Obama math

President Obama sent his proposed 2012 budget to Congress today, and after reading the basics of it, you can color me confused.

Let us crunch the numbers:

The total budget is $3.7 trillion.

The total deficit in that budget is an all-time high $1.65 trillion

However, the Obama administration is bragging that the budget calls for a spending plan that will cut $1.1 trillion from the deficit over the next ten years. Again, that is over the next ten years. That is indeed a vast quantity of money, however it is not much to shout about when a simple division equation shows that the deficit reduction comes out to just over $100 billion per year over that ten year period.

So under this pathetic ten-year plan, we will be saving $100 billion a year, while just this coming year, the deficit will be $1.65 trillion. Whoopdee-doo.

If the deficit reduction was $1.1 trillion every year - not over ten years - then maybe I would be impressed.

How is it that little ol' me can figure this out, yet these ivy league Ph.Ds can't seem to figure out this simple equation?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Respect your president! So sayeth Oprah.

It scares me to witness the ignorance displayed by some people as to their idea of what role government plays in our lives.

Oprah Winfrey put her ignorance on display the other day when she told President Obama's critics, “Even if you’re not in support of his policies, there needs to be a certain level of respect.”

No, there doesn't, and I won't do it; especially when "disrespect" to these people is simply disagreeing with them. But that quote from Oprah wasn't the one that made me shake my head in disgust the most. It was when she stated that the presidency is a position that “holds a sense of authority and governance over us all."

The hell you say! The only reason Obama - or any president for that matter - has any authority over anything is "We the People" and the states delegated it to him first. That's delegated, not transferred, not handed over, not surrendered. President Obama is my employee; he works for me. He holds authority and governance over the executive branch of the federal government.

Of course, Oprah isn't the only Obamabot celebrity to get this wrong. Who can forget the PSA made by a whole gaggle of Obama worshiping fools, including Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, who made this pledge:



Yeesh.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Stop butchering our National Anthem!

In fact, gimme that microphone!



"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Why I watch the Super Bowl commericals

Because there will always be gems like this. My whole family absolutely LOVED this, the best ad for the 2011 Super Bowl:



"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Happy Birthday, President Reagan!

Ronald Reagan, the greatest American president of the 20th Century, was born 100 years ago today - February 6, 1911.

Our country is better for his having been born, and his having been our president.

God Bless.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Adventures in parent conferences

A friend of mine posted this hilarious, yet tragically true video on her Facebook page. I thought it was definitely worth posting here, as I have been on the receiving end at one time or another of the majority of the insipid statements made by the mother in this video.



This video sums up one of the major malfunctions of our educational system: enabling parents.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

When headlines conflict

Who has been paying attention to the extreme winter weather that is being experienced throughout much of the USA? Great Britain has had record cold and snowy winters as well.

Members of the Church of Global Warming have an answer for this. Incredibly, they contend that global warming is responsible for the record cold and record snowfall that is being recorded during the winter of 2010-2011! Read this headline and excerpt:

Climate Scientist: It’s ‘Reasonable’ to Believe Global Warming Is Causing Snowy Winters

A prominent climate scientist says it is reasonable to conclude that global warming has caused the unusually snowy weather in the eastern United States and Europe over the past two winters, but stresses that this is only a hypothesis that has yet to be definitively demonstrated...

“Here’s what happens and here’s what a lot of people get really screwed up on, and it’s straightforward,” [Scientist Mark] Serreze told CNSNews.com. “All right, so it’s getting warmer, and what is happening is that we’re not growing as much ice in winter as we used to be, but we’re melting a heck of a lot more in the summer than we used to...

“For example, the last two winters over the East have been cold and snowy,” explained Serreze. “So what happens there? Well, what you’re looking at is some kind of change in the atmospheric circulation, that basically you’ve got this cold, Arctic air plunging down—clearly, because that’s exactly what’s happening—and that gives you a temperature contrast and that’s what gives you the storms, okay?”

Got all that? But Chandler, you say, this Serreze is a scientist! He should know what he is talking about! Hmmm, maybe. But lets take the Wayback machine to the year 2000, and read another headline with excerpts and listen to another scientist talking about global warming and its effect on snowfall:

Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past

Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain's culture, as warmer winters - which scientists are attributing to global climate change - produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries...

the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".

"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said.

David Parker, at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Berkshire, says ultimately, British children could have only virtual experience of snow. Via the internet, they might wonder at polar scenes - or eventually "feel" virtual cold....

So which is it? Does global warming cause more snowfall, or less snowfall? Isn't it great when no matter what the weather, your theory has it all covered? I know several people - many of whom I consider to be friends - who are true believers in global warm... I mean climate cha... I mean climate disruption. When I show them contradictions like this, it just slides right past them, and they assure me that the majority of scientists in the world can't be wrong. Someone please tell me why it is so important to them that global warming, or any variation thereof, exists?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

What was that about those calls for civility?

The right-wing Tea Party types are hateful people and they call for violence. How do I know? Because people like you see in this video tell me so.

One problem, though - me thinks their false accusations betray their projection of their own predilections for hate and violence, and yes, racism.

Just listen to what these supposedly peace-loving, tolerant, kumbaya kooks want to do to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas:



When you catch these people in an unguarded moment, you will always find that they are guilty of the very behavior for which they falsely accuse their counterparts. It never fails.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

February is here, and you know what that means...

Time for another 28 days of guilt and self-flagellation as we observe Black History Month. I object to meaningless gestures such as Black History Month, and I'm not the only one who feels this way. Watch this classic clip from 60 Minutes as one of my favorite actors, Morgan Freeman, chastises a befuddled Mike Wallace as he rejects Wallace's apparent insistence that blacks should be grateful that they get their own month. Watch and learn, kids:



I don't agree with Morgan Freeman on everything concerning politics, but he and I are totally on the same sheet of music on this topic. And what he told Mike Wallace is almost exactly what I tell my students every year when I get the inevitable questions from them about why I don't do anything or teach anything about Black History Month. I tell my students that there is no "black history." I tell them that this is a United States History class, and "black history" is part of American History. Is that not enough?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Who has had enough of legislating by voting?

Yesterday afternoon, California's new (old) governor, Jerry Brown, gave his first (or ninth?) State of the State Address to a joint session of the California legislature. Last year, I was live blogging from the Assembly chamber gallery, but I was not able to obtain a ticket this time around, so I had to hear the soundbites on the radio and read the transcript along with the rest of the little people out there.

