Now We Need Affirmative Action In Autism?

It seems that autism afflicts whites disproportionately in one Connecticut school district. So the Obama Administration is forcing it to divert funding.

Autism rates are skyrocketing, with the latest studies showing 1 in every 110 children on the autism spectrum. Properly educating autistic children is extremely expensive, and local districts rely on federal funding to offset the cost to taxpayers. The issue also hints at a hidden trend: Parents of autistic children may be moving to certain communities because the public school district has a good reputation for educating autistic children.

Amity Superintendent of Schools John Brady said he is frustrated and shocked. His dilemma began last year when the district — which serves Bethany, Orange and Woodbridge — received a letter from the state Department of Education. The state told Amity it has too many white students who are diagnosed as autistic when compared to other racial subgroups. Amity last year had 38 white autistic students, one Asian and one black.

Amity and Vernon are the only two school systems in the state and among only a handful nationwide to have a “significant disproportionate” amount of white autistic students, state officials said.

Such a classification requires the district to divert 15 percent of its Individual with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, federal funds, or $67,000 in Amity’s case this year, toward programs designed to reduce those numbers.

Al Qaida Booby Bombs?

Is Al Qaida planning to implant bombs in the breasts of jihadettes?

[A]n operation by MI5 has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda is planning a new stage in its terror campaign by inserting ‘surgical bombs’ inside people for the first time.

Security services believe the move has been prompted by the recent introduction at airports of body scanners, which are designed to catch terrorists before they board flights.

It is understood MI5 became aware of the threat after observing increasingly vocal internet ‘chatter’ on Arab websites this year.

Enjoy Your Virgins, Asshole!

The Taliban leader in Pakistan, Hakimullah Meshud, was dispatched to paradise three days after a Hellfire missile found him.

$25 Million Contract To Obama Crony Cancelled

Cockroaches do not like having light shined on them.

The U.S. has canceled a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan awarded to a company owned by a Democratic campaign contributor who did not face competitive bids.

The cancellation comes after Fox News first reported on the details of the contract last week, prompting lawmakers to make inquiries into the deal.

State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said that USAID terminated the award and is now working on an appropriate resolution.

"If you want to say this violates the basis on which this administration came into office and campaigned, fair enough," Crowley told Fox News.

How Close We Came To Disaster

According to Tom Harkin, the Obamacare deal was done. And then, along came Brown.

Sen. Tom Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said negotiators from the White House, Senate and House reached a final deal on healthcare reform days before Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.

Labor leaders had announced an agreement with White House and congressional representatives over an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans on the Thursday before the special election.

The latest revelation shows how agonizingly close Democrats came to passing a final healthcare bill in time for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

But Sen.-Elect Brown’s stunning victory on Jan. 19 gave Republicans control of 41 seats in the Senate, enough to sustain a GOP filibuster of the healthcare bill.

Frank Rich Calls Republicans "Unpatriotic"

John McCain has many faults, but this isn't one of them.

"If Reid can serve as the face of Democratic fecklessness in the Senate, then John McCain epitomizes the unpatriotic opposition."

Frank Rich Calls John McCain "Unpatriotic"

John McCain has many faults, but this isn't one of them.

Obama's SOTU At Eighth Grade Level

Two grade levels below George W. Bush's.

I thought Obama was supposed to be the smart one.

Unlike the criticisms hurled at his predecessor, however, few have ever charged that the President, a former senior lecturer in Constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, has written or spoken too simplistically or catered his words to the lowest common denominator.

However, a Smart Politics analysis of nearly 70 oral State of the Union Addresses since the mid-1930s finds the text of Obama's speech on Wednesday evening to have one of the lowest scores on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test ever recorded by a U.S. President.

Henry Paulson's "On The Brink"

The book, scheduled to be released on February 1, 2010 claims to give the inside story on the roles Paulson, Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke played in saving the world's financial system from collapse.

I'll probably read it but, I suspect that it will be more than a bit self serving.

Captain Phil Harris Suffers A Stroke

Bad news, though not unexpected, from the Cornelia Marie.

More bad news. Jake Anderson's father is missing. Jake lost his sister last year.

Another Obama Nominee Lies To Congress

This is getting to be a habit.

Patricia Smith, President Obama's nominee for Solicitor of Labor, appears to have lied to Congress, according to e-mails released from during her tenure as Commissioner of the New York State Labor Department. As Daniel Halper explains over at The Weekly Standard,

Smith has lied about her involvement with the Wage and Hour Watch program -- five times telling senators that she had no intention to expand the program to the entire state (leaving it localized in New York City), but later emails and other documents revealed that she did indeed plan to expand the program throughout the entire state of New York.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Senators-demand-Obama-withdraw-labor-nominee-83153287.html#ixzz0e8W1tkdi

Pelosi One Flying Her Family Around The Country

That United States Air Force 757 that Emporess Pelosi demanded upon her ascension to Speaker of the House hasn't just been flying her grace around. She's been using to fly family around. That plane cost $18,000 per hour to fly - and that doesn't include the in flight booze, which has cost the taxpayers over $100,000 since she took office.

Using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, Judicial Watch uncovered thousands of pages of travel documents related to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s use of military aircraft.

What hasn’t been revealed so far is that military aircraft are being used to shuttle Pelosi’s kids and grandkids between DC and San Francisco without any Congressional representatives even onboard! Put simply, the United States Air Force is serving as a multi-billion dollar chauffeur- and baby-sitting service for Nancy Pelosi’s kids and grandkids — presumably because commercial travel is beneath the families of the autocrats.

Update here.

I saw a laughable defense of Nancy Pelosi on one newspaper website (sorry I can't remember where) that claimed that her plane did not seat 200 as conservatives claimed. It only seated 50, because it was configured all business class. In any event, the documents are out and it can't simply be swept under the rug anymore.

KSM To Be Tried In Guantanamo?

That would make sense. Which is reason enough to be skeptical.

The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night.

Administration officials said that no final decision had been made but that officials of the Department of Justice and the White House were working feverishly to find a venue that would be less expensive and less of a security risk than New York City.

