Washington Wants Help from Wall Street

As each day gets closer to the Y2K of 2011 (Obama's Debt Default Day), word is getting out that the DC amatuers (likely kids just out of college who got a gig working for a Congressman) are hoping for Wall Street to have a plunge, to influence more Congressman to vote for whatever junk bill Harry Reid and John Boehner can gin up. It's all too clear that we need to decrease the role government has in tanking stocks.

Washington Is Annoyed at Wall Street's Failure to Panic

As he explained it, lots of people in Washington, D.C. expected that this would be a week marked by panic in the markets. Stocks would tank. Bonds would get clobbered. The dollar would do something dramatic. And all of this would help convince reluctant lawmakers that they had to reach a compromise on the debt ceiling.

Boehner's House Bill

I guess this is just how things get done in Washington. When I went to the Library of Congress website to see the vote rolls for the Boehner Bill, I came across this bill, which was sponsered by Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy. Strange. This is it, this is the Boehner Bill, couldn't even get its own bill number or anything.

61. S.627 : Faster FOIA Act of 2011
Sponsor: Sen Leahy, Patrick J. [VT] (introduced 3/17/2011) Cosponsors (3)
Committees: Senate Judiciary; House Oversight and Government Reform
Latest Major Action: 7/29/2011 Passed/agreed to in House. Status: On passage Passed by recorded vote: 218 - 210 (Roll no. 677).
Latest Action: 7/29/2011 Motion by Senator Reid to refer to Senate Committee on the Budget the House message to accompany the bill (S. 627) to report back forthwith with amendment SA 591 made in Senate.
Note: The bill is the House vehicle to raise the debt ceiling, make budget deficit reductions, and require a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d112:61:./temp/~bdtxdA::

It's Called Getting Primaried

O'Donnell beats Castle, and by a good 6 points. Many have said unflattering things about O'Donnell, O.K., we'll see how bad she really is.

The key is that Mike Castle; who would have probably become the most Liberal Republican Senator, won't have his chance. Conservative Republicans will never have to worry about what he might do and what big govt. legislation he will vote YES on. He won't get to go on Meet the Press to poorly represent the Republican Party, and most of all, an example was made out him.

Those Republicans who wish to reach across the aisle and enable the Democrat Party to micro manage the citizenry can keep Mike Castle in the back of their minds, when 20 something year old staffers on the Hill attempt to convince them that voting YES on something like Cap and Trade is a political winner. Remember boys, there is a primary to be won. Also, the Northeast Republicans might want to think twice the next time they buck the party and join a coalition of 2-3 Republicans who join hands with Harry Reid's crew to pass legislation like Financial Reform, the brainchild of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. Such a Republican can get primaried in states other than Delaware.

Lately

Here is a little roundup of tidbits from American Spectator writers.

Some of them serve as yet another reminder that Republicans are the great enablers of progressive policies, and a dysfunctional band of reactive hand-wringing lovers of Washington DC. Guys who will do anything to stay in their relationship with the swampy capitol and all her friends. Like a man who would stay married to his promiscuous wife, as long as she brings him along to the parties, the long-time GOP grand daddys shamefully, bicker a little, but in the end let the Democrat bells of the ball win the day. Afterall, no matter how immoral or destructive, the power lies with them. That is, until the Republicans are brave enough to take a few lumps and stand up to what is wrong, no matter the cost. If they have to move into a small bachelor's apartment and do their own laundry, they should. If they need to step out of the limelight and accept only the power of their vote, they must.

Conservative Media: A Critique from a Conservative Whom They Drive Nuts

For the sake of keeping this article short and simple, I will divide those I mention into two camps, conservative and liberal. Many who I place in the conservative camp, probably belong in no camp. Perhaps they belong in a camp of their own, where they can collect their own wood and make a fire to shed light on their pages of opinions poking at both camps while they stand firm as an army of one. However, since they think they are conservatives and speak for everyday Americans, I have to put them in a camp. They may be armies of one, but they still like D.C. cocktail parties.

