Can I call em or what?

Earlier I said that the now infamous picture of Obama and Biden together showed Obama absolutely dripping with contempt for his choice for vice president.  Others said that the President looked tired.  Well yeah, if they meant that he was tired of listening to Biden's never closed yap.  Consider this from Pundette:

"Joe and Obama barely spoke"

From Game Changer via Politico:

“A chill set in between Chicago and the Biden plane,” Halperin and Heilemann write in the book, to be released Monday. “Joe and Obama barely spoke by phone, rarely campaigned together.”

And when Obama campaign manager David Plouffe was asked about having Biden dial into the nightly campaign conference call, he responded: “Nah.” Instead, Biden had his own call with Plouffe and senior campaign adviser David Axelrod.

Obama himself was growing increasingly frustrated with his running mate after Biden let loose with a string of gaffes, including a statement that paying higher taxes amounted to patriotism and criticism of one of the campaign’s own ads poking fun at John McCain.

But when Biden, at an October fund-raiser in Seattle, famously predicted that Obama would be tested with an international crisis, the then-Illinois senator had had enough.

“How many times is Biden gonna say something stupid?” he demanded of his advisers on a conference call, a moment at which most people on the call said the candidate was as angry as they had ever heard him.

For his part, the authors write, Biden wasn’t pleased with the campaign’s direction.

After a prep session for a “Meet the Press” appearance following the Democratic convention, Biden was incredulous when he was briefed by campaign aides about the ticket’s tax policy. He told them: “Well, it’s your campaign. I’ll say what you want me to say. But after Election Day, all bets are off.”

Following his campaign plane braggadocio about being more qualified than the man who put him on the ticket, Biden’s access to the press was limited and he grilled new staffers that were assigned to him to try and determine if they were part of his team or loyal to Chicago.

I've always felt that Obama and Biden make one very odd couple.  Biden, to be kind, is affable in a silly, cloddish way.  He says whatever pops in to his head, appropriate or not.  Obama on the other hand is stiff and formal.  He is a man who weighs his words and while he has pulled some oratorical boners, he emits a confidence that allows him to rise above his gaff rather than being defined by them as Biden has been.

I can't imagine Obama and Biden liking each other.  Heck, I can't even imagine them respecting each other.
Pundette opines that Obama may have chosen Biden as a comic foil.  I get that but I doubt Obama does a lot of laughing.

Jobs numbers suck? Find a different way to count them.

Via Don Surber:

White House panics on jobs

I got a note from the Pro-Publica publicist pushing a post at its Web site: “Michael Grabell reports that the White House will no longer keep a cumulative tally of jobs created or saved, and instead it will count any person who works on a project funded with stimulus money—even if that person was never in danger of losing his or her job. The OMB added the new guidelines last month to simplify the counting rules, but Grabell notes, ‘the new guidance could significantly change what the public sees’.”

I smell desperation coming from the White House.

Fortunately, as Grabell pointed out, a congressman is calling the White House out on this attempt to rationalize their $787 billion stimulus — which sank the economy.

“But Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the Obama administration is making the job numbers even more misleading and is trying to pump them up by counting jobs that weren’t created or retained. He outlined his concerns in a letter Friday to the government’s stimulus watchdog, Earl Devaney,” Grabell reported.

That letter is here

Not only is President Obama running out of political capital, he is wasting his credibility

Working in a financial institution I see the effects of unemployment every day.  I know that the stimulus has failed and so do the people I deal with who are struggling to make ends meet on their unemployment checks.  The White House can use whatever system they like to say that one plus one equals five but those people who are desperate for a job, any job, to feed their family and keep a roof over their head stopped falling for the administration spin months ago.
 
I'm not sure that Obama has any credibility left to waste.

The Ice Age comes to Florida

It was 27 degrees when I left for work at 6:30 this morning.  I tried to remember the last time that it had been this cold and couldn't.  Along came the perfect explanation:  The mini ice age starts here:


The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.


Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in summer by 2013.

According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.

Well hooray, the poley bears are saved!  Who knew that weather patterns are cyclical?  That explains the ice in Tampa Bay today.

Image from tbo.com

Time to "de-stimulate"

Larry Kudlow:  Time to De-Stimulate:

After the arrival of a disappointing December jobs report, my thought on putting America back to work is simple: de-stimulate.

That's right. Get rid of the Obama stimulus monster, including the government takeover of health care, cap-and-trade and all this nonsensical talk of creating green jobs. Get rid of the increase in marginal personal tax rates and capital-gains tax rates. Get rid of the payroll tax hike from the health care talks. Get rid of the spending that is a counterweight to growth. Get rid of it, every part of it. It's creating so much uncertainty that even profitable businesses are afraid to hire new workers and expand.

It's like business is on hold as it waits for the next Washington shoe to fall.

The Democrats and President Obama came in to power mistakenly believing that they had a mandate that would allow them to completely restructure the economy but they have failed.  The country has been plunged deeply in to debt and most would be hard pressed to name a single Obama initiative that has yielded positive results in any lasting or meaningful way.

Consider this comment I received on an earlier post:

Obviously, with regard to health care, you must have never left the country to see that other countries have a wonderful standard of living, all while getting much of government support. Taxes are higher, everyone pays them, and people do not have to worry about sending their kids to college, health care, maternity leave...all is well in these countries...just go there.(emphasis added)

The commenter, typical of many on the Left, wants to relegate their welfare to the state but that is not the mindset that built this country.  In this country, we succeed when government gets the hell out of the way.  If we have learned anything from the Stimulus it is that government intervention makes everything worse.

The housing bubble was in no small way caused by government intervention in the housing market.  It was due to pressure put on lenders by politicians who claim that owning a home is a basic "right" and who then exacerbated the problem by shifting much of the risk to Freddie and Fannie. 

Not learning from their mistakes in the housing market, the government is now interfering in both the health care and energy markets.  Rather than opening up competition in health care by allowing insurance companies to operate across state lines and concentrating on tort reform the government is giving us a system that will increase costs and lower care.  In the energy sector Cap & Trade will increase costs for every American household without providing any offsetting benefits.

If the Obama administration wants to improve our floundering economy they would do well to remember that less is more.  They need to concentrate on keeping the country safe and let the markets take care of themselves.

Throwing good money after bad

The Daley Gator:

New Obama ‘Green Jobs’ To Cost $135,295 Each – Washington Examiner

President Obama’s announcement earlier today of an additional $2.3 billion in federal tax credits for creating approximately 17,000 subsidized temporary jobs in the green energy industry is drawing a less than enthusiastic response from Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research:

“Show me one other industry that requests and receives a nearly 30 percent taxpayer subsidy. That’s what the wind and solar industries require – at a minimum – to exist. All the president did today is throw more money at an unproven technology that is not economically viable in the marketplace. Unfortunately, the only winners in this latest taxpayer giveaway will be Wall Street money managers and corporate interests in the wind and solar industry.

“If the president really wants to create an environment that will foster economic growth and job creation, he need not look any further than the domestic oil, gas and coal industries. These three industries and energy sources built this nation. For the administration to continue to ignore this fact and to keep the vast resources that taxpayers own under lock and key at the Department of Interior is irresponsible and a disservice to the American people.

One imagines that there must be a money tree growing somewhere in the Rose Garden.  After all, why would the President favor spending $2.3 billion dollars to create a mere 17,000 temporary jobs unless he has an endless supply of money that none of us are aware of?

If President Obama were in the least bit interested in expanding employment he would back off health care reform that has caused uncertainty among the nation's employers, cut taxes for the country's businesses, both small and large alike, and do away with regulations that impede expansion by the country's industries.  Unfortunately, the President would rather push an agenda than deal with the problems that now rest squarely on his shoulders.

