Religious Headline of the Day

From Drudge:

Madonna and Jesus tour Old City Jerusalem

Just like the good old days.

Smoke Gets in Your Skies

For the last couple of days we've been treated to a scene that looks like a volcano going off in Los Angeles. First the long shot:And a little closer:
That's not a cumulonimbus thunderstorm cloud forming thousands of feet in the air, but a cumulosmokus (I made that up) rising up from the Station fire in Los Angeles County.

My house is at least 50 or 60 miles from the fire and the smoke column can be clearly seen. Fortunately, the prevailing winds are keeping the smoke out of our area. It's very hot and very dry. Let's hope the winds stay relatively mild or this could really get out of hand.

How Do You Know Cheney Was Right?

Because the White House is coming up with lame responses like this:

The White House says former Vice President Dick Cheney has his facts wrong on the Obama administration's policies for terror detainee interrogations.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs says Cheney was wrong in saying that the White House would make decisions on interrogations based on politics. Gibbs says those decisions will be made by a new high-level interrogation unit the White House announced last week.

Oh, that's makes it all better. They have a "unit".

They should be listening to Cheney.

Political Photo of the Day

From Top of the Ticket:

That's former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and his Dancing With the Stars parter Cheryl Burke. I've never watched the show, but according to her bio she's won this thing twice with her celebrity partners.

Tough luck with the draw this time, Cheryl.

Double Digit Losses for Dems in 2010 Now Conventional Wisdom

I don't think you have to be an expert to see that the Dems are going to have a very rough 2010 if things don't dramatically turn around:

After an August recess marked by raucous town halls, troubling polling data and widespread anecdotal evidence of a volatile electorate, the small universe of political analysts who closely follow House races is predicting moderate to heavy Democratic losses in 2010.

Some of the most prominent and respected handicappers can now envision an election in which Democrats suffer double-digit losses in the House — not enough to provide the 40 seats necessary to return the GOP to power but enough to put them within striking distance.

Top political analyst Charlie Cook, in a special August 20 update to subscribers, wrote that “the situation this summer has slipped completely out of control for President Obama and congressional Democrats.”

"Many veteran congressional election watchers, including Democratic ones, report an eerie sense of déjà vu, with a consensus forming that the chances of Democratic losses going higher than 20 seats is just as good as the chances of Democratic losses going lower than 20 seats,” he wrote.

At the mid-August Netroots Nation convention, Nate Silver, a Democratic analyst whose uncannily accurate, stat-driven predictions have made his website FiveThirtyEight.com a must read among political junkies, predicted that Republicans will win between 20 and 50 seats next year. He further alarmed an audience of progressive activists by arguing that the GOP has between a 25 and 33 percent chance of winning back control of the House.

“A lot of Democratic freshmen and sophomores will be running in a much tougher environment than in 2006 and 2008 and some will adapt to it, but a lot of others will inevitably freak out and end up losing,” Silver told POLITICO. “Complacency is another factor: We have volunteers who worked really hard in 2006 and in 2008 for Obama but it’s less compelling [for them] to preserve the majority.”

November 2010 is still 14 months away - an eternity in political terms. However, the headlong rush to socialism has rapidly turned voters against Obama and the Democrats. Every day there seems to be a new low in Obama's approval numbers, and the fired-up voter base is no longer the wacky libs.

I think 50 seats will be very much a possibility by the time the election rolls around if the Dems don't learn from their current mistakes.

Ridge Backpeddles, Book Publisher Sobs

We all know that if you're a Republican and you want to sell a book the best way to do that is to either bash George W. Bush and his administration, or bash conservatives. Tom Ridge's new book on his days in Homeland Security chose plan A and even suggested that terror alert levels were raised for political purposes. Pure publishing gold.

But wait, there's more. Ridge now says his book doesn't really mean what it says:

Former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge, speaking for the first time about accusations made in his new book, says he did not mean to suggest that other top Bush administration officials were playing politics with the nation's security before the 2004 presidential election.

"I'm not second-guessing my colleagues," Ridge said in an interview about The Test of Our Times, which comes out Tuesday and recounts his experiences as head of the nation's homeland security efforts in the first several years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In the book, Ridge portrays his fledgling department as playing second fiddle to other Cabinet-level heavyweights. As secretary, he says he was never invited to participate in National Security Council meetings, he was left out of the information loop by the FBI and his proposal to establish Homeland Security offices in major cities such as New Orleans were rejected.

His most explosive accusation: that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft pressed him to raise the national threat level after Osama bin Laden released a videotape criticizing President Bush shortly before Election Day 2004. Ridge writes he rejected raising the level because bin Laden had released nearly 20 such tapes since 9/11 and the latest contained nothing suggesting an imminent threat.

...Last week, when word got out about Ridge's accusations, Rumsfeld's spokesman Keith Urbahn issued a statement calling them "nonsense."

Now, Ridge says he did not mean to suggest he was pressured to raise the threat level, and he is not accusing anyone of trying to boost Bush in the polls. "I was never pressured," Ridge said.

Somewhere a book publisher is sobbing himself to sleep. His big hook for the press tour just self-detonated. Why would anyone want to read this now?

Now That Big Wind is Gone, Cape Wind Should Move Forward

Even the libs at the Boston Globe realize that the offshore wind generation project known as Cape Wind should move forward now that it's biggest obstacle, Ted Kennedy, is gone:

AS PRESIDENT OBAMA vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard this week, he had many occasions to look at the horizon. And if he didn’t realize that he was looking at the site of a major dispute over offshore wind power, activists on both sides journeyed to the island to remind him. He should also understand that he can play a key role in resolving it.

Neither Obama nor his administration has yet weighed in on Cape Wind, the controversial 130-turbine wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound that could supply the electricity needs of more than 300,000 homes on the Cape and Islands. If Obama’s pledges for a greener economy are to be kept, his administration should not delay any longer the arduous process that began in 2001 to develop this clean energy source.

The proposed offshore wind project has sustained more than seven years of heated debate; political maneuvering, including some by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, a project opponent; and environmental review. It now awaits a decision from the Department of the Interior — the last major regulatory hurdle its developers must clear for the project to move forward. As the country’s first proposed commercial offshore wind farm, and the only project of its kind this far along in the approval process, Cape Wind could open the door for developers to harness the vast wind energy resource along the nation’s eastern seaboard. The approval could make Massachusetts the trailblazer of a power source that is an essential part of the country’s strategy to address global warming and to achieve energy security.

In January, Interior’s Minerals Management Service, the federal agency charged with assessing Cape Wind’s potential impacts on the environment, published a detailed report that found the wind farm would pose little harm to fisheries, birds, and other wildlife. The agency also concluded that developers could readily address any navigational concerns for ships and planes posed by the 440-foot turbines.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is now responsible for issuing a decision on the project. Salazar, like Obama, has spoken publicly about the importance of offshore wind as an energy source, but has not indicated whether the administration plans to approve Cape Wind.

The wind farm would slightly alter the view of the ocean from certain points on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket; developers predict that the turbines would be visible from Edgartown, for example, as distant white smears on clear days.

Obama may have had time to enjoy the pristine view from the beaches near Edgartown this week, but Americans have run out of time to stick their heads in the sand when it comes to global warming. The administration should not wait any longer to show its support for Cape Wind, a project consistent with the president’s pledge to support clean energy and open a frontier for harnessing wind power.

