Comedy Gold: Obama Is Like a Life-Saving Doctor Whose Patient Blames Him For Scars

Oh dear, Leslie Stahl has quite the imagination, doesn't she?

Actually, I have a better analogy: The patient is like Paul Sheldon, writhing in agony after Annie Wilkes breaks his ankles (to demonstrate how much she loves him, of course).



Via Breitbart. Cross-posted.

High School Athlete Draws Penalty for Pointing Up to God After Scoring a Touchdown

This seems capricious and arbitrary, until you consider the fact that it happened in Tacoma, Washington - a city that likes to flaunt its liberal bona fides at every opportunity.

Then it makes perfect sense.

Sports and religion clashed at the State High School Football playoffs in Tacoma Monday night. During the 2A semifinal game between East Valley and Tumwater one of the stars of the game got flagged for doing something millions of Americans do every day.

Like he's done so many times this season, Tumwater star running back Ronnie Hastie powered his way into the end zone then dropped to a knee and pointed to the sky.

"It's just something I do every time I get in the end zone to honor my Lord cause I play for him, I give him the glory cause he's the one that gives me the strength," said Hastie.

Except this time, the referee flagged Hastie for unsportsmanlike conduct, a 15 yard penalty and the fans were peeved.

"I think it was a pretty lousy call I think it's just a game, even if it is a prayer it should go on."

According to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association's rules players cannot draw attention to themselves. So, when Hastie scored and raised his hand to heaven the refs said he was doing just that.

Hastie was humble about the call, "I was just confused cause I've done it every game and then I got flagged for it, I learned now so."

Even Tumwater's Head Coach Sid Otton believes the refs probably got the call right.

"If it's a rule and they made it then I agree with it because it's in there. I admire the young man. He's a great player, great person off the field too," said Otton.

The 15 yard penalty did not affect the outcome of the game, Tumwater still won big time, but one Tumwater fan told us it's legal to pray in his city in the end zone, but apparently not in Tacoma.

"Well, I thought it was pretty crummy that kids can't give thanks in public."

h/t: Brittney Linville.

Cross-posted.

Deranged Sarah Palin Story Du Jour: She Forced Bristol to Go on DWTS to Boost Her Chances in 2012

Let's face it: A washed-up comedian who was actually on Dancing With the Stars with Bristol Palin (not that anyone can remember) is the source for this groundbreaking story, and as a far-left activist, she wouldn't have any axe to grind with the Mama Grizzly, would she? Perhaps this is an attempt to out-stupid Olbermann, although performing that would be a Herculean feat. But yet, let's hear her out.

Why did Bristol do Dancing with the Stars? I heard from someone who really should know (really should seriously know the dirt really really) that the only reason Bristol was on the show was because Sarah Palin forced her to do it. Sarah supposedly blames Bristol harshly and openly (in the circles that I heard it from) for not winning the election, and so she told Bristol she “owed” it to her to do DWTS so that “America would fall in love with her again” and make it possible for Sarah Palin to run in 2012 with America behind her all the way. Instead of being supposedly “handicapped” by the presence of her teen mom daughter, now Bristol is going to be an “asset” – a celebrity beloved for her dancing. I am sure the show wasn’t in on this (but who knows anything really).

Really, who knows anything really really, you know? But hey, this is surely enough to run with for the media. Alas, Cho has her reservations and may soon be contemplating witness protection.

But keep in mind there are other forces at work here and it’s not just for the love of dance.

Now I am scared I am going to wake up with a decapitated moose head in my bed.

The crazies then come out in the comments. Andrew Sullivan would love this one:

Anyone who goes on a TV show while pregnant for at least the third time before her 20th birthday and simultaneously preaches pro-abstinence deserves all the brickbats that are hurled in her direction.

More Conyers Cronyism

I tell you what, John Conyers, the wackadoodle Democrat representative from Michigan, sure is doing his best to make politicians in Chicago look like pikers. His wife is already serving a prison sentence for her malfeasance and now some very interesting questions are being asked about his son, government tagged vehicle and the theft of $27,000 worth of concert tickets.

The son of Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., says items were stolen out of the government vehicle he was driving last Wednesday in downtown Detroit, FOX 2's Simon Shaykhet reports.

John Conyers III, 20, told police two Apple MacBooks, valued at $1,100 apiece, and more than $27,000 worth of concert tickets to the Fillmore were stolen out of a burgundy 2010 Cadillac Escalade registered to the 14th Congressional District.

Questions like what was this son doing driving a vehicle with government tags on it? Who the hell has $27,000 worth of concert tickets in their possession and they don't work for Ticketmaster? Who paid for the 2010 Cadillac? Taxpayers want to know, provided anybody in his district still has a job and, you know, actually pays taxes.



BTW, does Charlie 'Rent Control' Rangel have any sons?

La La Land Justice: Man Gets Probation for Raping His Adopted Dog

Yes, you're reading that headline correctly. But rest assured, animal lovers, he's been warned to stay away from the pooches.

A transient who sexually assaulted a dog he had adopted from an animal shelter has been sentenced to three years' probation, officials with the Los Angeles city attorney's office said Tuesday.

Wade Strickland, 62, pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and lewd conduct in connection with a Feb. 2 incident in which he was seen sexually violating the female German shepherd mix beneath a freeway underpass and was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department Animal Cruelty Task Force.

Judge Mary Lou Villar also ordered Strickland not to own or possess any animals, submit to searches by the LAPD and Department of Animal Services for animals at any time and attend two dozen animal care counseling sessions.

No doubt that'll be a deterrent to his deviant behavior.

At the time of his arrest, Strickland was "found with two dogs, including the victim, and pornographic material in his possession," according to the city prosecutors.

The abused dog, which had no visible trauma, was successfully adopted following the incident, officials said.

But if that dog could talk...

A spokesdog from the Council for the Advancement of Canine-Americans (CACA) was unavailable for comment.

H/T.

'This is Why the American People Have Thrown You Out of Power'

If you ever needed reminder of the smug arrogance of Democrats, save this video.

Monday, the presiding speaker was California's Democratic Rep. Laura Richardson.

When Indiana Republican Rep. Steve Buyer sought recognition to speak for....
...five minutes about some pending veterans legislation, she said no. He revised his request to one minute.

Looking confused and taking verbal directions from someone off-camera, Richardson again denied the request.

Buyer persisted, growing outraged that one sitting representative was highhandedly refusing to recognize another, even for one minute. "This is why," Buyer declared, "the American people have thrown you out of power."

Richardson confers again with someone unseen. This, not incidentally, is the kind of government coverage of the legislature that C-SPAN seeks to reform. The television cameras in the House are run strictly by the House, with focus on the person speaking and nothing else.

Duh: NYS Jacks Up Cigarette Taxes, Legal Sales Fall Precipitously

File this one under the They Never Learn file. It doesn't take a genius to realize if you make cigarettes unaffordable that people are just going to find a way to get them cheaper, wherever that may be. And in New York State you've got the Native Americans selling them much, much cheaper, and you've got border states also in competition with them. So what do we get? Less tax revenue than anticipated, more bootlegging and related crime, and probably coming soon: yet another tax increase.

You can't fix stupid, and since New York is controlled by Democrats, there's no hope they'll ever figure it out.

How pathetically predictable: Albany raises taxes on cigarettes to such onerous levels that purchasing them legally becomes all but unaffordable.

So what happens?

Folks buy them illegally. (Duh.)

As reports in The Post last Friday and Saturday show, that's what's happening: underground sales of 7.3 million packs a month.

Legal sales, by contrast, plunged 27 per cent, from 41 million packs a month to 30 million, between June and July -- when Albany jacked up butt taxes to as much as $5.85 a pack in the city.

