For a better way to carry your piece, check out the passport holster or the anytimer.


Looking back this past year, I thank God for He's been too good to me:

1. My faith.

2. My family: mom, dad and my younger brother.

3. I still have a job and am glad to be now in my 5th year with Nortel.

4. No traffic accident though I came close a few times, a crazy and fast driver that I am.

5. Went to my first Texas Republican State Convention and from there was elected to be an alternate delegate to my first Republican National Convention, my first time ever in the Big Apple. This is a great deal consider that I have only become a citizen in June of 2001, which only happened after then majority leader of the House Dick Armey shepherded my naturalization application through the INS bureaucracy.

6. Re-elected to another 2-year term on the board of deacons at my church.

7. Appointed for a 2-year term on the City of Carrollton Library Advisory Board.

8. A 240% return on my Roth IRA account. No, I am not yet a millionaire but rather still a very long way from it.

9. A raise, yes, not much but still a raise nonetheless.

10. An even greater appreciation for life after I had an opportunity to volunteer with hospice care for people dealing with terminal disease.

My new year resolution:

1. Save up to have the 20% for my first house so that I don't have to worry about PMI.

2. Move up my time of coming to work earlier, like 08:00 or maybe even 07:30. That way, I can have time to work out everyday and then go to a lot of functions in the evening.

3. Get me a real good safe and a good long gun now that the "assault" weapon ban has expired.

4. Play a few songs with my guitar, maybe even some classical pieces.

Long term things I want to do here before going home to my Lord, Savior and Creator:

1. Get my private pilot license, first single engine VFR, and eventually multi-engine IFR.

2. Learn how to play the piano.

3. Speak Spanish fluently.

4. Read and write at least another language: German, Chinese or Russian.

Got my New Hampshire pistol/revolver license in the mail today. Pretty efficient processing I must say.

I have always like MapQuest but there have been multiple instances where Yahoo! Maps has better driving direction or more up to date map data, especially on all those county roads. Maybe it's time to ditch MapQuest?

I know it's way past due to come in for a donation with Carter Bloodcare but didn't find the right time until today.

I called one of the commercial laundry place near my house and they told me it's $21 to wash my comforter. I thought they were nuts because my other comforter which required dry cleaning and I had it done at a place near work that cost me less than $20. So, I decided to go to a commercial laundromat to wash the comforter myself while trying to finish up a book I've started a while back. I just slept too much staying home and couldn't get much reading done. I like the commercial washer I saw at the laundromat, a stainless IPSO that can take 50lbs. There are also smaller sizes of 35lbs and 18lbs by the same manufacturer. While I was there, I saw the owner of the place went around and collected all the quarters from the washers and dryers and from the look of the place, he's doing pretty well so I went home and check out to see how much one of those cost. Then I run into conversion between cubic feet and liter and found this great site. Anyway, they do have distributors right here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, which is great but the prices are not listed on the site. I wonder if they even do retail sale? The biggest washer at Lowe's is 3.8 cubic feet, which is about 107 liters. The IPSO model that can take 50lbs is 234 liters, which must be around 8.3 cubic feet.

Among those in active service and especially those who have seen the worst of it all the longest, support is high according to this new poll. That tells you what we are doing is right, not only about the objective, but the strategy and the support for the war against the terrorists.

I was just reading on Drudge Report about the tsunami that hit various beaches all along the shores of the Indian Ocean when I ran across her majesty the queen's website. I read a little bit about the queen and duke, but found it all rather confusing about the duke's line of lineage and marital affinity. I guessed I am not a British subject and thus never really know much about the royal history anyway. Maybe I should ask some of my Canadian or British friends and they can tell me more.

On the way home today, my brother tuned to ESPN Radio and we heard that Reggie White has passed away at his home in North Carolina. From little of what I know about him, he's such a wonderful Christian model of a man in the sport world.

Check out this interesting publishing company: College Tree Publishing. One of the co-founders, Dean Robbins, is a College Republican at Gonzaga University.

I heard about this story by Karin Shaw Anderson of an amazing young lady Cassandra Hayes on KLIF on my way to our church's annual Christmas Eve service with my brother yesterday evening. However you can help, a family in Garland has agreed to forward correspondence to Ms. Hayes. Send letters to: Cassandra Hayes, c/o Terri Mowles, 631 W. Ridgewood Drive, Garland, Texas 75041. She said when interviewed on the show that she works at the Cheddar's on Hwy 635 and Greenville in Dallas.

I also heard that the city of Dallas had verified that there at at least 20,000 valid signatures on the Blackwood petition, which means the requirement by the city charter is met and that the strong mayor form of government will be on the ballot for the May 7th, 2005 municipal election in Dallas.

The youth group had our white elephant gift exchange yesterday after the service. We partied late last night; I and my brother didn't get home until like 4:00 this morning. Therefore, when my uncle called from Germany and woke me up this morning at around 10:30, I was understandably pretty grouchy. He and I talked and talked and just out of curiousity, I asked him about the gas price in socialist Germany and he told me it's about €1.10 a liter, which is about €4.40 per gallon. With the current exchange rate of $1.3519 per Euro according to Yahoo!, that works out to be $4.948 per gallon. No wonder they all drive those little itty bitty cars. A couple years back, when I first got my new Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and told my uncle that it drives 18 miles per gallon, which works out to be roughly about 7 to 8 kilometers per liter, he thought I was nuts to buy a car like that.

This has been brewing for a while but if you haven't done so, please send a message to governor Perry and other state officials opposing making Hwy 121 a toll road since it has been built with public fund, your tax dollars: http://stop121tolls.com/.

The December 24th, 2004 Religious Freedom Coalition update commented that this year Presidential Christmas Card was the first to include a Bible verse: Psalm 95:2 (NIV). However, as far back as I can tell, governor then and now president George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush have always included Bible verses in their Christmas cards:

2000: And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart - Jeremiah 29:13

2001: Thy face, Lord, do I seek: I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! - Psalm 27:8, 13 (RSV)

2002: "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations." - Psalm 100:5

2003: You have granted me life and loving kindness; and Your care has preserved my spirit - Job 10:12 (NASB)

I finally had an opportunity to read the book The Bush Boom that I purchased back in April of this year by Jerry Bowyer. From all the uproars I expected a lot more bashing of Democrats than found in the book. He was just stating the statistics and proved his points.

It's a free country so people have every right to protest anything, anywhere and anytime but be practical and get a life, be a productive citizen for once. Work harder next time for your candidate, get better at presenting your solutions to the various problems next time, .... The problem I have is that these angry and frustrated people sometimes can be very uncivilized and violate others' rights as they were in New York during the Republican National Convention.

It's 29F outside again now but there's also the white flurry stuffs coming down, the first this season.

Have you ever wondered, if this world is only getting more evil everyday up until the second coming of Christ the Messiah, what is the point of us trying to do good? Well, the answer could be found in II Thessalonians 2:7. We are like the brakes on a car that is careening down a steep slope toward its own destruction. Maybe God is using us to restrain the evil in this world, to lengthen the duration of that dive so more people could have the opportunity to hear of the Good News and be saved as it is said in II Peter 3:9.

Take a look at this funniest article of the day by David Brooks of the New York Times.

Did you know that Tim Roemer, a prolife former congressman from Indiana, is backed by both the new Senate Democratic Chief Harry Reid and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi to become the next DNC chairman?

Check out this comparison of two proposals of flat and fair tax against the current income tax structure. I am personally would love for the fair tax, basically national sales tax with exemption for food and medicine and other basic necessities, to be adopted. It would encourage savings and investments since you would only be taxed if you spend. It would abolish the IRS. It would keep the people constantly reminded of the tax being taken away from them to finance the bloated government beaucracy everytime they buy anything.

I could not agree more with this article urging reform at NASA.

We went out to Rockfish to celebrate Amy's birthday. The place is famous for all the roasted peanuts we could possibly eat.

