Wednesday, November 19. 2008
The "Blue Dog" Dem coalition has (formally) been around since 1995.
Back in 2004, just after George W Bush won his 2nd term and many new "Blue Dogs" were elected to the house and senate, I said then that they may be the "death" of the extreme lurch to the left for the democrat party.
Well, according to the election results from a few weeks ago, the "Blue Dog" coalition upped their members by two (and possibly one more, depending on a still undecided seat in the south).
If there's one thing conservatives of all stripes can be thankful for (as we head into Thanksgiving week), it's the fact that "Blue Dogs" tend to stick to their "fiscally conservative" mold. And with that in mind, Obama/Pelosi/Reid may have a huge fight on their hands for at least the next 4 years:
Newsmax has a nice article on this, here:
(snip below)
The left may still be crowing about its resounding Election Day victory, but it’s the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats who are emerging as a significant force in the upcoming Congress.
The influential Blue Dog coalition of House Democrats saw their ranks increase on Election Day, and they’re likely to gain even greater power on Capitol Hill with an ally in the White House.
Just a few days after his victory, President-elect Barack Obama tapped his chief economic adviser, Jason Furman, to consult regularly with the Blue Dog leadership on economic issues.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, acknowledged the new power of centrists when she said, a few days after her party gained at least 20 House seats, that “the country must be governed from the middle.”
Blue Dogs, for their part, say they’ll hold Obama’s feet to the fire.
When we consider what's going on with the "Mother Of All Bailouts", the more fiscally conservative" leaders there are, the better.
Pass the turkey please.
Monday, November 17. 2008
You want proof that the big three (GM, Ford & Chrysler) have put themselves in the bind they are in now? See the story linked and quoted below.
Combine the fact that the big three haven't been producing cars Americans want, but rather producing cars that they want to sell, along with the fact that big unions and their "gimmie" contracts have totally cut ANY profit the companies have been making....and you have the mess we see today in the auto industry in this country. If the big three management regimes had stood up to the unions and said "yes, we'll pay you a comfortable wage, but a line must be drawn somewhere", they might not find themselves in the mess they are in. And now they (and most democrats and a few RINO republicans) expect the U.S. taxpayers to bail them out?! I don't think so.
The best thing they could do is file for bankruptcy, which will then allow them to tear up the existing union contracts and start over.
There's a reason why the Toyota, BMW and Honda plants in the United States make more profit....
It's because they don't cow-tow to the unions.
Here's the link to that story, and here's a bit of quoted material:
Monday, November 17, 2008
$73/Hour Bailout
Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 10:57 AM
Detroit hasn't been making cars people want to buy and was catering to Big Labor demands long before the mortgage crisis hit. It's no wonder why they aren't competitive anymore. (I say this as a Flint, Michigan native.)
Mark Perry of the wonderful Carpe Diem blog put together this chart showing the inflated wages the Big Three automakers pay over their competitors. Big Three union workers, with their gold-plated health care plans, make about $73 an hour in total compensation. And, now they're begging Washington for a bailout before they even think about negotiating with the UAW.
(Fantastic chart courtesy of Mark Perry @ Carpe Diem blog)
Maddening, isn't it?
If you think so too, see the story Michelle Malkin has posted, here.
She's got embedded links in there, so be sure to check those out as well.
Friday, November 14. 2008
Well well well...it seems Bill Ayers (unapologetic terrorist)...the man Barack Obama said was just "a guy in my neighborhood"...is now saying that he and Obama are "family friends". Read here.
(snip)
Ayers: Obama was 'family friend'
New afterword to 2001 book, Ayers describes Barack Obama as 'family friend'
November 13, 2008
BY KARA SPAK and ABON PALLASCH Staff Reporters
In a new afterword to his 2001 book, Bill Ayers, former leader of the 1960s radical group Weather Underground, describes President-elect Barack Obama as a “family friend” and denies he wished his group had set off more bombs in the 1960s.
Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, adds few new details about his relationship with Obama in the afterword to Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Anti-War Activist. The book is being reissued this month.
“We had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fund-raiser at my house, where I’d made a small donation to his earliest political campaign,” he writes.
So - 52% of voters were duped.
Well....that would actually be a smaller percentage than 52%, since there were some that never heard of the Obama/Ayers issue, and still others who refused to live up to their responsibilities as voters and investigate everything they can about the candidates.