The first conservative writer of note, who decided to discount the value of Sarah Palin, was Washington Post Columnist, Kathleen Parker. Ms. Parker had seen Sarah Palin’s T.V. interviews with Charles Gibson on ABC, and Katie Couric on CBS, and that was enough for Ms. Parker to sadly throw in the towel and lament that 4 decades of a women’s liberation movement, resulting in the drop of the U.S. birth rate, could only give Republicans a female Vice-Presidential Candidate who was from Alaska, had 5 kids, and gave imperfect T.V. interviews. A shame no doubt. The Democrats had already had Geraldine Ferraro take the national stage 2 decades earlier, and now the Republican’s big chance, only produced a moose hunting airhead expressing the values of freedom better than anyone, including a former Vietnam POW, but one easily stumped by questions from liberal journalists, who were able to convince so many that we had a folly on our hands, by simply displaying a displeased frown and a look above the eyeglasses.

After Ms. Parker’s article was published not only by her employer, The Washington Post, but also dutifully by the soft conservative National Review Online, I was driving in my car on a nice Saturday morning in September, when the top of the hour news came on, and touted that even conservative columnists, like Kathleen Parker, are beginning to have their doubts. Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy, two more conservative school marms, were caught unaware that the microphone was still on as they went on to explain to one another what a joke Palin was. The media barrage from both camps commenced for the following months and Palin’s reputation as a woman with at least the knowledge of a 12th grader was badly tarnished. Such an unnecessary and unfounded notion, yet the false reality was created for millions of American Idol voters to mutter how stupid and how frequently pregnant that lady who tried to be Vice-President is. Nice job Ms. Parker, I’m sure Mrs. Palin thanks you for being honest and for not holding back even for a week or so, to see if the newly selected candidate could get her footing. I thank you too, Ms. Parker, because you helped to rescue the U.S. from having an imperfect woman be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, and you went on to support our current president, Barack Obama, and he won. Now he leads us, and how we have witnessed his noble and humble leadership.

Let me now move on to another conservative media man who I think might wear a nose plug during his nightly radio show; a show chocked with a who’s who list of conservative interviewees who make it possible for Hugh Hewitt to have a show containing more than the 15 minutes worth of things he would be able to talk about on his own, therefore allowing him to fill a three hour show. Hugh should definitely be giving 80% of his earnings to his guests, because without them, he wouldn’t have a show. I mean, this guy even has to book the left wing writers of the Washington Post to fill time.

At one time, I was a fan of the Hugh Hewitt Show. He talked a pretty big game, and he laid out some good goals for our elected officials to follow; goals which he later stopped mentioning after the Republicans drafted a nominee for President who wouldn’t come close to following them. In January of 2008, I was listening to Hugh’s show, when he said that the in the week to follow, the people of Florida and Michigan were going to vote Romney and end this charade of the McCain campaign. I sure hoped Hugh was right, and I loved his tough talk. Only, McCain won Florida and the Republican nomination. Now, it was early February, 2008, and Hillary Clinton and President Obama had months to go before one would finally be given the rights to take up the Democrat mantle. Their was no rush to become an overnight John McCain cheerleader, but Hugh became one instantly, and urged us all to do the same. If we didn’t, we would only be cutting off our nose to spite our face. Suddenly, we were expected to be happy that John McCain, complete with his bi-partisan deals with Democrats, which resulted in giving away the store, incoherent explanations about amnesty for illegal immigrants, and hell bent effort toward protecting terrorists, was now the Republican standard bearer. I spent the next few months hoping for a reason that McCain would become unable to run, but alas, I had to wait until November 3, 2008, to be relieved of the McCain candidacy.