That's far more than the 8 percent to 10 percent dip that the state projected.
And it comes with a price: "We see lots of [rip-offs] and violence with drug-trafficking," ATF special agent Ron Turk told The Post. "As volume and money go up, the stakes get higher."

Sure, $14-a-pack smokes may prompt some folks to quit, as tax supporters argue.

But with tax-free cigs so ubiquitous and so much cheaper, why should smokers be expected to resist them? They buy levy-free packs in lower-tax states, on Indian reservations or at local bodegas.

State enforcement agents complain that budget cuts are curtailing their operations, which no doubt they are.

But the answer's not restoring the cuts.

The answer is bringing cigarette taxes into equilibrium with national norms -- thereby removing the chief incentive for buttleggers and Indian reservations to break the law in the first place.

No one has reliably shown that sky-high cig taxes curb tobacco use enough to justify the added crime. Nor are the tax hikes bringing in revenues anywhere close to what was projected, since legal sales have dropped.

You'll never see them lower taxes. The unquenchable thirst for tax revenue--especially in a state that's broke--can never be sated. In the highly unlikely event they do slash cigarette taxes, they'll simply move on to gouge someone else.

Cut spending? Hah! As if.

Olbermann Names Julian Assange Worst Person in the World

Well, not really. He finds someone who poses a far greater danger to all of us: Bristol Palin, of course. The man has his priorities in order.

Stay classy, douchebag.

'You Think This is Funny, I Take This S--t Serious'

Derek Anderson, current QB of the sorry-ass, no-account Arizona Cardinals, melts down when questioned by a reporter an=bout yukking it up on the sidelines during their beatdown at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers last night. Anderson isn't taking losing very well.

On Monday night, ESPN’s Jon Gruden had a rare Chucky moment, calling out Cardinals quarterback Derek Anderson for yukking it up on the sidelines with guard Deuce Lutui while the home team was losing to the 49ers by 18 points. After the game, Anderson was asked about it during a press conference.

Let’s just say there was no laughing then.

KTAR has posted the video of the exchange. While it’s not nearly as epic as Denny Green’s 2006 “they are who we thought they were” rant, it’s the best sound bite the franchise has produced since then.

“You think this is funny, I take this shit serious,” Anderson said, his voice rising. “Real serious. I put my heart and soul into this shit every single week. . . . I don’t go out there and laugh. It’s not funny. Nothing’s funny to me. I don’t want to go out there and get embarrassed on Monday Night Football in front of everybody. . . . We’re talking. Deuce and I were talking.”

As the reporter began to ask about the context of the discussion, Anderson stormed off. (Fortunately, there was no microphone striking or references to crowning the asses of the 49ers.)

Here’s the reality. Anderson was laughing during the game, so he was lying after it. Getting pissed and talking loudly and walking off doesn’t change that fact.

AP: Of Course the Federal Pay Freeze is a "Symbolic Gesture" - But It's Also a Clear Sign the White House "Got the Message" From Voters on Deficits!

Oh, those Associated Press writers.

They kill me!

Unfortunately, that hilariously obtuse spin has been scrubbed from the Yahoo! version of AP's article trumpeting Obama's proposed 2-year freeze on federal salaries.

The good news is you can google around and still find it:

While Obama said the federal employee salary freeze was necessary to put the nation on sound fiscal footing, he also said that he didn’t reach the decision lightly.

“This is not just a line item on a federal ledger,” he said. “These are people’s lives.”

The savings from the pay freeze makes only a small dent in the nation’s $1 trillion-plus budget deficit. But with voters voicing their anger over Washington’s spending during the midterm elections, even a symbolic gesture would show the White House got the message.

May I ask the obvious question?

Is Robert Gibbs ghost-writing for the AP now in his spare time?

Cross-posted.

'... Chris Christie is Insane!!!!'

First there was Bush Derangement Syndrome, then came Palin Derangement Syndrome. We're quickly approaching a critical mass of Christie Derangement Syndrome here in New Jersey, and the governor hasn't even been in office a full year.

The latest silliness comes courtesy of a public official running his mouth on Facebook. When will these people learn not to leave an electronic trail of idiocy?

The Rice family, a fixture of Newark politics, injected some father-son drama into New Jersey’s political scene today.

Last week Newark City Councilman Ronald Rice Jr. joked about whether the governor was "on crack" in a Facebook note expressing concern over education spending. His father, state Sen. Ronald Rice Sr. (D-Essex), publicly called on him today to apologize.

"I think he’s a little too quick on the keyboard for his own good sometimes," the elder Rice said in a statement. "I’ve been in politics a very long time, and I know that divisive, over-the-top rhetoric — whether it comes from Democrats or from Republicans — can be a distraction from the legitimate issues affecting the people of New Jersey."

Rice Sr. said his son’s concerns over education were valid, but his tone was not.

The disagreement illustrated a generational divide between older politicos and their younger counterparts accustomed to lightning-fast — and often snarky — internet dispatches. Councilman Rice is 42; Senator Rice is 65.

The Facebook post questioned whether the governor would have Newark use some of its $100 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg to replace state funding cut by Christie’s administration. "Is our Governor on crack? No seriously, is he smoking or drinking something that is illegal or at least detrimental to one’s health?" Rice Jr. wrote. "... Chris Christie is insane!!!!."

Rice Jr. did not respond to messages today, but last week told the website Politickernj.com his remarks were only in jest and a way to draw attention to important issues.

"It’s strange, very strange," Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said. "It’s not really worthy of a response."

Most Americans Haven't Served In the Military, Either

Tired of all the Wikileaks coverage and I saw a headline that proclaimed that most Americans favor allowing gays to openly serve in the military, and the title of this post is the first thought that hit my mind. For me, this comes under the heading of duh! It is akin to having a group of Americans telling NASA that they favor them hiring gangbangers in order to break the cycle of (fill in the blank).

Look, I don't have a dog in this hunt since I am no longer serving and those are the guys and gals who really need to be heard on this issue. Did I know service members who were gay while I served? You betcha. Did it bother me? As long as they kept to themselves and did their job I could have cared less if they had pointy ears and purple skin. The only thing that matters when your butt is on the pointy end of the spear is whether or not the guy next to you is going to his job. The biggest fear revolving around repealing the Don't Ask - Don't Tell policy is that the gay members will then take it as a license to openly flaunt and pursue gay lifestyle which will undermine unit cohesion.

My belief has always been regardless of what any official policy is regarding gays, in the military they are not going to find a very warm environment, especially in what are known as combat arms units. Those units whose job it is to close with the enemy and kill them. Generally, these types of jobs do not appeal to the gay members anyway just because they are filled with testosterone-laden males. Support jobs who do not endure the same level of intense situations as the combat arms are more receptive.

Honestly, I don't care one way or the other on DADT simply because the reality on the ground will take priority over any touchy-feely social engineering program deemed socially acceptable by some sort of Ivy League academic. Often what looks good in the classroom gets dashed to pieces once exposed to the harsh light of reality.

For the record, approximately 10% of Americans have military experience.

Heh: Obama Announces Zero-Tolerance Policy for Leaking Classified Info

Now that everything's public he's flexing his puny biceps.

President Obama has ordered a government-wide crackdown on access to classified information to limit the future airing of secrets by WikiLeaks.

At Obama's direction, the White House Office of Management and Budget sent out a memo to all agencies to make sure their workers can only see what they have to see to do their jobs.

OMB Director Jacob Lew said there will be a zero-tolerance policy under the new directive.

"Any unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a violation of our law and compromises our national security," according to reports.

Leaking classified data was patriotic when it was the Bush administration was the target. Now that he an his minions look like blithering idiots, all of a sudden it's time to stiffen his famed spine of steel.

Random thought: If Fox News was first to broadcast this information to the world and not the New York Times, how much indignation would there be on the left?

As always, Iowahawk puts things in perspective.

