Louisiana Voters Drain Some of Mrs. Pelosi’s Swamp

“Cold Cash” Jefferson left out in the cold.

When Mrs. Pelosi become Speaker of the House, she vowed to “drain the swamp.”    Rather than draining her swamp, Mrs. Pelosi has allowed her swamp to become even more infested.   Well yesterday, voters of Louisiana’s Second Congressional District took matters into their own hands and drained Mrs. Pelosi’s swamp of one alligator, otherwise known as William Jefferson:

(CNN) — Nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who has been battling scandals and a federal indictment for the past three years, lost his bid for re-election on Saturday.

Republican challenger Anh “Joseph” Cao, an attorney and community organizer, defeated Jefferson in the 2nd Congressional district race. He will become the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress.

Now if voters of the New York Fifteenth Congressional District would just take the clue.

Found a few houses off Orchard Park Road in West Seneca, outside Buffalo last night. Donna took these. As always, drill once to get the description, drill twice to get the full sized shot.

Now, should you happen to be looking for this particular display, start at Ray Laks Honda, at 100 Orchard Park Road in West Seneca… and follow the glow to your west, between you and I-90. Trust me, you’l find it.

The open question is just how bleeding stupid is BO, a/k/a  Barack Obama.  It is hard to say.   However there appears to be an unlimited depth to BO’s sheer stupidity.   Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin, Politico, reports on what BO purports to be an “economic stimulus plan.”

ENERGY: “[W]e will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to

A smaller government would require less space, fewer building, use less energy and save the taxpayers’ money.   Don’t put a bandage on inefficient government.   Eliminate it.

ROADS AND BRIDGES: “[W]e will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money

Earth to Obama, cone in please.   One have you ever heard of environmental protection laws.   Infrastructure must get environmental approval before construction.   Two, you can not create a any job by taking a dollar from one person, the taxpayer, to give to another,  a card carrying member of a construction union which supported  your campaign.

SCHOOLS: “[M]y economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.”

Bull!  If Johnny can’t read, Johnny doesn’t need to surf.     Teach reading before allowing Internet access.

ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS: “In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the Internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the Internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars

Yeah I am sure if we put our private medical records on line, the government will protect our privacy just like it protected Joe the Plumber’s privacy.

Call Barack Obama what you will, just don’t call him smart.

Other bloggings:  Don Riehl, Rield World View; Don Surber; Gateway Pundit.

BY way of looking something up while responding to David’s Scramble this morning, I found a little gem about Black Friday, which explains why I don’t tend to go out to the stores on that day.

-1-

Friday was my older son’s birthday. He got himself a couple train cars for his layout. The collection of cars and motive power’s getting big enough that I’m going to need to build him a new table for the layout. This winter, perhaps.

Going out to dinner for my Son’s birthday took on a new dimension, though, given it falls, this year, on the fabled first day of the Christmas shopping season. As such the simple act of going out for a bite takes on a dimension that’s utterly unheard of at any other time of the year.

Can YOU say ‘traffic’? Trust me, my friends, I’ve driven in a lot of major markets…Boston, LA, SanDiego, SanFran, Philly, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Baltimore/ Washington, Chicago… and I can think of one thing that beats ’em all, hands down, for sheer idiocy on wheels… Outside the local mall on the day after Thanksgiving.

Well dear reader, I went right past the mouth of Hell itself… otherwise known as Longridge Mall… in order to go to the nearest KFC, a favorite of my older son, who got to pick the resturant since it was his birthday. What amazes me more is I actually lived to relate the tale to you. Just be glad we didn’t have a half inch of snowfall Friday night like we did Thursday. The result might have been the mall being nuked in a fit of pique.

I watched in utter disbelief, Thanksgiving evening, as store after store ran ad after ad on the tube, announcing they were opening at 5:30 am.. and even 5:00am, and running loss leaders to get people to come in at that hour. The ads apparently worked… I gather from the local cops that they had people hereabouts lining up four deep, hours before the places opened… waiting in the cold and snow… just to get a jump on everyone else. As if to one-up them all, the local WalMart super center just went 24*7 until 12/25. They did the same last year, and apparently WalMart beat up on a lot of the other retailers last year as a result, both locally and nationally. the resulting mob was one that would shake the bearish forecasts from the lips of nearly any Wall Street Wonk.

At what point did we reach this level of insanity? It must be all the coffee we Americans drink. Gotta be. I can just see it, can’t you?

