They had an Election in Canada and guess what happened?

Well, their liberal media couldn't believe it either.  From the Globe and Mail:

There’s good reason the masses are revolting
by Margaret Wente
My best friends are wonderful people – talented, accomplished, generous, smart and caring. So it’s hard to see them in such fear and pain. The way they see it, the Visigoths have battered down the gates of Rome, and the Vestal Virgins had better scramble for cover. In the aftermath of Toronto’s election rout, their only consolation is that Rob Ford is probably too stupid and incompetent to completely sack the place. If only they lie low for the next four years, sanity will surely return to city politics.

Like my friends, the people who work in much of the major media – the CBC, the Toronto Star, even my own beloved paper – were stunned by the Ford tsunami. After all, the polls had predicted a squeaker. But there’s another reason they didn’t see the big wave coming. Very few of these people live or work outside downtown Toronto. Very few ever hang around with someone who voted for Mr. Ford and will own up to it. They remind me of the super-smart editorial writers at The New York Times who are sincerely convinced that Tea Partiers are dangerous crackpots – even though they’ve never met any.

The media think they understand why people voted as they did. As one Toronto Star pundit helpfully explained, the voters – Ford voters, that is – “were full of largely pointless rage.” Only pointless rage could explain why voters ignored the editorial endorsements of two leading newspapers, as well as a long line of former mayors who begged them, in the name of decency, to vote for George Smitherman. Even Justin Trudeau’s twinkle dust didn’t work.

Sound familiar? Yes, why yes it does.  Same media sentiments, same insular reactions.
Go read it all here, same old story, same old media.

Michelle Bachman has a great idea - Teach the constitution to lawmakers

Most of you know the tea parties want the constitution to be foremost in the thoughts of the people who make our laws, and that no law passes without passing the test of the constitution.  The recent flap over the "separation of church and state" in the Delaware debates shows us that lawmakers, law  professors and law students do not have a keen grasp of exactly what is IN the constitution. This article is good news.  It is from Politico.

Bachmann wants Constitution classes for lawmakers
By MARIN COGAN

For the Tea Party soldiers worried that the young upstarts they’re poised to send to Congress will lose their constitutional druthers once they get to Congress, Rep. Michele Bachmann has a message: Fear not, she’s going to set up constitutional classes.

Bachmann spokesman Sergio Gor says, “It was something she’s always wanted to do. There’s so many folks that come to Capitol Hill to discuss obscure and mundane topics, but no one coming regularly to discuss bill of rights or the role of government.”

I think the writer is not perfectly happy about Michele Bachman, her Fear not, she’s going to set up constitutional classes. comes across a slightly catty, but she does go ahead and give the full story.  Read it all here.

How many more of these conversion stories are out there? Liberal to non-liberal

This conversion story is a letter to the editor of the American Thinker, and is on the American Thinker Blog.

To the editor:
As of three days ago I was a diehard liberal Democrat. I followed the trumpet call and marched in lockstep with whatever was declared to be true by the liberals in my family, all my friends and particularly my professors in college.
[....]
Last Tuesday, Oct 26, someone at my office left a copy of an article on my desk entitled "Socialism and Reality" by Steve McCann. [Link here] At first I was going to throw it away as it originated on a far-right wacko internet site (as had been told), but the lead caught my attention so I read the article. As I finished the last paragraph a sense of dread began to flow over me as I thought, my God this makes sense and I had never thought about these points written in such a clear concise and logical manner. Surely I and all my peers couldn't have been wrong all this time. I sent the article to others in my circle and the ensuing arguments and conversations were unreal. But no one could refute the points raised in the essay except to call Mr. McCann and your site all sorts of vile names.
Since then I have gone on the American Thinker site for the first time and read some of the articles and while I still consider some of them to be too extreme some really do inspire thought. Thanks to an article someone, I do not know who, left on my desk I have begun a transition to becoming a more open person willing to question and understand what has and is happening to my country. Thank you and Mr. McCann
Richard MacIntyre

I have taken some liberties today on copying the complete, or almost compete stories and posts, I just could not find a way to leave more of the copy out and get a larger coverage for those who posted them.

More Liberal Bias in the Press this time on the Republicans against the Tea Party

Of course you will probably on see this only in Big Journalism.  Sarah Palin told about it on the Fox sunday morning show with Chris Wallace.  She told him, he didn't comment.

Anchorage CBS Affiliate Caught on Voicemail Conspiring Against Alaska’s GOP Senate Candidate
posted by P.J. Salvatore
The following voice mail message was inadvertently left on the cell phone of Joe Miller campaign spokesperson Randy DeSoto.
The following is a transcript of a call recorded after CBS Alaska affiliate KTVA called Joe Miller’s Senate campaign spokesperson. The call failed to disconnect properly. It was later authenticated by McDermott, who sent a text to Randy DeSoto stating, “Damn iPhone… I left you a long message. I thought I hung up. Sorry.”

The following voice mail message was inadvertently left on the cell phone of Joe Miller campaign spokesperson Randy DeSoto.

The voices are believed to be those of the news director for CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA, along with assignment editor Nick McDermott, and other reporters, openly discussing creating, if not fabricating, two stories about Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Joe Miller.

Audio KTVA -

Clearly the reporters were conspiring to set up some type of smear of Joe Miller. With glee, they even cite a recent controversy over an incident involving the Rand Paul campaign, while discussing how they would spread the story via social media after whatever incident they had in mind came off. It also brings to mind another recent episode that ended with Jerry Brown’s California gubernatorial campaign being caught up in controversy when someone from Brown’s camp called Brown’s opponent, Republican Meg Whitman, a “whore.”

Check out Big Journalism, it always has some stories the MSM ignore.

As a Texan I am offended by this, as a taxpayer I am outraged

We support our universities very well here in Texas.  We know many professors are liberal, but how many are activists using our time and our money. I didn't hear about this from the mainstream media, I read it on Pajamas Media.
It starts out with a tale of misconduct at the polls in Houston, that's bad, but this is the part I'm talking about (posted by Bryan Preston):

We’re gathering other evidence of the left’s particular brand of GOTV, such as hints that professors may be abusing their positions to encourage their students to vote a certain way, as in this email from a professor at the University of Texas at Brownsville (emphases in original).

