Bonus Political Cartoon of the Day

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Political Cartoons of the Day

H/t Big Government:

Speaking Truth?

Mark Steyn takes on the White House and their war on various "enemies":

Valerie Jarrett announced the other day that “we’re going to speak truth to power.”

Who’s Valerie Jarrett? She’s “Senior Advisor” to the president of the United States — i.e., the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth. You would think the most powerful man in the most powerful nation would find a hard job finding anyone on the planet to “speak truth to power” to. But I suppose if you’re as eager to do so as his Senior Advisor, there’s always somebody out there: The Supreme Leader of Iran. The Prime Minister of Belgium. The Deputy Tourism Minister of the Solomon Islands. But no. The Senior Advisor has selected targets closer to home: “I think that what the administration has said very clearly is that we’re going to speak truth to power. When we saw all of the distortions in the course of the summer, when people were coming down to town-hall meetings and putting up signs that were scaring seniors to death. . . . ”

Ah, right. People “putting up signs.” Can’t have that, can we? The most powerful woman in the inner circle of the most powerful man on earth has decided to speak truth to powerful people standing in the street with handwritten placards saying “THIS GRAN’MA ISN’T SHOVEL READY.” Was it only a week ago that I wrote about this administration’s peculiar need for domestic enemies?

The Senior Advisor seems to have forgotten that she is the power. Admittedly, this is a recurring lapse on the part of the administration. There was Barack Obama only the other day blaming everything on the president — no, no, silly, not him, the other fellow, the Designated Fall Guy who stepped down as head of state in January to accept the new constitutional position of Blame Czar. Musing on problems in Afghanistan, Obama blamed the “long years of drift” under his predecessor. The new president — okay, newish president — has been Drifter-in-Chief for almost a year but he’s too busy speaking truth to the former power to get on top of the situation. It could be a while yet. In his more self-regarding moments, such as his speech to the U.N., he gives the strong impression that the “long years of drift” began in 1776.

Read the rest of it here.

He Shoots, He Scores

With a pumpkin right into the CSUF scoreboard:

When Discovery Science Center educators coined their event Saturday morning a ''pumpkin launch," they weren't kidding.

In an engineering experiment gone awry, a pumpkin shot from a makeshift cannon catapulted more than 120 yards across Titan Stadium at Cal State Fullerton, crashing through the scoreboard.

A team of college engineering students, called "Students without Borders,'' had built a cannon (which they named Pumpkin Lobber) that used pressurized air to shoot the pumpkin, said Keith Brush, a director of education at the Discovery Science Center.

The team was aiming at two plywood targets about 50 yards away.

Instead, the pumpkin flew above the targets, striking the scoreboard that sits atop the stadium. An estimate of the damage is not known yet.

"They had no idea how far it was going to go,'' Brush said. "You know with engineering projects, they usually don't work out the first time."

Do they still do math in engineering school? Seems like someone forgot to carry the "1".

UPDATE: Photos here.

Four Steps to Reform Health Care

Minority Leader John Boehner gave the GOP weekly radio address today and outlined four steps to reform health care that don't take a 1,900 page bill and trillions in taxes. Don Surber summarizes:

Number 1: Let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines.

Number 2: Allow individuals, small businesses and trade associations to pool together and acquire health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do today.

Number 3: Give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lower healthcare costs; and

Number 4: End junk lawsuits that contribute to higher healthcare costs by increasing the number of tests and procedures that physicians sometimes order not because they think it’s good medicine, but because they are afraid of being sued.

Exactly. You can watch Boehner's message here.

This is How You Respond to Cheap Shots

I hate it when people demand apologies, even if they're warranted. If someone insults you or says nasty untrue things about you, demanding an apology accomplishes exactly nothing. You know the apology, if given, is not sincere and it makes the demander look like a thin-skinned whiner.

There's a better way. When someone takes a cheap shot at me (as occasionally happens in the comments and sometimes even on other blogs), you won't ever see me demand an apology. I just take the good sense of humor that I periodically demonstrate and go into full mockery mode. Turning the guns back on the attacker is the best way to make sure they go away with their tails between their legs.

Chris Christie is a Republican running for governor of New Jersey, and according to some polls appears to have a slight lead over Gov. Jon Corzine, the liberal Democrat who has made a real mess of things in that state. No Republican should be able to win in such a blue state, but Christie has a very good chance of knocking Corzine off.

Christie is a large fellow. Nowadays you don't see many portly men running for high office (thanks largely to TV). Corzine has been taking cheap and not too veiled shots at Christie's girth, and in this day of metrosexual politics, you'd probably expect Christie to demand an apology.

You'd be wrong. Watch this and see how Christie deals with the issue with humor and very effectively mocks Corzine. Some political analysts think this one appearance could turn the election to Christie:

Boeing Dreams of South Carolina

Boeing plans to build lots of 787 Dreamliners, but they won't all be built in Washington state (from Big Government):

On Wednesday, Boeing announced it would put a second 787 assembly line in Charleston, S.C., rather than Everett, WA.

Union leaders and politicians like Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., expressed shock, dismay and outrage at the company’s decision.

Either they are feigning surprise, or they’ve been comatose for the last decade. Your guess is as good as mine.

For years, politicians and labor leaders in Washington have ignored Boeing’s pleas to stay competitive. In 2002,Boeing CEO Alan Mulally told the State House Labor Committee that “the state of Washington is not competitive. . . . meaning it costs us more to operate [here].” He specifically pointed to Washington’s costlyworkers’ compensation system, which requires employers to purchase insurance coverage from the state or be on the hook to cover all claims costs themselves, rather than allowing them to choose from among competing private providers. As a result, Washington collects some of the highest premiums from employers and injured worker rates are well above the national average.

Boeing’s decision to place its second 787 line in South Carolina is too complicated, however, to be blamed on any single factor. In 2002, Mulally told lawmakers that Washington would have to become more competitive in taxes, unemployment insurance (UI) and regulations, among other factors, in order to keep the state attractive for Boeing.

Unfortunately, rather than engaging in an honest discussion about reform in these areas, legislators decided on a $3.2 billion “incentive package” that included some UI and workers’ comp. reforms. Just a few years later, however, the legislature rescinded many of those changes. The Evergreen Freedom Foundation fought a lengthy battle to get the details of the state’s contract with Boeing. Once we finally got them (the unredacted portions), we discovered that Boeing could walk away from the deal at any point without penalties, whereas Washington was on the hook for pricey commitments until Boeing decided to cease building 787s.

This is one of many examples illustrating why one-on-one handouts between governments and businesses are bad for taxpayers, and in the long run, bad for the businesses themselves. Once the luster of the handout runs out, the business will scramble for another, and another, and so on. Better to build a strong business climate across-the-board, which is good for large and small companies alike.

That's exactly right. Cutting deals specifically for a particular employer may temporarily help the state, but if you want to have a long-term improvement in a state's economy, improving the lot for all businesses makes the most sense. If you make it less expensive for businesses to operate, more businesses will want to operate there. Washington State, and for that matter California, is learning that the hard way as business flees to surrounding states to avoid our stupid taxes and regulations.

Something for Congress to Aspire to

And it's just a short walk from the Capitol:

No known ghosts -- but the Historic Congressional Cemetery is home to a number of storied Americans, including Abraham Lincoln's most famous photographer; one of the conspirators who was hanged for Lincoln's assassination; the original twentieth-century G-Man; and the composer who gave the "Monte Python" gang their start.

Not too shabby for the graveyard long overshadowed by its more famous cousin across the river, in Arlington.

Tucked away in Southeast Washington, a short walk from the Capitol Building, the Congressional Cemetery began as the burying ground for the local parish of Christ Church, and welcomed its first souls in 1807. For decades, the cemetery served as the capital's sole place of burial for members of Congress. In all, nineteen senators and seventy-one members of the House of Representatives lie here.

And the good news is there's room for plenty more.

Right Wing Women Rock!