“It’s 2:15 in the mornin’ Ma… you’re going SHOPPING?”

(talking very fast) “Well… they’re open and I just need a few more things for my list….”

So, let’s see if I’ve got this right. I mean, there’s a lot to go over, here, and I must have missed some of it.

We have fresh snow, and drivers who can’t drive in it… so I’m endangering my new truck… the parking lots are all jammed, meaning I’ve got door-ding city going on here… or else I have to park in the next area code and walk from there… and by the way… It’s colder than my freezer out there and windy, plus I’m already under the weather, all of which makes that walk that much MORE special for me… Every single person in every place I could go wants large amounts of my money… and to boot, I have to get up at about 03:00 to get ready and there in time to take part in this festival of idiocy, all so I can fight with a few thousand other screaming malcontents for $50 off the latest whatsit my kids won’t play with after the first 15 minutes go by, preferring to play with the box instead???

Have I missed anything?

Man, when you put it that way, it all sounds so attractive!. How in the world could I think of doing anything else?

Like, sleeping for example?

You’ll excuse me, but I have a note from my doctor… I’m too well to attend. Sorry.

-0-

I dunno, maybe I should be going for the laugh, given the death out on Long Island. Then again, perhaps a laugh is the best way to describe the whole scene.

Addendum:  (David L)

I have had little desire to comments on the event related to Black Friday, because I see so llittle news value in it.   As I see it, civilization is an on-going and still incomplete process.   That we humans have a dark side, not yet civilizied, is hardly news.    Shopping is still a safer activity than attending a soccer march in Europe.

The Puffster, a/k/a Tom Daschle, is claiming, albeit without evidence, that somehow Obamacare would be a boom to our economy, Laura Meckler, Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Tom Daschle, who is slated to oversee health-care policy in the Obama administration, is kicking off the effort to pass a comprehensive health-care plan.

In a speech to be delivered Friday in Denver, Mr. Daschle will say, “The president-elect made health-care reform one of his top priorities of his campaign, and I am here to tell you that his commitment to changing the health-care system remains strong and focused.”

Sure Puff, just like Castrocare is such boon to the Cuban economy.

The leftards just shucked a brick, Stuart Taylor, Jr, National Journal,  comes out in favor of illegal surveillance:

Obama will have a choice: He can give the Left what it wants and weaken our defenses. Or he can follow the advice of his more prudent advisers, recognize that Congress, the courts, and officials including Attorney General Michael Mukasey have already moved to end the worst Bush administration abuses — and kick the hard Left gently in the teeth. I’m betting that Obama is smart and tough enough to do the latter.

BO campaigned with steady drone of Bush, policies, failed.   Yet more and more BO is faced with dilemma of protecting the country or appeasing the left.   It is really going to become difficult to maintain the meme of Forty-Three as the Worst President ever, with BO adopting so many of the Bush policies.

O.J Simpson sentencing, Ashley Powers and Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times:

“When you take a gun with you and you take men with you in a show of force, that is not just a ‘Hey, give me my stuff back.’ That’s something else and that’s what happened here,” the judge [Jackie Glass] said.

Sure Bit already posted on this but what the heck.   Maybe Simpson didn’t study the meaning of armed robbery at Southern Cal?

Yet another Kennedy in the Senate, Glenn Thrush:

(The Politico) Caroline Kennedy, the previously publicity-shy daughter of JFK, is putting out feelers about a possible appointment to replace Hillary Clinton, according to Democratic insiders.

The usually spot-on AP team of Barrett and Fouhy is reporting that Kennedy has already spoken to Gov. David Paterson, citing unnamed sources

I am no fan of the Kennedy clan.  I am old enough to survived the Kennedy administration.   However the Kennedy clan is quite sexist.   There males are all reprobates.   The only class in found among the females.   Caroline may be the best of a sorry lot.   Caroline would be a far better choice than who lunatic cousin RFK, Jr and would the first senator with song named after her.

It figures:

Homosexual and transgender activists are thrilled over Obama’s picks for his transition teams and for his Cabinent picks

Cold day on the Canal,   The temperature, what little there was of it, was in the high twenties yesterday.   So what do three men, all over fifty talk about, hunting antelopes with flintlocks.  I don’t know how many New York State hunters hunt with flintlocks, but talked to two of them today.

Paging Bob Villa, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle:

The city went looking for a developer Thursday interested in saving Midtown Plaza Tower from demolition.