President Obama's butt-kissing of special interest groups, in the case the "green" lobby, is digging us further and further down in an economic hole.   The President's policies do little to encourage risk taking or innovation, both the hallmarks of a vibrant economy, but instead, he is using his position to reward his political backers.

"To the victor goes the spoils" may be a viable political ploy in Chicago (though apparently not) but it stinks as a model for leadership. 

When Democrats say what they really think

From the New York Times:

Reid Apologizes for Remarks on Obama’s Color and ‘Dialect’

 Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, apologized on Saturday for once predicting that Barack Obama could become the country’s first black president because he was “light-skinned” and had “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

When Trent Lott made racist remarks he was forced to step down, as well he should have.  But when Harry Reid states that Obama is acceptable because he's light-skinned and only speaks with a Negro dialect when he wants to, eh, no biggie.
 
How long will blacks (and women and Hispanics, etc.) be willing to be used by a political party that hasn't done one thing in return for their loyalty?  Blacks are pawns of the Democratic party and nothing more. 
 
Reid's words were racist and insulting and should be labeled as such.  Outrage shouldn't be based on the political party of the speaker but on the words themselves.  Blacks (and women and Hispanics, etc.) will never achieve equality so long as they fail to demand respect from all people.

How cold is it?

It is sooooo cold Val at Babalu is having iguana for lunch!

Much more of this Global Warming and my extremities are going to fall off.

Detroit bomber was singing like a canary before being lawyered up

The Telegraph:

Detroit bomber 'singing like a canary' before arrest

The chance to secure crucial information about al-Qaeda operations in Yemen was lost because the Obama administration decided to charge and prosecute Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as an ordinary criminal, critics say. He is said to have reduced his co-operation with FBI interrogators on the advice of his government-appointed defence counsel.

The potential significance became chillingly clear this weekend when it was reported that shortly after his detention, he boasted that 20 more young Muslim men were being prepared for similar murderous missions in the Yemen.

The lawyer for the 23-year-old Nigerian entered a formal not guilty plea on Friday to charges that he tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on December 25 – even though he reportedly admitted earlier that he was trained and supplied with the explosives sewn into his underwear by al-Qaeda in the Arab state.

"He was singing like a canary, then we charged him in civilian proceedings, he got a lawyer and shut up," Slade Gorton, a member of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the Sept 2001 terror attacks on the US, told The Sunday Telegraph.

"I find it incomprehensible that this administration is treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue. The president has finally said that we are at war with al-Qaeda. Well, if this is a war, then Abdulmutallab should be treated as a combatant not a criminal."

Not only did our government throw away its chance to gather valuable intelligence from Abdulmutallab but worse, Abdulmutallab presented us with the opportunity to gather a particular type of intelligence that is now lost to us. 

Contrary to the stereotype being put forth by the White House that terrorism is born of poverty, Abdulmutallab represents the growing threat from upper income, educated young men who were raised or at least educated in the West.  We need to know why these young men are turning to terrorism, how they are being recruited and vetted, and how they are being trained. 

In any case, it is mind boggling that if Abdulmutallab was willing, in fact eager, to give us badly needed information about the threat that faces us that the government would do the one thing that blocks us from gathering that intelligence.  We need to be smarter about how we obtain intelligence.  We could start by not throwing opportunities out the window.

Don't tax me bro!

Unions Rally to Oppose a Tax on Health Insurance

When millions of blue-collar workers were leaning toward John McCain during the 2008 campaign, labor unions moved many of them into Barack Obama’s column by repeatedly hammering one theme: Mr. McCain wanted to tax their health benefits.

An A.F.L.-C.I.O. ad warned union members that it believed voting for Senator John McCain in 2008 would be a mistake.

But now labor leaders are fuming that President Obama has endorsed a tax on high-priced, employer-sponsored health insurance policies as a way to help cover the cost of health care reform. And as Senate and House leaders seek to negotiate a final health care bill, unions are pushing mightily to have that tax dropped from the legislation. Or at the very least, they want the price threshold raised so that the tax would affect fewer workers.

In other words, the union leaders are all for shifting the cost off health care to tax payers, just not their tax payers.  Well common sense alone is enough to know that we cannot extend health care to 20, 30, 40 (whatever number we are currently up or down to) million people and that only the "rich" will bear the burden of paying for it.  There simply aren't that many rich people around. 

Unions are among the biggest pushers of ObamaCare.  If they want it they should be willing to pay for it.

Hello from the frozen tundra formerly known as Florida

The original photo is courtesy of tbo.com-the frozen sentiment is all mine.

Whatever happened to "the will of the people"?

Reacting to the Boston Globes's Scott Brown swearing-in would be stalled to pass health care reform Cold Fury wrote this: 

I probably ought to say that none of this should be taken to mean I don’t think it’s worth working to get Brown elected; it most certainly is. But it ought to be clear enough by now to even the thickest-skulled Pollyanna out there that the health-care takeover fight is over, and we lost. The Democrat Socialists have shown they’ll stick at absolutely nothing whatsoever — fair, foul, or outright illegal — to get this thing rammed through, and rammed through NOW. They’ve been fighting to open this big-government Pandora’s box for decades; they want it more than they’ve ever wanted anything. And they have no scruples, no honor, no integrity, and no regard for the American Constitution to slow them down one iota in their rush to get it.

We won’t undo six decades of statist creep with one election, and we won’t turn back the socialized-medicine juggernaut with the election of one Senator from one of our most liberal states. Might as well put your faith in Obama to stem the rise of the oceans, end war and poverty, and all that other tommyrot while you’re at it.

Of course I hope that Scott Brown is elected.  I have been following the news of the election via Legal Insurrection where Prof. Jacobson has been informing and updating daily.  But has Cold Fury points out, this one election will not change what has been in the making for decades:  the discounting of the will of the people. 

I would love to blame our loss of voice on the Democratic party but Republicans are equally guilty, as are the voting public that has allowed our country reach a crisis point before having a "hey, wait a minute" epiphany.  Our elected officials have ignored the citizenry and have enacted their will contrary to the wishes of the people.  Should Massachusetts not seat Brown until after the health care vote, it would simply be par for the course.

This is a prime example of why the Tea Party movement is so important.  We need to put the people back in charge of the process and return to the small government principals that made this country great.  The Tea Party represents the growing number of citizens who want a return to the time when government answered to "the little guy" not Big Business, Big Labor, Big Environment and whoever dropped a couple of coins in their pockets.

Conservatives need to get over the idea that victory consists getting people elected who have a (R) after their name.  Victory is electing people who vote according to the will of the people.

What is the difference between a "tax accident" and a "tax cheat"?

Last year I received a letter from the IRS.  In June of 2007, I broke my leg.  It was your run of the mill break and I spent five months in a wheelchair.  I wasn't able to live in my own home and my expenses shot up overnight.  I had a small stock fund that I cashed in to help shore up my finances.  According to the IRS, I underpaid my taxes on that fund by $213 and with interest and penalties I owed $269.  I mailed them a check.  But I steamed about it.  Am I a tax cheat?  Is Glenn Beck?  Politico:

What if it's Beck with a tax 'accident'?

No one has been less forgiving than Glenn Beck when it comes to Democrats with tax problems. Not just the well-known ones like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner but also less serious ones such as Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, whose husband only recently paid off $6,400 in tax liens on his auto repair business, and Nancy Killefer, who withdrew her nomination to be White House chief performance officer, citing a $946.69 tax lien on her Washington home.

Their tax issues are just one indicator of “a culture of corruption among some of the left,” Beck declared just last month in a segment on his hugely popular Fox News television show, in which he branded Geithner, Killefer, Solis and a handful of other Obama nominees “tax cheats,” whom he wouldn’t trust “with my children, let alone my children's future.”

