Obama Hits Yet Another Low Water Mark

Just 29% of voters see the nation headed on the right track, a whopping 67% believe the nation is on the wrong track. That represents the worst level yet measured under this President.

Snowstorm squelches climate change protest

The Almighty has a great sense of humor.

A downtown protest of the climate change talks in Copenhagen became a victim of Wednesday's snowstorm.

"Not many people showed up because of the blizzard conditions," said organizer Clea Major, an international studies student at the University of Utah.

It didn't take long for the six friends to pack up a bullhorn and posters they'd planned to use for their "scream-in," an outlet for their frustration about the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks earlier this month to curb the pollution blamed for climate change.

Controversial Obama U.N. nominee withdraws

Just another example of the Obama administrations vetting, or rather the lack therof...

Jide Zeitlin, the Obama administration's nominee to be America's point man for financial reform at the United Nations, has withdrawn himself from consideration for the job, an administration official tells The Cable.

Zeitlin, a former Goldman Sachs executive and telecom entrepreneur, had faced criticism for his business dealings related to Indian contractors and was also accused of identity fraud for an incident in which he admitted to sending an email to investors masked as coming from one of his competitors. Zeitlin testified before Congress that the email was a prank.

He was approved out of the Senate Foreign Relations committee in November.

Somali Man Arrested at Mogadishu Airport With Chemicals, Syringe Last Month

This johnnie on the spot administration not only did nothing in response to this new threat, it may have not been aware it even occured.

Mogadishu, Somalia (AP) - A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Somali man -- whose name has not yet been released -- was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight took off. It had been scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai. A Somali police spokesman, Abdulahi Hassan Barise, said the suspect is in Somali custody.

"We don't know whether he's linked with al-Qaida or other foreign organizations, but his actions were the acts of a terrorist. We caught him red-handed," said Barise.

Foiled US Plane Bombing Explodes Myth of Poverty-Terror Link

A myth perpetuated by bleeding heart liberals that refuse to acknowledge that some people and institutions are just plain evil.

(IsraelNN.com) The would-be bomber of the airplane en route to Detroit, Michigan last Friday is from a wealthy family and stayed in Yemen in an area heavily populated by the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, which said it was behind the bombing.

The terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria, is the son of a rich Nigerian banker, whose warnings to American authorities about his son’s behavior were ignored. He left Yemen earlier this month after studying Arabic there, and U.S. investigators suspect that the explosive device he tried to detonate on the plane was bought in Yemen. Passengers overwhelmed him before he could carry out his suicide mission.

Al-Qaeda said the attempted bombing of the plane on Friday "dealt a huge blow to the myth of American and global intelligence services and showed how fragile its structure is."

Unfortunately, under the current administration, they are correct.

Obama provides unlimited loss coverage to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

I'd be very surprised if this was even legal...

A Christmas Eve White House decision that nobody will notice. President Obama and his treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, have elected to increase loss coverage for the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from $200 billion to unlimited for the next three years.

So much for transparency, but there is more! The GSEs are having a pretty good week as politicians and lobbyists are provided cover with snow storms in the nation’s capital, a huge health care debate and only the biggest holiday of the year. For those of you who may have missed it, the Associated Press reported top executives at the GSE would be paid as much as $6 million for their terrible performance in 2009.

Read the rest.

Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Bomb Attempt

Napolitano said "There was no wider plot"..... clueless yet again.

CAIRO (AP) - Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the attempted attack on a U.S. airliner on Christmas day, saying it was retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen.
In a statement posted on the Internet, the group said 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab coordinated with members of the group.

Yemeni forces, helped by U.S. intelligence, carried out two airstrikes against al-Qaida operatives in the country this month. The second one was a day before the attempted bombing of the plane.

Bomb plotter: 'More like me'

Believe it.

FAILED plane bomber Umar Abdulmutallab has bragged to FBI agents that there are more young men plotting to launch attacks on the West. The 23-year-old Nigerian has told security chiefs of a sinister network in Yemen who are ready and waiting to strike.

The reports come after The Sun revealed that cops fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners.

The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen.

It was there London-educated Abdulmutallab prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet.

The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London.

They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike.

Napolitano: "The system worked"

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up the Amsterdam-Detroit flight this week demonstrated that "the system worked."

Asked by CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union" how that could be possible when the young Nigerian who sought to set off the bomb was able to smuggle explosive liquid onto the flight, Napolitano responded: "We're asking the same questions."

Napolitano added that there was "no suggestion that [the bomber] was improperly screened."

No Ms. Napolitano, the system DID NOT work. It was only by the grace of God that the bomb didn't either. Their lying isn't even clever anymore. The hubris displayed by this administration is truly unprecendented.

Baucus Crocked on Senate Floor?

It certainly appears so. You be the judge.

Build-a-Bear Blows it

Indoctrination can prove costly.

St. Louis - First, Chicken Little warned children that the sky was falling. And now Build-a-Bear Workshop has warned children that the North Pole could disappear before Christmas.

The Missouri-based company has found itself in hot water, defending an animated series on its website featuring polar bears, penguins and Mrs. Claus, as Santa is warned that global warming is "a serious situation."

Conservative bloggers reposted the videos online and called for a boycott of the toy company, saying Build-a-Bear should not be presenting a political stance to children.

The company relented, took down the videos and posted on its website a letter from Build-a-Bear founder and Chief Executive Maxine Clark.

Merry Christmas

"I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. (John 14:6-7)

Super Present

Best Christmas gift ever... Bradley 4 rack smoker, YEA BABY!

Reid's Delusion

In the final minutes of the Senate health care debate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said lawmakers would hear "an earful" about the national health care bill from constituents who are solidly opposed to the legislation. In response, Majority Leader Harry Reid cited the case of a young disabled boy in Nevada who Reid said will now have health coverage and said that Democrats will indeed hear an earful -- "an earful of joy and happiness."

"Yes, we'll hear an earful," Reid added, "but it will be an earful of wonderment and happiness."

Wanna bet?

New High Water Mark for GOP

Expect more Democrat retirements and defections.

Republican candidates now have an eight-point lead over Democrats, their biggest lead of the year, in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

The new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 36% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Support for GOP candidates held steady over the past week, but support for Democrats slipped by a point.

Festivus vs. Kwanzaa

Festivus or Kwanzaa,which one makes more sense to you?

Obama Hits New Low Water Mark

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-six percent (46%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21 That’s the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President.

Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-six percent (56%) now disapprove.

Third Qtr Growth Revised Down, WAY DOWN

Revised Down yet again. It started at 3.5% growth revised down to 2.8% and now it's at 2.2%. Can we honestly believe anything this administration puts out?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The economy grew at a much slower pace than initially thought in the third quarter, restrained by weak business investment and a slightly more aggressive liquidation of inventories, according to data on Tuesday.

Growth was boosted by government stimulus programs, including the popular cash for clunkers and tax credit for first-time home buyers, and debate continues to rage over the sustainability of the recovery once government support wanes.