Since he was elected in November, and took office last month, Jerry Brown has been a bit of a wild card as far as indicating what his plans were as our new-old governor. Would he use his status as a grizzled politician to be his own man and do what he wanted to do - and special interests be damned - or was he going to stay true to form and continue to be the left-wing zealot he has always shown himself to be?

We apparently have our answer. Jerry Brown wants to raise our taxes, or at the very least, leave our tax rates at the extraordinarily high level they currently are. And the best part is that rather than being a man and taking a stand, he has punted his responsibility as Governor and has put the decision of raising taxes in the hands of the California electorate. That way, if, after the June special election, the people of California vote to keep our taxes high, Brown can shift the blame to us. "Hey, I didn't raise your taxes, you voted for it yourselves!"

Here is how Brown actually couched it in his speech yesterday:

My plan to rebuild California requires a vote of the people, and frankly I believe it would be irresponsible for us to exclude the people from this process. They have a right to vote on this plan. This state belongs to all of us, not just those of us in this chamber. Given the unique nature of the crisis and the serious impact our decisions will have on millions of Californians, the voters deserve to be heard.

That is sweet of you and all, Jerry, but these voters are the same ones who voted in favor of flushing billions of our tax dollars down the money-losing rat hole that is high-speed rail. We are no longer made up of the kind of voters who passed Prop 13 in 1978 (which Brown opposed by the way). California is now populated by way too many members of the moocher class who want to live at the expense of someone else. There is a reason that direct democracies are doomed to fail, and the people's knowledge that they can vote themselves goodies from the treasury is the ultimate reason for a democracy's downfall.

And what if the people vote against the tax hikes in the special election? That is why Brown is making subtle and not-so-subtle threats about loss of government services, in an effort to scare people away from voting against his tax increases in the first place.

How anyone can think that raising our taxes, or even keeping them at the rate they currently are, is what will fix our budgetary problems is sheer madness. Apparently, Illinois is in an uproar right now because their top income tax rate was just raised from 3% to 5%. Meanwhile, the top rate in California hovers around 10%! We are not broke for a lack of revenue. We simply spend more than we bring in. The problem is that no one wants the spending cut for their pet program, be it welfare, education, public pensions, or subsidizing so-called "green energy."

Right now, California's office of governor and both houses of the state legislature are dominated by the Democrats. They can easily pass and sign legislation with absolutely no roadblocks by the Republicans. Make Jerry Brown and the Democrats in the Assembly and Senate own whatever strategy they have to get us out of this mess, and don't let them have an out by blaming their failure on us, the voters, when their tax-and-spend ways inevitably fail.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Nothing good can come of the situation in Egypt

I have held comment on the uprising in Egypt, because for the first few days, I honestly didn't really understand what was going on.

What I knew is that Hosni Mubarak has been in command of Egypt since 1981, when his predecessor, Anwar Sadat was assassinated. Since then, Mubarak has been your typical dictatorial Arab strongman. Compared to other leaders in the middle east, however, Mubarak has been downright reasonable in comparison. This is evident in the fact that he continued Sadat's wish that Egypt stay peaceful with Israel, even though this is exactly the reason that Sadat was assassinated in the first place.

The bottom line is this: no matter how honorable the intentions of the protesters who have taken to the streets against a dictator who has been in charge for 30 years, if Mubarak is unseated, any democratic reforms that might be made in the immediate aftermath of this unrest will not last.

One of these democratic reforms will inevitably be to hold elections. That right there is what will sink Egypt's current role as a moderate influence in the Middle East. The current government that is under siege may be considered moderate, but the people of Egypt are not, and any election that is held is sure to reflect the extremism of the country's people.

Headquartered in Egypt is an extremist Islamic organization called the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamic group that would like to see Sharia law in place worldwide. Many Islamic organization in the United States that claim to be "moderate" can trace their beginnings to funding and organization from the Muslim Brotherhood. Additionally, public polling in Egypt indicates that the majority of that country's citizens are extreme in their Muslim views. From Barry Rubin:

In Egypt, 30 percent like Hizballah (66 percent don't). 49 percent are favorable toward Hamas (48 percent are negative); and 20 percent smile (72 percent frown) at al-Qaida. Roughly speaking, one-fifth of Egyptians applaud the most extreme Islamist terrorist group, while around one-third back revolutionary Islamists abroad. This doesn't tell us what proportion of Egyptians want an Islamist government at home, but it is an indicator.

In Egypt, 82 percent want stoning for those who commit adultery; 77 percent would like to see whippings and hands cut off for robbery; and 84 percent favor the death penalty for any Muslim who changes his religion.

Asked if they supported "modernizers" or "Islamists" only 27 percent said modernizers while 59 percent said Islamists....

If you are wondering what this can lead to, think of the problems Israel has faced ever since Hamas was democratically elected by the extremist Palestinians in Gaza. The same thing could happen in Egypt if elections are held, and Israel could then have on their southern border what they thought they had solved with the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978. If you think that democratic elections are wonderful and the results be damned, then you position is much like that of Jimmy Carter, who cheered on Hamas back in 2006, and whose absurd opinion was wonderfully explained by Cox and Forkum in the cartoon above.

Like I say, nothing good can come of this situation in Egypt.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

25 years ago: "That's trouble of some kind."

I was in 8th grade when I watched the Space Shuttle Challenger explode live on television. It was on this day, 25 years ago. Until September 11, 2001, it was January 28, 1986 that was the day in the news that I remembered most.

Last year, a video was released on YouTube that shows a home video taken by a man from his home as he, his wife, and his neighbors watched the launch from their front yard. It is always interesting to watch an event like this through the eyes of ordinary people, rather than through the cameras and commentary of the news media:



God Bless those astronauts, and their family members who I imagine have a lot on their minds today.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Another useless speech in the can

I finally figured out what it is I can't stand about the yearly circle jerk known as the State of the Union speech.

See, once upon a time, the State of the Union was sent to Congress as a written report. The Congresscritters could just read the president's remarks on their own time. It took the power of radio and, especially, television to harness the true power of the PR machine that the SotU has become.

So when I watched the president's cabinet members walk down the aisle, and then the members of the Supreme Court, and then finally the President, with his working of the congressional crowd as he made his way to the podium, it struck me: no matter what political party these people belong to, they see this night as a way to flex their power; to show everyone that they are the elite, and to, as Kate Winslet's character says of the cigar-smoking titans on the Titanic, congratulate themselves on being masters of the universe.

The one thing I was looking forward to with this speech was seeing the disproportionately-sized Republican side of the chamber, and then the Squishes from the Republican party, led by that idiot John McCain, managed to ruin that with their date night with the Democrats.

