It's About Time!

"It's About Time" that is how this post, for this excellent video is titled. It may not be an official ad, but it is an ad nonetheless. There are so many meanings this phrase can have. All of them positive. First, "it's about time" that we rally around a true conservative who will truly care about the needs and concerns of ALL Americans. Second, it's "it's about time" that we, the Huckabee supporters, use this time wisely to donate our resources, whether those be financial or abilities to help spread the word about Mike Huckabee. To help financially go here, to donate online, or here, to donate through the mail. Thirdly, "it's about time" that a campaign ad be outside the box. Folks, this is not the typical campaign ad. As many of ya know, I am sicking of seeing campaign ads that talk about the happy-ass family of the candidate. Ya know the ones I am talking about. Where ya see the candidate and his wife walking hand in hand and the kiddos are running around in a park, playing football or something. Everyone is hugging and smiling. That's nice. I am glad that the candidate has a nice family, but that ain't gonna help me no how. What this ad is, is different. It shows some clips of Mike Huckabee speaking and telling it like it is. Not some dude speaking in an annoying voice of trying to be scary in a funny way. Oh, and talk about the music score. Oh my. It is not one of those with the dramatic dah, dah, dah piano. No folks, it has some great sound. It has great eletric guitar and horns. It is worth watching over and over and over again.

Aweome Email Update from Mike Huckabee

Check this out, a lot of positivity going on for Mike Huckabee.

• I am on the road campaigning in Iowa. Tonight is our big event at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake and I am looking forward to some time on stage with my band, Capitol Offense, as well as meeting with supporters and friends.
  
• Last night we had an important event in Sioux City with members of AARP. Senator McCain and I shared a stage to talk substantively about issues such as health care. The other candidates did not attend.
• Yesterday a new national tracking poll had us breaking into double digits within 2% of Mitt Romney. And then today I woke up to even better news…the Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows us moving ahead of Romney and within 2 points of John McCain. Clearly we are on the move! The bad news about surging in the polls like this is that the attacks from the other camps are now coming at us like chocolates on the assembly line coming at Lucy and Ethel!
• Our campaign is wearing that as a badge of honor and we will be using our website and relying upon our activists to counter these attacks.
• So, today I’m asking you to help me defend myself and my family against these attacks. You can do so, by “buying a box of chocolates!” Think of it this way: Take next week off sweets… that’ll be good for you anyway… and invest that in my campaign! If you have not made a contribution towards our fundraising goal of $1,034,487 I urge you to do so today.
  
• Yesterday we raised approximately $60,000 towards our goal and we hope to match that level of support today. Make a contribution of $1(A Buck for Huck!), $5, $10, $25, $50, $75, $100, $500 or even $1,000 immediately online. With each contribution made, the money tracker on the front page of our website automatically updates. I am certain, judging by our recent website traffic, that folks are enjoying watching that tracker move us closer to our goal!
• If you have already made a contribution and can't afford to give more just now, I have another way to help.
• Click on the links below and watch the videos a supporter made. After you watch the videos, cut and paste the links into an email and send them to your friends. When you send the link, encourage your friends to forward the link to their friends and ask them to make a contribution and/or sign up for my email updates so I can keep them informed.
  
• Working together we can make a difference. If you haven't made a contribution towards our goal, I urge you to do so today. With deep gratitude,
  Video: Imagine.
  Video: It's About Time.
  

Divided We Fail

John McCain and Mike Huckabee participated in what was supposed to be a debate held by the AARP. But the six other candidates were no shows. so it was more of a Town Hall between the two who did show up. Both were civil to each other. There was even this conversation;

• It was so friendly, the question had to be asked: Would these two men make a good Republican ticket?
  “I’d be happy to have Senator McCain as my Vice President!” Huckabee quipped.
  “I knew you’d say that,” McCain followed up with laughter. “I knew he’d get that line in before me!”

