BUT LESS SCARY: Obama Halloween mask more popular than Obama.

PELOSI TO QUIT if GOP takes the House?

Sounds good to me.

[Update & bump] Democrat committee heads may follow Pelosi and retire after vote. Double up on popcorn; this could be good!

DUDE, WHO STOLE MY LIST? Lisa Murkowski seems to have some competition in the write-in department.

Link via Instapundit.

[Update] Sarah Palin weighs in.

WELL, IT SHOULD MAKE IT EASIER for Todd Palin to become the "first dude." Obama, the dude in chief.

ONE CAN HOPE: Massachusetts will retire Barney Frank.

YOUR CHILDRENS' PIGGY BANK




Cast your vote to eliminate wasteful programs.

LET'S HOPE THERE'S NO 66TH: Sixty-Five Years of Circling the Drain: Happy Birthday, UN!

YEMEN loves logistics.

They're learning ....

"I MISS W": looks like my bumper sticker was prescient ....

WHAT WE BELIEVE, PART IV: Bill Whittle on natural law and the Bill of Rights.

BUT WE WERE ONLY TRYING TO HELP: Nevada voting machines automatically checking Harry Reid's name.

IRONICALLY, this may make it even harder for Congress to be bipartisan after the midterm elections. I blame God-only-knows how many years of continued gerrymandering (on both sides).

JOHN KERRY: America is in a period of know-nothingism.

Yes, but that'll change in 4 days.

HAS ANYONE seen Bill Ayers lately?

More shots fired today ....

IT PAYS to be dead.

IN A SIGN that the economy is in worse shape than has been publicly stated, Air Force One has begun charging the president a fee for his carry-on luggage.

Yes, it's a joke, and there are many more here.

BUMPER STICKER: on the highway this week - "GO GREEN: Recycle Congress"

MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY: Throw ALL the bums out and start over!

POST-ELECTION, the Democrats will retain control ....

I CAN SEE THE FUTURE from Baltimore. How much longer until I get fined for having too high a cholesterol level after my (mandatory) annual physical?

"BLUNTLY PUT, she’s not nearly as smart as she seems to think she is, and her reputation for being something of a bully could well make her liberal impulses backfire ...."

DUMB CONTROVERSY OF THE DAY: Methodist leaders at Southern Methodist University protest exhibits at the new Bush library.

As a former lapsed Methodist, I'm simply flabbergasted.

Allahpundit at Hot Air captures my thoughts: " Yes, heaven forbid that the moment Bush tried to rally the country after the worst terror attack in U.S. history be allowed to him in his own presidential library. Better a 'Bush = Hitler' placard rescued from some long-ago lefty protest to capture the spirit of the times."

LET ME EXPLAIN. Carolina Kathy comments:

Guiding principles – that’s what is absent in our current leadership. Obama has principles, power principles. What I’m referring to is a rock solid foundation of faith in our country, how her economy works, the American Dream, and our individual rights (not collective rights). Those are the absent principles.

Experience? Is it a lack of Obama’s experience that is hurting our country? IMHO, no. If he was a better leader we’d be in even deeper dog poo. The real damage is not because of his inexperience, but his bankrupt ideas.

I’m not looking for ‘experience’ – I’m looking at ideology – does the candidate understand what makes our country great? I like Romney, and perhaps he gets it, but healthcare is an albatross for him. McCain never understood it, to his credit he put his own skin in the game in Vietnam, but he is not nor never will be able to become President. All the experience in the world won’t help.

Palin – she gets it right down to the core. Living her views on abortion and national defense where so many would have thought the personal costs too high, exemplifies the personal courage so sadly lacking at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Would Sarah be golfing while soldiers die in Afghanistan? Would she be holding fundraising galas, and sending the First Guy to Spain for a $75000/day holiday while the unemployment numbers climb?

She's right.

HALLOWEEN: The Safest Day of the Year. "We can kill off Halloween, or we can accept that it isn't dangerous and give it back to the kids. Then maybe we can start giving them back the rest of their childhoods, too."

But that would put a lot of nanny-staters out of business ....

IN A RECENT MASS MAILING, my state senator, George Barker, claims to be my "year-round Senator." Given the propensity of government at all levels to muck up everything it touches, I'd really prefer him to be my "part-time Senator."

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE DIRECTOR Douglas Elmendorf is warning that the most significant economic effect of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul will be driving people from the job market.

Oops ... there go those pesky unintended consequences again.

THEY HATE US; they really hate us.

IF THE DEMOCRATS LOSE, is global warming to blame?

Linked from the Washington Examiner.

THE ANGLE CAMPAIGN is no doubt hard at work thinking of new and creative ways to annoy [Joy] Behar: Sharron Angle raises another $136,000 today.

WHAT WE BELIEVE, PART III: Bill Whittle explains wealth creation.

HOW DID OBAMA lose Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker?

[W]hy isn't she an Obama voter?

I'm serious. Was it really necessary [for Obama] to piss people like her off? Tucker's almost a perfect Obama voter. She's a single grandmom. Not rich. Famously worked at Walmart (after being a rock star) and complained about it. A lifelong Democrat—until now. Was what Obama felt he had to do—save Detroit, save Wall Street, jumpstart the economy, pass health-care reform—inevitably incompatible with her world view? Was a huge rebellion of people like her simply what you get when you "impose a liberal agenda" on a "center-right country," as Charles Krauthammer argues? Or did Obama gratuitiously fail to reassure her that her not unreasonable fears (e.g. "How the hell will this utopian dream land be paid for?") were unfounded?

I'm with "gratuitiously failed to reassure." I don't even think it would have been that difficult to keep the Moe Tuckers on board, even with 10 percent unemployment. All it would have taken was a bit of sincere symbolism.

Read the whole thing. And there's more here.

Original link from Instapundit.

AUTUMN LEAVES













Taken this week from around the neighborhood.

SOUND ADVICE:

I'm sure all of us can remember being angry at some time and doing things that we later regretted. In less than a week, we have an election and I don't think voting angry is going to lead to the solutions America needs to get over being angry. It's likely to make our rage even worse.

