Multimedia message

At Train Town in Sonoma

Will Sarah Palin Be Called On to Try and Save John McCain...Again?

JD Hayworth is a conservative former member of the House of Representatives and now a successful talk show host in Phoenix. He's considering a run against John McCain for the Senate in 2010, and according to early polls, is within a couple of points of Ol' Maverick.

So, with a challenge from a much more conservative and much younger candidate, how could McCain hold onto his seat? With Sarah Palin's help. HotAir has the details.

Personally, I think Palin should stay as far away from that race (if it develops) as possible. McCain and his people didn't show a lot of loyalty to her during the campaign and since then, why should she bother trying to save his saggy old butt now? A more conservative senator from AZ would be preferable to Mr. Moderate "let's all get along" McCain.

Obamacare By the Numbers

From Rep. Mike Pence (via Red State):

5.5 million — Number of jobs that could be lost as a result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health insurance coverage, according to a model developed by Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer

$729.5 billion — Total new taxes on small businesses, individuals who cannot afford health coverage, and employers who cannot afford to provide coverage that meet federal bureaucrats’ standards

$1.055 trillion — New federal spending on expanded health insurance coverage over the next ten years, according to a Congressional Budget Office preliminary score of the bill

0.7% — Percentage of all that new spending occurring in the bill’s first three years-representing a debt and tax “time bomb” in the program’s later years set to explode on future generations

$88,200 — Definition of “low-income” family of four for purposes of health insurance subsidies

114 million — Number of individuals who could lose their current coverage under the bill’s government-run health plan, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group

43 — Entitlement programs the bill creates, expands, or extends-an increase from H.R. 3200

111 — Additional offices, bureaus, commissions, programs, and bureaucracies the bill creates over and above the entitlement expansions-more than double the number in H.R. 3200

3,425 — Uses of the word “shall,” representing new duties for bureaucrats and mandates on individuals, businesses, and States-also more than double the number in H.R. 3200

$60 billion — Loss sustained by taxpayers every year due to Medicare fraud, according to a recent 60 Minutes expose; the government-run health plan does not reform the ineffective anti-fraud statutes and procedures that have kept Medicare on the Government Accountability Office’s list of high-risk programs for two decades

Zero — Prohibitions on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid from using cost-effectiveness research to impose delays to or denials for access to life-saving treatments

$634 Billion — Amount that could be saved by denying individuals access to treatments that are not “cost-effective,” according to a report by the liberal Commonwealth Fund; Section 1160 of the bill gives bureaucrats in the Obama Administration virtual free rein to develop a new “high-value” reimbursement system for Medicare by May 2012

2017 — Year Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted-an entitlement crisis exacerbated by the bill, which according to the Congressional Budget Office will increase the federal budgetary commitment to health care by $598 billion in its first ten years alone

$2,500 — Promised savings for each American family from health reform, according to then-Senator Obama’s campaign pledge-savings which the Administration’s own actuaries have confirmed will not materialize, as the Pelosi health care bill would increase the growth of health care costs.

Keep all that in mind as the Senate votes tonight.

Global Warming Video of the Day

We won, you lost, get a life:

Sarah Palin Headline of the Day

Watch the lefty's heads explode (from Hot Air):

Wow: Palin’s publisher boosts print run from 1.5 million to 2.5 million

No wonder she scares them so badly.

Meanwhile, the idiot father of her grandchild is being treated like the pariah he is...by the Hollywood crowd. Interesting. It looks like he's in minute 14:59 of his 15 minutes of fame.

Boy Scout 1, SEIU Minus 7

And that's the way it should be:

Allentown union official Nick Balzano has been a political punching bag all week because he threatened to file a grievance against the city for allowing a Boy Scout to clear a walking path in a city park.

Three days of taking body blows nationally from conservative pundits, a rebuke from the Lehigh Valley's congressman and even a lashing from his own union led Balzano to voluntarily resign his position Thursday as head of the local Service Employees International Union.

Balzano said he and seven other executive officers of the local SEIU stepped down.

''I am proud of the work I and the rest of the executive board have done over the years,'' he said.

He had ''nothing against Boy Scouts'' and was just ''trying to protect my jobs,'' said Balzano, who had served as union president for nearly a decade.

The controversy began last week when Balzano warned that the union may file a grievance against the city after officials allowed a local Boy Scout to clear a 1,000-foot walking path in Kimmets Lock Park.

"We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano said, and told council that given the layoffs of 39 union members, no one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.

Kevin Anderson, 17, is doing the volunteer work to help earn the rank of Eagle Scout. He said he'd already toiled for more than 200 hours on the project, which he said will keep people from having to traverse a busy road.

Anderson could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Don't mess with an Eagle Scout candidate. Not only did he clean up a trail in the local park, but he took out the trash too.

Another Saturday Night Massacre in the Works

They did it in the House a couple of weeks ago, and now Harry Reid will try to ram through the first vote on Obamacare in the Senate tonight:

A crucial first Senate vote on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in a rare Saturday night session looms as a test of Democratic unity and the president's prestige.

Democratic leaders are optimistic of success, but they need every Democrat and both independents to vote "yes," and two moderates remained uncommitted ahead of the roll call, which is expected around 8 p.m. The vote will determine whether debate can go forward on Majority Leader Harry Reid's 2,074-page bill to dramatically remake the U.S. health care system over the next decade.

Most everyone would be required to purchase insurance under Reid's legislation, and billions in new taxes would be levied on insurers and high-income Americans to help extend coverage to 30 million uninsured. Insurance companies would no longer be allowed to deny coverage to people with medical conditions or drop coverage when someone gets sick.

The two holdouts are Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. A third centrist, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, announced Friday that he'd be supporting his party on the test vote, while cautioning that it didn't mean he'd be with them on the final vote.

"It is not for or against the new Senate health care bill," Nelson said. "It is only to begin debate and an opportunity to make improvements. If you don't like a bill, why block your own opportunity to amend it?"

If that same reasoning holds with Lincoln and Landrieu, Reid, D-Nev., will have the 60 votes he needs to prevail in the 100-seat Senate. The 40 Republicans are unanimously opposed.

Landrieu has made comments suggesting she'll support the move to debate, but Lincoln, who faces a difficult re-election next year, carefully avoided taking any public position Friday.

Landrieu's already been bought off, so she's not going to be the one to stop this thing. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas is the last hope. She knows her re-election chances will drop to near zero if she votes for this thing, but there are plenty of rich Democrats out there who could promise her something better in exchange for her vote. I don't think we can count on any Democrat to oppose this thing.

As I said in the previous post, elections matter.

The argument tonight from the Democrats will be that this vote isn't about the merits of the bill, but just about opening debate, and after all, who is against debate? In reality, according to a recently released report, 97% of the bills that pass this first test vote in the Senate go on to be approved by the entire Senate, so this vote is more than just a vote about whether or not to open debate.

I was hoping that perhaps Joe Lieberman would be the one to oppose this since he has come out strongly against the public option that's included in this bill, but he has only promised not to let the merits of the bill come up for a vote, not to block initial debate. He won't be the one to stop it.

And Republican Tom Coburn, who at one time promised to force the Senate to read the bill aloud, a process estimated to take 34 hours, has backed down. That's just sad.

So, what happens after tonight's vote? If it passes, as I expect it will, the fight starts in earnest as Democrats will be crafting all sorts of amendments designed to buy votes of scared candidates facing 2010 elections, and the Republicans will need to do everything they can to shine a light on the insidious nature of this legislation and turn the public against it more than they already are. Public support for Obamacare is tumbling, but listening to the public is something Democrats aren't interested in.

But what if the bill fails? There are many that think that Harry Reid will pull out all the procedural stops and will take the bill down the reconciliation road which requires only 51 votes, and we'll have open warfare in the Senate. Reid probably realizes now that his re-election is in such serious trouble that nothing he can do at this point will change it. Like the kamikaze's of old he's going to go out with a bang.

Stay tuned. Oh, and don't miss the photo of Harry Reid expressing his true thoughts about the taxpayers of this country.

This is Why Elections Matter

Because presidents get to appoint federal judges to lifetime positions:

As consolation prizes go, Louis Butler can't complain. After being twice rejected by Wisconsin voters for a place on the state Supreme Court, the former judge has instead been nominated by President Obama to a lifetime seat on the federal district court. If he is confirmed, Wisconsin voters will have years to contend with the decisions of a judge they made clear they would rather live without.

Judge Butler served on the state Supreme Court for four years, enough time to have his judicial temperament grow in infamy. Having first run unsuccessfully in 2000, he was appointed by Democratic Governor Jim Doyle to the seat vacated by Justice Diane Sykes in 2004. But after serving four years, voters had seen enough of his brand of judicial philosophy, making him the first sitting justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in four decades to lose a retention election last year.

All those conservatives who thought it might be better for John McCain to get beat and come back with a better candidate in 2012 should keep this in mind for future elections. There's no virtue in losing, especially when you're losing to a radical like Obama. The nation will get stuck with judges like Butler...and for that matter Sonia Sotomayor... for a long, long time.