The back-to-the-future Gitmo option was reported yesterday by Fox News and was not disputed by White House officials.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bay_what_gitmo_mCRoRefbWjHgmYQFT4vvIK#ixzz0e73dSHY4

How Drunk Is Patrick Leahy

Alcohol fueled blather? That must be vodka in his glass. This seems to be an ongoing Democrat thing.

Lord Obama Takes On College Football

I think the BCS is BS, but I don't think that Barack Obama should be sticking his nose into this.

The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.

In the letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the Justice Department is reviewing Hatch's request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.

"Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason," Weich wrote, including asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer protection laws.

Several lawmakers and many critics want the BCS to switch to a playoff system, rather than the ratings system it uses to determine the teams that play in the championship game.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/football/ncaa/01/29/obama.bcs.ap/index.html?xid=si_ncaaf#ixzz0e70v4nVM
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Obama Budget Includes Phantom Revenue Stream

Obama is counting on money flowing in from an imaginary Cap and Trade bill.

"The White House told Sen. John Kerry's office that the president plans to assume revenue from the controversial climate policy approach. Kerry aides said they had assurances the revenue won't be designated for issues unrelated to energy policy and combating climate change.

"Obama last year proposed in his fiscal 2010 budget that a cap-and-trade program would raise some $650 billion over 10 years via a full auction of emission credits, with the money primarily going to pay for middle-class tax cuts and development and deployment of clean energy technologies," Energy and Environment News senior reporter Darren Samuelson wrote in the publication that is subscription-only.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Obamas-2011-budget-will-include-phantom-cap-and-trade-revenue-83075057.html#ixzz0e6pKqoin

Nancy Pelosi Is Not Partisan

So says Nancy Pelosi. I'm sure there' some other reason that she refuses to even talk to Republicans.

America Embarrasses Obama

We're sorry. Or we should be.

Katrina Was The Best Thing For New Orleans Schools

That's the view of our Education Secretary, Arne Duncan.

"The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster. And it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that we have to do better. And the progress that it made in four years since the hurricane, is unbelievable. They have a chance to create a phenomenal school district. Long way to go, but that city was not serious about its education. Those children were being desperately underserved prior. And the amount of progress and the amount of reform we’re seeing in a short amount of time has been absolutely amazing. I have so much respect for the adults, the teachers, the principals that are working hard. I’ve spent a lot of time talking to students at John Mack high school there. Many who had missed school for six months, eight months, 13 months after the Hurricane and still came back to get an education. Children in our country, they want to learn. They’re resilient. They’re tough. We have to meet them half-way. We have to give them opportunity. And New Orleans is doing a phenomenal job of getting that system to an entirely different level.”

Arne should be thankful that he's not a Republican, or there would be a price to pay.

HT: The Blogfather

The Real Failures Of Obama And Abdulmutallab

"Al-Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America; he's worried that someone won't read them their rights.” Sarah Palin, September 3, 2008, during her vice presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention speaking of Barack Obama’s misplaced priorities.

Do you remember just how furiously elite opinion reacted to the line? I certainly do. I hadn’t seen the Left so angry since Karl Rove remarked in 2005 that; "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

I think that our know-it-all class owes Sarah Palin and Karl Rove apologies.

The Christmas Day bloomer bomber episode exposed the Obama Administration as people who do not take war or terrorism seriously. Just a few days before Christmas, the Obama Administration was warned that Al Qaida was likely planning an attack. Weeks before the attack, Saudi intelligence warned us that Al Qaida had developed underwear bombs. The US received a specific warning about the bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, from his own father. The warning was ignored.

But even the intelligence failures were not the worst of it. Because once they had the bomber in custody, the Obama Administration performed exactly as Sarah Palin predicted. And this matters very much. Great Britain suspended all flights from Yemen and has raised its terror alert, saying that a terrorist attack was likely. ABC News reported that American law enforcement had been warned to keep especially vigilant for at least two female suicide bombers traveling on western passports. The information is pretty vague and not particularly helpful. There are growing and imminent threats out there and we had a golden opportunity to learn more about them because we had one of the conspirators in our hands.

It might have been different had the Obama Administration not chosen to read Miranda rights to Abdulmutallab and transfer him to civilian custody. According to news reports, for nearly an hour before he was advised to shut up, he was “singing like a canary,” and provided a wealth of valuable intelligence. Since then, on advice from his government provided attorney, we’ve learned nothing. Before he was told he had a right to remain silent, Abdulmutallab told his captors that there were dozens of terrorists like him training in Yemen. Abdulmutallab is saying nothing now.

Even the Washington Post described the decision to read Miranda rights to an aspiring suicide bomber as “myopic, irresponsible and potentially dangerous.”

Just as disturbing was the information revealed this week that the decision to read Abdulmutallab his rights was taken without consulting Michael Leiter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Nor was Dennis Blair, the director of National Intelligence, asked for his input. FBI director Robert Mueller wasn’t asked either. And the secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, said she wasn't consulted. Not one of the top anti-terrorism officials was asked for an opinion on how Abdulmutallab should be handled. And according to the Associated Press: “There was no effort to call in the elite federal High-Value Interrogation Group, a special unit of terror specialists that the Obama administration said early last year it would create to deal with terror suspects captured abroad.”

But wait! There is no such thing as a High-Value Interrogation Group to call on. Although its creation was announced with great fanfare last year, in truth it exists only in the ephemeral universe of Obama’s rhetoric. It was only a ruse to give the illusion that Barack Obama actually does take terrorism seriously. Once the illusion was created and disseminated by the adoring media, little if anything has been done since. It certainly is not operational.

The decision to read Abdulmutallab his rights was clearly taken with politics and ideology in mind. Somehow the notion arose from the belief that, just as Karl Rove said, therapy is the answer to terrorism. If we treat terrorists as gently as we handle drug dealers and gang bangers, then they’ll be seduced by the transparent justice of Obama and mend their evil ways.

Obama seems as deluded as Harry Truman, who tried to convince Americans that the Korean War wasn’t really a war, but a “police action.” The more times change, the more Democrats stay the same.

Republicans Are Smarter Than Democrats

Old news really. This isn't the first time I've seen this kind of data.