Perhaps it is better to think things through by using logic, reason, wisdom and good judgment before picking the best candidates possible. If you are going to vote angry, can you at least go to the trouble to figure out who is the right person to be angry at? The only thing worse than being angry is regretting who you voted for when you were angry and having to live with the results.

Too bad it wasn't offered in 2008 when we needed it.

LARRY GATLIN'S GRANDMOTHER on economics.

A very smart lady.

OBAMA -- the President America needs now.

Sally Kohn is the Founder and Chief Education Officer of the Movement Vision Lab, proof that progressive education is a complete failure.

I HAPPENED TO CATCH California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's interview with Greta van Susteren last night. The lady is impressive, and California will be well-served if she wins.

If not, then America should just wait till the next earthquake, gather on the east side of the fault, and push.

A MODEST AGENDA for a new GOP congress: what the Republicans could do that would give certainty to businesses, calm the markets, and reignite the economy.

Doing absolutely nothing would be a good start.

VOTER FRAUD WATCH: what to look for.

You can join the Pajamas Media fraud watch team.

REPUBLICORP: MoveOn.org has fallen into an abyss of delusion.

This is your "reality-based community." A direct link to the ad is here.

WHO IS THE LARGEST SINGLE POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR in the 2010 campaign cycle? The answer is AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, contributing $87.5 million in this cycle, almost entirely to Democrats.

FORTY-SIX YEARS AGO today on October 27, 1964, Ronald Reagan gave his now-legendary "Time for Choosing" speech. Next Tuesday, election day, we have our own "rendezvous with destiny."

Most of us don't - or just barely - remember Reagan (I was just 20, and in my second college work phase on Kwajalein Island in October 1964). So before you go to the polls, go here and read Reagan's speech in toto. It's timeless, and applies today as well as it did in 1964.

More: the complete speech, courtesy of Sarah Palin.

CHICKEN LITTLE DEMOCRATS: The sky is falling; the sky is falling.

IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS: Off-duty NY cop shoots salon robber while getting her hair done.

Didn't Clint Eastwood also take out some bad guys while sitting in a barber's chair? Why yes, yes, he did.

WHY BLUE STATES ARE BLUE: a chilly business climate.

THANKS, JOY BEHAR! The Sharron Angle campaign raised $137K after your rant.

[Update] Sharron sent flowers.

TREASURY HIRING FOIA OFFICERS 'to withhold information from release to public.'

Officials at the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Stability contracted with a small consulting firm that has given nearly $25,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005 (and no money to Republicans) to hire “Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Analysts to support the Disclosure Services, Privacy and Treasury Records.” The firm is currently advertising a job opening for a FOIA analyst with experience in the “Use of FOIA/PA exemptions to withhold information from release to the public.”

Transparency.

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE with the sound of liberal Democratic contempt for the electorate.

IF YOU DON'T VOTE DEMOCRAT, you must be heartless.

HEH. Health care is ailing Democrats.

WHOSE BAILOUTS? The following excerpt came to me in a .pdf attachment to a campaign email that appears to be making the rounds of Democrat activists. The author (identified in the .pdf properties box) is one Juanita Luiz, who appears to be a union activist (if a Google search is anywhere near accurate).

As the 2010 campaign heats up, a lot of blame has been directed towards the Democrats and, in particular, President Obama for the billions of tax dollars given away to corporations in the form of bailouts.

The facts tell a different story. According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, all amounts in 2008 U.S dollars: President Richard Nixon bailed out Penn Central Railroad in 1970 for $3.2 billion, Lockheed in 1971 for $1.4 billion and Franklin National Bank in 1974 for $7.8 billion. President Gerald Ford bailed out New York City in 1975 for $9.4 billion. President Jimmy Carter bailed out Chrysler Motors in 1980 for $4 billion. President Ronald Reagan bailed out Continental Illinois National Bank in 1984 for $9.5 billion. President George H. Bush bailed out the savings and loans industry in 1989 for $293.3 billion.

In 2001, President George W. Bush bailed out: the airline industry for $18.6 billion; in 2008, Bear Stearns for $30 billion; Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac for $400 billion; AIG for $180 billion, including $40 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP); the automobile industry for $25 billion; Citigroup for $280 billion, with $45 billion from TARP; and established TARP for $700 billion, of which $85 billion was already counted above. President Barack Obama in 2009 bailed out Bank of America for $142.2 billion, with $45 billion from TARP.

Many of us forget that the bailouts attributed to Obama were initiated during the last four months of Bush's term.

Sounds good doesn't it? The bailouts are all the Republicans' fault. Except that...

Presidents don't appropriate funds - Congress does. Here's the makeup of Congress from 1969 (91st Congress) through 2010 (111th Congress).



Note that with only two exceptions (1981-82 and 2001-02) Congress was controlled by Democrats. In both exceptions, Congress was split; Republicans held the Senate in 1981-82, the House in 2001-02.

There were no bailouts when the Republicans held both houses of Congress.

The "it's all the Republicans' fault" meme doesn't look so good now, huh?

GIBBS: OK, the car in the ditch has an Obama bumper sticker on it.

Awareness comes slowly to the Obama administration, but don't worry - the wrecker will arrive November 2nd.

PUBLIC OPTIMISM in U.S. system of government hits a 36-year low. Will it change after November 2nd?

TEACHERS GONE WILD: I'll bet there are some seriously pissed teachers in New Jersey about now. More here.

If New Jersey isn't a right-to-work state, it soon will be.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH HIGHER EDUCATION:

The politics and worldview of faculty and administrators are remarkably unbalanced: “They’re radically out of step with the American mainstream and are downright hostile to the beliefs of most Americans.” They’re doing a terrible job of teaching our children: “Academic standards have withered to the vanishing point.” And they cost way too much: Costs are “so high that for many students, higher education is arguably a bad investment that they shouldn’t make.”

Linked from Instapundit.

THE DEMOCRATS true colors are showing.

"IF CONGRESSMEN, JUDGES, THE PRESIDENT AND OTHER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS were merely ignorant of our Constitution, there'd be hope -- ignorance is curable through education. These people in Washington see themselves as our betters and rulers. They have contempt for the limits our Constitution places on the federal government ...."

