GOP: No Senate Bills Unrelated to Tax Cuts or Government Spending

The press will try to make the GOP the bad guys, but this is the right approach given the election results:

Senate Republicans intend to block action on virtually all Democratic-backed legislation unrelated to tax cuts and government spending in the current postelection session of Congress, officials said Tuesday, adding that the leadership has quietly collected signatures on a letter pledging to carry out the strategy.

If carried out, it would doom Democratic-backed attempts to end the Pentagon's practice of discharging openly gay members of the military service and give legal status to young illegal immigrants who join the military or attend college.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made both measures a priority as Democrats attempt to enact legislation long sought by groups that supported them in the recent midterm elections.

The only hang-up to this will be the Republicans themselves. On Tuesday eight of them voted against a ban on earmarks, including three who are on their way out at the end of this term. The fear is those weak links, and the RINO crowd including the ladies of Maine, could still mess this up.

The Fast Path to Immortality

My wife and I were doing a little shopping tonight and the store's Muzak started to play Johnny Mathis' arrangement of "O Come All Ye Faithful".  It's a Christmas classic, and as we heard that it occurred to me that one of the fastest paths to immortality is to record a Christmas song that becomes a seasonal classic.  Think Andy Williams and "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year", Jose Feliciano with "Feliz Navidad", Burl Ives with "Holly, Jolly Christmas".  Those songs will be heard long after those artists are gone (Ives is already gone).

Back in 2007 I did a piece called "Nobody Recorded Them Better" to identify some of the songs that have become Christmas classics.  There aren't that many songs from the last 20 or 30 years that are on that list.  Perhaps my definition of Christmas classic was set long ago, and I wonder if my kids will look at those songs the same way I did, even if they don't know who the artists are.

I guess if I want to obtain that level of seasonal immortality I'll have to come up with a song that's catchy enough to end up on the radio stations that start playing non-stop Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving.  And one a bass singer can knock out.

A tall order, that's for sure.

Federal Judge Tosses Obamacare Lawsuit

A Bill Clinton-appointee has essentially declared that the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution can mean anything Congress wants it to mean:

A federal judge in Virginia on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the landmark healthcare law championed by President Barack Obama, upholding key provisions that require health insurance coverage.

The challenge, one of several attempting to strike down the law, was brought by the conservative Christian Liberty University and individuals who said the law would violate several parts of the U.S. Constitution.

However, U.S. District Judge Norman Moon ruled that the law requiring individuals to buy health insurance coverage as well as requiring employers to buy coverage for their employees was legal under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Moon found that without the coverage requirements in the law, the cost of health insurance would increase because the number of insured individuals would decline, "precisely the harms that Congress sought to address with the Act's regulatory measures."

Further, interstate commerce would be hurt by large employers failing to offer adequate healthcare coverage, thus "the employer coverage provision is a lawful exercise of Congress' Commerce Clause power," said Moon, who was appointed by then-Democratic President Bill Clinton.

I still expect that this argument will fail before the Supreme Court, but it may be awhile before it gets there. Using this rationale Congress could order you to do just about anything if they can show any possible harm to interstate commerce by your refusal to cooperate. That can't possibly be the true intent of the Commerce Clause (I'm not a lawyer, but geez, isn't there any common sense left in the law?)

Political Video of the Day

Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer absolutely obliterates the foolish Democrat Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) who is acting speaker during a session of the House.  Just look at the deer-in-the-headlights look Richardson is giving as she looks around for guidance from somebody who knows what they're doing:


Favorite line: "This is why the people have thrown you out of power."

Me and Greenpeace

Had to stop by Best Buy to pick up something and outside I noticed a couple of young guys in Greenpeace t-shirts talking to people as they left.  They didn't say anything to me as I walked in so I decided I needed to have something ready when I left.  Hate to go anywhere unprepared.

It went like this:

Greenpeace dude: "Excuse me, sir, do you have a soft spot for whales?"

Me: "Yes I do. I just had one for lunch. It was delicious."

Greenpeace dude, dripping with sarcasm: "Ha, ha, ha."

He'll tell his friends...just watch.

Some Good 2012 News: Michael Bloomberg's Presidential Hopes Will Be Stillborn

If New York City martinet Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks America wants him to be president, he's wrong (from PPP):

"Massive amounts of attention have been given over the last few years to a possible Michael Bloomberg Presidential run in 2012. And a new PPP poll finds that he is indeed a unifier -- Democrats, Republicans, and independents all don't like him. Only 19% of Americans expressed a favorable opinion of Bloomberg on our most recent national poll while 38% said they see him unfavorably. That -19 favorability spread makes him more unpopular than Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and even Sarah Palin and places him slightly ahead of only Newt Gingrich. Republicans are the most negative toward him, giving him a 12/48 favorability. Independents weigh in at 19/37, and only Democrats even come close to rating him positively with 24% saying they have a favorable opinion of him to 30% with a negative one."

Bloomberg is an anti-gun, anti-salt, classic nanny state bureaucrat with a bad case of Little Man's Disease who believes his wealth gives him the right to tell everyone else how they must live, what they must eat, and what they can't have to defend themselves. He'd be a disaster as president, and given his history in NYC, if he ever did get into the White House we'd probably never be able to get him out of there.

Neither major party would nominate him, and an independent candidacy would hurt Obama more than whoever the GOP nominee turns out to be.  So on that basis, RUN MICHAEL RUN!

George Bush a Big Hit at Saddleback Civil Forum

I have some friends that attended this event and I wish I could have gone:

LAKE FOREST In a jovial banter, former President George W. Bush and pastor Rick Warren talked about leadership principles and how those led to some of the pivotal decisions Bush made during his presidency.

The conversation with the nation's 43rd president took place in front of thousands in the capacity-filled sanctuary at Saddleback Church as part of the church's 7th Civil Forum. Bush and Warren used the forum to expound on some of the details Bush's recently released book, "Decision Points."

Warren asked Bush questions about freedom, the value of religion, the role of faith-based programs helping social causes, AIDS, his parents and about the effect his mother's miscarriage had on his belief of life. The goal of the church's forum is to give people an opportunity to hear from leaders who have positively affected humanity.

"The tendency is that when you have power, people will walk in and say you're looking pretty, even when you're not," Bush quipped. "In order to achieve results, you have to align authority and responsibility. Organizations often fail when leaders become the center of organization. In my case, it wasn't serving George W. Bush or the Republican Party, it was serving the American people."

Warren asked Bush about attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "You were running on a platform of the educational president," Warren said. "When 9/11 hit, what did you feel?"

"In a crisis, a leader can't overreact," Bush said. "I made a decision just to wait until I left the classroom. Then I hustled to make a statement. I felt an unspeakable sadness when I watched the TV broadcasts on Air Force One. I just couldn't help people. I was warned not to go to Washington because of the uncertainty of the moment, but I damn sure wasn't going to speak from a bunker in Omaha, Nebraska."

Bush called freedom a gift from the almighty and brought the audience to its feet in applause.

