No Posts for SOTU Address

I didn't post anything here about Obama's first State of the Union address because, frankly, I don't believe a word he says. He's shown the country over and over that he'll say anything that sounds right and then do whatever he wants to do, regardless what he promised. So what's the point? Why listen? Plus, good Lord, the backdrop of smirking Biden and psychotic Pelosi was more than I could take.

Obama is a self-obsessed windbag who thinks the whole country loves hearing the sound of his voice as much as he does. Seventy minutes? Ridiculous.

Anyway, I guess I'm not in the minority of people who "disbelieve" Obama's speechifying. Rasmussen has a poll out today, Saturday, that shows only about 20% of Americans think Obama has done what he said he's done and cut taxes for 95% of Americans. Where they found even 20% who believe that is beyond me. Only about a third believe him when he says the economy is growing again. And 77% of Republicans say "You lie!" when Obama claims to have created two million jobs.

Did anyone else find the end of his speech a bit odd? "I don't quit," Obama said. That reminded me of Nixon when he said, "I am not a crook!" Hey Champ, it shouldn't be necessary for you to tell the American people that you're not a quitter--unless maybe you are. Is that really how a leader rallies the troops? "I don't quit." Wow, I am so behind him now. Bleh.

Should We Be Asking . . . Who's Running the Show?

This is the smartest president evah? Mr. Smooth, Mr. Cool? Really? How many people need a teleprompter to run a 20-person meeting? The pictures of Obama all week with his podium and teleprompter set up in a sixth-grade classroom were laughable enough, but I think this picture is actually worse. Does the Leader of the Free World really need his teleprompter to talk to the members of his middle-class task force? Apparently. As Rich Lowry pointed out . . . "and people made fun of Reagan because of his note cards." If Bush had done this, it would have been the standing joke-of-the-week at SNL. Seriously, does Obama have someone feeding him the answers in real time? Is that why he's so hooked into the teleprompter?

One of the commenters at HotAir calls the backdrop "White House in a bag."

I honestly wonder if we're looking at a total meltdown, as in nervous breakdown, in the making. Months from now, are people going to look back at pictures like this one and say, "We should have seen it coming"?

Narcissist-In-Chief

Whoever thought it was a good idea to take or to post these photos of Obama standing in front of a mirror probably ought to lose his or her job. The photos were posted on the White House Flicker page. Good grief. These people are so tone deaf, it's really frightening. Couple this photo with Obama quote that was recently revealed by retiring Congressman Marion Berry, that the difference between now and 1994 is, Obama told them, "you've got me." Excellent caption for the ObamaMirror photo.

Naturally bloggers have been having the most hilarious time with these photos. I was reading through some of my favorite websites last night and came across these pics at Missourah.com. Funny stuff.

Here's the original--bad enough as is, but absolutely irresistable for photoshoppers.

Here's one of my favorites from Missourah.

Or this one. You just gotta love bloggers. See them all here. Nice job, Missourah.

Who Is Ellie Light?

Well, I find this simply fascinating. Who is Ellie Light? It's being reported all around the blogosphere that a letter defending Obama has appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country. HotAir, for one, reports that the letters all use identical language, with a Ms. Light "explaining" that Obama never promised to fix all our problems quickly or painlessly.

Today, the president is being attacked as if he’d promised that our problems would wash off in the morning. He never did. It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything.

That exact quote is appearing in letters all over the country: at The Politico; the Philadelphia Daily News; the San Francisco Examiner; the Washington Times; and a USA Today blog. In addition, the letter has appeared at literally dozens of small-town papers across the country, with names like the Los Banos Enterprise, the North Adams Transcript, and the Danbury News-Times. Yet in each newspaper, Ellie Light lists a local address.

A blog called Patterico's Pontifications has a running count of all the places where Ellie Light's "local" pro-Obama letter-to-the-editor has appeared. So far, Patterico counts at least 42 newspapers in 18 states. My, Ms. Light is busy. And apparently her message is compelling. And also phony.  There's a guy on ObamaTeam who is known for these kinds of trolling tactics: David Axelrod, Obama's senior advisor. According to the website HillBuzz, this is what Axelrod's public strategies firm specialized in.

HillBuzz says that along with the Ellie Light pro-Obama messaging in the letters, there's also the "Nellie Dark" side, where trolls seek to take down anyone opposing the administration or calling it out on its lies and general socialist craziness.

The blog Liberty or Tyranny quotes more from the pen of Ellie Light: "I do not write as a representative of any organization," she said in an e-mail. "The letter I wrote was motivated by surprise and wonderment at the absence of any media support for our President, who won a record-breaking election by a landslide less than 18 months ago, and now, seems to be abandoned by all, supposedly for the infantile reason that he couldn’t make all of Bush’s errors disappear in one day."

Obviously the same "letter to the editor" showing up in 42 newspapers in 18 states (and each purporting to be sent from a local address) doesn't happen without a complicit media. Conspiracy theory? What theory? How many letters to the editor have you written over the years? How many have been printed? 

The buffoons surrounding Obama--and Obama himself--obviously think the American people are stupid--and rightfully so, considering with what ease in 2008 they waltzed their man into the White House. But we're not stupid; many were only asleep, and now more and more are waking up to the truth about Obama and the people surrounding him.

Every day there are more op-ed pieces like this one expressing regret in Politico: "Why I Regret Voting for President Obama."

Or like this one stating the facade is being revealed, in the New York Post: "End of O's Cowardly Lyin'".

Even Time, the uber-Leftist rag, has an article listing "Top 10 Obama Backlash Moments."

