The Health Care Fade

In a poll of adults, not likely voters, Gallup finds that the public is 'still leaning" against the current proposed health care bills.

As a straw in the wind, the Times ran a guest piece in their Week In Review explaining to libs that the current bills include a "public option" so watered down that surrendering it altogether won't be a fatal blow to current liberal fantasies.

Hah!  I enjoy the poignant presumption that the debate is really about expanding access to health care.  Politically, the Dem strategy is to create a new middle class entitlement, however watered down, and new public sector jobs.  They can then spend the next few decades "fixing" it by expanding it, buoyed by the belief that no government program ever dies.

Comments

[anduril]

Sorry for the repost from the other thread, but this seems highly relevant right here:

40 Percent of Democrats Saying They're Unlikely to Vote, or Certain to Not Vote in 2010?

[clarice]

It cannot fade far enough or fast enough to suit me.

[Old Lurker]

Happy Birthday week, Clarice, and welcome home.

The news in DC you missed amounted to:

1) What AGW scandal? Full speed ahead.

and

2) What loss of Healthcare support? The Senate might act before year end.

[bgates]

Not sure if it's the looming health care failure, but Obama's done something to upset somebody in the press - Yahoo is headlining 7 stories Obama doesn't want told. I just glanced at it, I think they were
-he's a Chicago machine pol
-he doesn't much like America
-he lets Harry and Nancy run the country
-he's a wimp
-no fiscal discipline
-no empathy
-tremendous vanity and arrogance
-no sense of what it means to be an American
-a friend to tyrants and a tyrant to friends
-didn't write his books
-Nobel was a joke
-he's an insulting little punk
-he's racially divisive
-spends public money on himself and his parties and plays golf while millions go without work
-horrible harridan of a wife
-dithers over war plans
-faked Christian beliefs
-not actually very bright

Was that seven? I may have added a few.

[PD]

Ras still at -14, now 12 days in a row (excluding non-polling days) of double-digit negatives.

Only six days in the last month of single-digit negatives.

[clarice]

I'm not that good at math, bgates, but I think you did add a few.
O.L., you are cynical--probably right but still cynical. CRU has finally even lost the Atlantic's Crook.

http://clivecrook.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/11/more_on_climategate.php

[bgates]

Speaking of crooks, I forgot
-he's a crook
-most of his friends are crooks
-he treats war criminals like common thieves
-he talks a lot about grand ethical reforms he wants to put in place and then ignores his own rules
-he talks about respecting science, but wants to use junk science to impose a global bureaucracy
-he attempts to personally destroy his opposition

Add your own!

[narciso]

Happy birthday, Clarice, yes bgates did add a few, but I'm kind of surprised that Yahoo
even came close to the point, that's really
AP, the dispatcher of a thousand slanders against well you know who.

[Neo]

You can't make this stuff up ...

'He talks too much," a Saudi academic in Jeddah, who had once been smitten with Barack Obama, recently observed to me of America's 44th president. He has wearied of Mr. Obama and now does not bother with the Obama oratory.

... and even the Progressives can see the hypocrisy in this from "Mustard Boy" ...

The most surprising and disappointing aspect of our politics is how little pushback there has been against the vile, extremist rhetoric that has characterized such a large part of the anti-Obama movement.

[PD]

-he doesn't much like America
...
-no sense of what it means to be an American

I recently read _Without Roots_ (Pope Benedict, and Marcello Pera of the Italian Senate). From Benedict's remarks:

This case illustrates a peculiar Western self-hatred that is nothing short of pathological. It is commendable that the West is trying to be more open, to be more understanding of the values of others, but it has lost all capacity for self-love. All that it sees in its own history is the despicable and the destructive; it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure. What Europe needs is a new self-acceptance, a self-acceptance that is critical and humble, if it truly wishes to survive.