Got myself a real nice pair of crocodile western boots yesterday from Boot City. They are quite comfortable and I really like them.

VPS Dallas had their Christmas party last night. It was fun meeting new friends and catching up with old ones. Like always, white elephant gift exchange was the most exciting and hilarious part.

The DFWAACC had their quarterly board meeting today at the Oakridge Country Club today follow by another white elephant gift exchange.

I don't doubt that we have an independent press in these great United States of America, but hope and pray that for the sake of freedom and of their own, eventually the press would have the sense to try to have balanced coverage of issues. This article about the heroic action of Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta pointed out that imbalance.

Check out this list of candidates: Samuel Alito, Jr., Janice R. Brown, Miguel Estrada, Emilio Garza, Edith Jones, Jon Kyl, J. Michael Luttig, Michael W. McConnell, Theodore B. Olson, and J. Harvie Wilkinson, should there be a opening on the US Supreme Court.

If you can understand Vietnamese, check out this interview of the CEO of Vietnam Airlines by the BBC. The man had not an idea how to conduct himself in an interview, nor any real knowledge regarding free market economy. It's just hilarious. I and a few friends cannot help but laugh until it hurts.

Got fingerprinted yesterday at the Plano PD. They offer the service five days a week, much better than Richardson, Carrollton or Addison. Will mail in my Florida CHL application today. It said 90 days to process so I expect the state of Florida to issue my license sometimes in March of 2005.

The city of Carrollton had its orientation meeting for all members of its boards and commissions yesterday. I looked and looked but didn't see any of my fellow Library Advisory Board members. The city attorney told us all we need to know about accepting gifts more than $50 in value, the Open Meeting Act, and litigation.

In the announcement late yesterday, my company Nortel stated that they have $3.4 billion cash balance, revenues of $2.3 billion or a net loss of $0.06 per share for the third quarter of 2004 and that they will wrap up the layoff of 3,250 employees by June of 2005. The stock NT is trading down $0.24 this morning. I have confidence in the new CEO Bill Owens, who used to be the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It's 29F right now outside. I think it's the coldest morning so far this season that I have seen.

An interesting piece by Tony Blankley appeared today in the Washington Times.

We need more people like Hume Horan (1934-2004).

I learned a new big word today: schadenfreude.

Catching up on my emails, I came across this story of Yale students pulling a good one on Harvard. The video is available at HarvardSucks.org.

The city of Dallas is currently working to certify what is known as the Blackwood petition, which is a city charter amendment proposal that would give the mayor a whole lot more power than the mayor has in the current structure refered to as the 14/1 system of 14 council members plus the mayor. I went to the debate last night between the current mayor Laura Miller who favors the petition and the deputy mayor pro tem, district 5 councilman Donald W. Hill. The debate was moderated by district 13 councilman Mitchell Rasansky. I came into this debate with no predisposition regarding either form of government other than the Republican principle of limited government, which Henry David Thoreau said it best: "that government is best which governs least." I am aware that this quote is also attributed to Thomas Paine. If you know which is more accurate, let me know.

Deputy mayor pro-tem Don Hill did a pretty good job chewing up the Blackwood city charter amendment proposal, particularly on two concerns:

1. Money will play a very big part in the mayoral race, $800,000 for the last Dallas mayoral election vs. 3 million for Houston, with all of the city boards and commissions be appointed by the mayor other than the planning and zoning commission. Mayor Miller said she would let the council members continue to make appointments to the city boards and commissions if the amendment passes in May, which effectively gave ammo to the other side that Blackwood is a bad proposal.
2. The mayor will have authority to hire and fire all 13,000 people employed by the city, including other council members' assistants and secretaries, which is a rather sore point if any council member would need help to have legislative preparation that goes against the mayor's position.

Not to be outdone, on the part of the mayor, Laura Miller pointed out all the ineffectiveness of the current system and its slow response to citizen's concerns, particularly the code enforcement department but that's old news as we have heard so many times. However, I agree that entrenched beaucrats need to be dislodged. People need to work and be performance-measured instead of just getting paid and raises all the time. I would love for each of those departments to be sub-contracted out to private sector companies. Throughout the debate, Laura just fumbled and left a lot of gaping holes for the deputy mayor pro tem to attack. Particularly, she continued to agree with Don Hill one after another that various sections of the proposal are bad by saying that it it passes, she wouldn't do that. What about future mayors? Don Hill did a rather good job returning fire when Laura Miller said there are people on the city's payroll apparently just planning on when their pension is going to vest rather than the city's future, obviously refering to the former city manager and the likes, but the deputy mayor pro tem turned it on her with the fire fighters and police officers.

If I were a citizen of the city of Dallas, I would vote against the Blackwood proposal in its current form. But mayor Miller has gotten a point. I would entertain another city charter amendment to make the city government, especially the office of city manager, more efficient and responsive to citizens' needs and concerns. It should not take 11 of the 15 on the council to fire the city manager.

An alert I received from the Austin American-Stateman about 3Com (COMS) acquiring of TippingPoint Technologies, Inc. (TPTI) is a single piece of positive news I have heard for a long while that enforces my belief that 3Com will survive and make a comeback. The details of the deal can be found here.

The 2006 Senate races are now up on the National Republican Senatorial Committee website. There is no open Democratic and Republican seat at the moment though things will change rather quick regarding Texas if the senior senator from the Lone Star state, Kay Bailey Hutchison, decides to jump into the governor's race in 2006. One very interesting fact one cannot miss is the green color state of Vermont with the elected Republican but turned "independent" senator Jim Jeffords, who caucuses and votes with the Democrats, infamously handed the majority control of the US Senate to the Democratic party on May 24th, 2001, less than 6 months into the 107th congress.

I take time to review my porfolio today and just put down my thoughts. I cannot be held accountable in any fashion or manner for any loss you incur as a result of reading this. If you believe in technical analysis like me, but don't care about dividend as much as I do, this Vympel Communicatii (VIP) looks like the stock to buy, even though JP Morgan downgraded it from Overweight to Neutral. For me, I want something that has decent dividend in case I have to hold on to it. I focus a lot on the REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) these days. One of them in particular is Amerivest Properties Inc (AMV).

Got my Christmas card from governor Rick Perry yesterday. The Bible verse is Isaiah 11:6.

I love these couple sentences in an article by Peggy Noonan that appeared in today's Wall Street Journal Editorial Page: Always remember what Bill Clinton did after he lost re-election to the governorship in 1980. He joined the choir in the only local church whose services were broadcast on television throughout Arkansas every Sunday morning. You could turn in every Sunday and see him in his robe, with his music book, singing spirituals.

Jim, my next door neighbor, is a justice of the peace for Dallas County and he officially retires today and so I stop by to celebrate his retirement with his wife and all the supporters.

I also attended an informal debate hosted by the World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas on the policies of the Bush's administration, whether they have made America safer, at the SMU Meadows Art Museum. The two panelists were Baker Spring of the Heritage Foundation and Mel Goodman of the Center for International Policy.

Not only can you download sights and sounds, now you can also download smells.

The Dallas County Young Republicans had their Christmas party last night at the Dralion. The hors d'oeuvres was delicious. Music, ok. The space was a little cram for the group our size.

Found a great reminder in I Thessalonians 1:3: work produced by faith, labor prompted by love and endurance inspired by hope.

The Metrocrest Republican club had their Christmas party today. Again, as I have been doing, was able to practice what I gleamed from Hugh Hewitt's book In, But Not Of. Basically in consersation with new people, try to detect what is the person's area of expertise, then within tact, highjack the conversation and interrogate the person so you can harvest his knowledge. The person would be more than happy to share his learnings and experiences for which you won't have to spend time doing what he already did.