OUR 'RULING ELITE' are nothing more than a bunch of credentialed jackasses.

FROM BULLY PULPIT to bully pulpit.

WORLD'S SMALLEST POLITICAL QUIZ: So you think you know where you stand politically? The results from this short test might surprise you. You'll be asked just 10 questions and instantly told where you stand politically - libertarian, statist, liberal, conservative, or centrist - and shown your position on a "political map" so you'll see exactly where you stand.

For only 10 questions, it's surprisingly accurate - if you don't attempt to second-guess the questions.

ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES: The faux-Greek columns of 2008 have turned into pillars of sand ... and his congressional majorities are on the verge of melting away — just two years after grand talk of a 50-year liberal regnum.

HEH. IF EVs [ARE] TO TAKE OFF, they would create a problematic loop for themselves: The more electric cars, the less demand for oil, and the lower the price of gas -- making EVs even less competitive.

FED-UP VOTERS may put GOP in power, ready or not.

Why? Because Democrats have been screwing up faster than Republicans can recover [their fundamental principles]. The GOP might not be fully ready to govern, but voters are increasingly convinced that Democrats don't deserve to. The Democrats' willful defiance of the public's wishes on Obamacare, on federal spending, and on other government-expanding initiatives has changed voters' priorities. In the urgency of the moment, throwing Democrats out is more important than determining whether Republicans are fully ready to take control.

Which is why the Tea Party must remain vigilant after November second.

THE APPROPRIATORS PARTY warns those upstart Republicans. And the Tea Party will return fire on November 2.

OF ALL THE INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION CASES in the news in the recent past, how many have not involved either non-profits or heavily-regulated institutions?

HOUSING FORCLOSURES - worse than the Democrats thought.

DON'T GIVE UP YET, you’re next in line for soup!

SHOOTING FISH IN A BARREL: Roger Kimball asks "What planet does [New York Times columist] Frank Rich inhabit?"

LEFTY ACADEMICS EXPLAIN THE TEA PARTY: They're too smart to just ask.

INSTAPUNDIT: "The main problem with the “new elite” is that they’re not an elite at all. That is, they aren’t particularly smart, or competent. They are credentialed, but those credentials aren’t so much markers for smartness or competence, or even basic education, as they are admission tickets to the Gentry Class ...."

Read it all, especially the updates. The Heinlein quote, from The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, is one of my favorites.

NEW YORK REP. ANTHONY WEINER, D-N.Y., is urging YouTube to take down radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki's videos from its website, warning that his message "has caused violence and is a threat to American security."

No, Weiner is worried that the availability of the YouTube videos will demolish the Left's mindless multiculturalism.

"WE DON'T WANT TO BE THE FIRST ONE TO DROP BENEFITS, but we would be the fast second."

A SHOVEL-READY PROJECT I can support.

"BEWARE INTELLECTUALS. Not merely should they be kept away from the levers of power. They should be objects of suspicion when they offer collective advice. Intellectuals habitually forget that people matter more than concepts and must come first. The worst of all despotisms is the heartless tyranny of ideas."

Read it all.

AS A GAY WOMAN who spent most of her adult life pushing the cart for liberal causes with liberal friends in a liberal city, I found that sexism, racism and homophobia are staples in the liberal world.

Big surprise ....

AREN'T DEMOCRATS supposed to value diversity and tolerance?

FAT CATS FAVOR THE GOP? Uh, no. Actually fat cats favor a big government they can more easily control.

VOTERS FED UP WITH BOSSY GOVERNMENT: "The Obama Democrats have been giving Americans more government, with a vengeance. But the voters seem about to wreak vengeance in their turn."

Read the whole thing.

OBAMA THE INTERN: the Obama administration channels Dilbert.

KATIE, BAR THE DOOR! Rhode Island may go Republican?

IS THE POPE CATHOLIC? Is Fox News more tolerant than NPR?

YOU CAN VOTE to terminate taxpayer funding for National "Public" Radio.

OUR NATION made the biggest tax mistake on election day in November two years ago. The biggest mistake this year would be to keep the same bums in Congress who keep driving up spending, the national debt, insurance mandates, and taxes and who keep taxpayers in limbo.

RECALLING THE ADAGE that "there are no atheists in foxholes, Obama has added the phrase “by their Creator” to his stump speech remarks on the Declaration.

MORE ON JUAN WILLIAMS: Muslim Emilio Karim Dabul ... gets a little nervous around Muslims at the airport too.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON makes the case that liberals progressives are puritans.

AMERICANS SUFFER from 'Obama Underappreciation Syndrome.'

RASMUSSEN: "I'd prefer a government with a lot less people who get sent home on snow days because they're 'nonessential'."

OK, it was in the comments, but still ....

THE IMPACT OF THE CITIZENS UNITED DECISION allowing corporate speech: "Speech restrictions draw businesses to K Street, where politicians can more easily demand cash and cooperation. Who wants the First Amendment ruining such a fine arrangement?"

COMMENT OF THE DAY. I'll second Don Surber on this one - "[A]s long as we have guys like Joe moving in, we have one helluva country."

RETRACTO THE CORRECTION ALPACA strikes again.

YES, he is a fool.

LIBERAL HUNTING IS SO EASY: Every time you come to believe they can't possibly be more ignorant stupid, they surprise you.

Linked from Instapundit.

[Corrected and bumped.]

OUR SNEERING LIBERAL CULTURE in a nutshell. Money quote: "One of the better arguments, of dozens, for smaller government is that the larger the state becomes, the more it attracts social engineers under its protective umbrella. The latter do not wish to work in the private sector, but gravitate to a public/not for profit entity where theorizing and editorializing apart from the market are not only encouraged but inevitably lead to hostility to the market."

IF THEY SILENCE FOX [NEWS], who will they attempt to silence next?

CALL ME SENATOR: "I worked so hard to get that title."

CAN JOHN DENNIS knock off the "wicked witch of the left?"

IT'S PAST TIME to retire Jim Moran from Congress. Follow this link for Patrick Murray's response.

