Is Mexico On The Verge Of Collapse?

The Dept. of Defense seems to think so and I can see why as there is basically a civil war going on between the government and the drug cartles. I don't know if I would quite put on the level with Pakistan as a failing state just yet but there is ample reason for concern about our security should it fail. You think illegal immigration is bad now just wait till they become refugees. This is from the El Paso Times via Hot Air.

Mexico is one of two countries that "bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse," according to a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats.

The command's "Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008)" report, which contains projections of global threats and potential next wars, puts Pakistan on the same level as Mexico. "In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.

"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone."

Indeed the Mexican government recently had to send 2,000 troops to Juarez just across the border from El Paso to try and quell the escalating violence there. The problem is the cartels are paying of the police and military to look the other way and corruption is rampant in the political class as well.

We need to get that fence built pronto and use our National Guard to patrol the border. Those patrols could also be used to train other elements of our armed forces as well. I am tired of seeing reports about the Mexican military or cartel men using captured uniforms and equipment crossing our border to protect drug cartel shipments. Plus don't think for a minute that the jihadi's wouldn't use that instability to their advantage as well.

Mexico is a beautiful country with bountiful resources and a hard working industrious population that could/should be prospering not spiralling into despair and chaos. I guess that is what a few decades of socialist kleptocratic rule can do.

Yikes, This Is Scary

If Obama gets all the spending he wants then the deficit will be as big or bigger than the entire budget, 1.7 trillion, when President Bush took office and the Democrats in Congress want even more spending than Obama has proposed. Obama has proposed just shy of one trillion dollars in stimulus spending and the Democrats are calling for twice that on top of the trillions they just wasted bailing out the banks and wall street. That is effing obscene to say the least.

I had moonbat trolls telling me how derelict Bush was in running up the deficit after the balanced budget of the Clinton years, thanks to a Republican lead Congress not Clinton, BTW. Now Democrats want to put our great great great grandchildren into debt with nary a peep out of all those lefty fiscal hawks.

The even scarier part of all this is that each year's budget uses the previous year's as a baseline and that base line is set to grow astronomically this year if the Democrats get their way and that does not take into account the unfunded liability of Social Security.

The deficit has skyrocketed because spending has grown from $1.8 trillion in 2000 to a projected $3.5 trillion in 2009, fully 95 percent higher. Of course, all that happened mostly on a Republican watch.

One reason the increase is so dramatic is the mystery of compounding. Each year, Congress passed pork-laden expenditure bills, which became part of the long-run baseline the minute they became law. Each time that the federal government wasted a billion dollars, it created budget space to waste $1 billion again and again, ad infinitum.

That’s perhaps the scariest fact about next year’s budget. The skyrocketing spending of 2009 will be the CBO baseline for every year after that. It will be easy to provide health care to everyone; the budget space will be blocked out. Indeed, Congress can spend with impunity in years to come, covered by the protective shroud of the CBO baseline that this year delivers.

We can ride big government spending and trillion-dollar deficits all the way to 2017, when the Social Security trust fund itself starts running deficits.

This year may establish a government-spending black hole with gravity strong enough to suck the U.S. economy over the event horizon. Such a spending path has two possible endgames. Neither is pretty.

Thanks to Ace who has some more rant on the topic.

Joe The Plumber/Reporter Reports From Israel For PJTV

Joe is in Sderot which has been the focus of most of Hamas' rocket attacks on Southern Israel and gives as good a report as any you would see on TV. He has gotten some criticism from those high paid professional journalists because he dared to venture into their world to deliver stories they won't, good for him as he pokes them in the eye. He actually got to experience what the residents of Sderot have had to deal with everyday for several years now, an incoming missile attack while reporting from a house that had been hit earlier. Its good to see some reporting without the breathless spin but just good down to earth insight.

You do have to register, email addy and password, but it is free and worth the few seconds it takes. The video is here.

PS: Note when they have to run for the bomb shelter, Joe is about the last one in ushering in ladies first and then he and his camera man follow.

Sign Up For The Conservative Alliance News Letter

You can sign up now from my side bar, the first issue is tomorrow so sign up now. It looks great with several conservative bloggers contributing their top posts. We will give you the news the liberally biased MSM won't while debunking their lies and spin with the conservative twist.

Not a Tear!

Faced with a barrage of new footage of dead children, Israel's PR is negligible. Hamas has proven that it has no shame in abusing the dead, but gleefully shows pictures of maimed or killed children. The terrorists in Gaza use death pornography to further their nefarious plans of defaming Israel. The crowds worldwide scream "stop the holocaust in Gaza!" while employing the most cynical and obscene comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany. Suddenly, the world pretends to be interested in human rights and uses them as a weapon against the Jewish state. Politicians and celebrities denounce the supposed massacres in Gaza and even Jewish leaders preface their support of Israel with apologies over civilian deaths.

Save me the pieties over Gaza. The very same people marching in the streets against Israel had nary a word to say when over 4000 rockets fell on Southern Israel during the past 3 years. When Jews were murdered by Hamas missiles, schools and hospitals bombarded and lives torn apart, the world was silent. The streets of Europe were empty as long as Arabs did the killing and Jews the dying. That is "peace" according to the "humanitarians". There were no pictures in the media of grieving Jewish mothers and fathers, or of children who lost limbs to jihadist bombs. Where were the marches and protests when a gunman murdered 8 teenagers studying in a yeshiva, or a berserk Arab bulldozer driver crushed a mother and her young daughter?

The same day that the operations in Gaza began, a Sunni suicide bomber blew himself up in a Shiite mosque in Iraq, murdering 40 people. This barely made news. When Jews kill Muslims, it is a massacre. When Muslims kill each other, it's like the weather. Nobody pays attention. In the past few years, close to a million black Africans have been murdered by Arab janjaweed militia in Darfur. Thats is a real humanitarian crisis. If the same protesters opposing Israel's right to self-defense would have used even a fraction of that energy to protest the situation in Darfur, there would be no genocide. The protests have little to do with human rights but are just another excuse to demonize and vilify the only democracy in the Middle-East. Over 60 years after the Holocaust, many are still uncomfortable with the idea of Jews fighting back. A "ceasefire" is when rockets fall on Jews and they do not retaliate.

The mainstream media feeds us constant images of dead Arabs. They inform us that women and children were among the dead in Israel's attacks. Somehow they neglect to mention that the blame for the dead lies squarely on Hamas, which hides among civilians when firing rockets at Israel. Hamas brazenly uses schools, mosques and hospitals to store weapons and attack Israel, then cries about Israeli retaliation. It has used women and children to carry out its murderous attacks against Israeli targets. The same group that self-righteously complains of Israeli attacks on children fires missiles on kindergartens and schools in Sderot, Ashklelon and Ashdod. They raise their children on a diet of hate, death and anti-semitism.

I have not a tear to spare for any Arab killed in Gaza. The international community treats Gazans as pawns, not letting them take responsibility for their own actions. Last year, the people of Gaza democratically voted Hamas, a terrorist organization, into power. They chose, of their own free-will, to have Hamas represent them as their government. As such, they should suffer the consequences of their choices. After the attacks on Merkaz HaRav in March, thousands of Gazans danced in the streets, giving out candies and celebrating the cold-blooded killing of Jewish teenagers. My tears are spent on the victims of Hamas, not their enablers. I wish that Israel would attack Gaza with a true proportionate response, letting the people of Gaza know the pain of the citizens of Sderot who have not had a complete night's sleep in a decade, or of the Jewish mothers and fathers who lost children to Hamas jihadist attacks.



The world does not deserve our apologies. They forfeited their rights to moral superiority after 2000 years of deportations, expulsions, forced conversions, persecutions and pogroms. A world that did not treat Jews as human beings for two millenia has no right to lecture us on how we may defend ourselves. At anti-Israel rallies worldwide, crowds chanted "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas!", hoping that the wicked smoke of the ovens should blow over to the Holy Land. A world that still dreams of Auschwitz does not deserve any explanations or justifications.

Am Yisrael Chai!

