THANK YOU WTAW

As some of you know, and even fewer of you probably care, my radio career began back in my Texas A&M days in College Station, Texas at WTAW AM. There I played country music for my Aggie buddies as small town disk jockey "Randy Neal." WTAW is now a talk station and my show is carried live. Most every year I try to get back to College Station to see an Aggie football game and to schmooze with the WTAW folks .. and this past weekend was that weekend. Belinda and I did the show from the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel, and then I stayed over for my 40th Aggie reunion and the Kansas football game. OK, so the Aggies were outscored .. it was still a fantastic weekend and I want to thank Ben, Mary Mike, Scott, Tom and the entire WTAW crowd for their over-the-top hospitality. I do apologize, however, for my streak of winning games ending on Saturday night. Check out the little old building WTAW used to be in:

AND ABOUT THAT KANSAS COACH

My God! Good coach, obviously ... but how much does that character weigh? Four hundred plus? There were Kansas fans at the game wearing t-shirts which read "Our coach survived anorexia." Here's a clip of the coach giving a player a bit of hell for some grandstanding after a touchdown. I don't know, but I think I heard the F-bomb somewhere in there.

AND WHILE WE'RE IN FOOTBALL MODE!

HOW 'BOUT THEM DAWGS?

EDWARDS' NEW DEAL

John Edwards wants to institute New Deal-like programs to fight poverty and stem growing wealth prosperity ... if he is elected President. The "if he's elected president" part means that we don't have to worry about Edwards right now .. but his ideas are typical big-government Democrat. Edward's poverty fighting program will require him to ask Americans to make sacrifices like paying higher taxes. Rich Americans, that is.

Edwards says the federal government should provide universal pre-kindergarten, create matching savings accounts for "low-income" people, mandate a minimum wage of $9.50 and provide a million new Section 8 housing vouchers for the poor. He also wants to start a government-funded educated program called "College for Everyone."

To pay for it ... increasing the capital gains taxes because "taxes on 'wealth income' should be in line with those on work income." And to top things off, Edwards says that it is important to "share in prosperity, and that "people who have done well in this country, including me, have more of a responsibility to give back."

Where do I start? Let's just attack this with some quick bullet points.

• Raising capital gains taxes to the extent Edwards wants would chase billions, perhaps trillions of dollars of capital out of this country. Already we have $13 trillion dollars of American wealth working overseas to escape our tax system and politicians like Edwards.
• Universal pre-kindergarten? This is just the government getting its hands on your children at an earlier age .. before you can instill values like freedom and individuality in their fresh little minds.
• Raising the minimum wage? A perfect ploy for Democrats. "Vote for us and we'll make your employer pay you more money ... whether you're worth it or not."
• More Section 8 welfare housing? Same stuff. "Vote for us and we'll take money from those evil rich people to buy you a place to live." Nothing ruins a neighborhood quicker than Section 8 housing. Edwards obviously believes that it is the government's role to provide people with a place to live. I would rather live next door to a hooker than to someone using Section 8.
• "College for everyone"? Not everyone is capable of college level work. Who the hell does Edwards think is going to cook the French fries?

ILLEGALS AND THE FIRES

Illegal immigrants in California say that they are afraid to go to evacuation centers and shelters because law enforcement officials were asking for people's names ... and they didn't want to be deported.

The U.S. Border Patrol was called to come and assist with the fires; this is apparently scaring them away as well. But despite rumors, U.S. Authorities says that they have not been rounding up illegal immigrants at evacuation centers. But immigrant rights groups and the ACLU claim that authorities "have created a climate of intimidation through neglect and such policies as asking for identification at some shelters." The ACLU also says that immigrants were subject to racial profiling at Qualcomm. Apparently some of the volunteers were asking of their legal status. And the ACLU also is complaining that authorities didn't go out to migrant camps to tell people to evacuate.

So .. what's the problem here? Shelters should be for legal residents. San Diego and Qualcomm are close to the border. If the invaders want to escape the fires, give them a compass with the "S" printed in bold red.

Besides ... I'm hearing the Mexicans don't want California any more .. not until the damage is repaired.

NEW YORK DRIVER'S LICENSES

It's been about a month since New York Governor Eliot Spitzer announced his grand plans to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Well the Bush administration has cut a deal with the state of New York ... which is completely pointless because it still allows illegal immigrants to get a license.

In order to still allow illegals to get licenses, New York had to agree to create a three-tier license system. New York will produce an enhanced driver's license, which will be as secure as a passport. The second version of the license will meet new standards of the Real ID Act, which supposedly makes it harder for illegals to get licenses. But then the third type of license will be available to illegal immigrants. They will be marked to show that they are not a valid federal ID.

I wonder what type of mark they will use. Safe to say, I guess, that it won't be a sombrero.

Sorry 'bout that. I'm really getting fed up with being ignored by Hillary's Media Myrmidons. I'm going to have to start pushing the envelope a bit here.

FREAKY TATTOO

With Halloween just a couple of days away, it seems like an appropriate time to post this freaky tattoo.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

You'll always know exactly where you are with this redneck GPS. More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

FEMA is now apologizing for holding a fake press conference on the California fires. Just how amazingly stupid could they get? Look, if you're going to have a fake press conference with your employees acting as reporters, at least be smart enough not to have one of your employees ask you if you're doing a good job.

The US is pressuring Europe to follow suit and place sanctions on Iran. Europe is becoming Eurabia. Don't look for a lot of cooperation.

It looks like Argentina has its first woman president. Polls from yesterday's vote suggest that Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner won the election. OK .. so now we have a woman president of a major Western Hemisphere country. Can we send Hillary packing now?

Mark Steyn on the realities of war ... unlike the movies.

The Houston Independent School District fired a police officer for creating and distributing a "Ghetto Handbook." Shouldn't they have judged whether the handbook was useful or not before they took this step?

Democrats are back to the same tune ... planning a shorter work week for themselves come next year. In this case, they're acting like Republicans.

Tens of thousands of British people are leaving the country to get medical treatment. Just hold on, folks. That's the way it will be here when Hillary and the Democrats finally get their national health care plan in place. You asked for it, so no bitching.

In Canada they are considering making everyone - including Muslim women - to uncover their faces in order to vote.

Laura Bush defends the wearing of the hijab.

Muslims in Italy quickly put the kibosh on this one ... Quran printed toilet seats. Say what?

We'll have to check in with Belinda and see if she has tried a "climate neutral" wine. And while we're at it, we'll see if she knows about 'green funerals.'

How to properly hug a baby.

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