AMERICAN GOTHIC II




Shouldn't he (she?) have a pitchfork?

THOUGHTS FROM A COUNTRY MOUSE.

I suppose what I’m doing is retracing on a personal level the Great Migration of Americans from the cities to the suburbs and exurbs after World War Two. A nation of subway and tram riders turned into a nation of motorists — and gradually lost its taste for Progressive era reforms. City dwellers know they need the state; there was no way I could commute by car to Manhattan and find parking at a reasonable time or cost. The government stepped in to help me with subsidized mass transit. Suburban and exurban people aren’t so sure about the government’s role. Out here, I want government to do its job and fix the roads, but otherwise stay out of my hair — and stop wasting my time and taking my money.

A very interesting commentary from Walter Russell Mead as he transitions from city life to rural life. Note the importance of the automobile to independence.

EDUCATION REFORM: "Rather than giving real power to the parents and kids public education is supposed to serve, they [education reformers] insist on keeping them subject to the authority of politicians and politically potent special interests. They refuse to let all parents make the same choice the President has made, and they continue to force all Americans to hand huge sums of money over to government schools."

The solution? "Let parents take their education dollars to any school they wish, with no government thumbs on the scale ...."

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL is the ObamaCare train: "I have no desire to stand next to the tracks in order to watch this train wreck unfold at close range."

UNEXPECTED? or obvious? No subsidy is forever. What happens when it ends?

I SAVED THE WORLD: "Reid wants everybody to believe that he’s Bruce Willis in Armageddon, when in fact it’s now common knowledge that he’s been nothing but the asteroid for far too long."

Goodbye, Harry - and good riddance.

WORLD'S LONGEST CAT - 4 feet, nose to tail! We had a Maine Coone cat, named Samantha, for many years. Maine Coone's are wonderful cats, mellow, and love to be petted. A pity she's gone.

A VIEW OF THE FUTURE.

HOW NOT TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE VOTERS: "Politics is like courtship. A guy asks a girl out. She says no. The guy tells the girl she's irrational, not thinking clearly. What happens? She walks away, more certain in her thinking."

More: "Calling voters stupid is not a winning strategy."

IF YOU'RE A FISCAL CONSERVATIVE who expects a Republican majority in Congress next year, Phil Klein at the American Spectator provides a good reason to not get your hopes up, even if the GOP does win.

ANN COULTER on the Chris Coons - Christine O'Donnell debate. Ann is obviously not a Coons fan.

OK, SO IT'S A CAMPAIGN RELEASE ....

Rio Rico, AZ - Approximately 200 people attended a candidate forum tonight between fast-rising Republican challenger Ruth McClung, Incumbent Democrat Raul Grijalva and Independent Harley Meyers. The forum, held at Rio Rico High School and sponsored by by the Green Valley News, Nogales International and others, offered few surprises--but showed yet again why Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Raul Grijalva is in a fight for his political life.

Rep. Grijalva continued to try and defend his abysmal extremist voting record, and his call for a boycott of his home state. Meanwhile, McClung scored points on lowering taxes, increasing science and technology jobs in Arizona, protecting social security and securing our borders against illegal drug and human smuggling.

The prepared questions from the moderators and a format that didn't allow for any rebuttals made for an often subdued and predictable exchange between the candidates. Still, McClung scored points throughout the debate, contrasting her sensible solutions and job-friendly policies against Mr. Grijalva's tired rhetoric of bigger government and more spending.

The most interesting parts of the evening occurred off-stage. Prior to taking the platform, Rep. Grijalva walked slowly around the room by himself, head down, greeting a few familiar faces in a subdued and oddly discomfited manner. When the questions were over, Mr. Grijalva quickly gathered his campaign team and left the facilities, barely acknowledging the voters who came there to support him.

McClung, as usual, demonstrated her ability to connect with individuals who would never have come out to vote for a Republican before. She was mobbed by supporters and curious newcomers alike before her trip to the stage, then stayed around for more than 30 minutes after the debate chatting and exchanging ideas with the crowd.

One young Hispanic woman who had earlier challenged McClung on her ideas for a stepped flat-tax structure to replace our broken income tax system quickly caught Ms. McClung as she was leaving the stage to learn more and offer her support. Another woman, a self-described "life long Democrat" also proclaimed her support for Ruth, adding that, "He (Grijalva), doesn't represent us anymore. "

Well, ma'am, not after November 2nd anyway. Rio Rico is a few miles from Arizona's border with Mexico, and is normally safe Grijalva territory--probably why he agreed to the debate there after ducking out of a public contest in the more heavily Republican Yuma area. But not tonight.

Proving once again that her reach extends into every community and corner of Arizona's 7th Congressional District, McClung won over the crowd with her sincerity and thoughtful demeanor.

"This race is about uniting people. Not tearing them apart," McClung said. "They (the federal government) want to divide us: rich from poor, men from women. But together we're strong. That's what this race is about, coming together to solve our (problems)--and we can."

... it's indicative of the fact that the times, they are a'changing.

THE EXTREMISTS ARE COMING! The extremists are coming!



Link from Instapundit.

STIMULUS WEATHERIZATION MONEY buys shoddy work, widespread fraud. In Chicago, no less.

JAMES CAMERON, FILMMAKER AND PROMINENT GLOBAL WARMING ACTIVIST, recently told The Los Angeles Times that we have to accept the fact that we must live with less in order to save the environment. So when does he start?

MICHAEL KINSLEY: Do people really want a stupid president?

Already got one, thank you very much.

ARE OVARIES the new cojones?

SO YOU WANT TO FLY THE U-2?


Here's your chance.

MUGGED BY REALITY: A conservative is born.

[Update] More here and here.

BARNEY FRANK: Save abortion by saving me!

MORE PROOF THAT THE NANNY STATE HAS RUN AMOK: Feds Consider Limiting Potatoes Offered to Kids.

NAACP ACCUSES THE TEA PARTY of being "permeated with concerns about race." From the comments: "Ummm, this is coming from the organization solely permeated with concerns about race?"

