Another of Those "Gee, who knew?" Moments

It's from the Associated Press and I'll just let the headline speak for itself:
Jobless claims rise unexpectedly
click the headline to read, if you really want to.

Important News from Today

I am busy packing for a Christmas trip so do not have much time to spend posting on the blog. This is going to be a fairly long post with many links I think are very important.  I know I will be leaving out some but please read these and any links that come up with them.

From American Thinker:Merry Christmas, from Harry

     

 According to the latest news, Harry Reid has the 60 votes needed to pass Obamacare. While the legislation itself is not available for reading, to my knowledge, the Congressional Budget Office did report on it December 19. I parse that CBO report here so we know what is about to happen to us.

     The CBO does not make the accounting all that easy, despite its many tables of numbers. The number Democrats like to cite is that this plan will reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the 10 years from 2010 to 019.

     Imagine that, more people insured and the deficit reduced. How do they do that? The short answer is: over $1 trillion in Medicare cuts and tax increases. For the longer story, read on.

From Investors Business Daily:
Penetration Even At The Pentagon: Muslim Spies Setting Muslim Policy
This is Part 3, read Part 1 and Part2

   

  The internal threat from Muslim extremists in the military extends to high-level

Defense Department aides who have undermined military policy. In fact, one top Muslim adviser pushed out an intelligence analyst who warned of the sudden jihad syndrome that led to the Fort Hood terrorist attack.

     An honored guest of the Ramadan dinner at the Pentagon this September was Hesham Islam, who infiltrated the highest echelons of the Ring despite proven ties to U.S. terror front groups and a shady past in his native Egypt.     As senior adviser for international affairs to former deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, Islam ran interference for the Islamic Society of North America and other radical fronts for the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, the subject of my new book "Muslim Mafia." (Be sure to read all three parts of this.)

 
Read and support Michael Yon reporting from Afghanistan.
As Christmas Approaches
            As Christmas approaches, many people are thinking about the troops, who in turn are thinking about loved ones at home. Cards and letters are tacked up on many walls. The favorites are from the little kids, with questions like, "How do you go to the bathroom?" "Can you eat dinner?" "Does it hurt to get shooted?" It goes on.
               I emailed to Command Sergeant Major Jeff Mellinger, asking if he had any words for the troops this Christmas. Jeff came right back with this awesome letter: Read the letter here.  
 
From the Telegraph UK more on the ongoing scandal and fraud of Climategate.
Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri        

The head of the UN's climate change panel - Dr Rajendra Pachauri - is accused of making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companies, Christopher Booker and Richard North write.

       No one in the world exercised more influence on the events leading up to the Copenhagen conference on global warming than Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and mastermind of its latest report in 2007.

        Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a scientist (he was even once described by the BBC as “the world’s top climate scientist”), as a former railway engineer with a PhD in economics he has no qualifications in climate science at all.  (my emphasis)

     What has also almost entirely escaped attention, however, is how Dr Pachauri has established an astonishing worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies which have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the IPCC’s policy recommendations.

     These outfits include banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds heavily involved in ‘carbon trading’ and ‘sustainable technologies’, which together make up the fastest-growing commodity market in the world, estimated soon to be worth trillions of dollars a year. Read the whole thing.

Michael Goodwin in the NY Post writes about the Baby Boomers shame
Dreading our future                 

      I am a baby boomer, which is to say my life has coincided with turbulent and awesome times. From the Cold War to Vietnam, from Watergate to Monicagate, through the horrors of 9/11 and the stunning lifestyle advances, my generation's era has been historic and exciting.

     Yet for all the drama and change, the years only occasionally instilled in me the sensation I feel almost constantly now. I am afraid for my country.

     I am afraid -- actually, certain -- we are losing the heart and soul that made America unique in human history. Yes, we have enemies, but the greatest danger comes from within.

     Watching the freak show in Copenhagen last week, I was alternately furious and filled with dread. The world has gone absolutely bonkers and lunatics are in charge.

     Mugabe and Chavez are treated with respect and the United Nations is serious about wanting to regulate our industry and transfer our wealth to kleptocrats and genocidal maniacs.

     Even more frightening, our own leaders joined the circus. Marching to the beat of international drummers, they uncoupled themselves from the will of the people they were elected to serve.

     President Obama, for whom I voted because I believed he was the best choice available, is a profound disappointment. I now regard his campaign as a sly bait-and-switch operation, promising one thing and delivering another. Shame on me.

Read more, but remember he is one of those who voted for him and we ALL suffer for it.

 
Take a look at these important blogs:
Power Line  (poll data; Lockerbie bomber)
 
Gateway Pundit  Watch a video of John McCain stand up for Sarah Palin, I saw it live this morning and it was a treat.
 
Trying to Grok has three good links. CBO assesment from the Corner;  and why the insistence for healthcare.
 
Leon Hale, if you've read his columns through the years you will enjoy reading his blog posts. He is still great.

"Obama's Dream turning into a Nightmare?"

That question  is asked by Nile Gardiner a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. He appears frequently on American and British television and radio, including Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, Sky News, and NPR. He blogged this at the Telegraph.

Today’s Rasmussen Presidential Tracking survey will have hit the poll-obsessed Obama White House like a bullet train at full speed. For the first time, Barack Obama’s approval rating has fallen below 50 per cent among likely voters. 51 per cent of Americans now disapprove of the president, with 38 per cent strongly disapproving. The poll also reveals that 53 per cent oppose the president’s hugely controversial congressional health care reform package, and a mere 31 per cent believe America as a country is heading in the right direction under Obama’s leadership.

Go read the whole thing and be sure to read the comments.
.