Check out these two articles about the event

• Huckabee and McCain share AARP stage
• ABC News' Bret Hovell reports: Two presidential candidates, vying for the nomination of the same party, shared a battleground-state stage Thursday not as rivals, but as friends and colleagues, leaving behind the personal attacks and snappy one-liners that have characterized much of this cycle’s race for the White House.
  Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and Arizona Senator John McCain came together in Sioux City, IA, to discuss issues of healthcare and social security at a forum sponsored by the AARP. [Read the rest here.]
• Huckabee hits it
  Go ahead and start the “You’re just a Huckabee flack” replies. But the winner of the GOP “debate”, OK forum, concluded 80 minutes ago in Sioux City tonight was Mike Huckabee. While John McCain didn’t have any misstatements in the 90-minute session, Huckabee performed well. He got off the most applause lines, and while both guys drew some laughs in what was an event devoid of tension (or high stakes), Huckabee had a few more chucklers. Most importantly, he was ripping off lines that shows he was well prepared for the forum on health care and financial security issues. [Read the rest here.]

Mike Huckabee: Pro-Life from Cradle to Grave

From Mike Huckabee's website.

Mitt Romney the Flip Flopper

h/t to Bill Smith from the ARRA for giving the link to this video in a comment on a previous post. As my regular readers know, my personal computer does not have sound. Even if it did the video would not play well anyways. Since I trusted the source, I did allow the comment to post, but because I was unable to view the video I did not post it until I had a chance to view it. So, enough of my babbling, here's the video.



Here is the link to the post on ARRA

John "Chip" Saltsman Replies to Lie

First off, two things-h/t to Chris from the Huckabee campaign for bringing this to the attention of the bloggers. The other thing is, regular readers of my blog know that truth comes before anything in my little world. Truth, to me, is more important than party affiliation or even the candidate I ardently support. So this is why I bring this to you. What is this you may ask? Good question.
"This" is an article of lies that John Hillyer from the Weekly Standard wrote. And this is the response that John "Chip" Saltsman wrote in response. Here I will include his full response. First, before I do that, I want to say I had to put a lot of thought into posting this. As you know, I obsessive compulsively read everything from all angles. So that is what I did. I am no arse-kissing-zombie to anyone, not my readers, not Mike Huckabee, not the Huckabee campaign. I do things my own way and if anyone doesn't like it, they can kiss my big-fat-white-Republican-redneck-arse, thank you very much. In conclusion, I do not believe the smears told by this Hillyer dude. I do believe Mr. Saltsman's reply.
So, without further adoo, here is Mr. Saltsman's full reply

