The Countertop Chronicles

Sometimes it pays to get the hell out of dodge.

Sitting in DC, no matter who I talk to, its just a constant barrage of bullshit. Leaving the city of talking points, therefor, is bound to be a refreshing change.

With that in mind, and considering this new moon is the start of this years rut, I decided to head south, to North Carolina and get an on the ground feel for what the election will bring (and with the hope of landing a buck Sarah Palin could be proud of).

Yesterday afternoon saw us outside the Eastern Carolina town of Keanansville where I learned the local bucks are mostly dog driven and just not too big.

Spend some time at the Keanansville bait and tackle as folks hauled in the first bucks of this falls big buck contest. Some nice bodied deer, but a little lacking in the rack department.

We headed out to greener pastures though, a 3,000 acre QDMA managed property with gated access (not high fence, simply gates at the driveway to prevent folks from coming in

They put me on a stand overlooking a river bottom and under some powerlines. Had about a 1500 view down in both directions and sat down around 5pm to watch the action.

And action it was. At a range of about 800 yards (too far for me to shoot) I witnessed 3 bucks in a battle royale on a grassy bluff overlooking the river. I was mesmerized, when I decided to look the other way and saw 5 medium sized does grazing.

All of a sudden a small 6 pointer, probab ly 2 year old, buck jumped out into the field. He had a nice rack for his age, and will certainly be a wall hanger, but not yet.

He too became a bit skittish, and I was hoping a dominant buck would appear, but none did. Instead a couple of more does wandered out.

Still, as the sun went down, I could hear deer fighting all around. Eventually, a nice sized doe materialized, and with shooting time down I decided to take her with a 185 yard shot to put food in the fridge. The 140 grain sierra game king powered by 54.5 grains of h4831 was just devastating, putting a small slit into her left side and blowing a good chunch of her heart and lungs out a softball sized hole on the right side. She was knocked down, then sprang up and ran about 20 yards leaving a river of blood behind.

Word to the wise, if your hunting in the afternoon, don’t forget a flashlight. And have a backup. Its tough to dress a deer in the dark.

My buddy final picked me up, and under the lights of his truck, I gutted her and then hung her over night.

Its now 6:15 am, and a brisk 31 degrees. I’m in a different stand, closer to where those bucks are and along a line of heavy scrapes and rubs between some food plots, a watering hole, and the nasty tangled brush the big boys love.

Can’t see anything, but can hear lots of deer. Shooting time starts in 20 minutes or so.

What does 8 years of corruption and mismanagement, topped by a sorry excuse for a presidential campaign get you??

Prepare for our new overlords.

Its going to be bad people.

Based upon my conversation with the Republican Senate Campaign Committee this morning - they are predicting that Barack’s Coattails and Ted Steven’s corruption (my word, not theirs) is going to hand the Democrats 10 easy Senate pick ups.

Amongst those going down?? Well, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been in the news, and may be the biggest fish. But to my mind, the looming loss of Saxby Chambliss in Georgia is even more shocking.

Its a new world folks. Better get used to it.

Here’s the entire list of expected losses as of this morning (ranked in order of my shock, surprise, or expected impact).

• Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) will lose to Jim Martin (D). Huge black turnout associated with Obama coattails and a libertarian candidate polling 2% will give this to Martin. Georgia voting Democrat is huge folks. Just huge.
• Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will lose to Bruce Lunsford (D). Obama coattails and blame for Senate dabacle and Ted Stevens are going to push this to Democrats.
• Roger Wicker (R-MS) is going to lose to Ronnie Musgrove (D). This was a poorly executed move relating back to Trent Lott’s sudden retirement. Everything under the sun is trending wrong for Wicker including Obama coattails amongst huge black population in Mississippi and concern over Trent Lott and Ted Stevens (not to mention the Scruggs law firm).
• The Udalls (Mark in Colorado and Tom in New Mexico) are going to easily win the seats left behind by retiring Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Wayne Allard (R-CO).
• Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) is toast. She did shit for the state and its citizens, is a horrid campaigner, and has lost support of her base and is facing the onslaught of the Obama Coattails. She’s gonna lose by 6 or 7 points to Kay Hagen (who I am going to meet later this week).
• Ted Stevens is done (R-AK). Mark Begich will win that seat (its too bad they can’t replace Steven’s with Sarah Palin).
• Norm Coleman (R-MN), a good guy if a bit of a RINO is going to lose. I don’t know who will win - whether its Al Franken (likely) or Independent candidate and former Senator (and Jesse Ventura associated) Dean Barkley (who is clearly hurting Coleman more than Franken but who might just be able to eek out a victory in a close 3 way race).
• Six years ago John Sununu (R-NH) barely beat popular former Governor Jeanne Shaheen. She’s going to crush him.
• Mark Warner will cruise to victory in Virginia.