It was a great game last night between the Cowboys and the Seahawks. It kept us on our toes to the very last few minutes of the game. The onside kick will be remembered. I couldn't understand why Vinny Testaverde continued to pass even after so many interceptions and for sure #81 Quincy Morgan could not catch but kept getting the ball. Number 59 Dat Nguyen played decent as always. If for nothing else, this game gave us the standings necessary to be in contention for the playoff another week.

I've read through the Bible a couple times from cover to cover but the more I read, the more great gems I found, like this couple of verses from the book of Jude: (22) Be merciful to those who doubt; (23) snatch others from the fire and save them; ....

A possible Social Security reform plan?

We went out to eat at Pappadeaux to celebrate Thanh's birthday today.

We are testing out our products today at the Trader Village in Grand Prairie.

Osama and company, here comes your buddy . A fearless robot who has no family to write home to, equipped with four cameras and a pair of night-vision binoculars to operate at all times of the day, has a range of about a half-mile in urban areas, more in the open desert, and the ability to carry four 66-mm rockets or six 40-mm grenades, as well as an M240 or M249 machine gun.

Here is a pretty good site if you need to brush up on your Spanish, with this dictionary.

Though I like history, first for no reason other than what happened when and why, then motivated further by the quote that those who do not learn history are bound to repeat its mistakes, I am not really knowledgeable on Turkish history. This commentary really spurs my interests.

Check out this article regarding the race for Louisiana 3rd Congressional District seat. If you are like me not knowing what kind of animal a nutria is, here is the explanation.

Only until yesterday did I learn that Iris Chang, the famous author of Chinese descent appeared to have shot herself in the head south of Los Gatos, Santa Clara county, California on November 9th, 2004. She was only 36 and her works include: "The rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II," "Thread of the silkworm," and most recently, "The Chinese in America: A Narrative History."

I love this article by senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, especially the conclusion: "It's time for Kofi Annan to step down. The massive scope of this debacle demands nothing less. If this widespread corruption had occurred in any legitimate organization around the world, its CEO would have been ousted long ago, in disgrace. Why is the U.N. different?"

The Dallas County Republican Party had their holiday reception tonight at Prestonwood Country Club. Had fun catching up with a lot of folks, some I haven't seen since election night.

John, whom I worked for from 1997 to 1999, is retiring today from JCPenney after thirty some years with the company which he joined after he got out of the US Navy. He was a very nice boss to us, very frequently bought us kids working for him breakfast and coffee. Not only that, the way he treated you, professional, undemanding, no micro-management but motivated you at the right time in the right way, push the right button so to speak, so you felt like you wanted to get the job done when it needed to be done.

Got my White House Christmas card today. The Bible verse this year is Psalm 95:2 (NIV).

My investment certificate with the Alliance Development Fund matured on November 15th so I had it renewed for a 5-year term, which is currently yielding 4.4%, the best can be found on Bankrate.com at the moment. Even if the rate were a little lower, I would still park my money with them because the money goes to help churches to take out loans for their needs.

I got off work, went to the gym and then stopped by the Guitar Center to get me a music stand.

The Dallas County Young Republicans had a quick board meeting tonight at the Tin Star restaurant. The sweet and sour salmon was an interesting dish, I like the salmon, though not as good as the grilled salmon at Olive Garden, but not the other stuffs that came with the plate. Their service was excellent, even if it's a like a fastfood style restaurant.

The Christmas lights at the Gaylord Texan are not all that spectecular, parking is $7.00.

Had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving yesterday. We indeed have a lot to be thankful for.

I was out doing home improvement shopping this morning at Lowe's. Looking at the 48-inch fluorescent light bulbs, I found GE has the best product: two 40watts, 3150 lumens, 15,000 hours, 72 CRI, 4100 Kevins for only $3.98. Some of the competitions have the worse products in the same category for the same price. This gives me even more confidence to hold on to my GE stocks beside the fact that I like the dividend paid quarterly.

It appears that Republican candidate Dino Rossi has won the automatic recount by 42 votes. He beat Democrat Christine Gregoire in the original count by 261 votes. As normal, the Democrats want a recount, by hand of course. Being the party that touts science and technology incessantly, they don't trust the machine since the machine doesn't discriminate between Republican or Democratic votes. I guess it's so predictable now that it no longer surprises Americans to see Democrats want to recount until they win.

Stop by the local Circuit City to take advantage of their pre-Thanksgiving sale and look for an MP3 recorder with a direct line in, either quarter inch or RCA but didn't find it. Went and check Pricewatch and really like the new makeover.

A few weeks back, I became aware of Target deciding not to allow the Salvation Army bell-ringers to solicit at their stores, which costs Salvation Army 20% of their donation. I took the wait and see approach. Finally, after I heard on KLIF this morning who was behind the move, I finally had it. I just called and closed the Target Visa account and told them that I don't plan on shopping at Target for as long as they have that policy in place. They had a couple people tried to explain their position and convinced me not to close the account but I told them I was sorry that they took the stand as they did but as long as that is where they stand, I want the account close.

State Rep. Talmadge Heflin and his lawyer have formally filed a challenge with the Texas State House of of Representatives, after found evidence that there were illegal votes cast, ie. people not in the district or county. Now the Speaker of the House, Tom Craddick, will have to deal with the challenge.

I just love this piece by Fred Barns.

Wish I have more vacation to join the Texas STOMP (Stragegic Taskforce to Organize and Mobilize People) hitting Louisiana to turn out the votes for two Republican candidates in the December 4th Congressional runoffs: Charles Boustany in Lafayette and Billy Tauzin III in Lake Charles.

We were talking at lunch last Friday and Jeffrey declared that there are no fish without eyes. Roy said there are, especially those lived at the very bottom of the sea and with hardly any light down there. I agreed with Roy and just told him to go read Britannica. Just thought I check and here it is: blind fish.

I watched the news and learned something new on TV tonight. They were talking about gypsy cop and I did not know that there is lesser charge than involuntary manslaughter, it's called criminally neglible homicide.

A great quote from our beloved 40th president, the late Ronald Reagan: "Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive."

I had fun strolling around a little antique mall in Plano this morning with a couple of friends.

Stopped by work a little bit and then worked a little more at home.

We, the singles group at our church, had fun tonight going out for dinner and a game of bowling at the Main Event in Grapevine. We find that area rather convenient for all of us, from one end of town in Allen and the other in Mansfield. I seriously need to go and get some sleep because it's already started with the dull headache, you know, the kind when you lack oxygen at high altitude. In this case, I lack sleep.

Check out this interesting study by The Barna Group.

Let's see if senator and the new US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter will live up to his written statement on the Senate Judiciary Committee which he issued yesterday, Thursday Nov. 18th, 2004.

A succinct and clear article regarding the shooting of a wounded Iraqi by David Perlmutter of the Indianapolis Star.

Let's see, I booked the hotel, bought the airline tickets: American non-stop from DFW to DCA, and reserved the car rental for the trip to Washington DC this January for the inauguration. No need to worry about that anymore, praise God.

Reserved the bowling lanes for our singles group this Saturday at Main Event.

We talked about the election results tonight on the regular monthly VPAC-DFW radio show in Vietnamese, anywhere from the presidential analysis to the senate races to the current on-going count still in Washington to the rapid reshaping of the Cabinet.

The Dallas Cowboys lost a miserable game last night 49-21 to the Philadelphia Eagles. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the Eagles' quarterback running around for over 14 seconds without being tackled or the Cowboys double coverage of their receiver and still allowed him to catch the ball in the end zone. Last year we at least get into the playoffs, even if just for one game. This year, even the Houston Texans is having a better record than us as of this moment. If it's any console, the Carolina Panthers is at 2-7, the San Francisco 49ers is at 1-8, worst than us! Since nothing is going for our own team, a bunch of our guys have switched to root for the best, which they believe is the Pitsburgh Steelers this year.