• THE HUCKABEE RECORD
• Re: Quin Hillyer's A Tale of Two Candidates:
• The October 24, 2007 article by Quin Hillyer, "A Tale of Two Candidates," is a biased and complete distortion of the record of Governor Mike Huckabee that needs to be addressed.
• It is indeed disappointing -- but perhaps telling -- that Mr. Hillyer contacted neither the Governor nor the Huckabee for President Campaign for this article. The resurfacing of these old allegations, which have previously been addressed, and the Governor's surge in recent polling, is also suspect.
• Clearly, the facts show that Mr. Hillyer needs to do his homework. The overwhelming majority of ethics complaints filed against Governor Huckabee in the state of Arkansas were regularly dismissed and / or proven to be frivolous.
• It is also important to note that many of these complaints were filed by a member of the Arkansas "media." There was no mention in Mr. Hillyer's work that these complaints were later dismissed by that same news outlet.
• The REAL story is that, despite the many attempts, there has never been a finding that Governor Huckabee ever received an illegal gift. Period.
• To attack Governor Huckabee's wife, Janet, is the worst kind of journalism. As First Lady of Arkansas, Mrs. Huckabee served with dignity for many years. She was a leader behind the scenes during natural disasters within the state -- and her support of education and children is second to none.
• With regards to attacking his fiscal record as Governor, what "think-tanks" such as CATO or Club for Growth consistently fail to recognize is that, regardless of party or politics, governors are responsible for delivering better government and balanced budgets to the people they represent. What mattered most to the people of Arkansas is results -- not rhetoric -- which is why Mike Huckabee was elected and re-elected as Governor.
• A fair appraisal of Governor Huckabee's record reveals that he is an authentic, consistent conservative whose goal is to reduce both taxes and spending when he is President. Here are the facts.* Regarding his record, Arkansas voters overwhelmingly approved of Mike Huckabee's performance in office. He was elected to a four-year term as governor in 1998, after succeeding to office in 1996, attracting the largest percentage of the vote ever received by a Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arkansas. In 2002, he was re-elected to another four-year term. When he left office earlier this year, his job approval rating was in the high 60s.
• * Without doubt, Mike Huckabee is a fiscal conservative who cut taxes almost 100 times in the state of Arkansas and returned almost $400 million to Arkansas taxpayers, including the first broad-based tax cut in the history of the state.
• * He also doubled the standard deduction and the child care tax credit and eliminated the marriage penalty and the capital gains tax on the sale of a home. He reduced the capital gains tax for businesses and individuals. He indexed the income tax to protect people from paying higher taxes because of "bracket creep."
• * Governor Huckabee left the state with almost $1 billion in surplus, setting the stage for further tax reductions. He cut welfare rolls by almost 50 percent, while balancing the state budget every year of his terms.
• * With respect to the tax and spending that he had under his control, spending rose about six-tenths of one percent a year during his ten-and-a-half year tenure. In Arkansas, over 90% of the state general revenue budget is spent on three things: education, Medicaid, and prisons. If the state entirely eliminated everything else but those three, it would save less than 10% of the budget. Despite those limitations, Huckabee managed to enact budget cuts. Regarding Wayne DuMond, here are the facts:
• * Governor Jim Guy Tucker gave executive clemency to Wayne DuMond, and commuted his sentence to 39.5 years. This action made it possible for Wayne DuMond to receive parole.
• * The parole board was made up entirely of Governor Bill Clinton and Governor Jim Guy Tucker appointees. Governor Huckabee didn't have one member on the board that he had appointed. * Governor Huckabee never took action in the DuMond case that made him parole eligible.* Governor Huckabee either denied the commutation and pardon request, or took no action (which is the same as a denial) on 4 separate occasions.
• * This wasn't Governor Huckabee's decision to parole Wayne Dumond. Governor Huckabee had no authority to do that, as governors don't have that authority in the parole process.* The fact remains that Governor Huckabee didn't commutate, pardon, parole or grant any form of clemency to Wayne DuMond.
• * Governor Huckabee denied 2/3 of all pardon requests while Governor of Arkansas from July 15, 1996-December 31, 2006.* Governor Huckabee denied 86% of all commutation requests during the same period.
• * Governor Huckabee signed off on, and carried out 16 executions while he was governor, which were more than 20 other states that currently had the death penalty in place.
• It's interesting that this wasn't an issue for 6 years (1996-2002) until the election year of 2002, when Governor Huckabee's Democratic opponent, in the midst of a heated general election, made a political issue out of the case.
• Finally, one more note: Calling him "The Huckster" in a hatchet job like this shows disrespect, not only to the Governor himself, but to the office he held for 10 1/2 years.
• Governor Mike Huckabee has shown leadership, compassion and strength in tough times. In this important presidential election cycle, the facts are what matter to the American people.
• Sincerely,
• -- John "Chip" Saltsman
• National Campaign Manager
• Huckabee for President

Here now is Kathy's conclusion. Mike Huckabee is a decent guy with decent morals, who will uplift America and her people. He will unite all those who may have disagreements. Lies like this Hillyer dude's needs to be addressed, and I commend Mr. Saltsman for doing that. Now, I am not saying this because I support Mike Huckabee, I am saying that because I am sick of the baseless mudslinging that has been going on for years and years.