But not the tower as people see it today. First, the city would strip the 17-story structure down to its steel framework, removing the building’s exterior, main roof, plumbing and interior walls

This would have to be the World’s biggest remodeling job.   Where is Bob Villa when you need him?

Just how stupid is Barack Obama? It may impossible to determine.   Consider this tidbit from via Abe Goldberg, Commentary:

Barack Obama is toying with the idea of making a speech from an Islamic capital within his first 100 days in office. The scuttlebutt is all about finding the right one. (The consensus is Cairo-which is a terrible idea. An Obama speech there would be read as a shameful acceptance of Mubarak’s oppressive rule.) But my question is: what would he say?

What would the one say in a major capital of nation of Twelfth century savages?    Is the Messiah man enough to speak truth to the Muslim world?  Not hardly.   Does BO intend to come grovelling?  I suspect so.  Is Obama stupid enough to believe that mere rhetoric. inflated as his may be, can actually change Islam?  Let us hope not.

Hat tip:  James Taranto, Best of the Web.

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble.

Friday. TGIF (Toes go in First).  Lots doing before the weekend, though. Hold on tight, here we go:

• The Dinosaurs are dying off at a faster pace, now. If there’s a positive thing to be had aside from the Unions being laid low, it’s the Dinosaur press being dismantled. The Denver Post is reporting that something like 30 different newspapers around the country are up for sale… and nobody’s buying. The Rocky Mountain News, particularly, is on that list and the word is the place ‘may’ close. Rocky alone has lost over $15MUSD this year.  My read, based on what I see in the public channels is that announcements to close will come in January, barring some buyer somewhere. And still, amazingly, the message isn’t getting through as to the cause. It’s not the medium, people, and it’s not the economy. It’s the content.
• Example on the content issues; Why is it that we have to turn to Krauthammer’s opinion column to learn of the massive successes in Iraq? If that’s not hard news, what in the world IS?
• Oil’s at $44/BBL. I’m telling ya… I feel a road trip coming on.
• Still getting cooler. And no, it;’s not man made. It’s that big yellow thing.
• Boy George on a kidnapping charge? I think I’ll pass on commenting here. Just call it an overly target rich environment.
• On a similar note; Paris Hilton wants to play Tinkerbell for Disney? I’m not going there, either, except to note the link is for the SanFranChron. Tink. San Fran… Yeah, I guess that works.
• I note the Wall Street Journal saying Plaxico Burris should be freed on the basis of the unconstitutionality of New York’s anti-gun laws. They have a valid point. And before anyone starts in on me about my previous comments on the subject, particularly the NFL’s reaction… those comments speak to his screwing up his ability to play. I’ve no problem with folks carrying firearms, nor should NY, or the NFL. My concern was that the person carrying should have at least one fully functional brain cell. The NFL and the team protecting their interests are quite a number of steps away from the legality nightmare that Burris has found himself in with the state. The former seems justified to me. The latter is not. Beck and McPhillips add theirs.
• More from the WSJ on the Rich/Holder thing. I’m telling you… again…. the Rich pardon was paid for with this appointment.
• Must be nice, Reynolds.
• A first place for the Boss at OTB’s Caption Contest. Only trouble is, that goose wasn’t bald. Oh, well.
• The jury is in, on Charlie Rangel. I wonder if the Democrats are listening?
• Just a thought, here… Remember when Obama was visiting his supposedly dying grandmother? Why is it the Honolulu Coroner didn’t handle the case? Why is there no record of death for the woman? What happened to the funeral?
• Can you imagine being a farmer and being told you’re going to get taxed for cow farts?
• Ask me again why I’ve never involved myself in Facebook.
• I’m sure this is going to start the feedback counter going again,  but I’m going to pass along something from Reynolds, along with a few thoughts.
  

  IN THE MAIL: Norah Vincent’s Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin. Long-time InstaPundit readers may recall that Vincent spent a year living as a man for her book Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Year Disguised as a Man. The book was terrific — our interview with Vincent about that is here — but apparently living as a man was stressful enough to induce a nervous breakdown. I can understand that . . . .