Check out this 2004 Generosity Index by Catalogue for Philantropy. Make sure you read the Technical Notes. The highest ranking blue state (state that voted for John Kerry) is the Empire State came in at 26th.

It didn't take Taylor and Henry too much time to get through US Customs yesterday coming back from Cancun. I picked them up before headed over to the VPS going away party for Quang at Saun's place.

As of now, it appears that the Evergreen state may have a Republican, Dino Rossi who beat Democrat Christine Gregoire by 1,920 votes out of 2,755,159 votes cast, for governor and a Democrat, Brad Owen who beat Republican Jim Wiest by a 54% to 38%, for lieutenant governor.

The Cabinet reshaping is rapidly taking place. By this morning, Commerce secretary Don Evans, Attorney General John Ashcroft, secretary of State Collin Powell, Energy secretary Spencer Abraham, Education secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture secretary Ann M. Veneman have submitted or will be submitting their resignations.

We had a whole day of training people for children ministry with MS Bien at our church today. We went shopping afterward for ThaoTrinh's babyshower tomorrow. Stopped by MS Dinh's house to rest a little bit before came back to church for the combined fellowship tonight. Van came by our church for the first time today and came back for the fellowship tonight with her sister. All in all a productive day, praise God!

Got my little Reebok watch from Overstock.com today. Just try to pull out the crown to adjust the time and it came all the way out. This is the second time I got something from Overstock.com. The first time, I got a Swiss Army watch with altimeter on it but the altimeter never worked correctly. It showed the same altitude on the first floor as on the fourth floor. My mom had bought something from them a year back and she was as dissatified as I am now. I thought I'd give them a second chance after the first time but this time, that's it. I will never be able to bring myself to buy anything else from these guys.

Here is an excerpt from the article by Tom Worstall on TechCentralStation today that could serve as a quick guide to make head and tail of all the national newspapers in the United Kingdom: The Telegraph is for the conservative upper and middle classes, the Guardian for progressive such, the Independent for confused ones, the Times for, well, providing Rupert Murdoch with social respectability? The Mail and Express fight for the middle ground (the Mail from the right, the Express not very hard recently). The Sun for right-wing working class, the Mirror for left such, the Star for those who find two syllable words too tough and the Daily Worker (if it still exists) for Communist Party supporters.

I usually work out three times a week, you know, to stay in good shape and keep my cholesterol level down. However, I had to work late yesterday and ran to the Metrocrest monthly meeting so I missed my day at the gym. Today, I took off to the gym, worked out and then came back to work. After kicked things off to run, I went to DFWAACC post banquet appreciation dinner for all the board directors and then back at work again. It's rather frustrating because I suppose to wrap up this project this week. It's already delayed one week and I really do not want to slip again. Things never really go right when you need them to but I thank God for whatever His purpose is in allowing me going through all these troubles, developing patience and learning to trust Him completely?

This article appeared today on the Star Telegram highlights a rather interesting situation we have here in one of the Texas House races. A political newcomer of Vietnamese descent running as a Democrat, Hubert Vo, appears to win the election for state rep. district 149, western part of Harris county, by a margin of 31 votes out of some 41,000 votes cast. If the 22-year Republican incumbent Talmadge Heflin, chairman of the House Appropriation Committee, decided to challenge, the House, which is 88-62 Republican advantage, could declare the election null and void and order the governor, Republican Rick Perry to hold new election. Being a Republican of Vietnamese descent, I hate to lose but I wish that Mr. Heflin had turned out more votes so we don't have this to deal with.

I'd like to strangle the guys who wrote this new variant MyDoom.AH@mm.

Cynthia Figueroa Calhoun, the Dallas County's Clerk was our speaker for the monthly Metrocrest Republican club meeting tonight. I did not know how much stuffs going on at a county clerk's office or that Dallas county is one of the largest ten counties in the country. About 2,500 to 5,000 documents go through that office daily, yes, every single day. It has the real estate office where all your real estate documents file with the county must go through; the trust department that invests/manages about 40 million dollars for minors or people who have been declared incompetent by the courts; supervises all the county civil, criminal, and probate court clerks .... The county clerk is elected every four year in the gubernatorial election cycle, not the presidential one. That means the next one is 2006 in the state of Texas.

This great article by Carlos Watson of CNN calls president Bush a political genius: "In 10 short years, George Walker Bush has won not just one but three high-profile political races that most able politicians would have lost. In 1994, with no real previous political experience, he beat a popular incumbent governor in the nation's second most populous state. Six years later, he beat a sitting vice president during a time of peace and prosperity. And last week, with a mediocre economy, an unpopular war and a well-funded and unified opposition, he not only won his race but also helped increase Republican majorities in the House and Senate." Yes, he is one without a doubt but I would also acknowledge Providence. It also echos the point I heard at a political grassroot training by the Leadership Institute a few months back: it's much harder for a senator to win the presidency than a governor. The only senator that won the presidency in the last 100 years was John F. Kennedy. There were many governors from both political parties: Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush.

A great article "Hispanics for Jorge" by Michael Gonzalez about the Hispanic votes which appears in the Opinion section of the Wall Street Journal today.

I put the wrist wrap on my right wrist and get back to weightlifting today after about two weeks off allowing the wrist to heal after the twist. I didn't venture anywhere near the max weight that I normally do. Will increase the weight gradually as I progress this week. Also need to start working seriously on the cardio part because I am going skiing in about 7 weeks.

It seems that the "mainstream" media don't get it at all. People want the news as objective as you could report without asserting your own opinion too blatantly. I saw on CNBC while doing my cardio on the treadmill that the people of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were here to observe the US presidential election. However, they kept headlining the meeting those people held today as "international MONITORING" of the election. The United States of America is an independent and sovereign constitutional republic and we are quite capable of free and fair elections as much as any other independent and sovereign nations. They are here to observe and not to monitor, otherwise they would not be here at all. And why don't these people stay in Europe, as it said in their organization's name? Last time I check, the great land that we call the USA is not part of Europe, am I right or am I right?

I had an eventful day, starting with a trip to take Truc and Ha to the airport for their honeymoon. Then went to church. The deacon board had a long meeting after the service with a lot of items on the agenda. Afterward, I went home and change to my comfortable jeans and t-shirt before coming over to Larry and Tiffany's house to see the baby, Luke and meet up with Helena, Caroline, Quan and Oanh to go to the VPS party. I've put in a lot of miles today just because all the places are far apart.

Truc and Ha's wedding today went quite well. I am not all that tired at all being the best man all day. Met Chet and Jo Jo, friends of Truc's family.

Last night we had our weekly small group at Tony's new home where he and ThaoTrinh just moved in a few weeks ago. A beautiful and spacious house with high ceiling and irregular shape rooms which made it very artistic in a way.

My limit order to sell AMV at $6.95 was executed automatically on October 28th while I was in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Didn't have time until today to find something worth buying.

Reading I Kings 21:1-29 reminds me of the issue of private property ownership vs. eminent domain, public use vs. public benefit.

There are now rumors of the resignation of AG John Ashcroft. I wish he would stay, a wonderful Christian man who has done a great job as attorney general and has taken a lot of heat for it.

President Bush endorsed Arlen Specter and even traveled to Pennsylvania to help him win the primary over prolife candidate Pat Toomey. Because of term limit, this pro-death senator from Pennsylvania will replace senator Orin Hatch as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Arlen Specter warned president Bush not to nominate prolife judges, who would follow their conscience and overturn Roe v. Wade, for the US Supreme Court. You see what a liberal will do to show gratitude, doesn't matter whether they are Republican or Democrat?

On the other hand, it should be noted that senator Harry Reid of Nevada is a prolife Democrat, who in all likelihood will replace Tom Daschle as the senate minority leader. Also, Kristen Day, the executive director for Democrats for Life today issued a press release "urged the Democratic National Committee to concede it's pro-abortion position today on the heels of one of the worst Election Day performances in recent memory."

