Nightmares on the Left; Nightmares on the Right

12/02/08

First, here's something that'll put the anti-Clinton Right into conniption fits:

After eight years as senator from New York, Hillary Clinton is trading places, moving from Congress to the incoming administration.

On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama announced that he asked his former rival to be his secretary of state.

That means the scramble begins to replace Clinton on Capitol Hill. Among those mentioned to take her seat as New York's junior senator is her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

For what it's worth, Clinton has denied any interest in his wife's Senate seat:

Former President Bill Clinton has no interest in replacing his wife in the U.S. Senate, his spokesman said, adding any speculation that he would be interested is "completely false."

So there's that.  If you actually believe anything the once-perjured former President has to say.

And, because the Bush-hating Left shouldn't be left out of the fun, it looks like just as George W. is leaving Washington, another Bush might be on his way in:

Two sources close to Jeb Bush, including one who has spoken to the former Florida governor within the past few hours, say he is seriously considering a run for Senate now that incumbent Republican Mel Martinez has retired.

"He is receiving a lot of encouragement from both in and out of the state," an longtime Bush adviser said tonight. "He is going to take his time and approach this very methodically."  Bush will weigh, according to this adviser, how a run would impact his family, his business, and whether the Senate would be the best platform for the causes he'd advocate -- education, immigration, GOP solutions to health care and energy.

For what it's worth, in the pantheon of political Bushes, Jeb is probably the best of the trio.  But it might be nice to have some new blood in the GOP.

The best of the Bushes or not, there's no way to rationalize Jeb Bush as new blood in the Party.

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Breaking News: Moronic rappers, Obama fail to deliver victory for Jim Martin

12/02/08

Apparently Georgia voters wern't impressed by this show of ...  um ... multiculturalism:

Jim Martin, the Democrat vying for the US Senate seat in Georgia, posed with rappers (from left) T.I., Young Jeezy, and Ludacris during a campaign rally in Atlanta.

And also not surprisingly, it wasn't very close.

What this means: now, irrespective of whether Al Franken can ferret out a win in Minnesota, the Democrats will fall short of a 60 vote, filibuster-proof majority.

And if you believe the Boston Globe, then Barack Obama failed the first test of his post-election gravitas.

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"Youz a ho." I'm Jim Martin and I approved this message.

12/01/08

One of the two outstanding US Senate races will be decided tomorrow when GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin face off in a run-off election in Georgia.

Not surprisingly, Gov. Sarah Palin - now a certifiable GOP "rock star" has been called in to campaign for Chambliss and energize the GOP vote.

Martin is bring in his own celebrity as well... rapper Ludacris.

From The Onion the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Jim Martin will spend the day on a statewide bus tour that will take him from a MARTA stop in Atlanta in the morning to Augusta, then Macon and back to a rally at the state Capitol at 5:30 p.m. with civil rights veterans and hip-hop star Ludacris.

This isn't Luda's first forray into the political scene this year.  He released a song whatever-you-want-to-call-it in support of Obama:

Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what?
If you said it then you meant it how you want it have a gut!
And all you other politicians trying to hate on my man,
watch us win a majority vote in every state on my man

You can't stop what's bout to happen, we bout to make history
The first black president is destined and it's meant to be
The threats ain't fazing us, the nooses or the jokes
So get off your ass, black people, it's time to get out and vote!

Paint the White House black and I'm sure that's got 'em terrified
McCain don't belong in any chair unless he's paralyzed
Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped
Ball up all of his speeches and I throw 'em like candy wrap
'cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant
and you the worst of all 43 presidents

Check it, bee-yotch!

As you may or (if you're lucky) may not be aware, Ludacris is also the author of such introspective and thoughtful missives, like:

> Ho
> What's Your Fantasy?
> (I got hos in different) Area Codes
> Move B@#&$
> Get the F@#$ Back
> Pimpin' All Over The World

Truly a man of cultivated class and refined demeanor.

Congratulations to Jim Martin for employing the most ::ahem:: ludicrous stunt of this political season.  That's going to be one uncomfortable stage tomorrow...

All signs point to Martin losing tomorrow's run-off.

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Welcome to Illinois: birthplace of political surrealism

12/01/08

Ahh, only in Illinois:

Sen. Dick Durbin has asked the president to commute the corruption sentence of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan.

The Democratic senator released a letter Monday in which he asked President Bush to "consider commuting the sentence of George Ryan to time served."

Welcome to Illinois... where the 2nd most powerful Democrat in the US Senate and the national co-chair of the incoming Democrat President's administration asks the outgoing Republican President to commute the corruption sentence of Illinois' former Republican governor.

My collegue Dan Proft makes an excellent point about this today:

Former Republican Governor Jim Thompson, Ryan's defense attorney (pro bono, because, hey, we're all friends here), was quick to lavish praise on Durbin. Former Republican Governor Jim Edgar also leaned that way saying, "George Ryan's paid a pretty big price...I'm not sure that a few more years (in prison) is all that much more punishment to him."

Gee, Governor Edgar, you know who else paid a "pretty big price"? The nine people, including six children, killed by drivers who obtained their licenses illegally from George Ryan's office. I would love to get their input on those "few more years" but, well, they are dead.

For it is the views of the victims--not those of George Ryan and his apologists--that are relevant here. Those victims include the taxpayers of Illinois, all of whom were defrauded.

Welcome to Illinois.  Land of the Republicrats.

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Likable enough to be our face abroad...

12/01/08

Ahhh, those famous words from Barack Obama about Sen. Hillary Clinton during the Democrat primaries:

Today, Clinton and Obama sealed the deal on their kiss-and-make-up fest when Obama designated his former primary sparring partner as his pick for Secretary of State.  I guess the guiding philosophy here is, "keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and Hillary Clinton out of the country as much as possible".

From Clinton's statements today:

Hillary Clinton on Monday vowed to make the United States a new force for positive change, saying that as secretary of state she would work with the world community to solve global crises.

"The American people have demanded not just a new direction at home, but a new effort to renew America's standing in the world as a force for positive change," Clinton told a Chicago press conference after being nominated to the post of secretary of state by president-elect Barack Obama.

Clinton vowed to "reach out to the world again" after eight years of President George W. Bush's administration and promised to give "this assignment, your administration and my country, my all." 

So the woman that's despised by half of this country is going to make all those other countries like us more.  Anyone else find this at least a little ironic coming from Hillary "Likable Enough" Clinton?

An aside: I think this quote from Clinton's remarks today pretty much sums up the Left's fundamental misunderstanding about this country:

"America is a place founded on the idea that everyone should have the right to live up to his or her God-given potential."

Earth to Declaration of Independence to Sen. Clinton: this country is a place founded on the idea that everyone should have the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential.  What you're suggestion is a completely different notion: a right to get there.  Each individual has to live up to their end of the bargain and work hard to realize said potential.  It's the "pursuit of happiness" that we've all been promised.  And it's certainly not the governments mission to ensure we all get there. Achieving happiness is on you.

That being said, I find this selection of Hillary to be positively hilarious.  Not just for the aforementioned reasons, but for two in particular:

1) When Barack Obama was running for the Democrat nomination, wern't Hillary Clinton's missteps on foreign policy - particularly the Iraq war - the essential reason he argued she shouldn't be President and he should?  So her foreign policy blunders should have disqualified her from the office of President, but now she's somehow the most appropriate person to represent American foreign policy overseas?  I'd hope even the Obamatons can see how patently and transparently dopey this notion is.

2) As has been the case with the majority of Barack Obama's "Clinton Redux" cabnit: what about any of these people say "change".  Weren't the Washington insiders the problem?  Wasn't he promising new blood?

Oh well, I guess this is what I get for looking for consistency from Barack Obama.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

11/26/08

I'd like to extend my wishes for everyone to have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving.

I'll see you back here on Monday.

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From the Office of the 'We Just Made It Up'...

