Stand Up

Patriots bringing back Law?

Ty Law was released by the Kansas City Chiefs today. It will be interesting to see if the Patriots will show any interest in perhaps bringing him back. Since Law left the Patriots after the 2005 season, the Patriots have not won a Super Bowl.

ABC 6 report on the Huckabee rally

Rate cuts? No... we need rate hikes!

I was fairly impressed with Fed Chairman Bernanke at first, but now I'm beginning to believe he's bent on risking the solvency of the currency in a last ditch effort to save all these risky banking ventures that have been going on over the past decade, and which should have collapsed years ago.

So instead of allowing long-overdue corrections to come to the market, just destroy the US dollar, bring gasoline prices to $4.00 a gallon, oil to over $100, and gold over $1000. Just destroy savings rates, so nobody can buy a CD offering an interest rate greater than the inflation rate. Just cause prices to rise so that all the retirees with fixed incomes won't be able to afford the necessities of life.

Maybe we'd be better off without a central bank after all.

Hanging With Huck

Brown Daily Herald, Huckabee Tells Rhode Islanders He's Not Done Yet

"Huckabee acknowledged that the odds are stacked against him, both in the national race and in Rhode Island, but that didn't seem to dampen his support at the rally.

Richard Wilford, a former Brown student and a current pastor in Providence [and Huckabee delegate], told The Herald that Huckabee's emphasis on family values and religion are potential solutions to the "breakdown in family" in black culture.

Wilford, who is black, chuckled when asked if his vote for Huckabee would be wasted, since McCain needs about 200 delegates to secure the Republican nomination, which requires 1,191 delegates. Huckabee would need nearly 1,000 delegates to get his party's nod.

"It's not over until the fat lady sings - I think she's warming up," Wilford said with a smile.

One supporter, David Hathaway Sr., the coordinator and chairman of Huckabee's Rhode Island Delegate Selection and Steering Committee, said his candidate was primed for a strong Ocean State showing and that the negativity surrounding his chances was media spin.

"There's been an attempt to margialize his support base to only evangelical Christians," Hathaway said, while acknowledging that the campaign might not be quite ready for a nomination victory. Citing Ronald Reagan's failed 1976 bid for the nomination, Hathaway said of the Huckabee camp, "it takes time to fully form what they've got.""

Read the whole article here

Bully, They've Released Roosevelt

The Patriots cut Roosevelt Colvin yesterday along with [second year, 1st year spent on IR] inside linebacker Oscar Lua. The move to release Colvin probably had more to do with clearing cap space than anything else and it still is possible that he could return if he restructures his contract so it fits better in the overall scheme of things. A more likely scenario however is that he will be paid an obscene amount of money by some team and wearing a Dolphins or Bears uniform next year.

Other than Mike Vrabel, Colvin was the Patriots best pass-rusher so the Patriots will have to repleace him with someone. Adalius Thomas is one possibility to fill the role (move from ILB to OLB] along with the possible draft pick of Vernon Gholston, talented, top ten worthy pick, OLB from Ohio State. Actually, the free agent linebacker market is so depleted this year that some of the top names in it include Mark Simoneau, Danny Clark, Boss Bailey and Demorrio Williams. There are really only two great linebackers in the free agency (three if you count Colvin in), Lance Briggs (probably going to the Redskins) & Kawika Mitchell.

Up to this point this is what the Patriots linebacker group looks like.
Eric Alexander
Larry Izzo
T.J. Slaughter
Pierre Woods
Mike Vrabel*
Adalius Thomas*

Junior Seau and Teddy Bruschi still have not made decisions as to whether or not they will be returning.

Another note, one of the faces from the 2003-2005 team, safety Eugene Wilson, is leaving the Patriots after playing with the team for five years. In the last year, James Sanders gradually took over his role to the point that Wilson was inactive for many games this season.

Video of the Mike Huckabee for President RI Rally

Providence Journal Coverage

ProJo's report on last night's event and short photo slideshow (the eighth photo in the slideshow is of this photo that I took of Huckabee up in NH and got autographed by him last night. Guess it's a good picture...)

From the article, Huckabee takes center stage
Strumming an electric bass, rocking to Wilson Pickett’s 1966 classic “Mustang Sally,” Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee entertained and campaigned yesterday before 500 admirers in a hotel ballroom as he boosted his never-say-die campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.

The glib, witty former Arkansas governor knows he is running a campaign that becomes more of a long shot by the day, but says he doesn’t intend to bow to Arizona Sen. John McCain until the Republicans meet to choose their candidate at the September national convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Read the rest of the article here

Huckabee Rhode Island Event Photos

A message from Mike on the RI rally tommorow

He's coming!

Governor Huckabee will be coming to a rally this next Monday night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (click here for directions) in Warwick, RI. The doors open at 5:00 PM, and the event is to begin at 6:00 PM. Admission is free and everyone is invited to attend!