From Ian Robinson in the Calgary Sun:

The recent election of Danielle Smith as leader of the Wildrose Alliance reminded me that among the many things I love about the libertarian/right wing are the women.

Could be our slogan: Come for the culture war ... stay for the chicks.

Right-wing women rock.

Not for us the sturdy, honest calves of the New Democrat/Green Party female, honed on eco-tourist rainforest hikes.

Those legs are often on unfortunate display, extending from a knee-length tweed skirt as hairy as the legs themselves, and end in a pair of Birkenstocks.

I have yet to see a pair of Birkenstock women's shoes that didn't look like part of the required uniform for police SWAT teams. Sensible shoes are one thing ... quite another to don a pair that look like they're meant for rappelling down the sides of buildings with a Heckler & Koch sniper rifle slung over your shoulder.

The primary reason our womenfolk are at war with the looming spectre of the nanny state is because you can't buy Jimmy Choos in a socialist paradise.

The only sensible footwear you'll find in a right-wing woman's closet are the Nike cross-trainers that go with her gym membership.

Everything else has a three-inch heel. Minimum.

Left-wing drabs recycle. Right-wing women shop -- and the government measures how much they shop every month to find out whether we're still in a recession. Basically, the world economy depends on right-wing women buying shoes.

You never hear a right-wing woman break out statistics pointing out that only 25% of elected offices in Canada are held by women, and then whining about it.

No. A right-wing woman wants to get elected, she runs for office.

If she wins, great. If she loses ... well, there's always more shoe shopping.

Left-wing women burn enormous quantities of fossil fuels to drive across the city to a farmer's market to purchase virtually the same carrot you can get at the neighbourhood Sobey's a couple of blocks from your house for half the price, all in the name of making the environment happy.

A right-wing woman hits the gym, swings past Sobey's and has dinner on the table by the time you get home ... while her left-wing counterpart is still stuck in traffic listening to Sarah McLachlan on her iPod and feeling morally superior about her carrot choices.

And when that plate of food is put in front of you by the right-wing hottie you had the good sense to marry, it will be 100% tofu-free. If you're lucky, she just remembered to buy steak and forgot about the carrot entirely.

Right-wing women have traditional families, so they want to raise them themselves ... or at the very least by a nanny they've vetted, rather than abdicating that responsibility to the state.

They know that the good life costs money ... so they're not sure why the average Canadian is handing -- on average! -- half their income to smarmy government apparatchiks who spend it mostly on stupid crap.

Our women are a genuine asset when they enter politics because they've spent their lives figuring out how to live within their family's means ... while still affording a couple of pairs of those Jimmy Choos.

Because most of them have careers and work hard, they understand the value of a dollar, allowing you a steak lifestyle on a hamburger income ... and they know they can spend their family's money more intelligently than some faceless bureaucrat with a passion for public art or totalitarian city planning.

Right-wing women are essentially libertarians ... they don't take well to being bossed around and they don't like bossing other people around unless it's to tell them they can't spend money.

If they can tell their kid he can't have the newest Xbox upgrade and make it stick ... if they can make a husband understand it makes more sense to put money in an RRSP than going to the Super Bowl with the guys every year ... if they can pull all that off, then fixing health care shouldn't be too big a stretch.

And in case you're not convinced, to indicate the utter superiority of the right-wing woman over the left-wing variant ... just turn on The View.

The left has Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg.

We've got Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Checkmate.

It's true in Canada and it's just as true here.

Dede Drops Out in NY-23

UPDATE: Scozzafava has now formerly endorsed Democrat Bill Owens. El DIABLO strikes. Turns out Scozzafava has even less integrity than I gave her credit for.

The RINO sleeps tonight. The very liberal Republican chosen by the local GOP to run in the NY-23 special election has dropped out at the last minute:

Dede Scozzafava, the Republican and Independence parties candidate, announced Saturday that she is suspending her campaign for the 23rd Congressional District and releasing all her supporters.

The state Assemblywoman has not thrown her support to either Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate, or Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate.

"Today, I again seek to act for the good of our community," Ms. Scozzafava wrote in a letter to friends and supporters. "It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my party will emerge stronger and our district and our nation can take an important step towards restoring the enduring strength and economic prosperity that has defined us for generations."

I wonder how many absentee ballots were wasted on Scozzafava before today, or how many people voted for her because of the (R) after her name without knowing anything about her?

This makes the election on Tuesday all the more interesting. The latest polls show Doug Huffman (Conservative) and Bill Owens (Democrat) essentially tied. I suppose some Dede supporters could either sit out or support Owens as a spite vote against Hoffman and all the celebrity conservative politicians who supported him, such as Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson and Tim Pawlenty. We'll see.

UPDATE: The Corner gets a comment from Rush Limbaugh:

“Hmmm... I thought the Era of Reagan was over? Who was it that said that? Oh yeah, the smart people on our side who told us the only way we could win was with moderate/liberal candidates like Scozzafava. Hmmm...”

UPDATE 2: Newt endorses Hoffman after vigorously supporting Dede throughout the campaign.

UPDATE 3: Analysis from Politico:

At least more than half of her voters go to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Scozzafava was polling at 20 percent -- a mix of moderate Republicans and some indies, meaning both sides have a chance to pick them up. National Dems are going to work to get Scozzafava to endorse the Democrat, Bill Owens. "If we don't get her on board, we lose," a senior Democrat said. Top GOP strategist: "Republicans and independents will now be able to unite behind one candidacy. Dede's last base of support was among Republican loyalists. They likely overwhelmingly switch to Hoffman."

I don't think Dede will make an endorsement either way. She claims to be a proud Republican, so supporting a third party wouldn't make any more sense than supporting a Democrat. And an endorsement of the Democrat would just confirm the criticisms that drove her out of the race in the first place.

UPDATE: According to local reports, Scozzafava is urging supporters to vote for Democrat Owens. Imagine my surprise.

The Small President

He may not be small in physical stature, but he certainly seems small in character. This from the end of a Michael Gerson piece:

There are many reasons why Obama, according to Gallup, has suffered the largest decline in approval, at this portion in his term, of any elected president since 1953 -- and why more Americans believe in UFOs than approve of the job done by Congress. But one reason is surely the bitter, brittle tone of the new Democratic establishment -- highlighted by the promise they have raised and disappointed.

How did the tonal candidate become so tone-deaf? We have always known that there are two Obamas. One is the thoughtful, Niebuhr-quoting professor, who listens to every side and speaks inspiring words of unity. The other Obama comes from Chicago, and suffers from an excess of Chicagoans around him. Many Democrats seem to like the street-brawling side of Obama and his team. Many independents and Republicans seem less enthusiastic that Mr. Hyde has moved in his furniture and clearly plans to stay.

America in 2008 and Virginia in 2009 show that tone is an underestimated factor in American politics. Positive candidates in these races have looked like leaders and winners. Negativity has seemed trivial. Virginians seem to be deciding that Deeds is too small to be governor. Obama seems intent on proving that he is too small to be an effective president.

Small and petty go hand-in-hand, and the attacks on his ideological enemies come off as hopelessly petty. He was never cut out for this job and he proves that every day.

It's Now Safe to Criticize Obama

Yes, freedom of speech is returning slowly to our republic:

There's a lot of buzz on Capitol Hill about a new health care memo, by strategist/communicator Frank Luntz, which is filled with advice for opponents of the Democrats' reform legislation. The memo analyzes the public's concerns that national health care will result in lower quality care at higher cost, with an out-of-control deficit to boot, and Luntz recommends language to help critics make the case against the legislation more effectively. For example, he suggests opponents would be better off avoiding the phrase public option; calling it the government option is better.

The new memo updates a similar analysis Luntz wrote last May. Some of the advice is familiar. But one striking difference between the two documents is in the treatment of Barack Obama. Last May, Luntz advised politicians to stay away -- far away -- from criticizing the president. "Your political opponents are the Democrats in Congress and the bureaucrats in Washington, not President Obama," Luntz wrote. "Every time we test language that criticized the president by name, the response was negative -- even among Republicans." He continued: "If you make this debate about Republicans vs. Obama, you lose. But if you make it about Americans vs. politicians, you win." Therefore, the advice was to go after Washington bureaucrats and government health care, but never Obama.