Two of the biggest opponents of Cape Wind were Kennedy and Walter Cronkite, both now departed from this mortal coil. They no longer have to worry about far distant wind turbines impinging on their ocean views.

If the left is really serious about alternative energy sources, this project makes perfect sense and should be approved.

And for your entertainment, this 2007 ad from Greenpeace that hit Kennedy on his opposition to Cape Wind:

How to Save the Obama Presidency

A three step process:

1. Fire Joe Biden
2. Hire Dick Cheney
3. Listen to Dick Cheney

CIA Has Already Lost the Civil War

That's the view of Charles Krauthammer:

Even if [Panetta] is nominally in power he is completely marginalized. Juan says it [the in-fighting within the administration between CIA and Justice] is a civil war. If it's a civil war, we already have seen Appomattox. It's over, and Panetta handed over his sword.

Everything he has fought over he has lost, and these aren't just marginal territorial turf disputes. These are core interests.

Number one, he opposed the release of documents, and twice he lost on that.

Secondly, he opposed the appointment of a prosecutor. Of course, a prosecutor has just been appointed.

And lastly, and most importantly, the interrogation of high-level enemy terrorists has been removed from the CIA. It's now in the hands of the FBI and White House.

Now, what's left? Signal intelligence is not CIA, it's NSA. Human intelligence — any important intelligence — is not CIA anymore. It's in the FBI and the White House.

So it is Central Intelligence, but it doesn't gather intelligence. All that's left is analyzing intelligence. Well, you don't need $30 billion a year for analysis. You can hire the RAND corporation who will do it at 1/100th of the cost and save billions of dollars that you could waste on the Cash for Clunkers and purchase every secondhand car in America.

This is a real institutional problem...The Obama administration has relegated the CIA to the role it had pre- 9/11. And we know what that resulted in.

I have my doubts Panetta will stay around long. At this point he's probably just waiting for a less politically damaging time to resign.

What Would Teddy Do?

Everything but part the sea, if you listen to all these fellow Senators:

Teddy would have compromised with Republicans. Teddy would have fought for a government-run health insurance plan. Teddy would have wanted civility in the debate.

These were among the differing claims Democratic and Republican lawmakers made Sunday, one day after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, as they tried to settle on the best way to honor Kennedy's legacy in the debate over health care reform -- and answer the lingering question, "What would Teddy do?"

Their projections generally suited their party's wishes for the trajectory of the bill, though, and offered a preview of how heavily Kennedy's name may factor into the health care debate once Congress returns from its recess.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle generally agreed Sunday that Kennedy would have wanted the two parties to work in harmony on the legislation. But they differed in how he would have pursued the negotiations.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who now takes Kennedy's place as the senior senator from Massachusetts, said Sunday that Kennedy would have vigorously pursued a government-run health insurance plan -- something the Obama administration supports but has suggested is not essential.

"What Teddy would do is he would fight for that public option," Kerry said on ABC's "This Week." "He would fight for it, and he would do everything in his power to get it, just like he did for the minimum wage or like he did for children's health care."

But, perhaps responding to liberal Democrats who have threatened to walk out on a bill that does not contain that option, Kerry said Kennedy would not abandon hope for a package that does not include it.

"But if he didn't see the ability to be able to get it done, he would not throw the baby out with the bathwater. He would not say no to anything because we have to reduce the cost. ... And he would find the best way forward," Kerry said. "He would say, 'I'm going to fight the fight, and if and when we get to the point that we can't get there, we'll see whether or not we can do enough to make good happen out of this.'"

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, agreed that Kennedy was a master of "compromise" and that he would employ that skill whenever it was clear "he couldn't get everything that he wanted."

But Hatch said the health care debate has already reached that point and suggested Kennedy would have settled for a "center-right" bill.

"If he was here, I don't think we'd be in the mess we're in right now," Hatch said.

Since Teddy was able to send a letter in his final moments to Gov. Deval Patrick asking him to overturn a law Teddy promoted in 2004, couldn't he have also sent word to his colleagues to accept a compromise that didn't include the public option?

Of course not. He wasn't interested in compromise at all, and given his declining condition, I have my doubts he was the author of the letter to Patrick.

It's a myth to suggest that Teddy would have compromised on universal health care. Not with 60 Dems in the Senate and a huge majority in the House. He was, by admission of Vice President Biden, the most partisan Senator to serve in the last 50 years.

All these "What Would Teddy Do" suppositions are myths generated by those who would justify their own political positions by putting words in the mouth of someone who can no longer speak them.

If Dems Won't Hold Town Halls Their GOP Challengers Will

Good tactic:

Republican challengers across the country have found a new way of capitalizing on the roiling emotions surrounding congressional health care town hall meetings.

Driven by intense voter interest in the topic, the almost-certain promise of media coverage and the opportunity to upstage incumbent Democrats, GOP candidates in state after state are holding their own health care town halls — and reveling in the subsequent publicity bonanza.

The health care events are proving to be a boon for those seeking to oust incumbents, delivering the most precious of political commodities — voter attention and local press coverage.

Florida Republican Allen West, who is running against Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.), said his Deerfield Beach town hall meeting earlier this month drew several hundred local residents, many of whom stayed long after the 90-minute session ended to chat with him.

Just as important, the event was the subject of extensive media coverage and was streamed live on a local news website.

“We made the 11 o'clock news,” said West.

“I just think that if you’re a smart candidate right now, you should be getting out there and getting in front of the people,” he said. “If you’re not doing that, you’re putting yourself behind the eight ball.”

Part of being a "representative" is being available to your constituents. If incumbent Dems won't make themselves available, the voters will be more inclined to look for someone who will.

Not the Brightest Bulbs in the Chandelier

The Euroweenies are suddenly discovering that the lightbulbs they've mandated for everybody don't light up stuff as well as the old ones:

Soon they will be the only kind of light bulb allowed, but now officials in Brussels have admitted that energy-saving bulbs are not as bright as the old-fashioned kind they are replacing.

From tomorrow a Europe-wide ban on traditional incandescent bulbs will begin to be rolled out, with a ban on 100W bulbs and old-style frosted or pearled bulbs.

Buyers of the main type of energy-saving bulb, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), are told on the packaging that they shine as brightly as an old-fashioned bulb. For example, an 11W CFL is labelled as being the equivalent of a 60W incandescent bulb.

However, the European Commission, which was responsible for the ban, has now conceded that this is "not true" and that such claims by manufacturers are "exaggerated".

And in true liberal fashion, we're doing the exact same thing as mandated by Obama and the Democrats.

We're all going to need miner's caps to see what we're doing.

Rev. Al Wants Obamacare NOW!

Not the Rev. Al Sharpton, but the Rev. Al Gore:

Gore, in a much shorter set of remarks, was loose-limbed and noticeably thinner than in recent years — and he seemed to elicit the night’s most emotional moment.

Playing off the focus of the Kennedy funeral on the Gospel of Matthew’s parable of Jesus taking care of “the least of us,” Gore thundered that the country has “a moral duty to pass health care reform. This year.”

As I said before, the left only manages to find Jesus when He fits their political needs.

L.A. Fire May Take Out Mount Wilson

For those of you who aren't from the L.A. area, all of the 22 TV stations that broadcast over the air in the Los Angeles basin have transmitters on Mount Wilson. In addition, may other broadcasters, including radio and public service, have transmitters or repeaters up there. A fire is now threatening to take the whole bunch out:

Authorities say flames from a major wildfire north of Los Angeles are about to reach Mount Wilson, home to a historic observatory and transmitters for every major television and radio station in the area.

Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mark Savage tells KABC-TV Sunday that "it's not a matter of if it impacts Mount Wilson, it's a matter of when," and estimated that the flames could leap to the top of the mountain within a few hours.

Savage says firefighters could be pulled at any moment if the situation becomes dangerous.

Television stations say if the antennas burn, broadcast signals will be affected but satellite and cable transmissions should not be.

Two giant telescopes and several multimillion-dollar astronomy programs are also located at the observatory.

Many moons ago when I was flying my own airplane I remember skimming low over Mount Wilson as I was descending into the Los Angeles basin. I had to duck down quickly to stay out of the controlled area for LAX. The top of that mountain looks like the back of a porcupine with all the towers sticking up, and each tower has a transmitter building, all of it surrounded by trees and brush.

This could get ugly, and very expensive.

National Security Headline of the Day

From Fox News:

Former VP says CIA probe will do long-term damage, expresses 'serious doubts' about president's ability to 'defend the nation'

I have serious doubts about his desire to defend the nation.

Rangel Safe With Democrats in Power

While the Eric Holder-led Justice Department is going after fictional wrongdoing in the CIA, real wrongdoing in Congress is being ignored, and that's just fine with House Democrats:

House Democrats are willing to rally around Rep. Charles Rangel in his latest spate of tax missteps -- but only as long as no more embarrassing revelations come to light, sources told The Post.

The head of the powerful Ways and Means Committee last week amended six years' worth of financial disclosure forms and revealed he'd earned $1.3 million in previously unreported income.

That's on top of ongoing House Ethics Committee probes into four other areas of Rangel's financial past -- including failure to properly report income taxes on a Caribbean villa he owns.

But unless the Ethics Committee probes hit Rangel with something more than a slap on the wrist -- or a bigger scandal arises -- Democrats are unlikely to push him off the Ways and Means Committee, a Washington insider said.

"He doesn't strike me as someone who would go quietly, and he's not afraid to play the race card on his own party," the DC source said.

Friends like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the New York delegation are committed to keeping Rangel in place, sources said.

Of course, if something else comes up, well....then the Democrats will give him one more chance.

And then another. And another.....

Brits Trade a Terrorist for Oil

This deal was suspected and now seems to have been confirmed:

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.

The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release.

The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: “This is the strongest evidence yet that the British government has been involved for a long time in talks over al-Megrahi in which commercial considerations have been central to their thinking.”

You don't negotiate with terrorists. Ever.

Anyone considering flying a British flag airline should give that a lot of thought. Now that we know they'll cave, what's to stop another attack?

Robbing People to Pay for Obamacare

We all know that Obamacare will rob the rich first, and then the rest of us to pay its staggering toll, but did you know some folks are already collecting the premiums? From Don Surber:

The Associated Press rewrite in full:

NEW YORK — Police say attackers used health care reform as a ruse to approach their victims and then shot two and pistol-whipped another in a Long Island home.

Suffolk County police said Saturday that a 26-year-old woman was arrested on attempted murder and burglary charges in the attack Friday in Huntington. Two men were arrested on the same charges earlier. Information on the suspects’ arraignments wasn’t immediately available Saturday night.

Police say the three told the home’s residents they were selling insurance, referring to President Barack Obama’s push to overhaul America’s health care system. Police say the suspects then forced their way in, demanded money and attacked the victims.

The victims’ conditions weren’t immediately available.

Well, that is one way to pay for Obamacare.

Change. Hope. Gimme all your money.

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service

I like this video from Westminster Presbyterian Church in Burbank, CA:

Political Tweet of the Day

From Jim Treacher:

He was called the Lion of the Senate. Not for his white mane or mighty roar, but because he mated without limits and killed without remorse.

A Little Water Makes the Canary Sing

The Washington Post (of all newspapers) vindicates Dick Cheney:

After enduring the CIA's harshest interrogation methods and spending more than a year in the agency's secret prisons, Khalid Sheik Mohammed stood before U.S. intelligence officers in a makeshift lecture hall, leading what they called "terrorist tutorials."

In 2005 and 2006, the bearded, pudgy man who calls himself the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks discussed a wide variety of subjects, including Greek philosophy and al-Qaeda dogma. In one instance, he scolded a listener for poor note-taking and his inability to recall details of an earlier lecture.

Speaking in English, Mohammed "seemed to relish the opportunity, sometimes for hours on end, to discuss the inner workings of al-Qaeda and the group's plans, ideology and operatives," said one of two sources who described the sessions, speaking on the condition of anonymity because much information about detainee confinement remains classified. "He'd even use a chalkboard at times."

These scenes provide previously unpublicized details about the transformation of the man known to U.S. officials as KSM from an avowed and truculent enemy of the United States into what the CIA called its "preeminent source" on al-Qaeda. This reversal occurred after Mohammed was subjected to simulated drowning and prolonged sleep deprivation, among other harsh interrogation techniques.

Cheney said the tough techniques worked and helped keep the country safe. He wasn't just making that stuff up.

A Single Molecule

I remember as a kid riding through the Monsanto Adventure Through Inner Space ride at Disneyland in which you supposedly were shrunk to molecular size. The molecules you saw on that attraction were simulated, but Powerline has the information on the first actual photo of a molecule:

A single molecule has been photographed--sort of--for the first time by a team from IBM. Here it is:

The molecule even looks like how it's diagrammed. The experiment was conducted under very cold conditions:

The experiment was also performed inside a high vacuum at the extremely cold temperature of -268C to avoid stray gas molecules or atomic vibrations from affecting the measurements.

The molecule pictured is roughly one-millionth the diameter of a grain of sand. This is plausibly said to be a significant step forward in nanotechnology.

Very cool.

Beach Shots

Took the camera to San Clemente Beach tonight to see what we could see. Here goes:

There was some decent surf in spots, and this guy took full advantage.

Looking back at the beachfront from the pier.

Can't go to San Clemente Beach without getting some train shots. Here a southbound Amtrak passes below the pedestrian bridge.

As we were walking up to the pier a northbound Amtrak came whistling through the grade crossing.

The atmospherics were playing havoc with the sinking sun. Either that or their was a nuclear explosion somewhere near Hawaii. Note the sailboat perfectly silhouetted against the sun.

Here's a little closer view.

The sun is gone but the light show continues.

The Left Suddenly Finds Jesus

I didn't watch the funeral/health care rally this morning, but did see the clip where a Kennedy grandson was sent to the stage to pray for universal health care. After the Wellstone disaster in 2002 the Dems figured the most they could get away with was sending a kid in to make the pitch.

Allahpundit mentioned this on Twitter and got a flood of lefty responses about how Jesus would have supported universal health care.

Well, Jesus WAS universal health care. If he prayed for it, it happened. He didn't go to the Roman Governor and demand that Rome provide health care for all the citizens under its control, and by the way hike taxes on everybody to pay for it.

The left, who demands that religion be excluded from all aspects of public life, suddenly find Jesus when it's convenient for their political purposes.