Good news! Wikileaks failed to get our 2 biggest national security secrets - contents of the HCRA & Obama's college transcripts

Jumping the Fark

I normally find the headline writers at Fark to be amusing, but this is way over the top, when referencing this story.

McCain says Sarah Palin similar to Reagan. Presumably Nancy since they both spent a significant portion of their lives wiping the drool from an incoherent invalid in diapers.

Reagan and Palin certainly have one thing in commong: Getting some to hit rock bottom every chance they get.

Obama No. 3 on List of 'Global Thinkers'

Despite his miserable approval ratings, some media types still slobber and fawn over Barack Obama. This stuff is just embarrassing.

Don't count Barack Obama out. Sure, the brainy young American president has had a tough sophomore year, with a stubbornly sluggish economy, worsening conditions in Afghanistan, an electoral backlash at home, and the surprise challenge of more than 4 million barrels of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. His sweeping plans to overhaul immigration and reinvent the way Americans use energy never got off the ground, and he can boast of neither Middle East peace nor mastery over the restive Republicans at home rising up against what they bemoan as the advent of European-style socialism.

I guess he's have been No. 1 if it weren't for that laundry list of failures and his dependence on his trusty TelePrompter. The guy couldn't think of a rhyme without it, but let's play along and pretend he's some deep thinker.

But Obama is still arguably the developed world's most popular leader, even if the American public judges him more harshly, and he is slowly but surely inventing a new kind of U.S. leadership to go along with his vision of an America that once again projects its power through the force of its ideas.

Where is the evidence he's the world's most popular leader? Simply stating it doesn't make it so. Most recognize, perhaps. Most popular? Really?

Such idealism has not yet come to define Obama's legacy in the world; for all his Wilsonian rhetoric, he remains a cautious incrementalist on most issues. In many ways, he's the most realist of recent U.S. presidents, determined to focus on the terrible challenges, from Afghanistan to climate change, that he's been dealt. The world may yet thank him for it.

These clowns don't give up easily on that climate change fraud, do they?

If this guy actually did spend some time thinking, he wouldn't be out there looking like an idiot.

President Obama needs to face reality. He is not an athlete, he’s a wannabe jock who wears Mom jeans and sneaks a smoke when his wife isn’t looking.

Oh, yeah, he’s also the leader of the free world who presumably has more important things to do than prove his manhood at the gym.

Luckily, there is still a way for Obama to hang out with the guys, smoke a cigar, and play a sport without risking serious injury.

It’s called golf.

Wait a minute, I forgot. He’s really bad at that, too.

Bills Wide Receiver Flubs Perfect TD Pass in OT, Blames God For His Brick Hands

This has to be a first: God getting upbraided on Twitter by a despondent NFL wide receiver after he drops a sure game-winning touchdown in OT:

I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO...less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPadStevie Johnson
StevieJohnson13

Check out the replay. It's hard not to empathize with Johnson here, but I have to say God held up His end of the bargain.

I mean, where else was He supposed to have Ryan Fitzpatrick put that ball?!



Via TMZ; hat tip Hot Air headlines. Cross-posted.

Claire McCaskill (Doomed-2012): Indulge Me While I Paper Over My Enthusiastic Support For Obamacare

I guess it's never too early to get a head start on 2012 - especially if you're a vulnerable Senate Democrat/Obamacare True Believer like Claire McCaskill.

Of course, she won't be running on her 'Obamacare True Believer' chops.

Facing a tough re-election campaign in 2012, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) tried to set herself apart from President Obama on Sunday.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," McCaskill said that she'd voted against the president on cap-and-trade, the second round of cash-for-clunkers, comprehensive immigration reform and every omnibus bill.

McCaskill said she'd also sometimes disagreed with Obama when he was a senator.

"My record of independence, frankly, stretches back for a long period of time," she said.

When asked to name an issue where Obama had fallen short, the senator said his move into healthcare legislation at a time when he should have been focusing on job creation was "very difficult," and therefore economic issues "didn't get the attention they needed."

Unfortunately, the "difficulty" of the bill's timing didn't stop her from rubber-stamping it - much to the overwhelming displeasure of her constituents.

Should be a fun election cycle for McCaskill.

Cross-posted.

Wannabe Oregon Jihadi a 'Good Kid' Who Liked Basketball

It's always the good kids who turn bad or something.

The wannabe Oregon Christmas tree bomber was doted on by his family but embraced militant Islam not long after his parents split up, neighbors said.

"He was a quiet kid, but with his folks splitting up, who knows?" Adam Napier, who lived next door to Mohamed Osman Mohamud for years, told The Oregonian newspaper.

Mohamud's family moved to Beaverton, Ore., when he was just 5 and were friendly and modern.

Mariam Barre did not wear a hijab and her husband, Osman Barre, reportedly worked as an engineer for Intel. Mohamud appeared to particularly close to his mother, neighbors said.

"She always talked so good about him. He was just a good kid," said Adam Napier's mother, Stephanie.

In 2009, Mohamud parents split up, not long after he turned 18, the paper said.

Omar Jamal, first secretary to the Somali Mission to the United Nations, told KPTV that Mohamud's father had remarried a woman in Minneapolis, which has a large Somali population and has been a hotbed for jihadist recruitment.

Later in 2009, Mohamud began communicating with jihadists abroad, and wrote articles for a website called "Jihad Recollections," authorities said.

Earlier this year, Mohamud came to the attention of federal agents who set up an elaborate sting.

Posing as like-minded terrorists, they helped Mohamud plot to detonate a powerful bomb at a Portland Christmas tree lighting ceremony Friday.

The plot ended when Mohamud, 19, a naturalized U.S. citizen, tried to set off a dummy bomb and was arrested, kicking and screaming, "Allahu akbar!"

Many who knew Mohamud said he seemed like a normal kid who did well in school and loved basketball.

"He was a really smart kid. He always got good grades. He was a part of a lot of good things, so it's amazing he would do that," elementary school pal Gavin Lipscomb told The Oregonian.

"It never seemed like he had any hatred," Lipscomb said.

But Mohamud told agents that he began thinking about holy war at age 15, when he prayed for guidance "about whether I should ... go, you know, and make jihad in a different country or to make like an operation here."

So he turned extremist at 18, but begand thinking of holy war at 15? Which is it?

Meanwhile, a fire broke out at the mosque Mohamud attended. Stand by for the requisite outrage from the terror co-conspirators at CAIR.

'First the Muslims and Minarets, Now Criminals'

The audacity of people to want to remove foreign criminals from their midst and not levy onerous taxes on the wealthy. The next thing you know a tea party will break out in Switzerland.

Most Swiss voting in a referendum have approved the easier expulsion of foreigners convicted of serious crimes such as murder, according to preliminary computer projections released on Sunday by national television.

In the latest sign of growing hostility to immigration in the Alpine state, 53 percent of voters accepted a proposal to deport automatically foreigners convicted of crimes including rape or trafficking in drugs or people.

How is it hostile to want to remove rapists from your midst? It only seems logical.

The margin of error for the initial result was 3 percent, the polling group GFS Bern said, but computer projections are considered highly accurate. The referendum was officially held on Sunday but many Swiss voted earlier by postal ballot.

The initiative was put forward by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), which has played on rising fear about immigration in recent years to become the country's biggest political movement.

Posters for the SVP's proposal show a group of white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag. They first ran when the SVP was collecting signatures for the referendum.

"First the Muslims and minarets, now criminals," said Mohammed, a native of Lebanon who recently received his Swiss passport. "We're not all criminals."

Well, Mo, if you're not a criminal then what have you got to worry about?

Last year the Swiss backed a ban on construction of new minarets, drawing international condemnation.

Really? International condemnation? From where, exactly?

In the same referendum, 58 percent of voters shot down a second proposal that would have imposed a minimum cantonal (state) tax on the very rich, the preliminary figures showed.