That was then. Now, things are different. "In the spring, we counseled strongly that you should avoid direct confirmation with President Obama," Luntz writes in the new memo. "That has changed." The "thrill is gone" from Obama's relationship with the American people, Luntz writes, and it's now OK to go after the president's proposals with the president's name attached. "There is no change in support for the plan if it is called 'Barack Obama's plan' instead of the plan of 'Democrats in Congress,'" Luntz says. "So long as the attack is grounded in policy and NOT personage, you can talk about opposing 'President Obama's plan.'"

That said, Luntz still doesn't advise doing it. "While you no longer shoot yourself in the foot by criticizing the president, you would do much better to criticize Congress -- which has disapproval ratings that will clearly sink some re-election hopes," Luntz writes. While many Republicans insist on calling health care reform "Obamacare," Luntz says they would do better by attacking "Washington."

Obama has opened himself up to this by swiftly departing from the transformational candidate he appeared to be and becoming the small and petty politician he really is. It didn't take long to lose the glow.

Today's Global Warming Headlines

From Drudge:

Atlantic Hurricane Season slowest since 1997; Global tropical cyclone activity near 30-year lows...

More than 2 feet: Record October snowfall blankets Colorado...

Blizzard shifts east, paralyzing plains, closes major highways...

Exaggerated claims 'undermine drive to cut emissions'...

Remember, hurricane's are Mother Gaia's way of eliminating excess heat. If there are few hurricanes Mother Gaia must not be having hot flashes.

Tourists Check In and Then They Check Out

Stay out of the one-way hotel in Switzerland:

Switzerland announced plans yesterday to crack down on “suicide tourism”, signalling that it might close the Dignitas clinic that has helped hundreds of terminally ill people to take their lives.

When you make life cheap enough to be easily ended this sort of thing happens.

The Fantasy of "Jobs Created or Saved"

Carolyn Baum at Bloomberg explain:

Heresy, thy name is Christina Romer.

Last week, the chairman of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers -- a position that carried the title “chief economist” until Larry Summers took up residence in the White House -- testified to the Joint Economic Committee on the economic crisis and the efficacy of the policy response.

Here’s the executive summary in case you missed it:

The crisis: “Inherited.”

The economy: “In terrible shape” (the inherited one).

The shocks to the system: “Larger than those that precipitated the Great Depression.”

The policy response: “Strong and timely.”

The efficacy of the policy response: a 2 to 3 percentage point addition to second-quarter growth; 3 to 4 percentage points in the third; and 160,000 to 1.5 million “jobs saved or created,” a made-up metric if there ever was one. (More on that later.)

What was most puzzling about Romer’s Oct. 22 testimony was her comment on the waning effect of fiscal stimulus.

“Most analysts predict that the fiscal stimulus will have its greatest impact on growth in the second and third quarters of 2009,” Romer said. “By mid-2010, fiscal stimulus will likely be contributing little to growth.”

At first it was just fringe elements, such as conservative blogs and the not-really-a-news-organization Fox News, that pounced on Romer’s statement. Then other news outlets started to question her statement, which seemed to fly in the face of White House assertions that only a small portion of the stimulus -- $120 billion, or 15 percent -- has actually been spent. Most of the criticism of the stimulus coming from the president’s own party has been, “too little, too late,” and here’s Romer saying it’s kaput.

Thanks for That

Instead of being banished to the woodshed, Romer was consigned to the White House blog, where she slipped into professorial mode to explain the arcane distinction between the effect of the stimulus on the change in gross domestic product and its effect on the level of GDP.

Stimulus has its biggest impact on the growth rate of GDP when it’s implemented, Romer said, using a car-and-driver analogy: Step on the accelerator, the car goes from zero to 60.

Stimulus will keep the level of GDP and employment higher than they would have been even after the growth-rate effect fades, she said.

Her logic is impeccable. It’s her premise that’s flawed.

Dispensing Lucre

When the government distributes lucre or loot, people spend it. If your interest is national income accounting, spending other people’s money is great. Spending is a back-door way for government statisticians to measure what matters, which is the real output of goods and services.

But the government has no money of its own to spend; only what it borrows or confiscates from us via taxation. Oops.

“Government job creation is an oxymoron,” said Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Business. It is only by depriving the private sector of funds that government can hire or subsidize hiring.

That’s why “jobs created or saved” is such pure fiction. It ignores what’s unseen, as our old friend Frederic Bastiat explained so eloquently 160 years ago in an essay.

Jobs "created or saved" is a metric that's completely unsupported by actual math. Talk about your "fuzzy math" or "voodoo economics".

As we know from the global warming argument you can make forecast models say anything you want just by carefully manipulating the data fed it. Garbage in, garbage out. The reality of the employment situation is that jobs continue to be lost and there seems to be no end in sight. Claiming credit for fictional "saved" jobs is not fixing the economic problems.

E.R.

Today was my third trip to the Mission Community Hospital Emergency Room since August 14th. The first two were with my dad, and today's was with Mrs. Holycoast (scroll down the page a bit to see how all that turned out). None of them were much fun, but I have to admit it's a fascinating experience to spend a few hours in such a place.

The area is fairly open and you hear a lot of stuff about the other cases on the ward. Awhile after we got there I heard a nurse talking about an incoming trauma involving a kid hit by a car. The story is here, and I'm glad to say the last I heard he was banged up but doing pretty well.

The second case did not have such a happy ending. We've all seen TV hospital shows like E.R. or even SCRUBS, in which the dreaded words "CODE BLUE!" are uttered, followed by a frenetic gathering of doctors and nurses all trying to save the victim. On TV the handsome young doctor usually shouts "CLEAR"!, shocks the victim back to life, and he then gets up off the table, gets dressed, pays his bill, and goes home to his happy family.

It doesn't usually work that way.

Maybe an hour or so after we checked in an elderly man was brought by paramedics into the room next door. We were separated only by a partial wall and a curtain, so we could hear everything going on in there.

At first everything seemed fairly normal, but over the next 45 minutes or so the voices next door seemed to increase in urgency and intensity. It became obvious that a health crisis was developing and options were becoming fewer. A "CODE SEPSIS" was called, and that brought in other doctors to try and deal with the problem. Within a few minutes they were getting ready to intubate due to his depressed respiration. Things went from bad to worse.

Orders were being given and responded to, and then I heard a doctor say "someone hit the CODE BLUE button". Alarms started going off at the nurse's station, the overhead P.A. chimed and the voice said "CODE BLUE E.R. ROOM 1!" The battle was fully engaged now.

However, within a minute or so the family who was present called it off.

A doctor said "the family says stop". The room calmed. He then thanked all the professionals who had come to help, and it was over, this whole drama taking place maybe 15 feet from where we were.

The gentleman apparently was in the final stages of cancer and the family made the courageous decision to let nature take its course. I know what that feels like, because we had to make a similar call just over a month ago. My heart went out to the wife and daughter who had to witness that. It was a difficult reminder of our own family's recent events.

I have to say that every person we've dealt with in our recent visits to Mission Hospital were just as nice and professional as can be, from the people who cleaned the rooms, to the aides, techs, nurses and doctors. I always felt we were in the best of hands.

However, if I never spend another day in that hospital I'll be very, very happy.

Bill Clinton Kills Another Campaign

What Bill Clinton did for Hillary he's now done for Gavin Newsom:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who propelled the debate over gay marriage but struggled to find a popular message outside the San Francisco Bay area, dropped his bid for California governor on Friday.

A statement issued by his campaign said he was unable to devote the time needed to run an effective campaign, citing "a young family and responsibilities at City Hall."

"This is not an easy decision," he said. "But it is one made with the best intentions for my wife, my daughter, the residents of the city and county of San Francisco, and California Democrats."