Well, boo-hoo to those morons now expressing their regret. Months ago, a guy named Doug Ross had the perfect hilariously ironic response to Obama's "sorry" voters.

Michelle Malkin has a great idea on her website, as usual. She is predicting that a la "Who is John Galt?", we will soon be seeing t-shirts and bumper stickers asking "Who is Ellie Light?"

Update on Obama and the lamestream media. I really like this article today at Big Journalism--"What a Bringdown:  Did the MSM Get Too High on Hopium?"

Image credit: Big Journalism.

How Low Can Obama Go?

Today, Saturday, Jan 23, 2010, according to Rasmussen is Obama's worst day in the polls. Minus 19!

I guess I'm just into putting life to music this weekend. Here, Obama Baby, this one's for you: Chubby Checker wants to tell you, "You'll be a limbo star!" He wants to know, "How low can you go?" Hilarious.

The Best Week . . . In a Loooong Time

I agree with Charles Krauthammer. This has been a great week. Thank you Massachusetts for electing Scott Brown, '41; and thank you Supreme Court, for standing up for the First Amendment; and bye-bye, Air America; and thank you conservatives everywhere--Dems, Reps, Independents--whoever you are--for helping to start the Second American Revolution. Oh, and P.S. Happy One-Year Anniversary to Obama. Who would have thought we'd be feeling this good at the end of his first year in office?




If I could put my feelings about this past week to music, I know just what song I would choose. It just seems to fit my mood: Don McClean's "American Pie," 1972. Where were you?

Mainstream Media "Stunned" at Scott Brown's Win

That's because the lamestream media is dumber than dirt.

CNN may be all the links you can stand on this issue. CNN reports, "Democrats point fingers after stunning loss." Are you kidding me? They were STUNNED?

Big Journalism's Frank Ross says that last night's election will "likely be seen by future historians as the beginning of the end of the Obama Administration."

Last night I watched Rachel Madow and Keith Olberman on MSNBC and laughed my a$$ off. Their heads were exploding.

Here's Keith, speaking about Scott Brown: "In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, tea-bagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees." Really? Well, thanks for playing, Keith.

Gas Up the Truck! Scott Brown Is Going to Washington

Anybody up for a victory parade of trucks down I-95 to DC?

Hey Obama--TRUCK YOU! And by the way, Happy One-Year Anniversary!

Coakley/Brown Election Watch

I plan to keep an eye on the election today and post here what I find. I'll post the most recent updates at the top of the list.

COAKLEY CONCEDES! (8:32 p.m. CST) Waiting for Coakley to speak to her "crowd."

THE AP PROJECTS THAT SCOTT BROWN WINS! (8:22 p.m. CST) Vote remains 53%, 46%. Pandemonium in Massachusetts! Health care is DEAD. Cap and Trade is DEAD. This isn't just an election, it's a Second American Revolution. MASSACHUSETTS MIRACLE! Scott Brown is a symbol in this country for something very much larger than just one Senate race.

I can't get ANY of my usual websites to load right now tonight. This is big--this is huge.

Update. (8:00 p.m. CST) Michelle Malkin has a election night liveblog. Go there for updates. I'm done for now. I'm calling the election for Brown. Whoo-hoo.

Update. (7:55 p.m. CST) A call for Brown may be imminent. Michelle Malkin's site won't load.

Update: (7:51 p.m. CST) 39% of vote in: 53% Brown, 47% Coakley. This comes from O'Reilly on Fox News.

Update. (7:45 p.m. CST) Polls in Massachusetts have been closed for 45 minutes. Here's an Open Thread at HotAir: Eeyore at HotAir (Allahpundit) says Coakley 50, Brown 48. BS, I say!

A good omen from Twitter: “BREAKING: Scott Brown has carried the bellwether town of Ashland, 54-45. All votes in Ashland are counted.”

With more than 10% in, Fox Boston says Brown leads by seven.

21% Reporting: Brown 53%, Coakley 46%


Update. (2:30 p.m. CST) Here's another poll report from American Thinker--"Pollster.com: Brown 'Likely Winner.'" Pollster.com has examined the trendlines and finds the switch to Brown over the last fortnight to be solid and significant that Coakley's chances for a surprise upset depend largely on something approaching a miracle.

And the day wouldn't be complete without an update from my favorite, Robot Gibbs, WH press sec'y. This report is from the Weekly Standard Blog--"Gibbs: Voters are frustrated, Obama's frustrated with Mass. situation." This is written by one of my (real) favorites, Mary Katharine Ham. MK reports that Captain Obvious Gibbs says that Obama is "not pleased"; that it's a "heavily contested" election. Ham's analysis is spot-on, as usual.


Update. (2:10 p.m. CST) Turnout is heavy, reports HotAir and other sites: That could be good, bad, or even both. So far, it seems that the turnout is highest in the suburbs, which is a good sign for Brown.

The WSJ is reporting that there will be no exit polling today, evidently because it was believed the election would be a Coakley blowout; just nine days ago the Boston Globe was reporting Coakley up by nine points. So we won't have news from exit polls. The polls close at 8:00 p.m. Massachusetts time.

HotAir and other sites have a link to report fraud.

Gateway Pundit. A Democratic operative familiar the DSCC’s massive get-out-the-vote operation says that outreach workers in and around Boston have been stunned by the number of Democrats and Obama supporters who are waving them off, saying they’ll vote for Scott Brown.

Update. (10:55 a.m. CST) Here's an interesting article from Politico: "Dems may flee scene of health care crime." But the bottom line is this, aides close the situation say: Despite talk about how the White House wants to ram the measure through, resolve among terrified Democrats will likely crack if not crumble, even if Coakley somehow manages to pull out a win.