View Larger Map

Huckabee coming to Rhode Island!

You heard it here first! Detail to follow, but it looks like the Governor will be paying the Ocean State a visit on Monday night....

No wonder everyone is sick!

We're eating sick and dying cows.

Zach Thomas Update

According to Adam Schefter from the NFL Network, the Patriots have offered former Miami Dolphins, seven time Pro Bowler, middle linebacker Zach Thomas a contract.

The Patriots are also hosting another former Dolphin, wide receiver Marty Brooker today. Brooker wouldn't be a bad pickup for the Pats if he could be acquired at the right price. I wonder how long it's going to take before the rest of the NFL figures out that the Dolphins are the Patriots minor league team to develop players...

Thomas To Vist Pats

Free agent, former Fin middle linebacker, Zach Thomas is going to make a stop in New England today.

More Rally Stuff

Some more follow up from the event yesterday... I think we got the message across to more than a few RI McCain fans that Huckabee is still in the race and has some significant, dedicated support in Rhode Island. Mitt, Fred & Rudy may be dead, but Mike is still in the race and kicking.
What happens as far as who will win RI totally depends on voter turnout. If McCain's people don't get out to vote because they don't think he needs their vote (a very plausible possibility) than we have a very good chance of winning as long as conservatives go out and vote for the most conservative choice left, Mike Huckabee. Don't quote me on this, but I believe a good turnout for a Rhode Island GOP Primary election is around 14,000 voters. That essentially means that in order to pull off a major upset, Huckabee needs to have around 8,000 RI voters go out and vote for him. Not a huge amount of people normally - but in Rhode Island that is a lot of people.

Here's a short video of some of the limited footage I took of the event yesterday. I wish I had gotten more but I guess it is what it is.

Mac Is Back In RI

John McCain took a quick swing through Rhode Island yesterday and we were there to greet him...The Providence Journal reported:
"McCain easily won the 2000 Rhode Island GOP presidential primary and can be expected to win the March 4 primary here convincingly. His lone opposition is Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher whose strongest support has been mostly in the South. About 40 Huckabee supporters waved signs outside McCain’s event yesterday."

You can see the full ProJo article here

RIPolitics.tv/CBS 12 News has a video report of the Huckabee rally outside here

Romney Endorses McCain

If you don't think that's not another Romney filp-flop than watch this video... "fight for the future of the Republican party..."

Patriots Make Their First Postseason Move

The Patriots began the process of beginning the offseason by signing a low profile, journeyman, middle linebacker, T.J. Slaughter Tuesday to a one year deal. Slaughter has played most of his NFL career in 3-4 defensives and tried out for the Patriots last December.

KansasCity.com profiled Slaughters pro career as below:
"Slaughter, 30, last played in 2006 for San Francisco, logging 12 special-teams tackles in 10 games for the 49ers. The Southern Miss product, a third-round selection by Jacksonville in 2000, missed all of last season with a torn tendon in his left ring finger. Productive for the first three seasons of his career, with 10, 92, and 106 tackles in 2000, 2001, and 2002, respectively, Slaughter was released midway through the 2003 season, and caught on with the Ravens. He spent 2004 in Baltimore, where the 5-foot-11, 233-pounder saw limited action. Slaughter also played for the Saints in 2005 before landing in San Francisco in 2006."

Career Stats

It is possible that the Patriots are going to attempt to fit Slaughter into the linebacker unit, but I really don't see this as much of an impact signing. He is not idea size for a Pats linebacker, 5-11, 233 pounds, and really hasn't done much in his seven seasons in the league (counldn't make a NFL team in fact in 2007). At best, he's a special teamer, at the worst, he gets cut and the Patriots lose nothing.

Lights, Camera - Homeschoolers!

CBN reports on the Virgina NCFCA Debate and Speech Open Tournament (the reason why I was gone Tus. thru Sat...).

Regarding the tournament, my partner and I finished 16th overall in TP (4 & 2 record, 1 & 1 in the outrounds, thought we lost the outround debate we won, and won the outround debate we thought we really lost), not a great finish, but not all that terrible.

Close, close, perhaps not close enough...

Could conservatives pull Virginia for Huckabee tonight?

According to a story by Bretbart.com, "in Virginia, nearly seven in 10 voters in the Republican primary called themselves conservatives, and Huckabee was gaining half their votes in a strong challenge to the party's front-runner."

Meanwhile, on the Democrat side, it appears as if Obama is going to win all three primary's tonight. It seems as if the Democrats have finally got smart and realized that they have an extremely better chance of getting Obama elected than Hillary. Now the question is how long Hillary can stay in the race.

Update: here's an exit poll from the Virginia of voters 65 and older (Huckabee's worst demographic traditionally)

Huck 45%
McCain 49%

If these numbers are true, wow. Let's wait till the real numbers come out though before getting excited.