His announcement was not a surprise to those following the Democratic campaign. Newsom, 41, was unable to find the same popularity throughout California that he enjoys in his home city.

Attorney General Jerry Brown had a 7-to-1 fundraising edge over Newsom, even though Brown has not officially announced his candidacy. A Field Poll earlier this month showed Newsom trailing Brown by 20 points among likely Democratic voters.

Newsom failed to gain traction even after holding months of town hall meetings throughout the state and ringing up an endorsement from former President Bill Clinton.

That gives Gov. Moonbeam the undisputed lead for the governor's mansion, a job he held back when he still had hair. We'll see if any other Democrats want to step up and challenge him.

Mrs. HolyCoast is Back Home

An update to the earlier post - they let Mrs. Holycoast go home about 6 pm tonight. They ran a whole battery of tests, including heart, thyroid, CAT scan, stress echo cardiography...you name it. Everything negative. We really have no idea what set off this morning's heart attack look-alike.

Time to rest now.

Best Laid Plans....

We had this day all planned out. Leave at 5am. Have birthday lunch with daughter in Northern California at 1pm. Concert at 7:30. Spend Saturday and part of Sunday with her before heading back home.

All that went out the window.

My wife woke up at 3am and wasn't feeling well, but not bad enough to cancel the trip. We actually left the house at 4:18am, but as we drove north she was getting worse. I finally stopped about 40 miles from home and turned around.

She was nauseous, had chest pain and radiating pain to left arm and jaw. Classic heart symptoms. We were home for just a few minutes and I decided we had to go to emergency.

When you show up at emergency and tell them you have chest pains you become number one with a bullet. It's like knowing the maitre d' at a fine restaurant - you get the best table in the place and right now.

It's now been over six hours since we went in. The symptoms have subsided but they're not really sure what's going on. The heart tests so far are all negative for heart attack. They're going to check some other options and will probably keep her overnight for continued tests and observation. My daughter will have to celebrate her 21st birthday without us.

Of course, my wife spent my daughter's birthday 21 years ago in the hospital, so I guess this isn't the first time.

Prayers are appreciated.

Happy 21st!

We're on our way north to celebrate my daughter's 21st birthday tonight. She'll be playing in a concert at Sonoma State University, and for the first time, my mom and my sister's family will be visiting the campus with us.

Should be fun.

Her birthday will always be associated with Halloween, and that was always a favorite holiday of hers because she got to dress up. Since she was such a cute little stinker, I snagged some video from Halloween 1990 when she was only 2:

Because I want to be able to concentrate on her birthday and the family outing, I'm going cold turkey and leaving the laptop at home. I'll post an update or two from the cellphone, but otherwise I'll leave the politics to others this weekend. We'll be back Sunday night.

Fawning Celebrity Quote of the Day

From Sting:

Sting isn't a religious man, but he says President Barack Obama might be a divine answer to the world's problems.

"In many ways, he's sent from God," he joked in an interview, "because the world's a mess."

But Sting is serious in his belief that Obama is the best leader to navigate the world's problems. In an interview on Wednesday, the former Police frontman said that he spent some time with Obama and "found him to be very genuine, very present, clearly super-smart, and exactly what we need in the world."

"I can't think of any be better qualified because of his background, his education, particularly in regard to Islam," he said.

If he was sent by God, don't you think he would have solved...something...by now?

$2.24 Million Per Word

That's what the House Obamacare bill will cost you:

It runs more pages than War and Peace, has nearly five times as many words as the Torah, and its tables of contents alone run far longer than this story.

The House health care bill unveiled Thursday clocks in at 1,990 pages and about 400,000 words. With an estimated 10-year cost of $894 billion, that comes out to about $2.24 million per word.

And it's all smoke and mirrors.

It Wasn't Me...Honest!

I was not responsible for this headline:

Shooting at California Car Rental Kills 2

But I could have been.

We're leaving for Northern California in the morning - I think this is my 24th trip since my daughter first went to college up there - and as I often do I picked up a rental car this morning for the trip. Rates are pretty cheap and I'd rather put the 1,200 miles on their car then mine.

I had reserved a full size car but they didn't have any at the time, so they gave me a brand new Dodge Journey crossover instead. It had only 476 miles on it.

I had to go up to Santa Ana on an errand, and when I started the car up in Santa Ana I heard a funny ticking sound. I didn't think much of it until a mile or so later the check engine light came on. After one more quick stop I started the car again and a roaring sound started up under the hood that sounded like the engine was trying to tear itself apart. I spent the next hour or so waiting for a tow truck to pick up the car and take me to another office of the same rental company.

There they gave me the only car they had - a Ford Focus. What a piece of junk. Definitely a low budget car. I drove that back to the rental office in Mission Viejo and asked them to give me something else. Now I have a Kia Sportage and I think this one will work.

I didn't mention the rental company in all of this because frankly, they did the very best for me they could under the circumstances and I don't want to imply that they're an inferior brand. They just had a couple of problem cars.

Nature Photos of the Day

I ran across these on a friend's Facebook page:

"Ooo, I can see my lake from here. We're going back....right??"

Cannonba...!

Son, Don't Do What I'm About to Do

If stuff is dangerous, just leave it alone:

A man attempting to demonstrate the dangers of gunpowder to his son blew off one of his fingers in a blast that also injured the boy, authorities said.

At first, the explosion in the 22900 block of Calvert Street in Woodland Hills was thought to be a shooting, said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Tom Sammartano.

But, it was a father-son lesson gone wrong.

The father somehow ignited the gunpowder while trying to demonstrate its dangers just before 10:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Arriving police and firefighters found a window in the home blown out, and a bomb squad was called in to check for any further dangers.

Investigators say the son suffered minor face injuries and possible loss of hearing. The father lost a finger in the blast.

The story doesn't say if alcohol might have been involved.

Tornado Hunter

As a fan of storm chasing shows, I thought this was pretty clever:

The White House is Running Corzine's Campaign

Gov. Jon Corzine is in such trouble in New Jersey that the White House has taken over the campaign to try and avoid an embarrassing defeat:

One of President Barack Obama’s key political advisers has become the central strategist in New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine’s bruising campaign for re-election, a race the White House desperately wants to win to avert the consequences for its own agenda of a Republican winning in a traditionally Democratic state.

The White House was so concerned about Corzine's chances during the summer that Corzine's aides feared the first-term governor was being pressured to step aside for a stronger candidate. Those fears turned out to be groundless, but were part of the reason Corzine hired Joel Benenson, who has helped impose discipline on a struggling campaign and crystallize Corzine’s aggressive attacks on the character of his Republican opponent, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

The race is seen as extremely close, complicated by the presence of a third candidate, Chris Daggett. For the White House, it’s a crucial symbolic prize. With Democrat Creigh Deeds running far behind his Republican rival in Virginia, the New Jersey race – once believed to be hopeless for Corzine – is now seen as the White House’s best bet to make the 2009 election cycle a political wash and to calm the nerves of congressional Democrats approaching the crucial 2010 midterm elections.

It may not be enough. It's expected that the early support independent Chris Daggett had will evaporate when people actually go to the polls and decide they don't want to waste their vote. That will likely be good news for Christie.

This one will be very close.

Cash for Clunkers - $24,000 Per Car

But, you say, I only got $4,500?? Yes, but the government bureaucracy added another $20,000 per car to the cost:

American taxpayers paid a lot of cash for those clunkers: $24,000 for each new car sold, according to a study released Wednesday.

That’s a lot of money, especially when the so-called “cash for clunker” stimulus program offered only a maximum $4,500 in cash for each person who traded in an old gas-guzzler and bought a new car.

The government could have done almost as well by just giving away cars for free, instead of creating an elaborate incentive program, according to an analysis by the automotive information firm Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, Calif.

And since the program ended the auto market has collapsed...as predicted. Shoving demand forward ensured that there would be little or no demand when the program ended.