Dear CoE Colleagues,
This afternoon, we received a request from the provost that all faculty walk with their students to the UTB/TSC early voting polling site located in Mary Rose Cardenas South during the last 10-15 minutes of class on Thursday and Friday (the poll will also be open on Monday).

The number of students and faculty voting on campus remains low, far below our goal of 100%, which puts our campus polling place at risk. Please consider engaging your students in a dialog about why they choose to vote or not to vote. With several positions on the ballot for the local school board, there is much to talk about in a College of Education regarding voter participation.

No class? No problem. CoE staff will be available to drive faculty and staff (not students) in the golf cart to MRCS to vote. The minimum number of passengers is three. Call 882-7220 for a free ride to the polling place.

Starting tomorrow, tallies will be taken by college for student, faculty, and staff voter turnout. Let the College of Education lead the way!

Enthusiastically,

Selma Yznaga

Selma d. Yznaga, Ph.D., LPC-S
Founder, Texas Counselors for Social Justice
Associate Professor
Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies
The University of Texas at Brownsville

“Founder, Texas Counselors for Social Justice.” How telling. Any chance she wants her students to vote for fiscal responsibility and limited government?

If you witness anything like these incidents, please send it to us at pollwatch@pajamasmedia.com.

How blatant can they be.  Notice this was not instigated by this professor, it was by the provost, she was just enthusiastically following up on the request.  This is electioneering
vote buying? harrassment (?) in the worst form.  I just don't know exactly what to call this, but anyway you call it is not good.  I suspect some heads will roll on this, and well they should!

Hillary Supporters are still very angry

This is an open letter to Rush that is going viral on the internet.  You need to read it.  I’m putting up the last paragraphs, it’s a very long post. Read it all, if you don’t have time just read this part below and get back to the whole thing later. to read it all click the blue heading.

An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh and His Listeners — With Notes on the Democrat Civil War Already In Progress
[.......]
Hear that, Ben Nelson…voters will be coming for you.
You and everyone like you.
Every last one of you.

If you voted for Obamacare, you are politically dead but may not know it…and it is your own fault. Being intensely stupid is no defense. If you were a YES vote on anything related to Obamacare you are going to be defeated…if not in 2010, then in the primaries in 2012. If you survive those, you will be taken down in the 2012 general election. Your political career is over…dummy.


Hope your time on the Obama Kool-Aid bandwagon was worth ruining your life over.

We will not forget those Obamacare votes. We will not forgive being called a racist because we don’t support this terrible man and his awful agenda. We will not be silenced.

We will not give up.

It’s going to be years, if ever, before the lamestream media ever catches up to any of this, and realizes that a large swath of people who used to be Democrat loyalists are now doing everything they can to destroy the party. Some of them are out and open, like me and my friends here at HillBuzz, but many are doing their part quietly. They just stop writing checks. Or maybe now they write checks to Democrat opponents. They might continue to attend events and fundraisers, but now they call up Republican sites and give them all the dirt on what they heard in those meetings. The Democrat Party alienated so many people who are now working to bring it down that I could go on for pages and pages more on this topic.

It’s very Sidney Bristow, Rush. And if you watched that show Alias, you’d know she not only won in the end, but looked damn good kicking ass while doing it.

THAT, El Rushbo, is what your “Hillary babes” are up to.
Here in Boystown, and in every town, because the Civil War Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Obama started on May 31st, 2008 is raging without end until the Democrat Party is no more.

Tell your listeners to count on that.

Kevin DuJan
Editor-in-Chief, HillBuzz.org
Hillary “Babe” in Buzzquarters, Boystown

On making sexual objects of children

Rebecca Hagelin has a column in Townhall.com concerning the sexualization of Halloween costumes for children. She is not talking about what the boys are wearing. We have watched for the past decade as children's, and I include teens as children, clothing became more and more slutty. Styles we used to think were for prostitues, or at the least Victoria's Secret, are commonly seen on the racks of clothing for girls. Boy's clothing is still boy's clothing but you have to look to find demure girl's clothing.

Here is what Hagelin says about the Halloween costumes:

Halloween's Sexual Trend

Halloween is around the corner, so you’re expecting a steady train of ghosts, Hollywood heroes, and princesses to knock on your door.

Well, brace yourself. Princesses look different these days. The pre-teen and teenage girls who show up are likely to be wearing trampy costumes that say “s-e-x,” rather than “trick or treat.” We all know that girls are being sexualized by the culture at younger and younger ages in their daily wear. But Halloween costumes have taken things to a new low, making our little girls into sex objects even midst what is supposed to be an evening of childhood fun. The sad reality is that we live in a pop culture that is obsessed with trying to make our boys and girls think about sex all the time.

Lots of parents have issues with Halloween for religious reasons – their consciences don’t allow them to feel comfortable celebrating what they see has a night paying homage to evil. Many have opted to let their children participate in the innocent and fun act of trick or treating by setting rules that they can’t dress in costumes that glorify mutilation and death. Now they’ve got to look out for the hyper-sexualized costumes too.

You need to read the rest, go here.

Someone wants to take over the news business

This is from Townhall.com.   It is not a surprise, but what she did last week blew her cover completely.

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller Key Architect of FCC Govt Takeover of the News
by Tara Servatius
Last week, National Public Radio CEO Vivian Schiller took a break from her crusade for a government takeover of the media to swat a fly. With now-former NPR analyst Juan Williams suitably splattered across the evening news after politically incorrect comments he made on Fox News, Schiller can return to her real passion – the creation of a national network to ensure that in the future, you get your news from the government in general and NPR in particular.

Schiller could barely contain her rage at Fox News and at Williams last week, saying he should discuss his fear of boarding a plane with Muslim passengers with “his psychiatrist.” Those who understand what is at stake saw the Williams/Schiller dust up for what it really was – a declaration of war by one of the most powerful women in journalism against for-profit, non-liberal media. If Schiller and her liberal friends have their way, Fox and its viewers will pay the bill for her new government news network.