11/25/08

You shouldn't act surprised.  It's not like this is the first time that the Obama camp has gone for style points in the absence of any real, grounded substance.  From Fox News:

President-elect Barack Obama is looking very presidential these days. When he makes an announcement, he is ringed by American flags and stands behind a lectern that has a very presidential-looking placard announcing "The Office of the President-Elect." 

But the props are merely that. Under the Constitution, there is no such thing as the Office of the President-elect. Technically, Obama will not even become the president-elect until the Electoral College convenes after the second Wednesday in December and elects him based on the results of the Nov. 4 general election, as stated in the Constitution.

Hey, style points got him this far.  Why stop now?

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Call it Financial Derangement Syndrome?

11/25/08

Iceland.

It's the land of beautiful scenery, beautiful music and, apparently, riots stemming from the handling of financial crisis:

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A lesson in Illinois politics from Sen. Dick Durbin

11/25/08

Dick Durbin is a Democrat.

I know, tell you something you don't know about the hyper-partisan Lefty and this year's most liberal member of the US Senate with roots as a humble, centrist, pro-life Democrat congressman from central Illinois.

Well, something you might not know is why Democrat Durbin might be lobbying President Bush to commute the sentence of former Republican Governor George Ryan.  From the Associated Press:

Senator Dick Durbin says he may ask the president to commute the prison sentence of former Illinois Governor George Ryan.

Durbin says he hasn't taken any action yet and doesn't know whether he will.

But he added, "I am considering it at this moment."

The Illinois Democrat made the comments Tuesday at a news conference on an unrelated topic.

Ryan is serving a 6-year sentence for racketeering and other offenses.

The one-term Republican governor steered state leases and contracts to cronies, killed a bribery investigation and used state resources to run his political campaigns.

Durbin didn't elaborate on why he might seek leniency for Ryan.

The most liberal Democrat in the Senate might lobby the GOP President to commute the sentence of a GOP governor.  Fascinating, isn't it?

Ahh, Illinois.  The land of two political parties that at times are COMPLETELY indistinguishable.  The only way to really tell them apart is that one regularly wins elections and the other regularly loses them.

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William F. Buckley, Jr. Day

11/24/08

Today would have been William F. Buckley, Jr.'s 83rd birthday.

Indeed, this verbal and intellectual flame of this world burns a little dimmer without him.

In celebration of WFB, some of his finer moments (at least those available on YouTube):

WFB in his famous altercation with all-around sycophant Gore Vidal

WFB speaking on the war on drugs, squaring of the concepts of legality and morality and taking a delightful shot at Jesse Jackson

WFB's closing remarks at the 1978 debate with Gov. Ronald Reagan on Panama Canal policy

WFB enduring a Hare Krishna song from Allen Ginsburg on Firing Line

WFB spends an hour with Charlie Rose

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Hypocrisy, thy name is Barack

11/23/08

This is why I just love the vapidity of the "green" movement.  From the UK Times:

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama promised to get a million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015. His own new presidential limousine will be far from green, however.

The Obamobile being prepared for the president-elect is said to be a monster gas-guzzler made by General Motors, the troubled car giant. It will look like a black Cadillac but is built like a tank. A spy photographer who tracks down future car models for magazines snatched pictures of the heavily disguised first-car-in-waiting when it was being road-tested last summer.

The armour-plated car, which has a raised roof, windows up to 5in thick, extra-strength tyres and a body made of steel, aluminium, titanium and ceramics, is thought to be based on a GMC 2500 truck that gets less than 10 miles to the gallon. Three cars are believed to be in production so that two can serve as decoys.

Even a Hummer will get you somewhere between 18-20 MPG.  Wonder what Al Gore thinks of this "inconvenient truth".

Although, as we've seen, even Al Gore doesn't seem to take this "green" thing that seriously:

In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President’s home energy use surged more than 10%, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. ...

In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.

In February 2007, An Inconvenient Truth, a film based on a climate change speech developed by Gore, won an Academy Award for best documentary feature. The next day, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research uncovered that Gore’s Nashville home guzzled 20 times more electricity than the average American household. ...

Since taking steps to make his home more environmentally-friendly last June, Gore devours an average of 17,768 kWh per month – 1,638 kWh more energy per month than the year before the renovations. By comparison, the average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year, according to the Energy Information Administration. The cost of Gore’s electric bills over the past year topped $16,533.

I guess neither of these guys were all that inspired by the ump-teenth edition of "green week" on the NBC family of networks that we just endured.  I like the point Jonah Goldberg makes about these network "green weeks": can you even imagine the consternation and outrage from the left if a network announced programming to coincide with "pro-life week"?  It would send them into conniption fits.

Just another way the "greenies" are full-blown hypocrites, not truly interested in their proclaimed cause, but instead more consumed by feigning concern in order to regulation the minutia of everyone's life.

That's why you have to love the British name for the "greenies": watermelons.  They're green on the outside and red on the inside.

So true.

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Songs You Should Know: Big Casino

11/21/08

There's perhaps no genre of music more insufferable an "emo".

For my reading audience that's over 45, "emo" is short for "emotional" and is a crossbreed of punk music and the over-emoting of whiny teenagers who think the perils of their life are unsurpassed by any imaginable tragedy.

Unsure if something or someone is "emo"?  There's an easy test.  Just ask the person, "Are you emo?"  If they say no, they're almost certainly "emo".  If they start to cry, they're definitely "emo".

That being said, despite falling into the "emo" category, I can't help but love Jimmy Eat World.  I prefer to think of them as more "rock" than "emo", but I fully confess that I might be making a distinction without a difference in this case. 

Today's Song You Should Know is the first track from their most recent album, Chase This Light, entitled "Big Casino" - another hallmark of the genre, the title has not a single thing to do with the song.  It's predictable and formulaic ... and I eat it up.  I can't explain it.  Hope you enjoy!

Today's song: Big Casino
Album: Chase This Light

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Your superfluous Obama story of the day

11/21/08

From the Associated Press' Ann Sanner:

President-elect Barack Obama grabbed his lunch to go Friday and artfully dodged a question about the auto industry woes he'll inherit.

"We got the corned beef," Obama said as he made his way around the counter at Manny's deli. Asked by a reporter what he thought about the auto industry, he responded with a smile: "I got the corned beef."

Congress has been debating whether to provide billions in financial help to the Big Three automakers, who are warning about economic disaster if they go under.

Manny's is a popular hangout and campaign stop for Chicago politicians. Mayor Richard Daley stops by on occasion.

"Rahm Emanuel sends his regards," Obama told deli workers, referring to his chief of staff. "I ordered him his corned beef."

Longtime friend Valerie Jarrett, who has been named a White House senior adviser, accompanied Obama on his lunch outing.

The two ordered three sandwiches and some cherry pie. Obama also talked to the owner and signed a picture for him.

"I've aged a little bit," the president-elect said, as he handed back the photograph.

Weaving through tables, Obama shook hands and greeted patrons. Customers got up from their tables to congratulate him, give him a hug and take pictures of him with their cell phones.

"I love you back," he told one customer.

"Good to see you," Obama told another. "I'm doing great."

Obama has mostly been out of public view since meeting with campaign rival John McCain on Monday. He's held private meetings at his Chicago transition office for much of the week.

Earlier Friday, he exercised at a gym.

Excuse me, Ms. Sanner.  I think you have something on your nose.  Perhaps Barack can pass you a Manny's napkin to take care of it.

This is what's passing as journalism these days, folks.

... In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead ...

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Was this how Obama got elected?

11/21/08

When you say "conservative radio talker", most people could rattle off a several names.  Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michael Medved.  Michael Savage, if you expanded the category to "lunatic raving conservative radio talker".  Most people outside of Los Angeles probably would offer the name "John Ziegler".

But Mr. Ziegler has made quite a few waves this past week, and done it in quite a fascinating way.

In addition to his radio talking job, Ziegler is also a filmmaker and his latest offering is called, "How Obama Got Elected".  Not to give away the end, but his premise is essentially that most of his voters were clueless about the Obama/Biden ticket, the current political composition of Washington and misinformed about the McCain/Palin ticket.