"The ultimate way to protect ourselves is to spread freedom and marginalize the haters," Bush said. "You shouldn't be surprised what people will risk for freedom. Freedom will prevail if the United States of America will stand on its principles."

Three times, Bush was interrupted by women who screamed at him from the audience. Each time, they were escorted outside. Bush used the opportunity to throw more humor into the conversation, saying that sometimes you've just got to laugh, and the audience responded in a roaring laughter drowning out the screams.

I love the fact the audience laughed in the face of the idiot protesters. That's absolutely the best way to handle them.

George Bush is Obama's worst nightmare - not because he supposedly left him a mess to clean up, but because by comparison Bush is diminishing Obama daily without even trying.

Big Fire in Tustin

Right before I did the weekly radio show I was listening to the OC Fire Authority as they were fighting this one (photo and article from the OC Register):

Nearly 100 firefighters are fighting a large blaze that's engulfed a two-story office building, authorities said.

Flames quickly began to consume the front of the building, forcing firefighters to restrict their attack of the fire from the outside, said Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion of the Orange County Fire Authority.

"No one is inside," Concepcion said. "It's because of the size of the flames. We can't send someone inside."

Part of the roof of the building was reported to have collapsed just minutes after firefighters arrived.

The fire was reported at 7:39 a.m. at 17291 Irvine Blvd, officials said. Firefighters from the Orange County Fire Authority and the Orange Fire Department have responded, said Capt. Greg McKeown of the OCFA.

Firefighters arrived on scene minutes after the call was received and immediately requested additional units to help battle the blaze, officials said.

Smoke from the blaze could be seen for miles.

You can listen along here. They've just asked for a sixth alarm to help with the rehab of the structure once the fire is out. That means much of Orange County's firefighting equipment (both from OCFA and surrounding agencies) is either committed to this event or has been moved to cover stations left vacant by this incident. The mutual aid network in Orange County is working well.

Way back in 1988 I had a front row seat for a commercial fire in Mission Viejo and I was able to shoot some pretty dramatic video.  You can see that here.

Political Headline of the Day

From Jim Geraghty's Morning Jolt:

Why Do I Suspect a President Palin Would Treat Julian Assange Like a Halibut?

Assange is the lowlife who runs Wikileaks, the faux journalistic site that's releasing millions of formerly secret government documents, and if you saw a recent episode of Palin's Alaska reality show you'll know what the halibut reference means.

Palin has commented on the whole Wikileaks problem:

"First and foremost, what steps were taken to stop WikiLeaks director Julian Assange from distributing this highly sensitive classified material especially after he had already published material not once but twice in the previous months? Assange is not a 'journalist,' any more than the 'editor' of al Qaeda's new English-language magazine Inspire is a 'journalist.' He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?"

In the good old days Assange would suddenly develop a mysterious case of lead poisoning - probably two or three times to the back of the head - by an assailant who would then disappear into the mist. And nobody would care.  It's the price you paid for this kind of treachery.  If he tried something like this against the Israeli government his life span would be roughly equivalent to that of an Iranian nuclear scientist, and those have been dropping like flies lately.

According to the news this morning Assange continues to live but his site is under a powerful Denial of Service attack that has basically made it inaccessible in the US and Europe.  We can play tough too.

As I said yesterday I have really mixed feelings on this whole Wikileaks thing.  On one hand a government needs to have secrets, but on the other hand this could end up being a good thing since it takes the masks off how everybody really feels about everybody else, and I think that could be a healthy resetting of world relationships.  Sometimes honesty is the best policy and rather than pretend we like all these other world leaders, perhaps it's best once in awhile to let them know the truth.  We'll see.

It may make for some awkward moments in future summit meetings, but that's okay too.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Leak

It probably won't help the argument for repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell that the leaker who have 250,000 secret government documents to Wikileaks was an openly gay Army soldier with a whole psychiatric encyclopedia of emotional problems.

From The Capitol: No More CAPITALS

Once again the Federal government finds a way to make local cities pay millions to fix a problem that doesn't exist:

The federal government says THIS is harder to read than This.

Got that? ALL CAPS are bad. Mixed Case is Good.

It's just one reason the Federal Highway Administration is ordering all local governments -- from the tiniest towns to the largest cities -- to go out and buy new street signs that federal bureaucrats say are easier to read.

The rules are part of a tangle of regulations included in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

The 800-plus page book tells local governments they:

-- Should increase the size of the letters on street signs from the current 4 inches to 6 inches on all roads with speed limits over 25 miles per hour. The target date for this to be completed is January 2012.

-- Install signs with new reflective letters more visible at night by January 2018.

-- And whenever street name signs are changed for any reason, they can no longer be in ALL CAPS.

In Milwaukee this will cost the cash-strapped city nearly $2 million -- double the city's entire annual for traffic control.

In Dinwiddie County, Virginia -- with lots of roads but not many people -- the cost comes to about $10 for every man, woman and child.

"The money is better spent on education, or the sheriff's department or on public safety than something like that," said Harrison Moody, chairman of the Dinwiddie Board of Supervisors.

Many local residents in Dinwiddie say their current street signs work just fine, and they see no reason to change them.

"There are a lot of people out there that are hungry," said Dinwiddie resident Thomas Davis. "Why spend [money] on street signs when everybody can read a street sign or, if you don't know where you're going, get a GPS."

How is this a Federal issue? This is a classic case of something that should be left to state and local authorities to work out for themselves. We don't need the Federal government mandating huge expenses for local cities just because some bureaucrat needed something to do (and probably needed to have his glasses prescription checked so he could read the signs).

I'm all for easily legible signs, but I'm also all for maintaining local authority over local issues.

I'd Like to Be a Fly On the Wall for This Meeting

The GOP leadership and Obama will get together today to talk about governing - either together or separately:

Republican congressional leaders sent out mixed signals ahead of their first meeting with President Obama since the party's Election Day triumph, appealing for cooperation while at the same time threatening to take matters into their own hands if they don't get their way on tax cuts.

The looming expiration of the Bush tax cuts is expected to take centerstage when the president sits down with Republican and Democratic congressional chiefs Tuesday morning. Other issues ranging from an arms reduction treaty with Russia to long-term jobless benefits are facing Congress in the lame-duck session, but the tax debate has dominated for months.

Both sides agree that the middle class should not see their taxes increase, but they diverge over whether taxes on the wealthy should revert back to higher rates -- Republicans don't want a tax hike for anybody, while Democrats want the top tier of earners to pay more.

House Republican Leader John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, in a joint Washington Post column published Tuesday, urged Democrats to turn away from pushing "controversial items" like immigration legislation and focus on job creation. As an incentive, they dangled the prospect of a cooperative Congress before the president.

Vowing that both sides "can work together," Boehner and McConnell said that if Obama and his Democratic colleagues offer a plan to cut spending "and stop the tax hikes," Republicans will be on their side. However, they warned, "House and Senate Republicans will work to get the job done in the new Congress" if Democrats don't act.

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., assumed a tougher tone, telling Fox News on Monday that Republicans would push a bill to "retroactively ensure no one gets a tax hike" come January if the president doesn't play along.