When it comes to the goings-on in the news, some folks are more knowledgeable than others, with Republicans and older Americans scoring better on a current-events quiz.

In fact, out of the 12 multiple-choice questions asked in a Pew Research Center phone survey of more than 1,000 adults, Republicans answered an average of about 6 questions correctly compared with 5 for Democrats. (The survey was conducted between Jan. 14 and Jan. 17, and included cell phones and landlines.)

These political-party differences are partly a reflection of the demographics, with Republicans tending to be older, well-educated and male – all factors associated with political and economic knowledge. Even after accounting for these factors, however, Pew scientists found a gap.

We're not just smarter. We're happier too.

So, ignorance isn't bliss after all.

If Obama Is So Worried About Foreign Money In Campaigns...

Then he should ask for an investigation of his own campaign.

Clinton Wants To Do Business With The Sort of Bad Guys

Hillary Clinton say that the Obama Administration won't do business with "the really bad guys."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ruled out talking to the "really bad guys" in Afghanistan, promising that a new drive to woo moderate Taliban would not set back women's rights.

Hillary Clinton might be the only person in the administration more delusional than her boss.

Obama Seeks $54 Billion For Nuclear Energy

Is it possible that The One can do something right?

In truth, $54 billion will cover the construction costs of maybe 4 or 5 full sized plants. But it's a start, however small. And it should be applauded.

Even Paul Krugman Pronounces BS On 5.7% GDP Growth

A blip.

Rielle Wants Her Sex Tape Back

Well, if John Edwards isn't going to support his love child, such a tape might be valuable.

Patty Murray Trails Dino Rossi

Too good to be true?

The poll, conducted by OR-based Moore Information (R), shows Murray trailing two-time GOV nominee Dino Rossi (R) in a hypothetical matchup. Rossi, Moore Information pollsters Bob Moore and Hans Kaiser note, is the state’s best-known GOPer, though he has not been mentioned as a potential candidate against Murray. Rossi has lost two close elections to Gov. Chris Gregiore (D); he notably declined to run in ‘06 against Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) to challenge a second time Gregoire in ‘08.

Moore Information surveyed 500 WA registered voters on Jan. 23 and 24, with a margin of error of +/- 4.4%.

It appears that Washington voters, among other things, no longer buy the notion that we can fight terrorism with daycare centers.

The Disappointing iPad

After all the rumors and expectations, the iPad is notable for what it doesn't deliver.

It's hard to argue the fact that this week's Apple iPad launch disappointed the tech crowd, and not just because of that inexplicable name. Despite its lovely design, beefier core apps, and new e-book features and store, the iPad is hampered by a well-documented string of missing features: a camera, 16:9 support, Flash support (seriously?), multitasking, SD card slot, HDMI or high-res video output support, USB ports, GPS, and so on. Plus, it's exclusive to the AT&T network (again: seriously?) in this iteration, the pricing scheme is overly complex, and while I'm not sure it's genuinely overpriced, it's nevertheless expensive, and you can't imagine the price going much lower without crashing into the 64GB iPod Touch and making the iPad look a lot like a sucker's buy.

Jon Stewart Roasts Chris Matthews

Obama Girl Looks At The Bright Side

Yeah, Obama's a big disappointment. But at least she wasn't an Edwards Girl.

Haiti Aid Chaos

Gee you'd think that George Bush was in charge. Clearly, Obama doesn't care about dark skinned black people.

Scott Lewis hoped to deliver more than one million meals to Haitians on Wedhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnesday via a 15-truck convoy brimming with beans and rice.

Instead, "It was the convoy to nowhere," Mr. Lewis said. Well after dusk, the 52-year-old founder of a U.S. disaster-relief organization had barely delivered any food, other than some bags left at a missionary hospital, and a few more bags that got looted from the convoy as it crawled along crowded streets.

Trucks conked out. Communication with the U.S. military broke down. Traffic snarled the streets. Hungry crowds made handing out food unsafe.

Obama Ask Holder To Move Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Trial Out Of New York

Blink.

The White House ordered the Justice Department Thursday night to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The dramatic turnabout came hours after Mayor Bloomberg said he would "prefer that they did it elsewhere" and then spoke to Attorney General Eric Holder.

"It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that's too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood," Bloomberg told reporters.

"There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/01/28/2010-01-28_white_house_orders_justice_department_to_look_for_other_places_to_hold_911_terro.html#ixzz0e0nABYe7

An Industry Cuomo Oversees Pays Him Off

Andrew Cuomo is New York's attorney general. He would like to be governor. So does the real estate industy, the people he was supposed to be regulating.

New records show that even as the industry has confronted its worst crisis in decades, developers, construction executives and real estate lobbyists have given millions of dollars to Mr. Cuomo, providing one in every five dollars over the past six months.

The money has come as Mr. Cuomo’s office has been flooded with complaints about construction in new developments, especially from buyers who are trying to break their sales contracts, claiming that builders are not living up to their promises.

Our Hyperpartisan Post Partisan President

Maybe if he didn't constantly insult Republicans...

"This was my 30th State of the Union message, and I have got to say that I don't remember one that was more partisan than this one," said Rep. David Dreier, California Republican. "The idea of taking on the United States Supreme Court, the idea of looking over to us and saying to us that, rather than listening to the polls, we should do what's right."

Those Shady Deals

Obama says he had nothing to do with them. The record says otherwise.

Is Obama Tired Of Being President?

He's acting bored.

This is about the time Barack Obama becomes bored with his job.

He's in his second year as president, and he's discovered that even with all the powers of office, he can't do everything he wants to do, like remake America. Doing stuff is hard. In the past, prosaic work has held little appeal for Obama, and it's prompted him to think about moving on.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. He was supposed to have everything he wanted and we were all suppose to be worshiping him by now.

Pelosi's Party Time Airlines

The booze and food tab for Nancy Pelosi's personal cross country flights reach six figures.

It reads like a dream order for some wild frat party: Maker's Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey's Irish Crème, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey … and Corona beer.

But that single receipt makes up just part of the more than $101,000 taxpayers paid for "in-flight services" – including food and liquor, for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trips on Air Force jets over the last two years. That's almost $1,000 per week.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch, which investigates and prosecutes government corruption, show that the Pelosi incurred expenses of some $2.1 million for her use of Air Force jets for travel over that time.