Ok, with 7% reporting. Huck up by 9%. Still way to early to mean that much .
Another exit poll, evang's/born again Christian
Huck 66%
McCain 26%

McCain takes the lead, 47% to 45%... 27% of the vote reporting. Apparently some of the eastern districts of the state that will lean towards McCain still have not reported in yet...

New numbers... 39% reporting.






Ouch, now with about 50% of the vote in, CNN has just called it for McCain.

The Other Race

for the super delegates

Big Endorsement for the Huck

Paul Weyrich Endorses Huckabee!

A open letter from Weyrich, founder of the Heritage Foundation and president of the Free Congress Foundation
"I believe that the voters in this Republican nomination contest—here in Virginia and across the country—deserve a real choice. And Governor Huckabee is clearly the conservative alternative. He is the best choice, and he is my choice. So I am voting for him on Tuesday, here in Virginia.

I don’t buy the idea that John McCain is a true conservative. Nor do I buy the idea that Mike Huckabee should get out of this contest. The people in the Potomac area—Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. In addition, we have many important states coming up, including my home state of Wisconsin. Folks in all those states deserve a choice a real choice..."

Read the entire endorsement here

Animated Mike Huckabee Ad - Heath Care

Dobson endorses Huckabee

Just out...

Romney's out...can Huck win now?

The results are in and Romney's run is black and blue from a massive red state rupture. Time to lay everyone off.

I personally thought it was a noble move. But I won't miss him.

The real question now is: can Huckabee make a comeback?

He still has a shot if the Romney delegates defect, in which case Huckabee would need 724 more delegates to win. McCain needs 477 more to win. There are still some big states up for grabs, like Ohio (88 delegates) and Texas (140 delegates). If Huckabee sweeps these states he'd be just about tied with McCain. If he takes Virginia, which is 63 winner-takes-all delegates, he'd really be on a roll....

Not the best night for Willard

Granted CA results are still to come. But so far, he's only pulled in his home state of MA. Even there McCain gave him a run for his money.

...Which raises a further question: does money matter in elections? The authors of Freakonomics argued that it really didn't matter much. McCain was nearly broke, but is now kicking the socks off the fat-pocketed Romney.

Another Touching Hillary Moment

Let the tears flow...

The Candidate of Change

Wall Street Journal: Romney's Convictions

Yeah, it's big

Blog Note

I am going to be going to be gone Tuesday thru Saturday at a debate tournament so Rex will have to hold down the fort as far as posting during that time. Just wanted you to know that the blog wasn't dead or anything.

Read that Rex?

Giant Problem

Now the Patriots are the best worst team ever. In the end, when somebody needed to make a play, the Giants did and the Patriots did not.

Countdown To Kickoff

For MA/New England Readers

There are two support Huckabee events in Massachusetts tomorrow for those interested.

Huckababy

Rhode Island's 2008 Primary Ballot Order

Through a lottery system done at the RI statehouse today, Huckabee is last on the list of GOP candidates on the RI ballot. Not ideal, but then again, I really don't know anyone who votes based on a candidates placement on the ballot...

Hugh Cort and Ron Paul go back to back (2, 3)... John McCain and Huckabee are both bookends. You can view the RI Democrat and Republican ballots here (or just click on the photos to the left, screenshots of the official sample ballot)

Democrat Ballot Order, as drawn by lottery:

1 Uncommitted
2 Hillary Clinton
3 John Edwards
4 Barack Obama

Republican Ballot Order, as drawn by lottery:

1 John McCain
2 Ron Paul
3 Hugh Cort
4 Mitt Romney Mitt-Romney-MBA Sep-07
5 Uncommitted
6 Alan Keyes
7 Mike Huckabee

Good News from the AP, Romney is conceding the northeast to McCain (read McCain and Huckabee):
"Republican Mitt Romney is conceding the bulk of the Northeast to rival John McCain, counting instead on his home state of Massachusetts, a split in California and wins in a series of caucus states to extend his presidential campaign beyond Super Tuesday."

Does this mean that RI is a two man race between John McCain and Huckabee? Last time I checked Huckabee hadn't said anything about conceding the northeast. Of course if you throw in powerhouse, GOP establishment candidate Hugh Cort, this is a three man race.

Attack of the Specter!

If the Patriots needed more motivation for the little game they will be playing in a few days... they just got it. . . Note, Arlen Specter is either a Steelers or Eagles fan so he's just delirious and despondent that neither of his teams are going to be playing in the big game.

Specter told the New York Times regarding the destruction of the Patriots SpyGate tapes by the NFL, "That requires an explanation," [Sen. Arlen] Specter told The Times. "The NFL has a very preferred status in our country with their antitrust exemption. The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the game. It's analogous to the CIA destruction of tapes, or any time you have records destroyed."
Question though, doesn't Congress have anything better to do with their time then chase baseball players around and do NFL investigations? Guess not, I mean, as long as nobody is using steroids, who cares about border security or the fact that the United States is going bankrupt?