Mocking the excuses offered by the nominees, Beck sarcastically intoned: “Oh, the tax thing, it was an accident. It was my husband's fault. I didn't do it, he did it. I didn't mean to do it. I was just working hard for the people.”

So what to make, then, of the fact that Beck has had his own minor tax problems over the past few years?

Well, here's what I make of it.  If you scroll to the second page of the Politico article you'll find that upon being notified by the IRS that monies were owed, Beck, or more accurately, Beck's company paid the taxes.  The shortages were due to the differences between tax codes in different states and Beck's company had moved to a different state mid tax year.  I understand that a mistake could happen and I appreciate that once the mistake was discovered it was immediately rectified.

Geither, Daschle and company didn't make a mistake.  They cheated and they didn't pay up until it affected their political careers.  It is a cheap shot for Politico to lump Beck, and myself, in the same category as people who take citizen's money to pay for their socialist programs but fail to put out their own money until it is convenient.  They didn't have accidents, they cheated and they are hypocrites to boot.

In fairness to Politico, it is pointed out in the article that our tax code is far too complicated.  Maybe Timothy Geithner will fix that.  Yeah, right.

Do you know what tomorrow is?

Tomorrow is the one anniversary of the report issued by Obama's Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Christine Romer, that said that unemployment would not go over eight percent if the Stimulus Package was passed.  As they say, that was then, this is now:

On the December Jobs Numbers
Posted by Christina Romer

Today’s employment report, though a setback from November, is consistent with the gradual labor market stabilization we have been seeing over the last several months.

Payroll employment declined 85,000 in December. To put this number in perspective, employment declined 139,000 in September and 127,000 in October. So, in a broad sense the trend toward moderating job loss is continuing. This trend is particularly obvious in the quarterly pattern: average monthly job loss was 691,000 in the first quarter of 2009, 428,000 in the second quarter, 199,000 in the third quarter, and 69,000 in the fourth quarter. (emphasis added)

Translating Romer's statement using my Administration Spin to Plain English dictionary, the gist is:  unemployment sucks and is getting suckier but even though it is far above the eight percent we promised it doesn't suck as bad as it could so therefore, we're doing a real bang up job of only somewhat really sucking.

Of course that is easy for Romer to say, she still has a job.

The Republican Party doesn't need to re-invent, it needs to get back to basics

In What the GOP Can Learn from a Pizza Chain Jonah Goldberg makes the case that the Republican Party would do well to look to Dominos Pizza as an example of how to win back loyalty:

...But if I were giving my two cents — and whaddya know? I am! — I’d tell the GOP to look not to Reagan in 1980 or Gingrich in 1994, as so many pundits suggest.

I’d look to Domino’s in 2010.

You may have seen the commercials or the YouTube video touting the iconic pizza-delivery chain’s reinvention. But if you haven’t, Domino’s new campaign can be summed up easily enough: “We blew it.”

Focus groups and consumer surveys revealed something pretty much everyone outside of Domino’s has known for years: Their pizza stinks. It tastes as if aliens tried to copy real pizza but just couldn’t capture its essence.

In their four-minute video (search YouTube for “the Pizza Turnaround”), executives, employees, and chefs at the company confront their harshest reviews head-on. They talk about how much it hurts to hear that their product “tastes like cardboard” and is worse than microwave pizza. But they admit the truth and commit themselves to starting over with more flavor, better crusts, and cheese that doesn’t taste like discount weather caulking. Domino’s says that the American palate has improved, and they want to update their recipe to take account of that fact.

The appeal of the campaign should be obvious: honesty. Domino’s admits they lost their way, and they want a second chance. They’re confronting the criticism head-on rather than denying it.

Obviously, the analogy to the GOP isn’t perfect. For example, last I checked, Domino’s didn’t get bogged down in an unpopular war.

But the GOP’s troubles over the last decade have a lot to do with the fact that Americans didn’t stop liking what the Republican party is supposed to deliver. They stopped liking what the GOP actually delivered.

Exactly.  Once upon a time the words "republican" and "conservative" were interchangeable.  Anymore, it seems that the (R) after many congressman's name could be just as easily read (D) and vice versa.  When presented with a homogeneous product the voters have either chosen the candidate with the flashiest advertising campaign or decided "why bother?".  For better or worse, and it has turned out to be worse, Obama distinguished himself in 2008 and McCain did not.

As a conservative who cares more about policies than partisan success, I would hate to see the GOP abandon conservative policies in order to be more popular. That would be like Domino’s listening to critics and then deciding to get into the Chinese-food business. Indeed, by my lights, that’s what George W. Bush tried to do with his “compassionate conservatism.” He surrendered to liberal arguments about the role, size, and scope of government on too many fronts. In effect, he said you can have your pizza and Kung Pao chicken all in the same dish. That’s not a good meal, it’s a bad mess.

Moreover, abandoning conservatism would be silly. According to Gallup, Americans identify themselves as conservative over liberal by a margin of 2–1, the same proportion as just after 9/11.

So what would a GOP-turnaround recipe look like? That’s a subject for any number of other columns. But for starters, I’d look to young political chefs like Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.). He’s been the leader in attacking “crony capitalism” — the corrupt merger of big business and big government, a hallmark of the Obama administration. For too long Republicans confused supporting big business with supporting free markets, when big business is often the biggest impediment to fair competition. Other fresh new ingredients would almost surely include pro-family tax policies and the de-linking of legal and illegal immigration as interchangeable terms.

If the Republican Party were to follow Goldberg's advice I could easily see myself getting back on board.  Unfortunately, the "big tent" Republicans such as NRSC chairman Sen. Cornyn appears disinclined to get back to basics and instead supports RINO candidates over conservatives.  Sen. Lindsay Graham has thrown in with John Kerry and is thumbing his nose at party members who are clearly appalled by Cap & Trade.  The examples are nearly endless. 

Republicans have the opportunity to capitalize on Obama's disastrous first year but they won't do it by smugly claiming that they deserve the public's confidence simply because they represent a different party than is currently in power. 

If the party is to regain the trust that it betrayed they need to make big changes and make them soon.

Of Morality and Mortgages

Is doing the right thing passé?  Consider the following passages from Walk Away From Your Mortgage! that encourages borrowers to default on their mortgages even if they can afford to pay (all emphasis added);

There are two reasons why so-called strategic defaults have been considered antisocial and perhaps amoral. One is that foreclosures depress the neighborhood and drive down prices. But in a market society, since when are people responsible for the economic effects of their actions? Every oil speculator helps to drive up gasoline prices. Every hedge fund that speculated against a bank by purchasing credit-default swaps on its bonds signaled skepticism about the bank’s creditworthiness and helped to make it more costly for the bank to borrow, and thus to issue loans. We are all economic pinballs, insensibly colliding for better or worse.

The other reason is that default (supposedly) debases the character of the borrower. Once, perhaps, when bankers held onto mortgages for 30 years, they occupied a moral high ground. These days, lenders typically unload mortgages within days (or minutes). And not just in mortgage finance, but in virtually every realm of our transaction-obsessed society, the message is that enduring relationships count for less than the value put on assets for sale.

First, there is a certain logic to loan pricing.  The interest rate is lower for a primary residence than investment property because it is believed that when financial problems hit the borrower is more likely to continue to pay for the roof over their head then the property they bought as an investment.  This logic filters through the entire consumer loan pricing structure-ie., the interest rate on vehicle a consumer uses to drive back and forth to work is lower than the interest rate on the jet ski they use a few weekends a year.  Certainly, if the moral obligation to pay ceases to exist the increased risk will be reflected in interest rates being increased across the board.  However, this does not speak to the main reason why consumers should not "walk away" from their obligations.