Throwing My Hat in the Ring in CA-64

I've decided to follow Republicans in several other states and announce my candidacy for the House of Representatives in one of California's phantom congressional districts. These are the districts which, according to the official Recovery.gov website, received stimulus funds even though such districts don't actually exist.

In perusing the phantom districts of California I've decided to choose the 64th District which received $1,350,000 in stimulus funds. That should be enough for me to live on comfortably for quite awhile. When you add in the congressional salary plus office and travel expenses it's a pretty sweet gig. And the best part of it is - you don't have to deal with actual constituents.

Is this a great country or what?

Since no such 64th congressional district has ever been actually drawn, I'm going to draw it myself. None of those squiggly gerrymandered districts that look like a refugee from a Rorshach test for me - mine's going to be a nice clean square, just like they all should be:

Now, how can I have no constituents when I just drew a line around hundreds of thousands of them? That's the secret of CA-64 - all those people already have a congressman so they won't be bothering me. They'll never know I'm here.

Your campaign donations cheerfully accepted.

Email Joke of the Day

From Don Surber:

A driver is stuck in a traffic jam going into downtown Dallas.

Nothing Is moving north or south.. Suddenly a man knocks on his window.

The driver rolls down his window and asks, ‘What happened, what’s the hold Up?’

‘Terrorists have kidnapped Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Rosie O’Donnell. They are asking for a $10 Million ransom. Otherwise, they are going to douse them with gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, taking up a collection.’

The driver asks, ‘On average, how much is everyone giving?’

‘About a gallon.’

Tax Increase for Afghanistan

Once again the only solution a Democrat can come up with is "tax the rich":

Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said higher-income Americans should be taxed to pay for additional troops sent to Afghanistan and that NATO should provide half of the new soldiers.

An “additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000,” could fund more troops, Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. White House Budget Director Peter Orszag has estimated that each additional soldier in Afghanistan could cost $1 million, for a total that could reach $40 billion if 40,000 more troops are added.

That cost, Levin said, should be paid by wealthier taxpayers. “They have done incredibly well, and I think that it’s important that we pay for it if we possibly can” instead of increasing the federal debt load, the senator said.

How about imposing some sort of "defense fee" on the 40%+ of Americans who don't pay any income tax and don't contribute dime one to the national defense of this country they enjoy? Shouldn't we all be in this together?

Thanksgiving Table Planning Headline of the Day

Put this on your calendar for all your Thanksgiving table needs (from the Mission Viejo Dispatch):

Platters & Coasters Revue Saturday

Sunday we'll be working on cups, saucers and flatware.

Answer to Prayer Headline of the Day

From the OC Register:

Oprah Winfrey: Prayer, careful thought influenced exit

Shoot, if I had known prayer would get her off TV I'd have prayed for that a long time ago.

Crime of Passion Headline of the Day

From the OC Register:

Huntington crime: man, woman steal KY Jelly from store

Stop in the name of love!

The Global Warming Fraud

I don't have time for long posts right now, but this is a must read story on the fraud being perpetrated on all of us via the globalony activists. Looks like they've gotten caught in the act.

We're in Soggy Northern California

475 miles in 6 1/2 hours - not bad, especially since the last 90 minutes were in rain. We had 5 hours of beautiful blue skies and some wind as we got north of the halfway point, but then we had to plunge into the big storm hitting up here right now. Pretty wet for 90 minutes or so, but we made it. The white Charger we're riding (I guess that sort of makes me a knight) got us here in good fashion.

Now to lunch with the college girl.

The Triangle Trip

Regular readers will recall that on October 30th the Mrs. and I planned to drive to Northern California to join our daughter on her 21st birthday. We got exactly 40 miles from home when a health crisis forced me to turn around and take my wife to the hospital. Instead of spending the day in Rohnert Park, we spent the day at Mission Hospital. At a cost to our health plan of $13,589. Needless the say, the trip was kaput.

My mom and my sister's family did get to enjoy the weekend with the girl, but we missed out and decided we needed to try again as soon as possible. The following two weekends were committed other events, and on the third weekend (this weekend) we already had plans to take advantage of the ridiculously low rates in Las Vegas for a several day trip to start on Sunday. Do we cancel Vegas and go north instead, or.....do we figure out how to do both.

We went with Plan B. We've added a couple of days to the trip and as you read this we should be on our way north again (hopefully we'll get farther than 40 miles this time). The plan is to drive up today, spend the rest of Friday and all day Saturday with the girl (including a choir concert she'll be performing in), and then early Sunday morning we'll start a 610 mile drive south and east to Vegas. Hence the name "Triangle Trip".

By the time we return home on Thanksgiving Day we'll have traveled about 1,400 miles and spent six nights on the road. We can't wait.

Blogging will be more sporadic than usual during this travel period. I'll try to post up some photos along the way. I'm giving myself a project for the Las Vegas part of the trip. In July, 2008, we were over there and I spent part of each evening walking along The Strip and taking photos of the various hotels in their nighttime splendor. I created a little web page for my shots which were taken with my old Kodak camera.

Since then I've gotten a new camera and on this trip I'm going to try and update all those photos with better ones. At least this time the sun will be down by 5pm instead of 9pm, so I can get more shots in each night without being out there until all hours of the night. I'm curious to see how well the Panasonic camera does in capturing the lights of the city.

Lots of travel ahead, but we really enjoy that stuff. See you from Northern California and Vegas!

Happy Birthday Joe Hairplugs!

Today is Joe Biden's birthday. As I understand it he doesn't blow out the candles on his cake, he just keeps talking until they go out from lack of oxygen.

Coburn Backs Down

Now this is a shame:

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn is backing off his threat to require that the Senate read the 2,074-page health care bill because some GOP colleagues aren't supporting the effort.

The Oklahoma lawmaker said there's uncertainty about whether reading the bill during Thanksgiving week would be productive. He also said that if the Republicans do decide to tie up the Senate for the dozens of hours it would take, six GOP colleagues have committed to pitching in on reading duty.

Coburn also said in an interview with The Associated Press that he questions whether Americans who might be listening in would understand a line-by-line reading.

This is about stopping the bill, not about making sure Americans watch a 34 hour reading marathon. The GOP have a chance to showcase how ridiculously large and bloated this thing is and they're blowing it.

If this thing passes because the GOP chickened out, there won't be a safe incumbent from either party next year.

$100 Million for One Vote

How much does it take to buy off a Senator from Louisiana? Harry Reid is spending $100 million of your tax dollars:

ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports:

What does it take to get a wavering senator to vote for health care reform?

Here’s a case study.

On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for “certain states recovering from a major disaster.”

The section spends two pages defining which “states” would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that “during the preceding 7 fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.”

I am told the section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill.

In other words, the bill spends two pages describing would could be written with a single world: Louisiana. (This may also help explain why the bill is long.)

Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.

How much does it cost? According to the Congressional Budget Office: $100 million.

As will often be the case, this bill is spending way too much for way too little. You could probably buy off a Louisiana Democrat for as little as $20 bucks.

Economic Stimulus Cartoon of the Day

Seen on Facebook:

Another Crisis Hits the Breakfast Table

This is now clearly a depression in the United States. There's a shortage of Eggo frozen waffles:

Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them.

The company’s Atlanta plant was shut down for an undisclosed period by a September storm that dumped historic amounts of rain in the area. Meanwhile, several production lines at its largest bakery in Rossville, Tenn., are closed indefinitely for repairs, company spokeswoman Kris Charles said in an e-mail.

It will take until the middle of 2010 before shelves around the country are stocked at pre-shutdown levels, Charles said.

Already customers are noticing near-empty Eggo shelves on the freezer aisle at many grocery stores.

Stay-at-home mom Joey Resciniti says she bought one of the last two boxes of Eggos at a Walmart in Cranberry Township, Pa., on Monday. The frozen waffles are a favorite of her 4-year-old daughter, Julia.

“We have eight of them, and if we ration those — maybe have half an Eggo in one sitting — then it’ll last longer,” said Resciniti, who blogs about being a mother. “I told my husband that maybe I need to put them on eBay.”

Glenn Reynolds joins everyone in the White House and blames the failed policies of the Bush Administration. Personally, I'm waiting for my Eggo stimulus check.

Obamacare is About Saving Money, Not Saving Lives

A federal government panel has done the cause of Obamacare great damage by changing the recommendation for mammograms, based not on saving lives, but saving money. Don Surber offers this:

A federal government panel recommended no mammograms until a woman is 50. Only 1 in 1,900 women would die from breast cancer under this approach. This the first step toward rationing mammograms. I figure the government could save $3.8 billion if women wait until they are 50 to get mammograms. That is what Obamacare is all about: Saving money, not lives.

Of course, 10,000 women would die of breast cancer to pay for those savings.

Liberals like Katie Couric are putting aside their pink ribbons to defend a policy move that they would have railed against if it had been suggested by a task force under a Republican president.

