Not a Nickel for California

(This article first appeared at The American Thinker on 12/27/2009.)
There isn't a single compelling reason to provide the girly-man of American gubernatorial fiscal responsibility, Arnold Schwarzenegger, with a nickel from our federal coffers. His failing California remains the poster-child for liberal fiscal insanity and it's time for the free-range chickens to come home to roost.
Investor's Business Daily reports that:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has an idea: He wants President Obama to give him $8 billion - or else, he says, he'll kill or slash most of the state's welfare programs, cut pay for 200,000 state workers and end two tax breaks for big corporations."

It's clearly time to start killing and slashing. For decades California has enabled its spendthrift legislators, feather-bedding public-sector employee unions and welfare recipients (comprised of both native-born and illegal immigrants) to the tune of a $21 billion annual deficit with no sign of sufficient tax revenue in sight. Meanwhile the confiscatory tax policies and unfriendly business environment of the Granola State continue to hemorrhage both businesses and jobs to more enlightened states.
According to the IBD, California is home to more than 1/3 of the nation's welfare recipients. Their abysmally underperforming schools are home to the 2nd highest paid teachers in America. Despite their utter ineptitude, the state legislators are:

"the country's highest-paid state legislators, pulling down nearly $100,000, with $30,000 in tax-free money for their "expenses" and a state-provided car for their use."

In addition, California is rated 48th out of the 50 states in terms of tax-competitiveness with over $493 billion worth of new tax regulations for businesses since the year 2000. Where is the light at the end of this tunnel?
Why should taxpayers from states like my home state of Indiana chip in to support Californians in the manner to which they have become accustomed? Governor Mitch Daniels has striven to create a climate of encouragement for both new and established businesses here while consistently exercising fiscal restraint. Why should we contribute to ensure expensive gold-plated retirement packages for the "the public employee unions that have systematically looted the public" coffers of California and now come looking for more sensible Americans to fund their fiscal insanity
Let ‘em hit the wall and file bankruptcy. It's time for the insolvent public sector in California to start turning away welfare recipients, closing government offices, and defaulting on public employee union benefits including pensions until they can be renegotiated in the light of fiscal responsibility to all Californians, not just the special pleaders.

The Obama Christmas: Mao In, Church Out

Despite the recession decimating the Christmas season for many Americans, the Obamas continue to party large at the White House:

“By the new year, President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle will have hosted a marathon 17 parties and 11 open houses over three weeks of festivities. With an array of chefs and waiters to prepare mince pies and hot toddies — and a British designer to organise the decoration of their 27 Christmas trees — more than 50,000 guests will be entertained. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6962848.ece

The few nods to restraint by the Obamas in their décor seem to motivated more by political correctness or rank partisanship rather than belt-tightening:

“this year there is no fake snow or resident Santa Claus. A tree made from cranberries that has been a tradition in the Red Room since Ronald Reagan’s administration has also been scrapped.” (ibid TOL)

And that British designer who helped inject his own peculiar brand of insight into the Obama White House Christmas look? Simon Doonan is a window dresser from Barney’s of New York. For more about his unique style see the article Simon Doonan is an Obese Elf Living in a Palatial Gay Fantasia. http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/06/simon_doonan_is_an_obese_elf_l.html

Doonan was provided with ornaments to decorate the Official White House Christmas Tree by Michelle Obama. It was the FLOTUS’s bright idea to send out ornaments used by previous Presidential administrations to be defaced by community groups:

“Our starting point was a very simple idea," she said. "That we include people in as many places, in as many ways as we can. We took about 800 ornaments left over from the previous administrations. We sent them to 60 local community groups throughout the country and asked them to decorate them, paying tribute to a favorite local landmark, and then send them back to us for display here at the White House.
"… in the new year, we all intend to renew this effort and continue this kind of outreach, so that everyone feels like they have a place here at the White House." http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/23/white-house-christmas-decor-featuring-mao-zedong-comes/

Apparently she sent at least one ornament to Anita Dunn. http://michellemalkin.com/2009/10/15/anita-dunn-a-corruptocrat-flack-and-a-mao-cheerleader/ As Foxnews reports, one of the ornaments prominently displayed by the increasingly tone-deaf White House features one of Ms. Dunn’s favorite inspirations, Chairman Mao. http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/politics/2009/12/23/white-house-christmas-tree-ornaments Despite the L.A. Times attempt to suggest the selection is simply an homage to Andy Warhol, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/12/a-warhol-christmas-at-the-white-house.html another Mao tribute by an administration trying to put the Van Jones/Anita Dunn communist link behind them seems incredibly short-sighted.

Yet another ornament features a signed bauble emblazoned with the image of drag queen, Hedda Lettuce, and a third with Obama’s image affixed to an image of Mount Rushmore.

Is there anyone in the White House in charge of protocol? The lack of respect for American traditions remains a continuous and important theme for this administration.

On a related note, Time magazine celebrates the Obamas decision to dispense with the traditional attendance by the American President at church services for Christmas:

“Church, in fact, has been a surprisingly tough issue for the Obamas….The Obamas have celebrated Christmas in Hawaii, where the President grew up, nearly every year since the girls were born. But while Obama can still visit his favorite shaved ice joint and body-surfing spots, he doesn't have a childhood church home to attend. His mother wasn't a churchgoer, and Obama writes in "Dreams of My Father" that his grandparents took him to church infrequently. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1949879,00.html?xid=rss-fullnation-yahoo

So there you have the Obama Christmas in a nutshell: Mao In, Church Attendance Out. Mele Kalikimaka http://www.dltk-holidays.com/Xmas/hawaiian.html

Pope-Tipping?

Here in the Midwest, bored teens are rumored to engage in the act of cow-tipping. http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Cow_tipping/ Apparently, in Rome, Susanna Maiolo is single-handedly trying to create the sport of Pope-tipping:

“Pope Benedict XVI delivered his traditional Christmas Day blessing Friday, looking tired and unsteady but otherwise fine, hours after being knocked down by a woman who jumped the barrier at the start of Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/24/world/main6019596.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColLowerPromoArea;morenews

Fortunately the Pontiff was merely shaken and remained unharmed. This repeat of Maiolo’s attack at last year’s Midnight Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica brings to light the questionable reliability of the Vatican security contingent.

“There have been other security breaches at the Vatican . In 2007, during an open-air audience in St. Peter's Square, a mentally unstable German man jumped a security barrier and grabbed the back of the pope's open car before being swarmed by security guards. Then there was the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca in 1981. John Paul suffered a severe abdominal wound as he rode in an open jeep at the start of his weekly audience in the Vatican piazza. The pope is protected by a combination of Swiss Guards, Vatican police and Italian police.”

He might as well be guarded by a combination of Swiss Cheese and Janet Napolitano.

Let us offer our prayers for the continued good health and safety of Pope Benedict XVI.

Ralph Alter blogs at Right on Target www.rightot.blogspot.com

Sinner in the Hands of an Angry Grand Jury

With apologies to Jonathon Edwards-1741
(This article first appeared at The American Thinker on 12/16/2009.)
If Tiger Woods thinks the cold eye of the celebrity-centric media will fade with an Elin-enforced time-out, perhaps he should get a second opinion from former Vice Presidential candidate for the Democrats, John Edwards.

When last we left our hero, he was engaged in a tug-of-war with a pair of National Enquirer reporters on either side of the restroom door in the basement of a Beverly Hills hotel where smiling John had allegedly gone to visit his baby-momma, Rielle Hunter and their love-child.
Hunter was an employee of the Edwards campaign, and somehow managed to continue to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle despite her apparent lack of gainful employment. Apparently Ms. Hunter’s means of support came under the scrutiny of a grand jury interested in the appropriate use of campaign donations and that grand jury remains on the case.

