JUDGE ALITO NOW JUSTICE ALITO!

Final vote tally 58 - 42. Congratulations fellow conservatives and constitutional originalists.

U.S. Consumer Confidence Rises to 106.3, Highest Since 2002

Wanna bet how much play this gets from the Entrenched Media.

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. consumer confidence rose more than expected in January to the highest since June 2002 as employers added jobs.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 106.3 from 103.8 in December. The index surpassed the 105.5 level it reached in August, before the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

A rebound in consumer confidence, which tumbled in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and a related surge in gasoline prices, fueled a 0.9 percent increase in personal spending in December, the most in five months. An acceleration in spending in the final two months of last year led some economists to raise their estimates of growth in this year's first quarter.

Good political satire contains both caustic irony and humor. This hackneyed garbage from Sunday's Washington Post has neither.

I wonder how a cartoon portraying Bob Woodruff in similar circumstance with the caption "I'm listing your condition as legless and clueless" would be received.

Faux Filibuster Updates

I will be reporting throughout the day the current vote standings as well as any other idiocies emanating from the Senate today.

How it stands currently:

55 Republicans now firmly supporting cloture including Chafee and Snowe

Supporting fauxibluster:

Hall of Shame
Bayh
Murray
Cantwell
Kennedy
Kerry
Sarbanes
Feinstein
Dodd
Durbin
Clinton
Boxer
Schumer
Obama
Reid
Leahy
Wyden
Feingold
Stabenow
Reed
Biden
Jeffords
Dayton
Lautenberg
Menendez
Levin

Voted for Cloture:

Byrd
Nelson
Landrieu
Pryor
Salazar
Dorgan
Lieberman
Conrad
Johnson
Akaka
Nelson (Fla)
Bingaman
Rockefellar
Baucus
Lincoln
Carper
Inouye
Kohl

Update II: A few blogs are reporting Chafee will vote NO on Confirmation NO on filibuster. CONFIRMED

UpdateIII: Chafee and Snowe WILL oppose filibuster. That 54 Rs +10 Ds = 64 to vote for cloture (+ 1 likely) = 65 total (Assuming Ensign is a non vote and Prior abstains.)

Update IV: CNN just announced that the gang of 14 will meet at 3:30 ET. They speculated that the GOF will agree that this is not severe enough to filibuster which will likely put a fork in it.

Update V: Sen. Kent Conrad D- ND will vote FOR Alito. Confirmation vote stands at 57 (For) 37 (Opposed) 6 uncommitted.

OK it's showtime. I predict there will be 66 total votes for cloture, 31 against and 3 abstaining. Let's Rumble!

IT'S OVAH CLOTURE IS INVOKED ON A VOTE OF 72 -25. IT'S A FAILIBUSTER!

Another One Bites the Dust

Leno had it pegged....Some sad news — NBC has canceled "The West Wing."

That's when you know things are bad — when even fictional Democrats aren't doing well. [They} can't even get elected on TV anymore.

NYP/The White House drama starring Geena Davis as the first female president started out as the most talked-about new show of the season with healthy ratings and a wide-open future.

But ABC said over the weekend that it is pulling "Chief" off the air until spring to make way for a new comedy, "Sons & Daughers."

The info was buried in a news release announcing the start of the new comedy.

Birds of a Feather

This women is a national embarrassment

Miraflores Press/ Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez embraces visiting peace activist Cindy Sheehan and Elma Beatriz Rosado, the widow of slain Puerto Rican nationalist Filiberto Ojeda Rios. All three joined in condemning the government of U.S. President George W. Bush.

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos (April 26, 1933 – September 23, 2005) was the "Responsible General" of the Boricua Popular Army, or Ejército Popular Boricua – Los Macheteros, a clandestine paramilitary, organization, considered by United States law enforcement agencies to be a terrorist organization, based on the island of Puerto Rico, with branches throughout the United States and other countries.

Charges against him:

1. Act of Domestic Terrorism
2. Aggravated Robbery (1985)
3. Aggravated Robbery of Federally Insured Bank Funds (1985)
4. Armed Robbery (1985)
5. Bond Default (1990)
6. Conspiracy to Interfere With Commerce By Robbery (1985)
7. Foreign And Interstate Transportation Of Stolen Money (1985)

Standard leftist doctrine.... America bad - America hating mass murdering despotic dictators good.

And then there's this....Sheehan Plans New Protest at Bush's Ranch

You can't buy this sort of PR! Cindy Sheehan will end of doing more harm to the left than any ad campaign we could possibly dream up.

Hat tip: Sweetness & Light

President Bush Job Approval at 49%

Are the disingenuous contortions being performedby certain Senate Democrats over Alito galvanizing the right and irritating the middle? Time will tell.