Mark Steyn: Things Only a Kennedy Could Get Away With

Mark Steyn speaks truth to the medial slobbering over Ted Kennedy:

We are enjoined not to speak ill of the dead. But, when an entire nation – or, at any rate, its "mainstream" media culture – declines to speak the truth about the dead, we are certainly entitled to speak ill of such false eulogists. In its coverage of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's passing, America's TV networks are creepily reminiscent of those plays Sam Shepard used to write about some dysfunctional inbred hardscrabble Appalachian household where there's a baby buried in the backyard but everyone agreed years ago never to mention it.

In this case, the unmentionable corpse is Mary Jo Kopechne, 1940-1969. If you have to bring up the, ah, circumstances of that year of decease, keep it general, keep it vague. As Kennedy flack Ted Sorensen put it in Time magazine:

"Both a plane crash in Massachusetts in 1964 and the ugly automobile accident on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969 almost cost him his life …"

That's the way to do it! An "accident," "ugly" in some unspecified way, just happened to happen – and only to him, nobody else. Ted's the star, and there's no room to namecheck the bit players. What befell him was … a thing, a place. As Joan Vennochi wrote in The Boston Globe:

"Like all figures in history – and like those in the Bible, for that matter – Kennedy came with flaws. Moses had a temper. Peter betrayed Jesus. Kennedy had Chappaquiddick, a moment of tremendous moral collapse."

Actually, Peter denied Jesus, rather than "betrayed" him, but close enough for Catholic-lite Massachusetts. And if Moses having a temper never led him to leave some gal at the bottom of the Red Sea, well, let's face it, he doesn't have Ted's tremendous legislative legacy, does he? Perhaps it's kinder simply to airbrush out of the record the name of the unfortunate complicating factor on the receiving end of that moment of "tremendous moral collapse." When Kennedy cheerleaders do get around to mentioning her, it's usually to add insult to fatal injury. As Teddy's biographer Adam Clymer wrote, Edward Kennedy's "achievements as a senator have towered over his time, changing the lives of far more Americans than remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne."

You can't make an omelet without breaking chicks, right? I don't know how many lives the senator changed – he certainly changed Mary Jo's – but you're struck less by the precise arithmetic than by the basic equation: How many changed lives justify leaving a human being struggling for breath for up to five hours pressed up against the window in a small, shrinking air pocket in Teddy's Oldsmobile? If the senator had managed to change the lives of even more Americans, would it have been OK to leave a couple more broads down there? Hey, why not? At the Huffington Post, Melissa Lafsky mused on what Mary Jo "would have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history … Who knows – maybe she'd feel it was worth it." What true-believing liberal lass wouldn't be honored to be dispatched by that death panel?

There's much more and you should read it all.

He may have gotten away with it legally, but his legacy will be forever tarnished by his actions in 1969.

Calling it "KennedyCare" Won't Help

That the opinion of The Hill:

Democrats plan to invoke Sen. Edward Kennedy’s name repeatedly in their push for a massive overhaul of the healthcare system, but political insiders in both parties say his name alone will fall far short of the contribution he could have made personally.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) wants the reform bill named after Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.). Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) declared his death a reason to “rededicate our efforts toward passing legislation to provide robust, quality health insurance coverage for all Americans.”

But Republicans are not about to be shamed into blindly backing a one-sided bill, and some conservatives have already criticized Democrats for trying to politicize the issue through the use of Kennedy’s name.

There's nothing shameful about refusing to be railroaded into supported a terrible piece of legislation. Anyone who seriously believed that Republicans would jump into line with Democrats just because an old chronic drunk died of cancer certainly doesn't understand why the GOP is opposing the health care bill.

Poodlepalooza

You have to see these pictures to believe them. It's amazing what you can do with your average poodle. The camel, panda and buffalo are my personal favorites.

And while you're check out dog photos, don't miss this one. It's not a poodle, but very creative nonetheless.

Obama's Deficits Will Cause Taxes to Rise for Everybody

No surprise to anyone who has been paying attention, but for the rainbows and unicorns crowd this might be a little hard to take:

A $9 trillion federal deficit over 10 years may be too hard to comprehend. But this part is easy: Such unwieldy amounts of debt could have an impact on Americans' bottom line one way or the other -- if not tomorrow, then the day after.

The U.S. government has been spending a great deal more than it has been taking in, and it is on track to do so well beyond the next 10 years. It has been borrowing money to make all that spending possible and it has to pay the money back with interest. How, you ask? By borrowing more.

The solution is straightforward if unpleasant: Shy of finding a fairy willing to leave trillions under Uncle Sam's pillow, lawmakers will have to raise taxes and cut spending.

The more the country lives on a credit card, the more it makes itself beholden to the demands of its creditors -- many of which are overseas. The danger is that buyers of U.S. debt could become concerned that the country is running too high a balance. If so, they will demand higher interest rates -- thereby making the country's debt problem worse -- or they'll put their money elsewhere.

At that point, things would get ugly.

"Taxes would rise to levels that would make a Scandinavian revolt. And the government would not be able to provide anything but the most basic public services. We would no longer be a great power (or even a mediocre one), and the social safety net would evaporate," tax policy expert and Syracuse University professor Len Burman wrote in a recent op-ed cheerfully titled "Catastrophic Budget Failure."

That's why acting sooner rather than later makes sense. But acting too soon could cause its own set of problems since the economy is only beginning to lick its wounds from a punishing recession.

Economists and tax experts, no matter their ideological position, agree raising taxes when the economy is down is self-defeating.

But as the economy finds a solid footing, the hard choices will have to be made.

"We need to do this in stages at the right time," said David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, in a CNNMoney.com video.

Right now there is a lot of talk, but not a lot of planning, about how to address the situation.

In fact, President Obama is pledging to keep taxes low for most people....

Experts say that's not going to cut it.

"Taxes are going up and they're going up for a lot more people than those making more than $250,000. Why? Math. The numbers don't come close to working," Walker said.

And that's not coming from a right-wing crackpot website, it's coming from CNN, left-wing crackpot website.

Get our your wallets, folks. Rainbows and unicorns don't come cheap.

Any Good Jokes Yet?

The Ted Kennedy funeral and health care rally is now underway in Boston. I wonder if they're going to tell any of those great Chappaquiddick jokes that Teddy loved so well?

The Light at the End of the Health Care Tunnel Might Be a Train

One of the GOP Senate negotiators is warning that the health care bill as currently structured will not get the job done:

A leading GOP negotiator on health care struck a further blow to fading chances of a bipartisan compromise by saying Democratic proposals would restrict medical choices and make the country's "finances sicker without saving you money."

The criticism from Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., echoed that of many opponents of the Democratic plans under consideration in Congress. But Enzi's judgment was especially noteworthy because he is one of only three Republicans who have been willing to consider a bipartisan bill in the Senate.

In the Republicans' weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday, Enzi said any health care legislation must lower medical costs for Americans without increasing deficits and the national debt.

"The bills introduced by congressional Democrats fail to meet these standards," he said.

Enzi, together with Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Olympia Snowe of Maine, has held talks with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. But the chance of a bipartisan breakthrough has diminished in the face of an effective public mobilization by opponents of Democratic proposals.

"I heard a lot of frustration and anger as I traveled across my home state this last few weeks," said Enzi, who has been targeted by critics for seeking to negotiate on legislation. "People in Wyoming and across the country are anxious about what Washington has in mind. This is big. This is personal. This is one of the most important debates of our lifetime."

He called for more competition among health insurers, for the ability of small businesses to band together across state lines to negotiate for lower-cost insurance plans, for tax breaks to help people buy insurance and for reducing malpractice lawsuits.