As Schiller explained in a speech to the NPR board of directors in 2009, it is public radio’s responsibility to fill the gap in journalism left by dying local television stations and newspapers.

Schiller, a former New York Times executive, is one of a few dozen power players working with the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and a leftist group called Free Press to “reinvent journalism.” That’s how the FTC describes it. The FCC calls what they are doing the “Future of Journalism.” Free Press, a think tank funded by leftist billionaire George Soros, among others, calls it “the new public media.”

It’s all the same thing, a plan to take over local news coverage from for-profit television, radio and print media, which Schiller and her friends claim is in danger of extinction. These “friends” get together regularly with the heads of the FCC and FTC to brainstorm the details in government and congressional meetings. These meetings include the leaders of all the country’s public broadcasting outlets, including PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and American Public Media.

Wikileaks- the real truth is what we already knew

This is the opinion of an editorial in the Washington Post today.  They say, "Wikileaks's leaks mostly confirm earlier Iraq reporting," and then go on to explain how. The only thing they left out is that the leak confirms what we already knew, they did find chemical WMD's.  Anyone who was actually paying attention and reading all the blogs, especially the military blogs, would have known that all along.  And as for the rockets, early on one or more of the Iraqi bloggers wrote of seeing trucks with missiles rolling on into Syria in the dark of the night. 
Go read the article for all they confirm that we already knew. 

Something to Ponder, or is it?

David Broder occasionally get it right, sort of.  This column of his sounds like he is very reasoned until you get to the last three paragraphs and see it is a recommendation for the Republicans and Obama to comprimise.  I certainly don't think that can happen and pray that it doesn't.
The title sounds reasonable enough What America might learn from the British austerity model.
The first two paragraphs seem reasonable:

The most important political news last week came from across the Atlantic, where the coalition government of British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered an austerity budget that radically reduces government spending on the welfare state. Both the policy and the political circumstances that brought it about have profound implications for the United States.
This country has wandered far -- not quite as far as Britain has -- toward the pending fiasco that threatens leftist regimes worldwide, and the reaction here in the Nov. 2 midterm elections is likely to be as painful for President Obama and the Democrats as the May 6 election was for Labor's Gordon Brown.

This sounds reasonable:

George Osborne, Cameron's chancellor of the exchequer, did not mince words. He told Parliament, "Today is the day when Britain steps back from the brink, when we confront the bills from a decade of debt." Britain's budget deficit, now 11.4 percent of the size of its overall economy, is not that much larger than the United States' -- 8.9 percent -- but the debate has been similar in both countries.

The middle explains what is happening in Great Britain and somewhat reasonable (read it here)
UH OH!  Here's where reasonable ends:

The American political system virtually precludes the possibility of a coalition government. But the midterm elections provide the opportunity for a similar breakthrough. If Republicans emerge next month with sufficient leverage in the House and Senate to approach Obama with a proposition, they could insist that he "do a Cameron" when it comes to federal spending: a radical rollback now in the welfare state in return for a two-year truce on such policy questions as repeal of the health-care law.  (This is a part I could go for)


The vehicle could well be Obama's strong endorsement of the Dec. 1 report from his fiscal responsibility commission, which is expected to emphasize spending discipline over raising revenue. This would offer major gains to both parties, and set the stage for another experiment in the British model. (This is where you just know David Broder expects us to compromise)

Can't we just all get along? NO!!!  Am I being too hard on Broder? Let me know what you think.

There is a lot of Just Not Getting It about the teaparties in the news today

Where shall I start? Well, the first one I read was in the Washington Post.  There are more, because I have been interrupted  a number of times I'm going with two.

Tea party's wide publicity belies its limited scope  Gauging the scope of the tea party movement in America - They spent a month trying to canvass all the tea parties but didn't find many-- I guess not. We sure didn't hear from them. Therefore, WE do not exist. How many others did they miss? They don't know.

Reason Magazine has this one about a whole convention just to analyse us.  My, how our importance seems to have grown! I hope they figure us out, they will really be frightened just in time for Halloween.

Radical Shriek
Lefty academics convene in Berkeley to try to make sense of the Tea Party movement.
By David Weigel
BERKELEY, Calif.—On the night before we are scheduled to address this conference, the Tea Party experts are treated to a meal at the Faculty Club. It sounds fancy, and it is, with the feel and décor of a Sundance ski lodge. Over craft beers, wine, and cheese, we discuss that favorite topic of liberal academics: What the hell happened to Barack Obama? Why does the right have all the energy that he and the left used to own?
[....]
We sit down and we're given the full details for the conference: "Fractures, Alliances, and Mobilizations: Emerging Analyses of the Tea Party Movement." It's the first event of its kind hosted by Berkeley's two-year-old Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements. The San Francisco Chronicle's Debra Saunders and I are two reporters invited to speak; everyone else is an academic, a think tanker, or a political researcher. One of the authors of the NAACP's report on "Tea Party Nationalism" is here, as is Nixonland author Rick Perlstein.
But the focus is going to be on the academics and the activists, on and off the stage. They want to know what the hell is going on. They are in Berkeley, where they are used to venerating left-wing activism and putting up sandbags against the once-a-decade conservative wave—Reagan (twice), Proposition 13 (about property taxes), Proposition 209 (about affirmative action), George W. Bush. The Tea Party, though? A bunch of people who reverse-engineer Saul Alinsky and yell "Keep the government out of Medicare" and have conservatives shouting down politicians and filling street corners.

Bless their hearts!  They have a lot to learn.

Taking back America - this makes me smile

From Gateway Pundit:
Unreal. Far Left Debate Moderator & OFA Worker Scolds “Phony Patriots” in Audience For Reciting Pledge at Congressional Debate (Video)


Read the whole story here.