Thank God senator John Kerry didn't follow the plaintiff trial lawyer John Edwards' advice but instead had decided to do the honorable thing and conceded. If you know anything about provisional ballots, you know that 99% of them probably will not be valid: vote from registered voters who somehow didn't have their names in the database or on the roster on election day. It's more likely that they are not registered at all or have registered after the cut-off deadline for this election in their particular state.

All in all a great election for us Republicans except for Danny Chandler in the sheriff race in Dallas county and Arlene Wohlgemuth the US House seat for the 17th congressional district.

Hubert Vo became the first American of Vietnamese descent to win a seat in the Texas House. He ran as a Democrat and got 20,584 votes against incumbent Talmadge Heflin who only got 20,532 votes for state representative district 149, which has a high concentration of Americans of Vietnamese descent. However, the margin of victory were only 54 votes. Unless he switch party, I am afraid he's going to lose in 2006.

There's always a first time for everything. The Redkins lost the game on Sunday but the party in power, the Republican Party did not lose the White House as the media people had hoped but rather retained it and gained 4 seats in the US Senate as well as a minimum of that many seats in the US House.

I got to the polling location, Central Elementary School gymnasium this morning at 06:30 and there were already people waiting in line. The poll does not suppose to open until 07:00. We scrambled to get everything in place and was able to get everyone started voting at 07:00. We had a poll watcher appointed by the Democratic candidate for sheriff, Lupe Valdez. Worked hard all day until 19:00. Had already started doing the paperworks during the day. Was able to finish everything at 20:30. Went home, had a little something to eat and changed into business dress for the victory celebration at the Radisson hotel on Central Expressway with the all the Dallas county Republicans.

If I may borrow a quote from Jonah Goldberg, which is found in week 43 brief of the Federalist where he described why the liberal diversity is absurd: "Aren't conservatives against diversity? Of course not. We're against the silly ideology that says you've achieved diversity when you have a room full of people who all look different but think alike."

Had my first Carrollton Library Advisory Board meeting today.

Went to Central Elementary School to set up all the voting booths afterward. Now I've got to initial all the ballots and make sure I have all the stuffs necessary for tomorrow: extension cords, duct tape, clear tape .... Can't wait to celebrate victory tomorrow night.

We help Hung & Thu moved into their new house yesterday. Had a great get together at Hung & Van's place afterward.

We had a very good choir practice today after church.

David Vitter's number in Louisisana is down below 50% again. I made a contribution today for him. I just want him to win outright instead of having to go into a run-off in December.

I missed the rally at noon today in Miami with president Bush. The rest of the Mighty Texas Strike Force was there. Next time, I am going to designate someone else to pick up the ballots and materials from Dallas County Elections Department and stay in whatever state I will be in until the Monday before election day to fly back to Dallas.

The president is coming to SMU Moody Coliseum tomorrow for a final rally. I picked up the tickets yesterday but because of the Library Board meeting tomorrow, the very first meeting for me, I will have to miss the rally. My brother will make good use of the tickets with our friends at church. Plus, these are general seatings tickets, not the stage tickets like the ones Alexandra gave me in 2002, where they need your social security number to do a security check on you.

In case you haven't voted early, you need to go to an exact location on
election day, Tuesday, November 2nd to vote. Locate your polling place
using your address: http://www.mypollingplace.com/find.php.

I am back in Dallas, ready to go pick up my ballots and other materials from the Dallas County Election Department later today. It was great meeting all the Republicans from Houston, Austin, College Station and Dallas coming to Fort Lauderdale to turn out the vote. I had to come back to Texas but the rest of the group is still in the Ft. Lauderdale area until November 3rd.

The numbers are looking great. The president will carry New Mexico and Wisconsin. It looks like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania all leaning the president's way. Michigan is close.

I am here in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We were driving around and saw a great group of folks standing at a corner waving Bush/Cheney '04 sign. Another neighborhood, it was Kerry/Edwards yard sign almost every house. I get to see some political TV ads that you would not see anywhere else.

A bunch of us went to lunch and then I went with Taylor to the Richardson Civic Center for her to vote early. One of the Frosties was there with his push cards, trying to tell us that the Dallas Morning News endorsed Mr. Frost. I told him I walked to Pete. The next thing I know, I came out from the voting place and my two magnets, one says "Support our troops" and the other "God bless America" were gone from the back gate of my pickup truck. May God forgive the Frosty because he knew not what he was doing, stealing in broad daylight!

Came by Baylor Medical Center in Irving to see Larry and Tiffany tonight.

I am ready to fly out to the Sunshire state tomorrow. Fort Lauderdale, here I come!

Jeff Jacoby gave us a question to ponder: why it is OK for John Kerry's faith to shape his stands on social welfare programs and the environment when he vows never to let his stands on abortion and embryonic stem cells be shaped by that same faith?

The Denver Broncos is still nowhere near the team they used to be. Even the Cincinnati Bengals dominates the first half of the game tonight against them.

The Dallas Cowboys has lost three straight games already and they want a brand new stadium with Arlington taxpayers paying half the cost, please! With a current standing of 2-4, I just don't see it. Don't get me wrong, I love the team and want them to win but I just can't bring myself to support the rotten deal that the Cowboys is offering to Arlington taxpayers. Check out the opposition at No Jones Tax.

We had a practice run of our English service today. Then Oanh, Peter, Phuoc, Nhat Nam, Cam Huyen, and Caroline came over my house to volunteer and walked the precinct with me and my brother, doing literature drop for the early voting. We got rained out at about 18:30. We went out to eat and talk for about an hour and a half.

I think my feet are falling off. I have walked a total of about over 7 hours today. First in Richardson, Waterview between Arapaho and Campbell for Pete; I then walked the Carrollton-Farmers Branch area here for Kenny.

I went to my first lunch meeting with the Dallas Junior Chamber of Commerce at Champs over in Addison. Great food and great group of young folks.

Went with my co-worker and fellow Republican Tuan to the WBAP listeners appreciation party over at the Gaylord Texan resort in Grapevine. We got out of work late, got stuck in traffic and I had to stop by my house so we didn't get there on time before the show ended at 18:00. However, I did have a chance to talk to Mark with the Rockwall Young Republican there.

So we have all these great Rock-n-Vote events everywhere, which is good, provided that these newly registered voters choose to become informed voters who know what the heck they are voting for, because there is nothing more terrible as seeing ignorant in action. But the NAACP went a step further and had what is now called Crack-n-Vote, where worker reward people who fraudulently filled out voter registration application with crack cocaine. Now, can you see why Bush does not want to associate with organization like NAACP? I am an American of Vietnamese descent and I think that the NAACP has strayed so far from their original mission that they have become nothing more than a Democratic party auxiliary. If Bush had not reached out to black, how did his support go from 9% to 18% in the last three years? The only group of black folks Kerry has been able to gain more support than Gore are the folks that have less than a highschool diploma and make less than $60,000 a year. Highschool is free (and some even get free lunch) in this country compare to many other countries, particularly Vietnam after 1975 when the commmunist overan South Vietnam, where you have to pay tuition all the way from first grade.

OK, so my hosting company is telling me that they are aware of the problem, my email being delayed for 3 hours, and are fixing it. They are having to deal with, you guess it right, spam.

Definitely there is a problem with my ky2ninh.org domain email server, starting about early morning yesterday. People sent me emails and I didn't get them until like 3 hours later. I sent an email to two of my own emails addresses: one of them I got within a matter of minutes while the other one still has yet to be received. Hopefully the hosting company will find the problem and resolve fast enough.

O'REILLY: The South Vietnamese didn't fight for their freedom, which is why they don't have it today.
BUSH: Yes.
O'REILLY: Do you think the Iraqis are going to fight for their freedom?
BUSH: Absolutely.