The center-left Social Democrats (SP) proposed levying a minimum tax of 22 percent on income above 250,000 Swiss francs ($251,200). But support for the measure waned after business lobby economiesuisse warned it could trigger an exodus of the rich and their companies.

Stunning, isn't it? People actually vote with their pocketbooks? Those with money who employ people could actually move to avoid the taxes? Perish the thought.

'It's Clear That We've Got a Problem That We've Got to Address'

It seems scaring the daylights out of kids and focusing on nonexistent global warming/climate change has had the desired effect: Americans kids are extremely confident yet aren't all that bright when it comes to math and science. But they certainly know global warming is the greatest crisis facing mankind or something. Don't worry, though. Al Gore is coming to the rescue.

The United States educational system is failing students in the areas of science and math, according to former Vice President Al Gore.

"When you look at math and science education, it's clear that we've got a problem that we've got to address," Gore said during a recent online conference sponsored by Time Warner Cable's Connect a Million Minds program.

Based on a worldwide assessment of teens' math and science, the U.S. is currently ranked 29th in science and 35th in math compared with the rest of the world.

"We're not in a position we want to be in today; that's the facts," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Nearly 6,000 people logged onto the Connect a Million Minds town hall from countries such as the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and more.

Ironically, according to the recent theatrical film "Waiting for Superman," the U.S. ranks No. 1 in confidence. Yet research shows many students here tend not to worry about school, so those who do are called nerds.

Of course we rank No. 1 in confidence. Keep building that self-esteem and tell kids how great they are without showing any results. That ought to help. Oh, and let's ignore actual math and science and let's go on a decade-long campaign to indoctrinate them with junk science, like Gore has done. Then have him come fix the problem. Sure, that'll work.

NPR: Obama's Fat Lip Gives Him "Street Cred"

Here's my theory: The goofball stepped on a rake in Michelle's organic garden.

If you have video or photographic evidence to the contrary, by all means lay it on me.

Just three weeks after getting a shellacking in the midterm elections, President Obama got a fat lip.

The president played basketball yesterday with some friends in the gym of the Fort McNair Army Base, and reportedly took an elbow in the mouth from an opposing player who went up for a shot.

It took 12 stitches to close The First Fat Lip, if you please. I'm not sure that Joe Frazier needed 12 stitches after the Thrilla in Manila, though the White House stressed that a smaller filament was used, which increases the number of stitches, but leaves a smaller scar.

I wonder if having a larger scar wouldn't actually fortify President Obama's profile, as he contends with Kim Jong Il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Vladimir Putin. Imagine a president with a gnarly, vivid scar telling the rulers of China, "Nice country ya' got here. I'd hate to see something happen to it if you didn't stop foolin' around with the value of your currency. Know what I mean?"

As recent presidential injuries go, President Obama's is almost valiant. His immediate predecessor, President George W. Bush, famously choked on a pretzel. President Bill Clinton tore a tendon stumbling on the steps of Greg Norman's house after a round of golf.

But an elbow in the chops is a battle ribbon in basketball. Mediocre players don't have to worry about their dental work. An elbow is given to aggressive players who swing their own sharp limbs to grab a ball or push off a defender, although the White House stressed that the president was elbowed inadvertently.

Sounds like the NPR writer is getting Obama mixed up with Shaq.

Yeah, I'm definitely going with "stepped on a rake".

Final answer.

Cross-posted.

Democrats' Scheme to Fund Obamacare By Gutting Medicare Like a Fish Proceeds Apace

Remember the $500 billion in Medicare 'waste and abuse' that Democrats promised was there to help pay for Obamacare?

It still hasn't materialized, if you can imagine that.

No worries, though. We're just slashing reimbursements to the dwindling number of doctors who still treat Medicare patients instead.

Pot o' gold, found.

Want an appointment with kidney specialist Adam Weinstein of Easton, Md.? If you're a senior covered by Medicare, the wait is eight weeks.

How about a checkup from geriatric specialist Michael Trahos? Expect to see him every six months: The Alexandria-based doctor has been limiting most of his Medicare patients to twice yearly rather than the quarterly checkups he considers ideal for the elderly. Still, at least he'll see you. Top-ranked primary care doctor Linda Yau is one of three physicians with the District's Foxhall Internists group who recently announced they will no longer be accepting Medicare patients.

"It's not easy. But you realize you either do this or you don't stay in business," she said.

Doctors across the country describe similar decisions, complaining that they've been forced to shift away from Medicare toward higher-paying, privately insured or self-paying patients in response to years of penny-pinching by Congress.

For some unknown reason, Obama remains extraordinarily proud of the mess he's made.



Cross-posted.

No, Seriously: 'National Opt-Out Day' Was Like an Act of Terrorism, or Something

More pearls of wisdom from the brainiacs at 'The View'.

Well, at least Elizabeth Hasselbeck is there to talk some sense into...oh wait, she agrees with Whoopi and the rest of the gang.

Sigh.



Via Breitbart. Cross-posted.

Michelle Obama Announces Brief Moratorium on Nagging Us About Food: 'Have Pie! Eat the Dressing!'

So nice of her to let us live our lives in peace. Well, at least for the rest of the weekend.

First Lady Michelle Obama encouraged American families to enjoy their food over the holiday weekend and not to worry about "how much you eat."

Obama, who is spearheading a nationwide campaign against childhood obesity, explained to 20/20 host Barbara Walters that "this is the time" to let go a bit.

"I would urge people to use this time to come together, as families and community, and don't take it for granted. Be kind to each other and laugh a little bit. And don't worry about how much you eat. Just enjoy it," she said.

She later added, "Have pie! Eat the dressing!" when prompted to explain her comment.

Meanwhile, her husband pretends he's deeply religious or something.

Praying and reading the Bible are part of his everyday life, President Obama said in a wide-ranging interview broadcast Friday.

Speaking with Barbara Walters, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama also described how they involve their daughters in daily prayer.

"Michelle and I have not only benefited from our prayer life, but I think the girls have too," the president told Walters. "We say grace before we eat dinner every night. We take turns."

I guess since they've been without a church for nearly three years they have to make up for it at home.

'Asian' Men Raping British Girls and 'Grooming' Them for Sex Trade

You know right away when they use the term "Asian" in the headline that they're talking about Muslims. It's so obvious. If they were Chinese, Japanese or Filipino they'd be identified as such. But the politically-correct cowards in Britain can't even brings themselves to identify these scumbags for what they are.

At a pristine house on the ­outskirts of Derby, life is slowly getting back to some semblance of normality. The teenage girl living here is a college student who’s put photos of herself dancing and laughing with her friends on several social ­networking websites.

A few miles away, another teenager, only a ­little older at 18, won a prize last month for being an ‘inspirational’ student at her college. A third girl, a child of 14, has a loving mother who waves her off to a Derby school each morning from a terrace home with a manicured front garden and picket fence.

The three girls from decent families have, almost certainly, never met. Yet each has become caught up in what’s believed to be the biggest case of serial sex abuse ever uncovered in Britain. This week, nine men from Derby were jailed for a string of offences against these girls and 24 others whom they groomed for sex.

The gang — all but one of whom were Asian — roamed the streets in a BMW with blacked-out windows looking for girls. They plied them with vodka from bottles and plastic cups ­hidden under the seats, before raping or ­abusing them. They were not the only victims in Derby. Up to 100 girls may have been ensnared in this horror after being lured by the smartly-dressed gang into the car outside school gates, shops, ­coffee bars near the city’s railway station and a local park.

Over weeks and months, the girls were taken to houses in Derby and other towns before being raped by the gang and their friends, some of whom paid the men in cash.

