J's Cafe Nette

Archive for March 18th, 2007

Most conservative Republicans I know are hoping and praying former Senator Fred Thompson will run for president.

He is a classic conservative and satisfies most of the base moreso than his possible competitors who have already announced.

In this Jonathan Fund opinion piece we get a glimpse of Thompson’s ideas about our country.

But Mr. Thompson appears serene about all the speculation swirling around him. “Those running are all good guys, and would be good presidents,” he says leaning back in a recliner. “But there are truly vital issues–from the looming entitlement crisis to nuclear proliferation–I’m not afraid to talk about. Lots of people have such a low regard for politicians that they’re open to a campaign that would be completely different.”

So how would a possible Thompson campaign be distinctive? “Politics is now one big 24-hour news cycle, but we seem to spend less time than ever on real substance,” he muses. “What if someone harnessed the Internet and other technologies and insisted in talking about real issues in more depth than consultants would advise? What if they took risks with their race in hopes that the risks to our children could be reduced through building a mandate for good policy?”

Children are a lot on Mr. Thompson’s mind–especially his own. In 2002 he lost his daughter after she failed to come out of a drug-overdose-induced coma. Already frustrated with the Senate’s endless maneuvering over minutiae, he decided to retire at age 60 only two months later and change his life. In June of that year he married his second wife, Jeri (his first marriage at age 17 ended amicably in divorce in 1985). In 2003 they had their first child (a second was born last November).

“Within the space of a year and a half, I experienced the ultimate tragedy and the ultimate happiness,” Mr. Thompson sighs. “I count my blessings, and I have a real focused sense of purpose now.”

That brings us to some of the knocks critics have about his possible parachute drop into the “Survivor 2008″ competition. Bluntly put, Fred Thompson had a reputation for being lazy in wanting to do the political chores that come with office. People openly question if he has “the fire in the belly” to really make a serious race.

“They used to say I moved slowly,” he chuckles. “But I move deliberately. I won every one of my races by more than 20 points in a state Clinton carried twice.”

But what about his well-known reputation for dating up a storm as a bachelor senator in Washington in the 1990s? “I plead guilty,” he says. “But everyone I knew is still a friend, and if somehow they aren’t I guess we’d hear about it. I’m happy with my life partner and children now.”

…

The next president, according to Mr. Thompson, needs to exercise strong leadership “and get down in the weeds and fix a civil-service system that makes it too hard to hire good employees and too hard to fire bad ones.” He doesn’t offer specifics on what to do, but notes the “insanity” of the new Congress pushing for the unionization of homeland security employees only five years after it rejected the notion in the wake of 9/11. “Should we tie ourselves up in bureaucratic knots with the challenges we may have to face?” he asks in wonderment.

The challenges, he says, are numerous. On Iraq, he admits “we are left with nothing but bad choices.” However, he says the “worst choice” would be to have Osama bin Laden proven right when he predicted America wouldn’t have the stomach for a tough fight. The costs of Iraq have been high, but they could be even higher “if we have another stain on America like that infamous scene from Saigon 1975 in which our helicopters took off leaving those who supported us grabbing at the landing skids.”

He’s blunt, he’s amicable and as far as I know he’s honest. With the current crop of candidates in both parties he stands head and shoulders above them all.

Go read the entire article.

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When the news first came out about a national pet food recall we weren’t concerned because we buy our animals premium pet food and ours wasn’t listed in the recall.

Yesterday afternoon my aunt called me and told me she had just heard on the news the recall included Iams and Eukanuba pet food.

We feed our dogs Iams and our cat gets a prescription dry food from the vet.

We have a 13 year old cocker spaniel who went through cancer treatment 3 years ago and because her appetite wasn’t what it should be and the fact we had to travel 150 miles each way for check-ups we started buying the Iams Select Bites, a food with chunks of meat and gravy.

A few weeks ago she was vomiting and gassy and we were concerned but it went away.

We immediately went to the website to find out codes we should look for on the packages . Our food was made in the factory that has the problems.

We called PetSmart and they said they had pulled it all off the shelf and to bring in what we had for a refund. My husband took all 4 cases (one was opened) to them and got a full refund.

Since they had nothing like that for a 13 year old dog that was safe he picked up 2 whole chickens and we are now feeding her dry food mixed with chicken pieces, rice and broth. The other dogs get the same mixture too.

I have a cousin who works in a well-known pet feed production facility as a maintenance man for the equipment there. He has told me everything that goes into the food (this facility produces feed for livestock) is supposed to be measured due to the chemicals etc. in the feed. He has said he has seen the workers just pour it in without measuring it and one of these days something bad is going to happen. I hope not.

Check the recall site mentioned in the linked article against what you feed your pets and make sure you are not harming them with their food.

Hang Right Politics is also blogging on this today.

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