"Speaker Pelosi has a history of wasting taxpayer funds with her boorish demands for military travel," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said today. "And these documents suggest the Speaker's congressional delegations are more about partying than anything else."

Osama Bin Laden Signs On To Cap And Trade

At least he admits that he's trying to destroy the West.

From al Jazeera via the Yid with a Lid.

... bin Laden criticised George Bush, the former US president, for rejecting the Kyoto pact and condemned global corporations.

"This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions - whether intentionally or unintentionally - and about the action we must take," bin Laden said.

"Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury - the phenomenon is an actual fact."

Is it just me, or is Bin Laden's seem to have the same speechwriter as Obama.

Television Journalism 101

All you need to know.

Hitler Is Disappointed In The iPad

The Longest Speech Of Obama's Career

Quantity, not quality. Kinda like Fidel Castro.

Job Creation You Can Believe In

If you also believe in the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny.



Funny. Didn't Obama claim to have created "several million" jobs just the other day. Why yes! He did.

Why the sudden fit of modesty? Modesty by Obama standards anyway.

Terry Moran Laughs At George Will

This is your unbiased and ever vigilant mainstream news media at work.

Here's what Terry Moran thought was so amusing.

Finally, he said at one point that we are going to freeze government spending for three years. That’s just not true. We’re proposing to freeze one-sixth of government spending for three years. Finally, the motif of his talk was Washington is tiresome, annoying and dysfunctional -- and Washington should have more of the nation’s revenue and a bigger role directing its affairs.

This happens to be indisputably true.



Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2010/01/28/abc-s-terry-moran-laughs-george-will-s-critique-obama#ixzz0dw6g8lYV

David Schuster And MSNBC's Unbiased Journalism

How much clearer could it get?

Union Leadership Versus Membership

This is what the Purple People Beaters really think of you.

Update here.

Obama Rewards A Big Donor With $100,000,000

But hey! It created or saved 15 jobs!

Obama Gets An "F" On Leadership

Somebody's got to do. But Obama's not interested.

[T]he scant attention paid in the State of the Union speech to US leadership was pitiful and frankly rather pathetic. The war in Afghanistan, which will soon involve a hundred thousand American troops, merited barely a paragraph. There was no mention of victory over the enemy, just a reiteration of the president’s pledge to begin a withdrawal in July 2011. Needless to say there was nothing in the speech about the importance of international alliances, and no recognition whatsoever of the sacrifices made by Great Britain and other NATO allies alongside the United States on the battlefields of Afghanistan. For Barack Obama the Special Relationship means nothing, and tonight’s address further confirmed this.

Significantly, the global war against al-Qaeda was hardly mentioned, and there were no measures outlined to enhance US security at a time of mounting threats from Islamist terrorists. Terrorism is a top issue for American voters, but President Obama displayed what can only be described as a stunning indifference towards the defence of the homeland.

The Iranian nuclear threat, likely to be the biggest foreign policy issue of 2010, was given just two lines in the speech, with a half-hearted warning of “growing consequences” for Tehran, with no details given at all. There were no words of support for Iranian protestors who have been murdered, tortured and beaten in large numbers by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s thuggish security forces, and no sign at all that the president cared about their plight. Nor was there any condemnation of the brutality of the Iranian regime, as well as its blatant sponsorship of terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Russell Feingold In Jeopardy

I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised. If we can win Massachusetts, then any state is in play - even Wisconsin.

One more Democratic senator who has long been regarded as a safe prospect for reelection may be facing a challenging year in 2010.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Wisconsin finds Republican Tommy Thompson edging incumbent Russ Feingold 47% to 43% in a hypothetical U.S. Senate match-up. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

Any incumbent who attracts less than 50% support at this point in a campaign is considered potentially vulnerable.

Pelosi In Danger Of Losing Control Of The House

Before the midterm elections.

Senate Democrats are mad at House Democrats. House Democrats are mad at Senate Democrats. And everybody is mad at the President. This is not the mark of a well-functioning conspiracy!

But things could get worse. House roll call votes from late in 2009 suggest that there might be a backbench revolt brewing that could undermine Democratic control of the government.

Remember, the Democrats control the House only because they can muster the needed 218 votes to pass legislation or execute procedural maneuvers. That's the essence of the House conspiracy. But, again, it's an entirely voluntary one. If Blue Dogs, moderates, or at-risk members start defecting in large enough numbers, and Pelosi can't pull in the needed half-plus-one of the chamber - she loses effective control of the legislative appartus.

Obama's Speech Worthy Of Mount Rushmore?

Only in the demented world of MSNBC.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

An Oil Bonanza In Haiti?

Of course, having vast oil reserves is no guarantee that your country won't be a shit hole. But, it's probably better than anything Haiti has going now.

Rahm Emmanuel Contradicts Obama On Obamacare

Barack Hussein Obama told Dianne Sawyer that he had no part in the backroom deals cut during Obamacare deliberations. Rahm Emmanuel calls him a liar.

Will This Never End?

Harry Reid gets tired of listening to a hack politician in love with the sound of his own voice.

Paul Begala Advises Obama To Blame Bush

A startlingly original idea from one of the Democratic Party's leading lights.

Obamacare Not Dead Yet

Obama still doesn't get it.

After days of speculation, Obama used Wednesday’s State of the Union address to try to revive the foundering health care talks. He defended the versions of health care reform passed by the House and the Senate, and called on lawmakers to re-examine the plan “as temperatures cool.”

“But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know,” Obama said. “Here’s what I ask of Congress, though: Do not walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32129.html#ixzz0durh9RoU

Chris Matthews Clarifies

I'm not quite as stupid as that.

Just Another Washington Gimmick

President Barack Obama told Americans the bipartisan deficit commission he will appoint won't just be "one of those Washington gimmicks." Left unspoken in that assurance was the fact that the commission won't have any teeth.

Uh, doesn't that make it even less than a typical Washington gimmick?

Plus, nine more lies.

How Stupid Is Chris Matthews?