In rundown flats with mattresses on the floor, the girls were locked into rooms and turned into sex slaves. If they protested or refused, they were threatened with being beaten with a ­hammer and even told they would be shot. The depraved sex acts were filmed on mobile phones and may have now been sold on through internet pornography sites.

As one of the girls, a 16-year old raped by the gang, said through tears this week: ‘They would take you out, buy you ice creams and a lovely, nice meal. There’s a part of you who thinks it’s really exciting: “I have met this lovely man.” You feel like they’re going to keep you safe. They then abuse every part of you.’

If this was a one-off, it would be deeply ­troubling indeed. The reality is, it’s not. Many schoolgirls — one just eight — living in towns and cities all over the north of England are ­falling prey to gangs who groom them to be sex slaves for themselves or other men.

Even the law-abiding "Asians" find this PC nonsense to be out of control.

But as Emma, a 21-year-old who eight years ago became a sex slave in another northern town and now counsels other victims, told the Mail recently: ‘The truth is, most men running the gangs in the north of England are Asians of Pakistani ­origin. But very few of the authorities will say this.’

Instead, it has been left to some outstandingly brave members of the Muslim community, former MP Ann Cryer (who was roundly criticised for speaking her mind when seven years ago she said Asian gangs were ­raping white girls) and a handful of the girl victims to highlight the reasons behind this deafening silence.

Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Lancashire-based Ramadhan Foundation, a charity working for peaceful harmony between different communities, has said: ‘I think the police are overcautious because they are afraid of being branded racist. These men are criminals and should be treated as criminals — whatever their race.’

In Derby this week, Shokat Lal, chairman of the city’s Pakistani Community Centre in the Normanton area — where many of the girls were taken to seedy flats and then sexually attacked by the gang – spoke out, too: ‘It is important that political correctness or fear of offending any particular group of people does not get in the way of protecting those who are vulnerable.

Shocker: Anti-Violence 'Activist' Arrested for Inciting a Riot

You can't make this stuff up.

Six people were arrested and one officer used pepper spray as Irvington police tried to break up a peace rally that authorities say turned into a melee.

Township Police Chief Michael Chase said the dust-up started Wednesday night when members of Newark’s Anti-Violence Coalition were holding a rally in memory of the victims of a double homicide on Myrtle Avenue last week.

Despite an officer’s warning to remain on the sidewalk, the group tried to move the demonstration into the street, Chase said. Coalition member Bashir Akinyele said his group had a permit that allowed them to block the intersection at Myrtle and Madison avenues, but Chase said the permit allowed them onto only the sidewalk.

Six people were arrested on several charges including obstruction of justice and resisting arrest. Sharif Amenhotep faces the most serious allegation, a charge of inciting a riot.

It must be a New Jersey thing. Back in August a man was shot to death at an "anti-violence" event in Paterson.

Maybe the authorities ought to ban "anti-violence" events. Things are just getting way too violent at them.

Somali-Born Teen Tries to Bomb Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

This took place in the ultra-liberal enclave of Portland, Oregon, which kind of surprises me. I figured they would call it a holiday tree or something.

Undercover agents in a sting operation stopped a Somali-born teenager from blowing up a van full of explosives at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland, federal authorities said.

The bomb was a dud supplied by the agents and the public was never in danger, authorities said.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested at 5:40 p.m. Friday just after he dialed a cell phone that he thought would set off the blast but instead brought federal agents and police swooping down on him.

Yelling "Allahu Akbar!" - Arabic for "God is great!" - Mohamud tried to kick agents and police after he was taken into custody, according to prosecutors.

"The threat was very real," said Arthur Balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon. "Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale."

The FBI affidavit that outlined the investigation alleges that Mohamud planned the attack for months, at one point mailing bomb components to FBI operatives, whom he believed were assembling the device.

It said Mohamud was warned several times about the seriousness of his plan, that women and children could be killed, and that he could back out, but he told agents: "Since I was 15 I thought about all this;" and "It's gonna be a fireworks show ... a spectacular show."

Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Corvallis, was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and is scheduled for a court appearance Monday. Few details were available about him late Friday.

More here. Perhaps this is a wake-up call to even the lefties who preach tolerance and "reaching out" to those who would routinely slaughter you.

“This defendant’s chilling determination is a stark reminder that there are people — even here in Oregon — who are determined to kill Americans,” said Dwight C. Holton, Oregon’s U.S. attorney.

Well, Oregon almost did elect a Republican governor earlier this month. Maybe it's payback for that.

Update: Well, I spoke too quickly. Here they indeed do call it a holiday tree.

Washed-Up News Reader Upset Her Producers Can't Predict the Future

Poor Diane Sawyer. Paid millions to read the news to a dwindling audience and she feels out of place. It's just heartbreaking, isn't it?

Diane Sawyer has been berating her "ABC World News" producers for repeatedly sending her to the wrong continent for breaking news, a network source said.

The source told us, "Diane is off-the-charts mad. She feels that she's always poorly positioned. She was in China last week, while the news was in England with the royal engagement, and NBC's Brian Williams already had the Prince Charles interview.

"She was in New York Tuesday night when the news was in North Korea, so it would have been better for her to be in China this week.

"She was even throwing around that she was in Afghanistan when the Haiti quake happened. It's impossible to predict breaking news, but she sometimes feels she is in the wrong place at the wrong time, and is taking it out on her producers."

Spanish Woman Claims Ownership of the Sun, Plans to Charge User Fee

Go figure: A moonbat now owns the sun. We figure once she learns how to collect on the user fee she should be able to retire comfortably by tomorrow.

After billions of years the Sun finally has an owner -- a woman from Spain's soggy region of Galicia said Friday she had registered the star at a local notary public as being her property.

Angeles Duran, 49, told the online edition of daily El Mundo she took the step in September after reading about an American man who had registered himself as the owner of the moon and most planets in our Solar System.

There is an international agreement which states that no country may claim ownership of a planet or star, but it says nothing about individuals, she added.

"There was no snag, I backed my claim legally, I am not stupid, I know the law. I did it but anyone else could have done it, it simply occurred to me first."

The document issued by the notary public declares Duran to be the "owner of the Sun, a star of spectral type G2, located in the centre of the solar system, located at an average distance from Earth of about 149,600,000 kilometres".

Duran, who lives in the town of Salvaterra do Mino, said she now wants to slap a fee on everyone who uses the sun and give half of the proceeds to the Spanish government and 20 percent to the nation's pension fund.

She would dedicate another 10 percent to research, another 10 percent to ending world hunger -- and would keep the remaining 10 percent herself.

Such sacrifice, keeping only 10% for herself. How thoughtful of her.

Jindal: Let's Make Congress a Part-Time Gig

I like the sound of that.

Any idea that limits Democrats' opportunities to continue spending our nation into oblivion is at least worth exploring.

However, I'm not so sure about Jindal's proposal for a balanced budget amendment. It's a nice theory and all, but in reality politicians would just continue to spend, create new entitlements, etc. and then cite the amendment as justification for tax increases. That's probably not Jindal's intent, but that is how it would play out.

A better idea would be to limit spending to a fixed percentage of the GDP.



Via Human Events. Cross posted.

Obama Gets a Fat Lip Playing Hoops

The offending elbow was unavailable for comment.

President Barack Obama received 12 stitches in his lip after being hit during a pick up basketball game, the White House said on Friday.

"After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player's elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the president received 12 stitches today administered by the White House Medical Unit," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, according to NBC News.

Gibbs did not release the names of the people playing with the president.

Obama received the stitches under local anesthesia in the doctor's office on the ground floor White House after he returned home.

The president had traveled to nearby Fort McNair to indulge in one of his favorite athletic pursuits, basketball. It was a five-on-five contest involving family and friends and including Reggie Love, Obama's personal assistant who played at Duke University.

Update: The "culprit" has been identified.