Former paternity- poser, Andrew Young, is now alleging that the wealthy heiress, Rachel “Bunny” Mellon “paid some of Hunter’s bills. It’s unclear whether Mellon herself has talked to prosecutors.”

Mellon is a heavy hitter for the Democrats and dumped a load of cash into the Edwards cause:

“In 2008 Mellon's holding company gave $3.48 million to Alliance for a New America, a 527 group tied to Edwards' presidential campaign. Prosecutors investigating Edwards have talked to Mellon's attorneys.”

Just last Friday, a Raleigh TV station showed footage of John Edwards deplaning from Mellon’s private jet. Flight records indicate that the plane was returning from Mellon’s private residential airstrip. Even an ambulance-chasing lout like Edwards should be able to comprehend that his contact with potential grand jury witness Mellon could be perceived as an attempt to influence a witness or obstruct justice.

Meanwhile, parties working diligently to remain anonymous have purchased the home at 1611 Providence Road in Charlotte for $535,000, apparently with an eye toward providing a domicile for Ms. Rielle Hunter and her daughter. Nobody’s talking, not even the trio of realtors who handled the case for The Providence Road Trust.

“Three real estate agents involved in the sale would not discuss it, citing confidentiality. But another one who was not involved said agents had been buzzing with speculation about Hunter.The National Enquirer, which broke the story of Edwards' affair last year, features a picture of the house in editions that went on sale Monday. It said Hunter was scheduled to move in Dec.1 but didn't after she and Edwards got into a dispute over child support.”
This girl certainly drives a hard bargain. Although recently seen hovering in the vicinity, Ms. Hunter is temporarily out of sight:
“It was unclear where Hunter is. She has been living in Southport, according to a New Hanover County real estate agent. The Enquirer said she had checked into a Charlotte hotel prior to the anticipated Dec.1 move-in date.” Now a kindly neighbor has been forced to freeze the cookies she baked in anticipation of welcoming her new neighbor.No word on what the grand jury or Elizabeth Edwards might have waiting for the maladroitly adulterous John Edwards. I suspect it ain’t cookies.

Is that your Cell Phone in Your Pocket or Are You Just Trying to Sue Me?

(This article first appeared at The American Thinker on 12/20/2009.)
As the cost of supporting Democrat candidates for public office continues to skyrocket, the tort lawyers of America continue their search for vulnerable corporations with deep pockets to harass, intimidate and plunder. Sounds like a good name for a tort law firm. The concept of deep pockets is summed up nicely on Wikpedia:
"In the context of a lawsuit, the deep pocket is often the target defendant, even when the true (moral) culpability is with another party because the deep pocket has money to pay a verdict. For example, a lawyer may comment that he or she sued the manufacturer of a product rather than the seller because it is the deep pocket, meaning it has more money than the seller with which to compensate the victim."The latest target of greedy lawyers hankering for cash? Cell phone service providers:
"We all know it's dangerous to be driving a car while talking on a handheld cell phone or texting someone, right? It's the driver's fault for driving distracted and causing a collision. Bizarrely enough, certain trial lawyers might disagree with you. The finger is now being pointed not at the negligent driver, but at his cell phone carrier and manufacturer. Wireless companies appear to be the new tort target for not telling people what we all already know: driving while distracted is unsafe."For some reason, going after the errant drivers and their insurance carriers provides an insufficiently cash-rich target for the Friends of Nancy, Harry and Barack. While the pettifoggers have feasted on the carcass of the federal tobacco settlement, asbestos-liability suits and regular infusions of medical malpractice windfalls, tort pleaders remain the fixers for the Democrat party's insatiable addiction to increasing its power base. Democrats have for decades been locked in a symbiotic embrace with the tort lawyers consortium, with the shysters providing huge sums in campaign contributions and soft-money while the Donkey party labors feverishly to help government maintain its "hand's free" approach to any effort at tort reform:
"An estimated 50 cents of every dollar awarded to tort plaintiffs gets eaten up by lawyers and courts-and a great deal of that money ends up benefiting Democratic candidates. Over the last decade, the legal profession has led all other groups in campaign contributions-giving a total of $357 million to federal candidates-and 70 percent of its cash goes to Democrats. The 56,000-member Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) was the top PAC contributor to Democratic federal candidates in the last election cycle; the organization spent $2.6 million, 86 percent of which went to Democrats....(in addition) trial lawyers ...contributed $14.5 million in soft money to Democrats last year."While the 1998 federal tobacco settlement continues to be an enormous source of filthy lucre for the tort-creeps ($3-5 billion annually for the next 25 years), you might have noticed the hush that falls upon your elected representative whenever the concept of tort reform slips into discourse regarding health care reform. While the cash-cow of medical malpractice suits may add up to $100 million annually to the cost of American health care, this apparently isn't enough to get either party fired up enough to include the concept of tort reform in any of the health care bills being currently proposed. While Republicans have shown some interest in enacting tort reform, the weakness of their position in the 2008 Congress has made any serious pursuit of that reform a moot point.And now an enterprising Oklahoma City law firm has put together a civil suit in a wrongful death case against a driver who was arrested for driving while dialing:
"The New York Times recently reported on the tragic death of a woman in Oklahoma City due to a car collision with a distracted driver who ran a red light at 45 miles-per-hour. The distracted driver was talking on his cell phone when his truck slammed into the victim's SUV in the middle of an intersection. With the endorsement of a forgiving victim's daughter, a judge sentenced the guilt-ridden driver to probation. But just this fall, the same victim's daughter filed a civil lawsuit against the distracted driver's cell phone manufacturer and wireless carrier. So the novel legal theory goes: the wireless companies have a special duty to adequately warn people that driving while talking or texting with a handheld cell phone is unsafe. In this case, lawyers are apparently claiming it wasn't enough that warnings were printed in the cell phone's user manual. (The distracted driver admits to never having read it.)" (ibid Seth Cooper)Perhaps Congress can mandate that a warning label the size of those sunscreens that cover the windshield be affixed to each cell-phone to prevent additional mayhem from distracted mouth-breathers who can't remember to drive now and dial later. It's more likely thatCongress will look the other way as the vulpine tort lawyers continue to guard the American jurisprudential henhouse.

Christmas in Obamaville

(This article first appeared at The American Thinker on 12/12/2009.)
While Obamaphiles love to compare B.O. to previous American presidents Abe Lincoln and FDR, events on the ground suggest that another comparison might be more appropriate. A sign posted anonymously outside a tent city near Colorado Springs suggests that Obama's legacy is more likely to be akin to that of Herbert Hoover.
http://dougpowers.com/2009/12/12/welcome-to-obamaville-land-of-a-thousand-panhandlers/

"Welcome to Obamaville Colorado's Fastest Growing Community" reads the large banner that was temporarily posted within sight of the city's encampment of hundreds left homeless by the bumbling ineptitude of the Obama economic team. Of course the Obamaville tag refers to the Depression era shantytowns where the destitute camped out during the Hoover admistration:

" In the 1930s, Hoovervilles (shantytowns) formed coast to coast in cities of the United States. Some families were fortunate enough to stay with friends and family members that hadn't been evicted yet, but homeless men, women and children were forced to take up residence in shacks as a result of the Great Depression. Angry, cold and hungry Americans, who had no other place to reside, dubbed groups of those shacks in honor of President Herbert Hoover.
Those desperate folks blamed Hoover for the downfall of economic stability and lack of government help. The small amount of resources that the federal government actually made available often did not go to the sick, hungry and homeless. That was simply because many city officials were corrupt, and kept those valuable resources to themselves." http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1642.html

Does this sound familiar? It hardly seems a coincidence that the sign was strung up within sight of the ubiquitous American Recovery and Reinvestment Act sign touting the wasteful dispersement of U.S. tax dollars on pet projects and boondoggles lavished upon Democrat Friends of B.O. While the Obama administration focuses on saving or creating jobs like the 3 jobs rescued for Clinton pollster Mark Penn at the cost of $6 million http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/71353-mark-penn-got-6-million-from-stimulus , the unemployment rate remains above 10% for those who even bother to try to find work in the eviscerated American business landscape.