Go visit a car dealership and take a look at the inventory on hand. In most cases, you won't find much. Not because they're selling so fast, but because the dealers can't afford the flooring costs of keeping cars around that aren't selling. If you want to buy a specific model, instead of having a dozen or more to choose from you might have one or two.

Take it or leave it.

Shocker: Stimulus Claims Are Full of Baloney

It's not really that much of a shocker:

An early progress report on President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports.

The government’s first accounting of jobs tied to the $787 billion stimulus program claimed more than 30,000 positions paid for with recovery money. But that figure is overstated by least 5,000 jobs, according to an Associated Press review of a sample of stimulus contracts.

The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.

For example:

• A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced.

• A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs with recovery money, but none was created from stimulus spending.

• A Florida child care center said its stimulus money saved 129 jobs but used the money on raises for existing employees.

There’s no evidence the White House sought to inflate job numbers in the report. But administration officials seized on the 30,000 figure as evidence that the stimulus program was on its way toward fulfilling the president’s promise of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.

The reporting problem could be magnified Friday when a much larger round of reports is expected to show hundreds of thousands of jobs repairing public housing, building schools, repaving highways and keeping teachers on local payrolls.

Perhaps if we only had more jobs chasing after radioactive rabbit feces (see post below).

Come to think of it, this whole program has a lot to do with excrement, at least of the bovine kind.

And now, according to Don Surber, the White House is declaring war on the Associated Press for pointing all of this out. They're going to have to add another page to their enemies list.

Stimulus Money Used to Track Radioactive Rabbit Feces

Yeah, I had to read that twice too:

Anything that hops, burrows, buzzes, crawls or grazes near a nuclear weapons plant may be capable of setting off a Geiger counter. And at the Hanford nuclear reservation, one of the dirtiest of them all, its droppings alone might be enough to trigger alarms.

A government contractor at Hanford, in south-central Washington State, just spent a week mapping radioactive rabbit feces with detectors mounted on a helicopter flying 50 feet over the desert scrub. An onboard computer used GPS technology to record each location so workers could return later to scoop up the droppings for disposal as low-level radioactive waste.

The Hanford site, overseen by the federal Department of Energy, produced roughly two-thirds of the plutonium used in the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal, beginning in World War II and ending in the 1980s. Today it is the focus of the nation’s largest environmental cleanup, an effort that has cost tens of billions of dollars and is expected to continue for decades.

Yet the helicopter flights, which covered 13.7 square miles and were paid for with $300,000 in federal stimulus money, took place in an area that had never been used by the bomb makers.

The area had, however, been used by rabbits that had also burrowed into other areas that were contaminated. Many of the contaminants were in the form of salts, which attract wildlife. The rabbits carried strontium and cesium, which emit gamma rays, back out of the area in their digestive tracts.

So, how many jobs did that "save or create"?

Political Headline of the Day

From Drudge:

BABIES WITHOUT MEN OR WOMEN

Oops, my mistake. I thought the story was about the Obama White House.

The Kansas Option

State legislators in Kansas are trying to find a way out of Obamacare:

Kansas Senator Mary Pilcher-Cook of Shawnee, along with colleagues in the Kansas House from Wichita and Emporia, is planning an attempt to amend the Kansas Constitution, should Congress pass health reforms that mandate everyone carry health insurance. The amendment would allow the state to basically opt-out of such legislation. Cook tells KMBZ it would need the support of two-thirds of lawmakers, and then a thumbs up from the Kansas people on the 2010 ballot.

I'm not a lawyer but I think they may have a problem with the legal principle that federal law supersedes state law. However, it's worth a try.

Political Photo of the Day

Hillary Clinton prays at the shrine of a muslim saint (H/t Gateway Pundit):


Gateway also points out this quote from Hillary as they administration continues to bash Bush around the world:

As a way of repudiating past U.S. policies toward Pakistan, Clinton told the students “there is a huge difference” between the Obama administration’s approach and that of former President George W. Bush. “I spent my entire eight years in the Senate opposing him,” she said to a burst of applause from the audience of several hundred students. “So, to me, it’s like daylight and dark.”

Isn't it more like ebony and ivory?

Wrong Track

America is finally waking up:

While the stock market has picked up and the country appears to be pulling out of the recession, a majority of Americans - for the first time in the Obama presidency - says the U.S. is headed down the wrong track, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted Oct. 22-25.

Fifty-two percent say the country is on the wrong track compared to 36 percent who say it is headed in the right direction with 9 percent saying conditions are mixed and 3 percent undecided. While there have been pluralities saying the U.S. is on the wrong track in four of the previous five WSJ/NBC polls during Obama's presidency, this is the first time the number broke 50 percent. The one month where that was not true was April when 43 percent said things were on the right track and an equal number said they were going in the opposite direction.

President Obama's job approval rating stands at 51 percent, the same number it had been during the previous two months.

When you're on the wrong track the light at the end of the tunnel is usually an oncoming train.

Is Nancy Pelosi Leading the Dems Off a Cliff?

Bill Kristol wonders:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to release the text of the Democratic health care proposal tomorrow, with the hope of bringing it to the floor as early as next Friday. Pelosi will claim that the Congressional Budget Office has scored the Democratic bill as deficit neutral over the next ten years.

Of course, there's no guarantee the text Pelosi unveils tomorrow won't be replaced at the last minute on the floor by a manager's amendment that will change various provisions and, conveniently, won't have been fully scored by the CBO--as happened with cap and trade. But leave this quibble aside.

Here's the key fact: The bill will be (allegedly) deficit neutral because of hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare cuts. If it passes, these will be the largest cuts in Medicare ever. Is the Democratic Party as a whole willing to go into the 2010 election as the party that slashed Medicare? Are individual Democratic members?

Pelosi will whisper to her members not to worry, they can rescind the cuts next year. But then of course the legislation will be a deficit buster. And even if the Democratic Congress does rescind the cuts, that will just allow Republicans to run ads criticizing Democrats for cutting Medicare and busting the budget. And, one might add (as Republicans will), raising taxes and hiking premiums.

One more thing: Speaker Pelosi is once again--as on cap and trade--asking her members to walk the plank, absent any evidence there are the votes in the Senate to pass comparable legislation. In fact, the reason Pelosi is pulling the trigger now is that Reid failed in his effort to get the Senate up to the starting gate first (that was the point of last week's attempted "doc fix").

So, the question is: Will her caucus follow Nancy off a cliff?

I don't think enough of them will to pass the thing. They're all going to be a bit skittish about re-election, and should Democrats take a beating in the elections on Tuesday, look for lots of Democrats to head for the tall grass on Obamacare.

It's Nancy's Big Day

Don Surber has the details of Nancy Pelosi's big push for Obamacare coming today:

Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will go all in on Thursday with an over-the-top health care plan that the world has not seen since Leningrad changed its name back to St. Petersburg.

The people spoke at the townhall meetings in August.
Democrats did not listen.

You will get socialized medicine whether you want it or not.

The Associated Press reported that Nancycare will require everyone to get health insurance and it will have a government-run program.

Given the budget-busting Medicare and Medicaid programs, which are broke, a real reformer would call for privatizing them.

This is the Final Solution for a Democratic Party that realizes time is running out on its Cinderella President. Soon the clock will strike midnight. The coach will become a pumpkin again. The horses will become field mice again. And the coachman will become an old plow horse.

Abortions will be covered, but an amendment will make it look like they are not covered. Ditto illegal aliens.

Pelosi is going for broke. Here is hoping she fails.

At last count there were about 46 Democrats adamantly against a public option, and several others still on the fence. Without them there's no chance of this thing passing.

Let's hope they're not bullied or bought off.

Atheist Quote of the Day

From Christopher Hitchens:

However, I have discovered that the so-called Christian right is much less monolithic, and very much more polite and hospitable, than I would once have thought, or than most liberals believe.

Most of us aren't bad people when you get to know us.

The quote came from an article Hitchens wrote about his debates with Christians across the country. Nobody changed his mind, but they certainly changed his perception of religious people.

