'It Was Stupid and Inappropriate'

New York Jets coach Rex Ryan really knows how to win over opposing fans. He might want to start keeping a bit of a lower profile.

Rex Ryan fell one game short of the Super Bowl, but he's making his presence felt in South Florida. The Jets' coach attended an MMA event in the area and let some fans (presumably Dolphins fans) know how he, ahem, feels about them.

To paraphrase one of our favorite news anchormen, Ron Burgundy, try to stay classy, Rex.

Ryan, who was caught by a cell phone camera flipping fans the bird, also couldn't resist a swagger-licious prediction for 2010 during a live interview that was broadcast throughout the arena.

"I just want to tell everyone in Miami that we're coming to beat you twice next year," he said.

He might want to beat them once before he starts talking about a sweep.

He also might want to keep his hands in his pockets, as both Ryan and Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum were quick to apologize for the gesture in statements released Sunday by Gang Green.

"It was stupid and inappropriate," Ryan said in the statement. "I wouldn't accept that type of behavior from one of the coaches or players and it's unacceptable from me. I apologize to the Jets organization, the National Football League and NFL fans everywhere."

Another Union Success Story

New Yorkers should really be thrilled to know this guy is on the Department of Education payroll.

A Queens teacher who collects a $100,000 salary for doing nothing spends time in a Department of Education "rubber room" working on his law practice and managing 12 real-estate properties worth an estimated $7.8 million, The Post found.

Alan Rosenfeld hasn't set foot in a classroom for nearly a decade since he was accused in 2001 of making lewd comments to junior-high girls and "staring at their butts," yet the department still pays him handsomely for sitting on his own butt seven hours a day.

In 2001, six eighth-graders at IS 347 in Queens accused Rosenfeld, a typing teacher who filled in for an absent dean, of making comments like "You have a sexy body," asking one whether she had a boyfriend and making others feel uncomfortable with creepy leers.

Because the Department of Education could not produce all the students as witnesses, he was found guilty in only one case. A girl testified that Rosenfeld stopped at her locker, where she was standing with a friend, and "said I love him because I talk to him so much."

A DOE hearing officer gave him a slap on the wrist -- a week off without pay -- for "conduct unbecoming a teacher." He was cleared to return to teaching.

Instead, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has kept the scruffy 64-year-old in a Brooklyn rubber room, deeming him too dangerous to be near kids, officials said.

The DOE can't fire him.

"We have to abide by the union contract," spokeswoman Ann Forte said.

So Rosenfeld simply collects his $100,049 salary -- top scale for teachers -- plus full health benefits and the promise of a fat pension, about $82,000 a year if he were to retire today.

His pension will grow by $1,700 each year he remains. He could have retired at age 62, but he stays.

He has also accumulated about 435 unused sick days -- and will get paid for half of them when he retires.

If that's not bad enough, this creep spends his time doing other business on city time, an obvious violation. Guess since he's union nodoboy can touch him.

A licensed attorney since 1973, Rosenfeld frequently talks on the phone to clients and other lawyers, insiders say.

"He's always working," one said.

City rules forbid staffers to conduct business on DOE time.

He refers to himself as "Dr. Rosenfeld" and often insults fellow teachers, calling them "losers" and "deadbeats."

He also doles out legal advice to his rubber roommates.

State Department Official: Obama Lied

Of course P.J. Crowley doesn't come out and say so directly, but let's face facts: Obama was not telling the truth when he campaigned. I know, major shocker.

The recent awarding of a lucrative federal contract to a company owned by a financial contributor to the Obama presidential campaign -- without competitive bidding -- "violated" President Obama's many campaign pledges to crack down on the practice, a top State Department official told Fox News.

Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley, familiar to many Americans from his erudite delivery of the State Department's daily press briefings, made the admission in a telephone interview Saturday night.

Reminded of Obama's many pledges during the 2008 campaign to crack down on the use of no-bid contracts, and of the memorandum the president signed last March instructing the Office of Management and Budget to curb the practice, Crowley said: "You make a valid point. If you want to say this violates the basis on which this administration came into office and campaigned, fair enough."

The contract in question, worth more than $24.6 million, was awarded on Jan. 4 by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to Checchi and Company Consulting, a Washington, D.C.-based firm owned by economist and Democratic Party donor Vincent Checchi. The deal called for Checchi's firm to train lawyers and judges in Afghanistan and thereby strengthen the "rule of law" in the war-torn country.

If Bush had done this the left would be screaming to impeach him or, at the least, would call for Congressional hearing and special prosecutors. But Obama apparently is above reproach.

Federal campaign records show Checchi has been a frequent contributor to liberal and Democratic causes and candidates in recent years, including to Obama's presidential campaign. The records show Checchi has given at least $4,400 to Obama dating back to March 2007, close to the maximum amount allowed.

The contractor has also made donations to various arms of the Democratic National Committee, to liberal activist groups like MoveOn.org and ActBlue, and to other party politicians like Sen. John F. Kerry, former presidential candidate John Edwards and former Connecticut Senate candidate Ned Lamont.

As a candidate for president in 2008, then-Sen. Obama frequently derided the Bush administration for the awarding of federal contracts without competitive bidding.

"I will finally end the abuse of no-bid contracts once and for all," the senator told a Grand Rapids audience on Oct. 2. "The days of sweetheart deals for Halliburton will be over when I'm in the White House."

You lie!

Surprise! Another Bogus Report From UN Climate Panel Exposed

If ClimateGate and the bogus Himalayas glacier reports weren't enough to finish off the credibility of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this latest disclosure may well do the trick.

A STARTLING report by the United Nations climate watchdog that global warming might wipe out 40% of the Amazon rainforest was based on an unsubstantiated claim by green campaigners who had little scientific expertise.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its 2007 benchmark report that even a slight change in rainfall could see swathes of the rainforest rapidly replaced by savanna grassland.

The source for its claim was a report from WWF, an environmental pressure group, which was authored by two green activists. They had based their “research” on a study published in Nature, the science journal, which did not assess rainfall but in fact looked at the impact on the forest of human activity such as logging and burning. This weekend WWF said it was launching an internal inquiry into the study.

This is the third time in as many weeks that serious doubts have been raised over the IPCC’s conclusions on climate change. Two weeks ago, after reports in The Sunday Times, it was forced to retract a warning that climate change was likely to melt the Himalayan glaciers by 2035. That warning was also based on claims in a WWF report.

Despite report after report being exposed as fraudulent, the global warming mantra still won't go away.

The IPCC has been put on the defensive as well over its claims that climate change may be increasing the severity and frequency of natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods.

This weekend Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, was fighting to keep his job after a barrage of criticism.

Scientists fear the controversies will be used by climate change sceptics to sway public opinion to ignore global warming — even though the fundamental science, that greenhouse gases can heat the world, remains strong.

How can anyone still claim that with a straight face when all the "evidence" to make such a claim is bogus?

The latest controversy originates in a report called A Global Review of Forest Fires, which WWF published in 2000. It was commissioned from Andrew Rowell, a freelance journalist and green campaigner who has worked for Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and anti-smoking organisations. The second author was Peter Moore, a campaigner and policy analyst with WWF.

Hard to believe someone from the radical Greenpeace would stretch the truth, isn't it?

Simon Lewis, a Royal Society research fellow at Leeds University who specialises in tropical forest ecology, described the section of Rowell and Moore’s report predicting the potential destruction of large swathes of rainforest as “a mess”.

“The Nature paper is about the interactions of logging damage, fire and periodic droughts, all extremely important in understanding the vulnerability of Amazon forest to drought, but is not related to the vulnerability of these forests to reductions in rainfall,” he said.