Not surprisingly, Ziegler's primary target in the documentary is a favorite of conservatives, the mainstream media.  Here's an excerpt from "How Obama Got Elected" to give you an idea:

Interestingly enough, Ziegler wasn't the first radio talker to perform an experiment like this.  Amazingly enough the decidedly antithetical Howard Stern sent one of his people into New York's Harlem neighborhood to find out for just how much Obama voters knew about his positions on the issues:

To supplement his documentary, Ziegler commissioned a poll by well-known pollster John Zogby that seemed to essentially confirm his hypothesis:

Just 2% of voters who supported Barack Obama on Election Day obtained perfect or near-perfect scores on a post election test which gauged their knowledge of statements and scandals associated with the presidential tickets during the campaign, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows.

Only 54% of Obama voters were able to answer at least half or more of the questions correctly.

The 12-question, multiple-choice survey found questions regarding statements linked to Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his vice-presidential running-mate Sarah Palin were far more likely to be answered correctly by Obama voters than questions about statements associated with Obama and Vice-President–Elect Joe Biden. The telephone survey of 512 Obama voters nationwide was conducted Nov. 13-15, 2008, and carries a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percentage points.

You can download a PDF with the full results of the poll by clicking here.

This is where the story takes a strange turn.

Polling junkie - and, incidentally, the only person of which I'm aware to predict the Tampa Bay Rays to win 90+ games this past season - Nate Silver of the website FiveThirtyEight.com took issue with the Zogby poll.  Silver is a lefty, but generally a fair guy.  Here's where he takes issue with the Zogby poll:

Most of the questions on the survey take the form of a multiple choice political knowledge test, stating a "fact" to the respondent and asking them which of the four major candidates (Obama, McCain, Biden, Palin) the statement applies to. Questions include the following:

"Which of the four [candidates] said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket?"

"Which of the four [candidates] started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground?"

"Which of the four [candidates] quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism?"

"Which of the four [candidates] won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot?"

As should be obvious, the veracity of several of these claims is -- at best -- debatable, yet they are apparently represented as factual to the respondent. It is not clear whether the respondent is informed of the "correct" response after having had the question posed to him.

With all due respect to Mr. Silver - his electoral college prediction was remarkably accurate - I can only see one claim here that's at all debatable.

Obama stated to the San Francisco Chronicle that, under his cap and trade plan, if you built a coal power plant it would "bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that's being emitted".  According to the Edison Electric Institute,in 2007 "48.6 percent of our nation's electricity was generated from coal".  To believe Obama's cap and trade program would have an effect of raising energy costs when he claims the plan will "bankrupt" the coal industry because of the amount they'll be charged under it requires a suspension of disbelief best reserved for Oliver Stone movies.

The question about Joe Biden's plagiarism is solid.  Whether it was the precise impetus for his quitting the 1988 Presidential race is debatable.  Perhaps people just found him as uninteresting as they found him to be in 2008.  We'll probably never know.  It's certainly no leap in logic to believe that scandal would cause a politician to quit a race.

Obama did win his first election after having the incumbent, Alice Palmer, kicked off the ballot.  Hell, even CNN agrees.  This isn't a foreign concept here in Chicago.  It's pretty standard, actually.  I talked about it in depth with Mark Johnson on his program just days before the election.

Where I cede to Silver is the dubious nature of the claim that Obama launched his campaign from the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.  Despite my searching, I've yet to find good substantiation for this claim.  I wouldn't doubt it for a minute, knowing the nature of Hyde Park politics.  But inasmuch as there's no clear citation for this, I'll cede Silver point.  Here, though, and only here.

In the wake of the questioning of the poll, Ziegler sought to commission a Zogby poll of McCain voters in line with his previous Obama poll.  Interestingly enough, Zogby declined.

With the documentary not even yet released, this certainly isn't the end of this story.  Perhaps interested parties can just, I don't know, see it and judge it for themselves?

Plus, farbeit from the left to take issue with a documentary filmmaker having a ::gasp:: point of view...

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I didn't think it was possible to like Sarah Palin any more...

11/21/08

I like Sarah Palin.

I know I'm about a month late on this story, but nonetheless, given my general dislike for St. Louis sports teams, I now like her even more.  From ESPN:

Blues goalie Manny Legace left after one period Friday night with a hip injury that occurred when he slipped on the carpet placed on the ice for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The Alaska governor dropped the ceremonial first puck before the Blues hosted the Los Angeles Kings. A narrow carpet walkway was placed from the gate at the Blues bench to center ice for Palin, her husband and two of her daughters.

Just before the ceremony, Legace was the first player onto the ice for St. Louis. A team official pointed to the carpet. But Legace said the official moved his own foot from the carpet just as Legace stepped down, causing the carpet to slide.

The St. Louis Blues' 6-8-2 record is good for last place... in the entire NHL.

Heh.

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How did we miss the mounting "pirate" problem?

11/20/08

I consider myself to be a rather "in tune" individual.  I keep up with the news.  Perhaps it was somewhere in between the catastrophic collapse of our economy and our "hoping for change, changing for hope, changing for change-ocity" election that I somehow missed the exponentially growing problem of ... pirates?

From the UK Times:

The battle with pirates operating off the coast of Somalia grew yesterday when raiders seized two more ships but lost one of their own in an uneven firefight with the Indian Navy. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) described the situation yesterday as “out of control”.

The surge in hijackings came as Saudi Arabia confirmed that a ransom demand had been made for the freeing of the Sirius Star supertanker, seized at the weekend with her crew of 25 and a cargo of oil worth $100 million (£65 million).

Two more vessels – a Thai fishing boat with a crew of 16, and a bulk carrier, believed to be Greek, with an unknown number of people aboard – were seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden yesterday, bringing the total to nine vessels in 12 days.

Somebody draft a memo to Jimmy Buffett who sang in "A Pirate Looks At Forty":

Yes I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons don't thunder, there's nothin' to plunder
I'm an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late

Apparently you weren't as late on the "pirate" scene as you thought, Jimmy...

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Biff from "Back to the Future" does stand-up. Who knew?

11/20/08

And he's pretty funny, at that:

(Hat-tip to Sprague)

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More from the Change front: Tom Daschle named Health & Human Services Secretary

11/19/08

From the Politico:

Former Senator Majority leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) will be secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration, with the delicate mission of shepherding a health-care bill through Congress at a time of punishing budget constraints, a senior Democratic official said. 

Daschle was also considered for health care czar in the White House, but President-elect Obama’s transition team decided he could be more effective with “Secretary” in front of his name.

That's a funny sentiment, because if I remember correctly, having "Senate Majority Leader" in front of his name really didn't make him that effective.  Or at least not effective enough to win reelection while serving in the highest role in the Democrat controlled US Senate.

But really, what says "change" more than a guy who voted out of office at the height of his power and clout?

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Old hip-hop. But not how you think...

11/18/08

This will most likely leave you as speechless as it left me:

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Senate prognosis dims for GOP

11/18/08

From the Associated Press:

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has lost his bid for a seventh term.

The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,724 votes after Tuesday's count.

That's an insurmountable lead with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted. 

That focuses the GOP Senate Apocalypse Watch down to two races: Coleman v. Franken in Minnesota and Chambliss v. Martin in Georgia.

From Minnesota:

The state Canvassing Board today directed that a recount begin tomorrow in the U.S. Senate race between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and DFLer Al Franken, even as the board considers a last-minute request from the Franken campaign to include rejected absentee and mailed ballots in the initial count.

The board confirmed that, with all the state’s 87 counties reporting, Coleman leads Franken by 215 votes out of more than 2.9 million votes cast. After county canvasses showed a margin of 206, Coleman gained an additional 25 votes, and Franken 16, from a post-election audit of voting machines in 205 randomly-selected precincts.

I have to admit, my feeling is that Franken will end up prevailing here.  I hope I'm wrong.  At least Coleman starts with the advantage of being in the lead.