Cross-posted from For Zion's Sake

Moonbat Leftards Join Hamas Lovers In Jew Hatred Around The World

I will never understand why the radical left moonbats rally in support of radical islamists since their ideologies are completely opposite each other. The left loves to proclaim its support for women's rights, homosexual rights and all sorts of humanitarian causes while the islamists execute homosexuals, oppress their women and launch indescriminate attacks on innocent civilians. The moonbats seem to think Hamas is innocent and Israel is guilty for some odd reason I will never understand. Well their violent protests around the world will hardly win wide support for their claim that islam is a religion of peace when they burn cars, attack police, vandalize businesses and synagogues and generally behave like anarchist fascists.

The wonderful Pamela Gellar at Atlas Shrugs has been covering all these violent anti-Israel protests and the peaceful pro-Israel counter protests with lots of pictures and videos so just keep scrolling. Jews all over Europe and alas even here in the US are fearing for their safety as those thugs get ever more violent in their protestations. What islamophobia, how about rampant anti-semitism? Will those perps be charged with hate crimes the same as if those attacks had been made on muslims or blacks? I doubt it though hate crime is the only way to describe them and here I thought the leftards were all against hate. I guess I was wrong.

Jim at Gateway Pundit has more on the rampant Jew hatred and anarchist violence of those protests.
Also don't miss this Mark Steyn column on "The Oldest Hatred"

PETA Nuts Reach New Heights Of Idiocy

I think all the nuts they eat have gone to their head and studies have shown that a vegan diet reduces brain power. They now want to call fish sea kittens because who could eat a cute cuddly kitten right, well, besides a billion people in Asia. This all another PR campaign aimed at children to make them not want to eat meat at a time in their lives when the consumption of high quality protien like fish is critical to their physical and mental development. You cannot get the critical nutrition needed from a strictly vegan diet, they can come close through a carefully monitered and complex diet that relies on combinations of certain foods but it isn't the same since it lacks critical amino acids.

I tried going vegetarian many years ago because it seemed like a cool thing to do and I was running in lefty circles at the time but I noticed a drop in energy levels very quickly so I gave that up quick. Besides I like BBQ ribs to much for that, well BBQ anything for that matter including sea kittens. Heck I am starting to wonder how land kitten would taste on the grill since there are enough strays around here to stock my freezer for the coming Obama depression.

Speaking of energy levels, I went on a mountaineering expedition once that that had a vegan as part of it and we constantly had to wait on him to catch up. It sucked since we essentially had to prepare two separate meals, one for us and one for him using twice as much fuel as a result. I like trail mix with all the nuts, dried fruit and granola but I add meat jerky on the side for trail side noshing. The funny part is he was the only one in the group that had a gut, er slightly overweight and he was the one that ate all the "healthy" stuff LOL.

SEC vs Big 12

Florida and Oklahoma have sqauared off for the BCS Championship and who would have thought it would be a defensive duel for two of the highest powered offenses in college ball. Its only 7-7 at halftime with two great goal line stands by Florida to deny OU any points. This is a great football game by any standard.

Go Gators!!!

YES, Florida wins 24-14, they may have beaten my Crimson Tide but the SEC retains the Title as the best conference in the game. We know how to play defense as OU found out the hard way. I also have to say the more I see Tim Tebow play the more impressed I am, he willed his team to victory and don't get in his way. The guy is a class act of the highest degree.

Congrats Gators, thanks for making the SEC proud once again!

Hamas; In Their Own Words

The folks at MEMRI put this little video together of Hamas' vile rants against the West and Israel.


How would you like to have those monsters to share a border with? Well I guess some of the drug cartels to our south are almost as bad.

Sarah Palin Interview Excerpts

She sat down with John Ziegler for an extended interview for an upcoming documentary on media malfeasance during the presidential campaign. John McCain and his staff made a huge mistake in not just letting Sarah be Sarah and just turning her lose along with letting her choose what media she wanted to be interviewed by. Here is a bit of the interview that John has released, via Hot Air.

I have said before that I would be torn between Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin in a primary and I still am but I think Sarah is able to connect on a much more personal level than Mitt is able to. I do not think she should run for the Senate, why be 1 of 100 when you are 1 of 50 and run a significant State. She should run for re-election as Gov., a sure win given her approval numbers in Alaska and be ready for 2012 and 2016.

Conservative Blog Newsletter

I am teaming The Barnyard up with American Sentinel and a few others to put out a news letter to be put out twice weekly of our best posts and articles. I will have a widget up on my sidebar soon where you can sign up for these news letters, it is a secure list and your email will not be sold or distributed. My readers that I have email addresses for know I very rarely send out group emails and when I do it has an important reason behind it.

The folks over at American Sentinel are all good conservatives and good writers and I am honored to team up with them to help spread our message and extend our reach.

Porn Industry Wants Some Bailout Cherries Too

The founder of Hustler, Larry Flynt, and Girls Gone Wild founder, Joe Francis, line up at the taxpayer trough for some of those bailout fun funds. I guess all that free porn all over the internets has cut into their businesses as well so they want to screw the taxpayer so they can keep screwing.

Another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis continues: Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry.
“The take here is that everyone and their mother want to be bailed out from the banks to the big three,” said Owen Moogan, spokesman for Larry Flynt. “The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion. Is it the most serious thing in the world? Is it going to make the lives of Americans better if it happens? It is not for them to determine.”
Francis said in a statement that “the US government should actively support the adult industry’s survival and growth, just as it feels the need to support any other industry cherished by the American people.”
“We should be delivering [the request] by the end of today to our congressmen and [Secretary of the Treasury Henry] Paulson asking for this $5 billion dollar bailout,” he told CNN Wednesday.

I guess hobos need their reading material too since they don't have computers to get all the free stuff. I don't have a problem with porn as a normal dude I have looked at plenty of it though I was never a fan of Hustler or the really hardcore stuff and have never seen any of the Girls Gone Wild videos. I do however report porn spammers to their internet providers because I hate spam. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic but after all what would the folks over at AoSHQ do with their hands if the porn industry went under.

Cap'n Ed puts it best though.

The Real Issue: Gaza is Jewish

Israel has the world's 4th strongest army, superior weapons, arms and technology. Hamas, while armed with deadly weapons smuggled in from Egypt and supplied by Iran, is nothing compared to Israeli firepower. If Israel wanted, the Hamastan stronghold in Gaza could be wiped out in an aerial assault in a number of hours. Yet Hamas possesses something which the current Israeli leadership does not possess: confidence in the justness of its cause.

Watching the news, Israel's claim in defense of its actions has been that Israel the right to defend itself. Faced with a genocidal group of terrorists committed to murdering and maiming as many Jews as possible, all Israel has to say is that it has the right to defend itself. Lost amidst all of the rhetoric and slogans is the fact that Hamas has repeatedly and consistently violated Israel's sovereignty and contests its right to exist as a nation. Sadly, the war being fought in Gaza is not a war to conquer Gaza, but rather a war to get rid of Gaza. In summer of 2005, Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza, expelling close to 10 000 Jewish residents and dismantling their towns and villages, in an attempt to allow Gazans to build their own state. The discussion over the Disengagement consisted of mainly security, whether or not it would lead to peace or to rockets. Those who argued the latter were vindicated. Absent from the debate was Israel's entitlement to Gaza.

Israel's military failed miserably during the Second Lebanon War because its leadership lacked defined goals and objectives. While, thank G-d, Israel has been succeeding militarily in Gaza, it still lacks the same basic purpose. Israel's leaders have repeatedly emphasized that they do not intend to re-occupy Gaza and that should Hamas be destroyed, Gaza will be given over to Fatah. The powers that be see the current war as simply another means to further the two state (final) solution, the so-called "Road Map to Peace". In the minds of many Israelis, Gaza is simply not our land. The war is being fought to make the Disengagement final, to stop the rockets and finally be done with Gaza. Instead of realizing the errors of the Gaza Disengagement, Israel's leaders are determined to repeat the same mistakes in Judea and Samaria. Anyone with a limited amount of intelligence can see that the Hamas rockets in Sderot, Ashkelon and Ashdod are the fruits of the Disengagement.