Media coverage of the tent-city phenomena http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26tents.html was all the rage back in March when Oprah Winfrey featured a Lisa Ling profile of the burgeoning Obamavilles. Of course Hope and Change remained in the air during the opening months of the new administration and the time was still ripe to blame Bush for the misery.
A trillion dollars later, it's a B.O. problem and the party-of-government media has forgotten all about the Obamavilles. While the Obamas jet back and forth from Scandanavia garnering Nobel loot and posing greenly for the Gropenhagen climate conference, many Americans will spend Christmas living in tents or their automobliles.
In Oprah's most recent fawning interview with the Obamas, the munificent Barry was quoted that

"When it comes to gifts, "I give nicer stuff than I get." http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jRggfxLhG1r7tVWOwUL2m8wu7-gQ

Really? It seems Mr. Obama got the best education available at little or no
charge and regardless of his qualification for it. He was elected to office on the flimsiest of credentials and rode in on a
wave of questionablly contributed cash. Now he takes the wife and kids off on exotic shopping trips and vacations to London and Paris compliments of the American taxpayer.

Perhaps in between rounds of golf Barry can find time to look at the Christmas
lists from the folks living in Obamavilles. I bet they can't wait to see what "nicer stuff" is in store for them.

Recommended Actions in Wake of Climategate

(This article originally appeared at The American Thinker on 12/06/2009.)

Over at Townhall.com, Doug Giles is ripping on the complicit fraudsters that comprise the Climate Change lobby. With raucous wit the author/minister/radio-host rips the "Euro-tools,..tree-humpers...and hairy-legged earth girls" who just got "fish-slapped with the truth" by the revelatory emails of Climategate.

No idle philosopher, Giles provides a list of the actions he will take to demonstrate his rebellion against the Warmist "academic Ponzi scheme." Here is a partial list:

1. I am going to go outside by my pool and spray two full 32oz cans of Aqua Net right at the ozone.
2. I am going to use a gas powered scooter to go from room to room in my house, which will have all the outside doors open wide while the A/C is blowing full blast.
3. I am going to buy a ‘69 GTO with no exhaust system and let it idle for 4 hours a day in my driveway every day until Jesus returns.
4. I am going to break wind as much as possible.
5. Speaking of breaking wind, I am going to feed my cows bean dip and only bean dip.
6. I am going to set my thermostat on 85 in the winter and 55 in the summer.
7. I am going to use all my curly cue fluorescent light bulbs for clay pigeons-and not clean up the mess.

While the humorless mopes of green academia pompously drone on about their peer-reviewed studies, the man on the street is laughing in their faces. Widespread ridicule is the surest sign of the demise of the Climavangelists.

Professor Slain by Saudi Grad Student

(This article originally appeared at The American Thinker on 12/6/2009.)
Dr. Richard Antoun of Binghamton University, a retired professor of anthropology with a specialty in comparative religions allegedly was stabbed four times in the chest by a Saudi national, Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, a cultural-anthropology grad student.
Professor Antoun was a peace activist, and a convert to Judaism, and was known on campus as "a really nice guy."According to the New York Times:
"He dedicated his life to trying to understand the people of the Middle East," said the professor's sister Linda Miller, of Holden, Mass. "He never said an unkind word to anyone in his life."
Ms. Miller's husband, the Rev. David J. Miller, said that Professor Antoun had been married to his wife, Rosalyn, for 17 years and had a son, Nicholas, 40.
Professor Antoun's work focused on religion and the social organization of tradition in Islamic law and ethics, among other things, according to the university's Web site. He had taught at the University of Chicago, Manchester University in England and Cairo University, according to his curriculum vitae.
New York Post:
"Student Devin Sheppard said the suspect was at the scene when cops arrived. "The police asked the grad student, 'Did you just stab him?' and he said, 'Yes.'"
The New York Times:
In his statement, Mr. Mollen said there was "no indication of religious or ethnic motivation" in the killing. He said no other arrests were expected.
That's an odd sort of thing to say, given this sample of Al-Zahrani's thinking excerpted from an email he sent in response to an article published at Tel Aviv University titled "The Arabs are the deeper failure in the history of mankind...":
"Abdulsalam Alzahrani:aalzahr1@binghamton.edu Now I have to say something to this idiot who said the Arabs are the grossest fuilure in the history of human beings. No failure equals the Israeli...your were f... up under a tolitarian rule in europe and the rule failed and you want to replicate it!!! how stupid is this? what failure is this? Einstein himself refused to join you doomed enterprience and Freud himself thought that you were theafts sealing even the moral innovatons of other people even the hummus you have stolen, the land, the water, resources of Palistine...you are a bunch of psychopath theaves and murdurers...everyone is against you because of your unethical immoral criminal actions...you killed children!!! what else you want to be convinced that you are shame of humanity."
I don't believe this was a dispute with a colleague over Al-Zahrani's spelling or punctuation.
Hat tip: William Katz, Urgent Agenda.

Code Pink Swings into Action-Against Obama

(This blog originally appeared at The American Thinker on 12/02/2009.)
Barack Obama's moonbat base is at it again. Code Pink has decided that B.O.'s soon-to-be-announced quasi-surge in Afghanistan is not what they bargained for when they helped turn out the vote for him. See their latest poster here.

It seems our stumbling Commander-deep-in-Contemplation is doing a sort-of reverse Clintonian triangulation. Somehow Barack and his increasingly clueless braintrust have managed to infuriate both those on the left and the right while those in the middle want no part of Obie's parade of losing ideas either.
At this pace, Obama will be looking up at George Bush's approval ratings by next summer.

Acorn Ponders Name Change-10 Suggestions

(This article originally appeared at The American Thinker on 12/01/2009.)
Jake Sherman at Politico reveals the discovery of an ACORN document suggesting that the group is considered an image-makeover and a changed moniker:
"The memo also acknowledges that it has encountered organizations and individuals who want to work with (the) group but "can only do so if [ACORN changes] its name." "(W)e should probably think through this problem carefully and figure out what it all means for our ability to survive and thrive without losing a lot of ground over the next year or two," the memo reads." By "ground" we can assume the document means the mountains of cash from which Congress recently disconnected the community agitating group. The memo mentioned was discovered in a treasure-trove of information most likely dumped in anticipation of California Attorney General Jerry Brown's half-hearted investigation of the controversial group:
"The document was found in (a) Dumpster outside of an ACORN office in San Diego, a House Republican aide said. Derrick Roach, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for statehouse in California, took thousands of documents last week from the trash outside the office. An ACORN spokesman confirmed the veracity of the document." To paraphrase Shakespeare, An ACORN by any other name would smell just as nutty. Because the community organizers have "spent 39 years building (the) reputation and track record of ACORN, " ACORN officials write that the bad image would "blow over." It would take a mighty wind indeed to blow over the misdeeds, misappropriation of funds and malpractice perpetrated by this bizarre conglomeration of street hustlers, con artists and thugs. In the spirit of comity, we would like to offer the following list of new names for Obama's former client-company to consider:
1.) Votes ‘R' Us
2.) Pimps, Prostitutes and Beyond
3.) Community Organizing, Money Management, Investment & Embezzlement Services (COMMIES)
4.) Squatters for Hope & Change
5.) Bertha & Wade's Excellent Adventure
6.) Taxes? We Don't Pay No Stinking Taxes!
7.) H & R Broke
8.) One Man-One Hundred Votes
9.) Democrat Party Junior Auxiliary
10.) Committee to Re-Elect the President II (CREEP II.).

