Happy Birhtday Dad

In a small lil village called Detroit on May 6, 1937 my Dad, Edward George LaDuke was born. Today he would have been 72 yrs of age. On Feb 19 1995 he passed away from a massive heart attack and my life changed forever.

I used to get real shitty about the Feb 19 th day every year. I guess you can't help it at first, but a couple of years ago I started to focus more on his birthday and less on the day the Lord called him home. I had waddled for too long in the despair of what if's and why's that I will never be able to answer.Plus it's not the way he would have wanted to be remembered. Not to dwell on the way he died but what he gave us for when he lived.

I usually would have kept all this bottled up but the one thing I have learned as I have grown older is that if you keep everything bottled up, you soon will explode.

I don't think of my Dad every single minute of every day but inevitably 7 ,10, 30 times through out the day something will pop up and it will link me back to him just for a second. Even on my most shit filled day at least for a moment I will grin & relax. I kinda like to think it's his way of saying " Hey , it could be a lot worse".

My Dad was the one who introduced me to the world of politics. I would sit and watch the evening news with him and listen to the political discussions with my Mom in the living room as a child. Because of my Dad's strong views as a baby I was dubbed the Republican. But as I grew up and listened to him he always stressed that you " vote for the person not the party."

He was so right.

When I joined the Republican party in 1990 he told me to prepare to be disappointed and not to waiver from what I believed. When President Bush 41 broke his no new taxes pledge and I was told by members in the Rep party to be a good party member and not criticize I told them I was a good American first and left the organization before the 1992 election. I never told my Dad that but I hope he would have been happy I took his advice.

I still salute the flag every once in a while just like he taught me when I was 3.

I'm still in absolute AWE of the men and women who serve this country every day in the armed forces just as he served. On many more occasions than I can count, he made sure I understood that these people serve this country to allow us to do what we choose to do every single day, and the least we can do is thank them whenever we see them.

I'm still a Lions fan even though he told me it would never change in his lifetime or mine that they suck. I still remember the times sitting on the couch and watching those football games with him and both of us shaking our heads.

My Dad was born in Detroit and lived there until he and my Mom were married in the late 60's. He didn't agree with what was happening in the city but he loved that city. I can recall a time he called a talk show about the debate at the time of whether Joe Louis Arena should be named after the great boxer or someone else. Dad launched into a story about what Louis meant not only to the black community in a segregated country at the time but what he meant to the whole USA at the time he beat the German champ Max Schmelling before WWII broke out. " He was not only a great person who was black but a GREAT American" I have never forgotten that.


In 1999 the Tigers moved from Tiger stadium to their new home in Comerica park. I never was able to see a game with Dad at the ole ballpark, but he used to tell stories about going their as a kid and with his 3 older brothers at different times in his life.
I went to at least 20 to 25 games that final season just walking around imagining the old stories coming to life in my mind in the place that they had happened so long ago. At the final game there, I walked around for almost a hour and a half after the festivities not wanting to let go of a place he had loved so much. When they finally kicked me out, I felt as though he was taken away again from me in some sort of weird way.


He wasn't though. Since my Dad has physically passed he has been in my heart and mind and he has never left.

I know I can't physically talk to him about the last historic election or the Tigers getting to the series again in 2006. We can't laugh about how bad the Lions sucked last year or watch him tease his two granddaughters like he would have loved to do.

But he is here, and it took me a while to realize that. I am blessed to have had him as a Father and I'm even more blessed that I have my Mom still, my sister and brother, extended family and friends and my nieces who I try to tease in the place of my Dad.

So I ask anyone who reads this take a moment each day and appreciate those that YOU have that are still here with you and keep making those memories that will last a lifetime. Share a laugh, a beer or just a hello. Always let them know that they are important to you.

You never do know when the Lord will call you home!!!

Duke over America's " CAPTION THIS"

( President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are served their burgers as they make an unannounced visit to Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Va., to have lunch, Tuesday, May 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)



The President and Crazy Joe went off for a bite to eat today at a local restaurant and " surprised" the local patrons when they dropped in for a bite to eat.