The issue of president Bush not correcting what Bill O'Reilly said during his interview still circulating around in various email lists. If people had watched the interview, they would have seen that the president was neither agreeing with O'Reilly or giving him any kind of answer but rather just ready to get on with the interview. President Bush could have corrected him but we all know the president is not a perfect guy in these kinds of things. For heaven's sake, he's also human. I wish all these Americans of Vietnamese descent would just lay it to rest. Mostly these are Democrats trying to help join Kerry. Why don't we judge John Kerry on his records of 20 some odd years of blocking every single human rights bills which deal with Vietnamese Communist government that came before the US Senate?

The radio show went OK. We ran out of time. I wish I could have covered the proposed stadium for the Cowboys in Arlington a little more extensive. The Cowboys will get their stadium but they may have to sweaten the deal a little bit.

In case you are still one of those undecided voters, here are a list of endorsements that you should see for yourself. Endorsing Kerry: Yasser Arafat, the French, Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, the Arab American Political Action Committee, the Communist Party USA. Endorsing Bush: the National Rifle Association, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pat Buchanan. I haven't seen outright endorsements from groups like National Right to Life, Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family Action, Americans for Prosperity, National Taxpayers Union, National Federation of Independent Business but from their positions on different issues, the chance of them supporting Kerry is like the chance of hell freezes over.

I read her book, The Fountainhead, but did not know much about Ayn Rand. Today, reading my Federalist 04-42 brief, it mentioned her name. I did a google search and found her biography. The one thing that jumped out at me is her marriage to Frank O'Connor. Here was a Hollywood couple married in 1929 until his death fifty years later, without the irreconcilable non-sense divorce we see with every couple in Hollywood these days.

I proudly cast my vote this morning. This was my very first presidential though not federal election because I had voted in November 2002. There was a line when I came, even though it was rather short at the Richardson Civic Center. It grew almost double the length when I left. There was a Frosty standing outside with her cards.

If one of the following processes is running on your system, you have one of those keystroke recording softwares running, be scared: actmon.exe, bootldr.exe, bpk.exe, loadkk.exe, loadwin.exe, sb32mon.exe, starrcmd.exe, Systems.exe, wsa32.exe, zsnrsdhp.exe.

It's been a while since I check the page for Texas Reciprocal Agreements but now Texans with CHL can legally carry in 12 other states, with 4 of them added this year: Mississipi, Utah, Idaho, North Carolina in addition to Wyoming, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

I twisted my right wrist while holding on to the handle and doing my hamstring leg curl exercise on Friday. I was praying and hoping it would heal itself so I don't have to come see Holmer, a fellow Republican and a friend of mine who is a chiropractor. It didn't get any better but I didn't have too much of a problem getting my tie all fixed up. After the worship service, it got remarkably better.

Came over to Rev. Dinh's house after choir practice and we had a great time eating lunch and watching football, the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles, then the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. I was tired and felt asleep during the Cowboys game. Had a real short nap and then went over to pick up Tuan and headed over to Mountain View Community College Performing Arts Center for the third debate between Pete Sessions and the other gentleman, the liberal 13-term congressman Martin Frost, who thinks that government is the answer to all problem with one formula of taxing more and thowing more money into any problem we are faced with.

The League of Women Voters hosted the dabate or candidate forum as they called it. The familiar Cal Jilson, Southern Methodist University political professor and political commentator for ABC channel 8 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area was the moderator. Saw and spoke to Keven Ann Willey, a transplanted Arizonian who is the editorial page editor of the Dallas Morning News, one of the three people on the panel which presented questions to the candidates, both from their own and the audience's. I commended her regarding her insistence on North Texas air quality. She spoke at our Metrocrest Republican club monthly meeting back in March of 2003 and air quality was one of her rather passionate issues.

I walked for Pete this morning, hanging door hangers to remind our supporters to get out and vote early. Early voting begins Monday, October 18th and ends on Friday, October 29th.

Then joined the Texas Young Republican Federation board meeting. Couldn't join them for dinner because the schedule conflict with the church youth group over at Rev. Bruce's house tonight.

The University of Texas at Dallas College Republican chapter got federated at the Texas Federation of College Republicans meeting today. The meeting took place the same time as the Young Republican so I couldn't be there, which is the next room at the Dallas County Republican Party headquarter to see what was going on but they were pretty loud with all the hand clapping.

We went out for lunch to celebrate a couple people's birthday at work. My boss paid for lunch and we also went bowling for about an hour. The rest of the group took off but I had to come back to work.

The Mighty Texas Strike Force (MTSF) is ready to hit the swing states to make sure our president wins and wins decisively so the other side won't actually call for a recount since they have already raised money for their recount efforts before the election is even held. Our team is shaping up real good. I already booked my ticket, non-stop American Airlines for only $176.70, a pretty good deal! Michael is going to give me a ride between airport and hotel, thank you Michael!

Indoor rock climbing, anyone?

Don't know if this family tree is authentic but I do know that one guy is conservative and for individualism, the other is liberal and for collectivism. I choose individualism everytime.

The last and final debate. Beautiful birdview of Arizona State. The armed forces is already stretching with stop-loss policy. Senator Kerry will not support a draft, but he will have two more divisions, where does he find 36,000 people? Raised the dead the same way he has been able to do with registering them to vote? The president should have hit him continually with where he's going to find the money to fund his 1.2 trillions plan when by the best estimation, rolling back the tax cut only provides at most 800 billions. I thought John Kerry looked rather uncomfortable talking about his faith and how it affects his public policy. I love the fact that in his closing statement, the president constantly driving the point that he will accomplish the next four years, confident that he will win come November 2nd and directly ask for my VOTE.

A great quote from Michael Reagan: "A lot of Reagan conservatives are threatening to cut off their noses to spite their faces. They think that because President Bush hasn't done every single thing they want, or has done some things they didn't want, they should punish him by staying home on Election Day or voting for some third party candidate who hasn't got a chance to win in November. It should be obvious to them that they will therefore help elect the Kerry-Edwards team that will do nothing they want and everything they don't. Somehow this idiocy seems to make sense to them -- dump a conservative president for a pair of socialists who, given four years in the White House, will wreck this country's economy and in the process probably lose the War on Terrorism, as well. What bothers me is the insistence of these dissident conservatives that they are devoted to the legacy of Ronald Reagan, who understood the truth of the old adage, 'Politics is the art of the possible.' In other words, you get what you can and wait for a chance to get the rest. These people think that if they don't get everything they want they are willing to accept nothing, but that's not what my father stood for. My father would say, 'If I can get 80 percent, or 60 percent, or 50 percent of what I'm looking for, I'll take that and I'll go back later on for the rest of it'."

Got it from a friend, check it out: Kerry and Kennedy private talk.

I love airplanes, and this is just too cool: http://globalsecurity.org/military/systems/index.html.

The NRA voter guide is now available.

Senator John Carona spoke at our monthly Northern Dallas Pachyderm club today about the important issues that the legislature will have to face in the session convenes for 140 days beginning January 1st, 2005:

1. The funding of public education: some sort of increase on sales tax (which is not deductible for federal income tax purpose and for every cent on a dollar raised, there will be about 2 billions dollar for state revenue), closing the loophole on franchise tax (which is currently the higher of 4% of a business' profit or .25% of your capital) where companies have subsidiaries out of Texas to avoid paying franchise tax.
2. The prison population in Texas, which has grown very fast over the last twelve years. How to keep the growth down because we cannot afford to build more prisons.
3. Worker's compensation, chiropractors should not be primary care doctors in the case of injured workers.

Yesterday I was helping to call voters for Danny Chandler, our candidate for Dallas County Sheriff and Bill Keffer for State Representative. Today, I was calling for president Bush and Danny Chandler. I also helped stamping the mail pieces: mailing for the Republican Party of Texas.

Great sermon last night by the reverend Thomas Stebins. I had a severed headache and went home right after the service to sleep without eating anything last night.