The other night, I was listening to Hugh’s show again, and he was on the road, probably promoting a book about Mitt Romney. A caller from Arizona was up, and began saying how he supported J.D. Hayworth over McCain in the Arizona Primary. Hugh wouldn’t even let the caller say McCain’s name, because Hugh didn’t have his “dump button” with him in case the caller said an unkind word about McCain. I didn’t understand this one bit. I can only assume that callers that night were allowed to raise points of argument against Barack Obama throughout the night, unless Hugh had every minute booked up with guests that night, allowing the show to go on. However, Hugh did allow himself to point out that J.D. Hayworth was one of those “Birthers”, implying that it would be better to go the McCain route once again, than be tagged as supporting a “Birther”. Hugh needs to keep his moderate interviewees happy; after all; his show depends on it. That, and it gave Hugh the chance to use his favorite word and describe yet another person as a, “nutter”. Hugh’s new adaptation of forced civility apparently doesn’t apply to himself.

I was momentarily away from that evening’s Hugh Hewitt show, but when I tuned back in, he was just finishing up yet another interview with a politician, who said something like, “we need to put the brakes on Obama’s agenda”, and Hugh cut him off saying that he refuses to allow analogies on his show. O.K., Mark Steyn had better get off the guest list then. No wonder I never hear Dennis Miller on the Hewitt show.

So there you have it. This is a sample of our conservative media. Of course, not all conservative media personalities live in a bubble insulated with their own demands of perfection from conservative politicians and conservative Americans. If you look closely, you’ll also find that conservative media members will choose an issue for which to offer a defense for a liberal politician. Usually, they pick something that they don’t know enough about to discover that what they picked is indefensible. Some will even pick Bill Clinton’s lying under oath as the issue they decide is, “no big deal” and “overblown” (See David Frum). Erick Erickson has decided that in regards to Barack Obama he will pick the issue (birth certificate) that the President spent millions on to keep from seeing the light of day. Erickson will even ban anyone who goes on his site and brings the matter to attention. It seems as if that which is indeed indefensible has an expiration date. Usually, the ramifications of misdeeds might only expire after apologies are given, but some conservatives no longer require such a thing, while they mock the apologies of fellow conservatives. And when it comes to their own apologies or issued corrections forget about it. Many in the conservative media aren’t talented enough to admit their weaknesses and mistakes.

Ban of the "Birthers" and Redefining Reality

On February 12, 2010, Erick Erickson of Redstate.com declared that “Birfers and Truthers” would be banned from, I can only assume, posting comments on the Redstate.com site. O.K. fine, go ahead and ban people, whatever floats your boat. The problem that I have is that Mr. Erickson equates those who know that Barack Obama has not provided a long form birth certificate, with those who believe the U.S. Government plotted 9/11. He is equating those displaying an unpleasant fact, with those rendering a more deeply unpleasant opinion. For me, it is difficult to swallow and carry on quietly while the self-professed conservatives aim to define the boundaries for which freedom loving Americans express their opinions and form arguments. They therefore limit argument in a similar way that those on the left do, and many times, without knowing it, ally themselves with the opinions of the American left wing.

The comments board at Redstate.com now features the unbridled ridicule, once reserved for Code Pink types and cheerleaders of socialism, directed at anyone who questions the opinions of Erick Erickson, or entertains the possibility that a man who spent multiple years as a child in another nation (Barack Obama) might have been born in another nation and doesn’t meet the requirements of the constitution to serve as president. I don’t believe that it has been proved otherwise. Many of the Redstate.com commenters fear that the presence of “birfers” will cause the site to be, “taken off message”, as if that blog is actually going to lead the conservative movement with its anonymous bloggers and poor user interface. I personally don’t put a lot of effort into studying the matter of Obama’s citizenship or talking about it, but I don’t get the least bit upset if someone else does. The 9/11 conspiracy does upset me, but I’m willing to put up with hearing about it, as long as someone offers a little detail with elements of sanity and absent the appearance of an axe to grind. From what I’ve learned about the Kennedy assassination, I’m more inclined to believe Oswald had accomplices, but I’m not going to spend any extra time investigating it. If someone wants to, good. All three of these national questions, may be better unsolved, at least for now.

