THIS USED TO BE A JOKE.

George Bush, Queen Elizabeth, and Vladimir Putin all die and go to hell. While there, they spy a red phone and ask what the phone is for. The devil tells them it is for calling back to Earth.

Putin asks to call Russia and talks for 5 minutes. When he is finished the devil informs him that the cost is a million dollars, so
Putin writes him a check.

Next Queen Elizabeth calls England and talks for 30 minutes. When she is finished the devil informs her that the cost is 6 million dollars, so she writes him a check.

Finally George Bush gets his turn and talks for 4 hours. When he is
finished the devil informs him that the cost is $5.00.

When Putin hears this he goes ballistic and asks the devil why Bush
got to call the USA so cheaply.

The devil smiles and replies: "Since Obama took over, the country has gone to hell, so it's a local call."

Now I’m afraid it’s coming true.

IF YOU THINK A CONTINENT CAN’T CAPSIZE, then what do you think happened to Atlantis?

TAXES ARE FOR LITTLE PEOPLE: Hollywood stars who owe Uncle Sam big bucks in back taxes.

BACK FROM MY DAYS as a defense contractor, I recall this quip on the proper use of military personnel:

Military personnel can be divided into four categories: brilliant and lazy, brilliant and industrious; stupid and lazy; and stupid and industrious.

The brilliant and lazy should become the Commander’s staff; the brilliant and industrious, field commanders; the stupid and lazy, infantrymen. The stupid and industrious are worthless and should be discarded.

President Obama found a use for the latter; he made them Cabinet officers.

DID I SAY $250,000? I meant $25,000.

Taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year will pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes — in 2019 alone — because of healthcare reform, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’ official scorekeeper for legislation.

After all, what’s a factor of 10 between friends?

CRASH THE PARTY agents on the Left are [planning to] infiltrate the Tea Party in order to pose as a bunch of racists, homophobes and morons.

Infiltration may be a bit difficult for them, but “posing as a bunch of racists, homophobes and morons” will be effortless.

And the answer to the question “Will Mainstream Media reporters and editors expose, screen out, or help Tea Party saboteurs?” is “Yes.”

STAY CLASSY, LIBERALS: Boston liberals welcome Sarah Palin. More loveliness here.

Link from Instapundit.

ROMNEY DOGGED BY A TALE OF TWO HEALTH PLANS. Given the similarities between Massachusetts’ RomneyCare and ObamaCare, Mitt’s got some serious explaining to do. Despite the straw polls, I don’t think Romney is a viable Republican candidate for the presidency in 2012 unless he can carefully, precisely, and effectively demonstrate a significant difference between the two.

The individual mandate, in particular, is a killer. Romney’s argument that “one’s a state mandate (and you can move); the other’s federal” won’t wash with the American public.

SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL runs on party lines.

While support for Israel vs. the Palestinians has climbed to a stratospheric 85 percent among Republicans, the comparable figure for Democrats is an anemic 48 percent.

And yet as a group, American Jews still vote overwhelmingly (70-80%) Democratic. Why?

WHAT A PITY: ObamaCare may have accidentally stripped Congress of health coverage.

Paraphrasing Marie Antoinette: “Let them have Medicaid.”

Also from Blackfive contributor CargoSquid: “I guess Nancy Pelosi had to pass it in order to find out what was in it.”

OBAMA SAYS terrorist nuclear risk is growing. But he’ll wave his magic ObamaWand and make it better.

HONOR. Power Line comments on Roger Lowenstein’s advice to “walk away” from an underwater mortgage. Here’s PowerLine on Lowenstein:

It is easy to mock bankers who encourage consumers to honor their obligations and to promote the advantages of walking away from a mortgage that is underwater. This Lowenstein does. Lowenstein ridicules the esteem in which the virtue of paying one's debts is held. He aims his column squarely at those who have a choice whether to continue to pay or bail out. He advocates bailing out on purely economic grounds.

PowerLine argues against Lowenstein’s approach on legal grounds, which is their wont. But I have a different thought: it’s dishonorable. It cheapens my name; it stains my reputation; it sullies my honor.

And those are the things I will pass to my heirs – and to history.

MONEY TALKS as CNN collapses. Hey, I guess those teabagging nutcases do have some redeeming value.

To reuse a Nixonian phrase, is CNN’s Susan Roesgen video now “inoperative”?

I KEEP HOPING SOMEBODY’S GONNA SAY “Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night ...”