Tiger Holed Up-Licking His Wounds

(An edited version of this article first appeared at The American Thinker on 11/29/2009.)
As Tiger Woods remains at home licking his wounds, media speculation about the eventsleading up to the crash at the end of his driveway runs rampant. Thus far The Woods' team is stonewalling the media and police as they stall for time. Besides the obvious need to develop the right spin on the situation, Tiger is obviously better off if he can heal a bit from those allegedly bride-inflicted injuries to his face. You know that photos of Tiger with Elin's fresh claw marks on his face and lips will be media gold.
And those may not be the only injuries Tiger would like to heal from. The fact of Woods slipping in and out of consciousness despite the failure of the vehicle's airbagsto deploy, coupled with Elin's statement that she dragged him out of the vehicle, pose a whole new set of questions:

How did this tiny woman drag an unconscious man nearly twice her size from the vehicle? In addition, the police report suggests that both rear windows of the 2009 Escalade were broken out, allegedly by Mrs. Woods with one of Tiger's irons. Have you ever tried to break a modern automobile window made of safety glass? It is a very arduous task. If the report of the window breakage is true, Elin Nordegren was bringing some serious heat to the altercation.
So how does a world-class athlete get knocked out in what should have been a minor crash resulting in a few whiskey-dents? Is it possible Elin actually knocked Tiger out with the club? If so, the hospital's report should report evidence of the additional lumps Tiger took that night. You would think he would be icing those injuries down as well, to help keep the spin moving in the direction his management team would like it to take.

The intrepid staff at TMZ http://www.tmz.com/2009/11/28/tiger-woods-elin-nordegren-fight-accident-suv-lacerations/ continues to provide insight into the situation, and suggests that Tiger may have been under the influence of pain-killing drugs that evening, which would have contributed to his iniability to navigate the vehicle. If true, again, Tiger would want as much time as possible to pass so that any trace of pain-killers in his system would dissipate. This would provide the opportunity for Tiger to grandstand and offer to undergo toxicology tests to prove his system is clean. Of course, if the hospital did their due diligence, those toxicology tests would have been administered when he was admitted for treatment that night. With the obsequious handling of this whole event by the local authorities and media, it seems likely that Tiger was given the PC pass instead.

In any event, the aftermath of the tabloid reported l'affiare de Tigre http://www.asianews.com.pk/2009/11/tiger-woods-affair-rachel-uchitel/ remains increasingly riveting. It seems unlikely that Tiger will lose any of his corporate sponsors over this messiness. Woods simply generates far too much public interest to let a bit of sloppiness derail the media gravy train that follows in his wake. Perhaps his sponsors will offer a twist on their previous campaigns to let the public know they acknowledgehis faux pas.

A remake of The first Tiger Nike commerical, "I am Tiger Woods" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAnlcW_ILyw could bedone with other victims of domestic violence posing for the camera making the claim to be Tiger Woods. Or maybe Tiger could re-enact the crash in one of his sponsor's Buicks to demonstrate their crash-worthiness. Or better yet,how about a series of public service announcements based on the Nike slogan: "Just do it."
We could have Tiger posing next to a Buick SUV with Elin smiling, her one iron poised and ready to strike. Camera moves to a close up of Tiger deadpanning:

"Don't do it."

Giving Thanks that McCain Lost

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.”
Eric Hoffer


As we linger in the trough of the recession, I have to admit that America has had a tough couple of Thanksgivings. Here in the midwest, the real estate market looks like Amy Winehouse’s hotel room after a weekend binge and if we were to make a movie about the local employment picture we would have to call it “Dim and Dimmer.” Friends and associates have seen their pensions de-funded, their companies shuttered, and their families strained by fear and financial insecurity. Several local car dealers have committed suicide, recalling the depths of despair reached during the Great Depression where once-wealthy tycoons leapt to their demise from tall buildings. One might expect widespread angst to pervade our daily lives and steal our joy.

But most Americans are made of sterner stuff. Thanks largely to our Christian roots, our American ideals and the common sense approach to daily life that they entail, we remain buoyed by the gift of gratitude. At least those of us here in my neck of the corn do, here in Indiana. Despite the kind-heartedness and gratitude I see in those around me, a great many Americans seem to be sorely lacking in the spirit of thankfulness we celebrate this week. Our President, for example, who probably has more reason to be grateful for the life he has been given than any of the rest of us, focuses instead on whining and complaining. Rather than recognizing the greatness of the country that made his life and rise to the most respected office in the world possible, B.O. focuses instead on apologizing for our country’s lack of perfection and derides our nation and its founding heroes at nearly every turn.

“Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality”
Alfred Painter

The best tool in our spiritual tool-box remains our ability to focus our attention on the positive things in our lives. While our consciousness is comprised of both attention and intention, it is what we pay attention to in our lives that determines our state-of-mind and whether or not we can be happy. Unfortunately, one of our two political parties has decided its raison d’etre is to focus on, and develop grievances. Thus we have a constantly stoked sense of victimhood in that large percentage of our American population agitated and serviced by the Democrat party. Democrats attempt to maintain a nearly continual focus by their constituents on what is wrong with their lives. And my, oh my, what an unhappy bunch they are.

“There is no greater difference between men than between grateful and ungrateful people.” R.H. Blyth

I, for one, choose to be happy. So I set out this Thanksgiving week to make a list of all the things I am grateful for, that I might recognize how much I might be taking for granted, even in these somewhat difficult times. While the usual suspects populate my list: good health, lovely wife, bright, happy children, and a nice home in a good community; I realized that the things at the top of my list where somewhat more intangible.

When one sees the squalor and struggle in sub-Saharan Africa or other third world nations, it’s easy to be grateful to have been born here in our healthy, wealthy nation. Regardless of the best efforts of the American Gang of Four to create an American Cultural Revolution, the worst efforts of B.O., Nanzi Pelosi, Harry Reid and their Alinskyite Geppetto, George Soros, America still provides an opportunity for anyone from anywhere on the planet to thrive and prosper here. Yes, the American Dream lives on, even though the Gang of Four has most of us losing sleep. If one remains as positive as one can be, and as flexible as one can be, the results here in the U.S.A. remain overwhelmingly likely to be fruitful in most any pursuit.

The most startling result of the enumeration of that for which I am grateful became the realization that I am perhaps most grateful that John McCain was defeated in his pursuit of the Presidency in 2008. Of course, I reluctantly voted for him. Anyone who has read my work or has had a casual conversation with me realizes that I am no fan of Barack Obama. The evidence of his incompetence and lack of preparation at nearly every task he pursues grows daily. His domestic policies are dictatory, uninformed and childish and his foreign policy is prissy and weaker than circus lemonade. He lacks the economic comprehension of a child running a kool-aid stand while worshipping at the altar of big government-run-rampant.

The suggestion by his promoters and the sycophantic media that B.O. is a uniter is like some sort of sick joke. Except for the Civil War era, our nation has never been more divided than it is at this time. For a brief moment in time, Barack Obama was carried to the zenith of political power by an anti-establishment left working like moles beneath the radar since the late 1960’s. Embedded in various American bureaucracies, particularly in the media and education, they strove to enlarge the size of government and to expand and enforce their sacraments of multiculturalism, wealth redistribution and political correctness.

A large majority of Americans, however, remain what were once called Reagan Democrats or what Nixon termed members of The Silent Majority. The defeat of John McCain and the Plastic Man

[

over-reach by the Democrat left generated the re-birth of that long silent majority:

“The silent majority is an unspecified large majority of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly… and who did not enthusiastically participate in public discourse or the media.

The Silent Majority was mostly populated with the blue collar people who allegedly didn't have the ability or the time to take an active part in politics other than to vote. They did, in some cases, support the conservative policies of many politicians. Others were not particularly conservative politically, but resented what they saw as disrespect for American institutions. (Ibid wiki)

As a result of the tin-earred, over-confident leftist majority’s over-reach, a large contingent of white-collar folks, including small business owners and professionals have joined this no longer silent majority.

