approved this terminally brain-dead gunrunning idea have not been charged with a crime, all across America, law-abiding citizens must comply with onerous gun restrictions that make them victims. Great. Punish the good guys. That seems to be standard operating procedure in Barack Obama’s and Eric Holder’s America.

More guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens ultimately ensures more dead bad guys - not more guns in the hands of violent dope dealers. I want an attorney general who declares open season on the recidivistic, violent punks who victimize law-abiding Americans.

Americans addicted to common sense have always had a healthy disdain for government bureaucrats addicted to power. Our instinctual distrust for government is further fueled by Mr. Holder’s ATF Operation Fast and Furious. At its core it was stupid, sinister, evil and criminal.

The only thing fast and furious that ought to happen is a full-on murder investigation by the FBI of the government goons who hatched, authorized and now are covering up this brain-dead, criminal scheme, which ended up costing the life of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Fast and Furious stinks. It smells just like Watergate did, only worse.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Bain Capital isn’t the problem

The delusion that government creates jobs is
By Ted Nugent

The first thing we need to fix is the lexicon. I have heard both President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney lay claim to how many jobs they created during their tenures in public office.

Here we go, boys and girls - Business 101 from the Motor City Madman. Pay attention. Class is now in session.

While public servants, neither of these guys created a single job in the private sector. Not one. Businesses hire people. Public servants do not. All they did or can do as public servants is assist by nurturing favorable conditions in which investors open their checkbooks, entrepreneurs take risks and businesses increase production. Or they can wreck the economy with wrongheaded policies.

At some horrible, dark moment in American history, governments at all levels start believing in and getting away with thinking their “business” is to spend taxpayer dollars. Actual businesses are in business to make money. That’s a big difference. Everyone, nod your head in agreement, as this will be a fundamental and reoccurring truism as the campaign season heats up.

In the rough-and-tumble world of business, people get fired for any number of reasons. They get laid off when business is not good. Businesses go out of business. Businesses buy other businesses and sell off their assets. People buy stocks in companies they believe are soundly managed and will turn a profit. If you don’t like this system, move to Cuba and occupy it.

The private sector is not some social-welfare experiment to see how many people it can hire. Businesses hire the number of people they need who possess the right skills, knowledge and business acumen. Bottom line: Businesses hire people who can help make the business more profitable. Profit makes the world go ‘round. Profit is a beautiful thing and the foundation of the greatest quality of life known to mankind. It is called the American dream. Write that down.

As it pertains to Mr. Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, we don’t know how many people he hired or fired. What we do know is that he was in the business arena where the profit-and-loss dust was swirling, and he understands how the free market works. President Obama has never been in this arena. He has no firsthand knowledge of how the private sector operates. It’s called “cluelessness.” Mr. Obama is simply a government wonk - another hapless and ineffective bureaucrat.

Mr. Obama has never personally created a single private-sector job that I can find. He has never had to hire or fire an individual, stand in front of a shareholders meeting and take the heat, or comply with the dizzying array of government regulations that strangle the private sector. Bottom line: He couldn’t sell a blanket to a naked man in a blizzard.

What he has done is increase and extend the misery of those who are unemployed and underemployed. His policies have caused the free market to pull in its horns and wait out him and his anti-entrepreneurial cronies. His belief that government knows best is the primary reason the economy has been sluggish in pulling itself out of the recession.

But the media is out for Mr. Romney. They loathe free-market capitalists like him. They will do whatever they can to paint Mr. Romney to look like a free-market pirate, a corporate raider who does not care about people.

What our deaf, dumb and blind lapdog media will avoid at all costs is how the president’s policies have caused untold millions of people to be on unemployment or give up looking for work. That’s after burning through hundreds of billions of a taxpayer-funded stimulus. The destruction Mr. Obama has caused to the economy makes Jon Corzine, the Enron gang and other private-sector crooks look like the guardian-angel saviors of the free market.

When the truth comes out, and if Mr. Romney becomes the GOP nominee, the reality of which candidate has caused the most damage to jobs and the economy will be a no-brainer.

Fedzilla is the problem, not Mr. Romney, Bain Capital or the free market. Class dismissed.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: God bless BP

Oil company has made amends for Gulf oil spill
By Ted Nugent

Not so long ago, BP was the goat of big business in the eyes of many people for the disastrous April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Conservationists such as myself who also recognize that big business, including big oil, is what fuels our economy, have had our radar finely tuned to the efforts and progress of healing the Gulf’s environment and economy since the spill.

The results have been nothing short of amazing in such a short amount of time since the disaster. The Gulf’s economy has rebounded dramatically, and it appears the environment is well on its way to a healthy recovery. We owe a huge debt of gratitude for the herculean efforts of BP for this.

BP has spent well in excess of $20 billion cleaning up the Gulf and compensating its residents for the damage of the spill. BP undoubtedly will spend billions more in the coming years. The corporation’s stewardship and successful efforts to restore the Gulf make one of the greatest stories not being told.

In less than two years from the spill, the seafood from the Gulf is safe to eat, the majority of beaches are pristine, tourism is on the rebound, wildlife is flourishing, health hazards have been reduced dramatically, and small businesses are recovering.

This is not to imply that everything is perfect in the Gulf. It isn’t. Much more work needs to be done. What it does imply is that in less than two years after one of the greatest man-made environmental calamities, tremendous strides forward, spearheaded by BP, have proved quite effective at reducing the ugly stain of the spill.

The lessons learned from the oil spill are being implemented to prevent future oil spills. But we must remember that drilling for energy, the lifeblood of our economy and quality of life overall, is always a risky business that is complicated and made even more risky when oil companies drill in deep water.

As Americans, we want our energy prices to be as affordable as possible. No one wants gas prices at the pump to rise, as we know this leads to higher prices for a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. We also want our air, water and soil to be clean. There’s the conundrum, the Catch 22. We want to have our cake and eat it, too. We would do well to remember this each time we fill up or turn on a light switch.

The future of automobile transportation may be with alternative energy, such as battery power or hydrogen fuel cells, but efficient applications of those energy technologies are decades away, realistically. Until then, the roughly 250 million cars on the road in America will be reliant on oil, and that requires risky drilling, processing and transporting.

Big business, especially big oil, rarely gets a public acknowledgment of thanks or nod of approval for its corporate stewardship, conservation efforts and vision. BP deserves our thanks for what it has done in the Gulf so far and what it already has pledged to do in the future.

Thanks, BP. Keep up the good work. The Gulf needs you. America needs you.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Diversity perversity

Behind multicultural push is effort to degrade American culture
By Ted Nugent

Diversity is America’s greatest strength, according to the left and its socialist, Marxist, commie cohorts and co-conspirators running rampant across the country.

If you listen carefully to these America-hating, social-engineering liberals, virtually all behavior, conduct, morals and beliefs make America stronger.

This, of course, is toxic, brain-dead logic that leaves ordinary Americans shaking and scratching their heads in confusion and disgust. We recognize bull dung when we hear, see and smell it, and we have no desire whatsoever to embrace it.

The left’s definition of diversity does not make America stronger. It is weakening and destroying America. Let’s be bold and honest: The left’s version of diversity is repugnant.

Hey, I’m your biggest supporter if you want to swan-dive naked into a pool of goat urine. What I will never support is trying to make it mandatory for everyone to do it.

Those Americans who stand up to the left’s diversity mantra are pilloried and labeled as pernicious, vile, intolerant, racist, backward Bubbas.

The left is forcing its version of diversity throughout our society and culture. According to the left and its acolytes, we are supposed to respect people who refuse to respect Old Glory or learn English, look for a job or put forth the effort to do an honest day’s work. We are supposed to respect all cultures, values, laws and religions - even when they have proved throughout history to be dangerous and diametrically opposed to our American way of life, customs, laws and traditions.

It will be a cold day in hell before I embrace voodoolike religions and unclean stone-age cultures that retard progress instead of advancing it.

The real issue is that by forcing diversity and multicultural nonsense in our workplaces, schools and government agencies on people who still cherish common sense and traditional American values, we’re ripping the nation apart.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. reverts to covering up his ineptitude by trying to disguise it with the race card, the ultimate act of racism. Mr. Holder doesn’t have the dignity or respect for his position to resign. He’s a national embarrassment.

I respect diverse people who respect and cherish basic American customs, traditions, goodwill and values. I have no respect for left-wingers who employ intimidation to make multiculturalism or diversity mandatory as the law of the land.

The diversity punks believe in racial set-asides and preferences. You won’t ever solve discrimination by engaging in reverse discrimination. Maybe a racist like Jesse Jackson or Mr. Holder believes in reverse discrimination, but ordinary Americans do not. We are much too focused and intelligent to buy into such Jabberwocky.

Real diversity, real change, real progress is accomplished by promoting and embracing Western culture, values and traditions, which is what made America great and created the greatest quality of life ever. Weakening this proven methodology under the artful guise of diversity, multiculturalism and political correctness is every bit as insidious a threat to America as are voodoo-inspired terrorist punks.

Diversity is an intentional left-wing disaster and destructive platform. The result of the left’s efforts to force this cultural rot on America is that there is more cultural rot, more social and racial division and less economic activity.

The politically correct punks who are trying to force their brain-dead ideology on America are intolerant and destructive. When you hear someone promoting diversity, consider that person an anti-American stooge. Such punks have a sinister agenda that is anti-American, anti-free-market and anti-freedom.

The left’s version of diversity is social, cultural, economic and ethnic rot. Believe it.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Pay lawmakers what they’re worth: 10 bucks

Let’s see who’s really interested in ‘public service’
By Ted Nugent

In the inescapable, common-sense world to which producers of America are hopelessly addicted and in which they proudly reside, compensation is determined by dreams, work ethic, skill, knowledge, ability, expertise, level of effort and, last but not least, results. Put that in your merciless pay pipe and suck on it till you drop, Occupiers.

Employees who lack these most basic of work characteristics are tossed out on their lame rears in short order, as it should be; that is, unless you are a member of Congress, where dismal performance is richly rewarded.

Congress routinely earns around a 10 percent approval rating by the American public, which is being generous. Zero approval would be more appropriate once you begin to understand how our professional political punks have wrecked America through gross ignorance or with willful, fraudulent intent, just to get re-elected.

Because the re-election system is rigged with stacks of lobbying cash and taxpayer cash in favor of the incumbent, the overwhelming majority of congressmen are regretfully re-elected. It often takes a scandal to remove a pesky congress-critter, and even then there is no guarantee. I give you Barney Frank and Charlie Rangel as shining examples. Jail, not the halls of Congress, is where these two scoundrels should have taken up residency.

Anyone who has been in Congress for more than 10 years has torpedoed America through their pathetic substandard performance. Granted, the destruction of America began many years before, but instead of drawing a line in the sand and showing true leadership and fiscal responsibility, Congress continued to pass the buck - literally.

Financial irresponsibility, shenanigans and buffoonery is the hallmark of Congress. America will soon be $20 trillion in debt, and Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are living on borrowed money and are essentially broke. And we actually pay these people $175,000 a year to drive America off a cliff. Are you kidding me?

Constitutionally, we are required to pay congressmen something, but the Constitution doesn’t say how much. Insanely, Congress itself determines how much ilts members get paid. The mob could take lessons from Congress.

The Tea Party should start a movement to pay congressmen what they are worth. I propose $10 a year. We would then see how many of our professional politicians still want to “serve the public.” Ask your congressman at the next town hall meeting if he thinks he’s worth $175,000 a year and if he would accept 10 bucks a year to do the job. Watch him squirm.

Since the majority of congressmen are millionaires, and many are multi-multimillionaires, slashing their $175,000 a year salary to 10 smackers per annum won’t bust their savings and investment portfolios.

In practical terms, a $10 yearly salary would do a couple of things. First and foremost, it would be reflective of the performance they have achieved while running the country. If they were employees of a private-sector firm, they would have all been fired. Secondly, a $10 salary should weed out some of the professional politicians who enrich themselves because of their position. Getting rich on the public teat by “serving the public” is not what the Founders had in mind. Lastly, 10 bucks a year may cause congressmen to get the public’s business done as soon as possible, so that they could return to their real jobs, as our Founders envisioned.

Think in these terms: There isn’t one small-business owner in America who would pay someone $175,000 - or any other amount, for that matter - to destroy their business. So why should taxpayers have to pay congressmen this kind of money to wreck America?

The less time Congress spends in the swamp of Washington, the better off America will be. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has it right. We need a part-time Congress. Paying congressmen 10 bucks a year should help ensure that. Until they prove otherwise, 10 bucks is all they’re worth. And that’s being generous.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: In the new year, we must be bold

The future of our kids and our country is on the line
By Ted Nugent

As I do every year, I’m going to make 2012 a bold, wonderful year. Let all Americans who care commit to being like the majestic American bison that turns and faces the howling storm.

Instead of kicking the can down the road, as soulless political wimps have done forever, forcing future generations of Americans ultimately to face and pay for our irresponsibility, let’s do something bold about it instead of squawking, blaming, complaining and procrastinating. Let’s be the new greatest generation.The new year clearly will be a pivotal one politically for America, a veritable tipping point. Whom we elect in 2012 will either set us on a course to begin to fill in the economic hole we have dug or allow our politicians to continue to demand a bigger shovel and a deeper hole. All elections are important, but many of us are convinced that the 2012 election is one of the most if not the most critical election in our history.

With our embarrassing debt surpassing our annual gross domestic product, we need to be bold and brutally honest with ourselves about how to reverse this economic kamikaze swan dive. Less Fedzilla borrowing and spending is always better. Continued runaway spending is a recipe for economic disaster. I say runaway spending runs into a brick wall of fiscal responsibility. Tilt. Party over.

We need to be bold about entitlement spending. While our professional politicians have been reticent to address entitlement spending out of fear the AARP will have them fired, we must encourage them to be bold anyway. Failing to fundamentally restructure the entitlement system will doom the livelihood of future generations of Americans and ultimately turn America into an economic dust bowl.

Preparing our young people today to compete in tomorrow’s world requires us to be bold and address what works in education and jettison what does not. Let’s keep all options on the table, including privatization, charter schools, online education, year-round schooling, vouchers, neighborhood schools, home-schooling, etc. Let’s put Michelle Rhee, former D.C. schools chancellor, in charge and tell her to fix it. I’ll send her one of my many crowbars of logic because I had another bumper crop in 2011.

What we can’t allow is for our tax dollars to continue to be stripped from us and thrown at a public education system that is outrageously expensive, archaic, bureaucratic, inefficient and dysfunctional. I say “Flunk you” to the National Education Association and to parents who don’t care. Fundamentally restructuring our tax system and tax code are two priorities the American public has been requesting - no, demanding - for years but that have been ignored by our politicians. Everyone knows our tax code is a tangled, bureaucratic mess of rules and requirements that leaves even the Internal Revenue Service baffled. We need a bold, open and honest debate about all taxes, including property, income, sales, business and hidden taxes, and a tax code that can be understood easily. Taxes are a necessary evil, but what is not a necessary evil is a tax code that is the largest, most confusing book in the history of mankind. Let’s shred it and start over.

How about passing a law that says no law can be longer than our Constitution, which is roughly 5,000 words? That would be bold. No more congressional buffoonery creating confusing laws that contain hundreds of thousands of words that require an army of legal sharks to interpret. We also should demand that for every new law passed, 10 laws need to be rescinded. How about it GOP?

Bold is beautiful. Let’s get it on in 2012. I am. Are you?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Christmas spirit found in cash-filled wallet

Ex-con’s honesty gives his kids true gift of the season
By Ted Nugent

With Christmas less than a week away, the hustle and bustle of preparing for this national holiday can cause one to lose sight of the meaning of Christmas.

And then along comes a story that reminds us of what Christmas is really all about.

You need look no further for the real spirit of Christmas than Alex Ortiz, an ex-con in my hometown of Detroit, who is struggling to get by.

Alex Ortiz embraces the Christmas spirit of giving. What he did was to do the right thing, to give back.

Barely out of jail a week, Mr. Ortiz found a wallet stuffed with $1,000 in cash and credit cards. Instead of taking the cash, Mr. Ortiz contacted the owner and gave the wallet back.

This is the true meaning of Christmas. A man of very limited means with eight kids to provide for did the right thing and gave the wallet back.

His children should be extraordinarily proud of their dad. Although presents in the Ortiz household may be rather limited on Christmas morning, what their dad gave them is something that has no price tag. It is invaluable, priceless: honesty.

Given his limited means, it would have almost been understandable had Mr. Ortiz kept the cash. That money could have been used for food and possibly, a present for each of his eight kids. Instead, he chose the right path. He said that is what God wanted him to do.

Jeff Schulmeister, another fellow Detroiter with the true spirit of Christmas glowing brightly in his heart, saw the story on the news and gave Mr. Ortiz $1,000 for doing the right thing. Reports are that the television station is being deluged with calls and emails from viewers who also want to donate funds to Mr. Ortiz.

What Mr. Ortiz did, then what Mr. Schulmeister did and others are doing is proof positive that the Christmas spirit is alive and well in America. Even in Detroit.

This wonderful little story is the story of redemption, doing the right thing, neighbors helping neighbors. This is the spirit of Christmas.

The Christmas spirit is not receiving, but rather giving. What these two gentlemen have done is remind us of that. Dig deep, America, and give until it hurts. Do it for Mr. Ortiz and Mr. Schulmeister. Do it because it is the right thing to do.

The spirit of Christmas remains bright, vibrant and alive thanks to Mr. Ortiz and Mr. Schulmeister.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Ortiz and Mr. Schulmeister. May the Good Lord bless both of you for showing us the true spirit of Christmas.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Corzine the Corrupt

White-collar fraudster deserves hard time in the slammer
By Ted Nugent

Where there is billowing, suffocating smoke, there generally is fire. The dark smoke of corruption is billowing around former Democratic senator, New Jersey governor, Goldman Sachs bigwig and MF Global Chairman and CEO Jon Corzine. A pall of suspicion has followed Corzine the Corrupt’s career like flies at a summer barbecue.

As CEO of the now defunct MF Global, Corzine was at the controls of the investment firm when it made risky investments that ultimately led to MF Global going belly-up and losing all the investors’ money.

Corzine is not alone. There are plenty of examples of slick, lying, cheating, crooked or idiotic CEOs and other corporate officers steering their companies off a financial cliff and into bankruptcy or insolvency and ripping off investors while enriching themselves. The Enron gang comes to mind.

The Securities and Exchange Commission just recently filed suit against six former corporate officers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for lying to investors about the size of their subprime loans. Meanwhile, those corrupt white-collar gangsters were paid millions.

Corzine the Corrupt didn’t miss a beat. Losing investor cash because of risky ventures is one thing, but not being able to account for $1.2 billion is quite another.

That essentially is what has happened at MF Global. Corzine said under oath, before the Senate Agriculture Committee of all places, that he doesn’t know what happened to the money that can’t be accounted for.

Remember, Corzine was the captain of that ship. As CEO, he was ultimately responsible for managing the finances of the company. During his brief reign at MF Global, he drove the 228-year-old firm off a cliff in just 19 months. Bottom line: Corzine is either a punk crook or one of the world’s all-time most incompetent CEOs.

He was surrounded by other company officers, including legal counsel, a chief operating officer and a chief financial officer. With these officers and other corporate staff members responsible for assisting him, Mr. Corzine knows that $1 billion does not just disappear into the vapor.

You don’t have to be a Wall Street investment whiz-bang to recognize that there are sufficient ugly and dark smoke signals of corruption here to file criminal charges against the Corzine gang that oversaw the plundering of MF Global.

We throw bank robbers in the slammer for years, and most of them only get away with a few thousand dollars before being arrested. They get hard time. We should treat white-collar robbers no differently. No minimum-security, country-club prisons for them. Hard time in a maximum-security prison is just what the justice doctor ordered.

Corzine the Corrupt deserves his day in court. If there is any justice left in America, this fraudster and his former confederates at MF Global should be convicted of fraud, theft and other charges. Throw the punks in the slammer for a couple of decades. Maybe they could stamp out license plates alongside Bernie Madoff.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Poor parental choices make poor children

Personal initiative is best way to beat childhood poverty
By Ted Nugent

The truth can be very ugly, rather discomforting and downright painful, but it remains the truth, whether you like it or admit it or not. The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that the number of American children living in poverty is on the rise, with almost one-third of American children living in what the bureau defines as poverty. Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: This is not the fault of the kids.

The fault is with the parents or, often, the lack thereof.

The majority of people who are poor in America are poor because they knowingly have made poor decisions. That may be ugly and uncomfortable to the soulless, politically correct masters of denial, but it’s the truth nonetheless.

Being poor is largely a choice, a daily, if not hourly, decision. If you decide to drop out of school, fail to learn a skill, have no work ethic or get divorced, a life of poverty is often the consequence. The children of parents who choose a life of poverty quite often pay a horrible price, and so does all of America.

Poverty rates among college graduates, those who learn a trade or skill and parents who stay married are much lower than the rates among those who choose opposite paths. As author William J. Bennett pointed out a number of years ago in his book “The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators,” children of single parents are much more likely to be involved in crime and premarital sex, to drop out of school and to get involved with drugs. Ugly and uncomfortable as that may be, it’s the truth.

The question is: What to do about lowering the poverty rate?

First, we need a government that respects the free market and private sector instead of spitting on them. The more our government embraces the private sector, the more opportunity there is available for people who choose it. That will be good for kids.

Second, we need to punish poor decisions instead of rewarding them. We cannot continue to offer a safety blanket to those Americans who make poor choices. The fewer social welfare programs, the better. This, too, may be ugly and uncomfortable, but we must make hard choices that force people into making smart, responsible decisions.

Third, we must encourage churches and civic organizations to step up and do what is necessary to help children living in poverty. Instead of building larger, more ornate churches, I say we encourage churches to take on a much larger role in their communities. The same goes for civic organizations. They need to step up in a big way.

Fourth, our schools need to be dramatically restructured. I advocate that our kids go to school year-round from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. We need to make it easier to fire poor teachers and reward good ones and bust up the National Education Association.

Fifth, if you can’t afford to have kids, quit having them and expecting the taxpayers to pay for them. Men and women with no visible means of support other than the taxpayer dime shouldn’t be having children. That may sound ugly and controlling, but it’s much uglier to expect the taxpayer to pay for mindless baby-making machines, which guarantees the cycle of poverty.

As country crooner Lynn Anderson sang 40 or so years ago, I never promised you a rose garden.

Never reward poor choices unless you want more of them. That’s so simple, it’s stupid.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Captain Trainwreck’s White House whitewash

Statistical illusions can’t fix nation’s economic crackup
By Ted Nugent

The current Occupiers of the White House will claim the slight dip in the unemployment rate from 9 percent to 8.6 percent is proof the economy is beginning to lumber out of the recession they imposed on it. Don’t believe the spin. The economy continues to sink. Once the employment data is analyzed and the economic truth comes out, it will be seen that one of the probable reasons for the dip in the unemployment rate is that 315,000 more Americans have quit looking for work, making them persona non grata when it comes to being counted in employment statistics.

Denial runs deep in our corrupt, power-abusing government, does it not?

In addition to those 315,000 Americans who are statistically null and void, there are 14 million who are out of work. The proportion of Americans unemployed or underemployed has reached 18 percent, meaning the employment picture remains ominous.

Meanwhile, the debt continues to escalate, with Fedzilla borrowing $170 million every single hour.

Slice it any way you want, but what this adds up to is an employment and economic train wreck. And things are going to get much worse with Captain Trainwreck Obama at the controls.

Is a complete and total meltdown on the horizon? That depends, but it appears so, unless America dramatically reverses course politically, economically, socially and culturally.

America’s current economic model is analogous to Captain Smith of the Titanic being told the ship will, not might, hit an iceberg, but ordering the Titanic full speed ahead anyway. Shuffling the deck chairs won’t stop the coming collision.

Instead of adopting the findings of the debt commission that President Obama himself commissioned and that would have reduced the impact of Fedzilla by trillions of dollars, Mr. Obama played politics and ignored the commission’s critical recommendations. His lack of leadership on the debt was appalling.

During the supercommittee debate, the president’s lack of leadership was once again on parade for all the world to see. The president is aloof and removed on issues that seek to reduce Fedzilla’s gluttonous footprint, but he has been fully engaged on issues that expand Fedzilla’s footprint, like working tirelessly to create Obamacare and put America on a path for trillions more in debt.

There is no doubt Mr. Obama inherited a weak economy when he was elected. However, instead of fixing the economy as a foundational platform, the president went the opposite way and made things worse, much worse. The president’s view: iceberg dead ahead. Full speed ahead.

What the GOP candidate should do is to state that he will charter a commission of private-sector titans (no Washington bureaucrats) to develop recommendations on how to get the economy moving for the long term and how to streamline and shrink Fedzilla by 25 percent over the next four years. Go big, GOP.

The economy is the seminal political issue for 2012. You either support massive reforms or continue racing full speed ahead into the dark, looming mass in front of America.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: All-American Thanksgiving Day

Forget Black Friday; remember to count your blessings today
By Ted Nugent

On this Thanksgiving, when all of us have so many reasons to be thankful, pausing to give thanks is more and more an afterthought in America.

Let’s be clear: “Black Friday” is an amazing, soulful Steely Dan song, not the day after Thanksgiving to stand in line at 4 a.m., waiting for a store to open.

Black Friday, the first day of the Christmas shopping season, is what many Americans are really thankful for. More attention is given to Black Friday than to Thanksgiving Day itself.

Not at the Nugent household. No mention of Black Friday or Christmas is permitted on Thanksgiving at the Nugent household. We spend Thanksgiving Day pausing to give thanks for the numerous blessings bestowed upon our family and our nation.

I will take my sons and grandson hunting at the crack of dawn on Thanksgiving Day, celebrating the pureness of the spirit of the wild from which we derive our life’s sustenance. We will sit in a hunting blind together and wait for the mighty white-tailed deer. With a little luck, my arrow will fly true and my grandson will witness sustainable yield - real-world cause and effect the way God intended.

The centerpiece of our Thanksgiving dinner will be a wild turkey that I killed. Pure, organic, wild thunderbird nutrition. The tastiest, healthiest meat on the planet. We don’t play politically correct catch-and-release games at our house. I kill my own Thanksgiving turkey. Anyone who has a problem with that dwells in the land of the mentally lost.

We don’t watch NFL football on television on Thanksgiving, though we may toss around a football in the yard, and we most definitely will shoot our bows and handguns while we go for a family walk up the lane and talk about what we are most thankful for.

As the Thanksgiving Day afternoon begins to wane, your humble Motor City Madman will sneak to my favorite oak tree in the swamp, where I will sit quietly 20 feet off the ground, armed with my bow and arrows. An overabundance of deer requires the herd be reduced. I can fix that. I give genuine thanks for the bounty of the land.

Thanksgiving is not a speed-bump holiday for Christmas. I understand the need for merchants to make money, but I don’t understand the mentality of people who basically skip the essence of Thanksgiving in order to kick off the Christmas shopping season.

Times are tough for many Americans and our nation. Regardless, all of us can find reasons to give thanks.

Stop and give thanks on Thanksgiving, America. Black Friday can wait.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: No more child-abuse excuses

Problem not solved until those who knew and did nothing go to jail
By Ted Nugent

We don’t really care anymore? Oh, sure, some of us are shocked to the core about the child-sex-abuse scandal at Penn State University. Some of us are genuinely angry and wonder aloud on talk-radio stations how this could happen again.

For me, it’s easy to understand how this could happen again: We don’t really care about protecting children from sexual predators even though we claim that safeguarding our children is our No. 1 responsibility and concern. We talk a good game, but we don’t really give a damn.

My opinion may anger you, but don’t forget that it wasn’t too long ago that a massive child-sex-abuse scandal plagued the Catholic Church. Have you noticed how that ugly story has quietly gone away, having been forgotten already by the press and America? We moved along. What a shame. What a crime.

If we cared, truly cared, any and all priests and other church officials who for decades swept this vile abuse under the rug would be in prison, as they are all complicit and should have been charged with numerous felonies.

The same goes for the Penn State coaches and school officials who supposedly were told of the scandal there but did not contact the police. If we truly cared, we would demand that they all face criminal charges and lengthy prison sentences.

If we truly cared, we would demand that pedophiles never be released from prison, as we know that they have the highest recidivism rate of any criminal. By letting them out of prison, we are virtually guaranteeing that they will victimize other innocent children. And we claim we care?

What we have created on our watch is a soulless legal system, not a justice system. A system based on justice would not permit a convicted pedophile ever to experience freedom again. Though I have no statistics to support this, I believe the average American even would support the death penalty for pedophiles.

Too many of us as parents don’t even care enough to attend our child’s parent-teacher conference or check our children’s homework. Moreover, too many of our children are dropping out of high school, thereby condemning themselves to lives of poverty. And we as a society and as parents claim we care about kids? No we don’t. Not really.

The Penn State child-sex-abuse story will slip quickly from the 24-hour news cycle and our national consciousness. Some other shocking and disgusting story will replace it in a couple of days and captivate our attention for a fleeting moment or two. Nothing meaningful will be done.

We no longer fix problems in America. Instead, we shuffle about under the illusion of doing something while the problem continues to fester and grow. As I write this, who knows how many recidivistic pedophiles are abusing kids? Those predatory monsters should be behind bars or executed.

I won’t be convinced that we as a society are even beginning to care about kids until every Penn State official who knew about this horrible and despicable crime but did not report it to the police is charged with a crime, convicted and locked up. However, my money says there will be no justice, only hand-wringing, tearful apologies and pleas for forgiveness from university officials. After all, we must win football games.

Fixing problems requires bold leadership and relentless commitment. I’m not convinced that is part of the American psyche anymore. America has become a culture of excuse makers, not problem solvers.

No, we don’t really care about children. What we truly care about is our favorite sports team’s record, our favorite show on television and being entertained. Admit it.

Penn State clearly cared more about the college football program, money and image than it did about protecting children. Admit that, too.

How many more child-abuse scandals have to occur before we take serious action and actually do something about the problem and fix it?

Meanwhile, Lady Justice is being raped along with our kids right there before the bench. And we claim we care. What America has are excuse-making hypocrites who don’t really care. Admit it.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Nobody needs Michael Moore’s hypocritical advice

Wall Street protesters learning to display a nose for nonsense
By Ted Nugent

Idiots are easily manipulated. They are useful pawns, and that’s about it. Consider the stooges of the fledgling movement “Occupy Wall Street.” These useful idiots are clamoring for social justice, as if they don’t have enough of that already.

From what I can tell, the softheaded numskulls of Occupy Wall Street want investment bankers to give up their wealth, as in “spread the wealth around.” They are blaming Wall Street for the sad state of our economic malaise and for all the other problems of the world.

Poster boy for the morbidly obese and natural leader of the hygiene-challenged, uber-lefty America-haters, Michael Moore spoke out in favor of Occupy Wall Street. What he didn’t tell the crowd of useful idiots and what they are too stupid to grasp is that he is one of the wealthy individuals whom he and they supposedly despise. I would gladly pay for a first-class, one-way ticket for Mr. Moore to the socialist or Marxist country of his choosing if he promises to stay there.

Occupy Wall Street is nothing more than anti-American socialism on parade.

Yes, people, especially young people, have a right to be angry, and the smart ones are focusing their anger on President Obama, Rep. Barney Frank, former Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, and other anti-free-market socialists. They are the ones who have wrecked the economy.

The president is losing the support of educated young people in droves. Now that reality has set in and they can’t find good jobs, are struggling to pay back student loans and have moved back into their parents’ basements, the enthusiasm for “hope and change” fantasy has taken a well-deserved hit.

Of course, the uninspired, uneducated, unskilled and stoned have been conditioned for generations to expect something for nothing. They will always be in the tank of the left-wing movement - and they will always be unmotivated and poor and will continue to blame others for their condition. Instead of busting their humps working two or three jobs, they have time to protest on Wall Street. Fascinating.

Our economy hit the skids in large part because of Democrats’ refusal to provide fundamental oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Toss in massive government borrowing and spending, untold new anti-free-market regulations, and you get a sputtering economy. Duh.

And this is the fault of Wall Street bankers, many of whom also have lost good jobs? Only a useful idiot could arrive at that conclusion. The way out of this economic quicksand is to reverse course by tossing out the socialists and Marxists and electing people who understand what it takes to make an economy vibrant and strong.

America has embraced big government for decades. Embracing Fedzilla’s anti-free-market principles has been and will continue to be a job killer. It is the uneducated and unskilled who are feeling the most pain.

Smart people quietly chuckle at the antics of goons like Michael Moore and Roseanne Barr. Smart people know that Mr. Moore and Miss Barr represent a fringe movement of people who are poor because they have made a lifetime of poor choices. Expecting others to remedy that by surrendering their wealth is a fool’s game. It’s also anti-American and downright anti-human.

Occupy Wall Street is empty-headed. Stinky hippies, generational slaves to Fedzilla and the transparent entitled are the problem, not the solution.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Iran’s voodoo extremists trump our enviro-nuts

Muslim death threats surpass West’s anti-oil mantra for zealotry
By Ted Nugent

In yet further proof that Iran is a country of insecure and intolerant voodoo extremists, as I wrote this, this there was a possibility a Christian pastor would be executed because he would not recant his Christian faith and embrace Islam in the land of Allah freaks.

Convert to Islam or die is the mantra of many of the world’s Muslims. It’s anti-human.

That’s right. In 2011, you can be executed in Iran for professing a faith other than Islam, the so-called “religion of peace.” It may be a religion of peace, but the religious voodoo whack jobs who embrace the faith are an oppressive, cruel and violent lot. Their faith is so weak that they execute and persecute others who are not Muslims.

Having a law that allows for the execution of people of other faiths is but one of the reasons why the unstable extremists in charge in Iran or other voodoo countries should not be allowed to get their hands on nuclear weapons. I stand with Israel.

The United Nations probably won’t even issue a proclamation condemning Iran for having a death penalty for practicing a different faith. Should Iran execute Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, the United Nations will barely issue a whimper. The U.N. is infested with evil, soulless, brain-dead voodoo freaks. The fact that we have anything to do with the U.N. is disgusting and anti-American.

The United Nations pays lip service to basic human rights at best. They are worthless, probably because voodoo extremists and human rights violators are given credence by the United Nations.

The persecution of Christians in Muslim-dominated countries is a story not given enough ink by our left-wing lapdog media. Even Christian churches and Christian leaders have failed miserably at identifying and condemning the persecution of their fellow Christians in Muslim countries. Political correctness has muzzled too many Christians.

A quick search of the Internet reveals hundreds of instances of Muslims terrorizing and killing Christians and destroying their churches. And we are supposed to believe that Islam is the religion of peace. I think not. Go to jihadwatch.com and read about Islam, the religion of persecution, death and destruction.

The world should be outraged over what is transpiring in Iran and, for that matter, in other Middle Eastern countries where it is impossible to tell the difference between their religion and their politics, where people of a different faith are terrorized, where kangaroo court systems will not stand for real justice. These subhuman countries deserve the world’s ridicule and scorn.

Whether or not Iran executes, locks up or throws pastor Nadarkhani out of Iran is not the point. The point is that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries legally sanction executing and terrorizing others of different faiths. It just goes to show you how little mankind really has evolved in some parts of the world.

It also sends a signal that America needs to get off Middle Eastern oil as soon as possible. Doing business with the devil is not good business. We should open up access to the vast oil fields off of our coasts, which have been restricted by the bureaucratic and idiotic hand of Fedzilla.

Green energy ain’t cuttin’ it. Tilting at windmills is for idiots. Like it or not, America still runs on oil. I’m all for clean energy, such as nuclear, but I’m also a realist who understands that it is brain-dead to be doing business with voodoo extremists when we have access to so much oil and so many other energy resources that we could be mining but aren’t because of our own environmental extremists.

Draw a bold line in the sand, then watch how many Americans scramble to stand with the voodoo criminals of the world.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Morgan Freeman reads from the wrong script

Actor charging Tea Party with racism is out of character
By Ted Nugent

The ugliest form of racism is accusing others of racism when there is none. Throwing around the terms “racist” and “racism” has been a tactic of the left for decades. Surely we can all agree that Martin Luther King Jr. would not endorse such an ugly tactic, as he wanted us to judge each other on the content of our character rather than our skin color.

While falsely accusing others of racism for years, the left has ratcheted up its vitriolic and false claims now that President Obama is in office.

The actor Morgan Freeman, who obviously leans way to the left, is the most recent, egregious example of someone willing to claim racism where there is none.

In a disjointed rant on CNN’s Piers Morgan’s program, Mr. Freeman accused the Tea Party members of racism because of their opposition to Mr. Obama.

The real racist is not the Tea Party but the Oscar-winning actor.

Racists often are not well informed or choose to be intellectually isolated because of deep-seated prejudice and hate. Had Mr. Freeman removed his racist blinders and analyzed the Tea Party closely and honestly, he would have found an organization ideologically opposed to Mr. Obama’s policies and not his skin color.

He wouldn’t even have had to do that. A quick review of the GOP contenders for president would have enabled him to see that Herman Cain, a black contender, enjoys substantial support by the very Tea Party that Mr. Freeman claims is racist. Mr. Cain just recently won a straw poll in Florida.

Had Mr. Freeman chosen to analyze the plight of black Americans under Mr. Obama’s tenure, he would have found a dismal and bleak state of affairs. The unemployment rate of black Americans has skyrocketed to almost 17 percent during Mr. Obama’s short tenure. Maybe Mr. Freeman would contend that is George W. Bush’s fault or blame the Tea Party for a sinister, racist plan to destroy black America. He would be dead wrong again.

Because of high unemployment rates, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, recently stated that caucus members would “probably be marching on the White House” if President Obama were not the president. One has to wonder if Mr. Freeman read that.

Regarding the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Allen B. West, Florida Republican, is also a member of the Tea Party and enjoys wide appeal because of his limited-government policies. Of the Tea Party members to whom I have spoken, many hope Mr. West will one day run for president.

If Mr. Freeman could further remove his racist blinders and study the historical condition of black America, he would find the black community was vibrant and strong 60 years ago. This is not the case today. Instead of leaping to ugly and unfounded charges of racism, Mr. Freeman should ask some fundamental questions about what has happened to black America and who is responsible for the destruction.

The real architects of the destruction of black America are Democratic Party members who have lied to and manipulated black Americans into believing that the federal government is the answer to improving their condition when, in reality, it is the destroyer of black America. One has to wonder if Mr. Freeman could admit this obvious conclusion.

America faces a steep uphill challenge. The Tea Party thinks the way ahead for all Americans is a reduced federal government that employs fiscal sanity. This is not a racist political ideology but rather an ideology that champions turning away from the expansive growth of government that has occurred in the past 50 years. Staying on the current course will lead to the destruction of America.

How about it, Mr. Freeman? We are all getting rather bored with the knee-jerk-fits-all racist accusations. Surely you can do better than that. You are a great actor. Find a better script.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Happy National Hunting and Fishing Day

Wilderness is clean, well-stocked, thanks to outdoor recreation community
By Ted Nugent

It is sad to admit that hardly anyone knows what the acronyms SCI, DU, NSSF, NWTF and RMEF stand for or what those organizations do. That’s not your fault but rather the hunting community’s dismal failure to conduct fundamental public relations. As public relations go, the hunting community couldn’t sell a blanket to a naked man in a blizzard.

The accomplishments of SCI (Safari Club International), DU (Ducks Unlimited), RMEF (Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation) and many other hunting/conservation organizations are extraordinary. But because of their failure at relating to the public, the average American will never know of their incredible wildlife and environmental conservation accomplishments, which literally are envied around the world.

Saturday was the 39th annual celebration of National Hunting and Fishing Day. President Nixon established this important day back in 1972 as a day to recognize American sportsmen for our herculean conservation efforts.

If you were unaware of this day, don’t feel bad, because the vast majority of American hunters and fishermen also are unaware of it. Of the few who are, fewer still will write a letter to their local newspaper, post information about it on an Internet blog or celebrate it in any way, shape or form.

The national television news media, newspapers and informational websites will not mention National Hunting and Fishing Day. This is because they, too, are unaware of it. Again, this is because of the hunting-and-fishing community’s abject failure to conduct Public Relations 101.

Across America, numerous local and national hunting and fishing clubs provide, at their own expense, wonderful education outreach programs in which knowledgeable instructors introduce young people to fishing and hunting in a safe, professional environment. There is no coverage of these events by the media. For that matter, our own outdoor writers and periodicals do a pathetic job of covering these events.

Through our various licenses, permits, stamps and fees, hunters and fishermen provide the vast majority of the funds for state wildlife departments. These funds are not used exclusively for hunters and fishermen but are also used to provide hiking trails, upgrade and manage habitat for non-game species, etc. Were it not for the direct dollars provided by hunters and fishermen, there would be no state wildlife agencies and, therefore, no value for the glorious success of wildlife management.

Not only do our licenses and habitat stamps provide the majority of funds for state wildlife agencies, but the Pittman-Robertson Act provides for a special tax on all ammunition, rifles, handguns and archery equipment. More than $2 billion in federal excise taxes has been collected, which is used predominately for wildlife restoration programs. Again, don’t feel bad if you didn’t know this. Neither do many sportsmen.

While virtually everyone knows there is a Congressional Black Caucus on Capitol Hill, hardly anyone knows there is a Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus composed of more than 300 members of Congress. Their stated mission is to promote and protect the rights of hunters and anglers. The American public rarely, if ever, hears a peep out of them, even though there are numerous unscientifically based game laws and restrictions that need to be rescinded.

The outdoor community has failed at conducting basic marketing and public relations. We have not told the American public that streams are cleaner, public fishing lakes are numerous, and millions of acres of habitat have been purchased by private hunting organizations. This is one of the greatest conservation stories never told.

The American public doesn’t know there are more deer, elk, turkey, ducks, songbirds, birds of prey, doves and black bears than when the Mayflower landed. This fundamental knowledge should be passed on to every kid in grade school. Hands-on, value-based conservation is the only conservation that works.

National Hunting and Fishing Day should be a day celebrated every year by all Americans. In order to celebrate something, however, you need to know that it exists. The outdoor community has failed miserably at informing you of this good-news story. What a shame.

So join the Nugent family and many others and spread the good word as we celebrate clean air, soil and water and a proud heritage of healthy, thriving wildlife - thanks to the hunters, anglers and trappers of America. Happy National Hunting and Fishing Day, America. And happy hunting season 2011.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, only worse

Young Americans won’t get a penny for retirement unless system changes
By Ted Nugent

My good Gov. Rick Perry is spot-on, again. Social Security has much more in common with a criminal enterprise known as a Ponzi scheme than not. As I stated in “Ted, White, and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto,” this scam is anti-social and insecure.

The Democratic fear-mongering machine is on a full-tilt boogie to scare the elderly into believing that Mr. Perry wants to throw them out in the street. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth, but no one with an ounce of brains has ever thought truth was a core value of the Democratic Party or its media. Dishonest scare tactics and modern-day economic slavery are the hallmarks of the Democratic Party.

When elected president, Mr. Perry won’t order the Treasury Department to stop mailing out Social Security checks to the elderly. What he is going to do is revamp the program so that future generations of Americans aren’t subjected to the same Ponzi-scheme-like fraud that has been forced on retirees.

Social Security is like a Ponzi scheme in that it relies on the money provided by those of us still working to pay the benefits of those who are retired. It is a classic illegal pyramid scam. When the pool of Social Security recipients becomes as large as the group providing the benefits, the Ponzi scheme comes crashing down. And that’s basically where we are.

Furthermore, there is no Social Security “trust fund.” Our politicians have plundered and pillaged the money that was supposed to be used for Social Security. To put it simply, they stole the cash and used it to pay for other things. If a business operated in such a way, the owners would be put behind bars for any number of crimes.

We shouldn’t concern ourselves with how to shore up Social Security but rather how we can wean ourselves off of it.

I’ve been shouting for years that Social Security is a giant scam for young people. Any of you under the age of 45 who are planning for Social Security to be part of your retirement had better readjust your plans.

A hunting buddy of mine proposes the following plan to ultimately eliminate the Social Security congressional slush fund:

Anyone over the age of 45 will receive Social Security. Anyone under the age of 45 will not receive a Social Security check upon retirement. However, those younger than 45 will still be required to pay into Social Security to cover the benefits of those who are 45 or older. What they will get in return is that all of the money they accrue through investing in their 401(k), etc. programs will be tax-free when they retire.

Adopting this simple idea would slowly phase out the Social Security slush fund and incentivize younger Americans to save for their retirement. Do I smell a declaration of independence and personal accountability?

The problem, of course, with such a simple idea is that it will strip power (cash) away from Congress and put that power (cash) back in the hands of the people who earned it. Our elected officials won’t go down without a fight for our money. Let’s fight the thieves.

Ponzi schemes are operated by bandits like Bernie Madoff. Madoff was a rookie flimflam artist compared to the Washington bandits who are daily sending us further into a financial abyss. Let’s stop this hell-bound financial train wreck and reverse course.

Rick Perry is right. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. If we keep pumping cash into this scam, we are guaranteeing that our children and grandchildren will inherit a much weaker America. Ol’ Ponzi would be pleased, but to do so would be un-American of us.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: ‘American Con Job Act’

President’s stimulus do-over is credibility-free
By Ted Nugent

The president is out and out campaigning for re-election while promoting his latest half-baked half-trillion-dollar “American Con Job Act,” which he says will generate jobs and jump-start the sluggish economy, which continues to slide south.

When I sat down to write this, there was no bill for Americans to read and digest. In my America, the president would have had the bill to present to Congress when he spoke to its members last week. What happened to all that transparency, Mr. President?

So now we are supposed to believe that another $500 billion plan will get the economy moving. Didn’t the president already push through a $1 trillion stimulus bill that was supposed to do the same thing?

This sad chapter in America is going down as the “Are you kidding me?” era. Are you kidding me?

The actual result of the trillion-dollar stimulus bill was the exact opposite of what the president said would happen. Unemployment rose, the stock market plunged, home values plummeted, and 2 million more homes are in foreclosure.

Are you kidding me?

What the president and his band of liberal anti-business cohorts don’t understand is that real-world business demand, not artificial Fedzilla scams, are what drive business. Throwing stacks of taxpayer dollars at the problem only increases our addiction to borrowing and spending and puts America further in debt. Stacks of taxpayer dollars do little to drive business demand. In fact, piling on $1.5 trillion in new debt has smothered the economy and caused long-term problems.

A few tax breaks here and there on the margins are not going to cause businesses to hire. What ultimately will inspire businesses to hire is Fedzilla stepping out of the way and quitting its practice of rewarding people to not work. Genuine leadership would end the scourge of do-nothing government jobs, and real businesses would heat up the economy.

But that’s anathema to liberals like the president, as he believes the engine of growth and change is directly linked to an ever-expanding, micro-managing Big Mama federal government. This, of course, is the definition of idiocy to anyone with any private-sector experience.

The president claims to have launched an initiative to cut Fedzilla red-tape regulations. The result of this initiative will be zilch. In fact, the illogical, counterproductive regulations that stifle growth in the free market are on the rise under the Obama administration.

So now the president is running around the country trying to drum up support for another, relabeled half-trillion-dollar stimulus package that we are supposed to believe will finally get the economy moving again. “Once bitten, twice shy” is my motto. But once it has been proved that votes can be bought, the president will continue to promise the impossible for those foolish enough to believe him.

What happens when this half-trillion-dollar fantasy doesn’t work? Will the president push for another half-trillion? At what point do we finally turn away from big-government blowhards and embrace those proven private-sector ideas that created the greatest quality of life in the history of the world? These are fundamental questions Americans need to be asking and debating. But when the president’s manipulated constituency is made up of so many dumbed-down sheep, I can see how an entrenched power abuser can become addictive to his herd.

You have to hand it to Mitt Romney for publishing his 160-page jobs plan, which contains much more substance for Americans to chew on and debate than anything Mr. Obama has put forth. Like his plan or not, Mr. Romney is putting it on the line. That’s to be respected.

Politics, like the economy, is ultimately about the fundamentals. The 2012 race is shaping up perfectly to illustrate the stark, fundamental contrast between a president who believes Fedzilla is the engine that moves America forward and a GOP candidate who believes the free market is the engine that creates jobs and grows the economy.

Are you kidding me?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Ten years of gratitude

Americans must stand with our military until the long war is won

On this anniversary of Sept. 11, I am not remembering so much as I am looking forward.

Like Dec. 7, Sept. 11 will be forever seared into our national consciousness. Everyone will forever remember exactly where he was when the voodoo terrorists attacked America and killed almost 3,000 of our countrymen on that September day. It is a day that will live in infamy.

I remember and thank the brave warriors of the U.S. military and their families who have sacrificed so much over these past 10 years to keep America safe. They know that the cost of freedom can be terribly high, heartbreakingly painful and personal. I am humbled to be in their presence.

If we learn anything from that horrible day, it is that there are evil, maniacal subhuman maggots in the world who have no respect for life. They are filled with evil voodoo bloodlust, hate and rage. They believe killing in all forms, including beheadings, brings great joy to their God. Evil is sick is evil.

The list of religious-inspired hate crimes these vermin have unleashed on the world over the past 40 years is proof that these demonic cultists are on a global jihad to crush freedom and implement their psychotic, dogma on the world.

We simply must not let them.

Moving forward, America must continue to identify and eradicate these terrorist vermin. We must never surrender to complacency or apathy as we did before Sept. 11, as they are the weakest link in our chain of security. We must remain vigilant and on the offense. Where two or more of these terror cultists gather, they should expect us to drill a hole in their foreheads.

Like one of my heroes, I also have a dream. I dream of a day when these vermin and their mad-cow religious beliefs are removed from the face of the earth or so marginalized that they and their caveman voodoo beliefs ultimately follow the flight path of the dodo bird. We must continue to kill them at every opportunity. Death and war are all they understand. We must give those to them nonstop by unleashing hell upon them at all times.

Though I have little faith in the public school system to do much of anything right, it should be required to show the film of the planes hitting the towers, people leaping to their deaths from the twin towers, the Pentagon on fire and other video from that day. Ignoring this truth is ignoring reality and has perpetuated the scourge of denial that facilitated our tendency take it time and time again.

Looking to the future - we must study history. The history of the world is a study of a world at war. Global peace is the rare exception, not the rule. Knowing that, our politicians must be very cautious about reducing our military’s ability to kill the enemies of freedom by cutting its budget to further placate the insane federal government’s gluttonous addiction to wanton spending. Fund the military and slash the budgets of all other agencies, departments and programs.

Should we fail to study our history and remain vigilant, we will be emboldening terrorist vermin to plan and implement another attack similar to Sept. 11. That is a risk we cannot afford.

Americans must commit to this struggle for the long term. It will take years, possibly decades, to win the war on terror. That is our future, our reality. It is the most fundamental lesson of Sept. 11.

America either kicks butt as if we mean it, or we will continue to get ours kicked.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Rise of the goons

Thank a liberal for creating a legion of rioting dependents
By Ted Nugent

Did you really expect anything different? From London to Philadelphia to Milwaukee, goons are rioting in the streets. And guess what? I don’t believe it is the fundamental fault of the goon squads that they’re rioting, although there’s no excuse for beating people and destroying property.

Societies, especially America’s, have created a shattered social system in which lawlessness and irresponsibility are excused by boneheaded liberals because they don’t think government has provided enough for these supposedly disadvantaged and downtrodden people.

The shiftless, looting goons and their liberal allies think rich people should be taxed more, and more economic advantages must be provided to largely uneducated, unskilled, lazy, incompetent goons. Eat the rich, my foot.

The problem, of course, is the exact opposite. For decades, government has provided too many programs, too many checks, too many safety nets, too many handouts and too many taxpayer-provided gimmes. The goons literally expect a handout instead of a hand up.

Now that governments have become broke because of any number of grossly expensive and tremendously inefficient social-welfare experiments gone awry, once-vibrant economies such as the United States are slowing down thanks to the self-imposed heavy hand of debt, tax systems that punish producers, and borrowing and spending gone mad.

Jobs have evaporated even for skilled, talented and motivated Americans. There are no jobs for goons unless you think robbing, plundering and peddling dope are resume builders.

So now the goons are taking to the streets and creating mayhem in the name of social justice and whatnot.

If the goons had an ounce of brains among them, they would come to the conclusion that the reason they are dumb, unskilled mouth-breathers unprepared for the future is because of bloated, runaway government, not because there has been too little of it or that the rich do not pay enough in taxes.

These idiots are useful political pawns for the very political punks who have manipulated these morons into believing that Uncle Sham is their sugar daddy instead of what Uncle Sham really is - a political-street-corner dope-pusher, a community organizer who has gotten them strung out on the most powerful drug of all: dependency.

Extinct among these goons is any sense of what once made America great. Gone are the independent, strong-willed, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps people who thought the basic role of the federal government was simply to protect them from invasion by another country.

Now we are a nation of wussies and stupid goons who have suckled on the teat of Aunt Sugar Momma for so long that many Americans know nothing different. When the teat runs dry, gangland rioting follows. Kicking the habit of dependency is an obviously painful process.

Americans need to ask their politicians one simple, fundamental question: What is the role of government?

Those political punks who give some glib answer about providing for the good of the people have given rise to the rioting goon squads. Vote every one of these modern-day slave masters out of office.

Support and vote for politicians who champion much less government and much more personal responsibility. It is those politicians who ultimately will liberate people instead of stringing them out on the dope of soulless dependency.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Hiroshima’s lesson remembered

Ending war with overwhelming force is quickest path to peace
By Ted Nugent

This month marks the anniversary of the last time the United States unequivocally won a war.

Sixty-years ago on Saturday and Tuesday, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were flattened with atomic bombs, causing the Japanese to surrender and bringing an end to World War II.

Ugly as the atomic bombs may seem through the politically correct lens of today, in 1945, when President Truman ordered them dropped on those cities, the weapons broke Japan’s will to fight.

There is no doubt in my mind that dropping the atomic bombs was the right thing to do. The massive explosions saved both American and Japanese lives. Those of you historical second-guessers who condemn Truman’s decision to destroy those cities would have done what in August 1945?

Had Truman not ordered them deployed and instead commanded our military to invade Japan, it is estimated that upward of 1 million U.S. casualties would have been the result. Millions of Japanese would have been killed or wounded in an assault on Japan. Only a psychopath would advocate such a senseless slaughter.

Argue the moral imperatives of flattening Hiroshima and Nagasaki if you must, but it can’t be argued that flattening those cities didn’t save lives on both sides of the war. Saving lives is good, and sometimes saving lives involves killing people.

American Civil War Gen. William T. Sherman said, “War is hell.” President Truman knew this as well but also knew that unleashing the power of the atomic bombs would bring an end to World War II.

While no rational person supports nuclear war - or any war, for that matter, what I do support is when we commit U.S. troops to halt evil only when we have a plan to crush our enemies and bring the survivors to the peace table in the shortest amount of time.

We face new enemies today, many of whom belong to voodoo terror cells that will use any weapon or means to kill as many Americans as possible. Let us pray that we have a plan to kill every one of these voodoo maggots before they kill another American.

The history of mankind is one of warfare, not peace. You don’t have to like that, but you do have to admit it. Knowing that it is true, it is fundamentally devious to weaken our military as is proposed in the new Con Job Debt Reduction Agreement.

We need more smart bombs, more predator drones, more advanced intelligence equipment and assets, more special-operations teams and more improved tactics, more ammo, better night-vision equipment, more human-intelligence capabilities, more stealth and a never-ending commitment to kill the enemies of freedom and America under whatever rock they may try to hide. Kill ‘em all as quickly as possible. That’s the most effective deterrent there is. Petting or negotiating with rabid dogs is never wise. Shoot them in the head at least twice. Ammo is cheap.

America is a peaceful nation. However, America must always maintain U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis’ philosophy: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” Perfect. If there were a Hall of Fame for butt-kickers, Gen. Mattis would be in it.

War is hell. What surely is an even worse hell is losing a war.

God bless the warriors of the U.S. military and their families. They deserve victory, and as we celebrate the greatest victory ever, let us hope we still know how to accomplish it.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: A titanic fiscal mistake

Staying the borrow-and-spend course will sink U.S. economy
By Ted Nugent

When the captain of the Titanic was warned repeatedly of icebergs ahead, he nonetheless made the decision not to slow down or stop the ship for the night. He was, after all, the captain of a ship that “God himself could not sink.”

With the passage of the debt-raising agreement, it makes a guy wonder if the Fedzillacrats in Washington believe they are in charge of a country and an economy that even their boneheaded economic policies cannot sink.

They are wrong.

The dollars allocated toward reducing the debt are “a drop in the bucket, or even a spit in the ocean,” said Maya Mac-Guineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, in an interview with Fox News.

The winner in this anti-common-sense “agreement” was President Obama. He got what he wanted and played House Speaker John A. Boehner and other Republicans like cheap fiddles. This wasn’t an agreement as much as it was bait, leading the Boehner gang to a political slaughter.

It is a deceitful, ugly lie to call a $2.5 trillion reduction in spending a step in the right direction when we will be borrowing $10 trillion to $11 trillion over the same period. According to my math, that’s putting us $8 trillion more in the hole. Only bureaucrats allergic to accountability could buy into such soulless, lying denial.

Once again, we have been ripped off, scammed and fleeced by those Bernie Madoff wannabes in Washington. You would have had to have been deaf, dumb and blind not to see this scam coming - heavy on the dumb.

But the real fleecing is yet to come.

There will be no spending reduction of $2.5 trillion, no real savings, no downsizing of government. If you believe there will be, I would like to sell you the Washington Monument or the U.S. Capitol. The Fedzillacrats will find a way to skirt around the spending reductions. They have learned to operate with impunity.

What will happen is that our debt will continue to skyrocket, putting our future as a nation on a titanic collision course with icebergs of financial insolvency.

Moody’s and others are warning us of our impending doom by threatening to reduce the nation’s credit rating even with the promise of $2.5 trillion in spending reductions. Much, much more needed to be done.

The producers and other Americans addicted to financial accountability realize it is kamikaze economics to continue to borrow and spend more than $100 billion each month more than you take in.

When the lookouts on the Titanic finally saw the massive, dark shape of the iceberg dead ahead in the ship’s path, it was too late for the Titanic to maneuver around it.

The financial lookouts are warning us that we are headed for Greece-like doom with our berserk addiction to borrowing and spending. Higher interest rates and inflation are coming first.

It would have been impressive if our professional politicians had agreed to a plan that cut spending by $10 trillion and just borrowed $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years. But that would have taken political guts that they don’t have.

I pray to God that voting Americans are taking notes and will make the guilty thieves walk the plank in 2012.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: NEA - master of disaster

Teacher cheating scandal is symptom of public schools’ failure

If the disturbing documentary “Waiting for Superman” didn’t convince you that a massive overhaul of the public education system is necessary, maybe the massive cheating scandal erupting in the Atlanta public school system will.

First off, there is no argument that public education in America is a complete and total disaster. Our children routinely score at the bottom of the barrel in math, science and geography, while more than 50 percent of other children drop out of high school in some districts.

It’s not that our children are dumb, but rather that they are tossed into a dumb, antiquated system that is controlled by one of the largest and most powerful unions in the nation, the National Education Association (NEA).

Instead of using their bully pulpit to demand educational upgrades across the board, the NEA works hard to ensure that teachers get tenure, more sick days, pensions supported by taxpayers and more and more benefits. The NEA couldn’t give a damn about children, and the test scores prove it. Shame on the NEA.

Regardless the reasons for the cheating, almost 200 teachers and administrators in the Atlanta public school system cheated by inflating the test scores of children taking the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. The cheaters probably were all NEA members. They should all be fired immediately and have their teaching certificates burned.

Of course, Democrats will rally to the NEA’s aid, as the teachers union is their largest cash contributor. If the National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful pro-gun organization, though not a union, was found to be complicit in a gun-running operation for Mexican drug cartels instead of the brain-dead dimwits at the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, you can bet President Obama would rain down fire on the NRA and demand their demise.

But there are no such powerful or condemning words from the president or any other Democrat who benefits from NEA dollars. Their silence tells you where their allegiance is, and it’s not to ensure our children get a solid education.

It’s more of the same Liberalism 101 curse.

The systematic cheating scandal in Atlanta will be swept under the rug by Democrats and the NEA. You won’t hear a word about it in the next couple weeks. In fact, the story is already old news, even though it’s more hurtful than President Nixon’s Watergate scandal.

If we truly cared about providing our children with a quality, world-class, proper education as we once did, we would start by busting up the NEA and then completely dismantling the public-education system, which, like the U.S. Postal Service and the penny, has outlived its usefulness.

Instead of having our tax dollars confiscated and funneled to a union-controlled system that produces unclean, slovenly, fat dunces and dropouts, educating our children should be left up to the free market. Parents could then decide which school their child would attend. Bad schools would close, and good ones would prosper. Perfect.

Under the current system, bad teachers, bad administrators and bad schools continue producing children who are largely illiterate and unable to compete in an ever-changing, technical and global marketplace. Something must change, and it must change now.

Let’s use the Atlanta cheating scandal as the impetus to bust up the NEA. No organization, system or union that impacts the public should be rewarded for consistently producing dismal results.

Our children deserve better, and parents should demand better.

Hey dropout, pull up your pants.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: You have the right to remain stupid

Fedzillacrats are oblivious to self-evident truths

You have the right to remain stupid, and what you say and do can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion. Unfortunately, the court of public opinion is expanding into a stupid-is-as-stupid-does joke. And it has a president and gang of thieves in the United States government to represent it.

So goes the sheeping of America. Welcome to Euro II.

With the level of dishonesty, fraud, abuse of power, corruption, rampant irresponsibility, downright criminal behavior and vehement refusal to be accountable, our government has clearly lost its collective mind - and its soul.

The brain-dead, zombielike nonsense blurting out of Democrats’ pie holes is mind-boggling as they feebly attempt to rationalize raising the debt ceiling, scrambling mindlessly to explain how increased runaway, criminal spending on gluttonous, wasteful, superfluous stuff is a good thing.

“Honey, we’re in debt up to our asses. Let’s go shopping and increase our gluttonous indulgences. Yeah, that’s the ticket.”

Is there a Dr. Phil or an Oprah to counsel psychotic bureaucrats? Somebody has to put a halt to this insanity as quickly as possible. We the people of the Tea Party are trying with all our might but there must be somebody in government that can stop this. Somebody?

The separation of legislative, executive and judicial branches of government has turned into one big gang of complicit goons, scratching each other’s backs and scheming to increase their own dishonest assault on we the people. Oh, how they have forgotten their oath to the U.S. Constitution. Oh, woe are they.

A nasty, unclean gaggle of Americans read the nonstop reports of mass graves in Mexico, the mountains of dead bodies, the unending exhuming of slaughtered innocents and decapitated citizens and public officials at the hands of evil drug cartels, then nonchalantly purchase another load of the mind- and life-destroying dope that these subhuman heathens peddle. You have to be on dope in order to fail to admit how your illegal or “medical” marijuana consumption creates wanton death and mayhem in your own communities and country. Thanks for nothing, idiots.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and their complicit gang of America-hating snake-oil salesmen represent the most clear and present economic raping and pillaging in our country’s history. Instead of ending the tragedy, the perpetrators are given bonuses and hired by our already-criminal-infested government. And they call it “creating jobs.” Mao Zedong and Al Capone would be proud.

In the American West, where inhabitants have been raising hell for 20-plus years about how grizzly bears pose a serious and constant threat to people’s lives and livelihoods, inept, ignorant bureaucrats enforce dangerous policy by calling these overpopulated bears an endangered species. A hiker gets killed by a grizzly again and these geniuses respond by reminding people to whistle and bang on pots and pans.

In the middle of a war on terror, invaders infiltrate our southern border with impunity and instead of living up to their oath to protect America, soulless Fedzillacrats erect signs on American soil not warning the invaders to leave but rather warning American citizens to stay out of the invaded territory. Meanwhile, the feds sue Arizona for enforcing American laws.

Charlie Rangel, Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle and God knows how many other criminal tax cheats get caught red-handed, and none of them are brought to anything resembling justice. Are you kidding me?

Former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and current Mayor Rahm Emanuel, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, forbid their subjects to protect themselves but charge their subjects higher taxes to pay for their own heavily armed security detail.

Texas rightly decides to execute a convicted murderer-rapist of an innocent little girl and the president and secretary of state side with the murderous, rotten-to-the-core United Nations goons instead of with their own country. Are you kidding me?

I end up in a state-of-the-art emergency room at a Canadian hospital with a serious blood-gushing dog bite and wait 6 1/2 hours to see a doctor. In Waco, Texas, I wait less than a minute. Our fearless community-organizer-in-chief wants to fundamentally transform American health care into Canadian health care - unless, of course, you qualify for a crony-payoff waiver of this diabolical scam shoved down the throats of we the people. Are you kidding me?

Food stampers increase their fraud and criminal abuse of an already-failed welfare slavery system, and our numbnut politicians let President Obama increase it fourfold. Are you kidding me?

Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven write the ultimate America-hating guideline on how to bring down the greatest quality of life in the history of mankind, and the Obama administration puts their ideas on the fast track in broad daylight, yet no one stops him. Are you kidding me?

Unions continue to demand more compensation for less productivity or quality control. The list of jobs Americans are not willing to do gets longer by the day as soylent-green foreigners continue to kick our butts because they don’t allow such a list. Are you kidding me?

With another glaring, smoke-and-mirrors defiance of the pledge to government transparency, the No. 1 cop in America, aided and abetted by the vehemently anti-gun president, knowingly breaks the law and his oath to the Constitution by running illegally begotten guns to Mexican murderers, then tries to blame legitimate American gun dealers. Nothing like a good backfire to spotlight the cockroaches.

I could go on, but I’m getting sick to my stomach, as are an increasing number of American citizens sickened by the flagrant criminality of our government. I would like to go on record that the U.S. government is now more offensive and in violation of self-evident truths and God-given individual rights and liberties than the British government was in 1775.

Make note, bureaucrats. We have had enough, are completely fed up with the insanity and we officially put you on notice: You’re fired. When we go to the polls in 2012, we are committed to give most of you a good dose of what unemployment feels like. And from now on, you will have to create your own jobs because governments - especially a bloated, criminally abusive government like we have in America today - is unforgivable, unsustainable and will not be tolerated any longer.

I would highly recommend you all seek treatment for your allergies to logic, truth, good will, decency, accountability and the American Way. If you don’t get help soon, God only knows what will become of you.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: The American battle cry today

SAVING THE BILL OF RIGHTS: EXPOSING THE LEFT’S CAMPAIGN TO DESTROY AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

By Frank Miniter

Reviewed by Ted Nugent

I’m addicted to freedom. My band, my crew, my family, my hunting buddies, all my friends, neighbors and fellow hardworking, hard-playing Americans solidly in the asset column will simply have it no other way. There is an American way, and we live it.

Everyone with a working brain and a soul knows that this sacred, unprecedented American experiment in self-government demands constant, warriorlike vigilance against the evil that lives to destroy it. Being surrounded by such evil in our own government is both a heartbreaking threat and a vile curse but to be expected with the embarrassment of apathy running amok.

The courageous army of defiant freedom fighters at Concord Bridge who gave all to crush the evil king and all his soulless sheep shed blood for freedom, and now more than ever, such warrior spirit is necessary to hold back this never-ending tide of evil from enslaving free men again.

Frank Miniter, executive field editor of the National Rifle Association’s American Hunter and American Rifleman, nails it in his must-read book “Saving the Bill of Rights: Exposing the Left’s Campaign to Destroy American Exceptionalism.” For it is written in this sacred document the irrefutable logic of self-evident truth that guided our Founding Fathers to defy the putrid concept of status-quo murderous kings, emperors, dictators, despots and slave drivers of every stripe throughout history. This freedom vigilance continues today against these evil forces that persist, both from afar and within the borders of the United States.

All freedom-loving Americans and, most importantly, all young Americans should read this book, give it to everyone they know, memorize it and shout it from the rooftops so as to stave off the embarrassing decay of the American way at the hands of freedom haters among us.

From the bloodsucking unions to the gangbanger punks of the United Nations, the American Civil Liberties Union, the demonic voodoo Muslim terrorists, the Mao Zedong fan club in the White House, the Che Guevara-loving leftist media and straight into the not-so-hallowed chambers of a court system gone mad, it challenges the imagination to try to fathom how suicidal and downright stupid our fellow men can be.

Sadly, they are indeed that stupid and would gladly toss out individual liberty for a historically proven false sense of security, ending up with neither.

“Saving the Bill of Rights” is not just the title of a great book. It should be the battle cry of America.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: United Nations gun grabbers at it again

Banning guns is the first step of a tyrant

The despots, thugs, scoundrels, punks and various crooks at the United Nations have it all wrong again. Imagine that. Though the details have yet to be released, the U.N. wants to try to force strict small-arms control on the world under the pretense (lie) that such restrictions will make it tougher for terrorists and other assorted subhuman scum to get their hands on guns.

How is that working in Mexico, boys and girls?

If the U.N. had a clue or truly cared about preventing terrorists and other human garbage from wreaking havoc, it would admit to the facts and propose making it easier for law-abiding citizens to get their hands on guns so that they would have the means to cause said human vermin to assume room temperature.

But instead of promoting freedom and the right to self-defense, the U.N. punks want to force unarmed helplessness on people across the planet by advocating an international agreement on guns.

Let’s cut to the chase. The reason the U.N. may pass such an agreement is because many of the nations that belong to the U.N. either directly or indirectly support terrorism and are viciously opposed to liberty and freedom.

At its core, the U.N. is not about promoting freedom and liberating people by killing bad guys. It is about controlling people by limiting their ability to defend themselves against tyranny and slavery imposed by evil and maniacal regimes.

Tens of millions of people have been slaughtered by notorious gun grabbers. Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and other notorious mass-murderer control nuts all banned guns, and millions upon millions of innocent, helpless people died because they had no ability to defend themselves and their families. And now the U.N. seemingly supports more of the same.

America has witnessed carnage after senseless carnage at shopping malls, schools, restaurants and other gun-free zones. Again, when people do not have the right to defend themselves, they are slaughtered in such killing fields.

Professor John Lott’s research on guns and crime concluded that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens equal less crime. Apparently the socialist stooges and terminal voodoo freaks at the U.N. didn’t read it. Perhaps some of the soulless voodoo punks at the U.N. can’t read. Based on their personal hygiene shortcomings, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Even if the freedom-hating U.N. passes such an anti-common-sense agreement, our Senate would have to ratify it before the U.S. would be forced to adopt this U.N. idiocy that would guarantee more innocent people were slaughtered.

Freedom addicts need to be concerned, however, because our president, secretary of state, attorney general and numerous left-wing politicians support gun control, as they too believe people need to be controlled instead of liberated.

Eliminate evil people, and good people live. Enable evil people to control people, and good people are slaughtered. It’s so simple it’s stupid.

Paraphrasing the words of the late freedom addict and American hero Charlton Heston, a U.N. stooge or anyone else can have my gun when they remove my cold dead fingers from around it. Know it.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Donating to Obama feeds Fedzilla

Gas prices have doubled, groceries cost more, and that’s just the beginning

Internet sleuth Matt Drudge has a hyperlink on his website, drudgereport.com, to a story about President Obama raffling off dinner with him for a $5 donation to his re-election campaign.

There will be some mindless, bloodsucking liberal zombies who will donate five greenbacks in hopes of winning dinner with Mr. Obama, but that pool surely is shrinking. In this economy, even liberal moonbats ought to find a better way to spend five bucks than to take a chance on winning dinner with their favorite Marxist.

For instance, since Mr. Obama moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., gas prices have doubled. Food prices are “necessarily skyrocketing.” So is unemployment. Faith that the president knows what he is doing as it pertains to the economy is in a nose dive.

Only private-sector capitalists understood that Mr. Obama’s “hope and change” message during his presidential campaign was a masterful stroke of deception that would lead to an economic catastrophe. Nothing Mr. Obama said during the campaign or during his presidency has sent tingles up our legs. Instead, we hung our heads in shame, knowing that Mr. Obama’s political values and economic policies would wreck America.

Donating five bucks or any other amount to Mr. Obama’s campaign is giving money to a campaign that will continue to put people out of work, drive down home values, cause retirement funds to slide south and increase the burden for future generations of Americans with trillions of dollars in debt.

Who would do this? Who could be so politically ignorant and terminally naive as to vote against his own self-interest as well as to damage America by giving five bucks to Mr. Obama, who, if he wins in 2012, will have four more years to move his socialist agenda forward while driving America into the traffic jam of the Greek economic freeway?

Economic train wrecks are caused by politicians who either intentionally implement kamikaze economic policies to gain more power or believe Fedzilla should have even more control over our lives, or a combination of the two. Either way, an economic train wreck is sure to occur. And so it has.

And the economic malaise will continue so long as naive liberals and avowed socialists believe that stabbing themselves in the eye will somehow lead to better eyesight.

What liberals need to do is keep their five bucks. Put it in the gas tank or spend it at the grocery store. You may not be able to buy as much as you did before Mr. Obama was elected, but your five bucks would best be used by your spending it in your own self-interest rather than giving it to a guy who will use it against you.

Economic prosperity will occur once again when Americans realize that Fedzilla and those who feed it are the problem, not the solution. I’ve got five bucks that says so.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Independence Day revival

Imperious politicians need reminding that today’s patriots are watching

Thomas Jefferson would be shocked and appalled if he could see what America has done to this grand experiment since he drafted the Declaration of Independence. On Independence Day 2011, Mr. Jefferson would not be celebrating our independence but rather encouraging Americans to revolt once again.

America has compromised the Founding Fathers’ dreams of a limited federal government for a centralized federal government that is bloated, grossly ineffective, putridly expansive, irresponsible, tremendously expensive and soullessly bureaucratic.

Our federal government is more burdensome, costly and controlling than the British government of King George 235 years ago, the very beast that our Founding Fathers took up arms against and fired a freedom shot that was heard around the world.

The Founders recognized the costly quagmire of an all-powerful and centralized federal government. Mr. Jefferson, who arguably was the smartest man ever to have taken up residence in the White House, wrote, “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.”

Our Founders wrote our Constitution to limit the powers of the federal government. That hasn’t stopped our professional politicians from violating the Constitution and doing what they want when they want and to whom they want from their gilded mahogany thrones in Washington. They have zero respect for the Constitution. They pay lip service to it when it serves their political need.

On our embarrassing, apathetic watch, we have allowed our republic to be financially raped, pillaged and plundered by our King George-like professional politicians, who buy our votes with our tax dollars by creating vast federal handout programs, departments and agencies that Uncle Sugar Daddy was never intended or designed to create or manage. The result: America is tens and tens of trillions of dollars in debt.

Statesmen such as Mr. Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington and others would not have condoned this grotesque financial irresponsibility emanating out of the toxic swamp of Washington. Again quoting Mr. Jefferson, “It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.”

Those patriots, Tea Party members and other concerned Americans who speak about financial responsibility, champion limited government and promote the ideals of our Founding Fathers are often maligned, lampooned and condemned as intellectual lightweights, radicals and even racists by various cowards.

The Tea Partyers have it right. They understand that our republic can only be saved by advocating the very principles, vision and ideals of those men and women who risked their lives, sacred honor and fortunes to give birth to America.

Tea Partyers, members of various other patriotic organizations and other rank-and-file concerned Americans should take solace in the words of John Adams when he wrote about the American Revolution in 1818, “This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.”

On this Independence Day, sit down with your children, loved ones, friends, neighbors and co-workers and read the Declaration of Independence and discuss it. Get them to commit to a new uprising in which our King George politicians are dethroned and run out of Washington. Be a patriot and save America.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another …

Happy Independence Day. God bless America.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Millennials sleep as their future crumbles

Today’s youth snooze while government steals their fortune and lives

The 1968 riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago remain vivid in my mind, as do so many marches and demonstrations by young people of that era, primarily protesting the Vietnam War and demanding civil rights for all.

Young Americans were politically naive in 1960 but at least willing to be engaged. Although I remember the various protests and marches, I was either squirrel hunting or putting a sharp edge on my sonic guitar-slaying skills, having not awakened to my “we the people” duties quite yet. Regrettably, I knew nothing about politics and, sadly, little of our nation’s history.

Now, being somewhat of a novice history nut and having lived through the howling political, musical and countercultural winds of the 1960s, I can view these various events and activities through a clear lens that was never clouded with the purple haze of dope. Yes, I can remember the 1960s, and I was there.

All of this makes me think about today’s generation of young people - especially college-age Americans.

While I personally condemn violence of any kind, I am stunned that they are not participating more in the Tea Party, even rioting in the streets, clashing with the cops, conducting sit-ins at their colleges, interrupting political events and so on. Instead, the young people of this generation appear to be sound asleep, lethargic and seemingly unaware of how badly their generation is being royally abused by the deep-seated corruption and abuse of power in the government. They appear to be terminally stoned on apathy.

More than likely, this generation of young Americans will be the first in our nation’s history not to enjoy a standard of living greater than their parents’. This alone should be cause for a massive mob of angry young people marching on Washington.

The monumental debt we are leaving this generation is grossly immoral, irresponsible and un-American. And the debt continues to rise. I doubt most young Americans are aware that this financial burden will strangle economic opportunities for them. Because of the sheer size of the debt, maybe young Americans can’t comprehend that their individual share of the national debt is more than $500,000 when all of it is factored into the equation. Who could realistically fault them for protesting this insane debt tsunami?

Many young college graduates are moving back in with their parents because of limited job opportunities. That should send a clear warning to them that all is not well - not well at all. They would be wise to spend some time researching why this is so.

This generation of young people probably cannot remember a time when America was not at war. As much as I believe the voodoo enemies of America need to be vanquished from the planet, the endless protracted wars we are embroiled in are tremendously expensive in both blood and treasure. If we are going to commit our brave warriors to the battlefield, we should implement total war and break the will of the enemy and all who harbor enemy actors. We have the weapons, warriors and technology to wreck everything. Do it or stay home. Where are the massive Internet flash-mob protests by young Americans against these protracted wars?

Except for the superior human beings who volunteer for U.S. military service, I am not impressed with this generation. They are being led to their own slaughter and are blindly following along instead of fighting for their own survival. Text or twitter that, Millennials.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Supreme Court puts the innocent to death

What do you think will happen when 30,000 prisoners go free?

Here’s something for your supremely stupid files. Our vaunted Supreme Court recently ruled that California must reduce the number of prisoners in state prisons because of overcrowding. Our Supreme Court thinks overcrowding in prisons is cruel and unusual punishment.

Never mind that essentially ordering the release of more than 30,000 monsters will create more victims of crime, destroy more families and cause our streets and neighborhoods to be less safe.

Of course the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) applauded the court’s decision, as the group remains more concerned with protecting the “rights” of criminals than protecting law-abiding, taxpaying citizens who surely will become victims if California’s plan to reduce overcrowding does not meet Fedzilla standards.

California is submitting a plan to reduce prison overcrowding while doing its best not to release any of these violent punks. My advice is for someone at the California Department of Cages to contact Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoenix and ask him how to build a barbed-wire fence, put up tents, purchase pink skivvies in bulk and make bologna sandwiches. California prison overpopulation problem solved.

We live in the land of the bizzaro, where common sense is no longer common. Think of this: A violent ape is convicted of a felony and sent to prison, which is supposed to be uncomfortable punishment, and then the Supreme Court steps in and mandates his release because the prison is overcrowded. And we are supposed to respect this?

How’s this: Who cares if prisons are overcrowded? Would you rather have overcrowded prisons or more violent apes on our streets to prey upon you? Only a deranged person, a violent punk, the ACLU and now our Supreme Court would side with releasing prisoners over the safety of the public.

Clear-thinking Americans who are supremely addicted to logic want these punks off the streets and in cages, where they belong, with the violent apes who already have committed any number of crimes. It doesn’t matter to me if we cage them in something just slightly bigger than a shoe box.

We need to make prison painful, ugly and supremely uncomfortable. We need to make it so that anyone who has spent any time in the slammer never wants to return. That’s real rehabilitation.

The real definition of cruel and unusual punishment is ordering the release of tens of thousands of criminals, knowing full well that once that is done, there will be more murders, rapes, violent assaults, robberies and numerous other crimes against the innocent residents of the Golden State and all over America.

It is fanatical barbarism for the Supreme Court to dare make such a rule, knowing that its decision will create more victims. I have no respect for a Supreme Court that obviously has more respect for violent thugs and punks than hardworking, law-abiding Americans.

It’s not worth the price of creating even one victim of crime to relieve overcrowding in prisons by prematurely releasing 30,000 or so apes.

Build as many prison tent cities out in the desert as we need and let the violent apes fill them up. Make it uncomfortable. Make them serve every day of their sentences. Make them pay the price for the crimes they commit.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Obama couldn’t run a lemonade stand

Big-government solution to economic woes always backfires

The Obama administration has mindlessly flooded the country with hundreds and hundreds of billions of federal tax dollars. The government gurus claim the reason for opening the federal-money floodgates was to jump-start the sluggish economy, which was strangled to begin with by Fedzilla’s housing policies - or lack thereof.

Just as you would not pour gas on a fire in hopes of putting it out, infusing more than a trillion taxpayer dollars into the economy has not and will not work to put the economy on the path to prosperity. An artificial economy cannot be repaired with more artificiality. Who doesn’t know this?

President Obama’s economic and social engineering has been a flop, a disaster. The economy continues to sputter, gag and hemorrhage; unemployment and underemployment are getting worse, not better; housing prices continue to plummet; the dollar’s value is shrinking; and our debt is suffocating any hopes of a long-term economic recovery. Keep the Titanic on course, captain.

Dumping more than a trillion dollars into the market and claiming to want to stimulate the nation’s economy is analogous to intentionally allowing the Missouri River to flood towns and cities because the streets need cleaning.

Either the Obama administration does not know its history or it intentionally wants to kill off the nation’s private sector. It might be a little of both.

The Obama regime may be the least qualified when it comes to understanding how a free market operates, how jobs are created and how profits are made. I have yet to uncover any high-ranking Obama appointee with any free-market experience, including the secretary for the Department of Labor, which should be renamed under the Obama regime as the Department of Labor Unions.

The bottom line is that we have entrusted our economy to a group of people who would not know how to operate a child’s lemonade stand. What an inexcusable, tragic mistake.

We faced a similar economic problem back in the early 1980s. After soundly defeating President Carter, Ronald Reagan, a fan of the free market, took the opposite approach of what Mr. Obama is doing to turn the economy around.

What happened because of President Reagan’s approach of lowering taxes, reducing federal regulations and favoring the private sector over Fedzilla? Almost 40 million private-sector jobs were created and America experienced a 25-year economic boom.

What America needs is a vibrant, growing and strong economy that benefits everyone, especially the shrinking middle class. This will not happen with a guy in charge who believes Fedzilla knows best. It does not.

There has been no net increase in jobs created as a result of swamping the economy with federal dollars, and there will be none. When the free-market history books are written, this will be the central theme of surrendering the economy to central planners in Washington who have zero private-sector experience.

The Obama regime has given America a crystal-clear message that liberalism in big government is an economic wrecking ball. What America desperately needs is a much leaner, less bureaucratic federal government - the very kind of federal government our framers had in mind when they started this experiment in self-government more than 230 years ago.

Got the message, GOP? Can you deliver it?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Run, Rick, run

Tough times call for tough Texas candidates

Good friend and Texas Gov. Rick Perry should remember that now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

Now is that time, Rick. Run for president.

Indeed, the other GOP candidates are good men and women. Many thoughtful Americans have confidence that each of them would set a new, critically needed, much improved and responsible direction for America - the opposite of President Obama’s course.

Though it’s still very early in the campaign season, no one in the field of candidates is electrifying GOP voters. There is little buzz or excitement.

Candidate Perry would provide campaign electricity. In the words of the Gipper, it would be morning in America once again with Rick Perry running for president.

Rick is a true conservative, and a powerful and popular one. He has never lost an election and remains the only person to have won the Texas governorship three times in landslide elections.

He is appropriately critical of the federal government’s expanding control and reckless spending and thinks much of the power Washington politicians and power brokers wield should be returned to the states. Rick is a strong supporter of the 10th Amendment. Borrowing again from the Gipper, he inherently knows the federal government is not the solution to our problems; it is the problem.

With Rick at the helm, Texas is business-friendly, resulting in a booming economy compared with most other states. Texas has created more jobs over the past couple of years than any other state. If you want a job, come to Texas.

There would be stark differences between Rick and Mr. Obama.

Like other true conservatives, Rick does not support the economy-killing and energy-strangling “cap-and-trade” sham that Mr. Obama advocates. He thinks America should be energy-independent and that we have ample energy resources if we are allowed to mine them instead of restricting access to them.

He does not support Obamacare, knowing that more federal control over our health care will lead ultimately to higher deficits, fewer doctors and fewer options. Socialized medicine has failed around the world, and it will fail here, too.

Rick knows that we must get our financial house in order and that it is immoral to borrow and spend the tax dollars of Americans who have not yet been born. He knows that continuing down this kamikaze borrowing and spending path, along which both political parties have gleefully galloped, will destroy the nation.

America has reached a tipping point. We cannot continue to ignore deep, festering financial wounds incurred as a result of an addiction to federal spending. Too many Americans look to the federal government for answers to problems that the Washington bureaucracy has either created or exacerbated. Rick looks to the states, to local governments and to you to solve these problems. That is not hollow hope-and-change rhetoric but real power to the people.

Tough times call for tough people willing to make tough choices. That’s you, Rick.

Run for president, Rick. Now is your time to come to the aid of your country.

My governor shoots coyotes. What does yours do?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Kudos for the bin Laden kill

One cockroach down, lots more to go

A celebration is in order now that our superhuman special ops warriors expertly drilled a hole through international terrorist Osama bin Laden’s twisted-brain housing unit. All the military, intelligence and political figures who were involved in planning the death of this scumbag deserve our thanks and admiration. Free rock ‘n’ roll and venison barbecue for life from the Nugent tribe.

However, the celebration should be short-lived. There are more terror cockroaches to be hunted down and exterminated with extreme prejudice as soon as possible.

While President Obama’s comments to the American people regarding whacking bin Laden were quite good, he missed the mark by not sending a clear message to the other international terror maggots that no matter where they go and where they hide, the United States will hunt them down and kill them all no matter how long it takes. He should have made it clear that it is the American way.

Bin Laden was a terror figurehead, but he was hardly in control of the decentralized international terrorist cells and lone jihadist wolves who are busy planning more death and destruction in the name of Allah.

We must use all the tools and techniques at our disposal to obtain information from these captured flea-infested maggots. Reports are that aggressive interrogations helped get key information about bin Laden’s courier, which ultimately led to killing bin Laden. It should not matter to Americans which aggressive techniques our intelligence officers use to collect information that could save American lives. What matters is the information.

It also should not matter to Americans how and when we whack these jihadists. All that must be known is that official U.S. policy is to hunt down these devils and grind them into dust. Many of us also enjoy reading and hearing about various military and intelligence tactics used to track, monitor and kill jihadists and assorted other human debris. When it comes to good over evil, I am a tactics junkie.

We do not need civilian trials or military tribunals for these subhuman goat ticks. What we need to do is capture them and use whatever means necessary to extract information out of them and then keep them in cages like the rabid dogs they are until America declares victory in the war on terror. The other option is to exterminate them immediately and all who harbor them. It makes little difference to me.

We would be wise to remember President George W. Bush’s words when he said exterminating these religious nut jobs would take many years. We are in the human-cockroach extermination business for the long haul.

Let’s remember now more than ever that there are voodoo-intoxicated people in this world who hate America and all things good and will do whatever they can to kill as many Americans as possible. Knowing that, the smart move is to whack them first.

Now that bin Laden is swimming with the fishes, let’s make drilling some holes in terror cockroach Ayman Al-Zawahri’s head next. While we focus on finding and exterminating him, let’s kill as many other cockroaches as we can.

I am already done celebrating the death of bin Laden. I am much more excited about how many other jihadist cockroaches we exterminate before the sun goes down tomorrow.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: America needs Fox News

Lapdog traditional press simply won’t do its job

You can bet that if George Bush were president, the media would be out for blood. You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not notice that gas is four smackers a gallon, real unemployment is still above 10 percent, America is trillions in debt with no end to annual trillion-dollar deficits in sight, we are still in two wars and itching for another one in Libya, China is poised to eclipse our economy in just a couple of years, and 25 percent of our kids do not graduate from high school.

President Obama is not blamed for any of this by his lapdog media. Giving Mr. Obama a pass on these and other issues is proof positive the president is the media darling.

It wouldn’t be the same if Mr. Bush were president. In fact, as you will recall, the media relentlessly hammered Mr. Bush on the housing collapse, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, etc. The media hated Mr. Bush, and he was hardly a hard-core conservative.

The media despise anything that smells of conservatism. Such is the reasoning they have insinuated the Tea Party is full of ignorant racists, conservatives don’t care about the elderly and that energy companies rape the environment for profit. The list goes on and on.

All of this hypocrisy and liberal slant to reporting have led to the majority of Americans not trusting the media to report objective facts. Media spin has replaced truth.

Even with all the media spin designed to prop up our rookie president, his poll numbers continue to slide south. The American people know a sham when they see one.

Interestingly, along with the president’s, the media’s poll numbers also continue to slide to the south. Corollary or coincidence?

It’s laughable how the Obama lapdog media are already discussing that the GOP has no front-runner in the 2012 presidential race even though the election is more than 18 months away. The purpose of this spin, of course, is to try to convince Americans that the GOP is rudderless and that the country will be better off with Mr. Obama for four more years.

There is no blaring trumpet from the media that Mr. Obama may possibly be in way over his head, that electing him in 2008 with such a thin resume was a mistake and that the damage his socialist policies could do to the nation over the next four years could be catastrophic and irreversible.

The real damage is what the media have done to themselves. Described as the Fourth Estate to put a blazing spotlight on our government, our news media have compromised their role and, therefore, their credibility. Media without credibility are useless and irrelevant.

Hardly anyone watches the national nightly news, and subscribers to big-time liberal newspapers are shrinking dramatically. Granted, the new digital media have made a tremendous impact on how Americans get and consume their news, but a liberal bias has not done the media any favors. The truth is, the nightly news and the liberal rags are going the way of the dodo bird.

Make no mistake, President Obama is getting a pass from the media because most of those in the dominant media are hard-core liberals. Most Americans are not.

The American public is not nearly as naive or easily manipulated as what the liberal reporters in the newsroom believe. Thanks to the new media and cable news giant Fox News, there is now competition for viewers and readers, and the believability factor at Fox is kicking major butt. The spin does indeed stop here, and I like it.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Punishing the producers

Obama’s class-warfare strategy will only make the deficit larger

The hypocrisy of the president is the only transparent thing I have seen come out of the Obama administration.