Either way - over at Confederate Yankee, they've posted this note to the "52" percent:
Dear 52,
It seems the man you entrusted with your vote lied about his relationship with domestic terrorist and attempted mass murderer Bill Ayers.
Many of you either didn't hear about Ayers, or accepted Obama's evolving explanations that Ayers was "just a guy in his neighborhood," or someone that he thought had gone through some sort of terrorist rehabilitation—perhaps at the Yasser Arafat wing of the Betty Ford Clinic.
But now that Ayers has come out and admitted that their relationship is very close—"family friends" is how he put it—how does that make you feel?
I ask, becuase as Malcolm once explained, you've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, led amok. You’ve been bamboozled.
You've been conned in to voting the family friend of a known terrorist into the White House.
How does that make you feel?
My guess is...they don't care.
Or at least...they will not care until the disillusionment begins...which will not take long.
(*chuckle)
Tuesday, November 11. 2008
 Well, I suppose I cannot be too surprised that the FEC is going to just punt on the subject of the massive and (documented) illegalities of the Obama fund-Raising Machine. He has skated along with everything else in his campaign. Whether it was the highly questionable associates he palled around with and pulled strings for. The massive voter fraud perpetrated by the likes of ACORN, who were partially funded with $800,000 by the Obama campaign. The crooked deals with Rezko. As well as all of his past history that was buried, such as his school records, state Senate records, birth certificate and the Annenberg Project funny money funnelling.
What makes it worse is that since McCain took public campaign funds, he is the only one subject to an audit, since that is triggered automatically by any candidate who uses public funds. A truly sickening irony.
From NewsMax:
The Federal Election Commission is not likely to conduct a potentially embarrassing audit of Barack Obama’s record-breaking fundraising campaign despite allegations of questionable donations and accounting.
That’s the disclosure from Politico.com, which reports that Obama will probably escape scrutiny in large part because unlike John McCain, he declined to accept $84 million in public financing.
Accepting that money automatically triggers an audit, meaning that the FEC is obligated to thoroughly audit the McCain campaign’s coffers, which will take months and cost McCain millions to defend.
Another factor that will discourage an Obama audit by the FEC is the sheer size of his fundraising haul — more than $650 million — which minimizes the significance of any errors.
“If a House campaign makes a $100,000 error, that’s huge and they’re likely to get audited,” David Mason, a former GOP appointee to the FEC, told Politico.
“If a campaign the size of the Obama campaign has a $100,000 error, then maybe not.”
Another factor: The FEC is comprised of three Democrats and three Republicans, and “is prone to deadlock on partisan issues,” such as “approving a messy and high-profile probe of a sitting president,” the Web site observed.
Emphasis mine.
So, just because the campaign's total haul was so large, that is used as an excuse to do nothing? That is like saying that since Criminal X has robbed the local bank 23 times in the last year, we do not want to waste the time and manpower to actually investigate and arrest him? Because his "haul" was too big?
Only in today's world.
Also, why in the heck are there three Democrats on the SEC board? After eight years of a Republican administration, you would think that the GOP would at the very least, have the majority there. You can bet that those three GOPers will be gone come January 20, 2009.
So much for the "New Tone".
Saturday, November 8. 2008
Over the last days, I have been following Powerline's coverage of the Franken campaign and MN Democrats naked attempt to steal the very close election between The Spiteful Troll (hat-tip to Mark Levin) and Sen. Norm Coleman.
Here is his latest update:
Coleman for Senate campaign manager Cullen Sheehan released the following statement today after it the perceived efforts of the Franken campaign and outside groups attempt improperly to influence canvassing process. The statement alludes to a "legal proceeding" of which I am not aware:
"Not content to allow the recount process to move forward as prescribed by law, the Franken Campaign and its supporters are attempting a campaign of undue influence. The increasing questions about unexplained and improbable shifts in vote counts, coupled with Franken Campaign antics over the past 24 hours, compelled us to seek legal action to protect the rights of Minnesota voters. We had an election. Senator Coleman won. And we now must have a legal and transparent process conducted in the light of day - and that is our goal and intent.