By "West" here, the Pope means primarily "Europe." In his responding remarks, Pena adds something about the U.S.:

Your description of the West as having "lost the capacity for self-love" is especially true for Europe. A non-European West does indeed exist--I am thinking in particular of the United States. Despite the allure of the relativists, America still loves itself well, and has indeed been criticized for loving itself too well. European intellectuals and politicians have criticized it as unilateralist, monoculturalist, imperialistic, and bellicose, to name just some of the verbal abuse that has been heaped upon it.

Unfortunately, what we have now in the U.S. is a president who entirely exemplifies the attitude described by Benedict, and has none of the self-love described by Pena. He is locked into the attitude described by Pena as that of European intellectuals. Obama cannot bring himself to be a cheerleader for the very country that he represents.

Contrast Obama's attitude with what I was reading last night in Thomas Paine:

America has surmounted a greater variety and combination of difficulties than, I believe, ever fell to the share of any one people in the same space of time, and has replenished the world with more useful knowledge and sounder maxims of civil government than were ever produced in any age before. Had it not been for America there had been no such thing as freedom left throughout the whole universe. ... I have no notion of yielding the palm of the United States to any Grecians or Romans that were ever born. We have equalled the bravest in times of danger, and excelled the wisest in the construction of civil governments, no one in America excepted.

Certainly a refreshing change from the "we suck" oratory coming from the current occupant of the White House.

[NK]

This is scary--

11 months in, and the record is as follows:

"economic stimulus" failure as far as jobs is concerned and caused a debt explosion, although it let a lot of profligate states (NY, Cal. Mass. Ill. etc) keep UNION State workers on the payroll for an extra year, so I guess that worked for Barry O:

Middle class tax Cut-- yeah, NEXT!!!

Win in Afghanistan, the real central front: maybe, maybe not, and it is certainly worse than one year ago, while Iraq continues to stabilize as a real society (what happened to Saddam and the Baath thugs, can't remember)

Financial Crisis: the Paulson/Bernanke/Bush TARP was a necessary evil and it worked as far as the banks are concerned, course Emanauel and Barry O turned it into a UAW money pit to takeover GM and screw bondholders instead of letting a normal banruptcy happen;

Energy: weak dollar and no new US petroleum exploration has skyrocketed gas prices, a major tax on middle class workers; no initiatives to encourage natural gas and nuke expansion;

Foreign Relations: kiss up to enemies of freedom (especially the thieves on the East River, the UN) back of the hand to democracies like Israel and Honduras-- Mullahs will fire off a nuke in short order: EPIC FAIL.

Health care: federal takeover and rationing forever are in reach, God help us.

All this just after 11 months. Think the unthinkable because it will happen: US Debt Default, Hyper-Inflation in debtor nations (UK, USA, even Japan) the Mullahs nuke Tel Aviv, Venezuela invades-- somebody, Russia annexes Georgia, and the Ukraine Black Sea ports.

Cheers

[Neo]

They finally pinned Sarah Palin with the gaffe of all gaffes ...

Only the quote wasn't by John Wooden. It was written by a Native American activist named John Wooden Legs

I wonder which John Wooden complained ?

[PD]

Neo, that does it, I'm throwing out my copy of Sarah's book.

[Old Lurker]

Clarice, if you are no good at math (bearing the double burden of being both female and a lawyer) --- Go ahead and thwack, I'm standing back ---, then I suggest you not engage Chaco on the subject of ice on Greenland...

Seriously, JOMers, I trust everyone had a nice Thanksgiving, normal family stuff notwithstanding? I promise that our dinners on the island will all be perfect!

[Kevin B]

bgates:
"-he treats war criminals like common thieves"

and our warriors like war criminals

[anduril]

Rosenberg: This Isn't A Recession, It's A Depression

Here are the final three paragraphs, after the intro and pictures:

Now, as for calling this a depression’, it is an attempt at providing a reality check to Wall Street research forecasts of a robust recovery. Practically everyone thought the worst was over in 1930 but all we were in at that time was the classic phase 2 of the triple-waterfall — the “reflex rally” that comes on the heels of the “initial sharp down” to only then be followed by the long and drawn out decline to the fundamental low. The Great Depression didn’t even receive that label until 1934 and by then we were well over a year past the lows in both real GDP and the stock market.