I don't care who does or says what, if I find fault that can't be disputed by Mike Huckabee I will be the first to speak out against it. If I find fault about anyone else, Democrat or Republican, I will be the first to speak out against it. I find out someone is lying about Mike Huckabee I will be the first to speak out against it. If I find out someone is lying about one of Mike's competitors, Rep or Dem, I will speak out against it. To be honest not quite as ardently as I would against lies about Mike, but I would speak out. Basically, you can bet your bottom dollar I will bite, kick and scream against any wrong doing, by anyone. I can be an equal opportunity truther, good or bad, like it or not.

Where did that name come from? Could Mike Huckabee be descended from farming Vikings?

Have you ever wondered the historical meaning to your last name? What does it mean? Where did it come from? Have you ever wondered about someone else' name? Maybe it was your friend or an acquaintance? What about a political candidate?

After the Michigan Debate a journalist, someone who should have known better, was making a comment about Mike Huckabee's last name, calling it a hick name. I went on ancestry.com to see what Mike Huckabee's last name means. I thought I would check other candidate's, Rep and Dem, last names. There is no info for Rodham, Kucinich or Obama.

This is really fun researching ancestry. I had been doing research of my own family, but I have not been able to get too far. Some I can trace back to the Revolutionary war and some of my Southern side to Medieval/Renaissance Europe

Here is what I found for Huckabee

Huckabee
Variant of English Huckaby. I decided to see what Huckaby means.

Huckaby
English (rare in England): apparently a habitational name from Huccaby in Devon, possibly so named from Old English woh ‘crooked’ + byge ‘river bend’, or Uckerby in North Yorkshire, named with an unattested Old Norse personal name, Úkyrri or Útkári, + býr ‘farmstead’. Old Norse is Viking.

Here is what I found for occupation, in 1880. Check the graph to the right. the majority of Huckabee's were farmers. All of them had blue collar jobs. While none of them had fancy titles, it shows that they were hard workers. Mike Huckabee is a hard worker and he will work hard for the American people. He and his family before him knows about the struggles of the American family.

I tried to post a map that shows name distributions in 1840, 1880 and 1920, but for some reason the only part of the map that would show up is Tennessee. So I will describe what I found.

In 1840 about three Huckabee families each lived in Mississippi and North Carolina. Two Huckabee families lived in Tennessee. One Huckabee family each lived in Alabama and South Carolina. To see the map go here.

In 1880 about 97-192 Huckabee families lived in Alabama. Thirty-three to Ninety-six Huckabee families each lived in Arkansas and South Carolina. One to Thirty-two Huckabee families each lived in Texas, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. To see the map go here.

In 1920 about 39-75 Huckabee families lived in Texas. Fourteen to thirty-six Huckabee families each lived in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. One to thirteen Huckabee families each lived in California, Idaho, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississipi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland,Virginia, North Carolina.

To see this map go here.

Here is my conclusion about these maps. Since many of y'all are figuring how does all this have to do with politics? If ya look at the first map ya notice that there was only two states, not too many Huckabee's being too known. Then ya see in 1840 there is more Huckabee's being known, in the South. Then in 1920 there were Huckabee's all over the place.

This is how Mike Huckabee's campaign has been. First he was only known in his home state of Arkansas and a few other places. Then he became more known in most of the other Southern states and maybe a few other Northern states. Now he is getting lotsa buzz and becoming a household name everywhere in this country. And this time it took about 80 days, instead of 80 years.

I also found predictable info on Huckabee Civil War Service. I was hoping it would be different, but ya can't base a candidate on what side his ancestors fought in a war. Perhaps the two men who fought on the Union side were his direct ancestors and the other guys were his gg uncles.

I am sure many of y'all are thinking, "well this map instance can happen with any family the more generations that grow." This is not always the case with every family.