Opening the market to allow companies to sell across state lines would go a long way to increasing genuine competition and reducing costs. Tort reform could also take a big chunk out costs.

However, Democrats are not interested in real competition. They're idea of competition is a public option that would so badly undercut the private companies that they'd be forced out of business. "Competition" to Democrats is a single-payer system.

And don't look for any tort reform coming from the party of trial lawyers. Even Howard Dean admitted the Dem bill writers didn't want to take them on.

Losing Enzi will make the Dems even more desperate since they needed some Republicans to declare this thing bipartisan and avoid a filibuster.

Should get even more interesting now.

Can't You Quit Spewing Poison Into the Atmosphere?

If you just stop exhaling we can all live forever:

Don't exhale.

That advice may need heeding if the Environmental Protection Agency declares carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases dangerous pollutants, a move -- expected in the next couple weeks -- that would require the federal government to impose new rules limiting emissions.

But some skeptics say regulating carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels, may be a difficult task, especially since people emit carbon dioxide with every breath.

"The EPA doesn't have the manpower to implement the regulations the way they would have to be," said David Kreutzer, senior policy analyst in energy economics and climate change at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Kreutzer said new regulations would trigger a flood of lawsuits, would create massive paperwork and the EPA should have no reasonable expectation that people would comply.

There is going to come a point, and it may be sooner than we think, when great numbers of Americans are simply going to rise up an tell the government "NO!" and do so very emphatically. It may be on taxes, it may be on environmental issues, Obamacare, who knows. All I know is the Tea Party movement has shown us that Americans who have never been political activists before can get mad enough to put feet to their beliefs and take on the government.

ABC News Doesn't Understand GOP Opposition to Obamacare

That's about the only interpretation I can come up with for this item from George Stephanopoulos:

Mike Huckabee tossed a hand grenade into the debate over who's politicizing Ted Kennedy's death Thursday morning when he told his radio audience that under Obamacare, Kennedy would be told to "go home to take pain pills and die."

Which Democrat will toss it back first?

Will any Republicans jump on it by challenging Huckabee head-on?

What Republican is going to jump on that statement? They all agree with it, at least the ones that have shown any interest in 2012.

Just the other day I told the radio audience I talk to every week that if Kennedy had been on Obamacare he would have likely died months ago, because expensive and experimental treatments that he was able to get under the congressional plan or with his own money would not have been approved for a person of his age and health history.

If Stephy thinks that Huckabee's statement will generate an internal GOP war, he clearly doesn't understand the GOP opposition to Obamacare.

Leon Panetta's Greatest Allies: House Republicans

Who'd of thunk that the former Clinton aide would find himself in a position where the only people on his side are House Republicans?

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R., Mich.), the ranking Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, tells NRO that the Obama administration’s national-security apparatus is in “free fall” and showing “no adult leadership.”

After the CIA’s release of documents on enhanced-interrogation techniques, Hoekstra is concerned about how the Department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder will respond. But he does express confidence in CIA director Leon Panetta, an Obama appointee.

“I do know that Leon feels passionately about his workforce,” says Hoekstra. It was reported earlier this week that a frustrated Panetta confronted the White House in private about the administration’s handling of the document release. Hoekstra says he “tends to believe that the screaming matches and threatening to quit are probably accurate of Leon’s feelings. I find it ironic that his best friends are Republicans on the Hill.”

Panetta, he adds, “is not getting a lot of support from the president. Eric Holder has declared war on his personnel. Dennis Blair [the director of national intelligence] is trying to take away the authority of his people.” At the same time, says an incredulous Hoekstra, Panetta “came to Capitol Hill last week and the Democrats leaked information before he was even off the Hill, to try and bolster their argument that the CIA lies, all the time. I give Leon a tremendous amount of credit for the work he’s doing.”

“Few Republicans supported Leon when he was nominated,” Hoekstra says. “The more I watch Leon work, the happier I am that I made the decision to support him. I didn’t know then if he was the right guy or not, but I thought the president had the right to pick the person. I hope he stays there.”

With the Obama administration and Democrats eager to review the CIA’s interrogation activities, what can the CIA expect from Republican House members? “I think the CIA can expect from me the same thing that they’ve seen over the past eight years,” says Hoekstra. “When they are in the right, we will be strong supporters of the CIA. When they operate outside of the framework we’ve given them, we will be harsh critics and hold them accountable. We’re not protectors, defenders, or attackers. We believe in evaluating things on a case-by-case basis.”

As any investigation moves forward, Hoekstra hopes for a fair and open process. “If Eric Holder is going to review parties outside the CIA regarding who should be held accountable for enhanced-interrogation techniques, then Congress and the Bush administration should be evaluated, too,” says Hoekstra. “The Gang of Four, the Gang of Eight, they were briefed on these things and gave their tacit approval and funding for six or seven years.”

One more thing, says Hoekstra: “Eric: If you’re going to carry out these investigations, go to the right places, and don’t make the CIA the fall guy for doing their job.”

Between the White House and Eric Holder, Panetta's organization is being stripped of its power to be an effective intelligence gathering force for the protection of America. I'm not sure why Panetta hasn't quit yet, though I think that could still happen in the near future.

As a good Democrat he understands the damage his resignation would do to Obama and his party, but at some point Panetta either has to support his agency's ability to do the job they're chartered to do, or get out and make his opposition to administration policies known.

General "Don't Get Stuck on Stupid" Honore May Challenge Vitter

Boy, this could be really interesting:

In a breaking story, The Louisiana Weekly and Bayoubuzz.com have learned that the hero of Hurricane recovery, General Russell Honore is seriously considering entering the Republican Primary for the U.S. Senate seat against incumbent David Vitter. Honore, a Republican since the Reagan Administration and a registered Louisiana voter from his Zachary home, has spoken to friends and supporters in the last two weeks signaling that he is, according to one, "more than 50% sure that he will run."

The article seems to think that Vitter will still win the primary, but I'm not so sure. Honore made quite a name for himself in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is African-American in a state with a large black population, and doesn't have Vitter's hooker problem (at least that we know of so far).

I think he's got a real good chance of winning both the primary and general election.

"Is This America?" "It Ain't No More, Okay?"

That enlightening exchange can be found during this confrontation between an anti-Obamacare protester and a black police officer:

Another "Lion" Falls

Iowahawk has the sad details:

"Lion of Leinenkugel" Norm Snitker, 62, Laid to Rest

La Crosse WI -- Slowly filing past a green-and-gold casket festooned with cheese curds, lottery tickets, and bouquets of 6-pack rings, the city of La Crosse bid a tearful farewell this morning to Norman V. "Norm" Snitker, 62. Long heralded as the "Lion of Leinenkugel" for his relentless fight for free beer and shots at local taverns and supper clubs, Snitker succumbed to an exploding liver Tuesday evening during a late model modified heat at La Crosse Speedway's $1 Jagermeister night.

"Norm left an amazing legacy, and an amazing bar tab," said mourner Les Schreindl, 59. "La Crosse won't see his likes again soon."

Like hundreds of other who came to pay their respects at First Presbyterian -- some traveling from as far as Menomonie, Pewaukee, Ashwebenon, and Waunawacamapepee -- Schreindl wiped a tear in remembrance of the fallen champion of universal alcohol rights. Many vowed to carry on his fight, but along with the heartfelt, staggering eulogies, there was a melancholy sense that the death of Norm Snitker marked the end of the Snitker welding supply dynasty that has for so long dominated public life in La Crosse County.