“In my opinion the Rowell and Moore report should not have been cited; it contains no primary research data.”

Famed climatologist Al Gore remains unavailable for comment.

Frank Rich: John McCain the Leader of the 'Unpatriotic Opposition'

I'm sure Senator McCain will be thrilled to find out he's now unpatriotic for opposing Barack Obama.

The New York Times actually pays Frank Rich for this garbage?

If Reid can serve as the face of Democratic fecklessness in the Senate, then John McCain epitomizes the unpatriotic opposition.

These people scratch their pointy heads and wonder why nobody is paying attention to them.

'What They are Saying is Profoundly Dangerous'

Despite overwhelming evidence of fraud surrounding climate science, it sure looks as if the warmers are dug in and obstinate in their denial of reality. Just get a load of this drivel from the UK.

Climate secretary Ed Miliband broke his silence on the ongoing row about man-made climate change by declaring war on the 'siren voices' who denied global warming was real or man-made.

Mr Miliband said the by the 'climategate' controversy that appeared to show that vital data was suppressed or manipulated by climate scientists, as well as the more recent revelation that the Intergorvernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had exaggerated claims about the melting of glaciers in the Himalayan mountains.

'It's right that there's rigour applied to all the reports about climate change, but I think it would be wrong that when a mistake is made it's somehow used to undermine the overwhelming picture that's there,' he told the Observer.

He pointed to a wealth of research used to support the argument that climate change is man made - the physical effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, CO2 concentrations and observed increases in temperatures.

'There are a whole variety of people who are sceptical, but who they are is less important than what they are saying, and what they are saying is profoundly dangerous,' he said.

The danger of climate scepticism, he said, was that it would foster dissent against unpopular decisions such increases in energy bills and investment in wind turbines, which are essential to tackle environmental issues.

Oh my, people wouldn't be happy paying higher energy bills asa a result of scientific fraud? Imagine that. Next thing you'll find out is people don't like being compared with Holocaut deniers just because they object to junk science.

Read the comments at the first link. Not a single one supports this man who will likely soon be out of a job.

'My Husband Was an Ardent Supporter of His'

Since we noted Barack Obama's lack of support for the 9/11 health bill the other day we've noticed a curious lack of coverage of the story, especially from the left, folks who would be freaking out if George W. Bush was so callous. Well, at least one of those affected, and an Obama supporter at that, has gotten the message.

Jennifer McNamara wants to honor her late husband's dying wish and give the city firefighter's badge to President Obama.

Only, she's no longer sure she should.

Or that John McNamara, who spent 500 hours at Ground Zero and died last August of cancer at the age of 44, would think Obama still deserves it.

Her problem: She and her husband believed in the President, voted for him, and believed he would ensure the feds passed a law to permanently care for others who answered the call after 9/11.

She began having doubts in December, when key politicians backed away from promises to pass the funding. She went to the Daily News for help reaching the White House to explain her agonizing dilemma.

"I wish he would just support this," McNamara said of the President. "Then I could give him the badge in good conscience. I'd like to know that it's meaningful to him."

Maybe she should package it with a basketball. Then he might notice.

But the simple, powerful gift of his badge to the President may be beyond her.

"It is the one thing on my list of John's that he asked me to do that, unless there is a change in the administration's position, that I will not," she said.

She still holds out hope, and the White House reaffirmed support for 9/11 families Saturday. She has a hard time imagining that a man like Obama worries more about the cost of helping the people who responded to Sept. 11 than he does about the people.

"My husband was an ardent supporter of his," she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "I don't know how I explain to my 3-year-old son that his President doesn't care about his father and others like him. How do you say that?"

Obama Votes Present on Federal Budget

If you needed further reminder how feckless and pusillanimous Barack Obama is, look no further that this nugget from an AP dispatch. I'm starting to think the toughest decision he faces daily is whether to watch the 7 am or 8 am SportsCenter.

Despite his promise to take on the deficit, Obama's budget submission for the upcoming year is shaping up as a mostly stand-pat blueprint - like most presidents propose during election years.

"It is critical that we rein in the budget deficits we've been accumulating for far too long," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "Deficits that won't just burden our children and grandchildren, but could damage our markets, drive up our interest rates, and jeopardize our recovery right now."

But Obama won't offer politically dangerous cuts to costly federal benefit programs that are driving massive budget deficits, administration and congressional officials say. Nor will it propose broad-based tax hikes that could help close a deficit that is requiring the government to borrow almost 40 cents for every dollar it spends.

So he's too afraid to even cut a dollar from benefits programs while at the same time knowing increasing taxes is political suicide.

Here's a radical thought: How about he propose broad-based tax cuts? That would surely help close the deficit.

Of course at the same time if he was stupid enough to raise taxes the last thing we'd ever see is the deficit cut by any substantial sum. He and his merry band of spenders would just piss it all away.

Drunken Actor Busted Trying to Break Into a Bank

I'm starting to think this guy's got a bit of a drinking problem.

Elmore "Rip" Torn is in trouble with the law (again).

Torn was arrested Friday evening after drunkenly breaking into a Connecticut bank while carrying a loaded revolver, according to a statement from police.

When Connecticut State Police responded to The Litchfield Bancorp, a bank in Salisbury, Conn., they found a broken window in the rear of the building and an intoxicated Torn walking around inside.

Torn is a resident of the small Connecticut town where the incident took place.

Drunken misbehavior is nothing new to the 78-year-old actor -- He was convicted of drunken driving in 2008, pleaded guilty to being ability impaired in 2007, and was acquitted by a jury in a 2004 drunken driving case, according to The Register Citizen.

After his 2008 conviction, he avoided jail time by agreeing to attend a state-approved weekend substance abuse program, according to the paper.

For this latest incident, Torn was charged with burglary in the 1st degree, criminal mischief in the 3rd degree, carrying a firearm while intoxicated, trespassing in the 1st degree and possession of a firearm without a permit, and is being held on a $100,000 bond.

Al Qaeda Now Planning Breast Implant Bombs?

Always keeping a step ahead of the technology, these maniacs now may try to use boob bombs as just one of the newest techniques possible planned foil to body scanners.

Britain is facing a new Al Qaeda terror threat from suicide ‘body bombers’ with explosives surgically inserted inside them.

Until now, terrorists have attacked airlines, Underground trains and buses by secreting bombs in bags, shoes or underwear to avoid detection.

But an operation by MI5 has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda is planning a new stage in its terror campaign by inserting ‘surgical bombs’ inside people for the first time.

Security services believe the move has been prompted by the recent introduction at airports of body scanners, which are designed to catch terrorists before they board flights.

It is understood MI5 became aware of the threat after observing increasingly vocal internet ‘chatter’ on Arab websites this year.

The warning comes in the wake of the failed attempt by London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day.
One security source said: ‘If the terrorists are talking about this, we need to be ready and do all we can to counter the threat.’

A leading source added that male bombers would have the explosive secreted near their appendix or in their buttocks, while females would have the material placed inside their breasts in the same way as figure-enhancing implants.

Experts said the explosive PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate) would be placed in a plastic sachet inside the bomber’s body before the wound was stitched up like a normal operation incision and allowed to heal.

A shaped charge of 8oz of PETN can penetrate five inches of armour and would easily blow a large hole in an airliner.

Security sources said the explosives would be detonated by the bomber using a hypodermic syringe to inject TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide) through their skin into the explosives sachet.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Sorry, No Miranda Rights for You Two

Just a sneaking suspicion, but I'm betting these two Uighers won't be afforded the full menu of constitutional protections afforded the guy we stop from blowing planes out of the sky.

