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.