The article implies that morality is passé.  I was raised that a person is only worth as much as their word.  Making a commitment and keeping it is intrinsic to moral behavior.  We've long been told to corporations exhibit the lowest of all behaviors-greed, ruthlessness, immorality, and yet, the article sets up the corporation as the model that we should follow.

I would argue that standing by one's obligations is necessary to social cohesion.Throughout the social spectrum the person who meets their obligations to themselves, their family, their community and yes, to their financial institution adds value to society  whereas those who walk away from their obligations debase society as a whole. 

Our society will collapse without morality.  It is a simple concept that the New York Times, as evidenced by this article, does not grasp.

Aw shucks, Nelson never meant that special deal to be for Nebraska only

and I have some primo swampland ocean front property for sale. 

Nelson in "serious discussions" to extend deal:

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has begun negotiations with Senate Democratic leaders to expand his special Medicaid funding deal to all states or to allow states to opt out of the Medicaid expansion in 2017, his spokesman told POLITICO Thursday.


“There are serious discussions,” Nelson spokesman Jake Thompson said.

The negotiations follow weeks of scathing Republican criticism of the deal, which critics have termed the “Cornhusker Kickback,” arranged by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in order to help secure Nelson’s support for the health care reform bill.

Senate Democrats have also begun to blast the deal, saying it should be removed before the final legislation is passed. Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) have been critical of the deal.

Thompson said Nelson had always intended to push for other states to receive the same arrangement, which involved the federal government forever picking up Nebraska's share of the Medicaid expansion. Senate leaders were unable to meet his demand during the December negotiations because they did not have a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, Thompson said.

Uh huh.  The CBO may not be able to come up with an estimate of the cost of a Medicaid expansion but I can:  a butt load.  The question is, who is going to pay that butt load.  Whether the burden falls on the states or it falls on federal government the result is the same.  The taxpayer will foot the bill.

Look, Nelson mistakenly believed that the voters in his state would be thrilled with the special deal he got and that they would reward him accordingly.  But we are not (yet) a welfare country where the citizens want to "get theirs" off the backs of others. 

Nelson screwed up.  He is compounding his screw up by making ridiculous statements. 

More at:

RedState  Nelson: Everyone Will get the Cornhusker Kickback

Michelle Malkin   Cornhuckster Sen. Ben Nelson: We shoulda waited on Demcare

Sucks for Gore

The American Thinker:

This past week, I was having lunch at a restaurant in midtown Manhattan when my colleague noticed Al and Tipper Gore dining across the room with another couple. It was a frigid day, with record-breaking temperatures keeping most people indoors, and we were the last two tables in the restaurant.

As the Gore party started walking out of the room, my colleague called out, "Hey, Al, how's all that global warming working out for you?" Gore turned around and stared at us with a completely dumbfounded look on his face. He was speechless. With a smile, my colleague repeated the question, again to a hapless look of dismay.

Finally, Gore mumbled under his breath, "Wow, you sound awfully angry." I responded with a thank you, explaining to him that we were actually extremely amused. The encounter concluded with Gore's friend mouthing a very animated "f--- you" at us, and they skulked away. My only regret is that no one at the table asked Gore, "What's the matter? The polar bear's got your tongue?"

This amuses the hell out of me.

This morning I had to scrape ice off my windshield with a credit card before I could drive to work. Did I mention that I live in Florida? South Florida. It is so cold iguanas are falling out of trees. For my part, that Global Warming thing isn’t working at all.

Poor Al. On the very heels of Climategate we have Global Freezing. It must suck to be exposed as a fraud in such short order. Personally, I hope the Gorester catches frost bite and his itty bits drop off. That would be amusing.

Robert Gibbs does the puppet dance

Washington Examiner:

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to answer questions about the president's campaign commitment to hold health-care negotiations on C-Span. Gibbs said he had not seen a letter from C-Span's Brian Lamb to congressional leaders requesting the coverage and thus could not comment on it.

On Wednesday, Gibbs was asked again about the C-Span commitment. The story had gotten pretty big in the intervening time, and presumably Gibbs had had a chance to familiarize himself with it. So reporters tried for a second day to get him to comment on the president's commitment to holding televised health-care talks. Gibbs' answer? "We covered this yesterday." Gibbs referred reporters to the transcript of Tuesday's briefing and said, "The answer I would give today is similar."

If Robert Gibbs is going to do a song and dance I would kindly suggest that he don a top hat and tails and class it up a bit. 

Let's face it, politicians say all manner of crap when they are out on the campaign trail.  Nobody believed Obama when he said during the campaign that he had never heard the good Rev. Wright's anti-American rants, why for pity sakes did anyone take him serious when he said (repeatedly) that the health care debate would be covered on C-Span?  He was lying.  Instead of hectoring Obama's personal Pinocchio Robert Gibbs the press should jst go with the following lead:  In the absence of any explanation, plausible or otherwise, for why President Obama refuses to keep his campaign promise and allow C-Span to cover the health care debate, we have concluded that President Obama is a liar.  See how simple that was?

On the other hand if Democrats in the House and Senate bought the president's shtick that they would be worse off with the voters if they didn't pass health care, then shame on them.  To have dips like Lincoln and whores like Nelson singing the blues now is just pathetic.  Had they listened to their constituents instead of a president who is all about being "historic" they wouldn't be in this mess.  (Hint:  the sinking of the Titanic was historic; the massacre at Little Big Horn was historic)

What a sorry bunch of self serving, delusional wastrels we have in Washington.  We'll be much better off once they all decide that now is a good time to retire.

Hump Day Pop Quiz

Who said:

My own view is moving toward supporting a direct American military imposition of a two-state solution, with NATO troops on the borders of the new states of Palestine and Israel.

If you guessed Andy "little guns" Sullivan give yourself a gold star.  Who knew Andy was one of them war mongering imperialist swashbucklers that advocates the invasion of other countries just because they make him "sick" (I don't think it was Israel that caused him to become sick)? 

My suggestion to Israelis, is lock up your young sons and small farm animals.

Doug Ross asks

How cold is it?

What is it about Liberalism that makes people nuts?

More and more I find myself shaking my head in disbelief at the batsh*t ramblings of Liberals.  It makes me wonder if Liberals might not suffer from an undiagnosed mental illness that manifests itself in the belief in improbable conspiracy theories.  Critical Narrative relates one such case.  Mike Malloy, a Liberal talk radio host and former CNN writer posits that the Underpants Bomber planned the bombing in cahoots with Republicans in order to embarrass the Administration.  Cue up the theme music from The Twilight Zone:

"Now, the inquiry, the questions are being raised as to whether or not this is not a deliberate attempt to embarrass... ah, that's not quite a strong enough word, but let's start there, embarrass the Obama Administration - that there are forces at work in this country, and I believe this as surely as I put on my right shoe before my left - that there are forces alive who are very active, very wealthy in this country, at work in this country that want Obama to fail no matter what and the idea of killing 200 to 300 people on a jetliner in order to make the point is nothing. It means nothing.

"We kill that many in a week in our adventures around the world in places where we're bombing where we shouldn't even be. So, apparently, there's some investigation, I don't know who's going to do the investigating, lot of questions to be answered.

"My gut feeling is this was deliberate, this was deliberately done in order to put the Obama Administration in such a vice grip, that it's impossible to get anything done, to raise so much fear, this is what Republicans do, this is what they do..."

 Obviously this is a cry for help.  Sad, very sad.  And typical.

Systemic Failure

Credit Where It's Due [Mark Steyn]

Oh, be fair, Jonah.

2010: The United States Government revokes Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's visa a mere 12 days after he tries to kill 300 people.

2002: The United States Government approves Mohammed Atta's visa six months after he's actually killed 3,000 people - and is, in fact, himself deceased.

If that's not objective, measurable improvement in the U.S. bureaucracy, I don't know what is. Like they say, the system worked!