Charles Krauthammer on Obama

He has such a way with words. In the Washington Post:

Obama Underappreciation Syndrome
In an increasingly desperate attempt to develop a narrative for the coming Democratic collapse, the Democrats have indulged themselves in what for half a century they've habitually attributed to the American right -- the paranoid style in American politics. The talk is of dark conspiracies -- secret money, foreign influence, big corporations, with Karl Rove and, yes, Ed Gillespie lurking ominously behind the scenes. The only thing missing is the Halliburton-Cheney angle.

But after trotting out some of these charges with a noticeable lack of success, President Obama has come up with something new, something less common, something more befitting his stature and intellect. He's now offering a scientific, indeed neurological, explanation for his current political troubles. The electorate apparently is deranged by its anxieties and fears to the point where it can't think straight. Part of the reason "facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time," he explained to a Massachusetts audience, "is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared. And the country is scared."

Opening a whole new branch of cognitive science -- liberal psychology -- Obama has discovered a new principle: The fearful brain is hard-wired to act befuddled, i.e., vote Republican.

Krauthammer the psychiatrist  doesn't like it when his kraft is misused. Especially when the one misusing it is the president of the United States calling some of us to task for not loving him.  Read it all here, he does have such a way with words.

Tea Party to the Rescue: How the GOP was saved from Bush and the establishment.

I consider Peggy to be one of the elitists in the Republican Party, i.e., like where she thinks she got this but other Republicans didn't, however, she got this right. The Tea Party saved the Republican Party.

Peggy Noonan:
In a practical sense, the tea party saved the Republican Party in this cycle by not going third-party. It could have. The broadly based, locally autonomous movement seems to have made a rolling decision, group by group, to take part in Republican primaries and back Republican hopefuls. (According to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, four million more Republicans voted in primaries this year than Democrats, the GOP's highest such turnout since 1970. I wonder who those people were?)

Two central facts give shape to the historic 2010 election. The first is not understood by Republicans, and the second not admitted by Democrats.
The first: the tea party is not a "threat" to the Republican Party, the tea party saved the Republican Party. In a broad sense, the tea party rescued it from being the fat, unhappy, querulous creature it had become, a party that didn't remember anymore why it existed, or what its historical purpose was. The tea party, with its energy and earnestness, restored the GOP to itself.
This is a good analysis of what has happened and is happening now. I hope the Republicans left in the House and Senate understand as well.
Read it all here

In a practical sense, the tea party saved the Republican Party in this cycle by not going third-party. It could have. The broadly based, locally autonomous movement seems to have made a rolling decision, group by group, to take part in Republican primaries and back Republican hopefuls. (According to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, four million more Republicans voted in primaries this year than Democrats, the GOP's highest such turnout since 1970. I wonder who those people were?)
Because of this, because they did not go third-party, Nov. 2 is not going to be a disaster for the Republicans, but a triumph.
The tea party did something the Republican establishment was incapable of doing: It got the party out from under George W. Bush. The tea party rejected his administration's spending, overreach and immigration proposals, among other items, and has become only too willing to say so. In doing this, the tea party allowed the Republican establishment itself to get out from under Mr. Bush: "We had to, boss, it was a political necessity!" They released the GOP establishment from its shame cringe.
And they not only freed the Washington establishment, they woke it up.

Gateway Pundit on NPR and Juan Williams

NPR: Where “Teabag” Videos Are Defended But Blaming 9-11 on Muslims Will Get You Fired
National Public Radio used taxpayer dollars to bash teabaggers on their website–
“Learn to Speak Teabag”
Go there and see their outrageous sense of humor.  And we are paying good money for this.  Of course, we are not paying as much as George Soros.

Obama worries about the Chamber of Commerce when this is happening.

George Soros Gives Media Matters $1M to Thwart Fox News
By John Hudson
For years, liberal billionaire George Soros has denied claims that he funds the left-wing media watchdog group Media Matters. However, on Wednesday he announced that he's giving the group $1 million:

Despite repeated assertions to the contrary by various Fox News commentators, I have not to date been a funder of Media Matters. However, in view of recent evidence suggesting that the incendiary rhetoric of Fox News hosts may incite violence, I have now decided to support the organization. Media Matters is one of the few groups that attempts to hold Fox News accountable for the false and misleading information they so often broadcast. I am supporting Media Matters in an effort to more widely publicize the challenge Fox News poses to civil and informed discourse in our democracy.

I think he has funded many liberal sites online that strive to banish Fox news and any right wing site to complete oblivion.

Term Limits on Congress

This email has been making the rounds.  It is gets to the heart of the problem with congress.
Congressional Reform Act of 2010

1. Term Limits. 12 years only, one of the possible options below..

A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension.
   A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
 All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.
Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace was shown last night as the last rescue worker was lifted from the mine.

It was amazing grace that allowed the miners to live for 17 days while trapped so far underground.

It was amazing grace that allowed the technology to drill deep into the earth to rescue the miners.

But the greatest amazing grace was in the heart of the first rescuer to go down into the mine to be with the miners and assess them medically. Those who followed him showed amazing love and grace and I suspect any one of them would  have been happy to be the first..

We all rejoiced for each miner as they were lifted out. I was afraid the press was going to leave the scene after the last miner came up.  The reporters I was listening to expected the president to leave after his speech. They watched the buses and commented on the fact they expected to see him leave by car or plane.  But no, he was there to greet the last and first miner to exit the mine. 

I saw at least four of the major talking heads almost break up in tears, I saw Paul Begala almost overcome when speaking after saying his family prayed for the rescue. The grace of God was surely in the rescue.

It all seemed miraculous, but it was the grace in the hearts of the miners,  the rescuers and the people of Chile and around the world that touched me. This is the global thinking I like to see.  All of the miners I watched, their families, and even reporters, were thanking God for the rescue. It was Amazing Grace.

Columbus Day 2010

This continent come a long way since 1492.  Many people believe we should not be celebrating Columbus but instead should be shamed by what has happened since his arrival on the shores of an island nearby.

I came of age in 1950's, I learned what the history books told us then.  Since my days in school much has been learned of history, interesting to me, political fodder to others.