Sunday January 29, 2006--Forty-nine percent (49%) of American adults approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President. Fifty percent (50%) disapprove.

he President earns approval from 81% of Republicans, 23% of Democrats, and 40% of those not affiliated with either major political party.

Update: I have received several E-mails wondering who Rasmussen is and why I quote his polls pretty much exclusively.

It's simple, Rasmussen was the most accurate of any pollster calling both the national and state races in 2004. His methodology is solid and his results are consistent.

Flim-Flam..ibuster

A few comments on this sham attempt by the Democrats to feign a legitimate filibuster.

The honest truth is every Senator has known for weeks that there simply weren't enough votes to sustain a filibuster of Judge Alito's confirmation vote, not even close to enough. My tally indicates that by the time all is said and done the vote for cloture will be somewhere between 64-70 votes.

So why the overly dramatic show of false bravado you ask. Simple, these Senators that are pushing a filibuster promised the hard left special interest groups that they would fight tooth and nail to keep anyone adverse to their interests off the court. They cannot afford to alienate these groups primarily because they provide a large portion of their $$$$ support, support they positively can't do without. Aside from the money, these groups tend to be the most active in grassroots GOTV efforts. So knowing full well that any filibuster attempt is doomed from the start, these Senators perform this well choreographed tap dance for the benefit of whatever portion of their constituency gullible enough to buy into it.

The Democrats however, are being forced to walk the tightrope because they must satisfy the moonbats without doing significant damage to their support from swing voters and the "moderate left. That is why primarily only Senators with safe seats in blue states are participating in the production. Look at the players.....

Kennedy
Kerry
Sarbanes (retiring)
Feinstein
Dodd
Durbin
Clinton
Boxer
Schumer etc.

Compare with the Democrat Senators opposing a filibuster.....

Byrd
Nelson
Landrieu
Pryor
Salazar
Dorgan
Lieberman
Conrad

This is a classic example of an attempt by Democrats to have their cake and eat it too. The leadership hopes this strategy will not seriously hurt any individual Senator and will potentially mollify the base, it does carry the potential danger of diminishing their overall party appeal on the national front. The calculation is that by the time 2008 rolls around all will be forgotten.

The left has taken it on the chin from the very start of this confirmation process. The hearings were a disaster. On the whole they came across as bullies and mean spirited (been awhile since you heard that term right?) and this isn't helping matters one bit. The best they can do at this point is try and minimize the damage.

Additional insights:

Cailifornia Conservative

PARTY!!!!

Spring break in Bandar Abbas?

Chief Justice Roberts Questions McCain-Feingold Campaign Restrictions

There may be a more significant dynamic coming with the Alito/Roberts court than even we on the right may realize...........

Chief Justice John Roberts expressed doubts Tuesday about legal restrictions on political ads by outside groups as the Supreme Court took up a new challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

Questioning Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, who was defending the law, Roberts raised a hypothetical case in which a group runs an issue ad every month. Does the ad, he asked, become illegal in the months before an election?

Clement responded that such a group could continue to run the ads if it used political action committee money to pay for them, or if it refrained from identifying a candidate by name.

But Justice Antonin Scalia said that would undercut the purpose of the ad, adding, "The point of an issue ad is to put pressure on an incumbent you want to vote your way."

One thing for sure, ELECTIONS DO MATTER!

It's All Over But The Cryin

55 GOP Senators. All will vote for Cloture.

Not all may vote for Alito.

3 Dems will vote for Alito. Johnson, Byrd and Nelson.

2 Dems say they will vote NO on a Confirmation, YES on Cloture. Landreiu and Salazar.

55 + 5 = 60 = Game, Set, Match. Add Pryor & Conrad to the list = 62

4:30 PM Monday vote on cloture. Tuesday vote on the nominee, 11:00 AM.

But Lurch hasn't figured it out yet.

Carter calls for funding Palestinians

The unabashed naivete of this man never ceases to amaze me. He does have one redeeming value.....as a negative barometer. Do the opposite of what he recommends and chances are it will prove to be the right move.

A day after Hamas swept to an upset victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, former US President Jimmy Carter on Thursday said that Wednesday's voting had been orderly and fair.

"The elections were completely honest, completely fair, completely safe and without violence," the former president said.

Carter, who led an 85-member international observer team from around the world organized by the 'National Democratic Institute' in partnership with 'The Carter Center,' urged the international community to directly or indirectly fund the new Palestinian Government even though it will be led by an internationally-declared foreign terror organization.

"The Palestinian Government is destitute, and in desperate financial straits. I hope that support for the new government will be forthcoming," Carter said at a Jerusalem press conference.

Funding families of suicide bombers and diverting 100s of millions into Arafats private accounts tend to have that effect.

Big-Ticket Factory Orders Hit All-Time High

But...But...Lou Dobbs says America doesn't manufacture anything anymore.