This was " BREAKING NEWS" on MSNBC, I KID YOU NOT. Andrea Mitchell broke the news to the 15 people watching that the President was informed they were out of fries so he had to have potato puffs.

I'm sure they will be closed next week for this injustice.


I think the picture is priceless so if anyone has a caption please send it along. Being I'm hiding all my wealth from the Obama currency detectors I can't offer a monetary prize but I will publish the best ones in a future blog!!!!


Get to it



H/T...Sister Toldjah

President Hope and Change dumps on the Tea Parties

I know I'm getting to this one lil story a lil late but that is what one week in VEGAS will do to ya.


Last week the President of the United States made his most direct comment about those Tea party protests that sprung up a couple of weeks ago that he knew nothing about in advance.........

Those of you who are watching certain news channels on which I'm not very popular, and you see folks waving tea bags around, Obama said, “let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we are going to stabilize Social Security.”

First off, if he is referring to FOX news they love you Mr President as I'm sure is borne out by the ratings lead they have over CNN and MSNBC.

Second, stop acting as though a plan you implemented is going to create anything but stagflation and devaluation of the U.S. dollar. If this is not so please cite one example of massive SPENDING and BORROWING and PRINTING of money on a never seen before scale has worked.

I'll wait right here........................................................

Thought so.

As for Social Security , the last shot we had at saving that was in 2005 when Pres Bush attempted something but his own party ran under the covers and hid. Just kiss SS goodbye people. The numbers will never line up, no matter how many times you erase them and try again with your etch-a-sketch calculator.


Just please keep the country safe in the meantime Mr President. Hopefully we can start to elect some adults with vision and guts and not so much style with no substance beginning in 2010!!!



Read the rest of the story from POLTICO righthere

This other Mccain just kicked a lil ASS

I'm still a young pup at this here blogging thing. I have only been writing on this site for about 8 months or so. I try to read as many things on both the left and right and some down the center as I can.

One of the people I have read for the past couple of months is Robert Stacy Mccain. He is able to blend information into a style of writing that is not to taxing to read ( I.E. FRICKING BORING).

His latest post is a brilliant read that touches on 7 or 8 different topics and makes you feels as if you were just on a roller coaster of knowledge. His post is a lil like a Dennis Miller rant but on some really strong anabolic steroids. I highly suggest you give it a look.

I hope to write like him when I grow up or sober up whichever comes first!!!!

http://rsmccain.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-argue-with-woman.html

Unemployment in Michigan is a new industry!!!!!

Here at Duke over America we mostly like to talk about the national and world issues that are taking a hold of the current day's events. Occasionally though we love to turn home and comment on the lunacy that is Detroit City council and Monica Conyers or the abject failure that Governor Jennifer Granholm has been.

Today we focus on Governor Granholm. From the Detroit News on Thurs April 30,2009....

The hole in Michigan's recession-battered budget has nearly doubled to $1.32 billion.

State officials said the deficit -- estimated at $785 million a couple weeks ago -- has increased by half; likely meaning that more federal stimulus money will be needed to balance the books or deeper cuts will have to be made than anticipated only days ago.

WOW, the Governor is blowing us away at a clip that she could not even have imagined. Whenever you double your projected budget deficit in just a couple of weeks you are really working on making history. Not in a good way either.

Governor Granholm's administration has never really been much on substance but more on style. She has now run up against the harsh reality of that lack of substance, the budget MUST BE CUT. The stimulus money will be used I'm sure, but if the legislatures in Lansing want to make this right they should CUT at least 75% of the projected deficit out of the current budget instead of using the stimulus for a one time fix. Granholm has done this before and it has done nothing to prepare this state for the inevitable which we now face. The one time fixes of the Gimmick Governor have to end and the realities of the new Michigan must begin TODAY.

While you kids are at it in Lansing why not try something that the Governor has toyed with that has brought interest to the state. TAX CUTS across the board for individuals and companies instead of targeting them just for the film or some other pet project industry.