Oh, and the speech? Just more of Obama pushing his BS green and health care agendas. Yawn.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

R.I.P. Gerry Rafferty

Crap! I just found out tonight that the great singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty died back on January 4th, 2011 at the way-too-young age of 63.

I am not the world's biggest fan of music from the 1970s, but if I had to designate my favorite song from that decade, I would most likely choose Rafferty's haunting slice of perfection known as Baker Street, which was released in the summer of 1978. If you don't know the song by title alone, you will know it the second you hear it:



I never get tired of hearing that song.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Another brain-trust in Congress tries to justify the constitutionality of ObamaCare

After all the previous stumbles that Cybercast News Service (see blogroll) has effected from lame-brained members of Congress who demonstrate their ignorance of the Constitution and other founding documents while trying to explain why the individual mandate in ObamaCare is constitutional, you would think that the Dems would have a little pow-wow and get their talking points worked out.

The latest nonsense comes from Democrat Representative John Lewis of Georgia. He is often protected from criticism because was once a scion of the civil rights movement. However, that was fifty years ago. Now, he is just another scheming, mealy-mouthed politician who wants to control the lives of others, and he proves that with this clip:



After the proverbial bloodbath the Democrats in Congress experienced back in November, you wonder how a mental midget like this guy made it. Then again, I am sure that he is in a very safe district. What a shame.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Left's vilification of the Right is going to get someone killed

With the die-hards on the left trying desperately to keep the meme going that Sarah Palin and the political right is responsible for the murderous acts of an insane man with leftist leanings, it has reached the point where these efforts have become so desperate that some lefty out there just may snap after being told over and over again how violent the right is, and decide to lash out at his perceived enemies.

What doesn't help is the following political cartoon I saw today that turns Palin into something less than human. Guy Benson at Townhall.com wrote about this cartoon and some others that employ "heated rhetoric" against the right. Remember, it is much easier to get people to commit violence if you can convince them that the target of their violence is somehow less than human, and I believe this grotesque cartoon accomplishes the mission of dehumanizing Sarah Palin and making her someone who a disturbed person on the left would want to harm:


When I saw this cartoon today, I was instantly reminded of the dehumanizing posters of Jews that the Nazis produced leading up to, and during, World War II. Kind of like this one:

Left-wingers in the media must stop this vilification of those with whom they disagree politically, or sooner or later, some minion of the New York Times, Keith Olbermann, or the cartoonist who turned Sarah Palin into the subhuman caricature you see above, is going to start to think it is acceptable to kill or injure those who are considered to be no longer fully human.

So to these leftists in the media, I say stop the hate! Stop the heated rhetoric!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Music to my ears

Want to hear the recently-discovered earliest known sound recording? It is of a woman singing some French song, and the recording was done in 1860! Yes, 1860! That is about 20 years earlier than Thomas Edison's early recording work.

George Mason University's History News Network has it posted.

Naturally, it's not the best sound in the world, but there is no mistaking that it you are listening to a person. Just think, the voice you hear is from someone who was living in a world where the U.S. Civil War would not start for another year.

Amazing.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Whew! At least the shooter was a "gringo"

From that taxpayer-funded bastion of leftism, National Public Radio, comes the idiotic statement of the day.

Listen as this brown brain-trust (Hey, she brought up the "brown" business!) sighs some relief that it was a white guy who carried out the horrific crime in Arizona. The takeaway line:

"It’s safe to say there was a collective sigh of brown relief when the Tucson killer turned out to be a gringo."



Wow. If the shooter had been black instead of white, would she have expressed her relief that the Tucson killer turned out to be a "nigger"? I doubt NPR would have allowed her thoughts to go on the air so easily. Saying "gringo" however? Meh.

Can we de-fund NPR now? Oh, and after listening to this, they fired Juan Williams because... why?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Left's legacy of hate and violence

I caught a little bit of NBC Nightly News tonight, and unsurprisingly, they spent plenty of time trying, once again, to tie the murderer in Arizona to conservatives; especially Sarah Palin. Shown multiple times of course was this "crosshairs" map of Palin's that designated with geological survey markers certain congressional districts that she hoped would go to Republicans in upcoming elections. The fact that the Democratic Leadership Council and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has used similar maps using target bullseyes went unreported by NBC News.

If someone from the statist side of the aisle tries to tell you how violent Sarah Palin and those right-wing "Tea Baggers" are, I have a treat for you. Michelle Malkin has posted a stupendous compilation of the violent words and actions committed by the political left in the last ten years, including the "overheated rhetoric" - the year's first overused term - that has been uttered by our current commander in chief, that, if a Republican president or other conservative politician said it, would have Paul Krugman suffering from the vapors.

Unlike the smallest off-color comments by those on the Right, which are blasted all over the media, many of the Left's not-so-greatest hits will be news to you unless you are a frequent reader of the alternative media and the conservative blogosphere. It will also give you the intellectual ammunition - can I say "ammunition"? - to throw back in their face - can I say that? - any ignorant statements by statists who try to tell you how uniquely violent those nasty conservatives are.

I wish we didn't have to engage in this kind of tit-for-tat, "you did it too" debating, but as Malkin says, our hand has been forced. You can't just let this crap go unanswered.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Band has lost its lead Brother

Dick Winters, the head of Easy Company, 2nd of the 506th Parachute Infantry during World War II, has died at the age of 92.

The actions of Winters and many of his fellow Easy Co. compatriots were beautifully portrayed in Band of Brothers, the amazing 2001 HBO mini-series.

I own the entire Band of Brothers collection on DVD, and I pull one out every once in a while and view some of the most haunting and accurate portrayals of World War II combat that were faced by our American fighting men.

God Bless Dick Winters and everyone who fought for our country in the "Good War."

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

That didn't take long: Tea Party is blamed for Giffords massacre

As soon as I saw the news coverage about the shooting of Arizona congresscritter Gabrielle Giffords, I knew the first thing out of the mouths of the loony left would be to blame the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and the political right as a whole for Giffords' shooting.

And as surely as the sun rises in the east, I was right, and right, and right, and right.

Problem is, the background of the shooter is not cooperating with the narrative that the political left in this country so wants to pin on the aforementioned people and organizations on the right.

First off, as far as left-wing hate rhetoric towards Gabrielle Giffords, look no further than that hotbed of left-wing loonyism, the Daily Kos. I would link you to this article, but for some reason, the Daily Kos has scrubbed this article from their site. Good thing I screen captured it first:


What's that? Giffords is DEAD to you? So, apparently it was hateful rhetoric on the left that caused this shooter to do this? Not to mention, wasn't it our current left-wing president, Barack Obama, who, when speaking of how to engage with his political enemies, said, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun"? See how this works? The Left is predictably going to try to pin this crime on the political right no matter what the ideology of the shooter.