If John McCain had somehow been able to defeat Barack Obama in the Presidential race in 2008, the silent majority would likely have remained silent. One might argue that this enormous block of conservative voters did, in fact, remain silent and weren’t motivated enough by the wishy-washy Republicanism of the aisle-crossing Senator from Arizona to actually come out and vote. Our first glimpse of the re-birth of the Silent Majority as an activist voting bloc came with the nomination of Sarah Palin as McCain’s Vice Presidential candidate.

With the advent of the Obama administration and its huge majority in Congress came a rush to capitalize on what the left perceived as a mandate for their policies. Obama’s electoral victory had nothing to do with policy, however, for he was never really required to reveal any policy ideas in his brief strut upon the political stage prior to his election as POTUS. Assisted by Rahm Emanuel and Nanzi Pelosi, the rush to “let no crisis go to waste” began immediately as the Democrats took power and exacted a hard left..

Many of us remain incredulous at the audacity of the leftward lurch the Democrats have tried to impose upon us. From the non-stimulating stimulus, to the government takeover of the auto industry, to the outright lies put forth to support the government takeover of our health care system and on to Obama’s mulitplicity of czars, nearly every day Americans are faced with news about some attempt at American government reform that appears to be right out of the Communist Manifesto.

If John McCain had been elected President, we would have been likely to be willing to endure the inexorable leftward drift of our country. McCain’s selection of campaign staff and the laughable campaign he ran against a thoroughly beatable candidate clearly demonstrated once and for all how it was possible for the young McCain to finish last in his class at Annapolis. Why should we believe he would be any more intelligent about running the country?

McCain’s policies on illegal immigration, global warming and the stimulus are very little different from Obama’s. And Senator McCain is every bit as vested in the whole PC- multiculturalism-diversity canard as our underperforming Scattergood-in-Chief. Don’t ever forget that it was John McCain who refused to discuss Obama’s connections to Reverand Wright and Bill Ayres, or to even utter Obama’s Islamic middle name during his campaign. In hindsight, these campaign malpractices were probably the deal-breakers.

If John McCain had been elected President, Cap and Trade may have actually passed and the chimera of bi-partisanship would have truly been enshrined in the White House. B.O.’s in-your-face patisanship has thankfully dampened Republican enthusiasm for the crossing-the-aisle shuffle. Since taking power, the left, egged on by the combativeness of Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel and Harry ”Pugilistic Dementia” Reed, has clearly drawn its lines in the sand

And the no-longer-silent majority, in the form of the tea-party movement and a revitalized Republican party continues to marshall its resources and is assuming the battlements. The results in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections are only the beginning of the American pendulum’s dramatic swing back to the right. Would we have seen the dramatic blue state takeovers with cranky, old, Gang of Fourteen Johnny sitting in the White House? Not a chance. So this Thanksgiving, let’s all send out a special thanks to Steve Schmidt, Nicole Wallace and John McCain for forcing us to face the reality of the abominable leftward drift we have passively accepted these last 30 years.

Thanks to the revitalized Silent Majority, we can continuing striving for 30 and out.

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.
John Wooden

Cuban Health Care Says Si to Penile Implants

(This article first appeared at The American Thinker on 11/21/2009.)
Just in time to tweak the noses of Americans still resisting the call to nationalized health care, those wily Fidelistas have announced the newest benefit offered in Cuba’s government-run health care program: Free penile implants.
“Men in seven Cuban provinces will be eligible for the….the silicon and silver penis implants. (U)rologist Juan Carlos Yip boasted (that the procedure) was normally "exclusive to first world countries and at a high cost.
This is just another reason for guys like Michael Moore to tout the Cuban health care system as the model for Americans to follow. Never mind that the average Cuban submitting to the procedure will be entrusting the care and modification of his manhood to a surgeon who most likely earns about 15 to 20 dollars per month:
“Medical professionals are not paid high salaries by international standards. In 2002 the mean monthly salary was 261 pesos, 1.5 times the national mean.[56] A doctor’s salary in the late 1990s was equivalent to about US $15–20 per month in purchasing power. Therefore, many prefer to work in different occupations, generally in the lucrative tourist industry (e.g. taxi drivers), where earnings can be 50 to 60 times more.
So we might expect that the average Cuban implantee may end up doing his follow-up care in the back seat of a ’57 Chevy modified into a taxicab.
Rest assued that the iron-fisted Castro government will spin this latest health care wrinkle into a success story with the help of useful idiots like Mr. Moore. After all, his cinematic ode to the wonders of the Cuban health care system failed to disclose that
““..Cuba has two (health systems): one is for party officials and foreigners like those Mr. Moore brought to Havana. “It is as good as this one here, with all the resources, the best doctors, the best medicines, and nobody pays a cent,” he said.
But for the 11 million ordinary Cubans, hospitals are often ill equipped and patients “have to bring their own food, soap, sheets — they have to bring everything.” (In addition)…up to 20,000 Cuban doctors may be working in Venezuela, creating a shortage in Cuba.
Don’t doubt the ability of the Castros and their journalistic party organ, Granma to thrust this implant program into the most favorable possible light. After all, this is the same enlightened system that “solved” their potential HIV-AIDS epidemic with forced testing and quarantines:
“Cuba compulsorily tested thousands of its citizens for HIV. Those who tested positive were taken to Los Cocos and were not allowed to leave.” (ibid Wiki)
This same shameless government hailed the benefits of the malnutrition caused by the famine that followed the elimination of Soviet aid in the early 1990’s:
“Malnutrition created epidemics, but it had positive effects too. Manuel Franco describes the Special Period as "the first, and probably the only, natural experiment, born of unfortunate circumstances, where large effects on diabetes, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality have been related to sustained population-wide weight loss as a result of increased physical activity and reduced caloric intake.”
Sounds like a press release from the euphimizers in the Obama administration, doesn’t it? Surprisingly, Michael Moore didn’t volunteer for this particular Cuban health care innovation. Surely he will weigh in on the free Cuban penile implants.

Tibet, Dalai Lama Thrown Under the Obama Bus

(This article first appeared at The American Thinker on 11/17/2009.)
In order to be able to stand on principle, one would have to have some principles to start with. Clearly this is not a problem for Barack Obama as he neared completion of his administration's abandonment of the Tibetan people in their desire to remain autonomous and throw off the yoke of Chinese Communist domination.The Times of India reports:
"We did note that while we recognise that Tibet is part of the People's Republic of China, the United States supports the early resumption of dialogue" between the Dalai Lama's representatives and Beijing," Obama said after his meeting with Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao." A dialogue about what? If the U.S. concedes that Tibet is merely a part of China, what bargaining chips remain for the Dalai Lama to use with the Chi-Comms? Our weak-kneed Bower-in-Chief has scraped before the Chinese leaders he so desperately needs to prevent his insane economic policies from destroying the American economy, as he effectively forfeited the issue of Tibetan sovereignty in favor of Hu Jintao's expansionist government.Obama's October cancellation of a tentative meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, suggested that B.O. was looking for negotiating room in anticipation of his scheduled visit to Beijing. Despite Chinese forces torching Tibetan shops and attacking its citizens, it appears the U.S. President simply folded his hand, effectively tossing the Dalai Lama and his people into the crowded undercarriage beneath the Obama bus. Of course, Hu and company were elated at the ease with which Obama was turned against countries to whom many Americans remain sympathetic:
"Chinese President Hu Jintao hailed US President Barack Obama's recognition of sovereignty issues dear to China. "China approves of President Obama's repeated reiteration of the one-China principle," Hu told reporters... Hu referred to China's "sovereignty over Taiwan and other matters" during a state visit in which some Western analysts had predicted that China would also demand an explicit declaration by Washington of China's sovereignty over the restive frontier regions of Tibet and Xinjiang." What a pathetic performance on the international stage. While Hu Jintao is confident of Barack's support for the "one-China principle" most Americans are disgusted with B.O.'s determination to promote his ½ America principle. The bully boys of the world are finding that negotiating with Barack Obama is like taking candy from a baby. America sure could use a little cowboy diplomacy.