  Frankly, so can I. Look, there’s a lot of potholes on this road… and I’ll be the first to admit it. But, follow me here.  One of the things I’ve noted among medical reports over the last fourty or so years is the ever increasing number of heart attacks stroke, and just stress related issues, among women… and I see this as being in near parallel with the degree to which women have found themselves on ‘equal footing’ with men. They end up having the same maladies as men, as a direct result. Clearly, women are as ill-equipped to deal with stresses as the men have been, despite the male of the species ahvng dealt with such stresses for centuries. Up until recently, women have always been removed from such stresses by social roles imposed on them. the result is they far outlived their male counterparts.  Now, not so much. Gals… are you sure this is what you really wanted when your anthem was “I am woman, hear me roar’?  Women are starting to learn this was not the panacea they sought. Look, gang, there’s a reason the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Mostly, more fertilizer’s being spread around over there. Mind, I’d not go back to how things were… but there’s an object lesson here about there being a reason societies develop as they do, and it’s not always as negative as some would say. I wonder if militant feminism’s hold being lessened, isn’t a direct result of women finding that out for themselves.

• The jobs report is about as expected. But I wonder how much of this cutting is needless. Remember I mentioned the other day that the first victim of government is truth? Case in point.

Attention  Jim Manzi at The Corner:

Here is Andrew Sullivan responding to Ezra Klein’s paean to socialized health care in the U.K.:

One reason I’m a conservative is the British National Health Service. Until you have lived under socialism, it sounds like a great idea. It isn’t misery – although watching my parents go through the system lately has been nerve-wracking – but there is a basic assumption. The government collective decides everything. You, the individual patient, and you, the individual doctor, are the least of their concerns. I prefer freedom and the market to rationalism and the collective. That’s why I live here.

I know a lot of readers here have a big problem with Andrew, but ask yourself a practical question: Shouldn’t you, at a minimum, want a tactical alliance with somebody who believes this?

(Low growl)

Look, Jim… If Saint Andrew the Incontinent was willing to allow himself to follow that logical pattern he establishes in your quote to it’s logical conclusion,  in the rest of his positions on the social and political, perhaps. As it is, no.

Examples: Sullivan claims he’s for Smaller government, Less government spending, Lower taxes, Equality before the law , Political Accountability  and yet, he votes for John Kerry, and Barack Obama.

When we see the Mayors of SanFransisco. and New Paltz get off scot free, in their extra-legal pursuit of homosexual “marriage”, while the rest of us are subject to prosecution for other lawbreaking and bending,  Sullivan cheers. Yet, how does Sullivan justify this in terms of “Equality Before the Law?” 

When a Englishman who claims Roman Catholicism and yet has been stumping for homosexual marriage at the cost of all else, for the last five years at least, comes along and tries to redefine what is and is not an American Conservative to fit his own myopic world vision… well…You’ll forgive me, that I don’t stand up and salute his ‘conservatism’.

Sullivan’s attempts at a public self-justification by constant re-definition of what constitutes conservatism, are no more impressive than are Teddy Kennedy’s complaints of simulated drownings at Abu Girabe, and for the same reason.

You see, there’s a reason Sullivan can’t bring himself to take those conservative principles of freedom to their logical conclusion.  Sullivan is acting out of consequentialism, not conservatism.  He’s discovered that he likes the consequences of conservatism insofar as healthcare, in this case, is concerned… He is not operating from a foundationally conservative conviction, not anything resembling first principles. He’s merely making an argument that on singular issues, happens to at least slightly parallel  conservatism.   Witness, please, that whenever something within conservatism happens to run afoul of the hoosexual agenda, for example, Sullivan will change the flag he’s flying under faster than a fashion model changes clothes.

Until he can get beyond that inconstancy, he’s worse than useless to conservatism, he’s a threat to it.

OJ Simpson is sent up for 15 years.

Fox:

O.J. Simpson was sentenced Friday to at least 15 years in prison for armed robbery and kidnapping in a failed attempt to recover sports memorabilia from two collectibles dealers.
There will be the possibility of parole after six years, Judge Jackie Glass said.

I can’t help thinking he’ll be out in three.

That asdie, there will be some that will regard this as indication of the failure of the criminal justice system. I submit that he was on the street at all to commit these crimes, after he killed his wife, is the bigger indication of that  failure. A slap on the wrist at this point strikes me as being merely par for the course.

Speaking of that, he can now resume his hunt for his wife’s killer, in the jailhouse, having already searched every golf course in the country.