MULTICULTURALISM "has created problems so obvious that only the intelligentsia could fail to see them. It takes a high IQ to evade the obvious."

MAMA GRIZZLY versus mama grizzly.

WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST DANA MILBANK (A Tea Party of populist posers) appears to believe that "elitism" consists of having a net worth in the hundreds of millions; the notion that elitism is a state of mind eludes him.

Dana, if you want to find out what Tea Partiers mean by the phrase "self-appointed elite", read this - or go in the bathroom and look in the mirror.

Jeez. Every time I think the guy can't possibly be any stupider, he surprises me.

I'LL GO WITH "The Great Refudiation."

PART-TIME WORKERS' INCOME PLUMMENTS. The Washington Post isn't very strong in the common sense department; income usually plummets when the economy tanks.

WHY REPUBLICANS WILL WIN IN NOVEMBER: they only kinda suck. Read it all; you'll understand.

THE DEMOCRATS' QUANDRY: "If you’re the party of big government it’s in your long-term interest to deliver big government services as effectively and inexpensively as possible. The public employee unions tend to be your adversary, not your ally, up and down the line: their incentives are to increase costs and reduce accountability."

Democrats are not warriors; they tend to forget that the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.

THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT ... "has brought many new people into politics --- and many with sharper political instincts than their detractors in the press have been able to understand."

THE 2010 IG NOBEL AWARDS have been presented. The Ig Nobel Awards honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative—and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.

My personal favorites are the engineering prize, for perfecting a method to collect whale snot using a remote-control helicopter, and the management prize, for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random.

BARNEY FRANK'S POPULARITY in Massachusetts is on the wane. It's about time.

More here.

U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE VIRGINIA PHILLIPS declares "don't ask don't tell unconstitutional; the Obama administration - correctly in my view - appeals the decision, asking that it be held until the military completes its review in December.

Here's why: gay activists and lawyers.

Linked from Commentary Magazine.

WHY THE LEFT SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED LOADED WEAPONS: they're too likely to shoot themselves in the foot.

And be sure to check out the storyboard and Iowahawk links ....

AMBER ALERT issued for "by our Creator." Once might accidental; twice, concidential; but three times? That's a pattern.

TROOPS CHAFE: "To the U.S. Army soldiers and Marines serving here, some things seem so obviously true that they are beyond debate. Among those perceived truths: The restrictive rules of engagement that they have to fight under have made serving in combat far more dangerous for them, while allowing the Taliban to return to a position of strength."

OBAMA MAY OPT for new military advisers. Of course. His current advisors want to win wars; not lose them.

DON'T GIVE THE LAWYERS any ideas.

THEY'RE NOT EDUCATED; they're just credentialed.

Heh.

I WONDER WHY: Over half of all new jobs created in the last year were created in Texas.

D-FOR-DENIAL: All indications coming out of the White House suggest that if Democrats suffer major losses, the president and his top aides will resolutely refuse to reconsider the policies ... that led to their defeat.

MORE THAN HALF OF AMERICANS say they think that federal workers are overpaid for the work they do ... according to a Washington Post poll.

I know at least one federal worker who is dramatically overpaid ....

OBAMACARE LAWSUIT UPDATE from Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli:

As most of you know, today was Virginia's day in court to defend liberty against the individual mandate contained in the healthcare bill. Virginia's is the first state case to be heard on the merits of its arguments regarding constitutionality - and according to the judge today, we are likely to hear a decision before the end of the year.

Virginia's case rests on a single basic premise: That the federal government's attempt to stretch the Constitution's Commerce Clause to allow it to force individuals to buy a private product - private health insurance - is unconstitutional. We also have to parry the federal government's fallback argument, specifically, they argue that the penalty for NOT buying their government-approved health insurance is actually a tax under Congress' Constitutional Taxing Power. Mind you, it's called a "penalty" in the law itself and Democrat leaders - including President Obama - argued vehemently that the penalty was NOT a tax before the bill was voted on in Congress (see here).

I am looking forward to providing all of you with a more substantial update, but for now, rest assured that today went very well for Virginia. While we don't know how the judge will rule, we are confident that we laid out the best case possible in the defense of liberty.

So far, so good ....

MARYLAND GOVERNOR: Illegal immigrants are really just “new Americans.” No. Legal immigrants are potential "new Americans;" illegal immigrants are just ... illegal.

Hopefully O'Malley will lose in November, but Maryland is a very blue state.

ELECT OBAMA PRESIDENT, what do you get? Four years older and deeper in debt: National debt up $3 trillion on Obama's watch.

EPIC FAILS:

IT DAWNS: Multiculturalism is a failure.

MICHELLE MALKIN: "Sure, Obama is like a Chilean miner — stuck in a deep hole and dependent on competent, can-do Americans to get him out."

Michael Ramirez's cartoon is more accurate.

DAVID LETTERMAN: What was the most positive result of the "Cash for Clunkers" program? It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.

WORRIED ABOUT HOW TO PAY OFF STUDENT DEBT? you can score loan forgiveness after ten years of “public service.” Of course, "it spreads a contagion called governmentitis — the desire to remain in a government job rather than contribute to the actual economy simply because the taxpayer-funded benefits are too sweet to pass up."

THE RULE SEEMS TO BE that casting a decisive vote for Obamacare tends to be a career-ender.

ON NOVEMBER 2 THEY WILL IGNORE US NO MORE

LISA MURKOWSKI funded by 'rent-an-Eskimo' racket.

VFW (VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS) POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (PAC) endorses Barbara Boxer for Senate; VFW Commander dissolves VFW-PAC.

OBAMA: now a “bitter clinger.” From an Obama supporter, no less!

MORNING READS from the Washington Examiner.

ANOTHER ‘OVERWHELMINGLY WHITE’ CROWD SPOTTED - and it’s not a Tea Party.

WHO IS that masked man?

THE "D" is for "desperation."

WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE? “Sharron Angle ‘campaigns at times with a .44 Magnum revolver in her 1989 GMC pickup.’ ”

PURITANISM 2.0: Victor Davis Hanson comments:

Americans do not like being lectured at, much less when those sermons are misdirected and lead to higher taxes, the creation of a preachy, Ivy-League overseeing class, and legions of federal employees whose prime directive is to vote in more politicians that give them more money with less accountability.