Driving While Jihading?

How many scenes like this one are routinely shrugged off in police stations, newsrooms and at government agencies responsible for enforcing our immigration laws and providing our Homeland with security?
When the Rochester police attempted to stop Munir Mathana for driving erratically after being flagged down on South Plymouth Avenue:
“Police tried to stop Muthana but he did not stop and then struck the officer’s vehicle. A slow-speed pursuit ensued down various streets in southwest Rochester. Muthana’s Nissan Maxima hit a car at Jefferson Avenue and West Main Street.
He continued driving down Jefferson Avenue, hitting a second police vehicle driven by a K-9 sergeant at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Clifton Street…
Muthana is facing five counts of second-degree assault, DWI and reckless driving. He is accused of injuring six people. They are 21-year-old Dominick Nicholson, 20-year-old Tyrese Beard, 40-year-old James Pross, 50-year-old Debra Hollis, 25-year-old Luis Cruz and 49-year-old Diane Neil.”
The innocuous WHEC News-10 headline doesn’t begin to suggest anything other than a routine drunk driver:
“Rochester man pleads not guilty after Thursday police chase.”
But it seems that Munir Mathana might have a Nidal Hasan-sized chip on his shoulder:
“Then he started using swear words, cussing police and government. He said, "Ben Franklin was stupid. He should have made it so you *expletives* can't swerve the law. The Muslims will fix this country."
Sound familiar? We can concede the fact that Munir doesn’t appear to be the most articulate spokesman for Islam. However, six people are injured and the alleged perpetrator clumsily brandished his figural Soldier of Allah card when apprehended. It seems the local news agency wasn’t much interested in bringing the possible Islamic connection to their readers’ attention.
Oh, by the way:
“When bail was being set at $20,000, the prosecutor said that Muthana has ties to Yemen.”
Kind of makes you wonder if Mr. Mathana has been emailing Anwar Alwaki, spiritual guide and research associate of the Ft. Hood jihadist. Could someone at the immigration service, the FBI and Homeland Security take a look at this fellow? Perhaps we can add a charge of Driving While Jihading?

Obama: Goodbye, Dalai

(This article first appeared at The American Thinker on 10/05/2009.)
“American officials told Tibetan representatives that "this president is not interested in symbolism or photo ops but in deliverables," the Asian diplomat said. "He wants something to come out of his efforts over Tibet, rather than just checking a box." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/04/AR2009100403262_2.html?hpid=topnews

Not interested in photo ops? One might say Obama has prepared himself to do little else http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/09/obamas_big_sincere_smile.html . Regardless of the underlying reasoning, the Obama administration once again is seen pandering to thuggish violators of human rights as the peripatetic, jet-setting Apologist-in-Chief can’t seem to find time to meet with one of the world’s most deeply spiritual beings. Obama, whose spirituality was nurtured under the guidance of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH5ixmT83JE&feature=related for over 20 years, is said to be attempting to palliate the rulers of Communist China:

“The U.S. decision to postpone the meeting appears to be part of a strategy to improve ties with China that also includes soft-pedaling criticism of China's human rights and financial policies as well as backing efforts to elevate China's position in international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund. Obama administration officials have termed the new policy "strategic reassurance," which entails the U.S. government taking steps to convince China that it is not out to contain the emerging Asian power.”

This despite what one might expect to be a formidable portion of the President’s leftist base inclined toward the Free Tibet Campaign. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Tibet_Campaign This popular movement

“ stands for the rights of Tibetans to determine their own future and campaigns for "an end to the Chinese occupation of Tibet and for the fundamental human rights of Tibetans to be respected."

Of course, no such concern for the tender feelings of the Chinese leaders was in evidence when Obama decided to impose a tire tariff on the import of Chinese tires designed to prop up his pals in the United Steelworkers union. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/12/AR2009091202718.html

Apparently the Chinese had already resigned themselves to the proposed meeting after some diplomatic push-pull and had abandoned pursuit of the matter. The intrepid diplomats in the Obama administration refused to accept victory when a diplomatic loss of face was still attainable:

“We've got the classic case of a Western government yet again conceding to Chinese pressure that is imaginary long after that Chinese pressure has ceased to exist," said Robert Barnett, a Tibetan expert at Columbia University . "The Chinese must be falling over themselves with astonishment at what Western diplomats will give them without being asked. I don't know what the poker analogy would be. 'Please, see all my cards and take my money, too?' " (ibid WaPo)

Sound familiar? Intrepid world leaders are rapidly finding that negotiating with the neophytes in the Obama administration is like playing high stakes poker with toddlers. The Chinese will use this affront to the Tibetan holy man in its continuing effort to prevent other nations from engaging with the Dalai Lama.

Both Tenzin Gyatso, who is the 14th Dalai Lama, and his representatives have been negotiating for months with the Obama administration to establish a meeting with the 44th President. He has met with the sitting U.S. President in the White House 10 times since 1991. The Dalai Lama remains the leader of the government-in-exile of Tibet located in Dharmsala, India since escaping over the Himalyas in 1959 after the Chinese invaded Tibet.

One familiar with diplomatic protocols would expect that a seasoned foreign policy expert with a background in Asian studies would be handling the delicate and morally compelling negotiations with the Tibetan leader. So who has Obama placed in charge of the case?

Valerie Jarrett. Yes, the same Valerie Jarrett who
“needed to be granted an "ethics waiver" in order to serve in (her) position because of her close associations with convicted felon and crooked developer Tony Rezko. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Jarrett

The same Valerie Jarrett that was candidate No. 1 in Rod Blagojevitch’s scandalous attempt to satisfy the S.E.I.U. and Barack Obama by placing her in Obama’s vacated Senate seat. http://www.shopfloor.org/tag/valerie-jarrett/

And the same, tired, Chicago-style patronage that the low-life Obama administration continues to display without a single moral compunction. Hello, Thugs. Hello, Unions.
Goodbye, Dalai.

Has Farrakhan Been Talking w/Reverand Wright?

(This article first appeared at The American Thinker.)
"The Earth can't take 6.5 billion people. We just can't feed that many. So what are you going to do? Kill as many as you can. We have to develop a science that kills them and makes it look as though they died from some disease,' Farrakhan said." http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/10/19/Farrakhan-suspicious-of-H1N1-vaccine/UPI-63931256011008/

Since President Obama has made it clear that there is almost no statement that is racist enough, anti-American enough or preposterous enough to cause him to denounce it, militant crack-pots like Louis Farrakhan feel free to continue to strain the bounds of credulity with racist theories that no reasonable person could entertain. The Nation of Islam zealot's divisive remarks came at what was called a Holy Day of Atonement for his outfit, held on the 14th anniversary of the futile Million Man March. The well-hyped demonstration provided little benefit to the black community it purported to assist and remains the subject of controversy:

"Although the march won support and participation from a number of prominent African American leaders, its legacy is plagued by controversy over several issues. The leader of the march, Louis Farrakhan, is a highly contested figure whose biting commentary on race in America has led some to wonder whether the message of the march can successfully be disentangled from the controversial messenger.[4] Further, men and women alike question the decision to focus on black men to the exclusion of black women. Although women were involved in the planning and execution of the event, it is a male-only occasion in both name and public image that, some argue, could be detrimental to the already tenuous gender relations in the African American community.[5] Finally, within the first twenty-four hours following the March a conflict between March organizers and Park Service officials erupted over crowd size estimates. The National Park Service issued an estimate of about 400,000 attendees[6], a number significantly lower than March organizers had hoped for.[7] After a heated exchange between leaders of the march and Park Service, ABC-TV funded researchers at Boston University who estimated the crowd size to be 837,000 plus or minus 20%. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Man_March

It truly sounds as though Farrakhan has been talking with the Reverand Jeremiah Wright http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=617eK2XIaLk again. The Reverand Wright provided the "Prayer for Hope" listed in the program of events for the March. Clearly the two black spiritual leaders are as inextricably linked to one another as they are linked in turn to Barack Obama. I was unable to find a text of Wright's MMM speech in my research, but you can bet it was filled with the tub-thumping theatrics we have come to expect from Obama's long-time pastor. Note that this clip includes Wright's suggestion that the HIV virus was designed to kill people as well: blacks in particular. Seems to be a theme here.