A Storied Life

Born on July 9, 1947 as the 7th child of legendary La Crosse welding supply impresario and kingmaker Elmer Snitker, Norman Snitker grew up amid the stately opulence afforded by his father's reported $15,000 fortune, bass boat, and palatial storage shed. By all accounts a precocious drinker, he took early advantage of his birthright and fully stocked basement liquor cabinet, earning the first of his 138 lifetime DUIs at age 11.

Although he grew up in privilege, Snitker insiders say that even at a young age Norm showed a deep empathy for those who were less fortunate.

"Norm would look at the other kids at school, and say, 'why don't they have access to the same fake IDs as me? Why must they remain sober?'" said classmate Glenn Hunsaker. "It became a crusade for him, and he became an activist. Every Friday night you'd see him at the Piggly Wiggly parking lot, making sure that every kid in La Crosse got the Pabst and Old Style that they so desperately needed."

Despite those early accomplishments, young Norm Snitker was often overshadowed by his glamorous and dashing older brothers, Stu, Larry and Wayne, whose tragic deaths transfixed southwest Wisconsin. He was only seven when eldest brother Stu was felled by a salmonella-infected bratwurst. By the time he was was an 18-year old GED student, eldest surviving brother Larry M. Snitker had already taken the helm of the family's Tri-County Welding Supply dynasty. The brief golden age of Weldalot came to a tragic end at the 1967 'Ice Bowl' game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, when a celebrating LMS was slain by a goalpost icicle. He was succeeded by Wayne, who was abruptly killed in 1981when his mullet was snared in the rollers a QuikTrip weenie heater.

There's much more and you just know you want to read it.

Economic Headline of the Day

From Drudge:

Mega Millions lottery jackpot at 1/3 of a billion dollars...

Well, maybe the Democrats should buy some tickets. If they won it might pay for...oh, maybe 20 minutes of Obamacare.

Polar Bears Are Shrinking

Tim Blair has the details and makes a good case why smaller polar bears might not be such a bad thing.

Florida's New Senator

A forgettable choice:

Introducing:

Soon to be, the newest member of the United States Senate.

George LeMieux.

But don't worry about remembering the spelling. He won't be there for long. The appointee of Republican Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida to fill the seat of the resigning Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) is a placeholder. Crist is running for the seat in 2010.

Crist made a worldwide search for someone from his own team to hold the seat -- LeMieux is the governor's closest political adviser.

"I'm a Charlie Crist Republican,'' LeMieux says.

If Crist thinks this choice will help him in 2010, he's wrong. He'll get blasted.

He just did Marco Rubio, his main opponent, a big favor.

Roll Call of the Dead

Nope, not talking about Teddy Kennedy this time, but cars that were sacrificed to the government gods through the Cash for Clunkers program (from John Stossel):I enjoyed this from Brad Smith at Division of Labour:

Thanks to the glories of YouTube, we can watch as the government mandates the destruction of perfectly good automobiles to "help the economy." Here is a very nice 1990s Dodge Dakota 4X4 being destroyed . It is a much better vehicle than my pick up truck.

This is a Corvette that looks to be in pretty good condition. Black, pretty sharp car. I'm sure there are a lot of young men crammed into 2001 Malibus who would have liked this car.

In this video, a '98 Cadillac DeVille with less than 80,000 miles meets its end. Just 68,000 miles on this Chevy Caprice wagon.

A nice looking 2001 Mazda light truck with 75,000 miles bites the dust here.

Here's a good looking Volvo prematurely destroyed.

This SUV would look at home in any tony U.S. suburb.

... Are these "clunkers?" Can it really help the economy to destroy perfectly good assets?

Of course, destroying assets does not help an economy. The politicians who defend Cash for Clunkers remind me of the silly people who said that the rebuilding that would come after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina would “stimulate” the economy. What they forget is that the money for rebuilding —and the cash-for-clunker money—is forcibly taken from people who would have used that money to create other things.

Edmunds.com, a major automobile site, says the Cash for Clunkers program has terribly distorted the car market and sales could absolutely fall off the table in September. As with most government programs this will likely create a short term benefit followed by a much longer term problem.

Running From the People Vol 8

From New Hampshire:

Members of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation are under fire today from the editorial pages of the conservative New Hampshire Union Leader and the liberal Portsmouth Herald. At issue is the fact that the Granite State’s representatives, specifically Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, are not holding town hall meetings on health care reform with their constituents this August recess but instead partying with liberal bloggers and holding a smattering of so-called tele-town hall meetings—essentially controlled conference calls in which constituents are tellingly kept on "listen only mode."

Let's see if the voters remember their names when next year's election comes around.

Political Quote of the Day

From one of South Central L.A.'s idiot Dem congresswomen, Diane Watson:

"They are spreading fear and they're trying to see that the first president who looks like me -- fails."

No, Diane, if he'd looked like you he would never have gotten elected.

If you could combine the intellect of Watson and Maxine Waters, another South Central congresswoman, you couldn't come up with enough brain cells to keep a turtle alive.

No one is trying to destroy a black man. His opposition is coming from people who want to destroy a socialist and who know that there is no negotiation, "bipartisanship", or compromise with totalitarians.

AmnesTeddy

Mort Kondracke thinks there's another piece of unfinished business that should be dedicated to Teddy Kennedy:

Along with a health care reform bill, it would be a fitting tribute to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) if Congress could act on his other great unfinished cause: immigration reform....

Kennedy’s death undoubtedly will elicit calls to get health care reform legislation passed in his memory, but reforming the immigration system was also one of his major goals yet unreached.

Kennedy worked with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Bush in 2006 and 2007 to fashion a compromise that would allow illegal immigrants with clean records to earn their way to permanent status.

The bill also would have ended the unconscionable delays that keep family members of recent immigrants waiting years — sometimes decades — to be admitted.

And though his motives for reform might have been primarily humanitarian — especially, getting 12 million illegal immigrants “out of the shadows” where they can easily be exploited economically — he understood the need to get America’s borders under control.

Kennedy and McCain came painfully close to passing reform legislation in 2007, but fell just seven votes short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.

It came close despite a hysterical campaign mounted by right-wing groups and talk show hosts that the bill would grant “amnesty” to illegals. It’s akin to the current demagoguery over “death panels” supposedly created under pending health legislation.

McCain, running for president, abandoned his own bill and declared that the lesson of the reform failure was that Americans were demanding that the borders be secured before other aspects of reform should be considered.

The original bill wouldn't have done anything to secure the borders and would have guaranteed a flood of new illegals seeking their own amnesty deal. McCain realized his presidential hopes would be destroyed if he continued with the immigration bill. The voters didn't want it, and especially conservatives who would have abandoned McCain during the election even more than they ended up doing.

I wonder what other lefty priorities we'll have to pass in order to honor Teddy?

Teddy and Ronnie

Various pundits have been writing about how Ted Kennedy was such a great friend of many Republicans, including Ronald Reagan. However, don't let the Irish charm fool you:

In the spring of 1983, during perhaps the tensest moment in the Cold War since the Cuban missile crisis—having called the Soviet Union the evil empire that it was, Reagan was preparing to deploy Pershing missiles in Europe—Kennedy sent a message to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov. This would be the same Yuri Andropov who had been the director of the KGB and had played central roles in both the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the suppression of the 1968 Prague Spring. Arguing that Reagan, not Andropov, threatened world peace, Kennedy offered to help Anropov contain Reagan by manipulating American opinion.