Update. (10:50 a.m. CST) There must be big-time heavy traffic on HotAir and Michelle Malkin's site today--having trouble getting either site to load.

Update. (10:45 a.m. CST) Here's an email from someone voting today in Massachusetts.

I voted in an upper-middle class Boston suburb this morning around 9:00 AM. The polling place was very busy. Short wait time, but still a stream of people going in and out. I drove by another nearby polling place that was busy. Both locations had two Brown volunteers (in the slushy snow) on the street with signs, one was homemade. No Coakley volunteers, just one sign stuck in a snowbank.

I stopped for a haircut at a place with two old guys who know everyone and make it a habit to collect local information. They said LOTS of people are voting for Brown. One of them said he grew up here in a Catholic neighborhood where his grandmother basically told him you wouldn’t get into heaven if you voted Republican. He said he’s taking his chances and voting for Brown. He was adamant about it.

Update.(10:30 a.m. CST) Legal Insurrection is live-blogging on-the-ground election coverage. As the man says, the live feed is slow because of HEAVY volume. The new journalism at work.

Update. (10:15 a.m. CST) Here's something I found at Gateway Pundit, an always-reliable source. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) told MSNBC reporters today that if Scott Brown wins then “health care might be dead.” From your lips to God's ears, my friend.




Update. (9:30 a.m. CST) Here's an election forecast from American Thinker, giving Brown about a 70-75% chance to win. AT says that Big MO is on Brown's side. No kidding.

Obama Stumps for Coakley in Massachusetts

Obama was thrown off his stride today by a couple of pro-life hecklers in Massachusetts where he went to campaign for Martha Coakley for the Massachusetts Senate seat.



He then went on to bash Scott Brown for driving a truck while campaigning around the state. Obama is such an ignorant jerk, you just want to slap him.



"Driving a truck" is pretty normal in my world; I guess in Obama's elitist, snotty world-view, driving a truck is some sort of hilarious, self-beclowning buffoonery. Scott Brown looks like a normal guy to me. And it's a GM truck. I thought Obambi wanted us to buy GM.

"Personal popularity" aside (Obama carried the state by 26 points in the national election), evidently the Big O had trouble filling his venue in a modest-sized gymnasium, while Scott Brown drew 3,000 for his afternoon rally held at the same time as Obama's (well, it's a small state; I guess 3,000 is a big crowd for Massachusetts--one blogger described, apparently without irony, the "massive crowd" of 500 that turned out for Brown on Saturday in Middleboro).

From a transcript of Scott Brown's address to a crowd today at Worcester:

The president may recall as well how much he used to talk about a new kind of politics – about campaigns based on conviction, instead of just false and small-minded negative ads. Well, as long as he’s paying a visit, he might want to talk to Martha about that. Not only are her ads negative, they are malicious. How quickly the politics of hope have become replaced by the politics of desperation. Shame on Martha. And shame on Obama, too. I added that.

Public Policy Polling has Brown leading Coakley 51-46. The report is that Brown's voters are more enthusiastic than Coakley's, so Obama's efforts to "get Pookie off the couch" may not be working. Heh.

Rasmussen's polling looks a bit different: Coakley leads Brown 49% to 47%, although a week ago Coakley led 50% to 41%. Rasmussen says that turnout will be key, "and Brown's voters appear to be more energized." However, Rasmussen's survey was conducted on Monday, Jan. 11; last week was a bad week for Coakley, and I have to believe that Rasmussen's poll would look be more favorable to Brown one week later.

HotAir reports that a poll by the Merriman River Group (MRG) and InsideMedford.com (they work with Harvard's Kennedy School for Public Leadership) indicates that Brown leads Coakley 50.8% to 41.2% with 6.2% of the voters still not sure. [So if you're not sure at this point, then just stay home. Good grief.]

HotAir: Brown has a 30-point advantage with men, a 30-point advantage among self-professed moderates, and a 20-point advantage among voters younger than 45. Any one of those findings are shocking in major races in or out of Massachusetts, but all of them put together spells disaster for Democrats, and not just in this special election.

From the Washington Post: "What Happens if Democrats Lose in Massachusetts?" Read contributions from several political experts, most of whom think that Coakley will win.

Update. The San Fran Hag Witch speaks. Good Lord, I'm not sure I've ever seen her looking quite so--haggard. She obviously needs some time off to see her plastic surgeon. Seventy-year-old women shouldn't have to work so hard.

h/t to HillBuzz for the image

You probably won't see this again--Clinton, Obama, Bush

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here's the webpage for the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

George W. Bush is a class act: steadfastness, dignity, and goodness. Skip ahead to 5:25 to hear him speak.

Michelle Malkin has posted this on her website, a version of "Be Not Afraid." We send our prayers for the people of Haiti.



You shall cross the barren desert,
but you shall not die of thirst.
You shall wander far in safety,
though you do not know the way.

You shall speak your words in foreign lands,
and all will understand,
You shall see the face of God and live.

Be not afraid,
I go before you always,
Come follow Me,
and I shall give you rest.

 If you pass through raging waters
in the sea, you shall not drown.
If you walk amidst the burning flames,
you shall not be harmed.

If you stand before the pow’r of hell
and death is at your side,
know that I am with you, through it all

Be not afraid,
I go before you always,
Come follow Me,
and I shall give you rest.

Blessed are your poor,
for the Kingdom shall be theirs.
Blest are you that weep and mourn,
for one day you shall laugh.

And if wicked men insult and hate you, all because of Me,
blessed, blessed are you!

Be not afraid,
I go before you always,
Come follow Me,
and I shall give you rest.

Thanks, Michelle.

Catching Up

OK, so I'm so behind the curve on everything going on, since I've been busy with another writing project. There's so much going on that it's simply not possible to catch up, but there are two stories that I can't let go by without posting about them here.

1. The Coakley vs. Brown election in Massachusettes Massachusetts (good Lord, her campaign can't even spell the name of the state where she wants to be Senator-for-Life?).

Update below on Coakley/Brown race: Scott Brown and Rudy Giuliani campaign together in Boston--video.

2. The Haiti disaster and the help they are reciving from THE WORST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, the United States. I don't ever, ever want to hear Obama open his mouth one more time--ANYWHERE around the world--and apologize for "his" crappy country again--ever. [see separate post--not written yet]

This Coakley vs. Brown Senate election in Massachusettes Massachusetts just couldn't be bigger; if Brown wins, as some have said, this will be a "massive change" in the political landscape. Martha Coakley (D., although you'd have to be living under a rock not to know that) is THE poster girl for exactly what the American people are sick of in politics. She would seem to be not only a fool but also arrogant, tone-deaf, clueless, and mean-spirited (have I left anything out?). Where do I even start with this woman?

There's a pretty good summary of at least some of what's wrong with this woman in an article at American Thinker: "Consciousless Martha Coakley," by Mark J. Fitzgibbons. One of the issues the article points out is Martha's belief that if you oppose abortion, "then you probably shouldn't work in the emergency room." As a former R.N. who spent countless hours over 20 years taking care of women whose pregancies were threatened by premature labor, I REALLY resent Martha's idea that a woman's right to kill her baby should trump a healthcare provider's right not to assist in baby-killing every time. Martha, you are a dangerous lunatic.

Big Journalism has a 3-part series about Coakley: "Martha's Greatest Hits: The Things the Democrats Would Like You to Forget about Martha Coakley." Evidently, as the current Attorney General of Massachusettes Massachusetts, Martha doesn't have a big problem with child rapists and pedophiles. And of course how could we have a Democrat candidate for office who HADN'T cheated on her taxes? "Honest" Martha Coakley, as she likes to sell herself, was caught making false statements on a financial disclosure form, failing to report $262,000 in assets. Oh, but everybody does that, right?

[h/t to Gateway Pundit for the graphic]

So what has happened with Martha that she doesn't have this election--"Teddy Kennedy's seat" in the bag--in a state that hasn't elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972? One article at reason.com speaks to the issue: "The Incredible Incompetence of Martha Coakley." An "endless string of gaffes" have gotten her into trouble, and evidently she has had a "stunningly cavalier" campaign style throughout the campaign.

Then there's the story from the website boston.com about how Coakley blew it. She was the invisible candidate, refusing to debate on TV, refusing to meet with rank-and-file ("real") voters, "working a room" of a couple of hundred senior citizens in under 10 minutes, referring to reporters trying to ask her legitimate questions as "Scott Brown stalkers." What a train wreck this woman is.

I particularly like this one. When asked about the incident of one of her thugs shoving Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack to the ground for trying to ask Coakley a question, Coakley said she "was not privy to the facts" of what happened. Really? She was standing right there, as the photo shows. I guess it is true that the woman can't see what's right in front of her nose.

So with the bottom falling out of Coakley's polls (Brown is now said to have a double-digit lead, although the polls are all over the place--yet even Coakley's INTERNAL polls show her behind), Obama has evidently decided to go to Massachusetts on Sunday to campaign for the woman. It sounds like an incredibly risky move for him to me, especially for a president who has shown himself to be very CYA and risk-averse. My friends at HotAir say that there are two problems with Obama's late intervention into the Massachusetts race: 1) It will signal to everyone just how desperate Cowley's chances have become; and 2) Obama's track record on the campaign trail has been less than stellar. Remember Jon Corzine, the guy Obama stumped for and New Jersey voters sent packing?

The Daily Caller also reports about the Obamassiah going to Massachusetts: "Obama to Campaign for Coakley Sunday," by Jon Ward. Ward is reporting that Robert Gibbs, the WH press secretary, "makes clear" that Obama's strategy will be to hammer Brown as a defender of big banks and huge bonuses. Brown says he will spend the remain days of the campaign "the same way he started it--shaking hands with Massachusetts voters and talking about his plans to keep taxes low and cut out wasteful spending."

Ward: "if Coakley loses, all of the administration's work over the last year on health care might go down the drain." From your lips to God's ears.

Here's a special remix of Obama's plea for Massachusettes Massachusetts voters to "get off the couch" and come out and vote for Coakley. h/t to weasel zippers.

Here's a great story, posted by a commenter at HotAir: Oh, did you hear the one about a guy who came home to find that his Brown lawn sign was stolen? There was a note on his door from the thief that said that he lived on a much busier street and he needed the sign.

Go Scott Brown! We'll be watching the end of this thing with great interest.


Update. Rudy and Scott Brown campaigned together in Boston.




Update #2. "The Massachusetts Miracle"

Coming Soon: "Martha Coakley and the Massachusettes"

I know that a post here about elitist snob Democrat candidate for "Teddy Kennedy's seat" in the Senate is 'way overdue. I've been following this woman's antics, and all I can say is, she's the poster girl for the type of politician we need to GET RID OF, not put into office.

More later, when I get a chance, about Coakley and her Senate race against Republican Scott Brown. I love what he had to say today, by the way, when he heard that Obama might be coming to Massachusetts to "help" the failing Dem candidate: "Brown to Obama: Butt Out!"

States' Rights: States Busy Organizing Opt Out Plans in Case Federal Health Care Bill Passes

Missouri is just one of many states that will seek a statewide vote on opting out of the federal health care bill if it passes.

State Senator Jane Cunningham is making an effort to secure enough votes to put an opt-out proposal on the 2010 ballot. "We want to shield Missouri from unconstitutional mandates,'' Cunningham said.

A website called TPM is reporting that Cunningham said she had 17 Senate sponsors and co-sponsors, including herself. That's half of the 34-member Senate.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D, MO) has called the idea "pretty dumb," while Democrat Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is urging Missouri lawmakers to "think twice" before adopting any opt out plan. Actually, I would hope our lawmakers would give it more thought than just to "think twice." The KMOX website reports that Nixon is calling for the "loud talkers" from the summer to shut up; now it's time for "cooler heads" to prevail. That's right, Jay, you politicians know so much better than the people do about what is good for all of us. I'm thinking he got the "sit down and shut up" line from Obama--just sayin'. Hey Jay, have you noticed Obama's polls lately?

Nixon argues that it would be "like seceding from the Nation" if Missouri opts out of health care (but he doesn't say if that would be a bug or a feature). And Missouri is far from the only state considering the opt out option. As of the end of December (it's hard to find solid figures on this, because it's not something that's being widely reported), at least 21 states are organizing efforts to opt out of the federal plan.

Reported by a site called AlterNet.org, lawmakers in Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, Kansas, Texas, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Arizona, Alabama, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana, Alaska, Minnesota, North Dakota, Georgia Illinois and Florida have introduced ballot measures to protect their states from reform legislation or promised to spearhead such eforts if reform is enacted.

Pay for Your Own Damn Copenhagen Trip

Frankly, this really pisses me off. I know they take these "junkets" all the time, but can we please find a few honest people to vote into office who will STOP this nonsense? Nancy Pelosi, the WORLD'S RICHEST WOMAN, goes to Copenhagen on the taxpayer's dime--and feels entitled to do so. This witch hag has got to go.

"They're going because it's the biggest party of the year," Sen. Inhofe said. "The worst thing that happened there is they ran out of caviar." That's a quote from a CBS News story on the internet, h/t The Daily Caller. And all those attendees who went to the summit rather than hooking up by teleconference? They produced enough climate-stunting carbon dioxide to fill 10,000 Olympic swimming pools. That's a lot of hot air!

P.S. A little known piece of trivia that 70-year-old Nanner McBotox might want to keep in mind: By the end of her life, the Duchess of Windsor had had so much plastic surgery that she slept with her eyes open because they wouldn't close. Frankly, I'm also a little worried about Nancy's rictal mouth.

The Daily Caller Joins the New Journalism

Tucker Carlson has launched a website called "The Daily Caller," or just DC for short. In a letter to his readers, Carlson lays out the website's "core job": Find out what’s happening and tell you about it. We plan to be accurate, both in the facts we assert and in the conclusions we imply. If we’re not, tell us. We’ll fix it immediately.

The site also has a blog, written by the "demented genius" Jim Treacher, called The DC Trawler.

There will also be an "advice" column (not all "conventional or even legal") by Matt Labash.

They offer a video section, "the best organized and most interesting around--Imagine YouTube with a working card catalog and no fifth-grade filmmakers."

This is from a "Welcome" letter from another non-lamestream journalist, Andrew Breitbart, who launched his own new site, Big Journalism, just this past week:

The consumer of news and information now has a clear and distinct choice between two approaches in delivering this valuable commodity:

On one side you have the New York-based intelligentsia, driving the narratives of our times with the guidance of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Anyone who knows this crowd knows them to be neither “objective” or “bias-neutral,” yet that line is propagated on television news and in print media and we are supposed to accept it. They have built walls between themselves and their customers, disdainfully and grudgingly accepting their criticisms only when forced to acknowledge their egregious errors (are you still out there, Mr. Rather?).

On the other side you have writers, researchers and pundits from every corner of our land, proudly disclosing their true core principles for all to see. They present the stories that move them and respond in real time to the interactive feedback of their consumers. They lose credibility (and audience) not for their opinions, but for journalistic errors and, more importantly, how they handle those errors. The fact is this: they are actually held to a higher journalistic standard because of the frank and honest disclosure of their point of view. When they mess up, they make their own side look bad. This ends up being a much tougher code of ethics than something dreamed up by a J-School panel of advisors.

This is welcome news and a welcome change from the mainstream media Leftist lockbox that created the vacuum the Daily Caller and Big Journalism and conservative bloggers everywhere are only too happy to fill.

Rasmussen's Poll

Rasmussen uses "likely voters" in his polls. Heh. 2012 is going to be hell for ObamaTeam, or at least SO I HOPE. This graph is the updated Obama Bad News for Monday morning, January 11. Read the polls and weep, BO. Nah, he doesn't care. He only took this job so that he could use it to polevault himself into a "bigger" one--European KING OF THE WORLD. You go, Barry. Please, Barry, go.

Politico has the story about how the Dems ripped Rasmussen. That will probably work about as well for them as Obama's war on Fox News. I think ObamaTeam's biggest problem is not their naivete or their inexperience, both of which are true; rather, their biggest problem is that they really, really think the American people are stupid.

"Obama the Light-Skinned Negro": Harry Reid's Quotes in Upcoming Book Giving the Dems Heartburn (sort of)

Republicans should take a page from the Democrat playbook when it comes to "misspeaking" their minds in public: NEVER, EVER again resign, for any reason. Just come out and tell everyone how proud of yourself you are for all the wonderful things you've done. That's how Harry Reid is handling his 2008 remarks about Obama the light-skinned Negro; he gives Republicans an excellent template for how to act in the future if they are caught making ignorant comments. No more resignations, a la Trent Lott. Hat tip to Harry Reid.

Updates below.

I'm having a hard time getting worked up about the latest Leftist hypocrisy. There's a new book out about the 2008 presidential election that, among other things, exposes Harry Reid as an idiot--who knew? The book is Game Change, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, two of the country's leading political reporters. They report Harry Reid as referring to candidate Barack Obama as a "light-skinned" man with "no negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." All of which is true, but I guess it's offensive to point out Obama's skin color and faux black speak unless it's done for purposes of helping him get elected--first Black president and all. I mean, come on, what was Harry really saying there--that Barack Obama fakes a black dialect when he needs to in order to court the black vote. Which, by the way, was true. Why aren't blacks insulted by that? Why?

Whoops, Harry.

So Harry Reid came out on Saturday and apologized because he knows the book is due out on Monday, and then they all had a Kumbaya kissy-fest with Obama saying (of course) "I accept Harry Reid's apology without question," and also of course Al Sharpton instantly forgave Harry Reid for his dumb remarks.

So then the next step would be to take a look at the hypocrisy of Obama "without question" accepting Reid's apology when as a Senator he called for the head of Republican Trent Lott in 2002 when Lott made similarly innocuous remarks at a Strom Thurmond birthday party [It was a BIRTHDAY PARTY, for God's sake, where one Southern gentleman was saying nice things about another (elder) Southern gentleman--didn't anyone ever hear about southern manners and how you treat your elders--Thurmond was ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD for God's sake.] Railed the Junior Senator from Illinois, “The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott. If they have to stand for something, they have to stand up and say this is not the person we want representing our party.”

But really, why bother? Pointing out Leftist hypocrisy is like reporting on Dog Bites Man (apologies to my canine friends). And frankly, the pettiness of the discourse in Washington is really getting on my last nerve, especially when there's actual important work that they might be doing instead.

Reid also is reported in the book as saying, "You're not going to go anyplace here," Reid told Obama of the Senate. "I know that you don't like it, doing what you're doing." --Which I think is actually the more interesting quote from the book, considering how Obama doesn't much seem to like his job as president all that much, either. That seems to be something of a "thing" with him--take a job, use the job to get another, bigger job, rinse and repeat. That's why the King of the World job in Europe has got to be looking pretty good to him about now.

Big Journalism has a complete recounting of the statements, the apologies, the forgiveness, and the hypocrisy.

The book, Game Change, out tomorrow, looks like it will be rather hilarious, for both sides of the political spectrum. "This shit would be really interesting if we weren't in the middle of it."  —Barack Obama, September 2008

Update. Harry Reid evidently has quite a record of using the "you're a racist" card on people. "Harry Reid's History of Racial Posturing" by Patterico lays out the issue pretty well. For example, when Bill Bennett made an arguably true but racially controversial statement, Reid led the parade calling for Bennett to make an "immediate apology to the country."

Patterico also points out Reid's "bizarre treatment" of black Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, declaring him "an embarrassment to the Supreme Court."

Patterico suggests that there's enough in Harry Reid's background about the issue of race in order to see his comments about Barack Obama's light skin and Negro dialect as "a little window into Harry's soul." It goes without saying, if Reid had an "R" behind his name, he would be gone.

Update #2. Here's Ann Coulter, eating Al Sharpton's lunch on Geraldo on Sunday night.

Ann: "Oh come on, you cannot keep giving Democrats a pass. . . .You know you would not put up with it for five seconds if it were a Republican. . . . You went after Mit Romney for being a Mormon, I might add. . . . You guys are just like the feminists, using your ideological charge of 'racisism' against your enemies."

When asked her predication for Harry Reid's Senate race in 2010, Ann shut both Geraldo and Sharpton up with this comment: "I think despite Senator Reid apologizing to all African Americans, light-skinned, medium-skinned, dark-skinned, I still think he will lose."

I love Ann Coulter.  h/t to HotAir for the video



Update #3. Here are some remarks made on Monday by Harry Reid about Republicans calling for him to resign. Let me guess. Harry thinks he's a standup guy who was saying something "nice" about the light-skinned, no-Negro-dialect 2008 presidential candidate, Barry Obama. Big surprise, he never did answer the question about whether he should resign.

Harry says he's proud he was one of the first people to suggest BO run for president. His heart is warmed by the response he's gotten about his remarks around the country.

"We have a lot to do. I will continue to do my very best for the State of Nevada and this country. I appreciate people writing nice things about me--the L.A. Times, the Huffingtonpost--I am very  proud of the fact . . . telling Barack Obama he could be elected president. My conversations with the highest-ranking African-Americans in Congress--I feel good about these people reaching out to me. I have apologized to everyone within the sound of my voice. As a very young man in Nevada I was one of the leaders in the Civil Rights movement."

Harry said that Dept. of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said to him, "You make sure you tell everybody that you have done more for diversity in the United States Senate than anybody." Reid said the African American leaders in Nevada have been "wonderful. I'm not going to dwell on this anymore, it's in the books, I've made all the statements I'm going to." 

Move along everyone, this is a Democrat, there's nothing to see here.

Michael Steele has called for Harry Reid to step down from his leadership job in the Senate. Some disagree: Let's have Reid continue on in his position because it helps the Republican cause to have a Democrat that ignorant leading the Senate. I tend to agree. The Black Caucus, the NAACP, Eric Holder, and Obama, and even Harry Reid himself have all called for the country to move on. So be it. Is it racism or ignorance on the part of Harry Reid? My guess? Ignorance. Harry Reid is an ignorant man. Let him continue as the Majority Leader in the Senate.

Sue Lowden is one of the candidates running against Harry Reid for his Senate seat in 2010. All the best to Sue. Her website is here.

Update on the book, Game Change. From the L.A. Times: "'Game Change': Is the Book Gossip or Journalism?" Heilemann and Halperin defend their book: Gossip is that which is unverified.... Everything in our book is factual.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Cold, Miserable Cold

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to move to Florida to get away from the cold. I like the changing seasons. But the weather the past couple of weeks has been miserable. I'm really worried about some of my plants, especially my Little Gem magnolias which I probably shouldn't have planted in this Zone, but I did because I was told by someone at my favorite nursery that "they will be fine"--he was probably a Global Warmist, come to think of it. I have three of them, this is their third winter, and if I lose them to the cold I'll be very sad--and I'll replant with some kind of evergreen. In the 20 or so year's I've lived in Misery, I don't remember a cold snap that felt this miserable or that lasted this long.

Global.Warming. Hahahahaha! The joke's on us.

h/t to Gateway Pundit for the graphic.

Whoo-Hoo! Big Journalism Has Arrived

It's here! Andrew Breitbart's new website, Big Journalism. Oh my, are the Leftist loons gonna hate this one.

Here's an interview with Breitbart about the new site.

In a phone interview with Mediaite, Breitbart says that his new sites will continue to “fight the mainstream media – New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN — who have repeatedly, and under the guise of objectivity and political neutrality, promoted a blatantly left-of-center, pro-Democratic party agenda.”

Big Journalism will be run by former Time Magazine staffer Michael Walsh, who is also a former journalism professor and film & television professor at Boston University. Walsh and Breitbart met at a casual gathering of like-minded people and hit it off. When Breitbart made the decision to launch a new site covering journalism, he says that Walsh was first person that came to his mind. The fact that Walsh is a media veteran going back to the early 70s didn’t hurt, he said.

“Big Journalism will be the go-to site for solidly backed-up stories, sharp points of view, and really great writing,” he said. “We are defenders of the First Amendment and resolute enemies of political correctness. That’s the key to the site’s philosophy.”

Michael Walsh introduces himself at Big Journalism: "Welcome to the Fight: We Are All Spartacus Now."

Update: Lies, shameless lies. For example, when Obama campaigned to have the "debates" about health care open and public--and instead has had locked door Democrat-only negotiations. "These negotiations will be on C-SPAN, uh, and so the public will be part of the conversation and we'll see the choices that are being made . . . . The American people will be able to watch these negotiations. . . . transparent and accountable to the American people." This is the kind of nonsense crap that has been ignored by the lamestream media that I hope Big Journalism will reveal. Karl Rove on Greta Van Susteran's show (see below) is kinder than I am. He declines to say Obama lied; instead, he says that Campaign Obama was "naive." I think he deliberately misled people about this, and in my world that's a lie.

Where can I buy the tee-shirt: "Joe Wilson was right!"

h/t to a HotAir commenter: The Lyin' Hawaiian

Then Karl Rove talks to Greta about Robert Gibbs and the ObamaTeam lies about transparency and the health care bill.

THE WORST White House press sec'y evah. Robert Gibbs: He never knows, he's never heard, he's always answered some question "yesterday," he's a nasty, arrogant, snotty mean little man--and I think he's exactly the face of ObamaTeam that they want to present to the media--"Here's what we think of you guys, deal with this weaselly little jerk every day."

Gibbs refused to answer any questions put to him about the broken C-SPAN promises by the White House.

GIBBS: Chip, we covered this yesterday and I would refer you to yesterday's transcript.

GIBBS: Dan asked me about the letter and I haven't read the letter. [Whenever was "I haven't done my homework" an excuse that is acceptible for anyone? This wouldn't work for somebody's 10-year-old kid trying to weasel out of his math homework, let alone the White House press sec'y. Yet Gibbs does this all the time.]

GIBBS: We had this discussion yesterday. I answered this yesterday. Is there anything --

QUESTION: But the President met with members of Congress in the meantime --

GIBBS: And he'll do so today.

QUESTION: -- and pressed them to --

GIBBS: Do you have another question?

Karl Rove goes crazy on Gibbs and the ObamaCare health care bill process on Greta. An appalling amount of arrogance. . . . Robert Gibbs thinks the American people . . . are stupid. This is insulting. . . . Robert Gibbs is basically telling the American people, 'You want an answer to that--drop dead. I'm not going to give you an answer.' . . . . The President has an obligation to shoot straight with us. . . . Who's writing this bill? Nobody knows. . . . The way this process has been handled has undermined people's confidence in the bill. . . . I gotta tell you, that [Gibbs in front of the White House Press Corps] was an astonishing performance. . . . that really was insulting and . . . dismissive.

See Greta's interview with Rove on Fox News.

"Don't Californicate Colorado"--oops, too late!

"Don't Californicate Colorado"--that was a bumper sticker you would see now and then when I was growing up in Denver 40 (and more) years ago. Back then we were concerned about things like increased smog, traffic, population--and yes, all of that has been happening in Denver incrementally over the years. But I think we can now say, officially, that Colorado definitely has been Californicated. "Denver May Be Pot Capital, U.S.A." said a headline in the Denver Post last Sunday. What?

In 2000, Colorado voters passed the state constitution's Amendement 20, legalizing medical marijuana (I really want to put ironic quotes around "medical" but I'll refrain). Then in 2005, Denver voted to legalize marijuana possession. Bruce Mirkin, who was the spokesman at the time for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., said, [The new law] is likely to energize people. This is the wind in the sails of reform. Rethinking marijuana prohibition is mainstream. This is the heart of America saying, 'Hold on, maybe our current marijuana laws don't make a lot of sense.'" "And the fact is," Mirkin concluded, "they're right."

Flash forward to 2010, five years later, where the lead in another Denver Post story tells its readers, "Denver now appears to have more marijuana dispensaries than liquor stores, Starbucks coffee shops, or public schools [that's or, not and], according to city and corporate records." As of last week, Denver had issued more than 300 sales-tax licenses for the dope shops. It seems that the 2000 amendment created a patient registry but didn't specify how the system of "caregivers" (I have no problem with the ironic quotes on that one) would be set up. "As a result," writes Christopher N. Osher in the Post, "dispensaries have cropped up across the state, offering medical marijuana with little or no regulation or zoning."

Now, after the fact, the Denver City Council in their great wisdom has evidently decided that having a strip mall full of these "dispensaries" (don't you love that language) or allowing them to sell their dope near schools or day care centers might be a problem, so they've gotten busy "grappling" with new restrictions, one of which would be a ban of on-site consumption of medical marijuana at dispensaries. In other words, drug dens may no longer be allowed. Wow, that's a relief. Even the Leftist Denver Post has gotten into the act, calling in an editorial for "clarification" of the role of "pot providers."

While we've advocated for the state legislature to regulate the growing industry in some way, the longer the council waits, the more difficult it will be to get a handle on the dispensaries popping up everywhere. Do ya think? The Post's editorial encourages the Colorado legislators to "spell out" what they mean "in keeping with the spirit and letter of the amendment." Evidently the language of the amendment didn't even include the word "dispensary." The original idea in the 2000 amendment evidently was a "a small-time, personal effort to quell, say, the effects of cancer or glaucoma." Instead Colorado voters seem to have gotten something very different than what they thought they were voting for (oh my, where have we ever seen that before?).

According to a website with the precious name, WeBeHigh.com (not to be confused with the alternate website, YouBeADeadbeat.com), Patients diagnosed with the following illnesses are afforded legal protection under this act: cachexia; cancer; chronic pain; chronic nervous system disorders; epilepsy and other disorders characterized by seizures; glaucoma; HIV or AIDS; multiple sclerosis and other disorders characterized by muscle spasticity; and nausea. Doesn't everybody "feel pain"? And I can work up a good subjective case of nausea just by thinking about what Obama is doing on any given day. Who's going to tell me I'm not nauseated? Of course I am. So now I'm a perfect candidate for MM (keep up--that's what we all in the know call medical marijuana). Pictured at left is a Denver Dope Shop. Gee, I'd sure like a few of those in my neighborhood. [Question of the day: Are these new Dope Dens part of Obama's "created or saved" job stats?] My insider reporter on this issue says that about 15 doctors are responsible for writing 75% of the MM authorizations in Denver, with no limit to the amount you can purchase, and you renew your "prescription" once a year. Fifteen minutes with the quack physician and $195.00 will get you started. No background checks and no previous medical history required. Then take your paperwork to the "dispensary," hand it over, and they buzz you into the back. Doper heaven.

Westword, a Denver news blog, has an article about marijuana dispensaries that have been set up around the state: "Mile Highs and Lows: Medicine Man, LLC. As Colorado's medical-marijuana industry grows, marijuana dispensaries of all types and sizes are proliferating around the state. Some resemble swanky bars or sterile dentist offices; others feel like a dope dealer's college dorm room. The first dispensary reviewed is one in Breckenridge (that's "Breck" for you uninitiated,a ski resort town); Medicine Man LLC will be found in a pink gingerbread-style office building on Breck's adorable Main Street. Oh happy day, "Breck" is ringing in the 2010 New Year by decriminalizing pot. Great news for all you midwesterners who trek out to Colorado to for your once-a-year obscenely expensive ski vacation; now you can look forward to some jerk bombing straight for you (or one of your kids) down the mountain, stoned out of his or her ever-loving mind on a Rocky Mountain (legal) High. (Rocky Mountain High--that's so precious. Aren't you people in Colorado SICK OF IT?)

I'm a Denver native who moved away to the midwest about 20 years ago. People here ask me (more when I first moved here, less now since I now usually just say I'm from Missouri), "Oooh, you're from Colorahdo. Don't you miss it?" Are you kidding me? I still have familly there, so I return there sort of regularly. I miss my old South Denver neighborhood that I grew up in, and I enjoy walking the length of Harvard Gulch walkway that, thanks to a visionary Denver city planner named Saco DeBoer connects many small parks--a very pleasant walk. Denver is also a great biking town, which my town is not. It has some really wonderful neighborhoods if you can get through the obscenely nasty traffic to get to them. It used to have good schools, but like everywhere else, I think those are getting worse all the time (see my post about South High School which now apparently allows kids to graduate WITHOUT KNOWING ENGLISH). Cripes--but I digress. Now our "visionary" Denver planners plan dope dens. Fabulous. I hate living in this decade. We are going to go down as the laughing-stock slacker numbskulls of history.

So if you live someplace now where the legislature wants to decriminalize marijuana, you might want to keep in mind what's been going on in Denver for the past decade. However, my guess is that what's going on there will soon be the norm in this country if it isn't already. And then we can expect the Leftists to come around with their hands out, demanding more taxes to take care of these "poor screwed-up potheads" who live under bridges because the pot has sapped their drive to do anything useful with their lives. We'll keep an eye on Denver and see how it goes.

P.S. h/t to my brother who still lives there and who tipped me off to MM, Denver style.

Here's my question: Why can't Leftists just be honest about what they want. Put "Legalize Marijuana" on the ballot. Vote it up or down. Live with the result.