A China Southern Airlines flight had to turn around Saturday, returning to the capital of China's restive Xinjiang region after a passenger burned toilet paper in the washroom, state media reported.

The crew of the flight from Urumqi, in the west, to the central city of Wuhan, discovered the passenger's actions after take-off, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Police said a man and a woman were arrested after the flight landed, according to Xinhua.

The case is under investigation, the report said, giving no further details.

The security situation is more tense in Xinjiang than other parts of China because Beijing says it faces a serious separatist threat in the region.

Exiled members of the region's Muslim Uighur majority say Beijing exaggerates the threat to justify harsh controls in the region, which is rich in energy reserves and borders several central Asian countries.

'We Just Fell on the Floor'

Excellent news: The John Edwards sex tape is in a safe place. Let's all hope it stays there, never to be seen.

Andrew Young, the ex-aide to embattled two-time former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, says he has an alleged sex tape depicting the former senator and his then-mistress Rielle Hunter – and that the tape is in a safe-deposit box.

"We were offered millions for that stupid tape," he tells PEOPLE. He says he and his wife Cheri found the tape in "a box of trash filled with crinkled paper and tapes" left behind by Hunter. He says they never considered selling it: "We couldn't live with ourselves."

Young, 43, served as an aide to Edwards for more than nine years. Just before the 2008 presidential primaries began, he agreed – at Edwards' behest, he says – to publicly claim paternity for the baby being carried by Hunter, 45. Young details the deception in his new tell-all book, The Politician, out today.

On Jan. 21, Edwards – who told PEOPLE on Jan. 27 that he still "deeply cares" about Elizabeth – admitted that he is the father of Hunter's 2-year-old daughter, Frances Quinn.

Young says that when he and Cheri first watched the sex tape – which was marked "special" – "we just fell on the floor. We were agape." Adds Cheri: "It was disappointing to see the person you had such hopes and dreams for be so careless."

Young sounds like a really loyal guy. He won't sell the tape but he'll gladly dish dirt on Edwards to anyone who'll listen.

Rush Gets His Groove On

A brief snippet of Rush Limbaugh dancing to "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga during a rehearsal for the Miss America pageant. Check him out at the lower left of the video.

Limbaugh is one of the judges for the pageant, airing tonight at 8 ET on TLC. I'm sure all his fans and enemies alike will be tuning in.

Behind the Scenes at MSNBC

Obama Justice Department Refocuses on Nation's Top Priority: College Football

Let's not accuse Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler Obama of not having his priorities in order. Facing massive unemployment and losses in the Congress and Senate this fall, Dear Leader and his Justice Department are finally getting around to tackling the most important issue of our times: The desire for a college football playoff system. In bipartisan fashion, he's even got one GOP pinhead involved.

Forget health care and terror, President Obama is tackling an even bigger problem -- the legality of the college football Bowl Championship Series.

The series has garnered loads of criticism over the years because teams are chosen to compete in the championship game by a subjective rating system, rather than by a series of playoffs games.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has been a leading critic of the BCS after his state's university was left out last year. He has gone as far as to say that the BCS violates antitrust laws.

Yesterday, the Obama Justice Department sent the senator a letter saying it feels his pain.

"The administration shares your belief that the current lack of a college football national championship playoff with respect to the highest division of college football . . . raises important questions affecting millions of fans, colleges and universities, players and other interested parties," Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote.

Weich also said pursing an antitrust case is not the only option.

"The administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason," Weich wrote. Those include asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer-protection laws.

Just a hunch, but it appears Obama is well on his way to being, at best, a mediocre one-term president.

He Lied

I must say, one thing about ClimateGate and all the fraud surrounding the global warming junk science has at least driven Al Gore underground. It should also drive this guy into hiding at the very least as well.

The chairman of the leading climate change watchdog was informed that claims about melting Himalayan glaciers were false before the Copenhagen summit, The Times has learnt.

Rajendra Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but he waited two months to correct it. He failed to act despite learning that the claim had been refuted by several leading glaciologists.

The IPCC’s report underpinned the proposals at Copenhagen for drastic cuts in global emissions.

Dr Pachauri, who played a leading role at the summit, corrected the error last week after coming under media pressure. He told The Times on January 22 that he had only known about the error for a few days. He said: “I became aware of this when it was reported in the media about ten days ago. Before that, it was really not made known. Nobody brought it to my attention. There were statements, but we never looked at this 2035 number.”

Asked whether he had deliberately kept silent about the error to avoid embarrassment at Copenhagen, he said: “That’s ridiculous. It never came to my attention before the Copenhagen summit. It wasn’t in the public sphere.”

However, a prominent science journalist said that he had asked Dr Pachauri about the 2035 error last November. Pallava Bagla, who writes for Science journal, said he had asked Dr Pachauri about the error. He said that Dr Pachauri had replied: “I don’t have anything to add on glaciers.”

The Himalayan glaciers are so thick and at such high altitude that most glaciologists believe they would take several hundred years to melt at the present rate. Some are growing and many show little sign of change.

Dr Pachauri had previously dismissed a report by the Indian Government which said that glaciers might not be melting as much as had been feared. He described the report, which did not mention the 2035 error, as “voodoo science”.

He much prefers junk science instead.

Speaking of Algore, I'm wondering whether he'll be denouncing Osama bin Laden for co-opting his talking points or announcing a lecture series with the two of them? Wouldn't it be amusing if a dog-eared copy of Earth in the Balance was found in bin Laden's cave, just as it was with the Unabomber?

'To Me, It's a Sign of Maturity, Strength and Intellect'

To me this entire exercise has been a sign if immaturity, weakness and stupidity, but hey, I'm just some guy with a blog and not a renowned expert.

The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night.

Administration officials said that no final decision had been made but that officials of the Department of Justice and the White House were working feverishly to find a venue that would be less expensive and less of a security risk than New York City.

The back-to-the-future Gitmo option was reported yesterday by Fox News and was not disputed by White House officials.

Such a move would likely bring howls of protest from liberals already frustrated that President Obama has failed to meet his deadline for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Let them howl all they want. Those of us in the New York area should be the ones Obama is listening to, not some whiny, self-serving bunch of babies more concerned with the rights of killers than innocent civilians.

It would also indicate that after years of attacking the Bush administration for its handling of the war on terror, Obama officials are embracing one of the most controversial aspects of it.

The administration is likely considering Gitmo because Congress is moving to cut off funding for holding the expensive trials in civilians courts.

Rep. Peter King (R-LI) has introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of Justice Department funds to try Guantanamo detainees in federal civilian courts, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he would introduce a similar bill in the Senate next week.

The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports that wherever the terror trials are eventually held, it is virtually certain that they will not take place in New York City.
...
Bloomberg said yesterday that he would not brand Obama a flip-flopper over his turnabout.

"To me, it's a sign of maturity, strength and intellect," Bloomberg said on WOR radio yesterday.

Way to kiss Obama's tush, Mikey. If this towering intellect was so brilliant, he'd have seen what a firestorm this idiotic decision would have caused.

Naturally, some "experts" don't see it that way.

There are limits to where the U.S. can try the self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind outside of New York City - especially if murder is in the mix, experts say.

Bowing to critics who want the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed out of Foley Square, the Department of Justice Friday appeared close to abandoning plans to bring the case in lower Manhattan.

If the attacks had taken place outside the U.S., prosecutors could bring the case in any federal court in America.

Because the crime occurred in the U.S., the trial has to happen where at least one part of the conspiracy took place.