I'll say this for the 3rd time: a little heavenly intervention please?

Georgia would seem to be a pretty safe bet for the GOP as Chambliss nearly eclipsed the 50% plus one needed to avoide a run off and lost 3% to the Libertarian candidate.

With socialist Independent Bernie Sanders in the Democrat column and Independent Joe Lieberman siding more and more with the GOP, it looks that the GOP will just avoid the filibuster-proof Democrat majority.

Eeking out a Coleman victory over Franken would make all the GOP breathe easier.

And retain some level of respectability in Washington's most agust chamber.

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Keith Olbermann in 1 minute

11/18/08

Oh, this is just delicious...

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The specter of Alan Keyes still haunts

11/18/08

Before we even get to the story, the answer is "no".  Alan Keyes will never go away.

From the Augusta, GA NBC affiliate:

A former opponent of Barack Obama's has come back to haunt him over questions regarding Obama's citizenship.

According to a press release from the American Independent Party, former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and other members of the party have filed suit in California Superior Court in Sacramento to stop the state from giving its electoral votes to President-elect Barack Obama until documentary evidence is provided to prove Obama is indeed a natural born citizen of the United States.

Some conservatives have questioned Obama's citizenship in recent months. Obama says he was born in Hawaii in 1961.

Keyes also ran against Obama as a Republican for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois in 2004. Obama won that election to serve his first and only term in the U.S. Senate.

Can we fully dispense with this preposterous "birth certificate" illusion?  Besides making those who continue down this road still today look like sore-losing fools, there's no possibility that the Supreme Court or any court is going to overturn the Presidential election results over this nonsense.

Plus, I wonder how many of these same people would be caterwauling if the Left continued to chase down questions over McCain's citizenship by virtue of his birth in the Panama Canal area.

Obama's the President-elect.  We don't have to like it.  But we have to live with it.

Get over the "birth certificate".

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Major city public transit "doomsday"? Where have I heard this before?

11/18/08

From New York City's CBS affiliate WCBS:

The MTA reportedly is ready to make deep cuts in its budget that could lead to reduced service, layoffs and more crowded trains. Sources tell CBS 2 the association board is preparing a worst case "Doomsday" scenario that will be presented during its monthly meeting on Thursday.

When describing the agency's budget crisis last week, MTA CEO Elliot Sander said, "The word 'Draconian' is not inappropriate."

During the Thursday meeting, The MTA is expected to: completely do away with the "W" line, which runs from Queens to Manhattan, and the "Z" line, which runs through Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan. Also on the chopping block: service will be cut in half on the "G" line, which runs from Queens to Brooklyn; and the "M" line, which runs through Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. ...

The bad news may get even worse. In an effort to close an estimated $1.2 billion budget deficit, there may also be longer gaps between overnight stops on all trains and fewer trains during the late morning and early afternoon hours.

Boy, it's funny.  I feel like I've heard a similar story to this before...

Could there be a double dose of "doomsday?" CBS 2 learned Tuesday night of a second round of service cuts planned by the Chicago Transit Authority. They would hit January 8th, shortly after fare increases and service cuts now scheduled for Nov. 4th. ...

Plastic signs at bus stops warn of what's scheduled for five days after Halloween, what might be called "Doomsday One" -- elimination of 39 bus routes, as well as rapid transit service on the Yellow and Purple lines.

Now, CBS 2 has learned, another round of layoffs and service reductions looms on Jan. 8th: "Doomsday Two."

"What we're looking at next year is a very severe reduction in service across the system," said CTA President Ron Huberman. "And it's one that will make Nov. 4th seem significantly lighter."

Quit plagiarizing Chicago's fiscal ineptitude in public transit (among other areas), New York City.  This is Windy City turf, Big Apple.

But there's good news, New Yorkers.  All you need as a grossly unpopular governor to offer a bailout plan that plunges your state further into financial turmoil and essential bankruptcy, while tacking on a purely political ornament like "free public transit rides for seniors." 

I hear that makes EVERYTHING all better...

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Don't spend that hope in one place...

11/18/08

Fox's Family Guy and creator Seth McFarlane take a nice, subtle shot at the banality of Obama's sloganeering.

Note: I couldn't find just the clip.  The video below is the entire episode.  Fast-forward to 3:55 into the episode for the aforementioned clip.

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Yes, that Greg Craig

11/17/08

From the Washington Post:

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Washington lawyer Gregory B. Craig, who served as President Bill Clinton's lead attorney during the 1998 impeachment proceedings, to be his White House counsel, according to an individual involved with the transition.

What other sparkling adornments are on Craig's resume:

Craig was a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. He has defended high-profile clients, including John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, and Kennedy nephew William Kennedy Smith, who was accused of rape.

Emphasis mine.

That's sweet.  Just over a week ago, Obama had to apologize to Nancy Reagan for his flippant attempt at a joke in referring to the "seances" Mrs. Reagan allegedly held in the White House.  Now, he's named as White House counsel the man who defended the attempted assassin of her husband, President Ronald Reagan.

But wait!  There's more!

Craig has also represented the Cuban father of Elian Gonzalez in that famous 2000 international child custody dispute. 

He's also recently defended a man believed connected to a 1992 murder of a US Soldier.  From the Dallas Morning News:

Now he is defending Pedro Miguel González, another Noriega loyalist and the president of Panama's legislature. Mr. González is a fugitive under federal indictment for the murder of U.S. Army Sgt. Zak Hernández Laporte on the eve of President George H.W. Bush's visit to Panama in 1992. Though Mr. González denies involvement, significant FBI evidence suggests otherwise.

He is a harsh U.S. critic. The murder indictment, combined with Mr. González's leadership position, is hindering bilateral relations and causing a new U.S.-Panama free trade accord to stall in the Senate, where Mr. Obama holds office. 

Also sounds lovely.

I get to say this again: But wait!  There's more! 

From Craig's official bio at the law firm Williams & Connolly, where here's a partner:

In 1977, he represented the first FBI agent ever to be indicted, who was accused of illegal wiretapping, breaking and entering, and mail opening in connection with the FBI investigation of the Weather Underground.

Now how was it that noted Weather Underground domestic terrorist Bill Ayers was never imprisoned for his crimes?  From Fox News:

Charges against Ayers were dropped because of government misconduct, which included FBI break-ins, wiretaps and opening of mail.

So, it's possible he defended the FBI agent who botched the Weather Underground case, thus allowing Bill Ayers to walk among us today, teaching at UIC and influencing young minds.

As Ayers himself said of the case, "Guilty as hell, free as a bird—America is a great country."

To paraphrase Gilda Radner's Roseanne Roseannadanna, Mr. Craig sounds like a 'real wonderful guy.'

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Prospect of Sec. of State Hillary Clinton presents a dilemma

11/14/08

From the New York Post:

We may soon be calling Hillary Rodham Clinton "Madame Secretary."

President-elect Barack Obama is considering the New York senator and former first lady for secretary of state - an appointment that would go a long way toward healing the wounds left by their bruising Democratic primary.

First off, I hope he's considering her because he thinks she be an exceptional envoy to the rest of the world.  Not because it'll bury the hatchet of their contentious Democrat primary battle.

Moving on...

Two Democratic officials confirmed that Clinton - long rumored to be a contender for the job - is under serious consideration. ...

Other Democrats believed to be in the running for secretary of state are New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. John Kerry, the party's 2004 nominee for president. Another widely discussed contender is former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, who is close to Obama and has many ties to his staff.

Every Friday, one of my high school teachers would pose a dilemma to the class.  He would detail two awful, usually putrid and disgusting options to the class and everyone had to pick one or the other.

Here, we have several options on the table.

> Hillary Clinton as SoS and American's representative to other nations around the world; the upside being the necessity of her vacating her Senate seat and assumedly from elective politics

> Gov. Bill Richardson, whom even some Democrat insiders have described to me as 'stellar in theory and loony-tunes in reality', as SoS

> Sen. John Kerry as SoS; the downside here being obvious, and the upside being the same as Hillary Clinton

> Former Sen. Tom Daschle as SoS... and words just seem to fail me on this prospect

So America... pick your poison.  What's the best of the worst here?