The Losers of 1994

I like this a lot. It's good to remember what happened in 1994 and how history can repeat itself in 2010.

Shootout in Dearbornistan

Religion of peace, American division:

Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested several members of a radical Sunni Islam group in the U.S., killing one of its leaders at a shootout in a Michigan warehouse, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Agents were trying to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, at a Dearborn warehouse on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms. Authorities also conducted raids elsewhere to try to round up 10 followers named in a federal complaint.

Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents, FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said.

"Daddy, teacher told me that every time an FBI agent fires his gun a radical imam gets his 72 virgins."

Line of the Night

We were driving home from dinner and saw a car with the license plate "88 Keys". My wife said "she must be a piano player".

That's a logical conclusion, but my son has a twisted sense of humor like someone else I know. A minute or so later he said:

"How do you know she's a piano player? She might be a school janitor."

Good point.

Newt Makes One More Push for Liberal Republican

Newt Gingrich just doesn't want to give up on the liberal Republican chosen by local party officials to run in the NY-23 special election. Jim Geraghty has more:

Newt Gingrich, glutton for punishment, tries to make the case for Dede Scozzafava one more time: "The New York 23 special election is a test of whether we respect local parties and local leaders."

In the abstract, and in many cases, Newt is right; my taste for conservative or Republican candidates and preferred issue positions may or may not match up with Olympia Snowe, or Mike Huckabee, or David Vitter, or Mike Castle, or many others (which is not to say I don't like most of those figures). But I don't live in Maine, or Arkansas, or Louisiana, or Delaware or anywhere except Virginia right now, and ultimately, the choice is up to Republican voters in those states.

But every once in a while, the local leaders nominate a person who is intolerable. And as I noted on Hugh's show last night, Scozzafava asks us to do way more than just tolerate an unorthodox position on abortion or gay marriage or the stimulus or any one of plenty of policy issues. Her behavior suggests she doesn't know what a local police force can and cannot handle. She may or may not know what constitutes a crime, and she clearly doesn't know how to handle a reporter who is asking a question she doesn't want to answer. (Correct response: Say, "no comment," and leave.) It is not unreasonable to wonder if her desire or willingness to have the police intercede to deal with an inconvenient reporter suggests a quasi-fascist view of the role of government officials and the citizenry.

Sorry, Newt. That's not a bridge too far, that's an overpass so remote that it takes the light from it several years to reach us.

I'm not sure why Newt has chosen this hill to die on. He's really hurting himself with conservatives as he goes up against Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson and Tim Pawlenty in sticking with his endorsement of a pro-abortion, pro-gay rights, big tax and spend RINO. It certainly doesn't seem consistent with the conservative principles that use promoted when he led the GOP to retaking the House and Senate in 1994.

Turning $45 into Millions

I think this would be described as having a very good day at a garage sale:

Prints that a California man purchased at a garage sale for $45 may actually be worth millions.

Richard Norsigian bought the 60 glass negatives nearly ten years ago from a guy in Fresno. He says he talked the man down from $60.

The negatives all date back to the 1920s and 1930s and were each kept inside manila envelopes that were deteriorating in age.

Norsigian had the negatives scanned and developed into prints, which friends and family said resembled the work of famed photographer Ansel Adams.

Adams, known for his black and white photos of Yosemite National Park, also used the glass negative format.

Norsigian began researching Adams to determine if the prints actually were authentic.

He enlisted the help of Los Angeles-area attorney Arnold Peter, who gathered a group of forensic experts.

A handwriting expert confirmed that the writing on the envelopes was that of Virginia Adams -- Ansel's wife.

"That was a turning point," Norsigian said.

A meteorological expert compared Norsigian's negatives to published Adams photographs taken at the same California location. Norsigian says the expert determined the photos were taken on the same day after looking at the cloud formation, the snow on the mountains and the shadow cast by a tree.

Norsigian's attorney says the negatives are worth millions.

I'm going to have to start going to garage sales.

Political Photo of the Day

From Drudge:

"Dear Lord, please smite Joe Lieberman for threatening to filibuster my health care bill."

The Governator Has a Message for the Assembly

This was either a wild coincidence or a very creative way to slap down the opposition:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is raising eyebrows in California for issuing a veto message that spells out "f*** you" in the left-hand margin of the page.

The former action star's f*** you message came when he rejected Assembly Bill 1176, legislation which would have expanded the financing powers of the Port of San Francisco.

The bill was unobjectionable to legislators of both parties: it sailed through the Assembly and state Senate on unanimous votes.

It was vetoed, however, by Schwarzenegger who said in his message that he considers it "unnecessary" to sign the bill at this time because another year has gone by without the legislature tackling big issues such as water reform, prison reform, and health care.

While the surface-level message is one often articulated by Schwarzenegger, if you look down the left margin of the page, the first word begins with the letter "f" and the last ends with the letter "u."

Read the veto message HERE.

The sponsor of the bill was Tom Ammiano, a Democratic member of the State Assembly who recently heckled Schwarzenegger when the governor made a surprise drop-in at a San Francisco Democratic Party fundraiser.

As previously reported by ABC-7 in San Francisco, Ammiano shouted "you lie!" to Schwarzenegger during the event at the Fairmont Hotel, before adding: "kiss my gay ass" as he walked out.

Ammiano, who said afterwards that he has no regrets, was upset with Schwarzenegger about the impact that his budget cuts have had on people in San Francisco.

Although it's hard to imagine that the double message was not intentional, Schwarzenegger's spokesman is maintaining that it was just an innocent accident.

I'll bet every veto message will be carefully scrutinized in the future.

A Democrat Warns His Party

William Galston at The New Republic thinks his party needs to wake up and deal with the real issues affecting Americans lest they be pummeled in the mid-term elections next year:

The current state of American politics presents a paradox. On the one hand, survey after survey testifies to the rock-bottom standing of the Republican Party. Fewer Americans identify with the party than in the past, and fewer trust it to deal with the country’s problems. On the other hand, there are hard-to-ignore signs of a conservative resurgence. A 15,000 person Gallup survey out today shows that 40 percent of Americans now identify themselves as conservative (up from 37 percent at the time of Obama’s election), while only 20 percent regard themselves as liberal (down from 22 percent). Far more independents (35 percent) consider themselves conservative than was the case a year ago (only 29 percent).

These findings would be less compelling if they were not linked to conservative shifts on specific issues--but they are, and the Galluporganization enumerates a considerable list. Among them: increasing opposition to government regulation of business and gun ownership; an uneasy feeling about the influence of labor unions; increasing support for immigration restrictions and government promotion of traditional values; and diminished support for strong action on climate change. The percentage of Americans who believe that government is trying to do too much stands at its highest level (57 percent) in many years. Trust in government is near all-time lows, and Americansbelieve that 50 cents of every federal tax dollar is wasted--the highest level ever.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that unified Democratic government has sparked a conservative counter-mobilization. Because we cannot rerun history as a controlled experiment, we will never know whether this could have been avoided had the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats adopted a different strategy. In any case, it’s too late to reverse it.

Still, Democrats must ask themselves whether there’s anything they can do over the next year--for example, a meaningful shift toward fiscal restraint--to reduce the intensity level of the conservative assault. If not, the combination of an energized opposition and an electorate battered by high unemployment, slow growth, and the perception of out-of-control spending could set the stage for an ugly outcome. This wouldn’t mean that Republicans had regained credibility as a governing party; odds are that it will take more than two years to erase the public’s sour memories of the Republican congressional majority and George W. Bush’s presidency. It would mean that a substantial portion of the electorate wanted to send Democrats a message that they had gone too far.

All of that makes a lot of sense which is why I don't expect the party leaders to pay attention. They're too busy obsessing about Fox News, the Chamber of Commerce, insurance companies, and whoever else is the enemy of day. The liberal left has such a hold on the party right now there's no way that reason will prevail.