Attitude will be everything in this meeting. When Obama first won the presidency his attitude toward the GOP was that of an arrogant victor who couldn't wait to show off his new power. The GOP shouldn't imitate his style, but should calmly and confidently explain that issue number one has to be the pending tax hikes, followed by job creation. Chasing a bunch of liberal wish list items like immigration amnesty, card check for unions, cap-and-trade, etc., are non-starters. If Obama can't rein in Pelosi and Reid he's going to have a very bad start to the new year.

Together Obama and the GOP have got to take some of the uncertainty out of the economy so businesses will feel more confident about hiring and expanding their operations. They won't do that as long as there's so much uncertainly about future taxes and expenses related to Obamacare.

Unfortunately, I don't think Obama can control himself let alone Reid and Pelosi, and given his general arrogance, it's likely to be a pretty testy and ultimately meaningless meeting.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Something to see if you're in Washington this Christmas season.

The federally funded National Portrait Gallery, one of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, is currently showing an exhibition that features images of an ant-covered Jesus, male genitals, naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, and a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show's catalog as "homoerotic."

I'm guessing they're using stimulus funds.

Political Quote of the Day

From Bill O'Reilly:

“I don’t think there’s anybody in the world who fears Barack Obama. I don’t think anybody does!”

And that's a problem. We kind of count on certain people in the world being afraid of our president. It helps keep their activities in check.

Things That Don't Bother Me This Time of Year

Things like this atheist billboard in New York:

David Silverman, the president of American Atheists and the man behind the billboard, said it would remain in place at least until the winter solstice on Dec. 21 and possibly through Christmas. He said the billboard was partly inspired by one that American Atheists’ founder, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, set up in Dallas in the 1970s proclaiming “Atheism: It’s not what you believe.”

Mr. Silverman said the billboard served two purposes. The first was to get the many people who do not actually believe in God but practice religious rituals to “come out,” in his words.

He said the billboard’s location was especially effective because commuters “drive by this sign very slowly every day for a month, right in the Christmas season.”

“And when they go into New York to go shopping,” he said, “they’re going to see it.”

These things are designed to inflame, but they don't bother me any more than the Muslim or Baha'i displays that are put up right beside the Nativity scene in the center of my town every year.

President Bush and Rick Warren Together Tonight

The former president will be visiting Saddleback Church this evening:

Saddleback church officials have confirmed that former President George W. Bush will chat with Pastor Rick Warren at 7 p.m. Monday during the church's 7th Civil forum.

The free event, which is sold out, will be held in the main auditorium of the church. Those who can't get into the church for the forum can watch it at saddlebackcivilforum.com/leadership/.

The forum will focus on Bush's leadership and is expected to include discussion of excerpts from the former president's book, "Decision Points," Warren's chief of staff David Chrzan said.
The book, released on Nov. 9, chronicles what Bush considers to be pivotal moments in his eight-year presidency and is aimed at defining his role as a world leader. Bush details a range of decisions from quitting drinking to deploying American troops after Sept. 11.

"The forum will include a personal conversation between Pastor Rick and President Bush," Chrzan said. "The goal is to create a forum where the community around Saddleback Church can hear from speakers who are great leaders and those who have positively impacted humanity."

That's gotta be more interesting than when Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama were there.

For Sale: One Aircraft Carrier, Lightly Used

I'm not sure if you can get a discount via Amazon on this one, but the Brits have put the HMS Invincible up for sale in an internet auction. Here's a picture of what you get if you win:

Can you pull skiers with that thing?

Food Court Video of the Day

Another surprise performance of The Hallelujah Chorus:

Can Metrolink Get More People to Ride the Train?

In car-crazy Southern California, it's doubtful:

Five years ago, at a time of robust economic growth, the board of the Orange County Transportation Authority approved a plan to expand Metrolink commuter rail service.

At the time, officials predicted that by 2010, average weekday ridership on the three Metrolink lines that serve Orange County would grow from about 14,000 to more than 30,000.

Then came the recession. Ridership levels are back near where they were five years ago, after rising in the intervening years. In October 2010, average weekday ridership on the three lines was 14,818, down 3 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, OCTA has delayed plans to add new trains. The agency initially envisioned adding 16 round trips between Fullerton and Laguna Niguel by 2009, but didn’t. It’s now looking at adding at most six round trips in 2011, with more to come later.

The expansion, which was approved by voters as part of the renewed Measure M sales tax ballot initiative in 2006, ultimately envisions adding 34 new trains in the county, to bring the daily total to 76. The overall cost, which includes buying new locomotives and passenger cars as well as making improvements to stations, expanding parking lots, and making street crossings safer, is more than $400 million.

Will Kempton, OCTA’s CEO, believes that once trains are running more frequently, more people will ride them.

The idea is that, with trains running every half hour or so, “people won’t have to worry so much about a schedule,” Kempton said. “They can simply go to the station and know that there will be a train.”

That, he says, should result in a “stable and expanding ridership base.”

Still, it’s unclear who the new riders will be.

“Voters always vote for rail,” said David Brownstone, an economics professor at UC Irvine who studies transportation.

Brownstone noted that California voters in 2008 approved a $10 billion bond measure for a high-speed rail system that could one day compete with Metrolink and Amtrak on the Anaheim-to-Los Angeles route.

“They think it’s going to cut congestion,” Brownstone said. “Time and time again, people vote for these things and I think they think someone else is going to take (the train). It doesn’t happen.”

I've noticed that Metrolink has raised their tickets costs rather significantly in the last couple of years. It used to be pretty cheap to ride the train, especially on the weekends, but rising rates have kept me and many others off the train. If they want to stimulate more ridership they should do the same thing that stimulates economies - cut rates. They'll get more riders and more demand for the new trips they want to schedule.

With gas costs steadily rising they have a window of opportunity to lock in new riders, but like most government bureaucracies, it's hard to convince them that cutting rates will in the long run increase revenue.  It costs about as much to run an empty train as a full one, so loading it up, even at lower fares, would be a net positive.

But even with reduced rates mass transit in Southern California will always have one big problem - it's not much use to you if it doesn't go where you're going, doesn't run on a schedule that fits your needs, or if getting there will involve a lot of connections and hassles.  Cars are just a lot easier for most people.

Southern Dems Seek Salvation in the GOP

The loss of Democrat seats in state legislatures didn't end on election day, it has continued since then:

For Democrats in the South, the most ominous part of a disastrous year may not be what happened on Election Day but what has happened in the weeks since.

After suffering a historic rout — in which nearly every white Deep South Democrat in the U.S. House was defeated and Republicans took over or gained seats in legislatures across the region — the party’s ranks in Dixie have thinned even further.

In Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, Democratic state legislators have become Republicans, concluding that there is no future in the party that once dominated the so-called Solid South.

That the old Confederacy is shifting toward the GOP is, of course, nothing new. Southerners have been voting for Republican presidents, senators and governors for decades.

But what this year’s elections, and the subsequent party switching, have made unambiguously clear is that the last ramparts have fallen and political realignment has finally taken hold in one of the South’s last citadels of Democratic strength: the statehouses.