"The trial has to occur in the venue where the crime was committed," said James Benjamin Jr., a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who handled the appeal of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef.

Complicating matters is that prosecutors would likely want to bring murder charges against Mohammed and his four co-defendants for the deaths of 3,000-plus.

That, experts said, would restrict the location to the three places where blood was shed: the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of Virginia or the Western District of Pennsylvania.

OK, then how about trying them at the Pentagon?

Warrior Transition Brigade: To Space and Beyond

In what looks like it could it be one of the last space missions conducted by NASA since Obama has decided to cut their funding, a recent space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) brought back a special memento.

In the Army they have what are known as Warrior Transition Brigades. The purpose of these units is to care for service members who have been wounded in the Global War on Terrorism. Recently these units were authorized to have their own flag. The flag for WRAMC (Walter Reed Army Medical Center) was flown over the ISS. In the photo the flag is draped over the podium.

'It's the Stupidity That Brings People Down'

One of life's great mysteries has finally been resolved. Eliot Spitzer didn't wear black socks while he was shtupping his hookers.

Hooker-happy former Gov. Eliot Spitzer put to rest one lingering question from the scandal that ended his governorship: he did not wear socks while doing it.

In an extended interview on bigthink.com, Spitzer laughed and said "no" when asked about reports he wore black socks while patronizing his prostitutes.

Nearly two years removed from office, Spitzer was much more sober when discussing the impact the scandal had on himself and his family.

He said "recognizing the pain I've caused to my family...is a heavy burden to carry, as it should be."

"The sense that I have let down not only my family but friends, colleagues, the voters who had asked me to do a certain type of job.

"I desperately wanted to do that job, to do it well. I think we were trying...But I let them down and that is a very heavy burden to carry."

Meanwhile, the love guv also has some advice for Tiger Woods. How sporting of him.

What I've tried to do is look within," he said. "That is where one must ultimately find one's sense of self and purpose. That's all one can do."

As for the lessons other public officials can learn from his meteoric rise and fall, Spitzer said: "when you know something is stupid, don't do it."

He described it as a combination of "entitlement", "hubris" and "adrenaline" that causes some people to self-implode.

"It's the stupidity that brings people down," he said.

Democrats Guaranteeing Their Legislation Is Ruled Unconstitutionial

How freaking stupid have you got to be? The Democrats not content to just let Barry O take a cheap shot at the Supreme Court have decided to follower their Dear Leader's lead and are continuing their denigration of the court.

Guys this ain't real smart from several points of views. The first might be that any conservative leaning judge who was entertaining the notion of retiring will probably put those plans on hold for awhile, thereby guaranteeing a conservative majority.

Second, even some of the liberal judges may take umbrage with attacks upon the institution that they represent and throw a few votes over to the conservative side to send a message.

Thirdly, any legislation you do manage to pass and get the president to sign is just ripe for the picking by anybody who files a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of that legislation. I wonder which way that case would get decided?

President Obama's public undressing of the robed Supreme Court justices seated in front of him at the State of the Union address turned heads and drew rebukes from Republicans.
But his words were downright genteel compared with what's been said on the Senate floor the past two days. Democrats on Capitol Hill accused conservative court members of deciding cases specifically to benefit the Republican Party.

I am getting real tired of the whining from the Democrats. My god you would think the whole world is against them and they just can't get anything done, even though they hold majorities in both houses of Congress and the Presidency. In fact they gained control of the House of Representatives in the last two years of the Bush presidency, and still they whine about how Republicans block them.

On Thursday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the ruling on corporate election spending a "threat to the rule of law" and said it is one example of "a willingness of a narrow majority of the Supreme Court to render decisions from the bench to suit their own ideological agenda."

Of course Mr Leahy couldn't be bothered with the name of the legislation, which was the McCain Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill. Last time I checked McCain was still a Republican.

Dems it is time to grow up. Quit your damn whining, face the fact that you are in charge, and quite frankly, your ideas suck which is why most sane people who aren't popping a handful of pills to deal with their psychiatric problems reject them out of hand.

The liberal lawmakers have attacked the average citizen, their counterparts in congress and now they are assailing the Supreme Court who is a separate but equal branch of our government. These sort of displays are simply pathetic and speak very poorly of any adult, much less of somebody who was elected and is being paid by the taxpayers.

BTW for all of the whining and crying by the Democrats about how somehow this decision by the Supreme Court in someway benefits the Republicans is all horse manure. In reality what it is, is an attempt to get that message out there to draw attention away from who really benefits from this provision being struck down.

The big boss might want to take a second look at his campaign funding reports also.

Grim News: Scott Brown Related to Obama

Sigh. And I had such high hopes for the new Senator from Massachusetts. I guess Brown comes from the truck-driving side of the family rather than the arugula-eating wing.

It was bad enough that President Barack Obama lost his filibuster-proof margin in the U.S. Senate to a Republican. Now it turns out he also lost it to a relative.

Genealogists said Friday that the Democratic president and the newly elected senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, are 10th cousins.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society said Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and Brown's mother, Judith Ann Rugg, both descend from Richard Singletary of Haverhill, Mass.

He died in 1687 at the unheard-of, for the time, age of 102.

"I think it's a really interesting thing, where you have the separation between a Democrat and a Republican, but you have one link," said David Allen Lambert, the society genealogist who co-discovered the connection with colleague Chris Child.

Lambert said the work was aided by prior research about Obama, as well as Brown's cooperation with the society when researchers first contacted him in December.

Pelosi Racks Up $101,000 Bar Tab on Taxpayer-Funded Flights

So nice to see Queen Pelosi raping the taxpayers as much as possible while Speaker of the House. I had no idea she was such a lush. You'd think in these days of fiscal austerity she'd at least get some Valu-Rite booze to crush while flying coast-to-coast every week.

It reads like a dream order for a wild frat party: Maker's Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey's Irish Crème, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey … and Corona beer.

But that single receipt makes up just part of the more than $101,000 taxpayers paid for "in-flight services" – including food and liquor, for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trips on Air Force jets over the last two years. That's almost $1,000 per week.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch, which investigates and prosecutes government corruption, show Pelosi incurred expenses of some $2.1 million for her use of Air Force jets for travel over that time.

"Speaker Pelosi has a history of wasting taxpayer funds with her boorish demands for military travel," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said today. "And these documents suggest the Speaker's congressional delegations are more about partying than anything else."

Pelosi, D-Calif., recently joined President Obama on a Judicial Watch list of Top 10 corrupt politicians because of her "sense of entitlement," the group said.

"Politicians believe laws and rules (even the U.S. Constitution) apply to the rest of us but not to them. Case in point: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her excessive and boorish demands for military travel. Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Pentagon in 2008 that suggest Pelosi has been treating the Air Force like her own personal airline," the evaluation said.

500 Jobs and No Stimulus Funds Used

While Obama administration officials struggle with coming up for a number to define how many jobs their full government employment act has created or saved, the Department of the Navy has actually done just that, without any of the phony baloney stimulus money. I am sure Obama lackey's will try to take credit for these jobs using some sort of Orwellian logic, the truth is no stimulus funds were used.

The shipyard plans to add about 500 workers before the end of the summer, Rella said. The first of the 103-meter vessels is taking shape in Austal's new, assembly-line style Module Manufacturing Facility that was unveiled in the fall.

In so doing these new employees will become part of the tax base helping the Mobile, AL area not only by their consumer spending but by once again paying taxes.

You see, what liberals fail to grasp, is to get your economy going you need to have workers that produce a product. A product that can then be sold. Teachers, for all of their hard work in indoctrinating the youth of this country do not return such an investment. Government agencies hiring more people to screw up the already bloated bureaucracy does not add to the economic recovery. Those are the type of jobs that the stimulus money has mainly gone to.