If they want to wear the hair shirt themselves, well and good. But I’m not willing to be fitted for one.

DAY TRIP along Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Forest.

OBAMACARE: only a 47% rate hike.

Read the comments for more.

WHAT WE BELIEVE:

Part I



Part II



Bill Whittle's website is here.

TRUTH, not ideological balance. Well, yes, but if I can’t have truth, I’ll settle for balance.

THIS GUY'S GOTTA BE AN ENGINEER:

Thinking about Pres. Obama and numbers leads me to the conclusion that Pres. Obama is the square route [sic] of minus one. Point one, the square route [sic] of minus one is an imaginary number and when I hear him talk about economics–or most other subjects for that matter–it is clear he lives in an imaginary universe, not the one the rest of us live in. Point two, the mathematical term for the square route [sic] of minus one is “i”, and when you listen to Pres. Obama he is sure to remind you of that point because he uses the term repeatedly. In fact I’ve heard him use it several times in the same sentence as if we might forget – between words – just who it is that is screwing things up so badly.

Why he's an engineer - he's right, and he can't spell.

The post is here. Scroll down for the comment.

OBAMACARE: Laughter is the best medicine.

THE MEDIA CREATED THE TEA PARTY: "like a love struck teenybopper, [the media] fell in love and decided to run off with Barack Obama. It left a vacuum that others filled. [And] it’s too late to move back home ... they are carrying Obama’s love child and it’s too late for an abortion."

Linked from Instapundit.

EDUCATORS, POLITICIANS just don’t get it. Perhaps it’s time to quit treating education as a right and reconstitute it as a privilege and responsibility.

IS CALIFORNIA INSANE? In a word, yes.

MEANWHILE, Chris Matthews is still an idiot.

DAVID BRODER can’t bring himself to say “Tea Party”: "As the gulf between GOP and Democrats widens, the center is lost."

The mainstream punditocracy has moved so far left that to them the center looks far right.

HEH: Now it's vacation time ... this from my employer's HR department.

Over the recent years, there has been an increasing level of scrutiny by the IRS of the entire area of how companies treat employee benefits and all forms of compensation to ensure proper compliance with Federal regulations. New laws and increasingly complex employee benefit plans have only added to the visibility and attention this area is receiving. [We continue] to strive to be at the forefront of protecting the company and all of our employees from any financial penalties that may arise from not complying with Federal regulations. As a result of our ongoing efforts, we are updating and revising our vacation policy to ensure enhanced compliance with IRS guidance.

First the Obama administration came for our health care, and we didn't protest. Then the Obama administration came for our vacation time, and we didn't protest ....

RUNNING AGAINST BUSH ISN’T WORKING - so Democrats are running against Sarah Palin.

DANA MILBANK IS STILL AN IDIOT: Tea Party may snuff out a chance to shrink government.

Milbank thinks - if that's what it can be called - in stereotypes.

MORE “HIPPIE PUNCHING” - from a Democrat.

ABOUT TWO WEEKS AGO, I posted about the Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" host Mike Rowe lobbying Congress for more support for 'dirty' jobs.

Here's a video of Rowe talking about his experiences. It's long, but worth the watch.

VOTE THE BUMS OUT. In this upcoming election, all the old political pluses -- years of incumbency, entrenched seniority and pork-barrel earmarks -- are proving to be liabilities. Instead, the more public officials admit to being in control when trillions of dollars were run up, the more Americans want them gone.

HEH. “President Obama has been trying to score political points by charging, in effect, that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is laundering foreign money to steal the election for Republicans. Trouble is, the chamber doesn't just support Republicans. It has endorsed several House Democrats, vulnerable freshmen who have been buoyed by the chamber's six-figure ad buys.”

Oops ... there go those pesky unintended consequences again.

OBAMA: After 54 health care speeches, I neglected “marketing and P.R. and public opinion.” Hogwash! From Day One, ObamaCare has been all about marketing a product that no one in his right mind would ever buy on the open market.

HEH. There’s a Reason Why They Call Him ‘Dick’

GALLUP POLL: ‘Record’ percentages of Americans think government is too big and intrusive.

WHY THEY’RE CALLED the “lamestream” media.

THE COMING ELECTION “is a referendum on a vision of government and society in which the state seeks unlimited power to make decisions at the expense of the liberty of the people. It is a moment of decision on a failed experiment in governance. If the Obama administration's accomplishments are too complex to explain to the voters, if the beneficial effects of their policies are not self-evident, it may be time for them to question whether they have accomplished anything worthwhile at all.”

PLEASE, PLEASE attack me.

SOME THOUGHTS about the Tea Party and the Chilean mine rescue.

OBAMA: “ '[T]here’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects' for public works.” A valuable lesson to be sure, but why did he have to learn it on our trillion dollars?

IT’S NOT ABOUT HEALTH; IT’S ABOUT CONTROL: Regulating Personal Genomics to Death.

I KNEW I WASN'T ALONE IN MISSING ‘W’: “A new CNN poll finds voters still believe Mr. Obama is a better president than Mr. Bush was, but by only 47% to 45%. That's down from a whopping 23-point margin [61-38] last year.”

DARTH VADER EMERGES: Dick Cheney, the left’s favorite bogeyman is back from heart surgery and hitting the campaign trail.

BARNEY FRANK tied himself to the railroad tracks and stuck out his tongue ... the Tea Party just supplied the locomotive.

CHEAP SHOT: “Hope and Change” becomes “Fear and Smear.”

A TOUCH OF COLOR


Fall is coming to Virginia.



[Update] In the afternoon sun.

MY STOMACH ISN’T STRONG ENOUGH to watch Rachel Maddow - or MSNBC - but yours might. Maddow can’t take criticism during interview with Republican candidate.

“IF YOUR POLITICS ARE WRONG you’re in trouble.

Dem candidate: DCCC canceled ads because I won’t support Pelosi.

Today, your campaign ads. Tomorrow, your liver transplant.