Oprah Winfrey has her knickers in a twist because the ‘Cuba, Sarah Palin has not agreed to do Winfrey’s show, Extra:

“I said I would be happy to talk to Sarah Palin when the election was over,” Oprah reveals to “Extra.” “I went and tried to talk to Sarah Palin and instead she talked to Greta Van Susteren. She talked to Matt Lauer. She talked to Larry King, but she didn’t talk to me. But maybe she’ll talk to me now that she has a book deal

Oppie, ask Michelle O, if she is available.   Learn to dance with the one who brung you.

Hat tip:  Warner Todd Huston, Stop the ACLU.

Lots going on up north.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper won a rare suspension of Parliament on Thursday, managing to avoid being ousted by opposition parties angry over the minority Conservative government’s economic plans and an attempt to cut off party financing.

 

Governor General Michaelle Jean — the representative of Queen Elizabeth, Canada’s head of state — agreed to Harper’s request to shut down Parliament until Jan 26. Parliament was reconvened just weeks ago after the October 14 election.

 

Harper’s request for suspension was unprecedented. No prime minister had asked for Parliament to be suspended to avoid a confidence vote in the House of Commons.

Unprecedented, perhaps, but not at all out of line. Consider the crass opportunism which prompts the move… The whole world has economic issues.  The hollow demands for a ‘recovery plan’ seem to me faux concern… anyone watching this situation knows full and well that Canada, no matter what her economic polciies, are not going to be able to pull out of this on their own. So the cries that Harper isn’t doing the right things seems to me hollow at best.

The left up there sees this not as a financial crisis, but as an opportunity to grab power back from the conservatives. Nice to see some things don’t change. Harper, up there, has been eating their lunch for the last few years, and they’re just stir crazy enough to use any opportunity… including this one… to grab power back. Apparently, the idea is to grab that power back from Harper and the conservatives before the opinion swings away from them too much, which it may have already done.

An Ekos opinion poll taken as the crisis reached its peak showed the Conservatives had shot up in popularity to 44 percent, enough to get a parliamentary majority if an election were held today, up from the 37.6 percent they received in the October 14 vote.

 

Liberal support dropped to 24.1 percent from 26.2 percent, the New Democrats fell to 14.5 percent from 18.2 percent and the Bloc edged down to 9.2 percent from 10.0 percent.

 

The poll, released late on Thursday by CBC television, covered 2,536 respondents from December 2-3 and carried a 1.9 point margin of error, 19 times out of 20.

I’d say Harper has things well in hand, for the moment. Be interesting to see after the first of the year how this plays out. My guess is his numbers will continue to rise, and the left, seeing this will back off, knowing that forcing an election now wouldn’t win them much and may end up in fact losing them seats.

I enjoyed this one.  Michael Goldfarb, Weekly Standard, smacks Atlantic with a dead fish, b/k/a Miss Andrea Sullivan:

But the Atlantic‘s own credibility has been damaged by the continuing “investigation” into the maternity of Trig Palin, known to the rest of us as Sarah Palin’s son. The Atlantic raised these questions and tried to force the issue out of the fringe and into the mainstream for months. It was a line of inquiry that was clearly approved by the Atlantic‘s editors — it could not have persisted so long without their consent — and met with silence by folks like Ambinder.

Which is why it’s so galling that Ambinder would post a “discourse watch.” The Atlantic is still a great magazine with a lot of great content, and in some quarters it may still have the kind of credibility to decide what is or isn’t an acceptable avenue of discussion, but it’ll be a long time before the magazine can adjudicate such questions for conservatives.

Atlantic has a choice.   It can either attempt to regain its credibility, or it can continue to tolerate Miss Sulllivan.   I care not which.  Do you?

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… Bit’sBlog’s Nightly Ramble.

Thursday, already? Let’s get busy, here.