My message to Washington is quite simple. Stop trying to help. You are just getting in the way and delaying our recovery. Their approach is like throwing a rope to a man sinking in quicksand without attaching it to anything and walking away. It only allows the victim to drown in the muck while holding onto a rope.

Sure people will rail that this is just another example of the military industrial complex and thus the bane of society, but I would point those progressive whiners to their favorite hero FDR, who finally enabled this country to pull out of the depression after being forced to ramp up just such a thing in response to WWII. It may sound cynical and callous, but without WWII, this country may not have recovered economically for another decade because of the policies of FDR.

If the government is going to spend my tax dollars, I am glad to see it going to the one thing that our government is specifically tasked with providing, and that is our national security.

Besides, that is one bad ass boat.

'At Least I Wasn't the Edwards Girl'

Ouch. She not exactly an intellectual titan, but at least she's easy on the eyes.

H/T NewsBusters

'This Guy is One Scotch Away From Being Ron Burgundy'

Twice in one week we go to Jon Stewart for some mockery of the left, in this case the idiotic Chris Matthews, a man still mysteriously employed by MSNBC. I guess being a racist asshole has its benefits.

H/T Hot Air.

Idiot-in-Chief Considers Moving 9/11 Trials Out of NYC

This dude is brilliant. Imagine being the last person on the planet to realize holding trials for the 9/11 mastermind in New York City is a bad idea.

Bending under enormous bipartisan pressure, the White House yesterday told US Attorney General Eric Holder to consider moving the trial of 9/11 monster Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other terror plotters from lower Manhattan, sources told The Post.

The Obama administration, responding to the chorus of discontent about the trial site, realized New York City was the wrong choice, one high-ranking law-enforcement source said.

"People were upset, the politicians were upset, the government's upset -- they realized it wasn't a smart decision," the source said.

"So the White House told the Justice Department to do an analysis of any other possible venues."

Gee, maybe they should have done that before they made the decision to bring these monsters to New York.

Topping the list, the source said, is upstate Otisville -- home to a federal penitentiary where the terrorists, now at Guantanamo Bay, could be housed. Other cities being considered, the source said, include White Plains in Westchester County and New Haven, Conn.

Hey, maybe they can hold the trials on a military base.

Club Gitmo comes to mind.

Speaking of idiots, the moronic mayor of Newburgh is giddy about the idea of having trials in his town.

"I look at it almost as a tourist attraction. The international attention would put Newburgh on the map," an excited Valentine told The Post.

Scott Brown With Jay Leno

Damn, this guy is smooth.

Bin Laden Channels His Inner Algore, Blames U.S. For Global Warming

This is really going to cause some consternation with the Gaia crowd. Do they come down on the side of sanity or do they align themselves with the world's No. 1 terrorist?

Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has condemned the US and other industrial economies, holding them responsible for the phenomenon of climate change.

In an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera, bin Laden criticised George Bush, the former US president, for rejecting the Kyoto pact and condemned global corporations.

Of course the entire U.S. Senate rejected Kyoto while Bill Clinton was president, but let's not allow facts to get in the way.

"This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions - whether intentionally or unintentionally - and about the action we must take," bin Laden said.

"Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury - the phenomenon is an actual fact."

Thus bin Laden now firmly places himself in the realm of the far left kooks (see Obama, Barack) who believe in the global warming hoax. I guess he can no longer be criticized.

In the new recording, bin Laden says "all the industrial states" are to blame for climate change, "yet the majority of those states have signed the Kyoto Protocol and agreed to curb the emission of harmful gases".

He continued: "However, George Bush junior, preceded by [the US] congress, dismissed the agreement to placate giant corporations. And they are themselves standing behind speculation, monopoly and soaring living costs.

"They are also behind 'globalisation and its tragic implications'. And whenever the perpetrators are found guilty, the heads of state rush to rescue them using public money."

The Kyoto Protocol, a UN treaty aimed at combating global warming, was adopted in December 1997 and has since been ratified by 187 states, but not by the US congress.

Although a signatory to the agreement, the US under Bush refused to ratify the treaty, saying that it should contain binding goals for developing countries to reduce emissions as well as those for industrialised nations.

Umm, again we'll point out George W. Bush was not the president in 1997. But hey, why let facts get in the way?

Bin Laden also sends a shout-out to one of his lefty pals in the U.S.

In the new recording, bin Laden said: "Noam Chomsky [the US academic and political commentator] was correct when he compared the US policies to those of the Mafia. They are the true terrorists and therefore we should refrain from dealing in the US dollar and should try to get rid of this currency as early as possible.

"I am certain that such actions will have grave repercussions and huge impact."

Michelle Obama to Tackle Obesity

It's about time she started working on that gigantic ass of hers.

Oh wait, we're not talking about her?

Obama to 9/11 Heroes: Drop Dead

Spit on by Obama

The day after proclaiming we're all got to come together (for his sake), today Barack Obama callously flips the bird to those who sacrificed their health and well-being in the aftermath of 9/11. It's difficult to comprehend how a man can recklessly spend trillions of dollars yet he can't find the need to spend a puny portion of that helping those with illnesses related to their time spent at Ground Zero.

The word inhumane springs to mind. Oh, and to further rub it in, he'll have us spend a billion dollars holding trials in lower Manhattan for the monsters who you could say caused these illnesses.

Such callousness stuns even the Democrats representing New York.

The Obama administration stunned New York's delegation Thursday, dropping the bombshell news that it does not support funding the 9/11 health bill.

The state's two senators and 14 House members met with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius just hours before President Obama implored in his speech to the nation for Congress to come together and deliver a government that delivers on its promises to the American people.

So the legislators were floored to learn the Democratic administration does not want to deliver for the tens of thousands of people who sacrificed after 9/11, and the untold numbers now getting sick.

"I was stunned — and very disappointed," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who like most of the other legislators had expected more of a discussion on how to more forward.

"To say the least, I was flabbergasted," said Staten Island Rep. Mike McMahon.

The 9/11 bill would spend about $11 billion over 30 years to care for the growing numbers of people getting sick from their service at Ground Zero, and to compensate families for their losses.

Eleven billion dollars over 30 years, an amount dwarfed by the now $860 billion stimulus slush fund at his employ.

Staggering.

The legislators were shocked the idea was falling lower on the administration priority list than other parts of the war on terror and financial bailouts.

"She made it clear that the administration does not support any kind of funding mechanism that goes into the bill," said Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel. "I think it's fiscal restraint… but you know what? They find money for everything else, they need to find money for this," Engel said.

"We were attacked because we're a symbol of our country." McMahon was furious that caring for the heroes of Sept. 11 would take a back seat to anything but military funding.

"I thought there was a complete lack of understanding of the issue by the secretary and quite frankly, I did not expect that lack of compassion and failure to understand the urgency of the issue."

Obama has no problem endowing the full menu of constitutional rights upon our worst enemies but blithely dismisses the health and well-being of their victims. It's as if he's hoping the New York Democrats are defeated this fall.

Thanks to Allahpundit for the link.

Total cost: $11 billion … over 30 years. The optics of this are so appallingly bad, especially in light of the rumors circulating about the U.S. and UK offering the Taliban $1 billion to play ball in Afghanistan (which may be paying off), that I can’t believe there’s no ulterior motive. Is this actually some sort of kabuki aimed at giving Obama an excuse to reverse himself about the spending freeze? There’ll be a public outcry, The One will accede and agree to fund the 9/11 bill, and then Gibbs will use it every day going forward as a lesson in how they can’t cut spending because the compassionate American public simply won’t let them make hard choices about denying services to those in need. Or maybe they’re planning to add this to ObamaCare, as a lesson in how desperately some people need health care? Or am I overthinking this because I simply can’t believe they’ve become this tone deaf? What’s up, seriously?