You Can't Blame the Problems in Afghanistan on Bush Anymore

Charles Krauthammer sets the record straight (h/t Gateway Pundit):

“There is something truly disgusting about the way he cannot refrain from attacking Bush when he’s being defensive about himself. It’s beyond disgraceful. Here he won an election a year ago. He became the Commander in Chief a few months later. He announced his own strategy, not the Bush strategy, six months ago and it wasn’t off-handed. It was a major address with the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State standing with him… What’s happening today is not because of the so-called drift in the Bush years, it’s because of the drift in his year.”

And the drift continues as Obama waits out next Tuesday's elections before announcing his plans. Whichever way he goes he creates problems for Democrat candidates if he announces before Tuesday. If he okays additional troops the lefties get irate and may refuse to vote for his anointed candidates. If he refuses the troops voters on the right will be motivated to punish Democrats for their unwillingness to try and win the war.

It's all politics now.

CA-10, Another Race to Watch

Everyone is watching the Virginia and New Jersey governor's races along with the special election in NY-23 to see which way the political winds are blowing, but an even more telling race may be CA-10 where a Republican has a chance to knock off an old guard liberal in a special election in the liberal-leaning district.

Bruce Walker at American Thinker tells us why this race could swing toward the GOP:

The California 10th Congressional District is left-leaning, but it is hardly unwinnable for Republicans under the right circumstances. So are the circumstances right for David Harmer in 2009? What is the mood of California voters right now? Well, five months ago, Californians gave all establishment politicians a dramatic, almost unprecedented thumping. Six different ballot measures were put before the people. Five of the six were supported by the Democrat establishment in Sacramento, and the sixth was supported by the people of California.

What happened? Each measure supported by state Democrat leaders like Lieutenant Governor Garamendi suffered a crushing defeat. Constituents in California Congressional District 10 joined with other Californians in overwhelmingly rejecting what Democrats like Garamendi were selling. The one measure which the people wanted -- limiting the salaries of state-elected officials like Garamendi in those years in which the state budget was not balanced -- won by a landslide statewide. This populist measure did particularly well in California Congressional District 10.

The elites were not pleased. Two weeks ago, the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court claimed in a speech in Cambridge, Massachusetts that ordinary Californians had put elected state officials in a "straitjacket" and that the system of allowing voters to actually vote on measures was "dysfunctional." That sort of statement shows just how arrogant elected officials like the Chief Justice and the Lieutenant Governor have become in California. Someone with a keen political nose might sense that voters in District 10 were ready for some real change, like electing a strong fiscal conservative. Polling data, which shows the race in District 10 as close with lots of undecided voters, supports that theory. Throw into this scenario the generally-accepted fact that conservative voters are much more motivated than liberal voters now, and it sure looks like David Harmer could win.

What would a Harmer victory do? Victory in Nancy Pelosi's backyard by a conservative Republican strongly opposed to Obamacare in a district held for a long time by liberal Democrats would almost certainly give dozens of House Democrats a case of cold feet on Obamacare. How could Pelosi convince congressmen in Virginia, Colorado, and Texas to support Obamacare when even her neighboring congressional districts in northern California are against it?

The impact of a Harmer victory would ripple through California state government as well. When the Lieutenant Governor cannot win a special election in a Democrat-gerrymandered district, then Democrats statewide begin to look very vulnerable when confronted with genuine ideological opposition. The RNC, then, has an opportunity to help Republicans in Congress and also Republicans trying to gain more control of California state government. If Harmer wins, it is a body blow to the Democrat Party nationally and in the country's biggest state. He ought to be getting every spare nickel Republican organizations can spare. A Harmer victory would be huge.

At best it's probably 60-40 that Garamendi wins, but I wouldn't rule out an upset at a time when Democrat stock is not doing too well, especially in California.

For a Good Time Call the Elementary School

Oops:

T-shirts distributed to Orange County elementary students for a school fundraiser have been recalled after a parent discovered that the phone number printed on the back of the shirts was a sex chat line.

Linda Vista Elementary School Principal Jackie Howland says the shirts featured the school's mascot of a lion running with a 1-800 number written in words not digits.

The number was written as a cute slogan for the jog-a-thon event, but turned out to be a real phone line that was a she-male sex chat line.

Despite the shirt faux pas, Howland says the jog-a-thon raised $25,000 for student activities.

Did the parent recognize the number from previous usage? Hmm.

A Funny Guy Runs Out of Ideas

Larry David was the co-creator of Seinfeld, one of the best sitcoms ever. He's also had his own show on HBO, Curb Your Enthusiasm, something I've seen maybe twice and was unimpressed both times.

David has always played it close to the edge, but he may have finally run out of good ideas and gone far, far over the line:

Comedian Larry David pushed the mocking of religion and Christian belief in miracles over the edge in the latest episode of his HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

On Sunday's installment, David's character urinates on a painting of Jesus Chris, causing a woman to believe the painting of Jesus is crying.

The president of the Catholic League Bill Donohue responded to the episode saying David should "quit while he's ahead," and that the show is proof that the comedian's best years are behind him.

"Was Larry David always this crude? Would he think it's comedic if someone urinated on a picture of his mother?" Donohue said in a statement released Monday. "This might be fun to watch, but since HBO only likes to dump on Catholics (it was just a couple of weeks ago that Sarah Silverman insulted Catholics on "Real Time with Bill Maher") and David is Jewish, we'll never know."

During Sunday's episode, David, who created, wrote and produced "Seinfeld," visits a bathroom in a stranger's home and splatters urine on a picture of Jesus. Instead of wiping it off, David leaves the restroom. Minutes later, a woman enters the bathroom and concludes that Jesus is crying before summoning her mother to the bathroom, where both women kneel in prayer.

"When David and Jerry Seinfeld (playing himself) are asked if they ever experienced a miracle, David answers, "every erection is a miracle," Donohue's statement continued. "That’s what passes for creativity these days."

There have been lots of "artists" who have tried to make a point by denigrating Christian symbols. The NEA funded a piece for which this episode is named in which some idiot put a crucifix in a jar of urine. Another smeared elephant dung over a picture of the Virgin Mary. Not much creativity there.

And I will admit, I've had lots of fun with stories of people worshiping odd objects because they appeared to have a picture of Jesus or the Virgin Mary on them, and this episode could have been done just slightly different and been perfect satire. It's too bad David can't recognize where the line is.

And it's probably a good thing that only a small percentage of homes have HBO.

Don't Mess With My Neccos

I'm not happy about this:

The iconic Necco Wafer is going au naturale.

The revamped product is now using red beet juice, purple cabbage, cocoa powder, paprika and turmeric to replace the artificial ingredients that had been flavoring and coloring the wafers for years.

But not every wafer made the cut.

Of the eight original Necco wafers, lime did not get through the makeover. While the lime flavor could be created with natural ingredients, the color green itself was too hard to duplicate, so it was scrapped. However, it may return once the color code is cracked, according to brand manager, Aimee Scott.

So there are now seven flavors and colors: chocolate, lemon, orange, clove, wintergreen, cinnamon and licorice. The chocolate wafer, however, now comes in four varieties: dark, milk, mocha and white.

"The flavor is actually a little bit stronger in the new ones because they are all natural," Jackie Hague, Necco's vice president for marketing, told Slashfood. "And when you look at them, they're pastel and not as bright as they used to be."

So if longtime Necco eaters can get past the change in color, Hague thinks they won't be disappointed in the quality of taste.

Neccos are one of my favorite candies, and my favorite flavor? Lime. I actually look at the packages and buy the ones with the most lime ones in it, and how they've dumped the lime flavor.

Heretics. Don't they know these are the world's perfect candy?

I'm going to have to hit some stores and try and buy up the old ones before they're all gone.

And I'll hoard the lime ones.

Animal Rights Headine of the Day

From KTLA:

Smuggler Caught With 2 Dozen Pythons Taped to Body http://bit.ly/wMlRl

I'll bet he had a heckuva pick-up line.