Speaking of the shooter's ideology, it is becoming more and more apparent that this shooter was far from being a Tea Party sympathizer.

A high school friend of his Tweeted earlier today that he was "quite liberal," "left-wing," a "pothead," and a "political radical." Yeah, he sounds like a real right-wing nutjob.

This is nothing new as of late. Most of the political violence in our country in the last few years has been committed by the political left, even as the left-wing news media does everything it can to laughably paint it as coming from the right.

In the meantime, I pray for Gabrielle Giffords' recovery, as I also pray for the souls of the 6 people killed and the 13 people wounded by the shooter, along with the families of the fallen.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Obamacare has nothing to do with it. Just move along, move along

Interesting story in today's edition of the Sacramento Bee. It seems our state's brand new statist insurance commissioner (and former statist state assemblyman) Dave Jones is all bent out of shape that several health insurance companies in California are raising their premiums:

Only days into the job, state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones faced off with the health insurance industry Thursday, calling on Blue Shield of California to delay plans to raise premiums by as much as 59 percent on nearly 200,000 Californians who buy health coverage on their own...

Anthem Blue Cross, the state's largest for-profit insurer, recently announced plans to raise rates for individual customers by 9.8 percent on average – on top of the 14 percent hike it put into effect in October...

Health Net on Jan. 1 also raised rates, by an average of 4 percent, on 37,000 customers with preferred provider coverage in the individual market, said spokesman Brad Kieffer. About 3,000 health maintenance customers saw rates go up an average of 1 percent...

The health insurance companies are quoted in the article as blaming the premium increases on, "spiraling costs for medical care that are charged by hospitals, doctors, and other medical providers," however, a spokesperson for Blue Shield goes out of his way to insist that the newly passed ObamaCare law has nothing to do with the rate hikes:

Blue Shield said its rate increase was not the result of provisions contained in the federal health care law.

"These rates reflect trends that were building long before health reform," the company said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

Golly, it would be so easy to take these insurance companies at their word and let them place all the blame on themselves and health care providers, and absolve government of any responsibility, but don't the inevitable costs placed on the insurance companies by ObamaCare play any role at all? How could they not, and why won't the insurance companies say so?

I know! Let's revisit the words of Obama's Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, who said last year:

"There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a letter to the insurance lobby.

"Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections," Sebelius said. She warned that bad actors may be excluded from new health insurance markets that will open in 2014 under the law. They'd lose out on a big pool of customers, as many as 30 million people nationwide....

So with a not-so-subtle warning like that from our imperial federal government, even if ObamaCare is a reason for these rate hikes (and you know it has to be), do you think the insurance companies are going to say so?

Welcome to 2011 America.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Reading the Constitution: Yes, they were serious.

Remember when a reporter from CNS asked then-Speaker (I love the sound of that) Nancy Pelosi by what constitutional authority had Congress passed the individual mandate in the Obama-Care bill? Pelosi's non-answer was, "Are you serious? Are you serious?"

I have to say, I was having quite a bit of fun this morning as hundreds of members of the House of Representatives - Republican and Democrat alike - read the U.S. Constitution from the Preamble to the 27th Amendment.

I had the most fun watching the Dems get up there and read. There were times when some of them didn't look too happy about it. You could just see the seething going on behind some of these Democrats' eyes (Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas comes to mind) as they read their excerpt from the Constitution only because they knew if the Dems boycotted this reading, they would have been pilloried even more by the American public than they have already.

I texted a buddy of mine while the Constitution reading was going on and mentioned my observations about the Democrats to him. He responded back by saying, "It's like opening the Ark of the Covenant... their skin will melt off of their faces."

The proglodytes got all bent out of shape that Speaker Boehner insisted that the Constitution be read at the beginning of the 112th Congress. If I were Speaker, I would insist that this be done at the beginning of every new Congress. For God's Sake, they took an oath to uphold, protect, and defend this document; the least we can do is ensure that they know exactly what is in it.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

And I always thought I would be the one to get groped

Ever since my wife told me back in October that we would be flying to San Diego just after Christmas to see her sister and family, I had been dreading the return flight from San Diego back to Sacramento.

Why?

Because even though Sacramento's airport doesn't have the porn-scanners that show your naked form to TSA officials, I know San Diego's airport does. And we all know the choice that is faced at airports like San Diego: Porn scan, or enhanced patdown. After all, it was at San Diego's airport where the famous "Don't touch my junk" guy introduced a new catchphrase to the American lexicon. When I ran the scenario in my mind about what to do if faced with that choice, I tended to place myself in that predicament. For whatever reason, it just seemed logical that I would be the chosen one for this 4th Amendment-busting treatment.

Fast forward to New Year's Day, 2011; which, at this writing, is still yesterday. My wife, kids, and I approached the TSA agents at the x-rays and metal detectors. Like good proles, we dutifully emptied our pockets and removed our shoes. My wife was the first through the metal detector, and it beep-beep-beeped. She was sent back through to try again, removing her watch and necklace and handing it to me first. She went back through again, and it beep-beep-beeped. She was sent back to try again. This time, there was nothing left to take off or out of her pockets. She walked through the detector a third time, and it beep-beep-beeped again. By this time, my wife was getting flustered. She was pretty sure the underwire in her bra was setting off the metal detector, but she began rightly wondering why that same bra didn't set off the detectors in Sacramento. But her fluster was mostly caused by what she knew was coming next.

Now, in the past, the security official would have wanded my wife with a hand-held metal detector, it would have beeped in the underwire area, and that would have been it. Not in Barack Obama and Janet Napolitano's America. Instead, we were ushered to a side area where a female TSA agent had my wife assume the arms-up position with which we are all now familiar, and proceeded to conduct the enhanced patdown with which we are all familiar.

It was just like you have all seen in news reports and YouTube videos: Just about every inch of my wife's body was checked. The agent used the back of her hands to check the chest area, and most uncomfortable part was the below the waist check. The agent didn't just go up the legs and stop when she reached no more room to go up; she went across the front of my wife's unmentionable area, and then worked her way down.

Meanwhile, my wife had a look that was one part humiliation, and one part resignation. I guess the saving grace is that the TSA agent had the same look as my wife. I got the feeling that this was not what the agent signed up for.