But it was a treacherous environment for the rest of the decade and despite seven years of huge stimulus — and resource-misallocation distortions from the FDR New Deal — the unemployment rate still finished off the 1930s at 15%; the CPI was still deflating at a 2% annual rate; nominal GDP had still yet to re-attain its 1929 peak; and the next secular bull market in equities did not commence for another 15 years. Income strategies worked best even after the S&P 500 hit bottom; and gold doubled in Sterling terms. Equity rallies came … and they went. Volatility reigned. What goes around comes around.

Currently, we have a situation that is not consistent with a plain-vanilla recession but with a depression because depressions are associated with credit contraction and asset deflation. It is more than just about a mathematical contraction in GDP. In recessions, social change does not occur. In depressions, they do. Hence the fact that in Halloween, the reason why sales-related items were so tepid was because 30% of families made their own costumes.

Not sayin' this is correct, but I am saying that it's worrisome enough that Congress needs to get serious about it--since Obama appears to have ceded much of his governing responsibility to the Legislative Branch.

[cathyf]

The goal of health care "reform" is to destroy the ability of insurance companies to control health care costs. That's why Obama got the AMA on board. Of course once the government has the ability to control prices and there are no private actors, the AMA is in for a pretty rude awakening...

[Old Lurker]

...as is the management of AARP, Cathy.

[peter]

Chelsea Clinton's engagement to some lefty dirtbag was reported months ago. I am always suspicious of everything the Clintons do since they are never on the level. Why is this (LUN) a story that is running today?

[Jane]

I found this part of the story quite informative peter:

Mezvinsky is a son of former Pennsylvania Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and former Iowa Rep. Ed Mezvinsky, longtime friends of the Clintons. Ed Mezvinsky was released from federal prison last year after pleading guilty in 2002 to charges of bank and wire fraud.

One of my niece's close friends was on a ski vacation in college at a place where Chelsea was also on a ski vacation while in college. The report was that unless it was all about Chelsea, Chelsea threw a fit.

It should be an interesting marriage.

[Fresh Air]

If ZeroCare is defeated, it will be in part thanks to this woman:

[Fresh Air]

Note the words on the Blackberry: "DEATH PANEL."

[Neo]

Copenhagen looks to be exciting ...

The draft, which was originally prepared by China, was finalized after some changes during a 7-hour long meeting of BASIC countries-Brazil, South Africa, India and China besides Sudan as the chair of G-77.
This joint front forged on Saturday is a major political initiative -- the first major India-China accord on international affairs--that is likely to impact not just the dimension of the talks on climate change but international diplomacy as a whole. The move comes after recent discussions on climate change held with Indian and Chinese leaders by US president Barack Obama, who appears to have made little impact on them.

[Gregory Koster]

Bgates, note that the article you linked, from John Harris of POLITICO, is all about perception, and how these perceptions might cause trouble for The Once. Harris is the perfect reporter for The Once: who cares about results, just so long as the rubes continue to swallow the bunk you dump over their heads? Ask Harris about the Fort Hood massacre, and he'd tell you all about the reaction in the polls, and what it might mean in the Texas congressional races next year. Security implications? The effect on the families? "I don't know, and I don't care and why should I care?"

However harsh this article may seem to The Once, it is actually a sort of "Dutch uncle," advising him to get his spin straight, or he'll only get four years of GQ cover articles instead of eight.

Harris is a perfect example of all that's wrong with the press today.

[narciso]

FA, where did you find that picture

[Extraneus]

That's a great pic, FA.

[PD]

Not sayin' this is correct, but I am saying that it's worrisome enough that Congress needs to get serious about it

Unfortunately, Congress getting serious these days means "making it worse." A lot worse. And spending lots of money to do so.

[peter]

or he'll only get four years of GQ cover articles instead of eight.......

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

thump

Laughing my head off.