Protected by a potent mix of gerrymandering, pork, seniority and a friends-and-neighbors electorate, Democratic state representatives and senators managed to survive through the South’s GOP evolution — the Reagan years, the Republican landslide of 1994 and George W. Bush’s two terms. Yet scores of them retired or went down in defeat earlier this month. And at least 10 more across three states have changed parties since the elections, with rumors swirling through state capitols of more to come before legislative sessions commence in January. Facing the prospect of losing their seats through reapportionment — if not in the next election — others will surely choose flight over fight.

Several Democrats tried switching to the GOP before the election but most lost in the primaries. People who are Republicans When It's Politically Expedient are not going to gain much support from GOP voters, especially if there's a strong Tea Party organization in their district.

If the Commies Are Cutting Government Jobs Why Can't We?

Bob Barr, former congressman, writes today about the surge in government jobs in the US while other countries, including Russia and Cuba are slashing government workers:

Salaries of government jobs are outpacing those in the private sector in nearly all professions. For example, the average salary for a chemist employed by the federal government is $98,060; compared to $72,120 for their private-sector counterpart. The average government-employed janitor will bring home almost $6,000 more than a janitor employed by a private business. Even a clergyman in the employ of Uncle Sam will make almost double that of his private-sector counterpart. While the importance of religion is not in dispute, there is little justification for paying a government pastor $70,460 per year.

Other governments facing fiscal problems are taking the axe to their workforces in an effort to trim their budgets.

The United Kingdom announced last month it would reduce the number of bureaucrats in its government by 500,000 over the next five years. Russia, home to some of the world’s best bureaucrats, seems to comprehend the need to cut the government payroll in tough economic times. President Dmitry Medvedev plans to trim 100,000 jobs over the next three years; a 20 percent cut in public employment.

Even Cuban President Raul Castro appears to understand the benefits of a reduced government workforce; announcing in August that he would reduce the official work force by half a million over the course of six months, and by one million over the next five years.

The Bowles-Simpson commission, which recently released a draft proposal to alleviate the nation’s fiscal problems, suggested that Congress freeze salaries of federal workers over the next three years, while also cutting the number of government jobs by 10%. Additionally, the commission proposed that federal workers contribute half of the cost to their benefit packages; a substantial increase over current contribution levels. Public employee unions predictably are up in arms over that suggestion.

The unions will be the death of our economy, and wait until they get their hands on the TSA - we'll never get rid of those people.

The solution to a growing and vibrant economy is not more government bureaucrats with nearly lifetime appointments and huge pensions.  Government activities which can be privatized should be.  There are way too many things being done by overpriced government workers that should be handled by private firms at private salaries and benefits.

UPDATE:

CNN- President Obama will announce a two-year pay freeze for federal employees aimed at saving $60 billion over the next 10 years.

Well...it's a start.

Iran Featured Prominently in Leaked Diplomatic Documents

It seems that a lot of the diplomatic traffic now being leaked to the world involved Iran and their nuclear ambitions:

Reporting from Beirut — Leaders of the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula monarchies repeatedly have beseeched the United States to attack Iran and take out its nuclear facilities, according to a series of classified diplomatic cables released to news organizations by the website Wikileaks.

King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia and King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa of Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, were among the Arab leaders lobbying the U.S. for an attack on Iran. One Saudi official reminded Americans that the king had repeatedly asked them to “cut off the head of the snake” before it was too late.

“That program must be stopped,” one Nov. 4, 2009, cable quotes Khalifa as telling Gen. David H. Petraeus, then head of U.S. Central Command. “The danger of letting it go is greater than the danger of stopping it.”

The Saudis weren't the only ones hoping for an attack on Iran:

A 2009 American government cable released Sunday by the WikiLeaks website quotes Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling visiting American officials that a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities was viable until the end of 2010, but after that "any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage."

That ship has just about sailed, though depending on Iran's activities the attack option is probably always on the table.

The Iranians, meanwhile, are trying to claim the leaks were in fact planned releases:

Iran’s President has questioned the recent leaked documents obtained and published by the Wikileaks website, saying the US administration "released" material intentionally.

In response to a question by Press TV on Monday over the whistleblower website’s "leaks," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said "let me first correct you. The material was not leaked, but rather released in an organized way."

"The US administration released them and based on them they pass judgment …. [The documents] have no legal value and will not have the political effect they seek," the Iranian chief executive added at the press briefing in Tehran.

Ahmadinejad stressed that the Wikileaks "game" is "not worth commenting upon and that no one would waste their time reviewing them."

I have really mixed feelings about the leak of all these diplomatic cables. Certainly some of the information can be embarrassing to the US and can damage some relations, but I wonder if clearing the air a bit on how we really feel about certain world leaders might not turn out to be a good thing in the end.

Governments need to have secrets and the leakers should be treated as traitors to United States. But perhaps this newest set of leaks will allow us to reset some relationships around the world and put an end to some of the happy talk kabuki that goes on in these diplomatic summits.

It's Getting Dangerous to Be an Iranian Nuclear Scientist

It can be hazardous to your health (from Debka.com):

Prof. Majid Shahriari, who died when his car was attacked in North Tehran Monday, Nov. 29, headed the team Iran established for combating the Stuxnet virus rampaging through its nuclear and military networks. His wife was injured. The scientist's death deals a major blow to Iran's herculean efforts to purge its nuclear and military control systems of the destructive worm since it went on the offensive six months ago. Only this month, Stuxnet shut down nuclear enrichment at Natanz for six days from Nov. 16-22 and curtailed an important air defense exercise.

Prof. Shahriari was the Iranian nuclear program's top expert on computer codes and cyber war.

Another Iranian nuclear scientist, Prof. Feredoun Abbassi-Davani, and his wife survived a second coordinated attack with serious injuries. He is Dean of Students, a key political post at the university

If you missed the previous piece on how the Stuxnet virus is crippling the Iranian nuke program, read this article. You can see why the Iranians are so desperate to stop this thing.

New GOP Senator Sworn In

Mark Kirk, the new Senator from Illinois who won Barack Obama's old seat, has been sworn in by Joe Biden and will now make it just a little bit more difficult for the Democrats to achieve their lame-duck session goals:

Republican Rep. Mark Kirk will become Illinois' newest Senator when he's sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden on the Senate floor Monday.

His arrival brings the count in the Senate to 58 Democrats and 42 Republicans, creating another hurdle for Democrats facing a stacked legislative agenda.

The Navy Reserve intelligence officer penned an op-ed Monday in the "Chicago Tribune" where he called for bipartisan action to reduce spending, balance the budget and eliminate the use of earmarks. He said the "Spending Control Act" will be the first bill he introduces as Senator.

"Many in Washington want to continue the spend/borrow policy of the past," Kirk wrote. "They ignore the warning sings of more debt, taxes and inflation."

He also called for members of Congress to "cast aside the partisan differences and work across the aisle."

Kirk espoused the same ideas on the campaign trail where he repeatedly called for repeal of the new health care law, an end to congressional earmarks and the continuation of the Bush-era tax cuts.