When it was over, I asked my wife if she was OK. She was a good sport about it, and said that if she would have done anything differently, she would have requested a private room. She said the patdown itself wasn't as bad as the fact that it was being conducted in front of God and everybody. It also bothered her that our kids had to watch it. I would have loved to have the kids go elsewhere, but I would have had to go with them, and there was no way I was leaving my wife by herself. After we took a seat near our gate, I made a point of talking with our kids about what they had witnessed, and planted the seed in their minds that this is not the way things are supposed to be at the airport or in our society, and that once upon a time, things were indeed not that way.

So, quite the way to ring in the new year, eh? A sad little glimpse of 2011 America.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

2011 already?!

Statist media members say the darndest things!

It's that time of year again! The Media Research Center has released its Notable Quotables for 2010.

Click on the link above to revisit the revolting utterances that have escaped from the mouths of our supposed betters in the Statist Media.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Forgive *this* expression: You're a moron!

Nina, Nina, Nina. National Public Radio's contribution to the national discourse, Nina Totenberg, said something very naughty the other day. It was so naughty, that Nina had to ask viewers to forgive her for what she uttered. What was the word for which she asked forgiveness?

Christmas

Take a look:



This is from the same woman who once expressed her hope that the late Senator Jesse Helms and/or his grandchildren would contract AIDS. I don't remember her ever asking for our forgiveness for saying that!

And remember: your taxes pay her salary.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The ends justify the means

Admitted communist Van Jones, who briefly served as President Obama's "Green Czar," recently let the cat out of the bag during an unprotected moment in a speech to some of his young minions.

You know that whole "Cap and Trade" thing that would devastate our economy if it were passed? Jones and his fellow travelers are just making stuff up in an effort to get it passed. I know, shocking.

Hat tip to The Blaze for this enlightening snippet of video.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Victor Davis Hanson's California

I can think of few other people to describe the problems faced by the late, great state of California than Victor Davis Hanson; a native son, farm owner, and former CSU Fresno professor.

In an article for National Review, Dr. Hanson provides a wonderful narrative of what is wrong with California. You really need to read the whole article, but here are just some of many literary gems to be found:

I wanted to witness, even if superficially, what is happening to a state that has the highest sales and income taxes, the most lavish entitlements, the near-worst public schools (based on federal test scores), and the largest number of illegal aliens in the nation, along with an overregulated private sector, a stagnant and shrinking manufacturing base, and an elite environmental ethos that restricts commerce and productivity without curbing consumption...

It is almost as if the more California regulates, the more it does not regulate. Its public employees prefer to go after misdemeanors in the upscale areas to justify our expensive oversight industry, while ignoring the felonies in the downtrodden areas, which are becoming feral and beyond the ability of any inspector to do anything but feel irrelevant. But in the regulators’ defense, where would one get the money to redo an ad hoc trailer park with a spider web of illegal bare wires..?

California coastal elites may worry about the oxygen content of water available to a three-inch smelt in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, but they seem to have no interest in the epidemic dumping of trash, furniture, and often toxic substances throughout California’s rural hinterland. Yesterday, for example, I rode my bike by a stopped van just as the occupants tossed seven plastic bags of raw refuse onto the side of the road. I rode up near their bumper and said in my broken Spanish not to throw garbage onto the public road. But there were three of them, and one of me. So I was lucky to be sworn at only. I note in passing that I would not drive into Mexico and, as a guest, dare to pull over and throw seven bags of trash into the environment of my host...

In two supermarkets 50 miles apart, I was the only one in line who did not pay with a social-service plastic card (gone are the days when “food stamps” were embarrassing bulky coupons). But I did not see any relationship between the use of the card and poverty as we once knew it: The electrical appurtenances owned by the user and the car into which the groceries were loaded were indistinguishable from those of the upper middle class....

I think you get the picture: This state is screwed. Again, I highly recommend that you read the entire article. It is brilliant.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Assassination of Yogi Bear by the Coward Boo-Boo

I just wish I could have pulled the trigger. I despise the work of Hanna-Barbera:



Great send-up of that wonderful, moody Western from 2007.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Michelle Antoinette knows what is best for you

When it comes to deciding what your kid will eat, "We can't just leave it up to the parents," says Michelle Obama.

I'm so glad I have Michelle Obama around to tell me how and what to feed my children. I don't know how I would get along without her. After all, she knows better than I how to feed and raise my children. After all, I am just a peasant.

My usual question: Where in the Constitution is Congress and the President authorized to pass laws providing school lunches and breakfast at taxpayer expense? To the tune of $4.5 billion in this case.

It is always such a simple litmus test that our pampered princes and princesses in D.C. fail time and time again.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

My Bologna has a first name: It's A-s-s-h-o-l-e

With Alan Grayson on his way out the door, it appears that the baton has been passed to the new biggest jerk in the House of Representatives: Anthony Weiner (Democrat, naturally) of New York. And yes, it is pronounced *Wee-ner.*

Watch this guy in action against the lovely Megyn Kelly of FoxNews. Between his condescension and hissy-fits, he appears to be gleeful as he describes your demise so that he can tax the hell out of your estate:



Grayson was from a majority-Republican district in Florida, so he was beatable. This piece of work is from lefty New York City. I expect we will be watching the antics of the Weiner for years to come.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

December 7, 1941: 69 years ago, today

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Now I'm a cultist for supporting the Constitution

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Such a simple amendment, is it not? The final amendment of our Bill of Rights provided quite the exclamation point to the first ten amendments that were added to the Constitution. As we all (should) know, the Bill of Rights were added to the Constitution in an effort to quell the fears many Americans had that their God-given rights would be violated by the brand new federal government that was much more powerful than the one we had under the Articles of Confederation.

The Tenth Amendment stated that if the federal government had not been given express permission to do something by the Constitution, then that the power to do that something was automatically something only the states or individual Americans could do.

Now, according to the union cultists of the AFL-CIO, to support the Tenth Amendment makes one a "Tenther."

This article is admittedly almost two months old, but I highly doubt their position has changed. Read the diabolical and sadly misinformed article if you wish, but here is just a taste of the AFL-CIO's madness fueled by ignorance:

Most cults are based in some sort of skewed spiritual vision or the worship of a charismatic leader, but there is a re-emerging cult that bows down at the feet of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Many of them want to bring their cultish beliefs to the halls of Congress and are running for election this fall.

They’re called the “tenthers” and they say federal laws and rules like the minimum wage, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Department of Education, even child labor laws and a laundry list of other federal laws and programs are unconstitutional.

Their rationale—irrationale would be a better word—is that if a federal power is not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, well the government doesn’t have it, according to their view of the 10th amendment....