Business spending in the third quarter was weaker than the government had estimated last month. Business investment fell at a 5.9 percent rate instead of 4.1 percent, the department said.

A deeper than initially thought slump in the construction of nonresidential structures and stronger demand for imports, which overshadowed the growth in exports, held back growth in the third quarter, the report showed.

Would Geraldo Quit If FOX News Hires Lou Dobbs?

The door couldn't possibly hit him in the a$$ fast enough. BTW, take Shep with you.

Over the weekend, the Daily News reported that Fox News host Geraldo Rivera has told Fox News founder and chairman Roger Ailes he'll quit if Ailes hires Lou Dobbs.

Rivera tells Rush & Molloy, "I never threatened to quit," adding, "The last time I checked, no one here was talking to the a-—." A rep for Ailes concurs, telling the paper he isn't looking to add Dobbs to either FNC or FBN.

And all this reminded us about a situation a few years ago just after Rivera signed a reported 6-year $36m contract with NBC. In August, 1998 Newsweek reported on a riff between Rivera and then NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw. Rivera complained in a TV Guide interview that promos for his CNBC show "Rivera Live" didn't air during "Nightly" because Brokaw banned them. He also seemed to be gunning for Brokaw's job, telling TV Guide he was, "in the running for the center chair at the desk of the wise men."

A day after the quotes leaked, Rivera issued this statement: "Tom Brokaw is a great newsman who does a terrific job and the rivalry between us is grossly overstated." He also explained that his ambition to be "the news anchor for the next millennium" did not extend beyond his role as a CNBC host.

Bigger than Watergate

By one helluva whole lot.

ACORN critic Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is mystified that both the Democratic-controlled Congress and the Obama administration aren't doing much about the tax-subsidized organized crime syndicate ACORN even as evidence of its wrongdoing continues to pile up.

In an exclusive interview, the House Judiciary Committee member describes the ACORN saga as "the largest corruption crisis in the history of America."

"It's thousands of times bigger than Watergate because Watergate was only a little break-in by a couple of guys," said King. "By the time we pull ACORN out by its roots America's going to understand just how big this is."

Unlike the Nixon-era Watergate scandal, the ACORN scandal reaches not only to the highest levels of government, but also to states and localities across America. The president himself and his political advisor Patrick Gaspard used to work for ACORN and the radical advocacy group has allies throughout congressional leadership who are bending over backwards to protect it. President Obama has also hired as White House counsel Bob Bauer, whom King described as "the number one defender of ACORN in the country."

How Wikipedia’s green doctor rewrote 5,428 climate articles

Control the dissemination of facts and your truth become THE truth.

The Climategate Emails describe how a small band of climatologists cooked the books to make the last century seem dangerously warm.

The emails also describe how the band plotted to rewrite history as well as science, particularly by eliminating the Medieval Warm Period, a 400 year period that began around 1000 AD.

The Climategate Emails reveal something else, too: the enlistment of the most widely read source of information in the world — Wikipedia — in the wholesale rewriting of this history.

The Medieval Warm Period, which followed the meanness and cold of the Dark Ages, was a great time in human history — it allowed humans around the world to bask in a glorious warmth that vastly improved agriculture, increased life spans and otherwise bettered the human condition.

But the Medieval Warm Period was not so great for some humans in our own time — the same small band that believes the planet has now entered an unprecedented and dangerous warm period. As we now know from the Climategate Emails, this band saw the Medieval Warm Period as an enormous obstacle in their mission of spreading the word about global warming. If temperatures were warmer 1,000 years ago than today, the Climategate Emails explain in detail, their message that we now live in the warmest of all possible times would be undermined. As put by one band member, a Briton named Folland at the Hadley Centre, a Medieval Warm Period “dilutes the message rather significantly.”

Climate deal falls short

They don't call him Zero for nuthin...

The climate deal reached between U.S, China and other great powers on Friday night is so vague, hastily hatched and non-binding President Obama isn’t even sure he’ll be required to sign it.

“You know, it raises an interesting question as to whether technically there's actually a signature… It's not a legally binding agreement, I don't know what the protocols are,” said a bleary-eyed Obama, before hopping in Air Force One for the trip back to Washington.

Even as he left, it wasn’t clear that the pact Obama described as “meaningful” would even pass muster with the European Union – or attract enough votes with the 193-nation COP 15 conference to become an official declaration.

"It’s a catastrophe," said Dan Joergensen, a member of the European delegation. "We’re so far away from the criteria that was set up in order to call it a success, and those weren’t really that ambitious to start with."

Senior White House Official: The 'Chinese Are Dug In'; 'We've Done What We Can' in Copenhagen

Welcome to the real world Bambi.

"We've done what we can here," a senior White House official in Copenhagen, Denmark, tells ABC News. "The Chinese are dug in on transparency and are refusing to let people know they're living up to their end of the agreement."

After landing in Denmark early this morning, President Obama met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a bilateral at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to press the case that China needs to allow for transparency.

"The President's priority is to make our economy far more focused on a clean energy economy that creates jobs," the official said. "He is here to work constructively and participate in hoping to get an international accord. But not getting one here won't change wanting to transform our economy to create the new foundation he's talked about."

Template for Disaster

This what 50 years of Democrat governance will reap. Previews of coming attractions for the rest of the country if the left has it's way.

*An unemployment rate that even its beleaguered Mayor Dave Bing has said “in reality it’s probably close to 50 percent.”

*A real estate market that doesn’t exist as evident by the thousands of houses that can be had for $1.00 or free.

* Most Police precincts rely on mandatory overtime just to get enough cops to man the patrol cars they need on each tour. Under current conditions the police don’t patrol, they just travel from “job” to “job”. They have no time for patrolling.

*The City’s teachers are being extorted to pay their own salaries by making interest free “loans” only repayable at separation.

* There are no major supermarket chains doing business in Detroit and people are being forced to grow their own vegetables in abandoned trash filled lots.

Mother won’t be charged with baby’s death because of law loophole

A loophole in state law is preventing Campbell County investigators from charging a woman they say killed her newborn baby.

Deputies were called to a home in the 1200 block of Lone Jack Road in Rustburg around 11:00a.m. Friday. The caller said a woman in her early 20s was in labor. When deputies arrived, they discovered the baby had actually been born around 1:00a.m., about ten hours earlier. Investigators say the baby was already dead when deputies got there.

Investigators tell WSLS the baby’s airway was still blocked. They say the baby was under bedding and had been suffocated by her mother. Investigators say because the mother and baby were still connected by the umbilical cord and placenta, state law does not consider the baby to be a separate life. Therefore, the mother cannot be charged.

“In the state of Virginia as long as the umbilical cord is attached and the placenta is still in the mother, if the baby comes out alive the mother can do whatever she wants to with that baby to kill it.“, says Investigator Tracy Emerson. “She could shoot the baby, stab the baby. As long as it’s still attached to her in some form by umbilical cord or something it’s no crime in the state of Virginia.“

Dear Lord save us.