P.S. Now that he's no longer legally entitled to be in the United States, does that mean Mr. Abdul Mutallab is eligible for release to art school in Saudi Arabia?

Do you ever look around and think, "we are so screwed."?

Congressman Paul Ryan Endorses Marco Rubio

From Marco Rubio 2010

Miami, FL – U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio today announced that he has earned the endorsement of Congressman Paul Ryan (WI-01).

Making today’s announcement, Congressman Ryan said, “In the coming years, America faces critical decisions on government spending, taxes and entitlements that will require idea-driven leaders. Marco Rubio has proven he is exactly the type of consistent, principled conservative the Republican Party needs to ensure the relationship between the federal government and the individual is one that maximizes freedom and prosperity.

“Marco’s record of conservative leadership offers convincing evidence that he will hold Washington accountable, prevent government from wasting our tax dollars and lead a new generation of Republicans offering bold, innovative solutions to the challenges our nation faces in the years ahead.”

Welcoming Ryan’s endorsement, Rubio commented, "Paul Ryan has become one of the Republican Party’s brightest stars because of his willingness to tackle today’s policy challenges with innovative and compelling conservative ideas. Paul Ryan’s willingness to stand up for his principles and offer real solutions to our nation’s challenges has made him one of the GOP’s intellectual giants and a leader taxpayers can depend on to look after them and their hard-earned dollars. I look forward to working with Paul in Washington to promote freedom, protect taxpayers and show why Republicans are the party of ideas.”

On behalf of my fellow Conservative Floridians I thank Congressman Ryan for his endorsement.  The primary is still eight months away but Rubio is picking up more and more steam every day. 

Breaking News!

Jim Treacher uses racist imagery* to attract readers to The Daily Caller:

*Because everyone knows it is racist to show a black man bored out of his skull while listening to the inane ramblings of a potted plant.

Dorgan Announces That He Will Retire Rather Than Seek Re-election

Don Surber:

The key to changes in Congress is not in targeting incumbents — who win 98% of the time in the House — but in taking the open seats.


Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota had a safe seat until Obamacare came along. His retirement announcement today makes the race wide open.

Or not.

Congressman Earl Pomeroy, a fellow North Dakota Democrat, might step up. While he, too, voted for Obamacare, his vote against cap-and-trade may be bigger. North Dakota is an oil-rich state now. It’s unemployment rate was a mere 4.1% in November, the nation’s lowest. North Dakotans may be cool to change.

And it is not a sure thing about Republican Governor John Hoeven seeking the office.

However, the Hill pointed out: “North Dakota gave Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) a 53-45 win in the 2008 presidential election, but it gave President George W. Bush 63 percent of the vote in 2004 and is among the most conservative states in the country.”

I don't see how you can look at this as anything but good news. 

Consensus has been achieved on Climate Change

The Bride of Rove and I both live in Florida. The Bride of Rove says it is cold. I say it is cold.We have reached a consensus. Anyone who denies that it is cold is an anti-science flat Earther who should be exiled to Minot, North Dakota (high tomorrow, -10 degrees F, low, -28 degrees F). Are we all on the same page?

Alan Grayson Volunteers to Write the Forward to Dick Cheney's Book

The Hill:

The Prince of Darkness himself might be best-suited to write the foreword to former Vice President Dick Cheney's forthcoming book, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) suggested Monday.

Given the size of his ego it doesn't surprise me that Grayson thinks that he is best suited to write the forward to Cheney's book and he may soon find himself with extra time on his hands.

Florida State Legislator Aims to Knock Off Alan Grayson

For a while, potty-mouthed Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida has seemed like one of this cycle's most vulnerable. He represents a district that is usually pretty Republican (Obama carried the district by 5 percentage points) and that Republican Bill McCollum represented for a lot of years. Grayson's style in office has been the opposite of a centrist, carving out his niche as the sneering and obnoxious id of House Democrats. Yet the GOP had trouble finding a top-tier challenger, someone who has run a race or two before and who has a good reputation in that section of Florida.

Now they've found one: Florida state representative Kurt Kelly, who's making it official today.

Prediction: Grayson's sorry ass is going down.

Florida GOP Chairman Resigns

Jim Greer, Chairman of the Florida Republican Party, has resigned. This is excellent news for those of us who believe that candidates should be chosen by the voters rather than appointed by behind doors by a cabal of party insiders.

"I cannot be a participant in the shredding and tearing in the fabric of the Republican Party," said Greer, blaming his conservative critics for their plan to stage a divisive fight over his post at a party meeting Saturday. His critics were willing to "burn the house down and try to destroy the Republican Party," Greer said.

Greer, a close ally of Governor Charlie Crist, is the highest-profile casualty to date of the conservative insurgency that, in Florida, backs Marco Rubio against Crist.

"I am not a purist," Greer said, begging his fellow Republicans to "stop the fight between moderates and conservatives [and] focus on electing Republicans in 2010."

Greer sounds eerily like Sen. John Cornyn, head of the NRSC. Both cling to the fallacy that the voters don’t know what is good for them and therefore need the “leadership” to make all their important decisions for them. The Florida race between Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio is a perfect example of this line of elitist thought.

Crist and Rubio both easily beat Kendrick Meek, the likely Democratic candidate in the Florida senate race. Yet only Crist received the backing of Greer and Cornyn. Why? Because for all their bluster about getting Republicans elected, Greer and Cornyn don’t want just any Republican elected, they want their Republican elected even if the voters want someone else.

Voters expressing a preference for one candidate over another is not tantamount to “…the shredding and tearing in the fabric of the Republican Party,". It is democracy. Greer either doesn’t understand the process, or more likely, doesn’t believe in the process. Either way, his resignation is good news for Florida Republicans.

Cross posted at Not One Red Cent

Strolling Down Memory Lane

Remember George W. Bush? He used to be President of the United States. Bush was a Republican, some would even say a conservative, and as such, Democrats didn't much like him. But they put their dislike aside and supported him because that is what we do.

Do you remember the funny little "pet names" they gave President Bush? Here's a reminder from a a post Doug Ross wrote June 21, 2008:

The progressives have a lot of names for President George W. Bush:

Dubya, Bushie, Shrub, Chimp, Smirky, Bushitler, Chickenhawk One, Hitlerburton, Chimpowitz, Rove's Puppet, Cowboy Hitlerstein, AWOL McPsycho, Bushollini, Cheney's Sock Puppet, Chimpy McDrunkard, Darth Moron, Toxic Texan, Dim Son, Drinky McCokeSpoon, Emperor Chimpatine, Fearful Leader, Herr Bush, Moron-in-Chief, and Satan's Monkey.

But it was all just good fun, right? Wrong. The Left was vicious during the Bush years. Bush wasn't the only target, his entire inner circle were subjected to a barrage of ugly slurs. Sometimes it seemed as if the Left saved their nastiest bile for Secretary of State Condi Rice, who was subjected all manner of racist remarks, rants and racially degrading "cartoons". Unlike President Obama they didn't call Rice "haughty", they called her a House Nigger. There weren't pictures of Rice looking down her nose, instead she was dressed up as Aunt Jemima or drew cartoons that portrayed her as a slut.

Little Miss Attila:

But that is the problem with much of the left: it projects its own racism upon its political opponents. When it tries to fight dirty by labeling political dissent as “racism,” it only shows its own hand. (emphasis added)

Absolutely. The Left accuses the Right of racism because if the roles were reversed, when they were reversed, they acted like disgusting, racist beasts and they enjoyed it.

Just out of curiosity, is it okay to throw around the title Satan's Monkey now?

Analyze Glenn Reynolds’ Body Language: I Want to Play!

Welcome Instapundit readers. And thank you for the link, Prof. Reynolds. You are both adorable and fabulous!