Israel, You're On Your Own

If Israel had any hopes of America stepping in and stopping Iran from trying to annihilate them with nukes, I guess they can forget it:

The Obama administration is quietly laying the groundwork for long-range strategy that could be used to contain a nuclear-equipped Iran and deter its leaders from using atomic weapons.

U.S. officials insist they are not resigned to a nuclear Iran and are pressing negotiations to prevent it from joining the world's nuclear club. But at the same time, the administration has set in place the building blocks of policies to contend with an Iran armed with atomic weapons.

Either Iran takes them out or they just sit waiting for the day when the Iranian nutjobs decide it's time for the world to end.

Fred Thompson (Respectfully) Slaps Down Newt

There's a disturbance in the Republican force thanks to the NY-23 special election featuring a very liberal Republican, a moderate Democrat, and a conservative in a third party. Newt Gingrich has gone all-in endorsing the liberal Republican, but a bunch of conservatives like Fred Thompson, Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty have endorsed Doug Hoffman, the conservative.

Newt implied in comments yesterday that the Republicans endorsing Hoffman don't understand the realities of electing Republicans in liberal states. Fred Thompson disagrees:

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson brushed back former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Tuesday over Gingrich’s warning that the Republican Party is wrong to thrown in its lot with the Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman over Dede Scozzafava, the GOP’s candidate, in the special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district.

Gingrich has called the many prominent national Republicans – including Thompson – who have endorsed Hoffman over Scozzafava in recent days “misguided,” arguing they are making a “mistake” to back a third-party candidate over the party’s nominee…

During his radio show Tuesday, Thompson said he was “sad” to hear “when a good Republican friend of mine says that I, and the other good, conservative Republicans who have endorsed Hoffman, are ‘misguided.’ And that’d be my friend, Newt Gingrich.”

“I respect Newt. He’s a friend. Done a lot of good, I think. But he endorsed Scozzafava early on. So, we have an honest disagreement in the family,” Thompson said…

“Are we saying that as Americans you’ve got to have an ‘R’ by your name before you vote for them? Where do you draw the line?” he continued. “If somebody with a record like this gets our seal of approval, regardless, only because she’s got an ‘R’ by the name… You know, just because we’re Republicans doesn’t mean that we’re deaf, dumb, and blind.”

Well said, as always, by former Senator Thompson.

Is Barack Obama Our First Female President?

Frank J. Fleming thinks that could be the real reason his birth certificate has never shown up:

Obama Barackette

Maybe the birth certificate controversy should be over whether or not Obama is a little girl. Because he’s acting like one.

by Frank J. Fleming


A conspiracy theory has been going around for some time that Barack Obama is hiding his real birth certificate because he is actually constitutionally ineligible to be president. Like most respectable conservatives, I’ve stayed away from such conjecture so as not to get the crazy on me, but now I’ve been having second thoughts.

Many of Obama’s recent actions have made him seem quite suspect, and I’m beginning to think there is good reason to believe he is not eligible to be our president as outlined by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution. About the office of the president, Article 2, Section 1 clearly states: “neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years.”

Thus I believe Obama is not qualified as he is, in fact, a little girl.

[...]

This is an important question, and we should treat it seriously. Now I know partisan hacks are going to scream, “He’s not a little girl! Shut up shut up shut up!” But the evidence is devastating. Just look at Obama’s foreign policy since taking office. As enemies like Iran oppress their people and move towards obtaining nuclear weapons, does he strike back against them forcefully like any real man would? No, that’s too scary for him. Tough talk like that would make him hug his dolly. He just wants to talk and be nice so no one yells at him.

He even tried inviting Iran to a barbecue. That sounds a lot like a sissy little girl too afraid to stand up to people. Any day now, he might invite Ahmadinejad over to play house with him. Obama even took missile defense out of Eastern Europe because he didn’t want people getting all angry — just the sort of thing a little girl would worry about. For wimpy actions like this, Norway awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize, which is basically a prize awarded to people in recognition of them being dainty little girls.

Even greater evidence of Obama being a little girl, though, is his girlish whining. He’s constantly whining about his predecessor President Bush, screaming “that’s not fair!” anytime someone suggests he might need to shoulder some responsibility for the economy (and aren’t his trillions in spending for a country in debt something anyone smarter than a little girl would have instantly seen as a problem?). Obama is also constantly throwing tantrums about the Republicans opposing him.

Now, if an adult were president and his party had large majorities in the House and Senate, he’d probably just go ahead and pass the legislation he wanted without worrying about opposition from the other party. Little girls aren’t that rational, though; they just want to scream and cry about anyone saying mean things about them. Just like Obama.

Of course, the whining hasn’t stopped with just the Republicans. Let’s say you’re the most powerful man in the world, with armies and nukes, facing terrorists and rogue nations while your economy is collapsing. What do you focus on? Now, let’s say you still have all that power and all those threats, but you’re a melodramatic little girl. Now what do you focus on? That’s right: Fox News saying mean things about you. We have a president who could easily wipe countries off the map with the push of a button crying about one network allowing bad things to be said about him. What possible rational explanation could there be for that? At some point, we would need a conspiracy theory to prove he’s not a whiny little girl.

[...]

With the evidence suggesting that Obama is in fact female and no more than eight-years-old, his Hawaii certification is obviously a forgery, and our country is currently at great risk. Any day now, North Korea could offer to get him a pony in exchange for nuclear secrets, and that little girl Obama would probably jump at the offer (unless he’s scared of ponies). So we need to declare his presidency unconstitutional and eject him from office. But when we throw him out, we’d better by him a new Barbie doll or something, or he’ll never stop crying.

That's pretty good stuff. Read it all here.

Political Photo of the Day

Nothing better illustrates the Democrat's big problem than this (from Politico):

McDonnell is the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia.

Obama isn't on the ballot this year and won't be on it in 2010. All that enthusiasm for rainbows and unicorns is gone.

Crickets, The Other Green Meat

Want to give the trick-or-treaters a holiday to remember? How about handing out some of these:

Crickets, the other green meat! A delicious mix of real crickets! An interesting snack food. Includes an assortment of bacon and cheese, salt and vinegar and sour cream and onion

Well, if you're giving up cows and pigs to save the earth, maybe this would be an acceptable alternative.

Lots of Trouble for the Public Option

Two stories that spell trouble for those liberal Democrats desperate for socialized medicine. First, from the House:

The House Dem leadership has conducted its preliminary whip count and has tallied up less than 200 likely Yes votes in support of a health care reform bill with a robust public option, well short of the 218 needed for passage, according to an internal whip count document I’ve obtained.

The document — compiled by the office of House leader James Clyburn — was distributed privately at a meeting between Clyburn and House progressives today where the fate of the public option was the subject of some contentious debate, with liberals demanding that House leaders push harder to win over votes.

Clyburn spokesperson Kristie Greco would only say: “We currently do not have the votes for a robust public option.”

At this point I don't think there are any Republicans in the House willing to vote for a public option.

And from the Senate:

(Sen. Joe) Lieberman did say he's "strongly inclined" to vote to proceed to the debate, but that he’ll ultimately vote to block a floor vote on the bill if it isn’t changed first.

"I've told Sen. Reid that if the bill stays as it is now I will vote against cloture,” he said.

“I can’t see a way in which I could vote for cloture on any bill that contained a creation of a government-operated-run insurance company,” Lieberman added. “It’s just asking for trouble – in the end, the taxpayers are going to pay and probably all people will have health insurance are going to see their premiums go up because there’s going to be cost shifting as there has been for Medicare and Medicaid.”

Lieberman said he “very much” wants to vote for health care reform but that he’s worried about stifling “the economic recovery we’re in” or adding to the federal debt.

The only hope Harry Reid had of getting a public option bill through the Senate was to hold the entire Dem caucus together, and that includes Lieberman. No Republicans (even the Maine RINOs) have indicated a willingness to support government health care.

If the public option was a 70-year old, they'd be calling the death panel together.