One additional point here, Mary Landrieu (D-LA) who was seen as the most likely Democrat for Republican’s to take out will have no problem holding on to her seat.

What is the end result of all this??

As of 10 am this morning, the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee is predicting in the wake of Ted Steven’s conviction that

1. Democrats will likely increase their numbers in the Senate from 49 to 58 or 59 votes.
2. Republicans will decrease their numbers from 49 to 39.

How the independents vote will make a huge difference on all matters going forward.
Bernie Sanders (I-VT), is the former Socialist Workers Party mayor of Burlington. He will caucus with the Democrats.

If Dean Barkley wins in Minnesota, its unclear how he will caucus. At this juncture, if I were a business lobby like the Chamber of Commerce I’d consider bailing on Coleman and trying to get the Republicans to move all their votes to Barkley in a last ditch attempt to prevent a filibuster proof card check from going through. That won’t happen, of course.

Joe Lieberman is unlikely to become a Republican . . . and will be quickly marginalized by the Democrats. Sadly, Joe’s glory days are over. He’s up for re-election in 2012 and if he wants to retain any power between now and then will probably need to vote a straight line Democrat ticket nearly 100% of the time. The curve ball here, is that he could always retire (which he may find preferable to the purgatory he will face in the Senate) and then his seat would be appointed by Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, a Republican.

My readers, of course, want to know what this means for their guns. More on that later . . . but I’ve been keeping in close contact with Democrats on the issue and have some thoughts on what we will be facing.

OK,

who’s got the scoop on a Digital Video Recorder. This weekend both of our VCRs went. One will still play, but neither will record. Which means my wife can’t record Days of our Lives. Which means she’s finally game to my idea of upgrading the AV Home Theater and getting a digital video recorder.

Problem is, I have no idea where to start or what to look for. Basically, I know the name TiVO. They sort of invented the marketplace. And we’ve gotten a lot of offers in the mail from our cable company, Cox Communications.

But, frankly I have no idea what the difference is between the two.
Why one or the other?? Or are there other people providing the service??
Which will give me the most flexibility? Which will be easier to integrate with my home computer system (Mac OS)??
Which lets me add on external hard drives to store programs longer?
Which lets me copy programs and cut and edit them for posting on the internet??
Do I have to have a subscription to a service?
Or is it possible to buy something that hooks directly into my computer and just run it from my computer workstation??
Can I control it remotely?

What are the costs??

As the underdog forces of good meet evil on the ultimate battlefield over the next few days, I think all red blooded, nose to the ground, All VOLUNTEER Army loving, American’s can agree

Go Vols! Beat ‘Bama!!

STOP THE PRESSES

BREAKING NEWS

MUST CREDIT COUNTERTOPCHRONICLES.COM

In a shocking campaign development, the fact checkers at the Countertop Chronicles have exposed blatant misrepresentations in the media campaign launched by the NRA against President-in-Waiting Barack Amerika Obama. Rather than being the enemy of gun owners, and an all but certain roadblock to increased gun ownership, the truth is now emerging in the waning days of October 2008.

Over the last 3 days, editors at the Countertop Chronicles have been approached by increasing numbers of Virginia voters MOTIVATED by the lofty glowing Pol Pot inspired rhetoric of The One and his classy, compassionate, peaceful supporters to not only purchase firearms but to become concealed carry permit holders. In fact, this correspondent assisted 3 residents of the exclusive, Obama leaning, Northern Virginia County of Fairfax in filing for a concealed carry permit this week. Demand and interest in both training and instruction and advice on the purchase of firearms has been so great, in fact, that in true Obama fashion campaigning will be halted this weekend as 3 will visit the Virginia Arms store in Manassas, Virginia to purchase handguns and other defensive weapons while at least 2 other residents will engage in live fire training (with another 3 inquiring about scheduling opportunities).

Perhaps this explains why there all of a sudden doesn’t seem to be any resources in Virginia any more.

And why I’ve been recruited to help out in North Carolina next week (we’ll, I’ll be there anyway - deer hunting - but I let it be known and know I have work to do)

I will be in Raleigh, and the Eastern counties.

We’re gonna turn this thing for John. We’re gonna pull out the win.

A Blooming Idiot

Marylands 3 day early muzzleloader season got underway yesterday. I made it out, and with 5:00 am temperatures near 70 wasn’t too suyrprised to see few others out. It was a full moon though, and that made for nice visibility, and I saw a ton of deer feeding on the bean field I’ve been scouting out this summer.

Unfortunatlyan by the time the sun was up they were gone.