• Will someone please explain to me how it is anyone takes Eliot Spitzer seriously at anything?  Here comes Slate, who takes the guy on as a new column writer. This one speaks loudly to me about the quality of Slate, or more correctly, the lack thereof.  My take is that Spitzer is obviously among the best and brightest that the left can come up with. Which should give us all a clear indication of the state of things on the left.  Speaking as a new Yorker, let me just say, “Hey Eliot? Just slink away into the night. You have a bright future awaiting you, working the ticket booth at a drive-in movie. Assuming anyone will trust you with it.Or, perhaps you could break into Country music like Ashely Dupree did? I know… you could be the executive producer of her records. There ya go.  ”  And to Slate, I say, “I’ll be interested to see your extended write-up on the subject of one Richard Grasso.”
• Jobless claims are down. Yes, I said down.
• So Chrysler’s execs are going shrill? Yeah, big shock. They see, clearly as I do that most Americans  are against bailing out the UAW. so, they break out the scare tactics; ‘If we go under it’ll cause a depression’. Well, no… what will cause a depression is government printing huge amounts of money to bail your assets out.  The annoying part is you’ll crash anyway, since you’re not changing the business model and eliminating the Unions. Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, who sees one of her biggest political supports… Unions… in trouble says ‘Bankruptcy is not an option’.  And why not, Nancy? The more I study this issue, the more I’m convinced the only way out of this is Chapter 11.  Pelosi’s biggest fear here is that would effectively eliminate the unions from the deal, at least for a while… and Unions, you may know, are one of her biggest support sources.  As I said yesterday, a bailout is a stopgap. The solution to the problem is to plug the hole. The unions and government regulations are the hole(s).  If anyone and anythng can be blamed for the current problems in the auto industry, it’s those factors. And  here’s the thing; Despite those, we still turn out some of the best cars in the world. Imagine whay they can do with those two millstones off their necks. Unions can cry all they want. The blame for the death of the golden goose lies at their own feet, and nowhere else. A government bailout simply adds one more millstone. PAW; Sometimes it’s a lot less painful to simply take a sock in the mouth, instead of spending a lot of time and pain worrying about what you already know there’s no escape from. We are not going to find ourway out of this without a game changer… and a bailout is simply more of the same with more debt for no  purpose.  Oh… note to Neal Boortz; Yes, the same thing goes for local governments.  And by the way, as to what can be had without unions, watch this.
• Israel is prepareing to defend itself. Good.
• A lot of chatter, just now about who should replace Obama in the Senate.
  

  The race to replace Barack Obama as Illinois’ junior senator heated up Tuesday as Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., called on Gov. Rod Blagojevich to name a black man or woman to the seat.By invoking race, Rush, who is black, drove a potential wedge between the prospective white and black contenders for the seat. Rush said it would be a “national disgrace” if Obama’s seat were not filled by an African American.

  But it’s not all about race. It’s the white folk that are racist. Right, Bobby?  As I’d expect, nobody in Camp Obama is complaining about this statement.

• More ethics concerns for Rangel. Why is this stuff being amped up now, instead of before the election? If I recall right, his seat wasn’t even up. Maybe the stain of ethics issues on a hot-seat Democrat was mre than the Democrats wanted to deal with, and therefore the liberal press didn’t touch the story until it was fairly safe to do so?
•  Drivers striking back.
• Forced community “Service’? Well, pay attention to the comments. CLOSE attention, please.
• Yes, Billy, Alex Witt is brainless. Then again, consider the question of who hired him.
• Too bad Witt wasn’t one of the 500 they let go. I figure Witt is there for the same reason that crawling slime Olberman is. How many of those 500 job could ahve been saved had Witt and Olberman been given their walking papers?
• Viacom cut 7% of it’s workforce, too.
• I’ve been mentioning gun sales are up. How much, I wasn’t sure. Now we hear since Obama was elected, gun sales are up by 50%. Gee. Almost like they know something.
• Oil’s at $46 and still going down. We could be seeing a dollar a gallon next year. Remember all the Hybrid cars the big three were supposed to be building. How many you think are going to be sold, that way? Well, Obama will fix that… a dollar more a gallon in taxes, right?  Think the race riots in the 60’s were big? Wait until he tries to pull THAT stunt.
• Speaking of ‘The One’ the question of his being legally able to take the office is still there. May go to the USSC. I would think that even Obama supporters wouldlike to see that happen, if for no other reason then to settle the question. But I suspect we’ll see a lot of people trying to stop it from happening.

“Chambliss’s victory assures the GOP of at least 41 Senate seats. It also lays to rest one of the nastiest McCarthyite smears of recent times: the repeated assertion by Democrats and the media that former senator Max Cleland’s patriotism is in question.”

Message TO Torranto at “Best of the Web”:

It goes deeper. It means the Georgia voters at least, don’t trust the meme the Democrats sold on all this.. and drdging it up again, was thereby fatal.

 Let’s review. 

Max Cleland’s patriotism, while in uniform was never at issue. It’s what happened since his return from that experience that is at issue.  Let’s be clear about this… Max Cleland’s no military hero, even by his own words, and by his own lights… at least prior to his entry into the political arena…

I didn’t see any heroism in all that. It wasn’t an act of heroism. I didn’t know the grenade was live. It was an act of fate.”