President Obama has been campaigning and giving speeches declaring how rich people need to shoulder more of the tax burden. What the president doesn’t say is that rich people already pay the lion’s share of the federal tax burden and that almost 50 percent of Americans (mostly Obama voters) pay no federal income tax. If the president truly believes in his tax-the-rich scheme, he should try something new and lead from the front and lean forward in the saddle by writing a big, whopping personal check to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) above and beyond what he paid in federal income tax. Leading from the front, however, is not one of the president’s strongest characteristics.

Writing a large check to the IRS would take strength of conviction, which the president and the rest of his rich liberal buddies apparently don’t have. If the president, Michael Moore, Warren Buffett and liberal moonbats believe that rich people get off lightly on their taxes, all they need to do is write the IRS a big, personal check and then encourage all their rich liberal friends to do the same. Simple enough. The IRS will gladly accept their checks, especially considering that America is borrowing and spending well over a trillion dollars a year that we don’t have.

The president obviously believes that rich people have gotten wealthy through unscrupulous or questionable means and therefore, should be made to spread the wealth around more by paying more in taxes. This is insulting to every American who has created a certain amount of wealth through hard work, creativity, sacrifice, risk and pays really high taxes for which Fedzilla refuses to be held accountable.

Our president is oblivious to the fundamentals of business. He wouldn’t know how to handle a business risk if it knocked on the door of 1600 Pennsylvania and introduced itself.

The president knows nothing about what it takes to start and operate a successful business, yet he has the presidential audacity to spit in the face of the very people who create and provide jobs for Americans and who already pay more than 90 percent of all federal income taxes.

My gut says the president doesn’t really care about growing the private sector and improving the economy. His goal is to expand the entitlement class because he knows the most effective way to con people into voting for him and the Democratic Party is to buy their votes with the tax dollars provided by the hard work of others. That’s standard operating political procedure for the Democrats.

Mr. Obama is playing a class-warfare con game while at the same time damaging the very economy he claims to care about so much. Can anybody possibly claim to not see this?

Punishing the producers by taking more of their wealth and giving it to others who have done nothing to earn it is anti-American, historically counterproductive and by all accounts, brain-dead. Additionally, punishing the producers will cause the economy to continue its swan dive into the street.

With the exception of Marxists and socialists, no one I have ever met believes that surrendering more of our wealth to Fedzilla is sound economic policy. Economic fundamental No. 1: Never throw good money after bad.

Come on, Mr. President. Put your money where your mouth is and write a hefty check to the IRS. Show some real leadership for once.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Can’t buy me love

Votes of America’s wallet-watchers aren’t for sale

As a free market addict who believes capitalism is the most pow- erful force for quality of life ever devised by man, I be- lieve the price of a product or service is generally set by what the market will bear.

However, when it comes to the incessant political campaigns on the national level, the amount of cash required is staggering. Our politicians spend as much time and money campaigning as they do trying to convince us that they are working hard on our behalf.

Reports say that President Obama’s campaign for re-election may raise and spend $1 billion. He won’t be alone. The GOP nominee will likely raise the same amount of cash. And I thought $4-a-gallon gas is outrageous.

It won’t be long before you start to see what a billion dollars buys. The tsunami of political television and radio commercials will soon begin to flood the airwaves. The amount of political junk mail that will pack our mailboxes may even be enough to postpone the economic collapse of the U.S. Postal Service for another year.

And not a single dime spent on crafty political advertisements will convince me to vote against my political gut instincts and values.

I’ll vote for the gal or guy who says Washington is much too large, spends way too much money, taxes far too much and unfairly, who advocates for a balanced budget, has owned or worked for a successful company (not including law firms), and who believes health care and retirement is an individual’s responsibility.

The billions that will be spent on the upcoming political campaign are not targeted at me. The money will be spent trying to convince so-called moderates to cast their vote a certain way.

Ironically, even the billions spent on campaigns will, in the end, not matter nearly as much as the money in the wallets of the voters.

Americans vote with their wallets. If their wallets are flush with cash, they generally stick with the same political horse. If their wallets are lean, the incumbent is in big political trouble.

And that is the millstone around President Obama’s neck. Out on the campaign trail, his golden tongue may wax eloquently that the economic malaise of high unemployment and even higher underemployment is the fault of President Bush, but that is a tired, out-of-tune ditty.

Young people rallied around Mr. Obama’s message of “hope and change” in 2008. With a large percentage of college graduates returning home to live with their parents because there are no good jobs to be had, the idealism they had in 2008 will succumb to harsh economic realities. This too spells trouble for the president.

The GOP candidate faces a split party - stalwart Republicans and Tea Party activists. The nominee’s job will be to unite the party while at the same time, spending hundreds of millions courting moderates and telling them happy days will soon be here again.

There is a powerful undercurrent of economic reality that Americans feel. Everyone knows someone who has been laid off, can’t find a job or who is underemployed.

Even a billion dollars will not be able to convince Americans otherwise. Their wallets speak loud and clear.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: NBA’s gay gag order

League tells Kobe to put a sock in it

Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant was socked with a $100,000 fine by the NBA last week for calling a referee what the NBA thinks is a derogatory, ugly and vile name.

To be exact, Mr. Bryant committed this egregious verbal foul because he used a word demeaning to homosexuals, the most protected class of people in America.

Gay rights groups applaud the decision of the NBA, which must make all the homosexual basketball fans feel peachy and special. Who knows, maybe the NBA will use Mr. Bryant’s $100,000 to buy courtside seats for gay basketball fans. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Show some gay pride, NBA.

Those among us who work tirelessly to shut down (and shout down, if the need arises) speech they disagree with must also be absolutely gay with pride and satisfaction over this fine.

Mr. Bryant can obviously afford to pay the fine, but that’s not the point.

The principle is what matters. Those of us addicted to common sense and logic think that fining Mr. Bryant $100,000 for calling a referee a name is much more ugly, vile and demeaning than anything Mr. Bryant uttered or could possibly have uttered. The politically correct brain-dead can’t seem to remember the ending for “Sticks and Stones.”

Think of it: $100,000 for calling someone a name. A simple apology from Mr. Bryant to the referee obviously wasn’t good enough for the NBA.

I doubt Mr. Bryant would have been fined 10 cents had he referred to the referee as a useless Christ on a crucifix soaking in a vat of urine.

No, the real reason Mr. Bryant was fined was because he used an anti-gay term to describe the referee. One has to wonder how much the NBA would have fined Mr. Bryant if, before the game, he had told the referee he “looked quite gay” that night.

Maybe the NBA will start fining their fans who scream what the NBA considers to be offensive words at players, referees and opposing fans. The NBA should publish a list of terms that the league finds offensive so the fans will know what is and isn’t out-of-bounds speech, gestures and attire.

If the NBA had any true gay convictions, the NBA should host a Homosexual Night. During halftime, the homosexuals could come down on the court, hold hands and prance around the court to music by the Village People. The NBA could then give each homosexual a pink basketball as a symbol of solidarity.

Like other professional athletes, numerous NBA players have done all kinds of things on and off the court that do not cast a positive light on themselves or the NBA, but they have not been fined $100,000 by the league.

Homosexuals are a protected class in America. If you think what happened to Mr. Bryant was a travesty, just wait until you see what homosexuals in the military do when they claim they have been mistreated because of their sexual orientation.

Speech can be ugly and demeaning, but no ugly name-calling is worth a $100,000 fine.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if Mr. Bryant threatened to resign from the NBA over this? The amount of money the NBA would lose without Kobe Bryant helping to pack the stands would be staggering compared with the politically correct $100,000 fine levied on him.

Mr. Bryant threatening to quit wouldn’t make the NBA very gay. I got 20 bucks that says the NBA would toss homosexuals under the bus and fold like a cheap suit to keep Mr. Bryant in the NBA.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Glowing with green energy

Japan’s woes aside, nuclear power alone can free us from Mideast dependence
By Ted Nugent

The anti-American green goony squad squawks endlessly about the need to ween ourselves from oil after last year’s spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Due to the disaster in Japan, we are hearing more of the same from leftists about nuclear energy.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the anti-energy leftist crowd in America will soon be yammering that what America needs to do is to ban all forms of energy that produce heat, including matches.

Green energy is energy-less. Embracing so-called green energy is an energy death sentence for America.

Amazingly, a component of this administration’s energy policy is to ban Thomas Edison’s light bulb and force Americans to use “environmentally friendly” compact fluorescent light bulbs by 2014, all of which are made by communist China and pose serious health and environmental threats due to their mercury content.

The bold energy reality is that we can’t turn our backs on either oil or nuclear energy. What we need is much more of both. And right here in North America, we have an abundance of both.

Nuclear power is the way ahead. Even with the ugly and unprecedented disaster in Japan, statistically, it remains the cleanest, safest and most efficient energy source known to man.

We have 104 nuclear power plants producing 20 percent of our energy demands. All the green energy sources combined provide no more than 5 percent of America’s energy demands.

The smart move is to build many more nuclear energy power plants if we want clean, dependable and efficient energy.

America has enough oil and natural gas right off our coasts to power America for at least a couple of generations. Banning the extraction of this energy condemns us to continued slavery to OPEC.

We don’t need to ween ourselves off oil. What we need to do is purge ourselves of Mideast oil that is controlled by robe-wearing, voodoo-entranced OPEC mobsters.

Drill here and drill now and eliminate the OPEC mob.

What America lacks is a bold energy policy and vision that will make America energy-independent. Instead, we have bureaucrats stumbling over each other with their stacks of bureaucratic regulations and requirements for what kind of light bulbs American can use. Unbelievable. And you thought “The Planet of the Apes” was just a movie.

President Jimmy Carter established the Department of Energy more than 30 years ago and America is more dependent on foreign oil than ever. We haven’t built a new nuclear power plant or oil refinery in more than 30 years. This is completely unacceptable and very un-American. We are strangling ourselves and then complaining we can’t get enough air - so very liberal of us.

Once again, the Middle East is sending America a message and the message is that that region is unpredictable and downright goofy. The political unrest in the Mideast will surely cause oil prices to soar even beyond where they are today. The sooner America severs our addiction to their oil, the better off we will be. Independence is good. Dependence is bad.

The question we need to ask ourselves is this: Are we creative, bold entrepreneurs who can solve our own problems with our own resources and solutions or have we turned into a pack of whimpering, dependent punk slaves?

Just as our defiant forefathers poured English tea into the Boston Harbor, we should tell the current ruling class of bureaucrats they can stick their curly light bulbs where the sun doesn’t shine. I got your green energy right here.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Obamacare is crony-care

Vocal reform supporters are now demanding waivers
By Ted Nugent

The biggest problem President Obama has is a serious lack of trust among the American people.

From energy mismanagement to refusal to be fiscally accountable to blatant job-destroying policies, the president has gone off in a gung-ho leftist direction that leaves many Americans shaking their heads in confusion. A recent poll found that more than 60 percent of Americans believe the country is heading off a cliff.

The president’s trust meter will take another hit now that more and more Americans are finding out he’s giving out waivers to his Fedzillacare law. The president has handed out exemptions to more than 1,000 unions, companies and organizations and five states.

Any way you slice or spin it, this is pure Chicago-style political payback, blatant Al Capone corruption at its finest. The president clearly learned his political lessons well when he was a community rabble-rouser in Chicago. It’s good to be his political buddy.

If Obamacare is so good, will save so much money and rescue America from health care disaster as the president stated so emphatically, why grant waivers of such benevolence to anyone, much less your close friends? Shouldn’t his union buddies be pounding on the door of the White House demanding to be the first in line to gobble up the entire gigantic Fedzillacare law?

How about it, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)? Why did you request, need or accept the waiver? As big cash supporters of the president during the campaign, the least you could do to show support for the guy and his Fedzillacare bill would be to demand to be first in line. Accepting a waiver to a bill you supported is telling.

With the president once again serving up his political head on a platter by granting waivers to Fedzillacare, let’s see how Republicans respond. Will they hammer the president relentlessly for this glowing example of hypocrisy or barely whimper?

GOP home-run hitter and Democratic dragonslayer, Rep. Louis Gohmert from Texas, isn’t letting this opportunity be wasted. He’s on the attack.

Mr. Gohmert argues these waivers amount to nothing more than “crony-care.” He further stated that “the administration realizes that this bill is a disaster and that’s why they’re letting their closest friends out from under the toughest parts.”

Mr. Gohmert is dead-on accurate that Fedzillacare is a disaster and everyone knows this except Fedzillacrats and bloodsucker Obama supporters who want something for nothing.

Polls also show a majority of the American people still don’t like or want European-style socialized medicine. Clear-thinking, freedom-addicted Americans know that a 2,000-page bill that no politician read, understands or can define with any clarity will ultimately end up costing way more than projected and provide fewer health care opportunities.

Just like every other thing that comes out of Washington, Fedzillacare is a bureaucratic nightmare that will create untold government agencies, bureaucratic reams of requirements, tax-gobbling duplicity, redundant forms and assorted other bureaucratic nonsense.

Fedzilla-controlled Medicare and Medicaid are already on life support and dying fast. You would have to be wearing a dunce hat to believe that Mr. Obama’s Fedzillacare is going to make nationalized health care more efficient and less costly.

Everything Fedzilla touches becomes more expensive, more burdensome and less efficient. It’s best to not trust anything that emanates from D.C.

Fedzillacare is government crack for numbskulls. Strangle it to death by defeating it. Do this now, GOP.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Mideastern behind-the-scenes extremists

Beware of revolutions that rebuild the Islamic caliphate
By Ted Nugent

It’s no secret how the KGB was actively involved in bankrolling and furthering the radical student and hippie movements of the 1960s in hopes that stinky, stoned hippies and violent America-hating radicals like Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and dupes in the Weathermen, Students for a Democratic Society and others would topple America or cause it great harm. Why do you think they call it dope?

Just a few years after the 1960s hippies largely became extinct, a man named Ronald Reagan brought the Soviet Union to its knees, proving that communism, socialism and anti-Americans like Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn were no match for the strongest force ever developed by man: capitalism. Excellence has its rewards - never forget that.

Tragically, American colleges remain infested with leftover liberals who spout socialist and communist idiocy from their insulated, ivory towers. However, the majority of Americans find liberalism to be a bankrupt, brain-dead political ideology that destroys instead of builds and creates dependence instead of independence.

Real rebellion is cool so long as the rebels replace the current system with something better, such as that which the American Revolution achieved.

As of right now, no one knows what will be the result of the Mideast rebellions. No one knows - or is telling us - if Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood is behind the scenes bankrolling or fanning the flames of the Mideast rebellions to re-establish the Islamic caliphate.

Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi and other Mideast and African dictator punks deserve a bullet or a noose, but only if those fighting to overthrow these regimes want more freedom, free elections, support women rights, human rights, respect other religions and so many other proven quality-of-life issues that have somehow eluded that cesspool of mankind. If not, the world has supplanted one voodoo nut for another. That’s a zero-sum game.

Take Iran for example. While the shah was no saint, he was much better than the radical, freedom-hating regimes that have succeeded him since 1979.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Charlie Manson were probably separated at birth. The only significant difference between the two is that Mr. Ahmadinejadis working on developing a nuclear weapon and Charlie is behind bars tattooing himself with ink pens. Both are certifiable kooks.

The Obama administration is backing all of the Mideast rebellions. From Egypt to Libya, there’s not a word of caution from the Obama administration about these rebellions; not a word of caution about what the new political environment will be if the rebellions succeed. The president’s radical America-hating chums obviously continue to influence their community organizer.

Obama administration types are not just throwing caution to the wind by backing these rebellions. They are throwing the world into a potential hotbed of life-threatening extremism. That’s a dumb move.

Rebellions have leaders. Who are the leaders of the rebellions in Egypt, Libya and other places? What do they believe? What do they want to change and how will they do it? Are they anti-American or pro-American? Will they recognize Israel?

These are reasonable questions for which Americans deserve straightforward answers from our president and our Department of State. If Col. Gadhafi - like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt before him - must go, as Mr. Obama has stated, who will take his place?

It would be wise to be very cautious and suspicious of the rebellions in the Mideast. Too many violent rebellions in that part of the world have led to brutal regimes who maintain power through genocide, societal destruction and displacement.

The basis of American foreign policy should be to advance freedom and democracy at every opportunity. Those fighting for true freedom and democracy have the respect and admiration of all Americans who cherish freedom. They are not to be confused with the Muslim Brotherhood and their jihadist compatriots.

I’m just not at all convinced that those fighting to overthrow despots and tyrants will be any better, and will likely be much worse. Convince us otherwise, Mr. President.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: No U.S. strategic interest in Libya

By Ted Nugent

Africa isn't called the Dark Continent for no reason. Africa has forever been a politi- cal nightmare full of overt corruption, tribal warfare, genocide, murderous regimes and brutal dictators.

There is no country in Africa that truly respects freedom or the rule of law. The majority of countries in Africa are in economic ruin because of political corruption and a history ugly with cruel despotism. That's why starvation and disease are rampant. AIDS is projected to kill as much as half the populations of some countries. Genocide is a way of life. There is little light in Africa.

The evil Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the vicious dictator of Libya, is killing Libyans who want to string him up and replace him.

In order to keep Col. Gadhafi from killing Libyan rebels, the United Nations has instituted a no-fly zone and is bombing Libya. Though the action is led by the French, who once wouldn't let us fly over their country to bomb Col. Gadhafi, it is the United States, as usual, that is - and will be - doing all the heavy military lifting.

For what? The president said America is "acting in the interest of the U.S." Please tell us, Mr. Obama: Just what are those interests that are so precious that America will put military lives in harm's way and spend tens of billions of dollars more that we don't have bombing Libya and enforcing a no-fly zone?

The president stated that we will not put ground forces in Libya. Air power alone probably will not stop Col. Gadhafi. If anything, bombing Libya probably will embolden him.

As of this writing, America has fired at least 120 missiles into Libya. Are we prepared to fire 1,120 missiles at about a million bucks a shot in order to topple Col. Gadhafi, to whom the United States granted a visa just a few years ago so he could threaten to live in a big tent while he attended the den of thieves meeting at the United Nations?

If precision-bombing Libya and destroying the country's limited air force fails to stop the colonel, what's next on the agenda, Mr. President? How long will you order our military to stick around off the coast of Libya, and at what financial burden? Will you reverse course and send in ground forces if bombing doesn't work? What is the message to the other African thugs and thugs in the Middle East if Col. Gadhafi isn't toppled?

If the real goal of the United Nations is to topple the Libyan leader, kill him and all his henchmen. Flatten the area of Tripoli where it is believed he is holed up with a human shield surrounding him. Kill all those people and get it over with. Implement total war for a week, and cockroach Gadhafi will be entombed in a pile of rubble.

Because we won't implement total warfare, we run a real risk that he will remain in power. Col. Gadhafi knows the key to his victory is to wait us out. He knows we can't afford to float our Navy off the coast of Libya and launch rockets against tactical targets forever. Most important, he knows the America people will soon begin to ask: What the heck are we over there for when we have no strategic interest and Libya does not pose a military threat to the United States?

Granted, a dead tyrant is a good tyrant, but there have been any number of murdering African thugs and punks who have deserved to be killed over the years, including Robert Taylor of Liberia, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, Idi Amin of Uganda, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and others who have killed millions of Africans.

As I write this, hundreds of thousands of Africans have been killed and a couple of million more have been displaced in Darfur. Are we prepared to go in there and drop bombs and fire missiles until we get the results we want?

Africa is an international scab. Bono of the band U2 advocates that if we forgive debt African nations owe, peace and tranquillity will sprout up mystically. The real problem is murdering, corrupt thugs and punks like Col. Gadhafi. Once we swat one of these African cockroaches or intervene in their civil war, where do we stop?

America can't solve all the world's problems, nor should it try. We have enough of our own problems to address without getting involved in a Libyan civil war.

Spending national treasure by bombing Libya is not wise when we have no strategic interest in Libya and we are bankrupt. It would have been much cheaper for the CIA to arrange for the cockroach colonel's demise than to spend billions and billions of dollars that we don't have in hopes he is toppled. Whatever happened to that wonderful American ingenuity of improvise, adapt and overcome?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Racism lives at Department of Injustice

Holder’s thumb on cop test-score scale will endanger lives
By Ted Nugent

Flunking is the new norm at racist Eric H. Holder Jr.’s Department of Injustice. In yet another ugly, blatant and defining racist move, Mr. Holder is forcing the city ofDayton, Ohio, to lower the passing threshhold on the test for those wanting to be police officers because not enough black recruits passed the exam.

Instead of attracting the best and brightest to serve the public, racist Mr. Holder will now ensure that the good residents of Dayton will be protected by dunce cops who score the equivalent of a D or F on the entrance exam.

Entrance exam scores may also be lowered for firefighters so that more black applicants can be accepted.

What Mr. Holder clearly wants by forcing his racist substandards on the good citizens of Dayton is to ensure people he favors get a fair shake at becoming cops by lowering the standards to such a degree that there might as well not be any entrance exams.

Before long, the question “Can you tie your shoes?” will bedeemed racially insensitive.

Dayton residents had better hope Mr. Holder does not encourage members of the racist New Black Panther Party to move to Dayton and become police officers where they could then legally intimidate white citizens without fear of reprisal from Mr. Holder’s Department of Injustice. If the citizens complained, he could scold them and call them “racial cowards.”

Leaving aside that Mr. Holder’s Department of Injustice should stay the heck out of Dayton’s entrance exam standards (which were already pathetically low), the issue that should boil the blood of Dayton residents is that their tax dollars will pay the salaries of public employees who are functionally illiterate - the very bottom of the barrel.

So much for excellence, right, Eric the racist?

Public employees should be held to the highest of standards. I’m just a guitarslayer, but should we not expect - demand - that employees paid with tax dollars be the brightest instead of the dumbest?

Being a cop or a firefighter should not be a social experiment to provide jobs for people who are almost too dumb to breathe. These are professions that citizens rely on to save their lives, literally. Waiting for Mr. Holder’s idiots to show up can be a death sentence for citizens. These idiots will also put the lives of their fellow cops and firefighters at risk. It’s another whiz-bang bureaucrat lose-lose deal.

What Mr. Holder could not have imagined is that even the Dayton NAACP believes lowering the scores is wrong. Of course, it’s wrong and it demeans those other cops, especially those other black cops who earned their positions. The real message of Mr. Holder’s decision is that black citizens are too dumb to make it on their own. How soulless, how racist a position is that?

Standards for public employees should be raised from pathetically, dismally low standards to exemplary. We should demand tough, rigid tests that cull out the idiots and reward the best and brightest. Private companies have rigid employment standards and do their best to weed out poor performers. The standards for public employees should at least be the same.

Mr. Holder believes otherwise. He believes public employment is a social experiment to provide jobs to certain people and his wrong-headed, racist Dayton decision proves that.

Maybe President Obama will come to Dayton and have a beer with angry citizens and try and assuage their concerns. What the president should do is fire the racist punk Mr. Holder for a pattern of ugly racist statements and behavior.

Unfortunately, Mr. Holder passed Mr. Obama’s low, low standards.

Racism lives, and it lives in the Obama crony administration. How sad.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Outgunned is a choice

Beanbags are fine for the playground but not for a border showdown
By Ted Nugent

Being a Border Patrol agent on our southern border has got to be a very difficult, harrowing job.

It is surely an even tougher job when our agents are told to launch “nonlethal” beanbags at armed, illegal intruders.

Rule No. 1: Never bring a beanbag to a gunfight.

Think of this: With an orgy of high-powered drug-gang violence just across our border that already has claimed roughly 35,000 lives, plus numerous reports of armed, illegal intruders crossing over the border and shooting at our police officers and committing other violent crimes against American citizens, some politically correct bureaucratic idiot directs our Border Patrol agents to launch beanbags at machine-gun-toting, violent invaders.

The result of this brain-dead, irresponsible mindset: My fellow Michiganiac, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, was shot dead by an armed illegal intruder on Dec. 14 in Arizona.

This policy, of course, is lunacy defined. Only a wild-eyed lunatic would force brave, law enforcement officers into dangerous situations without adequate firepower to stop danger in its tracks. These are the same uber-left-wing fools who sputter and scream how our law enforcement agents are “outgunned,” ignorantly blaming failed gun control laws while knowingly sending our warriors into battle with phenomenally inferior firepower. In fact, beanbags have no fire power, unless you are waging war on small kittens.

To add insult to the tragic death of Agent Terry,it now appears that certain bureaucrats within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed a known gun-running thug, whom they were investigating, to buy and transport the guns into Mexico that were used to kill Agent Terry.

Call me crazy, but I thought law enforcers would have learned their lesson by now. It seems like it was just yesterday that the Los Angeles Police Department found itself outgunned by a couple of bank-robbing punks armed with banned, fully automatic AK-47s and wearing body armor.

I’m just a guitar player, and I am never outgunned. Being outgunned is a choice, a foolish, suicidal choice, and everyone knows it.

It boggles the mind to try to comprehend someone showing up with a nonlethal beanbag gun when it is widely known that human traffickers and drug smugglers and other assorted subhuman debris are often heavily armed. Common sense reels in disbelief. Word has it that logic is now on the endangered species list.

I’m well aware some of you on the left have mastered the art of mind-boggling anti-logic and are desperately seeking to find some way to disagree with me.

Knowing that you live in the bizzaro world where logic is outlawed, let’s say for argument’s sake that you hear an intruder kicking down your front door in the middle of the night, and you have the choice between a 12-gauge shotgun and a fly swatter at your disposal to protect your family. Which are you going to grab?

Only Timothy Leary and Cass Sunstein fans would reach for the fly swatter. All you other liberals would turn into clear-thinking conservatives for at least a minute or so and splatter the intruder all over the living-room wall with your shotgun. Good for you.

Stay with me. So now let’s say America is your home, and you have armed bandits routinely coming into your home. Would you show up with a beanbag gun or an M4 rifle with state-of-the-art optics?

Case closed. Numbnuts lose again to a tsunami of common sense.

The way to stop this insanity before it becomes an even bigger national security problem is to issue a “shoot to kill” policy against all armed invaders.

Because I’m actually a docile, peaceful man who doesn’t want to see anyone hurt, I will compromise and agree to a policy of firing one round over the heads of armed intruders. If they do not immediately lay down their weapons and raise their hands in surrender, then shoot them four times, center mass. Problem solved.

Armed invaders always must be considered extremely dangerous. Superior firepower is the order of the day, not nonlethal beanbags. Let’s leave the beanbags to kindergarten classes.

Tragically, this is what we have come to expect from an administration that will not even refer to Muslim voodoo whackjobs who commit murder and mayhem against Americans while shouting “God Is Great” in Arabic as terrorists. How deep is the denial?

Liberalism is clearly a mental disorder and liberals are outgunned.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Dr. Nuge to the rescue

Free-market medicine man takes his scalpel to Obamacare
By Ted Nugent

As ugly and foolish as it is, obesity isn’t the most deadly health issue in America. Neither is the insane choice to poison oneself with tobacco. Same goes for lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet. These prime symptoms of the brain-dead are all indications of just how berserk some people can be. We should all pray people will wake up and make responsible choices as soon as possible to make America stronger and healthier.

That being said, clearly the most crippling, dangerous and deadly health threat America faces today is Fedzilla’s bureaucratic, dirty, inept fingers in our health care.

Fedzilla has violated and continues to violate the most basic health care oath: First do no harm.

Since establishing Medicare in 1965, Fedzilla has set in motion the most unhealthy, destructive, burdensome and costly so-called health care program in the history of mankind. Thanks to this bungled and deadly experiment, Medicare is on its deathbed and will expire soon.

Don’t listen to the Fedzillacrats who will try to convince you that Medicare and Medicaid are healthy. They would be lying. These programs are dying. Instead of giving the patient the needed medicine, Fedzilla is injecting our health care program with much worse poison, such as Obamacare.

Medicare cannot be revived unless we either raise massive taxes on young American workers or reverse course now and privatize our health care. Those are our only choices. Do not believe otherwise.

Know this: Health care in America was much cheaper and far more efficient when Fedzilla didn’t have its unclean, infected hands in it.

We have the most expensive, bureaucratic health care nightmare in the history of the world. Medicare and its twin, Medicaid, are dying because they are on an unsustainable financial-suicide path. Even a third-grade kid flunking math can see this.

In addition to massive costs, Fedzilla’s programs have reams of regulations that require vast and expensive Fedzilla bureaucracies and agencies to manage.

How’s this for expensive: According to the Cato Institute, Medicare trustees estimate Congress would have to come up with $80 trillion and put this money in an interest-bearing account to cover future health care expenses.

Yes, that’s 80 trillion - more than the entire wealth of the world. To put it further in perspective, the annual gross national product of the United States is roughly $15 trillion.

The very survival of the nation is at stake. Our very unhealthy and expensive health care model requires emergency-room attention if the patient, America, is to survive.

First, Obamacare must be repealed or financially strangled. Any health care model or program that proposes that Fedzilla control more of our health care should be dead on arrival in Congress. Kill those proposed programs before they spread and multiply.

Second, we must create health care models and programs based on the free market. More free-market choices will drive down health care costs and make health care more affordable. More choices works in every other industry, and it will work with health care, too, if given the opportunity. Allow people to purchase health care across state lines and watch prices tumble as health care insurance companies scramble for your health insurance business.

Third, because almost half of our Medicare dollars are spent in the last months of life, we have to do something to control these costs. As much as I respect life, requiring taxpayers to continue to fund terminal patients is immoral. Should the families of such patients want to continue to keep them alive, they should find a way to pay for it.

Fourth, we need means testing. Similar to the case for Social Security reform, if a person - myself included - has amassed a certain amount of assets, he should be required to pay for his own health care.

Fifth, personal health care savings accounts funded over a lifetime would provide future retirees with a health care nest egg to draw upon. Funding one’s own health care - what a novel concept.

The bottom line is that our population is aging and aging quickly, which is requiring more taxpayer-subsidized health care that already is on the fast track to bankruptcy. In order to survive, America needs more health care choices, more freedom and more responsibility for our own health. This will drive down costs, not increase costs, which is the current suicidal, Fedzilla model.

America has a health care crisis. It is a crisis that was put in motion by Fedzilla in 1965 and is on a course to kill the very patients Medicare was supposed to help: Americans.

Health care lesson No. 1: Never surrender your freedom or personal responsibility to Fedzilla unless you have a death wish for America.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

Multicultural Rot in the Melting Pot

By Ted Nugent 

Europe is finally awakening from its self-imposed Rip Van Winkle deep slumber to discover that multiculturalism is actually cultural rot and ripping its countries apart.

From the United Kingdom to France to Spain to Germany, leaders or former leaders have decried multiculturalism as a poisonous experiment in their nations. 

What's next?  Will Europe discover the Earth is not flat?

You have to wonder how these leaders could have ever signed on to encouraging Muslims to lead separate lives and not assimilate in the first place.  Pardon me, but even a venison-fueled guitar slayer knows that playing politically correct games like these always leads to death, destruction, and decay.

The brain-dead politically correct facade of multiculturalism was directed primarily at Muslims, and everyone knows it.  European leaders were scared to be labeled as intolerant religious bigots by Muslims.  Their fear was misplaced.  They should have been vociferously condemning Muslims who wanted to be treated separately.

Instead of condemning Muslim extremists, Europe instead condemned a Danish cartoonist who poked fun at Muhammad.  Free speech be damned.  The German government censured an author for writing a popular book that contended Muslim immigrants were lowering the intelligence of Germany.  Not to be outdone by the Europeans, the American media implied that those Americans who protested a mosque being built near Ground Zero in downtown Manhattan were bigoted and anti-Muslim.

And while Europe and America to some extent were embracing multiculturalism, Muslims were murdering Christians and burning down their churches in Muslim countries.  (Let us not forget multiculturalism lesson No. 1:  Islam is the religion of peace.)

As Europe imploded due to political correctness and doing its best to accommodate Muslims praying in the street and whatnot, many Muslims were, and still are, working hard to try and impose their religious/political customs, traditions, and values on these European nations and right here in America . 

Instead of encouraging Muslims to assimilate and embrace European culture, tradition, norms, and values, European leaders buried their head in the sand and ignored the problem. 

The bold, unfiltered truth is that some Muslims are not in the least bit interested in assimilating and embracing Western traditions, values and, democracy.  Their goal is taking over and supplanting Islam as the mandatory religion and government.  These Muslims do not believe in universal, basic human rights such as women's equality, freedom of speech, the right of others to practice their faiths, and the rule of law.  The definition of Islam for these crazies is subjugation.  For Muslim extremists and radicals, Islam is about totalitarianism and enslavement, not freedom.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France recognized the dire consequences that multiculturalism has had on France when he recently stated, "If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community.  And if you do not accept that, you cannot be welcome in France ."

Hear, hear.

British Prime Minister David Cameron recently said that multiculturalism is the cause of Muslim terrorism. 

Whether or not Sarkozy, Cameron, and others actually get tough and do something to reverse the politically correct cultural suicide path their countries are on remains to be seen.  One thing is clear, however.  Now is their time to stand or fall.  The culture war is on whether they like it or not.

If Europe really wants to get tough, its countries should outlaw Sharia law in all of its machinations.  Public funds should be immediately cut off from Muslim groups who refuse to condemn Muslim extremism.  Public condemnation by officials and others should be used against Muslims who preach separatism.  The Muslim clerics who preach jihad or hatred should be jailed or expelled, and their mosques closed.  Tougher immigration rules should be passed and enforced.

Muslims should be free to practice their faith, but not free to impose it on others.  Democracy doesn't work that way.  When in England, act like the English.  That's the only respectful thing to do.  Embrace that or leave.

Source: HumanEvents.com

NUGENT: When the going gets tough, Democrats run

The longer they hide, the better for the GOP
By Ted Nugent

The Democrats‘ new playbook says to run away and hide when they don’t get their way. Good.

The one fundamental political truism in America is that Democrats always find a way to self-destruct. Good again.

Democratic legislators in Wisconsin and Indiana have run away so they don’t have to vote, represent their constituents or act like Americans. Other lemming Democrats surely will take their lead and follow them off the political cliff.

Perfect.

It’s hard to imagine our Founding Fathers finding the running-away behavior laudable or respectable, but I haven’t found anything yet that liberals believe that is in line with the philosophy and agenda of our Founding Fathers.

It’s delightful how these Democrats have run away from their elective jobs and hid. This juvenile, pro-union stunt has only tightened the political noose for Democrats in 2012. Hang ‘em high.

Democrats have yet to accept the glaring fact that there was a seismic shift in politics in November when voters tossed them and their bankrupt ideas out of office. They are ignoring the will of the people because, at their core, Democrats think people need to be not only governed, but controlled. Liberals believe ordinary Americans are too stupid to make important decisions on their own. Believe it.

Instead of respecting the voters’ desire for frugal fiscal policies that make abundant sense, Democrats in Wisconsin and Indiana have run away and tried to take their political ball with them. They are emboldened by teachers who call in sick and various other loudmouthed, pro-union hacks and stooges.

My plea to these Democrats is to remain on the run. The longer they stay away from their respective states and elective jobs, the better the opportunity for fiscally conservative Republicans in 2012 and the better the opportunity to fix America.

Just as it sank the presidential aspirations of Democratic poster boy Ted Kennedy when he ran away and hid for eight hours or so before reporting to the police that he had driven off a bridge with a female passenger, this stunt is going to bleed Democrats of support from the important middle-of-the-road voters.

This is the perfect political storm that can destroy Democrats, so long as Republicans play their cards right. The Republican move should be to say little or nothing other than how the Democrats have ran away from the will of the people. Enough said. Avalanches start small.

By embracing their newfound political activism of running away when things don’t go their way, the Democrats, including President Obama, have painted themselves into a corner. Realizing that union members are a significant base of their party, no Democrat can afford to condemn the legislators who have run away. No Democrat is going to turn on the labor unions. Al Capone and Jimmy Hoffa live.

Labor unions have long been tools for the Democratic Party. Labor unions donate tens of millions of dollars to the Democratic political machine during each election. Rather than drown separately, the labor unions and Democrats are lashed together and will drown together.

I feel all warm and tingly.

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin needs to stand his ground. He must remember why voters put him and the GOP in power. Stay the course, Mr. Walker. Do not cut a deal with Democrats and the labor unions. Do what is best for Wisconsin and set the example for other Republican governors to follow.

Terminally whacked as he is, at least Col. Whackjob Gadhafi has so far vowed to stay and fight to the end in Libya. He hasn’t run away yet from the mob of Libyans looking to lynch him, but maybe he hasn’t been following what is happening in Wisconsin and Indiana. I doubt he knows there are a Wisconsin and Indiana.

Americans intrinsically know that running away is a sign of weakness, and significant weakness is what we are beginning to see in the Democratic Party poppers who have chosen to flee.

To think some in the media declared the Republican Party dead just two short years ago when they were swept out of power in 2008. My, how times change quickly. The GOP can thank both the Tea Party and the self-destructing Democrats for their political resurrection. They better.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Sick days for the sick at heart

Wisconsin’s teachers throw kids under the school bus
By Ted Nugent

Teachers across Wisconsin are calling in sick to protest the bill that would require them to pay half the cost of their pensions and roughly 13 percent of their health care coverage.

Can you say “spoiled brats”?

So many teachers in Milwaukee have called in sick to protest this widely supported bill that Milwaukee schools have shut down. The teachers should be fired or at least forced to sit in the corner and wear dunce hats and apologize for this juvenile stunt.

It is estimated the bill would save Wisconsin $300 million over the next two years, which would help alleviate the state’s $3.6 billion shortfall.

The alternative to not passing the bill is laying off 6,000 public employees. Wanting their fantasy cake of unaccountability and eating it too, the unions and their ignorant, brainwashed sheep are whining and protesting. So are some of the Democratic state legislators, who have fled Wisconsin and are hiding out so they don’t have to vote on the bill.

Those Democratic legislators are gutless and soulless chumps. Because the legislation isn’t breaking their way, they turn tail and run, thereby holding up a vote on the legislation. How pathetic, how juvenile, how so Democratic of them. Let us hope the good people of Wisconsin fire those Democratic punks at the next election just as they fired others in November.

It’s no surprise President Obama is speaking out and supporting the unions. Interestingly, because he spoke about education at length in his State of the Union address, isn’t it ironic that he has not vociferously criticized the teachers who are calling in sick and abandoning their duty to educate children? The president knows who butters his political bread - the unions. Tough luck, kids.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, the National Education Association (NEA) isn’t about what’s good for children, it is all about how much teachers can get away with.

This bill has nothing to do with union busting, as Mr. Obama claims. What you are witnessing is a state putting into action the will of the people as stated clearly on Nov. 2. It is simply trying to be financially prudent and responsible, something about which our spendthrift president and the Charlie Rangel gang obviously know nothing.

And now master shakedown con artist, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, has shown up and led the protesters in singing “We Shall Overcome.” When Mr. Jackson shows up anywhere to join hands with protesters, place your faith, hope and trust in those on the other side of the issue.

The truth is, like Wisconsin, many states, including Michigan, New Jersey, California and others, are in way over their financial heads and are drowning in debt, largely because of costly benefits paid to public employees. States that fail to rein in those unsustainable costs now will experience financial catastrophe in the not-so-distant future.

Folks, what is happening in Wisconsin is just the beginning. Other financially unstable states are going to go down this same path in short order. Some will have to make even more drastic cuts than Wisconsin. It is inevitable.

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is displaying leadership by sticking to his guns on this critical fiscal issue. He is refusing to kick the can down the road for another governor to deal with. For that, he should be applauded by all responsible Americans who care deeply about runaway debt and soaring deficits. For his bold leadership, I nominate him for a Presidential Medal of Freedom, though I suspect he’s going to have to wait a few years to get one.

The jig is up. There is no more money. Wisconsin, a number of other states, many cities and the federal government are flat-out broke and in serious financial trouble.

What kind of lowlifes would call in sick when they are not? Look and see.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Hell just froze over

The president met with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
By Ted Nugent

It’s amazing what getting “shellacked” in an election will do to a president. Instead of pandering to and embracing unions, condemning Wal-Mart and telling Joe the Plumber of the need to spread the wealth around, President Obama addressed the business community by speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The truth is that had the Democrats not gotten shellacked in November, the president would rather have had a root canal with a pair of vice grips and a wood chisel than to have spoken to the Chamber of Commerce.

The president knows he doesn’t understand business. He’s never owned a business, managed a business or, from what I can tell, even worked for a private business during his entire life. He knows zippo about how the free market operates and how onerous big-government regulations and high taxes can trample the economy.

All he knows about business is what he has read or what someone has told him. Based upon his previous anti-free-market actions and statements, whatever he was told or read was as wrongheaded as sitting through a sermon by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright without vomiting, having your head spin ‘round and ‘round and requiring an exorcism.

But at least he was cagey and smart enough to speak to the chamber, an assemblage of businessmen who don’t trust the president very much and believe he’s mostly wrong on all things business. Good for Mr. Obama.

Maybe.

Let’s hope and pray the president sees the light and honestly reaches out to the chamber, other business organizations and other businessmen instead of lecturing and blaming them when the bold and unvarnished truth is that the policies of Fedzilla had much more to do with our economic collapse than Wall Street bandits.

Let’s hope the president is a big enough man to understand that he and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis have much more to learn from the chamber than the chamber has to learn from them about how to expand the economy and put Americans back to work.

The president is finally saying many of the right things - there is too much government regulation, business taxes are too high, it’s important to let the free market grow the economy. His problem is that he doesn’t do anything about it except talk and periodically tour a handpicked company. That dog won’t hunt.

No doubt, the president is a very busy guy, what with all this fundamental change and what not, but if expanding the economy and creating good jobs matter to him as much as he currently says they do, he should make time for business leaders to meet with him on a weekly basis so real-world business discussions with real hands-on, experienced businessmen could occur and economic goals and objectives could be created and tracked to move America forward. That would be a grand step forward from appointing Van Jones as the green jobs czar, wouldn’t you say?

The president says he is open to other ideas. In addition to speaking to the Chamber of Commerce, the president ought to surf on over to the website of the Club for Growth (clubforgrowth.org) and read what these pro-business Americans suggest to get America moving again. These guys get it.

The Club for Growth has it bull’s-eye-right. The members wisely advocate reducing income tax rates, abolishing the current tax code and replacing it with a fair or flat tax, killing the death tax, limiting government spending, reforming Social Security and Medicare, expanding free trade, and other common-sense measures that would put Fedzilla on a strict diet while growing the economy.

Only a big-government, bureaucratic addict who believes Fedzilla knows how to grow the economy better than people who actually own and run businesses would disagree with Club for Growth‘s economic-freedom ideas.

We are expecting a lot from a guy who has no business experience. However, what we should be able to hope and pray for is that he can swallow his partisan political pride and start doing what is right for the nation. That is a tall order for a historically left-wing ideologue like the president. Therein lies the very sticky widget.

If the president has any serious aspirations for 2012, he knows that he and his party cannot cruise to victory by campaigning on four years of a lackluster and weak economy. He also knows that many Americans do not vote for the party or candidate but rather by what is - or is not - in their wallets.

The president has two fundamental choices: Expand the economy or pander to his nutty left-wing base. Something has to give. He’s not going to be able to have it both ways.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Mourning in America

Obama is the polar opposite of Reagan
By Ted Nugent

President Obama has been trying to saddle up next to former President Ronald Reagan to gain political points with the American people. That’s going to put quite the strain on your mystical smoke-and-mirrors machine there, Barry.

Regardless that Mr. Obama claims he is studying the Reagan presidency, know that this is a political smoke screen to try to get Americans to believe he is a centrist. What you really need to know is that in his political heart, Mr. Obama holds Reagan in contempt.

Mr. Obama and other liberals despise everything Reagan stood for and believed in. Liberals do not think government is the problem and not the solution, as Reagan did. Liberals like Mr. Obama think more government is the solution to what ails America.

Because of his tax-cutting, pro-free-market, reform-minded ways, Reagan ushered in one of America’s longest-running economic booms. After a disastrous Carter administration, it truly was morning in America with his steady and resolute hand at the helm. There was a palpable feeling of confidence among Americans during Reagan‘s presidency. Americans were proud once again. How I yearn for those days.

Not so much with the Obama administration. Every poll I have read over the past year indicates that Americans are nervous, unsure and think - under the rookie community organizer - that our beloved country has lost its way. It reminds me exactly of how Americans felt during Jimmy Carter‘s wimpy tenure.

Main-street Americans do not believe America is respected by the international community; they shake their heads in disbelief that communist China is poised to surpass the U.S. economically and think Mr. Obama has it all wrong - from energy to spending. To be fair, we can’t lay all of our problems on his doorstep, but we can blame him for exacerbating them and creating new and tremendously expensive problems. Things are so bad that there are some Americans who think Mr. Obama is out to destroy America or at to least reduce the country to the equivalent of a Third World country. Sadly, it’s hard to argue with the flow of evidence.

With the exception of bloodsuckers, unions and Fedzillacrats, Americans don’t trust Mr. Obama. In fact, Americans have little trust and confidence that our bloated federal government can get anything right. This lack of trust and confidence by the American people in government and Mr. Obama is his and our biggest problem, and claiming he is studying the Reagan presidency is not going repair his image. The American people are smarter than that.

Once Americans have lost trust and confidence in their president, the president is only marking time. Mr. Carter and former President George H.W. Bush can vouch for that. It is exactly because of a lack of trust and confidence that Mr. Obama will soon join the ranks of other one-term presidents.

Mr. Obama‘s most fundamental mistake was believing his own hype and press - that America had given him a mandate to swing the country far to the left. That rookie mistake has been tremendously costly. Claiming to study Reagan is putting a Band-Aid on a gaping political wound.

Politics is as much about the intangibles as the tangibles. Americans need to feel and believe the president is doing what is right for the nation and that he has a vision. Americans need to internalize the vision of the president and make it their own. It is not happening.

Americans want to believe America’s best days are ahead of them. They want to leave America in better shape for their children. Americans believed this was possible under Reagan. They do not believe it with Mr. Obama. Instead of believing in morning in America, many Americans think a dark, cold and foreboding evening has settled in upon America.

Reagan was thus the polar opposite of Mr. Obama. He was a principled statesman who believed in the greatness of the American people and the free market. Mr. Obama is a left-wing ideologue who believes in the greatness of Fedzilla. This has placed him consistently out of step with the American people and will ensure he is a one-term president. Mr. Obama, you are no Ronald Reagan.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Social Security: Anti-social and insecure

Sinking it now is best for America in the long run
By Ted Nugent

Americans have been used, strung along, ripped off, manipulated and frightened for decades by runaway gangs of power-mongering, deceptive politicians.

I give you Social Security. As usual, it is the exact opposite of what we have been told. This classic Ponzi scheme is anti-social and insecure.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt created Social Security 75 years ago. As with many other Fedzilla programs, Americans got suckered into believing Social Security was a healthy, wealthy and wise program.

Social Security is bloated, broke and busted. FDR’s New Deal turned out to be the Rip-off Deal.

There is an IOU for $2.5 trillion in the Social Security trust fund. Our elected bandits stole all the Social Security taxes collected over the years and spent it on who knows what.

The Congressional Budget Office recently stated that Social Security will pay out $45 billion more this year than what it takes in. Deficits such as this are projected until Social Security rolls over and goes completely belly-up 25 years from now.

The only way to truly reform Social Security is to sink it. Settling for anything less than the total destruction of this financial sinkhole would be perpetuating the problem and allowing Fedzilla to continue to pick the pockets of future generations of Americans.

We must have the guts and national resolve to remove the crushing tax burden of this Ponzi scheme from the backs of future Americans. Only Fedzilla and Bernard Madoff think robbing Peter to pay Paul is good business.

Eliminating Social Security isn’t our Sputnik moment. It’s our sink-the-Bismarck moment.

We can’t sink it today, but we can begin planning today how to sink it.

My proposal to sink the anti-Social Insecurity Bismarck is a plan that is very painful and arguably unfair, will take resolve and commitment, and will require a tremendous amount of sacrifice by all Americans.

First, we need to pass whatever law is needed to keep the Jesse James-like hands of Congress off the dollars collected from Social Security. No more stealing.

Second, we need to take the cap off of the Social Security tax. Currently, only the first $107,000 earned is taxed. We need to take the lid off and tax all income. We need the money. Yes, that will be a tax increase for some Americans. This is pain and real sacrifice.

Third, there must be means-testing. If a retired person or couple has more than a certain amount in assets, they will not receive Social Security or will receive limited benefits. This will be a huge sacrifice, but tough times require tough people who are willing to sacrifice for the future good of the nation.

Fourth, we need to raise the retirement age now. It is a fact that people are living longer. Retirees today will collect more from Social Security than what they paid in, while the pool of workers paying into Social Security is shrinking . That is an upside-down, unsustainable model. Shovel on more personal pain and sacrifice.

Fifth, people in the work force will be required to continue to pay into Social Security in order to pay for the masses of baby boomers retiring, but the people younger than 45 will not receive Social Security. We will have sunk the Bismarck by the time they would have reached the age to receive Social Security.

What people under the age of 45 will get in return for continuing to pay into Social Security that they will not receive are their 401(k) and IRAs completely tax-free when they retire.

My recommendation is a platform of pain and sacrifice, but it is for the long-term good of America.

The GOP should be telling young Americans that it is their responsibility to save and invest for their retirement and if they start saving today, they will amass a fortune over their careers. They should be told Social Security is a scam, a flat-out smoke-and-mirrors Ponzi scheme, pure and simple.

We can do it. Let’s sink the Bismarck. What say you, GOP?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Do nothing, get nothing

For America to be strong, we need to reward the good
By Ted Nugent

All good things come from effort. This is why any able-bodied person receiving welfare, unemployment or other financial assistance from Fedzilla, a state or county should do something to earn it.

Just as no responsible parent gives his child an allowance without expecting a certain number of chores to be completed in return, this same common-sense approach on a national scale would do wonders to bring America out of her malaise. There are millions of able-bodied Americans receiving financial assistance who can do something in return for the assistance being provided them by their fellow Americans.

One of life’s immutable and irrefutable truths is that giving people financial assistance without demanding something in return strips them of their pride, work ethic and soul. It’s a form of slavery, if you will. This poisonous policy ultimately destroys families, entire communities and, historically, entire societies. Giving someone something for nothing is analogous to rewarding bad behavior. Only idiots do that. And the French.

Over the past 50 years, we’ve created an entire subclass of Americans who literally know nothing other than receiving various forms of government financial assistance without having to do anything to earn it. It’s a big-time wrong approach unless the goal is to destroy these people and their communities. President Johnson’s Great Society didn’t turn out to be so great, after all.

Everywhere I go in America, I see things that could be fixed, spruced up, cleaned up or replaced. You would have to be blind not to see the same things in every community in America.

There is trash that needs to be picked up in city parks and all along highways nationwide, buildings that need to be painted, weeds that need to be pulled, snow that needs to be shoveled, lawns that need to be mowed, schools that need to be painted, fences that need to be fixed, sidewalks that need to be repaired, good charities that need basic labor, kids that need tutoring, etc. Maybe Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity will teach them how to build a house. The work list is only limited by your imagination.

Under my brilliant, common-sense plan, if a person doesn’t put in a certain number of hours of work each week, he loses financial assistance for a month. When a person gets hungry enough, he will work. Being hungry and working for basic subsistence is the first step on the journey of rehabilitating pride and a work ethic. A dose of tough love is a highly effective motivator.

Being busy with a sense of purpose is the goal of those of us who understand what a real great society should be. Great societies are not created or sustained by having able-bodied people sitting at home, collecting a check for nothing while watching their giant-screen televisions, surfing the Internet or playing video games.

Helping people is not sending them a check without any expectation of effort. That’s how to destroy people. If you truly want to help people, incentivize them to earn their own way. That liberates them and turns them into producers instead of parasites. It’s a simple upgrade begging to be had.

I absolutely want to help people down on their luck, but I know that true help is giving people a hand up, not a handout. The ultimate goal is to create tough, smart people with that wonderful all-American, kick-ass attitude and work ethic. That’s what China fears the most.

Only squawkers, socialist punks and various bloodsuckers will find fault with the abundantly clear common-sense truism that all good things come from heart-and-soul effort. They should always be ignored. They are always the problem, never the solution.

At the end of the day, all red-blooded Americans must ask themselves if they have chosen to be in the asset column or the liability column. Our enemies are paying attention. I pray to God we are.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Obama slept through the election

GOP needs to wake up an inattentive president
By Ted Nugent

I don’t put much stock in presidential State of the Union speeches. Last night’s speech by President Obama was no exception - flat and uninspiring, especially in comparison to his powerful Tucson speech.

State of the Union speeches are an opportunity for presidents to promote their agendas. The speeches are typically full of fluff and low on fiber. Mr. Obama‘s latest was like eating an artificially flavored air sandwich. Other than pundits, few Americans give State of the Union speeches any credence. By noon tomorrow, this lackluster speech will have fallen off the radar screen for everyone but the Beltway obsessive-compulsive disorder crowd.

The thrust of Mr. Obama‘s speech was the economy and job creation. He spoke about how the economy is growing again, how his policies are turning things around, how 1 million private-sector jobs were created in 2010. The problem? It’s bunk.

Spin it any way you want, but our economy remains sluggish, the dollar weak, the cost of food and fuel rising, our border porous, those green-energy jobs imaginary, the debt and deficit staggering, and the business community remains leery of Fedzilla’s heavy hand. The result: Millions of Americans are unemployed or underemployed, leading to hundreds of thousands of homes being repossessed.

Mr. Obama and the Democrats can’t be blamed for the entire economic malaise, but the decisions they have made in the last two years have made things much worse - as in $4 trillion in new spending worse. Our economy was already thrashing about in deep water when Mr. Obama joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, and Sen. Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, and came along and threw it a concrete block and called it a life preserver.

Mr. Obama spoke of bringing down business taxes and has launched a review of unnecessary regulations that are strangling businesses. Our business taxes should be reduced to the lowest in the world. As it pertains to identifying and eliminating unnecessary regulations, we would be wise to wait and review the findings of his new regulation-elimination initiative.

Mr. Obama spoke about new investment in clean-energy technology and other sectors. When you hear politicians speak of “new investments,” watch your wallet. New investment are code words for more borrowing and spending, which is exactly what is burying our economy and killing our future.

The cleanest energy is nuclear energy - not solar, wind or hydro. To meet our energy demands, nuclear energy is the way ahead. Nuke power is the safest, most efficient and cleanest energy source on the planet. The goal should be 200 new nuclear power plants in the next 10 years.

Mr. Obama is right about reforming education and raising educational expectations. What we don’t need to do is pour more money into the teacher-union-controlled public education system. America spends more on public education but get less results than any other nation in the history of the world. More tax money for education isn’t the answer.

Mr. Obama spoke about simplifying the tax code. He must have been reading my opinion articles. Burn the existing bureaucratic tax code and replace it with a flat or fair tax. That would be real reform.

And now he says he wants to reform Fedzilla, make government more accountable, more fiscally responsible. Yeah, right. And I’ll be wearing a pink tutu playing an accordion as the grand marshal at a gay rights parade any day now.

There is no argument that Mr. Obama is the most liberal president in the history of the nation. The hallmark of liberals is more control, more taxes and more spending. The future of America will not be bright with liberals in charge. Less government bureaucracy, less spending, less control and less borrowing is the way ahead. Get cracking, GOP.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Abort Fedzillacare

Government has no business intruding into family health issues
By Ted Nugent

In celebrating the Supreme Court‘s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, President Obama stated his support for the decision by declaring that government shouldn’t intercede in private family matters. Really?

If Mr. Obama is to be believed, then why does he want to force Fedzillacare down our throats? With all due respect, isn’t coercing people to buy into Fedzillacare directly interceding in private family health issues?

Alas, Mr. Obama‘s wrong again. Fedzilla is, in fact, interceding in the abortion industry by allocating our tax dollars to fund abortions. It must suck to be wrong so often.

Regardless ofyour opinion on abortion, if Mr. Obama actually believes his own spin, then no tax dollars should be used to fund abortion, promote abstinence or allow government to meddle in personal health issues in any way.

On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, he could have shown moral leadership by declaring that legally aborting 30 million (give or take a few million, but who is counting?) “masses of fetal tissue” (aka “a baby”) since 1973 is a dark, sad stain on the tapestry of America. But a statement such as that would have caused Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar to storm off the set of “The View” in anger and caused other liberals to boil over in more confused rage.

The president can’t afford that. He needs Ms. Goldberg, Ms. Behar and even Keith Olbermann, whose barely watched program was recently aborted by MSNBC. Quick, Mr. Olbermann, find a new liberal roost from which to crow. Mr. Obama needs you and the 40 or 50 viewers who will watch it.

The president desperately needs the pro-abortion crowd. He knows they constitute a core base of the Democratic Party, and that he can’t further alienate the extreme left wing who believe in providing shopping carts to the homeless. Even though half of all African-American pregnancies end in abortion, aborted masses of fetal tissue simply doesn’t matter when there is a re-election campaign to plan. Winning elections at all costs is what really counts.

At their core, liberals have few, if any, moral or ethical principles that matter. They desperately try to spin a good game about so-called reproductive rights, health care, education, crime, illegal immigration, etc., but what liberals really want is more power and control, a principle in line with the commie Three Stooges of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and the deceased Che Guevara.

Only 20 percent of Americans identify with liberal orthodoxy. When the spin clouds part and the truth shines on America about what these liberals really believe and advocate, the majority of Americans shake their heads in disbelief and go the other way. With apologies to Chris Matthews, fuzzy-headed liberals and their goofy agenda do not send tingles up the legs of ordinary Americans. Regular folks are just too dumb to get it. Right, Mr. Matthews?

Liberals have no real moral or ethical strength in their convictions, including support for abortion, and I can prove it. Wouldn’t it be fascinating for a media hack to ask any liberal, including Mr. Obama, if they are just absolutely giddy that their mother didn’t abort them? Even the most ardent pro-abortion, liberal moonbat must be ecstatic that they were not aborted. Knowing that, then why wouldn’t a pro-abortion individual, including Mr. Obama, also believe a “mass of fetal tissue” would also like a shot at life? Badda bing, badda boom, Barry baby.

There are many of us who want Fedzilla completely out of our health care, but we are being forced to adopt Fedzillacare rather than abort it. Those of us who want to abort Fedzillacare will get our day in the Supreme Court, too.

No politician or political party should be able to force Americans to adopt and pay for Fedzillacare when we want the constitutional right to abort it. Our health care is indeed a private and personal matter, Mr. Obama.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. daily

The civil rights leader's lessons could make America a better place
By Ted Nugent

It has been said, and history shows, that societies and cultures are not murdered, but rather commit suicide. Have you noticed that?

As we celebrate the amazing life of Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, we should give pause to reflect on his civil rights achievements and also reflect on how King would lead us to reverse our society and culture from committing suicide if he were still with us.

We spend a tremendous amount of time and energy talking about how to expand the economy and create more jobs. No doubt that is an important topic that deserves our focus.

But I doubt that expanding the economy, creating jobs and growing the middle class would be King's focus if he were alive today.

King would know and strive to point out that there are quality-of-life considerations much more important than just a strong economy.

King surely would tell us that it is impossible to create and sustain a vibrant economy without bright, talented and motivated young people. He would challenge and lead us to reverse the suicidal trend of so many of our young people dropping out of high school.

We can dream that King would tell us that we don't have an economic crisis but that we are enslaving our young people in a life of poverty and crime by allowing them to quit school.

In some American cities like my beloved hometown of Detroit, well over half the students do not graduate. Detroit has the worst graduation rate of any city in America. Abysmal dropout rates are not uncommon - they are standard in cities across America. This is cultural, societal, spiritual and economic suicide.

We can dream that just as he challenged us to rise above bigotry, King would lead marches on public schools and condemn them for caring more about teacher tenure and teacher unions than student graduation rates.

I believe that the good doctor surely would lecture parents that it is immoral, unjust and cowardly for them to allow their children to drop out of school. He would tell parents that education is the path to enlightenment and true liberation. He would tell parents how allowing their children to quit school is compromising the dreams of those who worked so hard and sacrificed so much to achieve civil rights. Being dumb is not a right; it's a chain and shackle.

King would say once again to both schools and parents: The time is always right to do the right thing.

In addition to challenging Americans to embrace education, I'm convinced King would have more than a few words to say about the state of the American family.

With roughly 70 percent of black youngsters and 40 percent of white youngsters being raised by single parents, we literally are jackhammering away at the foundation of what makes a strong and enduring society.

Let us dream that King would tell us that young people need both a mom and a dad and having so many children not living with both surely leads to disastrous results. The facts are irrefutable. Youngsters raised by single parents are more likely to get into drugs, drop out of school, get involved in crime and end up dead. We are committing societal suicide. America is better than eating its own.

These are two of the issues that I like to dream King would speak about: challenging us to change and leading us to a new promised land. Regrettably, they also are two critical issues that are given too little time, energy and focus by our politicians and media. Failing to lead is leading America to failure.

If we truly want to honor King, we must commit to doing better, not just talk about doing better. This will take commitment, sacrifice and sweat by parents, politicians, civic organizations, churches and neighbors. The question is, are we Americans up for the task?

We must remember and honor King not necessarily for what he did, but more importantly for what he believed and how he inspired others. King belongs to the ages, but his dream lives on.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Passion essential to American politics

Don't let Tucson shooting sap our will to oppose liberalism
By Ted Nugent

In the wake of violence perpetrated by a Tucson lunatic, liberals and others who should know better are calling for political rhetoric to be toned down.

It's only those on the left who really want to tone down the political rhetoric - as in conservative rhetoric.

I say conservatives should turn up the rhetoric. When honestly identified, the hues and cries from the right are good for America, calls to get America back on track. Only those opposed to such an upgrade would find fault with such rhetoric.

Regardless of political stripes, all Americans should refuse to allow the actions of a psychotic mad dog to dictate how we conduct ourselves in the political arena, where political debate has always been spirited, hot and sometimes nasty.

Only softheaded, feel-good fantasizersfrom the cult of denial could believe that toning down the political rhetoric will somehow keep lunatics from doing loony things. Exhibit A: the sheriff of Pima County, Ariz.

Other liberal blowhards, such as Paul Krugman of the New York Times, blame conservative rhetoric for causing the Tucson monster's violence, even though there is less than zero evidence the monster listened to conservative talk radio.

The Tucson monster wasn't inspired by conservative ideology that he heard, read or watched anymore than he was encouraged to commit mayhem by reading Mr. Krugman's column, watching a Michael Moore movie, working out to a Jane Fonda video or humming Harry Belafonte songs.

If liberals truly wanted to tone down the rhetoric, they couldprove it by stopping the lying. But that won't happen. Mr. Krugman and other liberals know that if it weren't for a steady drumbeat of lies and deceit, the Democratic Party would cease to exist.

Let's be honest. Those on the left don't want to tone down political rhetoric. They only want to tone down conservative speech to make it more "fair."

The Democrats are wrong on everything from energy to health care to taxes. What they despise is having their agenda exposed, dissected and ridiculed. The truth hurts, and they know it, which is why, ultimately, they want to muzzle conservatives.

Never a group of politicos to let a crisis go to waste, liberals like Mr. Krugman are attempting to blame conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck for complicity in the murder and mayhem in Tucson - anything to take the spotlight off of them and their destructive policies and agenda.

Don't fall for it. It is yet another liberal ruse to deflect, obfuscate, blame and deny. That's the liberal modus operandi.

Conservatives on the radio, on television and in print need to turn up the heat on Democrats with wit, passion, ideas and facts. Conservatives should not fall for the liberal ruse of toning down the rhetoric by waving a white flag and promising to play nice.

Liberals and their Fedzilla policies have been severely weakened, as evidenced by their stinging defeat in November. Conservatives should capitalize on that victory and further destroy liberals by ad- vancing conservative values and ideas while aggressively pointing out why liberal ideas are dangerous and destructive to our republic.

In order to defeat liberals on the political-ideology battlefield, conservatives must be clear in purpose and then get after it by targeting (yes, I said targeting) and attacking Democratic nostrums that have weakened America. Expose, isolate and eliminate liberals and their fuzzy-headed policies. Use Saul Alinsky techniques against them.

Political battles are full of military metaphors. No one advocates violence as a means to destroy the political opposition. The only political violence I have seen occurs when dopey liberals throw pies at conservative speakers or try to shout them down.

Conservatives need to turn up the political rhetoric if they want to defeat the liberal agenda with a conservative agenda that is based on the Constitution, small government, lower taxes and much less spending.

Conservatives have liberals outnumbered and surrounded. Don't play nice with liberal snakes. Don't let them escape. Instead, do America a favor and crush liberalism.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Who let the wuss out?

Fedzilla dependency has resulted in a nation of soft parents and kids
By Ted Nugent

Speaking about a National Football League game canceled because of a snowstorm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell stated that America has turned into a nation of "wusses."

That's a mighty bold statement from a Democrat whose party platform is to create wusses. If it weren't for dependent wusses that the Democratic Party creates and coddles, the party would be extinct.

Truth politics aside, I couldn't agree more with the governor. I have been yelling about this from American rooftops for decades. My mantra has been simple: Upgrade, America, or flounder on like the soulless sheep you are becoming. You have a president and Congress and a gaggle of wuss-loving czars. The wusses have it made. No spines allowed.

Too many Americans have become soft, complacent and apathetic and have a sense of crybaby entitlement. The good old American roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-the-job-done attitude has been going the way of the dodo for decades. We've all heard about the jobs Americans are not willing to do. Wusses.

Rugged individualism, that glorious, animal can-do spirit, perseverance and self-reliance are anachronisms for today's dependent, weak, wuss Americans.

Trying hard is just too hard for some Americans, who have been wussified into a state of dependency. Food stamps are for wusses, and the master wussy Democrats have seen to it. It's easier to be a lazy lump. The truth hurts. Only the guilty need feel guilty.

So many parents have failed miserably. Instead of instilling sacrifice, discipline, pride, hard work and motivation in our kids, too many parents coddle their children, trying to be their friends. Wuss parents raise wuss kids. The cycle remains unbroken.

Our public schools do not demand nearly enough from our kids. Our kids need more scholastic challenges, not fewer. However, some public schools have even gone so far as to implement "no failing" standards whether or not students do their homework. Feeling good isn't doing good. This is a proven recipe for terminal mediocrity. Bend over, America. The Chinese are coming.

Way too many of our kids can't read, talk, write or do basic arithmetic at their grade level. Far too many American kids drop out of school because they have been trained not to care. The public education system is the model for the wussification of America. Get your pretend diploma from Wussie U. and go nowhere.

Physical fitness is a sad joke. Our kids are the fattest, softest, slowest in the world and probably the most out of shape; statistics for their parents are worse. Forty percent of our youth are considered either overweight or obese. Fat is in; fit is out. Look around you if you doubt me. The curse of blubber in America is a reality.

Dependency abounds. Too many Americans think Fedzilla should provide them everything from housing to health care. And Fedzilla is trying its hardest to accommodate them while bankrupting America in the process and doing its best to rape the producers. Only an uneducated and unmotivated American wuss could possibly believe that a bloated Fedzilla knows what is best for him.

These wusses don't want to learn how to fish for themselves. They are addicted to Fedzilla's programs, which only serve to make them more dependent on Fedzilla. What say you, Mr. Rendell?

Lean is mean. Less is more. Weak is defeat.

Those Americans who seek to turn this ugly thing around know that tough love is the first dose of the anti-wuss antibiotic that needs to be instilled into America. Excuses and coddling deserve to be punished; trying hard should be rewarded.

Parents should turn off the television, computer games, video games and cell phones. These things make Americans, especially our kids, soft, uninspired, anti-social wusses.

Every kid in America should have at least 10 chores every day and do homework for a couple of hours every night at the kitchen table. Parents and teachers should act more like U.S. Marine Corps drill sergeants than coddling softies who are more worried about little Billy's and Suzy's feelings than they are about turning Billy and Suzy into unstoppable, motivated, hard, smart and confident Americans.

America has perfected the art of making wusses instead of hard-charging, freedom-addicted people like our forefathers. We are now wusses raising wusses, which is generational suicide. We are eating our young and liking it.

The way out of this is so simple, it's stupid. All it takes is some tough love and commitment by everyone in the social and cultural chain, many of whom are wusses themselves. They need to be weeded out and excommunicated.

America needs hard-charging warriors, not weak wusses.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Spirit of Santa alive and well in America

We're a nation built on the essence of Christmas
By Ted Nugent

As my grandchildren and I cuddle together on Christmas Eve night and look out the window scanning the dark sky for Santa Claus, I will hug them and tell them that Santa Claus is as real as the snow silently falling to the ground outside. With great anticipation, we will sit close together and stare into the heavens searching for Santa Claus and his sleigh being pulled by flying reindeer. In my own grandfatherly way, I will tell them that Santa Claus will live forever in the hearts of those people who live their lives with compassion and love for others. That, I will tell them, is the spirit of Christmas and the spirit of Santa Claus.

Before Christmas Eve, I will take them shopping and find a U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots box stuffed full of toys for less fortunate kids. I will tell my grandchildren that Santa Claus put those toys in that box and that the hero warriors of the Marine Corps will deliver them for Santa Claus. Semper Fi.

We will stop and watch people drop their coins in the red buckets of the Salvation Army without any fanfare. I will tell them that Santa Claus lives in the hearts of those people, which is why they put their money in the Salvation Army buckets. God bless them.

I tell my grandchildren that hunters quietly go about providing hundreds of millions of hot meals of pure, healthy venison for the less fortunate all across America through the Hunters Feeding the Hungry program. I will tell them that sharing the annual bounty of God's miraculous creation with the less fortunate is as old as America and pure Christmas spirit.

In my own way, I will tell them that Americans donate millions and millions of dollars to various charities and organizations in hopes of providing a better life for someone else. I will tell them that it is because of the spirit of Santa Claus that they donate their money even when some can't really afford to give any money.

With sleeping, slobbering dogs sprawled at our feet by the fireplace, I will tell my grandkids that whenever a natural disaster happens somewhere around the world, Americans rush to the aid of those hurt, regardless of who they are or what those people believe. That's who Americans are.

I will tell them that far, far away there are Americans fighting evil people so that others can live free. I will tell them that they must keep these brave American military heroes and their families in their prayers each night. They are the best America has to offer. Blessed are the warriors of peace and freedom.

As we stare into the heavens waiting to spot Santa Claus, I will tell them of the time when some people knocked down some of our buildings, and that firefighters and police officers rushed up the stairs of those buildings to try to save people but rushed instead into the comforting hands of God. I will tell my grandkids that those firefighters and police officers who tried to save those people had the spirit of Santa Claus in their hearts.

With the fire crackling and the embers giving off a magical glow, I will make sure to tell them about the news stories I hear of unnamed, ordinary people doing extraordinary things for others. These wonderful, caring people, I will tell my grandkids, are Santa's helpers.

Their eyes will surely grow heavy searching for Santa Claus, and they will slowly drift off to sleep in my arms. I will carefully carry them to bed and tuck them beneath warm covers. Silent night. Sleep in heavenly peace.

Merry Christmas, America. Santa is alive and well in America.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

The American Dream

by Ted Nugent

The Senate rightly rejected the NIGHTMARE Act. Maybe the midterm elections have teeth.

Known as the DREAM Act, this nightmare legislation was yet another dishonest left-wing anti-American immigration bill that would have provided a roadmap for citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, and then some.

The reality of the NIGHTMARE Act is that had it passed it would have opened the flood gates for even more unidentified Mexican and OTM invaders to illegally cross our border.

There are two fundamental realities with illegal immigration.

The first reality is that there are 20 million or more illegal aliens in America right now, the vast majority of whom don't commit crimes and are decent hard-working folks. Their tremendous work ethic and strong family values are commendable, if only they brought them here legally.

The second reality is that ordinary Americans know we shouldn't reward illegal behavior unless we want more of it. Only criminals and bloodsuckers reward bad behavior.

The political reality is that both sides of the aisle benefit from illegal immigration.

I say damn the political torpedoes. America should launch the "Please Go Home" initiative for those 20 million or more illegals in America as soon as possible.

The "Please Go Home" initiative isn't jingoistic or racist as the real vicious racists will proclaim. It is fundamental, logical immigration common sense.

The GOP will disagree with my proposed initiative because they believe that, to win future elections, they need to attract Mexican-Americans to the GOP. The GOP undoubtedly believes my initiative will further alienate Mexican-Americans. The Democrats will despise the initiative because they benefit politically from these folks.

It's got to suck to be bought and paid for.

Political parties aside, ordinary Americans will agree with my initiative, even though they know it is tough medicine for both illegals and Americans.

If the vast number of illegal Mexicans in America pack their bags and head back home, there will surely be an economic impact. Prices for food and other services will probably go up. In an already tough economy, that will be a hard pill to swallow. We need to take our medicine anyway.

Some illegals in America want it both ways. They want all the benefits of America but want to maintain their personal and cultural ties to Mexico. That irritates ordinary Americans as much as the Department of Injustice suing the state of Arizona for securing the border.

Like all other law-abiding Americans, I fully support legal immigration. If a Mexican wants to immigrate to American, he or she should go through the immigration process like any other foreigner. Hopping the fence or wading the Rio Grande River isn't part of America's immigration process.

Just as Mexico vigorously defends its southern border with Guatemala and has stringent immigration policies and enforcement practices, America should follow Mexico's lead and protect our southern border and stringently enforce our immigration laws. How about it, Department of Homeland Security?
Hey, Janet Napolitano, comprende?

America has immigration laws that both Mexicans and Americans should respect. The real reality is that the goal of those who advocate illegal immigration is to dismantle our immigration laws.Wrong move.

The NIGHTMARE Act was another attempt to legitimize illegal immigration.  Fortunately, a wiser-than-usual Senate rejected it.

If America is a nation of laws as we proclaim, then our immigration laws are part of the package. Remind Fedzilla at every opportunity that rewarding illegal behavior only attracts more of it.

Source: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40708

NUGENT: Extremely American

Founders like Thomas Jefferson would be called radicals today
By Ted Nugent

When the political opposition has nothing of substance, it often resorts to labels. Nothing new there.

Those who hold conservative views are often labeled as "extremists" or "the far right." In an attempt to discredit their ideologies and arguments, conservatives often are referred to as bigots, racists and sexists by the opposition. That's because the opposition has nothing. Know it.

Tea Party members routinely are labeled as ignorant, naive, out of the mainstream, etc., when in reality, the opposition's tank of ideas is out of gas.

Like our Founding Fathers, I'm an extremist, and I wear my extremist label proudly. I buff it daily so that it shines extremely bright.

I extremely believe we have the God-given right and responsibility to defend ourselves; that big government is the problem, not the solution; that the care of your health is your responsibility, not mine; that capitalism is the greatest force of mankind on the planet. Pretty radical, extremist stuff, huh? No wonder I'm referred to as the Motor City Madman.

All my political heroes have been bold leaders, many of whom would be labeled as extremists by today's toxic, politically correct brain-dead standards.

Take Thomas Jefferson, for example. He was an incredibly bright, enlightened extremist whom all American schoolkids should study, extremely. Very few politicians on either side of the political aisle qualify to stand in Jefferson's extremist shadow. Maybe Ron Paul. He has some extremist views about Fedzilla. Rock on, Ron. Get even more extreme.

Imagine if Thomas Jefferson were alive today and wrote what he actually said about government in his day. The FBI surely would be monitoring him for his extremist views. The yammering ladies on "The View" would get their panties in a wad over Jefferson's extremism and storm off the set in protest. President Obama wouldn't have a beer with Jefferson.

Well over 200 years ago, Jefferson warned us of Fedzilla when he wrote, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

You don't need to be a political scientist to wonder what Jefferson would have thought about Obamacare and Fedzilla's extremely ugly, irresponsible, orgiastic spending spree.

Jefferson didn't stop with his fortune-telling of Fedzilla, as he wrote: "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."

That quote should be chiseled on the back of every chair in the U.S. House and Senate. After saying the Pledge of Allegiance before school starts (if that hasn't been banned yet by the ACLU) American kids should also recite that quote. That would be extremely wise.

Here's a real radical, extremist Jefferson quote: "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."

Jefferson was a wild thing. He moves me.

Looking at the bloated Fedzilla as it exists today, Jefferson and our other Founding Fathers would call for a revolution. Jefferson wrote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Advocating revolution would get Jefferson charged with sedition or some other crime. Fedzilla would lock him up and label him a domestic terrorist. I extremely believe that.

If he were alive today, Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, would be labeled as an extremist. He would be castigated, maligned and pilloried for his opinions of Fedzilla. In the Obama America, Jefferson would not be revered; no monuments would be built in his honor.

What America desperately needs today is a man or woman who is as extreme and radical as Jefferson was. What we have is a crop of Fedzillacrats in Washington who have more in common with King George III than Thomas Jefferson.

Be thankful that our Founding Fathers were so extreme. God bless the political wild things. Wherefore art thou?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: DOE must go

Fedzilla agency failed its mission
By Ted Nugent

One has to wonder what end zone the Obama administration is running toward by shutting down oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for the next seven years.

The oil spill in the Gulf was bad enough, but making decisions that only serve to strangle America and make us even more dependent on foreign oil is much worse. Under the rookie misdirection of President Obama, if Fedzilla were in charge of eye exams, the first thing they would do is stick us in the eye with a sharp stick.

One of the contributing factors for the oil spill was that Fedzilla mandated that oil companies drill in deep water where there is arguably more risk instead of the more pragmatic drilling in shallow water, thereby contributing to the cost of drilling and increasing the risk. Typical of Fedzilla. Make things more risky and more costly and then tell us its for our own good.

Admit it or not, America runs on oil - not green energy such as wind, solar or hydro. The sticky, oily fact is that America will be dependent on oil for many decades to come. Knowing that, it only makes sense that we drill where we can to make us energy independent. Our energy solution is not blowing in the wind. But somebody is.

This leads me to the Department of Energy (DOE), a Fedzilla agency that gets nothing done. The DOE is a self-licking ice cream cone that should be made extinct. Put that in your debt commission pipe and puff on it.

President Jimmy Carter established the DOE almost 40 years ago with the goal (I hope) of making America energy independent. The results? We are more dependent on foreign oil today than when the DOE was established. That comes as no surprise to me.

Steven Chu is the secretary of energy. He's an academic green-energy guy with no private-sector energy experience except possibly paying his energy bill. It would come as no shock to me if Secretary of Green Energy Chu views the oil companies as villains, despises nuclear energy and believes burning coal causes global warming and is akin to genocide.

The average American wouldn't know Mr. Chu if he knocked on their door and introduced himself as the secretary of green energy, even though the DOE has an annual budget of 23 billion tax dollars and employs 100,000 people. The average American has no clue what the DOE has been doing for decades and how many hundreds of billions of our tax dollars have been spent by the DOE. I bet the DOE is equally clueless.

I can't think of a singular real achievement of the DOE. Not one. Same goes for the Department of Education, Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor.

What I do know about energy is that we haven't built a nuclear reactor or an oil refinery since the DOE was established. Why? Because of massive Fedzilla red-tape regulations that serve to strangle real energy innovation and creation. Meanwhile, Europe has largely gone nuclear and many other countries are building nuclear power plants to supply their nations with affordable, clean and safe nuclear power. Not America. Our energy solution is to tilt at windmills. Amazing.

Here's an idea for you new GOP congressmen: Every Fedzilla department and agency should be required to inform the American public weekly about what they have done to advance or destroy America. Nothing complicated, just top-level facts such as the top three initiatives, their costs, what we should expect from these initiatives and when they will be complete. Make this your No. 1 agenda item.

For example, the DOE could have told us that oil drilling in the Gulf has been banned for the next seven years, how many new windmills were built, how many Americans rode their bicycles to work, how many tankers full of foreign oil we imported this week and how much that imported oil cost America.

We toss stacks and stacks of tax dollars at Fedzilla and by and large have no idea how our hard-earned money is spent and, more importantly, what we are getting for it - or not getting for it. The bureaucracy of Fedzilla is mind-numbing. From where I sit, it appears that Fedzilla is working against America, not for us. There is no accountability, no real transparency. Zippo.

Let's make the DOE extinct. It's running on empty.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: The time for kitty killing has come

Feral cats threaten more than just mice
By Ted Nugent

New research from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln has arrived at the exact same conclusion that conservationists have known for decades: The way to control the feral cat population is to kill the cats.

Not surprisingly, the American Bird Conservancy and the Audubon Society agree with the university's research.

Let us hope the University of Nebraska didn't spend more than 10 bucks on this research. All its researchers would have had to do would have been to call any true conservation organization or me, and we could have choked the research department with all the data, facts and supporting information it would have needed to arrive at the inescapable, pragmatic, common-sense, scientifically based conclusion to kill feral cats.

There are no true conservationists who do not agree with whacking or blasting destructive, dangerous feral felines. There are fuzzy-headed fantasizers who claim to be conservationists but in reality are nothing more than denial-ridden cat lovers. They live comfortably in denial, where fantasy supplants common sense and facts.

The reality of the situation is that the feral cat population has exploded across the United States (except on my property) and in other countries as well, in large part because of irresponsible cat owners who dump their unwanted pets out in the country when Precious wears out his welcome in short order by killing every songbird and assorted wildlife by the millions. Estimates of the number of feral cats in the United States are well over 100 million. Strange, but not one of these destructive fur balls lives on my ranch.

The destruction feral cats have wrought on songbirds, other mammals and critters is catastrophic, no pun intended. Feral cats prey not only on songbirds but also on game birds, rabbits, squirrels, gophers, mice, shrews, voles and other critters that are food sources for wild predators such as foxes, birds of prey, coyotes and bobcats.

And what is the response from denial-land denizens? Trap, spay and neuter the feral cats (at who knows what expense) and then release them into the wild, where they can continue to wreak havoc on wildlife. These people truly must be suffering from a terminal case of cat-scratch fever.

America should adopt the approach of the people of Ascension Island. For six years, they battled the feral cat population, which, along with rats, had caused two species of birds to become extinct and another to be listed as globally threatened. Their battle paid off. On Nov. 26, 2006, they declared their island free of feral cats. Amazingly, they did this without my direct support and superior stealth.

What we have here is some empty-headed people who don't want to do what is necessary, but rather turn a blind eye to the problem or reach for the wrong solution because it makes them "feel good." Doing good makes me feel good, which is why I and hundreds of thousands of conservationists kill feral cats on sight or advocate killing them.

The answer is so simple it is stupid: Kill the feral cats on sight. Because of their breeding, we need to wipe out as many of these vermin as possible. No closed season on feral cats is the solution. Always has been, always will be on the Nugent farm, where I have instructed my family, friends, hunting buddies and casual passers-by to blast every feral cat they see.

We don't have a feral cat problem - feral cats have a Nugent problem.

Do songbirds a favor: Kill feral cats.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Consulting the Oracle of Omaha

Warren Buffett might have some useful advice for Fedzilla
By Ted Nugent

The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, recently wrote an Op-Ed column in the New York Times in which he thanked and praised Uncle Sam for stepping in and preventing the economy from going over a cliff.

While I'm not privy to, nor do I fully understand just how dangerous the situation was that forced Uncle Sam (meaning you, the taxpayer) to step in and borrow, bail out and spend trillions to prop up the economy, what I do believe is that the root cause of our economic collapse was the Fedzillacrats in Washington who continually turn a blind eye to the financial black holes known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - both of which are managed by Fedzillacrats. Hey Peter, you might want to meet Paul.

Not only did Fedzilla turn a fatuous blind eye to the financial affairs of Fannie and Freddie, but it pressured banks to make home loans to people with no credit or poor credit or who couldn't possibly afford the home.

To that extent, for Mr. Buffett to thank Fedzilla for saving itself from its own bad policies and horrible mismanagement of Fannie and Freddie is analogous to a 1870s banker writing an Op-Ed column thanking the James Gang for not robbing his bank.

We shouldn't thank Fedzilla for keeping our economy from slipping into the abyss, but rather blame Fedzilla for putting us in this perilous position in the first place. Much more important than that, however, is demanding that the very dunderheaded policies, procedures and practices that pushed our economy to the brink of disaster are not continued or repeated. Insanity anyone?

They haven't been fundamentally changed. Fannie and Freddie remain financial sinkholes.

No doubt that the Oracle of Omaha is an investment guru, but instead of penning an Op-Ed thanking Fedzilla for saving itself from itself, it would have been much more enlightening if he had shared his thoughts on how Americans should and could dig ourselves out of our ever-deepening financial hole.

Economic reports indicate that the debt and deficit spending will increase trillions of dollars more for a number of years. Does the Oracle of Omaha think we tax, borrow and spend our way until happy days are here again?

Some economists think America is not far behind the financial train wreck known as Greece. I heard one economist say we have two years, and then all bets are off. Others, such as Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, have made some harsh statements about our short-term economic future. What say you, Mr. Buffett?

Fedzilla is gobbling up a greater and greater percentage of our gross domestic product. One has to wonder if the tremendous growth of the federal government concerns Mr. Buffett.

For every three dollars Uncle Sam spends, one of those dollars is borrowed. Does Mr. Buffett think this is smart fiscal policy?

The highlights of the report from President Obama's debt commission were released recently. It would be fascinating to know what this other Parrot Head (the original being Jimmy Buffett) thinks about the commission's recommendations or what he would do to reduce our mounting debt or even if the Oracle of Omaha believes in debt and deficit spending.

Entitlement spending is the elephant in the room that no politician wants to address. One has to wonder what Mr. Buffett would do to reform Social Security and Medicare.

It's not just Fedzilla that is upside-down financially. California is broke, and Illinois is right behind California. Numerous cities, such as Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, have piled up dizzying amounts of debt. Even Mr. Buffett's fine city of Omaha has its financial problems, which have resulted in an effort to recall Omaha's mayor. Is it a fait accompli that massive property-tax increases and other tax hikes are right around the corner?

I'm not being flippant. I would truly like to hear how Mr. Buffett thinks we can solve our numerous financial woes - or even if we can solve them.

Mr. Buffett has forgotten more about the economy than I'll ever know. What I do know, however, from what I have read and basic economic common sense, is that our economic future is not rosy. Maybe I'm wrong.

Mr. Buffett meets periodically with Bono of the band U2 to discuss the various problems that plague Africa. Next time I come through Omaha, I'll buy Mr. Buffett a cup of coffee if he's willing to discuss America's economic problems with the Motor City Soul Man. I'll even show Mr. Buffet a couple of greasy Motown ukulele riffs for the other Parrot Head.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

Ethics Schmethics

Nothing could be further from the truth. Nobody is questioning our ethics except the lunatic fringe within our ranks who are afraid of their own shadow or all out loonies who think venison is unethical. Ignore them.

When was the last time you heard ethics mentioned in NASCAR? NFL? Hollywood? NHL? MLB? Golf? Banking? Boating? Grocery industry? Auto industry? None of them ever mention it because there is no need to mention it. They are not afraid of their own shadows and have leadership and sophisticated representatives who know that they are ethical, are looked upon as ethical, and have absolutely no reason to ever bother defending their ethics.

I for one have never killed a game animal out of season, in violation of any laws nor committed an unethical or disrespectful act while hunting in my life. I conduct myself with a conscientious demand to do the right thing, and have found throughout life, that often, the right and ethical thing is in total contrast with the letter of the law.

Our world is so out of control with imbecilic, illogical, nonsensical rules, regulations and laws as to be laughable. America has more laws, regulations, rules and guidelines for every imaginable function and process than anywhere else in the world. I believe that most of these bureaucrat driven laws unto themselves, like the bureaucrats who forced them upon us, are in fact unethical.

My governor shoots coyotes. What does yours do? I am certain it is illegal to discharge a firearm in the Austin, Texas city limits, but when a dangerous vermin confronts a jogger and his dog, the right thing to do is shoot the coyote dead. I'd love to hear the braindead, feeble argument against that. And then do a drug test on the arguer. Funny stupid.

I have broke numerous laws in my life, and I am damn proud I did so, and under thoughtful, demanding conditions, I will do so again, I assure you.

For example, witnessing a tragic shooting accident many years ago, I broke the speed limit laws while transporting the injured individual to the nearest hospital at a high rate of speed, substantially beyond the posted speed limit. Was that unethical? Of course not. Life and death emergencies supersede arbitrary laws. Unless of course you are a clueless, irresponsible sheep and don't know the difference. My responsible, ethical decision saved the man's life. I did good.

I have on more than one occasion discovered wounded deer smashed by vehicles alongside hiways and roadways across America. In many of these instances, the thrashing, tortured animal was in the process of flopping its way back onto the traffic congested right of way while the deliriously inept civilians stood around gawking and whimpering, clueless as to what to do.

In each instance, I assessed the situation, created a safe environment, whipped out my 10mm and killed the deer, much to the shock and disbelief of the onlookers. By all intelligent considerations, I did the right thing. The law abiding folks were complicit in the development of a potentially unsafe, life threatening scenario. There are sheep, wolves and sheepdogs. I am a sheepdog.

Over my 62 years of maximizing my time beyond the pavement where the critters roam, I have seen it all. Often I have come upon fawns and other critters that were seriously injured or sick, and obviously suffering and helpless. Even though it was not open season on the animal, and I did not have an authorized tag for these suffering creatures, I nonetheless dispatched them in a responsible, humane way to end their unnecessary suffering. Against the law, but indisputably ethical. I would love to hear Plan B as perceived by some PC goon. To walk away and allow the animal to suffer would surely be unethical and heartless.

I will tell you what's unethical; Sunday hunting bans in 11 states are unethical.

Wasting gobs of tax dollars every year in numerous states by killing bears all year with bait and hounds by government hunters while forbidding we the people to hunt bears in the spring or with bait and hounds is not only unethical and antiuAmerican, its insane.

The bizarre practice of wasting more tax dollars hiring so called "sharpshooters" to slaughter deer and elk and other game in areas where we the people own the animals and ground they are found on but forbidden to hunt is berserk unethical.

A 77 year old law limiting migratory bird guns to three shells is unethical, illogical and nonsensical as it serves the single purpose of harassing hunters. There are baglimits based on scientific sustain yield harvest realities, not ammo consumption. 

In states like MI and IA where they have many times more doves than they do pheasants, it is legal to hunt pheasants but not legal to hunt the more abundant and prolific doves. That is unethical and stupid.

To sit back and allow the overpopulation of wolves to destroy big game populations across the west and still lie that they are endangered is unethical, irresponsible and a crime against nature. The soulless bureaucrats that support such engineered waste are corrupt and unethical, and must be replaced ASAP.

To prosecute a rancher for killing a livestock destroying grizzly bear in self defense is unethical.
  
The enforcement of such laws is unethical and those wildlife biologists who know better but do nothing to right these wrongs are unethical.

They are sheep. Maybe even wolves.