I hope Sen. Kirk understands that when he calls for bipartisanship what the Democrats hear is "this guy wants to help us pass our agenda".  They won't be coming to him for any other reason than to get him to sign on to their programs in the name of "cooperation and unity".

Cyber Monday

I awoke this morning to about 15 emails from various retailers touting Cyber Monday, which is today.  This is the day when America supposedly does a huge amount of Christmas shopping via the web rather than hitting the malls.

I'm becoming a real fan of online shopping, and thanks to Amazon.com, I've been able to save a tremendous amount not only on gifts but stuff I need as well.  Having just gotten a new battery-eating smart phone, I decided I better get a second battery and car charger for it to avoid having a high tech brick when the battery dies.  If I bought those items from the AT&T store it could get pretty pricey, but a little checking online yielded some amazing deals.

The car charger normally costs $29, but I found a one-day deal through Amazon for $2.90 - 90% off.  With shipping it was less than $7.  At another retailer that sold through Amazon batteries, normally $49, were $4.13, brand new.  For only $19 I got a second battery and a special battery-only charger - no shipping charge.

I also needed a couple of video games for my nieces.  Toys-R-Us didn't have them in stock so I hit Amazon once again and found both of them, from two different retailers, for about 60% of the store price.  There are lots of deals out there if you look.

And if you begin your Cyber Monday shopping at the HolyCoast Amazon link a portion of your purchase goes to help support this site.

Also, for some great gospel music, don't forget The Crimson River Quartet Digital Store, for downloads of albums, songs or background tracks.

A Difficult Couple of Weeks Coming Up for Democrats

The have the majority, but not the mandate, and that could make for some tense moments:

In a lame-duck session that will be anything but lame, the ties that bind the Democratic Party will be tested anew.

The week's big focus will be on the bipartisan summit to be held Tuesday at the White House -- a key indicator of how the president plans to govern under the new reality imposed by voters in the midterm elections.

But it's President Obama's relationship with his own party in its waning weeks of total control of Washington that still will determine a range of policy outcomes. Moves to the right in the coming weeks will be viewed with skepticism on the left, as Democrats still must guard against a revolt inside their ranks in their final weeks in control of the House.

Before a new House majority takes power, Congress convenes for a final burst of legislating with a crowded agenda that includes expiring tax cuts and unemployment benefits; a push to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy; and attempted ratification of a key nuclear weapons treaty with Russia.

In the middle lands the report of the president's deficit commission, the recommendations of which appear likely to provide a stark choice for a president who's seeking new footing.

The GOP has the mandate and they should not feel any pressure to compromise on conservative policies. The Democrats can go along, offer something that will meet conservative requirements, or see their ideas go down in flames. Those should be the only choices.

Portland Saved by the Very Federal Terrorism Task Force It Shunned

From Byron York:

In 2005, leaders in Portland, Oregon, angry at the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror, voted not to allow city law enforcement officers to participate in a key anti-terror initiative, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. On Friday, that task force helped prevent what could have been a horrific terrorist attack in Portland. Now city officials say they might re-think their participation in the task force -- because Barack Obama is in the White House.

Read the rest of it here. It's said that conservatives are liberals who have been mugged. There might be some new conservatives in Portland.

Actor Leslie Nielsen Dies

He was one of my favorite comedic actors, from Airplane! to Police Squad to the Naked Gun movies, and the last time I saw him was in An American Carol:

A Canadian radio station on Sunday evening reported that actor Leslie Nielsen has died at a hospital in Florida. He was 84.

Doug Nielsen, his nephew, told CJOB talk radio station in Canada that the actor passed away at a hospital in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The Canadian actor had been hospitalized for nearly two weeks as a result of pneumonia.

"Just in this last 48 hours, the infection has gotten too much and today at 5.30, with his friends and his wife by his side, he just fell asleep and passed away," Doug told the radio station.

I enjoyed his work.  Here are some memories:

The Worm That Ate Iran

If you want to read an interesting spy thriller, read this article about the Stuxnet worm that crippled the Iranian nuclear program.  Instead of warfare by bullets and bombs it's warfare by bits and bytes.

Critters

Spent much of the day with my son at the San Diego Zoo. His college anthropology project required an hour of observation of gorillas and the best place to do that is in San Diego. I took the camera and snapped some of the critters we saw:

A Green Tree Snake, piled up on a branch.

The Komodo Dragon - like watching a living dinosaur.

A couple of Republican senators.

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

The aptly named snake-necked turtle.  Weird looking critter.

Beached hippos enjoying the sun on a chilly day.

The big Silverback male, ruling his kingdom.

"You talkin' to me??"

Big kitty.

The big male elephant with a couple of grand pianos worth of ivory hanging out.

An Arab taxi.

Timon and his buddy took a pretty keen interest in a hawk that was flying overhead.

Cheetahs have a comfortable life at the zoo but they never prosper.

A young giraffe.  I'll bet his mom gets tired of hearing "my your son has grown so tall!"

Lunch

Watching gorillas eat is making me hungry,  but I'm not as big a fan of salads as they are.

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Our Research Begins

Touristas San Diegas

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It's a Zoo Out There!

Blogging has been rather haphazard the last couple of weeks because I've been on the road a lot, and today won't be any different. My son has a college anthropology project that requires him to go to the San Diego Zoo and spend 30 minutes observing old world apes (gorillas or orangutans), and spend 30 minutes observing humans. I expect the observations to look something like this:

10:00 Subject appears to be a young female. Is sitting under a tree picking her nose.
10:05 Subject is grooming herself and another female.
10:08 Subject is eating items that do not appear to be very high in nutritional value.
10:12 Subject is texting her friends on her cellphone

And then we'll do the apes.

Diplomatic Cables Could Be Rather Embarrassing

The low-life organization Wikileaks is planning on releasing millions of diplomatic cables and they could contain some very embarrassing stuff for the White House:

With some 2.7 million communications from the US State Department about to be published online, Mr Obama is bracing himself for revelations that would not only be embarrassing but could also seriously damage his foreign policy.

Thousands of these documents are believed to be diplomatic cables from Washington to the US Embassy in London, including brutal assessments of Gordon Brown's personality and cold-eyed judgements of David Cameron's capabilities.

The ramifications for Mr Obama could be enormous. With his popularity flagging at home, one of his remaining political strengths has been his high standing abroad - assiduously cultivated in a series of speeches in which he apologised for past US actions and promised a kinder, gentler America.

The White House has apparently already warned Israel that there will be some ugly stuff in there, which isn't that surprising given Obama's attitude toward the Israelis. And when other world leaders find out how he really feels about them he might find himself getting a pretty frosty reception at some of these world gatherings he so loves.

NORK's Moving Missiles

This can't be good:

SEOUL, Nov. 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has deployed SA-2 surface-to-air missiles to its west coast near the Yellow Sea border with South Korea as U.S.-led naval drills got underway in a show of force against the North's deadly artillery attack on a South Korean island earlier last week, government sources said Sunday.