Honestly, I had no idea.

Chris Matthews has put his foot in his mouth before on live television, and following the State of the Union, he did it again.

"I forgot he was black tonight for an hour," Matthews said of President Barack Obama's speech before a joint session of Congress and to millions of Americans.

Maybe it's because he's light skinned and doesn't speak with a Negro dialect.

Climate Research Unit Illegally Concealed Data

I guess we know now what they were hiding.

The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.

The University of East Anglia breached the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming.

The Information Commissioner’s Office decided that UEA failed in its duties under the Act but said that it could not prosecute those involved because the complaint was made too late, The Times has learnt. The ICO is now seeking to change the law to allow prosecutions if a complaint is made more than six months after a breach.

Obama Plans To Rent The Taliban

A billion dollars for five years.

The United States and Britain are mulling a plan to buy off Taliban fighters in Afghanistan with as much as $1 billion over five years, according to a report Wednesday from Al-Jazeera.

Coalition partners plan to meet Thursday in London to discuss the stragety of the U.S.-led NATO effort in Afghanistan, where a roused insurgency has complicated efforts to forge a lasting peace.

According to Al-Jazeera, which reported that the U.S. and Britain were leading the charge for the buyoff plan, "the scheme would offer cash, jobs and other incentives to the Taliban and fighters in other armed groups," including community development projects in the fighters' villages, and could cost from $500 million to $1 billion over five years.

George Bush liberates Afghanistan from a savage tyranny. Obama plans to put them back into power, with a big bank account.

Haiti Government Gets 1% Of Aid

My question is: Why so much?

I mean after all, should Haiti have a presidential palace that more palatial than the US president?

Obama Girl: The Thrill Is Gone

No help for the middle class.

"He did create some jobs, but most of them were government jobs and that doesn't really help the middle class."

Thomas Friedman: Capitalism Is For Children

The man who prefers China's government model to America's now thinks that banks should not pay their employees what they're worth.

Has it ever occurred to Friedman, or Obama for that matter, that if US banks don't pay their employees, foreign banks will?

Pigeon Impossible

Enjoy.

And The Edwards Affair Gets Even Worse

Yep. The rumored part about the Edwards/Hunter sex tape - it's in the book.

Young describes his alleged discovery of a compromising videotape of Edwards and a naked, pregnant lover, identified by Young as Hunter. “It was like watching a traffic pileup occur in slow motion — it was repelling but also transfixing,” he writes.

PETA Proposes Robot Groundhog

Yep! This is the latest, greatest idea from the People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals.

No Backroom Deals For Obama? Hah!

That's what Barry tells the gullible Dianne Sawyer.

“Let's just clarify. I didn't make a bunch of deals [on health care]. ... There is a legislative process that is taking place in Congress and I am happy to own up to the fact that I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked.”

Reality is what you make it.

[T]he Washington Post reported on December 20 that Obama's top aides were involved in the negotiations with Nelson:

Schumer, who spent more than 13 hours in Reid's office Friday, said the Medicaid issue was settled around lunchtime, and the final eight hours of the talks focused on the abortion language. Boxer estimated she spent seven hours in Reid's offices -- without ever once sitting in the same room, even though they were all of 25 steps apart.

Reid and Schumer kept up the "shuttle negotiation" between the leader's conference room and his top aide's office, Boxer said. Keenly aware how tense the talks were, the White House dispatched two aides who together have decades of experience in the Senate -- Jim Messina and Peter Rouse -- to work with Nelson. They relayed their intelligence to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who monitored the talks from a dinner in Georgetown.

Time To Move On To Illegal Alien Amnesty

Way to go Barry! At this rate, Nancy Pelosi's seat might not be safe.

Obama Whines: "The Press Is Against Me"

What a pussy! He hasn't endured 1% of what Bush endured. Even with all his missteps, the press treatment of him is mostly worshipful.

Senators Rip Bloomer Bomber Response

Will this penetrate Obama's skull? I have my doubts. After all, he does not reside in the reality based community.

Lieberman voiced his displeasure at the way federal law enforcement handled the attempted attack in Detroit: “To me this is outrageous, a kind of alice in wonderland in turning the world on — in turning common sense on its head. I urge the authorities to turn Abdulmutallab over to where he can be held as a prisoner of war.”

Lieberman and ranking Republican Susan Collins of Maine both sent a letter on Monday to Attorney General Eric Holder urging him to consider the suspect an enemy combatant.

Within two days of assuming office last year, President Obama issued an executive order establishing a special task force to assemble the country’s best intelligence resources in a specialized unit dedicated to interrogations. The HIG was designed to pull the best people from the FBI, CIA, DoD and other agencies and apply their talents where they were most needed. The task force is chaired by the attorney general, but the unit is reportedly not yet fully operational.

Obamacare Dead

This war is lost.

With no clear path forward on major health care legislation, Democratic leaders in Congress effectively slammed the brakes on President Obama’s top domestic priority on Tuesday, saying they no longer felt pressure to move quickly on a health bill after eight months of setting deadlines and missing them.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, deflected questions about health care. “We’re not on health care now,” Mr. Reid said. “We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.”

Could The IPCC Win A Science Fair?

It's a fair question. Are the standards for a grade-school science fair higher than for a Nobel Prize.

Hypothesis: If the Nobel Prize-winning IPCC scientists submitted their climate change research as a grade-school science fair project, it would fail miserably.

Of course, my hypothesis rests on some assumptions. The first is that science will continue to be taught in our public schools, since some forward-thinkers at Berkeley High School seem to think that lab science is just for whites.

The second assumption is that the science fair judges (usually teachers) are unbiased toward climate change "science" and actually understand the scientific method. This is a tall assumption, since global warming propaganda is more and more becoming part of the curricula they teach, while the scientific method takes a back seat.

Is Barack Obama Sane?

Considering his contorted explanation that the Democrats' loss in Massachusetts was actually a vote for his agenda and his laughable claims of job creation, it's reasonable to question whether or not he's a resident of the reality based community.

President Obama's response to the catastrophic political failures of his freshman year in office is to fight harder for more of the same. Presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett made the point explicitly on Sunday, asserting that the White House is "not hitting a reset button at all." That reflects the kind of political savvy that handed the safest Democratic Senate seat in America to a Republican.