Thanks to Chuckles Johnson for the pictures of Instapundit. He is adorable!

Where's My Global Warming?

Don Surber:

Who said the Copenhagen conference on ending global warming was unsuccessful?

Even as delegates convened, temperatures dropped and Denmark enjoyed a rare blizzard.

The president came home to two feet of snow and on Christmas Day, two-thirds of the nation’s lower 48 were under snow. Ho, ho, ho.

Yeah, well that's all well and good for the rest of you but I'm freezing down here just south of Tampa. No, really. Check this out: Average Tampa Bay Weather & Temperatures, January high 69.8° F, low 50.0° F

As you can plainly see, I should not be sitting here freezing, yet I am. I don't expect July temperatures in December (though it would be nice) but I don't think normal highs and lows are too much to ask for. Its not just for me-think of the poor tourists who are feeling totally screwed right now.

I realize that Al Gore and Dr Rajendra Pachauri stand to make a lot of money off Global Warming but they'll never scam, um, earn their second billion if the weather doesn't co-operate.

So you see, I'm not being selfish at all.

Heavens to Betsy, Could This Administration BE Any More Embarrassing?

I almost hesitate to ask because it appears that the answer is not only "yes" but "HELL YES!" (or in this case, "YES WE CAN!").

Via Paco:

So, now we're going to offer the Christmas-day bomber a deal? Perhaps he's going to spill his guts in return for, what, a guilty plea on a charge of indecent exposure? Smoking on an airplane?

It is impossible to take this administration seriously on the subject of terrorism. Govern yourselves accordingly.

See the Counterterrorism blog for more information on the Nigerian terrorist and on the growing problem with Yemen.

Gee, what happened? Did the "pretty please with sugar on top" thing not work out? The man is a terrorist. Once upon a time, we didn't bargain with terrorists. Now we fluff their pillows at night and leave them a chocolate mint in the morning. One can imagine Osama sitting around the campfire in his cave with his buds laughing his ass off as they all take turns suggesting a more appropriate and wussified name for America now that were too girly to be referred to as the Great Satan.

In less than a year we have gone from the super power to a bunch of pretty in pink, Mother, may I, pansies. Even the French have bigger balls than us. How embarrassing is that?

I Believe it is Called "Dripping Contempt"

Jeez, the look Obama is giving his VP says you are so going to wake up with a severed horse head lying next next to you.

Granted, Biden is an idiot but that speaks worse of Obama for choosing him than it does of Biden for accepting.

I (almost) feel sorry for Biden. Obama needed an "elder statesman" in the number two spot to deflect attention from the fact he was completely unqualified to be in the number one spot. Biden proved convenient because, frankly, he isn't bright enough to know that he is a pawn and at this late stage in his career, he probably doesn't care. However, it must be grating for Biden to be forced to defer to a man lacking one-tenth of his experience.

It would be interesting to see the look on Biden's face when this picture was taken. I betcha he is thinking that he'd like to smack the smug right out of there.

h/t Instapundit

And Speaking of Rasmussen...

Partisan Trends
Number of Democrats Falls to New Low, Down Six Points Since Election 2008:

In December, the number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats fell to the lowest level recorded in more than seven years of monthly tracking by Rasmussen Reports.

Currently, 35.5% of American adults view themselves as Democrats. That’s down from 36.0 a month ago and from 37.8% in October. Prior to December, the lowest total ever recorded for Democrats was 35.9%, a figure that was reached twice in 2005. See the History of Party Trends from January 2004 to the present.

The number of Republicans inched up by a point in December to 34.0%. That’s the highest total for Republicans since December 2007, just before the 2008 presidential campaign season began.

I wouldn't expect to see any large increase in the number of people who self identify as Republicans. If anything, Conservatives care more about conservative candidates than they do about party affiliation. Unfortunately, Sen. John Cornyn, head of the NRSC, shows no sign that he has any understanding of the Conservative voter.

On the other hand, I know more than one Democrat who is embarrassed by their vote in 2008. They may not have gone to the trouble of officially changing their party affiliation but they also aren't eager to be identified as Democrats.

By an almost 2 to 1 ratio more people identify as "conservative" rather than "liberal". Further, more people identify as "conservative" than "moderate".

If more people vote their ideology rather than by party affiliation it will force the political parties and candidates to be more responsive to the voters. The days when people automatically vote according to party may be behind us. If so, it will benefit the country as a whole.

Blaming the Pollster Instead of the President

Politico:

Democrats are turning their fire on Scott Rasmussen, the prolific independent pollster whose surveys on elections, President Obama’s popularity and a host of other issues are surfacing in the media with increasing frequency.

The pointed attacks reflect a hardening conventional wisdom among prominent liberal bloggers and many Democrats that Rasmussen Reports polls are, at best, the result of a flawed polling model and, at worst, designed to undermine Democratic politicians and the party’s national agenda.

On progressive-oriented websites, anti-Rasmussen sentiment is an article of faith. “Rasmussen Caught With Their Thumb on the Scale,” blared the Daily Kos this summer. “Rasmussen Reports, You Decide,” the blog Swing State Project recently headlined in a play on the Fox News motto.

“I don’t think there are Republican polling firms that get as good a result as Rasmussen does,” said Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow with Media Matters, a progressive research center. “His data looks like it all comes out of the RNC [Republican National Committee].”

Excellent! From where I’m standing the Left’s dismissal of the Rasmussen polls couldn’t come as better news. So long as those on the Left only pop their collective heads out of their collective tailpipes just long enough to engage in a tepid game of Snipe at the Pollster instead of addressing problems a wee bit bigger than the Messiah’s falling numbers, they are ceding the Right a straight shot to victory in 2010 and 2012.

Yep, it’s not the economy, unemployment, the apology tours, the bowing, the pathetic response to terrorists, ObamaCare, Cap and Trade, Stimulus, Communist Czars or cronyism-it’s the pollster! Keep up the good works, comrades. Nobody expected it to be this easy.

More at:

Memeorandum

Jules Crittenden Messenger Under Fire

Gateway Pundit It Has Begun… Dems Lash Out at Pollster For Not Reporting More Favorable Numbers

Yid with Lid Political Hubris: Democrats Blame Pollster Rasmussen For Voters Rejection of Their Agenda

Don Surber Poll: 2009 was worse than 2008

and from Doug Ross:

In related news, Democrats also blasted a long list of organizations for "biased and unfavorable reporting that hurts the administration's agenda". The list includes:

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics for continuing to report on double-digit unemployment and increased mass layoff events.

• USA Today for reporting that job losses during President Obama's rookie year exceeded the job losses in any single year since World War II.

• John Mauldin of Frontline for pointedly noting that almost every government-issued statistic is becoming "more and more distorted" (i.e., bogus).

• Various California newspapers for predicting that the state's home values have yet to hit bottom.

• Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge for warning that the U.S. Treasury stands at risk, stating: "Brace for impact: in 2010, demand for U.S. [bonds] has to increase eleven-fold... or else."

• Wells Fargo for warning that commercial real estate remains dramatically overpriced.• John Williams of ShadowStats for stating unequivocally that "[the] U.S. has no way of avoiding a financial Armageddon."

• Vincent Fernando of Business Insider for noting that the Baltic Dry Index, which measures the level of international trade, "is collapsing."

• Real estate brokers in California for warning that a tidal wave of "shadow inventory" -- foreclosed properties -- has yet to resurface on the market, which would have "a substantial impact on the [local] housing supply if they were to come onto the market" by crushing home values.

• The New York Times for reporting that as many as 6 million Americans have no income other than food stamps.

Democrats do, however, concede that most of the "biased reporting" issues will fade in importance as the federal government institutes its regulations for bloggers and bails out the newspaper business.