GAO opens ACORN investigation

The Government Accountability Office has opened an investigation into ACORN’s use of taxpayer dollars, two House Republicans said Thursday.

Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) made the announcement in the course of demanding a separate FBI investigation into the group.

“Only an independent criminal investigation conducted by the FBI can get to the bottom of the nationwide allegations against ACORN,” Smith said in a news release.

But ACORN already investigated thenselves and determined all is well dontcha know.

Fox News Has Highest Rated Year In Network History

Yet CNN and MSNBC remain clueless as to the reasons.

Fox News will finish 2009 as the top-rated cable news network, a perch it has enjoyed for eight years running. But 2009--the first year of the Obama administration--also marks FNC's highest rated year in the channel's 13-year-history.

FNC topped the competition in all dayparts: morning (1 million total viewers, 340,000viewers in news' target demographic of 25-54-year-olds); total day (1.2 million viewers, 323,000 in the demo); primetime (2.2 million viewers, 551,000 in the demo). Those numbers mark year-to-year demo gains of 14% in the morning, 16% in total day and 10% in primetime (Mon-Sun), according to Nielsen.

FNC saw double-digit gains for all of its programs. Year-to-year, Glenn Beck is up 96% among total viewers (2.3 million) and 148% in the demo (612,000). Special Report with Bret Baier posted gains of 25% among total viewers (2 million) and 33% in the demo (454,000). The O'Reilly Factor is up 13% among total viewers (3.3 million) and 27% (801,000) in the demo, marking its tenth consecutive year as the No. 1 cable news program.

Russians confirm that UK climate scientists manipulated data to exaggerate global warming

One thing about the Russians, they're not easily hornswoggled.

Climategate has already affected Russia. On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.

The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory. Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country’s territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports. Over 40% of Russian territory was not included in global-temperature calculations for some other reasons, rather than the lack of meteorological stations and observations.

The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.

Rubio Crist Tied in Florida Senate Race

Appears that RINO's are in as much trouble with voters as Democrats in 2010.

Governor Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio are now tied in the 2010 race for the Republican Senate nomination in Florida.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP Primary voters finds Crist and Rubio each with 43% of the vote. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.

Crist’s support has fallen from 53% in August to 49% in October. Rasmussen Reports noted at the time, “The fact that Crist has fallen below 50% in a primary against a lesser known opponent suggests potential vulnerability.”

Stocks drop after inflation data

Stocks are lower in early trading after after wholesale inflation rose more than expected in November, led by surge in energy costs.

The increase will likely be discussed as Federal Reserve policymakers begin a two-day meeting on interest rates Tuesday. The Fed is expected to keep rates unchanged.

The Labor Department said wholesale prices jumped 1.8 percent last month, more than double the 0.8 percent gain analysts expected. Core inflation, which excludes energy and food, rose 0.5 percent, the biggest increase in more than a year.

Print money like we've been doing and it was only a matter of time. Look out, it's gonna get worse, a lot worse.

Tuesday Funny

Quote of the day

“The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance.

Robert A. Heinlein

Dems Point Fingers At WH, Timid Incumbents

Ruh Roh...

A trickle of Dem retirements, a wave of bad polling numbers and a torrent of negative news stories about the political climate all have Dems worried that the party needs a serious turnaround before the '10 elections -- and that time may be running out.

Now, Dem strategists are urging their members of Congress to be more decisive, and pointing a finger at the WH for forcing an ambitious agenda for which Congress will now have to answer.

"You can't tell people how to run their campaigns, but in order for this not to be 1994, the White House is going to have to understand this is a referendum on Barack Obama," said a senior Dem consultant. Dems face "a political environment that Obama created by pushing an agenda this fast."

I seem to remember some old adage about "rats jumping off a sinking ship".

Copenhagen climate summit negotiations 'suspended'

Blizzard on the way?

Negotiations at the UN climate summit have been suspended after developing countries withdrew their co-operation.

Delegations were angry at what they saw as moves by the Danish host government to sideline talks on more emission cuts under the Kyoto Protocol.

As news spread around the conference centre, activists chanted "We stand with Africa - Kyoto targets now".

Obama Hits New Low (UPDATED)

mmmm mmmm mmmm.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16. That’s the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President (emphasis mine)

The 25% who Strongly Approve matches the lowest level of enthusiasm yet recorded. That’s partly the result of declining enthusiasm among Democrats. While Democrats continue to offer their approval, just 43% Strongly Approve.

Overall, 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-three percent (53%) disapprove.

OUCH!

Update: NEW new low...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19.

Today is the second straight day that Obama’s Approval Index rating has fallen to a new low. Prior to the past two days, the Approval Index had never fallen below -15 during Obama’s time in office.

The 23% who Strongly Approve matches the lowest level of enthusiasm yet recorded. Just 41% of Democrats Strongly Approve while 69% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 21% Strongly Approve and 49% Strongly Disapprove.

DOUBLE OUCH!

Sarah on Tonight Show

You can't teach this folks. She bones up on world/domestic affairs and she will destroy the Obama in 2012.

I don't like the term but for lack of better I'll say "Rock Star"

Weekend Cosmos

I don't know which is more stunning, the earth or the stars.

USA Today cherry picks poll data in Sarah Palin article

More Opinion editorial masquerading as straight journalism.

In a feature article based on an interview with Sarah Palin, USA's Kathy Kiely cherry picked some old poll data to make the former governor appear to be less popular with the American public than she actually is:

"But even as her book sales soar, Palin remains a divisive figure in American politics. In an October Gallup Poll, 50% of those surveyed viewed the conservative Republican unfavorably, compared to 40% who had a favorable view."
That Gallup poll was conducted October 1-4, more than three two months ago. Since then, an Opinion Research poll conducted November 17-18 for FOX News found Sarah Palin's favorable rating to be 47 percent (and just 42 percent unfavorable), and another survey conducted by the same firm for CNN December 2-3 revealed her favorable rating to be 46 percent (with 46 percent unfavorable), just one point shy of Obama's.

This is par for the course for a left-leaning Gannett publication like USA Today, which ignored two more recent polls that show Sarah Palin's favorable ratings to be on the rise to reference a poll with findings that are no longer relevant. The attempt to hide the fact that Sarah Palin and President Obama are in a statistical tie in the way in which they are currently perceived by the public, and that she is no more "divisive" than he.

Insiders Say Tiger Woods Ready to Quit Golf to Save Marriage After String of Alleged Affairs

TIGER Woods is ready to quit golf in a desperate bid to save his marriage.

Insiders say the disgraced sex addict has told wife Elin he will "do anything" - as the scandal rolled on.

Swedish beauty Elin Nordegren, 29, has agreed to stay with her billionaire husband for the sake of their two young children.

But she has given Woods, 33, this stark ultimatum: "It's golf, or me."

Been a lot of guys that have heard that line before.