As a typical lefty, Kennedy was always more sympathetic to our enemies than to his own country.

The whole story can be found here.

Teddy and the Pope

In my "Real Legacy of Ted Kennedy" post I wrote this:

He was able to get away with all sorts of behavior that would have ended the careers of anyone else. He cloaked himself in the mantle of Catholicism while routinely ignoring its teachings and precepts.

And today there's this story:

There was a poignant footnote to President Obama's historic July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Behind closed doors in the papal library, Obama handed Benedict a letter that Senator Edward Kennedy had asked him to personally deliver to the pontiff. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later told reporters that nobody - not even the President - knew the contents of the sealed missive. Obama himself asked Benedict to pray for Kennedy, and called the ailing Senator afterward to fill him in on his encounter with the 82-year-old Pope.

The letter, most likely already re-sealed and tucked away in the Vatican archives, was probably just a dying Catholic's request for a papal blessing. In the eyes of the traditionalist wing of the Church, however, Kennedy should have been asking the Pope for forgiveness. The Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported Kennedy's death, praising his work on civil rights and fighting poverty, but noted that his record was marred by his stance on abortion. As of yet, unlike some other world leaders, Pope Benedict has not commented or issued an official communique in response to Kennedy's death. One veteran official at the Vatican, of U.S. nationality, expressed the view of many conservatives about the Kennedy clan's rapport with the Catholic Church: "Why would he even write a letter to the Pope? The Kennedys have always been defiantly in opposition to the Roman Catholic magisterium." Magisterium is the formal expression for the authority of Church teaching.

I've never understood why the Catholic church allows prominent Catholics to publicly flaunt the church's teachings. Washington is full of them, including John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, and others who regularly promote abortion. The church has no moral authority if it won't enforce its core teachings and discipline those Catholics who publicly defy them.

The Pope has never spoken out against the church's prominent heretics, but perhaps his silence now is a way of expressing disapproval. It's not very effective, but at least it's something.

And just as an interesting sidenote, Tropical Storm Danny will probably be soaking Boston during the funeral and health care rally. How many mainstream media talking heads will describe the pouring rain as "God's tears"?

Massachusetts Infighting Over Kennedy's Seat

Some Democrats in Massachusetts are inviting charges of hypocrisy and hyper-partisanship as they push an effort to change a law to benefit a Dem governor that was enacted in 2004 to restrict a GOP governor:

The question of how to fill Mr. Kennedy's seat is vexing Democrats. In 2004, Mr. Kennedy supported a special election rather than a gubernatorial appointment. Yet more recently, he wrote to Mr. Patrick and legislative leaders, urging that Massachusetts give the governor the power to appoint an interim successor.

Mr. Kennedy wrote that the governor should receive "an explicit personal commitment" from the appointee not to become a candidate in the special election. Mr. Patrick has supported the idea, and brushes aside concerns that Democrats were being inconsistent: "Massachusetts needs two voices in the United States Senate," he said this week.

In 2004, Democrats took the opposite tack. When some Republicans complained of the cost of a special election, Democratic Rep. William Straus said such reasoning might have been used in a "totalitarian country" and that "one person, whoever happens to be governor, will not make the decision for you."

In an interview Thursday, Mr. Straus stood by his words, saying he recently heard from many other Democrats who feel Mr. Patrick is making a mistake.

Mr. Straus said there always will be a pressing issue in Washington that seems more important than having an election. "We need to hold ourselves to the higher principles of democracy," he said.

Massachusetts state Sen. Brian A. Joyce, a Democrat who headed the election-laws committee in 2004, agreed. "If we were to allow an appointment, it would be wholly undemocratic," he said. "When you cut through the rhetoric on both sides, it's pure partisan politics."

Earlier this year, State Rep. Robert Koczera, a Democrat, introduced a bill to restore the governor's senate appointment powers. In 2004, he supported stripping Mr. Romney of the power to appoint a replacement senator.

He said he was against the idea in 2004 because he thought Mr. Romney's replacement would be able to run in the special election. Under Mr. Koczera's proposed bill, the replacement couldn't run.

State Rep. Frank Smizik, a Democrat, also backs an interim appointment. "I strongly believe in the electorate's deciding the election of our officials," he said. "However, Massachusetts should have a vote on the important issues like health care and global warming. To not do so would be cutting off your nose to spite your face."

Massachusetts Republicans pledged to make the most of the Democrats' reversal in coming elections. "If legislators go through with this, they are gigantic hypocrites," said Jennifer Nassour, chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party. "There is no other way to label them."

This is all about health care...period. Democrats, desperate to put some sort of silver lining on Kennedy's checkered legacy, want to pass Obamacare and give Kennedy some of the credit. Losing a reliable liberal vote makes that tougher and it's pretty clear that they'll do anything they can to appoint some lefty placeholder in the position whose only job will be to vote "AYE" when his name is called on the Obamacare bill.

Running From the People Vol 7

From Ohio:

A local football coach is sleeping outside Congressman Zack Space's Zanesville Office and says he won't leave until Space holds a public meeting.

Dave Daubenmire of Pass The Salt Ministries and coach at Fairfield Christian Academy in Lancaster, says he's wants Congressman Space to hold a meeting in Licking, Knox or Muskingum County so that his constituents of the 18th district can ask questions about his policies.

"They are putting a burden of debt upon our grandchildren, kids that aren't even born yet and I think if Zack Space is going to represent the people of the 18th district he ought to have the courage to tell us why they're doing it, what his policies are and where he stands so we can figure out if he is for us or against us," says Daubenmire.

Congressman Space's chief of staff Stuart Chapman says that in the midst of outreach to tens of thousands of people this month the Congressman went out of his way to meet with Daubenmire, but he says Daubenmire does not want a meeting he just wants to grandstand.

Even if he never gets his town hall meeting he's made his point.

The Conservative Manifesto

For those of you who have liberal friends who don't understand what conservatives really stand for, Mark Levin has prepared a Conservative Manifesto that pretty much explains it for them. Read it here and send it to your friends.

Pennies for Pelosi

San Fran Nan is trying to raise some bucks to counteract the GOP on health care. I'll tell you how we can help after this:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has launched an urgent effort to raise $100,000 by Monday to help combat what she calls GOP "smears" about health care reform.

"Republican opponents of reform are coming out with one outrageous smear after the next, all aimed at derailing our progress. We must be able to counter their special interest-funded attacks and set the record straight," Pelosi wrote in a letter to Democratic supporters.

"That's why I have set a goal of raising $100,000 in grassroots donations before the August FEC fundraising deadline," says Pelosi.

Pelosi and Democrats are clearly worried that they've lost momentum on health care reform this month, and many in her caucus have been crushed by opposition at town hall events.

Pelosi's appeal is aimed at small donors, and she asks for donations of $5 or more in her letter.

Democrats for weeks have been on the defensive, accusing Republicans of mischaracterizing their reform effort. President Barack Obama fired back several weeks ago after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a key Republican negotiator on the Senate Finance Committee, said the Democratic push threatened to "pull the plug on grandma."

Now, Pelosi is pushing back.