Check out all these links and just play around a little. Not just with the Huckabee name, but your own too. It really is fun.

Next installment I will show y'all about the Romney name. Unfortunately I no longer have a payed subscription to Ancestry so I can not give more details. This is only the free stuff available.

Actually, if I still had the payed subscription I would worry about my families of Kallis(Bohemia, Illinois), Eaker(Switzerland, Germany, most of the South, Arkansas), Reimel(Germany, Pennsylvania, Michigan), Harding(England, New York, Michigan), Wells(England, Illinois, Arkansas, Michigan), Shoemaker(Pennsylvania), Love(UK, not sure, Michigan), Loll(Germany), Hall(Germany), Walter(Germany), Pawlowski(Poland, Germany), Nielsen(Denmark), Selinger/Seliger(Bohemia), Ryan(Ireland)

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan and hug your family!

Mike Huckabee on the Issues

Here's a great, to the point article about where Mike Huckabee stands on the issues, from a woman's perspective.

• Mike Huckabee served as the 44th governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. Along with eight others, he is now seeking the nomination of the Republican Party for president in the 2008 campaign. The following overview offers a brief summary of Governor Huckabee’s stance on the issues: Faith and Politics, Sanctity of Life, Health Care, Taxes and the Economy, and National Security.
• Faith and Politics
• Huckabee says, “I have much more respect for an honest atheist than a disingenuous believer.” He believes that faith should be debated and shared by never imposed. He adheres to the First Amendment that “requires that expressions of faith be neither prohibited nor preferred.”
• Sanctity of Life
• Huckabee states unequivocally that Roe v Wade should be overturned. He claims that he became politically active because of the issue of abortion, and as governor, he got many pro-life laws passed despite a Democrat legislature. About stem-cell research, he says, “I believe in using existing stem cell lines for research, but I do not believe in creating life for the sole purpose of destroying it.”
• Taxes and the Economy
• The former governor wants to eliminate all federal income and payroll taxes. He colorfully asserts, “I'd like you to join me at the best ‘Going Out of Business’ sale I can imagine—one held by the Internal Revenue Service.” When he says he wants to eliminate all taxes, he means it: “And do I mean all - personal federal, corporate federal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment.” He supports the Fair Tax, which taxes consumption not earnings.

To find out what this author says about where he stands on other issues click on to this article in Bella Online.

Disclaimer: I have checked out this website. Not all of the issues and articles I agree with. It is not a Liberal or Conservative site. It is all views about things that interest women, from all perspectives, from many women.

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!

I Just Finished Getting off the Phone From Tonites Blogger Call

I participated in a crowded Bloggers Conference Call tonite with Mike Huckabee and his ever faithful bloggers. I will give a synopsis for now and be back later with more details. I am still working on more of my ebay fundraiser projects, and working on my Rockabilly poetry.

First Mike Huckabee thanked all the bloggers for being his "Truth Squad." He said we are probably the most effective non-payed advertisement out there. He recapped what has been going on for the past few days. He said the recent polls in Iowa and the FRC surprised everyone except him, his campaign and loyal supporters. In the FRC poll he beat out his nearest opponent by, who could that be;), by 5-1. He mentioned that he had been getting more momentum even before Sam Brownback dropped out of the race. Now many of Brownback's supporters are turning to Mike. He mentioned that Frank Lutz, the guy who does the pre, during and post debate polling for FOX News, says that every time he does polling that Mike's numbers go up. He was wowed by the fact that the campaign website crashed quite a few times after the debate, as was I, but wasn't that cool!
He said that when he is sitting in the Oval Office and a reporter asks him how he got to be the President he will say it had to do with the bloggers lifting him up.

Kevin Tracy asked him about the buzz of Chuck Norris endorsing Mike Huckabee. Mike thought it was amazing that someone who is so famous and patriotic would endorse him. Mike and Janet Huckabee are huge fans of this great actor whom neither one of them has ever met. Mike hopes that in the future to do appearances with Mr. Norris. He made a little joke about possibly doing some martial arts together.