Mark Levin Goes Nuclear on Obama's SCOTUS Criticism: 'He's a Serial Liar'

Via Nick Rizzuto, here's The Great One appearing with Andrew Wilkow this afternoon. A nice primer for Levin's show tonight, no doubt.

"He lied flatly to them, right to their face..."

And he lied to the entire planet.

Meanwhile, Obama responds to his own speech.

Funny, He Never Mentions 'Inheriting' This From Bush

This would be victory in Iraq. Of course the TOTUS couldn't bring himself to actually say victory, but rather as Drew over at Ace points out, the war in Iraq is merely ending. You know, like the movie Avatar.

As we take the fight to al Qaeda, we are responsibly leaving Iraq to its people. As a candidate, I promised that I would end this war, and that is what I am doing as President. We will have all of our combat troops out of Iraq by the end of this August. We will support the Iraqi government as they hold elections, and continue to partner with the Iraqi people to promote regional peace and prosperity. But make no mistake: this war is ending, and all of our troops are coming home.

Tonight, all of our men and women in uniform — in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world – must know that they have our respect, our gratitude, and our full support. And just as they must have the resources they need in war, we all have a responsibility to support them when they come home. That is why we made the largest increase in investments for veterans in decades. That is why we are building a 21st century VA. And that is why Michelle has joined with Jill Biden to forge a national commitment to support military families.

For some of us, that victory in Iraq was secured long ago, and nothing he has done as president had any impact on the outcome. He didn't end the war. It was over before he ever took the oath of office. The process of withdrawing the troops is proceeding according to the conditions and timeline outlined by the generals while Bush was president.

No, he will go on believing that veterans are the latest, greatest class of victims needing coddling from the government and give very little attention to things they have accomplished. Gone are the daily body count headlines, the latest expose on failings in the war in Iraq, and the constant hand-wringing over how the only option is losing.

I think it's interesting that apparently he thinks taking care of service members issues is woman's work by highlighting how Michelle and Jill Biden are leading the cause of supporting military families. This is on the heels of Michelle announcing the $8.8 billion in funding in the defense budget for service members and their families in the upcoming budget. Where have they been for the last eight years? It was their side of the political spectrum who accused our troops of being everything from Nazi Stormtroopers to acting like terrorists by kicking in doors in the dead of the night.

Yeah, real nice of them to all of sudden being concerned about our service members when for so long they contributed to many of causes which caused these same families so much anguish. Maybe their guilt is finally getting to them, but I doubt it. Somewhere they think are some votes to be had, and with his poll numbers somewhere below those of Charles Manson, they will beg, plead, cajole, threaten and buy every vote they can.

Yeah, the war is just ending. Nothing notable at all.

I had better things to do last night then to listen to yet another empty, promise-filled, boilerplate campaign speech, although I will say the Supreme Court is just waiting to get a case in front of them from Barry O's DoJ.

I wonder how that will go?

Hitler Gets an iPad

The ubiquitous "Hitler in the bunker" video redone for the iPad release.

'I've Never Seen a Department of Homeland Security Official Sleeping Inside an Airport'

This should really make the flying public feel secure. Some incompetent TSA hack, probably stoned or hungover, takes a nap while on duty at LaGuardia Airport in New York.

That's bad enough. What's worse? She wasn't fired on the spot.

Forget about catching terrorists. This airport security agent was too busy catching some Z's.

The Transportation Security Administration worker was put on desk duty after she was spotted sleeping in plain sight at LaGuardia Airport - the latest black eye for the federal agency.

Brooklyn traveler Bucky Turco said he had just arrived at his departure gate on Sunday when he saw the uniformed worker snoozing in a chair, head resting in her hand.

"I was shocked," Turco, 35, said, of the 8:15 a.m. encounter. "I've never seen a Department of Homeland Security official sleeping inside an airport."

Turco, 35, snapped a photo of the worker, who woke up about 10 minutes later during an announcement that the Frontier Airlines flight to Denver was boarding, he said.

After rising from her seat, the groggy employee immediately joined her colleagues who were performing secondary security checks at the gate, Turco said.

Turco was flummoxed by what he witnessed.

"In light of their recent follies, it just seemed that a federal agency beleaguered by bad news of late should probably worry about their image a little more," said Turco, founder and editor-in-chief of the counter-culture magazine Animal.

"To be fair, she could have been on a break. But you don't go to a precinct and see a police officer sleeping at their desk."

Turco posted the picture on his Web site. Someone sent a link to TSA officials Tuesday and the worker was immediately interviewed, an agency spokeswoman said.

The guard was put on desk duty pending the outcome of an investigation.

"We recognize that our officers have very demanding jobs that require constant vigilance and hours on their feet," TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said.

"But nonetheless, it was completely inappropriate for her to rest in a public area while on her break as opposed to a nearby break room."

Aww, the poor things have to spend hours on their feet. Well, sorry, it's their job. If they don't like it they can't find work elsewhere. Putting this incompetent hack on desk duty will probably just allow her to sleep more.

Automaker NOT Owned by the Government Posts $2.7 Billion Profit

The Democrats just don't get it and never will. How dare a private company succeed in these tough economic times without handouts from the imperial federal government?

Well, somehow Ford managed to do just that.

Ford Motor Co. says it made $2.7 billion in 2009, its first annual profit in four years.

Ford says it benefited from cost-cutting, debt reduction and popular cars and trucks like the Ford Fusion sedan and Escape SUV. It's enjoying customer goodwill for avoiding bankruptcy and refusing federal aid.

Meanwhile, Government Motors continues to bleed money and Chrysler showed up to the recent Detroit auto show with no new models to display.

Message to Democrats: Get the hell out of the way and watch this economy recover.

I'm beginning to think they don't want us to recover.

'We Thought We Were Being Original'

Sorry, kids, wearing hammer-and-sickle t-shirts isn't exactly original. It's mind-numbingly stupid. Though I can't necessarily blame the kids. When real history is ignored and Communist mass murder is glossed over or ignored entirely, when Che Guevara shirts are seen all over college campuses, why would they believe there's anything wrong wearing a shirt paying tribute to an ideology responsible for the murder of hundreds of millions of people?

You're assigned the color red. Now think of a relevant theme. Communism?

That's exactly what juniors at Irvington High School chose.

And that's when peace crumbled faster than the Berlin Wall.

The class vote was part of the school's Color Wars, to take place next month. A T-shirt was to feature a hammer and sickle on the front and "Isn't it Time You Joined the Party" on the back.

If that phrase made you smile, it was meant to. The students were intending to be funny, even envisioning a party hat perched on the sickle.

If it didn't, not everyone saw the humor.

"I just thought it was very inappropriate and offensive," said 17-year-old Michael Schur, a senior whose relatives died in Ukraine under Stalin's rule and whose mother complained to the principal.

Now the design has gone the way of the Soviet Union, and the juniors have substituted a video game figure, Mario, the intrepid Italian plumber outfitted in red and blue.

"We wanted to do something that was a little bit witty, smart humor," said the class president, Isabel Garcia. "We thought we were being original."

If they wanted to be original in an academic environment maybe they'd wear shirts proclaiming themselves proud conservatives or pro-life. Problem is they'd probably horrify the faculty and wind up suspended from school.