GOP leads Dems among likely voters in generic ballot

Again, Rasmussen has been reporting this for months. Now you know why this blog reports Raz, the others are decidedly behind the curve.

Republicans lead Democrats in a test of generic congressional matchups, a new poll found Thursday.

42 percent of likely voters said they would prefer a generic Republican candidate for Congress versus 38 percent who said they would prefer a generic Democrat, according to a Bloomberg News poll released Thursday.

16 percent said they were unsure who they'd support, while four percent were unsure.

NY foreclosures up 70%

What happens when you have liberals running the show both nationally and locally.

Home foreclosure filings in New York rose nearly 70 percent in November compared to the same month a year ago, a much steeper increase than what happened nationally.

The number of foreclosure filings in the U.S. rose 18 percent in November on a year-over-year basis, according to RealtyTrac, an online real estate company based in California.

Even with the big jump in New York, the state continues to rank toward the bottom in terms of per-capita foreclosures in the United States.

Ohio, The Consummate Bellwether

Previews of coming attractions?

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Ohio shows Republican John Kasich getting 48% of the vote while Strickland picks up just 39%. Three percent (3%) say they’d prefer a third-party candidate, and 11% are not sure who they would vote for. In September, the two men were essentially even.

Governors throughout the country are struggling with budgets and a bad economy. In New Jersey last year, incumbent Governor Jon Corzine picked up his worst polling numbers of the year at the time he announced plans to solve a budget shortfall with tax increases.

Support down for Obama's handling of economy: poll

Funny how it has taken all the other polls so long to find what Rasmussen has been reporting for months.

WASHINGTON — A growing number of Americans have lost confidence in President Barack Obama's handling of the economy, despite the apparent beginnings of a recovery, according to a poll out Wednesday.

A Quinnipiac University survey found that 54 percent of respondents disapproved of Obama's handling of the economy, compared to 41 percent who approved.

The finding was Obama's "worst score ever on this issue," the pollsters said in a statement. They said it also showed erosion of support even from just a month ago, when public opinion on his handling of the economy earned a 52-43 percent approval rating.

For his overall job performance, respondents gave Obama a 46 percent approval -- also his lowest ever -- while 44 percent of those polled disapproved of the president's performance, the poll showed.

Pic of the Day

Hillary passes gas at recent NATO meeting, Great Britains rep is obviously being an exceptionally good sport.

Obama's 47 Percent Approval Lowest of Any President at This Point

So much for that Hopey/Changy thing.

Below are comparable ratings for other presidents since Gallup began taking presidential approval polls in 1938:


George W. Bush, 86 percent
Bill Clinton, 52 percent
George H.W. Bush, 71 percent
Ronald Reagan, 49 percent
Jimmy Carter, 57 percent
Gerald Ford, 52 percent
Richard Nixon, 59 percent
Lyndon Johnson, 74 percent
John Kennedy, 77 percent
Dwight Eisenhower, 69 percent
Harry Truman, 49 percent

Barack Obama's coup d'etat

Scary stuff folks, scary stuff...

Who needs tanks on the lawn when you have the Environmental Protection Agency? Barack Obama’s use of the EPA to pressurise the Senate to pass his climate change Nuremberg Decrees shows his dictatorial mentality. He wants to override Congress, which is hostile to his climate gobbledegook because it is representative of the American electorate, and sideline the nation’s elected Senators by ruling by decree, courtesy of the EPA. This is a coup d’état.

And what is the justification for this undemocratic action? The allegedly imminent threat from “Anthropogenic Global Warming”. There is always a supposed threat, when tyrants take the stage. The President of the United States has just reduced his moral authority to the level of any Third World dictator heading a “Government of National Emergency”. Fortunately, the world’s leading democracy, which he is trying to subvert, has guarantees of liberty so deeply embedded in its Constitution that US citizens are well placed to fight back.

In the first place, regulation can be challenged in a way that laws cannot. So the EPA’s proposed ruling on so-called “Greenhouse Gases” can be opposed extensively with litigation, to the point that the ruling might not yet be in force when Obama demits office. In the second place, the EPA is funded by Congress. So, if the Agency is being used to bypass or neuter Congress, why should legislators not play hardball and retaliate by cutting off its funding? The EPA may look formidable, but its situation is rather as if Rommel were buying the fuel for his tanks from the Allies.

Cost-benefit analysis of jobs stimulus

As the old adage goes "nice work if you can get it".

The Obama Administration is touting that their stimulus program has saved or created 640,329 jobs since it was enacted back in February through the end of October. This number is updated and posted on the Administration’s recovery.gov web site. That amounts to $246,436 per job based on the $157.8bn that has been awarded so far! Total compensation earned by the average payroll employee during October, on an annualized basis, was $59,867. If the government had simply used the funds awarded so far to pay for a year’s worth of labor, that would have paid for 2.6mn jobs!

If by now we haven't realized how completely inept the Fed govt. is at spending money we never will.

NPR reporter pressured over Fox role

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...

Executives at National Public Radio recently asked the network’s top political correspondent, Mara Liasson, to reconsider her regular appearances on Fox News because of what they perceived as the network’s political bias, two sources familiar with the effort said.

According to a source, Liasson was summoned in early October by NPR’s executive editor for news, Dick Meyer, and the network’s supervising senior Washington editor, Ron Elving. The NPR executives said they had concerns that Fox’s programming had grown more partisan, and they asked Liasson to spend 30 days watching the network.

At a follow-up meeting last month, Liasson reported that she’d seen no significant change in Fox’s programming and planned to continue appearing on the network, the source said.

Obama Hits New Low Water Mark

This is the lowest "Strongly Approve" number since the polls inception.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14

Global Warming on Parade

Anecdotal yes, but enough anecdotes start adding up to a pattern.

Houston gets earliest snowfall on record

HOUSTON — Houston had its earliest snowfall on record Friday, with several inches accumulating in counties southwest of the city.

The previous record for early snow in Houston was Dec. 10 in 1944 and again last year, said Charles Roeseler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Snow is rare in the nation's fourth largest city. In the past 15 years, it has snowed four times, including Friday.

Accumulations of 3 to 4 inches of snow were reported in counties southwest of Houston. The city got a half inch or less of snow, and its suburbs reported 1 to 2 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

"It's going to continue to snow through the afternoon," Roeseler said in the early afternoon. "We'll pick up another inch or so across parts of Houston."

Friday Funny

Almost 2/3rds of the American Public Oppose a Single Payer Health Care Plan

This singular issue will defeat more Democrats in 2010 than all the others combined.

Only 27% of voters nationwide favor a single-payer health care system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone. That’s down five points from August.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 62% are opposed to a single-payer system and another 12% are undecided.

Most Democrats (54%) favor this type of system, though 37% are opposed. Most Republicans (87%) and voters not affiliated with either party (64%) are opposed to the idea.

There is little difference in opinion between those voters who currently have health insurance and those who do not.

Former NASA climate scientist pleads guilty to contract fraud

Crooked is as crooked does, Schoeberl is on the right.