However, Erickson acts as if his own personal credibility depends on who views his site and posts comments. The move he has made with this ban is a purge to hide the rubbage, while the new and more elite viewers browse his postings. Another way to increase credibility might be ban those bloggers of Redstate.com who post full articles using aliases such as Haystack. Come out secret identity bloggers, and let us know who you are. Some, such as Allahpundit on HotAir.com have so many frequent postings throughout the day, I don’t see how they could actually have a real job to jeopardize.

Update: Red State continues digging the hole they are stuck in.

Erick Erickson assures readers in his latest post, that this is his last word on the Birfer and Truther issue. To argue in defense of Obama’s official Erickson Seal of Natural Born Citizenship, Erick tries to impress us with his knowledge of 14th Century British law defining natural born citizenship as having been born anywhere in the world by two parents who are citizens of Britain. So, Erickson refers to foreign law to make his case. I hope Erick doesn’t later bemoan Justice Breyer’s support of using foreign law in U.S. Supreme Court cases, when the issue again presents itself. Also, it seems that Erickson personally re-writes the U.S. definition of natural born citizen to read, “anyone born anywhere, who has parents who are U.S. Citizens”. By Erickson’s definition, one could conceivably be born in Iran by a U.S. businessman and his wife, attend Iranian schools and spend years of his life in Iran, only to later move to the U.S. in his 30s, begin a political career and become an Iranian sympathizing President of the United States. That is O.K. by Erickson’s standards because his parents were U.S. Citizens after all.

The question that is not asked by Erickson or his enlightened readers, is “Why does the Constitution require that the President be a Natural Born U.S. Citizen?” Is there a reason for this provision? Also, we simply need to know the definition of “Natural Born Citizen” as defined by the U.S. Constitution and/or Supreme Court Case. That is all.

Erickson instead focuses on his ridiculous assumption that those questioning Obama’s citizenship, believe that there was a cover up from the highest places of government since the day of his birth. I challenge him to find someone who believes that. Instead, the question should be asked, “how would Obama’s U.S. Citizenship benefit him and/or his parents at the time of his birth?”, and the other germane question is, “how many years of Obama’s childhood were spent in Indonesia?”

With the world becoming smaller and smaller, this is an issue that is likely to come to life in the future. It raises a question of sovereignty when the qualifications for a U.S. President become so skewed and more and more people like Erickson re-write history and make false claims regarding the meaning of imperative laws.

Erickson seems to be trying to play up his fame, and wants to be seen as a "reasonable conservative" by the likes of the conservative elite. Those who comment on his site even want him to bullet proof from the liberal likes of Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. Erickson falsely believes that he will be judged according to the small number of birthers or truthers who comment on his site. This is weakness grounded in the “perception is reality” fallacy. Reality is reality, perception is temporary and the longer a perception lasts the more harmful it can become. This is a recurrent problem of the conservative media. They give up and give in.

They bought into the perception that the Bush administration’s Hurricane Katrina response was akin to immoral. This was a perception created by the liberal media, and it lasted long enough that most conservatives eventually decided to confirm the perception and adopt it as reality, even without newly born facts to persuade them that the Katrina response was indeed botched and careless. The reality of the Katrina response is something different than the perception that the liberal media transmitted, and conservative media should be chastised by their audience for lazily accepting, simply because of the passing of time, the liberal media’s invented reality. Erickson is doing the same thing here with the birthers. The birther’s questions have not been answered, but time has passed, and the perception created by the liberal media has eaten into Erickson and now he is crying uncle. Not only that, but he is now inventing facts himself to defend his actions. Good bye Redstate.com. Where will you be in 5 years?

Nothing is Over Until We Decide it Is!

I've been waiting to hear about town hall meetings and protests as Congressmen are back in the territories of their constituents, but apparently, most folk think that the health care bill is a.) already passed, or b.) is so inevitable it is not worth lifting a finger over. It's a shame that some bloggers (i.e. Allahpundit) are in default defeatist mode, convinced it's over. Votes still need to take place.