Huh? How is it "irrationale" to interpret something as it is clearly written? For the cultists of the AFL-CIO, they hope that by insisting something isn't true, then it won't be true. That is some true anti-intellectual alchemy that only a cultist could appreciate.

You see of course how the article frames the argument: If you are against federal minimum wage laws, child labor laws, and the like, then you are against those kind of laws period.

No, no, no. If you want laws like that passed, then pass them at the state level. If you truly think that it should be a law that applies to the entire country, then by all means, work to get the Constitution amended to allow law to be passed in those areas.

Otherwise, all those areas of law that are revered in the article are indeed unconstitutional and should not have been passed or enacted. Instead, the federal government - with the support of a misguided and/or ignorant populace - passed laws in those areas, even though they had no power to do so.

Were I King for a Day, I would nullify all those laws mentioned, and leave those matters up to the several states as originally intended. But we don't need a King for a Day; we have an elected legislature and president to do the right thing - even though you know they won't.

I will just go on being a "Tenther."

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Team Guts!

When I ran track and cross-country in college, it was quite evident that I was much better at the former. I hated cross-country with every fiber of my being, but I ran it because my coach believed it would give me a good base to build on when track speedwork began in the winter. My effectiveness in a race petered out after anything longer than a mile, so the four-mile races in cross-country were utter torture for me.

Of course, torture is the nature of cross-country running. There is a reason that emblazoned across the back our team t-shirts was, "TEAM GUTS."

Now that you know how tough cross-country running can be, watch this visual representation of the TEAM GUTS philosophy in action. Ladies and Gentlemen, this young lady has guts, and also a lot of heart:



Admittedly, you also have to have a few screws loose. I don't miss those autumn days of the early 1990s.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

How can you not love to watch this?

Simple game really: Make the half-court shot, win a car.



As one commenter said at the YouTube site, at least someone in Sacramento is making shots. You also gotta love the buddy who is just brimming with confidence. HA! He thought he was going to snag an easy $50.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Local murder: What is wrong with this picture?

Way too close to where I live, a 15 year-old was murdered, and his 15 year-old companion was shot in the foot. Read this Sacramento Bee article and see if you can find at least three issues that made me shake my head in disgust:

Sacramento County sheriff's detectives have arrested an 18-year-old man in connection with the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy Saturday morning, according to authorities.

Detectives booked Luis Prudente into the Sacramento County Main Jail this morning on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, according to booking records. He also was placed on an immigration-related hold because he is undocumented.

Prudente stands accused in the death of Jesse Dean Jones, who was shot behind Encina High School as he was walking home early Saturday morning with a 15-year-old female friend, said sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran. A second suspect remains at large, Curran said.

A car pulled up to the pair at the intersection of Wittkop Way and Clinton Road about 2 a.m. Saturday, Curran said. A person got out of the car and fired shots before getting back into the car and fleeing, Curran said.

Jones was shot in the stomach, and his friend in the foot. They were taken to a nearby hospital, where Jones was pronounced dead. The girl was treated and released.

Detectives suspect Prudente pulled the trigger, but they are not clear whether he was driving the car. They are still searching for a second suspect who was in the car with Prudente and who has not been identified, Curran said. However, Curran noted that Prudente is cooperating with authorities.

At this point, detectives suspect the shooting was gang-related and fueled by "rival gang affiliations," Curran said. Prudente previously had been validated by law enforcement as a gang member, the spokesman said.

Prudente is scheduled to be arraigned in court Tuesday, jail booking records show...

OK, here is what I found:

1. The murder suspect is an "undocumented" immigrant, according to the Bee. As we all know, "undocumented" is the oh-so politically correct way of saying an immigrant is "illegal." He shouldn't even have been here to commit that murder!
2. But it gets even better: This "undocumented" immigrant has previously been validated as a gang member by Sacramento law enforcement. Hold on a second! If this guy is known by law enforcement enough to be validated, then why the hell wasn't he deported a long time ago for a) being an illegal alien, and b) being an illegal alien gang member? I guess it takes someone losing his life first to finally be able to rid our society of the illegal alien suspect.
   
3. Sorry to seemingly blame the victim here, but what the hell were two 15 year-olds doing walking around Encina High School at 2 in the morning? If you swim in a Florida swamp, expect to be eaten by an alligator.
   

This is not the kind of news I want to be reading about something that, as the crow flies, only happened about 2.5 miles from my house.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

A Thanksgiving Proclamation

From President George Washington -

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Surprise! Increased security leads to...

... even more increased security. Looking at our naked images and/or giving us a good rogering is apparently proving not enough to be limited to our nation's airports. Homeland Security chief, Janet Incompetano, is now talking about installing these machines and procedures for other modes of public transportation as well - such as bus depots, train stations, and ocean liner ports. In the words of Incompetano:

[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through... I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?

Lovely! So the increased (yet still useless) security that has been foisted upon our airports is now being used as a reason to send these invasive machines and procedures to other places where the American public can be further harrassed and felt up.

I don't feel safer already.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Reporting from paradise

For the second time now, we are spending our Thanksgiving week off in Palm Springs, California. Yes, that Palm Springs.

It is a brutal drive no matter which way you take, but once you get there, it really is a beautiful place. Me being me, I don't care much for the urban aspect of Palm Springs, with the ritzy restaurants, resorts, and recreation, but it is so easy to get away from that and see places like you see in the photo. Indian Canyons is the ancestral home of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. In an otherwise inhospitable maze of desert mountains, these people lived for a couple thousand years in these canyon oases where trees grow along the creeks and brooks that flow out of the San Jacinto Mountains. I had to find the photo online, as I won't be able to post any of my own until I can merge the digital camera with our computer at home.

So, update complete.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

We finally know who Bob Etheridge is: A Loser

The North Carolina District 2 race turned out to be a close one - with a recount and everything - but in the end, Democrat incumbent Bob Etheridge has conceded defeat to his Republican challenger, Renee Ellmers.

How happy am I to see this man removed from office by his constituents? Click on the video below to see what kind of charmer Bob Etheridge is:



As close as this race was between Etheridge and Ellmers, I cannot see how this viral video was anything but the deciding factor in the race. Let's hear it for the Internet!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The prof overreacted, but he's still right

At Cornell University, a professor was in the middle of his lecture when a student in the audience of 200+ let out a loud yawn. The professor voices his displeasure at this act, and it all got caught on video:



What is sad is that Cornell is an upper-crust Ivy League university, and yet, it is obvious that even at the college level, instructors have to put up with the same sort of inconsiderate, infantile bullshit that I endure from my middle schoolers on a daily basis.