A former top climate scientist who had become of one the scientific world's most cited authorities on the human effect on Earth's atmosphere was sentenced to probation Tuesday after pleading guilty to steering lucrative no-bid contracts to his wife's company.

In addition to a year's probation, former NASA manager Mark Schoeberl, 60, of Silver Spring, was also fined $10,000 and ordered to put in 50 hours of community service. He admitted in the late summer that he had hid some $50,000 in NASA contracts for a company called Animated Earth, which was run by Schoeberl's wife, Barbara. Prosecutors alleged that Schoeberl tried to help his wife's firm for years. When his colleagues balked at giving no-bid contracts to his wife's firm, Schoeberl pressured them to steer money to his wife through indirect means.

Schoeberl was the chief scientist of the Goddard Space Flight Center's Earth Sciences Division and the head of the Aura Project, a NASA mission to study the Earth's ozone layer, air quality and climate. He has written extensively about the depletion of the ozone level, and the influence of humans on global climate change.

ISM Index Falls to 48.7

The best indication yet that people are NOT spending.

The U.S. services sector unexpectedly contracted in November, with an index measuring activity falling to its lowest reading since July, according to an industry report released on Thursday.

The Institute for Supply Management said its services index shrank to 48.7 in November from 50.6 in October.

Wednesday Funny

Merry Christmas from the Woods

Thanks Jilliane at FR.

ADP Job Loss Report Is Worse Than Expected

The private ADP jobs report indicated a loss of 169,000 private sector jobs in November, which was worse than the 150,000 that analysts had estimated.

Also not good: October was revised to a worse 195,000.

Gotta love them "green shoots". BTW, anyone notice how the previous Employment/GDP figures are almost without exception revised DOWN.

Senate votes down Australian cap-and-trade bill

You gotta love the Aussies.

Australia's plans for transitioning to a low carbon economy were thrown into turmoil today when the opposition successfully blocked the government's flagship emission cap-and-trade bill for the second time this year.

The vote, which follows a dramatic week that saw opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull ousted over his decision to reach a compromise with the government over the bill, resulted in the bill being defeated by 41 votes to 33.

The vote represented a victory for Tony Abbott, who replaced Turnbull yesterday as leader of the opposition Liberal Party and successfully managed to marshal Senators that had been previously split on the issue to vote against the bill.

Eric Holder Refuses to Investigate ACORN

It's too bad the Canadian Press is more vigilant reporting the self serving corruption of the present administration than we are.

Attorney General Eric Holder has made it abundantly clear he has absolutely no interest in investigating his radical friends at ACORN.

Holder’s Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that allows the Obama administration to ignore the will of Congress which has voted overwhelmingly to suspend federal funding of ACORN until at least Dec. 18. He’s also ignored the 88-page report on ACORN’s systemic corruption and flagrant racketeering activities that was issued this summer by Republican investigators on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Apparently, public outrage at the continuing antics of the corrupt radical advocacy group that used to employ President Obama and White House political director Patrick Gaspard counts for nothing.

But Americans really shouldn’t be surprised that Attorney General Holder is bending over backwards to help his radical friends at ACORN.

Holder, whom I’ve long argued is unfit to serve as the federal government’s chief law enforcement officer, supports ACORN’s goals.

ACORN wants to use the power of government to bring about a radical transformation of American society.

Huckleberry is Toast

Remember this: Why parole a monster like Green. I posted it back in December of 07. He's a serial commuter.

The man is a naive, soft on crime Christian socialist and that's a very dangerous combination. This time it's going to destroy him. 4 cops killed because he commuted a sentence of 95 years to 9 years. Sons and daughters have been forced to go through life without their mothers and fathers because this guy executed compassion without reason. He couldn't be elected now as a Democrat let alone a Republican.

I hope he has an extended contract with Fox, he's going to need it.

Health Care Support Still in the Crapper

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 41% of voters nationwide favor the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. Fifty-three percent (53%) are opposed to it. Those figures include 22% who Strongly Favor the plan and 40% who are Strongly Opposed.

Support for the legislation is up three percentage points from a week ago. However, last week’s results were the lowest level of support ever recorded for the plan. With the exception of a few days following nationally televised presidential appeals for the legislation, the number of voters opposed to the plan has always exceeded the number who favor it.

While advocates say the plan is needed to control the cost of health care, 56% of voters now say it will have the opposite impact and push prices even higher. Just 17% believe passage of the plan will lead to lower costs.

That's 83% who at least have half a clue.

Selective Transparency

Stop the ACLU has reported that the "Climategate" scientists have agreed to publish their figures in full.....that is the ones they have left after throwing away ALL of the untweaked raw data.

So much for the Scientific Method.

Switzerland Bans "Minarets"

Talk about strange bedfellows, the right and feminists tag teamed on this one.

Thirty minutes after the referendum finished at midday, Swiss television reported: “The initiative would appear to be accepted. There is a positive trend. It’s a huge surprise.”

According to the respected gfs.bern polling institute an estimated 59 per cent of voters backed the ban. A majority of cantons were also in support of the initiative.

“A majority have voted for a nationwide ban on the construction of minarets,” said the institute’s director Claude Longchamp, speaking on Swiss Radio DRS.

For the Swiss constitution to be changed, the majority of the electorate and a majority of the cantons are required to vote ‘yes’.

Prosecuting American 'War Crimes'

Pardon my naivete' but this has absolutely GOT to be unconstitutional.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed "great regret" in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague.

The ICC's chief prosecutor, though, has no intention of waiting for Washington to submit to the court's authority. Luis Moreno Ocampo says he already has jurisdiction—at least with respect to Afghanistan.

Because Kabul in 2003 ratified the Rome Statute—the ICC's founding treaty—all soldiers on Afghan territory, even those from nontreaty countries, fall under the ICC's oversight, Mr. Ocampo told me. And the chief prosecutor says he is already conducting a "preliminary examination" into whether NATO troops, including American soldiers, fighting the Taliban may have to be put in the dock.

U.S. Unlikely to Use the Ethanol Congress Ordered

Another shining example of the Fed government being behind the curve again...Two years ago, Congress ordered the nation’s gasoline refiners to do something that is turning out to be mathematically impossible.

To please the farm lobby and to help wean the nation off oil, Congress mandated that refiners blend a rising volume of ethanol and other biofuels into gasoline. They are supposed to use at least 15 billion gallons of biofuels by 2012, up from less than seven billion gallons in 2007.

But nobody at the time counted on fuel demand falling in the United States, which is what has happened during the recession. And that decline could well continue, as cars become more efficient under other recent government mandates.

At the maximum allowable blend, in which gasoline at the pump contains 10 percent ethanol, updated projections suggest that the country is unlikely to be able to use all the ethanol that Congress has ordered up. So something has to give.

Happy Thanksgiving

Honduras Supreme Court backs Zelaya ouster

(Reuters) – Honduras' Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that ousted President Manuel Zelaya cannot legally return to office, dimming the possibility of his reinstatement after a June coup, court sources said.