As great an organization as they are, the Texas Parks and Wildlife's hypocritical law that says deer within a private high fenced property still belong to the state, even though the land owners have receipts for purchase of said deer, and yet still are forbidden to release them from the enclosure is all unethical and impossible to explain in logical terms. By all logic and sanity, you cannot have it both ways. Considering basic private property rights and trespass laws, there is no way the state should have any say whatsoever in managing animals on enclosed private property once the landowner has purchased them. And if the deer belong to the state, then surely a landowner can set them free back onto state ground and not control them in an enclosure. Ya think. Pick one.

Is it unethical to have your bow out of its case in MI, WI, PA, OH, IN, NY, MN, and other states? A bowcase is an ethical consideration to anyone? Is it unethical to lean your rifle against the tire of your truck? Of course not, but soulless bureaucrats and robotic game cops and thought challenged fellow hunters will try to tell you otherwise. These absurd laws are seriously hurting hunting, halting recruitment and causing attrition in our essential conservation lifestyle. Inexcusable. That's unethical.

I could go on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. These bad laws and the bureaucrats that make them have got to go ASAP.

We must all do our very best to obey all laws and regulations to the best of our abilities. But the real battlecry in the corrupt, power abusing Obama America today should be upgrade, logic, reason, common sense and accountability. God forbid huh.

An honest review of gamelaws and regulations is long overdue, and until we eliminate all such absurdity from our law books, there is no way we can possibly accomplish the goal of retention and recruitment into our beloved hunting lifestyle. The land mine field of confusing, arbitrary, unreasonable and counterproductive laws that have nothing to do with wildlife management or safety must be gutted and cleaned out, and the outdoors community, if honestly committed to recruitment and conservation, should be leading the charge and demanding it.

We all know that lying is a sin. But when the Nazis ask if there are any Jewish children hiding in our basement, I pray we would all know exactly what the ethical response should be, even from bureaucrats.

Visit humanevents.com, Washingtontimes.com, tednugent.com, twitter.com/tednugent for more Nugent.

NUGENT: Autumn colors look red, white and blue

Blessings of the season are preserved by honorable warriors
By Ted Nugent

There is a very happy, exhausted black Labrador retriever at my feet. A romantic fire flickers in the stove in our little log cabin on a breathtaking Michigan swamp-forest ridge. With squadrons of flitting songbirds battling for position at the feeders, the rising sun through the leafless treetops was so fiery and stunning outside my east window just now that I just had to grab my video camera to capture such beauty, then snatch my laptop and write about it. The spirit is indeed wild.

I squint, furrow my brow and shake my head in dismay when I glance up to see the phenomenal, unreal image of my tattered American flag reflected in the western window, flapping and aglow within the flame-throwing sunrise of oranges, reds and pinks against the gunmetal grays and deep blues of an artful cloudy sky. At once, a formation of winging, honking geese soars across sky, flag and trees. I have never seen such a stirring conglomerate of meaningful imagery from a couch in my life. There are special effects and there are veryspecial effects. And I am especially affected.

When I first noticed this mesmerizing reflection of Old Glory in such a surreal setting, Fox News was interviewing Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta and his wife, Jennifer, about his receiving the Medal of Honor. This courageous U.S. warrior charged into a flurry of enemy gunfire to join his blood brother in the danger zone. Discovering his comrade had been wounded and was being dragged away by the evil jihadists, he charged harder, shot up the bad guys and retrieved his fellow soldier, bringing the mortally wounded hero back to his team, fulfilling his honorable warrior oath.

I sit here deeply moved by the heroism from such a warrior and by how he stated as a matter of fact that he is an average American military man. I have met and trained with many of them, and I believe Sgt. Giunta is correct. The average U.S. warrior is indeed courageous beyond compare and special beyond description. These warriors clearly are the best of the best.

You may not know it just yet, but this is a hunting story. This is the celebration of our American dream of historically unique freedom and liberty, how costly it is, and how best to use these precious gifts. I pursue life. I pursue my happiness. I am an American. I cannot help myself.

This is the first morning in 74 days that I did not go hunting. I didn't sleep in, but got up and at 'em according to my predator body clock and decided to stay in and catch up with some writings, interviews and e-mails and simply to relax.

And quite honestly, to rest my weary, nonstop hunting bones. That Gonzo the Wonder Lab is plum tuckered out, sprawled across the zebra rug by the fire, is a good indication of just how hard we have been at it for the past 2 1/2 months.

Following a brutally exhilarating and most gratifying tour of 63 ferocious rock 'n' roll concerts in 71 days, you would think a little rest was in order. Maybe?

I was raised to be the absolute best that I can be, to put my heart and soul into everything I do, to waste no time and to live life to the fullest every day. Nothing less is acceptable or tolerated. At the tender age of 62 years young, my energy level and passion for life grow with each passing year.

I spoke with U.S. Marine Sgt. John Blank yesterday at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where this American military hero is recovering from the loss of both of his legs and near-loss of his left arm. He is my hunting buddy, but he also is my hero. That John and his family would go to the effort to get in touch with the old Detroit guitar player at such a traumatic time in their lives is inspiration enough for me never to give up and to cherish and celebrate each and every day with which God blesses me.

John, like all the amazing warriors of the U.S. military, knew darn well what he was volunteering for when he signed up to fight the war on terror. In spite of the threat of death and destruction, he and the others signed up anyway because it is who they are.

People have noticed that I am an extremist, a radical. Good call. I am extremely alive and celebrate this sacred, radical experiment in self-government that we call the American dream with every fiber of my being every day in every way. I believe that anything less is a waste of breath and disrespectful toward those who sacrificed so dearly to provide it.

So, as the sun rises and changes colors now, the songbirds increase their feeding, Gonzo snores and whimpers happily with dreams of incoming mallards, the deer on my game pole shine a little more and my incredible American dream of rock 'n' roll and hunting builds yet more spirit and attitude.

I do it, for warriors make it so.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: No debt commission omissions

Overspending bureaucracies must feel the budget knife
By Ted Nugent

The full report from President Obama's debt commission has yet to be released, but some of the more significant recommendations of the commission are already being condemned by certain fellow bureaucrats and lobbyists who own some of Fedzilla's sacred cows.

It's time we slaughtered the Fedzilla sacred cows.

Before complaining that the commission's recommendations have not gone far enough or have gone too far, let's at least all agree that we have to start some place to address the nation's escalating debt and deficit spending. And that may be all we can agree on.

The commission has not gone far enough in the recommendations I have read. Far more belt-tightening is in order. We need to make the belt-tightening painful if we are going to climb out of this deep financial hole and save America.

The pandemic of fraud and mismanagement of entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare consume the vast majority of Fedzilla's budget. Playing around on the margins of these massive programs by raising the retirement age may help some, but what we need is to get elbow-deep in these programs and gut them.

First, some obviously bad news: Someday, we are all going to assume room temperature. Now even more bad news: Medicare pays and pays and pays to keep people alive as long as possible. I'm a big supporter of life, but not on the taxpayer's dime.

Roughly 50 percent of all Medicare costs are spent in a person's last six months of life. When a person is terminally ill or without hope of getting better, forcing taxpayers to keep them alive isn't fair. If the terminally ill individual or his family wants to keep him alive for as long as possible, then they should pay for it, not taxpayers. Adopting this proposal could save trillions of taxpayer dollars.

Last time I checked, churches have a few billion dollars worth of gold, silver, jewelry, art, real estate and other assets. Maybe they could use some of it for such compassionate causes. Maybe not.

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is right by calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme. We should put Social Security on a path to extinction. How about this: Anyone over 45 will receive Social Security. Anyone under 45 will not receive it, but they will be forced to continue paying into Social Security to pay for those over 45. What the under-45 crowd would receive would be tax-free individual retirement accounts and 401(k) retirement funds and they would be permitted to save as much for their retirement as they desire. This would phase out Social Security, which happens to be anti-social and insecure.

Fedzilla must be put on a strict diet. With the exception of the Defense Department, all federal departments, agencies and organizations should receive 6 1/2 percent less in their budgets for the next four years, thereby shrinking the size of Fedzilla by around a quarter soon. No bureaucratic squawking permitted.

Repeal Obamacare. We can't afford it, and nowhere in my dog-eared copy of the U.S. Constitution have I read that Fedzilla has the responsibility to provide for our health care. We can and should reform health care without having the world's largest and most inefficient bureaucracy - our federal government - take over one-sixth of the economy and then destroy it like it does to everything they get their miserable mitts on.

All earmarks should be made permanently illegal starting at noon today. Not tomorrow, today.

Along with massive spending cuts, tax cuts are essential to grow the economy. The more tax cuts, the better. And make them permanent, as in forever, except in times of war. I've never met a tax cut I didn't support.

We need to move to a fair tax that includes killing the death tax, which is the most immoral, ugly and unfair thing in all of Fedzilla. Everyone deserves to have flesh in the taxpaying game. To continue to expect that the top 10 percent of wage earners pay 75 percent of federal taxes is robbery and is ultimately doomed to fail.

Our current tax code should be torpedoed and sunk tomorrow and replaced with a much simpler fair tax or a flat tax, both of which are light years better than our current behemoth tax code that no one understands, including the Internal Revenue Service. The very first thing we need to do to reduce our debt is to overhaul our tax code to a fair or flat tax.

Balance the budget. And then balance it and check it again and again until ever taxpayer penny is accounted for.

America is in debt because Fedzilla has grown too large, is virtually unaccountable, grossly inefficient and maniacally borrows and blows too much money that we, the taxpayers, are on the hook to repay. Currently, the share of Fedzilla debt is $43,000 for every man, woman and child in America. And it continues to grow.

If we are going to climb out of this deep financial hole, a good place to start would be President Clinton's statement that "the era of big government is over." This time, however, we better mean it. The fate of America is at stake.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: The great Tea Party massacre

GOP must remain vigilant in Fedzilla-friendly Washington
By Ted Nugent

To borrow a 1984 phrase from the Gipper, it's morning in America.

With the GOP sweeping the Fedzillacrats from the political battlefield last night, there is real hope once again for the shining city on a hill.

The message from sea to shining sea is wonderfully clear: Americans are fed up and angry with the big-government, central-planning, out-of-touch, fiscally irresponsible Fedzillacrats from both parties.

The Washington swamp was drained last night. There was a thorough housecleaning. Nancy Pelosi will no longer be speaker of the House. Many new faces with new ideas are thundering into the city. Good. That's healthy for our republic.

A historic, tectonic shift in American politics happened last night that caused a massive GOP landslide. The GOP picked up at least 61 seats in the House and at least six seats in the Senate. The Obama Socialism Express was derailed.

The political minutemen and -women known as the Tea Party and those other re-engaged, disgusted and angry Americans are responsible for this political earthquake. Once marginalized and made fun of by media pundits and discounted by out-of-touch politicians, the grass-roots Tea Party was an unstoppable political juggernaut in 2010.

Spearheaded by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, radio talk-show host Glenn Beck and others, ordinary Americans flocked to the Tea Party armed with a healthy disgust and deep suspicion of all things Washington-status-quo. The election of 2010 will go down in history as the Great Tea Party Massacre. The Founding Fathers would smile with pride at Sarah, Glenn and many other patriots.

Not only was a message sent to the president and the Fedzillacrats, but the Tea Party fired a broadside "less government, lower taxes" salvo at the GOP, too.

That message is this: Americans want much less spending and borrowing, more fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, fewer regulatory controls and a lot less ineffective and unaccountable Fedzilla. Most important, Americans want their message acted upon.

Working-hard Americans understand that we cannot be pulled from the financial quicksand we find ourselves in by giving Fedzillacrats more power and more of our paychecks. Instead of pulling us out of the quicksand, Washington Fedzillacrats will pour concrete on our heads and claim they are helping us. The way out of this deep hole is to get Washington out of the way.

This GOP landslide victory will not instantly make things better, but it's the first step in the right direction. Reversing the damage done to America by both Republicans and Democrats will not be easy, cheap or fast.

We have some very difficult decisions to make, and those decisions require our politicians, especially in the GOP, to have a bold and honest conversation with the American people about our condition and how to claw ourselves out of this deep and dark hole.

America could not afford to continue down the socialism path advocated by the president and his fellow Fedzillacrats in Congress. Regardless of the relentless political spin, the American people know in their guts that being in debt for trillions and trillions of dollars does not bode well for the future of America. They know that more borrowing and spending will not create long-lasting, good jobs.

The GOP must not make the same mistake that President Obama made in 2008, thinking he had received a mandate. Big mistake. What the GOP must do is lead from the front by embracing much less government and lowering taxes - that will put Americans back to work again. It worked for President Kennedy and President Reagan, and it can work now.

There is no time to hold grudges or enmity toward the Democrats. There is too much to be done. It may be morning in America, but the GOP must not burn any daylight singing requiems for the Democrats. Get cracking, GOP. It's now or never.

This election was historic, one for the ages. But that's not what's important. What matters is what the GOP does with this new power, and that remains to be seen. America will be watching closely.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: The free-market ballot

Send the ivy-headed academics back to their ivory tower
By Ted Nugent

With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, job No. 1 should be putting America back to work.

As I have written before and as is now painfully obvious, President Obama has no hands-on experience as to how the private sector operates. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is equally clueless. Both could stand in a free-market sandstorm and not bat an eye. As far as I can tell, neither the president nor the vice president has ever owned or run a business.

Now you might think that because neither the president nor the vice president has real-world experience in the private sector, the president would appoint someone with practical experience who does understand what makes the economy tick and knows what will put America back to work. Someone like, say, the secretary of labor. Just a hunch.

Well, if you think Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis has the business experience, knowledge and expertise that neither the president nor vice president does, you are laboring under a false assumption. She is equally clueless - possibly more - than Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden, who has never met a foot he couldn't stick in his mouth.

You may have noticed that in all of the speeches on the economy that both the president and vice president have given, you haven't heard a peep from Ms. Solis. That's because she has nothing to say. Reason: she has zero - as in none whatsoever - experience in the private sector, according to her biography on the Department of Labor website.

Because Ms. Solis has no experience in creating a single job or running a business, you might like to think that maybe the deputy secretary of labor has a real-world clue so he could properly advise his bevy of bosses.

You would be wrong again. According to Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris' biography on the secretary of labor's website, it appears he, too, is clueless about the private sector. There is no mention of his business experience in running a company, generating profits, complying with the stacks of federal and state laws and requirements or ever having hired any employees.

None of this inspires any confidence in growing the economy and putting America back to work.

Lawyers, ivy-headed academics and professional Fedzillacrats run the Obama administration - business sense be damned.

Fedzillacrats believe rich people need to pay more of their fair share and need to spread their wealth around. What these numbnuts can't get through their shallow understanding of basic economics is that when you punish a producer, he produces less, which means less tax revenue for the government, less employment, less productivity and less quality of life. Bizarre.

Growing the economy requires slashing taxes even in times of high deficits and debt. This has worked any number of times in our nation's history, and it would work today if the Obama administration types truly cared about growing our economy and putting America back to work. But they don't care.

Growing the economy is not their goal. Their goal is to expand government, put more people under the enslaving weight of Fedzilla, punish the producers and take over even more of the economy of "we the people." This is a socialized recipe to kill off the private sector. Those who endorse this evil plan are dangerous and clearly anti-American. God help us all.

Growing a successful business and playing more than 6,000 brutal rockouts is tough business. Never trust a Fedzillacrat to do what an enterprising, industrious and terminally motivated person who is addicted to the free market can do. I get more accomplished before breakfast than any Fedzillacrat will get done all year. In fact, this column is being hammered out while I am sitting in a deer blind in the pre-dawn darkness waiting to ambush my dinner.

You have a choice today, America. You can vote to strangle yourself by voting for Fedzillacrats or free yourself and vote for the opposition, who still believe in the free market and American exceptionalism. It is a shame it has come to this. But it has.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Annual family hunt camp

The purest of American traditions
By Ted Nugent

When all is said and done, quality of life is all about family. Dreams come and go, projects and business maneuvers when performed to the best of our ability become all-consuming, but even our most passionate endeavors are celebrated for how they provide for maximum family time. Or at least, they should be.

I should talk, for my maniac 50-year rock 'n' roll adventure has forced me to be on the road away from home and family more than most careers and professions, but in the final analysis, a nonstop six-month tour enables me to be home nonstop for the remaining six months, not just on weekends or after work for dinner as the majority of 9-to-5 jobs demand. There is a price to pay, but the rewards are well balanced. It is all about priorities.

Growing up in the beautiful state of Michigan blessed me with all the great elements of the post-World War II American dream. My memory bank glows with visions of family outings, time at the lake, fishing, hunting, shooting, picnics, ballgames, wonderful days at home doing things together in the yard, and a plethora of stirring emotions about good times in a great country.

But one memory dwarfs all others, as my primal instinct to connect with Mother Nature in the most pure, natural and profound way propelled me into the healing embrace of the wild, where my reasoning predator spirit was most alive.

Winter, spring and summer provided varying degrees of fun and adventure for the Nugent family, but as summertime morphed into the soul-stimulating fall solstice, a powerful force came over me from my earliest years of life, and I virtually could not get enough of compelling sacred time in the woods, swamps and wildlife habitat of my youth. I read Jack London's "Call of the Wild," but my own physics of spirituality was more impacting than any words could convey. I was hooked by my fifth birthday, and there has been no looking back.

My dad was a casual hunter, but like many hunters in the 1940s and '50s, he was touched by the hand of the great Fred Bear, who had influenced many American sporters to go into the fascinating world of ultradisciplined hunting with the bow and arrow. More and more sporters were intrigued by the return to this primitive and very demanding style of taking venison, and a fire was ignited deep in our souls to learn more about wildlife and how to better fit in with its awe-inspiring world.

As is the case in all 50 states and every Canadian province, opening day of deer season is a moment in time that calls our spirit to return to nature as conscientious participants, driven to show reverence for God's creation and amazing renewable wildlife resources by keeping them in the asset column of life through honest utility. Everybody knows, though some strangled by the denial of political correctness pretend otherwise, that hunting as the pure function of the annual harvest is scientifically and intellectually essential for a healthy environment. Hunters, fishers and trappers have always been the original and best environmentalists by virtue of our conservation resource stewardship. Venison is pure, and the hunt is pure. We who participate will never forget why Thanksgiving takes place in the fall. It is one of life's last, perfect, pure endeavors and responsibilities. We celebrate it with fire in our hearts.

Thirty million American families excitedly begin to turn the pages of the calendar many months before opening day so as to coordinate everyone's schedule for a rendezvous at deer camp. In Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, Minnesota and most Midwestern states, there is no rush-hour traffic to compare to the caravans heading into the North Country days before the opener. Entire geographical regions shut down from normal practices as whole families leave school and work to flood their traditional sacred hunting grounds for the big day. Truckloads of sporting gear and weaponry to outfit the world's armies are organized for this magical day of days, and the giddiness in the air is palpable.

Regional economies come to life and pivot on the annual migration, and most states celebrate an economic impact in the $2-billion-plus range each hunting season. America's No. 1 hunting state, my home state of Texas, is proud that hunting and fishing in the Lone Star state generate more than $6 billion in revenues every year. Hunting ranks in the top 1 percent of the nation's most powerful economic assets. Ban that, animal rights advocates. I don't think so.

My dad and uncles are gone now, and old Stan and Whitey are up there in the Big Hunt, too, with Fred Bear and all the blood brothers of yore. As many of my sons and daughters, brothers, sister and extended families as possible hustle to convene on our own slice of sacred grounds, where the spirit of the swamp is too intense to ignore.

We feel the presence of our dad and Uncle John, and a tangible bond is fortified again with laughter, grilling, storytelling, wood-gathering, target practice and the occasional heave-ho of beast-dragging. Our buck pole always produces sacred protein, and the stress of the modern world is absent every day at camp.

This timeless tradition is an enormous part of our lives and brings us much positive energy and happiness. Not everybody gets a deer, but everybody gets it.

And it is the essence of life to us all. Rugged individualism and genuine independence is alive and well in America at deer camps everywhere. Self-sufficiency is not a lost art, and the primal scream is alive and well.

Celebrate perfection, America. The deer need us and we need the deer.

You can't do this in France.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Obama's mojo is missing

Reality sets in as economy stagnates further
By Ted Nugent

President Obama is desperately trying to recapture his political mojo. Recognizing that support for him and the Democrats is crumbling, the president has held rallies in Madison, Wis., and Philadelphia.

The air of excitement fueled by the golden-tongued orator is gone. Reality has set in among many of those who were swept up with Mr. Obama's "hope and change" smoke and mirrors.

The reality many of his early supporters are realizing is that there never really was anything there with the message or the messenger. Both are hot air and hollow bromides. Reality can be ugly and brutal. This is not the transparency Mr. Obama was talking about, but we'll take it.

Whatever political capital he had on Inauguration Day has evaporated. The tank is running on empty. Democratic candidates are running away from him and the programs he has championed. Political moderates are wishing they could take back their vote. The GOP smells blood in the water and is licking its political chops.

The only really strong base the president continues to enjoy is black Americans, who are suffering the worst economically and jobwise because they looked to Mr. Obama and others for their hope instead of themselves. Unemployment among black Americans is around 15 percent, while the overall unemployment rate is about 10 percent. Fifty percent of black teenagers are jobless. That's how a culture of safety nets operates. Know it.

Our anemic economy is a ball and chain on the Obama regime's deceptive efforts to reshape America into a Third World country by continuing to spread the wealth around and drag everyone down economically. The Obama regime's support for all things Fedzilla has caused the private sector to pull in its horns and wait out the Obama, Reid and Pelosi gang. The private sector is very distrustful of the president, and for very good reason.

But don't count out Mr. Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi just yet. They are cagey, cunning, crafty professional politicians who have finely tuned their Saul Alinsky bait-and-switch maneuvers and will do or say anything to save their political hides. It is all they live for.

Smart Americans won't be surprised if the president makes an announcement before the election that he is going to extend the George W. Bush tax cuts for all Americans, including those making more than $250,000. Though this will upset his ultra-liberal base, he will do it to try to prove to moderates that he is pro-business. Don't believe him. It will be more political smoke and mirrors, more doublespeak, more balderdash and more Illinois political deception for fools.

The president is not pro-business. Regardless of what he says, he doesn't know or truly believe the private sector is the engine that drives our economy and creates jobs. He has never owned a business or managed one and neither has anyone in his Cabinet or his closest staff. Mr. Obama wouldn't recognize Mr. Private Sector if he knocked on the president's door and introduced himself.

All you need to remember is Mr. Obama's takeover of America's health care from the private sector. He believes Fedzilla can manage and pay for America's health care more efficiently and more cost effectively than the private sector. No one with an ounce of sense believes it.

The list goes on and on of the president's support of all things Fedzilla. He has never seen a government program he did not support, and he believes Fedzilla can always do better than the private sector. He believes in force-feeding Fedzilla, the result of which is abusively taxing and gluttonously spending America deeper into the poorhouse. This is Fedzilla reality, and America is beginning to see it with all its anti-business yellow pus and warts.

This president is by far the most liberal, most inexperienced person ever to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He can try to talk his way out of this reality, but it is the bold and barren truth to anyone paying a lick of attention. And this truth is a primary cause of our sluggish economy and unemployment.

I'm not counting the president out. He knows he has to do something, say something - anything - to recapture his political mojo and keep the pending Democratic losses in Congress to a minimum.

What I'm counting on is Americans focusing on the ugly reality of our economic situation. If they do that, no amount of mojo can save Mr. Obama and the Fedzillacrats who have done so much to wreak havoc on America.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Clean house, America

We the people must do what Fedzilla's zookeepers won't
By Ted Nugent

The primary and ridiculously obvious reason why America is trillions of dollars in debt, why just a small minority of Americans pay the vast amount of federal taxes while 50 percent pay no federal taxes, why the size of Fedzilla has dwarfed anything our Founding Fathers ever could have imagined, why our borders are insecure, why Americans do not trust politicians and why the U.S. economy is anemic is because of professional, corrupt Fedzillacrats who have rigged the system in their favor while fleecing the rest of America.

We have been suckered far too long into believing that only slick-talking lawyers and other professional doublespeakers are capable of being representatives and senators and running the country. Indeed, they have run the country - auguring it into a financial abyss.

The mood of the nation is sour. Angst is palpable, with runaway frustration and anger on Main Street USA and a sense that long-overdue change is coming. Many Americans have recognized that Fedzilla works against them, not for them. Welcome to the party.

Both the Democrats and the Republicans have been slow and resistant to accept that politics as usual isn't cutting it anymore with the bedrock producers of America. The status quo has always sucked, but it has reached a terminal vacuum.

The Democrats still don't get it. Pompous and arrogant Fedzillacrats such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuse to budge in their foundational belief that they know what is best for us. These socialists are the new slave masters and think feeding Fedzilla trillions more of our tax dollars is a wise and pragmatic policy. They are Fedzilla's zookeepers.

The Republicans were caught flat-footed by the Tea Party and had to be dragged kicking and screaming to this new political reality. My gut tells me some establishment, blue-blood Republicans still would rather be slugged in the kisser by a Mike Tyson uppercut than accept the Tea Party and its candidates. How dare we the people act like we the people?

So what is the response to the Tea Party by Fedzillacrats and their useful left-wingnuts in the media? Attempt to marginalize Tea Party candidates as being out-of-step with America, call them naive crackpots and demonize them for not being lifelong professional Fedzillacrats. Americans aren't buying the dung that the disappearing left-wing print media is shoveling.

Everyone knows there are high-brow media and political classes that look down their haughty noses with contempt at the "unrefined and unsophisticated" Tea Party candidates. While they snicker at Tea Party candidates, America burns because of the very "sophisticated, seasoned and well-intentioned" political punks these very media and political spinmiesters have endorsed for decades. Same old, same old death march.

That is what they want for America: more of the same. More unaccountable Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, more borrowing, more debt, more expensive programs, more buyouts, more abandonment of accountability.

Not the Americans I meet on a daily basis in airports, restaurants and gas stations. Those Americans are mad as hell and want true change in Washington. They know the only way they will achieve that is to send a new breed of politician to Capitol Hill. Let's send Mr. Smith to Washington with a crowbar of common sense and tell him to swing it often. It is a target-rich environment.

Bottom line is that Americans don't care if Tea Party candidates have ever been elected to anything. They don't care that Tea Party candidates have some skeletons in their closet. They don't care that Tea Party candidates don't have golden tongues. These things don't matter. Their rawness is exactly what makes them appealing.

Change is good for a republic. Too much power in the hands of too few for too long is a recipe for disaster. And a disaster is what we have on our hands. The only way out of this mess is new people with bold new ideas. Hell, they can't possibly screw up the country any worse than what the professional political punks and their establishment political parties have done for decades.

Over the next couple of years, we have some very difficult issues to discuss and even harder choices to make about the future of America. Let's start by agreeing that what we don't need is more of the same. When you are in a hole, quit digging.

Keep your political powder dry, America. Stay focused. Stay angry. Aim small, miss small. Clean house and clean it good this time.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: The Ted Pledge

The GOP should swear allegiance to smaller government
By Ted Nugent

The Republican "Pledge to America" is a step in the right direction, but we should never settle for simply better. We always should demand much better. A return to excellence would be nice, wouldn't it?

Compared to the bloated, ineffective, wasteful, expensive, irresponsible and downright enslaving Fedzilla programs the Democrats recently have rammed down our throats and will continue to force on us if re-elected, the Republican pledge surely would move America in a new, positive direction.

What Republicans owe the American people is a hefty dose of plain-speaking, bold pragmatism that clearly articulates the GOP's vision for America. Even I, your humble Motown guitar slayer, remain steadfastly locked on the vision of our Founding Fathers and am prepared to ride to their rescue with the Ted Pledge. My crowbar of logic and truth does not gently weep.

GOP candidates and politicians should self-impose term limits and pledge to serve just two terms in the House or one term in the Senate and then leave Washington for good, never to return. Americans know that professional Fedzillacrats and lobbyists from both sides of the political aisle are the root cause of America's problems; they are not the solution.

Republicans should then call a news conference and burn the federal tax code on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol and then march right back into the Capitol and pass a Fair Tax. Until then, no taxes should be withheld from our paychecks. Americans should have to pay their taxes once a year so that they can see exactly how much of their income is swallowed up by Fedzilla. The GOP should pledge to move April 15, tax day, to the day before national elections in November. I assure you that would guarantee term limits.

The Republican leadership should pledge to implement GOP Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert's proposal to eliminate all federal taxes, including Social Security taxes, from the paychecks of Americans for one year. Mr. Gohmert's proposal would cause the American economy to roar back to life. Let's get bold and creative like Mr. Gohmert.

Republican politicians should pledge never to write or introduce a bill longer than our Constitution, which is roughly 5,000 words. If Congress critters can't write a bill in fewer than 5,000 words, they don't deserve to be in Congress. Period.

Republicans should pledge that they will invite businesspeople and free-market economists to go through each bill in detail and then report to the American public on how the bill will impact the free market before the vote on the bill is taken. The GOP should pledge to convene annually a group of businesspeople and free-market economists to recommend how Fedzilla can be gutted further.

For every new law passed, Republicans should pledge to eliminate 1,000 existing federal laws, regulations and requirements.

The GOP should pledge that it will never introduce, support or pass a law that punishes the producers and rewards bloodsuckers.

Using 2008 budget numbers, Republicans should pledge to reduce the size of Fedzilla by 25 percent during the next four years. Less government is always the best government. Dramatically reducing the size of government will pour gas on the embers of our economy and turn it into an inferno. Economic infernos are good.

The GOP should pledge to immediately stick a dagger in the heart of the death tax and all corporate taxes. This will free up untold trillions of dollars that can be used to get our economy roaring back to life and put Americans back to work.

Republicans should tell young Americans that Social Security is a Fedzilla financial Ponzi scheme and they will not receive a dime when they retire because Fedzillacrats have stolen all the money in the Social Security Trust Fund. The GOP should pledge to young workers that it will introduce legislation that will protect their IRAs and 401(k) investments from taxation when they retire.

The GOP should remind America that more options make for more affordable choices and that the free market has and still can provide this. As such, Obamacare and other Fedzilla programs that can and should be provided and managed by the private sector will be repealed. All federal welfare programs should be eliminated in the next five years. This will breed tough Americans. Tough is good. Soft is weak.

Republicans in name only (RINOs) should be purged from the GOP. RINOs are political punks who cannot be counted on. Get rid of them.

Pledge to Americans the GOP will pass legislation to ensure that federal employees will be paid what their private-sector counterparts earn and not one penny more. Except for the Department of Defense, a federal hiring freeze should be instituted for at least the next 10 years.

Republicans need to tell Americans that we've tried big government and it has been an abject failure. The only people who fail to understand this fundamental truism are power-hungry Fedzillacrats, bloodsuckers, socialists and idiots. They are anti-Americans. Do America a favor and send these punks packing.

Finally, the GOP should remind Americans at every opportunity that freedom is always better than tyranny and that smaller government is always better government.

What say you, GOP?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Tea Party time is now

If Republicans don't show up, they'll be excluded
By Ted Nugent

The Republican Party will make another strategic political blunder by not openly embracing the Tea Party and its candidates.

What the GOP pundits, elites and establishment had better realize real quick is that Republicans need the Tea Party more than the Tea Party needs Republicans.

Americans are not just frustrated with liberal Fedzillacrats who are addicted to all things big-government, like waste, unaccountability and enslavement. Americans who still cherish our Founding Fathers' vision also are disgusted with Republicans who purposefully strayed from their core values of limited government, responsible spending and lower taxes.

Conservatives, the historic base of the GOP, watched in despair over the past 20 years or so as Republicans turned away from them and treated them as political pariahs, excess baggage and people to be shunned. Big, ugly, dumb mistake.

Only since President Obama was elected has the GOP started waving its conservative banner again. Until this happened, many Americans couldn't tell the difference between Republicans and Democrats as both parties danced a jig with Fedzilla. As a hunting buddy of mine says, the Democrats are sprinting toward socialism, but sadly, the Republicans have been jogging toward socialism.

GOP strategists such as Karl Rove, other establishment wonks and Rockefeller Republicans may sip their martinis at parties and scoff at the hardworking, patriotic members of the Tea Party, but they are slitting their own political throats by discounting the growing numbers of grass-roots enthusiasts who are awakening to the fact that Washington has been working against them, not for them.

For the GOP to support liberal RINOs (Republicans in name only) over truly conservative Tea Party candidates shows just how out of touch the party is with conservatives. Establishment status-quo politics on both sides has been the problem, not the solution.

No longer will conservatives hold their noses and vote for the person with the R beside his name. Those days are past. Conservatives will support conservative candidates with their dollars and their votes and leave the RINO candidates in the dust unless the GOP stops jogging toward socialism and immediately reverses course.

The Tea Party is moving out and is attracting not only conservatives but also many moderates who are disgusted by how the two political parties have battered America with bad politics and insane programs and then have the gall to tell us it is for our own good. It has always been for their own political good, not the good of the American people.

Americans of all social, economic and political stripes now see a way to drain the Washington swamp of the cronyism, stupidity, entrenched incumbency, purposeful confusion and runaway corruption that has bankrupted America, ruined lives and destroyed small businesses and entire communities. The GOP establishment must have had blinders on not to see the grass-roots Tea Party storm brewing on the horizon.The message of the Tea Party is ringing loud and clear across America: We demand accountability, period.

There is a palpable feeling in the air that Americans can and will bring back the nation from the brink of disaster to which the Washington bureaucratic machines have brought us with numbnut Fedzillacrat policies and programs costing trillions of dollars. Only bloodsuckers, Fedzilla lemmings and idiots would endorse more of the same.

Moderates are key to political victory, but elections are won and lost on ideas, and after watching how central planners from both parties have done their best to strangle America for the past 50 years with scores of bad ideas, many moderates surely are willing to listen to a message of limited government, much less government spending, more accountability, lower taxes and more liberty. Send moderates the message that conservatism is the path to economic growth and jobs and that liberalism is economic suicide.

We can and will win, Mr. Rove. Apparently no one in the GOP got the voting-revolution message from Scott Brown's so-called impossible win in Massachusetts.

Wet behind the political ears as some Tea Party candidates may be, Mr. Rove, put some faith, hope and trust in them. It is exactly their political rawness and lack of political experience that appeals to Americans. Support those candidates. Stand with them. Energize those candidates and the people who elected them, and then watch in awe as, once again, ordinary Americans do extraordinary things.

Never count America out, Mr. Rove. The people are speaking. Listen to them. Learn from them. Now let's get it on about the business of restoring America and crushing Fedzilla.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Freedom versus Shariah

Americans must choose because the systems can't coexist.

We've been told there are so-called moderate Muslims who deplore terrorism and that Islam has been hijacked by extremists.

If there are in fact moderate Muslims, they have been quiet as mosque mice regarding their views. For example, Americans don't know if moderate Muslims recognize Israel, what they think about women's rights, or if they believe the proposed New York City mosque should be moved to another location out of concern and sensitivity for the families of the victims of Sept. 11, 2001.

We also don't know if there are other freedom-loving and freedom-fighting Muslims who respect the rights of others to burn the Koran, draw cartoons of Muhammad in newspapers, hold marches to condemn Hamas and other terror organizations, write unflattering books about Islam, and vigorously support allowing people of other faiths to practice them in the city of Mecca, where all religions except Islam are currently outlawed.

If there are Muslims who hold these moderate beliefs, they are surely as rare as a Southern Baptist holding a Sunday morning church revival in Mecca.

Americans may not know much about Islam or its followers, but what we do know is that bloodthirsty terrorism is more often than not carried out by crazy-eyed, Muslim voodoo monsters screaming "God Is Great" while slaughtering innocent people. The Obama administration refuses to use the word "Islam" in describing these terrorists out of concern it will offend Muslims. I'm offended this is our nation's policy.

The Center for Security Policy assembled a "Team B" and just released a report that should give all of us, especially the Obama administration, reason to reverse course.

Composed of security experts from previous Republican and Democratic administrations, Team B urges the administration to reverse course on not referring to Muslim terrorists as "Islamist" out of fear of offending Muslims around the world.

The most bone-chilling finding by Team B is that America faces the threat of Islamic Shariah law slowing poisoning our legal system and ultimately destroying it. Shariah is the Islamic doctrine in which Allah rules over everything, including legal, political and military doctrine. Shariah is incompatible with a society of free and thinking people.

What the Obama administration and Muslims will not tell Americans is that the ultimate goal of Islam is to take over the world and replace representative, constitutional governments with Shariah. Under Shariah, freedom as we know it would be put to the Islamic sword.

What the free world faces is an insidious, violent movement that respects nothing but its own revolutionary ideology of world domination. This threat is not unlike communism, which President Reagan denounced at every opportunity.

Shariah should be banned in the United States and those Muslims and imams in America who advocate Shariah should be charged with sedition. Trying to overthrow our constitutional government through peaceful or violent means should never be tolerated.

I support reaching out to moderate Muslims, as Team B advocates. We need them to drive a wedge between the whacked-out voodoo Muslims and those who want to exist peacefully with others of different faiths. However, where are these moderate Muslims and what do they believe? Do they actually exist?

Shariah will only be allowed to poison our legal system and culture if we allow it. We should stand steadfast against it, outlaw it and make it known throughout the world that America stands with freedom and that we will not allow it to be compromised out of fear of upsetting Muslims or a false belief that we can coexist with a religious revolution whose goal is to destroy America.

We know the Obama administration will ignore the advice of Team B. The question is, what does the Republican Party or the Tea Party think of the report and what will they do with it?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: A salute to Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, et al.

Follow their lead and spread the word till Election Day

I joyfully bring you a glowing report as I wrap up my tour across America 2010, where nightly, all summer long, I have been privileged to meet with great, hardworking and hard-playing American families from every imaginable walk of life in 68 cities. I share with you a powerful, united message of unstoppable good will, decency, indefatigable, positive spirit and a herculean work ethic that is absolutely dedicated to bringing America back from this embarrassing brink of unaccountable upside-down government gone mad.

The heartbreak and frustration with Fedzilla refusing to respect "we the people," the anger at the runaway corruption and abuse of power from the top down, and the rude, soulless arrogance displayed by elected officials violating the fundamental pillars of the American Way are palpable and offensive on every level.

The most productive Americans speak the same language, and in each and every meeting, on every radio talk show, at every airport and restaurant, at charity events everywhere, I constantly hear the same admiration and respect for how well our pulse and spirit are represented and articulated by two great Americans every time they open their mouths.

The undying appreciation Americans have for Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin speaks volumes about the self-evident truth and logic that remains common and sensible across this great land.

On behalf of so many families with whom I am humbled to share a deep connection, I wish to thank and salute both Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin for speaking for us and representing the pragmatism that drives our quality of life.

Of course, I cannot fail also to salute and thank sincerely the mighty Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto, Monica Crowley, Ann Coulter, Megyn Kelly, Dennis Miller, Mark Davis, Frank Beckmann, Michael Savage, the entire Fox News team and so many other conservative, sensible, courageous and reasonable voices all across this country.

The line drawn in the sand is far too obvious in these times, and when these conservative pundits speak out, they literally speak for the majority of Americans, or clearly at least the most productive, kindhearted Americans who have not lost contact with our heritage, our Founding Fathers, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule and the American Way.

It is overtly obvious that conservatives want an accountable, limited government to secure our borders, win the war against terror, have a victory strategy instead of an exit strategy, and take care of our heroes of the U.S. military. We conservatives still ask not what our country can do for us, but how we can do our absolute best for our country.

Meanwhile, the backward, so-called "progressives," embarrassed to label themselves liberals anymore, raise a cacophony on how they aren't willing to do jack squat for their country that they are ashamed of, but squawk an insane list of demands their government must do for them.

Safety nets, bailouts and artificial stimulus maneuvers are desperate measures for wimps and whiners and excuse makers, and therefore guarantee mediocrity at best, slovenliness and gluttony more often than not, intentionally crippling the hardest-working, most-productive American work force in the history of mankind. Fundamental change, indeed. Bizarro world, for sure.

I conduct daily interviews in city after city with brilliant historians, educated thinkers, clever leaders and thoughtful strategizers who give me real, defined hope, not for ambiguous smoke-and-mirrors change, but for intelligently articulated upgrades, with historical and current evidence to support such forward motion. There's a big difference between campaigning for change and real, positive and identified change, Mr. President.

November is right around the corner. Thank God, for the Obama tailspin cannot be sustained any longer. The vicious abuse of power and corruption must come to a screeching halt as soon as possible if we are to stop the well-orchestrated economic hemorrhaging and the further deterioration of our foreign policy nightmare.

So to my fellow conservatives, both those in the media and those on the not-so-mean streets of the greatest country on earth, I urge you to continue to turn up the heat, charge forth with increased vigor and confidence and spread the good word far and wide like never before. Engage, educate and recruit an increasing army of "we the people" Tea Party warriors, by convincing your families, co-workers, friends, neighbors, fellow churchgoers, your hunting buddies, your BBQ buddies, your bowling buddies, everybody, everywhere, every time, every day, we can and must take back America from the disconnected Fedzillacrats and bureaucrats, starting in November and continuing ever after.

As the great Glenn Beck says, combining faith, hope and charity with the return to the original priorities and principles that made America the "Shining City on the Hill" is the fastest and only way back. Godspeed, America.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: The Middle East's widdle Hitler

We yawn while Iran goes nuclear
By Ted Nugent

There are a few dangerous things we can all agree on. For example, we surely can agree it's not wise to pet rabid dogs, commune with grizzly bears, swim in piranha-infested rivers or, of course, take a ride with me in a rental car.

We also ought to be able to agree that a nuclear Iran is as dangerous as a goose-stepping Hitler was in September 1939, when his Nazi devil machine invaded Poland and then crushed the rest of Europe.

If the world learned anything from World War II, it should be never to have a policy of appeasement with a diabolical lunatic. Appeasement, which is really failing to do what is right and necessary, is a proven dangerous policy that ultimately is always more costly than doing what must be done in the here and now.

I'm all for nuclear power, but it makes zero sense to allow nuclear power to be placed in the hands of certifiable nuts such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, quite possibly planet Earth's No. 1 certifiable dangerous nut.

There are numerous and varying estimates as to when Iran would be able to enrich enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon, but there is almost unanimous consensus that Iran will indeed try to make a nuclear weapon as soon as possible. The world can't let that happen. Sitting idly by and allowing weapons of mass destruction in the hands of religious kooks is crazier than the religious kook gaining access to weapons of mass destruction.

Based upon his numerous psychotic extermination statements about Israel, Mr. Ahmadinejad needs a strong dose of electroshock therapy, not his finger on a nuclear trigger. Other than the "blame America first" crowd and other leftist apologists, surely no one believes this international scab should ever have nuclear power.

Is there anyone who is not fried on LSD or is not an international terrorist supporter who seriously believes Iran will not try to develop a nuclear weapon?

So the question is: What does the world do about Iran trying to join the nuclear-weapons club within the next year or so? Will the world continue to bury its head in the sand and kick this nuclear can down the road, or do something meaningful now?

Reasonable people will vote to do something now. Unreasonable people will shuffle their feet, quote Rodney King and Green Day and make excuses about why the world shouldn't do anything. They are useless, dangerous idiots.

Sanctions are an important tool in our arsenal. Economic sanctions should be so tight that Iran has to have air smuggled into the country.

Iran's economy already is teetering on the edge. I say we give it a giant shove, push it off the cliff and into the abyss.

While the noose of economic sanctions is tightened even further around the throat of Iran, plans should be developed and implemented that make it very unhealthy to be an Iranian nuclear scientist. Let's leave that head-drilling task to the Israeli Mossad. How the Mossad does it is its business. And a fine business it is.

In the event that Hitler No. 2 launches a military strike against Israel because of the economic sanctions or for any other reason, let's hope our military has plans to destroy every critical power-generation station, its communication and electronics grids, key bridges and other critical infrastructure. Iran will need to be reduced to the pre-Stone Age. Let's make it so AA batteries don't even work in Iran.

Just as Germany and Japan needed to be reduced to rubble to get their minds right, Iran cannot be allowed, under any circumstances, to develop a nuclear weapon. The world is dangerous enough without having to contend with a voodoo kook who has stated he wants to wipe Israel off the map.

Hitler's Nazi death machine cost the world millions of innocent lives. Let's not make the same deadly mistake twice. Coiled rattlesnakes strike if you give them the chance. Shoot them first.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Happy fang and claw perfection, America

Celebrate National Hunting and Fishing Day
By Ted Nugent

It is upon us, and there is not a damn thing anyone can do about it. Call me weird, but I do wintertime stuff each winter, springtime stuff each spring, summertime stuff each summer, and hallelujah, fall hunting season stuff every day of the fall hunting season. I cant help myself. I'm such a hopelessly organic nature boy. There really is a call of the wild, Martha, and I hear it loud and clear.

I hunt because I am a hunter. Clearly, such natural participation in God's miraculous creation is the last perfect, pure and positive environmental activity available to mankind. Balancing the annual wildlife explosion through respectful, sustainable yield utility is universally known to be the perfection that it is. Know it, cherish it, celebrate it and by all means, do it. Life is not meant to be a spectator sport, y'all.

Americas sporting families will celebrate National Hunting and Fishing Day on Sept. 25. Ever since President Nixon established the day back in 1972, families have celebrated this incredible hands-on conservation lifestyle as the most obvious renewable-resource management success story in the history of mankind. Although the hunting industry has failed miserably at effectively promoting this annual celebration, America's 60 million hunting, fishing and trapping families and all our friends know in our hearts and souls what an amazing lifestyle we share.

With more deer, elk, cougar, black bear, wild turkey, geese and other game than ever in recorded history, astonishingly, these are the ultimate good old days of hunting in North America.

Annually, we kill so many more deer and other big and small game each year that we continue through our Hunters for the Hungry program to donate more than 250 million supreme-quality meals of the healthiest, most nutritious and delicious organic protein available anywhere to soup kitchens and homeless shelters all across America. About 250 million every year, my friends. And most notably, without Fedzilla getting his greedy, unaccountable, corrupt and wasteful bureaucracies involved. If that's not a joy to celebrate, I don't know what is. Instances of E. coli and or salmonella? Zero, zilch, nada, none. We the hunting people get it. Perfect.

Wherever proven-science-based hunting management is implemented, thriving, balanced wildlife flourishes. Where the soulless maniacs and animal rights goons interfere, you have wildlife and humans slaughtered on the highways, people and livestock mauled and killed, commercial aircraft crashing and gazillions of tax dollars wasted on fantasy-driven damage control and cleanup.

We deal in living, breathing dynamic creatures, not Bambi and Boo Boo cartoons. Go figure.

Clearly, hunters stand on the good side of the line drawn in the sand. I couldn't be more proud.

Wildlife can only be one of two things - an asset or a liability. In every instance since sporters demanded the halt of the commercial slaughter of our precious wildlife in the early 1900s and created and financed the modern wildlife-management agencies, we have rehabilitated and safeguarded millions upon millions of acres of sacred grounds, not only to provide critical habitat for our beloved game species, but for untold species of nongame and endangered critters as well.

It is important to educate and remind every human being willing to listen that our quality of life -- that is, the quality of our air, soil and water -- come from the soul-cleansing wildlife habitat that every hunter, fisher and trapper monitors and pays dearly to provide. The vast majority of funds for such habitat and wildlife management comes from our licenses, permits and tags and purchases of hunting and fishing equipment. Every American who cherishes healthy wildlife owes a huge debt of gratitude to the hunters, fishers and trappers of America. Know it.

The Nugent family is giddy with excitement as we sharpen our arrows and sights in our firearms in anticipation of what we know will be the greatest hunting season of our lives. This honorable heritage is not only a perfect system by which we feed our sacred temples and those of our fellow Americans, but the incredible recreational opportunities do indeed re-create our spirit each fall and winter.

Celebrate Thanksgiving every day, my friends. If you are not a hunter, you really need to unleash that natural reasoning predator within and participate in this wonderful annual sport and lifestyle. It is there for everyone willing to dedicate themselves to be the best that they can be.

Me, I'm stocking up on ammo, arrows, garlic and butter. Happy hunting season 2010 to all my Spirit of the Wild blood brothers. Whack 'em and stack em, kill em and grill em. It's perfect.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Charging the mound over Clemens

Congressrats aren't exactly honesty all-stars, either
By Ted Nugent

Fedzilla is taking former baseball pitcher Roger Clemens to federal court on charges that he lied to Congress regarding his previous sworn testimony about using steroids.

Before suing Arizona and launching an investigation against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Justice Department launched an investigation against Mr. Clemens when it thought he lied to Congress in 2008 regarding his use of performance-enhancing drugs when he was a big-time ace hurler in the major leagues.

If convicted of slinging bull hockey to Congress, Mr. Clemens could spend some time at a Fedzilla cross-bars hotel and pay a major-league fine. Who knows, maybe his cellmate will be Charlie Rangel.

Shake me, wake me and tell me this has been a maddening scream dream. Say it ain't so, Shoeless Joe.

Being that I'm just a humble, possessed, Motown-funky guitar player, Fedzilla investigating steroid use in Major League Baseball (MLB) deserves to be swatted like a drunk fly with a corked Louisville Slugger at Willie Nelson's annual Texas barbecue.

This investigation and prosecution is but another grotesque insult and waste of our hard-earned tax dollars. Here's an idea: How about leaving this to MLB, which is responsible for investigating cheating players? Instead of Congress investigating Mr. Clemens, I say MLB should put all-time hit leader Pete Rose in charge of the investigation. I've got 20 bucks that says Mr. Rose could get to the bottom of it faster than Congress.

By the time the investigation and trial of Mr. Clemens is signed, sealed and delivered, it will have cost taxpayers millions of dollars. It's no wonder America is broke and our Fedzilla gas pedal is stuck on stupid.

Hey, I'm not advocating that anyone hurl spitballs at Congress, but it's a much more serious crime for the clowns in Congress to burn our tax dollars by investigating steroid use in professional sports and then prosecute a former hurler for lying to them. Car 54, where are you?

Just this morning, while waiting in line to get my caffeine fix at Starbucks, I asked four other caffeine junkies standing in line with me if they thought their tax dollars should be used to investigate steroid use in professional sports. Three quickly replied with a resounding "no" while the other person, mouth agape, stared at me in disbelief and then said, "Are you kidding or are you for real?" One other junkie had the caffeine shakes so bad that he didn't comprehend the question. He clearly hadn't had his first cup of joe yet and obviously needed performance-enhancing caffeine. Nervous yet, Starbucks?

Call me certifiably crazy, but don't we have other, more pressing issues that should take up our congressrats' and federal law enforcers' time?

Here's one: How about our congressrats investigate why there is a big IOU in the Social Security vault and no cash? This is the largest heist in history. The message here is that if you want to be a legalized bank robber, get elected to Congress. We should erect a great big neon sign on top of the U.S. Capitol that says: "Steal here"!

How about our congressrats investigate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and be honest about who received campaign contributions and how much cash from these taxpayer-guaranteed slush funds and how Fedzilla's hands-off approach to managing them created our financial meltdown? Feel free to choke yourself in disgust.

How about our congressrats investigate which members of Congress have blatantly lied to taxpayers about any number of issues? We deserve names and places. I'll spring for the hot tar if you bring the feathers.

I still want to know how much it costs taxpayers for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to fly back and forth across the country in a military aircraft. Surely flying brooms are cheaper.

Congress should drop the charges against Mr. Clemens if he promises to go back to Texas and never poke fun at Congress. It does that well enough on its own. Case closed.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Muslim mosque-teers

Rights aren't in question, but responsibilities are
By Ted Nugent

There are no words to express the outrage Americans would have expressed if the Japanese government had proposed to build a memorial to their fallen soldiers at Pearl Harbor immediately following World War II. We can only hope President Truman would have ordered our military to carpet-bomb and firebomb the Japanese again for being so rude and stupid.

Slice it any way you want, but the Muslim community is being tremendously rude and stupid for wanting to build a mosque so close to Ground Zero in New York City. Instead of using the $100 million for their proposed mosque, I recommend that the Muslims donate the cash to the U.S. military so we can build more smart bombs to kill more radical, voodoo Muslims. That would earn my respect and admiration.

Killing more Muslim terror punks would make the world a more peaceful place to live - and safer for more Muslims - and we all know Islam is the religion of peace.

Yeah, right.

Let's call a spade a spade here. If Islam is the religion of peace, then I'm a malnourished, tofu-eating anti-hunter.

That fact is that much of the world's terrorism is committed by Muslims in the name of Allah. These voodoo nut jobs and their voodoo religion believe that, according to the Koran, killing nonbelievers makes Allah happy.

Moreover, Muslim-run countries provide the funds and other support for this terrorism and indoctrinate their youth to hate all things Western.

Killing is good. Peace is bad. And we are supposed to believe Islam is a peaceful religion?

Islam is no more a peaceful religion than Jim Jones was a Christian prophet. Islam attracts violent maniacs stuck in the year 4, reduces women to third-class citizens, discriminates, persecutes and kills Christians and burns their churches; stones people for punishment; and believes in world domination. Saudi Arabia, a Muslim theocracy, goes so far as to outlaw all other religions other than Islam. Sounds like real nice, neighborly Islamic folks.

Sure, there are peaceful Muslims who abhor violence. Not all Muslims are religious whacks who deserve a bullet. But the statistics are alarming. Last November, Newsmax reported that Muslim imams preach jihad and extremism in 10 percent of the 2,000 mosques right here in the United States. The same article reported that according to a Pew Research Center poll, 25 percent of Muslims in America between the ages of 18 and 29 believed suicide bombings can be justified. Just keep telling yourself that Islam is the religion of peace.

The president was right when he stated that Americans enjoy the freedom to purchase private property and to worship as they choose. He was wrong, however, in not forcefully condemning the rude and insensitive Muslims who want to build the mosque so close to Ground Zero. Not only did our rookie president miss a pivotal and teachable moment, but he also missed a leadership opportunity in failing to condemn the Muslims who want to build the mosque near Ground Zero. This is classic "rub it in their face" 101.

Proposing to build a mosque so close to Ground Zero is an additional and intentional stick in the eye to the United States and, most egregiously, to the families of those who were murdered at the hands of Islamic killers. If the Muslims who want to build the mosque can't see and admit that, then they are truly blind to tolerance, understanding and decency - or they have another agenda that warrants increased surveillance by law enforcement.

Bottom line: I don't trust the proposed mosque to be a holy bastion of peace, understanding, tolerance and love of others. The mosque will attract extremists and radicals who will try to harm America. If you want to see how tolerant Muslims are, just have a bunch of Christians stand on the sidewalk in front of the mosque and hand out Christian literature.

The problem America faces is not radical Muslims. The problem is that America lacks fundamental leadership and common sense from our elected officials, who worship at the altar of political correctness. Instead of standing with the victims' families of Sept. 11, 2001, New York City politicians chose to cast their lot with Islam, the supposed religion of peace and harmony. Me, I am not singing that tune.

If additional American blood is spilled in the Big Apple, the politicians who supported this mosque will be as guilty as the Muslim voodoo kooks who love death and destruction in the name of Allah.

Like it or not, there is a line drawn in the sand. Which side do you stand on?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Extermination crew to the rescue

Time to fumigate the Washington pest haven
By Ted Nugent

As leftists gain confidence with their stranglehold on Congress, the media and the White House, it is getting easier all the time to identify their suicidal tendencies. Common-sense Americans are increasingly waking up to the Obama fan club that hates entrepreneurialism, capitalism and the American Dream of excellence. Listen to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Howard Dean, Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Joy Behar or President Obama, et al. for but a few moments, if you can stomach them, and their mantra is nothing less than putridly anti-individualism, anti-independence, anti-productivity, anti-logic and anti-common sense. I'm surprised Hugo Chavez hasn't invited them to move in yet.

Thank God for the First Amendment, for the freedom to express oneself is the freedom to know where they stand, and the clear and present platform of the left is contrary to everything that made this country great.

I find it painfully disheartening that the United States of America voted for Barack Hussein Obama, the leftist community organizer, in a time following the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001. Would America have voted for a clueless, inexperienced man with an anti-American voting record with the name Adolf, Eichmann or Stalin following World War II? I think not.

It is unfathomable to me that such support exists for a man who was raised and abandoned by avowed Marxist parents, whose mentor was a self-avowed Marxist, who studied and preached Marxism and communism, who attended a radical, America-hating church led by a radical America-hating pastor, who had this radical, America-hating pastor baptize his children and marry him and his wife, who has appointed as czars a gang of flagrant communists, Marxists, socialists and America-hating, capitalism-hating, U.S. Constitution-hating radicals, who associated regularly with convicted homegrown terrorists and 1960s radicals and other such egregious violations. I ask, how can this be?

The left cannot get it right and has never gotten it right. Their war on poverty is a dismal failure, succeeding only in enslaving an entire subclass of hopeless whiners who think that bling-bling, dope and booze are the three food groups.

Their mindless shoveling of massive barges overflowing with cash at the American education system has produced the dumbest group of dropouts in the history of mankind who can neither read, write, talk, spell or groom themselves. Motor City Breakdown, anyone?

When you listen to their ravings about what the government must do for the poor and helpless among us, virtually guaranteeing poverty and helplessness forever, the corrupt, arrogant bureaucrats cannot fathom why anyone would want to know where the money will come from or where it will be spent. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is so famous for saying, we don't need to know what is in the bill, just sign it and we might tell you later. Unbelievable.

Everyone knows that Charlie Rangel - like Tom Daschle, John Kerry and Tim Geithner, et al. - should be in jail, yet like so many of Mr. Obama's cronies, his known violations are being swept under the carpet by a viciously corrupt system that feeds upon itself and spits in the face of "we the people." The emperor has no clothes and he needs to be hung out to dry, ASAP.

All across America, the flagrant abuse of power, like what we are witnessing from the bureaucrats of Bell, Calif., is widespread, entrenched and pandemic. The vulgar superiority in government today is beyond the pale. The feds are so cocksure of their immunity that they are virtually unafraid to shove it into the faces of American families day in and day out.

Ultimately, this is good. Our Founding Fathers warned of such corruption, and it has come to be. The embarrassing naivete that has metastasized across America is now morphing into meaningful anger and boiling-point frustration. Sometimes, it takes a really stinky, nasty rat to move into our home before we admit we have a rat problem. Mr. Obama is the rat that freedom has been waiting for. The Tea Party exterminators have finally admitted to a dangerous rat problem.We are so very thankful that you thought you could just mosey into our living room and be so damned sure we wouldn't notice.

Well, we notice, Mr. President, and your time is up. We will pull the de-rat lever at the voting booth this November, and I pray to God in every election forever to be sure we stop all future rats before they get into our American house.

The good news for all you America-hating, communist-loving, social-justice engineers is that your dream is still available to you, but it is not here in America. You should go to those countries where there is no confounding U.S. Constitution, where the nanny state can treat everyone equally, no matter what level of effort you put forth, where the Lenin dream of sheeplike sub-existence is alive and well. I'm sure Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Vladimir Putin or Osama bin Laden can find a place for your special talents and destructive ways.

Meanwhile, I'm with Glenn Beck and the Tea Party and hardworking, hard-playing Americans who still know that the American Dream is all about excellence and heart-and-soul effort. Where intelligent prioritization and a herculean work ethic can accomplish anything and everything you want. Where excuses are not tolerated, where rugged individualism and true independence is the core of the American Way. Where "can't" doesn't exist and miracles happen for those who believe and try.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Loco motion

Common sense should wield the gavel
By Ted Nugent

This may not be the end, but I think I can see it from here. Ever so hesitatingly and oh so painfully, I hate to admit that I am beginning to wonder why Americans even bother to vote anymore on controversial issues. If the America-hating liberals, socialists and Marxists in charge don't like the outcome of a decision by "we the people," they either sue and get a black-robed, leftist federal judge to declare the results unconstitutional or they get the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to sue for them. Hey, if you can't beat us at the polls, take us to court or sue us in the bizarro world of the corrupt American anti-justice court system. Freedom for sale at what price?

The will of the American people is being whittled away in federal courthouses across America. Now it's the will of a federal judge or the threat of a costly lawsuit that charts the course for America. When liberals can't win at the polls, they simply tie up the results in court for years, thereby usurping the will of the American people. What Saul Alinsky rule for radicals does this devilish anti-American ploy fall under?

Federal Judge Susan Bolton erroneously waded into Arizona's new immigration law to put a stop to that state's move to implement its new, common-sense law. Oh, wait; it wasn't new, and it's not Arizona's law. It merely demands enforcement of existing law. Weird, that.

Federal case law, including a Supreme Court decision, runs counter to Judge Bolton's politically inspired decision.

Arizona should go about its business of implementing its new law and ignore Judge Bolton's activist, legally dumb and meritless decision. Other states should follow Arizona's lead and pass similar legislation.

Unlike the leftist spin emanating from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and the tremendously stupid ruling by Judge Bolton, Arizona's law does not define U.S. citizenship. All it does is define what Arizona cops are to do when they apprehend someone who is not in the country legally.

When someone gets pulled over by a police officer or gets arrested, it is proper police procedure to ask for identification. No one of goodwill can possibly dispute that common-sense police procedure. And that's all Arizona's new law basically states.

So let me try to understand what the opponents of Arizona's law want: If a cop pulls someone over for speeding, the cops are not to ask for identification? Or if they do ask for identification and the speeder cannot produce identification or has identification from another country, the cop should turn a blind eye and send the speeder on his merry way? This, of course, is Three Stooges logic.

Let's break Arizona's law down a bit further so even legal dolts like Judge Bolton and Mr. Holder can understand it. Let's say I come to your town armed with an outrageous band of hard-core rock 'n' roll, over-the-top rhythm-and-blues maniacs. In order to get some of this sonic-outrage fun, you need to have a ticket to get in the door. Those who attempt to sneak into the concert, print fake tickets or foolishly bring the wrong ticket to the concert are tossed out by security. Only an out-of-touch Fedzillacrat could possibly find fault with this.

However, when it comes to Fedzilla, don't bet on common sense. In fact, I won't be surprised if common sense is found to be unconstitutional at some point by a leftist federal judge who cares more about politics than exercising judicial restraint and allowing the will of the people to carry the day.

And while Judge Bolton's blunder was making center stage in the media, the community of Fremont, Neb., backed away from enforcing its new, overtly common-sensical immigration ordinance after lawsuits against the ordinance were filed by, you guessed it, the ACLU and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund. Both said Fremont's ordinances were discriminatory and sought preliminary injunctions against Fremont, which would enforce the ban while the lawsuits flowed more slowly than frozen molasses through our lethargic legal system.

Alinsky would be proud. The Founding Fathers would weep. Davy Crockett would shoot somebody.

I support basic human rights. If an illegal person is here and is apprehended, he or she should be treated with basic human rights. But there is a big difference between being treated humanely and being given the same legal status as a U.S. citizen when you are not.

People in the United States illegally are not U.S. citizens and therefore are not due protection under the same laws as legal citizens. U.S. laws are passed for U.S. citizens, not people who are here illegally. This is Common Sense 101 and is why the overwhelming majority of Americans support Arizona's immigration law.

That this needs to be stated is an indictment of the increasing mindlessness of an increasing population of weird, illogical people. It's a damn shame, really.

America is slowly being remade into an image of the socialists' and Marxists' desires. This is being done by judges legislating from the bench and leftist organizations such as the ACLU firing lawsuit salvos against the American people and thereby usurping the will of the American people.

The president should write a book titled, say, "Dreams of My Father." Nah.

The Founding Fathers made a bad decision when they determined that federal judges should serve for life. Of course, they surely never thought some federal judges would care more about politics than interpreting law. No federal official should be appointed for life.

My hero, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat on a bus, thereby spitting in the face of racist and dumb laws. Good for her. That's the American spirit of defiance that guides my life. I recommend that Arizona follow Parks' trail and go about enforcing their new law anyway.

To do otherwise would be to embrace Judge Bolton's legally stupid and politically motivated decision.

Send a message, Arizona, and America will follow. Refuse to get out of your seat and sit at the back of the bus. Let's get it on.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Swamp rats along the Potomac

Will we clean them out, or not?
By Ted Nugent

Instead of "draining the swamp" of corruption, as Nancy Pelosi promised Americans in 2006, under her tenure as speaker of the House, the congressional swamp has grown more putrid, more corrupt, and even more out-of-touch with ordinary Americans.

With abundant just cause, Americans can't stand the smell of the squawking, lethargic, spendthrift Fedzilla Congress run by Mrs. Pelosi. Coming in at a whopping 11 percent approval rating, according to Gallup, Americans have no faith, confidence or trust in the Pelosi-controlled Congress. There is good reason for this dismal approval rating.

Enter Congressrat Charlie Rangel who represents Harlem. Although he is presumed innocent until proven guilty, anyone can see that Congressrat Rangel is an unethical schmuck who is more deserving of a prison cell than a seat in Congress. The shadow of corruption has followed him around for years.

Congressrat Rangel has now been charged with 13 ethics violations. You may recall he stepped down from his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, the committee that writes our tax laws, for not paying all of his taxes. One has to wonder if he shared tax cheat tips with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

One of the 13 charges against Congressrat Rangel is that he failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and assets over the years. He will surely try to wrangle himself out of his swamp-infested tax mess but the evidence against him stinks like stagnant swamp water. He's the current poster child for congressional corruption.

President Obama, Mrs. Pelosi and other Democrats know Congressrat Rangel is a political liability that they don't need at the moment, as they are doing enough damage on their own to the Democratic Party with their socialistic policies. His ethics trial is set to start in September, which is just two months before the Democrat swamp-draining election in November.

However, Congressrat Rangel is not alone when it comes to being investigated and charged with unethical behavior. Democratic Congressrat Maxine Waters also faces ethics charges for purportedly helping a bank receive federal bailout money, a bank in which her husband had a financial stake. Surely, this is all just a big misunderstanding.

Just watch - the congressrats on both sides of the political aisle will circle the wagons and protect Congressrat Rangel. Regardless of the outcome of his trial, they will speak of all the good work he has done in Congress, how he works tirelessly to serve his constituents, how he's a patriot and loves America, etc. Not one of them will say that Congress is a better institution with Congressrat Rangel gone from it.

Not one of them will introduce legislation to state that congressrats found guilty of ethics violations will not receive a pension and be permanently banned from entering the Capitol. They won't even stand before a microphone and condemn him if he is found guilty. Their silence is condemnable and pathetic, yet they have the gall to condemn others in the business community and elsewhere. It's no wonder Americans have such a low opinion of these soulless clowns.

Major League Baseball has tougher ethics standards than Congress. All-time hit leader Pete Rose is banned from MLB for gambling on baseball games. Congressrats found guilty of ethics charges are often simply censured. Some consequence, huh? Scary stuff, huh?

Congressrat Rangel and others guilty of ethics violations and other criminal charges have no shame. They rarely apologize to the American people for being unethical and criminal political snakes. They deserve to be inducted into a Congressional Hall of Shame.

We deserve better than Congressrat Rangel, but we will get more of the same. He won't be the last rat to be elected to Congress or to face ethics charges. However, never forget that these people represent us. We have a choice and are ultimately in charge. We can either get more of the same or toss out the unethical punks and be more engaged and attentive in the future. Tea Party anyone?

The great political satirist Will Rogers once said that good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. Knowing that, my recommendation is to never trust any of them.

Yes, the whole thing stinks. You can put perfume on the pig but its still Fedzilla. We send people to Washington to represent us and political machines on both sides of the aisle turn them into political cogs. And Fedzilla gets fatter, less accountable and even less effective.

Politics is a messy, ugly game. But when a congressrat gets caught cheating, there ought to be hell to pay. And that's the lesson of Congressrat Rangel. My prediction is that nothing of any substance will happen to him, thereby ensuring we get more of the same.

A thorough housecleaning is in order in America. Are we up to this critical task or not?

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Drunk on stupid

Time for a sobering visit from American defiance
By Ted Nugent

In these tough and turbulent economic times, we need to look for small things we can be thankful for.

For example, I am thankful President Obama is not a lifeguard, as I believe he would toss concrete blocks to drowning swimmers instead of life preservers.

Why do I believe that? His economic policies are drowning our economy, leaving many Americans unemployed or underemployed, and he knows it.

Mr. Obama can squawk all he wants and blame everyone from President George W. Bush to Tea Partiers to Fox News, but our anemic economy is the result of his willingness to allow Fedzilla to gorge mindlessly on more and more grotesque spending and borrowing and to sign more blubber-infested bills that no one has read or knows how to implement or what the impact will be on the economy.

The evidence is glaring. The business community does not trust Mr. Obama. It doesn't trust his socialist economy-killing policies, his Wall Street reform sham that no one understands, his takeover of the health care system. Businessmen are very uneasy about his cap-and-tax proposal, green-energy scam and his plans to kill the Bush tax cuts early next year.

Business owners, entrepreneurs and investors know these wrongheaded economic polices are drowning the economy. So they are pulling in their financial horns and holding as much as $3 trillion on the sidelines instead of using that cash to invest in American businesses and innovation. Who can blame them?

And yet the president has the unmitigated gall to state that he believes it is the private sector that has always been America's source of job creation. Actions always speak louder than words, and this administration's actions are blatantly anti-business and therefore anti-American. Phenomenal.

Talk to any business owner. To the person, from small-business owners to chief executives of medium-sized and large businesses, not a single one of them has told me that Mr. Obama or the Democrats in the District of Clowns have been good for business. None of them trusts him. In fact, some have gone so far as to tell me they think Mr. Obama despises the private sector and actually wants to kill it.

You cannot fault business owners for not trusting Fedzilla when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke recently stated that the future of the economy is "unusually uncertain." On the other hand, representatives of the Obama administration such as Treasury secretary and, hopefully, reformed tax cheat Timothy F. Geithner, have stated that the economy is beginning to grow. Mixed messages such as these create maximum uncertainty in the private sector. Wrong approach. Yet another rookie mistake.

Isn't there a community that needs organizing somewhere out there where the president's custom skills could be put to better use?

It is patently stupid to raise taxes on the job creators during a sluggish economy, or at any time, really. These are the very people who need a tax cut if you are truly interested in getting the economy going again and putting people back to work. Of course, if you want to drown the economy and create more unemployment and more dependency on Fedzilla, all you need to do is punish the job creators by raising taxes on them and advocating more outrageous job-killing legislation. I give you the Democratic Party.

It is a fundamental economic principle that if you want less of something, tax it. Only an uneducated idiot with no practical private-sector experience or an avowed Marxist does not understand this. So which is it?

You want a good-paying job? If so, do not put your trust and faith in the resident Fedzillacrats in the District of Clowns. Their modus operandi is to create dependency and put America's economic future on very thin ice. Fedzilla is a job- and economy-killing enterprise. Besides socialists and dependent bloodsuckers, who could possibly fail to grasp this?

Could common sense really be all that uncommon among the American people? I think not. The American people know intrinsically that tax cuts lead to prosperity, as proved by the economic growth during the 1960s, thanks to President Kennedy, and during the 1980s, thanks to President Reagan, leading to 25 years of prosperity. As I recall, even President Clinton got bitten by the tax-cut bug.

Americans also know that simpler is always better. Instead of the world's thickest, most convoluted and confusing book ever devised by man (the U.S. tax code), Americans know that a flat tax and much less government spending is the way to go. More Fedzilla regulation, central-planning boondogglers and more agencies and armies of bureaucrats strangle the free market and inhibit economic growth.

The only people whom common sense seems to evade are the Fedzillacrats inside the District of Clowns' Beltway, who genuflect at the altar of a 2,000-plus-page health care bill, a Wall Street reform bill and a confusing and mountainous tax code that even the IRS does not understand. They are drunk on stupid.

Fedzilla is broken on almost all levels. Big government does not work. It is not accountable, responsible or dependable. And the polls indicate the overwhelming majority of Americans now embrace this most basic and universal truth.

If ever there was a time when hardworking, logical Americans needed to reach deep inside for that most important American trait of defiance, it is now. It is time to raise hell. Let productive Americans take back control and take back our country. That's how we can get America working again.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Dear Mexico …

American dream is attainable for those who share our values
By Ted Nugent

Bienvenido. Welcome. As the November elections draw nearer, political campaigns most assuredly will heat up and become more tense and filled with rancor. As with any election, you have to dig for the truth.

Immigration is one of the key issues at the forefront of the campaigns. Just as it has done to the law passed in Arizona, the Democratic machine will work overtime once again to demonize conservatives and the Republican Party as jingoists, racists, anti-civil-rights, anti-immigration, anti-minority and even anti-Mexican. I know, as I previously have been the target of its vicious personal lying attacks and smear campaigns straight out of the playbook of Richard Andrew Cloward, Frances Fox Piven and Saul Alinsky. Soulless.

Such attacks, of course, could not be further from the truth, but telling the truth has never been a plank in the political platform of the Democratic Party. If Democrats ever told Americans the truth about what they truly believe, the Democratic Party would cease to exist by tomorrow.

Rest assured, just as the Democrats lie to Americans, they also will lie to you. They will claim on one hand that they are your liberators. They will say anything, make any promise to get your support. Yet on the other hand, what they won't tell you is that once they have garnered your support, they ultimately will work to enslave you and ruin your families with Fedzilla programs and dollars that will destroy you and your families, much like the corrupt, abusive Mexican government you risked your lives to escape.

If you doubt this, look at what the Democrats have done to black America over the past 50 years. What once was a proud, strong people now lies in ruin because of Fedzilla programs designed specifically to enslave and destroy instead of liberate and build. Amazingly, black Americans still overwhelming vote for Democrats. Be wise and learn from their mistakes.

Conservatives greatly respect the work ethic, family values, diversity and independent spirit of the Mexican people. We harbor no ill will toward anyone because of race, creed, color, sex or ethnicity. We value hard work and judge people on their character.

Conservatives want to see people of Mexican descent reach their full potential in America. We are not satisfied with seeing anyone remain on the bottom rung of the ladder of success. We believe that through hard work, sacrifice and commitment, the American dream remains vibrant and within the grasp of anyone willing to work hard and reach for it. We also believe in less government, lower taxes and more freedom. As President Reagan once said, government isn't the solution, it's the problem.

We believe in immigration reform, although we do not believe in granting amnesty to those who have violated our immigration laws to get to America. We understand why people want to come to America but do not believe granting amnesty is a smart move.

Conservatives believe there should be an easier and simpler process for Mexicans to work in America legally and be part of the American experience. We do not believe anyone should have to live in the shadows.

Just as in Mexico, American conservatives believe one of government's most important roles is securing our nation. We must know who is coming into America and believe all individuals desiring to enter America should be subject, at a minimum, to a health and criminal background check.

American conservatives believe in protecting our borders and legal immigration. Mexico has immigration laws and rightfully protects its southern border with Guatemala, and America also has a right and responsibility to protect its borders.

A common language is vital to achieving the American dream, and thus conservatives believe learning the English language is a core component of achieving the American dream. Failing to learn the English language inhibits your ability to climb the ladder of success.

Though we believe you should be proud of your heritage, conservatives also believe if you want to immigrate to America, you should embrace our values, traditions and history just as our great-grandparents did when they arrived at Ellis Island 100 or more years ago. We believe everyone who wants to harvest all the bounties of America should also be willing to fully embrace American heritage and customs and assimilate into America.

Because of the Obama administration's continued endorsement of wrongheaded economic policies, America is going through tough economic times. Unemployment is high, economic growth is stagnant, at best, and government spending and debt are out of control. These are not favorable economic conditions for Americans or anyone else wanting to work in America.

You have a choice. Embrace the political party that believes in enslavement or embrace the political party with policies that promote greater individual liberty and freedom. That's not just your choice, but the choice of Americans.

Ted Nugent is an unstoppable American rock 'n' roll, sporting and political activist icon. He is author of "Ted, White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto" and "God, Guns and Rock 'N' Roll" (Regnery Publishing).

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

Let Me Know When You Get It

By Ted Nugent 

One has to jack up one's imagination to try to come up with dumber decisions from our flagrantly corrupt, out-of-control government than those occurring daily in America today.

Americans are tested more and more to convince ourselves that the rookie in chief, his Mao Tse-tung fan-club administration and gang of anti-American czars could possibly be that stupid or, horror of horrors, are in fact intentionally steering the good-ship America into the rocks.

How else to explain these developments:

• Appointing self avowed Marxists and Communists like Van Jones and Cass Sunstein et al. to be in charge of anything in America is clear and present treason from where I stand.

• Having your administration's communications director look to Mao Tse-tung for philosophical direction is phenomenally crazy.

• Surrounding yourself with America-hating radicals like Bill Ayers, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and SEIU union gangsters shows us who you are.

• Praising the bizarre cult of ACORN and turning a blind eye to their criminal activities is the act of a collaborator.

• Accelerating a maniacal spending orgy as unaccountable debt piles up at unprecedented rates is economic suicide by any sane soul's measure.

• Banning the development of America's energy resources as our enemies hold us hostage is aiding and abetting those enemies.

• Appointing a self-claimed hater of the free market with promises of redistributing wealth to be in charge of Medicare, Medicaid and America's new healthcare debacle is sabotage of the highest order.

• Suing Arizona for passing a law that simply enforces federal immigration laws while ignoring the criminal violations of sanctuary cities is the act of the enemy of the state, clearly siding with illegal invaders.

• Directing the Department of Justice to drop charges against Black Panther thugs caught on film breaking federal law is insubordination and dereliction of duty.

• Rudely alienating America's top allies shows just which side you are on.

• Bailing out wildly wealthy, criminally irresponsible bankers and crony mortgage outfits without the permission of taxpayers is mutiny.

• Appointing racists Supreme Court justices is anti-American.

• Condemning police officers and rhetorically siding with a friend while admitting not knowing the facts in a case is unpresidential.

• Increasing welfare to your constituency in the face of runaway corruption and abuse is soulless pandering.

• Offering amnesty to illegal invaders is obvious voter baiting.

• Directing NASA to reach out to Muslims is illogical rookie 101.

• Ignoring the development of nuclear capability by America's avowed No. 1 enemy is suicidal.

• Being praised by Russians and other Communists is an overt indicator that our enemies admire the direction of a weakening America.

• Increasing spending and taxes during an economic downturn is ignorant and dangerous.

• Tying the hands of America's military to fight the war on terror is wantonly asking for trouble and will increase terrorist strongholds and their capability to attack us again.

• Burdening small businesses with more taxes and regulations makes America weaker, increases unemployment, reduces America's productivity and strengthens our enemies.

That there are no patriots or statesmen in Congress blowing more whistles and raising more hell is more frightening than the violations of the President and his gang. With a soulless, unprofessional, grossly irresponsible lapdog media kow-towing to such egregious acts by the government which they are supposed to be watch-dogging, is as anti-American as it gets. That it has gotten this bad and this far without a meaningful response from anyone in government or the mainstream media is the worst-case scenario.

Thank God for Glenn Beck and Fox News. Thank God for Rush Limbaugh and much of talk radio. Thank God for the new Tea Party and Americans waking up to the inside job of Barak Hussein Obama and his evil destroyers of America.

November is varmint season, America. It is a target-rich environment. Vote the rats out. Clean house. Take America back.

Source: THEWESTSIDESTORY.NET

NUGENT: Department of Injustice

Enforcing the law is a crime in Obamaworld
By Ted Nugent

With each passing day, common sense and the free market take a beating by big-government Marxists and the Mao Zedong fan club in the District of Clowns who believe feeding the bloated, ineffective Fedzilla is the right course for America. If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he surely would call for an armed revolution.

Get this: Fedzilla is suing Arizona because Arizona is simply enforcing the very immigration laws that Fedzilla is responsible for but has basically refused to enforce for decades. Failure to secure our border has led to Mexico invading America.

Make no mistake, with 12 million to 20 million illegal Mexicans and others living in America, it is an invasion. This is the real controversy and travesty, not Arizona's law, as many in our Fedzilla-inbred media dishonestly misrepresent.

What is controversial is that Fedzilla is suing Arizona. Even with Fedzilla suing Arizona, numerous other states are considering passing laws just like Arizona's. Good. Do it now. My wish is to see Fedzilla sue 20 or 30 states. Come and get it.

Fedzilla is suing Arizona to show illegals in America that they have a friend in the District of Clowns. This, of course, is a sham. It is ultimately about getting their support and eventual votes and enslaving them by showering them with all kinds of Fedzilla pork-barrel programs, thereby stripping them of their work ethic and pride. Hey, it worked for many of my black fellow Americans, and we all know how well that has worked out.

It is also rather controversial that Eric H. Holder Jr.'s Department of Lack of Justice - the Fedzilla entity that dropped the charges against the overtly guilty New Black Panther voter-intimidation punks in Philadelphia - has filed a lawsuit against Arizona but has not done a damned thing to sue American cities that declare themselves "sanctuary cities" or to restrict our federal tax dollars from flowing to cities that openly thumb their noses at federal immigration laws and policies. The jury is not still out, as Mr. Holder is clearly an embarrassing, racist fraud.

Sanctuary cities are those cities, largely if not entirely run by liberal Democratic mayors and liberal city councils, that have rolled out the welcome mat for illegals. Sanctuary cities thumb their noses at federal immigration laws by telling their police officers not to check on the immigration status of people they arrest.

If further evidence is needed to believe mankind is in a state of devolution on the fast track to the new and improved Planet of the Apes, various liberal moonbats in California have criticized and threatened to boycott Arizona for passing its law. Ironically, while Arizona is trying to do something to curb illegal immigration, California cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and numerous others have declared themselves to be sanctuary cities. How high-brow-liberal of them.

Indeed, for every action there is an opposite reaction. California is going broke in part because of illegals living there. The cost to California taxpayers is staggering. Estimates are as high as $20 billion a year for Californians to provide health care, education and cages for hordes of violent illegals. Phenomenal.

I have my doubts about the Republican Party, but it could do much to restore my confidence in it if just one Republican congressman would write legislation to restrict all federal dollars from going to cities that declare themselves sanctuary cities. Let me help. Here's the bill I want someone with any common sense left in the District of Clowns to write:

"Those cities, towns or municipalities that declare themselves to be sanctuary cities or that implement sanctuary-cities-style policies shall be immediately ineligible to receive any tax dollars. This ineligibility shall be maintained for a period of one year from the date a city rescinds its sanctuary-city status or rescinds its sanctuary-city-style policies."

Suing a state for defending itself but doing nothing to cities breaking the law is a typical modus operandi of Fedzilla. I expected nothing less from the Fedzillacrats in the District of Clowns. What I want to hear shouted from the mountaintops is the Republican Party's immigration reform ideas. I'm waiting. But not for long. Stupid is bipartisan.

Ted Nugent is an unstoppable American rock 'n' roll, sporting and political activist icon. He is author of "Ted, White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto" and "God, Guns and Rock 'N' Roll."

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Differences between Carter and Obama? None.

We're still fighting the same old battle
By Ted Nugent

Other than the Georgia peanut farmer turned governor and now a Chicago community rabble rouser turned senator, there is little substantive political difference between President Barack Obama and President Jimmy Carter.

Both have stood on the throat of our economy and told us it was for our own good. Both believe Fedzilla knows what is best for Americans, not individuals making decisions in their own best interest.

Both believe in growing the size of the federal government, raising taxes and increasing spending beyond any conceivable reason.

Both believe in European-style socialism over free market capitalism.

Due to their bumbling, rookie ways, both quickly lost the respect of the international community and the confidence of the American people early in their administrations.

But will the GOP learn from what is old and new again? Will the GOP embrace true conservatism or stick with embracing their warped sense of limited government lip service in their feeble attempt to include the lunatic fringe into their irresponsible big tent?

I am encouraged by many of the candidates emerging for the November election. These candidates appear to be listening to ordinary Americans who are disgusted with the course the Obama administration has set for America. These hard-working Americans want change - real change. They have finally had enough.

My advice to these candidates is to look backward to gain their political ideologies. Go back to Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. In Mr. Goldwater's wonderful 1960 tome, "The Conscience of a Conservative," he writes on page 23: "It will come when Americans, in hundreds of communities throughout the nation, decide to put the man in office who is pledged to enforce the Constitution and restore the Republic. Who will proclaim in a campaign speech: 'I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents' 'interests,' I shall reply that I was informed their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.' "

Those are the exact words conservatives want to hear from political candidates. Those words echo the sentiments of ordinary Americans who approach me on a daily basis and wonder aloud what the hell has happened to America.

I tell these disappointed and disgusted Americans that America got fat, indolent and lazy. We blindly entrusted Fedzilla with our wealth and watched Fedzilla consume it without producing much of anything except an appetite for more of our wealth. On our watch, we saw Fedzilla dramatically expand in growth and power. Due to our torpor, we did little to stop the Fedzilla juggernaut.

Apathy is the curse of free men everywhere, most inexcusably in the United States of America, for we should have known better.

Some Americans know little of freedom, only an enslavement to destructive entitlement programs. These Americans are ruined and pass their entitlement dependency onto their young, thereby increasing the size of the Fedzilla snowball as it lumbers downhill and grows larger and larger. And too few of us have done a damn thing to stop it.

Now is the time to stop it and dramatically reverse course. Now is the time for all good men and women to rise up and support those candidates who embrace much smaller government, much less spending, and much more personal responsibility.

We have a choice. We can continue to swan dive into the pool of bloodsucking dependency and ultimately inescapable bankruptcy, or we can go the other way and blaze a new political trail back to the American Way.

Let us never forget the prophetic words of Benjamin Franklin when he was asked by a lady what type of government the constitution would provide. Franklin stated, "A republic, if you can keep it."

Let us keep it. It is worth it.

Ted Nugent is an unstoppable American rock 'n' roll, sporting and political activist icon. He is author of "Ted, White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto" and "God, Guns and Rock 'N' Roll."

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Let the big dogs run

McChrystal found out what happens when you bark

As much as I dearly respect this great warrior, the good Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal forgot one of the fundamentals of leader- ship: The pace of the pack is set by the lead dog.

One has to seriously question the otherwise brilliant Gen. McChrystal's judgment to allow an antiwar, biased reporter from Rolling Stone magazine access to him and his staff for 30 days. I know for a fact that the bulk of writing in this traditionally goofy magazine is at the very best suspicious, more often than not simply hard-core left-wing propaganda.

Gen. McChrystal had to know the hack from Rolling Stone would portray him and his staff in a negative light. For Gen. McChrystal to believe otherwise would be analogous to me believing Rolling Stone magazine would give me or the National Rifle Association a fair shake. Not happening.

If Gen. McChrystal felt strongly about how the war was going, one way or another, he should have requested a private meeting with President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and laid it out to them what specifically needed to be done to win the war. If they didn't agree with him, he should have offered his resignation. Who knows, maybe he did. What we do know is that he gave Rolling Stone magazine access to him and his staff. By any stretch of imaginative journalism, that was tremendously dumb.

After watching Gen. McChrystal in a "60 Minutes" interview a year or so ago, I had no doubt that he believed then that the Afghanistan war was a total klusterphunk in progress because of the community-organizer-in-chief, Mr. Obama, and the Mao Zedong fan club with whom he had surrounded himself.

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, Mr. Obama is, in fact, the commander in chief. Even as angry and frustrated as Gen. McChrystal surely was with the naive rules of engagement and the embarrassment of telegraphing to the enemy that we are packing up and leaving next July, throwing verbal spears in public at the Obama administration for its goofy Afghanistan war policies was just not right. He deserved to be fired.

Ultimately, Gen. McChrystal should publicly apologize to the military men and women who are left behind to carry out their duty in Afghanistan. He should tell them and their parents and loved ones that what he and his staff did negatively affected the good order and discipline of the military and there is never any excuse to undermine that while wearing the uniform. He should tell our warriors he is tremendously proud of them, that they should hold their heads high and continue to take the fight to America's enemies. He should then follow Gen. Douglas MacArthur's advice and fade away.

Maybe Gen. McChrystal believes he figuratively dived on a grenade in hopes the Rolling Stone explosion would ignite a much-needed deeper debate over the Afghanistan war. Maybe he just wanted out of Mr. Obama's klusterphunk. Maybe he had no clue what the writer was going to write.

Regardless, Gen. McChrystal and his entire staff were outmaneuvered by a hack from Rolling Stone. Simply amazing.

Gen. McChrystal doesn't need to appear on the Sunday-morning talk shows to further trash the commander in chief and his dopey war policies. He should leave that to others not wearing the uniform. He should instead be at the airport and quietly greet every flight of warriors returning home from Afghanistan.

When I think of the war in Afghanistan , I don't think of President Obama, our generals, the politicians, the wrongheaded war policies, the embarrassment of an exit strategy instead of a victory strategy, or the incessant yammering of clueless talking heads. I think of the young men and women at the true pointy end of the spear. I think of the guy with the rifle slung across his back, humping over hills, on constant alert and eating food the ACLU would probably sue our prisons over if we fed it to convicted killers.

We must put the care and concern of the warriors first in all that we do and say. They deserve our very best. I hope you never forget that the pace of the pack is set by the lead dog, Gen. Petraeus.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: Trample the weak, hurdle the dead

Fiscal pragmatists gotta toss out Fedzilla in November
By Ted Nugent

No, really. I mean it. In a world of spineless, humorless political correctness, I suppose I could translate the title of my new love song and 2010 tour for the creatively challenged out there, and am certain it will make for some good reading. I like the line drawn in the sand. I don't want a big tent. That would mean I would welcome idiots and losers. Until they stop being idiots and losers, my tent is not open to them. We have an excellence detector installed in the entranceway of my tent. Mediocrity will get you thrown out. Know it.

One of my lifelong passions, businesses and hobbies is total musical head removal. I play American-made Gibson guitars, the most powerful guitars on the planet, and when in my greasy Motown hands, they can blow your head clean off. James Brown taught me that the best musical performance should be ferocious. I genuflect at the Godfather of Soul's altar nightly.

My band is the best in the world. The weak got trampled, the dead hurdled. It's how we got to yet another amazing rocking tour in 2010. Plan B is for the not-so-excellent, or dead.

I graduated from Funk University, and I've got the rock 'n' roll thing perfected. However, I am not a schooled economist, but I am an economic pragmatist. I do not believe the average American, of which I am one, requires an Ivy League economics degree to understand basic economic truisms.

One of the most fundamental economic truisms is that raising taxes and increasing government spending historically leads to economic calamities, while cutting taxes and slashing government spending generally ignites an economic firestorm. Amazingly enough, it does not appear to me that anyone in the Obama administration understands this most basic economic reality. That's scary, though predictable for central planning liberals like President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Having zero experience at operating a business of any kind, this is all too predictable.

Instead, the Obamacrats believe more government spending, higher taxes, more control over the private sector and more unsustainable mountains of debt is the right economic course to chart. This guitar-playing economic pragmatist believes their economic model is leading America down the path to economic disaster. Who doesn't?

Continuing down this economic disastrous road will lead to even higher unemployment, a falling stock market and rising inflation. And that's apparently where Mr. Obama is intent on taking the American economy. Welcome back, Misery Index.

The Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of this year, and there is no indication or hope that Mr. Obama will continue them. In fact, there is every indication he will let them expire, which will cause local, state and federal taxes to rise sharply next year.