Quinn Hillyer from American Spectator writes a rallying piece for Republican Congressmen that holds so true.

See my article from earlier this week, trying to rally the troops as well.

Got Ezra!

The American Spectator is forced to rebut the juvenile sentence constructions of recent college grad and Washington Post's red carpet walking, Ezra Klein. I think the guy just uses those word refrigerator magnets to construct his columns. For his new column he must have opened up that new calculator he got for graduation, because he's spoutin' of math and frighteningly underestimating how much the government would be spending on health care if the new bill passes. If the govt. spends as much as he said, we might all get a tournaquet and aspirin each year, but that'll be about it.

I'm sorry, but why do we keep listening to 24 year old Ezra Klein. His writing gives away his age, I hadn't even heard of him until last month when he came up with some ingenious idea of killing the fillibuster (gee, I never heard that one before). Why conservative blogs quote him, and why the Washington Post would give someone with 24 years of life experience a blog and a pay check is beyond me.

I'm sorry, I mean I'm 34, so I'm not so old that I need up to date guidance from someone The Economist magazine named one of the "minds of the moment", (yeah, a moment, kind of like 15 minutes of fame) and at age 16, I could have wrote and thought something as compelling about a politician as this quote he wrote about Joe Lieberman ; "willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral score".

I must be getting old, because the political and worldly wisdom from these recent college grads just ain't gonna grab my attention. I'm just sick of reading his stupid name "Ezra" over and over again. That's how it goes sometimes; somebody's name simply annoys you, and then you read the critique of this overpaid "journalists" blog, and you "Learn That Life Is One Crushing Defeat After Another Until You Just Wish Flanders Was Dead."

Christmas Vacation is Over

It was nice to relax over the holidays and breath a sigh of relief that Washington D.C. was for the moment, uninhabited by Freedom’s Plague found in the halls of Congress. Yes, it was a time to relish in the fact that if only for a few weeks, the weak parasites who needed to retreat to their resorts were gone for a time, and the rest of us could stop supervising the insubordinates and fully enjoy life with our families and put worry aside.

Today, is January 5, 2010, and that nice time is over. Concession needs to be over as well. It seems that too many fighting Americans actually think that the Health Care bill is Law, likely the result of a deaf and dumb Republican Party too camera shy and busy soaking up sun in some far away land to spread the word. However, the bill is not law, not at least until Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and various Obama advisors huddle in a lair somewhere and hash out a final bill comprised of the Senate and House bills, readying it for one last vote in the House and Senate. You won’t be able to see into the huddle, but the quarterback, or maybe the center, is likely to be Ezekiel Emmanuel, the quack doctor, who wrote one opinion piece after another, favoring rationing health care so that Americans could compete with the rest of the world in dollars spent on vacations. These opinion pieces were published regularly in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Yes, the American Medical Association (AMA); a dying organization made up of the last remnants of doctors too lazy to cure and discover cures; instead focused on easier ways to do harm. One easier way is to just get published ad nauseum in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA); even easier when your wife/ ex-wife holds a staff position at the AMA.

I’ve concluded that, Zeke has had an in at the AMA for years, and latched on to public healthcare policy ever since. Based on the Northwestern University Kellogg Staff webpage, “…Dr. Linda Emanuel was Vice President of Ethics Standards and Head of the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical Association. Dr. Emanuel moved to Chicago to create the Institute for Ethics at the AMA and to expand Ethics Standards.” My research shows the Emanuel’s are no longer married, but a quick google search will pull up articles co-written by the duo. You don’t see medical journal articles written by either of the two with titles like, “Accuracy and dimensional stability of extended-pour and conventional alginate impression materials”, you will instead see articles with titles like, “Who really pays for health care?” “The myth of "shared responsibility"”. “The cost-coverage trade-off: "it's health care costs, stupid"”, “What cannot be said on television about health care”, “Changing pre-med requirements and the medical curriculum.”, “Quantifying the federal minimal risk standard: implications for pediatric research without a prospect of direct benefit.”, “The perfect storm of overutilization.” None of these focus on treatment or science, simply policy, simply spreading the healthcare around, simply rationalizing rationing. The Editors of the Journal and the American Medical Association have looked the other, while the editorial page has become filled with article after article on how to avoid provided medical care. Obama and his large staff includes Dr. Emanuel and the fate of U.S. health care is at the mercy of such people and a derelict Congress.