Went to the babyshower and birthday party after church. Then dropped by the Dallas County Republican Party Victory Center to join other Northern Dallas Pachyderm members to make phone calls to identify Republican voters. From there came over to Chris and MyLinh house for the VPS monthly meeting. It was a rather busy Sunday for me.

I really like what I have seen the last two days: Mel Martinez, Dr. Tom Coburn, Richard Burr are consistently ahead of Betty Castor, Brad Carson, Erskine Bowles for the senate seat in Florida, Oklahoma, North Carolina respectively.

However, it doesn't look all that sure for Pete Coors. His number and Ken Salazar's in Colorado has been back and forth so it's a deadheat there. I am hoping Pete Coors would pull ahead in the next 23 days. Alaska, the whole state is Republican but former governor Tony Knowles proves to be a very serious challenger for senator Lisa Murkowski to keep her seat. I hate the fact that we will lose the Republican senate seat in Illinois, barring any miracle there.

I am continually reminded that your character is the sum of your habits. It is so true if you think about it.

Let congresswoman Susan A. Davis (D-CA 53rd) know what you think about letting the "assault" weapon ban expired, about gun control and 2nd amendment right in general: http://www.house.gov/susandavis/survey/survey_october_2004.html.

HR163 to bring back the draft introduced by Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY 15th) was voted down by the US House of Representative on October 5th, 2004 by a 402-2 margin.

The president really nailed that most liberal senator tonight. Had a great time watching the debate over at Karen's place.

I thought this is rather funny: http://www.cafepress.com/chicksheartdick.

You have seen those yellow ribbons on cars and trucks. They are magnets and you can buy them from http://www.magnetamerica.com/PRM.html or talk to me.

Helena, Larry, Bruce, my brother Quan and I had fun celebrating Sukkot over at Randall and Karen's along with a whole bunch of people from Baruch Ha Shem and also a few of their friends. Charles Lingerfelt catered the food and it was excellent.

My Bush-Cheney '04 yard sign got stolen on Monday so I put the two I have left on the inside of my windows. It's sad isn't it when the other side resorts to stealing my signs?

Martin Frost knows he's in trouble so he's started taking out TV slot to run ads against Pete. This is the guy that is afraid to tell people he's a Democrat. Just saw one on NBC 5 tonight regarding airline security. Let's go ahead and plan a retirement party for Mr. Frost along with the senators Kerry and Edwards, shall we?

The genocide in Sudan, nobody said anything about it for the last two years except the conservative Christians. Now, once secretary Powell brought it up, the Kerry-Edwards people jumped on it, and now, Times magazine has started to cover it. It's so predictable, come on!

In case you need to practice speed reading, check out the four volumes of "A Counterintelligence Reader".

We had our first 2004-2005 executive board meeting for the Dallas County Young Republican for the night before the general membership meeting. We had a whole bunch of candidates addressing the group. NBC channel 5 was also there tonight for a little while. Had to run for the vice presidential debate in the middle of the general membership meeting.

The vice president could have sat up a little straighter, have a little more color on his face and have done better without placing his chin on his hands while he spoke. It was obvious after tonight that the Bush-Cheney campaign playing not to lose in these debates. Both the president and vice president so far have been very, very conservative, didn't attack the other guy as we should. Karl Rove is a genius so will have to trust him with the stragegy.

John Edwards had good color and very good posture, looking right into the camera. His impatience and breaking the rule were the only drawbacks. The one thing the Bush-Cheney campaign should nail Edwards I believe is in his closing statements when he said good defense is the best offense, that's something America cannot afford, ever!

I think John Edwards was making a strong case for the president to go after Iran and North Korea. This further proved that the president was right on target when he called the axis of evils for what they are. Let's see if either of them would flip-flop when the president goes after Iran and North Korea in his second term.

Camp went really well considering the fact that I didn't spend much time preparing as previous years. My brother took most of the responsibility for food preparation. It was pouring rain in wave on the way to Turner Falls but the whole time we were there, it was dry. It was rather windy the night we got there. Both Friday and Saturday nights, it was freezing. I wore a shirt and a sweater the first night and four layers of shirts and sweater the second and still had a hard time sleeping. During the day, it was most wonderful however. We had a great time hiking. There was even lifeguard at the pond this year.

Had opportunity to talk with Rev. Thach for all the two hours driving back from camp. It was very insightful. I admire him for a life well-lived. He's 68 but his physical endurance is much more than most of us in our 20s and 30s.

Got the four books by Dallas Willard I ordered last Thursday: Divine Conspiracy, Renovation of the heart, Hearing God, The spirits of the disciplines.

The mainstream media establishments refuse to cover this: insourcing.

Reminding all Asian Americans that regarding minorities, president Bush made 28 high level appointments of Asian Americans, which required US Senate confirmation during his first three years in office, based totally on merit and not a quota system. Some of the names are: secretary of labor Elaine Chao, secretary of transportation Norman Minelta, assistant attorney general for the US Justice department office of legal policy Viet Dinh .... Bill Clinton made no Asian American senate-confirmed level appointment in his first term and only 9 in his second term.

The draft: SS89 was introduced by the Democratic senator from South Carolina Earnest F. Hollings and HR163 was introduced by the Democratic congressman from New York 15 congressional district Charles B. Rangel.

Print your own copy of the 2005 Freedom Calendar.

I thought president Bush did very good driving home the point of Kerry being inconsistent and untrustworthy.

Don't know when I would be able to continue the day-by-day account of the convention but here is my convention report to the Northern Dallas Pachyderm club:


First thing first, I want to thank God for the opportunity to have been a part of the Texas delegation in New York. As promised, I want to tell you what happened behind the scene or what the press would not cover at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York.

Let me tell you that there weren’t all that many protesters, and a majority of them weren’t even New Yorker. There was this guy who is a delegate from New York hanging out with us. He loved the Stetson hats that all the Texas delegates wear so somehow we managed to find him one. Now, as he was walking outside on the streets, one of these protesters told him to his face up close that he’s not welcome in New York. He stepped right up to the guy and told the guy that he’s from Long Island and asked where was the guy from? The guy mumbled that he’s from California, took a few steps back and then walked away. Well, at least the protester was honest about being from California and didn’t flip-flop.

The closed to the press welcome party for the Texas delegation on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was a great kickoff. We heard from the governor, lieutenant governor and House majority leader. We all got a chance to get onto the balcony where they rings the bell each trading day and had our pictures taken. The line was rather long and by 10:30 or so, the photographer wanted to stop but I am glad they were able to convince him to work on until all of us had our pictures taken.

Ann Coulter was a speaker at the Republican National Coalition for Life luncheon at New York City Tavern on the Green on Wednesday. As we were going in, there were four or five protesters behind barricade on the side of the gate. As we were coming out, it grew to about ten and they kept on yelling “Shame on You” but they weren’t all that enthusiastic. We found Ann on Thursday night hanging out with the Utah delegation on the floor and she was waving signs and being as excited as everyone else.

The press reported about House majority leader Tom DeLay nowhere to be found at the convention, that was because we had too much fun hanging out with him party after party. At the Harris County Republican Texas dinner celebration on Wednesday night, he and senator Cornyn and all of us there were so excited about secretary Martinez winning the Republican primary in Florida on Tuesday night with 11 points ahead of the next guy, Mr. Bill McCollum, who caved in under pressure on the embryonic stem cell issue.

Dr. Ralph Reed, the former chairman of the Christian Coalition, who is also credited with turning the whole state of Georgia around and in 2002 elected their first Republican governor since Reconstruction, was at the Faith, Family and Freedom rally at the Waldorf Astoria along with senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday.

I did not know who Pat Green was going in but the party AT&T threw on Tuesday night for the Texas delegation changed that for good. The party began after the third convention session ended at 23:00 until 02:00 in the morning on Wednesday, no wonder I could barely opened my eyes the next morning at the 07:30 breakfast.