Couric wrote: “The reasons make sense. Roughly ninety percent of abnormal screenings are ultimately benign. These false alarms lead to invasive tests and major anxiety, not to mention billions of dollars of unnecessary care.

“Still, those mammograms could save the life of one woman in 1,900 hundred. If she happens to be your daughter, your mother, your wife — or you — that’s the only statistic that will matter.”

For a nation so obsessed by breast cancer every October (I've written about that before here and here), this is a change in policy that should be nearly universally opposed. This isn't a right versus left issue, but a right versus wrong issue.

Opponents to Obamacare need to shout this long and loud as the debate in the Senate gets underway. This is what rationing will look like, and although the term "death panel" is mocked and scorned, having these types of health care decisions made by a bunch of clerks who are only interested in the financial bottom line could certainly make the mockery come to life.

$1 a Month for Abortion

That's the minimum fee you'll be charged on your Obamacare policy to cover the cost of abortions (from Rep. John Boehner):

Just like the original 2,032-page, government-run health care plan from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) massive, 2,074-page bill would levy a new “abortion premium” fee on Americans in the government-run plan.

Beginning on line 7, p. 118, section 1303 under “Voluntary Choice of Coverage of Abortion Services” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run health plan. Leader Reid’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions (line 13, p. 120).

What is even more alarming is that a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run health plan. It’s right there beginning on line 11, page 122, section 1303, under “Actuarial Value of Optional Service Coverage.” The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account – and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.

Section 1303(a)(2)(C) describes the process in which the Health Benefits Commissioner is to assess the monthly premiums that will be used to pay for elective abortions under the government-run health plan and for those who are given an affordability credit to purchase insurance coverage that includes abortion through the Exchange. The Commissioner must charge at a minimum $1 per enrollee per month.

A majority of Americans believe that health care plans should not be mandated to provide elective abortion coverage, and a majority of Americans do not believe government health care plans should include abortion coverage. Currently, federal appropriations bills include language known as the Hyde Amendment that prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, while another provision, known as the Smith Amendment, prohibits federal funding of abortion under the federal employees’ health benefits plan.

Harry Reid is trying to force through a procedural vote this weekend that would pave the way for debate and a vote on the bill, possibly before Christmas.

It's time for Republican Senators to demand this vote be read, out loud, in full, every time the rules require it. No unanimous consent to waive the reading. Tie that place up for months.

Stupid Marijuana User Story of the Day

This is the second day in the row I've had a story about a stupid marijuana user. Yesterday's entry is here, and today we have this:

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A man and woman who reported to police that robbers stole their marijuana are now facing charges themselves. The 32-year-old man and 29-year-old woman told police five armed men came to their Wichita apartment late Monday night and took marijuana.

Police said one suspect accidentally fired his gun and spooked the other suspects. They ran from the apartment to a white Cadillac, dropping marijuana along the way.

Police found more marijuana inside the apartment.

The couple were booked on suspicion of various drug charges, including selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school.

They should have reported it as a theft of medicine. That's what they'd do in California.

He's Got That Sinking Feeling

From Fox News:

As president departs Thursday for South Korea, his approval rating hits a new low of 46 percent, even as a majority of Americans say he is providing the kind of leadership they expected.

I guess you could put me in that last category because Obama is providing exactly the kind of leadership I expected from him. What's shocking is that so many people are surprised at how poorly he's done.

Couldn't They Just Give Him a Pink Belt?

Yet another unmerited award for Obama (from Top of the Ticket):

Even President Obama himself during his just-concluded trip to Asia admitted that he was surprised to receive the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year without actually producing any peace.

In fact, the rookie American president ordered his own troop surge, boosting U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan to 68,000. Now, the Democrat may be preparing to send more again. And a Gallup Poll showed 61% of Americans didn't think he deserved it either.

Anyway, there he was in Seoul, South Korea on the last stop of his journey.

And out of the Seoul sky, President Lee Myung-bak hands over to the American leader a tae kwan do outfit. And then Lee, who practices tae kwan do himself, presents Obama with a coveted black belt.

After 0 long years of study.

And every 8 year old yellow belt in the country could kick his butt.

Political Cartoon of the Day

From Glenn McCoy:

Food Nazis Want You to Lead a Dull, Bland Life

Once again the food Nazis are going after movie theater snacks:

Everyone expects to splurge a bit at the movies, but while your wallet may be able to handle an $8 tub of popcorn, your waistline may not — at least according to a new report released today by the consumers group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

Even popcorn did not escape the scrutiny of the report, which mentioned that even a small bag of the cinema favorite tips the scales at 700 calories and three days worth of saturated fat.

It’s not the first time that CSPI has given movie popcorn two thumbs down; the new report is actually a sequel to one in 1994 that gave similar negative reviews. And like the first version, the most recent edition of CSPI’s Nutrition Action Health Letter suggests moviegoers forego that trip to the concession stand altogether.

The report looked at the popcorn, soda and candy sold at the country’s top three movie theater chains: Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Theaters, and Cinemark. The researchers tallied the calories, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium in each theater’s various sizes and combos. Based on their findings, the authors warn the public that their movie-time indulgences may be a lot more indulgent than they bargained for. …

Cinemark notes that these are the “snacks [patrons] desire” and is meant to be “an escape from their everyday lives.”

Have you ever seen the people that run CSPI? They look like a bunch of Dachau survivors. Their sallow skin hangs on bony frames and their smile muscles have totally atrophied. They haven't had a happy day in years.

They really need to go to the movies, grab a big buttery bag of popcorn, a giant box of M&M's, and try and enjoy life a little bit. Who wants to live forever if you have to live like they do?

The Postal Service That Stole Christmas

Better hope Santa has email this year because he's not going to be answering snail mail this year:

Thousands of starry-eyed children all over the world are writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season, but they will not likely get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.

The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular effort begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.

Postal Service officials said they are tightening rules in such programs nationwide after a postal worker in Maryland recognized a volunteer in the agency's Operation Santa program as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to make changes to the program.

People in North Pole are incensed by the change, likening the Postal Service to the Grinch trying to steal Christmas. The letter program is a revered holiday tradition in North Pole, where light posts are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Kris Kringle Drive and Santa Claus Lane. Volunteers in the letter program even sign the response letters as Santa's elves and helpers.

North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson agreed that caution is necessary to protect children. But he's outraged the North Pole program should be affected by a sex offender's actions on the East Coast — and he thinks it's wrong that locals just found out about the change in recent days.

"It's Grinchlike that the Postal Service never informed all the little elves before the fact," he said. "They've been working on this for how long?"

Who needs Santa Claus when we have Obama Claus to believe in?

Economic Quote of the Day

From Treasury Secretary Timmy Geithner, as reported at Big Government:

This morning, in testimony before the Joint Economic Committee, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that, by any measurement of the strength and stability of the US economy, the economy today is better than it was when Obama took office. Sheesh, tell that to the millions of people who have lost their job since January.

Apparently, “any measurement” doesn’t include the unemployment rate, job growth, number of jobs, wage growth, hours worked, home foreclosures, rate of mortgage delinquencies, etc.

Don't bother Timmy with statistics. It's all about how we "feel".

Botox and Boob Jobs

They're going to cost you 5% more thanks to Obamacare:

The bill levies a 5 percent tax on elective cosmetic surgery. The provision raises $5 billion and was needed to make the numbers work, according to a Democratic Senate aide.

The Finance Committee considered the tax but dismissed it, in part because it was a public relations battle that senators were not willing to wage.

What we really need is a boob reduction - removing the boobs from Congress who are supporting Obamacare.

Scariest Political Video of the Day

If you're a Democrat:

Let's see, people in a state ravaged by Democrat policies line up at 5am in freezing weather to meet a politician from Alaska. And since the rest of the nation is threatening to sink to Michigan's economic level, Democrats everywhere have reasons to fear the Sarah juggernaut.

And the scariest comment: "She's lived a life like us." That ought to send a shiver up Chris Matthews' leg. There are millions of Americans that look at Sarah Palin exactly the same way, and that's why they can so easily relate to her.

Even if she doesn't want to run in 2012 she'll be in a position to anoint the next candidate. Her support will be sought by every 2012 wannabe in the GOP.

UPDATE: At another event in Noblesville, IN, people started lining up at 9pm last night for a book signing that will take place tonight.

Headlines From the Land of Wrong Priorities

From my home state:

California budget shortfall to top $21B...

...Calif. requires TVs to be more energy efficient: UPDATE

Deal with the problems, not the make believe problems.

"Stop Complaining Day"

There are lots of problems going on in this country today, but one congressmen has come up with a solution for all of it: Stop complaining.

Sure, the economy sucks. Unemployment is at least 10.2% and, yes, if you include part-time workers who would rather have full-time jobs it may be over 17%. The government is showering our cash on Wall Street and burning through piles of our children and grandchildren’s money “saving” phantom jobs in Congressional Districts that don’t exist.

Oh yeah, and Congress is planning for a government take-over of our health care system, legislating higher energy prices and raising taxes. Sheesh, no wonder we’re feeling blue.