If you do that and the Gimmick Governor were to sign such a bill, at least she could leave Michigan next year on the path to recovery, instead of the complete ruin she seems hell bent on achieving.




And while the State BURNS... Lt Governor John Cherry prepares to run for the seat his boss has so aptly destroyed.

From our Friends at http://www.rightmichigan.com/ a lil video showing how serious our FRIENDS on the D side of the aisle take this problem.

Hope they didn't water down the punch folks!!!!






Read the rest of the ohhhh so happy Granholm record right here

Time to leave Reagan behind so say a BUSH and a SPECTER

Let's file these two stories under the " Ahhhh this is why I left the Republican party category"


First off we have former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida saying it's time to leave the Reagan era behind. Jeb had this to say.......

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Saturday that it's time for the Republican Party to give up its "nostalgia" for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by Democrats in the 2008 election.

"You can't beat something with nothing, and the other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that," Mr. Bush said.

I wonder if what the other side had was the name George W Bush to run against for all ills imagined and real.

He followed up with this....

"From the conservative side, it's time for us to listen first, to learn a little bit, to upgrade our message a little bit, to not be nostalgic about the past because, you know, things do ebb and flow."

I hope on this listening tour they really do listen. With all due respect to the former Governor the reason why the Republicans got clobbered with Hope and Change was because another guy named Bush was the sitting President and was perceived to FUBAR everything up for the past 8 years.

Candidate Bush RAN on the Reagan mantra of tax cuts and LOWER spending. President Bush on the other hand did lower taxes but increased spending way beyond the increases of tax revenues and thus caused some pretty healthy deficits. He spent like a democrat and the people decided why not just elect a democrat.

I really don't get what the hell these party leaders are looking at. John Mccain was a MODERATE Republican on most issues. He was WIPED off the face of the electoral map. When one of these Guys can win a 1984 LANDSLIDE type election like Reagan did I will put stock in forgetting the principals that Reagan stood for, until than stop with this forget Reagan talk.


To read the rest of the wisdom of the party elders clickhere





AND THAN.....

Sen Arlen Specter pops on on the weakest of the Sunday talk shows now to blow these bubbles of wisdom at David Gregory on the state of the Republican party.....

“There’s more than being reelected here. There’s the factor of principle. The Republican Party has gone far to the right since I joined it under Reagan’s big tent. … In recent times, I have diverged materially from the Republican line … As the picture has evolved, I felt a lot more comfortable — as a matter of principle — with Democrats than Republicans.”

President Reagan had a " BIG TENT"? My Lord, from what I remember of what the democrats and libs like Specter used to say about Reagan he was the cause of every damn ill the world had ever known. AIDS, CANCER, HOMELESSNESS, that big mark on Mikael Gorbachev head.

This of course is just a smoke screen, he was gonna get his ASS handed to him in the GOP primary and his self worth only is validated if he is a Senator.He had to switch parties for a shot at retaining the only thing that matters to him. How pathetic!!!! If he was anywhere near as honorable as he says he is why not resign the seat ala Phil Graham from Texas in 1983 and run again as a democrat?

Because this man has not a shred of decency left in him. I really hope the people of Pennsylvania throw this spineless fool out on his ear and that he may spend the rest of his days pondering all the havoc he has brought upon this country he so claims to love.



To read the rest of this patty cake love fest on Meet The Press today clickright here

I'm Back and ready to ROCK N ROLL or kick a lil statist ASS

Howdy Ho,

I'm finally back from my trip across this great country to the hinder lands of Las Vegas. I will be writing a ton in the future weeks about some of the things and people I encountered while I traveled this land to which I love even more now!!

I want to give a BIG thanks to one Ms Melanie Hall for her contributions to this lil blog while I was away. I hope she will find some time in her busy schedule to post some more insightful posts in the future.


With everything going on in the country and the world we have a lot of work to do, let's get ready to kick a lil ASS!!!!