Israel is in a stalemate with Hamas. It has surrounded Gaza City but hesitates to go in. The political leadership want to leave Gaza as soon as possible, and preferably hand it over to the more "moderate" Fatah murderers. The same mentality remains that Gaza is foreign turf. Because of this basic assumption, Israel cannot succeed in vanquishing Hamas. It must be repeated and repeated again, incessantly, to counter the Big Lie of Arab propaganda: The Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people. There is no such thing as a Palestinian nation. Never in the annals of history has there been a sovereign Palestinian country, or a distinct Palestinian people, culture or language. The only three independent nations in the Land of Israel have been Jewish: the Davidic kingdom, the Hasmonean dynasty and the modern state of Israel. The term 'Palestine' was invented by the Roman emperor Hadrian after he crushed the Jewish revolt in 70 CE. Destroying the Temple in Jerusalem and scattering the Jews to across the world, he renamed Judea 'Palestinae', in the name of an ancient extinct people, the Philistines, in an attempt to erase the Jewish connection to Israel. Many successive empire conquered the Land of Israel yet none ever bothered to build their own nation. When Islam spread through the Middle-East in the 7th century, the Arabs moved into and occupied the geographical entity known as Palestine, yet never once did they consider themselves Palestinian. British document from the Mandatory period consistently refer to "the Jews and Arabs of Palestine", not the Jews and Palestinians. Only in 1967, once the Arabs had lost 6 wars against Israel did they decide on a new tactic and spun the tale of the "Palestine", stolen and occupied by the Jews.

This is not a conflict about territory, or about rockets and settlements. It is about moral rights, whether or not the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people or to the Arabs. In a betrayal of history, Israel's leaders do not have the strength and moral convictions to assert Jewish rights from river to sea. Precisely for this reason does Israel find itself incapable of dispatching a ragtag band of murderers and terrorists. The Arabs speak about "dying for Palestine", martyrdom, and will not compromise on an inch of what they consider holy soil. Israel speaks about self-defense, tactical victories, cease-fires, truces and the "peace process". It is no surprise that Hamas shows not signs of surrender despite an intense 11-day barrage while Israel's leadership (but not people) are demonstrating war weariness. The corrupt Kadima government is determine to surrender as much Jewish land as possible. A post-Zionist government does not have the capacity to implement the necessary solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Gaza is firmly Jewish. It was a part of the tribal inheritance of Judah, was the site of Samson's campaigns against the Philistines and where David slew Goliath. During Greek times, it fell to Alexander the Great and was eventually recaptured by the Hasmoneans. It was home to a thriving and flourishing Jewish community. In 1967, A. Ovadiah excavated the area and discovered a synagogue from the sixth century C.E. Archaeology evidence supports the biblical premise of a continuous Jewish presence from the Late bronze period until the Byzantine period (ca. 1500 B.C.E. through 632 C.E.) It must be recalled that most of the Arabs living in Israel only came in the middle to late 1920’s to escape economic hardship and political persecution by their own people for better opportunity. Gaza, as well as Judea and Samaria, remain under illegal Arab occupation and must be returned to their rightful owners. International law, enshrined in the League of Nations mandate for Palestine and recognized by the UN, gives the Jewish people sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel, and both sides of the Jordan. Various British policies further limited and reduced the area to be given towards a Jewish homeland. However, the world body has never repealed the Jewish right to the Land of Israel under the International law.

A true and lasting peace will only come to the region once Gush Katif, Neve Dekalim and all of the destroyed Jewish towns are re-built on the ruins of Hamas. The Jews of Gaza were unjustly expelled from their rightful homes. The entire leadership responsible for the Expulsion must be tried for crimes against the Jewish people. Only once Israel has the strength to firmly declare that the entire Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, and only the Jewish people, will the conflict be resolved. Until then, rockets and suicide bombings will continually maim and kill Jews. Israel's leaders crave world attention and acceptance and therefore are hesitant to assert Jewish rights over the Land. The offensive in Gaza has been limited due to international pressure. What Israel's weak leaders don't realize is that the world body hates the Jewish people. Never will the UN and EU be satisfied until Israel is wiped off the map, G-d forbid. As a wise man once said: "It is better to have an Israel that the entire world hates than an Auschwitz that world loves". Jewish morality demands that Israel defend its citizens and re-conquer its land. Our enemies must be either completely destroyed or transfered from the Land.

History will judge harshly those who seek to separate the Jewish people from their inheritance. The nation that begged, three times a day that "our eyes should behold Your return to Zion in mercy", cannot be defeated. "And I will turn the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God." (Amos 9:14-15). May we see the day when the prophecy of Amos is fulfilled. Amen!



Cross-posted from For Zion's Sake

About That UN School Israel Hit

The media and the moonbats, I know that's redundant, are all in a tizzy over an UNRWA school where 30-40 "civilians" were killed by Israeli artillary. What they don't tell you is that there were several Hamas terrorist bodies among those dead and that Hamas was firing mortars from the school. The pig humpers that are Hamas are well known for using schools, mosques, hospitals and other places where civilians congregate to store weapons or use as firing positions for those weapons in the hopes that the IDF won't fire on them, cowardly bastards. They do this in the hopes civilians will get killed so they can then use the incident for propaganda purposes knowing their useful idiots in the western media will pick it up and run with it and the international community will then blame Israel.

There are reports that Hamas even had the building wired with explosives and may have lured the civilians into it promising safety and then purposely fired morters from it knowing the IDF would fire back. I sure would not put it past them that Hamas could have even set of those explosives themselves so they could blame the IDF, they are that cruel and deluded. Heck even the AP had to report that Gaza residents witnessed Hamas firing mortars from the school grounds and the IDF has video of them doing it, via Israellycool who has much, much more.

This was from Oct. '07 but it is still proof they use schools as launching points, note how the Hamas scum fire three quick rounds, hide the launcher in the school and then run away, effing pig humping cowards. Here is an IDF soldier spokesman explaining what happened and references the above video.

Plus here is an interesting piece from an Arab telling the palestinians to get over it, they lost and Israel won, time to move on. I should point out that Israel's Arab neighbors don't like the palestinians much either.

Update:The Muqata has much more info.

Democrats, Clowns And Corruptocrats

Obama and his Democrat majorities have not even begun their new reign yet and the scandals already brewing are making the transition less than smooth. Govs. Blagojevich and Richardson and Sen. Clinton are all under investigation for pay to play schemes. It would all be funny if it were not so sad that these are people that are going to be in charge of running the country for the next few years. David Kahane has a must read only slightly tongue in cheek article on just how deep and long lived the culture of corruption is within the 'Democratic' Party. I used the scare quotes because they are hardly democratic in the sense of the word with all the cronyism and nepotism going around in their circles lately. Here is a taste from "Life in the Clown Car Fast Lane".

Can you believe it? Barack Hussein Obama II hasn’t even been inaugurated yet and he’s already been interviewed by federal prosecutors in the ongoing Blago mess; he’s seen Bill Richardson immolate himself rather than stand the federal grand-jury scrutiny that would have come with his appointment as Commerce Secretary; his boy Rahm Emanuel is both en pointe, having resigned the House seat that was previously warmed by Hot Rod and Dan Rostenkowski, and, apparently, on Patrick Fitzgerald’s tapes too; and he’s facing the prospect of the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, standing like a homunculus George Wallace in the schoolhouse door, ready to deny entrance to a black man when Roland “We Are the Senator” Burris tries to take Bambi’s hardly-even-used seat tomorrow.

And here we Democrats thought the Clinton administration could never be topped!

We are the party of Barack Obama and the Daley Machine; the party of the Clintons and their amazing alchemistic Library, which turns Saudi dross into altruistic gold; the party of Tony Rezko and Norman Hsu; the party of vaporizing fundraisers, absconding bagmen and sitting New Mexico governors (and a recent presidential “candidate”) currently under federal investigation for allegedly steering a state contract in the direction of one of his big backers, David Rubin of CDR Financial Products in Beverly Hills. Now comes word that Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state-designate, Congress and the Emoluments Clause willing, got millions of dollars for a mall in Syracuse shortly after the developer coughed up a hundred grand for the Bill Clinton “Foundation.” That’s what I call commerce!

We are also the party of Charlie Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who’s currently under “investigation” by the House “Ethics” Committee for a myriad of dubious practices, including using campaign contributions to pay his parking tickets.

He also mentions Chris Dodd but forgets Barney Frank, Jack Murtha or the several sex scandals that ensnared a few of them recently.

Now a very unfunny comedienne, failed radio talker and general asshat Al "Stuart Smalley" Franken has managed to steal a Senate seat for Minnesota. Everything I have read about this simply reeks worse than a warthog at a skunk convention. Norm Coleman had a 775 vote lead after election day but somehow the Democrats managed to find an extra thousand for Franken with most coming from districts where they had more ballots than registered voters but they counted anyway.