"(The missiles) appear to be targeting our fighter jets that fly near the Northern Limit Line (NLL)," the source said on customary condition of anonymity, referring to the Yellow Sea border.

South Korea and the U.S. on Sunday launched large-scale naval drills off the Korean Peninsula's west coast, far south of the border where four people were killed and 18 others wounded in Tuesday's surprise attack on Yeonpyeong Island.

The Soviet-designed SA-2 missile has a range of between 13 and 30 kilometers. Other missiles on the North's west coast, such as the Samlet and Silkworm with ranges of up to 95km, have also been put onto launch pads, the source said.

"The military is preparing for the possibility of further provocations as the North Korean military has deployed firepower near the NLL and is preparing to fire," the source said.

This is the kind of situation where somebody makes a mistake and the next thing you know you've got a genuine shooting war going on.

A Close Call

Last week while we were up in Rohnert Park we witnessed a slow speed police pursuit that passed us on a residential street, but posed no real danger to us.  Today another high speed chase in neighboring Santa Rosa almost took my daughter out.

Santa Rosa police took two men into custody following a high-speed chase Saturday afternoon that wove through an apartment complex and busy shopping center before ending when the reportedly stolen vehicle crashed behind Costco.

The chase began at about 4:15 p.m. at the intersection of Kawana Springs Road and Santa Rosa Avenue, when a Santa Rosa police detective spotted a late model Honda Accord that had been reported stolen from the area of Oak Street earlier Saturday, Sgt. Dave Linscomb said.

The driver sped down Kawana Springs Road and was pursued by officers through a neighboring apartment complex and behind Target and Best Buy. The chase continued around the back of Costco, when the Honda crashed into a yellow gate across an access road.

She had just gotten off of work in Santa Rosa and was heading home when this chase came barreling across the road in front of her. She said the suspect's car missed her by five feet.

I'm glad her guardian angels were paying attention.

Christmas in Brea

A quick shot of the Christmas tree at the Brea Mall.

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No Fur For You!

The PETAphiles were out at a local mall this weekend:

About 20 PETA activists were at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa on Friday as the mall was filled with holiday bargain hunters.

The activists stood in front of Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy's department store with signs that read, "Fur is dead," and passed out literature to Black Friday shoppers.

Does ANYBODY wear fur these days? Seems like a waste of time on the part of the PETAphiles.  They should put the signs down and go get a good hamburger.  I recommend Five Guys.

TSA Opts-Out of Nakie Scanning, At Least for the Holiday Weekend

The TSA has been trumpeting the fact that National Opt-Out Day didn't seem to have an effect on the security lines at the airport. They'd love for you to believe it's because nobody participated, but there didn't seem to be any reason to participate since the nakie scanners were turned off in even our most high profile airports. Pejman Yousefzadeh adds this:

Apparently, the backscatter machines were turned off in lots of locales. Why? Because of National Opt-Out Day; turning off the backscatter machines meant that there was no need to opt out, which meant that people didn’t opt out or report legions of opt-out incidents, which meant that the TSA was spared a public relations embarrassment. As Gizmodo notes, turning off the backscatter machines on one of the busiest travel days of the year was crazy, given the many security concerns that the TSA has cited . . . unless, of course, the backscatter machines, and the patdowns that one gets if one opts out were never all that important to begin with. It’s a no-lose (if cynical) ploy by the TSA, since “if there was some sort of attack today because the backscatters were turned off, then it’s ‘See? We TOLD you so.’”

If these machines were so terribly vital to airline security, as the TSA has been telling us, there's no way they could have justified shutting them off as millions of people were traveling. It's clear now that these machines are just an expensive part of the security kabuki we go through at the airport to pretend that we're stopping terrorism. It also assumes that the terrorists are one-trick ponies who will always go after airlines, but as we saw in Oregon last night, all it takes is one lone jihadist with a dream to turn even a simple Christmas tree lighting into a potential nightmare.

The Sad Saga of the Gay Vultures

Gay "rights" activists in Germany have their undies in a wad over a pair of "gay" vultures:

German zookeepers are forcing two male vultures who prefer nesting together to mate with females, sparking outrage from gay rights activists who accuse the zoo of discriminating against birds of a different feather. 

The trouble began back in March, when Guido and Detlef, two Griffon vultures, decided to move in together. The lovebirds began crafting a two-man nest out of stray twigs in a communal birdcage at their zoo in the town of Munster, in northwest Germany.

Both birds are predatory males, but seemed to enjoy one another's company more than that of any female. They spent their days grooming one another with their beaks and fortifying their nest -- though other vultures occasionally stole their building materials, as if to spite them.

"They always sat so closely together. They defended their nest from the other vultures," the zoo's curator, Dirk Wewers, told The Daily Telegraph of Australia.

But Wewers explains their preference for one another as second-best. "A suitable female was missing and in such a case vultures look for companionship from the next best thing, even if it is a male," the zookeeper said. "Detlef looked for a bird of the opposite sex but settled with Guido."

Poor Guido.

Griffon vultures aren't classified as endangered, but the purpose of their captivity in zoos is to allow them to reproduce in safe environments, to eventually grow their species' numbers and release them back into the wild. Zookeepers decided that Guido and Detlef's living arrangements weren't helping that goal.

So last week, Guido was snatched from his partner and shipped 400 miles east to a zoo in the Czech Republic, where a new bride awaited him. In his place is a Czech temptress whom zookeepers hope can seduce Detlef.

"Detlef is reorienting himself now," Wewers told the Telegraph. But he acknowledged that so far, Detlef and the Czech bird haven't touched one another.

Gay rights activists held a small demonstration in front of the zoo, waving a rainbow flag and decrying the zookeepers for standing in the way of love.

"This is like in the dark middle ages, forcibly making a creature sexually re-orient itself by tearing its partner from its side," The German Herald quoted one protester as saying. Others said they worried that what's happened to the birds could one day happen to humans as well.

Next thing you know they'll want to be married.

Muslim Attempts to Blow Up Christmas Tree Lighting in Oregon

Here we go again:

The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city's annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Oregon.

A Corvallis man, thinking he was going to ignite a bomb, drove a van to the corner of the square at Southwest Yamhill Street and Sixth Avenue and attempted to detonate it.

However, the supposed explosive was a dummy that FBI operatives supplied to him, according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint signed Friday night by U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a Somali-born U.S. citizen, was arrested at 5:42 p.m., 18 minutes before the tree lighting was to occur, on an accusation of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The arrest was the culmination of a long-term undercover operation, during which Mohamud had been monitored for months as his alleged bomb plot developed.

"The device was in fact inert, and the public was never in danger," according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

So, who will be the first to call for an end to public Christmas tree lightings because they may be offensive to Muslims?

By the way, kudos to the FBI for stopping this moron.

John Kerry's Big Night

Sorry I won't be able to make this one

Battle-weary Bay State Democrats are getting squeezed by U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry this Christmas, as the nation’s richest senator puts the arm on cash-strapped party donors to fill his campaign war chest — even though he’s not up for re-election for another four years.