[anduril]

OT via Powerline:

During the last presidential primary season, we wrote extensively about Mike Huckabee's excessive use of his power, as governor of Arkansas, to issue pardons and commutations, and his role in influencing the parole process. In one particularly egregious instance, Huckabee worked behind the scenes in favor of releasing on parole a convicted rapist who, once free, raped and murdered a woman in Missouri.

Now we learn that Maurice Clemmons, accused of the execution-style murder of four police officers in Washington state, had a lengthy jail term commuted by Huckabee in 2000. Clemons had served only 11 years of a 95-year prison sentence.

The Huckabee camp is trying to pass this off as failure of "the system" in both Arkansas and Washington. But my friend Bill Otis, a former prosecutor, observes that the "system" had Clemmons behind bars for the duration until Huckabee let him out.

[Old Lurker]

What do her buttons say? That's a great picture, FA.

[anduril]

Re Chelsea's intended:

Mezvinsky was also involved in a series of business transactions that ultimately became his downfall. Prosecutors later would call him a one-man crime wave.[1] In 2000, after examining his business deals since 1980, prosecutors said that they uncovered elements of fraud in nearly every one.[1]

Maybe she inherited her dad's preference for living dangerously. Or was that her mother?

[Fresh Air]

Narciso--

Conservatives4Palin had it on one of their threads.

[centralcal]

Great picture, FA!!!

Eh, Chelsea - who cares?

[narciso]

Any one how to get rid of Alpha Antivirus, other than a sledge hammer, they keep blocking my way, and I've had to resort ot blackberry and laptop

[clarice]

Per yahoo site, this suggestion, narciso:

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
This free removal tool for Alpha Antivirus removes this fake Antivirus automatically from your system, it removes too all other files, dll files and registry keys created by the virus.
It's effective and easy to use.
http://www.net-studio.org/eng/patch/patc…

Download
Unpack
Run
Click on the delete button

When that's done restart your computer.
4 weeks ago

[Old Lurker]

Narciso...google it and you find about twenty sets of how-to instructions for that one. Sounds like you are not alone.

[Extraneus]

If you Save As... you can see she's holding the snakes head in her other hand. Buttons are hard to read when zoomed. I think the middle one says LIFE on the bottom, the 4th from left might be a Reagan campaign button and the 5th looks like a basketball with #4 and some writing above. Hard to make out the writing.

[bunky]

That painting is hideous. Not just saying.

[bgates]

Not just saying.

What are you doing in addition to saying?

[bunky]

Bgates:

I'm saying

[narciso]

But I can't log on to my own computer, how do I down load it

[Old Lurker]

narciso...wait till DrJ comes online!

[DrJ]

Here! (Hope this is not a duplicate...)

That's a nasty one -- I removed it from my granddaughter's computer. In the end I got most things back to the way they were supposed to be, but rather than mess with the final details, I reformatted and reinstalled. There was nothing of value on the computer.

But that does not help you.

Do you have another computer? You will need to make a CD with certain files on it, and you have to get those files on line. With the virus you cannot do so. It need not be anything fancy, just one with an Internet connection and a CD burner.

I was able to log in, so maybe the virus has changed a bit. Are you able to boot into safe mode?

[Fresh Air]

Up yours bunky.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

then I suggest you not engage Chaco on the subject of ice on Greenland...

There's no math in that. just a little arithmetic....

[sbw]

Booting into safe mode is the key.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Any one how to get rid of Alpha Antivirus

Buy a Mac.

[boris]

Narciso, I have often found my internet service provider (they who receive the monthly checks) to be helpful. You might try their website for support phone number and/or online chat that you can access from your laptop or blackberry.

Most have virus removal downloads and will walk you through the process.

After booting into safe mode (on your infected computer) you should be able to run or install a virus remover downloaded onto a CD or flash drive from your laptop.

Safe Mode:

Restart your computer and start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard. On a computer that is configured for booting to multiple operating systems, you can press the F8 key when the Boot Menu appears.