Am I joking? No. You can take that prediction to the bank. That’s who these people are, and this is how they think.

Take this warning seriously when you vote in November.

“I DON’T MIND SLACKERS. I mind having to support slackers.” Follow the link.

INTERESTING: the first use of the word “diversity” was in defense of slavery.

WELL, OF COURSE: Obama to end Gulf drilling ban. After the drilling rigs have already left for more productive waters.

DONATE NOW and win a trip to meet Obama! Any guesses as to the likelihood of a non-contributor winning?

WHAT? Fox News joins "the elite"?

READ THE DAMN BILLS! “Well, the good thing, it would slow down the legislative process.”

VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL KEN CUCCINELLI on the Tea Party:

Here are some of my brief thoughts on the Virginia Tea Party Patriots' convention this weekend. In fact, I'll make them so brief, I'll do them in bullet format:

- Any politician who doesn't take this movement seriously after the kind of organized demonstration of political power this weekend, ignores it at their own peril. This includes incumbents of both parties and would-be challengers.

- For every activist that showed up this weekend, there are 10 more out there... and that's just the activists!

- These folks are willing to learn, both tactics and philosophical details, and they are willing to work (and some of them will run for office themselves). A critical question will be: "for how long? Through 2010? 2011? 2012? Or longer?"

- The willingness to learn is going to make these folks more and more politically effective. One note, their legislative priority during the 2010 Va. General Assembly session was the Va. Healthcare Freedom Act, and look how that turned out!

- Unlike in some other states (e.g., Nevada, Delaware, Alaska), so far, Virginia Tea Party activists have not worked through how to unify behind a single candidate in a race, but I think 2010 will have taught them that lesson - and the price of not learning it. The convention this weekend could be a major element in overcoming this organizational challenge... time will tell. Btw, this is probably one of the toughest organizational challenges for a movement with no formal organization. Solving this problem is (normally) one of the things that a party structure does for you.

- One question is what role these folks will play in state legislative races in Virginia in 2011. Many of them were critical to our grassroots efforts in 2009 in my campaign for AG, but will they continue to work their way down the political ladder? I hope so, as the potential to have a decisive impact is even greater in smaller races (a state senate seat has less than 1/3 the voters as a congressional seat, and a smaller proportion of voters will show up, so you can win a pure grassroots campaign despite enormous spending disadvantages). 2011 will also present some planning challenges (for everyone) because of redistricting.

By working together and focusing their efforts - the tea party has the potential to continue to make a lasting mark on many election cycles down the road.

For those of you who consider yourself tea partiers - keep it up! For those of you who don't - check it out!

Excerpted from a constituent email.

MORE EVIDENCE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN WASHOUT OF 2010: Lloyd Doggett (D-University of Texas) is in a serious race for the first time in 8 terms.

HOW DO YOU SPELL HYPOCRISY? M-i-c-h-a-e-l-B-l-o-o-m-b-e-r-g.

Do as I say, not as I do.

MICHAEL GOODWIN: Why Don't YOU 'Buck Up,' Mr. President?

OUTGUNNED AND OUT MANEUVERED, the Obama administration is fighting back -- by attacking the Bush administration through Karl Rove.

PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD.

The Democrats' hypocrisy on big-money donors.

Pot calls kettle---

John Podesta's propaganda strikes again on White House's Chamber of Commerce line.

And to top it all off, the Obama administration is already backpedaling.

TELL THE TRUTH: Billboard trucks urge ABC, CBS, NBC to 'tell the truth' in news.

As Instapundit points out, “With their ratings, they might as well give it a try.”

FOR DEMOCRATS, this is the light at the end of the tunnel.



The sign appeared at the (only) entrance to our subdivision this morning. While our district leans Republican, I have never seen this level of political activism in the 11 years I've lived here.

If this is any way reflective of the mood of the nation, the Republicans will take control of both houses of Congress in January.

FORTUNATELY THE LEFT WON’T LISTEN and no one else pays any attention to the New York Times.

REID DEFENDS TIME SPENT IN D.C., wishes the [Nevada Senate] race wasn't 'as close as it is'.

I’ll agree with Reid on one point - I wish Sharron Angle was further ahead, too ....

DEMOCRATS RETREAT TO COASTS; GOP rules the heartland.

THE POLICIES of the Chinese government make it possible for Americans to acquire a vast array of products at affordable prices. For that high crime and misdemeanor, the US House of Representatives voted last week to punish China.

Read it all.

GALLUP REPORTS unemployment at 10.1 percent. And that doesn’t include those - like me - who’ve given up looking.

FAST TRAINS.

Except for bicycles, mass transit is the greenest of transportation technologies. Experts may quibble about whether electric and hybrid-electric vehicles yield net energy and carbon savings, but there's no doubt that to the extent travellers can be lured from cars onto trains, substantial efficiencies result. As for air travel, greenhouse gas emissions are so great some green-minded indviduals try to avoid it altogether.

While the focus of the article is on China’s train technology, the dogmatic assertion above leaves me unimpressed.

HEH. Any partisanship evinced by Fox [News] is destructive, but those partisans that agree with us night after night [MSNBC] are just keeping government honest.

PELOSI NOW AS POPULAR AS BP: an insult to BP.

HOW DO YOU CREATE A JOB? You have to suffer Blumenthal’s response (about 1:30 long) for McMahon’s devastating response (less than 15 seconds).

THE SNOOPS ARE COMING: Obama wants a back door to our social media.

Surprised?

A STORY about cowardice.

The cartoon is here.

THE NANNY PARTY AT WORK: Let’s ban sugary drinks for people on food stamps.

FINALLY, more than a dime’s worth of difference between the parties.

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED? Journalists are lazy, cowardly, dumb and corrupt.

GALLUP’S ASTONISHING NUMBERS and the Lake Superior congressional districts.

These ... numbers, if translated into popular votes in the 435 congressional districts, suggest huge gains for Republicans and a Republican House majority the likes of which we have not seen since the election cycles of 1946 or even 1928.

Wow.

OBAMA’S TELEPROMPTERS ARE ‘IDIOT BOARDS;’ keep him from connecting with audiences. But he’s better with a teleprompter, so which idiot is which?