Mr. Obama seems unaware that he is part of the problem. The president credited Scott Brown's historic Senate-race victory in Massachusetts last week to the same voter frustration that swept him into office in 2008. The glitch in that worldview is that Mr. Brown ran explicitly against the Obama agenda.

Mr. Obama's response to comparisons to 1994, when Democrats lost control of both the House and Senate, is that "the big difference here and in '94 was you've got me." Mr. Obama certainly is making a big difference, but none that should give comfort to his party.

I Ask Again: Could The John Edwards Story Get Any Worse?

Yep! This is only possible when you're as big a slime ball as John Edwards.

No sooner than John Edwards admits paternity to the world, and jets off to Haiti presumably for penance to aid the victims of disaster with no cameras (Hello, CBS - what ARE you doing here?) then he gets into a row with baby mamma Rielle Hunter over the health care of their daughter Frances Quinn.

Historically, (look it up) John Edwards was a huge proponent for health care coverage for all Americans when he was running for president.

But the disgraced former candidate recently balked at paying a $5,000 dental bill for his love child daughter, who is uninsured, say sources.

Edwards' mistress Rielle Hunter took their daughter Frances - who turns 2 in February - to a dental specialist in Charlotte, N.C., in late December because the child had developed tooth decay.

"Rielle can't believe that she had to have her lawyers fight with John's attorneys to get this taken care of," said the source.

"Frances is doing fine now, but Rielle is still fuming mad that their daughter has no insurance and that she had to beg John to foot the dental bill."

Obama Cannot Be Trusted

Says Bob Herbert?

Mr. Obama may be personally very appealing, but he has positioned himself all over the political map: the anti-Iraq war candidate who escalated the war in Afghanistan; the opponent of health insurance mandates who made a mandate to buy insurance the centerpiece of his plan; the president who stocked his administration with Wall Street insiders and went to the mat for the banks and big corporations, but who is now trying to present himself as a born-again populist.

Mr. Obama is in danger of being perceived as someone whose rhetoric, however skillful, cannot always be trusted. He is creating a credibility gap for himself, and if it widens much more he won’t be able to close it.

Repbulican Leads Big In Delaware

It looks it's not Joe Biden's seat anymore than it was Ted Kennedy's seat.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Delaware voters shows longtime GOP congressman Mike Castle leading New Castle County Executive Chris Coons 56% to 27%. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and 13% are undecided.

The survey was taken Monday night following the announcement by Biden, the state’s Democratic attorney general, that he will not run for the Senate. In October, Castle led Biden 47% to 42% in a hypothetical match-up for the seat Biden’s father, now the vice president, held for 36 years.

Holder Covers Up For Mollohan

Eric Holder has closed the investigation into the corruption of Representative Alan Mollohan, (D-West Virginia).

The Justice Department has shuttered its nearly four-year investigation into the personal finances of Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), freeing the 14-term lawmaker to pursue what could be a tough bid for reelection without the lingering cloud of a federal criminal probe.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia had been overseeing an investigation of Mollohan, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, for steering roughly $250 million in line-item expenditures to several nonprofit organizations run by close friends, who also were real estate partners with him.

Of course, politics has nothing to do with it. Eric Holder would never do anything like that.

Mollohan, 66, is expected to notify House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, of the development in a letter Tuesday. That would clear the way for him to resume full control of a subcommittee that oversees the roughly $28 billion budget for the Justice Department and the nearly $8 billion budget for the FBI.

What's that? Alan Mollohan was the chairman who oversaw the budget of the Department of Justice, which was conducting the investigation? Who the hell would arrange something like that?

James O'Keefe Gets Stupid

I'm pretty sure that it's illegal to bug anyone's phone. But a United States Senator?

Alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.

Dumb. Just plain dumb.

Obama Versus Obama

Who's right?

"If my poll numbers are low, then I'm cool and cerebral and cold and detached. If my poll numbers are high, well, he's calm and reasoned," Obama scoffed. "So that's -- that's the filter through which a lot of this stuff is interpreted."

So who are these critics, so easily buffeted and swayed by the poll numbers and Obama's rising and falling political fortunes? Well, one appears to be the president himself.

Speaking just five days earlier, in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Obama said one mistake he made in 2009 was seeming too detached from voters.

"I think the assumption was, if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on the, you know this provision, or that law, or are we making a good, rational decision here...that people will get it," Obama said in the January 20 interview. "And I think that, you know, what they've ended up seeing is this feeling of remoteness and detachment where, you know, there's these technocrats up here, these folks who are making decisions. Maybe some of them are good, maybe some aren't, but do they really get us and what we're going through? And I think that I can do a better job of that."

Abdulmutallab - It's Even Worse Than You Think

Or,how the Obama Administration let valuable, potentially life-saving intelligence get away.

The attempted Christmas Day destruction over Detroit of Northwest Flight 253 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is fading from public memory as a fortunate near-miss. This incident should not fade from view. As more information emerges, the picture it paints about the antiterror mindset of the current U.S. government is—there is no other word—scary.

Last week in these columns, we discussed Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair's Congressional testimony on the Abdulmutallab case. This was Mr. Blair's famous "duh" remark about the government's failure to invoke the new High-Value Detainee Interrogration Group (HIG) to question Abdulmutallab. A remarkable Associated Press story this past weekend makes clear that "duh" was mainly another word for disgust inside the intelligence bureaucracy over what happened that day in Detroit.

Obama Administration Stung By Haiti Criticism

Responding to disasters looked a lot easier from the sidelines didn't it?

Fifteen days following the earthquake that has devastated Haiti, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is publicly fighting off claims that the U.S. response and relief effort has been “inadequate” and has been badly coordinated with other nations and relief agencies efforts.

Clinton said, "I deeply resent those who attack our country, the generosity of our people and the leadership of our president in trying to respond to historically disastrous conditions after the earthquake.”

"We're scrambling as quick as we could to do everything we needed in the past two weeks," she said.

I feel her pain.