Folks, this is it. If you would like, in 10 years, to still recognize the health care you grew up with (doctor appointments, reassuring nurses, stethoscopes, good beside manners); the time to act is now. Get on the horn to your U.S. Representative and Senator and let them know what you think. Organize protests in front of your U.S. Reps. offices; it isn’t hard to do. And to my fellow Chicagoans; wake up and realize that you have forced an entire state and now the nation, to endure the rule of a monarchy of many for the past 50 years, due to constantly taking the voting path of least resistance. To you Chicago Catholics; realize this one thing; abortion is against the teachings of your Church; a teaching which covers life and death and may I say, first heartbeat of the Will of God. If your faith means any more to you than a source for social outings and happy thoughts, now is the time to say so. Many of us have been in this battle for years and we could use reinforcements. Many of us have lived outside of the realm of patronage, nepotism, and politics as usual and still have a Chicago address. This is it, dress warm and get out there and tell your representatives what you would have them do.

Natural Disaster Talking Points

A day or two following the failed terrorist attack to blow up an airliner above the city of Detroit, the Secretary of Homeland Security assured us that the “system worked.” Unfortunately, for Janet Napolitano; she must have read from an adaptation of a scripted response taken from under the shelf labeled “Hurricane Press Conference”. With a few strikethroughs and text replacements; I’ve put the text back to its original form, ready once again for safe keeping in the hurricane section of shelves in Janet’s office.

NAPOLITANO: "What we are focused on is making sure that the air environment remains safe, that people are confident when they travel. And one thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers residents and crew first responders of the flight in the affected area took appropriate action.

Within literally 90 minutes of the incident disaster occurring, all 128 flights in the air law enforcement and first responders had been notified to take some special measures in light of what had occurred on the affected areas. Northwest Airlines flight. We instituted new measures on the ground and at screening areas shelters, both here in the United States and in Europe, where this flight storm hit originated. So the whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly."

What Napolitano did say is all the words in black text and all the words in red with strikes. As you can plainly see, this would be a fine response for a natural disaster, but it doesn’t quite cut it for one of Napolitano’s coined phrase “man-made disasters”. There is a big difference between natural disasters and man-made disasters; Al Gore’s sermons aside. Unfortunately, there is little that the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security can do to avoid the oncoming hurricane on its way from Africa to the United States Gulf Coast. After taking the hit of the high winds and torrential rains, DHS can spur into action and receive applause after a press conference such as the one above. The storm of terrorism from Africa to the U.S. has a guarded gate that it must enter, if it can even get to that gate. It made it to and through the gate and the last line of defense; the fellow traveler stopped the storm dead in its tracks, just as the winds, landmass, and ocean current may happen to weaken and move a raging storm away from the well-populated area.

By now, as even Ms. Napolitano has conceded, it is agreed that the system that is supposed to be the first line of defense, did not work. We should have multiple first lines of defense here, made up of redundancies, shared data, and fast moving data. The last line of defense, needs to be the airport security screening and if necessary the terminal gate, and this is just airplane security.

Yes, natural disasters and man-made disasters derive from very different elements. We have in charge, many who don’t seem to realize a difference between the two. A former vice-president seems to see the two as synonymous, yet still I would advise trying to get a handle on keeping the man-made disaster in check as a starting point, before enacting so many ridiculous proposed measures in an effort to keep man from causing heavy winds and rain.

Convention Time

I just saw this link. The National Tea Party Convention will be held in February at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Keynote Speaker will be............Sarah Palin!