UPDATE: NBC political director Chuck Todd may have stumbled on a rather interseting insight here on the prospect of Clinton being named SoS:

The best reason for Obama to be looking for a place in his cabinet for Clinton is simple: to get her out of the Senate. Just ask George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter what it was like to have a once or future presidential rival in the Senate serving as a one-person Roman tribunal. Remember how easily the press gravitated to John McCain in '01 or Bob Kerrey in '93 or Ted Kennedy in '77 to allow them to be one-senator judge/juries on Administration proposals? The upside for Obama putting Clinton at State (or even the Pentagon) is that it gets her out of the Senate and gets her out of the domestic policy debates.

Todd also picks up on element of a SoS or other appointment removing Clinton from the campaign politics arena:

Also, one other thing to keep in mind if Clinton does end up at State, she'll be off the political circuit; it’s considered unseemly to practice politics while serving in one of the big cabinet posts, especially at State or Defense. So this would mean no more Hillary on the stump for candidates, no more Hillary raising money, no more Hillary collecting chits.

Not that it would be beyond reproach for a Clinton to overstep the traditional bounds and limitations of convention and good taste...

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The World Without US

11/14/08

We often hear the United States decried as "the world's policeman", usually bemoaning this role as a net detriment to the world.  We mettle too much in others affairs.  We should just mind our own business and everything would just be peachy.

But, what would the world be like if the United States wasn't there to have everyone's back?  If we encapsulated ourselves in protectionism?  This new documentary by Mitch Anderson and Jason J. Tomaric explores this topic...

Incidentally, author Michael Mendelbaum explores this topic in as excellent book, The Case For Goliath.  Add it to your reading list.

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Songs You Should Know: Cult of Personality

11/14/08

This week's edition of "Songs You Should Know" - my every-Friday series of music that I love and would like to share with the rest of the world - is a song that seems to fit our time very well.

Very well.

The great late-1980s, early-1990s funk-metal group Living Colour were as well known for their politically and socially charged music as they were for Vernon Reid's virtuosic guitar shredding and Will Calhoun's funk-tastic drumming.

Today's song: Cult of Personality
Album: Vivid

Note:  Because Sony BMG has disabled embedding of the official music video for this song on YouTube, the video above is a live performance from (get ready for a flashback) The Arsenio Hall Show!  Woof!  Woof!  Woof!  Woof!  Woof!  Woof!

Also, here's a fun Obama-centric mash-up of this song:

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Slumlords to be represented in Obama White House?

11/14/08

You may remember during the CNN Democrat Presidential debate in South Carolina when Hillary Clinton pointed out the connections between Barack Obama and convicted felon and slumlord Tony Rezko:

CLINTON: Bad for America, and I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Resco [sic], in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago.

Well, as the Chicago Sun-Times' Tim Novak reported back in April of 2007, Rezko really did have quite the slumlording business going:

For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago's South Side.

It was just four years after the landlords -- Antoin "Tony'' Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru -- had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers.

It was just four years after the landlords -- Antoin "Tony'' Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru -- had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers.

Rezko and Mahru couldn't find money to get the heat back on.

But their company, Rezmar Corp., did come up with $1,000 to give to the political campaign fund of Barack Obama, the newly elected state senator whose district included the unheated building.

During his time in the Illinois State Senate, Obama was a passionate advocate for public/private affordable housing partnerships, steering multitudes of cash to these developers.  Most of those development funds ended up going to Rezko or to projects similar to the Rezko-controlled one noted above.

Another one of those public/private affordable housing projects to which Obama steered money was right in his own State Senate district: Grove Parc Plaza.

Check out this video on the squalid conditions at Grove Parc Plaza in this Boston Globe report (hat-tip to my friends at Illinois Review):

You remember Valerie Jarrett, right?  She's the member of Barack Obama's transition team that proudly proclaimed that he was ready to "rule" on day one.  Turns out that Jarrett served as chief executive of Grove Parc Plaza while it deteriorated into the squalor you saw above.

In a disgusting twist of irony, Jarrett is the granddaughter of Robert Taylor.  Taylor is, of course, the namesake of one one of Chicago's more infamous public housing projects, the Robert Taylor Homes, which formerly stood as an eyesore near the home of the Chicago White Sox along the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that she's being considered as a possible successor to Obama's US Senate seat?  Lovely, isn't it?

Boston Globe reporter Binyamin Appelbaum describes Barack Obama's history with and advocacy for these kinds of housing projects:

As a state senator, [Obama] coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for developers. As a US senator, he pressed for increased federal subsidies. And as a presidential candidate, he has campaigned on a promise to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could give developers an estimated $500 million a year.

Fear not formerly persecuted slumlords of America!  You now have an advocate in the Oval Office, brazen enough to name a slumlord like Valerie Jarrett to his Presidential transition team.

UPDATE: From the Washington Post:

President-elect Barack Obama has formally named his friend, Valerie Jarrett, to be a senior adviser in the White House, a senior aide said Friday. ...

As a senior advisor, Jarrett may serve a similar role for Obama to that played by Karen Hughes during President Bush's first term -- providing political advice while keeping him grounded.

Looks like the people of Illinois will be spared Jarrett as Senator.  But she'll be a White House consigliere, none the less.

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Fooled you! (Or not...)

11/14/08

You all remember Bill "just a guy from my neighborhood of whose radical and terrorist past I was unaware, except when I claimed I thought he had been rehabilitated, but that I barely knew even though we participated together on at least one debate panel and served together on two boards" Ayers, right?

And how's that for the world's longest nickname?

Well, with Obama about to take residency in the White House, Ayers has decided to be a little more forthcoming on his relationship with Obama.

From the Associated Press:

Bill Ayers, the Vietnam War-era radical who was a campaign headache for Barack Obama, says in a new afterword to his memoir that the two were neighbors and family friends. Ayers' reflections appear in a new paperback release of his 2001 memoir, "Fugitive Days." The Associated Press obtained a copy of the new afterword Thursday. ...

In the afterword, Ayers does not elaborate on the description of "family friends."

"In 2008 there was a lot of chatter on the blogosphere about my relationship with Barack Obama: we had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fundraiser at my house, where I'd made a small donation to his earliest political campaign," Ayers writes.

I feel like Claude Reigns in Casablanca: I'm shocked!  Shocked!

Well, I guess we can put to rest the unsureness over whether Ayers held that initial funder for Obama at his Hyde Park home.

So what does Camp Obama have to say about Ayers updated narrative:

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt declined immediate comment on Ayers' new writings.

Woah!  Shocker...

So what did Ayers think of the massive to-do over his terrorist past and his long, documented and now validated history with President-elect Obama?

Ayers said it was "more than guilt by association," something he called "a deep and ugly tradition in our political life."

Here's to hoping Ayers doesn't deal with this "deep and ugly tradition in our political life" like he's dealth with other ugly elements of our political life in the past.

Maybe you'll want to 'duck and cover' just in case.

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Barack Obama: 1411 days of serving the people of Illinois

11/13/08

From Reuters:

President-elect Barack Obama said on Thursday he would resign his U.S. Senate seat effective Sunday...

Barack Obama was sworn in to his US Senate seat on January 4th, 2005.  He will resign that seat on November 16th, 2008.  By my count, Obama will have served a whopping 1411 days in the Senate when he resigns on Sunday.

This all brings to mind something Sen. Obama said back on November 8th, 2004, just after he'd won his landslide victory over Alan Keyes to claim Peter Fitzgerald's vacated Senate seat:

Oh well, Hillary Clinton once said she had no plans to run for the Presidency.  Although she hardly made such a strong case against herself when she mouthed that platitude. And, at that point there was plenty of reason to be skeptical of anything a Clinton said. About anything.