Meanwhile House Queen Nancy Pelosi wants to rewrite the House rules to completely block the GOP minority from having any say what so ever in the content of legislation so the Democrats can ramrod their agenda down our throats. This hearkens back to the day when bills were written in the backrooms without public transparency and then railroaded through Congress as Human Events reports.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi’s proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.

Pelosi’s rule changes -- which may be voted on today -- will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.”

In reaction, the House Republican leadership is sending a letter today to Pelosi to object to changes to House Rules this week that would bar Republicans from offering alternative bills, amendments to Democrat bills or even the guarantee of open debate accessible by motions to recommit for any piece of legislation during the entire 111th Congress. These procedural abuses, as outlined in the below letter obtained by HUMAN EVENTS, would also include the repeal of six-year limit for committee chairmen and other House Rules reform measures enacted in 1995 as part of the Contract with America.

After decades of Democrat control of the House of Representatives, gross abuses to the legislative process and several high-profile scandals contributed to an overwhelming Republican House Congressional landslide victory in 1994. Reforms to the House Rules as part of the Contract with America were designed to open up to public scrutiny what had become under this decades-long Democrat majority a dangerously secretive House legislative process. The Republican reform of the way the House did business included opening committee meetings to the public and media, making Congress actually subject to federal law, term limits for committee chairmen ending decades-long committee fiefdoms, truth in budgeting, elimination of the committee proxy vote, authorization of a House audit, specific requirements for blanket rules waivers, and guarantees to the then-Democrat minority party to offer amendments to pieces of legislation.

Pelosi’s proposed repeal of decades-long House accountability reforms exposes a tyrannical Democrat leadership poised to assemble legislation in secret, then goose-step it through Congress by the elimination of debate and amendment procedures as part of America’s governing legislative process.

As Jim at Gateway Pundit put it this is the change we can believe in. All I can say is that I hope that the GOP can get its act together because 2010 could be another banner year like 1994 was as the Democrats show their colors as the corrupt, incompetent, kleptocrats they are.

More from VDH on Democrat corruption.

Israel Sends Ground Troops Into Gaza: Updated

They know this will be a tough and dangerous operation since Hamas has been building tunnels and setting booby traps for at least two years. Reports are still pretty sketchy but there has apparently been some heavy fighting going on. Besides our own military the IDF is probably the best equipped and highly trained outfit there is and they know the tactics that will be used against them, IEDs and ambush attacks as the Hamas rats pop up out of their holes.

My readers of course know not to rely on our MSM to give us any straight reporting that isn't biased to some degree against Israel. The Jerusalem Post, Ynet and Ha'aretz are fair Israeli sources but as with the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts independent bloggers seem to have a lot more to offer. In this case Israellycoool, Mere Rhetoric, The Muqata , Israel Matzav and Meryl Yourish are the places to go for constant up to the minute updates on what is happening. Israel is a tech dense country so I am sure many other bloggers are posting on this as well. If you have a tip please post it in the comments.

All the same idiot asshats that had been organizing protests against the Iraq war now have a new conflict to scream and cry about as more terrorists get sent to meet their 72 virgin pigs. Atlas Shrugs has lots of pictures of the anti-semite, jihadi ass kissing protestors from around the US and the world. I guess they don't realize wailing and rampaging in the streets not only exposes them as fools but also hardens their opposition against them and even flips many who may have empathized with them the other way.
This is from San Franistan

They keep chanting "Free, Free, Palestine" but palestine has never existed so how can you free it if it never existed to begin with? Why don't they protest the fact that the other Arab countries like Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt just absorb those palestinians and let Israel have its tiny slice of land? Its simple as Mile Totten wrote some time ago, the palestinians are the most hated group of bums in the Middle East and he lived in Lebanon for many years. Heck even Hezbollah doesn't like Hamas enough to help out and they are both proxies of Iran. In deed the only reasom there may be a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is because of Hamas and not Israel but the lefty moonbat protesters are historical illiterates as we here in the Barnyard have long known.

Update: This is an interesting developement, Hamas is killing Fatah activists in the strip, red on red bloodshed.

A Good Reason To Treat Gaza Like Dresden

Hamas is booby trapping the entire strip in anticipation of an Israeli ground invasion including using women and children as shields and their version of "smart" bombs. There are no innocents in Gaza even the youngest are taught hatred for Israel so they should just be carpet bombed, there are no hearts or minds to be won there. The smart ones left already and made lives for themselves elsewhere. The women are vowing to blow themselves up among the "apes and pigs" and they wonder why Israel keeps the border crossings closed, from MEMRI via Gateway Pundit, Jihad Watch and Israel Matzav.

Following are excerpts from footage of Hamas female martyrdom-seekers in Gaza, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on December 30, 2008.

Masked woman clad in explosives belt: "I, the martyrdom-seeker Umm Suheib, have dedicated myself for the sake of Allah, and for the sake of redeeming my family, from which I have lost eight martyrs so far. I swear by Allah that I will turn my body parts into a fire that will burn the occupation soldiers, if they move towards my house.

"My beloved people, if Allah supports you, no one will be able to overcome you. We are confident of the support of Allah. There are thousands of martyrdom-seeking women like me, waiting for the occupier, in order to avenge these massacres. I pledge to my people that I will continue on the path of my family, and avenge the widows and the orphans. My people on the front-line, do not wait for any Arab president or king, but direct your appeal to Allah, the King of Kings. We are loyal to our oath, and will meet, Allah willing, in the paradise of eternity."

Masked woman holding rifle: "Allah said: 'Prepare against them what force and steeds of war you can, to strike terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah and your own enemies.' We convey this message to the Israeli army high command, which bombards our sons day and night: We, the martyrdom-seeking women of Palestine, mothers as well as girls, are waiting impatiently for them to come. Allah willing, we will make them taste bitterness, if they move even an inch into our beloved Gaza Strip.

"I am the mother of two martyrs, and I will sacrifice myself as a martyr, Allah willing. I will turn my blood into bombs that will burn them. In every Palestinian home, a time bomb will await them. There will be days of battle between us, and this will be our opportunity to avenge our sons whom they have bombed, and the blood of the 400 martyrs who were killed in the headquarters. I am waiting for them.

My honorable people, have more forbearance and steadfastness. Your daughters march by your side on the path of Jihad and martyrdom."

Second masked woman holding a rifle: "If one of our men dies, a thousand men will set out in his place. We, the women, will set out. We are the granddaughters of Yassin, Al-Bana, and Al-Qassam. We are all the daughters of Palestine, the daughters of steadfast Gaza. We will set out, booby-trapped. From every home, a bomb will set out, and it will explode among the sons of Zion. We are no less than Fatima Al-Najjar and Rim Al-Riyashi [two Palestinian women who blew themselves up among Israelis]. We will blow ourselves up among those traitors, those apes and pigs."

Yes Israel can bomb its way to peace by wiping the Gaza strip clean of pig humping Hamas and its supporters despite what a terrorist sympathizer for the LA Times claims. Ace changed Israel to Hamas in her article and it makes more sense.

Happy New Year All

I don't really celebrate the new year as its just another day to me But I wish all my friends the best and brightest to come after all we have the Obamassiah coming to cure all the ills on the planet. It has been an interesting year with the election process, victory in Iraq, and the economic meltdown. It was a record year for my humble blogspot as well and I have all of y'all to thank for it. I will of course be keeping my on Obama and the Pelosi-Reid congress and their attempts to socialize and bankrupt our future but I also hope to get back to my photoblogging of historic and scenic sites around me. As I post this it will be officially the new year in America and I pray the good Lord continues to bless us into the future.

Hamas Propaganda 101

All those rockets and mortars launched into Israel are not from Hamas but from Zionist collaborators according to Hamas, yeah right. This idiot is almost as good as Baghdad Bob, from an interview with NPR via the Jawa Report is Hamas spokesdouche Ahmed Yusuf.

SIEGEL: But, wasn't the response of firing rockets into Israel…

Mr. YUSUF: There is no - actually, when we…

SIEGEL: Wasn't that guaranteed to bring on this retaliation by the Israelis?