The White House's Gift to Terrorists: Our Weakness

Obama is in trouble and he knows it. Consider this from the Telegraph:

In his weekly radio address yesterday, President Barack Obama patted himself on the back for having "refocused the fight - bringing to a responsible end the war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks".

He then told people to remember that "our adversaries are those who would attack our country, not our fellow Americans", before decrying "fear and cynicism" and "partisanship and division" - the code phrases for horrid Republicans used during his 2008 election campaign.

Complacency, faux moralising and partisan shots at Republicans. It was a neat summary of where Obama is going wrong after the Christmas Day debacle when the Nigerian knicker bomber managed to waltz onto a Detroit-bound flight. (emphasis added)

For a man who campaigned denouncing the politicization of national security under President George W Bush, it is worth noting how intensely political Obama's treatment of what might henceforth be known as Underpantsgate has been.

His White House recognized its political vulnerability more readily than it comprehended the level of danger faced by Americans. (emphasis added)

That last sentence should read: His White House cares more about its political vulnerability then it is concerned about the level of danger faced by Americans. Almost immediately after the Christmas day attack we learned of the bomber’s ties to Yemen and Anwar al-Awlaki, we learned that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s father had warned of his son’s radicalization and we learned of Al Qaeda’s involvement. But for all we had learned, the most important lesson was that when our country was attacked on Christmas it took our President three days to speak out and then he did such a weak job of it that he had to come back the next day for a mulligan. But there is no “do-over” when the American citizens learn that the White House had been given the information necessary to stop this attack and they did nothing.

Meanwhile, the White House was working overtime to build a case against Bush. A source in the White House counsel's office told The American Spectator of memos frantically seeking information that would "show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could".

Yet, President Bush kept this country safe for all the years following 9/11. He was honest with the American people about the threat we faced and how we were going to defeat our enemies. And we were safe until a weak and ineffectual country club manager wannabe took over as president. After Obama was elected he scrubbed the hard language terrorism and substituted pansy phrases like “man made disasters” and in doing so he telegraphed our weakness to the world. And it didn’t take long for the world to respond:

Republicans smell blood. There is a pattern in the Obama administration of dismissing Islamist terrorist attacks as regrettable random acts. In his radio address after Major Nidal Hassan's slaughtered 13 at Fort Hood, Texas, Obama made no mention of terrorism or militant Islam, instead blandly promising that the "ongoing investigation into this terrible tragedy" would "look at the motives of the alleged gunman".

Hassan was a committed Islamist who had corresponded with the fanatical Yemeni imam Anwar al-Awlaki. In June, Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, a Muslim convert being watched by the FBI and who had previously traveled to Yemen, murdered a US Army recruit in Arkansas. That rated only a tepid statement by Obama about a "senseless act of violence".

But the violence wasn't senseless, it had a calculated objective - just as Abdulmutallab was not, as Obama described him, an "isolated extremist". No wonder many Americans want to grab Obama by the lapels and scream: "It's the Jihad, stupid." Dick Cheney, the former vice-president, clearly struck a nerve when he charged last week that Obama was "trying to pretend we are not at war".

Obama can pretend that we aren’t at war but our enemies know better. And as long as the President of the United States continues to broadcast our vulnerability and our unwillingness to act our enemies will continue their holy crusade against us. In less than one year, Obama has undone everything that President Bush put in place to keep us safe. The blood that Republicans smell in the water is our own.

More at RedState: Barack Obama’s Vulnerabilities Will Get Us All Killed

Gov. Charlie Crist Leaves Tallahassee and Moves to Some Place Called 'Da Nile'

Exhibit A from the St. Pete Times:

"All in all, I think it's been a good year — a good year in challenging times," Crist said. "These are tough times. It sure hasn't been dull, to say the least, by any stretch."

If Good Time Charlie thinks it's been a good year he sure hasn't been hanging out in Florida.

Lets review:

He miscalculated the danger of his "man hug" with President Barack Obama in support of the Democrats' stimulus package. He signed a no-new taxes pledge only to raise taxes weeks later to balance the state budget. And the biggest contributor in his campaign for U.S. Senate, Fort Lauderdale lawyer Scott Rothstein, was charged in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

Speaking of that stimulus package that Crist supported and then denied that he supported and then denied that he denied supporting, what has Florida gotten out Crist's great big ol' man hug?

When Crist took office in 2007, the unemployment rate was 3.3 percent — less than a third of what it is now as more than 1 million Floridians can't find work. One in every 705 Florida homes was in foreclosure when he took office. Now the foreclosure rate is 1 of 165, according to RealtyTrac data service. (emphais added)

Even Crist's staunchest critics say many of Florida's woes are largely beyond his control. But they question whether Crist did what he could when he could. When the economy deteriorated, Crist paid visits to regional unemployment centers and held roundtable discussions with veterans and real estate agents, but he didn't propose and implement specific policies to halt the tide of foreclosures and layoffs. (emphasis added)

Crist has put his vastly unpopular "green policies" on the back burner but he himself admits that it is only a temporary move. He is currently touting "light rail" as his signature program. Apparently he is unaware that government backed railroad transportation has had a long history of abject failure.

Most damaging for Crist is the perception that Crist really doesn't stand for anything and that he is one of those politicians who sticks his finger in the air in order to determine the direction of the political winds. Consider this:

Newly married to New York socialite and businesswoman Carole Rome, Crist spent the days just before 2009 hunting for Christmas gifts in the rural North Florida antique mecca of Havana. There Crist ran into a local who paid him such a compliment that he pulled a reporter aside and made her repeat it. (emphasis added)

"I believe he's a closet Democrat," Shirley Aaron said.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Crist said. "We have, in Florida, Republicans and Democrats and independents, but we're all Floridians first."

If Crist knew or cared about the profound ideological differences between the two political parties he wouldn't feel complimented by being called a closet Democrat. But for Crist, ideology is only skin deep and can be easily shed when it no longer suits Crist's needs.

Now that Crist has tanked in the polls, he is trying make up his lost ground but pretending that everything is just fine in Florida won't get him very far. Come the August primary Florida voters will be voting on whether they believe things are just fine and who they will trust to represent them. I don't expect that a year from now Crist will be sounding as enthusiastic as he is trying to sound now.

Cross posted at Not One Red Cent

The Epic Fail of No Consequences

Many years ago I dated a man who had a young daughter. One day he and I took our respective children bowling. We bowled our requisit three games and then got ready to leave. My friends daughter decided she wasn't going anywhere. My friend, I kid you not, began to count. One. Twoo. Threee... Now, my Mom counted a couple of times but she never made it past two. I knew better. There were consequences for misbehaving and they far outweighed the momentary thrill of "acting up." My friend's daughter knew that there would be no consequences and as a result she didn't budge.*

Our relationship with Iran bears a striking resemblence to my former friend and his daughter. Iran knows that we will make absolute fools out of ourselves counting to infinity but we will not act.

Legal Insurrection:

My, how the tables have turned.

It used to be that the Obama administration gave Iran deadlines on reaching agreement on nuclear fuel reprocessing. The most recent deadline was December 31.

None of those deadlines meant anything, as the Iranians figured out long ago.

That's the problem with deadlines, which Obama hasn't learned. Deadlines only mean something if the failure to meet the deadline has consequences.

Now the Iranians have given us a deadline to reach agreement on their terms, or they will simply ramp up their own nuclear fuel production:

Iran warned on Saturday the West has until the end of the month to accept Teheran's counterproposal to a UN-drafted plan on a nuclear exchange, or the country will start producing nuclear fuel on its own.

Somehow, I think the Iranians will put more weight behind their deadline to us, than we have put behind our deadlines to them.

We are the weak horse in this race and nobody respects a wuss. Iran knows this. Obama doesn't.