But I guess to be surprised by this, we would have only ourselves to hold accountable for being so ::ahem:: audacious as to take one of history's most opportunistic politicians at his word on his political future.

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Will the real Eric Kohn please stand up?

11/13/08

No, no, no.  I'm not going to "Slim Shady" on you.

But, a friend of mine emailed over a picture today which he felt bared some resemblance to me.  At least, that is, if I were an Ultimate Fighter and sported a few tattoos.

What do you think?

Others have suggested that I also bear a resemblence to ::shudder:: Boston Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein:

Not the best picture, I know.  But it's the only one I could find of him when he still had his goatee.

Either way, I find this all kinda funny.

Except for being compared (in anyway) to the man to constructed the 2004 Boston Red Sox team.

That one kinda stings...

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NOT from the Onion: Bush Warns Against `Too Much' Government in Markets

11/13/08

Yeah, I thought it might have been a joke, too.  Apparently, it's not.

From Bloomberg News:

President George W. Bush today urged leaders of the world's biggest economies not to abandon free- market capitalism as they seek an escape from the financial crisis, calling it the "best system'' for delivering growth.

In a speech at the Manhattan Institute in New York before weekend talks among leaders from the Group of 20 nations, Bush said policy makers should resist the urge to meddle too much in markets as they seek to reverse the financial and economic turmoil now engulfing the world. 

Whaaaaaa?

Lovely sentiment.  Couldn't agree with that more.

But, (to quote Dwight Schrute), "Question": Where the hell was this, oh, back when we were bailing out every single financial institution that held up it's oversized 7-11 cup and begged for some federal assistance?  Where was this when we nationalized AIG to make the United States the world's largest insurance company?  Where was this through all of the "these institutions are too big to fail" hogwash?

More from Bloomberg:

"History has shown that the greater threat to economic prosperity is not too little government involvement in the market, but too much,'' Bush said. "Our aim should not be more government, it should be smarter government.''

Excuse me while I file "smarter government" next to "honest politician"...

In what was, honestly, an overall very good speech, President Duyba didn't let out this befuddling gem:

"I'm a market-oriented guy, but not when I'm faced with the prospect of a global meltdown."

Pardon me for asking, but might that not be a pretty good time to stick to that system he had previously lavished with praise as "best system" for delivering growth?

In conversation with a good friend and colleague, he opined:

Principles don't really mean anything if you don't hold onto them when the going gets tough. It's precisely WHEN the going gets tough that you NEED them!

So clearly, he was just riffing there. Because the rest of the speech read as if Steve Moore had written it.

That, my friends, might just be the Presidency of George W. Bush in a nutshell.  Fleeting optimism.  Some reason to hope for great things.  A myriad of disappointments across the conservative spectrum.

Over at National Review, Jonah Goldberg is also musing on the topic of the dichotomy that is the Bush legacy:

In one corner, there are a large number of bright, mostly younger, self-styled reformers with a diverse — and often contradictory — set of proposals to win back middle-class voters and restore the GOP’s status as “the party of ideas” (as the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it).

In another corner are self-proclaimed traditional conservatives and Reaganites, led most notably by Rush Limbaugh, who believe that the party desperately needs to get back to the basics: limited government, low taxes, and strong defense.

I see in the future a least a couple books penned on the George W. Bush presidency with titles that'll run somewhere along the lines of, "Bush 43: What the hell was with the last 8 years?!"

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Lobbyists bad (kinda, sorta); Major bank rollers good

11/12/08

From Bloomberg News:

Top fundraisers and other well-connected supporters will serve in an advisory capacity before the Democrat takes office on Jan. 20.

Five of the 12 members of Obama's transition advisory board raised at least $50,000 for his presidential campaign, and eight contributed the maximum individual donation of $4,600. Other transition team members include a partner in a lobbying firm and two executives of financial companies whose employees were among his biggest donors.

You know, there's a word we have here in Chicago for rewarding your campaign contributors with positions in your administration once you've won the office.  What is it...  Oh yeah!  Patronage.

The other expression we have for it here in the Windy City is "politics as usual".

More from Bloomberg:

The rules, however, won't prevent campaign fundraisers known as bundlers from serving.

Among those bank rolling bundlers whose financial generocity helped earned a transition team post... Valerie Jarrett.  The same Valarie Jarrett who knows that Obama is ready to "rule" on day one.  The same Valarie Jarrett that the Chicago Sun-Times thinks is a exemplary candidate to fill Obama's US Senate seat.

Another fun Chicago name and generous financial benefactor who's earned a position on the transition team:

Campaign co-chairman William Daley, a vice chairman at New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., also sits on the advisory board. JPMorgan employees and their families were Obama's sixth-biggest source of donations, giving $581,460.

To answer your question: yes.  That's the same William Daley whose brother, Richard M. Daley, currently presides over that paragon of reform, efficiency and good government we call Chicago.

I guess the more things "change", the more the stay the same.

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Obama keeping his campaign promise (kinda, sorta)

11/11/08

Remember all the consternation from Barack Obama over those evil and pernicious "lobbyists" that infested Washington?  Remember his pledge that they would be no part of his campaign, nor his presidency?

Well, Barack Obama is keeping his promise.

Well... kinda... sorta... something like that...

From the Associated Press:

Aides to President-elect Obama, who said lobbyists would not work in his White House, said Tuesday that lobbyists could serve in his transition so long as their activities do not involve areas of policy they have tried to influence in the past year.

So, now he's cool with lobbyists, just so long as they don't have anything to do with their professed area of expertise.  Sure... that makes sense... I guess.

Not the mention the lunacy of the categorical judgment being handed down upon all lobbyists that assumes there's no Washington lobbyists - NONE - that has every lobbied for something good.  The law of averages would seem to squash that concept.  

The AP picked up on seeming duplicity here:

[Top transition aide John] Podesta called the guidelines the toughest ever imposed by a presidential transition. But they seem to give lobbyists more leeway than Obama suggested they would have when he campaigned for the presidency.

"I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race," Obama said in speech last November in Spartanburg, S.C. "I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House."

Apparently he just meant they won't find a job for which they might actually be qualified in his White House.

I know, details, details.

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Long National Nightmare Update: Coleman/Franken could be Florida 2000 redux

11/11/08

It's certainly not exactly the same level as Florida 2000 in terms of obvious national significance.  Florida, after all, was going to decide who would occupy the White House.  The Minnesota Senate race between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat "funny man" Al Franken, which up until now had been a fascination for more perverse reasons, might end up coming close in the sense that it seems destined to be a similarly nasty, protracted and complicated mess with significant national implications.

From John R. Lott, Jr. at Fox News:

When voters woke up on Wednesday morning after the election, Senator Norm Coleman led Al Franken by what seemed like a relatively comfortable 725 votes. By Wednesday night, that lead had shrunk to 477. By Thursday night, it was down to 336. By Friday, it was 239. Late Sunday night, the difference had gone down to just 221 -- a total change over 4 days of 504 votes.

Amazingly, this all has occurred even though there hasn’t even yet been a recount. Just local election officials correcting claimed typos in how the numbers were reported. Counties will certify their results today, and their final results will be sent to the secretary of state by Friday. The actual recount won’t even start until November 19.

Just because this won't decide the Presidency doesn't mean this race lacks in importance. The Democrats currently hold 57 seats in the US Senate.  Currently there are two independents, Bernie Sanders (a socialist who votes with the Democrats) and Joe Lieberman (who votes with both parties, caucuses with the Democrats, but is currently the black sheep of Democrats for his vocal support of the McCain/Palin ticket).  As Lott goes on to point out, while still shy of a clear filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats, Franken picking up this MN seat would allow the Democrats to avoid the filibuster on a good number of issues.

Interestingly enough, the bend in all of this would come down to... Joe Lieberman.  Lieberman consistently swinging to the Republican side would prevent this from being a possibility - assuming no Republicans flip sides on whatever issue is at hand.