The White House
did not initially name the person who caused the injury, but identified him later Friday as Rey Decerega, director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

How Sweet: Obama's Grandmother Prays He Converts to Islam

The "Obama's a Muslim" crowd should have fun with this.

U.S. President Barack Obama's Kenyan grandmother says she prayed during a hajj pilgrimage to Mecca for the American leader to convert to Islam.

'I prayed for my grandson Barack to convert to Islam,' said Sarah Omar, 88, in an interview with Al-Watan Saudi daily held in Jeddah after she had performed hajj.

The paper said that Omar was in Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage along with her son, Obama's uncle Saeed Hussein Obama, and four of her grandchildren.

Omar told the newspaper that she could only discuss hajj matters and would not comment on Obama's politics.

The family appeared to have been hosted by the Saudi government for hajj. Saeed thanked King Abdullah for his 'kind hospitality', the paper said.

SPLC: Family Research Council is a Hate Group or Something

Leave it to those charming folks at the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center to spread the holiday cheer.

The Southern Poverty Law Center this week labeled as "hate groups" several political and religious organizations that campaign against same-sex marriage and, the center says, engage in "repeated, groundless name-calling" against gays and lesbians.

Included on the list released by the civil rights organization is the Family Research Council, a prominent and politically influential group of social conservatives. The report by the law center, which has spent four decades tracking extremist groups and hate speech, accuses the council and a dozen other groups of putting out "demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities."

The report, which has sparked debate across the Internet, taps into the continuing potency of social issues, such as same-sex marriage, in American politics. Several of the groups described in the report supported a successful effort to oust state Supreme Court judges in Iowa because of a unanimous ruling last year that legalized same-sex unions.

The Family Research Council has been at the forefront of political activism against same-sex marriage. In explaining the decision to put the council on its hate-groups list, the law center highlighted comments by Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow for policy studies at the council, who told MSNBC host Chris Matthews this year that he thinks "homosexual behavior" should be outlawed.

Council President Tony Perkins, who was also named in the report, called the hate-group designation a political attack by a "liberal organization."

"The left's smear campaign of conservatives is . . . being driven by the clear evidence that the American public is losing patience with their radical policy agenda as seen in the recent election and in the fact that every state . . . that has had the opportunity to defend the natural definition of marriage has done so," Perkins said in a statement.

"Earlier this month, voters in Iowa sent a powerful message when they removed three Supreme Court justices who imposed same-sex marriage on the state. Would the SPLC also smear the good people of Iowa?"

The law center said it chose to highlight the groups on the list "based on their propagation of known falsehoods" and "repeated, groundless name-calling.

Of course they would smear the people of Iowa. This is how these groups operate: You disagree with them and you're bigots, Nazis, homophobes, etc. When you cannot win in the arena of public debate, you slander people.

15-Year-Old Arrested for Burning Koran

I figure she's lucky to be in the UK. There she'll only face prison time. If she did it in some Islamic hellhole they'd have stoned her already.

A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of inciting religious hatred after allegedly burning an English language version of the Koran.

The 15-year-old, who lives in the West Midlands, allegedly posted the video, filmed two weeks ago on her school premises, on Facebook.

The video was reported to the school and subsequently removed, police said.

A 14-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of making threats. Both have been released on police bail.

It is thought the girl, who lives in the Sandwell Council area, was allegedly filmed setting the booklet alight while other pupils watched.

Two Facebook profiles have also been removed from the site, police added.

It is understood that the group who published that version of the Koran have since been to the school to talk to pupils.
'Sacred thing'

Catherine Heseltine, chief executive officer of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, said burning the Koran was one of the most offensive acts to Muslims that she could imagine.

She said: "The Koran is the most sacred thing to over a billion Muslims worldwide."

"You can see that in the way Muslims treat the Koran, washing before touching it and in many Muslim homes you will find it on the top shelf above all other books and we will never destroy the Koranic texts."

Do they wash their hands before stoning people or chopping off their heads? Just wondering.

Time Capsule, 1992: Adam Sandler's Turkey Song

Happy Thanksgiving!



I'd also recommend checking this out.

Via Breitbart. Cross-posted.

'Sarah Palin’s Complete Lack of Compassion as Demonstrated in This Snuff Video is Disgusting'

If Barack Obama ever did this it would be seen as a sign of his brute manliness. Sarah Palin lays a beatdown on a halibut and it's a snuff video. Of course these idiots don't offer any suggestion on how to actually subdue the fish.

Sarah Palin is under fire for clubbing a fish to death on her new reality TV show.

The Tea Party darling and her daughter Bristol, 20, were shown on a halibut fishing trip filmed for her new programme, Sarah Palin's Alaska.

After catching a fish, Sarah is seen beating it with a club and Bristol later holds its still-beating heart in her hand, a sight Sarah called 'weird'.

A spokesperson for animal rights group In Defense Of Animals told TMZ: 'Sarah Palin’s complete lack of compassion as demonstrated in this snuff video is disgusting.'

The group adds: 'Most disturbing is the way she seems to enjoy causing suffering to other beings. When they laugh about the beating heart that Bristol holds in her hand, their complete insensitivity to the animal kingdom becomes clear.'

A spokesperson for the Alaska Charter Association told the U.S. website that the clubbing technique is humane because it supposedly minimises suffering.

Halibut clubbing is actually a standard practice among fishermen.

During the episode, Sarah explains why clubbing halibut to death is necessary saying: 'stunning the halibut may seem a bit harsh to some but it's the safest and most humane way to harvest these massive fish.'

SO it's a standard practice, yet somehow when this woman does it it's a crime against nature.

H/T Brendan.

Finally: Conyers Finds Reading Material He Can Comprehend Without a Team of Lawyers

Now we know how to get John Conyers to actually read a bill before he rubber stamps it.

Two words: Naked women.

While November’s election brought a tsunami of change to Michigan policies, some incumbents are untouchable. So untouchable, apparently, that they openly read girlie magazines on their trips to and from Washington. Detroit Congressman John Conyers was caught on camera in a late July flight to DC this summer ogling a Playboy magazine.

The video and pictures – first posted by ex-Detroit News reporter and New York Times Pulitzer Prize winner Charlie LeDuff on his Facebook page – were taken by an anonymous passenger seated in the same row as the 81-year old congressman. Conyers – in his aisle seat – is shown flipping though pages showing two nude gal pals in the August issue of Playboy. And he also apparently reads Hefner’s product for the articles! He appears to linger on an article titled “La Chatte” by Maureen Gibbon.

h/t: Drudge & Breitbart. Cross-posted here.

Historic! Obama Sets Travel Records, AF1 Tab at $181,000 an Hour

I guess it's all been worth it what with all his triumphs abroad these two years, including picking up his Nobel Prize and ... well, I'm sure there might be something else he's accomplished. Right?

The average American could buy a house for the amount of money it takes to run Air Force One every hour.

The U.S. military has provided an updated estimate on that cost, first published by a taxpayer watchdog group and confirmed by FoxNews.com, and the number is staggering -- $181,757 per hour. That's the price tag for shuttling around President Obama, who, as it turns out, has spent more days abroad in his first two years than any other president.

Estimates over the years based on government reports and independent number-crunching have always reflected a steep cost for presidential travel, but the figure provided by the 89th Airlift Wing appears to be far higher than any previously reported. It was first published in a report this week on presidential travel by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.

"It's astonishing. It's far higher than any other ... figure that's been reported on. It's very surprising, and of course it's just a fraction of the overall cost involved with presidential travel," said policy analyst Demian Brady, who wrote the study.

Sad: Elementary School Kids Swoon for Obama

Justin Bieber must be jealous.

Even as Obama's approval ratings plumb new depths among grown-ups, it appears the pre-teen demographic is still solidly in the tank for him.

Gee, I wonder why.