Poor Secretary Clinton. It’s tough to get kicked in the teeth when you’re trying your best against insurmountable odds. It hurts to be lambasted when you’re doing all you can to fight the awesome forces of Mother Nature. It’s really tough to know that you’ve got the best intentions, yet your critics accuse you of wrong-doing, or incompetence.

Hillary Clinton should think back to her days in the U.S. Senate and take some solace in knowing that she’s still not getting as good as she gave back in 2005.

Sixteen days following Katrina, then U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton asked the U.S. Congress to “establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate” the Bush Administration’s failures in responding to Katrina. The Congress rejected her request.

It’s different when you’re handling the problem head on rather than watching someone else do all the work, huh Hill?

What about President Obama, where was he at the time of Katrina? Did he have more compassion for the effort being put forth by the Bush Administration? Did he have a better grasp of the enormity of the task that the president faced following Katrina? Nah!

Here’s what Obama called the Bush Administration’s Response to Katrina, “unconscionable ineptitude”.

Meanwhile Guido Bertolaso, the head of Italy’s civil protection department who is working with the U.S. in Haiti, called the Obama Administration’s efforts a “pathetic failure”.

So Much For Deficit Reduction

Harry Reid says "no."

The Senate has rejected a plan backed by President Barack Obama to create a bipartisan task force to tackle the deficit this year.

The special deficit panel would have attempted to produce a plan combining tax cuts and spending curbs that would have been voted on after the midterm elections. But the plan garnered just 53 votes in the 100-member Senate, not enough because 60 votes were required. Anti-tax Republicans joined with Democrats wary of being railroaded into cutting Social Security and Medicare to reject the idea.

Obama endorsed the idea after being pressed by moderate Democrats. The proposal was an amendment to a $1.9 trillion hike in the government’s ability to borrow to finance its operations.

It was a fraud anyway. But if Obama can't even get Senate Democrats to help him with atmospherics anymore, I'd say that he's already a lame duck.

Now He Has Created "Several Million" Jobs

Apparently Obama doesn't think that his mouthpieces lied extravagantly enough over the weekend.

At the upper end, his stooges boasted that Obama had created or saved 2 million jobs, numbers that have been laughed off repeatedly. That's not a big enough lie.Obama himself is now claiming to have saved or created "several million" jobs.

"The economy is growing again, and we did create or save several million of jobs."

The Boldest Quarterback At The Superbowl

Tim Tebow.

While the Indianapolis Colts' Peyton Manning and the New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees will be the quarterbacks on the field, the Heisman Trophy-winning college star will appear with his mother, Pam, on TV in an ad for the pro-life Christian group Focus on the Family that will air during the game.

The 30-second ad's theme is "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life" and a Focus on the Family press release said the Tebows agreed to the ad because "the issue of life is one they feel strongly about." As a result, the ad is widely expected to focus on Mrs. Tebow's pregnancy with Tim, when she was encouraged by doctors to abort him.

Meanwhile, this is what qualifies as deep thinking at ABC.

Obama On Spending Freezes: Then And Now

That was then.



This is now.

Obama's State Of The Union Speech

Ghost written by Christopher Buckley.

I want to acknowledge some folks in this chamber here tonight. The cipher-faced, light-skinned fellow right behind me is Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, from the great state of Nevada, home of gambling, legal prostitution, and empty nuclear-waste facilities.

Over the last year, Harry has managed to do something I wouldn’t have dreamt possible: make me look like a total tool of the political establishment. How did he manage that? How did I manage that?

A year ago, I inspired the nation to have the audacity to hope that I would change the political culture in Washington. Now, a year later, it turns out I’m another hack politician—from Chicago, where, believe you me, we know a thing or two about hack politics.

I was going to set a new standard. Now I’m just a complicit bystander as Harry bribes, among others, a senator from Nebraska who wants his state to get a free pass on Medicare—in return for his vote on a health-care reform bill that would make the Founders weep, or throw up. Or both.

What a difference a year makes. But I’m pleased to report that before I came up here tonight, I was able to sign a contract with my publisher for a new book. I’m going to call it The Audacity of Oops.

Read it all and remember that Christopher Buckley was seduced by Obamamania in 2008.

That Horrible Woman Blows A Million In Copenhagen

And it was all your money. What a horrible woman.

Is Obama Getting Tired Of Being President?

And he thought it would be so much fun.

"I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,"

If it weren't for Joe Biden, I'm sure that a lot of people would prefer that Obama was a 1/4 term president. You did look awfully comfortable on the golf course Barack. How about taking it up full time?

Charles Krauthammer predicts the most likely outcome.

And The Ozone Hole Shall Save Us

Now the ozone hole is a good thing? WTF?

Now there is mounting evidence that the ozone hole above the Antarctic has been protecting the southern hemisphere against global warming.

The bizarre side-effect of ozone depletion has been studied by scientists at the University of Leeds.

The ozone hole, caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) released into the atmosphere, is now steadily closing, but the research has suggested this could actually increase warming.

Scientists discovered brighter summertime clouds had formed over the area below the hole, which reflect more of the sun's powerful rays.

"These clouds have acted like a mirror to the sun's rays, reflecting the sun's heat away from the surface to the extent that warming from rising carbon emissions has effectively been cancelled out in this region during the summertime," said Professor Ken Carslaw, who co-authored the research.

Jon Stewart Notices Obama's Sixth Grade Teleprompter

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Obama Speaks to a Sixth-Grade Classroom
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

"That's not a great photo op in a sixth grade classroom."

Hugo Chavez's "Revolution" Implodes

Not even Obama's help could keep Chavez's vision alive. From Honduras to Chile, the people rejected it.

Hugo Chávez's "socialism for the 21st century" has been defeated and is on its way to collapse.

During the past two weeks, just before and after the earthquake outside Port-au-Prince, the following happened: Chávez was forced to devalue the Venezuelan currency, and impose and then revoke massive power cuts in the Venezuelan capital as the country reeled from recession, double-digit inflation and the possible collapse of the national power grid. In Honduras, a seven-month crisis triggered by the attempt of a Chávez client to rupture the constitutional order quietly ended with a deal that will send him into exile even as a democratically elected moderate is sworn in as president.