The Court did not release the full text of its non-binding ruling, but a court source and a lawyer close to the proceedings said it closely follows earlier decisions upholding Zelaya's ouster after he moved to change the constitution.

On June 28, soldiers removed Zelaya from office and sent him into exile on orders from the Supreme Court. The Congress swore in Roberto Micheletti to head the new government, but the world denounced the move and refused to recognize the interim government.

Two thoughts : First, it's NOT a coup if his ouster was backed by the Congress and SC. If any coup was committed it was Zelaya attempting to usurp the Constitution. Second, Obama backed the wrong horse yet again. As Carter, he's becoming the perfect opposite barometer.

Obama's Polls Continue to Tank

You know when the RCP average has you polling below 50% you're in real trouble. Keep in mind it's mostly "Adults" rather than "Registered" or "Likely" voters polled. You can realistically knock an additional 5% if strictly likely voters were canvassed.

That's where Obama finds himself now and at this early stage in his Presidency it's an ominous sign indeed.

Lovely Agere says: Expect the MSM to spin for the next two weeks like never before.

Good call A.

Thanksgiving Eve Funny

Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

If ever there was a bonafide reason to "take no prisoners", this is it.

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And for their trouble, three of the SEALs, members of the Navy's elite commando unit, are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral's mast — and requested a trial by court-martial.

Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

Tuesday Funny

Obama Hits New Low

Rasmussen is reporting that their latest 3 day rolling poll ave has hit a new record low for the passion index at (-15). (27%) Strongly Approve (42%) Strongly Disapprove. Meanwhile BHO has a total approval of 45% which matches a record low.

We at Opinipundit have asserted for some time that when the level of of Strong Disapproval surpasses that of Total Approval, Obama is in very deep trouble. It's getting perilously close

Support for Health Care Reform Hits New Low

Most Democrats feel the American public is too stupid to know better. We'll see how that assessment plays out in 2010.

Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the lowest level of support measured for the plan in nearly two dozen tracking polls conducted since June.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% now oppose the plan.

Half the survey was conducted before the Senate voted late Saturday to begin debate on its version of the legislation. Support for the plan was slightly lower in the half of the survey conducted after the Senate vote.

Prior to this, support for the plan had never fallen below 41%. Last week, support for the plan was at 47%. Two weeks ago, the effort was supported by 45% of voters.

Intensity remains stronger among those who oppose the push to change the nation’s health care system: 21% Strongly Favor the plan while 43% are Strongly Opposed.

Most Dangerous Cities

Hope you live elsewhere.

No. 1: Camden, N.J.
No. 2: St. Louis, Mo.
No. 3: Oakland, Calif.
No. 4: Detroit, Mich.
No. 5: Flint, Mich.
No. 6: New Orleans, La.
No. 7: Birmingham, Ala.
No. 8: Cleveland, Ohio
No. 9: Jackson, Miss.
No. 10: Memphis, Tenn.
No. 11: Gary, Ind.
No. 12: Compton, Calif.
No. 13: Baltimore, Md.
No. 14: Richmond, Calif.
No. 15: Kansas City, Mo.

Sunday Funny

US economy much weaker than government numbers suggest

The data the gubmit is selectively, often misleadingly reporting, obscures the peril we are truly in.

While the US recently reported 3.5 percent GDP growth in the third quarter, suggesting that the most severe recession since the Great Depression is over, the US economy is actually much weaker than official data suggest.

Official measures of GDP may grossly overstate growth in the economy as they don’t capture the fact that business sentiment among small firms is abysmal and their output is still falling sharply. Third-quarter GDP — properly corrected for these factors — may have been 2 percent rather than 3.5 percent.

The story of the US is, indeed, one of two economies. There is a smaller one that is slowly recovering and a larger one that is still in a deep and persistent downturn.

Consider the following facts. While the US’ official unemployment rate is already 10.2 percent, the figure jumps to a whopping 17.5 percent when discouraged workers and partially employed workers are included. And, while data from firms suggest that job losses in the last three months were about 600,000, household surveys — which include self-employed workers and small entrepreneurs — suggest that those losses were above 2 million.

Moreover, the total effect on labor income — the product of jobs times hours worked times average hourly wages — has been more severe than that implied by the job losses alone, because many firms are cutting their workers’ hours, placing them on furlough, or lowering their wages as a way to share the pain.

(Inane) Quote of the Day

NYT:

"But with roughly a quarter of the stimulus money out the door after nine months, the accumulation of hard data and real-life experience has allowed more dispassionate analysts to reach a consensus that the stimulus package, messy as it is, is working."

If you've got a cast iron stomach, the rest of the article is HERE

Hadley hacked: warmist conspiracy exposed?

At least on the surface it appears that The disingenuous and manipulated house of cards built by the Global Warming fanatics is in for a very stiff breeze.

The director of Britain’s leading Climate Research Unit, Phil Jones, has told Investigate magazine’s TGIF Edition tonight ..."It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago that someone had hacked into our system and taken and copied loads of data files and emails."…

TGIF asked Jones about the controversial email discussing “hiding the decline”, and Jones explained what he was trying to say.

So the 1079 emails and 72 documents seem indeed evidence of a scandal involving most of the most prominent scientists pushing the man-made warming theory - a scandal that is one of the greatest in modern science. I’ve been adding some of the most astonishing in updates below - emails suggesting conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more. If it is as it now seems, never again will “peer review” be used to shout down sceptics.

This is clearly not the work of some hacker, but of an insider who’s now blown the whistle.

More HERE.

Detroit's Silverdome sells for a paltry $583,000

Detroit is the quintessential template for how to drive away business and totally screw up a city.

Even though some homes in Detroit literally sell for $1, we're still surprised to see how little an entire stadium fetches. In this case it's the famous Pontiac Silverdome

Detroit News: Nearly 25 years after taxpayers spent $55.7 million building the Pontiac Silverdome and a year after a $20 million sale fell through, city officials have sold the arena once called the most desirable property in Oakland County.

The price: $583,000.

The broker, David J. Leitch, is quite upset about the final selling price. And hey, can you blame him?

"The property alone, at $10,000 an acre, should have gone for more than that. And you have the Silverdome, its contents, and the infrastructure already in place. I had estimated it would probably go for between $1.2 million and $3 million. I can't believe it."

Look for a similar scenario to play out in our larger cities throughout the country.

Obama Motors Chrysler and UAW “electric car” fraud

Just one example of thousands...

Last winter when Chrysler was groveling and crying about having to go bankrupt the Obama Administration took control of the company and struck a deal to justify putting $12.5 B of our tax money in its bank accounts. Chrysler promised it would produce a 500,000 vehicle fleet of practical “electric” cars in just four model years!

Chrysler was merely the United Auto Workers’ bagman. Chrysler got our money then funneled it to the very unions that are killing the American auto industry.