[anduril]

narciso, hang in there. i'm searching earlier JOM threads, collecting all my linux posts. i'll be pasting them in here shortly.

[anduril]

Jed Babbin has an interesting article, Obama at West Point, with some, perhaps, provocative things to say. This article, I should add, is not about Obama's speech per se but about all the reasons (grouped under 3 points) that Obama will "get it wrong." Overall, says Babbin:

Tomorrow night, President Obama will tell the world how he will -- in his own words -- “finish the job” in Afghanistan. And he will propose to do this, by whatever means, in less than eight or nine years which is the period his spokesman, Robert Gibbs, declared the limit of our commitment.

Obama will get it entirely wrong. We know this now, a day before the speech, because the president has resolutely committed himself to the wrong theory, asking the wrong questions in search of his new strategy.

Point number one?

It’s not possible to “finish the job” in Afghanistan any more than it was possible to do in Iraq.

I liked Rush's take, via Richard Allen, on Obama choosing to speak at West Point rather than from the venue where all major Presidential statements are made from: the Oval Office. No credibility, has to go for gimmicks.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

OT, but, but, I thought the world was now in love with us because of Obama?

Change! Somali Terrorists Use Obama Portraits For Target Practice

[DrJ]

narciso, I can send you the CD of your choice if you can afford to wait. Let me know which remover you want (or I can pick a few) and send it to you by mail. Contact me at: info at sonatabio dot com .

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

From Sarah Palin’s Facebook page:

We head into the Christmas season wishing for leadership in Washington that reflects our commitment to the values and ideals that have built the freest and most prosperous and generous nation on earth.

Heading into December and Tuesday’s announcement of our nation’s strategy in Afghanistan, I ask the President to reassure us that the administration is in this War on Terror to win.

And I’ll pass along the following from Harold B. Estes, a 95-year-old member of the Greatest Generation: “I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out.”

Thank you, Mr. President. Please tell us on Tuesday that America is in it to win.

- Sarah Palin

[matt]

So the president is going to take on the Saudi Wahabbists and Iranian neofascists and do a Cambodia into the tribal areas?

And once again, notice ow "he's" going to finish the job.It is always about Barry.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

From Insty:

UNSURPRISINGLY, SARAH PALIN’S BOOK IS NOW #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Oh, it must just frost the left to see this.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

What the hell is this?

Obama Considers Civil War? Orders 1 Million Troops to Prepare?!

"Russian Military Analysts are reporting to Prime Minister Putin that US President Barack Obama has issued orders to his Northern Command’s (USNORTHCOM) top leader, US Air Force General Gene Renuart, to “begin immediately” increasing his military forces to 1 million troops by January 30, 2010, in what these reports warn is an expected outbreak of civil war within the United States before the end of winter.

According to these reports, Obama has had over these past weeks “numerous” meetings with his war council about how best to manage the expected implosion of his Nations banking system while at the same time attempting to keep the United States military hegemony over the World in what Russian Military Analysts state is a “last ditch gambit” whose success is “far from certain”.

Video

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

No One Remembers Barack Obama From Columbia

Among other links is one to JOM from 2008.

[peter]

It is really quite simple, Sara P2P, collective amnesia struck the Columbia campus. There are three people, I believe, who claim they have a recollection of Obama at Columbia. One is nut job cartoonist Ted Rall, one of the others is Professor Baron, who is mentioned in your link, but whose wikipedia entry was deleted by Wiki's lefty editorial board. Bill Ayers, I am sure, knows about Obama's activities at Columbia, and if he is provoked, may actually reveal something.

[peter]

from Wikipedia: Obama as a college student (LUN)

[Thomas Collins]

Quite a notion propounded by Palin. In war, victory is the goal. I'll bet whatever courses Obama was taking at Columbia, he was never exposed to that concept.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

What the hell is this?

Completely nuts. Where would Obama get a million troops?

[peter]

Where would Obama get a million troops? see LUN

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Charlie: That was my reaction too. Although Peter's link to Americorps gave me pause for about 1/4 of a second, I then thought, "no way Obama could convince a million people to follow him as a leader into battle." In fact, the more I thought about it the more ludicrous it seems. Our side has the guns, doncha know. :)

[sbw]

There are some things I won't waste my time on. Obama fomenting Civil War is one of them. False, it's a waste of time. True, it would be a speculation whose time has not come.

It's the sort of rumor Snopes snuffs and the rabid left would dine on in their paranoia.

[glasater]

Since when did the CBO become a political arm of the White House?

It's CBO's response to Senator Bayh's request for health insurance premiums info.

[Jack is Back!]

Tonight, he speaks to the Long Gray Line about his Afghanistan strategy. He is going to go Hamlet on us, I just know it.

But you know what is so damning about what he is about to do? His heart isn't in it. This is all political and some 19 year old kid with acne and a love of adventure, country and army is going to do his mission without his CINC's enthusiasm. That is what is deplorable. I would rather he stick to his left wing principle and just leave and give it back to Doc and Binny for some one else to solve.

What a disaster. What a complete waste of human intellect and political theatre. God bless America because for a long time we really need it.

[Janet]

Sara - LUN is the Reihl World View article from around the same time Oct. 2008 wondering about Obama @ Columbia.

We know nothing about the President of the United States. Unbelievable!

[glasater]

Wow!! OT but this guy on Beck says that Iran owns thirty per cent of the property in Dubai.....

[Old Lurker]

"Since when did the CBO become a political arm of the White House?"

Since the President subcontracted his job out to Pelosi & Reid?

[anduril]

at AT: Gingrich statement on Climategate said to be pending

AT has had perhaps the best coverage on this issue anywhere. But what I'm missing re this item is, why should I give a shit?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I have a question that has been bugging me for a long time. I wonder if anyone else thinks the reason the democrats keep trying to push the return of the draft is to eliminate all those young ones whose "love of adventure, country and army is going to do his mission without his CINC's enthusiasm." I think the left never ever thought anyone would join the military if it were voluntary. The fact that they did and in huge numbers is a fact they just can't compute. Then to add insult to injury, this all volunteer force turned out to be extraordinarily dedicated and well above the national norms as far as education and IQ. The left thinks the military should be staffed with nothing but the dregs of society, good canon fodder, when instead it is a highly technical and honed fighting force, proud of their service, which bugs the left most of all. The military just doesn't cooperate with the left's view that it is the last resort of the useless, full of druggies and those too dumb to do anything but be a target. Not enough diversity for crack and potheads, drunks and dropouts, I guess. So it is bring back the draft.

[Frau Gratuliere]

Happy birthday, clarice.
According to my cheesy birthday book, yours is The Day of the Measured Attack: Those born today are highly intuitive and capable of springing surprises on those who would hinder or obstruct them. Strengths - Thorough, Funny, Dynamic
You share your day with Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift and Winston Churchill.

[Extraneus]

Based on Kerry's and Rangle's comments, the left's position is that the only reason people join the military is because they're too dumb or disadvantaged to do anything else. The draft would therefore be more fair, with the privileged just as likely to be forced into such a menial and lowly profession as anyone else.

[Fresh Air]

Boy, Anduril. I better not leave the house if the Grinchrinch is about to speak.

My vote for the funniest line on Ace of Spades in the month of October, from a commenter on Newt's own blog about his role in the NY-23 fiasco, directed to Newt:

"I want you to know I like you and I hope one day you find something you are good at."

[matt]

Paging Al Gore....Paging Al Gore.....you're wanted for a statement on Climategate....

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Posted this in the Tiger thread by mistake:

From a Tweet:

BREAKING: The Food channel is creating a new cooking show "How to cook the books on climate with Al Gore"

[Frau Gratuliere]

Yes, why are we waiting for Newt to speak? It is almost as meaningless as hearing about the Clinton child's betrothal.
BTW yesterday was Rahm Emanuel's birthday. It's good to know that clarice was *not* born yesterday.

[peter]

Happy Birthday, Clarice. I will lift a glass of leftover Thanksgiving riesling in your honor when I get home.

[clarice]

Thnkx, Peter.

[clarice]

Thanks, Frau. But my birthday is Dec 2.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Prisoner-Abuse Photos: Supremes Reverse Disclosure Order -- By: Andy McCarthy

The Supreme Court issued a brief order today vacating the Second Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that photos said to depict abuse of detainees must be disclosed. The high court remanded the case (Dept. of Defense v. ACLU) to the appellate court to reconsider its ruling in light of the Lieberman/Graham amendment in the 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Act. Lieberman/Graham empowers the Secretary of Defense to issue a certification preventing the release of photographs that "would endanger citizens of the United States, members of the United States Armed Forces, or employees of the United States Government deployed outside of the United States." Secretary Gates has invoked his authority under this statute to bar release of the photos.

[centralcal]

December 2nd - will try and remember that, Clarice! Number 2 son's is December 7th. Always an easy date to remember. heh.

I guess we are honoring P'UK's establishment of a several day Clarice holiday! (tell your hubby it should be observed like an advent calendar, and he should give you a little somethin-somethin each day!)

[sbw]

A Newt groupie phoned to have me listen to an important message from Newt about saving our country.

Most often with such calls I say 'No, thank you' and hang up.

This time I told the person that I didn't need Newt to tell me that the country needed help, however, Newt was the wrong person for the job anyway.

[Janet]

I agree with Rush that there is something fishy with the whole state dinner party crash brouha. What is the email I'm suppose to send fishy going-ons to?
Sorta like the N.Y. flyover...that was fishy too, but never really explained well.
LUN is a WaPo article saying they contacted someone in the Pentagon before going to the party.

[PaulL]

Wow! Over at CampaignSpot, they've got Survey USA results for Adults, approval-disapproval Obama:

Missouri: 38-58
Virginia: 37-60
Washington: 48-48
Oregon: 47-47

[Elliott]

Having gone to the dull and tedious session of the Iraq inquiry today, I was curious how the the ladies and gentlemen of the press would fill their alloted column inches. A quick scan indicates the military planning has taken pride of place.

[Janet]

From the comments at the WaPo story -

The Olympic committee made a fool of Obama.
The Iranians have made a fool of Obama.
The Chinese just made a fool of Obama.
The Israelis just made a fool of Obama.
The Taliban have made a fool of Obama.
Washington socialites have made a fool of Obama.

See a pattern here?

Hahaha

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I saw in interview this morning with a former rabid Obama supporter who 11 mo. later is saying, "he talks too much and never says anything, I don't listen to him anymore."

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

Even in Washington and Oregon? Holy carp. I wonder what it is among likely voters. If he can't hold granola/environmental set

All this and instructions from Michael Moore today (LUN) on what to do in Afghanistan so as not to lose his base. My only comment to that advice is pulllleeze take it oh Wizard of Once.

[anduril]

Climategate Explodes The Myth Of Politically-Neutral Science.

Great picture of Algore here. I think he's explaining how he invented the airplane.

[Porchlight]

Wow, PaulL, and that's adults - not even likely voters.

[Extraneus]

From Elliott's link.

As the Iraq Inquiry entered its second week, Sir David was asked when President Bush first linked Iraq to 9/11.

He said: “As far as I’m aware the first time the president mentioned Iraq to the Prime Minister was on September 14 in a telephone call and he said he thought there might be evidence that there was some connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

Oooh... "[M]ight be some evidence that there was some connection" is sure a devastating indictment, even if he actually did say that, which is doubtful.

Britain seems to be suffering from a lack of American leadership.

[pagar]

When reading that Supreme Court story,
remember that the newest member(Sonia Sotomayor) of the court was involved in the case long before it got to the Supreme Court.

[Old Lurker]

So are we, Ext, so are we.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

It is worse than I thought, if that's possible:

The Unmasking of Barack Obama

The overseas reviews for President Obama’s foreign policy are starting to pour in — and they’re not favorable. Bob Ainsworth, the British defense secretary, has blamed Obama for the decline in British public support for the war in Afghanistan. According to the Telegraph:

[...]

The President is “Obama the Impotent,” according to Steven Hill of the Guardian. The Economist calls Obama the “Pacific (and pussyfooting) president.” The Financial Times refers to “relations between the U.S. and Europe, which started the year of talks as allies, near breakdown.” The German magazine Der Spiegel accuses the president of being “dishonest with Europe” on the subject of climate change. Another withering piece in Der Spiegel, titled “Obama’s Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage,” lists the instances in which Obama is being rolled. The Jerusalem Post puts it this way: “Everybody is saying no to the American president these days. And it’s not just that they’re saying no, it’s also the way they’re saying no.” “He talks too much,” a Saudi academic who had once been smitten with Barack Obama tells the Middle East scholar Fouad Ajami. The Saudi “has wearied of Mr. Obama and now does not bother with the Obama oratory,” according to Ajami. But “he is hardly alone, this academic. In the endless chatter of this region, and in the commentaries offered by the press, the theme is one of disappointment. In the Arab-Islamic world, Barack Obama has come down to earth.”

Indeed he has — and only Obama and his increasingly clueless administration seem unaware of this.

On almost every front, progress is nonexistent. In many instances, things are getting worse rather than better. The enormous goodwill that Obama’s election was met with hasn’t been leveraged into anything useful and tangible. Rather, our allies are now questioning America’s will, while our adversaries are becoming increasingly emboldened. The United States looks weak and uncertain. It’s “amateur hour at the White House,” according to Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former official in the Carter administration. “Not only are things not getting fixed, they may be getting more broken,” according to Michael Hirsh at Newsweek. When even such strong Obama supporters as Gelb and Hirsh reach these conclusions, you know things must be unraveling.

It’s no mystery as to why. President Obama’s approach to international relations is simplistic and misguided. It is premised on the belief that American concessions to our adversaries will beget goodwill and concessions in return; that American self-abasement is justified; that the American decline is inevitable (and in some respects welcome); and that diplomacy and multilateralism are ends rather than means to an end.

[Extraneus]

No doubt. Of course I got the quote wrong in my bolding, but the message is the same. Without an American president explaining the benefits of turning Iraq into a respected member of the world of nations, the high ground is essentially ceded.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Peter, on the Americorps thing, the total size of Americorps is only 70,000 — there've only been a half million total since the program began. So that leaves 0.93 million....

[PD]

Oh, it must just frost the left to see this.

Bitterness is like drinking poison and expecting the other guy to die.

[Gmax]

Narcisco

You need a rescue disk that will allow you to boot from the disk ( CD) instead of booting from your hard drive. There are a number of them online, just do a search in google for "rescue disk" and a number will pop up.

Once you get control of your machine back, I would suggest some freeware known as "malwarebytes". It is very good at finding spyware and trojans etc and getting them gone from your system to keep it clean.

Good luck.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Did someone say fishy?

Gatecrash Update

A top Defense Department official corresponded with Tareq and Michaele Salahi in an effort to get them into last week’s White House state dinner, according to sources familiar with an investigation into the security breach. On Friday the couple turned over copies of the email exchange to the Secret Service investigators.

Sources said the e-mails were sent from Michele S. Jones, the special assistant to the Secretary of Defense and the Pentagon-based liaison to the White House, who lists the Salahis’ lawyer, Paul W. Gardner, as one of her 50 friends on the Facebook social networking site.

Several people familiar with the Jones-Salahi correspondence argued the e-mails support the Salahis’ case that they were cleared to attend Tuesday night’s gala.

“There was e-mail correspondence confirming they were legitimately supposed to be there,” said Casey Margenau, a close friend of the couple. “They understood they were invited.”

“I did not state at any time, or imply that I had tickets for ANY portion of the evening’s events,” Jones said in a statement released by the White House late Monday. “I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening’s activities. Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come.”