As part of the Atonement Farrakhan sought to generate from his followers, he included the following disclaimer regarding President Obama:

"Farrakhan told listeners not to become complacent as a result of Barack Obama's election as the United States' first black president, the newspaper said.
'You have to understand that he was voted in to take on the affairs of a nation, not yours and mine. He is the American president, not the black president." (ibid)

This is not a particularly ringing endorsement of Obama. One would expect a strong American president to condemn the dangerous lies being pedalled by his demogogic former associates. But then we don't have a strong American president. We have Barack Obama.

Justice Sotomayor-Fashion Emergency

The sartorial expression of Sotomayor chic has been the subject of controversy since the decidedly dowdy new Supreme Court Justice first appeared as nominee to the post. The Washington Post’s Robin Givhan was restrained in her criticism of the Wise Latina look:
“Her wardrobe, as she sat for her daily grilling by the Senate Judiciary Committee, did not reflect the fashion industry's constant refrain. In fact, it did not even appear to have been influenced by the 21st century. Instead, Sotomayor's clothes evoked authority in the manner of a 1980s lady power broker.
And while a wing of the fashion industry has been enraptured by the styles of the 1980s, its focus has been more on embellished military jackets, harem pants and jersey dresses that look as though they might spontaneously combust on a particularly hot day. That is not the part of 1980s fashion history Sotomayor was channeling. She embraced that period in fashion when femininity had no place in the executive suite.’
She, in Givhan's words, left her gender at the door.” http://jezebel.com/5318648/critique-of-sotomayors-fashion-choices-falls-flat
Given the seriousness and dignity of the position she was applying for, coupled with Sotomayor’s general frumpiness http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/16/judge-sotomayors-suits-wh_n_236042.html , something more feminine was probably out of the question. Showing up in spandex or a halter top would likely have put the kibosh on the carefully orchestrated Sotomayor roll-out.
As it turns out, the presentation of the Wise Latina was far more intricately organized by the Obama team image-makers than we realized. According to NBC news:
“(Sotomayor,) The Yale Law School grad talked about shopping for clothes to wear to her acceptance ceremony, but government officials took over the fashion decisions. They told her to bring five suits and then recommended which one she should wear.” http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/politics/Justice-Sotomayor-says-White-House-Left-Nothing-to-Chance-64724512.html
If B.O. and the Keystone Fashion Cops in charge of the executive branch couldn’t trust Red Sonia http://ezinearticles.com/?Red-Judge,-Blue-Judge---Science-and-Sonia-Sotomayor---Research-Reveals-Judicial-Bias-to-Be-Common&id=2612211 to pick out the right outfits to wear to her confirmation hearings, do you think they trust her to make the right decisions on the bench?

Rep. Patrick Murphy-His Record Speaks for Itself

In his American Thinker blog http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/10/the_people_of_this_country_are.html George Joyce asks:

" how the “Saber Speaks” video made it past Iraq War veteran and panelist Patrick Murphy," since it depicts the defacement of an American flag.

Well, Democrat Congressman Murphy is certainly not your traditional American military veteran. His history suggests he is cut from the same cloth as Senator John Kerry who also used his military service as a springboard to political office.

Murphy became an attorney before he joined the military, rather an odd choice, at least in terms of income production. I find nothing in Murphy's on-line history to indicate that he was a battlefield veteran. Although he is listed as a paratrooper as well, Murphy's served as a JAG Corps attorney with 82nd Airborne:

" work(ing) to reconstruct the justice system and help(ing) prosecute Sheik Moyad, a lieutenant of Muqtada al-Sadr.[4] Murphy was awarded the Bronze Star for his seven months of service in Iraq." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Murphy_(politician)

Once Murphy returned home, he immediately ran in the next Congressional race for the seat in Pennsylvania's 8th Coingressional District. He defeated the incumbent by less than 1500 votes and was re-elected with a boost from the coat-tails of Barack Obama in 2008.

There is nothing in Congressman Murphy's voting record to suggest that he is particularly patriotic-his record appears to this reporter as typical for one leaning over the far leftist fringe:

"Murphy has a 100 percent rating from NARAL and "supported the interests of Planned Parenthood 100 percent in 2008.

Murphy voted for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009-the dreaded Stimulus Bill.

Murphy has a D+ rating from the NRA. [8] In 2007, Murphy co-sponsored legislation that would re-authorize a Federal ban on semi-automatic firearms.[9] In 2008, he was an original co-sponsor of legislation that would repeal the District of Columbia's ban on semi-automatic weapons and mandatory handgun registration.

Patrick Murphy opposes the military's "Don't ask, Don't Tell" policy of excusing service members from the American military because of their sexual orientation.

Murphy opposed the Surge in 2007. He was a cosponsor, with Senator Barack Obama and Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA), of the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007." (all ibid Wikipedia)

What a guy! Even a cursory examination of Congressman Murphy's voting record and political inclination demonstrates that he is not the man you want protecting your flag. Even if he resigns his position as an "Expert" on Obama's Organizing for America public relations gambit, this disgraceful negligence in the face of Murphy's pledged duty as a member of the military to support America should be used to chase this purported Blue Dog Democrat out in the open.

He looks more like a Yellow Dog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_dog_Democrat to me.

Economically Unbalanced Budget

Did you ever stop to consider how in the world the United States of America, the most powerful economic engine in the history of the known universe, can end up several trillion dollars in debt? Well, take a look at the microcosmom of America evident in this report from the Denver Post:

"Thousands of tiny dead fish drifted down Cherry Creek through Denver on Tuesday morning, becoming fodder for other urban critters and bit players in an ecological mystery.
As the silvery gizzard shad began to wash ashore upstream from Confluence Park, firefighters responded, followed by city, federal and state environmental overseers." http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13655676?source=rss

So some hapless beasties, very far down the food chain, go belly up and America has teams from not only the fire department, but at every level of our government, poised and ready to strike. And with state-of-the-art equipment, I might add.

Why did the fire department respond in the first place? Did they think the fish caught fire?

Let's take a look at the Keystone Bureaucrats call-to-action over what is most likely a normally occuring act of nature:

"A state biologist (was) called to the creek

Federal scientists sampled water from Cherry Creek...

Colorado Department of Health and Environment officials (were consulted)

Federal Environmental Protection Agency experts hiked a few blocks from their regional headquarters to Cherry Creek to check out the drifting dead fish and offer help

Firefighters used an infrared device to look for contamination in the water.

(H)azmat crew Capt. C.J. Haberkorn said (, results were) "negative so far."

In addition, state parks rangers were consulted and local marina employees were interviewed. How many man-hours and how much equipment expense was rustled up in the Mystery of the Silvery Shad? I don't want to appear hard-hearted about the little semi-sentient creatures, but where is the fiscal restraint?

Across the full spectrum of the American bureaurcracy, every day tens of thousands of busy-bodies waste our tax dollars pursuing the politically correct agenda entrenched at every level of our government. Are these the jobs we continue to save and create?