*The standoff at the abowling alley ended when I told my friend to take my kids out to the car. Once he was out the door I told his daughter that if she didn't get in gear I would put her over my knee and spank her in front of everyone. She hesitated, I took a step towards her and she (wisely) made for the door. She knew there would be consequences. Honestly, I don't miss him at all but I still miss her. We got along very well from that day forward.

The End of the World is Nigh!

From Troglopundit:

Will that be in the morning? Or in the afternoon?

Biblical scholar’s date for rapture: May 21, 2011

Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.

…Camping, 88, has scrutinized the Bible for almost 70 years and says he has developed a mathematical system to interpret prophecies hidden within the Good Book. One night a few years ago, Camping, a civil engineer by trade, crunched the numbers and was stunned at what he’d found: The world will end May 21, 2011.

I might find this a little more disturbing if he hadn’t made the same prediction about Sept. 6, 1994.

Sorry, I'm sticking with 12/21/12. Somehow the end of the world coinciding with my daughter's birthday just makes sense to me.

All due seriousness aside, who cares? Those who believe in life after death are prepared for the last day whenever it occurs and those who don't aren't going to prepare for something that they don't believe in. So, eh.

Updating the Blogroll

I have finally updated the old blogroll and the first order of business was putting in The Other McCain's new Wordpress address. Coach McCain and Smitty are looking mighty spiffy over there. (Hey Smitty, how about a little tit for tat?) After checking out Stacy's new site jump over to No Sheeples Here and vote that Carol gets her much deserved autographs from Stacy.

The Camp of the Saints has also moved over to Wordpress so don't forget to update accordingly. Bob has been a good friend to this site and I vow to follow him wherever he goes (in a non-creepy, non stalker manner, of course).

Just out of curiosity, can someone drop me an email and explain the advantages of Wordpress vs Blogger? I am always happy to receive advise and criticism that helps me to improve my site.

While changing the blogroll to include Bob and Stacy's new digs I added several sites that I visit every single day day but had never gotten of my lazy ass and put on the blogroll. If I missed anyone, and given my lack of attention to detail I am sure I did, please drop my an email and let me know.

I would love to be a member of the Million Hits Club but until then I would like to thank those people who have made this site a regular on their daily rounds. Please help me grow by passing this site on to your friends and family and as I stated above, please let me know how I can improve.

Bless you all.

Danish Cartoonist Attacked

A few days ago the Danish rag Politiken wrote a piece comparing President Obama favorably to Jesus Christ. More than a few us noted that comparing Obama to Jesus rather than to Mohammed was a far safer (and wussier) bet. It didn’t take long for that to prove true.

Mark Steyn:

Remember the Danish cartoons? A 27-year old Somali does:

Danish police on Friday shot and wounded a man trying to enter the home of an artist who drew controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

The man, a 27-year-old Somalian who was armed with an axe, was caught trying to break into the home of Kurt Westergaard at 10pm local time, police said.

Police shot the man, injuring him in his leg...

Mr. Westergaard's cartoon was seen at the time as the most controversial, as it depicted the Prophet with a bomb in his turban.

"Controversial" but entirely vindicated by events since. To return to the theme of my post a couple of days back, a significant percentage of Muslims in the west do not understand concepts such as pluralism and freedom of expression. A further percentage understand them very well but reject them as loser fetishes incompatible with the requirements of Islamic supremacism - and have a shrewd sense that when, push comes to shove, a lot of these fine liberal concepts crumble to nothing. Is the percentage of Muslims who support Mr. Westergaard's right to free expression and the broader principles of intellectual liberty sufficient to make the importation of legions of "27-year old Somalians" a net benefit to Denmark?

The answer to that seems obvious. But Mr. Westergaard is 74, and I'll bet his half-century-younger attacker grasps however crudely the demographic symbolism, in Scandinavia and beyond.

I seem to remember that at the time the cartoons were published more people expressed disgust at the cartoons than at the literally murderous riots that took place in several cities in Europe. It struck me odd that the same people who defended Piss Christ and statues of the Virgin Mary smeared in dung were the same people who condemned the Mohammed cartoons.

It really does matter whose ox is being gored but beyond that, if you support free expression then support it across the board. But those who claim that their “out thereness” is brave are only brave when bravery is not required. A quick look at Memeorandum reveals that only right of the center blogs are speaking out on the attack against Mr. Westergaard. The left of the center blogs who consider themselves to be the champions of all things great and small are their usual silent selves when it comes to Westergaard’s right to express himself with the fear of being beheaded.

More at:

Fausta’s Blog
Jules Crittenden
Gateway Pundit
The Jawa Report
Cold Fury

Nelson Can't Catch a Break

Poor Ben Nelson, he just can’t catch a break. For selling his soul to the company store all he got in return was contempt from the voting public, including those in his own state of Nebraska, and now his efforts to get a group of state Attorney Generals to “call off the dogs” is being rebuffed (and mocked):

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) reached out Thursday evening to South Carolina GOP Attorney General Henry McMaster, the leader of a group of 13 Republican state attorneys general who are threatening to file suit against the Senate health care bill, and urged him to forgo any legal action, POLITICO has learned.

According to a copy of a memo sent by McMaster’s chief of staff to other GOP state attorneys general detailing the call, Nelson asked McMaster to “call off the dogs,” a reference to recent threats by the state AGs to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Medicaid provision in the bill that benefits Nebraska at the expense of other states

Nelson is trying to claim that eventually the deal he received will be extended to all fifty states. Of course, the only way the federal government can relieve the states governments of any burden is by either cancelling the programs to cause the burden or raising taxes. Anybody think that the government will be cancelling any programs any time soon?

Most of us understand that when we screw up, we have to take our lumps. Nelson screwed up and he is desperately trying to avoid taking his lumps. Man up, Bennie.

More at Memeorandum

David Broder: President of the Janet Napolitano Fan Club

I came back from mini vacation to Largo on an emotional high. I can’t think of a better way to recharge and regroup than spending time with dear friends. Kara and Damon were incredible hosts and even though it had been over two decades since we had seen each other, we picked up right where we left off. Then I had my “Earth to Carolyn” moment.

It came as no surprise to anyone who knows her that Napolitano handled the incident and its aftermath with aplomb. In the years I have known her, she has managed every challenge that has come her way with the same calm command that she showed in this instance. If there is anyone in the administration who embodies President Obama's preference for quiet competence with "no drama," it is Janet Napolitano.

Is David Broder serious? He’s talking about Janet “the system worked” Napolitano, right?

…She is being criticized for saying "the system worked," but her part of the response system did work.

It must have been a frantic time for her. She was in San Francisco, far from her Washington office, and she must have had a sleepless night. But her eyes were bright, and her voice was calm. Everything appeared to be completely normal, except that her usual sense of humor was absent, as it should have been, given the circumstances.

…her part of the response system did work. In what possible way? Does Broder believe that the Department of Homeland Security is an after the fact agency? If that is the case we should rename the agency the Department of Homeland Janitorial Services. However, I think most American would prefer that a security agency prevent terrorist attacks, not come in after the attack and clean up the mess left behind.

Broder defends Napolitano’s dismal performance on television immediately after the attack by saying that she “refused to speculate…”. There was nothing to speculate about. The government had known about the Underpants Bomber for months prior to the attack. What Napolitano did was attempt to spin the attack in such a way that the American people would not find out that our government failed at their prime directive to keep this country’s citizens safe.

Our government failed but they got lucky. The Underpants Bomber was every bit as incompetent at his mission as Janet Napolitano was at her’s. We can’t count on luck. The American people need confidence that their government is looking out for them and when there is a failure that the government will deal with the failure in an upright and honest manner.
We did not get honesty or competence from Janet Napolitano. Broder is not looking at the situation with a critical eye. He is acting like a White House hack.