"Republicans are doing everything they can to spread the lies they hope will kill health insurance

reform," Pelosi writes at the end of the e-mail. "Please make a generous financial contribution to help Democrats get the truth out and fight GOP smears."

Here's how you can help. Find a penny, tape it to a sheet of paper (use 5 or 6 strips of tape to make sure the penny won't come loose), and send it here:

Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

You'll make her staff members happy as they joyously extract all these pennies for health care from the incoming mail.

Political Quote of the Day

A blast from the HolyCoast past - dated 5/21/08, the day Ted Kennedy's cancer was announced:

Democrats certainly aren't above walking over the bodies of their dead heroes to win elections.

Or to pass their pet legislation. They're all lining up either to name the bill after Kennedy or at the very least demand it be passed in his honor. He's more valuable to them dead than he was alive.

Dem Senator Won't Vote for Public Option

Perhaps she would still like her job after the next election:

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said she does not support a “public option” plan or national health insurance reform and would not vote for a House plan as it now exists.

When lawmakers return to Washington after Labor Day, the House is expected to debate the proposed health-care reform bill, House Resolution 3200, that includes creation of a publicly funded insurance plan that would compete with private insurers.

In a visit to Alexandria on Wednesday, Landrieu held a short news conference in which she predicted the House plan will be rejected in the Senate if it is adopted as currently written.

“No,” she said when asked if she would vote for the House plan. “I don’t generally support a public-option plan, but we’ve got to get the costs down.”

Referring to the strong opposition to the proposed plan that has been seen at various town hall meetings, she said, “I think the public is demanding more time.”

“As you know, the Senate is working on its own bill. Insurance reform is a big part and some tort reform is being considered,” she said.

Landrieu is right about one thing - without tort reform there won't be any reduction in health care costs. As Howard Dean himself admitted, the Democrats who wrote the House Bill did not want to take on the trial lawyer lobby by including serious tort reform in the bill. Without it costs can't possibly come down without rationing and withholding care.

Advertisors Will Find This Hard to Ignore

There's an activist in the White House who has been orchestrating an advertisor boycott against Glenn Beck following Beck's comment that "Obama is a racist". A number of advertisors have been bullied to leave the show, but they won't be able to ignore these numbers very long:

Though a little scandal might alienate advertisers, it’s pure ratings gold. Last night Glenn Beck had over 3 million viewers at 5pm, second only to O’Reilly for the night. But, Beck had more 25-54 viewers than O’Reilly (888K to 876K). I don’t watch or really even care about the cable news wars, but still…wow. Even though Beck airs before primetime, when there are fewer people watching TV, he had the most 25-54 viewers in the cable news world for the night.

Advertisors can't afford to play the self-righteous boycott game and avoid reaching a huge block of their target demographic. I anticipate that some of those who fell for the boycott will slowly and quietly work their way back into the advertising roster.

Political Cartoon of the Day

H/t Don Surber:

TV rates barely even blipped with the increased coverage of Kennedy's death. Although there was coverage of the hearse driving to the John F. Kennedy museum in Boston, it didn't attract significant viewers.

After all, Ted Kennedy showing up somewhere in a car with a dead body is so 1969.

HuffPo: Mary Jo Might Have Thought Her Death Was Worth It

How far does the Kennedy worship go on the left? Far enough to suggest that Mary Jo Kopechne might have thought her death was worth it to help Kennedy's career:

We don't know how much Kennedy was affected by her death, or what she'd have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history. What we don't know, as always, could fill a Metrodome.

Still, ignorance doesn't preclude a right to wonder. So it doesn't automatically make someone (aka, me) a Limbaugh-loving, aerial-wolf-hunting NRA troll for asking what Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted's death, and what she'd have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded.

Who knows — maybe she'd feel it was worth it.

Just when you thought they couldn't go any lower...

9/11 Tweet of the Day

From Reporter Matt Cooper:

It feels a bit like 9/11 on Martha's Vineyard. End-of-summer weather is achingly beautiful but the mood is melancholy because of Teddy.

Ace adds this comment:

America stunned as 77-year-old chronic alcoholic succumbs to old age; Al Qaeda suspected.

And Day Riehl sent a note back to Cooper:

@mattizcoop Felt the same way when we lost Muffin, but eventually just got another dog.

The flags are flying half staff at McDonald's today. Not sure if it's because of Teddy's passing, or the business they lost when he departed this mortal coil.

Health Care Quote of the Day

From Rep. Betsy Markey (D-CO):

Some people, including Medicare recipients, will have to give up some current benefits to truly reform the nation's health-care system, Rep. Betsy Markey told a gathering of constituents in Fort Collins on Wednesday.

Markey has repeatedly said during the August congressional recess that Medicare spending needs to be reined in to help pay for reforming the broader health-care system.

"There's going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work," Markey said at a Congress on Your Corner event at CSU. "But we have to do this because we're Americans."

I give her credit for telling the truth, but she certainly didn't make ObamaKennedyCare easier to sell.

Liberal Dem: Blue Dogs are Brain Dead

I just love this Blue-on-Blue violence:

A key House liberal suggested Thursday that party moderates who've pushed for changes in health care legislation are "brain dead" and out for insurance company campaign donations.

Moderate Blue Dog Democrats "just want to cause trouble," said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who heads the health subcommittee on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

"They're for the most part, I hate to say, brain dead, but they're just looking to raise money from insurance companies and promote a right-wing agenda that is not really very useful in this whole process," Stark told reporters on a conference call.

A spokeswoman for the Blue Dog caucus did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment.

Apparently not all Democrats are rallying around ObamaKennedyCare just because Teddy expired.

Your Tax Records and Obamacare

Remember how the left has fought so hard to convince us the Constitution contains a "right to privacy"? That's how they justified legalizing abortion.

Well, that newly found right is in jeopardy when it comes to your tax records if Obamacare passes:

One of the problems with any proposed law that's over 1,000 pages long and constantly changing is that much deviltry can lie in the details. Take the Democrats' proposal to rewrite health care policy, better known as H.R. 3200 or by opponents as "Obamacare."

Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and "other information as is prescribed by" regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for "affordability credits."

Section 245(b)(2)(A) says the IRS must divulge tax return details -- there's no specified limit on what's available or unavailable -- to the Health Choices Commissioner. The purpose, again, is to verify "affordability credits."

Section 1801(a) says that the Social Security Administration can obtain tax return data on anyone who may be eligible for a "low-income prescription drug subsidy" but has not applied for it.

Over at the Institute for Policy Innovation (a free-market think tank and presumably no fan of Obamacare), Tom Giovanetti argues that: "How many thousands of federal employees will have access to your records? The privacy of your health records will be only as good as the most nosy, most dishonest and most malcontented federal employee.... So say good-bye to privacy from the federal government. It was fun while it lasted for 233 years."

And the bill contains many more surprises yet to be discovered.

Health Care Headline of the Day

I referred to this story earlier, but something in the Drudge headline caught my eye:

HEALTH BILL FROM THE GRAVE: DEMS RALLY AROUND OBAMAKENNEDYCARE

Obama was looking at health care as a way to cement his legacy forever (even though long term it would be a disaster).

Now everyone wants to drop his name and substitute Kennedy, giving Kennedy credit for the bill Obama has been pushing for his legacy. I wonder what The One really thinks about all that?

Let's see if Obama's enthusiasm for the whole thing starts to wane.