Windy City Obamacare Update

Looking over my recent posts, I guess I should update my post from December 18th

As it turns out, I was seriously off target on Ben Nelson. Guided by hope, I actually wrote "Defender of the Unborn" and "Ben Nelson" in the same sentence, but it will now take a complete about face by Nelson, to ever get me to repeat such a sentence. As it turns out, on the night of my December 18th post, Ben Nelson met in Harry Reid's office with the likes of Barbara Boxer and Chuck Schumer to help him shed his pro-life credentials. One account tells how it was Schumer and others who thought a compromise was hopeless, until Ben stepped in it, and mentioned crafting some state opt-in/ opt-out gibberish, giving Reid, Schumer, and Boxer, and daylight they needed to force the legislation onto the American people.

Nelson's first mistake was entering a room with Barbara Boxer to have a dialogue about abortion. It sounds like "Notre Dame- The Sequel"; the most renowned Catholic University which shed part of its own pro-life strength by inviting the pro-abortion President over for an honorary degree and commencement speech. Nelson made it pathetically easy on Reid by allowing the pro-abortion, Viagra spokeswoman into the room, and for what? What good for his pro-life cause did Nelson possibly think could be done by having mega-feminist Boxer in the room.

Obamacare has a few hurdles yet, before it becomes law, but unless Nelson changes his vote next time the Senate seeks approval of the reconciled House/ Senate version, it appears he may be the un-electable Ben Nelson, lobbyist to be.

Axelrod and Rahm- Once "Blame Bush" Takes its Last Breath, These Two Clowns are Done

The country's greatest political arm twisters, David Axelrod and Rahm Emmanuel appear to be at peak performance these days. Unfortunately for them, once the past is no longer believed to be the cause of present and future problems, these hacks are toast.

A Sort of New Christmas

This Christmas Day was a bit different than all others. For the first time since her being born, I did not see my sister on Christmas Day. She spent her first Christmas morning with her first child, Seamus, and husband Kevin, and then went to Kevin's family party. We'll all get together tomorrow and open gifts and have brunch. It was nice to be able to sleep in on Christmas morning after a late night going to midnight mass. This is probably the first Christmas in my life that I didn't get up early and open gifts. I gladly slept until 11 AM, and sometime earlier in the morning, my mom gave me the gift of throwing a couple more blankets on me, as I slept on the basement couch. I found a big bin of my baseball cards too, and looked through some of them.

At Noon we went to my Grandma's House. This year we were missing a few of my cousins as well as my sister and brother-in-law. Instead of about 30 people at Grandmas, we had around 20. My little cousins (my aunt and uncle's 5 kids) were there which really helped fill the place a little more, and they are so enjoyable to have around. My little god-daughter who is a year and half seems to become a character when she's tired and having fun. She kept moving a small, one foot high stool to sit on in front of me, on the couch. This same stool my Grandpa used to rest his head on when he laid on the floor and watched TV, before he died over 20 years ago. She sat on the stool to watch the older kids watch my brother and cousins play Super Mario Brothers. Her older brother who is 4 asked why my eldest uncle was still asleep in the recliner chair, and someone suggested waking him up. When a few taps didn't work, my cousin went to get his kiddie saxophone and he blew some forte notes in front on my uncle. I'm sure it is impossible to go into a deep sleep there on Holidays; I've tried.

So, it was a Christmas that was different but quite the same. Very nice all around, and another reason to appreciate God's great gift of family and children.

Time for Obamacare to Go on Christmas Break

Not many are happy with it. Most Americans want to keep things the way they are rather than pass it. The time has come for Obamacare to go on Christmas vacation and for Senators to head back to their home states and face the music. I lift my glass of eggnog and say, "Here's to Ben Nelson the Defender of the Unborn, Jim Webb the Silent, and Joe Lieberman the Ointment's Fly." Of these three I pray that Ben Nelson stays worthy of his above title.

Here is a good Ann Coulter article with a nice change of pace with its little less bite than usual; it's pretty right on.
Coulter