Mr. YUSUF: No. No. This has nothing to do with firing rockets because there is no rockets fired. There are collaborators, sometimes they fire based on the Israeli asking them maybe to fire some of these home-made projectiles. They know that Hamas did their best to protect the border and not to let anybody firing rockets.

SIEGEL: But you're saying that when rockets have been fired out of Gaza, you're saying that those are being fired by Israeli collaborators whom the Israelis are arranging for them to do that, so that…

Mr. YUSUF: Actually, we all - let me try me to check if there is anybody actually - we check with those political and militant group who are really showing their commitment. And when we check, well, they - all them denied any of them been firing rockets. So, who been firing these rockets? We don't have an explanation except from those Israeli collaborators.[...]

Unfortunately, all the time they deceive the world community by claiming many things, and unfortunately, we are the people who really suffering, and this air strike they targeting everything, universities, mosques, schools, civilian home, residential areas, and also all the governmental building, which has nothing to do with these firing rockets as they keep claiming.

That's nuttier than the 9/11 truthers. Yep the Israelis are targeting all those places because the cowardly scum that makes up Hamas hides their weapons in and launches their rockets from all those places. What a f**king pig humper.

The Hamas pig humpers are proud of their human shields, like I said before, there are no innocent Gazans. Israel might as well gice Gaza the Dresden treatment since they are already damned if they do or don't.

Answering A Challenge

Some nutter named Ted, don't know if he is left or right, left this comment on a completely unrelated post and I figured I would post it and respond on the front page. I really hate conspiracy nuts.

Challenge, can anyone prove this wrong?:–

1. Constitution Article II requires USA President to be “natural born citizen”.

2. BHO’s website admits his dad was Kenyan/British, not American, citizen when BHO was born.

3. BHO is therefore not a “natural born citizen” (irrespective of Hawaiian birth or whether he may be a 14th Amendment “citizen” of USA) — as confirmed in the Senate’s own McCain qualification resolution agreed to by BHO.

4. Supreme Court has already docketed two upcoming conferences, 1/9/09 and 1/16/09 — between dates Congress counts electoral votes (1/8/09) and Presidential inauguration (1/20/09) — to address Berg Case and fashion relief on BHO’s eligibility to be President.

5. Since no facts are in dispute, Supreme Court rules on Summary Judgment to enjoin BHO’s inauguration as President.

6. Therefore, BHO is not inaugurated as President.

7. Vice President Elect Biden is inaugurated Acting President under the 20th Amendment to serve until new President is determined — the procedure for which determination to be set out by Congress and/or the Supreme Court so long as in conformance with the Constitution.

Barack Obama's mother was a natural born citizen and he was born in Hawaii so that makes him a natural born citizen regardless of his father's stature.

All the other challenges have been laughed out of court and so will 9/11 truther Phillip Berg's latest.

The only reason I see for Obama not releasing the documents is that his real father is not Barack Obama Sr. since his mother was in Washington state going to college around the time she became pregnant and not Hawaii. There are some timeline and paternity issues that could be embarrassing to his life story but none involve Obama's citizenship.

May I also remind folks that Philip Berg is a Clinton supporter that thinks Bush carried out the 9/11 attack and in no way connected to the conservative movement. The vast majority of the blogs that have pushed this story are Clintonites as the vast majority of conservative blogs have brushed it off for what it is, a bunch of hooey.

Israel Continues Its Just Assault On Gaza:Updated

Israel entered its fourth day of airraids on Hamas facilities and infrastructure in the Gaza strip with over 500 sites hit by precision munitions and about as many dead Hamas cretins. Hamas launched rockets also reached there deepest penetration into Israel striking Beersheba. Those rockets launched by Hamas are roughly aimed at population centers and not military targets with the sole purpose of killing civilians unlike Israel's precision strikes aimed at Hamas' military targets.

When Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and the people there elected Hamas to run things they became a legitimate target if they continued or failed to stop the barrage of rockets aimed at Israel. Israel has every right to secure its borders and to protect its people from attack no matter what the international weenies might think. It is not Israel's responsibility to provide for the people of Gaza but it is the responsibility of Gazan's duly elected leaders to provide for them. When Israel pulled out they left behind industry and greenhouses that Hamas looted and destroyed despite the fact they employed and fed thousands of Gazans. The Gazans are not oppressed by Israel they are subjugated by the very people they elected to lead them, only they have the power to put an end to the perpetual state of war they find themselves in by stopping the attacks on Israel.

This young lady from Gaza knows where to place the blame, on Hamas.

Commenters at Hot Air where I got the clip point out this could be Fatah propaganda as it was released by the Palistinian Authority, could be an attempt to triangulate as both parties are known for stagecraft.

Meanwhile Israel is determined to win the propaganda war by opening a You Tube channel and posting its own videos though the Google censors pulled this one it is still at Live Leak of Hamas cretins being taken out loading missiles on a truck.

Update: This is a must read highly relevant post with thanks to the Instapundit. It is to good to pull a quote from so just go read the whole thing.

Grandma And Grandpa Palin

Sarah Palin's famously pregnant daughter, Bristol, gave birth yesterday to a healthy 7 pound 4 ounce baby boy. The Palins continued their eclectic naming with Tripp Easton, hmm, I wonder what that signifies. Anyway my congratulations to the family and I pray for and wish them all the best!

Moonbats Freak Out Over "Barack The Magic Negro"

Michelle Malkin is right when she says "oh give me a super-sized break" after eight years of moonbats calling President Bush every name in the book and making a few up on top of it. The left is suddenly demanding respect for the office of the President and that we all should get along in an atmosphere of mutual respect. I will respect the Office but I will also criticize policies I disagree with unlike the BDS demented moron moonbats

Peter Yarrow the writer of "Puff The Magic Dragon", a paen to opium/heroin and sold as a children's song, pitched a hissy fit in the Puffington Host today over the parodized use of his song to ridicule Obama. Michelle has a link and an excerpt if you want since I won't link to PuffHo. It is a legitimate parody that played on Rush Limbaugh's show that actually makes more fun of Al Sharpton than it does Obama and the term actually comes from Spike Lee and a liberal LA Times writer. The snit is because Chip Saltsman, a candidate for GOP chair, sent it out as part of a holiday package to GOP members on a CD with other parody songs.

I agree that this was rather tasteless and tactless on Saltsman's part when the GOP is struggling with minority voters that largely view the GOP as racist to begin with. Saltsman, who was never my choice for GOP chair in the first place, has now blown any chance he had at the seat as a result. I support either Ken Blackwell or Michael Steele for the seat and face of the GOP, I have no use for Anuzis, Dayton or Saltsman to represent my Party.

Here is the derided parody and you will see it is quite harmless, indeed Obama's election could put race hustlers like Sharpton and Jackson out of business because America is not inherently racist as the parody states.

Actually it is pretty lame and I think much better parodies could be made using the same song and avoiding the racial undertones since Obama did live by the sea and his followers in "honnalee", a mystical land. Damn, now I can't get that stupid song out of my head and I used to like Peter, Paul and Mary, then I grew up. Paul Philips and his daughter, McKenzie, made heroin addiction front page news when it killed them, the dragon is opium or heroin and puff is to smoke it so put it together and you have "Puff the Magic Dragon" living in a fantasy land. That is how I view Obamabots.

Finally Israel Fights Back

Hamas ended a ceasefire that never really was on Dec 18th and has continued to bombard Sderot, Ashkelon and other southern Israeli towns with rockets and mortars over 3,000 this year alone even during the supposed ceasefire. Today Israel struck back with a devastating airraid that hit about 100 Hamas security stations, training camps and weapons depots killing around 200 Hamas scum and wounding hundreds more. Three cheers and a toast to the IDF!!!

Of course the Euro weenies and the Arab street have their collective panties in a wad but screw them, Hamas brought this on themselves. If I were running Israel I would level the entire Gaza strip and bull doze the wreckage into Egypt. Hamas has no desire for peace with Israel and never has, its very charter calls for the destruction of Israel so while they exist there will not be peace. Just as Hamas says there are no innocent Israelis there are no innocent Gazans by the same logic. The Gazan palestinians are not innocent bystanders but are part and parcel to this whole mess, they made their own bed and now have to live with it. It is not Israel's or the US' fault they live in squalor it is their own fault. All they have to do is stop launching rockets into Israel and sending suicide bombers to blow up cafes and untill they do Israel has every right to defend her people from the savages with such retaliation as they deem fit.