Unless you believe sticking a sharp stick in your eye will improve your eyesight, no economic pragmatist can possibly believe that raising taxes during an already sluggish economy will improve the economy. Only bloodsuckers, dopers and socialist stooges believe higher taxes are good. They are nothing but economic parasites who live off the sweat and hard work of the producers. Mao Zedong would be proud.

If you believe we are in rough, choppy economic seas now, just wait a few more months. Things are going to get worse, possibly much worse under this rookie regime in the coming months.

The world is in the process of learning a painful economic lesson. That lesson is that liberals and their thirst for more government spending and control ultimately lead to economic collapse and despair. If the world - America included - does not make a very hard turn to fiscal responsibility and sanity, America will face the same fate as Greece in the not-too-distant future. If you do not believe America can suffer the same economic collapse as Greece, do a modicum of homework and study America's ratio of debt to gross domestic product. The news is not good, not good at all.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke recently said that current spending levels are unsustainable. Welcome to the party, Ben. The Congressional Budget Office and many others have been saying this for quite some time. The problem is the Fedzillacrats in Washington are not listening.

Surprise, surprise.

What the Republican Party needs to do is offer Americans specific policies and plans to get us out of this Carteresque economic morass. So far, I haven't heard a clear, resounding message.

Our economic condition is not all the fault of Mr. Obama and his Fedzilla cohorts. For too many years, the GOP embraced big government, too.

Fiscal conservatives like me have not forgotten Republicans' wayward fiscal ways, and I am looking desperately for indications that the GOP has learned its fiscal conservative lessons.

So now, economic reality sets in. We either tighten our fiscal belt until it hurts, slash entitlement spending, cut taxes across the board and dramatically reduce government spending or America goes broke.

That's not fear-mongering, folks. It is a reality born of economic pragmatism.

Come November, I'd highly recommend that America does like Uncle Ted: Trample the weak, hurdle the dead.

Ted Nugent is an unstoppable American rock 'n' roll, sporting and political activist icon. He is author of "Ted, White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto" and "God, Guns and Rock 'N' Roll" (Regnery Publishing).

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

NUGENT: The Declaration of Defiance

Get ready to toss out the Fedzillacrats in November

Defiance is the DNA of America. Every fiber of my being is overdosed on high-octane defiance. I often rise in the morning convinced that I am Rosa Parks with a loud guitar. It is beautiful.

From our forefathers tossing tea into the Boston Harbor over abusive taxes; to the brave defenders of the Alamo, who were outnumbered 25-to-1; to Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe, who answered the Nazi punks with "Nuts!" when he was asked to surrender at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, the DNA of America is rife with proud defiance.

We celebrate our freedom on Independence Day, but when you read Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, it could have easily been called the Declaration of Defiance.

What Jefferson and his fellow patriots John Adams and Benjamin Franklin wrote was a uniquely defiant document that not only listed their grievances defying King George's oppressive government but also was a declaration of out-and-out war against tyranny.

Our forefathers knew when they signed the Declaration that they were pledging their sacred honor, fortunes and, more than likely, their lives in hopes that we could live free. They knew their Declaration of Defiance would bring war against the world's most powerful, undefeated military. Our forefathers then fired a shot heard around the world.

America faces new challenges that once again require our steadfast defiance if we are to leave future generations of Americans with a more vibrant republic, more freedom and more liberty. That is the goal, right?

Those of us who truly care must stand in defiance of an out-of-control spending Fedzilla that clearly is intent on bankrupting America with an orgy of proven wasteful spending. The share of the national debt for each taxpayer is now more than $115,000, and it keeps climbing wildly every day. That's despicable and intolerable. Toss the Fedzillacrats out this coming November and all future Novembers. All of them.

We must stand in strong defiance of those who support amnesty to illegal invaders and virtually open up our borders, and we must instead stand arm in arm with Arizona and draw a line in the sand on the banks of the Rio Grande.

Law-and-order Americans must defy those who support turning violent, recidivistic punks loose from prison while advocating disarming the American public. The only good carjacker or rapist is a dead carjacker or rapist. Case closed. It's so simple only stupid people could find fault with that. A polite society is an armed society.

Americans must defy those who seek to enslave us to foreign energy when America can and must be energy-independent. We have the energy. What we lack is the leadership and the will.

We must defy those who, because of their fantasy-driven ideologies, seek to tear down America and reshape her in their warped cultural, social and political views. Clowns belong in the circus, not in charge of anything.

Americans must stand in defiance of Fedzilla taking over the world's premier health care system and smothering it with bureaucrats, lawyers, stacks of new requirements and more government agencies. If you enjoy standing in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles, you will adore Fedzilla Care.

We must stand in defiance of those who blame America first instead of promoting and believing in American exceptionalism. If you don't like it here, pack your trash and set sail for Mexico or Cuba, where all your wishes are already public policy. Mexico and Cuba put the fun in dysfunction.

Americans must defy those bureaucratic numbnuts and toxic bloodsuckers who believe more government is the answer to our problems. All clear-thinking and sober Americans know a drastically reduced Fedzilla is the solution.

We must stand in defiance of those Fedzillacrats who seek to reshape Wall Street without first cleaning up the root cause of the economic meltdown - Fedzilla's very own Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the gaggle of power abusers run amok. We know who they are, and they need to be brought to justice.

Defy the sheeplike epidemic of apathy that has willingly opened the door to the Mao Zedong fan club in the White House.

Let your uniquely American defiant DNA rise to the surface. Join those organizations and support those individuals who most closely align their beliefs and ideologies with the dreams and aspirations of our forefathers. Raise your healthy voice in defiance.

Get angry. Get passionate. Get cracking. Take back America from the Fedzillacrats, who, if they get their way, ultimately will destroy the dreams of our forefathers. Slay Fedzilla at the ballot box. Do it for your grandchildren.

Live free or die. Throw some tea in the harbor. Remember the Alamo. Tell 'em "Nuts!"

Source: The Washington Times

Time to Go Nuclear

As a conservationist, I have long understood that the condition of the air, soil and water is an important barometer by which we can measure our own health and priorities as a society and culture.

It was not too distant in our past that American rivers literally caught fire. Our cities were covered in smog from smoke stacks and automobiles that belched pollution.

Largely through American innovation, entrepreneurship and a national commitment to improve the environment, things have changed dramatically for the better. Our air is cleaner, water more pure.

And while cleaner air, soil and water continue to be the goal, I am also an energy pragmatist. Green energy—wind, solar and hydro—will not meet our tremendous energy demands today or tomorrow—possibly never.

The lifeblood of America continues to be petroleum and will be so for many years to come. That is an inescapable reality.

One of the reasons BP was drilling a mile under water in the Gulf is that they and other petroleum companies have been pushed further and further away from our energy rich coasts by so-called environmentalists and short-sighted politicians. We have vast energy riches off our coasts on the Outer Continental Shelf, the Gulf and off the coast of California—energy that is forbidden to be mined by the federal government.

This is maddening considering that, according to President Obama, we send a billion dollars a day to other countries to meet our energy demands when it is estimated by the Minerals and Management Service that there is 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas on the Outer Continental Shelf alone.

Failing to harness this energy is bad policy, harms our ability to be energy independent, and continues to make America an energy addict to countries that don't like us all that much.

This does not mean America should not look for other forms of energy to quench our thirst for power. However, we must not rush to embrace alternative forms of energy without first doing due diligence.

Green energy may sound appealing and alluring, but the reality is much different. We currently get about 5% of our energy from wind, solar and hydro energy. There is little evidence to suggest this will dramatically increase in the coming years. This too is a reality.

As I outlined last year in my book Ted White and Blue-The Nugent Manifesto, what we should do is embrace nuclear power. It is the cleanest, safest and most efficient of all energy in the history of mankind, and yet the President rarely mentions it as a key pillar to satisfy our thirst for energy. Until he fully embraces and endorses nuclear energy, he will not be taken seriously by those of us who seek energy independence.

In his Oval Office address regarding the Gulf oil spill, the President stated he wants us to move forward with green energy and believes more government regulation over the oil companies is prudent. This policy will virtually guarantee outrageously higher, likely crippling energy costs across the board for American companies and citizens.

We should pause to remember that government regulations are the key reason America has not built a new oil refinery or nuclear power plant in over 30 years. This is a perfect example of government policies and regulations that strangles, stifles and retards progress.

As do most other conservatives, I support reasonable, pragmatic, and measurable government policy that is managed by even smarter and pragmatic regulators.

The problem is not that we don't have enough regulation, but rather that we have too much. America is drowning in stacks of regulations that are written by a multitude of bureaucrats in various federal, state and local agencies and departments. We should enforce our existing regulations before arguing for even more regulations and control.

We need a realistic energy vision, a target to shoot for. Similar to President Kennedy challenging us to put a man on the moon, I believe the goal should be for America to be completely energy independent in ten years. We can do this with the proper leadership, national commitment and if we have a realistic approach to meeting our energy demands.

Unleash the genius that is the American entrepreneurial, don't strangle it.

Source: TheWestSideStory.net

Remember the Alamo

It's easy to understand why Mexico President Felipe Calderon spoke out against Arizona's new immigration law, if you follow the money.

Illegal immigrants in America send roughly $1 billion in untaxed U.S. dollars a month back to Mexico. Without this money, Mexico would collapse. Oh wait a minute, Mexico is collapsed, which is why Mexico is worse off than Detroit and that Mexicans want to get the hell out of Mexico.

What is ironic is that Mexico enforces the same basic immigration law on its Southern border with Guatemala as Arizona's new immigration law, which few in the Obama Administration have actually read, but are vehemently opposed to even though Arizona's immigration law is actually not as stringent as the federal government's immigration law which no one in Obama Administration wants to enforce.

The reason the Obama Administration does not want to enforce our immigration laws is that they want to make Democratic slaves (voters) of these illegal immigrants by granting them amnesty. When President Calderon addressed Congress and condemned Arizona's immigration law, the Democrats stood and applauded. Watching that ugly spectacle was a sad and embarrassing moment for America.

Unlike the Obama Administration and the Democrats in Congress, the majority of Americans support Arizona's new law and believe illegal immigration is a problem that will not be solved by granting millions of illegals undeserved legal status. Just like healthcare reform, the Obama Administration is once again grossly out-of-step with logic and the American people as it pertains to illegal immigration.

Reasonable people can debate what to do about immigration, but what is an undeniable truth is that illegal immigration is wreaking financial havoc on the American healthcare system, already bloated and wasteful social welfare programs and criminal justice systems in border states, and, as always, the American taxpayers are getting stuck with this very expensive bill.

Sticking American taxpayers with the bill for illegal immigration because Fedzilla (the federal government) does not want to enforce our immigration laws is condemnable and arrogant. Don't forget this when you enter the voting booth this November and forever more.

If we can put a man on the moon we can surely stop the invasion of illegal immigrants pouring across our porous border. What our federal government lacks is the political will to stop the invasion.

Make no mistake, we have been invaded by 10 million to 15 million illegals and we have virtually done nothing to stop it. And we are a supposedly a nation that believes in the rule of law? Yeah, and I play lead banjo in a Hee Haw documentary.

Just because there are people such as myself who believe we should enforce our immigration laws and who support Arizona's immigration law does not make us racists or jingoists as some racists and jingoists try to portray us to be. Attempting to smear someone as being racist when they are not is real and vicious racism on parade for everyone to witness.

I have no problem whatsoever with the Mexican people. My phenomenal bass player, Marco Mendoza, is Mexican. Like Marco and everyone who craves the American Dream, if I lived in Mexico I would do whatever I could to escape that Third World hell-hole to provide a better life for my family. But I'm not a Mexican. I'm an American.

What I take umbrage with are those who believe we should open our borders and virtually allow anyone in America. If you want more illegals in America, just provide the ones already here with legal status. Wrong approach.

Not only does illegal immigration tremendously impact our social services, but I also believe, and statistics prove, that our porous Southern border is an open invitation for any terrorist punk to walk into America carrying a chemical, biological or other weapon of mass destruction.

Fedzilla has one primary responsibility to the American people: Protect our borders and keep our people safe. So far, so bad. It is time for we the people to raise a new level of hell, demanding our government perform its duties and take whatever means necessary to stop the invasion. Fences, National Guard and orders to halt the law breakers. Now would be a good time.

Source: TheWestSideStory.net

NUGENT: Playing with fire in a packed theater

… and there's nothing you can do about it

They say all politics is local. Well, I think the best, most effective politics is much more intimate than that. I believe the ultimate American politics begins and ends with oneself: All of us "we the people" maintaining control of things as a united voice of reason, goodwill and decency. I happen to know that's how it all began with some tough, defiant anti-big-government leaders known as our Founding Fathers.

I don't know about French politics or British politics, and I can't imagine you could call what goes on in the hellhole worlds of tyranny, dictatorships and Third World slave nations like Mexico, Iran and, for that matter, all of Africa and beyond. But here in this magnificent experiment in self-government, I am convinced that politics was supposed to be "we the people" raising nonstop hell with our elected officials as the driving force for all policy and decision-making from the grass roots up, not from the wannabe tyrant Nancy Pelosis down.

The embarrassing disconnect of an increasingly spoiled nation of freedom abusers has created a serious anti-American mess here, and I just thought the old guitar player could shine the spotlight of common sense on some ridiculously simple basics for y'all.

I couldn't sleep last night, though thoroughly exhausted from another day paying tribute to and raising money for my heroes: our courageous wounded warriors of the U.S. military and their families. It truly whoops my 61-year-old butt, but when I returned home from Sugarland, Texas, tonight, I felt incredibly fortified and satisfied that a huge "thank you" was delivered to the most deserving among us. Americans, especially Texans, continue to be generous to a fault when it comes time to provide all we can for those who sacrifice so much to provide the freedom fuel for our American dream. "We the people" will indeed take care of our own.

But the real thrust behind this column is that, again, at 61 years of age, following double knee surgery, I am so insanely giddy to kick off my 2010 Trample the Weak Hurdle the Dead Tour that my mind races with outrageously intense musical excitement. I cannot help myself.

Propelled by the incredible talents and energy of Mick Brown on drums and Greg Smith on bass guitar, my good old-fashioned American rhythm and blues/rock 'n' roll is more ferocious and fun than it has ever been, and that's really saying something. But let me share why.

When my early musical heroes offered me drugs and alcohol when I was a teenage musician, the discipline and guidance of my loving mom and dad fortified me to make the right choices, and I remained clean and sober through it all. No drugs, no alcohol, no tobacco, healthy food, mostly wild game in responsible quantities, and a thoughtful regimen of care for my sacred temple, mind, body, spirit and soul.

I can still dance and whoop it up better than anybody, jam on my guitars like an animal possessed and am more energized than ever before. It appears to be unnatural, but in fact, it is perfectly natural, considering the intelligent choices I have always made.

I could be hobbled and goofy from substance abuse, but I am not. I could be fat, soft and slow thanks to the new American sport of gluttony, but I am not. I rock off royally at this age because I chose to take care of myself and laugh in the face of the sheep who so foolishly bought into the lie of peer pressure.

My name is Ted Nugent, and I have no peers, thank you. And even if I did, I assure you that they would be incapable of putting any pressure on me. I supply all the pressure on myself that I need and can handle. Like me, my priorities rock.

My politics are about personal policymaking. Pragmatism drives my every day, and I vote for smart choices, logic, self-evident truth, accountability and simply doing the right thing. It used to be called "the American Way," and I will be damned if political correctness or the sheeping of America is going to knock me off my game. The throttling defiance of the original Americans is pounding through my veins 24/7/365, and it feels really good. Plus, it makes for some brutal rock 'n' roll, and real music lovers crave it like I do.

So as I write these columns for The Washington Times and various other publications and websites, I use the same logic that virtually guarantees me and my family, friends, band mates, crew, employees and pretty much everybody I know to demand of ourselves to be the very best that we can be. It is nothing new; it is nothing all that clever. But it is brutally honest, forthright and positive and creates an unstoppable force of good, and in my gravity-defying careers of choice, indescribable fun.

It is all there for the taking. But it must be earned, and sacrifices must be made. If America operated like this old, maniac guitar player, America would not be in debt; America would not be fat and soft; America would not be unemployed and dependent on foreign energy; and America wouldn't have allowed the Mao Zedong fan club into the White House. There would be no welfare, and I assure you, the Ted Nugent America would not have a border-invasion problem or still be looking for Osama bin Laden. The Ted Nugent America wouldn't let some Japanese guitar player kick her butt.

I met a fine, rock-solid, honor-student football jock in Illinois last hunting season. We talked about hunting and the great outdoors, killer rock 'n' roll and the American dream of being the best that you can be. When I told him my new tour was called Trample the Weak Hurdle the Dead, his eyes lit up, and he exclaimed that his football team had the same theme. We knew what it meant. We knew it wasn't violent. We both instinctively knew it meant refusing to hang around and wait for spineless wimps to try to make a decision and that we already had made our decision. We know that it is right, and we are trampling and hurdling to get the job done and win. Much like the world's bravest men when they charged up those inflamed stairways on Sept. 11, 2001, to try to save as many innocent lives as they could. There is no time to guess and procrastinate. There is only time to trample and hurdle.

If you think you can handle the soundtrack to the 2010 American battle cry, Mick, Greg and I will be attacking a stage somewhere in America all summer long. Come on, feel the noise, come celebrate outlandishly dangerous levels of positive energy. Come dance, America - like you mean it. No more pussyfooting, do you hear me? Trample and hurdle, for God's sake. Literally.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com

Cat Scratch Thiever

Hey Napster, get your greasy paws off my intellectual property.

My younger brother Johnny and I rounded the corner of the vast parking lot outside the concert arena and immediately spotted the greasy hippie with the huge bag slung over his arm. Brothers Nuge looked at each other with a gleam in our rock 'n' roll eyes and stated in unison, like military commandos: "Bogie, 12 o'clock!"

We approached the young man at a steady gait, stepping past his three or four customers. Though I had my hair pulled back tight in a ponytail, he looked confused. Still, we figured he had to recognize me, given that he was selling Ted Nugent T-shirts at a sold-out Ted Nugent concert.

We surrounded him and told him that he could not sell shirts with my name and photograph on them. It was illegal, unfair and unacceptable. At this point Johnny and I yanked the canvas bag of merchandise and cash from his grasp and departed, returning backstage to hand out the cheap imported booty to friends, crew members and charities. I used some as rags to clean my guns.

We relentlessly repeated this across America for years, determined to stop the unjust bootleg merchandising of my copyrighted image. We ran into occasional resistance, but it never deterred me from taking what was rightfully mine. Even on ABC television I faced threats from some punk who thought he was dealing with just another pushover dope-smoking hippie band that he could rip off with impunity. Hell, I hunt grizzly bears with a bow and arrow. Bring it on, greaseballs!

I didn't need anyone to explain to me whether selling or giving away other people's products without their permission was the right thing to do. Common sense is alive and well in America if you're not stoned, drunk, greedy or just plain stupid. To think that anyone could even argue that Napster has the right to give away an artist's product is ridiculous.

Hey, I have a good idea! I'll just stand outside the local grocery store and offer its food free to the public. It doesn't matter if the owner took the risk, pays all the taxes and overhead, struggles with a bureaucratic land-mine field of regulations and laws, invests his warrior work ethic in bucketsful of sweat day after day, and basically busts his butt to provide a quality service and jobs for the community. Hell, no. I'll just make that decision for him, thank you, and give away his products and hard-earned money. Who does he think he is anyway?

The same applies to recording artists. We invest sweat and blood and millions of dollars creating musical products. It takes years of insane sacrifice and grueling tour schedules and intense effort. To think a third party should be allowed to give away our product for zero compensation is brain-dead and un-American.

The Recording Industry Association of America attributes a 39% drop in shipments of compact-disk singles in 1999 to this Internet downloading system. Full-length CD sales also dropped dramatically. In the short amount of time Napster has been in front of the courts, its users have grown from a few thousand to more than 50 million. Thank God common sense is still operating in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which recently ruled Napster must stop providing unauthorized music.

Artists--or grocers for that matter--who wish to give away their own merchandise or services as a promotional or marketing scheme can have at it. But on any legal or intellectual level, only that individual can legitimately make the decision. Artists and record companies already give away an enormous amount of free goods. No one outside that business circle should dare to do it for them and expect to get away with it.

Facing a runaway freight train of technology, we in the industry are moving to upgrade the quality of music delivery while also protecting copyrights, intellectual property rights and freedom of speech. With the book and motion-picture industries also susceptible to the sort of pirating Napster encourages, these communities will increasingly have to fight with us if they are to protect their futures.

There is no reason for allowing intellectual property to enrich lives without payment to the artist or business team. I'm just an ol' guitar player, but surely what is fair is fair. I'll leave the mind-boggling technology to the experts, but if I want bread, I'm going to pay the baker.

Source: WSJ.com

Arizona Has It Right

Good for Arizona. Other states, especially border states, should follow their lead.

Arizona's new law makes it a crime to be in Arizona illegally. It's 2010, good morning America! Those people who can't produce documentation proving they are in the country legally can be jailed up to six months and fined $2,500.00.

Of course the pro-illegal immigration crowd is going berserk that Arizona has done such a common-sense thing. Democrats see any immigration reform measures that seek to protect our border as a threat to their future political base. You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not see that the grand plan of the Democrats is to entrap illegal immigrants by giving them legal status and then to enslave and destroy them with numerous federal hand-outs and programs.

Pro-illegal immigration advocates are protesting and yammering that this new law will lead to profiling. President Obama has weighed in and asked the Justice Department to review Arizona's new law to see if it is legal.

Unbelievably, while our borders are largely open and being over-run, the Obama Administration recently lectured Israel about expanding their communities just a few feet on land that is arguably theirs to expand upon.

While I applaud Arizona for its bold and brave new law, putting illegals in jail is the wrong move. That costs too much. I say Arizona shoul follow their own American hero, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County. Sheriff Arpaio keeps crooks in a large outdoor holding facility and makes them sleep in tents. Among other common sense things, he feeds them bologna sandwiches. I hope they are not fresh.

My good friend Sheriff Arpaio's common sense policies and practices drives the ACLU and the rest of the left-wing batty. He puts smiles on the faces of Americans who still believe that pragmatism and common sense should rule the day.

Indeed, something needs to be done about illegal immigration and the 12 million-15 million illegals who are already in America and causing a tremendous financial burden on states due to their abuse of the state's social services and criminal justice programs. Hospitals in California and other states have closed and jails and prisons in border states are upwards of 40% full of illegals.

The invasion roils on.

Hospitals and other social service agencies should follow Arizona's lead and require that those seeking services produce American citizenship papers. American taxpayers should not be required to pay for providing medical or any other services to people from another country. Making us do so is the ultimate definition of insanity.

What America shouldn't do is to continue to ignore protecting our borders. There is a growing sentiment that governors of border states should call out the National Guard to help secure our borders. Makes sense to me.

Both Republicans and Democrats have made immigration blunders in the past. We should learn from these mistakes and endeavor to not make the same mistakes again.

I support an open, frank and transparent debate on immigration. Let's lay all the cards on the table and hear from all sides. I say we start with a simple admonition from President Reagan: A nation without borders will soon cease to be a nation.

Good on Arizona. It is refreshing to see that common sense still rules the day somewhere.

Source: HumanEvents.com

A Magnum Minute with Ward Parker

The church I attended wasn't awash in religious rituals. My seat wasn't a polished wood pew and there were no hymnals or bibles at the church I attended. Nevertheless, the spirit of God enveloped me. I could feel His presence.

I go to church early this time of year. This Sunday morning was not all that different than other Sunday mornings. I was greeted by the pre-dawn moon and stars. Silent night. All is calm.

The moon lighted my way to my seat. As I sat quietly in the dark morning allowing the cold breeze to wash my face, the pink hint of a new day filled the sky. No artist could paint the canvas I witnessed this morning-or any other sunrise or sunset. It was as if God was gave me a front row seat to watch the rebirth of a new day. It was spectacular.

The steeples of my church are not straight. There no crosses atop them and they bend in the wind. But the steeples in my church still arch towards the sky, as if to pay homage to their creator. They are prettier than any man-made church steeple. I feel at home in their perch.

Though I was the only person in my church, the spirit of fellowship was strong. The choir was wonderful as usual. I was serenaded to any number of beautiful songs by the birds who signaled the arrival of dawn. I closed my eyes and let them sing their songs to me. I smiled. How Great Thou Art.

As the dawn's light opened my sanctuary to my tired, old eyes, I slowly and quietly turned my head to and fro to see what other of God's creatures was in my sanctuary. The gray body of a whitetail deer materialized out of the fog seventy yards in front of me and then disappeared back into the sanctuary. Squirrels chattered. The distant sound of ducks added to the splendor. I thanked God for being alive to witness the beauty of His creatures, both great and small.

Dead leaves quietly drifted to the forest floor. As I watched individual leaves fall and coat the forest floor with their beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red, I was literally watching God's natural cycle of the fall take place in front of me. If you haven't sat quietly in the woods and watched thousands of leaves fall lazily to the forest floor, you are missing one of God's most beautiful art shows. Go and watch this and you will thank Him for it.

Even amongst the beauty that surrounded me, my predator extinct was on full alert. That's natural, the way it is supposed to be during this season of harvest. As I slowly turned to see what was behind me, three does cautiously picked their way through the underbrush towards me. They sauntered directly under the tree I was sitting in. It wasn't time to kill. It was time to observe and learn. The time to kill and feed my family is coming soon.

Watching the deer amble by reminded me that I had a special invite to this beautiful sanctuary, which is their home and my Season Of Harvest Church. I can think clearly there, have conversations with God. In this church there is no clutter, no e-mail, no cell phone, no pagers, no one to steal my attention. I'm at peace there. I like to be alone there with just my thoughts and memories and rest and recharge my internal batteries.

In a mere few days, the woods will come alive with activity of buck deer. And I will be there in this sanctuary to bear witness to it-as I should be. To be somewhere else would be against who I am.

Something from deep inside me pulls me to Season of Harvest Church. If you listen closely, you hear the voice of God in the wind as it blows through leaves and the treetops. Enter quietly and be still and you'll be welcomed into the sanctuary where you will witness all the natural beauty God has created.

I love animals - they're delicious

But when used for entertainment, beasts can and will kill

Animals give me life. I like to eat them, ride them, pet them, wear them, grow them, watch them, and know in my pure aboriginal predator heart and soul that the health and condition of the animals in our lives are direct indicators of our own quality of life. The wildlife on the sacred Nugent hunting grounds, like all across North America, is thriving, naturally wild and spectacular. Our three Labrador retrievers and stupid old cat are clearly the happiest pets on earth. I love animals, and they love me. Perfect.

And yes, Eloise, that is an American buffalo between my legs. Isn't he adorable? See the snot flying and enraged fire in the eyes? And the bison ain't bad looking, either.

Having made my spectacular rock 'n' roll stage entrance astride a wildly spirited one-ton South Dakota beast for a few hundred protein-infested concerts, no one knows better than I the dynamic of celebrating wild beasts in dramatic and outrageously entertaining ways. I agree with Jack Hannah and other professional critter handlers that wildlife education provided by zoos, circuses, commercial aquariums and various animal spectacles is appreciated best when it occurs on stage with crazed guitar players. I bet my audiences would concur.

With but a cursory review of my annual hunting, fishing and trapping calendar, the evidence is irrefutable that few men have spent more time with wild animals in their natural habitat that this old Motown rocker. The spirit of the mighty beasts fortify my belly and my soul.

My relationship with wild animals is as pure as it gets. I am a hunter, and surely there is no wiser use of renewable wildlife resources than killing them and grilling them. That's why there are more deer, turkey, black bears, cougars and other big game critters in America today than in recorded history. We manage them according to genuine, value-based utility. Go figure.

The only difference between me, and say, Steve Irwin, brain-dead hippie grizzly bear neighbors, religious voodoo rattlesnake witch doctors, homosexual Las Vegas lion huggers, and the Orca handlers at Sea World is that I am smarter and more respectful to the wonderful wildness of such creatures. I don't taunt, probe, prod or bother my wild animals in any way for your entertainment. And though I do hop aboard for a thrilling ride, I am not so stupid as to forget that my buffalo is, and always will be, a wild buffalo. You know, the kind that would just as soon trample you into a bloody puddle of snot and hair than look at you.

Admitting this truism is why I carried a 10mm handgun in my belt during those stage rides, just in case the beast decided to go buffalo on me. A quick 200-grain armor-piercing slug through the back of his head would have made the difference between a momentary increase in entertainment value and a few dozen or more trampled rock fans. I knew this, and I was prepared. I am such a radical pragmatist.

Remember the circus lion tamers of yore, a chair in one hand, a pistol in the other? Prudent and respectful during a time before dangerous animals somehow became cute. The Bambi curse is to defile the wildness of beasts. They are killer whales, not show whales. And don't tell me that grabbing alligators by the tail promotes conservation. Wise use? I think not. Shame on you.

If you want to manage elephants, lions, leopards, camels, stallions, bears or other such phenomenal wild animals, the very least you can do is to show a little respect for the wildness that attracts you to them by being prepared to neutralize the deadliness of that wildness when it erupts. Not if it erupts, when it erupts.

Not a year goes by without some sensational tragedy ruining human and animal lives by careless, disrespectful misuse of these majestic creatures. Either do it right or just put them on display, hands-off, so nobody gets hurt. It is about time that we cut out the selfish make-believe fun of animal abuse for our own desires, and show some respect. Either that, or we have one of two choices for the killer whales in captivity out there right now - Muktuk or sushi for the masses. Take your pick.

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Ted Nugent is an unstoppable American rock 'n' roll, sporting and political activist icon. His best-selling books, Ted, White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto and God, Guns and Rock 'N' Roll (Regnery Publishing) are available at the Tednugent.com Store.

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Source: The Washington Times

Godbless The Children

Braelyn is a beautiful eleven year old young lady and Nathanial is a fine, fourteen year old young man. Their smiles said it all. Under the glow of a burning Texas sun, they took turns carefully working the bolt of the lightweight Henry Repeating Arms .22 rifle. With the "aim small, miss small" mantra of a professional sniper, they zeroed in on the tiny bullseyes of the Caldwell targets and punched one ragged hole after another, shot after shot, celebrating the inescapable joys of our beloved marksmanship discipline. What we have here is the purest form of shooting fun known to mankind. One God given, US Constitutionally guaranteed individual right, coming up!

Kids and guns. Perfect indeed.

Make no mistake, in the world of logic, self evident truth, goodwill, decency and quality American family life, there are few activities that connect every age, lifestyle or walk of life so positively as the shooting sports in all their various forms. I don't care where you come from or how you live, when introduced to the ultimate good, clean family fun of plinking, there is not a man, woman or child that fails to get a serious rise out of a casual day of shooting. It is pure, natural and contagious when approached thoughtfully.

I suppose I could go into detail about the difference between conscientious, supervised shooting fun and the criminal curse of gangbanging and dangerous, irresponsible gunplay, but I won't. We will leave that for apologetic whiners and excuse makers of the spiritually challenged left. Adios, MoFo.

The Nugent family is certainly blessed to be welcomed into so many American families' lives via the requests by their children each year, every year for many, many years. That they even think of the ol' MotorCity Madman WhackMaster is a testimony to their connection to what I ultimately stand for, and their families' comfort level allowing me to take them in and teach them to hunt, fish, trap, shoot and explore the wilds is all the evidence I will ever need to know that I am on the right course. I shall carry on. In fact, I shall turn up the heat, thank you.

The greatest and bravest kids in the world make the trip out to our SpiritWild Ranch in central Texas each year. Many are very ill, and are helped out by the generous donations by Americans to charities like Hunt of A Lifetime, Wish Upon A Star, Dream Weavers, Safari Club International, Texas' own Legacy Outfitters, our own Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids and Freedom's Angels, and numerous other wonderful non-profit organizations.

Even though some soulless administrator at the Make A Wish Foundation created the heartless policy to not grant hunting wishes to terminally ill children, I work with them often too. But when the kids show up from that otherwise fine, loving organization, I take them hunting anyway. Improvise, adapt, defy and overcome-that's what I always say.

To witness the momentary escape from their pain and suffering as these very special young boys and girls enjoy archery, firearms, fishing and just stretching out in the wild, it surely cleanses and fortifies the soul. It is magic to all involved.

On this exciting adventure, Braelyn and Nate had, according to them, two of the most "funnest days of their lives" with us recently. They picked up on precision shooting and archery skills like fish to water. In fact it was hard to get them to put the guns and bows and arrows down at all in order to get to the serious business of mesquite grilled backstrap. Serious, serious stuff!

They were our guests through the Herculean efforts of another grand charity created by American Airlines right here in Texas, called the Snowball Express. They assist in helping the children of our heroic US Military warriors who have made the ultimate sacrifice by volunteering and dying for their country. The families of the US Warriors sacrifice much too, and the least we can do is to give back as much as humanly possible to show our deep appreciation for the incredible gift of freedom that is paid for by the blood of these warriors.

We are so very proud of Americans and Texans who just keep on giving and giving. When a child needs help, there is never a shortage of generosity in this great land.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled for such charity events, work and opportunities. Give all you can and do all you can. I promise you, nothing in life will bring you a more powerful sense of gratification and fulfillment than sharing our outdoors passions with the kids, anywhere, anytime, anyplace, anyhow. Do it.

God bless the children. God bless them all.

To find out more about these various charities bringing happiness to kids everywhere, go to the Involvement area of the website.

Never forget these warriors' gift to us

We know that without the sacrifices that underlie Memorial Day, there would be no Independence Day, no freedoms, no America. The entire world would be a much darker place - one of tyranny, slavery and oppression.

Memorial Day is our day to give thanks and remember those heroes who paid the ultimate sacrifice so that freedom's flame burns brightly. They are the very tip of freedom's lance. All good people owe them dearly.From Bunker Hill to the walls of the Alamo, to the farm fields at Gettysburg, to the beaches at Normandy, to the Afghanistan mountains and every other piece of hallowed ground where Americans have fought and died, Old Glory still proudly dances in the wind of freedom.

American warriors ensured that not only would we continue to be free but that America would continue to be a beacon of freedom for all the world.

Our enemies can knock down our buildings. But mortar, brick and steel do not America make.

What makes America is the irrepressible spirit and undying love of freedom.

It is the American warrior who is willing to fight and die to protect the God-given rights of all people.

On this Memorial Day I encourage each of you to spend a few moments and quietly offer a prayer of thanks to those who paid for your freedom with their lives.

The next time you have the chance, take your children and walk reverently through a military cemetery. Stop at each white cross. Read the names on the tombstones.

These are the names of freedom.

It is our duty as parents and citizens to ensure that our children and grandchildren know that freedom is not free, that it is paid for with the blood and lives of warriors.

To quote President Reagan: "We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so that we may always be free."

Memorial Day is the most important American holiday. May God eternally bless the American warrior.

Source: Waco Tribune

Us vs. pirates

The best of the best saved the kidnapped captain, killed three bad guys and captured a fourth.

Those of us who cherish justice and good over evil salute the heroes of the American special ops and a commander in chief who gave the green light to do the right thing. God bless the warriors

But if common sense and logic were observed, this life-threatening damage control would not be necessary.

Ah, the adventurous captain's dream sailing the vast oceans of the world.

I've got this big, hypothetical old scow, sailing from port to port, loaded up with goods to deliver to buyers. I've been doing it for time immemorial. Captain Nuge, reporting for duty. The last Boy Scout lives.

A hypothetical voyage

My ship is sturdy and well maintained.

My crew is the best - tough, rugged, jacks of all trades.

As for me, as captain of my hypothetical ship, it is my duty to study conditions in all the geographical zones, and keep in constant touch with my government agencies so that I can avoid dangerous conditions, whether they be weather or otherwise.

For example, self defense being the most basic of human instincts, no individual, much less a ship cruising international waters in these uncertain times, would ever accept the irresponsible condition of unarmed helplessness.

So, as captain, I take steps to adequately protect myself, my crew, my cargo.

As other countries insanely emboldened pirates by paying their ransoms, we've all known it would just be a matter of time before these punk gangs would attack a ship sailing under the American flag.

We know that. Bring it.

Each man under my command has his own M16 and 2,000 rounds of ammo. Every third sailor is also equipped with a standard M37 grenade launcher attached to his M16 with a gross of grenades. And these boys are all American Sgt. York sniper marksmen, I assure you. We are not all Navy SEALs, but we try.

We have diligently trained to keep a 10-man rotating 24-hour red alert watch detail. Any vessel approaching within 1,000 yards will trigger an "all hands on deck" alarm and the firing of one 20-round burst. Then if it does not turn back, our ship will literally blow it out of the water.

Just as God gave us the individual right to bear arms to protect one's self, so my ship is protected. A flag flies under our American flag with a coiled yellow snake and the words, "Don't tread on me." Not only is it a cool phrase, we actually mean it.

I cannot fathom the soulless mind-set of choosing unarmed helplessness. It goes against the very pulse of mankind.

This is my life, this is my ship, this cargo is in my care. Helplessness invites and promotes evil to do as evil does. On my ship of life, just the opposite message resonates:

Keep your little terrorist dinghy at home, boys, or I will turn you into shark food. Bon voyage.

Source: Waco Tribune

Be defiant; fight for 10th Amendment

You may have noticed I am a big fan of rugged individualism, self-reliance, individual freedoms, liberty, self-determination and defiance — heavy on the defiance.

These uniquely American characteristics course through our veins and pulse in our genes, gifts from our amazing, defiant forefathers.

They sailed across an unknown ocean, to an unknown land, to establish a country free of kings and tyrants.

In securing our freedom, they wrote a constitution that limited the power of the federal government.

They knew even back then that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Of the Bill of Rights, the 10th Amendment says this: Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved for the states, respectively, or to the people.

Now, I am no lawyer or windbag lawmaker. But I find those words easy to understand.

You need not be a constitutional scholar to know the 10th Amendment was written to limit the abusive growth of power by the federal government.

As Thomas Jefferson stated, “The States should be left to do whatever acts they can do as well as the federal government.”

The current gang of political punks, scoundrels and crooks in Washington, D.C., is not worthy to stand in Jefferson’s shadow.

In an attempt to weaken the roles and responsibilities of the states, Fedzilla has worked tirelessly over the years to destroy the 10th Amendment. Fed interlopers have argued that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution is more important and relevant than the 10th Amendment.

We have stood by as Fedzilla has grown exponentially and has become a repressive force in every facet of our lives.

But there is hope for the rights of states to determine their own destinies.

Texas, under the leadership of the good Gov. Rick Perry, is joining 16 other states that have already made their defiant, sovereign statement of autonomy, appropriately.

They have now evoked the 10th Amendment to put the brakes on Emperor Obama’s mob-like fiscal mandates, attempting to force states to accept the so-called stimulus money and thereby become slaves to Fedzilla control.

With unprecedented gluttony, Emperor Obama is bankrupting the future of our children and grandchildren.

Perry is doing the right thing. For of all the states, Texas must never allow itself to become a slave to Washington, D.C.

Instead, we Texans must chart our own economic destiny and recovery by refusing the stimulus money, freezing state spending, cutting state taxes across the board and offering tax incentives to existing and new businesses. Additionally, I urge the governor to immediately call a conference of Texas business leaders and request they develop a Texas economic road map for recovery. Let Texas lead the way.

Tell Emperor Obama not to mess with Texas. Don’t tread on me.

In the spirit of the brave defenders who gave birth to Texas by giving their lives at the Alamo, I say “Remember the 10th Amendment.”

Source: Waco Tribune

Here's how to solve the economic crisis

In a crisis, hysterical people will squaller, “Do something.” Throwing a cinder block to a drowning person qualifies as “something” — the wrong something.

Alarmingly, our government is now tossing out cinder blocks to solve the financial crisis.

The result: America, already drowning in unsustainable mountains of debt, is proceeding to pile on more of the same.

The pork-stimulus bill that President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have cooked up will fail miserably at creating new jobs and reversing our economic kamikaze swan dive.

It is weighed down by irresponsible, ineffective, wasteful spending, which for Washington, D.C., spells S-T-A-T-U-S Q-U-O.

It is not just Obama who wants to feed the grossly obese Fedzilla. Former President George W. Bush fed Fedzilla mountains of our tax dollars, too. According to the Wall Street Journal, during Bush’s tenure America witnessed the largest expansion of Fedzilla spending since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society boondoggle.

Now Obama offers a menu of spending items that is the most irresponsible in history:

* Billions for Fedzilla’s railroad, Amtrak.

Shamtrack, I call it, is the little railroad that couldn’t make a profit.

It should be derailed.

* Millions more wasted on the global-warming scam of the century.

Here’s how we can save this cash: We agree the Earth warms and cools. We admit this is a naturally occurring cycle and there is nothing we can do about it. We admit Al Gore is a fraud and a global-warming Ponzi schemer. We take back both his Nobel Prize and documentary Oscar.

* Billions more wasted feeding Medicaid. Give me one week with some smart, savvy business people and we will come up with a private-sector, cost-effective, efficient health care program that does not include Fedzilla and its gluttonous, unaccountable tax-dollar bonfire.

* Billions to feed Fedzilla’s Department of Lack of Education.

We can save this cash by parents checking their children’s homework and unplugging computers and video games.

According to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, only about 12 cents of every dollar in the pork-stimulus bill will create new jobs.

The way out of this mess is permanent tax cuts across the board. Find a tax and slash it at least in half. This will ignite the fuel of private industry and create new jobs to yank us out of the economic abyss in months, not years.

Along with tax cuts, Fedzilla’s spending should be slashed by 25 percent.

Imagine how the stock market would instantly respond to that bold, new approach.

Instead, the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress have thrown a concrete block to drowning Americans and called it a life preserver.

Source: Waco Tribune

A tip of my hat

It all began innocently enough for a Yankee Motor City guitar player beckoning the spirit of the great, fire-breathing musical beasts of sweaty stages around the world.

I’d be in my best goin’-to-church primal-scream loincloth, sometimes just jeans and a raggedy old camouflaged sleeveless shirt.

Then one hell-raising night many years ago someone tossed a tattered old cowboy hat up onto the stage.

Truth be told, the rest is history. I believe I caught it mid-beat in midflight, yanked it tight onto my head, and danced a one-man, buckin’ bronco greasy two-step like no one ever before.

It turned out that the beat-up old sombrero came in handy. It kept my flying, sweat-drenched locks out of my eyes. And somehow that cowboy hat ended up going on tour with me from then on.

More cowboy hats started showing up. I began wearing them on and off the stage. Not only did they look cool, they had practical applications in my adventurous outdoors lifestyle.

There is, after all, a fun-loving, rough-and-tumble cowboy somewhere deep down inside all of us. By the time I moved to Texas, I fit right in.

Then I discovered that the ultimate American cowboy hat epicenter, and probably the ultimate cowboy hat guru, was right here in my new hometown of Waco. It seems that country-and-western music personalities and, of course, real honest-to-God, cow-punching hombres from around the country, consider Lenny Lawson their go-to hat master.

Some people were born to build bridges. Some were born to design spacecraft. Clearly Lenny was born to design and crease cowboy hats.

Central Texas retains that timeless spirit of the Wild West in many ways. The hands-on ranching lifestyle is alive and well in these parts.

Lenny has the hat end of things well under control. If you were ever inclined to find that perfect-shaped cowboy hat, this guy can get ’er done to perfection.

In his little Standard Hat Works shop at 1826 Circle Road in Waco, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, are row after row, rack after rack of cowboy hats of every color and description — straw, felt, cloth, canvas, work hats, fun hats, dress hats.

You don’t have to wait for the rodeo to come to town to don a cowboy hat. In fact, you don’t even have to own a horse.

Lenny can shape them to look cool or to just keep the sun off your face and neck.

I cannot imagine trying to deal with the ubiquitous Texas sunshine without my cowboy hat shielding my eyeballs.

I say if you’re going to be a full-on Texan, there’s nothing that says it more than a perfectly shaped cowboy hat.

Say it loud and proud. Time to Texas-up.

Source: Waco Tribune

Gitmo for Your Freedom Dollar

Amazingly, President Bush said he wanted to close it. Now President Obama has signed an executive order to close it.

And I disagree with both of them. I say we keep Guantanamo Bay open.

I have been to Gitmo to visit with the US Marines running what I believe to be an essential institution for the pivotal security of a free world. The Marines I spoke with told me that they would never turn their backs on any of the dangerous terrorpunks held at Gitmo.

Job number one of the president is to keep the US safe. Make no mistake, Gitmo is home to some of the world's most violent subhuman rabid dog punks on the planet whose clear and stated life’s goal is to destroy America and all those who don’t follow Islam. These religious psychos, barbarians, killers and terrorists need to be kept in cages far away from America. Gitmo serves that purpose and serves it well.

I believed President Bush when he said Gitmo houses human debris who, if released, would do whatever they can to bring harm, death and destruction to America. These
vermin would cut your head off in a heartbeat if given the opportunity. Know this.

And what Bush said has been proven time and again.  Too many of the more than 500 enemy combatants brought to Gitmo have already been released and more than 60 of them have gone back to the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan to kill Americans. About eighteen of them have been recaptured or killed. Thank you very much ACLU.

The only ones who remain are either proven vicious terrorist scum – the worst of the worst – or people who we can’t send back to where they were caught or to their homeland because no one will take them.  Fine.  Leave ‘em at Gitmo forever.

Some of the remaining vermin including the subhuman debris who planned the September 11th attacks and who want to die so that they can become martyrs. Only a fool would dare think about compromising the lockdown on these animals.

President Obama and Eric Holder, Obama's choice for Attorney General, are against the military commissions trying the remaining terrorpunks at Gitmo. Holder wants to kill those commissions and replace them with a process that provides the terrorpunks with more due process, probably in civilian courtts. Obama supports that belief and has suspended these commissions for 120 days, so far.

That’s ironic considering that while Holder was the number two guy at the Justice Department during the Clinton administration that he supported and lobbied in 1999 for the commutation of the sentences for 16 members of the FALN and another terrorist organization who had been convicted of bank robbery, possession of explosives and other crimes. This was done to help secure the Puerto Rican vote for Mrs. Clinton's senate campaign. With this kind of logic, do not be surprised if Holder lobbies for parole for Charlie Manson if his mindless followers promise to vote Democratic.

The Wall Street Journal reported on January 16 that CIA Director Hayden stated that making the CIA adhere to the Army Field Manual's interrogation techniques would limit the agency to a number of interrogation practices that al-Queda and the rest of the sumpunks know about and train their people to resist. Director Hayden further stated that half of critical intelligence gained on al Qaeda in 2006 came from fewer than 100 terrormaggots the CIA was holding. If waterboarding these vermin will help keep Americans safe, I’m all for it.  And I’d bet you are, too.

In an interview with CNN's Larry King before he left office, President Bush stated there are very evil people in the world who want to bring harm to America. Let us hope President Obama was watching and took careful notes.

Let us hope President Obama listens to professional CIA officers instead of intelligence lightweight CIA Director Panetta. Let us hope President Obama gets a full briefing on the killers at Gitmo and determines that Gitmo is the best place for them. Let us hope President Obama continues with the lawful wiretapping program launched by President Bush to identify potential terrorpunks. Let us hope President Obama cares more about our security than some terrorpunk's so-called rights.

We should never give the Gitmo terror scumpunks what they want, not even death. We should also not cave into international and domestic hippy pressure to close Gitmo. We should only make decisions that are in the best interest of America. 

I say we leave Guantanamo Bay open for business and put up a big sign at the entrance: Welcome to Gitmo: justice here is served cold.

Source: HumanEvents.com

Why gun sales are surging

I read more than one report of the surge of civilian firepower sales when it appeared that Obama would be elected.

Reason: Freedom lovers do not trust Obama.

His choice of Eric Holder to be attorney general bolsters that distrust.

Like Obama, Holder is a gun-control zealot -typical of the loony, anti-freedom wing of the Democratic Party.

Do not believe the president's thinly veiled statements about supporting an individual's right to own guns. Rather, review these men's previous, career-long, freedom-restricting, gun-grabbing statements.

Holder consistently has supported gun bans and raising the age at which someone can purchase a weapon. He's supported registration and licensing, waiting periods, and his all-time favorite and the felon's dream: gun-free zones.

Losing in court

Last year Holder signed an amicus brief in support of the Washington, D.C., ban on all handguns and the use of a gun for self-defense in D.C. homes.

He stated that the Second Amendment wasn't meant for individuals but was only intended for government militias.

The Supreme Court found otherwise. It repealed DC's anti-freedom, pro-crime gun-control law. The Supreme Court voted for freedom. The good guys won.

Mysteriously, when Holder worked for President Bill Clinton and was in charge of the instant background check system, the system was routinely broken and off-line. Miraculously, when the Bush administration took over in 2001 the system rarely broke down. I smell a Fedzilla ratfink.

Truth is, what Holder really supports is more law-abiding citizens being victimized by recidivistic, violent punks on parole.

While he is personally protected by heavily armed law-enforcement officers, he does not believe you and I have a right to protect ourselves and our loved ones with a gun. He's a hypocrite.

Our founding fathers supported an individual's right to own guns. Unlike Obama and Holder, those vanguards of freedom understood that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness can not be achieved without being able to protect yourself and your loved ones from human scum who would deny you your fundamental God-given rights.

What our new president and his attorney general obviously want is control. Studying other gun-grabbing regimes of the past, they know the first thing that needs to be done to turn us from citizens to subjects is to disarm us.

My advice to American freedom lovers: Buy more guns and ammo, and join the National Rifle Association.

Kill This Porkosaurus

I’m a hunter, and proud of it. Most of my best hours are spent in the field, sometimes chasing dangerous game. I’m on the track of one, a bigger more dangerous critter than I’ve ever hunted before: the Obama-Pelosi Porkosaurus.

The Porkosaurus is plenty dangerous by itself. It subsidizes unemployment by increasing unemployment benefits. And, as the man said, when you subsidize something you get more of it. It doesn’t spend anything -- not one thin dime -- on the one thing that economists say is guaranteed to stimulate the economy, defense spending. And its whole purpose is to feed Fedzilla and make it grow even bigger, swallowing our economy whole.

In a crisis, hysterical, wrongheaded, ignorant people will squall and holler to "do something." Reasonable people with a modicum of intellect know that throwing a cinder block to a drowning person qualifies as "something", but surely it is the wrong something.

Amazingly, some of these same reasonable people continue to look to Fedzilla to solve the financial crisis that this bloated beast created. Result: America is drowning in
unsustainable mountains of debt and deficits and threatening to do more of the same. President Obama and his Democratic cronies on Capital Hill want to pile on more debt and more deficits that will further destroy the US economy.

President Obama and Nancy Pelosi's trillion-dollar Porkosaurus bill will fail miserably at creating new jobs and reversing our economic kamikaze swan dive. The bill is weighed down by irresponsible, ineffective, wasteful spending which is the status quo in Washington DC.

It is not just President Obama who wants to feed the grossly obese Fedzilla. President Bush fed Fedzilla mountains of our tax dollars, too. According to the Wall Street Journal, during his tenure America witnessed the largest expansion of Fedzilla spending since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society boondoggle. Many of the Republican House and Senate members voted in support of expanding Fedzilla. They deserve to get tossed out of power.

But now President Obama is in charge of feeding Fedzilla and he has wasted no time in advocating a trillion-dollar pork dinner for The Beast. The menu of spending items is the most irresponsible pile of pork in the history of our country.

In a January 28 op-ed the Wall Street Journal did an outstanding job of identifying the waste in Pork-stimulus. The following are a couple of shameful examples.

There is one billion for Fedzilla's railroad, Amtrak. Shamtrack, as I call it, has not been profitable for decades, and probably never will be. The Shamtrack Xpress to financial hell should be derailed.

$400 million more of our tax dollars are scheduled to be wasted on the global-warming scam of the century. Here's how we save this cash: We agree the earth warms and cools. We admit that warming and cooling is a naturally occurring cycle that has to do with the sun and that there is nothing we can do about it. We admit Al Gore is a fraud and a global warming Ponzi-schemer. Then we take back Al's Grammy and documentary award.

$81 billion will be wasted on feeding Medicaid. Give me one week with some smart, savvy business people and we will come up with a private-sector, cost effective, efficient health care program that does not include Fedzilla and its gluttonous unaccountable tax dollar bonfire.

$66 billion is scheduled to be fed to Fedzilla's Department of Lack of Education. We can save this cash by parents just checking their child's homework and cutting the cords to computer and video games.

$83 billion more will be spent on providing earned income credit for people who do not pay taxes. I am all for earned income. No one gets a dime unless you earn it.

$54 billion is scheduled to be overtly wasted on Fedzilla programs that Fedzilla's very own Office of Management and Budget or the Government Accounting Office has labeled as "ineffective" and can not pass a financial audit. There is no accountability. None.

According to the Wall Street Journal, only about twelve cents of every dollar in the trillion-dollar Pork-stimulus will jump start the economy and create new jobs. I trust the WSJ much more than I do President Obama or Nancy Pelosi.

As I outlined in my book, TED WHITE & BLUE-The Nugent Manifesto, the way out of this economic mess is permanent tax cuts across the board. Find a tax and slash it at least in half. This will ignite the fuel of private industry and will instantly create new jobs and yank us out of the economic abyss in months, not years.

Along with tax cuts, Fedzilla spending should be slashed by 25 percent. Imagine how the stock market would instantly respond to that bold, new approach.

It is now up the Senate to do what is right for America and kill the Porkosaurus. I beg of them not to throw a concrete block to drowning Americans and call it a life preserver.

Source: Human Events

Louie Gohmert voice of sanity in face of insane government spending

He's a new hero of mine, the kind of independent Texan who makes the Nugent family proud to be residents of the last best place in the last best place.

Unlike Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who wants to toss the second installment of the $350 billion taxpayer dollar bailout at Wall Street and hope that this massive wad of cash sticks and does something positive for the economy, Gohmert, a Tyler Republican, instead wants to give Americans a two-month tax holiday. He also advocates that taxpayers should pay no federal income taxes for 2008.

That's right, a two-month, $350 billion tax holiday and no income taxes for 2008.

This would be massive wads of your money staying in your pockets where it belongs, surely doing more for the sagging economy than using it to bail out Wall Street or the automotive industry.

I suggest a monument to Gohmert on the Capitol Mall for these great ideas.

Of course, Fedzilla enablers such as Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reject Gohmert's proposal because they believe government knows how to better spend your money than you do.

Gohmert understands that reducing the size of government is the key to an American economic revival. Federal income taxes, FICA, state income taxes, death taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, permit taxes, license taxes, registration taxes, hidden taxes, etc., are what is killing the American economy.

When the government takes half of what we earn, it is not surprising that Americans are not saving anything.

Tax cuts are always the answer to jump-starting the economy. It appears even President-elect Obama is beginning to see that simple economic truism.

Taxpayers are partially to blame for the financial mess created by Fedzilla. We have sat idly by and drank the bureaucratic Kool-Aid and slowly surrendered our financial independence to big-government bureaucrats.

We should have been snarling watchdogs of the bureaucrats with our tax dollars stuffed in their bloated wallets.

If Obama is the new political messiah to millions of Americans who do not know how the economy works or why tax cuts are always good for the economy, then Congressman Gohmert is a new superhero to millions of Americans. They want to return tax dollars to the people who earned them.

Thomas Jefferson said it best; "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

Ya think?

What America needs now more that ever is more elected officials like Gohmert. He understands that individuals and businesses are the engines that drive our economy, not a bloated, ineffective, lethargic, wasteful Fedzilla that destroys everything it touches.

More government bailouts and spending are not the answer. They are the problem.

Nugent for Drug Czar

One of the most dangerous places on earth is our own 2,000 mile border with Mexico. Our southern border is a drug war zone, and we are losing the fight. Know it.

So dangerous is our border that Arizona Governor Napolitano has declared a state of emergency along the Arizona/Mexico border due to drug trafficking, shootouts and an increasing illegal immigration invasion.

Our Justice Department stated in April that Mexican drug cartels are the "largest threat to both citizens and law enforcement agencies in this country and now have gang members in nearly 200 U.S. cities." This in the big, bad, brave United States of America! How can this be? DOJ admits it, so now what?

There isn't a city in America that has not been scorched by drug-related violence.

In 2008, the Mexican drug cartels killed more than 4,000 people. Almost 500 Mexican police officers and soldiers have been murdered since January 2007. It is a nonstop orgy of vicious, violent crimes against law-abiding Americans living along that border and increasing acts of violence against our Border Patrol agents. This is unbelievable and totally unacceptable.

The drug cartels are extremely well financed and armed. They are as evil an adversary as the voodoo terrorist Taliban our soldiers face in Afghanistan.

President Obama has stated he will go after the cartels and increase efforts to combat gang-related crime. Good. But he had better be prepared to wage war with them with more than just soaring rhetoric.

I am aware there are prominent conservatives who make strong arguments in favor of legalizing drugs. Their argument is that legalizing drugs will take the crime out of drugs. Not only do I not believe that, but I have never been in favor of pouring gas on a blazing fire in hopes of extinguishing it, which is what I believe will happen if ever we are foolish enough to legalize drug use in America.

We have all the laws we need to fight drugs. What America needs is the will-power and a renewed warrior spirit to crush evil and evil doers.

We need a Drug Czar who will commit to the American people to stopping at least 50% of the illegal drugs flowing into the country within the first year of the Obama Administration. That's the kind of leadership America wants and deserves from its government.

Call me, President Obama. Hippies, dope heads, corrupt politicos and various other human debris hate me, which makes me the perfect man for the job.

As Drug Czar, I would charge our mayors and police departments to commit to fighting the drug gangs their top priority. Our inner cities will remain war zones until we commit to taking the trash out.

America needs to better arm our Border Patrol agents and we need more of them. The governors of the border states should call out the National Guard to assist the Border Patrol in securing the border. As Drug Czar, I would challenge them to do this today.

I would work with the Mexican government and other Central American nations to root out and arrest and/or kill the drug kingpins and their underlings. Working with the Columbian government a few years back, U.S. Special Forces filled Pablo Escobar full of bullet holes. Until assuming room temperature, Escobar was one of the world's richest
cocaine smugglers and controlled 80% of all the cocaine shipped into America.

I am not naïve enough to believe we can ever fully eradicate drugs. However, as America's Drug Czar, I would put a big hurt on the drug kingpins and consumers like they have never seen. Every American who smokes dope, manufactures, buys or sells meth or uses any illegal drugs is aiding and abetting the enemies of America. Case closed. This spiritual inbreeding and cannibalism must be identified, admitted to and stopped immediately. America can, and must do this. Good over evil. Next.

Source: Human Events

Detroit auto industry should solve own problems, not raid our money

My 2009 resolution revolution

Toward upgrading ourselves, they're personal, national

With a salty, melancholy tear dripping from my overworked, bloodshot eyeballs, I bade a farewell to a most wonderful 2008.

Yes, 2008 - meaning Young Ted had been raising maximum hell and having the time of his life an amazing 60 years from its start.

Sixty. It's truly outrageous - the Defiant One carrying on with no signs of slowing down.

I had the most intense, enjoyable, pure animal rocking concert tour of my life. I enjoyed the kind of target-rich, protein-tsunami hunting season of which dreams are made. I had another New York Times best seller - Ted, White, and Blue.

My "Spirit of the Wild" was the No. 1-rated TV show on the Outdoor Channel again. I was inducted into the American Bowhunters Hall Of Fame alongside my many "mystical flight of the arrow" BloodBrother heroes.

Health, family, friends, happiness and dreams aglow with no end in sight. How possible? No mystery here. It's all so very simple. I work hard and give it all I've got each and every day. No excuses, no whining, no compromise, no cutting corners. I ask not what my country must do for me, but rather what I must do for my country.

For this new year, I think I will stick with my proven modus operandi of excellence - only bigger and better.

Upgrade: It's good for you. Pursuant, I will:

• Work harder and smarter, maximize and prioritize to all new heights.
• Eat even smarter, though my basic diet is exceptional.
• Exercise a little more.
• Give even more of my time to quality charities.
• Increase my "we the people" activism to turn up the heat on politicians and bureaucrats across the land, demanding logic and accountability from corrupt government goons.
• Continue to give away many National Rifle Association memberships to the deserving.
• Teach and recruit more people into the world of shooting sports and our glorious outdoor hunting, fishing and trapping conservation lifestyle.
• Give away many guns and much ammo to loving family and friends.
• Buy another machine gun and pallets of ammo for myself, and shoot till I can't stand it anymore.
• Plant more trees.
• Encourage everyone to be more conservative and conscientious in their consumption to reduce the gluttonous waste exhibited by so many Americans.
• Raise as much hell as I can to expose the dangerous, counterproductive lies of the global-warming fraud.
• Eat more wild game.
• Hug and kiss Mrs. Nugent more, if that's possible - and bring her flowers more often.
• Shop locally and patronize more neighborhood small businesses.
• Intensify efforts to get friends to quit smoking and eating dangerously.
• Jam louder and more ferociously on my guitars as a musical prayer to create the ultimate soundtrack for the U.S. military heroes to finally wrap up this war on terror, which they are ready, willing and able to do if only the spineless, dysfunctional bureaucrats would just unleash them to do so.

I hereby resolve that overall, my gifted life in 2009 will be more intense and gratifying than ever before.

Israel's Path To Peace

There comes a point when violence is clearly the only answer. Peace most often throughout history is achieved through the application of relentless and superior firepower. Now is such a time for Israel.

Israel must defeat utterly the rabid, voodoo vermin known as Hamas. After launching more than three thousand rockets and mortars into Israel within the last year, Israel has every right and obligation to destroy Hamas. No nation can be expected to tolerate such a bombardment.

Cease-fires and negotiations never last with terrorist scumpunks because evil, hateful terrorists do not want to live in peace: they worship violence and don’t see their opponents -- be it us or the Israelis -- as human beings. Hamas, Hizballah and other soulless people such as Iran's Ahmadinijad apply vicious religious voodoo logic by believing killing non-Muslims, especially Jews, pleases Allah. Never forget these voodoo killers have vowed the complete destruction of Israel.

The world should know that Hamas started this latest round of violence by launching missiles into Israel. A December 29 article in the New York Times reported that Hamas has fired over 10,000 rockets and mortars into Israel since 2001. Failing to destroy Hamas today will only embolden these cockroaches to launch even more rockets and mortars at Israel tomorrow.

Let us be honest: mankind will be much better off when Israel destroys Hamas' strongholds in Gaza and captures or kills all of the Hamas militants and those who support them. Like all cockroaches, the only good terrorist is a dead one.

Total warfare is the answer if Israel is committed to protecting its people and breaking the back of the Hamas terrorists and the network that supports them. Not the kind of Donald Rumsfeld "Shock & Awe-shucks" selective warfare, but rather the General Sherman "scorched earth" military policies that broke the back of the Confederacy during our Civil War.

Israel shouldn't stop its offensive until the Hamas terrorists are dead and those who support terrorism accept the fact that they’ve been defeated. Wipe them out. That would send a powerful message to other terrorist scumpunks, voodoo regimes, despots and tyrants; "Don't tread on me."

By intentionally sacrificing much of Gaza and as many of their voodoo stooges as possible, Hamas is hoping to unite the Arab world against Israel and start another all-out war. Not surprisingly, terrorist leaders from Iran and Hizballah support Hamas. Punks of a terrorist feather flock together and should be shot down like the toxic crows that they are.

As I write this, Israel has so far turned a deaf ear to international pressure from the white-flag-waving French to suspend their air assault on Hamas. Good. Listening to the French is rarely a good idea. And they’ve done just what they should by sending ground forces in to root out the Hamas networks, seize or destroy their arsenal of missiles and defeat them decisively.

One of the biggest problems Israel and America face is the fact that Hamas and other terrorist groups find safe havens among the terrorist nations. Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas, isn’t sticking his scrawny neck out in Gaza. He lives in comfort and safety in Damascus, Syria. Which means Israel can’t win in Gaza without going into Syria and taking out the terrorist networks there. Hamas isn’t alone in Syria: the biggest and most dangerous terrorist organization -- the Iranian-backed Hizballah -- is there, too.

In truth, Israel can’t win in Gaza: but it can win in Syria and Iran.

Peace remains the ultimate objective in the Middle East, but rabid dogs such as the militants who compose Hamas, Hezbollah and dangerous regimes such as Iran can not, must not be tolerated by civilized nations and and true peace-loving people. These voodoo-inspired terrorists must have no seat at the peace table because they do not respect peace.

Peace can sometimes only be achieved through superior firepower. The civilized world must completely support Israel in their efforts to exterminate Hamas and end its operations for good and all. What say you, Mr. President-elect? Whose side are you on?

Source: Human Events

Bailout Has Lemon Scent

Want to bail out the auto industry? First consider these two rules for living:

* Never reward negative behavior unless you want more of it.

* Never throw good money after bad.

That should settle the debate. Taxpayers shouldn't bail out the automobile industry or any other industry.

There is constitutional authority for the decades of poor management decisions, forecasting and labor deals that have put GM, the nation's largest automobile maker, perilously close to going belly-up.

The $700 billion bailout Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is to be used only for bailing out financial institutions, not automobile companies skating on thin financial ice.

If he is a good and honest steward of taxpayer dollars, Treasury Secretary Paulson will deny the Big Three's request to be included in TARP.

Congress created a $25 billion loan program through the Department of Energy to help the Big Three. This loan program should be utilized by the Big Three instead of wanting to be included in TARP.

GM, Ford and Chrysler are sinking ships. With cash reserves dwindling, their only viable option is to try and stay afloat in these turbulent economic seas through bankruptcy.

It isn't a question of if GM will file for bankruptcy protection but, rather when. Bankruptcy will provide GM the necessary protection and some time to possibly turn a dying automotive dinosaur into a smaller, lithe, profitable company that is sized for its shrunken market share. "Possibly" being the operative word.

For their protection

Filing Chapter 11 protection protects GM from itself. Bankruptcy could free GM from costly labor contracts, provide them the opportunity to restructure hugely expensive pension programs and renegotiate health benefits. Other unprofitable assets could also be amputated.

Should GM emerge from the bankruptcy operating table with a heartbeat, odds are GM is never going to be the global automotive giant it once was. The automotive world is much more competitive than, say, 40 years ago when GM, Chrysler and Ford ruled the automotive world from my beloved Motor City.

While the UAW may believe GM, Ford and Chrysler are in business to provide automotive workers a salary and other costly benefits, the reality is that car companies are in business to make a profit.

The UAW's costly benefit demands over the years coupled with weak automotive management who historically caved into the UAW's demands put the automotive bolts to the shareholders and the Big Three on the path to possible extinction.

Contrary to Michael Moore's disingenuous and anti-free-market automotive movie Roger and Me , profit must drive all business decisions. Even a goofy guitar player knows that a business that fails to focus on profits and does not constantly look to the future ultimately is going out of business.

Those of us who have lived and worked in and around the Motor City have watched it slowly rust into oblivion over the past 25 years.

The decline of the Motor City should be used as a case study in every business school in America on how not to sink an industry and destroy a city in the process with denial-driven feelgood, liberal suicide policies.

Bailing out GM with billions of taxpayer dollars is the wrong approach. GM is not too big to fail. What GM may be is too unprofitable to stay in business.

Source: Waco Tribune

Happy Nuge Year

With a salty, melancholy tear dripping from my overworked, bloodshot eyeballs, I bid a heartfelt farewell and emotional adios to a most wonderful 2008. 2008 mind you! Young Ted still raising maximum hell and having the time of his life all these amazing sixty years later. Sixty! God love that unstoppable, effervescent American Dream.

Truly outrageous if you dare to really think about it. Me, the Defiant One, carrying on with no signs of slowing down. This year, I had the most intense, enjoyable, pure animal rocking concert tour of my life. And on top of that was a target rich, protein-tsunami hunting season that dreams are made of. Another New York Times best seller.

Our “Spirit of the Wild” is the number one-rated TV show on Outdoor Channel again. Being inducted into the prestigious American Bowhunters Hall Of Fame right alongside my many “mystical flight of the arrow” BloodBrother heroes. Health, family, friends, happiness and dreams aglow with no end in sight. Wild as wild can get!

No mystery here. It is all so very simple, it's stupid. I work hard and give it all I got each and every day. No excuses, no whining, no compromise, no cutting corners. I ask not what my country must do for me, but rather what I must do for my country. Call me weird. The best or nothing, period. I think I will stick with my proven modus operandi of excellence for a throttling 2009. Only bigger and better.

That's right, I shall turn up the heat in 09. Upgrade; it is good for you. Work harder and smarter, maximize and prioritize everything to new heights. Though my basic diet is exceptional, I will eat smarter and exercise a little more. I am going to give even more of my time to quality charities. It is my New Year's revolution Resolution to increase my "we the people" activism to turn up the heat on politicians and bureaucrats across the land, demanding logic and accountability from corrupt government goons.

In 2009, my cockroach spotlight will burn like never before and my size 12 workboots will dance upon the scrambling vermin in a mash-stomp ballet of liberty and justice for all.

Now that’s an upgrade.

I will continue to give away many NRA memberships as gifts to the deserving. I will teach and recruit more new folks into the wonderful world of the American shooting sports and our glorious outdoor hunting, fishing and trapping conservation lifestyle. I will give away many guns and much ammo as gifts to loving family and friends. I will buy another machinegun and pallets of ammo for myself and shoot till I can't stand it anymore. I will wallow in hot brass.

I will plant more trees and encourage everyone I know to be more conservative and conscientious of their consumerism in order to reduce the gluttonous waste of so many Americans. I will raise as much hell as I can to expose the dangerous, counterproductive lies of the global warming fraud. I will eat more wild game.

I will hug and kiss Mrs. Nugent more, if that’s possible. I will bring her more flowers more often.

I will shop locally and patronize more neighborhood small businesses.

My efforts to get my friends to quit smoking and eating dangerously will intensify, because I love them.

I am going to jam louder and more ferociously on my guitars as a musical prayer to create the ultimate soundtrack for the US Military heroes to finally wrap up this war on terror, which they are ready, willing and able to do if only the spineless dysfunctional bureaucrats would just unleash them to do so.

I do hereby resolve that overall, my gifted life in 2009 will be more intense and gratifying than ever before. I remain in charge and shall make it happen. Anything less would be foolish.

Happy New Year America. Live it up. Go Wild. God bless America.

Source: Human Events

Merry Christmas from Uncle Ted

Merry Christmas to all! The Nugents are doing fine, thank you. Enough about us.

This time of year always brings up the question from many youngsters to their parents asking if there really is a Santa Claus. The following is a little something I write for my grandchildren, but I hope it will help you explain to other kids, big and small, that Santa Claus is very real.

Santa Claus is an alive spirit -- something you can't necessarily see or touch -- but rather a loving, selfless, giving spirit that rests within the hearts and souls of good people everywhere.

You can see Santa Claus if you pay attention and look closely. Look inside a U.S. Marines Corps Toys for Tots truck, and you will find piles of new toys on their way to kids who might not otherwise receive anything for Christmas. Santa Claus put them there. U.S. Marines will deliver them.

Look at the grocery cart near the exit door at the grocery store that has a sign on it requesting a donation of food to the less fortunate. The cart will be full this time of year. The store will need to put our more carts as Christmas draws near. Santa Claus filled those carts with food.

Listen for the Salvation Army bell ringers who stand in front of stores ringing their bells. Watch people drop their hard earned money into Salvation Army buckets and go about their business. What you are seeing is Santa Claus in action.

Local newspapers, television and radio stations have programs to collect donations to help the less fortunate in your community. If so, watch the tally grow and grow to thousands and thousands of dollars. Santa Claus donated that money.

You will hear reports throughout the Christmas season on radio or read in newspapers about acts of kindness by strangers to help a neighbor in need. That stranger’s name is Santa Claus.

There are thousands and thousands of nameless people who donate money throughout the year to help defeat cancer and other health problems. They also have a name: Santa Claus.

Tons of gifts and millions of Christmas cards are being sent by anonymous Americans to our courageous U.S. Military heroes overseas. Santa Claus sent those gifts and cards to our brave men and women in uniform.

Companies all across America donate money and products to homeless shelters and other charities to help the less fortunate. Santa Claus is alive and well in those companies.

There are of millions of people who have the spirit of Santa Claus deep in their hearts, as they know that the true meaning of Christmas is about giving, not receiving. As we are preparing to celebrate Jesus' birthday, remember that He commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. With that simple request, the spirit of Santa Claus was born.

The Nugent family, like so many American families, don't necessarily wait for Christmas to give, but we do kick it up a notch or ten at this spiritual time of year. Burning inside us all is the drive to do good and give. The Christmas spirit is alive and well. Santa Clause is coming to town. Merry Christmas America, to one and all.

Source: Human Events

Santa Takes Many Forms

Traitor Tamm

I’ve got a big problem with newspapers who put American lives at risk by publishing our nation’s secrets. But that’s nothing compared to what I think should be done to the people -- trusted people within our government -- who leak our secrets.

If I can borrow a little from by blood brother Willie Nelson, we should send ‘em all to their Maker and he’ll settle ‘em down.

Government employees entrusted with our national secrets are morally, ethically, logically and legally required to keep them secret. Those employees who intentionally leak national secrets should -- no, must -- be charged with a crime and prosecuted with the seriousness of the offense. It is a federal felony to knowingly compromise national secrets.

Those who leak or sell government secrets are traitors, pure and simple. What I’ve never been able to understand is why the Justice Department can’t get the best FBI people to find these guys and prosecute them. None of the leakers -- that’s right, not one of ‘em -- has been prosecuted in the last eight years despite some of the hugest leaks ever.

Now we know the name of one of the leakers.

Thomas "the Traitor" Tamm, a former Department of Justice lawyer, tipped off the New York Times about a secret government operation conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor and track potential terrorist maggots through their e-mail, phone calls and financial transactions. Traitor Tamm did this because, in his own words, "something didn't smell right" about it.

I am a huge fan of whistleblowers wherever they may blow, but in the war on terror, national security is Job One for anyone with a soul.

What does smell right is that Traitor Tamm is a federal felon who deserves to be charged by the Department of Justice for compromising national secrets, and he’s still walking the streets.

Instead of vigorously reporting through his chain of command and appropriate federal government whistleblower chain of what he thought was potentially an illegal operation, Traitor Tamm instead disclosed the sensitive terrorist program to the New York Times, an entity whose allegiance is already suspect.

In some recent interviews with Newsweek, Traitor Tamm stated "I thought this was something the other branches of the government and the public ought to know about so they could decide: Do they want this massive spying program to be taking place?"

Traitor Tamm had worked in a secret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage punks. Working with this secret unit is where Traitor Tamm discovered the highly sensitive NSA operation of tracking terrorists and potential terrorists in America through eavesdropping on international phone calls and e-mails.

It was not that Traitor Tamm was just concerned that the secret operation may be illegal that he illegally leaked the operation to the New York Times. I also read that Traitor Tamm was angry at the Bush Justice Department for aggressively pursuing death penalty cases and for interrogation techniques that some believe constitute torture. Ideological differences aside, it is never justification to leak classified information about government operations.

Traitor Tamm is really no different than any other spy such as Aldrich Ames who compromised national secrets for cash and got a number of our spies killed. Traitor Tamm leaked classified information because he did not like the odor of the program. Regardless of rational, Traitor Tamm is as guilty as Aldrich Ames.

The United States can not possibly hope to defeat those monsters who want to kill us if we have government employees with access to classified information who run to the press every time they come across classified information or programs that they may not agree with. Their moral, ethical and possibly legal objections to classified programs is never reason to leak it to the press. For that very reason, people who compromise classified information -- for whatever reason -- should be vigorously prosecuted. Failing to prosecute them will send the wrong message to others with access to our most sensitive information.

I encourage whistle blowers at all levels. God only knows we need more of them to expose the wasteful, toxic underbelly of Fedzilla. However, leaking classified information is something altogether different. Compromising classified information can get Americans killed and aid and abet our enemies. That is the worst sort of crime, and those who commit it should be sent away for life.

We can debate whether or not the NSA's program was legal or not. What is not debatable is that Traitor Tamm leaked classified information and that is a felony.

Let us all hope and pray that Traitor Tamm's compromising of the NSA's secret program does not put America more at risk of a terrorist attack. And let’s hope that someone in the Justice Department gets off his behind and puts this guy in jail where he belongs.

Gun-Free Zone a Crime Unto Itself

Bankruptcy Now or Later?

There are two key things to remember when considering bailing out the automobile industry.

First, never reward destructive behavior unless you want more of it. Second, never throw good money after bad.

Taxpayers should not be held accountable to bailout the automobile industry or any other industry for that matter. There is constitutional authority for the decades of poor management decisions, forecasting and labor deals that have put GM, the U.S.'s largest automobile maker, perilously close to going belly up.

That constitutional authority is the basic freedom everyone in America has: to succeed or fail on your own, and accept the consequences or the benefits.

The $700 billion bailout Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was to be used only for bailing out financial institutions, not automobile companies skating on thin financial ice. If he is a good and honest steward of taxpayer dollars, Treasury Secretary Paulson will deny the
Big Three's request to be included in TARP.

Congress created a $25 billion loan program through the Department of Energy to help the Big Three. This loan program should be utilized by the Big Three instead of wanting to be included in TARP.

GM, Ford and Chrysler are sinking ships. With cash reserves dwindling, their only viable option is to try and stay afloat in these turbulent economic seas is bankruptcy.

Truth be told, it is not a question of if GM will file for bankruptcy protection, but rather when. Bankruptcy will provide GM the necessary protection and some time to possibly turn a dying automotive dinosaur into a smaller, lithe, profitable company that is sized for its shrunken market share. "Possibly" being the operative word.

Filing Chapter 11 protection protects GM from itself. Bankruptcy could free GM from costly labor contracts, provide them the opportunity to restructure hugely expensive pension programs, and renegotiate health benefits. Other unprofitable assets could also be amputated. Bankruptcy puts all options on the operating table to try and stop the massive bleeding of cash.

Should GM emerge from the bankruptcy operating table with a heart beat, odds are GM is never going to be the global automotive giant it once was. The automotive world is much more competitive than, say, forty years ago when GM, Chrysler and Ford ruled the automotive world from my beloved Motor City.

While the UAW may believe GM, Ford and Chrysler are in business to provide automotive workers a salary and other costly benefits, the reality is that car companies are in business to make a profit. Period. Write that down.

The UAW's costly benefit demands over the years coupled with weak automotive management who historically caved into the UAW's demands put the automotive bolts, so to speak, to the shareholders and, to a certain degree, has put the Big Three on the path to possible extinction.

Contrary to Michael Moore's disingenuous and anti-free market automotive movie (Roger and Me), profit must drive all business decisions. Even a goofy guitar player knows that a business that fails to focus on profits and does not constantly look to the future to open up new markets, develop new products and upgrade services for a changing world, cutting costs, etc., is a business that is ultimately going out of business.

Those of us who have lived and worked in and around the Motor City have watched it slowly rust into oblivion over the last twenty-five years. The decline of the Motor City should be used as a case study in every business school in America on how not to sink an industry and destroy a city in the process with denial driven feelgood liberal suicide policies.

Bailing out GM with billions of taxpayer dollars is the wrong approach. GM is not too big to fail. What GM may be is too unprofitable to stay in business.

Less Government Is More Better

If the conservative movement is looking for a new standard bearer, a new champion, I have a suggestion: Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

Congressman Gohmert is a new hero of mine. He is my kind of independent Texan and why the Nugent family are now proud residents of the last best place in the last best place.

Unlike Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who wants to toss the second installment of the $350 billion taxpayer dollar bailout at Wall Street and hope that this massive wad of cash sticks and does something positive for the economy, Congressman Gohmert instead wants to give Americans a two-month tax holiday for this upcoming January and February. This real American also advocates that taxpayers should pay no federal income taxes for 2008. This guy gives me hope.

I suggest we build a monument to Congressman Gohmert on the Capital Mall for just proposing these great ideas.

That's right, a two month, $350 billion tax holiday and no income taxes for January and February 2009. This would be massive wads of your money staying in your pockets where it belongs, surely doing more for the sagging economy than using it to bailout Wall Street or the automotive industry.

Of course Fedzilla bureaucrats such as Speaker Pelosi, Sen. Reid and others will fight Congressman Gohmert's proposal because they believe Fedzilla knows how to better spend your money than you do. This arrogant attitude by Fedzilla-addicted zombies is always the problem, never the solution.

Fedzilla rarely gets anything right. Need proof? Quick, name three specific things Fedzilla has spent your money on that you believe was a wise use of your tax dollars.

Congressman Gohmert understands that reducing the size of Fedzilla is the key to an American economic revival. Federal income taxes, FICA, state income taxes, death taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, permit taxes, license taxes, registration taxes, hidden taxes, etc etc etc are what is truly killing the American economy. When Fedzilla takes half of what we earn, it is not surprising that Americans are not saving anything.

Tax cuts are always the answer to jump-starting the economy. It appears even President-elect Obama is beginning to see that simple economic truism.

Taxpayers are partially to blame for the financial mess created by Fedzilla. We have sat idly by and drank the bureaucratic Kool-Aid brewed by Fedzilla and slowly surrendered our financial independence to big government bureaucrats. Shame on us. We should have been snarling watchdogs of the bureaucrats with our tax dollars stuffed in their bloated wallets instead of soulless, disconnected, apathetic accomplice lapdogs.

If President-elect Obama is the new political messiah to millions of Americans who do not know how the economy works or why tax cuts are always good for the economy, then Congressman Gohmert is a new superhero to millions of Americans who want to put Fedzilla on a diet and return the tax dollars to the people who earned them.

Thomas Jefferson said it best; "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

Ya think?

Congressman Gohmert's refreshing tax proposals is a breath of financial fresh air. I would like to hear more from Congressman Gohmert on how he would tackle our trillions of debt, privatizing and fixing Social Security and Medicare, and the rest of our foolish economic house of cards.

What America needs now more that ever is more elected officials like Congressman Gohmert who understand that individuals and businesses are the engine that drives our economy, not a bloated, ineffective, lethargic, wasteful Fedzilla who destroys everything it touches.

More government bailouts and spending is not the answer. It is the problem.

Go to www.TaxHolidayPlan.com to sign a petition supporting Gohmert's plan.

Combination of outdoors, beautiful woman intoxicating

That last light of the day, when the beautiful ball of golden fire beneath the western horizon burns that magic shine on the world, is some of God's ultimate eye candy.

But viewed from a tall treestand in game country, it may very well be one of the most gorgeous moments in life.

Now, add to this inspiring setting, that same special light glimmering upon the flowing blond locks of a svelte young woman next to me. I am here to tell you that I am not sure I can control myself.

But viewed from a tall treestand in game country, it may very well be one of the most gorgeous moments in life.

Now, add to this inspiring setting, that same special light glimmering upon the flowing blond locks of a svelte young woman next to me. I am here to tell you that I am not sure I can control myself.

The final stimulating ingredient putting the whole deal over the top would be a bow and arrow in her hands. To this, I simply must look to the heavens and pray. Truly, I am not worthy.

This is how I know conclusively that God must love me madly, for I get to repeat this dream numerous times each fall and winter as the humble guide, servant/vidcam dude for the world's sexiest bowhunter: Mrs. Backstrap, my gorgeous wife, the queen of the forest, Shemane.

I'm lucky I can hold the camera steady and find the record button without falling out of the tree. Trouper that I am, I take a deep breath, review my responsibilities for our "Spirit of the Wild" TV show on Outdoor Channel, and do my best capturing it on video for the world to see. World, you owe me.

Fair game

Shemane has become one of the most professional, dedicated, deadly bowhunters I know.

She puts her heart and soul into learning all there is about wildlife, conservation and, ultimately, about the healthiest lifestyle and diet available to mankind.

As a hands-on environmentalist, she knows that killing deer is the perfect thing to do, and she is really good at it.

Having never touched a bow or gun in her life prior to our meeting back in 1988, she was nonetheless a gung-ho athlete and one smart cookie. She'd won medals and awards in swimming and ATV racing.

Though raised as a city kid, her love of the outdoors, boating, skiing, hiking and off-roading proved nearly as strong as her love for shopping and fashion.

It turned out that she was on a collision course with the last of the Mohicans, a strange character, some say a dangerous man from another time and place, the WhackMaster, the MotorCity MadMan, Uncle Ted, Rev. Theodocious Atrocious, LoudMan, Captain Backstrap.

Exercising his kindest manners, he would sweep her off her feet — some say she simply felt sorry for me — and lead her down the glorious path to spiritual redemption via the mystical flight of the arrow.

Say hallelujah. 

Maybe Mrs. N wouldn't characterize the whole ordeal exactly like that. But once the initial shock wore off she indeed plunged full tilt into the world of bow hunting.

Baptized on a youth recurve bow, at a short-range 15 feet from a large Olympic-type bale target, she grasped killer archery form in a mere few minutes.

She now brings home the bacon nearly every time she hunts. She mentors kids and other women into the soul-cleansing outdoor lifestyle, and I am in love with her more now than ever.

She is doing God's work with the bow and arrow, and I thank Him every day for bringing my best hunting buddy into my life.

Kids Need Pets; Pets Need Kids

Young Ted was about to pass out from out-of-control hysterical laughter. Duke, the dog of my childhood — big, strong, lovable, a black Labrador/retriever Weimaraner mix — was pulling me wildly in my Red Flyer wagon across the vacant field, bouncing dangerously over every bump and rock.

Fortunately, no damage was done during this adventurous outing of a boy and his dog.

It's one of so many memories still alive and making me smile more than 50 years later.

I look back at the many dogs in my life and know that my experiences with them have brought me much happiness.

Additionally, as a child I learned critical lessons about responsibilities properly caring for animals.

The same has applied to my kids. The fun factor with pets is extremely entertaining, but it is the list of required duties and chores — fresh water, good food and a warm, secure, dry shelter that really brings home critical lessons — that makes pet ownership a character-building experience.

Seeing someone's dog chained up day after day, week after week under a dead tree with no shade in rutted dirt, I find it hard to believe that anyone could be so uncaring and heartless.

Not a day goes by that we in my family fail to run and play with our dogs, giving them ample opportunity to stretch their legs and just be dogs.

Brushing and grooming them is a pleasant activity and actually keeps their coat and skin healthy. Everybody takes turns and the dogs love it.

Since all are gung ho hunting dogs, it is vital for them to remain in tip-top shape to be prepared for the rigors of our long hunting seasons.

Daily practice sessions of commands and retrieving sequences teach them obedience. This interaction assures also they'll be unlikely to get in trouble, lost or, worse, get into life-threatening situations with traffic or other dogs.

And again, the dogs get such a kick out of it all, as do we.

Caring for our dogs

A good quality vitamin routine is a solid idea too, especially if you have working dogs that are required to be physically active.

The same goes for flea and tick treatments, especially in Texas where bugs seem to come in clouds and waves.

A good quality flea powder along with cedar or pine chips and shavings will make the dog comfortable, stay a little cooler in the heat, and discourage ticks and creepy crawlers from hitching a ride.

Roomy kennels are always best with a concrete slab on a minimal angle for good water drainage. Adequate shade is imperative under the baking Texas sunshine year round, but an insulated dog house with good wind cutting design will be necessary when those winter temperatures begin to dip.

All this basic care is essential, but it is the time spent with our beloved pets that really brings it all home for us.

A genuine bonding takes place between pets and young owners who really put their hearts and souls into responsible pet ownership.

A youngster who is guided and taught this basic love becomes a better person. Kids and pets: a match made in heaven.

Source: Waco Tribune 

Thanksgiving Every Day

The terrible economy has taken its toll on a number of hard working Americans and their families. It is incumbent upon each of us to do what we can to assist our fellow citizens in getting back in the American Dream free market race.

My recommendation is that each of us identify an individual or family who is down on their luck and do whatever we can to pull them out of the economic ditch they have temporarily slid into.

With the Holiday Season upon us, Americans will be deluged with requests from any number of charities and agencies to help the poor. Mind you, I fully subscribe to Christ's admonition to help the poor, and like everybody I know, we will give and give and give. It is simply the American Way.

What I do not subscribe to, however, is helping those poor people who refuse to help themselves and who constantly look for a hand out instead of a hand up.

America has a chronic class of self-inflicted poor people. By and large, they are poor because they have made poor life choices. In too many cases, poor parents pass on their poor values and choices to their children. Poverty then becomes generational, a way of life. Trying to break the cycle of chronic poverty when Fedzilla does whatever it can to sustain it is analogous to trying to melt an iceberg with a match.

Through an out of control orgy of so-called government assistance programs over the past 50 years designed to eliminate poverty, the exact opposite has occurred. In all of its bureaucratic, bloated bufoonery, Fedzilla has exacerbated the problem of poverty instead of eliminating it. The very Fedzilla programs designed to help the disadvantaged instead stripped them of their work ethic, pride, family structures and wrecked their communities. Quite simply, Fedzilla destroyed their work ethic by rewarding irresponsibility and thereby encouraged the chronic class of poverty. Nice going.

Crime, drug use, high school drop out rates, single parent families, known destructive lifestyles, etc, is a plague that has enveloped our cities. I can not think of a social or cultural rot that can not be attributed to Fedzilla meddling.

No amount of charitable giving is going to reverse this decay. In fact, if we are truly interested in helping the chronically poor, we should immediately stop all local, state and federal funds and programs designed to help the poor. We should immediately reverse course and get Fedzilla out of their lives and communities.

Once Fedzilla is kicked out of their lives, family, churches, civic organizations and neighbors should offer a hand to help them out of the poverty hole. Fedzilla has only offered the chronic poor a shovel and encouraged them to dig their hole deeper.

I refuse to throw my hard earned money into the chronic poor abyss and "hope" it will "change" the condition of the chronic poor. I know better. I would get more from my money by setting twenty dollar bills on fire and having a marshmallow roast.

Instead, during the Holiday Season, the Nugent family will do whatever we can to help a family or two who is temporarily down on their luck but who wants to help themselves, their community and our country. We implore you to do the same. That is the American barn-raising spirit that built this country.

Happy Thanksgiving, America. May God bestow a special Thanksgiving blessing on America's military warriors and their families.

Source: HumanEvents.com 

How Not To Help The Poor

By Ted Nugent, Texas Wildman

The terrible economy has taken its toll on a number of hard-working Americans and their families. It is incumbent upon each of us to do what we can to assist our fellow citizens in getting back in the American Dream free-market race.

My recommendation is that each of us identify a family down on its luck and do whatever we can to pull that family out of the economic ditch into which it's temporarily slid.

With the holiday season upon us, Americans will be deluged with requests from any number of charities and agencies to help the poor. Mind you, I fully subscribe to Christ's admonition to help the poor, and like everybody I know, we will give and give and give. It is simply the American Way.

What I do not subscribe to is helping those who refuse to help themselves and who constantly look for a hand-out instead of a hand up.