Well, not to worry, three-term Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) has found a solution: Stop Complaining So Much. Rep. Cleaver is currently circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter, seeking co-sponsors for House Concurrent Resolution 155, designating the day before Thanksgiving as the official “Complaint Free Wednesday.”

You see, as the Congressman explains:

From time to time, we all experience anxiety, frustration, stress, and regret. And often, we respond to these feelings with a criticism or a complaint. Regrettably, complaining keeps people stuck on current problems, inhibiting them from thinking constructively to find solutions. Research has also shown that complaining can be harmful to one’s emotional and physical health; relationships; and can limit professional career success.

I have a suggestion for the congressman: Stop giving us things to complain about. How about listening to the people for a change.

Eric Holder Has Obama by the Short Hairs

Obama was for military tribunals for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed before he was against them:

As The Ticket reported earlier today in this space, Atty. Gen. Eric Holder was on the Senate Judiciary Committee hot seat defending his decision to bring the alleged 9/11 terrorist masterminds onto U.S. soil for civilian trials instead of keeping them far away in Guantanamo Bay for a military tribunal.

Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, himself a former federal prosecutor, says he's amazed at Holder's simplicity claim and remains unconvinced that such a move, which could make New York City a target for potential new attack, makes any legal sense whatsoever.

Speaking of military tribunals, we went back into the video archives and found this C-SPAN tape below. Holder might want to watch it.

It contains his boss, Barack Obama, a brief member of that same Senate, in 2006 stating that a military tribunal was a perfectly fine way of handling such dangerous individuals as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

Obama said the fight against terrorism was "an extraordinarily difficult war" where terrorists could plot undetected from within our own borders.

The freshman Illinois senator was defending a legislative amendment and pointed out that a military tribunal for Mohammed seemed just fine to him.

"The irony of the underlying bill as it's written is that someone like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is going to get basically a full military trial with all the bells and whistles. He's gonna have counsel. He's gonna be able to present evidence to rebut the government's case.... I think we will convict him. And I think justice will be carried out."

As I've observed the interactions between Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama I've become convinced that Obama is not in charge. Holder is clearly in charge and Obama is staying out of his way.

As radical as Obama is, he's a piker compared to Holder. Holder would love nothing more than to put Bush and Cheney on trial as war criminals, but he knows he could never get away with that. So, what's the next best thing? Put the war on terror on trial via KSM and the criminal trial in NYC.

KSM had already indicated a desire to plead guilty to a military tribunal and earn his one-way trip to hell, but instead Holder is going to put on this show trial that will cost upwards of $75 million and will tie up NYC in knots just in time for the midterm elections. There's no guarantee whatsoever that he'll be convicted. It will only take one Muslim or one Eric Holder-type liberal on the jury and they'll never get a conviction. It's a political disaster for Obama to bring KSM to NYC, but he apparently won't dare cross Holder.

Why?

Holder has something on him. That's all I can figure. Is it the famous missing birth certificate? Pictures of Obama doing unspeakable things to small farm animals? His college records?

I don't know what it is, but Holder has Obama by the short hairs and he's not letting go.

While Obama might be afraid of him, Lindsay Graham isn't. This is one of his better moments:

Blaming Prosperity Gospel for the Economic Collapse

You can take this however you like:

Let the confusion end: The Atlantic has hit the news stands with a breaking revelation: It's the Christians! To wit: Did Christianity Cause the Crash?

... recently, critics have begun to argue that the prosperity gospel, echoed in churches across the country, might have played a part in the economic collapse. In 2008, in the online magazine Religion Dispatches, Jonathan Walton, a professor of religious studies at the University of California at Riverside, warned:

Narratives of how "God blessed me with my first house despite my credit" were common ... Sermons declaring "It's your season of overflow" supplanted messages of economic sobriety and disinterested sacrifice. Yet as folks were testifying about "what God can do," little attention was paid to a predatory subprime-mortgage industry, relaxed credit standards, or the dangers of using one's home equity as an ATM.

In 2004, Walton was researching a book about black televangelists. "I would hear consistent testimonies about how 'once I was renting and now God let me own my own home,' or 'I was afraid of the loan officer, but God directed him to ignore my bad credit and blessed me with my first home,'" he says. "This trope was so common in these churches that I just became immune to it. Only later did I connect it to this disaster."

Whew! That was easy! Who knew? But is it really that simple? What are the facts on which this startling conclusion is based?

...Kate Bowler found that most new prosperity-gospel churches were built along the Sun Belt, particularly in California, Florida, and Arizona--all areas that were hard-hit by the mortgage crisis.

Makes sense: these were rapidly growing areas of the country; with rapid growth and cheap credit, lots of homes were getting sold. And lots of new churches and churchgoers would be expected. So, these Sun Belt areas grew quickly, had a lot of new churches (some of which were the "prosperity" variety) and ended up with a lot of foreclosures. But surely there has to be more evidence than that...

Nationally, the prosperity gospel has spread exponentially among African American and Latino congregations. This is also the other distinct pattern of foreclosures. "Hyper-segregated" urban communities were the worst off, says Halperin. Reliable data on foreclosures by race are not publicly available, but mortgages are tracked by both race and loan type, and subprime loans have tended to correspond to foreclosures. During the boom, roughly 40 percent of all loans going to Latinos nationwide were subprime loans; Latinos and African Americans were 28 percent and 37 percent more likely, respectively, to receive a higher-rate subprime loan than whites.

So, a lot of foreclosures occurred in the Hispanic and black communities -- and the prosperity gospel was increasingly popular among these groups as well. Pretty damning, I'd have to say. Pretty much nails it down, don't ya think?

Or not.

Without questions a lot of Christians have gotten sucked into prosperity gospel messages, but usually in the form of sending money to the people preaching this stuff. I'm not sure that believing that good financial things can happen to you is all that dangerous.

A Columnist Finally Goes Completely Around the Bend

Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic has gone completely delusional. Perhaps one of the many STDs he's exposed himself to is finally taking its toll, or perhaps Palin Derangement Syndrome is even more destructive than the Bush version was, but this is part of his latest post:

This is only the second time in its nearly ten-year history that the Dish has gone silent. The reason now is the same as the reason then. When dealing with a delusional fantasist like Sarah Palin, it takes time to absorb and make sense of the various competing narratives that she tells about her life. There are so many fabrications and delusions in the book, mixed in with facts, that just making sense of it - and comparing it with objective reality as we know it, and the subjective reality she has previously provided - is a bewildering task. She is a deeply disturbed person which makes this work of fiction and fact all the more challenging to read. And the fact that she is now the leader of the Republican party and a potential presidential candidate, makes this process of deconstruction an important civil responsibility.

...the Dish has tried to be rigorous and careful in analyzing Palin's unhinged grip on reality from the very beginning - specifically her fantastic story of her fifth pregnancy - we feel it's vital that we grapple with this new data as fairly and as rigorously as possible. That takes time to get right. And it is so complicated we simply cannot focus on anything else.

In case you weren't aware Sullivan is just about the last guy still trying to insist that Trig was not Sarah Palin's son, but in fact her daughter Bristol's son., even though the gestational math simply doesn't work. It hasn't stopped him from this singular obsession against the Palin family.

I think it's time Sullivan was retired to a care home where he can get the treatment he clearly needs.

Health Care Quote of the Day

From the Rev. Jesse Jackson, race hustler:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Wednesday night criticized Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) for voting against the Democrats’ signature healthcare bill.

“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill,” Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”

If you vote FOR it can you call yourself a black man? I'd like to get some of those minority set asides and quotas and maybe this is how I could do it.

Police Work Headline of the Day

From New Scientist:

“Tasers safer than batons and fists.”

And a heckuva lot more entertaining.

Model Trains at the Nixon Library

My wife visited the Nixon Library last week for an event, but I've never gone up there. Don't know why, just haven't done it. It's a lot closer than the Reagan Library that I visited a few years ago.

Well, now I've got a reason to go:

On the first page of his post-presidential memoirs, RN recalled his days as a young boy in Yorba Linda: “In the daytime I could see the smoke from the steam engines. Sometimes at night I was awakened by the whistle of a train, and then I dreamed of the far-off places I wanted to visit someday. My brothers and I played railroad games, taking the parts of engineers and conductors.”


RN also remembered the thrill of talking to Everett Barnum, the Santa Fe Railroad Engineer and dreamed of the day when, he too, would work on trains.

On Monday, the engines rolled again in Yorba Linda, with the opening of A Holiday Festival of Trains, a magical exhibit at the Nixon Library featuring one of the largest miniature train collections ever assembled.

The exhibit includes a Lego display with hundreds of thousands of colorful blocks that make up a breathtaking city with trains running through high-rise downtowns; a scenic multilevel “Mountain of Trains” with over a dozen trains passing through villages, hills, and snow-capped mountains; an interactive 8 by 8 ft. display where kids can play conductor; a Santa Claus village with sets from Department 56; and the “Chloe,” a full size sugar plantation previously owned by Disney animator Ward Kimball.