This, from Obama's visit to Kokomo, Indiana yesterday:

"Second unannounced stop... Sycamore Elementary, where around 300 deliriously excited and screaming kids lined up outside. Did pool mention screaming? Think Michael Jackson in Tokyo type screaming. ‘Omigod he touched me! He touched me!' yelled one little girl in pink. ‘He's right up there!' yelled one boy.

The president worked the rope line, grinning, as wave after wave of kids grabbed his hand, fell back, then rushed up to grab his hand again, double dipping."

Interesting way for these kids to react to the man saddling them with a soul-crushing mountain of debt.

Or perhaps they're just excited that unemployment is now only 12% among their parents.

Cross-posted here.

Unexpected! Manufacturing Orders Fall Sharply

Apparently only business writers and economists find bad economic new to be unexpected.

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods unexpectedly fell in October to post their largest decline in nearly two years and business capital spending plans dropped, according to a government report on Wednesday that pointed to a slowdown in factory activity.

The Commerce Department said durable goods orders tumbled 3.3 percent, the largest decline since January 2009, after surging by a revised 5 percent. Economists had expected orders to be flat in October after a previously reported 3.5 percent jump.

Excluding transportation, orders dropped 2.7 percent, the biggest fall since March 2009, after a revised 1.3 percent increase in September, which was previously reported as a 0.4 percent. Economists had expected orders excluding transportation to rise 0.6 percent in October.

The drop in orders last month was almost across the board, with hefty declines in bookings for machinery, computers, communications equipment and defense aircraft.

Meanwhile, unemployment claims unexpectedly dropped. The numbers still aren't good, however.

'I Don't Think About Sarah Palin'

That would make Barack Obama the only Democrat alive who's not pathologically obsessed with Sarah Palin. Why do I think he's full of it?

In an interview to be aired Friday on ABC News, President Obama, who is reorganizing his White House and campaign team in preparation for his 2012 re-election bid, says he does not think about the possibility of running against 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. "I don't think about Sarah Palin," Obama told Barbara Walters.

"Obviously Sarah Palin has a strong base of support in the Republican Party, and I respect those skills," Obama told ABC. "But I spend most of my time right now on how I can be the best possible president. And my attitude has always been, from the day I started this job that if I do a good job and if I'm delivering for the American people the politics will take care of itself."

Woman Purported to Be Jennifer Grey Wins DWTS, Mass Liberal Suicide Prevented

May we never have to mention this dopey show again. The story says actress Jennifer Grey won, but she looks nothing like the Jennifer Grey I remember from a 1980s movie where she spent most of her time dancing. That was back in the day before Bristol Palin was born so I guess she must have gone into Witness Protection and had her appearance drastically altered.

On the upside, Grey's victory has prevented a mass suicide by the angry left, which surely would have occurred had Palin somehow won. Wait, is that really an upside? Well, surely it won't prevent the angry libs from railing about it during Thanksgiving dinner, ruining the holiday for their sane family members.

We now return to the important news of the day, like a royal wedding to come in five months.

More Than 80% Want to Keep Bush Tax Cuts

This is as good an indication as any that the Democrats will find a way to jack up your taxes. If anything, they're consistent in going against the will of the people.

More than 80 percent of Americans say it is at least "somewhat important" that Congress extend the Bush tax cuts before they expire at the end of this year, according to a poll by Gallup.

A stunning 56 percent of Americans also say it is "very important" that Congress do something to prevent the estate tax from going up significantly next year as it is scheduled to do, according to the poll.

Half of Americans say it is "very important" that the rest of the Bush's tax cuts be extended as well, compared to just 16 percent who say it is not important.

Taxes top the list of important issues Americans want the Democratic-run Congress to address during the lame-duck session between now and the start of next year, when Republicans take control of the House.

Democrats have been divided over how to address the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. Some have joined Republicans to demand that all the cuts be extended for all income levels.

But a majority of Democrats and President Obama have been harshly critical of the tax cuts since they were enacted by a Republican Congress and former President George W. Bush.

Yet I doubt a single one of them voluntarily paid at a higher rate.

Lucky Him: Mike Huckabee Snags the Coveted Joy Behar Endorsement

Stick a fork in him.



Via The Blaze. Cross-posted here.

Chief of Staff to Top Dem and Former Obama Advisor Arrested for Soliciting Sex from Minor

No word whether he's in line for a job with the TSA.

Fox News has learned that Bob Decheine, longtime chief of staff to Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) has been arrested by police in Gaithersburg, M.D. for allegedly soliciting sex from a minor and has been fired.

Decheine is 48 and has been Rothman's Chief of Staff since 2003. He's also a former aide to Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.).

The arrest was made last Friday, and was apparently part of a sting by Gaithersburg police. According to a press release from police, the offense carries a sentence of no more than 10 years in prison, a $25,000 fine or both.

More here.

Decheine was arrested as part of a sting targeting people interested in sex with minors -- the first one ever launched by the Gaithersburg Police Department, according to a press release provided to TPM. Eleven arrests were made during the operation, which came in phases. First, ads were placed online and an undercover officer began communicating with each "John."

In 2008 Decheine was an advisor to Barack Obama.

Rothman sure took his sweet time making this public.

Decheine was arrested at 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 17 and Gaithersburg police contacted authorities in the House to confirm the employment information he gave them, Lane said.

The solicitation was for sex with an underage girl, said Gaithersburg Police Officer Dan Lane. Decheine was released on $15,000 bail.

Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, learned of the arrest from the House sergeant at arms at 3:30 p.m. Friday, spokesman Aaron Keyak said in a release. Rothman “immediately consulted appropriate House Counsel and terminated Mr. Decheine’s employment,” the release said.

“Congressman Rothman considers this alleged criminal act to be shocking, appalling and indefensible,” the release said. “As a parent, he understands the vital importance of protecting our children from predators.”

And Then There Were 63...

Three weeks post-election and losing Democrat Dan Maffei finally gets with the program. H edoesn't get it, but he's gone, either way.

"The electorate may have changed tremendously from 2008 to 2010 in terms of who turned out to vote, but I kept my pledges to the people who elected me and I will forever be proud of that. Not only do I not apologize for my positions on the stimulus, the health care bill, financial reform, and the credit card bill, but my only regret is that there were not more opportunities to make healthcare more affordable to people and businesses and get more resources to the region for needed public projects — particularly transportation and public schools," he said.

He's only sorry he couldn't inflict more damage on his constituents. What a sport.

Beheading Is Crazy, Unless You're a Muslim

In yet another example of the double standards of the times we live in, a part-time actor who beheaded his mother and was arrested has been sent for psychiatric evaluation. When was the last time you heard of psychiatric evaluations of followers of the most infamous religion known for head chopping?

When cops arrived to the scene around 2:20 AM, officers say Brea was clutching the bible. Cops ultimately had to use a taser to subdue the actor. Brea was taken to a nearby hospital for a psychiatric evaluation with a police escort.

I guess not enough Christians have cut off enough heads for it to be considered normal behavior. God help us if all of sudden the brain trust at the Department of Justice decide to order psyche evaluations for the Club Gitmo guests. Don't you dare insinuate that a follower of the Religion of Peace® is crazy. CAIR would have you on a spit over an open flame so fast you wouldn't even have time to let the words finish echoing.

I guess those folks clutching a Bible and a gun aren't the big threat after all.

Outrage in Germany Over Forced Separation of Gay Vultures Guido and Detlef

No, this isn't from The Onion. Even they couldn't dream up something so absurd.

Members of Germany’s gay community were outraged Tuesday after a pair of homosexual vultures were forcibly parted and made to mate with females.

The pair, Guido and Detlef, have become the poster boys for protests against intolerance, even though they are both predatory males.

In a world of cholera outbreaks, terrorism threats, imploding banks and decreasing fortunes and species, certain German gay rights campaigners have found the time to express solidarity and sympathy for the birds’ plight.