America has a chronic class of self-inflicted poor people — poor because of poor life choices.

Generational poverty

In too many cases, parents pass on these poor values and choices to their children. Poverty then becomes generational, a way of life.  Trying to break the cycle of chronic poverty when Fedzilla does whatever it can to sustain it is analogous to trying to melt an iceberg with a match.

An out-of-control orgy of so-called government assistance programs over the past 50 years has been touted as a means of eliminating poverty. The exact opposite has occurred.

In all of its bureaucratic, bloated buffoonery, Fedzilla has exacerbated the problem instead of eliminating it.

The very programs designed to help the disadvantaged instead have stripped them of their work ethic, pride and family structures, and wrecked their communities.

Fedzilla rewarded irresponsibility and encouraged the chronic class of poverty. Nice going.

Crime, drug use, high school dropout rates, single-parent families, destructive lifestyles — all add up to a plague enveloping our cities.

Cultural, social rot

I cannot think of a social or cultural rot that cannot be attributed to Fedzilla's meddling.

No amount of charitable giving is going to reverse this decay.  In fact, if we are truly interested in helping the chronically poor, we should immediately stop all local, state and federal funds and programs designed to help the poor.

Once this happens, churches, civic organizations and neighbors should offer a hand to help them out of the poverty hole.
...Focus on families who want hand up, not hand-out

I refuse to throw my hard-earned money into the chronic poor abyss and "hope" it will "change" the condition of the chronic poor.

I know better.

Instead, during the holiday season, my family will do whatever we can to help a family or two temporarily down on its luck. But they must show they can and will help themselves, their community and our country.

We implore you to do the same. That is the barn-raising spirit that built this country.

Happy Thanksgiving, America. May God bestow a special Thanksgiving blessing on America's military warriors and their families.

Source: Waco Tribune
 

Obama-King of Fools

It is a defining indicator that the embarrassing, self inflicted dumbing down of America is all but complete when people vote against their own self-interest.

I'll say it: it is obvious that many Americans are not very smart. Quite dumb, actually. To listen to the Sirius radio interview with Obama voters from Harlem mindlessly cheering on Obama as the interviewer attributes McCain's policies to the Democrats is pathetic and an inescapable indicator of the blind leading the blind. Not Godbless or goddam America! God help America.

Trying to explain how our economy works and why lowering taxes is always better for them and their country, than imposing higher taxes is an economic bridge too far for many of the Obama sheep. Unfortunately there is no "See Spot & the Economy Run" book for the hooked on phonics crowd. Many of these numbskulls can't balance a check book or spell "e-c-o-n-o-m-i-c-s" but they sure know who will give them stuff. The lie is impossible.

Expecting these idiots to have analyzed the tax positions of Obama and McCain and arrive at a decision that truly benefits them and America is wishful thinking. The reason is that they know zilch about how the economy operates and worse, don't care. Bama will take care of us. Four very scary things-a sow grizzly with cubs at closerange, a coiled rattlesnake in striking distance, me in a rental car in the left lane, and dunces with credit cards.

And indeed they are dunces, products of a tax burning, failed public education system. That is,
if they even bothered to complete high school. They don't read newspapers or books, and even if they did, I got twenty bucks that says they couldn't comprehend what they read. They are morons in the first degree. And clearly, they vote.

If and when President Obama attempts to impose his wrong-headed, punitive tax structure,
their stupidity is going to come back to thump them upside their vacuous heads with a very painful crowbar of reality. The economy works in strange and wondrous ways and has a unique way of severely punishing fools. Rare justice is a beautiful thing.

These dunderheads have no clue how the economic mess was largely caused by Democrats, including Obama. But Obama, recognizing how gullible, naïve and dumb many of his supporters are, drummed it into them that the economic mess was caused by President Bush and the Republicans and that he is going to give 95% of Americans a tax cut when 40% of Americans
don't even pay any federal taxes. Investing deception capital in the stupidity of his supporters was a very wise move on Obama's part. That is if you don't really care about anything except getting elected.

McCain had no marketable answer to Obama's charge because McCain knew that attempting to explain the economy to dumb people is impossible in 30 second commercials.

Fantasy driven clowns like the idea of believing they are getting something for nothing. What they receive, however, is always scraps from the economic table. They are too dumb to recognize this and thus condemn themselves to a pathetic life clinging to the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. Their stupidity sentences them to a life of poverty and despair.

The President Obama tax plan punishes the producers – the people who employ the majority of Americans. In Joe the Plumber terms, economic crap will quickly flow down hill and punish the employees. I mean former employees. The result of spreading the wealth around is spreading
unemployment around.

Conversely, the McCain economic plan was based on tax cuts, which spur the economy forward, create jobs, and raise the standard of living for everyone. Pretty simple stuff, unless you are a stooge, comfortable in your ignorance who is easily manipulated and believes someone owes you something, such as healthcare and a job.

Do yourself and America a favor. Stay in or go back to school. It's the economy, stupid.

Rino Season Is Now Open

Happy Birthday, Marines

From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, all across America and in Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever America is being defended, the world’s most exclusive gun club is the celebrating its 233 birthday today.

Born in a roughneck Philadelphia bar in 1775 on a dare to surpass standard warrior excellence, the United States Marines Corps has distinguished itself over its history as the finest military force the world has ever seen. Do not point the US Marines Corps at anything you do not wish conquer. They are the pointy end of America’s spear.

The Devil Dogs are always the first to the fight. Looking at their battle flags fluttering in the breeze reminds of their bravery and warrior ethos. Battle streamers honoring their bravery in battles such as Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Chosin Reservoir remind us of just a few of the famous battles they have fought and won.

Having spent time with Devil Dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan while on a USO Tour, it was abundantly clear that these men and women are the most determined, courteous and
courageous people I have ever had the privilege of sharing time with. To the person, they all expressed their gratitude for being on the frontlines of the war on terror with their fellow Marines. It truly humbled me to see that level of camaraderie and Blood Brotherhood dedication.

They not only fight for America, but for each other. This is the definition of 'espirit de corps".

I have visited with wounded Marines in hospitals. Regardless of the severity of their wounds, pain and suffering, they all expressed to me their utmost desire to return to the battlefield with their buddies to see the war won. This is the kind of sacrifice that leaves a lump in man’s throat. As I listened to them I couldn’t help but be so very thankful that America produces these young men and women of such character and determination.

When we get older, it’s natural to think about whether we’ve actually done something worthwhile. This is not the case for the leatherneck men and women of the mighty US Marine Corps. President Reagan said it best: “Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.”

I suspect if the Marines know one thing, it is that freedom is not free. There is a toll to be exacted and it is their blood, sweat, sacrifice and lives. As I type these vary words, there are leathernecks pushing ahead and killing Al Qaeda and Taliban voodoo monsters.

These leathernecks come from a long lineage of warriors who don’t know the meaning of quit. My hero, Colonel Lewis “Chesty” Puller summed it best when he said during the Korean War, “We're surrounded? Good, now we can kill the bastards in any direction."

Clearly, there is no finer friend, no worse enemy than the Marines. This was exemplified by Marine General James Mattis when he told Iraqi leaders, "I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you "mess" with me, I'll kill you all." My kind of man.

The US Marines are warriors. They are the few and the proud. Americans are the many and the blessed. So long as the Marines are with us the flame of freedom and liberty will burn brightly.

May God bless the United States Marines Corps. Happy 233rd birthday, Devil Dogs. Semper Fi. Godspeed my Blood Brothers. Carry on.

Source: Human Events

The Few, The Proud With Necks Of Leather, Laying It All On The Line

From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, the world's largest gun club is celebrating its 233rd birthday this year.

Born in a roughneck Philadelphia bar in 1775 on a dare to surpass standard warrior excellence, the United States Marine Corps has distinguished itself over its history as the finest military force the world has ever witnessed.

Do not point the Marines at anything you do not wish to conquer. They are the pointy end of our military's lance.

The Devil Dogs are the first to the fight. Looking at their battle flags fluttering in the breeze reminds of their bravery and warrior ethos.

Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Peleiu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Chosin Reservoir - the stirring names mark the famous battles they have won.

I spent time with Devil Dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan while on a USO Tour. These men and women are the most determined, courteous and courageous people with whom I have ever had the privilege of sharing time.

Camaraderie

To the person, all expressed gratitude for being on the frontlines of the war on terror. It truly humbled me to see that level of camaraderie and BloodBrotherhood dedication.

They not only fight for America, but fight for each other - they put the Corps in "espirit de corps."

I have visited wounded Marines in hospitals. Regardless of the severity of their wounds, all expressed their utmost desire to return to the battlefield with their buddies to see the war won.

This is the kind of sacrifice that leaves a lump in a man's throat. Listening to them, I couldn't help but be so very thankful that America produces men and women of such character.

Some people spend a lifetime looking for meaning. This is not the case for the leatherneck men and women of the mighty U.S. Marines.

President Reagan said it best, "Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem."

I suspect if the Marines know one thing, it is that freedom is not free. There is a toll to be exacted and it is blood, sweat, sacrifice and lives.

Relentless

As I type these very words, leathernecks are pushing ahead and killing al-Qaida and Taliban voodoo monsters. These Marines come from a long lineage of warriors who don't know the meaning of quit.

My hero, Col. Lewis "Chesty" Puller, summed it up best when he said during the Korean War, "We're surrounded? Good, now we can kill the bastards in any direction."

Clearly, there is no finer friend, no worse enemy than the Marines. This was exemplified by Marine Gen. James Mattis when he told Iraqi leaders, "I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you 'mess' with me, I'll kill you all." My kind of man.

The U.S. Marines are warriors. They are the few and the proud. Americans are the many and the blessed. So long as the Marines are with us the flame of freedom and liberty will burn brightly.

May God bless the United States Marines Corps. Happy 233 birthday, Devil Dogs. Semper Fi. Godspeed my BloodBrothers. Carryon.

Today's the Day

OK. This is it. The big day has arrived. Do or die. The moment of truth, the big Kahuna, where “we the people” of the one and only experiment in self-government in the history of humankind get to step up to the plate and give it our best shot as individual participants in this grand "American Dream" of independence and autonomy. Election Day has arrived, my fellow Americans, and it is now that we shall see just what we are made of. Pull the lever, take your shot. There is no take two.

I am as frustrated and disenfranchised as the next guy, terribly let down by both the Republicans and Democrats. Both parties are painfully guilty of corruption, deceit, irrational behavior and more often than not, the abandonment of what my neighbors and I still cling to as common sense. The current economic disaster America is struggling with is simply the proverbial tip of a cultural iceberg train wreck brought about by politicians negotiating on behalf of their own best interests instead of the citizens they are sworn to serve. The same goes for the education debacle, welfare outrage, the embarrassing, criminal unaccountable Fedzilla spending orgy, a court system off the rails, and a wasteland of entitlement programs guaranteed to break the bank. Literally. The Federal government is like social security; it is anti-social and insecure. Thanks for nothing.

Understandably, the people are wailing for change. But the way I see it, change as a concept can be very elusive, and, as always, change can be for the good or for much worse. Over many years, as Republicans acted more and more like liberal Democrats, that is, out of control doped-up hippies with a credit card and no boundaries, an unprecedented amount of our hard-earned tax dollars went unaccounted for propping up fantasy driven entitlement programs that furthered the suicidal so-called Great Society of LBJ. The Great Society turned out to be not so great. Like the FDR’s so-called New Deal, we the people once again got a raw deal, and we’re still paying for it. Through the nose and other not so comfortable orifices.

Positive, beneficial change would be for us to unite in order to stop the economical and social hemorrhaging. Unfortunately, the Democrats, led by their presidential candidate Barack Obama, has a different change in mind. According to every one of his speeches and political voting record as an Illinois senator, Obama actually wants to accelerate the irresponsible spending and reduce accountability to the people even more. According to the Obama supporters, the best way to bail out the sinking boat is to blow more holes in the bottom. That will let the water out, right? Wrong. But if it makes you feel good, by all means, blast away. Bon voyage, baby.

John McCain is no knight in shining armor, that’s for sure. It is true that the good Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has proven to be a bureaucrat-stomping, status quo-destroying political warrior in her short career, and everybody I know is genuinely moved by her defiance of the old guard politicos. She surely brings a much needed and greatly appreciated toughness to McCain’s candidacy, but she isn’t running for President.

The Nugent family has researched till we are red in the face. We have weighed all the information and evidence we can get our hands on, and we have decided that in the best interest of America, we are voting for John McCain.

We believe in our hearts and souls that he means what he says and that he is ready to make tougher decisions for the overall improvement of the conditions we face in these trying times. We believe equally strongly that Obama will only make things worse in his scramble to make people feel good instead of actually doing good. If his ideas sound too good to be true, it’s because they are.

America needs to make tough sacrifices right now. Obama’s socialist agenda plays into the hands of those who expect things to be made easy for them without the extra effort. It is not time to blow holes in the bottom of the boat. It’s time for all of us to bail like hell, together.

Source: Human Events

America Needs Real Change, Not Obama's Fantasy Drivel

As Election Day arrives, I am frustrated and feeling as disenfranchised as the next guy, terribly let down by both the Republicans and Democrats.

Both parties are painfully guilty of corruption, deceit, irrational behavior and, more often than not, the abandonment of what my neighbors and I still cling to as common sense.

The current economic disaster is the proverbial tip of a cultural iceberg, a train wreck brought on by politicians negotiating on behalf of their own best interests instead of the citizens they are sworn to serve.

The same goes for the education debacle, the welfare outrage, the embarrassing, criminally unaccountable Fedzilla spending orgy.

The same goes for a court system off the rails, and a wasteland of entitlement programs guaranteed to break the bank.

The federal government is like Social Security: anti-social and insecure. Thanks for nothing.

Understandably, the people are wailing for change. But change as a concept can be very elusive. And it goes without saying that change can be for the good or for much worse.

Over many years, Republicans acted more and more like liberal Democrats - that is, out-of-control, doped-up hippies with a credit card and no boundaries.

They, both parties, spent unprecedented amounts of our hard-earned tax dollars propping up fantasy-driven entitlement programs that furthered the suicidal so-called Great Society of Lyndon Johnson.

The Great Society turned out to be not so great.

Like Roosevelt's so-called New Deal, we the people once again got a raw deal. We're still paying for it.

Beneficial change would be for Americans to unite to stop the economic and social hemorrhaging. Unfortunately, the Democrats, led by Barack Obama, have a different change in mind.

With every one of his speeches, as with every vote as a lawmaker in Illinois and Washington, he seeks to accelerate irresponsible spending, while reducing accountability to the people even more.

No more holes

Obama supporters think the best way to bail out the sinking boat is to blow more holes in the bottom. That will let the water out, right? Wrong. But if it makes you feel good, by all means, blast away. Bon voyage.

John McCain is no knight in shining armor, for sure. That said, in her short career, the good governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, has proven to be a bureaucrat-stomping, status quo-destroying political warrior. Everybody I know is genuinely moved by her defiance of the old-guard politicos.

The Nugent family has researched until red in the face. We've weighed all the information and evidence we can get our hands on. In the best interests of America, we are voting for McCain and, of course, Palin.

He is ready to make tougher decisions for the overall improvement of the conditions we face in these trying times.

Obama will only make things worse in his scramble to make people feel good instead of actually doing good. If his ideas sound too good to be true, it's because they are.

It is not time to blow holes in the bottom of the boat. It's time for all of us to bail like hell, together.
 
Source: Waco Tribune Herald

Time to Close the Deal

With Election Day now in sight, John McCain and Sarah Palin need to turn up the heat. Frustrated conservatives are waiting for some spirit and energy.

This race is far from over. In fact, these final three weeks are the most critical of the campaign.

What the McCain/Palin ticket needs to do is to genuinely address and capitalize on the tremendous level of disgust, distrust and dissatisfaction of the American people towards our government.

As I wrote in my new book “Ted, White and Blue,” a May 20, 2008 Rasmussen poll found that 62% of the American public support fewer government services and lower taxes. That’s because ordinary Americans believe what President Reagan believed: government is the problem, not the answer. Remind Americans of this, Senator McCain. The last debate next Wednesday night may be your last chance to connect because they need to see you as a bigger presence, a better choice right up, elbow-to-elbow with Obama.

Rank and file Americans know that more government meddling ultimately equals more problems. It always has and always will because government is not the social or cultural engine that drives America -- capitalism is. Remind us of this. Convince us that you believe it.

Remind the American public that America didn’t become great because of its government, but rather because of its people. America needs less government, not more. Say this, Senator McCain and Governor Palin, and say it often. Give us some authority. It would be presidential.

Focus on the economy. Tell the American people that the genesis of the financial quagmire we are in is a direct result of government meddling in the housing market which has led to this disastrous credit crunch. As a result, ordinary Americans who play by the rules are being hurt badly. Tell us this, Senator McCain. Tell us the federal government has no business in the home loan industry and that you will take our economy away from the Treasury Department bureaucrats and give it back to the bankers, stockbrokers and company leaders that have made our economy thrive since Alexander Hamilton served at Treasury.

Show us that you share our anger, show some passion. Tell the American public that you will do everything in your power to expose the lobbyists and elected officials who caused the problem, how they caused it and why they caused it. Tell us that you will launch an ethics and criminal investigation on the very people who caused this financial meltdown. Americans want accountability. Give it to us. That would be some welcome change.

We trust freedom, not government: we want our economy back. Yes, let’s punish the crooks and fix the blind government watchdogs. But then, for the sake of our childrens’ future, let’s give free market capitalism back to the capitalists.

Tell us how you believe in the power of the free market. Tell Americans that capitalism and the free market is the most powerful force on the planet, but that expansive government, more spending and higher taxes smothers entrepreneurship. Tell the American public that America cannot achieve success through more taxes and more government spending.

We need a leader that at least knows as much as we do. Borrow a page from Speaker of the House Gingrich and list ten things that your administration is going to accomplish. Turn that into a television commercial and run it over and over in the battleground states. Make a big speech on it in a contested state such as Ohio.

Be specific in the next debate, and tell the American people exactly how you are going to create jobs while cutting government spending. Tell the American public that you plan to cut government spending by 6.5 percent each of the first four years you are president for a real savings of 25 percent. Tell the American public the savings will be returned to us! Tell the American people the era of big government is over.

As you did in the recent debate, focus on nuclear energy. Our car companies are in the process of researching electrical cars. More nuclear power equals much, much more electricity, which equals cheaper energy. Remind them over and over again that nuclear energy is cheap, efficient, safe and clean. While our nuclear power plants are being built, “drill, baby, drill!”

Unleash Palin Power in the key battleground states of Florida, Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Socialists hate her with a passion. That means she’s good -- real good.

In these tumultuous and uncertain times, Americans are looking for a leader with not only a proven past but also one who has a solid vision for the future that does not include more government programs, more spending and more waste.

What say you, Senator McCain?

Source: Human Events

Caring For Pets Helps Set One On Right Path

Back in the roaring Fifties, as a very young whippersnapper of an American Dreamer, I had Duke, a big old black Labrador mix.

Duke, my first dog, taught me the joys of pet ownership, real life cause and effect, the precious value of life and the critical responsibilities of caring properly for an animal.

We did everything together. Mom and Dad showed me how animals can't possibly have "rights." That is a uniquely human dynamic. But thoughtful, conscientious humans clearly have the duty to provide kind, humane treatment and conditions for their animals.

Aside from feeding Duke and seeing that he got plenty of daily exercise, it was my job to make sure his doghouse area and the yard were free of, shall we say, dog debris.

I was proud to be the super dooper pooper scooper. That meant my best friend would have a nice, tidy yard.

Caring for Duke was my primary chore growing up.

I raised my own children with this same sense of duty.

To this very day, I cannot imagine life without pets. They represent a huge quality-of-life component in the Nugent household.

I'm sure its the same for the millions of American families that own dogs, cats, horses, donkeys, burros, goats, llamas, alpacas, rats, mice, guinea pigs, snakes, skunks, weasels, ferrets and more.

One caveat: Making pets out of wild animals is asking for trouble, and I highly recommend against it.

As only dogs can smile

Right now, at my feet are three very happy, loving Labrador retrievers, tongues hanging out, panting, but smiling as only dogs can smile.

As I write this, the hounds and I just returned from our daily exploratory run at our China Spring ranch. We cherish our time in the wild together, letting it all hang out.

To see their sheer, exhilarating animal instincts come alive as they run and leap about, probing every bush and brush pile, flopping down up to their nostrils in the river, is to see nature at its finest. It's animal poetry in motion.

We make sure their kennels are spic and span and all their health considerations are monitored and serviced to the max.

Even though we are in Texas, we know the winter temperatures can get bitter. We add ample insulation to their sturdy dog houses each fall.

Daily brushings and tick dustings help keep them well-groomed and healthy.

The magical fall hunting season is beyond description at our house. These natural hunters about come out of their skin in anticipation of a mouthful of mallard and quail. Me, too.

To see them work their hearts out hunting for birds is truly one of life's greatest, most natural sights.

The mere hint of grabbing a shotgun causes them to do sumersaults of glee, knowing why God created them this way.

Go shopping for a nice pet. Teach the children how to provide for the animals. Watch them celebrate a perfect relationship.

The proper lessons of pet ownership will put kids on a True North path in life. They'll be more aware of cause and effect in a way that will benefit every decision-making juncture they experience.

c/o Waco Tribune-Herald

Anyone Who Wants to Abandon Accountablilty Must Have A Deathwish

When he had the opportunity to name the Fedzillacrats of both political parties responsible for the financial meltdown, he didn't do it. This isn't the man I voted for in 2000 or even 2004. He needs a testosterone injection.

Americans deserve to know by name the political scoundrels responsible for this financial quagmire, especially if President Bush wants us to embrace a near trillion dollar bail out.

We deserve to know exactly how this happened and have a right to know by name anyone that should be held accountable. President Bush didn't tell us that he supported any investigations to determine which Fedzillacrat is responsible for this mess and how it occurred. His speech was classic political hot air, and I for one am truly let down by the depth of abject soullessness in our disconnected government.

When he had the bully pulpit to provide us the information we have a right to know and he has an obligation to provide, he failed us.

President Bush is as responsible for this mess as any Fedzillacrat. While the president can truthfully claim that members of his administration warned members of congress of the pending economic meltdown of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I don't recall President Bush mentioning the potential economic peril in one of his State of The Union addresses or any other presidential news conferences.

If President Bush thought Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other financial institutions were on financial thin ice, he should have used his presidential bully pulpit and warned us on any number of occasions. He had numerous chances to tell us and he failed to do so. As we have learned, bad news doesn't get better with age.

President Bush didn't tell us that Fedzillacrats such as Democratic Senators Dodd and Schumer and others were paid stacks of campaign donations by lobbyists of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep them, our representatives and our employees, from holding these quasi government institutions accountable.

These Fedzillacrats actually got Congress to pass a law that required lending institutions to make home loans to unqualified recipients. President Bush didn't tell us that either.

President Bush didn't tell us that stacks of tainted lobbyist money and shyster Fedzillacrats has more to do with this financial crisis than the irresponsible and quite possibly crooked CEOs and other business officers of the financial firms. Baby Face Nelson is monitoring Al Capone for us. Great.

While he did say a few words about our outdated laws and regulations and said he was a free market supporter, he didn't say he believed that less Fedzilla meddling in the market was better for the long-term for our economy. He didn't say that Fedzilla has no business in the home loan industry, and it doesn't. That's what a free market champion would have said.

He didn't say he supported a wholesale ban on lobbyists for any financial institutions receiving our tax dollars to keep these troubled firms afloat. He should have. At a minimum, we deserve that.

He didn't say that all senior officers of the firms receiving bail out money would be fired and put under criminal investigation.

He didn't tell us that he was going to unleash the largest investigation in the history of the Justice Department to smoke out all the bandits that had anything to do with this. We deserve to see them put on trial and if found guilty, hauled off to jail. If our legal system can take the property of dope dealers, then we ought to be able to seize the financial assets of these bandits.

Americans have a right to know and should want to know which of our elected officials had anything to do with this mess and how much cash they received from lobbyists for turning a blind eye.

Washington DC stinks and is in worse condition than the financial industry. Fedzilla is a major source of all of our economic, social and cultural maladies. It stinks of cronyism, back handed political deals and corruption.

The Fedzillacrats deserve our scorn, contempt and anger. If any of them had an ounce of integrity they would resign and beg for forgiveness. Do your patriotic duty and vote them all out. They deserve it.

I want to know which Fedzillacrat is responsible and I want a solemn promise that these individuals will be held accountable. When I get that from the president, I will consider his bail out plan.

Tranquilizer dart needed for Fedzilla

Some things I wish I heard from president

President Bush let Americans down when he addressed the nation regarding our embarrassing financial mess. When he had the opportunity to name the Fedzillacrats of both political parties responsible for the financial meltdown, he didn't do it.

The man has no spine.

Americans deserve to know by name the political scoundrels responsible for this financial quagmire, especially if President Bush wants us to embrace a near trillion-dollar bailout.

We deserve to know exactly how this happened and have a right to know by name anyone who should be held accountable. President Bush didn't tell us that he supported any investigations to determine which Fedzillacrat is responsible for this mess and how it occurred.

His speech was classic political hot air. I am truly let down by the depth of abject soullessness in our disconnected government.

When he had the bully pulpit Wednesday night to provide us the information we have a right to know and he has an obligation to provide, Bush failed us. The president is as responsible for this mess as any Fedzillacrat.

If Bush thought Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other financial institutions were on financial thin ice, he should have used his presidential bully pulpit and warned us on any number of occasions.

He had countless chances to tell us. He failed to do so. As we have learned, bad news doesn't get better with age.

Bush didn't tell us that Fedzillacrats such as Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and Charles Schumer and others were paid stacks of cash by lobbyists of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep our representatives from holding these quasi- government institutions accountable.

These Fedzillacrats actually made it government policy for lending institutions to make home loans to unqualified recipients. President Bush didn't tell us that, either.

Shysters in charge

Tainted lobbyist money and shyster Fedzillacrats have more to do with this financial crisis than the irresponsible and quite possibly crooked CEOs and other business officers of the financial firms. Baby Face Nelson is monitoring Al Capone for us. Great.

While Bush did say a few words about our outdated laws and regulations and said he was a free market supporter, he didn't say he believed that less Fedzilla meddling in the market was better for the long-term for our economy.

Fedzilla has no business in the home loan industry. That's what a free market champion would have said.

Bush didn't say that all senior officers of the firms receiving bailout money would be fired and put under criminal investigation.

He didn't tell us that he was going to unleash the largest investigation in the history of the Justice Department to smoke out all the bandits who had anything to do with this.

Put them on trial and, if found guilty, haul them off to jail. If our legal system can take the property of dope dealers, then we ought to be able to seize the financial assets of these bandits.

Americans have a right to know and should want to know which of our elected officials had anything to do with this mess and how much cash they received from lobbyists for turning a blind eye.

Fedzilla is a major source of all of our economic, social and cultural maladies.

The Fedzillacrats deserve our scorn, contempt and anger. If any of them had an ounce of integrity they would resign and beg for forgiveness. Do your patriotic duty and vote them all out. They deserve it.

I want a solemn promise that those individuals responsible for this mess will be held accountable. When I get that from the president, I will consider his bailout plan.

Kill 'Em & Grill 'Em

There is a powerful, natural force in the fall air, and I, for one, cannot turn my back on it. I know the origin of "conservatism" and the pragmatic, rugged individualism logic that drives it and us.

As a conservationist, I believe in the wise use of our precious life-giving resources and
clearly understand man's critical responsibility to the stewardship of our wild ground and our wildlife.

I learned a long time ago that if I wanted to enjoy a fire at Christmas time, that I had to plant trees in the spring. Not to boast, but the Arbor Day Foundation even gave me, your humble Motor City Madman, a conservation award, and I'm just a guitar player. I wonder how many trees Sting or Dave Mathews planted last year.

I hunt, kill animals, start fires, and barbecue my families' daily sacred protein health food. I bait hooks, catch fish and then cook them in garlic and butter. That’s absolute perfection, just as God intended. Only a disconnected liberal cultist of denial could find fault with my perfect conservation lifestyle that is based on the sound science of biodiversity, sustain yield and responsible, renewable resources hands-on utility. Venison is the rocket fuel of the gods, and I celebrate it daily. It sure makes for some unstoppable fiery and sexy guitar noise.

President Nixon recognized the vital conservation role of hunters, fishermen and trappers when he established National Hunting and Fishing Day in 1972. This Saturday marks the 36th anniversary of National Hunting &Fishing Day, and it is party time at the Nugent camp.

Many Americans don't know that President Nixon even established a National Hunting &Fishing Day or that this Saturday marks its 36th anniversary.

Many people don’t know that outdoorsmen provide roughly 75% of all funds for state departments of natural resources for overall environmental management. Quality air, soil and water come from healthy wildlife habitat, and that has always been our mission statement.

Many don’t know that funds generated through hunting, fishing and trapping licenses, stamps and various other self-imposed fees are also used to protect non-game species, provide areas for bird watchers, and build trails for hikers. You're welcome.

Too many people don’t know that there are more turkey, elk, whitetail deer, geese, black bears and cougars in North America than at any time in our nation’s history. America’s wildlife management system is envied around the world for its overwhelming successes. Hunters, fishers and trappers demanded this, and we rejoice in our success.

You probably don’t know that hunting, fishing and trapping generates more than 30 billion dollars annually to the U.S. economy, 2.5 billion in annual federal tax revenues, 4.2 billion in state tax revenues each year and provides well over 593,000 jobs for Americans. Wildlife has to be counted in the asset column where it belongs, if you have a soul.

You probably don’t know that tens of millions of American families spend hundreds of
millions of hours in the great outdoors or that hunting is one of the safest recreational pursuits in America, with far fewer injuries or deaths per capita than skiing, football, cycling, swimming or boating.

You probably don’t know who Pope &Young were, never heard of Fred Bear, and don’t know what the acronyms DU, RMEF, NWTF, FNAWS, NSSF or SCI stands for, even though their conservation accomplishments are Herculean and deserve our respect.

You probably didn't know that hunters provide over 250 million meals each year to
the less fortunate by providing a portion of our game to homeless shelters through our non-bureaucratic, non-tax wasting, therefore very efficient Hunters for the Hungry programs. Our pleasure.

You probably never thought about the fact that not one teenage punk gangster has a hunting or fishing license in his pocket. Not one.

Some of you might not know that the 2nd Amendment has zero to do with hunting. The 2nd Amendment was not written by our Founding Fathers so I could go duck hunting. Only a fool would think so.

You don’t know these wonderful things because the outdoor community has not reached beyond the choir to educate anyone about the amazing success story of America’s conservation efforts, activities and programs. Damn shame. I do what I can.

The fault, of course, for such widespread ignorance lies at the feet of rank-and-file hunters and fishermen, our outdoor organizations, and the industries that support and benefit from our conservation lifestyle. With a hunting hating liberal media, it is nearly impossible to find a truthful article on hunting anywhere. Even so, for the most part, our hunting industry couldn't promote a blanket to a naked man in a blizzard. Sadly, Bubba lives, but I'm doing everything I can to beat him back into his cave where he belongs.

In this turbo-electrified, computerized, instant gratification world in which our children are immersed, the thrilling disciplines of hunting and fishing teaches patience, responsibility, humility, persistence and real cause and effect. There is no argument that these are the character traits that mold immature young people into mature, productive, conscientious adults. Look at me.

There are no politics in a deer blind. An omnisciently alert whitetail buck does not care if you are Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative.

It is good, however, to know that Gov. Palin is a real outdoors woman. She doesn't sling a shotgun over her shoulder once a year to mug for the camera in hopes of attracting votes from hunters and fishermen. She actually hunts caribou and fishes. This tuned in naturalist knows pure organic chow when she sees it. She’s the real deal.

This Saturday is National Hunting &Fishing Day. It is the day that signifies yet another glorious hunting season is upon us. It is perfect, and I am in, gung-ho, heart, mind, body, tooth, fang and claw, spirit and soul. Place your grilled venison orders here with me here. Happy hunting season 2008.

c/o HumanEvents.com 

Hunters' payback to nature

It's the power of nature, the power to heal man and itself.

During this explosive phenomenon, the natural fall season of harvest, we in the Nugent family are moved deep in our souls to celebrate Thanksgiving every step of the way.

Hallelujah and pass the sacred backstraps, baby.

'Tis the hunting season, and I am in with all I've got. Next Saturday I'll celebrate it with many on National Hunting and Fishing Day, declared 36 years ago by Richard Nixon.

Like trapping, hunting and fishing are integral to America culture, teamed as they are with our essential conservation responsibility.

Once necessary to survive, hunting and fishing now are two very popular forms of recreation, while keeping millions of American families connected to the land and its precious creatures.

Today roughly 20 million hunters and more than 50 million fishermen enjoy the outdoors and generate roughly $70 billion in revenue each year.

Perfection

Like all my friends, we Nugents hunt simply because we are hunters. It is perfect.

Thanks to hunters' dollars generated through licensing fees, habitat

stamp fees and direct involvement, America's wildlife and overall

conservation programs have never been more vibrant, healthy and strong. Our wildlife management system is envied around the world by all real conservationists.

The dollars hunters provide for state wildlife coffers provide

roughly 75 percent of all funds for state wildlife agencies. Considering that we hunters constitute only 12 percent of the population, we carry the vast majority of the financial

burden to ensure that America's wildlife, and its air, soil and water-cleansing habitat, is healthy and thriving.

How about a big, hearty and genuine thank you, America?

In addition to preserving and replenishing game animals, hunters' dollars provide habitat and research benefiting non-game species.

Wildlife photographers, artists, hikers, campers, bike riders, bird watchers and all outdoor enthusiasts ride on the financial coat tails of American hunters and fishermen.

The result? More turkey, geese, elk, black bear, cougars and whitetail deer than at any time in our nation's history. This phenomenal success story, intentionally ignored by the dominant media, is because hunters and fishermen care deeply and remain spiritually connected to our resource stewardship duties.

Down to a science

The sustain-yield science that we demand keeps wildlife and wild ground in the asset column.

American hunting and fishing families spend hundreds of millions of accident-free hours in the great outdoors. Hunting is one of the safest recreational activities in the world. And of course wild game meat is the healthiest food in the world.

Did I mention "perfect"?

Whitetail deer are everywhere. In fact, in most parts of the country, there are way too many of them. While many state wildlife departments have begun to correct this problem by increasing opportunities and by providing hunters more tags to kill does, we must do more.

Hunting seasons should be expanded. Other common-sense hunting opportunities must be implemented immediately based solely on science, never allowing selfish emotion to turn an asset into a liability as they have done with cougars in California and bears in New Jersey.

Can you believe that in 11 states and some Canadian provinces, Sunday hunting is illegal? These laws must be fought.

America's outdoorsmen and private landowners have created the most successful wildlife management system the world has ever known.

Happy hunting season, America. Good hunting and good luck. Celebrate the mighty Spirit of the Wild.

Liberalism is America's curse

Feel-good mentality has brought nothing but grief to us

The 1960s marked the rise of hedonism - the "if it feels good, do it" generation.

A cursory review of what came afterward tells a haunting story.

Teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, school dropout rates, drug use, divorce, youth crime and other social maladies escalated.

We poisoned our culture and society when we began caring more about ourselves than the collective good of society at large. Values, mores and standards-the very things that make a just and civil society-were carelessly tossed aside in favor of reckless abandon.

There are consequences for actions, something liberals and the hippies carelessly ignored at America's peril.

No surprise, guys

Now we read about kids shooting up schools and malls. This shouldn't surprise anyone.

My suspicions are that this will get worse. More kids will die. One of the rock-solid, irrefutable reasons for my suspicion is that schools and shopping centers and the worst crime-infested cities are gun-free zones - another empty-headed liberal idea that has guaranteed more victims.

In those early days before gun bans went into effect, you could walk into a hardware store and buy any kind of gun and ammo you wanted.

Kids brought all kinds of guns and knives to school for after-school hunting, competition and casual recreational purposes. No problem.

School and shopping center shootings were unheard of.

The poisonous seeds of "feel good" denial took root in the Sixties, along with Dr. Spock's "hands-off" new age parenting.

The far left has given gave birth to every social and cultural malady plaguing America today.

Culpability for kids killing kids rests with liberals and their feel-good, dopey, brain-dead policies.

Now liberals want to "help" us some more with nationalized health care and a host of other idiotic and dangerous programs.

Health-care express

Nationalized health care will create unhealthy citizens. If you want unhealthy Americans, jump on the Obama health-care express. Then watch it jump the tracks like every other liberal train before it.

Like a bad apple, our culture is rotting from within from the exposure and adoption of these poisonous policies.

Liberals will claim they care about people, but you should judge them by what they have already done to American culture. More government control always makes a mess of things.

If one government program doesn't fix the problem, then surely three or four will.

It is time to shout from the mountaintop, "Don't tread on me!"

Obama pulls out his smoke and mirrors for "change," when in fact he wants more of the very meddling government that has ruined everything it has gotten its greedy, unaccountable hands on.

It is time to tell the liberals to take a hike. I for one have learned a lesson. I pray to God most of America has and we put an end to this demolition derby and wrest America from the hands of fantasy mongers who will tell you anything to make you feel good, then charge you up the ying yang to fix their mistakes.

Communal Safety Nets For All

In overt defiance of the U.S. Constitution, Mao Tse Fedzilla has pledged 200 billion of our tax dollars to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest and hopelessly bankrupt mortgage-finance companies in America.

These companies failed in part due to "flawed business models," according to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Ya think? They also failed because Fedzilla is bloated, ineffective and far too corrupt to have provided the necessary fiscal and management oversight.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government sponsored enterprises (GSE) but are owned by private shareholders. That's a screwy business model on its face, but what it essentially means is that when a GSE is about to go belly up, taxpayer dollars are there to bail them out.

Many people, going back from the Clinton Administration up through the Bush Administration, urged our do-nothing Congress to do something to provide oversight of these companies, but in typical fashion, Fedzilla sat on its hands with impunity.

Members of Congress were being bought off by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to look the other way and do nothing. According to an article on CNN.com by Allan Chernoff, these shyster companies paid 174 million dollars to lobbyists to keep our elected officials from doing anything to provide regulatory oversight. Quite simply, our elected officials were bought off. And the U.S. taxpayer gets screwed again. As recently departed Jerry Reed sang, "she got the gold mine, and I got the shaft."

Democrats like Charles Schumer and Chris Dodd led the charge to stonewall any efforts to provide oversight of these companies. Dodd is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and now wants more information about how this happened. What hyperbole, what political posturing, what a fraud, what a perfect, soulless politician. When he had the opportunity to act in the interest of the American people, he didn't. Case closed.

Now the solution is to prop these companies up with our tax dollars, and, magically, all the dirty money lobbying will be stopped. Yeah, and I'm going vegetarian and playing banjo in a country band.

The two guys who ran these companies have been fired, while reportedly walking away with millions stuffed in their pockets. They should be hounded by reporters for the remainder of their days just like the gangsters at Enron. And then forced to pay back every red cent.

People need to go to jail.

The Bush Administration should launch the most wide-sweeping FBI investigation in the history of the agency of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Leave no stone unturned, no scoundrel should escape scrutiny. If Fedzilla can investigate and prosecute the Enron Gang, they ought to do the same for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

We must demand the FBI, the GAO and other watchdog organizations to investigate our elected officials and government workers to determine their complicity in this financial train wreck. We deserve to know who did what or not, how much money their political campaigns received, and if any crimes were committed. Then prosecute to the full extent of the law.

Government officials entrusted with managing our tax money should be held to an even higher standard than business officers of private industries. I find it arrogant and condescending for our public officials to lecture private business leaders on shady business practices when the very people lecturing these individuals are horribly mismanaging our tax dollars. What hypocrites. What thieves.

The real blame for this financial fiasco rests with Fedzilla. The more power and control we surrender to Fedzilla, the more likely the taxpayer will be left to clean up these inexcusable messes.

Republican Sen. Jim Bunning is right by saying that propping up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with our tax dollars is taking the "free market out of the free market." He's also right by saying that Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake should resign. They ought to be fired and investigated, then prosecuted.

The goal should not be for tax payers to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but rather, that these two companies should be privatized as soon as possible.
The free market. What a concept. GSEs should be immediately abolished as in tomorrow.

Fedzilla remains a bloated, ineffective, stinking pig. And we have to pay for it. Again.

c/o HumanEvents.com 

Obama pleads for nanny state

By Ted Nugent

Dear Mr. Obama:

Sir, you confuse me. Those of us who conduct our lives based on logic, truth, good will, decency and the driven work ethic to be productive assets to our great country are trying very hard to figure you out.

I hear the words coming out of your mouth. I see the large crowds cheering you on. But for the life of me I cannot believe the contradictions and hypocrisy coming out of you and your supporters.

Your advertisements and campaign speeches claim that you believe in Americans who work hard and try to be the best that they can be to achieve their American dreams. Then you turn around and rave about how you apparently hate rich, successful people. For some strange reason you want to punish them with punitive taxes.

You wish to take those increased taxes and put them into proven wasteful bureaucracies, many of which reward able-bodied Americans who simply refuse to get a job.

Worse, our tax dollars too often go to purchase bling instead of the proper care of children.

How in God's name can you support such slavery to the nanny state?

America is $9 trillion in debt. Increasing the debt further saddles future generations of America with even more dangerous debt. I cannot see how this is moral, just or makes good economic sense.

Senator, you even support the outrageous, duplicitous taxing of families' after-tax savings upon the death of a family member.

Redistribution of wealth is out-and-out anti-American, and the essence of communism.

As for further taxing the wealthy, do you believe there is a ceiling on success? At what level are you prepared to "take those profits?"

In a recent commencement speech, you recommended the graduates consider the "collective" rather than the individual.

Are we to expect that you actually believe that a quality society can possibly exist without rugged individuals as the nucleus for productive, positive neighborhoods, creating a truly great society, not to be confused with the disastrous "Great Society" that rewards slovenly dependency?

Another thing: Most Americans believe that our spiritual lives define us. We also believe that your 20-plus years at the Chicago church of Rev. Jeremiah Wright define you. If so, that would make you a radical racist - an America-hating, white-hating, Louis Farrakhan-supporting extremist.

Do you really expect us to believe that you sat in the pews for 20 years and did not hear any radical, anti-American drivel come out of the mouth of Rev. Wright?

You are on record supporting restrictions on the God-given, U.S. Constitution-guaranteed right to keep and bear arms. Do you believe that we need to pay for your armed security detail? What makes your lives more worthy of protecting than ours?

There is so much more we want to find out about you, and we hope you come forward with every bit of critical information for full disclosure before this fall so we know exactly who you are and what you stand for.

The people of America are genuinely concerned about the nation's future. Surely you owe it to us if you believe you can lead us forward for a better, more secure American Dream.

I'm sure you would want to give your wife something to be proud of.

Sarah Palin Is My Girl

By selecting Gov. Palin to be his running mate, Sen. McCain has finally electrified the conservative base -- the very base he desperately needs to defeat Sen.Obama in November. I, for one, am greatly relieved and inspired by her message, delivery, confidence, poise, class and grace.

To borrow a relative quote from Michelle Obama, with the selection of Gov. Palin, it's the first time in quite some time that I'm proud of the Republican Party.

Gov. Palin is a true outsider, a real maverick. She lacks Washington, D.C. political experience. That's good. No, that's excellent. It is her lack of D.C. political experience that is the refreshing outsider change America so desperately needs and wants.

Palin made it clear that she is like the rest of us, noting how Fedzilla is bloated, broken, ineffective, and wasteful. Our professional politicians no longer work for us, but instead represent K Street bandit lobbyists. These scoundrels deserve our scorn, anger and contempt, and, quite honestly, a big, old pink slip, and Sarah appears to be the tough leader we seek to get the job done.

The level of disgust and distrust across America is appalling and, I believe, unprecedented. A recent poll indicated the Nancy Pelosi-led Congress' approval rating is at an abysmal record low of nine percent. That it is even that high shows how clueless and disconnected the lunatic fringe is.

America needs more outsiders in Washington, D.C. now more than ever. We need more tough, standup hockey moms like Governor Sarah Palin. We need more ordinary Americans to springboard from small city councils to the halls of congress and beyond. We need welders, cops, teachers, ditch diggers, business people, construction workers, secretaries, auto mechanics, and guitar slingers to come to Washington, D.C. and replant the good old "We the People" tree.

Americans need to replace the professional politicians who have rigged and ruined the system to exclude ordinary citizens from participating in this experiment in self-government. My advice is to get angry and vote them all out. The professional punk politicians are the problem, not the solution.

We need fewer lawyers in Washington. Lawyers have created a masturbatory legal system by raping our justice system. It's refreshing to see that neither Sen. McCain nor Gov. Palin is a lawyer. This could be a good start back towards an experiment in self-government. Count me in.

We need fewer bureaucrats who accomplish nothing but sustaining and growing Fedzilla. Bureaucrats create reams of regulations, rules, and requirements that strangle innovation and punish producers. I expect Vice President Palin to lead the charge with a battering ram to smash in the bureaucratic doors that impede progress instead of enabling it. I had a bumper crop of crowbars this year. I'll donate them all to those willing to swing them.

It's wrong to suggest that just because Gov. Palin is not a career D.C. politician that she lacks the experience and intelligence to lead the nation. She clearly has more executive management experience than Sen. Obama, who has zero experience at running anything. He's not qualified to run an all-night donut shop, much less America.

Gov. Palin is an executive. The mark of an effective executive is to surround herself with bright, talented, capable professionals who share her vision to accurately represent the people they work for: Americans. Chief Executive Officers need to be visionary leaders, not tacticians who micromanage. Her experience demonstrates she is prepared to lead if necessary.

Gov. Palin represents real hope and change. In her case, hope and change are not simply hollow words. As a city councilwoman, mayor and governor, she has achieved tangible results. She exudes energy and passion, has the experience and the skills, and is ready for the job. I couldn't be more excited for America.

In addition to her executive experience, and based on unbiased, genuine research, Gov. Palin concludes that global warming is a fraud, supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, hunts and fishes, and is a member of the National Rifle Association. What's not to like?

Those pundits and Fedzilla fanatics who proclaim Gov.Palin has no experience to run the country are the very punks who want to continue to feed Fedzilla. They advocate taking more of our paychecks, wasting more of hard earned money, and not being held accountable. I would like to buy these Fedzilla punks a one-way ticket on the express train to Hell.

President Reagan would surely be proud of Sen. McCain's choice of Gov. Palin to be his running mate. President Reagan's words so many years ago ring true once again: it's morning in America.

Last night, a political savior may have arrived. Ted Nugent at your service,Vice President-to-be Palin. I'm your biggest fan. Let's rock.

c/o HumanEvents.com

Rockbama Does Invesco

By Ted Nugent

While Senator Obama was giving his acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver to tens of thousands of Fedzilla supporting numbskulls, I was busy pummeling musical fun gluttons at the New York State Fair with my R&B spirit-infested guitar as I've done over 6,000 times so far in my gravity-defying career.

My ace crew taped Senator Obama's speech so that I could watch it after I got off stage and now I'm slamming this out on my laptop. I won't go away. Write that down. Again.

Before I slice and dice the Obaminator's speech, let's get one thing clear. Though the Obaminator may be treated like a rockstar, he has much more in common with a one hit wonder, no talent pop star.

The Obaminator brought in Fedzilla musicians Sheryl Crowe and Stevie Wonder to electrify the throngs of Fedzilla supporters. Political ideologies aside, these gentlemen and their killer musicians are the real McCoy when it comes to music, and I salute them for that.

The title of rockstar is meaningless and petty, and typically indicative of a fashion-driven dope. Like those dedicated musicians still celebrating our honed craft 50 plus years later, it is the soul and genuine emotion and authority of the music of our black heroes like Bo Diddly and Chuck Berry that still lives on in my musical dreams that puts timeless integrity into every glowing guitar lick. Not the transparent symbolism of celebrity or rockstar sillyness. Go figure.

The musical Gods have indeed blessed me and I continue to create musical fire on the best tour of my life in 2008 by playing blistering rhythm and blues music to well over a billion people around the world, so far. Unlike the windjammer Obaminator, my music is black enough I have a talent that has been honed through sheer will power, sweat and persistence. That's the American Dream. I wouldn't dare let Fedzilla tamper with my dream.

The Obaminator will say anything, change any position, and obfuscate his socialist intentions and beliefs to get elected. I've never compromised or wavered on my musical vision. I only play music that singes the pure, aboriginal musical soul.

As I've written before on HUMAN EVENTS, in my cursory review of the history of presidential politics, the Obominator is the least qualified person in the history of America to run for president, and his speech proved it once again. With all the believability of a talking head beauty queen, no one buys it for a minute that he is going to save the children, end world poverty or bring peace to humankind.

Pure condescending fluff.

I wasn't expecting a detailed policy speech from the Obaminator; that's not the purpose of a presidential acceptance speech. The purpose was to electrify the Socialist Party, formerly known as the Democrat Party.

The Obaminator gave an over-the-top inspiring speech if you are a member of the
Fedzilla addicted, bloodsucker, anti-free market, European socialist cult of denial of America.

In the America facing a pandemic of self imposed obesity and gluttonous, irresponsible credit card debt, it is understandable how Obama's celebration of such behavior resonated.

If you're a rugged individualist, pro-free market, freedom loving, lower tax and less spending supporting capitalist, you had to shake your head in painful disbelief over how far left the Socialist Party has plummeted. President Kennedy, who supported lower taxes and stood up to the Commies in Cuba, would surely hang his head in shame and disbelief that this convention asks not what it can do for its country, but what its country must do for them. Shameful.

No one wants to be in the Iraq War, but the reality is that we are, and therefore, we must fight to win it. No timetable for withdrawal, total warfare should our military policy. Turning and running like we did in Mogadishu in 1993 under President Bubba Clinton's failed military policies emboldened the very enemies America is fighting today.

He covered all the liberal bases in the cloudy, vague terms we've become used to from his predecessors, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Boiling this down in the Tedfurnace, it's easy to get down to this. He favors gay marriage, he wants to renew the idiotic "assault weapons" ban, spend us into bankruptcy with socialized medicine and -- get this -- give the GI bill to people who serve their "communities."

Hey, pal: the GI Bill is for those who wore the uniform, not tye-died jeans and a dirty t-shirt.

Listening to the internationalist Obaminator speak made me shudder for the safety and security of America. It appears the Obaminator is more concerned about shoveling almost a trillion dollars of our tax dollars to the United Nations for world wastefare programs than he and Senator Biden are about defending America. Good grief.

The Obaminator spoke of Fedzilla taking over the nation's health care. He believes Fedzilla can do it better, cheaper, more effective and provide better health care than the free market. Only a bloated Michael Moore illiterate stooge could possibly believe this lie and risk putting the nation's health care under the care of Doctor Fedzilla. Assisted suicide is one thing; engineered suicide is beyond the pale.

The Obominator was right when he said that government can't solve all the problems. The federal government meddling creates social and cultural problems, ruins individuals, and destroys communities. I give you Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, which has been an abysmal failure to eradicate poverty.

Communities solve community problems. Families solve family problems. Individuals solve individual problems. Responsible people know that if you want to solve domestic problems, the first obstacle to remove from the equation is Fedzilla.

It was refreshing to hear that the Obominator wants to reduce the dependence on foreign energy. Welcome to the energy party, pal. Drill here and drill near is the near term answer. Long term energy solutions do not include wind, solar or biofuels. Nuclear energy is the key to energy independence. Nuke me.

The Obominator said he would cut taxes for 95% of Americans. Cutting taxes for everyone-businesses large and small and individual Americans-coupled with a dramatic cut in government spending is the key to long-term success. Lower taxes and less government spending is fuel in the tank of America. But if he's cutting taxes for 95% of Americans, he's going to raise taxes on those 5% who already pay the vast majority of the taxes that flow into Fedzilla. Which means they'll be better at finding ways to protect their money and Fedzilla will go deeper in debt.

The Obominator spoke of government meddling in health care, education and economy. None of these three key components to the American way of life can be maximized by central planning out of Washington DC. Less meddling by Fedzilla will reduce healthcare costs, improve education, and ignite an economic conflagration.

Let us pray for America that the Obaminator is a flash in the political pan. Once the American public realizes the only substance to his message is higher taxes and more government spending and that he has zero experience that qualifies him to be the leader of the free world, he will hopefully become a political footnote and we can then get back to the tough business of running the nation.

Senator Obama is not ready to lead anyone who isn't a trendy rock fan looking for symbolism over substance.

Memo to media: truth marketable

With pure, unstoppable, logic-driven defiance coursing through my veins and slamming through my fingertips, I am compelled to exercise my glowing, unstoppable "we the people" crowbar of truth in spite of the anti-Texan editorial policy running rampant in the newspapers across this otherwise Great Republic.

I keep looking, but for the life of me I cannot find any real Texans who agree with John Young. Go figure.

That I better and more accurately represent the Great Texas Spirit than my editors is tragic.

I shall carry on.

Since finally coming home to Texas, and after recoiling in shocking disbelief at the very un-Texas-like drivel I read in every major newspaper in the state, I decided a simple letter to the editor wasn't quite "we the people" enough for me.

It was time to insert the pulse of the best, most productive, real American Texan's point of view into the hometown newspaper.

I've been told that the online hits on my columns are more than one thousand times that of the liberal writers. Duh.

Of course, the lunatic fringe got its diapers all in a tizzy, questioning just who I thought I was barging in here like this, daring to express myself and defy the entrenched lefties. Clearly, I am far beyond the thinking stage, as if I need anyone's authorization or to qualify my credentials in order to flex my First Amendment-guaranteed, God-given rights.

Step aside, you pathetic little squawkersheep. There's a new sheriff in town, and he ain't backing down.

We're better shots

I'm from Detroit. It's not a murder capital because folks are more violent. We are just better damn shots. Get over it.

With all due respect to the socialist fantasies of my fellow writers and editors, and being the only author on the Trib staff with two New York Times best-sellers with an annual readership that dwarfs my "professional" comrades, little ol' humble me shall carry on, thank you, with more confidence and supported authority than my journalistic brethren. Guitar players just wanna have fun.

So as I bring in national and global media to conduct interviews, representing the most positive and productive of Texas and America, I will continue to celebrate and promote the self-evident truths that still inspire and guide the vast majority of good people everywhere. Get used to it.

• We know that hunting, fishing and trapping are perfect.
• We know that to keep and bear arms is an individual, God-given right.
• We know that "keep" means "it's mine, you can't have it," and that "bear" means "I've got it right here on me."
• We know what "shall not be infringed" means.
• We know all too well that "gun-free zones" are a guaranteed recipe for disaster.
• We know that the current system of over-taxation cripples entrepreneurs and small businesses while rewarding the most slovenly amongst us.
• We know that upon the death of a loved family member, the government has no rational right to one red cent of our families' after-tax savings.
• We know that the IRS is a joke.
• We know that throwing money at our failed education system will make it worse.
• We know that the current system of testing students is counterproductive to actually teaching them.
• We know that violent criminals should never be let out of their cages.
• We know that child predators should be put to death.
• We know that you cannot live the American Dream without speaking English. Properly.
• We know that generations of welfare brats are slaves to soulless policies.
• We know that Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a racist.
• We know that David Koresh was loony, but the government was guilty of criminal acts against its citizens in how its agents dealt with him.
• We know that ethanol is a joke.
• We know that Willie Nelson is stoned.
• We know America is doomed if we don't secure our borders from illegal invaders.
• We know that Hillary and Obama have made it clear they want to ruin America.
• We don't know what the hell John McCain wants to do.
• We know what "Don't Tread on Me" means.

God bless America and God bless Texas. Ted Nugent loves you.

No Whiners Allowed

by Ted Nugent

There is no whining allowed in my world. I have no time or interest in suffering spineless whiners and complainers.

Even with my damaged rock and roll ears, I can detect the slightest trace of whining by family, friends, staff or business associates. By now, they know I don't whine and don't tolerate anyone who does. (The beautiful result of that is an automatic whine elimination system that prevails in TedLand.)

It would be easy for me to complain that the music industry is not fair or that I believe the industry is full of scoundrels and liars. Instead of wasting valuable time lamenting and complaining about these obstacles, my modus operandi has, and will continue to be, to play my guitar louder, sexier, more ferocious and more often. I simply won't go away. Life isn't fair, just or impartial. The road to success or victory is tough, demanding and obstructed with any number of moral and ethical hurdles. Sucker punches are legal. When you get hit from behind and knocked down, the mark of a mature, confident person is to spring back up, dusts himself off and get back in the arena. A winner does not complain.

The mark of an immature person is one who complains that something isn't fair because the ball didn't bounce his or her way. These people remind me of spoiled brats on the grade school playground who didn't get picked for the team. Tough.

If anyone has a legitimate right to complain, it would be Sen. McCain. The print and television media coverage is obviously biased in favor of Sen. Obama, yet you do not hear McCain complaining about it. He continues to march face-first into the howling political winds like an American buffalo on a mission. I like that.

When Obama received European adulation (as if he were the Second Coming), McCain did not complain but rather continued his steadfast campaign on American turf. The McCain campaign soldiers on with a determined spirit and is picking up momentum as evidenced by the polls.

When McCain scored a knockout over Senator Obama the other night at the Saddleback Church in Orange County by answering Reverend Warren's questions more confidently, clearly and decisively than the stumbling, obfuscating Obama, Obama's campaign accused the Straight Talk Express of cheating. Whiners.

There is no evidence -- none -- that McCain heard Obama's rambling and confusing answers prior to taking the stage and answering Reverend Warren's questions. The evidence is pretty plain: when thrashed soundly by a superior opponent, the Obama camp whined like school girls.

The Obama camp, recognizing that McCain answered the questions in a more straightforward, presidential tone than their guy, immediately began complaining that McCain must have cheated by listening to Obama fumble his answers time and time again. Obama appeared like the freshman senator that he is.

The bottom line is this: McCain appeared much more presidential than Obama. And there is a very valid reason for this: as a natural leader, McCain is a far better choice than Obama, who is the guy with the least amount of experience in the history of presidential campaigns.

When Obama does not have a teleprompter in front of him to deliver another hollow message of transparent, symbolic hope and change, his speech and answers to questions are disjointed and confusing. Watch him closely. He is not confident.

Are you, like me, wondering how a President Obama would fare politically against determined adversaries such as Iranian psychopath Ahmadinejad, North Korea's Littler Hitler, Kim Jong Il, or how he would navigate through political minefields such as the trade imbalance with China, Russian saber rattling which could lead to a new Cold War, etc.? Scary thought.

A President Obama would be immediately tested by both our friends and adversaries because they know he has zero experience and has never been thrown into the murky, underhanded, geopolitical arena where no one -- friend or foe -- plays fair.

Choosing a president is always a tough, demanding business, especially during tough and demanding times. Politics aside, we must always first look for certain character traits in our president: strong, resolute, determined, unshakable, and firm.

Obama displays none of these presidential character traits. I am concerned that, as our president, Obama would fold under the pressure of the job just like he folds and complains when the political campaign seas get a bit rough.

McCain is looking more presidential with each passing day. Strip away the hope and change slick veneer of Obama's campaign and he looks like any other windbag politician peddling a hollow message. No thanks. We need to rid American politics of whiners, not hire on more.

Uncle Ted's Bronco Evolution Revolution

By Ted Nugent

BEER FOR MY HORSE, WHISKEY (RACE FUEL) FOR MY BRONCOS

Leave well enough alone? I (we) think not. As if anything on Monday can’t be improved upon at some point on Tuesday, at least in our ever creative, status quo busting, go for it, get r done, road less traveled American Dreamer minds that is. It’s the American way, and when you enter the mythical world of BroncoManiacs, look out for the wild-eyed wrenchboys, for to us, nothing is sacred, and if it is, we can fix (destroy) it. Talking about a work in progress!

Do you find yourself grabbing a fistful of Snap On tools, rolling up your sleeves and walking circles around and crawling under your mighty steed on a regular basis, admiring its beauty and mechanical brilliance, scrutinizing every nut and bolt, only to create a mental list of “must-do’s, ASAP”? I thought so. We are, you see, afterall, Bronco BloodBrothers, and we must never stop with our upgrade orgy of workhorse dreams. If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway, is what I always say. Then of course, in my case, I usually end up calling a professional mechanic to come bail me out and make the damn thing right again. Ah, but the greaseball adventure never ends, and as long as the Baja R&D department continues to explore and expand the uncharted territories of suspension, horsepower, drivetrain, wheel-travel, torque, fuel efficiency, aerodynamics, electrical, lighting, comfort and just plain handsome, we will never give up, will we. You can have my wrenches when you pry my cold, dead fingers from around them. Maybe.

As I slam this little ditty on my global roving laptop, I am on the set of Toby Keith’s newest movie, BEER FOR MY HORSES. To most casual onlookers, I suppose the stars of the project are Toby Keith, Rodney Carrington, Tom Skerritt (Top Gun), Cletus T. Judd, Willie Nelson, and dare I say, little ol MotorCity Bronco Madman me, as defiant, longhaired, uppity, bowhunting deputy sheriff, smartass Skunk Traver, with way too much firepower and a propensity to break rules and kill bad guys with flaming arrows. A lovable bastard if ever there were one.

It is surely a creative riot here on location in the wild beauty of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and once again I am so very blessed to be invited in as part of another wonderful outrageous project like this. With a cast and crew of more than 130 people on set, I must share with you all here at Bronco Driver magazine that there are at least 4 different Broncos in various scenes of the movie. We all know why, because the world loves Broncos nearly as much as we do. When it is time to choose a cool truck, invariably for a cool photo, movie, music video, outdoor television show, TV scene or ad campaign, we more often than not see the mighty Ford Bronco nearby. Cool is as cool does. OJ notwithstanding. So what else is new?

The key featured vehicle in the movie is in fact a highly customized 1994 Ford F350 beast nicknamed “Thunder”. As Rack’s (Toby Keith) personal pickemup truck, it is all beautifully painted a lovely sky blue with fancy, artistic white and silver lightning bolts, a gorgeous double scooped hood, tall, rugged 12” lift and 41” Super Swampers on glowing chrome wheels, chrome headers, sidepipes, lights, push-bars, grab-handles and rollbar, way more shiny chrome than I would ever allow on any of my trucks. However, in numerous scenes, Broncos do appear. The famous food caterer for the project even hauls his huge custom food trailer behind a well kept 1990 white Bronco, with just the right aftermarket suspension, tires, wheels, lighting and various goodies that we all know and love. Can’t hep ourselves!

In one scene, during a roll through a seedy Mexican villa, a dilapidated old sun-beaten ’79 Bronco makes its appearance in order to provide just the right rough and tumble atmosphere. I am surprised that a pre-78 bobtail or two weren’t brought in, since New Mexico is indeed an early Bronco state if ever there was one. We are not done filming yet and I am going to push the producers hard for this powerful, organic vehicular upgrade. All this stunning New Mexico off-road scenery without an early Bronco? I aint goin for it.

As I film this movie and prepare for turkey, bear and bass season, the world’s greatest rock-n-roll Funkbrother band, Mick Brown on thunderdrums and Greg “Motown” Smith on depth-charge bass are drooling and squirming in anticipation like the animals that they are for my 2008 gravity defying 46th year ultra-rocktour, (Good grief!!!) My own three precious Broncos are sitting patiently at home, eagerly awaiting my return to my sacred stomping grounds in Texas and Michigan. My little near-stock, black ‘66 half-cab is warm and cozy in the barn, always ready to work hard and play hard, and we shall get to her as soon as possible for some tender loving upgrade. But not too much. She’s still uncut!

After a complete frame-off rebuild wrench orgy, supervised by the masters at Jeff’s Bronco Graveyard, Summit Racing and Ford Motor Racing, my immaculate 1974 snowplow beast is indeed a thing to behold. We did it all, and we did it right.

Meanwhile, my famous Bill Stroppe 1980-1990 Zebra Bronco is in the Bronco loving hands of Stacey David and crew for a complete frame off reincarnation. Stacey has upgraded his GEARZ TV show to the SPEED channel, and the Nuge Zebra Bronco will rise like an angry, defiant Phoenix from the fires of FoMoCo hell. This project is titled the Nugent BushMaster Bronco, and thanks to Jon Clark and Karen Fogarty-Hamlin at Bushmaster Firearms International, we even have an adorable snakeskin Bushmaster .223 caliber assault rifle to go with Stacey’s amazing vision for this truck of mine. I’m sure you all are familiar with Stacey’s affection for Ford Broncos and his worldclass wrenchmaster mechanical genius on his Crazy Horse Bronco project, so we should all be prepared for a true state-of-the-art offroad masterpiece from sir David. Gentlemen, ignite your blowtorches!

I am turning 60 this year (did I mention Good Grief?) and though I truly wish I could have made the time in my over the top hectic schedule to adequately conduct these fascinating, very demanding, exciting, long term rebuilds myself, as the great philosopher Dirty Harry once said, “a good man knows his limitations.” With the year round production of our People’s Choice Award winning Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild TV show on Outdoor Channel, my nonstop rock-n-roll mayhem dreams all summer, our sold out Sunrize Safaris hunts each fall and winter, plus never ending charity work for children and our military heroes, the writing of my fourth book, magazine articles for more than 28 sporting publications, and a full on year round media blitzkrieg, I just couldn’t do justice to the comprehensiveness of these rebuilds the way I knew they had to be done. Not to mention I’m a lousy mechanic! But believe you me, the final vehicles are indeed my vision from a lifetime of the ultimate, perfect Bronco dreaming. Afterall, I was tutored by masters the likes of Mickey Thompson, Parnelli Jones, Bill Stroppe and Dick Cepek. It is much like my being mentored in my bowhunting life by the best of the best, masters like Fred Bear, Robin Hood, Geronimo and Cochise. I’ve been to the Great Spirit mountaintop my friends, and I aint coming down soon.

Suffice it to say that my old, beat up 1974 Bronco had been put through some hardcore, gungho abuse over many Michigan winters and extended annual venison hauling maneuvers in the extreme outback. And of course there was that episode with a very old white oak tree that refused to give an inch. With the help of Ace Michiganiac Mechanic Brian Daugherty in Grand Rapids, we started with a complete disassemble strip-down, knowing that the Midwest winters had eaten away at her to the core, but there was no way we were quite ready for the cancerous deterioration that we discovered.

The entire framework was rusted enough to seriously compromise the integrity of the basic vehicle, so we rolled up our sleeves a little further and went at it with a vengeance. A vengeance of love of course. Matkins Extreme Frames in Billings Montana came through with just what the good Bronco doctor ordered with a Stage II extreme frame, and we were in business once again. With Jeff and all my Bronco Graveyard BloodBrothers next door in Brighton Michigan, an all steel body and hardware and seals were installed to further bulletproof the beast. Proto Fab in Dewey, Arizona got us their famous front and rear Rock Solid Plate steel bumpers and custom winch mounts for the big bad Warn, plus their indestructible, yet handsome spare tire carrier. Also from Proto Fab came our ultra-tuff six point family style rollcage and front and rear shock hoops. Can’t live without em.

State of the art suspension upgrade came from Deaver Springs in Santa Anna California with their 5.5” Superflex front coils &11 leaf rear springs. Along with Jeff’s Bronco Graveyard’s front disc brake conversion, we fortified the Bronco stopping capabilities with Warren, Michigan’s Hydratech Braking Systems hydraulic booster system and lines.

All that stopping power is essential, for the Ford Motor Racing Team’s 302 crate motor can only be described as a thang-o-beauty, and tweaked to the max with a Holly carb, MSD distributor, ignition, coil, AGR Power Steering pump, K&N air filter system, she delivers nearly 400 spine tingling horses and a rather romantic, neck snapping torque ballet to drive the 33” BFG Mud Terrain radial cleats through some Michiganiac black goo swampFun! Bushwhacker Inc in Portland Oregon keeps the mud out of our face with their rugged, handsome Duraflex XL fender flares.

With a full array of retina singing KC DayLiter glow, plus a complete compliment of official Lake County Sheriff Department police lights and sirens, the 120 amp alternator, twin Optima batteries and complete Painless wiring harness from Summit Racing assures a complete journey to hell and back.

Of course none of this could be possible without solid welds with our Mittler Welding Supply friends from South Bend, Indiana. The Miller MIG 210 Welder, aluminum spoolgun, and our auto darkening All American Welding Mask made it all come together. Welding is clearly the sign of a real man. There is no life without eternal welds.

I have a soulbrother, BloodBrother by the name of Jim Lawson, who is my hunting land manager and all around ranchhand, deer trackin, goose pluckin, tree cuttin, chainsaw sharpenin, firewood splittin, guncleanin, hay plantin, fence fixin, guitar stringin, ultimate wrangler master of all trades. Big Jim supervised the entire project while I rocked my ass off around the world, and none of it could have been accomplished without him. It is said that a very lucky man will have one good hunting dog in life. Well, I am truly a very fortunate soul, for not only have I had six incredible gundogs so far in my life, I’ve also got Big Jim. Yes, he points and retrieves too. Love that man.

Put A Hoax In Your Tank With Ethanol

by Ted Nugent 

Well, greenies, I hope you are proud of yourselves.

With the horrible, fantasy- driven "feel good" disconnect you have forced upon America and the world with your pie-in-the-sky dreams of saving the poor polar bears, which by the way, are at record-high populations, exploding gas and food prices are the direct result of the counterproductive scramble to clean the air and save the whales.

While continuing with the brain-dead, suicidal ban on any new drilling for oil or gas in America's untapped rich "independent" reserves, while demanding the development of the insanely wasteful ethanol biofuel, America bends over further and further into the hateful hands of our enemies.

Nicely done, lefties. No wonder you want to legalize dope. You are dopes.

The production of corn-based ethanol actually costs more in energy consumption per gallon than is realized per gallon of this "alternative."

Worse, the very same corn that is critical for the production of food for hundreds of millions of people around the world has been grossly wasted while artificially and unnecessarily driving up the cost of every commodity known to man.

Greenies, what in God's name were you thinking? Oh, that's right. It feels good because it sounds good. And that is all that matters.

Consequences be damned. Such an inconvenient truth.

The same gaggle of clueless Democrat and Republican senators who raised hell to create the ethanol hoax, including presidential candidate John McCain, recently urged the fantasy-driven Environmental Protection Agency to back off enforcement of their legislation to ramp up production of ethanol.

Agri-welfare brats are going nuts, I'm sure.

Even the terminal big government maniacs at Rolling Stone magazine and the ultra left New York Times have admitted how the entire ethanol joke is out of control.

Respected economist Walter Williams recently declared, "Politicians, farmers and ethanol producers know they are running a cruel hoax on the American public. They are in it for the money."

With the nanny state bloating at the hands of the liberal Congress, government subsidies at a rate of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol will end up costing tax payers a whopping $3.5 billion this year for the 7 billion gallons expected to be produced.

Corn is a grossly expensive crop to grow. It takes more than 1,700 gallons of water to grow enough corn to produce one gallon of ethanol.

This uniquely high water content of ethanol is dangerously corrosive to standard gasoline pipelines, so it must be delivered to all destinations by truck or rail, creating a ridiculously cost prohibitive overhead.

Once ethanol finally finds its way into our gas tank, that same water content can ruin engines, making it even more destructive.

Another disturbing little ditty to add to the ethanol scam. Even after ethanol subsidies have ravaged our pocketbooks, as fuel it is at least 20 percent to 30 percent less efficient than gasoline.

Based on laws pulled out of the dark, gloomy recesses of mindless bureaucrats, the United States is required to produce and we are forced to burn 36 billion gallons of this snake oil by the year 2022.

That is five times our current load of 7.5 billion gallons. With 33 new ethanol plants being built right now and 60 more up and coming, this runaway freight train is on a collision course from hell.

America is the fourth-largest exporter of rice in the world. U.S. farmers have more than 30 million acres in corn production this year, which means fewer acres for rice, beans, wheat and hay.

Economics 101 tells me that supply and demand will force prices up for all those commodities and dramatically reduce our exporting capabilities.

Can you say "lose-lose"? Who came up with this game plan, Willie Nelson or Michael Moore?

Gang of Sellouts

by Ted Nugent

Joining five Democrats to make up the Gang of Ten, five Republican senators tossed Sen. John McCain under his Straight Talk Express Energy bus.

The five Republican senators (Graham, Thune, Chambliss, Corker, and Isakson) should be renamed the Gang of Sellouts.

The Gang of Ten is a bipartisan group of senators who recently offered an energy policy -- intentionally or stupidly otherwise -- that can only benefit Senator Obama, whose energy policy up until this point was to tell us to keep our tires just as liberals prefer Fedzilla: properly inflated. McCain had Obama on the energy ropes and was scoring some big-time political points, but the Gang of Sellouts has let Obama off the ropes. Just when McCain was making headway, the Gang of Sellouts let the air out of his energy fight.

According to Kimberly Strassel's August 8th article in The Wall Street Journal, the Gang of Ten's energy policy is to allow four states to determine whether or not to allow drilling for oil on offshore federal land and deny drilling within 50 miles of our coasts and any drilling in ANWR. Oil companies would be allowed to explore for oil off Florida's coasts. You know, like those stalwarts of environmentalism China, Cuba and India are planning to do in the next couple of years.

Additionally, the Gang of Ten would provide over $80 billion in tax credits for alternative fuels by eliminating $30 billion in tax breaks for oil companies, which of course ultimately comes out of American consumer's pockets. That's right: raise taxes on the very companies that would invest in finding more real energy to help make America energy independent, while propping up more Fedzilla hoaxes like ethanol. The Emperor not only has no clothes, he's fat, wart-riddled and ugly.

Increasing taxes is never the right approach if the goal is to provide incentives to expand business, lower prices, and provide jobs. Only Democrats do not understand that raising taxes destroys incentives. One would think, even pray and dream, that Republicans -- even the Gang of Sellouts -- would know this.

The first rule of Republican economic politics must always be to never cut deals with the Tax Devil. The second economic maxim is that America can not tax and spend its way to prosperity. These two fundamental rules should be burned into the doors of all Republican senators and congressmen's offices. Even tattooed onto their foreheads.

Unable to drill within 50 miles of our coasts, we will not be able to tap into the rich energy reserves that lay just off of our coasts.

As George Will pointed out in his June 5th op-ed The Gas Prices We Deserve, the US Minerals Management Service restricted offshore areas may contain 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which is ten times the oil and 20 times the natural gas Americans use annually. Read that again. Whose side are these numbskulls on?

The Gang of Ten's proposal would restrict us from this energy -- energy that would help make America more energy independent. Thanks for nothing, Gang of Sellouts.

"America is serious about becoming independent of foreign oil," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a member of the Gang of Sellouts. Either he is lying or he is tremendously stupid. The energy policy he helped create with the Demonrats on the Gang of Ten will make America more dependent on foreign energy, not less.

But energy independence is not what Democrats want. For whatever perverted, anti-American reason, Democrats detest American oil companies and want us to be energy slaves to other countries who, by and large, do not like America. Burn this into your memory: Democrats do not support drilling for oil. Welcome to Planet of the Apes.

At least in the short term, drilling for oil and gas off of our energy-rich coasts and at ANWR is indeed the answer, along with every imaginable energy mining upgrade possible. Ordinary Americans understand this and overwhelmingly support increased drilling. Even McCain, who previously did not support increased drilling, has come around to this reality.

The Gang of Republican Patriots in Congress -- who refuse to go home for a five-week vacation and are pressing Speaker Pelosi to order the return of the other congressmen to vote on an energy bill -- deserve our admiration and praise. Note to McCain: conduct an energy news conference from the darkened floor of the House of Representatives with these congressional patriots.

Energy independence must be the goal. This goal can not be achieved by endorsing an extremely flawed plan that will not lead to drilling where the energy is located. That's a fool's game, which is why the Democrats endorse it.

Energy is, and will remain, the defining issue of the presidential campaign. The Gang of Sellouts has made McCain's job of capturing the White House more difficult and has added fuel to Obama's anti-drilling political tank.

Drill now for energy freedom and independence. Meanwhile, send the Gang of Sellouts "Obama for President" bumper stickers and a broken tire gauge. They'll know where to put it.

Spirit Of Fred Bear Lives On

'Kamp for Kids' instills core values in America's children

by Ted Nugent

The tall, lanky gentleman put his hand on my shoulder and told me to keep doing what I was doing.

He liked the way I promoted conservation - the hunting, fishing and trapping lifestyle.

Chuckling, he told me that he was taken aback years before when he first heard of this wild, long-haired Motor City Madman shooting flaming arrows on stage every night and raising hell with unbridled, loud, over-the-top rock 'n roll.

Then he said how he had listened to my message closely, and that he liked it.

He expressed surprise at how many young people he had met that shared with him how it was the wild rocker that had turned them on to the mystical flight of the arrow and the great outdoors.

I smiled back at Fred Bear and simply said, "Yes, sir, you can bet on it."

These encouragements came from the great man, a fellow Michigan native, most responsible for popularizing bowhunting in this country.

Our exchange came on a stunning, pivotal day of vivid October colors in the wilds of Michigan 21 years ago.

Five months later, the legendary bow hunter was gone.

Nonetheless, his message pulsed relentlessly through me. It was spurred on by the mindless culture war against the pure hands on conservation lifestyle roiling across a country drunk on political correctness.

Following my hero's direction, I created the Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids. The non-profit charity implements his instructions to the fullest, while at the same time counterpunching those fools who dare try to interfere with our positive hunting heritage.

Right over wrong always turns me on.

We teaching basic wildlife and environmental stewardship responsibilities, hunter safety, archery and the fundamentals of outdoor recreation.

We give much time fortifying young people against the curses of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gangs and crime.

Families bring their children ages 11-17 from across America for three-day weekends with specially trained volunteer counselors. In a beautiful wilderness setting, they discover the spirit of the wild within them.

Each boy and girl takes home a hunter's safety certificate and an unstoppable love for being the best he or she can be as an asset to family, America, Mother Nature and the good earth.

Tens of thousands of children and their families have been powerfully affected.

It happened again recently outside Omaha, Neb., where 75 children got the thrills of their lives at the Walnut Creek campgrounds for a special one-day event.

That's 13,000 children having been introduced to archery, bowhunting, fishing, trapping and BB gun marksmanship and hunter safety at just the Nebraska chapter of our enterprise alone.

The smiles on these youngsters' faces was all the payment anyone could ever ask for.We have created an army of positive peer pressure. How cool is that?

Here in Texas, many organizations reach out and organize such events for kids. I encourage everyone to look into them and get involved in any way you possibly can.

Soon, we will be meeting with various groups to hopefully bring our beloved Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids here to Texas, as there is nothing better and more exciting for children than to be taught the joys of the shooting sports and the lessons of the great outdoors with family and friends.

We take our kids hunting so we don't have to hunt for our kids.

Sheep In Sheep's Clothing

By Ted Nugent

Similar to communism, socialism, fascism, and religious voodooism, liberalism is a political cancer designed to control you, not liberate you. Liberalism is based upon the theory that government—and lots of it--knows better than you what is best for you. Liberals believe you are too stupid to make wise decisions for yourself.

The entrenched liberal paradigm is to grow and sustain Fedzilla, the amorphous blob that is gobbling up more and more of our tax dollars and in the process, becoming more and more unresponsive and unaccountable to its employers—you and me, the American taxpayer.

No one who’s smarter than a two-week old puppy seriously believes Fedzilla is a paragon of efficiency or respects the best interest of the American people. A recent poll indicated the Pelosi-led congress has the lowest approval rating in history. Deservingly so, I might add.

For example, the Pelosi-led stumblebum Congress just recessed for a five week, taxpayer paid summer vacation without passing an energy bill, thereby continuing to make America more dependent on foreign energy. Do you get five weeks of paid summer vacation for doing a bad job? Didn’t think so.

Even with liberals and their embarrassingly fat and ineffective pet Fedzilla continuing to harm and weaken America, some political hacks believe liberals will pick up seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate this fall.

A substantial part of the reason Fedzilla supporters stand to pick up these seats and potentially capture the White House is because conservatives have failed to either act like conservatives or have abandoned conservative principles in favor of moderate positions. Unfortunately, that’s largely true.  And it’s a big mistake.

In order to get their conservative mojo working again, what conservatives on Capitol Hill need is a figurative slap upside their head with an oil-soaked 2x4 from the not so mean streets of common sense America. I wallpaper and carpet-bomb the media on a daily basis with my loving crowbar of truth and logic. I do what I can. Uncle Ted to the rescue.

First things first. I want a conservative to write a bill to move tax day from April 15 to the Monday before Election Day in November. Liberalism might not sell so well when people have to pay for it the day before they vote.  In addition, conservatives should advance a bill that instead of having our income taxes and Social Security taxes removed from our paychecks each week, Americans should get to keep all of it and then have to write one big check each year on the day before elections. Term limits anyone? How about some tax cuts and reductions in government spending?

Speaking of laws, for every new law passed how about Congress should have to repeal ten other laws? At the rate these guys pass nonsense, they’d have things cleaned up pretty well in about one year.  The #1 conservative goal must be to reduce the appetite of Fedzilla. Eliminating outdated, overreaching laws will help tame the beast.

Continuing on with laws, I want to see a conservative write a law that states that no bill can be more than ten pages long, double-spaced, 12 pitch and written at the 12th grade level. Efficiency often begins with simplicity.

Conservatives should develop an energy plan to make America energy independent within ten years. If we could put a man on the moon 40 years ago with less computing power than what a kid has in an iPod today, we can become energy independent if conservatives make it a priority. Failing to do this should lead to the second American Revolution. I’ll lead the charge. I've had a bumper crop of crowbars this year so far.

Permanently eliminate the death tax. There is nothing more evil, more morally despicable than the ugly death tax. It is an outrage and conservatives must work overtime to make the death tax permanently extinct.

Conservatives should commission a panel of private industry representatives to do a top to bottom review of Fedzilla for the purpose of identifying cost savings by transferring Fedzilla agencies and departments to the private sector, whose goal is to be efficient so that profits are maximized.

Regardless what the Fedzilla supporters write and pass, conservatives should put forth a separate balanced budget each year.

Conservatives must work hard to destroy the current burdensome, complicated tax system and replace it with a simpler, fairer system.

Conservatives should put forth a plan to reduce the overall size of the federal government by 6 ½% each year for next four years so that within four years the size of the federal government is reduced by 25% percent. Tax cuts without reducing spending are meaningless. The savings will be used to pay off our ten trillion dollar debt.

In order to save and ultimately eliminate Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, conservatives will immediately advance a plan to institute means testing and begin privatizing the other components of these programs. Conservatives will advance a bill every year until it is passed to allow young workers to opt out of Social Security. After all, our social security joke is anti-social and insecure.

Conservative should identify at least one billion dollars each week of taxpayer dollars that are being wasted and issue a press release identifying the waste and those Fedzilla supporters who passed it.

Conservative congressmen should stand on the steps of the Capitol and pledge to the American people that they will no longer request or take any earmarks or other pork barrel dollars.

Most importantly, conservatives must routinely remind Americans that they are responsible for their station in life and that they must rely on themselves for their health and retirement, not Fedzilla programs.

Socialism sucks. Say it loud and proud America. Cut Fedzilla down to size before it smothers us.

Live In Peace Or You Will Rest In Peace

By Ted Nugent

Tim Russert was at the peak of his game when at the tender young age of 58 he collapsed and died from a heart attack at the NBC studios. It was Friday the 13th.

A giant in media and politics, all his peers seemed to agree that Russert was the best media interviewer out there. I concur.

As a master of journalism, he seemed to be everywhere all the time. Reportedly he was a real workaholic.

Even though he had just returned from a wonderful family trip to Italy celebrating his fine son's graduation, his too-early death was pinned in large part to the demands of an enormously consuming profession.

God rest his soul and God bless his family.

Rest. This brings me, my friends, to the subject of self-imposed stress hell.

I know, I should talk.

I am down to my favorite dirty dozen careers and am working hard on the most important word in my life: no.

More everything

It's the word I need most in the face of offers hard to turn down: more concerts, more speaking engagements, more personal appearances, more writing assignments, more charity events, more fundraisers, more TV shows, more movies, more interviews, more hunting trips, more, more, more.

I heard over and over again from Russert's fellow journalists how he "worked himself to exhaustion." My loving family and loyal associates have told me many times how I should stop doing just that. I think I shall.

Now, I am here to tell you that I sincerely believe that I surely spend more quiet, peaceful, quality time with my family, dogs and friends, and sit silently in soul-cleansing spirit of the wild treestands than quite possibly any man who ever lived.

Critically balanced with my brain-pounding rock 'n roll intensity the rest of the year, I am also quite certain that this is why I haven't blown up yet.

But as I enter the elderly realm of the big 6-0, I am committed to further upgrading prioritization of my quality time. That means to increase substantially the down time I spend with the loving people in my life.

It can be done, and I am doing it right now. I'm wrapping up a very ferocious, brutal concert tour again, bringing my summertime musical jihad to a screeching halt as I welcome the dynamic of my sacred fall and winter hunting season.

As producer of our "Spirit of the Wild" TV show, I could keep my bags packed, swap guitars for bows and arrows, and simply rush back onto the road, this time touring hunting camps around the world.

No, thank you. I am reducing my travel, and therefore the stress factor so as to optimize the ultimate relaxing elements of what the great outdoors provides.

Fortunately, the hunting, fishing and trapping is great here at home in Texas, so I can indeed accomplish this healthy upgrade quite easily. I must.

Take a good, long, hard look at your life. Honestly ask yourself how important stress relief is to you.

Me, I am making it a point to start a small campfire each evening as the sun goes down, and sit there with my loving family and dogs.

Stress is self-imposed. Its relief is also self-imposed.

Rush: Force of Nature

by Ted Nugent

Four of nature's most powerful forces to reckon with are a sow grizzly with cubs, a coiled rattlesnake at close range, Ted Nugent driving a rental car, and Rush Limbaugh seated in his command module ensconced behind the golden "EIB" microphone.

Surely one of life's greatest rewards is driving idiots and intellectual cotton balls of all political stripes berserk by simply being who you are. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, "Enemy occupied territory -- that is what the world is." In other words, we live in a target rich environment. No human alive has caused more angst and frustration to liberals, socialists and mangy hippies than radio trailblazer Rush Limbaugh. I'm glad he doesn't play guitar.

With half his brain tied behind his back, for the past 20 years Rush has driven liberals batty while entertaining tens of millions by simply being who he is: a man of passion, patriotism, good cheer, principles, conviction and armed with a razor sharp intellect.Rush Limbaugh has blazed a broadcasting trail as a free thinker and as an independent, rugged, self-made individual who, at his core, believes in you -- the individual American as the true agent of positive logical change that continues to propel this experiment in self government forward.

Rush Limbaugh believes the government that governs least, governs best. Who doesn't? Only every liberal on the planet. That's a principle that was embraced, promoted and built into our Republic by our Founding Fathers. (That's why our Constitution doesn't say that the government grants rights to citizens: it preserves our God-given rights.) Political labels aside, Rush's core beliefs were given birth long ago by our Founding Fathers who harbored a fond distrust of an expansive federal government -- the very socialistic system many Americans sadly continue to blindly embrace much to our nation's detriment. Nary a one of our Founding Fathers would have embraced the liberal orthodoxy of the socialists who advocate feeding the already bloated, ineffective and inefficient Fedzilla. Rush is in good company.

Rush knows that liberalism/socialism isn't just wrongheaded (and wildly amusing), but is a dangerous political ideology that runs counter to the very underpinnings of liberty and freedom. He knows that liberalism destroys opportunity, smothers creativity and enslaves people. In order for liberty and freedom to flourish, the shackles of liberalism must be discarded. Only a socialist bloodsucker would advocate more bureaucracy that smothers the uniquely American embers of liberty and freedom and entrepreneurialism.

In the arena of political, cultural, economic and social ideas where the arguments and debates swirl, Rush Limbaugh uncompromisingly wields a powerful "EIB" microphone crowbar of truth and common sense much to the chagrin of socialists. On the radio dial, there is no one more powerful, influential and entertaining. Rush didn't just give AM radio a renewed lease on life 20 years, he conquered it, redefined it and set it on fire.

In his daily pursuit of broadcast excellence, he entertains millions of us with talent on loan from God with his thoughts, humor and analysis on the news while exposing liberal buffoonery. Though I was privileged and enjoyed joining him on more than one occasion, he needs no guests. His commentary and finely honed broadcast style and delivery is the magnet that draws millions of freedom addicts and seekers on a daily basis.

The Rush Limbaugh story is the American Dream personified. With a core set of beliefs on which to draw and an incredible work ethic, Rush set a course that has carried him to the highest peaks of the broadcasting universe. Still he continues to push the brass ring further from his own grasp, working hard to do better every day. Trying harder to be even better at your craft is the modus operandi of how the mountain peak of excellence and success is ultimately climbed. Success must always be rewarded, never punished.

If Rush has accomplished anything over the past 20 years, it has been relighting the fuse of activism inside Americans. I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that because of Rush more Americans communicate with their elected officials, write letters to the editor of their local newspapers, attend more school board meetings and city council meetings, volunteer more, and donate more money to worthy causes than at any time in our nation's history. That, my friends, is the ultimate impact of Rush Limbaugh.

The Nugent family and freedom lovers all across America have immensely enjoyed the first 20 years and look forward to the next 20 years of Rush Limbaugh on the radio. And the man knows bumper music too. Rock on, Rush.

Bringing it all home: Uncle Ted rocks Waco with fire in the Ice House

Nearly dwarfed by the oversized, blond Epiphone hollowbody guitar strapped across his skinny chest, he stood side by side with fellow guitar-hero wannabes from the Capitol School of Music in Motown, ready to jam up a storm on exciting renditions of boogie woogie and honky tonk.

God bless the youth. Houston, we had liftoff.

I suppose it qualified as my first professional appearance, because since the event was the Polish Arts Festival and we were paid in kielbasa, I did in fact receive tangible compensation.

I don't remember reporting this income to the IRS, but nonetheless, my rock-n-roll career was now officially unleashed. And the rest, as they say, is history. So far.

Today, 50 incredible years later, the fruits of a clean and sober life are paying off in immeasurable dividends.

I am so very blessed to be surrounded by gifted, gung ho world-class virtuosos.

Every guitarist since the dawn of twang dreams of jamming with the amazing quality bass and drum gods of Greg Smith and Mick Brown, my two partners in rock-n-roll crime.

These guys are so talented and dedicated to throttling my music into submission that I am constantly tempted to abandon my guitar duties during our concerts - just to watch, listen and dance to their animal thunder.

These guys are not human, and if I determine just what species they are, I will be sure to let you know. Meanwhile, I'm running with these big dogs. The energy and fun during our rehearsals alone are off the charts.

No song shortage

After recording 34 albums in 41 years, I certainly don't have a shortage of dynamo songs from which to choose.

In fact, the most difficult job each tour is trying to decide which to perform.