Contentions, here, here and here, Atlas Shrugs, and here , Pajamas Media, Gateway Pundit , and here, and Hot Air all have more with plenty of more links.

Christmas In Iraq

For the first time Christmas has been declared a National holiday in Iraq and for the first time in decades Christians were able to celebrate without fear. This is fantastic news for a country that was slipping into civil war just two years ago and if the Democrats and their antiwar peaceniks allies had gotten their way it would never had happened. The vast majority of the Iraqi people know the US and President Bush are to thank for the growing peace and prosperity despite what one disgruntled Sadrist shoe chucker thinks. Christmas trees and decorations were even openly for sale on the streets of Baghdad.

Jim at Gateway Pundit has more and some pictures.

Iraq may yet become the model for all Arab countries in the Middle-East after all since Hezbullah screwed up Lebanon.

Meanwhile all the inns in Bethlehem are full of Christian pilgrims to the birthplace of Christ.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

This is by far my favorite Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and this a very good arrangement by The Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan with an upbeat folksy flavor.

Something else to be thankful for as we celebrate the birth of Christ, the turning point in the birth of our great nation. 232 years ago General George Washington marshaled his beleaguered troops across the Delaware river at night during a blizzard to attack Trenton, New Jersey in a victory that would change the course of the war.

Liberal Idiocy

Seattle, Washington has had a major snowstorm and they plow their streets with rubber edged plows and refuse to use salt because salt might pollute salt water Puget Sound. As a result they have created ice encrusted roadways that even emergency vehicles have trouble traversing with chains, pure stupidity but thats environitwits for ya. From the Seattle Times

To hear the city's spin, Seattle's road crews are making "great progress" in clearing the ice-caked streets.

But it turns out "plowed streets" in Seattle actually means "snow-packed," as in there's snow and ice left on major arterials by design.

"We're trying to create a hard-packed surface," said Alex Wiggins, chief of staff for the Seattle Department of Transportation. "It doesn't look like anything you'd find in Chicago or New York."

The city's approach means crews clear the roads enough for all-wheel and four-wheel-drive vehicles, or those with front-wheel drive cars as long as they are using chains, Wiggins said.

The icy streets are the result of Seattle's refusal to use salt, an effective ice-buster used by the state Department of Transportation and cities accustomed to dealing with heavy winter snows.

As someone who routinely drives on packed snow in the Sierra knows it quickly turns to ice. My truck is a 4x4 with extreme weather rated tires and I still have to chain up, at least they use real plows to clear the roads.

In Dodd We Trust

Ed Driscoll takes a look at what caused the financial meltdown in this episode of Silicon Graffiti, Democrat policies of course. It started long before Bush took office, sorry BDS suffering moonbats.

Sacramento Team Pulls Off Upset For State Football Championship

Grant High in the troubled Del Paso Heights neighborhood was the overwhelming underdog going in against Long Beach Poly, no. 2 nationally, and they pulled it out to win. A big congratulations to the coach and team for pulling together and playing hard for the win. It will mean a lot for that community.

If there was anyone out there who wondered if the Grant High School football team could play on the big stage, who questioned the Pacers' selection to the game or doubted their ability to compete with the state's top ranked team, the answer was revealed Saturday night.

Heavy underdogs entering the California Interscholastic Federation Open Division State Football Championship Bowl Game, the Pacers upset Long Beach Poly, ranked No. 1 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports and second nationally by ESPN Rise, 25-20 at the Home Depot Center.

Darvin McCauley scored the game-winning touchdown on a 15-yard reception from Grant quarterback Kipeli Koniseti with 1:11 to play.

The game was back and forth with Grant stopping a fourth down conversion try to end the game. Here's a little taste of what Grant was up against and what they were able to do despite the overwhelming odds.

Poly, which has also produced the likes of actress Cameron Diaz, legendary tennis player Billie Jean King, baseball player Tony Gwynn, and NFL football players Willie McGinest and Gene Washington, entered the game with more tradition and a more decorated résumé. It has 18 Southern Section championships and the claim of having sent more players to the NFL (59) than any other program in the country.

The Pacers, however, didn't care. If pressure and Poly's prominence resembled a Mike Tyson uppercut, the Pacers endured the blow, and landed a few punches of their own.

Resembling the blue-collar mentality of Del Paso Heights, Grant displayed the prolific offense that helped it cruise to its sixth Sac-Joaquin Section championship and a three-game stretch during the regular season in which it outscored its opponents 205-0.

The Pacers racked up 369 yards of offense to Poly's 243. They had 15 first downs and the Jackrabbits' eight. More importantly, the Pacers limited the Jackrabbits' running game to 79 yards.

I'll say this for Grant High "Take that, Snoop Dogg"!

Sarah Palin Is Human Events' Conservative Of The Year

I would agree and as Ann Coulter points out in her tribute column introducing her to America was the best thing McCain did. I know one thing the conservative base sure loves her and I am part of that base.

When McCain chose our beauteous Sarah as his running mate, the maverick was finally acting like a real maverick -- as opposed to the media’s definition of a “maverick” which is: “agreeing with the editorial positions of the New York Times.”

Pre-Palin it had been one race -- boring old “You kids get off my lawn!” John McCain versus the exciting, new politician Barack Obama, who threw caution to the wind and bravely ran as the Pro-Hope candidate. And then our heroic Sarah bounded out of the Alaska tundra and it became a completely different race. This left the press completely discombobulated and upset. They didn't know whether to attack Sarah for not having an abortion or go after her husband for not being a sissy.

I assume Palin was chosen because McCain had heard that she was a real conservative and he had always wanted to meet one -- no, actually because he needed a conservative on the ticket, but that he had no idea that picking her would send the left into a tailspin of wanton despair.

But if anyone on the McCain campaign chose Palin because she would drive liberals crazy, my hat is off to him!

Human Events also did an interview with our new conservative icon that can be found here.

Pretty Cool, Tweaked Nerf Chain Gun

Scary looking toy gun that shoots nerf darts gets an upgrade to 500 rounds a minute, LOL, via Ace. I would have groveled in manure for one of these as a kid but then again I could go shoot real guns whenever I wanted.

A Democrat Special Interest Group, Big Labor

Barack Obama ran on the promise of ending special interest groups influence in DC so will he push for the passage of the Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act as a favor to the big Unions? It is hard to say because like everything else that is controversial he has been very intentionally vague. Jennifer Rubin at Contentions points to this WSJ article that says the Blagojevich scandal and his negotiations with the SEIU for a cushy job in return for a pro-labor Senate appointment may just throw a monkey wrench in the works. The SEIU has donated many millions of dollars over the years to politicians with the vast majority of those funds going to the Democrats. The SEIU is also under investigation in California for running a phony charity among other scandals. They have donated 1.8 million to Blago over his political career and gotten several favors for it in return so I am sure they were playing on the same court, a pay to play court.

But the scandal involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has put a harsh spotlight on the SEIU's methods just as it is seeking broad support for federal legislation that would make it easier for workers of all types to unionize.

Federal officials allege Mr. Blagojevich sought to sell the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama in a scheme that potentially involved him getting a $300,000-a-year job at a group affiliated with the SEIU, in return for promising to appoint a pro-union official to the seat. The SEIU says that it doesn't believe any of its officials engaged in any wrongdoing, and the governor on Friday denied wrongdoing.

The SEIU is also the union that covers government workers and here in California they are in the process of doing to our cities and the state itself what the UAW has done to the auto industry, bankrupt them under unrealistic benefits programs and draconian work rules. I for one see no reason why government employees need to be unionized or any other worker for that matter, after all these are no longer the days when Upton Sinclair wrote "The Jungle".

Jennifer has much more so follow the above linkage for just how close the SEIU and Blago are and how the EFCA could become Obama's 'gays in the miltary' moment of Bill Clinton's early days in office.

Bailoutistan

Mark Steyn at his best on the auto industry/UAW bailout and more, go read the whole thing it is one of his best.

‘See the USA in your Chevrolet!” trilled Dinah Shore week after week on TV.

Can you still see the USA in your Chevrolet? Through a windscreen darkly.