Last but not least, a presidential election in Chile, the region's most successful economy, produced the first victory by a right-wing candidate since dictator Augusto Pinochet was forced from office two decades ago.

Obama Boldly Proposes A 1% Reduction in Deficit

Deficit - $1.5 trillion. Obama's proposed budget cut - $15 billion.

Arlen Spector Apologizes For Being An Asshole

It's funny how changing your designation from R to D can be. Suddenly you don't have to act quite so civilized. Unfortunately, late comers to the Democrat party don't know where the limits are. And the fact that Spector used to be a Republican means that he'll be held to higher standards, for now. So Spector had to apologize for not knowing precisely where his limits are.

If he had been a Democrat all his life, the he could probably get away with anything.

Americans Believe Democrats Are Bad For The Country

It only took one year.

The headline on the new CNN poll is this: “Most Americans applaud Democrats’ loss of supermajority.”

And that’s bad for Dems. But what’s worse for Dems is that the poll’s internals also show that for the first time since the Dem takeover of Congress, more say Dem control of Congress is bad for the country.

The poll finds that 48% of American adults say it’s “bad for the country that the Democratic party is in control of Congress,” versus only 45% who say it’s good. That’s within the poll’s margin of error, but it still isn’t good for Dems.

CNN asked that question nine other times since Dems took control of Congress. In every other instance, voters said Dem control was good for the country by a wide margin, almost always by double digits.

The poll also finds that for the first time since the 2006 takeover, the number who have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party equals the number who view the Democratic Party favorably. That’s at 46% apiece.

Can The John Edwards Saga Get Worse?

Yep.

Sources have told us that, in the throes of their affair, John Edwards and Rielle Hunter made a sex tape that contains “several sex acts.” And that his aide, Andrew Young found it on an unmarked DVD.

The tape, say both our sources, is explicit and reveals that Edwards “is physically very striking, in a certain area. Everyone who sees it says ‘whoa’. She’s behind the camera at first.”

I don't know what's worse - John Edwards' behavior or the mainstream news media's concerted effort to cover it up.

The Problem With Obama

He's too cerebral for us - according to Newsweak.

And guess what? He's not a leftist. You might think so, but who are you going to believe, this author, or your own lying eyes?

Nationalize 2/3 of the auto industry. Is trying to nationalize the healthcare industry. Staffs his administration with promoter of gay porn for kids and is an admirer of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, a man who advocates forced abortions and sterilizations, and a self-described communist, among others. He's a centrist?

CNN Poll: For First Time, More Say Dem Control Is Bad For Country | The Plum Line

Had enough? If so, you've got a lot of company.

Obama Gives $25 Million To Big Donor.

It's the Chicago way.

From Fox News:

Despite President Obama's long history of criticizing the Bush administration for "sweetheart deals" with favored contractors, the Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned.

The contract, awarded on Jan. 4 to Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc., a Washington-based firm owned by economist and Democratic donor Vincent V. Checchi, will pay the firm $24,673,427 to provide "rule of law stabilization services" in war-torn Afghanistan.

A synopsis of the contract published on the USAID Web site says Checchi & Company will "train the next generation of legal professionals" throughout the Afghan provinces and thereby "develop the capacity of Afghanistan's justice system to be accessible, reliable, and fair."

The legality of the arrangement as a "sole source," or no-bid, contract was made possible by virtue of a waiver signed by the USAID administrator. "They cancelled the open bid on this when they came to power earlier this year," a source familiar with the federal contracting process told Fox News.

"That's kind of weird," said another source, who has worked on "rule of law" issues in both Afghanistan and Iraq, about the no-bid contract to Checchi & Company. "There's lots of companies and non-governmental organizations that do this sort of work."

Update: Obama is embarrassed into withdrawing the contract.

Under Obama, Terrorists Have More Rights Than Gay Soldiers

Priorities.

Eliminate Women's Studies

Good grief. If even the Canadians have the balls to do it, then surely somebody in this country could try it.

On a clear day last Nove mber, mourners gathered at Guelph University's Branion Plaza to honour the death of a beloved: the school's Women's Studies program.

Heads lowered and dressed in black, dozens of students and faculty tipped their eyes to tombstones that read 'R. I. P, Feminism' and converged around a casket that symbolically hosted the ill-fated discipline.

It was the eve of the program's 30th birthday, and the funeral was a dual image of both life and death: Life, in that more than 100 Women's Studies devotees staged the ceremony to showcase support for the program, and death, in that the discipline had been deemed unworthy of a future at the university.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2480860#ixzz0ddMpHxrJ
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Obama Can't Even Talk To Sixth Graders Without His Teleprompter

Pathetic.

Is Obama Smothering A Recovery In Its Crib?

Until Barack Obama post-Massachusetts temper tantrum, my retirement had nearly recovered. Thanks Obama. Temper tantrums is not a governing philosophy.

Washington spent months nursing the financial system back to health after the 2008 economic crisis, stabilizing then reviving battered markets and ultimately restoring trillions of dollars in investor losses. Wall Street's political fortunes have not fared as well.

Now, an aggressive stance against the bankers, financiers and even government officials popularly blamed for causing the crisis is gaining political momentum, and there are signs it is eroding the very financial stability the government championed.

Moves to rein in the country's biggest banks and talk of blocking the reappointment of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke torpedoed confidence in the stock market last week, sending share prices into their steepest decline in nearly a year. Analysts fear conditions could worsen before they improve, as anger at Wall Street morphs into uncertainty about its business practices and prospects. Washington spent months nursing the financial system back to health after the 2008 economic crisis, stabilizing then reviving battered markets and ultimately restoring trillions of dollars in investor losses. Wall Street's political fortunes have not fared as well.

Now, an aggressive stance against the bankers, financiers and even government officials popularly blamed for causing the crisis is gaining political momentum, and there are signs it is eroding the very financial stability the government championed.

Moves to rein in the country's biggest banks and talk of blocking the reappointment of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke torpedoed confidence in the stock market last week, sending share prices into their steepest decline in nearly a year. Analysts fear conditions could worsen before they improve, as anger at Wall Street morphs into uncertainty about its business practices and prospects.