We're limited only by curfews and the sheer sonic abuse to our paying audiences.

The world's greatest and most respected philosopher once said, and I quote Dirty Harry: "A good man has to know his limitations." So each concert, in a loving humanitarian gesture of love and empathy, we try to limit our rockouts to under three hours so that nobody gets hurt.

I'm a dancing fool and damn proud of it.

With famous love songs like "Wango Tango," "Stranglehold," "Cat Scratch Fever," how could one control one's animal urges to dance till ya drop? And why should we?

Well, this is all fine and dandy, but why would I write about it in my Trib Sunday column, you may ask?

I have been jamming wildly in the Great Republic of Texas for more than 40 years now, with mind-numbingly fond memories in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, Abilene, El Paso, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Tyler, Amarillo and, of course, good old Waco.

The local landscape has reverberated on more than a few occasions.

Nonetheless, my band and I are always excited about coming "home" to rock out for my homestate BloodBrothers.

This time we actually rock out my neighborhood.

That's right. Fire up the BBQ. Strap on those dancing boots and get ready to rumble, Waco.

Uncle Ted is coming to the Hog Creek Ice House next Sunday and nobody is getting out alive.

Jamming anywhere is always wonderful.

But playing our special music at a place with the name Hog Creek in it, add the fact that Bar-None ranch supply is right next door and the Rusty Star BBQ is just down the road, and, well, it will be like a full-on Uncle Ted all American rock-n-roll Texas hunting camp, I bet ya.

Country fans are welcome. We'll teach you how to really dance.

Guitar Player Economics 101

by Ted Nugent

Economic newscaster Larry Kudlow refers to the last twenty-five years of economic prosperity as the "greatest story never told." He's dead-on right on this one.

America, and the entire world for that matter, have witnessed in the previous 25 years the greatest period of prosperity in human history. The result of this has been that more wealth and upgraded quality of life has been created during this period than at any time in recorded history. Where has this story been on the nightly news or on the editorial pages of our newspapers?

A major reason for this tremendous prosperity over the last 25 years is largely attributed to tax cuts, which Senator Obama wants to rescind and reverse. Instead of continuing with this historic growth by continuing President Bush's tax cuts or even providing more economic stimulus by lowering taxes even further and reducing the size of the federal government (which I refer to as Fedzilla), Senator Obama wants to feed Fedzilla by raising taxes. This is simply weird and dangerous.

Class and economic warfare is the typical liberal platform: soak the rich, reward the slovenly. What socialist liberals like Obama do not tell you is that the rich already pay the vast amount of taxes. The top one percent of all wage earners already pay roughly 40% of all income taxes. The bottom 50% of wage earners contribute roughly five percent. If I hear the term "fair share" again I think I will slap somebody silly.The "evil" rich are the business owners, the people who employ and fuel America. If you want to discourage and kill entrepreneurship and future risk taking by business owners and thereby slow the economy and job growth, and potentially put jobs at risk, support the former Community Organizer, whatever that is.

The reason liberals believe in raising taxes is because they believe the government is the engine of America. Socialists like Obama are wrong. The free market is the engine that creates economic freedom, provides jobs and creates wealth. Period.

Cutting taxes has proved time and time again to create more tax revenue for the government while creating wealth in the private sector. Why liberals continue to ignore this most blatant economic reality speaks volumes about their disdain for the private sector. A cult of anti "we the people" right here in America. Great.

Other than maybe a paper route as a kid, can anyone tell me if Senator Obama has ever held a job in the private sector?

Unless you are an ignorant socialist stooge, punishing successful people by raising their taxes is never the right approach, but it is the foundation of the Democratic Party. They have never seen a tax increase they didn't support or a government program that didn't need to be expanded. Instead of throwing coal on our economic fire, Democrats toss buckets of water on it and call it progress.

Unbeknownst to Senator Obama, we can not tax our way to prosperity. Senator Obama wants to raise a host of new taxes including Social Security taxes, increasing income tax rates, even redistributing your tax dollars to pay for retirement programs for Americans who refuse to save for their own retirement. Senator Obama will "invest" hundreds of billions, possibly trillions of dollars, tax dollars we do not have, on various projects which will expand our mounting debt.

We live in an ever expanding global economy. In order to be competitive, we desperately need further tax relief coupled with a reduction in the size of Fedzilla, which consumes everything in its path. More economic freedom will make us more competitive while reducing both the deficit and debt in the long term.

Feeding Fedzilla is always the wrong approach. As I point out in detail in my
forthcoming new book from Regnery, "Ted, White, and Blue-The Nugent Manifesto", it is amazing to me that the very liberals who decried the slow, ineffective federal government response to Hurricane Katrina somehow believe nationalized healthcare will be a model of federal government efficiency.

Tax cuts and putting Fedzilla on a strict diet is the right approach. That prescription is anathema to liberals who believe higher taxes, more spending and more government programs are the right approach. I find that economically bizarre and, quite honestly, anti-American.

The liberal approach to shaping our government and future is modeled after the Europeans who also believe big government is the cure. No thanks. Big government is the problem and even some European countries are beginning to figure that out.

Warning: Do not feed Fedzilla. It is a pig.

Let the Energy Buffalo Run Free

by Ted Nugent

We've got plenty of energy in America. What we don't have are statesmen willing to let the free market here capture it, process it and sell it.

Instead of wisely utilizing our abundant energy, America has been strangled by
various federal government bureaucracies, untold reams of burdensome government regulations and counterproductive policies, corrupt environmental special interest groups, and professional politicians who will bend whichever way the prevailing political winds blow.

These are the reasons America hasn't built a new oil refinery or new nuclear reactor in thirty or so years. Instead, as billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens accurately stated the other day, we are transferring hundreds of billions of our national treasury to other nations. Even to our enemies. Truly bizarre.

Call me crazy, but I thought the goal of America was to be independent. It's time to call a spade a spade. We are energy slaves to lesser countries. They own us. And unless we resurrect that unstoppable, mighty spirit of rugged independent individualism of our forefathers and throw off the energy shackles, these nations can permanently cripple, if not kill, our economy. The situation is that grave.

We've got plenty of energy in America. What we don't have are statesmen willing to let the free market here capture it, process it and sell it.

Instead of wisely utilizing our abundant energy, America has been strangled by
various federal government bureaucracies, untold reams of burdensome government regulations and counterproductive policies, corrupt environmental special interest groups, and professional politicians who will bend whichever way the prevailing political winds blow.

These are the reasons America hasn't built a new oil refinery or new nuclear reactor in thirty or so years. Instead, as billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens accurately stated the other day, we are transferring hundreds of billions of our national treasury to other nations. Even to our enemies. Truly bizarre.

Call me crazy, but I thought the goal of America was to be independent. It's time to call a spade a spade. We are energy slaves to lesser countries. They own us. And unless we resurrect that unstoppable, mighty spirit of rugged independent individualism of our forefathers and throw off the energy shackles, these nations can permanently cripple, if not kill, our economy. The situation is that grave.

I'm not concerned whatsoever that America doesn't have vast reserves of ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and intellectual capital that could make us energy independent. My concern is that we have become so reliant and dependent on Fedzilla (aka the US government) to solve all of our problems that we will once again rely on the bureaucratic blob in DC to solve this problem, too. That could be a career ending injury.

Fedzilla isn't the solution, it's the problem. Continuing to feed Fedzilla and expecting it to become lean, responsive and efficient is the definition of lunacy. As Milton Friedman " If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand." If there are any statesmen left in DC, I challenge them to stand before their fellow professional politicians in the US Capitol and state that Fedzilla -- not the energy companies, not energy speculators and not our energy slave masters -- is America's number one energy problem.

Of course we should drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Had we done what we should have done ten years ago to assure America's independence, we would have been drilling in ANWR long ago. Had Senators Obama and McCain put America's independence first, they would have brought up legislation to drill in ANWR instead of voting to make America more energy dependent. What's with these guys?

The same goes for off shore drilling. Environmental special interests have locked up over 80% of energy rich off shore areas from American energy companies. As George Will illuminated in his brilliant June 5, 2008 op-ed "The Gas Prices We Deserve," it is estimated the energy in these areas contains over 80 billion barrels of oil and over 400
trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Wonderful. What will Fedzilla think of next to strangle energy independence?

Governor Schwarzenegger recently stated California would not permit off shore drilling. Once again, a politician who would rather see America an energy slave than a thriving, energy independent powerhouse. He's so Hollywood.

America gets 20% of our electricity from 104 nuclear power plants. Europe generates 80% of its electricity from nuclear power. Nuclear power is the cleanest, most efficient, safest energy source we could harness. Senator McCain has proposed building 40 more nuclear power plants. I say we build three times that many and sell the excess energy! Senator Obama is not so sure about nuclear power. What, Senator Obama, are you not so sure about? I'm sure about you.

Instead of supporting nuclear power, what Senator Obama is sure about is slapping a punitive windfall profits tax on the oil companies. Anyone with an ounce of business acumen will tell you that taxing a business more will not lead to more innovation, more expansion, more hiring, or more productivity.

As radio freeman Neil Boortz recently pointed out, the windfall profits tax proposed by Senator Obama will hurt you -- the individual investor -- because ordinary Americans own 98.5% of energy companies through mutual funds and individual stocks. We are suffering from terminal shoot self in foot disease.

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is sinking billions into harnessing the wind to generate power. Currently America receives about 5% or our energy through wind. While Mr. Pickens is free to spend his money on wind energy, at best America will generate 20% of our energy through wind power. My money says nuclear power is the way to go. The answer to our energy woes is not blowing in the wind.

Call me a radical, call me crazy, but I crave freedom, liberty and independence. There were 56 guys who obviously felt the same way because they signed their names to a bold, extreme independence document some 232 years ago and pledged their lives and fortunes for freedom. Those are my kind of radicals. Call me extreme, but call me often.

Today, as in right here, right now, right this moment, some enterprising energy executive, energy engineer, or entrepreneur, must pick up the phone and call or e-mail a few of his patriotic buddies and convene an Energy War Council next week to solve this self inflicted fiasco. No Fedzilla bureaucrats allowed, as they will only retard the progress of such a group.

Let's get it on America, and turn to face the howling storm like the American Bison. It is time for a defiant American beast once again. I smell a stampede and like it.

Make 'independence' mean what it says

What these brave statesmen, our forefathers, did by giving birth to freedom, liberty and self-government may very well be mankind's most illuminating achievement.

You will do your patriotic duty by reading the Declaration of Independence to your children on this great day.

Today, we have brave young men and women fighting overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan to give others a chance at freedom and independence, the way God intended.

Each generation of Americans has faced its challenges. Americans have always risen to the challenge of the day.

In 1961, President Kennedy challenged America to put a man on the moon within the decade. We did it. As I write this, America has a spacecraft sitting on Mars.

cInstead of political posturing by bureaucrats and lobbyists on K Street in Washington, D.C., America needs statesmen to step forward to do what is right.

Similar to President Kennedy challenging the nation, we should demand that America be energy-independent in 10 years.

We cannot divest ourselves of foreign oil tomorrow. What we can do is set a course with our ingenuity, intellect and unstoppable all-American can-do spirit.

Energy independence mandates that we must start by drilling hard-core for more of our own oil and gas. This includes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), and off of our coasts and exploring for other oil within our own borders.

We must build more refineries. We must knock off the silly nonsense of threatening oil companies with windfall profits taxes.

If you want to deter an industry, thereby guaranteeing dependency, hit it with more taxes. I am just a guitar player and I figured that out all by myself.

Both senators McCain and Obama previously voted to keep us from drilling in ANWR, which has kept an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil off the market.

We have tens of billions of barrels of oil and untold reserves of natural gas right off of our coasts, but are not allowed to tap that energy because Congress, in its eternal wisdom, voted to keep this abundant energy off-limits.

That has made us more dependent, not independent.

I agree with McCain on the need to build more nuclear reactors. He supports building 40 as soon as possible.

We currently have 104 nuclear reactors. We should have 204 reactors in the next ten years. Nuclear power is clean, safe, efficient and very productive compared to other forms of energy such as oil and coal. The vast amount of nuclear waste stored in Yucca Mountain could be recycled and used again. The French are doing it and so should we.

We also need to aggressively explore technology for vehicles that run on batteries. If the auto industry wants to save itself and once again lead the world, it must produce a product that does not rely on outrageously expensive fuels.

Independence. I love that word. It means rugged individualism, self-reliance, freedom and opportunity.

America must never compromise our independence to anyone. We deserve an energy policy that makes America once again independent - just like our forefathers taught us.

God bless you and your families on this most sacred of days. Happy Independence Day, America. I celebrate it every day.

Independence Day Every Day

by Ted Nugent

The Nugent family celebrates Independence Day every day of the year. If you spend as much time as we do sharing campfires, both literally and figuratively, with the hero warriors of the United States Military, you can't help but deeply appreciate and absolutely cherish the freedoms and liberties so unique here in America that is guaranteed us by the sacrifices made by these amazing, courageous men and women.

Working for years now with various charities dedicated to wounded military heroes, we get to see first hand their battle scarred bodies, mutilated and missing limbs, burned flesh and horrible injuries of every description. And we get to see their phenomenal spirit and willingness to serve our nation. To salute a flag draped coffin brings it all into perspective in an indelible, inescapable way. But for the blood of warriors, the American Dream goes to the ash heap of history.

We take our American Independence to heart and will never take it for granted. I declare my Independence in humble respect and thanks to them all.With a firebreathing rock-n-roll band beyond my wildest dreams, I will strut onto a huge stage tonight just north of my birthplace and hometown of Detroit, Michigan, 50 years to the summer of 1958 where I performed that great American classic rock song, Honky Tonk. Punching out those sexy guitar licks on a cheap second hand guitar at the young age of nine, I did my very best to call on the American innovators Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly and others, unleashing an attitude of defiance and love of life that came from my parents and entire extended family around me. That guitar came from hard work and a few small sacrifices of my own way back then, and it taught me to be the best that I can be, put my heart and soul into everything I do, and discipline myself to be an asset to my family and bandmates. I delivered two paper routes, sold night crawlers to the local fishermen, shoveled snow, mowed lawns, cleaned gas station bathrooms and raked leaves to get that first guitar and amplifier. That work ethic imprinted deeply on me, and took me to the mountain top of my rock-n-roll dreams that I will celebrate with fiery passion again tonight.

Tonight, on July 4, 2008, on stage at Pine Knob, the DTE Energy Music Theater, I am celebrating my world record 6000th high energy concert, 50 years later, with the greatest band in the world, virtuosos Mick Brown on thunder drums and Greg Smith on the bass guitar. I will be surrounded by my saintly wife Shemane and all my children and grandchildren, a killer crew of gung-ho dedicated technicians and management, and about 20,000 of my closest friends and hunting buddies.

Most importantly, about 500 heroes of the US Air Force from Selfridge Air Force Base here in Michigan will attend as my guests. They will witness the nearly 60 year old MotorCity Madman once again defy gravity and pull off an athletic dance orgy of over the top throttling R&B inspired rock like some kid possessed, passionately paying tribute, respect and reverence to the mighty Motown Funkbrothers, James Brown, Wilson Picket, the Temptations and all those great American genius inventors who showed us how.

Fortified by an incredible week of fishing in the Manistee National Forest on sacred wild grounds owned by "we the people", canoeing, swimming, shooting our bows and arrows and various firearms, laughing and cooking delicious venison kielbasa and marshmallows around a roaring campfire, and surely cleansing our souls like free men were created by God to do, I cannot imagine living in some other country where many of these soul-cleansing activities are not even allowed.

I taught my grandson how to load and shoot his .22, start a campfire, hook a worm and clean a fish. I am driven to pass it all on to the next generation so that freedom always has a face. To ultimately show appreciation for the sacrifices of the US Military is surely to live the America Dream to the best of our ability every day. 60 years, 50 years of touring, 6000 ultra rockouts, I am doing my best to do my part.

I am an American. I cannot be stopped. I declare my Independence louder and prouder today than ever. God Bless America, one Nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

DC Gun Ban Blown Away

by Ted Nugent

As I swab down one of my hundreds of privately owned, individually possessed firearms again this fine morning, I snicker and shake my head in disbelief that there are four "justices" on the "supreme" court that do not believe Americans have individual rights. Sure, I am somewhat pleased that we now have a SCOTUS confirmation of the self-evident truth and God given individual right to keep and bear arms, but the 5-4 ruling is another painful example, like Guantanamo and the decree against the death penalty for child rapist decisions that indicate a divisive culture war raging on, and four supreme justices frighteningly disconnected from the heart and soul of America.

Certain that God gave each of us the individual gift of life, and so very relieved that our founding fathers were prudent enough to write these self-evident truths down on paper for future reference, everybody I know needs no confirmation whatsoever that self defense, individual self defense is not only a God given right, but a moral imperative in the hearts and souls of good people everywhere.

Just as we wouldn't need confirmation that our choice of religion is indeed an individual right, or that we could possibly need a government permit to express our individual thoughts in speech, good Americans will continue to fight for the return of our sacred 2nd Amendment rights where someday soon we will not need a government issued license to keep and bear arms. After all, from the supreme court of common sense on the not so mean streets of America, everybody I know understands clearly that "keep" means one thing and one thing only: "It's mine and you can't have it". We know without question that "bear" can only mean, "Yes, I have it right here in my hands or within instant grasp", nothing more and nothing less. And dare I explain "shall not be infringed?" I hope not.

That these self-evident truths have been bastardized to the point of "gun free zones" is nothing less than heart breaking in America today. Everybody knows that it is in these anti-American, anti-Constitutional "gun free zones" where innocent people are forced into unarmed helplessness and where the highest body count of innocents are stacked up by evil perpetrators celebrating the condition of helpless sheep to slaughter. Since the insane gun ban, Washington, D.C. has been a violent criminal's dream environment where they are assured no resistance. That is a bizarre, immoral condition and a direct result of the cult of feel good liberals who could care less about dead good people as they wring their hands worrying about the rights of the most evil amongst us. For shame.

I am responsible for my personal defense and the defense of my family. Our Founding Fathers clearly believed this as well. Evidence shows that 9-1-1 is a last-ditch call for a clean up crew to sift through the aftermath of criminal activity. I can't imagine allowing myself to be unarmed, helpless and reliant upon the heroes of law enforcement, who, though always do the best that they can do, cannot and will not be there when we need them. They represent damage control all too often, when quality control is in the hands of responsible individuals. The same Supreme Court determined long ago that cops have no lawful obligation to protect us from anything. Self defense is our job.

Thank God the Supreme Court got it right by striking down the D.C. gun ban, legalizing personal protection in the nation's capitol and now across America, thereby guaranteeing our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, rights bestowed to us by God, the supreme authority.

D.C. has been a cesspool of crime for years. This ruling confirms the rights of good people the ability to defend themselves against bad people. Who could possibly find fault with that supreme dose of common sense?

Banning guns hasn't worked to deter crime or make communities safer, in fact just the opposite. All gun bans have ever accomplished is the creation of guaranteed victims. This has been supremely sad, wrong-headed and dangerous. Most of us cannot imagine the thought process by which bureaucrats and courts could force laws on good people rendering us disarmed and helpless, then turn around and send us the bill for their armed security. Obama, what say you?

Various thugs, punks, crack heads and other devils who have victimized innocents at will are on a long overdue notice with this ruling. Good ultimately conquers evil as it should be.

With Independence Day right around the corner, the Supreme Court has affirmed that indeed Americans are independent and have the right to the most basic of rights -- the right to defend themselves against tyranny whatever ugly form it may take. Now the good people of America must fight harder and relentlessly to regain all of our lost Second Amendment rights in each state and city where unarmed helplessness continues, Mayor Daley.

Heroes help with Thunder

My music has a life of its own, as ferociously propelled by my master musicians Greg Smith on bass and Mick Brown on drums. But there has always been something beyond sheer musical inspiration when me and the boys kick out the jams. A SpiritFire, if you will.

As always, scrumptious venison barbecue flows nonstop for band, crew and friends. Some nice bass are caught on our little China Spring pond, and between the machine gun competition and the appearance of magnificent wildlife melting onto the hayfields at dusk each day, our rock 'n roll naturally has more soul than anybody else's, dare I say.

If killer music is measured in smiles and laughter, I take home the gold every time.

All of that would drive us adequately wild for high-energy R&B jams galore. But there's more.

At rehearsals, we reach out to heroes of the U.S. military from San Antonio's Brooks Army Medical Hospital.

We invite the wounded warriors up for a rabble- rousing gitdown of intensely patriotic "thank-you" music.

Our BloodBrother Daniel Vargas from the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes (saluteheroes.org) organizes a special road trip for some severely wounded GIs who are in the throes of rehabilitation for some downright nasty battle injuries.

Doing our very best to honor their strength and sacrifices, many Americans give what they can to show our sincere appreciation for those willing to fight for our American Dream.

No greater gift exists than for a man to be willing to lay down his life for his fellow man.

It fortifies the soul to meet these special people. My music grows horns and gets louder.

Some of the wounded warriors who have come had no faces, sealed eyes from melted skin. Some had severely burned and mutilated bodies and limbs.

Some others had no limbs, while others were discovering how to walk, run, dance and manipulate their latest technological replacement limbs.

If I ever again hear anyone complain about a bad hair day, I think I will simply punch him/her in the nose.

From these the men and women, nary a complaint is heard.

Even when Shemane, Rocco and I visited those too injured to leave the hospital, we witnessed the miracle of mind over matter and sheer warrior willpower.

We saw determination to overcome what appeared to be insurmountable odds and pain.

More than one lad was stretched out on oversized beds, arms and legs akimbo so that burned flesh wouldn't melt to their torsos.

Wearing face masks so as to not contaminate the wounds, we noticed that their positions appeared much like Jesus on the cross. Much.

For these heroes in need, Shemane's Freedom's Angels charity put out the battle cry to caring America. Donations flooded in so we could build a beautiful covered patio at Brooks, and for one reason:

You see, most of the heroes are the rugged outdoors types, hunters and fishers, and with the hot Texas sun broiling down, they were not allowed to be outdoors exposed to the scorch where they wanted to be.

So now under the protection of the Freedom's Angels patio, they can breathe in the great Texas Spirit of the Wild, and I predict they will heal faster and better. Just a hunch.

At our rehearsals, we proved once and for all that you don't need a face to laugh and rock-n-roll, and the over-the-top emotional brotherhood in the air was palpable.

By being the best that we can be, my family, friends and bandmates show respect for the heroes' dedication and sacrifices, and the positive energy cannot be stopped. God bless them all.

To help our wounded warriors, visit saluteheroes.org and tednugent.com. Show them we appreciate their sacrifices.

Nomadic Nugents shed their stuff; have some

Forced from our beautiful Michigan dream home and a lifetime in the Winter Water Wonderland by an infestation of unlivable toxic mold, we soon found ourselves comfortable and happy in the great Lone Star State.

If there was any culture shock, it is more likely that we caused it rather than felt it.

First settling in on the breathtaking riverine wildgrounds of China Spring, we shortly moved to neighborly Crawford for a more convenient school commute for son Rocco. Even though I'm sure that the president appreciated the increased security we brought to the area, we didn't stay there very long.

Driven by a demand for upgrade at every turn, we then moved right smack dab into Waco for yet another change. Those three moves equal the total number of moves that I had made in the first 55 years of my life. And did I mention how I so very dislike moving? Not fun.

Well, Rocco has now proudly graduated as an all-A honor student from Waco High School, and here we go again.

As he pursues his adventurous American Dream, Shemane and I have decided that the simpler life back on SpiritWild Ranch is the way to go. Actually, we took a vote and the three dogs and cat out-voted the rest of us, so it's back to China Spring where the deer and antelope and the guitar players play.

But in order to make it truly simpler, we have decided to reduce the amount of stuff we have to relocate yet again on an always laborious move. And boy do we have a lot of stuff.

Neat stuff to say the least, and we have decided to sell most of it. With proceeds going for various youth and military charities, we have quite a line up of different goodies for public auction to be held at 7216 Fish Pond just off of Highway 6 next Saturday and Sunday. It's going to be wild.

From a lifetime of fascinating world adventure, we have some very special custom furniture, beautiful antler artwork and accessories made from the majestic beasts that we have hunted all over the globe.

Big game trophies

We will be selling unique statues and artifacts and many stunning big game animal heads mounted by award-winning wildlife taxidermy artists and more.

Some of the huge stag antlers on bleached skulls are just what the doctor ordered for that rustic western motif. Plus, that Nugent signature is guaranteed to bring the new lucky owners much good luck. At least that's what they tell me.

It'll be run by an experienced professional auction outfit from right here in Central Texas.

We invite everyone to come see the cool stuff of which we are letting go.

Many of the items represent certain moments in time and powerful memories for the Nugent family. But for practical reasons, we have decided to part with them.

Again, with all our charity work these days, the sales will benefit many good, important causes.

So come check it out next weekend. Some very interesting things that might catch your fancy. But don't be surprised if some long-haired dude is skulking about the premises snatching up some stuff and running off with it.

Though we have decided to sell a huge array of goodies collected over a wild lifetime, the pack rat within me just very well may have second thoughts.

Lights, camera, BBQ heaven

You know, a star that has lost its glisten and shine, a guitar player relegated to country licks. God forbid.

Based on the sheer terror and high-energy, animal-like sweaty dancing erupting on my stage each and every night throughout the summer for my 50th year, this star shines so bright you best put on your cheap sunglasses, baby. Ain't no rust here.

But there is a rusty star that really shines on. It just so happens to be not only one of the finest barbecue joints to be found anywhere in America, but is right here in our backyard.

Waco, we have smoked meat liftoff.

The Rusty Star is on Highway 185 just east of Highway 6, officially in Speegleville (848-7827).

I'll be in line

Owner, chief cook and BBQ god-wrangler Rodney Ludwig opened the doors on this little slice of his American Dream just a few years ago, and the lines queuing up for his legendary brisket are still growing each week. It's a good bet you'll find me in that line.

I crave killer BBQ. I've enjoyed a lifetime exploring the famous eateries of Memphis, Atlanta, Jackson, Lubbock, Kansas City and beyond. I will tell you right here and right now, nobody out-BBQs Rodney when it comes to brisket.

In fact, when I bring in the TV production crew of the very popular "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" on the Travel Channel, the first stop will be the Rusty Star. Master Chef Anthony Bourdain wants to sample the essence of central Texas cuisine. Voila. We give you the Rusty Star brisket.

Ably assisted by courteous professionals Roger, Devon, Aaron and Kayla, patrons celebrate the delicious brisket, smoked sausage, turkey, ham, pulled ham and, of course, the BBQ mainstay: ribs.

These are meaty, tasty Texas ribs to die for.

With yummy side dishes of beans, coleslaw and potato salad, we are talking a great meal at great prices and the epicenter for the ultimate family picnic.

Competition

Rodney knew he was up against some hard-core entrenched competition in the area when he contemplated his Rusty Star, and rightly so, as we have what appears to be an unlimited choice around these parts when it comes to world-class barbecue.

Great barbecue starts with great, fresh, perfectly handled meat, and the sweet aroma permeating in and around the Rusty Star is enough to turn a vegetarian into a killer of innocent protein.

Though I'm just a Yankee guitar player from Detroit, a relative newcomer to this Great Republic, with my taste buds still on a Lewis & Clark palette adventure, it is a rare day when you can find the grill at the Nugent ranch not still warm from a recent sacred flesh celebration.

In other words, I fancy myself a bit of a BBQ competitor myself. All I can say is we love the Rusty Star.

I haven't tried every barbecue joint in Texas yet, but I'm young, and I shall persevere.

Meanwhile, when the BBQ bug bites, it's the Rusty Star for this not-yet-rusty star.

On integrity, work and using gifts you're given

You won't get this ironclad and loving advice in a classroom or from a textbook. Sadly, some of you will not have received this advice from even your parents. Here goes:

• Nobody owes you a thing. Nothing. Everything you will get out of life will only be based on what you put into it. Period. The only free lunches are at the homeless shelter. If you want to dance, you have to pay the band. If you work real hard at your favorite craft, you ultimately will succeed. A work ethic is the path to a rewarding life. If you are paid a dollar, give your employer $10 worth of effort in return. Doing so will ensure you will always be gainfully employed. If you are lazy, expect to be fired over and over again, no matter how smart or gifted you are.
• Find your passion, something you crave. Set a goal and never quit. Always push yourself harder. Walk through or over anyone who dares to tell you that you can't do something.
• Avoid negative people. Surround yourself with positive people who will mentor, help and guide you honestly.
• Never miss an opportunity to say thank you to the men and women in our military and law enforcement. They are the defenders of freedom and are putting their lives on the line for you to reach your American Dream.
• Don't wait for someone else to motivate you. The best person for that job is you. Do it often.
• You will be tested constantly. Life is going to knock you down over and over again. The only person who is ever defeated is the person who gets floored with one of life's massive upper cuts and fails to get back up. Be tough and tenacious. It feels good.
• Never do anything just for money. Do what you do exceedingly well and thoroughly enjoy, and money will come looking for you.
• If you want to know how others perceive you, look around at who you associate with. In the end, all you have is your character and integrity. Do not ever compromise or sell them. No one trusts a liar, most of all other liars.
• Do not complain. Any soulless whiner can do that. Instead, look for solutions to tough problems. This will earn you the respect of your boss.
• Do not be afraid to take chances and blaze new trails. Get in the arena where the dust is swirling and blood, sweat and tears pour forth. That is where the action is. Do not miss out.
• Engage life with unbridled passion. March to the beat of making your own statement. Those who follow trends and conform to peer pressure are mindless sheep and never happy.
• Be intelligently defiant. Defiance is the very spirit that gave birth to this country when our forefathers declared independence and fired the "shot heard round the world." Remember Rosa Parks. Be prepared to defy stupidity wherever you find it. It is your duty and responsibility as an American to let your voice be heard. Stand up against idiotic, illogical laws and restrictions. Raise hell. Vote smart. If you have not made a few well deserving idiots angry by the time you are 25, get busy. We live in a target rich environment of liberal denial. Drive idiots loony. It is much fun, quite easy and is still legal in all 50 states.
• Stand up for what you believe in. Remain polite and courteous, but never back down. You have an obligation to leave America in better shape than when you arrived. Work to ensure that future generations have a better shot at the American Dream, more freedom, more liberty and more pursuits of happiness than what you did.
• Trust your gut feelings. They will not steer you wrong. Only trust people who have earned your trust. Never trust the French.
• Take the time each day to show love and affection for your family and loved ones. The smallest gesture goes straight to the heart. A good life is maximized when shared with the ones you love.
• Don't keep discomforting things and thoughts bunched up inside. The only way to resolve conflicts is to tackle them right way without inhibitions. Don't worry about hurting feelings. Everyone benefits from open, honest discussions. There are no stupid questions.

Aim small, miss small.

Have fun. Life is not a dress rehearsal.

Recipe for American Dream is home-derived

At least I thought I did. Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley were already erupting into musical fireballs with Les Paul's brand-new electric weapon of mass construction. This young Detroit white boy instinctively connected with the earth-shattering primal scream - my black heroes' music of the soul.

I asked my hard-core disciplinarian father if I could get one of these newfangled rock 'n' roll guitars. He smiled and said, "Sure, Son. Keep your school grades up, do your household chores, get a job and buy one."

In a home where we truly did struggle to make ends meet, my father would certainly not allow such indulgences.

We were taught to purchase only the food and basic supplies we could responsibly utilize. We were taught to waste nothing, and not dare spend or live beyond our means.

The purveyor of that ethic is an endangered species today.

Because I was so young, dad did help me out. But I worked my tail off - cutting lawns, shoveling snow, washing cars, delivering two paper routes, catching and selling nightcrawlers.

I pumped gas and scrubbed gas station bathrooms. I did all sorts of hard, dirty work. Eventually, I bought that first guitar.

Actual affirmative action for honest dreamers includes an alarm clock and the will to excel. Plan B just doesn't get it.

So, right out of the gate, I learned that the first ingredients of the tried-and-true recipe for the American Dream are desire, discipline, pride and the dream itself.

With all of the above, any of us can be on the way to that wonderful thing we call the American Dream. It is truly unlimited.

Another essential ingredient: duty not only to one's self, but to family, friends, neighborhood, employer, state and country - to be in the "producer" column rather than the "receiver" column.

I learned early on that genuine effort would be rewarded. Conversely, laziness and excuse-making brought about self-inflicted hardships. As it should.

This vision of excellence was pounded into me by my mother and father, always pushing me to try as hard as I could, to learn from the results of effort and focus, and to learn from mistakes.

Another important factor was contained in one of my father's favorite adages: "Tell me who you go with and I will tell you what you are."

I tried every which way to weasel my way around his reasoning with responses like, "What about Jesus? He hung around sinners."

It took me a while to figure this one out, but it is true.

If I would have wasted my time with the herd of stoned hippies and their chimp-like idea of drug-infested "parties" where drooling, puking and dying were the order of the day, I am certain I would have failed in life just like they did.

Many brilliant people, many much more talented than I, wasted themselves to death with the abject insanity of drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse. It was mind boggling and heartbreaking. That it continues today is even more bizzarro.

Such a suicidal choice, in denial of the universal deadly evidence, is beyond comprehension. No American Dream for dead hippies.

So my ferocious rock 'n' roll band is jamming like madmen possessed in my 40th year of powerhouse touring.

Defying gravity is fun. Nothing has changed from the dreaming little boy with the guitar and bow and arrow way back when. He's just a little more uppity and confident that self-evident truths and the American Dream are connected at the hip.

Sometimes you give the world the best you've got and you get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you've got anyway.

A woman's place? On bowhunt, at gun range

By Ted Nugent

The wild boar was grunting, deep, angry belly rumbles, punctuated by the occasional spontaneous squeal and slobbering snort.

His long snout and razor-sharp tusks roto-tilled the hard, dark forest terra firma like an industrial beast gone mad.

Petite 11-year-old Brook clutched her bow tightly and looked at her uncle with eyes the size of full moons. The increasing heat of late morning was already beginning to toast the wonderland, but the beads of sweat on the young hunter's brow were not temperature-inspired.

No, those were bowhunting party beads, happy beads, beads for the kill.

This pretty young lady knows how to party. Her parties include fresh, organic pork on the grill, and she's not going to the grocery store, thank you.

Brook is a killer, a bowhunter, a woman of the wild. A shebeast. Only 11 and more than ready to rock, Doc. PigManDo! No problem. Let's get it on, McPork.

An ardent fan of "Spirit of the Wild" TV, Brook and her brother made it a point to watch every show every week.

She sat in wonderment at the dazzling, svelte blonde babe named Shemane, with her trusty bow and arrow, walking the wild, always smiling happily with her giddy husband, killing big game with a lightweight bow and a single, razor-sharp arrow.

"I can do that," Brook would exclaim. "I can be the Queen of the Forest. Let's go huntin', baby!"

She earned her kill that day, performing the challenging list of bowhunter demands to put a razor-sharp Magnus Stinger clean through the vitals of the gnarly beast. She went on to bowkill a handsome wild ram as well.

Girls don't bowhunt? Bullpork. Girls just wanna have fun, and more and more of them are coming to the exciting revelation that there is nothing more fun than hunting, fishing, trapping and shooting.

My daughter Sasha killed her first Texas whitetail with a rifle way back in 1981 when she was just 8.

She is a crackshot with most firearms and quite handy with various full auto machineguns and sniper rifles.

Likewise, my Queen of the Forest picked up on the thrills and joys of the shooting sports in no time.

Shemane had never fired a gun or bow when we met, but she was quick to discover the disciplined shootist within.

She has gone on to introduce many gals to firearms and archery and she has bowkilled many big-game animals in America and Africa. Loving the sport has driven her to become a leading force in the recruitment of women into the shooting sports worldwide.

When introduced thoughtfully and properly, women immediately fall in love with guns, hunting and the outdoor lifestyle.

Not only do they make the greatest hunting and shooting partners in the world, they demonstrate a powerful believability to everyone how dishonest the media propaganda machine is in misrepresenting these things we all love so much.

Nothing says pro-gun and pro-hunting like an army of female participants, voters and activists.

Target the women in your life and let's create a team of female commandos to once and for all crush those who would deny us these wonderful pursuits of happiness in America.

Great food in Waco? I'm telling you

Plenty of places to take guests from out of town

I live to eat. Well, actually, I live to hunt in order to eat the most delicious, healthy food on earth.

My idea of fast food is a running shot.

It is indeed a rare commercial restaurant that can compete with the average Nugent kitchen culinary gitdown.

Every meal at our house is a serious tastebud adventure. We don't mess around with the convenient or processed.

Many years ago we decided we would never settle for a standard meal, since it is so much easier and smarter to prepare a feast ourselves.

So, even though we still travel the world a bit more than I would prefer, and are constantly searching for the most special dining establishments wherever we go, when we are home in Waco we've always stayed home and cooked one of our unlimited, scrumptious wild-game masterpieces.

All of which is to say we had rarely dined out in Waco, until recently.

But as we have, Shemane and I have found that even with all the predictable rows of cookie-cutter, prefab eateries, Waco is home to a number of places to rival the most famous restaurants anywhere.

Who'da thunk?

In future columns, I'll go into detail of just how amazing our meals have been at places like Buzzard Billy's, Rusty Star Barbecue (killer brisket), Siete Mares, Ninfa's and Bangkok Thai diner.

We like The Coffee Shop in Crawford and the I-35 Prime steakhouse in Hewitt.

In China Spring, you have Taste of Texas Barbecue and all the variety at Griff's.

We hear that the chicken- fried steaks at the Ice House are great, too. So we still have a lot of exploring to do.

Magic China

But today I want to you to meet the great staff and Siu family at Magic China.

When it comes to your typical Chinese cuisine, I can take it or leave it. But when Shemane and I one day spontaneously pulled into Magic China along I-35 just south of University-Parks Drive, there was no way we were prepared for our incredible meal.

Shemane ordered the vegetable soup. I ordered the pan-fried dumplings. With the ample, scrumptious portions, we knew immediately that this was the real McCoy.

Everything was prepared from scratch with handpicked, fresh ingredients - no MSG.

You can tell that owners Lisa and Benson Siu go to great lengths picking the best. And there must be a Chinese grandma in the kitchen, because each meal we have ever had there perks up the mouth and taste buds like only grandma's cooking can. Even the noodles in the soups are special.

As an old American waterfowl hunter, I know how terrific a properly handled duck can taste. And I was genuinely moved by the Sius' incredible barbecued duck.

If I were a duck, I wouldn't mind dying if I knew these guys were handling my carcass with such tender, loving care.

We proudly will take our visitors from around the world to this fine eating establishment and others when they come to get a feeling for our friendly, hospitable Central Texas community.

America Heal Your Children

This started out as an article encouraging parents to take our children
turkey hunting this spring. A magic experience during a magic time of year. As you will soon read, my focus turned from magic to tragic.

As a crusader for all things out-of-doors for both children and adults, I recently spent a little time doing some cursory research on the internet. Instead of turkey hunting statistics,
what I found hit me like a thunderbolt. As I read, I wiped away a tear or two from my eye.

We are literally destroying our children. Destroy is the right word. I
can think of no word more appropriate.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, American youngsters spend more
than 40 hours a week in front of the television and computer during the
school year. Study after study found the more television a young person
watches the more weight they gained and the more likely they will become
overweight and deathly ill.

In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that fifteen
percent of our young people were overweight. In 2006, the American
Obesity Association put the number at 30%. While our children are
becoming overweight and putting their health at risk, schools across the
nation have cut back on physical education programs (CDC, 2002).

Once a standard means of transportation, bicycle riding by kids is down
31% just since 1995 according to American Sports Data. Bicycle sales
have plummeted. Since 2000, bicycle sales have fallen 21% according to
the Bicycle Industry and Retailer News.

The CDC found in 2002 that one third of kids between 9-12 years old do
not engage in any strenuous physical activity whatsoever.

Childhood diabetes is at an all-time high.

I could go on and on. There is little, if any, good news to report. If
anything, many of the articles and research synopsis I read were already
five to ten years old. Just based on personal observation, I submit that
the problem has only gotten worse. The numbers of overweight kids I see
is staggering and heartbreaking.

We are killing our kids. Literally. No, they are not going to fall over
dead in front of you, but parents are shortening the lives of their
children by allowing their kids to sit in front of the television or
computer for hours upon hours. This encourages a sedentary lifestyle,
which leads to becoming overweight, which leads to heart disease, cancer
and other health maladies.

The problem is severe, so severe that I believe it is the single most
critical problem facing our nation. The US Surgeon General reported that
obesity already kills 300,000 Americans each year and estimated that
obesity cost the US economy 117 billion dollars in 2000. The death and
economic toll will continue to rise if something isn't immediately done.
Immediately. Right now. Today.

It starts at home. Parents, look at your children. Do you see rolls of
fat on them? Next, review their lifestyle. Do you allow them to sit in
front of the television or play computer games for hours on end? If so,
turn it off right now. Turn off this electronic junk and go for a walk
with your child, shoot some baskets, play catch, take them hunting or
fishing. Do this every day. Get them active. Next go through the pantry
and get rid of the junk food such as soda, ice cream and chips. Do this
today. Hug them. Tell them you love them and what you are doing is for
their own good.

Schools should immediately institute fundamental changes in
their physical fitness programs. Each kid should be forced to briskly
walk 30 minutes each day at school starting tomorrow. Physical fitness
is as important as math or science class.

Loving parents and schools must reverse this unhealthy trend starting
tomorrow. Failing to act now will kill our kids. Only a soulless parent
and a school that doesn't give a damn will fail to act right now.

Springtime is fast approaching. Time of renewal, planting, fishing, turkey hunting, pleasant weather for quality outdoor family physical activity fun. Healthy kids make for a healthy America.

Friends of NRA are friends of freedom

Grassroots. That's the American way. Neighbors helping neighbors, Americans helping Americans, uniting together for like-minded causes that we really believe in and deeply care about.

If there is one defining all-American, self-evident truth that has galvanized good families across this country since the inception of this experiment in self-government, it surely is our God-given right to keep and bear arms for self defense.

If there is one glaring, lame, irresponsible condition that conscientious American citizens also agree upon, it is that being unarmed and helpless is a surefire recipe for victimization.

After all, that is why brave people in Europe escaped slavery and tyranny almost three centuries ago - to come to the Brave New World in search of freedom.

We the people are members of the National Rifle Association, and our goal is to sign up as many members as we can to celebrate this wonderful constitutionally guaranteed right. You can't do this in France.

In upcoming days a grand celebration of freedom will ensue: Moms, dads, sons and daughters, grandparents and families from every imaginable walk of life will join in "Friends of the NRA" banquets and gatherings.

Here in Waco we proudly prepare for our second such event at the Lions Den, Thursday, 5:30 p.m.

These non-political NRA events raise millions of dollars that stay in the local communities in which the events take place.

Law enforcement and civilian firearms safety and training programs benefit, as do regional gun-range development and improvements, Eddie Eagle youth firearms safety courses, hunter education, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, Future Farmers of America, Woman on Target and more.

Propelled by volunteers like this year's chairman Charles Smith of the Hewitt Gun Shop and others like Leo Bradshaw, the Friends of the NRA event provides a great night for the whole family celebrating a wonderful cause, good eats, great camaraderie, valuable prizes and auction items.

Most importantly, it affirms that good families stand unmovable for an irrefutable truth: Our right to keep and bear arms is bestowed upon us by our creator. Freedom is a beautiful thing, and we shall never allow it to be taken away or watered down.

Today in the war on terror, courageous men and women are dying for just such freedom, and our standing up together shows that we appreciate their dedication and sacrifices. It is the least that we can do.

A recent USA Today poll showed that a whopping 98 percent of Americans understand that gun ownership, like all the else in the Bill of Rights, is a God-given individual right.

That soulless politicians and liberal cultists would attempt to claim otherwise is one good reason to become a member of the NRA.

I am convinced that as goes our right to defend ourselves, so goes America.

If you believe that a free man has such rights, bring your family, friends and neighbors to this great local Friends of the NRA event.

You will be surrounded by fine, law-abiding Texans proud of the great gun-owning heritage in the Lone Star state.

For more information, call Bradshaw at 772-8224. I hope to see you there.

Defining 'soulless' in America

It's past time we embrace common values, virtues

God gave man a soul, a powerful, instinctual moral and intellectual True North compass, something that completely differentiates us from all other living creatures.

Animals stomp, kill and eat each other, even their own, to survive. Man has the power of reason, of calculation, of dreaming. Man can choose to do good.

Respecting the gift of life and the power of responsible choice, man can pursue complete happiness while being a positive force for all things.

When man experiences personal benefits from wrong choices at the expense of others and the environment, he has lost his soul.

His misdeeds will eventually catch up with him. In the meantime, the majority of good people will be forced to perform damage control.

That is the feeble and pathetic condition of soullessness. All mankind should fight and strive to banish those who so callously disregard the good of others. Apathy shows no soul.

• It is soulless to purchase blingbling, tobacco, booze and more, then claim that you can't afford a sandwich and an apple for your kid's school lunch - then to ask the government to waste some more tax dollars on your so-called needs.
• It is soulless, Ted Kennedy, to forbid a good citizen the right to carry a gun for self protection while you charge that citizen/subject to pay for your armed security detail.
• You have no soul, Barack Obama, to borrow a page from Mao Tse-Tung to "take those profits . . ." from an American corporation and redistribute it to your blingbling-infested, irresponsible constituents.
• Your soul is clearly gone, Hillary Clinton, if policies you promote cause people to walk past numerous "help wanted" signs on the way to pick up their welfare checks.
• It is soulless to partake in a court system that continually paroles and plea-bargains child molesters back into America's neighborhoods.
• Supporting the obscene practice of taxing families' after-tax savings upon death proves you have no soul.
• To intentionally poison oneself with tobacco, alcohol, drugs and enough junk food to beach a sperm whale, then expect health care from others is an ugly, soulless condition.
• To provide billions and billions of dollars for the lie of (conduct-driven) AIDS research while U.S. military heroes go without is both soulless and foolish.
• It is the depth of soullessness to believe that animals have the same rights as human beings.
• For a government to turn its back on the ever-increasing invasion across our borders is brain-dead, suicidal and soulless.
• For an American to have to press "1 for English" is a soulless, downward spiral from the American Way.
• Your soul is gone if you board your private jet on the way to preach to others how they must use less energy.
• To force unarmed police cadets into the streets of Manhattan is soulless, Mayor Bloomberg.
• Suing the manufacturer of a legal product - a firearm - when it is illegally misused by criminals is soulless.
• To claim that war is not the answer after 3,000 Americans were murdered by foreign invaders is soulless.
• Reading the warning signs about cancer on the package of a product and then actually purchasing and using that product is soulless and expensive for everyone.
• For a government agency to pull elderly, wheelchair-bound Americans out of line at the airport for x-ray screening is soulless and counterproductive.
• To forbid American citizens the right to harvest our natural resources on our lands but then hire others to do so with our tax dollars is insanely soulless.

The abandonment of common sense, logic and self-evident truths has brought about this incredibly stupid suicide of the American soul.

People actually feel comfortable making these chimp-like choices.

Those of us who know better must galvanize and put pressure on those ruining things for everybody.

Indecent behavior and choices must be demonized and condemned and those guilty ostracized from our society.

We respect all pursuits of happiness unless a pursuit forces the costs upon others.

The Declaration of Independence is the celebration of the soul of man.

Celebrate and fight for soulful independence.

I Am Not a Republican: It appears the GOP's Sold Out Base in Quest for Independent Voters

by Ted Nugent
I am not a Republican. I am a conservative.

Yes, Scarlet, even an over-the-top, uppity, defiant MotorCity MadMan guitar wrangler can be a real conservative. Get used to it.

Claiming to be a Republican signifies allegiance to a political party.

Being a conservative denotes a commitment to a self-evident, truth-based philosophy and disciplined lifestyle.

A conservative believes in and fights for limited government and individual rights to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In today's big-government juggernaut, it is truly progressive to be a conservative.

Conservatives are independent, rugged individuals who believe the "American Dream" is achieved through hard work, sacrifice and an unrelenting commitment to excellence.

We detest able-bodied bloodsuckers who live off the sweat equity of others by refusing to be equal to those who try harder.

The base of the Republican Party used to be composed of staunch conservatives who championed limited government. Though the Republican tent was large and accommodating, there was no room for people who did not, at a minimum, subscribe to limited government and lower, dare I say, fairer taxes.

In a quest to achieve political victories, the Republican Party seemingly has abandoned its conservative base in search of independent voters. Conservatives have quietly been marginalized by the Republican Party. Yet the Republican Party believes conservatives will rally around the Republican Party at the ballot box because conservatives have no other place to go - a mistaken assumption.

I speak to conservatives on a daily basis who are discouraged at the direction the country has taken under Republican control. These disgusted conservatives all sing the same heart-breaking blues song: "The Republican Party has squandered too many opportunities to promote conservative values."

American characteristics

America has a great government, but America did not become great because of its government. Increased government involvement and programs do not lead to more independence, freedom or opportunity. They result in fewer of these uniquely American characteristics.

Conservatives do not despise government but believe government has poured over its banks and flooded into all areas of our lives, businesses and social structures to the extent that we are drowning in government red tape.

Conservatives believe less government is best government. We have witnessed over the past 40 years how government intervention and social experiments to the tune of trillions of tax dollars have literally destroyed lives and entire communities.

Surely no one wants to drink from that poisoned well again. Government-controlled or mandated health care, anyone?

The political buzzword of the presidential primary is "change." Wouldn't it be enlightening and refreshing to hear the Republican candidates talk about conservative change?

How about a question to the candidates on what federal government programs and agencies could and should be eliminated?

How about a question on how they would reduce the overall size of the federal government by 25 percent during their presidency?

How about a question to the candidates about what they will do to expand individual freedom and liberty?

How about a question asking each of the candidates if he would define himself as a conservative or a Republican?

Liberals detest conservative values. Liberals believe more government is the answer to all our problems. When illogical liberal ideas fail as they do time and time again, liberals then champion even larger government programs.

Liberals are socialists - bloodsuckers looking for a free handout. "Never trust a liberal" is my mantra.

I am a conservative because the conservative philosophy drives people to be self-reliant, independent and hungry to achieve their "American Dream," whatever it may be, by being the best that they can be. That's the America I know and the America I want my great-grandchildren to know.

An Angel Carrying Guns

by Ted Nugent
As always, the cover-up runs wild, the denial nearly airtight, the unprofessional, deceitful, anti-American misrepresentation securely locked in place by a media intent on its anti-U.S. Constitution, anti-freedom, anti-individualism agenda. When it comes to guns and God, we can rarely expect to read anything in the drive-by media of America and beyond even approaching how the vast majority of Americans feel, and in fact, know in our hearts to be right. So, the Yankee guitar player will cover Central Texas for ya'll. I know I stand with the best of the good folk, and I'm proud of it.

Jeanne Assam was one of approximately 7,000 worshippers at the New Hope Church in Colorado Springs last week. Christians were gathered to praise God and dedicate themselves to a spiritual upgrade to be better Americans and human beings. It is the basic premise of churchgoers everywhere in this unique land where freedom of religion is considered a "self-evident truth" and individual rights are bestowed upon us by our Creator. A weekly thank you to Him seems to be in order by those good souls who still think clearly and pursue a good, positive way of life.

But Jeanne, God bless her righteous soul, was packing two handguns this fine church day. She had never had the need to draw either one of her guns in the past, but as a thinking, caring American, she knew that rugged individualism and real world independency means being prepared. And prepared she was when the loud, shocking concussions of rifle shots rang out in the entrance way of the church. Her natural instincts of good over evil kicked into gear, and like millions of concealed weapons carriers across America, the pistols in her belt gave her pragmatic confidence that she could neutralize an apparent evil force in the House of God.

Racing toward gunshots

Jeanne didn't run scared, scream, cower or flee for her life. She knew that to do so was to give signals of helplessness and in fact, be helpless. Instead, she drew a gun and raced toward the approaching gunshots, just like I have written in so many of my writings over the years. When a human being gives serious, genuine thought to the incremental programming of sheepishness so thoroughly crammed down America's throats by a media infested with cowardly liberals, condemning individual rights and thinking, natural instincts dictate just the opposite response, and Jeanne was living proof.

And this dainty, svelte young woman couldn't possibly fit the profile so desperately attempted by the anti-gun nuts, for she has no macho baggage and no intentionally misrepresented NRA imagery to overcome. She is a woman, a human being, with the natural right to defend herself and innocents from evil, and she did what her heart told her to do.

Further irritating the mainstream media's hatred of Christianity, she credits God as her guiding light, protecting her from the high-powered rifle, two handguns and more than 1,000 rounds of ammo in the possession of the maniacal madman attacking her congregation. She courageously ran toward the danger and shot the bum dead. Next.

We like it when maniacal madman hellbent on slaughtering innocents are shot dead instead. And we like brave people who know that innocent lives need to be protected from madmen by shooting them dead with a gun on our person. We know that gun-free zones are irresponsible, dangerous, anti-human, anti-security and anti-American. We don't like politicians or people who pretend otherwise.

We don't think a madman who opens fire in malls, cafeterias, churches, schools or our neighborhoods has any rights whatsoever. We believe good should live, evil should be gotten rid of. And we know the difference between good and evil without some newspaper editor or bureaucrat telling us if we got it right or not. I wish there would always be a Jeanne Assam every 100 feet in America so the bad guys would get the real message from America - "Don't tread on me!" Threaten innocent lives and we will shoot you dead.

I'm sending Jeanne Assam an expensive Christmas present and a life membership in the NRA.

My Christmas Eve Buck

by Ted Nugent
The icicles hanging from my mustache and beard were the real McCoy. No fake
decorations allowed in my Christmas tree. And my Christmas tree just happened
to be a towering white oak atop a majestic forested ridgeline bordering a
stunning Michigan swamp. Instead of a handmade angel on top, a frozen
guitarplayer clung for dear life to the crowsnest branches way up high, bow and arrow
in hand, waiting for an American whitetail deer to bring our Christmas dinner
on by. On the hoof. For I was bowhunting this frigid evening, celebrating
the birth of The Creator's son, doing my own little personal shivering prayer
for peace and joy across the land. The wiser members of Tribe Nuge were snug
around the home fireplace preparing a hot meal for the old hunter's return,
blue spruce tree aglow in the corner of our home with celebratory decorations a
glitter. With the 30 below windchill numbing my inner bones, I could hardly
wait for dark to take over the swamp so I could join them for a Nugent
American tradition of grand Christmas spirit. Meanwhile, Old Man Winter was doing
all he could to blow me clean out of my treestand. MotorCity MadMan indeed.
MotorCity NutJob is more like it.

But now he came, and a powerful, inner instinct overwhelmed the frozen wind
and any thought of comfort. I could hardly believe my eyes that such a beast
was approaching on this horrendous, brutal night. He was a great stag and he
was coming my way. I pushed and pulled on my frozen muscles in preparation to
draw my bow as does and young deer crunched the icy snow below me, luring
the old monarch into range. The magnificent buck paused every few steps to test
the wind and my patience, and on he came. As he turned his head to follow an
old doe, I initiated my hunter's prayer, my arrow coming back gracefully,
like the Zen ballet of life and death that it is, and in an instant, the razor
sharp broadhead had sliced clean through the old boy's vitals and it was all
over except for the jubilation. He died in but seconds before me, tipping
over in the pure white snow of the marsh, just 25 yards away. I looked to the
heavens and said another prayer, then carefully descended my icy perch and
proceeded with the stirring recovery rituals of such a precious gift. The purity
of my act was obvious to all who are honest about nature. Balance,
biodiversity and perfect protein for the table were the irrefutable win-win-win of the
occasion. With the help of my family, we dragged the amazing animal back to
the barn and soon my frozen garments were replaced with a nice, warm cushy
robe, slippers and hot meal. The Santa Clause of fresh meat has landed.

The American Dream is truly amazing any way you chose it, but this hands-on
outdoor conservation lifestyle of hunting, fishing and trapping keeps one
honest to the cause and effect with the good mother earth and all her creatures
and resources. The gorgeous spruce we so joyously decorated together was once
again harvested from the thousands of various trees we plant each spring.
The natural season of planting is as important to us as the natural season of
harvest, and it means so much more to us knowing we personally plant thousands
of trees for every one we utilize. Just as the thriving deer populations
prove, a reasoning predator will always put more back than we take. The
Christmas season is surely a time of giving, but the Nugent's don't limit such
conscientiousness to a single time of year. We just go a little wilder at Christmas.

The mouth watering, aromatically stimulating spread on our Christmas
dinnertable is not only scrumptious, but the healthiest food available to mankind.
Our wild turkey is pure, organic food, the roasted venison haunch and mallards
a testament to the perfection of God's natural, renewable bounty. We do it
every year, and will forever. Watching my children grow up in such a
spiritually connected lifestyle has served them well, and their integrity and quality
of life is my proudest accomplishment. They are all giving, loving, caring,
independent, resourceful, funny, clever, productive American citizens solidly
in the asset column of life. Now with grandchildren at the party, the
traditional Nugent family fun factor continues off the charts. Though the gift
wrapping and unwrapping can best be described as a consumer orgy, steps towards
practicality are being upgraded every year. We try to provide as many gifts to
the US Military families as we possibly can, for but by the blood of warriors
can any celebration take place at all.

We keep Christ in Christmas regardless of trends or the PC denial curse. We
celebrate the gift of life, we celebrate American Freedom, and we celebrate
the birthday of Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Gun Free Zones Strike Again

by Ted Nugent
Here we go again. Someone tell me why, with nearly 3000 articles written worldwide within 48 hours following the tragic slaughter at the Omaha, Nebraska Westroads Mall this week, that not a single one of them mentioned the most important fact of all. Thousands of "professional" writers converging on such an event, sharing their sleuthing in the world's most respected publications and electronic media, yet not a single one of them saw it meaningful in their "reporting" of the crime to mention all the "no guns allowed" signs throughout the mall? Got agenda? Sig heil!

Even though Nebraska recently got a small piece of their Second Amendment back by finally allowing law abiding citizens their "God given right" to keep and bear arms, it is truly anti-American and downright bizzarro that private property and business owners can deny (as in "infringe") this "inalienable" right bestowed upon free men by our Creator. This of course is the liberal dream known as "gun free zones." As in Columbine, VA Tech, Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, and at every other location where the wanton slaughter of unarmed, helpless victims is a virtual guarantee.

Except of course at the Salt Lake City mall last year where an armed off duty cop properly defied that mall's "gun free" policy, who, virtually indistinguishable for all practical purposes from an armed law abiding citizen, was able to thwart a mass shooting about to unfold, were it not for a good guy with a gun. How dense must someone be to hide from this information and fact? Denial runs deep in a growing population of "we the sheeple." For shame.

When did a nation of rugged individuals turn into helpless whiners, crying and running in fear from danger and evil? When did we abandon our natural instinct to counterpunch and attack evil, overpowering it and neutralizing it into submission? When were we forced to dial 9-1-1, losing and wasting precious, decisive time, instead of doing the right thing and stopping bad guys ourselves? When did we trade in independence for dependency? When did we decide that we can't handle tough situations ourselves, and we need to call big brother while we cower and hide like little, helpless children? Pathetic.

Everyday in this country, according to the Department of Justice and every study ever conducted, armed, law abiding citizens stop dangerous, violent confrontations from escalating into death and tragedy, simply by having a gun handy to provide real "equality" on the mean streets of America. Dedicated cops across America will be the first ones to tell you that they not only can't possibly be there to protect us, but that they also have no legal requirement to do so. By the time the police show up, many innocents will likely perish at the hands of evil while good people hang around hoping and praying. Does anyone still not know this reality? Is it possible to still hide from this life and death truth? If you have no soul, apparently so.

I would highly recommend that we finally learn from all these senseless tragedies. Get real. Get rid of politicians who support gunfree slaughter zones. Get rid of Gunfree zones. Get a gun, learn to use it, and do the right thing. Bad guys should be shot dead, not Christmas shoppers.

Blessed to be a Hunter. Even When We Come Up Empty, We're Fulfilled.

by Ted Nugent
For American hunters, these truly are the good old days.

There are better hunting areas than others, but for the most part, in my home states of Michigan and Texas, and in Alaska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Ohio, California, Colorado and elsewhere that I hunt, the big- and small-game hunting is nothing short of amazing, spellbinding.

I see more deer, elk, turkey, cougars, black bear and waterfowl than I have ever seen in more than 50 years of gung-ho hunting.

It truly takes my breath away. Wildlife management is a beautiful thing.

And I go for it. Back in 1973, performing more than 300 concerts a year started to hammer away on my physical and spiritual self. I couldn't stand driving into another sunrise with a glowing frost on the ground, watching truckloads of hunters unloading dogs and guns hitting the fields across America as I headed for my next concert.

It would mean turning down many thrilling rock-n-roll dream concerts with the world's greatest musicians and some substantial income that I truly needed back then. But for a not-so-smart guitar player, I somehow made the miraculous judgment call: I needed to hunt more than I needed to tour so much.

With that, my ultimate American Dream was upgraded to a level of joy beyond comprehension.

Now, it's half the year rocking maniacally, half the year hunting hard-core.

Perfect.

Beast unleashed

With that fateful decision in September, 1973, for me there'd be no more simply settling for opening days or occasional hunting weekends. The Nuge predator beast was unleashed. I have never looked back once. To the hunt!

Over the years, my hunting time has nearly been perfected to include nonstop daily hunting the months of September, October, November, December, January and February, every year, every day, every morning, every afternoon and many days all day.

Oh, dear God in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Hallelujah and pass the massive SpiritWild, my friends. This is it.

I write this from a blind from which fellow Xtremist bowhunting nut Randy Rifenburgh and I have waited out a beautiful rain storm, a solid four hours, with no game in sight.

We know that following a storm game could very well be up and moving now.

But I have been here for five days and Mrs. N needs Hubby home. Plus, I have some meetings with son Rocco's teachers and coaches, and it is time to hit the home hunting grounds.

I am not very good at being away from home following another, long, brutal, energy-sapping rock tour, so it is rare that I even leave home to hunt elsewhere these days.

Finally, we decide to head that way. But as I go I vow to return.

I shut down my laptop, gather my bow and backpack, climb out of the blind and hike the mile back to our truck.

The sky is opening up, temperature rising. Storms build intensity in our minds, visions of big bucks and intriguing sights and sounds flutter in our predator brains.

A covey of bobwhites erupts underfoot and we both swing imaginary shotguns on the exploding featherbombs, smiling a tooth, fang and claw smile as we make perfect air-gun doubles.

We smile and chuckle at each other.

Blood Brothers.

When Good Guys Gang Up Against Bad Guys

by Ted Nugent
It was pitch dark, musty, muggy and 3 a.m. as we rolled up amongst the dim and shattered streetlights of downtown Waco.

Our three vehicles were rolling in slow and quiet with the headlights turned off.

We all slid silently from the darkened police cars, the FBI agent at my side holding his automatic M4 machine gun as he stalked into position to the left side of the ramshackle, unlit house.

Likewise, my federal marshal partner maneuvered to the porch, his black 12- gauge pump riot gun at the ready.

Four more agents took up tactical positions flanking the four corners.

I unholstered my laser-sighted Springfield 10mm 1911 pistol, cocked, locked and ready to rock. I took cover next to a large oak tree off the back porch.

My bulletproof vest read FEDERAL MARSHALL on front and back, and I wore a Detroit police cap.

Dogs began barking, hounds began to howl. I think I heard a black cat moan.

This was it: a team of highly trained law enforcement commandos charging into the belly of the beast, conducting a nationally organized synchronized raid executing fugitive federal felony arrest warrants on the most dangerous criminal monsters in America.

And there I was, smack dab in the middle, on adrenalin overload.

Would my 30-plus years of law enforcement and military training be adequate if all hell were to break loose?

Would I be shot at? Would I be forced to use deadly force to save my life or the life of an innocent?

Would these Rottwielers and snarling Dobermans in the next yard breech the flimsy fences and attack?

Would I have to shoot them?

Instinctual auto-pilot and memorized tactical training would take over automatically now. I fought to reduce the psychological tunnel vision that was burning to dominate the moment.

This was the real fireball emotional McCoy, baby.

And so the entry assault erupted. Hang on, Nuge. Pay attention, boy.

We had gathered at the McLennan County courthouse that spring night in 2006, a gaggle of cops - local, county, state and federal - sipping hot coffee, jabbering and preparing our assault gear. Warriors all.

Tom Smith, the federal marshal in charge of the Central Texas FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally) force, outlined the specifics of the raid, thick stacks of paperwork and photographs going to each separate assault team.

Then he introduced the participating guest Lake County, Mich., Sheriff's Department special deputy resident guitar player to speak to the assemblage about the seriousness of this national law enforcement event.

I saluted them all and emphatically reminded each and every one of them how deeply appreciative the citizens of Central Texas and America were for the law and order and the security these heroes bring to our streets and neighborhoods.

All were aware of the life-and-death nature of the raid on which we were about to embark - confronting such soulless, evil, recidivistic monsters who were on our target list.

We locked and loaded and headed for our vehicles. It was time to let the big dogs run.

You could cut the spirit in the air with a Texas chainsaw.

With the critical element of surprise on our side, our teams were able to collar numerous fugitives without serious incident in the next few days.

Texas-wide and nationally, this successful joint law enforcement task force took more than 9,000 fugitives, including 1,102 fugitives wanted for committing felony sex offenses, violent sexual assaults and failure to register as sex offenders off the not-so-mean streets of America.

Our Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested 879 fugitives.

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said, "The people of the Western District of Texas can rest a little easier tonight knowing that 879 criminals charged with felonies are behind bars. Thanks to the hard work and bravery of law enforcement officers across central Texas, this operation was pulled off without a hitch."

Evil is as evil does. I was proud to take part in this operation that makes America safer from those so evil as to prey upon their fellow Americans.

The abject filth, decadence, child mistreatment and human rot I witnessed on this raid confirmed once again how soulless America's criminal element truly is.

Every citizen can, and I believe, must, fight for upgrade in our neighborhoods by simply refusing to tolerate anti-American cannibalism and inbreeding by the lowest forms of life amongst us.

We should all be watchdogs and whistle blowers. Somebody out there knows who's committing these crimes and destroying our lives.

If we don't all stop the rats living amongst us, they will certainly end up ruining everything.

Be a neighborhood commando. Be aware. Demand good behavior. Be intolerant to evil, and let's all make America safer and stronger, one street at a time.

We the people can make a positive difference if we just get involved.

Giving Thanks

by Ted Nugent
I celebrate Thanksgiving everyday. I must. I wake up in America a free
man. I thank God each and every day that I was born here and can benefit
from the rewards of the only experiment in self-government in the
history of the world, where independence and rugged individualism is
still the American way. I am so very thankful that America's Founding
Fathers had the wisdom and intestinal fortitude to write down the
self-evident truths and God given rights in case anyone conveniently
pretended to forget why we came to this land to escape slave drivers,
dictators, tyrants, kings and emperors.

I give sincere thanks that my parents were strong, loving, nurturing,
hard working disciplinarians who taught me to be the best that I can be
and to always do the right thing; that being good and lawful is the path
to happiness and that cowardliness and criminality has its consequences
and will ruin everything.

I thank God for Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly and Les Paul.

I am very thankful that my hard work continues to pays off and I can be
my own boss and provide for my family in dream careers that make me very
happy and fulfilled. I thank God for my wonderful children and my
amazing wife who so lovingly put up with me. I deeply appreciate my
supporters who have provided me with a lifelong, gravity defying career,
and the best, most intense rocking tour of my life in 2007, fifty years
after my 1st concert.

I bow my head and pray, thanking the warriors of the United States
Military for their selfless dedication and sacrifices as they lay down
their lives for freedom and security against evil. I thank our
president, George W. Bush for waging an effective war against terrorism,
keeping the evil monsters of 9-11 at bay for seven attack-less years. I
give thanks for the heroes of law enforcement here at home and across
the nation, who combat the scourge of law breakers so that our families
can work and play without fear or danger.

I thank America's hunters, fishers and trappers for fighting for and
paying for the greatest conservation success story in the history of
mankind as I celebrate yet another astonishing hunting season across
America with game galore. I thank God for His annual bounty of
life-giving renewable resources and the dedicated men and women of the
fish and wildlife departments for their guidance and professional
management.

I thank Fred Bear for turning me on to the mystical flight of the arrow,
archery and bowhunting as my spiritual guiding light, inspiring a higher
level of awareness and sense of stewardship duty to the good mother
earth and all her creatures.

I thank God for the amazing whitetail deer and all His spellbinding
creatures that provide me with astonishing, unlimited challenge, beauty,
stimuli and protein.

I thank the farmers and ranchers of America who work so very hard to
feed the world and fill up every grocery store with more delicious,
nutritious food than one can imagine.

I thank the American entrepreneurs and workforce for their productivity
and work ethic as they fuel the greatest economy and quality of life
known anywhere anytime.

I give thanks to the medical professionals who take good care of us and
continue to increase our health and longevity, as long as we make
intelligent lifestyle choices.

I thank the teachers of the world who educate and inspire our children
to follow their dreams and fortify themselves for an adventurous life.

I thank the families and their children who so generously bless me by
inviting and including me in the celebration of their last days on this
earth, when terminally ill family members share their last campfires
with this old guitar player.

I thank the myriad of American charities that so selflessly care for,
feed, clothe, love and help the needy around the world.

I thank God for the Labrador retrievers that shiver in the duckblind
with me, fetching the fowl that I shoot from the ice-cold water when the
wind, rain and snow are blowing ferociously.

I give thanks for my good neighbors and fellow Americans, who are so
kind, friendly, giving, hospitable, generous and fun to hang around with.

Thanksgiving should be celebrated everyday by every American because
when you honestly look around this great land, we've got it made if we
use our heads. Godbless America. Give thanks.

Joyous, Inspiring Vibes at Guantanamo Bay.

by Ted Nugent
View slideshow here

GUANTANAMO BAY - Wheels up, 2:30 p.m, we take off in the pouring rain, departing straight out of the leeward side of the U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Our USAF DC 9 is loaded to the hilt with weapons of mass rock-'n-roll construction, as my hearty bandmates and crew and I take off from the U.S. warrior epicenter on the communist Island, deadheaded homebound.

We just spent three rather frustrating yet invigorating days with the hero warriors of the U.S. Navy, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard and Marine Corps, right here on one of the many frontlines of freedom.

Our hopes included a good old-fashioned rock-'n-roll hellraiser concert of the highest order, performing the heart-and-soul battle cry soundtrack for the greatest warriors ever known to mankind.

My band and many of my master sound and stage technicians had to come from Europe and beyond so that they could show their sincere appreciation for the military's great sacrifices.

But alas, Mother Nature threw us a vicious left hook with a savage tropical torrent. Though we persevered with much gusto and made it to Gitmo, the storm surge prevented all but my manager and assistant from joining me and Admiral Bianchi on a treacherous flooded Hummer ride through dangerous high waters to the Navy speedboat that sped us across angry seas to the wayward side of Guantamo Bay.

Ugh. Improvise, adapt and overcome, indeed.

Though not able to perform, I was humbled and moved nonetheless to spend some high-energy quality time with hundreds of courageous heroes in uniform and their brave families. My spirit was fortified with every handshake and photograph we took together.

There is no question that these are the brightest, most professional, most patriotic men and women of goodwill and decency the world has ever known.

Statistically, they are the smartest people around, and they have clearly dedicated this intellect and sense of duty to God, country and mankind. They've intensely researched the war on terror, probed every scrap of evidence and determined their choice to put themselves in harm's way.

There is no greater sacrifice than to volunteer to lay down one's life for his or her fellow man. These enlisted men and women are saints with M16s. God bless and Godspeed the warriors.

There was a clear and present openness to their candor and conversation during our time together. The morale was gung-ho, the spirit and energy positive and buoyant. Their sense of humor and focus was forthright.

They come from every walk of life and every state across this great land. They all have a story to share about their love of the outdoors and rock-'n-roll.

It seemed that all were hunters and fishermen, with even a few fellow trappers thrown in amongst them. We had a grand time celebrating the great American outdoor traditions and heritage of hands-on conservation. It seemed also that each and every one either was a member of the NRA or at the very least a hard-core vocal supporter of our sacred Second Amendment.

Their oath to protect the U.S. Constitution is proudly taken to heart. I looked to them for wisdom, strength and soulfulness, and found it all in unlimited quantities. Semper Fi.

My poor bandmates were hopelessly stranded by the roiling waves that blockaded access to the wayward side of Guantanamo Bay. So, they sat helplessly with all our stage-gear with nothing to do except stay out of the wind and rain.

They, too, made the best of their time and shared war stories with enlisted men and women, roughing it in the Spartan barracks of the base with a history dating back to 1494 when Christopher Columbus first called the bay Grande Puerto.

It wasn't until 1898 that a battalion of U.S. Marines landed here and made camp nearby as the first U.S. troops ashore in Cuba in the Spanish-American War.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the original lease agreement with Cuba for Naval Base Guantanamo Bay. In December of that year, Cuba turned the base over to the United States.

Cubans (like so many Mexicans crossing our southern border), continue to take their lives into their own hands by trying to sneak into the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay.

We all know why. Communism, in all its various forms, is just another name for slavery. People, created in God's image and likeness, have freedom and individualism burning in their souls.

To this one can attribute the heroic dedication of the U.S. troops who secure and protect freedom wherever you find it.

To hang out with the protectors of freedom buoys my spirit and makes me a better man.

As a victim of a failed education system in America in 1967, I was clueless regarding these historical facts. I was not called to serve in the military, nor did I volunteer.

Now, as a middle-aged American, I take a cue from the warriors and I, too, have chosen to go into harm's way - to Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond - to say thank you to those who serve and protect.

We must all do whatever we can to say thank you and show real support for the good guys waging war against evil. But by the sacrifices of warriors go we the people.

Drunk on Freedom, High on Hunting. Beyond Thrill of Hunt, This is Nature at its Most Exhilarating

by Ted Nugent
Let me see if I can paint a picture here for you. I know numerous Americans out there who are much like me: so very alive, gung-ho, hard-core, intensely passionate, addicted hunters. BloodBrothers of the Great SpiritWild.

To the uninitiated, this may all be a bit too much. But take a deep breath and go with me here. You should enjoy this. I am.

Intense, nearly blinding bolts of lightning are exploding and lighting up the Texas scrub all around me every few seconds, followed by wonderful, violent, roaring thunderclaps that pummel my skeleton and shake the earth.

I flinch from the first few. Then I just grin, celebrating every eruption.

Heavy rain is hammering wildly on the tractor trailer overhead cab unit in which I sit. This is my deerblind and this is my world: throbbing in the lap of God, snorting life for all it's worth, jamming with Ma Nature during one of her genuine, over-the-top, outrageous rock-'n'-roll concerts of the wild.

I of the storm indeed.

I'm stabbing away on my laptop computer here, right now, in the middle of it all, stimulated beyond description, though I will give it my best shot to share with you this wonderful thrill.

I just signed off from the Internet using some inexplicable mobile card technology that allows me to communicate in real time with people from around the world on my tednugent.com TalkBack board.

Weird, huh? But cool as all hell.

Many people join me at this electro-campfire to better try to understand how I, we, so passionately crave this hunting, hands-on nature lifestyle.

Plus I am sure they are amused at the old guitarboy's gung-ho attitude about nearly everything in life.

I can't begin to tell you how many of these people are now hunters and gun owners simply because we so sincerely and believably share our love and joys about these things in a no-BS sort of way in a public forum.

Happiness and truth are very contagious. People are looking for as much of both as they can find. I reek of it.

We are born at Point A, and will die at Point B. Carpe Diem like ya means it. Excelsior!

So, the rain is intensifying wildly now, really pounding, as gung-ho all- American BloodBrother/guide/outfitter/vidman/biologist/fellow Xtremist bowhunting nut Randy Rifenburgh and I sit here taking it all in, not really believing that deer or hogs will be moving in this beautiful storm.

Using the overhead cab units as deerblinds are Randy's idea, figuring the cozy, wind-and-rain-protecting darkness is a killer ambush setup for the Newell Ranch's bowhunting guests.

As always, he is correct. The deer, hogs, turkey and varmints have come to accept it as simply more ranching equipment, part of the landscape.

An ultra bright, elongated flash of white lightning has just exploded. The silhouette of an enormous hog stands out behind a screen of mesquite, like some ominous, beastly graphic in a horror movie.

Randy taps my leg. I stop typing and put down my laptop and notch an arrow on my Martin bowstring, hoping.

The giant 300-pound pork tank noses around a deer feeder, then diddles off without offering any kind of shot.

He's truly a world-class trophy - red-and-black brindled, a boar of a lifetime.

Though I itch to take him, even with my 10mm Glock, here we prefer to kill 'em with arrows. So I hesitate, hoping he might come closer.

Now it's 30 minutes since he disappeared. So far, no show.

The rain is backing off now. Welcome, cool winds of relief from the northwest stroke the rich, swaying vegetation before us.

Texas air is absolutely delicious during and after a good rain. We can hear the rolling thunderclaps getting farther off to the south. Dark skies overhead and big puddles of water everywhere, but still no game in sight.

A dizzying assortment of birds starts to show up. Bright red cardinals fluff their wet feathers and go for corn. A flycatcher hovers like a helicopter right in our face.

Bobwhite can be seen in the grasses and ubiquitous broomweed.

A gold-fronted woodpecker is punching away at the protein feeder spout. We just saw a trio of whitetails hi-tailing it from east to west off a ways and a few morning doves just lit on a dead mesquite branch. Day is breaking.

I'm stoned, inebriated, drunk on freedom and pure predatorship. It is life itself.

Join Crusade to Recycle, Reuse, Save Energy

by Ted Nugent

The hunting camp was alive with spirit and South Texas magic.

The hunt was in the air, visions of giant, mature whitetail beasts dancing in my giddy mind.

But there was something else in the air as well that fine December morning. The gagging stink of diesel fuel burned my nostrils.

The hunting operation was world-class; six matched long-bed, extended 4x4 pickup trucks with huge tires, state-of-the art radios, GPS, winches, roofracks and gunracks, spotlights, foglights and grill guards of the highest quality.

I suppose I was looking at more than $400,000 worth of hunting rigs before me. Quite impressive.

But as I have experienced throughout my dreamy history of hunting in Texas, during the entire hour-long breakfast, all six trucks were running, gushing fumes and gobbling raw crude for no good reason whatsoever.

We are talking more than an hour here, my friends, just sitting there, running.

I know Texans are a little tender when it comes to "cold" December mornings. But we Yankee MotorCity Michiganiacs do not consider 30 degrees to be that cold.

And it surely doesn't qualify as cold enough to waste all that fuel just so the big, tough hunters can be warm and cozy for the tortuous 20-minute ride to our cold deerblinds.

Tough it out

All the hunters were dressed warmly for the morning vigil anyway. A short ride in a cold truck should be no big deal. Oy!

Amazingly, this is seen all too often across the land. And not just at hunting camps.

Way too many people just let their vehicles run on and on. Add to that: In homes, every light and lamp left on. Heaters and air conditioners running full-bore. Even with no one around.

You start to get the picture that nobody gives a good damn about conserving energy around here.

Consider the habit of letting the water run unnecessarily, overrunning home appliances, tossing out half-eaten groceries and partially consumed bottles of water and various drinks. A pattern of overt waste takes shape.

Though these abuses appear minor on the surface, when added together they represent a lifestyle by far too many Americans of enormously wasteful resource mismanagement.

I hear a monstrous "ka-ching" going down the toilet here. For shame.

When we moved to Texas a few years ago, we were rather shocked at all the trash tossed into the garbage cans and headed to the landfill every week: plastic bottles, glass containers, cans, everything.

Back home in Michigan they have a soft-drink deposit system so that those gazillions of cans and bottles are recycled and never make their way to the dump.

Keep it out of ground

With the unprecedented volume of bottled water consumed these days, it should be a primary concern of all to demand a better way to recycle this toxic waste and keep it out of the ground.

Same goes for paper, cardboard and the various bubblewrap and Styrofoam packaging materials.

I feel so guilty about tossing out such waste that I tend to warehouse mass quantities until I find an outsource destination for its re-use. The Nugent family is on a crusade to prod all our family and friends to be more conservation-conscious.

If every family and business were to examine its resource use and waste procedures, we could all make a substantial upgrade for our precious environment and save money and natural resources.

Teaching and training our children to do so could make a huge difference in the future of the good Mother Earth. Why not?

Today's Parents Raising Wimps & Zombies. Why Imprison Kids in Bubble Wrap?

by Ted Nugent
Sergeant York worked the bolt on his 1903 Springfield rifle like a shooting ballerina. Germans fell like so many jellyheads on a Tennessee turkey shoot, his bullets hitting the mark, round after round after round.

Like so many heroes of our U.S. military warriors, the good Sergeant was raised in rural America, hunting, fishing, trapping, shooting and basically rough-housing his adventurous youth to become a rugged, independent, Johnny-on-the-spot, thinking individual.

He was more than capable of improvising, adapting and overcoming.

From WWI dogfighting aces through infantrymen who set the bar for courage and effectiveness in combat, they proved and continue to prove that the American Way is the best way to hone a real man's instincts to perform under pressure through the physical regimentation of a rough-and-tumble, outdoor upbringing.

Compare that to the ever-increasing tendency of citified families to avoid skinned knees, bashed heads, scrapes and bruises and other badges of honor of a naturally adventurous youth.

They are captives of and contributors to a hyper-litigious society scared to death of kids being kids.

Today's often disconnected "living room" youth can thumb a video game all day long, destroying the planet and blowing up everything and everybody in sight, without any danger whatsoever of ripping a fingernail.

Wimps and zombies, they are. Poor, underdeveloped, soft, thumbnuts, incapable of manhandling a wrench, changing a tire on a bicycle or skinning a rabbit. Pathetic.

When I was growing up in the shadow of the Greatest Generation, following our victory over the evil Japanese Empire and the Nazis, boys didn't sit around twiddling their thumbs and zombying out in front of the TV.

We exuberantly sought that road less traveled, our own fascinating passage to manhood. We built improvisational forts in the woods, dug tunnels, climbed trees, constructed tree forts out of scraps, competed with our Daisy Red Ryder BB guns, hunted rabbits and squirrels, threw rocks and skipped stones. Sometimes at each other. We were all fascinated by guns, knives, wrenches, hammers, nails, saws, crowbars, campfires and the fine art of cutting marshmallow-roasting branches just right.

We were all enrolled and studying hard at the Motorskill Manly Coordination University of America. And we studied hard.

Sure, there were plenty of scary trips to the emergency ward - blood and tears flowing all around. But I am convinced that these are the trials, tribulations and essential rituals necessary for boys to pursue in order to become productive, capable men, leaders of households and protectors of family and society.

Taking care of business

What good is a man who cannot take care of mechanical business?

The very act of climbing a tree and tying a rope to a limb for swinging over a water hole teaches much about improvisational creativity, physics and teamwork. It's brainpower coordinated with physical muscle development.

That it presents the real, tangible danger of falling and getting hurt is critical in the forming of survival skills and real-world cause-and-effect lessons.

Walking and exploring together with buddies. Investigating a rocky hill, a gravel bar on the river. Cutting and sharpening a sapling to form a makeshift spear, and then learning to stalk and stab a fish. These are skills critical to every imaginable scenario that we will all encounter at some point in life.

That kids can't even carry a pocketknife to school anymore is an indictment to a societal negativity and denial that does much more harm than good.

Hell, in my youth, millions of kids brought guns to school for ROTC marksmanship drills and during the hunting season, and nobody was getting shot.

Discipline at home and at school was the guiding force then. Today, we're worried about "feelings" and arresting kids for carrying butter knives and aspirin.

God help us all.

So drag that kid away from the TV set. Get them a bow and arrow. Take them to the woods.

Teach them how to make a campsite and make a fire.

Turn them on with the healing powers of nature and the soulful joys of challenge and independence.

It will cleanse their souls and strengthen their bodies and minds.

Real education or feel-good, PC politics?

by Ted Nugent

As hands-on, responsible parents (sad to know that there are otherwise), Shemane and I are compelled to meet with our children's teachers on a regular basis.

It's essential to maintain consistent communication with those to whom our children's care and guidance are entrusted.

We do it to monitor the progress and direction of what ultimately will determine much of their wonderful American Dream.

After all, a child literally is in the hands of teachers and administrators during a pivotal time. This we all know.

What we discovered on one such meeting at a Michigan grade school was rather eye-opening, to say the least.

Sitting down with a fifth-grade teacher, we examined some schoolwork and homework papers where the written work was done in all-capital block letters. Simple words like "window," "chair" and "book" were capitalized. We asked, why?

With a distant stare and a weird Mr. Rogers-TV demeanor, the kind teacher feebly attempted to explain. It was no big deal, she said. It was easier for the children to write in block letters.

He opined that cursive writing "wasn't used that much anymore." Say huh?

The scary part came when we scrutinized our son's papers that had already been turned in and corrected, but somehow still contained numerous misspellings.

Could a professional teacher actually have missed such mistakes? We asked. We were shocked to hear that such misspellings "were close enough and didn't matter that much right now."

Were we being punked?

Was this "no child left behind" or children left uneducated by an education system that simply didn't care anymore?

We probed deeper and did not like what we discovered.

As record amounts of tax dollars are shoveled into America's education system, our children's academic achievements are falling further and further behind most of the industrialized world.

Statistics long ago proved the sad state of affairs in which an embarrassing percentage of high school graduates could not read, write, speak or balance a check book.

Only the guilty need feel guilty if we are not moving rapidly toward changing that. There is still an army of gung ho dedicated teachers out there who put hearts and souls into educating America's children. For that we thank and salute them all.

That a child exists in America who hasn't the faintest idea about the Holocaust or what the Trail of Tears was - it's tragic.

For God's sake, there are many young Texans who don't know about the Alamo.

As the proverb goes, those ignorant of the mistakes of history will surely repeat them. Lovely.

We have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in the American education system. The real problem, as usual, its the entrenched apathy by educators who know better, and out of politically correct cowardice refuse to blow whistles, scold anyone or demand upgrade from their peers.

As we attend various school activities and teacher meetings, we are happy to see many genuine, caring parents who remain involved in the quality control of their children.

Thank God for them.

But equally and painfully apparent are the missing-in-action parents, if you can even call them parents.

An experiment in self-government requires certain "we the people" participation.

I can think of no more compelling call to such activism than the involvement of parents working hand in hand with teachers.

A team effort can spell success, glory and happiness for our children. By monitoring and communicating, we can all help identify needed improvements and upgrades - not just for our kids' betterment but for a smarter, better-educated, more productive America.

Isn't it worth it?

Labor of Love Day

by Ted Nugent

So far this morning I have conducted three radio interviews, had a marketing strategy conference call with my record company, held a meeting with my band and crew, reviewed edits to my "Spirit of the Wild" television program and answered a dozen or so e-mails.

Now I am going to have breakfast and plan the work for the rest of the day. I love it.

That brings me to Labor Day. I like to celebrate it by laboring. While the rest of the country takes a day off to celebrate hard work by sleeping in, barbecuing and attending parades, I turn up the production heat.

On Labor Day night, my guitar will howl in delight and pay homage to James Brown while gleefully scorching the souls of rock 'n' roll fun gluttons.

Raised in the Motor City during the automotive revolution by parents who taught me that everything comes from hard work and dedicated effort, I have been blessed to achieve my American Dream. I could because I internalized one of life's lessons: All things worth having are the result of sweat and hard work. Period.

Every so often I am asked by a young musician how I got my break in the music business. I never got a so-called break - not one. Nor do I know any band that did.

I achieved success honing my craft by traveling hundreds of thousands of miles and playing thousands of concerts.

No easy path

There is no cheap or easy path to long-term, fulfilling success. It takes brutally hard work, and the competition is fierce. Regardless of your chosen profession, you have to crave success or it will forever elude you.

There is no substitute for a work ethic. Having parents instilling this most basic capitalistic value in our young people is the foundation on which they will be prepared to achieve the American Dream and make America more competitive in the global marketplace.

Coupled with a work ethic, it is vital for young people to obtain a marketable vocational skill or advanced education.

On average, a high school graduate can expect to earn $1 million over his or her lifetime. Those with a college degree can expect to earn $2 million.

The sky is the limit for young people with a work ethic and a skill or degree.

America needs an educated and motivated work force if we are to maintain our global economic supremacy.

Economists are predicting that China will eclipse America as the world's largest economy in the next 20 years. That's unacceptable and it is not inevitable. We have an obligation to future generations of Americans to ensure our economy leads the world.

Our economic supremacy is tied intrinsically to our other freedoms and our ability to positively influence international events and issues.

All of this is why I believe Labor Day is an anachronism. Created by labor unions over 100 years ago, Labor Day is a well-deserved day of celebration, but specifically achieves nothing to strengthen America for the future.

American Success Day

That's why I recommend adding to Labor Day an annual American Success Day.

American Success Day would be a day for Americans to plan for their futures instead of resting on their laurels. There is too much of that already.

It's time to change course and upgrade. We must look forward and plan ahead.

I envision American Success Day as a day where Americans could spend the day with vocational and college representatives, attend job fairs, speak with career counselors, talk with business and entrepreneurs about opening a small business, etc. Now, that would be a productive way to spend a day.

The American Dream is still alive and well, but turning a dream into reality requires a tremendous amount of dedication, commitment and hard work. It is the American Way.

Opinions? No, Just the Facts

by Ted Nugent

I admit right up front - I didn't graduate from college. I was too busy learning stuff, traveling the world, creating a firestorm of rock-'n'-roll R&B and seeing the way things are.

I fancy myself a human sponge for information, facts, data, wisdom and truth.

I am convinced that quality of life comes as a direct result of learning good over bad, smart over stupid, responsible over irresponsible, and the making of pragmatic decisions based on evidence to that effect.

Bottom line is, I am a rather humble guy, not cocky enough to pontificate on my "opinions," but rather examine information, cross-reference all that I can dig up and draw conclusions based on corroborating empirical evidence.

For example, I'm not foolish enough to play with fire, use tobacco, drink and drive, eat garbage like a pig, point guns at anything I'm not willing to destroy, commit crimes or play around with meth or crack.

I not only learn by my mistakes, but from those of others as well. The jury is not still out on the error of these ways. It's over rover.

So, as I kneel and pray each day for a stronger, better America, I find myself conducting more and more media interviews, speaking to a lot of youth groups and various schools across this great land.

I am astounded at the abject denial regarding certain self-evident truths, a denial that is a surefire recipe for serious injury, ruined lives, premature death and a dangerously susceptible America.

Convenient denial on any given subject will create an atmosphere of general denial where you can more easily pretend, for example, that smoking or chewing tobacco isn't really substance abuse and you can go right along killing yourself while charging others for your health care. Unbelievable.