General Motors now has a market valuation about a third of Bed, Bath And Beyond, and no one says your Swash 700 Elongated Biscuit Toilet Seat Bidet is too big to fail. GM has a market capitalization of just over two billion dollars. For purposes of comparison, Toyota’s market cap is one hundred billion and change (the change being bigger than the whole of GM). General Motors, like the other two geezers of the Old Three, is a vast retirement home with a small loss-making auto subsidiary. The UAW is the AARP in an Edsel: It has three times as many retirees and widows as “workers” (I use the term loosely). GM has 96,000 employees but provides health benefits to a million people.

The Culture Of Corruption

In 2006 the Democrats ran on what they called the Republican culture of corruption and they were right to an extent with the Abramoff and Cunningham scandals weighting us down, Foley and Craig were scandals but not corruption. Today the Democrats have their own problems and Blagojevich is just the tip of the iceberg threatening to sink their Titanic.

Charlie Rangel their powerful Ways and Means chairman is neck deep in all sorts of ethics problems. Kwame Kilpatrick and Elliot Spitzer had to resign in disgrace and there are many more under investigation. Kim Strassel lists just a few of them that are just now coming to the forefront as the new Congress prepares to convene under Obama who promised a cleaner government. I don't think this is what he was planning for.

Instead, Democrats now have an image problem. The real issue isn't so much Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's Senate-seat auction, as it is the focus that his scandal has directed toward a wider assortment of Democratic troubles. This isn't great timing for Barack Obama, who campaigned on cleaner government.

The Blagojevich drama is titillating enough, and local Democrats' dithering over how to fill Mr. Obama's seat guarantees it will remain a storyline longer than is comfortable. But the Illinois drama has also thrust new light on the ongoing ethical controversies of House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel. At the rate the House Ethics Committee is receiving complaints -- over Mr. Rangel's real-estate problems, tax problems, his privately sponsored trips to the Caribbean, and donations to his center in New York -- this too will make headlines for a while.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune published a new story about Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who racked up $420,000 through a series of suspicious real-estate deals. Texas Rep. Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, came under scrutiny this fall for questionable earmarking. West Virginia Rep. Alan Mollohan has been under investigation for a separate earmarking mess. And then there's Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, who has yet to answer questions about the sweetheart mortgage deal he received from Countrywide.

She points out that the GOP has largely cleaned house while the Democrats along with their friends in the MSM are trying to whitewash their corruption away. That is the main difference is that the MSM when they do report Democrat corruption they forget to label them as Democrats but if it is a Republican the headlines and talking heads scream it for weeks on end. I guess corruption is expected from the Democrats or something. Heck House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate leader Harry Reid have enough questionable ethics problems that if they were Republicans the MSM and the Democrats would be screaming for them to step down and resign.

Ace points to this post at Newsbusters about David Gregory attempting to whitewash the Democrats corruption by explaining it away as everyday political business. Here's what Gregory had to say.

"(A)t the heart of all politics is pay to play. Yes. There's a thin line between expectations and shakedown. But do any of us really believe that the people who raise huge sums of money for a particular political candidate aren't expecting something for their efforts? Do we really believe that a person who is vested with the power to give away a Senate seat isn't going to give it to the person who will somehow do him or her the most good?"

As Ace asks, would they have tried to explain away Abramoff, Enron and Foley the same way? All I can say is that as long as the GOP keeps its nose clean it has some real cards to play in 2010 and 2012 as much of the bloom will have fallen off Obama and he will no longer be fresh but rather wilted.

Taking Advantage Of A Sunny Day

We are expecting a series of winter storms over the next week or so which we desperately need after a dry spring and typically dry summer. The Sierra ski slopes will certainly have plenty of fresh powder, several feet worth for sure. I took advantage of the break in the weather to stock the woodshed and I am beat but I sure enjoy the fiery warmth it brings.

I need a new chain for my saw so does anybody know if a more aggresive chain is made for a Poulan saw than the lame versions I can get at the local Walmart or hardware store. They are more about preventing kick back than cutting wood on a production level. In 30+ years of using a chainsaw I have never experienced a kick back and doubt I ever will so I need a chain that will cut some wood fast. I have looked online and can only find the lame store brands.

Don't Let the Light Go Out

Don't let the light go out. This light has seen mighty empires comes and go. It saw the Greece rise up and conquer world, only to fade away. This light saw the Roman empire grown and collapse. It saw mighty rulers, fearless generals and mighty warriors disappear, without a trace. Yet the light remains.

Don't let the light go out. This light overcame the forces of Hellenism and hedonism. It shone through the darkness of immorality and vanity. It gave guidance and meaning to thousands of generations of Jews who resisted assimilation, who refused to forsake their Torah and their G-d. This light illuminated the secularism that blinded many and sought to lead the Jewish people astray. Philosophies, ideologies and 'isms' are relegated to the dustbin of history, yet the light remains.

Don't let the light go out. It was tended and nurtured lovingly by Jews throughout the ages, often at the risk of their lives. It was protected and treasured despite pain, despite poverty, despite hardship and persecution. Downtrodden, humiliated and weak, the light gave us strength. When there was no hope, the light promised us a better future.

Don't let the light go out. It shone brightly in Morocco and Poland, in Baghdad and Paris. It illuminated the streets of Minsk and Pinsk, Istanbul and Fez, Shanghai and Rome. Our enemies could not extinguish it. Withstanding the cross and the crescent, crusaders and mujahadeen, the light still burns. Under the windows of popes and kings, emperors and sultans, shas and dukes, the light proclaimed that we were still here.

Don't let the light go out. It was lit hidden in cellars, for fear of the Inquisitors racks. It was lit in ghettos and camps, in the shadow of the gas chambers and crematorium. It was lit in the freezing gulag's, the punishment for wishing to return home. It burnt long after Crusaders and Almohads, revolutionaries and fascists, Nazis and Communists, disappeared from the earth and will burn long after the suicide bomber, "holy warrior" and jihadist terrorist. For the miracles performed for us in those days, in this time.

Don't let the light go out. The light that was kindled at the rededication of the Second Temple, and will be kindled at the dedication of the Third Temple, may it be soon. The light that has returned home after two thousands years of exile, the light that blossoms in its holy land. The light that was shot out in Mumbai, massacred on the streets on Jerusalem, in pizzerias and cafes, synagogues and study halls. The light that is threatened by assimilation and ignorance. The light that has seen history, yet still shines. Don't let the light go out.

Chag Chanukkah Sameach!



Cross-posted from For Zion's Sake

Iraqi Ambassadeur Schools The Code Pinkos

The Code Stinkos are protesting for the release of the nutjob that threw his shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Iraq. If he had thrown his shoes at Saddam he would have been dead before he left the room unless Saddam wanted to feed him to a plastic shredder.

Samir Sumaida’ie explains to those breaindead pinko witches that it is a bigger insult to the host in Arab culture to insult their esteemed guest. The only people that take those asshat ladies seriously is our left wing dominated press. Jim Hoft has a partial trancript.

Mr. Muntader al-Zaidi is very lucky that it was Mr. Bush and Mr. Maliki and not Saddam Hussein. Because, had it been Mr. Saddam Hussein he'd be (inaudible). Number 2, in our country, I know that people have told you that showing shoes at someone is an insult. But, it is a bigger insult to the host; in our culture anyone who insults a guest is insulting the host. So in our culture we believe that what Mr al-Zeidi did was reprehensible.

This Ain't Hell has pics of the pinkos DC demonstration, the journalists far outnumbered the pinkos.

Why Keynesian Economic Theory Doesn't Work

I meant to add this video to last night's post about Obama's "New Old Deal" but I forgot. Keynesians make the argument that big government spending will stimulate the economy and as I pointed out last night that is demonstrably false as the government has no money that it does not remove from the economy to begin with, with a very few exceptions. The government does make billions on leases and royalties on public land for oil, mineral, and timbering rights by private companies. The rest comes in the form of taxes in all their dreary forms. Government cannot grow wealth it can only redistribute it which is socialism and it doesn't work. All that money Obama and the Democrats want to spend has to come from somewhere, there sure aren't enough rich people to pay for it all and the country is essentially bankrupt.

Via Larry Kudlow with more here and here.