“I think people feel very tapped-out,” said Phil Johnston, former Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman, who is helping to organize Kerry’s Dec. 13 gala. Johnston, who said he is seeing steady ticket sales, still expects a full house.

“It’s a measure of John Kerry’s strength among Democrats that this event should be hugely successful,” he said.

The state’s senior senator — recently ranked the nation’s richest with $2.7 million in his campaign coffers and an estimated net worth of $239 million — is asking fellow Democrats to open their wallets yet again after they dug deep during a hard-fought election year. His extravaganza at the Boston Symphony — where tickets range from $75 to $4,800 — could be a tough sell as the party’s rank-and-file struggles through another Christmas in a tough economy.

“For Democrats, there’s a bit of fatigue — people have been giving aggressively,” said Democratic consultant Scott M. Ferson, president of the Liberty Square Group. “But we need John Kerry now more than ever. He’s one of the few (Massachusetts) Democrats left in a leadership position.”

The guy has enough money to more than fund his own campaign - why bother beating donors up for more? I think he just wants to feel the love.

Sports Story of the Day

My what a big lip you have there, Mr. President:

The White House says President Barack Obama has received 12 stitches in his lip after being hit during a pick up basketball game.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says the president was inadvertently struck by someone’s elbow Friday.

The president received the stitches in the doctor’s office on the ground floor of the White House. Obama had traveled to Fort McNair with a group of family and friends for an early morning game of basketball.

He's going to have a hard time blaming this on George Bush's, but I expect him to try.

Auto Bailout Video of the Day

GM is thanking the taxpayers for bailing them out:

Today's Chris Christie Lesson in Government

No video today, but Hugh Hewitt summarizes the things that Christie has been doing right and that have gotten him national attention:

Here are rules of political engagement drawn from the first year of Christie's national prominence:

1. Treat the audience like smart people.

2. Speak bluntly.

3. Answer the question that is asked.

4. Name names of real opponents and back up any accusation with specifics.

5. Identify the real problem and explain, in detail, what has to be done to solve it. Demonstrate competence and earn confidence by displaying a mastery of the subject matter.

6. Refuse to allow a liberal media to define issues and stories, and call the MSM out its self-interested members try and distort any issue or confrontation.

7. Don't avoid real conflicts. Hang lanterns on them.

Good advice for everybody.

It's Early, but 2012 Looking Shaky for Obama

Of course, at this point after the 1994 elections Bill Clinton looked pretty shaky too, but Byron York looks at the problems Obama has with the base that elected him:

We're fast approaching the halfway point in Barack Obama's term. With Nov. 2 behind him, everything the president does will be calculated to boost, or at least not harm, his chances of re-election in 2012. What's not clear is whether he fully appreciates how badly the coalition he led to victory in 2008 has frayed in just two years. A look inside his poll numbers suggests that if he cannot turn around some key trends, he'll be a one-term president.

Just look at the exit polls from 2008, which reveal the demographic contours of Obama's support. Compare those with Gallup's weekly analysis of the president's approval rating, drawn from multiple polls broken down by age, gender, political philosophy, and the like. Throw in some insights from the midterm elections, and the mix shows a dramatic deterioration in Obama's 2008 support. "His majority coalition is not there," says Republican pollster David Winston. "What he put together, at least in the way he put it together, just isn't there."

Read the rest of it for all the nitty gritty. Bottom line - at this point Obama's base among women, younger voters and white voters, Obama has real problems, and it was those groups that put him over the top.

Rahm's Not Eligible to Be Mayor of Chicago

That won't stop the Dem machine from making sure he wins, but they'll have to pay off some judges along the way.

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel (D) may face as many as 19 other contenders in the race to succeed retiring Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley (D), according to candidate filings submitted Monday. But even before Emanuel contends with his rivals on the ballot, he’ll have to overcome another hurdle: a dispute over his residency.

Election law attorney Burt Odelson, who also has served as an adviser to several of Emanuel’s opponents in the race, is planning to file a legal challenge with the Chicago Board of Elections as early as tomorrow arguing that Emanuel does not meet Illinois’ residency requirement for candidates running for municipal office. In an interview with The Fix, Odelson said that he is representing a group of Chicago citizens and that no campaign is involved in the challenge.

Hot Air explains the problem:

According to Illinois’ municipal code, candidates have to be a resident of the state for a year prior to the election. Emanuel moved back to the state in October, a full seven months too late to qualify, if you follow the letter of the statute, so he should not be allowed to run. However, Emanuel does not plan to argue the letter of the law but the spirit. He claims that his intention was to remain a resident, since he voted an absentee ballot in Illinois, kept his vehicle registered there, and paid property taxes on the home he owns there.

Does anyone seriously believe that Rahm will be disqualified? It'll never happen. The machine is so entrenched in Chicago politics that any judge who tries to stand in the way is likely to find a horse's head in his bed or an equivalent warning.  Rahm will be the next mayor of Chicago - you can pretty much count on it.

Black Friday Video of the Day

From Buffalo, NY:

Union That Pushed Hard for Obamacare Now Has to Cut Health Benefits

Unintended consequences:

One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements....

The fund informed its members late last month that their dependents will no longer be covered as of Jan. 1, 2011. Currently about 6,000 children are covered by the benefit fund, some until age 23.

The union fund faced a “dramatic shortfall” between what employers contributed to the fund and the premiums charged by its insurance provider, Fidelis Care, according to Mitra Behroozi, executive director of benefit and pension funds for 1199SEIU. The union fund pools contributions from several home-care agencies and then buys insurance from Fidelis.

“In addition, new federal health-care reform legislation requires plans with dependent coverage to expand that coverage up to age 26,” Behroozi wrote in a letter to members Oct. 22. “Our limited resources are already stretched as far as possible, and meeting this new requirement would be financially impossible.”

As William Jacobsen points out in his piece, this union was instrumental in pushing Obamacare legislation.  They were so wrapped up in helping creating this liberal monstrosity that they forgot to look at how it would affect their own members.

Well done, 1199.

Wisconsin Toys-R-Us Learns the Hard Way

It's called crowd control:

Black Friday started with a black mark this year.

The line of several thousand waiting customers wrapped entirely around the Toys R Us building at 4411 W. Wisconsin Ave. Thursday night. Moments before the store opened at 10 p.m., the line of those who’d just arrived and line of those who’d waited many hours overlapped.

When the doors opened, everyone rushed the door. The store’s staff quickly became overwhelmed, locked the door and called police for assistance.

A staffer repeatedly yelled, “back up” to those standing around the door. Customers who’d been waiting hours chanted “end of line” to those who’d just arrived.

Cpl. Jeff Oberg of the Grand Chute police arrived on scene and suggested the store create a barrier to control the line. Ten purple Babies R Us shopping carts were turned upside down in a row to thwart line-jumpers. Staffers reopened the doors and customers were let in 50 at a time without further incident.

“It got rough for a little bit,” said store manager Chad Wojcik around 10:20 p.m. “We’ve got it in hand now. I’ll do carts again next year.”