Considering Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Lieberman supposedly had a rather icy meeting recently, and with rumors abounding of Reid attempting to squeeze out Lieberman from his chairmanship of the Homeland Security committee, the possibilities of a disenfranchised Lieberman taking his "Joe-mentum" to the GOP side is certainly out there.

Joe Lieberman - amazingly enough only eight years removed from coming within "Florida" of being Al Gore's Vice President - might find himself in a position simiar to the one that Ronald Reagan once described: "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me."

But, back to the Franken situation.  You remember ACORN, right?  The organization that recieves millions in federal tax dollars and - at last check - was under investigation for potential voter fraud in 13 states?  From Lott:

With ACORN filing more than 43,000 registration forms this year, 75 percent of all new registrations in the state, Minnesota was facing vote fraud problems even before the election. Even a small percentage of those registrations resulting in fraudulent votes could tip this election.

And did we mention that the official recount doesn't start until November 19th?

Brace yourself, folks.  With a filibuster-proof Senate for the Democrats - at least on some issues - hanging in the balance, this one will be sure to get just about as wile as Florida 2000.

And that was was such a blast, wasn't it?

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Obama roasts "Rahmbo" Emanuel

11/11/08

All in all, pretty funny...

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Our Veterans, Our Soldiers

11/11/08

Today, Veterans Day, I find myself reminded of this passage delivered quite memorably at the 2004 Republican National Convention by Georgia Democrat Zell Miller, who delivered one of the more memorable keynote addresses I can remember.  The passage is just a few seconds into the video.  The text is below.

It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

--by Charles M. Province

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It didn't take long for President-elect Obama to get creepy on us

11/10/08

Examining the early version of President-elect Obama's transitional website, vapidly named Change.gov, the Sweetness & Light blog made a rather...disturbing discovery.

Under the header of "America Serves", the original incarnation of the site stated the following:

For those with failing eyesight, here's crux of the insanity:

“Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.”

Got that... "require".  No choice.  No options.  You gotsta do it.  Obama commands you.

Perhaps this is to what Michelle Obama was referring when she said:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

No, none of this is even the slightest bit creepy.  Not at all.

As a side note, "creepy" seems to be a popular summation of Obama-mania.  Here's Newsweek's Evan Thomas on the Charlie Rose show (click here for the full interview):

Not surprisingly, this didn't stick around for long.  Now appearing on the "Service" page of Change.gov:

So yeah.  That's about a 180 degree reversal from "required" to an incentivised system.

I guess Obama transition team co-chair Valerie Jarrett wasn't kidding when she said that President Obama will be ready to ::ahem:: "rule" on his first day in office. 

Crown and scepter optional, of course.

And for you Illinoisans who believe you've heard that name, Valerie Jarrett, before... it would be because you have.  From a Chicago Sun-Times editorial on some "good choice" to fill the US Senate seat Obama will be vacating:

Valerie Jarrett: Obama confidante, former city official, real estate executive and housing expert.

Oh yeah, she sounds like a delight.  And to think, all this time I thought we were going to take a hard-left turn towards socialism.  Perhaps I was wrong.  Maybe we're headed towards a monarchy.

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Next up: Ethics Advisor Charlie Rangle?

11/10/08

In his quest to realize the "change we need", President-elect Obama has already brought in Rham "Rhambo" Emanuel as his new White House Chief of Staff.

Obama's press conference last Friday followed his first meeting with the cadre of economic advisors.  Among them, Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan.

Is he really serious about this?  Will his next appointment be Rep. Charles Rangle as his ethics advisor and personal tax accountant?

Sorry to all my friends who call Michigan their home, but there's no one out there who can describe that state's economy as "vibrant" and keep a straight face.  The last census documented Michigan's further decent into economic peril.   A ranking of all 50 states complied by the American Legislative Exchange Council paints less than a rosy picture for Michigan's economic situation.

Again, this is more than enough to make one question Obama's judgement in those with whom he chooses to surround himself.

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Yeah... But how many are "clinging" to them?

11/10/08

From ABC News:

While shoppers are cutting back on almost everything, sales of one item are suddenly soaring -- guns. Buyers across the country are snapping up firearms at a record pace.

Boy, whoda thunk it?  Could it be because, in general, the Democrat Party is far from being as enthusiastic about the protections of the 2nd Amendment as they are inventing new rights out of wholecloth that have never exists in the Constitution, have never been understood as existing in the Constitution, and are injected into the Constitution by appointed judges citing an "evolving national concensus?"

More:

Sales are brisk across the West. Background checks for new gun owners jumped 15 percent last month, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data.

Colorado just set a record for the highest number of background checks for new gun owners, nearly 1,500 in a single day, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Amazing!  So it's not just those previous " gun-nuts" who were already clinging to their guns?  New people have felt a compulsion to purchase firearms in the wake of Obama's victory.  Fascinating...

More still:

Obama says he supports the right to bear arms with reasonable restrictions. But that has not been enough reassurance for some people or enough to quell the spreading fear among gun owners.

Maybe that's because they've examined three things: his personal history in the IL State Senate, his hailing from a city that simultaneously has the hightest national murder rate and one of the most draconian gun bans in the nation, and understanding of Obama's judicial philosophy that would indicate the type of "living Constituion" justices he might appoint, if given the chance.

Well, if we're going to just start ignoring part of the Constitution, I'd like to go on record as being in favor of ignoring the 16th Amendment.

Fair's fair, right?

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Because the first one worked SOOO well...

11/07/08

From President-Elect Obama's first press conference after his historic election victory:

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Friday he wanted Congress to pass another stimulus package as soon as possible to stabilize the U.S. economy.

"We are going to need to see a stimulus package passed either before or after the inauguration (on January 20). I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than later," Obama told a news conference in Chicago after meeting his economic advisers.

After Obama won, I wrote this post on how I wasn't going to be one of "those guys" that sat and lobbed childish bombs at Obama as the Left did at George W. Bush.

And, as I wrote, that didn't mean that I would voice my disagreement with Obama and his policy when I disagreed.

It sure didn't take him long to get me there...

In addition to the WONDROUS work that the first stimulus package did for the state of our economy, if you were a nation that was trillions of dollars in debt - which we are - how could you possible consider making your first big push, "let's give out some more money!"

Speaking of giving out more money... can you smell another bailout for another industry that's just "too big to fail"?

US President-elect Barack Obama said Friday it was a high priority to work on policies to help the stricken US auto industry adjust to the economic crisis. 

I was joking during the series of nationalizations of financial industry entites that, back in the ole' Soviet Union, at least when they nationalized/socialized industry, it was companies that actually produced a tangible product.  The Soviets nationalized product producers.  We were nationalizing, and thus making the US Government the world's largest insurer when we bailed out AIG.

For the record, I wasn't suggest anyone take me seriously to the point of nationalizing our industry in the manner of the Soviet Union.  Just kidding, Mr. Future-President.  Don't you know a joke when you hear one?

I keep hoping Obama will prove me wrong.

This isn't helping.

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Long National Nightmare Update: Franken deficit dwindles to 236 votes

11/07/08

In a hand recount that has been projected to possibly extend into next month, joke candidate Al Franken's deficit in the vote margin to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman has dropped to 236 votes.  From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

The margin in the tightest Senate race in the country bounced like the stock market throughout the day, with the difference between Coleman and Franken dropping, then rising briefly to 590 votes before shooting down to a razor-thin 238 as of 3:15 p.m. Friday.

I'll say this again... a little heavenly intervention here?

Yet, a colleague of mine makes an excellent point: how much more of a joke is Al Franken than, say, Dick Durbin?  At least Franken is TRYING to be funny.  They're both laughable.  And neither in the way they indend to be.

That being said, I'd prefer to keep the Democrats out of the filibuster-proof majority.  I don't think that's a healthy configuration for the Senate no matter which party is in power.

In other semi-related news...

From WCCO-TV (CBS), also in Minnesota:

A coin toss has determined the winner of the mayor's race in the tiny northwestern Minnesota town of Goodridge.