A fellow Michigander, Kerry from One Mom, asked him what he thought about Michigan's decision to move the Primary early.

Rhett from Buck for Huck asked him about Chip Saltsman managerial skills and finances. Mike said that the meager resources the campaign has received has been spent carefully and wisely and that he hasn't had to borrow a dime. He even has cash on hand. He wants to be able to tell his donors that the money they have given has been spent well.
He credits Mr. Saltsman with being a frugal manager using the sources wisely. Now he needs to start advertising in Iowa.

Other bloggers who asked questions were
Granite Rock-Social Security
Team Ron Miller-The Leadership within the Family Values crowd
Popular Huck-How Mike's finances have raised up, just within the past few days
Montana for Huckabee-Fundraising strategies and a Fundraising Chairman

I will get back to y'all on all this. I am sorry, I do not know the links to the latter set of questioners. As soon as I find out I will provide those links. I am now headed to the sewing room, listen to Buddy Holly and finish my little projects.

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!

Mike Huckabee's Humility Makes him Likeable

Check out this terrific article in the Concord Monitor.

• Voters should get to know Huckabee
  Candidate connects easily with people


• There was plenty to admire about Mike Huckabee's appearance at Concord High on Friday. He talked with the students, not at them or down to them. Many of them disagreed with him on abortion rights, but they had to respect the way he explained his pro-life views. And in both body language and actual language he displayed a humility that would be a rare quality - and an asset - in a president.


• Huckabee is just the kind of candidate for whom the New Hampshire primary purports to exist. He's a little-known governor with a small bankroll. His only hope is to sell himself directly to the public.
  To run this kind of personal campaign, a candidate must come across as genuine, smart and experienced. Check, check and check. Huckabee, 52, is comfortable with himself and well-versed in the issues. For 11 years he was Arkansas's governor, a job in which, as he explained to the students, he often had to pursue or sell policies that he knew were unpopular.


• So far, Huckabee is best known as a bass guitarist, a guy who lost more than 100 pounds and a comedian. These are positives. He's humble about his musical skills, but even in a dark suit, white shirt and pink tie, he looks natural with a guitar strapped over his shoulder. He has translated his belief in music and the arts into appealing public policy. His weight loss makes him a role model and gives him a platform for talking about health as a public issue. The humor is a bonus; he and John McCain are in a league of their own in the 2008 presidential field.


• Religion could also be a problem for Huckabee.

I disagree, I think religion is a positive for him.

• He told us that in dealing with members of his congregation, he had experienced and confronted every kind of human misery. He counseled parents who had lost young children, married couples on the verge of divorce, people in debt, people struggling with alcohol and drug problems. The forlorn, the sinners and the sinned-against are a pastor's province.
  Huckabee had taken from this experience a profound understanding of human nature. He projects this quality when he speaks in public. While explaining his own views clearly and unapologetically, he also considers his listeners' interests and tries to address them.


• But New Hampshire isn't the Bible Belt. Voters in this live-and-let-live state tend to be suspicious of those who mix religion and politics, such as the Republican pastor-politician Pat Robertson.

OK, from this point I guess I can understand that about new Hampshire. But Mike Huckabee is different.

Check this out what the reporter has to say about his conclusion of Mike Huckabee.

• In case you were wondering, I should acknowledge here that I am not in that camp. There are many issues on which I disagree profoundly with Huckabee. Despite those differences, I find him intriguing and wonder why his party, with its big southern base, pays him so little heed.
  One of his well-heeled rivals may emerge as a stronger candidate than any appear to be now. Then again, maybe not. While New Hampshire Republicans wait and see, they owe it to themselves - and to the state's primary tradition - to lend Huckabee an ear.
  He may make you chuckle, but he'll also surprise you with his depth and his manner.

Read the full article here.