So, if one wanted to be a ‘nice guy’ and better Cleland’s position following the war, one could always ‘gild the lilly’ a bit. And given that the system is fairly easy to ‘game’ as John Kerry so aptly demonstrated, it wouldn’t be hard to do. Let’s say he’s on his way TO having a beer instead of coming BACK from having a few, they reason… because, after all, if we say he’d had a few beers in him at the time of the accident, he’d not get nearly the benefits, wouldn’t be called a ‘war hero’, and so on. And who’s it gonna hurt if we portray the story that way?

So, the press has covered things in this way over the years…

“He told the pilot he was going to stay awhile. Maybe have a few beers with friends. … Then Cleland looked down and saw a grenade. Where’d that come from? He walked toward it, bent down, and crossed the line between before and after.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dec. 5, 1999)

“(Cleland) didn’t step on a land mine. He wasn’t wounded in a firefight. He couldn’t blame the Viet Cong or friendly fire. The Silver Star and Bronze Star medals he received only embarrassed him. He was no hero. He blew himself up.” (The Baltimore Sun, Oct. 24, 1999))

“Cleland was no war hero, but his sacrifice was great. … Democratic Senate candidate Max Cleland is a victim of war, not a casualty of combat. He lost three limbs on a long-forgotten hill near Khe Sanh because of some American’s mistake …” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 29, 1996))

Ah, so nobody gets the blame that way… including Cleland, himself.

Cleland even admitted that, but for his accident, he would have “probably been some frustrated history teacher, teaching American government at some junior college.”

We know what the ‘official’ record states. All the news accounts told the exact same story for 30 years — including that Cleland had stopped to have beer with friends when the accident occurred. But these were all drawn from the official record, which we now know to be at least questionable, if not flawed. It’s amazing how these half truths become legend. But, we also know what’s more likley than the official record.

And speaking of bending the record for the advanacement of Cleland and the Democrats, would someone please explain to me why we’re still hearing the often disproved claim that Cleland was injured in the battle for Khe Sanh?  Easier to sell him to voters that way, one supposes.

The Democrats built up this myth of Cleland because they needed something to try to tear down George W Bush with. And God help anyone who questions that myth. 

For all that we know, Cleland fell on his own ordinence, in that incident after having one too many beers. Certainly not implausable, and given what we know of the Dmeocrats, it would not be unlike them to bend such an incident into one of heroism, the way John Kerry did.

I’ll tell you this… lest you think I’m not in great respect of Cleland… 

Where heroism enters the picture… Cleland’s true heroism… came after he came home, where he went on to build a productive life for himself, despite his handicap. That story of inspiration and courage suffered badly at the hands of the Democrats who tarnished that massive and respectable accomplishment by ‘sexing up’ his record, so as to have a better political weapon. If I’m Cleland, I’m pissed at the way I got used by political opportunists.

Bottom line: Given the proclivity of Democrats to pump up the military record of their own, (see the publicly disputed record of John Kerry) I suppose Cleland to be among these. I assume, though I have no proof, he was an unwilling participant in that sexing up of his record. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, here. And here’s the thing; What got laid to rest, Jim, was the weapon… a lie… that Democrats tried to use against Chambliss, GWB and by extension, all Republicans. It is well buried, as it should have been years ago. The upshot here is that Georgia voters, at least,  have become more skepitcal of Democrat party generated myths.

James Lewis, American Thinker[sic], is completely blind to the lessons of tragedies like Blacksbug and Mumbai:

It now appears that 10 commando-trained terrorists with Pakistani jihadist training were able to kill at least 172 people and wound almost 300 more in Mumbai, India, over some five days. That suggests major failures among Mumbai’s first responders, notably its armed police. It is likely, though not certain, that such an attack would have been stifled much more quickly in the United States, Israel, and perhaps parts of Europe, Russia and China. Similar terrorist attacks in those countries have been typically less damaging, although there have been cases of successful mass casualty attacks there, too

Mr. Lewis’s counting is amiss. The first line of defence, missing in both Blacksburg and Mumbai is an free and armed citizenry. Terrorists who attack an armed citizenry, do so at there own peril.   Say no to an unarmed and unsafe citizenery.   Demand the Second Amendment be respected.   The life you save could be your own.  Remember Pearl.   We need heros and not more martyrs.