Made it out this morning too. It is a good deal cooler, car thermometer was showing 43 at 5 am, is showing 50 now. I was not dressed appropriatly to sit in a stand in those temperatures, and had a cold as balls morning. To make matters worse, I didn’t see one single deer.

I’ve got to head to Williamsburg for a political fundraiser today so I won’t be getting out again this weekend.

Back when this High Road controversy started, I thought it was worth my while to weigh in since I’d been posting at the old The Firing Line and at The High Road when it first started. But right before I did, I checked my user info and it showed me as registering on May 20, 2004, almost a year and a half AFTER Oleg started the forum.

WTF???

Then I got Oleg’s email announcement. Twice. And it dawned on me that I used to post at The High Road, and The Firing Line, and a lot at Glock Talk as Novalooker. And sure enough, after logging in under my old moniker, it shows me as registering on November 8, 2003 - though that still strikes me as too late.

Anyway, Oleg is taking The High Road back. He’s got a pretty strong complaint (which looks like it was filed by one of my wife’s cousins) and has moved everything over to TheHighRoad.us

Go there, and enjoy!

McCain should have used that to wallopp obama over the head for mandatory gun registrations and bans and role with Joyce Foundation.

He isn’t going to win based on abortion . . . He might based on the 2nd Amendment. But he doesn’t go there, why????

Or does Barack Obama come across as a guilty man scamming his way into office . . . And John McCain is a bumbling inarticulate senile grumpy old man

I’ve been really lax in the blogging.
No excuses. Well, yes. There is. Three or four.

As I’ve stated, life gets in the way sometimes. And to quote Uncle, I do this for me not you.
That said, I also got a face book page recently. Its under my real name, and I’ve been posting a bunch there. Its strange, most of the folks I am linked to are from high school and college. And a couple from DC. I started posting a bunch of political stuff there - cause thats what interests me, but then realized I didn’t want to do that. In my line of work, having folks know your political thoughts isn’t good for business. Sure there are Republicans and Democrats in DC, but I’m neither. I offended (and am offended by) both. But, I’ve got this handy little Facebook link on my Firefox toolbar, and it makes it easy.

Any one know if one exists for Wordpress??

The other things are really work. And at night (or in my little free time when I’m not at work or with the wire and kids), as I come to terms with the looming Obama I’m loading ammo. I’ve loaded about a 1000 rounds this week. 80 rounds of 280 Remington. 200 rounds of 7.62×39. 500 rounds of .45 ACP. And 100 rounds of .45 Colt

In the meantime, groove to this. It may be the single best Fire On The Mountain ever. Can’t help but put a smile on my face when I listen to it (and I’ve played it at least 20 times this week)

Jerry is grooving. And Carlos Santana just shreds.

McCain is toast. What a horrid performance.
I need to get out and buy an AR lower. Fast.

Any one have a good source??

1. Is something wrong with me?? Am I really this big of an idiot???? I mean, I keep hearing how no one saves money any more. And everyone has (on average) 9 credit cards and $17,000 in credit card debt. And has refinanced their mortgage to take cash out on the equity in their home for new and expensive cars, and TVs, and vacations. Meanwhile, I refinanced my home once - to drop the interest rate from 7% to 5 1/4% on a 30 year note, I have one credit card (Amex) which I pay off monthly, I drive a fully paid for 12 year old Cherokee (and my wife drives a fully paid for 7 year old Isuzu Rodeo), and I save about 20% of each paycheck. Yet, everyone else is going to get bailed out and I feel like I’m getting caught holding the bag for being responsible. Not just that, but its even worse. Cause I’m gonna suffer while the economy tanks . . . and Barack “Tax The White People” Obama certainly has me in his sites.

2. Isn’t apple picking great??

3. What about the NY Giants. 4-0. Winning in dominating fashion. 8 game win streak going right now. Seems they did more than just snap the Pats win streak, seems they also stole some of New England’s Karma.

4. When do I get back to writing about guns???

5. I had a great time in New York City Saturday night. Expensive (we paid cash) but great. I don’t even mind the nutty liberals. I just wish they wren’t actively trying to take away my guns (there, does that count??)

6. Same with Jersey. North Jersey is just gorgeous. And how can you not like the idea of thousands of separately incorporated and locally ruled little towns. Each with their own culture and identity. Even if everyone looks like they are straight out of the Sopranos. Which is odd, having been born and raised in North Jersey in an Italian American family I neither look Italian nor really identify culturally with many of the people there any more. Of course, in Morris County they aren’t all trying to take away our guns. And the Italians aren’t. Its everyone else in the damn state that is.

7. How come regular gas was $3.01 in Jersey (where they even pump it and wash your windows for you) while it is $3.65 here in Virginia??

Awesome!