A Holiday Festival of Trains is built in conjunction with volunteers from the Western Division of the Train Collectors Association, who labored for weeks to unveil the trains and their stunning landscapes.

Gonna have to head up to Yorba Linda sometime during the holidays. I'll have to see if they have any of the antique Lionel trains that I have.

Misguided Entrepreneur Story of the Day

Even in Texas you can't do this:

A teen in Texas was busted for trying to sell pot door-to-door after knocking on a police officer's door peddling his product.

Anthony Carrazco, 19, was arrested for trying to sell three ounces of pot.

Texas police said after knocking on several doors, Carrazco ended up at the door of an off-duty officer.

The officer told the teen he'd be right back and went and grabbed his badge and handcuffs.

Police said Carrazco was drunk.

But hey, it's medicine! That's what they're telling us in California.

Dick Cheney 2012

Some wags on Facebook have created a set of campaign slogans for Dick Cheney should he decide to run for president in 2012:

SLOGANS FOR DICK CHENEY IN 2012
“I know what the hell I’m doing.”
“You’d rather have me on your side than against you.”
“Experience, leadership, normal-sized ears.”
“I shoot my friends in the face with a shotgun. What do you think I’ll do to America’s enemies?”
“I’m what the Mayans predicted.”
“Heart attacks don’t even slow me down.”
“The only time I’ll bow before a foreign leader is in preparation for an uppercut.”
“I already control everything; let’s just make it official.”
“Torturing terrorists may not make reliable intelligence, but does make reliable fun.”
“If I’m busy being president, I won’t have time to eat your children’s souls.”
“Say ‘Go @#$% yourself!’ to the entire world.”
“Vote for me and I’ll consider not strangling this box of puppies.”
“I’ll piledrive a foreign leader before I’ll bow to one.”
“Probably not going to win a Nobel Peace Prize.”
“KSM will get to plead his case to my shotgun.”
“You want a change? How about a president who doesn’t give a rat’s ass what anyone thinks about him.”
“You don’t inaugurate me; you unleash me.”
“I will say, ‘Mr. Ahmadinejad, tear off your own face.’ And he will do as I tell him.”
“Yes we can of whoop ass.” (assist to Lori Z)
UPDATE:
I should mention my favorite from Jim Treacher: “It’s not a smirk. You’re just not worth the attention of my whole face.”

We could do worse in 2012...and probably will.

The Most Dangerous Place in the World is Anywhere Near Joe Biden's Motorcade

If you see Joe Biden's car coming, RUN!

A police car working ahead of Vice President Joe Biden's motorcade was involved in a minor traffic accident Tuesday evening, but it wasn't part of the procession and the vice president was unhurt.

Three unmarked police vehicles, with their lights and sirens on, were traveling 5 to 10 minutes ahead of the motorcade on Manhattan's West Side and were checking traffic before Biden passed en route to an appearance on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," chief police spokesman Paul Browne said.

The cars were going through an intersection when the second one collided with a livery cab around 5:40 p.m. Traffic had stopped for the police, but the livery cab driver pulled out around the line of vehicles and was trying to go through the intersection, police said.

A passenger in the livery cab refused medical attention at the scene. The cab driver and two police officers were examined at a hospital and were released.

The police vehicles had been sent out as a routine patrol ahead of Biden, and the motorcade was not involved, Browne said....

Vehicles linked to Biden have already been involved in two accidents in a week. Last Thursday, two armored Secret Service vehicles struck and killed a man as he was crossing a parkway in Maryland. Biden was in neither vehicle at the time.

In another accident, a sheriff's deputy was injured Monday in Albuquerque, N.M., when a woman drove around police vehicles blocking an intersection and collided with the deputy's car.

It isn't just Biden's tongue that ends up in a tangled mess whenever he has a speaking engagement.

Somali Pirates Take on the Wrong Ship This Time

Earlier this year we had the drama of the Maersk Alabama and the three pirates who entered paradise simultaneously thanks to the coordinated efforts of Navy snipers. You'd think the pirates would have learned to leave that ship alone, but not so:

Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device.

A U.S. surveillance plane was monitoring the ship as it continued to its destination on the Kenyan coast, while a pirate said that the captain of a ship hijacked Monday with 28 North Korean crew members on board had died of wounds.

Pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama last April and took ship captain Richard Phillips hostage, holding him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for five days. Navy SEAL sharpshooters freed Phillips while killing three pirates in a daring nighttime attack.

Four suspected pirates in a skiff attacked the ship again on Tuesday around 6:30 a.m. local time, firing on the ship with automatic weapons from about 300 yards (meters) away, a statement from the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said.

An on-board security team repelled the attack by using evasive maneuvers, small-arms fire and a Long Range Acoustic Device, which can beam earsplitting alarm tones, the fleet said.

I believe they were broadcasting that CD of Obama's speeches that the president gave then Queen during his visit to London.

If you've ever seen "Whale Wars" you've seen those acoustic devices. The Japanese whaling fleet used them with great effectiveness against the econuts on the Sea Shepherd. They can be quite unpleasant.

Thanksgiving Dining Crisis Headline of the Day

From KTLA:

Pumpkin Pie Shortage Expected this Holiday Season

Perhaps we need a pumpkin stimulus bill?

My mother-in-law tried to kill me with a pumpkin pie one time, but that's a story for another day.

Ninja Skewer

No, it's not the Wednesday special at the local BBQ house, but an inebriated citizen in Seattle:

On 11/16/09, at approximately 11:15 p.m., an officer was doing an area check for a victim of an assault in the 600 block of 7 Av when she came across a male screaming for help, as he was impaled on the top of a metal fence.

Seattle Fire Department (SFD) was called immediately and officers supported the male to prevent further injury due to the subject becoming weaker. When SFD arrived they removed the male from the spike and transported him to Harborview Medical Center (HMC) for treatment.

Believing that this male might have been involved in the assault officers were doing an area check for, the officers contacted the male at HMC. The male claimed he was not being chased, but rather he thought he was a ninja and would be able to successfully leap over the 4’-5’ fence.

Clearly he was overconfident in his abilities, no doubt bolstered by alcohol.

I hate it when that happens.

Obama Suddenly Notices the Deficit

And he did so on Fox News:

President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession.

With the U.S. unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, Obama told Fox News his administration faces a delicate balance of trying to boost the economy and spur job creation while putting the economy on a path toward long-term deficit reduction.

His administration was considering ways to accelerate economic growth, with tax measures among the options to give companies incentives to hire, Obama said in the interview with Fox conducted in Beijing during his nine-day trip to Asia.

"It is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession," he said.

You have to wonder if this message was not intended for the general public, but specifically for Fox News viewers, a demographic that's far more concerned with deficits than the other networks. Given that all Obama and the Dems have done is pile spending on top of spending, you know he's not serious about all this deficit talk. If he was serious he would immediately propose cancellation of the balance of the Porkulus Bill, only 14% of which has been spent and which has proven to be completely ineffective. Some $700 billion in new debt could be eliminated on the spot.

The Independents Are Revolting!

Yes, that most holy segment of voters who can't make up their minds but are treated like geniuses every election cycle have once again swung in the wind and this time they're pointing away from Democrats:

Mounting evidence that independent voters have soured on the Democrats is prompting a debate among party officials about what rhetorical and substantive changes are needed to halt the damage.

Following serious setbacks with independents in off-year elections earlier this month, White House officials attributed the defeats to local factors and said President Barack Obama sees no need to reposition his own image or the Democratic message.

Since then, however, a flurry of new polls makes clear that Democrats are facing deeper problems with independents—the swing voters who swung dramatically toward the party in 2006 and 2008 but who now are registering deep unease with the amount of spending and debt called for under Obama's agenda in an era of one-party rule in Washington.

A Gallup Poll released last week offered a disturbing glimpse about the state of play: just 14 percent of independents approve of the job Congress is doing, the lowest figure all year. In just the past few days alone, surveys have shown Democratic incumbents trailing Republicans among independent voters by double-digit margins in competitive statewide contests in places as varied as Connecticut, Ohio and Iowa.

Obama’s own popularity among independents has fallen significantly, too. A CBS News poll Tuesday showed the president’s approval rating among unaligned voters falling to 45 percent — down from 63 percent in April.

“We withdrew from the accounts of voters and now we need to pay them back,” said Nathan Daschle, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association. “We are having these conversations right now about what independents need to see and hear.”

Pat Waak, the chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, said the party had so far failed to convince independent voters of the steps it had taken to improve the economy.

“I think the economy is at the base of the tension,” she said. “Quite frankly, we’ve got to do a better job of messaging. There’s a lot of work to be done to get independents more comfortable with what we’re doing.”

That next to last sentence tells you what the Democrats' problem really is. They're too busy "messaging" and not busy enough "governing". What Waak (how appropriate is THAT name) is really saying is we haven't yet figured out how to fool them any more. The independents starting to catch on (they're not always the swiftest among us).