Daniel Greenfield writing in Canada Free Press puts it much better than I could ever say. Goodbye Columbus, Goodbye America he writes. Here is some of what he writes:

Columbus Day, once considered a major event, has been undergoing a decline in recent years. Columbus Day parades have met with protests and some have been de-emphasized or outright eliminated. In Denver, the Columbus Day Parade was met by protesters holding signs, such as, “Kick cracker bums off Indian land”.
John Hickenlooper, the Democratic candidate for Governor in Colorado, helped fund violent anti-Columbus Day protests, which featured multiple arrests. In Santa Barbara, a rally will featured a hanged Columbus effigy.
In California, Columbus Day has become Indigenous People’s Day, which sounds vaguely like a Marxist terrorist group’s holiday. But while it’s tempting to put that down to California’s political correctness, in South Dakota, Columbus Day became Native American Day, and that is a trend that other states are likely to follow, as protests continue to grow. And while none have thus far followed Venezuela’s lead in renaming it Día de la Resistencia Indígena, or Day of Indigenous Resistance, which actually is a Marxist terrorist group’s holiday, the whole notion of celebrating the discovery of America has come to be seen as somehow shameful and politically incorrect.
[...........]
While Ferdinand and Isabella may have brought Columbus back in chains, modern day political correctness banishes him to the darkened dungeon of non-personhood, erasing him from history and replacing him with a note reading, “I’m Sorry We Ever Discovered America.”

Much more to read about this, read it here.

It's still Bush's fault

This Time article which seems to say Obama isn't up to it in reality is just critizing his style, it is still Bush's fault.  Obama just isn't saying the right things, in the right way.  Here is what Halperin has to say:

Most of Obama's private (and sometimes public) rebuttals to the voices slamming him on all sides are justified or spot on. He did inherit a lot of problems from the Bush Administration. He did act quickly in the initial weeks of his Administration to stave off a worldwide depression. His efforts at job creation have been obstructed by Republicans (even the proposals based on policies supported by the GOP in the past). His opponents haven't put forth specifics of their own, nor offered genuine compromise, while the media have allowed the right's activists and gabbers to run wild with criticism without furnishing legitimate alternative solutions.

See, he is doing his best. Here's more, it's all our fault.

But Obama has exacerbated his political problems not just by failing to enact policies that would have actually turned the economy around, but also by authorizing a series of tactical moves intended to demonize Republicans and distract from the problems at hand. He has wasted time lambasting his foes when he should have been putting forth his agenda in a clear, optimistic fashion, defending the benefits of his key decisions during the past two years (health care and the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for example) and explaining what he would do with a re-elected Democratic majority to spur growth.

Poor man, it's not his fault. We made him spend time blaming others.  Blame Bush, blame Republicans, blame Rush, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, blame anyone else, just don't ever admit there is a president in office who has an agenda that is against the great nation he leads.
Read the article here.

Corruption just goes on, no Change at all, November is coming, so there is Hope

Another from the Wall Street Journal.

Congressional Staffers Gain From Trading in Stocks
By BRODY MULLINS, TOM MCGINTY and JASON ZWEIG

Chris Miller nearly doubled his $3,500 stock investment in a renewable-energy firm in 2008. It was a perfectly legal bet, but he's no ordinary investor.

Mr. Miller is the top energy-policy adviser to Nevada Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who helped pass legislation that wound up benefiting the firm.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid's office, initially defended Mr. Miller's purchase of shares in the company, Energy Conversion Devices Inc. He said the aide had no influence over tax incentives for renewable-energy firms, and that other factors boosted the stock.

But on Sunday, Mr. Manley added: "Mr. Miller showed poor judgment and Senator Reid has made it very clear to Chris and all his staff that their actions must not only follow the law, but must meet the higher standards the public has a right to expect from elected officials and their staffs."

Mr. Miller isn't the only Congressional staffer making such stock bets. At least 72 aides on both sides of the aisle traded shares of companies that their bosses help oversee, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of more than 3,000 disclosure forms covering trading activity by Capitol Hill staffers for 2008 and 2009.

I know I am preaching to the choir here, but my friends, this is why we need a huge change in Washington.  This is why we cannot have entrenched politicians who think the rules are not for them.  Term limits, even is only at the ballot box, are very badly needed.
Read the rest of this article here. Oops it is behind the lockbox, try it tomorrow.

The Adminstration is using DOJ and IRS to try to squelch opponents

UPDATED below
This is according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

Shutting Up Business
Democrats unleash the IRS and Justice on donors to their political opponents.
If at first you don't succeed, get some friends in high places to shut your opponents up. That's the latest Washington power play, as Democrats and liberals attack the Chamber of Commerce and independent spending groups in an attempt to stop businesses from participating in politics.
[....]
Chairman Max Baucus of the powerful Senate Finance Committee got the threats going last month when he asked Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman to investigate if certain tax exempt 501(c) groups had violated the law by engaging in too much political campaign activity. Lest there be any confusion about his targets, the Montana Democrat flagged articles focused on GOP-leaning groups, including Americans for Job Security and American Crossroads.

......In a letter to the Federal Election Commission, Minnesota Senator Al Franken expressed his profound concern that "foreign corporations are indirectly spending significant sums to influence American elections through third-party groups." From the man who stole his Senate election in a dubious recount, this is rich.

Even Mr. Franken admits in his letter that the Chamber's commingling of funds in its general accounts is not "per se illegal," but apparently he thinks it's fine to unleash federal investigators because the Chamber cash might contribute to the defeat of fellow Democrats.

The outrage over the Chamber is especially amusing considering the role of foreigners in U.S. labor unions. According to the Center for Competitive Politics, close to half of the unions that are members of the AFL-CIO are international. One man's corporate commingling is another's union dues.

There is more in the editorial, I have copied just a little. Read it all here.