The drama began in March when Guido and Detlef set up home together at the Allwetterzoo, in the British Army garrison town of Munster, northwest Germany.

The griffon vultures, Gyps fulvus, showed no interest in female company. They were happy in their own world, grooming one another with tender sweeps of their savage beaks between rearranging the sticks that made up their nest, although the other vultures kept stealing materials as if to spite their arrangement.

Dirk Wewers, the zoo’s curator, said: “They always sat so closely together. They defended their nest from the other vultures. A suitable female was missing and in such a case vultures look for companionship from the next best thing, even if it is a male. Detlef looked for a bird of the opposite sex but settled with Guido.”

Guido was removed last week, however, to be replaced by a flighty female from the Czech Republic who, it is hoped, will tickle Detlef’s fancy and eventually produce little vultures.

“Detlef is reorienting himself now,” said Dr Wewers, who dismissed criticism from gay groups at the decision to break up a happy home.

So far, Detlef and the unnamed Czech bird have yet to do the wild thing. Guido, transferred 400 miles (650km) east to a zoo in Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, is also reportedly not too enamored with the heterosexual lifestyle that is being forced upon him.

Will it be too late to teach an old vulture new tricks? Both Detlef and Guido are 14 and it is uncertain that the libido of either can live up to the expectations of keepers.

There has been one protest near the zoo gates by a small group of homosexuals standing beneath a rainbow flag, while the German blogosphere is buzzing. “This is like in the Dark Middle Ages, forcibly making a creature sexually reorient itself by tearing its partner from its side,” wrote one campaigner.

Best Questions Ever at Football Press Conference

Pure hilarity. Stick with the whole thing.

An offbeat exchange between LSU football coach Les Miles and a retired Advocate reporter led to some awkward moments Monday at Miles’ weekly news conference.

Near the end of Miles’ question and answer session, former Advocate sportswriter Ted Castillo asked Miles about being interviewed by ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews.

“What is it like to be, and you can take the Fifth (Amendment) on this, but what is it like to be interviewed by a sweet, young thing like Erin Andrews?” Castillo asked.

Miles responded by saying: “If they had given that job to some old, big, ugly man, it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. But what a joy it is to represent LSU in the postgame with victory and to celebrate victory in a postgame interview with a very talented, very attractive woman.”

Andrews was the subject of a celebrated invasion of privacy incident in 2009 when she was secretly videotaped in the nude through peepholes in her hotel room. Michael David Barrett pled guilty to interstate stalking and admitted he shot videos of Andrews on at least two occasions.

Barrett was sentenced in March to 27 months in prison.

The case became the subject of a follow-up statement by Castillo.

“You know they nabbed the guy who was filming her through the keyhole,” Castillo said to Miles.

“I’m not going to go there, Ted,” Miles replied.

“What I’d like to know is how that guy pulled that off,” Castillo continued, “because I’ve been peeping through keyholes for years and I’ve yet to see anything but a blank wall.”

Child Cruelty Doesn't Translate For the ACLU

A court in Georgia has overturned the conviction and sentence of a women who brutally beat her child because she didn't have a translator for her native language in court. As always with the ACLU there is more to the story so I did some background research on this. According the site TexasTranslator here were the circumstances surrounding the case.

Annie Ling is Malay, has lived in the US since 2000 and her husband is American. Her American defense attorney Justin Grubbs, is himself married to a Malay woman and has a much clearer awareness of Annie Ling's language situation than lobbyists for increased government subsidies. Mr Grubbs explained the charges of cruelty to a child to the defendant with the help of family members conversant in both languages. He also explained the one-year sentence plea bargain offer just as clearly. The defendant rejected the advice of counsel and the case went to trial. The jury saw photographs of the beaten child and sentenced her to ten years in prison followed by five years' probation instead of the one-year sentence she could have had through the professional competence of her attorney. What got the verdict were the photographs of the badly beaten baby Catherine shown to the jurors. There is no language barrier to understanding photographs of a beaten child.

Ms Ling was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in jail along with another 5 years on probation.

I could never be a lawyer. It is just impossible for me to check my common sense at the door in pursuit of some other sort of high ideal. How do people in the legal profession sleep at night?

One question for the ACLU. Who is speaking for the child?

Castro Calls Obama the 'Best Snake Charmer' Who Has Ever Existed

Is he really the best? Considering his anemic approval ratings I have to believe even snakes are down on Obama.

NATO is a "military mafia," the war in Afghanistan is "genocidal" and US President Barack Obama deserves the prize for the "best snake charmer" who ever lived, Cuba's Fidel Castro said Monday.

In an article published in response to the Western alliance's weekend summit in Portugal, the former Cuban leader called NATO an "aggressive institution" that ignored "billions of persons suffering from poverty, underdevelopment, shortages of food, housing, health, education and jobs."

Castro, 84, communism's most visible living figure, led Cuba from the 1959 Revolution until he stepped down for health reasons in 2006, handing over the presidency to his brother Raul.

Castro called NATO "a bird of prey sitting in the lap of the Yankee empire," that was used by the United States to wage "the genocidal Afghanistan war."

He's reportedly also upset over the recent results of Dancing With the Stars.

"Obama already admitted that his promise to withdraw US soldiers from Afghanistan may be postponed ... After the Nobel Prize, we would have to award him with the prize for 'the best snake charmer' that has ever existed."

'I Wanted to Bring More Attention to Social Diseases'

One social disease this clown has brought attention to is stupidity. He's now the poster boy for dumbasses everywhere. Naturally, this humorous tale from the modern-day Encino Man takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area.

What appeared to be a harrowing story of survival emerged from Suisun Bay on Monday - that of a wayward rafter who spent five days stranded on a deserted island nibbling on vitamins and native plants and fashioning a crude "SOS" sign until the U.S. Coast Guard rescued him.

But after returning to shore, Brian "Goat Man" Hopper added a twist to the tale. He admitted that he failed to make use of a key piece of equipment during his stay on Roe Island north of Concord: a cellular telephone.

"I was embarrassed to be stranded on an island," Hopper, a 54-year-old artist from Encino (Los Angeles County), told The Chronicle. "I thought I could fix my boat and make it to land. ... I didn't want to spend the taxpayers' money to have the Coast Guard come rescue some stupid guy."

But on Monday morning, the Coast Guard did collect Hopper on a 25-foot boat after receiving a call from one of his friends - a man Hopper had telephoned directly.

Rescuers pieced together clues from Hopper - that he could see Naval vessels and could hear reveille, a military bugle call, every morning - and determined he must be near the Concord Naval Weapons Station. The Coast Guard also worked with Hopper's cell phone provider to triangulate his signal.

After finding him waving a red flag, the Coast Guard learned that the victim had gotten stranded after an unusual adventure.

Hopper, nicknamed Goat Man for his ability to scale mountainsides, said he started out Wednesday morning on the Sacramento River, where he loaded a $300 inflatable raft with camping supplies, two burritos, a bag of vitamins, a Bible and a mannequin of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"This trip was a campaign," Hopper explained. "I wanted to bring more attention to social diseases."

A Schwarzeneggar mannequin?

Huh?

On Monday morning, Hopper finally used his cell phone - to call a cousin in Northridge.

Shawn Reeves, 51, said in an interview that Hopper didn't ask him to call authorities but described his worsening situation. Reeves got a sinking feeling that his relative was in real trouble.

"I could hear it in his voice," Reeves said. "This was a guy I grew up with: If he said he was hungry and needed help, he really needed it."

Reeves said Hopper once lived in a cave in Nevada for three months, had walked through Death Valley and had made a Northern California forest his home for an entire year. "When we found him," Reeves said, "he was naked and fishing in a stream ... He's been living off the land for at least 20 years."