Doctors Recommend Obamacare

(This article first appeared at The American Thinker on 11/7/2009.)
By the late 1930's Americans began to recognize the health risks associated with smoking. The tobacco companies responded by enlisting the use of physicians and some decidedly questionable studies (see vintage Philip Morris ad here) in their advertising:

Now the Democrats attempting to foist their public option upon us have drafted physicians again to promote a raft of legislation that will do just as much harm to the public health as those disingenuous cigarette ads. Despite considerable dissension in the ranks, it appears the AMA is willing to horse-trade with the Democrats:
"Dr. James Rohack, the Temple cardiologist who heads the 250,000-member American Medical Association, said the bill isn't perfect but goes a long way toward expanding access to health coverage and making the system better. He said it must be passed with a companion bill that averts a 21 percent cut to Medicare reimbursement."
Of course, the AMA doesn't speak for all physicians:
"Sermo.com, a 3-year-old physician-only online community, has recently become a hotbed of discussion against the AMA. Its founder, Dr. Daniel Palestrant, posted that he was "joining ranks with physicians who believe the AMA no longer speaks for them."
The results of a survey of 4,156 physicians were recently posted on the site. Of the respondents, 75% are not AMA members, and 89% claim that, "The AMA does not speak for me," while 91% do not believe the AMA accurately reflects their opinions as physicians."
And the AMA, at least according to one U.S. Senator with a long history of engaging the organization, appears to be easily manipulated by politicians:
"I continue to be perplexed at the short-term focus of the AMA on this issue - over which they are willing to swallow hook, line and sinker the rest of the Pelosi bill,' Cornyn said. 'The Pelosi bill not only fails to include common-sense medical liability reform for physicians, but it includes a new government program that will have all the same problems we've seen with Medicare.'"
Cornyn last week told the Associated Press that "I can't think of a more ineffective organization when it comes to dealing with Congress" than the AMA. "The lesson I've learned ... is if you agree to fix their compensation, they will basically get in the tank with their natural adversaries." (ibid Houston Chronicle)
In short, the American public needn't be swayed by the quizzical stand taken by some physicians in support of their narrow financial interest. At least not any more than consumers should have been convinced that smoking a different brand of cigarettes would heal the effects of previous damage from smoking.

Chimp Attack Victim Seeks Damages

The tragic victim of Travis the Chimpanzee in Connecticut has served notice that she is suing both the state and the late chimp’s owner, Sandra Herold. The nightmarish scene at Herold’s Stamford home ended in Permanent Bedtime for Travis http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1182571776/tt0043325 and the loss of the victim’s eyelids, hands, noses, lips and vision.

No amount of money could ever erase the horror of that unimaginably vicious attack. The victim is seeking $150 million from the state and $50 million from Herold, the chimp’s grieving owner, who may have plied the chimp with Xanax prior to his violent rampage.

Perhaps the state’s failure to prohibit Herold from keeping a potentially dangerous animal as a pet is grounds for the state’s liability. In any case, $200 million is not exactly chimp change.

The Search for the Wikipedia Libelist

(This article was first published at The American Thinker.)
Thanks to an intrepid blogger with the tag Trapdoc posting a letter to Mark Steyn, the search for the Wikipedia Libelist responsible for damaging posts to the Rush Limbaugh account has been narrowed to the IP address of a New York City law firm:

"The quotes were added by a user with the IP address of 69.64.213.146. This address has been used mostly to make changes to the article about Rush, but also Karl Rove, Sean Hannity,.. James Dobson and Sara Palin from 2005 until earlier this year.
While others have noted this in various forums, no one seems to have made the connection that this IP address is used as a gateway by the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP (see here, for example) that all users from that IP address come from the pbwt.com domain.)" http://www.steynonline.com/content/blogcategory/38/113/

The firm provides a wide array of legal services with a broad spectrum of politically correct causes served:

"It is one of the first major firms in New York City to elect a woman as managing partner. In addition to its Diversity Committee, a group of Patterson Belknap attorneys formed PAC—Patterson Attorneys of Color—to assist with the enhancement of workplace diversity and the recruitment, retention and promotion of attorneys of color. Another group, Out at Patterson, focuses on issues relevant to the firm’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and Women Lawyers at Patterson (WLAP) focuses on women's issues." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson_Belknap_Webb_&_Tyler

Considering Rush's militant political incorrectness, there may be a large number of potentially culpable attorneys and/or staffers to choose from. However, a forensic data retrieval technician should surely be able to narrow the focus and identify the likely poster. Perhaps Rush can enlist the aid of PBWT alumni, Rudy Giuliani, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau or firm partner, Edward F. Cox, (son-in-law of former President, Richard M. Nixon) in his search for justice

There is no question that Mr. Limbaugh has been damaged by the salacious quotes added to his Wikipedia profile and their dissemination in the PC-stream media. Hope this helps, Rush.

You know they say the only cure for a lawyer is another lawyer.....

Top 10 David Letterman Excuses for Adultery

(This article was first published at The American Thinker on October 2, 2009.)

Well, it certainly could happen to a nicer guy. The increasingly irascible and decreasingly funny late night talk show host announced to his audience Tuesday night that he has been the victim of an extortion plot. It seems the sarcastic leftist has been a serial adulterer with members of his staff, reportedly all female ones. Looks like the caustic native Hoosier has been caught without his Worldwide Pants.
Gleaned from previous Letterman riffs about other public figures, including Eliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford whose dalliances had been revealed to the public, here are the Top Ten Excuses for Letterman's Adulterous Behavior:
10.) I learned everything I needed to know from Governor Mark Sanford.
9.) If you met my wife, you'd be fooling around with staffers, too.
8.) I was just doing research for a documentary about Bill Clinton.
7.) But they were the size of canned hams!
6.) You probably didn't realize that smarmy is an aphrodisiac.
5.) There is no truth to the rumor that I had my staffers assume that "slutty flight attendant look."
4.) It wasn't really me, it was my wily alter-ego, Shag-boy.
3.) Have you seen the ratings Conan has been getting?
2.) It's not like I'm Roman Polanski or something.
And the number one excuse for David Letterman's adulterous behavior:
It might have been adultery, but it wasn't adultery-adultery.

Shoe-throwing Journalist Released from Prison, Alleges Torture

Apparently the evil tentacles of Dick Chaney still reach deep into the Iraqi prison system. Muntazer Al-Zaidi, the Al-Baghdadi journalist who thought it would be cute to fling his shoes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmt2_wyDKJI at President George Bush, is scheduled for early release from prison today. The family has selected Al-Zaidi’s brother Uday as their spokesman, and he claims that Shoe-boy was tortured while in confinement. Wasn’t there another famous Iraqi named Uday? http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/world/after-war-uday-qusay-funeral-for-hussein-sons-call-for-death-america.html
According to this Uday:
“ Mr al-Zaidi was imprisoned at an Iraqi military compound at the former Al-Muthana Airport in Baghdad. Uday said that his brother was burned with “cigarettes behind his ears, (and) had his ribs and nose broken”. He said that the torture was the result of Mr al-Zaidi’s refusal to write and sign a letter of apology to Mr Bush and to the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who was standing next to the President during the incident.“When Muntazer called me this morning he sounded very broken because the prison guards would not let him call us for ten days.”
Apparently regular phone service is expected to be included with each Iraqi prison package. There was no word from UK Times reporters whether the local airport http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/23/murtha.airport/ was yet another built with funds secured by Haditha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7przeLpl2s shill, Jack Murtha and named in his honor.
Uday indicates that the Iraqi Thom McCan will head
“for physical and psychological treatment in Greece.”
“He will not go into politics, contrary to what has been said in the past.”
Instead
“He wants to do something to help the Iraqi people,” Uday said.
Lord knows, going into politics seldom helps anybody.
Whatever direction the right-handed loafer hurler chooses, we offer him some simple, helpful advice to avoid those pesky cigarette burns:
Keep your shoes on, Munty.