Once Schur complained, the principal, Scott Mosenthal, told Garcia that the juniors would have to reconsider.

"If it's disrespectful to people in the community, that's a much bigger issue than some kids' not liking the idea," Garcia said. "Generally you listen to the majority, but when the minority has something really important to say, you have to go with them."

Really? Like I said, if Schur showed up with a shirt saying Choose Life, would everyone have to go with him?

You know the answer to that.

As for Schur, did he persuade his schoolmates to view the hammer and sickle differently?

"In the end I really don't think I made my point," he said. "I just aggravated a bunch of people."

Now he'll probably wind up an outcast. I can see the ACLU rushing to Irvington High School today complaining the rights of these moronic kids are being violated.

Parakeet Says What?

New York's junior senator whined quite a bit the other day when Hrold Ford called her a puppet and parakeet of Charles Schumer. Well, it sure seems Ford is on to something. How else can the unelected Gillibrand explain her voting record being 98% in synch with her puppet-master?

Tweet, tweet -- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand really is a parakeet!

Her Senate voting record is a near perfect duplicate of her senior New York Democratic colleague, Sen. Charles Schumer, a Post analysis reveals -- with the two agreeing 98 percent of the time.

The two peas in a pod have been in near-perfect synch through the full gamut of issues since Gillibrand was appointed to fill Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate seat -- from the budget to climate change and hot-button social concerns like gun control.

Out of the nearly total 400 votes cast since she was sworn in one year ago yesterday, Gillibrand has parted ways with Schumer just eight times, according to an analysis of both lawmakers' records.

Gillibrand voted with Schumer, a powerhouse lawmaker who has helped clear the primary field for her re-election, even more closely than she did with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

She voted with Reid 95 percent of the time, disagreeing on several amendments when Reid backed Republican amendments to provide greater protections for gun owners.

Ex-Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford Jr., who lives in Manhattan and is preparing for a possible primary challenge to Gillibrand, this week ridiculed her as a "parakeet" who mimicked what party leaders told her to say.

Earlier this week, Gillibrand insisted she was independent.

"It's absurd, it's insulting, it's very far from the truth," she told The Post in response to Ford's charges that Schumer tells her what to do.

"Certainly, no one tells me how to vote. I make my own decisions."

Critics beg to differ.

"Sen. Gillibrand doesn't speak unless Chuck Schumer allows her to talk," quipped GOP consultant Susan Del Percio on NY1's "Inside City Hall" this week.

While representing an upstate district in the House, Gillibrand achieved the lowest "party unity" score of any New York Democrat, earning a score of 91 out of 100 in 2008 rankings compiled by Congressional Quarterly which track party-line votes.

Her differences with Schumer don't appear to follow a strict pattern, and frequently came on votes Republicans set up to put Democrats in a tight spot.

They split twice on the left-leaning community action group ACORN, when Gillibrand opposed amendments to deny federal funding to the controversial group, while Schumer voted for them. Both passed.

ACORN is left-leaning? I really believe today's media would refer to Josef Stalin as left-leaning, or probably even call him a moderate.

Marxist Crank Assumes Room Temperature: Chomsky, Affleck Hardest Hit

Like my mother once said, if you have nothing good to say about the dead, poke fun at those mourning them.

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and whose books, such as "A People's History of the United States," inspired young and old to rethink the way textbooks present the American experience, died today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling. He was 87.

His daughter, Myla Kabat-Zinn of Lexington, said he suffered a heart attack.

"He's made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, said tonight. "He's changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can't think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect."

A couple of Hollywood's useful idiots mourn.

In 1997, Dr. Zinn slipped into popular culture when his writing made a cameo appearance in the film "Good Will Hunting." The title character, played by Matt Damon, lauds "A People’s History" and urges Robin Williams’s character to read it. Damon, who co-wrote the script, was a neighbor of the Zinns growing up.

"Howard had a great mind and was one of the great voices in the American political life," Ben Affleck, also a family friend growing up and Damon's co-star in "Good Will Hunting," said in a statement. "He taught me how valuable -- how necessary -- dissent was to democracy and to America itself. He taught that history was made by the everyman, not the elites. I was lucky enough to know him personally and I will carry with me what I learned from him -- and try to impart it to my own children -- in his memory."

Ah, the halcyon days when dissent was in vogue. Well, until those raucous tea parties came along.

The hammer and sickle is flying at half mast over at The Nation.

'I'd Say It's a Lot Nicer to Eat a Bit of Grilled Pork Than Take Viagra'

Pork Lover

Just what we need: Sex tips from politicians. Although considering the source here, I'm inclined to at least hear her out.

Argentina's president recommended pork as an alternative to Viagra on Wednesday, saying she spent a satisfying weekend with her husband after eating barbecued pork.

"I've just been told something I didn't know; that eating pork improves your sex life ... I'd say it's a lot nicer to eat a bit of grilled pork than take Viagra," President Cristina Fernandez said to leaders of the pig farming industry.

She said she recently ate pork and "things went very well that weekend, so it could well be true."

I wonder if they had bacon for breakfast?

'I Am a Canine'

This is either a gag or this young, uh, lady is seriously disturbed. Doesn't sound she had much parenting.

Wolfie Blackheart is not an ordinary 18-year-old.

She believes she is a wolf — technically, a werewolf — and so she wears a tail. She also wears a harness in case someone special wants to drag her around.

And last week, she used a pocketknife in her kitchen to decapitate a dog — already dead, according to Wolfie — that had been missing since Jan. 5.

“I severed the head, boiled the head,” Wolfie said. “People make the mistake of hacking the spine, which will fracture the skull.”

She added, “You also have to put (the head) outside for the brains to leak out.”

Before the teenager carted the cranium to the woods, someone held it up and snapped a photograph of it inside her Northwest Side house — a shot that ended up on the Internet.

Within days, the photo had spurred an aggressive animal cruelty investigation by Animal Care Services and the San Antonio Police Department.

It also inspired at least one so-called troll — a savvy, anonymous Internet user — to hack into Wolfie’s personal accounts, engage in amateur sleuthing and issue threats to those deemed responsible for the dog’s fate.

Bearing the brunt of these attacks, Wolfie — born Sarah Rodriguez — says she’s guilty of nothing more than an abiding love for taxidermy.

“I would never kill a canine,” she said. “I am a canine.”

Lisa Rodriguez, Wolfie’s mom, said she supports her daughter’s career goal.

“I say, ‘Don’t sever heads in front of me,’” she said. “She usually does it in the woods.”

Wolfie cares lovingly for two huskies in the backyard.

Her room is a cluttered den plastered with posters of anime characters and howling wolves. On a high shelf, she collects heads, including the cleaned skulls of a coyote, ram and wild boar.

When a car ran over Pixie — her “best friend” — Wolfie cut off the chihuahua’s tiny head, cleaned it and placed it in a jar.

“I get requests on cats and stuff,” she said.

Stupid: PETA Clowns Want to Replace Punxsutawney Phil With a Robot

For all the dumb stunts these crackpot radicals have offered up over the years, this one may be the most insipid.

The animal rights group PETA is demanding that America's beloved harbinger of spring, Punxsutawney Phil, be replaced with ... a robot.

The group says it's unfair of the Groundhog Day festival organizers to subject the furry critter to the bright lights and huge crowds that descend on the tiny Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney every Feb. 2.

"Make the compassionate decision to use an animatronic Phil and retire the live groundhogs who are used for Groundhog Day activities to a sanctuary," wrote Gemma Vaughan of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"Tradition is no excuse for cruelty."

William Deeley, president of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, said Phil is the most pampered groundhog in the world.