Obama's New Old Deal

There is lots of talk of a type of "New Deal" similar to FDR's to get our struggling economy going again and Obama is reading up on Roosevelt's first 100 days for ideas. The fact is Roosevelt's meddling and Keynsian tactics worsened the Depression and prolonged it, admittedly Hoover's bungling that started it didn't help much. Obama should read Amity Shlaes' book "The Forgotten Man" to find out just how bad FDR's policies made things. The "New Deal" did not end the Depression, WWII did. A government cannot spend itself into massive debt to end a recession without making things worse and that has been proven time and time again by history. From Reason TV via InstaGlenn with a few pertinent facts.

The best way to jumpstart the economy is to slash corporate and capital gains taxes across the board to encourage new investment by private enterprise not through government spending. Every dollar the government spends has to come out of the economy first, dollars that are best left in the hands of individuals and businesses to invest as they see fit without layers of kleptocratic bureaucracies getting in the way.

America Is Bankrupt

This is a disturbing editorial in the DC Examiner and with Obama and the Democrats planning massive new spending programs it frankly scares the bejeebers out of me. We simply don't have any more money for them to spend even at 100% taxation.

The United States of America is bankrupt. Don’t believe it? Consider this: Federal obligations now exceed the collective net worth of all Americans, according to the New York-based Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Washington politicians and bureaucrats have essentially mortgaged everything We the People own so they can keep spending our tax dollars like there’s no tomorrow.
The foundation’s grim calculations are based on Sept. 30 consolidated federal statements, which showed that Americans’ total household net worth, diminished by falling stock prices and home equity, is $56.5 trillion. But rising costs for unfunded social programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security increased to $56.4 trillion – and that was before the more recent stock market crash, $700 billion bank bailout, and monster federal deficits chalked up in October and November.

“Given more recent developments, it’s clear that America now owes more than its citizens are worth,” said Foundation president David M. Walker, who has been trying to warn Americans of the coming financial tsunami for years, to no avail. So, after Uncle Sam bails out bankers, Wall Street gamblers, carmakers and over-their-head homeowners, who’ll bail out Uncle Sam?

Hattip: John Miller at the Corner.

RNC Ad Blasts Obama And Blagojevich

Meanwhile John McCain reminds us why he was such a lousy candidate by blasting the RNC. He seems more interested in protecting Obama and the Democrats than he does his own party and running mate.

It is insane to think that neither Obama nor his closest adivisors did not have contact with Blagojevich over who they would prefer to fill Obama's Senate seat, they would have been stupid not to have. The focus of this is of course on Rahm Emmanuel and David Axelrod both of whom had very close ties to Blago. I guess Chicago slime even sticks to teflon. There are reports that calls are being made for Emmanuel to resign already as Obama's Chief of Staff and the One has not even taken office yet. All I can say is I told you so, Obama is a typical Chicago machine pol and no messiah.

Life In Sderot, Israel

Sderot is best know as the Israeli city that is under a near steady barrage of qassam rockets fired randomly and indiscriminately from the Gaza strip by the terrorists of Hamas. A young lady, Laura Bialis, from LA moved there a year ago to film a documentary about the lives and music of a citizenry under stress and what she finds is quite remarkable. I guess when you live under the constant stress of possible death at any instant life becomes all the sweeter and more poignant. She found love and life in a city under siege and relates her story in this touching must read post.

Sderot is known for being a poor southern development town, for being hit by qassam rockets from Gaza for eight-years with no end in sight, and for being the “Liverpool” of Israel, having bred some of Israel’s most successful rock bands.

Among Israel’s elite and Tel Aviv society, Sderot is known as a “lousy” place… and on the surface it looks run down, unkempt, and unbeautiful. I have noted the shocked expressions of most Israelis when they hear that I have moved from West Los Angeles to Sderot. But in my year here, I have forged an unbreakable connection to this place. Maybe I’m just a small town person who’s been stuck in a big city most of my life, or maybe the artist in me felt constrained dealing with the film industry in LA. All I can report, is that I have learned more in this, my 35th year, than any other in my life.

Israel has become my top destination for an over seas visit, there is simply so much history there and from reading this post Sderot would be a must visit part of the itinerary. I pray my dreams are fulfilled and the mad mullahs' of Iran never are.

Hattip: Commentary's Rich Richman

Killer Chic: Hollywood’s Sick Obsession With Che Guevara

I know I don't understand it with the left's concern for "human rights", Che was a murderous thug unconcerned with "human rights". He only cared about power and just how well has Cuba done since, seems it is a third world thugocracy to me. From Reason TV via Instaglenn.

Now This Is Cool

Dang I guess video games do serve a purpose after all. I pointed thise out before with the use of UAV drones doing surveillance and sending hellfire into enemy hideouts but now they have remote controlled gun turrets, CROWS, on our armored war wagons run by video game addicts. The military was sceptical at first and now they can't get enough of them. They are capable of delivering highly accurate fire while the gunner sits inside the vehicle instead of manning the gun while exposed. This comes via Ace and Strategy Page.

The remote control turret changed the battlefield more than you might think. It all began three years ago, when the U.S. Army realized that new remote control gun turret designs actually worked, and suddenly they could not get enough of them. The army ordered over 9,000 CROWS (common remotely operated weapon stations), but for a while could only get 15 a month. By the end of 2006, there were about a thousand CROWS in service by the end of the year.

The main issue was that the enemy was no longer able to knock out the turret gunner, early in a firefight, and take away a lot of the vehicles firepower. Because of that, once the enemy opens fire, they are in trouble. The remote turret tends to begin delivering accurate fire right away, and is much more immune to enemy fire than a human gunner. If the vehicle is a Stryker, the enemy will soon find themselves dealing with half a dozen or so heavily armed infantry, who get out of the vehicle and come at the ambushers. Iraqis don't like that. They also don't like how some of the CROWS turret equipped vehicles will come after them. All those accurately aimed bullets coming their way, and no enemy soldiers in sight, is demoralizing.

I know I would not want to be a terrorist douchebag with a stryker coming at me spewing highly accurate .50 cal bullets from an RC turret.

Let's say we know where the scum is positioned from previous fire. A stryker or two could drop off their infantry out of sight and then move in with only the driver and RC man while laying heavy cover fire. Our dismounted troops could then circle in and mop up the remains, I like it, I like it A LOT.

Want To Close The Budget Deficit

The best way is to aggressively limit spending while at the same time freeing up domestic energy production in all its forms. The basis of any economy is access to energy in a readily available and affordable form and it doesn't take an economist to understand that basic fact. We should start counter suing all the econut green groups that deprive us of affordable energy based on their fraudulent global warming theories.

My friend at the American Petroleum Institute sent me these statistics on just how much revenue opening up previously closed areas to oil and natural gas production would bring into the government coffers as well as the hundreds of thousands of high paying jobs it would generate.

The development of America's vast domestic oil and natural gas resources that had been kept off-limits by Congress until recently could generate more than $1.7 trillion in government revenue, create thousands of new jobs and enhance the nation’s energy security by significantly boosting domestic production, a new study shows.

The ICF International study, commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute (API), shows that developing the offshore areas that had been subject to Congressional moratoria until recently, as well as the resources in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a small portion of currently unavailable federal lands in the Rockies, would lift U.S. crude oil production by as much as 2 million barrels per day in 2030, offsetting nearly a fifth of the nation's imports. Natural gas production could increase by 5.34 billion cubic feet per day, or the equivalent of 61 percent of the expected natural gas imports in 2030.

The study also estimates that the development of all U.S. oil and natural gas resources on federal lands could exceed $4 trillion over the life of the resources.

"This study underscores how the oil and natural gas industry can enhance America's energy security and help solve our economic problems by increasing production of our nation’s vast oil and natural gas resources," said API President and CEO Jack N. Gerard. "The U.S. oil and natural gas industry supports more than six million jobs, and more drilling for oil and natural gas will mean more energy for America, more well-paying jobs, and trillions of dollars of much-needed revenues that will help federal, state and local governments pay for critical services."

According to the ICF study, U.S. crude oil production would rise by 36% by 2030 if development is permitted in the studied areas of the Outer Continental Shelf, ANWR and the Rockies and domestic natural gas production would rise by 10%. By 2030, this activity would create 160,000 jobs.

The entire PDF report can be found here.

Why send all those jobs and dollars over seas when we can keep them right here in the US?

If We Must Have An Auto Bailout

Make Mitt Romney the Car Czar, he is the only person with the know how and ability to handle it.