Incumbent Bob Homme and former Mayor Dave Brown each got 22 votes. Instead of finding the ballots and recounting the 44 votes, they agreed to decide the winner with a coin toss.

It already was a strange race in Goodridge -- population 98 -- with no one filing to run for mayor. Brown and Homme were both write-ins.

To break the tie, each tossed his own coin. If it was even, meaning two heads or two tails, Homme would win the two-year term. If it was odd, meaning a head and a tail, Brown would win.

It was a head and a tail. Brown won.

Ok, this confirms it for me.  I'm now fairly convinced that Minnesota does not take ANY election seriously.

Any Minnesotans who want to set me straight here are welcome...

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Fire this teacher. Immediately.

11/07/08

I've seen this video a couple of places so far today.  Watch it, and if your head doesn't explode before the three minutes are up, then ask yourself the question below.

Ask yourself which is more outrageous: that this school teacher is intimidating and belittling her students that professed to support John McCain and then has the gall the claim she's fair to all viewpoints without even seemly an inkling of her stupefying hypocrisy, or that it took a documentary from Finland on the US Elections to bring this trash to light?

No, no indoctrination in our schools.

Please moving along, says Chief Wiggum.  Nothing to see here...

She should be dismissed immediately, and apologies made to every student at that school that has had to endure her perverse behavior.

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Songs You Should Know: Inní mér syngur vitleysingur

11/07/08

I've decided each Friday to post a different song that I'm currently enjoying and that I'd like to share with as much of the rest of the world as possible.

This week's song comes from one of my favorite groups, Sigur Rós.  (Hat-tip to my brother Frank for mentioning it today.)  I hope you enjoy!

Song: Inní mér syngur vitleysingur (Translation: Within Me A Lunatic Sings.  How's my Icelandic?)
Album: Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

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Oh please... Can't we stop the sloganeering now?

11/06/08

President-elect Obama now has an official website in his capacity as President-elect.

What's the URL of that website?

http://www.change.gov/

Sigh... can't say that I'm surprised, though.

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From the Onion: Just priceless...

11/06/08

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Things are looking up! Jack's back!

11/06/08

It's time to move on with life, no?

Good news!  On November 23rd... Jack's back!

Perhaps American's first African-American President...

...will turn out to be a lot like THIS African-American President...

If only?

Then, we might be in "good hands"...

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

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I’m sorry, but I won’t be “that guy”

11/05/08

To the credit of Democrats (or maybe just the Democrats that I count among my friends), I have yet to receive a single nasty call, email, note or text message. Perhaps any negativity is just being forestalled by their current state of elation over Barack Obama’s victory last night. Perhaps. But, I’ll choose to believe the best here. Most of what I’ve seen so far has been good-natured and classy.

That’s not to say that I haven’t taken some good-natured ribbing from a few over John McCain’s loss. And that’s fair enough. I’d be hard pressed to honestly say that I wouldn’t be engaging in some similar harmless poking had McCain been the victor last night.

From one of these messages I received, the conversation evolved into a very interesting discussion. Here’s a bit of what my friend had to say:

I think we're all much better off with someone who can bring us all together and inspire the people of our country, and the world for that matter. So, I'm glad we got it!

I'm sure you're not ecstatic about the election result, but I hope you and other republicans around the country can come together to support Obama. It's really the only way we can pull ourselves out of the mess we're in.

First off, I'm a little frightened of the "America coming together" collectivism. Over the course of history, some of the worst things that have occurred have come from mass unity. What’s more, this nation was born out of great disagreement and on the principal of protecting our rights to disagree with each other. It's a prime part of what makes this country so great.

Most certainly, the 64+ million who voted for Obama feel unified right now. But I'm sure the over 56 million who voted for McCain – and speaking as a member of that group – would have to dissent from that feeling.

While I understand the sentiment about GOPers and conservatives coming together to support Obama, I find it somewhat ironic that we’re now being asked to do something the vast majority of Democrats NEVER did: support the man sitting in the Oval Office because he was our President.

The last eight years have been filled with unending, ad nauseum recitations of “he’s not my President”, “selected, not elected”, “Bush cheated”, “steal it again, Bush”, “Bush lied, people died”, and so on and so forth.

Columnist Charles Kruathammer has termed it “Bush Derangement Syndrome”. I call it utterly petty childishness that plays out like an unending temper-tantrum more befitting a two-year old than some of the (supposedly) educated adults from which I heard it flow.

So I’m going to state this as emphatically as I possibly can: I refuse to allow myself to become what I beheld for the last eight years.

As of January 20th, 2009, Barack Obama is as much my President as he is that of my Democrat friends. If – and I believe, “when” – he advances policy that I believe is wrong-headed, bad for America or antithetical to the principles of our Constitution and our Founding Father's ideal of what American should be (for example, "spreading the wealth around", confiscatory taxation, socialized health care, etc.), I'm going to oppose it. I’m going to oppose it voraciously and vociferously.

But I'm never going to be one of those people that deny he's my President because I didn't vote for him.

The truth of the matter is we have yet to see how a President Obama - member of a party that will solidly control both houses of Congress – will govern. Only time will tell that. I'm inclined to believe we're about to take a hard left turn towards socialism. And that inclination leaves me more than a little scared for the future of this country that I love so much.

But you'll never hear me say that he's not my President.

I refuse to be “that guy”.

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The long nightmare continues? AP retracts Franken loss in MN

11/05/08

At 7:44am, I received the following email from Politico.com:

Republican Norm Coleman has won a second term in the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, AP reports.

This is, of course, the race against Democrat Al Franken.  A funny sketch writer for SNL, yes.  But, he's a character assassin of the first degree.  He's a leftist, Ann Coulter-like bomb-thrower with horn-rimmed glasses.

Then, at 9:45am, I got this email from Politico.com:

The Associated Press has reversed its call for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, saying that a recount will be required before a winner can be declared.

Oy vey.

You could see this coming by looking at the numbers:

Coleman (R) - 1,210,940 - 42%
Franken (D) - 1,210,370 - 42%

A difference of 570 certainly merits a recount we we're talking a state-wide race.

But Minnesota... You elected the pro-wrestler Jesse Ventura as your governor once.   We remember just how batty he turned out to be.  You (as of this moment) came within 570 or so votes of electing AL FRANKEN to the US Senate?

Is voting a source of personal comedy in Minnesota?

We'll have to wait and see how THIS turns out.

A little heavnely intervention, please?

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Is Rahm Emanuel the "change we need"?

11/05/08

From ABC's Jake Tapper:

ABC News has learned that President-elect Obama has offered the White House chief of staff job to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.

Emanuel?  Seriously?

Rahm Emanuel is a partisan viper.  He's Paul Begala in elected office.  He's less about policy ideas and more about screwing the other side.

More from Tapper:

Emanuel, a knowledgeable source tells ABC News, has not yet given his answer. The sharp-tongued, sharp-elbowed, keenly intelligent veteran of the Clinton White House is said to have ambitions to some day be Speaker of the House. But he also has a keen sense of "duty."

From all of the posturing of "reaching to the other side" we heard from Obama, this certainly doesn't seem to send any signal that bi-partisanship is his intention.

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Please rise for our new national anthem...

11/04/08

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LiveBlogging Election Night 2008

11/04/08

Tune in right here for full, up to the second (or at least as fast as I can type it), wall-to-wall coverage of all the trials, travails and tribulations of Election Night 2008.  I'll be taking your comments, thoughts and news tips right here, as well.

This LiveBlog will also be cross-posted at www.ElectIL.com, the official political page of The Big 89, WLS-AM 890.

Enjoy and please join in!

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Black Panthers providing "security" in Philly?

11/04/08

And I thought things got screwy at Chicago polling places...

I wonder if the Black Panther toting the nightstick is really as afraid of the camera phone as he is of the billy club?

UPDATE: Apparently, the Philly police can also see the possibility for voter intimidation in a Black Panther with a nightstick...

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Got a nice groove to it...

11/04/08

We'll start today out on the lighter side.

You h