"Late last night, after another unexplained shift in votes occurred when the Secretary of State's Office closed, new ballots have suddenly appeared from a heavily Democratic precinct. These ballots have been unsecure since the election, yet the Franken Campaign is demanding they be stuffed into the ballot box, attempting to change a vote count that was already finished. Minnesota election laws provide specific rules for reviewing and counting ballots. Today's legal proceeding is an effort to ensure that a transparent and orderly process be in place. The Franken Campaign should be joining us in this action, not seeking to push the process outside the bounds of the law."
As I wrote this morning, the election seems to be in the process of being stolen.
Sweetness and Light also reports:
Miraculously with every recount Mr. Franken gets more votes.
Sure this is typical. But it does not make it any less outrageous.
Eventually a line must be drawn in the sand. We can not have election after election stolen by the Democrats through “recounts.”
After all, why should any count be more accurate than any other?
Please update this thread with the latest news on this violation of our very system of government.
Also try to tell your friends about what is happening in Minnesota, since it this story is being studiously ignored by our one party media.
(This AP story is only showing up on local news outlets in the Mid and Far West.)
Ballots that "suddenly appear" in heavily Dem precincts. Gee, where have I heard that before? Florida 2000? Washington State 2004? The oldest trick in the Democrat book.
The criminal organizations know as ACRON, the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party have so raped the integrity of the electoral process of this country at all levels, local, state and federal that it has become a joke. Now, it is standard procedure that whenever a Republican wins a close contest, that the Dems will just "recount" their way to fraudulent "victory". When in most cases the only reason it was close in the first place is because a high percentage of the original Dem votes cast were dubious at best and illegal at worst.
Maybe it is time for these "remorseful" media outlets like the Washington Post to actually do their jobs and report on all of this. They are to blame just as much as their Fraudmeister comrades-in-arms.
And the Electoral College could show some guts and actually demand that Obama prove he is a U.S. citizen. And if he cannot do so, the EC should then vote uniamously for John McCain and have him seated as the 44th President of the United States.
Enough is enough.
Well, I suppose it could be worse. They could have cross-bred Michael Moore, Oprah and Roseanne and had that hybrid do the munching instead.
( Hat tip to Boortz.com)
From CBCNews.com
Forget herbicides, weed-whackers: get some goats, study says
A study found goats effectively cleared properties of hearty weeds including thistle, hawk weed, dandelion and horsetails. A study found goats effectively cleared properties of hearty weeds including thistle, hawk weed, dandelion and horsetails. (Betsy Trumpener/CBC)
Municipalities across Canada should consider swapping herbicides for goat herds to control weeds on environmentally sensitive lands, a British Columbia study has concluded.
The study, led by University of Northern British Columbia professor Annie Booth, tracked the eating habits of goats for two summers in Prince George. The study found the goats effectively cleared properties of hearty weeds including thistle, hawk weed, dandelion and horsetails.
"As soon as we unloaded them, they turned around and started eating dandelions," Booth said. "They do their job — which is clear up and clean out the weeds here."
"We were very pleased to discover that goats do provide a very effective form of weed control, particularly for some tricky weeds that are difficult to eradicate even with the use of herbicides."
A most fascinating event and something that only has come to light in recent years as the existence of planets, especially Earth-like planets, has finally been proven by astronomers.
There is something oddly beautiful in the sad and sorrowful artist's rendition of the collision shown below. Could this be us in the future? Or was it us many millenia ago? It is the unknown factors like those that make space and astronomy so puzzling, fascinating and eventually leads one to think long and hard about existence itself and our place in the universe.
From ScienceDaily.com:
Two Planets Suffer Violent Collision
ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2008) — Two terrestrial planets orbiting a mature sun-like star some 300 light-years from Earth recently suffered a violent collision, astronomers at UCLA, Tennessee State University and the California Institute of Technology will report in a December issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
"It's as if Earth and Venus collided with each other," said Benjamin Zuckerman, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and a co-author on the paper. "Astronomers have never seen anything like this before. Apparently, major catastrophic collisions can take place in a fully mature planetary system."
"If any life was present on either planet, the massive collision would have wiped out everything in a matter of minutes — the ultimate extinction event," said co-author Gregory Henry, an astronomer at Tennessee State University (TSU). "A massive disk of infrared-emitting dust circling the star provides silent testimony to this sad fate."
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