UPDATE: I had guests yesterday so didn't do much online or watch the Sunday News shows. Apparently I missed CBS laughing at Axelrod over their attempt to slam the Chamber:

Schieffer Mocks Axelrod: Is Complaining About GOP Ad Dollars ‘The Best You Can Do?’
by Noel Sheppard

CBS’s Bob Schieffer on Sunday mocked President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod for echoing last week’s unsubstantiated charge by a liberal website that the Chamber of Commerce is funneling foreign money to support Republican candidates.

“The New York Times looked into the Chamber specifically and said the Chamber really isn’t putting foreign money into the campaign,” said the Face the Nation host.

“This part about foreign money, that appears to be peanuts,” chided Schieffer.
When Axelrod continued to press the issue, Schieffer said almost laughing, “If the only charge, three weeks into the election that the Democrats can make is that there’s somehow this may or may not be foreign money coming into the campaign, is that the best you can do?”

Indeed, which means that in the course of roughly 24 hours, both the New York Times and Bob Schieffer thought CAP’s claim was largely a bunch of baloney.

Even the folks at CBS remember where a lot of the Obama campaign money came from...
Read it all at Newsbusters.

Waivers, Waivers, Who Got the Waivers?

So far we've got two big groups who have waivers.  We first heard that McDonald's was seeking a waiver for their workers.  This was immediately denied by the White House spokespeople.  Then we got this from Investors Business Daily:

The Unraveling Of ObamaCare
So now McDonald's has its waiver, for 115,000 workers, not just 30,000. Jack in the Box also has a waiver, as do 28 other companies and organizations. The largest waiver, for 351,000 people, is for, appropriately enough, a union — specifically the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund, a New York brotherhood that covers teachers.

The United Agricultural Benefit Trust, a California-based cooperative that provides such low-cost minimal coverage to farmworkers, was allowed to exempt 17,347 workers. Even what has been dubbed RomneyCare gets a waiver, with Massachusetts' universal health coverage bureaucracy getting an exemption for about 5,000 people.

Remember the days of sharing the burden and spreading the wealth? These 30 waivers exempt coverage for around a million workers, teachers, farmers and young people who can now go to the polls with a little less angst. The rest of us working for other companies and small businesses who got no waivers aren't so lucky.

The irony here is that most of these million workers are on the lower end of the income scale, the very people ObamaCare was supposed to help by getting them the insurance they couldn't afford on their own. They nearly got priced out of the market.

Then on the heels of that announcement comes this:

Union Pushes for ObamaCare Then Is Granted Waiver
by Kyle Olson
The irony would be humorous if it weren’t so sad: The United Federation of Teachers, the New York City branch of the American Federation of Teachers, which pushed ardently for ObamaCare has now requested – and received – a waiver from its mandates.

The UFT is a member of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT). In September 2009, the NYSUT’s website published “Health care reform: facts vs. myths.” Here’s an excerpt:

* Myth: Health care reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors.
* Fact: You can keep your existing insurance; reform will expand your medical options, not eliminate them.

ObamaCare was such a great idea at the time - the AFT gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Healthcare for America Now, the leading organization pushing for the government takeover of health care.

It was announced Thursday that the UFT has requested and received an Obamacare-waiver after it discovered their members would end up losing their health insurance plans. Uh oh.

Be sure to go to the IBD site and Big Government to read these articles and others. Very interesting.

Rush and the Elite, it makes me think of Truman

Truman was part of a political machine but not an elitist, not of the elite.  He was from Missouri for heaven's sake!  He had an accent, too!! Oh dear, think what they would say today!
From Human Events:

Battling Political Elitism with Rush Limbaugh
by Jedediah Bila

Rush Limbaugh routinely hits home runs when battling the Left’s intolerance, hypocrisy, and tax-and-spend agenda. But on October 1, he hit a grand slam against what’s eating away at the conservative movement right in our own backyard—political elitism.

Rush addressed his monologue “to those of you who are embarrassed of Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell and the Tea Party in general, Sharron Angle, maybe Carl Paladino rubs you the wrong way. You think they're nuts, they embarrass you. I mean they're conservatives and they're Republicans and so are you, but you think they're a little kooky. You don't even think they can win.”

He declared, “I want people who have lived lives, who have made mistakes, don't care who knows it, they've learned from them, they've made amends, and they have moved on with their lives. I'm tired, frankly, of Republicans throwing candidates under the bus for not being the political equivalent of Mother Teresa or not being professional enough to get elected.”

Amen to that.

Many of us have watched conservative big shots and members of the media elite lash out at Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, and others. Why? It’s simple: Despite the fact that Palin, O’Donnell, and Angle sport strong conservative messages, those messages haven’t arrived in the conventional, Beltway-approved packages that appeal to many of Washington’s political elite.

I completely agee.  Read it all.

Headline links for a busy morning

California is really, really into this election!
Brown or aide is heard slurring Whitman
Overestimate fueled state's landmark diesel law
California had to help the statistics to change the diesel laws.
State to block access to welfare cards from casinos and cruise ship(this didn't happen before it came out a few days ago)  via Drudge Report

Economy loses 95K jobs due to government layoffs (I heard this mentioned on THREE news stations this morning but had to read the online Houston Chronicle to see it was Government jobs)

Chinese dissident wins Nobel; China outraged  This  is great news, it is about time!

Stimulus checks sent to dead people

I may post more today, but this will make up for not posting yesterday.  Busy with life.

I don't really believe this will increase our security, just decrease our privacy

We have to stop this way of thinking!!

White House Preparing National Online ID Plan

The proposed system for authenticating people, organizations and infrastructure on the web at the transactional level will require an identity ecosystem.

By Mathew J. Schwartz, in InformationWeek

The Obama administration is set to propose a new system for authenticating people, organizations and infrastructure on the Web. The online authentication and identity management system would be targeted at the transactional level -- for example, when someone logs into their banking website or completes an online e-commerce purchase.

Making such a system effective, however, will require creating an "identity ecosystem," backed by extensive public/private cooperation, said White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt, delivering the opening keynote speech at the Symantec Government Symposium 2010 in Washington on Tuesday.