EVEN AFTER GIVING IT EVERYTHING THEY HAD, they still weren't able to draw as many people as Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in August. Why not? Because the labor movement is shrinking, aging and divided.

ENTITLEMENT: Alaska’s establishmentarian Republican demands media not run Tea Party ads. The Tea Party responds (Link via Hot Air).

"DEMOCRACY" AT ITS FINEST: the Google bomb.

More here.

GIVE LESS GOVERNMENT A CHANCE:

From the time of Woodrow Wilson, at least, the best and the brightest among us have been in constant search of ways to reinvent government to make it more citizen-centric, more citizen-friendly, more efficient, more rational, more empowering of citizens, more efficient, more management oriented, more transparent, more businesslike with more citizen engagement, more stakeholders and more new technologies, which the smarties believe will leverage government to achieve the greater good and the general welfare. Woodrow Wilson, call your office; Your Grand Government Delusion is alive and well among the smarty set, all empirical evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

Let me offer the counter hypothesis, one supported by a century of empirical evidence: A little bit more of this and a little bit more of that where government is concerned all adds up to nothing more than, well, more government, not better government—the Grand Delusion, not the grand solution. What the smart guys never seem to get is that the only good government is small government.

Read it all.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN THE STOCK MARKET: get a chimpanzee.

“IT USED TO BE ARGUED that the [New York] Times only wrote for a small section of Manhattan near Central Park West. Lately they seem to be writing only for a couple of floors in their own building.”

The post from which that comment comes is here.

THE WHEELS ARE COMING OFF THE PRESIDENTIAL BUS: The presidential seal fell off President Barack Obama's podium and clattered to the stage as Obama delivered a speech to a women's conference.

IF YOU LIKE YOUR HEALTHCARE, YOU CAN KEEP IT: unless you're a retiree.

Details, details. Always read the fine print.

THIS IS HOW THE DEMOCRATS WILL TREAT YOUR MONEY. They'll just throw it away.

EYE OPENER: "The financial situation is so bad in Jeannette, PA, that even its police dog has been laid off."

See page 2.

NANNY OF THE MONTH. Nannies are alive an well ....

July:



August:



September:



Reason TV is here.

IT’S NOT A POST ON HIGHER EDUCATION, but this statement caught my eye: “One wonders for how much longer parents will be willing to pay to have their children indoctrinated, in the sloppiest possible way, by ill-informed goofballs ....”

Read it all.

HERE’S AN INTERESTING BILL. HR4646: to establish a fee on most transactions (meaning any transaction that uses a payment instrument, including any check, cash, credit card, transfer of stock, bonds, or other financial instrument). Meaning if you buy or sell anything, you pay a fee to the federal government.

Talk about the potential for intrusiveness ....

It won’t pass, of course. Probably won’t even get out of committee. But it does give you some insight into the mind of a liberal Democrat.

NOT A SPOILER AFTER ALL: Rep. Castle says no to write-in bid. More here.

I WISH MY CATS HAD INSURANCE ...


... they need it, and I could use the income.

A NEW BUMPER STICKER

WATCH THIS SPACE for my report on today's "One Nation" rally at the Lincoln Memorial.

We arrived about the time the "One Nation" rally was to begin. We came down 23rd Street from the Foggy Bottom metro stop to find ANSWER at the entrance distributing flyers.



The next two pictures were taken from the walkway at the base of the steps to the Memorial. Above us, the Memorial and the speakers' stand; below us the crowd and behind them, the reflecting pool. At Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally, the speakers' stand was below the walkway and we were able to go up to the Memorial itself to get photos looking down into the crowd. Not so today - the Memorial Steps were for the speakers and - I suppose - guests.



There was security posted at either side of the steps; one had to leave any signs behind to go up to the lower steps, and there was further separation between those folks and the speakers' platform.



The next three photos are crowd and sign shots taken alongside the reflecting pool as we walked from the Lincoln Memorial toward the WWII Memorial at the other end of the pool.

The crowd appeared to be heavily union. We saw large numbers of union T-shirts: SEIU, CWA, Teamsters, AFL-CIO, NEA, and numerous others. At a guess, 1 in three wore union T-shirts. The racial mix was something on the order of 60% minority; age distribution was older (Vietnam-era hippies were abundant) or younger (mostly college-age activist). There were few families and fewer children.

At least 90% of the signs were preprinted. I didn't get a picture, but one notable one said "End Racist Employment."

Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't the unemployed been mostly white males? [Hey, I'm one.]





No left-leaning rally can ever be without puppets. Here is today's puppet.



Listening to the speakers - both from the podium and in the crowd, there was no common theme to the rally. It was just an agglomeration of the usual Leftist pressure groups, each doing it's own thing. Unions appeared to be mostly concerned about (protecting their) jobs; the civil rights crowd was busy crying 'racism’, and there was a smallish number of immigration protestors calling for open borders. The surprising thing about the immigration protestors was that the largest contingent was Asian “drummers” - the next photo.



The next photo was taken from the Washington Monument looking back toward the Lincoln Memorial. The crowd can be seen lining the reflecting pool on both sides; crowd depth was 50-60 feet on each side; more densely packed near the podium, much less so farther back.



To estimate crowd size, I used Google Earth to get some measurements. The reflecting pool is 2300’ long, and the ralliers took up 50-100 feet on either side. Assuming 1 person for every 10 square feet, which is probably a bit high for average density, there could be no more than 46,000 people around the reflecting pool. The area between the WWII Memorial and the Washington Monument measures roughly 350 feet by 500 feet and - as seen in the photo - the crowd density was much less, say 1 person per 100 square feet. Add another 2,000 to the crowd, maximum.

So figure a high side estimate of 50,000 attendees, which strikes me as about right, since I felt the Restore Honor rally was 6-8 times larger. [Additional bits of evidence -- there were no waiting lines at the port-a-potties; and Metro was not crowed either inbound to Foggy Bottom or outbound from L’Enfant Plaza.]

JWF was wrong on one count; there was plenty of trash left behind, as evidenced by this photo.