Irrefutable list

So, here's a list of facts that may or may not be argued, but all are irrefutable, and the fact that an argument exists on any of them proves that fantasy is for fools who are more than happy to see America come to her knees.

* Water is wet. Venison is food. Tobacco use kills more Americans than anything. Drinking and driving is self-inflicted terrorism.

* God gave me the right to defend myself.

* Tofu production kills more living things than any other activity on earth.

* Paul McCartney took too much acid.

* Trapping bans don't work. Hunting bans don't work. Gun bans don't work. Gun-free zones are a recipe for innocent slaughter.

* Guns are harmless, inanimate objects.

* Pathetic people not willing to defend themselves cannot dictate such soulless policy upon those of us who know we must.

* American education fails to teach many children to read, write, spell, balance a checkbook or talk.

* The Internal Revenue Service is horrendously wasteful, unaccountable and unconstitutional.

* Dope destroys lives. Meth users are American terrorists.

* The No. 1 threat to a black American's life is a black American.

* Kids that don't do chores are a liability to family and America.

* People who don't care about their health don't deserve health care.

* Good is superior to evil. Smart is better than dumb. Activism is the duty of anyone claiming to be part of an experiment in self-government. A work ethic is far superior to laziness.

* Barbecued dead animals are perfect, natural and delicious.

* Love conquers hate. Patience teaches much more than immediate gratification. Clean is better than dirty.

* War is the answer against terror and evil. In WWII, America was the good guy, the Japanese and Nazis were the bad guys. You cannot negotiate with evil.

* The war on poverty is a joke. Pimps, whores and welfare brats are not legitimate job descriptions.

* Trees produce wood for many quality and proper uses.

* There are more deer, bear, mountain lion, geese, wild hogs and wild turkey in North America than at any time in recorded history.

* Child molesters cannot be fixed.

* The government gets more profit from gasoline taxes than the oil corporations do per gallon.

* Rock-'n'-roll is sexier than C&W. Guitars are cooler than keyboards.

* It's better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.

* People who can't speak clear English or mumble and carry themselves badly will have a hard time achieving the American Dream.

* Hippies stink.

* People who litter are rude pigs.

I think you get the picture. Obviously, this is a grossly incomplete list of some of the more obvious facts of life.

But if we are to honestly examine this sampling, you will see facts that are to this day disputed, all in the name of "feelgood" denial.

Against the Evil We Face, War is the Answer Seeing what Valor Looks Like, Knowing Cause is Just

by Ted Nugent

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Toby Keith and I stood at the bedside of Pfc. Todd Bolding of Central Texas.

We were far from home, having just landed via Blackhawk battle copter on the tarmac of Bondsteel U.S. Military Hospital in Germany.

Visiting with wounded heroes of the world's greatest warriors from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard and Marine Corps, we were deeply humbled - not only by the courage of these amazing men and women, but also by their commitment to get their shattered bodies repaired as soon as possible to "grab my rifle and get back to the front lines to fight with my buddies."

God bless America.

We spent two weeks with these heroes, hanging out, eating, shooting, talking and patrolling. We shared hunting and fishing stories and celebrated the American music that apparently bonded us.

Toby and I did our best to keep a stiff upper lip and a positive attitude as we emotionally dealt with such a sacred time with many warriors with life-threatening injuries. We were moved.

Most importantly, continually listening to people who claim to support the troops but condemn and even dismiss the war on terror, I was totally fortified in my confidence that the cause for which these men and women fight is without doubt just and proper.

You see, I'm just a guitar player. So instead of guessing or relying on uneducated emotion, I believe my opinion should be based on the best information I can find on any given subject - particularly when the subject is freedom and justice and those heroes willing to volunteer and possibly sacrifice their lives for such noble causes.

The last thing I want to do is improperly or irresponsibly misstate or misinform anyone in my statements to the media or in my writings.

So I put my heart and soul into digging as deep as I can, researching the facts to the best of my ability and finding those souls most dedicated to the truth.

Historical and current evidence scrutinized is surely a good basis for opinion, but nothing quite compares to information shared by actual hands-on combatants in the front lines of the war on terror.

I so respect these bright, incredibly sophisticated, gung-ho military professionals. They obviously put their hearts and souls into researching the post-9/11 world, so maybe, just maybe, their decision to volunteer stands to be more meaningful than the motives of some U.S.-bashing punk like Michael Moore and his ilk.

The intimate, inside dialogue these brave men and women have shared with me brings me to a single conclusion: The terrorists and those who support them in any way must be destroyed at all costs.

Peace and love and security are procured by killing those who would interfere with such quality of life, and that is exactly what the U.S. military heroes are doing.

Fighting the evil terrorists and tyrants who have held Muslims back to a life of slavery and misery, locked in the 17th century, clearly is the only hope we have to beat down the maniacal extremists who vow to destroy America and take innocent lives around the globe.

That is what our troops are doing where they are doing it, and most people are smart enough to see this.

With the horrific images of those planes flying into the twin towers and the Pentagon still fresh in our minds, we are not about to forget the depth of evil they represent.

Todd Bolding bled to death before my eyes.

I saluted many flag-draped coffins over there. I flew home with the flag draped coffin of Lt. Col. Eric McRae and communicated with his family to say thank you on behalf of all Americans.

I remember the Alamo. I remember D-Day. I remember Iwo Jima. I remember Pearl Harbor. I remember Auschwitz. I remember 9/11/01.

I remember Todd Bolding and all who gave everything so we can be free. I side with those who face the beast. They know best.

Punks in Black Robes, Courts of Corruption

by Ted Nugent, Texas Wildman

Sunday, August 12, 2007

The Los Angeles-area prosecuting attorney had heard, read and indicated he clearly understood the evidence: They had the wrong man.

Though the poor soul's last name was similar, the plaintiff testified he was not the father of her child. The blood DNA was determined to not be a match. The two had never met according to both of them.

The lead legal boss knew all this, yet when questioned, this is what the soulless puke said, looking squarely into the television camera:

"We realize there are some inconsistencies in this case, and the system has some flaws, but we must follow through and collect this back child support."

The TV interviewer, aghast, asked again, "Why would you hold a proven innocent man responsible for a crime that all your evidence exonerates him on all levels?"

The attorney repeated his zombie foolishness and insisted that the wrong man's wages must continue to be garnished.

The outrageous payments stolen from this innocent man, like everything else in so many bizarro cases, represent by no means anything resembling the cost of "supporting a child."

That it wasn't even his child, any amount would be illegal and corrupt. But amongst the brain-dead cult of the joke of the court legal whores, none of this mattered.

Not a single one of the judges, prosecutors or lawyers did a damned thing for this poor victim of a laughingstock of a "justice system."

I expected Hitler in a clown suit to step out and take credit for the whole joke. But no luck. Shame on them. Shame on us.

I hope all the legal-system punks reading this article who are guilty of this sort of insanity, wherever it takes place, feel real guilty, as you are lower than the dope- smoking scum hippies who gag in their own vomit.

You've let heartless, soulless abuse of obvious innocents go unchecked without lifting a toxic finger to do the right thing.

A prime indicator of America going down the drain can be found in courthouses across this country, where judges, prosecutors and herds of unethical lawyers stampede their anti-justice and illogic against good citizens and constitutional rights.

America's court system, in all too many instances, has about as much to do with justice as Charles Manson has to do with babysitting. The whole thing is going down the toilet fast.

Let's see if I have this right: A New York "judge," who, based on his actions, should be caged in a nuthouse, allowed another "judge" to sue a family-run dry cleaners for $54 million for mishandling his favorite pants. You heard that right.

Laughing, smiling reporters tell it like it's a funny story, no problem.

But the Korean family's dry cleaners has gone broke trying to keep up with the corrupt, wasteful, illogical, moronic court monkeys. Everybody thinks it's funny. No officials lift a hand to demand sense, logic or fair play here. God help us all.

These are high-positioned bottom feeders in our communities, my friends.

I pray there are some judges, prosecutors and lawyers who still have hearts and souls, ethics and morals, because there is a desperate need for some in-house cleaning and upgrade when this sort of nasty abuse goes unchecked by their own. (Does Michael Nifong ring any bells?)

The courts of America are supposed to be manned by professionals who show common sense, ethics, logic and a reasonable understanding of justice and the law.

We the people had better get our whistles out and send the punks packing before they ruin everything.

Ted Nugent is a Waco-based musician and television-show host.

Accidents vs. Negligence

by Ted Nugent

The 12 year old boy watched excitedly as his father, uncle and friends
fired off explosive rounds from the behemoth revolver. The .454 Casul
had earned an accurate reputation for being the ultimate magnum handgun
ever, eclipsing the mighty legendary Dirty Harry .44 magnum by
substantial foot pounds of energy. The Freedom's Arms single action
revolver had a legion of followers, and each and every one of the
firearm consumers bought this fine gun specifically for its well
publicized extreme power. It is not like anybody buying one or shooting
one could possibly be surprised by the incredibly loud bang and
mule-kicking recoil. That's what the whole thing was about and everybody
knew it.

But the young lad, taking a break from his beloved family dove hunting
annual, kept begging to touch a few rounds off from the cool handgun.
The big men in the group were sure having fun when the handsome gun
punched back hard into their hands, and much laughter and joyous
shooting celebration ensued. The adults continued to decline the boy's
repeated requests to shoot the gun, fearful of the violent recoil in a
youngster's small hands and fragile frame. But alas, the boy was an old
hand at gun fun, he'd fired his share of magnum loads from other
handguns, why not?

Why not indeed. With the writing on the proverbial wall, the heavy
handgun was handed to the young man, he thumbed back the hammer, took
aim, and rocked his world. It would be the last rocking he would do, for
the incredible kick of the gun jettisoned the revolver straight back
into his forehead, smashing his skull and killing him instantly. Whodathunk?

Idathunk, that's who! Like drinking and driving, smoking dope or crack,
manufacturing methamphetamine or trying to kiss a bucking bronco's butt,
wrapping your truck around a tree and killing innocent people,
destroying lives, blowing up your trailer and getting kicked in the
teeth are not accidents. These are examples of pure, stupid, predictable
negligence.

So called "accidents" resulting in serious injuries and more and more
deaths are increasing across America. Simple things like drowning in
bathtubs and swimming pools, tipping over pots of boiling water,
smashing vehicles into walls and each other while trying to drive and
talk on the cellphone at the same time, bicycling, and other such
disconnected, numbnut goofiness are all running amok. When it is all
said and done, it is a matter of people not paying attention really.
Simple as that. Who on God's good green earth doesn't know that drinking
and driving kills more Americans every week than the Taliban and Al
Qaeda combined? Who doesn't know that leaving young children unattended
at swimming pools and bathtubs is surefire tragedy? Who doesn't know
that cooking meth is insane? Who doesn't know this stuff? Skiing,
boating, surfing, camping, cutting the grass, painting the house,
everyday sports like basketball, football, baseball, hockey, even golf
are the most dangerous arenas of ever increasing "accidents". For the
record, the shooting sports, including hunting, have had the safest
years on record for the last 20 years or so. A person is much more
likely to be seriously injured or killed playing golf than when deer
hunting, where 100% of participants are armed with high powered
firearms, for example. Go figure.

I call it radar. Level of awareness. Focus. Good old paying attention.
Turn up the radar America. Accidents don't happen, they are caused. Be
careful out there. Live long and healthy. Think.

Cultivating Work Ethic is Vital for Children

by Ted Nugent, Texas Wildman

Sunday, July 22, 2007 - Waco Tribune

The New York journalist, and I use the term "journalist" generously, was attempting to take me to task for claiming that slovenliness and laziness are unnecessary choices anywhere, anytime, but especially in America.

I had just explained to him how, as a child of a lower middle-class family living on the outskirts of Detroit in the roaring 1950s, I got nothing unless I earned it.

We did without. We were frugal by design. You want a guitar, kid? Get a job. Or two.

I went into detail how my mother and father loved me and properly parented us kids in the most powerful and positive of ways by teaching us real-world self-esteem as something that only comes from genuine effort, sacrifice and intelligent, conscientious prioritization.

By age 12, I had two paper routes, washed cars, swept sidewalks and driveways, sold night crawlers, shoveled snow, raked leaves, cleaned eaves, painted fences, mowed lawns, trimmed hedges, cleaned windows and performed a myriad of other work duties beyond my routine household chores.

It was expected in my family. I took pride in earning my keep and contributing to the family asset column.

Plan B is for the Osbournes and Paris Hiltons of the chump world.

Sad, really.

The reporter scoffed that such opportunities were somehow not realistic in America, 2007.

With a smarmy sarcasm, he chuckled, "catching and selling night crawlers? Do you actually believe that is a realistic opportunity for kids today?"

Well, not if the little brats are catered to, cleaned up after and provided with every electronic gadget, superfluous clothing of trendy choice and bling-bling to choke a welfare goat without a hint of effort, no.

Such entrepreneurial creativity as mine certainly would be camouflaged by the feel-good fog of denial and cult of crybaby prima donna whiners. You know who they are.

God forbid little Johnny or Suzie might get his or her lily-white, manicured, dainty hands dirty. That might embarrass them and hurt their feelings and self-esteem.

I got news for ya, Bubba. Any kid who doesn't have daily chores has yet to feel honestly good about himself. Any parent so irresponsible as to fail to demand chores and a work ethic from young children is asking for trouble.

That parent is helping to create a spineless, tragically dependent America. I, for one, would like to thank you for nothing.

I look around me every day across this amazing country, and my eyes see more opportunities for creative, driven young Americans than one could possibly take advantage of.

I see trash everywhere that quality businesses would love to pay someone to clean up. I see filthy windows and unkempt yards that a few bucks here and there to a good, hardworking, responsible kid would go a long, long way to upgrade.

I see dirty cars, dilapidated fences, broken signs, burnt-out lights, wrecked kennels.

I see piles and piles of recyclable debris that a thoughtful person or small business would gladly pay for removal and recycling. I see it everywhere.

I keep hearing how illegal immigration is OK and even desirable but for the lie that "Americans refuse to do those jobs." Really?

If we reward people for sitting around picking their noses and twiddling their thumbs, it is no surprise that we have actually trained people to be dependent instead of productive, happy, fulfilled citizens.

Shame on us. Shame on them.

Digging ditches, picking crops and doing hard labor is not something to be avoided or ashamed of.

Just the opposite. Sitting around letting others take care of you is surely the worst, soulless condition known to mankind. It is clearly a self-inflicted form of slavery, and I don't like it.

Kids are desperately seeking action, challenge, guidance, prodding, discipline. (Haven't we heard this somewhere before?)

Don't cater to them. Don't pick up after them. Put them to work.

Teach them the wonderful sensation of productivity. Fan the flames of independence and teamwork while celebrating rugged individualism. They will love you for it, and it is your job. Make them do theirs.

The Summer of Love - The Eve of Destruction

by Ted Nugent

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the so-called Summer of Love.
Honest and intelligent people will remember it for what it really was:
The Eve of Destruction.

Forty years ago hordes of stoned, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San
Francisco to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which was the calling
card of LSD proponent Timothy Leary. Turned off by the work ethic and
productive American Dream values of their parents, hippies instead opted
for a cowardly, irresponsible lifestyle of random sex, life
destroying drugs and mostly soulless rock music that flourished in San
Francisco.

The Eve of Destruction climaxed with the Monterey Pop Festival which
included some truly virtuoso musical talents such as Jimi Hendrix and
Janis Joplin, both of whom would be dead due to drug abuses a couple of
years later. Other musical geniuses such as Jim Morrison and Mama
Cass would also be dead due to drugs within a few short years. The
bodies of chemical infested, braindead liberal deniers continue to stack
up like cordwood.

As a diehard musician, I terribly miss these very talented people who
squandered God's gifts in favor of poison and the joke of hip-ness. I
often wonder what musical peaks they could have climbed had they not
gagged to death on their own vomit. Their choice of dope over quality of
life, musical talent and meaningful relationships with loved ones can
only be categorized as despicably selfish.

I literally had to step over stoned, drooling fans, band mates and
concert promoters and staff to pursue my musical American Dream
throughout the 1960s and 1970s. I flushed more dope and cocaine down
backstage toilets than I care to remember. In utter frustration I was
even forced to punch my way through violent dopers on occasion. So much
for peace and love. The DEA should make me an honorary officer.

I was forced to fire band members and business associates due to
mindless, dangerous, illegal drug use. Clean and sober for fifty-nine
years, I am still rocking my brains out and approaching my 6,000
concert. Clean and sober is the real party.

Young people make mistakes. I've made my share, but none that involved
placing my life or the lives of others at risk because of dope. I saw
first-hand too many destroyed lives and wrecked families to ever want to
drool and vomit on myself and call that a good time. I put my heart and
soul into creating the best music I possibly could and I went hunting
instead. My dream continues with ferocity, thank you.

The 1960s, a generation that wanted to hold hands, give peace a chance,
smoke dope and change the world, changed it all right: for the worse.
America is still suffering the horrible consequences of hippies who
thought utopia could be found in joint and intentional disconnect.

A quick study of the social statistics before the 1960s and since the
1960s is quite telling. The rates of divorce, high school drop out, drug
use, abortion, sexual diseases, crime and exponential expansion of
government and taxes is dramatic. The "if it feels good, do it"
lifestyle born of the 1960s has proved to be destructive, deadly and
places America at a disadvantage in the global marketplace.

So now, 40 years later there are actually people who want to celebrate
the anniversary of the Eve of Destruction. Hippies are once again
descending on ultra liberal San Francisco, a city that once wanted to
give shopping carts to the homeless, to celebrate and try to remember
their dopey days of youth where so many of their musical heroes and
friends have long ago assumed room temperature in the name of "partying"
themselves to death. Nice.

While I salute and commend the political and cultural activism of the
1960s that fueled the civil rights movement, other than that the decade
is barren of any positive cultural or social impacts. Honest people will
call 1967 for what is truly was, the Eve of Destruction.

There is a saying that if you can remember the 1960s, you were not
there. I was there and remember the decade in vivid, ugly detail in all
its toxic underbelly excess because I was caught in the vortex of the
music revolution that was sweeping the country and because my radar was
fine tuned due to a clean and sober lifestyle.

Death due to drugs and the social carnage heaped upon America by hippies
is nothing to celebrate. That is a fool's game, but it is quite apparent
some burned out hippies never learn.

Conservatives feeling 'left' out

It appears the GOP's sold out base in quest for independent voters

I am not a Republican. I am a conservative.

Yes, Scarlet, even an over-the-top, uppity, defiant MotorCity MadMan guitar wrangler can be a real conservative. Get used to it.

Claiming to be a Republican signifies allegiance to a political party.

Being a conservative denotes a commitment to a self-evident, truth-based philosophy and disciplined lifestyle.

A conservative believes in and fights for limited government and individual rights to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In today's big-government juggernaut, it is truly progressive to be a conservative.

Conservatives are independent, rugged individuals who believe the "American Dream" is achieved through hard work, sacrifice and an unrelenting commitment to excellence.

We detest able-bodied bloodsuckers who live off the sweat equity of others by refusing to be equal to those who try harder.

The base of the Republican Party used to be composed of staunch conservatives who championed limited government. Though the Republican tent was large and accommodating, there was no room for people who did not, at a minimum, subscribe to limited government and lower, dare I say, fairer taxes.

In a quest to achieve political victories, the Republican Party seemingly has abandoned its conservative base in search of independent voters. Conservatives have quietly been marginalized by the Republican Party. Yet the Republican Party believes conservatives will rally around the Republican Party at the ballot box because conservatives have no other place to go - a mistaken assumption.

I speak to conservatives on a daily basis who are discouraged at the direction the country has taken under Republican control. These disgusted conservatives all sing the same heart-breaking blues song: "The Republican Party has squandered too many opportunities to promote conservative values."

American characteristics

America has a great government, but America did not become great because of its government. Increased government involvement and programs do not lead to more independence, freedom or opportunity. They result in fewer of these uniquely American characteristics.

Conservatives do not despise government but believe government has poured over its banks and flooded into all areas of our lives, businesses and social structures to the extent that we are drowning in government red tape.

Conservatives believe less government is best government. We have witnessed over the past 40 years how government intervention and social experiments to the tune of trillions of tax dollars have literally destroyed lives and entire communities.

Surely no one wants to drink from that poisoned well again. Government-controlled or mandated health care, anyone?

The political buzzword of the presidential primary is "change." Wouldn't it be enlightening and refreshing to hear the Republican candidates talk about conservative change?

How about a question to the candidates on what federal government programs and agencies could and should be eliminated?

How about a question on how they would reduce the overall size of the federal government by 25 percent during their presidency?

How about a question to the candidates about what they will do to expand individual freedom and liberty?

How about a question asking each of the candidates if he would define himself as a conservative or a Republican?

Liberals detest conservative values. Liberals believe more government is the answer to all our problems. When illogical liberal ideas fail as they do time and time again, liberals then champion even larger government programs.

Liberals are socialists - bloodsuckers looking for a free handout. "Never trust a liberal" is my mantra.

I am a conservative because the conservative philosophy drives people to be self-reliant, independent and hungry to achieve their "American Dream," whatever it may be, by being the best that they can be. That's the America I know and the America I want my great-grandchildren to know.

Stimulus Plan? Let's Try Economic Freedom

Sending us a check for a couple of hundred bucks is a pandering joke - an economic slap in our faces.

Hopefully you are smart enough to see through this economic smokescreen. Even if you spend all of the money - your money, by the way, coming back to you - it will do little if anything to improve the sagging economy.

Sending Americans a check is economic flash over substance. If our professional politicians really wanted to improve the economy, they would do a couple of key things.

* Cut the bloated, wasteful federal budget. Cut it by 10 percent or more over the next couple of years.

The blob-like federal government has grown to such a size that it is now eating itself with a $9 trillion debt and billions in deficits, smothering economic opportunity.

If you want real economic stimulus it cannot be accomplished until the federal beast is reined in and put on a diet.

Although I am no economist, this is so fundamental to improving our economy that I am surprised so few of the talking heads have discussed it as a means to improving the long-term American economic condition. I have always lived within my means, and my government should, too.

* Give small businesses tax relief. We must create incentives for small businesses to expand and hire more people. We could accomplished this by getting the onerous, unaccountable IRS off of individuals' backs.

Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. Strangling them with taxes and stacks of regulations, rules and requirements sucks the life out of our economy.

We must do whatever we can to assist small businesses and encourage them to grow.

Putting money back in Americans' pockets is a good idea only if the money is in the form of permanent tax cuts.

Keeping more of their money gives them more economic choices. Socialists and bloodsuckers aside, I have yet to meet an American who does not favor tax cuts and keeping more of his or her money.

Instead, the professional bureaucrats who run our government want to give you some of your money back in hopes that you spend it on blingbling, big-screen televisions and other indulgent garbage.

Even if everyone blew through the money, it would do little to prop up our economy.

Bailing water on the Titanic may have sounded like a good idea at the time, but you would have drowned anyway.

Robbing and spending our grandchildren's tax dollars today is a recipe for economic disaster. We cannot tax our way out of this economic mess without pushing the middle class further into the economic abyss.

The only way out of this is to grow our way out of it. That can be accomplished only by reducing the size of the federal beast, doing whatever we can to help instead of hindering small business, and giving all Americans permanent and meaningful tax cuts.

As the American presidential primary juggernaut roars down the political track, voters need to ask two key economic questions:

* Do I really believe that federally controlled health care will improve the quality of health care?

* Do I believe that more or less government intrusion is the right approach?

America remains an economic powerhouse. Our economy is four times that of China, but China, India and other burgeoning economies are nipping at our economic heels. If we continue down the path we are on, China's economy will eclipse our own by 2030. That's not good.

The foundation of freedom is economic freedom. You know far better than others how to spend your hard-earned money, how to invest it, and how to take care of your health. Vote for your economic freedom. The economic fate of our country is your hands.

Joys of musical adventure

Elvis has left, but inspiration still in building

My jaw was in the basement. Like every American with a TV set, I sat spellbound as this white dude gyrated on the Ed Sullivan stage, a firestorm of twanging electric guitars and ballistic rim shots from a thunder of drums.

His voice, so soulful, was able to translate the emotion of black music to the masses for the first time in musical history.

Elvis on TV ignited a brand new army of musicians that Sunday night in 1953. 1953!

Had Lewis and Clark even made it through the Northwest Passage by then? Seems a long, long time ago, doesn't it? It was.

History was being made before our very eyes and ears.

I've heard the same exaltation from the likes of Billy Joel, Steven Tyler, Billy Gibbons and nearly every musician who made the big time since then - how the authenticity and sincerity of Elvis, James Brown, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones inspired a tsunami of musical dreams to erupt with a passion and energy not duplicated since.

But inspiration does indeed continue to run strong - even in this age of digital technology, downloading and the negative mindlessness of hip hop and rap noise.

Great young talents

Now celebrating my 51st year of performing on yet another glorious, whirlwind tour, we have had the distinct pleasure of witnessing immense talent.

A fine young singer songwriter from good old Detroit, Alex Winston lights 'em up every night with an amazing, soulful vocal gift and touch, accelerated by a band of super musicians.

People are smiling and dancing up a storm to this dedicated young lady's music, and it warms the heart to see such pure passion and spirit in a new musician's performances, even though they endure incredible hardships and sacrifices to drive long, exhaustive miles between our concert dates.

Then there is the best new kid band in the world - a rag-tag band of youngsters from Tulsa, Okla., called Crooked X.

It's five guys, ages 13 through 15. Amazing, really. These underage whippersnappers play their guitars, bass and drums far beyond their years.

Performing old-school, Led Zeppelin-style rock, they put their hearts and souls into every performance. It is thrilling to watch their parents on the side of the stage every night, smiling, boogying and cheering on their kids. Reminds me of Ma Nuge, way back when. Nice kids, dedicated and hard-working. Sounds like the American Dream to me.

It takes an incredible work ethic to practice so diligently in order to make the kind of tight, disciplined music these new performers create. And the musical rewards are immeasurable.

Waco has no shortage of music stores that sell more than digital recording equipment to rip off other artists' efforts.

Drums, guitars, basses, keyboards, saxophones, trumpets - they are here to satisfy the exciting musical dreams of everyone. And we have talented, dedicated music teachers to get a dream jammer started right.

There's no Ed Sullivan on TV anymore, but the thrill of music is bubbling powerfully in someone's belly out there.

Look for it. Help discover this joyous lifestyle for you kids. Steer them to one of God's finest pursuits.

Music will cleanse the soul.

My wife of 19 years -- clearest evidence of supreme being

The result saved me from the violent seas of my American Dream cruise - my leaking, battered boat on the brink of capsizing and dumping me in uncharted, shark-infested waters.

Enter Shemane, a blonde-bomber radio babe, my Queen of the Forest. She would become my best hunting buddy, my soulmate. She would snag my floundering butt and steer me back on track.

Thank you, Lord. Good work.

Nineteen years, ladies and gentlemen. How bout that! Who says that goofball, out-of-control rock 'n' roll guitar players can't hold down the fort and maintain a meaningful, long-term marriage?

The evidence is irrefutable that in most cases they can't. But that glorious dream came true for this old boy.

This is a hard-core city girl who had never fired a gun or shot an arrow, never gutted a deer, never sat in a treestand. She had never witnessed the MotorCity Madman swing onto stage on a rope in nothing but a freshly killed loincloth.

We lovingly refer to our teaming up as her baptism by fire. Talk about culture shock. She still rolls her eyes when we reminisce. I'm surprised she didn't simply dial 9-1-1 back then and retreat to a safer, friendlier environment.

We fell in love rather quickly, then spontaneously got married in Reno, Nev.

Actor Kurt Russell was our best man. A covey of lovely Vegas dancegirls served as our maids of honor. Is that possible? Legal?

At any rate, the ceremony was moving. Nineteen years later, I can't keep my hands off of her.

Like all marriages, we have our ups and downs. She provides the ups. Me, the downs!

Her patience alone has guaranteed her a place in heaven. I learn how to be a better human being every day by watching her help others. The world is a better place for her spirit, goodwill, love and energy. As a mother, she's simply the best.

She claims she was most impressed with me by the fact that I was 100 percent clean and sober (sexy guitar playing and animal charm notwithstanding).

Rockies, here we come

So we will go skiing in the spectacular Colorado Rockies for our 19th anniversary. She is grace and beauty personified schushing down the snowy slopes. When she smiles that much, I am a very happy man.

I don't ski very well, so I will probably run up and down the mountains behind a pack of bellering hounds, chasing cougars with my trusty bow and arrow. At night we will snuggle by the fireplace, the flames flickering romance and happiness, with visions of another magical 19 years together.

When it is all said and done, marriage is about putting your heart and soul into loving each other, for better or worse, and bringing up your children with maximum love, guidance and inspiration. A team. Soulmates. Partners. Nineteen down, many more to go.

Happy anniversary, Baby. I love you.

Well, I turned 59 and (as you can see) I'm still rockin'

With luck, discipline my American Dream only gets better

Good Lord! I've made it to a tender, youth-defiant 59 years in this vivacious American Dream of mine so far.

Amazing, really, when one considers the adventurous gauntlet of danger and oftentimes sheer stupidity of my rather intense rock 'n' roll, bowhunting life.

Thank you, Lord, for taking good care of me when my guard was down.

I am one lucky SOB, I assure you. Hallelujah and pass the camouflage walker. I remain drunk on freedom.

It all started quite harmlessly, really.

Born before the mushroom clouds of WWII had fully dissipated, my timing couldn't have been better. Dad had just returned from killing Japanese and Nazi monsters, and the freedom secured by the Greatest Generation fueled an industrial revolution the likes of which no society had ever imagined.

Dreams were limited only by one's work ethic, energy, passion and entrepreneurial spirit.

Within that innovative spirit, Les Paul had just electrified the guitar, taking this heretofore background instrument and creating the ultimate weapon of mass construction for an uppity black dude from St. Louis, a one Mr. Chuck Berry, to unleash on an unsuspecting pedestrian society.

God help us all! Rock 'n' roll was born, and we have never looked back.

Like Les and Chuck, the world of wildlife conservation and sporting ethics had their own founding fathers in the great Fred Bear and Howard Hill, the pre-eminent archers and bowhunters of the day.

My dad was turned on by the mystical flight of the arrow. The Nugent family would be a part of the first wave of big game hunters with the stick and string, focusing on quality family time in the great outdoors, pursuing the exploding populations of majestic and ever-fascinating whitetail deer in our home state of Michigan.

Talk about never looking back. Guitars and bows and arrows! What a vision, what a dream, what a life.

From those first crude acoustic guitars that wouldn't tune up, and the earliest of hand-made longbows that gave me fits, my musical bowhunting life has remained on course and upgrading without detours or confusion for one hell of a run so far.

If ever there were a luckier young American, I know not who it may be. Moving along quite well for 59, I was still able to dance up a storm on stage for nearly 70 full-out rock-outs this summer, and my ridgerunning bowhunting season surely was the best of my life so far.

The music has more snarl and fire than ever, and I am sharing more venison with more Americans this season than I could have ever dreamed of harvesting back in the roaring '50s. That's 1950s, my friends. Prehistoric!

I owe it all to one simple guiding light: discipline.

With the strong arm of my dad ever looming, I was simply forced to make responsible, intelligent decisions during my formative years.

Once I left home after high school, I was extremely fortunate not to make too foolish of mistakes too often, so as not to end up in jail or dead.

Fortified with a militant disdain for drugs, alcohol, tobacco and all deadly, foolish behavior, I was better able to follow this clear, guiding light to a fuller, higher quality of life.

So on my 59th birthday, I say happy birthday to me, and say a prayer for my mom and dad, and all moms and dads who provide such loving discipline for their children.

For it is with this intelligent guidance that tomorrow's leaders and happy American Dreamers will provide a productive and positive atmosphere for a better America.

Happy birthday, Americans of 1948. Godspeed and carry on!

Happy Nuge Year '08: Here are some resolutions you shouldn't ignore

And I am here to tell you that it works. Growing up in a bowhunting family taught me early on that true happiness (and fresh venison) can best be accomplished with a gung-ho sense of aliveness, a higher level of awareness of everything around me, so as to better understand my cause and effect on my life and the lives of everyone and everything around me. The physics of spirituality.

As I continue to gather around very special hunting campfires with great people, facing yet another 12-month span of fun, hard work, adventure, adversity and the roller coaster ride of life's dynamo ups and downs in this Year of Our Lord 2008, I share with family, co-workers, friends and American BloodBrothers of every description and walk of life our ongoing list of how we must all do good anyway, and how we should always try to do and be better each day. Communication is key. Families should talk more.

* We all agree that personal health management is Job One in appreciation for God's miraculous gift of life. The very least we can do is take good care of ourselves. Eating healthy food in healthy quantities is so simple, it's stupid. Considering that everybody knows how deadly processed foods can be and that being overweight is a surefire recipe for serious health complications, this diet-conscious upgrade should be at the top of everybody's New Year's upgrade list. Do it.

* Another gimme is to rid our sacred temples of all known poisons. The elimination of all tobacco products would be a good place to start. I was smart enough to never start, but it is never too late to quit. Unless of course cancer is on your "To do" list. Clearly, this mindless indulgence is a horrible curse on mankind, a sickening waste in America, and we pray people will wake up for this simple upgrade in '08. There is no quality of life with tobacco. Period.

* Drinking and driving has never been a problem for me, as I think it was a New Year's resolution of mine back in 1965. Nonetheless, if we truly care enough to help save innocent lives in our communities, we must all do all we can to end this curse in America. We must all raise a constant hue and cry across the land, condemning this criminal waste of human life, sending out a strong, absolute message of virtual condemnation to those who drink and drive. Enough already.

* There are so many friendly, smiling faces everywhere I look across Texas, that it continues to amaze me when I experience rudeness and mean-spiritedness in my fellow Texans. Let us start by explaining politely to the ignorant amongst us that the left lane on American highways is for passing, not hanging out. A turn signal would be nice when turning, and an actual stop at a stop sign or red light would be quite the upgrade as well. And those white lines in parking lots are for parking between, not straddling.

* And speaking of waste, last time I checked, bottled water is more expensive than gasoline, yet everywhere I go I see these expensive bottles tossed out with plenty of costly water still in them. This is just plain weird and an indictment to how we fail to teach our kids a sense of value and conservation. Let us quit buying things and throwing them away.

* Nationalism. I vow to do all I can to encourage a love and respect for the greatest country in the world, the only experiment in self-government where "we the people" are in charge, not kings, tyrants, dictators, emperors or slave bosses. I will communicate everywhere I go how we should wake up every day and thank God we are Americans. Though we are not perfect, we are so far ahead of the rest of the world in individual freedoms and God-given rights that all Americans should stand proud and appreciative for this amazing American Dream.

Happy New Year, Texas. May your American-Texas Dream thrive and glow in 2008 like never before.

Gun-free slaughter zones

What helped cause the tragedy is the liberal dream known as "gun-free zones." Guns also weren't allowed at Columbine High School, Virginia Tech University, Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, and every other location where the wanton slaughter of unarmed, helpless victims is a virtual guarantee.

It is truly anti-American and downright bizarro that private property and business owners can deny (that is, "infringe" on) this "inalienable" right bestowed upon free men by our Creator.

Consider what happened last year at a Salt Lake City mall. An armed off-duty cop properly defied that mall's "gun-free" policy and thwarted a mass shooting that was about to unfold.

How dense must someone be to hide from this information? Denial runs deep in a growing population of "we the sheeple." For shame.

When did a nation of rugged individuals turn into helpless whiners, crying and running in fear from danger and evil?

When did we abandon our natural instinct to counterpunch and attack evil, overpowering it and neutralizing it into submission?

When were we forced to dial 9-1-1, wasting precious, decisive time, instead of doing the right thing and stopping bad guys ourselves? When did we trade in independence for dependency? It's pathetic.

Every day in this country, according to the Department of Justice and other studies, armed, law-abiding citizens stop dangerous, violent confrontations from escalating into death and tragedy simply by having a gun handy to provide real "equality" on the mean streets of America.

Dedicated cops will tell you that they can't possibly be there to protect us. By the time the police show up, many innocents will likely perish at the hands of evil while good people hang around hoping and praying.

I would highly recommend that we finally learn from all these senseless tragedies. Get real. Get rid of politicians who support gun-free slaughter zones. Get rid of gun-free zones. Get a gun, learn to use it and do the right thing.

Bad guys should be shot dead, not Christmas shoppers.

Blessed time to be a hunter

Even when we come up empty, we're fulfilled

For American hunters, these truly are the good old days.

There are better hunting areas than others, but for the most part, in my home states of Michigan and Texas, and in Alaska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Ohio, California, Colorado and elsewhere that I hunt, the big- and small-game hunting is nothing short of amazing, spellbinding.

I see more deer, elk, turkey, cougars, black bear and waterfowl than I have ever seen in more than 50 years of gung-ho hunting.

It truly takes my breath away. Wildlife management is a beautiful thing.

And I go for it. Back in 1973, performing more than 300 concerts a year started to hammer away on my physical and spiritual self. I couldn't stand driving into another sunrise with a glowing frost on the ground, watching truckloads of hunters unloading dogs and guns hitting the fields across America as I headed for my next concert.

It would mean turning down many thrilling rock-n-roll dream concerts with the world's greatest musicians and some substantial income that I truly needed back then. But for a not-so-smart guitar player, I somehow made the miraculous judgment call: I needed to hunt more than I needed to tour so much.

With that, my ultimate American Dream was upgraded to a level of joy beyond comprehension.

Now, it's half the year rocking maniacally, half the year hunting hard-core.

Perfect.

Beast unleashed

With that fateful decision in September, 1973, for me there'd be no more simply settling for opening days or occasional hunting weekends. The Nuge predator beast was unleashed. I have never looked back once. To the hunt!

Over the years, my hunting time has nearly been perfected to include nonstop daily hunting the months of September, October, November, December, January and February, every year, every day, every morning, every afternoon and many days all day.

Oh, dear God in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Hallelujah and pass the massive SpiritWild, my friends. This is it.

I write this from a blind from which fellow Xtremist bowhunting nut Randy Rifenburgh and I have waited out a beautiful rain storm, a solid four hours, with no game in sight.

We know that following a storm game could very well be up and moving now.

But I have been here for five days and Mrs. N needs Hubby home. Plus, I have some meetings with son Rocco's teachers and coaches, and it is time to hit the home hunting grounds.

I am not very good at being away from home following another, long, brutal, energy-sapping rock tour, so it is rare that I even leave home to hunt elsewhere these days.

Finally, we decide to head that way. But as I go I vow to return.

I shut down my laptop, gather my bow and backpack, climb out of the blind and hike the mile back to our truck.

The sky is opening up, temperature rising. Storms build intensity in our minds, visions of big bucks and intriguing sights and sounds flutter in our predator brains.

A covey of bobwhites erupts underfoot and we both swing imaginary shotguns on the exploding featherbombs, smiling a tooth, fang and claw smile as we make perfect air-gun doubles.

We smile and chuckle at each other.

Blood Brothers.

The Ten Step Backstrapper

by Ted Nugent

Like the good judge said, "Boy, ya gotta git your mind right." And that judgment will, as well, determine our hunting success more than all the equipment and technology in the world. A proper predator mindset is essential for an effective transition back to the wild and the elevated level of awareness necessary to connect with wildlife. Take that connection to the sensual extreme of up close and personal bowhunting range, and we have one hell of a challenge on our hands. And I love that part. A predator MINDSET is job one for the responsible hunter.

I'll never forget the horn to horn standoff with my first 6000 pound white rhinoceros, and the mental gymnastics I experienced before the shot. Make no mistake about it, the same thing happens everytime even with a whitetail deer, unless specific psychological preparations are made in advance. We are, afterall, deer hunting, in the deerwoods, during the deer season, with a deer license in our pocket, looking for a shot at a deer. This is no time to be surprised by a deer encounter. THINK DEER! Be ready.

Step number two is pivotal as well; LOCATION, location, location. A major joy in hunting has always been scouting that wild, getting to know the huntzone. We can't get venison where no deer live. Research and get to know your habitat. Go deep into the nastiest, thickest areas you can find. Be careful to use the wind so as not to be detected in your detective work.

Which brings us to move three. Part of the predator mindset is penetrating the game's balliwack without disturbing the area and contaminating it with human presence. The STEALTH we use in stalking actual game must be employed in sneaking into their cover too. If the wind is wrong, stay out. If the forest floor is real noisy, walk like a deer, stopping regularly. When we Say "harmonizing with nature", we mean fitting in. Go extra alert, slow and careful, and fit in.

Now that we got our mind right and we have determined where we will hunt, PROFICIENCY with our weapons is critical. Safety is job one, but marksmanship is the true joy of the shooting sports, both with firearms and archery gear. The only way to get really good is to shoot equipment that FEELS right. A lightweight, easy to shoot bow, and a comfortable, handy, properly fit firearm is imperative for accurate shot placement. Most bowhunters have too much poundage causing them to struggle under actual field conditions. Fifty pounds is plenty. Same with guns and caliber. A light recoiling .243 or shock absorbing semi-auto shotgun are easier to shoot and control for the average shooter. Arrow or bullet, shot placement is everything. Practice conscientiously and make every shot count. Killing game is a one shot proposition.

Step five, PATIENCE, plays an important role throughout. It is usually the hunter who gets into the field early and stays the latest who has the best stories to tell and the most steakage to share. The temptation to sleep a little longer and head back to camp a little earlier is powerful, especially as the weather turns sour. But perseverance is the mother of filled tags, and a commitment to dedication is the clincher. Set that alarm extra early, and make it a point to commit to a few all day vigils. You will not be disappointed.

All quality of life comes from an ELEVATED LEVEL OF AWARENESS, but none so critical as the hunt. Our fellow predators have an uncanny omniscience and seem to read the wind. We can do this too, if we concentrate and put our minds to an ultra focus out there. Binoculars and the electronic hearing aids on the market give us a little edge on the below average human handicaps we live with each day. Use them wisely and pick up on the subtleties that permeate the wild. Cleanse the mind of the concrete hellzone baggage, and feel Ma Nature's pulse. Sense the game before they sense you.

Being comfortable beyond the pavement is our ultimate goal. Being PREPARED will bring comfort and readiness. There should be no surprizes out there, because anything can happen, and we should know this. I monitor the weather and dress accordingly, plus I never head out without a fanny pack of simple survival gear. Basic 1st aid, compass, knife with sawblade, water, snacks, matches and firestarter, raingear, flashlight, ziplock plastic bags, some rope and lots of toilet paper. There you have it. Ma Nature, let's get it on.

PREPARATION is the key to a quality hunt, but follow up is equally important. Standing over a dead deer is no time to consider a butchering lesson. Before the hunt begins, think positive and study meat cutting charts and gutting instructions for proper field care of our prize. Gamy tasting meat is, in fact, simply poorly, irresponsibly mishandled flesh. Even a big old rutting swampbuck is delicious if gutted, cleaned, transported and cut properly. Literature on the subject abounds. Know it intimately. It's our responsibility.

Step number nine has evolved over time, as the modern world has created an environment unfriendly to wildlife. As members of the honorable hunt community, we have always had a deep and abiding respect, if not outright love, for allthings wild. As we absorb all the glory of our time afield, it is critical that we share these valuable environmental experiences with others in our lives. Literally become PROMOTERS of the wild by telling our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers and even strangers of the beauty and stimuli of our outings. Initiate the dialog of wildlife and its precious habitat. Equate the positive role of hunting to the balance and health of wildground as the source of our air, soil and water quality. Bring the vibrancy of our honorable hunting culture and heritage up in conversation and discussions. Initiate the dialog and project your passion, love and genuine concern for the health of allthings wild. Stand up for what you believe in, and go that extra step in actually sharing it in a more assertive manner.

The final step in ultimate hunting fulfillment can best be described as YUM! The succulent, delicious, healthy flesh that we occasionally bring home represents a tangible commodity to celebrate. We call it celebrating the flesh, because it is this protein that ultimately drives our predator instinct to survive. And ya can't live without food. So it may as well be the best food the planet has to offer. Learn how simple it is to properly prepare game for the table. It really is simple. Fieldcare is of utmost importance, keeping the meat clean and cold is essential. Cutting and butchering is easier than many may think, and this old guitarboy figured it out a longtime ago. Consult with a butcher friend and review the easy to follow diagrams in their literature.

You will find, as I always have, that the step by step procedures that are each and every properly pursued hunt, will provide untold joy, happiness, lessons, challenges, adventure, stimuli and ultimately food for the belly and the soul. A conscientious plan will maximize the feeling of fulfillment, and the Spirit of the Wild will glow inside and out. Afterall, quality of life comes from within the Good Mother Earth, within all of us, and within the hearts and souls of those who make that extra effort to be an asset to themselves, family, nature and America. Good hunting all. To witness The Nuge putting his experience into action, call TNUSA at 800-343-4868 and order the TED NUGENT SPIRIT OF THE WILD video series. Learn more and feel the spirit.

Skullduggery Artwork

by Ted Nugent

The ultimate connection with those resources that provide us so much stimuli, excitement, spirit and food, can be taken to the topmost level, by handling and creating our own memorable trophies. Like the original hunters, those native people's very lives being determined by their killing skills, we hold prey in high reverence. The drawings on cavewalls prove that these hunters, like today's counterparts, had great respect for the cunning, bravery, beauty and life sustaining qualities of these precious wildlife resources, and the challenging contest each hunt provided. Remember, in those prehistoric days of survival, caveman hunters did not have any leisure time, so the demanding endeavor of producing paints, stains and colors must have been extremely time consuming. To put forth this much effort beyond the daily demands of survival must have come from a deep and abiding love for the animals they hunted, killed, ate and then still took time to draw and paint. Modern taxidermy art is a natural progression manifesting this respect. I'm no professional taxidermist, but I get great inspiration and satisfaction from the SkullDuggery skull painting I have been doing for the last few years. Each stroke of color and creativity brings a return to the fascinating encounter that each animal gave me. And if I can do it, anybody can.

The first thing I do is be sure to cut the entire head off the animal that I wish to bleach and/or paint just below the head at the top of the neck. Be aware that most butchers will saw the skullplate off at the base of the antlers, thus eliminating the major skull section that we desire. Be sure to tell them not to! Since I butcher most of my own deer and big game, I take special pride in the personal handling of all the precious by-products of my kills.

I cut the head off and begin the meticulous task of skinning and fleshing the entire skull down to the minimal meat and bare bone. I will actually scrape the remaining flesh from the skullbone with the edge of my knife blade, but stopping short of taking off any actual skull material.

At this point, I boil a pot of water that the skull will fit into with the water level just below the base of the antler itself. I watch the bubbling water boiling to be certain the bubbles do not come into contact with the antler base. This boiling should last no more than one hour max, or the fragile skull bone could deteriorate quickly.

I let this cleaned skull air dry for a couple of hours, then spray the skull with a 40% hydrogen peroxide solution, completely drenching the skull, saturating the nooks, crannies and crevices to get thorough coverage. I take an old toothbrush and work the solution into every nook and cranny, every tiny depression and wrinkle. This again I air dry for an hour or so. Thorough examination of the teeth, eye sockets, joints and indentations is important, as any uncleaned flesh or debris could result in some stinking and rotting later on.

Though the bleached skulls of game animals are extremely handsome as is, it is at this stage that I hold the skull up to daylight, contemplating the colors and patterns that I envision for this particular animal. By recalling the encounter that brought us together, and the moving dynamic that culminates with the killing of another living thing, I can vividly relive the setting, wind direction, attitude and spirit that was uniquely ours, as the moment of truth unfolded between us. This dramatic participation that is the pureness of predator and prey relationship, is deeply stirring, and I am convinced that taking it to this final stage intensifies the hunting lifestyle to its ultimate completion. The excitement of each wildlife encounter, the challenge of getting the shot, right on through the natural use for feeding and clothing our families, is all very gratifying. But now, with the beast as an actual part of our being, we hold the memory in tangible, graphic vitality, right in our own hands, and offer up the ultimate prayer for the wildthings by exercising our creativity in the strokes of our paintbrush and fingers. The mind's eye comes to life at the tips of our fingers, and the beast lives again.

Any good hobby store can recommend the proper paint for skull material. A wide assortment of colors is available to allow for unlimited combinations and variations. Let your freak flag fly high and wild. I sometimes use paintbrushes, but mostly I paint with my fingertips, sometimes gently, and sometimes aggressively, flowing the spirits of nature into patterns and colors of my own imagination. It is highly personal, and you will get a gargantuan charge out of this experience. I do, and I know we are BloodBrothers connected by that same spirit of the wild. Hunt on. Kill on. Eat on. Paint on. Live on.

Bowhunting 101

by Ted Nugent

If hunters grew horns, the enthusiastic troop at my deer camp this opening weekend would be world record beasts. They verily glowed with attitude and excitement. I checked closely to make sure their feet were actually touching the ground. Some were, I think.

Everybody brought sacks of good food and not so good food. Bundles loaded with state of the art hunting clothing and supplies were hauled in and piled throughout the cabin. It was an orgy of spirit, sporting goods and weaponry. It was beautiful.

Quarters were assigned, gear stowed and a massive vat of venison chili was put to flame. Bowcases were unzipped, quivers attached, broadheads installed, and muscles limbered up amongst uproarious laughter and uppity conversation. 3-D targets were strategically placed along the woodline, and we had projectile liftoff. The mystical flight of the arrow and the moving celebration of the hunt was under way. Spirits soared and a tangible, organic attitude was alive in the bigwoods camp. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Then the boys started shooting. Some arrows zinged straight into the vitals of the deer target, where others flew wildly off their mark. But far worse than the actual accuracy of their target range marksmanship skills, was the total lack of archery form that some of my hunters displayed. If form was this inconsistent in the controlled conditions of casual range time, I cringed at the thought of hopelessly errant arrows under real bowhunting field world demands. Time for projectile upgrade.

Enter Doctor ArrowNuge. Now, I am by no stretch of the imagination, the world's greatest archer or bowhunter. But I have been blessed by hands-on direction and the teachings of those who are. My dad was a bowhunter way back in 1948 when I was born, and I shared invaluable time on the range and in the field with TopDog BossMan of allthings archery, Sir Fred Bear.

Like the dozen bowmen at my Michigan bowhunting opener camp, my observations of hundreds upon hundreds of fellow archers at camps around the world where I guide and outfit, have brought to my attention some serious mistakes and shortcomings. I know, because I have and continue to make them myself. These flaws must be addressed and fixed if we sporters are to ever experience a quality upgrade in our beloved archery. So I have decided to begin the TED NUGENT BOWHUNTING SCHOOL to pass on the satisfying results of expert advice and direction that I have been blessed with.

Though precise details of shooting form, equipment and psychological mindset will be analyzed and scrutinized under a microscope, hands-on, at our school, the majority of problems most archers have can be summarized by three basic headings.

#1-FORM-It is thrilling to watch old videos of Fred Bear and Howard Hill instinctively snap shooting cedar arrows from a semi-crouched stance, bowcanted on an angle, with astounding accuracy. BUT, with a modern compound bow, that style, in the majority of situations, just will not do. I do cant my compound bow on the same angle as my old bows, but I settle in for the shot, making a conscience effort to finish my draw with my back muscles before the release. A consistent anchor point and sight picture focus is essential for accuracy.

#2-EQUIPMENT THAT FITS-I am absolutely amazed at the bad advice some archers are getting. EVERY shooter I have seen with problems has too long a draw and much too heavy a draw weight. Our anchor point should be either at the front of the face or at the very longest, slightly aside the mouth. I like my release right up against my lips so the sight picture is forward of my eye above the arrow, in line with the target. And 50 pounds is plenty to kill any North American and most African big game. Enough of this macho gorilla he-man crap, grunting, groaning, yanking and heaving back the string already. Back it down boys. I shoot about 55# and my arrows pass through 90% of my deer, hogs, bear, moose, antelope, and caribou. Even tough draft horse sized zebra and giant eland. My two blade razorsharp broadheads make a marked difference too.

#3-MINDSET-The best research out there by ace NFAA coach Bernie Pellerite shows that somewhere around 90% of archers experience some form of target panic at one time or another. And for many archers, like me, we're talking serious, extremely frustrating target panic. Fred Bear had it. Myles Keller had it. Most world champion target, field and 3-D tournament shooters have felt the agonizing horror of flinching, freezing off target or the dreaded psycho buck fever. The only real remedy I know of is Bernie Pellerite's detox exorcism program, and it is a real bitch. My short term cure was to intensely concentrate and recite the sign of the cross along with my repetitiously imprinted shot sequence regimentation. If you can't absolutely lock onto target, look into Bernie's proven program. He can be reached to find out how to subconsciously release your best arrows ever, by calling 614-933-0011.

I book hunts all over the world to ultra quality operations, and now we are focusing on a specific bowhunting school twice a year on our SUNRIZE ACRES hunting ranch in Michigan. Three days of intense, personalized, hands-on bowhunting lessons from introductory to expert. Your full-on predatorship will come to life and your understanding of the close range, bow & arrow relationship with game and wild conditions for optimum killing efficiency will be realized. Our BloodBrother atmosphere and attitude will introduce you to this fascinating lifestyle, and you will learn more in these three days than could be expected in many year's worth of seasons. The set up is friendly and simple, and the campfires are special. Actual hunting and wildlife encounters are part of the program, and fun is virtually guaranteed. Bring your bow, attitude and spirit. The rest will come naturally.

If you feel there is more to archery and bowhunting than you are currently realizing, join us for this unique opportunity for upgrade.

For information on the TED NUGENT BOWHUNTING SCHOOL or to book a hunt with Ted, call SUNRIZE SAFARIS at 800-343-4868.

Tune-To-Know Your Weapon Is To Be The Weapon

by Ted Nugent

Bowtune, arrow tune, paper tune, timing adjustments, tiller, fiscmile, brace height, knock point, rest clearance, cam rollover timing, cable guard, front of the wall, back of the wall, peak valley, draw weight, arrow spine, balance, forward of center percentage, arrow oscillation, perimeter weighted cam, helical fletch, peep sight, anchor, feet per second, trajectory, kinetic energy, archers paradox. I wonder if Geronimo worried about such stuff with his circle of bowhunting friends. I know in 1955, my dad and brothers never talked about any of this, and we sure had the time of our lives flinging arrows every weekend. I've got about fifty animals on my wall that did not have a chronograph in their pockets as my cedar arrows came blazing out of my Bear, Wing and Pearson recurves and stickbows at a blistering 170 fps back then. We merely eyeballed our nocking position and arrow straightness. Sometimes we used twine for bowstrings. An arrowhead could be adjusted with a hammer. Our sights were matchsticks glued to the back of the bow. Our arrow rest was a calloused knuckle. Break a bowtip, whittle a new one. Break an arrow! No problem. Just whittle a new tip and don't draw quite so long. Ahh, to have it so simple again!

Well, listen up, techno breath, I'm here to tell you this ol guitar abusing, bow and arrow addicted dog is still living the simple, pure, FUN FUN FUN archery life, even more so today in my second fifty years. Sure, I know more now than when I was a punk kid, then just baptized by that ever lovin mystical flight of the natural wood, turkey feather fletched arrow. But quite honestly, it can be, and should be, the same archery now as it was then.

Having my share of technical complications afield in nearly 50 years of archery, to test my patience and near nonexistent technical skills, I am nonetheless confidant in my simple minded approach to high-tech compound bows and all the assorted accessories and considerations thereof. Hell, I shot the great Oneida bow for years, and still to this day, archers look at that mechanical wonder and recoil in fear of the cabled beast. Fear not my projectile addicted BloodBrothers, if ol uncle Ted can handle em, anybody can.

In actual practice, the unique looking Onieda, like all the other cabled bows on the market, is very simple to adjust, maintain, and customize to any shooters style or form. Like all manufacturers, the engineers at Onieda Labs are masters at their craft, and the brochure supplied with every bow by every company is detailed and easy to understand and follow. Me? I just had to knuckle down and admit that READING the damn brochure was the first and most important step! Clever of me, dontchya think! Like most males, we would rather guess at stuff and spend days and days making idiotic mistakes and fools of ourselves, versus simply READING the instructions and learning most of what we need to know in a matter of minutes, or at the most, a few hours. Old dog, new tricks, maybe. I have even learned to ask directions when I don't know how to get somewhere. Truly amazing. Don't wait till you're fifty, kids!

So I get my new bow home. Doesn't matter if it's a Browning, Martin, Bear, Jennings, Onieda, Darton, McPherson, PSE, Hoyt, Golden Eagle, Mathews, High Country, Pearson, Alpine, Diamond, Forge Flight, Fred Bear Bowhunting Equipment Company, Reflex or whichever. First I read the accompanying paperwork and examine my bow thoroughly, familiarizing myself with the components lick for lick, referencing the diagrams in the owner's manual for quick and easy understanding. There is very little difference in all the bows out there on the market these days. There are no bad bows, just some that are better than others for each of us individually. Be sure you try enough various makes and models, with recommendations by proshop experts you feel good about, to find the exact one that fits your style and form. Everybody's a little different, and like guns, trucks, cars, women, guitars and golfclubs, your weapon of choice must FIT. Did I say golfclubs! OUCH! Sorry.

Over the years, I have accumulated an array of sporting goods and equipment that is almost obscene. Go to any sporting event, double what is on display, and that is what I carry in my truck on any given day! I am disgusting. Just ask my wife. But I DO love hardware, and you can find me fondling it at anytime of the year. It is during these forever heavenly fondling sessions that I get to know my gear backwards and forwards, and I study it all with a passion. I take it apart and put it back together, almost properly most of the time. That has taught me a lot!

My approach to bow tuning is real simple. I can do it all without a bowpress, but I do have a good professional unit at my homeshop and a couple of portable rigs for my far away safaris, if needed. First off, I shoot in my new bow's string with a few hundred arrows, then I remove that string, coil it up and tie the ends to keep it from untwisting, and put it in my spare parts pack that will go with me everywhere I hunt. I then break in my new string and I am in business. I do the same thing with my complete cable harness system, just in case!

My string set up is the same as it's been for years. I like a heavy, 20 strand string made of state of the art ballistic material for long life and minimum stretch. I reinforce the serving with dental floss at each end and also where my release connects. One weird item that I like, unlike any other archer I have ever seen, is that I add 3 or 4 eliminator buttons, those small rubber bushings that go between the arrow's nock and the release's jaws. What that does, for this old instinctive archer, is bring the ear of the arrow closer to my eye, thereby elevating the tail end in these 1/4 inch increments, based upon whether I am shooting low or high. That, coupled with my third, lower plunger threaded rest hole optimizes my natural hand-eye coordination, as if I am actually shooting off my knuckle or the shelf of the bow as I did as a child with my original longbows. It is like pointing my finger.

"I customize the grip of my bows by building up the left side of the grip with soft, stretchy athletic wrap. this is to force my hand higher towards the shelf, because I still cant my bow on an angle like you see Fred Bear and so many old fashioned bare (no sights) bow shooters do."

I also customize the grip of my bows by building up the left side of the grip with soft, stretchy athletic wrap. This is to force my hand higher towards the shelf, because I still cant my bow on an angle like you see Fred Bear and so many old fashioned bare (no sights) bow shooters do. This canting of the bow turns the bow away from the eye and the arrow, effectively opening up the sight picture to the animal. All this adjusting comes naturally for my anchor point to remain solid, with the body of my trigger release firmly wedged into the corner of my mouth, exactly where my fingers go when I shoot fingers. It certainly is weird, but it works great for me. Since I don't use sights the vast majority of the time, I am able to still shoot instinctively, which I love. And I don't buy chicken!

Also, on each end of my bowstring, right up close to the end where it meets the cams or wheels of my compound, I add 6 to 8 more eliminator buttons, as these seem to quiet down my bow and add a bit of speed by adding a little weight to the end of the string travel upon release of the arrow. All you trained physical engineers out there may be laughing out of your seat right now claiming I'm out of my mind. But, hell, it IS my mind, aint it! Maybe this is all goofy, but there is no doubt it works for me.

Of course I install string silencers too. I like the cat whisker rubber jobs or tarantula felt strips placed about halfway between the serving and the ends.

For more silencing considerations, I either put on my EPS hearing protector/amplifiers, or I have someone who can hear real good, listen to my bow up close as I shoot, to help detect any squeaks, rubs, scrapes, rattles or any noise whatsoever. Then I go to town lubing, tightening, greasing, shimming, gasketing, or reinforcing to whatever degree I must to completely silence my bow. Us whitetail hunters know we cannot get away with ANY noise at all.

I take measurements and record them for future reference. I measure the tiller between the string and the limb face where it meets the riser, making sure the top and bottom are within a hair of each other. The brace height, or fiscmile, measured between the grip and the string, is noted and referenced with the manufacturers recommendation. And very important, keep the poundage down to a practical comfort level. Too many bowhunters overbow themselves. 50# is plenty. Make it smooth and graceful.

I visually examine the bow's cams in motion while drawing, either in a mirror, or while someone else is drawing, to be certain they roll over identically. Though most manufacturers have markings on their eccentric wheels or cams that are readily used for referencing, I add lines or dabs of white or silver to assist in identifying equal timing. It helps.

It helps immensely to be able to spend time with professional bowtechs to learn the ins and outs and various subtleties that only experience can teach. Bruce Cull and Scott Asse at Dakota Archery and Sports in Yankton, South Dakota, (800-658-3094) have taught me a lot. Get to know the pros in your home region. It is worth every penny to have them tune you up, and show you a few of the ropes along the way. I also study the writings of the best pros out there like Fred Bear, Jim Dougherty, Dave Holt, Bill Winke, Norb Mullaney, Emery Loiselle, Chuck Adams and many others that have answered my questions over the years. Seek out their magazine articles and books. Larry Wise's trio of self tune educational books, "TUNING & SILENCING YOUR BOWHUNTING SHOOTING SYSTEM" "TUNING YOUR COMPOUND BOW" 3rd edition, "TUNING AND SHOOTING YOUR 3-D BOW", (800-324-3337) are superb sources for information. You will learn it all. Then get to playing archery mechanic. It is mucho fun and actually increases the archery experience. An ounce of prevention... Knowledge is power... Practice makes perfect... When in doubt, whip it out.

Deer Camp

by Ted Nugent

The first thing me and my family and huntbuddies do each year, is flip wildly into the back pages of our new calendars to circle the 15th of November, the traditional opening day of Michigan's firearm deer season. At this point, the remainder of the 364 days fall into place. It is that exciting. All vacation time is nailed for life, to coincide with the rut and the opener. Priorities and enthusiasms. All souls should have them. Simple, really.

I haven't missed a huntseason in 50 years, myself. In fact, I've greeted a glowing opening day shooting light for 30 years straight now, and it is to that that I owe my sanity, good spirit, balance and health. Makes for some intense, flamethrowing rock-n-roll guitar jamming too. Nature heals, but deercamp is rocket fuel for the fires of life.

Deep in the bigwoods of the Manistee National Forest, inside our dreamy log cabin on the stunning springfed lake, Uncle John and dad sat near the roaring fireplace. Brothers Jeff and Johnny circled the small table with me, all cluttered with guns, ammo, maps, ramrods, cleaning fluid, gun oil and patches. Wet boots dried on the stoop, red and black wools were draped over the furniture, and an aromatic, bubbling vat of venison chili cooked on the woodstove. While discussing the attributes of pointed soft point bullets and debating the terminal ballistics of the '06 versus .300 Savage versus 7mm Mag versus the .270, morning ambush sites were evaluated and contemplated as if life itself depended on the outcome. Two brothers from one generation joined three from another for a timeless celebration of a primal urge, the likes of which cannot be equaled, except for maybe welcoming into the world a new family member or saying goodbye to a loved one.

The self evident truth bestowed upon us by the Creator, "the right to life" means, in it's most simple of terms, getting food, hands on, to a lot of us. But more important than sustenance for the gut, deercamp and the hunt provide spiritual protein for the soul. Something mystical occurs during the powerful natural season of harvest, and we hunters are irreversibly dedicated to participate, as natural a part of nature as the Northwind herself.

All the sporters I know cannot imagine not hunting. Though each outing surely re-creates, and the challenge of outwitting a crafty old buck certainly qualifies as sport, the gathering of the tribe is, in all its joy, serious business. As we gather under the spell of the campfire and the bonding, open dialog it inspires, there is no stress, no pain, no disease, no IRS, no Janet Reno. A calm settles all around, whilst at the same time, we are driven nuts by the intense anticipation of the encounter with the ever mystical symbol of allthings wild, his majesty the deer. Maybe, in our dreams, a really big, smart, huge racked beast.

I take my kids to all kinds of spectator sport events, skiing, the occasional movie, walking, to dinners, a little shopping, and have always been there for school activities. Those are all very important. But when at deercamp, a unified focus envelops the family unit, and a combination of individualism and team effort takes on a life of its own that epitomizes what should be, and is, family. Water is carried, wood is stacked, fires are stoked, food is prepared, dishes are washed and trash is handled. Little direction is needed, for the obvious cause and effect of life support function is clear and evident. Certainly a grand and easily grasped lesson in reality, all but missing in today's crazed and scattered household. Deercamp discipline is mostly self.

Like the intrinsic marksmanship, woodsmanship and stealth, that all important deercamp discipline has grown and stayed with me all my life, and literally saved me from the death march that took the lives of so many of my musician friends who lacked those basic lessons. As a father, I glow knowing that my kids are following a steady True North compass founded in fundamental nature lessons that are undeniable in the average deercamp setting.

Sure, we have had some sagging buckpoles over the years. And even more sparse ones. But if you could hang the trophies of love, respect, care, work ethic, spirit, heart and soul from a horizontal beam, the Nugent family pole would have crashed to the ground under extreme weight long ago. You see, I always took my kids hunting, so I've never had to hunt for my kids.

My three eldest mostly grown up now, I cherish the future of the tradition with my 9 year old son, Rocco Winchester. He has shown an excited drive to know wildlife and cultivate his marksmanship and woodslore. He has the eye and the touch. Every kid will respond to the call of nature if given but a small taste. That tiny seed, in many cases, will flourish into an out and out conservation mindset that will motivate them no end. I'm 51 now and crave it more than ever. As goes the quality of wildground to provide these deercamp experiences, so goes the source of our quality of life, for critter habitat is only as good as the air, soil and water quality it provides. That's quality of life any way you cut it.

Deercamp is powerful medicine. And its future is worth fighting for. The electric, romantic sensations derived from each day there should remind us to keep that spirit alive in between our huntseasons. Uncle John and dad are gone now. So are Fred, George, Whitey and Stan. But I can close my eyes, with only the stimulating flavor of the oakfire smoke to remind me, of the moving lessons they all taught me throughout our deercamps together. And I know I must do all I can to keep their spirit alive. I shall. I must. The smoke drifts up, southeast, gently across the lake, and I know that dad would have told me to hit the lee side of the white oak saddle. There I can catch the deer moving in from the northwest ridge on their way to the sawgrass marsh. I'll take Rocco there and we will not be alone. Deercamp comes alive on Wednesday this year. We will begin again. We are excited.

To join the Nugent Tribe at their exclusive deercamps across America and beyond, call SUNRIZE SAFARIS at 800-343-4868. Ted will guide you to a new spiritual high.

Inspire a Child

by Ted Nugent

My dad was a hunter when I was born in 1948. It was still a powerful, natural, common sense, American way of life back then. Dad really enjoyed his quiet, peaceful bowhunting time afield and made it a point to share it with his family. He had quit gun hunting by the time I was 10 because of a terrible firearm accident that almost killed him. Some dufus had touched off a round from his Winchester M94, 30-30 levergun, while unloading it in the back seat of a '52 Ford coupe, and nearly took my dad's head clean off. Another inch, and I would have been a single parent kid. Mindless, idiotic NEGLIGENCE is still the only way to be injured or die from a gun "accident". He stressed this to us, making it a point to clearly differentiate accidents from negligence. I thank him for that to this day.

But it was the adventure of our "Up North" family treks each fall that fanned the flames of my predatory and conservation spirit. The big woods of the North Country and the occasional sighting of all wildlife, small and big game, especially the majestic, always elusive whitetail deer, that brought me much adrenalin dumpage. Each sound, sight, smell and feeling beyond the pavement zinged straight into my heart and soul. I needed very little motivation from anyone or anything outside my own interests in animals and habitat. The woods, rivers, fields, and the wind called my name clearly.

Growing up along the wildground of the River Rouge outside Detroit, my fascination with wildlife and hunting was something that could not be defused. I was hooked. Something about the dynamic of each critter encounter that drove me wild. The fact that my dad was already experimenting with this brand new bowhunting concept was just an added kicker. My river stalking days with slingshot and bow and arrow imprinted deeply into my psyche from day one, and between my dad, uncles John and Dick, and Fred Bear, I had all the role modeling a kid could ask for.

It is interesting to note, that my brothers Jeff and John, and younger sister Kathy, though a part of every hunting trip and outing, showed no more than a passing interest in the sport. We all had grand times together, learning about family camplife and nature lessons. But they could, quite frankly, take it or leave it. Meanwhile, I breathed every breath for a plunge into the wild at every opportunity. Everyday after school, while the other kids were playing ballsports, tag, hide-n-seek or so many other normal kid's games, I was stalking the riverbanks trying to get close to pheasant, quail, ducks, squirrels, possum, coons, skunks, rabbits, and all sorts of birds and other wildlife. There was a marshy area at the riverbend we called Skunk Hollow. I knew every wonderful mucky inch of the place.

So what is the difference between one kid and another, when all experiences might be basically the same, that drives one to hunt but not the other? Many moms and dads across the country have asked me how to get their kids into hunting, and I can only tell them what my own experiences have shown. My best hunting buddies are my own two sons, 22 year old Toby and 9 year old Rocco. They accompany me on many outings, and we have shared many a powerful moment together seeking game. But there was no formula that I adhered to. Rather, it was a deeply thought out process along the way in order to optimize the chances that they would pursue this outdoor lifestyle with me, that has brought me so much enjoyment, excitement, happiness and gratification. All life comes from beyond the pavement, and our call to stewardship of these precious life giving renewable resources runs strong and deep. For if a father fails to bring these lessons of reality and elements of accountability into his family's life, what good has he accomplished?

Certainly, my exhilaration upon merely seeing game is contagious. I have made it a point to raise my family on wonderful, game rich wildground, thereby maximizing the sightings that can be shared and talked about together. The first word out of my kid's mouths has always been "deer", as they pointed out the window or along a trail together with mom and dad. Watching wildlife shows on TV together as a family and exploring easy access wildground as often as possible brings the dynamic of wildlife encounters to the forefront of children's young minds. As wildlife habitat faces the growing curse of development and destruction, these beyond the pavement areas for introduction are becoming harder and harder to find and access. This is why efforts and programs to save wildground are so important today. JOIN DU, RMEF, Pheasants Forever, Trout Unlimited, Quail Unlimited and any other organization you can afford. Habitat progress is job One!

Most importantly, I did not push my children to hunt. I always made it available to them, even gently prodding and encouraging them to join me everytime I went afield, but never to the point of force or pressure. I shared the thrills of each and every hunt in stories and photos, and made it a point to let them know every night at the dinner table, "you should have been there! It was really cool!"

Over the years, I tried to get them to join me on the easier maneuvers. Break them in gently. Comfortable temperatures and conditions were always more alluring than stormy, wet, cold and nasty mornings in the duckblind! But I did make it a point to let them experience the joys of ma nature's wrath as well. There is nothing more wonderful than coming back to a warm, cozy cabin or lodge or tent, wet, cold and beat, changing into fresh, dry clothes and sipping a steaming bowl of soup or chili around a roaring fireplace or campfire. That is heaven on earth and everybody enjoys it immensely. They always gaze into the fire and hear the call.

As my children grow up, they spend more and more time hunting with their dear old dad. Toby and I have a duck opener ritual that means the world to me. And Rocco and I sneak up the same ridge at daybreak every September 15th, opening day of squirrel season. Toby loves packing into elk camp, and the whole family looks forward to our annual African safari. I can't really enjoy a hunt for more than a week if my clan is not with me. I feel unfulfilled and I get homesick for them.

I read a story in the American Airlines AMERICAN WAY magazine here recently, about a successful executive's attempt to connect with his son by taking him on a hunting trip, much to the boy's protest. The old man ended up arguing with his son, hunting alone, then opting to take a big buck's photo instead of killing it, as if this merciful gesture would somehow bring he and his son closer. BALDERDASH! It was even clearly articulated in the story how overpopulated and destructive the deer were in northern Illinois, the scene of the episode, and the desperate and essential need to reduce the herd responsibly. It did fail miserably in detailing the truth about habitat needs and the fundamental function of man and beast, balancing their natural roles in the inescapable cycle of life and death. His "non-consumptive" gesture was denial in action.

Contrary to this politically correct pap, bold, honest lessons in life's cycle of reality will connect deeply with a young child. Be sure to read the wildlife reports from scientific publications and note relative observations when driving the highways. Watch the Discovery Channel nature specials together and never let fantasy or denial become acceptable. Show your love and passion for outdoor time, and it will be contagious. I see it all the time, not only with young boys, but equally with little girls too. Now that's a thrill!

If your kid spends more than 30 minutes a day in front of the TV set, watching programs or playing zombie inducing video games, you are asking for trouble. If you can't remember the last Saturday you took the family to a wild place, early and long, you are asking for trouble. If you can't talk with your kids because they have headphones glued to their ears, you are out of their loop, and may I dare say, a failing parent. If you don't have quality time discussing the little things in your lives together at the dinner table each night, you are missing out on one of the most powerful opportunities to connect that there is in life.

Hunting the fine State of Texas each year for many years, I have come to greatly appreciate their laws encouraging parents to take young children hunting. You see, Texas has the very best laws regarding minimum ages for hunting. THERE IS NO MINIMUM AGE! It is a proven fact, that if a child does not hunt by the time he is 9 or 10, it is unlikely that he or she ever will pursue an outdoor life. That is catastrophic. Every year in Texas, I meet families that enjoy hunting together with 4, 5 and 6 year olds, who kill deer with rifles at these young ages. No accidents. No injuries. No problems. With a custom fitted .223, 6mm or .243, these little whippersnappers take deer cleanly and regularly.

Just like the scientists and medical community now admit, responsible parenting begins in the womb. Nightly bedsongs, gentle readings, loving talk from both parents and siblings, forms a prebirth bond that will most certainly connect with this new life. It is never too early.

THERE IS NO GREATER RESPONSIBILITY THAN PARENTING! Period.

Immediately after birth, there is an initial explosion of brain synapses. Synaptic connections continue powerfully through adolescence, according to a recent study from the University of Chicago. The experts generally agree, that if this initial touch is lost or not fully taken advantage of, strong learning influences can be made up for later. Some areas of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, where higher thought, reasoning, judgment and motivation come from, will be best molded by a parent's loving touch throughout adolescence. BUT, a really good parent wouldn't miss out on any of these opportunities to provide the most positive conditions possible for their child.

And according to this old dad, it never stops. The time to share the excitement of the wild with your kids is NOW! The earlier, the better. The most meaningful impact will be made in their first five years. My mind burns with graphic excitement, envisioning my family's woodland walks, riverbank picnics, sunrize celebrations and wildlife encounters with bow and arrow or .22 rifle in hand. Be sure to make that extra effort to conduct those ever so valuable wild lessons out there beyond the pavement for the entire family as often as you can. Earmark special weekends. Pack a lunch and a camera. Go slow. Take it all in. Nature will do the rest.

Provide nature oriented toys and learning materials. Share your enthusiasm for the wild. If you are going to rent videos, rent quality hunting and wildlife tapes and watch along, reviewing the statements and content for details and better understanding.

Other reports show how children who have had little or no meaningful touch with mom and or dad, are much more likely to lead a life of crime, substance abuse, unfulfilled sadness, and usually a horrible, tragic early earth. To know the remedy for this tragedy, yet fail to respond, is the worse sin of mankind.

The young mind you help guide to TRUE NORTH now, will be the warrior for the wild, his or her entire life. I'll bet on it. And never let up.

With simple, good parenting, fueled by good old fashioned love and affection, you will develop the greatest hunting partner you could ever ask for. The wild needs the next generation, and the next generation needs the wild. Strong and free.

SO TAKE A YOUNGSTER INTO THE WILD AS SOON AND AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN. GET 'EM SHOOTING, EXPLORING AND THROBBING. NOW!

TED Tech-Tips

by Ted Nugent

Projectile Management Marxmanship-Mindset and Breathing Are The Key

The crosshairs of the 6X Leupold scope danced wildly all over the buck's body. My lungs were heaving, thumping my chest violently in and out with each strained snort-wheeze. It was not a giant, trophy buck by any stretch of the imagination, but I had run about three miles to circumvent the downwind woodlot in order to cut him off at the marshgrass pass, and I had made my mind up that this backstrapper would be mine! Now to put it altogether.

I lay in the wet grass, only my head and gun showing over the lip of the field ridge edge. With the 12 gauge shotgun as steady as it could be, my elbows formed a bipod for the long, 130 yard shot. He was staring straight at me through the glass, as if he could see the microscopic movement of my gun barrel and scope, plain as day. This only exasperated my nerves and I did not dare take off the safety. No shot yet.

But I remembered what dad and uncle John had taught me about trigger control and accuracy, as I sucked in a huge breath of cold morning air, snuggled my cheek firmly against the stock, and slowly whooshed it out through my open mouth. The safety tang "snicked" almost inaudibly, and about half way through my exhale, the duplex reticule slowed, then stopped, as if painted on the buck's backbone, directly over his shoulder. The Browning 12 roared and bucked as if on its own. I yanked the deergun down out of recoil to see him take the full impact of the 1 ounce slug square through the shoulderblade, faltering back, just as I heard the KerWHOOOMP of the lead pumpkinball connect with 170 pounds of dense muscle, bone and sinew. The buck danced the dance of death in a ragged 30 foot semicircle, and fell over sideways with a ceremonial, four-hoofed salute to the heavens. YeeHaaa! Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

The green hull still smoked as I pocketed it, and I shoved another live round into my fiveshot magazine for full battery condition one. My walk to the animal counted 131 steps, which I have come to calibrate as about a yard each. A longer shot for a shotgun, but easily within certain range for intensely practiced scoped and rifled barreled, sabot loaded projectile shotgun marksmanship. From a benchrest, bipod and sandbags, I knew this gun could shoot amazingly tight cloverleafed groups out to 200 yards, IF I could do my part. My part, of course, is disciplining myself to PRACTICE diligently at ALL ranges I wished to kill game cleanly at, and thoroughly test the various makes and loads of slugs and bullets available for optimum performance. The days of shotgun big game hunting with birdguns ought to be over, as far as I'm concerned. It is an exceptionally rare smoothbore that is capable of real field accuracy with solid ammo, and grossly irresponsible to think otherwise. Accountability is right up there with safety and the law!

The same basic principle applies to all "projectile management", really. Whether it's arrows from my bow, rocks and marbles out of my wristrocket slingshot, BB's from my Red Ryder, handguns, open sight rifles or scoped target guns, good marksmanship will only come with certain and intense disciplines. And it will all boil down to trigger\sear ignition on target. And that sight picture control will only come with controlled breathing. Breathing is good. Controlled breathing is best.

The good news is that sporters are spending more time than ever afield, enjoying all the shooting sports. We're spending more money too, with outdoor activities creating a flow of more than 61 BILLION dollars a year into the American economy in related spending. Studies prove that hunting creates more than $3,000,000 A DAY, all yearlong for conservation programs, like habitat rehabilitation (clean air, soil and water!) and wildlife reintroduction. Grandstuff. Mucho dinero, amigos! And mucho fun as a result.

I encourage everybody I know to get out for more casual, recreational shooting with family and friends. Especially NEW shooters. Every year at our Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids, I witness the effervescent glow from children from all walks of life, as they cultivate and test their marxmanship skills on the range. They love it! These recruited enthusiasts will make or break conservation efforts and gun right's progress in America, for we all know that the vast majority of conservation and 2nd Amendment support monies and education come from the shooting and hunting community. Celebrate hands on!

So get your "hands on" a gun or a bow. Get out to a target range or gravel pit. Set up some targets and let fly. Always practice ultra safety procedures and wear protection for eyes and ears whenever discharging a firearm, but take extra effort and discover the thrill of the accuracy challenge.

At my best, I'm an OK shot. On average, I shoot very average. But I'm getting better since I set out to specifically improve my shooting procedure. I try to make every shot count by getting my mind in "shoot mode", and it has really paid off. That first shot is always the most important shot, and a simple repetitious regimen will make all the difference in the world.

My first decision was to shoot more often, thereby getting to know the feel of each weapon intimately. Every arm, every trigger, every bow has a unique touch, and we must know exactly when the moment of ignition\release occurs. Oftentimes, at the range, under strict safety supervision, I line up my gun or bow for the shot, then close my eyes just before I fire, so the "feel" at the moment of discharge is burned into my memory bank. This must be done over, and over and over again so it becomes second nature. The old saying, "Beware the man with one gun" is very true and accurate, because it means he KNOWS the gun intimately, and is therefor ultimately effective with it. That should be our goal. Of course, I want to know all 200 of my guns intimately.

Shooting is athletic challenge at its finest. Be it gun or bow, new or old, take a friend or family member, especially a youngster, out shooting at the very next opportunity. My son glows whenever we spend quality shooting time together at the range or in the field. Every kid is fascinated by guns, and if we don't train them properly, the alternatives are not very pretty. Make it a prime goal to introduce a newcomer to shooting, for as we assist in their baptism by projectile, we will discover that our guidance will remind us that we have knowledge and good ideas, we just have to think them, speak them, and then implement them into our own shooting regimen. Upgrade will come overnight. Life will be a series of bullseyes and backstraps. Who could ask for more?

SO YA WANNA BE A GUITARBOY, DO YA?

by Ted Nugent

Gunga was all smiles. Here in the opening era of the Dawn of Man Day One party, he had just executed a day of ultimate human infamy. He was still too stupid to know why, but his instincts were on fire with joy and self-gratification, for this primal Caveman, (or is it Craveman?) had just pulled off the triple crown of pure independence and survival, and was driven to celebrate in the most dynamic way possible. In a single day, he had killed an enemy attacker, slit the throat of a huge, meat infested Irish Elk, and consummated the thrilling day with a good breeding slam with one of his prettiest wives. The poor guy was about to come unglued. Decompression was immanent, and if he didn't dump some steam quick, the Great Spirit may just take him. The standard ritualistic naked dancing round the fire was getting old, and he sought deeper fulfillment. He grabbed his bow and arrows, and began to thrust these sacred weapons high overhead, doing his best to reproduce the emotional screams of the Sabertoothed tiger at a kill. Aggressively plucking the string of his bow and bashing the stretched hide of a recent kill brought forth a wonderful twanging noise and thumping sound that caused all the other Neanderthals to perk up and join in the celebratory dancefest. SoulMusic was born, and somewhere in the primordial goop of the future, a MotorCity MadMan awaited his turn.

Kill critter, add fire, ingest sacred protein fuel for the soul. Theres your damn recipe for ultra guitarnoize kidz. Hell, that's the ultimate recipe for excellence and quality of life no matter what the chosen American (or any) Dream. Even welding. No fat, no bullshit, all pure rocketfuel for the predator spirit. Now I know you think I have confused the outline for introductory guitar lessons with my favorite recipe for good BBQ, but don't jump to presumptuous conclusions my cityfied comrades. For if you truly dream of celebrating and projecting the soul of man and this mind dazzling experience of God's gift of life to its fullest through your creative juiceflow as flamed forth from your own electric guitar, then by no means underestimate the healing powers of nature and her mystical renewable flesh resources as your primary first step up to this humongous mountaintop party. The primal scream plummets to but an embarrassing feeble whimper if you think you can get there with peace, love and yogurt. Eat meat or buy a keyboard and take it to church. I'm dead serious when I rave about the amazing level of awareness upgrade that occurs when one discovers, cultivates and flexes an intense predator regimen. Think how much more honest, self sufficient, independent, and resourceful one must be to hunt his own food, versus hiring others to do it for ya! Think about that the next time you chomp down on a chicken or tuna salad. Am I saying ya can't play ultimate guitar unless you hunt? Yes, I am.

The spiritual erection lives. And the primal scream do erupt nonstop with teeth and hair and piss and gutpiles across attitude driven America, make no doubt. At www.tednugent.com TalkBack, my own little American Spirit electro-communication CampFire, I am pleased by all the glowing attitude and goodwill shared by so many workin-hard, playin-hard soulbrothers and BloodBrothers out there. Does the spirit good. With a firebreathing rock-n-roll career that defies gravity, I deeply appreciate the energized support from so many for so long. I'm glad I'm not the only maniac out here. Though most correspondence is clearly inspired by people's desperate need to return to nature as healer and get back to the land as conscientious, hands-on resource stewards spurned on by my passion for the great outdoor and hunting lifestyle, I do get my fair share of inquiries about my greazy ass R&B buttergritz infested Gibson Byrdland guitarnoize. I currently stand tall on the mountaintop of fatherhood as my American Dream throbs on teaching my own children the gratifying joys of musical creativity on the ultimate instrument of expression other than a 12 gauge riot shotgun, the mighty guitar, god of allthings R&B rock-n-roll. The Nuge stain is permanent, multi-generational and eternally progressive. The road less traveled has 22 frets. Ride Sally, ride! Within that spectrum is uncharted territory that no whites have dared. Go there, ASAP.

Step number one-let the cleansing begin. I firmly believe that as goes the body goes the spirit, and if I have to abuse my eyes by taking in another vulgar glob of obesity runnin amok in America, I think I'm gonna puke. If a person cannot manage their own body and soul better than the blubber infested pigs groveling the streets of this land, then how the hell are they gonna discover the musical beast within? I ask you! Unless of course you've settled for playing country or western licks only, one must upgrade their overall quality of life in order to grasp and ultimately project the positives that churn forth from the corresponding positive attitude of reasonable self-worth. There's that wonderful attitude word again. That's gonna keep resurfacing here, you watch.

First off you're gonna need adequate weapons of mass destruction, American made of course. I recommend Gibson, Epiphone, Heritage and Paul Reed Smith. They are wonderfully player friendly. A good amplifier like a vintage Fender or any of the Peaveys out there are great. But whatever you do, do not load up on a bunch of effect pedals, in fact, none at all for starters. A direct, simple, clean signal with a cable between the guitar and the amp will teach you much about how accurate your personal guitar touch is developing, versus the artificial impression delivered by such effect pedals. This no bullshit representation of your actual playing will go far as your own, personal musical visions begin to come on. Pedals and effects should augment one's inner sound display, not create it in spite of the player, and reliance on special effects can compromise the learning, development and creative process. Wait as long as you can.

Surround yourself with every black record you can find. Essentials include every record by Howling Wolf, Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly, James Brown, Wilson Picket, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Elvis Presley, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, all Motown recordings with The Funk Brothers on em, Link Ray, Lonnie Mack, the Ventures, Dick Dale & the Deltones, the first 5 albums by The Rolling Stones and The Beatles and the Yardbirds, the Jimi Hendrix collection, Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughn and all my records to see how to implement all this soulful & sexual outrage into concise guitar patterns and songs. Then eat, sleep, drive and shit with em all blaring into your skull as much as you can possibly stand it. Become one with the sonic beast.

Practice till ya puke. "I jammed everyday, I jammed everynight, I practiced till I knew all the licks. Now I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I don't know the meaning of quit." That little ditty is from "JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED" from my Ted Nugent album in 1975. I literally practiced my guitar for an hour plus everyday throughout high school, then more like three to four hours a day with the Amboy Dukes henceforth. I invented "TURN THAT DAMN THING DOWN!" Then turn it up. If you're pissing people off, you're on the right track. Carry on. This is a perfect time in life to truly determine who is and who is not your friend. Weenies will run for cover, while hearty adventurers of goodwill will stand with you and dance naked at your new electronic campfire, increasing the tribal stimuli needed to fan the flames of your musical outrage. Go wild at all costs.

Learn to play the basic rhythms of Honky Tonk, Boogie Woogie and all the Chuck Berry songs, focusing on the groove factor supreme. A soulful rendition of WILDTHING is good for ya. Play your guitar with an extremely open mind. Pick it gently, hard and harder. Discover the touch that brings out the best string vibration for the feel of the moment. Teach your body to direct your strumming/picking hand to flow in an uninhibited yet disciplined fluidity, eventually becoming a subconscious extension of your inner, dancing primality. Again, that's where the hunt lessons charge the soul and spirit. Think like a hunter caveman. (CRAVEMAN) Think primal. In fact, don't think it, live it. The physics of spirituality will take you there. Become the mystical flight of the arrow and the mystical flex of the pick, straight into the pumpstation of the beast. The beast is dead, long live the beast.

Live clean and strong. Drive the pitiful demons of shitty food, drugs, alcohol, tobacco and all trends and stupidity from your sacred temple. Eat smart, sleep sound, and have as much safe heterosexual sex as you can possibly arrange. The slower and more intimate the better. Fall in love over and over again and again. Celebrate the flesh by penetrating the spirit within. Know deeply the people in your life. Be extreme. Love extreme. Live extremely good. Extremely care. Dream extreme. Crave extreme. Listen to music that immediately snags your attention. Jam with it over and over again. Test you playing on your friends. Take thoughtful criticism to heart. Stand your ground. Let your spirit soar on the wings of an eagle. He's a proud bird of prey. Know him. Respect him. Find musicians who share an intense respect for quality of life. Avoid dirty, stoned, disconnected hippies and trendgeeks. If its not too late, do not get any body parts pierced or tattooed. Do not color your hair or get a fashionable haircut. Defy fashion. Defy allthings status quo. Concentrate on appreciating you as you are at your best. Celebrate your individualism and let it ring out of your hands through your instrument. Let the big dogs run. Push yourself beyond your normal limits. Challenge your threshold for pain and suffering. Let the music do the talking. Ask why about everything. Learn to despise allthings status quo. Challenge authority when your common sense meter says to. Believe in your first hunches. Listen to family and proven friends. Watch and get to know and understand wildlife and nature's forces. Shoot as many guns as you can. Master archery. Spend as much time as possible in storms. Climb a mountain. Scale a peak. Traverse a nasty swamp. Listen to the birds and insects. Spend time as high in trees as you can get. Sing with birds. Learn to call crows, ducks, geese, deer, turkeys and varmints. Eat wind and rain and snow. See how close you can get to animals. Ask yourself why you can't get closer. Get closer. Visit some children's and old folks' hospitals. Make them laugh and feel better. Pray to God for their happiness. Give them money and gifts. Go horseback riding. Spend the night in a forest. Share a campfire with people you care about. Challenge your elected officials. Challenge your apathetic friends. Drive fast. See how far you can run as fast as you can. Run faster and longer. Plant many trees. Study animals and animal parts. Catch a fish, kill it, clean it, cook it and eat it. Write down your thoughts and put them to music.