I too have been the victim of an intentionally loud yawn, and it always drives me crazy. What made me shake my head in disgust were all the comments on The Blaze blog (see my blogroll) where I first found this video in which the commenters did nothing but complain about the professor. I can say with much experience that unless you have stood at the front of a classroom on a regular basis and taught young people, you have no idea how frustrating it can be. And no, having logged years as a student when you were a kid doesn't count. There is a huge difference between being a student in the crowd, and being the teacher at the front of the room.

I totally empathized with this professor because I have truly been in his shoes. His one error was wasting his time trying to get the yawner to fess up or for the yawner's fellow students to rat him out. My only hope is that the rest of the students in the class who do know who the yawner is, took him to task afterward, away from the professor. After all, the yawner is wasting valuable time in a class that probably costs several thousand dollars of tuition. If I was a fellow student in that class, paying Cornell prices for my education, I would have socked yawning boy in the kisser, or got my ass kicked trying.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

A little treat for History/Geography teachers

Ever try to explain the concept of countries and continents to your students and gotten nowhere? Perhaps this 5 minute video will help. It shows the changing borders of the different countries that have existed in Europe over the last 1,000 years.

Notice that while the borders drastically change, the continent stays the same:



Hopefully that helps?

Hat Tip to Duffy at Colossus of Rhodey (see blogroll) for that one.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

A true American Hero... even if he denies it

I usually DVR 60 Minutes, and then check if there is anything worth watching before I delete it. Every once in awhile, they hit a homerun - especially when correspondent Lara Logan files any story about Afghanistan, where she has spent much time over the past couple of years.

Last Sunday, Logan reported on our country's first non-posthumous Medal of Honor recipient since Vietnam. I previously blogged about Staff Sergeant Sal Giunta, who received our nation's highest military honor for rushing toward his Taliban enemy in order to save a wounded fellow soldier who was being carried away by two Taliban thugs.

The 60 Minutes piece on Giunta does a good job of telling the backstory of the situation leading up to the firefight where Giunta performed his heroic act, and then does an excellent job conveying the heavy burden that a living Medal of Honor recipient must bear.

Please, please watch this segment about Staff Sergeant Sal Giunta.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Illegal aliens in California to get in-state tuition?

Let me get this straight...
If someone from Oregon attends a state college in California, he must pay the out-of-state tuition rate, which is significantly more expensive than what a student from California would pay.
However, if a citizen of, say, Mexico comes illegally to California and applies to go to a state college here, that illegal alien will only be charged the in-state tuition rate.
So says the Supreme Court of the supremely and increasingly insane nut house known as California:

The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Monday that illegal immigrants may continue to be eligible for in-state tuition rates at the state's colleges and universities rather than pay the higher rates charged to those who live out of state.

In a ruling written by Justice Ming W. Chin, one of the panel's more conservative members, the state high court said a California law that guarantees the lower tuition for students who attend California high schools for at least three years and graduate does not conflict with a federal prohibition on giving illegal immigrants educational benefits based on residency.

In-state, out-of-state, or otherwise, these people who are illegally in our country should not be attending our colleges regardless of what they are charged. I was just wondering - if a foreign student goes through the legal process of obtaining a student visa before he comes to the United States to go to college in California, does that student receive the in-state tuition rate, or is it only students who come here illegally?

California is becoming more like Alice in Wonderland all the time. Up is down, black is white, and wrong is right.

Don't worry, Jerry Brown will be taking over in January and will fix everything... that's sarcasm, folks.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Veterans Day 2010

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

MSNBC: Making the World Safe for Hypocrisy

During last week's election, my viewing buddy and I often clicked over from FOX News to MSNBC for a little schadenfreude as we watched the droopy faces of Olbermann, Matthews, Maddow, and O'Donnell as they watched so many of the candidates they worked so hard to get elected go down in flames.

After taking such a "shellacking" - to borrow the term from Obummer - MSNBC didn't take long to to begin whining about the Dems losing, their ratings, and life in general. One of their biggest complaints (steeped in raging jealousy) was the election night success of Fox News.

Rachel Maddow complained in her smug, snarky way that Fox News actually dared to have conservative candidates who, during their interviews, would dare to mention their campaign websites. Oh the humanity! MSNBC would never dare to let anything so horrific take place on their network would they? Would they? Maddow will set us straight:



Now that is some red meat right there. Those people on MSNBC are simply hateful and disgusting.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

2010 Midterm Elections: A night to remember

Well Statists/Democrats, I hope you enjoyed scenes like this while they lasted!!

When the Republicans took control of both houses of Congress in November, 1994, they did it by gaining 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and 8 seats in the Senate.

Tonight was just as impressive in its own way. Results are still coming in, but at this point we can say with certainty that the Republicans have taken back control of the House of Representatives, with a gain of a projected 65 seats. Again, that's 65 seats!

Meanwhile, in the Senate, while the Democrats maintain their control of that house of Congress, the Republicans made huge gains by picking up at least 6 seats. That puts to rest any possibility of the Democrats being able to defeat a filibuster. So even though they do not control the leadership of the Senate, the Republicans can still flex their muscle to keep the Democrats in check... that is, if the Republicans have the stones to flex their muscles. That remains to be seen.

Here are some observations of the night so far, even though some races - such as the Senate contests in Washington, Colorado, and Alaska - have yet to be decided:

Highlights of the Night

• The Republicans took the House! Speaker Pelosi? Not any more! Now hand over that gavel!
• Rand Paul won his Kentucky Senate race against a most sleazy Democrat candidate by the name of Jack Conway.
• Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Allen West won a House seat in Florida. This man is a man's man, a true American, and a stand-up guy who risked his military career to keep his men safe. He is also a black candidate who was backed by those mean, evil, racist Tea Partiers.
• Another black Tea Party-backed candidate, Tim Scott, was elected to the House of Representatives in South Carolina. Scott had defeated the son of Strom Thurmond to win the Republican primary.
• Pat Toomey defeated extreme Leftist Joe Sestak in a hard-fought Senate race in Pennsylvania. Toomey deserved this win. In 2004, the Republican party had abandoned Toomey in the primary in order to support Arlen Specter. Gee, that worked out real well, didn't it Republicans?
• Frank Guinta kicked out incumbent New Hampshire Representative Carol Shea-Porter. See, Shea-Porter started out as an anti-war activist who hounded former Representative Jeb Bradley about his vote in favor of the Iraq War. She would disrupt his meetings and events with her shrill shouting. She eventually challenged Bradley for his seat, and defeated him in the 2006 midterms. During the summer of 2009, when people took their congresscritters to task about the looming ObamaCare bill, Shea-Porter did not react too kindly when the very same tactics she used on Bradley were used on her. She is a detestable woman who deserved to be removed from office. I thank you, voters of New Hampshire.
• Mark Kirk of Illinois is a moderate Republican at best, but I find it rather sweet justice that this Republican won the Senate seat that was vacated by none other than the Anointed One himself, Barack Obama. This is as sweet as moderate Republican Scott Brown taking the Senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy.
• Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin is half of the team that gave us the 1st Amendment-stomping atrocity known as the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform law. I am happy to report that Feingold no longer is a Senator. He will be replaced by Tea Party-backed Republican Ron Johnson.
• Marco Rubio won a well-deserved victory over that "Republican" turncoat Charlie Christ. The aspect of that race I find most amazing is that 30% of Florida voters were stupid enough to actually vote for Christ. What are you morons thinking? Luckily, 49% of the voters correctly voted for Rubio. This man has a very bright future.
• Alan Grayson is out of the House of Representatives! Republican challenger Dan Webster has ensured that we never have to endure that smug, mentally unstable, reptilian creature known as Alan Grayson. Bye, bye Grayson. You are a detestable human being.
• Democrat Phil Hare of Illinois was removed by voters in favor of Republican Bobby Schilling. Earlier this year, during a talk at the end of a town hall meeting, Hare was asked by a blogger with a video camera about the constitutionality of the ObamaCare bill, for which Hare had voted. Hare said, "I don't care about the Constitution." Bye, Phil.
• Democrat Representative Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio was defeated by Republican Steve Stivers. Kilroy was a proud member of the House Progressive Caucus, which is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America. This alone makes me glad that Kilroy is out of there.
• Tea Party-backed Republican Vicky Hartzler beat out 30-year Democrat incumbent Ike Skelton in Missouri. Not all Tea Party candidates won this night (when does any side win it all?) but they definitely made their mark!
• Not long ago, I posted a video of two supporters of Virginia representative Tom Pierrello cussing up a storm, using racial epithets, and tearing up the signs of some peaceful conservative demonstrators. Sorry potty mouths, your guy lost!
• Finally, we come to Bob Etheridge; Democrat representative from North Carolina. Earlier this year, he assaulted a college student on camera when he was asked by the student about his vote in favor of ObamaCare. As he manhandled the student, Etheridge kept asking, "Who are you? Who are you?" I know who you are, Mr. Etheridge: You are no longer a member of Congress. Good riddance you arrogant pig.

Not everything went the way I wish it could.

LOWLIGHTS OF THE NIGHT

• Harry Reid defeated Sharron Angle in the Nevada Senate race. That sucks, but the good news is that Reid's agenda can be totally gummed up by the resurgent Republican Senate minority, should they choose to grow a pair.
• Christine O'Donnell was always a longshot to win that Delaware Senate seat. I swear though, I am almost happier to see the race go to an out and out Leftist Democrat like Chris Coons, who we can actively oppose, rather than a RINO like Mike Castle who would often vote the same way as Coons, but just fly under the radar while doing it.
• Democrat Joe Manchin defeated Republican John Raese in the race to fill the West Virginia Senate seat left vacant by the death of former KKK member (and Democrat) Robert Byrd. And how did Manchin pull off this win? By posing as a damn Republican, complete with campaign TV ads showing him shooting a rifle and piercing a copy of the Cap and Trade bill with a well-aimed bullet. What a phony.
• I hoped that Tom Tancredo could pull off an unlikely win in Colorado, and take that state's governorship. Perhaps if the hopeless loser of a Republican, Dan Maes, had been a man and stepped down when his support got down to around 10%, it might have been a more competitive race.
• My home state of California is screwed. Barbara "Don't call me Ma'am" Boxer was reelected to another 6-year term as Senator, defeating squishy Republican Carly Fiorina. Meanwhile, Jerry Brown was brought out of deep freeze to once again become our governor after leaving office after two terms in 1983. God save the Heathen: Jerry Brown is going to be our governor yet again. He ran this state into the ground the first time around, and I don't see any change in his ways that would reassure me that he won't run it into the ground some more this time around. Brown's challenger, Republican Meg Whitman, will probably thank her lucky stars that she lost. California is headed for an inevitable fall; how appropriate would it be that the fall will happen with none other than Jerry Brown at the helm when it happens.
• California Proposition 23 failed. Prop 23 aimed to stop implementation of AB32 until our state's unemployment dropped below 5.5%. AB32 is California's "global warming" law that mandates this state to cut its carbon emissions to below 1990 levels. The law is a job killer in an already economically depressed state. Now, nothing will stop AB32 from becoming reality, and Jerry Brown, who is a member in good standing of the Church of Global Warming, will be only too happy to enforce AB32's mandates.
• California Proposition 25 passed. Gone is the two-thirds majority vote that is needed to pass a budget. Now, a simple majority vote will suffice. While it sucked that our state's budget was late every year, at least this two-thirds requirement kept the statist beast at bay. Now, there is nothing to stop the excesses of California's heavily Democrat-dominated state legislature from ramming through budgets that our loon of a governor, Moonbeam Jerry Brown, will be only too happy to sign.

Bottom line on this night: It was a good night for the country, but California is royally screwed.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The day has finally arrived!

Here we are folks: Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Get out there and make it count, and vote the bastards out!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

So how about it? Is Obama a Keynesian?

Lefties love to tell us how smart and enlightened they are, especially in comparison to us dumb, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal Conservative Tea Party types.

After all, the occasional Tea Partier misspells a word on a protest sign, don't ya know?

That makes this video all the more hilarious as Lefties at the self-congratumasturbatory Stewart/Colbert/Cat Stevens hate-America fest got taken in by a very straight-forward sign that got them all worked up by their ignorance. Check this out and have a laugh at their expense. They deserve it!



Remember folks, these people want to run your life, because they are smarter than you.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be."

With one day to go, the Left is coming unglued

Want to see the racism and hate that the Left always accuses the Tea Party of promoting? In this clip, it ain't comin' from the Tea Party (not that it ever did). Watch these supporters of Democrat Representative Tom Perriello go absolutely ballistic at the sight of their political opposites daring to publicly share their point of view. I must warn you, the language, hostility, and destruction of property is rather extreme, but it does wonders in showing the projection of the Left as they demonstrate the hate of which they often accuse their opponents:



Nice. Do their mothers know they talk like that?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson