Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Angerous, MO): "It Really is Time for Americans to Take Up Pitchforks"

WARNING: This video contains shameless demagoguery, violent rhetoric, and nearly three full minutes of face-time for Chuck Schumer's ugly mug in the background.

Viewer discretion is strongly advised.



For those keeping score at home, Gateway Pundit has a helpful chart showing how the deficit has exploded exponentially during Obama's term.

So the real gut-buster, obviously, is why anyone takes the Democrats seriously about the deficit.

Also note that this is the first time (to my knowledge) that a Democrat has pejoratively categorized all taxpayers who itemize their deductions as 'wealthy'.

So much for that $250,000 threshold, I guess.

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.

Specter: Protests 'Not Necessarily Representative of America'

Will there come a point when these extremist Democrats stop insulting their constituents? Every day there's a new attack on Americans. They're racists, they're Nazis, they're un-American. Is this supposed to win people over, the constant smearing of them?

Now the joke known as Arlen Specter piles on, declaring those who dare question him as not necessarily representative of America.

Let's hope next year the folks in the Keystone state make Specter not representative of Pennsylvania.

Sen. Arlen Specter said Wednesday he thinks people who have been angrily disrupting town hall meetings on overhauling the health care system are "not necessarily representative of America," but should be heard.

"It's more than health care," said Specter, 79, who earlier this year left the Republican Party and became a Democrat. "I think there is a mood in America of anger with so many people unemployed, with so much bickering in Washington ... with the fear of losing their health care. It all boils over."

Specter and Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, appeared on a nationally broadcast news show Wednesday, a day after town hall meetings they hosted erupted in the same kind of catcalls, jeers and shouting that has characterized many such forums in recent weeks. "There were a couple of tough moments," McCaskill said of her experience, "but it lasted two hours and there were thousands of people there."

Jeers and taunts drowned out both Specter and McCaskill on occasion Tuesday. President Barack Obama was treated more respectfully at his town hall meeting in New Hampshire.

Of course Obama was treated more respectfully. It was an audience full of plants.

If Specter is so concerned about people losing jobs, maybe he ought to ask why over 2,000,000 have become unemployed since the "stimulus" plan he voted for became law.

The bitter sessions underscored the challenge for the administration as it tries to win over an increasingly skeptical public on the costly and far-reaching task of revamping the nation's health care system. Desperate to stop a hardening opposition, the White House created a Web site to dispel what it says are smears and House Democrats set up a health care "war room" out of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office to help lawmakers handle questions.

Specter, who had another such forum scheduled Wedneday [sic] at State College, Pa., said he had been "impressed with the fact that people have been very well prepared." He said many have come to meetings with copies of the legislation and have cited specific provisions in their arguments.

Wow, people actually coming prepared by reading the bill, something Specter still admits he hasn't done.

Seems these people are more representative of America than the disgraceful Specter is.

A Stimulus Plan for Unemployed Journalists

Sounds like a lateral move to me. Going from being mouthpieces for the Democrats to ... being mouthpieces for the Democrats.

Sweet gig if you can get it.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) suggested today that the team tasked with overseeing distribution of economic stimulus funds should consider hiring recently laid-off journalists to help craft the tone and message of the government's Recovery.gov Web site. The senator spoke as Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and Robert L. Nabors, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and told lawmakers that the government has doled out at least $51 billion in stimulus funding.

McCaskill's comments came as she expressed concern with written weekly updates on the new government Web site.

"They don’t feel like they’re being written so people can look at it and really understand what’s happening. I don’t think they’re useful to most people," she said, later suggesting Devaney consider hiring recently displaced journalists to help explain the complexities of the economic recovery efforts in easy-to-understand language.

I think we understand it all too well. What she wants is a clever way to bamboozle the public.

Nice try.

“They understand how to write a lead, they understand how to keep it concise, they understand how they make it interesting. And I would urge you to look for the qualified journalists."

"Senator, tomorrow morning I’m interviewing two journalists," for potential jobs with his team, Devaney said.

The former Interior Department inspector general also reiterated his warnings that some level of waste, fraud or mismanagement is inevitable with the distribution of such a large amount of money.

"With that kind of money, the bad guys are going to come," he said.

Maybe if they're fortunate they can also fine someone who can write a lede.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Paying Off Unions Trumps Airport Safety

It's bad enough there are security and safety issues at our airports. It's even worse when Democrats are looking to throw a bone to the unions that helped get them elected while safety is an afterthought.

Elections have ramifications, but you knew that already, didn't you?

Unions vs. Security

It's getting to be a full-time job keeping track of the favors that Democrats in Congress are doing for Big Labor. The latest two episodes are especially notable because they'd benefit unions at the expense of national security.

First up is Senator Jim DeMint's (R., S.C.) proposal to bar certain convicted felons from working in ports. Members of Congress professed to be outraged last year when a few U.S. ports would have been managed by Dubai Ports World. But a far larger concern is that 750,000 workers currently have unescorted access to secure port areas, and felons are obvious recruitment targets for any number of bad actors, including terrorists.

Mr. DeMint offered this amendment last year as part of the port security legislation. Democrats unanimously consented to it on the Senate floor, only to gut it later under the cover of a House-Senate conference. This was done at the request of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which later bragged about its political clout.

Mr. DeMint was back trying again last week, and every Senate Democrat once again voted for his amendment. However, they also voted for a separate amendment from Hawaii's Daniel Inouye that would allow future Administrations to delete the DeMint requirements. Both amendments now go to House-Senate conference, and with Democrats in the majority it's not hard to guess which one will emerge in the final bill.