The prayer rally governor Perry had for the Texas delegation on Thursday afternoon really ministered to our needs as half of the Florida delegation had left New York to return to their home state because of the hurricane and also the Russian terrorist attack. It was so refreshing to be able to sit down, relax and come to God for strength and grace, knowing that God is sovereign among the affairs of man.

One final note was from day one, our cowboy hats were so popular that there was a standing offers from the NYPD officers to trade their NYPD caps for our hats. Too bad I didn’t have an extra one to trade because mine had already have the autographs of the two best Christian lawmakers from Texas: senator John Cornyn and House majority leader Tom DeLay. Bill Burch did manage to come back with an NYPD cap!

I also want to thank Jan and Bruce Woody, Ken Kammerlohr and the Republicans of Texas 24th congressional district for giving me the opportunity to see New York, to nominate our president George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney for another four more years.

Rev. Thach flew in from California so we sat down for dinner and a little talk at Rev. Bruce's house tonight. I need to go read the spiritual formation series of books by Dallas Willard as recommended.

Well, let's see what I have been up to. I went to the Denton County Fall Festival at Sneaky Pete on lake Lewisville after got back from church on Sunday. Congressman Burgess had a good group of singers there. There were little train ride, bouncing house, pet zoo, face painting, fire house for the kids. It's pretty good consider this was their first time doing it.

I, my brother, Tony, Larry, and Paul got together last night at Larry and Tiffany's house to watch the game between Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskin. I was cheering on for the Redskin just to drive all my buddies nuts. It was a rather interesting game to the last minute. I like Joe Gibbs and have been checking out ticket master for the second Cowboys and Redskin game on Dec. 26th but they don't have all 4 seats together. Should have thought of it earlier. Maybe I need to call the concierge service then.

Came by to help Kenny build some yard signs. Tim and Andrew were already hammering it away when I got there. Susie brought us pizza. Got to meet Kenny's dad and his brother Ronnie.

The 4th DFWAACC annual banquet went well Saturday night. Saw ambassador Sichan Siv again since I last saw him in Washington DC and his wife. Also saw congressman Hensarling and his district director Rebekah. Asked him about FMA and he told me he is going the route of the taking DOMA out of the federal court jurisdiction instead of moving forward with the FMA. Pete and Kenny also were there. Met and had my picture with David Chiu, the former (2000-2004) mayor of San Marcos and the first Asian American mayor in Texas.

Check out these pictures I got from a friend: Bush vs. Kerry.

Forbes released its list of 400 richest people in America today:

Isn't this cool:
.

Which America do you want your children to live in? Borrowing a quote from Samuel Huntington: "America will be a nation of individuals with equal rights sharing a common culture, or an association of racial, ethnic, and cultural groups held together by hopes for material gains."

We have heard so much about the most liberal senator's testimony before the senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22nd, 1971 but here is the full text for your leisure reading: http://kerry-04.org/testimony.php.

Got it from a friend, click on the thumbnail to check it out: .

Great law like the campaign finance reform prevents county political party from spending anymore than certain amount of dollars, I believe around $5000, for political yard signs. Now, the average Joe like me who wants a Bush/Cheney '04 yard sign has to buy it so that we don't incur on the limited amount of dollars the county Republican party could spend. They have more money than they need but they just can't spend it, urgh! On a different level, city code here in Carrollton prevent the citizenry from putting up yard sign earlier than 30 days before election day, which means I have all the good looking yard signs and I couldn't put them out on my own yard, the very property that I own, earlier than October 2nd. Oh, state senator Jane Nelson will introduce a piece of legislation when the legislature convene on January 1st, 2005 to override homeowner association rule preventing homeowner from flying the American flag. Here in Texas the legislature meet 140 days every two years but the joke is that we wish that they would meet 2 days every 140 years instead! The truth is that the sinful nature of man makes government a necessary evil but let's keep the size of government to an absolute necessary minimum.

How about it? Eugene Volokh was a computer programmer for 12 years before he went to law school and became a law professor. I found his website from Tony Snow website, emailed him and got a reply real quick. I sure appreciate that.

I didn't count right and thought I had only one week left to finish everything at work until my boss pointed out that I have two weeks and he extended me one more week. The Lord sure have mercy on me!

I've been working pretty hard, missing both the combined Greater Dallas Pachyderm and Northern Dallas Pachyderm candidate meet and greet last week as well as the regular monthly meeting of the Northern Dallas Pachyderm yesterday.

I will be one of the groomsmen for a friend's wedding in November so I need to find some times and come in for tux measument this week.

I can't believe our annual camping for our youthgroup is coming up in less than two weeks!

Convention Monday, August 30th: I woke up, took a shower and then read the schedule. Found that for today, we all supposed to wear the denim shirt we were given yesterday in the delegate package. I walked from my hotel at 43rd St. up 7th Ave. to the New York Hilton at 53rd St. for breakfast with the Texas delegation. We were reminded of flag etiquette at the end of the breakfast for those of us who aren't wearing cowboy hats all that frequent. Saw lieutenant governor David Dewhurst so I had a picture taken with him after breakfast. Said hello to congressman Michael Burgess and his chief of staff. Was in line to get on the bus and was told they are not going to let anyone get in to Madison Square Garden with a bag. I was like, what's the point of passing out the bag to the delegates if we cannot use it to carry things. Scrambled to find friend who would put the bag in their room upstair for me. Got on the bus and was taken to Madison Square Garden for the first general sessions. Security blockade was at least two blocks from the building. On our way in, we saw a group of young kids, like junior high, stood inside the security zone almost at the entrance to the building, asking if we had security passes that we were not using. It was hot. We got there late, and the line through security with the metal detector was long. They made everyone turn on all the electronics to make sure that they were really what they looked like. For digital camera, they made us take a picture of the floor. For cell phone, punch in a digit or two. We passed through, kept taking the escalator up until we get to a floor with the gate shown on our credential. Went to our section, row and seat. I looked at the seat arrangement chart, then walked around and tried to find friends who were also alternate delegates from California, Florida and Georgia.

We found Texas alternate delegates were seated behind this huge camera platform and we couldn't see the stage at all. We later complained with our Republican National Committeeman Tim Lambert and he said the whole floor seating arrangement will be reconfigured on Thursday night Also, we could basically sit anywhere we wanted in the alternate delegate sections all around the floor. We didn't really have to sit in the Texas section at all. People moved around all the time talking to friends from different states. We heard remarks RNC chairman Ed Gillespie, co-chairman Ann Wagner, former Montana governor and Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign Manager Marc Racicot, New York city mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Convention CEO and Manager Bill Harris. Then there was video tribute to recently deceased Republican party leaders, especially our 40th president Ronald Reagan. There were 2-minute speeches by various congressional candidates, with Congressman Tom Reynolds from New York 26th district, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee in charge. Then we had the nomination process going by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and rolling roll call of the states, the most fun part that you see on TV all the time, with Secretary of the Convention Sara Gear Boyd and I believed Colorado Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton as assistant secretary of the convention joining speaker Hastert. Things seemed to move very fast from the floor, with things I don't even recalled taken place except for the 2-minute speeches: senator George Allen of Virginia, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee with more 2-minute speeches from senatorial candidates. Then Ohio governor Bob Taft, chairman of the Republican Governor Associations with gubernatorial candidates, don't remember if there were 2-minutes speeches, probably were. Follow by remarks from College Republicans president Eric Hoplin, Charlotte, NC mayor Pat McCrory who is also the president of the Republican Mayors and Local Officials, Irish-American president Susan Davis, National Conference of Republican County Officials president Marilyn Byers, Young Republicans president Michael Mack, Hispanics Across America president Fernando Mateo. Finally wrapped up with a benediction from the famous Joni Eareckson Tada of Agoura Hills, California that we hear often on Dr. James Dobson Focus on the Family radio show.