"This strategy cannot exist in isolation," he said. "It's going to take all of us working together." Furthermore, "we should not have to dramatically change the way we do business -- this should be a natural path forward," he said.

That path forward will hinge on a new draft of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, due to be released Friday for the first time to the public, for a three-week comment period. Formerly known as the National Strategy for Secure Online Transactions, the report offers specific strategy and implementation recommendations, and may also recommend more sweeping policy and privacy changes.

The report builds on the Obama-commissioned Cyberspace Policy Review, which analyzed the government's information and communications infrastructure defensive capabilities. One of the report's recommendations was to "build a cybersecurity-based identity management vision and strategy that addresses privacy and civil liberties interests, leveraging privacy-enhancing technologies for the nation."

Simply issuing a Web-friendly biometric identification card to everyone in the country, of course, wouldn't necessarily make anyone or anything more secure, including online transactions. As the report also notes, to be effective, security tools and technology must be complemented by education. "There is always a necessity to do awareness and education of the end user," said Schmidt. "But you're not trying to teach the end user how to be a security expert."

Folks, this is so important I copied the whole thing. Thanks to Jim Little for sending me the link.

Dana Milbank misses the point while pointing it out

Just read his article in the Washington Post and a sentence just cried out to be commented on.

Who's a real conservative? It's all relative
by Dana Milbank
A couple of weeks ago, in a column about how conservatives are cannibalizing the likes of   Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bob Bennett of Utah, I had the nerve to describe Murkowski, a member of the Senate GOP leadership, as a "faithful conservative."

"Dear Mr. Milbank," began an e-mail from Myron Ebell, a climate-change skeptic at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. "Your column today would be more convincing if its broad assertions had some connection to facts."
[....]
I took Ebell up on his challenge. What I found was astonishing -- although not in the way he had supposed. Comparing the ACU ratings of Murkowski and Bennett with those of other Republicans in the House and Senate going back to 1971 (the first year in the ACU online ratings archive), I discovered that if conservatives were to employ the purity standards they applied to Murkowski and Bennett, they would have rejected many, if not most, of the leading Republican lawmakers of the past 40 years.

"Dear Mr. Milbank," I wrote, "that is the point. That IS the reason for the tea parties."

1934 Editorial Cartoon

Just check

A few days ago I went to my regular beauty shop to get my hair cut. The lady who does this is a down to earth hard working lady. She has her beauty shop, although we don’t call them that anymore, she drives a school bus, and she had one child that she backs up every step of the way. And, most interesting of all to me, she’s a Democrat. The blue dog kind. And she is furious. Why?

Because she found out at safety meeting for the bus drivers last week that somehow, the schools in our parish (that is what Louisiana calls its counties) were going to be open on the November 2nd election day.

Around here, just like most of the rest of the country, a lot of our schools are voting precincts. Neither one of us have ever heard of one being left open on election day.

First of all, contemplate the logistics of such a thing. Busses, kids, cars, voters, all trying to get to the right place in a timely manner. That alone is enough to discourage voters. All of this while classes are in session.

Second of all, what about the safety of the children in those classes? There isn’t a school around now that allows ANYone to just traipse onto their school grounds in this day and age. Do you know of any? I sure don’t. We are all so very aware of what can go wrong if the wrong person is allowed on a school campus. The adults at the school are hyper-vigilant about strangers. They have to be, they are held responsible for the safety of those kids.

But somehow this got overlooked? By an entire school board? ! I don’t know that I’m buying that, and I KNOW that this particular bus driver didn’t.

I am so proud of her! She stood up and demanded an explanation. Which got blown off by the presenters . So she called her school board, and her local representative, and finally, the president of the school board. She was offered a few excuses, and of course, the blame was spread around, but finally, after having it pointed out who might be personally responsible if something went wrong, the school board president decided that maybe they should close the schools that day after all.

We both wondered at the time, if this is happening here, in a small rural community, where else is it happening? Other parishes? The whole state? Other states? THE WHOLE COUNTRY???

Okay, I’ll admit it. I started to freak at that point. Was I being a wee bit paranoid? A little over the top? Maybe. Mistakes do happen, and this is such a little thing, but a little thing that could have HUGE repercussions throughout my state, and throughout my country. I could not just sit back and expect that someone would catch that little mistake everywhere.

 So I emailed the local Republican party site. My letter bounced back. So I tried the local tea party sites. One had no contact information, the other seemed a little flaky, but hey! At least I could contact that one. So I left him a message on his Face Book page. He friended me, but I didn’t get a reply. Ooookay. I sent an email to a local conservative (or as conservative as the can be) television station. No reply.

So now this is going to get posted here. I hope someone picks up on it.

Check with your school boards, your school districts. I don’t care who they are, or what they are. Just check.

All of middle America, no matter what the party affiliation should be concerned about this and about the direction our country is going.

Just check.

Dedroy Murdock reports on DC's quest for more Western acreage

They already own a good part of the Western lands, they just want more, more, more.
This is from Human Events.

Washington Wants Even More Acres To Mismanage
by Deroy Murdock

BOZEMAN, Montana — The next Congress should enact a moratorium on land nationalization. The feds should stop fleecing exhausted taxpayers for fresh billions to purchase new acreage for Uncle Sam to mismanage.

Washington, D.C. already lords over some 650 million acres, or 29 percent of America’s land. The federal government owns 45.3 percent of California, 48 percent of Arizona, 57.45 percent of Utah, 69 percent of Alaska, and 84.5 percent of Nevada. No state from the Rockies west is less than 30 percent federal, as are Montana and Washington.

But that is not enough.

Uncle Sam is like a hyperactive brat who trips over his abandoned train set and stumbles over his Legos while running out to slap a shiny, new dirt bike on Daddy’s credit card. Washington constantly expands the federal estate, even while mishandling its existing properties.

In March 2009, President Obama designated 2 million federal acres as “wilderness,” thus limiting public access and uses thereon. Unsated, Obama last April announced America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, a national listening tour to concoct new ways for Washington to interfere in natural-resource matters. A report due November 15 will include ideas for “creating corridors and connectivity” across exterior spaces, most likely through land procurement.

Even scarier is a secret Bureau of Land Management (BLM) discussion paper leaked to Senator Jim DeMint (R – South Carolina) and Rep. Robert Bishop (R – Utah). Labeled “Internal Draft — NOT FOR RELEASE,” this document confirms the federal government’s infinite desire for physical enlargement.

Read the details here.

Divorce and Conservative Christians

We need to think about this.

Conservative Christians Tackle Divorce, The 'Other' Marriage Crisis
While the campaign by social conservatives against gay marriage has grabbed headlines and consumed millions of lobbying dollars from religious groups, the wider crisis of divorce among straight couples -- especially evangelicals and often their leaders and political icons -- has been largely ignored by Christian conservatives.

That may be changing, however, with the latest evidence coming in a powerful essay published on Sept. 29 titled "Divorce -- The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience," by R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of the most prominent conservative Christian voices in America.
In the column on his website, Mohler reiterates that the fight against abortion remains a priority, and that battling same-sex marriage "demands our attention and involvement as well."

"But," he continues, "divorce harms many more lives than will be touched by homosexual marriage."

  Read the rest.  This is a big social problem in our country and perhaps should be getting more attention than gay marriage.  According to a new suvery on sexuality only 7% of women and 8% of men are homosexual.  They are certainly accorded much more publicity than those figures should allow.

Tea Parties -- a summation

Glenn Reynolds has an editorial in today's Washington Examiner.
Dan Karipides sums it up nicely at Wizbang.

As is often the case, Glenn makes a few points with simple clarity.

Democratic and Republican politicians alike fear it, and increasing numbers of Americans (including, in recent months, increasing numbers of African-Americans according to a PJTV Tea Party tracking poll) identify with the Tea Party movement and say they are more likely to vote for candidates it supports, and less likely to vote for candidates it opposes.

You'll note that the slur "teabagger" has fallen out of fashion. Attempts to marginalize the movement have died down as leadership on both sides have begun to realize just how much momentum it has.

Both political parties are out of touch, and ordinary Americans are very unhappy about it, as they watch the Treasury being looted, the economy sink, and the political, journalistic, and financial ruling-class figures escaping the consequences of their ham-handed and self-serving actions.
But while ordinary Americans are mad as hell, this time they really don't have to take it any more. Institutions have failed them, but Internet tools like blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, and personal tools -- like the cheap handheld video cameras that beat back bogus charges of Tea Party racism again and again -- mean that they don't have to rely on failing institutions.

He ends with a warning to the current GOP leadership.

But those establishment GOP figures who think that they'll cruise to victory and a return to the pocket-stuffing business-as-usual that marked the prior GOP majority need to think again. This election cycle is, in a very real sense, a last chance for the Republicans. If they blow it, we're likely to see third-party challenges in 2012, not only at the Presidential level but in numerous Congressional races as well.

For the national GOP, it's do-or-die time. So guys, you'd better perform -- unless you want me to be writing another "I told you so" column in 2013. And trust me, you don't.

Read it all at Wizbang or the original at the Washington Examiner.

What do You Believe?

I got this from Annie Kitay.  We know what she believes.  Do you? Are you willing to work for it?

God Blessed this Land : Will Man do the Same

Ask me what I believe in - c'mon ask me! I believe in only three things.

I believe in God. The God who created all that is known and unknown. He sees all and knows all. When He created me I was given the right to obey Him or not. The right to love Him or not. He set down only 10 rules that He wanted us to follow or not. Those rules would guarantee us a good life if we stuck to them.

I believe that those lumps of clay known as our Founding Fathers were guided by God. They struggled, failed, tried again and corrected and edited then added to the paper that defines our form of government. What you want to bet that when their kerosene was running low that God Himself kept the light burning and shining. He watched them closely and dare I say probably inspired some of their better stuff.

I believe that I am supremely blessed to have been born in this land - this land originally formed by God's Hand - this land that explorers sailed uncharted waters for centuries looking for what they considered a treasure island. I did not have to know the deprivation known by so many peoples on this earth experience. The people drawn to this land were more generous as they shared in slow and hard times. They knew they needed neighbors to help them as they helped as they could. Only in this land could I strive to learn whatever tickled my fancy and speak aloud publically whether I agreed or disagreed without fear of reprisal. My status as a citizen was not determined by what I accomplished or not - I owned all the important privileges even the richest of men possessed. All citizens in this land are equal and those who started here as slaves were fought for in a civil war. Even those slaves fought along side of all citizens.

As a country we have had our drawbacks, problems, weaknesses, failures. Yet at our very core we knew we could and should do better. And only in America can we know that the sky is the limit!

Think about what America really means to you! Is she just the best and freest nation on this earth or is she much more! Ronald Reagan believed she was much more that she was 'that shining city upon a hill".

That lady in the harbor holds her torch high regardless who is president, which party is in power, rain or shine! Shame on us if we cannot bring ourselves to stand in her shoes and always remember to thank our Creator for all we are, have and can be.

VDH Explains it all so well

From the Unbelievable to the Passé
From time to time I stop and wonder how the unbelievable can become the accepted. Let me list four arbitrary, but still representative, examples of what I mean.
1) Embracing unworkable statism.
2) Higher education.
3) Technology.
4. The Plutocratic party?

These are just the headings to some very important points.  Read it all.

Good Guys - 1; Atheist 0

From CNS News:
Federal Court Rejects Atheist Lawsuit Challenging National Motto and Pledge of Allegiance Displays at Capitol Visitor Center
Freedom From Religion Foundation says it won't give up effort to remove carvings.

A federal court judge in Madison, Wis., has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of engravings of the National Motto -- “In God We Trust” -- and the Pledge of Allegiance at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Judge William M. Conley ruled that the atheist Freedom From Religious Foundation did not have the legal standing to sue the Architect of the Capitol – the office responsible for the Capitol building and grounds – to remove the engravings and that it was pointless to try to stop the engravings, since they have already been made.
Read the rest here.   via Lucianne.com