Live big. Channel it from your intellectually stimulated mind, through your heart into your guitar. Give a guitar to a kid. Jam hard. Look in the mirror and perfect that smile. Write a song called UNCLE TED JAMS MOJOR ASS. Send me a copy of your tape. Eat massive BBQ. Scare all whites. Take no shit. Watch and study BraveHeart, Shindlers List, Pearl Habor, Saving Private Ryan, The Battle of the Bulge, The Green Berets, Cool Hand Luke, Bullet, Deliverance and The Patriot over and over again and again. Be sure you know why we cannot go see concerts by Elvis Presley, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Mike Bloomfield, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Canned Heat, Jerry Garcia, Bon Scott, John Bilushi, and a whole slew of stupid deadguys. Avoid their deathmarch lifestyles at all costs. Celebrate quality of life, truth, reality, health, a higher level of awareness and the American Dream. Play guitar like ya mean it. Mean it. Spend maximum time around a fire with the ones you love. Celebrate the Spirit of The Wild daily.

The Nuge will tour Europe and North America again this summer. You can book a hunt with him through SUNRIZE SAFARIS. He has a new SpitFire CD out this spring titled, CRAVEMAN. His new book, "KILL IT & GRILL IT" from Regnery publishing is available at 517-750-9060 or at www.tednugent.com.

A Few Words From Ted

by Ted Nugent

As Shemane, Toby, Rocco & I produce & edit new TNSOTW shows each day, Sasha helps create our wonderful TNAO magazine, all preparing for the SHOCK & AWE NugeTour03, livin life to the fullest & being the best that we can be, we see a blazing sunset across the small swamp behind our temporary house as the blackmold horror unwravels at our mainhouse. Yet we smile broadly. The geese, cranes, ducks, turkeys, songbirds by the gazillions are raisin hell in a harmonious cacaphony of spirit soundtrack all around. many deer & turks move in & out of the treeline against the catails naturally as the final fiery shimmy bathes everything in positiv energy anew. It is indeed Gods natural season of renewal for mind, body, soul, earth, wind, fire, tooth, fang, claw & spirit. And for America too. Amazingly brave, supertuff men & women before us struggled like hell & built this equally glowing xperiment in self gvt we call America, & I feel good as we destroy another evil force in Iraq. We surely will have to deal with some more savagery at the hands of evil that still runs amok, but my heart soars on the wings of an eagle today. In our TV footage, we witness, many boys & girls, moms & dads, entire families celebrating with gusto the Spirit of the Wild American Dream. The fish will bite again. The beast will rize up from desperation. America wil thrive as our work ethic & goodwill conquer all in its path. IF we continue to fight the essential goodfight here at home, the sacrifices over there will not be wasted. STAND your ground my friends. As goes our God given rights to keep & bear arms & to hunt, fish & trap, goes the soul of all upgrade, education, welfare, justice &tax reform. Never giv up. Always do good anyway, everyway, everyday & the Spirit of America will follow. Godbless the American Dream. It floats on the raging rapids of the blood of our forefathers. Dont let it stagnate. Kill the status quo everywhere. Carry on.

Miltary.com

by Ted Nugent

I have always admired the brave men & women of The US Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force & Coast Guard, but now more than ever, people are beginning to wake up to the the dynamic depth of your committment to honor, justice, freedom & the American Dream. There would be no American Dream if it were not for the sacrifices & heart & soul committment you all make in our name for our quality of life. We bow in respect to your dedication & courage. I take the truth to the world everyday that it is you, the warriors on the frontlines of conflict throughout history, that have saved innocent lives and made the world a better, safer place. Your higher level of awareness through diligent training to destroy evil wherever it may raise its ugly head, is deeply appreciated by those of us who live a good life in the shadow of your blood & guts. I drive myself to do radio & TV interviews everday of the year so that the war protestors & peacenix get a shot of reality. We are all aware that if not for you, these protestors would not have the freedom to protest, and for that, we salute you again. Believe me when I tell you, that the vast majority of good families in America stand heart to heart with you on your mission of good over evil, and we pray for your safety and swift return home to the land of the free & the home of the brave as soon as your life and death hard work is finished. May God be with you and may the devil be crushed underfoot as you march for peace on the skulls of our enemies, for goodwill, security and a quality of life that comes only with democracy, freewill and a thank you to God for these precious gifts. Godbless & Godspeed the warriors, your American BloodBrother, Ted Nugent & family.

HELPLESSNESS IS FOR WIMPS AND DEADGUYZ

by Ted Nugent

With all the yapping and hand wringing about Homeland Defense, I’m somewhat perplexed there hasn’t been more discussion about how average Americans can secure their country from terrorists, thugs and otherassorted human debris and scum. You heard it here first: homeland defense begins at home. It is each American’s responsibility to protect themselves and their families from those who want to perpetrate harm upon us. I could care less what the creep’s religious, political or ideological intentions are, or whether he simply wants to steal your Buick at gunpoint. A killer is a killer and they must be stopped. I pray the feds have the resources, intelligence, and commitment to exterminate terrorists around the world. I also pray the local cops have the same resources to lock up local punks who have instigated their own criminal jihad against law-abiding citizens. Pray as I might, I also adamantly believe each of us should be prepared to neutralize evil in its tracks whenever and wherever it may arize. Waiting for the feds or the cops to show up might be a death sentence - our death sentence. Crime reports, studies and honest cops will tell you that it is up to you to defend yourself and your loved ones against evil people. Fortunately, the majority of states allow their citizens to carry concealed weapons to do just that. Afterall, to be unarmed is to be helpless, and that's just irresponsible. Though the media won’t tell you this, law-abiding citizens use guns to thwart crime roughly two million times a year.

The media’s silence on these facts is condemnable. Instead of reporting the facts, the media whores engage in journalistic prostitution as it pertains to guns. They will 'report' or spin the story to meet their left-wing ideology that guns are evil, unnecessary instruments designed solely to kill other people. I’m sure two million people a year would beg to differ with the media’s overt dishonesty and unprofessional anti-gun agenda. The average American is much more likely to be the victim of a recidivistic punk who has a rap sheet a yard long than of a Muslim extremist. Therefore, it only stands to reason that we must be more vigilant to protect our homes and lives against the streetrats than the religious numbskulls who kill in the name of their evil gods. I’m not arguing that everyone run out and get a permit to carry a concealed weapon. First off, everyone is not going to do everything that makes sense all the time. Secondly, only those people who feel comfortable carrying a concealed weapon and who routinely practice with it should carry do so. There are literally millions of Americans who carry concealed weapons on a daily basis. The media has unabashedly tried to convince Americans that this practice is extremely dangerous, that ordinary Americans will shoot at each other in traffic, and that accidental shootings will far outway any benefit. Again, the media whores couldn’t be more wrong. The number of concealed carry permits that have been rescinded is literally minuscule, virtually a non-issue. There haven’t been shootouts between concealed carry holders as the media tried in vain to scare Americans into believing. Concealed carry permit holders haven’t shot the wrong guy. Concealed carry permit holders haven’t committed crimes. Instead, these conscientious Americans have made America a safer place to live, work and play. Isn’t that the goal of Homeland Defense? Americans need to be vigilant. We need to get to know our neighbors better. We need to become more involved in great programs such as Neighborhood Watch. We need to establish better relationships with our police departments. I support any effort that will truly assist in stopping the next terrorist or thug who wishes to bring harm to innocent, law-abiding Americans. I will never, however, support any effort that will make it easier for criminals to prey on innocent Americans because Sarah Brady doesn't believe in us to take care of ourselves. Homeland defense begins at home. There are millions of Americans each year that can attest to that. The heroic actions of these brave Americans need to be recognized, even celebrated, not hidden from the public view by the media, or worse, scorned. We have the legal right and a moral duty to protect our loved ones and ourselves. I don’t depend on anyone else for my family’s protection. That would be foolish, dangerous and cowardly. When I call 911 it will only be tell them to bring a dustpan and a broom. I shoot back, and depending on the circumstances, I’ll shoot first. You’re weird if you’ve got a problem with that. Good should live, evil should die. Make a stand America. Neutralize evil or get out of their way.

ANYWAY POEM

People quite often are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway!

If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway!

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway!

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway!

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway!

The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds. Think big anyway!

People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs. Fight for some underdogs anyway!

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway!

People really need help, but may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway!

Give the world the best you have and you might get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you've got anyway!

GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS YOU!

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by discouraging the rich. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves." -Abraham Lincoln

Perfect Circle

by Ted Nugent

As the goosebumps rippled across my flesh like an undulating swarm of buffalo stampeding the prairies, and the shorthairs on my neckback stood erect and quivering at full attention, my mind raced with the exploding anticipation for the moment of truth in my face. This handsome whitetail buck, glowing in the magictime of peakdawn firelight, was giving me his best show, teasing and tempting my inner soul, pushing my predator radar to the breaking point and stimulating the ringing earthtones all around. I had been watching him, celebrating him, for more than twenty intense minutes already, and it took everything I had to remain cool, calm and collected, knowing for certain, that if I came unglued, I would blow the shot for sure. The ever escalating encounter was more than enough to satisfy my cravings for the hunt, but there was something else going on here. My watery eyed gaze shifted from beast to shadows, from songbird to treeline, sucking in the beauty of everything around me as if my brain was cataloging every inch of landscape and air current, every breath and thought, color, shape, sound, feel and smell, a virtual feeding frenzy of sensuality. The crisp fall air brought every slight rustle of vegetation to my otherwise strained ears. My peripheral vision seemed to pick up nearly imperceptible movement off to each side far better than usual. I could smell the pungent gris gris of disrupted peatmoss with every cautious footfall the majestic creature took, and my spirit pumped a soulfood concoction of bellyaching adrenaline and hunger pangs for more. I was stoned on his beastness and all the dynamo of connected earth, wind, fire, tooth, fang and claw, time immemorial. This is how I get high. And I was soaring.

This stunning daybreak brought the realization that my hunting days were getting even more intense than I had previously expected could be. And that is saying a lot, for I do indeed crave every sacred moment beyond the pale pavement, weapon in hand, a joyous lifetime seeking pure flesh for my family's belly. There is no question that our pure survival instinct demands the killing of food, but my beloved hunt time was delivering much more than venison and mind boggling happiness from each encounter. Surely, the spiritual dimensions were growing more and more volatile with each outing, and my mind raced to keep up. My smile stretched to its fullest as I realized the beautiful deer was emerging from a puckerbrush thicket of dense autumn olive bushes, interspersed with scattered clumps of dwarf pinetrees and vetch that my greasy old rock-n-roll hands had planted here in this special place for more than 30 years. This ideal habitat we shared this wonderful morning didn't just happen to be there, for my inner sense of connection increased in velocity as I nodded in approval, celebrating the ultimate hands-on relationship with creation, heart to heart with the beast within the cover of trees and wild shrubs that I had personally plunged fistfirst into nostril flaring terra firma, together with my family, over many, many years. I knew this buck was here because he felt comfortable and safe, at home, in perfect edge habitat that I had provided specifically for my wildlife brothers. I felt total ga-ga, pleased, proud, fulfilled, cocky. So did the butterball eight point before me.

Maybe I shouldn't have planted so many bushes and trees here at the confluence of swamp and forest, for as closerange as the buck was, the tangled thicket we now shared protected him from any chance of an arrowshot. I peered into the scrub, desperate for an opening for the mystical flight of my arrow. But alas, not a prayer. I forced myself to breathe slower and easier, telling myself that I should just take this close, up and personal encounter as joy enough for one morning. Then, with the shiny glow of golden light shimmering off his tall, ivory tipped, mahogany antlers, he swung his huge head down into the lower branches of an autumn olive bush and began stripping the branches of juicy, red berries, thus bringing his heavy shoulder into clear view. Code red.

My bow already lifted into position, I held my breath and lazered my predator eyes into the life giving pumpstation zone of the beast, ignoring everything else. Beginning my little bowhunter prayer, I willed my arrow on its path. And before I knew it, white feathers were vanishing into that magical crease in his chest, directly behind his foreleg, and I knew the circle was complete. It was awesome. I was truly in awe of the perfection of our little dance of life and death here together. As he disappeared into the primal goop of our sacred marsh, I slowly leaned back in my tree, lifted my eyes to the heavens, let out a long, audible sigh, and simply closed my eyes and relaxed.

I sat there for quite awhile this morning, eyes closed, head back against the old gnarly oak, sponging omnisciently. I heard a pair of cock pheasants cackle back and forth to the north, a bobwhite quail sang somewhere below me. Squawking sandhill cranes raised hell in the distance, and a mesmerizing chorus of many different songbirds lit up the day. I concentrated on my sense of smell and snorted the welcome aromas of muck, autumn olive, sassafras and God knows what wonderful scents of the wild. I could actually taste the delicious natural world all around me. Come on baby light my fire.

The buck's trail was just as much fun as every other moment of the encounter. I took it slow and poked along methodically. I examined every track, splotch and splash of his sacred blood, and envisioned the tracks of history that I retraced here in perfect harmony with them. I gobbled it up. But it was the filling of my hands with the beast itself that drove me through the clouds. I just go nuts when I come upon a kill. It is a moment of spirited jubilation, celebrating a most difficult job well done. Intensified by the stunning appearance of the animal, taken to untold dimensions because of what each animal actually represents, I always find myself gushing almost uncontrollably at the scene of the last resting place. I count and recount the points of the antlers, rubbing them hard for goodluck. I lift the amazing beast every which way, examining the mystery of creation that I hold in my hands.

I sat there with him, my spirit feeding on his. As I lay in the wet sawgrass beside him, his bodyheat slowly diminished as mine increased, channeled directly into me, like an IV transfusion of new life itself.

As the season went on and these moving experiences grew in number and intensity, Tribe Nuge dined on the succulent flesh of this deer and many others, showing ultimate reverence for these gifts of renewable protein. Though we masticated with exuberance on the delicious meat, and the atmosphere is full-on partytime at every meal, the ritualistic Mardi Gras BBQ celebration is nothing less than a heartfelt prayer of thanx for all that these precious gifts have provided. I tell and retell the thrilling details of each hunt, and remind all of the importance of our annual spring tree and various plantings. Each bite of venison is that much better knowing how we played a partnership role in the quality for life for the animals that give us back so much. The equation of life calls upon each of us to tune in better as to how we can improve all life, all around. There is only one reasoning predator on planet earth. We've got a job to do, and when we do it properly, the dividends are unlimited. Good God almighty, does that ever make for a full tummy, mind, heart, body and soul, or what?

GOOFBALL FEVER-THE AGONY OF BLOWN SHOTS

by Ted Nugent

I went limp and dropped my head in disgust, nearly sobbing. The magnificent ten-point trophy whitetail beast bounded off into the distant jungle with my white arrow sticking out of his backstraps like an embarrassing antennae of stupidity. Or was that the middle finger of defeat waving good-bye to me? Ouch.

Twenty yards. When I miss a squirrel with my bow at twenty yards, I seldom miss by more than an inch or two, usually don't miss at all. How in God's goodname I could miss the entire football sized vitals on another huge chested buck by more than a foot at dumper range is one of my life's tragic not-so little mysteries. The actual missing isn't a mystery at all, really. It's the psychological hiccups that bring it about that mystifies me. Buck fever. Target panic. Nerves. Stress. Hyper tension. Lack of focus. Goofballitus. All the above. I was a wreck. I simply sat there torturing myself for blowing such a golden opportunity, a rare, much dreamed of gimme dumpshot gone with the wind yet again this season. Oh the humanity.

I want it too badly, that's what's goin on here. I'm much too intense for a whiteguy. My cravings for bowhunting have gotten completely out of hand. I've always enjoyed, actually celebrated my sacred time afield chasing critters with the bow and arrow, and for all the right reasons. The incredible demands of this ultra close-range sport are a discipline unto itself that tests the mental, physical and spiritual mettle in us all. The satisfaction of having overcome the landmine field of often overwhelming obstacles brings with it grand joys when it finally, painstakingly all comes together. The BBQ alone, is, of course, worth the price of admission.

I've got a list of the usual suspects when it comes to excuse making. Another long, grueling tour of outlando rock-n-roll insanity and the intense transition from rock idiot to calm, reasoning predator is a journey you can't imagine. There's no question I take on too many things in my adventurous life. My namesake kids camp charity, hundreds of articles for dozens of magazines, nonstop daily media interviews, producing our Spirit of the Wild TV show, the VH1 specials, charity events all the time, meetings at school, with politicians, NRA and GOA BOD, etc etc. Add to that a long list of unique complications in my life of late, and its no wonder I'm being eaten alive by the nerve wracking in-your-face time with the oh so anticipated bigger than average dream bucks. We've had serious health problems exacerbated by the loss of our home and belongings due to toxic mold infestation, which makes it that much worse all around. With the resultant lack of oxygen in the blood as a result of a destroyed immune system, and what we have here is a good old fashioned recipe for psyche hiccups. Intellectual blackouts. Brainfarts. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. Damn.

Kick that whole psycho cocktail up a notch with the added pressures of a video camera up my ass every time I go hunting, and it's amazing I can even pull my bow back without shooting myself in the foot. That "antennae buck" as we affectionately named him, was sadly only one of seven that had taken me to hell and back in the last two weeks. I couldn't handle it any more. I needed to escape. And the great escape was about to happen as I boarded a jet from our new home in Texas for the wonderful wilds of Michigan. Godbless the Winter, Water, Wonderland of my youth. Maybe my traditional home hunting grounds would calm my nerves and soothe my soul to help me return to the friendly comfortzone of good arrows again. I prayed hard.

Let me tell you about it. All my fellow arrow flingin BloodBrothers take note-there is hope. Never give up. Even as the big jumbo jet lowered its flaps for final descent into the Detroit airport, the blanket of fiery Earthtones covering the Midwest autumn colored land brought sighs of relief to the old guitarboy. It was beautiful and calming. The drive westward to the sacred huntswamp was increasingly revitalizing every mile of the way. By the time I slowly strolled down the ridge to my old familiar ravine treestand, I was a different man. The fact that none of my SpiritWild camera operators were available this evening removed any trace of pressure or stress. I was on my own and ready to rock with the wind. Slow and easy.

As I settled in and sat silently with bright, orange and golden leaves falling all around, I could taste the flavor of wellness entering my system. A cock pheasant sounded off behind me as a trio of squawking sandhill cranes soared overhead. Geese honked from one direction to the next, and squirrels scampered in celebration of the annual acorn orgy. I was joined by a foursome of fat raccoons when I first saw the dainty buttonbuck emerge from the cluster of autumn olive brush before me. Ahhhhh!.. Delicious.

Before I knew it, seven deer were browsing and doing the acorn boogie all around me. One huge old matriarch doe was bullying all the others. As she smacked a yearling doe hard with her cloven hoof, she gave me the perfect broadside lookaway pose, and I came to fulldraw, lazering a path into her pumpstation at fifteen yards.

My Renegade NugeBow came back silently and upon release, with nary a sound, my aluminum arrow streaked down and into the old she-deer's chest for a perfect pocket rocket shot. The curse was officially over. Now, mind you, I am more than aware of the psychological difference between a doe and a big old antlered buck beast, but the perfect arrow was what I was looking for, and I found it.

A short bloodtrail up and over the old orchard ridgeline brought me to the fallen deer and I was joyous. The transition was now complete, and I went on that week to perfectly arrow 2 dandy bucks and numerous does. I had entered the wonderful land of Ahhhhhhhhsssss!.. And it felt good.

Archery, and ultimately, bowhunting, is certainly a mental game. The mind must be clear and relaxed and basically empty of thought. Simply sending the arrow where it is supposed to go is what must take place for consistent accuracy. Especially under pressurized hunting conditions. And of course, the more antler, the more the pressure. The trick is to eliminate the sensation of any pressure. Shooting arrows where we want them to go is what it all boils down to, and a genuine effort to get to that calm spirit is job #1.

The sacred huntseason scorches on my friends, and most of my arrows are just what the good Hunt Doctor ordered. Being the uppity goofball that I am demands a daily meditation on my part to keep the excitable demons at bay. So far, so good. But I will never have seven setups in a row like the ones I blew earlier this fall. Let that be a lesson to me and anyone who has felt the torture themselves. Say a prayer for the wildthings and you calm down mister!

To join Ted Nugent on a hunting adventure of your own, contact SUNRIZE SAFARIS at 800-343-4868 or visit www.tednugent.com.

The Desouling of America Dribbles On

by Ted Nugent

I don't think anything really shocks Americans anymore. Not enough to actually do something about it at least. From finding babies in dumpsters to any other unimaginable acts of random depravity and violence, Americans have been exposed to the rotting, stinking, maggot-infested underbelly of our culture for so long that we've become desensitized to it. And our own spineless apathy is the shameless result.

That's why the name of Chante Jawan Mallard will soon become a footnote at best in our memories. Some other monster will soon eclipse her soulless, anti-human act with another unspeakable atrocity. And so on.

For those of you who have already filed Chante’s name in your criminal data bank that is already packed with the names of other murderers, child rapists, and assorted butchers and freaks, Chante is the woman who ran over Gregory Biggs and then left him to die in the windshield guilletine of her car parked in her garage instead of calling for help. It is generally agreed that Mr. Biggs could have lived had Chante done the right and phoned for medical help. But instead, comfortably numb on the victemless crime of drug abuse, she simply tuned out and doped off. Maybe this is the Planet of the Apes.

Hopefully you did not pay any heed to Ms. Mallard’s way too little way too late tears of sympathy when it was pronounced she was guilty of murder. She may be a teary-eyed monster, but she is a monster nonetheless. Though she may have physical human characteristics, she is anything but human.

In order to be a member of the human race one must have human characteristics beyond physical ones. Besides our intellect, a key characteristic that separates us from the animal kingdom is our ability to show compassion for our fellow man. To respond to our inner conscience. Monster Mallard did not show compassion when the opportunity to save another human being presented itself. Instead, she treated Mr. Biggs as if he were prey to play with. In fact, I read where she even reportedly joked at a party about running over Mr. Biggs. The party is over for Monster Mallard.

If the criminal justice system were effective it would do two things. First, it would punish the offender, and secondly it would send a message to other would-be monsters out there that punishment will be swift and severe. Quite often it fails to achieve either one.

Monster Mallard was sentenced to a half dozen decades for her crime, but she will not serve even half of these years. My money says she will be back on the street in less than fifteen years. If I’m right, that won’t be justice, but justice denied via the American justice system of recividism gone amok.

I believe Monster Mallard should be executed for her crime. I’m well aware that she didn’t intentionally run over Mr. Biggs. I wouldn’t execute her for that. What I would send her to the gas chamber for is her monstrous behavior that followed after she hit Mr. Biggs. Her mindless and heartless disassociation to mankind is her heinous crime for which she should pay with her life. Over the extended time period her victim suffered needlessly, she had to contemplate and rethink her actions over and over again and again, and therefor, premeditation is irrefutable. That is far wrose than animal behavior. it is simply evil to the core.

Instead of calling for medical help to save the life of Mr. Biggs, Monster Mallard let him bleed to death slowly and agonizingly, hacked, slice and painfully dismemebered in her windshield that she had intentionally hidden in her garage. She then planned out and intentionally dumped his lifeless body in a park as if he were nothing more than an inconvenient piece of garbage. It is for these cold, brutal, indifferent acts that she deserves the death penalty.

Somebody get a rope. We shouldn’t coddle monsters like Ms. Mallard. We should execute them and save the oxygen for people of decency.

To communicate directly with Ted Nugent, visit www.tednugent.com or call TNUSA at 800-343-4868.

WHAT I EXPECT FROM A HUNT

by Ted Nugent

I hunt because I am a hunter. A primal urge broils throughout my entire being, driving me to flex my ultimate independence through self sufficiency and rugged individualism. Killing the ultimate fresh, pure, natural healthfood for my family is job one for this American husband and father. Plus the invigorating challenge and discipline that is every hunt provides the most strengthening medicine for the soul. Before an arrow is loosed or a cartridge ignited, the spirit of the hunt feeds the inner being the most incendiary fuel known to man. I crave it all. I am CraveMan.

Since I could walk beyond the pavement, I've stumbled along, following my father and other great outdoorsmen, only to learn by trial and error the demanding and unforgiving ways of the wild. For more years than I wish to admit, I bumbled along like a citykid with two left legs and no radar whatsoever. I've come a long way baby. And since the American Dream is about being the very best that we can be, I've come to demand nothing short of the best from my own personal performance as a hunter. Since the rewards of each hunt will be determined by conscientious dedication, preparation and advance planning, I have come to demand this same measure of excellence from those I hunt with, particularly those commercial guides and outfitters that we pay our hard earned money and dedicate our ever so rare time available to, in order to maximize the positives of our sacred time afield. And believe you me, there are good, bad and ugly running wild out there when it comes to hunting operations. Some people simply cannot be trusted. Meanwhile, there are also the best of the best. It's just a matter of finding out who is who. If you think a successful hunt is a result of a higher level of awareness, it's also where we go and who with that makes or breaks that magic season.

And that is why many years ago I created Sunrize Safaris. So many people have witnessed me rave about the joys of my hunting lifestyle on radio, TV, stage and in print, that somehow I became the clearing house for many people interested in experiencing that dynamo of which I raved. Having been taken advantage of myself to my great consternation, I figured if a goofball guitar player can set up a hunt to run smoothly and successfully, why not demand that quality control from every hunting operation? Why not indeed. Demand away.

You will see Sunrize Safaris promote and advertise many different hunting outfits around the world that I personally have come to respect through hands-on experimentation. And because a man is no better than his reputation and word, I put the screws to these outfits to make sure my fellow hunters get exactly what is expected, promised and simply fair. No one can "guarantee" a kill, but with hard work, experience, and conscientious forethought, there is no reason that a paying hunter shouldn't expect maximum effort and honesty.

The basics can be guaranteed when it comes to warm, clean, dry accommodations, quality food and game rich hunting grounds. Proper stand setups are not rocketscience, and though conditions, wind, and weather can change things in a heartbeat, adaptability is also part of what we must expect from a professional outfitter and guide. Like a good U.S. Marine, hunters and guides must improvise, overcome and adapt. Semper Fi.

Let's take the basics of bowhunting. I would demand from my guide and outfitter the same effort I put into my own hunts and the hunts that I book and guide through Sunrize Safaris. Diligent, up to date advance scouting, properly chosen and concealed stand placement with prevailing winds in our favor. I want my treestand in a heavy, thick, natural silhouette breaking position where I can shoot off my left shoulder at undisturbed game. I want a shot within 20 yards at unalarmed critters. I want an approach route to my stand that will not alert or disturb wildlife. I don't mind walking, but not more than a mile from a vehicle, while at the same time, I don't want to be close to human activities unless of course it is a proven setup. I want knowledgeable assistants who know how to handle and process my game without spoilage to meat, hides and trophies. I expect a guide, vehicle and camp that are scent conscious, not reeking of smoke, fuel, aftershave or bait. I expect my guide to know the essentiality of stealth and quiet. I want to have fun, but I also know how important it is to get plenty of quality rest in order to be the most efficient predator I can be. I don't need any all night partying at camp. There is a time and place for that, and it sure as hell isn't at deer, bear or elk camp. I want quality food, fresh, well prepared and served hot in a clean environment. I'm all for rugged wilderness settings, but clean, well stocked and organized is beneficial to the overall experience and keeps us in top hunting condition.

Then there are legalities. Our research and references should determine without any doubt the comprehensive legal considerations required of us, our guide, outfitter and camp setup. Our guide must have all his licenses, permits, tags and all other legal requirements covered to a T. A call to regional wildlife agencies is important as well for a detailed scouring of the states' or regions' game laws for the year. Nothing ruins our sacred hunt more painfully than a cross with the law. Be prepared.

Do your homework, make it perfectly clear what you expect, ask as many hard questions as you can come up with, and don't be afraid to grill 'em before you commit. Forewarned is forearmed and let the buyer beware. Call Sunrize Safaris to discuss it with Paul Wilson. He is my personal representative for our hunts, and a perfect example of hardcore quality control.

Sunrize Safaris can be contacted at 800-343-4868 or tednugent.com.

SALUTE TO THE AMERICAN SPIRITWILD WARRIORS

by Ted Nugent

It is Thursday, May 27, 2004, and we are at 45,000 feet doing 606 MPH in a private G4 jet out of Las Vegas. And get this, this here ultra hi-roller aircraft is provided for our cushy and convenient USO air travel overseas by none other than the Heinz Foundation. You know, Mrs. Heinz Ketchup, as in Mrs. John Kerry, candidate for president of the United States of America. But amazingly, on board are Ted Nugent and Toby Keith, American Redneck #1 and #2, heading over to Europe and beyond with the USO to entertain, congratulate, inspire, salute, celebrate and thank the U.S. Military for safeguarding freedom and the American Dream around the world. Believe me, Toby and I have laughed heartily this morning at the irony of it all. I assure you, we do not support, nor do we like anything that John Kerry stands for, yet here we are, taking a message quite opposite his, straight into the belly-o-the-beast on behalf of all Americans who know that our military heroes are fighting evil over there so we don't have to fight evil over here. Sorry John, but to consult with the UN for the right to defend America is goofy. Ya think? Thanks for the jet.

All we wish to do is carry on the grand tradition of generous heroes of the USO before us. Men like Bob Hope, John Wayne, Wayne Newton, Bruce Willis, Robin Williams, Kid Rock, Toby Keith, and so many other American entertainers who put themselves in harms way to bring a touch of America to the soldiers at the frontlines of war. I salute those who have gone before me.

And what are the self-evident truths we will celebrate with the troops on the frontlines? A nearly unanimous alignment with the right to keep and bear arms, our right to self defense and the God given right to hunt, fish and trap our life sustaining renewable wildlife gifts from His creation, that's what. As I communicate daily with the brave military warriors of the U.S. Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard, I am constantly reminded how all of them instinctively understand that they are fighting for the uniquely American individual rights of self-defense and access to "we the people's" natural resources. Nearly all the soldiers I speak with hunt, fish, trap and own guns, and most emphatically, are willing to die for these precious freedoms. Now that's some monster heart and soul commitment I'd say. Let me put it in perspective for you. Iraqi citizens (slaves) are not allowed to own weapons or defend themselves. There is no hunting allowed outside the tyrant Hussein family. That's how it is outside America. There is no "we the people" squat outside America. No God-given "constitutional rights". No freedom. No liberty. But now that free men who have tasted such powerful natural freedoms are there to correct these outrageous injustices, there may be for the first time ever, a glimmer of hope for these children of God to finally experience life as it is meant to be.

Toby and I are admittedly a bit ragtag. Honest rebels with a damn cause. Like his uncle Ted, he's a huntin', fishin', shootin' outdoorsman "take no shit" kinda guy that stands up for what he believes in. He knows that to be politically correct is to be brain dead or just terminally dishonest. As we ceremoniously met at the Nellis Air Force base outside Las Vegas this morning, he was still reeling from a powerhouse night at the Country & Western Music Awards where he kicked maximum ass by walking out of the joint with Best Entertainer of the Year, Best Male Vocalist of the Year, Best CD of the Year and Best Video of the Year. It appears I'm on this jet with one bad TopDog mofo. (Fortunately, I once again walked away with Black Entertainer of The Year down at the local BBQ, so all is 'just' in the world.) After taking photos with the Air Force heroes this morning and shaking hands with the colonels, generals, majors and glowing brass of every description, our spirits soared as if on the wings of the F-15s, 16s and new F-22s jet fighters that we had gawked at all morning. It was a thrill that will cleanse the soul. Wildthing, you move me.

Now we head through Canada onto Kosovo, Italy, Germany, and straight into the hellzone of Iraq and Afghanistan. On an adventure I consider a voyage for freedom, it is intensely poignant to note the dialog with the Newfoundland airport refueling personnel. Comprised of Canadian civilians, government agents and professional law enforcement officials, to the man and woman it was clearly expressed that each of them were extremely frustrated, angered and outraged by their own government's refusal to trust them with firearms, particularly with handguns. They were deeply embarrassed by the offensiveness of the horrifically flawed and counterproductive C68 gunlaw that wasted astonishing amounts of money, manpower and human resources while having zero effect on reducing any crime whatsoever. They all envied America's constitution, and rightly so.

Upon arrival in the European theater, we will vigorously perform for the troops at bases, on battleships and aircraft carriers, in hospitals and in dangerous bunkers up close and personal with the men and women who live with incoming artillery barrages on a daily basis. My red, white and blue custom Gibson guitar will get quite the workout this week I'm sure. So might my Glock M20 that shares my belt with a few hundred spare rounds. Ya never know. But one thing I do know, this guitarboy will not be taken hostage, I assure you.

Arriving in Pristina, Kosovo early Friday, May 28, we were surrounded by American military heroes again. It was powerfully refreshing and encouraging to be in the presence of so many brave soldiers openly and proudly carrying machineguns. Gushing celebration of allthings American freedom were celebrated at the airbase, then we convoyed to Bondsteel Basecamp. Though the countryside was beautiful from the air, it was sadly down and dirty on our drive through the villages and farmlands. All of which proved that the voodoo goofballs had succeeded in devastating this once beautiful land as they always do. By the time that Milosevic was finally stopped from his demonic genocide of the Serbs, he and his modern day nazi numbnuts had proven once again that man is capable of the most horrific crimes against his fellow man in the name of religious hatred. The land and streets were destroyed and littered outrageously with trash. Of course that represents quite an improvement over the huge dams of human corpses by the hundreds of thousands blocking the rivers just a few years ago. The mass graves for the most part have been identified and the criminals are on trial in the International Court system. But I for one have very little hope any justice will transpire. Most things that involve the UN in any way are dismal categorical failures. Rwanda. Afghanistan. Iraqi food and cash for oil. Why we are a member of this corrupt, soulless gang is beyond me.

Meanwhile, the spirit and attitude of the U.S. troops was something to warm the hearts of even the most jaded amongst us. As Toby and I met with soldiers from all over America, it was intensely apparent that their grasp of duty was all encompassing and driven. It was truly an honor to pose for photos all day, day after day with these brave men and women, and I absorbed the ever escalating confidence that such commitment gushed forth. Godbless the warriors.

For our spiritual invigoration, the troops provided us nonstop fun cruising the countryside in intensely impressive Blackhawk helicopter maneuvers. At the weapons simulator training facility, Toby and his posse and I fired electronic functioning M16s and M9s at giant screens reenacting actual combat scenarios. We also trained with the simunitions weapons. It was a hoot for this old shootist, and I learned much from the masters. Detonating confiscated ordinance was a mushroom cloud of delight as well, when we leveled hillsides with pits of 200 and 300 pounds of landmines and artillery. Fire in the hole indeed.

We shook hands with every soldier on the base, signed autographs and basically celebrated the American Dream as they secured it for us. It seemed like every soldier I met had a family hunting story they were excited to share with me, and I signed an awful lot of deer, turkey, elk, fish and other big and small game photos. It was a camp full of hunters and fishermen and NRA members, that's for sure. It was a moving experience to witness up close and personal the dedication of these warriors. It did the soul good. Walking the streets of Vinnety with hardcore, dedicated soldiers, loaded to the teeth with m16s, M4s, M249s and an assortment of ready to rock weapons of choice, it was obvious as hell how imbecilic these Serbs and Albanians are. Hellbent on killing each other and burning down their homes and churches shows just how stupid mankind can be. With all their energy consumed with hate and retaliation, it is no wonder they have little running water, electricity, commerce or any quality of life whatsoever. Shameful really and downright moronic. There wasn't smile to be seen except for the passing U.S. military that brought the only semblance of security into their otherwise futile lives.

It was on Saturday evening, amongst a downpour of fresh spring rain that we jammed some all American rock-n-roll country for the troops. Toby Keith and his band got soul. I got to guitar it up on some Toby Keith masterpieces. When we performed his ultra patriotic songs like 'Angry American' and 'I'm An American Soldier', I thought the place would implode into the stratosphere. I'm proud to say, that they went just as nuts for my good old Motown classic 'Cat Scratch Fever' too. When I broke into 'The Star Spangled Banner', there wasn't a dry eye for miles and I let the emotion flow like a whitewater-falls of tears and patriotism. It was intensely moving.

Dawn, Sunday, May 30, 2004, once again, jetting off to Wurzburg, Germany, where the difficult task of visiting the wounded warriors at Landstuhl Hospital took its toll on us. With every fiber of spirit and positive energy, Toby and I went room to room, man to man, family to family, to thank those injured in the name of freedom for their amazing sacrifices. Some of the troops were unable to communicate with us due to the severity of their wounds. Twenty year old Private 1st class Todd Bodey of Texas was on life support with both legs blown off from a direct hit by an RPG, his young warrior body wrapped in bloody gauze, his entire being violently swollen with tubes running every which way. It took all my strength to keep from balling my eyes out. I held his shoulder and prayed for him as I looked upon his shattered life. We didn't think he would make it. I met the bravest of men this day, and I was humbled and stirred. Never forget the price of freedom.

Another moving day, Monday, May 31, 2004, was spent with the severely wounded at the military hospital where we met with brave troops arriving in various states of injury arrived regularly from the frontlines in Iraq. It both ripped the heart to shreds and fortified our sense of duty. Even those soldiers with limbs torn off were ready to grab a rifle and head back to their units to fight. I was humbled like I've seldom been humbled before. According to my personal observation and the comments of upper brass across the board, these fine young Americans are without a doubt the most prepared, hardcore, attentive, professional soldiers America has ever known. Godbless the warriors. Pray for the warriors.

After spending the entire day mingling with the troops and their families, Toby and I took the stage with his band and kranked out some energized American music. There is no question that this Toby Keith guy connects with these men and women. He is the real McCoy I assure you. His edgy country flavored music is propelled by an ace band of talented musicians, with a little more soul than I'd expect from a country band. They rocked. When Toby performed his hardcore patriotic tunes like, "Angry American", "The Taliban Song", "The Boot Song", and downhome masterpieces like "I Love This Bar", "Beer For My Horses" and "Weed With Willie", you could just tell that they represented a soundtrack of home for the troops. I was moved. I performed the entire set with them and had a riot. They did a rousing rendition of my own "Free For All", Cat Scratch Fever" and the classic "Route 66" with aplomb. The smiles on every face and the clenched fists of American spirit are bold affirmation of the connection we had. I thought the whole place would implode during and after my "Star Spangled Banner" blazeout. It was beautiful.

Tuesday June 1 had us airbound to Naples Italy for more of the same, and there was no sign whatsoever of any fatigue or drop in spirit. We were on a mission from God. With terrorist murdering 22 innocents in Saudi Arabia the day before, we were more than aware of the escalating dangers we faced. Four more American soldiers were killed in Iraq yesterday, and the resolve simply grew more intense. The fertilizer for freedom is blood of warriors.

The U.S. Navy base in Naples rocked and once again we were all deeply moved by the attitude and commitment of the sailors. Naples was filthy and strewn with mountains of garbage everywhere. Tiny, dilapidated, wrecked trailers were circled in dirt fields and bushes all along the highway, which was is a state of disaster, people burning stuff and hanging clotheslines between stunted trees. It was not a pretty picture at all. Only in American controlled environments was there any conscientious effort to keep things tidy, clean and organized with any sense of pride whatsoever. Even though we have no shortage of such soulless squalor in the States, over here it appears to be the norm. I expect it from a society with no constitution guaranteeing any God given individual liberties. I cannot, however, fail to mention that extraordinary meal we had at a downtown café. My tastebuds are still celebrating. Unfortunately, we were seriously warned over and over again the dangers of the Italian scourge of pickpocketing and bag snatching that runs rampant over here. There was a side of me that wished some fool would attempt such a deathwish with me and Toby Keith with our armed Navy security commando in tow. That would have been fun.

We are flying on Wednesday June 2, 2004 over the Mediterranean Sea past Athens, Tel Aviv, Beirut and Tehran, headed over Baghdad and Bahrain into Kuwait. The countryside is not unlike the Western U.S.; desolate, mountainous and big. We are directly over the most depraved, culturally bankrupt, evil tyrannies in history. So many citizens of these enslaved countries know nothing of excellence, freedom, hope or dare dream of the rewards of being the best that you can be. That is the root of all pain, suffering and wasted lives so prevalent in this part of the world. And remember, the hate and murder and oppression is all in the name of voodoo religious clowns and their evil control forever. That's what we are fighting to end here. God created all men to be free, to be able to choose their pursuit of happiness. The USA is simply, but with great sacrifice, trying to bring these oppressed people a wake up call to be "we the people" finally. It is their only hope.

Toby and his posse, manager, booking agent, personal assistant and record company friend, are constantly playing cards and whooping it up aboard the G4. If ever there were a gang of good ol American boys, it is Toby Keith and his huntin, fishin, all American shitkicker clan. I am extremely proud to be welcomed into their midst. We really have it made. We mess with no customs, no security clearance, no border guards, no screening and no bullshit. Our pilot and crew are exceptional, and it could not be a more cushy, easy going trip. The USO must have perfected a relationship with all U.S. powers of authority, because we are greazed to the max. I encourage everyone to make a donation to the USO to keep this pipeline of American Spirit flowing to the U.S. troops overseas. The glowing eyes and wide smiles and laughter are proof positive that it makes all the difference in the world. Godbless the USA and the USO.

It is 122 degrees in the desert as we land in Kuwait International Airport. Or at least it's remains. Battered and slammed by aerial bombardment, the place is blown to smithereens. It is fitting indeed that immediately upon deplaning, we join soldiers on the tarmac where we somberly partake in the most emotional task of loading the remains of America's bravest soldiers onto a C130 cargo plane for their last ride home. Killed serving their country and fighting for freedom, in their American flag draped coffins, the emotion is palpable and fortifying. This is war, make no doubt about it, and our baptism by fire serves us well, introducing each of us to the bad and ugly that so many good are trying to destroy.

We arrive at the PX on the American base, and I am impressed. Like everywhere else we travel overseas with the USO, there is an American zone that is 100% home. We sit down with soldiers at the PX, drink a fresh, hot StarBucks mocha, eat KFC and BS with friends from IL, WI, TX, MN, SD, CA, FL, ND, NE, IA, OH, PA, CT, NY, NJ, MA, SC, GA, AL, MS, AK, AZ, ID, UT, WA, OR, LA, NC, VT, NH, RI, ME, MT, WY, CO, NM, MI, VA, WV, OK, NV, HI, IN, AR, KY, TN, Germany, England, Norway and elsewhere. These soldiers know what they're doing and how to do it. They are straight ahead, upright warriors and leave me thankful such great men and women are willing to go the limit.

We made history tonight. In a tent in the middle of the war on terror, Toby Keith jammed out on "Great White Buffalo", "Free For All", "Cat Scratch Fever", "Stranglehold", and "Fred Bear". I jammed with him on "The Taliban Song", "Angry American", "Beer for My Horses", "Weed With Willie" and "American Soldier". Talkin bout bringin the house down! Toby is a class act and charismatically connects with the best of the best. We had 'em goin, bigtime! Heap a big powerful medicine.

In approaching unbreatheable oven air conditions, we boarded another huge C5 cargo plane, it was off to Afghanistan for more troop whoopin. We flew directly over the most dangerous areas in the world, wartorn and annihilated beyond description. Vicious firefights and mortar attacks occurred daily and this airspace was no stranger to ground or air missiles. It was intense. Picked up by a pair of double M60 equipped gunship Blackhawks, we hi-tailed it into Camp Phoenix for a night of revelry. Once again the U.S. military overcame untenable obstacles and created a suburb of America smack dab in the middle of hell. The food was good, clean water unlimited, hot showers, electricity, maximum spirit and no one was left wanting. We and the troops had the time of our lives. Godbless America.

Next stop was Kandahar, Afghanistan. What another hellhole. The air so brutally hot it seared the chest just to breathe. Why in God's goodname anyone would ever want to live under such grossly agonizing conditions is beyond belief. But here again were American GIs protecting the innocent from tyrants and gangsta rapists and murderers. Let's face it, the Taliban, Al Quaida, the whole numbnut terrorist bunch are nothing more than goofball gangbangers that never got stopped from maniacally controlling victims' lives, so went the full route to demonic corruptness. Now America has intervened to put an end to the injustice of it all. It is not unlike our forced end to the demonic Nazi regime and we must never let it go unchecked ever again. Godbless the warriors for freedom.

It's nearly 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and I am cooking welldone through and through. Off today to increasingly dangerous hellholes. Baghdad then on to Fallujah and beyond. Ambushes and mortar attacks continue in these regions, and everyone is on red alert. We wear bulletproof flackvests and are surrounded by the best infantrymen the world has ever known. Our convoy is a force to reckon with, and we can't imagine any terrorists penetrating the depth of fortification we are provided. That being said, my Glock 10mm and beltfull of spare mags has never felt more proper. The right to keep and bear arms has never been more obvious. And though a handgun of any kind is marginal at best in combat conditions, it along with long gun firepower gives a free man a fighting chance. My God it's hot.

I was able to get the goodword back home to tens of millions of Americans again today. I made cellcall updates of truth to the Lewis & Floorwax Denver and beyond show, Sean Hannity, Bob & Tom and numerous top radio stations around the country. It is good to see truth soar. It is good to get truth out. It is good to counterpunch the liars and idiots who pretend the crushing of Nazis and evil throughout history isn't relative. It's good to remind people that if warriors were not chasing down evil in Iraq and the Middle East, we would certainly be facing it at home again. It's good to remind people there is no plan B; John Kerry.

In a whirlwind blitzkrieg of performances, Toby and I kicked out the jams at Camp Phoenix in Afghanistan, Fallujah, Taji, then a triple whammy in Baghdad where we ended up spending the night in Saddam Hussein's son's palace. The decadence put Las Vegas to shame. The most lavishly pimpified furnishings and appointments a paroled madmam could ever dream for. We slept good, encouraged by the fact that the U.S. military had turned the once tyrannical murderers palace into a war room to destroy the rest of their demonic gangbangers left behind.

Toby and I were convoyed to the military shooting range where we got our Ya Ya's out shooting .308 and .50 cal sniper rifles. Toby is a great marxman, and we had a ballistic party Uncle Ted style. The troops were again the best hosts anyone could ever hope for.

We then met Republican Majority House Leader Bill Frist, Nevada Senator... and Bob ???? as they arrived into Baghdad, and had a brief roundtable with them about what we saw and thought about the war on terror. They seemed to get it and we can only hope they will stand with the warriors to never back down from these evil terrorists.

As poignant as it gets, our departure from Baghdad had us once again join the soldiers as we saluted warrior Eric McRae as his flag draped coffin was onloaded with us for the C130 trip to Kuwait and home. Like our baptism experience arriving into Iraq, this sealed the painful reality that is the war on terror. The chaplain's words reflected the power of sacrifice. Soldier Eric's life had been given to bring an upgrade of quality of life to the heretofore enslaved people of Iraq, and history will show that, as usual, America, though late again, was there when the chips were down. Freedom doesn't come free. Godbless the warriors. Do whatever you can, but by all means, do something as often as possible to show support for dogging evil.

THE GOMER AWARD-CONFESSIONS OF A MULTI-METHOD DEERHUNTER

by Ted Nugent

Bless me Gomer Bubba, for I have sinned. It has been about 46 years since my last confession. You see, my family craves the ultimate healthfood of our precious venison backstrap, plus I deeply value the sacred healing powers and soulful lessons of nature and all that spiritual discipline of the mighty hands-on conservation lifestyle of hunting. I put my heart and soul into being the best hunter I can be, and I follow the proven rules of engagement and those obvious self-evident truths of the pure tooth, fang and claw laws of nature's wild truth. But here is where I apparently have gone astray. You see, I have heard brown spittle saturated grumblings from a few unclean nutjobs out there who are so desperately trying to dictate what is quite clearly, sheer, illogical, over the top buffoonery to their fellow hunters. At first I thought it was just a dark comedy act auditioning for a spot with the Michael Jackson kids choir, but no one was laughing. Their typical holier than thou stupidity usually comes in the form of small minded, ultra-petty, lilly livered wanna-be's making idiotic accusations of unethical behavior by others from their make-believe insulated ivory towers of self anointed superior godliness. Did I mention ugh?

I hear variations of Bubba-bonics and through the talented efforts of specialized linguistical masters of foreign tongues, even voodoo tongues; we have translated some rare inbred cult of ego maniacs whose ignorance is eclipsed only by their hypocrisy. With fresh skanky turds in their lips, the ever present accompanying Styrofoam catch cup dripping toxic goo in hand, plus that always painful struggle to form cognitive thoughts and sentences, they claim that those of us who dare occasionally bait in deer for a hopeful effective kill must seek their holiness, exoneration and forgiveness. Fresh from the cult of stuffed shirt pomposity, this insane clown posse is prepared to condemn us lowly baiters from the elitist good old boy ranks of hunting, for how dare we lure in deer or other game into shooting range with actual bait? Unethical they squaller. Fairchase or nothing they pontificate. Eat me I respond.

So it is now, I whimper for forgiveness on bended knee, for I have committed many more atrocities against the great spirit of the beast. You see, heartless and dominating bastard that I am, I not only occasionally bring some corn, apples, acorns, mineral salt, and BuckGrub and deerblocks to my lifelong scouted huntgrounds, but I have also planted highly nutritious foodplots into prime areas that I have scouted all my hardcore bowhunting and gunhunting life.

I guess I should be ashamed to admit that I have actually purchased commercially rendered and produced doe in heat deerlure in a bottle, and taken it to these well scouted funnels and swamp edges, and had the audacity to place this sex lure at a trail intersection where I could get a killer shot. There is rarely any hot does peeing in the best places, so I artificially place it myself. Oh woe is me. It gets worse.

Since I rarely hear or witness bucks fighting and smashing their antlers together where the battle could attract a shooter buck into a prime shooting location, I have cheated the great Gonzo gods of the hunt, and shamefully brought in my own rattling horns in a feeble attempt to attract a deer into a high percentage shotzone. Oh woe is me. Surely this cant be fair.

Not only that, but my deceitful ways go further yet. Knowing how vocal deer can be, but how rare it is we get to hear them grunting and tending each other, I'm afraid I don't wait for natural grunting and bleating, but rather purchase some Primos and A-Way deer calls in order to trick these unsuspecting herbivores to hang themselves by responding to my symphonic wonderment of guttural attractings. Pathetic aint it. How unethical can a few million deerhunters be, I ask you?

While I'm awaiting forgiveness from the Bubba Gomers out there, let us examine this condition of inbreeding and cannibalism as our own fellow American sporters piss and moan and pull these bizarre allegations out of their big, dumb butts.

Back around 1955 while bowhunting the big woods of my Uncle Dick's sacred huntcamp in the wilds of northern Michigan near Hillman and Hawks, this young hardcore new deerhunter would see deer feed in a same basic area of the forest every day. A midday examination of that spot woke me up to the importance of acorns and where a hunter might find em. There were better ambush locations other than right where the deer had been feeding, and so the genius that young Ted was, I bagged as many nuts as I could and simply relocated them to a better ambush setup. The deer came but I still didn't get a shot for a longtime because putting out preferred feed a clincher does not make. Over the years, I did the same with apples, pears, sugar beets, bread, carrots, tested some candy and pumpkins and turnips and popcorn. It was ridiculously simple. If we're bowhunting feisty whitetails, we were gonna have to hunt them where they were or try like hell to get em to be where we wanted em. Did I mention duh?

So to clarify just in case the numbnut huntclub may get someone to read this fun article for em, pay close attention please. You see, there is no difference whatsoever in the repositioning of sex scent lure for shot improvement to the repositioning of food for the same purpose. Ya think? Bringing rattling antler deer fighting sounds into an area there currently aren't any in an attempt to get a crack at a buck is baiting, pure and simple. Tantalizing a buck or doe into shooting position with a clever buckgrunt call is also the exact same thing as baiting with food. Just a little bit more effective in some regions and conditions. Decoys? Samething.

My point is this; the rampant inbreeding amongst hunters is really foolish and embarrassingly counterproductive to the growth of our beloved sport. Such inbreeding and the inherent cannibalism results everytime in the public looking at us like we are unsophisticated morons. Not good under any conditions, suicide in this politically correct culture war against our honorable heritage.

Until we squelch this vacuous attempt to define each others ethics and what is right and wrong in our sport, we recruit but a fraction of the essential newcomers who will vote for decent upgrade and project a sophistication that will improve the goodwill and decency that will attract entire families into our beloved outdoor lifestyle. Anybody?

Its one thing to choose a personal hunting method that one prefers for all the right reasons. But anyone against others baiting for game is stupid. Anyone who argues against legalizing Sunday hunting is braindead. Anyone against dove hunting is retarded. Anyone against crossbows being allowed during at least the last quarter of the regular archery season is a selfish, rotten person. Dumb. Anybody who supports hiring "sharpshooters" to kill our surplus deer, bear, elk, lion, geese or any other precious wildlife resource with our tax dollars while forbidding we the people from doin so is un-American, not to be trusted and downright goofy.

Fortunately, this lunatic fringe who so conveniently abandons and discards science, history and the American way is a shrinking clique, typically of drunks, dope smokers, substance abusers, tobacco chewers and smokers who flagrantly display life threatening behavior, yet still insanely expect someone to consider their advice as more than the pap that it is. Maybe we can get them all a bowling ball and a pen full of chickens. They could all squawk to their numbskull cluckheaded delight, while the rest of us throw out such nonsense and get on with the intellectual duty to manage our precious wildlife resources through sound scientific regulations. What a concept! Gomer McBubba, be silent or get lost.

For more Gomer Awards to the dolts of our sport, call TNUSA at 800-343-4868 and purchase back issues of Ted Nugent Adventure Outdoors magazine. Visit www.tednugent.com for more information.

Charge of the Light Brigade

by Ted Nugent

I have a dream. I see a day where all children seek a higher ground, a more intense level of awareness, where negative peer pressure is counterpunched and thrust into the din of inequity, and where being the best that you can be is a universal challenge amongst boys and girls everywhere across America. I feel a day arriving in the near future where kids at school eagerly anticipate a special classroom that is part of the curriculum nationwide, in every city in the land. So anticipated, that not only is this exciting learning activity number one with all the kids of every age, but moms and dads have to put their names on a waiting list to join in on the fun because this American school class activity is so loved by everyone. This exciting school event is so compelling, that kids refuse to touch drugs, alcohol or tobacco, for fear of destroying the necessary sensuality awareness in order to excel at this new fun.

A new, thrilling, series of positive youth gangs begin to form out of instinctual competitive eagerness to test and prod each other to new heights of achievement. All of a sudden, the epidemic of unhealthy fastfood lifestyles and zombie-like apathetic behavior in front of the TV is a thing of the past. The kids are perky and uppity again, their old bad habits of slovenly inactivity replaced with energy, happiness, athleticism, discipline and bounce. This higher level of awareness brings with it a kinder, friendlier, more courteous behavior and everyone gets along so much better. Even youth crime and vandalism begins to fade away. Community productivity goes up and instead of wasting funds on failed afterschool activities, states and communities find they have more revenues for quality control instead of wasteful damage control. Wow!

The lessons learned in this classroom go far beyond typical academics, but rather, drive each participant to dig deeper inside to discover the warrior spirit within, taking this craving for excellence into their other classes, into athletic activities, after-school events, even parties and sundry youthful and family activities in their lives. The inescapable lessons in individual accomplishment at every level resonate throughout their entire families' lives.

Some kind of dream, huh? Well, millions of American families have lived this dream to the hilt for many years, but it is the exploding expansion of this win-win activity that my dreams are pumping doubletime with. And let me tell you how we're gonna do it. Starting right now, after nearly fourteen years of Ted Nugent World Bowhunters and Ted Nugent United Sportsmen of America, we are joining hands, hearts and souls with the world's oldest and largest family archery organization, The National Field Archery Association. With our combined members totaling more than 30,000, we stand as the biggest single group to bring the dream into reality. Fueled by the amazing successes of Matt McPherson of Mathews Archery and the wildly progressive administrators of the Kentucky School system, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we have liftoff!!

As you are reading this edition of our beloved Ted Nugent Adventure Outdoors magazine, it represents the first combined issue with the NFAA's ARCHERY magazine to join forces for this grand upgrade. Though we are intensely proud of the leadership content of every TNAO over the years, instead of the thin magazine we are used to, the two organizations together will bring a killer left-right combination with double the content and quadruple the leadership.

Most exciting of all will be the explosion in opportunities for all our members to team up for the American Dream upgrade so many of us have fought so long and hard for. There exists a network of NFAA leaders and regional directors who have orchestrated truly monumental archery events and international competitions for many years. Combined with the passionate activism of a number of our TNUSA directors, I am convinced we can make gargantuan progress for all the above stated goals of our dream.

For example, throughout America are ridiculous rules and laws forbidding the purely positive activity of shooting bows and arrows in many municipalities. Goofy, period. Another illogical obstacle to recruiting new young shooters is the myriad of foolish minimum age laws allowing children to join mom and dad on a weekend bowhunting adventure. Mom and dad make the decision when their kids can go hunting, and in Texas, Kansas, Louisiana and elsewhere, there is zero problem. We must all unite to open this blockade against the children. Along with an aggressive campaign by "we the people" the implementation of archery into physical education programs throughout America's schools will accomplish all the above stated upgrades across the board.

We certainly have our work cut out for us in this cultural war. But now with combined TNUSA and NFAA forces, I see victory in our crosshairs. I wish to salute the progressive leadership of NFAA president Bruce Cull, and his forward thinking Board of Directors, as well as Larry Pollack and Ward Parker and all their TNUSA soldiers.

I repeat, as goes the mystical flight of the arrow, goes the soul of man, for the discipline and higher level of awareness that archery and bowhunting demands will make us all tune in better to the world around us, and more importantly, the battle for America's freedoms and pursuits of happiness. I celebrate with you all, that our pursuit of archery happiness is the guiding light for so many American Dream quality of life. TNUSA/NFAA, onward and upward. Welcome to the Spirit of the Wild BloodBrother campfire for upgrade. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines and let the games begin. CHARGE!

WALK AND STALK WARTHOG-AFRICAN PORK ADVENTURE

by Ted Nugent

It was another perfecto day in the wilds of South Africa. I was alive and breathing, celebrating life at its fullest with family and friends in a wonderful Sunrize Safaris camp in the lap of God and His natural wonderment. The campfire in my soul was flaming as intense as the one I warmed my hands over this glowing morning. Having spent the past few days holding predator vigil in groundblinds over waterholes deep in the bush, I was off on a walkabout maneuver as the welcome warmth of the winter sun cut the cold air of dawn. Feeling pretty cocky with some great arrows under my belt and some stunning African antelope bowkilled on film, I felt good about giving the cameraman a break and getting some good old fashioned mobile foot hunting in solo.

The confluence of the Oliphants and the Bladdes Rivers created a perfect riverine jungle to sneak along in pursuit of the varied big game that flourishes hereabouts. Kudu, nyala, reedbuck, bushbuck, duiker, steenbok, impala, warthog, bushpig, zebra, gemsbok, hartebeest, waterbuck, wildebeest, tsessebe, and other stunning beasts could be found at one time or another roaming the garden of Eden I was about to penetrate. With a fistful of bow, a quiver loaded with beautiful feathered arrows, a backpack of survival gear and a heart full of primal scream, I hit it, and I hit it hard. A lion roared in my guts.

The waiting game in various ambush setups is always fascinating on any hunt, but moreso in Africa as there are so many different species of game and flora and fauna. There is rarely a dull moment I assure you. But I'm a big fan of variety, so off I went stalking in and out of the mystical shadows along the riparian bush. Over the years I have had grand luck in getting close to many a cri tter like this, and anticipation was running high. The air was fresh and delicious, the taste of the uniquely African scent an aphrodisiac for my spirit. Intrigued by every change in topography, it took all the discipline and patience I had in me to slow down and keep my predator radar on maximum alert. Examining the terrain and shadows ahead with my binoculars gave me a slight advantage to discover these ultra wary prey animals before their omniscient radar picked up the intruding American white guy. I forced myself to stop in each advantageous dark hole for as long as I could stand it in hopes of picking up any movement for a pre-emptive strike. I was having a blast.

I saw a small kudu bull on the other side of the river and a beautiful bushbuck skulking into a hellhole of thick scrub. Tracks littered every dirt and sand opening and gave me an overdose of hope and confidence. A foursome of impala rams browsed along ahead of me for awhile, but never gave me a chance to get within bow range. After a few hours of thrilling cat and mouse moves, I tiptoed up a slight embankment and peaked over the rim just in time to see the head of a big warthog boar spring above the golden grasses amongst the reeds. I ducked down and notched an arrow, then snuck another looksee at the African pig. He was now two big porkers and they were wasting no time heading my way straight for the river. With scattered rocks and boulders and various scrubby vegetation separating us, I had ample opportunity to prepare my shot. As if guided by the hand of God, they paralleled me at about twenty yards and stopped. I was already at fulldraw and let er rip at the largest hog up front just as they came to a halt. My razorsharp broadhead caught the long tusked primal swine square behind the shoulder and sliced clean through him in a heartbeat. With that specialized warthog antennae tail straight up in the air, they both snorted and scrambled away up hill into the thickest, nastiest thornhell in all of Africa. I let out an audible swoosh of breath and smiled really big. I do believe the pork has landed.

I slowly retrieved my now bloody arrow and identified the first splash of crimson spoor on the rocks and grasses. I knew I didn't have to wait to trail this bad boy and strolled along the ample bloodtrail for the fifty or so yards to my fallen prize. He must have died in seconds and in midstride, as swift of a kill as ever took place in the wilds of Africa. It was beautiful. He was a big old boar hog, probably pushing 200 pounds lying there, with heavy long ivory tusks sticking out of his handsome wart riddled face. I think it was a face, though the wildest face I've ever come to love. I took my time admiring the historical beast, doing all I could to absorb the amazing chain of pure tooth, fang and claw events that I had the honor to participate in. After I took a bunch of photos and gutted the beast, I then covered him up with leafy branches to keep the sun and flies off of him while I hiked further on to a trail back to camp.

We split the delicious meat with our native helpers, but kept some spectacular loins for our campfire that night. Over a bed of red ironwood coals with a few sprinkles of local seasoning, we dined on the immaculate pork of the African hunting gods and toasted another fine safari with some indigenous African red wine. What we had was a full on Uncle Ted African pork party goin on and everybody had a grand old time. It didn't last too long though, for a camp full of hearty American bowhunters were intent on rising with the fiery sun the next morning for another adventure in Africa. The scream don't get more primal than this my friends, and we were ready to whoop it up.

For information about joining Ted in Africa or elsewhere around the world for great hunting adventures, contact Sunrize Safaris at 800-343-4868 or visit www.tednugent.com.

Horse: It's what's for dinner. You got a problem with that?

My lovely wife Shemane, son Rocco and I sat down in the quaint street café on the little postcard sidestreet of Paris one fine spring day.

The Eiffel Tower loomed in the distance, and much friendly, positive energy glowed about from the smiling faces of the locals and many fellow Americans enjoying the France that we saved from the Nazis.

Reflecting lovingly on the Marshall Plan that provided this beautiful setting, we settled in for a full-on French dining experience with our European friends.

If the Nugents love anything, it is people and food.

Our taste buds and sacred temples are tuned to the purity and scrumptious perfection of wild venison, so we take our meals seriously.

French cuisine is rightfully famous, and we were giddy with anticipation as we reviewed the elaborate menu.

Ordering indigenous turtle soup and some escargot, we gobbled up the delicious French bread and the amazingly rich butter they have there. Yum.

Shemane chose the local fresh seafood. Rocco and I went for the mouth-watering flank steak, medium rare.

Now, we all know a few poor souls of self-restricted, same-ol', same-ol', bland, predictable, limited diets. But snails and turtle - like beef, lamb, venison, seafood, fowl, squab (pigeon) and so many other undeniably wonderful food choices - are what quality eating adventure should be.

Sushi or squab? To each his own.

Wide world of taste

We are amused whenever some goofy, mentally limited individual tries to tell others that they can't eat venison, that Koreans can't eat dog and cat or that our Chinese friends can't eat blowfish.

Some people cry out loud that beef cows and trout are A-OK to raise, slaughter, cook and eat. Somehow their intellect comes to a screeching halt when French people and gazillions of people around the world, like my son and I, eat horseflesh the same as Americans eat bovine flesh.

So what?

This insipid stranglehold of holier-than-thou audacity, this example of animal-rights lunacy, is shutting down thriving horse meat-processing operations around America.

In the process, it is taking surplus equines from the asset column and insanely forcing them into the liability column, all in the name of arrogant, selfish, dishonest, feel-good denial.

Sad, irresponsible and as "liberal" as it gets.

Write this down: Meat is food. Horsemeat is food. Banning horsemeat will not save the life of a single horse.

Surplus horses will continue to be killed. Though consumers abroad would pay for the meat, instead the carcasses will be buried and wasted.

Who doesn't know this? Better yet, who is so shallow as to pretend otherwise?

According to the Internal Revenue Service, until recently America's export of horsemeat rivaled beef and pork. It is a staple in France, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands.

As the cult of denial slowly but surely destroys the American workplace, Mexico and other nations are more than happy to pick up where we run scared. Insane.

Hundreds laid off

Meanwhile, like the two long-running, successful Texas horsemeat operations being forced to close, the highly productive Cavel International plant in Illinois must lay off hundreds of employees.

Taxpayers are burdened with more than $16 million a year to kill and bury surplus horses. And of course, many horses are now doomed to certain neglect and suffering so some clowns can wallow in a fantasy world while conveniently turning their backs on reality. Feel better yet? Incredible.

So goes the culture war, with the left pretending to save whales and horses, while thoughtful, conscientious people wrestle with politically correct, intellectually bankrupt bureaucrats as we desperately try to force logic and honesty into policy making.

None of this will avert a Nugent family barbecue of some delicious horse-flank steaks and other such assorted protein.

Meanwhile, we'll try to figure out what in God's good name these maniacs are trying to prove. Maybe the French got us on this one.

Wanna be a rock star? You'll need body, soul

This life is about staying clean and working hard

So, ya think being a rock star is the cushy dreamlife, do ya?

Well, I've got news for you, bubba booby. If you think it's a cakewalk, you have another think coming.

If you want to sleep in, get high and end up deader than a doornail, you can certainly follow the ridiculous playbook of so many brain-dead rocknuts.

That's what we in the intelligent world call "suicide." The only difference between Kurt Cobain's quail gun and mine is that I use mine on quail.

If you want a fire-breathing, ultra-fun, never-ending, intense Ted Nugent kind of rock-'n-roll career, you had better get in the mindset of a battle-ready U.S. Marine Corps commando.

You had better be ready to train and practice like a madman possessed. Take the very best care of your mind, body, heart, spirit and soul. Discipline yourself like you are the advance scout for Lewis and Clark. Care deeply about the quality of the music. And prepare for a work ethic that would cause much of mankind to blow up.

In the 1960s, I would perform upwards of 300 concerts a year, constantly on the road. I drove the equipment truck mostly myself, set up our gear each night, conducted numerous media interviews every day, jammed like an animal for two to three hours every night, "socialized" like a gregarious animal, loaded back up and hit the road for the next city.

Many people could be seen roasting marshmallows over my vapor trail. Well done.

Summer rock-outs

Today, at the tender age of 59, I wouldn't subject myself to such ridiculous scheduling. I nonetheless often perform as many as 28 gung-ho, maximum-energy rock-outs per month throughout the summer.

Totaling approximately 60 to 90 concerts a year, the sheer brutality of a different city every day is not for the meek of heart.

In one stretch this summer, I strung together an even dozen such adrenalin slamdunks in a row on my Love Grenade tour. Each one was over-the-top ferocious in its sheer energy upheaval.

Add the various radio, print and TV interviews each day. Sometimes, it's a wonder I can even talk.

But again, as the world's greatest philosopher, Dirty Harry, once stated, "It's a good man who knows his limitations."

It is imperative that I eat nothing but quality superfoods and get quality sleep each night. The fact that my hunting BloodBrothers across the country always have some great venison rocket fuel ready for me in most cities is one reason why I'm still so healthy and energized.

In between hunting seasons, I am still able to outrock any and all young bands half my age.

Of course, usually it's an unfair, nonlevel playing field.

For some strange, inexplicable reason, fools are still in this day and age continuing to poison themselves with drugs, alcohol and tobacco, knowingly destroying their spirit and creativity. Truly amazing.

Be that as it may, one only has to witness the powerstorm of energy blazing off the stage from drum god Mick Brown and virtuoso bassist Greg Smith as they mercilessly throttle my American guitar into an R&B&R&R firestorm each night to see what smart, dedicated, healthy, prioritized middle-aged men can do when they put their hearts and souls into their American musical dream.

Good Lord, I love this stuff.

From all indicators, this cleverly designed modus operandi should last a long, long time.

I performed in front of an audience at the Polish Arts Festival at the Detroit State Fairgrounds in 1958. That's almost 50 years ago. Thank you, Lord, and pass the spiritual ammunition.

Call me the Motor City birdman

I slithered along the forest's floor like a snake. At the tender age of 8 and skinny, I probably was no more disruptive to the wild woods than the garter snakes that shared this sacred ground.

Catlike, nearly motionless, I inched ever closer to the circle of bobwhite quail before me, nestled in the snagglethorn hell of the huge clump of multiflora rose on the edge of the mighty Rouge River.

The little birds were slightly quivering, ready to explode into a dizzying whir if this strange, creeping predator got any closer.

My Wham-O slingshot was poised. A hand-picked, beautifully rounded pebble was in its deadly pouch. Would this stalk do more than educate me about this fascinating gamebird? Or was I actually going to get a shot at one of these delicious little featherbombs?

The intensity of the standoff was electric. I doubted I could take it any more.

A bright male redwing blackbird sang to my right as it bobbed on a bending cattail, and a stunning red male cardinal landed in the bushes just a couple of feet to my left. I heard the funny chirping of a nuthatch as it hopped up a small oak tree nearby. Now, I could see the distinctive black masks of the cock quail just in front of my face.

My first gamebird

I was in heaven. My aim was true and I shot my very first gamebird that morning in the wilds of Skunk Hollow, within a few miles of the Detroit City limits.

The meal my father guided me through after that first kill is a powerful memory of my adventurous youth. But scrumptious roasted quail was not the only bird I digested that fall day. For my mind was like a sponge, gobbling up every sight, sound, flutter and spiritually invigorating encounter with every indigenous avian Blood Brother of the wild.

I have always been spellbound by wildlife, and birds have played a huge role in my quality of life.

My little suburban rivercourse was home not just to those bobwhite, redwing blackbirds, nuthatches and cardinals, but also to juncos, chickadees, song sparrows, English sparrows and thrushes. It hosted house wrens, Downey woodpeckers, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, flickers, bluejays, ringneck pheasants, crows, starlings, grackles, cowbirds, catbirds, mourning doves, larks, tufted titmouses, warblers, finches, cedar waxwings, Baltimore orioles, hummingbirds, screech owls and barn owls.

It had the occasional snowy owl and great horned owl, redtailed and red shouldered hawks, kestrels, kites, Coopers hawks, pigeons, cranes, herons, snipe, woodcock, ruffed grouse, gallinules, killdeer, nighthawks, mallards, wood ducks, geese, and I must admit, a few species that I never did definitively identify. But how I tried.

To this very day, as a gung-ho hunter, I turn my radar up to maximum every day of my life so I don't miss a single feathered friend, whether afield or downtown. I simply love all wildlife and continue to be fascinated by birdsong and activity all around me.

Connecting with children

Having the blessing of connecting with children through various youth charities and programs, plus the natural attraction we have experienced through our "Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild" TV shows, I find that with a little bit of direction, each and every child with whom I spend time picks up on the natural interest in wildlife.

Since various species of birds abound, they represent a ubiquitous and dynamic carrot to get kids interested in pragmatic environmentalism. Where birds flourish, quality air, soil and water benefit. Kids get that right away

Celebrating my 59th hunting season also means I am celebrating a long life of birding.

When you hunt with the bow and arrow as much as I do, you tend to pick up on everything around you, and birds entertain me now more than ever before.

All across North America and southern Africa, my family thrills at every bird that shares our wildground. I feel a kinship with all naturalists and do all I can to inspire everyone I know or meet to get to know the wild a little bit better.

Once a deeper appreciation of the wild takes hold, and it will, the call to stewardship is heard more clearly and the duty to be an asset to our good mother Earth resonates profoundly.

Some birds are more delicious than others, but each and every encounter with each and every bird cleanses the soul, and I for one cannot get enough of it.

The Summer of Drugs

Forty years ago, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in and drop out."

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the so-called Summer of Love. Honest and intelligent people will remember it for what it really was: the Summer of Drugs.

Forty years ago hordes of stoned, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which was the calling card of LSD proponent Timothy Leary. Turned off by the work ethic and productive American Dream values of their parents, hippies instead opted for a cowardly, irresponsible lifestyle of random sex, life-destroying drugs and mostly soulless rock music that flourished in San Francisco.

The Summer of Drugs climaxed with the Monterey Pop Festival which included some truly virtuoso musical talents such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, both of whom would be dead a couple of years later due to drug abuse. Other musical geniuses such as Jim Morrison and Mama Cass would also be dead due to drugs within a few short years. The bodies of chemical-infested, brain-dead liberal deniers continue to stack up like cordwood.

As a diehard musician, I terribly miss these very talented people who squandered God's gifts in favor of poison and the joke of hipness. I often wonder what musical peaks they could have climbed had they not gagged to death on their own vomit. Their choice of dope over quality of life, musical talent and meaningful relationships with loved ones can only be categorized as despicably selfish.

I literally had to step over stoned, drooling fans, band mates, concert promoters and staff to pursue my musical American Dream throughout the 1960s and 1970s. I flushed more dope and cocaine down backstage toilets than I care to remember. In utter frustration I was even forced to punch my way through violent dopers on occasion. So much for peace and love. The DEA should make me an honorary officer.

I was forced to fire band members and business associates due to mindless, dangerous, illegal drug use. Clean and sober for 59 years, I am still rocking my brains out and approaching my 6,000th concert. Clean and sober is the real party.

Young people make mistakes. I've made my share, but none that involved placing my life or the lives of others at risk because of dope. I saw first-hand too many destroyed lives and wrecked families to ever want to drool and vomit on myself and call that a good time. I put my heart and soul into creating the best music I possibly could and I went hunting instead. My dream continues with ferocity, thank you.

The 1960s, a generation that wanted to hold hands, give peace a chance, smoke dope and change the world, changed it all right: for the worse. America is still suffering the horrible consequences of hippies who thought utopia could be found in joints and intentional disconnect.

A quick study of social statistics before and after the 1960s is quite telling. The rising rates of divorce, high school drop outs, drug use, abortion, sexual diseases and crime, not to mention the exponential expansion of government and taxes, is dramatic. The "if it feels good, do it" lifestyle born of the 1960s has proved to be destructive and deadly.

So now, 40 years later, there are actually people who want to celebrate the anniversary of the Summer of Drugs. Hippies are once again descending on ultra-liberal San Francisco--a city that once wanted to give shopping carts to the homeless--to celebrate and try to remember their dopey days of youth when so many of their musical heroes and friends long ago assumed room temperature by "partying" themselves to death. Nice.

While I salute and commend the political and cultural activism of the 1960s that fueled the civil rights movement, other than that, the decade is barren of any positive cultural or social impact. Honest people will remember 1967 for what is truly was.

There is a saying that if you can remember the 1960s, you were not there. I was there and remember the decade in vivid, ugly detail. I remember its toxic underbelly excess because I was caught in the vortex of the music revolution that was sweeping the country, and because my radar was fine-tuned thanks to a clean and sober lifestyle.

Death due to drugs and the social carnage heaped upon America by hippies is nothing to celebrate. That is a fool's game, but it is quite apparent some burned-out hippies never learn.

Terrorists who drink and drive

Face of DWI is horrific; this means you, Paris darling

Suzie was all smiles, as happy as a teenage American could be. Graduation day was everything she had dreamed of. Friends, family and fellow students had celebrated with a glorious bash, a sea of laughter, BBQ fun all around, with big ideas and optimism for a bright future.

She had put her heart and soul into being the best student she could possibly be. Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa had always been there to love, nurture, guide, discipline and communicate as a loving family should.

Hence, she knew how to pick quality friends and avoid the "peer pressure" lie. She knew to dig in, work and study hard, and take good care of herself so she could live her American Dream to its fullest.

She had big plans and couldn't wait for the next chapter in this amazing gift of life.

Johnny was feeling exactly the same. Life was good. High school was survived and exciting new unlimited adventures beckoned. Surely, it was time to party.

Unfortunately, Johnny put his otherwise well-developed brain on standby, abandoned all he had been taught about responsible behavior, dropped his guard and fell for the imbecilic lie that partying included irresponsible, deadly behavior.

So Johnny tied one on, had a few beers and decided to drive home.

Then Johnny lost control of his car in a drunken cloud and smashed into Suzie's car in a cloud of dust and flame.

Seriously burned and disfigured beyond description, Suzie now undergoes nonstop surgery, skin grafts, painful treatments and pure hell on earth.

She is blind. Her once-beautiful face and body are a singed cinder. Her mutilated limbs are useless.

Her agonized parents have dedicated every minute of every day to moving her about, feeding and washing and handling her most basic life support procedures.

And why? Because fools like Johnny think that drunk driving is OK. It's cool. Getting drunk and acting like an idiot is fun. Until you destroy someone's life, that is.

Now Johnny can't think straight, tortured constantly by the knowledge that his momentary lapse in consciousness ruined a fine young lady's life, for no reason whatsoever.

Suzie and Johnny are real. And that brings us to Paris Hilton, finally jailed for DWI.

I'm glad the media have put her punk little over-painted, spoiled-rotten ass on TV and everywhere we look.

Unfortunately, it is mostly for all the wrong reasons.

If I were in charge, on first offense she and every other DWI punk would go to jail for a year, caged in the worst conditions possible.

Second offense, five years. Third, life with no parole.

Lock 'em up. Get 'em off the streets.

For, you see, drunk drivers make the Taliban and al-Qaida happy, because they kill innocent Americans and ruin lives every damn day in this country. Anyone who makes terrorists happy are simply terrorists as far as I'm concerned.

How so many Americans can be so cruel and rotten toward their fellow Americans is beyond comprehension. There simply is no excuse. The writing is on the wall, in big, black, bold letters: DRINKING AND DRIVING DESTROYS AMERICAN FAMILES. Case closed.

But the menace is not confined to the drunks destroying innocent lives. It is anybody and everybody who sees it happening and fails to demand a stop to it.

Get in their faces. Take away their keys. Let them know they are low-life, murderous punks who are wrecking lives all in the name of drunken, chimp-like misbehavior.

This is war, my friends. War against heartless slobs who don't give a good damn about the slaughter by drunken drivers.

If you care, let us demand an end to it. Let us blow the whistles and scold and ridicule and condemn the punks till they stop.

It is a matter of life and death and I for one have had all I can take. Contact your local MADD chapter and let's make America better ASAP.

When my time comes, Big Brother, butt out

It was clear, as the parties involved spilled out their hearts and souls in the most dynamic of intense emotions, that the good doctor was responding sincerely, thoughtfully, professionally and with deep compassion to those seeking to end their agony.

You will find no man who more than I is dedicated to the self-evident truth that human life is sacred.

I value, respect and completely cherish the precious gift of life that God has bestowed upon each of us.

However, quality of life is pivotal to autonomy, individuality and independence.

If ever there were a part of life that government should never tread upon, it is decisions we each make about our quality of life and the choices we make about extending or ending it.

The exhaustive shopping list of checks and balances, the thorough scrutiny that the patients, families and Dr. Kevorkian went through during those instances where he assisted in terminating their suffering, could by no stretch of the imagination constitute an indicator of a "slippery slope" toward convenient suicide.

Allegations to the contrary are in overt defiance of the facts and are pure hogwash. That a bureaucrat or another person would meddle in such personal choice is unforgivable and surely un-American.

We are all going to die. Get used to it. It would be a smart move for society to take the voodoo and cloud of fear and confusion out of the facts of life and death.

As the more intelligent among us discipline ourselves and our loved ones to provide for our quality of life, surely we have the right to manage the inevitable for our quality of death.

I would love to know who thinks he or she has any right to tell family members or loved ones just how, when or if they can compassionately end their suffering and meet their maker.

Talk about "minding your own business"!

When debilitating conditions ravage the mind, body and soul beyond one's ability to tolerate them, intelligent, loving comfort is the compassionate decision.

Preparation for dying should be a priority for all families, as the curse of probate court and disconnected strangers meddling in such decisions is unforgivable.

We should all have a living will so that such personal, emotional decisions remain in qualified, loving hands of our choosing.

That is what Dr. Kevorkian went to jail for - responding with professional care at the request of families facing the most difficult, painful time and decisions of their lives. No holier-than-thou, know-it-all bureaucrats were invited.

Only Oregon allows for assisted suicide, as it has since 1997. Through last year, 292 patients had utilized such services to end their agony, compared to nearly 86,000 who died from similar ailments without the use of prescribed barbiturates.

I've watched and embraced the tears and cries of the afflicted who agonized through the decision-making ordeal with loved ones and professionals. To interfere with such a procedure is cruel, arrogant and soulless. It prolongs unnecessary suffering by all parties involved.

Every state in the nation needs a law like Oregon's to allow individuals to end their suffering with dignity.

Caring doctors shouldn't have to go to jail for acting compassionately.

Husband-wife Xtreme bowhunting celebration

I am pretty sure that I spend more time bowhunting than any man since the invention of the arrowhead.

I literally tour like a rock-n-roll beast possessed through the summer months, as I have the past 40 years. Then I wallow naked in the solunar jubilation that is the natural season of harvest beginning in September, well into February. Legends of the Fall indeed!

I am an Xtremist and proud of it, thank you. The solitary game of bowhunting provides a wonderfully perfect balancing act to the over-the-top gregarious insanity of a celebrity lifestyle.

Admit it: Celebrities suck, but bowhunting celebrities suck less.

Those magic, silent, peaceful hours in my treestand or groundblind surely cleanse the soul. We all need that cleansing in the modern world now more than ever.

But more powerful than the need to escape and connect with the beast is my craving for quality time with my family.

I thank God for giving me bowhunting family members who enjoy our time in the wild together. I am Xtremely lucky and blessed. I love them Xtremely.

With a teenage son in high school and obsessed with his academic and basketball responsibilities, my beloved soulmate Shemane finds herself tied up more often than not being the world's greatest mom. She is an Xtremely dedicated mother. Producing our award-winning "Spirit of the Wild" TV show and her own brilliant Queen of the Forest episodes, along with nonstop charity and community work, this amazing woman still manages to camo up and hit the woods with her loving husband often enough. I love her Xtremely.

Shemane is the ultimate wife and mother, but I must admit that there is nothing more beautiful or sexy than this skinny, sultry, gorgeous blonde-bomber bowhuntin' babe dressed head to toe in Mossy Oak camo.

Drives me wild. I am Xtremely moved. Those who see her incredible bowhunting skills on TV know that Shemane has taken to this like a fish to water. Her calm, disciplined approach to the mystical flight of the arrow has done wonders for my own archery control.?

One fine, sunny, blue-sky December day in the stunning Hill Country of Texas had us setting up our Double Bull groundblind at the famed YO Ranch - a vast rolling prairie of swaying golden grasses, punctuated with scattered clumps of shin oak and cactus.

It was saturated with exciting deersign: Rutted trails criss-crossed in and out of the small motts of live oak trees. Every small tree and sapling had bare, shiny buckrubs on them. Numerous patches of destroyed earth had been torn up by pawing, scraping, rutting whitetails gone mad.

Deer are Xtremists. They move me Xtremely.

Master guide and outfitter Derek Derringer of Ingram, Texas' famed Woodbury Taxidermy fame had directed us into this magic wildground. Within minutes of Derek's departure after setting us up, whitetail does and yearlings began filtering from the scrub, headed our way.

As a handsome 10-point trophy buck nudged other deer out of his way,

Shemane performed her Xtreme archery ballet, coming to fulldraw gracefully without disturbing any of the deer before us.

Her zebra-patterned arrow and Magnus broadhead hit its target.?Xtreme joy erupted in our little blind. Though tempted to rush out and retrieve this dandy buck, we saw out of the blind's windows that the other deer had run off only a short distance and were watching. Shemane loaded another GoldTip carbon arrow, and we readied ourselves for the Texas bowhunting miracle. Were we about to make a double? Again? How Xtreme!

Sure enough, here they came, slowly but surely back toward us. And sure enough, another Pope & Young record-class buck cautiously made his way into shooting position, and for the second time in an hour, the Blonde Bomber was flexing her CP Oneida bow like a butterfly on a calm day.

The mature eight-pointer stretched his foreleg out and Shemane's second arrow of the day zipped straight for the pumpstation pocket. The high-strung buck flinched beyond the speed of light, the arrow almost missing him completely. But with the Magnus Stinger's scalpel-sharp edge, it was just what the good Dr. Backstrap ordered.

We kill dinner with sharp sticks. So very Xtreme. Perfect.

We have Xtreme pity for the Xtremely disconnected who deny God's Xtreme tooth-fang-and-claw perfection.?

Shemane's segments on our TV shows have enlightened and inspired millions of women and kids to support this honest, hands-on conservation lifestyle.

If you have women in your life who haven't become hunters yet, you must get cracking. It's not for everybody, but almost.

There is a Queen of the Forest somewhere inside all the gals out there.

Help them discover the spiritual dynamo of this incredible sense of belonging. Go ahead. Be as Xtreme as you can. It's the best.

An Indian is crying on a hill

We should all weep at how great land is trashed

I was barely old enough to keep up with my dad in those huge, larger-than-life enchanted woods.

We were bowhunting in a national forest. Well, taking a stroll with a bow and arrow was more like it.

The real dynamic imprinted on me that day, way back in the roaring 1950s, was the life force that is the forest.

I immediately was hooked on nature's healing powers, the primal scream of the good Mother Earth that I would eventually learn to revere and celebrate as provider of life itself.

Quality wild ground translates to quality of life. Concrete has no "sustainable yield." I am a consumer. But like the reasoning predator instinct and conscientiousness to kill only what I eat - something my dad taught me - I was disciplined to be a respectful and responsible steward of this precious environment by which we are so blessed.

The truism that quality wildlife habitat produces quality air, soil and water should be pounded into the brains of every child on Earth. Sadly, it is not.

On those soul-inspiring wilderness adventures of my youth, I also learned that my body is a sacred temple that deserves only the finest rocket fuel of sustenance and not too much of anything.

Caring management

Likewise, as vast and powerful as the Earth is, she also needs some intelligent, caring management.

Dad taught me to never litter, to pick up any trash we may come upon and to take out of the wild more than we bring in.

We of the Nugent family were conservationists and environmentalists way before the words ever caught on.

So when we drive down the rural roads, city streets and major highways of America, words cannot adequately express the sorrow and confusion we experience when our eyes and spirits are so abused at the sight of wanton waste and irresponsible littering everywhere we look.

On our travels, there was a time where we would pull over to the side of the road to pick up garbage. After a while there was simply too much litter to keep up with. One family cannot do it all.

We have sponsored numerous Adopt-a-Highway programs around the country where good-hearted citizens volunteer for cleanup duties. Clearly, however, this is a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. Preventive quality control is always the wiser choice.

In my travels to the Great Republic of Texas, I am body and soul with "Don't Mess with Texas." I just wonder, exactly when does that program kick in? For surely, it has not.

In all my world travels, I am broken-hearted that such a proud, spirited state as Texas could be so careless and soulless as to allow littering to go unchecked.

We salute them

Sure, I see the best of the best Texans walking the roadways picking up trash on occasion. We join and salute them all for sure.

But if I see another car or truckload of criminal punks toss out another fast-food bag, bulging garbage bag or even just a random gum wrapper or fizzling cigarette, I think I'm going to throw up.

It is unforgivable and we all should refuse to take it any more.

I envision the proud Indian on horseback on a hillside, looking down at a once-stunning landscape now cluttered and toxified by irresponsible buffoons too careless to pick up after themselves in any way, shape or form.

We should be teaching our children how unacceptable littering and wasteful consumer gluttony are.

We should be teaching the importance of conservation, the wise use of our natural resources, consumer goods, food and water, not to mention for wiser use of our time, lives, money and health.

That the gorgeous lands of Central Texas are as trashy as downtown Philadelphia is a sin beyond description.

Yes, I really like the sound of "Don't Mess with Texas." Now, if we could just implement it ASAP.

Assault weapons? Oh, baby; the bigger the better

Having been an honorary member of the 101st Airborne in Iraq while touring with the USO, and having the amazing experience of training with various elite commando units of the U.S. military and law enforcement, I can truly say I have been to the mountaintop of freedom.

To be in the presence of greatness reminds me to dedicate myself to be the best that I can be.

Though we humans can and do stumble, I learned long ago that a good man gets right back up, dusts himself off and learns from his errors. This I do. It is the essence of quality of life and survival.

To drive this discipline 101 home: There surely is no better routine than firearms training with these masters.

As a hunter and registered gun nut, I will never apologize nor waste my time defending my God-given right to keep and bear arms.

The more and bigger the arms, the better.

Which brings us to the ultimate fun guns of all times, the hot brass rainbow party of fully automatic machine guns.

And I am not talking about your basic deer rifle that Sarah Brady and all the anti-gun nuts call assault weapons and want to ban. I am talking real, honest -to-God military-type assault weapons, the kind that we carried in our Humvee as we drove into Fallujah one night during my most recent visit - blessed weapons for defending ourselves and freedom (which, of course, makes them "defense weapons" not "assault weapons.")

But I like the term "assault weapons" better, if for no other reason than it causes Ted Kennedy and his anti-American, gun-grabbing cult-of-denial clan that much more grief. (If they are so hyper-dedicated to pretend that guns are bad, I wish to increase their unfounded anguish, thank you.)

So on numerous occasions each year, I gather around the Nugent family home campfire here in Texas and back in Michigan, and we shoot machine guns.

Millions of rounds

Like hundreds of thousands of law-abiding American families, military, law enforcement and civilian, we shoot literally hundreds of millions of rounds of ammo through these amazing creations of ballistic art.

My idea of "gun control" is putting as many bullets as I can into the same hole.

These guns are owned legally in most states, and by more than a half million American families without a hitch. The lies about scary guns couldn't be more intentionally deceptive and more regularly misreported by the media.

The number of injuries and deaths each week during machine-gun fun by all of us? None. Zero, zilch, nada. Go figure.

All I know is that when it comes time to have one hell of a fun, laugh-infested Uncle Ted Texas family BBQ party, heroes of law enforcement and military join us for some challenging machine-gun competition.

It is all good. We are busy paving our driveway in assorted brass these days - an environmental upgrade if ever there was one.

The brain-dead celebration of unarmed helplessness will get you killed every time

Source: Waco Tribune