Last week these thieves quietly announced the end of the “electric car” scam which they knew was a fake promise to begin with. The government’s money has run out so there’s no need to keep up the charade.

New Poll Backs up Rasmussen

President Barack Obama's job approval rating has dipped below 50 percent nationally for the first time, as Americans worry about the war in Afghanistan, a new poll released Wednesday found.

The Quinnipiac University poll showed 48 percent of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, compared to 42 percent who disapprove.

The president also scored low marks from Americans on his handling of the situation in Afghanistan, with just 38 percent saying they approved of his approach, but a majority did say it was the "right thing" for US troops to be in the country.

Raz has shown this for a month.

"The Prisoner" Reviewed

I rarely comment on such things as mundane as a television miniseries. Let me make the exception to offer my two sense worth on the the "updated" version of "The Prisoner".... IT SUCKS! Despite top notch casting and a premise with tons of potential it fell flatter than a 2000 lb. pancake dropped from the Sears Tower.

It was nothing more than a cross between a soap opera made on the cheap and "Twin Peaks" without the sex and persuasive plot. One is beotchslapped early on by this dung pile of creativity. It wasn't cinematography or the acting that made most of us incredulous, it was the complete incoherence of storyline and one of the monumental anticlimaxes of all time. Self involved is a compliment for this little gem.

Maybe I'm just not deep enough, or maybe I had a hard day and wasn't feeling too "artsy" at the time or maybe it just sucked hind tit. Whatever the reason for my gut reaction,take my advice....don't waste your time, reruns of "Family Guy" or The Office" or "I Love Lucy" will leave you far more spiritually fullfilled than this cinematic piece of crap.

Fort Hood captain: Hasan wanted patients to face war crimes charges

Fort Hood massacre suspect Nidal Malik Hasan sought to have some of his patients prosecuted for war crimes based on statements they made during psychiatric sessions with him, a captain who served on the base said Monday.

Other psychiatrists complained to superiors that Hasan's actions violated doctor-patient confidentiality, Capt. Shannon Meehan told The Dallas Morning News.

One day after the Nov. 5 attack that killed 13 and wounded 29, a Fort Hood official said she had never received complaints about Hasan's job performance. Col. Kimberly Kesling, deputy commander of clinical services at the base's Darnall Army Medical Center, also said he was a "hardworking, dedicated young man who gave great care to his patients."

Great call Ms Col. Kesling. Idiots like her treat cluelessness as if it was a virtue.

Tuesday Funny

Not so funny.

Jobs 'Saved or Created' in Congressional Districts That Don't Exist

You'd think they'd be a tad less obvious...

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 9th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the website set up by the Obama Administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.

There's one problem, though: There is no 9th Congressional District in Arizona; the state has only eight Congressional Districts.

Two New Polls Show Graham Tanking

"Moderates" win MSM beauty contests not elections. This is especially true in South Carolina.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s public support is collapsing in South Carolina – driven by a wholesale revolt among the GOP electorate and a steady erosion of his support amongst independents.

Already consistently loathed by a solid third of GOP voters, Graham’s recent leftward bent – including his co-authoring of a controversial “Cap & Tax” proposal supported by President Barack Obama and liberal Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) – has him locked in a “terminal free fall,” according one prominent Republican consultant.

“A chunk of the GOP has always detested him, but in the last month a dam has broken,” said the consultant, who was granted anonymity to discuss the impact of two recent polls that were conducted in South Carolina (one allegedly by Graham’s own advisors). “More Republicans now oppose Sen. Graham than support him. Independents are also deserting him in huge numbers.”

Even more troubling for Graham is there doesn’t seem to be a way out of the box. In fact, both polls reportedly showed that the more the national liberal establishment and local environmentalists rally to Graham’s defense, the worse things get for him.

Iran 'has rejected' nuclear deal: French FM

Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Iran has in effect rejected a UN-brokered deal aimed at preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview published on Sunday.

"In practice, the answer has almost been given and it is negative. That is a shame, a shame, a shame," Kouchner told the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot ahead of a visit to the region later this week.

The comments came as both the United States and Russia expressed frustration at Iran's failure to give an answer three weeks after it received the offer in high-level talks to defuse the stand-off.

Copenhagen climate change agreement is impossible

Expected when two of the most populous nations in the world tell them to FO.

World leaders have finally accepted that it will be impossible to come to a deal on climate change this year and have moved their attention to setting new deadlines for a global agreement.

Obama: Too Soon for Probe Of Fort Hood by Congress

On an eight-day Asia trip, President Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to "resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater."

You mean Mr President, like exactly what you're doing with the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial?

Pic of the Day

He ought to be getting pretty good at this, after all practice makes perfect.

Webb Calls it Right

Concerning the idiotic decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other terrorists in civilian courts in the United States, we have a rare display of lucidity from a Democrat.

Virginia Democratic Sen. James Webb says: I have never disputed the constitutional authority of the President to convene Article III courts in cases of international terrorism. However, I remain very concerned about the wisdom of doing so. Those who have committed acts of international terrorism are enemy combatants, just as certainly as the Japanese pilots who killed thousands of Americans at Pearl Harbor. It will be disruptive, costly, and potentially counterproductive to try them as criminals in our civilian courts.

The precedent set by this decision deserves careful scrutiny as we consider proper venues for trying those now held at Guantanamo who were apprehended outside of this country for acts that occurred outside of the country. And we must be especially careful with any decisions to bring onto American soil any of those prisoners who remain a threat to our country but whose cases have been adjudged as inappropriate for trial at all. They do not belong in our country, they do not belong in our courts, and they do not belong in our prisons.

I have consistently argued that military commissions, with the additional procedural rules added by Congress and enacted by President Obama, are the most appropriate venue for trying individuals adjudged to be enemy combatants.

Well stated Senator.

Consumer sentiment falls in November

Gear up for some banner Christmas sales.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumer sentiment fell in early November to the weakest in three months amid grim expectations for job and income prospects, a survey showed on Friday.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its preliminary index of sentiment for November fell to 66.0, the lowest since August, from 70.6 in October. This was well below economists' median expectation of a reading of 71.0, according to a Reuters poll.

The index of consumer expectations fell to 63.7 in early November from 68.6 in October.

Federal Deficit Hits October Record of $176 Billion

Records keep being broken and none of them good.

The U.S. budget deficit for October surged to $176 billion, a record for the month, the Treasury Department announced today.

During the month, the government racked up $311 billion in outlays compared with $135 billion in receipts.

The October numbers mark the first month for the new fiscal year after the U.S. wrapped up the 2009 fiscal year that ended on September 30 with a record-high $1.4 trillion budget deficit due to increased government spending to stop the recession and the financial crisis. The final deficit for the 2009 fiscal year was equal to 10 percent of the nation's GDP, the highest shortfall relative to GDP since 1945, the final year of World War II.

Obama said to want revised Afghanistan options

Apparently surrender wasn't one of the options originally offered up.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama won't accept any of the Afghanistan war options before him without changes, administration officials say, amid an argument by his own ambassador in Kabul that a significant U.S. troop increase would only prop up a weak, corruption-tainted government.