WAPO-WASHINGTON -- Orders to American factories for big-ticket manufactured goods posted a third consecutive increase in December, closing out a record year for the nation's factories.

The Commerce Department reported that orders for durable goods rose by 1.3 percent in December to $228.1 billion as demand for military aircraft, machinery and autos all posted strong gains.

For all of 2005, orders increased by 8.2 percent to an all-time high of $2.51 trillion. Orders for durable goods had risen by 10 percent in 2004 and 4.2 percent in 2003 after posting declines in 2002 and 2001, the year the country was in recession.

In other economic news, the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose to 283,000. That was up by 11,000 from the previous week. However, the four-week moving average for claims dropped to 288,750, the lowest level since July 2000.

Welcome To War

Captain Ed has perhaps the most and clear and concise recommended response to a post Hamas PA. Go over and read it, it's common sense foreign policy at it's finest.

Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says

Predictable result when you give your enemy half a years advance notice that your coming.

The man who served as the no. 2 official in Saddam Hussein's air force says Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft in which the passenger seats were removed.

The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets," released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun.

"There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over."

Mr. Sada's comments come just more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."

Quote of the Day

The Democrat Underground never fails to atsound and amuse. This quote from commentor BattyDem (appropriate screename)........

HEY DEMS - If Alito gets on the SC, it's OVER! Don't you understand that? Life as we have known it in the USA for over 200 years will cease to exist because Democracy itself will cease to exist. The President will have all the power, make all the laws and answer to NO ONE!

51% SAY NO TO PREZ HILL

Granted it's extremely early in the process and much can happen between now and then but one thing for sure, these negative numbers are at the very least daunting.

NYP January 25, 2006 -- WASHINGTON — Most American voters now say there's no way they'd vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton if she runs for president in 2008 — while just 16 percent are firmly in her camp, a stunning new poll shows. The Gallup/CNN poll found that 51 percent say they definitely won't vote for Clinton (D-N.Y.) in 2008, another 32 percent might consider it, and only 16 percent vow to back her.

That means committed anti-Hillary voters outnumber pro-Hillary voters by 3-1.
Men are especially anti-Clinton — 60 percent say there's no way they'd back her for commander-in-chief, and that rises to 62 percent among men 50 and over.

Among women, 22 percent say they'd definitely vote for Clinton, but just 11 percent of men agree. Her support is also lower among whites — 14 percent are committed supporters, compared with 28 percent of nonwhites.

Even among self-proclaimed liberals, just 33 percent say they'd definitely vote for her.
The poll suggests she can forget about crossover votes — 90 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of conservatives say there's no way they'd back her.

Poll: Afghans, Iraqis most optimistic

What a surprise, the Afghanis and Iraqis are far more optimistic about their future than the left of this country is about theirs. Guess they're not exposed to negative propaganda 24/7 and unlike the left here, they're not predisposed to disbelieve their lying eyes.

An international poll done for Britain's BBC says Iraqis and Afghans are most optimistic about their economic future, while Italians are among the downcast.

Joining the Italians in the pessimism category at people in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo, says the poll of 37,500 people in 32 nations.

Joining the Afghans and Iraqis in the optimistic category are Canadians who are bullish not only about their own finances (64 percent), but also about their country (63 percent).

In Afghanistan, 70 percent of respondents said their own circumstances are improving, and 57 percent said the country overall is on the way up. In Iraq, 65 percent believe their personal life is getting better, and 56 percent are upbeat about the country's economy, the BBC reported.

PEST in the Great White North

This picture has Canadian liberals on suicide watch.


The question that begs an answer.....Where will Canadian/American moonbats move now that the Conservatives are in power Nord des Lignes? France? Cuba? Belarus?

Senate Alito Hearing Idiocies Part Deux....The Judiciary Committee

Again this humble blogger will watch the Judiciary committee hearings/vote on Judge Alito's nomination so you don't have to.

Sen. Patrick Leahy: "President Bush seeks to make the Supreme Court a Constitutional extension of the Presidency" PUHLEEEAZE. Hyperbole thy name is Leahy.

Sen. Ted Kennedy: "I am against the strip searching of 10 year old warrants". I've heard of "abuse of warrants" but this is going too far!!!!.

Sen. Joe Biden: "Alito doesn't understand discrimination" And you do Senator? Oh sorry Joe, forgot, you were born a poor black child.

Sen. Diane Feinstein: "When Ginsberg was nominated, the country wasn't polarized". Wanna bet?

"It has nothing to do with qualifications and credentials." Translation: The only credential that matters is that you agree with me.

Sen. Lyndsey Graham: "We'll clean your clock if you make judicial appointments a campaign issue. We welcome that debate". BINGO!

Three hours of Senatorial bloviations changing nothing. 10-8 straight party line vote to move the nomination on to the full Senate.