My advice to the GOP - don't spend your time trying to figure out how to appeal to the blessed independents. Yes, you need them to win, but if you offer a solid conservative approach to government - low taxes, smaller government, muscular foreign policy - you'll attract all the independents you need. In reality, most people live their lives as conservatives no matter what party they may claim to support. Conservative principles will resonate with enough of them to make a difference on election day.

Why is Sarah Palin Such a Threat to the Left?

Bob Weir at American Thinker has some thoughts:

What this country needs is a strong conservative leader with the courage of her convictions. Sensing those qualities in Sarah Palin, the liberal left is becoming frantic because they can't seem to halt her popularity. The reason they're panicking is because they're afraid of her connection with regular folks who work for a living, pay their taxes, attend a religious worship service regularly and believe that our country has lost the moral fiber that once united us. The book, Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy, covered several historical figures that stood up against the corruption surrounding them, and succeeded in defeating it. Sarah Palin did exactly that in her home state of Alaska. In a saner time in our history, she'd be a shoe-in for the White House.

But we're living in an era of in-your-face corruption; a time when elected officials rob us blind and dare us to do something about it. The powerful Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, New York Congressman Charles Rangel, is facing a growing investigation of ethics and tax scandals. When the man empowered with the responsibility to write our tax laws refuses to pay his, something terrible has happened to our country. With a laundry list of misbehavior attributed to him, Rangel boldly continues to keep his seat, his chairmanship, and is running for reelection.

This has become a pattern across the country. Whether the politicians get caught with their fingers wrapped around bribe money, or with their arms wrapped around someone else's spouse, they arrogantly tell the public that it will not deter them from running for reelection. Once upon a time in America, a politician might be unscrupulous, but if he got caught, he'd be history. Now, we have a President of the United States who appointed a tax cheat (Treasury Secretary Geitner) to his Cabinet and attempted to appoint another tax cheat (Tom Daschle) to lead Health and Human Services before it was discovered that the former Senate Majority Leader was also a tax cheat. Kathleen Sebelius, the Kansas Governor, ended up with the job after paying about $8,000 in back taxes.

I could illustrate hundreds of other examples of rampant corruption by people in elective office. Pointing to government decay is the job of the free press. But are they hounding any of the power hungry scoundrels that masquerade as symbols of decency and honor? No, they're engaged in a continuous merciless attack on a woman who has led the way in the fight against the very corruption that is being overlooked by those who have become blinded by their own ideology.

Palin is a threat because she symbolizes decency in a country that has been taken hostage by moral degenerates. If she isn't stopped, this country might end up reclaiming some of the values that made us the envy of the world.

There's little question that the Democrats fear her more than any other potential presidential candidate. They may snicker and laugh at her, but the relentless attacks confirm that she poses a real threat to them.

So, what can they do? Attempt to make her look like a ditz the way Newsweak did with their cover photo of the upcoming issue. Democrats were actually criticizing her on TV for posing in a running outfit, when in fact she never posed for Newsweak at all. That photo was taken for a piece in Running World magazine that ran last year during the campaign and nobody at Newsweak got permission from that magazine to use the photo. Running a photo of Palin in a business suit speaking to a large, enthusiastic crowd would defeat their purposes.

Even worse would have been a photo of Palin with a rifle or sitting on her motorcycle. That kind of stuff resonates with much of middle America.

Whether she can survive the sustained attacks and have a real shot at national office is still to be seen, but one thing's for sure - if she wants to play a role nationally she'll have lots of popular support.

The "Must Have" Christmas Gift for 2009

I was strolling through the Mission Viejo Mall last night and came upon a calendar kiosk which contained all the usual stuff, with the exception of this:

A year with Obama - words to inspire you all year long.

I took a look inside. Here are the first few entries:

• January 1, 2010: "Hope."
• January 2, 2010: "Change."
• January 3, 2010: "Hope and Change."
• January 4, 2010: "Rainbows and Unicorns."
• January 5, 2010: "Don't watch Fox News."
• January 6, 2010: See January 1-5, 2010 and repeat as needed until December 31, 2010.

Words to live by.

Obama Bible Verse of the Day

This one's going around the internet. I got it in an email from a reader:

We were in Pigeon Forge over the week end. On Sunday, we left to come home. Traffic was moving slowly, and a car in front of us had an Obama bumper sticker on it. It read: "Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

Mike's Bible was lying on the dash board. He got it, opened it up to the scripture, and read it. He started laughing and laughing. Then he read it to me. I couldn't believe what it said. I had a good laugh, too..

Psalm 109:8

"Let his days be few; and let another take his office."

Just to be sure the passage was accurate as quoted, I looked it up. It's the King James Version so even the Southern Baptists can agree it's correct.

Al Gore, Geothermal Scientist

John Derbyshire discusses the latest energy fallacies being promoted by the Right Reverend Gore:

Al Gore on Conan O'Brien's show the other day:

Conan: Now, what about … you talk in the book about geothermal energy …
Al: Yeah, yeah.
Conan: and that is, as I understand it, using the heat that's generated from the core of the earth …
Al: Yeah.
Conan: … to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?
Al: It definitely is, and it's a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, 'cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …

[Me] The geothermal gradient is usually quoted as 25–50 degrees Celsius per mile of depth in normal terrain (not, e.g., in the crater of Kilauea). Two kilometers down, therefore, (that's a mile and a quarter if you're not as science-y as Al) you'll have an average gain of 30–60 degrees — exploitable for things like home heating, though not hot enough to make a nice pot of tea. The temperature at the earth's core, 4,000 miles down, is usually quoted as 5,000 degrees Celsius, though these guys claim it's much less, while some contrarian geophysicists have posted claims up to 9,000 degrees. The temperature at the surface of the Sun is around 6,000 degrees Celsius, while at the center, where nuclear fusion is going on bigtime, things get up over 10 million degrees.

If the temperature anywhere inside the earth was "several million degrees," we'd be a star.

The more he talks the less you realize he really knows.

Political Quote of the Day

From Steve McMahon, Democrat lackey, talking about Sarah Palin's new book:

She traded her friendships, she traded her loyalty, she took the shekels like Judas, and she's selling everyone out along the way.

So John McCain was Jesus? I thought Barack Obama was Jesus.

They can't all be Jesus.

I'm so confused.

Rep. Stupak: Obamacare Will Stall if Aborton Amendment is Removed

Rep. Bart Stupak, the moderate Democrat whose amendment to Obamacare prohibits federal funding of abortion through the health care program, is not impressed by a certain White House aide:

The author of a controversial amendment restricting federal funding for abortion coverage on Tuesday predicted that health care reform legislation would stall if the White House tries to step in and strip it out.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., dismissed a claim by White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod that President Obama would intervene to change the language, saying Axelrod is clueless on the issue and that such an intervention would imperil the bill.

"They're not going to take it out. If they do, health care will not move forward," Stupak told Fox News. "We won fair and square. ... That's why Mr. Axelrod's not a legislator. He doesn't really know what he's talking about."

They're going to take it out. Where it goes from there is anybody's guess, but they're going to take it out.

100 Things That Are Blamed on Climate Change

The Foundry has a list of 100 things for which climate change or global warming has been blamed.

1. The deaths of Aspen trees in the West

2. Incredible shrinking sheep
3. Caribbean coral deaths
4. Eskimo’s forced to leave their village
5. Disappearing lake in Chile
6. Early heat wave in Vietnam
7. Malaria and water-borne diseases in Africa
8. Invasion of jellyfish in the Mediterranean
9. Break in the Arctic Ice Shelf
10. Monsoons in India
11. Birds laying their eggs early
12. 160,000 deaths a year
13. 315,000 deaths a year
14. 300,000 deaths a year
15. Decline in snowpack in the West
16. Deaths of walruses in Alaska
17. Hunger in Nepal
18. The appearance of oxygen-starved dead zones in the oceans
19. Surge in fatal shark attacks
20. Increasing number of typhoid cases in the Philippines
21. Boy Scout tornado deaths
22. Rise in asthma and hayfever
23. Duller fall foliage in 2007
24. Floods in Jakarta
25. Radical ecological shift in the North Sea
26. Snowfall in Baghdad
27. Western tree deaths
28. Diminishing desert resources
29. Pine beetles
30. Swedish beetles
31. Severe acne
32. Global conflict
33. Crash of Air France 447
34. Black Hawk Down incident
35. Amphibians breeding earlier
36. Flesh-eating disease
37. Global cooling
38. Bird strikes on US Airways 1549
39. Beer tastes different
40. Cougar attacks in Alberta
41. Suicide of farmers in Australia
42. Squirrels reproduce earlier
43. Monkeys moving to Great Rift Valley in Kenya
44. Confusion of migrating birds
45. Bigger tuna fish
46. Water shortages in Las Vegas
47. Worldwide hunger
48. Longer days
49. Earth spinning faster
50. Gender balance of crocodiles
51. Skin cancer deaths in UK
52. Increase in kidney stones in India
53. Penguin chicks frozen by global warming
54. Deaths of Minnesota moose
55. Increased threat of HIV/AIDS in developing countries
56. Increase of wasps in Alaska
57. Killer stingrays off British coasts
58. All societal collapses since the beginning of time
59. Bigger spiders
60. Increase in size of giant squid
61. Increase of orchids in UK
62. Collapse of gingerbread houses in Sweden
63. Cow infertility
64. Conflict in Darfur
65. Bluetongue outbreak in UK cows
66. Worldwide wars
67. Insomnia of children worried about global warming
68. Anxiety problems for people worried about climate change
69. Migration of cockroaches
70. Taller mountains due to melting glaciers
71. Drowning of four polar bears
72. UFO sightings in the UK
73. Hurricane Katrina
74. Greener mountains in Sweden
75. Decreased maple in maple trees
76. Cold wave in India
77. Worse traffic in LA because immigrants moving north
78. Increase in heart attacks and strokes
79. Rise in insurance premiums
80. Invasion of European species of earthworm in UK
81. Cold spells in Australia
82. Increase in crime
83. Boiling oceans
84. Grizzly deaths
85. Dengue fever
86. Lack of monsoons
87. Caterpillars devouring 45 towns in Liberia
88. Acid rain recovery
89. Global wheat shortage; food price hikes
90. Extinction of 13 species in Bangladesh
91. Changes in swan migration patterns in Siberia
92. The early arrival of Turkey’s endangered caretta carettas
93. Radical North Sea shift
94. Heroin addiction
95. Plant species climbing up mountains
96. Deadly fires in Australia
97. Droughts in Australia
98. The demise of California’s agriculture by the end of the century
99. Tsunami in South East Asia
100. Fashion victim: the death of the winter wardrobe

