The Wellington Republican Club will hold a meeting on December 3 from 3:00 PM-5:00 PM (Eastern) at Wellington Clubhouse.  For more info, contact the Hernando County Republican Executive Committee at 352-796-4741 or hernandorec@hernandorec.org.

Below are a trio of GOP events, scheduled to take place in Clay County, FL during the week of November 28-December 4:

• Fleming Island Republican Club.  December 1 from 7:00 PM-8:00 PM (Eastern), Fleming Island Library, 1895 Towen Center Blvd.  For more info, contact Jack West at 264-7877.
• Keystone Heights Republican Club.  December 2 from 4:00 PM-5:00 PM (Eastern), Keystone Heights City Hall; for more info, contact Noel Thomas at 352-473-9121.
• South Clay Republican Club.  December 3 from 12 noon-1:00 PM (Eastern), Magnolia Point Country Club; for more info, contact Russ Megonegal at 284-7398.

Below are a pair of Republican events of interest in the State of Delaware for the week of November 28-December 4:

• Newark Region Republican Meeting.  December 1 at 7:00 PM (Eastern), Newark Region Headquarters, College Square Shopping Center.
• New Castle County Republican Committee Meeting.  December 3 from 6:30 PM-7:30 PM (Eastern), State Committee headquarters; for more info, contact Kelly Gates at 302-995-6986. 

In what could possibly be good news for Republicans (myself included), MSNBC blowhard/loose cannon Chris Matthews is exploring the possibility of running for the U.S. Senate in 2010; specifically, according to The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, PA, Matthews met with Democratic state party leaders to discuss a possible bid to unseat Rep. Arlen Specter.

I don’t want to speculate, but state party official Mary Isenhour said that she had the feeling that Matthews had not made up his mind yet.  What a lot of people may or may not know is that Matthews ran – unsuccessfully -  for a Pennsylvania congressional seat way back in 1974.  My suggestion to Matthews is that he run for that Senate seat against Specter. 

The selfish side of me wants him to run; the reason I want him to run for the seat in 2010 is so that when he loses that election, he will go through what Al Franken will shortly go through – without the recount.  Then Matthews can go where fellow MSNBC blowhard Keith Olbermann already is – journalism anonymity.

President-elect Barack Obama on Monday will select his national defense team, including Robert Gates and retired general Jim Jones – and boy the Democraps Democrats are not happy about that prospect.  The infighting in Congress should turn out to be the political version of the WWE, but without the physicality.  And it won’t get any better come January 20, when Obama assumes the presidency.

You see, Obama snuck his way into the Oval Office partially because he was opposed to the Iraq war before he became a U.S. senator, so his about-face in appointing Gates and Jones at the very least has raised some eyebrows amongst the Democrats.  You think the Democrats in Congress are unhappy?  The Democratic bloggers are whining, too.  Lots of them are contending that Gates aided and abetted in the alleged “waterboarding” along with the usage of psychotropic drugs on detainees; Jones has been spared somewhat but the bloggers aren’t too keen about him either.

Along with Gates and Jones being appointed on Monday will be a sprinkling of Clintonistas, so that should placate Congress and the left-winger bloggers for awhile.  And let’s not forget the appointment of Hillary Clinton to the Secretary of State gig; that should bring a big blue (code-speak for Democratic) orgasm felt nationwide.  What Congress and the Democratic bloggers need to understand is that while their party owns the White House and Congress, they also need to realize that they need some Republicans in the Department of Defense to ensure the frame to both homes need to be sturdy and strong.

To prove that even terrorist organizations have brain cramps in implementing their strategies, according to the Associated Press, a wanted Taliban commander was killed by US troops who had surrounded a house in Ghazni province in Afghanistan.  While that in and of itself is newsworthy, the circumstances of the commander getting knocked off are unusual – he died not wearing a Taliban uniform or whatever that organization typically wears.  Get this – he was wearing a burqa (a full-covering dress that Afghan women wear customarily).  I am not joking; he tried to dress as a woman.

As it were, he was being targeted by NATO (including the US) and Afghan troops; the occupants of the house that he was in were ordered to leave.  Six women and 12 children left the building, but while soldiers were questioning the women, they discovered that one of them was dressed in the aforementioned burqa.  The cross-dresser, aka Taliban commander Haji Yakub, tried to attack the soldiers and was killed.  apparently Yakub directed bomb and suicide attacks against Afghanistan’s coalition and government forces in the province.  Three other militants – presumably dressed a bit more normally – were killed, as well in the raid.

Several things were accomplished here.  Firstly, our troops knocked a top Taliban henchman.  Secondly, it puts more teeth into the argument that more troops need to be moved over to Afghanistan in order to eradicate the Taliban and other minor terrorist cells.  Thirdly, it also validates what should have been known all along – President Bush’s war strategy was correct all along.  Lastly, what was this Taliban goon thinking?  Dressing up as a woman?  My best guess is that either he was entirely too tall to make looking like a woman plausible or he simply forgot to shave.  Because of his lack of planning, the deceased Taliban commander gets a Homer Simpson Citation – albeit posthumously.  I wonder how Afghans say “D’oh”?

Imagine this, if you will.  The King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah, thinks that the price of oil should rise to around $75 or so a barrel, although no action is likely to be taken when OPEC meets again next month.  All of this according to Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi.  And the reason for the proposed rise in oil prices?  According to the oil minister in Qatar, one Abdullah Bin Hamad al-Attiya suggests that the rise in price would allow for investment and developing new or existing oil fields; he also says that when the price of crude falls below $70, investment freezes – which supposedly leads to a crisis in supply in the future.

Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter much to me whether they either raise oil prices to the proposed $70-80 per barrel vicinity or not.  Nor does it bother me that they throw out there the option of reducing output.  Why, you ask?  The USA has reduced oil consumption – partly but not completely because because of our shaky economy – even though the price of a barrel of crude has dropped to around $54 per barrel ($1.83/gallon of gasoline).  And I fully expect President Bush to follow through on opening up on the oil leases to drill offshore locally before he leaves office.  That in and of itself will allow for the slow but steady implementation of our country relying less on foreign oil, which was the message of John McCain and Sarah Palin. 

Not only is drilling offshore practical, it is also cost-effective, both for the US-based oil companies who would do the drilling and the consumers here in the States.  So if OPEC wants to either cut production or raise prices, they can go right ahead.  It isn’t like there aren’t enough oil reserves here locally to keep us up and running for the foreseeable future.  Besides, even President-elect Barack Obama will eventually see the light and realize that the US will need oil as part of the so-called “clean technology” strategy he proposes as part of his administration.