Obama's ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, who is also a former commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, is voicing strong dissent against sending more troops, according to an administration official. This puts him at odds with the current war commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who wants thousands more troops.

Eikenberry's misgivings center on a concern that bolstering the American presence in Afghanistan could make the country more reliant on the U.S., not less. He expressed them in forcefully worded cables to Washington just ahead of Obama's latest war meeting Wednesday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss administration deliberations.

Veterans Day 2009

God bless all that have served, Godspeed all those who have perished.

Republicans Edge Ahead of Democrats in 2010 Vote

I don't generally post polls by any firm other than Rasmussen. I do however, make an exception when another major outfit confirms what Raz has shown for some time.

PRINCETON, NJ Republicans have moved ahead of Democrats by 48% to 44% among registered voters in the latest update on Gallup's generic congressional ballot for the 2010 House elections, after trailing by six points in July and two points last month.

34 Years Ago Today

Gitchigoomie is an unforgiving mistress.

Global Warming Where?

Any wonder wonder why the "global warming" moniker has been replaced with the designation "climate change"

* The average October temperature of 50.8°F was 4.0°F below the 20th Century average and ranked as the 3rd coolest based on preliminary data.

* For the nation as a whole, it was the third coolest October on record. The month was marked by an active weather pattern that reinforced unseasonably cold air behind a series of cold fronts. Temperatures were below normal in eight of the nation's nine climate regions, and of the nine, five were much below normal. Only the Southeast climate region had near normal temperatures for October.

* Statewide temperatures coincided with the regional values as all but six states had below normal temperatures. Oklahoma had its coolest October on record and ten other states had their top five coolest such months.

Boehner: 'The future is Cao'

If Cao is the future of the GOP, color me Independent.

When “Joseph” Cao was elected to the 2nd Congressional District in Louisiana, House Minority Leader John Boehner hailed him as representing the GOP’s future.

Cao was the only Republican to vote for the Pelosi healthcare reform bill Saturday evening.

U.S. Aware of Hasan Efforts to Contact al Qaeda

This could get VERY nasty...

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.

One senior lawmaker said the CIA had, so far, refused to brief the intelligence committees on what, if any, knowledge they had about Hasan's efforts.

CIA director Leon Panetta and the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, have been asked by Congress "to preserve" all documents and intelligence files that relate to Hasan, according to the lawmaker.

Fort Hood gunman had told US military colleagues that infidels should have their throats cut

Yes, lethal indeed.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America's Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.

He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July.

Colleagues had expected a discussion on a medical issue but were instead given an extremist interpretation of the Koran, which Hasan appeared to believe.

One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints.

Hasan attended same radical mosque as 9/11 hijackers

From Hot Air:

Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year.

The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.

Hasan’s eyes “lit up” when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki’s teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday’s horrific shooting spree.

Blog Post of the Week

Couldn't have said it better myself...

Political correctness is lethal. The 13 dead and 31 wounded at Ft. Hood can't be wrong.

We need to cut the politically correct liberal bullcrap stopping us from investigating and getting rid if necessary of the military personnel who shows signs of trouble regardless of their race or ethnic origin.
Yes, we desperately need military and intelligence personnel who speaks the language and knows the culture of the Middle East. However, better job at screening, checking their background and making sure their allegiance is to this country not to other organizations or religions - that what we need to do in order to prevent similar attacks in the future.

In the case of the Islamofascist pig Nidal Malik Hasan, he clearly gave all the signs his true allegiance was to the Prophet Muhammad and his call for Jihad, not to his country and uniform. He warned us for a of what he was going to do for a very long time, yet none of his superiors made the decision to get rid of him.

Quote of the Day

"Why are we so quick to make excuses for the atrocities of Islam and so quick to condemn Judaism and Christianity.?"

Unemployment Soars

MMMMMM, MMMMMMM, MMMMMM

U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 190,000 jobs in October, government data showed on Friday, driving the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent, the highest in 26-1/2 years.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate was the highest since April 1983. It revised job losses for August and September to show 91,000 fewer jobs lost than previously reported.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected payrolls to drop by 175,000 and the jobless rate to edge up to 9.9 percent from 9.8 percent in September.

Fort Hood Shooting

The FBI says "No chance it was terrorism". Are they insane??? How could they say that so flippantly, the shooters name was Malik Nadal Hasan for crying out loud! I'm sorry, my bad, those nasty Amish again.

After all they are infamous for yelling `Allahu Akbar' before brutally murdering innocent people.

And the CIC appears almost flippant.

Stimulus job counts in Wisconsin wildly inflated

One example of literally thousands across the country...

Many employment reports from sources in Wisconsin are wildly inflated

A stimulus job report that says more than 10,000 jobs were saved or created in Wisconsin is rife with errors, double counting and inflated numbers based more on satisfying federal formulas than creating real jobs, a Journal Sentinel review has found.

In one case, five jobs were mistakenly listed as 50 - and then counted twice. In another, pay raises to workers were listed as saving more than 100 jobs. And in another, jobs were listed as saved even though the money had not been received and no work on the project had begun.

The problems mirror those surfacing around the country, as the federal numbers claiming 640,000 jobs created or saved by stimulus money are being scrutinized.

IL-Sen: Kirk Seeks Palin Endorsement

As a pro cap-n-trade, pro partial birth abortion, tax increasing, pro gay marrriage liberal RINO, I wouldn't hold my breath pal.

Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk penned a memo to Republican poobah Fred Malek hoping to secure an endorsement from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his Senate candidacy, according to a copy of the memo obtained by the Fix.

After noting that Palin will be in Chicago later this month to appear on "Oprah", Kirk writes that "the Chicago media will focus on one key issue: Does Gov[ernor] Palin oppose Congressman Mark Kirk's bid to take the Obama Senate seat for the Republicans?"

Kirk goes on to write that he is hoping for something "quick and decisive" from Palin about the race, perhaps to the effect of: "Voters in Illinois have a key opportunity to take Barack Obama's Senate seat. Congressman Kirk is the lead candidate to do that."

Big Night For GOP

Two Democrat held governorships up for grabs yesterday, two gone today.

By seizing gubernatorial seats in Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans on Tuesday dispelled any notion of President Obama's electoral invincibility, giving the GOP a lift and offering warning signs to Democrats ahead of the 2010 midterm elections.

With Obama slipping in polls and many voters unhappy with the Democratic-run Congress, "it's been increasingly clear over the last few months that Democrats were likely to have a tough midterm next year," said Charlie Cook, who handicaps races nationwide for his nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "What we've seen tonight doesn't dispute that assumption."

Tuesday's gubernatorial results certainly won't help Democrats. Perceptions are important in politics -- often more so than reality -- and the GOP's success, including a sweep of all three statewide offices in Virginia, should boost the party's fundraising and candidate recruitment in the coming weeks.