They add this quote:

At the first Earth Day celebration, in 1969, environmentalist Nigel Calder warned, “The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.” C.C. Wallen of the World Meteorological Organization said, “The cooling since 1940 has been large enough and consistent enough that it will not soon be reversed.”

At least the globaloney crowd is consistent - consistently wrong.

Praying for Obamacare

Various members of the religious community are hoping that Sen. Joe Lieberman will answer to a higher power:

Connecticut's Joe Lieberman is a unique figure in Washington. He's an independent who caucuses with the Democrats but campaigns for Republicans like Arizona's John McCain.

He's also an observant Jew who honors the Sabbath. The senator makes an exception for work when the Senate is in session on Saturdays.

Now, an interfaith group of clergy is lobbying him to drop his plans to filibuster any healthcare bill that contains a public option. Their strategy: prayers.

During a Sunday night vigil, a crowd walked from Stamford High School, Lieberman's alma mater, to his condo building across the street. According to the Stamford Advocate's Devon Lash, residents went out on their balconies to listen to rabbis, ministers, priests and imams speak from behind a sidewalk pulpit.

"We are praying for the senator to change his heart and his mind," said the Rev. Tommie Jackson, of Faith Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Stamford.

Now I know how Harry Reid will get Obamacare passed - he'll schedule the vote for a Saturday.

Political Quote of the Day

From Levi Johnston, the 19-year old idiot father of Sarah Palin's grandchild:

"I just look at her in disgust... It's almost funny, that she's like, 46 years old, and she's battling a 19 year old, and I'm winning. And I'm telling the truth. She's lying and losing. ... If you look at her face, she's got -- she's really -- you can tell her mind's going 100 miles an hour when Oprah asked her those Levi questions... I've got a lot more knowledge and credibility than she gives me credit for."

He's winning? He's the one dropping his pants and exposing his shortcomings to the world via Playgirl.

He may be doing a lot of things, but winning isn't one of them.

Animal Rights Quote of the Day

From Sarah Palin:

“I love meat," she writes. "I eat pork chops, thick bacon burgers, and the seared fatty edges of a medium-well-done steak. But I especially love moose and caribou. I always remind people from outside our state that there's plenty of room for all Alaska's animals -- right next to the mashed potatoes.”

Praise the Lord and pass the caribou.

Time for the War on Christmas Posts

Every year about this time we start seeing stories about various entities, often governmental, who seem to have declared war on Christmas. Don Surber mentions some of those today, including schools that want to ban "candy canes, Santas, and 'other religious items'".

Another story quoted parent Kathryn McMillan, who also wants Santa in school, as saying: “One of the parents said, ‘If we allow Santa, what do we say if a child brings in a swastika? Do we allow that too?’ “

This set off Boston Herald columnist Michael Graham, who mocked this idea and coined the word Swasti-Claus.

Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”?

“Who knew that had a hidden message?” Graham wrote.

Visions of goose-stepping reindeer now dance in my head.

Just the fact that so many people now equate Christmas trees and Santa Claus with Christianity tells you how silly this annual argument has become. Those anti-religious types should absolutely love Christmas trees since their origination can be traced to pagan festivals and not mangers and virgin births.

Democrats May Flip Congress Next Year

To the Republicans. So says Michael Barone, who knows more about the American electorate than anybody:

Sometimes a poll result slaps you in the face. That was the case for me when I saw Public Policy Polling’s results in the 2nd congressional district of Arkansas. PPP has the incumbent, Democrat Vic Snyder, leading three unknown Republicans (two-thirds to three-quarters of respondents could not describe their feelings toward them) by margins of 44%-43%, 44%-42% and 45%-42%. No, it doesn’t matter which Republican got the best score. The news here is that a seven-term Democratic incumbent, an intelligent man (he has earned an M.D.) with no disqualifying personal characteristics or accusations of scandal (so far as I know) is running significantly below 50% and is essentially tied with three unknown Republicans.

Snyder was first elected to the House in 1996, when the Bill Clinton was sweeping to reelection (Little Rock is in the 2nd district), by a 52%-48% margin. A coattails victory, perhaps: Bill Clinton was carrying the district 55%-37%. Since then Snyder has won with solid percentages, 58% in 1998 and 2000, 93% in 2002, 58% in 2004, 61% in 2006 and 77% in 2008 (when, as in 2002, he had no Republican opponent). But now, PPP tells us, Snyder’s job rating is 42%-46% negative, and 55% of 2nd district voters (and 67% of Independents) oppose the health care bill the House passed and Snyder voted for while only 32% favor it.

Arkansas 2 is part of what I call the Jacksonian belt, the swath of counties from southwestern Pennsylvania along the Appalachian chain and extending to Oklahoma and Texas which were largely settled by the Scots-Irish immigrants that streamed into America in the dozen years before the Revolution and their descendants. Their great hero, and the son of Scots-Irish immigrants himself, was Andrew Jackson, the victor of Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans, who set about removing Indians from much of this territory and was the founder of the Democratic party. In 2008 voters in the Jacksonian belt voted heavily against Barack Obama in both the Democratic primaries and the general election, as you can see on these national maps and by clicking on individual states to see the county-by-county returns. This map showing the counties which cast a higher percentage of votes for John McCain in 2008 than for George W. Bush in 2004 is essentially a map of the Jacksonian belt.

If Vic Snyder is in trouble, it’s a good bet that many other Democrats from the Jacksonian belt are too. Arkansas 2 is not the most anti-Obama district in the Jacksonian belt; John McCain won it by a 54%-44% margin, and Obama carried Pulaski County which includes Little Rock and its close-in suburbs. The following table shows Democratic incumbents in 35 Jacksonian districts which either voted for McCain or went for Obama by narrow margins in part because of high turnout from black voters which seems unlikely to be duplicated in 2010; I’ve included the year in which each member was first elected and the McCain percentage in each district. Not all these Democrats in my judgment are vulnerable; they include many longtime incumbents who have built up goodwill in their districts or who have had consistent moderate or even conservative records or who as committee chairmen are in a position to help their districts, or all three. Republicans might not even have a candidate in some of these districts. But if Vic Snyder is running only even against unknown Republicans, that may be the case for half or more of these Democrats.

Barone has a chart of the potentially vulnerable districts. The GOP won't win them all, but the fact that they even have a chance against a guy like Snyder tells you that the Democrat brand is in real trouble.

No Coke. Pepsi!

That's not just a 70's era Saturday Night Live routine, but the the cry from the Costco megastores:

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Costco says it is no longer carrying Coca-Cola products in its stores nationwide due to a pricing dispute with the beverage maker.

The Issaquah, Wash.-based wholesale club operator would not
discuss the matter further. But a Costco executive confirmed Monday that the company is no longer carrying products from the world's largest soft drink maker.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. says it won't comment on on-going negotiations but said Costco is an important customer that it is committed to working with "in a spirit of fairness."

Costco Wholesale Corp. operates about 560 warehouses in the U.S. and abroad.

I'm guessing Coke's going to want to get that fixed pretty quickly because a lot of their stuff goes out the door of Costco every day (or at least it used to). I just bought three cases of Diet Coke on Sunday.

