JammieWearingFool

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Kook Left: Exposing Van Jones is a 'Racist Witch Hunt'

You knew it couldn't be long until the far left kook fringe rallied around one of their own. I just love the smell of radical left fear in the morning. These people are almost parodies of themselves. Check out how hysterical they are.

Join us at StandWithVan.com to show your unwavering support for White House green jobs advisor Van Jones.

Like sharks in the water, a right-wing lynch mob led by notorious race-baiter Glenn Beck is now circling around White House green jobs advisor Van Jones.

On the surface, their complaint centers around Jones' background and statements he previously made as an activist. Specifically, conservative blogs and media outlets have seized on a harshly-worded petition Beck signed in 2004 demanding further investigations into the 9/11 attacks [Oops, you mean Jones, don't you?--ed.]. Jones has clarified since then, saying of the petition that "it certainly does not reflect my views, now or ever." But this is little more than the right-wing manufactured faux-outrage du jour. Beck began aggressively going after Jones in the wake of a campaign targeting Beck's advertisers -- organized by Color of Change -- an advocacy organization Jones founded prior to taking a position in the administration.

Here's a sampling of the left-wing hysteria signing on to this poorly-drafted drivel.

Brad Johnson at The Wonk Room writes:

White House green jobs advisor Van Jones is under attack from Fox News as an “avowed radical revolutionary communist” and from ABC News as a “truther” with a “history of incendiary and provocative remarks.” In an attempt to assassinate the character of Van Jones, the right-wing media are distorting his past political activism and cherry-picking Jones’s critiques of the pollution and injustice that still haunt this nation. However, Jones’s true record is one of turning away from anger and finding hope, abandoning division and seeking consensus.

Yeah, by calling Republicans assholes. No anger or division there, nosiree.

David Roberts at Grist writes:

This is all about bitch-slap politics. If Jones drops out, think Beck or the right-wing slime industry will stop? Think they won’t keep going after Carol Browner, John Holdren, and the rest—twisting and attacking every word and gesture from the Obama administration? “Uncovering” people as wildly caricatured leftists? Faux-populist fear merchants are like sharks; they have to keep moving, keep eating. There’s no sating them. Letting Beck bag Jones would be like chum in the water.

Go get him, Captain Beck!

Adam Siegel at Get Energy Smart Now writes:

Fox’s Beck has turned his attention from President Barack Obama to increasingly vitriolic and deceptive attacks on a White House staff member, Van Jones, who has responsibilities related to Green Jobs. Beck’s attacks are deceptive and despicable, on multiple levels, and demean not just Jones, but American democracy and the very concept of moving forward toward a more prosperous
America, for both the nation and its citizens.

So now Jones is just some lowly White House staff member. By the way, I'm still waiting to find out specifically what these green jobs are and if a single one has been created. Nobody seems to care about Jones' performance, just whether he can stick it to the man.

Sarah Robinson at Blog For Our Future writes:
But we know this for sure: If Beck succeeds in damaging Jones and Color of Change -- a decision that's largely in the hands President Obama -- you can count on this being the start of a fast and furious conservative witch hunt aimed at picking off every other progressive leader. What they'll learn is that this kind of minor smear is all it takes to turn liberals against each other -- and we'll effectively be in the position of letting the craziest people on the right wing decide for us who our leaders will be.

Meanwhile, more reaction is still percolating of the largely non-kook variety.

Friday, September 04, 2009

ManBearPig: 'I Love Van Jones'

I wonder if the overstuffed environmental wacko would like to walk this one back yet?

"In this environment, I think the Obama administration should be very careful of its dealings with anybody who can be labeled communist accurately," said Christopher C. Hull, an adjunct government professor at Georgetown University who runs the public affairs firm Issue Management.

"That's just going to play to the political sensibility that those on the right have that the Obama administration is socialist, literally socialist. ... It is unwise to bring in people who actually do label themselves socialist or communist."

Jones has mellowed considerably since the '90s. In some respects, he is about as mainstream as environmentalists come -- with recognition streaming in from high places over the past few years.

He's won plaudits from former Vice President Al Gore, who declared, "I love Van Jones," in an interview with The New Yorker.

The mayor of San Francisco also has the hots for Jones.

Guess who else is a big fan of Van: (Besides Al Gore.) SF Mayor and CA Gov. candidate Gavin Newsom. The Mayor described Van "a superstar" to us before he introduced him at the 2008 Netroots Nation (Daily Kos) conference.

DOesn't it all just make perfect sense that a radical Communist Truther is the keynote speaker at the Daily Kos convention?

Here's Jones.

Sure seems like Jones had a chip on his shoulder about Fox News long before Glenn Beck was hired.

Everything you've done up until now has just been prologue, it's just been the preface. You proven that you can beat the opposition. You can't have successful opposition movement without opposition media. And you've proven that you can in a very short period of time you built an absolute counterweight to FOX and to Rush Limbaugh, the -- everything the Conservatives built up in 20 years, you were able to match and checkmate and four. It's a huge achievement in the history of human civilization. You did that. You did that. If the republic will be saved, it's because of your efforts, that's true.

University of Oregon Thug Suspended for Season

In case you missed this ugly event from last evening, here's the video.

Running back LeGarrette Blount has been suspended for the rest of the season for his actions Thursday night, ending his career at Oregon.

The suspension would remain in effect through the bowl season, if the Ducks are invited, but Blount will remain in school, on scholarship and in the football program - through any bowl games the Ducks may play in - and will practice and have access to the school's support services.

He just won't be allowed to play in games.

After a 19-8 loss to Boise State on Thursday night, Blount punched Broncos linebacker Byron Hout, who appeared to be taunting him, in the face. Blount also shoved and punched teammate Garrett Embry and charged some fans in the Bronco Stadium stands.

Blount finishes his Oregon career with 997 rushing yards, including the negative-5 yards he ran for Thursday night, on eight carries.

Blount punched BSU linebacker Byron Hout in the face after Hout appeared to be taunting him, then Blount took a shot at teammate Garrett Embry before charging at some fans behind the end zone at Bronco Stadium. The Pac-10 Conference also will review tape of the incident.

Holiday Culinary Tip: Deep-Fried Butter

Well, consider it a tip for anyone out there who may want to keel over this weekend. I sure as hell won't be consuming one of these. Unless I can get down to the Texas State Fair.

Forget fried Oreos. There's a new artery-clogging, cholesterol-raising treat on the way: deep-fried butter.

The heart-stopping dish is among eight new deep-fried concoctions that will be unveiled at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas later this month.

"It's like a mix between a biscuit or a croissant that is just stuffed to the gills with butter on the inside," Abel Gonzales Jr., 39, the dish's mastermind, told NBC News.

"I think that's the best way to describe it."

In the field of outlandish fried treats, Gonzales is a pioneer of sorts.

The ex-computer analyst from Dallas won several former state fair competitions with dishes like Texas Fried Cookie Dough; Fried Peanut Butter, Jelly and Banana Sandwich and Fried Coke.

Competition is particularly steep this year. Other offerings battling for supremacy at the annual expo include deep fried peaches and cream, fried pecan pie and fried peanut butter cup macaroons.

Gonzales' creation is simple.

He whips pure butter until it is light and fluffy, freezes it, then surrounds it with dough.

The butter-laden dough balls are then placed into the deep fryer and voila - out comes a treat likely to give your cardiologist a coronary.

Gonzales also offers up versions with flavored butters: garlic, grape or cherry.

"These are special foods for a special time," he said.

Mmm. May I suggest some deep-fried butter with bacon?

Stunner! Obama Hack Van Jones Also a Mumia Supporter

I haven't mentioned this guy the past couple of days as others have been all over it, led by Jim Hoft. It says volumes about Barack Obama that he'd appoint an avowed Communist with apparent links to 9/11 Truther movements, even though the White House is treading extremely thin ice inexplicably sticking by this guy.

The White House would not say whether the White House's green-jobs czar, who has been linked to Sept. 11 conspiracy theorists, continues to enjoy the confidence of the president, but an official said he is still a part of the administration.

Van Jones, the president's special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), has come under fire this week for using an obscenity to describe Republicans and for signing a petition to get Congress to investigate whether the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were an inside government job.

Most of the media is ignoring the story, naturally, but there comes a time when critical mass will be reached, and probably much sooner than later.

The pathetic aspect of this is the obvious non-vetting of Jones or the likelihood Jones was vetted and Obama found nothing offensive about this man. Apparently the tech-savvy wizards at the White House are too incompetent to run a simple search, as many are now in the process of doing.

Now we find Jones also has a thing for the cop-killing darling of the left, Mumia Abu Jamal. This is from 10 years ago, obviously pre-dating Jones' later hook-up with other radicals in the Truther movement.

Supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a death row inmate convicted for the 1981 shooting death of a Philadelphia police officer, said the protest was called after the Supreme Court on Monday rejected claims that Abu-Jamal, a former radio journalist and Black Panther, did not receive a fair trial.

``We knew there was another event going on, but the timing of the court decision is what dictated when the protest was held,'' said Van Jones, a San Francisco civil rights lawyer who helped coordinate the protest march.

Via Gabe Malor.

So let the White House play cute and try to minimize the likely Jones association with the wacked-out Truthers. Have at it.

Let's MoveOn: Why is Obama appointing supporters of cop killers?

Linked at Instapundit and Hot Air. Thanks!

Ed Morrissey notes:

One would think that the Obama administration would hasten to distance itself from both Truthers and supporters of cop-killers. I imagine James Crowley may be having an ironic laugh at this today.

Commenter Martin says:

After the Professor Gates/Officer Crowley incident, this is JUST what President Obama needed to mend fences with all the police officers he insulted.

Update: The resignation watch is officially on. I'll take 9 pm tonight.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Liberal Climate Change Icon Discredits Her Own Findings

Strolling around some of the liberal web sites, just trying to see what has their panties in knot today, I found some references to a new report released by a professor who appears to be some sort of icon to the global warming/climate change crowd. She is Bette Otto-Bliesner and her whole claim to fame seems to be that for years she has been warning the world about the melting ice at the poles and how it will cause sea levels to rise.

Well, having never heard of this woman I went searching [ed-I use the Ask search engine instead of that other one] and found some interesting articles.

Like I said, she is a one-hit wonder, but in one report I found when the conclusions of a computer model didn't match her conclusions she went back and changed the parameters until they did. In other words, she had a predetermined outcome already decided upon and then built a program to quantify that outcome. This report was used back in 2006 as one of the key themes of a certain former vice president in making a propaganda film designed to scare all of us into driving soy-powered vehicles freeing up much needed aviation fuel for his private jet so that he could continue flying around and telling us how we are destroying the planet.

Well, Ms. Otto-Bliesner has once again reiterated her claim and once again it is all the buzz except that of course she is now moving up her Armageddon time table, no doubt in part because of the Energy/Economic team that Obama has constituted has a much more sympathetic, albeit gullible ear for this sort of thing.

With a little more digging I found that the very causes of her nightmare scenario she debunked years earlier. She asserts that man, particularly since the beginning of the industrial age, is the cause of global warming and therefore the melting ice packs, although there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. If her assertions of today are true how does she reconcile them with her findings from a few years ago?

The last time so much ice was lost from the poles -- in a period between ice ages 129,000 years ago -- global sea levels rose between 4m and 6m.

That's right (shocka!), the ice packs have melted before.

The last time I checked 129,000 years ago there were no SUV's, man was just barely walking upright, and we were coming out of an ice age.

This is what has always chapped me about the global warming alarmists. How do they know what the temperature of the planet is supposed to be? Our planet has always gone through climate changes but they have somehow managed to invent some sort of mythical number and said that is what the thermostat should be set at.

Coincidentally, that 4 to 6 meter rise in sea levels is exactly what she is predicting will happen at the current rate of change happening today. Except that she had to tweak her computer models to reach those conclusions, and in our planets past those sort of levels were the norm.

BTW, in the picture above Ms Otto-Bliesner is second from left, holding that contraption with a champagne glass on top during some sort of relay race held by the organization she works for--The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

Nutty Khadafy Asks UN to Abolish Switzerland

You have to admit that for a psychotic greaseball the dude is pretty amusing.

What I need to know is who'll get dibs on the chocolate?

Libya's Col. Moammar Khadafy has a beef with Switzerland and plans to ask the United Nations to abolish the tiny Alpine home of milk chocolate, cuckoo clocks and yodeling.

According to Swiss minister Christa Markwalder, Khadafy will demand that Switzerland be wiped off the map when he comes to New York Sept. 23. He apparently wants the country to be dismembered and the land parceled out among neighbouring France, Germany and Italy.

The Libya-Swiss kerfuffle began a year ago, when Khadafy's youngest son, Hannibal Khadafy, and his pregnant wife were arrested in a Geneva luxury hotel for beating two servants with a belt and a coat-hanger.

Hannibal Khadafy had previously been busted in both France and Italy for beating a woman and fighting a cop, and once for driving drunk down Paris' Champs Elysee at 90 mph - the wrong way.

Libya retaliated with fury, recalling some diplomats, suspending visas for Swiss citizens, withdrawing funds from Swiss banks, shuttering the Tripoli office of Nestle and threatening to cut off oil deliveries to Switzerland.

Two Swiss businessmen were barred from leaving the country until Libya received an apology for Hannibal's arrest.

Tales From the Grave: Ted Kennedy Denies Having Affair With the Woman He Drowned

Yes, I guess he couldn't have been romantically attached to Mary Jo Kopechne. Otherwise, he might have made an effort to save her life rather than leaving her to die a slow, painful death.

What a sport.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said in a new book that he was not romantically involved with young Mary Jo Kopechne and that he never escaped the despair he felt after she died in the 1969 car crash that has been seared into the national consciousness as "Chappaquiddick."

Seared into the national consciousness? If that's indeed the case, then why were some completely oblivious to it?

"I didn't know about Chappaquiddick and the rape case until yesterday," says Miriam Perez, a 25-year-old editor at Feministing.com. She admires Kennedy's accomplishments, but is perplexed. "Like every person, he's human and there are lots of flaws involved," she says. "But a big feminist tenet is: The personal is political. So I don't feel it's fair to fully ignore it in this case."

John Heinz Kerry the Wealthiest U.S. Politician

Thanks to marrying Mama T, of course. Otherwise he'd probably be a pauper compared to some on this list.

The new kids walking the halls of Congress this year are also some of Capitol Hill’s richest lawmakers.

About a tenth of the 50 wealthiest lawmakers were either voted in during the election last November or appointed during early 2009. Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), as well as appointed Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), are among the newcomers with pockets deep enough to make it on to The Hill’s Rich List.

The richest lawmaker is Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a veteran senator and 2004 presidential nominee, who has a net worth of at least $167.8 million, thanks to his wife’s fortune. Some of the members well known for their wealth, such as Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.), are also on the Rich List, with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets.

Kerry and Harman have seen their fortunes decrease by millions of dollars compared to their reported wealth in previous years. Harman’s headline worth fell by more than $100 million from her 2007 estimate. Kerry saw a decline of more than $70 million. Issa, however, got richer. His wealth increased by at least $4 million, compared to reports from last year.

It doesn't indicate how Issa made is fortune, although he's apparently a savvy investor if he managed to make money in the past year.

Of the top 50, there are 26 Democrats and 24 Republicans. Keep that in mind when you hear these wealthy liberals playing the class warfare game.

Chutzpah: Biggest Recipient of Madoff Money Calls for SEC Reform

Never let it be said Chuckie Schumer doesn't have the the largest set of onions in politics.

The man who was recipient of the largest amount of political contributions from the disgraced Bernie Madoff actually has the gall to be calling for SEC reform in light of the Madoff scandal.

One day after the Securities and Exchange Commission's inspector general released a scathing report finding that the agency failed to follow up on detailed complaints and missed exposing a $50 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced legislation that would allow the agency use the fees it receives from institutions that register with the commission to fund its operations. "This could help the SEC hire more experienced examiners and keep those good ones they have as well as get better technology to fight fraud," Schumer said.

To date there is zero evidence Schumer has ever returned a nickel of the hundreds of thousands of dollars he received from his pal Bernie.

Yet it doesn't prevent the human press conference from sticking his beak into the news when it comes to chiding the SEC.

That's what we call cast-iron gonads.

Democrat Congressman Calls Protester 'Teabagger'

So nice to see these Democrats resorting to vulgar epithets to describe their constituents. We've come to expect this from the far-left blogosphere and kooks like Janeane Garofalo, but now we have Democrat Congressmen sinking into the gutter.

Well, Dave Daubenmire isn't taking this lightly.

For three weeks I have been working to get Mr. Space to hold a PUBLIC TOWN HALL MEETING for these “disenfranchised” voters in the hills of eastern Ohio. Space, like so many other elected officials, has proven himself to be both cowardly and arrogant; unwilling to face those he has sworn an oath to represent.

Because of that, I embarked on a 24/7 round-the-clock vigil outside of his office in Zanesville, Ohio. I just felt that it had reached the point where the rhetoric had to stop and someone had to put action to the threats. So, I grabbed a flag, ran up the hill, and planted it outside the office of Congressman Space believing that others would follow my call to action. As I love to tell those who pass by my personal campground, “They will never see the light until we make them feel the heat.”

Zack Space has treated me, and those I represent, worse than illegal aliens. He has called me names, ridiculed my efforts, labeled me a “tea-bagger”, and insinuated that I was delusional. Character assassination is their answer to those who disagree with them. They consider us serfs, peons who get in the way of their elitist agendas. It upsets them that we don’t “know our place,” which is to pull the lever for them and then shut our mouths. We have lost control of our government.

Pardon my French, but the folks are pissed. I’ve met hundreds this week like Bob. A Viet Nam vet who left “Nam” in ’64, raised eight children, has thirty two grandchildren; his heart is breaking over the sell-out of this nation by dark forces. His retirement is gone, his freedom is under assault and in his words, “the same folks I fought in Nam are grabbing control of this nation.” The kettle is bubbling. Unless you walk the streets of places like Zanesville, Ohio where the salt of the earth folks roam, you can never understand the patriotic fervor that pumps in the heartland. Patriots like Bob, by the millions, “clinging to their God and their guns” will not go silently into the night.

It is apparent now, that Congressman Space, like scores of others in America, will not come out to play. He has chosen to hide. Last week he took a “fact finding” trip to Afghanistan, instead of meeting with the good folks of the 18th District. Perhaps Congressman Space feels it is safer to be in Afghanistan than it is to face the wrath of old Marines like Bob.

Read the rest. If any of you are in Space's district, let him know what you think and stop by to wish Coach Daubenmire well.

H/T Darin.

Another Lefty Finds Religion

Usually whenever a conservative even mentions the G-word in public, the left goes nuts, the ACLU files suit and the media goes bonkers over the vaunted separation of church and state.

But since liberalism is essentially a religion, they can inject Jesus into any discussion that suits them.

Here we have far-left kook Ed Schultz, a favorite at the White House, declaring that Jesus would be down with socialized medicine.

It doesn't get much more banal than this.

It's a moral issue, of course.

Schultz said the people were the government, so the obligation of the government was inclusive, according to Perkins' standard. However, Perkins pointed out for the MSNBC host that the politically left-of-center seem to be willing cite scripture when expedient, but tend to get worked up when those on the right do the same thing, which he referred to as a double standard and even questioned if those on the left understood what they were citing.

"There's this double standard," Perkins said. "When the conservative uses scripture, the media goes into convulsions saying they're trying to create a theocracy. When the liberals use scripture, they just report it I guess because they know they don't mean it."

I guess on the upside people really won't get worked up over this considering Schultz is seen by such a microscopic audience.

When MoveOn Attacks: 'He Punched Me Hard, Straight in the Face, So I Bit His Finger Off'

It's getting ugly out there.

About 100 protesters sponsored by MoveOn.org were having a rally supporting health care reform. A group of anti-health care reform protesters formed across the street.

A witness from the scene says a man was walking through the anti-reform group to get to the pro-reform side when he got into an altercation with the 65-year-old, who opposes health care reform.

The 65-year-old was apparently aggressive and hit the other man, who then retaliated by biting off his attacker's pinky, according to Karoli from DrumsnWhistles.

I know Obama told them to get in people's faces, but I didn't realize they'd start biting fingers off.

Classy bunch, those MoveOn types.

'I Went To Venus On A UFO'

Not me, but rather the wife of the new Prime Minister of Japan.

The liberal party in Japan recently won the elections there in a sweeping landslide that overturned over 50 years of conservative rule and if you thought our liberals were nuttier then a fruitcake you really need to check out the Japanese variety.

The distinctions of 66-year-old Miyuki Hatoyama do not end there. As well a being a musical actress, cookery writer, clothesmaker and television personality, she is also a friend of the actor Tom Cruise, whom she knew in a past life when he was temporarily incarnated as a Japanese. She would be regarded as bit of a fruitcake anywhere in the world — in Japan’s staid political culture, she is unique.

I guess this will not come as any sort of surprise to somebody who has seen any of those Japanese game shows, but I for one can't wait for Michelle Obama to sit down with this lady for some tea.

'It's Very Inappropriate to Show a Radical, Leftist Propaganda Piece That Political to Children'

Of course it's inappropriate, but they just don't care. Anything you can do to indoctrinate your kids is just fine with the radical left. They've been caught and are now backtracking, but let's stay on offense.

A school principal has apologized for showing a video at an assembly that a politically conservative group leader is calling "radical, leftist propaganda."

Children at Eagle Bay Elementary School in Farmington were shown a short video called "I pledge" on Aug. 28. The video opens with an image of President Barack Obama and part of a speech in which he says, "Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other." The video then features celebrities making pledges about how they will help the president and the world -- and that's where some say the problem lies.

Many pledges, such as supporting local food banks, smiling more, and caring for the elderly are noncontroversial. But other pledges, such as "to never give anyone the finger when I'm driving again," "to sell my obnoxious car and buy a hybrid" and to advance stem cell research cross the line, some say.

"Showing the video in a public school is completely inappropriate," said Jennifer Cieslewicz, whose daughter is a first-grader at the school. "I don't believe a video such as this that promotes certain values should be shown to elementary students, especially without parents being aware. "

Chris Williams, Davis School District spokesman, said school principal Ofelia Wade and school PTA leaders decided to show the video as part of an assembly about the school's theme for the year, service. He said the PTA board chose the video and Wade did not see it before it was shown in the assembly.

"It got to a point where she turned to her assistant and said, 'Oops, I wish I would have seen this before. I don't think I would have shown it,' " Williams said. He said Wade could see how some adults might find the video political.

"She acknowledges she was wrong and apologizes for it and says she's sorry," Williams said. Attempts to reach school PTA leaders Tuesday.

Williams said Wade plans to send a letter home to parents Wednesday about the issue.

Gayle Ruzicka, president of conservative Utah Eagle Forum, said the video was blatantly political. She said other offensive pledges included, "I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama," "I pledge allegiance to the funk, to the united funk of funkadelica," and pledges to not use plastic grocery bags and not flush the toilet after urinating.

"It's very inappropriate to show a radical, leftist propaganda piece that political to children," Ruzicka said. "If parents want their children to learn about those things and do them in the home, wonderful, fine, but it's not the place of the school to show a one-sided propaganda piece to children without parents knowing about it."

Just a Grunt posted this mind-numbing video yesterday and it came out months ago, but since it's now garnered much more attention, it's worth watching again.

Question: Do you think any of the morons in the video regret filming this eight months later?

Shocker! Sleazy Rangel Whips Out the Race Card

Can't say we're surprised by this. The desperate Democrats just love injecting race into any political disagreement. You object to anything proposed by a black man and bingo, you're racist!

So easy, even a criminal Democrat can play!

"Some Americans have not gotten over the fact that Obama is president of the United States. They go to sleep wondering, 'How did this happen?' " Rangel (D-Manhattan) said Tuesday.

Speaking at a health-care forum in Washington Heights, Rangel said that when critics complain that Obama is "trying to interfere" with their lives by pushing for health-care reform, "then you know there's just a misunderstanding, a bias, a prejudice, an emotional feeling."

"We're going to have to move forward notwithstanding that," said Rangel, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a chief health-care negotiator.

Rangel then likened the battle over health-care expansion for the uninsured to the fight for civil rights.

"Why do we have to wait for the right to vote? Why can't we get what God has given us? That is the right to live as human beings and not negotiate with white southerners and not count the votes. Just do the right thing," he said.

Quite amusing how many Democrats have found God recently. If a Republican mentions God we see the left go apoplectic. But since the Democrats have no shame, they're allowed to insert God into every political discussion.

Don't you just love double standards?

Critics of ObamaCare blasted Rangel for taking the low road.

"Charlie Rangel knows that race has nothing to do with the health-care debate. He should not be implying that race has anything to do with it," said Rep. Peter King (R-LI).

State Conservative Party leader Mike Long called Rangel's comment "outrageous and outlandish" -- and suggested the congressman might be trying to deflect attention from his ethics woes.

"Rangel is playing the race card. It's clear that the congressman is trying to galvanize the minority community that this is 'us against them.' It's going to backfire. A majority of people will see through this," Long said.

After the forum, Rangel insisted he was not smearing opponents as racists.

"What I'm saying is, if you watch the town-hall meetings, people were angry and did not care what the answer was to some of their questions. They were angry with their member of Congress, period," he said.

Meanwhile, this thug's recent tax re-filings have apparently become contagious.

Charlie Rangel's "forgetfulness" is apparently contagious.

Two of his top aides are among about a dozen highly paid staffers on the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee who have filed a flurry of amendments correcting their financial-disclosure statements since 2002.

Jim Capel, chief of staff for Rangel's personal office, failed to file any such statements for six years.

On the afternoon of July 14, Capel filed five years' worth of delinquent reports.

Capel told The Post yesterday it was a simple oversight.

"I am sorry for not making these filings in the timely manner as required," he said. "My failure was not done for no other reason than I just forgot to do so."

Another serial mis-filer working for Rangel is George Dalley, who is legal counsel in Rangel's personal office. Dalley has amended his statements four times since 2002.

In his 2007 statement, he failed to disclose as much as $150,000 in rental income on two properties in DC.

Amazing hor "forgetful" these Democrats are.

'Excuse Me People, I Didn't Call the Tabloids, I Didn't Blow the Whistle and I Didn't Save the Dress'

Don't you just love feisty hookers? They definitely rank higher on my approval meter than politicians.

The high-paid escort who notoriously romped with disgraced ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer has a message to New York ladies: You're no better than me!

"Get real and get over yourself," Ashley Dupre bluntly tells all the women out there who "just love to judge."

Dupre, responding to a front-page Post exclusive about Spitzer contemplating a return to office, said she is tired of people looking down on her.

"Let me say this -- most girls, to varying degrees, of course, want to be pampered and have nice shoes, designer handbags and gorgeous clothes," Dupre, 24, writes in a blog post on hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons' Global Grind Web site.

"I know many women who target guys with money and use them to get these things. They toy with them, flirt, go on dates, have sex and then drop hints about that new dress . . . or being short on rent money -- and the guys deliver it."

Then takes a poke at all the women who pass judgment on her, but are engaged in "dishonest relationships" of their own.

"I see this all over New York City. Some women aren't as vindictive, but still dive into relationships with wealthy guys who they don't love or even find attractive, but they stay in it because they have a nice home, a car and spending money," she wrote.

"They would rather stay in an unfulfilling or loveless relationship than lose that security."

It's not just Big Apple babes she rails against. The bad girl, whose family lives in leafy Wall, NJ, blasted suburban Garden State housewives who "who are strung out on mood stabilizers."

The brunette bombshell had nothing but kind words to say about Spitzer.

"I read the front page of the NY Post this week and was happy to see that Mr. Spitzer is moving on with his life and considering getting back into politics," she said.

Spitzer -- who stepped down after he was outed for paying $4,300 for sex with Dupre -- has been in informal discussions about a run for state comptroller or US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's seat, sources told The Post.

"Everyone deserves a second chance," said Dupre. "Me too, right? Well, apparently not."

Her efforts at image rehab have been hampered by her reputation as the "woman who brought down the governor," she said.

"Excuse me people, I didn't call the tabloids, I didn't blow the whistle and I didn't save 'the dress,' " she wrote, a reference to Monica Lewinsky who saved a semen-stained blue dress from her encounter with Bill Clinton.

I have a hunch Bill Clinton would like to meet her. If he hasn't already.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Senator Curt Schilling?

He made some noise back in 2004, when after the Red Sox dethroned the Yankees he openly rooted for George W. Bush against the local guy, the former (cough) war hero. I remember some morning show babblehead nearly choking over the endorsement on national television.

Could it be he's ready to jump right in now? Probably just idle speculation, though you can be assured what little there is of the Massachusetts GOP has him as The Dream Candidate.

This Yankee fan would support him. This would be a political earthquake and I think he could actually win in Massachusetts, especially considering the motley crew sure to run for Ted's seat.

Curt Schilling, the former major league pitcher who won the allegiance of Bostonians by leading the Red Sox to the 2004 World Series, said Wednesday that he has "some interest" in running for the seat held for nearly 50 years by Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Schilling, a registered independent and longtime Republican supporter, wrote on his blog that while his family and video game company, 38 Studios, are high priorities, "I do have some interest in the possibility."

"That being said, to get to there, from where I am today, many, many things would have to align themselves for that to truly happen," he added.

Any other comment "would be speculation on top of speculation," Schilling said, adding, "My hope is that whatever happens, and whomever it happens to, this state makes the decision and chooses the best person — regardless of sex, race, religion or political affiliation — to help get this state back to the place it deserves to be."

Schilling told New England Cable News that he has been contacted "by people whose opinion I give credence to," but he did not elaborate. He declined to comment when The Associated Press called his office.

The 42-year-old lives in suburban Medfield and campaigned for President George W. Bush in 2004 and Sen. John McCain in 2008.

Here's the audio:

But Don't You Dare Say The Pledge of Allegiance

Remember this video.

Don't Vote!

Well apparently they think that format is a winner because now they have a new video that they are going to be showing to your kids while they are locked away in their government education centers, i.,e public school, whose theme is "I Pledge".

Yup more celebrities telling you how they pledge to save the unicorns, stopped climate change, and magically make everybody millionaires overnight, if you will just pledge to volunteer. Of course in the Obama economy that is about the only job you can get.

This is all part of the concerted effort to push volunteerism onto the youth of America and to blur what Sept 11 is really all about.

For those that haven't heard Barry O is declaring Sept 11 as a National Day of Service. So instead of remembering the horrible events that occurred that day in 2001 he wants you to go paint an old folks home or pick up litter along a highway. The video also pushes the USA Service dot org. For those not fluent in the nuances of the web it is a safe bet that any web site that ends in org is a liberal venue, like MoveOn dot org, etc. With the track record this administration has in gathering personal information why would anybody visit one of their web sites and sign up. Unless you want to be on the next mailing from David Axelrod I wouldn't advise it.

Well anyway here is your I Pledge video which will be shown to your kids soon.

UPDATE: Some folks in the comments are wondering where I got the idea that this video was being shown in the schools. I got it from here, where it has already been shown.

ABC's Unwitting Self-Parody: 'Proof: The American Worker is Getting Nickle and Dimed'

The ABC News Blog laments the plight of the common man here in Obamaland and concludes we're all getting the shaft.

Proof: The American Worker is Getting Nickle and Dimed

There is a study out today from UCLA that looks at how employers are cutting corners when it comes to paying their low income employees.

68% of the workers surveyed were cheated out of pay during the previous week.

The researchers found that the average worker was nickle and dimed out of $51 dollars a week. Employers weren't always paying their workers for all the overtime they worked. And some employees were talking their staff out of putting in for workers compensation after injuries.

Wait until ABC figures out their employees no longer know how to spell nickel.

At Last! Ben and Jerry's Introduces Gay Ice Cream

How clever. Chubby Hubby becomes Hubby Hubby.

Same great taste but with twice the nuts!

Vermont, home to maple syrup and birthplace of that other magic elixir, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, ignored the "who will change his name" debate, and just went ahead and did it. The artist (ice cream so good it's art) formerly known as the flavor "Chubby Hubby" has a new married name: "Hubby Hubby," in support of all the newly married couples.

Don't expect to see pints in your grocer's freezer today: like all change, sometimes it's slow in coming (labels will take up to 18 months to reflect the shift.

As Mark Steyn suggested today, perhaps David Brooks can share a pint with Barack Obama.

Here's some video.

Obama Fails to Save or Create Another 298,000 Jobs

Maybe he could just resign and make it 298,001.

Stocks were headed for a slightly lower open after an early reading on August employment numbers showed the labor market weaker than expected.

ADP Employer Services said private employers cut 298,000 jobs in August, fewer than a revised 360,000 jobs lost in July but considerably worse than expectations of 250,000.

This makes at least 2.4 million jobs lost since Obama began dismantling the American economy.

No wonder he and his merry band of idiots have given up pretending they've created or saved jobs.

'I Couldn't Leave Them On Their Own'

Whenever I read stories like this I am reminded of the war stories told by the now senior Senator from Massachusetts John Kerry when he was running for president and we were reminded on a daily basis about his 'heroic' service in Vietnam or Cambodia or wherever he alleged to be serving. I am reminded how he took his three Purple Hearts and beat feet back home after being overcome by exploding rice.

This young lady is a member of the British 2 Rifles, which some of you may recall were written about recently by Michael Yon, before they revoked his embed.

An Army medic remained at the scene of an ambush in Afghanistan to treat seven injured comrades despite being wounded with shrapnel herself, it was revealed today.

Lance Corporal Sally Clarke, of 2 Rifles, ignored the shards embedded in her back after the Taleban attack and stayed to help her team.
...
Lance Corporal Clarke, who has served for three years, tended each soldier, then helped to move them to the helicopter landing site to be flown to Camp Bastion. Despite being entitled to get on the flight, she refused, insisting she would not leave the patrol without a medic.

She added: “I didn’t feel like my injuries were bad enough to go back to the hospital, particularly as I was the only medic on the ground at the time.

“I couldn’t leave them on their own. I came out here to support the troops on the ground and give them medical care when they needed it the most.”

The Brits are taking a lot of casualties recently, just like the Americans; I can guarantee you not a day goes by when we couldn't read a story like this in our media, if only they would publish them. I have no doubt they are being written because I see them in little local newspapers everyday, but never on the national stage.

This weekend I am going to a NASCAR race here in Atlanta and the Grand Marshall for the Saturday night race is going to be the widow of recently slain National Guard NCO from Georgia, SFC John Beale. While the newspapers and networks like to remind us of the daily death toll, they continue, even after all this time, to ignore the people who are the real story.

Ahmadinejad Knows How To Pick A Cabinet

You have to hand it to the crazy little twerp in the sleazy leisure suits, he sure knows how to poke fingers into the eyes of the civilized world. He has now named a new defense minister who just so happens to be on an Interpol's Most Wanted Terrorist list.

C'mon Barry O, go sit down with them and talk. Have some tea and make nice with the guy. I mean aren't we always being told that we just need to open up a dialogue with them, issue a few apologies while on bended knees, and proclaim that their mass murdering actions are nothing more then a tantrum thrown by a 2 year old.

A former Revolutionary Guard commander wanted by Interpol for masterminding the worst terrorist attack in Argentina looks set to become the new Iranian Defence Minister after parliament signalled that it would confirm the provocative choice.

General Ahmad Vahidi is alleged to have planned the bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires in 1994 when he commanded the Quds force, a unit of the Revolutionary Guard responsible for foreign operations. He is one of five Iranians sought in the bombing in which 85 people died. Iran denies that it was involved.

Of course according to members of the Iranian Parliament it is all about the Joooos.

Jihad By Any Other Name ....

Oh those fun loving Germans, although I don't guess you can really fault them in this case since the name these adherents of the Religion of Peace™ chose to name their little bundle of exploding joy is an accepted name in the Arabic world. Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?

A Berlin court has upheld rulings in favor of parents who sought to name their son Djehad, a variation on the Arabic "jihad," or holy war.

The superior court upheld two lower court rulings allowing the name on grounds that it is recognized for males in Arabic-speaking countries.

Exhausted Obama Departs for Another Vacation

Poor baby is tired

I guess all that golf wore the poor guy out. Back for two days in DC, Obama apparently got a good look at his plunging poll numbers and figured it was time to head for the hills.

President Barack Obama and his family are trying again for a little rest and relaxation.

The president is heading out to the presidential retreat at Camp David on Wednesday morning. The five-day stay in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains gives the first family a head start on the Labor Day weekend.

His AP stenographer blames his orchestrating a five-minute announcement re-appointing Ben Bernanke as interrupting his vacation. It's not as if that announcement couldn't have waited. They wanted to make it look as if he was still tending to business in between hitting quadruple bogeys.

Now the guy is back for 48 hours and he has to leave on Wednesday morning for Labor Day?

Pathetic: Obama Hack Blames Media for Plummeting Health Care Support

They're just desperately lashing out, pitifully unable to come to grips with the reality that people just do not want socialist health care.

Healthcare reform supporters can't rely on the media to debunk myths about legislation, the director of President Obama's political arm said Tuesday.

In an email to supporters, Organizing for America (OFA) Director Mitch Stewart encouraged recipients to "double our own efforts to get the truth out" about healthcare reform.

"Over the past few months, two things have become clear about the fight for health insurance reform," Stewart wrote. "1. Our opponents will create and spread outrageous lies to try to stop President Obama from creating real change. 2. We just can't count on the media to debunk them."

The president had blamed the media for helping propagate some of the "misinformation" about his healthcare plans, saying "part of the reason it spreads is the way reporting is done today."

Never before in our history has the media been so in the tank for a president and for these clowns to start blaming the media just shows how quickly this administration is unraveling. When an overwhelmingly liberal media is unable to contain the disintegration of Obama's public support it isn't their fault.

Maybe Obama and his policies are to blame, don't you think?

Meanwhile, it's time for Bammy to regroup and run some misdirection.

Top officials privately concede the past six weeks have taken their toll on Obama's popularity. But the officials also see the new diminished expectations as an opportunity to prove their critics wrong by signing a health care law, showing progress in Afghanistan, and using this month's anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers to push for a crackdown on Wall Street.

Ah yes, just what the ailing economy needs. A crackdown on those who produce.

Also this fall, Obama wants to slap new regulations on Wall Street firms, a goal that is now considered a higher priority than cap-and-trade energy legislation in the West Wing. White House officials think the legislation will show voters, especially wavering independents, that he is serious about making the culprits of the economic crisis pay.

In that case, they can go after Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and his pals at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

'Mind Your Own Business'

This is classic. Here you have a Massachusetts Democrat who voted for massive taxes on alcohol up in New Hampshire buying tax-free booze, then snapping at a citizen for pointing out his hypocrisy.

Naturally, he blames it on Republicans.

A Westport lawmaker who voted to hike the state sales and alcohol taxes was spotted brazenly piling booze in his car - adorned with his State House license plate - in the parking lot of a tax-free New Hampshire liquor store, the Herald has learned.

Michael J. Rodrigues’ blue Ford Crown Victoria, emblazoned with his “House 29” Massachusetts license plate, was parked outside a Granite State liquor store on Interstate-95 South over the weekend, according to a witness who provided pictures to the Herald.

The witness, who requested anonymity, claimed he approached Rodrigues, noted his State House plate, and asked if he was on personal or official business. Rodrigues, who was loading booze into his car, snapped “mind your own business,” the witness said.

The witness’ account was also posted yesterday on Citizens for Limited Taxation’s Web site.

A member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Rodrigues did not return several phone calls yesterday. But in an online interview with The Standard-Times in New Bedford, he acknowledged buying the booze during a bathroom stop while he and his wife were on a weekend getaway in New Hampshire.

He also blamed the brouhaha on “Republican demagoguery.”

“Unfortunately, I think that’s why the Republican Party is in such bad shape in Massachusetts,” Rodrigues is quoted as saying. “The electorate here is smart enough to figure out what they’re up to.”

Really? I think the electorate is catching on to these Democrat hacks who vote one way and live another.

The Westport Democrat, whose family owns a rug business, was among the lawmakers who voted in an unpopular 25 percent sales tax hike for Bay Staters. The increase pushed the sales tax to 6.25 percent and slapped that same levy on booze - the first time alcohol has been subject to retail sales tax.

The hike has been blasted by business owners, especially those on the New Hampshire border, who say the increase has driven business north.

Mike Cimini, owner of Yankee Spirits liquor stores in Sturbridge, Attleboro and Swansea, said he’s lost about 10 percent of his business since the booze tax went into effect Aug. 1.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable that a Massachusetts state representative would be that hypocritical, let alone be that bold to actually drive his car with political plates to a New Hampshire liquor store,” said Cimini, noting Rodrigues represents communities close to his stores. “He’s up in New Hampshire to avoid the very taxes he approved.”

These same turds would probably be at border liquor stores photographing license plates of Masschusetts residents and sending them a tax bill if they could get away with it, and believe me, I'm sure they've given it some thought.

H/T Spitfire Murphy.

Update: Howie Carr whacks the hack.

The competition is always fierce, but this morning we have a new Dumbest State Rep.

Come on down, Rep. Michael Rodrigues, (D-Westport). He’s in the mix every year for the coveted DSR award, a 50-year-old career layabout whose blinding intellect lights up the room like a three-watt bulb.

But now, he rises above the other perennial contenders for the coveted DSR award, more commonly known as the Kujawski. Wait ’til next year, John Rogers and Ben Swan.

In what may be a first, Rodrigues (rhymes with, “dumb as bricks”) snagged the award out of state - specifically, at a New Hampshire liquor store. When this photo was taken, Rodrigues was picking up some distilled spirits just after he voted to impose a 6.25 percent sales tax on liquor sales in the commonwealth.

In other words, do as he says, not as he does.

Being spotted at a New Hampshire state packy was stupid enough, but what makes it worse is that he was driving a Ford with his own personal House license plate - 29.

A call placed to Rodrigues yesterday was answered by his aide. She said he was at the State House but was on another line. I gave her my number but when the phone didn’t ring, I knew it was him. I called again. A machine answered. The rep was taking it on the lam.

Via Jules Crittenden.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

'That is a Sad State of Affairs'

Another class act from the City of San Francisco. Doesn't their twerp mayor aspire to be governor?

This sure won't help get any votes in Southern California.

While much of Southern California is currently blazing away like an old Christmas tree, we've got a little bit of a fire going on up here in San Francisco, too. It's a four-alarm blaze under John Hanley's collar.

The head of the San Francisco firefighter's union is incensed that the SFFD has spurned pleas from the State Office of Emergency Services to send a "strike team" consisting of five fire trucks and 22 firefighters to SoCal. Instead, the city has sent a single truck.

"If the city of Vallejo, which is in bankruptcy court, can send one engine down, San Francisco ought to be able to send five," said Hanley. "Our neighbor's house is burning and we've got well-trained, well-qualified guys but the chief won't let them go. It just doesn't look very good."

Our calls to the San Francisco Fire Department have not yet been returned. Hanley, however, said this was a black eye for the department and blamed Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White for not stocking enough reserve vehicles for the department to be able to spare the men and machines.

"When I first came into the department [in 1980] there were 15 relief pieces. So if we sent a strike team, we would still have additional apparatuses so San Francisco doesn't get short," he says. "Well, the chief has failed to buy fire engines. We only have three to four extra relief pieces a day. That is a sad state of affairs."

Indeed, it is. I wonder how the folks in San Francisco would react if they received such little help during a major earthquake?

Meanwhile, some idiot Democrat blamed the fires on--you guessed it--global warming.

Sigh.

Judge Restores Order in the Court ... With Duct Tape

Judging by the complexions of those involved here, we can expect the usual condemnations by the race pimps who are leading us into our post-racial nirvana.

Heck, if the perp walks any time soon, it could be time for another White House beer summit as our nation heals our racial wounds.

Municipal Court Judge Stephen F. Belden had an unconventional tool for silencing an argumentative defendant last week — duct tape.

The unique confrontation played out in Municipal Court on Thursday and quickly became a topic of courthouse gossip. It was also recorded on the courtroom’s audio and video systems.

Belden was holding a preliminary hearing to see if there was sufficient evidence for Harry Brown’s case to be reviewed by a county grand jury.

Charged with robbery and obstructing official business, Brown, 51, of 529 Clarendon Ave. NW, is accused of fighting with Wal-Mart security officers who said they were trying to keep him from shoplifting at the Tuscarawas Street W store Aug. 20.

At the start of the hearing, Brown told Belden that he wasn’t happy with his public defender, who he claimed hadn’t done enough work on the case.

Belden said he wasn’t going to appoint a different attorney. If Brown didn’t want the public defender, he could represent himself, although he would be a fool to do so, the judge said.

Brown and Belden went back and forth for about four minutes, at times talking over each other, until Belden told his bailiff, Jeffrey Smith, to get the duct tape.

“I’m gonna get some duct tape. If you keep interrupting me, I’m gonna have Mr. Smith put it over your mouth, OK?”

Brown said he would go back to the holding area for prisoners.

“No, you can’t go back there and sit. You’re staying right here,” Belden said.

Brown kept talking.

“All right, duct tape. Duct tape the defendant,” Belden said.

With Brown muzzled, Belden told the public defender to sit in the audience, then ran the hearing.

After the police officer answered the prosecutor’s questions, Belden told his bailiff to remove the tape and asked Brown if he had any questions for the witness.

“We’ll put some more (tape) back on if you decide to, uh, go back to your former, uh, disrespectful ways,” the judge said.

Smells like a multimillion-dollar lawsuit to me.

There's audio at the link.

Dingy Harry on Kennedy Death: 'I Think It's Going to Help Us'

As Rahm Emanuel might say, never let a death go to waste.

Q: How will U.S. Sen. (Edward) Kennedy's death affect things?

A: I think it's going to help us. He hasn't been around for some time. We're going to have a new chairman of that committee, it'll be, I don't know for sure, but I think Sen. (Chris) Dodd, (D-Conn.). He has a right to take it. Either him or (U.S. Sen. Tom) Harkin, (D-Iowa), whichever one wants it can have it. I think he (Kennedy) will be a help. He's an inspiration for us. That was the issue of his life and he didn't get it done.

How ghoulish.

'This Is Not the Time for Our Community to Embarrass Ourselves Nationally'

Really, is there ever a good time to embarrass yourself nationally? OK, these are Democrats, after all, so they have plenty of experience. Well, now he folks in Ohio seem to be a little ashamed that for Congressman James Traficant will soon be released. I must say he's really elevated his sense of sartorial splendor behind bars.

Critics of James A. Traficant Jr. say the ex-congressman’s release from prison and a party welcoming him home make it appear as though the Mahoning Valley embraces political corruption.

Traficant is to be released Wednesday from federal prison after serving a little more than seven years for racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.

About 1,000 tickets have been sold to an event Sunday at Mr. Anthony’s banquet hall in Boardman to celebrate Traficant’s release.

“They’re trying to make him out to be some kind of hero coming back from war,” said Austintown Trustee David Ditzler.

Ditzler was Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman from 1999 to 2002, relinquishing the position a few months before a federal court found Traficant guilty of all 10 felony charges he faced.

“The party is a slap in the face to the Valley,” Ditzler said. “It’s a little deplorable. I’m kind of appalled that there would be such an event.”

During Traficant’s seven-year absence, the Valley’s image has “improved dramatically,” Ditzler said.

He points to U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, who replaced Traficant in Congress, as being a leader and someone who’s helped restore the area’s longtime tainted reputation.

“This is not the time for our community to embarrass ourselves nationally” with an event to celebrate Traficant’s release from prison, said state Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th.

“Honoring him in any way, shape or form doesn’t do the community any good,” said Hagan, who lost the 2000 Democratic primary for a congressional seat to Traficant.

Despite being found guilty on all counts, Traficant has “never admitted guilt or apologized to his supporters or our community,” Hagan added.

Traficant was also the fifth member of the U.S. House to be expelled, and only the second since the Civil War.

“I’m struck by the fact that some people feel all politicians are guilty of some form of corruption,” Hagan said. “That’s a slap in the face of those, like myself, who have integrity. Not all of us are corrupt. [But politicians are labeled that way] when you consider people who commit crimes to be heroes.”

The welcome-home event for Traficant, who isn’t expected to attend, though organizers invited him, will bring “national embarrassment” to the area, Hagan said.

In case you don't recognize him from the above photo, taken in prison several years ago, perhaps this will jog your memory. I always marveled at that thing on top of his head.

Traficant was also famous for his speeches on the House floor, which usually ended with him saying "beam me up, Mr. Speaker."

Here's some old video.

And another gem before he was booted from Congress.

Client No. 9: 'I Have No Plans To Run for Office'

Can say we didn't see this coming. I figured this morning it was a trial balloon.

Considering toe fungus is more popular than Paterson, that isn't much of a stretch. Though I consider this trial balloon will burst by this afternoon, buried under an avalanche of ridicule.

Sure enough:

Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer refuted a published report on Tuesday that he is considering a political comeback.

"I have no plans to run for office," Spitzer told the Daily News in a brief telephone interview from his father's Manhattan real estate office.

OK, now please, please just go away.

Great News: Dear Leader to Address the Children September 8

Here I was looking forward to my kid's first day of school. Well, I guess I'll have to work on some evening de-programming.

Considering his stock among adults, pretty soon all Obama will have left are his minions from the teacher's unions and the skulls full of mush he's propagandizing.

Read the "assignment" and tell me if it's appropriate for pre-K. I'm sure parents will appreciate this part:

Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of Congress, or the governor. Why is what they say important?

Good grief.

That's just a snippet. They have before-, during- and after-the-speech exercises.

Wonderful.

Here's the document.

President Obama’s Address to Students Across America September 8, 2009 -

If your kids somehow manage to avoid be indoctrinated during the school day, be sure they avoid television that night.

Barack Obama: There is no avoiding him.

Update: More from Michelle Malkin, including some video.

Lerch: Globwarm the Next 9/11

Too stupid for words. To think this blithering idiot actually was a presidential nominee.

John Kerry has written an op-ed for the Huffington Post comparing the inaction in response to a heating planet to the inaction of President Bush before September 11th.

Kerry reaches deep into the bag of global warming hysterics to uncork this piece, saying that the fate of the nation hinges upon the passing of some sort of climate change legislation.

It's ridiculously over the top, but we suppose it might get a few supporters all riled up and ready to fight for the bill this fall. Of course, it's so over the top that it might just turn off a bunch of people.

No kidding.

Democrats love to whine about scare tactics. Then what the hell do you call this nonsense? See if you can spot the scare words.

The truth is that the threat we face is not an abstract concern for the future. It is already upon us and its effects are being felt worldwide, right now. Scientists project that the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer of 2013. Not in 2050, but four years from now.

Make no mistake: catastrophic climate change represents a threat to human security, global stability, and -- yes -- even to American national security.

Climate change injects a major new source of chaos, tension, and human insecurity into an already volatile world. It threatens to bring more famine and drought, worse pandemics, more natural disasters, more resource scarcity, and human displacement on a staggering scale. We risk fanning the flames of failed-statism, and offering glaring opportunities to the worst actors in our international system. In an interconnected world, that endangers all of us.

The individual data points may sometimes be murky. But the pattern they create is irrefutably clear: We don't know if Hurricane Katrina was caused by climate change, but we do know that we are rapidly heading for a world where climate change causes worse Katrinas. We don't know with certainty whether climate change pushed Darfur over the edge, but we do know that it will cause more tension just like we've seen in Darfur.

I think with the death of Ted Kennedy that Kerry has assumed the title of Wetbrained Senator from Massachusetts.

More on Lerch here.

Back From Vacation, Bammy Goes Golfing

I guess the poor, overworked President in Training Pants really does need a vacation from his vacation. We noted last week he'd be fleeing to Camp David tomorrow, but who knew his first order of business upon returning from vacation would be to go golfing?

With a week on Martha's Vineyard behind him, President Barack Obama was back in Washington on Monday and raring to go -- to the golf course.

The president, in khaki pants and a blue polo shirt, headed to the private Army Navy Country Club for an afternoon round with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, press office staffer Ben Finkenbinder, and trip director Marvin Nicholson. That health care debate? He'll get to it next week.

"I mean, if he hits Marvin with a golf ball, I guess he'd become more active in health care," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

It was hard to miss the Obama family's glum faces when they returned Sunday evening from their Massachusetts vacation. Walking across the South Lawn toward the White House from Marine One, the usually genial foursome looked uncommonly downcast.

Aw, what a shame. I guess destroying our economy is taking a toll.

Looks like another light day before he hosts a Ramadan dinner tonight. Then off on vacation again!

And he wonders why his approval ratings continue to plummet at an alarming pace.

'Pardon Me, But He's Supposed to Have Prostate Cancer. Why Is He Wearing an Oxygen Mask?'

Who are you going to believe? Your own eyes or the Libyans?

The Libyan government invited a British camera crew to film the Lockerbie bomber in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines and an oxygen mask.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, is "a dying man" who can no longer speak, Libyan Foreign Secretary Mohammed Siala said Monday.

Asked if his release was the result of a shady oil-for-terrorist deal, Megrahi's head lolled on the pillow. He did not seem to register the question.

The invite to film came after Megrahi's father ignited a new firestorm when he said his son wasn't really dying.

"It is not that serious as some news media have been portraying," Ali al-Megrahi told an Arab paper last week. "He is improving day by day."

The only man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that killed 270 people was released from a Scottish prison Aug. 20 after doctors said he had three months to live.

Relatives of those lost on the plane were skeptical of the new hospital footage.

"Pardon me, but he's supposed to have prostate cancer. Why is he wearing an oxygen mask?" asked Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora was killed in the attack.

"With the mask, does he really need his glasses, too?" wondered Bob Monetti, who lost his son Rick.

Cohen noted that Megrahi was well enough just 12 days ago to climb onto a Libya-bound plane without help, and to pump his fist when he was greeted by cheering crowds in Tripoli, Libya's capital - a scene that appalled the world.

More on Britain's despicable terrorists-for-oil deal.

Bizarro World: Tax Cheat Rangel Seeks to Punish Tax Cheats

If you needed any further evidence how crooked and corrupt these liberal Democrats are, look no further than the outrageous chutzpah of New York's Charles Rangel. The man is neck deep in tax woes, recently "discovered" millions in unreported income and now has the audacity to sneakily slip new legal punishments into the proposed ObamaCare health bill.

Even as he fends off accusations about his own failure to pay taxes and fully disclose his financial dealings, Rep. Charles Rangel had quietly slipped into the health-care bill broad new provisions cracking down on taxpayers in proceedings with the IRS, The Post has learned.

The changes approved by the House Ways and Means Committee that Rangel chairs would strip away legal defenses and pile higher penalties on corporate and individual taxpayers facing IRS proceedings for what they claim are unintentional mistakes, experts said.

Rangel's bill would:

* Punish those who fail to alert the IRS to potentially questionable tax exemptions.

* Bar the IRS from waiving penalties against taxpayers who clearly erred in good faith.

* Double fines in certain circumstances.

"The bill raises penalties and eliminates many of the reasonable defenses that taxpayers have always been able to use when honest mistakes are uncovered," one lawyer told The Post.

In fact, the bill increases fines "in some cases even for honest mistakes," the expert added.

Republicans yesterday ripped Rangel's attempt to go after taxpayers, given his own failure to pay taxes on rental income from his villa in the Dominican Republic and his extensive reporting problems with his financial-disclosure statements to Congress.

"It is highly ironic that Chairman Rangel continues to work to crack down on American taxpayers who make honest mistakes on their tax forms when he himself has failed to pay his own staggering tax bills," said Michael Steel, spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

"Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi should force him to step aside as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee until this baffling array of allegations are resolved."

In addition to $75,000 in rental income he failed to report to the IRS a few years ago, Rangel recently filed new papers revealing he neglected to disclose to Congress more than $1.3 million in income and $3 million in business deals between 2002 and 2006.

The Post reported last week that he also failed to pay taxes on property in New Jersey that he neglected for years to disclose he owned.

His office maintains he is now up to date on all his taxes.

I guess we're supposed to believe him.

Yo know it's time to go when even the ultra-liberal editorial pages are calling for his dismissal.

This bum could be dead ten years and he'd still be voted back into office, although if the GOP is wise he's going to be the poster boy for all things corrupt as we roll into the 2010 midterms.

Of course any ad that features him will be called racist, but we've come to expect that weak defense.

Update: Byron York thinks the clock is ticking on this thug. Let's hope the Democrats are concerned about criminals in their midst.

Say It Ain't Ho! Sleazebag Spitzer Eyes Political Comeback

I figure this lowlife must have been watching all the slobbering over Ted Kennedy the past week and figured to himself "hey, at least I didn't drown the hookers, so why not?"

Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been privately talking with friends about a possible comeback, and is considering a run for statewide office next year, several sources told The Post.

Less than 18 months after he left Albany in a prostitution scandal, Spitzer has held informal discussions in recent weeks about the possibility of making a bid for state comptroller or the US Senate seat currently held by Kirsten Gillibrand, sources said.

The hooker-happy Democrat has also discussed his own halfway-decent poll numbers in recent surveys, which have shown him more popular than Gov. Paterson, whose own numbers have tanked.