I took this photo last night about 15 minutes before the Mission Viejo Toys-R-Us opened at 10pm. Note the line up shopping carts and the caution tape that keeps the line jumpers at bay:

That line stretched for nearly a quarter mile across the parking lot, but from what I hear everyone behaved themselves. A little control at the beginning saves a lot of problems later.

And the incident above wasn't the only problem at a Wisconsin Toys-R-Us:

A 21-year-old Middleton woman was arrested Thursday night when she threatened other shoppers while waiting in line at the Toys R Us store, 7309 West Towne Way, which opened for Black Friday shopping at 10 p.m., Madison police reported.

Several hundred shoppers were in line just after 10 p.m., when the woman attempted to move to the front of the line, police said. When she was confronted by other shoppers, she made threats to retrieve a gun and shoot the shoppers.

Those Wisconsin people take their toys way too seriously.

Black Friday Madness

How about this for an online deal - Mad Men Seasons 1, 2 and 3 for only $9.99 each at Amazon. Season 4 is also available, but not quite so cheap.

My wife and I just started watching the series this year and had to go rent the past seasons to try and catch up.

Another Drug Tunnel Found

Mexicans must be pretty happy that California's Prop 19 failed so they can keep supplying the state with dope.  However, another method of transporting it was located at the border...or under the border:

U.S. authorities say they have discovered another extensive drug tunnel that stretches from a home in Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego, California.

The half-mile tunnel, discovered Thursday morning in a warehouse in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego, is close to a similar one federal agents found earlier this month, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said.

In that case, authorities seized about 30 tons of marijuana in what federal agents say is one of the largest marijuana seizures in U.S. history.

Agents have made several arrests in connection with Thursday's tunnel discovery, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the customs agency.

Federal agents with the San Diego Tunnel Task Force also seized an undetermined amount of marijuana from a tractor-trailer in the area and have found more of the drug in the tunnel, Kice said.

The problem at the border is so bad we even have a Tunnel Task Force. This is the second one found in recent days, and where there's a tunnel for dope, there's a tunnel for dopes...the criminal gangs that keep killing people in Mexico that get in their way. If San Diegans start getting in their way what happens next?

"Patriotic Millionaires" Asked to be Taxed More

These guys have obviously done well in the business world but they still don't understand what it takes to fix the country's economic problems:

While the New York Post reported Wednesday that for more that 80 percent of Americans believe that keeping the Bush tax cuts is “a priority,” more than 80 millionaires are asking President Barack Obama to “please let the Bush tax cuts expire and raise our taxes.”

In a letter addressed to the President, the millionaires make their case, saying that as successful Americans they are ready and willing to do their “fair share.”

“For the fiscal health of our nation and the well-being of our fellow citizens, we ask that you allow tax cuts on incomes over $1,000,000 to expire at the end of this year as scheduled,” they write. “We make this request as loyal citizens who now or in the past earned an income of $1,000,000 per year or more.”

The Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, include musician Moby, Men’s Warehouse CEO George Zimmer, Princeton Review founder John Katzman, and Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Even if we taxed everybody who earns a million a year at a 100% rate it would only be a drop in the fiscal bucket compared to the debt this administration has run up. More taxes will not fix the problem, only economic growth which will generate more tax revenue and spending cuts will turn things around.

And if these "patriotic millionaires" truly believe they are being undertaxed there's absolutely nothing that prevents them from sending more of their money to the government. They can write a check to for any amount they want and the US Treasury will take it. They don't have to wait for a new tax law or government mandate.

However, people like this did not get where they are in life by spending money they didn't have to spend, and apparently they're not comfortable kicking in more to the treasury without being forced to...and at the same time forcing others to do the same.

Insanity At the Mall

A 2:30 am fight in a mall food court made the early hours of Black Friday pretty interesting:

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department placed a portion of a Cerritos shopping mall on lockdown briefly Friday morning after a fight broke out in the food court.

The lockdown at the Los Cerritos Center was quickly lifted, and mall operations are now back to normal, officials said.

The incident broke out around 2:30 a.m., according to the Sheriff's Department.

The mall had invited shoppers for a special sale event called Midnight Madness. The Los Cerritos Center describe the event this way: "When the clock strikes midnight, Los Cerritos Center will open its doors for the season's craziest night of shopping, with special guest Kari Steele from MYFM 104.3. Stores throughout the center will be open and offering the best deals of the year. Imagine ... all your holiday shopping done before the sun comes up -- now that's insane."

It's insane, alright. As I mentioned last night the line outside the Mission Viejo Toys-R-Us store was probably a quarter mile long right before they opened at 10pm, and people were still pouring in to the parking lot. According to my inside source at the store there was a line outside for several hours since they couldn't let everyone in at once. However, they didn't have any problems with bad behavior and eventually everyone made it into the store.

Palin Lectures the Media

And does it in an entertaining way on her Facebook page:

A Thanksgiving Message to All 57 States

My fellow Americans in all 57 states, the time has changed for come. With our country foundedmore than 20 centuries ago, we have much to celebrate - from the FBI's 100 days to the reforms that bring greater inefficiencies to our health care system. We know that countries like Europe are willing to stand with us in our fight to halt the rise of privacy, and Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. And let's face it, everybody knows that it makes no sense that you send a kid to the emergency room for a treatable illness like asthma and they end up taking up a hospital bed. It costs, when, if you, they just gave, you gave them treatment early, and they got some treatment, and ah, abreathalyzer, or an inhalator. I mean, not a breathalyzer, ah, I don't know what the term is in Austrian for that...  


Of course, the paragraph above is based on a series of misstatements and verbal gaffes made by Barack Obama (I didn't have enough time to do one for Joe Biden). YouTube links are provided just in case you doubt the accuracy of these all too human slips-of-the-tongue. If you can't remember hearing about them, that's because for the most part the media didn't consider them newsworthy. I have no complaint about that. Everybody makes the occasional verbal gaffe - even news anchors.

Obviously, I would have been even more impressed if the media showed some consistency on this issue. Unfortunately, it seems they couldn't resist the temptation to turn a simple one word slip-of-the-tongue of mine into a major political headline. The one word slip occurred yesterday during one of my seven back-to-back interviews wherein I was privileged to speak to the American public about the important, world-changing issues before us.

If the media had bothered to actually listen to all of my remarks on Glenn Beck's radio show, they would have noticed that I refer to South Korea as our ally throughout, that I corrected myself seconds after my slip-of-the-tongue, and that I made it abundantly clear that pressure should be put on China to restrict energy exports to the North Korean regime. The media could even have done due diligence and checked my previous statements on the subject, which have always been consistent, and in fact even ahead of the curve. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story? (And for that matter, why not just make up stories out of thin air - like the totally false hard news story which has run for three days now reporting that I lobbied the producers of "Dancing with the Stars" to cast a former Senate candidate on their show. That lie is further clear proof that the media completely makes things up without doing even rudimentary fact-checking.)

"Hope springs eternal" as the poet says. Let's hope that perhaps, just maybe, they might get it right next time. When we the people are effective in holding America's free press accountable for responsible and truthful reporting, then we shall all have even more to be thankful for!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
- Sarah Palin

That'll leave a mark.