Here's Your Gift From Obama, Now Give it Back

Lots of people are in for a Tax Day surprise next year (from The Corner):

A report published by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration yesterday concluded that over 15 million Americans may owe the IRS for the tax credit they received as part of the recovery (that wasn't) plan. According to Yahoo News:

More than 15 million taxpayers may owe the government $250 or more because of how the IRS last spring set up President Barack Obama's tax break that was designed to help consumers spend the U.S. economy out of recession. Individuals with more than one job and married couples in which both spouses work may have to repay the government $400, either through a smaller tax refund or a larger tax bill.

On top of that, roughly "65,000 taxpayers could technically face penalties for underpaying their taxes in 2009."

I am sure that these taxpayers will be grateful to Mr. Obama for his super-sloppy implementation of his tax credit (which was a bad idea to begin with).

And that doesn't include the hundreds of thousands more who will discover that they have to pay taxes on the money they got from Cash for Clunkers program, and that could be as much as 25% or more of the money they got for their new car.

Good luck with all that.

Health Care Headline of the Day

From CNSNews:

Washington, D.C. Wins V.D. Triple Crown--Leads Nation in Syphilis, Gonorhea and Chlamydia Rates

I tell you what, why don't the people in Congress fix what's going on in Washington D.C., and then if they can clean that up maybe we'll give them a bigger health care project.

Race-Based Groups Join Together to Blast Obama

A rogues gallery of race-based groups, plus Big Labor, are joining together to put pressure on The One:

With unemployment among blacks at more than 15 percent, the N.A.A.C.P. will join several other groups on Tuesday to call on President Obama to do more to create jobs.

The organizations — including the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group— will make clear that they believe the president’s $787 billion stimulus program has not gone far enough to fight unemployment.

They will call for increased spending for schools and roads, billions of dollars in fiscal relief to state and local governments to forestall more layoffs and a direct government jobs program, “especially in distressed communities facing severe unemployment.”

In speaking out on jobs, N.A.A.C.P. leaders say they are not trying to pick a fight with the first African-American president. Rather, they say, they are pressing Mr. Obama in an area where they believe he wants to be pressured.

“It’s time for us to really stoke this issue up,” said Hilary O. Shelton, the N.A.A.C.P.’s senior vice president for advocacy and policy. “We’re not so much trying to convince him to do something he doesn’t want to do, but urging him to move forward on an issue we have agreement on.”

African-American leaders say it makes sense to pressure the president on jobs because the unemployment rate for blacks has jumped to 15.7 percent, from 8.9 percent when the recession started 23 months ago. That compares with 13.1 percent for Hispanics and 9.5 percent for whites.

The black unemployment rate has climbed above 20 percent in several states, reaching 23.9 percent in Michigan and 20.4 percent in South Carolina.

Want to know what's contributing to the decline in employment? Just look at the next paragraph:

In recent months, the N.A.A.C.P. has lobbied Mr. Obama on numerous issues, including the hate crimes bill and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for employees to sue over pay discrimination. But this is the first time in Mr. Obama’s presidency that the organization is throwing its full weight into the economic debate.

These race groups don't realize it, but they are their own worst enemies. Their efforts have succeeded in getting all sorts of job-killing bills enacted.

Unfortunately, these groups have spent their lives looking to the government for solutions to their problems. They will continue to be disappointed.

Gun Sales Continue to Boom

There's at least one industry in America still exploding, so to speak. Guns:

Smith & Wesson, the famed American gunmaker once owned by Tomkins, the British conglomerate, expects to nearly double its annual sales in the next three to five years as demand for its firearms soars in the recession. It is not alone.

All over America demand for firearms and ammunition is rising amid concerns that rising unemployment, which passed 10 per cent this month, will lead inexorably to higher rates of crime. Fears of terrorism have also helped to lift demand, as have concerns among gun owners that the Obama Administration may introduce restrictions on gun ownership and impose additional taxes.

Smith & Wesson is expecting sales to rise by 30 per cent to $102 million (£61 million) in the first quarter of the next financial year, after growing by more than 13 per cent this year to $335 million.

At Sturm and Ruger, sales for the third quarter hit $71.2 million, up 70 per cent from the same period last year. At Glock, the leader in law enforcement markets, pistol sales rose by 71 per cent in the first quarter of the financial year for 2010, in comparison with the same period last year.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the FBI carried out more than a million background checks on behalf of gun dealers in September (a check is required with every sale), an increase of 12.4 per cent on the same period in the previous year.

Mike Golden, chief executive at Smith and Wesson, is sceptical about the so-called Obama effect on gun sales, believing that his company’s booming revenues have “nothing to do with the administration” and everything to do with the economy.

“People are worried about personal protection with unemployment and crime on the rise,” he said in a presentation to investors, adding that 30 per cent of customers who had bought the company’s guns in the first half of this year were “first-time gun owners”, up from 9 per cent nine a year earlier.

Golden is being generous, or perhaps politically correct, in discounting the Obama effect. There's no question that gun sales have been spurred by a general fear of what Obama and the Democrats might do to our gun rights, and millions of people have purchased weapons out of fear they wouldn't be able to buy them in the future. It think the threat of terrorism is a significantly lower factor in gun sales, especially in states like California where concealed carry laws are so tough.

Germans to Obama: You Lie!

The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel joins the Rep. Joe Wilson chorus in telling President Obama "YOU LIE!":

US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush. Now, should the climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with Obama.

The folder labeled "climate change" that George W. Bush left behind for his successor on the desk of the Oval Office in January likely wasn't a thick one. Although Bush once said that America is overly-dependent on oil, he never got beyond that insight. He was too busy waging war on Iraq and searching for a legal basis for extraordinary renditions to pay much attention to the real threat facing humanity. "Forget the climate" seems to have been Bush's unofficial motto.

But few people expected that the Barack Obama, of all people, would continue his predecessor's climate change plan. When he took office at the beginning of 2009, it was clear that the success of the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen in December depended almost entirely on the US -- that America needed to take a clear leadership role on a problem that could shake civilization to its very core.
Only if the US manages to reduce its excessive energy consumption, commit itself to mandatory CO2 emission reduction targets and help finance the move away from oil for poorer countries, is there still a chance that countries like China and India will do the same and that a dangerous warming of the Earth can be stopped. On the weekend, Obama announced that there would be no agreement on binding rules in Copenhagen. It was the admission of a massive failing -- and the prelude to a truly dramatic phase of international climate policy.

Obama Lied to the Europeans

Barack Obama cast himself as a "citizen of the world" when he delivered his well-received campaign speech in Berlin in the summer of 2008. But the US president has now betrayed this claim. In his Berlin speech, he was dishonest with Europe. Since then, Obama has neglected the single most important issue for an American president who likes to imagine himself as a world citizen, namely his country's addiction to fossil fuels and the risks of unchecked climate change. Health care reform and other domestic issues were more important to him than global environmental threats. He was either unwilling or unable to convince skeptics in his own ranks and potential defectors from the ranks of the Republicans to support him, for example by promising alternative investments as a compensation for states with large coal reserves.

Obama's announcement at the APEC summit that it was no longer possible to secure a binding treaty in Copenhagen, is the result of his own negligence. China, India and other emerging economies have always spoken openly about the fact that the US, as the world's largest emitter of CO2, has to be proactive in commiting itself to targets agreed on by way of international negotiation. But that is not America's style. The US is quite happy to see itself as the leader of the Western world. But when it comes to climate change, America has once again failed miserably -- for the umpteenth time.

Poor babies. It must be tough living in a nation that's free today because America kicked their dictator's butt and bankrupted the communist governments that ran half the place after WWII.

But don't worry, Germans. He's been as big a disappointment to us as he has to you, but certainly for different reasons.

There's more whining at the link.

Political Cartoon of the Day

From Michael Ramirez:

Jobs Saved or Created in Fictional Congressional Districts

Does anyone in Washington know what they're doing?

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 9th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.

There's one problem, though: There is no 9th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight congressional districts.

There's no 86th congressional district in Arizona either, but the government's recovery.gov Web site says $34 million in stimulus money has been spent there.

All smoke and mirrors....

Homeland Security Cartoon of the Day

Seen on Facebook:

NY Gov. Paterson Blasts Decision to Bring Terrorists to New York City

A Democrat wanders from the reservation:

Gov. David Paterson openly criticized the White House on Monday, saying he thought it was a terrible idea to move alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists to New York for trial.

"This is not a decision that I would have made. I think terrorism isn't just attack, it's anxiety and I think you feel the anxiety and frustration of New Yorkers who took the bullet for the rest of the country," he said.

Paterson's comments break with Democrats, who generally support the President's decision.

"Our country was attacked on its own soil on September 11, 2001 and New York was very much the epicenter of that attack. Over 2,700 lives were lost," he said. "It's very painful. We're still having trouble getting over it. We still have been unable to rebuild that site and having those terrorists so close to the attack is gonna be an encumbrance on all New Yorkers.

The decision to bring terrorists to New York City is stupid beyond belief. They should not be receiving criminal trials, but military tribunals...followed swiftly by executions.

America will regret Obama's decision.

Obama Suffers Teleprompter Malfunction at Key Moment

A awkward moment in the White House family residence:


Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions During Family Dinner