"This is just crazy," Deeley told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

"Phil is probably treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania. He's got air conditioning in the summer, his pen is heated in winter ... He has everything but a TV in there. What more do you want?"

Besides, Pennsylvania already has an animatronic "Gus the Groundhog," who is the "spokesanimal" for the state lottery.

In other animal rights wacko news, the kooks have also trained their sights on men's skating diva Johnny Weir, upset that the flamboyant Olympian is wearing fur.

On January 17 Johnny Weir did his free skate in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships wearing a bodysuit with a hint of fox fur on the shoulder. Animal-rights groups, predictably, are not having it. One such organization, called Friends of Animals, posted an open letter to Weir on their site asking him not to wear fur. They also contacted his costume designer, Stephanie Handler, yesterday. The AP explains:

Weir loves fashion, and his costumes tend to be on the avant-garde — some would say extreme — side. When the three-time U.S. champion redesigned his free skate costume before nationals, he had Handler add a tuft of white fox fur to the left shoulder.

Weir said he thought the costume was "lovely," but Friends of Animals disagreed.

Here's a look at Weir's "lovely" outfit.

First Lady's Guest List Bios For STFU Speech Lacking

The White House, through their spokesperson has released a list of the guests who will be accompanying the First Lady to her husbands STFU speech tonight and on at least a couple of entries I found some important details missing.

See if you can figure out what is missing.

Kimberly Munley, (Killeen, Texas), a federal police officer serving on the Special Reaction Team for the Fort Hood Police Department in Fort Hood, Texas.

Mark Todd (Killeen, Texas), former military policeman and currently civilian Lead Police Officer and acting chief of the Military Working Dog Branch at Fort Hood Texas.

If you guessed that these are the two officers credited with taking down the Ft Hood jihadist, give yourself a gold star.

Media Matters Morons: Bill O'Reilly Wants to Waterboard Nancy Pelosi

It's hilarious seeing these Soros-funded twits from Media Matters flail away in futility as they do anything they can to undermine their enemies. If it's not lifting passages out of context of Rush Limbaugh and using their media dupes to spread the message, then it's usually anyone at Fox News, and in this case they're going after Bill O'Reilly for some facetious comments he made last weekend. Naturally, some schlub at the New York Daily News dutifully regurgitates their drivel, along with Bathtub Boy, Keith Olbermann. Clearly, nobody at Media Matters has anything remotely close to a sense of humor.

Conservative rabble-rouser Bill O'Reilly ventured his solution to D.C.’s partisan gridlock during a lecture on Saturday - kidnap Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, and possibly waterboard the House Speaker.

"I told Obama that the best thing he could do would be hire me as his main adviser," he said.

"If [Obama] did hire me . . . I'd get Leon [Panetta] in . . . And I'd say, Leon, look . . . You gotta kidnap Pelosi and Reid.

"Don't hurt them. Don't hurt them, okay? But take them to an undisclosed location," he told the laughing audience. "No waterboarding, well maybe with Nancy."

Audio of his remarks, made during his Saturday stop in Westbury, N.Y., for his "Bold and Fresh Tour" with Glenn Beck, was first posted on the liberal Web site MediaMatters.org.

"Once that happens . . . once you get the real loon fringe out of there," he continued, "If you got . . . somebody else in there, who they [Republicans] didn't loathe so much, there might be a little detente, and we might be able to get something done."

Long time O'Reilly foe Keith Olberman responded by crowning the Fox News host his "Worst Person in the World" on last night's episode of MSNBC's "Countdown."

The liberal TV presenter claimed he finds nothing funny in remarks, calling them O’Reilly’s stock "violence fantasies."

"He says it because he wants somebody to do it," the liberal TV presenter said.

Notice O'Reilly is called a conservative rabble-rouser while the deranged Olbermann is merely a liberal TV presenter.

Of course Olbermann, known to tell people to kill themselves and who last week called Scott Brown every vile name in the book, isn't a rabble-rouser.

He also doesn't have any ratings and Fox is the No. 1, most-trusted name in news, so he's still desperate enough to use material from the long ago discredited Media Matters.

How sad.

Independent Journalism?

This is just an example of what grinds my gears in regards to our journalists nowadays. While browsing the Newseum web site I saw three papers with the same picture on the front page.

The Marshfield News-Herald
Stevens Point Journal
Wausau Daily Herald
The Herald Times Reporter used a different picture but the same story.

What a coincidence. Well actually it isn't.

What got me was the accompanying article was about the governor of Wisconsin who gave his State of the State speech, and here we have at least four separate newspapers in the state, who rather then devoting their own resources to providing coverage, they instead relied on an AP version of the story. A story that directly affects your state and in your back yard and yet you use an AP wire story.

How is that serving the people of the state? If all you are going to be is an echo chamber then you are not serving any purpose.

Soros Heaps Praise On Obama's Banking Plans

This is a case of which came first, Soros' praise for Barry O's plans to attack big banks or his whispering in the ear of the TOTUS, and now taking a victory lap because the schmuck was actually stupid enough to try and carry through on the idea.

Analyzing attempts to overcome the crisis, Mr Soros had plenty of praise for Mr Obama's plan to split big banks - separating their commercial banking bits and their investment arms.

Even after the break-up proposed by Mr Obama, most investment banks would "still be too big to fail," Mr Soros told the lunch guests.

To contain these banks, he said all major economies would have to agree on a common set of financial regulation that set strict limits for leverage - how much money the banks can borrow to invest.

Without a global agreement, capital would simply move to the least regulated country.

However, if all major economies participated, they could exercise the necessary controls over money flow to prevent rogue states from circumventing the system - or stop "Goldman Sachs from setting up shop in Somalia," as one of the participants called it.

Look, I'm no economic genius, but while I would like to blame the banks for being the cause of our current woes, the truth is the blame goes to half a dozen parties. From government legislators who turned a blind eye to the practices at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and passed laws and issued opinions that lending institutions should do more to put everybody in a house, to individuals who never faced the reality that they were buying more home then they could afford.

Long before the real estate collapse occurred, me and my friends and neighbors would talk about how high the price of housing had gotten in our area. The conversation normally ended with somebody asking the rhetorical question of just who the hell do they think lives out here and how can they afford the price of a house.

Well, the truth is they couldn't, but the housing market was superheated and many of the parties involved were driven by visions of making a quick buck and nobody wanted the gravy train to stop. Well it did, and while it is easy to try to make banks out to be the bad guys, the truth is Freddie and Fannie not only pushed banks to make the loans, they backed them up.

Since Fannie and Freddie had friends in Congress, not a lot of attention has been given to them, and Congressmen eager to not have their enabling of this crash known have been quick to point fingers at bankers too.

So I got off track, but my real point is if you have George Soros out promoting your economic policies, the investment who was to blame for the collapse of the British banking system and the Japanese markets, then you had better look hard and try to find out what his motivation is.

Just like Warren Buffett, Soros does nothing without looking at how he can profit from it while supporting and financing groups that wish to stop anybody else from doing the same. This appears to be nothing more then one more way to achieve some sort of global ruling class. If countries aren't allowed to regulate business within their own borders, then it is just more piece of their sovereignty that they are giving away. Weak leaders are happy to have somebody else to blame for their inability to make the tough choices. Like our current president, they quite often blame inanimate objects or credit non living entities with being the cause of bad news.

Ever notice that bad news out of our government normally comes with the phrase of "The White House" or administration officials.

No, having a big socialists like George Soros trumpeting your economic policies should be enough to concern all Americans who do not ascribe to the Socialist viewpoint.

Information on the Bretton Woods plan mentioned in the article can be found here.